A Noun, A Verb, and 9/11

It's two hours to 2008 and I wanted to make my 100th post of the year before I go out. As you may or may not know, I've recorded (almost) every E-mail and IM conversation since 1998. Now that I've put them on a single hard drive, they're searchable to me and me alone.

So here's some history for you. As the world burned on September 11, 2001, I contacted my now-roommate Dave in Washington, DC. Was he hurt? Did he hear anything? Is the capital shut down? Apparently it was more important to discuss our AIM icons.

Scoobieg89 (10:14:36 PM): blurp
TomServo0 (10:14:42 PM): you again
Scoobieg89 (10:15:01 PM): blurp blurp
TomServo0 (10:16:21 PM): you again again
Scoobieg89 (10:16:36 PM): blurp blurp blup
TomServo0 (10:16:52 PM): nice icon
Scoobieg89 (10:16:54 PM): that's the sound of the men...workin on the ...blurp blurp blurp blup blup
Scoobieg89 (10:16:58 PM): rock star?
TomServo0 (10:17:09 PM): looks like you
Scoobieg89 (10:17:38 PM): blurp blurp blurp blurp it blurp does blurp
TomServo0 (10:17:56 PM): um... yes.
Scoobieg89 (10:18:22 PM): I like your icon...nirsucka 's big in /Rolling stone this week
TomServo0 (10:19:14 PM): nirsucka?
TomServo0 (10:19:31 PM): is it the issue with whatshername on the cover?
Scoobieg89 (10:19:38 PM): yes, as in, i'm professing my undying displeasure over their music

Be Be Be Be Be Be Be Be

End of the year video post?


Don't mind if I do!


Happy Holidays/New Years/whatever, chances are you're drunk.


Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner & Howard Morris are The Haircuts. I OWN this record! It came from my step-great grandmother's collection.

Missing Links

It's the end of the year and it's time to clean out my Bookmarks. You might find something interesting here.

Pictures from the Mexican Cession reunion show from last year. Man that was sweet.

This website will help you find .mp3s through Google.

From the New York Times: "Is it better to buy or rent?"

Famous musician/producer Steve Albini gave his best interview in a poker forum, of all places.

Madd Dogg joined his buddy Slick Chris for a few online radio shows. If you don't know who Madd Dogg is, search this blog!

"A Regular Site for Regular Folk"

All Things Buffalo should be visited for this picture alone.

The Onion AV Club's article on 15 Masters of Onstage Banter is awesome because it has actual clips! Rock!

Frank's Vinyl Museum usually posts one or two clips of some weird, weird records. The current post: "Disco Noel"

Forgotten Buffalo is all about just that. I hope to explore some of the city's little crevices a lot more in the next year. Now that the bike path is finished it should be a lot easier.

Everyone's favorite Craigslist date, looking for Mr. 500k.

Want to press your own records?

Okay, enough beating around the bush. You have to watch Yacht Rock right now. All of them. DO IT.

The former Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein is a currently great blogger for NPR. I'll put her on the blogroll when I end up feeling like it.

>>RADIOHEAD TRANSMISSION<<

Trust me on this one: Matching Album Covers.

Narcissism Road

In the fall I read through a couple local blogs that beefed over some petty political argument. They'll remain nameless (though they're linked on your right) but one thing I noticed was that one party used Google Alerts to find out who was writing about them on the Internet. "Wow," I thought. "That's really egotistical." I signed up immediately.

My results consist of my own blog posts. Last week, however, a new site called Columbus Ohio Neon came up that's worth checking out. In one entry, the author took pictures of all the neon signs he could find on Schrock Road in Ohio. Here's just one:

Merry Christmas

This Political Ad May Break Through Your Screen

Butter of '69

One of my favorite bands ever was Cibo Matto. If you've never heard of them you're not alone. Fewer people have heard of their one-off side project Butter 08, a mid-90s "supergroup" with some other folks from the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label. But that's not important right now. What IS totally sweet is that I never knew they made a music video until 15 minutes ago.



Kinda catchy, right? Also this week, someone covered a Butter 08 song for a new EP (which pays tribute to one of my most favorite compilations). Check it out; it sounds as good as the original.

Tim's Truck

Remember back in 2005, when YouTube was just a glimmer in the Web's eye? When taking videos on a digital camera was almost quaint? Earlier in 2005 I took the following video. Jerry got a used truck for Tim and started testing out the brakes. Odd, banal stuff. As Tim puts it, "This just reminds me of dad videotaping his family, and nobody liking that." Yes.

Frederick Schrock, RIP

Fred Schrock died last week. He was a good man.

Big Mouth Billy Bird

Whilst cleaning out my hard drive I happened perchance upon this video, captured at a jaunt to Hallwalls during the Beyond/In exhibit.
Please peruse its contents at your leisure.
Pffft.

Mathman

Buffalo's Big Snowstorm turned out to be a lousy couple of inches, so all that staying home went to waste. What better to fill the void than with some math and statistics! You may have to click on some to read them better.

Title of the Post

Reference to the creators of the song, then the video. Positive expression of opinion concerning the clip. Regret that the video was not as great at the song. Link to other website for further insight. Lack of comments to the post.

80 Minutes for 9 December 2007

I intend to make 100 posts this year. Currently the number is in the mid-80s so I'd better get cracking.

Yesterday I finally bought an external hard drive (500 gigs!) for all of my pictures, music, and videos. That means I could finally empty out my MP3 player of the 30 gigs of downloaded music I collected over the year. (And upload the 15 gigs I recently downloaded but haven't heard. Before that I pulled a The Onion's Random Rules to see what would come up if I hit "shuffle." You can download all 22 Tracks together or individually.

01 G Love & Special Sauce - When We Meet Again.mp3
They're coming to town next month!

02 Oh No - Heavy.mp3
Does anyone know where these samples come from? I've heard them all over

03 Guns n Roses - Raw Power.mp3
Oy, The Spaghetti Incident. At least it's a Stooges song.

04 Of Montreal - How Lester Lost His Wife (Pocket remix).mp3
I like Of Montreal's originality but sometimes they're a bit drab. The remixes help.

05 Marc Almond - Bedsitter Images.mp3
How I got this is beyond me. It sounds like something somebody might be really into, but I'll listen in passing.

06 Howlin Wolf - Built For Comfort.mp3
You can't do wrong with songs about fat dudes.

07 You Say Party! We Say Die! - Stockholm Syndrome Part One.mp3
Cheerleaders shouldn't do drugs and play keyboards.

08 Gore Gore Girls - Sweet Potato.mp3
They came to town the other week and yep, I missed it.

09 Weather Report - Cannon Ball (live).mp3
You should listen to more jazz.

10 Green River - One More Stitch.mp3
Besides breaking up and forming Mudhoney and Pearl Jam, Green River was a pretty sweet regional act.

11 Speech Excerpt, 1963, Martin Luther King, I had a Dream.mp3
I downloaded an album of American History songs hoping it would be educational or at least entertaining. This was neither. How could you make this speech any more soulless or patronizing than this track? Sorry, kids.

12 Hidden Cameras - Day is Dawning.mp3
Hidden Cameras is one of those bands all the critics like but nobody hears. Check 'em out.

13 Bobby Digital - Insomnia (feat Jay Love)(bonus).mp3
RZA's soundtrack for Afro Samurai can't be considered a real album but it provides decent ambiance.

14 Troggs - Get You Tonight.mp3
Classic garage rock

15 Al Green - Stand Up.mp3
Oooh, that's nice.

16 Boat - Songs That You Might Not Like.mp3
The last track to Boat's album Songs That You Might Not Like is a self-conscious throw-off with the same title.

17 Killers - When You Were Young (Jacques Lu Cont Remix).mp3
Maybe someday I'll really get into The Killers. I'll keep giving them a chance.

18 Muse - City Of Delusion.mp3
Muse was the band I unpacked my new apartment to. It sounded pretty majestic bouncing off empty walls and floors.

19 TV On The Radio - Me-I.mp3
This is a B-side from the Warm & Scratchy compilation. I wonder how long they took to make this sound like they weren't trying?

20 Johnny Cash - Orleans Parish Prison (live).mp3I just looked up this old song to find out if it had a backstory. According to Wikipedia, there's an uglier, newer history: "Orleans Parish Prison, a detention complex in Orleans Parish, Louisiana where inmates were reportedly abandoned in their cells during the flooding following Hurricane Katrina." Oops.

21 Beatles - Octopus's Garden (Love remix).mp3 Personally I prefer the Grey Album, but that's not as slick.

22 Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious 5 - Free Style.mp3
I should listen to more old-school rap, even if this isn't so old-school. Here it's the late 80s and you can tell they're trying to go gangsta.

Free Space

While at Jim's Steakout tonight, roommate Dave found copies of a free publication called the Bingo Bugle. In giant letters on the front page is the headline "CELEBRATING THE BINGO LIFESTYLE." "The Bingo Bugle is a celebration of this lifestyle," the paper continues, "with articles on travel, health, humanity, puzzles, astrology and other topics of interest."

I couldn't wait to read it. And it's monthly!

Inside is a doozy: excerpts from a short story by mystery writer Elaine Viets called Sex and Bingo:

It was a summer of sex and Bingo.

Where Helen came from, Bingo had nothing to do with sex. In her hometown of St. Louis, Bingo was a game for women gamblers. They were serious and gray-haired. Stick cigars in their mouths, and they'd look like the men who played high stakes poker.

But on a cruise ship, everything was different. Even Bingo.

I don't want you too hot and bothered so I'll stop right there. You can read the tantalizing, gray-haired details by buying the book. It's for sale on Amazon for $0.03.

Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

The Food Album

It's on Amazon

If you spend time with me you may wonder why I take photos of all my food. I wish I could answer that. Maybe it's because of the communal nature of eating or the association of going to restaurants and bars with group events. In any case, this is every food-related picture I can find on my computer. Have you gone out to eat with me since I bought this computer in August 2006? Then you're in it. Honest, you don't look that bad in person.


Also, this slideshow explicates just how bloody difficult it is to take pictures in a restaurant. The dim lighting, the closeness of the food, the aversion to letting off a flash in a crowded room, and copious amounts of cheap beer really hamper the effort. Some photos are retaken but fewer look any good. How do those recipe book people do it?

Also also, there's a shot of a garden store in here. Oops! This post could not exist without the fine folks at WFMU, who found the amazing soundtrack for this slideshow.

80 Minutes for 2 December 2007

Several weeks ago I posted some hot pop jams from 1955-1959, mostly rockabilly stuff. Here are some more .mp3s from 1960-1964 with some early rock and R&B. You can download them all as a .zip file or individually. If you're interested in any expired links, my AIM is my Blogger name.

01 Shirelles - Soldier Boy sounds a lot like Sonic Youth's Little Trouble Girl, doesn't it?
02 Shirelles - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow is one of the best songs of the era. I have a copy of the Afghan Whigs' version, if you're interested. Another artist with two tracks here is
03 Gary "U.S." Bonds - New Orleans which starts out sounding like the theme to Battletoads, if you can remember that. They also reference the 1959 song The Battle Of New Orleans if you can remember that one, too. Gary also sings
04 Gary "U.S." Bonds - Quarter To Three which sounds a whole lot like . . . what's that song again?
05 Dion - Runaround Sue Oh, that's the one. Then we have some songs about cars, such as
06 Jan & Dean - The Little Old Lady From Pasadena which always sounded scarily too much like the Beach Boys,
07 Ronny & The Daytonas - G.T.O. which makes me wonder if they created their name solely from the subject of their breakout hit, and
08 Little Eva - The Loco-Motion. That's a stretch, but do you remember when Vanessa and her friends made a music video for this on The Cosby Show? A more vehicle-based song would probably be
09 Shangri-Las - Leader Of The Pack. It's both corny and ahead of its time simultaneously. NPR spent an hour analyzing this song a few months ago. Another song ahead of its time is
10 Booker T. and the M.G.'s - Green Onions. And you know what doesn't mix with green onions?
11 Dartells - Hot Pastrami. And you know what you look like when you eat green onions and hot pastrami?
12 Ikettes - I'm Blue. Then again, if you work with Ike you may be black and blue. The 5.6.7.8.'s redid this song on Kill Bill. While your blue self suffers from food poisoning I'm sure you'll be
13 Bobby Lewis - Tossin' and Turnin' all night. Unless you're a large African feline, which is the worst segue ever into
14 Tokens - The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh). The song is derived from an old African song called Mbube, the Zulu word for "lion." Look it up!
15 Bobby "Blue" Bland - Turn On Your Love Light was stolen by the Blues Brothers and a million others. Bland probably stole this as well. Another truly great song is
16 Drifters - Up On The Roof. While you can't listen to old records on the roof, you can hear the
17 Cascades - Rhythm Of The Rain. Another thing you should never do on the roof is
18 Chuck Jackson - Let's Dance. Save that for someplace safer, like
19 Martha & The Vandellas - Dancing In The Street. Once you're down there you can
20 Marvin Gaye - Hitch Hike (The Velvet Underground totally stole that opener.) to
21 Freddy Cannon - Palisades Park, later covered by the Beach Boys and the Ramones.
22 Chris Kenner - I Like It Like That - or as I remember the commercial,
22 Chris Kenner - (Cold Miller Light) I Like It Like That. Another song used in a beverage commercial was
23 Doris Payne - Just One Look, except it involved Pepsi and Cindy Crawford. She always looked weird, didn't she? With that mole?
24 Impressions - Gypsy Woman is about a similar odd lady. An even weirder, more exotic female is discussed in
25 Coasters - Little Egypt, which pretty much has the same plot as the Coasters' Mexico. The next five songs are put in alphabetical order of their onomatopoeitic lyrics:
26 Hollywood Argyles - Alley-Oop, based on the comic strip and covered by the Beach Boys,
27 Regents - Barbara-Ann (ba ba ba, ba Barbara-Ann) also covered by the Beach Boys,
28 Raindrops - The Kind Of Boy You Can't Forget
(Diddle iddle iddle-it)
29 Neil Sedaka - Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
(Down doobie do down down), and
30 Dee Dee Ford - I Need Your Lovin'
(Woah woah woah WOAH! Woah woah). Finally, a song without words at all.
31 Rockin' Rebels - Wild Weekend. And what a wild weekend it was, sleeping for twelve straight hours. I have to go back to it right now.