The one band NPR really wants me to love

There are many ways to fill your days when you're unemployed. One way that's sort of a tradition in my family is to go for a long walk. It's a good way to eat up an hour or two and it gets you out of the house for free. So every day I go for a long walk in the Arizona sun and listen to podcasts. There's something about hearing stories about other people's lives that keeps your mind off yours. 

Two of my favorite podcasts are music related, naturally. Sound Opinions and All Songs Considered provide music news, album reviews and enough constant SXSW updates to fill me with jealousy.

Most of the time, these two podcasts don't agree on much. Sound Opinions, which features two newspaper writers, takes more of a populist stance while All Songs Considered encompasses more of that liberal media elite snobbery that we're so accustomed to on NPR. Both podcasts find common ground on one topic, though. I should be listening to Ponytail.

What's Ponytail, you ask? Well, technically they're an art punk band from Baltimore, but to really understand what they're like, you need to think about Yoko Ono imitating a tiger while people play random instruments in the background. Mostly, it makes me think, "THIS is what you agree on?"

I'm sorry NPR gods, but I can't get behind this band. I'm a lyrics freak and there's a noticeable lack of lyrics in Ponytail's work (unless you count the odd Japanese schoolgirl yelp). I want to be hip, too, but this is where I put my foot down. I'm sure their show at SXSW was killer and it's great that the lead singer is this tiny ball of energy, but I am not going to listen to this music. I'm just not. Does this mean I'm kicked out of the NPR cool kids club?

I think they both agree on the new Decemberists album, too. I can get behind that. Maybe that will keep me in the club.

How not to do community journalism

I've been meaning to post a link to this terrible, terrible story for a while now. I just can't wrap my head around (1) why this is news (2) why ANYONE cares and (3) why each sentence needs its own paragraph. Just read it then consider a world without professional journalists.

Hey everyone, remember Shannon?

When you are living with your parents, it's the little things that matter. Little things like the weekly showing of Lost that appears every Wednesday to break up the long stretch of days of not getting called about the resumes you sent out. It's 60 minutes (sometimes more) of thoroughly confusing drama that demands you focus on it and not the the strange set of circumstances that led you to this house, in this town with this amazingly large HDTV. 

So I've been a little out of sorts this week because Lost was a rerun. To fill the gap, I've spent my time reading the wiki, the recap of last week's episode and just about everything else I can get my hands on. In that spirit, I give you a gallery presenting the 10 Most Worthless Characters on Lost. Oh Television Without Pity, you always know what I need, and it is usually more stuff about Lost. That, or a job.

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Today also marks the launch of Kelly's (aka, Ladybear) new blog. It's over there on the right and it's called Here's What's Happening. What is happening, you ask? Well Kelly and her husband Josh (the author of the Lost column I wrote about the other day) just moved to Madison, Wisconsin after years of living in New York City. The whole thing reads like the pilot of a new sitcom. Look for it on the CW this fall.

Yep, we still don't know about the smoke monster

In the middle of all my travels and job hunting I missed an importnat development. Josh wrote a column about Lost! You can find it here, but I guess you can't talk to anyone about it.

I won't bore you with my theories about the new season (and it seems most of you haven't even seen it yet so it would just be a spoiler) but there are a whole new batch of querstions floating around. I have given up any hope of them being answered, but I would like them to get to the smoke monster at some point. Please? Can we at least answer the smoke monster question? Please?!