Allergic to People? Then "Be Your Own Pet"

I was just wondering, can cats be allergic to people? Why not, right?


"Wildcat!" by Be Your Own Pet

Think about it:
when my allergies are really bad, I rub my face a lot. Putting pressure on my nasal passages feels good.
(Ironically, putting pressure on them relieves pressure.)

Now think about THIS: cats rub their faces on things all the time. Margeaux's cat, which is now our cat (because we moved in together, which is great), not only demands that I rub her face, but if I am remiss in my face-rubbing-duty, she will rub her own face on anything: a table leg, say.

That darn cat seems to have a lot of pressure to relieve. Either she is highly stressed (...hiiighly doooubtful...) or allergic to humans.
These are the only two options.

Speaking of two options, here is another video of the same song.

(another Be Your Own Pet clip)

Now, this one is more fun, but distinctly more odd. As video background, it has what I'm guessing is Eraserhead (ne'er seen it). This plays for 30 seconds before the music starts, and then, hey wow, more clips!
Crazy clips! from the movie Freaks, more from Eraserhead, something with Brigitte Bardot in it (she's racist), and something which has to be a Russ Meyer film.

Fire Dance With Me- Ohio Players

Well, as of noon, I am done with the semester.
In full. In toto. In-joying myself.

Margeaux will be done tonight too. Which requires that I present another helping of the mix I am preparing: Hello Jello!, the The Cosby Show-inspired mix I mentioned last time.


on YouTube - Ohio Players: Together, from their album FIRE.

Ayo! Si muy caliente, y fuego mas fina!
Please note the almost NSFW cover art. Scandalous.


I am not sure if I will put this very song on the mix yet, but certainly some Ohio Players song will go on there. The YouTube clip doesn't have to be the exact song yet, since I am just trying to let you know what type of sounds to expect.

The clips are just a taste,


just a teaser,


of what greatness and grandness is to come.

Maybe "Fire" will go on the mix, that is a big one; maybe "Ecstasy" would be better for this mix than "Together." "Ecstasy" got a li'l more bounce to it; but then, "Together" has those horns. Brass instruments will be big on this mix,
because it is going to be deeply funky.

Wedded To The Discothèque

New mix, and it's essential that you download this before the 4th of July weekend is through.


"Wedded To The Discothèque"- the upbeat dancin'-pants summer mix
Track Listing:
--No Nos Pararan [Spanish-Language cover of "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now"] *** Charanga 76

Got To Give It Up (Pt 1) *** Marvin Gaye

--Funkin' Around *** Bloodstone

Tequila [cover of The Champs] *** Duane Eddy

--I Got a Woman [cover of Ray Charles, the same song Kanye West used for "Gold Digger"] *** Bobby Darin

Everybody's Trying to be my Baby *** Carl Perkins

--Sweet Caroline [cover of you-know-who, done pon Steel Drum style, seen?] *** Esso Steel Band

Hang On Sloopy *** The McCoys

--Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood [cover of The Animals- BUT!- a mad DISCO version!] Santa Esmeralda

Bad Girls *** Donna Summer

--Girls & Boys *** Blur
The Girls *** Calvin Harris

--One More Time *** Daft Punk

In Yr Underwear (Jesper Dahlback Mix) *** Fox 'n' Wolf

--Your Bmore Singing Study Mix [an unlikely Balitmore Club edit of "Your Love" by the Outfield, as in "I just want to use your love, toniiiight"] *** Roctakon

(download "Wedded To The Discothèque.zip")

You should use the joy of this mix to place a cherry on top of what ought to be an ice-cream-sundae of a weekend.
This is basically a mix in the Shower-Jamz mold. Actually, there were a few more specific considerations at the origin of this mix.
1) My b-day
2) Girls (either as ‘what girls like’, or as girl-watching during the summer), and
3) Disco.
I thought (correctly) that these three exciting elements would all call forth a very upbeat version of the summer mix.
Now, the first summer mix was a perfect example of a particular side of summer- that wistful, utterly relaxed summer feeling.

But there is another side of summer…
staying out all night,
going to parties after you’ve gone to a BBQ after you've gone swimming,
drinking “summer drinks” (rum and tequila, citrusy, light beer in 10 oz cans and 8 oz bottles- drinks you don’t normally drink, but which go down “champion style” in the summer),
running in flip-flops (including these flip-flasks),

and so forth.
That is this mix. And you gon’ luv it.
Ah, but I digress like a mamma-jamma. Girls, Birthdays, and Disco morphed together, constituting a new theme….

Wedding Madness! This is actually a mix-theme matheme I pondered before. What would be the formula necessary to craft make a mix with
1) all the fun of good wedding receptions;
2) While cutting the cheese out (sorry, no jokey-pants modern country songs, like “Save a Horse- Ride a Cowboy”; no thanks); very difficult, but oh-so-essential, to making disco excellent
3) And still maintaining the songs that “old people wanna dance to, too”. Which would be largely, not exclusively, the disco classics- “Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now”, Yeah!.
And I stumbled upon the solution. Take two girls, add one cup (heh) of disco, and shake it all together, on MY BIRTHDAY!
Do you now believe my frequent claim, that I am one divinely inspired, as was Socrates? Except his daimon only told him not to do certain things, whereas my daimon positively brings that hot fire in mix form. My guiding divine daimon likes to party down.
So, yes, I am what Nietzsche called for, waited for, hoped for: that Musical Socrates. Pleased to meet me, aren’t you?

Download that there mix

A Little Black and White Romance: Fire, Fine Wine, and a Footrub

So, I let it be overshadowed on the last post (about the death Teddy Pendergrass) that I had finally released another AMX mix.
Said Teddy Track is on said mix:
"AMX: Black Mask McGuffin".
Inspired by the smooth smoothness on the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack.

Oh man, Oh my: this mix is a real slow burnin' gem. A diamond: ice.
Fire and Ice.





Also on the mix is no not one, but 2! (two) Jerry Butler songs.



You know I love this man; I've posted already about him. So I will hold my tongue
(which is really difficult for me to do! Not my fault! The tongue is actually 16 different muscles, okay, so that makes it tough to restrain!)
for now on him, and turn to the broader description of the mix.

TRACK LISTING

1- When You're Alone )( Jerry Butler

---2 Someday )( Ricky Nelson

3- Don't Make Me Over )( Dionne Warwick

---4 Cathy's Clown )( The Everly Brothers

5- Sexy Mama )( The Moments

---6 Honky Tonk )( Duane Eddy

7- I'll Guess I'll Have To Cry Cry Cry )( James Brown

---8 Play It Fair )( DeeDee Sharp & Chubby Checker

9- If It Don't Turn You On (you oughta leave it alone) )( BT Express

---10 Maybe More )( The Carlisles

11- I'm Glad You're Mine )( Al Green

---12 My Heart is an Open Book )( Carl Dobkins

13- Be Real )( Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes

---14 Be Honest With Me )( Billy Brown

15- Oh, Pretty Woman )( Al Green

---16 Never Gonna Give You Up )( Jerry Butler

Download "AMX: Black Mask McGuffin" here

Basically
(although there is nothing basic about this mix: complex, like a fine wine),
this mix takes Al Green-esque classy, clean, clearly superior soulful R'n'B, and alternates that with honky-tonkin', hominy-eatin', hometown classic country. Trying to capture some of that slowed-down, down-home soul, from both sides.
As Chubby Checker says, "What a combination it would be!"
On both sides we have romantic tunes that 'be honest', 'be real'. They'll make you feel like 'a pretty woman', a 'sexy mama', 'when you're alone'.
So we have Mia and Marcel, mixing it up together, on this mix.
See how romantic and how sexy black and white can be?

AMX: Black Mask McGuffin--- Mia and Marcel Wallace, giving each other a little musical footrub.
Or is 'musical footrub' gross?

The Essential (F'ing) Davidson! - KAPOW

Kimmie (AKA DKB) made me look this up many weeks ago.



Pretty good, right?
Because he is wearing a tuxedo, and it is night, and he is not crying, it reminds me of this song:

Download: Tuxedomoon- No Tears

(b/c its chorus says "No Tears for the Creatures of the Night: No Tears!")



I got this song on a mix CD that AKA Music put out years ago.
(Just last night, a secret meeting of philosophers convened at Oscar's, and we decided that this was, for all of us, the only record store in Philadelphia that we really liked.)

Most of the band's songs don't sound like this, I'm told. This is antsy-dancey post-punk. A really fast keyboard line cranks out of it; mucho post-macho guitars. So, while it is a tough little number, you don't have to be, or even want to be, a tuff-guy to appreciate it.

It would sound great on the soundtrack to a remake of Fritz Lang's M, about which I just watched a videoblurb on NYTimes.com.
M is one of my favorite movies ever; I am bad at putting together lists of things (top, worst, year-end) but I can always remember that this movie would go on the list.

But here comes a list: things I bought/got for Xmas.
(CHRIStmas is not my birthday; don't worry, you are not the only one who gets confused about this.)
I'm only going to list media: you are hopefully none too concerned with the colors, brands, and number of socks that I received
(black and browns; Gold-Toe and Dockers; five thousand-ish, FYI)
because I asked for precisely such sundry necessaries.

[Partial list: more to come...]

Books

The Essential Davidson (!!!!!!!!!!!) by Donald(oh...) Davidson
(Famous!)
Man of Reason by Genevieve Lloyd
(Feminist!)
A Collected Marquise de Sade
(Fisting!)
The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions by Kenji Kawakami
(Funny!)
Therapy of Desire by Martha Nussbaum
(Fundamentals on Freedom From disturbance!)
Origins of Greek Thought by Pierre Vernant
(Foucault's Friend!)
The Odd One in: On Comedy by Alenka Zupančič
(Freedom = Funny!)
Introduction to Kant's Anthropology (Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents) by Michel Foucault
(Foucault!)

Next List: CDs/records that I scored...

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.

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.