I recently went out with a dude with a beard (It’s a sensible, trimmed, full-beard/moustache combo.  A good accessory for one of those corduroy jackets with elbow patches).    I met him on the internet and based on the photos, I had a 50/50 chance of facial hair.  For those of you who know me, this is a rarity.  I’ve lucked out and for the most part I have dealt with minimal face fuzz (sideburns, goatee, 5 o’clock shadow).  Would I stop going out with a guy because of facial hair decisions alone?  Probably not.  But if he were to go crazy and shave his beard into the porn stache, or trim the sensible beard into a chin beard… he may have to go.

In the meantime, I have a friend who’s woman WANTS him to grow some facial hair.  I have no clue why.  He is totally opposed to the idea.  I think he has grown a ridiculous soul patch to appease her.

For those of you on the hunt for dudes with ’staches, Misprint magazine is hosting their 4th Annual Beard and Moustache Contest on February 19th at the Mohawk

Saturday I had dinner with the M, the Jew, Owen’s dad and soon-to-be-stepmom.  We went to an amazing french restaurant (which will not be named because they are getting enough buzz to generate a two hour wait).

We planned to meet for dinner at 6 and assumed it would be smooth sailing from there.  The hostess informed us there was a two hour wait.  We decided to go to Eastside Showroom and drink for a bit in the hopes we would get the call that our table was ready.  It was there we made the best decision ever.  Jettison the car and keep drinking all night.  I started my evening with Scotch, M and the Jew decided on fancy cocktails.

After an hour and a half we decided to head back to the restaurant.  The table wasn’t ready yet (but lucky for us there were seats at the bar).  A half hour later, we were seated (and very tipsy).  Was the wait worth it?  Yes, it was.  We ordered the steamed artichoke with drawn butter (although it tasted more like brown butter to me and M). [BTW.There aren't many vegetarian items on the menu].  I settled on the potato leak soup with endives(cream based) and the ratatouille (vegan).   I was impressed with both dishes.   I was starving by this point and still managed to savor my meal. The meat eaters at the table recommend the duck and the scallops.   Price-wise, we did well.  Between 5 of us we managed to kill two bottles of wine (the Bordeaux was my favorite), and have dinner and dessert for $250 (incl. tip).

M, the Jew, and myself decided that even though we were tipsy and full of tasty french food, we needed to go out.  We hitched a ride to Sidebar.  Then the night gets a little blurry.  I was thankful for sensible footwear as we stumbled to the cab.

So, I have started a letter writing campaign (on-line dating again).   This time, it is in the name of science.  A friend sent me a link to this blog entry by the super nerds that run the dating site (yes, they run stats on everything).  They were looking at how race effects reply rate (they have looked at a whole host of reasons why people may or may not respond to your message). The numbers generated this nicely colored chart.

The chart shows that:

Men don’t write black women back. Or rather, they write them back far less often than they should. Black women reply the most, yet get by far the fewest replies. Essentially every race—including other blacks—singles them out for the cold shoulder.

My first instinct was to delete my profile and end my Don Quixote type search.  But then I figured that I should keep on in the name of science.  It’s a lot like casting bottled messages out to sea.

I sent the dudes and email not to long ago asking if they have looked at the numbers by location.

Stay tuned.

I finally checked out the schedule and I think I figured out what I want to see.   Dear Transmission, I would really love it if you could make me a grid schedule (even better if you could give me links to the band’s myspace page).

• Sunday 1/3 - Sally Crewe @ Club Deville
• Tuesday 1/5- Cruiserweight @ Red 7
• Wednesday 1/6 - Brothers and Sisters, The Laughing, Oh No Oh My @ Emos
• Friday 1/8  - Ume @ Emos, Corto Maltese @ Club Deville
• Saturday 1/9- T-Bird and the Breaks @ Mohawk

For now I will give you the wrap up for 2009.  I may have some words on the last decade later.

This year in live music: Broken Social Scene, Lymbyc Systym, The Submarines,  SXSW (Flosstradamus, Asobi Seksu, Titus Andronicus, Chairlift, the DJs from the Hood Internet, Kanye West, Big Sean, GLC Consequence, Really Do, Tony Williams, Mr. Hudson, Kid Cudi, Common, Erykah Badu, Buck65, B.Dolan, Sleep, Sage Francis, the Obits, Handsome Furs, American Analog Set, the Rosebuds, Bishop Allen, Au Revoir Simone, These Arms are Snakes, Cursive,  Passion Pit,  the Soft Pack, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Matt and Kim, Amplive, Franki Chan and Curt from Flosstradamus, and Echo and the Bunnymen),  Crystal Castles, Loxsly, the Dears, Great Northern, Passion Pit, Harlem Shakes, Clues, Explosions in the Sky , De La Soul, El Ten Eleven , Free Press Summerfest (Broken Social Scene, Explosions in the Sky, Prince Paul, Voxtrot), Los Campesinos!, Broken Social Scene,   FFF Fest (Royal Bangs, Crystal Antlers, Foot Patrol, Sugar and Gold, Vega, MC Chris, Neon Indian, Yeasayer, Les Savy Fav, Pharcyde, Atlas Sound, Why?, Broadcast, Dj Numark,  Lucero, MIssion of Burma, Buraka Som Sistema, GZA, Kid Sister ) Regina Spektor, Hockey, and Pheonix.

This year in non-live music: I am still having Last.fm iPod scrobbling issues.  Here’s to this year’s new albums that kept me awake at my desk. NASA, Mos Def, Amanda Blank, Del tha Funky Homosapien, Discovery, Walkmen, Headlights, Passion Pit, Yo La Tengo, Heartless Bastards, Animal Collective,…

This year in Sewing: I entered the Little Black Dress Contest and helped a friend who is writing a book on green clothing design.

This year on the interwebs: I am still bad about updating Twitter.  I have fallen in love with hulu and the hood internet.

This year in Movies: (theater) SXSW (RIP: A Remix Manifesto,  500 days of Summer,  Died Young, Stayed Pretty, The Time of Their Lives, Yes Men Fix the World,  Alexander the Last, and  I Love You, Man), Inglorious Basterds, Up in the Air, (dvd)Persepolis,  Thank You for Smoking, Fast Food Nation, The Yes Men.

This year in Books: Goodreads This is what I read: Story of the Eye-Georges, Bataille, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper- Diablo Cody, He’s Just not that into You- Greg Behrendt, Fast Food Nation- Eric Schlosser, The Other Side of Thirty- M.A. Thakor, The Manual- Steve Santagati, Another Roadside Attraction- Tom Robbins, Love is a Mix Tape- Rob Sheffield, Even Cowgirls get the Blues- Tom Robbins, Choke- Chuck Palahniuk, High Fidelity- Nick Hornby,

Here is the list of things I neglected to do in 2009 along with excuses for not doing them:

1. More bike rides (and maybe a bike with gears). No new bikes.  I did go on a few long rides though. I would bike more if I weren’t allergic to outside.
   
2. A jumble of personal goals: tolerance, being a better person, being more trusting, baggage reduction, etc… I haven’t made things worse (At least I don’t think I did).
3. Design for another fashion show.  Hopefully Stitch, when it returns. Stitch did not return this year.
4. Demolish the back porch and fix the fence. Those are still there.  The plan is to ditch the whole house.
5. Road trip. Didn’t happen.  I flew to Seattle instead.

2010 will be my 33rd year.   My Yenta says it should be one of the best.

Last night I danced it out at the Highball to the best of  2000 (or so they say).  I hate to think that Rhianna, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga were all that this decade brought forth. [Disclaimer, I left a little after 2am.  I strongly doubt they were able to bang out the missing hits before they closed the place down for the night. But who knows?  I could be wrong.] there was no cover so I shouldn’t complain.

We drank, we danced, yet we couldn’t help wondering… What about the the bounty that the vocoder brought us?  T-Pain… Little Wayne?  What about Outcast?  Hey Ya anyone? What about the Hey Ya of 2006? Gnarles Barkley’s Crazy.  As much as I hate to say it, where were the Black Eyed Peas and Fergie? 2000s were filled with some booty shakin (and milkshakin‘) music for the most part.

It wasn’t until the late aughties that disco and new wave made their triumphant return (Gaga, MGMT, etc…)  But where was Cut Copy? Bloc Party? Passion Pit? Pheonix? Ratatat? Ghostland? MSTRKRFT? NASA? All of the hipster dance anthems of the aughties.

I would like to think that the music deficit was based on the availability of the songs on kareoke and video and not on a lack of knowledge about 2000s club music.  What say you Action Pack?

The topic of baggage has been brought up on several occasions.  I am working on the train case and M is working on the backpack. Neither of us what the 23 piece luggage set from Darjeeling Limited.

I recently saw Up in the Air with my Yenta (yes, I have a Yenta now).  I will save you from the details since I don’t want to clog this post up with spoiler alert warnings.  I will say that the film was brilliant.  But what else would you expect from the man that gave us Juno and Thank You for Smoking.

Back to the backpack…

George Clooney’s character (the lovable asshole), is a motivational speaker.  His pitch is about a backpack (I am still trying to figure out if the backpack speech has anything to do with the book by John Bytheway.)

How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life… (more…)

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Right now, I have two friends going through some personal stuff that they would rather not talk about. They are tired of explaining what has been on constant replay in their heads.  They would like to talk about something else.  Ironically, both of them decided to skip town for a few days in the hopes of clearing their heads.

This got me wondering…Why can’t civilians get the same deal as Government officials and celebrities.  They have people to run damage control.  They can go into a press conference and not have to talk about certain things. Or, should they decided to talk about one of these touchy topics, they only have to say it once, and then they are done.

As a friend, I have decided not to ask these people what happened or why these things occurred.  It’s not my business.  Besides, it is pretty obvious that they are not in a good place right now.  I merely listen and ask what do they need.   You should do the same.

I am not a fan of  Christmas songs (I blame years of working at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar).  But I do love the Muppets.  I think I will treat myself to a little Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas today.  In the meantime, I will leave you with a new twist on a classic.

The 12 Days of Christmas with the Muppets, Jimmy Fallon, and the Roots

M and I should try to tell you more about free stuff around town (or how to live a rock and roll lifestyle on the cheap).  I usually tell you after the fact during SXSW, but this year I will make an effort to tell you ahead of time how to save some $$.

The Channukah Fairy dropped this in my inbox last night.

Just when you thought there would be nothing to do between now and SXSW, Transmission decided to say, “Fuck the Recession”, and give us free week once again.  January 1st-9th you get an all you can eat buffet of music along Red River.

And now for my psa…

Just because you get to see shows for free doesn’t mean you won’t be spending money.  Please support the bands by buying stuff at the merch table.  Please support the bars by buying booze.  …and lastly, don’t forget to tip those bartenders.