Let's Drill!

OK, I have put up the 'bare-bones' demo version of the
song with a short shelf-life.

You will find it if you drill HERE.

Infrequent Lugubrious Ramblings

It's a good thing I am not obligated to write on schedule. Really.

Fortune cookie wisdom: "The mightiest oak in the forest is just a little nut that held its ground."

I have to hope THAT one is true . . or I'm screwed.


Actual conversation I had with a client/patient the other day:

Me: "What would you like for lunch?"
C/P: "Do we have any ham?"
Me: "Yes."
C/P: "Do we have any cheese?"
Me: "Yes."
C/P: "Then I'd like a ham and cheese sandwich. But give me a lot of
cheese and only one slice of ham."
Me: "Why?"
C/P: "Because I don't like ham and the cheese will kill the taste of it."




You know what's funny? I frequently play in bands at venues all around the area where I grew up (northshore MA). After almost 30 years of gigs, I have only seen ONE person I knew from my youth, and that happened about 19 years ago. Where did they all go? On the other hand . . . when I went to NYC for one of the Cream shows a few years back, I ran into a bunch of people I knew (though not from my youth). Go figure. I guess it's possible that my natural ability to repel people only radiates out about 200 miles - that would explain the NYC cluster. Then again, maybe my hometown just sucked so much that everyone had to leave. Of course, these days, it looks like every other town - they finally have their mini-malls and Starbucks . . .which saves me the trouble of having to go back, since I've got those in NH. Oh, yeah, and I don't know anyone there.



Wait . . it's not true! There WAS another guy . . I got a call to fill in for some band's ailing bass player back around 1995, and the band's guitar player was a guy I knew from high school. OK, so I'm either a liar or have early-onset Alzheimer's. But, I never saw that guy again and don't remember the name of the band. That could be a clue . . .


I never went to any of those high school reunion things, but I did get this observation from a friend who went to his: "All the women are hotter and all the men are fat and/or bald."

Well, there you go.

Hey, what do you do after your record company has already put your old LP out on CD, and then after you have put it out again yourself as a 'remastered' CD??

Why......put it out yourself (again), half-speed and/or reversed!!!!!
...of course!

Example:

Fripp & Eno - No Pussyfooting
1: 1-5 "The Heavenly Music Corporation"
6-7 "Swastika Girls"
8-12 "The Heavenly Music Corporation" (reversed)
CD 2: 1-5 "The Heavenly Music Corporation" (half speed)
6-7 "Swastika Girls" (reversed)

-----------------------------------------------


What a great idea! This should be done with EVERY record ever made!!!
. . . um . . . well . . . maybe not. Let's start with old Partridge Family
records and see where it takes us.

Speaking of 'old' recordings . . . do you ever attach emotions to particular songs/albums that take years to overcome, if ever? My quest to 'listen to all my CDs' (yeah, I'm still at it) has brought me to Ani Difranco's "To The Teeth". When this one came out, we lived in a really shitty apartment with a complete tool of a landlord. It was hell. And for the longest time, I couldn't listen to this CD because it reminded me of living in that dump and dealing with that shithead. The spell must have broken, because I actually got through the whole disc without wanting to punch someone! :)

About two weeks ago, I wrote a song about a fictitious couple named John & Sarah. I had some grand plan about a full band and a female singer for the Sarah lines - alas, the troops could not be roused sufficiently to do the thing before its shelf-life (hopefully) expires. So instead I cut a bare-bones guitar/voc demo version. I suppose I need to post it up somewhere. There could be at least three people who'd get a laugh from it. And wouldn't that make it all worthwhile??? What can I say? I'm a giver.

Yeah.

Back To 1974

Gas lines . . .

Yesterday, a local branch of a credit union staged a "thanking our customers" PR stunt in conjunction with the gas station around the corner from my house. For six or seven hours, they sold gas for $1.99/gallon.

As a result, there was a traffic backup well over a mile long. Here it is outside my house:


I did the math on this one . . . I had a half-tank of gas already - my car only holds eight gallons - so . . . I could wait in line for an hour or more to buy four gallons at a savings of $1.40/gallon, while burning the gas that I had paid $3.40 for the other day. Hmmm . . . seems like a very small payoff there! I wondered if any of the people sitting out there thought of that?

On top of that, I got a call from my son's school: "Due to the traffic on your street, the bus will not be able to pick students up."

So, now I had to drive him to the school.

At the end of this fiasco, I noticed that the DPW hadn't picked up our trash. The bin is full. What am I supposed to do with THIS week's trash???

I e-mailed the credit union and thanked them for fucking up MY day while "thanking" their customers. Asked if perhaps they'd come pick up my trash . . . bastards.

Anyway . . here's a picture I took later of our cat stalking a squirrel:


Every so often, he'd turn around and give me a look that said, "Well?? Are you going to open this screen so I can get out there?!?"

He forgets that I trim his claws, I guess.

It reminds me of when I was a teenager and would be caught eyeing girls by some of my relatives. They'd say, "You wouldn't know what to do if they said yes."

Yeah, well, my relatives were idiots. So maybe the cat would just pounce and use his teeth.
Or tongue (that's what *I* did).

But wait - the cat spends all day licking HIMSELF. Great work, if you are a contortionist, I guess.

You know, I didn't INTEND to work blue today, but I just couldn't stop myself. Too bad.

I'm Sorry, But . . .

. . . it's pronounced, "NEW-KLEE-UHR".

If you say, "NEW-KYUH-LUR" . . . you are an idiot.

A fucking idiot!

*****UPDATE *****

I wrote the above lines while watching the vice-presidential debate.
I was so disgusted that yet another idiot who can't pronounce that
word aspires to have access to the launch codes.

So - as a game, I started counting how many times good ol' Sarah
said "nucular" in a response. Got as high as SEVEN . . and THEN . .
THEN . . at exactly 9:57 pm (EST), she gaffed!

She said, "nuclear".

Which means - she damned well KNOWS how to say the word,
but has CHOSEN to use the 'official' Bush mispronunciation.

Is that lame, or really evil??????