jamescuarterodotcom

my mom got me this! seriously, she is the BEST.

you never, EVER have to burn out. you could be like 500 years old and if you’re still in love with what you do, you never have to act old, you never have to compromise, you never have to be mediocre, you never have to slow down. have you ever met that person who retires when they’re twenty-four years old? they’re TWENTY-FOUR and they get all conservative and dismissive and they don’t want to see anything, they don’t want to know anything new, they get in their little rut and they act like little old men - and they haven’t even done anything yet! and then you meet some wild sixty-five year old bohemian who’s into all this crazy stuff - “let’s go listen to this! let’s go see that!” - and they WEAR YOU OUT. you’re twenty years younger than them and they make you tired because they have so much energy - “what are you doing sleeping?!? come on, the sun’s coming up! let’s go watch!” and you’re like “…get the **** away from me!”

i want to be one of those people.

- henry rollins

i really can’t describe how great i feel today, it’s like the fog of the past eight years been lifted. this election was not only a rejection of the failed policies and leadership of george bush and the divisive tactics of karl rove. it was also the sound of millions of previously unheard voices: minorities and the youth, the disenchanted, disenfranchised and cynical saying, no, SHOUTING that they are engaged and emotionally invested in the future of this country. not because it’s fashionable or that they’ve been swept up in obama’s celebrity but because over the course of this campaign they’ve learned (and we as well) what it feels like to matter and that civic responsibility doesn’t begin and end in the voting booth.

And Barack stood up that day, and he spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about the world as it is and the world as it should be. And he said that all too often we accept the distance between the two, and we settle for the world as it is, even when it doesn’t reflect our values and aspirations.

But he reminded us that we also know what the world should look like. He said we know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like, and he urged us to believe in ourselves, to find the strength within ourselves to strive for the world as it should be. And isn’t that the great American story?

- michelle obama

i’m going to be honest. the phillies organization has burned me so many times over the past fifteen years that i can’t tell if my less than unbridled enthusiasm towards the phils’ world series berth is due to it not yet sinking in or if i’m still harboring resentment towards an ownership that has very little to make this team the perennial contender that a market of this size and devotion deserves.

it hasn’t been fifteen years of near misses, as has been the case with teams like atlanta or chicago, the majority of that time has been spent in the national league east basement and the laughingstock of the city’s four major teams. ed wade was reviled in this city for his seemingly complete inability to adequately stock this team. we would say goodbye to players like curt schilling and scott rolen while the team’s lone big name signing for years was jim thome, a blatant attempt to keep tickets sales up once the short-lived sellouts and luster of the new park was gone. and don’t get me started on the phils’ mysterious shadow ownership, with the amiable but maddeningly evasive dave montgomery acting as its mouthpiece.

however, that’s changed over the past few years. where there was a dearth of players from the farm system, we now have a number of homegrown talents. their miserly approach to free agents and player trades and inexplicable loyalty to the oft out of his depth charlie manuel have proven my longstanding opinion - that the phillies would not win a pennant under its current ownership - completely wrong. is that what’s stuck in my craw?

yet at the same time, what should ownership have to do with one’s devotion to a team? who really cares what goes on in the front office? perhaps it’s our generation’s infatuation with snark and minutae in an atmosphere fostered by sports radio, espn 24/7 and endless sports blogs, where it’s easier than ever for the fan to second guess and play armchair coach, manager, general manager and owner.

when you were a kid were you complaining to your friends why the phils failed to pull the trigger again on an ace pitcher? of course not. in a perfect world, sports should be about the players, the fans & the game. the current phils roster is amazing and stocked with players you love to root for. ryan howard, chase utley and shane victorino are just awesome. even jimmy rollins, brett myers and pat burrell, former poster boys for the spoiled, petulant & lazy professional athlete and chided for their sense of entitlement and disdain for the fans, have become admired for their talent, grit and leadership. it’s a disconcerting yet welcome change to longtime fans and i think i speak for all of us when i say CASH IT IN AND BRING IT HOME.

My band Apple of Discord has a really cool show coming up Saturday 10/18 at the Auction House. We’ll be playing an old school set with former drummer Nelson Ciron, playing songs from all of our previous albums. Also playing are our good friends and labelmates The Silence Kit (who have a fantastic new album out), Red Orange Morning & The Meritocracy.

The Auction House is former 1920’s bank that functions as an auction house during the day and as an all-ages, drug & alcohol-free center for the arts at night. It’s located at 100 West Merchant St in Audubon, NJ with plenty of free parking in Audubon’s municipal parking lot located just 1/2 block away. It’s an amazing local space and a great place to bring the entire family. Seriously, I’ve seen babies at shows here.

Show starts at 7PM and will end by 10PM, we will more than likely go to Merryfield’s Bar in Oaklyn afterwards. It’s also Nolan’s birthday!

Apple of Discord
w/ The Silence Kit, Red Orange Morning & The Meritocracy
Saturday October 18 7PM
The Auction House
100 W Merchant St
Audubon NJ
$7 / All-Ages
auctionhouseevents.com
myspace.com/appleofdiscord

- where i’ve been: monica & i moved at the beginning of june. we started out looking for something older and with character but guess what, character takes a lot of freaking work! we ended up opting for a 9 year old house in the heart of suburbia. honestly, i would be just as happy living like a college student but in my cousin ryan’s words, this place is ballin’ yo. it’s crazy; a few years ago we wouldn’t have been able to reasonably afford a place like this but the price on it dropped like 80K in the three months prior to our purchase. thank you, collapse of the US housing market!

on the flip side, we moved without selling our old house first! listing here: http://southjersey.craigslist.org/reo/864700336.html. i almost don’t want to sell it now as we’d end up taking a bath on it but it’s still for sale for a few more weeks. ideally, we’ll end up renting it and putting it back on the market when (hopefully not if) it rebounds.

- i started a comic in august called the worst kind of people. aaron had been encouraging me to make a comic for a while but i could never come up with a concept. as it is, TWKOP consists of hastily-drawn gags and slice of life strips inspired by but nowhere near the awesomeness of red meat, PBF, the far side, etc. for some reason the most popular comic thus far has been one starring so taguchi. go figure. i’m towards the end of a week-long break following this year’s SPX but i’ve really enjoyed getting back into comics and there are more yuks and bad line art to come.

- apple of discord kept working on our fifth release, titled nothing is possible and due by the end of the year. i’m really happy with the tracks, they’re a good mix of guitar rock and sleepy acoustic numbers. we’re having an old-school AOD show next week that i’m very excited about, details in an upcoming post.

- did a lot more running this summer, averaging 11.5 miles a week and logging over 200 miles from june through september. it’s more than double what i was doing last summer and right now, i’m almost tripling it. however, i can’t even come close to my fastest mile of last year, 6:37. the closest i’ve gotten this summer has been 7:02. the only explanation i can come up with for losing that much speed is that i’m running through my neighborhood vs. running on a track with the extra 25 seconds coming from turns and inclines. but on one of my rare visits to the track this summer, it took me even longer than that! who knows. for the next few weeks i’m cutting my distance day down from 12 miles to 8 and adding an extra day of intervals. i’ll be happy if i can even get down to 6:45.

- barely watched any TV or watched any movies this summer. read a smattering of books, including david sedaris’ dress yourself in corduroy & denim and holidays on ice, venus envy by l. jon wertheim and tooth & claw by t.c. boyle. haven’t gotten past chapter two of his a friend of the earth, still in the middle of nowhere to run by gerri hirshey and just started michael chabon’s the yiddish policemen’s union, which judy o. had given me out of the trunk of her car.

- here’s a bonus for anyone who actually made it to the bottom of this post: an end of summer mix featuring an hour of dark country, new tracks, songs from the turn of the century, covers, the odd 80s inclusion and an unhealthy dose of canadians. download here:

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/613167111/742c0774a51b51df532d4ae76a31ee95

the new paul westerberg album, 49:00 is available as a single download for 49¢:

And we have lift-off: Download 49:00 from Amazon MP3

It’s one MP3 file, with a whole mess of songs, so even though it’s only one download, you’re getting plenty of songs. Some things to note: In order to get the album for $0.49 (rather than the whopping price of $0.89), you need to use the link I posted above and:

• Click on the “Buy MP3 album with 1-Click” button
• Download Amazon’s MP3 Downloader (takes 1 minute)
• Proceed with purchase

Because of the way it’s entered in the system ($0.89 for the ’song’ and $0.49 for the ‘album’), if you don’t do it this way, you will be charged $0.89 (which is also a massive bargin).

Good news: Non-US fans can now download the ‘album’ here (and US fans who for some reason can’t/don’t want to use Amazon).

i can’t seem to find a track listing or liner notes on his webpage but i’m sure they’ll surface soon if they haven’t already. on first listen, i’m pleasantly surprised with the quality of the recording and material; i was a little worried that it would be 49 minutes of half-baked, low-fi songs (although there are a few bee thousand-ish moments here and there for fans of the latter) but so far they display the wit and hookiness typical of PW and well worth the download.

housekeeping note: this is my first post using scribefire. i’d been looking for something i could use to x-post into my blog, myspace & LJ. we’ll see how the results go!

you can’t mess with griffin. taken by kristin k. 10/07/07

Mark Griffin, 35 years old of West Hartford CT, died Monday June 2 surrounded by family and friends. He grew up in Sayreville, NJ.

He attended Sayreville HS (1991) and the Joe Kubert School (1997). Working as an illustrator, he also created his own comics: “The Kersaders” about kid superheroes, and his unfinished personal work, “Karma Shmarma”, documenting his battle with cancer. Mark played bass in several rock bands and enjoyed traveling and cooking with his wife.

Survived by his devoted wife of 8 years, Jennifer, and his mother, Susan, and predeceased by his step-father William Dorman. Also an extended family of relatives and friends. Mark had a generous soul and touched the lives of all who knew him.

Memorial services will be at Rezem Funeral Home, 457 Cranbury Road, East Brunswick, Thursday June 5 from 5 PM - 8 PM. Funeral on Friday June 6 at 10 AM. If you would prefer to make a donation in Mark’s name in lieu of sending flowers, Jen Griffin suggests The Marrow Foundation at www.marrow.org or The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at www.leukemia-lymphoma.org.

i don’t think it’s fully sunk in that you’re gone and i don’t know if i ever want it to. there are so many things i’ll miss about you, from breakfasts at your house to driving aimlessly in search of apple fritters to sharing new comics to that absurd near all-night session of adventures of lolo 2. remember that night you, me & aaron were on the way home from st. mark’s after helping phil move? i was enthusiastically telling you guys about a scene in JLA when we pulled up next to that silver SUV - “professor stephen hawking!”, aaron points to the car and our mouths dropped - i don’t think anyone but us believes that actually happened.

sometimes i feel like i don’t deserve to hurt as much as our other friends that have known you since childhood and high school but over the past six years you and jen have shown me new measures of strength, love and courage that had a profound effect on me. every time you were diagnosed you never succumbed to bitterness, cynicism or self-pity. you let all of us in instead of shutting us out. that’s the type of person you are and it made your inevitable recoveries that much more joyous and inspirational. the running joke was “who gets cancer four times?”"someone who can BEAT cancer four times”.

one of my favorite all-time memories, months after mark had beaten cancer for the second time:

sleep well, my friend, i’ll miss you every day of my life.

this would be my third show at JB’s in as many weeks, following the constantines show below and having to leave early during buried beds/american music club. i’d kind of been run down from packing all day and thought about staying in but i’ve been a big fan of EPDM for a while now and a full US tour wasn’t going to happen again any time soon, so why not. i missed anna ternheim, expecting to get there in time for lykke li’s set but instead EPDM was just getting under way. looks like they switched the set order, either due to the newfound buzz surrounding lykke li or maybe they were just alternating headliners during the tour.

i wasn’t sure if i would like a set from this tour, since i saw from the valley to the stars’ downbeat version of baroque pop as a step down from the last self-titled album. but
a sign of a great performance is if they make you like songs that you didn’t like before and EPDM succeeded in bringing the sleepier, more deliberate mood from FTVTTS to life. the band is really tasteful, bringing a smoky, jazzy, nightclub kind of feel to the songs and sarah assbring’s voice is better in person than you would think. lykke li came out a couple of times to sing too. highlights included “glory to the world”, “i can’t talk about it” and “somebody’s baby”. i was disappointed that they did a solo version of “god knows” and omitted “party” from the setlist entirely but they made up for it with an almost-rocking full-band version of “shake it off” and my favorite song of the night, a cover of robert wyatt’s cover of chic’s “at last i am free”. lykke li started her set immediately after and while i’m not as familiar with her music, it was still a fun, dancey and charming set that featured assbring staying onstage for vocals. all in all, the night’s show made me want to move to sweden.

set list (thanks infotaupe!):

how did we forget
glory to the world
i can’t talk about it
you can’t steal a gift
god knows
do not despair
somebody’s baby
inner island
shake it off
someday i’ll understand
at last i am free

“constantines make music for people who like rock. everyone else can go listen to vampire weekend.” - peter botham, the news journal

i woke up on my couch early sunday evening in a complete panic, thinking that i had slept through that night’s constantines show. i threw on a shirt, jumped into my car and arrived at johnny brenda’s with only about um… an hour+ to spare. oakley hall was surprisingly good as a four piece with a set that rocked a lot more than previous listens would have predicted.

i vividly remember the first time i heard constantines a few years ago, driving back from lunch in the heat of summer with my intern, listening to a live performance on jon solomon’s show. the first song we heard was “young lions” and i was hooked. putting punk energy into songs that are anthemic and blue collar while also being literate, sincere and devoid of cheesy sloganeering (”working full time” could easily be a thinking man’s “taking care of business”) is what made me love this band, and that was before i even saw them live tonight.

the room completely filled up by the time the constantines took the stage, jumping into “hotline operator” and my hands were already sore after “working full time”. they played a lot from the new album, which is pretty amazing upon my first couple of listens. they played more from the first album and tournament of hearts (”justice” and “lizaveta” at that volume and energy levels were a revelation to me) than shine a light but nevertheless, the set was, to steal a superlative from my younger cousins, totally badass. i can’t help but feel like moron whenever i use that word but whatever. maria made a good point in mentioning that steve’s songs provide a counterbalance to the band when they approach springsteen-levels of earthiness and earnestness - “shower of stones”, which is a serviceable track on kensington heights, is just an explosion live and a great dynamic contrast to almost songs:ohia-ish songs like “time can be overcome”. to top it off, they ended their set with a riffingly faithful and yes, badass cover of AC/DC’s “thunderstruck” aka “the AC/DC song that people who don’t even like AC/DC love”.

set list (i think this is closer than i usually am):

hotline operator
working full-time
justice
young offenders
hard feelings
million star hotel
young lions
arizona
shower of stones
trans canada
thieves
time can be overcome
brother run them down
lizaveta
thunderstruck