Re: Non-Creepy Blog Crush

1

She's very articulate.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 7:36 AM
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In the spirit of honest self assessment, I will admit that my blog crush on Carrie Brownstein is actually pretty creepy. It's under control, to be sure, but anyone looking at it from the outside certainly say "creepy."


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 7:39 AM
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I'll take that as you saying she's out of my league.


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 7:39 AM
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4

3 to 1.

Or the articulateness could be due to her degree in sociolinguistics.


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 7:40 AM
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re: 4

I'm not sure those things are particularly correlated. This holds for all degree subjects, pretty much.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 7:41 AM
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6

Articulate for a chick singer.

The NPR affiliation is disturbing.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 7:43 AM
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From her blogpost on No Country for Old Men:

What struck me most was the lack of music within the film.

Weird. That was precisely the very first thing I mentioned after seeing that movie.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 7:47 AM
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6: I think of her more as a guitarist/rocker than a singer.

I have little fantasies of talking philosophy of language with her.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 7:55 AM
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Yeah, I imagine that farmers come out of movies saying "No farmers in that movie either. Damn."


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 7:55 AM
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Her FAQ is probably the hippest thing on NPR. And stop creeing her out, helpy-chalk! We're here to establish that Brownstein should be friends with Becks, who is decidedly awesome and non-creepy. Or are you heightening the contrast?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 7:58 AM
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She wrote about her SCN&Y/Eagles-listening dad without evident hatred.

To make things clear, CSN&Y was far too sweet for me, and the Eagles are my gold-standard horrible band. They're a real bargain because I hate Frey and Henley individually too. Walsh's "Been there, done that" was hilarious, though, and I hope was intended that way. I'm sure I'd hate everything else he's done.

If I were a completist I'd hate Timothy B. Schmidt too, but screw him.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 7:59 AM
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I saw some kind of interview with her in PDX and she was very soccer mom.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 8:01 AM
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Hmm.

Since the hiatus of Sleater-Kinney, Brownstein has begun working at Portland ad agency Wieden+Kennedy.[4] Her former bandmate Janet Weiss worked there before she joined Sleater-Kinney,[5] and has called the company "an evil advertising empire," saying she "quit and washed her hands of it."

Probably just to pay student loans though, right?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 8:02 AM
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Walsh's "Been there, done that" was hilarious, though, and I hope was intended that way.

How could it not be intentional, have you listened to the rest of the album? (If you haven't, I don't recommend it, but I get "Everyone who tries to deny it / Wears a tie / And gets paid to lie." stuck in my head occasionally).


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 8:05 AM
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Advertising jingles is one of the few ways musicians in Portland can make an actual living. Sad but true. TV and radio stations are always needing little music fills. Another way is Irish music, country cover bands, and other stuff that drunks like.

Sleater-Kinney's critical and cult success probably was not accompanied by tons of money. The Decemberists are getting by without day jobs, but they're not buying Mercedes or anything.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 8:06 AM
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Only thing by Walsh I've heard.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 8:06 AM
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Only thing by Walsh I've heard.

You might like "Song For a Dying Planet" -- the song from which I quoted, and the title song of the album.


Posted by: Nick | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 8:08 AM
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Does your son know Brownstein, John?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 8:09 AM
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No, my son is an obscure figure. He may have met her in groups. He's pretty good friends with several Decemberists.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 8:11 AM
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Well, I don't want to like Walsh, so I won't.

This is cliche, so shoot me, but to me the Eagles is all the 60s stuff stripped of its interesting or hopeful side and packaged for rich stupid selfish people who like to fuck and get loaded.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 8:13 AM
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This has nothing to do with making Carrie and Becks BFFs, but I saw Excuse 17 and Heavens to Betsy on what I think was the Carrie-and-Corin-start-dating tour. If only I had a time machine! I could have given her a list of world events predicted in Nostradamus-esque doggerel, culminating with "Brady all passing records wrecks / In the year 07, when you meet Becks." That wouldn't be creepy at all, and could lead to a fun Dan Brown book as she attempts to find out who this mysterious Becks is, and why she's so into the Patriots.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 8:19 AM
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And I just remembered: if Catherine can become Kristen Bell's BFF through blogging, there's hope for me yet!


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 8:47 AM
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23

Walsh's solo stuff is way, way more enjoyable than the Eagles. He's the only interesting one in that band.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 9:01 AM
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24

The next thread should be exclusively for creepy blog-crushes.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 9:08 AM
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Carrie Brownstein is teh hott. Can't we save her from NPR by offering her a spot at Unfogged?


Posted by: Bave Dee | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 9:24 AM
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Wieden+Kennedy

I saw someone with a Wieden+Kennedy t-shirt or bag (I think bag, actually) the other day on the subway. Now we know it's a new countercultural signifier.


Posted by: Bave Dee | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 9:26 AM
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23:Word. From James Gang to There Goes the Neighborhood, however good you might think Walsh is, and he got a little 70s, he is still more interesting than the Eagles.

Speaking of NCFOM, save Javier Bardem in The Sea Inside last night on TV. Good, but as sentimental as the subject matter and kindness toward real people would require. Consider this a continuation of the "Depressing Movies" thread. One could do a double-header, or a Javier film festival, because I can think of several other depressing JB movies. Or one could watch This with "No Country", and Before Night Falls with "Sea Inside", depending on your particular genus in the taxonomy of despair.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 9:44 AM
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Not sure you're on a list at all, Becks. No offense or anything.


Posted by: sin | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 11:09 AM
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28: Hey, she's been mentioned in Salon and everything. That counts.


Posted by: Matt F | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 11:59 AM
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She's on my list.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 12:00 PM
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31

Becks, call Ben and tell him you're sorry for making of him in high school.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 12:04 PM
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20: This bolsters my case for the Eagles as Most Important American Rock Band.

Solo artists are excluded.


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 12:07 PM
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32: In the Last Man sense, the Eagles are that indeed. Civilization has not recovered.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 12:12 PM
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New post! She should totally blog at Unfogged:

I read that Oprah announced her "Favorite Things" earlier this week. A Panini maker? Really? So that every lunch feels like the lunch you eat at your office?

Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 12:55 PM
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35

Come on, panini are great.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 12:58 PM
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We used to see Carrie at our dog park in Portland. She was extremely down to earth, as you'd expect. We never mentioned SK, though, as dog parks seem like they should be stalker-free zones. Who wants to deal with annoying fans when you're just trying to play with your dog?


Posted by: Funky | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 2:19 PM
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I keep meaning to try listening to Sleater-Kinney (and other post-1988 musical phenomena), but I have a very hard time getting past the mental image of the street for which the band is named (on which my mom used to work), which is less than inspiring.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 2:24 PM
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I remember the freeway exit, which strikes me as a good band image.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 2:55 PM
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39

Ugh. South Sound Center, slowly dying since about 1980?


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 2:58 PM
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Panini are delicious, and if there are tasty hot panini available at your office, you should be damn grateful.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 3:01 PM
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37:"I keep meaning to try listening to Sleater-Kinney (and other post-1988 musical phenomena"

I am in the process of clearing space to put back more modern rock, and God it hurts. I love twee and the Sarah Record sound, and Throwing Muses wasn't bad at all, but I grew up in a house of women yelling & screaming (at each other more than at me), and I just don't need Sleator-Kinney.

Indigo Girls and MacLachlan and others have never left my playlist.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 4:59 PM
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Freeway exits are an underused source of cool phrases. I like the

Cranberry
Mars

exit on I-79 north of Pittsburgh.

Pairs of towns all over the US have been joined together by the mysterious ways the names of exits are chosen.

Annville
Fort Indiantown Gap

Paxtonia
Linglestown

Elizabethtown
Rheems

Shillington
Sinking Spring


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 5:29 PM
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My experience of panini is mostly pre-made sandwiches in chain cafes. I associate them with "wraps." Teh meh.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 5:46 PM
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42: There's an I-64 exit for:

Rockville
Manakin

A local band wrote an e.p. bearing the same name.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 5:49 PM
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42: IIRC there's an exit south of Portland signed Lebanon Sweet Home.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 5:59 PM
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I'm with Bob: I can't stand the wailing. And so earnest! I get enough of that crunchiness already from living in Olympia.


Posted by: Michael Vanderwheel, B.A. | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 6:03 PM
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Premade panini are an idiotic scheme, I cannot deny. All pre-pressed and cold and wrapped in plastic? Oof.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 6:10 PM
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Is "panini" merely a pretentious foreign word for "grilled sandwich"?


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 11-21-07 6:28 PM
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