Make Believe?

Okay, first thing's first. Five days ago, Pitchforkmedia reviewed the new Weezer album and gave it a 0.4 on a scale of 10.0. That's not good. I responded to this in two ways. First, I thought, "uh oh. Less than 1!!! This album that I've been waiting for because it seemed like Weezer had finally gotten its act together is going to blow!" My other thought was that this Pitchfork running away with itself again and just giving it an extra bad review out of spite. Historically they've given Weezer low scores (yeah, I checked); at least lower than I would have given; in my mind the Green Album should get a little bit higher than a 4.0 and Maladroit a bit higher than a 5.4 (though not much). Hell, they even gave Pinkerton, which is definitely one of my top 10 albums of all time (as it is for about 10 million other kids my age) a 7.5. But then came an ominous sign: I discovered my iTunes music store was working. And I checked what the songs sounded like on the little clips they have, and they sounded really, really .. boring. But unfazed (yes, that's spelled correctly) I went to HMV the day the album was released to pick it up. I came home and listened to it. I skipped the first track Beverly Hills because I've heard it a million times and it's just not that good. And suprisingly (or not surprisingly) neither was the rest of the album. I had heard Beverly Hills was really different sounding than the rest of the disc, which is true; but the common theme throughout seems to be "boring". And Rivers churned out the worst lyrics imagineable. I held off a few days writing this because I thought maybe I'd come to like the album more, but ... I was wrong. There are two notable things about the album: (1) it ranks as the worst album I've bought in the last year (and I've bought a lot of records) and (2) if you take beverly hills off it actually manages to get worse and more boring with each successive song. It's as if it was sequenced to create mounting disappointment. And even decent songs are ruined by something: a horrid guitar solo, jr. high english class lyrics, over-production. My main thought it that Rivers Cuomo is just old now; the blue album and pinkterton were written in his teens and early 20s; then he went crazy and wasted most of his 20s (the music-writing sweet spot) hiding in his apartment. Now he's in his 30s, back at Harvard, and writing crappy songs. Oh well; that's why you keep looking for new bands everyday right? And besides, Perfect Situation (track 2) isn't terrible.

Sorry. Had to get that out of my system. Ahem*. Tonight I went to an event at neoBrotherZ (yet again) because this girl Yumi I met at a club last weekend was DJing tonight as part of an all-girl-DJ event (Yumi actually studied abroad at UCR too so she speaks some English; imagine that. Your first taste of living in the U.S. is Riverside. Ah yes, Riverside: land of cows, dirt, and trash - and any or all of those words might be referring to the people who live there!). So I talked a bit with Yumi (she's also a decent dancer, a great dresses and is memorably hot) while she wasn't running in circles doing her work, had a few drinks, and watched the performances (DJs, MCs, and a couple dance crews). It occurred to me how remarkably far U.S. culture and hip-hop culture has sunk into countries. Here was a bunch of Japanese kids who live and breath hip-hop: they wear it (and yeah they more than just pull it off, especially the girls), they dance it (and dance it well), they write their own original beats and songs, and they spin it as DJs - and these are kids from Sendai, which by all accounts is categorized as inaka (countryside) around here. The only thing they don't know is what the fuck anyone on the track is saying when they drop the needle on the wax. But hey, who cares about the words, right?

I've been spending all my time with the dance club, or working on things for the dance club, or reading books while wishing I was hanging out with the dance club. So much so that my normal friends haven't been seeing much of me anymore. I dance with the team at night til around 10:30 PM on weekdays. I dance with them on Saturdays. Tomorrow night I'm going to an event at a club with them. Sunday night they are throwing a party for me. And it's all great - they are all really good people. And so I wanted to give something to them for teaching me and being so good to me, so I designed their new t-shirt for them, which I will upload next so people can see what it looks like.

The big reunion has been moved to Monday or Tuesday, and with the people who have been filling my days recently, both near and far, it really doesn't feel as necessary anymore.