So...I suppose this is pretty much accurate for me....especially since I laughed out loud when I read the phrase "very very fat person dancing."

the Cutting Edge (65% dark, 43% spontaneous, 33% vulgar)

your humor style: CLEAN SPONTANEOUS DARK Your humor's mostly innocent and off-the-cuff, but somehow there's something slightly menacing about you. Part of your humor is making people a little uncomfortable, even if the things you say aren't in and of themselves confrontational. You probably have a very dry delivery, or are seriously over-the-top. Your type is the most likely to appreciate a good insult and/or broken bone and/or very very fat person dancing. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: David Letterman - John Belushi

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 89% on dark You scored higher than 26% on spontaneous You scored higher than 42% on vulgar

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

A brief interlude:

the Wit (60% dark, 26% spontaneous, 5% vulgar)

your humor style: CLEAN COMPLEX DARK You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean you're pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat. I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer. Your sense of humor takes the most effort to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion. Also, you probably loved the Office. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 89% on dark You scored higher than 0% on spontaneous You scored higher than 0% on vulgar

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

http://www.bigad.com.au/

Best beer commercial ever.

Watch it now.

Every time fate digs and escape tunnel, it also releases the hounds. Remember that. It’ll make sense in a bit. However, it’s not presently important.

You may have noticed a lot of cryptic pronouncements in this blog of late, a lot of not explaining things. Actually, you may have noticed a more general trend starting in February. But no more! The time of Clarification is upon us! Also the Quickening… sort of… it’s tangentially involved… maybe Doomsday, but metaphorically… I can’t explain. Anyway, Clarity is a bit of a bust here…

The time of Reduced Ambiguity is upon us!

As many of you know, I have had the Woman Troubles. And if you remember, there was a particularly Troubling Woman in the February area, and a lot of profanity. However, Megan and I went on being close friends, contrary to the advice of pretty much all of our other friends. Such as, for example, Zach, who used the phrase “Get over her” more times than I could count with an industrial steam-powered abacus. However, I went on being flagrantly in love with the girl and had a rather good time of it, mild awkwardness aside, and Megan continued “leading me on”. And while there was a great deal of her dating people who were not me, we managed to work around that, and I eventually even managed to put aside the idea of dating her, for the most part. Not that I was very good at that. I have a bit of a hopeless romantic streak.

Once in a great while, optimism pays off. Pure lunatic stubbornness succeeds against all likelihood. This is the sort of thing that leads other to consider optimism, despite their better judgment. Most of them are hit by trucks shortly thereafter. The really foolish ones remain optimists.

So, this summer, after a series of long conversations occurring in the wee to dear-God-early hours of the morning, Megan and I are, for lack of a better term, dating. I take no credit for this, but I am incredibly spectacularly happy, as I failed to explain a few posts ago. Things just suddenly fell into place, as it were, after a long process that involved a great deal of poetry and tackling and sunset-watching, and have been fantastic since, except for the bit where we had to tell Zach about it, which was for the most part amusing, as it took him about a page to figure out that we weren’t kidding. I only wish I could have seen him gasp and his bug out in person. And while he was a bit abrasive along the way, that’s why he’s so lovable. Yeah, Zach and love in the same geographic area; you’d be surprised… *cough*

Anyway, I really have no idea how I’m going to work in a proper number of wry one-liners now. But that’s the gist of it. Being in love makes the world a happy place.

I, for one, never though to give Texas this much credit. However, it’s produced at least one marvelously adorable, intelligent, beautiful, capable-of-gutting-a-fish-and-beating-me-in-Halo-possibly-at-the-same-time girl. And that’s all I need.

Damn, it's hard to post in that vein without feeling like an idiot. If you feel gypped, I offer you dire warnings of apocalyptic terror in future posts.

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Well, to keep the delay from being entirely ridiculous...

Hi, everybody. This was a fantastic week. Intonation was awesome. Highlights for me were the Decemberists and an extremely positive introduction to The Hold Steady, who oddly enough share the quality fo having slightly pudgy front men with weird vocals. But what's important was that it works for both of them.

And there was water, and dirt, and some foolish person (who shall not be named) produced mud. And therewere clouds, and and a FAQ, and a Steve, and hipster-spotting. A great show all-around.

And heck, we even reunited "the band" this week. Demonstrating that once in a while, you can get four people into the same place.

And there were some absolutely marvelous developments elsewhere.

Anyway, I'm packing to go to Michigan for a family vacation, so I'm in a bit of a hurry here. I'll get back to Chicago on Saturday. Enjoy Lolla, everybody.

Well, the past couple day certainly compensated for the lack of social activity on Thursday, I must say. Though I still need to get "the band" back together. But other than that, a most excellent period.

The main show being Blancofest parts One and Deaux, wherein two extremely sober men (and Tim Marco) sang "I Love Pat Lange" repeatedly, to Andrew WK's "I Love New York City". "Blitzkrieg Bop" was similarly altered. It was during this period I decided I needed a strong drink. Also, there was a Russian dog named Gershwin, or a Gershwin dog named Russian, but either way, it understood abstract concepts, mostly "Vengeance" and "Guilt". I only kicked it accidentally, but I was immediately retributed upon. And Kevin Altier go sooo many drunk dials, it's not even funny. Actually, it's hilarious. I blame Wisconsin. Failing that, alcohol. I was not involved, being possibly the only one not to drunk dial him Friday. Although he was not alone in foolishly occupying another state. It was unusually common.

Also of not, Fischer-Price makes an excellent turntable, meaning record player. Yes, it was a Fischer-Price record player, which Nic owned from his childhood. And there was much rejoicing (and playing of records).

Above and beyond that (which was a lot of fun), I am unexplainably happy. So. Whee!

~Summer in the city,

Shoot. Took my cell phone out of my pocket and forgot it was on vibrate only. So I guess I'll catch up with folks later. Sorry everybody. Ah, minor details that screw you over. Anyway...

Everything that Alex said was true. How could you resist a movie that has love, war, magic, and comedy? Although the castle is strikingly similar in style to the works of Monty Python, most of the rest of the movie isn't. But it's still good.

So, fascinating day. Two semi-plans, then no plans, then one plan, then no plans, then potential plans, and then that bit with the phone. Anyway, I'm going to start bloggin legimtiately again soon rahter that whining about how technology is betraying me, really I am. In the meanwhile, you probably weren't expecting this:



Stuck in my head for no apparent reason:
"You Can Get It If You Really Want"

In honor of Pat's revamping of the blog with lovely blue tones, I've decided to grace you all with a post. As my co-host mentioned earlier, the summer usually means a cut-back in the amount of blogging that actually gets done, but I don't think we've fallen too terribly behind. (Stay tuned for a review of Thelonious Monk's It's Monk's Time)

Last night, I was fortunate enough to see the film "Howl's Moving Castle" at the overpriced Yorktown theater. For those of you who have never heard of this movie, it is a Japanese anime by the director of the epic "Spirited Away," Hayao Miyazaki. For those of you who haven't seen/heard of "Spirited Away" I suggest you seek it out, just to say that you saw it. But back to the movie at hand. "Howl's Moving Castle", unlike "Spirited Away" is not a Miyazaki original. It's actually based on a novel and, for this reason, I think that it's a much tighter film, in terms of its plot, than "Spirited Away."

Centered around an un-named fantasy/futuristic world, it tracks the struggles of 19 year-old Sophie as she is cursed into becoming a 90-year old woman. Wizard's, witches, and airships abound as Sophie finds herself amongst the company of a Billy Crystal voiced fire-demon and bouncing scarecrow. The plot is set during a war between two rival countries, as Sophie works to understand the brooding wizard Howl and his motives.

The visuals are sweeping and epic, while the story is worthwhile (if not a tad corny near the end). Although darker than "Spirited Away," all's well that ends well in "Howl's Moving Castle." Although I can't say I like one film more than the other, I strongly recommend both, even if you're the type of person that has no interest in anime whatsoever. You will not be disappointed.

If you are interested in reading what my roommate from last year had to say about the film, head on over to Here Be Cannibals

Grrr. Why is the internet fucking with me? Bad e-mail. Work properly, so that I may communicate things to others in a reasonable timespan, damn it!

This meaningless utterance of frustration was brought to you by the letter 'A', on account of it having a sharp point with which to stab things if necessary.

Otherwise fine. Slowly adjusting blog to aesthetic ideal, and such. Doings transpiring, more later.

Ending transmission... wait for it... now!