OMG! This is a muppet version of Peaches "F*** the pain away."


I think this might have made it onto Muppets Tonight if they were on HBO.

Yesterday as I was walking to Faeries from work I was listening to the B-52s album, and it got round to "Love in the Year 3000." My brain just started whirling. What would that look like? Alien lovers, robots, electronic erogenous zones, barbarella wonderlands...

Just thinking.

I've been in New York since Thursday night. I've got a TON of notes about all kinds of awesomely cool comic, manga and anime news. But I'm going to be saving those for later. I'm just going to share some quick anecdotes about the weekend.

The Chinatown Bus: This is the most efficient and fast paced ride that I've ever taken. It was great, fast, cheap and dropped me off in a prime location. So, I'll definitely be down with going that route again.

The Hotel: The hotel I stayed at was basically a tenement house that was converted into two buildings of hotel rooms. Good, cheap, upper west-side location, just a block or two down from the 1,2,3 subway stop at 96th. Though the "cable" is like a few channels and then a bunch of public access. Completely worth it, and a great neighborhood.

Europan Bakery: this was an AMAZING bakery near the hotel. We had breakfast there two mornings and dinner one night. It was that good.

The Con: I spent most of my time in panels, listening to tons of news and one recurring annoying guy trying to break into the comics industry always asking every publisher if they'll take his book during the Q&A session.

The Ramones: On Saturday night we didn't have anything to do and we were thinking about getting cheap food. So we went down to 2nd Avenue and went to an indian place. We spent about $30.00 together, and as I'm sitting there eating my chicken vindaloo it hit me:

Hanging out on second avenue
eating chicken vindaloo
I just want to be with you
I just want to have something to do
Tonight, tonight, tonight.

The spirit of Joey Ramone guided us to our destiny that night. And we had curry and something to do.

Books: I got a bag full of books. Mostly I got four books by Koji Suzuki for $30.00 at the Vertical Publishing booth at the con. Ring, Spiral, Loop and Birthday. And yes, it's that "Ring." The first three pages are pretty terrifying. I can't wait to read the rest. As for comics, I got a bunch of sneak preview titles, but not much beyond that. I was kinda broke the most of the weekend. I've wanted to get the Suzuki books for a while and 4 books for $30 was an offer I couldn't refuse.

Shops: I went to Kinokuniya in bryant park. It was nice, but I think I like the Seattle store better. It's just laid out a little better. We were going to go to Mood and the Strand, but time just seemed to get the better of us.

Bryant Park: Saw Bryant Park. It's not terribly big either. I would have expected it to be something much much larger, given its prominence in the fashion industry.

People: Met up with dmlaenker, bobo_dreams, and Tracy who I work with at the library. I saw Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer, James Urbaniak and another guy from the Venture Bros (which was THE BEST panel at Comic Con ever). Saw Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz of the X-Files, and Ralph Bakshi (on separate panels). UPDATE I totally forgot I saw Jim Butcher and got him to sign book one of Codex Alera.

Shows: Got to see Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica on a giant theater projection screen with about 600 people. It was AWESOME! Got to see the preview for the X-Files movie, and preview for the new season of Venture Bros.

And the battery is getting low on the laptop. Gotta run.

Later Folks!

My wonderful, fabulous, amazingly caring partner bought me the new B-52s cd "Funplex."

IT'S TOTALLY INCREDIBLY AWESOME!

I loaded it into my iPod and listened to the first 5 tracks as I was heading to work yesterday morning. HOLY GOD. I was compelled to dance like a maniac. I was literally dancing myself down the street to the bus stop listening to "PUMP." By the time we got to "FUNPLEX" (which is track 5) I felt like I was in another world. I was completely drawn into the whole experience.

I told JD that this album felt like it was meant to be listened to in your ears. Of course I was at a loss for words, and meant to say that it felt like this album was intentionally meant to be listened to on headphones or earbuds. Though listening to it privately almost seems like a sin. This is meant to be shared with the world. This is meant to wake people up and party.

This is the most important rock album in years. It's like a wake up call to the music world saying "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! Just ROCK, and all will be well."

I haven't bought an album in forever. Hell, I didn't even buy this one, but I was going to. Most of the things that I've heard over the last few years have been absolute garbage. I don't want to listen to pop boys or girls who can't sing warbling into a synthesizer. I have been so jaded about new music for the last maybe 8 years. I didn't go to concerts in Seattle, I've only been to one since I moved here and it was a Tori Amos sit down show at the Warner Theater. Nothing has compelled me to dance, not even the last Madonna album. This makes you get up and dance. It gets into your soul and you are slung onto a dancefloor, arms and legs going in a glorious frenzy of ecstatic joy.

I want music that's fun. It doesn't have to be artsy or clever or even terribly good, but it has to be FUN. This album is BEYOND FUN. I understand why they called it FUNPLEX, because there is nothing else could capture the level of fun this album has in one word. They haven't lost a single moment of joy in this whole album. It's incredible.

This is an album to buy. A band to love. If I thought buying multiple copies would be worthwhile I would totally do it. I hope that other musicians out there stand up and listen. I hope they get the hint. Music should be fun. Music is meant to inspire joy. Parties need good party music, and not just random dance tracks from a nameless techno band.

To Fred, Kate, Cindy and Keith, you guys are awesome. Beyond awesome. I honor you with the dances I do on the sidewalks of DC. I honor you with the pleasure coursing through my body. I honor you with all the breath in my body and the blood pumping through my ecstatic heart.

May you rock unto the edge of the universe and back.

nataliedee.com

I love Natalie Dee.

Squaring the Circle will be vending tonight at the Pagan Band Jam in College Park MD. We'll be selling tarot decks, wall hangings, hoodies and more. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by, say hi, and help support a good business.

I don't know why, but I've seen more musicals in the last two weeks than I think I've ever watched in my entire life. Two classic, two new. Here's some synopsis and review for you all.

Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are the central couple of this grisly musical. Tim Burton is obviously madly in love with the both of them, as they are pretty much in every movie he has ever made. This is a text book Tim Burton movie, with people looking like turn of the century London was always goth. The lyrics are by Stephen Sondheim, and is full of his signature wit and turn of phrase. Personally I don't think that Johnny Depp and Helena B.C. can sing all that well, but they're serviceable. Best moment in the film was the best song in my opinion, "Have a little Priest." It's funny, it's dark, and the ending is utterly tragic. Overall, I really liked it, but it felt like it needed something more. B+/A-

Best Little Whorehouse in Texas: Dolly Parton plays Miss Mona the madame of the chicken ranch, a fine texas institution where good old boys get their jollys. Burt Reynolds is the county sheriff who's in love with Miss Mona, and who does everything in his power to keep her cathouse open. Full of earworm songs that you'll never forget (hell I haven't stopped singing them since Christmas). It's a story about love, societal change, the harshness of the media and the stupidity of politics. I absolutely love it. Best moment: The Watchdog Report #1, "Texas has a whorehouse in it!" I could sing that song for days. Overall, totally loved it, everything worked from costumes to music to story. A

Tommy: The Who's classic rock opera Tommy was made into a feature film by Ken Russell (Lair of the White Worm). I used to love the music from Tommy. There was something deeply moving about childhood trauma and overcoming obstacles that gripped me. But watching the film again completely destroyed that. For one, Ann Margaret and Oliver Reed CAN'T SING! And they were like half of the movie. They were grossly out of tune on nearly every song, and the ridiculous acting made it worse. Oliver Reed was at least kind of believable, but Ann Margaret was just blah. Her completely irrelevant sploshing scene with the baked beans and the chocolate sauce was the highlight of her acting in the film. The bad singing continued to Uncle Ernie and Cousin Kevin whose names I'm not even going to bother to look up. I thought that Billy Idol and Phil Collins played those roles, but research revealed those came later in several live performances. The other bad thing about Tommy was that the film, which tried to smooth over the leaps in time and disjointedness of the plot, was that it was still extremely disjointed. That's a problem of the musical itself though, as the songs are more of a pastiche than a coherent narrative. It's basically one song for every character who waltzes through Tommy's life, and there's a whirlwind of characters, very few of which make any kind of repeat performance. Not even in the culminating scenes of the film where we could have seen the Acid Queen and the pinball champ come back in an attempt for salvation. Overall, I thought it was horribly horribly bad. I still like elements of the original Who album, but the film just sucked. F-

Hooray for cuddling with friends and watching shitty programming on VH1!

Hooray for going to chinese and a movie on Christmas! It makes me feel so urban.

FYI: Sweeney Todd was AWESOME! I laughed, I was horrified, I was saddened and I was like WHAT! It was great. Part of the fun of not being a musical theater queen is that I'm constantly shocked by shows that have been around forever. My favorite was the pie song where they're looking at people out the window and talking about their flavor. It was glorious. Visually stunning and well sung. Though Johnny Depp does sing over Helena Bonham Carter a bit much. Beautifully gory. Loved it.

I came home round 5:00ish and watched "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." I've always loved this movie. It was one of those shows that we would watch whenever it came on. Ironically I always wanted to play Melvin P. Thorpe, the TV bastard because I loved his song "Texas has a whorehouse in it!" I would never be that much of a prude, but it's hysterically funny at how over the top it is. Plus, his outfits are absolutely ridiculous.

Have you ever wondered what the hell song they're playing on those Nintendo Wii commercials? I've wondered for months, because it's fucking awesome.

After a quick round of googling I've discovered that it's a remix of the Yoshida Brothers, who play the Shamisen. The song is entitled "KODO - Inside the Sun."

Here's the original.



And here's a Naruto AMV to the remix of Inside the Sun that they play on the Wii commercials all the time.



Incidentally the album with the remix, Yoshida Brothers vol. 2, is available on iTunes.

So, JD and I have been having this recurring conversation about Michael Jackson and the rounds and rounds of scary plastic surgery and the god knows where he's going with that look kinds of feelings we both had. JD had told me a long time ago that he thought that now that he'd moved beyond the looking-like-Sigourney-Weaver phase that he was going more for an anime bishonen character look.

And when I saw this months cover of Ebony magazine I realized it was true.

And come to think of it he looks like Hiroshi Nakano from the series Gravitation.

Huh.

For Vatoengland

She saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's...

And that kind of joke is yet another reason why I love Wonderella.

I can't tell you how much I'm loving Amy Winehouse's "Rehab." The video makes it even better, because you can tell that she really ought to get her ass to rehab. And maybe the cheesecake factory to pack on a pound or two.

So, I'm sitting here listening to the Supremes, like I do, and it got round to "Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart" and it triggered a memory of a movie. The movie in question is a little known new wave sci-fi comedy called Doin' Time On Planet Earth. For a fuller synopsis of the movie read this article from the AV Club.

The scene in question is a terrible lounge band full of old men in gold lame jackets playing in the revolving restaurant on top of the holiday inn in Sunnydale Arizona, right before the main character tries to set it spinning so fast that it could take off as a flying saucer taking the awkward teenager and his alien friends (Adam West among them) off to planet B-52. This old man, the lead singer of the band, face full of bloodshot veins like he's been on a bender for years, who has no sense of pitch or key, is wearing this jacket, singing in the revolving restaurant, just delivering the lines to "Love is like an itching in my heart" with all the fervor a 70 year old shitty lounge singer can muster, with all of the heart scratching motions and tearing his gold jacket open for the audience... It's absolutely priceless. I will never forget that scene.

And while the B-52's make no direct appearance, there are women with giant bouffants and B-52's album covers go swirling all through the film in a crazed psychedelic kind of way. And it's got Adam West! And shitty lounge singing! And pretenses of aliens! Oh, what a wonderful bit of trash.

God I need to find that movie.

I worked downtown today, and that's fun, because I get to dig through the CD's in the music division. I've decided that I'm going to make trips there regularly. When you can check out 10 cd's at a time for free for three weeks... Yeah, it's pretty fucking awesome.

Today I picked up the following. It's a lot of Best Of stuff, but they're all excellent.

1. Rolling Stones / Forty Licks
2. Alice in Chains / Greatest Hits (BEST "Best Of" EVER! --F)
3. Bob Dylan / The Essential
4. Nirvana / Unplugged in New York
5. Prince / The Very Best of Prince
6. The Clash / London Calling
7. Queen / Greatest Hits
8. Jimi Hendrix Experience / Are You Experienced?
9. Led Zeppelin / Houses of the Holy (it's not Physical Graffiti, but it's pretty damn good, --F)

The guy at the checkout counter said "Damn, is there anything good left?"
I told him a few, because I could only check out so many at a time.

It feels so good to listen to this stuff again. I feel like I'm back in high school again.

Some of you will remember when I last posted the video of the thousand arm bodhisattva dance. Well, I should have guessed that it would make its way into some music video or other eventually. But this one is a little trippy.



Enjoy.

I just spent the last, oh, four hours cleaning out my room. I threw out four full large lawn and leaf bags of trash and a plastic hamper full of trash as well. I'm still not done with this bedroom overhaul, but it's substantially improved. Of course the spare room now has a bunch of stuff in it. One thing at a time.

Things I found:

* About 300 pictures, from various trips and times in my life.
* The scripts from my brother's wedding and mostlie_sunnie & shrike
* My Sandman poster autographed by Neil Gaiman
* An autographed photo of Robert Gant from Queer as Folk
* The Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics!
* Lots of tax papers
* Every pair of earplugs JD has ever used
* And more dust than you would ever believe

It's been an ordeal, and I'm greatly pleased with my progress.

And now I take a shower and hit the bed.

Oh, and to queenlaura75, that Louis Jordan box set you sent me is AWESOME! I finally got around to listening to it and it's got me wanting to swing again just like the old days at Jefferson Hall. An interesting song on there was "stone cold dead in the market" all about some woman killing her husband in the market place cause he beat her, and "beware" all about the signs that a woman is out to get you to marry her.

Beware

Fellas, listen to me,

You see these girls with these fine diamonds
With fox furs and fine clothes
Well jack, they're lookin for a husband
And you're listening to a man that knows
They ain't foolin
And if you fool around with em
You'll get yourself a schoolin'
If she's sayin she'll dough and won't go to a show
Beware brother, beware!
and if she's easy to kiss and never resists
Beware brother beware!
And if you go for a walk and she just listens while you talk
She's trying to hook you
And if nobody's lookin and she asks you to taste her cookin
Don't do it!
And if you go to a show and she wants to sit in the back row
Bring her down front
And if you go for a snack and she wants a booth in the back
She's trying to hook you
And if she's used to caviar and fine silk
And when she goes out with you she wants a hot dog and a malted milk
She's been used to going to Carnegie Hall
And when you take her out nightclubbing she just wants to hear one meatball
If she grabs your hand and says 'Darlin you're such a nice man'
Beware, I'm tellin you
Listen to me
If her sister calls you brother, you better get further
I'm tellin you
And If she's kinda wild and she says 'darlin please give me a trial'
Don't give it to her!
If she looks in your face and just melts into place
Let her melt!
Listen, if she calls you on the phone and says 'darlin are you all alone'
Tell her no, you got three girls with you
If you turn out the light, and she don't fight
That's the end, it's too late then, she got you hooked
You're just as well to stick with her
Put down that racing form and pay attention to me
If you get home about two
And you don't know what to do
And you pull back the curtain
And the whole family's lookin' at you
Get your business straight
And set a date
And don't be late
So brother beware!
Beware!
Beware!
Brother you better beware!

I don't know why, but all of a sudden I had this urge to just download some Sinead O'Connor music. Specifically, The Emperor's New Clothes. Since that was one of thost songs that I kind of resonated with in school. Frenetic, thinking you're under control, when your actions just give away how NOT in control you are. There's something palpably energetic in the music, and the vocals with their carefully selected harmonies that highlight poignant parts of the lyrics. It still resonates with me, as I was walking to work. Sure, maybe the lyrics are more about being hormonally imbalanced as a result of pregnancy, but the feeling is what gets me.

( Emperor's New Clothes - Lyrics )

The New Young Pony Club album "Fantastic Playroom" which has a fantastic track entitled "The Bomb" on it is now available on iTunes, and I just bought it, and it's super fun.

Go, listen, dance, enjoy!

The other day JD and I were discussing the various meanings of the Pink Floyd song "Wish you were here." Personally it always conjured up in me general feelings of loss and longing to see the world in different way.

Until this morning.

I was singing it in the shower and thinking about the words, and it totally hit me. Syd Barrett. Yes, I know, if I was a true Pink Floyd fan I would have known that Wish You Were Here (the album) was written in honor of Syd Barrett and that the album itself was the last time that Syd actually met with the previous members of Pink Floyd. I didn't know that until just now when I looked it up.

This morning I was just overcome with emotion as it sank in how sad and painful that song is. The lyrics seem an attempt to reveal reality to someone lost in a state of unknowing despair. But then, who is really the one in despair? The one who sees the cold steel rail for what it is or the one who sees the green field in its place? Who knows better?

I could envision Syd, blasted out of his mind from all the acid in a state of delusion in the madhouse and Roger Waters looking at him and just having a total emotional breakdown. Hell, I had an emotional breakdown just thinking about it. Thank god it hit me in the shower and not on the way to work or something.

So, I looked up the wikipedia article on Syd Barrett and lo and behold Roger Waters did have a total emotional breakdown when Syd attended the wish you were here sessions. Apparantly the scene in The Wall where Bob Geldof shaves off all his hair was a reference to seeing Syd at that session, completely shaven.

I didn't know that he just died last year.

May he rest in a colorful world.

On Thursday night, rather than going straight home we went out to Bailey's Crossroads and went to Trader Joe's.

We went to the store for hotdogs and wine.

I'm not kidding.

I couldn't stop laughing when I realized what we were doing, and that we weren't doing it for an intentionally ironic B-52's reference, but because that's ACTUALLY why we went to the store.

ASTRO-PROJECTOR!