May 18, 2008 – Party Time. Excellent.

Congratulations to the new Mr. And Mrs. You Know Who. It was a very good night tonight and I'm ecstatic about the whole thing.

I do, however, have less tabloid ready news and it is this: My film "the Moustachette," is now completely cast and we begin shooting next weekend. In a few weeks I'll be officially able to say I'm a director...if not a pompous douche with a camera.

In other news I saw Alex and Cash from the Cab tonight. I'm very proud of those kids. If you get a chance to see them on tour it's worth it. They happened to be hanging out with another up and coming group of upstarts currently known as Blake...though that name may be subject to change if I'm understanding that situation correctly. They as well are worth a listen. And I have absolutely nothing to do with them so I'm not even plugging something I worked on haha. That must mean I'm sincere sometimes.

Back to dogsitting...and that's not some witty of esotheric in-joke. I'm dogsitting.

-p.stump

[source]

- thanks to lostandfoundliz for the heads up.

Fun With Arthropods

The largest arthropod known to have ever lived (in mass) was a species of sea scorpion that measured over 6 feet in length. Entirely honest, I'm not that impressed. Sure it's big and fat, but 6 feet's not THAT big. For me, I'd say go to the aquarium in Osaka where not only the have a whale shark (holy crap) but they have a tank of giant Japanese spider crabs. The giant Japanese spider crap has ridiculously long legs and an adult has a roughly 3 to4 foot body. In captivity the largest legspan recorded was in the ballpark of 7 feet, but in the wild they've been observed to grow as large as 12 feet from leg to leg. Crab. A 12 foot crab. That's alive. Right now. On Earth. See? Fuck space, there's some crazy stuff right here at home. If your home is coastal Japan. Which means you probably get to take the bullet train, eat Pepper Lunch, and watch Hayao Miyasaki movies and thus I envy you.

-p.stump

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This was actually posted before the previous entry, but we missed it due to the layout of the page - apologies.

May 07, 2008 – I'm Not the Praying Type

My heart goes out to the people of Myanmar. Thus far 100,000 people are dead as the result of a cyclone and that number keeps on rising. It is at times like this that I urge people looking to donate money, materials, or effort to remember other tragedies. There will always be an influx of materials donated immediately after such a horrendous national event. Sometimes though, greater good is done by smaller consistent donations made over a long period of time. If you're going to donate blood for the cause in Myanmar, I'd urge you to wait a month or so until it's off the news. Maybe even a year, because that's when people recovering from his horrible accident are really going to need it...when the attention dies down. After the news cameras go away, those people will still be in desperate need of aid.


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May 07, 2008 – Steady As She Goes

So as I've said earlier I've been working on all sorts of projects. The end of the this month is devoted to shooting my directorial debut, a short film called "The Moustachette." I'm gonna be finishing casting probably next week.

Yup, still working on some secret thing. More like waiting on some secret news about secret thing (i.e., whether or not I am working on anything...secret or otherwise).

The Cab's new record debuted at #1 on the Billboard Heatseeker chart. I was walking through Virgin Megastore skimming through Cobra Starship's AP cover, on the phone recieveing the news about the Cab, while I was there looking to see if the Rolling Stone with a picture of Tyga in it was on the stands yet. There's a write-up somewhere about how they picked Tyga as the breakout star of Bamboozle. I'm pretty excited since those are the last three records I did. It was a nice little moment for me. Made me feel like a real live bonefide producer.

-p.stump

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May 04, 2008 – Robert Danger Downey

Iron Man is awesome. Easily rivals X2 for best Marvel movie. If you like Marvel Comics, stay after the credits.

I saw it at Arclight and got to see trailors for Dark Knight and Indiana Jones. I really wish I was 8 years old right now cause this'd be the coolest summer to go to the movies ever.

-p.stump


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May 3, 2008 – No News Is Good News

I'm working on a record but I can't say what it is. And the funny thing is I have a long history of working on records and not ever being utilized. So I don't want to jinx it. Suffice to say I'm rather excited about this particular album yet have already resigned myself to the probability that the songs I wrote won't make it to the final release. Oh Patrick Stump, you pessimist.

-p.stump


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April 27, 2008 – 24...minus the Jack Bauer

Yup. So I'm 24 today. As of 1:06am. I guess it's about time for a quarter-life crisis.

I was at an acting coach a while ago and I was filling out this little questionaire thingy in the waiting room. They as for the range of what ages you could play. Thus far as a crappy little actor I've played a 30+ murder suspect on Law and Order, and I was in talks to play a 15 year old Oklahoma boy. I guess I figured that was my range so I wrote it down. Looking at those numbers though, it felt kinda weird. I feel like I could convincingly be either but nothing in between. Like I'm missing my 20's and I'm not even halfway through them. You get a mortgage and you drive a Civic and you take your dog to the vet and pretty soon you find yourself going to bed at 11 and begrudgingly becoming a morning person. I guess in retrospect, 23 felt a lot more like what I thought 33 would feel like. I guess I'll have to wait 10 years to know for sure. But then I feel like I'm still a little-ass kid in a lot of ways. I realized I've never seen the Godfather movies. Or like Caddyshack. Cause I'm a kid. And I have a lot more to do with my life. Like see the Godfather. And Caddyshack. And then there's the fact that I'm a little dude at a towering 5'4...closer to 5'5...but I feel like when you're as short as I am, if you're really grabbing at those percentiles of an inch that's just sad. I'd rather round down. But the point is I'll always be looking up to everybody like when you're a toddler. I mean, I can't grow a beard yet. I shaved my sideburns a few months back and I got carded everywhere I went for a couple weeks. I guess it's like how Yoda tells Luke his mind is never one where he is or what he's doing. And I'm still young enough to think that's a relevant analogy.

-p.stump


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Patrick has made two additions to his original post about Scarlett Johansson and the Tom Waits cover version he recorded:

( The Original Post )

P.S.
I'm not the grudge-holding type. I want to make clear that I don't know Scarlett personally and I respect her and her artistry. I liked her a lot in Ghost World and Match Point amongst others. I haven't heard her record but I hear David Bowie's on it which alone is worth the price of admission. And I'm not "Mad" at her for not letting me sing on her record. She doesn't like my band, it's her record, she has every right not to let me. I'm just expressing my disappointment at not having an outlet to perform a song by one of my favourite artists. Anyway, enough of the poor me stuff, happy listening.

Oh, and P.P.S.
I've heard a lot of conversation about which Tom Waits' cover is the best which I think is pretty rad. The fact that one can name The Eagles "Old 55" in the same sentence with The Ramones "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" is testament to a truly gifted writer.


[source] - the track is streamable in the post. A download was also provided by scarletswidow.



P.S. - Happy birthday, Patrick!

April 25, 2008 – The Scarlett Letter

I heard Scarlett Johansson's putting out an album of Tom Waits covers. I'm a fan of Waits so I started pestering her management around a year or two ago to duet with her. She rejected me like I was in high school again with an alleged "Oh no, I hate Fall Out Boy." Fair enough. That's not the first time I've heard that this week.

Nonetheless I was bummed because I really just wanted to sing some Tom Waits. So I sat at a piano, pressed record, and plunked this one out. Were I trying to impress message boards with my knowledge of Waits, I certainly would have picked something more obscure. Perhaps something off of the out of print Night On Earth soundtrack. Or the song he wrote for Solomon Burke. Or that early demo of his I think is called "Up Shit Creek," or something to that effect. But fuck that, the value of scene points is dropping like that of American currency or my patience for LA drivers. I just really like this song, so I did it. Like to hear it? Here it goes...

-p.stump



[source] - the track is streamable in the post. However, scarletswidow has kindly ripped the track for download.


Check out this post for Patrick's addenda.

April 22, 2008 – Doug Bruce: Racist

Go over to www.douglasbruce.com and send this guy a piece of your mind. In a session of the Colorado state house of representatives, Representative Bruce warned of the influx of more "Illiterate Peasants" to Colorado... in reference to Latino workers. Yeah. He said that. Out loud. And doesn't think he did anything wrong. And on this guy's first day as a representative, he kicked a photographer. Total classy gent. If you're like to see his remarks, head over to CNN: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/04/22/dnt.lawmaker.mexican.slur.kusa

From Doug Bruce's website:

"I am a pro-life, traditional family values, social and fiscal conservative – a Ronald Reagan Republican."

Apparently he believes strongly in the traditional family value of demeaning an entire race of people. I must have been raised in a very different traditional family than Mr. Bruce.

In case my sarcasm isn't plain without the tone of my voice behind it, I'll spell it out: Niether Doug Bruce nor racism are cool. And the fact that this guy got elected to a public office upsets me quite a bit, especially on the eve of a presidential election. Thank goodness that none of the leading presidential candidates share Representative Bruce's opinions on Latinos or any race for that matter.

-p.stump


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