Alexandra

Fuckemos 5th of July, Austin, Texas

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:43:29 -0700

video shot by me.

this girl is so good at music!!

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:40:42 -0700

she rules at singing, playing ukelele, and overall charisma.

I don't give a hoot about what you think

Fri, 23 May 2008 20:31:27 -0700

best internet cameos ever. new weezer video!! yay

holy shit this goose

Mon, 19 May 2008 15:11:13 -0700

motherfucking blogspot locked my food blog?!!

Sun, 11 May 2008 15:19:23 -0700

Okay, blogspot. Ideally they'll unlock it, but I guess I'll just buy a domain name and set up shop elsewhere. I'm so bummed!

so I started a food blog

Sat, 10 May 2008 11:54:07 -0700

Hey Fuzzies, it's been a long time since I rapped at ya.

The Onion/A.V. Club here hired me to write things, and one of the greatest pleasures I have is to seek out new (to me) restaurants in Austin, then briefly review them. And take photos! It's a thrill and always fun.

Since my reviews only exist in print and not on the web, I'm compiling them on a blog.

Look!
http://austinisdelicious.blogspot.com/

So I wrote this Bob Dylan thing.

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:40:13 -0700

He won a Pulitzer. WoooOOOOoooo!!

http://www.fuzz.com/articles/article/Dylan-Goes-Literary-Only-Rock-Musician-To-Ever-Win-Pulitzer-83

Chinese Democracy, You Snooze You Lose

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:03:20 -0700

The Fix is running! Most recently I wrote a story about the Dr. Pepper/Axl thing.

http://www.fuzz.com/articles/article/Chinese-Democracy-Can-61

Another Fix Story

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:25:46 -0700

McCain's Daughter Has A Playlist

t should come as no surprise that a potential First Daughter circa 2008 has a blog. The fly-on-the-wall view of life tagging along with her dad, John McCain, on his tour bus is chronicled at mccainblogette.com. Meghan McCain, a blonde Columbia grad with stints at Newsweek and “SNL” under her belt, seems aware of the scrutiny she’d be under were she to become a First Daughter.

McCain’s blog ranges from confessional, to amusing, to tell-all (she confides that her mother was named “rodeo queen” in high school). The blog appears somewhat unedited, but does have a producer and a professional photographer. She includes her iPod playlists that feature tracks by The Dead Milkmen, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Elastica and Bad Brains. She admits to an obsession of making playlists, comparing herself to John Cusack’s character in High Fidelity with the caveat that “I will never be as cool as John Cusack.” Other blog features include posts of supporter-made YouTube videos (someone covering “It’s Raining Men” as “It’s Raining McCain” that includes a surreal ending of floating McCain heads), and a post reflecting her strong stance on American culture’s unhealthy obsession with female body image (”…someone handed me a business card for a plastic surgeon and suggested I needed liposuction. I am proud of my curves and have always loved my fuller figure, as should every woman who is not a size 0.”).

Did you guys all check out the fix yet?

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:40:38 -0700

News and interviews and columns and shit. It's pretty cool. Click on THE FIX and here's a sample of some of my work.

On February 2, 2008, Bad Brains were MTV’s artist of the week. This isn’t so shocking, in the sense that MTV had the good taste and sense to play Bad Brains the first time around, when Bad Brains were new to us and MTV was just a little baby channel that played music videos and nothing but. It also makes sense to promote Bad Brains now, since Build a Nation was released in 2007–of course the band has an interest in promoting their newest record.

What was strange was the sensation of hearing one of the most influential, innovative, and perfectly abrasive hardcore bands playing on MTV now, sandwiched between “The Hills” or “The Gauntlet III: Real World/Road Rules Challenge”. Needless to say, I don’t think anyone watches MTV for the music videos anymore. Yet for one solid week, Bad Brains were used in every teaser for upcoming shows, over the credits as shows ended, over every single PSA, and of course, heavily promoted on MTV.com.

So, what would the impact of all this be? How would the almost subliminal promotion of possibly the greatest underground band of this modern age trickle down to their fans, or MTV watchers who had never heard of Bad Brains prior to this exposure, or most importantly, to the band?

What about blogs that host Bad Brains files available for free download? Did their traffic increase? Was there a jump in sales? What would Jack Rabid over at The Big Takeover say? Rabid took the name for his music magazine from a Bad Brains song. What about critic Mark Prindle, who has conducted many interviews with the band over the years (and has a ton of searchable content)–did he get significantly more hits?

While the band is holed up in the studio working on new songs and planning a tour in South America, I tracked down Bad Brains’ longtime manager, Anthony Countey. I asked him to quantify what, exactly, was the effect of Bad Brains being on MTV. He said, “Everything was affected. It nearly doubled our sales. We saw a 175% increase for the greatest hits record.”

Digital information is still pending–it could very much be triple the usual amount.

So, how did it come to be that Bad Brains were MTV’s artist of the week in February 2008? Countey explains, “When MTV approached us, I’d been expecting them. It makes sense. The band has remained an icon for kids coming up in every generation, just because of what the band did. I expected them to get the respect they were given. Lyndsay [Siegel] from “Headbangers” is originally the person who made it happen. The people on that show put Bad Brains on their list as one of the 52 bands, and they came to us.”

Every piece of MTV promotion had Bad Brains music on it, and every teaser contained footage of the band–from today, from the Bad Brains Live at CBGB 1982 DVD (from MVD Video–do yourself a favor and buy it), to interviews with HR and Dr. Know. Incongruous, surprising, and ultimately wonderful.

“The people that run MTV love music,” said Countey. “They do what we do. They do it because they have no choice. They do it because they pay attention and care about music. Their influence is really positive. It isn’t that Bad Brains are being played all the time, but all the influence is good.” Did you ever think anyone would say this about MTV, today?

Countey says he hopes to work with MTV again. “I’m definitely pleased to have made new friends. The intention and what’s in the music itself is very positive and it’s fine to have a friend that will make it be heard by more people. The music won’t be commercialized because of this exposure, it will be recognized because of it.”

“One of the segments I saw was a PSA for condoms, and the music was perfect. Hearing the music made you pay attention, and that’s what a commercial needs. At the same time, you can’t actually commercialize Bad Brains’ music. It still is that new.”

The Internet Is Not A Dumptruck

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:27:11 -0700

more a series of tubes, or perhaps, a net.

This video is a good explanation of net neutrality.

rocket. I'm taking a rocket.

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:30:51 -0800

I'm packing my suitcase. Hey look out moon!

This is extremely sexist but it cracks me up.

SXSW Official Band List Released!

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:07:47 -0800

From The Statesman: their highlights include R.E.M., My Morning Jacket, and Dolly Parton! MMJ and DP sound like tons of fun to me.

http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/music/entries/2008/02/07/south_by_southwest_band_list_o.html

the full list here: http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/music/entries/2008/02/07/south_by_southwest_band_list_o.html

Finally, Flickr

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:34:26 -0800

More proof of the fact that I am the world's most beta beta adapter: I finally got a new digital camera (my 35 mm Minolta having bit the dust at SXSW 2007). Now, I am armed and am uploading pics with such a furor that a flickr pro account is in my future, almost instantly.

If you wanna add me as a contact, go for it. Feeling voyeuristic? Of course you are. Sadly, I am not one of those vain mofos who pose and take 8572985`298 self-portraits of themselves. So there are a lot of DOG pics, and some pics of my new house. Soon I'll take some people pics and band pics. Last night I forgot to take my camera out with me. That won't happen again.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexandratx

Top Five Songs, and more new news

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:41:22 -0800

these are just the songs of the moment. I'm getting into Peaches "Impeach My Bush" now.

iTunes makes this easy to assess. for the last few months:
"autonomy", buzzcocks
"I hate cops," authorities
"I'm beginning to see the light," bobby darin
"deny everything," circle jerks
"Candy," iggy pop n kate peirson

Also, I'm about to settle on my home here. I'm super stoked. Am literally waiting for the check to arrive from my bank. Funding is all set. I got a sweet rate on my mortage. And my monthly payment, amazingly, is only about $200 more than what I was paying in philly. Sure, I'll pay more in gas (gotta drive everywhere) but I'm saving on bills, and of course have a much better standard of living. Life rules.

A Good Reason Not To Buy an iPhone

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:16:48 -0800

(from Slate)
A baffling proposal to filter the Internet.
By Tim Wu
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008, at 10:15 AM ET
Chances are that as you read this article, it is passing over part of AT&T's network. That matters, because last week AT&T announced that it is seriously considering plans to examine all the traffic it carries for potential violations of U.S. intellectual property laws. The prospect of AT&T, already accused of spying on our telephone calls, now scanning every e-mail and download for outlawed content is way too totalitarian for my tastes. But the bizarre twist is that the proposal is such a bad idea that it would be not just a disservice to the public but probably a disaster for AT&T itself. If I were a shareholder, I'd want to know one thing: Has AT&T, after 122 years in business, simply lost its mind?

No one knows exactly what AT&T is proposing to build. But if the company means what it says, we're looking at the beginnings of a private police state. That may sound like hyperbole, but what else do you call a system designed to monitor millions of people's Internet consumption? That's not just Orwellian; that's Orwell.

The puzzle is how AT&T thinks that its proposal is anything other than corporate seppuku. First, should these proposals be adopted, my heart goes out to AT&T's customer relations staff. Exactly what counts as copyright infringement can be a tough question for a Supreme Court justice, let alone whatever program AT&T writes to detect copyright infringement. Inevitably, AT&T will block legitimate materials (say, home videos it mistakes for Hollywood) and let some piracy through. Its filters will also inescapably degrade network performance. The filter AT&T will really need will be the one that blocks the giant flood of complaints and termination-of-service notices coming its way.

But the most serious problems for AT&T may be legal. Since the beginnings of the phone system, carriers have always wanted to avoid liability for what happens on their lines, be it a bank robbery or someone's divorce. Hence the grand bargain of common carriage: The Bell company carried all conversations equally, and in exchange bore no liability for what people used the phone for. Fair deal.

AT&T's new strategy reverses that position and exposes it to so much potential liability that adopting it would arguably violate AT&T's fiduciary duty to its shareholders. Today, in its daily Internet operations, AT&T is shielded by a federal law that provides a powerful immunity to copyright infringement. The Bells know the law well: They wrote and pushed it through Congress in 1998, collectively spending six years and millions of dollars in lobbying fees to make sure there would be no liability for "Transitory Digital Network Communications"—content AT&T carries over the Internet. And that's why the recording industry sued Napster and Grokster, not AT&T or Verizon, when the great music wars began in the early 2000s.

Here's the kicker: To maintain that immunity, AT&T must transmit data "without selection of the material by the service provider" and "without modification of its content." Once AT&T gets in the business of picking and choosing what content travels over its network, while the law is not entirely clear, it runs a serious risk of losing its all-important immunity. An Internet provider voluntarily giving up copyright immunity is like an astronaut on the moon taking off his space suit. As the world's largest gatekeeper, AT&T would immediately become the world's largest target for copyright infringement lawsuits.

On the technical side, if I were an AT&T engineer asked to implement this plan, I would resign immediately and look for work at Verizon. AT&T's engineers are already trying to manage the feat of getting trillions of packets around the world at light speed. To begin examining those packets for illegal pictures of Britney Spears would be a nuisance, at best, and a threat to the whole Internet, at worst. Imagine if FedEx were forced to examine every parcel for drug paraphernalia: Next-day delivery would soon go up in smoke. Even China's Internet, whose performance suffers greatly from its filtering, doesn't go as far as what AT&T is proposing.

If this idea looks amazingly bad for AT&T, does the firm have an ingenious rationale for blocking content? "It's about," said AT&T last week, "making more content available to more people in more ways going forward." Huh? That's like saying that the goal of a mousetrap is producing more mice. If the quote makes any sense it all, perhaps it means that AT&T, the phone company, has aspirations to itself provide Internet content. Could it really be that AT&T's master strategy is to try and become more like AOL circa 1996?

A different theory is that AT&T hopes that filtering out infringing material will help free up bandwidth on its network. What is so strange about this argument is that it suggests that AT&T wants people to use its product less. That's like Exxon-Mobil complaining that SUVs are just buying up too much gas. It suggests that perhaps AT&T should try to improve its network to handle and charge for consumer demand, rather than spending money trying to control its consumers.

I just don't get the business aspect, so perhaps the only explanation that makes any sense is a political one. It may be that AT&T so hates being under the current network neutrality mandate that it sees fighting piracy as a way to begin treating some content differently than others—discriminating—in a politically acceptable way. Or maybe AT&T thinks its new friends in the content industry will let them into Hollywood parties if they help fight piracy. Whatever the explanation, AT&T is choosing a scary, expensive, and risky way to make a point. It is also, so far, alone on this one among Internet service providers; the cable industry is probably licking its chops in anticipation of new customers. That's why if this plan goes any further, and I were an AT&T shareholder, I'd have just one thought: SELL.

Christmas Time For The Jews

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:27:08 -0800

Sorry, Madonna.

An Amazing Austin Moment

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:55:59 -0800

Sunday night was the capper of the Knitter's two-night stand at the Continental. Rosie Flores was there, and brought a gift of cowboy boots to Exene, who wore them onstage with her sweet black dress.

It was a great show, even better than Saturday's. It was DJ Bonebrake's birthday. After the show we tripped upstairs to the Continental Gallery with a killer view of the capital and an subtle, efficient jazz combo. Then Billy Gibbons walked in and started hanging out. Me and K.H. started texting and mouthing "O M G" to each other. Billy hung with Dave Alvin for a while, tipped the band, then made his way downstairs and sat in with Haybale, an amazing country band with Redd on guitar. Redd has fingers as thick as kielbasa and a Fender Strat looks like a guitar hero toy in his hands. And yet he's so nimble and relaxed. Redd is too good! Dave Alvin said he wanted to watch Red, then go home and cry and burn his guitar. Then Billy Gibbons sat in with Haybale and everyone in the room started taking pics and texting O M G to their friends. Billy Gibbons is way into fingerpointing to emphasize key musical moments. He pointed a lot. Completely amazing and yet so laid back. I love it here.

this is so fucking great

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 16:55:41 -0800

http://www.midnightpajamajam.com/xtc.html

I'm Stoked To Be In Austin

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:10:20 -0800

Even though it took me longer to get here than I planned. After settlement my boyfriend suggested I stay in his bachelor box for the weekend, and I did. That stretched to almost three weeks. Then I packed up the car like Jenga, threw the dog in the back seat, and made it almost all the way to Virginia before getting a speeding ticket.

The drive was very beautiful, even though I lost my iPod. Yes, that iPod. Do you think the movers stole it? I don't really lose things. I had it with my digital camera and put them together in the same bag. Then, it disappeared. So as a penance, I listened to nothing but the radio for the whole drive. It wasn't that rough as I love the radio edits of hip-hop hits, and like to think that I can force the radio to play "Soulja Boy" by sheer force of will and some knob twiddling. TN has some pretty great college/indie stations, which was a nice surprise. When I finally landed in East Austin my dog got his ass kicked by the other two dogs that live here, now they all get along. There's a pecan tree in the back yard.

Since I've been here it's been taco taco taco, looking at homes (I checked out close to 40 before deciding to put a bid on a nice one in South Austin), and applying for jobs. I've seen some shows, gone to some bars, eaten some barbeque in Lockheart, TX. This weekend The Knitters do a two-night stand at the Continental, but Friday night there's this: http://www.skateparkofaustin.com/content.cfm?cid=1

I've never seen the Spits live! I'm so stoked.

I have a job interview Wednesday with a great local mag, it's glossy and slick but still down to earth and real. I hope they give me a shot. Have applied to other jobs like nuts and if all else fails I have a silver bullet.