Magic Jewball

Depending on who you are, you either groaned at the idea of even one more word of hype about this band or you wondered who the hell I am talking about. That’s the nature of being cult superstars! I was never an Animal Collective megafan. I think I really never listened because they seemed electronic and weird, which is ironic because that’s how the music I listened to in the 80′s was described back in the day. In fact, I discovered the new album… no wait, I discovered the new album because it is written about everywhere on the Interweb and blogosphere. But I discovered the actual music because I was getting a bit bored with First Wave on SiriusXM, not just because they are much more hit-oriented since Sirius took over, but because there is only so long you can go never hearing a new song. So I switched to XMU, which is the Indie station. And I was so excited to like this album! That’s because they’re from Baltimore and their album is named after the concert venue where I spent many a good time in college, the Merriweather Post Pavilion. Ask me & North of the City how we got trapped there with several friends one night with no ride home and eventually found a cab where the driver proceeded to regale us with tales of which psychotropic drugs he was taking. Good times!

But essentially, this album, which comes out Tuesday, is going to move them from one plain to another. If I wasn’t already positive about that, the fact that they got a full page write-up in today’s NY Times tells me that for sure. And if there was a moment for a cult band to have a number one album, beating out the Taylor Swifts of this world, it is in the middle of January, the saddest month for music sales there is. I can’t decide which is more amazing, a band with eight albums out already reaching #1 or a band that most people haven’t heard of reaching #1. It’s a toss-up!

Anyway, the song. So I’ve heard about five songs from the record and this is the first single and best one, IMHO. It’s catchy and joyous and groovy and twinkly and ethereal (it almost sounds like a Christmas song) and is about (the NY Times confirms what I hypothesized) one of the lead singers’ slight embarrassment at wanting material things for his family. I know, that doesn’t sound very exciting but when you hear the chorus, I swear it will stick to your mind like the best pop does. And it will make you happy, just listening. Could you ask for more?

OK, so you can’t download this until Tuesday but it will be fantastic to listen to while you wait for the Inauguration to come on!

Napster:
Animal Collective – My Girls

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.

You know, I didn’t vote for Michael Bloomberg for mayor (either time!) but after viewing yesterdays “plane crash – not” press conference, I have to hand it to him. See, after years of Giuliani and then Bloomberg, I am used to “just the facts, ma’am” type press conferences and find them quite reassuring. “Something bad happened but here are all the details so you can understand. And we’re on it, so, you know, just go on with your business. Would I sound this calm if there was anything to worry about?” This is an important thing in New York where there always seems to be some larger than life event that by all rights should worry you to death.

So the juxtaposition of that with the immediate statement of the governor (I probably would have voted against him except there was no election, he just succeeded our skanky, whore-loving last governor) was somewhat jarring. I can’t seem to find a transcript of Bloomberg’s statement, probably because it was so unsexy. In contrast, Governor Patterson’s statement is everywhere and is the dominant sound bite on both the TV and radio news (I flip around a lot). So imagine Bloomberg saying, “the plane left LaGuardia at 3-whatever and had X many people on board with Y number crew. The plane encountered a bird strike and blah blah happened. Rescue boats from yadda yadda agencies surrounded it and everyone was rescued. Everybody did an excellent job and we’ll figure out what went wrong. The end.”

Then you get Patterson immediately launching into, “There is a heroic pilot, who saved himself and approximately 154 other passengers this afternoon. We have had a miracle on 34th street, I believe we now have a miracle on the Hudson.” Oh, Jebus Crikey, don’t make me hurk. He went on to say, “”I think for all the times that we have had to appear at these press conferences in rather dismal circumstances, today, we realize how blessed this city is, and how blessed all of us are, particularly the survivors and their families. In simplicity, this is really was a potential tragedy that may become one of the most spectacular days in the history of New York City’s agencies, their coordination and the greatness of the people that worked to help the passengers, who will return home to their families.”

This sort of reminded me of the Simpsons episode (most things do but you’ve probably already noticed this) where the law-talking guy, Lionel Hutz, says to Homer Simpson, “Homer, I don’t use the word ‘hero’ very often, but you are the greatest hero in American history.” This was regarding suing an all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant. I’m not saying this wasn’t a big deal. It’s a huge deal and everyone in my office, which is in one of the buildings the plane might have crushed had it not ditched into the Hudson, were all gathered around our TV’s making stunned exclamations. That’s why you don’t have to overstate it!

Of course, I can’t vote for Bloomberg now. This time I’m mad at him for changing a law New Yorkers voted for – term limits – so he could run again. I don’t care that I didn’t actually vote in favor of that law. It’s the principle of the thing! Still, I expect him to win and hold years of matter-of-fact press conferences. What’s to worry about?

Title comes from:
Paula Abdul – Straight Up

Hey! What’s the most cliched thing a blogger can do? Besides gazing at her own navel? Publish a book, of course! I have been asked to put together a proposal for a Jew & A book. I know, how crazy/awesome is that! But the fact is, I don’t have enough questions. Without questions, there are no answers, my friends. So, in actuality, we’ll be writing a book. You and I. Except you won’t be paid. That’s a legal phrase that means, “you won’t be paid.” Especially if my proposal isn’t accepted. Then no one will be writing a book.

So! Please do think of some pressing questions about Judaism, Jews, Jewey things, etc. They don’t have to be PC, I am rarely offended except if you tell me these pants make my butt look big. But that’s not a question so I’m not concerned. You can send me questions in three ways:

1. Email me at becca (at) magicjewball (dot) com
2. Use this form (also under Pages on the right).
3. Put it in the comments.

Don’t forget, you may be published in a book but possibly not on the actual blog. Except if your question intrigues me so much I feel the need to answer it this second. Luckily, you’re all intriguing. I know this because I’m always intrigued that anyone would read this blog.

So thanks and don’t forget Becca’s favorite phrase, “don’t be afraid to ask!”*

*may or not be Becca’s actual favorite phrase.

Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Every Day I Write The Book

You know, I realize I never said what I thought of the new Cure CD and I still might not have except that it ties in with what I wanted to share today – I made my own Cure 4:13 Dream iPhone/iPod Touch wallpaper! Not that the happy pink flower I chose off the stock images wasn’t lovely for two days. It just wasn’t me. (In case you didn’t see my update, I traded in my Nano for a Touch. You can see why in the comments on the last post.) But it’s really easy to make your own, you just crop or stretch your image into 320×480. Easy peasy! But if you don’t want to DIY, here are two, one with the yarn stitches and one with the star. I have the star but I may switch. Which also ties in, as you will see.

Just right click on the image, save it on your drive, and sync as you normally do. Or if you’re like me and don’t sync, just e-mail it to yourself and open it on your iPhone or Touch.

Stitches

Star

Oh yeah, and the album – I love it! I guess you knew that because I made wallpaper out of the cover. And I did already highlight the song I liked best from the shows last year, Freakshow. But now that I’ve listened to it, I love another song better. It’s called Switch and has a flow that sounds sort of like the lyrics are swirling around a drain which works well because they’re about how you can change and descend almost without noticing. The music is all crazy, messy guitar and there are no quiet bits. It’s kind of like Robert Smith’s hair, I hope that’s visual enough.

Napster:
The Cure – Switch

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.

This could be the longest title I’ve ever done but it was worth it. And I even left out the part about leaping onto the tracks beneath a subway car. And it’s all true.

You will remember (or be reminded) that I have said that I tend to listen to The Cure’s Disintegration on rainy days (I’m so melancholy and dramatic, what can I say). Today was a rainy day and that figures into this story because I was carrying an umbrella in my hand. Sure, I have two hands but I had my iPod stuffed into a pocket. It stays dry that way too. I take a really crowded subway to work, the #1 (we’re #1!) and as my train stopped at 50th Street, a lady pushed past me to get out of the car. This is not unusual. In fact, I push past other people. It’s not like there’s anywhere for people to get out of your way. You just have to use your elbows. Well, the cord to my headphones got caught on one of those elbows. Or it may have been her coat. Or her bag. It all happened so fast.

Wham! The cord came out of my pocket. So I put my hand in to plug it back in. NO IPOD. I looked and there it was, face down on the ground next to the tracks. Yes, it had managed to go flying into the three inch gap between the car and the platform. I was kind of stunned. No, I was utterly stunned. And then the chime ding dinged and the doors closed. Holy fucking hell. There went my iPod. Gone forever in the space of three seconds. No one seemed to have noticed at all. I said to the lady next to me, “that was my iPod. My iPod fell onto the tracks.” She looked at me and said, “really?” in the tone of voice you might use if I told you that cereal tastes better with raisins. I went on with, “that was $200!” Actually, I have no idea if it was $200 because it was a gift from a dear friend, but that’s how much I estimated it would cost to replace it. More on that later. But the important thing is, she just gave me a kind of, “mmm hmmm” look. These are the moments, ladies & gentlemen, when you just want to reach out and bash people in the head.

When I got to work, the universal comment was, “why didn’t you just go get it?” Excuse me? I’m not risking my life for an iPod. Unless it was really new and I didn’t have the music backed up. Plus, if you think I’m going to be reusing a device covered in puke and rat droppings, you are sorely mistaken. Some track worker is probably having a look at it right now. It’s probably still playing the Cure, I have the whole discography.

The funny thing is, I just bought a shiny new toy with my Hannukah money yesterday. It’s called a Slingbox and it allows me to watch my home TV on any computer or even my Blackberry. Yes, live TV or programs I’ve recorded on my DVR. Waiting for the bus. At work. In hotels. In the kitchen. The sky’s the limit. As long as they have Internet access in the sky. But, well, this really put a damper on things. “Look, I have a fun new gadget!” has turned into “holy hell, I lost my beloved old gadget!”

But now I have this difficult task of replacing Old Faithful. I was sure I would buy a refurb. Every Apple device I’ve ever purchased, including the MacBook on which I am currently typing this, has been a refurb. Fantastic bargains. But there were no iPod “Classics,” as the one I had is now called, on offer. Then I made the mistake of looking at iPod Touches. This put that Bloodhound Gang about doing it like they do it on the Discovery Channel in my head the whole day. That’s because it’s called The Bad Touch. I basically spent the whole day dithering over whether to get a Touch or a Classic or a Nano. Or should I just get an iPhone and not carry around two devices all the time? Stupid flying iPod. Why did it have to rain today? I, I’d really like to know. That just put another song into my head, it’s by APB and those are the first two lines. See how crazy this has made me?

This evening, I went to the Apple Store (the cheerful Apple guy said mine was the saddest story he had heard all day) where I spent twenty minutes doing the exact same dithering I had done the whole day, only this time it was in front of the actual objects. I really did want a Touch. But did you know? The Touch is exactly like an iPhone except it costs more and does less. Yes, yes, I don’t need to pay $70 a month for it, but I already pay $60 a month for the Blackberry! And when I stood in the Apple store playing with it, I realized that it would make me want an iPhone every day. Because I’m never near WiFi except in my own home and I can check my e-mail and surf on an actual computer there. It’s for when I’m out. And then I’ll be using my Blackberry and its tiny little screen. Now, I do love my Blackberry and I wrote an ode to it a while back, but, well, surfing on this screen is really awesome.

I ended up buying a Nano (purple!) on the theory that my Blackberry contract is up in November and this will tide me over till then. But I haven’t opened it because I’m not sure. It’s really hard to fathom paying just a bit less than it would cost for an iPhone, which is a phone and browses the web and does e-mail and plays music and a hundred other things, and getting this… music player. If only T-Mobile would let me go. That’s a song by Heaven 17 and probably a lot of other people.

So, anyone want to take over a T-Mobile contract? Free Curve with memory card!

I’m only half-joking.

I could go with so many references in this post but here’s the one that rainy days sound like to me.
The Cure – Plainsong