Blog War: Our Love to Admire and Bodysuits

For this blog war, I will need to bring my wit and intellect down a notch so the retard who participates can comprehend. Also for the benefit of their autism is the pronunciation key below. All you need to do is click on the pretty gray picture. Go on, click it!

pro·gres·sion /prəˈgrɛʃən/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation

1.	the act of progressing; forward or onward movement.

When I was 8 years old I owned and valued a floral bodysuit. It had purple petunias and looked beautiful with my black tapered jeans. If you aren't familiar with bodysuits its necessary to point out how they must retain that tightness factor in order to exude the awesomeness factor.

There are two flaps with three buttons that can be snapped at the crotch. To take this wondrous piece of clothing off you must either unsnap the buttons and pull it up or wiggle out of the shoulders and pull it down. Both options create issue. If you choose the snapping option you must then re-snap to get it back on. This can be quite complicated as you need to stretch the material past the crotch and then bend over in order to view which snap goes where. As an 8 year old I did not have the sort of brilliant hand eye coordination I now possess.

Then there is the downward pull alternative. Though this doesn't create as many issues getting on and off it does offer the possibility of stretching out the body suit. There is one element that makes or breaks the amazingness of a body suit, its tightness. Loose this and you got nothing. You might as well wear a turtleneck and change your name to Sandy. So by pulling the bodysuit on and off it begins to sag, loose its shape and in my case had the potential to put more emphasis on the boyish haircut I had due to my mom taking me to a hair salon in Vancouver called Hair Country.

For the two necessary times during the day in which I had to put on or take off the body suit for dressing purposes I would take the snap option, as I had more time to devote to the process. However, there were also the numerous times during the day that I had to remove the bodysuit for the purpose or urination. I remember standing in the lime green stall with my pants around my ankles, debating which option made more sense. Then my 8 year old brain had a mental breakthrough. It had been an e=mc2, Moonlight sonata, mould=penicillin moment. I would hold the snap opening of the bodysuit to the side, as I peed. It was true brilliance.

So I sat on the toilet and my small prepubescent hand held the Lycra fabric to the side of the place I thought had two holes and not three and let my lunchtime chocolate milk out. As Niagara Falls continued, the fabric in my hand got tighter and tighter until I could no longer hold it. The bodysuit propelled its way back into place, pee splashed upwards and the purple petunias turned yellow. That night I unsnapped the bodysuit for the last time.

Buying that bodysuit and making that fashion statement showcased my awesomeness, pissing in the bodysuit was a mistake and putting the bodysuit on a hanger in my closet never to be warn again was a progression. I took a step forward, I learned from my mistakes and look at me now. WOW.

For Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights was a showcase of awesomeness, Antics was a mistake and Our Love to Admire is a true progression.

SXSW-The Pain I Feel

I’ve been waiting for this day for quite some time now and I just don’t feel whole again like I had expected. Is it Interpol, is the ridiculous $425 I am supposed to drop or maybe it’s the fact that I have had such a shitty week not even SXSW can make it better.

Let us begin with Interpol. In the big scheme of things it doesn’t make any sense for a band like Interpol to play the festival or at least not be part of the line-up. But then of course rumors, along with an initial list said that they would be playing. Today the official list did come out and their name was very apparently missing. Now I realize I will get to see them at Coachella but it will also be with a few thousand sweaty drugged out people. I rather see them in an intimate setting and at a festival like SXSW . So most likely they will play but it will be one of those super secret, announced at the last minute things. My relationship with Capitol is not what I would like it to be and I am worried that disaster may occur and I won’t get in. This leads me to my next point…press passes.

I won’t name names, I won’t be specific but despite my job, company and previous involvement in Austin but since when did press passes have a dollar amount? I called bullshit on this but still nothing. I am not going down there to pay to interview bands on top of having to drop massive amounts of cash on the a hotel, flight and what not. Now of course this isn’t just for me this is for all registrants who are expected to pay that amount for their badge. I realize these people have to make money but I think it is absolutely outrageous. Why should music cost so much? They are going out of their way to make it an environmentally friendly festival well while you are at it why not make it affordable to the normal fan who doesn’t have 500 bucks to drop to see bands. I can understand a figure somewhere around 250 but the badges are just too fucking expensive.

I really didn’t think I would ever get down on SXSW but from I have never encountered such blatant rudeness in a professional setting. I hate that people should have to pay all this money to see all these amazing bands. It gets to the point where you have to be somebody or have some real cash to go there and that’s not right. Of course there has to be money to pay these bands, there has to be profit but something tells me those badges are paying for more that five days of music.

Don’t get me wrong I am still really excited about some of the artists who will be there. Its going to be an amazing five days but its also going to force me to eat Macaroni and Cheese for months at a time. I like compromise but I just don’t see any here.

The Beginning of the End-Or the Best Five Days of My Life?

So this is it, the initial line up, my motivation to look both ways and not get run over for the next three months, but is it true? Can it be true? Sure Interpol isn’t Smashing Pumpkins or The White Stripes and they will have a new album to push but will they really play SXSW or pull out like all the other mother fuckers on a major label? One can only hope. Of course if they play I will be able to see them for the millionth time but life was just a lot better when they were on Matador. I have been worried since the switch that this third album will be the sequel to my lifetime Weezer nightmare. Of course Antics isn’t Pinkerton but they are well on their way to prove $$$ signs count over talent and integrity.

But going along with my New Years resolution I must convince myself that their third full length is going to blow my mind, that they won’t pull out of the festival and somehow one of the Capitol peeps will come through and I will get to share my thoughts and feelings from the past three years with the band so that they don’t pull a Rivers on me.

As for the rest of the line up Bloc Party will definitely make me happy as long as Panic doesn’t tag along as they have been and you can’t go wrong with Cold War Kids. I have also heard rumors that Snowden shall be attending, a band who wouldn’t pull out and who I think is amazing and sadly left out of a lot of the best of ‘06 lists. Despite my accommodation at the Rodeway Inn I think it should be a good SXSW .