PHIL HAS A BLOG.

you know, at first when i saw this sign, i felt totally...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:33:40 -0500

you know, at first when i saw this sign, i felt totally “inconvienced”.

but, after thinking about it for a moment, and coming to the conclusion that NO ONE should ever be ordering shrimp ANYTHING from a taco bell, i decided that it was all okay.

perhaps, taco bell should consider being permanently out of shrimp.. you know, like before.

and just in case you thought i was joking below… yikes. i...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:34:57 -0500

and just in case you thought i was joking below…

yikes.

i saw limp bizkit probably four times. you can’t get those nights back later in life. that’s permanent.

deftones - rocket skates it’s time,...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:33:14 -0500

deftones - rocket skates

it’s time, blogreaders.

it’s time for me to come clean about something that i haven’t been very forthcoming about. i have a dark past… a dark past that involves… nu-metal.

yes, friends. while you were already listening to cool music in 1997-1999, i was lost in a hopeless world of really bad aggro music. i was in high school. i didn’t know any better.

you see, i hadn’t quite figured out what hardcore was. perhaps if i’d been exposed to it at an earlier age, i might have avoided this altogether, but the truth is - i liked a lot of really shitty bands. we’re talking about limp bizkit, korn, sevendust, incubus, etc. the list goes on. it’s bad.

i’m not proud of it. but hey, i obviously grew out of it. thank god.

however, there’s two bands that i was way into during that time that have always stuck with me long after i stopped listening to anything with a “nu-” in front of it. i think it’s because those bands are good enough to transcend the genre they existed in. those bands are deftones and system of a down. deftones because they always sounded ahead of their time and system of a down because they were always doing something interesting (albeit a little weird) musically.

now, deftones were making music way before the term nu-metal even existed, so their credibility sort of goes without saying. they have a huge following among that crowd, but i bet you’d find a lot of people who listen to indie music admitting their love for this band.

anyway, they released a new video today and it’s pretty damn good. they easily have found a way to sound current in 2010 and stay true to their sound at the same time.

so anyway, i thought i’d take the opportunity to geek out about the video and the band, while fessing up to my dark nu-metal past.

i hope you can forgive me, and through the forgiveness process, learn to love me and deftones.

Who was the Chosen One, Anakin or Luke? I'm currently in an argument with a friend about it, and we need a third party.

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:47:30 -0500

The Chosen One was Lando Calrissian.

I can’t believe this is even up for debate.. just LOOK at him:

What is your guilty pleasure?

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:43:02 -0500

This one’s been accumulating dust in the queue!

Basically, I try to generally avoid the term “guilty pleasure” whenever possible.

I’m a big believer that if you’re into something, you’re into it.. and you shouldn’t be made to feel bad by others because of it. I feel like “guilty pleasures” is something that is rampant in “hipster” culture. We like our counter culture-approved music, clothes, shows, and movies.. and what doesn’t fit into that mold is reluctantly admitted to as a guilty pleasure.

I like Taylor Swift. No guilt about it. I also listen to Paramore unabashedly. I don’t mind if someone thinks lesser of me for any of those things.

it has been five days since the last time i blogged.

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:22:41 -0500

PANICPANICPANICPANICPANICPANICPANICPANIC

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-3-7)

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:56:55 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-3-7):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

CAT NAP!

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:38:49 -0500

CAT NAP!

Mundane Reasons To Use Your Time Machine #2

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:54:12 -0500

Travel forward in time to 5:00pm on a Friday, thereby eliminating the agonizing wait for the weekend.

[Present Phil looks agonizingly at his computer screen, reading 9:41am, knowing that the day is going to crawl by. He anxiously fires up his time machine, setting it for 5:00pm on the same day. A bright flash of light envelopes everything. Present Phil arrives at 5:00pm to find a future version of himself at his desk.]

FUTURE PHIL: Fuck, Phil! You scared the shit out of me!

PRESENT PHIL: Uhh wait… what? What the hell are you doing here? I fast forwarded to the future. Shouldn’t it just be me here?

FUTURE PHIL: Well, that’s because you’re an idiot and didn’t think through time travel.

PRESENT PHIL: Ahh shit…

FUTURE PHIL: Yep. When I tried this 8 hours ago, the same damn thing happened to me. You get to the future, find your future self (aka me) sitting here and then realize that another version of you is already in the future and you can’t just fast forward to the good parts. I’m here already living the good parts. And there’s no room for two of us, pal. Do you even realize how much work you skipped today? You gotta go back, dude.

PRESENT PHIL: Oh. This totally fucking sucks. So there’s really no way around this, is there?

FUTURE PHIL: Nope. Get back to the present, dude.

PRESENT PHIL: So I guess in 8 hours, I’ll bump into my past self and be an asshole to him when he time travels to 5:00pm.

FUTURE PHIL: HA! Yeah, I’ve actually been looking forward to this all day. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m about to get out of here and start boozing it up for happy hour.

PRESENT PHIL: Shit. Well, alright. Have fun, I guess.

FUTURE PHIL: Hang in there, bud.

[bright flash of light]

in june, lauren and i are planning to head off to the smoky...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:04:40 -0500

in june, lauren and i are planning to head off to the smoky mountains in north carolina for a few days.

the plans are still up in the air, but there’s going to be a) hiking b) waterfalls c) campfires and d) whitewater rafting.

but more importantly, i’m going to spend several hours sitting right here on this porch with a good book and a cold beer. make that a few cold beers.

who needs a beach when you can have a view like this?

Fair-haired men with auburn beards

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:58:35 -0500

inthekitschen:

File under Things That Make Me Weak At The Knees

Meet my roommate Bill. It’s not totally obvious from this photo, but Bill is known for his auburn beard. Ladies, start your swooning:

my friend steve sent me this. i’m dying.

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:07:32 -0500

my friend steve sent me this. i’m dying.

Congressman wants to replace Ulysses S. Grant with Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill.

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:07:18 -0500

Congressman wants to replace Ulysses S. Grant with Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill.:

can you impeach a congressman? what is our course of action here to throw this jackass out of office?

this is fucking BULLSHIT y’all.

ronald reagan is NO ulysses s. grant.

Mundane Reasons to Use Your Time Machine #1

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:27:00 -0500

Travel back in time exactly five minutes to warn yourself not to put that much sriracha sauce on the brunswick stew.

[Present Phil busies himself in the kitchen and pulls delicious brunswick stew out of the microwave. Suddenly a bright flash fills the room.]

FUTURE PHIL: Phil! NO! Wait! STOP!!

PRESENT PHIL: Whoa! HOLY SHIT! PHIL! Jesus Christ, you scared me.

FUTURE PHIL: I came from the future. You have to stop.

PRESENT PHIL: Stop… what?

FUTURE PHIL: That sriracha hot sauce bottle behind you. You were about to put an obscene amount of sriracha on your brunswick stew.

PRESENT PHIL: Oh.

FUTURE PHIL: Spicy foods are okay, but look man.. my mouth is still burning. It was WAY TOO MUCH SRIRACHA.

PRESENT PHIL: Wait.. you said you’re from the future.

FUTURE PHIL: Well, yeah.. technically. About five minutes in the future. In fact, you should really fire up the time machine now so you can warn the next Phil while you eat your brunswick stew.

PRESENT PHIL: …. was this really necessary? I think you just got a little over-excited about using the time machine.

FUTURE PHIL: …. Sorry. You’re right. I’ll just.. uh.. go back now.

[Bright flash of light. End scene.]

GPOYW Best Friends Edition For those of you who are sick to...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:54:20 -0500

GPOYW Best Friends Edition

For those of you who are sick to death of kitten posts and kitten references, I’m really sorry. I’m trying to stop. I really am. I just can’t help it.

For those who love the kitten posts, well… this is your month!

random-ramblings: humantarget: a common work...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:34:15 -0500

random-ramblings:

humantarget:

a common work occurence

THIS. every day.

meet the dreamcrusher. i love working at an ad agency. we react...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:14:03 -0500

meet the dreamcrusher.

i love working at an ad agency. we react to stress in strange and interesting ways. one of our staff drew this on the conference room whiteboard, probably in reaction to another new project with another crazy deadline.

i got pulled into my boss’ office for an impromptu meeting on monday. the topic was the month of march. the message was “hang in there”. a lot of new work, combined with some difficult deadlines, and being generally understaffed at the moment has lead to a bit of a “perfect storm” in terms of workload.

the cool thing is… i think just about everyone in my office has seen this coming. i’ve been kinda bracing for it for a while now. so really i just have to put my head down, focus, and get the job done. it’s just that this new added workload will have to come at the expense of some other things. namely, the hours i’d love to be spending with my new kitten, working on record label stuff, and writing on this blog.

i’ve already started simplifying things. trying to cut things out where they’re unnecessary. facebook and i are now on a “need-to-know” basis. i don’t check it unless there’s something i need to know on there. i axed a couple people i follow on twitter - not because they weren’t interesting, just because i had to find a way to get the signal-to-noise ratio under control.

sadly, the blog might take a slight hit too. but who knows? sometimes when i stress out, it’s the source of some of more interesting blog material.

anyway, all i’m saying is.. bear with me. march is going to be tough. but i’m ready for it, and we’re going to make it awesome.

ulysses, on the other hand, might not let me spend less time with him. he’s currently pissed that i’m even writing this blog and is attacking my right leg as we speak.

ouch.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-28)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:26:18 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-2-28):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

general robot e. lee and general ulysses s. cat: family...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:11:29 -0500

general robot e. lee and general ulysses s. cat: family photo

it’s not GPOY-wednesday yet, but fuck all y’all, it’s too good not to post immediately.

FASHION TREND ALERT!!! Karen is rocking the ultimate new...

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:58:21 -0500

FASHION TREND ALERT!!!

Karen is rocking the ultimate new accessory for Spring 2010: the Luke Skywalker pin.

Amazing.