Original Sin

Shit, these guys were so good. Still are, but without Michael, it just ain't the same. Be sure to stick around for the little drum solo near the end. He just nails it. I wish there were videos of other live performances of other songs from The Swing. Showtime needs to release their Rock of the '80s concert series on disc. INXS did a killer show on one of those. Got it on VHS in the basement.



Holy shit! Here's the Showtime concert!! And it's my favorite song from that album. I hope this person has more of it, because it sounds much better than my tape ever did.

Undumb Inventions

Since when did Life magazine become reborn as something written by 14–year old boys who spend all their time online? That's what I gathered while reading the captions for these photos of what they call dumb inventions. On the contrary, many of them are incredibly smart inventions, some are just poorly executed or waiting for the technology to catch up with their inspiration, like the jet pack and personal flying wing. I also see nothing wrong with the baby cage. It's not like it has an auto–release "open cage floor" lever right within baby's reach. They were very popular in cities. But the picture of the dog restrainer nearly made me hofert my pop all over the desk. It's the perfect storm of photographic elements; the odd position of the dog, the cartoon–like restrainer, and the lady's mannish, pleased face.

iPhones and Evel Knievel

Kim's iPhone has stopped listening. I think the mic got disconnected. I called Apple Care while we were at her Mom's house and talked to a nice American guy in CA. He spoke English and everything. Wow! Anyhoo, while waiting for the ancient UFO iMac to backup the iPhone we got to talking about CA and stuff, which led to skateboards and then BMX. He found a BMX museum site. I checked it out today and found some photos of the Huffy Even Knievel bike. Wow. Cheese, crap, and cool all rolled into one bike. Huffy made other ridiculous shit like this one.

(Update: Just got back from the Apple Store with a brand new replacement iPhone. No waiting for 17 months while it gets sent in to be repaired—they just give you a new one. Man I love Apple.)

I always wanted a Mongoose or a Haro, even a Redline maybe. All I ever had was a Schwinn SX2000 that Chris Lillig and I bought together. I think it was a heavier frame, with only the chain stays being chromoly.

I just scanned some old photos we took with my parents' Kodak 110 Instamatic, which explains the strap blocking most of 2 shots. That shoot must've been a couple years later, because Chris had his own bike with some heavy as aluminum wheels. We were out taking action shots, then tried to take some trick shots that made it look like we were amazing BMX riders. My parents' Ambassador is in the background of one shot. That's the first time I've seen that in decades.

There were some other photos in the sleeve. Here's Leo and me chatting up some chick in the Ozarks. I think her name was Janet. She had big tits. I think she was mine and Leo got her cute sister. I think this would've been the Summer before our junior or senior year maybe, so '80 or '81? I see my Pepsi and Carrera sunglasses on the table. Leo has a pack of smokes.



Here's another long exposure I made of my drums back then, probably trying to emulate the shot of Neil Peart on the back of Moving Pictures (or maybe it's on the inside sleeve?). There's an Evel Knievel figure wearing a G.I. Joe fire suit between the front two toms. The black cabinet to the right would later become my car stereo. The Primo mic is on the ride cymbal. Remember that thing with the weird cable? You can almost make out the bottom edge of my stainless steel steam table pot "cow bell" in front of the floor tom. Oooooo! Against the wall on the right is a green styrofoam thing that was from my brother's N gauge train track. I used that to drive my Matchbox and Hot Wheels around on. It had parking lots, houses, mountains, even a lake. Goddamn I loved that thing.

Windy as Hell

Had a nice visit in Des Moines. Got back, unloaded the car, very cold and windy, just about to start putting stuff away and Kim says "a shingle just blew off the roof". I went out to see whose it was, and it was ours. The first thing I checked was my possibly iffy work on the addition, but it was all good. Went around to the front of the house and there it was, way up on top. A couple we blown up and sorta stuck perpendicular to the roof.

I put on some warm clothes and put the ladder up, tying it on to the front porch with a big rope. Went to load up the tool belt with roofing nails, but only had really short ones. Got a bunch of longer ones from Geoff. Went up, didn't get blown off, and drove a bunch through what shingles I could get to without ripping more through the nails. Then I noticed that a lot of the shingles—including many that weren't affected by the blowout—were loose at the bottom edge, rather than stuck down like they should be. It's like the tar strip never melted into the next layer of shingles. The previous owners had it done in the Spring, so it's not like it was too cold, and it's had plenty of time to get all melty. Probably just a bad batch of shingles. I knew I had an old tube of roofing adhesive in the shop. Yup, but it was old and not squirtable. Luckily I also had an unopened tube. I loaded it up int he caulking gun and went to work, sticking down every loose shingle I could find until I emptied the tube.

Later on I sat down to relax and the news happened to be on. 52mph gusts in the Twin Cities they said. Hell.

Now I've got one lonesome cat that sure is happy to see me. Zappa is such a Daddy's boy. Squiggy is just sort of generally glad to see us, but Zappa is laying on the desk, being a hinderance to my typing speed and comfort.

Where Were You in '62?

Sadly, I wasn't at this party. That basement is so fucking amazing; the panelling, floor tiles, and couch cover look great. Look at the women all in dresses—flattering dresses. That's hot. The dog looks bored though.

On the Road Again

We're gonna visit Kim's Mom this weekend. It's all cloudy and rainy up here, but looks like it might be clearing up in Iowa. There's a huge rotating system centered over Nebraska. Go look at the Weather Channel's interactive animating map this morning. I'd prefer it sunny and not raining while we're driving.

Goddamnit. Now I have the Willy Nelson song in my head. I've come to the conclusion that I can't stand listening to Willy Nelson. Too many fried brain cells do not make for an enthralling master performance on the guitar or from his badly timed, warbling singing.

LittleDog and BigDog

If you have seen these amazing robots yet, then get to clicking. I like how the real dog is a bit pissed off at LittleDog. In the BigDog link, he's right; I did feel sorry for it when the guy kicked him.

GoW Lancer

Remember dreaming of how cool it would be if you could have a machine gun with a chainsaw on it? Well just stop whining and buy this life–size Lancer, just one of the fun weapons in Gears of War.

What Is This?

Psycho chick or just another man–boobed rapper dumbass? You decide.

Sea Monster

Holy shit, this is one cool looking deep sea diving suit. Very H.G. Wells-ish. The huge multi–layer joints and multi–eyed helmet are what really set it apart.

Rap Sucks

I was checking out the web site for a place we just got booked at and noticed they might wanna update it a little more often. There's an event listed for June 13. It's just a DJ, but the part I like is their slogan about the music they play.

Ioway

I went down to visit my brother this weekend. He's still getting along, but in a bunch of pain where one spot is in a back bone. His girls Sierra and Danielle were over and his boy Ryan came down from Cedar Rapids. He's working at a bank (just like his grandpa) and taking Kirkwood classes, and he got a recall notice from the Army. He's trying to get out of that because he's in school and his dad is sick. That'd suck if he had to go back now.

Keota hasn't changed, except for all the buildings owned by the Wallerichs have been torn down; the one with the Oshkosh ad painted on the side and the one (or maybe two) next to it, and their "shop" down between the old DX station and Robin Wells' old house. There are also two new streets that I hadn't seen before on the northwest end of town—a development in a corn field.

I noticed 5 of these on an Aus tree in Ma & Pa's back yard:

Sox & Martin

My Ramchargers Challenger charging through some very heavy traffic. (I won, but then they were only on Medium.)



Another one of my favorite drag racing teams from the '60s/'70s was Sox & Martin, a pro–stock team. They always had great looking cars, and I think they were always Mopars that I can think of. I redid the paint on my old Challenger and took it for a drive, ripping through the streets of Manhattan.

Receiver Receiving Again

Got our receiver back from the shop today. He ran it through all sorts of stuff and couldn't get the problem to happen. The ticket also says he disassembled and reassembled it. I'm guessing that is what fixed it. It's the oldest repair technique in the book, and has worked countless times for me. Remember Clanin's 4–track? Fixed it by opening it up and looking at it.

I plugged everything back in, including the MartinLogans, and tried a bunch of stuff. Seems to be working fine here too. The tech was thinking maybe our center speaker or wire was the problem, since it would switch off when I ran test tones through it. But it seems to be fine. It kinda sucked to just look at those speakers for the past couple weeks and not use them. When I looked for something to test tonight, there was an Elvis Costello concert on Palladia, a gorgeous HD music channel. And just now there's an old Joe Jackson concert on BBC Crown Jewels on VH1 Classic. Two flavors that go great together.

Mumba kah roo seebo, no ahm sane?

No, I do not know what you're saying.

Lil Rush

Rush has often had really cool animations and opening videos to enhance their live shows. The people at South Park Studios made this especially for Rush. Those rotisserie chickens always make me hungry.



Is this auto-playing for anyone else? When I go to my blog, both this and the Triumph videos begin playing. Pretty annoying.

Good Gig

The gig last night was pretty good. It's a private club that is trying to get more income and/or people to join or something, so they're trying to get more live music. Easy load–in, tiny stage only big enough for my drums and a couple amps, horrible sounding room. The walls are all concrete, the room is pretty much rectangular except for one corner, and there's nothing to break up the sound one bit. Basically, it's like the inside of a poorly designed speaker cabinet. But the people really had a blast and like our music. We had 4 new tunes; Keep Your Hands to Yourself (I sing that one), Steppin' Stone, Heartbreaker, and Slow Ride. That last one absolutely kicked their ass.

We all went to breakfast afterward at a Perkins, which had a security guard standing around. I'm so glad I live in the suburbs, where my garage door can be left open all day long. We can even go for a walk and leave all the doors open and not worry one iota.

I Love You, Man

Funniest movie I've seen in a long time. Even better than Zach and Miri Make a Porno. Paul Rudd is so good at being an ordinary, uncomfortable goof. Rashida Jones (from The Office) is also so good, and easy to look at. There was one scene between those 2 where I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe and was crying. Plus, they go to a small Rush concert, so The Boys are playing on stage.

Marrs Attacks is playing over at a place called B–Dales in Roseville tonight for the first time. Everybody on the truck!

Birth of a Triumph

Triumphs are cool. They kick Harley ass. They're also British, which means they have a sense of humor rather than being all about eagles and beer.



"…for someone who's dropped their badger in the road." Classic.

Ramchargers

I've always been a fan of the Ramchargers factory drag racing team (go Mopar!), so I painted up an old Challenger (they used a Charger, of course).



And a new one



The old one is so much more fun to drive. I upgraded everything except some engine parts to keep the HP under control on both cars. I just can't get the new one set up well. Lots of understeer.

On lap 2 of a race, I noticed this dork stuck on the inside wall of the corner. The replay showed that the AI clipped it, and then couldn't figure out how to navigate around it. It kept backing up and going forward and banging into the wall. It finally backed up, turned around in the other direction, and then something weird happened and it jumped over to this place in the road where it sat there smoking the tires. It did that until I came around again and then it took off. And hit the wall again. But this time it made it around it, and hit the wall on the next corner. The guy musta been drunk.



Man, this new Blogger editor sucks big time. They said it was improved, but they must not have tested it. Ever. I'll probably have to go back and fix shit after I publish it. I'm going back to the old editor and enter html by hand.

Jon Livingston

When I attended Indian Hills Community College in the boring, scummy town of Ottumwa, IA, I met a guy named Jon Livingston. He made weird art, listened to good music, and drove a very cool "electric puke green" VW Scirocco. We became instant friends and hung around a lot during the year that I lasted in that shit hole of a town. A few times a year, I'd google his name and see if I could find him on the internet. Well, I just did, and he's dead. That's sad. I found him on the Ottumwa HS class of '83 reunion site's in memorian page, which has his senior picture.

"I like Bloody Marys, because you get food."
    —Jon Livingston, in the bar in the bottom floor of a downtown hotel in Ottumwa, IA, circa 1984

I found some of Jon's stuff. This is why I never throw shit away, much to the consternation of Kim. He'd wrecked the green Scirocco and had this white one in a photo he sent with a letter. At some point, he lost his license and sold this one. He said he was making weird music with Mike Whitney from 149 Dead Marines.



I also found this hunk of paper that he'd doodled on—I think it was when he visited me in IC.



He was also the originator of Skin Lizard, the weird creature I spray painted on the side of the One Bullit Barney truck (Coco). His original drawing is still on the head of my old Remo practice pad.

Barney's New Ride

Bought an old Datsun. Went with cop engine, cop shocks, cop paint.





The roof number is from the squad car's license plate JL–327.

Eagerly awaiting Forza Motorsport 3, supposedly out next month.

Dog n Suds Found

We went out to an apple orchard yesterday, Jim's Apple Farm (you can look at somebody else's photos). More correctly, it's an old barn that's been turned into a place to sell apples and lots of other stuff, like pumpkins, Indian corn, bundles of corn stalks, and gourds, plus lots and lots of food, mostly things made by small home–cookin' suppliers like jams, candies, etc. We stopped there once before on the way back from her sister's last year I think. They also bake their own pies and other things there. We got a small apple studel, which made me go around talking like Sgt. Schultz when we got home and had some.

Near the registers were a bunch of coolers full of pop—lots of varieties of stuff you don't normally find. And there Kim spied lots of bottles of Dog n Suds root beer. I lunged for them like there were the last bottles on Earth. I later enjoyed one out on our stupid small front porch after I washed the MN/IA/IL bugs off the front of my truck.



I just noticed how the wheels on my truck look huge and the tires look like some dumbass low profile ricer boy tires. It's just an optical illusion caused by the soft focus. I haven't gone insane.

Milla Jovovich (if yer at work, this ain't safe)

Like Milla Jovovich? I know I sure do. Want to see her 100% naked? Yer goddamned right I do! Why do you think I own all 3 Resident Evils? Go here soon before it switches to members–only mode. With nipples like rolls of Life Savers hidden in her shirt, the face of a goddess, and that fantastic little bod, what's not to love? Now with bush! In case you missed the window of opportunity, here's one of the shots.

Les Paul

We bought a Les Paul. Settle down, it's not a real one, but a damn Guitar Hero one for the Xbox. We used to trade off, each playing an entire "gig", which is kinda boring for the person not playing. She suggested getting another controller so we could play at the same time. I wanted a Flying V, but didn't find one I liked, so we got a Les Paul they had at BFB. The "pick" switch is much quieter than the one in the Strat that came with her game. It seems to respond a bit better, although it doesn't have the slider area on the neck, so none of that.

Anyhoo, we had a blast playing the battle mode, I think it's called. You pick a song, and both play the same thing. Then you play it again, but the speed at which the notes come into view is faster, and something else changes, but I couldn't figure out what it was. And some notes have tokens or something that you get. Again, no idea what any of it means. But it was a ton of fun for us. I chose Queens of the Stone Age's No One Knows (one of my favorite songs), and we went through it about 4 or 5 times—each time it got harder. I also noticed the version it started with didn't have the solo, then later on it did and it had my playing 2 notes at once, but Kim had to play a different part. Freaky.

Anyhoo, for a fun time playing video games with yer woman, that gets my vote, especially if she doesn't want to play a shooter or drive a fast car where the object is not to pick up sparkly jewels and goofy weapons, but just to win the race. I still have an underlying hatred for Guitar Hero, mainly because so many people think it's just like playing a real instrument. But as a game that just happens to be loosely tied to rhythm, it's fun.

Movies

Kim actually got me back into a movie theater a couple weeks ago. We saw District 9. The trailer made it look really cool, but it wasn't quite what I expected. A bit too much "humans are bad" preachiness. I was looking forward to a good "here come the aliens—now they're here, what do we do with them?" flick but got a lesson on why camps or reservations might be bad. Still, I liked the unlikely "hero" of the movie. Kinda nervous and pitiful.

Tonight we watched Milk. Again, not quite as good as I thought it would be, but still a nice job by the actors and all. But I'm still grossed out when 2 men kiss. Always will be, just like I've always hated potatoes. Luckily, there isn't much of that. It's mostly a political thing. And I got a kick out of seeing old Anita Bryant footage. Holy fuck was she a loony toons. They did miss including the pie–in–the–face episode in the movie, sadly.

We finally watched Zach and Miri Make a Porno again after the Marantz started acting up the last time, this time using the old Denon and old speakers while the Marantz is in the stereo hospital. That has some really funny shit—lots of dirty, dirty humor. Justin Long was hilarious as a gay porn actor, and Craig Robinson (The Office's Darryl) also had some great stuff. And as always, Seth Rogen makes me chuckle when he says almost anything. And Elizabeth Banks is fairly easy to look at.

Let's see, we also watched The Wrestler a few weeks ago. Damn good movie. Really. Mickey Rourke is so fucking good at what he does. Of all the 4 movies mentioned here, this is the one I'd recommend. Plus, Evan Rachel Wood as his daughter and Marisa Tomei naked all over the place.

A&W

Who knew? There are still A&W restaurants around. They no longer have the full family of burgers (I always liked the Teen Burger without mayo (the scourge of the burger world) because it had bacon way before bacon cheeseburgers were on everyone else's menu), only the Papa Burger. They're now owned by Yum Franchises, the same conglomerate that does Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Long Gross Silvers. Is this a fairly recent acquisition? The one we went to was also a KFC. Sure wasn't as good as it used to be back when they were drive–ins, or even at the one in Sycamore Mall. I had a bacon cheeseburger, which the bitchy, disinterested teenage girl cashier and the slightly older supervisor had a hell of a time finding on the register. Kim had a coney cheese dog, which she had to eat with a spork because the chili was so runny and soaked the bun. We both had root beer floats, the best part of our meal.

Mentally Insane of Walmart

Seriously, if you haven't already put People of Walmart on your daily reads list, what is wrong with you? It just keeps getting better. You need to see men like this and this every day, if only to keep track of how normal your own brain is.

Kelly Ripa's 3rd Nipple

It's not as exciting as you're thinking it is. It's her extreme outie belly button. Eww. Fantastic body, but yikes.

Real Car, Clown Car

I have no idea what any of this has to do with music, but it was on some MTV show. We've seen similar driving wackiness in this same spot before. This time they throw a go–kart into the mix. Naturally, the Benny Hill music was inevitable. Nice job on that. Looks like the guy in the kart is gonna get creamed a couple times.

Moving Valerie Bertinelli in Stereo

Whoa. Val or Phoebe. Decisions, decisions.

Cows Like WRC

This video shows a nice long jump by a rally car. In the second half, you can hear that some nearby cows were impressed by it.

People of Walmart

If you haven't seen this yet, it's high time you did. I guess somebody posted about the site on Digg or some millions–of–subscribers place like that, and they can't handle all the traffic, so don't be discouraged if you get an error. Just keep hitting Reload every 10 seconds or so (don't hammer the poor server) after you get an error and it'll eventually load. It's worth the wait. Never again will you see so many completely or nearly shirtless men, rolls of fat, and superhero and/or hooker costumes in one place.

Here's a TV news story about a NJ Apple store getting ripped off by pansy limp–wristed dick–smoking dumb–as–fuck thieves (see, if news stories described them that way instead of as "pros", "spactacular", and "skilled", then they wouldn't be so ready to do crimes just to see themselves on TV). What's the deal with the voiceover? Is he auditioning for Hard Copy or Maury Povich? That's one of the goofiest news report voices I've ever heard. And did he record it from inside a plastic garbage can?

But then, it's NJ. What more can we expect?

Better Dressers

Tired of rectangular dressers? Get some shaped like nekkid wimmin! I'd wear out my sock drawer.

Helping Hand

Some find this condom applicator commercial funny. I know I do.

You just changed the emphasis!

Life Copies Art

See the crazy old black woman attack a cameraman. Sadly, I can't find any of the better episodes of Reno 911 where Niecy Nash played T.T., the crazy black woman with curlers in her hair and the "uncontained overfilled water balloon syndrome", except this one. Normally she's screaming and running around just like the woman in the first clip, and at least once with one of the deputy's batons instead of a hoe.