Our Lives Are In Your Hands...

2006-12-19T11:21:00.000-05:00

Our blog has a new home!

Please update your bookmarks to: http://blogs.move.com/dannyandnina

We'll see you there!

- D&N

2006-12-16T15:54:00.000-05:00

#62: It's Not the Ending, It's the Beginning...

When we decided to launch http://dannyandnina.com back in mid-September, we did so out of a spirit of adventure and curiosity. One of the biggest questions in our minds concerned how our project would be received by the internet public. Would people care about our kooky endeavor? Would anyone vote? How quickly might things unfold?

Much to our delight (and somewhat to our surprise), our idea was received warmly and with positivity not only in the United States but all across the world. What we thought might possibly be of interest to some folks in our country rapidly sparked international interest and we quickly saw that our project had many passionate observers.

For the response we have received we are truly and greatly appreciative. It is humbling and wondrous to know that our site has taken on a life of its own, that it has sparked dialogue between citizens in towns in far-flung corners of the States, and that so many people have been as excited by this idea as we have been. In short, we feel thankful and blessed to have had this response.

At the risk of jumping the gun, it does appear that the voting will wrap up at some point in the next day or so. We know that all of the three towns competing for the number one spot have something different to offer us and are awaiting a winner with understandable anticipation. That isn't rhetoric, it's the truth, and we both look forward to exploring our new hometown and sharing our life there with you. There is no telling what the future holds in store for us but we are thrilled by the possibilities.

It was our sincere hope that this competition would engender discussion, make people smile, cause folks to reconsider their feelings about their own hometowns, and maybe even provide a vicarious thrill or two. Nearly five million votes later, it has presented us with an array of challenges we couldn't possibly have forseen at the project's start.

Throughout the process we have always tried our absolute best to ensure a fair and legitimate vote, dealing with new and unexpected obstacles as they arose. We know very well that no matter what town winds up the victor, some people will feel upset and cry foul. It is the nature of competition, as anyone who has ever rooted wholeheartedly for a football team can attest to. Since this cannot be avoided, we take solace in knowing that we conducted ourselves with integrity and honesty throughout this project.

We have obviously been treading in uncharted waters and we have done the best we can. Life is a learning experience and if we had to begin this process anew we would undoubtedly do certain things differently. However, we are both amazed at how things have unfolded. It has definitely been an incredible trek for us as individuals and as a couple.

Thank you again for your support. We put our lives in your hands and you have responded admirably. This is just the beginning, of course, and we look forward to giving you a window into our new town and our lives there.

With appreciation and love,
Danny & Nina

2006-12-14T11:06:00.000-05:00

#61: Rocketbooming & The Rigorous Dictates of Life Around the Country.

This morning our site was featured on Rocketboom, one of (if not) the most popular vlogs on the internet. While we wish we could have been interviewed, it is still a pretty fun piece complete with a mischievous collaboration with Katrin from Ehrensenf. She somewhat predictably encourages the Rocketboom folks to vote for a certain town in Texas, which is a shame for the folks in Ramapo, New York. Click on the image to check out the video.

When you were a little kid did you ever have one of those books that listed all of the crazy laws that are still on the books across the country? Well stop gloating because I didn't. However, after stumbling across dumblaws.com I decided to do a little research into the top vote-getting states. Here are some of the highlights:

In Indiana:

•Anyone 14 or older who profanely curses, damns or swears by the name of God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, shall be fined one to three dollars for each offense, with a maximum fine of ten dollars per day.

•Smoking in the state legislature building is banned, except when the legislature is in session.

•Moustaches are illegal if the bearer has a tendency to habitually kiss other humans.

In Colorado:

•It is unlawful to lend your vacuum cleaner to your next-door neighbor. (Denver)

•It is legal to challenge a police officer, but only until he or she asks you to stop. (Boulder)

•Keeping a house where unmarried persons are allowed to have sex is prohibited. (Arvada)

In Texas:

•It is illegal to take more than three sips of beer at a time while standing.

•A recently passed anticrime law requires criminals to give their victims 24 hours notice, either orally or in writing, and to explain the nature of the crime to be committed.

•The entire Encyclopedia Britannica is banned in Texas because it contains a formula for making beer at home.

Ah, sweet bureaucracy in action! Good thing no one needs encyclopedias anymore, huh?

heart,
Nina.

2006-12-13T10:35:00.000-05:00

#60: New LCD Soundsystem MP3 & Eden Prarie Tosses in the Towel.

It seems as though certain people never sleep. We've blogged about James Murphy once before; the multi- instrumentalist and producer is half of DFA and all of LCD Soundsystem. Having already released two compilations of DFA remixes this year as well as the amazing 45 minute workout anthem 45:33 he's already eyeing 2007.

In late March, LCD Soundsystem will release his sophomore full-length, The Sound of Silver. Even Amazon doesn't have this up for pre-order yet, but we thought we'd whet your appetite with the second track, "Time to Get Away." ~~Enjoy the download~~ and let us know what you think--we're definitely loving it.

Meanwhile in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, some folks and even the local newspaper are lamenting the fact that their town is effectively out of the running in the voting. Things are getting very interesting as of late, with Plano, Texas having been dethroned not once but twice--first by South Bend, Indiana and this morning by Denver, Colorado. I wonder if this has something to do with the disenfranchised Fort Collins voters who held a big lead for so long in the early stages of the vote. Looks like we're in for a nice finish!

xoxox
Danny

2006-12-12T10:54:00.000-05:00

#59: A Trip to the Zoo, New Shins & New Pas/Cal!

Nina and I took a trip to the zoo a couple weeks back and never got around to posting any photos, so please enjoy these creatures. Our only thought about the elephant is that the lady elephants are all either terrified or very, very happy. While I thoroughly enjoy the occasional trip to the zoo, Nina revels in it with a glee surpassing that of the children around her. It's really adorable to witness her wide-eyed appreciation as she darts from species to species.

Our favorite live band in the world, Pas/Cal, just released their third EP. Entitled Dear Sir, it offers another five excellent songs from a group fond of exploding pop songs with falsetto harmonies and unexpected bursts of melody. We hope the boys (and girl) don't mind, but "The Lot We Came Home With" was so wonderful we had to share it with you. They also do the world's best cover of Wham's "Last Christmas," but we'll get to that later. As always, visit their page if you like the MP3.

Nina and I have debates about the relative merits of the Shins (she really likes them, I tend to find them a little boring and they certainly didn't "change my life") but we both agree that the first track from their upcoming record, Wincing the Night Away, is not only excellent but also reminds us a lot of... Pas/Cal. "Sleeping Lessons" (not to be confused with "Wake Up Wake Up Wake Up" on the new P/C EP) simmers to a boil and then bursts forth with precisely the sort of enthusiasm a record should begin with. Even I have to admire this one. Although the album doesn't come out until 2007 you can buy the Phantom Limb single now.

xoxox
Danny

2006-12-11T10:29:00.000-05:00

#58: The Fighting Irish & 3.5 Million Votes.

It's been an interesting weekend on the voting front as South Bend and Plano continue to duke it out for first place. When we went to bed last night, the Bend seemed to be enjoying a comfortable lead (about 10,000) votes. However, Plano has since reclaimed the lead. There has also been a previously unparalleled level of banter about South Bend on the forums where residents are debating the merits and drawbacks of their Indiana town.

All of this was fueled in part by a follow-up piece in the South Bend Tribune on Saturday. The first piece generated such a flurry of feedback that the newspaper decided to run the second article (which also had a front page placement).

Looks like things are heating up! We also crossed the 3.5 million vote mark today--crazy stuff!

xoxox
Danny

2006-12-08T10:43:00.000-05:00

#57: 3,000,000 Reasons to Move & San Diego Love!

We've hit another amazing milestone in the voting: today we surpassed the 3,000,000 vote mark. When Nina and I began this project back in mid-September, we had no idea how people would react to our idea (or whether they would respond to it at all). Three million votes later, it's clear that there are a lot of people who are as excited about our project as we are and that is, well, pretty rad.

We know our idea isn't for everyone and have heard our fair share of cynical responses to what we're doing, but the positive feedback outweighs the negative by far. This project has allowed us to connect with places and people across the country and the world and we would do it again in a heartbeat. Of course, there is still a lot of voting to be had, so we hope you'll cast another ballot or three.

Meanwhile in San Diego, folks are picking up this week's copy of CityBeat to find this article about our project. Thanks to Kelly Davis for asking us some questions and bringing us some California love... and hey, what do you call people from San Diego anyway? San Diegans? Diegoites?

xoxox
Danny

2006-12-07T10:23:00.000-05:00

#56: Newspaper Double Dip.

Wow--it's never happened before, but today we have not one but two newspaper features
about our project to share with you! They're both very well written, to boot.

The first comes from today's South Bend Tribune and from what we can tell it was actually a front page item, which is a very humbling first for us. South Bend, Indiana has been tearing it up in the voting over the past few days, so it's likely this will help continue the trend. We've already received a couple encouraging e-mails from folks in South Bend, something Nina and I always appreciate.

Article number two is from The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It's a lovely piece but, sadly, is not archived free of charge on their site. No worries though: we posted the feature in its entirety on our site for your reading enjoyment.

For those out there who enjoy following the media reaction to our project, it should be interesting to see how both writers give their stories a different focus. We're very grateful to both Mike Wanbaugh and Nicole Riehl for taking the time to interview us and helping spread the word.

In case you don't know, you can always have an updated look at all of the press our project has received.

Finally, I'm still under the weather but that made all of the birthday wishes I received all the sweeter. Thanks to everyone who dropped me a line!

xoxox
Danny

UPDATE: The e-mails we've received have been very pro-South Bend, but the naysayers are taking to the forums. If you've lived there, we'd love to hear you weigh in!

2006-12-06T11:25:00.000-05:00

#55: Birthday Wishes & Moomintrolls.

Yesterday we woke up to find that our internet connection was not functioning properly again, only this time we interpreted it as a sign from the heavens that we should take the day off. Why? Because it was Danny's 24th birthday. Unfortunately, hours into the revelry Danny got sick. Too much excitement. If you're feeling generous, you can make him feel better by sending a birthday donation gift:
Danny mentioned my love of Harry Potter books earlier, but my first adventure book love was the Moomintrolls. They aren't trolls, they are really cute somewhat Hippo-like characters from Finland. Author Tove Jansson wrote the original books in Swedish (further proof that everything awesome has a Swedish connection) and they have been translated to 33 different languages. For some unexplained reason, they aren't as huge in the States as they are in Russia, but nevertheless: I love Moomintrolls.

If you are in the mood to check out some art go to artfaceoff.com. Love this site. The way it works is kind of like Hot or Not for art. Artists upload their images and they are rated for a month, after which the highest ranked pieces face off. The winner of the face off gets to go on to the next face off, and so on, playoff elimination style. By the way, if you want to help me out vote for me here. All 10's would be nice, but please vote for whatever you feel is appropriate.

Heart,
Nina

2006-12-01T11:44:00.000-05:00

#54: New Newspaper Article, Unhealthyville & YouTube on Your Phone.

Love to Asheville, North Carolina! Yesterday their Citizen-Times newspaper featured this short article about our project. It's a beautiful town I've been to on a couple of occasions and is certainly better than...

...the cities featured in this New York Times article, which outlines the least healthy places in the United States. The booby prize goes to Detroit, Michigan (see photo above) which--not coincidentally--is not one of the 250 towns in our project. Oklahomans were saddled with the most cities toward the poor end of the spectrum, securing the 98th and 94th (out of 100) worst spots. If anyone out there has spent a lot of time in any of these places, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the list.

Also noteworthy is another Times article about YouTube's imminent arrival on cell phones. The rollout itself seems somewhat underwhelming, but it's interesting as part of the wider migration of "internet" content to other handheld devices. It's not difficult to imagine where this leads us ten or fifteen years down the road, when accessing web data and resources is as commonplace as cell phone ownership is today.

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-30T10:37:00.000-05:00

#53: Jarvis Strikes Back.

Whoa, I don't think we've ever received as many messages on our MySpace account as we did regarding yesterday's Harry Potter post. Apparently all of his fans are equally rabid.

The other day, Nina and I were listening to Separations in the car; chronologically, it was Pulp's first thoroughly great record ("Countdown" is their first perfect song, I'd argue) and on it you can hear frontman Jarvis Cocker finally wrapping himself around the repressed-yet-dauntingly-sexy persona he later perfected on His 'N' Hers and Different Class.

Well, Mr. Cocker is back with a new record, Jarvis, and while some people are greeting it with a lukewarm reaction, I find it difficult to dislike anything he lends his voice to. (In fairness, I'm not alone in that opinion; The Guardian deemed it an "idiosyncratic triumph"--take that, Pitchfork!) The record is incredibly textured yet cohesive, the many facets coming together to form a very satisfying whole. "Black Magic" feels like a send-up of Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane"--in a good way--while "Heavy Weather" sounds like it could've been co-written by Teenage Fanclub.

It seems like what people react most negatively to is the lack of uptempo material, but then again, that's what Relaxed Muscle was about. Anyway, Jarv does provide a couple of those songs anyway. For instance, take "Fat Children," a song about being killed by overfed kids and then coming back to haunt them. Download here or watch this live performance and marvel at Cocker being the youngest-looking 43 year old you've ever seen:

Don't you think he and Moby could be cousins? There's something of a resemblance there...

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-29T09:57:00.000-05:00

#52: Harry Potter, Beast of Burden & Gift Ideas.

Apologies for our sporadic blog posting the past few days; we were hit by an unexpected internet outage here at the base camp. The downtime led Nina to ressurect a hobby of hers that hadn't surfaced in a while: Harry Potter. She is now in the midst of an intense (some might say obsessive) HP binge, something I find baffling and mysterious. It is possible that I won't see her for a few days only to have her reappear, slightly haggard and pallid, with a devoured stack of Ms. Rowling's tomes in tow.

When the Potter bug strikes Nina, it always entertains me to no end. First and foremost is the fact that you couldn't pay me to read the books (believe me, I've tried stealing glances over her shoulder). It isn't a bash against the book, though; ever since I can remember, I have been entirely turned off by anything having to do with sorcery, wizards, and witches (or, for that matter, knights, princesses, and mysterious forests where Strange Things happen). Maybe I'm just missing that gene. However, this is the stuff of nerdy dreams for Nina, who loves indulging herself in fantasy worlds where bizarre creatures scamper about and objects take on magical qualities. Indeed, you can see it reflected in much of her art. This contrast has been one of those "opposites attract" elements of our relationship, perhaps analogous to my love of post-bop jazz or watching baseball on television.

Another noteworthy aspect of her Potter fixation is the degree to which Nina becomes visibly excited (not like that) while reading the books. She gets this adorably goofy grin glued to her face and lets out the occasional involuntary giggle. Or, like last night, she'll pause her reading long enough to look at me and say something like "I wish I lived in a magical wizard world!!!" before promptly returning to her spot on the page. And yes, the statement comes with three exclamation points. I wonder how many of our blog readers are pro/anti HP?

Lastly, in a few days we'll be launching a special D&N gift guide... you know, because you needed another. If you have any suggestions you'd like to submit, just send us an e-mail: gifts[at]dannyandnina.com. We look forward to reading your ideas!

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-25T12:27:00.000-05:00

#51: Plano, Part 72,396.

The Plano plotline has definitely turned out to be one of the more unexpected and amusing tangents in our project. It is the sort of thing we could never have anticipated before launching the vote and has garnered a lot of strong opinions from people all over the country and the world.

Today, we woke up to find this opinion piece in The Dallas Morning News; the headline ("Sour Krauts") sums the article up pretty well. I must admit that it was surprising to find this as their lead editorial in a weekend edition--it's blush-worthy and exciting. If anyone in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area has a copy they can mail us, we'd appreciate it.

It's entertaining that even though the article takes an offended stance in regard to the German phenomenon, it still seems to be encouraging people to send us to Plano... so ultimately both parties are pushing for the same result. The piece also serves as a nice foil to the video segment produced by Plano Wired. It also provides a lot of interesting information about Germany's current emigration trend, something Nina and I were unaware of.

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-22T10:07:00.000-05:00

#50: Lobster attack!, New Bloc Party & Vote for Amp Camp.

Nina and I were at the grocery yesterday, and as everyone knows, half the fun of going grocery shopping is taking samples from the products being 'demonstrated' around the store. I had an unusual run-in with the demo employee as a I reached for a sample of some lobster spread that went as follows:

Employee: (gesturing to previous sample-taker) Are you together?
Me: No.
Employee: (keeping me from lobster spread) Well you need permission.
Me: (confused) Permission?
Employee: Yes.
Me: Permission from whom?
Employee: An adult.
Me: I'm twenty-three years old.
Employee: Oh... Well you're lucky to look so young!

I wasn't angry or anything, just sort of thrown off by the unexpected nature of the exchange. After all, it's been a while since I've been carded for alcohol at a bar and I certainly didn't expect something similar at the grocery store... over some lobster spread. Once I was able to realize what had happened, I figured it must have something to do with keeping kids with seafood allergies away from that product. Still, how young could she have thought I was? What is the cut-off age? 16? 18? 21?

Bloc Party has a new record coming out in February and since Nina and I are unapologetic fans of Silent Alarm, we thought we'd share an MP3 of one of the tracks. You can download "Prayer" and let us know what you think. Personally, I thought it was a little underwhelming (especially since this is what they are intentionally putting out on the net via their MySpace page), but it did prove to be catchier upon repeated listens.

Finally, the website I ran and helped launch, Amp Camp, is up for a PLUG Independent Music Award for "Online Record Store of the Year." Show some love with your vote and tell your pals to vote, too! You also get to vote for other fun things like "Live Act of the Year" (Art Brut!).

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-21T10:52:00.000-05:00

#49: New Article, A Day at the Beach and a Night at Bingo & Goya Theft Update.

Yesterday folks in Columbia, Missouri were treated to this newspaper article about our project in the Columbia Daily Tribune. The woman who wrote the article, Annie Nelson, was really fun to speak with and Nina and I are growing increasingly comfortable with our role as interviewees. Columbia is definitely another one of those towns we probably wouldn't have considered on our own without this project but, after some investigation, seems like it could be a really nice place for us to live. Since the article ran yesterday, they've racked up about 750 votes--not bad!

The only odd thing about this piece for us was looking at the photo they ran with the story, which looks like it had some out-of-the-box Photoshop filter applied. As a result, the whites seem to have gotten blown out which somehow simultaneously make Nina look a little bald (she isn't) and made my facial scruff very high contrast. We were pretty entertained by the subtle alteration, especially since it took us a while to figure out that something had indeed changed. Subtle is the word though, this was definitely no Couric.

Yesterday Nina and I had a fun day with my brother Michael at the beach. Afterwards, we spent the evening--three hours plus--playing bingo with a bunch of elderly Jewish ladies (and one man). It was a lot of fun even though we ended up not getting to shout out that magic word during any of the 25 games. I was impressed at how relatively high-tech the bingo world has gotten: handheld, wireless devices, CCTV, all of the information boards, etc.

Finally, if you read our post the other day about the stolen Goya painting that was nicked en route to the Guggenheim Museum, you'll be happy to know it has since been recovered by the FBI. Apparently, it was taken from the transport truck somewhere in Pennsylvania... no word yet on whether those wild outlaw Penn-Dutch folk were involved.

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-17T13:48:00.000-05:00

#48: Thanks Giving & Random Interesting Things.

First off, we want to take a moment to thank Hayden-Harnett, who earlier this week became the first advertisers on our blog. They're actually a really cool company run by two nice, young New Yorkers who design some pretty amazing handbags and accessories and we hope you'll take a moment to check out their stuff. Their current season features a very noir vibe that reminds us of some of our favorite movies.

Yesterday, while surfing some local media outlets for press contacts, I came across the following news story in the Duluth (MN) News Tribune: Lawyer argues sex with dead deer not crime. Whoa. This raised so many questions, I had to post it on our site. I'll leave the judgments to you, but suffice to say I'm glad I'm not that fella's lawyer.

My very rudimentary understanding of experimental physics wasn't enough to get me through this entire article with total comprehension, but I'm a sucker for the prospect of time travel anyway.

Rem Koolhaas is one of the few people that could live up to such a stylish and exotic name, but here he's done it yet again with his design for the Central Chinese Television building in Beijing.

And for the record, I'm rooting for Michigan but know Ohio State will pull off the win tomorrow.

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-15T12:09:00.000-05:00

#47: An Air Guitar You Wear and An Art Heist.

This is almost too weird and unlikely to believe, but scientists in Australia have developed an air guitar t-shirt that allows the wearer to produce guitar music by playing nothing but the air around them. One of the engineers responsible calls it "an easy-to-use, virtual instrument that allows real-time music making even by players without significant musical or computing skills."

But how does it look and sound? See for yourself by checking out the streaming WMV file here. Lest you think the Aussie science corps is a one trick pony, they've also done the same with the tambourine and guiro. Shouldn't these guys be trying to cure cancer or something?

Elsewhere, Goya's 1778 oil painting "Children With a Cart" was stolen in transit from the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio to New York's Guggenheim museum. Doesn't this sort of thing only happen in bad thrillers? Apparently not.

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-14T10:57:00.000-05:00

#46: 2,000,000 Votes!

Early this morning we reached a pretty impressive milestone on the site: our 2,000,000th legitimate vote.

It's a great feeling knowing that so many people have responded so positively and enthusiastically to our idea, especially since it was only a few weeks ago that we wondered whether we'd ever see one million votes, let alone two. In fact, exactly one month ago we were celebrating our 45,000th vote.

A lot of people think we're sort of nuts entrusting such a major decision to people who have never even met us, but this project has been an incredible amount of fun and a tremendous learning experience for us both. Our sincere thanks to everyone who has voted thus far and for all the votes yet to be tallied.

In honor of our recent millions, here's an interview with artist of all trades Brian Eno discussing his latest project, 77 Million Paintings. He uses light and generative software to create visual configurations that seamlessly shift and fade to produce a total of 77 million combinations:

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-12T23:10:00.000-05:00

#45: Plano Catches On & New Illustrations.

We got a special treat this weekend from the lovely folks in Texas. It seems as though some of our zealous German supporters wrote to a cable access show called Plano Wired to let them know about our project. The resulting bit of investigative journalism is pretty funny stuff.

Some of our favorite bits include their original cartoon rendering of the lower halves of our bodies (they made Danny taller and gave me some smokin' legs--see today's image) and the inclusion of the song "Plano, Texas, USA." Without further ado:

Aside from that, I've just put up a new section on my site entitled illustration. I'm going to try doing a new sketch each day and hopefully I'll have something more to show soon. I love your feedback, so please share any constructive criticism you may have as well as your thoughts on the Plano Wired piece!

Heart,
Nina

2006-11-10T09:59:00.000-05:00

#44: Innuendoes and Other Assorted Tidbits.

Last night, Nina and I watched the following clip and laughed so much we cried. This children's show took double entendres to new heights--it has to be intentional, right?

What else, you ask? We've mentioned Graham Coxon before, and now it seems as though at least one Blur member wants the guitarist back (which is good, since they've become soulless without him)... Clearly, Britney couldn't cope with K-Fed's rapid ascent into the artistic pantheon... And several years into the show, residents of the O.C. realize that show about "them" may not be so flattering after all.

Meanwhile, the country that brought us Sergei Eisenstein apparently can't deal with a little Borat, since Russia has banned his new movie... Youth voter turnout for the recent elections may have been the highest ever (definitely the highest in at least 20 years) for a midterm ballot... And Apple has axed their "Mac guy" from their television spots because he is kind of wanky and is obviously no match for John Hodgman. Hodgman will continue to make appearances in future ads.

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-09T12:17:00.000-05:00

#43: Our First TV Appearance!

Yesterday during their local news broadcast, Eugene, Oregon NBC affiliate KMTR aired this segment about us and our project:

It's the first time a television station has picked up on our story, and we're both proud of and humbled by the attention. Since we couldn't be there in person, reporter Mun Li Kong cobbled together some personal photos, our first YouTube video, and a phone interview she conducted with us to create the two minute piece.

Thoughts and comments are welcome on the blog and on the video's YouTube page here.

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

#42: Elections, Line Rider & the High Line.

Kudos to everyone who voted in yesterday's elections. Nina and I stayed up pretty late watching the still-unclear Senate races in Montana and Virginia, but who knows how long it will be before there is a clear victor there. One thing that was unmistakably clear, however, was that most people in the United States were looking for big changes... and they got them. Hopefully this will put us on a path to recovering some of our status in the international community.

My winner for best waste of time so far this year has got to be Line Rider. Just try it out, this one doesn't need an introduction. Here's to decreased productivity.

Lastly, we're really happy to report that the High Line's conversion into a Manhattan park has seen some significant progress over the past few months. For those unfamiliar with it, the High Line was formerly an above-ground railway built in the 1930s that ran through a significant portion of Manhattan's west side. It had been dormant for years, becoming overtaken by vegetation and trash, and was scheduled to be demolished. However, a group of concerned citizens had the idea of turning the decaying railway into a lush public promenade in the manner of Paris' Promenade Plantée. The group successfully lobbied for the conversion into a park, and on April 10th (re)construction began. When it's done, it will surely be one of the most magical places in an already enchanted town.

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-07T10:09:00.000-05:00

#41: VOTE!

2006-11-06T12:52:00.000-05:00

#40: YouTube Ahoy!

This weekend we finally took the plunge into the wild kingdom known as YouTube with a 1:20-long video outlining this wacky project of ours.

As of the writing of this blog, it's been viewed a surprising 533 times. We hope you'll visit the YouTube page and leave us some feedback: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vty9AGK2id4

For the curious, the song in the background is the "Megamix" of Section 25's "Looking from a Hilltop" (download here--11 mb). It's off their 1984 album, From the Hip, which was released on Factory Records and produced by New Order's Bernard Sumner.

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-04T10:35:00.000-05:00

#39: Timberlake vs DFA: "My Love" remix.

Here's a song that roughly 89.7% of folks can agree is pretty bad-ass: NYC powerhouse duo DFA remix Justin Timberlake's latest single, "My Love." Sure, it isn't their best work to date, but it's pretty fun nonetheless.

Plus, we know you already downloaded Justin's record anyway... you know, just out of curiosity. Maybe this will get us our first cease and desist.

Also, if your thieving heart is looking for a way of giving back, LCD Soundsystem (aka James Murphy, DFA's more rugged half) has a new MP3-only release available via iTunes. It's one long mix entitled "45:33" and is a great guilty pleasure for those in need of one.

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-03T11:39:00.000-05:00

#38: Hacking Democracy and the Electronic Vote.

Last night, Nina and I watched a documentary on HBO called Hacking Democracy; you can view the trailer here. Given the outrageous amount of hacked votes we encounter on our site every day and--of course--the proximity of the midterm elections, it seemed a particularly appropriate blog subject.

Hacking Democracy is about a few different issues, but the dominant theme is how unsecure new electronic voting machines produced by companies like Diebold (who fruitlessly petitioned the cable network not to air the film) really are and how easy it would be for someone to use this proprietary technology to rig an election. Electronic was supposed to be the safeguard, but instead it seems to have only made matters worse.

While the documentary itself wasn't necessarily spectacular, it did raise a lot of important questions which all Americans should be concerned about, regardless of political affiliation. Particularly in a time when so many citizens feel as though voter suppression and voting irregularities have marginalized their impact at the polls, it is critical to take a good, long, analytical look at the systems we have in place... even if the voting software companies don't like it.

I wish the film hadn't had as much of a political bent as it did, although to a certain degree there is no way of escaping it. Elections, after all, are all about politics. For those of you who didn't catch it, here's a nice piece from CNN's Jack Cafferty that touches upon a lot of the points raised in the documentary:

You can also watch a video put together by Princeton University, whose researchers found massive security breaches with Diebold's hardware and used it to successfully hack a test election, or watch Lou Dobbs interview filmmaker-cum-voter-activist Bev Harris and security expert Hugh Thompson. The last clip is worth watching just for Thompson, who reminds us an awful lot of a young Professor Frink.

xoxox
Danny

2006-11-02T10:11:00.000-05:00

#37: Accentuating the Positive.

Sometimes when I am really bored I start speaking with a fake Russian accent. This accomplishes only two things: it drives Danny nuts and amuses me to no end.

It's really the only accent I can do well, probably because... I am Russian. Danny's Russian accent sounds more like Yakov Smirnoff on drugs who has to yell a lot and make jerky movements. Or is this the way Americans view Russians in general? In fairness, I should point out that his other accents are much better than mine, except maybe British (although this claim is disputed by Danny, who thinks he does a great garbled Mancunian rockstar impression).

This got me thinking to why we imitate accents.

If you are speaking to someone with limited English skills (or any other language), do you sometimes start to feel like the other person would understand better if you imitate their accent? This has happened to me before and than I start to wonder if I unwittingly sound a little patronizing. Does the other person even notice?

Another case of this involves kids. It's often really apparent if you talk to moms of kids aged 2-5. They start talking in a slow and deliberate manner, pronouncing every word with emphasis and pauses. There is generally a lot of exaggerated facial expression that goes along with this too. I guess it helps their kids learn, but still seems very strange to be the adult whom this is directed at. I start to feel like I'm talking with somebody with a lot of problems.

Babelfish, by the way, who we've been using to decipher all our Ehrensenf comments translates with a distinct (in this case German) accent. I haven't tried it out on the Russian yet, but something tells me it'll be a Russian one.

How do accents sound to people? I know most Russians prefer an American accent to a British one, but does this hold true for Germany too? Americans love guys with British accents, but not girls. What gives?

Heart,
Nina

2006-11-01T09:50:00.000-05:00

#36: NYC Halloween Parade, Virtual Drum Machines & The Mary Onettes.

First off, we weren't there, but Rocketboom covered the NYC Halloween Parade. Check out the fun. We'll have some of our Halloween photos up soon.

I have a soft spot in my heart for ancient synthesizers and decrepit drum machines, so the dork in me thinks this collection of virtual drum machines is pretty much the coolest thing ever. Thank you KeyboardMuseum.org for fighting the good fight.

Our favorite record label in the world--Sweden's Labrador Records--has a new EP out today by recent signings The Mary Onettes. They are one of the few acts on the label that was initially recruited by another label; The Mary Onettes had a critically-acclaimed EP in 2005 through Sony/BMG. Their sound isn't a particularly novel one (splashes of Echo and the Bunnymen, Jesus and Mary Chain, the Cure, and New Order are easy to single out), but they do it very well.

This song, "Lost," is the title track from their new EP. The video below is for "Make Me Last" from their debut EP:

If you're enjoying them, you can stream all of the new EP over at their MySpace page.

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-31T10:38:00.000-05:00

#35: Halloween Thoughts & Costume Suggestions.

Happy Halloween, everyone! It's safe to say that Nina and I are fairly pro-holiday to begin with, but Halloween is a holiday we especially enjoy, particularly since it involves eating lots of candy. Admittedly, we have years where our efforts range from the elaborate (like my appearance on the streets of Manhattan a few years ago as Flava Flav, pre-reality show but post-Homestar Runner) to the low effort (see my successive years as a last minute "garbage bag"). This year we get to trick or treat with my two nieces, so it will be fun seeing how many kids dress up as Captain Jack Sparrow.

Here is a brief list of costumes I would like to see this year but probably won't:

1. Solo costume: A bowl of cereal. I'm not able to articulate exactly why this would be awesome, except for the fact that I've never seen it and I'd be curious to see which cereal they represented.

2. Couple's costume: Trinidad and Tobago. Just the outlines of the countries with feet and arms sticking out. They always go together anyway, so it seems like a good route for couples.

3. Group costume: Two (or more) people as rolls of toilet paper, with a third person in the middle as a house. It's Halloween-appropriate and unprecedented; if you could incorporate actual toilet-papering motions, it would be perfect.

Among the costumes I'd rather not see: clowns, "political" costumes, and, oh, let's say possums.

Wishing you lots of candy and not so much toilet paper,
Danny

2006-10-30T09:55:00.000-05:00

#34:Revenge of the Possum, Two New Articles, and an '80s Loving Robot.

The possum came back ("...this time, it's personal") even though we moved Snuffy's food up to higher ground. He's got a keen nose, dat possum. Okay, he really does look pretty gross in these pictures, but that's because this particular possum looks like he's losing his hair and the tail is very rodential. I always thought possums would be a little fluffier.

On the voting front there seems to be a battle going on between Plano and Savannah. Ross Perot apparently lives in Plano--he bears a passing resemblance to a possum. We still have huge numbers
of illegal votes as well that we're invalidating every day. Blah. We've even found some sites with specific instructions of how to program our site to cast illegal votes. Pretty
amazing.

Over the past few days a couple of new newspaper articles were published about our project. The first is from Loveland, Colorado's Reporter-Herald; the second is from Drake University's Times-Delphic. Give them a spin if you're curious.

And in light of the illegitimate bot voting taking place on our site, how could I not share this with you: a robot built to solve Rubik's cubes. The best part is that they made his voice to sound like "a robot"... because that's how robots sound.

Heart,
Nina

2006-10-27T11:23:00.000-04:00

#33: Playing Possum & Plano Redux.

Last night before Nina and I went to bed, I looked out the window to check on our cat Snuffleupagus. At first I thought I had spotted him, but upon closer inspection what I thought was my adorable kitty turned out to be some sort of grotesque abomination. "What the hell is that?" I wondered, before coming to the conclusion that it was a possum. Nina was brought over for corroboration, and in an indication that we are perhaps more urban-minded than initially assumed, we realized that neither of us had ever actually seen a possum in real life before.

The most surprising thing about our intruder was how unperturbed it was by our presence. After being confronted, it merely ambled off slowly and unconvincingly, as though it was only waiting for us to turn our backs before waddling over again. We both agreed that it looked "creepy" and like "a big rodent," but while I thought it was "gross" Nina deemed it "definitely cute." Agree to disagree, I suppose. Artist renderings follow--see if you can spot who the artist is:

Fig. 1 - Artist's rendering (Danny)

Fig. 2 - Artist's rendering (Nina)

They couldn't possibly have possums in Texas, right? Yesterday was the first day we had to throw away votes because they had been cast illegally (i.e. through the use of voting bots). If this is any indication, we'll unfortunately probably wind up doing the same again today.

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-26T11:36:00.000-04:00

#32: Ich bin ein Texan?

I believe the German word for awesome is "großartig."

We woke up this morning to find that the unassuming town of Plano, Texas had racked up over 75,000 votes. Surprisingly, they were legit.

Here's why.

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-25T10:06:00.000-04:00

#31: Virtual iPod, Disaster Preparedness, Nashville Sighting & New Pipas.

For those who work in an office setting and occasionally neglect to bring along an MP3 player, the Beta version of BlogMusik.net seems like a promising new tool. Billing itself as a "virtual iPod," the site allows you search for artists and listen to songs on demand free of charge. I'm not quite sure how legal this is, but they've got a nice range of artists: Blur, The Radio Dept., Van She, Soulwax, and even Bell Biv Devoe came up winners (although the latter required a search for BBD). "(That Girl Is) Poison" anyone?

The last blog post covered Enid Crow's "Disaster" photographs, and in that spirit I recommend checking out this site. It takes ambiguous graphics (in the style of airplane emergency landing cards) from the Department of Homeland Security's "Ready" website and offers alternative interpretations. Simple gimmick, but it's surprisingly funny.

Found this Nashville Craigslist post yesterday; we didn't put it up there, so it seems like an inspired bit of electioneering on the part of one Tennessee resident.

One of the most adorable bands ever, Spanish/British collaborators Pipas, are back with a new record. Sorry Love is love at first listen. Plus, they're playing one of their rare U.S. shows tomorrow in Brooklyn, so you should check them out if you're in the NYC area. More info is available on their MySpace page and here is the new video for "Riff Raff" (which is not about the cat in the hat from Heathcliff, sorry):

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-23T11:16:00.000-04:00

#30: Enjoyable Disasters, George Romero, Gothamist Love, and A New Sloan Record.

The other day, I came across Enid Crow's photography site and was immediately drawn to a section entitled "Disasters." The images are very reminiscent of Cindy Sherman's work in that they are actually all self-portraits with the artist assuming the characters of various people. The general feel is humorous in its overly dramatic presentation, like stills taken from Hitchcock's The Birds. The colors are fabulous and although the idea for the series has its roots in the terrible events of 2001, the costumes, locations, and kitschy overacting make the photos more amusing than shocking.

(Speaking of which, last night Danny and I watched Dawn of the Dead for the first time. We had to do it after listening to "George Romero" by Sprites about ten times a day for the past couple months. The movie was a lot of fun, it's easy to understand why it's a cult classic. Anyone know why the zombie children were so much faster than the adults?)

I'm also looking forward to more photos in Enid Crow's "Manhood" series, where she dons moustaches and beards to portray characters like a monocle-clad, Guy Fawkes-bearded aristocrat and a backwoods AC/DC tee-rockin' bumpkin.

On Friday, we received a nice mention courtesy of NYC blog Gothamist. The comments are a little rough, but Jen Carlson, the site's editor, reassured us by saying "It's amazing how angry blog commenters are. I could post a picture of a cute baby animal and they'd be pissed off." Amen. That's the power of the cloak of anonymity the internet provides.

Finally, one of our all-time favorite bands has a new record coming out tomorrow... in Canada. Sloan have worked their way through a slew of musical genres in their almost 15 year career, with their early My Bloody Valentine tributes through bouncy, piano driven Beatles pop through more recent fixations with classic rock. The appropriately titled Never Hear the End of It is a whopping 30 tracks long and is as fun as we'd hoped. You can listen to the first single, "Who Taught You to Live Like That," on their MySpace page. The boys from Halifax have also been busy posting lots of short clips up on YouTube, like this one, where they consider possible titles for their hypothetical bio-pics:

Heart,
Nina

2006-10-20T09:47:00.000-04:00

#29: Radio Interview #2, An Iraqi Timetable, Vote for Foley, and Jamie Carroll.

This morning, Nina and I had our second live radio interview, and again it just happens to be for a Colorado station. Why does Colorado seem to love us so much? This time, both of us will be on the line, which should be a fun first. The interview happened on Loveland-based KCOL 600 around 10:05 EST and it went a little something like this:

Our President doesn't believe in an exit timetable where the Iraq war is concerned, but the same is no longer true over in jolly old England. Prime Minister Tony Blair says his troops will fly their proverbial "Mission Accomplished" banner at some point in the next 16 months. Dude behind him in the photo doesn't seem too happy about it, though.

Florida has a spotless record where elections are concerned, everyone knows that. It shouldn't be surprising, then, that the upcoming midterm elections already have their fair share of controversy more than two weeks out. Former Representative Mark Foley's name will be on the ballots come November; if you want to vote for his Republican replacement Joe Negron, you have to vote for... Mark Foley.

Now, perhaps I'm just a wide-eyed idealist, but it seems to me that when I go to the polls and cast a ballot for someone's name, that vote should count for the person I voted for. That makes sense, right? Not in Florida, where the idea of writing in a candidate's name is such a difficult prospect that the only logical thing to do is funnel an entire party's vote plus write-ins to the same candidate. NPR is all over this, comedy style... But seriously, if you haven't registered to vote yet, there is still time.

Finally, we received a very nice e-mail yesterday from a young artist named Jamie Carroll. Like us, Mr. Carroll has turned his passion for art into an internet project; he spent a year living out of his car, driving around the country, and documenting his progress on his website. Definitely worth checking out, if only for his keen taste in music.

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-18T02:05:00.000-04:00

#28: Art Brut Makes Us Want To Rock Out!

Nina and I love Art Brut. Seriously. We've seen them play a couple times, have cranked up the volume in the car stereo and crooned in our best (worst?) British accents, and have even managed to hang out with some of the boys pre-show in relatively un-groupie-ish fashion. That's why we are so excited about our first ever giveaway!

Two lucky folks will receive:

* An autographed copy of their debut, Bang Bang Rock & Roll
* A copy of the Modern Art single
* A copy of the Good Weekend single

How does one enter this fabulous contest? Just sign-up for our newsletter over at dannyandnina.com. On October 31st we're going to pick two newsletter subscribers at random to receive the loot. Why do it on Halloween? Because all the hipsters are trick-or-treating as Eddie Argos this year. Aww yeah.

So what have Art Brut done for you lately? Well, they've finished recording a new record due out November 13th on Mute. If you're anything like us, you're chomping on the bit in anticipation, so here is a new track entitled "Nag Nag Nag Nag."

I'm assuming the title is a reference to Cabaret Voltaire's classic "Nag Nag Nag," but if it is, it's lost on me... unless of course they are alluding to the tenuous connection of "art brut" the art term for 'outsider art' and the fact that Cabaret Voltaire was also both a painting and a Dadaist club in Zurich. If you ever want to learn more about the band and their contemporaries, I recommend checking out Plexifilm's Made in Sheffield.

And once more, for old time's sake... "Modern Art"!

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-17T11:13:00.000-04:00

#27: Living in Sin, The Nuances of Tipping, 7:11, & Kelley Stoltz.

It was surprising to see how much mainstream media attention was devoted to this New York Times article from yesterday's paper. It discusses findings by the U.S Census Bureau's 2005, which revealed that the percentage of households with married couples is at an historic low and, for the first time, married couples do not constitute the majority of households in the country.

Of course, that doesn't mean that marriage has been devalued in our culture, as some reactionaries might have you believe. Indeed, the article points to many factors contributing to the decline: increased longevity in the widowed population, folks getting married later in life, a rise in premarital cohabitation, and an increasing public acceptance of homosexual partnerships.

Before we started our project together, Nina and I were a little fearful about how our idea would be received in more conservative areas where our premarital cohabitation might be frowned upon. However, it seems we've got a lot of company. Also on the plus side, it seems that parents of all types are spending more time with their kids, and that can only be a good thing.

When we go out to bars together, Nina frequently mentions how tipping someone a dollar to open a bottle of beer raises her hackles. It doesn't bother me quite as much--I guess I'm one for the tradition--but here's a great little entry from the Freakonomics folks about a curiously undertipped occupation.

Slurpee purveyor 7-11 might be severing their ties to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, but they've got an ace up their sleeve. Personally, I think the 25,000 free Slurpees would have been much cooler (no pun intented).

Multi-instrumentalist Kelley Stoltz put out his first release in 1999, but I didn't have the pleasure of hearing his music until he released an EP on SubPop records last year. His subsequent LP, Below the Branches, has been one of the most under-appreciated records of the year. I'll accede to the critics that his sound is nothing new, but his revisionist pop pastiche is so difficult not to enjoy. On "Ever Thought of Coming Back," Stoltz infuses his lo-fi sensibilities with melodies out of the Beach Boys/Beatles canon:

xoxox
Danny

PS - The only person who has been fired for the melee I wrote about yesterday is an announcer.

2006-10-16T11:46:00.000-04:00

#26: A Crazy Weekend.

So a couple crazy things happened this past weekend. First off, we experienced some insane voting. If you happened to read the comments from Nina's last post, you saw that there are the beginnings of a grassroots movement in Fort Collins, CO to bring us to that town. However, the folks in Jacksonville, FL are not easily deterred. The result? An insane voting binge this weekend. Around midnight on Thursday, there were 29, 609 votes. By the same time Saturday--48 hours later--the vote tally was up to 62,178. One day later--last night--the number of votes had nearly doubled yet again to 106,611. Wow.

Perhaps this will illustrate the point a little more easily:

Needless to say, we've been pretty floored by the voting rate. You can also view the astronomic rise of the current Top Seven towns here.

If you've read the Who We Are section of our site, you know that I'm a big UM football fan. On Saturday, for the first time this season, I decided not to head out to the Orange Bowl to watch them play in person. Go figure, it's the night they choose to bury what has been a very underwhelming season by having a half-hour melee during the third quarter. At least they're playing wiht some passion, I guess. This is what I missed:

Maybe a bench clearing brawl is a nice segue for "Fist in the Pockets" by Comet Gain off last year's City Fallen Leaves. Comet Gain has been putting out music for (can this be true?) thirteen years now, and this was one of those surprisingly stellar records that nobody seemed to pay much attention to. Note that this song doesn't really kick in until about twenty seconds in, so don't crank the volume up prematurely.

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-14T11:11:00.000-04:00

#25: 45,000 Votes and the Radness of La Casa Azul.

To say that yesterday was a huge voting day seems like an understatement--it was our biggest day ever by far, with over 10,000 ballots cast. The the big winner was Fort Collins, CO, who wound up with (drumroll please) over 15,000 votes. Wow! Did something happen there we missed? That was a new milestone for us, vote 40,000.

The even crazier news is what's happening today--before noon, we'd already received over 6,000 votes, most of which were for Jacksonville, FL, catapulting it back into a competitive second place spot.

A little while ago I mentioned my love for Milky Way chocolates, but there is another Milkyway my heart goes out to. His name is Guille Milkyway and he is essentially the Spanish indie-pop group La Casa Azul. The band's music is amazing, some of the happiest, most rump shaking songs you'll ever hear with shades of everything from bossa nova to soft rock to disco--Beach Boys via ELO and Camera Obscura, but that description doesn't do it justice.

Just as interesting is the fact that the co-ed "band" featured in their press photos, television appearances, and music videos is just a fictitious construction designed to reinforce the idea of the band's happy-go-lucky music. The band in the video is actually fake (project mastermind Milkyway writes, performs, and records all the songs by himself) but they are completely cute anyway. I am drooling over that pink dress in the photo.

Although I don't speak Spanish like Danny, I find myself singing along to his songs anyway. I'm sure it mostly sounds like gibberish when I do it, but the songs are so catchy and fun I can't help myself. The tracks exude happiness and cuteness. It's impossible to still be in a bad mood after watching their videos, in which Milkyway makes brief appearances.

Our favorite song of his is "Superguay" (which translates roughly as "supercool"). Despite the bright and cheery colors of the video, the song is actually about an ex-girlfriend who leaves the narrator for a hotshot scenester guy, only to be rendered "insubstantial" by his relative supercoolness. She seems so inconsequential by his side that the former "queen of disco-parties" now "cannot be seen without a microscope."

La casa Azul is seriously the number one reason I want to learn Spanish. Warning: extreme cuteness below!

Do you ever pick up the phone to call somebody and it rings in your hand just as you're about to dial and it just so happens it's the person you were trying to call? This happens to me sometimes and I get super excited about the stars aligning. Something similar just happened. As I was writing this entry about my love of La Casa Azul, Danny emailed me with the following video link. And in case you're thinking, well you both probably saw that video not too long ago and hence it's not too surprising you'd be talking about it now, the answer is no. I haven't watched it for quite a long time. It was just a crazy coincidence and I'm loving it.

I'm curious to know what other people think of La Casa Azul. Do you love it? Is it too cheesy for you? Does it feel like a glorified Gap ad or do you wish you could be shimmying in balloons?

Heart,
Nina

2006-10-13T09:33:00.000-04:00

#24: 30,000 Votes, Message in a Bottle, & Robots in Disguise.

First off, Nina's too modest to toot her own horn, but a few days ago she finished the painting on the right, a commission for a painting of a client's cat. It's one of my favorite paintings of hers, so I thought I'd share it here. On the art tip, NPR had a great segment the other day about the fate of the over 600,000 pieces of privately owned art that were looted by the Nazis during WWII.

As I'm typing this, we're receiving vote 30,000 on our site, which means that we're 3% through this crazy project of ours. Some perspective: our current President only received 21,256 votes in Washington, D.C. when he ran for re-election in 2004. I'm tempted to make a joke about our approval ratings, but I'll refrain (oh wait, I just did). Anyhow, this increased voting rate has me wondering when the 1,000,000th vote will be tallied. Perhaps we should start a betting pool?

Speaking of actual governmental elections, yesterday I discovered this page on The Washington Post's site. The U.S. Congress Votes Database allows you to see how every member of Congress voted on every single issue throughout their career. It's wonderful to see all the ways in which the internet is empowering voters. And please, if you haven't already, register to vote--there's still time!

This story about a little girl who has twice successfully sent messages in a bottle (including one from Scotland to New Zealand) is a little cutesy, I know, but it's a nice reminder of the spirit of childhood.

We've been listening to a British/German duo called Robots in Disguise for a few years now--I sometimes find myself wanting to listen to them when we're out and about and it's getting a little too late in the evening. There's a rough edge to their songs which lends itself to that time of night. Unfortunately, I think their records are only available as imports in the U.S. Here's the video for "Argument":

There's a lot to be said for how they capture the basic ridiculousness and circularity of fights ("You always... You never...") in a manner that is both keen and playful. Great track.

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-12T10:42:00.000-04:00

#23: The Architecture of Happiness, Conspiracy Theories, & True Confessions.

The other day I was lamenting the fact that Nina and I haven't really discussed any books on the blog even though we're both avid readers. Fortunately, one of our favorite authors, Alain de Botton, has a new book out called The Architecture of Happiness.

Reading de Botton is sort of like having an erudite lover on the side. His writing is pithy and witty, and he frequently causes you to admire the humor and zest in things which theretofore had none. In the past, he's taken on Proust, romance, status anxiety, philosophy, and, most pertinently for us, travel.

I'm looking forward to his take on the sense of place and the emotional underpinnings behind the spaces we inhabit. You can read a bit of the first chapter if you're so inclined. Apparently (unbeknownst to us) several of his previous works have been turned into programs aired on PBS; this one has seen a similar adaptation (clips here).

Yesterday we received a very entertaining message from someone on our MySpace page. Mike is a blogger in St. Louis and was kind enough to alert us to a post he'd written which insinuated that our site may be a viral marketing hoax along the lines of the LonelyGirl15 phenomenon. It is our first conspiracy theory, which flattered and tickled Nina and I to no end. I wrote him a message explaining that we were, in fact, real people, and he was kind enough to let his readers know by posting a portion of that clarification. Still, I hope it's not the last time it happens, especially since that "contingent book deal" part sounds so enticing! Are you listening, publishers?

Is it the relative anonymity of the internet that makes people want to confess their secrets and share their stories? I guess I'm not one to talk, huh?

Also, how on earth did it take me so long to get into Jeans Team? They're so quintessentially Berlin in all the right ways:

And tell me their singer isn't a dead ringer for former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon.

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-11T10:12:00.000-04:00

#22: Vote Graphs, People of the World & Pelle Carlberg.

I've got a secret crush on line graphs. It's true. I think my old co-workers were onto my addiction, but they never tried to intervene. When Nina wisely suggested the other night that I start keeping daily records of each day's vote tallies, my eyes glazed over. "Yes," I thought to myself, "then I can turn the data into graphs. Bwahaha!"

The one up top shows how quickly our vote count has risen since last Tuesday, 10/3. If you look at the past two days, you can see that the total votes have risen by almost 10,000 in 48 hours. That's a nice exponential-ish looking curve.

This other one to the right (click to magnify) shows how the current top seven towns have performed over the past two days. A few of the interesting observations to be had: Jacksonville seems to be intensifying its gains (picking up about 2,500 votes) compared to towns like Birmingham, which are practically dormant. Denver has experienced a meteoric rise the past two days, as has Fort Collins, which has added nearly 2,000 votes that span. Something in the water in Colorado, I guess.

Not so long ago, I wrote about the world's shrinking population and the United States' imminent 300,000,000 population milestone, so I thought it only fair that I pass along this cool site I discovered yesterday. Breathing Earth is a simulation that uses birth and death rate data along with CO2 emissions statistics to show you in 'real-time' where and how often people are being born and dying across the world. It uses a simple, attractive map of the planet to pinpoint where these events are happening and the result is truly mesmerizing. Breathing Earth also illustrates how much carbon dioxide pollution each country is releasing, again in 'real-time' so you can see who the biggest culprits are (gee, I wonder). Miniature Earth, on the other hand, takes the old "what if the world's population was only 100 people" premise and turns it into a flash presentation that is interesting, if also a bit of a bummer.

By now you know about my Swedish indie-pop fetish. Well, it turns out that one of my favorite imports of 2006 is going to be released domestically in the U.S. on Twentyseven Records: Pelle Carlberg's Everything. Now!

Mr. Carlberg was the former frontman for a lovely band called Edson and this is his debut solo record. You should visit his MySpace page (because he's sorely lacking friends), download an MP3 of "Riverbank", and watch the video for it:

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-10T10:29:00.000-04:00

#21: Big Voting Day, Celebrity Lookalikes(?), New Radio Dept.

Yesterday was a huge voting day--our total number of votes broke the 20,000 ballot barrier (and the 21,000 one, too) and in one day the total tally increased by nearly 1/3! It was the largest single-day increase to date and our thanks go out to everyone who voted... we're 2.1% of the way there!

Interestingly enough, it was the first day we experienced a 'push-back' in the votes. Portland, Maine went up a lot (over 1,200 votes) as expected due to the article there, but it didn't own the voting. Indeed, the big winners yesterday were two cities that began the day in the #1 and #2 spots respectively: Jacksonville, Florida picked up over 900 votes but Fort Collins, Colorado went to town with nearly 1,500 votes! Honorable mentions go to Denver for surging into the top 7 with nearly 500 votes and Fort Wayne, Indiana, which had a nice gain thanks to this mention in Fort Wayne Observed.

We hope that by now you have also stumbled across the free web-based Facial Recognition software over at My Heritage--if not, you're in for a time-wasting treat. You visit the site, upload a photo of yourself, and the software scans your face searching for recognizable attributes. When it's done, it provides you with a collage of the celebrities whom you most resemble. Nina and I have both done this and I'm not quite sure what to think of the results except that there usually is a faint glimmer of resemblance. Still, why does she get 80% Keira Knightley and I get 72% ('Lil) Bow Wow? I smell a conspiracy...and take offense at the Conor Oberst connection (low blow!):

Previously-mentioned Swedish faves The Radio Dept. have a new MP3-only single out called "We Made the Team." If you're interested, you can pick it up here or go to their MySpace page and give it a listen free of charge. While you're at it, why not download Devolve's unofficially officially sanctioned "Marble House Edit" of "I Wanted You To Feel the Same," off their latest record--my favorite of 2006--Pet Grief.

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-09T13:14:00.000-04:00

#20: Portland, Celebrations, and Of Montreal Ads Pt. II.

First off, our thanks to Justin Ellis who wrote a lovely article about us in today's Portland Press-Herald. The piece has already moved Portland, ME up to fourth place in the voting, although I suspect it may rise even higher in the competition before the end of the day. Please read it and enjoy!

Although it was painful to watch the Yankees take a drubbing to the Detroit Tigers over the past weekend, it was refreshing to see a team celebrate a post-season victory so heartily with their fans. Amazingly, I can't seem to find the revelry on YouTube yet, but the old-fashioned among us can read about it. In a nutshell, the post-victory elation saw players running into the locker room for rations of champagne, then running back out onto the field to give endless high-fives to exhilirated fans. Some players took to standing atop the dugouts and drenching fans in champagne, with one player even dousing an uncomfortable-looking police officer. Never thought I'd say it, but kudos to Fox for staying with the celebration coverage much longer than typically happens with these things.

On the sports theme, apparently all I need to do to stay abreast of the world of independent music is watch football. Just the other day I wrote about Of Montreal's Outback Steakhouse ad; well, exactly one week later, again while watching Thursday night college football on ESPN, I heard them providing the score for another advertisement, this one for NASDAQ. Yes, the stock exchange. Again, I'm surprised I can't find this on YouTube yet, but it's definitely them. Curiously, it's an excellent non-album track, taken from the bonus EP to last year's The Sunlandic Twins. The song is called "Everyday Feels Like Sunday" (no relation to Morrissey's classic "Everyday Is Like Sunday"), and you can download it here or listen to a stream below:

If that weren't enough, that same football viewing session included this new Geico commercial featuring a somewhat dated Royksopp (featuring Erlend Oye) track, namely "Remind Me" from their Melody A.M. record:

It seems that--like an abandoned puppy--when one leaves the 'indie' world behind, it merely comes following after.

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-06T14:13:00.000-04:00

#19: Counting the Laughs, Regional Transport, & Our Celebrity Look-Alikes

As previously mentioned, our site server crashed the other day, so in case you were wondering where some of the forum comments went the answer is up to server heaven. Apparently the entire hard drive completely failed and had to be replaced which we were told barely ever happens, but it did. If you can't see the images in recent blogs, that's also the reason--your ISP hasn't yet updated the DNS information for our new server. If you can understand that, kudos to you. All I can say is better now than later.

In other news, Danny recently made the astute observation on my ever increasing usage of the Count von Count laugh. A few years ago we saw an episode of Sesame Street where the Count was doing what he does best--counting. "One bouncy ball, two bouncy balls, Ha! Ha! Ha!" Except that his laugh is inverted, so it's more like "Ah! Ah! Ah!"

This laugh of his was incredibly amusing to me, especially since I didn't grow up with the show. So we starting imitating it as a joke once in a while. I think I overdid it though, because it's now found its way into my regular laugh, which is a bit bizarre. It is not exactly what one calls a natural laugh. However, with Halloween approaching, maybe it's a little more appropriate now.

It seems the place you live affects the type of car you drive, but not necessarily in relation to your needs in that place. In Miami, where Danny's parents live, there are a gazillion Hummers. Why someone in the completely flat terrain of southern Florida would need one is beyond me (I blame Arnold). In Boulder, however, the Toyota Prius is clearly the vehicle of choice. This is despite Colorado actually having mountains and rugged terrain. I've seen exactly one Hummer in Colorado, and exactly one Prius in Florida. I do have to admit, I mostly only started paying attention after I watched Who Killed the Electric Car. Who knew the first cars were electric?

Heart,
Nina

2006-10-05T10:00:00.000-04:00

#18: Crash, Audio, Ingenting... Rebirth!

Apologies to anyone who had problems accessing our site and blog yesterday; we experienced a rare server hard drive failure that kept us out of the game for a while. The good news is that votes have been restored and we are fully functional yet again.

On Tuesday, we had our first radio interview ever. It was for a program called The Ride Home which originates out of station KOA in Denver, Colorado. According to their producer, the show is broadcast to 38 states and 3 countries. Yikes. Danny and Nina were both originally scheduled to call into the show together, but through some misunderstanding, only Danny ended up on air. Nina was actually phoned by the station at the appointed time, but when they got her on the line they just asked for Danny. When she gave them his number, they proceeded to hang up on her, leaving Danny to make the on-air realization that he was all by his lonesome.

That snafu aside, things went very well and it was actually a really fun interview. The show's hosts were great at keeping the interview moving, and what was originally scheduled to be a 5 minute piece ran well over 12 minutes before being interrupted by breaking news of a plane crash.

Here's how it went (MP3 download here, if you prefer):

Any feedback from our readers about the piece would definitely be appreciated since we're both very new to the interview game. Nina and I also spoke to a very nice reporter named Justin Ellis from Portland, Maine's Portland Press-Herald yesterday; if you live in the area, there should be an article in Monday's paper!

If you've ever wished you listened to more music sung in Swedish--it's not just for muppets, after all--then you should check out [ingenting], our favorite Swedish-language band. They've got a new record coming out this month called Mycket väsen för ingenting (which you can pre-order here) and have been kind enough to share a track with us. Download "Punkdrömmar" here.

If images are more your thing, here's the video for "Släpp in solen" from this year's Sommardagboken EP (psst, the photo up above is what the band actually looks like):

with love,
Danny&Nina

2006-10-03T10:53:00.000-04:00

#17: Radio Update, Free Deliciousness, Squaring Up for the Real Vote, Sorkin, Of ~~Montreal~~ Australia.

As was alluded to yesterday, Nina and I make our radio debut today around 8:10 EST. We're going to post an MP3 of the interview tomorrow, but if you want to listen live, by all means please do. We don't know what they're going to ask and it's our first live interview, so we're a little nervous. Hopefully they won't bring up the licorice incident.

Last year around this time, I found out about a company that celebrates "Free Popcorn Month." I'm not shilling for them or anything, but this stuff is pretty awesome. Basically, you pay three bucks worth of shipping and they send you one of their scrumptious flavors; I got two last year and am partial to the Peanut Butter & White Chocolate DrizzleCorn. You won't regret it.

Since we're getting pretty close to another big vote--you know, the one for control of our government--I want to take a moment to make sure all of our voting-age readers are registered to vote come November regardless of political affiliation. Rock the Vote makes it very easy, you just select your state on and they direct you to the appropriate site.

Last night I watched Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip for the third straight week--the Sorkin is back. I'm loving it, even if the moments of self-serving grandeur don't play quite as well with sketch comedy actors as they do with White House Spokespersons. Still, he sucks you in like few writers can. Plus the man who shares a nickname with our cat, W.G. "Snuffy" Walden" provides the musical score, as with The West Wing.

As I watched Studio 60, I was flipping back to Monday Night Football between the commercials when I saw this ad:

Whoa, I thought to myself, was that Of Montreal covering their own song for an Outback Steakhouse commercial. How very odd. Apparently, I wasn't the first to notice. Here is the excellent video for the song's original incarnation, "Wraith Pinned to the Mist," which is off The Sunlandic Twins:

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-02T10:20:00.000-04:00

#16: Radio Debut, The End of the World As We Know It, Miami Nice, Ride.

In very exciting news, Nina and I are tentatively doing our first radio interview tomorrow, Tuesday Oct. 3, around 6:00 pm mountain time. The program, which is called The Ride Home, is syndicated to 38 states and 3 countries, so we'll be sure to post more info tomorrow in case anyone wants to listen in!

Remember those prophetic pronouncements of the world's imminent demise due to overpopulation? According to this, it seems like those folks had it backwards. Indeed, nearly half the world lives in countries that are "not reproducing fast enough to replace themselves," including nations like China, Russia, and the United States (even though the U.S. just hit a demographic record, the 300 million population mark). Apparently, the average couple must produce 2.1 children to ensure that numbers don't shrink; the U.S. presently averages 2.03. Get to work, people!

Since Jacksonville has pitched a tent at the head of our voting but I've never really spent time there, I thought I'd share a few of the things that make living in South Florida nice: Cuban bread (made with lard and available everywhere for less than a buck) and pastelitos (procured from ubiquitous bakeries) and the weather (go ahead, I bet it's perfect) and the Hurricanes (not the hurricanes). Cons? The way people drive, the housing situation, and, um, sweating quite a bit.

Had to share this from the vaults, footage of British shoegazer-kings-cum-Britpop-failures Ride introducing their video for "Leave Them All Behind" back in 1992. Remember life before Suede and Oasis? Probably.

xoxox
Danny

2006-10-01T10:50:00.000-04:00

#15: Nicholas Roerich, Feral Children, & Biker Boys.

So it seems I post one out of every five posts, which makes a solid 20%. How Danny finds the time to write so much is still a mystery; perhaps he leads a secret double life.

The other day while sifting through the books I have in my old bedroom here at my parents place when I came across one about Nicholas Roerich. He is a Russian artist who spent much of his life traveling across Asia and painting colorful, expressive mountain scenes. He also wrote a bunch of books detailing his spiritual adventures. For those of you living out in NYC, there is an amazing small museum of his works uptown on West 107th Street. It's free (bonus!) and even has some music concerts and poetry readings on a weekly basis. I promise you won't be disappointed. The museum features quite a few of his works which were confiscated by the IRS when he failed to pay his taxes.

I think we've all heard stories of feral children, people who have been raised by animals in the wild without human contact who are suddenly discovered and then re-assimilated into human culture. Despite the tales, I was surprised to find that this seems to happen a lot more often than one might think. Case in point: this article from 2004 about a man in Fiji who was raised in a chicken coop or this bit about a Chilean boy found in a cave being cared for by dogs.

Most compelling of all, however, is this story about a Ukrainian girl who was brought up by a pack of dogs. The BBC produced a short documentary on her that includes footage of Oxsana after she was found and follows her through a few years of acculturation. In the beginning, she seems to have more in common with her canine friends than with the folks who found her. She jumps around on all fours, snarls, even drinks in the unmistakable fashion of her protectors. The video is incredibly riveting but a little jarring, so watch at your own discretion:

It's no L'Enfant Sauvage, but it is pretty amazing.

On a more fabulous note, here's something for the folks who sent us messages about the Le Sport video the other day. Swedish rainbow-club-ready indie-pop act Biker Boy recently released an EP called You Got Me Wrong that features four songs and four remixes of the title track, including one by kindred spirits Le Sport. You can download the song here or the remix here. And goodness, wouldn't you know there's a video, too?

Heart,
Nina

2006-09-28T22:19:00.000-04:00

#14: Toddler Portraiture Pt. 2, It Pays To Be Different, Remembering Sean Lennon.

Don't worry, I'm not going to become the sort of person who frequently blogs about their cats, but I'm excited because I recently found out that I will soon be reunited with my fluffball Snuffleupagus (who has spent the past few months with his mum-and-pop in law in Colorado). In his honor, my four year old niece drew this portrait of him. Below, a new photo of Nina with Snuffy. Doublemint fun.

Mozilla reportedly made $72 million dollars last year from Firefox, their open-source internet browser. The dollar amount has been disputed, although not protested heartily enough to imply that it is too far off the mark. Their parent foundation, the Mozilla Foundation, certainly deserves every last penny and it's great to know that they are reaping rewards to continue their great work... but didn't couldn't they think up a better abbreviation than "MoFo"?

This guy probably won't be getting quite that much money, but he does see how far $39 and corporate goodwill go. Of course, it's not like $72 million is even such a large figure anymore. Just ask the kids who'll be attending public school here. Russia just gave Cuba $350 million worth of credit--maybe they'll be able to build a couple schools. Anyway, with numbers like that, it's good to know that $3,000 can still buy you love.

Remember Sean Lennon? Most people in the indie music world probably would have forgotten him by now (it's been eight years since his excellent first record)... if his parents weren't the most famous couple in the history of rock 'n roll. Anyhow, he's got a new record coming out in October called Friendly Fire, and it's made me remember how much I actually enjoyed his debut. There's a "trailer" for his new album here (with, erm, Lindsay Lohan and Carrie Fisher), but I found it more fun to revisit the video for "Home" off his first record. It was directed by Spike Jonze, and as everyone knows, the man can do no wrong. He's the poor man's Michel Gondry.

xoxox
Danny

2006-09-28T11:27:00.001-04:00

#13: Tiny Cities Made of Jello, MySpace Gets Active, Wikipedia Widgets, Le Sport.

Ever feel like owning a piece of the former Soviet empire? How about an entire city? How does a $3 million price tag sound? Sold! Well, maybe you can't have Moscow for reals, but you can own this 400+ square foot model of the city constructed by artist Efim Deshalyt in 1976.

If you're feeling a little more nationalistic, there's always San Francisco rendered in Jello. It's the latest project from Bay Area artist Liz Hickok and is definitely worth a view. I love that even the fog has been recreated (although presumably with a smoke machine). Doin' Mr. Cosby proud!

MySpace and voting are obviously two themes common to our site visitors, so it's fitting that the two are now officially in cahootz. The social networking site has teamed up with the nonpartisan, non-profit Declare Yourself to help get its users registered to vote. So what if they don't have anywhere near 100,000,000 users--every vote(r) counts.

For the other Wikipedia junkies out there (or at least the Mac-using population), here's a new widget to help keep your focus during those ever-tangential information gathering sessions.

A couple years ago, a Swedish band called Eurosport released a guilty-pleasure filled EP of bouncy '80s-inspired synth-pop. Two years and a name change later, Le Sport has finally delivered their first full-length, the appropriately titled Euro Deluxe Dance Party. It's a little more New Order and a little less Pet Shop Boys than their EP, even if there is a track called "If Neil Tennant Was My Lover" (and even if that track should be called "If Neil Tennant Were My Lover"... we'll let that ride on the ESL tip). Here is "It's Not the End of the World" in both MP3 and video form:

Unfortunately, according to their site they've just broken up. Way to tease, guys.

xoxox
Danny

2006-09-27T10:19:00.000-04:00

#12: 10,000 Votes, Secret Twins, People Talkin' Funny, Camera Obscura.

First off, a pat on our collective back for passing the 10,000 vote mark! At this point, Jacksonville, FL is still in the lead, but as we've already witnessed many times, there is no such thing as a solid lead so early on in the proceedings. You can vote here.

Apropos of nothing, I'd also like to point out that British comedian Jimmy Carr reminds me an awful lot of British singer/songwriter Lloyd Cole. Separated at birth?

October's edition of Smithsonian Magazine has an article stating that, despite the seemingly contradictory effects of national media outlets like radio and television, regional dialects are actually becoming stronger across the United States. I wonder how much this has to do with the relatively short time elapsed between the rise of television and the current generation of parents and children, but hey, who am I to argue with linguists. Their argument is that people cling to dialects because they want to emulate their friends and bosses but I suspect it has more to do with the sheer volume of certain speech patterns and pronunciations one hears growing up someplace. See how the folks in your neck of the woods talk funny by using this map.

But hey, speaking of Lloyd Cole, the first single from Camera Obscura's latest record, Let's Get Out of This Country has a neat video. "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken" is a not-so-coded reference to Cole's stellar 1984 single, "Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken" (click to download); the song is fantastic, though, and the video is a campy send-up of the mod/twee trappings the band's fanbase has wrapped them up in:

And since I mentioned the man twice in one post, here's a classic from Mr. Cole, the long-forgotten video for his moody "Forest Fire":

One last item from the Department of Crazy Huh What: the New York Times writes that outspoken superstar wide receiver Terrell Owens of the Dallas Cowboys tried to commit suicide yesterday. The T.O. story only gets stranger, it seems.

xoxox
Danny

2006-09-26T11:39:00.000-04:00

#11: Custom Candy, Tecmo '06, Nutty Birds, Britpop Fever.

I may be a little late on this, but you know the customization craze has really hit critical mass when you can personalize your M&M's. Call me old fashioned, but isn't that what those chalky Necco Sweethearts are for?.. Apparently not, because now you can also personalize those, too. Of course, if you're lazy/cheap, you can do it virtually or take an internet quiz to find out which one you'd be. Good times.

If you were a boy who grew up in the early '90s, chances are you whiled away many an hour playing Tecmo Super Bowl on your old Nintendo console. Apparently, this guy has updated those rosters a 15 year update and is simulating the entire football season for the, erm, benefit of the internet crowd.

Before there the penguins marched, there was Winged Migration. After seeing it in the theatres a few years ago, I remembered walking out with a newfound sense of appreciation and awe for birds, thinking that maybe they weren't so different from us after all. That sensation was rekindled yesterday after watching the following clip, which is worth watching just to hear the British narrator say "the problem now is collecting the bits without getting run over":

And look at this--it's another double video day. Here is part one of four of a recent half-hour BBC documentary on the rise and fall of Britpop. If you're at all interested in the scene or some of the bands--Blur, Oasis, Elastica, Suede, etc.--it's worth a watch, even if there isn't anything too surprising. It does seem they give short shrift to the shoegazers, many of whom wound up being part of the Britpop movement proper (Boo Radleys, Ride, Moose...). Here is part one with links to part two, part three, and part four:

xoxox
Danny

2006-09-24T22:53:00.000-04:00

#10: Maltese Puppies, Camera Talk, & The Most Beautiful Ad in the World.

Wow! Jacksonville, FL was way in the lead with over 1,600 votes, and then - wham! - Birmingham struck back and vaulted over the 2,000 mark. Crazy stuff.

My parents of that age now where they are starting to talk about either adopting a child or getting a puppy. Both sound very exciting, but if you are debating getting a kid versus a puppy chances are you aren't ready for a child. They settled on a Maltese, for reasons of size, cuteness, and allergy-resistance. These little guys are simply great and I was sold on getting one before the "which kind" talk even took place. I hope I get to play with him a bit before I head back to Miami. Speaking of adopting though, Danny's sister is actually in the process of adopting a baby from China.

A little on the techy side, my beautiful Canon Powershot S45 camera broke not long ago and I'm badly in need of a replacement. I'm looking at the Kodak Easyshot V570 and the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-N1 . Has anyone out there had good/bad experiences with those or have suggestions for a camera in the not-too-pricey but still nice range that does at least 28mm and can be programmed to shoot long exposures? For some crazy reason, Canon stopped making the S series. Should I just go for last year's S80? This camera buying business is so confusing.

The folks at Sony Bravia are making a new commercial to follow up their absolutely brilliant Bravia Balls, which introduced many folks across the world to the genius of Jose Gonzalez (covering equally brillant fellow Swedes The Knife). In that commercial, 250,000 multi-coloured superballs were bounced down the streets of San Francisco to create some surprisingly breathtaking images. I've had the screensaver for this ad for a year now and still can't get enough. Watch for the frog!

The new ad uses 70,000 liters of paint and a bunch of various other stuff. So far, Bravia has only posted still shots, but some onlookers have made their video available:

Since the final product will probably look much better with its slow-motion takes and moody indie music, here is the original bouncing ball ad:

Heart,
Nina

2006-09-24T11:52:00.000-04:00

#9: Vintage Style, Tan Mice, Kind Words, & Chapterhouse.

First off, congratulations are in order: this past week, Nina won the People's Choice Award in an exhibition at the Old Firehouse Art Center in Longmont, Colorado. If you live in the area, you can view her work through October 14th.

I was leafing through a magazine the other day when the SpeckTone Retro console caught my eye. Festooned in deliciously '70s lime green and brown, it's an iPod stereo similar to those produced by Bose and other companies... except the design is much. What makes me like it even more is the fact that it only has one knob, the volume control. It seems even Luddites can get in on the MP3 revolution.

In more weighty matters, it seems that scientists have discovered a way to give mice fake tans that chemically recreate a natural suntan (instead of just dyeing the skin). I bet those bronzed mice get all the lady mice. Joking aside, were such a treatment perfected for humans it could have many benefits, with protecting folks from skin cancer chief among them. The link will take you to the NPR story, which is definitely worth a listen.

There is a fantastically written article about our project in today's Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, FL's largest newspaper. Out of more than blatant narcissism (I swear!), I implore you to give it a read.

Something about Sundays makes me want to listen to music that holds a special, sepia-toned place in my heart. Today, that means Chapterhouse, one of my favorite groups from the early '90s British shoegaze movement. Although they frequently get back-seated to other amazing acts like Slowdive, Ride, and Lush, Chapterhouse's first album (the recently re-issued Whirlpool) and the many EPs that sandwiched it are all pretty flawless. Exhibit A is "Mesmerise," the title track from a 1993 EP. Download it here and watch the video:

It's got that quintessential shoegaze feel to it: bright colors, blurry camera shots, a vibe that is both ethereal and trippy. The video is horribly dated, no argument there, but the music still feels timeless to these ears.

xoxox
Danny

2006-09-22T10:36:00.000-04:00

#8:Toddler Portraiture, Interviews, Google Mars, and Pulling Our Weight.

I was over at my sister's house for dinner the other night and for dessert my nieces, ages six and four, did portraits of Nina and me. When I promised to put them "on the internet," the elder niece excitedly freaked out, although I'm not too sure how solid her conceptual grasp of the internet is. In any event, here they are in all their glory. I'm especially taken by Nina's blue eyes and my askew eyeballs. Click on the image for a bonus treat, my younger niece's rendering of me. Hint: the thing that appears to be impaling my frontal lobe is actually the brim of a baseball cap.

In very exciting news, Nina and I gave our first interviews yesterday, for The Greenwich Citizen and The Florida Times-Union, which is the largest newspaper in Jacksonville. As part of my pre-interview research, I was shocked to discover that Jacksonville is actually the most populous city in Florida and #13 in the country. This was corroborrated by our interviewer, a very friendly man named Mark Woods. We'll post the links to the articles once they're available on the internets; they should run today and on Sunday respectively.

Ever feel like Google Earth is pretty neat but so... 2005? You're in luck, my friend--behold, Google Mars. Those Google boys are unstoppable. If it's your bag, you can even view the terrain through topographical relief maps instead of satellite imagery. It's pretty awesome to spend some time navigating around the various craters and dunes of a planet that is sometimes as far as 250 million miles away from us.

My favorite album of 2006 has been The Radio Dept.'s Pet Grief, so I went scrounging for a video from it to post today. However, I was a little disappointed with the video for "The Worst Taste in Music," so I decided I'd compromise a bit: you can download the title track from the new record and watch the video for "Pulling Our Weight" (from the EP of the same name) here:

It's a beautiful clip reminiscent of some of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' old music video work. And you've seen Little Miss Sunshine, right?

xoxox
Danny

2006-09-21T09:45:00.000-04:00

#7: First Press, New Paintings, Laughing Last & Rubicon

First thing's first: last night via Google, Nina spotted our first bit of press: a newspaper article from the Northwest Arkansas Times. It was a surprising find considering no one from their staff tried to contact us, but we are thrilled that they decided to run something on us nonetheless. And it certainly goes a long way toward explaining the Fayetteville phenomenon.

My favorite line from the article is the closer--"Our strange little world just keeps getting stranger." So true. By the way, don't get weirded out when you notice the address is nwanews.com--it's not that NWA.

In other exciting news, Nina just finished work on three paintings which are now up for viewing on her site. All three are portraits of people with birds, much like a self-portrait she painted last year. Check them out and let her know what you think--I think the lady's got talent.

An article in the latest issue of Time Magazine correlates life expectancy to the state in which one lives (the literal, United States sort of state, not the mental kind). Turns out folks in Louisiana have the third-lowest life expectancy of U.S. residents. Who'da thunk?

Not to be outdone are their neighbors to the east, Mississippi, and in the number one slot, winner of the life expectancy booby prize, Washington D.C., the "chocolate city with a marshmallow center... and a graham cracker crust of corruption." Best off? Hawaii, of course.

Continuing with my personal theme of songs I love but didn't know there were videos for, yesterday I stumbled across a clip for Alan Braxe and Fred Falke's "Rubicon," a track featured on both Braxe's The Upper Cuts and Erlend Oye's DJ Kicks:

Some folks don't like the video, but I think it really nails the essence of the song. The devil's in the details: the boxy car she takes her test in, the wardrobe choices for the girl and her DMV supervisor, the hokey teen drama tension. Download the track here.

xoxox
Danny

2006-09-20T11:52:00.000-04:00

#6: Datarock, Cosmopolitan Politeness, & Early returns.

This project is giving me an excuse to go through all of our old photos, like this one, which was taken on a road trip to Nova Scotia not long after Nina and I first met. In the image, the really big Mac appears to have a powerful magnetism over Nina while I have been rendered incapacitated at the mere site of such a daunting order of fries. Needless to say, it's the second-biggest hamburger I've ever seen.

Speaking of things I don't ordinarily do, I noticed in--of all places--Reader's Digest that they proclaimed New York City the world's most courteous metropolis. Of course, it was based on a rigorously unscientific test that involved things like seeing if someone would pick up "accidentally" dropped papers, but it does seem to corroborate something I've long felt, namely that New Yorkers are actually quite courteous and genial people. Of course, there are a lot more, um, personalities in NY as well, but I suppose you've got to take the good with the bad (or at least the friendly with the crazy).

I was surprised to discover that Norway's Datarock, who released one of my favorite records of 2005, have a whole bunch of music videos out in the ether. While the band has much better songs (I'll give you "Fa Fa Fa" as proof thereof), the video for "Computer Camp Love" is pretty tough to beat, especially if you were ever forced to learn BASIC or lost a file thanks to a bent floppy disk:

My only beef is that Datarock's signature in all of their videos is their matching red track suits and awkward dancing--something that we've seen before with another great band out of Norway, namely Kings of Convenience in their clip for "I'd Rather Dance With You":

Of course, there's no way to beat Erlend Oye at his own game, particularly when said game is dancing in a manner at once awful and awe-inspiring. Still, the Grease aping is the right blend of ironic and reverent to work, methinks.

Meanwhile, off in the voting, Salt Lake City came out of nowhere to take the lead yesterday with a strong 202 ballot push. However, whomever is behind the Fayetteville fever responded; not to be outdone, Fayetteville reasserted their lead by a slim margin. Our eyes are on New York City and the two Portlands (Oregon and Maine) which round out the top five. Have you voted yet? Come on, y'all!

xoxox
Danny

2006-09-18T15:40:00.000-04:00

#5: Nina Update: S'mores Are Good.

I'm part of a couple art shows in Boulder, Colorado, so I'm spending some time visiting my parents right now. The most striking thing when I arrived was that it's already fall here. Maybe it felt so completely bizarre because I was in Miami prior to heading here, but I'm not complaining. Quite the opposite - it's breathtakingly beautiful all around. The crisp cool air, the smells, and of course, all the colors! I've been enjoying making fires in their backyard fire pit and toasting marshmallows. I don't remember myself being quite so enthusiastic for fall in a long time, but maybe that's because in NYC you don't get to feel it in the same way.

Basic s'mores recipe:
Melt some chocolate in tin foil on the side of the fire while you roast the marshmallows. Grab a graham cracker and slide the marshmallow on to it, then pour a bit of melted chocolate on and squish together with another marshmallow. Voila! Now make "s'more".

It seems obvious, I know, but it's all about melting the chocolate beforehand. Danny thinks you could use Hershey's syrup, but we all know he's daft. Keep in mind: sugar-free marshmallows work great, too and you can add other toppings like bananas or almonds... Or, if you're lazy, it never hurts to just eat marshmallows out of a bag.

And speaking of having lived in New York, The Baskervilles (who are from NYC themselves) sum up a lot of why it is so difficult to find places to have a good time in that great city on "Midnight at the Underground Club." Of course, they do it in their typically whimsical fashion and there's a lighthearted video to match:

Heart,
Nina

2006-09-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

#4: Muppet Nina, The Agony of Defeat, Kind Words, & A Psycho Magnet.

Before I met Nina, I used to think that photos of me as a small child were the most adorable thing in the world ("Look--he's wearing Tupperware on his head! Where's the camera?!").

Now I know better, namely that they are the second-most adorable thing in the world. Just look at her. Jeez. The Soviet-era stereophonic sound system doesn't hurt the overall effect, either. Sometimes, it's fun to imagine a world populated by all of your friends Muppet Babies style, where everyone has adultish heads and personalities glommed onto undersized bodies. Or maybe that's just me. Actually, let's forget that was ever brought up.

It's a nice ensemble she's got workin', though: the patterned bib (but she's not eating?), what appears to be some sort of smoking jacket, and capri pantaloons. What a style icon.

This weekend saw another unfortunate UM Hurricanes football loss, this time a shellacking to a team with a starter named Peanut Whitehead. No joke. Anyhow, that effectively ends our season in a rather premature manner. At least Notre Dame got spanked; there's always a little bit of joy in that.

On the site front, things are looking good. We've already received some really nice feedback from people via our MySpace page, including one person who wrote that he found the idea "very unique and comforting." Meanwhile, our blog has been read by people in places as far away as Canada, Peru, Greece, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, and the Philippines, which is super exciting. And no, we're not spying on you creepily; Google Analytics does a nice job of putting visitor info into colorful maps and pie charts for us. Mmm, pie.

Music, you say? One of my favorite and perennially underappreciated bands, Spearmint, have a new record coming out. "Psycho Magnet" is one of the most instantly infectious tracks from Paris in a Bottle, a record that just may get some attention as Rough Trade has apparently signed the band. The song has a gigantic chorus and a bouncy new-wave bass line that ensure its catchiness. Previously, Spearmint's records were being released by an excellent but very low-visibility German label called Apricot Records. Download the track and let me know what you think.

If you're more visually oriented, apparently there's a video:

xoxox
Danny

2006-09-15T19:09:00.000-04:00

#3: What an odd day.

Our childhood theories are confirmed: spinach is deadly. All the crazy people in the world are having a party together. Danny's computer survived a nasty brush-in with greyware. The voting on our site went down for the weekend.

But you know what? It's all fine by us because we finally got a hold of the new record by The Legends, a band that can simply do no wrong. Their third record--really his third record, since the band is the side project of Johan Angergard from the Acid House Kings and Club 8--trades in amped up early '80s-styled synth-pop which, combined with Angergard's penchant for writing infectious pop songs, amounts to a lot of blissful head bobbing.

In case you don't believe us, here's "Darling," the album's 8th track. Buy the CD with a limited edition free DVD here, and pick up the first two albums here while you're at it.

Happy weekending,

Danny&Nina

2006-09-14T22:15:00.000-04:00

#2: Myspace, Girl Talk & Tootsie Rolls.

Nina sent me this photo from the Apple store in Boulder, CO the other day. I think it's actually pretty neat as far as out of the box filters go, no?

It does seems to cast a somewhat disconcerting air of androgeny to what is typically a distinctively feminine face, but I can deal with it for the sake of playful digital shenanigans.

* * *

Oh, hey--we launched our MySpace profile for the site. 250 friends in a day and a half is definitely a nice start for us. Perhaps people will take to our idea after all!

* * *

Pop quiz, hotshot. What do the following songs have in common?

* "Three 6 Mafia - "Stay Fly"
* Smashing Pumpkins - "1979"
* Laidback - "White Horse"
* 69 Boyz - "Tootsie Roll"
* Fleetwood Mac - "Little Lies"
* Folk Implosion - "Natural One"

The obvious answer is that they are all songs that we enjoy a tremendous amount more than we would ever admit to. However, the better answer is that these songs (and a few others) are all a part of "Overtime," the penultimate track on Girl Talk's third record, the unclassifiable musical orgy known as Night Ripper. To classify this record in the mash-up genre would be to miss the point entirely; Gregg Gillis (the man behind the mash) doesn't simply mix songs into one another, rather he layers song upon unlikely song, reconstructing and imploding tracks as needed. The result is the best party record of 2006, or at least the best workout mix you'll ever run across. A healthy love of contemporary hip-hop and indie rock helps, too. Like it? Buy it here.

But let's not give short shrift to the videos linked to above. You totally owe me one for those, especially the Laidback video (Sprockets anyone?) and "Tootsie Roll"--which, for the record, was totally the predecessor to the "Macarena"--slide, baby, slide!

If you pick out any songs we missed in the list above, please shout out in the Comments.

And yes, the department of dated catch phrases called; they want Dennis Hopper's line back.

xoxox
Danny

2006-09-12T22:07:00.000-04:00

#1: We started a blog that nobody read.

Ah, Where to begin?

If you're reading this, then you probably already know a bit about our story, this crazy internet voting project Nina and I are embarking upon. It certainly does feel like the definite beginning of something, although what that something is won't be clear until weeks and months have passed us by.

Two offerings to you, for starters:

#1: The photo on the right. It seems appropriate for a number of reasons: it was taken on a road trip to Nova Scotia at the beginning of our relationship; we're in the image spectrally, in shadow, not revealing too much of ourselves yet willingly participating; in the foreground, a concrete walkway recedes into the bay, either a literal road to nowhere or path into the unknown, depending upon how you're feeling.

#2: The first of what we hope will be many songs offered up to our readers. This time it is a track entitled (appropriately enough) "I Started A Blog Nobody Read." It's by a band we're big fans of, Sprites, which is the project of a fella named Jason Korzen who formerly fronted an amazing band called Barcelona. This track is off Modern Gameplay, the band's sophomore release, which covers the same sort of sonic and lyrical territory Barcelona did: poppy, synth flavored songs about dorky concerns like robots, computers, and the "indie" music world. If you like it, you'll like the rest of the record, which you can buy here.

xoxox
Danny