Oh! You Weary Pointer Fingers!

In case you were too busy to go down far enough on our last post to see the new video for The Blood Arm's Do I Have Your Attention? duet with Anais, here it is again, scroll-free this time!



Also, Nathaniel has been keeping a blog for his AAnchors AAweigh project--now featuring Dyan and the best parts of The Ettes and Tall Hands!--at http://aanchorsaaweigh.blogspot.com/! Czech that shit out!

Peace in the Middle East.

THE BLOOD ARM NOT EATEN BY GIANT SEA MONSTER, STILL ALIVE AND DOING STUFF

You know that movie Cloverfield? You know, the #1 film in the country? It's a FRAUD! Seriously. Manhattan totally wasn't destroyed by a giant sea monster. It would have been nice if someone had told us this before we saw the flick. We were so convinced by the realistic hand-held camera footage, we thought we had been eaten ourselves!

Oh yeah, The Blood Arm was playing Rob's party in the movie before the monster attack. Well, playing on the stereo. Check it out:

So yeah, you should totally buy the Cloverfield soundtrack.

Other things we've been up to:

- Drinking!

- Perez Hilton-ing! (We've never felt so famous!)

- Taratata-ing avec Anaïs!

- Making videos avec Anaïs!

Do I have your attention ? (en duo avec The Blood Arm)

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- Side projecting! (Well, Nathaniel and Dyan have.)

- Taking pictures of AAnchors AAweigh! (That's Nathaniel's side project!)


- Drinking!

I love you!

Ben Lee Handler!

Hank Schmidt in der Beek: AWESOME -or- How We Landed Our Tour with The Hold Steady and Art Brut

Apologies for being silent all these years, or months, or however long it's been. I wish I could say my lack of current updates has been because I've been terribly busy, but I haven't. My absence probably has more to do with my recent discovery of YouPorn.com than anything. (YouPorn: It's like YouTube, but with pornography!) I probably wouldn't even be typing now had I not happened into Hank Schmidt in der Beek.

Meet Hank:


Hank is very important.

Take a moment to get a little better acquainted with him.





You know how you have your AWESOME days, where everything that happens is just TOTALLY AWESOME? Like, your hair is rockin', you got plenty of sleep the night before, you just did your laundry so you can wear your favorite pair of jeans with that Madonna t-shirt you finally rediscovered after years of thinking your mom had thrown it in the garbage but she had really just put in that drawer you never open, the rockabilly kid you always thought was cool but were slightly afraid of invites you to his party and you build up enough guts to ask your crush to come with you and she says yes... those kind of days? Those kind of days happen, like, once every four years for most people. Most of the time, an ordinary person's time on earth will fluctuate between slightly awesome and completely shitty, usually lingering somewhere in the gray area in-between.

Hank never lives in the gray area. Hank's days are AWESOME ALL THE TIME. If you're ever lucky enough to hang out with Hank, a little of his AWESOME will rub off on you, too.

Case in point: The very day we met Hank, The Blood Arm were flown to France to tape a performance on TARATATA with Anaïs and Babyshambles, and our upcoming stint on the U.S. leg of the NME's Rock 'n'Roll Riot Tour 2007 with The Hold Steady and Art Brut was announced. TOTALLY AWESOME, right?

And we owe it all to Hank Schmidt in der Beek.

I've missed you, but now that I've found my muse, we won't have to be apart for long. (Hank has also assumed the role of my muse.)

Love you always,

Ben Lee Handler

Nathaniel Starts New French Renaissance in Southern California; Sings 'Do I Have Your Attention?' in French with Anaïs

When Zachary and I were still in high school together two years ago, one of the requirements for graduation was that we take a class called 'Health.' Health class consisted of horror stories about what happens when one does drugs while having sex before he/she gets married.

Here's an actual question from our final examination:

What happens when you have sex while doing drugs before you get married?

And this was the correct answer:

You get a nasty hybrid of hepatitis, AIDS, and herpes, your parents stop loving you, and you die lonely and hungry with absolutely no hope of salvation from Jesus H. Christ or any other recognized deity.

This is probably why Zachary and I remain virgins to this day--the Orange County high school system terrorized the libido straight out of us.


Of course, Health class also taught us about the 'gateways' that lead to drug-induced premarital fornication, and French Kissing was the leading culprit. Sure, kissing with tongue seems innocent enough, but keep at it and you'll be smoking crack while sandwiched between two Adam Carolla lookalikes in a Turkish bathhouse before you can say "high school never taught me anything!"

So Zachary and I swore off French Kissing and everything else associated with it, and the most obvious thing we could associate with French Kissing was the French. For two years we went without French bread, French toast, French fries, berets, Paris Hilton, and anyone whose first name ended with the letters q-u-e.


Then we met Nathaniel.

Nathaniel not only embraced French Kissing, but he embraced the whole of French society as well. Sure, he had most of the diseases Health class had warned us about, but he also had more fun than anyone we had ever met before, and his parents still loved him, and he had a lot of friends. Before we knew it we were French Kissing Nathaniel in France and other French-ish countries, and the Blood Arm was a real band, and Zachary and I starting thinking about losing our respective virginities while on drugs. This is about where we're at now.

To celebrate the buddings of a Blood Arm Renaissance, Nathaniel went to Paris and recorded a French version of 'Do I Have Your Attention?' with the French pop sensation Anaïs. It's frisky and flirty and all kinds of awesome, just like French Kissing.

Check it out on our MySpace, or just listen along with the adorable making-of video below!

Je t'aime,

Ben Lee Handler

Duo The Blood Arm / Anais: Do I have Your Attention?

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