Thursday, November 30, 2006

Something Interesting Is Gonna Happen Here


First 20 tracks on my iTunes this morning after a hot, soapy shower on a warm November day...

1. "A Hawaiian Christmas Song" - The Jackofficers
2. "Ibanuje Mon Iwon" - King Sunny Ade
3. "Fairytale Of Ne York" - The Pogues
4. "(Letter From Home)" - DJ Shadow
5. "Take Me With U" - Prince & the Revolution
6. "Waitin' For You" - The Guys All-Star Shoe Band
7. "Put It In Your Mouth" - Akinyele
8. "Deception" - Blackalicious
9. "My Dog Was Lost but Now He's Found" - The Fiery Furnaces
10. "Wonderful World" - Sam Cook
11. "Soul Power 70" - DJ Design
12. "Into The Fire" - Bruce Springsteen
13. "November Spawned A Monster" - Morrissey
14. "The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This" - Love
15. "You Need Love Like I Do" - Tom Jones/Heather Small
16. "The Gift" - Roy Hargrove
17. "Big Eyed Beans From Venus" - Captain Beefheart
18. "He's So Fine" - The Chiffons
19. "Wheels" - Grand Drive
20. "Give It Up" - Fishbone

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Christmas Came Early

Robin Thicke has cancelled his instore performance for this Sunday.

Rock on.

Monday, November 27, 2006

But I Know It's Okay Okay



I wonder if I'll get any response from Steve Diggle from The Buzzcocks after I wrote him this note over at his Myspace page after he added me as a friend:


Mr. Diggle!

Sorry it's taken me a few days to get back to you, but I wanted to drop you a quick line and say thanks for the add, and how really good it is to see you again.

No doubt like many of your fans, I'm another one of those whom you have left a lasting impression on over the years. I had been a Buzzcocks enthusiast since I was a teenager, and my boyfriend Joe and I finally got to see you fellas perform live at the (old) 9:30 Club in Washington DC back in early 1991. Later that year in October you guys played this venue called Outer Limits in Virginia Beach, VA. Joe and I both worked at that venue, but Joe was in the pit while I manned the T-shirt table and watched you from the back of the room. After the Joe, a few of my friends, and I spend some time with you and Pete backstage having a lot of laughs, playing "broccoli football", and my friend Christi and I teaching you our secret handshake. I think we even tries to convince you guys to come out pumpkin-snatching with us, since it was around Halloween time (Christi kept trying to convince you that it was "perfectly legal here in America".) You guys were wonderful, not just in performance, but how friendly and funny you were and my friends and I still talk about that night to this day. I still have my autographed vinyl (if you check my photo page you will see me holding up the record you signed), your two-page profile sheet from that concert, and your Steve Diggle T-shirt, which I wear happily and with pride.

Here's what surprised me even further. Maybe two years later, maybe late 1993, Joe and I saw you guys perform at the Floodzone in Richmond, VA. We were front row center as the band took the stage, and you, Mr. Diggle... after two years, looked down at us by the stage, smiled, and said "Well hello again!" before launching into your first song. We were speechless for the first minute or two, but then the music spun us into a frenzy and we were singing right along with the rest of the crowd. One of the best concerts I have ever seen to this day.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for more than just the add. Thank you for those amazing memories, and for just being the very man you are.

Much fangirl love,

Melissa



Too obsequious?

Enjoy a Buzzcocks track on da house.


Everybody's Happy Nowadays -- The Buzzcocks (m4a file)

File available for 7 days.

Purchase the Buzzcocks CD Singles Going Steady. One of my Top 10 favorite albums of all time.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Schedule

Thur 23: 10-6:30
Fri 24: 3-cl
Sun 26: 2-cl
Tue 28: 3-cl
Wed 29: 10-5
Thur 30: 2-cl
Sat 2: 3-cl

Happy Thanksgiving to all my faithful. Er, all two or three of you. See you after Black Friday. If they can remove the dark stain that once was me out of the store's cruddy carpet.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Here's Comes Proto The One-Celled Amoeba!

Back in the late 80's Ralph Bakshi, famous for his 70's era X-rated cartoon features Heavy Traffic and Fritz The Cat, put out the Saturday morning cartoon The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse, which I watched religiously when I was in college. That on top of Pee Wee's Playhouse seemed like one of the most subversive programs on television that didn't come on after 11:30pm.

This episode, "Don't Touch That Dial", really knocked me on my ass when it first aired. Remember that this pre-dates Ren & Stimpy, or any of the other modern kids shows that reference pop culture as well as skewer their own genre constantly, to the point where it's no longer innovative or shocking. But up until this point in my life I had never seen a cartoon program satirize and skew the likes of The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and badly produced anime in such a biting, vitriolic manner. It really blew my wee 18-year-old mind at the time.

I finally found a VHS boot of the entire run of The New Adventures Of Mighty Mouse for sale at Midtown Comics in Manhattan, which in a bizarre twist of irony was recorded off the television from somebody in my home town, because they kept giving my local station's call letters during commercial breaks.

This show, by the way, was cancelled after protest from the era's resident zealot-in-chief Rev. Donald Wildmon after he saw what he claims was Might Mouse snorting cocaine. Actually it was a scene where Mighty Mouse was sniffing flower petals and they flew up his nose, which I guess if you were really stretching like Wildmon obviously was you could call it out as a potential choking hazard.

Anyway, good times. Wacky memories. Totally fucked up cartoon.

Sunday Morning Jazz And Timekillers

A meme sent to me by Erinita while Joe sits at my feet going through stacks of CDs and DVDs that we either don't watch or listen to anymore in order to sell back to my store for some much needed scratch. We're at that point, again.

1. When was the last time you shaved your legs?
Yesterday

2. What were you doing this morning at 8am?
Trying to activate my new credit card by phone. And no, no luck.

3. What were you doing 15 minutes ago?
Listening to a podcast interview with Harry Shearer on the movie review program "Seen Unseen".

4. Are you any good at math?
Absolutely not.

5. Do you have any famous ancestors?
Does Randolph Scott count as an ancestor?

7. Have you ever taken out a loan to pay for school?
No. But I did get a whopping $100 art scholarship.

8. Do you know the words to the song on your MySpace profile?
Don't have a song.

9. Last thing received in the mail?
Two art films -- My Hero and Canadian Beaver.

10. How many different beverages have you drank today?
Water, and more water. Yep, me and my water.

11. Do you ever leave messages on people's answering machine?
I like to keep imitating the long beeping noise that comes after the message.

14. Do you draw your name in the sand when you go to the beach?
I like to draw boobies in the sand.

15. What's the most painful dental procedure you've had?
Root canal, especially when the novocaine hadn't set in yet.

16. What's out your back door?
My backyard.

17. Any plans for Friday night?
I rarely make plans that far in advance.

18. Do you like the ocean?
Sure. Except for the one at my beach.

19. Have you ever received one of those big tins of 3 different kinds of popcorn for Christmas?
Yes. I still have the tin. I keep my bills in it.

20. Have you ever been to a planetarium?
Duuuuude...

22. Something you are excited about?
Maybe possibly going to Morocco in another few months.

24. Are any of your great-grandparents still alive?
Nope. Mumsy died when I was about 5, I think.

25. Describe your keychain
A little black box that opens my car doors and trunk, and beeps my horn if I can't find it in a crowded parking lot.

26. Where do you keep your change?
In my couch.

27. When was the last time you spoke in front of a large group of people?
Thursday night when I got on the intercom and told our customers that we were closing for the night.

28. What kind of winter coat do you have?
A long black wool coat with hood.

29. What was the weather like on your graduation?
Rainy.

30. Do you sleep with the door to your room open or closed?
Depends on how hot it is. I try to keep things circulating. But I have a ceiling fan in this new house so it stays pretty cool at night, which I prefer. I sleep in the nude but I cocoon myself in lotsa blankeys.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Run Of The House

Here it is, a week since I downloaded the "new, improved" blogger and I'm already wanting to just scrap the whole kit 'n kaboodle. Because it really zaps what little joy there is in posting every day when you have to log in twice in two different places every time, even to edit, and even to comment on your own stinkin' post. Some days it's such a pain in the tuckus that I just don't feel like wrestling with it, then I go for days and forget what it was I wanted to talk about. Not that it's ever anything all that pressing to get out, but you know what I mean. Has anyone else downloaded this new blogger program and having similar issues with it?

On the bright side, I'm rather glad I work Thanksgiving this year, given how much of a raging bummer it's bound to be without my grandmother there this year. Plus, heck, I'm not that big into Thanksgiving anyway. So if you're in town swing my by joint and stop in and say hi to my lonely ass. I'll be the bored-looking girl in the purple shirt.

On an ever brighter side, I do not have to open on Black Friday this year. I've done it ever year since I started working at this store, and God help me, it's Hell on toast. By the time I get there at 2:00pm most of the morning melee will have subsided. And I get to get off two hours early before closing. Aaaaand I get that Saturday off as well. Yessir, I will work a thousand Thanksgivings before I work one Black Friday morning. That right there is the best Christmas present I could get this year.

Oh my God. It's already almost Christmas...

Friday, November 17, 2006

Schedule

Mon 20: 11-6:30
Tue 21: 3-cl
Wed 22: 12-8
Thur 23: 10-6:30
Fri 24: 2-9:30

Game Stop

Sony is only producing 400,000 PS3's for the day-of launch, which is today.

So it looks like our store isn't getting any PS3's. We had 13 pre-orders, and none of them came in. In fact, in our district, only one of our corporate parent chains received a total of one PS3. I don't know the status with gaming outlets like GameStop or Electronics Boutique, but from what I've been told all the local Wal-Marts received two each. The nearby Best Buy, however, received 26. I heard it was a virtual tent city in the parking lot yesterday as early as 2 in the afternoon with people camping out to get in line, even with the violent rainstorm we had all evening. Although I also heard that Best Buy management made them all leave.

I won't pretend that I know what's going on with Sony, but hell, this isn't the first time this has happened and I can't quite figure out what's going on with them. This console has been pushed back for ages, advertised for nearly two years, outsold already in Japan, had plenty of time to manufacture them here in the states, and they still can't meet the American demand? What gives, people? And this isn't the first year this has happened, either.

At least all the pre-orders customers have been called and informed, and will get their deposits back. But damn, that's gotta suck hard for them. Here they think they're guaranteed a PS3 for the holidays this year, and it's very likely nobody will even see one until sometime after January. And I just looked at what they're going for on eBay. Yeegads.

I suppose this looks good for Nintendo this Sunday. The Wii is only going for about $250 on average, as opposed to the $600 PS3 price tag (not including the bundle pack, which might set you back a grand all together).

So much for my idea of getting Joe a PS3 this year. Not like it was anywhere near my price range to begin with, but I was willing to set aside funds gradually. Still, he does appear pretty content with his PS2. And his Xbox. And his Nin64. It's safe to say that I really don't think we're suffering over here.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Open 23 Hours...

The 2-year-old's guide to Dostoevsky. Which is not unlike how my own mind processes his works.

A post aimed more for the local readers, in case they give a flying fig. Robin Thicke is doing and instore signing and a small performance at my store on December 3rd (I think it's the 3rd, but check his myspace page for confirmation because he's the one putting out the bulletins about it).

Also the new Robert Altman tribute issue of The High Hat is out. Varying topics regarding his oeuvre, both good and bad, all well-written (and several by some friends of mine). Other articles include the existential paradox of technical death metal by Phil Freeman, HBO TV series Deadwood and The Wire do Institutionalism by Hayden Childs, and a very thought-provoking article on prayer by Greg Hough (including handsome photograph).

Almost 2:30am. I wish my headache would subside just enough to give me rest. The internet sure is a lonely place at this hour.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Monday Night Madness

I love having a day off where I feel like I might have actually accomplished something, even though my accomplishments aren't all that extraordinarily, er, pioneering. But today I stayed home, scrubbed the house from top to bottom, caught up with my sadly flagging correspondence, banged out a lengthy, smolderingly sensual review for Papa's new movie to send to him, and even managed to find time to goof off a bit online at some of my usual message board haunts. Ate a salad. Curled up in bed under the heavy comforter and read my dog-eared copy of Dave Marsh's Rocklists. My room is freezing. But in a good way, if you know what I mean. A soothing chill. I love the dim glow of the single low-watt bulb over my bed on a cool rainy November night. I love this new place of mine.

It's Monday night. Which means Mike is over playing video games with Joe downstairs. I'm wearing black sweatpants and a black Sugar Hill Gang T-shirt. I have make-up smeared slightly under my eyes from rubbing at them and forgetting that I was wearing any.

I'm suddenly reminded of the time in the fall of 2001 (two months after September 11) when I saw The Cold perform at the Howlin' Wolf in New Orleans. I was front row center, and Vance had been passing me flirty looks from the stage all night and was I beaming to myself, thinking, "Aw yeah, that's right, uh-huh, I'm hot..." and then when I got back to my hotel after the show I looked in the bathroom mirror and noticed that my make-up hadn't held up in the slightest in the sweltering New Orleans nightclub heat and my face resembled Tammy Faye on a crying jag -- after begin punched repeatedly in the puss. I nearly collapsed on the bathroom floor with laughter, imagining that all those coy looks directed toward me from Vance were really just him thinking, "Oh my word, what is wrong with that poor woman in the front row?"

Mike and Joe are downstairs in front of the TV yelling at an old wrestling match from the early 1980's that Joe bought on DVD. Apparently Roddy Piper is pounding the snot out of some old no-name jobber. Joe says he thinks he sees Joyce DeWitt in the audience.

I just washed my face. I feel good right now. Remarkably well, in fact. For the first time in weeks I almost feel like a million smackeroos.

And my left nipple finally stopped hurting less than an hour ago.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

TMI?

Is this not really the place to mention that all damn day long my left nipple has felt like somebody's just given it the mother of all titty-twisters?

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Schedule

Sun 12: 11-6:30
Tue 14: 3-cl
Wed 15: 9:30-5
Thur 16: 3-cl
Fri 17: 11-7:30

Friday, November 10, 2006

All I Want For Christmas Is....


Type:Two

Been about a week, hasn't it? Not that there's been much music related interest of note right now. Nothing grabbing me, nothing throttling me. Man, I miss being grabbed and throttled. And even if I was I still wouldn't find the time to blog about it much these days. I meant to write more about what I thought about the Matthew Shipp CD. Or the Borat movie, not to mention the twelve-dozen other DVDs I've seen in the past few weeks alone. Or even the whole election biznizz. I try to keep politics out of my blog in general, since one of the reasons for this blog is to help divert my attentions away from the things that upset me the most in my real non-online life, like the war in Iraq, etc. Although right now it's been pretty not easy avoiding the little things in my non-online life not to bring them up from time to time.

I found out this week that I am borderline Type 2 Diabetes. This, of course, explains my constant need to sleep and/or pee. Now I am taking into account that my doctor did a blood test on me November 2nd, two days after Halloween, and although I didn't eat a lot of candy that night I did sort of snarf down November 1st since Joe and I had kinda sorta accidentally bought way too much candy in anticipation of a huge swarm of kids that night that didn't exactly pan out (I was at work that night but Joe told me that he had pretty much given out candy to eight trick-or-treaters total, tops), and since my doctor didn't advise me to fast before my blood test like she usually insists then it stands to reason my blood sugar was already through the roof, as it is with most folks post-Halloween/Easter and whatnot. However, it doesn't change the fact that I've gained 25 lbs since May of this year, and already being insulin resistant, already being warned that if I don't monitor my weight, my sugar intake, every freakin' molecule I swallow, than I'll be a diabetic by the time I'm 40, which is basically less than 3 years away. Looks like Christmas is early this year.

God, it's humiliating to admit this, because I loathe self pity and weakness since I know what I am capable of, but this week has been punctuated with minor, deeply embarrassing emotional meltdowns on my part. Being fine one minute, sobbing and shaking the next. I lied to my boss and told her I was sick when I showed up at work red-faced and puffed eyed Tuesday and she followed me back into the office fretting with concern, and since I rarely ever call in sick she believed me and set me home for the night. And I've been horribly ugly to Joe, not for anything he's done but simply out of anger and frustration towards myself, and he's been nothing short of sweet and supportive of me all week, lavishing me with more love than I couldn't even imagine humanly possible, because this man already never lets a day go by without reminding me just how much he cares for me. He's more than just a boyfriend. He's a best friend. And they don't make creatures this kind, understanding, and willing to stick by their nutty neurotic fat-assed girlfriends in this day and age anymore.

Shit. Guys, I know you're sick of reading this by now. I know I'm sick of writing about it. But I just can't convey to you what a complete and utter failure I've felt like over this past summer, and everything culminating into this week's news just put the big cherry Metformin pill on top of the Failure Sundae. And I know, "Melissa, you lost 140 pounds already -- that's hardly failing." But it is failing if I can't keep it the damn thing off, or at least long enough not wreck my health over it. This really is a health issue for me, folks. It's nice and all that I get compliments about my appearance since I lost weight and everything, but hey -- look, I know I'm never going to have a so-called "hot body", so it's not my goal to do so. Because quite frankly, it's not my job to have one. It is, however, my job to have a healthy body, just like it should be all of ours. And that's all I want. I want the strength I had last year -- heck, the last 3 years -- to do this again. I want the joy I had in relishing a healthy body. I went from going off my Avandia in May because my health looked so good to being put on Metformin because I'm suddenly borderline diabetic, and all because of just slacking off for a few months, not monitoring everything, not staying the course. Knowing what I had, and what I stand to lose, is what makes this change in events so devastating to me.

So here's where it stands: No more sugar, and once the Metformin helps me stay awake during the day, no more coffee or tea, or anything with caffeine that will stimulate my appetite. Get back to walking every morning until I'm back up to two hours every day. No more excuses. Not like I have a single viable excuse to offer anymore at this point.

I suppose in other, more optimistic news, Joe finally has a car again, since losing his in the floods during Hurricane Ernesto this summer. A 1997 Buick LeSabre. Like this, but more of a light tan color. My father saw a guy in his neighborhood selling it for $2950, and he had been fixing it up for years and planning on selling it to his own parents but it turned out that they really didn't need it so he put it on the market. Has a bit of an oil leak problem, but worn leaky valve cover gaskets are apparently inherent issues of otherwise rather well-made Buick engines. We'll just have to get that taken care of. Other than that it has an all new gas tank, and the engine is clean enough to eat off of. Really not too bad at all for an almost ten-year-old vehicle with about 150,000 miles on it. And at least we're not car-pooling each other to and from work every day. Joe just picked the car up from my parents' house this morning, so I'm assuming it got him to work okay since I haven't gotten any frantic eek-come-get-me-the-engine-fell-out-at-60mph phone calls so far. Keep thinking those positive thoughts.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Schedule

Mon 6: 9:30-5
Tue 7: 3-cl
Wed 8: 11-6:30
Thur 9: 3-cl
Sat 11: 10-5

Friday, November 03, 2006

Caffeine's Wearing Off...


First 20 tracks on my iTunes right now at 10:30pm after coming home from seeing Borat and trying really, really hard to say awake for Real Time With Bill Maher:

1. "Not Now James, We're Busy" - Pop Will Eat Itself
2. "Do You Love What You Feel?" - Rufus & Chaka Khan
3. "Leave This Town" - Thin Lizzy
4. "Hips, Tits, Lips, Power" - Pigface
5. "4th Of July" - X
6. "Holiday" - Madonna
7. "Georgy Porgie" - Eric Benet
8. "Word To The Mother" - Jasper & the Prodigal Sons
9. "#1 Crush" - Garbage
10. "The Screams Of Passion" - The Family
11. "Hella Good" - No Doubt
12. "I Feel Pretty" - Little Richard
13. "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" - The Beach Boys
14. "Party At Ground Zero" - Fishbone
15. "Dim" - Dada
16. "Too Shy" - Kajagoogoo
17. "Give It Up" - KC
18. "Regulate" - Warren G.
19. "1983" - The Incredible Moses Leroy
20. "Contradictions" - Azeem

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Boredom.

1. The phone rings. Who do you want it to be?:
Gilbert Gottfried

2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart?
I always use the hand basket. And I tend to leave it at the register when I'm done.

3. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener?:
More of a sitting alone in a corner trembling with my hands over my ears kinda go-gettin' gal.

4. Do you take compliments well?:
Not at all. Although I admit I secretly do appreciate them tremendously.

5. Do you like to ride horses?:
Sure. It's a hoot.

6. Did you ever go camping as a kid?
Not since I was in high school.

7. What was your favorite game as a kid?
Hide and Seek

8. If a sexy person was pursuing you, but you knew he/she was married, would you pursue it?
But aren't they already pursuing me? Wouldn't that therefore mean that I was running in the opposite direction? Then how could I logistically be pursuing them. It's a paradox! Ahhhh!

9. Could you date someone with different religious beliefs than you?
I already do.

10. Can you speak another language?:
Un poco Espanol.

11. If you had to choose, would you rather be deaf or blind?:
I'm pretty much going deaf already. So many loud concerts, so maybe bleeding eardrums.

12. Do you know how to shoot a gun?:
Learned when I was a kid, but I haven't shot one since.

13. If your house was on fire, what would be the first thing you grabbed?
Joe.

14. How often do you read books?:
Whenever I'm not online.

15. Do you think more about the past, present or future?:
Future

16. What is your favorite children's book?:
Too many to select. A lot of them I wrote myself when I was little. And illustrated. Yes, I am that bad-ass.

17. What color are your eyes?:
Foxy Brown

18. How tall are you?:
5'8"

19. Last person you talked to?:
Joe.

20. Have you ever taken pictures in a photo booth?:
Yes.

21. When was the last time you were at Olive Garden?
A few weeks ago. I still don't think I've entirely digested it yet.

22. What are your keys on your key chain to?
The car. The house. The mailbox. Your heart. :-)

23. Where is your current pain at?:
Feet.

24. Do you like mustard?:
Yum!

25. Do you look like your mom or dad?:
The mirror image of my father. Although with only slightly more hair. And considerably more boobies.

26. How long does it take you in the shower?
Depending on what all I need to shave that day.

27. What movie do you want to see right now?:
Borat

28. Do you put lotion on your dog or cats?:
Well now that's pretty darn random.

29. What was the cause of your last accident?:
A minor fender-bender a little over a year ago. I was sitting at a light and something slid off my passenger seat, so when I went to bend down and get it my foot slipped off the brake.

30. What was the strangest thing that happened to you today?:
Spent the evening doing the Time Warp dance with a lesbian vampire.

31. What are you drinking?:
Water

32. Was your mom a cheerleader?:
I was a cheerleader. Does that amount to anything?

33. How many hours of sleep do you get a night?:
Too little.

34. Do you like care bears?:
They bring happiness to my goddam motherfucking existence.

35. What do you buy at the movies?:
Umm... ticket?

36. Do you always read MySpace bulletins?:
Depends

37. Ever been to canada?
Nope.

38. Did you eat a cookie today?:
Nada.

39. What do you and your parents fight about the most?
Politics. And my hair.

40. What's your favorite brand of water?
The clear, flavorless kind.