What's your band name?

I have zero musical talent - but if talent existed I would go by the following stage names:

Fictitious EP cover

Dance Music DJ: DISCO'TINUED
Singer/Songwriter: Cassanova Jones
Indie Rock Band: Beautiful Noise Rock
Radiohead Tribute: Karma PD
Beardy Folk: The Plurals
Techno Pop: Keystroke Anarchy Epiphany
Vegas Lounge Act: Max Thomas
Crappy Suburban Cover Band: Heart to the Shot
Comedy Hip-Hop: T&A
Jam Band: Kick Ass Summer

Is it a New Era?

Back when I blogged on MySpace I wrote a post titled, "I Am A Golfer Today" (I moved it over to Blogger, but it was originally written on Sunday May 4, 2008).   I'm now in my fourth year of golfing and have made more progress in the four weeks of this young season than I have in the previous three years.  In the spirit of assigning credit where it's unwarranted, I present to you a history of my golfing headwear:

obviously not a golfer (Straw Hat 2008)

I really loved getting my Straw Hat.  I wore that hat for every round of golf in 2008 & 2009.  Yes, it was a joke - as was my game.  But I wasn't trying to make a joke of myself out there - on the golf course.  I've always been a huge fan of activity based haberdashery.  I like to wear a headband during basketball, a cap for softball, visor for poker, and I thought a straw hat for golf.


In 2010 I ditched the Straw Hat.  It had deteriorated to a significant degree, but I no longer wanted to be known as the guy in the straw hat.  Because I feel most comfortable playing cards, I went with the visor route.  My game continued to struggle.

unchecked aggression (Visor 2010)

This past March, in Las Vegas, for the first time I played cards without my usual costume armor of visor / shades / earphones and had the greatest success of my career.  Call it what you will: Being more comfortable and confident / maturing / accumulated experience finally retaining what I've been learning...  The same rules apply to why I decided to ditch the visor for golf as well.

While watching The Masters I noticed an overwhelming majority of the golfers wore caps.  I thought to myself, why not? and picked up one of the finest golf caps money can buy.  I'm not sure what it's called but it's one of those Titleist by New Era Tour Sport Cap Flex Fitted models.  It's the most comfortable hat I've ever had on my head by a huge margin.

Golf Hat 2011

A friend, who had been golfing with me for over 2 years, quickly commented that it looked very odd to see me with clubs in a cap.  I told him that it was a new year and I'm trying something new.

This is also the first golf season when I decided to not sign up for more golf lessons.  And I also won't be buying any more clubs (like how I bought that expensive Driver everybody wants to have two years ago).  But I did splurge for the fancy cap, and I've never had buyers remorse like I've had with every other golf related purchase.

No golf scores will be posted until I only need two digits to type them, however I'm more than happy to share scores verbally when asked.  It's been a very soap operatic relationship: Golf and I, but it's one that's going to continue.

What are the opposite ends of the "hipster music" spectrum?

A friend and I  had casually agreed that "hipster music" (for lack of a better term - for instance you may prefer "the indie scene") has a larger scope that is interpreted from the outside.  He defined the spectrum by amount of Organic sound.  I like this theory, and have decided to label the far end, or most Organic, by the NPR label "Beardy Folk" and the opposite end by the pseudo Lebowski quote of "Techno Pop."

Check out Infantree for an example of Beardy Folk:


Ah who am I kidding?  I can't talk about Beardy Folk on the same week of a new Fleet Foxes album and not post a song from them too:


The sound that actually started this conversation was from Twin Shadow (although it's not nearly as far on the Techno Pop end, it's a song that's been in heavy iPod rotation recently):
16-Twin Shadow — Shooting Holes (Live) by hyperlame

Finally, a video from Holy Ghost!:

Holy Ghost! - Wait & See from DFA Records on Vimeo.

Maybe I should've posted a sample from Cut Copy, but those Aussies have already gotten a ton of play on here in posts past.

It's just a theory, what's yours?  And if you're wondering what sound I would place at the center of this Spectrum - probably Arcade Fire.

How did you hear the news?

Had I known, I would've stopped tweeting momentarily starting last Friday.  How huge would it have been if my 1,000th tweet would have been a retweet of the official news of Osama bin Laden's death?  Instead, I just simply tweeted that joining Twitter was a good decision as my 1,000th tweet.  Then late on Sunday, my opinion was forever justified as my Facebook feed was full of newly posted pictures of pets and laments for the end of the weekend while Twitter was erupting.

Here are twenty selections from Twitter in perhaps the most intense four or so hours of my tenure (for lack of a better term):

 

It may be different for you.  Personally, I choose to not customize my Facebook feed at all.  I want to see that world in its most ugly grimy version.  Nobody gets hidden and I'll only consider defriending you if you steal my kidney.  Additionally, I have not "liked" many news pages - the ones that tend to break news.  My Twitter feed is usually in constant flux as I list and unfollow accordingly.