Happy Friday! Listen to demo version of "Serpents" by Sharon Van Etten

Spotify posted the deluxe edition of Sharon Van Etten's excellent album Tramp from last year. The album has both remastered original versions and demo versions of all 12 songs (with one bonus demo).  Demos are demos for a reason, but "Serpents" was always my favorite track from the original album and the demo is heartbreaking and raw.  Check it out below. 

 

Today, Maxwell's is closing and the interwebs weep

Today is the last day of July.
Today is also the day Maxwell's is closing.
Today is a sad day.

I posted my feelings after the initial announcement so I really don't have anything else to say. But I wanted to share some links I've come across in the past couple of days about the closing.

NJ.com has written a few pieces about the closing. Here is one.

BrooklynVegan posted a 20 minute documentary about the historic venue, including interviews with a lot of the key people.

Here is an article from Bloomberg that I first saw on Facebook. It categorizes the "rift" between "Maxwell's Rock Fans" and "Hoboken Moms."

New York Magazine published an oral history of the venue in their most recent issue.

Here is a post from Stereogum that made me very sad. Especially this quote:

Abramson has made it clear the issue isn’t monetary, but a wrong place, wrong time sort of deal. Hoboken has changed. “You wanna be the town with Cake Boss or you wanna be the town with Maxwell’s?” says McCall. “Ultimately the town made the decision that Cake Boss outweighed Maxwell’s.”

Gothamist posted The Best Bands Played At Maxwell's (live videos of Nirvana, Replacements, Bob Mould, Black Keys, and others playing in the back room).

Hopefully the Maxwell's spirit will live on forever...even if the Washington Street location is turned into some kind of generic sports bar or something.  

Link of the Day: 5 Facebook Photos that Have Got to Stop

I know I'm opening myself up to the whole "Don't take Facebook so seriously" debate but...

In the past couple of months, I've almost deactivated my Facebook page about 8 times.  I've also gone through about 5 major friend-cleanses. I don't know when Facebook became the place to overshare everything, but it has. It is basically baby-book, wedding-book, engagement-book, thoughts-on-politics/god/life-book, and so on.

Well my favorite random blog, Thought Catalog, posted a great column focusing on the overdone pictures of Facebook. Click here to learn about what types of Facebook photos need to go. From a thousand selfies to "aggressive" party pictures, its all there and its all true. 

Remember the days when Facebook was just about looking up (and stalking) your classmates and posting interests?  Sigh.

Spectacular video of the morning

This is just another one of the many reasons to watch Jeopardy.

http://m.deadspin.com/5986884/tonights-jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-game-winner-celebrated-with-d+generation-xs-suck-it-move

The only thing missing is a corresponding "booyahhh!"

SNL parodies Catfish

I am currently obsessed with Catfish: the TV Show, the MTV reality show where people who are in online relationships enlist the help of Nev Schulman (star of the movie Catfish) to meet their "loves."  Most of the time, the person they are talking to online is not the person they claim to be.  They hijack other's photos and create alternative personalities. These personalities are often the opposite of their real personality.  I suspect people do this to hide internal issues.  Sometimes, heartbreak ensues once their identity is discovered.  Other times, they have no problem with being "catfished."  It is a fascinating show that really explores the psyche of our online word.

I rarely watch SNL, but Saturday's episode featured a very funny parody of Catfish.  Check it out below.

Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal

Here is an article from The Week. As a child, Home Alone was one of my all time favorite movies.  I was always highly amused by Macaulay Culkin's ingenuity as he constructed traps for the two crazy burglars. This article calls upon a doctor who analyzed all of the injuries the criminals collected throughout the house of traps.  Even if this article isn't meant to be humorous, I found the academic take on this classic Christmas movie to be amusing and informative.  I will never watch the movie the same way. 

And here is a video from YouTube, just in case you forgot how awesome the traps were.  Ahead of their time, for sure.