I had a five-day weekend (Labor Day, plus Tues. & Wed.). Because I moved into a smaller one-bedroom apartment at the end of June, I had to downsize. Spent Tuesday and Wednesday organizing my paperwork, though still not finished. Anyway, I found this from J Church's Lance Hahn. I must've been trying to buy "Turn to Stone" 7-inches from him. It's a keeper!
It's been over 10 years since I've picked up a Teenage Bottlerocket (TBR) album, 2009's excellent They Came from the Shadows, so I thought I would check out their latest, Sick Sesh!. Gotta give it an overwhelming meh. Out of 12 tracks, I'm keeping 5:
The other 7 tracks are your typical derivative Ramones / Screeching Weasel punk rock. I still can't believe they actually put on there a song called "Squirrel". There's no subtext to it. Christ, guys, save it for a B-side.
Needless to say, I probably have enough TBR in my record collection. I'll still keep songs on the occasional comp, but I doubt I'll buy anymore of the albums.
Took me about a month to read this 400-page book. As typed out below, there were memorable passages, but it was quite a slog — I give it 2.5 out of five stars. I think part of the problem is that I get bored with the minutiae of public policy. Also, she name-drops people from about 75 years ago who may have been household names back during the Great Depression and WWII, but, to me, they're now just footnotes in the annals of U.S. history. I guess I'm living very much in the present with our 21st century problems. And it's depressing how well organized labor was back then; after FDR's death, the elites struck back so much that I fear our only future is a neo-feudal age.
a "superficial young reporter" who tries to pin Roosevelt down on whether he is a communist, a socialist, or a capitalist. Roosevelt answered no on all three scores, adding that he was "a Christian and a Democrat — that's all."
p. xviii
He became thoroughly familiar with the concept that good and evil, hope and fear, wisdom and ignorance, selfishness and sacrifice, are inseparably mixed in most human beings.
p. 44
I told him how one American who had lived in Russia a great deal had responded to my question "What makes the Russians tick?" with these words, "the desire to do the Holy Will."
...
When I told this to the President, he said, "You know, there may be something in that. It would explain their almost mystical devotion to this idea which they have developed of the Communist society. They all seem really to want to do what is good for their society instead of wanting to do for themselves. We take care of ourselves and think about the welfare of society afterward."
p.84
[[FDR said,]] "You know, the post office in every community ought to be the people's contact with the government. We ought to make more of it. The post office is a natural for co-operation between the people and the Federal Government."
p.211
[[FDR]] believed in trade unions. He had no fear of them, and he saw no reason why employers should fear them. He recognized that there had been an occasional crook in the trade union movement, but so had there been in every other human activity. He recognized that the labor unions had usually rid themselves of crooks, just as the directors of a business got rid of the occasional scoundrel they had unwittingly entertained.
...
I heard him explain to people, "You don't need to be afraid about unions. They only want to be in a position to arrange their own affairs, to agree to their own terms and conditions of work, and not be pushed around by their bosses. They really have no other objects in mind. You shouldn't be afraid to have them organize in your factory. They don't want to run the business. You will probably get a lot better production and a lot more peace and happiness if you have a good union organization and a good contract."
When someone once argued that unions might get too powerful, he said, "Too powerful for what? It might be a good democratic antidote for the power of big business, which certainly tries to dominate in many cases."
It must always be remembered that Roosevelt had no hatred of business; in fact, he had considerable admiration for what he called the good businessmen, those who made a contribution not only to the goods of the country but to the social advancement, of their employees, customers, and community. While he had no dislike for businessmen as such, he was always in strong opposition to the idea that business should dominate the life of the country; he felt keenly that it was unhealthy for our economy and contrary to decent principles of human development and culture. Productive business that did not dominate he considered a blessing to the community.
p. 294-5
The Americans seemed to [[FDR]] the best of all possible people; not necessarily the smartest or the most powerful, although he recognized their cleverness, but the ones with more goodness per thousand of population than in other countries. By goodness, I think, he meant good-heartedness, kindliness.
p. 368
Well, that was fun. Finished listening to the final Simple Minds album I bought, their seventh one, Once Upon a Time. It reminded me a lot of the UK music coming out at the time, like Hipsway and Blow Monkeys, with that play-that-funky-music-white-boy guitar. I'm keeping half of the songs: the main singles ("All the Things She Said", "Alive and Kicking", and "Sanctify Yourself") and "Oh Jungleland".
Finished listening to this three-hour audiobook during lunch today. I give it three out of five stars. Interesting. I wonder if the series is so popular because the protagonist, a robot, comes across as an intelligent teenager that is socially awkward.
Story was OK. Seemed like a script that could have worked as a Doctor Who episode. My only complaint is that the climax was too short. Most stuff I read is overwritten, but that section of the story could have been a little longer.
Don't think I'll listen to any other installments in the series, but I don't regret using an Audible credit on this one.
I listened to this 2020 album several times and I'm going to keep every track on my computer. While it's not as good as their two albums and one EP from the late '80s, it's still solid. Like Garden Variety's Knocking the Skill Level, it works better listening from beginning to end rather than playing one song. Post Neo Anti is a bit mellow compared to their '80s output, but's that understandable: difficult to capture the vigor of youth when pension days are on the horizon.
Finished listening to this Simple Minds album, the sixth one out of seven that I purchased recently. Out of ten songs, I kept five:
One final Simple Minds album to listen to, Once Upon a Time. Interesting to hear if there are any other good songs on it outside of the three big singles.
Been listening to Close Lobsters' Post Neo Anti: Arte Povera in the Forest of Symbols. Really enjoying it. Wonder if it's because their last album came out in 1989. Perhaps: "Absence makes the ear grow less critical."
Been meaning to blog about this for a couple days now. I listened to Simple Minds' New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) several times; and out of nine songs, I'm only keeping four:
Overall, I wasn't too impressed with the album. If I had picked up as a freshman in high school, I probably would have loved it, but — I dunno — sounds dated. Plus, it seems they mimicked whatever popular sound was fashionable. On the one hand I understand it: it's their livelihood. But on the other, it lacks conviction.
The Guardian interviewed Claire-Louise Bennett. This part caught my eye:
Asked recently to write about a book that changed her life she says she realised that Marx and Engels’ The German Ideology, which she studied at A-level, had had a profound effect. “After that, I just thought: ‘Oh, my God, everything’s just made up. And it’s made up by the ruling class, and there isn’t such a thing as reality. It’s all just ideology, and it’s there to suit them, and we’re all a load of plebs. And I’m not. And they can shove it!’”
I listened to Simple Minds' fourth album five times and got a good handle on it. Out of the 15 tracks, I kept 6:
The three songs with asterisks I was already familiar with because they're on The Best Of Simple Minds comp. "70 Cities as Love Brings the Fall" and "Sound in 70 Cities" are cool because of that sound running throughout that reminds me of a cow mooing; "League of Nations" is weird in the best of ways. Most of the songs on this double album just didn't do it for me. I found the slapping of the bass to be overdone. Of course, following up Empires and Dance with an equally excellent album was an almost impossible task.
Wow, what a comeback after their sophomore slump with Real to Real Cacophony! Not one piece of filler on Empires and Dance. The sequencing is perfect too. Highlights include "I Travel", "Celebrate", "Twist/Run/Repulsion", "Thirty Frames a Second", and "Kant Kino". It sounds like a British record that came out in 1980, but that's a good thing from my point of view, since some of my favorites tunes came out in the early eighties. The epitome of New Wave.
When I listen to Empires and Dance, I can't help but think if Real to Real Cacophony was an in-between album. They needed to made that disappointing album in order to create the excellent Empires and Dance.
Had to return this novel to the library last night. Over a week I read less than 50 pages. Part of the reason over my lack of interest is that I had to buy a new computer and I'm still working on recreating my favorite playlists in iTunes. Also, I've noticed after I read an excellent novel (in this case, Nancy Tucker's The First Day of Spring), the next book on my TBR shelf almost always disappoints. Oh well. . . .
One minor downside to the pandemic is that it takes me forever to finish audiobooks, since I used to mainly listen to them during my commute to and from work. Took me about three months to get through Peter Garrett's memoir/autobiography, though, things started to slow down for me when he got to his political career — partly because I'm not too familiar with Aussie politics, and also because I don't respect Garrett for sidestepping out of his activist role to be part of major political party. What's the axiom, those attracted to power are either mediocre or venal?
Not surprising, I was more interested in the chapters about Midnight Oil, and even though he devoted a decent portion to them, he seemed more detailed on his political career. My sense is politics is his passion and music a distant second.
Anyway, I gave it three out of five stars. Glad I listened to it, but could've used an editor to tighten things up.
I listened to Simple Minds' second album five times, so I formed an opinion on it. I kept 4 out of 12 songs: "Carnival (Shelter In A Suitcase)", "Cacophony", "Veldt", "Film Theme". The last three are instrumentals. I dunno, I may remove one or two of them. "Carnival" reminds me a little of the World/Inferno Friendship Society's "The Cat in the Hat Has a Right to Sing the Blues" although Simple Minds' song came first by 31 years.
The album's Wikipedia page says that the band only had four songs going into the studio. My, how it shows. A definite sophomore slump after the excellent Life in a Day.
Wow, first novels don't get much better than this. I give it 4.5 stars out of 5. I would have given it 5 stars, except I wasn't itching to pick it back up each day, and I learned in The Guardian that the story bears a striking resemblance to the Mary Bell case. Slightly disappointing that The First Day of Spring didn't all sprout from Nancy Tucker's imagination. Nonetheless, great novel! The characters were so life-life, and in parts the book is a black comedy. The jacket copy mentioned "humor and horror" — that's a good way of putting it. Can't wait for Tucker's next novel!!!
In the first of many Simple Minds listens, I played their first album, Life in a Day, several times. Strong debut! You can hear the Roxy Music and Boomtown Rats influence. Only song I'm deleting from my iTunes library is "Pleasantly Disturbed". Little too long and art rock for my tastes. Up next: Real to Real Cacophony.
New apartment I moved into has a mouse digging though in the bedroom wall (the one near where my head rests). Kept me up Friday night, so yesterday energy was lacking, therefore I went to PLyrics and listened to Fuck World Trade while reading the lyrics. Been meaning to do it for a while, since I picked up the album back in April.
LOC's Stza is a gifted lyricist, but from now on I'm mainly only going to listen the following 10 tracks:
Sidebar: Why did Stza even start Star Fucking Hipsters (SFH)? Fuck World Trade and SFH's first album sound similar.
I decided a while ago that this would be my last Charlie Parker novel. Back in 2018, I listened to the audiobook for The Woman in the Woods. I really enjoyed it and thought that I found a Robert B. Parker replacement, so I bought the first six books in the series. I quickly grew bored with it. Almost every entry has an interchangeable antagonist who almost seems inhuman in its capacity for evil and makes life incredibly unpleasant for Parker; and to increase the suspense, there's the threat of cliched mobsters. It's a formula that gets old after a while. Plus, unlike Robert B. Parker's Spenser, I don't find the jokes funny; Parker comes across as someone who flunked comedy class quicker than Drew Carey bombing at improv night. Also, the romance between Louis and Angel feels unrealistic (Louis strikes me as a sociopath who could fuck but not love). And the paranormal backstory throughout the series annoys me with its too little reveals. But Connolly's lyrical prose is seductive, even though at times it could be edited down.
I give The Unquiet four out of five stars. Lots of surprises at the end; the pacing is really good throughout; and some characters are so lifelike, I had to remember it wasn't nonfiction. Nice book to stop reading the series at.
He was about five years older than I was, big and strong-looking, but balding badly on top, although he kept his hair cut short enough to disguise the worst of it. It was petty and childish, I knew, but I always felt a brief surge of warmth inside when I met someone close to my own age who had less hair that I did. You could be king of the world and own a dozen companies, but every morning when you started in the mirror your first thought would be, Damn, I wish I still had my hair.
Chapter IX, pages 115-116
Men, by and large, sought sex. Women traded it.
Chapter IX, p. 119
Been listening to The Best Of Simple Minds a lot lately, so I picked up their first seven albums last night (up to and including Once Upon A Time). I'm $53.99 poorer . . . hopefully I don't regret it 😊
I returned this novel to the library last night. I gave it 50 pages, but — like Queen Victoria — I was not amused. Hmm, what to read next. . . .
All right, I'm back! I moved on Monday, June 28th. Things have finally settled down. I'm more or less moved in to my new apartment.
Finished reading this nonfiction book yesterday (subtitle: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion). I give it three out of five stars. Interesting to read about some of the swindlers, but I didn't enjoy Telfer's tone; it was very wink-wink, nudge-nudge.
One of the stories featured Robert Blake. Forgot all about that murder. Wow, was it really around 2000?
A recent psychology study found that people crave high social rank not only because it satisfies our aching need to belong, but because it gives us a sense of control, better self-esteem, and even reproductive benefits.
page XIV
I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. Hats off to author Katsu for giving us mostly unpredictable and — more importantly — plausible plot twists. Reminded me of Michael Crichton at his finest.
* * * SPOILERS * * *
Some minor quibbles:
And the ending of Red Widow rang a little hollow, but I enjoyed the book overall and will read future novels by her.
I'm still obsessing over The Cure and Robert Smith. Yesterday I created a playlist of their singles and soundtrack/compilation appearances from the nineties and early aughts. I like it!
Since I've been listening to my Robert Smith playlist, I've been thinking about him, like how his image was influenced by Siouxsie Sioux, but another influence that seems to go unnoticed by fans is The Associates' Billy Mackenzie, who Smith immortalized in The Cure's "Cut Here". After seeing Smith's top 30 songs from the '80s, I pulled up The Associates' "Tell Me Easter’s on Friday" on YouTube, and you can hear how Mackenzie's singing style influenced Smith. Kinda funny when people say someone is an original. Most artists don't develop in a vacuum.
I usually try to read 50 pages before giving up on a book, but I only made it to around page 41 on this one. Not an enjoyable read. I think the whole novel is going to be a therapy session. Boring! Plus I read her Wikipedia page that her second novel (not My Friend Natalia) took eight years to write. Maybe that's why the prose comes across as so clunky. Could have something to do with the translation too.
I give this sci-fi novel three out of five stars. Thank goodness again for the Books & Boots blog for explaining things because some of the plot went over my head. An interesting read because it's allegedly an influence on The Expanse books.
Today's Tuesday. Sunday night I finished binging Mare of Easttown (watched the first episode on Thursday, second episode on Friday, three episodes on Saturday [didn't go to bed till 1:30], and last two of the seven episodes on Sunday). Wow, what a miniseries — oh, I'm sorry, a limited series as they're calling it nowadays. I'm still thinking about it.
* * * SPOILERS * * *
Let's get the negativity out of the way. I didn't like:
Also, why did Mare delete the security footage of the kid vandalizing her neighbors' shed? And Billy Ross confessing to the murder and his brother trying to kill him seemed like questionable plotting.
All of that said, it was awesome! It's days later and I'm still thinking about it. The characters reminded me of the people I grew up. The acting was so good that I got a bit choked up when characters were crying in the penultimate episode. Well worth the $14.77 to purchase the series on Amazon in SD. I'm even gonna watch all of the extras, which I hardly ever do anymore. Lives up to the hype!
Because The Cure's Robert Smith teamed up with CHVRCHES, I created a playlist of his best collaborations. Check it!
UPDATE, Sat., 6/12: On Tuesday, June 8th, I bought Crystal Castles' "Not in Love" and Japanese Popstars' "Take Forever". I got a little buyer's remorse 'cause those two songs aren't as good as CHVRCHES, Gorillaz, 65daysofstatic, and Tweaker, all of which I purchased recently, but screw it. Below is the updated playlist.
I read about this book back in March in The Guardian. I didn't reserve or wishlist it because while it's out in the U.K., the U.S. edition isn't dropping until September. But, last night, as I was going through the book sections at The Guardian, The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and The Washington Post, it popped back in my mind. Took a while to scrounge around online for the title. Weird how the memory works.
I really enjoyed Ólafsdóttir's Miss Iceland. This one not so much. I give it 2 out of 5 stars. The protagonist was a little like myself: melancholic and middle-aged. I like to read for either escape or to learn things, not to look into a mirror. Don't think I'll be reading anything else by Ólafsdóttir
"I was unhappy," I say. ... "I didn't know how to fix it," I add. (p. 159)
Yesterday was a funeral for one of my aunts. It was dreary: rainy and around 50 degrees. I thought of the title of Wanda Sykes's recent comedy special, Not Normal. Reykjavik-like weather on a Memorial Day weekend ain't normal, y'all!
Finished this novel last night. I give it three out of five stars. Not as good as The Drowned World, which I loved and will reread one day. I had trouble following a lot of what was going on The Drought, partly because of Ballard's high-brow prose. Thankfully this Brit explained things, particularly that The Drought specialized in surrealism.
I've read several Ballard books:
Soon I'll pick up his autobiography, Miracles of Life, because I would like to read about his two years in a Japanese internment camp, rather than reading the fictionalizing of it in his Empire of the Sun. And I saw Crash years ago; think I'll listen to the audiobook.
Been fooling around with a Circle playlist for the past week or so. Think I finally got the sequencing right:
Been reading J. G. Ballard's The Drought, and this New York Times piece on him from 1990 came to mind, especially this part:
For Ballard, the thing to be feared is the ''suburbanization of the world,'' a totally eventless landscape made up of television and theme parks. He points out that television has created a consciousness in which upheavals, disasters, cataclysmic events of all sorts register only as momentary images that are quickly forgotten. Given this state of affairs, he warns, passive media spectators might well allow a lunatic to come to power, since they would be unable to distinguish between someone posing a real threat and a minor character in the passing show.
I downloaded Green Day's Dookie from Amazon last night. I had a cassette copy from the '90s, however, it was worn out, so last year I picked up the vinyl at Barnes And Noble. I tried converting it to MP3 files, but it didn't sound too good (I've found converting vinyl and cassettes to MP3 sounded better on my desktops than with laptops). It's such a great album — except for "Welcome to Paradise", which is better on Kerplunk — that I just had to buy it again.
Finished rereading Gone South last night. It's held up pretty well since I first read it in the '90s. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it the second time around (not the case with some rereads, like novels by John D. MacDonald). The characters are believable and the pacing is good, however, I still think the ending lacks logic. When the protagonist goes to rescue his bounty hunters, I rolled my eyes at the unbelievably and how they defeat the drug dealers; maybe McCammon was watching too much Miami Vice. And this time around I didn't hate the last couple chapters, where the Bright Girl is revealed, though I still think it should have been supernatural or paranormal instead of a pedestrian explanation.
Anyway, I give it 4.5 stars out of 5. And here's a letter from the author discussing the novel's inspirations and themes.
Some of the things he'd seen, both in Vietnam and afterward, had convinced him that if any supernatural force was the master of this world, it smelled of brimstone and devoured innocent flesh as its sacrament. (p. 43)
Wanted to post about this before I forget. My day job had a virtual awards ceremony last Thursday morning. They shipped out canisters of popcorn to all of us. I saw mine had arrived Thursday night when I was coming in from bike-riding (the box was inside my apartment building — I had missed it earlier because it was on the rear side instead in the front by the mailboxes). I made a mental note to pick it up later. I didn't remember to go back down and pick it up until Friday during lunch. But it was gone. Kinda lame that one of my neighbors or a visitor of theirs stole it. Luckily, there wasn't anything inside the box, like a gift card, except for the popcorn. My lease can't end soon enough.
I read this book in the '90s and loved it. One memory was that aborigines didn't bathe as much as Westerners because they didn't eat meat.
Halfway through listening to the audiobook, I succumbed to bad habit of mine: Googling the author and book. Turns out the book isn't true in the slightest bit. It's all fake! The author didn't go on a walkabout with a dying aboriginal tribe. Learning that then made it a tough listen. I went days without listening to it. Eventually finished it, sped up at 1.5. Fortunately, it's only six hours. I give it 2 stars out of 5.
Oh well, upward and onward. I'm going to stay in Australia with my audiobook-listening and start Peter Garrett's (of Midnight Oil fame) memoir.
Started rereading this horror novel today (originally read it in the '90s). First sentence is awesome!
It was hell's season, and the air smelled of burning children.
The Washington Post let me down again. I read Marie Benedict's The Mystery of Mrs. Christie based on a review of theirs. Pretty disappointing. I give it two out of four stars. The concept gives a writer so much to work with: Agatha Christie's 11-day disappearance in 1926. Benedict doesn't really have down how the Brits spoke back then, the novel could have lost at least 50 pages, and the ending was weaker than a Tana French denouement. On the plus side, now I want to rewatch the great Dr. Who episode about it, "The Unicorn and the Wasp".
I usually just blog about books, movies, and TV shows I read and watch, but I did want to write about the past few days.
Haven't been sleeping too well the past few, with Wednesday night being the worse, though I did sleep well last night. Been worried about my living situation. The lease for my apartment is up at the end of June. I hadn't received a new offer, so I had to bug the property manager for one. I'm currently paying $1,145 per month. His original offer was $1,445 ($300 more). I pushed back and his new offer is $1,350 ($205 more), so I'm moving out.
The new owners are way worse than the original management company when I moved in 2017. Since taking over around Oct. '20, they've listed someone else name on my account online, took about six months to hire a handyman (I had a dead bird in the balcony closet, and handles on interior closets were loose — I had to fix them on my own), and took over a month to replace the light bulb in the hallway outside of my door.
I'm going to crash at my mom's house for a little while. There's an apartment complex I would like to move into, but they don't have anything open at the moment. Plus, my day job hasn't announced if they're reopening the office in the fall, since this pandemic is winding down. And I may save up enough money to buy a house; rent is so high now (my second apartment was $500 around the year 2000) that it may be worth it to get my own place, even though I'll have to do one major project a year and I'll probably never own it, but at least I wouldn't be paying greedy landlords anymore.
Anyway, sing it Yaz!:
Finished reading Dmitri Volkogonov's Lenin. I give it four out of five stars. It's the second biography I've read by him. With Lenin, Volkogonov does a good job of chipping away at communism, much better than The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia, 1917-1991 by Martin Malia, whose subtext oozed with the anti-Slavic condescension of an American imperialist.
Here are passages that caught my eye:
Lenin was the inspirer, Trotsky the agitator, and Stalin the executor.
p. 261
bureaucratic totalitarianism
p. 312
the path of dogmatism is the shortest way to dictatorship
p. 317
Everything connected with Lenin was anti-capitalist, anti-democratic, anti-liberal, anti-reformist, anti-human and anti-Christian. There can scarcely have been another man in history who managed so profoundly to change so large a society on such a scale.
p.326
[[Next to last chapter, starting with "The demise of the Union", and the last chapter]]
Last weekend I was listening to The World/Inferno Friendship Society's "Heartattack '64". I haven't bought anything by them since 2006's Red-Eyed Soul, so I thought I would pick up their latest, All Borders Are Porous to Cats. While listening to it, I glanced at a review on Punk News. Apparently it's a concept album mashing up immigration and Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat. The only song I'm keeping on my iPod is "The Cat in the Hat Has a Right to Sing the Blues". I was debating whether to keep "I'll Be Your Alibi" and the 57-second "In the Briar Patch Born and Raised", but I couldn't see enjoying them with repeated listens. I think part of the reason I'm not keeping more songs from this album is because it's very jazzy, and I don't dig that music genre.
I was gonna create a Spotify playlist of all the songs I have on my iTunes from them, but "The Expatraite Act" from the Rock Against Bush comp isn't on there, so what's the point. Damn you streaming services!
I picked up this 7" recently. After listening to it several times, I'm keeping three of the four songs. It's good but not great. Erg plays almost every instrument. Can't help but wonder if his old band The Ergs performed it, would the songs be better? Sometimes a certain lineup can take the mediocre and make it memorable. Anyway, the first three tracks each start out strong, then sort of meander. I hear some melodies in there from The Bouncing Souls' Gold Record. The fourth track is a Beatles cover, which feels like filler — I'm not a fan of the Fab Four after their peak (Rubber Soul and Revolver . . . Rubber Revolver period?), so I didn't listen to that song with the most open of minds.
Well, it took two months, but I finally finished listening to Frank Herbert's Dune. I give it two out of five stars. Can't believe how revered it is. Dialogue is laughable, and it felt like I was listening to a story written by a teenager or an immature college student. I'm not entertained by royalty, so it was a huge turnoff from the get-go. It's basically a Middle Ages drama set in space.
I watch France 24's news summary once a day. Pretty cool: 10 to 20 minutes of world news. They had this piece last night about the San Blas Islands of Panama. Never heard of it. Watched the video a few times. Looks so idyllic, despite the warnings.
Yesterday I finished listening to Hindsight Is 20 / 20, My Friend, a collection of outtakes, singles, and compilation contributions by The Ergs! Because it's 33 tracks and over an hour long, I listened to the first 15 tracks for five times, then I listened to tracks 16 to 33 five times. The second half is much stronger. I kept 21 tracks on my iPod. Can't believe it's only $5 at Bandcamp. What a steal!
Got my first Pfizer jab this morning. I was pretty impressed by the setup the Philly government, FEMA, and the U.S. Army had. Nice and smooth. Kinda cool how I showed up a half-hour before my appointment and I didn't have to wait. After getting my shot, I paraded out of the Convention Center, quoting Aubrey Plaza: "I'm gonna live forever!"
Today was my goddaughter's confirmation. At the dinner I gave her a communion card (apparently that's my thing — giving an ironic card). Below is what I wrote in it. Don't think she was amused.
Been on a bit of an Ergs kick lately by picking up their collection Hindsight is 20 / 20, My Friend and the seven-track Jersey's Best Prancers. On the latter there is a great song, "Man of Infirmity". It has shades of their classic track, "Pray for Rain", but that's a good thing.
Gonna quit blogging over at https://johnnyostentatious.com/blog and start blogging here again. My site at GoDaddy doesn't have cool tools like highlighting quotes or embedding videos, like Google lets you do here. Plus, here you have your choice of fonts, albeit limited.
The word genius get overused often, but I think David Bowie might actually be one after watching this interview from 1999 where he predicted the effects of the Internet.
