Busa Bombs: December 2008

Monday

The First Couple of Indie Rock?

Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel are gettin' hitched.

Duck & Cover

Bon Iver - Your Love (The Outfield Cover)

Jonna Lee - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (Postal Service cover)

Katy Perry - Electric Feel (MGMT COVER)

Lykke Li - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

We Are Scientists - Hopppolla (Sigur Ros Cover)

Calico Horse - Idioteque (Radiohead Cover)

The New Standards - Such Great Heights (The Postal Service Cover)

LILLY WOOD AND THE PRICK - L.E.S. Artistes (Santogold Cover)

The Kooks - Violet Hill

The Kooks - Kids (MGMT Cover)

Radiohead - The Rip (Portishead cover)

Thursday

Merry Christmas!

Enjoy some holiday spirit, courtesy of someecards!!

Wednesday

heaven is a place on earth...

80's Prom Party

I am so proud to call Seth and Rachel two of my very best. Please note the head swing, and the dual shimmys. I only hope my bridesmaid dress is similar to the fierce piece Rach is wearing...

Tuesday

Santa's Gmail

http://www.walyou.com/img/santa-claus-gmail-account.jpg

Al Gore's email is the best...

Friday

Thursday

"You call it premature, I call it extacy."

God I ♥ This Song.

MGMT - Electric Feel (Dskotek Remix)

Dskotek did the rmx right son!

Wednesday

Disturbia

Bad form Miranda Kerr, BAD FORM!

From This:

To This:

Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr has apparently not only split up with boyfriend Orlando Bloom, but is now also hooking up with greasy, firecrotch-coining Brandon Davis.

I’m having trouble coming up with the proper analogy…

Dating Orlando Bloom : Dating Brandon Davis ::
Dating Johnny Depp : Handjob From Fingerless Tranny

Filet Mignon : A Turd, Prepared By Lisa From Top Chef

Vacation in Hawaii : Playing in a Chuck E. Cheese Ball Pen With Herp Instead Of Balls

Casablanca : Being Beaten in the Scrotum with the Epic Movie Film Canister

Christmas Day : Celebrating the 60-Year Anniversary of the Short Story “The Lottery” By Stoning a Random Child To Death, Then Sleeping With a Fat, Greasy Oil Heir

Kitten : Literally The Holocaust

Today is a sad day for San Mateo, or just Dave. No more double happy hours, chicken fingers or red and white stripes my friends. Where will we have our high school reunions? McGoverns or the Swinging Door, you'r choice. RIP Chotchkies.

"A skeleton crew boxed up the booze at the TGI Friday's in San Bruno Tuesday after their Florida-based employer abruptly closed that restaurant and two others in San Mateo and Cupertino, firing dozens of people without warning.

"We went from contributors to liabilities in about one minute. I guess that is the new way," said Cesar Arguello, who had been bar manager at the San Bruno restaurant until he and several dozen fellow workers were handed their final paychecks Tuesday morning.

The closures come at a time when employers are handing out pink slips instead of Christmas bonuses amid a global recession.

The closures also stunned Sherwin Chin, who had worked at the San Bruno restaurant for 25 years. "Basically I was a lifer here," said Chin, who was a host.

The three TGI Friday's were closed by their owner, CNL International of Orlando, according to property owner Eric Brandenburg, who had leased the San Bruno location to the Florida firm.

"A hundred families have now gotten about the worst Christmas present I can imagine," said Brandenburg, who said he hopes to find a new operator to reopen the restaurant.

Calls to CNL's Florida office were not returned. The three closed locations were franchises of TGI Friday's, a restaurant concept that began in New York in 1965 and has spread to more than 900 locations in 62 countries. The franchise is ultimately owned by Carlson Cos. of Minnetonka, Minn.

"These closures were not authorized by TGI Friday's Inc. and we are still in the process of gathering facts," a Carlson spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

A handful of managers lingered at the San Bruno restaurant, taking the chairs down off one of the tables as they gathered to share their shock at the unexpected shutdown.

"It never would have crossed our minds," said general manager Eyob Tibebu, who got his first inkling of trouble Monday when he was told not to order or accept any supplies and to summon the entire staff of about 75 to a 10:30 morning meeting Tuesday.

Cinthia Lowry, who managed about three dozen servers, bussers and hosts, clutched a plaque that lauded the San Bruno restaurant for breaking $20,000 in sales on Mother's Day this year.

"Business was off about 5 percent, but you don't believe this would happen for that," said Lowry, who can fall back on a part-time job as a dental technician. "I feel really, really sad for the people who don't have another job. The timing is just terrible."

Kitchen manager Bayardo Martinez said he has worked for the TGI Friday's chain since 1990, when he immigrated to the United States from Nicaragua. This is his second closure. After the February 2002 shut down of the TGI Friday's near Fisherman's Wharf he was able to transfer to the San Bruno restaurant without any significant unemployment. This time he isn't sure he will be so fortunate.

"It was good luck and good riddance, as they say," Martinez said.

The managers said they handed out final paychecks to the staff, some of whom cried, others of whom simply took them and left. Lowry said they got no severance, nor any notice, raising questions of whether CNL complied with California law that requires employers of more than 75 full- or part-time workers to provide 60 days advance notice.

The managers estimated that as many as 75 people may have worked at the San Bruno location and that the staffs of the other two restaurants were of similar size.

San Francisco labor lawyer Michael Bernick, who ran the state Employment Development Department from 1999 to 2004, said the 60-day notice is intended to give employees time to look for work and to alert the local job-finding authorities to help those affected file claims.

Bernick said employers who are responsible for giving a 60-day notice and who fail to do so can be required to pay employees for 60 days. An EDD spokeswoman said the state labor commissioner is responsible for policing these notices.

A Labor Commission spokeswoman said the commissioner will look into the matter. "We will be auditing the employers' records," said Erika Monterroza.

Reporting labor woes
Employees or others can report a failure to give notice or other labor code violation by calling (866) 924-9757 to be directed to the office nearest them."

'Band to Watch' Archive, 2008

Sereogum did a damn swell job this year! If you don't know, now you know.

Indie Rock In Memoriam 2008

No Wolfmother, NO!

Tuesday

BOXI

Puts my metallic-gold Moroccan damask stenciled wall to shame...

"Boxi creates hand cut multi layered life size stencils that he exhibits in galleries and on street walls. It is often their placement within the installation or urban landscape that completes and defines their action, enabling the work to interact with the space. It is within this collaboration that the material boundaries of the work are dissolved, affecting the perception of the image."

You should really see more Boxi. His street art is astoundlingly witty. This is one of my favorites...

"Same Game New Rules" Multi layer stencil on wall- Berlin 2006

The Trailer Mash

A little birdie told me about The Trailer Mash. It is wonderfully entertaining...

"The Trailer Mash is a website totally devoted to collecting recut trailers and trailer mash-ups. Browse by the genre they were recut into, or just check out the Top Rated Trailers for the best of the best!"

Check out the thriller, Ferris Bueller's Day Off: