June 2008

On the Web

• Camp Naked Terror 7: Photos from this year’s Summer Camp Slasher Birthday Bash.
• Touring to Alaska on Vegetable Oil!: My friend Matt and his tour mate Kyle demonstrate how they the prep the environmentally-friendly fuel that’s taking them across North America.

In the Stereo

• Bad Brains: Rock for Light
• Mose Giganticus: Commander!
• Dr. Dre: The Chronic
• Danzig: Danzig II: Lucifuge
• South: South
• Mission of Burma: Vs.
• Kanye West: The College Dropout
• The… See more →

Days without assembling Ikea furniture: 0.

@weighshift @essl: Quicksand gets my vote for best Schreifels band. My favorite songs of his are the bitter, disillusioned ones.

Today is the 8th consecutive day for which thunderstorms are predicted. Don't give up, weather people, it's bound to happen eventually.

Cheers to Paul Green School of Rock for this fest with kids from all over the US playing rock music. Jeers for letting Skoal be a sponsor.

Just saw what is sure to have been the best Bruce Dickinson imitation ever to be perpetrated by a teenage girl.

The Hold Steady has found the ears of the lite beer crowd.

These kids are exceptionally skilled musicians, but they can’t save this Yes song from itself.… See more →

Just finished Lee Sandlin's excellent WWII essay "Losing the War," kind of ashamed that "Danger Zone" was stuck in my head as I read it.

Shudder to Think is playing at the TLA in Philly on October 3rd, when I will be in Atlanta. This is distressing.

Mick Mars is ten years older than Barack Obama.

Fuck. I just found out Andrew WK is playing with Butthole Surfers tomorrow night, and I already have Mission of Burma tickets. Conundrum!

Scowling at the boys in blue who chose to block a crosswalk with their squad car so they could stuff their fat faces in this restaurant.

The Riverview's numbered theaters don't say what's playing inside, so I just snuck into The Incredible Hulk. You win, Riverview.

I expected The Happening to be terrible. I did not expect to be absolutely sick with embarassment on behalf of all involved.

The back of a nearby t-shirt reads, "I gave my kneepads to your girlfriend."

Not terribly amused by my body's new game of waking me up much earlier than intended only to put me to sleep again hours later.

It's high time the social and professional stigmas justly endured by fortune tellers were extended to meteorologists.

Sitting on a bench on West River Drive, reading about Harold Shapinsky.

Researching vacuum cleaners. Any recommendations for a vacuum that's both kickass and affordable?

Check out the God rays! This bumper sticker is the word of the Lord.

Singing "Inbox: 0" to the tune of "Jukebox Hero."

Poorly-integrated text ads do more harm to a web page design than poorly-integrated image ads.

Inbox: 0. For the first time in... well, ever. It has been a goal I never fully understood until this moment.

Did anyone at AEA get video of the crowd singing Happy Birthday to @jasonsantamaria?

Didn't turn on my computer once this weekend. Hoping to make that a habit.

Dreams of returning to high school at age 32 do not make for a restful night.

Getting the Led out, thanks to a neighbor, whether I want to or not, which I don't.

Recalling that Philadelphia public schools let out yesterday, and anticipating the effect that will have on a matinee film today.

On the outside of a tent at Rittenhouse Square, looking at the well-dressed people inside and wondering what compelled them to be there.

According to everyone in the world, there is a new Coldplay album. I guess that means Coldplay still hasn't fucked off like I asked them to.

RIP Stan Winston. You will be missed.

Short Round : Indiana Jones :: Ewoks : Star Wars

Looking for nominees for "Web Site with Highest Disparity Between Quality of Content and Quality of Design/Build." I nominate allmusic.com.

Home from Camp Naked Terror 7. Collapse imminent.

Finding my wallet empty as I'm hearing the ice cream truck's jingly approach compounds a bad mood quite effectively.

Cleaning the bathroom is my single most reliable recipe for a bad mood.

Listening to the bonus tracks on the new reissue of Mission of Burma's Vs, trying like mad to figure out where I've heard "Progress" before.

Emperor X was so good tonight. Pretty much everyone I can think of would have enjoyed this show.

Not to be confused with the deadly serious kind of rubber boobs.

Listening to a record store clerk tell a customer that special orders take 1-2 weeks. Wondering if they hear the clock ticking.

Who wants Dreamhost invitations? 4x normal disk and bandwidth for any plan and big discounts for multi-year plans. First 5 replies get 'em.

Kevin Cornell's dog is not happy to see me.

The venue has no box office and Ticketmaster has the cheapest tickets I can find, adding 40% to the price in bullshit fees. Blood boiling.

Trying to figure out how to get Devo tickets without paying Ticketmaster's goddamned bastard 25% "convenience" fee.

On what planet or in what dimension does a MacBook battery actually last anywhere close to five hours?

How I became a regional air guitar champion and what I learned, including video of my winning performance: robweychert.com/editorials/20…

I like adjectives that are both crystal clear and totally vague. For example, you may be coming off a “good” weekend just like I am, but it’s entirely possible that the “good” elements of our respective weekends were completely different. Perhaps you were served an amazing slice of peach cobbler, or your blind date turned out to be George Clooney, or you finally disposed of some incriminating evidence that’s been haunting you for years. But… See more →

Watching It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World for the first time in awhile, thinking it really ought to be shown in all economics classes.

Big thanks to @urbancrunchy, @JennLukas, @mSutters, Leah, Paul, Kevin, and Pete for screaming me to victory last night!

Just signed a tit.

Won the motherfucking Philadelphia Regional US Air Guitar Championship. Heading to nationals in SF in August.

In the 5'x5' green room with my opponents in air guitar. Cliques are already forming.

Apparently my chaps don't really fit if I don't have pants on underneath. Damn.

On hold, hearing the first few bars of Fur Elise rendered in Casiotone and repeated eternally, wishing the government was on my side.

Waiting out the rain.

SXSW has released the podcast of the presentation I did with @jasonsantamaria, Everyone's a Design Critic: 2008.sxsw.com/blogs/podcasts.php…

Calling it a day. Thanks again one and all for the warm birthday greetings. My sinuses would do well to take a page out of your book.

Just invited a whole bunch of people to be dazzled by my air guitar skills on Friday. Feel free to add yourself: crush3r.com/page/public/hvyrltmiz…

Rob Across America statistics: acrossamerica.robweychert.com/200…

Thank you everyone for the kind birthday wishes!

It's funny how little sleep a guy can get when he's convinced he's covered in mosquitos all night.

Over the course of this trip, I kept track of a lot of numbers: Mileage, itemized expenses, gas consumption, and more. I was curious how everything would add up at the end, and I thought it might be useful information for anyone who wanted to do a similar road trip. If that’s you, and you want your trip to be exactly like mine (which would really require you to go back in time, access my… See more →

Lacking a consistently confident ear for the difference between fireworks and gunshots.

Slums of Beverly Hills does not a good first Hulu experience make.

Crunching numbers for some interesting road trip statistics.

Last night's Rob Across America update from Philadelphia, PA: acrossamerica.robweychert.com/200…

Registering for the motherfucking US Air Guitar Championships! Come see me compete at the TLA in Philly on Friday: livenation.com/event/getEven…

See the full gallery (41 items) →

Brooklyn is not terribly far from where I live, so waking up there this morning made a clear enough impression that I would be arriving home today. But I still just couldn’t get my head around the idea of being home and staying there. Perhaps in a subconscious attempt to slow the approach, I made a few stops on the way. There was a very nice breakfast with Stan and Shawn Morrison at DuMont in… See more →

Home, and thoroughly enjoying the surprise welcome party that was waiting for me.

Last night's Rob Across America update from Brooklyn, NY: acrossamerica.robweychert.com/200…