Waaaaaaaah

This was a blast.

Ow.

I think I made my last artisan cheese run, for the next several months, last night. Roquefort - $29.99 per lb. Truffle Tremor - $24.99 per. All I got were little wedgies, and geeeeeez ....

"The Misbegotton"

Right now I'm listening to the new Charlatans CD, You Cross My Path, and from the speakers out comes the New Order song "Blue Monday" - only with different lyrics and without the signature drum program. I have to assume it's an homage of some sort. It's too close to not be.

Off Adventuring ...

I'd been meaning to and meaning to get out somewhere in the woods with Team Green for many a moon, and finally got around to it last weekend on their Pickett State Park trek. Lots of very cool rock shelves out there that I didn't get pics of, because I didn't want to carry my camera all sweaty. Instead, just some shots of what happens when grown-ups get to have the playground all to themselves.

When Did Art Become All About Violence?

Ever since the Coen Brothers, who have been making some of the finest American movies ever seen since 1984, finally won a Best Motion Picture of the Year Oscar at the Academy Awards for the ruthlessly violent No Country for Old Men, I've been bothered - not so much that violence at the box office and pretty much everywhere in pop culture simply exists, but that so much of what is considered art in pop culture has been taken over by the knock-em, sock-em, slash-em promoters. The last time Joel and Ethan Coen brought home Oscar prior to NCFOM, it was for the Fargo screenplay. In between these two violent epics was The Big Lebowski, Oh Brother, Where Are Thou? and a couple others of less repute but no less memorable.

In the decade the Coen brothers burst on the scene most arty fare was directed at women and socially-conscious-types. A Room With a View, Bagdad Cafe (Out of Rosenheim); Wings of Desire, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Das Boot and the Coen brothers' own Raising Arizona were all art-house smashes that audiences flocked to as an antidote to Sylvester Stallone, mindless (if entertaining) comedies, and predictable, Meryl Streep-laden Oscar heavies.

When Quentin Tarantino scored commercially and artistically with Pulp Fiction, everything changed. Nothing against QT or his films, but it feels like Hollywood and others have confused the violence depicted in that movie and others with their underlying themes. Now, even art-house movies have to go "boom" in order to be promoted and I'm relieved to not be the only one to notice and think there's something askew about it.

Paste Magazine takes on the subject in their October issue. I'm not sure when it hits the news-stands but there's a .pdf version online.

In Honor of the CERN Particle Collider - The Cat Empire

Happy to see I'm not the only person who out-and-out loves "Protons, Neutrons, Electrons":

Delta Spirit Vids

We managed to shoot a handful; here's "Trashcan" live at NSN:


More here

Don't You Hate It When

You're all hasty and try to take a pic?





Working on getting the vids. Really.

Monday Morning Ramble

Oh jeez, that was good. Talking about last night's Nashville Sunday Night w/Seth Kaufman, Delta Spirit, & Dr. Dog. Later today or tomorrow, there will be video.

Tired But Happy

From the Squeeze / Aimee Mann show last night. There are more in the 100 photo gallery.