adrian is rad

Regret the Error is a blog that collects errata and corrections from newspapers around the world. They are often funny.

Example:

In an interview with Jodie Marsh (I could’ve been a lawyer, page 12, G2, January 25) we referred to the silicon-enhanced charms of her rival, Jordan. Silicon is a non-metallic element, as in silicon chip. Silicone is the polymer used in breast implants. This has been corrected on five previous occasions: February 29 2000; June 20 2000; May 31 2001; November 10 2004; October 21 2005

Also, on a completely unrelated note, a one-liner in an email from my mom that I thought was pretty great:

The frenzy builds in Pittsburgh. Can anyone survive?

I just finished watching the last of the DVDs of the 7Up! series. The documentary film series starts with fourteen participants of various backgrounds at the age of 7 in England and follows up with them every 7 years. Thus far, 7 Plus 7, 21 Up!, 28 Up!, 35 Up! and 42 Up! have been released on DVD. 49 Up! has been recorded and perhaps has aired, but hasn’t been released on DVD.

There are sort of two premises to these films. One is that Britain is a class society and a persons class determines their opportunities in life. The second is the Jesuit phrase “give me the child at the age of seven and I will give you the man. To an extent, both of these phrases are proven and to some extent not.

I liked this series a lot. I found watching these kids go through their lives in rapid succession (I watched these six documentaries in about two months) facinating. For the most part these are just normal people living their lives, but the comparisons over the years and between the various people are interesting.

These definitely take some patience to watch, but they’re worth it.

As a bearded man, I appreciate this analysis of the beards of Roethlisberger and Plummer and their effect on the outcome of the AFC championship game.

here’s this week’s playlist, made up completely of covers.

A reminder: I’m on the radio on wednesdays these days. 10pm-midnight. Tomorrow will be my first day at that slot. I’ll be doing a special program consisting of only cover versions of songs. I’m really excited; I have some great stuff picked.

A request: anyone that is super 31337 out there: can you find Aqueduct’s cover of “Damn It’s Good to be a Gangsta”? I loved their version and would love to play it tomorrow, but I have had zero luck finding it online. It’s likely going to be off of a live recording because I don’t think they’ve recorded a studio version out there. I’ll post it if anyone can find it. Thanks!

I was walking by (not into) the Vapor Room, one of the medical marijuana clubs in San Francisco and there was a guy standing outside smoking.

“Oh, pot? yeah, come in and smoke away. You want to smoke cigarettes? Yeah, I’m going to have to ask you step outside.”

Steelers won another one on the road, this time to get to the Superbowl.

I watched the game at Shanghai Kelly’s again. By game time they were turning people away—dug almost couldn’t get in until I said he was with me (and I was inside already). I’d guess somewhere between eighty and a hundred people in there.

After last game, it was nice to see a game more in control this week. The Steelers looked really good out there. I’m pretty happy with our* chances out there against either of the teams that may be representing the NFC (it looks like it’ll be Seatle at this stage).

*I acknowledge that it’s a bit stupid to use the first person possessive when talking about teams that one supports, but I like it anyway.

A post script of sorts: Two funny stories from half-time. I went out to a store to grab a sandwhich because Shanghai Kelly’s doesn’t serve food. 1) a Bronco’s fan was in the store. I didn’t say anything (though it was 24-3 by that stage) because I thought I’d be nice. To my Bettis jersey, he said “I hope Bettis dies.” Wow. 2) The bagger was talking to the cashier while I was in line. “It’s possible to be a sports fan and not be a total douche. I don’t think people realize that,” to which I said “I try [not to be a total douche].”

Entries for covers contest #13 were due on Tuesday. I finished mine Monday but was waiting for other to come in. Dave says he has one recorded.

The original, to remind you, was You Can’t Hurry Love by the Supremes.

Entry:

• Adrian
• Dave

I’ll set up voting and put Dave’s up if he ever gets it online.

I recorded mine while hoarse from yelling during last week’s game. I’m not particularly happy with it.

I haven’t really enjoyed the covers contest for a while and I don’t think I’m getting much out of it anymore. Add that to the fact that we’re not getting three entries any week and it’s about time to shut this thing down, so this will be the last of the covers contest, quite possibly forever. Thanks to all that listened and voted on the songs.

[Update: Dave finally got his cover online. It is posted and linked to above.]

9-10am: Live with Regis and Kathy Lee
10-10:30am: Family Feud
10:30-11am: Brady Bunch
11am-noon: The Price is Right
noon-12:30: the news (or lunch)
12:30-1pm: Doogie Howser, MD
1pm-1:30pm: the Wonder Years

Man, good thing I’m not such a loser now.

On Saturday I watched a couple spaghetti westerns with the lovely Laura, in what shall be dubbed as Spaghetti Western Fest 1. (I chose these by going down the IMDB Top 250 and finding the best-rated ones and also by looking at Sergio Leone movies.)

The first one that we saw was Once Upon a Time in the West. This is a complex story about a number of outlaws of mysterious backgrounds who all interact with a woman who has just moved out west from New Orleans to find that the husband she was moving out to live with has been killed along with his children. This one is long (2 hr 45 min) and deliberately paced at times. A lot of very intense scenes and a lot of characters to keep track of. It took some patience but I liked it.

The second was A Fistful of Dollars (part of the Man with No Name Trilogy with For a Few Dollars More and the Good, the Bad and the Ugly). This is a classic spaghetti western with Clint Eastwood. This has a pretty simple story about a rough newcomer to town playing off of two major warring gangs for monetary gain. Of course our man Clint turns out to not be completely ruthless. I found that this movie ended about half an hour after I expected it to; that is the happy ending came and then the movie continued on, so that it actually a much darker ending. I liked this too, but I think the better of these two is, if you have the patience, Once Upon a Time in the West.

I also had The Good, the Bad and the Ugly but Laura had already seen it, so we chose Fistful of Dollars as the second.

I’d never really seen any Spaghetti Westerns and, in fact, besides the excellent Unforgiven, I hadn’t seen any westerns. I think part of the attraction is in an environment with few laws, what you see is pretty primal, the fight between good and evil, the very base-level human nature comes out.

Both of my radio shows (on KZSU of course) moved slots in the schedule for the next quarter.

I Once Was Canadian, my indie rock show, will now be on Wednesdays 10pm-midnight. That sort of sucks, I know, for you East Coast people. Maybe in the comments people can suggest tools for ripping the stream.

Breakfast Special, formerly the Lunch Special, will be on Wednesdadys from 9-10am. The show brings on Stanford professors and they play some music they bring and between songs they are interviewed. I will still be producing the show and hosting some of the shows, but I’m handing off most of the hosting duties to a veteran DJ at the radio station, Byrd.

So be advised!

Wow, what an game.

Dug and I went down to watch it at Shanghai Kelly’s, which must be one of the most crazy Steeler bars outside of Pittsburgh. It’s a relatively small neighborhood bar in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. Pretty unsassuming really, but when I arrive half an hour before game time, all the seats were filled with people donning Steelers gear and there were a number of people standing already. Beers were being consumed (keep in mind, this was 9:30am PST). By the start of the game, it seemed like everyone had one under their belt already and the place was packed—maybe 60 people there. Some were old timers, undoubtedly fans from the 70s dynasty era and others were younger, raised on Jerome Bettis and Cowher football.

It was really funny, I met people from Peters Township, Mt. Lebanon (the neighboring towns) and Upper St. Clair (my alma mater) there. It was a boisterous and fun place to watch a game. People were cheering at every chance they got and on the big plays, I was high-fiving and hugging people I didn’t know.

I sort of poke fun at people in Pittsburgh for living and dying with this team, but I have to admit I was bouyed by this game and experience.

These thoes…these thoes make me feel like thpidahman!

I haven’t made a fun list in while. Here’s something interesting that I discovered today.

3 good songs that have “I will follow” in the title:

• I will follow you into the dark Death Cab for Cutie
• I will follow U2
• I will follow him Little Peggy March

Any know any other good ones? How about bad ones? So far I’ve only discovered good songs that have “I will follow” in the title.

playlist.

check it out bitches!

I saw the first part of Country Boys on PBS last night. It’s a documentary mini-series following two boys growing up in Floyd County, Kentucky, a very poor area of the Appalachians. Chris lives in a trailer in a “holler” and has trouble getting his work done at school, often missing school to take care of his alcoholic father. Cody is in a Christian metal band and has a girlfriend he talks about marrying.

I found it really interesting. It’s easy for people to make fun of people like this, but this is life. This is how a lot of people live their lives. Growing up in probably the biggest city in the Appalachians, I wasn’t far from people who lived in similar situations, but we still made fun of people from West Viriginia. I think in some ways these people are more America than a big city like San Francisco.

The challenge of watching a program like this is not simply not passing judgement, but trying to understand them. Or you could just say they’re a Red Stater, that they should be kept in the mountains or made a separate country called “Jesusland,” laugh your cynical laugh and go on feeling superior. Wait, which group is supposed to be the “open-minded” ones?

You can watch the first episode online and the next two episodes are tonight and tomorrow, I believe.

Something I’ve noticed about football, or people talking about football recently is that games are often talked about as, for instance, “Pittsburgh vs. Cincinatti.” In reality, of course, Pittsburgh is not playing Cincinatti; it is simply the team in that city versus the team that resides in the other city. This is a very common occurance in football (except for two team cities like New York, with the Giants and Jets), more so than other sports. I don’t remember people talking much about “Toronto playing Boston”—it was usually “the Blue Jays vs. the [Red]Sox.” People don’t call the Pirates “Pittsburgh.”

In poetry or literature they call a part representing a whole a synecdoche.

I’m wondering if this ties in to the attachment and involvement cities feel for their teams and visa versa. Pittsburgh may be a fringe example, but I know the city lives and dies with the Steelers and the team is exceptionally devoted to the fans and the city, in a way they’re not devoted to the Pirates or the Penguins. It could be that Pittsburgh is a “football” town and similar devote occurs elsewhere for other sports (Boston to the Red Sox comes to mind).

NPR has a nice recorded interview/ performance with my favorite Swedish crooner, Jens Lekman.

Iron & Wine and Calexico were pretty good on the Late Late Show last night., I was pretty tired by the time they came on, though.

In other news, I think I write too much about music.

What’s with bands dropping their names recently.

Pedro the Lion will now be going just by David Bazan.

The One Am Radio will now be called just Hrishikesh Hirway.

ooh shiny!

Set your tivos! Iron & Wine and Calexico are playing on the Late Late Show tonight.

(via who else but stereogum)

Playlist!

It’s fun to be back on the radio.

Did anyone catch Yesterday yesterday? good movie.

The cover for two weeks from today is Can’t Hurry Love by Diana Ross and the Supremes (original).

Of course you can remind yourself of the rules of the covers contest if you forget.

Actually tomorrow on PBS!

The movie is Yesterday.

PBS is showing it (without commercials, like PBS does) tomorrow (Wednesday) at 9pm. It doesn’t even come out on DVD until next Tuesday!

It’s a good movie about a woman with AIDs in the rural Zululand area of South Africa. It’s the first isiZulu feature-length movie.

The steelers pulled it off and will be in the playoffs. Way to go, boys.

I’m happy the Bus got 3 TDs in what will likely be his final game in Pittsburgh. Let’s hope they can get to the Superbowl for him and for all of Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, I haven’t been posting a ton and I probably won’t be posting much as mmt and mim are in town for the rest of the week.