If your day is full of heartbreak at the hands of dognappers

This might cheer you up a bit. It's helping me some.

Help! Stolen Dog!

Molly, a 4 year old Viszla that some good friends of mine take care of, was stolen from outside the P St Whole Foods last night around 6 p.m. I have met this puppy, and she is the sweetest thing on the planet. If you see her or have any info, please contact the owners at findmollydog@gmail.com.



Molly is about 60 lbs, with short, red/rust hair. She is very friendly and responds to her name. She has a scar inside her right hind leg and wears a pink nylon collar with cupcakes on it. Owners are offering a reward.

I've been sick

Stomach flu or something like that. Not fun! But as the filet o' fish I realized I couldn't live without as I drove home just proved, I'm back on solid foods!

Also, apparently I have a new ritual. Without planning it, the last couple times I've had days off work due to being illlllll, I've watched How I Met Your Mother dvds. And man, I always forget how long it takes Ted & Robin to get together. And man, Ted, you sure are boring!

that emu thinks he's brian fellows!

A little while ago, I was sure I found the best human meets bird story of the day. I mean, seriously, how can you bean a story of an adorable young zookeeper incubating a rejected emu egg, and the chick thinking, from birth, that he's her father. You can't right? WRONG! Along came the tale of the hawk and the jerk chicken joint. Happy Friday, people.

Oldies but Goodies

My iTunes just served up "Portions for Foxes," which reminded me of a conversation Spencer and I had many many many moons ago.

Me: It's like that Rilo Kiley song. "The talkin' leads to touchin'..."
Spencer: "And the touchin' leads to sex."
Me: "And then there is no mystery left. And it's bad news bad news bad news."
Spencer: Oh, right. I think guys just stop listening at "sex."

This has got to be the most ernest hug of all time.

Catherine captures the love that you get for stuffed zucchini and cherry cobbler.

I went to three shows last week

My gushing take on Dirty Projectors/TV on the Radio is over at DCist. It was just phenomenal.

Harlem Shakes/Passion Pit: Tom has some good points. And so does Nathaniel. Overall: the Shakes reek of intense musicianship and are just a really, really good band that can play around all circumstances and make it worth an audience's time. Passion Pit were enjoyable but not at all impressive. Sort of like when you're at a club that's playing the same droney electronica song after song after song. And you're dancing and having fun and people are pretty and the lights are shiny, so you're having a good time! But, the music's not particularly inspiring. Passion Pit just didn't give much to the audience, and the most exciting musical moments they provided were from pre-recorded back tracks. So. Harlem Shakes FTW.

The Avett Brothers weren't as inspiring as when we saw them in Charlottesville last year, but it should still be said -- it's incredibly refreshing to see a band that goes completely all the way out for their fans, and see their fans give it all the way back to them. Jaded by my status quo (indie rock crowds that talk and give bands they've paid to see disregard), it was really great to see a crowd completely rapt and devoted to what was happening up on stage. The show had some pacing issues -- they came out of the gate really strong with a few of their big fast barn burners, then played about 45 minutes' worth of slow ballads. Which pretty much flattened the tires on the whole experience. All that said, I'm glad Catherine and I went. And that we totally hung out* with Bjork afterwards at Cashions.

Haven't been to any shows so far this week, but Thursday night I'm seeing Nouvelle Vague at the French Embassy (!!!), and next week, Fort Reno starts!


*Here, the term "hung out" is defined as sitting at a bar about 20 feet away from the table she and her friends were having dinner at.

Need to brush up on my 90s

I'm so embarassed! My knowledge of 90s music & movie trivia is something I hold most dear. And while whipping up today's Weekly Music Agenda for DCist, I saw that Better Than Ezra are in town. Weird!, I thought. You know what'll be funny? Instead of a photo, I'll put in a funny YouTube -- I know the perfect one! I found it quickly enough, but then realized -- that isn't BTE playing in the background at all! It's the Gin Blossoms! (Though, BTE does have a song on this soundtrack -- just not this song.) At any rate, here's a little 90s enuie to get you through your Monday:

Benchmarks

As the range of what I'm willing to stick on my head or put on my face as a boredom-inspired fashion statement grows ever-widening, I'll keep this in mind as the official point of "going too far." Not that I'm opposed to feathers or metalic face paint. Just maybe not all that at once.

Also: I hate everyone on the Internet

It was quite a weekend here in DC. Friday night featured an hours long getting ready party at my house, where I got to watch Alyssa use her Arkansas and cheerleading backgrounds by teasing the shit out of Kate's hair. We put on a ton of eye shadow and hideous outfits and went out for falafel and dancing. Andrew, Mary and I shared the world's strongest drink at the Black cat, immediately became too drunk to be in public anymore, retreated back to my house and fell asleep watching Blue Crush. SO, it was a pretty great evening.

Saturday I made it to one of the three BBQs I planned on attending. Partial Amanda Fail. But! I did manage to concoct a delicious orzo pesto salad out of things I had in my house/grew in my garden. Just let the food processor form a holy union between a big handful of basil, two or three big handfuls of arugula, a few cloves of garlic, a healthy dose of shredded gruyere, some chopped walnuts, some chopped pine nuts, a touch of salt, some crushed red peppers, and oil as needed (I used both olive oil and walnut oil).

While that's coming together, I sauteed some onions, zucchini, squash and mushrooms just until they started to soften a bit. Mix that all together with the orzo I didn't mention cooking (but hey, for your orzo salad, you'll need some cooked orzo. go figure.), and voila! You have a delicious side for a "congratulations on getting eloped!" bbq.

Back to the rest of my weekend: the bbq was delightful. As I slowly recovered from all that delight, I started watching series 2 of Skins, newly arrived from Netflix. Man is that a good show. No trumped up very special episodes teaching kids lessons on how to make serious decisions. Just real, gritty, intriguing teen characters, doing real, destructive, honest, twisted, truer-to-life-than-riding-a-rowboat-to-your-neighbor's-house-and-climbing-in-his-window things (but probably much much grittier than anything that happened in my actual life as a teenager). Told amazingly well and acted by an incredible cast. Highly recommend this one. (Obviously, start with the first season. It's very character-driven and they don't dumb anything down to bring the audience up to speed on what's happened in the past.)

After a few DVD/nap filled hours, it was on to Sunday's main activity. Not content with just one communal meal with all my friends in the weekend, Miller and I went to the fish market and picked up a bushel and a half of Maryland's finest. We proceeded to use plenty of old bay, and made an incredible feast -- crabs (of course), grilled corn, hot dogs, watermelon, frozen snickers (a Mattos family tradition after crab picking), light beer and basketball finals. It was an aggressively American summertime event, and it was bliss.

And now! It's back to work, but more excitingly: Dirty Projectors and TV on the Radio tonight! Harlem Shakes and Passion Pit tomorrow! Top Chef Masters on Wednesday! Avett Bros on Thursday! Collapsing into a heap of exhaustion and rock overexposure on Friday!

DC Chillin

Tabi Bonney & Wale & UCB & Rare Essence & Young Chris & all the other people on stage last night at the 9:30 damn well killed it. I must say, I truly was not expecting Wale to start speaking French and freestyle over "D.A.N.C.E." Or cover "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Anyway, enjoy his just-released video for "Chillin."

A Day In the Mind of Me

♫ or, what I would normally put in my gchat status updates, but I'm dumping here for a change

the number of self-inflicted wounds I've incurred on my left hand in the past couple days is starting to make me think that my left hand is haunted.

man, cookies are the best!

oh my god a bird just flew into my window and fell. and i assume... died.

oh holy crayons, why is MT so deeply and utterly opposed to the Weekly Music Agenda Graham wrote?!?!@@?!#$#@? It is a perfectly fine agenda!

I'm pretty sure that I never opened a webshots account. So why do I get these weekly notices of how many views my "photos" have gotten? And why do I seem to steadily get one view a week?

squeeeeeeeeee! friends got hitched! in secret! 1,000 yays.

"Hot Child in the City" is a good song.

I'm going to see Wale on Wednesday at the 9:30. You should too. http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/music/byt-interview-wale/

Visions of flank steak are dancing in my head. Come ooooooon end of the day! Come oooooooon dinner with Kate!

I'm pretty shocked that searching my gmail for "emily, gin" only returns three results.

Reason #18942 PIAB is the bestest: http://pygmalioninablanket.blogspot.com/2009/06/huge-mexican-hats.html

For you, LSG

XKCD, of course.

Pretty cool

Kudos to the marketing team behind this new Volkswagen campaign. The GTI Project website is rad.