New York

You don’t often hear me talking excitedly about food, but @TheSteelCart just sold me one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had.

Took 4th place at the @usairguitar Northeast Semifinal behind Airistotle, Ricky Stinkfingers, and Smiley Rod, who all advance to the Finals!

Game-day decision: I’ve accepted @usairguitar’s invitation to compete as a wildcard in tonight’s Northeast Semifinal. boweryballroom.com/event/586745-u…

The second of @RogerClark41’s NY1 @usairguitar Northeast Semifinal previews, featuring an interview with yours truly. ny1ne.ws/b1BSfA

Got up early to be on the teevee with @RogerClark41. @usairguitar Northeast Semifinal tonight! ny1ne.ws/b1BSfA

Fuck, you guys. White Lung.

On my way to #generateconf for the day.

Did not expect to see so many people making out in public as I biked home around midnight on a Tuesday. youtu.be/eK9Wal9Dvic

Around last call on weekends, my street is a magnet for drunk women on cell phones shrilly rebuffing booty calls.

Spent the evening catching up with @mrclean, @magnetbox, and @ems, followed by some rock and/or roll from those Dead Milkmen. Summertime!

My new favorite black metal graffiti.

NYC has considerably more noise and humidity than Alaska, but it is good to be home.

Well, that’s a first. A kid at Union Station just asked me for deodorant.

Someone lend me $10 million? The prosperity I’m guaranteed by an unregulated free market assures your reimbursement. marketplace.brownstoner.com/listing/CORCOR…

Saturday morning serenade.

The 2014 @usairguitar season begins MAY 1ST at @saintvitusbar with judges @stoya, @alexkoll, and Nigel Blackstorm! ticketfly.com/event/559779?u…

It is hard to get any post-vacation catch-up work done when they’re filming a car chase outside.

This is what happens when you let your “fear of missing out” guard down for a few days. stereogum.com/1675244/watch-v…

After having their records in steady rotation for several months, tonight I heard Whores the right way. Best live band I’ve seen in ages.

Last night’s Nothing show was way more of a punk thing than I expected; it isn’t the dominant vibe I get from the record. Not a bad thing.

Today’s view of Manhattan.

After a few days, the snow is basically a white glove test for the city, like, “See? This is how filthy this place is ALL THE TIME.”

Carrie is one of the better Stephen King adaptations, thanks largely to Sissy Spacek’s fragile performance and its memorably masterful climax. Still, I always feel like the first hour is mostly just something to sit through while waiting for the big moment.

The snow and ice don’t bother me. It’s the cars trying to get out of their parking spots. My block sounds like the fucking Daytona Speedway.

The Lego Movie is probably the best unabashed, 100-minute toy commercial anyone is ever likely to see. It certainly helps that the toy on offer has a long history of superior quality, and that the imagination- and creativity-focused brand values the film is designed to bolster are essentially unassailable. But it still could have been a disaster in the wrong hands, especially given the cloying, self-acknowledged cliché at the center of it: You are special.… See more →

There’s a strange narrative conflict at the heart of 12 O’Clock Boys. On one hand, the broader story of Baltimore’s brand of impoverished urban escapism through reckless dirt bike riding probably could have been told well enough in a short film. The local news clips and interviews with riders get pretty repetitive after awhile. On the other hand, following its charismatic protagonist, Pug, through three of his formative years (ages 12–15) offers a valuable glimpse… See more →

ROB: I think I’ll try to get some writing done at home today.
GUYS OUTSIDE: Bring in the road saw!

I was 22 before I finally saw The Godfather. I previously had no interest in mob movies, mainly because of what I knew about Tommy DeVito, Joe Pesci’s character in Goodfellas, whose maniacal extortionist with an intolerable sense of entitlement I took to be the genre’s dominant archetype. While it turned out that wasn’t entirely off-base, I was pleased to find many Mafia stories richer than I expected.

Fifteen years later, The Wolf of Wall… See more →

In Her, the central romance between Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) and his artificially intelligent operating system Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) is developed almost entirely through conversation, since Samantha doesn’t have a physical presence. As a result, virtually everything either character thinks or feels is plainly stated aloud, giving viewers little to assess for themselves. The film is its own CliffsNotes. And while it touches on various difficulties inevitable to a relationship between a metaphysically boundless AI and… See more →

Waiting for Godot

Tremendously proud of my buddies in the @brooklynbeta crew for the wonderful event they pulled off this week.