.:DataWhat?:.

Things about 2004

in which we discuss the things that will always remind me of 2004,
be they good, bad, or just shit I just don't care about.

Gallant:

PJ
Best girl around.

Data Processing (The Crew, not necessarily The Task)
Consistently the hardest working buncha guys I know. I'd take a bullet for any one a them. Ferreal.

Patty Griffin's "Impossible Dream"
Heartwrenching and beautiful.

Drinking
Fuck, do I love drinking.

.:DataWhat?:.
.:DataWhat?:. was born this year because I was talking to somebody about the Subservient Chicken viral thing online and I was saying "Man isn't that funny?!?" and they were all like "I have no idea what you're talking about" and I was all like "Man, there oughta just be one place where people could go and see all this funny junk" so Rob set up this little message board community, but you had to become a member and sign in and all that, so I figured I'd just stick 'em on one page and then people here at work and pals could just hit it and see what's up. And Rob came up with the name. So he's the greatest.

Matt Pond PA's "Emblems"
Here's to songwriting. And we got to play with 'em which was a highlight of the year.

DSL
Never. Going. Back.

Scarlett Johansson
Just her acting though, it's a shame she's so ugly...

Blanche's "If We Can't Trust the Doctors"
Like a snake-oil carnival rolling into town.

Books
Not any one in particular, just books.

Maeve
Just a fucking cool broad.

Loretta Lynn's "Van Lear Rose"
Hi Dave! I hear you back there!

Cincinnati Chili
This blew up big in '04.

Firefly
If anybody wants to see this spectacular TV series on DVD, Penny and I have two loner sets. Just let us know.

Seeing The Darkness at Clutch Cargos.
Men what do rock, baby!

Lindsay Lohan
Love her or hate her (or just not be sure why she's famous 'cause she's really only been in a couple movies): She was everywhere in '04.

Blogs in general.
One of the things Dave Serra and I both do is to go to the top of a Blogger page and just click "Next Blog" and then click it again. There are a lot of people in this world, and nearly every one of 'em has a Blog.

Blogs specifically:
Rob's Blog: First with all the funniest stuff floating around out there, digs deep with the politics, and should be given the Pulitzer for his "Out Of Ten" feature. Rob Theakston 10/10

Matthew Tobey's City of Floating Blogs: Funniest guy I've ever met. Serious. And he occasionally gives links to Filthy Celebrity Imposter (which should be updated more often).

Whatevs.org: At times, I've been known to talk a lot of smack about Uncle Grambo. His taste is usually dumbfounding and often infuriating. The lingo tends to get on my nerves. I can't help but be envious of his traffic. So why do I check in on Whatevs about two-dozen times a day? Because it's hands-down the best pop-culture blog in the Internet. There's no better place for unsubstantiated celeb dirt, underage nip-slip pics or any other guilty-pleasure scoops. iously. (I wrote this text. iously...uh, Matt? Is "iously" a new Whatevs slang term? Christ, I can't keep up anymore...)

MotorCityRocks: Providing a free service, celebrating the true spirit of rock and roll in Detroit (and not just representing the usual suspects). Every Detroit band should buy the staff a beer. Oh, and Ryan, I am quite envious of your one million page views, thank you very much.

Toshi Station: The first blog ever. Consistently indulging my inner geek like none other.

Hem's "Eveningland"
Nighty Night.

Daisy
DataMutt.

Ish from Pimp My Ride.
So on the TV show Pimp My Ride, they take a junky car and bling it all out so it looks really fresh. The guys at West Coast Customs are all these bad-ass, from-tha-hood gang banger types with tattoos and gold teeth, and they go in and rip cars apart with their bare hands and do arc welding and power grinding and stuff: Tough bros. So they always have this round table discussion of what they're going to do to this '74 Impala, and one guy says "Oh, I'm gonna put 37-inch rims on it," and another guy talks about the hydraulics and whatever, then they get to Ish, who does "Interiors" and he says (in a dope Chicano accent) "Mang, we gonna do velour seats with a gold brocade piping and a nice gabardine wrap for the steering column, ees gon' be sweet, mang," and then he kisses his fingers like "MmmmmmWAH!" So then they go into the shop and guys are throwing sparks and eating raw metal, then they show Ish who is sewing on like a Husqvarna sewing machine. He's the best one. Much love Ish.

Paul Simon's first album.
Released in 1972 when he was 32, and I discovered it in August as I was turning 32.

Hi-Fives from Dave Serra.
Each worth their weight in gold.

Lil Porky's Pizza.
Right behind Fox Village Theater on Dexter-Ann Arbor road. Mark Deming called it "The Grease Wheel Supreme."

When Chris Holoka thought he was 33, and I revealed to him he was only 32.
He was so amazed. He bent over at the waist and started taking deep breaths like he was gonna pass out. He said it was like I had just told him he was adopted.

Madeleine Peyroux's "Careless Love"
I wish Billie Holiday would release another album...Oh good, here's this!

Rachael Yamagata's "Happenstance"
I wish Fiona Apple would release another album...Oh good, here's this!

Speaking of, Fiona Apple's new song "Extraordinary Machine" is extraordinary.
What the hell is wrong with Sony? Hey Sony: Release this Album!

Moving into the new building.
One big happy.

Karl
You know what I'm talking about.

Brian Wilson's "SMiLE"
This made me really, really happy.

The three of us finishing off a Crave Case on the way back from Jacoby's on the night that Stirling sang "Rocks Off" with us.
Oh, by the way: the van still smells like White Castle died in there.

Steve Bekkala.
Although he takes a lot of shit for being "Steve Version 2.0" and being a world adventurer and "The Kid" but he's brought a new spirit and a new spark to the band. Big ups, buddy.

Dan Trenz.
Brought some mad skills to the table. AMGRadio!!!

Faces' "Five Guys Walk Into a Bar..."
"There has never been a better box set than the Faces' Five Guys Walk into a Bar.... There has never been a box that captures an artist so perfectly, nor has a box set taken greater advantage of unreleased and rare material, to the point where it seems as essential and vital as the released recordings. Simply put, there's never been a box set as necessary as this, since it tells the band's entire tale and explains exactly what the fuss is all about." - Tom Erlewine

Homestarrunner
Best show on not TV.

Sloan's "Action Pact"
This album made me so glad to be in a band.

Charisma Carpenter taking off all of her clothes.
Warning: if you click on this link, you will see boobies.
If you are somewhere where you are discouraged from looking at boobies, you should probably not click on this link.
If you have never seen boobies before...well..this is actually a pretty good place to start.

Mozilla's Firefox
Lo, I am converted. Get it now.

Our pal Joyce lost a million pounds.
She seriously dropped like "A Jockey's Worth" of weight.

Watching Tennis.
Dunno why, this year we just got into it. I can assure you Maria Sharapova had nuthin' to do with it.

Google
Doin' it right, and busting out new stuff all the time.

Lee Morgan's "The Rumproller"
aw, Hells yeah.

Digital cameras
I took a lotta Pictures this year.

Havilland and Flatfoot
We played with a lot of bands this year, but Flatfoot and Havilland are blood brothers.

Points of Ellipsis
My favorite punctuation...It's just so...I dunno...conversational? Anyway...

Pals (The Lattice)
Much love. Ferreal.



Goofus:

The political heebie jeebies that took over my life for about three months this fall.
Christ, what was that about?

People moving away.
J+K, S+S, Blank00, I'm looking in your directions.

Slobberbone broke up.
Dragsville.

Stupid War.
Fer nuthin.

My Grandad died.
Best: He worked for GTE for most of his life and one of his jobs was dealing with small companies who wanted to expand and he would fly in and get their telecom and any A/V stuff they needed up to speed. Well, one of his jobs in the early Seventies was to help this little community access television company called Children's Television Workshop in New York because they were going to be doing a national show called "Sesame Street." So he goes out there and does his thing, working with Jim Henson and everything, and when he came back his only comment was "Not a one of them took a shower, and they all smelled like DOPE!" Sorely missed.

Firefly Movie pushed back to September 2005.
Universal, you punks.

The Michigan Quarter
"Hey, let's put The State on there!" "Hey, Great thinking!"
Morons.

Dog poop.
C'mon, who could really be for dog poop.

Radio
Eh, I kinda went off on this a couple days ago.

Tara Reid's boob
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of boobs...maybe the biggest, but I never need to see this boob again.



Completely Indifferent:

Paris Hilton
It may be cliché, but man oh man do I find that hawk-faced alien woman to be not attractive.

Movies
I can't think of one movie that I really, really enjoyed this year. C'mon Wes Anderson, don't let me down.

TV
See "Movies"

Janet Jackson's boob.
"My child saw a brief glimpse of a human breast on national television, and now the world is slowly grinding to a halt."

That guy who made up stuff for that one newspaper.
Who cares. Just fire him, it's not a national tragedy.

Sports.
Meh...

Steriod use in Sports.
See "Sports"

The Olympics.
NBC totally dumbed it down for the ADD crowd, and our CBC station never has any sound.

The media hype surrounding Scott Peterson killing his wife.
Do you know how many people get killed in Detroit every day?

Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, Rilo Kiley, !!!, The Arcade Fire, Deerhoof, The Fiery Furnaces, The Hives, The Killers, The Walkmen, The Secret Machines, The Streets, Kanye West, Gretchen Wilson, Interpol.
Meh...

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