JOHN SELLERS

Reading at Brooklyn Museum

John Sellers — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:02:09 +0000

As if you needed another reason to hit Target First Saturdays at the Brooklyn Museum — I’ll be doing a reading at 9 p.m. on January 2, 2010.

Please be aware that, should you choose to join me — and I hope you do — the Brooklyn Museum sells booze at First Saturdays events. I trust you know what to do with this information.

WHY I’M ANGRY TODAY
No one got me Them Crooked Vultures for Christmas!

Vultures

John Sellers — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:28:52 +0000

As previously mentioned, I’m posting regularly over on True/Slant. For instance, here’s a link to my Oral History of the Curb-Stomping Scene in American History X. Or how about playing the Roles John Hodgman Would Have Dominated game?

And I update my Twitter page far more frequently than this page, which I’m mostly using now as a hub for information about my books and archives of things I’ve written (and, obviously, for breaking news). And I am still producing text for Spin magazine at a constant pace, including this new interview with the singer Maxwell.

And I’m writing occasionally about music for The Faster Times. In fact, I just posted something a few minutes ago about the explosion of supergroups in 2009. Here’s an excerpt of the full article:

1. For a band to be considered a supergroup, it must feature at least two well-known musicians. And unfamous members of well-known bands don’t count. We need successful solo artists or actual well-known members of well-known bands. How to define well-known? Gut check. For instance, in the Dead Weather example above: Dean Fertita, the rhythm guitarist of Queens of the Stone Age doesn’t fit the bill, but Jack White (duh) and Alison Mosshart, the lead singer of the Kills, do. I mean, Fertita is awesome. But could you pick him out of a police lineup?

2. The more well-known the well-known musicians involved are, the more supergroup-y the band is. A good litmus test here is Tinted Windows. Sure, it has Iha. But Zwan had Billy Corgan. Hence, Zwan trumps Tinted Windows, at least on the supergroup scale.

3. Equality matters. If one member is significantly more famous than everyone else, the supergroup smacks of a side project.

This, on the same day that it was announced that Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones have formed a supergroup called Them Crooked Vultures.

Anyway, you know where to find me!

WHY I’M ANGRY TODAY
I can’t get the 3 Doors Down song from the Geico cavemen bowling ad out of my head.

Boost

John Sellers — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:00:10 +0000

I’ll still be posting stuff here from time to time, and of course my blog archives, magazine clips and book info will always remain at johnsellers.com. But I am hereby moving most of the action over to my new page at True/Slant. If you could find it in your hearts to visit me there often, and sign up to “follow me” (click the badge under my photo and create an account), and RSS me, whatever the hell that is, I’d be much obliged.

I’m also a music columnist for The Faster Times now, so check me out there as well.

You are all the most incredible people in the world, and I’m not just saying that so you’ll click on the links above and boost my traffic at these other sites.

WHY I’M ANGRY TODAY
There hasn’t been a real Major League Baseball game for four days now. Withdrawal!

Purplish

John Sellers — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:26:02 +0000

My interview with Tori Amos is now out in the same excellent issue of Spin as Brian Raftery’s oral history of Purple Rain and the mag’s Prince tribute album, Purplish Rain. (If only they had been prescient enough to have done an oral history of Thriller instead! Still, immensely entertaining.)

The comments under the Amos interview are absolutely worth reading, by the way. Lighten up, dude!

WHY I’M ANGRY TODAY
I am really neglecting this thing. (That’s what she said!)

Fairly

John Sellers — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:10:25 +0000

I update Twitter fairly regularly these days — FYI. Also, check out the archive of interviews I’ve done for Spin magazine over the past year. Spin has been pretty good to me, I have to say.

And here’s a drawing of a shark I did recently.

WHY I’M ANGRY TODAY
Soundgarden will probably never get back together, which means that I will probably never get to see Soundgarden live.

Yapping

John Sellers — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:27:27 +0000

A short list of things I don’t understand:

1. The appeal of eggplant
2. The appeal of patchouli
3. The appeal of small, yapping dogs
4. The appeal of sandals for men, aka mandals
5. The appeal of the Upper West Side
6. The appeal of picnics
7. The appeal of farmer’s markets

WHY I’M ANGRY TODAY
The Smiths still haven’t gotten back together.

Heroes, idols cracked like ice

John Sellers — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:11:58 +0000

WHY I’M ANGRY TODAY
What could have been?

Tots

John Sellers — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:31:36 +0000

Pete Bauer, the bass guitarist from the Walkmen, just chatted live with ESPN readers. About basketball. Random. But also pretty cool.

In other random and inexplicable (albeit highly uncool) news, I am currently at the tail end of a two-week carb freeze. As in:

Hungry person #1: Ooh, is that a carb?
Hungry person #1’s conscience: Freeze!
HP#1: Freeze? What do you mean?
HP#1’sC: You heard me.

So no carbs until Saturday. That includes beer. And tots. I can’t even have any goddamn tots.

WHY I’M ANGRY TODAY
No tots!

Frawesome

John Sellers — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:57:00 +0000

Yes, I am essentially nothing more than a Holy Taco shill today, but this is freakin’ awesome. It’s so awesome, in fact, that there needs to be a hybrid word combining freakin’ and awesome to describe it — frawesome? Yeah, this post is totally frawesome.

Pretty much sums up every other Thursday night I’ve had since early December as a founding member of the Every Other Thursdays with Cory drinking club, right down to the discussion about strap-ons.

Lasso

John Sellers — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:15:17 +0000

I’m sure this thing went viral a few years ago (I’m notoriously slow on the uptake), so forgive me if you’ve already seen this failed 1967 pilot for a TV show adaption of Wonder Woman. (Readers of Holy Taco, where I found this today, certainly have.) Apparently, the creators of the old, campy Batman series wanted to do something similar here; luckily they failed — painfully so — or we might never have gotten an eyeful of Lynda Carter twirling the Lasso of Truth in star-spangled short shorts.

WHY I’M ANGRY TODAY
I am sore from playing softball, which just seems contrary to what the sport is all about.