Blog: The Noise Bazaar

A review from the folks over at Vinyl Records finally convinced me to take my first trip to Nice Price Books, a little bookstore that sits right at the edge of Carrboro on Main Street. As much as I love books, what really drew me to this store was the music collection. Thousands upon thousands of CDs, tapes and records are piled up in the on the walls, on the floor and everywhere that there is space. I have always loved sifting through stacks of music trying to find the "diamond in the rough" [...]

It looks like the economic crisis/disintigration of the journalism industry has hit me sooner than expected. Much sooner. I just found out that this will be my last week at Chapel Hill Magazine , the publication I have been interning with this whole semester. Oh, and this is after they asked me to stay on for next semester just a few short weeks ago. According to the editor, it had nothing to do with performance, but was a decision from higher up to not have any interns next semester and instead hire a full-time employee [...]

While studying for my Intro to Rock exam (for the very few hours that I did) I came across this cool video of Ben Folds explaining the meaning of his hit song " Brick ." On the Ben Folds Live album he explains that it's about him and his girlfriend having an abortion, but I was never really sure that it was the truth. Apparently it is. He also gives some great insight into how his music was changing from early Ben Folds Five to [...]

UNC-Chapel Hill may be one of the best public universities in the nation , but that doesn't mean we don't know how to have a little bit of fun, especially when it comes to exam time. Just hang out in the Undergraduate Library during exam week and you'll see what I mean. First, there is the tradition of the UL streakers . These brave guys and gals streak through the lobby of the library at midnight on the night of the exams, just to break up the monotony of studying. Keep things interesting. Well [...]

I'm not usually one to get all crazy anti-consumerism and corporate America, but stuff like this really pisses me off. What bothers me is that they seem to have the idea that they are doing something good for the world. Spreading the American way of life. "You know what this desolate rural area needs? A Whopper." And they act so shocked when someone hasn't had a burger before. Not everyone is as interested in clogging arteries and gaining weight as [...]

Exciting news, faithful readers! The first issue of Uncharted magazine hits shelves...err...your internet browser today! If you don't remember, Uncharted is a new arts magazine that I'm writing for that reports on music, visual arts and performance art around the UNC-Chapel Hill community. As of now the magazine is only online in PDF form, but we hope to get the funding to print future issues. Heck, you can print it out on pretty paper and staple it together if you really want to. This is a pretty packed issue [...]

I've last night and most of today working on a blog for my presentation in Professor Jones' class and I'm finally done!! At least I hope I am. Anyway, with all the hard work I put into it, I figured I would share it. It's a "study" of three different progressive political blogging sites and how they work as knowledge communities. I took a local blog ( Orange Politics ) a state-wide blog ( BlueNC ) and a national blog ( Daily Kos ) and compared them and looked at how the community functions. Check it out here [...]

This story is a little dated, but I think it's important that you know about my situation should anything happen to me. It all started a couple of weeks ago with a conversation in my blogging class. Professor Jones was talking about how singer/songwriter Ryan Adams started "stalking" him after he wrote something negative about the former Raleigh-ite. Another kid in the class mentioned that Adams had called a writer drunk in the middle of the night and cussed him out. Now I can't vouch for the truth [...]

Dear readers, I'm at a loss. I need your help. Maybe together we can figure out what the hell is wrong with the NFL. Football on Thanksgiving day is about as American as apple pie and over eating. It's a tradition that I look forward to every year, especially this year when my Tennessee Titans were playing the Detroit Lions. The game was a blowout, and that was fine with me. But at halftime something went horribly wrong: Jesse McCartney walked out onto the stage. [...]

Happy Turkey Day, everyone!! I'm back home for a few days and enjoying some much needed relaxation. In a perfect world, this would mean more blog posts, but with my laptop not having the greatest internet connection, I'm not sure if this will happen or not. I'll do my best. Anyway, I just wanted to share with you something I found on one of my favorite music blogs, i guess i'm floating . A couple of days ago, they put up a list of the best TV theme songs of the past 20 years . [...]

Eighteen years later, it's easy to lump Pearl Jam into the grunge movement and compare them to bands like Nirvana , Soundgarden and Mudhoney . Sure, they came out of Seattle, had a penchant for flannel and long hair and were banging out some dirty rock and roll, but I think they're overlooked as "just another grunge band." I'm guilty of this: Ten , Binaural , and Yield were left to collect dust on my [...]

...and he was looking for a soul to steal. OK, maybe not, but that Charlie Daniels song has been stuck in my head since I crossed the state line. My wonderful girlfriend and I just got back from our weekend trip to Atlanta, and I will now give you a synopsis using pictures. Georgia might put a peach on its license plate and call it's girls "Georgia peaches," but who has the balls to paint a water tower like a peach with the crack and nub [...]

Andy Rooney may consider himself a newspaper man, but I would love to be the kind of newspaper man that he is: one that writes a highly syndicated column a couple of times a week and has a recurring spot on " 60 Minutes " where he just rants about whatever happens to be bothering him from his own office. As cushy as his job is, Rooney is hilarious and I love listening to his commentary. This rant is especially interesting to me since I seem to be moving into a dying industry with [...]

So this weekend I will be missing the first Carolina basketball game and the extremely important football game against Maryland so that I can go down to Georgia. "Why would you -- being such a huge sports fan -- miss all those games just to go to Georgia?" you might be asking. Well, I promise I have a legitimate excuse, but I won't tell you what it is because I don't want to seem cocky. Actually, that's a lie, I'm damn proud of myself for getting this so I'm going to brag. Modesty be damned! [...]

Will.i.am -- the real person, not CNN hologram -- put out a new song and video this week celebrating Barack Obama's victory. The song is called "It's a New Day" and mixes clips of the singer with shots of Grant Park in Chicago during the acceptance speech, and what I assume are user submitted videos of people singing the song. I have never been the biggest fan of will.i.am, but this song and it's predecessor, " Yes We Can ," are great tributes to a powerful campaign and a landmark election. Maybe he should stick [...]

Just under a week after the historic election, I've decided it's time for me to move on to other things. That's not to say that you won't see the occasional post about politics or government, but I'm going to try to mix it up a little bit. I hope that there will be more about music (what this site was originally created for) and local issues. We'll see how long it lasts. That said, please allow me to introduce you to Lafcadio . This Chapel [...]

It looks like President-Elect Barack Obama prepared for this week a while back, and with good reason. A mere two days after his landslide victory over John McCain, Obama has already chosen his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel and has set up his new website fittingly named Change.gov . The website is dedicated to the transition process and includes a blog, an agenda for the new president, press information and even a place to share your story about the campaign and what it meant to you. [...]

On January 3 of this year I was in some little apartment in New Rochelle, NY fresh off a hearty celebration of the new year. That night we cut on the TV to CNN to check out the results of the first Democratic primary in Iowa. At this point I couldn't tell you anything about the candidates: there was a black guy, a woman and the local guy. I was supporting John Edwards simply because he lived in Chapel Hill (and we see how that ended up). As the returns come in, it becomes clear that Barack Obama, [...]

Comedian Sarah Silverman has always been known for her raunchy and over-the-top comedy -- just watch one episode of her show and you'll see what I mean -- but at least she's got her head on her shoulders politically...kinda. In what she calls " The Great Schlep " she asks young Jewish people to go down to Florida and get their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama so they don't screw the Democrats over like they did in 2000 (she uses a slightly different wording, but I'm trying to keep this sorta PC). She takes the [...]

If you asked me two years ago about politics, I couldn't have told you anything except that Bush is a terrible president, and that opinion would have come largely from what other people have told me. But for some reason this election season, politics has taken over my brain and my life and, sometimes, my dreams. I'm not really sure exactly what started it. Actually, that's not true. I can blame it on two people: Barack Obama and Chris . Obama, with his message of [...]