What I've been...

What I've been reading:

McSweeney's Issue 18

Got this today. It's a very small and heavy trade paperback that feels really good in your hands. It's not gimmicky like the bundle of mail that was the last issue, and that's a relief. Haven't started reading it yet, but I'm getting a little tired of seeing the same authors issue after issue. I thought they were a literary quarterly, not a Roddy Doyle/Joyce Carol Oates quarterly. McSweeney's supposedly started to publish stuff that was rejected from other magazines and now, today, most of their contributors are well established, well accepted and, well, kind of boring.

It came with the first issue of their new quarterly DVD, Wholphin and the stuff I've watched off of it was mostly hilarious. There is even a short film written by Miranda July, starring John C. Reilly and Mike White.

Lydia Davis - Samuel Johnson is Indignant

Supposedly, Lydia Davis is a writer's writer. I'm going to suppose that's because many of her stories make writers say, "Damn, I wish I had thought of that," and "Damn, I wish I could get away with calling that a story." Because much of her stuff is short, really short. Because much of her stuff is completely pointless. She gets away with it because she has a way with words. I like it. But I also know that most people won't.

What I've been listening to:

Laura Veirs - Year of Meteors

and Carbon Glacier

Elise's mother gave me a Virgin Megastore gift card for Christmas, so I did what I always do there--walked the aisles looking for CD covers that intrigue me. For some reason, it's always the CDs in digipacks or regular cases slipped into cardboard sleeves (as was the case with these) that make me stop. Then I take a big stack of what is mostly shit to the listening computers that hardly ever work. Ooh, they're touchscreens! Too bad they're years old now and the "touch" part of the touchscreen no longer likes to be touched. After traversing the store for the one machine with both a working touchscreen and working headphones, I had enough time to listen to two songs by Laura Veirs before the store was closing. Two songs was all I needed to hear to buy both of these albums. They're fantastic, especially Year of Meteors. She's toured with Andrew Bird and Sufjan Stevens, so I'm wondering why I've never heard of her. She's smart, she sophisticated, she's probably what Lisa Loeb should have aged into.

The Pale Pacific - Urgency

The deal with The Pale Pacific is that they used to be just, The Pale. I have The Pale's album Gravity Gets Things Done and it's a pretty good album that I just never want to listen to for some reason. I had no idea that they went on to change their name, release an EP and then another album and I wasn't sure I cared.

But I listened to some clips from Urgency and they sounded great, so I bought the album and it blew me away. iTunes' clips don't do this thing justice. Everyone says they're a ripoff of Death Cab for Cutie, an Amazon review even saying "They sound more like Death Cab than Death Cab." At times, they do... but I'd take this album over Death Cab's new Plans any day. Best album I've heard since James Blunt, which was probably the best since Sufjan Stevens' Illinois, which was the best since Andrew Bird.

What I've been eating:

Leftover Christmas Ham

I don't want anymore ham.