As Weezer gets ready to release another of their single-color, eponymous records (you will remember the legendary Blue record and the not-totally-terrible Green record), I thought I’d take a moment to provide an alternate take on the frequently attacked rock band.
Next week, we’re getting the Red record. And its ridiculous self-portrait suggests something interesting. The band has reached its "a-ha" moment. "Yeah, we get it," they’re saying. "You’re upset that we’ve never been able to match the bubblegum-metal awesomeness of our debut. You’re pissed that we’ve never again explored the socially-impaired pathos of Pinkerton, our relatively dark and unhinged masterpiece. And yeah, you’re probably puzzled that we’re not even trying to replicate our blandly catchy, but good-natured third record. It was at least listenable. You’ve might have heard our last few records…or not, but you think we’re total crap. Hell, you might even be right."
(deep breath)
"Guess what? We. Don’t. Care. Anymore. In fact, we’re gonna simultaneously enjoy, exploit, and mock our fame, ourselves, and our past. We’re going to drive a stake so deep into the dark heart of pop music’s cynical present, you won’t even be able to listen to ‘In the Garage’without knowing we’ve buried that sound forever."
Strong hints of Weezer’s evolving sardonic commercialism were definitely present in Make Believe’s "Beverly Hills," but they’re really laying the hammer down with the first single from the Red Album. If you’re recovering from some kind of horrible sickness and haven’t seen the video yet, here it is. I’ll wait a moment while you watch.
What I loved about this video and this song was how Rivers Cuomo finally, if somewhat cryptically tells you he’s figured things out. This interview with the video’s director explains the attitude better than I can. So do the lyrics:
Imma do the things that i wanna do I ain’t got a thing to prove to you I’ll eat my candy with the pork and beans Excuse my manners if i make a scene I ain’t gonna wear the clothes that you like I’m fine and dandy with the me inside one look in the mirror and i’m tickled pink I don’t give a hoot about what you think
So what’s so cryptic? Well, I love the layers here. Weezer’s recent singles seem to have consciously abandoned their initial indie-rock fans in favor of younger kids who can’t tell the difference between Weezer and the Jonas Brothers. So the simplistic top layer of kitchen-table rebellion is for the kids. But look at the diction here: hoot? dandy? tickled pink? Dude might as well be wearing sock suspenders. Tell me he’s not evoking that nostalgia of going your own way for the first time in a long time. He remembers what it was like to strap on a guitar instead of shoulder pads. Now, he’s an old man eating the meal he made himself.
Rivers Cuomo has always been a metal head trying to figure out how punk won the battle to be a new generation’s classic rock. In a world where metal and hard rock can only be found in Guitar Hero, he’s pointing to the heart of what it means to be himself. This is a new start for a guy who never quite made his peace with coolness. He is a famous weirdo; and he’s finally getting into the finger-paint absurdity of fame. Rather than accept fame begrudgingly, he’s remembering what his idols in KISS did with it. They took their 15 minutes and ran. They enjoyed it. They swam in it. They had action figures and lunch boxes. They might not have been the best, but they weren’t shy about jumping the claim.
When you think about it, the least Cuomo and Weezer can do to honor their 70s metal heroes is moisten their eyebrows with cocked middle fingers and point them at their fickle former fans. Two indisputable classic records is way more than you have a right to expect from any band, much less a band that’s been covered by both Dashboard Confessional and the Olsen Twins. They really don’t have a thing to prove to you.
Or, as they might say, "If you want to rediscover what it’s like to be a Weezer fan, listen to us again on OUR terms. There’s something you’re not hearing. There’s depth. There’s humor. There’s hooks. We’re like the Darkness, except we’re aware that ‘post-punk’ and ‘post-hardcore’ are even more hilarious than hair metal."
I dunno what to think when they say it like that. I guess I might take another listen to these last few records. With new ears, and maybe a few new tricks I learned from Guitar Hero. Music is fun again.
More than 1,000 of them, all available via Pictage. It’s pretty slick. You get your own log-in, and you can mark pictures as favorites then return to order prints if you want. Also, Jordan and I can see which photos you mark as favorites, so please let us know which ones you like.
Again, I thought our photographers at BendtheLight.com did an amazing job. We definitely want to know what you think.
Holy crap. Jordan and I spent much of last night playing Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection. We picked up the Wii game for 19.99 at Target, and couldn’t pass it up since we had played the earlier Gottlieb Collectionon Nintendo GameCube and loved it. The moment we put it in, Jordan freaked out because the first table you see is Taxi, which her mom and dad actually owned until recently. Jordan knows that table incredibly well from playing it thousands of times as a kid.
The game looked just the real thing, but as we played, she was more impressed that the physics had been carefully preserved. For example, She knew I was toast before I did when the ball went dead after hitting a certain spot and fell right between the flippers. She said it did the exact same thing on her old table. The Wii controls are perfect, too. The flippers are the triggers on the Nunchuck and Wiimote. The analog stick on the Nunchuck is a great substitute for the plunger, and you can nudge (or TILT) the machine if you shake the Nunchuck or Wiimote.
Here’s a video of the table in action.
There are nine other tables included in the Williams Collection, but we mostly played Taxi until I managed to get the high score and complete all the "Wizard goals." I got nearly 7 million. Jordan says her high score is 10 million, but I’ve got no way to verify that, do I? Anyway, for only 20 bucks, I recommend the hell out of this game. It’s received very favorable reviews on Metacritic, and the faux-Satriani soundtrack is so, so good.
Facebook isn’t just a social network anymore. It’s expanding to embrace other sites and applications we used to view as separate. What do I mean? Simply that Facebook is the new Myspace, but it’s also Twitter. And LiveJournal. And Flickr. It’s all of these rolled into one. And now, Facebook is becoming a bridge to every other site on the Web, (duplicating features found in a relatively new site called FriendFeed—see my sidebar widget). Eventually, Facebook could moot the Mac vs. Windows debate, because both operating systems will be little more than a conduit for Facebook. A means to an end. What the hell am I talking about? Here’s a chart to explain it.
Use sophisticated privacy controls to separate your friends into groups and control which friends (or groups of friends) can see what. Yes, you can go "friends only." But you can be a lot more precise, too. Block your work friends from seeing your photos, for example. And because Facebook can import RSS feeds, any blog can be your LiveJournal.
Message people whether they’re inside or outside of Facebook. Message a group of contacts and you’ve effectively created a permanent messageboard accessible only by those recipients. And, like Gmail, Facebook now has integrated, Jabber-based chat.
Import your activity from other sites, including Last.fm, Digg, Google Reader, Del.icio.us. Updates show up in your mini-feed, and show up on your friends’ news feed. They just expanded this option today.
Have you seen the new Facebook design that’s rolling out in the next few weeks? It looks an awful lot like Netvibes or MyYahoo. Your new profile page will have tabs, and you’ll be able to customize each of the tabs and arrange your stuff to look exactly how you want it to look. Who needs a start page?
Does Facebook match these other giants feature for feature? Hell, no. Most of these are a whole lot more functional and polished. But Facebook brings features together in a way that is compelling to normal, average folks. People who don’t care about niche sites like FriendFeed or Twitter or LiveJournal. People who don’t try every new Beta that comes along. And what if you do like one of those niche social networks, like Flixter or Goodreads? Well, chances are it hooks up pretty good to Facebook. That its genius. If you want to share your reading list or your movie reviews with your friends and you’re not a famous blogger, you can still reach your pals on Facebook, using just your inside voice.
Ultimately, talking amongst yourselves—your trusted friends—that was supposed to be the promise of social networking. But too many companies are building Web sites for a small group of technophiles and early adopters who care only about new bells and whistles and APIs. They’re solving problems that don’t matter to most people. Facebook has surveyed the Web and figured out why the most successful sites are successful. Now, they’re starting to pull those useful features under one roof. And it’s working. Because, somewhat circuitously, under that roof is where all the people are.
I’m not sure this month’s downloads are entirely successful, ‘cuz I’ve not done a lot of listening. But one thing I’m sure about: What Makes a Man Start Fireswill not be regretted. The documentary, We Jam Econo, got me all fired up about the Minutemen again. And I’m remember how weird I felt when I first heard them. Weird and intrigued to feel like everything I’d ever known about music was…incomplete. Like I had a lot of work to do, and it would never ever get done. I would never stop learning and I would always be excited about rock music and what you could do with it.
I was wrong about that. You get old and you start to get bored with music. It ceases to matter the way it did when you were 17 and 21 and 24, and music was all you thought about. You get old, and you get bored. You get boring. But it’s nothing we can blame on The Minutemen. You hear the word "uncompromising" thrown around a lot. But that was the Minutemen. The sound of not compromising.
Don’t worry. I’m not going to write a long-winded recap about the single most important, amazing day of my life. That’s why we have pictures. More on those in a second. First things first: I want to thank all the family and friends who attended our wedding, bought us nice gifts, and who (hopefully) had a great time partying with us. Really, it meant so much to see all those great people suffering in the sun waiting…and waiting…and waiting. Waiting to see Jordan and me take our last walks as single people toward a shared future. We’re pretty stoked.
Considering we didn’t hire a planner, I thought things turned out great. Jordan’s parents, Frank and Linda, turned their house into the perfect setting for both the ceremony and the reception, and everyone we’ve talked to seemed to have a good time. Only the weather was uncooperative. Oh, sure we had a lot of sun for the outdoor ceremony. But it was oppressively hot and sweaty and uncomfortable for those of us wearing the finery. And then we had to shut the reception down early when a scary thunderstorm moved into the area. The thunderstorm convinced a lot of people to leave, which meant Jordan and I had to leave in a hurry so there would still be people there to see us drive off in the antique truck. Luckily, we were able to get out of there before the deluge started. Actually, I’m not sure the rain ever came at all.
Anyway, we got through it, but there are some loose ends to tie up…
So last night was my bachelor party, and I got more hammered than I’ve been in a long time. As far as I know, I did not consign anyone to dust or urinate in public. Still, I think I remember saying some very dumb things. I could have dreamed that part but if I said anything offensive or idiotic, I trust you’ll remember that I would normally keep such things buried and locked away in the untidy darkness of my soul.
I made a video when I woke up this morning, and it does a fine job thanking everyone and showing off the presents I received. Just the same, I’d like to thank everyone who came out to Hooters, Palace Lanes, and the Astros game with me. I’d also like to thank you for the awesome gifts. Finally, I’m really glad everyone got to meet my brother, Scott. He organized everything, spent the day with a bunch of strangers, and drove my drunk ass home. He’s a great guy, and I’m glad he’s going to be my best man. If you met Scott yesterday, you should friend him on Facebook.
As Weezer gets ready to release another of their single-color, eponymous records (you will remember the legendary Blue record and the not-totally-terrible Green record), I thought I’d take a moment to provide an alternate take on the frequently attacked rock band. 
