willhines.net

I don’t care if this makes me sound like a frat boy from 1994, but In Utero is an amazing album, especially considering it followed up the megahit from nowhere Nevermind. After Document, REM did the low-key Green; U2 followed up The Joshua Tree with the throwaway Rattle and Hum; Bruce Springsteen followed up the mammoth Born in the USA with the almost-one-person-job Tunnel of Love.

But Kurt Cobain, the man who shirked almost every responsibility he ever accrued, when faced with the pressure of following up one of the biggest commercial and critical hits in rock history: busted out In Utero — which started off with “Teenage angst [...]

6 Comments | Tags: music, nirvana

• The Onion’s AV club lists the 10 most wonderfully weird moments in Fantastic Four comics. A great list — and I’m pleased to see that all but one are from either the original Jack Kirby run or the 1980s John Byrne run. Kevin and I think they missed one, though: the issue where the Sub-Mariner traps the FF by disguising himself as a movie producer and luring them to a trap-filled Hollywood set!
• Fantastic quote from the Justice League Unlimited cartoon: The Question tells Lex Luthor “Although my distaste for you as a human being is Brobdingnagian, what I’m about to do isn’t personal.” That is bad-ass that they said Brobdingnagian. Even better than when Batman [...]

2 Comments | Tags: books, comics, jack kirby

Screw it, I’m just gonna do this…

If anyone cares to, I’d love additions or protests.

Separate: yesterday, I was really burnin’ to buy The Smiths’ Singles. I know greatest hits collections are taboo for music snobs, but I love this particular one and wanted it. Dyna and I were hoofing around and struck out at three record stores, including the mega-Virgin in Union Square. Not even a megastore? I was disappointed. However, walking out of the ‘S’ aisle, my eye was caught by the Bruce Springsteen live set for only $20.

Twenty dollars! That’s a steal! In high school, I systematically decided that I liked Bruce Springsteen based on the recommendations of friends I [...]

13 Comments | Tags: beatles, lists

Ok, I’ve launched the new version of My Fellow Jerks. The colors are ungood right now, but the software is fast and reliable (so far). Thank you Ben Whitehouse and SimplePie. Any advice or comments from anyone who uses that page is welcome.

Separately, my office played softball today. I’m pretty good at softball and most importantly, better than I look like I’m going to be. When walking around, my body stumbles clumsily like it’s a cursed marionette. But when put to task it can be strong and hearty like the dwarves of Middle Earth. Specifically, I mean to say I lined some hard grounders up the middle and reined in a few long flies. This was during [...]

1 Comment | Tags: computers

I don’t know how many of you read this, but I have a page of blogs that I frequently read called My Fellow Jerks. The software I had there was buggy so I’m rebuilding it from scratch using the Ben Whitehouse-suggested SimplePie, which is working well. Anywhere, here’s my first draft:

http://willhines.net/mfj2/

If any of you have any suggestions, let me know. My main questions: where to put the list of included sites, and also — how do I indicate which links expand the blog entries and which links take you TO the blog entries.

0 Comments | Tags: computers

Tonight (Wednesday June 6) at UCBT — the best and brightest of the UCBT community present some sketches for your enjoyment. We are workshopping a show.

Cast: Lennon Parham, Jeff Hiller, Sarah Burns, Ben Rodgers, Gavin Speiller
Writers: Chris Kula, Will Hines, Anthony King, Megan Neuringer, Shannon O’Neill, Gavin Speiller, Joe Wengert

Sketch and Awe tonight!

0 Comments | Tags: sketch, ucbt

UCBT nerds only: I added Kurt Braunholer’s one-man Harold to this page: http://64.90.181.100/will/161shows/

I think it’s a good show, and definitely was an “event” show people talked about. He did this representing Neutrino in the Sept 6, 2001 cagematch. I don’t have Petrol’s Harold from that night, but you see them come out in the introductions. Dig John Frusciante’s nice ELO fro. And listen to the crowd get INTO Kurt’s show! It sounds thundering, even filtered through a camera mike and being compressed for the web. Very fun.

I think the original plan was for Neutrino to add a member each week they won — so two people would have done the next one. However, 9/11 [...]

1 Comment | Tags: ucbt

• Last Thursday I went out with my class for drinks. There was a Smiths song on the jukebox at one point. The next morning I woke up to realize I had purchased two tickets to see Morrissey at the Garden in June. Is that weird? I asked Brian and he said “Not if it’s 1989.” How about this: I currently have tickets to see this summer: Morrissey, The Police and They Might Be Giants.
• I have a page that collects a lot of blogs I read called My Fellow Jerks, but I need new software to run it. My current package (lilana) is slow and mysteriously drops blogs that I’ve added to the roll. Any ideas?
• At work we do [...]

10 Comments

Just curious — has anyone had their bags searched by the police on the subways ever since they started announcing every five minutes that they might have to search bags?

I accidentally re-read 1984 this week so I’m seeing Big Brother everywhere.

15 Comments | Tags: corporations