This Charming Man

Already another Moz tour fraught with DRRRRAMA! Two weeks after Morrissey collapses on stage, tonight he apparently walked off the stage into the second song of the night after somebody in the audience threw a bottle of water at his head, while he was bending down to shake hands with the fans in the front row.



And I would just like to say that the upper border graphic of 1980's cassettes for that blog linked above looks almost exactly like the bookshelf of my college dorm room.

Anyway, Jesus Christ, Morrissey. Cowboy up a little. (Then again we are talking about Morrissey here.) I've seen a million musicians hit with worse and still soldier on. I still remember seeing a tennis shoe hit Kurt Cobain in the bean at a Nirvana show at William & Mary Hall. They stopped playing, and Kris asked Kurt "Did that hurt?" Kurt made a pouty face and nodded like a little boy, and then they launched right back into the gig again. What pros. Oh, except for the part that Kurt's dead now and everything.

Another Hiding Place

I found a page from my old blog that I had deleted about five or so years ago. In a way I'm partially annoyed that it's still there and I can't seem to get rid of it. But a part of me is also intrigued by the revelation of how I used to blog back in those days. I was considerably more verbose, and way too oversharing (you guys think I'm that way now, holy smokes, it's not how it used to be!). But more than anything it's funny reading about those first few months when I started working at my music store. Ahhh, the beginnings of a long, meaningful, co-dependend relationship in the making.

My Angel Rocks Back And Forth

I got a phone call today from a woman who said that she found my wallet. I didn't even know that I had lost it. She really went the distance trying to contact me, borrowing phone books from the Books-A-Million (where I was just five minutes prior buying a cup of coffee) and tracking me down by my DL info.

Sometimes there really are good, honest people in the world. :)

Pills And Soap

It is becoming clear that my body has become somewhat addicted to Tylenol these days. Particularly of the PM persuasion, since my recently capped tooth is in obvious need of being root canaled and has hurt constantly pretty much since its capping, I can't sleep much at nights without it. And when it's not bothering me, I still can't sleep without it. And it's getting to where when I'm not on any kind of Tylenol I can feel all the aches and pains in my body that I've learned to live with before I started popping them constantly for my tooth -- like my heel spurs after work, or my current sore throat problem that usually heralds a cold or flu but so far nothing this time, so what the hey-hey?

Must concentrate on being healthy again. Why is it all so hard this time around?

Schedule

Fri 6: 4:45-cl
Sun 8: 10:45-4
Tue 10: 3-9:30
Fri 13: 4:45-cl

Digging Up Bones

I was just going over my photographs of Mike, Al, Hunter, and friends from last year's Trolling Bones Revue concert at the Norva when I discovered two things: one of which is that the event was just made into a documentary that will be shown at the Naro Cinema on Tuesday, December 22 at 9:30pm and Wednesday, December 23 at 11pm, apparently right after showings of It's A Wonderful Life. Two nights that I want to take off before I decide which night to attend. Don't know if I myself am in the movie yet or not (at least I was never given a model release form to sign, lol), but I'm sure a lot of people I know will be.

And two, Trolling Bones II is confirmed for Saturday, December 26 at 7pm, again at the Norva this year. Well, at least this time I'm familiar with three acts on the bill, even though I was never a big fan of one of them. And Tusko Fatale I think is the only other one that I remember seeing live back in the day, since I only heard Ted's old band Elvis From Hell on their cassette releases.

Still, the reason to go is to hang out and see old friends, people from the scene years ago, and reconnect with folks you thought died through the rumor mill or so forth. Sure, we're all in our forties and fifties now. But the best part of the first concert was running around a dark beer-reeking club like the twenty-something spazzes that we once were. (Are?)

Oodways

"Hello, Chillen!" Mike as Chef from South Park.

First 20 tracks on my iTunes looking over some of the Halloween costumes that my friends wore this year.

1. "Heartbreak City" - The Cars

2. "Splinter In Her Head" - The Cure

3. "Theme From Trouble Man" - Marvin Gaye

4. "4 Minutes" - Madonna w/ Justin Timberlake

5. "Earthshaker" - The Lancasters

Mary The Vampire Slayer.

6. "Tom Rushen Blues" - Charley Patton

7. "Bored Teenagers" - The Adverts

8. "The Warning" - Nine Inch Nails

9. "Bye Bye Baby" - Mary Wells

10. "Til We Get There" - K'naan

Rob Stanley!

11. "My Only Lover" - Gregory Isaacs

12. "So And Slow It Grows" - Wire

13. "Mazole Vanga Sanga" - Bokalanga

14. "Two Boys" - The Cold

15. "Money City Maniacs" - Sloan

"And after the spankings, the oral sex!"

16. "Open Your Mind" - El Nuevo Swing

17. "I Call My Baby Pussycat" - Parliament

18. "Jeder Bua lacht mir zua" - Lydia Huber

19. "Honey" - Moby

20. "Sally McLennane" - The Pogues

Something Funny Going On

Audio Junk! Now for Download! And remember that Audio Junk is live every Tuesday night at 8:45pm on randomradioonline.net, and roundtableradio.net. Music and samples galore!

Better Where You Are

Reading that horror movie article from the previous post, with its mention of W.W. Jacobs's 1902 horror classic The Monkey's Paw, made me have a dream last night that I found a record that I had all throughout my childhood up through my teen years, 40 Funky Hits (released by the Longines Symphonette Society as one of those "As Seen On TV" commercials in the 1970's) and how probably the last time I ever remember having that record in my possession had something to do with that famous short story. And how I always associate The Monkey's Paw with "Dirty Water" by The Standells.

My high school senior year creative writing class was working on a project, making our own "radio plays" by pairing us up into groups and recording our own dramatic interpretations of classic literature complete with sound effects and mood music. My group of girls selected The Monkey's Paw, and I was to play Sergeant-Major Morris, he who brings the paw to the White family, and we chose to act out everything physically in the A/V room, where we could get into character and use our footsteps and door slams as sound effects.

But what about music? We had a record player in the A/V room, but nobody remembered to bring any tunes. Then I remembered that I had my 40 Funky Hits record out in my car so I raced out to get it and bring it in.

Now, uh, where's talkin' a novelty record here folks, not exactly the kind of playlist suited for a spooky story. Yet during the foreboding line where Herbert says, "I expect you'll find the cash tied up in a big bag in the middle of your bed, and something horrible squatting up on top of the wardrobe watching you as you pocket your ill-gotten gains." the girls insisted that when we reach the world "squatting" it should be hit hard, with an elongated squaaaating, while the opening chords to The Standells "Dirty Water" chime in. And no, no matter how much I protested, I was overwhelmingly out-voted. And oddly enough, I was sick the day that we had to present our play to the class, so I don't know what the reaction was to our choice of terrifying "mood music", especially to the mental image of a demon figure squaaaating on top of a wardrobe to the tune of "Dirty Water". But damnitall, these days how I wish I knew.

Eight Years Ago

An article that sums up my feelings about my strange sensitivity to certain horror and war movies, depending on what they are. But be warned, there are a lot of spoilers in there for films as well projects still in the works. That may be the scariest part of it all.

It Almost Makes Me Like Them

Pearl Jam dressed as Devo performs "Whip It" at the Spectrum in Philadelphia Halloween night.

Egypt, Egypt

Although I never got the chance to see Robert Crumb in Richmond last week, my friend Mitch returned with a report, saying "I don't think some of the women were happy with some of his viewpoints; he managed to get booed and hissed once or twice. It was great that they discussed bestiality and incest in such a posh setting."

Bestiality and incest... two of my favorite topics! When it comes to Biblical stories, that is -- and I am thrilled to see that Crumb's long-awaited hardcover comic adaption of The Book Of Genesis is finally released, having read about him working on this project from what feels like years and years gone by. Crumb's straightforward interpretation of the first book of the Bible faithfully (or as much as he could) reproduced every word of the original text, derived from sources from The King James version to Robert Alter's The Five Books Of Moses that was more recently released in 2004. But what's remarkable and maybe slightly surprising about this book is how much Crumb took this endeavor as a straight illustration job, drawing exactly what the text describes, without ridicule or parody -- though

that's not saying that some people may still find offense to some segments, depending on how vivid one's imagination has always been when one reads about the seduction of Lot by his daughters, Onan spilling his seed on the ground, or Adam and Eve naked and unashamed in the Garden of Eden, among others. But of course, nothing that anyone who who has read the Bible doesn't know already. And of course, Genesis is famous for a whole heck of a lotta begettin' -- though don't worry, Crumb reigns it in a little when it comes to rendering every single descendant of Adam and Noah and Abraham and holy cow that's a lotta begots. But of course best of all is always Crumb's meticulously glorious pen strokes, and let's not forget Crumb's trademark thunder-thighed, bootilicious babes making appearances as Eve, Sarah, Leah, Rebekah, and Rachel, just to name a few.

So will there be a Book of Exodus in the future? I admit that's the first thing I thought, but heck, let the poor man rest of the seventh day. He's earned it. From Adam to Joseph, The Book Of Genesis is all a small part of the greatest story ever told. It's only fitting that one of the greatest underground comic artists of all time should do it justice.

Schedule

Sun 1: 9-4
Tue 3: 3-9:30
Thur 5: 4:45-cl
Fri 6: 4:45-cl

Happy Halloween!

And what better way to celebrate than the long overdue knighting of 87-year-old actor Christopher Lee. That's right, bitches. Edward Cullen can suck it.

But I might wind up spending the evening watching Lee in the 1973 classic The Wicker Man instead, because I do so love that movie. And please, do not watch the Nicolas Cage version that came out three years ago. Just.... don't.