Random and Weird

I've been Memed again....and the task i've been charged with is this:

Link to your tagger and post rules.
Share 7 facts about yourself, some random and some weird.
Tag 7 people at the end of post and list their names.
Let them know they were tagged by a comment on their blog.

btw, i find all of these to be both random and weird. but you be the judge.

fact one: when i was in fifth grade i lived in florida. at school one day i slipped and fell in someone else's vomit in the bathroom. back in class i was told i could not be excused to go home and change my clothes. i've hated florida ever since. i don't even capitalize it.

fact two: i was a virgin until i was 25 years old. and not just a Meme Virgin either.

fact three: i find music of The Partridge Family to be at times interesting, compelling, and poignant.

fact four: my childhood friend Jeff and I tried to make a super-8 science fiction movie called "Metamorphosis in the Fourth Dimension". we co-wrote it, i was the star, and he the cinematographer, director and producer.

fact five: my maternal grandmother once commented to my mother that she thought i was effeminant. when pressed for her reasoning, "mamaw" noted my long hair, the fact that i carried a backpack around everywhere, and the way i walked as evidence.

fact six: in my teen years, instead of partying down with the other kids, i used to hang out at a coffee shop (a Bob's Big Boy to be precise) and read, write, drink hot tea, and chat up the waitresses, some of whom i had crushes on. i felt like some kind of intellectual at the time. man, being a teenager really sucks.

fact seven: i'm convinced that i have many repressed memories of my childhood. i don't know what exactly happened to make this so, and i don't want to know. ignorance is bliss, ask the president.

you're tagged Kathy, Groove momma, and The Noble Savage (new e-quaintances from NaBloPoMo), Heather D, Jennyfur, Molly, and Heather J.

Sea creature with human-like teeth?

Stranger things have been....hmmmm, or maybe not.

Julian Cope Q and A

Some dumb questions just have to be asked, i guess.

Q: Would you ever do another Teardrop Explodes gig?
A: Would you ever return to having your mother wipe your asshole?

Vonnegut Rocks

I wish i had listened to friends from many years ago and started reading Vonnegut then. He was a forward thinking dude. Rest his soul, he's my new hero!

Another Band Who Understands

Poster Children are another group of intelligent musicians who are committed to music, and who know that the Industry doesn't care. They have their own label now and are doing exactly what every band/artists should do with their careers: managing it themselves. They tour, record, post songs for download, and do all the other things necessary to have a successful music career without signing (relinquishing their rights) to a label.

It wasn't always like that for them. They were signed to a major at one point in their career, and they only survived by being smart enough to refuse tour support and other financial trappings that labels try to sneek on to artists' debt. They moved to an Indie in the late 90's and now they are DIY.

Here's an excerpt from their website that tells it like it is:

There’s a lot of nattering about “The Future of Music” but what people are really talking about is “The Future of the Music Business”, and as a music fan and music maker I don’t really care how or if Sony, Time Warner, Rupert Murdoch or Apple will be able to make millions of dollars off of other people’s creativity in the next few years- I’m interested in hearing the next song or band that will make my day. The future of music is what it has always been: the future of music is musicians.

Most of the sounds I’ve loved over the past 20+ years have required some extra effort to find- commercial radio, chain stores and major labels rarely provided anything of interest; it was word of mouth channelled through friends, fanzines, college radio, independent record labels and independent record stores that gave me what I wanted. Now with the web, word of mouth is hyperlinked- it’s easier than ever to find music that is in line with your specific tastes and there’s no reason to spend any time or money supporting the major media companies’ DRM infested business model that benefits neither the creator nor the consumer.

Rock On Poster Children!

Thea and Liam's first song collaboration

My kids made up a nonsense song one day when they went to Watkins Park. According to Kelly, Liam started singing something that sounded like "Butchy-Boo, I see you" to which Thea at some point spontaneously added "Wiki-Wiki Farfle!"

So now almost everytime we take a car ride somwhere, we inevitably end up singing this. Thea has even started playing conductor and pointing to us to say different parts. Today was no exception as we drove to the grocery store and back.

Those little cuties have their differences, but under it all they love each other so much. Here they are again holding hands on the way to pick up a quick dinner from the burger joint with the scary king for a mascot.

Video Friday - Always those Star Wars...don't let em in!

It's so wonderful that this exists.

Roxanne Shante is so Smart

She gave a big corporation a taste of their own bad medicine, only she made it good medicine because she's not evil for doing it, but rather she's a frakkin' genius. Thanks to Kelly for letting me know about this, and the Star Wars one as well. She in turn found the Roxanne Shante one here.

People are People

I support National Coming Out Day, and i believe strongly in Human Rights for all. So let this blog entry be my coming out as someone who supports the rights of people to love whomever they wish. And i hope that sooner than later all Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Transexual persons are given the same rights under the law as non-LGBTs.

My 100 Favorite Albums

Listed in alphabetical order by the groups'/artists' names, i only allowed myself to pick one album per artist, except where a particular artist collaborated with someone else, as in my inclusion of an Eno album as well as an Eno/David Byrne album. I left off the artists' names because i thought it might be an interesting game for someone to try and guess them. Some are pretty easy, and i've already given you two hints.

Rocks
Ambrosia
Big Science
The Madcap Laughs
“The White Album”
3rd (Sister Lovers)
Downtime
Low
Pod
Hounds of Love
The Catherine Wheel
Paris, 1919
Mirror Man
The Cars
Ultra-Prophets of Thee Psychick Revolution
Combat Rock
Stealing Fire
Heaven or Las Vegas
Jehovahkill
Armed Forces
Dregs of the Earth
See Ruby Falls
Before and After Science
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Even From Here You Look Big
Live Love Larf & Loaf
Exposure
Gravity
peter gabriel I
What’s Going On?
Selling England by the Pound
The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles, and Fripp
Powaquattsi
Visions of Excess
Kew Rhone
Please Don’t Touch
When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease
Unrest
Globe of Frogs
The Steve Howe Album
Mettle
Zoolook
A Passion Play
Honky Chateau
Discipline
Cowboys and Aliens
Autobahn
Double Fantasy
Big Plans for Everyone
Smell of a Friend
Catch a Fire
You Can Be Low
Like Hollywood
Meat Puppets II
Court and Spark
Moondance
Son of Schmilsson
The Lion and the Cobra
Take Away/The Lure of Salvage
Animals
Junior Citizen
Two Wheels Good
Learning to Crawl
A Secret Wish
Berlin
Fables of the Reconstruction
Country Life
Stronger Than Pride
Black Ship
Caravanserai
The Walking
Tinderbox
Desperate Straights
Underwater Moonlight
The Royal Scam
Mars Audiac Quintet
We Get There When We Do
Crisis? What Crisis?
Burning World
Hm
Remain in Light
The Colour of Spring
Wilder
Songs from the Big Chair
Marquee Moon
The Wishing Chair
Easter Everywhere
Shoot Out the Lights
House Tornado
Against All Flags
Albedo 0.39
Velvet Underground and Nico
Flashlight
The Blind Leading the Naked
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Funky Little Demons
Rock Bottom
English Settlement
Close to the Edge
The Grand Wazoo

The New Model of Music Business

Discipline Global Mobile, or DGM, is the home of King Crimson and assorted KC alumni. It's a label that was formed to support the artistic endeavors of Robert Fripp (and friends) and thereby sidestep the usual Music Industry model of greed and artistic indifference. Fripp was financially jerked around by his former management/label EG Records and was robbed of a lot of money through the years by bad (non-existent) accounting.

DGM was formed, and is informed, by a philosophical analysis of what it is that musicians do, and expect, and how that relates to their audience. It is a forward way of thinking and doing business. It seeks to give credit where credit is due, and to fairly compensate everyone involved in the process of making music. And it is more sensitive to the needs of its audience.

Cutting Out the Man

The greedheads have declared War and the battles have begun. I plan on boycotting all major label releases, and if there are bands that i like who are on those labels, i will try to contact the bands to tell them why i am boycotting them. I will buy used CDs as much as possible, but at all costs will try to avoid giving my money to the greedy exploitative corporations who own the music industry.

All artists who create music need to wake up and realize that the fat cats are just using them to line their (overseas) bank accounts, and that not only do they not care about music, they see musicians as merely naive, easy exploits. Artists need to stay in control of what they create. The Future of Music Coalition is one way that the music community is fighting the Industry, or more acurately trying to change the Industry for the better. Certain Artists are trying other ways.

The internet can make labels obsolete. Any band that wants to make a living playing music can find ways to market themselves to a huge potential audience online. When you sign to a label, you become financially endebted to them. Why not just try for a small business loan and do it yourself. It's long past time for another DIY revolution in music.

Kristen Hersh - Forward Thinker

Coalition of Artists & Stake Holders, or the "CASH Music Project"

Check out what the Throwing Muses/50 Ft. Wave member and solo artist is planning next. Kristen Hersh has long been thinking ahead to what is to come for music in the the future. She knows that labels are fast becoming obsolete. With the internet there's no need for the "middle man". In fact there's no need for the Man at all. Has there ever been? Music now has the potential to go from artists directly to fans, or perhaps they should be called patrons. Bye-bye Major Labels, you better find a new medium to exploit!

People are Weird

Why did they name this kids playground structure Tot-tanic, after a ship that sank leaving around 1,500 people dead? And besides, this looks more like a pirate ship than an ocean liner. I especially like the nice Christian Cross where the kids can practice crucifying each other. A tool that will no doubt come in handy in High School. What? Oh that's a mast, huh? Aye Aye Cap'n!

Family Bonds

My niece Micaela lives in Northern Arizona. Isn't she adorable? She's smart as a whip too. She just turned 12, and she plays the flute, and is a voracious reader. My brother Chris and his wife Becky like being near Becky's mother and other family so that Micaela grows up with cousins and grandparents in her life. I hope that our family can visit them next year. Thea is always saying how much she misses them. She's never actually met them, but in her almost 4 year old mind the love is just as strong as if she had.