Some wierd plans

From Wired

"Some anti-war protesters have likened TV's coverage of the war to a video game, but one man took that a step further, sending a video game console and games to the White House.

Mikel Reparaz, 24, of San Francisco, started the campaign last year in hopes of averting a war, and his "Buy Bush a PlayStation 2" effort collected $370, enough to send President Bush a Sony PS2 console, an extra controller and two military-themed games SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals and Conflict Desert Storm."

I repeat my title: tee hee.

Stress levels are rising at work right now, because the post-Spring Break spike has coincided with the lab manager's vacation and the quitting of one employee (and the subsequent refusal of upper management to hire a replacement, thus leaving us short-staffed). I've nearly been driven to drink.

Yes, I do recognize that inserting "nearly" in there makes me seem like a goody two-shoes.

Two movie-related items:

Two short days until the release of Phone Booth. I'm inexplicably intrigued by this movie, and have been since I first found out about it, like, a year ago.

I just saw the live sex shows trailers for Identity, and despite rumors that the movie is just one big wet paper bag (and the fact that ultra-creepy Jake Busey is in it), I'd kind of like to see that too.

I'm smart sometimes

So last night (friday night) I went to the grocery store. No biggie--bought some staples. Anyway, as I was walking out the door, this teenage guy and two girls were walking in. He was bragging about something or another, and in the middle of the first sentence I heard (which, for purposes of this story, came out like "blah blah blah fuck blah blah blah"), I turned, startled at how loudly and annoyingly he said said sentence.

Well, this young man seemed to think that I was startled at his use of the ol' f-word, because he responded with "Yeah, man, I said fuck." I turned and started walking toward my car. As I walked away, he said "Yeah, and fuck you too." I turned and stared at him. "What chu gonna do bout it?" he said, doing that weird chest hit thing that apparently proves he's street.

Here's what I did about it. I thought about walking up to him and clocking him, but figured that either the cop inside (there's always a cop right inside this grocery store) would take us both in for fighting, or I'd break my glasses (those reasons, plus I don't fight). So instead, I waited there as he postured for a while, then he turned and walked in. I waited a couple of minutes, then walked back into the store. I walked up to the cop who stands near the entrance all the time and got his attention.

"Sir, did you see the guy come in wearing the blue track pants?"

"Yep."

"Just so you know, I heard him talking to a friend outside about how he was going to lift a couple of forties for them to drink."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

And I walked back out. Now I have no idea whether anything happened, but I like to think that this kid was detained as he walked out and searched in front of these two lady friends of his. More likely, the cop didn't care. But my daydreaming about this incident leads me to the former conclusion, because I come off much cooler that way.

And later that night, some gutter punk kid called out "Hey, Silent Bob!" as I walked into Vintage Vinyl. I didn't know how to respond to that.

Blah blah electric company

I have to be at work in six and a half hours for a meeting (Meeting? What do they think, we actually consider this a job?), and so ordinarily I wouldn't pop in here to post something, but I figured those of you concerned about my musical health might be interested.

I finally made it out of the apartment for a free sex cams show. Yes, yes, I'm proud of me too. Let's see if I can remember the format...

Songs: Ohia / Impossible Shapes / Botanists, at the Rocket Bar in St. Louis, Missouri.

Something like that.

The show was a bit of a letdown, as Jason and company played pretty much only Magnolia Electric Co. in its entirety (I think--there may have been a song I'd never heard in there somewhere). It was good, but I've only listened to the album once or twice, and so the recognition (or, the "Oh crap, I'm glad they played this") factor was right around nil.

Ran into Mr. Byron Weiss, who some of you will remember as that shoegazer guy (among other things--I remember the shoegazer part) at KWUR years ago. He's moved back to St. Louis after a long absence, apparently, and still runs into more people he knows than I do. Good to see him.

The Botanists were quite pleasant. They're from St. Louis, too, so my list of decent bands in the St. Louis area has increased to a whopping four.

Next up: the Sea and Cake and Califone on the twenty-second. More likely, though, next up is Cursive and Appleseed Cast on the fifth.

It does feel good to get out every once in a while, even if I sit alone at the bar, twiddling my thumbs while drinking tonic water. Good night.

13 thoughts

Why does anyone like the Boredoms? I don't understand. I mean, I understand liking them more than liking, say, Melt Banana, but still.

You know what I like about England? No, not the fact that most musical genres worth thinking about started there. No, not the accents (although that helps). I like Parliament. No, not the band. Watching members of Parliament speak is like watching amateur night at the Apollo, with other MPs shouting disapproval of whatever drek the speaker is spouting. Dave and I have concluded that Parliament should now be referred to as "Showtime at the House of Commons." Or "Def Parliament Jam." Russell Simmons should get on that.

Do you ever get the feeling that whatever funny thing you just came up with is actually unconsciously cribbed from someone else's funny statement from the past? That happens to me a lot.

Soulseek is a blessing and a curse. Blessing, because I can find out of print Mountain Goats or Songs: Ohia stuff (since both "groups" have this maddening tenency to release stuff on cassette or in batches of 300 or on a "label" made up of one guy and a CD burner or some such crap). Blessing also because I can make up for the fact that I am poor by downloading jasmine live stuff, promising myself that I will buy it eventually. Curse, because I feel like a dirty, dirty man for using it. Actually, I don't really feel dirty, but I forgot the "curse" part of my argument while listening to The Hound Chronicles, specifically "Going to Spain."

Seriously, the new Songs: Ohia album is great. As pop as Jason's ever been. Someone please come up with a good musical comparison for me, because all I can come up with right now is a cross between Karate and Jackson Browne, and that's not even close to being right. Not close at all.

13 thoughts (the title for this post, dummy) was more a reference to 13 Songs than to the actual number of thoughts in this post.

Damn the Man

Well, KWUR has been screwed yet again. The FCC denied the application that KWUR put in for an experimental license that would have upped the station's wattage for a while. Admittedly, this was a shot in the dark to see if the FCC would essentially stop paying attention (the license isn't intended for radio stations--it's intended for organizations without radio stations to get radio stations) for long enough to let the application slide through.

The long and the short of it is that KWUR would still be broadcasting at 10 measly watts, if the transmitter hadn't been damaged and then messing with the radios of construction workers. As it is, we're online only right now.

Oh, and you can read the story about KWUR's latest debacle here. And if there was ever proof that I should quit being a DJ there, I don't recognize any of the names of staff members in the article.

Engaging list format

Justice Scalia Bans Media From Speech. I'm a little slow on the uptake here, since apparently this happened almost two weeks ago, but I got the link from Justin and thought it was deliciously surreal.

MP3s of demos by The Bens (the new band with Ben Lee, Ben Folds, and Ben Kweller) are available at, oddly enough, Evan Dando's website. They're pretty good. (lead from the comments on Slatch)

In reference to this, which was in reference to this (which was in turn in reference to this): not to toot my own horn or anything, but I could teach that class. Or I could have, a while ago. I might be rusty now. (for those not interested in clicking on the links, it's all about the ability--or rather, the inability--of guys to unfasten bras)

Now I've never actually seen an episode, but I would imagine that Canadians are really lucky to have a show like This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Because from the clips I've seen of it (most recently, Colin Mochrie's (as Anthony St. George) apology to the United States), it's a good show.

My CD burner has been messing with me lately. Sometimes it records the second track twice on the CD while not recording track one at all....sometimes it records a track's length of silence (as opposed to actually burning the track)...it's frustrating, since I have several projects that are long overdue to many many people out there. I think it might be the fault of the CDs I bought a few weeks ago, so I might have to bite the bullet and buy real ones, instead of cheap ones. But the projects are slowly nearing completion.

Extra credit to anyone who can translate the title of this post. I know, but only because I read the translation. I never took Latin, because the guy who taught Latin at my high school (before they cut Latin classes out of the schedule) creeped me out, and had a tendency to make fun of me.