willhines.net

What songs, Will Hines? What songs have you listened to again and again, with little to no explanation lately?

“My City of Ruins” and “The Ties That Bind” by Bruce Springsteen.
“A Little Respect” by Erasure
“Drift Away” by Dobie Gray
“Amie” by Pure Prarie League

God bless them all, these songs.

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Nick Gibbons made a series of funny commercial parodies, and I got to be in one. You can see them all here. To see the one featuring me, click the button to the right of the bright red one.
http://www.nickgibbons.com/berightback.html

Pretty slick interface, Nick! Also, next time, don’t be afraid to be a little less subtle with your premises! Whoa! That’s right! You cast me in your video and I’m going to take the piss out of you on my blog with my awesomely hilarious barbs!

These videos are funny.

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Digging through my stuff has unearthed some gems of nostalgia, including my first-ever published newspaper article. After I graduated UConn in 1992 (magna cum laude in English, bitch! Not that you can tell from the demonstrations of grammar in this blog), I pursued journalism. My first job was with the weekly newspaper The Weston Forum. I’m sure if any of you were living in Weston in 1992, you probably remember well the very moment on Wednesday, June 10 when your eyes came to rest on this piece of earth-shattering news, brought to you courtesy of then brand-new reporter Will Hines:

A magnet for drama, I was, even then. This was front page, [...]

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I’ve added two more stacks of books I’m giving away. Go to this post to request any. I’m keeping this post closed so all the requests are in one place.

I had THREE copies of Moby Dick on my shelves. Who am I, Fone Bone^*?

^* Main character of Bone comics. Loves Moby Dick. I also have all Bone comics and I’m not giving THOSE away.

Closed

I put out six very full garbage bags last night and as I type this the garbagemen are throwing them in the truck. Or they WERE until one of the bags broke, scattering various items on the ground. Now they are going through my trash and picking out some things, I assume to keep (unless they are collecting evidence with which to write me a fine for Improper Disposal of A Shitload of VHS Tapes).

Among the things they are setting aside:

• Six decks of playing cards
• A lighter in the shape of a woman whose breasts light up when you flick it on (can’t remember where I had gotten that)
• Two sets of the Star Wars triology on VHS (I had three copies [...]

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EDITED ON THURSDAY TO ADD: I added two more stacks of books. These are ones that I do love, but I’m honestly not going to read again any time soon. Click on the same link — there’s two more pictures whose names start with “new.”

Ok, these are the books I’m cleaning out. If anyone wants any (those of you in NYC), let me know. The Harry Potter books are for Rachael — I forgot to take them out of the pile when I snapped these shots.

http://www.willhines.net/books/index.php

Mind you: just because I’m getting rid of these doesn’t mean I haven’t loved these books. I feel like the lowest infidel throwing away Peanuts books, honestly. But I just have too many. So [...]

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The Seattle sketch group Flaming Box of Stuff is coming the UCBT this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. If you’re a fan of sketch comedy, go see this show. I saw it in June when they performed it as part of New York Sketchfest and it blew me away. I’m likely ruining their chances of having a good show by over-hyping it, but I doubt it. I over-hyped The Swarm for years, and they seem to have survived the Will Hines Media Storm.

“So what’s the big deal about this show, Will?” You know, I’ve been wondering that myself. Not “what’s the big deal” but how to DESCRIBE what the big deal was. It’s about a group of people [...]

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I visited my friend Ryan McGinness, an artist, yesterday at his studio which occupies a full floor of a building in Chinatown. Although Ryan is an easy-going and friendly fellow he is tyrannical when it comes to keeping his workplace free of clutter. It is immaculately spartan, well-organized and frankly, beautiful. Neat stacks of blank CD-roms sit next to a bulletin board area where no piece of paper is overlapping another. His desk is mostly empty, except for a few squared-off stacks of papers. Sunbeams poured in through the windows and bathed the space in clean, uninterrupted light. Then I came home to my apartment, which demonstrates the wanton disarray of the library of a serial killer.

I’m [...]

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So, both Communique and Brothers In Arms were far better than I had expected, especially Communique. There were indeed albums — a consistent sound, and very soothing to have on in the background. I’m not one to really pay a lot of attention to the guitar in songs. But so many people have raved about Knopfler’s guitar work that I did try to pay attention. It seemed much more economical then I expected — not very many notes, at all — although many songs ended with an extended-ish jam. The jams I rarely liked, but the elegant playing before that was really great.

Arthur by The Kinks was really really great. Fun, catchy, and well, FUN. FUN FUN FUN. The Kinks [...]

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I’m watering plants for my neighbor. Every other day, I walk down a flight and pour water over her collection of about 12 plants, which she gathered together on her kitchen table so they’d be easily accessible. During this time, my own plant has died. A metaphor for my future parenting, perhaps? I wish my brain could see the world as metaphors for future success, but what sort of conclusions would YOU draw from such a thing?

Also, her apartment is spartanly decorated — almost nothing in there, which lets white light pour through the windows, dressing the place up smartly. In short, it looks much better in there then it does in my dark home, cluttered with piles of [...]

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