Tie Your Mother Goose Down

I was always under the impression that Snow White of the Seven Dwarfs fairy tale was a different creature altogether than the other Grimm story about Snow White and her sister Rose Red. But Bill Willingham's acclaimed comic Fables seems to meld both Snows into the same character with no explanation, unless perhaps her existence is a reflection on how the mundane world (people like you and me) perceive her, as being both one and the same.

And that kind of twist is a minor aspect of what makes Fables so gosh darn, dare I say it, enchanting. Two centuries ago, when a mysterious and powerful adversary invaded and conquered the land of Oz, then Narnia, then the rest of the fairy tale world, what was left of the surviving "fables" escaped with their lives to hide in the New World -- and New Amsterdam to be exact -- where our own creations walk among us in disguise along the city streets, with the more human (Snow White, Prince Charming, Cinderella) residing in Manhattan and mingling with the "mundys" while the less human (dragons, giants, the Three Little Pigs) hide themselves away on an expansive farm in upstate New York. And although everyone dreams of one day returning to their homelands, they have made do for over two hundred years in their own secret self-governed world of "Fabletown", brought on by an amnesty enforced by Mayor King Cole where crime's committed in the homelands were expunged from their records. This allows all fable enemies to live peaceably with each other until the hopeful end of their temporary exile. Of course, that's all easier said than done.

Although Old King Cole is the official figurehead mayor of this secret society, it's the austere and no-nonsense Snow White as assistant mayor who really makes sure the Thomas-The-Tank-Engines run on time. Embittered from her divorce with Prince Charming and estranged from her sister Rose Red for having an affair with him, her heart softens when she learns in the first volume Fables In Exile that her sister may have been murdered. This modern day fairy tale turns noirish whodoneit with the help of the Big Bad Wolf who, unwanted amongst the animals at the farm due to past grudges, bought an expensive witch's charm to disguise himself as a human to live in the city as Fabletown's sheriff, Detective Bigby Wolf. Although it is also possible that Bigby didn't put up much of a fight to live among the filthy humans, as his secret love for the plucky Snow White is the very reason why he followed her scent back to the New World after the homelands fell.

The second collection Animal Farm is quite the chilling thriller, taking place in the upstate farm of inhuman fables hiding out from the real world. But a lot has been going on up there since Snow White paid her last visit. Tired of living on the farm, unable to be anything other than freaks in human society, the Three Little Pigs have instigated a revolutionary uprising of Orwellian proportions (and allegories), modifying weapons for the likes of everyone from Humpty Dumpty to Chicken Little to hold and operate. Several characters from Kipling's The Jungle Book make appearances, including King Louie of the Bander Log tribe and Shere Khan the tiger, who has a taste for Snow. Among the more hardcore revolutionaries is cold killer Goldilocks, a militant non-human fables activist who still sleeps with The Three Bears's son, and not just because his bed "is just right", either.

I have heard so much about this series, and I am terribly glad that I just started picking it up. Whether or not the same Snow White whose sister is Rose Red really did live with seven dwarfs for awhile (she flat out refuses anyone to mention the dwarfs in her presence!) will have to wait until I get there in the story. If anybody needs me, I'll be in fairy tale land.

Schedule

Mon 30: 9am-11am
Tue 1: 9am-11am
Wed 2: 5-9:30
Sat 5: 8-2

Moon Safari

1905 San Francisco as seen from a trolley ride, right before Market Street was destroyed by the earthquake a year later. Beautiful!

Fun With Bullet Points

What does it say about our company that I was let off from work 4 1/2 hours early on Black Friday? Why were customers not shopping at our store the way they were shopping everywhere else in town?

• For one thing, there was no Big Must Have for this holiday season. No coveted Playstation 4, or whatever Tickle-Me-Elmo fad of the year would have people stampeding through ours or anybody else's doors. But other places were doing remarkably well all the same. Just not us.

• We didn't offer anything really worthwhile for shoppers this time around. Items like electronics, which are usually high on shopper's lists for discounts and sales, were passed over in favor of select DVD television box sets on sale, but with our regular prices higher than anywhere else in town it's hardly a bargain. And $7.99 CDs that are originally priced at $9.99? And only certain ones, at that.

• Nobody is thinking like a Black Friday customer thinks. People plan their excursions, often based on the most highly coveted or biggest sale item on their list as top priority, and then everything else comes after. If a limited number of iPods are on sale at Walmart, then people will make a plan to scramble for those iPods, then when they have been acquired at last, other items on their lists like CDs and DVDs come next. And since they are already at Walmart -- a loss leader store that can afford to sell their CDs/DVDs cheap, why go back out into traffic and race across town to my store when everything they want is already right there?

• People want the best bargains in town with as few stops as possible. If it can all be under one roof, I guarantee folks will be pleased as punch. In the past when we had sales on iPods and MP3 players people were lined up outside the store. But our company didn't make any kind of deal with iPod or any other competitive MP3 player this year. Not even last year. And if memory serves me, not even the year before.

Ultimately, we were not competitive at all this season. Maybe there's more to it than what I see, but it's almost as if they didn't really try.

Why did we do so terribly this Black Friday, as badly as we wanted to be successful? Because frankly, we just didn't want it bad enough.

November Thunderstorm

L toR: Dad, Uncle Bobby, Mom, Aunt Ruby, and Aunt Janice.

First 20 tracks on my iTunes wishing that everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving.

1. "Drug Store Woman" - John Lee Hooker

2. "Song With Rose" - Elvis Costello & the Attractions

3. "Brick House" - Commodores

4. "The Wave Ballet" - Oh No Ono

5. "Savory" - Jawbox

6. "Rosario" - Prince & the Revolution

7. "Falling For You" - Merle Haggard

8. "Emotions" - Clinic

9. "The Beards! (Instrumental)" - The Residents

10. "Animal Behavior" - Praxis w/ Bootsy & Bernie Worrell

11. "Pencil Neck Geek" - Freddie Blassie

12. "Ain't Got No Home" - Clarence "Frogman" Henry

13. "Neo Violence" - The Tough Alliance

14. "Ladies And Gentlemen" - Saliva

15. "Take It Easy" - King Harvest

16. "Early In The Morning" - Harry Nilsson

17. "Time For Some Action" - N*E*R*D

18. "Crazy You" - Osunlade

19. "Memphis" - Hasil Adkins

20. "Brand-New Life" - Young Marble Giants

They're Doing It Clown Style

There was a time, 15-20 years ago (eghads!) where you couldn't even call me to the Thanksgiving dinner table because I was too busy glued to the Turkey Day Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Marathon on Comedy Central. So enjoy a little flashback to hilarity, and have a happy Thanksgiving, all my 'Merican homies.

Boomshanka!

The house where they filmed The Young Ones is for rent!

My teenage dream fulfilled! I wonder just how fast I can pack my bags? :-D

Oliver's Army

The Thanksgiving edition of Audio Junk is ready for download, featuring tunes by Beastie Boys, Funkadelic, Tit Wrench, and Sly & the Family Stone, plus a whole lot more. Audio Junk is live every Tuesday night at 8:45pm on randonradioonline.net and roundtableradio.net. Enjoy your holidays, one and all!

Satisfy Mah Needs

Thanksgiving day.... OFF! Well, maybe I'l go in for two hours in the morning for data entry if they'll let me, which I doubt they will. Not like I'd get double time anyway since I'm no longer full time. But Joe's off too, and my aunt Ruby is in town, AND my uncle Dick and aunt Janice have moved back into town from Massachusetts this year so it'll be nice seeing family I get to see maybe once a year if I'm lucky. Plus cousin Steve and uncle Bobby and maybe uncle Billy and cousin Adam, not to mention my moms and pops and lil bro. And those are just the ones that RSVP'd! Plus Steven and I just discovered a mutual love for film that will have us dominating the conversation at the dinner table Thursday, so we'll probably get wedged into the kids table away from the adults again for our senseless monkey chatter.... just like old times!

In the meantime I scooped up a few used items that I had on hold before they disappear on Black Friday. An old associate of mine named Ronnie that dates back to our days working at the Music Man (1989-1991) has been selling back his entire CD collection after putting them all on his hard drive, so I've been digging hungrily through his goods, actually remembering back when the two of us had either bought or gotten these very same CDs gratis as promos (many still have the Music Man "lifetime guarantee" sticker on the outside). But he did have a few things I didn't, namely the original CD to Bikini Red by the Screaming Blue Messiahs, which was recently remastered but I haven't been able to successfully order for the store so I bought

his old copy since these days I only have it on vinyl. And another Screaming Blue Messiahs CD that I had never heard before called Totally Religious, which I think was their last album and is waaaay out of print, not even getting the remaster treatment like Gun Shy and Bikini Red did. But although this 1989 album didn't get the recognition that the first two classics before it received, it still has that great fun spirit and drive of the band.

Not from Ronnie, but still another sought-after classic; I've always wanted a copy of Space Is The Place by spacey former Jupiter resident Sun Ra after downloading the track "Rocket Number Nine" (did Mystery Science Theater 3000 use that song as a reference to the Satellite Of Love's periscope?). This 1972 album from Impulse Records seems to be a touchstone for Sun Ra fans, and it's a tragedy that I have only owned one album by the man in the last 15 of so years that I have heard of him. Maybe things continue to rectify themselves after that.



And after playing the dickens out of "Tall Boy" for nearly a week, with all its Justin Timberlake-like spell-casting good disco times, I finally shelled out for a new copy of Har Mar Superstar's brand new Dark Touches, and turned my computer room into the Danceteria. Though only slightly less gay. You dig?

What I Should Have Known Then

Schedule

Wed 25: 3-6
Fri 27: 8-5
Sat 28: 9-5
Sun 29: 4-cl
Mon 30: 9am-11am
Tue 1: 9am-11am
Wed 2: 5-9:30
Sat 5: 8-2

Laugh Until You Stop

A few final purchases before the holiday season monopolizes my expenditures; one of the most essential being The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For, a compilation of some of the most memorable moments sequentially starting from 1983 on up to present by one of my favorite cartoonists Alison Bechdel. And indeed, since 1983 Dykes To Watch Out For is one of the longest running gay comic strips running today, featured in several gay newspapers and publications across the country, chronicling the sudsy lives of an insular lesbian community in a average-sized town in the United States. Friendships, love affairs, and politics are the order of the day, every day, in the

DTWOF universe, featuring free spirited Lois who brings home a new sexual playmate every night, African-American lawyer Clarice and Puerto Rican CPA Antonia living the lives of monogamous "marrieds" with a young son, feisty Jezanna who runs the Madwimmin book store where Lois works, along with Mo. Mo, somewhat a central character who in her glasses, k.d. lang hairstyle and neverending array of striped shirts sort of resembles the author and illustrator herself, is the neurotic, high-strung comic relief with her polemical diatribes, the kind of person who stays up all night in a sleepless fit over the

plight of the world and often bends the ear of any available customer with her rants about President Clinton's waffling on gay rights issues, the evils of eating meat and refined sugar, starving children in some far-off land, Republicans in general, and cancer -- all more than likely in one breath, until the customer decides to take her business down to the giant corporate chain store downtown just to get away from her. But Mo has a kind and generous side to her as well, and her friends may roll their eyes during one of her notorious tirades -- but they love her. And that's what makes DTWOF such a fascinating read. With all the talk of politics, activism, love, sex, therapy, and

identity, Alison Bechdel creates a community that reminds those of us that have it easier in this life for being born among the status quo how important having a community can be, for support and friendship, and most of all a family. A family of society's fringe that make a world for themselves with supporting lesbian-run book stores, restaurants, doctor's, lawyers -- yet at the same time struggling for more space for themselves to fit in with the rest of the world. And the book is rich with satire for its own subject matter. Jokes about bringing a U-Haul on a first date as well as all of their therapy sessions into their daily lives, trying to maintain a politically correct lifestyle even when confronted with their inherent contradictions, Bechdel doesn't let the ladies get off that easily. But it's easy to grow to love this dysfunctional extended family, as I have these last two weeks of reading. Plus, it's also fun watching Bechdel's art change and refine itself over time, like a lot of artists do. Marvelous.

Exhausted

Adapting to this new heavy schedule that involves getting up at 7am to do data entry at work, hen go home for about an hour and come back to complete my actual shift until about 11pm or so. Not much of a life in between! Not to mention no day off for about two weeks. But to all my friends who have sent emails I promise to get back to you hopefully within the week before Black Friday begins. Until then, I'm going to catch a quick Thomas Edison on the floor right here... zzzzzzz

Pulled In Every Which Way

First 20 tracks on my iTunes hoping that I can manage to hold it all together.

1. "Blues From Down Here" - TV On The Radio

2. I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None O' This Jelly Roll" - Mamie Smith

3. "Mystic Eyes" - Them

4. "Why Baby Why" - George Jones

5. "Opus Of The Black Sun" - The Amorphous Androgynous

6. "Freestyle" - Jermaine Dupree

7. "Slipping Into Darkness" - Ramsey Lewis Trio

8. "Touch Me I'm Sick" - Mudhoney

9. "A Fire In The Forest" - David Sylvian

10. "I Think We're Alone Now" - Lene Lovich

11. "Dancin' At The Bains Douches" - Kid Creole & The Coconuts

12. "Moondance" - Van Morrison

13. "Help!" - The Beatles

14. "Champagne And Starlite" - Theya Hermann

15. "Let Me Help" - Bad Brains

16. "Don't Stop The Music" - Yarbrough & Peoples

17. "The Naked Dutch Painter" - Stew

18. "Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa" - De La Soul

19. "Scared As You" - The Cure

20. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" - Gil Scott-Heron

This Ain't Pirate Radio

New external harddrive means NEW AUDIO JUNK THIS WEEK! Audio Junk is another Stoopid Kar Production live every Tuesday on randomradioonline.net and roundtableradio.net @ 8:45 pm EST.The World's Worst Mixing DJ -DJ JOE INC plays a variety of music-no format- just samples, variety, and more tonight.

Schedule

Wed 18: 4:45-cl
Thur 19: 4:45-cl
Sat 21: 4:45-cl
Sun 22: 3:45-cl
Wed 25: 2:45-8
Fri 27: 7:45-5
Sat 28: 8:45-5

Ken Ober, 1957-2009

It apparently had been another one of those celebrity death internet rumors all afternoon. But as the day progressed the confirmations have rolled in: Comedian and host of the 1980's MTV game show Remote Control has died at the age of 52.

From 1987 through 1990, Remote Control was considered the network's first original non-music program, predating the many years to come of no more music programming in the near future. But Remote Control fit the format by being a game show about movies, music and television, often acted out by a cast of unknowns that consisted of Kari Wührer, Colin Quinn (later of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update news chair), Alicia Coppola (Jericho), Denis Leary (Rescue Me) and Adam Sandler, to name a few. And Ober was the good-natured everyman host, the face of the show, and my dad always though that he looked a little like Joe back when we were first dating. Anyway, we're sorry to see you go, Kenny. It was too young, that's for sure.

Now how about a Remote Control marathon on MTV for a change? I'm sure the cast of The Hills could use a break. Heaven knows we could use a break from them, too.

Edward Woodward, 1930-2009

RIP Woodward, star of the TV series The Equalizier. But your starring role as the moralistic detective investigating the possible disappearance of a child on a secluded island of pagans in the famous 1973 thriller/musical Wicker Man will always be much, much closer to my heart.

Ethnic Distance

Brunch at the Regal Beagle this morning with Joe, Mike, Ted and Joyce. Formerly the Twisted Fish on Va. Beach Boulevard, it's only been open for 8 months, and thank heaven for Google Maps or else I would have never spotted it. Nothing like dark green lettering on a black background to announce your presence to the world.

This had me howling last night on Saturday Night Live. Mad Men star January Jones should never play anything else but repressed housewives as far as I'm concerned.

I Am Disliking Google Chrome More And More

The Friday Five (On Saturday):

1. Do you believe in ghosts?

I thought I have experienced some peculiar spooky wooOOooooOOOOo type of phenomena in my time, but whether or not it was all my imagination I haven't quite received any true ghostly empirical evidence on any of that. Although I did hide my paperback copy of The Entity between the mattresses of my bed back in high school because it scared the tinkle outta me and thought I was going to Hell just for reading it.

2. Do you believe in extraterrestrials?

It stands to reason there should be other life forms on other plants out there in the universe. Whether or not they abduct me in my sleep and hide the remote control to my TV up my butt seems a little far-fetched. But it would explain how it got there in the first place.

3. Do you believe in mythical creatures (unicorns, vampires, etc.)?

Unicorns and vampires, unlikely. But I am a bit of a cryptozoologist in spirit and if we are discovering new species of animals every day so.... yeah, heck, unicorns and vampires. I believe!

4. Do you believe in a higher power (God, Allah, Buddha, Hecate, Zeus, etc.)?

I believe that faith and science are two entirely different realms, and people aren't going to find God while looking into a flower. Jesus and Mary can only be found in sponge-painted ceilings and tortillas, people. Remember, FAITH.

5. Do you believe in the power of crystals?

I believe in the power of Crystal's 8-inch lucite platform stripper heels and how they act as ballast for when she's hanging upside down on the dancer's pole at down at Mermaids.

And Now The News...

Assessed the damages this morning, and for once I have been spared.

Others haven't been so lucky I hear.

159,000 people without power, and entire streets and houses submerged in some places. I went by work early this morning to do some data entry and one of the girls I work with out in Ocean View says that she'll be without power for two days, and the downstairs to her house is ankled deep in water. Even the local news channel was reporting in a studio filled with water.

Then the power went out on the whole block at my store around 10am, so I went home. I'm scheduled to go in tonight but I'll call later to see if the power cuts back on, or else I may have today off as well. Good thing I got in all those extra hours this week.

Après Moi, Le Déluge

The loading dock behind my store this morning, several feet deep of water.

First 20 tracks from my iTunes hoping that my house and tree survive this tropical storm that's been surging non-stop for two days straight.

1. "Warmer Than Hell" - Spinal Tap
2. "Time Is Tight" - Booker T. & The MG's
3. "Terror" - Les Baxter
4. "Doing The Wrong Thing" - Kaki King
5. "Say It (Don't Spray It)" - 2Gether
6. "California Love" - 2Pac
7. "[untitled]" - TV On The Radio
8. "Japan-Universal Indians" - Albert Ayler Quintet
9. "High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive" - Pulled Apart By Horses
10. "Them Heavy People" - Kate Bush
11. "Metteng Excuske v1.2" - Squarepusher
12. "The Green Leaves of Summer" - Nick Perito
13. "Faithfully" - Journey
14. "Mason City" - The Fiery Furnaces
15. "Ode To My Favorite Beer" - Basehead
16. "Sunny Side Of My Life" - Merle Haggard
17. "Ghosts: First Variation" - Albert Ayler Trio
18. "Pink Cashmere" - Prince
19. "Honesty" - Cartel
20. "Fafa" - Vieux Farka Toure

.+.+.+.+>+>+>*

Though I'm hardly a fashion maven, I'll be the first to jump on the ever-growing Alexander McQueen bandwagon after seeing his Fall 2009 line several months ago. And if Cher is the only woman in the world who can pull off a Bob Mackie gown, then Lady Gaga must be the template for all things McQueen. If anything, just to see her attempt to dance in those 10-inch heels that no mere mortal could operate. Although the faux-polar bear rug gown still kinda makes me a sad panda.

Seeing For Miles

Another long morning doing data entry at work, although the new spread sheet I have to use doesn't allow for easy copy/paste like MS Excel does so it took much longer than it needed. And we're having a nor'easter. but that didn't stop me from picking up Mary from the ECPI library around 2pm and taking her to Trilogy, which she had never been to before but was asking me about where she might be able to get some season 8 Buffy The Vampire Slayer compilations. I hadn't been by Trilogy in almost a month due to funds, so it was a pleasant surprise to see the guy working there hand me a bag of comics that he knows I usually get every Wednesday that he's been holding aside for me all this time. Sweet! :)

Turns out they were out of the season 8's, so Mary bought some Fray back issues and we jutted down to Barnes & Noble, which had every single book she was looking for. Then I had a cup of coffee while she ate lunch at the bookstore cafe and we caught up with each other. I miss working with her, and her parties with Liz back when they were living together down the road from me were good times. I've got to remember to socialize more often these days. Becoming a fat old graying hermit isn't how I pictured myself at forty, no matter how comforting I find my surroundings or how many good tunes I can play loafing around at home. I need more people like Mary in my life to remind me of things like this. And to talk Buffy shop.

The storm is still raging, and I hear that some people in town have lost their electricity already. I hope everybody I know out on the road is okay tonight. Be safe, my friends.

This Is My Happening And It Freaks Me Out

Audio Junk is another Stoopid Kar Production live every Tuesday on randomradioonline.net and roundtableradio.net @ 8:45 pm EST.The World's Worst Mixing DJ -DJ JOE INC plays a variety of music-no format- just samples variety and more.

Schedule

Tue 10: 3-9:30
Fri 13: 4:45-cl
Sun 15: 3:45-cl
Wed 18: 4:45-cl
Thur 19: 4:45-cl
Sat 21: 4:45-cl

The Sun Is Still Sunny

So tired. Unable to function. How am I still typing?

Volunteered to spend five days a week coming into the store early to do some data entry work for the police department, but there was about three days of backlogged info to enter and basically I was sitting at a computer typing away for seven straight hours, with no breaks except going to the bathroom twice. At least it's done. Until tomorrow, that is. But the load shouldn't be a nutty as it was today. I, however, am still nutty as a squirrel for volunteering. But I'm desperate for the hours, as you can see by my schedule. I'm just surprised I can still sit here and blog, without grusdkad sqjdoska ppppppppppd ffffffffff pluh

So this guy Ronnie that I used to work with 20 years ago at Music Man and still see around town is selling all his CDs to the store, with a lot of stuff I remember us getting back in the day together. But I was most intrigued with picking up Like This, the fourth album by The dB's which I still have on vinyl from ye ole college epoch. Back during the first year I met Joe he made me a mix tape with "Spitting Into The Wind" on it and I've been infatuated with that song ever since. It also has "Amplifier" on it, which is another awesome song, and I think I remember "A Spy In The House Of Love" as well but I am too tired to recall anything at the moment. Mike just showed up, and I'm going to go downstairs and watch them watch wrestling. It's what us girls do, you know. What the men watch other men do things. ;)

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.