Specific Obscene Enjoyment

On Facebook, some degenerates who I know have added an app that tells you your ten most-used words. Accurately, a friend described El Jefe's as resembling an angry haiku.
Now, I - and you too; hell, all of us - would love to know what my words are. But I refuse to let FB all up in my Face by adding stuff.



Instead, I present the following accidental poems. Stochastic or Tyche-type Poesy. These are quotes that begin and end the passages that I wanted my students to read. I didn't write them out so that they would make rad short bits;
BUT THEY DID because this is exactly the kind of RAnDom (=rad+random, see?) stuff that intrudes into my life.

‘There I had already learned…message was “I don’t care”.’
‘This notion of the imaginary…not being part of American reality.’
‘What if, then, there is no ‘normal role’?...or not in the expected way.’
'Is that why so many examples…take the risk and have a position.’
'In combination with psychoanalysis…threatening to explode.’

‘With the logic of Real-as-impossible…between the object and das Ding.’
‘Your analysis of contemporary…void filled by appearances.’
‘By the late 1980s profound…there is no way out for them.’
‘In your work you have…even more radical and intrusive.’

‘the problematic of Franz Fanon…potentially redemptive disciplinary drive.’
‘And in contemporary…racist, chauvinist or whatever.’
‘And against this abstract machine…the eyes of its own people.’
‘This idea of de facto closure…justifies absolute ruthlessness.’
‘On the other hand…specific obscene enjoyment.’


I taught Slavoj Zizek for my last weeks of class. It seemed to go well.
Partly because I soft-pedaled some of the more difficult ideas.
Partly because I taught Zizek as if he were Freud. Concepts like the Oedipus complex (You want to f**k your Mother! You will kill, and then supplant, your father!
Stop thinking those asterisks look like buttholes, you pervert!)
are not that hard to grasp, although they may be a little hard to swallow.


Stop It!

The WRapper

I was The Wrapper Xmas gifts today, and it reminded me of this song.
"The Rapper" by Jaggerz.
The name (of the song) is misleading, and
the name (of the group) don't make no sense at all.



The name: because it is not about hip-hop- the song is from 1970, before hip-hop-rapping. They mean a guy who spits game at girls. He tries to pick up on all the ladies ... with sexy results ... Which makes for some funny lines in the song.
The group: because they didn't want to be confused with another band called The Jaggers, and Jaggerz really sets you apart from The Jaggers.
("s" and "z" are even right next to each other on the keyboard, making it easy to type them wrong. And while they didn't have personal computers in 1970, they did have typewriters: likewise QWERTY.
Lest you forget that bit of our technological past, for we are still haunted by the ghosts of technology past.)
Now, if they pronounced it "Yaygers", like Jaegermeister, maybe I can see a difference. I have a tie with the Jaegermeister symbol on it; oddly it is the symbol for patron saints of hunting. Jaeger means hunter auf Deutsch. Why anyone would put either a saintly symbol on a tie or a liquor brand symbol on a tie is beyond me.
(for formal deer hunts?) (for Rapping at 'classy broads'?)

Wikipedia 'clarifies' thus: "The Jaggerz had completed their evolution into how they are most known." Ah yes, I see, of course. The article also helpfully distinguishes between their Golden Age and their Waning Years, despite the fact that the article affirms their status as One Hit Wonders. Of course, I see, yes.


Please note that the chorus of this song is truly a delight.
Please note also that I do not know why the background video is something from the ABC Family channel. And, no, I can't tell who is dating who in the video either.


I won't say what I wrapped, even though the people I am giving to don't read my blog. They can use computers; these family members are not that old. But, I think they may not have been told of the giant excursion into S O U N D that is this blog yet.

RAPPER!

"500 Miles" : Away From Home

I am more than 500 miles away from home; but I will be returning soon. For Xmas, yep.



<{([ Download a version of above song here ])}>
or find many many different versions of this standard on YouTube here



Note that this is not The Proclaimers song, "(I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles". That's a different tune. Of course, this is itself a song that is different from itself: the YouTube clip is from country legend Bobby Bare (not Booby Bare- that means something completely different...), but the download is an even better version by Leon Bibb.
I had to post a different clip, because what I have on vinyl, does not even exist upon the whole wide worldwide internet.
Believe It!
I will eventually try to put some of the album I have ("Encore!") on YouTube someday. But that seems like a bit much planning and execution for today. But, the task grows ever-more pressing... as more "pressings" that I want to put up are not put up by other people. (haha- "pressings": that's lingo for records!)
Other people: So Lazy!
(not this guy, though: his was the only site I could find with pictures of the album I have. I like him. He is German, and you noticed that the Bobby Bare had German subtitles...)

I thought the lyrics said, "If you miss me when I'm gone, you will know that I am gone..."
( In fact, they say "If you miss the train I'm on, ... " )
I took the first lyrics to be sort of smart-ass. Like, well, if you don't miss me now, when I'm really gone, boy-howdy-by-golly, then you'll sure 'nuff start to miss me. But the song isn't a breakup song, so those lyrics wouldn't work well anyhow. Plus, that just ain't what the man said.



Speakin' a what a man said, click on the above pic for a bigger version; you can read all about Bibb there. Great verbiage like "separates the man from the boys", "concertizing", "has also appeared at most of the major nightclubs in the United States and Canada." "Most" of the venues in North America: that is a lot of concertizing!
So often, Bibb must have been 500 miles away from home.

Ideological Pubic Hair: Zizek Enjoins you to Kill All Hippies

Yes, I'm deferring grading, and my super-ego is raging about it.
But you can take a little break with me. Watch the YouTube video below. It is Slavoj Zizek, talking about toilets and pubic hair, and how they both reinforce (or at least symbolize) ideological constraints.
No, honestly, that's what he says.



and yes, I am teaching him, and themes just like these, in my class. Right now -yesterday, tomorrow, which added together are today- in my introduction to philosophy class.
I got the book for free too: B O O M .
I said for a while too that I must be Zizek's secret (whoops, typed "sextet": Freudian Slip!) love child. Because we are both hyper.
I also declared, since he has a bit of a tic where he touches his nose all the time, that he had sucessfully passed through oral, anal, AND phallic stages. Where does that put him?

The Nasal Phase!

Serious Serial Vol. 2: Titular

OH PART TWO!!!
As I just posted, new things happened (which is, of course, the same old story: new things Just Keeping Happening).
I got some new-old books, all with great titles (hopefully, they read well too):
Middlemarch, by Georg Eliot. (Georg is a GIRL!, by the way.)

Diary of a Madman, and other stories: Gogol. This is the actual cover of the book that I bought: used, very, I'm sure you can see.

N. Gogol is well-known for his novel, Dead Souls, ahem:



An Even Better song, everyone's new favorite Joy Division song, is below. Be a deary and listen to both, why don't you? You ask: why put both then? I reply: because the theme of today's blog revolves around TITLES- that is what 'titular' means, you little dirty- and so I was compelled to post the song enTITLEd "Dead Souls". You recognize the decisive and deciding logic now, I'm sure.



More Books. Thomas Mann's Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man.

Flounder, by Günter Grass. The Flounder of the title is a character:

a talking fish.

I started watching movies again. Recents: Jesse James meets Frankenstein's Daughter, and Hour of the Wolf (another great title); this movie is a little more serious than the other. It is directed by Ingmar Bergman, and deals with
Love,
Art,


and Madness.


Oh, how very Euro.


Both were worth watching. Well, JJ VS FD is worth it, if you are me (you aren't) and were sick (you might have been). Don't tell me if you were- I don't want to hear about it. I get enough detailed descriptions of my students' illnesses, thx.

Serious Serial Vol. 1: Decisive

Lots of news on my end. Really important stuff has been going down, such as:
New Toilet and Toilet-related Environs!
New Records!
New Books!
New Lifestyle: watching movies!
----- I'll be talking about these in a two-part installment. Exciting, this serial blog action, correct? -----



(download Willie Hutch: "Get Ready For the Get Down" )

The above Willie Hutch track, or jam I should say, is in the vein of the Supafly and Black Caesar jams I posted back a little bit. (back a bit'tle?) It's from his album, "Mark of the Beast" (nice title...)
But on the toilet front (even though this song is decicedly and decisvely NON-TOILET), I got a new toilet the other day. Mine was cracked... don't know how. But now I am repainting my bathroom, which means that we have to say goodbye to the bathroom art.
No more classic chalk line-drawings, a la the Lascaux caves.

At one point, the above drawing morphed into the one below...


Here is Jeffrey's thoughful contribution:

Like normal Jeffrey Stuff, it appears to be merely scatological. Now, it is that, but it also has other aims: The Eternal Question, "Why do 'I' Exist?" has been thoughtfully integrated into the three headed Penis Monster. Thus, the Penis Monster has achieved its own species of eternity.

Willie Hutch has achieved his own species of eternity, through sampling. He's been amply sampled by West Coast hip-hop producers; horns, a little swagger and swing, a lightly dark cinematic feel. Tracks called stuff like "Vampin'" and "Mack's Stroll". If I were a producer, I'd be into it. He wrote songs all over the place; he partly wrote the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There", which is so very a stone cold classic. (If I were a jungle producer, I would have sampled a little of The 5, and lots and lots of Diana Ross and the Supremes; just getting that out there.)

Roughly on the topic of me being a producer (I would be so good at it: true, obvious- I'd be decisive, you see?)-
There is one more, as-of-this-moment final AMX mix in the pipeline. It is giving you the soulful tunes a la Pulp Fiction. Soul comes in two varieties here: sad old country and soul jams. Quick heads-up: James Brown, Ricky Nelson, Dionne Warwick, Al Green, and of course, my recent favorite, Jerry Butler. It'll devastate ya; decisively, naturally.

Get Loose, Philadelphia

This weekend, Love Train pulls into town. Love Train will have tons of great soul and RnB acts (about many of whom I've dropped knowledge before) playing, all under one roof. All represent the classic "Philly Sound"; smooooooth jams from mostly the 70's and mostly penned/produced by legendary producers Gamble and Huff.


Download "Get Up Get Down Get Funky Get Loose" by Teddy Pendergrass

You should go, but you can't: tickets start at $55. (One site selling tickets insists that the cheap tickets have "awesome" views though; the mid-price tix have merely "great" views, and the most dear tickets have "brilliant" views.)



Love Train is a concert supporting the recent compilation of the same name, which aims to put the musical descriptor "The Philly Sound" into people's minds, right up there with "Motown" and "Stax".
Playing are Jerry Butler,
The O'Jays,

the Delfonics, the Jones Girls,

Harold Melvin's Bluenotes (which used to have Teddy Pendergrass in it), and the (new) Stylistics.

I've told you about Jerry Butler multiple times before; Internet tells me that he has an album called "Sings Assorted Sounds With The Aid of Assorted Friends and Relatives"

and Internet implies that he is a Freemason.


The Delfonics had a bigBIGbig hit with "Didn't I Blow Your Mind (This Time)", which I believe the New Kids on the Block re-recorded. So, you've heard the song before, guaranteed, whether old or "New" (Get it?). You also might have heard it when I included it on this mix, which is about how I am the best thing going these days.

The Stylistics were the first of these bands that I knew by name, way back in college. Not surprisingly, my knowledge/ownership of "The Philly Sound" much expanded once I actually lived in Philadelphia.


The first song by the Stylistics that I loved is called "Pieces"; I still love it but am usually annoyed by the rest of their jams. A little saccharine, a little cloying, a little treacly. All the lead singing is done in a falsetto, FYI, which you either like or don't (I like).

WanderLust

Albert Camus famously (well, even "cliche-edly") wrote that there "is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide."
I take this problem much more seriously when grading student papers.

Likely, the best option would be to somehow lead the papers themselves to commit suicide, instead of myself.


( Facebookers, view "Lovers Who Wander" by Dion on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buP1_OhjP5o )

([{Download "AMX: Unsafe at Any Speed", my most recent mix. It, of course, includes the above song.}])

Ah, but a reason to live! Like a crocus, leaping forth from the earth in earliest spring! Like an olive branch of peace, borne across vast oceans! Like a jellybean, delicious if artificial, rolling about my mouth!
Like a drumbeat built for speeeeeeeeeeeed!
.....! with handclaps, even !.....

The above song is by Dion, not Dion and the Belmonts; small detail, except that with the Belmonts, Dion made much less rokkin' tunes. This one swings, really has some of that ol' pep that this mix, friends, has in spades.

Oh papers, your weight, carried it seems for millennia, nearly grinds me to dead dust. And yet the waters of life flow from the ever-renewed spring that is
"AMX: Unsafe at Any Speed":

Healing waters which consist of doo-wop, early rock 'n' roll, "guitar freakouts", and all manner of leather-clad rebels, plain white tees and jeans, and a 'little sis' who can do the Mashed Potato.



Yes, 'Teachers who Wander", wander from the flat affects of required classwork, toward the NeverNeverLand of the Internet. A Musical Mecca to which The Teacher is guided by a profound wanderlust. Oh verily, these papers
"broke my heart, I really showed it,
Look at me now [after downloading "UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED"], you'd never know it
Now my story can be told with a smiling face
I'm the luckiest guy in the human race".

Yes, I traded drudgery for funnery, poorly constructed sentences for expertly-wrought musical mixes. I now pass on the possibility of your own, similar transition. Listen, learn, love, licent, etc., all with the help of "Unsafe At Any Speed.zip", the lovely and lively zip file that contains the above song, as well as many others.

Felicitous Salutations!

I walked past the Abbaye the other night; someone was karaoke-singing "Feliz Navidad".

AMX: Bringing Forth the Fruit of Earthly Delights

OH!
MY!

I pridefully present another installment of AMX Mixes !
This lil' monster goes by a number of names. Technically, the ZIP is called "Unsafe at Any Speed", but alternate names include

DeathProof (remember, the distant paternity of all AMX mixes is Tarantino movie soundtracks)
Only the Good Die Young
Attack of the Leader of the Pack
Rebel Beat

Profoundly intrigued- that's what you are!
Here is a youtuby from one of the tracks, the very movie, very driving around, very mod "Il Giardino Delle Delizie" by Ennio Morricone.



Hitherto, for these mixes, which come in at around 15 songs, I have described TheWholeThingAllAtOnce.
Which many found, reasonably enough, to be a bit overwhelming.
So I will now present a few songs, every now and again, and each one will come with a little posty-clicky for downloady, for the whole mix.

Here is the tracklisting, but in alphabetical order. Wanna know what order they really go in?
Better download it then. AMX: Unsafe At Any Speed

(the symbol between title and artist?: it's a car, with skidmarks behind and headlights in front! Pretty good, what?!)

Attack of the Ghost Riders €< The Raveonettes

Boom Boom €< The Animals

Casseurs de Raison €< Pierre Rapsat

Down by the Riverside €< Bill Haley and His Comets

Down the Line €< Ricky Nelson

Guitar Freakout €< The Ventures

Hitchhike €< Martha & The Vandellas

Il Giardino Delle Delizie €< Ennio Morricone

Land of 1000 Dances €< Cannibal and the Headhunters

Let's Go €< The Routers

Love Is A Deserter €< The Kills

Lovers Who Wander €< Dion

Rebel Rouser €< Duane Eddy

State Trooper €< Bruce Springsteen

Teen Beat €< Sandy Nelson

Lots of rapid-fire snare drums. Provocative organ work. Teenage harmonies (teenagers like cars).
You'll see: a perfect mix for driving and for being driven.
AMX: Unsafe At Any Speed

Oh Boy! Obey the Oboe

Just wanted to mention that, because of my 'research' for the last post, I knew that mayflies have two penises.

2!

And at Quizzo in West Philly last Sunday, we were asked about it! And I knew! And we got a point!

Other than that though, you could say we were 'down and out' in West Philly.



youtube got it: James' Brown - Down and Out In New York City

This is from the James Brown-scored movie soundtrack I mentioned last time. See, he's using 'movie-style' instruments here- orchestra, flutes, etc.
Say which you prefer: Curtis' Junkie or James' ...Out In.. in the comments

I think somebody is rocking the oboe?


Which is of course a vaguely phallic instrument. So, if you had two of them, battling it out, dueling banjos style,
or a la "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (which is a song I like, but do not like at Oscar's, which you can no longer smoke at, at all),
then it would look a little like a mayfly.
Because they have

2!

Oh, and please do not ever forget that oboe players have a posse:

A Junkie Mayfly, He's Sure to Die

To celebrate Labor Day the other weekend, I did what every American was supposed to do:
1) I spent money, and
2) I worked/labored as little as possible.

Youtube link to Curtis Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead", from the Superfly Soundtrack



I got 3 CDs, 3 DVDs, 1 jacket, shoes (2 total).



Like any living mayfly, all of these were new, which is unusual for me. Well, the digital media came from FYE and some of it had been listened to in store, but that's not really used, is it now?

Obviously, one of the CDs was Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack to the blaxsploitation flick "Superfly". Probably a bit better than James Brown's entree into the world of soundtracks, itself pretty good.

I also got Jesus and the Mary Chain. Psycho Candy, evidently a German pressing, for whatever that's worth.
Also, for what it's worth, I am teaching St. Augustine tomorrow. If you Google "Augustine" and "Devil", to better determine that the Devil in Augustinian theology is nothing but 'persuasion' towards sin -- that is to say, he is not a giant fucking bat that shoots lasers or something -- you will get many more sites related to fishing (in Devil's Elbow in St. Augustine, FL) than you expected.

I'm saying this hypothetically, of course: I would never use the internet as an aid to research.




I also got some random Japanese cartoon (one character is named Cat: ?!? ), "White Heat" with James Cagney, "Technique" by New Order (obv VG), and Truffaut's "Wild Child". None of them cost me more than $8.55 (w/ tax); shoes and jacket, only $10 each.

Can I pick 'em, or what?

It feels much more natural to say "'em" than it does to type it. Just so you know.

Blue Lives: Fire Diamond Edition

The Massive Attack album Blue Lines came up twice lately. With Neil for sure, and perhaps with our new friend MarguaX-Y-Z.



I was telling Margauz about music I listened to in high school, and told her and Neil both that a lot of so-called 'trip-hop' hasn't aged so well. Massive Attack, however, is just as great now as then: "Same As It Ever Was".

Blue Lines' cover (see above) reminds me of this:


which is called NFPA 704 (?), and more provocatively, a FIRE DIAMOND .

It sums up the dangers associated with any chemical, on a scale of 0-4 (0 = NBD, 4 = vewwy bad) : blue is health risk, red is flammability, yeller is instabilty/reactivity (think about it, they mean the same thing), and white, much like my blog readership, is 'special'.


Neil knows about Massive Attack because he is Irish. They are one of those bands, like Super Furry Animals, where you know them automatically if you are British, and probably don't know if you are an American, and still only maybe know even if you are an American Indie Nerd.
"Just as great" also includes another album, Mezzanine.

Maybe some other time I will tell you what I think about Mezzanine, which I like even more than the excellent Blue Lines.
But today is not that day. All I will say is this little creepy American Indie Nerd gem: 'it has really good production'.

ew
that's grosser than the bug picture, innit?

The song you are listening to is a cover, although for the longest time I took it to be the original. Still never heard the original (by William DeVaughn), although I now know it to be a cover. This knowledge comes to me courtesy of the American Indie Nerd band Yo La Tengo.
Download their live cover of "Be Thankful for What You've Got" here
Yo La Tengo do a lot of covers, because one of the nerds people in the band used to be a record clerk. So he knows a bit about old obscure business, you see.
All versions of the song say "Gangster Whitewalls", which I like.

Cure-Light

I went to the dentist today, for the first time ever.
Well, for the first cavity ever.



download Songs:Ohia- Two Blue Lights

It went well and went fast, except for one bit. The compound didn't set up in part of the filling, because the light that one uses to 'cure' the compound, to get it to set, wasn't strong enough.

I thought that she had a hair-dryer in my mouth, from the way it sounded, but, turns out, it was a BLUE LIGHT LASER, which she kept calling a cure-light.




After she figured out that her cure-light was jenky, she borrowed another. This is Penn's Dental School, and so they borrow stuff all the time.

So she used Two Blue Lights.


Songs:Ohia, despite the odd spelling and the odd punctuation, are very good. You know this already, from the above YouTube video. Basically the same people as Magnolia Electric Co.
Like Neil Young, if we need a little shorthand to get you to listen to more. A little more 'sad bastard music' than Ol' Neil, but, you know, he wants you to cry sometimes too.

Jose Feliciano- Zorba the Greek Geek

I recently happened upon a few records by Jose Feliciano. He's blind, and plays a mean guitar. Like, for real mean. He plays a number of covers (that's what crack instrumentalists do: think about old jazz heads), like the one above. He also used to live near S'Noble in Connecticut.

CONNEXIONS, right?!?!

Oh shit! It's 2:30, and I still haven't finished my syllabus. Lordy! You guys write the rest of this, will you? Thanks. I owe a blog entry dedication to anyone who adds anything to the comments section. Well, anything except for spam comments about hookahs (see here and here).

Racist!

For those of you (few) who still haven't downloaded the mixtapes I've deemed "Pirate Radio"

(dis one is 1)
(dat one is 2)

here is a little sample.



(here's a link to its youtube page...)
This is not the best song on there, but it still is very good (else it wouldn'a gone on the mix!, right?).
I put it up today because I said it might be racist.







You know, the Prof. Gates thing is dying down, Conrad and I disputing about it notwithstanding. Beer either calms or inflames. Seemingly, with Gates/Obama/Crowley, it calmed; with Conrad and I, it inflamed.

Hopefully, the song, along with this blog post, will reinvigorate the debate. Really get America discussing race.
Or, race-baiting will garner me a few more hitz.
I'd be really psyched either way.

Why (might) it be racist? Minstrel show type stuff. Guy goes to jungle, nearly gets cannibalized. Jungle chants, etc. You know, 'that sort'.

It's not a Blog- It's a Blog Lobster (Pirate Radio 2 mix)

Another Mix! This is 'Lost- Pirate Radio 2'!
I posted another mix based upon the TV show a ways back (here). Since I have never seen the show, I had to do a lot of research. This 'research' consisted of thinking about sunny weather, daydreaming that I was a pirate, and swimming some.
Arduous.
Out of that came these two great mixes: highly appropriate for sitting around drinking margaritas, dancing in living rooms, wearing thongs/flip-flops.

You'll enjoy this, I promise.
Download 'Lost- Pirate Radio 2' with just one lil' clicky.

And what do we have on such a mix?
A song sung like a boy, like a girl, like a frog. We might hear this song sometime at Bouffant Bangout.

A song about being protected on the subway by the Guardian Angels. This is a finger-snappin', clap-happy disco tune.

This group is a sort of vigilante city patrol, and they mocked it in Sunny.


[{(download the freshly mixed fresh mix here.)}]

More sunny day, happy time, mellow Calypso. Island music.

A song about being stranded in the Jungle, that, if it weren't potentially racist (cannibals in the jungle?!...), you also might hear at BB-out. Is it racist, or not? You'll have to listen to it and see!

One of those new-wave, dance-punk-before-the-fact, snotty girl song. It says: 'Can I have a taste of your ice cream? Can I interfere in your crisis?'
'No! Mind your own business!'

[{(download it here.)}]


A song that sounds like those Indian Youtube singalongs.

Thanks to Charlie for showing these to me a while ago. GIRLY MAAAAAN!


[{(download it here.)}]

A sort of pseudo-cover of a Misfits song, but by Miss Kittin and the Hacker- you can dance to this one, despite the fact that it's lyrics are all like thus: "Mommy, Daddy, can I go out and kill tonight?".

"It's not a rock:

It's a Rock Lobster!"

Here is the track listing for
Lost- Pirate Radio 2 , complete:

Mind Your Own Business--- Delta 5
Rippin Kittin (Glove Radio Mix) ---Golden Boy With Miss Kittin
Rock Lobster ---B-52s
Ten Speed (Of God's Blood And Burial) ---Coheed & Cambria
Standed in The Jungle --- the Cadets
The Guardian Angel Is Watching Over Us--- Golden Flamingo Orchestra Featuring Margo Williams
New Hollywood Babylon ---Don Cavalli
Water--- The Esso Steel Band & Lloyd Simmons
Anna ---Brute Force Steel Band
Cool running ---Champaign
Ain't got not home --- Clarence 'Frogman' Henry
Sunny side of the street --- Big Shell Steel Band
Camilla ---George Symonette


[{(download 'Pirate Radio 2' here.)}]

Billy Bragg, and Steven Wells: A New England, A New Day, A New Way?

A local journalist died recently, and was lovingly yakked about in the local press. He was Steven Wells, and we wrote loud, short-but-they-feel-longer pieces, about music and general goings-on (like knitting, and how much he despised it).



Sounds like my blog, correct?: but he was, admittedly, better. In part, because he was British, so when he swore (often), it was with words like "SLAG!".

Accident Waiting To Happen - Billy Bragg

[[[ I'm putting a YouTube clip below, because you can maybe only listen to 30 seconds of the above, correct? If you don't have an Imeem.com account at least, correct? Be Honest: has anyone actually got one? (...comments plz...)I do, obv, but do you guys? Or are you all just hearing mini-tiny-itty-bitty clipz? ]]]

So, this qualifies the 'local' aspect, but he'd been here a while and made a life for himself. In fact, he must have deliberately chosen Philly, because he used to be mad famous in England, writing for NME and such. One day he picked up and came here, quite making his mark.
Anyhow, he was famous enough (and impassioned enough, and liked enough) that Billy Bragg wrote about him upon his death.
Now I love Billy Bragg; when I still had a list under the MUSIC section on my Myspace page, he was on there. You understand the relative significance of this, yeah?



(Above is the YouTube version to listen to -IF- you've never heard the song before; if you've heard it a bit, listen to the one at the bottom. It better shows his camaraderie with his audience [funny, because he's a Socialist, get it, Comrade?], his folk and punk roots when he makes them singalong, and how he's funny/charming. These would all be reasons why he and Steven Wells were on friendly terms...)

I won't launch into a grand description of him here, for these reasons:
1) Dude's pretty big- and you are a big girl/boy- so you can figure it out on your own
2) I may write more about him later, maybe vis a vis my "Slept On" series, where I discuss 'really-favorite' music that I never hear my friends talk about

Dig?



Here are some lyrics from that song:

"I was twenty one years when I wrote this song
I'm twenty two now, but I won't be for long
People ask when will you grow up to be a man
But all the girls I loved at school are already pushing prams

I loved you then as I love you still
Tho I put you on a pedestal
They put you on the pill...

I don't want to change the world
I'm not looking for a new England
I'm just looking for another girl

I loved the words you wrote to me
But that was bloody yesterday
I can't survive on what you send
Every time you need a friend

I saw two shooting stars last night
I wished on them but they were only satellites
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware
I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care"

heh

Pirate Radio- "Lost" and Found Sounds

I have put together two mixes based on the TV series, "Lost."
DOWNLOAD "Lost- Pirate Radio One.zip"
Now, I've never seen this show. I just want to cash in on its popularity while I still can (before everyone realizes that it just is not that good).



My favorite character (again, haven't seen it: this is all overheard hearsay) is one John Locke. Why my favorite?
He uses a machete,
He has been in a wheelchair,
He has no hair.

I would do all these things: I would roll around viciously swording all those who dared not step out of the way of my wheeled chariot (and my head is shaved already!).

He also will defend his property, which I guess means something to those of you who read philosophy.
But as (philosopher) Locke tells us, the natural right to property, in civil society, may come with contractual limits. For instance, a DVD I bought at the dollar store informed me that my right of ownership, granted to me by my purchase, in fact "excludes the use of this DVD at locations such as clubs, coaches, hospitals, hotels, oil rigs, prisons, and schools."
Okay!

On to the mix: since I never saw the show, only two things are guiding the selection:
1) that something about the title/band name/ evokes something "Lost"-y to me: islands, water, fighting, Weird Science, etc.
2) that the songs would be fun enough that, even if you didn't know them, if you heard them in the background at a party, you would like them. So they must be 'party' songs, like funtime partytime, not like dancing partytime. Some you can dance to, though; it is not contractually forbidden.

Whereby a wonderful radio-like mix is made.
(This is the actual contract that I and my computer signed. Computer being digital, it signed it electronically, with a PIN.)

!TRACK LISTING!
for "Lost- Pirate Radio One.zip"


1) Hey There, Little Insect ?? ? ?? Modern Lovers
Funky little ditty. 'Monologue on Bermuda' coming up on a near-future blog (it's by Jonathan Richman, lead guy for ModLovers).
(because islands have insects?)

2) Jailbreak ?? ? ?? Thin Lizzy
Lyrics: "sirens wail, tonight all systems fail; hey you good-lookin' female: c'mere"
(because trapped on an island is roughly jail?)

3) No Fun ?? ? ?? The Stooges
Clapping- pretty much the most fun Stooges song, oddly enough.
(because would being on an island, even if there are polar bears and limbo contests and you get a really good tan base, really be that fun, after a few weeks?)

(download mix here)

4) In The Mouth A Desert ?? ? ?? Pavement
(sand=desert; islands have sand, right?)

5) Perfidia ?? ? ?? The Ventures
Off the sensational follow-up to "Vol 1. Original Hits". Off the 'present' side of the vinyl, not the 'past' side. Apparently, the 'present' is about '62. Surf rock classic. The Ventures covered "Apache"; a later cover by The Incredible Bongo Band is one of the most sampled songs ever. RESPEK!
(because surfing is what islanders do? Also, because this song sounds like sun?)

6) Eisbär ?? ? ?? Grauzone
punk-funk, new wave, whatever you need to call it. Sorta awesome. I got this actually in Germany: how about that?
(because 'Eisbär' in German means 'polar bear', and wasn't there a polar bear one time?)

7) This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) ?? ? ?? Talking Heads
I got this song off a free promo CD that Gary gave me; ehm, it was "She's just not that into you", I'm afraid to say. But this and 5 other really good songs on it. So I took it.
(because the island must be 'the place', whether 'the place' is purgatory, the future, or whatever? Have they even told you what the island actually is yet?)

(download mix here)

8) You Can't Hide From Yourself ?? ? ?? Teddy Pendergrass
Classic Philly soul. RESPEK!
(Cos where are you gonna hide on an island, huh? Riddle me that!)

9) I Think We're Alone Now ?? ? ?? Tommy James and The Shondells
By the band that brought you the ultrafamous "Crimson and Clover" (over and over...). This song, you will remember from your misspent youth- Tiffany covered it!
(cuz, 'cept for the other people there, you are abandoned by all humanity? Except maybe DARPANET or whatever it's called?)

10) Cocoanut Water, Rum, and Gin ?? ? ?? George Symonette
Calypso, which is about the most fun music ever. This songs claims that this drink will cure diseases, make you rich and attractive, and also get you drunk. I partially believe him.

11) Tide Is High ?? ? ?? The Paragons
Another song covered when you were just knee-high, by Blondie this time. This is the old-style reggae, uprock sweetness. Just a delight, a delightful delight.

(download mix here)

12) Sailor Man ?? ? ?? Turbonegro
I gave you a little fireside chat about this song already, here.
(b/c Sailors go to, and get you to, islands? and PIRATES!)

13) Survival of the Fittest ?? ? ?? Mobb Deep
This is an absolute classic hip-hop track; quoted sampled homaged etc in many many tracks. A few classic lines:
"You scared to look, you shook, cuz ain't no such thing as halfway crooks" (EPIC)
"worse come to worse, my people come first"
and, mais oui, the chorus lines: "Survival of the Fittest - Only the Strong Survive"
(Because, there are no welfare programs in the State of Nature, and you cannot get voted immunity on the "Lost" island?

Smack My Bass Up- Larry Graham, his Bass Badassery, and You

I got a new setup for taking records and putting them onto my computer. I won't bore you with technical details, but it will sound even better now.
One of the first albums I ripped using this newfangled high-tech methodology was Larry Graham's band 'Graham Central Station'.

The album I got is called "Now Do U Wanta Dance?" and it's first track is called "happ-e-2-c-u-a-ginn", NJK, which should have clued me in: he used to be in Sly and the Family Stone. Remember, they have that song "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)".



Evidently, this guy Larry Graham invented the slap bass, which is a pretty big deal. If you ain't hearda it, you are decidedly UNFONKY. You can hear some fonk here, where he and his band cover Al Green's "Love and Happiness". The bass, which Larry plays*, is big and right up front. You've already heard it, right?, funkily plunking away.

* Larry plays a bunch of instruments, and other than this (and another) cover, he wrote, produced, and arranged all the songs. He is evidently very proud of this (he should be), because on the back of this album, there is a 'TYPOGRAPHICAL NOTE' that clarifies: "There was a misprint on the last album: all songs WERE NOT WRITTEN by Steve Henderson. ALL songs were WRITTEN BY LARRY GRAHAM".
I'm approximating the note: I didn't bring the record to the cafe with me (regret).


Here are some more things that happened in Portland.


(This didn't happen- read below for details- it's an engraving by Albrecht Dürer- he's famous-like.)

At Stumptown, I drank coffee from $300 beans. I'm approximating again: they were $15 an ounce (you do the math, SQUARE!)! I don't know why they cost so much. I paid regular coffee price for a mug. It tasted good, but then, so do their $12/lb coffees. For $300+/lb, that coffee had better won some tasting awards. No: It better have won the damn Olympics.

I got these reading materials in Portland. (I now feel like I am filling out '15 books 15 minutes' on Facebook again.)

Par Lagerkvist- the sibyl
Never heard of, Nobel Prize winner

Graham Greene- quiet american
Kurt Vonnegut Jr- cat's cradle
Gregory Dicum- Window Seat
Pictures of the landscape, as you see it flying over in a plane. Shows you how to identify things, like former glacier movements, military installations, barrier reefs, etc. The writer and designer of the book had connections at Wired magazine, so the book has all these interesting cool looking diagrams.

BUSTED magazine
Wherein random mugshots of people arrested in your county are posted. You can read it at my house, next time you are there. (Lot of meth-related arrests and DUIs: Go Oregon!)

Candy Bombers - Andrei Cherny
About the Berlin airlift. Haven't heard? When the Russians blockaded Berlin, almost setting off Russia/USA violence in the middle of the Cold War, America airlifted necessary supplies into Berlin. Including (not limited to) candy/raisins for children, and a power plant. Really, all the tools and materials for a WHOLE POWER PLANT. If you ever get bored in life, remember that shit like this goes down all the time. Don't be lazy; read something; bye-bye boredom. Then you'll know that the kids affectionately called the pilots 'RaisinBombers', and extended this later to all Americans.

Technologies of the Self
Papers by Foucault and others who took this course from him.

Wax Poetics
Philly Issue! Philly International records, and such!

I'll share fun details out of this, as I read it! That's Teddy Pendergrass above, looking luxe.

Akira: two random collections of Akira comics.
A small small fraction of the over 1800 pages it eventually came out to.

Albrecht Dürer. Lots of pictures. He is famous for his engravings (but you knew that). A funny medium to be immortal in - good for you, Albrecht: good for you.
Click on them for larger versions, if you're into that sort of thing.

I Made it Good to Myself (but Michael Jackson did not, b/c he's dead)

Got back from Portland, where the weather was about as good as it has been lately in Philadelphia. Surprisingly, I only got two (2) (!) CDs while I was there. I meant to go by Everyday Music, still my favorite ever CD shop, but didn't really have time. (Didn't get to Prineville's Neat Repeat either).
That's okay, for two reasons- 1) saved $40-80; 2) I can go in a few weeks if I go back for the Beer Festival: odds are about even on that.

Make It Good To Yourself - James Brown

BREAKING NEWS: James Butler has reported that E! has reported that Michael Jackson is reportedly dead! Reports are reporting that it was cardiac arrest (aka a BROKEN HEART!).
(not to be selfish, but does this mean that I can finally claim the title of King of Pop?!?!? ALL HAIL the NEW King of Pop!!! Three Cheers for meMeME!!! YEA ME!!!)
Related reports report that Farrah Fawcett also finally succumbed to her long bout of cancer... ANAL cancer!
NJK! Look it up!

(related connection: a famous beer expert is also named Michael Jackson, and is also dead. It's a F A C T ! Also, James Brown is dead- sad but true!)


Got them (them: James Brown "Black Caesar" sdtk.; Jesus & Mary Chain hits/best) at some resale shop near Alberta, or near Mississippi (ask Emily which it was).

You know that James Brown is called "the Godfather of Soul", of course. What you DID NOT KNOW is that he gave himself this nickname via the score/soundtrack he did for "Black Caesar". "Whuh?", you say. Cos' "The Godfather" came out around the same time, and since both movies deal with godfathers/Caesars/gangsters, he piggybacked on the other, already successful, movie. So sayeth the liner notes. IT BE FACTUAL!

While I was there, these things happened:
I almost hit a bear with my parents' car. On a mountain, obviously: my parents don't live (quite) that far out.
Talked firearms etc. with Jeffrey et al ("reasonable people", the lot of them).
I mass-texted a rape joke. It met with laughter (text laughter) (in most cases).
I got a flat on another person's bike. (For consistency's sake, yet retaining a certain air of variety via a clever inversion, I got two flats when I returned, on my own bike while going to a house which is not my own.)
I received a subpoena* for James Brown.**


it says: 'my heart tells me that you will not listen to my words and this is the cause of my tears and my cries'. This sums up my blog.

*subpoena, like Caesar, is hard for me to spell. I'll never get to be the new King of Latinists if I can't get them right!
**this DID IN FACT HAPPEN, although when I lived in Portland before. One of the children who mugged Adriel when I was with her was, evidently, named James Brown. "Godfather of Soulful Muggings"? "Hardest Working Boy in tha Game"? Maybe even "New King of Robbery"?

Sidenote: I am listening to some of the mixes posted earlier on this blog, and man, THEY ARE GOOD! Find the list of blogs with full mixes HERE.