One day one chair.

You know if you sit in one spot for a long time in can actually do you more physical damage than a day spent doing heavy lifting or wind sprints or reaching for stuff high up in cupboards.

Sunday was my onliest full day off this past weekend... so to make the most of it all (theoretically) I went over to Howard's on Saturday night to get as far away from Harmless Jazz and Booze as possible. Sometimes the combination of beer and music is in just the right balance, but this Saturday the beer end of the teeter-totter was closest to the ground. Blame it on the rain.

Getting home was no problem... just knowing what time it was when I got to bed... that isn't so clear. From how I felt when John called me for breakfast at 10:30 am I'd say it was quite late... and that I possibly pulled a rose bush and not a blanket over top of me. Seeing as John made the early morning drive in from Chipman where he was visiting the country home of Phil Clark I thought the least I could do was pull my act together.

In any case I had a Fiddlehead poetry meeting at 2 pm. Plowing through and rejecting many many submissions is not a very hangover-friendly activity either.

So come 5 pm I dragged myself back home, reclined my recliner and "watched." which is to say slept through, several movies... recently purchased and otherwise. The foreseeable but still unavoided problem with this is that when actual bedtime came around there was little in the way of sleep to be had. I managed about 2 hours from 2 to 4 am then wide awake. Being too groggy to do anything requiring brain-having I parked myself back in the chair, pulled a blanket up to my chin chin, and used that recently arrived at anaesthetic: the audio commentary track. Slept like a hungover baby.

So now I'm still in the land of grog. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to reschedulize myself and avoid prolonged exposure to the insight provided by any number of ESL production designers/directors of photography.

Wish me luck.

Last Weekend, Not Lost...

First I have to apologize how the photo layout of the blog looks on certain browsers. I'm not savvy enough to perform this design with pinpoint accuracy... all I can say is it looked fine in Explorer on a PC, which is neither the browser or the computer I normally work with.

So.

This is the last weekend, upcoming, before my evenings become work-filled. As of next Monday the 12th I'm back for another season of computer filled Hijinx at the D'Avray Lab. The upside is that updates will be constantly upcoming. The downside is that I will have nothing to write about 'coz I'll have no "outside world" time to do anything with.

Que serapi serapi.

With that I'll go out there and squeeze in a little mischief before the gettings no longer good.

everywhere

Coming to the end of the summer months... I've been everywhere but home (well where I usually sleep anyway) for the last three or four weeks:

House sitting at Howard and Linda's

(Not actually H&L's but you get the idea)

Playing a Show in Ottawa


Visiting my folks in Campbellton (well, Matapedia)







And now I'm in Florenceville visiting Mandy









If anyone is near my apartment could you break in and do my dishes please?

Don't take anything though!!!

Well you can have the bills.

Enjoy.

And here I thought

...it might not rain this morning. But it's 7:30 a.m. and... it's raining.

I've been house sitting at my friends' Howard and Linda's place for the last week and a bit. Except for last Wednesday morning the rain has foiled my attempts to walk to work in the morning... it's a 50+ minute walk so it's tough to dodge raindrops all that way. The Fredericton bus schedule leaves little in the leeway way. So it's either be an hour early for work or an hour and a quarter late.

Now it's raining really hard.

The wind last night blew apart the mosquito netting enclosure on the back deck. I know it's not as devastating as the whole hurricane thingy, but it affects ME directly. I apologize.

One benefit of the distance from the *ahem* city centre is the possibility of an uninterrupted timespan to get work done... i.e. reviews, writing, reading (no 'rithmetic, though). However this house comes appointed not only with tools which make this work simpler and pleasureable (computers, coffee makers, light bulbs), but also tools which make this work easy to put off (computers, satellite television, playstation games, lightbulbs).

I have managed to put up a new show on my radio blog, SURGERY, and have been listening and re-listening to new music I've promised to review on the page... but I've gotten bogged down trying to decide on how to present the reviews. I'd like to put up a more interactive html model versus a simpler linked-to-only word document, but the two parts of my work ethic... copy+paste+get it over with AND/OR study+research+obsess for days and days... are at war with each other as usual.

Hey, now it's raining really hard.

Marc and Andrea visited last week... didn't get to see them much as they were cruising the seashores and I was visiting my folks up north... but since I had just been up to Ottawa it wasn't such a big deal. A session of making wax dice at John and James' last backyard party at 220 Church was a pleasant way to wish them off to their Manitoba leg of touring.

John Born and James MacGregor have moved into their respective Saunders St. enclaves. Don't know if they have backyards there... but we all know it wouldn't be the same... ah well.

Hey, now it's raining a little softer... but it's still raining.

The store has been unusually busy for late August... lots of interesting used stuff coming in to sell. And of course the pre-requisite phone inquiries about rubbish vinyl. Here is a nearly verbatim example... it occured yesterday, but believe me, this same conversation recurs on a twice weekly basis:

Telephone: ring ring

Me: Backstreet

The Guy: Yeah... uh... do yous buy records [note the yous part is not a typo]

Me: Yes [to be read tersely, with a little intake of breath in preparation for the stock interaction about to occur] but we're only doing trade at the moment because we've already purchase a few hundred records and a couple hundred CDs this week [true].

The Guy: Uh... well, yeah... I have about a thousand records to sell. How much do you pay?

Me: [Breath, prepare stock spiel] It depends on the condition of the record, the title, whether or not it's something we think we can resell. Our sale prices for average stuff is between a dollar and five bucks and we offer a third of that amount in cash and half in trade.

The Guy: Well... Uh... I have about a thousand.

Me: Yeah. Do you have a list? What type of music is it mostly?

The Guy: All different.

Me: [Already aged two weeks in the last 45 seconds] So every record is completely different from the previous one?

The Guy: No... Well... there's a lot of opera and country... and...

Me: [interrupting] We don't take in classical or country... or easy listening.

The Guy: ...you don't sell Country!!!

Me: No.

The Guy: That's the only music worth listening to these days.

Me: Well, you see most of our customers tend to be between the ages of 15 and 25 so opera and country aren't really what they're into [note: invariably whenever I say this over the phone there happens to be a man/woman in their forties in the store proving be wrong]. We mostly are after classic rock... stuff like Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath... that sells best for us, but we really like punk, metal, new wave, folk, jazz, blues, etc.

The Guy: What about box sets?

Me: Of vinyl?

The Guy: Yeah.

Me: Not usually, especially if they're Time Life or Readers Digest collections, they have no resale value for us. What do you have, for example... do you have any Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd...?

The Guy: Well... uh, let's see... [sounds of fumbling around] this one is a box, it says "Great..." uh, "...Recordings of... Classic Operas" ...and it's from Readers Digest.

[note: I wish I was making this shit up, but...]

Me: Again, we don't take classical, we don't take boxes, we don't take Readers Digest.

The Guy: Oh, uh... ok this one is jazz...

Me: Is it a box?

The Guy: Yeah, uh, but I can't tell who made it. I think it's from the U.S.

Me: We don't take boxes. Do you have anything that isn't a box you could tell me about? [note: at a certain easily determinable point in any of these conversations you will realize you can be as direct/rude to people like this, short of asking them to take one of your organs into one of their orifices and they will not realize that you're being impolite] Maybe something I said we do take... like The Beatles?

The Guy: Well... uh, let me go over to another box over here... if the phone can reach... heh heh... they're kind of everywhere.

Me: [silence]

The Guy: What's this one? I can't really make out the writing... Hits of...

Me: Don't you know if you have any classic rock... 60s, 70s, 80s even.. anything along those lines?

The Guy: Well, I'm not sure.

Me: Are these your records your selling?

The Guy: Yeah... yeah.

Me: Why don't you know what any of them are, then?

The Guy: It's been a while since I bought them. Why don't I go through them and give you a call back later?

Me: Yeah... [sigh] ...we don't take country, classical, easy listening... so no opera, no Barabara Mandrell, no Gospelaires, no Neil Diamond... ok?

The Guy: Yeah... yeah, I'll call back later.

Me: OK.

No further contact was made.

The rain is letting up a little... stopping even... I'll likely try to give the walk its due chances. I can almost guarantee 24 minutes out what will happen...

it is a capital idea

Hey,

I'm in Ottawa. I'd show you a picture of where I am, but I didn't bring up a camera, nor does the version of explorer installed on this computer display the funny little "add picture" icon... so that's that. Look up Ottawa Ontario on google... you'll see what it looks like.

The bus trip up was pretty good... the usual blend of comforting immobilization and discomforting sweat from having a largish senior citizen from Kingston fall asleep leaning on you. I coped with it all by playing the most recent Eluvium CD 8 or 10 times in a row between Riviere du Loup and Montreal.

Our performance is tonight... I'm excited/aprehensive... have that familiar pre-preformance loosening of the bowels. It took a while yesterday afternoon to get all of the media on Marc's laptop... it was nearly full to the top and needed emptying before all the sound files could be added. The sound editor I'm (ab)using for the show has been trying some idiosyncratic methods of working that don't always involve always actually "working" so I'm a little squeamish about that.

It seems like in all the not-so-many times I've done sound performances I've never had the same audio set up twice... that plus a reliance on mostly borrowed equipment is kinda like getting invited to parties where you're not sure anyone you know will be attending.

Another up-and-downside to the trip is that it always seems like there is just a little too little time to see and do all the people and... er... things you'd like. I feel like I'm always short-changing someone... reverse-selfishly it's usually myself... or is that massive-passive aggressively?

You tell me.

Well back to it.

The Health of Welfaring

Sluggish.

At the end of another 6 hour stretch at the lab tweaking sounds, burning CDs and DVDs, uploading files to FTPs (just in case), I'm officially burnt out.

I was burnt out on Saturday when I came up and sat in front of the computer for 5 hours wishing it would just develop A.I. and take care of me instead of vice versa.

I was burnt out on Sunday when I came back up at 9 am and work through 'til 5 pm, breaking only for a nutrient-weak*** lunch of burritos and ring-o-los (with 2% milk to build my bones).

Now I'm also burnt out.

So it goes.

I reached a point on Sunday where I just felt like I'd lost the point to it all... sorta, "I don't enjoy performing this stuff and no one really enjoys listening to it... so why am I working dozens of hours on fart noises then taking a 13 hour bus ride to do this?" Fortunately I've come to recognize this as my very usual pre-show depression... kinda like post-partum, but in reverse.

***Oh yeah... the "nutrient" thing jumped up and bit me on the ass a week and a half ago... I'd been a pretty good boy, diligently taking the prescribed Prevacid (at $80+ a month for we non-Blue Crossed) daily or every other daily; then my prescription ran out smack in the early stages of a house-sitting stint at my friends Howard and Linda's. My stomach had been feeling tons better so the initial absence of my morning pill-pop went largely unnoticed... no pill bottle on the bathroom sink, out of mind. Likewise my pretty stuck-to diet routine went out the window as I chowed down on snack foods and upped my coffee intake to counter early cat-induced risings.

About a week into the bad-diet, drugless stretch I started to get diarrhea... I had bought some questionable sandwich fixins at Victory and I wrote it up to that... but a day later I started getting cramps... little ones at first... then bad ones... then bad ones every 5-10 minutes... which went on like this for 2 and a half days... sleep was difficult as each cramp woke me up... eating was impossible outside of broth and yoghurt...

At first opportunity I re-filled my prescription and popped like a speed freak, topping off with Eno and Pepto and any other "O" ending substance I could grab... eventually my tummy settled and sleep returned.

Even the cat looked happier.

Now if I can just get this show behind me... no, really FUN FUN FUN

And this is going on later

Sometimes (usually) I end up working longer on the poster than the performance. By the way, Friday the 12th is the right date... not Thursday as previously mentioned.

The Summer of my Swedish cousin

Well not really.

Mikael Bengtsson is not my cousin... I never really met him until Saturday night... but it sounds like a zany coming of age foreign film title, doesn't it?

Mikael records and plays shows under the name Juni Jarvi... formerly he was known as Juniper, but apparently a Christian rock band shared that name, thus the change. He came over to New Brunswick for a wedding in the area and stuck around for a vacation and to play a couple of shows including one at The Capital in Fredericton.


He played two short sets featuring mostly the same material... not a prolific writer, though he did debut a new song written to celebrate the nuptials. His quiet style on finger plucked acoustic guitar and more uptempo ukelele (with occasional iPod accompaniment) did not exactly meet the prevailing mood of a Saturday night jam-jacked groove hounds. Luckily the small crowd was respectful, excepting a couple of boiled-meat brain buffoons congratulating each other briefly on their comic styleee at the bar (sample: "heh, heh, give the guy a break... heh, heh... his dog died and his truck won't start... heh, heh." You have to imagine this repartee as being a few decibels louder than the actual musical performance which, ostensibly, everyone else in the room had been paying attention to).

Anyhow it was rough edged, sloppy good fun, and even well worth the subsequent horror of walking home up York, cutting through the parking lot between Sobeys and the 20/20 Club right around closing time... just in time to witness the disgorging of it's clientele... not unlike seeing misshapen, makeup-less clowns stumbling out of the big top at the end of a long days work.

Here's Juni's website and a song he performed called Rooftops, though this is not from the Capital performance but live from an earlier show. Enjoy.

When I turn around, there I am

It's already halfway through summer. Or at least the four month period from May to September I think of as summer. The threat of having to try and cram the next seven weeks with as much fun/productivity as possible looms... large.

I'm counting working on blogs as productive.

Much other productivity will have to be directed towards an upcoming show I'm performing at in Ottawa. Marc Leblanc invited me to play with him at this new festival which is taking place on weekend throughout July and August. Our gig is on Thursday August 11th at the Mercury Lounge. If you're in or around Ottawa come out and see us.

I'll try and post some of the sound work here as it progresses.

Surgery and other time wasters

So,

I finally got the Surgery radio blog up and running. It took a while to secure the ftp space and a little while more to figure out (with help) the most effective linking system to open the files. They're all there now... seven 1 hour shows worth of blips and bleeps and hums.

Otherwise things have been going all summery w/ tickles... in the throat that is. It seems like I'm coming down with my third cold/flu so far this year... making up for not having one for such a loooong time in years preceding. Or maybe it's just hypochondria. Do hypochondriacs worry that they're becoming hypochondriacs? Do they worry they're not going to the doctor when they're sick because they worry others will think they're becoming hypochondriacs? Is there a more accurate term for this quandry?

I lost a week of my life to rain and television last week. Housesitting and kitty sitting resulted in incidental exposure to satellite television for the first time in a long while. It was rainy and cold for the whole week, more or less giving me positive reinforcement for the idea of zombifying myself for hours on end. The scary part is the potential I have for going without sleep while sitting in front of the thing. Late night talk shows, months old movies, even sci-fi reruns keep me vaguely conscious until late night/early morning... then I'm taken in by the early morning news. I may have averaged 4 hours sleep a night.

On a not unrelated note, my new guilty pleasure is the series Veronica Mars. I'm not going to explain it to you... just watch it and make your mind up. The other one I've been watching but haven't decided about is The Inside. It's created/produced/written by people who've worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, but it seems a little too flat footed... makes too much up front of the main character's troubled past... and it features Peter Coyote who seems to coat everything he's in with a little slug trail.

So much for TV.

Today's highlight at the store was an exchange with a sun cracked and oiled up gentleman with a full-to-bursting carrying case of cassettes:

He: Do you buy cassettes?
Me: Not for about 4-5 years now.

He: I just need about $2 to get a case of beer.
Me: Have you tried the Trading Post (a nearby pawn shop)?

He: Yeah. The guy's gone. Would you buy the carrying case?
Me: I wouldn't have any use for it.

He: Some of these are good tapes. I have Willie Nelson.
We: We don't really do much with Country. And we don't sell tapes.

He: It's the one with "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." That's a good song.
Me: It sure is. Maybe one of your friends would like to buy it.

He: Ah. I'm just a little short for a case. I don't ask people for cash, I mainly do bottling. How about I leave these two tapes here and come back later for $2?
Me: I really can't use your tapes.

He: Well. OK thanks anyway.
Me: No problem.

And so it goes. Gotta cough now. Keep well.

Time away

Just writing to say that I'll be writing more... but not just now.

My stomach thingy is not yet fully solved. The Prevacid they have me taking seems to limit the heartburn, but not the gas and the cramps still come and go.

Had a crappy cold/throat infection during the first half of the month when I started the medication... made it hard to tell whether I was just recovering from the cold or from the stomach thing too.

Being finished the night job it the main reason I've been unable to stay on top of posting... and now next week I'm off to Victoriaville to the music festival . So I'll have to catch up on my return... I'll tell you about taxes and other such things.

till then.

Unravelling the Intestine

In an effort to self-solve my stomach trouble I tried a little experiment today. At breakfast I didn't have coffee or orange juice... just water with my bagel, avocado and cheese... and a banana. More water at lunch with a veggie sub... and some dodgy shepherd's pie (microwavable) for dinner. Guess what? My stomach felt a bit better. No bloating, no gas. The dull cramping still lingered, but perhaps lingering is to be expected.

I don't know whether or not to hope it's just something like Acid Reflux. It's certainly better than stomach cancer, but it would mean cutting out approximately 3/4 of my regular diet. Maybe this is just my body's way of telling me that it's time for that anyway.

I'll continue the experiment and see.

Less Health, Less Welfare

Time has passed.

About... no, exactly 3 weeks since my last post. I was sick then... told you I'd tell you more about it... well not much to tell really.... For about a week and a bit I had what I dubbed a "migratory flu," one that started in my head & throat at waking, moved into my chest by afternoon, then gave me diarrhea by evening. Repeat until unnecessarily irate.

As with most cold/flus (flues?) I get in the winter (thankfully few and spaciously spaced apart) the symptoms tend to linger long after the actual affliction has fled. This time is similar, but rather than the usual cough and headache I've been left with a lingering stomach ailment.

In truth this stomach thingy has its roots from back before xmas, at least. After a couple of holiday-fortified nights of drinking I awoke to not only my standard inside-brain-earthquake of a hangover but also a sharpish pain in my guts. The first time I wrote it off to overdoingness, but the second time I started to worry a little bit more. But then it kinda went away.

Over the ensuing few months I noticed I was getting indigestion more frequently than usual (which is to say usually never), and also decreasingly hilarious bouts of gas after meals. My diet is very bad, you see... too much fast food, not enough water, vegetables, fibre... you know, modern. I would wake up early with a surprisingly empty feeling in my stomach, not unlike hunger, coupled with nausea balancing the other end of the equation. Eating alleviated the nausea but quickly produced bloating. This too came and went for the last couple of months.

Over the last two weeks, though, it has been more or less my waking state. I'm sick and tired of waking up sick and tired, to paraphrase the punk lyric.

I have a doctor's appointment next week, but in the interim have been feverishly self-diagnosing with the help of:

Medicinenet

It's an excellent site for the medically curious, not to mention the mildly hyponchondriac.

So, obviously I'm hoping it's something minor, transitory, easily treatable... I'll let you know.


In other not-so-happy news...

Well, let me say, really, on one hand it IS happy news... my Mandy got herself a job curating for the Andrew & Laura McCain Gallery. It's a good job and a good chance, and one she fully deserves. The downside is that it's in Florenceville, which is an hour and a half away.

It starts soon... next week. So I am really, selfishly, sad about it. It's not so far that we won't be able see each other, but I've grown adhesively attached to having her around every day. It's going to make time pass very slowly.

Well. Must go for now and tcb, or pcb, or pcp. So long as it doesn't upset my stomach.

later

Health and Mental Welfare

Can someone please pull my nose down and out of my brain pan, please? If it turns out to not be the thing lodged up there giving me a headache and making my throat hurt then we'll turn our hearts and hands to something else.

The end of February came and went in a stretch of work and play slapping together like desperate trout on a river bank... or something. Notably Marc Bragdon was well-wished, swished and whisked off to the wilds of Baker Lake, Nunavut. The party at

Christmasland

saw folks of all types (friends from F'ton, friends from Lincoln, friends from work, radio personalities) gather to rock and back slap their way into the wee hours.

The planned 3 band festival was more or less a non-issue. Opting not to get a PA made the evening easier to set up and prevented the greater possibility of authoritative backlash, but it also dulled the impact of the "rawk." Piper Perabo and Bachelor Padlock essentially became one entity (esp. given the absence of one f.c. Giles... often the wacky backbone of outlandish musical events) and the special guests (Rob and Jon) went on late to an enrapt and intimate crowd. Filling in the space between was a sparkling freestyle set by MC JB Free... hip, hop and topical.

The morning following the party brought a bus trip north to Campbellton. In essence it was 6 hours of enforced unconsciousness enshrouded by the sweetness of music-mediated isolation. Once at my folks the actual task at hand went well: helping my mom prepare for a colonoscopy (sp?) and gastroscopy. This involved fasting and medication-enhanced purgation... for my part I prepared meals for my dad and myself to alleviate her having to be around food during this period. The day of the exam there was a snow storm which change the transportation plans. I ended up providing dog-sitting services for their still-not-a-year-old Cocker Spaniel that howls like a timber wolf when left alone... in an apartment... with neighbours... who don't like to hear timber wolves nearby. As with most medical exams this one yielded not much immediate information... prefering to defer to the family physician to give the actual facts at a later date... and so back I went to Fredericton on the bus...

...and off the bus and to work... right then.

PART II

The intermediate week was busy. My boss worked my off-hours at the store and graciously did a major tidying of the workspace. I must admit, and those who know me must realize, I am a clutterer. My system involves keeping pertinent paperwork and work tools out in the open and close at hand... and everything else pools away in ever increasing concentric circles which are organically spaced depending on need vs. accesibility. At the very perimeter is the stuff which, frankly, has no use... at all... but never ever finds its way to the post consumer recycling center/wastepile it deserves. My only two excuses are 1) I don't have a car or drive and 2) I have to leave each day at 4:55 p.m. to make it to my second job of the day. On the other hand I could do this sort of thing on the weekend... and I WILL... at least I like to think I Will.

In his Mr. Cleaning routine Gordie streamlined a few things but also disrupted my dirt devil-style feng shui... It is not yet reestablished, but I'm-a workin' on it.

The lab is less than busy this week (March Break) but the store is crackling, for better or worse. It seems like there's been more than the usual share of disgruntled messes, unwashed masses, and just plain "other"s.

I'll comment more tomorrow. Plus I'm sick... thus the title above. I'll <><> tell you more about that too.

Help me to help you, Help!!!

I've got to get away from being a crowd pleaser.

The choices of how to have fun this weekend are, for once, plentiful... yet my choosery is compromised by trying to make it the most beneficial for all considered.

Going to Halifax would be fun... and it would be helpful to the store by bringing down stock for Saturday's records sale.

Staying in Fredericton would be fun... there would be musical shenanigans (drunken perhaps) in preparation for the "Piper Perabo/Bachelor Padlock" show/Marc Bragdon send off on February 26th (see below).

Going to Halifax would limit the practice time for the show.

Staying in Fredericton would mean no CD shopping (something I haven't done in a city other than Fredericton since last Easter in Ottawa).

Going to Halifax would be spending time with Mandy.

Staying in Fredericton would be spending time sleeping a little. (maybe)

I'll have my answer tomorrow.

BACHELOR PADLOCK RULES!!!
as does Piper Perabo...

Piper Perabo

Choosing between your children

I don't want you to worry.

I know I've been spending a lot more time with your sister this last little while, but it's because she's just getting on her feet, taking steps... getting stronger every day. But that's no reason for you to worry... or act up.

Yes, it's true. The Backstreet Records blog has been getting most of my less-than-ample free time lately. Even then, I've fallen behind on it as well.

Add to that writing music reviews for Exclaim, reading submissions for The Fiddlehead... all the good times rolled into one ten day long week, plus end of month data crunching at "work" work. Makes it hard to keep up with that reality show on at midnight Tuesdays on Global where designers and chefs are sent into the woods to make it better for the animals... or whatever it is they're actually doing.

The rest of the month is more or less spread out wide and far with equal divisions of fun and work.

Sue is coming this weekend for a reading, so we'll get a chance to catch up a bit.
There's a record show in Halifax on the 19th which may be reason enough to take a spin down... depends...
The most nebulous part is what to work on for Vetch...

They've retained me as a kind of "press agent," the upshot of which is that, for the immediate future I have to track down spaces and places to spread the word on the CD and upcoming performances... I'm slowed down by not having a working press kit to send... need to put one together... need materials... need quotes... neeeeeeed another vacation, hmmm?

Well I'll, er... get back to it, then.

more links more chains

The humble beginning rumbles of the Backstreet blog are underway. There's a link down there somewhere by the archives to get sent to it or you can click here if you are too lazy to look. So far all that's there is the Top 20 albums of 2004 in sales and critical opinion, but soon there'll be upcoming release info for January and February as well as more idiosyncratic info as time allows.

May post more later... but for now...

ta

too much thinking, little a-doing

Hey

Well since all of the holiday shopping and planning and sitting and watching TLC marathons where people JUST LIKE US redecorate their lives with the help of telegenic yet personable characters... Maybe now, NOW I can get back to the business of analyzing my innermost workings.

But not just yet.

I've decided I'm going to split this little chatterbox into 3 distinct parts (linked for your pleasure). One will be just like this... embracing the randomness of my everyday and deconstructing it for the purposes of amusement and insight. Another will concern the workings of BACKSTREET RECORDS... the business which is my show... and it will serve to amuse and provide insight as well, but perhaps also alert the musically faithful to things of interest in the offing. Lastly will be more of a listly sort of thingy... since I looooove lists... and links... almost as good.

But for now I'm only serving notice... note that I haven't slipped into an icy crack while scouring the downtown for a perfect knick to go with some inscrutable knack. Business will be re-opening soon.

Yr. slightly seasonably bloated buddy.

bye

the home game phenomena

...so to reward myself for actually reading a book over the weekend I'm wasting three or more hours playing a promotional game on the website for the movie "Elektra" starring Jennifer Garner...

The whole thing seems to make sense and tie together quite tidily. The book was by Chuck Klosterman who is a staff writer at SPIN magazine and it was called "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs." SPIN has been drifting quality and focus-wise over the last few years, but the columns written by Klosterman and, more recently, David Eggers have made it easier to stomach the blandness. Anyhow, Klosterman's book is a pop culture deconstruction that simultaneously is reverent towards the lowbrow yet makes no bones about how anesthetized we've become in worshipping at its knuckle dragging altar. Good fun.

In an effort to engage in this construct AND concurrently support Jennifer Garner's career I play the little Ninja fighter flash game on the movie's website. You get to glimpse character's from the movie, get called a fag by people using the alias "kill bill" AND watch the work hours tick tock away.

If that isn't what DSL was made for, what is?