happy birthday matthew ...

dear strongbad,
today is matts 29th birthday.
sincerely,
steve sydney, AUS


thank you steve and sydney or steve sydney. do people ever call you 'ss' and make like silly snake sounds that really annoy you and make you jump up an shout "stop hissing in my ear you idiot!"

no seriously matthew -

lots of love to you on your 29th. shit i probably shouldnt of told everyone how old you are since there is an unusually high volume of readily available 20 something women who read this super sweet blog. dont worry your street cred is still sky high.

love

lil brudda

obama just armor plated his achilles heel ...

looks like senator joe biden will be obamas running mate for the november showdown with mccain. like the article says obama is cover his lack of foreign policy experience butt with the head of the senate foreign relations committee. seems like this is what he needed to do to stop any attack, BUT it lacks that fire and integrity to fix dc from the outside-in that i had come to feel obama had. but at the same time the guy needs to be elected if hes going to do anything eh?

new music, sunshine, and life ...

so lets focus on the 1st theme of this week's blog topics for today...

new music: i have been crushing it lately with regards to tunes. i have invested in a 320 gb external hard drive and have moved my music collection to the next level of cataloging, storing, and well im at 318 albums right now with many many more to come! (note: big thanks to bracey, jb, and owl&bear)

so here is what i have been obsessing over lately:

- mgmt - 'oracular spectacular' i finally broke down and got the mgmt album and have to admit that i really dig the dirty electro pop and party themes that fill the album. i am pretty sure most people have heard 'time to pretend' as it is has found serious airplay on college radio over the summer and is even on hollywood soundtracks. despite what the guys from the balck keys say, this album is worth a listen and would probably go well with any of your end of summer/labor day driving trips.

- bon iver - 'for emma, forever ago' with winter coming to a close over here and on the distant horizon over there its only natural that a bloke with the name bon iver should get a mention. (note: the phrase bon hiver means good winter en francais) the album has been getting some serious hype by some folks who i really look to for musical guidance and whos opinion i totally respect, and well i kind of dig it. its nice to see guys like Justin Vernon bringing back the idea of singer-song writer/creative musician extraordinary. 'flume' and 'skinny love' are the songs that are getting air time and are the so called singles off the album, but i am a huge fan of 'lump sum'. there is no need to wait for the changing of the seasons to check this one out.

- fleet foxes - 'fleet foxes' so the 1st fleet foxes album is one of the handful of records that i have to publicly thank bracey for turning me onto. out of the three cds that i am talking about this week this is by far my favorite! seattle and subpop records have again put out an amazing band and an amazing product in this cd. the songs are eerily harmonic and organic in the sense that they are earthy, true, and softly folk styled. my 1st thought about fleet foxes, and i mean this in the best way, is that they can be thought of as the illegitimate love child between jim james of my morning jacket and iron & wine. in other words stunning vocals and harmonies coupled with original guitar + banjo work = an incredible album!

wilco for me,and you, and everyone we know ...

radio cure

semesters back on ...

time for the 2nd and final round of classes for my masters. for those of you keeping score at home heres what we are up against this go-round.

us security and foreign policy
asia-pacific politics
environmental politics
media and international politics

its going to be a doozie of a semester, but i know whats required and im feeling confident in myself! masters degree here i come!