"Celebrating" September 11th

It still makes me sick to my stomach to relive that day. But in a weird way it is good to remember that day. I was horrified, angry, sad, disgusted, so many emotions at once, connected to something, someplace I had no connection to. New York City, the World Trade Center, the Middle East, Terrorism, was just a distant place/thing/idea to me. When the shit hit the fan, it became an epiphany, a realization that the U.S. policies and attitude is not exactly loved by everyone in the world. Our modern days of "splendid isolationism", perhaps still in the back of our collective American minds riding on the coattails of saving Europe from Hitler so long ago, were over. You can only ride so long as a superpower.

That whole day I had the urge to go get my kid out of school and just go home and wait for the other shoe to drop. I felt sorrow for the victims and their families. The horror of the "jumpers" - ones that made the desperate decision to fall to their death rather than burn to death- imagining having to make that decision for myself if it were me. *stomach churns* I imagined what people in other countries that have to worry about car bombs daily have to go through every time they see their kid try to get to school. Subways, commuter trains, buses. We are living like the rest of the world now, but with a bigger target on our backs.

Then anger. Find those fuckers that did this. GET THEM.

And then the President W happened.

More anger as we blindly followed the Piper to Iraq, I saw it happening, everyone did. The deception, the lies, the feeding of our residual anger and blood-thirsty craving for justice to be done. We just let it happen.

Then he was reelected.

Shame, embarrassed to have a President like this. Even more embarrassed for our nation of fools that kept him in office. More anger, despair; this is our country?
WHAT IS WRONG WITH US?

So, 7 years later...
Here are the murderers:


Here are the victims:


This is what is effected by our actions since:

Global economy, global consequences. Where are we today? The memories of those people that perished that day haunt our American psyche, even though we still shop, buy, continue to be distracted with our daily lives. Think about it, think about that day, then think if our policies have changed in the world for the better? I know, all those things are still things we have no connection to. It's just a distant place/thing/idea to us. Kind of like New York City, the World Trade Center, the Middle East, Terrorism, everywhere. Business as usual. Everything but for the here and now.

Last day of The Braves

Sad, but true. 42 years. Last year they won the Governor's Cup. We had good seats and a good time, they won 9 to 3 against Norfolk Tides! Cool double steal, two over the fence homers, and a packed Diamond with over 12 thousand!
Let's hope we get another team soon.

Listening: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Dig Lazarus Dig!!!

Reading: Lone Wolf & Cub graphic novel

Mad Libs for blogs

Holy Snapping Duck Do! I just got slapped with a wet salmon - really - I have not updated this since they let me out!... You would not believe that I'd been abducted by aliens. Stupid Global Warming!.

I am flat out like a lizard drinking with discovering time doesn't stand still, learning to speak Japanese, just generally being a slave to anyone unfortunate to cross my path, my day sprawls from the second star on the right, straight on to home. I am hoping one day they will call me 'mummy' again. perchance.

I hope that one day I will update you with my nefarious activities as soon as I get a chance. You wanna test me? Cats if you don't..


(from The Lazy Blogger's Generator) and well, my awesome wife, Lisa, posting one first!

Reading: All She was Worth by Miyabe Miyuki

Listening: A punk girl mix I made!

Watching: Madmen Season 1 Disk 1 from Netflix (we finally joined!) and
Ping Pong. Ping pong, you say? Yes! Here's the trailer!

Radio Days & The Bizarre Market

So yesterday, we had the WRIR 97.3 radio tent at the Bizarre Market on Shields at the Joe's Inn block. This was a dedication to Jonny Z with Art 180, Chop Suey, Books on Wheels and a ton of other people in the mix selling their crafts and things. It turned out to be a great time. Charles Williams (Motherland Influence), Michael Miracle (Lotus Land Show), Melissa (Mercury Falls), Mary Claire (Thursday Breakfast Blend) and myself all took turns DJing in between bands (Gull, Josh Small, Liza Kate, The Antlers, among others) and raffling by Ward. The turnout was swell! What is really great about the Bizarre is that it is kind of like a lot of the other alternative things in Richmond. For the rest of us! There were tattooed pierced freaks, oddballs, THAT guy, and a lot of other people you would call the alternative art scene. Love it. Here are some pics:


BB Thursdays, Lotus Land, Mercury Falls, BB Fridays


Ward the Raffler.


Galaxy Girl & Monkey Dog Studios

So after spending most of the day there, it was time to break down some of the gear and take it back to the station, then get ready for River City Limits with Ceci. Ceci & I make a good pair on the air, cracking jokes, general silliness and we freaking ROCK it too! Good day to be representing the radio station and just plain fun anyway.


Me & Ceci chumming it up.

Listening: Polysics "We Ate the Machine", Beck "Modern Guilt", The Kills "Midnight Boom"
Reading : In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami
Avoiding : Carytown Watermelon Festival

Gull

This is a picture of the band, Gull, playing at River City Limits today. Nate, the only band member, finger slams the guitar while playing the drums AND singing with microphone skull-mask strapped to his face. Very awesome!

More pix:

Welcome to Richmond on the 4th of July

This was my view most of the time while waiting forever for the Braves to lose at the Diamond last night so we could watch some fireworks.
Old ladies butts in capris.

Reading: American Sideshow by Marc Hartzman

Listening: Fullmetal Jackoff by Jello Biafra with D.O.A.

Camping & Death

We went to Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore for 5 days, it was beautiful. We had a bout of rain Sunday night, but the rest of the week was clear, warm without too much humidity, and awesome. Some friends joined us the first few days, where we took the waters, hiked on some crazy ass boardwalk that deadended, visited Chatham Vineyards on the sly from the owner after he saw our frustration at it being closed, and ate heartily from Dave's cooking and the Machipongo's Clam Shack! Good times. Here are a few pictures:




So we come back, after a week of no tv or radio, a good thing, and I just learn tonight that one of my favorite EVER comedians, George Carlin, had died. That makes me sad. I saw him when I was 19 and under the influence in the third row at the Mosque. A GREAT show. He had a cynicism that seemed to get more curmudgeonly as he grew older but was hilarious and I loved ever bit of it. At his passing, news bites called him the edgy comedian, only quoting the 7 Words you can't say on television, but he was more than that. He was the very representation of Anti-Establishment. He questioned EVERYTHING and it didn't matter what side of the fence it was on. He wrote a few great books, had countless hilarious records and was a messenger for us all. Fuck THEM. God damn we'll miss that man. Bye, you great wise-ass kid from New York City.

"And now a word from The National Apple Institute: FUCK PEARS."
"The following statement is true: the preceding statement was false."

Gypsy-Riffic! Review of Gogol Bordello!

Quick pic of the Gogol Bordello show at Toad's Place from last night above, now here's the review:

Ichiban is my friend, especially the double deuce ounce size. Polished it off at the sushi restaurant (the summer of sushi kick has begun) and walked down to Toad’s Place for the show. The line was formed and Pedals on Our Pirate Ship was punkin’ it up outside to entertain the line. A great local perky band, hitting the PBR tallboys between songs. I guess the audience could care less, unfortunately, as the line started moving. Toad’s has some charm even if it feels like it is run by out of towner “professionals”. If you have all your stuff in order, you get to go right through, the bartenders are fast and furious so you don’t even notice the price on a beer. It has good lighting, sound and layout, like a polished Flood Zone of sorts.

Bumped into some friends, P.J. had his camera geared up, and Lauren Vincelli who was to do the RVA Magazine review (and I was "competing" against to get the article, I guess) was still trying to land an interview with the headliner. To say she is an adorning fan is an understatement. She tells us how she has been trying and trying to get some Q&A with GGB but their PR person says that they only want “cover” interviews, meaning they want all the attention for whatever rag you got going or no deal. She tells them that RVA will give them all they can online, on the you tube, etc…I don’t think they were biting though. She next came up with the notion to interview the groupie of GGB who had been following them around. A great idea! Lauren is a dedicated fan and rocks!

Anyway, the opener was Dusty Rhodes and the River Band, a band label unity line-up going on with this show. They immediately got the Dexys Midnight Runners reference from me, dashed in with some Rick Wakeman circa “Journey to the Center of the Earth” keyboard wackiness. Despite their best efforts to keep to the odd rock-folk-soul groove thang going, big ape dudes with crooked hats and Eminem posturing started some sort of ghetto slamming. They were funny and noted by one of the guitarists who gave them a shout out: “This one goes to that guy right there that likes the funny mustaches.” I have no idea what that meant but weird mens room stall imagery came to mind. Shudder. So yeah, okay, the band still rocked it in their own way.

After they finished out their set, it was time to walk around some more, look at the smoking section on the second floor balcony and check out the upstairs. See some people, chat chat chat, back downstairs as the headliner approaches and DAMN this place got crowded!

My friend and I made our way as close as we could without probably getting sucked into a sweaty, B.O. ridden pit. We found a solid place between some other friends and two saucer-eyed blondes and then it happened. Pure Gypsy. Gogol Bordello unleashed it’s mighty gypsy punk sound like it was a rabid pit bull just told to “sic em”. The crowd popped up and down like it was on a boat capsizing and if you’ve ever felt the sound of pure pagan soul, this was it. They flopped around, spun around, rallied the crowd and just plain put on show.

It was a good solid show for nearly 2 hours. Frontman Eugene Hütz had a bottle of wine to glug on and sling around like it was the nectar of the gods when he wasn’t strumming the hell out of his acoustic guitar. The old dude on fiddle, Sergey Ryabtsev, held his own, popping the bow strings by the end of the night. The small dude dressed like Pele, Thomas "Tommy T" Gobena , cranked second percussion and rapped to the crowd with dictator style fervor. Then the two gypsy women came out, one on bass drum, the other flailing cymbals, and it was a call to sonic arms. Man, but did the place hop like a gypsy juke on amphetamines.

Then a bit of weirdness happened, Eugene: “Thank you very much Charlottesville!” What?!? Do you even know what town this is! Ha! Well, what should you expect from a guy who had been sucking on a bottle of red table wine for over an hour, I guess. All was forgiven PDQ as they tore out a 45 minute encore that left audience members euphoric and spent from pogo dancing. There was one moment when a group of sweat soakers plowed through us. A girl was passing out and her friends were trying to get her out of the melee. Unfortunately, her pals were worn out too and they could barely carry her off. They fell into a huddled mess, as slamming situations often dictate (the nature of the beast) and at first I thought the girl was getting ready to blow chunks. My friend James told it looked like she was rather punched in the mouth. Bet she had a good time!

Still, it wasn’t all slaps and exhaustion that night, tons of clapping, hollering and dancing in a circle till the finale, a 15 minute romper of a tune you’d think would never end nor want to brought the whole hopping thing to a close. Damn that was the stuff! Looking at my friend Fontaine's cell phone for the time, I had to get home and to bed, for in a few (very few) short hours I had to do the Breakfast Blend show on WRIR 97.3!! So what’s a good nights sleep lost for the show of the year?

Garoge

Richmond Alley, note the "garoge" indication. Wanna start a band?













Getting ready to read: Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

Listening: Gogol Bordello They are coming to town this Thursday!

Article for RVA MAgazine ONLINE

Check out the Peelander-Z article I did (with PJ Sykes on photo wizardry) for RVA Magazine!

Human Bowling

Peelander-Z and human bowling in a quickie video from a cheap camera!

Peelander-Z!

Again at the Camel. Great show, they are fantastic live, very audience participatory!

Picture:

1100 Miles in 3 Days

We burned up and back to Massachusetts for L.'s 20th College Reunion at Mount Holyoke. Made good time and put some miles on the new car. Had a great time despite our colds from last week's kayak adventure. Stayed in one of the dorms, witnessed the interesting ritual that this women's college has, met some great people and climbed a mountain with a beautiful view.

Our dorm room! Notice the beds pushed together... ;-)


H. & L. on the way to the Library.

Horse Skeleton in the Science Hall!


View from Mt. Holyoke.

Read: In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman, necessary reading for anyone.
Listening: The B-52s Funplex is actually not a bad cd to listen to through New Jersey!

New robot!

Picked this one up this weekend. A HaHa Toy, you got to love that name for a Toy Company. Not a great bot, but cheap! (Yeah, I know, I am a freakin' dork!)

Listening: Marianne Nowottny, I have no idea why. And Qui.

Reading: Finishing up The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi, can't believe that was written in 1948!

On deck: After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Also, reacquired a copy of the fantastic cyberpunk sampler, Storming the Reality Studio having lost my previous one.

New Blog Project

L. & I have a new blog called

"Damned Dirty Apes"

and we're going to share various pictures we take in parks and such of litter to show how filthy we humans are. Maybe it will inspire people to pick up after themselves or tick people off enough to give someone a hard time when they catch someone littering.

Give a hoot, mothersuckers, don't pollute!

So a bear walks into a box store

On television, there is a commercial out now that has a bear shopping at one of those home improvement box stores. An employee is helping the bear find just what it needs for home improvement: the paint and the siding and the barbecue grill and the crap and the ceiling fan and and and... What does a bear need at a place like that? Uh, how about the WOODS that you tore down to make your stupid box store? Whenever I think about that commercial I just wanna see the bear maul the hell out of the guy selling him all this junk.

To quote Bill the Cat : ACK!

DJed out representing WRIR for the first time ever at Chop Suey's annual Bizarre Market. A cool event where people bring stuff they made to sell, etc etc. Ward rocks. Nice to see local "crafters" come together. Oh and the Books on Wheels were there, second event I had been with them on. Great people and if I were not involved with other things, I would totally be hanging! Anyway, DJing for a crowd was great fun and I look forward to doing it again. Had a gal hula hoop dancing to some of the world music, had a couple of different people come up to me asking about some punk music I played and I got to talk with fellow WRIR DJs Bob and Christian for a little bit. Then L. walked down from home and met me and we went to Perly's for lunch afterwards. Good times.


Listening: P-Model, Haale, stuff for review for Carbon 14!

Watching: L. & I are finishing up Murder Mystery Movie month. We've been doing themed Sunday night movies off and on since we started back in September with Hitchcock.
This month was:
Murder on the Orient Express
Gaslight
Ten Little Indians
Dial M for Murder
Radioland Murders.
Maybe another blog entry will be some reviews.

Reading: Just finished a couple of quickies:
Snakes & Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara
and
Piercing by Ryu Murakami
Now on to the classic The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi. Yeah, a lot of Japanese goodness!

Mutants Unite

GREAT blog on hard to find, rare, bizarre, and great music from around the world.

MUTANT SOUNDS

I totally found that album of P-Model In a Model Room I had been looking for, they linked a download and now I own it on CD!

YES!

Photos of the drive

So here are some pictures of my long ass shift at the WRIR 97.3 Spring Fund Drive. Had a blast! We raised over a thousand dollars in the morning! Kick ass! And the show is on tomorrow muthatruckas!

Donate!!!!

It's fundraising time, call me now and make your pledge!

My Public Service Announcement

Having way to much fun (or free time) at work with a paddle ball game and powerful message, G. and I made this little nugget of humor.

I'm no Mr. T, but still....





Watching David Suchet's masterful rendition of Agatha Christie's Poirot in the classic collection set.

Well!

So I picked up a copy of this for five bucks:

I knew that 40 episodes of a 50 year old program for five bucks was going to have some shabby quality, but I didn't care. Whimsically, I purchased this because I like Jack Benny. When I was a teenager, my folks bought me two tape sets, stored in hard plastic like old timey radios. One set was mystery, the other comedy, each cassette had two episodes of a show. The mystery was OK, had Hitchcock, The Shadow --those were fine enough, but what I really enjoyed the most was Arch Obler's Lights Out. (It....is...later...than....you...thiiink.) One of the two episodes I had was the Revolt of the Worms, you can stream some eps, including that one, HERE.

Anyway, in the comedy set were also some jewels: Burns & Allen, Abbott & Costello, Roy Rogers (eh, not so much for me), and of course, Jack Benny! This was my fav from the comedy set. The timing and delivery of the cast just cracked me up, still does to hear Benny talk about the "picture" he would do that is "pathos mixed with comedy, where at a certain POINT...(point being high pitched and silly). Great stuff.

So this DVD set, and I am about 17 eps in, is a great one. The cast was spot on: Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Don, Mary, and the various singers in the stables. And also truly a cavalcade of stars, some that have lasted the test of time, others L. & I go, who is that: Marilyn Monroe, Burns & Allen, Mel Blanc (a regular), Eddie Kovacs, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope (zinging one-liners like a fiend!), so many more. It's interesting to compare to what we see on tv today: 24, Lost, Two and a half men, Law & Order, E.R..... our only variety comedy is after 11pm, and these shows seem so canned. Also, the stars on Jack Benny were so...dignified? I dunno, it's a curious observation.

Oh, and another really interesting thing is the advertisements. Lucky Strike was the sponsor and the ways in which they incorporated plugging it is often embarrassing to watch. Sometimes it is fairly charming, in fact, after a few episodes, I had the Lucky Strike tune rattling in my head!
Here is a good one too, manly man Lucky Strike!

Anyway, it is some fine television!

Listening: Ketchup Mania,
Guitar Wolf
Reading: The Eternal Frontier by Tim Flannery

Today is my birthday

It really is. I can't believe that I am only 38. I feel like I should be much older for some reason.
Anyway, things that I am thankful for in my life:

My wife and best friend and everything, Lisa.
She is BEST. I am a very very lucky man to have such a great gal. I love her dearly.

My daughter, Hope.
She is smart and funny and just a good kid.

My friends.
I don't have many close friends, but the ones I do are like family to me.

Various jobs.
I love my DJing on the radio and being involved with the station. Didn't think I would, but damn, good music lovin' active people. Also, my paying job at the library, despite what I may say sometimes, is actually okay.


Music: Billy-O from the Japanese band The Climax sent me some burned stuff from Japan after we chatted on email. What a surprise! Got all kinds of goodies like their first CD, stuff by The Telepathys, The Blue Hearts and Sandiest. He also threw in a punk mag from there! Awesome! I recently returned the favor by burning some stuff from town here and throwing in a Carbon 14 magazine to boot. Hope he digs it and we keep up the exchange!

Watching: So many things: The Great Horror Family funny stuff by the Juon director, making fun of himself and other horror genre movies! Anime, Tokko, a blood splatterfest and finishing up the first DVD of Tokyo Majin.

Come on down!

Hey, why not Friday night come on down to Broad Street for First Fridays and celebrate WRIR's third birthday with me! I will MC-ing it and there should be a lot of greatness going on!

Listening: Fatal Flying Guilloteens and a mix I made for the next radio music meeting called "President Asshole", all songs dealing with our leaders in Washington, tainting the American Dream. Want the song list?

Still reading the William Gibson! Damn I'm slow!

Old Seaboard platform

Taken around Shockoe Bottom during our Creek investigations. Kind of cool:

Listening: KARATE HOUSE KARATE HOUSE KARATE HOUSE!!!!

New Years Baltimore

Went to Baltimore, MD for NYE and a great time!
L. explains and had more details on her blog.
Check it out!

2007 Music

Here was some good stuff last year:
Tops of 2007

Music:
Vivian Boys “Une Fille dans le vent, elle s’appelle Vivian” E.P. (http://www.myspace.com/vivianboys)
Picked this up only a few weeks ago off the internets. Means, “A Girl In The Wind, Her Name Is Vivian". Delicious 60s garage rock amped to the punk level. Two dudes on the bass & guitar and a little drummer girl. 5 songs, no apologies. Raw energetic and necessary. A dedicated line to all things grooving, 60s style and wild. More from this group already please!

Erik Friedlander “Block Ice & Propane”
(http://www.erikfriedlander.com/)
Road Trip music at it’s finest. Take avant-garde cellist EF and let him compose and improv basically his thoughts on childhood summers traveling across the country and you get this fantastic Solo Cello CD. This thing percolates with mood and emotion and just the vibe of being on the road. Combining elements and style, from classical string jerked epiphanies to almost blues or bluegrass backwoods ditties, it keeps a listener busy with imagery and wheels turning. Block Ice & Propane is a roots music odyssey well worth the trip.

Tinariwen “Aman Iman”
(http://www.tinariwen.com/)
I first heard this band playing them here on my Breakfast Blend Friday show, the song, Tamatant Tilay, being a recommended track. It was early, I was kind of awake. It had a great groove, full sound, kept the head bobbing. I played it a few more times over the course of a week or so. But it wasn’t till I was meandering around the local record store one weekend when the song from the album, Imidiwan Winakalin, bubbled throughout the place that I fully appreciated it. The hand clapping, the smooth hammering on the strings of a dusty electric guitar, there is the feeling you are there around some campfire in the Mali desert, the spirituality and rebellion in these words you can’t understand. It’s then I could feel what the music was about : warmth. This is the album of the year.

Polysics “Polysics or Die vista”
(http://www.polysics.com/)
Basically it is a MySpace Records reissue of the Polysics or Die (originally on the Tofu Records label) except with extra songs from their 2007 Japan release “Karate House”. A great introduction not only to Japanese punk pop new wave but also just a fantastic band! Imagine Devo has gone to 11 on the controls…. They’ve reworked some of their older songs too, so older fans won’t be disappointed. And here is another reason it's so damn tasty: a bonus DVD with 8 videos (including live). This CD should put them at the front of the US Invasion force!

Best purchase from the past:
Megababe “Speak Japanese or Die”
(http://www.megababerocks.com)
Wow! If this doesn’t rattle your bones you must be dead. Kind of silly name, but they are damn cute gals! And don’t let the first three pop-punk numbers, which kick butt by the way, fool you. The title track is practically an anthem! They can get almost thrash-nasty. This trio is stripped down old school metal punk 80s sound mixed with some pretty delicious new inspiration. It cannot be beat. Popping bass lines, tight traps, a swell crunchy guitar all fronted with some fine vocals. My favorite CD of the year, but it came out in 2004. This CD will make you do a bit of elbow flailing, happy to be alive and punking out. You'll feel the Ramones-jones inside you for sure. Sometimes you just need to flail and this year; this is the CD to do it to.

Best show in town:
Peelander-Z (http://www.peelander-z.com/)
Seen the Mad Tiger Video (from the SXSW Show) online yet? Well, if you have, you have only scratched the surface of what their live punk show is like. They played only 5 songs, lasting a little over an hour, but EVERYONE in the place was involved. The first song, the moniker “Mad Tiger” ended with them opening a chest full of instruments for the audience to play along with. Moritaka (Peelander Yellow, you see they are color coded) lead the crowd to crouch down real low then jump up in the air. Then...AGAIN! And.....AGAIN! We were putty in their big cartoon gloved hands. Ever seen a whole club of about 40 leather jacket, sideburn punks do a conga line around the inside of the venue? You would have…. The finale was them giving up their jobs on the last song, holding up the signs “Guitarist wanted” “Bassist Wanted”, “Drummer wanted”, letting chosen audience members take over the instrument playing while they set up human bowling in the middle of the pit. There was Yellow again, dressed as a giant bowling pin. Peelander Pink worked the giant portable spotlight on him standing on the table in the back while Peelanders Blue and Red set up the pins near the front of the venue. The first run and slide down and…Gutterball! Ahhh! Perhaps if the crowd did more of the crouch low and jump up for encouragement? Okay! One last shot and…. STRIKE!!!! Let’s all celebrate! What a blast. It was my daughter’s first punk show. She loved it, banging away on instruments on top of the piano on the stage. I loved it. What a pure live band should be and they were so friendly and approachable and just freaking great! Show of the year!

Happy New Stuff

Went to the Visual Arts Center grand reopening a little while back, H. has a piece there, cool:


Listening: Got the import of Polysics "Karate House" which is way better than the stateside myspace re-release of a greatest hits Polysics or Die Vista (though good for anyone who never heard of em before, has a couple of the new KH songs on there). Karate House is flipping AWESOME!!! Plus this great punk-like swing band from Japan called Pistol Valve.
Reading: Tons of reading stuff to do. Shockoe research, William Gibson, Lovecraft....
Watching: Tons of watching to do. X-Files (1st 2 seasons), Paprika, Witch Hunter Robin...

Holiday Card

So starting last year, L. and I started coming up with unique holiday card ideas. This year? Robot Manger scene! We spent the better part of a Sunday morning designing the set, and photographing it went on all day. Evening shooting worked best.

We have two:

One with full view and lighting.

The other messing with the lighting a bit to create a more dramatic piece.

Both are great, thus on the blog.

Anyway, enjoy the holiday and Happy New Year!

Listening: Tsushimamire Pregnant Fantasy & Vivian Boys A Girl in the Wind. Excellent stuff!

Reading: The Killer's Tears by Anne-Laure Bondoux & Boogiepop and others by Kouhei Kadono

Build it

I like robots. Build one here:


American Visionary Art Museum

Cool diversion, minutes of fun.

Doom Generation

So right now, this moment in time, I surf the public channels. I have no cable so I'm limited (and FREE) in choice. There are a bunch of shaggy haired kids trying to run a town and arguing over who's gonna masterbate the chicken or some such fiddle faddle. The tension is high, another flashing quick shot is a girl crying, and another of a some clueless 7 year old wondering just what the hell is going on. The show?

Kid Nation

What the fuck is wrong with this? Tons. What kind of kid exploitative, emotionally scarring, bullshit is this? Creating a town of William Golding nightmares for entertainment purposes only? Let's get REAL you twits. Let's go to Latin America or some half ass country in Asia and show real exploitation! I wanna see starving bone showing scabby foreign kids making my Christmas toys for pennies a day, not a bunch of snot nosed brats on CBS trying to act like some character from their favorite R rated movie their parents dragged them to see because Mom & Dad couldn't get a babysitter. Shoot, if we're taking a king-asshole-country-of-the-world stance, let's do it right.

I digress...oh, they just had a choice of reward for their "town" that they are building; a library filled with books (comics too) OR free video games....


Reading: Ghost in the Shell : Human Error processor
Listening: Titan Go Kings

Friday, Tune in to my show!

I am making some themed attempt of anti-capitalism on my Breakfast Blend this Friday on WRIR, 97.3 6-8am. I took a photo from the web and had some photo editing fun with what you see now above. Neat?

Buy Nothing Day

I'm not talking groceries, but please don't go trample some old lady over a 20 dollar DVD Player at a box store, okay? If you suck tit to that kind of thinking then just flail yourself into the corporate pit like a mindless lemming already!

Happy Thanksgiving by the way!

Listening to a lot a great stuff lately:
Megababe, Hang the Box, One Eleven Archer.

Saw Paprika at Univeristy of Richmond's International Film Series last Sunday.
Awesome movie!

Wish What Would Jesus Buy? would come here!

Happy Halloween!

What am I?

Reading: H.P. Lovecraft
Listening: New Polysics!

Worship the gourd!

Getting to be that time of year again folks:



http://extremepumpkins.com/



Best website of pumpkin carvings around. I am gonna dress up like a video game for Halloween. Pong, using this shirt.



Don't go stealing my idea now damnit!

Donate to WRIR 97.3!

Hey all you public radio listeners, how about supporting the local independent radio station WRIR 97.3 .

WRIR is a non-profit organization and needs funds in order to bring quality independent news and music to Richmond's airwaves. We couldn’t do it without supporters of independent radio, so now is your chance!

It would be even more appreciated if you donated during my show, which is Friday 6AM – 8AM (Breakfast Blend).

Here are some phone numbers: 804-622-9747 OR 649-9737 (studio #). So call in this Friday!
Fundraiser is Oct 3rd – Oct 11th.


Prize info on Website, lots of great stuff again this year!
Website: http://www.wrir.org/

I get married in 3 days! WHOOOO!!!

Watching: Serial Experiments: Lain
Blue Seed

Music recommendations...

So I've recently realized that I have become one of the many who order a lot online. I gotta say there is some serious bennies in it. One website for music that has never failed me is CD Baby. They give a larger percentage to the musicians and are damn good, and the shipping FAST!

Recent purchases, ordered Thursday-received Monday, shipped across the country:

Suphala "Blueprint", a tabla artist with her stunning follow-up to The Now CD also features vocals of Edie Brickell, etc. Just a great moody CD. She was the first female artist to perform in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban.

Peelander-Z Happee Mania, crazy ass Japanese punk touring this Fall in the States! Damnit and OF COURSE no one cool that I wanna see every comes to Richmond. Loserville.

Another most excellent and probably will be one of my picks of the year on my Breakfast Blend show on Fridays will be Tinariwen. Just check out the link and new CD and you will see why. Beautiful music, also touring the US in the Fall.

Just finished reading the first two Flight graphic novels. Good stuff.

Getting married in 12 days! YAY!

Cohorts in the wee hours

This is the Breakfast Blend / All-Nighter crew for 97.3 WRIR. They are good people who do butt shifts to provide local radio programming for the rest of us.

Local vibes for local times. Proud to be one of 'em!

Nerdin'

Not to get caught up in some marketing ploy for a movie, but the Golden Compass has a thing where you answer a few questions to find our your Daemon.

Here: http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/

Me? Mine is Antigone:
A flippin' raccoon! So if ya see me routin' through your trash one night, just leave me be!

Listening: The Fall has a new one and is not that bad actually!

Reading: 1491 by Charles C. Mann

Less than a month till we're wed! YAY!!!

Litter this!

So while driving home from work one day, well to the grocery store, this big ole SUV pulls out in front of me. Yeah, expected, I know. Then, from the passenger side window flies out an empty cigarette pack of Newports. Just like that, like it was nothing. Like all people who get enfuriated at these litterbastards, I wanted to stop my car, pick up the trash and remind them at the next stoplight that they dropped this. Well, maybe throw it at him and cuss, and then probably get shot. Anyway, I have NO RESPECT for fuckers like that. I want them to die. Plain and simple, and YES I know that is drastic but put it like this: since most humans in this day and age know that littering is a bad thing, then why are people still doing it? Because they don't care. And when someone doesn't have sense enough to care about the environment which they live in, do you think that they care enough about you or me? Certainly not. I mean really, WHO litters with such intention and disregard like that? Not anyone I want to give a crap about. So, yes, I wish ill will upon them, but what they really get from me is a lack of sympathy for anything bad that may happen in their lives; bad girlfriend, jail, sickness, etc. --aw, that's TOO BAD. Harsh I know, but times like these call for drastic passive aggressive measures! Ha!

Listening: To a few Japanese compilations I found at Plan 9 for a buck each at the Watermelon Festival last weekend.

Reading: Kathe Koje's Extremities

Getting interested in: Kayaking. No way....really? Well, we'll see...

The revolution will be wind-ups....

My robots will one day take over the world!!!!

Well, probably some serious shelf space....

Listening to Gogol Bordello to review for the magazine.

I think I know what is wrong...

Okay, so for a few weeks now I haven't been able to really figure out WHY I enjoy watching the insipid show, America's Got Talent. It's act after act of bad, terrible, acts (I know I like it for that trash aspect, but wait), followed every so often by what the "judges" call stars, I call same old hat of hack singers or magicians, etc (some actually not bad though). The 'judges" being some Brit dirtbag that I think has been fired from many a newspaper, the wife of a drunken washed up metalman, Sharon Osborne (and the most likable of the 3), and then David Hasselhoof er hoff.

[Hasselhoff is an inept talent judge theory: a) he can't act, b) he can't sing, c) germans like him]

Okay, so anyway, the other night I figure out why I like it. Being that I like fringe culture - b-movie, b-music, b-books- the bad acts that flow through are the ones I totally dig. So the the other night, they let this one crazy dude on, wearing a Native American outfit with bells on his legs, playing the violin while he yodels songs created from his own language. His name: Thoth. I knew this before they even said his name. See, in the Outsider music arena, he is fairly well known, featured on the Songs of the Key of Z book and CD written/compiled byIrwin Chusid. Ah, this is why I like it, I KNOW some of these acts. Not KNOW in the literal sense, but know what other music is about, as well as the other freak acts, that have been piping through.

It's like the goddamn Gong Show except a little more controlled and without the talent of Chuck Barris. We do, however, get Jerry Springer being the backstage mom, which is almost as hilariously disturbing. Naturally in the progression of these braincell slaughter programs, they start taking the "talent" they let through WAY too seriously and it gets all fakey drama and then EVERYONE starts taking it way too seriously. Puke.


I should digress and I can't believe I have written this much about this subject.

You know what is cool? Tin Robots.

Just got my Carbon 14 magazine package for review, so listening and listening and listening and listening, liking so far: The Final Solutions

Good link to a good afternoon.

Check out my buddy Allan's rendition of our filming and having on the radio the strange dealing with "Cotton" Dick Clinton.




Reading: Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross.

Listening: Shellac's new one, it's OK.

Another Picture

CDC:

On the Air

Saturday June 9th, starting around 5 Pm or so, last about an hour or so. Please tune in webstream or the old fashioned way; fiddle that dial!

Reading: "Nemesis: the last days of the American Republic" by Chalmers Johnson till I get too angry then "Falling Man" by Don Delillo!

Listening: New Balkan Beat Box , also Chumbawamba's "A Singsong and a Scrap"

Misson Demolished.

Consider this:

400 years ago, the whole Jamestown thing...
...400 years later, we learn that the fable that was created with Pocahontas & John Smith is a lie.
...we don't care, hell it was 400 years ago.

Today, the President has repeatedly mislead the American people about the war in Iraq thing...
...today, we learn that the fable of WMD, etc etc etc is a lie.
...we don't care, hell it was....oh wait, practically yesterday.

Imagine our apathy in the future....

Mission Accomplished.

Remember he was off the coast of California when that happened too.

If we have to be addicted, at least make your money go to a better cause with Citgo, rather than hungry oil barons with Exxon. So all you idiots out there who hate arabs and are glad we're in Iraq shooting brown people, just remember who you are helping when your stupid selves fuel up at the Exxon.

Oh yeah, and Walmart sucks.

Watching: Inuyasha, seasons 1 & 2
Venture Brothers season 2.

WRIR 97.3 Donate!

I love this station. I work for this station.
Why don't ya keep this station alive and DONATE some money to it?

Different levels gets you different stuff and you have till April 25th to get that stuff!

WRIR 97.3

I'm still doing my Breakfast Blend show every Friday 6-8AM.

This Saturday I am doing the local River City Limits show and Liza Kate will be playing live in the studio. Listen!


Thanks if ya help.

Monkey See, Monkey Doo

As if violence at home isn't enough, get ready to armchair quarterback the next big event in the Middle East.

We need drastic, progressive change. Open your mind now people, we are running out of options and sides to be on in this mess.

Don't want to dress in school colors: donate.

Silence.

Virginia Tech is a terrible, awful, tragedy, yes.
But instead of wearing school colors this Friday, I would rather donate to make a difference in law dealing with Gun Control. Particularly since our state is barely passing the grade.
Maybe more on this subject later, but now is not the time. Thoughts are with the families of the slain, anger goes to our system and way of life that is lost in a void of violent distraction overseas.

Reading : "Out" by Natsuo Kirino

Listening: "War on 45" by D.O.A.

More songs!

Couple of more "Cotton" Dick Clinton Songs are found.

"Bad 50s Tonto Show"

and

"Potato Wine Entropy"


Check them out HERE.

Spring!

So, Easter weekend?

Snow!

Ah you can never tire of Virginia weather. I just hope we don't get this stuff when we go camping next weekend. Speaking of camping, why haven't we as good citizens of this country, and stewards of this planet re instituted some new form of the Civilian Conservation Corps? THAT's where I would gladly not mind spending tax dollars instead of the war machine we're feeding now. Let's get all these kids that are geared toward war cleaning up our country instead.
Fix stuff here at home instead of tear down stuff elsewhere.

Speaking of war, I barely tolerated CBS news for a few minutes last night.
Story line up as follows:

--Senator McCain takes some super safe shopping trip to Iraq. We see he like rugs, food and has guys armed to the teeth surrounding him.
-- We see a story about how some National Guard is being called up to duty, but they don't have enough equipment, like guns and armor and night vision goggles.
-- Final bit before I had to turn it off. China has secret christians.

So basically this is what the "liberal" mainstream media is telling me:

--To go around in Iraq these days, you need a shitload of firepower to be safe.
--Our soldiers don't have enough stuff to be safe even though they are going to Iraq.
--And Christianity prevails, even in such oppressive countries as China.

So when all those Senators & Congressmen pass MORE funding to pay for war machine efforts and we lie down and accept it, it is because mainstream media has conditioned us to do so.
We must not let them get away with this....

I think we should support our troops, with tickets HOME. Planes, trains and automobiles, baby. Oh, and more funding should go to the VA Hospitals too. Otherwise, we're gonna have a lot of people running around with all this Iraq warJUNK in their heads. You know, stuff like having to run over little boys with their humvees or shoot them because they MIGHT have bombs strapped to their bodies. Tragic.

This will make you giggle if you like fart jokes.

Listening: VCR , Liza Kate.
Reading: Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian lives changed by Jamestown by Helen Rountree. To balance the last Jamestown book I just read.

New Song!

I have just discovered a new song by "Cotton" Dick Clinton.

It is called MUDVILLE so check it out!

I'll be doing the River City Limits radio show today, St. Paddy's Day, so tune in to WRIR from 5-7PM today and hear me spin the local sounds.

Watching: Ghost in the Shell Season Two!

Daylight Savings Scam

Listen to this.

Seriously, stop it.




Listening: "It takes a nation of millions to hold us back" by Public Enemy.
Reading: "Jamestown : the buried truth" by William M. Kelso.

Birthday is tomorrow

I will be 37.
Good weekend lined up:

Pizza & Beer last night.
Nice restaurant tonight.
Going to Liance's folks farm tomorrow for more food and cake and walking in the woods.

Things I like:

Ghost in the Shell Movie & Television Series
I hope to get Season 2 with my Federal Refund.
I recently bought the reissue of the Manga as well.

Planet of the Apes. Can you tell the nerdness of it all yet?

Also, I am slowly trying to start a metal robot collection.
I have a small bot from Pearl River NYC and a Bender so far...

I am happy and I also like to think I am aging well.

Reading: Un Lun Dun by China Mieville.
Listening: Friend Opportunity by Deerhoof

Quick Post

Some things to know:

Valentine's Day : Maybe we should start going with old traditions of dipping goat skins in blood? It's only a matter of time being how bloodthirsty Americans seem to be these days.

Great Backyard Birdcount : Geeky, but important to know, especially with all the Global warming problems people STILL want to ignore so they can make $$ and drive their big ass SUVs.

Target: Iran? : So there is alleged evidence that some weapons used by insurgents are coming out of Iran. Guess who supplied the rest of the weapons? US!!!! Sheesh...

We are determined to have a strong foothold in that area. Check out where all your tax dollars are going. It's the Middle East Disney!


Reading : Southern Lady, Yankee Spy by Elizabeth R. Varon

Listening: Rah Bras

War Lies & how Tom Brokaw is a Republican slut...

Our treasonous leaders want to put more troops into Iraq?

These links are the images of war from the press:

Pulling down the Saddam statue. A big symbolic moment in the war to make us feel good.
IT WAS STAGED.

Jessica Lynch, cutsie pie innocent gal hero? Supposed kidnapped and held hostage.
IT WAS STAGED.

Meanwhile, we are too busy being entertained to a million little pieces by our self-absorbed goddess Oprah who thinks we should be more concerned about her being wronged than our soldiers dying in a fabricated war.

Bush fakes a Thanksgiving Turkey dinner in Iraq. The bird? Decorative. Some even say it was plastic. Soldiers get the same old processed junk they usually get, maybe with some cranberry in a can for treat.

Mission Accomplished? Not really on a ship anywhere NEAR the Middle East like you were lead to believe, but rather California.

Meanwhile, Tom Brokaw, now retired to play golf whenever he wants, comments on the Democrat victorious 2006 election, saying that now is the time to find middle ground and compromise. What? After these past number of years of extreme right thinking, he wants middle ground? I think the pendulum needs to swing a little further the other way than that!

A great Mother Jones timeline of Lies.

Imagine the future images of war from the press we have to come.


OUR LEADERS NEED TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS MISREPRESENTED WAR.

If Clinton (whom I'm no real fan of either) can be impeached for lying about some oval oral action, what the HELL is keeping this current Administration from being put to trial? The Congress, though winning a "democrat" majority, has too many corporate whores in there too. Something needs to be done. Tell someone the things you know, open the chatlines...protest.

Reading: George Washington's Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America by Robert F. Dalzell & Lee Baldwin Dalzell.
On Deck Reading: "Loop" by Koji Suzuki.
Listening religiously: "In the grip of Official Treason" Jello Biafra

The simplest way out is OUT!

Carl Sagan was one of the greatest people of the 20th Century

I have always felt that.

I remember watching episodes of Cosmos with my stepdad on PBS. Here this nerdy scientist guy drabbed in a brown suit was telling me things like "There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the earth." and streaming out on scrolled paper as best they could a number so unfathomable that they couldn't even actually do it. Blew my mind. He had a kind of new age vibe but it also made a lot of SENSE. He mathematically predicted life on other planets (borrowed from a colleague at the time) that made it not only probable, but also shed light on the danger WE are in and need to address to sustain the human race. Wow.

Also, he made me think about the world and the worldhood of the world (as such). I believe if there were one pop culture person in my youth that helped me think of things in the world today, it was him.

When we lost Carl, we lost a whole lot more than just a silly "billions and billions" joke.

Yes, I own the DVD set. Yes, I miss him. The world should too.

Link to something cool.
Another cool link.

...and the War on Terrorism put them back a thousand years...

Antiquation Mechanism. A device that my Liance and I learned about on a program on PBS a few months ago has now gotten more press on Boing Boing and more importantly here. Incredible, proving that Ancient Greece was perhaps the best society humans ever produced. Well, maybe a few slips of the slopes but was more democratic and open to new ideas than our current "free" world. They still don't know how "mass" produced or known this knowledge was or what it was really even used for. A good bet to me would be seafaring. I also bet the schematics were lying in a Library somewhere. Or maybe we need to look toward the East. Still, it is astonishing what history uncovers, when humans were more in touch with the earth and not so driven to not be a part of it. Imagine what is left to discover...

Reading as best I can this holiday season: Hard-boiled Wonderland/End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Spitting sonic rage with: Rio Grande Blood by Ministry

Bopping my holiday head to: Christmas Remixed 1 & 2 from Six Degrees Records

Shameless Music Plugs:

"Cotton" Dick Clinton plays The Mall

Noble Chicken plays Lump of Coal

If voting changed anything

Jello Biafra did a spoken bit on this a few years ago and some kind person was dedicated enough to transcribe it HERE.
Please please read it, it is quite informative...


Three candidates (only two heard from and in the running) in Virginia:

Gail Parker : her big platform? More trains! It's almost comical, yet ya know what? At least she is making a stand! Ha!

George Allen : please. This man is only a birthright away from Schwarzenegger, so it's frightening that he COULD be president someday...

James Webb : Apparently USED to support Allen 6 years ago!

You know what? Watching all these political debates between the two main players, and I will probably apply this to the last presidential election as well, it is amazing how OUT OF TOUCH they are with the people. Politicians have always had that shade of higher than thou, yes, but these days, man, these days...

How out of touch they are with common every day people? Completely. They have NO IDEA what some person goes through day to day to day to day. One stupid visit to a poor house or VA hospital or line cooks at a Wendys or anything like that don't make em KNOW diddly. It's repulsive to think that unless something is done soon, we will be creating a 2nd (maybe more already, I'm sure) generation of accepting this tripe.

Another thing, it's insulting to listen to them churn this rhetoric butter, making it easy to understand for us fools in the normal world, but when they get to the lawmaking, they use all this complicated and lawyer ridden language. That is just plain WRONG. Make it easy to understand. I guess that's what happens when you get a buncha bored lawyers and businessmen together.

How about one word: NOTA.
None Of The Above.
Let's maybe put THAT into the election mix.

While we're at it NO CORPORATE LOBBYISTS.
No extra election money or a cap on it at least.

Career politicians are NOT representing anyone but themselves.

Okay, get out there an vote?
No on all three amendments, please?

Reading: Kind of waiting for my copy of Crimson Labyrinth by Yusuke Kishi to come in the mail to me...

Listening to: Balkan Beat Box, definitely check it out!

Rebuild this Wall?

So we work for YEARS in Cold War conditions to "tear down this wall".

Only to build another in our back yard?

I wonder how many of those hired will be from South of the Border?

Excellent places visited or nearly visited by me in the past week:

U.S.S. Shenandoah Airship crash site
Big Muskie Bucket
Used Kids Records
The Blue Danube
Henricus / Dutch Gap
Antique Village

Note: Just when you think all good indie music has died, leave it up to the good bands to prove your ass wrong! Alice Donut, Nomeansno and Uzeda all have new ones out. Buy em!

Movie: Three Extremes
Books: World War Z by Max Brooks
Music, OH MY GOSH, music! Did you not read above??

FUNDRAISER: DONATE TO WRIR!!!! Radio for the rest of us!

George Bush just plain sucks

I am watching him read off the teleprompter what other people have written right now thinking he is a freaking idiot. I don't think anyone in presidential history has shit on the people he is supposed to represent more than him. You know I don't have to list the problems with this former baseball manager. I watched a little bit of the 9/11 5 year special on NBC, and I feel a sense of rage and anger at what those terrorists did that day, but I have the same feeling toward the Commander in Chief's behavior and his hoodwinked style governing with his neo-conservative bootboys in his hip pocket. But who sould I be angry at the most? The PEOPLE. How can a war in Iraq go from weapons of mass destraction to the The War Against Terror (T.W.A.T.) and we BUY this hindsight 20/20 style action? Shoot first then shoot others later? If so, then WE ARE DOOMED. Oh well, keep smiling!

I'm engaged! Popped the question at Natural Bridge Sept 2 and L. said yes! HAPPY!

Read: Nikki Turner's "Glamorous Life" (hilariously awful, the ghetto Danielle Steel)
Reading: Blood on the River : Jamestown, 1607 by Elisa Carbone
Getting ready to Read: Dark Water by Suzuki

Listening: lotsa stuff! I'm a DJ now damnit!