7 Sweet New Indie Music Videos

Having a little extra time on my lunch break and wanted to share some new music I've been fave-ing on.

I don't advocate the message behind this song - but I do advocate dancing to it:



- If anything it shows how cool and fun it'd be to create an idea for a music video

- This one is... different... lol I heard the song on Sirius radio and kinda dug it, looked up the video and needless to say... it wasn't what I expected:



-  The chorus is pretty funky tho

-  I'll be seeing Metric at Mr. Smalls tonight so thought I should give them a shout out:



-  Metric comes from the ashes of Broken Social Scene (who I would kill to see live) but will have to settle for just some of its remnents.  I think tickets are still available.

- Love Is All is the band name and this song kind of reminds me of The Black Kids (actual name of band and not me being racist, but I understand):



-  And this one was my song for the summer, Sleepyhead by Passion Pit.  If there's one song here I put my reputation on it's this one:



- Monsters of Folk are : Conor Oberst, (Bright Eyes) Mike Mogis, (Producer-Guy) M. Ward (M. Ward) and Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket).  This song is great, this is the "best" video I could find for it:



-  Last and maybe least (not in my humble opinion) another band I'll be seeing at Mr Smalls pretty shortly, The Arctic Monkeys, this is hands down their best song on their new album (and yes I call them "albums"):

Why Do You Write?

Went to see former Pulitzer-Prize winning play "Glengarry Glen Ross" over the weekend at the New Hazlett Theater (or theatre?) and afterwards wondered to myself loudly - "why the hell have I never been to the New Hazlett?"  Its just another gorgeous theatre in Pittsburgh located next to the Children's museum, and I highly reccomend the setting.  The play itself - was fantastic.  Each actor fit his rolely perfectly, and Mamet's attacks on the "salesman" mentality, greed, and masculinity resonate even louder today given the current financial meltdown.  The play runs until this weekend - GO SEE IT!  And if you mention my name at the door - well, nothing happens, but still, it might be fun to try.

-  If you're a undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh... then gooood news....

-  Kurt Vonnegut gives his best advice on writing short stories:



-  Apparantly great writers are great thieves.  This will show you exactly how and why to steal

-  Here's a good question:  Why do you write?




-  I think I write because it's the only "career" that makes any sense to me.  Now if only I could make it into a "career"  then...



- Aww yeah!

Who Would Make Your Top 10 'Writer's Writer?

- A friend in blog as well as a friend in real life had an interesting response to the season finale of the New Yinzer's reading series. It was a fun night, Karl Hendricks gavesome wonderfully adsurd insight into the difference between fiction and reality in his story, and that seemed to be the theme between all three of the readers, all three reading stories with themself inserted as a main character.

- Chuck Kinder told some great stories about his encounters with "mythological" writing heroes including Neal Cassidy and Jack Kerouac. Here are the principals of writing according to Jack Kerouac:

- Seems like the writers of the past generation didn't have any stomach for b.s. in storytelling.

- "Despite the easy access of the Internet, there still are those who don't take advantage of its ability to reach thousands, even millions, of potential readers. "

- The best writing tips ever

- Top Ten 'Writer's Writer.'

- My Top Ten 'Writer's Writer list would look like:

10. Flannery O'Connor
9. Hunter S. Thompson
8. Ernest Hemingway
7. George Saunders
6. Franz Kafka
5. Tennessee Williams
4. F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Jack Keroauc
2. Kurt Vonnegut
1. William Faulkner

- What would your list look like? Or tell me my list sucks. Either/or. I'm very easy to please.

New Yinzer Season Finale Etc

- Chuck Kinder is the man! Having him as my professor for my Senior Seminar class was the icing on the cake of my educational experience. Legend is he was the inspiration for Pitt homeboy Michael Chabon's "Wonder Boys" which of course I've never read but have seen the movie:



- Chuck is the highlight of the New Yinzer's season finale at Modern Formations in Garfield, and the man will not disappoint, whether speaking of his alcohol-induced friendship with Raymond Carver or his time raised as a proud hillbilly in the heart of West Virginia, you can expect a night of laughter and jealousy for all his wonderful experiences.

- Another Chuck, this one who goes by the last name Palahniuk gives an eloquent description of something he refers to as "writer's constipation":



- Can someone explain to me why the President bowing to a world leader is such a big deal???



- Writer's are faced with a publishing landscape where they must self-promote. Here are 15 tips to promote your own writing

What Have I Done For You Lately...

Well - the short answer - nothing...

But the long answer is actually pretty good, hence the title of my upcoming memoir: "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone: My Six Months as a John Wayne Vegas Lounge Act"

So far - no one - wants to publish it.

Makes me so mad... stupid dying publishing industry... stupid internet... wait... I appear to actually be on the Internet as we speak, so from hence on forward, which is an expression that I've just made up, I will only speak kindly of the Internet and its ability to connect us all to our impending doom.

Alright, lets start recruiting and stuff and getting out the word and stuff