Ignore the Positive... Accentuate the Negative

So I have this buddy in graduate school that came across a real interesting finding between men and women. What he found is that women evaluate negative stimuli normally, but they evaluate positive stimuli less when paired with neutral stimuli, and neutral stimuli less when paired with negative stimuli. So what we have here is evidence that women evaluate the negative and ignore the positive. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Your girlfriend, wife, lover, etc... Nags you about not doing the dishes the right way, when you did them anyway. Not remembering her favorite color when you buy her a fancy dress. You make a fancy meal with a cake for her birthday and all she can see is that you forgot her favorite icing. Women see all the little stuff, and harp on it, and all the guy can do (that if he's not a womanizing ass... Men have there own set of problems but I haven't seen a neuropsych study explaining ass hole men and why women love them) is say "But I love you..."

Evolutionarily this makes sense. Women view the world in pieces. They have to examine every little issue because they are choosing which one of us dumb fucks they are going to have children with. While men view the world more globally, as they are designed to spread around. Men look past faults because they are designed to just have as many babies as possible. Society tries desperately to cover up these basic instincts up with religion, education, and stigma. But folks face it... humans are just another animal.

Glorious Long Island City Gentrified

I love my neighborhood. I'm in between the Queensborough bridge and the midtown tunnel a few blocks east of the east river. Hopefully I will get to live out the remainder of my time in NYC there (see my first entry Crap Year if you want to know why that might be difficult). There are a couple of bars I really like, a couple of restaurants I really like, lots of outdoor seating, a park on the corner... hell there's even a strip club down the block (I haven't been there yet). However there is a problem with my beloved neighborhood. It seems to be the new place to build. They rezoned it and now there are at least 4 highrise apartment buildings that are going up this year.

When I was on the upper east side and I heard Woody Allen complaining about a bank building a 10 story building I thought it was ridiculous. I mean it's the Upper East Side. It's already a hodge podge of architecture and styles. And he's just a rich guy who's gonna loose some of his sunlight. But in LIC, I mean come on. Did they need to take down our smoke stacks? Makes me realize that when you find a place you love you wont want them to change a thing. But folks, this is NYC so we are all going to have to deal.

Why do duos need to get married then divorced?

Well at least Quasi doesn't have to pretend that their brother and sister. All they do is perform as tight as two people can. Janet Weiss is one of the few drummers that can make me turn my head. Like my friend Paul Nudd once said "A drummer is a drummer is a drummer." Occasionally this addage is not true. The Sleater-Kinny drummer is phenomenal. But part of what makes her sound so good is the fact that organist/guitarist Sam Coomes is playing perfectly in time with her. The organ becomes not just a melodic instrument but a second percusion instrument as the keys are pounded on discordantly in perfect time.

The set consisted mostly of tracks from the most recent two albums, but they threw out a few oldies but goodies like Birds, and Our Happiness is Guaranteed. There was also a couple of guys behind me screaming for songs with the titles of "I Fucked Myself" and "I Never Want to See You Again" Which made for some interesting stage banter. The "I Fucked Myself" guy won out as Quasi played the song.

The show was in Williamsburg so their had to be at least one overly hyped Williamsburg rock star present. It was Devendra Barnhart tonight. People were having their picture taken with him. But remember kids this is Williamsburg where half the neighborhood looks like bearded hippies.

Quasi have a new record out... I haven't heard it yet, but the band has yet to produce something hasn't rocked.

Oh Canada

So first off I'd like to apologize. If I were a paid music critic I'd look up these people's names. Till then you are going to have to deal with names like keyboard player, and bassist.

Why do music scenes emerge? What the hell is up with Canada? How come we do not have this kind of talent here? Oh yeah the Government pays their rock bands to make artful music.

I saw Wolf Parade last night. The best part was the fact that NYC's own French Kicks opened up. They were cheesy and sucked (I wanted to see Holy Fuck!!!, but they got pushed to be the first act) especially when compared to the rawness of Wolf Parade. They came out apologized to the crowd that they take 30 seconds between each song. So polite, those Canadians.

Absolutely nothing was a carbon copy of the album. The drummer had a bit too much crack and played much of the night somewhat faster than the album. It was almost as if they felt so sorry for the delay between songs they would rush through the song as quickly as possible. Some times this worked to great effect. Grounds for Divorce in particular benefited from this reckless style of play.

Wolf Parade swells with emotion. Both singers belt out tunes as if they are holding back ghosts. Songs like "This Hearts on Fire" "You are a Runner and I am My Father's Son and "I'll Believe in Anything" are anthemic indie rock at it's best. They closed the evening with Dinner Bells. A suicidal song, slower than much of what they played that evening moved upward toward a cacophony of sound. The band left Ending the singer croning repeatedly over silence "You love and you love and you love.... till it all goes away An admittedly cheesy yet affective line.

Squirrels of Central Park... Unite and take over.

All right the kids liked the animal story from last week, and I have another one. But sadly it isn't mind. This is second hand information so I can not garauntee it's authenticity like I could with the pidgeon. However

A friend of a friend (well they were a friend) was sitting in central park nibbling on her sandwich. Squirels were running about to and fro, trying to gather up food for their tree holes. This girl tossed alittle of her crust at a squirrel and it walked over sniffed it. Then from above a hawk (one of those nasty fuckers nesting in the apartments on 5th ave (pissing off a bunch of rich snotty assholes) swooped down and grabbed the squirrel in its talons. The suirrel twisted and shook as the hawk flew up to a branch. Landing the hawk began to drop it's beak down and tear at the poor tree rat.

Then the oddest thing happened. Squirrels started coming out from all over. They were unleashing this strange cry "EEEEEEEEEEEE" 10 or more squirrels were screaming at the hawk. Keeping their distance but growing closer as their numbers increased. The squirrels seemed to be massong for a charge. "EEEEEEEEEKKK" they squeeled. As the hawk feasted he paye'd no mind. But as the numbers swealed to 16 or 17 squirrels he looked up like "what the fuck, I've never seen that happen before." It took one more swipe at the squirrel with it's beak and then flew off, wither satiated or scared... your call.

The Flaming Lips

So I saw the lips play a small show at Webster hall on Saturday. I went with a lovelorn friend of mine, so needless to say we weren't the happiest pair walking in. The bouncer even remarked that we "Smiled too Much."

The openers Pink Mountaintops seemed like two bands. One was fantastic with great rythmatic emotional riffs. The other was slow brooding and boring. I'm definately gonna give the band a listen cause when they were good they were very very good.

The Lips came out and anounced VIA video presentation that the show that was about to occur would change our lives. Well they wren't quite that good but it really picked me up. The highlight of the evening had to be the lips cover of Bohemian Rapsodie. I was allways kinda annoyed by the song when I was younger but I actually listened to the words and it's quite the "I got fucked over anthem." They also unleashed Black Sabath's War Pigs, which was basically a straight up cover. Outside of that 2 of the new songs, the yeah yeah yeah song and the W.A.N.D. were the best things they played. And they even unleashed Love Yer Brain from Oh My GAWD!!!!, but it's obviously from the era where the Lips just quite frankly weren't very good. But it was nice to hear something old.

So now for my complaint. The Flaming lips are into giving the crowd what they want. But honestly, do they really have to play She don't use jelly every show. I've seen them 18 times now (yeah I know it's a little obsessive) and they have not once failed to play it. I wish they would mix it up a bit more when it comes to they're own material.

Afterwards I went out to a bar, and Jack White was there. Not all that interesting I know... Jack white was so 2 years ago, but it made me think of the ex who was always a little wet for they guy. Oh well... no escape.