Well, part of Landmark that was pretty cool for me was figuring out your strong suits and how they came to be. I found out that for me, many of my current behaviors were molded from an early age. Without further ado…
All posts by genex
Stalled projects
Yet another stalled out personal project. I had my $2 bill idea and this was my first and so far only shot for the project…sigh
Review: Franz Ferdinand – You Could Have It So Much Better
Franz Ferdinand, You Could Have It So Much Better (Domino, 2005)
Franz Ferdinand are confident. They boast that you could have it so much better with them than some other ear trash bands out there. Telling the truth? Or all swagger? Eh, a healthy dollop from column A and a teensy smidge from column B.
If you check out FF’s website, the bio page reveals that the modus operandi of this outfit is to make girls dance. With the follow-up to their outstanding self-titled debut, they’ve succeeded in the making the girls dance part, and for something new, they’ve also managed to get the girls all moony-eyed and wistful with tracks like the Beatle-y “Eleanor Put Your Boots On” and “Fade Together” plus “Walk Away.” “Eleanor…” apparently is about Eleanor from The Fiery Furnaces. I didn’t know frontman Alex K. and Eleanor are/were involved. Well, that just goes to show I’m not hip on my rock band gossip.
The weakness here is that some of the songs aren’t likely to be caramelized into your brain, sweet and getting stuck in the head. Not quite. There’s the forgettable “This Boy” and “Evil and a Heather.” One of my faves is “I’m Your Villain” with the boys doing their best Interpol impression with the thundering groovy bassline. Don’t fret, Alex still croons and dabbles with the man love (infectious first single “Do You Want To”). The bottom line is that You Could Have It So Much Better is somewhat slumpy, but by no means a bad buy. Now all I have to do is see Franz Ferdinand live and then I will be happy.
– by Lisa Hwang
we had a party!
rackets and possibilities and such…
Well, I’ve been Landmarked and had my first day today and one of my assignments was to write a letter to someone with whom I’ve been inauthentic with. Well to kill several birds with one stone so to speak (write?!) I thought I’d blog it…
One area that seems to stand out right away is me not being intimate and how I have convinced myself that I am happier being single – I still am not resigned to saying that it’s definitely not true, but I am open to that possibility.
So in their parlance, “the possibility that I have invented for myself and my life is the possibility of being in love and in a committed relationship.” It’s hard for me not to say to myself that I don’t see it happening though, and I have to catch myself each time I do that (like right now!).
Anyhow, I gotta crash out here soon, but hey I did my assignment right?
Why I don’t Flex
So in Spain, I really only had one day to chill and one of the athletes from the competition, Jayne Pickering from Australia hung out on the beach with myself and our mutual friend John Plummer.
Of course we had to take one pic and I was forced to flex my measly bicep… that and my miserable non-tan make me look pretty sad…
Heidrun Sigurdardottir
Just got back to the states and I started noticing my own “american” accent after being around only one other American and lots of folks who spoke english with varying accents. It was weird b/c I actually became conscious of my accent and it sounded weird when I heard it on a video clip.
It was a cool trip overall but a bit tiring – it’s always nice to see familiar faces though such as Heidrun and many others. I’m already looking forward to next year’s show and want to pick up a little bit of some other languages to help the communications flow.
Big People
This shot came about when Quincy Taylor (left) was hanging out at the pool waiting for someone else after competing at the Europa Super Show (where he qualified for the O) and he was checking out Jody May who I was shooting with.
Quincy is one of the biggest male bodybuilders around and Jody is a National level heavyweight and good friend so it was nice to grab them together.
One bender in Seattle after the Emerald Cup, Steve Saylor and I ended up dropping Quincy off at the airport after everyone else was too cracked out to do so (and we were pretty damn cracked out ourselves).
Katrina
Obviously this has been the big news and the most inspiring thing I’ve responded to is the depth of the human experience that it has brought out whether that is desperation, hope or any of the myriad of other emotions we all go through.
I found a nice article that encompasses a lot of those by Gene Wojciechowsk on ESPN.
AC Slater
I can’t believe that I got all excited when I saw Slater at the USAs in Vegas in the lobby. My friend Carla Sanchez and her team were taking a photo with him. I’ve seen like every episode of Saved by the Bell and so it was surreal seeing him at the show.