Thanks to the wonders of DVR, we watched last night’s back-to-back episodes of Parks and Recreation pretty late. So, when we woke up this morning, we sort of assumed we had daydreamed the part where Leslie orders Ann to read Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, Leslie and Ben’s discussion of two real dorms from our alma mater (Johns Hopkins University), and especially the substantial subplot about April preferring Neutral Milk Hotel to Andy’s band. Thankfully, there are clips to confirm that we were not, in fact, hallucinating. If you missed Parks and Rec yesterday, you can watch the episode after the jump. The relevant clip begins about five minute in, after which NMH pops up throughout the remainder of the show.
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It appears that Jeff Mangum, the lyricist and lead vocalist of wildly adored indie band Neutral Milk Hotel and one of the founders of the Elephant 6 Recording Company, is finally coming back from that dark place he left us for so long ago. Not only has he been popping up in the most unexpected (or actually, totally expected, if one were expecting him at all) places with more and more frequency over the past couple of years, but he has even broken down and played some classic NMH songs in recent appearances. Now, it seems that he will return in full force, with a series of shows starting in August that promise to be Actual Jeff Mangum Shows. Clearly, we couldn’t be more thrilled that the core of our favorite band from age 16 to present will be returning to us in the flesh. Click through for a (mostly) video timeline of Mangum’s appearances in recent years, slowly, quietly and secretly leading up to the current day.
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1. In his first on-camera interview since the release of The Social Network on 60 Minutes last night, Mark Zuckerberg revealed details about the new look of your Facebook profile. Watch it here here.
2. Were you one of the 75 people who watched Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum play a very rare surprise show at a Bushwick loft space called The Schoolhouse on Saturday night? If not, check out some audio clips here. [via The Measure]
3. George Lucas may be trying to digitally resurrect dead actors in order to have them all star in a movie together. [via Collider]
4. “Now let me try to answer the question you might be asking yourself at this point: was I boring? Yes, I might have been. In hindsight, I probably should have read a few pages from my book to give the audience a feel for it, and I did struggle with a few explanations. But I was not lazy and neither was Deborah. We were both working very hard at our task.” – Steve Martin responds to ArtWorldInterviewgate
5. Tumblr went down yesterday afternoon, and it’s still down now. So, what are we supposed to do with our day? [via The Next Web]
Bonus link: 15 egregious MPAA screw-ups
Last night, at Manhattan’s (Le) Poisson Rouge, something we didn’t dare dream about happened: Jeff Mangum performed Neutral Milk Hotel tracks for the first time in our adult life at a benefit for New Zealand music legend Chris Knox. Mangum’s five-song set was comprised of “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” “A Baby for Pree,” “Two Headed Boy Pt. 2,” “Engine” and “Oh Comely.” Since, for reasons that are entirely our own fault, we missed the show last night, we’re grateful that a few kind souls have uploaded some understandably lo-fi video of the performance. After the jump, gawk, hate yourself for not being there, and (if you’re like us) tear up a little watching Mangum play “Oh Comely” and “A Baby for Pree.”
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Today at Flavorpill, we were fascinated by images of the world’s first powered bionic fingers. We felt sorry for Gilly. We charmed by a group of 9-year-olds who had no idea what dial-up sounds like (or Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” for that matter). We built a camera. We got all excited about Jeff Mangum’s new Chris Knox cover. We found out Apple’s top-selling songs, movies, and iPhone apps of 2009. We listened to Bon Iver’s high school jazz performance. We remembered why we love Mo’Nique. We cast The Hobbit. We empathized with Judy Garland — how do you compete with a naked Grace Kelly? We were excited to hear that David Fincher’s Facebook movie has a release date: October 15, 2010. And finally, we fell in love with the animated video for Bob Dylan’s “Little Drummer Boy.” Watercolor-ed holiday magic.
