You Can't Imagine How Much Fun I'm Having

Life is good. Very good. Just wanted to share.

Smart Went Crazy

I finally did it. I went and bought me one of them fancy Macs. A 15" PowerBook, to be exact. It's an investment for the graphics stuff. But it is neat. Lots of bells and whistles, but not the kind that feel cheap, the kind that feel necessary.

But has life become too convenient? My experience in buying the PowerBook was ridiculous. I know that Apple has become such a giant in computing because of (a) excellent industrial design, and (b) ease of use. I admit it, I like the design - a lot. The ease of use thing bothers me, though. Even though I use a PC at work, I worry that my non-Mac skills will get soft.

When I went into the Mac store at Somerset Mall (shudder), I went straight to the first floor person I saw and told them what I wanted. I confused the shit outta that girl. "So...do you want to hear about any deals we have right now? Are you sure that's what you want, do you want to discuss your needs?" Listen, honey, I'm not an idiot. I know why I'm buying the damned thing, I know what I need it for, and I've heard the deals - not interested. "But...are you familar with .Mac? It will help guide you through how to use a Mac and you'll get an email account, and, and, and..." No. No, thank you. "Oh, well, I guess you can just go to the back counter and tell them what you want." Right.

Now I just have to wait until I get ahold of CS2, so I can really get to work...

I Got Kinda Lost

Has it really been 14 days since my last post? It doesn't seem like it's been two weeks. Oh well. Either way, I have some contests coming up for CDs and DVDs and guestlist spots for local shows. Stay tuned...

Note to Self

Guess what? On January 17, Bloc Party releases it's first State-side DVD, God Bless Bloc Party. Containing a one-hour documentary filmed around Bloc Party's second US tour and live performance footage from their June 2005 shows at the El Ray Theater in LA and July 2005 at a festival in Belfort, France.

The DVD will only be available at these indie stores (www.thinkindie.com), Tower and Virgin on January 17.

Click the pic below to watch a trailer for the DVD.

Broken Household Appliance National Forest

Yeah, I know. Its been awhile since you've heard from me.

I have a lot going on in real life, more than usual, and I'd prefer to put my time there instead of here.

However, there's always something worth posting. Here's something.

Yesterday at brunch, my friend G-ma was telling me about her roommate's insatiable appetite for hookers and crack (seriously). This has caused her to consider moving out and buying a house.

An important thing to remember is that G-ma is very interested in all that is Art Deco and Modern. She's a full-on collector.

She kept referring to the house as a "White Castle house" and it took me awhile to understand what the fuck she was talking about. In the late '40s, a man named Carl Strandlund had what he believed to be the answer to the post-WWII housing shortage in this country: quickly and cheaply built durable homes that could be sold just like automobiles out of a dealership.

Ultimately, Carl Strandlund's Lustron Corp set out to mass-produce homes. In the end, Lustron had manufactured 2500 homes and many are still standing. The homes are still standing because they were made out of stainless steel with a baked-on porcelain enamel finish. Just like the old White Castles (or Tel-Way or Hunter House or whatever regional burger joint in a little white building you can think of). You could buy the homes only in seven or eight different colors, and there were only a handful of floorplans to pick from. This cut down costs.

The design in the homes was very Art Deco with a 'home of the future' vibe. The dishwasher can double as a washing machine, all of the cabinets are built right into the kitchen, and the walls are fucking porcelain!

I guess there's a Lustron home in the Detroit area that's on the market right now. I hope G gets it. That'd be cool. I didn't know anything about them until now. Go here to read more about Lustron and the homes they built. Interesting side-note, the company was subsidized by the US government and ultimately forced into bankruptcy. Despite doing very well, many people believe that Carl Strandlund was the victim of politics and labor unions unhappy with how he chose to do business and what his mass-produced homes would do to the building contracting industry.

I Remember Hating You For Loving Me

Current re/discoveries:

Something came over me the other day and I absolutely had to get something from Berlin. Not just DL a couple of songs, I needed more than that. I needed Masquerade and The Metro, and especially Sex, I'm A... The draw was uncontrollable. Record Time had it, there was no question. I grew up loving a lot of the 'better' New Wave and electro bands of the '80s. Maybe I was a couple years too late to experience the prime of New Order and Depeche Mode and OMD, but not by much. For some reason I was never drawn to Berlin. Don't know why, possibly the single "Take My Breath Away" from the 'Top Gun' soundtrack being played eighty million times a day on radio and MTV. That could have caused my aversion. It wasn't until years later that I heard "The Metro" via an Alkaline Trio cover. Then I got interested. Now I have it and love it.

About a year ago, I was involved in some sort of charity thing where everyone who helped out won door prizes. What I won was all four CDs of Submerge Records' Depth Charge series. If you're not familiar, Submerge Records is an arm of Detroit's pioneering Underground Resistance Records. What we're talking about here is techno, but not the thumping annoying crap that you hear at cheesy clubs. This is seriously electro dance music. Artists like 'Mad' Mike Banks, Red Planet, Aux 88, Alan Oldham, Juan Atkins, and many others are well represented by the series. Today I was listening to and loving Depth Charge Three, which was compiled by Sean Deason. I guess these comps are usually overlooked because they represent and document a scene that is mostly vinyl-based and more interested in singles over full records. If you're into any kind of Detroit techno, or music influenced by it, you should check out the Submerge Depth Charge series.

A few weeks ago I wrote about a site called Pandora. Using that site, I plugged in Gram Parsons as a 'seed' to see what kind of results I would get. Eventually, the song "Gunga Din" from The Byrds came up. I never heard it before. I'm still relatively new to this whole early '70s country-rock stuff. In fact, I'm not all that familiar with The Byrds in general, now that I think of it. Someone turned me on to their album "Sweetheart Of the Rodeo" awhile back, but that was because Gram Parsons was in the band at the time, and its mostly country standards. So, I found out what album "Gunga Din" is on, its "The Ballad of Easy Rider." Sounds like a soundtrack, but its not. They were originally asked to contribute three songs to the film, but only "The Ballad..." made it on there. Apparently Bob Dylan was originally asked to do it, but he didn't have time, or something like that. He gave Peter Fonda a couple of scribbled to use in a song if he wanted. The Byrds ended up using them, but after Dylan saw the film, he wanted his songwriting co-credit removed because he didn't like the film. Either way, it's a really fucking good album. This came after several lineup changes and different incarnations of the band. There are several covers, including the second time that the band covered "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" from Dylan, and "Jesus Is Just Alright" from the Art Reynolds singers. Roger McGuinn had completely taken over the band, being the only remaining original member. This is the second record with (mostly) the same lineup as "Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde." I admit, I don't know much about the band, especially at this point in their history, but there's something about this one. There's definitely a theme of loneliness running through it, but it makes you feel like loneliness isn't a bad thing. I could listen to "The Ballad of Easy Rider," "Jesus Is Just Alright," "Gunga Din," and "Oil In My Lamp" over and over again. And I have.

A few years ago, I somehow came across a band called Grandaddy. The record that I first heard was called the Sophtmore Slump. It had lots of synth and fuzzy guitars and just slightly processed vocals. In fact, now that I think about it, there are a lot of similarities to the Death Cab From Cutie album "Transatlanticism." But it's diffferent. Hard to explain. I saw them probably in 1999 at the Magic Stick with Bright Eyes opening. This is the thing, a few weeks ago, I was sitting at a bar in Hamtramck, and I heard two people talking about how they saw Bright Eyes open for Grandaddy at the Stick (the same show I just mentioned) and how Bright Eyes "totally" upstaged Grandaddy. Right. Whatever. Those two probably wouldn't admit they liked Bright Eyes back then, so fuck 'em. And no, BE did not upstage Grandaddy. The latter has a sound you just can't fuck wit. So, after hearing this discussion, I went home and pulled out my one record from them and put it back into the regular rotation. Then, when at Record Time on Friday, I decided to see if they have anything new out. Hey, they do! It's called "Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla." It only has seven songs, but we're dealing with quality, not quantity here. I guess one of the songs was recently in a Honda Civic commercial, but I honestly have no idea which song was used. Buy it. Do it now!

I love hip hop. That's all there is to it. I have no idea who Ciara is, and I wouldn't know a Lil' Jon track if I heard it. But I know they make 'radio-rap'. That's not what I'm talking about here. This is...a little more real if you know what I mean. Think more like Boogie Down Productions or EPMD. That's what I'm talkin' 'bout. This is serious. Eminem and 50 Cent can suck it, that ain't hip hop. In fact, Slug from Atmosphere gets a lot of comparisons to Eminem, but his voice is more solid and the lyrics actually mean something. Yes, there's posturing and machismo, but that goes hand in hand with the traditional hip hop ethos. Can you believe I just used the word ethos in a review of a hip hop record? Yeah, neither can I. This one's really fucking good. Click the pic above to find out more.