{"id":5587,"date":"2010-09-15T19:09:06","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T23:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=5587"},"modified":"2010-09-17T08:05:42","modified_gmt":"2010-09-17T12:05:42","slug":"what-i-love-and-what-i-dont-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-i-love-and-what-i-dont-like","title":{"rendered":"What I Love and What I Don’t Like"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a sort of crappy end-of-day at work. I tend to internalize my frustration and play out phantom conversations endlessly. This tendency gets exacerbated by the fact that I don’t talk to friends very much. I drive home from work, IM with my wife for a few minutes to find out how she’s doing and see when she expects to get home from work, then take the dogs for a walk usually about half an hour or so.<\/p>\n

Rufus & Otis are great, but their conversation skills are lacking, so I tend to keep talking silently to myself and letting these frustrations fester. The weather’s so lovely this evening that I it would sooth my soul, but I kept slipping back into little tirades. I should’ve called one of my old pals, but it’s just not in my nature anymore. Don’t know when that changed.<\/p>\n

got in and fed them, checked work e-mail and some other work-related stuff, which only fuels my nonsense. Then I decided to go downstairs to my library sprawl out on the couch, and read the new issue of Love & Rockets<\/a>\"\". And that’s when I got out of myself. Jaime Hernandez’ stories in the new book flat-out transported me. The moment young Perla saw the girl-mechanic on the parade float, I had a grin from ear to ear. My heart was broken after the story of her brother. I lost myself in his amazing storytelling, and I’m thankful for that.<\/p>\n

\"Love<\/a>
\n(I also may be the last reader of theirs to realize that Beto Hernandez is this generation’s Russ Meyer.)<\/p>\n

In other news, Barking<\/a>\"\", a new Underworld record, came out yesterday. I love a lot of their music, but I’m just befuddled by this new stuff. I gather they used outside producers for the first time, and the result is really . . . pedestrian. Which is a funny term to apply to dance music, but there it is. It’s almost like reading a serial comic book with a new creative team that fails to Get It.<\/p>\n

To me, Underworld’s best music is like having drug-crazed nanobots devouring the language and motion sections of your brain, so that words don’t really make sense and you’re possessed with an urge to dance\/thrash. This new record, on the other hand, has a lot of shimmery keys, banal disco beats and sensical lyrics.<\/p>\n

Worst of all, the decision was made to have Karl Hyde sing, despite the fact that he doesn’t have much of a singing voice. Oh, and there’s a ballad. Except it’s not absurd\/surreal, like Good Morning Cockerel<\/em>, a song from their previous album, Oblivion With Bells<\/a>\"\", about which I’m rather ambivalent. I’ll give this one another try or two, but it’s a very disappointing record.<\/p>\n

So that’s a little of what’s going on. I also spend a lot of time thinking about Achilles and Odysseus in The Iliad<\/a>\"\".<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a sort of crappy end-of-day at work. I tend to internalize my frustration and play out phantom conversations endlessly. This tendency gets exacerbated by the fact that I don’t talk to friends very much. I drive home from work, IM with my wife for a few minutes to find out how she’s doing … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What I Love and What I Don’t Like”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[40],"tags":[1141,96,250],"class_list":["post-5587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-beto-hernandez","tag-jaime-hernandez","tag-underworld"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1s7","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11356,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-265-jaime-hernandez","url_meta":{"origin":5587,"position":0},"title":"Episode 265 – Jaime Hernandez","author":"Gil","date":"April 16, 2018","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 265: Jaime Hernandez \"Whenever I write Maggie & Hopey, they're always looking at the past, always thinking back about what they were. I didn't mean for it to be that way, but that's what I do: 'Remember when we were like that, well, we're not like that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9409-e1523919177401.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9409-e1523919177401.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9409-e1523919177401.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9409-e1523919177401.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9409-e1523919177401.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2742,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-oct-24-2008","url_meta":{"origin":5587,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Oct. 24, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"October 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Links . . . of the undead! Just click \"more\"! Don't hate the game! Uh . . . man-love the Haider! * * * Jeremiah: right! (And the graveyard is full of indispensable men, Mike!) * * * I don't know if I ever imagined, back in my college anti-hipster\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":597,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/rise-of-the-imperfects","url_meta":{"origin":5587,"position":2},"title":"Rise of the Imperfects","author":"Gil","date":"July 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Had a fun day at the Con yesterday: spent WAY too much money on books and art, including a great sketch of Penny Century by Xaime Hernandez. This photo from the EA booth says it all:Anyway, not much time\/motivation to write this morning, so I'm just posting links to my\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5601,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-92010","url_meta":{"origin":5587,"position":3},"title":"What It Is: 9\/20\/10","author":"Gil","date":"September 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: The Iliad and about 500 pages of Jaime Hernandez' Locas comics. What I'm listening to: Not much of anything, sad to say. What I'm watching: Not much of anything, sad to say. What I'm drinking: Bluecoat & Q-Tonic What Rufus & Otis are up to: A Sunday\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Brad Goreski\"","block_context":{"text":"Brad Goreski","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/brad-goreski"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2003,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-41408","url_meta":{"origin":5587,"position":4},"title":"What it is: 4\/14\/08","author":"Gil","date":"April 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Locas, by Jaime Hernandez. Just feeling sentimental for Maggie & Hopey, I guess. What I'm listening to: She and Him, Vol. 1, but not getting into it. What I'm watching: A marathon of The Deadliest Catch, in preparation for the premier of the new season. What I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=156097611X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10437,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-227-ben-schwartz","url_meta":{"origin":5587,"position":5},"title":"Episode 227 – Ben Schwartz","author":"Gil","date":"July 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 227: Ben Schwartz \"Twitter is the best source of political humor now. It's better than any show on TV. It's hard to compete with a million writers.\" Comedy writer, journalist and screenwriter Ben Schwartz joins the show to talk serious laughs. We discuss his work on American\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Classic Comics Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Classic Comics Criticism","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/classic-comics-criticism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_7386-e1500411356644-620x620.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_7386-e1500411356644-620x620.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_7386-e1500411356644-620x620.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5587"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5599,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5587\/revisions\/5599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}