On the Dark Side

Overheard at the office:

S: "She got a bridal shower to go to, why can't she skip bible study? Jesus ain't goin' nowhere!"

Sometimes I really do like working here.

Somewhere In Detroit

Tuesday nights are rarely ever fun. You're one day past Monday, but not quite halfway through the week. Usually there aren't any shows to go to, and drink specials just aren't enough to make you want to sit with three other people at your favorite bar.

If you live in Detroit, you're lucky. There's trivia at Bookie's downtown every Tuesday night. There are four rounds of ten questions, and at the end of each round, each player gets a free shot. Typically, the shots are something heavily 'watered down' like a kamikaze or something with watermelon Pucker. But it's still FREE. Each team can have up to four players, and you better fucking watch it, because you can't have five people at your table without another team complaining about it. Even if you are losing. The questions range all over the place from pop culture to sports to history to government to current events. The team that wins gets their bar tab paid for. But keep in mind that since they've been doing this (about six months), the same team has won every night except the one night they didn't show up, and last week. Last week in a stunning upset, the Earmuffs beat the Teabaggers.

Watch out for God Bless the Midwest (my team).

The festivities start at 9:30pm every Tuesday. Bookies is located at 1265 Washington Blvd, Detroit, 48226 - (313) 963-2589. If there's a baseball game, they might start a little late when the game is done.

Overhead At the Office

"I can't find my Nickelback CD, does anyone have a copy I can burn?"

God, I hope he can't find another...

Run To the Hills

I'm sure you're heard by now about all the stuff going on in the Mid East, i.e. WWIII. Most of it is going on in Lebanon, and there are citizens of many countries presently there. Some are workers and some are tourists.

So, those citizens' respective countries are working to get them outta there before the shit really hits the fan, whatever that may mean. For the most part, people are being shuttled to the island of Cyprus, and from there being airlifted to their native countries or the next best thing. Some interesting stories have been popping up regarding this process.

The Swedish government went through telecom companies to locate all of their citizens in Lebanon. And then they sent text messages giving them directions on where to go and what to do. How in the hell do you send a text message when a word has the little circle over the 'A'? I wonder. In a four-day, grueling around the clock operation, they quickly evacuated 5,000 people using text messages. LINK

How do you think the US reacted? They started evacuation on Tuesday, and they're still working on it. Plus, they're going to charge citizens for the evacuation! There are reportedly as many as 25,000 US citizens in Lebanon, and about 8,000 want to leave. Those who want to leave must sign a note before boarding any kind of ship (boat, helicopter, plane) out of Lebanon pledging that they will reimburse the US government for $200. The thinking behind this is that the money will cover the cost of a normal commercial flight from Lebanon to Cyprus. If evacuees don't have a way out of Cyprus once they get there, they will be charged for that flight as well. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D) made a good point when she said if we can provide more thatn $300 billion for a war in Iraq, we can provide free flights to evacuate our peeps in Lebanon. Fuckin' a. LINK

My favorite evacuation? Yes, this is a top three list. My favorite evacuation was when Bruce Dickinson, singer for Iron Maiden, and licensed pilot airlifted 200 British citizens back to London yesterday. He did so with a Boeing 757. LINK

D'You Know What I Mean

Usually, when a band has the balls to glorify themselves in a way like the Beatles once did ("we're bigger than Jesus..." or something like that), or more recently, like Oasis ("we're bigger than the Beatles"), they better fucking know what they're talking about. They better be right. Or at least damned close.

Enter Britain's new band of the moment, The Kooks. Like last year's Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks are young (early 20s), and every British music mag is drooling over them. Courtesy of Luke Pritchard of The Kooks: "We are the most exciting band in Britain. There hasn't been a record like ours for ages."

In case you weren't already aware, the music hype machine in Britain is almost always completely out of hand. They freak out over anything, even the most mundane, banal crap (Babyshambles). This is why NME can't be trusted when they put The Kooks on the cover and say "Britain's favourite new band come out fighting." I'll put money on it right now that when their full-length album debuts, it will sell more on the first day then the Arctic Monkeys full length, and that one set a record for sales.

So the real question is what does it sound like, right? I'll tell y ou what it sounds like: The LIbertines. They can say all they want about having a crazy new sound, but like it or not, it's a sound very, very close to the Libertines. But, I'll give 'em credit, The Kooks do it well. I wouldn't say that they will single-handedly reinvent Britpop, which they claim they're doing. But it is good, and it is worth checking out.

Click the pic to go check out The Kooks' site:

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Bands and Things

So there's this newer band called the Noisettes, and they have kind of an amped up bluesy punk sound. Click the pic to check out a track from them called "Scratch Your Name":

And if you like that, and want to check out more from them, go here.

Bitches Brew

From the golden Congregation/Gentlemen era of the Afghan Whigs...sometimes this song is referred to as "Miles Iz Dead," and sometimes as "Rebirth of the Cool." It appears on an early EP and then also as a bonus track on Congregation, which is personally my favorite Whigs album.

Lately I've been going back to a lot of stuff that I was really into in the mid to late nineties. I know it's typical, but this is the stuff that's timeless. It doesn't sound dated to these ears.

Amps

Lately I've been minorly obsessed with energy drinks. And protein bars, but I'll talk about those once I've tried more brands.

I don't have an energy drink everyday, and most days I don't have more than one. It all started when I needed a warm-weather replacement for coffee that had no sugar.

I've tried a lot of the energy drinks out there, but most are pointless. Some taste like armpits (Sobe), some taste like gasoline (Red Jak), and some are very tolerable, but are so full of sugar that I feel cheated. And like I've just consumed a bunch of empty calories that I won't use.

So my favorite is Diet Rockstar. You get a good dose of the vitamin B complex, which is very good for hangovers, vitamin C, a bunch of other vitamins and minerals, taurine (Red Bull's big ingredient), caffeine, inositol (don't know what it is, but it's in most energy drinks), guarana, some stuff I think is used as preservatives and coloring, and milk thistle. That last one is curious. It's legal to buy milk thistle in this country as a supplement. You'd typically find it in the aisle at the drug store with all the other bottles of mystery vitamins and herbs like echinacea. But it's illegal to buy in Canada. At least that's what I've heard. What I like about it is that it's good for cleansing your liver.

All of those things add up to Diet Rockstar being the best buy because it works well as an energy drink AND a hangover remedy. Plus there's no sugar in it (but there is Splenda).

I've tried so many energy drinks, I can't even remember all of them right now. Usually I stay away from the ones that are really cheap, because seriously, why waste my money?

I do like the Starbuck's Double Shot, which is two shots of espresso with cream and sugar added. They now offer a diet version with less milkfat, less sugar, and therefore less calories. Both are good, but being lactose intolerant, I'll grab the diet version when I can find it. There's only one problem with the Double Shot: it's just caffeine. No taurine, no milk thistle, no added vitamins, just caffeine and sugar. I avoid the sugar because I don't want the empty calories and I want to avoid the sugar rush. The amps I'm looking for need to be longer lasting than a simple boost to the blood sugar.

There's also the variety with tons of caffeine - like dangerous amounts of caffeine. That would be Bawls in the bumpy blue glass bottles. This one is relatively expensive, and tastes really good, but there's actually a warning on the back about how much caffeine is in it. That worries me. But I'm a worrier, so it's probably nothing.

Speaking of amps, Amp, the Mountain Dew energy drink works well, but it tastes funny. So does Invigor8te from V8. Plus that one is pretty much just caffeine and a lot of vitamins. Much like the Arizona Iced Teas version of the energy drink. I don't even know what that one's called, the title on the can is vague, but it's yellow with a blue cross on the front.

Overall, the general problem with the energy drinks that deliver is taste. That's why I try to stick with Tab Energy Drink when I can find it. Rockstar is great for long-term purposes because the taste is a bit much and the effect is heavy duty. But I don't always need that much, so when rocknrollscientist needs a moderate buzz, he reaches for a pink fizzy Tab Energy Drink. Seriously. I really like it. It has all the right stuff in it, and lots of caffeine, and the price is decent, and it has Splenda instead of sugar.

Wouldn't You Miss Me?

It was announced today that Syd Barrett, founding member of Pink Floyd died last Friday of complications related to diabetes. He was 60.

We've all heard the stories about his LSD-induced meltdown, and how that got him kicked out of the band. One day on the way to a show in 1968, the band elected not to pick him up. After that happened, he moved into a basement apartment at his mom's house in Cambridge. He boarded up the windows to keep the press out.

With the help of Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters and Barrett's replacement David Gilmour, he recorded and released two albums in 1970, "The Madcap Laughs" and "Barrett." In that year he performed one concert in London with Waters and Gilmour backing him up. It wasn't until 1972 when he resurfaced in a band called Stars, but quit after one gig. In 1974 his old manager convinced him to go back into the studio to record, but it didn't work out. Barrett then sold all of the rights to his music to his record label and returned to his mother's where he enjoyed painting, writing, and gardening.

There's a song from '80s twee pop band The Television Personalities called "I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives."

He was very famous once upon a time
But no one knows even if he's alive
But I know where he lives and I visit him
In a little hut in Cambridge
I know where he lives
Cause I know where Syd Barrett lives

I had already heard Syd's solo stuff by the time I heard the above song, but it intrigued me enough to actually go out and buy some. Okay, I got all of it. I fucking love Syd Barrett's solo stuff.

This is sad.

source

If You Ain't Slurpin', You're Better Off Jerkin'

Free 7.11 oz Slurpees at 7-11 today. Available while supplies last. Note that it's only the 7.11 oz cups that are free.

It's Bigger Than...

...hip HOP, hip HOP. DPs got that crazy shit, we keep it crunk up, john blazin' shit!

Last Sunday night, I was watching Entourage, and during the end credits, they were playing the track "Hip Hop" from Dead Prez. The album it's from, "Let's Get Free" came out years ago. The band has never been very mainstream. So it was cool to hear it in a place where millions of people have a chance to hear it.

A lot of hip hop is very similar as far as the percussion and bass sounds, as well as the use of samples. But this DP track is more electro sounding, more like an underground sound.

The song has been following me. I heard it last Sunday night on TV, then I was eating dinner somewhere with friends on Friday night, I was singing it, and then Gina pulled out her iPod so we could listen to it in the car. Then I DJed both Friday and Saturday nights, and of course, something made me want to hear it. Tonight, I was watching the new 'Lost Episodes' of Chapelle's Show, and what was playing over the opening shot of Charlie Murphy and that other guy onstage? Fucking "Hip Hop," that's what.

Normally I wouldn't think this is weird, but the album came out in the year 2000! It wasn't a big mainstream record, it had hardly any radio airply. Why am I being followed by a song?

Lightning Blue Eyes

The smell of sulfur and black powder still fills my nostrils, my legs are dotted with small red burn marks, and I've consumed at least three grilled meats in the past four days. Happy birthday, America.

In the past four days, I've gotten drunk twice (almost entirely on PBR), bought illegal fireworks from the back room of a party store in east side Detroit, went to the Taste Fest, got bored by the Taste Fest, lost a girlfriend (for real this time), DJed, consumed more energy drinks than any 200-pound man should, and spent a lot of good time with friends.

Shee-it, that's what summer's all about. Except for losing the girlfriend, that hurts. But I'll live.