Pocket Theremin

Jay needs this Gakken Theremin Premium for the Subteens electro-jazz-funk rebirth. It's less than $200, but the instructions are in Japanese, so it may take some time to figure out how to play it.

Okay, Seriously

Am I the only one who hears Inspector Clouseau every time this comes up in the news?

"Swine flu!"

Michael McKean Explains Spinal Tap Songs

From The Onion's A.V. Club:

A few years ago, filmmaker Christopher Guest—the brains behind This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting For Guffman, and A Mighty Wind—was asked to speak at a retrospective on his films. So he phoned Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, costars of those films, and asked them to show up and play a few Spinal Tap songs—acoustic, and not in costume. The songs were well received, and now the threesome has launched a tour that continues the theme. “Unwigged & Unplugged” kicked off April 17 in Vancouver, and features low-key versions of Spinal Tap, Guffman, and Wind songs, sung by the comedic masterminds who originally penned them. The A.V. Club asked McKean, free from the faux-British accent, to share the stories behind the satirical ditties of Spinal Tap.

Read the rest here.

As a bonus, here's Spinal Tap performing "Big Bottom" at Live Earth with 19 bass players! (Some of whom you might recognize ...)

The Sounds

Thanks to Andrew for reminding me of this awesome Swedish pop/new wave/rock and roll band. The album 'Living in America' is now Featured Too Prominently. The outstanding tracks on this one from 2003 are 'Dance With Me' (perfect loud guitars, catchy melody, gay keyboards) and the title track. Enjoy!

This is always my favorite issue . . . .

May 19

Steve Albini (!) producing. This song - the first single - seems a bit dumbed down for Mr. Cocker, but I'm reserving judgment.

Wow

I'm speechless.

Let's hear it for Sweden

My love affair with Scandanavian pop music continues with The Sounds, who are delightfully earnest (or very tongue in cheek -- can't tell which) but also catchy, infectious, and at least one of them wears Andy Taylor-style headbands. What more could a young man ask for?



The Sounds - Painted By Numbers

My Latest Obsession

FFFFOUND! is a web service that not only allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user's tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!!

Here's a sample ...






Check out a seemingly endless stream of fascinating images here. (Some are NSFW.)

Attention to Detail

Good Lord -- is it any wonder the hapless Nats are 1 and 7? They apparently went three innings before anyone noticed and changed the jerseys. At least it is not as bad as the one below (although I guess phonetically it makes no difference):

"The Scot Heard Around The World"

You may have read about this, but here is the video of 47-year old Susan Boyle on the TV show "Britain's Got Talent" -- the latest spin-off from the "Pop Idol" series of shows. As today's Washington Post put it:

[T]hanks to a digital flash flood in the media age, the 47-year-old unemployed woman who claims to have never been kissed is suddenly a global sensation.

Last weekend, the frizzy-haired, squarely built Boyle walked onto the stage of "Britain's Got Talent" to barely suppressed snickers from the audience and skeptical eye rolls from Cowell, the unfailingly caustic judge on both "American Idol" and the British TV show.

The audience laughed mercilessly as Boyle did a saucy hip wiggle and said she'd like a chance to prove she could be as good as Elaine Paige, a legendary singer often called the first lady of British musical theater.

Those present were clearly prepared to howl.

Then Boyle opened her mouth. And within the first few bars of "I Dreamed a Dream," from the hit musical "Les Miserables," the audience was standing and applauding. The judges pronounced themselves shocked and impressed with Boyle's soaring vocals, and millions watching knew they had just seen a rare gem of a moment on live television.

Quite a voice, I must say.

Lambchop

CAE Lambchop #1 - "National Talk Like A Pirate Day" from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.
I bought the most recent release by these guys a while back and really like it. I'll feel terrible probably this weekend, but in the meantime here is the best song on the CD. (It is quite long.)

Shit

Marilyn Chambers is dead. Now Jay's going to feel weird when he does what he does while watching her movies.

Michael Bay Signs $50M Deal To Fuck Up 'Thundercats'

Good news from The Onion!

According to executives, Warner Bros. settled on Bay after a 12-month search of Hollywood's most reviled directors, including Joel Schumacher, Roland Emmerich, and Brett Ratner. In the end, the studio decided only Bay could be relied upon to deliver a 220-minute cinematic clusterfuck with enough tedious performances, overblown cinematography, and CGI explosions to make even the most casual fan want to scratch their eyes out.

"No filmmaker working today has Bay's ability to somehow direct his actors to be both emotionless and melodramatic at once," Warner Bros. CEO Barry Meyer said. "And I personally can't wait to see how he needlessly overcomplicates the plot."

Read the rest here.

Back to Work!

Well, fellas, after an all-too-brief "vacation," I'm off to Fla to start the new job. Flying down tomorrow, start on Tuesday. Nervous? Sure. Excited? Absolutely. Wish me luck!

Some Weekend Cave Music

Another recent acquisition, Nick Cave's Nocturama, and it is just oh so satisfactory. Nick is one of those artists who make me shut my eyes and tilt my head to one side when I'm listening. I think that means he's really good, but I could just be getting sleepy. Belfegore, for instance, doesn't do that to me.

Another appropriate one for you who, like Dave said, have been Forgetting To Pray.

Andy Kaufman, 30 Years Ahead Of His Time

Andy's Glyn Styler post got me digging around for old Andy Kaufman clips, and I hit the motherlode. This is Kaufman at his best, baiting the good people of Memphis. I actually remember seeing this on Saturday morning local television when I was a kid. We call it rasslin' here.

From the sometimes reliable Wikipedia:

Kaufman grew up admiring professional wrestlers and the world in which they perform. Inspired by the theatricality of kayfabe, the staged nature of the sport, and his own tendency to form elaborate hoaxes, Kaufman began wrestling women during his act and was the self-proclaimed "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World," taking on an aggressive and ridiculous personality based upon the characters invented by professional wrestlers. He offered a $1,000 reward to any woman who could pin him.

Later, after a challenge from professional wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler, Kaufman would step into the ring (in the Memphis wrestling circuit) with a man—Lawler himself. Their ongoing feud, often featuring Jimmy Hart and other heels in Kaufman's corner, included a broken neck for Kaufman as a result of Lawler's piledriver and a famous on-air fight on a 1982 episode of Late Night with David Letterman. For some time after that, Kaufman appeared everywhere wearing a neck brace, insisting that his injuries were worse than they were. Kaufman would continue to defend the Inter-Gender Championship in the Mid-South Coliseum, and offered an extra prize, other than the $1,000.00: that if he was pinned, the woman who pinned him would get to marry him and that he (Kaufman) would shave his head bald as well.

Kaufman and Lawler's famous feud and wrestling matches were later revealed to have been staged, or a "work," as the two were actually friends. The truth about its being a "work" was not disclosed until more than 10 years after Kaufman's death, when the Emmy-nominated documentary, A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman, aired on NBC in 1995. Coincidentally, Jim Carrey (who also shares Kaufman's birthday) is the one who reveals the secret, and would later go on to play Kaufman in the 1999 film Man on the Moon. In a 1997 interview with the Memphis Flyer, Lawler claimed he had improvised during their first match and the Letterman incident. Although officials at St. Francis Hospital stated that Kaufman's neck injuries were real, in his 2002 biography It's Good to Be the King ... Sometimes, Lawler detailed how they came up with the angle and kept it quiet. Even though Kaufman's injury was legitimate, the pair pretended that the injury was more severe than it was. He also said that Kaufman's explosion on Letterman was the comedian's own idea, including when Lawler slapped Kaufman out of his chair.

Lawler also revealed in his autobiography that after Kaufman's death, family members discovered numerous uncashed checks from his wrestling tenure, suggesting that Kaufman participated in wrestling purely for the love of the sport, and not for money.

Comedian or performance artist, I think Andy Kaufman was a genius.

Wednesday Week

I'll take a stab at catchy Friday. Here's one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite underrated 'punk' bands, the Undertones. This is a lot more jangly n' catchy than punk, but I love it all the same.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrgh!

Wish me luck guys -- I'm flying solo this weekend for the first time, while the wife yucks it up in New Orleans. A2 sure is going to like watching golf on TV by the time she gets back!

Belfegore

Searching for this song online has been something I've done periodically since Gore invented the internets. It was one of my very favorite songs in HS (kudos to Rob White) and I would listen to it at eardrum-damaging volume in my car. Inspired by Planet P, I went searching again and found that I'd always spelled the band's name wrong. God bless the Google and God bless the USA.

I think it still kicks, but it's much to dear to me for objectivity. Listening to it for the first time in about 20 years, suddenly it didn't seem so Thursday.

Planet P

I guess I've gotten to the age where I completely forget certain things until I stumble across them. Here's a perfect example.

Glyn Styler Doesn't Care What You Think

I can't believe I've never heard of this guy before. What's interesting is that by the end of the video I was not sure whether Styler or Brent Newman is the imaginary character. Or maybe both.

Hits Close To Home

So, who's up for some Quake Live?

Stop Me If You've Heard This One..

The Beatles to release sonically upgraded versions of their original British albums in stereo and mono.

Black is the New Black

This is Nancy Black. I think she will be the next big thing, by which time we'll all be bored of her already. There's another good song, "Side by Side" on her myspace page.

Do you like to dip things?

I do. And that's why m'lady and I will be dining at the Melting Pot this evening. It's a spendy night out, but I'm trying to revive our nation's economy, even if I have to do it myself. Besides, we have a gift card AND a coupon. Four courses: cheese, salad, entree (lobster, beef, pork, chicken) and dessert (chocolate) plus a little vino makes me very, very happy. Dip on bastards, Dip on.

Langhorne Slim

I picked up Langhorne Slim's first CD recently. Joe is probably familiar with him, since he's kind of in that Dylan, ABBA, Okkervil River line.

Beaulah - When Your Heartstrings Break

I'm not the music store impulse buyer I once was, thanks in a large part to you generous and knowledgeable bastards. I rarely buy anything now unless I have a pretty good idea it's going to be good, though I do still get burned once in a while. I did pick this CD up though, on the strength of The Coast is Never Clear (which coincidentally was released on Sept. 11, 2001 and had a picture of an airplane on the back), and it turned out to be a very nice find.

Beulah was associated with the Elephant 6 Collective, which also worked with Of Montreal, among others.

CADIE

If you haven't spend a good chunk of your day checking out Google's new AI Cadie, then it has sadly been wasted. I encourage you to participate in this historic moment in search engine technology. Cadie has already built some custom Google applications, like the intelligent email answering app, and a document fixer that goes miles beyond spell-check.

Interactive MAD Fold-Ins

Here's a collection of interactive MAD Fold-Ins, courtesy of The New York Times. (I actually had the issue in which this one originally appeared ...)

Check 'em out here.

My new blog

Given that it seems I am the only one of us without a blog to call my own, I finally decided to start one along the lines of Dave’s "28 books" except that mine is a bit more low-brow and focuses on my well known fondness for tarts. The basic plan is to chronicle my various experiences with sweet and savory tarts, both here in DC, and also on my frequent business trips, but I’m also hoping to feature some more in-depth posts on tart-related topics such as:

Are hot tarts better? Generally speaking yes, but they are also harder to find and usually more expensive. If you haven’t had a tart in a while it may not be worth holding out for a hot one.

Are ethnic tarts worth trying? In many cases yes, but be careful! I’m quite partial to Indian and Latin American tarts (I enjoyed a very fresh little Mexican tart just last weekend), although some people find them too spicy, and of course the French are famous for having very attractive tarts. Eastern European tarts, however, while cheap, are often tough and rather stale.

Where can I find the best tarts, especially in a strange city? This is largely a matter of experience. In many of the older European cities there are specific districts where it is easy to find a good tart. In New Orleans and other warm weather cities, you can often track down some fantastic tarts just by following your nose. If in doubt, the concierge of your hotel will usually be able to tell you where to go.

Anyway, I hope you all will check it out. The URL is www.ilikeanicetart.blogspot.com.

You can't escape the long arm of the law

Apparently you can get a DUI while driving a motorized barstool.

Chateau Violence

These are a couple of "viral" ads for Stella Artois (or Chateau Violence, as it is often known, given its popularity with traveling English football "supporters"), which remake "24" and "Die Hard With A Vengeance" as French new wave cinema. Most amusing.

Wading towards home

I was reading recently an excellent article by Michael Lewis on the economic meltdown in Iceland [Think we have it bad here? U.S. debt is approximately 350% of GDP; Iceland's is 850%, and recent losses by Icelandic banks amount to $330,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country], and I was reminded of this excellent piece for the New York Times Magazine, which chronicles Lewis's upbringing in New Orleans, and his trips back in the immediate aftermath of "the Storm." A couple of short extracts below will give you the flavor, but well worth reading in its entirety.

Every Christmas, my mother's side of the family gathered for a party that confirmed for me that just about all white New Orleanians, even the horrible ones, were somehow blood relations. Before I could do long division, I knew the difference between a third cousin and a first cousin twice removed. Wherever I went, I was defined by family, living and dead. . . .

My father is a different sort, less keen on getting his hands dirty. For 40 years, from the comfort of his private library, he has, every other Saturday, watched my mother push a lawn mower back and forth across the front lawn without so much as a passing thought that he might lend a hand. He was fond of citing the Lewis family motto:

Do as little as possible
And that unwillingly
For it is better to incur a slight reprimand
Than to perform an arduous task.

. . . . Leaving Ms. Perrier, I wandered down and met my first former Israeli commandos, along with their Uptown New Orleans employers, who had come to liberate their homes. They had just landed Russian assault helicopters in Audubon Park. Not one, but two groups of Uptown New Orleanians had rented these old Soviet choppers, along with four-to-six-man Israeli commando units (platoons? squads?), and swooped down onto the soccer field beside the Audubon Zoo. . . . . The commandos went inside to "clear the house." A nice little yellow house just one block from my childhood home. Not a human being - apart from Ms. Perrier and me - for a mile in each direction. And yet they raised their guns, opened the door, entered and rattled around. A few minutes later they emerged, looking grim.

"You got some mold on the upstairs ceiling," one commando said gravely.

. . . . There wasn't a house in the Garden District, or Uptown, that could not have been easily entered; there wasn't a house in either area that didn't have food and water to keep a family of five alive for a week; and there was hardly a house in either place that had been violated in any way. And the grocery stores! I spent some time inside a Whole Foods choosing from the selection of PowerBars. The door was open, the shelves groaned with untouched bottles of water and food. Downtown, 25,000 people spent the previous four days without food and water when a few miles away - and it's a lovely stroll - entire grocery stores, doors ajar, were untouched. From the moment the crisis downtown began, there had been a clear path, requiring maybe an hour's walk, to food, water and shelter. And no one, not a single person, it seemed, took it.

Catchy Friday, Part Zoo

Zooey Deschanel, on whom I've had a crush since Elf, teamed up with M.Ward to form She and Him. Her sister Emily is Bones on the TV series Bones, on whom I've had a crush since Bones. Zooey has a nice, twangy singing voice in spite of growing up in Santa Monica. This is kind of nice. Found it somehow trying to find more Telekinesis after Andrew's post.

Catchy Friday

Hummable. Very hummable.

Spring in Moscow

The first photo in Jay's 419easter post reminded me of this old chestnut. Never gets old.

More On 419eater

From 419eater:

So what is scambaiting? Well, put simply, you enter into a dialogue with scammers simply to waste their time and resources. Whilst you are doing this, you will be helping to keep the scammers away from real potential victims and screwing around with the minds of deserving thieves.

It doesn't matter if you are new to this sport or a hardened veteran; if you are wasting the time of a scammer, or frustrating them in any way, well that's good enough for us, and we would welcome you to join with our now very large community.

Although this site concentrates mainly on the Nigerian 419 scam, we are happy to deal with other types of scams if and when the opportunity arises. We also have a large team of experts dedicated to the removal and closure of fake scammer banks and sites.

The following are some of my favorite photos from 419eater's Trophy Room. Typically, the thieves are coerced into declaring allegiance with some made up church or organization before any money changes hands. Hilarity ensues.

Oh, your knowledge of felching makes one of these funnier.

Hey, We're 3!

Happy birthday, LBU!

Anvil!

This looks to be extremely entertaining.

Piling it on

As you probably all know, the recent Anyface reunion tour was prompted by Dave's sudden need for cash in the wake of losing his retirement savings when the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme collapsed. So I'm making an exception to my usual no-legal-posts rule. Turns out that the government submitted to the Judge a stack of papers intended to highlight the magnitude of the fraud, and included in that stack a bunch of emails from victims of the fraud. Most are along the lines of “This man single-handedly destroyed peoples’ lives . . . “; “Please do not let this weasel negotiate some sweetheart deal . . . “; “Madoff’s crime has robbed us of a lifetime of savings”; etc., but on page 36 is the following, less-predictable, e-mail:

From: [redacted]
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 6:38 PM
Subject: REPLY ME

My Name is Mr. [redacted] but my origin is from Republic of Congo. I have an inherited fund I want to invest in a business in your country with a help of a local. I don’t know about what business but I found it wise to invest the funds in your country with your collaboration with me.

Ever since I move to Dubai due to the problem in my country, I have not been able to invest the funds in Dubai due to security reasons. Now I am seeking foreign assistance to transfer the funds in your country based on the news of their development.

If you can assist, I am willing to give you 10% of the funds that is US$3.5Million. You will understand that my entire life and future depend on this money and I shall be very grateful if you can assist me. The major thing I demand from you is the absolute assurance that the funds will be safe and you will not sit on it when it is transferred into your account.

I will be willing to coming to your country once everything has been done and the funds are in your bank to discuss on lucrative investment in your country.

I hope to hear from you so that we might get to talk better on this issue. Please do give me your contact information in order for me to call you ASAP.

If this email offends your moral value, do accept my apology.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Best Regards,

[redacted]

Good work lads!

I Hate People

My best friend in high school had an Anti-Nowhere League T-shirt that said 'I Hate People.' I always coveted it. Good 80s English punk band expressing a sentiment that will never die. Jay reminded me of it today because he hates them too. Well, Jay, Fuck Those People.

I Hate People

God I wish that I could hide away
And find a wall to bang my brains
I'm living in a fantasy, a nightmare dream... reality
People ride about all dayIn metal boxes made awayI
wish that they would drop the bomb
And kill these cunts that don't belong

I hate people
I hate the human race
I hate people
I hate your ugly face
I hate people
I hate your fucking mess
I hate peopleThey hate me

Where to eat?

This is quite a handy tool, primarily designed for the i-phone, which I don't have, but apparently embeddable too. Currently set for Memphis, it works for DC, NOLA, and many other cities, although not Durham or Gainesville, just yet (and only that other Jacksonville). Presumably this could be usefully adapted to help people in a casino decide which slot machine to play.

Rorschach's Journal: A Lost Chapter

Well, the Friday f.offs have definitely kicked in. Cracked online isn't The Onion, but it's not so bad at the end of a long day, situated at the end of a long week.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/rorschachs-journal-another-boring-night/

Catchy Freitag

I always said something good would come out of Germany one day.

Catchy Thursday

Jesus, what a voice. It's ... Heartless Bastards!

(What's up with Letterman's clumsy plug at the end?)

Tiltshift

This video is made entirely from Tiltshift photography, which is not so much a technique as a detailed Photoshop manipulation. As near as I can tell, the videos are time-lapse photography manipulated in Photoshop, then stitched together.


Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

You can see more videos at the links above, or a gallery of photos here. More about Tilt-shift here, with a cool tutorial on how to do it here.

Maybe this will hold us over until Dave posts his show photos/mp3s.

Serge, vol. 2

Place 3 quarters in the slot for a French Tickler Prophylactic.

Wherever Serge saw a pot, he would stir it, whether it was satirizing the military or French patriotism, showing up with a model in a see-through top or even something as taboo as incest--he wrote and performed Lemon Incest with his 12-year-old daughter Charlotte ! Way over the line, but that's exactly where Serge wanted to be, God bless him.

Change Leopardon!

Evidently there was a Japanese version of Spiderman from the '70s. Of course, their Spiderman gets his own giant Transformer robot!

How the Irish Saved Civilization

Irish-Americans Gear Up For 'The Reinforcin' O' The Stereotypes'

From The Onion - where else? Happy Saint Patrick's Day, you bastards.

It's Madness!

I like Memphis to win, but FSU and Texas are also in, so I've got a lot to root for. Also, I'm eager to see the NCAA tourney debut of:

#42 Chief Kickingstallionsims
Position: Center
Height: 7-1
Class: Senior
Hometown: Boyton Beach, Fla
High School: Blanche Ely
PERSONAL: Grlenntys
Chief Kickingstallionsims, Jr. was born September 15, 1986, the son of Grlenntys
Chief Kickingstallionsims, Sr. and Barbara R. Paulson ... has a younger sister,
Chelsea E. Kickingstallionsims ... earned one varsity letter at Blanche Ely High
School ... a transfer from Stetson University ... lists greatest athletic
accomplishment as being named [quote]Best Name in College Sports[quote] by
Sports Illustrated.

Stewart vs. Cramer

Part 1 of the pants-down-spanking The Daily Show gave the CNBC network last week. Jim Cramer, the ridiculous screaming asshole of Mad Money, just looked like the pathetic ignorant loser he is. The other 2 segments are linked so please check them out, serious stuff.

My Latest Music Obsession

I stumbled across this on All Songs Considered the other day. Give a listen and I think you'll know what Beck was listening to when he recorded Sea Change.

From Amazon's editorial review:

2009 U.S. pressing of this classic album from the controversial French singer/songwriter, originally released in 1971. Sex has always sold, but presented with a landmark musical backdrop, the combination is rare as finding the elusive "G Spot". Quite often, attempts fall flaccid, missing the titillating mark by a mile. But French icon and national treasure Serge Gainsbourg is no stranger to sexual proclivities, and with Histoire De Melody Nelson, he shared an erotic tale as seductive today as the day it was released. With help from actress, amour, and inspiration Jane Birkin, arranger/conductor and co-conspirator Jean-Claude Vannier, not to mention a tight hand picked crew of top shelf UK session musicians, Nelson is often cited as Gainsbourg's master work, an essential album for the discerning music lover. Seven tracks.

In France, Their Perversions become art.

Shoes that Rock

My interest in festive footwear is well documented. Today my friend Janet walked in with the slickest new kicks I've ever seen. Geez, it's been over 30 years since I experienced sneaker-envy.

They also have one of Dark Side and a couple of designs that commemorate The Who, but they're not as cool as these.

Can You Smell That?

It's my fried brain.

Somebody named Kutiman remixed a bunch of YouTube videos to create this. Fuck! Now I want to go climb a mountain or something ...

Raimi Returns To What He Does Best

Scaaaaary.

Jobs, etc.

I'm headed to Hogtown (Gainesville, Fl) for a job interview. Not sure what the job is, but they're flying me down there and putting me up in the Hilton, so why not. Dave, have a great show. Andy, we expect pics.

Colbert vs. The Commercial Appeal

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - Locked and Loathed

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Rap Battle
NASA Name Contest

Hot news item around here, but didn't know the attention would spread to Comedy Central.

Pixar: Gods Among Men

It's Good!

The Wife and I caught Watchmen over the weekend. I was very pleasantly surprised, especially after reading some reviews, but nothing could really live up to my expectations. The movie is visually stunning, and for the most part, it's well-cast and hews closely to the graphic novel. Without question, Jackie Earle Haley stole the show as Rorschach. He is the character's exact physical manifestation, and everything he says or does is pitch-perfect.

One of the criticisms of the film that I can mention (without ruining anything for you other bastards who haven't seen it) is the music. The soundtrack is obvious and dumb, as if a high school kid were chosen to pick the same tired songs to represent the various eras. Another (slight) criticism I have is of the fetishized depiction of extreme violence, which I seem to recall being more implied in the graphic novel.

My major gripe, however, cannot be discussed until everyone who wants to see the movie, has.

I score Watchmen a solid B. (The Wife gave it a B -.) Anybody else care to weigh in, Lurker?

BONUS: I only recently learned that the teaser posters for Watchmen the film were exactly the same as the teaser posters for Watchmen the graphic novel. Check it out here.

Dave in New Orleans; Anyface show update

Because I know everyone is hanging breathless on my every move in New Orleans, here's an update. Made the marathon drive on Saturday, 12 hours with a couple of quick stops. Went to Le Bon Temps and had AndyGator beers from Abita, which are suspiciously strong. I'm thinking high gravity. Shrimp po boy on Sunday afternoon and an ice breaker practice with Paul Sunday night. Practice went surprisingly well, and the old guys could still pull out the stops on the fast stuff. Werts arrives today at 2:30 and we should be wasted by 2:45 or so. Fellow Bastard Andrew will arrive for the show on Wednesday morning. We also have people flying in from Durham, Minneapolis, and Seattle. Jay, here's the tentative setlist:

Blandscape
Black and Green and Brown
Long Ago Blown
The Last to Know
Ballad of a Punk Rock Legend
Down to the Mat
Love is Bland
Dirty Secret
Squirt Gun
No Disguise
She's After Me
Some Ridiculous Cover Song

More reports and pics to follow. Excelsior!

Pulsar, The Ultimate Man Of Adventure

Anybody else remember this guy? I got Pulsar for Christmas one year, probably 1977. I can have him again (in mint condition), along with his Life Systems Center and arch-enemy Hypnos, for the low, low price of $650.00.

Stewart Nails It...Again

Tonto Tonto 2

Tonto Tonto - Mirror


Here's the Leno bit.

Tonto Tonto

Funny story:

I had known Joe approximately two days when we were watching The Tonight Show at stately Drago Manor. All of a sudden, this band came on, and Joe yelped, "Holy shit! I know that guy!" This lead singer is that guy.

He Don't Want to Go To School And Learn To Read And Write

In these difficult economic times, when bastardos find themselves being downsized, taking pay cuts, or even worse, teaching, it's good to think about the options. Might I suggest going back to school?

Forty years on, the Beatles and their songs are to be hauled into the halls of academia and dissected by postgraduate students at a Merseyside university.

The masters degree in The Beatles, Popular Music and Society is being billed by Liverpool Hope University as the first such course in the UK and "probably the world".

Finally, a worthwhile degree!

Anyface Live at Tip's

On Wednesday, March 11 Anyface will reunite at Tipitina's for one night only. For any bastards who are interested, the show will be streamed on Tipitina's webcast site. In addition, they will be recording an audio and video tape which I should be able to share around. Unless it sucks. In which case, your only chance to hear the suckage will be during the simulcast. Man I wish that was still my chest.

Happy Birthday, Doc

Theodor Geisel would be 105 today.

In honor of his birthday, check out this ultra-rare Dr. Seuss book.