Annoying Purchases

So last night I went to the mall and scored a pair of jeans and a lovely Steelers shirt that was on sale, which is a good thing as all that officially licensed NFL stuff is always blood money. So I get home and start tryiing on the whole ensemble when I look down and see that the anti-theft device wasn't removed from the shirt, and it's one of those kno-go ink filled fuckers. And the damn alarm didn't go off, obviously, when I left the store. So I'll have to trudge back up that way today and get the damn thing taken off. What fun.

Death Scores Again

Stereolab Mary Hansen was killed on her bike today in an accident. I will say that truly is terrible as I always liked her vocals in that group. Dots and Loops was a mighty fine album.

Ah, Teen Angst

This gal's online diary captures that lousy element of being a teenager quite well. I would never, ever want to revisist those years again personally. I can only imagine the shit I would have been putting online back then if such a thing had existed.

Cloud Blah

Can someone please explain to me why people still fawn over George Harrison's Cloud Nine album? I understand that it was his best shit ever in years when it first came out, and I bought it back then, too. But people still rave about it when to my ears anymore it just sounds like another Jeff Lynne album. And a lot of the tunes on there aren't that great.

In other news, I enjoy my new DVD/VCR combo that I bought the other day. I already had a DVD player, but I had a shitty old 2 head VCR and with all my spots taken up on my home theatre system, I couldn't really put anything else in there. So having the combo was really nice, since it's a 4 head VCR and a better DVD than the other one I have, which I bought the second year the things were out and VHS tapes still dominated the movies section of your local retailer.

But this thing also plays VCDs. So that means I can go to Kazaa and download all my fave music videos and burn them to a disc, thanks in part to the Panasonic MPEG creator thingy I also downloaded for nada that further encodes the videos for CD burning. Then I can watch them on my DVD.

What would life be like without Kazaa? I can't even remember.

Forget the porn, Jack. Scoring a copy of Photoshop is where the real fun lies.

You Really Love Me Underneath It All

So here I am inebirated and listening to Fiona Apple's When The Pawn, something I like to do when in this state. "Fast As You Can" is too good...especially that beautiful bridge. Takes me far away from here. Makes me hurt and ache and want. I love it.

Life is vulnerable.

Not so fast, junior.

"I think it was not until it really started climbing up the charts. We all sort of went, 'hey I think we can stop flipping burgers,'" lead singer Chad Kroeger said.

Ah yes, the Billboard Awards seemingly happened yet again. Dear Chad Kroeger and his band of boring upstarts Nickelback won a little tin trophy for their efforts. Still, I would think that this kind of dud rock would be hitting the skids soon. Of course, that didn't stop bands like Chicago and Asia from repeatedly abusing listeners for decades.

Yeah, OK, so my generation still enjoys what taste it had of the '70s and we get the '80s thrown back at us all the time now, thanks to late night TV compilations sporting the next '80s set with all the familiar offenders such as Toni Basil, Dexy's Midnight Runners, After The Fire, Thomas Dolby, A-Ha, The Go-Gos, and all those other groups that were hot between '82 and '84. But still, man, that was some variety, unlike today's processed poo that all fucking sounds the same. Not that the '80s weren't ill-equipped with cheeseball synthesizers, producers from L.A. that put plastic wrap over every note, and the glory years of cocaine. Hell, it forced McDonald's to change their plastic coffee spoons to the now familiar coffee paddle.

I'm turning into one of those guys that says "Kids these days..." and I'm only 30. That's OK. I really don't like the radio, and haven't in ages. No point in discussing MTV and all of its retarded influence. I do like Classic VH-1 that is actually commercial free and shows all the great videos from way back when. Yes, they actually only show videos. You can only get it through digital cable, I think, but I may be wrong on that. It's great for my generation, though, who remember MTV when all they did was push videos as well.

But even videos have become stale and rote. Do I ever see one anymore that I feel is innovative? No, not really, because all the effects that these multi million dollar ads sport have already been used to death in Hollywood for the next feature flick starring some bozo past his prime. I mean, can you believe Keanu Reeves ever finally struck real gold with The Matrix? I couldn't stand that flick, and have no interest in seeing the other two coming up. But this guy seriously has never been able to act. Yet here is the vehicle in which he only has to look good, mumble, and is saved completely by the special effects. People don't go to see those movies to see Reeves act. They go for the effects. You could have made Ernest Visits The Matrix and it would have been a hit.

But I digress.

Pat Robertson Really Is An Ignorant Motherfucker

You know, it still gives me chills that this asshole tried to run for presidency. Of course, he does look like Bush's bastardized doppelganger, so we're probably in no worse waters with what we have. Still, Robertson just quoted Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" on his toilet The 700 Club. Before that he was bitching about people allowed to celebrate other things at Christmastime besides Christianity! Oh God, where has the world gone?

What a dumb, ignorant bastard.

It's live, baby. It's all live.

Echo From Esoterica has now been updated for December. Great interviews with Jana McCall, Bruce Campbell, and Mike Nelson of MST3K are included. Enjoy!

Trip

"Well guess what? Those glasses are built from gauges. Gauges! Baby Gauges!"

"Hours returns. What's the research on?"

"Uses them normally."