sailorstkwrning

[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!

If I had to sum up this week in a word, that word would be: OUCH.

-- Ryan is either continuing his late '60s - early '70s trend, or expanding his country trend. It Ain't Me, Babe was a Dylan song originally (and that was how I filed it), but Johnny and June Carter Cash, among other people, had a wildly successful cover. I like the Cash cover better, personally, because I ♥ Johnny Cash always, but thought the Dylan original is more likely to be what he's actually listening to. Also: style shift ahoy! Fedoras and tweed: Out, Military: In? We shall see!

-- Spencer surprised me a little with the Stone Temple Pilots song (at least I think he was referencing STP), but it was a pleasant surprise. It starts slow but once it gets moving it's got solid, steady rolling drums and bass, plus Scott Weiland in fine vocal form.

-- Brendon is still eating well. (And causing the internet to explode. Oh, Brendon.)

-- Jon seemed to have abandoned Twitter altogether, but has come back to us now!

-- Brendon and Spencer are participating in current events, in the sense that their icons are green in support of Iranian democracy.

-- What the devil is "Thromby" when it's at home? Alex Greenwald's car? A thrombone?

-- Travie has done most of his discussion of his trip so far either on his blog or other news sites, but he seems to be having a good time so far, outside of some ferocious jetlag.