For my money, "Smooth Criminal" was the greatest thing MJ ever did.
Last weekend, a dude was moving out of our neighborhood and having a yard sale. Erin and I made off with a ton of cool things. Most important of these, I scored a Pioneer 260 watt stereo system with 150 watt speakers for *drum roll* 20 bucks. The stereo is pretty busted up and I haven't even bothered hooking up to see what works on it or how it sounds. That's not why I bought it, because I already have a fairly decent, if aging, Technics component stereo I pieced together as a younger man. What I was missing was speakers. I let my speakers get a way form me over the past few years and now I have no idea where they are.
These yard sale speakers are Pioneer 150 watt 3-way cabinets, about 4 feet high. The removable black cloth screens were disgusting and the entire cabinet smelled slightly of cat piss. I removed the screens and hosed them off outside and wiped down the cabinets with some water and vinegar to neutralize the odors. I put them in the Guyroom and hooked up everything. They sound great. I can finally play records again!
There are some things I have on vinyl and cassette that will likely never see a digital release. It's my intention, in the coming months, to transfer some of these recordings myself to a digital format for preservation. Some of these things are really fabulous and out-of-print stuff so I'll likely share them here.
There are two things I have on cassette that I intend to transfer that some of you might find amusing. I have some recordings from the brief time I was in a punk band. One of these cassettes was recorded on a boombox during practice and sounds even more awful than we did. There's some other tapes from a live show we did that someone recorded for us that doens't sound half bad though. The other thing I have is some old recordings I made back when I used to DJ college radio. Written on the sleeve it says "4/23/92 - 2 Year Anniversary". There's a second one marked "4/30/92". There are a total of 4, 90 minute tapes in all, or 6 hours. I listened to a bit of one last weekend and the fidelity is so great on it. I recorded them on the pro-grade Tascam decks right there in the studio as I was doing my show.
The rest of the stuff I have on cassette are recordings I made of various albums and 7" records I really liked back then. Some of this stuff I have since acquired in other formats, but there are a few really quirky, fun things that I'd never be able to find.
Welf's gone for the weekend on a trip with her mother. Tomorrow I head for Washington County to help my grandmother move. Tonight though, I'm just hanging-out in the Guyroom with Fubu listening to my Les McCann records.
Here's my last.fm top 50 in pictures. I'm not sure why I did this. I like band photos. There's something mesmerizing about them. Feel free to make guesses in the comments. I'd advise that you make your guesses before looking at the comments. I suspect some won't be guessed. I probably wouldn't get half of them if someone had posted them in their journal. If you're curious, the file names of the photos in most cases will give it away. Even if you're not interested in trying to guess, it's still a fun collection of photos.
1. Ramones
2. Dripping, Sopping: A Saturation Celebration (aka lossfound)
Some of you expressed interest in seeing the Zia McCabe Suicide Girls photo shoot if I managed to get hold of them. I managed. She's nekkid and preggers. Don't be opening this shit at work if it's going to get you in trouble. Microsoft has finally allowed POP access to thier Hotmail users, that is, those who didn't abandon them for Gmail 5 years ago. If, like me, you're still clinging to an old Hotmail address because you could've signed up for some porn website 12 years ago that you might need to retrieve your password to, you could be interested to know the details of how to set it up.
incoming: pop3.live.com (port 995, Security: SSL) outgoing: smtp.live.com (require authentication, use TLS/SSL) Have you by chance seen the ThruYou project done by Kutiman? He took YouTube videos of amateur musicians and mixed/mashed them into new, original songs. For presentation, who also chopped-up and cut the video to approximate what he did sonically. It's a mesmerizing music/video album from start to finish. It's probably the single coolest and most ambitious thing I've seen done on the internet in a long, long time. Here's the first in the series of 7 songs he did.
You can find all of the videos individually on YouTube, just run a search for Kutiman. In the description of each, he provides links to the source material for each song. You can also check out all the songs on the ThruYou website linked above.
When I didn't get reloaded yesterday, I had a lot of time on my hands. I probably should've been more productive and accomplish some things, but instead favored the path of least resistance and goofed-off online all day. Here's the details of my surfing, submitted for your amusement, interest, and knowledge.
A New 8tracks - May The Four Be With You
I thought I'd kick this entry off with my newest set of 8tracks, which you can check out here. Feel free to open it up in a new tab or window and listen to it while you peruse the rest of the entry.
Rock Star Eye Candy
Based on repeated recommendations from lossfound, I finally got around to seeing the documentary DiG! a couple of days ago. I'll save you looking it up: it's about the friendship/rivalry between two mediocre late 90s bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Despite the subject matter, I have to agree with my compadre that it is a fascinating doco for rock music lovers, even if you don't care much for either band. I've had plenty of exposure to the Dandys but not so much BJM, so I spent a little time reading about them and locating some of their music. The film also reminded me how much I used to think Dandys keyboardist Zia McCabe was a complete and total babe. There's a snippet of performance footage in the film where she's on stage topless, which surprised me a little. I surfed around looking at photos of her and discovered that she did a SuicideGirls photo shoot a few years ago when she was pregnant. Unfortunately, I don't have an SG account nor am I willing to shell out the bucks for one. But if someone out there IS, please lend me access to your account for a few minutes.
As if watching footage of Zia McCabe wasn't enough, the film introduced me to the delicious and charming Joel Gion. Joel refers to himself as "a tombourine man" in the Brian Jonestown Massacre, which essentially is all he does. And maracas. He's sort of the band's Sid Vicious with lambchop sideburns: he doesn't contribute a great deal to the music but looks great on stage. In the band photo shown here, he's the guy in the foreground with the glasses pushed back on top of his head. Turns out that, in addition to continuing to tour with BJM, he's started his own band, The Dilettantes who released an album in 2007 called - are you ready? - 101 Tombourines. I have no idea what the album is like and I'm sure it will be probably be awful, but I've already taken steps to acquire it and will be giving it a listen in the near future. With a look like that and the ability to charm the pants off of anyone, he deserves a shot at being a bona fide front man.
Geeky Security Tip #1
If you do any torrenting, I highly recommend you surf over to Bluetack Internet Security Systems and check out their downloads area. There you will find a paintstakingly maintained "block list" of IP addresses. These addresses are a mixture of known government agencies, RIAA/MPAA, P2P anti-piracy activists, etc. Plug this list into the IP filtering component of your BitTorrent client and you wll be invisible to anyone who operates from these IP addresses. The list is updated regularly so be sure to refresh it every month or two. B.I.S.S. even has a Blocklist manager program you can install to automate the update for you.
Surveying For Amazon Bucks
I cashed in some survey rewards for $35 in Amazon gift certificates and went shopping. I managed to effectively halve my wish list buying used copies of various CDs I've been wanting. I took a couple of surveys as well. One survey in particular was about the exciting world of paper towels. They ask for responses to things like, "Brand X paper towel is the only paper towel my family can feel confident about" and then request you answer on a scale with how much you agree with this. I just can't imagine there are people that would agree with it at all, ever, for any brand of paper towel, much less have varying degrees of it. Are there really people out there who care as much about paper towels as this survey would have me to believe? What's worse are the open-response questions. Like, "What comes to mind when you think of Brawny?" and you're given a box to type in your response. I think I put "A lumberjack." That's the one with the lumberjack on the front right? "What comes to mind when you think of Mardi Gras?" New Orleans, ya twit. At any rate, I answer these inane questions and rack up their reward points. I scored 6 or 7 CDs that will hopefully be waiting for me when I return home again.
Geeky Security Tip #2
Tweak Guides has long been a great place for learning about the inner machinations of Windows and what you can do to achieve varying levels of performance and stability vs. your computing habits and needs. I stumbled upon a forum entry there from last year, which gives a detailed tweaking suggestion for AVG 8.0. In particular, it tells you how to completely disable/dismantle the annoying LinkScanner feature during installation, in addition to disabling email scanning and Resident Shield. Obviously, disabling these last two aren't for everyone - it provides a level of protection for people who don't want to think about these things. But for the computer savvy who are cautious and vigilant about email and the software they download ANYWAY, these features are bothersome and tax system resources unnecessarily.
Old News That Was News To Me
Did anyone else know that Mia Zapata's rapist/murderer was caught, tried and convicted four years ago? How did I miss that? I never cared for the Gits, but I was doing college radio back then when it all went down and it was a Big Deal. This CBS story about it does a great job of covering the high points of the saga.
Few Things In Life Get Any Cooler Than This
I consider myself fairly well-versed in 70s underground rock/punk. From the Ramones to the Electric Eels, from the Sex Pistosl to Crime: I've made it a point to consume anything I could get my hands on. Imagine my surprise to discover the band Death. No, not the Florida death-metal group from the 90s. This was a power trio of teenage kids from Detroit who recorded a handful of demos in 1974, releasing two of the songs as a 45 single. They had a sound that for all intents and purposes WAS punk rock, even though there wasn't a name for it yet. The first Ramones album wasn't released for another full two years. The best part about it? They were black kids who got turned-on to hard rock after going to an Alice Cooper show. Drag City Records got hold of the old demos and has given these tracks their first offical release. You kind find a couple of the songs floating around on YouTube if you're interested. A few days ago, The New York Times did a great article about the whole story.
Some of you may have heard of the Weird N.J. book that was a best-seller a couple of years ago. This was followed by Weird U.S. and some sequels. They began a series of websites and officially licensed books written by other folks in other states.
This morning, my pal aloneinky was telling me about Weird Kentucky which she purchased recently. I decided to check it out online and found a book website that contained information about it. It contains forewards by the original authors of Weird N.J., but the book itself was written by Jeffrey Scott Holland. This is interseting to me because I knew him. He was a DJ at WRFL back in the day and is a professional artist of some reknown today. Heck, there's even an "international association of owners of Jeffrey Scott Holland artwork" headquartered in Frankfort.
JSH used to do a rockabilly show at RFL. Through his show and record reviews, he had a profound impact on a my exposure to that entire sub-genre of rock and roll. The Reverend Horton Heat, Flat Duo Jets, The Cramps, and probably most significantly, my love for Billy Childish, are all inextricably linked in my mind to him.
In the past year, I imagine as a result of working on the book, he began keeping a Blogspot called Unusual Kentucky. If you're interested in this sort of thing, there are lots of entries in the archives to dig through. It's also a very active blog at the moment with near-daily updates of stories and information, though some of it is just regurgitated from other sources. It makes a nice, central location for Kentucky-centric stories and oddities. I took the liberty of creating a LiveJournal syndication for it: unusualkentucky. Go head and add it if you'd like to see his blog entries on your friends page. How come I am just now learning about the band Hermano? Granted, I know that in the past few years I have became increasingly more lazy about searching-out and finding new music/bands. This is the sort of band that someone should've grabbed me by the head, looked directly into my eyes, and spoke clearly using small words and plain enunciation. John Garcia (ex-Kyuss) along with Lexington, KY native Dave Angstrom (Supafuzz/Black Cat Bone anyone?) making heavy/fuzzy/deafening stoner rock is something I can get behind.
On lossfound's lead, I've hastily thrown together an 8 song mix at 8tracks.com. It's a lot of noisy and heavy stuff, but there's a couple of fun things in it, too. Feel free to comment here or there about it. Also, if you decide to join in the fun and make a mix, be sure to link me.
While digging around on YouTube for various music related things, I stumbled across some old promotional music videos for the band Rose Tattoo from the late 70s. I had never seen any of these, and wasted a good 30 minutes watching them all. For the uninitiated, Rose Tattoo is a hard rock band that, despite having widespread influence on later bands (particularly the LA sleaze-metal of Motley Crue, Guns N Roses, et al.), has operated in virtual obscurity for over 30 years. This is due in large part to living in the constant shadow of their fellow Australians, ACDC, to whom they are constantly compared and often dismissed as being a poor man's version of. Rose Tattoo's sound is in the same ballpark as ACDC, but they have their own style and flair which is inimitable, particularly in the slide-guitar sound of Peter Wells and the freakish charisma of their diminutive front man Angry Anderson. As proof, check out this video for "Rock and Roll Outlaw" - it's both hilarious and awesome:
imi was there looking like Vishnu and Janis reclined on a Victorian chaise lounge. The walrus was Paul and there was Mr. Mojo Risin'. A heated debate was afoot re: satin, rabbits, thin dukes and shades of pale. The Space Cowboy (aka The Gangster of Love aka Maurice) had peaches shaken from a tree he was sharing with the man who left a good job in the city. In the corner were three gamblers: one who could spin a fortune wheel and throw dice, one who knew when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, and one who wound up on the wrong end of a gun. Neil was asking Mr. Soul if it was strange if he should change, but someone asserted that a Southern man don't need him around, anyhow. The devil, while pleased to meet you, proved to be unsympathetic and was forced to endure children of the beast shouting at him, rednecks challenging him to fiddle duels, and one weird fucker who kept insisting he wear a blue dress. The pinball wizard and a magic man had failed for the eighth time today to create a working romance elixir and were consulting with Madame Ruth (yes, she has a gold tooth displayed, but without a New York brim she's merely bad and not nationwide), despite the witch doctor's insistence that ooo eee ooo aah aah would be sufficient. A multi-generational/racial discussion on the rain was underway: have you seen it? who'll stop it? will it be red or purple? The only thing that's certain is that blue eyes will cry in it, possibly on prom night, and it may include men, hallelujah! It was agreed among hustlers that turning a trick at 53rd and 3rd was sometimes difficult but "Loose" Lucy demonstrated a crafty preference for 8th and Forty Deuce. A large contingent were asking who was in the house and were answered, by name, repeatedly, who was in the house. Some suggested that the roof be raised while some thought they should just tear the roof off the sucker. When people started chanting "We don't need no water, let the mother fucker burn," Run thankfully stepped in and reminded everyone whose house it was. As a wacky non sequitur, Flav let everyone know what time it was followed by a hearty "Yeaaaaaaaah boooooyeeee." A bum rush might have been considered had it not been for the deterrent of the S... the S1Ws.
I gazed at the jacket art and read the liner notes. I memorized every sound and every word. At school, church, and home, I was the good kid, the A student. With my record player, I was the world's forgotten boy, the anarchist and anti-Christ who could walk like Brando into the sun then dance like a casanova.
t's no secret I'm a huge fan of novelty music. In the past few months, I happened across two of my favorites, neither of which I had heard in years. To whoever took the time to rip these from vinyl, God bless ya.
When I was a kid, my early introduction to music was by way of my parent's music collections. There were a bunch of old 45rpm records, one of which was "Terrible Ivan" b/w "Give Her The Ax, Max" on Imperial Records. I'm guessing it was probably from the ealy 1960s. Art Roberts was a long-time Chicago area radio personality and recorded number of novelty records over the decades. This song is reminiscent of "Tequila", largely instrumental with a couple of iterrations of the song's title. The record was lost long ago, probably broken at some point. Every couple of years I would think to Google it and this time I struck gold, I found it nestled in someone's podcast. It's great to finally hear it again after all these years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I encountered this on a compilation record called The Big Itch Vol. 3 while doing college radio in the early 90s. A buddy of mine from those days, who loved this song as much as I did, sent me an email with a link to a blog where someone had posted the entire compilation. I've since discovered that a collection of T. Valentine's stuff was issued on CD in 2000 which has skyrocketed to the top of my must have albums. If you're the politically correct type, don't even bother listening to this song. It's kinda like Wesley Willis, but hipper and dirtier.
y pal lossfound has been working on a brilliant and unprecedented LiveJournal hip-hip album under the moniker Lossfizzle. Upon its completion, it will posted in its entirety here for you to enjoy. As a result of these recordings, he decided to challenge his f-list to a rap battle. In fact, he dissed us all by name.
At the risk of stealing some of his thunder, I'm posting the final mix of my submission to the LJ Rap Battle. I'm sure he'll utilize the vocal elements in a mix of all the submissions he gets, but I spent some time working the rhymes into a song which stands on its own. A lot of the references will be lost on most of you, but I don't think it's a prerequisite for enjoying our jam.
S double O P-A-G 2 E K Someone wants to battle me like every single day Respect from all the truckers and bitches in skank skirts Pimpin' motherfucker from the city of Frankfort Other MCs know, you try to battle Soopa? You step off lookin' silly like Lossfound on a Pukka Or is that Lossfizzle? Son, you think you're clever? Makin' whack shit and hollerin' "I WIN FOREVER" Those aren't smoove sex beats, you're only raping heinously Where'd you get your skillz? The gaping anus penitentiary?
Welfy on the mic, what you gonna do? Ill shorty flowin' from the 5-0-2 MCs wanna fight, MCs wanna fuss But I hold the mic and ya'll can hold deez nuts Lossfizzle wants a battle, but he be getting nervous A crying little bitch like in Jerry's tree service You think 'cause I sell candy that I'm some kinda softy? I'll be up in your shit like creamer in your coffee I've had it up to here with your hip-hop masturbation fits Stick to what you know, that dripping, sopping saturation shit
Soopageek and Welfy super duper double whammy Gettin' over on you like Moons Over My Hammy You're a sick little puppy out looking for a tea bag All our rhymes are tight, your shit still needs a defrag If your rhymes are daylight, then yo, we be nocturnal All your base belongs to me, bitch I own LiveJournal When you hear us rappin' - you're gonna blow your wad You'll say Goddamn! What the fuck? and OH MY GOD! We're bad-ass, you're a fat ass and whack, son We drop more mother fuckers than Samuel L. Jackson This is an mp3 file. If you have trouble playing it in your browser, simply right-click->SaveAs to download then load it up in the media player of your choice
he new White Stripes album is fantastic. After having been "meh" about their past couple of records, this turns out to be one of the best, new rock and roll experiences I've had in a very long while. That is all.
got into Omaha on Monday morning, got Sam dropped at the terminal and got Sally into the shop for her repairs. Talking with the mechanic has eased my mind a bit. He thinks he may be done by as early as today. I told him that I was anticipating being here at least 3-4 days, so even if he didn't get done until Wednesday I'd be ecstatic. It would definitely be great to not lose this whole week sitting here. I'm perpeturally behind the times with internet sensations, particularly viral videos. I was surfing around YouTube the other day and came across a video from 2001 of a pop and lock dancer known as David "Elsewhere" Bernal. Since then, he's been in movies and TV commercials utlizing his very unique and original dance moves. I became entraced with him briefly and tracked down everything I could find on YouTube and, um... elsewhere, of him performing. While they're all great in their own way, none are as jaw dropping as the original performance that attracted me to his work; the original performance that got the internets a-ga-ga. If you've never seen it, check it out. It's from a talent show and the video begins with a couple of kids that were on-stage before him. Then David is introduced and he looks like this shy, quiet kid - unsure of himself. He takes a few seconds, bopping back and forth a little in one place and you begin to wonder if his stage fright will consume him. Then... he begins to transform. And for the next 60 seconds you witness one of the most amazing freestyle dance routines you'll ever see.
he official estimate I received was $2,800. Fortunately, they were able to find all of the parts locally and they anticipate having it finished by this evening. That'll give me a chance to get nearly a week's worth of driving in before going home this weekend for my birthday.
The toothache is doing a lot better. The Pain has subsided considerably, but the left side of my face is still puffy with swelling. I find it amusing, so I thought maybe you would, too. I look not unlike a stroke victim.
About a week ago I finally joined Last.fm and began scrobbling my listening habits. I hunted down a few people who have accounts there = to their LJ name. If you're on there and interested, feel free to add me. I have a feeling this'll be a fad for me and that it won't be an enduring pastime. At the moment though, I'm having a lot of fun with it. I had grown out of the habit of listening to music while I was on the computer and it's kinda kickstarted me into doing that again. Also, I could always use more friends on Netflix. Finally, a couple of pictures, just 'cause they're purty.
've waited a while to gather my thoughts and write about the passing of James Brown. While he may not have invented soul, he was its undisputed Godfather: Soul Brother #1.
I was exposed to James Brown fairly early. James Brown was my father's favorite musical artist. My introduction though was limited, as Dad was a fan of his early 60's output: his early hits like "Please, Please, Please", "Prisoner of Love", and "Try Me". Dad would get excited anytime he was on TV, especially when performing the first two of those songs, waiting for the predictable cape trick. By that time in his career, it was a contrivance that had been tried and rung true and I would nod, watching it with him in silent bemusement. It would be years later until I saw the power and energy of that shtick as it played early in his career. My exposure to his era was somewhat limited at the time, but even now I regard a lot of Brown's early recordings as virtually indistinguishable from a lot of the early 60's R&B recordings. While he may have been a great performer in his time, and he still could get those crazy legs going in the early 80's, to me he seemed nothing more than a pop star, 20 years faded past his prime. It's worthy to note that Dad was eternally incensed that Prince copped Brown's microphone-stand/splits trick.
Thanks in part to Prince, as well as the hiphop of the late 80's that sampled him endlessly, I felt compelled to revisit Brown's music. James Brown once quipped that rap music was only as good as his last record. Granted, "I Got You (I Feel Good)" was just on that border between his run-of-the-mill R&B and the hard funk, but it's so overplayed it's almost impossible to hear it with fresh ears. You can't listen to the radio, or watch television or film without running into it. In the mid-90's I finally acquired a good anthology of his work, the James Brown 40th Anniversary Collection two disc set and had my ears fucking opened.
In the modern age, there are very few examples of truly original artists: one for which there is no precedent and very few, if any, followers. With the possible exception of George Clinton and Sly Stone, no one has even come close to understanding what James Brown was doing and everything else plays like a pale imitation. The title of this entry is a reference to one of James' more common adlibs. After the second chorus he would often command or ask his band to take him to the bridge of the song. Even leading us through it was no help. Man, James was on another planet where he took his music; using horn sections in ways no one had ever thought possible, multiple bassists and drummers, and lyrical content ranging from the socially aware to crazy-ass scats and adlibs, often in the same song. And he was a tremendous showman above it all.
James Brown cast a shadow so large that multiple generations of artists haven't even begun to step outside of it. You can't even see the boundaries from within it. You were one of a kind James and you'll be missed.
n March of last year, I made a prediction for 2007, concerning this year's inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I predicted it would be the first year that a Rap/HipHop artist would be inducted and that the artist would be Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
On January 8th, it was announced that this year's inductees were Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Patti Smith, The Ronettes, Van Halen, and R.E.M.
To be fair, I also made some auxiliary predictions concerning The Sugarhill Gang and Sylvia Robinson riding on the coattails of GF+F5. I also was apparently wrong about their eligiblity; GF+F5 have been eligible AND nominated for the past three years running. However, I have to bask in the glory of calling-out the dissenting opinions of lossfound and welfy, who didn't think rap artists would even be included in the Hall of Fame, and to a certain degree, democritus and thawaltzingfool who didn't think this would be the year. Just a moment or two... oh yes, it feels good.
For me, the question still remains: will any more of rap's first old-school be recognized? The precedent has been set and the flood gates are now officially open. I personally don't think The Sugarhill Gang or Kurtis Blow are worthy, though I still think Robinson should get a non-performing recognition someday as a producer and founder of Sugarhill Records. In addition to being instrumental in giving rap it's first hit ("Rapper's Delight"), her duties in that capacity resulted in writing credits on dozens and dozens of rap's early songs, including "The Message". Maybe Afrikka Bambaataa? The second old-school starts becoming eligible over the next 4-5 years. Technically, my beloved Beastie Boys are already eligible, but I doubt they'll get a nomination until 2011 (the 25th anniversary of Licensed to Ill). Run-DMC are eligible in 2009. LL Cool J in 2011 and Public Enemy in 2013.
The Stooges were snubbed yet again, 13 years and counting. I think this year made like, 5 straight years they've been nominated but not inducted. I can't think of any other artist currently eligible that has had more wide-ranging influence than the Stooges. Certainly more than Patti Smith or The Ronettes. As for next year, there are a couple of first-year shoo-ins on-deck: Madonna and Metallica. Sonic Youth becomes eligible next year, too. They're certainly deserving, but if the Stooges can't manage an induction I don't have much faith Sonic Youth will make it the first go-around.
esterday morning, while waiting for our next load in Memphis, I got a chance to meet m0nkeygrl and c_rob. Unfortunately, I only had about an hour before my next load would be ready, so we went to eat a nearby dive called CK's for a nice greasy breakfast. It was great meeting them, and I hope that the next time I'm there I have more time to spend with them.
After loading-up in Memphis, we made a beeline for Columbus, Ohio, where we arrived at 11pm... and have been here ever since. The last full week of August is designated as National Truck Driver Appreciation Week every year, so today marked the first day of it. Appreciate me! The Forward Air terminal we were stuck in had a huge steak barbecue for lunch for all the drivers that were around, so at least Steve and I were well fed. We shagged a trailer down the street from there and are currently waiting to be loaded and taking it to Chicago. I might have time to meet-up with welfy who's passing through here this evening on her way home to Kentucky. We'll see how that goes. peaking of Welf, my girl's a bit of a fan of the band Muse. She's given me some of their music to listen to in the past but it's never done anything for me. I listen to the alternative/indie stations a lot on XM, and one of their songs, "Knights of Cydonia" has been getting frequent airplay and I've been secretly digging it. This morning, angiewarhol posted the video to it and this video is made of awesome. It's got shaolin martial arts, cowboys, robots, unicorns, laser guns, absurd rock star posturing, a scantily clad blonde chick, sex, and fist fights. In one video, it's a homage to every genre film ever made. Check it out.
or every gallon of diesel I purchase at the major truckstops, I get incentive points at a rate of one cent per gallon. It doesn't sound like much until you consider that I use anywhere from 500 to 1,000 gallons of diesel per week. I try to use a particular truckstop and stockpile them for a year or two and get myself something nice. Last year, I bought a year's worth of air time for this particular truckstop's WiFi service. Since acquiring the Sprint air card earlier in this year though, it's a service I don't utilize as much these days. Certainly not enough to warrant a year's subscription. So, I've been contemplating what I would spend it on this time, as I had nearly $180 of these points.
A few days ago, while on the way to Laredo, we stopped at one of these particular truckstops just outside West Memphis, Arkansas. Inside, they were advertising a sale on Sirius satellite radio equipment, along with a sign reminding that you could also purchase air time with the incentive points. I had no idea. How awesome?
I didn't act on it at the time, and pondered this while making the trip to Laredo, coming to the decision that this would indeed be the perfect thing. I had enough customer reward cash to purchase a receiver and a considerable amount of air time. With the ongoing accrual of points, I could maintain the air time just for being a loyal customer. On our return trip toward Detroit, I made it a point to stop back at this particular location just in case it was local-store special on Sirius air time. Turns out, it applies to both Sirius and XM air time. Sweet! I can't believe I had never thought of this until now.
Bottom line: I now own an Delphi Roady XT with 6 months of XM air time and only paid $6.40 out of pocket for taxes. That's 170+ channels music, news, comedy, and information at my finger tips.
And 24 hours into it, I've been loving it. Loving it. While I'll be eternally wishing for an all psyche/garage station, I'm more than content with the variety and niche music channels. I've really been digging the old-school hiphop channel. Who's house? Run's house. As a side note, if I could travel back in time to seduce "Big Mama" era Roxanne Shante, welfy would be a lonely woman. The old-school soul, classic indie, and blues stations are fun, too. The comedy channels are a lot more eclectic than I anticipated, with a great mix of new and old material. Right now, I'm like a kid in a candy store and can't keep my hand off the remote, switching through channels going "Ooooo, The Clash!" then "Ooooo, Bill Monroe!" then "Ooooo, Big Daddy Kane!"
esterday when I opened my e-mail, I had a notification from Gemm alerting me that a record on my want list had been posted for sale. I've found this to be a really useful feature. I not only found a reasonably rare, out-of-print copy of a Nerdy Girl 10" I had been looking for for some time, but it also alerted me to the re-issue of the Crain album on CD. Yesterday, it came through for me again.
That's right suckers, The Lonesome Crowded West on vinyl. For a song, too. I've seen it go on eBay for over $100. I picked it up for just under $50. Wo0t, as they say. t's kinda dreary and cloudy today. I'm not sure if I'll find the motivation to go to New Orleans or hold out for better weather tomorrow. I might just kinda play it by ear. I know one thing, if I don't go today I'll definitely go tomorrow. Maybe I'll check the weather forecast before I make up my mind. The weather could be worse tomorrow. s promised, here's the first installment of LEGS from my friends list. We'll call this group of photos, The Ladies of Western Pennsylvania.
First and foremost as you might imagine, is my lovely welfy. She has such awesome legs.
Next up is smiles_sweetly. For those of you not in the know, she is the girlfriend of Welf's brother, Ben. 'Cause I got juice like dat.
And last, but certainly not least is ladydreamfire, who I've had the pleasure of meeting a couple of times when visiting Welf.
I'll post some more tomorrow. I've had promises of pictures from more people, so hopefully they'll be trickling in, too. I'm certain no one else finds this is as amusing and fun as I do, but I'm having a blast getting pictures from all of y'all. Keep 'em coming, even if you don't want them posted in an entry.
decided to play the album cover meme game, too. I tried to think of album covers that I like, but that I didn't see on many other people's lists. I had to hack in a few because the meme generator couldn't find some of the albums I wanted to include. Enjoy. Warning: some of these are definitely not work safe. ( Album covers )
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soopageek's journal
Based on repeated recommendations from 
As if watching footage of Zia McCabe wasn't enough, the film introduced me to the delicious and charming Joel Gion. Joel refers to himself as "a tombourine man" in the Brian Jonestown Massacre, which essentially is all he does. And maracas. He's sort of the band's Sid Vicious with lambchop sideburns: he doesn't contribute a great deal to the music but looks great on stage. In the band photo shown here, he's the guy in the foreground with the glasses pushed back on top of his head. Turns out that, in addition to continuing to tour with BJM, he's started his own band, The Dilettantes who released an album in 2007 called - are you ready? - 101 Tombourines. I have no idea what the album is like and I'm sure it will be probably be awful, but I've already taken steps to acquire it and will be giving it a listen in the near future. With a look like that and the ability to charm the pants off of anyone, he deserves a shot at being a bona fide front man.
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imi was there looking like Vishnu and Janis reclined on a Victorian chaise lounge. The walrus was Paul and there was Mr. Mojo Risin'. A heated debate was afoot re: satin, rabbits, thin dukes and shades of pale. The Space Cowboy (aka The Gangster of Love aka Maurice) had peaches shaken from a tree he was sharing with the man who left a good job in the city. In the corner were three gamblers: one who could spin a fortune wheel and throw dice, one who knew when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, and one who wound up on the wrong end of a gun. Neil was asking Mr. Soul if it was strange if he should change, but someone asserted that a Southern man don't need him around, anyhow. The devil, while pleased to meet you, proved to be unsympathetic and was forced to endure children of the beast shouting at him, rednecks challenging him to fiddle duels, and one weird fucker who kept insisting he wear a blue dress. The pinball wizard and a magic man had failed for the eighth time today to create a working romance elixir and were consulting with Madame Ruth (yes, she has a gold tooth displayed, but without a New York brim she's merely bad and not nationwide), despite the witch doctor's insistence that ooo eee ooo aah aah would be sufficient. A multi-generational/racial discussion on the rain was underway: have you seen it? who'll stop it? will it be red or purple? The only thing that's certain is that blue eyes will cry in it, possibly on prom night, and it may include men, hallelujah! It was agreed among hustlers that turning a trick at 53rd and 3rd was sometimes difficult but "Loose" Lucy demonstrated a crafty preference for 8th and Forty Deuce. A large contingent were asking who was in the house and were answered, by name, repeatedly, who was in the house. Some suggested that the roof be raised while some thought they should just tear the roof off the sucker. When people started chanting "We don't need no water, let the mother fucker burn," Run thankfully stepped in and reminded everyone whose house it was. As a wacky non sequitur, Flav let everyone know what time it was followed by a hearty "Yeaaaaaaaah boooooyeeee." A bum rush might have been considered had it not been for the deterrent of the S... the S1Ws.
t's no secret I'm a huge fan of novelty music. In the past few months, I happened across two of my favorites, neither of which I had heard in years. To whoever took the time to rip these from vinyl, God bless ya.
y pal 
he new White Stripes album is fantastic. After having been "meh" about their past couple of records, this turns out to be one of the best, new rock and roll experiences I've had in a very long while. That is all.
I was exposed to James Brown fairly early. James Brown was my father's favorite musical artist. My introduction though was limited, as Dad was a fan of his early 60's output: his early hits like "Please, Please, Please", "Prisoner of Love", and "Try Me". Dad would get excited anytime he was on TV, especially when performing the first two of those songs, waiting for the predictable cape trick. By that time in his career, it was a contrivance that had been tried and rung true and I would nod, watching it with him in silent bemusement. It would be years later until I saw the power and energy of that shtick as it 
On January 8th, 
esterday morning, while waiting for our next load in Memphis, I got a chance to meet 
peaking of Welf, my girl's a bit of a fan of the band Muse. She's given me some of their music to listen to in the past but it's never done anything for me. I listen to the alternative/indie stations a lot on XM, and one of their songs, "Knights of Cydonia" has been getting frequent airplay and I've been secretly digging it. This morning, 
or every gallon of diesel I purchase at the major truckstops, I get incentive points at a rate of one cent per gallon. It doesn't sound like much until you consider that I use anywhere from 500 to 1,000 gallons of diesel per week. I try to use a particular truckstop and stockpile them for a year or two and get myself something nice. Last year, I bought a year's worth of air time for this particular truckstop's WiFi service. Since acquiring the Sprint air card earlier in this year though, it's a service I don't utilize as much these days. Certainly not enough to warrant a year's subscription. So, I've been contemplating what I would spend it on this time, as I had nearly $180 of these points.
Bottom line: I now own an 
s promised, here's the first installment of LEGS from my friends list. We'll call this group of photos, The Ladies of Western Pennsylvania.
