Have you visited wrecklesseric.com? He's been quick with the updates the last couple weeks, it's exciting. And he's playing a bunch of dates in a few weeks with the Rutles. The Rutles! Two of my idols on the same bill, Eric and Neil Innes, I think I would just fall apart and die of glee. Of course the shows are all overseas so I won't ever see them. I also thought the same thing about Colin Blunstone/Rod Argent shows, and then look what happened. But onward with that wishful thinking. To just imagine, then know the shows are actually happening, it's a gorgeous and thrilling thought.
Read Eric's site! Read it even if you've never heard him or heard of him. And then once you've heard of him, go out and hear him. He's a genius. His book was the one and only book I can think of in ... maybe years that didn't get affected by my (mostly imagined) adult ADD. I read it in a day and it's indescribably great. Maybe some other time I'll try to describe it, or at least describe my history relative to being a Wreckless Eric fan. It's a rather convoluted narrative with, for the foreseeable future, a very happy ending.
He signed my copy too, bless him.
click to enlarge
SIGNIFICANT WEATHER! NBC11 STORM WATCH! We've got some big storms happening out here and they rule. Except probably not for those people in three feet of standing water and mud in Daly City. Sorry dudes. How does that happen, anyway, getting a house full of mud during a rainstorm? It's not like it's a mudstorm. Oh the mysteries of West Coast life. The flooding, the craziness, it still amazes me. How can one day of heavy rain cause such drama? Aren't there gutters out here? Don't they work? Who engineered this state? Why can't we all live in peace?
Lately whenever I watch "Starting Over" I get the urge to read more books. Like, "Hey, maybe I should finally read John Dewey's Art as Experience like I was supposed to in college," or, "Remember Naomi Wolf? Wow, those were the days," or whatever. I also have a tendency to have six half-read books lying around at any given time because, you know, the adult ADD and all, can't finish anything. But when you're sitting there watching a crazy Mormon girl get a hematoma drained on TV, you can't help but think to yourself, "I really ought to read more books." So when I got sick over the weekend, it was like perfect timing. Before the migraine showed up at the exciting conclusion. But you know, I still got it in there. I finally finished The Group which I totally stalled out on after Christmas. That part that's all about the Prothero family butler, man, that is hard to get through. But I finished it ... yesterday? Monday? Anyway, I completed a task, hooray for me. Not to be outdone, I finally finished Fredric Dannen's Hit Men which I totally stalled out on before Christmas because it's a hardcover and The Group, much more portable for the planes and the whatnot. People in the music business are wack, I'm not sure if you knew that, but that's what you learn in that book. I just finished that like ten minutes ago! Thrilling.
I also applied for that job today, and I signed up for this employment recruitment service thing that's offered by my alumni association. Three years in purgatory, expensive purgatory, has gotta be good for something. Look at me, I'm doing stuff, it's like some crazy new world. And reading, it's the hip new thing. Next on the list is Douglas Coupland's Microserfs at the urging of Christopher. Since I got him to read Ghost World five years ago, I guess I owe him at least that much. Of course that had pictures in it. Pictures of girls. But this has a slick foil cover on it and a guy made out of Legos so I'll call it even.
I have a lot of catching up to do since I got really sick sick sick over the weekend (thanks, WORK) and lost my flizzow with the posting and all. Or maybe I'll use it as an excuse to not catch up? Ooh I like the sound of that.
So I'm applying for a part-time job that I think I have a reasonable chance of a) getting and b) not hating, so I'm taking the opportunity to write a gigantic source resume listing pretty much every job I've ever had ever, no matter how unimportant it seems in my big employment picture, since I can basically tailor my resumes to fit any arts/writing/publishing jobs that come up due to my Vastly Diverse Experience or some such business. I suppose. I feel like I've only had three real jobs since college, but jeez:
This is depressing. Why should I have to look for work? People should be coming to me begging for it or, better still, just giving me money for my awesomeness. I mean, honestly.
You know, it's really difficult for me to think of anything that is more awesome than this right now.
Television's Dr. Phil McGraw meets his match — Dr. Feel — a new Sesame Street Muppet who will be making his national debut during a segment on the syndicated talk show on Friday, February 20. (AP Photo)
Today was a busy work day, by which I mean I spent most of it importing more stuff for the iPod. Like a LOT. Like:
Bob Dylan remastered: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Another Side of Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, Planet Waves, Blood on the Tracks, Desire, Street-Legal, Slow Train Coming, Infidels, Oh Mercy, "Love and Theft"; plus Time Out of Mind, Live 1966, Live 1975 (not remastered)
The Soundtrack of Our Lives: Welcome to the Infant Freebase, Extended Revelation for the Psychic Weaklings of the Western Civilization, Behind the Music, Future Excerpts
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (remastered): Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Organisation, Architecture & Morality
Duran Duran: Singles 81-85 box set (13 CDs)
At least it helped the day go by faster. Like a LOT.
Jane tells me that WE just showed The Swinger. My God, how could I have missed this. WE, the same geniuses who dug up Moment by Moment which made me have a freakout of glorious proportions. I really need to start paying more attention to them ... start paying attention to The Space We Share.
It's another slow work day today, which gives me ample opportunity to finally get all my Dylan other than Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks into iTunes. So far I'm up to ... Highway 61 Revisited. I just got started, obviously.
This task reminded me that I never told you everything I got for Christmas, did I? Oh no, I need to remedy that right now. And since my birthday's right before Xmas, I'll just put it all here. Oh man, look what a lucky girl I am.
I just saw a "Passions" commercial that said MURDER and showed Gwen pushing Theresa through a window. Oh if only, if only.
Andy "this is Andy Paige for Cents of Style" Paige is back on "Starting Over" today and I'm so so happy. She's like the best ever. She is wearing a ludicrous zebra-striped coat and yet she still looks adorable. Oh! Did you know she even has a Web site. Oh man, she just said "Super, I love that," which was what I was about to say. Genius. Jane and I should get her to be on our fabulous TV show about gossip and sparkles and dancing. You know, the show we have created in our minds.
I did a work day yesterday, I'm doing a work day today and I'm working the rest of the week. Money is super, I love that. It's been really slow. Yesterday I stayed up all night before working (I have to start at 6 a.m.) and after I signed off I completely conked out. The weather, it was going crazy. Like the cable provider broke into "Passions" (which I still hate right now) with one of their crazy Emergency Broadcast System EEEEEH EEEEEH EEEEEH alerts for a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. I thought they usually saved those for Amber Alerts at 3 a.m. in order to scare the crap out of me.
Oh my God. They just showed the "surprise leaks and odor" commercial for the product that offers "confident stand-up protection." What. If the FCC wants to do something about decency on TV, start with the disgusting feminine protection and perverted diaper ads already. I can't stand it. And then the one we kept seeing during The Perfect Husband with the graphic depiction of a kid wetting his bed and it's supposed to be CUTE. Sick sick sick sick.
Anyway! Right before I went to sleep, there was a local news special report where the weather guy started freaking out about "significant weather!!!" and then he just cut off and there was dead air and I found it hilarious. There was some wind and some rain and the skies were overcast, what? That is one thing I can't get used to, is how out here rain is like a crazy foreign concept and if it sprinkles a little bit people start like driving off the road if they've even left the house at all in the first place. Well I'm exaggerating. A little. But it is very surprising. This is the first time in my life I've lived without X-treme weather. Am I getting offtrack again? Yes.
So anyway, I totally pass out and get woken up by Christopher coming home, informing me that the power is out. Not just out but OUT, like gone. Like our entire complex is pitch black and interestingly enough, it's the only one in the neighborhood that's out. So maybe it was the storm? Maybe it wasn't? I have no idea. But luckily Christopher had some kind of psychic power because he brought home a pizza (our stove is electric) and also a gigantic family-size vat of Beefeater gin. So it wasn't so bad. Except the power never came back on until Conan started, so we missed both "American Idol" and "24," which is an unfair tragedy of epic proportions. But I'm trying my best to live through the pain, I am.
Modern developments I have trouble comprehending:
311 and their cover of "Love Song." What, are they Dashboard Confessional now? Or was Dashboard Confessional perhaps unavailable to record this in the first place? And where's that guy who goes YingiddyBingiddyGingiddyDingiddy through half their songs? Is he just on the remix? I'm confused.
Kanye West's choruses of magic helium-sucking midgets. Or maybe they're chipmunks? They're chipmunks, right? Pixies? Sprites? Dwarves? I don't know, but I just don't want to hear any more of them, I really don't.
"Passions" and its magic reset buttons and mind-erasing tools. OK, in the course of one episode, Whitney is MAGICALLY back together with Chad and his bad Eric Benét makeover and all is forgiven? Fox is no longer think-talking every other second about how much he loves Whitney (who is not only the Woman He Loves but also the Woman of His Dreams and His Secret True Love) because he's now madly in love with Theresa? Theresa has somehow developed an anti-Ethan gene after YEARS of careful audience hypnosis to the contrary? Oh, you can't be serious. Gwen almost gets killed by Beth after almost getting killed by Beth during a maelstrom of suspicion about Beth and the Evil Beth Has Most Likely Probably Possibly Done, and yet she suspects that this time it was ... Theresa. Oh good, let's go down that road again while we "take it to the next level" of improbability as to how Luis and Sheridan are going to be separated ... FOREVER. Oh for butt's sake. Next they'll send Kay and her baby on safari in Kenya so Charity and Miguel can get back together and Reese will end up getting it on with, I don't know, how about Hank. Actually, that last one just might work. Butt please, I got bored of Sheridan in the mental hospital and I get bored whenever Sheridan and Luis are doing it, but when Sheridan and Luis were doing it in the mental hospital, that was pure television gold and a shining example of how to put on a show. Now I am thisclose to no longer caring because they've suddenly put on the brakes and switched gears to a) stale old plots and b) new plots that make no sense WITHOUT RESOLVING ANYTHING AT ALL. If they're gonna drag old stuff back out again, why not have a portal to Hell open up someplace, that's always a good time.
Linds@y Loh@n, who is apparently Fr@nkie Muniz in drag.
Commercials for diapers that will hug my baby's sexy, sexy curves and dynamite ass. I give up.
Ortho-Evra commercials, translated: Hi, I'm a giant whore who loves to get boned, and I'm so stupid that I can't even remember to perform simple daily tasks. But I won't get pregnant if you do me! Let me yank down my underwear and show you why!
So we were watching CMC (the California Music Channel) today and this dude Beebo was sitting in for Chuy Gomez. At least I think his name was Beebo? Anyway, I had never seen him before and he was highly entertaining. He was doing the Miss Congeniality "You think I'm gooooorgeous" song except it was all like "My name is Beeeeebo" and then at the end he started singing Beyoncé's "Work It Out," and he was all "Don't touch that remote, I see you creepin'" and his Classic Clip was the Cover Girls' "Show Me," oh man. They're wearing BODY GLOVE! I remembered the dance and everything.
I was checking the CMC site and it said they were looking for new VJs, ooh! I would be good for you, CMC. But I don't think I'm capable of mustering up enthusiasm about, like, Fefe Dobson or anything. I already quit that job.
Oh! So what a lovely weekend it has been, despite the title of this entry. Valentine's Day, first-rate, and today we go to see the WWE No Way Out PPV at the Legendary Cow Palace in beautiful San Francisco, California. Of course what we find out is that apparently there is a reason why the WWE does not have events there with any regularity. We get there like right before the Heat taping is supposed to start and we end up getting to our seats like two matches in after the start of the PPV. There is only one entrance open? And apparently they didn't start letting people in until right before Heat started or something? I don't know, man, that stuff was woo, woo messed up.
Anyway, you know what happens when there are a lot of people trying make their way to an event at the same time, right? Oh no, no. Oh, oh yes! It was Ludacris/Outkast at MSG all over again. So someday, when I am in a positive and healthy enough place to revisit the ordeal, I will recount for you how I barely managed to avoid murdering several children, the appointed guardian of most of those children, a passel of rarified bonafide yuppie douches and a handful of security staff, all because line etiquette just SEEMS to escape MOST people MOST of the time. Oh God. OH GOD.
Well! Other than that, once we got in and into our seats everything was hunky dory, other than this gigantically fat, smelly man that poor Christopher was stuck next to. Oh! The bullets he takes for me. As the Mr. wisely pointed out, fat guys should not wedge themselves into in box seats. AND, as the Mr. wisely pointed out, fat guys should not be sitting in the seat next to the other adults in the row rather than in one of the seats situated between his small children. Are other people retarded? Not just fat people, or children, or yuppie douches, but all other people? I think it's safe to say that the answer is in the affirmative. Other people!!! Who needs them??? OH! WE decided? MY best interests?! So how can you say I'm crazy?! And so on.
But really, it was a fun time!!! Except for the smelly fat guy. I think he was growing new lifeforms in his crevasses.
AND NOW! Here's a fun thing. I took like 70 pictures with my digital camera, most of them with the flash securely off so you will see your favorite Superstars(TM) looking like they do not look in natural nature. There are other ones that aren't so wicked artistic and all, but I thought it would be fun to see if anyone was willing to try to GUESS WHO THEY ARE! And you may click to enlarge them and make them Big All Over (TM).
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Apropos of the Paper of Record's latest reporting on John Kerry being a P-I-G pig, here's a blast from the past from my own personal collection. One of these days I'll finally get around to writing my sure-to-be-award-winning essay "The National Enquirer and Me" ...
click to enlarge (you know Gary did)
I have promised both myself and my husband that I will not get involved in this season of "American Idol." I will maintain an emotional distance. It is not easy to do, I'll tell you what. I've got weaknesses when it comes to this show. It's almost as if Lent has come early. But eew, what about this Katie Bad Nose Job, eh? She creeps me out. And she goes to SJSU too (though apparently she's not there for its fine MLS program). Also, Fantasia is a fabulous, fabulous name.
I'm so excited for The Perfect Husband (this Friday at 8 on USA). Is that horrible? It's probably horrible. But ever since I saw the pictures of Dean Cain in the Enquirer I was so excited for this stupid thing. Oh man, remember how last month the tiers got switched around on our cable system and I had to go without the Lifetime Movie Network for a day? That was not a cute fun time. You know I have to watch Helter Skelter every time it airs. It really is a compelling presentation of women and their problems.
David Herman has just joined the cast of "24" so I had a bit of a freakout tonight. I guess with "Futurama" off the air he has to do something. Lothaire Bluteau is on now too! At least I'm pretty sure it's him, I didn't notice his name in the credits. But yeah, there can't possibly be too many Lothaire Bluteau lookalikes running around on TV. It was like a banner episode.
I still feel like crap, by the way. Just thought I'd add that for the record.
So the flu has finally done gone and caught up with me. Or at least it caught up with me while we were out shopping yesterday. You don't want to fall victim to the onslaught of a virus in the middle of dinner at Fuddrucker's. Fuddrucker's! I hadn't eaten at one of those since I was like 16, when our party placed its order under the name "Mike Hunt." I'd totally forgotten how the place worked.
Yesterday the Mr. got me the Deluxe Edition of Who's Next which means the time has come for me to finally put my Who collection into iTunes and consequently onto the iPod. I'm doing everything except Live at Leeds for reasons that aren't quite clear to me at the moment. I guess I just don't want to add a live album? Or maybe I'm waiting until I have the Deluxe Edition before I add it? Hmm. But Face Dances and It's Hard, here we come! Was there ever an extended version of "Eminence Front"? If there wasn't, I sure wish there was. Maybe one will show up on a Deluxe Edition of It's Hard someday, 'cause it's sure not on my expanded one. And if Universal is actually putting out crappy Gin Blossoms albums in Deluxe Edition form, I can't imagine why It's Hard wouldn't rate, right? Even if there's not enough stuff to pad it out to two discs. Maybe the second disc could be a 74-minute version of "Eminence Front." I'd pay good money for that. Well, real money anyway.
I went to the Universal Chronicles site (as touted on the packaging -- we also picked up the Deluxe Editions of Diana and Bad Girls, I'm very excited!) to see if they had any other Who repackaging planned and the big thing they're touting on the band's artist page is the imminent release of the My Generation one, which came out in August 2002! Who's getting paid to maintain this crap? I sure do hate the Web sometimes. OK, a lot.
I scanned this to post to the W so I figured I might as well post it here too. A classic. She was such a sweetheart too.
This is ... I don't know if I'd say "cute," and yet I did find it to be awfully cute. Warning: Occasionally there's cartoon people doing it. Thanks Boogity!
New DVDs today! Lost in Translation and CURB! Thanks Husbandy!
I was going to add the latest installment of my struggles with Panther font management but I didn't even add my last one which was that we got us a hot hot double-pack of my beloved Alsoft Disk Warrior and the mysterious unknown Alsoft Master Juggler at Macworld last month.
(I didn't mention we went to Macworld either? I'm sorry, I've been distracted. I got to play with an iPod Mini. It's adorable and all but dame, 4 GB? That's like for people who don't even like music. I gots over 21 GB of stuff on my 40 GB (his name is Elliott and he is cute) without even hardly trying. My latest adds are Stereolab's Margerine Eclipse, Air's Talkie Walkie and the Franz Ferdinand album. Ooh, Franz Ferdinand, I'll have to talk about them more later. What was that I said about being distracted?)
So Master Juggler, that's font management, though you'd never tell by the name of it. It's a pretty hot setup. It works in the background and doesn't have to be up and active and loaded simply to get the system to cooperate with the system fonts (hey Suitcase 'sup). I can throw a lot of crap in it and it doesn't die? And I can check out samples like in two seconds? What what is it for real? It doesn't make tons of copies of my font files all over the place (I'm telling you, FONT RESERVE, I'm sure I've got at least 2 GB of unnecessary space taken up on my HD from duplicate font files). The only problem is that it's really supersensitive to corrupt fonts which is, naturally, the point and all, except adding one won't necessarily kill it? Yet it will F business up big time if you do something stupid like, say, accidentally click "temporarily activate" when your entire library option is highlighted in the menu. I couldn't get THAT mess sorted out until about 4 a.m. But hey, the interface is delicious (suck it Font Reserve).
Oh! So anyway, the point is that Font Reserve, which I'd actually bought and paid for a few years ago and dearly beloved until it went haywire with Panther, finally put out a Panther-compatible update, which I've been whining about since November. I should say "purportedly compatible" because I gave the upgraded Suitcase a trial shot and that don't work for crap either. I downloaded it for the sake of having it but I don't think I'll be using it. What do you mean this isn't interesting? Hmm you're probably right. Anyway, that was my followup. And Alsoft makes good things for Mac users. Yay!
Another thing I never followed up on was my plaintive plea on December 14 for a Saint Etienne Christmas 2003 EP. Not only does Christopher manage to finagle me a real live copy in beautiful pristine unplayed condition, but he got it here, from the U.K., in time to give it to me on Christmas Day. Breathtaking genius. I don't know how he does it, but how awesome is it that he does.
It looks like this
and it's great.
While The Sun is always an excellent daily source of ugly celebrity pictures, imagine my surprise when I visited their SUPERHUNKS! gallery simply because they were promising pictures of Ewan McGregor (Hunk of the Week) and oh, they gave me this one. Caution: It might make you DIE.
click to enlarge (heh heh rrrowr)
Disgusting! I've had a crazy peacoat thing ever since seeing Christopher Walken in The Dead Zone and oh, killing me. Anyway, as a public service, the entirety of SUPERHUNKS! can be found here. It's hilarious. Gareth Gates? Whatever dudes.
Right now, the #10 most downloaded song at the iTunes Music Store is "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something, which seems to prove that Pepsi drinkers are retarded. Speaking of which, if you have any spare Pepsi/iTMS codes that you don't want to redeem, feel free to send them my way! I want that Beyoncé rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner"!
Thanks to Janest. I really should check Quizilla more often. I don't know how I ended up with this result? But I think I like it! Also it makes me a bit dead, I guess. Oops. And yet, awesome.
You are Captain Murphy. You've lost your mind, but you have more fun without it.
Which Sealab 2021 character are you?
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