Announcing the (2nd Annual) Magnificent Memorial Day Mimosa Party

WHAT: champagne, orange juice, and good times.
WHERE: big pink
WHEN: this monday from 2pm til sundown.

all 4KS readers will be readily welcomed.

stupidity, thy name is billy knight.

alright, kiddos. it's time for an nba / atlanta hawks update:

the playoffs have been amazing thus far. the league did a better job of expediting the early series, so they haven't dragged on quite so long. and the play has been fantastic. did anybody see cavs/wizards? pistons/cavs? suns/lakers? suns/clippers? and last but not certainly not least, mavericks/spurs? that was one of the best playoff series i've ever seen. i was really happy to see the mavs get the win, as i think dirk might have been branded with the "can't win the big one" label if they hadn't pulled it out.

the other big news is that the draft lottery was held yesterday; your hometown atlanta hawks will draft 5th. who will they draft? take a look at this, a new detailed prediction of the top 10 picks. great news there, apparently hawks GM billy knight has "no interest whatsoever" in drafting marcus williams. fantastic. the same genius who never gave a "serious look" at drafting chris paul last year is going to fuck up again. it's just as i've feared: mostly projected drafts have williams going in the 9-12 range, so the hawks wouldn't dare draft him at 5 (because then they wouldn't be getting enough "value"). but a true point guard is what they need. with all those athletes on the wing?!? hopefully knight will come to his senses over the next month and draft williams, who is one of only two players in this draft who could start for atlanta next year (the other being lamarcus aldridge, who will go in the top 2 picks for sure).

stay tuned for further update as draft day approaches.

cover art

if astra was still a band, this would have been the back cover of their new record ["songs for the living sky - part 2"]:

DJ Mahogany's "Whew...I Don't Know Who Farted In Here, But It Sure Does Stank On The Dance Floor" Dance Party

Hi Everyone,

At the request from the tall sexxxy one, here's a post for my upcoming show on Saturday at Little Kings. The "Whew...I Farted..." dance party will begin around 11 pm and go on until 2 am. There's no cover and I do expect it to be a stankin' good time. So, please spread the word and come out and dance. I expect my "Sweet 'n Sour" Sauce to be there who I've heard is cheating on me yet again with some new woman. Some things never change.

Oh and one more thing...we all must be aware of the new Athens-ish thing that is invading our town...Gnarls Barkley. The song and video for their new song "Crazy" will be the biggest thing in Athens this summer and has "Athens-ish" written all over it. You just wait and see...

the good book.

i have a long-standing, tentative plan to read the bible. not because i seek spiritual guidance or anything, just because i think it would be interesting. much like, say... huckleberry finn, i think the bible is an important book for an aspiring-to-be-literate person to have read.

some guy over at slate had a similar idea. he's reading the bible, chapter by chapter, starting from the beginning. and he's "blogging" about what he reads. i find it engaging, and i plan on following the project for as long as he runs with it.

my hope is that following his efforts will stoke my resolve, and that i will end up reading the bible myself. a more likely result is that i will glean some interesting points from his blogging, but that laziness will prevail and i will never even really get started (let alone complete it).

but whatever that result may be, i found the first couple entries to be interesting reads. i recommend this project as a cliffsnotes type route to cultural literacy.

Koo-Koo-Kachoo

check this out. thanks to Pops for bringing it to my attention.

ps- doesn't it sound like a young ozzie is singing?

get it while it's hot.

since first seeing them last summer, i've gotten really into phosphorescent. i own all three of their cds, and i think they're all great records.

but the recent live performances have taken it up another notch. as many of you probably know, the "band" kind of imploded a few weeks ago. only matthew, the singer/writer/mainstay remains. he has performed two sets since then, alone.

a few weeks back, phosphorescent followed dark meat at the caledonia. for those who missed it [which includes, i believe, every other 4KS staff member], you may have heard that he played only two songs, and that the first, a new one, centered on construction of a layered 30 second loop and lasted around 40 minutes. you may react to that with skepticism. well let me first assure you that i abhor jam bands as much as any reasonable person. then allow me to attest that the performance was noisy, dark, pretty, and brilliant.

last nights performance [which followed a stellar reading by our dear friend The Poet] was stylistically very much a departure. matthew sang, guitared, pianoed, and harmonicaed his way through fifteen or so numbers, including a couple covers, with no distortion or feedback. it was equally enthralling.

i have many documented vices, but don't think that hyperbole is one of them. i'm generally very much the skeptic. that said, if i may quote my ladyfriend SM, "i think he's a fucking genius". i don't claim to have the most expansive knowledge of music on the block, and i'm aware that by saying this i'm going to sound as silly as those reviews i cited last august, but i really believe the guy is an oldham/tweedy type talent. all i can say is that i encourage everyone to check out any incarnation of phosphorescent you have the chance to see.


ps- does sauce have a new girlfriend?

saucy tidbits (part 3)

did you know...

that as a result of inbreeding, the sauce has a number of genetic peculiarities. among them are webbed feet, undescended testicles, and a lethargic pattern of speech.

just what america needs:

another one waits in the wings.

I Heart Netflix

Although Apple deserves much credit for bringing us the ipod, the greatest recent development in entertainment is Netflix. I feel the way about Netflix that I used to feel about the ice cream machine at Ryan's Steakhouse - it's limitless abundance is almost magical, if also sometimes a little nauseating. I thought I would share some gems I've recently come across:

The Onion Field (1979):

There are a lot of Hollywood stars who seem to be famous just for being famous. A lot of times if you look far enough back, you find the early, electrifying performance that allowed the actor to spend the next 20 or 30 years making garbage. Warren Beatty has Bonnie and Clyde, for example. James Woods has The Onion Field. Based on the book by Joseph Waumbaugh, this is the true story of a cop and his partner who are kidnapped by two incompetent crooks, played by Woods and the guy who played Dexter on "Silver Spoons." Woods, with a high-and-tight haircut and bad teeth, creates one of the most repulsive lunatics on film. Woods murders the cop's partner, played by a young Ted Danson, sending himself and Dexter to jail and turning the story into a bizarre, decade-long courtroom drama. The opening and closing sequences were clearly tacked on by a future Lifetime Channel executive, but that is more than made up for by the scene where the now-incarcerated Woods makes Dexter blow him for "legal advice."

Breaker Morant (1980):

The best thing about The Atlantic Monthly magazine is its oppressively erudite book reviews. One time, in reviewing a biography of Wilhelm von So-and-So, a German diplomat, the magazine referred to the subject of the book as "undeniably one of the three most important individuals in German diplomatic history." If you need them to name the other two, you clearly attended a state school. In the spirit of The Atlantic Monthly, I offer you Breaker Morant - easily one of the three most important films about the Boer War.

Three Australian soldiers in the British army are ordered to "take no prisoners." When their summary execution of enemy hostages, including a German national, threatens to bring Germany into the war on the Boers' side, Britian court martials the soldiers for violating the laws of war. This is a true story, and the movie won best picture at the Australian Oscars. Although a movie about soldiers getting railroaded after being ordered to violate international law has no apparent relevance to our own time, it is still a very compelling story. You will have to watch it to find out how it ends.

the euston manifesto:

for once, i have to say that i concur with bill kristol:

"We hope that this clarion call from overseas might contribute to a rebirth of political courage and moral clarity on the American left as well."

The Greatest NBA lineup ever

This is pretty cool.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/features/nbaLineup?page=lineup/index

They've compiled all-time greatest NBA players and set up a bracket. I picked the number 2 Bulls to go all the way, playing the Lakers in the final. I just thought the Bulls would have more quickness and athleticism, and what are you going to do with two centers? Then again, the Bulls would have to get by the Celtics too. That was a tough call. I had the Rockets as an upset team making it to the semis.

I wish they had a bracket like this for baseball.That would kick ass!

Oatmeal

It was a flurry of activity for il Gato Grande this past weekend. Friday found me at a frou-frou loft party that featured shirtless male models paid to attend as decoration. I was told that last year's party had topless female waitresses, so I'm feeling a little duped. Saturday was Twilight in Athens. Sunday afternoon, during an extreme lapse in judgment, I took in a screening of "United 93" with my old man.

"United 93" is not the movie-of-the-week that it's trailer would lead you to believe. By all accounts, its recreation of events is based on all known facts, and there is not a hint of embellishment. It is as apolitical as a movie about that subject could be, and I thought it was realistic almost to the point of anxiety attack-inducing. My dad, who wishes he were younger so that he could join the army and fight muslims, thought I was being a bit of a pansy.

Last night I watched an entire episode of "Wife Swap" which I won't explain here except to say that it ended with one of the husbands punching the other husband in the mouth. On ABC, in prime time. This left me feeling very bad about my fellow man. Much more so than "United 93." Then again, this is probably one of those things my dad thinks I need to quit being a pansy about, so maybe it's not that big of a deal.

For those in the ATL, Eef Barzelay from Clem Snide is playing tonight at the EARL. It should be an excellent show.

Check it.

It's Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Everyone should see it.

http://www.salon.com/ent/video_dog/politics/2006/04/30/
colbert_press/index.html