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.