Wednesday, 17 Dec 2008

I am not a good blogger. I intend to write and then weeks will go by between posts. inspired by J’s sinkal cleaning binge I have been spreading the organizational virus to little pockets of the house hoping it will take hold and infect my whole life.  So far the results are a tidy and sparkly (relatively) bathroom and a kitchen table I can actually see the surface of.   I need more sleep.

Newspaper related xmas gratuities (e.g. non-taxable gifts) have started trickling in (it’s been a week and a half since I distributed xmas cards to my 200+ newspaper customers along with their sunday papers) but not as many as I expected this close to xmas.  With the economy so far down it’s not suprising that the amount people are giving is less, I expected that, but if I get significantly less money on averate from the people who do give, AND a lot less people send gifts then that’s really going to crimp my plans. So many bills so little money, I was hoping to get enough gift money for xmas shopping plus pay off some small debts. I did already make enough to do my xmas shopping, so that’s a good thing, I just don’t know how much more than that will be incoming.

Friday, 14 Nov 2008

Recently input:  Wristcutters: A Love Story, Bubba-Hotep, True Blood, Heroes, Fringe, http://io9.com, http://lifehackers.com, http://gizmodo.com, “Cordial Invitation” - Giant Drag, “The Tape Song” - The Kills.

Recently output: cash. $700 for brakes and tie-rod and bearing. $300 water pump.

recent annoyances: credit card companies who try to guilt you into agreeing to payments you can’t afford by insulting you.  ”free market” enthusiasts who see nothing wrong with trillion dollar bailouts and governmental intervention to save an economic system they think works fine.  all the references to how thick the Bulletproof glass is that protects or will protect president-elect Obama when he speaks, drives in his car, etc.

random pop culture observation:  Tabloid magazines in supermarkets. Online ‘news’ blurbs. Impossible to not see references to the Angelina Jolie vs. Jennifer Aniston thing. I vaguely recall back when BP left JA to be with AJ (isn’t that kind of odd that they have antonymic initials?) and their was a lot of public hand-wringing and people going ‘why would he leave J, she is Sooooo beautiful”. Putting aside that people rarely cheat just because person A is more attractive than person B, what was the mystery? I never ‘got’ the whole ‘J is one of the most beautiful women on the planet’ thing. Cute? sure, in that before-she-was-a-plastic-surgery-homewrecker-Meg-Ryan kind of cute, but ‘hot’? Never got it. AJ on the other hand? omg so hot I think she makes mens brains melt. literally. so hot men just do stupid things because their brains disengage and they follow her around like zombies. so that i got. but lately after seeing a bunch of articles and photos I kind of get the JA hot thing. AJ is still really hot, and it’s probably not fair to compare someone who’s had a kid to someone who hasn’t but recently I’ve begun to think JA might actually be more beautiful than AJ. Not in quite the same melt-your-brain-omg-what-just-happened-why-am-I-in-Tijuana-handcuffed-to-a-bed-with-a-giant-tattoo-of-a-viking-skateboarding-on-my-chest-kind of way, but objectively more beautiful.  Don’t know what weird diets or fitness regimen she’s on, but JA is aging amazingly well - most of us don’t get more beautiful as we age, but I think that might be what’s going on.  I know, I know… why is the question of who is hotter even in my brain?  I don’t know. I blame the liberal elite Hollywood obsessed media. And why do I keep using the word ‘hot’? I dunno. I blame my melted brain.

Speaking of weird diets and amazing fitness regimens,  if Madonna didn’t just kill someone and is not laying the groundwork for a defense of insanity, and reports of her visitation conditions she wants her husband to follow are true (a very large IF), then she is the very embodiment, the very personification the psycho b____ that every soon-to-be-ex husband feels his soon-to-be-ex has become.  While I’ve heard people say that the conditions are so bizarre they HAVE to be fake, and I don’t have any reason to think the conditions are true, anyone who thinks they HAVe to be fake underestimates just how out of touch with reality some celebrities are, and just how bat-s*** crazy people get during divorces.

Wednesday, 5 Nov 2008

Yes, in case you didn’t notice this when it was first discovered FIFTY YEARS AGO(!!!!!) scotch tape emits x-rays when peeled from certain materials in a vacuum.    So, of course someone had to build their own primitive x-ray machine powered by scotch tape.

Scotch-tape: Researchers Build X-Ray Machine With Scotch Tape

Just think of the post-apocalypse usefulness of having a stock-pile of scotch tape after the power grids are knocked out and fuel to power generators gets scarce.

Wednesday, 29 Oct 2008

If you’ve ever wondered what it would sound like if Patty Smith replaced Nico in the Velvet Underground and they became a Beatle’s cover band, I recommend you listen to her version of “Within You Without You“, one the Beatle’s lesser known (and probably least popular) songs.

Also, why didn’t anyone tell me that Cheap Trick was touring in a “Sgt Pepper’s at 40″ celebration/concert tour? I mean even the Beatles didn’t try performing these later songs live, so it’s no suprise that these aren’t _perfect_ reproductions of the album tracks, but they’re pretty close - probably closer than anyone else other than the Beatles or the Fab Faux could pull off. If nothing else, it makes me appreciate just how ambitious and complex some of these arrangements were.

Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight/The End  (click ‘download’ to play, right-click to save)

A Day in the Life (click ‘download’ to play, right-click to save)

For an extra treat, here’s the Fab Faux performing “I am the Walrus” live on David Letterman. (youtube video) These guys are so proficient, they manage to make performing this richly arranged and musically dense song look simple.

Tuesday, 28 Oct 2008

lately a lot of rock bands i hear (and like) on last.fm and pandora have been male-female duos.  i don’t recall so many in the past.  here are a few i like.

the ting tings (found elsewhere)

the kills

the white stripes

the black keys

the raveonettes (elsewhere)

blood red shoes

hmmm….i really thought there more.  I like The Finches a lot too, but they are too mellow to include in a list of rock bands.