Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams Caption Contest

Ok, this picture is worth a thousand words. Which is why I'm having a caption contest with it! That's right: submit your caption in the comments and if I decide you are the wittiest, I will send you a prize. Karma wise, it's about damn time I held a contest since I won Kevin's So Much Silence caption contest and Gorilla vs. Bear's Pitchfork review contest. As Jason Lee as Earl says, "do good things and good things will happen to you." C'mon, fantasy football karma!

Unfortunately, the prize won't be anything special, since I'm a poor graduate literature student. However, what I will send you is a new copy of the quintessential music-lover novel (retail: $12.95, I have two copies), Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, the book that inspired the movie starring John Cusack and Jack Black.

I'm going away this weekend, so I'll hold the contest open for one week, until next Wednesday at noon. So submit a caption, tell your friends, and possibly win a great read. Check back next Wednesday when I annouce the winner.

So I was late to posting today because I was on campus literally all day. Between an independent seminar meeting, an impromptu meeting with another professor, a workshop, some library time and class from 6-9 my ass was fairly busy, but I managed to squeeze a post in just after midnight. And that's after spending the past two hours in a bar, as we usually do on Wednesday nights (although I can't really say we anymore since outside of the Three Musketeers (me, KRS and Matt) everyone else's attendance is spotty)). Which doesn't surprise me.

It's getting to be that point in the semester when graduate students start to get their panties in a bunch because deadlines are approaching and it really matters to them to get Joe Professor's paper started. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for me. If you've ever seen Office Space, my attitude toward most of the work I do in graduate school (er, work assinged to me that I don't really want to do) is equal to Peter's attitude towards work after he gets hypnotized. Call it luck or call it a curse. Whatever it is, it helps me sleep better at night.


In a somewhat but not really related context, HigherED looks at drinking and debauchery in the Liberal Arts (which I have to say, is sorely lacking from my program). Hey, at least Dylan Thomas knew how to booze with the best of 'em.

Mustache of the Day: The Dictator Mustache

In our latest instalinment of our 92-part series (funny if you saw the Colbert Report the other night, which is now a must-see every night at 1130 pm ET after The Daily Show), we have the ol' chums Sammy, Joe, and Fido sporting their militaristic lip fur. Sammy and Joe keep their staches pretty tight and clean, but Fido rocks the all-out guerilla warefare style mustache: you never know where it's gonna be.

Random Links

• Popmatters.com asks, "If hip-hop can be colorblind, then why do rock concerts still seem segregated?"
• Buzz: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
• South Park is baaaaaaaack

Music News

Jules needs a date to the Wolf Parade concert. I'd offer to go...if I didn't live in Pennsyltucky and didn't have a special lady friend that might not take to well to that idea.

So I got an email yesterday that looked like spam but was actually a promo for this band called Awesome New Republic. I thought, "wow, I must be cool," and was all psyched to promote them on my blog, until I saw that both Samantha and Dodge already did just that today. So instead of trying to find something they didn't say, I'll just refer you to their posts, which are, as always, well done. Speaking of music blog cross-polination, do you ever notice how often blogs cover the same band on the same day? Not that that's a bad thing, as Kevin proves by one-upping my Halloween, Alaska post into an actual band profile, rather than my little blurb. Big ups, moondoggy.

Obviously, it's due to the fact that most of us refer to the same places, 'zines, or blogs for our daily material, so the pool of material isn't exactly fresh. My favorite part is just seeing how everyone spins each band differently, and as long as that continues to happen, good things are bound to keep happening on the music blog scene.

Featured Band: Avail


Another band I learned about from my buddy, KRS. Avail is the best thing to come out of Richmond, Virginia (at least according to the band).. Richmond plays a big role in Tim's lyrics. Some common themes include the city's astronomical murder rate, pollution caused by local industry, and the class struggle in the Oregon Hill neighborhood. When the band isn't writing ultra intelligent songs, the members are hopping freight trains and playing basketball (Tim), skating and surfing (Gwomper), being late (Ed), driving Ford cars (Joe), or wrestling professionally (Beau Beau).

Avail - "Black and Red"
Avail - "One Wrench"

Celeb-Nation

*Orlando Bloom puts his mustache into action with a little beach grabby-grabby of Kate Bosworth (via Hollywood Tuna)
*Oh Alba (via Hollyrude.net)
*Rivers Cuomo is going back to Harvard to get his degree in English Literature. Dammit, now I have to compete with Rivers for a job now too?!
*Will Ferell to star in NASCAR comedy with Sasha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G). Big ups, man.

Bonus music:
Ice T - "O.G. Original Gangster"
Weezer - "Freak Me Out"
Surfjan Stevens - "Seer's Tower"
Radiohead - "Morning Bell"