According to this dubious personality website, I am “A Melancholy.” Well, at least I’m in good company.

Iconic Ian Curtis image via last.fm, Man Ray photo of James Joyce via an English professor, and sad kitty cuteness via i can has cheezburger?

Your eyes do not deceive you- the tongue reads “Step Inside”

On the swoosh it says, “But I remember when we were young…-Ian Curtis”

Is nothing sacred?

New Balance images via the New Balance blog, Nike image via Kitsune Noir, Zune image via Stereogum

I am a total sucker for detective shows, probably because of early and prolonged exposure to the “Mathnet” segment on that old PBS show Square One. That and a huge dose of Nancy Drew circa fourth grade. Anyway, I began a 21 Jump Street marathon a few days ago and I CANNOT seem to get past certain plot holes, inconsistencies, and just outright nonsense. Namely:

- How many high schools are in this frigg’n city? Every episode it’s a different one!

- How is it even remotely plausible that people from surrounding high schools are not telling each other about the seemingly widespread presence of undercover cops posing as transfer students? Especially when they “blow their cover” at the end of pretty much every episode. AND kids are in and out of that bizarre churchy headquarters all damn day. There’s even a holding cell. Yet NO ONE recognizes them EVER?!

- Who the hell would actually believe that Peter DeLuise is in high school?

- Why does Vietnamese actor Dustin Nguyen play a Japanese guy? Not the same thing geniuses.

(And as an aside, why is Josh Brolin, who guest starred, so good at playing assholes yet seems like a pretty okay guy in real life?)

*I am completely aware I’m over-thinking all this, and that yes, the show was made for adolescents, but come on, kids are not MORONS. Even the theme song makes no sense whatsoever. No wonder Johnny Depp wanted out of his contract. Of course I will totally finish watching the rest of the season though. I, uh, need to know what happens.

Image via Hulu, my source of daily brain rot.

Via Style Rookie: He consistently delivered collections of extravagant creativity, the type of stuff where you just look at it and try to absorb it and you can’t believe a person made this. Being lucky enough to gaze at a glimpse into such an artist’s vision, and knowing that you can’t even imagine everything that was put into making it, and suddenly feeling so happy and joyful about humanity, and life, because, Jesus, a person made this..is incredibly uplifting. Very rarely are we blessed with a talent so strong and unparalleled and a passion so pure and driven.

It’s times like these I want to curl up into a ball, but alas, life must go on. And these, along w/ candy cane jojo’s, usually lift my spirits.

New Order + cat massage. RIP Alexander McQueen.

Tried to go to the Smell tonight but despite getting there 15 minutes after doors opened, the show was sold out. Ugh!!! At least I found this this today. New Bikini Kill archive blog. Share yr stories, pics, etc. Or mail yr vids to Kathleen.

And let’s bring back house shows, basement shows, backyard shows, etc. Please!

I’ve wanted to see Mike Mills’ documentary Does Your Soul Have a Cold? ever since I first read about it circa 2007. Unfortunately, it was never properly released. Imagine my surprise then, to find a stack of copies at Family. (I was told Mills “bootlegged” them himself and brought them in. Rad!) Of course I had to buy one.

Does Your Soul Have a Cold? chronicles five people taking antidepressants in Tokyo shortly after the influx of American pharmaceutical companies’ aggressive ad campaigns, and the subsequent cultural shift in the way depression was talked about and treated in Japan. Mike Mills talks about his work in an interview at SXSW:

On a similar note, the recent New York Times article “The Americanization of Mental Illness” is FASCINATING.

I am completely horrified to admit this, but I actually don’t mind this song. It coincides well with my intricate escapist fantasy of moving to a blustery and remote English town, whereupon my entering the local watering hole I encounter a pack of parka clad kids dancing House of Pain style to the entire Joy Division catalog. Immediately things get all “Gabba gabba we accept you, we accept you, one of us,” and we are disgruntled Joy Division superfan friends for life. Although, upon further consideration, Joy Division’s musical output does not lend itself to the type of jubilant and frantic bouncing I’m envisioning for the dance floor. Okay, I’ll work on that part of the scenario…

Image via My vintage home.

I find weird things on the internet when I can’t sleep. Like this short film directed by Kevin Drew (of Broken Social Scene) starring FEIST AND CILLIAN MURPHY.

I know I didn’t go to art school or anything, but the whole mummy in the frozen Canadian tundra bit really perplexes me.

*The player takes a minute to load, and yes, the first 5 minutes are sans dialogue.

Has anyone else seen The Living End? Not the shitty, Australian pop-punk band, but the 1992 Gregg Araki film about two HIV positive dudes running from the law. It’s bananas!!!

AND, it’s full of Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Millie’s Diner references! AND AND, KMFDM and Babyland dominate the soundtrack. I mean, when was the last time you heard KMFDM???

It was with a head scratching moment of what-the-fuckness that I learned of NYU obtaining Kathleen Hanna’s papers for their new RIOT GRRRL COLLECTION. Whoa!

Academia never ceases to amaze me. Here’s hoping for years of rad feminist scholarship ahead!

Image via Last.fm

All the trappings of an awesomely engaging and thought-provoking event…

PERFORMA 09: AUTONOMOUS FEMINIST RADIO BROADCAST

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7, 2009
9AM – 9PM

Please tune in this SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, to participate in a temporary autonomous feminist space that will broadcast for approximately twelve hours on EASTVILLAGERADIO.COM as part of PERFORMA ‘09, the biennial performance art festival in New York City.

This broadcast is a radio-only event, turning away from the spectacle typically affiliated with PERFORMA events in favor of dialogue and conversation – in this case, in the form of a diverse array of feminist audio experiments. The intention is to encourage participation in the present moment and explore experimental approaches towards the site and shape of art, as well as to connect the feminist individual beyond the reach of their own immediate community.

CURATED BY:
Alex Fleming
Alistaire Knox
Karen Soskin
Wendy Vogel

CONTRIBUTORS:
Jibz Cameron
City Center
Center for Urban Pedagogy
Cntrl Top
Barbara Ess
Madeline Gins
Tami Hart
Jessica Hopper
Jen Kennedy
Nana Last
Louise Lawler
Liz Linden
Ulrike Muller
Muscles of Joy
Eileen Myles
Tara Jane O’Neil
RightRides
Barbara Schroeder
Molly Siegel
Danny Snelson
Tom Tom Magazine
viBegirls
Martha Wilson
Allison Wolfe
… AND MORE TBA

Presented by Lisa Cooley Fine Art (www.lisa-cooley.com)
and Performa ‘09 (www.performa-arts.org)

Image via: e-flux.com

Thanks to a suggestion from the always helpful dude at Needles & Pens, I picked up a copy of Ted Pushinsky’s photo zine (415). His images are blowing my mind.

All photos via Ted Pushinsky.

I suffer from what I like to call binge and purge shopping, and on today’s bender I purchased not one, not two, but three Anna Sui for Target dresses. Yes, from the infamous “Gossip Girl” collection. And since I’m not sure how much longer they will be in my possession (I also suffer from a massive case of consumer guilt), I wanted to showcase them here in all their targety, gossipy, glory.

Apparently the ones I selected are “Blair,” and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing since I have never ever watched the show. Privileged youth annoy me to no end.

Images courtesy of Target.

Since I’ve been a total mope lately, my dad took me to Rhode Island to check out the Gilded Age mansions of the Vanderbilts et al. Being the consummate history nerd, this was right up my ally. (Full nerd disclosure: years ago I played guitar in a barely lived indie pop band called the Gilded Age.)

Despite touring two fully preserved historical houses, I ended up with a bunch of pictures of trees and decaying walls.

Another fun-tastic event to hit up if you are in the Bay Area.

Also, SISTER MANTOS VINYL IS SO CLOSE TO BEING DONE!!!