MAKES ME HAPPY: Surprises, singing in my car, driving far away, snail mail from friends, soft furry animals (real or stuffed), World of Warcraft (even though I quit), helicopter rides, lying in green grass watching clouds pass, learning something new, stargazing, burning things in a fire, beer.
MAKES ME SAD: Animal cruelty.
HOBBIES: Sports: snowboarding (more like passion), field hockey, ice hockey, ball hockey, rollerblading.
5 THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: I hate people that are glued to their phones. I am NOT, but I can’t leave home without it (and some chapstick).
VICES: The chocolate from kinder eggs – I just toss the toys >:)
Missy and Rambo are back in this weeks video blog! Tomorrow we’ve got a new interview going up: with the creator of CSI, Anthony E. Zuiker. Check out his new book (out Thursday) and Level26.com for a video sure to put you in the mood for Halloween and “scare the pants off you”. We also had an interview with Janeane Garofalo go up this week, and Missy talks about the day she met her. Ohio SGs are throwing a party on November 6th to wrap up the Halloween festivities. We’ve got some new sets going up with some new SGs and some familiar ones too! Oh and Missy and Rambo made it to Disneyland this past weekend! YAY!
Hello SuicideGirls! It’s been a while! But I’m back. As some of you may recall, I used to do a regular “Hardcore Zen” blog here at SG on all manner of topics relating to Zen. I’m a Zen Buddhist monk and I just published my forth book, Sex, Sin and Zen.
Consider it Conversation Starting 101. To get a group’s attention you need to know three things: what does everyone like, what do some members of the group like, what do some members of the group dislike. And then make some wild claim as though it were fact. For example: You see a bunch of 20-year-old dudes sitting around a coffee shop table. They are all wearing hoodies, jeans and sneakers. Most of them sport facial hair or at least attempts (deliberate or otherwise) at facial hair. It’s safe to assume that these guys have opinions about Star Wars.
I mean, maybe they aren’t hardcore nerds, but even if they say “it sucks” or “the prequels suck” or “Empire is better than Jedi” then you know that they’ll have a conversation for at least ten minutes. It’s just a fact – a fact because Star Wars is a cultural touchstone. Ten minute debate, easy. If you really want to stir the pot, then you pull Conversation Starting 102 and say, “Y’know, when you think about it… Hayden Christensen was the perfect choice to play young Anakin.” Suddenly ten minutes become an hour.
“Maybe the mustache will ultimately prove a useful analog for the music.”
– Chris Cain, bassist
We Are Scientists are known for making straightforward pop-rock, but they’re not known for giving straightforward answers in interviews. I didn’t want to be the millionth person to ask “Are you really scientists?,” so I set out to find the answer on my own. After reading through several conflicting accounts of the band’s various areas of scientific expertise, I finally found the answer. A piece from the college magazine at Pomona, the California school where the band originally formed, revealed that guitarist Keith Murray and bassist Chris Cain weren’t actually science majors of any sort. Well played, guys.
Needless to say, We Are Scientists like to keep people guessing. They first broke out in the UK with 2005’s formidable collection of indie-pop, With Love and Squalor. The 2008 follow-up, a less upbeat but more lyrically complex record called Brain Thrust Mastery, also climbed the British charts. A predictable band would stick with a major label and put out another album following the same formula. This is no predictable band.
