this is the 2nd of the three mixes i've been working on. the third one won't be finished for a while, but that one's mostly indie and mostly downers. this one's a hodge-podge, but most of the tracks are upbeat/easy listening/both. everybody to the limit (mostly) upbeat mix july 25, 2004 1 the jam . billy elliot (soundtrack) . town called malice 2 ben folds five . the truth about cats and dogs (soundtrack) . bad idea 3 future bible heroes . eternal youth . i'm a vampire 4 fannypack . so stylistic . hey mami 5 strong bad . www.homestarrunner.com . fhqwhgads 6 missy elliott . this is not a test . bomb intro/pass that dutch 7 the thrills . so much for the city . big sur 8 everything but the girl . idlewild . these early days 9 francis doughty . among trees . by lantern light 10 chris isaak . forever blue . somebody's crying 11 jim's big ego . y2k hooray (EP) . stay in love (2am rough mix) 12 gorillaz . g-sides . faust 13 mary j. blige . mary . all that i can say 14 neil diamond . best of neil diamond . cherry cherry 15 merlin . por la mondo . estis unu fojo 16 millie jackson (orig. exile) . 21 of the best . kiss you all over 17 the flashing lights . sweet release . been waiting 18 bob dylan . the freewheelin' bob dylan . girl from the north country 19 saint etienne (orig. neil young) . foxbase alpha . only love will break your heart 20 swing out sister . ultimate collection . somewhere in the world 21 stephen kellogg . lucky eleven . as good as it's been 22 bette midler . experience the divine . do you want to dance 23 jeff buckley . grace . last goodbye

i've been on a bit of a mix-making kick lately. i started off trying to use up a bunch of tracks that i've had lying around for ages, but it ended up being a really bad mix so in the end i split them up into three mixes. the last of these but the one that was easiest to finish was (against my better judgement) a trashy pop mix. originally an idea for a fat is flavor group mix, i ended up digging up some real gems. (like the paula cole track. the breathy way she sings and the line "or is it just 'sorry'?" is simply priceless.) a fun mix, although it's such a guilty pleasure that i feel a bit ashamed to listen to it on my headphones in public. baby baby baby nights of endless (guilty) pleasure july 18, 2004 1 celine dion . it's all coming back to me now (radio edit) 2 dave matthews band . ants marching 3 kym mazelle . young hearts run free 4 tantric . breakdown 5 pink . there you go 6 paula cole . i don't want to wait (radio edit) 7 coldplay . yellow 8 TLC . lovesick 9 the cranberries . animal instinct 10 duncan sheik . on a high 11 alanis morissette . you oughta know 12 fantasia barrino . i believe (live) 13 the strokes . last nite 14 christina aguilera . genie in a bottle 15 pearl jam . jeremy 16 bangles . eternal flame 17 basement jaxx . romeo 18 third eye blind . the background 19 sinéad o'connor . hold back the night

photos from trip to new york a few weeks ago. the electric fish pic is from the wild lily tea room, a cute little tea place in chelsea (511 west 22nd, b/t 10th and 11th). i miss that fish. he was the best.

random links: orisinal.com: this site has a huge number of really great flash games. although a lot of them are a bit slow, the concepts are all great, and the games include super cute (oftentimes animal) characters. the pic above is from the game where you stack pigs on top of each other. a great source of whimsical ways to waste time. changedetection.com: keeps track of websites that don't update often. they'll check any page for you once a day and send you an email if it's been updated. strong sad's blog: hasn't updated in a while, but i like that it exists.

the three shows i saw this weekend in NY were about what i thought they would be. here's a quick run-down: assassins: a great play but mostly average production. the hardest task is to make the assassins human instead of just loonies, and the director didn't pull it off. but overall it was a competent, if not stellar, production. i am my own wife: a fascinating character, but the author chose to gloss over the details instead of delve. the story was fairly standard, and it hits its easy shots (as everything with nazis tends to do). the acting wasn't particularly impressive. the frogs: actually the most interesting of the three things i saw. a curio in the sondheim canon (and the musical theater canon also). stroman's direction was as glib and boring as i expected. lane's writing was subpar and had a tendency to become maudlin, but he did manage to get in a few good belly laugh-inducing cracks. i was actually surprised at the quality of sondheim's new songs, which were in general better than most of the work he's done lately. the acting was average. all in all the work is still as problematic as ever and will need at least another rewriting to make it work. i'll get the CD when it comes out, though. non-theater events this week: spidey 2: better than X2. good emotions, although a bit more trite at times than it needed to be, and good action. went to the museum of natural history to catch the exhibit on frogs. the exhibit was smaller than i thought it would be and less interesting, but maybe i've been spoiled by david attenborough's great video on amphibians that was part of his life on earth series. also went to the guggenheim. the brancusi exhibit got off to a good start, but then got a bit dull. the accompanying exhibit featuring similiarly minimalist artwork was okay. there was a huge photography exhibit on hands that was annoying. the section of the permanent gallery was refreshing, though. in particular some of the picassos that i didn't know were great. best meal in ny was at craftbar w/ tim and winnie (although the bartender was taciturn). i had this eggplant campanata bruschetta and chanterelles with snow peas. good, although the chanterelles were extremely buttery. andy had arctic char which came w/ bits of pickled watermelon on it. winnie and tim had some octopus which they raved about. i forget what else they got; i was too busy chowin' down. read ghost world yesterday, a graphic novel about cynical recent high school graduates. the main character was sort of like janeane garofalo's character from reality bites, but younger and much more obnoxious. a bit better than i thought it would be. not sure i'd want to see the movie, though. phew! that's it for now.