I have no idea what's up with the size of the text. I seriously have no idea. Blame ghosts. or the Werewolf Watusi.

Halloween

Happy Halloween. As per the on-off-on tradition, this is set to be a pretty quiet night with maybe a few horror flicks and maybe a fire if it’s cold enough. No costume, no effort, no nothing. I picked up candy ahead of time, though, and I’ve been culling through more Halloween novelty records than I would ever care to admit. I was going to make a mix for today, but I just gave up when I realized that I wasn’t doing anything and that this mix would either have to be completely campy, “wolfman’s tea party”-type songs or just a compilation od really fucking creepy ghost stories and far creepier sound effects. I never really thought sound effects records could bother me until I listened to one the other night with track titles like “red hot poker in the eye”, “grave digging, wet”, “premature burial” and of course, “At the dentist”. Seriously, it’s enough to make you squirm in your chair. So instead I opted for an assortment of stuff.

When I was in elementary school we had a teacher named Mr. Worth who was notorious for his storytelling. He was a 6^th grade English teacher and he was a great teacher. He taught us The Iliad, which was then and remains one of my favorite stories of all time. He would get so into telling us these stories as we read an adaptation of the text, that his classes were legendary, and upperclassmen were known to actually stay on campus for lunch from time to time to sit in and listen to him talk to a bunch of sixth graders about Rhesus the Thracian, or Achilles battling the river Scamander in front of Troy. It was impressive, to be able to draw a crowd of high schoolers to listen to a sixth grade lit class. I mean, the man could talk to us for two whole days about the inventories of the ships the Greeks took with them.

Every Halloween, though, is where Mr.Worth really put on a show. We would get called into the auditorium to watch a few raggedy movies (for some reason, the Charlie Brown special I posted yesterday and a 3-D Three Stooges clip stand out in my memory) and to listen to Mr. Worth tell us all a ghost story. I think that's why Halloween was always my favorite time

Anyway, this first story is for anyone who has ever doubted the creepiness of Vincent Price or Russian Folktales. It’s a story about the Baba Yaga and treatment of labor. It’s a real Russian Folktale, so if you don’t like it take it up with them. Creepy imdb fact: Price was born on the same day as Christopher Lee and the day after Peter Cushing.

"The Baba Yaga" - As read by Vincent Price (sendspace file)

Boris Karloff, like Vincent Price, is one of those guys who was genuinely capable of scaring you simetimes just with the sound of their voice, but both of them were by all accounts famously genteel and accommodating to their fans. It's strange to think that even now I think of him primarily of the narrator and voice of the Grinch That Stole Chistmas TV special, but I think that might do the most justice to his character. In any case, that might change, because his reading of these stories is eerie enough without the late 60s horrow score. Say what you will, but there hasn't been a great sounding horror movie in ages.

"Call at Midnight" - As Read by Boris Karloff (sendspace file)

and to round out my favorite of these guys is Fred Gwynne. I wouldn't even call Fred a horror guy, really. I'm sure Lee of Lugosi belongs higher on this list than he, but I grew up an ardent supporter of the Munsters over the Addams famile, so here we are. Besides, Lee is still alive and Lugosi unfortunately was long ago overshadowed by his personal problems. Tom Waits has a great story about Fred Gwynne from when they met on the set of The Cotton Club, but it's not worth telling without the audio so give me until next year to find it again.

"Herman Says Hello" - the Munsters

This next song is probably one of the more tasteless things I found in the past few days that isn't a Cannibal Corpse song or anything. Mostly because it's about the most famous serial killer and sounds much like "Werewolf Watusi". My apologies to any actual werewolf victims there might be out there, but I can think of at least 9 dead prostitutes that might take offense to this one. In any case, according to AMG this guy has played with more people from the British music scene of the 60s that he might as well be Johnb Mayall or Alexis Korner. Jeff Beck, Nicky Hopkins, Jimmy Page, Mitch Mitchell... It's amazing this guy couldn't make it with any of these guys. Oh well.

"Jack the Ripper" - Screaming Lord Such

and of course there's gonna be a Danzig track. I've heard enough of the Misfits these last few days to not need to hear them again until next Halloween. So ehre's a song that was originally recorded by them but was held over until the first Samhain record. I think I like this version better.

"Archangel" - Samhain

I probably won't post again until thursday at the earliest, but we'll see. In any case, have a great Halloween.

Red Auerbach died on Saturday. Which is a damned shame. It should probably be clear by now that I'm not a massive sports fan, and never really have been. I grew up playing unpopular sports and quit them as soon as I was old enough to realize I could. Like any guy, I still know a pretty good deal about sports and can bullshit about them for hours. I can tell you what's wrong with the Eagles' defense or why the Phillies are the poorest managed team in baseball, but I still don't care. I've never watched a football game on TV by choice. But sometimes you end up picking this stuff up whether you like it or not.
Basketball, though was always a different story. Until quite recently, I've followed basketball closely and could name the starting lineups of every team going back to the mid-80s, and that Rick Barry was the last great underhand free-throw shooter. But as I've gotten older I started losing interest in the sport, I guess thinking that all my favorite characters were being phased out of the game by reckless kids and professional athletes. It's not altogether true, but it explains a lot of what I was feeling. Red, though, was the game at its core. In a sport where we have scouts and coaches and management, he was all three. He would handle the promotional aspects of his club the same day he'd be in the ticket booth 45 minutes before he was set to coach a game. To consider that in today's game is completely unbelieveable. Not only that, though, he was both a fierce competitor and better yet a good guy. He worked hard at his job and led some of the greatest teams ever assembled on the court. Anyway, he changed the game and his passing is a devastating blow to basketball and sports in general.
There's a nice article about the man here. Also, I'd totally recommend his last book. It was a fantastic read.

Anyways, who likes Creeper Lagoon? I bought this CD because of David Cross's CL t-shirt in an episode of Mr. Show almost 8 years ago. I can honestly say I didn't know what to expect and I still don't in trying to describe them now. So here's two songs from an EP they did a long time ago that I just found in the trunk of my car. I should just make these the theme for the rest of the week. Shit, how about a whole blog of "music I found in the trunk of my car"? I bet I could keep it running for a year. Anyways, yeah. This second band is one I found completely by looking for a Celtics-related song. I could find any, but I'm surprised how much I like this song.

"Centipede Eyes" - Creeper Lagoon
"My Friends Adore You" - Creeper Lagoon
But the Watering Ghost Garden EP for under a buck here.

"Boston Whaler" - Kamikaze Hearts
Buy Oneida Road here and listen to some more for free here.

Halloween Parade

Woke up yesterday a little late, had about seven loads of laundry to do, and I really wanted a cup of coffee. So I drove into town only to realize that for the fourth year in a row I had stumbled completely unaware into the Halloween parade, which is always awesome. I sat and enjoyed this for awhile until I remembered why I was there. It turned out that the power was out all over please because the wind had downed a limb outside of town. So I had to go a town over to do the laundry and get my damned coffee. It was worth it, I got to kill some time walking around a really small college town and talk to overfriendly old men and smell burning leaves. Finally got a chance to listen to the new Andrew Bird and Be Good Tanyas albums. and a bunch of Dylan outtakes from Blonde on Blonde. It was the sort of day that really made me love where I live. Later we went to the French place up the street. All the waiters were in costume, there was a pirate and a Wonder Woman and a Bjork. And got to hang out with a few good friends at the bar later. It was absolutely dead there until about 12:30, when the spillover from what must have been the sluttiest Halloween party ever poured in to the place. Seriously there was a slutty variation of everything you can imagine. Witches, nurses, bears... cops. "This offends me as a woman" said an tiny, angry Dorothy, as she lit a cigarette, "but more because I'm a cop". It was pretty surreal and grotesque. Anyways it made me regret not having a costume this year. Maye next year I'll go out as a slutty robot or something. I stayed up too late last night only to realize that the clocks were set back last night and I got an extra hour of sleep. Life is good. I think tonight I'm going to sneak around town tonight and remove all of the election signs from municipal property. Noble, right?
This song was a pretty easy pick after yesterday. It's from an album that my sister fell in love with in 1991 and fell into my hands a year later.

"Halloween Parade" - Lou Reed
"Romeo Had Juliette" - Lou Reed
Buy New York here.

My pleasant exchanges

I was up too late reading and watching reading an terrifying old short story I'd forgotten about years ago until I found it lying in my parents' basement. No zombie dreams, though. I couldn't sleep because my upstairs neighbor falls asleep every night listening to talk radio or some crazy thing and every couple of weeks it just drives me crazy enough to keep me up all night. and last night turned into one of those nights. Oh well.
This morning, as I was on my way in to work, I had to cross a line of abortion protesters. Isn't that fun? No, I haven't gotten a job at Planned Parenthood, I don't even work near one. But apparently any high-volume intersection is enough for a protest. I have a pretty serious history with abortion protestors, and it's not because I so fervently agree or disagree with their point (Personally I think it's none of their fucking business, just the people involved), but because they're ALWAYS the most obnoxious fucking protesters imagineable. I heart free speech and all that but when you're rolling in to work after 3 and a half hours of sleep, before you've had a sip of coffee, and someone's waving a placenta in your face, you tend to get a little touchy about it. I also don't like anyone's religion pushed on me. These people pull their kids out of school to sit on a corner and tell people they're sinners. My exchange went pretty much like this:

Protester: "Will you sign a petition to..."
Me (smiling, because there's no reason to be an asshole about this): "Piss off, please"
Protester: "But they're murdering God's children!"
Me: "Is this really the biggest problem you have right now? Is this the biggest flaw you see in this country? Abortion is the least of my concerns"
Protester:
Me: are you performing the abortions? Are you the one going to hell for this?
Protester: "No, of course I'm..."
Me: "Then let them go to hell with me and the gay people and the non-baptized people of the world and kindly shut the fuck up".
Protester: "It's murder!"
Me: "I don't think it is. and I've got much bigger things to worry about than you creepy religious nuts."
at this point I started walking away as she was still yelling at me. I made the "quack quack quack" motion with my hand over my shoulder.

This was one of the least aggressive exchanges I've had with this sort of thing. Last year they were putting signs up on city property in Media and things got really heated. This time, I barely cursed and there were no stinkbombs. So yeah, I've had a fun day so far. I'm kicking around the idea of making a halloween mix , but since I'm not doing a damned thing for it it seems like a pretty futile idea. Anyways, yeah, I need a nap.
Here's what might be my favorite Tom Waits song of all time. It's on this album and will be on this one.

"Fall of Troy" - Tom Waits

Zombiegeddon

So I woke up this morning and it’s like while I was asleep everyone realized how futile this war has become. Interesting. Unfortunately, in addition to missing this I also had the biggest nightmares of my life last night. Zombies. Lots of them. I really don’t ever recall my dreams ever being actually scary. Sure, they’ve been weird, as I’ve tended to not shut up about here. When I was 8 I had a recurring dream that I was conversing with the devil. But I’ve never been actually terrified in my dreams as I was last night when I was barricading myself into my grandmother’s house from the zombie hordes.
Far stranger than that, though, is how satisfied I felt when I woke up for not panicking in my dream, keeping a cool head, and picking apparently the safest place I know to hole up. Sure, I’d be lying if I said that I’d never daydreamed about a zombie uprising, or planned my route to the nearest safe destination. We’ve all rented storage lockers and filled them with guns and ammunition just in case the…I mean, um… Great now I’m gonna get a few hundred phone calls from Homeland Security. But I digress. The important part is that if you’re ever stuck in one of my zombie dreams, you know the guy to stick with.
So they announced that they’re going to refurbish and upgrade 8 nuclear weapons sites in the US and work toward building a new stockpile of 2,200 new nuclear weapons. On one hand, I think they should be making the existing sites in this country safer. The only thing worse than having a whole shitload of nuclear weapons is having an unsafe and unprotected aging stockpile ready to be stolen and sold on the black market (you hear that Russia?). What will be done with the 6,000 missiles we have now from the cold war? I don’t know, but if history dictates anything, they’re goin’ to Libya. So are we trying to start another cold war? Do people just forget how fucking long and costly the last one was? It’s kind of a shame to think about how strong the no nukes movement was during the 70s and the 80s and now how it was for nothing. Now we’ve got much more powerful weapons that are more accurate. Yes, the chance of accidental explosion is less likely, but don’t worry, they can still vaporize hundreds of thousands of people with a push of a button. So yeah, we can sleep well now. What really disgusts me, though, more than anything, is that this is basically the resignation of the idea that things can get better than a cold war. That to be constantly at odds with others is better than risking getting attacked off guard. So yeah, lets all hope the next 60 years are as entertaining as the last cold war, because the stakes are higher (hey won’t it be great when China gets all crazy like Russia did?) and we might as well start building that bubble around the country.
So yeah, I’m listening to It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown right now an I have to say I’m lovin’ it. The whole thing smacks of autumn, pointless attempts to kick a football, and “I got a rock”*. and rampant belief in non-Christian entities. Do you think any wars were waged for the Great Pumpkin? Anyone put to the stake or fed to lions? Was charles Schulz, I wonder, a pagan? I really couldn’t have asked for anything better this morning though, so I’m gonna get back to that.
Oh, Ipod turned 5 yesterday. I had some poignant and insightful things to say about this, but frankly I just don’t care enough to type it out and I can’t imagine you caring enough to read it. In short, they’re probably going to greatly affect the production and direction of popular music, and I don’t really mean in a good way. But we don’t have to listen to crazy people on the bus, so we got that going for us.
I’ve been reading an inordinate amount of hype for this Emily Haines solo album. I don’t know why this surprises me, because I always thought her band (one of them, anyway) Metric was extraordinarily overhyped. I remember reading articles about them and Vue in like 1999 that were embarrassingly overwrought with comparisons to bands I loved at the time. This was also before they’d recorded anything and only played a handful of times in front of people. I bought both the albums and was so pissed about it for weeks. I swore I’d never give either of them another chance. As far as I know Vue is long gone, and I’ve checked out a few Metric albums that actually had the band growing on me a little bit. I was really surprised with how much I like Ms. Haines’ solo album though. Her backing band is made up of a people from Broken Social Scene, Metric, Stars (aren’t all of these the same band by now?) and Sparklehorse. It’s a really mellow album, and provides a nice backdrop for freezing your ass off and pondering thermonuclear warfare. So there’s that.

“Crowd Surf Off a Cliff” – Emily Haines and The Soft Skeleton

“Reading in Bed” – Emily Haines and The Soft Skeleton

Buy Knives Don’t Have Your Back here

Download a zipped copy of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (audio) here, if you want it.
Buy the DVD here

Oh I can’t find any evidence that it was him on IMDB, but I’m next to positive that last night Eli Wallach played an old blacklisted actor on Studio 60 (which I’m almost ashamed of how much I like for some reason). It was really great, and it’s the sort of thing that should be brought up more often. The blacklisting, that is. And Eli Wallach, I suppose. I mean the man played Tuco And Max Calvera. and the third Mr. Freeze in the "Batman" TV series. Wait, where was I? Oh right, the blacklisting. It’s the sort of thing I grew up reading about and thinking it was so long ago, and it’s so not. This is the sort of shit that can get whipped up in fervor just as easily now as it could then. Being an American not only affords us the right to worship who we want or make sweet sweet love to whom we want or to say what we want (well, that used to be a right of ours). It also grants us the right to our eccentricities as a whole. As soon as we forfeit that, everything’s gone to shit for real. Remember that the people who were punished for being Communists then (which, remember, was not a crime), rarely were actual Communists. They were subversives a lot of the time, yes, but plenty of them were just someone that had a petty grudge against them. It would probably do everyone some good to remember that. I’ve read or seen no less than three stories about it recently, so I guess a lot of people are. Good for us.

*Yes, I was going to post the first Kid Koala mixtape, but I can't find it here and I'm too busy right now to remember to do it later.

My Open letter to the staff at 88.5 WXPN

So, there's a post coming later complaining about the fifth birthday of the ipod and the resumption of our nuclear stockpile, but since you guys have been listening to me whine about this for the past week, here's the email I just sent. Yes, I made those typos.

Hey Guys,

I’m sure that by now you’re both plenty sick of getting disgruntled emails concerning this greatest artists list that you’ve been curating, and I don’t really want to add to the pile, but I would also like to praise you for recent additions and modifications to your playlist as well, so it’s not all bad. I’m so happy you’ve been playing artists like TV on the Radio and The Hold Steady recently (these are both artists I suggested a while back that would fit the station’s format in a focus group thing). It’s great to see that these bands arew getting some much deserved airplay. There’s so many artists out there that could really benefit your station, like Grizzly Bear, Hello Saferide, The Books, Prefuse 73, Page France, Beirut, Hanne Hukkelberg, Man Man, Jarvis Cocker, etc… I mean the list could go on and on (I’m listing the more acoustic-y and folkish bands because I think they’d tend to do better with your average listener, but I’d kick myself if I didn’t state that The Thermals have just released what might be the greatest album of the year as well). Bruce, I frequent your blog and I can only assume, Roger, that you also have a far more diverse musical palate than the station would reveal. I just want to thank you both for what can only hope is your influence on the content of the station lately, it’s made my workplace a lot more entertaining as of late.

Now, concerning the best artists, I’m more than aware that neither you two nor anyone at the station have any more to do with the order of this list than I do, but at last count, and assuming I can correctly predict the rest of the list, there are one and a half black artists included in the top 20 so-called greatest artists of all time. I suppose that if I counted the Big Man and the rest of the Wailers, there would be four and a half black musicians, but you’re crazy if you think I’m going to count Billy Preston as a Beatle (or Stone). Or David Sancious, for that matter. I guess it wouldn’t bother me so much of so many of these artists weren’t completely indebted to black artists if not ripping them off wholesale. Van Morrison, Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton outranking Sam Cooke and Buddy Guy is a pretty solid indication of the rank injustice of lists like these. Now, like I said, I‘m fully aware that this isn’t you’re responsibility, but at the same time, I have to air my grievances somewhere and fortunately, I don’t have the email addresses of everyone that voted for these. So what I propose is this: at some point in the rest of the duration of the countdown, someone goes on the air and issues a long, hairy finger wag at the listeners for their selection process. And then a quick “for shame, people”. I understand if neither of you want to issue this statement personally and I wouldn’t expect you two. You can get Helen to do it if you want, or use a voice disguise thingy that seems to work so well for kidnappers and the like. Hey, use an intern if that’s any easier. If you want, I can record a statement and say that a crazed listener locked himself in the booth while you all had to watch helplessly, I don’t mind taking the fall there. The point is, this statement must be made. Also, I would like for this to be followed with an eleven hour marathon of James Brown recordings followed by an exclusive broadcast of the black soul rock compilation Chains and Black Exhaust. The marathon could be split equally between the classic lineups of the JBs (or even just between Jabo and Clyde), but I understand if you want to include Mr. Brown’s later “batshit” years and drug-fueled CNN interviews for levity. I feel that this and this alone would right this with the community at large and restore the cosmic balance of things.

Again, I’d like to thank you for your fantastic work and I salute the recent evolution of the station. You’re doing good work, and I will keep my ears peeled for the public writ of apology that is so sorely needed. Thanks again.

Yours, angrily

Cotton


P.S. I know that asking for an eleven hour James Brown marathon might seen a bit excessive, but when lined up to but a single Grateful Dead song, I think it’s a reasonable request. If you feel so strongly about that, though, I will accept as a substitute one six hour Fela Kuti song. The choice, as a silver-age rap duo better than myself once proclaimed, is yours.

Sadly I tend to write a lot of emails like this. Maybe I should just start a separate blog for those.

kapow.

So I'm busy as all hell right now, tring to get my stuff for the week done so I can get outta here and get my weekend started. I've been going batshit all week about this all-time greatest artists list that XPN has been playing which is tantamount to slow torture. I mean, seriously, just this morning they ranked Jethro Tull ahead of Traffic, Crosby Stills and Nash, The Replacements, JAMES BROWN, CHUCK BERRY, OTIS FUCKING REDDING! At work we're running a poll and the list or predictions that I handed in this morning is already shot to shit with both the Ramones and the Velvet Underground already out. Fortunately I put the Dave Matthews Band on the list because I know those idiots will put him in fifth place or some crazy thing. Seriously, every new artist they announce just gets me more angry.
Can't write much today because I got early plans tonight and I need to get outta here in time to make them. I have what should be a pretty action packed weekend ahead of me, so hopefully there'll be somce good pictured popping up here, but I guess we'll see.
No theme or anything with today's music, just a few songs I've been listening to all day. Kind of a bullshit post, I know, especially after a day off, but I was up too late watching VH1 Classic last night (seriously). I don't know what it is about that network that I find so fascinating, but it's incredible. Oh, and last night the shower head in the place broke, so I went searching for the old shower head that I was too lazy to set up when I moved in a year ago. I didn't find it (I am still very upset about this, because I know I've seen it), but I did come across my high school yearbooks, 3 lawn chairs, 2 missing frisbees, the T-shirt that Carrie got for me in Austin 2 years ago, my shiatsu manual, my J.R.R. Tolkien Christmas book, 4 lamps, and list of my favorite songs from 2003. so yeah, I've got all sorts of fun stuff to do. Have a great weekend everyone.

Hybrid Moments - The Misfits
Buy Legacy of Briutality here.

Lung Collapsing Lyrics - Percee P featuring Pharaoh Monche

"Farewell to All MY Friends" - Oh No! Oh My! (m4a)
buy Oh No! Oh My! here.

fuckin' candy bars

Damnit, I thought I bought a Snickers bar next door but it turns out it was a Milky Way. OH CRUEL FATES, WHY DO YOU MOCK ME? So I was about to refer to milky way as a glorified 3 Musketeers, but apparntly, there's a difference. A thin layer of caramel difference. Far more interesting, though, is that there's like 11,000 different tests online that people constructed to discern this tasty difference.
Far stranger though is the international candy bar naming system. What's known as a 3 Musketeers here is called a milky way in Europe and Australia. Our Milky Way is a mars bar everywhere else. And Snickers is the same everywhere. huh?
Also, I just want to point out that I am actually embarrassed when I say a product name like "Snickers".Same with "Skittles". I don't know why, and it's relatively recent, but I've grown to hate those names.
and Candyblog is one of the coolest sites ever.

So here's 2 songs I have no idea where I got. Menomena has been recommended to me (mostly by Sean) for awhile now, but I have to say that this is the first song of theirs that's really gotten to me. They're a 3 piece band that tend to play a lot of instruments and annoy me with their vocals. Except here, where it everything really clicks for me. Anyway, this song is from an EP that you can by here.

"Wet and Rusting" - Menomena

I don't know where this Doris Allen song came from, only that it's on a Trikont collection, which should be more than enough to spark anyone's interest. Trikont is the greatest label ever, in case you missed my earlier endorsement (i.e. send me free stuff you wacky Germans!). It's a great Soul/R&B track and I can't recommend it enough. It was a lot more apt before the sun came out, but still, it's a great song. I wish I knew more about her, but sadly resources on her are spotty at best. In any case, you can buy the record here. Somehow.

"Shell of a Woman" - Doris Allen

Anyways, strangely enough I wanted to write today about Muhammed Ali and just how incredible dominant not just as an athlete but as a force, but I'm out of time for the day and stil thinking about candy bars. So here's him beating the shit out of George Foreman for your benefit:

Cats & Dogs

I just spent 20 minutes (!) waiting for my food in a Chinese place. In a ridiculously small one, I might add. Across the street form a much larger one with a banner in the front that reads "WE'RE the best Chinese food in town". I'm not kidding. I have this massive soft spot for failing businesses. Not that I go out of my way to find terrible food, but given the choice when buying generic Chinese food, I really don't see all that much difference anyway. I've got a weakness for the third place cola, or the manufacturers of store-brand cereal or whatever. I don't know, I guess I think that everyone should have a sense of pride in what they do, and every one of these companies wants to put out the best product possible. Of course, it isn't always so, and if there's a noticeable difference, I go with what I like. Makes sense enough, right?. I'm not going to display brand loyalty strictly because more people like the one, you know? But yesterday I was in the dollar store next door, buying a candy bar* when I saw something that officially made me questionb my stance for the little guy. Yes, they sell pregnancy tests at the dollar store. and apparently condoms from time to time. Listen folks, if you're gonna splurge on something, drop the extra three bucks one one of these. yikes.
So back to waiting for me food, it was nice to just sit there and look out the window for a minute, watching traffic and the rain continue to fall. It's been raining here all day and is supposed to rain all night. It was relaxing, and I realized I spend almost no time looking out any of my windows unless I'm in the kitchen, which strikes me as really odd. I think I'm gona start cutting peepholes in theblinds of Cobra-La or something so I can check out my surroundings a lot more. Anywy, while I was watching the rain, Mercury Rev's "Holes" a song that I totally forgot about in the last couple years, came on. Mercury Rev is all too often lumped in with the Flaming Lips, and not without good reason (band leader was in the Lips, their bassist has been both band's producer for years, large, surreal backdrops, many incarnations of the bands, the singers' voices...), but there's still core differences between the two, and they should definitely be appreciated separately. In any case, I wanted to post that song because it worked so well with my quiet little moment inthe shitty Chinese place. and i wanted to post the covers because A) though Donahue omits all of the pertinent references, the song was written by Neil Young about Philadelphia. Hey Dingus, why you taking away our Neil Young song? and B) I think that Lou Reed's "Caroline Says" is one of the most flattering pieces of music for anyone to perform, ever. I've probably heard this song covered by about 20 people, and I can't really think of any terrible versions. Maybe I should record it.

"Holes" - Mercury Rev
"Philadelphia" (Neil Young cover) - Mercury Rev
"Caroline Says" (Lou Reed cover) - Mercury Rev
Buy Deserter's Songs here.

There's an interesting conversation here about the state of music, led by Jarvis Cocker and featuring people like Nick Cave and Beth Orton. I recommend it. Also, this graphic, which I just read about:
which I don't find nearly as encouraging as a bunch of people I know do. I don't know, I figure that most of my generation is gonna get heaps of money thrown at them at some point and then concede on most of their issues. It worked the last time, didn't it? sigh. Okay, back to the rain.

*are there even candy bars anymore that aren't made by mars, nestle, or hershey? curious. Incidentally, my allegiences lie with Hershey there, thanks to the actions of the great Milton Hershey.

Eddie

They're going through the 885 best artists of all time, and it's going to give me a stroke I shit you not. Well, that and I turn on a debate for the PA senate rave this morning only to hear both of the candidates (neither of whom I'm very fond of) mention stupid spoiled whore by name in their debate. Jesus, people. If we keep using her name, then she will never fall out of the terrible spotlight she's squirmed her way into. Seriously, it's like bears and poor people. If you ignore them long enough, they just disappear. Wait, it's not like that at all, but still there's no reason to bring her into this.
I'm finally getting sick of this election. I'm sick of candidates putting their signs on public property*, and I'm really tired of the commercials, and I'm really tired of everyone blaming the other side for everything. The FBI is investigating Curt Weldon and it's the Democratic party's fault because it's so close to the election? You know who else's fault it is? CURT WELDON'S. If you did something questionable enough that the FBI is investigating you, then you should consider shutting the fuck up. I'm so sick of this. I'm so sick of everything being the fault of the other party and nobody taking any accountability. Both parties are so fucked up, I'm shocked that I find myself capable of voting for either of them.
I've been listening to a lot of Iron Maiden this morning. Sometimes, cheesy metal can be the most therapeutic thing on the planet. Unfortunately, I'm not driving, because every time I hear "Run To the Hills" in the car, I blare it and hit every one of those drum fills on my door handle. I don't know why that's relevant, either. But check out the Eddie action figure!
When the Deltron album first came out, I was pretty underwhelmed. I probably still am, I haven't heard the actual release since 2 months after I bought the disc and lent it to someone in college. But it is not the sequel to Dr. Octagon that people were saying it would be. Shit, the sequel to Dr. Octagon isn't the sequel they were saying it would be. and Del was spread a little thin at this point, in my opinion. Still, Kid Koala lays down some of the most unique cuts I can remember. I can't wait to hear what his new album is gonna sound like. Anyways listening to the instrumentals now (as I did through most of the weekend), I've really grown to appreciate this a lot more. Maybe you'll feel the same way.

"Run To the Hills" - Iron Maiden
Buy Number of the Beast here.

"3030 (Instrumental) - Deltron 3030 (Sendspace link)
"Memory Loss (Instrumental)" - Deltron 3030
Buy the album here.

* this applies to both candidates I support and those I don't, though I've noticed that Mr. Weldon's campaign comittee seems to be doing this a lot more than anyone.

UPDATE: This just keeps getting more interesting.

Saturday the 14th wasn't on TV today

I've spent the weekend burning CDs and watching gory horror flicks in the dark. Kinda pleasant, actually. I found the song I wanted to post for yesterday (the day before?) so here that is. I bought three books today, and checked one out of the library. I haven't started any of them. But I got through 2 Friday the 13ths, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and 28 Days Later, despite an interruption.
This morning I walked 2 miles for a cup of coffee while I was getting my oil changed. It was totally worth it.

"Bad Luck" - Royal City
Buy Alone At the Microphone here.

Spoooooooky.

Today is Friday the 13^th. In October. Which means that exactly 17 years ago, one of my good friends’ dogs almost bit my nose off. Oooooooo nostalgia. No, it’s just funny, though, because I haven’t thought of that night for years and years, and then when I woke up this morning, the thin scar on my nose was pulsing this weird violet color. Also kidding.

I’m feeling a lot better this morning, despite barely getting any sleep last night. I was up worried about something for most of the night, and I also watched pretty much the third season of Arrested Development in its entirety. And I still laughed my ass off, which says something. In any case, one of the things I’m so pumped about for tonight is that despite my not going out, despite my nobody being around all weekend, I’m gonna be locked in all weekend with adequate booze and cigarettes and like 150 scary movies being run ad nauseum all weekend. Which is totally awesome. I’ve been given purpose.

I'll post some music later, I just can't find any of my spooky music to set the appropriate mood. So for now, here's a track from the Demetri Martin album, which has been cracking me up all day.

"Personal Information Waltz" - Demetri Martin

Buy These Are Jokes here.

Oh, and it looks like they're gonna start podcasting This American Life for free. Which is super awesome.
Also, feel like throwing up? Click here.

Brown Periscope.

Okay, I’m back, and pleasantly surprised to discover that had 4 more tortillas left in the fridge. Yes, these will make the 9^th and 10^th quesadillas I’ve made since Sunday, but that’s the sort of crap I eat so what can I say? Not much, I guess. I was the only person at work today, which was sort of nice on account of my melon-headedness, but considering I’ve spoken about 30 words out loud in the past 4 daysand I'm gonna be alone all weekend it’s probably not the best of working conditions for me. I should have been screaming all day in the office. Sounding my yawp, or something like that. In any case, without further ado, I bring you my thoughts on the 1996 classic, Down Periscope.

It’s not like I’m a huge fan of this movie. I mean, I’ve seen it more than once, but I’ve seen a lot of movies more than once. And it’s not like I’m ashamed of it, because there are much worse movies much farther up on my list of favorite movies. I saw Waterworld in the theater 6 times, there’s no fucking way I wouldn’t own up to loving Down Periscope. But I don’t. It’s more of a casual notice than anything. In fact, I would never be writing this if it weren’t for my finding out a few weeks ago that this was Patton Oswalt’s first movie. So, at the height of my fever-induced delirium, I saw this on cable and thought I’d watch the whole thing for that sweet 17 seconds or whatever of screen time that my man got and maybe get a few laughs along the way.

But that’s not the point. Upon first glance, this movie is so destined to fail that it’s a wonder it even made it into theaters. I mean, aside from being a Kelsey Grammer vehicle. And not even that’s fair. Anyone who’s ever watched television is fully aware that the man understands the subtle nuances and crucial timing of comedy. And if you’ve ever seen the man fall off a stage, you know the he’s capable of being a laugh riot. But still, the man isn’t exactly leading man, material, right? That’s where this guy comes in. He’s a younger, muscular guy, the perfect actor to provide the ladies some eye candy. I guess. I don’t know, the guy sort of looks like Adam Sandler with ‘roid rage, and he’s the only character in the movie whose Navy blues are the least gay outfit he’s shown in (you don’t believe me? Watch it! Call me when the fishnet top shows up).

Oh, have I mentioned that Rob Schneider is in this movie? As a hardass? I’ve got a thery about Rob Schneider, and it essentially goes like this: HE FUCKING SUCKS AND ISN’T FUNNY. That’s gonna be my thesis in grad school, actually. I’m actually ashamed of how many movies with him in it that I’ve seen. I’m pretty sure that if I was 10 years younger, I’d have seen every one of his movies, including all the hunks of shit that he’s starred in. Thankfully, though, my Schneider experience stops at the first three Sandler movies and vehicles for balding, aging TV stars. Pity the youth.

That’s not just all, though*. This movie employs every shitty b-movie character trait possible. We got the black guy/white guy tandem, the uppity dean of the rich kids’ camp (sort of), the fat guy, and of course, the drunk. It’s like every shitty movie you saw growing up has been merged into some sort of bouillabaisse of clichéd comedic cinema.

Which of course is probably making you wonder why the hell this movie is worth writing about. It might not be, I don’t know. Sadly, I can go on like this about pretty much any movie I’ve ever seen without even delving into higher meaning and symbolism. I’m like a low-brow savant.

The point is, this movie still has a lot going for it. Two of the greatest actors of our time are there, not including one of my favorite actors of all time and…William H. Macy. No, the guy’s all right. I kid William H. Macy because…he’s William H. Macy. And he’s the only person working today that was in the Last Dragon. Which should actually put him at the top of the pile. In any case, these fine, exalted character actors are so misleading, because they’re not really given much screen time. I’m not even sure Harry Dean Stanton is given a name. Sham on the person that doesn’t give Harry Dean Stanton a name. That guy’s a LEGEND. I think he speaks five words the whole movie. But there’s more. Harland Williams can be funny. Not always, but he’s got it in him. Same goes for Toby Huss.

So what makes this movie so fascinating to me? What is it about this C movie that I’ve now been compelled to write an entire single space page about it? I have no fucking clue. I didn’t laugh all that much, I certainly didn’t learn anything about submarines. So that the fuck is it? I don’t know. But the fact that I stayed up until 5:30 in the morning watching it while sleep-deprived and in pain should be testament enough to make anyone bore out of their skull watch this. And you’re laughing now, I know it. You’re saying “he thinks I’m going to waste 92 minutes of my life on that?” and I know it’s not like you’re going to rent it or something. Please, don’t rent it. But some day, maybe not soon, but someday, you’re gonna be sitting around bored and watching basic cable trying to find something and that movie is gonna pop up. You’re not going to think much of it, really. You probably won’t make a coherent thought until the fishnet top shows up. But that doesn’t matter because by that point you’re going to be stuck. And right then, when you’re wondering why you’re still watching that movie, that’s when you’re gonna remember me* and this little thing you’ve read. Why you’ve read this far I’m not entirely sure, but the point is you’re stuck now, because there’s just a little bit left until the end. See it? See the end? It’s right out of your peripheral vision but it doesn’t matter because you’re stuck. Just like that goddamned movie. So keep that in mind. And if you’ve already seen that, I apologize if you got this far. But I have a little closure for you, as a gift. In 1999, the guy who played the trouble-making son of an admiral (you know who I’m talking about) wrote, directed and starred in his very own movie. And you know who he called in when he needed some star power to help flesh out his new picture? You know who he called when his chips were down? That’s right. Kelsey fucking Grammer. Hollywood paybacks can be AWESOME.

* I probably should’ve considered writing something else about how Lauren Holly was the lone woman in this picture. To be honest, I’ve not very familiar with most of her work, only that this is the last time I ever saw her. I heard a year later that she was in that shitty movie Turbulence, but there’s only one Ray Liotta movie*** worth watching, and that’s Operation Dumbo Drop.

**Please don’t think of me when Kelsey Grammer is on screen. Or the fishnet dude. In fact, try not to think of me at all.

*** a little IMDB sleuthing has shown me that Ray Liotta and Lauren Holly are set to appear together in another movie called Chasing 3000. The system works.

Shit, I know I said I was going to have some music ready, but the fact is I'm tired of sitting over this computer and I've got an episode of The Office to get to. But in the meantime, head over to rbally and download a Cat Power show that's every bit as desolate and barren as the songs I wanted to post the other day. and it's the whole show, so you end up winning here. Hell, it'll probably provide the soundtrack to my weekend. So Have a good night everyone, and I'll be back tomorrow night probably.

Hey all, back at work, trying to choke down a spinach lasagna and ignore the blinding jolt of pain that I get whenever I sneeze. It being allergy season for me and all. Anyways, I can't really post right now but I want to put up a trial song to see if my linking privileges have been renewed. I'll be back later, with a pretty ambitious post that I came up with in a fever dream. pretty awesome, right? Don't be, it's all based around a Kelsey Grammar movie. Seriously.

oh my god this food is terrible. I'm actually looking forward to the Ramen I'm gonna be forced to eat for dinner.

"Ghost Bought a Bicycle" - Beaten Awake

on the other hand, I guess my weekend did just get a little more interesting.

Facial Cellulitis sucks balls.

Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday. I left work early on monday because my nose and the area around it was a little sore and, it felt to me, swelling. So when I woke up on tuesday morning and my head felt like it'd had been kicked my mules for half the night, I actually did something I've never done without coercion in my life: I checked myself into the hospital. It sucked as usual. I spent four hours waiting for a prescription of antibiotics which were already in the medicine cabinet at home.
I'm still in a lot of pain. If I could put into words the excruciating torment that a sneeze is to me right now, you'd be reading this thing until Thanksgiving. So yeah, sleep is pretty much out of the question. I'm supposed to go back in for a checkup wednesday, but if I had to spend $200 just getting into the emergencey room, does that mean I'm gonna have to do the same thing tomorrow? Because if that's the case, then I'm just gonna go to hobos for my medicinal and surgical needs. $400 for 6 minutes with a doctor and an IV is omplete bullshit. Anyways, that's where I was today and will be tomorrow. I just found out that the music isn't downloadable anymore for some reason, and I've sent an email to figure out why the hell that's happening. In the meantime, though, bear with me and I'll figure something out. For what it's worth, I was gonna post some songs from Cat Power's Moon Pix, because that's it's a great album to listen to when you feel like shit. And right now I feel like shit. with pain receptors. that's been kicked by mules all night. Hope everything's okay though and I'll be back with some real jazzy tunes right quick.
squiggly hearts and flowers,
Cotton

One Step Ahead of the Blues

So I'm typing this up late sunday night because I know i'm gonna to be busy at work this week and I figured I might as well write this now so I don't run late at work. I'm actually sitting at home watching my taped adult swim and everything's just tip top.
I was listening to this great Van Morrison show from the late sixties at the Fillmore and it's just incredible, the way he belts out those songs with with such vigor and stride that it's just incredible the way his voice sounds with that band behind it.
But I was not always of this opinion. You see, I was once a serious Van Morrison hater for awhile. It was pointless and stemming from when, in my late teens, I purged my music collection of all things that once bore the tag or likeness to the tag; "blue-eyed soul". I had grown up with Van Morrison in the house, and I could sing along with many of his records, but like anyone who becomes a little obsessed with an artist or a genre, you do your research and look into who this artist that you like is and who they draw their inspiration from. Then you go and check those albums out. and then look into who their references are. I swear it's incredible, it's like peeling layers of an onion. with each layer getting more compact and functional as you work your way to that tiny little sprout of an idea.
Sometimes, it can be a near religious experience. It's peeking in to this whole universe that you were never aware of, one that's filled with pirate treasure. When I first picked up on Stax/Volt I wouldn't even sleep some nights, just going through hundreds of perfect recordings. I still had to go bac past though, through Chicago and Memphis and shit, even Texas. and back to the Mississippi Delta. I whittled away at the blues for what seemed like years, and maybe was.
On the other hand, though, you can sometimes have downright creepy and awful experiences when going to the roots of a genre. I had a lot of trouble when so many bands pointed me to the Smiths. or when Ministry made me go out and buy a bunch of industrial hardcore albums. Bad idea jeans for me.
Anyway, so like I was saying, I really took to the blues. I had what can only be construed as a typical suburban introduction to the blues if my age which was, aside from owning a John Lee Hooker album when I was 10, The Blues Brothers. Oh, shit, the Blues Brothers! I loved that movie, and I knew who some of the people in there were, like Ray Charles and Aretha, but I really had no idea how tiny that scratch on the surface and so for a few years I became a blues purist. I wouldn’t listen to Eric Clapton or Steve Winwood, because they were just aping the first guys. I wouldn’t listen to Alexis Korner and John Mayall, or even the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, who were more dedicated to the blues than most of the was still listening to. I began to look at all of these artists as watered-down, blues substitute, and yes, a lot of it was. I looked at Van Morrison as yuppie placeholder music for people who had forgotten what the blues had sounded like or never cared enough to find out in the first place.

Of course, it was foolish and wrong in a lot of ways. And while I still think Van Morrison can qualify as yuppie music, that doesn’t mean it’s without a soul, or not enjoyable. Because when he wants it to, his voice just carries triumph. And it reminds you that everyone –everyone- has problems. And that everyone has a time when they pile up on our doorstep and you find yourself overwhelmed with desperation. So much so that you can’t even figure on which problem to address first. But then out of effort, or blind faith or sheer luck something might happen to right just one of those problems. Just one minor glitch is fixed and, despite all of the other issues going on in your life, you’re just soaring with relief and for one night the rest of life’s problems can fuck off. Everyone has that feeling, and it can be a destructive feeling, and it can be a pointless self-gratification, but damned if it isn't sometimes the sweetest therapy I might ever have received.
So a few years ago I started accepting those guys back in, the American rocksteady bands, the British blues albums, the french rock records, I've taken them all back over the years and they often sound better than I remember. Shit, I’ve even listened to a few Rod Stewart songs that I didn’t hate immediately, and I always hated Rod Stewart.

You have to remind yourself sometimes that music, once recorded, once it is created and out there, becomes the ownership of anyone that listens to it. Our interpretations, and the slight differences and perceptions we might hear belong to us, and we are fit to do what we will with them, renounce them, disclaim the, or bring them back into the fold. Wow. When I started typing this I had no idea it was going to result in something this ambitious.
and here are two posts, a mid-60s Irish soul band and a late 90s hip-hop sounding track from some Scottish guys.

"Here Comes the Night" - Them Buy Them featuring Van Morrison here
"To You Alone" - The Beta Band Buy Rarewerks here

Whatta jerk!

You'll notice that it's not last night, that I didn't make that post I PROMISED to make. Yeah, that's my fault. Had some Thai food and a lot of wine and a particularly long and unpleasant conversation. Had to cancel on some bowling with friends tonight, which sucks. Oh well. I'm gonna make up for it by... reading. Nothing screams with excitement and outhful exuberance like... reading. Anyway fuck it, I found a another stack of old mixes and have been listening to them today. These are on tape, so they're extra awesome and some of them are worn down to garbled hiss, but I suppose the trunk of my car is not the most ideal of storage conditions. So here's some songs from those in a shiny digital format. For some reason, Itunes spells the title of the Elvis Costello wrong, you figure it out.

"Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" - Elvis Costello
It's on some Unplugged disc, but I can't find a link for it right now.

"(Get a) Grip (On Yourself)" - The Stranglers
Buy Rattus Norvegicus here.

Holy shit it's 3 PM and I'm just now trying to wolf down my lunch before getting back to this soul-sucking task of trying to figure out what the hell these doctor's are talking about. One way to tell if Cotton was up waaay too late the night before: his lunch consists of pineapple chunks and piping hot coffee. I'm game with any fruit, I'm pretty much impartial and love 'em all. But pineapple is the only one I'll buy in prepared chunks. You know why? Because buying a whole pineapple and skinning it and cutting it into rings/chunks takes for fucking ever. and it's so sticky. It's sooo not worth it to me. Listen, I'm a man who appreciates making his own food (and food for others, as some people are gradually learning), but I'd rather pour a jar of rubber cement into my nose than go through that business. Speaking of stuffed noses, my allergies are going batshit lately. How batshit, you ask? I woke myself up with my own snoring last night. It was horrendous, and I'm convinced I need to get thgose breathe right strips at least until this congestion dies down.
I won't be able to post any songs right now, because I really don't have time. But I'll make you a promise right hear and now that I will post some tonight before I go to sleep. "Big whoop", you might be saying, "I'm bored now. Later I'll be out having fun with my friends and enjoying my holiday weekend". Well first of all, I don't have a holiday weekend and I hate you. Second of all, funzo, is that I'm not gonna be out tonight and and out of spite* I'll put up something extra special**. So take that, suckah!

think that photo is awesome? Check out what happened to my man taking the picture. Apparently, Old Toongabbie is in England, and not ars, as previously reported.

oh and check out the new lists at Dusted.

* probably not***.
** this might be a lie***.
*** Sorry for all the lying*.

long week, the kind where nothing goes as planned at home and the office seems like a place to go to keep me from lying around on the floor all day. I’ve been listening to a lot of this (sort-of) new Tom Waits stuff that’s been appearing all over the internet lately, which can’t really be a good sign of anything. Anyway, I like it, the stuff I’ve heard. I mean there’s three discs so I can’t suppose about all of it, but it hits a lot closer to home than most of his recent output has. I think Tom Waits, if he actually cared to, could write the most beautiful music on the planet, but refuses to on accound of it doesn’t sound rusty or sharp or scary enough. I truly think he finishes his stuff and it probably sounds like Jackson Browne or something before I re-dubs the vocals in his post-1974 voice and then says “I need some equipment from a Victorian–era sanitarium clanging against a a dead clown’s shin bone” to round off the track. It’s like he’s going out of his way to sound acute. Where does Jon Brion get those dead clown bones, anyway?

So my utter, paralyzing fear of the day is not necessarily growing old, but growing old hopelessly. I think my biggest fear in the world is succumbing to my own white fate, becoming some schlub who looks talks at parties about APR rates and where to get a good deal on a gas grill or somehing. I don’t want to see myself hopelessly trying to retain my youth, or so completely mundane that half my conversations consist of the weather. and every day I don’t do something about it I find myself nudged a few more inches in this direction. I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but it’s a pretty claustrophobic day and I’m in too shitty a mood to really be distracted enough to talk about anything else.

in more interesting news, a dog was just banned from the state of Indiana.

Also, check out Iggy Pop's tour rider. I know this is the sort of thing i say is awesome and nobody listens because not many people care about this sort of thing, but it is seriously awesome.

This is a terrible post, I know. So here’s some songs from a National EP I didn’t know existed until a few months ago.

“All the Wine” – The National

“All Dolled-Up In Straps” – The National

Buy Cherry Tree here

Yeah, about as creepy as I feel thinking about it.

oooh, It's muthafuckin Lost night, and I'm sure I'm not alone in being really excited to pick up where season three left off. On top of that, there's a new South Park on tonight and this "Freak Show" thing, which to be honest doesn't look very funny, but considering the talent involved in writing and voicing it, I have to at least maintain that I'm excited to see it. I know what you're thinking, "hey TV guy, sweat much?"
yeah, I like the teevee. and I'm not nearly as bad as I sound, I can assure you. I just really like a small number of shows that I happen to watch on three nights of the week, which really isn't so bad when you think about it. Besides, the Kung Po Shrimp I'm eating right now should probably be able to sustain me for another 17 hours anyway. Which is nice.
In any case, I was just in the store buying some stuff and I helped a lady find some batteries. It was just because I happened to be standing in front of what she was looking for, and I certainly wasn't expecting to be rewarded for doing it, but nonetheless it was nice when she offered me the place in line ahead of her, since all I had was a candy bar and some toothpaste. So i was thinking about how sweet that was for a minute until the guy in front of me spent 15 minutes trying to pay with his credit card. He was obviously hitting the wrong keys at the wrong time and then later denying it, and people in line started yelling out what exactly he should be doing. This only solidified his resolve and he sat working harded to make sure this went through. After he finally got it right, he realized he didn't know his PIN number and had to call his bank to get it. Which they wouldn't do over the phone. Did I mention this was for $2 worth of dinner cookies? I don't know, it might be because I've almost exclusively used a debit card for all things related to banking since 1995, but that shit drives me crazy. Of course, so does people writing a check anywhere but the supermarket, so I gues there's no pleasing me.
By now, of course, I'm sure everyone's read up on the latest breaks in the Foley case (were you expecting me to say "Foleygate"? Tough shit I've called a moratorium on that), but I'm still not done freaking out about this. Now he's claiming he was molested by a priest, which I'm just gonna go ahead and say is a lie. So now he's got alcohol and molesting priests to blame for his actions, I'm just waiting for him to work gay marriage and activist judges into his excuse to clear him completely of wrongdoing. And to make things better, now a good portion of the GOP is blaming the Dems for this. Rush Limbaugh thinks that the kid was paid or coerced into saying he was molested. Hastert claims it was the liberal boogeymen (seriously!) and Boehner's gone back on previous statements to support him. and in my personal favorite, Katherine Harris "going to be very interested to find out who in the media or on the other side of the aisle knew about this and kept it from the public interest because our children were at stake." Hey Kathy, I'll give you a hint: "THEY'RE THE ONES WHO WERE ALREADY CAUGHT TRYING TO COVER IT UP, you vile, kitten-strangling bitch.
Now I've made it pretty clear that I by no means am a huge supporter of the Democratic Party, but this is just fucking pathetic on the part of the right. How many times can they just blindly point at someone else before we call them on their shit? How many more times are we going to catch them in the middle of a lie and then believe them the next time they get suspected of something? This poor kid, who stood up and admitted what had happened, despite the alienation and shit he's bound to receive, is now getting death threats because the clowns that make up the neocon constituency are convinced that Harry Reid threatened the kid into making the story up. What the fuck is your problem? Did the Democrats also bribe the other dozen or so former pages that have come forward, or the staffer that was warning pages as early as 1995 to watch out for Foley's advances? It's disgusting, how quickly this whole thing was overtaken by politics and who could spin it to the other party's disadvantage the fastest. Yes, I'm sure that some on the left were aware of this, but plain, simple logic dictates that more people in Foley's own party would know about it, and documentation has already proved that GOP brass has already tried to cover it up. Is anyone believing this? Is anyone out there still buying this tripe? Congratulations, you've got the brain power of a head of lettuce. a retarded head of lettuce. These people should all be homeless and our government should be rebuilt from the ground up. ugh, fucking A I can't even think straight.
Meanwhile, even though we can't set a withdrawal date or garuntee things are going better or even keep our tropps from dying in record numbers, don't worry folks, we've already started saving up money for our victory party. Umm, $20 million? Have you considered just pissing the money away on healthcare or veterans or something?

So yeah, I'll be back to post some music later, but in the meantime, check out the 25 biggest stories you probably will never read about in 2007.

Tommy Lee has nasty taste in birthday-themed desserts

here's a kickass flickr account of a trip to see some now-useless wartime technology rotting in a desert.

in other news, global warming is still a myth.

Lost and Pounds

Sorry for such a late post, but I've been trying not to fall asleep at work all day and just couldn't free up the higher brain function to actually stop and write something. This morning I came across a CD that I made, one of the first CDs I've ever made, in 200o. It's strange to think how little time has actually gone by since I made that switch. I think if prompted to name the biggest differences between 2000 and now, the first three answers a that would spring to mind are is that 1)the world is not necessarily as much a scarier place, but it's much more overt now so it seems a lot scarier, 2) absolutely everyone in sports is on steroids, and c) I don't need five hours, six beers and seventeen square feet f floor space to make a mix. In some ways it's so much better. I mean the technology isso superior, and everything's obviously far more convient, but it's gone from being something I'd have to plan ahead, something I'd be ready to bleed for. Now I make them as an afterthought on my way out the door. I don't know, I'm not complaining, but just pondering the differences.
I must have gotten used to it, though, because hearing these early attempts at making a mix of my first randomly downloaded batch of songs. I pretty much forgot all of the lessons I'd learned with cassettes. There are incomplete songs, several songs in a row by the same artist, pretty much anything that can go wrong with an assortment of songs. This one I found earlier had a song that I haven't listened to in years and years, Morphine's "All Your Way", which still makes me think of the most heartbroken I've ever been in my life. It was surprising to see how it still caught me. Of course it was cut off about halfway through (dialup!), so I was left still dazed when I heard the Stranglers come booming out. I can't really remember where I was going with this...
Anyway, here's some songs I found on old mixes today. The second song is from a CD I bought in London in 2000 and accidentally left at someone's house while over there. I was pretty pissed about it, since it was lost with my buddy's London disc buy, as well as the one issue of Grand Royal magazine I was missing at the time. I went home pissed about that, and never really got over it until I bought it again last year, only to find myself really let down. Still, that's a long, long story for another day.

"Hey" - TeamUSA

Buy Listen to the Night here.

"Y Ahora Tu" - Up Bustle & Out

But FunkJazztical Tricknology here.

No music today, because I'm going to the football game tonight and because of that I'm short enough for time. I might post something when I get home, but we'll see. Anyway, I did have two things I wanted to point out. First, this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.
Another thing, Mark Foley has just gone into rehab, making it quite likely that he will at some point imply that this was not Mark Foley is not to blame for stalking young boys on the internet, or god knows what else (and I'm reasonably certain that in coming days we will find out just what), it is actually his disease that's to blame. Yeah, I don't know if you saw this on the warning label, but alcohol makes you hate jewish people and start crime waves in addition to trying to solicit cybersex from 15 year old boys. Yeah, it's never because someone is an asshole, or a rapist or a pedophile. I'm so fucking sick of this. Everyone knows alcohol is bad, and everyone knows that it can be a factor in ugly behavior. That's totally true. It still is no fucking excuse for what YOU did. Keep this up and we're all gonna have booze taken away from us because some fucker needed an excuse to explain away his shitty behavior.
Ugh. It's disgusting, the way this went down. and For shame, Boehner and Hastert. You could've done something about this, but instead you were more concerned about the integrity of your fucking party than that of a kid. You should by any line of reasoning be forced to resign your positions in leadership.


oh, and Tony Snow is still a smug douche.