Monday, November 27, 2006

I ALSO HAVE A HAM RADIO


I hope everyone had a stellar holiday. Terribly sorry for the absence, but to be fair, I've been trying to send 3 or 4 different pictures since early Wednesday morning with no luck at all. I'll try to set up a little montage tonight, buty to be perfectly honest I don't know if I'll be awake past 8. I had what can only be described as one of the most relaxing weekends of all time. Very little that took place before saturday night consisted anything that would fall outside of sleeping and eating. I did get to see the Johnstown Flood National Memorial, which I've wanted to check out for years now. I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't exactly a feelgood spot, but it offered a lot of insight into one of the most tragic events in our nation's history. I enjoeyed it mostly because of my amateur history buff status, but that isn't to day I didn't enjoy it because of the way it illustrates how dangerous the extremely wealthy can be in their pursuits to those around (or in this case, below) them. Also, the movie they show in the museum (and this is a national park, mind you) was the most terrifying shit I've seen since Cannibal Holocaust. Seriously!
Also got to listen to a great book on tape - essays by David Foster Wallace. I've read a good amount of it before, but I have to admit it was a little unsettling to listen to him talk for about 2 hours about every possible aspect of the world of porn. Don't get me wrong, it was interesting, and I certainly learned a lot, but it's always a little awkward to pull up to a toll booth and the guy in there overhears the phrase "triple penetration sex scene" proadcast out of your stereo. Still, it was a great way to help the mind-numbing hell of the Pennsylvania Turnpike fly by.
So yeah, I had a nice, relaxing weekend and was so well rested last night. I mean seriously, I was actually calmed down and everything, didn't really drunk for most of the weekend, didn't check up on any politics, I was doooown. Even decided to go to bed early last night so I'd be ready to go back to work. But somehow that wasn't gonna happen for me. I got about 2 hrs sleep while tossing and turning the rest of the night. So the whole relaxing weekend was for naught. FOR NAUGHT I SAY!!! Not only that, but I left my phone at home, along with the fucking stack of hospital bills I'm almost too afraid to take notice of, and I'm pretty sure i lost the dry-cleaning ticket that I need to get my tux before Thursday. So yeah, balls.
But I'm not gonna dwell on that, I just figured I'd whine for a minute. I did have a great holiday, and got to see an old friend the other night, so that was nice.
Anyways, how about this: for a small fee (I dunno, $4?), you would receive, instead of a check, your weekly (or bimonthly) pay would come in the form of cash, stuffed in a piƱata. I think that is the greatest fucking idea EVER, and I'm going to die trying to bring it to fruition.
Anywho, remember way back before garage bands were like this kooky revivalist thing to do? Remember when they were earnest in the late 60s and the lack of talent was made up for in intensity and enthusiasm? Well, go back before that, to the age of the proto-garage band; Menster Phip and the Phipsters. This "band" was basically one guy on a cheap guitar, backed by whomever he could round up to hammer away on other (often homemade) instruments. They'd bash their way thought classics and standards of the time, shouting into the mic and barely maing themselves audible over the racket. I first heard about this record in a Trouser Press review about 10 years ago, and spent the next 4 trying to find this. This was way back when your humble correspondant wasn't as interweb-saavy as he is today, and had to handwrite the Telstar label to get this sent tocan happen with a couple of marginally talented guy, instruments, and the sheer boredom it would take to star a band like this. Anyways, here's four songs because they're a bit shorter than usual.

"Daddy Wants a Cold Beer" - Menster Phip & the Phipsters
"Zither Row" - Menster Phip & the Phipsters
"Scramblin'" - Menster Phip & the Phipsters
"Sing a Song All Day Long" - Menster Phip & the Phipsters

Buy Phip City! here.

and for the hell of it, here's a Sam Flores piece I've been thinking about all day:

1 comment:

Sarah said...
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