Blurred

Bewitched

Happy Halloween!

Busy

Aside from the "normal busy" of family and work, these days our band has been preparing for a couple of "big" gigs that are coming up this weekend. Saturday evening we're playing a "live house" at The Weather King here in Miyazaki:

The God of Live lies in our basement...

Er, yeah. Whatever. Actually this is a pretty big venue for these parts, and I'm a bit psyched to play on a real "rock" stage again.

Sunday afternoon we're doing an outdoor show at the Aoshima One World Festival:

The goal of the Aoshima One World Festival is to bring many different people together in Aoshima to share in stimulating experiences from different cultures and to realize that it is together that we create and enjoy culture. Each of us has her own role to play in the making and sharing of this One World

Boy, does that sound like a gig from hell made for a guy like me, or what? (Just kidding, guys!)

Anyway, the regular crap that the few of you who still check in here have become accustomed to should resume sometime in the next few days. Don't say you weren't warned.

Central

Go to Hell, Please

I'm trying to wrap my mind around this: A New York Times reporter writes that Donald Trump's "true worth lies in the millions of dollars, rather than in the billions as the mogul maintains."

In retaliation, Trump sues the reporter for 5 billion dollars. What a dick.

[Via FARK]

Pigeons on a Rock (2)

The Mysterious Case of the Cats in the Parking Lot

LOTcats?










And lurking in the bushes...

Vending Machines, No. 47

This one was taken in complete darkness with my cell phone camera.

Whee!

Further...

Talking about culture is like talking about someone's hairstyle--it's fucking dull and tells us nothing about anything worth knowing.

Useless Concepts

Culture: This is what we do and how we do it. We do it that way because that's the way we do it.

A Rock in the Water

Pigeons on a Rock (1)

No, it's not some kind of haute cuisine...

I'd rather cut my own legs off...

...than wear "mantyhose!"


I mean, come on, do these guys actually expect to get dates? (Er, with women?)

It's quite practical in some ways. It prevents chafing, for example, when horse riding or cycling, but it's also a good alternative to bulky underwear if you need some warmth.

"Chafing?" "Bulky underwear?" I don't chafe, and I don't mind the cold. You calling me a sissy? And besides, what kind of idiot woman wears pantyhose when she's horse riding or cycling?

Mantyhose, man-bras, men's mascara, skirts and dresses for men... Maybe someone should clue these marketing geniuses into the fact that any man who wants to wear a woman's clothing is going to go for the real thing. And, seriously, I don't have a problem with that.

Yet Another Spider

Aside from the very cool-looking spider (it looks even cooler enlarged--click and see!) there's nothing special about this pic. I was very pleasantly surprised when I first saw it on my pc monitor, though, because it was taken with my cell phone.


I'll say it again: cell phone cameras can be fun!

Shadow People

Minimal

Sorry if I seem a bit anti-social/non-responsive lately. Busy...

Vending Machines, No. 46

Tetrapods (3)

Yeah...

Ever-so-slightly dated lyrically, but relevant nonetheless:

The Kinks-20th Century Man

Not bad, eh?

News from the Old Country

In the past few days a couple of gas pipelines have been bombed in northern British Columbia. Both pipelines were in remote areas and damage was minimal.

The RCMP are treating the incidents as acts of vandalism rather than acts of terrorism. RCMP Sgt. Tim Shields says,

Under the Criminal Code, it would be characterized as mischief, which is an intentional vandalism. We don't want to characterize this as terrorism. They were very isolated locations and there would seem there was no intent to hurt people

Of course (with typical Canadian smugness) I can only speculate on how similar acts would be treated by law enforcement officials in some analogous American place. Like Alaska, say. No doubt (or so I imagine) the American government would seize upon such acts and use them as an excuse to curtail the civil liberties of its citizens.

And of course the Canadian government has its own (different, subtle) ways of limiting the basic freedoms of its citizenry. I'm not allowed to talk about them, though...

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Apparently there was also a national election in Canada this week. Don't feel bad if you weren't aware of it...

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Celine Dion will be playing The Tacoma Dome in Washington on October 18th. By sheer coincidence this also happens to be my daughter's birthday. Now there's no way I'll ever forget my daughter's birthday!

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MAILBAG: Reader Guy Lafleur asks:

If Quebec ever separates from Canada, will the Montreal Canadiens hockey team have to change its name?

Well, Guy, this of course is a question that has vexed philosophers and hockey fans in Canada for generations. Here's my take. Having won something like 26 million championships, I don't see the Canadiens organization as being too willing to give up that kind of brand name recognition. (Imagine, for example, George Steinbrenner finally losing it and moving the Yankees to Georgia.) I also think that Montreal supporters, Quebec separatists the lot of them, would love nothing more than to continue mis-spelling "Canadians." At least that's the way I see it!

Tetrapods (2)

Pressure

Here's a good band with a very good song... What, I should convince you before you listen? Are you that fucking gullible?

Anathema-Pressure

Yeah!

Random Ramblings

It's after 1:00 AM here. I've been up since 4:30 yesterday morning, because my daughter's kindergarten had their undokai ("sports festival") on Sunday. I suppose a sensible person would be in bed sleeping right now, but I'm drinking beer and listening to tunes. And blogging...

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Have you seen that video clip from the weekend where John McCain tells some deluded wingnut that, no, Barack Obama is not "an Arab" and is, in fact, a "decent family man" with whom he has some disagreements? Does anyone else get the feeling that McCain, whatever else you might think about him, is getting tired of pandering to this mass of complete fuckheads?

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I remember one time being fired from a band by a fucktard who wanted to replace me with someone who would play for less money. The night he came over to my place to deliver the bad news he brought his six-year-old son with him. Fucking coward. I only mention this because I read today that Sarah Palin was roundly booed when she dropped the ceremonial first puck to open the Philadelphia Flyer's hockey season. Apparently wingnuts are upset that Palin was booed even though she took her kids out on the ice with her. In fucking Philly. She's a coward, too.

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Speaking of hockey, I'm somewhat surprised that my fantasy team is in third place even though the bums have only scored three goals so far.

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It's a national holiday here tomorrow. Lucky for me...

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He was turned to steel
In the great magnetic field
When he traveled time
For the future of mankind

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than being able to sing those lines about myself. (I sense that some of you think I'm kidding. You don't know me very well...) Please enjoy Black Sabbath performing "Iron Man":

Iron Man lives again!

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I was at an electronics shop today and saw a 3-in-1 printer/copier/scanner, made by Canon, for about 200 bucks. I thought that was a pretty good price. I'm not a communist, you know...

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Now I'm listening to The Allman Brothers band. The best American band. Ever. The reason I say this is: there is a certain point where playing trumps song-writing. These guys can play better than anyone else can write songs. The best song in the world ain't worth shit without a good band. [Note to self: next time just say "singer not the song" or something.]

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My in-laws are staying tonight (here for the undokai). I'm trying not to laugh because the dog (a Corgi) just went into "attack" mode when my father in-law got up to go to the toilet.

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Still here? Good night!

Self Portrait

Another Spider

Bleg

Is there some internet/web "law" (like "Murphy's law" or something) that dooms anyone in the process of commenting on someone else's bad spelling or grammar to make a boneheaded spelling/grammar mistake himself? If they aren't, there shuold be.

Here, Listen to This

Just click the thingie there and listen.

Charlie Musselwhite-Cha Cha the BluesAlt. Link
My work is done.

Tetrapods (1)

Untitled

This Week in Hockey

This just in from the CBC:

U.S. vice-presidential nominee and self-proclaimed hockey mom Sarah Palin will take centre stage at centre ice on Saturday night.
Palin, the governor of Alaska and John McCain's Republican running mate, agreed Wednesday to drop the ceremonial first puck at the Wachovia Center, where the Philadelphia Flyers host the New York Rangers in Saturday's season opener...
[...]
Palin will be joined at centre ice by the winner of the team's "Ultimate Hockey Mom" promotion.
Every hockey mom entering the contest received a free Puck-er Peach lipstick ...

Hmm... hockey... Palin... Wachovia... Philadelphia... New York... hockey mom... lipstick...

Coincidence? I leave it for you to decide, dear readers... And leave you with this gentle reminder:

You know, just because the thing I saw wasn't there doesn't mean there wasn't something there that I didn't see.

Stupid Wingnut Tricks

I know, I'm posting too much crap these days that's related to American politics. I should probably change channels. Not yet, though...

In this video clip Sarah Palin, who's giving a speech somewhere, responds to a heckler with the following:

Bless your heart sir, my son is in Iraq fighting for your right to protest.

Palin's audience, of course, let's out a cheer. But really, how stupid do you have to be to fall for such an utterly fluffy (and completely false) bit of rhetoric?

I'm wondering when someone in the McCain campaign is going to drag out the old "silent majority" meme...

Trees, Clouds (2)

Trees, Clouds (1)

Wingnutopedia; This Is a Joke, Right?

Although I'd heard about Conservapedia ("The Trustworthy Encyclopedia") before, it wasn't until yesterday that I steeled myself and actually went over for a look. In case you haven't heard of it, Conservapedia is basically a wingnut version of Wikipedia. Yes, that's right: It's not bad enough that the personal prejudices and general stupidity of ordinary people/writers clouds and distorts "the facts" by accident, but God-bothering, evolution-denying, fag-hating, racist, knuckle-dragging, dimwitted, wingnut conservatives want to channel the forces of prejudice and stupidity and do it intentionally. It might actually be funny if it weren't so pathetic. Let me illustrate with a relatively innocuous example.

Here is the opening sentence from Barack Obama's Wikipedia entry:

Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2008 general election.

Pretty straight-forward, right? Now compare that with the first sentence from Conservapedia's Obama entry:

Barack Hussein Obama II (allegedly born in Honolulu, August 4, 1961) is the 2008 nominee of the Democratic Party for president.

"Allegedly" born in Honolulu? Give me a break. Moving right along, we have the first sentence of Wikipedia's entry for John McCain:

John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona and presidential nominee of the Republican Party in the 2008 presidential election.

Again, nothing to raise the eyebrows, but compare that with the first sentence of McCain's entry in Conservapedia:

John Sidney McCain III (born in the U.S. Panama Canal Zone, August 29, 1936), is the Republican nominee for President in 2008, prominent maverick politician and Vietnam War hero, and is the senior Senator of Arizona.

Are you gagging yet?

All Aboard!

I've seen the "Red Express" go past my place hundreds of times. I never gave it much thought, until now...


Last stop: Wall Street!
Feel free to add your own captions.

Sleeping Cat

Oh, and don't forget, it's Phoctober!

Vending Machines, No. 45

Balancing Act

For reasons completely unrelated to "photography" this might be my favorite picture of all the ones I've posted so far. She rocks.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I make no claim to have any clue whatsoever about Economics, but apparently a lot of people believe that it's not simply efficient, but it's practically God's own fucking will and a law of nature that the best system is one in which companies should pay their CEOs millions, or even hundreds of millions of dollars a year, while their (thousands or hundreds of thousands of) workers earn paltry, sub-subsistence-level wages.

I don't believe in God or any "natural law", but I do think it's probably a bad idea to misunderstand human nature. For all the talk of communism's attempt to subjugate human nature, "free market capitalism" (or whatever) seems to be having a good laugh at people these days. Whatever.

If you don't like the notion of government, then please try to wean yourself from it's tit, OK? Otherwise shut the fuck up and suck it up like the rest of us.

This Week in Tunes

New Old Stuff
The new David Gilmour album, Live in Gdansk, is pretty damn good. Gilmour and Phil Manzanera on the same stage? Yeah! Classic Floyd tunes? Yeah! An orchestra that, instead of making this sound like The Moody Blues at Red Rocks (or some other imaginary muzak turd... wait, that's a real album? Ugh...), makes the tunes sound like they would without synthesizers? Yeah! Exquisitely extended guitar solos on pretty near every tune on a two-disc set? Yeah! Gilmour's On an Island album made a bit more edgy in a live setting? Yeah! I suppose this could be called "adult rock." If more adult rock were this good I might start acting like a fucking adult. Until such time, though...

Blues
I recently heard for the first time a very, very good blues album, Stand Back! Here Comes Charlie Musselwhite's South Side Band (1967). Smokin' blues harp and a great band. I'm probably the last person to have heard this album, but if you haven't, check it out.

Metal
Another band I just recently heard for the first time is Japan's Church of Misery. In the realm of metal I guess they'd be called a doom/stoner metal band (think Sabbath, but with fewer laughs). They base their tunes around the lives of notorious serial killers--yeah, I know, sounds kinda weird/sick, but I don't really get a bad vibe from these guys. Check out Master of Brutality and Early Works

Neglected Masterpiece
If you've never heard of The Pretty Things, it's probably because they were drowned out by The Beatles, The Stones, and The Who. 1968"s S.F. Sorrow is a both a classic psychedelic/art rock album and the first "rock opera." I don't like dissing The Stones, but sometimes I think that this is what Their Satanic Majesties Request should have sounded like. Well worth a listen.

Along Came a Spider

Fall in Miyazaki means spiders; lots of cool-looking spiders


Hey, I see that Maht at The Moon Topples is blogging again, and he's getting all Phoctober.

Church

Apartment

The Trumpet

A little ditty from the archives for my American friends currently fighting the forces of darkness and stupidity. Enjoy and be inspired!

Sing Along with JFK-The Trumpetalt. link

Jumper

Adventures in Driving

Driving home a couple of weeks ago as a typhoon was pulling into Miyazaki (15 seconds):



I tell ya, it's non-stop action around here...