Darth Drabek

Uh.... ditto. After a rockin night of cheap rock and roll and $2.50 Genessee tall boys along the Erie shore. Let's hear it for the Midwest! Southeast Engine deserves to make it big. They probably won't, but damn it -- they should. Passing out.... now.

Fiancee, eh? Enoch popped the question! And apparently, she said yes! Did hearing about "the family's trip to Hawaii" speed up your desire to become part of said family? I'm not being very productive at work today. It's a Friday, plus last night my buddy and I attened a local bar's open mic night we recently discovered. We weren't planning on playing, we just wanted to scope it out and talk to the guy who takes care of booking. But they had a house guitar, and the booking/sound guy wanted to hear us play, so we both played four songs. I decided to play all covers: Lemonheads, Jayhawks, some Warren Zevon and the Stones' "Dead Flowers" to close it. My buddy played two originals and two covers. It went pretty well, and the guy asked for a press kit (ha!) and demo. So, I burned a CD last night and I'll write up a quick band bio today. I figure I'll drop it off tonight after going out for some happy hour festivities. One of my coworkers is leaving to work for a journal in D.C., so we're going to send him off in style.

Has anyone ever heard of OverClocked Remix? It's an online community devoted to arranging and re-arranging video game music. They've got some seriously talented people over there. I've downloaded a handful of their remixes of Street Fighter II songs, and I have found some complete and utter gems. So far, my favorites are the "Go Home and Be a Family Man" remix of Guile's theme, the "Freestyle Dojo" mix of Ryu's theme, and the unbelievable take on Ken's theme. "The Ken Song" actually has (well done, if a bit cheesy) vocals, and the production values are worthy of Top 40 rock radio. Highly recommended for fans of the Street Fighters... or the Foo Fighters for that matter. Download it here! Seriously, it rocks.

On frats, college, etc. Pledging was never an option for me. Even with my modest scholaship, college was expensive enough without paying astronomical "dues" every quarter (I guess they have to pay for all those kegs somehow). I honestly wouldn't have wanted to join anyway. At my university (number two in the Princeton Review's party school rankings my senior year), the fraternity types were not the type of people with whom I would want to associate. I'm not saying it's like this at every school, but at my university the overwhelming majority of them were spoiled rich boys with popped collars and expensive cars. These guys were stereotypes. You'd see them in class once in a great while, and you'd know by the amount of effort they put forth that there was no way they were paying their own way. For crying out loud, if your parents are going to shovel that much money at the diploma factory, the least you can do is try to learn something. So there's another concrete reason for the negative image. Maybe I've got blue-collar bias, but my pontificating is based solely on my own experience. I have friends who attended smaller schools where pretty much everyone who lived on campus was in a fraternity or sorority, and they've loved it. All I know is that on a medium-to-large campus, you don't have to join a frat to meet girls or get drunk. You can do a damn fine job with either on your own, if you've got the inclination. If there were "alternative" fraternities at my college, they didn't publicize themselves very well. There was the black fraternity, the community service fraternity, which was mostly girls, and a plethora of other clubs and organizations. The clubs are where the real diversity on campus can be found. Hell, there was an "Anime Club" at my school. They met in one of the big lecture halls every Friday night and watched anime films from 8 to midnight on a huge projection screen. Pixies, I guarantee you there are people in your residence hall who will have "Heroes" parties when new episodes are on. If you keep your eyes open, you can let your inner geek out and find some new friends in the process. I love how this thread has become part advice column, part nostalgia bender. "Heed my words, pixies, Muso, and whomever else may be venturing off to the land of keg stands and communal showers! For I have been to the apex of the mountain, and I have lived to tell the tale! Like that one time when Bill drank half a jug of Carlo Rossi and started yelling at passersby from the roof...good times."

The Buckeye state is still rejoicing from the Big Blue getting cut down last weekend. Also, I'm pretty excited for the Chicago/San Diego game. I guess the Bears feel slighted about that Nike commercial that has LT slicing their defense into pieces for a very cinematic touchdown run. Apparently it has become the dreaded "bulletin board material." As for hometown ball, conventional wisdom has the Steelers mauling the Browns week one. However, no Steelers head coach has won his first game against the Browns... ever! It's true! The Steelers have had eight head coaches since the turnpike series began in 1950, and all of them have lost their first game against the Browns. So, there's some nice fake drama for a "rivalry game" that Pittsburgh has won in 13 of the last 14 meetings. LT's Nike spot offends Bears

Oh, the guy from Television! That makes sense, then. Matthew Sweet - Someone to Pull the Trigger Very, very good stuff.

they don't agree they don't agree! Matthew Sweet - Falling The lead guitar on this is out of control! It reminds me of the guy who's been wanking all over the latest Wilco studio album and their double disc live record. I love it; he's like an uncontrollable spaz who happens to know every inch of the fretboard.

Sure, sure, take engineering courses... if you want to make a good living! I've got a much more palatable suggestion: Take recreational classes if they're available. Especially ones that focus on something you've never done before. They usually meet only twice a week for an hour or so, and they're very useful in filling out your class schedule. For instance, if you're one credit short of reaching your quota of class hours for that particular semester, see if you can take softball -- or broomball if your university offers it (that might be a Midwest thing, I'm not sure). I took a tennis class my first year of college, then bowling and raquetball later -- all things I'd never done before. I ended up liking raquetball so much, I took it twice. I had a friend who took canoeing for credit. Also, more and more universities are offering classes in Belly Dancing. Seriously.

Pixies! Enjoy the limited responsibilities of college while they last. Don't take a campus job unless you really need the extra cash (also, wanting to meet a new group of people is an acceptable reason). You've got the whole rest of your life to work. Also, form a band. There's plenty of people in college who play music. Surely you'll find some who don't want to play exclusively Sublime covers. Last, learn things! When you're old and graduated like me, you won't ever have the time to read about stuff like Soviet Russia or the work of Lawrence Ferlinghetti. @Tale: you should have had a Dreamcast. My roommate puked all over mine one night. After a thorough scrubbing, it still worked fine (and still does, years later).

Dr. Dog -

sundown, blood horizon now it feels all right nobody feels the darkness down in the valley tonight The Lemonheads - It's All True

Got people screamin 'Free Mumia Jamal' But 2 out of 3 of y

^ I finally managed to acquire the rotund one's version of Dylan's "Changing the Guards." The original song is off the criminally underrated "Street Legal" album, and it's one of the best Dylan songs from his post-Blood on the Tracks era. Naturally, I was psyched to hear it, and Black Francis did not disappoint. It took me forever to track this bastard down. For a while, it was only on the "All My Ghosts" CD single, but it's been re-released for an iTunes-only B-sides compilation called "Snake Oil."

Actually, I don't. And all is right again with the world. Voxtrot - Raised By Wolves

Now I see... pixies actually likes the Flaming Lips! He was just stirring up trouble! Jimmy Vaughan - Six Strings Down

Louis XIV - Paper Doll I swear, I feel dirty just listening to these guys.

Yikes, Oerwinde! Three days? I've been thinking about buying one myself, and I've been doing a lot of research. Originally I was going to wait for the Falcon chipset, but that's been delayed indefinitely. However, at least the Premiums and Elites have been being manfactured with an extra heatsink for a few months now. Refurbished consoles are getting the new heatsink, too (or so I've read). From what I understand, 360s are crapping out because the boards warp when they're subjected to very high temperatures, so the extra heatsink should at least alleviate the RRoD problem. I don't know if this would be important to you, but the premiums manufactured in July and August have had HDMI ports as well as that extra heatsink. The HDMI functionality is noted on the box. And hey, it's extra and it doesn't add to the cost, so you might want to look for it if you're returning your busted one. Good luck finding one though... the few places I've asked said they're selling out their old stock first. THEN, they'll order a new batch, which would probably have the upgrades. So I've got two questions: What type of 360 is it? Premium, Elite...Core? What is the manufacturing date? You can find that on a sticker on the back of the 360, as shown here: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=616493 Edit: added link

I just finished my second tasty Miller High Life ("The Champagne of Beers").

Boy, I sure am glad I didn't pick him in my fantasy draft! Nah, I wasn't going to draft him anyway. I heard he was really in the coach's doghouse.

That song title almost makes me want to listen to The Flaming Lips. Almost. I know, I know, I just never liked them much. Indie cred out the window, right? The Thrills - Wooo! Left-handed rhythm guitarist alert!

The ****ing Champs - Now is the Winter of our Discoteque

This is the second thread this week that I thought was going to be about Atlanta Falcons quarterback (and professional no-goodnik) Michael Vick. Although another PETA-related Vick story isn't as exciting as reading about how he is trying to acquire missiles for Al Qaeda...

Well, the eggs chase the bacon... The Afghan Whigs - Lost in the Supermarket

Cake - It's Coming Down

The Stone Roses - She Bangs the Drums