The Old Account

We.., Senate bill 3930 has passed, making it more and more possible for someone like me to be locked up and not given access to a lawyer or my family or pretty much anything other than a hood and some hypothermia. Of course I'm being melodramatic, but not nearly as much as you would think. I've written no fewer than 14 letters this morning about just how pissed I am about this. We're basically allowing ourselves carte blanche when locked in a room with a terror suspect, and no fear of being prosecuted for a war crime. This isn't to be taken lightly. I mean, think about how many people we've already admitted to wrongly accusing of being a terror suspect, compounded by however many might be locked up in Guantanamo as I'm writing this. and think about how, whatever we're allowed to dso, the C.I.A. is going to go much further than that. Do we want to do this to the rest of the world? Didn't we have a moral high ground once? It felt like it, but in retrospect it probably had more to do with secret torture sites and black ops than being better than our enemies that torture. We are medieval dungeon masters. We are Soviet Russia. Welcome to this shit. I think what pisses me off the most is that so many of the supporters of this bill rely so heavy on touting themselves as decent Christians. Are you fucking kidding me? I'm sorry, but allowing this is not Christian, and if Janet Jackson's half-tit bothered you more than this, then something is seriously wrong with your set of ethics. Seriously, I could go on about this all day (I kinda of already have), but I don't want to do that, because it's friday and while I only have a fraction of a plan on what I'm doing tonight, I'm still not in the mood to stew over this. I promised myself a long time ago that I wasn't goint to become the sort of person who complains about politics and the suffering in the world all the time. After all, if the people missing limbs from our mines can have a good time, I guess I can to. God knows my conscience deserves it. So that's all I'm gonna say about that for now.
I found out the other day that they're re-re-re-releasing Johnny Cash's San Quentin show, which kinda pisses me off because I've already paid for it twice (is there a way to trade in old copues of reissues? this is bullshit!), but i'm also pretty psyched because it is, after all, one of the greatest live recordings of all time. It really is a wonder to behold, and while I was going to post a bunch of the more popular songs and the like (I should probably just go ahead and post the whole album so those dicks at Columbia realize how annoying it is), I settled on two songs, both of which are largely religious.
Obviously, I'm not a religious guy. I've got my own little system of faith, but it's not something I'd be vain enough to call a religion. That said though, if I was a religious guy, I'd want to be religious like Johnny Cash. He was a badass, and he did shit his own way, and while he had his issues with drugs and alcohol and god knows what else, he never got all preachy like a seemingly large number of born-agains do. He was proud of his religion, and humble before his god. His god, mind you, not the person telling him about his god. There's a difference. In any case, Johnny Cash grew up on these songs, and learned them again when he was wooing June from the Carter Family. Listening to these songs, you can tell he sees religion as a source of joy, a source of sorrow, and pain, and forgiveness. He saw religion a way of life, but not all of it, and I think that's a lesson a lot of people need to learn and right quick.
The first song here is one of the saddest songs I know, and every time I hear it I can't help but just shut up and sit still for a minute to appreciate it. The Carter family in the back, singing like they know it, it's enough to get me to think for a second that there might just be something at the end of it all.
The second song is one of those songs I had to check and make sure I haven't posted it already, because like so many of my favorite songs (and there are hundreds), I always just assumed that I couldn't wait and posted this as soon as I started this. It turns out I didn't, and happy for that, because I need something to bring y'all up after that last song. This is a song about where we lie on god's tally of sins. But that doesn't really matter. Because this is the end of the night playing in front of a giant prison, and everyone gathering on the stage. There's Carl Perkins and the Carter singers, and the man himself, who takes the first verse.
It's no secret that Johnny Cash has his trials with June's family, but here they appear in the chorus behind him, loving and providing harmony. and then June, one of their own, steps up, and you can hear the Carters buck up a little bit. They put some excitement into it. But it's not until Carl Perkins (whose own contributions to music could never be overstated) steps up and just brings the whole fucking place down around him. I like to think of these prisoners who've been getting the time of their lives all night just leaping for joy during this part of the song. Their accounts can be wiped! Nothing is out of the question. and the Carters, they sound for the first time that they're truly having fun. They sound...loose even, like they know that while they've led pious, straight lives, they know that sometimes you just have to lose yourself in the moment and enjoy yourself. The effect that this song has on me is profound, and I don't think I've ever heard it without finding myself exhausted at the end of it. 2:16 and I'm exhausted. If that isn't a ringing endorsement, than I don't know what one is.

(There'll Be) Peace in the Valley - Johny Cash & The June, Helen Anita, & Maybelle Carter
The Old Account Was Settled long Ago - Johnny Cash, the Carters, & Carl Perkins

Buy the old version of San Quentin here.

Have you ever been leaving a store with a bag of whatever (in my case a Baby Ruth bar, which I haven't had in at least 8 years) and on your way out, when you step on the pad or stand in front of the sensor, the automatic door still doesn't recognize that you're there? It just happened to me and I just stood there for a second, wondering if I should just go out the already-open entrange or force my way out the right door. I chose the latter, but it was an off-putting moment.
Also, what's with these product contests that give you a code that you're supposed to look up on the internet? What the balls? Isn't the whole point to be excited when you screw off the cap or unwrap the thing or whatever? That pisses me off in a completely pointless way. Sorry, my gripe of the day.

Tokyo Rose died on Tuesday.

CRAZY LARGE RADIOACTIVE BUGS HAVE LANDED, stay the fuck off the road in Lebanon, PA, zombie protests are awesome. oh, and they found the U.S.S. Macon.

now I'm all linked out.

Here's some songs from the upcoming Beck album, which I like twice as much as anything he's done since Midnight Vultures. It just feels fun and sleazy and not Guero, which is a start in my book. Anyways, here's two songs from it. I'd claim Nigel Godrich, but he was behind those last 2 balls of suck, so I'll just take the credit myself.

"Strange Apparition" - Beck
"No Complaints" - Beck

Pre-order The Information here.

Oh, and Langhorne Slim has a new EP out. I'm too lazy to buy it right now but I bet it's awesome.

Lyin' Rip

Today might just be the most gorgeous day of the year. Seriously, I'm sorta pissed I didn't just call out and sleep in the park all day like a hobo. You knew, those hobos might be on to something there. I just loaded something like 4 GB of all new music on my ipod, so I'm pretty pumped about that, but god knows it's gonna take me months to get through it all. Seriously, it's startling.
On a funny little side note, I was told that my one grandmother says about me that "he thinks he's too cute for his own good" and that I'm gonna have to grow out of that. Heh. She also thinks I'm too old to be wearing t-shirts all the time. Which I totally am, but will probably keep doing for another few years just to spite her. I just thought that was pretty funny. Actually, that picture of Michelle Malkin is far more hilarious, but that's neither here not there. I just keep clicking on the link and giggling to myself.
I wanna say something about this NIE report that the 16 spy agencies put together that basically says "yup, you're making more terrorists". Actually, I more wanna say something about how Bush is reacting to it. Considering it's the spy agencies that he oversees and guides, should we be really fucking terrified about what we haven't seen out of the report yet? Probably. So how can he call this "naive"? Does that mean that our intelligence and spy agencies are naive? or that we're naive to believe them? I think it's pretty naive to keep blindly listening to what this administration is saying, considering they're constantly caught lying to us and manipulating our most sacred trusts and feelings into making us support their retarded courses of action. I don't think we can leave Iraq yet, we're stuck there now, but to keep insisting that we're liberators when the place is more violent now than it was before we got there, to say that this isn't about oil when it's the one thing we've managed to keep safe through this, it's completely asinine. We've now lost more US soldiers than we did citizens in the 9/11 attacks. and at what price? we've pissed off the rest of the world a little bit more, and most of the middle east a lot more, we're squandered massive amounts of money so that an extremelty small portion of the country will make untold amounts of capital. It's disgusting to think that anyone still takes this man's words without a grain of salt. and reprihensible that anyone's watching Fox News withough recognizing it for the propaganda factory that it is. Sorry, I'm a little empassioned today.
Anyways, hers's some Duke Spirit songs. I don't even know if that record is out in the US yet, but it should be. They've got a great sound and a cute lead singer with a great voice. Look up their Duke Spirit alphabet, it's adorable. Actually don't becuase it's not on their website anymore. I'm so out of touch.
"Cuts Across the Land" - The Duke Spirit
"Lion Rip" - The Duke Spirit"
"Drinking You In" - The Duke Spirit

Buy Cuts Across the Land here.

I failed to post yesterday because I was up until like 5 that morning watching the last 2 discs of Lost, Season 2. Which means that my life is effectively ruined, yes. But after the weekend I've been through i felt like i 've earned myself the right to be a sack of crap for a night. I slept like crap all night and kept dreaming that something was chasing me, and it wasn't nearly as entertaining as the smoke monster from lost. Last night, I got home at 5 and immediately had 3 glasses of cabernet, but of course I got caught up in some book and still didn't end up sleeping until 2:30. So now today I'm paying for it and I have bills to pay, laundry to fold, and a life to resume. at some point, anyway. I keep thinking I should volunteer for some sort of experimaental sleep study, because I think my totally irregular patterns would be a pretty keen area of study for someone. or not. Anyways, if there's one thing that is easier to dislike than water chestnuts, it' people that always talk about how poorly they sleep. or their dreams. Which means I've caught a case of the double suck. My apologies.
Anywho, my day's been rolling along like a sack of crap, so I wanna get back to work sooner so I can leave sooner and go to sleep.
On a far more interesting note, I just found out that Norman Fell is from Philadelphia, which is awesome. who wants to find out visit his birthplace with me? I'm not sure it if makes up for Michelle Malkin, but it helps. Also, I'm not sure if anyone saw the Clinton interview on Fox News the other day, but it was shockingly distasteful, and obviously biased. It amazez me to hear people perpetuate this idea of the liberal media when you have shit like this going on. Or the media that we have today at all. If the media were generally liberal, don't you think that we'd hear a lot more about the issues that truly matter? Don't you think healthcare would be brought up more? Don't you think they'd paint something less of the (better, but still quite) rosy picture of Iraq? Don't you think they'd have come out with the wiretap scandal when they found out about it 2 years ago? For fuck's sake, how can these news channels that are owned by multinational corporations possibly be liberal minded? Don't they have the same war-profiteering masters as the rest of the media? What the fuck? Anyways, don't bother reading it.

also, an interesting note about the Philly suburbs recent shift towards the left here.

anyways, here's some Replacement's songs. I'll update this post later to write about them, but for now I gotta get back to work.

I fucking love the Replacements. I really do. Up until Tim, at least. Around this time, to me at least, they went from being (at least to me) this self-destructive force of rock and roll, fueled by booze and pot and midwest boredom to being sappy drunk modern rockers. I mean, I guess the latter has its time and place, but I guess by the time I was old enough to develop an interest in a band like this I’d heard enough of crap tender modern rock that I pretty much had decided it wasn’t my thing. And it’s not like the band playing on the earlier albums is notably talented, or completely original. I mean, they played bar rock, and Westerberg’s lyrics, while impressive, got much, much better as they band grew up and softed out.

That never mattered to me though. Because the band played their songs (and many others) with suck a careen-off-a-cliff-and-into-the-refinery sort of way, with such abandon that you just sorta wait for them to all spontaneously combust and leave behind a cloud of stale bong hits and beer farts. They were drunk and childish and were capable of falling apart before your eyes onstage. But they were drunken children. I mean, what the fuck are you gonna expect out of a band like that? But in the end, that’s so much of what I love about most of the music I love. Unrestrained character and spirit and yeah, sometimes utter stupidity. It’s a shame that they’re known more for their startling intake of booze, because they carried so much more in attitude than they really ever got credit for. I could go on for hours about the relationships between the band members and their rivalry with Husker Dü, but you can find all that shit somewhere else. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll go into it, because I think there’s a lot of lessons to be learned there, not the least of which being that Bob Mould is in fact an asshole. But that’s neither here nor there.

They weren’t punk, and they weren’t a hardcore band. They were just fast hard bar rock. I think it’s hilarious to hear how shocked they were when they’d go to New York or something and see what their audience looked like.

Anyway, after they toured for Tim, Bob Stinson, who had fought kicking and screaming the slow eradication of power chords and frighteningly loud solos, was kicked out of the band. From there the band just lost that zeal that made them so likable. They didn’t burn out as much as just imploded. I guess it’s testament to Westerberg’s songwriting chops that they managed to eek out some incredible songs after that, but it just wasn’t the same.

I’m sure Paul Westerberg would have plenty to say about all of this, most of which directly contradicting what I just said and definitely unsafe for children’s ears. In fact I know this because I’ve heard as much. and that’s his prerogative. Just as it’s mine to do what I can to ignore what I can of their later years.

Anyway, these are all songs that were from the collection that Sire put together almost 10 years ago. Most of the fans of their early work wrote this off as a collection of what made them so bland later on, disc 2 pretty much as all the songs I’ve ever wanted out of their later catalogue, and disc 1 has enough classic songs and dunken outtakes that you pretty much have to enjoy it. Hence, these.

The first song is a quick short punch in the face. The second song was originally recorded by The Only Ones, but I think the ’Mats live version here kick the living shit out of that one. Bob’s guitar sounds better here than it did on almost all of his studio recordings. The third one has Tom Waits on organ, and is freakishly lovable. Is to me one of the most well written songs of all time. Live. That’s about all I got today, but have a good’un. I’m too tired to convince you to do otherwise.
It should be noted that 3/4 of the original band reunited to record some new tacks, but eithout Bob on guitar (and Chris Mars on the drums, I guess), it's nothing I'm gonna freak out about, you know?
I think one of the main reasons why I made this post today instead of holding on to it for a little while (seriously, there's a lot more to say about this band, and I'm shocked there hasn't been a classic book already), is because I'm listening to the new Hold Steady album, and while I don't dislike it, it could in time be their Tim, and it's a thought that's really starting to get to me. Of course, I could really grow to like this, and i'm certainly old enough where I should start loving something like All Shook Down, but I'm not there yet.

"Wake Up" - The Replacements
"Another Girl, Another Planet" - The Replacements
"Date to Church" - The Replacements

"Bastards of Young" (live) - the Replacements

Buy All for Nothing/Nothing for All here.

and I know that putting up the Slim Dunlap-era 'Mats picture up there is contradictory at best, but I can't help it, that picture cracks me up.


It's 11:20 right nnow and on the news the meteorologist just basically admitted that he's helpless without the computer. awesome.

A plane just flew over my office building with a banner that said "Abortion is Terror".


people can pretty pretty stupid sometimes.

only in dreams

Some notable scenes from my dream last night:

• A fictional character (Angela from The Office) was my HR person at work and gave me a new bank card (ostensibly to replace my warped and abused one that I’ve been toting around for the past month. On a side note, it still works, although I had to beat the shit out of it to get it into an ATM in New York. Sooner or later I’m a have to replace this thing. In my dream, though, I thought it was sweet (which was very out of character) and practical (very in character). So yeah, my brain’s a little warped.
• Ad-rock quit the Beastie Boys. For all I know this might be true. The funny part is that in my dream I kept reading all of these sarcastic headlines about nasal flows and aging white rappers. Which means I must have a bevy of them stored in my subconscious, which is more than a little scary. I remember listening to career retrospectives, which included Mike D’s fabled country album.
• I also distinctly remember hearing Sam Winch’s “Banter for the Common Man” (a/k/a the theme song to the “Comedians of Comedy” TV show), which I tried desperately tried to put on that mix, but stupid crappy itunes wouldn’t let me. oh, and I woke up singing “Justin Timberlake Justin Timberlake Justin Timberlaaaaaake!” Yeah, it’s about as embarrassing as it sounds.

So yeah, I’m sure that this dream actually lasted about 30 seconds of actual sleep time, but I tell you I woke up feeling like I had been on some damned adventures. I’m wondering if before that I had some epic dream where I was battling guerillas in urban decay or trapped on death island. I have been re-reading a lot of Red Star and watching a lot of Lost, respectively. It would suck if I had a wholly creative idea that I could exploit for purposes of writing, but it was pushed out of my memory by false ad-rock stories.

No music today, but if you're in the mood to get really sad, read through some executed Texas prisoners' final statements. Warning, it's pretty fucking devastating. So then go here and read some fake IM chats. I keep getting caught reading these at work because I'm laughing hysterically.

My big sister's in town tonight. awesome.

TO SERVE MAN

Well, the mix is complete. I was up super fucking late last night freaking out over these samples, because for some reason Audacity plays them super fast and it was messing up my whole game. I was about to just save it and just post it without any clips, but as I was shutting the computer off I tried something new and lo and behold it worked. So I present to you in it's stunningly bland entirety, Mix #2. It should be pointed out that nearly all of these songs were pulled from other blogs and various sources around the net, most of them listed to the left of this text. These places have their shit together and I strongly recommend you check the sites out. So yeah, this is a mix in the sense that it's a mix of songs, but not in that it should just be called "stuff I like from the funputer superhighway".
I had a whole stack of samples ready to go, but in the end I decided to just use clips from "The Twilight Zone". I've been watching a good deal of the classic episodes lately, and they always make for some pretty sweet audio clips. My only regret is that I didn't post and Rod Serling monologues n there, but that can make the next one (along with the most hilarious Boris Karloff monologue EVER).
In other news, Hugo Chavez is hilarious, and there's some crazy shit goin' on outside of Pittsburgh.
Not much else to say today, I'm exhausted from staying up too late last night and I haven'thad much chance to catch up on most of the stuff I usually do. My sister and nephew just got into town early this morning, and I can't wait to spend the weekend with them, since it's been a little over a year since I last got the chance to see them. I wish it were under different calling, but I take what I can get, and remain positive through whatever lies ahead.

Repetitive Hand Jive Disorder: A New Threat
Shrinking Moon For You - Wooden Shjips
Bleary Eyed - Annuals
Animal Human - Clinic
Roll Call (demo) - Seeds of Concrete
Returning to the Fold - The Thermals
Chariot - Page France
Wet Sand - White Denim
Sway (original mix) - The Rolling Stones
Britney's Silver Can - James Kochalka Superstar
Business Cats - Mika Miko
(It's a) Departure - The Long Winters
The Trapeze Swinger - Iron & Wine
Be Me, Leave - Meaty Ogre
Kick Out the Chairs (WhoMadeWho remix) - Munk & James Murphy
Cunts Are Still Running the World - Jarvis Cocker

there's a whole bunch of other songs I wanted to put on here, notably the new Menomena song, a great Chavez track, and a lot more hip hop, but I just couldn't get it to blend in and I wanted to get it out by the end of this week. So yeah. In any case, if the link expires or if you really really want one of these songs by itself let me know, or go buy the shit. Either way, let me know.

seriously. I don't mind it uploading it again, but I need to know when it's out.


You see that big tall alien in the end of that clip? Is it? No...it couldn't be! No fucking was he was. Oh my god it is! The legend, "Jaws" himself... RICHARD MOTHERFUCKING KIEL!!!
THWAP!


and finally, The Office starts it's third season tonight. Fucking watch it, because Steve Carrell is funnier than you. Unless you're the ghost of Richard Pryor browsing this site. In which case I'm honored, and more than a little freaked out.

oh, and manhole covers are getting blown off in Philly.

"Good news, everybody!"

Good news in that I think I fixed the computer issue. I've ripped iTunes 7 from my computer's very heart and thrown it to the ground before lighting in on fire. I've installed 6 back on here and everything seems to be running a lot more smoothly. I'd have liked to check out the gapless playback feature, but it's something I can wait for. In any case, I was up late last night assembling the mix, and it's looking pretty good so far. I've got it set up and am combinc a bunch of sources for segues right now. With any luck it'll be up on friday. I'm still trying to find an easier way to host it than sendspace, but right now that's not looking very likely.
Aftre I crawled out of bed this morning for a second time, I was stirring my gallon cup of coffee with a silver spoon. It's not like I have more than one silver spoon, and regrettably, this one was accidentally stolen from the Union League of Philadelphia, but it was something that made me think of The Who's "Substitute". Not really sure why it didn't recall the theme song from "Silver Spoons" (click it. seriously), but I stopped questioning the erratic behavior of my memory a long time ago.
Anyway, my love of The Who predates my love of both the Stones and the Beatles. Back to a time when I thought you could only really like one of those three bands. Of course that's complete bullplop, but I was young and was easily goaded by British music rags. Anyway, The who was probably the first band that I ran out and bought everything I could by (we already owned all of Springsteen's albums, and I'd heard enough shitty Pink Floyd to know that they had pleny of sour moments). and pretty much up until It's Hard before I found a weak spot. That's right, I even liked Face Dances. But that's not the point. I was always so amazed with the band that had more diverse personalities than the Beatles and were still the hooligans that the Stones were always pretending to be. I still love the story Pete Townshend tells about how he basically let Roger Daltrey become the singer of the band because he was terrified of him and thought he'd get beat up f he didn't. The Who is the sum of Pete Townshend's boarding himself up and working out his personality issues, and trying to get over having grown up with a big nose (seriously! read an interview with the man), Roger Daltrey's trying to be seen as an artist and a heartthrob, John Entwhistle being supremely talented and fucked up in the head at the same time, and Keith Moon being completely fucking bananas. I'd tell one of the thousands of Keith Moon stories here, but it seems unfair to tell one without telling all of them. Keith Richards is similar on the breadth of stories about him that make up so much of my conversations, but with Keith it there's a theme of having a sense of honor (strange, I know) and eccentricity. With Moon, there's nothing but complete shenaniganism. I still crack myself up thinking about him living next door to Steve McQueen in Malibu. I don't know, read his Wikipedia page if you're that curious. Someday I'll get to the Keef stories.
Anyway, on to Live At Leeds. It's probably my favorite live album in history, and certainly one that captures a band at their absolute pinnacle of sheer and raw power. They just fucking destroy everything there. I generally skip the live performance of Tommy, because there are about 40 of them widely available on CD. It's still a great version, but after listening to it so many times, you tend to dread hearing it as much as the band dreaded playing it by that point (something like 3 straight years). Anyway, these songs are amongst my favorites, and all of them can only truly be enjoyed at ear-splitting volume. The great story about "Happy Jack is Townshend shouting "I saw ya") at the end of the track when they originally recorded it. The story varies from source to source, but the one I always knew was that while they were recording the harmonies, Keith kept trying to sneak into the studio to sing with them. Since he was known for his godawful singing voice (amply documented on his godawful solo album), they kapt kicking him back out. After some point he just started popping his head up in the recording booth's window and making faces just to make them laugh so they'd have to re-record it. On the take where they finally nailed it (they made Moon lie on the floor), a little head popped up in the corner of the window and Pete pointed it out, "I saw ya!". The damage was done, but the take was too good to give up, so that became the final track and from then on, they had to include the line. Wow, I guess I did tell a Keith Moon story. Whoops. Shit, and I wanted to talk about how ahead if it's time "I'm a Boy" is and how it was related to their later works, but that's for another day maybe. or tonight. We'll see.
Still, to this day it amazes me that this is three people playing instruments here (I know, the voice is an instrument, blah blah blah). It sounds like an army. I can't think of a trio that god that much out of their instruments other than Nirvana. and don't even bring up Cream. Fuck Cream. Yeah, I said it.

"Young Man Blues" (live) - The Who
"Happy Jack" (live) - The Who
"I'm a Boy" (live) - The Who.

Buy the Tommy-less remasterd version of Live at Leeds here.

oh, and in other news, it looks like we've invaded Iran. Smart move, assholes.

sad little robot

I've been trying to post this since 10:30 last night, but for some reason the wireless connection at home has been spotty. Which, regrettably, is the least of my computer concerns at the moment. The new iTunes has all but destroyed my ipod, and while I'm trying to get it back into working order (I'm afraid to even hazard a guess as to how long that might take), I'm pretty screwed in what I can get uploaded. In the meantime, I'll try to keep as regular a schedule as I can. I thought I had it fixed this morning, but here I am, staring at a frozen screen again. fuck.
Things around here have been getting better and worse. My grandmother has gotten out of the hospital, and her spirits seem to be high, well as high as they can be, considering the state my dad's been in. It's hard, watching someone you love wearing down like this. It's not a terribly profound or original thought, but that doesn't stop it from hitting you like a punch in the kidneys. Talk of hope becomes timid and understated.
I'm so tired of offering to help and not being able to. I don't want to keep leaving for work, or to make calls about things that are months away. This is not unique to me, and it's not my right to complain about it (on a fucking blog of all places. shoot me), but I think for the first time I'm truly scared about what lies ahead, and the foggy uncertainty of the outcome. I guess it can't be that uncertain, though, can it? In any case, my apologies for the tone I feel like this site might take on.
I wanted to post some old Gospel songs that Alan Lomax recorded, but the ipod issues have pretty much put the kibosh on that for now. I'll get it sorted soon, I promise. I don't know when I'll get that mix ready now, but it's not leaving my desktop, I can assure you. I mean my real desk top. In any case, here's some songs from Mark Lanegan, wehich is the only CD I have on my desk at work. It's good though, because it fits the mood I'm in. I'll try to write some more about this album later, because right now I've got way too much to get to.

"Strange Religion" - The Mark Lanegan Band
"Out of Nowhere" - The Mark Lanegan Band
Buy Bubblegum here.

half delirious and short of breath

It feels like it’s been about three weeks since I last posted here instead of a few days. Went to New York on Friday afternoon, got to take care of some shopping and check out the General Slocum memorial fountain (above), which is about as tall as I am and was behind a locked gate since it was after dark. So much for getting a picture. Still, it was nice to check it out. My strange relationshipt with the city continues unabated. In any case, it was nice to get down there and I had a good time at the show. Eugene Mirman remembered me from when I saw him a year and a half ago, and I’m pretty sure I creeped him out enough this time to avoid the eastern seaboard in general. I talked to Todd Barry for a few minutes in the back, but I would’ve loved to see him perform, which would effectively make it the greatest comedy show I’ve ever seen, needing only Aziz Ansari, Louis CK and Steven Wright to round out my favorite living comedians all on one stage. I probably can’t complain about seeing the guys I got to, it was a great time. Afterwards we went with a new friend to grab a few drinks, thinking that we had until 1:41 to catch the train back to Metropark where the car was. Since I’m half retarded, though, I was using the Friday schedule instead of the Saturday one. We missed the train by a few minutes and as a result had to wait until the next one was leaving. At 5:14 AM. I figured we should probably just go and get drunk at that point, but I still had to drive the rest of the way home whenever we got to Metropark, so in the end Carrie took a nap while I stayed up and watched our stuff in the NJ Transit lounge, drinking cup after cup of coffee, going through my new music, and smoking half a pack of cigarettes. There goes that quitting kick.

Interesting, though, the things you get to see hanging around Penn Station for that long trying to give out more cigarettes than you want to smoke. I talked to some prostitutes for awhile and a homeless guy or two. I watched the rats under the planters out front put on their little show. I met a guy on the street who recognized my t-shirt, which was really strange because it’s one a friend of mine made, and probably no more than 50 of them at that. Funny, how that works out. Anyway, it was exhausting, but not altogether terrible.

Finally pulled in the driveway at 9:00 AM and went to bed until some good friends pulled into town a few hours later. I was trying to figure out how much rest I’ve been getting lately, and I figured that since Wednesday night I’ve gotten 16 hours worth of sleep. Add that onto my reviltalized smoking habit and the fact that I spent yesterday surrounded by 14,000 people that are much, much healthier than I am, and you’ve got a guy that feels like living death. Which was pretty cool. But I’m not gonna get into that right now.

Not surprisingly, I’ve made absolutely zero headway into that mix I promised, but hopefully that’ll be up by the end of the week. Right now I’ve got four days of news podcasts and what was apparently a classic Meet the Press to catch up on. I’ll post some songs tonight, and maybe even something that goes further into my weekend, but right now I have to get some work done and check up with some family members in the hospital. Oh, and sleep at some point. I’m going to buy 6 lbs of melatonin and conk out tonight at 5:30 in a bowl of cereal. It’s gonna be so awesome…

If you're bored though and are looking for something to do, go check out this database of cassette nostalgia, which I admittedly spend hours looking through the other day.

or this collection of vintage supermarket photos. These pics always make me nostalgic for a time when people knew their butchers behind the meat counters by name, despite the fact that a) I wasn't born in this era I'm recalling so fondly, and b) even though I hardly ever go to the meat counter, I actually do know the guy's name. Still no luck on the seafood guy though. What it should point out to me is how much different a place the supermarket used to be. People went to one supermarket (I currently trade off between FOUR) and probably didn't concern themselves with what wasn't on the shelf instead of driving another 8 miles for shiitake mushrooms.
Also, this was before the supermarket had been dissected and reorganized by marketability and product placement. Well, that's not entirely true, but it's certainly come a long way. I did a study once in college about why things go the places they go in supermarkets, and how companies pay to have their stuff placed at eye level, and how the sale items at the end of the aisle really just amount to what they fucked up in ordering too much of a few weeks before. There was also a great piece I read somewhere (I'll ty to find it later) about why the fruit and vegetable sections are always the first thing you see when entering the building so that the overload of colors and scents meant to overwhelm your senses and put you in a state more susceptable to buy stuff. But I'm rambling. Hope everyone had a nice weekend, I'll be back later I hope.

So this stupid website has been down all morning, and I'm ducking out of work in about 20 minutes, so it's virtually imposible to get a worthwhile post in and some music. For that I apologize. I can say, however, that I have begun work on Podcast Mixtape #2, which should be completed early next week. I basically have all the songs ready and, barring the sequencing and getting off my lazy ass enough to find some segues, everything is ready to go. I was all excited to take a picture of the General Slocum memorial, but I left my phone (and Metrocard with $26 left on it - damnit) at home, so my apologies for not following up on something you didn't know I was gonna do. Other plans include a new template for this thing because this background pisses me off, but I still have to figure out html enough to even think about that shit for now. Anyway, have a great weekend, everyone.

oh, and here's a 40 minute mix from Mike the 2600 king which I've been enjoying the hell out of so far. It's all over the place, in a good way.

I'll try and post something later, but for now you should get over to ickmusic and download a quick acoustic set from Joe Strummer. Because he's your hero.

In Person

I’m kinda pissed because it was my big goal to head down to the Free Library today to see Amy Goodman speak at noon. Unfortunately, though, I have a scrabble gane I can’t back out of tonight, lunch with my grandmother tomorrow, and a train to NY to catch on Friday, which makes for a busy-ass week that I won’t be able to take off any work for. Maybe I’ll post something when I get home tonight, but for now you should really get your asses over to rbally to download that Otis Redding show from the Whiskey. Seriously, if you don’t have it already you should. He was easily one of the greatest performers that ever lived, and everyone deserves a little Otis in their lives. It's the third post down. I've got plenty to say about him, but I'll save that for my own post, whenever that might come up.

Chafee fucking won? and so did Hillary. The status quo moves on. and I don't mean that shitty band.

So I don't know if this is keeping in with the classic science fiction theme, but the name Galaxie 500 definitely does strike up a sort of shiny, idealistic interpretation of the future. And rightfully so; they named themselves after a model of Ford made from 1959-74, the apex of shiny, idealistic futures. I remember reading that the got started hoping to sound like the Modern Lovers, who in turn wanted to sound like the Velvet Underground. Just like countless other bands. People always talk about how influential the Velvet Underground was, but I think it's even more amazing how different most of these bands usually sound. It's odd, what two different people hear in the same song. I don't know.
Anyway, I heard the first song on the radio today and I forgot that I owned this CD. It was buried in my old books, where every other CD that goes in comes out another copy of Vitalogy or Harvest Moon. Seriously, therels like eight damned copies of those albums in there. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to find my Skratch Piklz bootlegs. I don't really know why, though.

"When Will You Come Home" - Galaxie 500
"Another Day" - Galaxie 500

these songs might not be complete, because I'm having a crappy time with the server. Let me know if that's the case.

But On Fire here.

He Was Legend

Last night I had to go to my parents house to move a bed. I had to move my bed, specifically, upstairs to set up a makeshift bedroom for my dad on the ground floor. I haven’t been in this room for six years, so naturally when we found a shoe box underneath the bed I was wondering what might be inside of it. It was a box filled with the articles I’d written for the college newspaper. Lots of them. Not that I gave a shit about that, though. The real treasure was buried beneath most of these. It was a paperback collection entitled “The Science Fiction Hall of Fame III”. I’d been looking for this book since I was 19 and I almost crapped my pants when I found this. I was never a huge sci-fi fan and still tend to roll my eyes when it comes to most of the genre, but these were the classic stories, the ones that were written between the thirties and the sixties and emphasized just how open-minded and out there the genre could be, even in an era where these characteristics were openly frowned upon. Anyway, this book was from a class in high school that I took, one that was taught by a middle-aged Trekkie and renowned drunk. It was an amazing class, where the discussion of these stories led to engaging conversations about metaphysics, social theory, and how to clean puke out of your parents’ rug. Looking back on it now, it was the sort of class that I always hoped my college courses would be like, but never shaped out to be. I guess taking an unpopular elective that forced you to read sometimes did that. We watched “Twilight Zone” and “Outer Limits” episodes, and I was startled to realize that I already knew the plots to most of them from old Simpsons Halloween episodes. I began a daunting mission to read the stories that they were based on. Rod Serling, Richard Matheson and Ray Bradbury (still a literary hero of mine, he's an ornery old bastard, but the motherfucker can write) replaced Kerouac and Fitzgerald as my favorite writers in some sort of de-nerdification process. They still are. A massive Serling biography still sits in a box in my parents’ house, reminding me that I have to read that again sometime. He really did lead an incredible life, I assure you. Anyway, all of these stories were flooding my mind and just slapping me in the face with how wondrous something can seem when you read it for the first time expecting nothing. So I’ve put down the 3 books I’m reading right now to make my way through this collection. I’m gona take my time with it, too. From “Country of the Kind” to “The Weapons Shop” to “The Nine Billion Names of God”, I’m gonna relish these stories.

Anyway, it was funny because in the middle of the night I was checking something online and saw a transcript of Keith Olbermann’s report last night, which might have been the most scathing attack on the administration I’ve read in a month. No mainstream media has dared to this far at all, and it made me happy to read it since I stopped watching network news a long time ago and swore off television last week to avoid the cavalcade of memorials and political backwash that was bound to take over the airways on this anniversary. I’m still glad I did (I got to listen to “Meet the Press” in a podcast and was sick to my stomach), but it completely bowled me over when Olbermann closed his commentary with a mention of one of my favorite episodes of “The Twilight Zone”. Apparently one of his favorites, too. I didn’t agree with all of his statements, but he hit pretty close to home, and one can’t deny the man for having the balls and conviction for saying what’s on his mind. Thanks, Olbermann. Tonight I’m going to read my book and if I’m lucky watch that exact episode before falling into what I can only hope be a dream-fueled slumber. It’s almost time to dream again.

I’m not positive if this is the book, but there’s one of the same title here.

If you’re pissed that you came here to find music and are pissed to find some sort of nerd rant about writers, check back later tonight.

I’m going pretty far with these 2 posts a day thing, huh? Probably a bit of overkill. I’m still trying to resolve this into a more regular format, but for now you’re gonna have to stick with me posting crap as if comes to me.

"These Days" - Paul Westerberg

Buy Come Feel Me Tremble here.


Thanks Tommy for the song.

5 years later

It's obviously an anniversary that should be noted, but I'm not gonna get into that here, because all you have to do is turn on the TV (to any station. the animal planet tribute to 9/11?) or the radio to get a glimpse of what's goin on today with people. I don't think there's much I can add to that, other than to say I think it's pretty terrible that that many people think we need reminding of what happened.
NPR had an interesting piece last night about the memorial that they're gonna build and how it compares to thememorials for the second worst disaster in NY history as well as one of the most horrific. These are a small statue in Tompkins Square Park and a 2'x2' plaque, respectively. It's strange to see how tangible our grief seems to have become since then. I guess they just assumed that these sort of terrible events would be etched into our memory, scar tissue that would remain long after the survivors and the blame. It didn't. I don't know whether it's better to make a hulking memorial or if it's insulting to erect something far more modest, but it's something to think about. I'm gonna go now, but I'll try to post something tasteful here later.

also, Ken Lay's trial was supposed to start today. I just thought of that, not sure why I should mention it here.

Jings!

Arab Strap broke up. Which is a damned shame, but I have to say I'm pretty sure this is the one time when I can say I'll enjoy all of the pieces that come out of this. I fucking love that Malcolm Middeton album, and Aidan's no slouch, so here's to me having to buy more albums!

Wrong Syl

Well, needless to say, that movie left something of a salty taste in my mouth (like pretzels!), but in the end it also left me with some hope that it's just as possible for people to get all wrapped up in the right sort of movement as it is to get all wrapped up in the wrong sort (also like pretzels!). In any case, despite the fact that it's loaded with a bunch of comparisons to the current political situation, which tends to annoy me but I suppose it has to be done. Anyway, overall I dug it.
Get to see some old friend stonight that I have'nt seen in way, way too long, despite the fact that they live 14 miles away. It got me thinking though, a buddy asked me what I'd come up with for Halloween the other day and it was odd, because I had just started thinking about it for the first time this year And then I realized that it's totally likely that I will not do a damned thing for Halloween this year, which is a little depressing. It's also waaay too far off to think about. In any case, I'm terminally lazy right now and up to my ass in work to do before I get to sneak out of here tonight, so I'm just gonna post something quick and sweet. I give you my favorite love song of all time*.

"I Hate I Walked Away" - Syl Johnson

Buy The Complete Syl Johnson here. If you like soul/funk, I really recommend it.

I'll come back this weekend and post some clips of Bill Hicks wishing death on people, it'll be fun. Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, I'm deleting these songs after about 2 weeks from now on, so if you want something, I'd recommend downloading it now.


*Probably. I chance my mind alot. As if you didn't know.

I'm lying in bed watching a documentary about the candidacy of George McGovern. I'm not gonna comment on it because I'm not finished it yet and I want to see how the fuck this man didn't get elected, but was creamed. By Richard fucking Nixon. Sweet holy crap that's depressing. It's really, really depressing. As a result I'm going to post some songs from an album all about the horrible consequences of war.
The Final Cut is probably the least liked Pink Floyd album, or at least the the most poorly received from when Roger Waters was still in the band. It's a largely personal work for Waters, whose own father, who was a communist and a pacifist, was killed in WWII. It touches on a few of the darker themes he explored in The Wall, but this time without all the blow or whatever the hell was getting to the band's ego by the time of that album. I think it's one of my favorites (outside of Meddle) just because it's so dark and raw with sentiment, it was when I was in college that I realized how much it must've hurt Waters, who probably considered this his most sincere and polished work. Anyways, it's a good album that reminds you how fucking backwards this place can be sometimes.

"The Post War Dream" - Pink Floyd
"Paranoid Eyes" - Pink Floyd


Buy The Final Cut here

I'm sure many or most of you are well familiar with these tunes, and I should probably apologize for that. But to be fair, its my site and I get to pick what goes up. Maybe you haven't heard these in awhile. Maybe you just remembered (as I did recently) how fucking great "Paranoid Eyes" is.
Either way, I'm in the middle of a damned movie.

Incidentally, Dick Gregory is fucking awesome. Seriously.

So I just spent 40 minutes trying to find that picture of Karl rove throwing the goat to prove a point, but with no luck. Shit, what if it was Cheney? In any case, I'll make a real post later tonight. Meanwhile, I've been going on walks around my work after I eat, partly to get a little excercise while digesting, but also just to get out of the office and let my mind wander. In any case I think I came to the conclusion that when someone describes themselves as a "free spirit", it usually just means that they don't mow their lawn.

Just thinking about this whole secret prison thing and why the hell Bush would 'fess up to it now of all times. then he answered my question by claiming that the Geneva convention's definition of torture is "too vague". If it was too vague, then why the hell have we been adhering to it for so many years? If this thing he's pushing for gets passed, then we're all so fucked...

more later.

new slumber party!

Slumber Party is four supercute girls from Detroit who play a warm garage fuzz that isn't too far off from later VU or Luna. Core songwriter Aliccia Berg comes up with some pretty great songs and they have a great lazy sound about them. These songs are from the aptly titled third album, 3. Since this album, Berg is the only remaining band member, but I'm pretty sure it will rock you sufficiently nonetheless. and yes, I'm reasonably sure all of the new members are supercute. I was gonna put some earlier stuff of theirs up, but while I was getting this ready and checking their names, I found out that they've got another one coming out on Kill Rock Stars in less than a week. So yeah, run out and buy that. I'm actually pretty excited now.

"No Sleep Tonite" - Slumber Party
"On-T.V." - Slumber Party

and download a song, "10-9-8-7-6-5-4", from their new one here that I haven't even heard yet (thanks KRS).

Buy 3 and a shitload of merch here. and pre-order their new one Muzik here.

I woke up this morning freezing my ass off. It was such a nice feeling, enough even to get me to break out the blankets and look forward to passing out tonight. Of course, it's only a matter of time now before it's too cold to get out of bed in the mornings, but cut me some slack on this. I even had to root around in my closet for a sweater. My itchy red one, to be more specific. Strangely, I've got more than one itchy red sweater, but this one is the oldest and the most...red, so it gets the title. Rotting around in my limited closet space for my layers was sich a nice feeling, like seeing old friends. "I forgot about you, hobo sweater! Oh, corderouy jacket, you look great!" I didn't actually say this, but you get the point. Of course, it's now too hot for said sweater, as my post-lunch walk around the block is telling me.
Again, I can't post any music until tonight, but I did just notice that Pakistan just signed a peace accord with pro-taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Which means that they'll be returning money and weapons to them, and effectively offering sanctuary to bin Laden. This is also a country that already has the bomb (not a DECADE away from it like someone else we're trying to invade) and likely spead the nuclear secrets to Libya, North Korea and Iran. and now they're NBFs with China! Oh, they're also filled with al-Quaeda and Taliban supporters. You have to be fucking kidding me. I'll never understand what the hell backwards ass longcut to peace this country is on right now. If you think that we're working towards having a safe country and being not even liked, but tolerated by the rest of the world in the next 20 years I'd recommend pulling your head out of your ass and maybe using that flag on your car as a Burqua, because the shit ain't gonna happen. We're waging wars on top of wars right now, and making friends with all the wrong people in doing it. Fucking Uzbekistan? Jesus, who are we kidding? Are you ready to answer for this shit that's being comitted in your name, and in mine? Am I? Does it matter even if we aren't? In the next few months we're gonna have all sorts of shit made up and thrown our way, trying to convince us that we need a firm resolve in this fake-ass war we've waged. We're going to be lied to and cheated by both parties, and it's just so that their side can win.

Oh, and the next fucking person that makes a comparison of anyone, anything to Hitler about anything deserves to be fucking stoned to death. STOP IT. The more you bandy around these fucking comparisons the more frivolous the common perception of that monster becomes. Stop trying to use him as an example. For anything. Do you remember how Hitler got into power, Dub? By using mass communication to work a nation into fear and national hubris, the same fucking way you did. So stop saying this. Everyone. Santorum, Rummy, Olbermann, MoveOn, all of you*. Knock it the fuck off and grow up some. Hitler is dead, and the only thing you're doing by continuing to bring him up is give him more of a legacy. If you want to make outlandish statements that bring the worst fears into everyone's minds, then you probably shouldn't be given a microphone. When did we lose that choice? OK, I'm finished with my political whine for the day and I'll try to keep it to myself for the rest of the week, but the shit is getting out of control.

*I know this happened some months ago, but it seems like nobody learned a damned thing. It seems like nobody ever learns a damned thing.

"Santayana's aphorism must be reversed: too often it is those who can remember the past who are condemned to repeat it." - Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

So this is like the fifteenth Ween post I've made on this thing, but I can't help it. I woke up with this song in my head, and it's more or less appropriate, what being a tuesday and a pizza day. This is an album released a year ago and consisting entirely of unreleased songs that were left off albums. Normally this would be an excuse for a box of shit, but somehow this turned out great, and I can think of at least 2 of their albums that these songs were left off of that I like less than this one. And, as Carrie pointed out to me, the background vocals on "Someday" sound a lot like Muppets.

"Someday" - Ween
"Gabrielle" - Ween

Buy Shinola, Vol. 1 here.

I know it's like 9:45 now and it's far later than I said but I have a legitimate excuse in that I'm lazy and forgot.

Oh, and here's a list of how many times we've caught the second most senior man in Al-Quaeda. I don't know, I thought it was interesting.

Big Shirtless Ron

Well, I obviously didn’t get a chance to post yesterday, and unfortunately, I won’t be able to post music until I get home tonight from work. Actually, this’ll probably become a lot more common in the future thanks to issues with my computer at work. I’ll still post my crappy lunchtime thoughts, though, so at least you’ll get that out of me.
It was a nice, long weekend. I got to spend some time with my family (including my brother’s family, who was in from Atlanta), see Man Man (more on that in a second) and enjoy the a nice day out on the porch yesterday watching birds and eating sausage. All in all it was a great time. My dad starts his chemotherapy today, so tensions are running pretty high for me. It’s such a strange treatment, and one rarely if ever knows how any particular patient is going to react to it. And it’s gotten much better in recent years, but still, it’s enough to really get you down. On Friday night he pulled all of us, his children and grandchildren, into the living room in Maryland and sat us down and said something along the lines of “I’m sick, and I know you’re all concerned about me, but I don’t want this to be the theme every time I’m around. I want to tell you what we know and then let you ask whatever questions you have now, so that I can get this all out of the way”. And we did just that. There was some crying, and some general concern as far as defining a line between general concern and smothering him with worry. In the end I think we all felt a little more prepared to deal with this thing and a little more closely knit as a family. I was impressed with how well we were holding together, and even moreso with my dad, who is the strongest man I’ve ever known. When my sister asked him if he was scared he pointed out that the doctors told him that he’d never live to see me born, and since then he’s felt like every single hour he gets is a gift from god. So no, he wasn’t really scared, but he wasn’t skipping through this either. He’s going through with the best possible outlook he can have, and that is one of concern without worry, acknowledgement without fear, and an all-encompassing belief that nothing is finished yet and that we’re not going anywhere. It sounds strange, but I think we all needed that. Because these things are rarely easy to deal with, and Cancer has never been easy to deal with. We were unsure and afraid. But we have the perfect role model in the man in front of us. And once again we find ourselves taking his lead and getting ready to walk through this. Thanks Pop.
So yeah, we saw Man Man the other night. I’d been looking forward to seeing these guys play for the longest time, l and they didn’t disappoint. Their performance was the circus that I was half-expecting, and they sounded great. I can say with complete honesty though that I was ready to punch every other person in the audience in the face. Seriously, it was mind-boggling how frustrating it was. I’m growing to realize that I complain about the crown more and more with every show I see (this might reflect my growing older, or my aversion to all-ages shows, or that I might just be an asshole), but seriously within 15 minutes of the show starting there was at least 15 kids with their shirts off trying to crowd surf and pull off some sort of hippie mosh pit. When I say kids, mind you, I mean kids. They couldn’t have been older than 17. and while I guess a 17 year old’s back sweat might be better than a 65 year olds, it’s not by much. The point is it’s fucking disgusting and I want it nowhere near me. Also, I have a strange aversion to getting kicked in the face. When I would go to hardcore shows back when I’d hate getting kicked in the face, too. But the difference is that I knew that was gonna happen at those kinds of shows. It’s the sort of thing you’d come to expect there. This was not a hardcore show and it wasn’t really necessary to start that shit up. Especially when you come perilously close to knocking over a stack of amps every 4 seconds. We all want to appreciate the music, and plenty of us want to dance, but seriously the difference is that the rest of us are completely aware that there are several hundred other people in the venue that are just trying to watch the show.
So yeah, I guess the point is keep your shirt on and save the crowd surfing for the warped tour or some shit. Listen, I know it gets hot, especially in unventilated warehouses. And as guys, we believe we have the unalienable right to take off our shirts in public. But the thing is, we don’t. You wanna sit around your yard drinking a can of beer and mowing the lawn with no shirt on? Awesome. Sleep naked on the couch all day? Great. But if you’re going somewhere that you’re more than likely to be rubbing up against a lot of other people that aren’t your friends or fellow orgy-participants, there’s really no reason to whip your shirt off. Shit, girls can keep their shirts on, so can you.
That’s all for now. I’m tired and looking out at the rain and listening to Lucero’s third album, which is treating me exactly how it should on a day like this. I’ll put up a song or two tonight.


NOTE: I just walked down the street to get a candy bar and totally didn't realize it, but my white pants are completely see-through when they're wet. Now it looks like I'm wearing underwear over my pants.

PS Oh and as always, Banksy is the motherfuckin' man.

How

How awesome is that? Answer: VERY.

Gray Skies

It's 11:42 AM and I feel like death. Not the funny death that made us all laugh so hard in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, but that mean ol' death that takes pets and critically acclaimed sitcoms. I got an hour and a half of sleep last night and my computer at work seems to be whimpering on into its own tortured demise.


In any case, it feels fucking great to have Autumn back. Welcome, old friend. I missed you and look forward to brandishing sweaters and the smell of burning leaves. But seriously, let's not rush into anything too quickly.