jimmylin's blog on imeem

picks of the week

jimmylin — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:27:39 -0000

kevin michael (feat. wyclef jean) - it don't make any difference to me

david blaine - street magic 2 (parody)

the french laundry - 07.21.07 highlights

the french laundry - 07.21.07 photos

jimmylin — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:26:32 -0000

fooooooooooooooood

picks

jimmylin — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:42:01 -0000

conan the raver

picks

jimmylin — Tue, 29 May 2007 17:03:24 -0000

the strokes - you only live once

picks

jimmylin — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:57:22 -0000

kaiser chiefs - ruby (acoustic live)

picks

jimmylin — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:11:16 -0000

datarock - fa-fa-fa

ben kweller - penny on the train track

highlights from the imeem photobooth - not so silent night 2006

jimmylin — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 02:22:54 -0000

the imeem groove squad

jimmylin — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 07:18:29 -0000

sometimes you just feel like dancing...

How Best Buy Nearly Burned Down My House (And Proceeded To Screw Me Over 3 More Times)

jimmylin — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 08:38:31 -0000

How Best Buy Nearly Burned Down My House (And Proceeded To Screw Me Over 3 More Times)

The following is an abbreviated account of my recent dealings with Best Buy and the company's idiotic attempts to get a basic washer/dryer delivered and installed at my place. The full story can be saved for another day.

Delivery Attempt #1
(Sat. 9/23, ~2:00pm)
Everything starts out innocently. Two guys haul away the old washer/dryer and bring the new one up. They hook up the washer hoses and everything is fine. They plug the electrical cord in and everything is fine.

Then things get worse. Drastically worse.

As one of the guys is connecting the vent duct to the dryer, the thing suddenly BURSTS INTO FLAMES. And I'm not talking about some little birthday candle flame. You know that annoying kid at every Labor Day get-together that throws a bunch of lighter fluid into the BBQ pit just to be idiotically funny? Picture a flame like that. The fire lasts for maybe five seconds, but fortunately no one is injured (especially the guy who was actually holding the vent duct when it caught on fire).

To this day, no one even knows how the heck this happened.

Delivery Attempt #2
(Sat. 9/30, ~10:00am)
Another Saturday, another attempt at getting this washer/dryer installed. Except this time, the delivery guys don't even bring the unit up to the place. Why? Because when they take the washer/dryer off the truck and out of the box, they realize there's a huge dent in the front of the machine, thus rendering it unusable. Whatever, stuff happens. Just like vent ducts randomly bursting into flames.

Delivery Attempt #3
(Sat. 9/30, ~ 4:00pm)
After some phone calls, I am able to get Best Buy to re-attempt the delivery with another unit on the same day. Third time's the charm right?

Of course not. Once again, everything looks like it's going to be okay, except for one small thing. The delivery guys have the wrong washer hoses, hoses that aren't even the standard ones that are supposed to come with the washer/dryer. Which begs the question, why don't they just carry extra vent ducts, hoses, and electrical cords in their truck?

So once again, they take everything away.

Phone Call #6 (I'll spare you the details of the other phone calls I made. But here's a hint: I was angry)
(Sat. 9/30, ~ 7:00pm)
I talk to someone at the Best Buy delivery center. I explain to her the whole situation and am able to arrange delivery attempt #4 for the next morning. Before I hang up, I explain to her that this is exactly what i need:
- the washer/dryer
- the flexible vent duct (as opposed to the rigid one)
- the three-pronged electrical cord
- the 6 foot washer hoses

We go over this twice. She ensures me that she has made a special note of this and that everything should be good to go the next morning.

Delivery Attempt #4
(Sun. 10/1, ~ 8:00am)
This is where I almost lose it. I get a phone call from the same delivery guy who made Delivery Attempt #2. Here's pretty much how the conversation goes:
"Hey James, I'm about 10 minutes away from your place. But I have a real quick question."
"Sure, go ahead."
"You wouldn't happen to already have the washer/dryer at your place already, would you?"
"Ummmm, no."
"(brief silence) Oh....well....I don't have it either. They only gave me the accessories to hook everything up with."

HE DOESN'T HAVE THE ACTUAL WASHER/DRYER WITH HIM.

Honestly, how does that happen?! And here's the kicker...HE DOES'T EVEN HAVE THE RIGHT ACCESSORIES WITH HIM. He has the three-pronged electrical cord, but he has the rigid vent duct (instead of the flexible one) and the friggin' wrong water hoses! The same WRONG water hoses that were brought at Delivery Attempt #3.

The funny thing is that the delivery guy was smart enough to realize 10 minutes before arriving at my place that BEST BUY PROBABLY SOMEHOW SCREWED IT UP AGAIN. And he sure was right.

Delivery Attempt #5
(Sun. 10/2, ~ 9:00pm)
Finally, on the fifth attempt, the washer/dryer is installed. And strangely enough, things go off without a hitch.

For all my troubles, Best Buy has graciously decided to mail me a $10 gift card. I'm pretty sure I'm going to burn it.

TIM ATTEMPTS 5 LB BURGER WITH 54 TOPPINGS......IN UNDER 30 MINUTES

jimmylin — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 09:07:13 -0000

ONE MAN AND HIS ATTEMPT TO EAT A GINORMOUS FULLY LOADED 5 LB BURGER WITH 54 TOPPINGS......IN UNDER 30 MINUTES

[NOTE]
This blog post has been moved to a new location:
http://www.jimmylin.com/fivepoundburger

Please visit the above site to read the full story. In the meantime, here are some teaser pics...

The full story (and way more pics) now at: http://www.jimmylin.com/fivepoundburger

Things I Learned at the Midwest Music Summit

jimmylin — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 07:52:13 -0000

[ THINGS I LEARNED AT THE MIDWEST MUSIC SUMMIT ]

YOU CAN'T DENY THE ALLURE OF A MUSICIAN

Friday night at a bar called Casba, I was listening to some dude named Adam Fallon. All throughout his set, he kept calling out to this one girl who was having a drink with a friend. After repeated requests, he got her to come up and give him a small kiss on the cheek. He then dedicated his next song to her and proceeded to improv the entire tune (although the majority of the lyrics centered around the theme of "You should come over again and make out with me"). The lady was apparently swept off her feet by this amazing accomplishment and came back up to make out with him. I, being the sick voyeur I am, decided to try to take a picture of it (I failed). After they were done making out, the lady then walked over to me and asked if I had gotten a picture of it. I told her no, and she replied, "Good, because I'm actually married."

By the end of Adam's next song, she was making out with him again.

And this is the closest picture I was able to get (face blurred to protect the guilty).

YOU CAN'T GET FOOD ANYWHERE AFTER MIDNIGHT

Back at the hotel Thursday night at about 1:00am, Malorie and I were having a slight case of the munchies. I was too lazy to do anything so Malorie did all the phone-calling to try to hunt us down a snack. She called room service, but apparently it was not one of those 24-hour services. She called the front desk to ask about a pizza delivery place, and apparently they thought it was ridiculous that any pizza place would deliver at one o'clock in the morning. Finding this incredulous, I called about 5 different pizza places on my cell phone (Papa John's, Dominos, you name it) and got an equal number of answering machines. Defeated, Malorie and I decided that we would settle for something from a vending machine. She called back the front desk and asked if there was one in the building. Fortunately, we were told, there was a vending machine. Unfortunately, we were also told, that it was in the swimming pool area, which at one o'clock in the morning was LOCKED. I think at that point I would've even eaten a Luna Bar.

So of course, the next morning I had to find myself the unhealthiest thing in the world to eat. I believe it was called the Hangover Special (with 2 fried eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, cheese, grease, and more grease). The title was a little fitting because although I didn't have a hangover when I ate it, I had a pounding headache for about three hours afterwards.

PEOPLE LOVE GETTING THEIR PHOTOS TAKEN

Maybe it was because I was carring a semi-legit-looking camera this time (instead of a mini digital camera I usually carry), but everywhere I walked, people were asking me to take pictures of them with my camera. They didn't even care if they never saw the picture being taken. For example, Saturday night I came across these three fellows, who go by the names of Young Tef, Momo 317, and Ghost Writer (and collectively go by the name of 3 Blind Mice, although that night they were going by 2 Blind Mice since Young Tef forgot his sunglasses):

There's also these two ladies, whose names I did not get. Although I believe one goes to Anderson University and the other works at STAR Financial Bank.

MUSICIANS ARE CRAZY

Okay, I didn't witness anything totally ridonkulous happen at MMS, but there were still some amusing band antics. During Margot and the Nuclear So and So's Thursday set, a bunch of people rushed the stage, including Santa Claus:

The Virgin Millionaires, as awesome as their performance was, all acted like a bunch of monkeys on acid the way they were running around on stage and jumping on and off the speakers. It's like they injected Red Bull into their veins and then became Sonic the Hedgehog. It did make for one energy-filled performance though.

Dr. Octagon (aka Kool Keith) decided it would be cool to invite a bunch of ladies from the audience up on stage to dance with him. See if you can recognize anyone you know.

Of course, there were those who enjoyed crowd-surfing:

And this doesn't really fit in this section, but some bands had the best merchandise.

EVERYONE SMOKES IN INDIANAPOLIS

I think I lost 10 pounds from all the second-hand smoke I was surrounded with this weekend.

MMS LOVES IMEEM

The logo was friggin' everywhere. I especially loved the imeem logo at Rouge (one of the MMS venues). It was strategically placed so that any photo taken from any angle of a band performing on that stage would also include the huge green imeem logo in it.

I'M A GHOST

Not really sure how this happened, but I took a picture with Ethan Saturday night and this is how it turned out:

THERE ARE NO ASIANS IN INDIANAPOLIS

Other than me and Gideon (the manager of Rouge), I don't think there was another asian in Indianapolis this past weekend. But as Todd pointed out to me earlier today, at least that means the city doesn't have to worry about car accidents.

IMEEM WILL FILM YA ANYWHERE

Gaba Gavi wanted to partake in imeem SoundSessions but unfortunately he couldn't make it to any of the designated times. No problem. We took him outside to some patio located between an internet cafe and a running trail, set up the equipment, and filmed a couple of his tunes. Luckily we had a directional mic (instead of an omnidirectional); otherwise the audio of his set would've included about 20 instances of motorcycles revving their engines as they drove by.

There was also this guy named Barry Fant who wasn't part of the MMS line-up but was someone who I randomly noticed playing some tunes in an alley somewhere. His music was actually pretty good, so I figured I'd shoot some photos of him. At the end of his song, he stuck out his hand, and I shook it while thanking him for letting me take pictures. In retrospect though, I'm pretty sure he was looking for a dollar bill.

EVERONE IN INDIANAPOLIS IS VERY FRIENDLY

The title says it all, but I'd especially like to give a shout out to Gideon for being so hospitable to the imeem crew while we were in town. Gideon, you rock and we hope to see you soon.

And if anyone's ever in Indianapolis, go visit his bar (Rouge) and buy a drink.

Well that's pretty much it for now. If I think of anything else, I'll be sure to add it to the list.

Superman Returns

jimmylin — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:14:38 -0000

Just got back from seeing the new Superman movie. Here's my one word review:
BORING.

Flashback

jimmylin — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 05:38:43 -0000

Let's take a journey back to 5th grade. I attended a pretty small elementary school called Carden and my class had a total of fifteen kids in it. One of the neat (or embarassing, depending on how you look at it) things about Carden was that every year, each grade's class put on a play for all the other grades. In 5th grade, the play we had to put on was &amp;quot;Robin Hood&amp;quot; (a very watered-down version, of course). And in possibly the funniest casting choice ever made, I was chosen to play the Prince of Thieves himself. Here's what the entire cast looked like:

As you can see, all fifteen students in my class had a part. And all I really remember is my teacher constantly telling me during rehearsals to &amp;quot;look deeply into Maid Marian's eyes and not at her shoes&amp;quot; whenever I was talking to her. I guess I was too nervous to deliver such passionate lines as, &amp;quot;But I must save the villagers!&amp;quot;

Yup, feel the chemistry.