Happy Halloween

Brokrobi and Ekrobi, 1986

Building Museum

I would like to work at this place. Perhaps if they add three more curators they will add some assistant curator or collections positions as well...

Those pesky panic attacks

The Anxiety Disorders Association of America just sent me an email urging me to buy one of these wristbands in support of National Stress-Out Week. I think they are pretty dumb. I decided awhile back that they should say "CALM THE FUCK DOWN" instead. Dan also came up with a bipolar awareness wristband that says "I'm so happy I'm so depressed."

PSA for JEN

In case you didn't get an email from me, here's a message from Jen for those of you who'll be around DC on Thanksgiving:

Join us at the 4th Annual Thanksgiving Day Trot for Hunger, to benefit SOME (So Others Might Eat) and the WB50 Family Fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation. The Trot will begin on Ohio Drive between Independence Avenue and West Basin Drive in West Potomac Park at 8:30a.m. The course is 5K for walkers, runners, or trotters. Registration is $20 and all participants will receive an event t-shirt and refreshments. Please be sure to pre-register, as no sales are permitted on National Park Service property. For more information, check out www.some.org or call (202) 797-8806 x 1093.

Current music: James - "Born of Frustration"

The wit and wisdom of Danny Miwuh

On an acquaintance's mediocre ambitions vs. my lack of any ambition whatsoever:
"Well it's one thing to not know what you want; it's another thing to know what you want and have it be lame."

On a coworker who forwards him digital photos of puppies:
"Lord knows I love a puppy, but Jesus!!"

Current music: Interpol - "Evil" (on the radio)

Science vs. Norse Mythology

Funny cartoon/rant about intelligent design.

Current music: The Earlies - "Morning Wonder"

The next time I see Dan Bejar I'm gonna kick him in the shins

I was planning on writing about this weekend's New Pornographers show, but I'm not sure I can say much that Dan hasn't already said over on his blog (you might have to scroll down for his review). It was certainly neither the best nor the worst show I've seen this year. I did not dance SO HARD as I'd been promising to for months. The quick run down:
- Opening band number one, whose name escapes me for the moment, was cute and awkward. The girl on keys is Carl Newman's neice, I think, and she played with the NPs as well. The drummer had nipple rings and a big tattoo of an eagle across his chest.
- Opening band number two was Destroyer, so named, apparently, because they destroy every last bit of happiness in the listener's soul. The frontman, Dan Bejar (aka the weakest link of the NPs), looked like he was either bored, drunk, or had just received some very bad news. Or maybe all three. In any case, he did not look happy to be there, and his band did not look happy to be there with him. I've never seen such a mood killer. By the end of their set we were all ready to go home and slit our wrists.
- The New Pornographers succeeded in re-energizing everyone, which is pretty amazing considering the act they had to follow. They were fun. Not best-show-ever fun, but fun. That's all I can really say. I feel no need to see them again, but if the opportunity presented itself, I probably wouldn't say no. I think if I'd seen them after their second album it would have been more fun, as I only really like a few songs on the new one. I was happy to see a review I agreed with in the City Paper this week (scroll to the second half of the article)-- everyone's been raving about Twin Cinema, but I think it's their weakest record. Pretty good, but not great.

Current music: Mates of State - "Whiner's Bio"

Clap your hands say wha??

What is it about Clap Your Hands Say Yeah that makes them the big it band right now? Every time I hear them on the radio they get on my nerves a little bit.

Not getting drunk and she hates wearing heels

I never ever ever ever wear heels. Ever. Okay, maybe once a year. But almost never. I am going to be in a wedding this spring, though, and I don't want to fall over and embarrass the bride, so I decided I should just be a grown-up already and start practicing the heel-wearing thing now. I got tired of it about a block from my house this morning. Three things I learned that I cannot do while in heels:

1. Walk at my typical lightning speed. This made me five minutes late for work.
2. Run down escalators to catch trains. This made me an additional five minutes late for work.
3. Get away with not paying attention to spaces between bricks in the sidewalk.

Screw this looking-like-a-grownup thing.

I do like the fact that I get to make noise when I walk, though. That's fun.

One more

From On Tap magazine (two pages).

More hoofin'

The Washington Post's review of Savion's performance at the Strathmore.

I agree with what she says about balancing the amplification of the taps and the strings -- something was a bit off there. And I do prefer his hiphop stuff. But it was still a damn good show, I thought. He's really something special.

p.s. to Ree -- we missed you!

Current music: None. I'm working at the circ desk today.

Tap dance kid

An old article about Savion Glover.

And an excerpt from a January 6, 2005 New York Times review of "Classical Savion," the show I saw last night:

Mr. Glover performs virtually nonstop for two hours, mostly with an ensemble of classical musicians conducted by Robert Sadin but also with a jazz group, the Otherz, whose improvisations occasionally get some classical music input.

Acting as the great unifier, Mr. Glover suggests that whatever the idiom it's all music. Well, yes, but one doesn't usually hear Bach almost drowned out by a big percussive beat.

At the other extreme, the opening number to four excerpts from Vivaldi's ''Four Seasons'' is astounding. The expected virtuosic display from Mr. Glover is as nuanced as ever, but it is also a piece of live musical analysis. What you hear, as you usually don't in the concert hall, is the rhythmic structure in Vivaldi that Mr. Glover's tap rhythms offer both in dialogue with the music and as parallel annotation.

This is great dancing with great musicality. Mr. Sadin, whose warm collaborative spirit is a big part of the evening, felt impelled halfway through the show to tell the audience: ''There are very few musicians who understand music so well as Savion. He absorbs the music; he knows all the inner parts.''

Current music: Blackalicious, "World of Vibrations"

Meet Camille

Conversation with my one of my favorite coworkers:

Ekrobi: So I'm leaving an hour early tonight to go see Savion.
Camille: Savion Glover?
E: Yeah.
C: Isn't it weird how he's all old now?
E: Huh? He's like 35.
C: Yeah, but he used to be all small and on Sesame Street all the time! It's like when Webster grew up and you were all like, "ew!"

This is not my tune, but it's mine to use

I know Danny posted this link to Joanna Newsom on All Songs Considered awhile ago, but here it is again. Or here it is for the first time, for those of you who don't know Dan. Anyway, Joanna Newsom is this amazing songwriter who sounds like the bastard love child of Sarah Vowell and Diane Rehm. She sings and plays the harp and is only 23 years old. Go listen to the song and tell me what you think. I think it's beautiful.

The hardest button to button

Guess what Jen and I acquired this weekend in addition to pumpkin muffin mix?

A BUTTON MACHINE! Or, for those across the pond, a BADGE MACHINE!

That's right, we went into AC Moore and fifteen dollars later came out with a button machine. Inspiration came from my oldest friend Maria down home in HPT, who makes homemade punk rock buttons out of pages ripped from Japanese magazines.

My plan is to make "I heart Ekrobi" buttons and distribute them to the general public. Jen wants a button that says "Draft SUV drivers first." Dan wants something along the lines of "I don't work in consulting." And there will be Korean Pancake Thanksgiving buttons, natch. What kind of button do you want? Ideas? Morgan? Anyone?

Current music: Pinback - "Talby"

Eeeeeeee!

I'm working the late shift and KEXP is playing TOM WAITS!! Tom Waits! On the radio! The only other time I heard Tom Waits on the radio was when Dan and Morgan played one of his songs on their radio show in college.

Celebritekrobi

I sent an email last week to John, my favorite DJ at KEXP. I was going to submit a request for something by a DC band and he played Fugazi before I got the chance to do so, so I wrote to let him know how amazingly on top of things I thought he was. This morning I got an email from a Seattle-based AP reporter who is working on a story about KEXP's expanding influence. He happened to be in the booth when my email came in and wants to interview me. I'm almost famous! Or maybe just really lame for emailing DJs while I'm at work.

Other news:
- I went to the bank yesterday and they were GIVING AWAY DOUGHNUTS!! for some sort of customer appreciation day.
- Band t-shirts are finally in the works for Korean Pancake Thanksgiving! Now we just need to write some songs, get some instruments, and learn to play them. You knew I was in an imaginary band, right? Yeah, for over 3 years now.
- It's MOJO'S 25th BIRTHDAY! Happy birthday to Morgan.