SINNEMOTA: April 2011

April 29, 2011

that's what she said.

in honor of Michael Scott's swan song last night (during which i may or may not have cried. ok, i cried):

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/04/they_invented_a_computer_that.html

April 24, 2011

what's the buzz, tell me what's happenin'

ever since moving to Minnesota, my most consistent Easter tradition has been to watch Jesus Christ Superstar in the afternoon. the night before, we were at a friends' house and listened to almost the entire rock opera on vinyl. i realized that night that i have a JCSS compulsion- if it's playing, i HAVE to sing along. i can't stop. we made dinner, and sat down to eat dinner, and i could barely get food in my mouth because i literally could not stop singing.

my favorite part is a tiny little moment sandwiched between much larger numbers (Simon the Zealot and Clearing the Temple), much like the story's placement in the Gospels. i always thought it was an underappreciated, overlooked piece of the whole puzzle, and i'm happy to see it get a little attention here.

April 14, 2011

little angel dance.

dinner: Spill the Wine.
show: Robert Plant and Band of Joy
date: one Matt Patrick.
also in attendance: dozens of middle aged men wearing dad jeans, braided belts, sensible sneakers, thinning pony tails, and Led Zep tour shirts from the 70's.

the solo stuff is great, i loved hearing the Low covers live, but when they played Zeppelin songs it was really heart warming to hear those guys totally freak out.

April 9, 2011

goats standing on top of cows.

great article on Radiolab right here.

when i was in college, i was introduced to the band The Sundays. i thought Harriet Wheeler had the most angelic, otherworldly voice. to me she wasn't even human, and although i was super curious, i didn't want to see a picture of her. it would ruin the whole fantasy in my head- this voice that was so celestial it just couldn't reside in a mere mortal. years later, curiosity got the best of me and i peeked online. it wasn't earth-shattering; i remember thinking, "huh. she kinda looks like Helena Bonham Carter. oh well." i think by then my late-adolescent obsession with The Sundays had matured into a "sure, i'll import them into my iTunes" passivity.

for some reason, i've had the same feeling toward Jad Abumrad, one of the co-hosts of Radiolab. it's my favorite podcast, hands down, and i've enjoyed listening to them on my jogs, imagining what both he and Robert Krulwich look like. i liked my versions of them so much that i just really didn't want to know what they actually looked like.

the Radiolab website is also excellent- they post photos and video related to the episodes, and listeners can comment with their thoughts on the podcasts. i went there to see some photos that were described in a recent episode, and right there on the homepage was a post about their upcoming tour, with an unavoidable photo of Jad & Robert. rather than be disappointed, i was pretty psyched because they very closely matched the mental facsimiles in my head. my Jad was a little more "Ira Glass", and my Robert was a little more "old man from Up"... but i'm pretty pleased with my detective work and profiling.

April 8, 2011

Toby Keith I Hate Your Bar and Grill.

to be fair, i've only been there once, to pick up a donation for work. so i've never been a patron. so a more accurate statement might be Toby Keith I Hate Your Bar and Grill's Decor. it's like, the Hard Rock Café and Hooters had a love child, who grows up and has a love child of its own with your granpa’s ice shanty/fishing shack. That love child = Toby Keith’s.