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RSSLast night, Rog and Holden came over with Mike because their song “Tora Tora Tora” was added to Rock Band. Rog killed the bass line on expert, but Holden failed on guitar and 88 percented his own vocals. Mike pointed out the song was so old he had actually played it a few times live. Then we all melted because there was six people and an overheating Xbox in a tiny room on a hundred degree night.
Justin Porter Stephens
Hello. My name is Justin Porter Stephens. I am a writer living in Boston. I have an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University. I like toy cameras and video games.
The Polaroid instant film camera is back — and it looks very familiar
The new Polaroid 300, which snaps and prints business-card-size photos, doesn’t look a thing like the angular Polaroid SX-70 that ruled the 1970s. Instead, the new Polaroid is all circles and rounded edges — just like the Fujifilm Instax Mini 7.
How did I miss this?
I love how perfect the drumming is while the rest of the band screws up a hundred times. I also love how Bernard rips the windscreen off his mic around 0:37.
This was my favorite movie when I was eight. I only recently found it the song in this scene is by Sparks.
"Diana"
My short, short story “Diana” was published in Ekleksographia (don’t worry, I can’t pronounce the name either) last week. I wrote it back in October for a flash fiction class I was taking at Lesley. Former fellow Emmanuel College English dept. all-star Eliza also has a piece in the same issue.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
American Analog Set - Punk as Fuck
Maybe my favorite song ever. Maybe the most misleading song title, too.
what is a gameboy camera
The Game Boy Camera is the worst idea Nintendo has had besides the Virtual Boy. And by “worst” I mean “best.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Camera
It came with a printer. The paper is old and dried out and doesn’t work anymore but you can use receipts and other heat sensitive paper!
I bought a Game Boy Camera on ebay.
Hipster Dad, Season 1
As I mentioned yesterday, since the stupid Geico cavemen got their own show and a movie starring the ETRADE baby has been optioned, I plan on spinning-off the American Apparel-wearing, bearded dad character in Toyota Sienna commercials into a sitcom called Hipster Dad. Jeremy, Aaron, and I planned out the first season:
Ep. 01 - Pilot
Things with Joe—the new, ex-jock neighbor—get off on the wrong foot when he teases Hipster Dad for stocking the cooler with PBR at the neighborhood block party. While Joe is well liked by everyone else at the party, Hipster Dad looks for sympathy from the message board he posts on but the thread receives no replies. Later, he starts a band with some of the other neighborhood dads, but gets upset when Joe volunteers to sing and insists they only cover Springsteen.
Ep. 02 - First Fixie
Hipster Dad deals with the fallout of kicking Joe out of his band by trying to convince his wife to get a chestpiece tattoo. His son then asks for a BMX bike as his first but Hipster Dad returns from the bike store with a fixed gear. Receives rejections on the freelance pieces he proposed to Pitchfork and McSweeney’s.
Ep. 03 - Mass Romantic
Neko Case guests stars as Nina, a jazz singer from the city, who relocates to Hipster Dad’s neighborhood. He quickly becomes smitten with her, but his attempts to reach out are thwarted by the fact that his wife and kids are always around. In order to spend more time together, Hipster Dad asks her to fill in the vacant vocalist position in his band, saying her voice seems like it would fit in with their “New Pornographers-ish” sound.
Ep. 04 - Rice and Beans and Skinny Jeans
Hipster Dad’s wife is stranded out of town on a team-building retreat the same night their daughter is having her entire class over for a slumber party. Left in charge of feeding them, Hipster Dad realizes he only knows how to make burritos so he makes a huge one, Uncle Buck-style. Later, he tries to get the kids to go to sleep by playing Joanna Newsom, but it only makes them cry.
Ep. 05 - Crisis MGMT
While up against a deadline and stuck in the city, Hipster Dad ducks into The Charleston for an afternoon beer, only to find the bar empty except for the two guys from MGMT. After hanging out with them all day and night in Williamsburg—while blowing off an important deadline and his son’s little league game and racking up a serious tab—Hipster Dad finds out they’re just two NYU students fucking with him for free drinks. Things go from bad to worse when Hipster Dad returns to White Plains to find out that Joe and Nina have gone out on a date.
Ep. 06 - Load In, Towed Out
Buzzed off a Manhattan one night, Hipster Dad accidentally bids $1200 on eBay for a pair of vintage British Knights hightops. In order to cover the cost, he decides to take his band on tour. However, they can only play bars in the surrounding area because his wife needs the Toyota Sienna to take the kids to school each morning. The day after each show, Hipster Dad spends all day in the local coffee shop, listening for any conversation pertaining to last night’s show and using his Macbook Pro to repeatedly search his band on Flickr. Tour is cut short after the van is towed while the band unloads their gear before a gig at an empty Cameo.
I think spinning-off those minivan commercials starring the bearded, young dad wearing American Apparel hoodies into a TV show called Hipster Dad would be an excellent idea. Basically, I see Hipster Dad as a thirtysomething who has a wife, son, and daughter but can’t quite get over how cool he was in his twenties or that his band no one cared about broke up. Ideas for episodes include him:
- insisting, then purchasing, a fixed gear when his 8 year-old son asks for his first bike
- struggling over his daughter’s graduation from kindergarten conflicting with a Pavement reunion show
- trying to convince his wife to get a chestpiece
- “accidentally” becoming unironically interested in Gossip Girl
- starting a band with some of the other neighborhood dads, then getting upset when all they want to do is cover Springsteen
Network executives should feel free to get in touch with me.
Yesterday I had to parallel park while getting lunch. It was a tight squeeze but I made it surprisingly easy. Like, it could have been used in one of those silly videos you had to watch in driver’s ed. I felt pretty good about myself as I turned off the car. A guy walking by on the sidewalk watching even gave me a thumbs up.
Theme: Speaker by Alex Willemyns.
