The corniest of holidays

Well, I'll be leaving tomorrow morning for my Christmas holiday break, so I leave you with a somewhat creepy no-flash picture of the Christmas lights outside my house. I hope everyone has a great holiday, and I look forward to 2007, who's motto should be "It Can't Possibly Get Any Worse." (didn't 2006 have a similar motto?)

Here's to staring down the latter part of the Crap Decade and saying "you can't get me down, I have blurry photos of decorative lights!"

HACK COUGH COUGH

So it appears I caught TB. Spent last weekend in a Russian prison. At least I got a cool tattoo of an eagle eating a bear out of the harrowing ordeal!

No, actually, that's not true at all. The only thing that is true is that I've had a bad cough for the past week plus. I had a little adventure going to the doctor's office yesterday, what with juggling my schedule at work just so I could go, being asked to reschedule the appointment, and having to wait 45 minutes anyways. The verdict: I have a sinus infection. So now I'm on an antibiotic for the next ten days, and all I can taste is cough drops.

Can you drink on amoxicillin? Our holiday party is tonight after work.

LO-COST MEAT

Well, it's done - my secret mission to the West Coast has been completed. Yeah, I'm still a little wary of blabbing about the details online. Most of you probably know what's up, but if you dying to find out, drop me a line and I'll explain.

Bottom line: WE NEED MORE MEAT FOR THE STREET

It is your old pal

What do I have in common with Grover?

We are both lovable, furry and OLD.

Well, happy 30th birthday to me.

Yakkin' about music

I know I've talked about my musical explorations a few times in this forum. My musical musings are usually met with stunning indifference - as opposed to when I post an amusing picture of myself (you guys seem to like that). Be that as it may, I'd still like to take some time to run down some of my favorite music produced this year. This has been a pretty good year. No fewer than 16 new full-length albums came to my attention (that's quite a bit for me in terms of new music). Here are my favorites and my comments for 2006 - the first annual Romie Awards, if you will. I may post about movies I liked from this year in the near future, but that remains to be seen (mostly because I haven't thought about it as much). Here we go:

Best thing to happen to music in a while:

eMusic. It's economical (at $10 a month for 30 downloads) and has a great selection. If you aren't on eMusic, I highly recommend signing up. If you've never downloaded before, this is an easy way to get into it. If you've been downloading music, well, get legal, suckers! For $10 a month and a little patience, you'll get most of what you want, which makes eMusic a better buy than cable TV. If you do sign up, let me know, because I can get free downloads for referring you! Downside: you may end up with more music than you want. Which leads me to...

Most disappointing album of 2006:

The Raconteurs, "Broken Boy Soldiers." I only listened to this once, I think. Meh.

Best surprise I found while poking around on eMusic:

Billy Childish and Dan Melchior, "Devil in the Flesh." Awesome lo-fi garage blues set originally released in one of my favorite years, 1998.

Best CD I bought for five bucks:

The Dreamland Faces, "Dreamland Faces" EP. An accordian and musical saw duo, the Dreamland Faces play 1920s style tunes with flair and more than a little menace. They recently relocated to Wisconsin from Rochester, so they aren't really local any more, but they do return to perform here often. I bought this at their performance in August at the Dryden Theater, where they provided spot-on accompaniment to two of Lon Chaney's silent films.

Best album by an old guy:

Ramblin' Jack Elliott, "I Stand Alone." I think this is an appropriate category for a year in which I face my own aging head-on. Yes, yes, I know, Bob Dylan released "Modern Times" this year. And it's very good, don't get me wrong. But Ramblin' Jack influenced Bob back when Bob was a young rambler, and "I Stand Alone" is worth it, even though Jack's voice is going.

Best rediscovery of a classic rock band:

Creedence Clearwater Revival. I downloaded "Green River" and "Bayou Country" from the aforementioned eMusic. Another plus for downloading - getting reacquainted with the catalog of the greatest rock band of the late 60s/early 70s.

Best new album I've yet to hear:

Joanna Newsom, "Ys." I've been told it's very, very good. We shall see.

Best excuse to spend too much money on music:

Tom Waits, "Orphans." Just have a look at the track listing. I wasn't going to buy this, because I thought it would just recapitulate stuff he's already done, but it appears I'm wrong. And that's gotten me excited. Incidentally, did I mention that my birthday is this coming Sunday?

And now, here they are,

My Five Favorites from 2006 (in alpha order):

Belle and Sebastian, "The Life Pursuit"
Neko Case, "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood"
The Decemberists, "The Crane Wife"
Sonic Youth, "Rather Ripped"
Bruce Springsteen, "We Shall Overcome: The Pete Seeger Sessions"

Of cranes and spies

Wow, kids - I am really impressed with the latest album by the Decemberists, "The Crane Wife." I bought it only a few weeks ago, and I only now listened to it for the second time. Though I think I need to listen to it more to get a better sense of the overall story (because I think there is at least a loose story connecting the songs on the album), I can honestly say that "O Valencia," "Yankee Bayonet" and "Sons and Daughters" are great, shimmering folk-rock songs - all three are near-classics. If you've never heard this band, give it a listen. I know all those indier-than-thou kids out there insist that the Decemberists have lost a step since "their early stuff," but it's mere snobbery. They've only improved over time, and they've especially improved since the great but not necessarily classic "Picaresque."

Now if only they would play live somewhere near Rochester.

Incidentally, I found this photo online - what the Decemberists would look like as Lego mini-figures. Check out the source site for more (my personal favorite Lego rockers - the White Stripes. Sonic Youth as Lego figures is just confusing - which one is Thurston, and which one is Lee? And who's the fifth Youth? They've been a four-piece for a while, right?).

In other news - last night I once again got to see a free movie in advance of its opening. This time, it was "Casino Royale." I'm not a die-hard Bond fan, but I was looking forward to this movie. And it's good, it really is. It's just too darn long. I was shifting in my seat during what I thought were two or three climactic scenes, only to be presented with a new twist. However, some judicious pruning would have helped earlier in the film, not at the end. Have no idea what I'm talking about? You'll probably just have to go see it.

D > B

Happy November, from gray and wet Rochester.

So, we finally get some funny comedies playing in the multiplexes. Last Saturday I attempted to see "Borat" on its opening night. I think every college student in town showed up to see it. The line extended out to the sidewalk. Also, it opened at only two theaters in town. So, now that "Borat" has expanded to a few other theaters, I went to see it yesterday. And yes, it's funny. The stereotypes Borat is playing to are Eastern European stereotypes, rather than Central Asian ones, but other than riding horses across the steppes, what other Central Asian stereotypes do people know? It was as wild as people say. However, I can't call it the funniest movie of the year.

Reason being: I saw a sneak preview of "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny" back on Thursday night. This is your funniest movie of the year, people. It's so over the top, so un-self-conscious (Borat, meanwhile, is all self-conscious, all affectation) - I loved it. I've been a fan of The D for a while now, though. Explosivo!

But wait! I'm back again, just to say that "Little Miss Sunshine" was pretty darn hilarious too, and that came out this year. Darn superlatives, so subjective. I guess "Little Miss Sunshine" is a little different class of picture.

A Halloween revelation

Vanilla flavored Tootsie Rolls are actually quite good.

Have a happy "Revert Back To Your Childhood" Day!

DART(mout)H VADER

So, where have I been? Well, let me tell you! First off, on the 20th I presented at a conference at my old place of work (the BU Science Library, fresh off some major remodeling and redecorating) and caught up with some old friends in the Southern Tier (thanks peeps). When the presentation gets put up on the web, maybe I'll link it, and you can all bask in it's reflected glory (or say to yourselves "so this is what he does at his so-called job!"). Then, last weekend, I traveled up to Dartmouth College, braving crazy New England drivers and Moose Crossing signs to attend a conference up there. The featured speaker was Roy Tennant, who is always inspiring and interesting to us semi-geeky info dweebs. I'm glad to be home after all that driving, but I sure needed the break. At least I got to break up the trip to Dartmouth with a stop over at my parents' house.

So what does any of this have to do with the picture posted here? Well, nothing really - I'm just so damn proud of it. The library is buying a memorial brick (part of a campus fundraiser), and Mr. T is saying my preferred inscription. No, it was not the inscription ultimately chosen - details, details.

The best of the bad

Everybody grab your crotch and spit on the floor in honor of the closing of CBGB. Nice to know they held out this long, into the era of million dollar artist's "lofts" in downtown Manhattan.

Stylin'

Check the hair:




Looking good, President Musharraf!

This is so dorky it's rather cute

Yes, I know, there's been naught but silence around here lately. Work has been very busy, what do you want? Just watch the silly video. Yes, "Weird" Al plus Lego Star Wars figures - needs no further explanation. Kind of makes me sad that I sold most of my Star Wars Lego collection on eBay (ok, not really).

Giddy!

Cartooning scholar and maestro Scott McCloud is coming to RIT! He'll be giving a lecture next Monday (9/18), and signing his new book. OK, yeah, I'm a little too excited about this. But I'm more excited by the prospect of Scott coming back for an event in my library in early October! This will rank up there with meeting Bill Plympton last year. Oh, and Don Hertzfeldt came to Rochester too, but I didn't actually get to meet him.

ALT-COMICS GEEKSTRAVAGANZA!

Incongruous

Happy September. Last night some work friends and I journeyed to the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse to see a concert - yeah, you guessed it, Toby Keith! No, actually it was the Flaming Lips. I guess that the State Fair isn't such an incongruous location for a Flaming Lips concert as it seems. What better place than a carnival to watch the man in the white suit shoot confetti and streamers at you while dancers dressed as space chicks or in Santa Claus outfits boogie on the sides of the stage? I had a great time at the show - I defy any of you not to enjoy yourself at a Flaming Lips show.

On the down side, we were supposed to see Sonic Youth as well, but we arrived too late to catch their set. Turns out they didn't perform before the Flaming Lips, but went on before the third act, Ween. None of us really got Ween, but there were some hard-core Ween fans there (mostly drunk). Damn. Now I have to see Sonic Youth some other time. There was a fourth band too (the opening act), but none of us knew who they were, so no biggie.

The reason we arrived late - yesterday afternoon was Open House at the RIT Library. This is always a fun but exhausting event, and this year was no exception. So basically my day yesterday involved making buttons (or badges, as they're called in Britain), eating candy and hot dogs, and cheering and singing along to weird trippy music performed by a band that loves everyone. This is probably the first time since pre-school that I can describe a day in this manner.

UPDATE: Case some cool photos provided by one of my concert compatriots! (alliteration provided as a special bonus)

And then there were eight

So it's now official - Pluto is no longer designated as a planet. I was secretly hoping for the astronomy community to add lots more little stuff as planets, in the slim hopes that Galactus and Unicron would make the cut.

Also, did they not consider the effect this would have on the good folks at the Ithaca ScienCenter and the Carl Sagan Planet Walk? I think the City of Ithaca might be forced to remove a few blocks from their grid.

I've had it with this m%$@!$f$%&^#* meme on the m$#@%$f%*$&@! internet!

So, today is the big day, the "Snakes on a Plane" day. The day that the hype stops being hype and the dollars start coming into the studio, thanks to all those jokesters out there who talked this movie up for almost a year. With an essentially free ad campaign, how can they not make money?

As for me, I'm still unsure of whether I'll even see "Snakes on a Plane" this weekend. Maybe it's age or something, but a not-insignificant part of me is a little saddened by all this wink wink it's actually a good bad movie nonsense. Maybe it's because I used to feel that being in on the joke made me, I don't know, special. Now everyone is in on the joke, even cable news. Leave it to cable news to ruin just about anything. Bah. Snakes. Planes. Inside jokes that everyone is in on. Who needs 'em?

Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis

On Sunday I saw not one but TWO Tom Waits concerts in succession. Can you say "once in a lifetime?" I knew you could!

Sunday afternoon I headed out with a co-worker and Tom Waits obsessive to the wilds of Ohio. We hit the first show at the Akron Civic Theatre in, uh, beautiful downtown Akron (sadly, I was unable to spot any statuary honoring local sons Devo). The performance was great, despite an unexplained 40 minute delay in getting started. The theater is a truly beautiful performance space.

And that alone would have been great. But, as this was the last stop on his brief summer tour, he decided to play one more gig at the House of Blues in Cleveland. We had to wait in line for over an hour just to pick up our tickets (all will-call even though all the tickets sold out ahead of time). The show didn't actually start until about 1:30am, but the wait was worth it. The venue was only about half the capacity of the Akron theater, with people packed in a lot more densely. I could see the faces of the performers on stage. It was incredible. The Akron show was great and would have been enjoyed by any Tom Waits fan, but the House of Blues show was one that any live music buff would have appreciated, fan or not.

Edit: view set lists from the Akron and Cleveland performances, compiled by those wily bloggers! The "Ramblin' Man" performed in Cleveland is not the Allman Brothers tune, but rather the old Hank Williams tune.

Happy little diversions

OK, it's time to get back to writing about fun things. Like the interesting junk you can find to amuse yourself on USA Today's Pop Candy blog. For instance, test your BS detecting ability with Blufr. This is a lot of fun, but if you play for a while you start to get repeated questions. If you get bored with Blufr, then sing along with what's sure to become a classic (though probably blashpemous) American standard - "Jon Stewart Is God."

I am no good at anything anymore

Long time readers may remember that last summer I had a little nautical trouble when I went fishing off the coast of Cape Cod. Well, for some crazy reason (probably to show boats and water who's boss), I ventured out on Lake Ontario with some co-workers on a 34 foot sailboat this past Saturday afternoon. And the results were worse - seasickness in a more, shall we say, tangible form. Notice how there are no photos in this post? That's because I couldn't get up to get my camera.

You win yet again, open water.

The finest in foreign films

I'm really digging the Dryden Theatre's summer popcorn movie series. Last night they showed a double feature of Godzilla movies. As I'm a tremendous fan of trash culture, you know I was there.

First up was the original (subtitled) Gojira from 1954. Surprisingly, it's a serious movie. Any laughs during this one were unintentional, and had more to do with wooden acting (noticable even in Japanese) and corny effects. It's a pretty dark movie, thematically and visually. Filmed in grimy black-and-white, it's all nuclear paranoia and dying civilians, and even a contains a line of dialogue about surviving Nagasaki only to be confronted by Godzilla's rampage.

The second half of the double feature was the day-glo, campy Kaijuto no Kessen: Gojira no Musuko, known to us as "Son of Godzilla," from 1967, also screened in subtitled form. Lots of battles between Godzilla and son and giant insects. Gotta love it. Godzilla movies are ultimately all about fun, though both movies had underlying themes about the consequences of experimenting with and altering nature too much.