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September 24, 2008

Rose in the Sand

My friend Elena painted the canvas before you for an art project during the World Expo in Zaragozo, Spain. She's awesome, and her painting is beautiful! The title reminds me of Riders in the Storm by the Doors, or Into the Groove by Madonna, or better yet, Blowin' In the Wind by Bob Dylan.

Posted by Nathan Gemayel at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2008

Vampire Weekend!

I went to the Vampire Weekend show at the Pageant a couple weeks ago. It was pretty amazing. It was a show full of energy and fun. As many of you know, the sound is like Indie/African/Rock/Tribal music.

Many of their songs cause one to dance and move along to the shaking of the guitar and the banging of the drums. From the first song they performed, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, to the popular song, A-Punk, they had people on their feet. They're good at making music with melody that takes the everyday music listener to a new place. When they play the listener is lifted out of their living room and taken towards the land of Cenagol, South Africa, or the Congo, but they stop before going farther than they should, you know? The guys over at Pitchfork describe their sound as Afro/Preppy/New-Wave, but I like to think of them as just simply refreshing. They formed at Colombia University in New York and gained a lot of attention through the blog, Stereogum, and have been getting bigger ever since.

It will be interesting to see what new sounds they come up with on their next album. It seems that they benefitted from being connected to the world through the internet with their first self-titled album. Which way will they go next? Only time will tell, but I for one will be listening.

Posted by Nathan Gemayel at 9:09 PM | Comments (0)

Where Have I Been?

Everyone's been askin,' "Where's Sweet Chicken?" Welp, I got to go on vacation to Myrtle Beach with the fam. It was a lot of fun...here's an idea of what went on...

I took pictures with my fogged over camera...

I took pictures of my niece and nephew even though Carson didn't want to have to "touch" Hannan for the picture

I caught a huge tuna

I saw some gulls on the sea

I finally learned to park my boat

I mean boats

I played golf with some kid in overalls

I found a great decoration for the next Halloween party...the skull, not the kids

I took a self-portrait with some random girl on the beach

I had some great blueberry pancakes by the ocean! That's right, SWANKY!!!

Posted by Nathan Gemayel at 8:42 PM | Comments (6)

September 13, 2008

To Rachel and Kami

I've found our calling...

Posted by Nathan Gemayel at 1:03 AM | Comments (2)

September 9, 2008

Who's in the next Batman?

Welp, apparently Micheal Caine spilled some massive amounts of beans at the Toronto Film Festival. Supposedly, he told MTV in an interview that plans are coming together for the next installment in the huge franchise that is Batman, with Johnny Depp as the Riddler, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Penguin! I wasn't sure what they would do to make the final one as close to what Heath Ledger did with The Dark Knight, but that is pretty impressive. Hold on to your Batwings though, I got this information from perezhilton.com.

Posted by Nathan Gemayel at 10:59 PM | Comments (2)

September 8, 2008

VMAs...a recap

Just because I have nothing else to write about, I figured I would share a few highlights from MTV's Video Music Awards, which were last night at the Kodak Theatre in the heart of Hollywood.

The show opener was a skit with Britney Spears and go-to guy for fat jokes, Jonah Hill. He tried to kiss her a couple of times...it was supposed to be funny, but since Jonah has played that same character about 20,000 times in the past year it wasn't any surprise. However, Britney has good timing in the comedic arena, I think there's potential.

Some dude from another country named Russell Brand hosted the show. He bashed America and made fun of the Jonas Brothers for their promise-ring-wearing ways. Although I find that tradition among high school aged kids to be somewhat cheesy, I find it a bit ironic that Brand, a guy who has sought rehab for sexual addiction, would be returning to that part of their lives a couple of times for cheap jokes throughout the telecast.

Rihanna and Pink both had pretty entertaining appearances. But I wonder, how many "statement" songs can Pink do? Anyway, I continue, I liked TI's use of the backlot movie sets for his performance, but what perplexes me is weather he could think of a few more name brands of clothing and jewlery that he could add to the incredibly deep lyrical content of, "Whatever You Like?"

Christina Aguilera brought the voice again. She says her next move is to the future, however, her performance, outfit, and music reminded me of Kylie Minogue circa 1985. P.S. Was she lip singing?

Paramore had the best performance of the night. The only thing I knew about them was that they scored one of those cool 360 deals with Live Nation, like the one that Madonna, Jay-Z, and the Jonas Brothers had gotten earlier in the year. Their lead singer was full of personality; I had never heard them before, but I thought they were good.

The funniest part of the night was when one of my friends made the observation during Lil Wayne's performance that he kept grabbing his own lil wayne.

Finally, congrads to Britney for winning her first three VMAs, including Video of the Year! Although everything about her looked great, she's back to being beautiful, there was still something unstable about her. She seemed very groomed, almost robot-ish. I hope things are as OK as everyone keeps saying they are.

Posted by Nathan Gemayel at 8:41 PM | Comments (0)

Stone Hill Winery

On Saturday I went to Stone Hill Winery in Hermin, MO. We went to celebrate Heidi's birthday...it was a lot of fun, and kind of wacky.

Heidi and Heidi were excited to see the beautiful decorations...

Stone Hill Winery was the 3rd largest winery in the world...that's right, the world. However, along with the prohibition came a lot of people to rip up all the vinyards and destroy what could have been a huge amount of capitol for Missouri.

After the tour, Tanya was ready to serve us the good stuff.

We got somewhat loopy afterwards as we tried 10-12 different wines.

Neil found a leaf on one of the vines that he hadn't taken a picture of yet...

Posted by Nathan Gemayel at 10:39 AM | Comments (2)

September 7, 2008

What the Helvetica?

I was talking with a friend this morning who told me he watched a documentary about Helvetica, that's right, the font. "Wow!," I thought, "we are indeed living in an NPR world." Apparently the font was created in the 50s when European design was seeing a revival of sans-serif types such as the German face Akzidenz Grotesk. The movie is less about the font and more about how different types of lettering effect our world. As one designer puts it, "When I see the word 'dog' written in Helvetica, I see the word 'dog,' but in other types I see the word 'dog' and somehow it barks." It sounds like a good film. It was directed by Gary Hustwit and was nominated at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards in the "Truer than Fiction" category...oh, and the font is celebrating it's 50th birthday! Happy Birthday Helvy!

Posted by Nathan Gemayel at 4:21 PM | Comments (0)

September 3, 2008

Kaldi's Coffeehouse!

Here's a scene from Kaldi's, the orig, my place of work...

Posted by Nathan Gemayel at 9:39 PM | Comments (2)

September 1, 2008

The Elephant in the Room

Posted by Nathan Gemayel at 2:03 PM | Comments (0)