2008

Posted on December 31, 2007

Holy crap! It’s the future! We’re in the f’ing future! That’s messed up. What’s going to happen in 2008? Let’s learn together, shall we? Did you know that twenty-ought-eight is the International Year of the Planet Earth? Designated as such by the United Nations, 2008 will be used to spread awareness, research, and outreach of Earth sciences. So make sure you hug a geoscientist this year. 2008 is also the year of: the potato. Who doesn’t like a good potato every now and then?

What else happens this year? In January, Canada gets the iPhone, and Cyprus gets the Euro. I’m willing to bet that both countries are very excited. Come February and March, we’ve got the 50th Grammy awards (fifty years of an award that reflects poorly on the music industry) and Wrestlemania XXIV. Here’s hoping they combine both events into one.

In May, CERN fires up the big ole Large Hadron Collider. This will be the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, and some theorize could lead to the discovery of the much sought after Higgs Boson particle. Others theorize that it could suck the Earth into a man-made black hole. I’ll let you know. And, assuming the planet isn’t ripped to its molecular shreds, we can all go out and enjoy Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Hooray!

In the summer, not a lot happens. 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Bill Gates stands down from his position at Microsoft, and the Mets and the Yankees play their last games at their respective stadiums before moving into new digs. In November, we get a new president, Puerto Rico gets a new governor, and in December, Minneapolis gets a new bridge. That’s 2008 in summary. Let’s hope it lives up to all this excitement!

Danzig-listenin’ Sunday

Posted on December 30, 2007

Last week, you may recall, I had a series of Judas Priest videos dictated for you to watch. This Sunday, I bring you the tiny ball of anger and horrorcore that is Glenn Danzig. Interesting fact: Danzig is the German name for the Polish city of Gdansk. Neat!

Let’s start off with the classic “Mother”. Keep your eyes open for a whole lot of Glenn looking very serious along with pale attempts at bizarre imagery.

Here is Danzig’s band The Misfits performing a classic song:

And here is a very well done cover by Mexican rap/rockers Molotov, that I can’t embed because the music industry is full of jackasses, so here’s a link instead: “Me Conviertó en Marciano“. An interesting insight into how new dance moves are invented.

Here, we get to see a deeper side of Glenn: “Danzig on Books”

Finally, did you know that Danzig is well versed in the martial art Jeet Kun Do? That does little to explain why, in this video, he gets knocked the fuck out by Danny NSK of the North Side Kings.

The Christmas Posting Continues…

Posted on December 25, 2007

This was too brilliant not to share. Color me impressed.

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas readers. I might have more stuff posted later, I don’t know. I put this post in the can two weeks ago so I wouldn’t forget today.

Judas Priest Sunday!

Posted on December 23, 2007

As DB points out, according to my Twitter, it’s Judas Priest Sunday! Last Sunday was a Rush Sunday. I’ve already got next week pegged as well. But until then, enjoy a little “Breaking the Law”.

That is some good stuff right there, with the “Look tough and wave you’re guitar around like a gun” move. And when the security guard breaks out his own guitar and everyone high tails it? Brilliant! They don’t make videos like that any more.

“Breaking the Law” not your cup of tea? How about “Turbo Lover”?

Ah yes… “You won’t hear me/ but you’ll feel me/ without warning/ something’s coming…” Not gay at all. It is a less inspired video than “Breaking the Law”, but it does give rise to this awesome parody by a couple of Polish fans:

I kind of imagine that’s how Beerorkid and his peeps roll when they ride. Leather jackets and heavy metal music blaring.

I wasn’t going to post “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming”, but there’s just so much leather and chains and tongue waving about, that I had to, just to remind ’80’s metal fans that they completely missed the mark on Halford being more rainbow than a member of Rainbow. (See what I did there? It’s a heavy metal pun.)

Finally, Judas Priest sell out:

That’s a lot more Priest than I planned for this post. Oh well. I’ve got next week planned as well. Awesome.

Guest Column: The Olde Country Buffet Doth Offend Me

Posted on December 15, 2007

Guest Columnist Erasmus Ravenworth — Oh woe betides! A thousand hexes ‘pon the Olde Country Buffet, for they have truly offended this dark writer. They will come to rue the day they have crossed Erasmus Ravenworth of the damned!

I was dining there one dark eve a fortnight ago with my lady love, Mistress Magdalene Beau Ravensclaw, when they did turn us out before we did finish our sup. We had arrived that dreary night not more than eight hours past the noon, an adequate time for feasting before a night of witching, and the wretched hostess dared say that the buffet closed within the half hour! We did walk past the salad bar with haste, stopping only for chocolate mousse and bananas in Jell-O, and went forth to the wonders of the entree buffet before us.

Alas the miserable serfs of the establishment had already removed the roast from the buffet for the evening! My lady love had been truly looking forward to dining upon carved roast beef, to feel the gravy run down her throat as would the blood of an innocent. She did gnash and beat her breast in anguish, and settle for the hearty lasagna. The chocolate mousse did touch my lady love’s baked potato, causing her more anguish. Why ye demons cannot the buffet have compartmented plates for the true dining enthusiast!? I must confess though, we did dine upon many fried legs of chicken with gusto. And I did savor truly the meatloaf after reciting an incantation honoring the beast that did give its lifeblood for our sup.

I did let out a virile complaint ‘pon discovering that they were bereft of Diet Dr Pepper. I was made to quaff my thirst with orange soda. Fear the day that I shall happen upon you, manager Ted Ralston! Fear it well. Lament the fact that your soft serve machine was b’witched and could only produce vanilla. Mistress Magdalene despises vanilla, and will only top her brownie with chocolate. I did hear no end to her vitriol that night, for her dinner was to be ruined by a poxy dessert of more bananas in Jell-O.

Once great though you were, Olde Country Buffet, ye have fallen from my graces. May my dark soul never cross through your cursed doors again I say!

My Favorite Albums of 2007

Posted on December 11, 2007

Welp, end of the year and all that. These are some of my favorite albums from 2007. They may or may not be considered “the best”, but they are the ones I’ve enjoyed the most.

The Stooges’ The Weirdness | Let it be known, I am a massive fan of the Stooges. These are the guys that invented punk rock. Their album Raw Power was just that. And after Raw Power came out, they didn’t release any studio albums until this year. That’s four albums in 38 years. The Beastie Boys wish they could have that kind of release scarcity. In the interim, Iggy Pop went on to release loads of solo albums, be crazy, and just the type of person you would expect to have been the progenitor of punk. He even played Nona’s dad on The Adventures of Pete and Pete. Meanwhile, the Asheton brothers were in a number of bands, including the New Order. No, not that New Order, the American one. But they came back with The Weirdness, which is an excellent album, released just months after Iggy’s 60th birthday. Good work for sure for the old man. A damn fine album I say, which is why I enjoyed it much this year. | iTMS Link | Amazon MP3 Link

Cafe Tacvba’s Sino | Cafe Tacvba is hands down, one of the best bands to come out of the Rock en Español scene. Their sixth studio album, Sino, is a return to a more vintage rock sound. Definitely far from the genre-spanning Re, and the very experimental Reves/Yo Soy. This album features lots of jangly guitars, slippery bass lines, quirky synths, and live drumming (for their first four albums almost all of the drumming was done with a drum machine; Cuatro Caminos was the first album to feature live drums). 53100 almost sounds like a tribute to the intro on The Who’s “Won’t get Fooled Again”, with its squeaky synth and blasts of guitar windmills. Tengo Todo lyrically tessellates as Emmanuel sings one chorus over Nrü singing a second chorus. The Outsider slinks with a vintage Casio drum beat and guitars lurking in the shadows. An excellent album to pick up if you’re looking to expand your horizons. | iTMS Link

Hiromi Uehara’s Sonic Bloom: Time Control | Hiromi is an incredibly talented 28 year old Japanese jazz composer and pianist. She began learning classical piano at age 8. At age 17 she played with Chick Corea. By the time she had graduated from Berklee she had been mentored by Ahmad Jamal and had signed with a label. Sonic Bloom: Time Control, her fourth album, is a fantastic blend of jazz, fusion, progressive, and funk. Her immense talent really shines through on this album, as does that of her backing band. I don’t often admit to listening to prog-type stuff (that’s the sort of thing that should be done alone, with the curtains drawn, so nobody can see you enjoying prog), but this album I will definitely cop to. It’s frenetic and beautiful at the same time. | iTMS Link

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo | Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is the guitarist for The Mars Volta. While I never really got into their stuff, I did happen upon Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo in iTunes once and I love it. Recorded over two years ago in Amsterdam, the album is a blend of very experimental jazz, rock, and Latin rhythms. Rodriguez-Lopez is well known for his numerous guitar pedals, the combining of which leads to the number of bizarre sounds that he squeezes out of his guitar on this album. | iTMS Link | Amazon MP3 Link

Album Leaf’s Green Tour EP | Album Leaf is the side project of Tristeza guitarist Jimmy LaValle. It started about a decade ago when another guitarist recorded him improvising on a Rhodes Piano to a vintage Roland drum machine. The Green Tour EP is a lushly orchestrated collection instrumental pieces. The sort of stuff you might hear in a poignant scene in a movie, or a commercial for a diamond producer. It’s all very mellow, low-key rainy day type stuff. Definitely worth a good listen when you’re in that kind of mood. iTMS Link

Single of the Week: Jimmie’s Chicken Shack and Deep Purple

Posted on December 6, 2007

Our first single for the week was inspired by DB, who IMed me a couple of weeks ago about downloading some Jimmie’s Chicken Shack from the excellent Amazon MP3 store. I hadn’t listened to JCS in a long time, so I decided to pull Pushing the Salmanilla Envelope off the CD rack and ripped it into iTunes (figure I’ll do that while it’s still legal). Immediately, songs like “Dropping Anchor” and “Another Day” took me back to the days of high school. Ahh, good stuff. So this week’s single is “High“, which happens to be one of the first songs I figured out on my own to play on guitar. The whole album has a really heavy, funky sound. Definitely check it out.

Secondly, a Deep Purple song that isn’t “Smoke on the Water”. From their debut album, Shades of Deep Purple, “Hush” is an excellent song. Originally a country tune penned by Joe South for Billy Joe Royal, it’s a fast rollicking song, heavy on organ and blistering guitar work, and it stays true to the original version. A fantastic single from 1968.

Christmas Wish List for 2007

Posted on December 1, 2007

Welp, that time of year again. Christmas approaches so it’s time to make another wishlist. Here’s a few things I’d like. Feel free to comment or add yours as well.

Fear of a Cooper Black Planet and Hel-Fucking-Vetica t-shirts - I’m a man who appreciates a good typeface, and I’m a man who enjoys a good font joke every now and then. That’s why I appreciate these two t-shirts from Wire & Twine and Subtraction.com. They’re pretty badass shirts. And what social situation wouldn’t be an appropriate time to show your love for Helvetica, a face so great they made a movie about it. Awesome! And only $25 a piece.

Diana+ Camera - Currently in production by the fine folks at the Lomographic Society International, this is a faithful recreation of the 1960’s Diana camera, famous for its its dreamy, radiant, and lo-fi images. And it’s got some bonus features to boot. It’s a neat little camera and one I’d love to add to my collection. This valued package rings in at just $75 including 20 rolls of film.

Fender ‘64 Jazz Bass reissue - A “new old stock” bass, this is a perfect recreation of the J Bass Fender produced in 1964. It’s got a tasty three-tone sunburst finish and classy chrome pickup covers. It’s one sexy instrument, that’s for sure. I’d rock it. And it’s a steal at $2,250 (free shipping!).

Laphroaig Black Label 27 Year - I’m a fan of Islay scotches. I’m a big fan of Laphroaig (say it with me - la-froy-g). So this whisky, born in 1980, is very tempting. This is a cask-strength scotch, meaning that it has the same alcohol content as what’s in the barrel. It’s a knockout at 114 proof. And it’s aged in sherry casks, giving it a different flavor. One reviewer described it as the “Incredible Hulk” of Islay scotches. Good enough for me, and only 489 pound sterling, at present $1,011 and change. Mmmmm.

Mac Mini - Yep, another Apple for the house. A Mac Mini would be perfect for under the tv, especially when paired with a nice big Western Digital external hard drive, and an Elgato EyeTV USB DVR thingie to record tv shows. All I need is Front Row and iTunes and I’ve got the perfect home entertainment set up. Sweet!

I think that’s a good start for stuff. I’ll let you know if I think of anything else.

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