Wardine Be Cry

I'm loving Infinite Jest, believe it or not. It's a task, but it's one worth taking I think. I'm done here because I want to get back to reading. Byezees!

What I learned from watching "True Blood" last night

Maryann's power is that she can start a wicked dance party where there had not previously been a dance party. Awesome, True Blood. Awesome.

Andy Bellefleur is the only character I like. In order to save True Blood, they should just have an apocalypse so everyone dies, including vampires, except Andy Bellefleur. I guarantee it would be more interesting.

The "Sam is a dog" story is the single dumbest plotline on any show ever...any show...ever.

Things that are supposed to be funny (like Bill shopping at Forever 21) are just not funny on True Blood. Mostly because the show is so bad.

My "oh this show!" moment from last night came when Lafayette was digging through that guys remains to find his hip replacement. Just gross for gross sake and that guy must be the youngest recipient of a hip replacement in all of history.

I wish Jessica would eat her parents and then Sookie.

True Blood sucks

Infinite Summer

The good folks at InfiniteSummer.org have convinced thousands to finally hunker down and read David Foster Wallace's mammoth "Infinite Jest" this summer. I'm joining the cause. The book is north of 1,000 pages, so the idea is at least 75 pages a week until the middle of September and that should do it. I've wanted to read this book for a few years now and have cowered in fear at the heft of the damn thing, but knowing there's a support system out there should help matters. I'll be talking about it a bit here on the blog, so I figured you should know about it.

Hot Fucking Dancing

So, there's this awesome new blog called Hot Fucking Dancing. You should check it out at HotFuckingDancing.tumblr.com. It's just two sweet dudes rocking some killer dance moves. I heard they're going to post new videos of their Hot Fucking Dance moves pretty regularly. In any event, here's video of the first installment. Enjoy.

Hot from Michael Torpey on Vimeo.

These are your people, Sarah Palin.

Don't get me started on the whole Letterman/Palin thing. It's almost as stupid as "True Blood." I don't think anyone will have trouble guessing which side I'm on, but if for some weird reason you should find yourself on the other side maybe take a look at this and re-evaluate your position.

True Blood is back...

and still so fucking bad.

I don't have time yet to really delve into how fucking bad the season premiere of "True Blood" was, but it was so, so fucking bad. So wonderfully fucking bad. Everything was just fucking gross and fucking stupid and fucking poorly acted (except for Anna Paquin who I actually think it kind of good, but that guy who plays Bill, who will only be known for this role FOREVER since no one will fucking cast him in anything else because he's so fucking bad, he was epically fucking bad.)

Nevertheless, it's a joy for me to have "True Blood" back because I hate it and sometimes it's fun to hate stuff.

I'll also talk about it more later in the week, like for example when the newly vampired teenager hears Bill's cell phone ring and says "can I have one of those" as if she doesn't know what it is. She's still a teenager who remembers her former non-vampired teenage life, but she doesn't know what a cell phone is? Really? Ha! True Blood is so fucking stupid!

Oh and Tara. I can't wait to talk about Tara. She is so fucking bad.

SO FUCKING BAD!

I'll bet the Hold Steady saved someone's life last night

It's no secret that rock 'n roll can sometimes be transcendent, but this fact is usually relegated to one's youth. The discovery of bands that will one day become among your favorites is an experience unlike any other, but the child-like joy usually dies out somewhere around the time you discover cynicism. However, if there's one band in the world that can make you forget all of that bad shit, it's The Hold Steady and boy oh boy did they do it for me last night.

The show, like every Hold Steady show I've ever been to, was balls-out fun. If you haven't seen the Hold Steady - do it! Whether or not you consider yourself a fan does not matter. Their records are great, their live shows are other worldly. So, obviously there was much dancing, singing and clapping along with youthful abandon, many beers consumed and toasts were raised to "Saint Joe Strummer". But, last night something magical happened that I have never seen at any show ever and can guarantee never will again (unless of course it becomes a Hold Steady ritual, which may be the case.)

Allow me to paint a picture...

The show ends and the lights go up and as people start to file out Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road" plays over the PA and if you're a Hold Steady fan, you're a Bruce fan so like second nature we all start singing along, but then none of us want to leave until the song's over so we all just kind of hang out and sing the song in unison. It's a sweet moment, a nice way to cap off a great show. Rob Sheffield's there singing with us and it's really nice. As the song is playing, many file out but a good number stay and we catch a glimpse of Franz Nicolay (the keyboard player for THS) on the balcony, so we direct our voices towards him and we are all BEST FRIENDS at this point. A bunch of music fans putting everything aside to just enjoy each other and the band we love. "Thunder Road" ends and then it gets crazy. The follow-up? "Rosalita."

To explain what happens next is not something that can be fully put into words. If you don't know, "Rosalita" is ten minutes of absolute joy and the moment we heard the opening bars, we weren't going anywhere. The remaining 60-75 of us have a sing-along dance party fueled by nothing but pure happiness. Smiles were plastered on our faces as we put our arms around each other and sang along, started a dance circle and acted like kids. The Hold Steady boys all congregated on the balcony with smiles as big as ours, singing along with us and taking pictures of all us old people acting like we did the first time we'd ever been to a show.

As the song ends The Hold Steady come out to the stage to wave goodbye and say thank you to us, with smiles as big as ours.

For one night, rock 'n roll was transcendent again.

Here's some video of the craziness. It's long and may not be as entertaining if you weren't there, but it's still nice to know it happened.