Title Goes Here

Face Off

2011-10-10T17:22:00.001-07:00

Breakin Bad Season4 Finale

Fuuuuuuuhhhh!!!!1

Chinese White Bicycles at The Mucky Duck

2011-10-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

Joe Boyd read extracts from his book White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960's and Robyn Hitchcock played tunes from the era by the Incredible String Band, Syd Barret, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan.

After the show, Hitchcock played for about an hour unamplified outside on the patio. I was sitting just behind him, close enough to touch him. Every so often he would ask what people wanted to hear. I would pause for about two seconds, to give other people a chance, then I would pipe up. At my request he played Chinese Bones, Queen of Eyes, Visions of Johanna. He also played the Doors' Crystal Ship and a number of other tunes of his own and other people's. And then after that he just sat down, lit up a cigarette, and chatted with members of the crowd. To say this was a special night for me would be a bit of an understatement.

Found dog

2007-05-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

While driving home on Sunday afternoon, my daughter and I saw a dog sitting by the side of the freeway off-ramp. The way he was wandering around on and off the freeway and the exit ramp, I don’t think he would have lived very much longer if we hadn’t stopped and picked him up.

On Monday evening my wife and I walked him around the neighborhood where we found him. I had expected him to lift up his head and sniff the air as soon as we got out of the car and lead us straight to his home. Well that didn’t happen. We put up some flyers in the local convenience store and launderette. Today his owner called and he’s coming to collect him tonight.

He’s stayed with us all week and I have to say I’ve become quite attached to him. I haven’t owned a dog before and the way he would pick up his head and wag his tail whenever he saw me was very charming. He’s a chow/lab mix about eight years old, very friendly and sweet natured. The cats were a bit freaked out when we brought him into the house but it seemed like they were adjusting. I foresee a trip to the local SPCA in our very near future.

Alasdair shreds

2007-05-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

The Clientele has released some great cds. They specialize in gentle, jangly guitars, subtle arrangements, and emotionally vulnerable lyrics. What you might not realize if you haven’t seen them live is the way Alasdair can metamorphize into a flat out, balls to the wall, rock ‘n’ roll guitar god. Despite being fairly drunk last night, hitting several bum notes, and misreading the set list, when it came to let rip on the solos, he shredded. If shredded is the word I’m looking for.

Next time The Clientele comes to town, if I’m lucky enough for there to be a next time, I’m bringing everyone I know: friends, family, people from work, everyone. I’m going to pack that smoky little dump called Walter’s On Washington with civilians who will all leave devoted Clientele fans, each clutching at least one cd and a T-shirt apiece. It’s a promise.

Always at this time of year

2007-05-14T14:03:00.001-07:00

Small heaps of sawdust on the back patio as the carpenter bees make their homes in the wooden beams above.

Mocking birds dive bombing our cat as he patrols the front and back yards.

A perversion of pleasure

2007-05-08T12:27:00.001-07:00

The theologians tell us that cruelty comes from the devil, and this may be the ultimate cause, for it is most certainly evil in intent. But in its immediate cause I do believe that true cruelty comes from a perversion of pleasure, for the cruel man enjoys the torment he inflicts on others and, like an experienced musician with his viol or virginal, can play upon his instrument and make all manner of harmony, exciting torment and humiliation, distress and empty anger, shame, regret and fear at will. Some can produce all of these, together and singly, with the most delicate touches, sometimes playing more loudly on his subject until the motion excited in the mind is all but unbearable, then more softly so that the misery is summoned gently and with seductive delight. Such a man as Grove was an artist in his cruelty, for he played for the pleasure of his creation, and the delight of his skill.

Iain Pears
An Instance of the Fingerpost

More Gore

2007-05-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

...there is no such thing as a homosexual or heterosexual person. There are only homo- or heterosexual acts. Most people are a mixture of impulses if not practices, and what anyone does with a willing partner is of no social or cosmic significance.

So why all the fuss? In order for a ruling class to rule, there must be arbitrary prohibitions. Of all prohibitions, sexual taboo is the most useful because sex involves everyone. To be able to lock up someone or deprive them of employment because of his sex life is a very great power indeed, and one seldom used in civilized societies. But although the United States is the best and most perfect of earth’s societies and our huddled masses earth’s envy, we have yet to create a civilization, as opposed to a way of life. This is why we have allowed our governors to divide the population into two teams. One team is good, godly, straight; the other is evil, sick, vicious...

Gore Vidal
Tennessee Williams: Someone To Laugh At The Squares With
The New York Review of Books
June 13, 1985

A star is born

2007-05-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

I saw my daughter dance at her school Spring Choir Concert yesterday evening. It was awesome.

Heckuva job, Douggie!

2007-04-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

Heard on NPR's Morning Edition this morning.

(Steve Inskeep) Now let’s clarify a statement heard in our profile of a former Bush administration official. We replayed tape of the TV satirist Stephen Colbert about pre-war intelligence on Iraq.

(Stephen Colbert) A new report by the Pentagon’s Inspector General says that intelligence linking to Iraq and Al-Qaeda was manipulated by the administration, specifically by the former under secretary of defense, Douglas Feith.

(Steve Inskeep) Mr. Feith wrote us to say that the Pentagon report did not say that intelligence was quote manipulated; rather the Pentagon did find that Feith’s office produced quote alternative intelligence assessments in a manner that was quote inappropriate.

Thanks for the clarification, Douggie!.

The spoils of war

2007-03-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

The defense budget is 3/4 of a trillion dollars. Profits went up last year well over 25%. I guarantee you, when war becomes that profitable, you're going to see more of it.

~Chalmers Johnson
Why We Fight

A peculiarity of American sexual mores

2007-02-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

A peculiarity of American sexual mores is that those men who like to think of themselves as exclusively and triumphantly heterosexual are convinced that the most masculine of all activities is not tending to the sexual need of women but watching other men play games. I have never understood this aspect of my countrymen but I suppose there is a need for it (bonding?), just as the Romans had a need to see people being murdered. Perhaps there is a connection between the American male’s need to watch athletes and his fatness: according to a W.H.O report, the American male is the world’s fattest and softest; this might explain why he also loves guns—you can always get your revolver up.

~Gore Vidal, The Top Ten Best Sellers According To The Sunday New York Times As Of January 7, 1973 (essay).

2007-02-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

~Treaty with Tripoli drafted in 1796 under George Washington and signed by John Adams in 1979

What you been reading?

2007-02-01T14:16:00.000-08:00

I saw my wife's new copy of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning on the kitchen counter the other day. I told her I liked it much better than the squel, Woman's Search for a Husband. Luckily, she seemed amused.

I have just finished Richard Dawkin's new book, The God Delusion. I like Dawkin's books for several reasons: he's pithy and convincing and reading him always makes me feel smart. On the other hand, unlike his other books about evolution, this one seems a little pointless.

In the last couple of months I also consumed a couple more Charles Willeford novels and Hannibal Rising. I see the movie opens in a couple of weeks sans Anthony Hopkins. How long can you milk a dead horse?

The Mask Of Sanity

2006-07-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

...Dr. Herbert Kleckley [sic], in his groundbreaking work on serial killers, The Mask Of Sanity, discusses this phenomenon, where the career sociopath, vestigially aware of his character, emulates normalcy by overcompensating-becoming a scoutmaster, crisis-line counselor, a Republican fund-raiser...

~Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential

It seems that the author's name is actually Dr. Hervey M. Cleckley, but let's not let a detail like that interfere with our enjoyment of this quotation from Bourdain's wonderfully funny and hair-raising account of his life as a professional chef. This is an excerpt from the chapter dedicated to "uncontrollable idiot savant and baking genius Adam Real-Last-Name-Unknown."

Voter Registration Card

2006-04-27T07:18:00.000-07:00

I received my voter registration card last week. Some things are going to change around here, let me tell you.

2006-04-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

Psychic Dissonance

2006-04-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Support our troops ribbon decals on the back of humungous SUVs. (Who makes those things anyway? Where do the profits go?)

Diet soda

amazon.com customer service shines

2006-04-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

After being disappointed before by certain firms' attitudes towards their customers, I was dreading a run in with amazon.com.

For years I've been telling people who are nervous about on-line shopping that I've been doing business with amazon.com for years and I've almost never had a problem, and on the very rare occasions when I do have a problem, their customer service people take care of me quickly and courteously.

I placed my first order with amazon.com on March 21, 1997. I ordered The Transition of H. P. Lovecraft: The Road to Madness, A Rendezvous in Averoigne: The Best Fantastic Tales of Clark Ashton Smith, and Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos: Golden Anniversary Anthology. I remember being so thrilled to be able to order these books. The last two were published by Arkham House, the publishing firm set up by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, H. P. Lovercraft devotees, with the purpose of keeping the master's work in print. I knew that Arkham House was still in business because I found their website, but I received no reply to my enquiries and for some reason my local bookshop could not order copies. Then I found them on amazon.com. I was thrilled!

Recently I signed up for a thirty day free trial of their Amazon Prime program. $80/year for unlimited two-day shipping. I'm pretty sure I don't buy enough books to make this worth while for me, but what could I lose on a free trial, right? Well, inevitably, when the trial period elapsed on April 1, I had neglected to cancel, and my credit card was charged $80. Dang. It's not like they didn't give me plenty of warning either. I even placed an order the day before the trial period elapsed. Why didn't I cancel my membership then? (As well to ask, why do I have $10 in unpaid fines at the Houston Public Library? I believe it's spelled procrastination)

So I emailed their customer support and asked them to cancel my membership. Given my recent experiences with afore-mentioned certain other firms, I was expecting the usual "unfortunately..." I am delighted to report that I was completely wrong. The credit card charge was reversed the same day. No questions asked. It reminds me what the word service in customer service means. It's a good reminder of what the word customer is supposed to mean, too.

Pandora

2006-04-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

Uh-oh. There goes what little remained of my "free time".

http://www.pandora.com

Shame it doesn't integrate directly to Napster as it does to amazon.com and iTunes. I wonder if there's some kind of tie-in?

Green Mountain Energy & Optel: Two customer service departments that don't

2006-04-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

In January, and then again in February, Green Mountain Energy lost my check. In March they sent me a letter threatening to disconnect me unless I made a payment. I called their Customer “Service” department and explained the situation. I made a credit card payment for the full amount and informed them that I would stop payment on the two checks. I guess the checks must have turned up because a month later I noticed tucked away on the back of the latest bill under “other charges” that they had added a $25 returned check fee, for the checks they lost, which they had been informed that I was going to stop payment on. Once again, I called the Customer “Service” department but I was told that unfortunately they would not be able to back the charge out.

When a company tells you they appreciate your business, it’s rare for them to put a dollar amount on that appreciation. In Green Mountain Energy’s case, apparently my business was worth less than $25.

At least I got straight through when I called, unlike Optel. I used to have Optel cable “service” when I lived in an apartment complex. One time, while trying to straighten out a similar billing snafu, I waited fifteen minutes listening to a recorded message telling me how important my call was to them. Finally the voice told me to try again later without giving me an opportunity to leave a message or a call back number. When I finally did get to speak to a human being, it took three or four calls, even faxing the copies of my checks that they had deposited before I could get them to refund the $35 fee that had erroneously billed me. At the same time, Optel were soliciting my long-distance phone and high speed internet business. They didn’t get it.

I’m really mystified by this kind of behavior. In both cases, I had been a customer of the company for several years and had never missed a payment. I’ve been comped more than $35 in coffee from a Starbucks store that I’ve been using half as long as I used either of these businesses. And in both these cases, I don't feel like what I received from either of these companies could fairly be described as "service," at least not in any sense of the word that I am familar with. (Soon-to-be former) Customer Aggravation department would be a much more accurate description.

I NYC

2006-03-22T12:01:00.000-08:00

Well, who doesn't?

My wife and I spent five days in the big apple last week. We hit all the high spots.

The evening of our arrival, a windy Wednesday, we spent at Dangerfield's comedy club, only a couple of blocks from where we were staying. Would you believe the M.C. had never heard of our glorious gubernatorial candidate and fellow Jew Kinky Friedman? This does not bode well for the international Jewish conspiracy we've all been hearing so much about lately.

Thursday was memorable for a quick visit to De La Concha Cigars on 6th Ave a couple of blocks South of Central Park. Equipped with a couple of their own-brand smokes, we strolled through Central Park. We sat on the steps of Bethesda Terrace and consumed a delicious curried egg salad sandwich prepared for us by our host and a pretzel with plenty of mustard, after which my lovely wife enjoyed communion with the Robert Rauschenberg exhibition at the Met. I poked my head around the door and decided I would rather spend the time with the Chinese, Japanese, and medieval art. No great Rauschenberg fan I.

Friday mid-morning I realized that the caffeine-free lifestyle of my hosts was having some fairly serious consequences for my well-being. Luckily, one of the marks of the high level of civilization of this great metropolis is that one one is never more than a few steps from a great cup of 100% Colombian coffee, or caw-fee, as the natives have it. That and a Ritter Sport hazelnut bar fixed me right up. We spent the early part of the afternoon at the Cloisters and then journeyed back downtown by metro for a walk through Washington Square Park and up 5th Ave for dinner at Bonobo's Vegetarian Restaurant. Later we attended a talk at the NYC Shambhala Meditation Center: I forget the topic, if topic in any conventional sense of the word there was.

Saturday we visited the Gugenheim and MOMA, although we did no more than stand in the foyer of the latter, overwhelmed by the crowd, before deciding to leave to find pizza, handcream, and a little r&r before the rigors of the evening: Les Ballet Africains at NYU's Skirball Hall from 8-10, followed by Bill Laswell's METHOD OF DEFIANCE (featuring Dr. Israel and Submerged, Richard Devine, Enduser, DJ Force) at the Knitting Factory.

I think by the time we were done, we'd had our New York experience.

Mrs. Wilson's Children

2005-12-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

I spent the morning tripping heavily down memory lane, reminiscing about the music scene in Hull in the late seventies. I was a member of Cool To Snog, a band who contributed a cut to Mrs Wilson’s Children, a compilation album of bands from Hull. Googling Mrs. Wilson's Children this morning led me here.

I moved to London in 1980 to go to Uni. I rehearsed and gigged with Cool To Snog and recorded the Mrs. Wilson's Children track on visits back to Hull. The first incarnation of Cool To Snog was Sharren (vox), Cari Brown (guitar), me on (fretless) bass, and Dave on drums. I could not tune my bass, let alone play it properly, but it didn't matter because no-one else could play their instruments either.

It seems that the highpoint of my musical career (so far) was becoming one of Mrs’s Wilson’s Children as Cool To Snog's *original* bassist. There have been many pretenders to that title since but I was indisputedly the first. The album was named after Mrs Wilson, who ran the Wellington Club on Beverley Road. The Welly had long since perfected the formula of live music, cheap booze, and a door policy that was lenient on age while still managing to stop any violence before it started. A good trick if you can pull it off. It's still going strong to this day.

The album came out in 1981 and as far as I can tell didn’t do shit for anyone’s careers. Cool To Snog’s track was called out for special attention as the second worst on the album. I always said we should have used the dub version of our cut for the album. It sucked as badly as the vocal version, but at least it sounded intentionally bad. I think I still have a copy of the album if anyone wants a tape.

My brother Chris also contributed a track to Mrs. Wilson's Children under the name of Psychologic. His track, in case you were wondering, was considered the first worst. Chris can still be found around town on open mic night. I backed him up on bass guitar for a version of Iggy Pop's Lust For Life a couple of weeks ago at the Tap and Spile on Spring Bank. My first public performance in many a year. Someone started a fight just as we started. It was great.

My other bands, and I'm only mentioning this to shame the guilty, were Mental Block, Section 60, Bad At It, and Straw Man Special.

Mental Block was me on vocals, Paul Trynka (guitar), Jas Ardis (Bass), and Grant Ardis (drums). I can't remember if we even did any gigs. Maybe the Hull Tech Bar Club. Definitely no proper gigs like the Welly. I was sniffing around Penny Lister (later the dominatrix of The Special Guests and The Defectors) at the time and I might have intimated to her that we had an opening for a backing singer, but she never officially joined the band and I never officially [deleted for reasons of good taste] her opening.

Mr. Trynka left Mental Block, Paul Moller appeared, and with Jas and Grant, we went on to form Section 60. As such we opened for The Mekons at Hull Tech in 197?? Bloody good show that. Blew ‘em off the stage. Heh.

The brothers Ardis kicked me out of the band (quite rightly too, I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket) and Moller split about the same time. He went on to form Blue Kitchen with Roland Gift. Roland played sax.

Straw Man Special was a one night in the Chelsea College Student Union bar band with Paul Greendale, a fellow Hullensian I met at Uni who played guitar and synthesizer, and an Indian student who was a wiz on the old tabla drums. Another great night. We brought the house down with a note-perfect rendering of Joy Division’s Transmission. Paul later released several singles as part of the two-piece Ionman.

Not exactly High Fidelity, but none the less it’s fun to chew over one’s late teens and early twenties once in a while.

Update 3/22/06: Check out the pre-release Mrs. Wilson's Children website!

Current reading

2005-08-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

"I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul's good to do each day two things they disliked: it was a wise man, and it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed."

"Why do nice women marry dull men?"
"Because intelligent men won't marry nice women."

"With the superciliousness of extreme youth, I put thirty-five as the utmost limit at which a man might fall in love without making a fool of himself."

"... the besetting sin of woman, the passion to discuss her private affairs with anyone who is willing to listen."

"An appeal to the emotions is little likely to be effectual before luncheon. My own thoughts were then constantly occupied with love, but I never could imagine conubial bliss till after tea."

from The Moon and Sixpence
by W. Somerset Maugham

This in the first forty pages. I need to stop or I'll never finish the book. Of Human Bondage seems to be generally acknowledged as his masterpiece. It's certainly his greatest achievement in terms of length. I enjoyed that and The Magician and I'm enjoying The Moon and Sixpence.

2005-08-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

No laws were ever passed saying that evolution had to be taught in biology courses. The prestige of evolutionary theory has been built by its impact on the thousands of biologists who have learned its power and usefulness in the study of living things. No laws need be passed for creationists to do the same thing. ~ Richard D. Alexander

I have been researching the debate between evolution and creationism. I read Dawkin's The River Out Of Eden and Evolution versus Creationism: The Public Education Controversy (Oryx Press, 1983), from which I got the quote above.

The first book is not Dawkin's best but it is very readable, impeccably reasoned and suffused with his delightfully irrascible personality.

The second book, although over twenty years old, is still disturbingly relevant. Although the fundamentalists' underlying argument--biblical inerrancy--hasn't advanced much since Darwin's time, one can view the evolution of their tactics as a living demonstration of the process of natural selection as less successful arguments are abandoned and the more sucessful proliferate.

August 1st Yahoo headlines

2005-08-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

As I was logging into Yahoo! mail, the following headlines caught my eye.

Bush Appoints Bolton, Bypassing Senate (AP)
Fear Over U.S.-Born Extremists Is Brewing (LA Times)

For a dizzy moment, I thought the two news items were related.

Nob Hill Cigar is no more

2005-08-01T17:08:00.000-07:00

A couple of days before we left on our trip, I'd plotted the location of several cigar stores in San Francisco. The nearest one to our hotel looked to be Nob Hill Cigar.

I left the hotel around 8am before my daughter was up and going and started climbing the hill in the direction I hoped was east. What a joy to be walking on city streets again after living in Houston for so long. H-Town has it's good side but a vibrant downtown urban scene is not one of them, despite what you'll hear from the people who want to sell you a purpose built downtown "loft".

I zigged and zagged, east and north and east and south, just enjoying the hell out of the people on the streets, the apartment building doorways, the weather, the weirdos, the corner grocery stores with fresh fruit and cut flowers spilling out onto the side walk, the smoke shops squeezed into half a store front with a service laundry.

I sought directions from a hotel concierge and so finally found Nob Hill Cigar on the corner of Sutter and Taylor. It looks like it used to be a very nice cigar store. Looking through the doors I saw glass fronted display cases all the way back, all now empty.

I'd brought a couple of smokes with me--two was all I thought I could get away with on a trip with my daughter--but I wanted to get a hold of a DryMistat humidification device to keep them in good condition. I tried a couple of other cigar stores without any luck and then gave up. I didn't want to turn the search into too much of a project.