sailorstkwrning

Ryan: Changed his icon again, to a picture in which he is looking mournful and sweet and a sweater vest is barely visible under his (golden, velveteen?) blazer. The picture is of sufficient size that the top of his head gets cut off, so all you really see is his mouth. My overwhelming visual association is Stephen Fry-as-Oscar Wilde, which may very well be exactly what he intended. In other news, he was a veritable cornucopia of pop culture this week, between failing at eating in a Snuggie because it was on backwards (WTAF???), discovering the magic of Google Alerts (I feel this will end badly), and someone describing him as a mix of "Fwankenstein" [sic] and Hank Moody, of Showtime's Californication. (Tangentially, the recurring theme of monstrousness in general and of Frankenstein in particular is interesting and may be worthy of further investigation. By which I mean if I have some brain cells to rub together over the holidays perhaps I will read the book.)

He also implied he really likes Billy Joel but is perhaps a little embarrassed to admit it, shared the link to Michael Runion's revamped website, talked a lot about the Cheescake Factory and made an allusion to Warhol's Factory Girl, and had an exchange with Alex Greenwald that included a tweet (from Alex) that shoehorned references to the Almond Joy jingle, Joy Division and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into less than 140 characters. He wrapped up the week/reporting period with the mention of four movie stars (David Duchovny, Kiera Knightly, Amy Adams and Adam Sandler, as best I can guess) and searching YouTube for instructions on how to "boogaloo." (There are several very entertaining "how to" videos.)

Brendon: Went to Hawaii, and found some art! Or at least venue flags with images of native carvings, and also a "living statue" street performer. He additionally shared a Rollos commercial (mmmmmm, Rollos), talked about being more of a coin collector than a video game/games shit-talker (♥♥), quoted some Three Amigos back and forth with Dallon, expressed his general appreciation for Julian Casablancas new record as whole as well as for two individual tracks, and told us he likes Lays Lightly Salted potato chips.

Spencer: No updates this week, :(.

Jon : Has changed his location from "Under the willow tree" to "midwest, us" -- he actually did this last week and I forgot to include it. In any case, he continued to be elliptical and vague, though reasonably chatty, for him. Again his updates were heavily pictorial -- the instruments in his basement (?), clementines, a scrabble game, his dinner, his dog (and dozing girlfriend), and his morning tea. His non-pictorial updates were heavily pet related; I feel your pain, Jon Walker, re: not being able to go to the bathroom alone, and I winced in sympathy with the stinky horse-poo covered dog. (Also the dead fox in the garbagecan, because, ewwww.) Also he wished his brother a happy birthday, mentioned baseball, and went to a Black Gold show. Finally, I am wondering if the instruments might imply he'll be playing with Greta at her Chicago show in December; I have no hard evidence for that at all, it was really just a stray thought.

Ryan Still (!) in New York shenanigating with Alex Greenwald, which this week included buying matching birthday suits ( . . .) & capes (ahahahahaha OH GOD); having a "listening party" for the new record; attending Michael Runion and Alex Greenwald's recording session with Mark Ronson; spending several evenings at the Standard Hotel; Alex Greenwald's 30th birthday festivities; Alex performing at Glasslands (Williamsburg) and Ryan being offended by hipsters; and Ryan donning his extraordinarily elaborate "Cranky Hat" on a couple of occasions.

He also shared a New York moment or two, realized the city has no time for his bullshit, bought Z Berg a snuggie, mis-attributed one of Aesop's fables to the Bible, allowed as generally he'd rather be watching America's funniest home videos, made allusions to Garth Brooks and Star Wars (at the same time!) and Van Halen's Running with the Devil. He did also mention something about "gold metal" but I suspect either a) he made that up or b) he could be talking about jazz (gold metal = trumpets, etc); there is a r&b box set by that name as well.

There was of course the end-of-week tempest-in-a-Twitter-pot when he noticed he was losing followers, told people to unfollow him, and then they did. In droves. Though his numbers seem to be going back up now. His commentary at the close of the week/reporting period seemed to be generally hang-over related.

Brendon I reorganized him (again!) so that the non-YouTube videos also have their own sections. He was slightly quieter than usual this week, though he did share an adorable picture of his dog(s) while watching sports on TV, went on a haunted hayride, quoted Back to the Future, conflated Neil Young, Foreigner and (maybe) the Wizard of Oz, all in one tweet (now that is what I call talent!), mentioned Ryan Gosling's new band and that The Notebook made him cry (I've noticed this seems to be a popular movie with our rockstars; I'm half sure I remember both William Beckett and Trace Cyrus mentioning watching it), and posted a clip from Stepbrothers that I'm pretty sure is meant to be a Beastie Boys parody.

Spencer Brendon's wiles regarding wacky instruments are clearly superior to Ryan's, for this week Spencer shared that he was playing some wooden frog on the new record. Take that, Mr. Tamborine Man. He also shared a link to the elusive Chili Cheese Burrito, discussed missing his dogs with his ex (at least I'm assuming she's his ex) and retweeted the Bananas Music Club weekly selection.

Jon: Only updated twice, neither of which were substantive, so I didn't add anything to his list.

Ryan: Not a lot of cultural stuff, this week, really. He shared his odd dream(s), talked about shooting spiders, did some chores, watched some TV, and then came to New York to continue to shenanigate with Alex Greenwald. (And then promptly got sick and retired to bed (or couch) with Rodney Dangerfield movies for company.) He did share a link that revealed that the dude from the YouTube video Brendon was watching two weeks ago (I think) now has his own movie, Winnebago Man, which has been making the rounds at festivals, but that was kind of it.

Brendon: I've come to the conclusion that a busy, chattering Brendon is a happy Brendon. This week he watched a bunch of movies ranging from Grease to Brazil to Kindergarten Cop, as well as some tv (The Soup, Community). Outside of the Oklahoma! video, his musical selections were kind of hard to pin down; I searched for the songs based on the lyric fragments he posted, but I couldn't find much of anything. So either he was making up his own "sample" lyrics, or the artists in question don't have a web presence. (I'm voting for door no. 1.) He also shared one of his dreams and went on a minor tangent about Paul Reubens/Pee Wee Herman being busted in an adult theater. ("what the hell else are you supposed to do in an adult theater? take notes?" ahahaHAHAHAHHAhahahahaha, oh, Brendon, how much do I love you? Kind of a lot.)

Spencer: Again very quiet, popping up only to promote TAI . . .'s new single, troll a friend with a link to a Huffington Post story about Jon Gosselin, and, in conversation with a different friend, share a puzzling quote about David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. I searched but I can't find the source; if anyone recognizes it, please let me know.

I was particularly struck (interested by?) in this reference as in 1993, I was 18 and going off to college; Spencer was 6. [Ed note: Jesus Christ, I'm old. Anyway . . .] Remember, too, that the standoff at Ruby Ridge (1992) was still reasonably fresh in the national memory at the time. It was, I guess, a time when armed standoffs looked like they might be getting to be a trend.

Jon: Also fairly quiet; he noted the occasion of the autumn equinox is a roundabout sort of way, referenced black hole theory for the second time (Jon Walker: secret physics nerd?), shared a picture of one of his cats, and quoted a Wet Wet Wet song.

Ryan: Another somewhat quiet week, featuring one nonsense tweet that was nothing but a string of symbols and another puzzling one where he was googling images of rigatoni, of all things. Several of the rest were recording and/or Rockband: The Beatles-themed, though it looks like he also went to fabulous Mexican restaurant (Elvii on the walls!) to continue his explorations of the concept of, as we used to say in college, One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Floor. He also discussed his desire for a cinder block of pez with fake!Jon, and wrapped up the week with a mention of someone stealing his iPod and Alex Greenwald's leather jacket out of his car [>:((] and teasing Agyness Deyn about being late to the emo party. Finally, the one song this week was one Brendon referenced several months ago, from the Lonely Island, though Ryan picked a different verse, one that is a reference to Judy Blume's classic Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.

(The verses Brendon picked were about smoking up, if I remember right, and one of them featured a word he didn't realize was a fairly potent West Indian curse word.)

Brendon: Made another visit to the 1990s and shared a Squirrel Nut Zippers video. Other music: The Righteous Brothers and Manchester Orchestra. Limp Bizkit also made an appearance on video (under "worst guitar solo", which, ouch, Fred Durst), and so did the "Stranger Danger" song. In non-musical news, he played some Arkham Asylum, watched at least one movie (That Thing You Do!) and a really hilarious "bloopers" clip from a mobile home salesman, experienced a sonic boom, quoted some Family Guy and showed his support for World Suicide Prevention Day.

Spencer: Very quiet this week; nonetheless made two references to the video clip of the wretched brat from Wife Swap and the bacon, one for the original and one for the remix. He also referenced the Whistle Go Woo! clip again, and there was some discussion of Pusswhip Banggang, which I'm guessing is the modern equivalent of Spinal Tap. No other music, and no pictures this week, :(.

Jon: Fake!Jon showed up somewhere in the middle of the week, but seems to have gone quiet now. Real!Jon wasn't all that chatty either, confining himself to quoting candy jingles, a line from A Goofy Movie, commentary on recording and one puzzling line that may be his own lyrics. And he enjoyed playing some Rockband: The Beatles.

Ryan: His "bare necessities" are apparently his guitar and a . . . hula hoop. Whatever makes your socks go up and down, dude. Interestingly, that was the only song specifically mentioned, and there were no movie references this week. There was a new book, however; he quoted Frankenstein and followed up with some photographs of his Frankenstein-themed socks.

In other news, he and Jon and Alex Greenwald (and assorted other friends; Than Lu keeps turning up in pictures, too) are by all appearances powering through the recording process. When not recording, however, he and Alex occupied themselves with shopping for denim suits, "big Nikes" and wedding rings. All I can think of is some kind of cracked-out '80s-style ZZ Top video in which everyone swans around in not-quite slow motion wearing silly clothes, sporting ridiculous hair and pulling exaggerated faces while people fly through the air and land in wedding cakes. (If they manage to churn out ZZ Top-style guitar candy, I will be the happiest girl in the world, but I am not getting my hopes up.)

The other possibilities, of course, are a) he's trolling the hell out of the internet or b) he did actually get married for real. If there is one thing I have learned from this fandom, it is that the most ridiculous, "get the hell out, no way" option is most often the right one, but until he specifically confirms or denies (or we get pictures of him in a wedding ring) I'm filing all of it under "Wacky ZZ Top-Style Antics".

Finally, he closed out the week (or at least the reporting period) with a mention of watching the J.O.N.A.S. show and more (probably) trolling the internet, this time with something that would be a truly epically ridiculous baby name: Whimsy Pillow Jingle Jangle Ross. That's it, there's no further context. He could as easily be telling us he has a new pet turtle. (Not going to lie, all I could manage was an "Awwwwwww", because I am the most ridiculous.)

Brendon: Watched a lot of YouTube videos this week (including one tweeted by a fan that got deleted before I could see it); declared Wednesday was Wacky-Tie day; sat in a smoking hot Batmobile; and made allusions to songs by Peaches & Herb, Queen, Rufus Wainwright, George M. Cohan, Imogen Heap, Aaliyah and Timbaland, and Bob Marley; went bowling; wished Pete good luck with not getting bottled at Reading/Leeds; mentioned some existing Twitter tees, and watched some Penn and Teller.

Also, he and Spencer released the "Weekend at Pete Rose's" video, combining in one magnificent cultural moment both Weekend at Bernie's, Pete Rose and Pete Wentz.

Spencer: Was almost all pictures all the time, including one of Brendon's dog, one of the back of Brendon's head and an arm, and the rest of various sporting/evening out activities. No music and no movies, and no link to their video, which was odd. Also odd, but in an entertaining way: a comment about "tender loving caltrate" in reply to something Brendon said about "tender loving care." Clearly only the affectionate calcium supplements will do.

Jon: Mostly pictures of studio time, with some discussion of the arrival date for the new record (by the end of the year, Jon? Really?), and one of a pool that I'm guessing is at his hotel. He gets a puzzle prize this week for "There's nothing protecting the story" which is a fascinating concept but I have no idea what he's talking about. Protecting the story from what, Jon Walker? Please expand on that thought!

And of course there is his end-of-week Tweet of Fail. >:( I . . . kind of don't know what to say, but I don't want to not mention it. (What I said to the screen at the time was: Oh, Jon, NO.) It's been discussed elsewhere, so I think I'll leave it there: it happened, it was stupid, hopefully he will learn the error of his ways.

Ryan: Quiet again this week; chirpy at first, when Alex Greenwald re-appeared, but somewhat melancholy later. The one song he referenced was Elliott Smith's "Needle in the Hay," as it appeared in The Royal Tenenbaums, and that was to tell someone to stop listening to it/watching the clip. The song is lovely, but, WARNING That scene is VERY TRIGGERY for self-harm. There was also a good deal of record-making related chatter (:DDDDDD!) with Alex Greenwald, and he (Ryan) even posted a picture of what could be a track list and/or album art, drawn on a drum head. He also posted a picture of Greenwald fiddling with the intertubes (I'm guessing; he was at a computer) under the beatific gaze of a wall of photos of the Jonas Brothers.

Brendon: The last week of the Chester French/FOB/Blink-182 tour, and Brendon was as chatty as chatty could be. Highlights: He saw District 9 and, as far as I can tell, he liked it; he watched a whole lot of Tim & Eric, Awesome Show Great Job!; he wandered into Pete's conversation about the accuracy of the lyrics in "Don't Stop Believin'"; he and Pete played a round of the Floating Circles game that Spencer introduced a while back and we all have to smack ourselves in the shoulder; and he found a blog full of moments of Epic Fail. Musical selections encompassed The Spaniels, the Goo Goo Dolls, Journey and Nelly.

Spencer: He only tweeted once, and that was to Mark Hoppus about staying in the tour, so there were no substantive updates for Spencer this week. :(

Jon: Another bizarrely Beatles-free week (though maybe not so much now, since it keeps happening), in which the only musical reference was to Purple Rain, by Prince. He's also back in LA, and has resumed communicating almost entirely via pictures, specifically pictures of: food; a crow, pooping; Ryan's back yard; himself on Ryan's back porch (?); Ryan reading a book (♥RYAN♥); someone, possibly himself, fiddling with a drumset while Than Lu looks on; and the view from his hotel room. Finally, he also made an allusion ("Because the World is Round") to the blog of another Chicago musician.

Special note about Ryan and the book: I had added that one to the "puzzles" file, but then Michael Runion, another musician in their circle, popped up with a picture of Cavett , which is approximately the right size and shape for what Ryan was reading. It's a stretch, no question, but I'm making a note of it just the same. I didn't put it on Ryan or Jon's list(s), as neither of them mention it specifically by name.

Special Note: This week's entry is early; next week will either be early (Thursday) or late (the following Tuesday) depending on how my travel schedule shakes out.

Administratrivia: Both Spencer AND Ryan's lists now have items with warnings appended. Ryan's for, well, nature (spiders) and Spencer's for possibly triggery images of food. (I can't look at that website, particularly the background image, for longer than about a minute without feeling panicky. The boys sharing pictures of their dinners doesn't bother me at all, though, my usual reaction is MMMM, delicious, gimme that sushi!) I'm going to continue to include warnings as necessary. If there's anything (past, present or future) that NEEDS a warning and I fail/have failed to include it, please advise and I will fix it ASAP.

This week:

Ryan spent a lot of time with Alex Greenwald and various of his/their famous friends (and got chased by paparazzi for his trouble), visited with some seals, shared a picture of tremendously adorable puppy, got trolled by his friend with pictures of a t-shirt that may not actually exist (but should) and a massive spider (the source website is amazing, but, um, be REALLY CAREFUL if you have any kind of bug phobias). He also started (and ended) a minor fan kerfluffle on Twitter. Musically there was only the one Bonnie Raitt song, plus a quote from Nas. There were another couple of quotes that were Greenwald, and some that could be Ryan quoting a movie, or could be Ryan repeating conversations going on around him, I wasn't quite sure.

Brendon, as we all know, was very busy being a tanned hotsauce at Comic Con and helpfully clarifying his lyrics for us. (Extra amusing as I had actually come up with a non-dirty meaning for "go down on me", but oh well.) He's also been listening to the Imogean Heap song Spencer mentioned last week (:DDD!), Lou Reed, and, ah, Huey Lewis and the News. (Some of that was related to promo stuff for Jennifer's Body; there's a link in patd to his "soundtrack" for the film, which has some intriguing selections.) The mysterious quote about the still not-pregnant Constitution was from Gore Vidal. Literally the first place it turned up was in the .sig file of a regular commentator on a 2nd Amendment website (thehighroad.us), which, I don't think Brendon is that concerned about our right to bear arms, and I'm guessing he must have some kind of Quote-A-Day calendar.

Spencer was also busy being a tanned hotsauce at Comic Con (I ♥ Spencer in all of his shapes and sizes, and I am so, so happy to have pictures in which he doesn't look exhausted and sad and/or dead-eyed; clearly, all that surfing is agreeing with him!). He shared some pictures of Brendon being a hotsauce, teased us with the possibility of Olan Mills-style photoshoots, expressed a desire to go to Awesomecon, metioned that he was excited for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and shared the link to That Website Which Gives Me The Howling Fantods, and took note of the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Plus there were bonus references to the X-Files and the Berlin Wall.

In stark contrast, Jon was quiet, and when not sharing pictures of his adorable cat, or an stunning shot of himself and Ryan in the studio -- clearly someone has finally brought in a Real Camera -- he he seemed to once again be wearing his Cranky Pants. There are a lot of songs on the subject of living a lie, but only the Laura Branigan really matched what he posted. (And even that was a tenuous connection; she had the right words and configuration but not the trifold repetition.) Also he has changed his icon again, to a non-distorted picture of his face. He looks sort of unimpressed and I think I see a hint of moustache. Finally, I'm hoping the Dylan reference on the studio shot is a harbinger of things to come, stylistically.

[Done early this week, for the holiday!]

Everyone but Ryan and Travie changed their profile picture this week. Brendon went with a picture of "demonized" Charlie Brown from Ron English's "Grin"; Spencer selected a stylized portrait of Devendra Banhart and Jon chose a distorted picture of himself, and also changed his background to be completely white.

Jon continues to drop literary references all over us, including Alice in Wonderland, Slaughterhouse Five for the second time, and also a Roethke poem. He's also redesigned his Twitter page with more Alice in Wonderland references (distorted icon, location is "the willow tree"). Travel to fantastical places was something of a theme; he also referenced The Wizard of Oz. Songwise, there were only four; highlights are a repeat of "I'm So Tired" by the Beatles and Billy Joel being the only artist other than the Beatles to appear more than once.

Spencer was quiet this week, save for one exchange with Ryan, though, as noted above, his icon changed to a stylized picture of Devendra Banhart ( Official Website ) The longer I do this the more fascinated I am by Spencer's apparent preferred aesthetic, and increasingly certain that the Circus-era flavor and feel were his ideas that Ryan (& Lucent Dossier) illustrated. For examples, be sure to check out the "pictures" section of Banhart's official website. Note: There's no explicit nudity, but you may not want to look at it at work.

Brendon appears to be busy surfing (with seals!) though as we all know, he took breaks to go out on boat with Spencer, Fall Out Boy, some extras, and some videocameras and also to sing some Sinatra. (I'm hoping for a Sinatra cover on the new tour.) The big development this week was that while trying to parse the "pure stoke" comment, I managed to crack the "Eddie would go" mystery -- it's a reference to Eddie Aiku, a legendary Hawaiin surfer. Like "pure stoke", it could be a catchphrase or a book, I'm not 100% sure.

Meanwhile, Ryan was busy getting into trouble hanging out with Alex Greenwald, teasing us with puzzling scribbled-upon leaves, and being ill. There were far fewer songs this week, but they were less melancholy; The Kinks were mentioned twice (once was a link to the actual song) and also Ryan appears to be listening to the same Zombies record Jon referenced a week or so ago. Finally, there was another mention of the mysterious Thromby, which is either a) Alex Greenwald's phone (most likely) or b) Alex Greenwald himself, I still am not sure.

Travie went to the MJ memorial at the Apollo Theater, in Harlem, then got a tattoo, accompanied by some friends, one of whom had a medium-sized lizard with him. Then it appears he decamped to Miami, possibly to record. He also appears to have had cause to go to the ER :( Feel better soon, Travie!