I like Cake

The new Cake album, Pressure Chief, is coming out October 5th, and the band has some preview clips here. Here are my impressions of what is shaping up to be a fantastic album-to-be.

1. Wheels - I heard this song in its entirety at the Orpheum in Boston. It's right up there with Cake's all-time-greats. Hooky, earthy, catchy, breezey, sneezey, wheezey, teasey. Easy Peasy. Queasey. Cheesey.

2. No Phone - This song has a nice greasy groove that easily solidifies that unmistakeable Cake sound.

3. Take it All Away - More wry, deprecating heartache from Jon McCrea. Nothing is more wry than a good cake song. You want wryness? This is the song for you. The guitar melody under the chorus sounds a lot like a down-tempo variation of the riff on No Phone. That's okay, though, because it's awesome.

4. Dime - "Well you ask me how I made it through, and how my mint condition could belong to you. When I'm on the ground, I roll through towns, I'm a president you don't remember getting kicked around. I'm a dime, I'm fine, and I shine, I'm freshly minted. I am determined not be dented by a barb wire plane (?) or anything not yet invented." I can't wait to hear the album cut of this so I can figure out what the heck he's singing.

5. Carbon Monoxide - A wacky, bouncy rhythm puts this song squarely in Weird Al Yankovic Original Song territory. Speaking of Weird Al's original songs, have you ever heard "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota?" It seriously is the 9th Symphony of our generation.

That's it for now. New songs go up every Tuesday.

THE MIND DETONATES

it's like a dog with only its two rear legs, only better.

neat!

Bollywood movies I've seen

Here, in no particular order, is a list of all the Bollywood movies I've seen. So far, that's 54 hours of my life that I'll never get back. But oh, what a wild and fascinating 54 hours it has been! Maybe one day later I'll explain why.

Dil to Pagal Hai
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
Yes Boss
Kal Ho Naa Ho
Lagaan
Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai
Dil Chahta Hai
Abhimaan
Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain
Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam
Hum Aapke Hain Koun...!
Mohabbatein
Devdas
Dil
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
Mujhse Dosti Karoge
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
Hum Tum

Music Update: Cardigans

A Swedish band that isn't Abba or some grindcore deathmetal garage band with too many ümläüts in its name. I remember really liking Erase, Rewind and their other hit, the one with the video where she's in a bottle in a dress with a clear pvc heart cutout over her cleavage, from back in like 1997 -- who woulda thought their 2003 album would be just as good?

Nice to hear some female singers, too.

Memepool, i <3 u

That's a heart up there. <3. look sideways.

OK, now that that's over with, I get to go on with my actual post: Memepool rocks my world. I was looking for a quick surf-target, 15 minutes to kill until my next meeting and not wanting to be productive, so I hit bash and the 'pool in a couple tabs. Bash didn't have anything new, but memepool delivered: a link to an Elizabot reprogrammed to be a teenslut instead of a psychiatrist. An Eliza Sex Bot. (Not an Eliza Box Set, mind you.) Hilarity! I couldn't read more than a couple.

The internet is so fun.

While I'm here...

I might as well also comment on an interesting article I read in Dr Dobb's on the weekend -- HTTP response splitting. The idea is that if you can inject URLEncoded newlines into an HTTP response, you can fake the client into believing it's getting responses it's not. It's a standard abnormal-command-termination hack (like putting

');[arbitrary SQL here]

in your username field in a web app, and having the app execute the SQL for you), but it's interesting.

Certainly an input-validation thing the webapp I work on doesn't do.

Parental visits; foodsnobbery

LJ-style post, this time (mood: Ornery!).

My parents visted over the past long weekend; we had a great time doing pretty much the standard weekend stuff. Shopping, eating, talking. And they said they had a great time! It was really very nice to see them, and to receive the compliments on our hospitality and our food.

We saw the AGO's Turner/Whistler/Monet exhibition (google it) on Saturday, and it was really neat to learn something about Monet's influences as well as just seeing his paintings. Got a chance to see a couple I hadn't seen before, as well; a triptych-ish suite of 6'x6' oils depicting a view up the Seine near Giverny. Each painting was of the same riverscape, but at different times of day; it was actually quite informative as to Monet's mind's eye to see them beside each other like that. Also, the subject matter was interesting; views of what the Thames was like in and around London in the mid-19th century. I had no idea so much shipping was done by river-barges with one square sail and two dudes with poles.

On the subject of the food itself, we had a butterflied leg of lamb in a honey/balsamic/rosemary marinade on Saturday, and burgers on Sunday. Both from Cumbrae's Fine Meats, which really is my favourite butcher ever. Lots of compliments on the food, even though we didn't actually *do* all that much -- we've chosen lately to spend our money on good ingredients and then not do much to them, rather than trying to do complicated things with grocery-store rubbermeat.