Speaking of “The OC,” I found a web site that tells you every song used in every episode. Now I can be totally sure that Onelinedrawing has never been used. I mean, not that I’d really care if they were, because some great bands have been used (Jem, Death Cab for Cutie, Belle and Sebastian), but I just think it’s important that I heard about them from my friend Traci instead of a television show.

I’m listening to “Visitor” by Onelinedrawing, and I’m proud to say it’s a modern rock/folk/indie/emo album I can highly recommend that has not been played on “The OC” (well… not that I know of). Onelinedrawing is the solo project of Jonah from the now-broken-up Far. It’s a little like Death Cab for Cutie or Iron & Wine, but not completely. It’s definitely worth a listen.

If you’re interested, you should harken to some samples at iTunes or Amazon. Yeah, I said harken. You got a problem? Huh? Huh? That’s what I thought.

Ahem.

For you neo-retro-electronica-lovers, track four (“Smile”) has classic Casio-inspired beats. And for you late-seventies-sci-fi-fans, it has guest “vocals” from R2-D2.

My friend Rob wrote a great article today about Congress and their immediate attention to the single most important controversy on American soil: steroid use in baseball.

The soldiers in Iraq, the budget crisis, the intelligence failures, social security, those are really back-burner issues compared to whether Sosa juiced up.

It’s funny and poignant. Check it out.

Dude… They invented a phaser. It fires “directed energy” up to two kilometers away, and it can be non-lethal (as Kirk would say, “set phasers on stun”) or lethal (as Kirk would say, “set phasers to kill”). Do Gene Roddenberry’s relatives get royalties for this?

Ash had to do an off-site event for work yesterday near our apartment, so I decided to walk with her to her work and to the event. She had to get a bunch of stuff from her workplace and pile it into one of those grocery carts that old people use, to take to the event. As we walked from her workplace to the event, by way of Starbucks, we took turns acting like old people. It was fun–bad karma, I’m sure, but fun nonetheless.

We were blessed with sunny skies and a tolerable temperature yesterday, so Rob and I walked from my apartment (at 2nd and 79th), through the park (past the boathouse and the fountain) where I took some photos, to 5th Avenue to do some shopping, and then to Times Square to have dinner and see Altar Boyz. It was a lot of walking.

The show was excellent. I highly recommend it. It’s about a Catholic boy band. It’s very funny.

The park was also excellent. I highly recommend it. It’s about trees and stuff. It’s very pretty.

My first thoughts about the new Star Wars Episode III trailer:

1. They should have chosen better actors to play Amidala and Anakin. Normally Natalie Portman isn’t bad, but I think the problem is that we know she’s Natalie Portman. They should have chosen someone not so famous. And as for Hayden Christensen… he reminds me a little bit of Keanu Reeves. A little too much intensity without much believability.

2. At the end of the trailer, they shouldn’t have used the same music that’s at the end of “Star Tours.” Bad, bad move.

Still, I’m really psyched to see the movie. Ever since I saw the original movies, I wanted to know “what happened before that?” And it’s wonderful to finally see it happen.

“Where do you work?” she asked me, as we lunched with our mutual friend.

“There,” I replied, indicating the huge office building across the street.

She looked quizzically at the quaint dry cleaners at street level, trying to determine why I would work there.

“Not the cleaners. Behind that.”

Last night’s commute home was horrible. After losing the Avenue Q lottery, I ended up on a bus that got stuck in the ice three times (once in the middle of an intersection, blocking all traffic for ten minutes). It took about two hours to get home. It was better than walking, though; people outside were grabbing onto the sides of buildings, trees, poles, etc. to keep from being blown over by the wind.

Today I decided to add my photos of The Gates to the Gates Memory project (introduced here). Hopefully they don’t mind dissension in the ranks.

I finally decided to contribute to Jason Kottke‘s web site today. I’m intrigued by his idea of being supported by his readers, like public television, and I want to see where this goes. More importantly, though, I want a shot at winning a free gift.