Top spins of the 2007s and such

The TOC crew and I did a little writeup of our favorite albums of the year. (Yes, I bypassed Kanye and Radiohead in favor of Amy Winehouse, I know, shut up.)

J has done his (much more extensive) top o' the heap roundup as well. Embarrassing sidenote: I had no idea how to pronounce Einsturzende Neubauten until I heard him say it out loud last weekend. (Ein-stur-zen-duh Noy-bow-ten, if you were wondering.)

WikiSurrealism

So every once in a while I search for myself in Wikipedia out of sheer self-serving vanity. And in addition to the entry in there on me (which is the internet equivalent of existential validation, i.e. I Am Relevant Enough To Not Be Deleted Even Though I Am Only A Wee Little Stub), I found two links.

1) A reference on the page for Slint's Spiderland;

and

2) A reference for Keggy the Keg, Dartmouth's unofficial college mascot (when I worked at Playboy I had to do a series of interviews called "Mascots Talk Back," which resulted in what is arguably my finest journalistic moment to date: Getting the Stanford Tree to admit he did blow in the locker room).

Slint and Keggy the Keg. This is how my career will go down in WikiHistory.

Tear Gas in the Pump Room?

These photos on what led to the Chicago Seven trial are simply amazing. My mom and dad totally watched it all happen, too, back when they were newlyweds, from their first apartment at 1130 S Michigan (where I lived as a tot a decade later). They say they went to the Hilton hotel lobby a couple days later and it still reeked of tear gas.

Roman (and Florentine) Holiday

J and I went to Florence for Lia and Richard's wedding, and then traveled on to Rome. As you can see, it was a little bit of all right.

What MySpace is really for

I've been a negligent MySpace-er. Who knows how long this most excellent friend request has been sitting in my inbox? I have 40+ new best inter-friends to bitch about being called Antonio with!

The Big 3-0

I am turning 30 soon, and I don't think I've pondered the meaning of a birthday this much since I was 21. Which was NINE years ago. Golly. But as J put it in his wonderfully nerdy way, if I follow Base 12 instead of Base 10 I'm actually 24F, or something (he explained this at length in the car today and I nodded and smiled and made a mental note to never tell him what my SAT math score was).

Anyhow, what happened on July 4, 1977, besides me and our country having a birthday? Apparently Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty was sensationally sacked by the club's directors. Thanks Wikipedia!

The haters come out

I didn't think this blog post was particularly mean--I do like Office--but web editor Scott reminded me that people just read what they want to read into what you're saying and slam you if they don't agree. I guess I need a thicker skin (at least I'm finally immune to any of Margasak's cruel and unusual blogging punishment) to be a critic. We have an unusually nice music staff at work, and my freelancers are great, so I often forget that most music critics are douches by design.