pop culture is a disaster

Mendoza: varios fotos de joda

mi casa

So that's what u$s 158 a month buys in Argentina. The price includes cable and wireless internet (slow, but functions). I split the place with a 2o yr old girl from France that is here studying architecture.

worst. birthday. ever.

Some things simply require an absolutist stance, I've decided. Take drunk driving, for example; it's just one of those things that you can't evaluate on a situation-to-situation basis. The best policy is to simply take an absolutist stance and say, "If I've had more than 2 drinks, I will under no circumstances operate a vehicle." Listo. Chau. A similar approach would be in order with respect to the removal of personal belongings from parked cars in Mendoza--as in, "Under no circumstances will I leave personal belongings in a car. " In spite of the fact that it is often a huge pain in the ass, I have generally been very good about this.

Last Saturday I walked with a backpack full of camping/mountaineering gear to some dude's house downtown. I had injured a tendon climbing the previous weekend and couldn't go on the rock climbing trip I had planned, so I had decided instead to go with the Club Andinista Mendoza (the local climbing club/gym that I am a member of) to climb a 5000 meter peak. The plan was to meet at this guy's place downtown, then leave from there in another guy's car. I arrived at the same time as the guy with the car. We knocked on the door and the other guy told us that he was still packing and would be out in a couple of minutes. While we waited on him, we made space in his small car for the backpacks. He put his in first, then we put mine on top, kind of smashed against the back glass of the car. The guy inside packing his bag said he wasn't ready yet and that we could come in if we wanted to. We locked the car and went inside. We hung out for a few minutes. When we went back outside, we saw that the back passenger window had been smashed out and that my backpack was gone. We had been literally less than 15 feet away from the car the whole time. Furthermore, we had left the house door open. We never heard the sound of breaking glass, and obviously the alarm never went off like I ought to have. We contacted the police, but they never turn up anything around here.

This is a list of the more important things in the backpack, with a more-or-less retail value:

Nikon Coolpix 800 digital camera ??? (>$500)
MacPac Sanctuary 700 xp sleeping bag $400
Dana Designs Glacier backpack $300
OR Exped 9 inflatable sleeping pad $150
North Face Spectrum 23 tent $275
Western Mountaineering down jacket $200
Mountain Hardwear Typhoon Gore-Tex jacket $200
Arc'Teryx Beta LT pant $225
Patagonia R1 pullover $115
Black Diamond RPM daypack $100
Patagonia cap 1 pants $35
Mountain Hardwear gloves $50
MSR Superfly stove $50
MSR Blacklite cookwear $50

Excluding the digital camera, to buy all the equipment again at full price would cost around $2150, not including taxes. Furthermore, a number of the stolen items (tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, gore tex jacket and pants) had very, very little mileage. Worse even, is that they are things that you don't replace often--you shouldn't have to buy a good down jacket and sleeping bag but once or twice in your lifetime. But fuck the stuff, and fuck the money. The important thing is that my mountain climbing days in South America are over. Without gear, it is simply not feasible to climb high-altitude peaks-- and that's all I really ever want to do.

A new web page for all things musical

Mashups, Webmaster Disaster

I made a couple of mashups for your listening pleasure. After 2 hours of trying to successfully embed the files on this web page, I am finally giving up and simply linking the URLs. I have no clue why, but with 2 different embedded players the file played at about 75 percent speed. If anyone had an answer, I would appreciate that they told me. Until then, the URLs are below. Remember (newbies): if you want to save the file on your computer, either right click the URL below and then choose "Save target as", or when you click on the link directly, Firefox (of course you wouldn't be dumb enough to use IE, right?) will ask you if you want to save or open; if you save, the file will be in your downloads folder, wherever that might be.

Booka Shade - In White Rooms (Fashionista's Honey Vocal Remix)

Digitalism - Idealistic (Fashionista's Girls Come Down Remix)

two thousand seven and music = not too shabby

If you haven't noticed, some bangin' new albums have recently been released. Below are some albums that I recommend (Album - Artist). They by no means constitute a year-end list, but I do have my eye on them. Also, this is all very accessible stuff - no crazy electronic or experimental stuff, so enjoy.

Rock or Rock-ish - Recommended

Baby 81 - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Armchair Apocrypha - Andrew Bird
Andorra - Caribou
23 - Blonde Redhead
Wincing the Night Away - The Shins
Gulag Orkestar - Beirut
Autumn of the Seraphs - Pinback
The Magic Position - Patrick Wolf
Friend and Foe - Menomena
The Reminder - Feist
God Save the Clientele - The Clientele
Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem
Myth Takes - !!!

Electronic or Electronic-ish - Recommended

Future Rock - Strategy
Out of the Woods - Tracy Thorn
Walls - Apparat
Kala - M.I.A
Back to Mine (compilation) - Royksopp
Cross - Justice
Overpowered - Roisin Murphy
Chromophobia - Gui Boratto
Asa Breed - Matthew Dear
From Here We Go Sublime - The Field
Foley Room - Amon Tobin
Attack, Sustain, Decay, Release - Simian Mobile Disco
Pocket Symphony - Air

All - Disappointing, but still tolerable and at times even okay

We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank - Modest Mouse
Our Love to Admire - Interpol
Living with the Living - Ted Leo
Year Zero - Nine Inch Nails
With Lasers - Bonde Do Role
Ma Fleur - Cinematic Orchestra
Icky Thump - The White Stripes

All - Pretty Bad

Some Loud Thunder - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
A Weekend in the City - Bloc Party
Sky Blue Sky - Wilco

That should get you started. More to come in December with a year-end list.

T.E.A.M.W.O.R.K.

So last night I DJ'ed at this happenin' club, right? But the owner didn't tell me that there was going to be another DJ, too. Instead of each doing 1 set, he wanted to switch back and forth. I said ok, not wanting to cause any drama. After a few songs, he decides he wants to mix in, which is fine, but instead of immediately doing so, he starts trying to collaborate with me, scratching his vinyl and fucking with EQ and effects on the board. All of this woud have been totally fine if we were partners, but we weren't. It sounded bad. He made me sound bad. Furthermore, he fucked up the cool, microhouse vibe I had worked so hard to establish by putting on some industrial sounding deep-house shit. I've been here before: "Aww dude, mind if I jam with you guys?" Cacophony ensues.

Four hands can be better than two. Simian Mobile Disco. M.A.N.D.Y. Booka Shade. Justice. Ellen Allien & Apparat. Not everyone can be a 6-armed Richard D. James or Ricardo Villalobos. After last night, though, I'm more likely to try.

Cerro Penitentes, 4300m

The objective: cerro penitentes, named for it's spikey features seen above. The summit is actually above the rock formations, seen barely in the top-left part of the photo.