had a morning coffee at la bento and I wrote some one liners.

Here is page 2:

The incessant barking of the distant dog tears my concentration to shreds.

Trash day brings opportunity for those with and without truck.

Today the black cars look grey and the blue shine bright.

There are some that talk like that, but they are not here.

The acrid smell of old dirt distracts my nostrils from the fresh felled rain.

If grammar was your study, why accept such a trivial and exhausting position?

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page one: twitter.com/jackmaatman

page three: facebook

Albums that I’ve spent most of time with in 2009:

Midnight Organ Fight – Frightened Rabbit(*)

For Emma, Forever Ago – Bon Iver*

Sigh No More – Mumford and Sons

Atlantic Ocean – Richard Swift*

Langhorne Slim – Langhorne Slim**

Hometowns – The Rural Alberta Advantage

Dark Was the Night – Disk 1 - Various Artists

Sun Giant – Fleet Foxes

Not Animal – Margo & the Nuclear So and So’s*

I and Love and You – The Avett Brothers*

Honorable Mentions:

Veckatimest – Grizzly Bear

Gather, Form & Fly – Megafaun*

North Hills – Dawes*

In Rainbows  – Radiohead

Most of these albums came out in ‘09, but not all. I picked the self titled Langhorne Slim album because it has my favorite songs on it. He released an album this year too, Be Set Free, but I spent a lot more of my time with the rest of his work this year. My list isn’t all encompassing or exhaustive, it’s just what I enjoyed listening to this year. Most of what I discovered this year is due to Brian and Jon. Thank you both for consuming and recommending so much good music.

* denotes seeing them live this year. I was going to see Frightened Rabbit, but it sold out–I’m retarded.

one of them best of lists is on its way. until then:

I like them moving pictures. I’ve started watching Friday Night Lights and I really enjoy it. It’s very good TV.

Watching so much TV-on-DVD has made me want to write a TV show. I have no idea if I’ll do it, it seems like quite a time commitment, but my thinking about story has shifted from two hours to many many hours.

Some have suggested we’re in the Golden Age of TV. I tend to agree. There hasn’t been a time in my memory where there have been so many quality shows on that I have to pick which ones I give time to, knowing that I’ll eventually go back and watch the ones I missed.

Shows I know I’ll watch eventually:

• Deadwood
• Sopranos
• The Wire
• Mad Men

They are all daunting because they are multiple seasons and come highly recommended by many sources. It’s committing to watch a 61.3 hour movie.

Here are two reels I’ve edited for coworkers. Enjoy!

Larry Whitaker

Mil Bagul

My reel and scenes from projects I’ve worked on…

In college I was introduced to Exploding Dog. I asked for and received one of his books for christmas. I have misplaced it (read, it’s in that basement somewhere). This summer Sam took part in Layer Tennis, one of my favorite things on the internet. I forgot about his work. It was really great to be reminded of him. My sources have linked me to another one of his daily-ish comics, Dog Hates Me. I’m astonished at how great it is. Sam is a very talented man, but I thought maybe I grew out of that sense of humor somehow. I’m consistently smiling/laughing at every post.

I need to call Adam back. I think I’ll do that now…when I’m through with this very essential blog post.

You are what you like or You’re only as good as your taste or Something in Latin that Makes Me Sound Smart. I guess I don’t always believe this, because I know plenty of people that I find to be very wonderful people, who have very different taste than I do. I tend to (I blame college for this), tell them they have bad taste when it doesn’t align with my own. I know it’s horrible and confrontational, but it’s also a little bit funny. How can one taste be any worse than another. It’s your opinion, it can’t be wrong–unless it is.

Taste is, was, and will be fascinating to me. How can we get along if we don’t agree on what is good? We just do. We argue about it. We agree that I’m right and you’re full of it. We agree that I’m full of it and you’re right. It all comes back to House, MD. That’s right, the TV show. I won’t get into it because I bang that drum too often, but it’s true, taste can change. Sometimes it doesn’t though, and that’s weird.

LA Bento has a great write up on LAWeekly’s website. Check it out! http://tr.im/labento

sometimes, putting things in categories, is ridiculous.

c'mon netflix.

Why are all progress bars on the Macintosh blue?

...i wait for you...

When we were finishing up The Playmobil Movie, we had a running joke about how half of our time was waiting for progress bars to finish.

BLUE BARS!

Brian, Joel and I went to see Bon Iver on Friday night. It was a spectacular show. So so so so good. The opening act / touring buddy Megafaun was super good too.

Megafaun

Being tall helps a lot at live shows. You rarely have to deal with visibility issues. This show had abnormally short people at it. Weird. I thought for sure we’d be stuck somewhere with bad views, but we ended up about 5 people from the stage!

Justin Vernon of Bon Iver

McBlursteen makes an appearance.

Getting ready for the final song.

Bon Iver + Megafaun + Unplugged = Awesome.

The end.

Rueger!