Union Turnpike and 188th Street, May 2007.

F train, May 2007.

and it's time once again for a series of photographs taken with my phone. i'm kind of guessing on the dates on the first few.

Union Turnpike subway station, May 2007.

BBQ pork waffle == fail

BBQ pork waffle == fail (no truck!)

Occurs to me as i

Occurs to me as i pass the giant signs that the one good thing that could come out of the demise of citi is that they'd have to rename citifield.

This morning I realized that “Love Lockdown” by Kanye West is the best Depeche Mode song in years. It also makes for at least one good mashup.

in which i attempt a vaguely Schenkerian analysis of White Christmas and fail before the third measure

We start at the beginning: the song is in C major. And the first chord (of the sectional chorus, which is the part of the song everyone knows; for the purposes of this exercise, we're ignoring the first verse) is indeed C major (I) (“I'm…”). And yet, right there in that chord there's an A. There are no A's in a C major chord. If you had that chord on a first semester music theory exam and asked “What chord is this?” a student might very well answer Am7 in first inversion and you would have to mark him correct.

But it's not an Am7. No way no how. It just isn't. So the A, it's a non-chord tone. Is it a neighbor tone, or one of those other things whose names I forget? The next chord is a Dm7. There's totally an A in that, so maybe that's the purpose of the A: to lead us into the Dm. That sounds like a plausible theory, except for the fact that the C w/ the A in it repeats 4 times before we get a chord change. Four fucking times. A, A, A, A. None of which belong there.

So, after that first bar, the song moves to the aforementioned Dm7 (ii7) (“Dream-”). A little weird to be the first thing in a song like this, but whatever, it's a totally diatonic chord change. I understand that, let's move on with the analysis. The song moves back to C (I) (“-ing”) and then, on the word “of”, to… B major (VII)? “Okay,” I think, “Don't let it throw you. Berlin is just throwing in a little chromaticism. No big deal. This must be an applied chord or something. What's the next chord... oh crap.” Yes, it goes right back to C (“a”), and I am completely lost.

Now, granted, it's been a few years since I studied music theory in any serious way, and it's quite possible there's some obvious thing that I'm forgetting here, but damn. That's some serious songwriting right there. And the most amazing thing about it is that it sounds like the simplest song in the world.

greatest domain name idea ever

change.gov

wow. it's like the entire campaign in 10 characters.

I'm 27 and I wish I had some pie.

bad domain name idea of the day

almostbutnotquiteentirelyunlikeart.com

"Brooklyn's like this only more

"Brooklyn's like this only more fun and with less people." -woman with a nose job, 9th street.

Wtf xmas lights on 52nd

Wtf xmas lights on 52nd street.

movin' on up

what with the demise of muxtape, i've moved my last mix over to 8tracks. cover up, soon to be joined by a new mix as well. stay tuned.

UPDATE: it has come to my attention that 8tracks blows. You should be able to get to the mix now (no signup necessary) but i am looking for a replacement. suggestions welcome.

And a car goes by

And a car goes by on qns blvd blasting alive and kicking by simple minds. life has become a john hughes movie, unfortunately not ferris bueller.

dear lazyweb,

The restroom at my corporate job has the kind of sinks that turn on automatically when you stick your hands under them (well, they're supposed to turn on when you stick your hands under them). Every time I use the sink, I think of a scene from some movie where the character is walking out of an empty men's room and as he walks past the sinks he triggers the motion detectors on each one. Problem is, I can't remember what movie this is from. Anybody?

New muxtape: cover up.

Just imagine how much more

Just imagine how much more war there would be if there were no such thing as cookies.

my first muxtape

to be updated semi-regularly. this time round: cavity-inducing pop music.
bgruber.muxtape.com

I too have apparently devoted myself to memes. I keep meaning to post pictures from my phone, but that requires not blogging from emacs, and I mean who wants to blog from something other than emacs.

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.

   Clue

2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in the theater.

   Embarassing answer: Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Hip answer: Control.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.

   Scarlett Johansson

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.

   Tom Cruise.

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.

   Clue, though i don't quote from it as often as i used too because few of my current circle of friends know it nearly as well as i do.

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.

   The Muppets Take Manhattan.

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.

   Hedwig and the Angry Inch

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.

   Super-hip answer that is basically impossible to see unless someone happens to do a screening: High School. More easily obtained: The Third Man.

9. Name a movie that you own.

   Life of Brian

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting skills.

    Leslie's answer of Bill Murray is excellent. So as to not be completely unoriginal, I'll also throw in David Bowie.

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?

    Yeah they don't exist anymore. And I'm not from the sticks.

12. Ever made out in a movie?

    No. But when Leslie and I and Ming and I think Brian Maniscalco went to see Star Trek: Insurrection, she kept complaining that there weren't enough explosions. So that's the same thing.

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't yet got around to it.

    8 1/2

14. Ever walked out of a movie?

    no.

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.

    Ghost World. I didn't actually cry, but I was awfully close.

16. Popcorn?

    Not really. The only popcorn I seem to really like is the Newman's Own microwave popcorn with real butter. That is delicious, probably because it's mostly salt and butter.

17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?

    Once a monthish sounds right.

18. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?

    Indy 4.

19. What's your favorite/preferred genre of movie?

    Good ones.

20. What's the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?

    The Muppets Take Manhattan, which was the first one I ever saw. I was kind of scared of movie theaters when I was a little kid. The next one I think I remember going to see was Masters of the Universe.

21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?

    Transformers.

22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?

    In the Beginning was the End: The True Story of De-Evolution. There's probably something weirder, but that's what I came up with off the top of my head. There's always Forbidden Zone, sometimes accurately described as the Citizen Kane of B-movies.

23. What is the scariest movie you've seen?

    I don't particularly like scary movies. So I'm just gonna say naked Frank Langella at the end of the Adrian Lyne version of Lolita.

24. What is the funniest movie you've seen?

    Life of Brian, Anchorman. I know there's some other stuff I've seen that's just left me on the floor, but I can't think of any at the moment.

French tourists are the slowest

French tourists are the slowest of them all.