Bill Watterson was right; the days are just packed.

Precariously balanced on a careening Radio Flyer wagon holding an inner monologue with my stuffed avatars and discussing social and personal contracts...this is the life.


So, my singing sucks. Sunday, Antiprince and I adjourned upstairs to the fancy-schmancy recording gear and he drove the equipment while I laid down guitar and vocal tracks.(It's really quite impressive, how that guy picks up on technical shit so quickly.)

Upon playback I had to leave the room, overcome by laughter and embarrassment. What I heard was both hilarious and painful to hear. Start with this: imagine Chewbacca swallowing a kazoo.

So much for American Idol.


Okay, Jean's questions. I hope I can salvage a 'B' despite the tardiness.

1. We take all kind of pills to give us all kind of thrills, but the thrill we've never known is the thrill that'll get you when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone. What do you love about what you do? I guess what I mean, is if it was just you and your music on a street corner with nothing else in the world, what would keep you warm?

In music everyone and everything is beautiful.

It may seem a gross oversimplification, but most people are grossly oversimple. Music keeps me sane and crazy, amused and passionate, elated and tragic. These things are common amongst all people and I want to reach out with sound and meet people there. Maybe it's to remind others of this commonality, or maybe it's to find a link to my own turmoils and joys in the world outside of myself. Plus, as far as music goes, I think my way is the right way.

2. I am also disgruntled with the current state of music, and I have a few ideas about how to fix the situation. It's really bloody and loud, though. Where do you think the weakest link in the chain is?

Recently the FCC began measures to crack down on the practice of industry payola. Though payola was outlawed in the days of Alan Freed little has been done to actually curtail it, thus it has run rampant. This of-late gesture by the FCC has prompted many large local-market radio stations to preemptively offer weekly scheduled slots for local artists. Alas, for the stations, their redress will not stop litigation and payola will atrophy as a mover and a shaker in the industry.(Of course it will never go away completely, but it greatly needs to be addressed.)

It is the first step of many to take. In my humble opinion capital and legacy drive the industry. The folks with the bucks and the first dibs on the many opportunities made available invariably protect and advance themselves and their own.

The recent bear market in CD/album sales is a fine indicator. According to a joint marketing study I heard about on NPR's Marketwatch not long ago(when I first heard the FCC story) the general consensus was...

The reason behind the CD market slump is not so much the downloading industry as much as the music just sucking. I nearly drove off the road. A corporate groupthink as pertaining to aesthetic values was described. It sounded like a case for sacking the British Monarchy- hemophilia, bad music, fucking the little guy at every turn, prima nocte, and so forth.

I say it's time to open the floodgates and let the Lombard hordes in. A little sacking now and then, historically, has proven to be a good thing.

3. Tell me a pet peeve that has nothing to do with music. Something that really pegs you as a freak. Tell me yours, I'll write a post about mine.

I've been enjoying a long-sought balance in my life as of late so things just don't bother me as much, it seems.

I'm a fucking liar. Two things really piss me off.

1) Obnoxious single red LED message lights. Like the one on the cable boxes. If I'm at someone's house and their descrambler's tell-tale heart is pounding I must make it go away. Or, chop it up and stick it under the floorboards. Drives me fuckin' crazy.

2)My mother's bitterness at herself and at, in turn, the whole world- or anyone else happier than her. Actually, I've downgraded this to a pet peeve from an outright philosophical dilemma. As much as I love her I'm not helping her to carry that burden on my shoulders anymore.

4. You're on a life boat, in the middle of the ocean, with an older man that keeps talking about he paddled to school in a life boat everyday, a small child that will not stop singing the theme song to Dora the Explorer, and Justin Timberlake. The life boat is not going to hold up much longer at its current capacity. Someone has to go. Who and why?

Can Alfred Hitchcock be resurrected to direct this?

I had to wait until 11:30 for Dora to come on; I just didn't know it...
...
...
Okay, it's 11:32.

It depends on if the old guy can sing or not. Okay, here it is. I can see where non-stop Dora would be excruciating(Though Bob the Builder is downright fucking murder)so if the old guy can sing, we'll learn Dora in a day or two and cast the wee one overboard. If the geezer is tone-deaf, over he goes. Justin, the child and I could eventually reharmonize the song and we'd put together the best Dora the Explorer theme song cover band ever. Plus, it's got that Paul Simon "Late in the Evening" thing that just grooves.

5. Lastly: does this blog make me look fat?

Hell, no! Nothing is as sexy as a little black blog.


Right on, Jean. Way to questionate. I'll have that taxes post up before the quarter so I can be adequately pissed off.