mushinnoshin

• I had one of those absurdist “things-I-learned-today” tidbits in my head that I meant to post, I think it was Friday night maybe? Unfortunately I don’t remember what it was now.
• This is England — fantastic film, and a new addition to the list of things that anyone flirting with nativism/xenophobia should be required to see. Great line (paraphrased): “We’re not NAZI’s, we’re Nationalists!”. The speaker, and our own “nationalists”, would do well to remember just what that “N” stands for. Think it’s a coincidence that our own “nationalists” are also lately more and more critical of the paleolibertarian tendencies of the old-right toward free enterprise? I mean, just look at the theocrats latest savior Huckabee’s score on CATO’s report card, if you want an example. It seems the transformation of the GOP into a full-on National Socialist Party is almost complete. Oh I’m sorry, I forgot, they like to be called “populists” on this side of the pond. Less baggage, ya know.

  Update: Be sure to read Jim Ridley’s fantastic review.

• I should remember to snap a picture, but for now a link must do: one of these bad boys has taken up residence just outside my carport, thereby claiming the latest entry in the “freaky shit I see in my yard” category. Oddly enough, even though the little brown spiders freak me the fuck out, this guy doesn’t bother me, terrifying as he looks. Still I’m keeping my distance…
• Also this weekend I watched the entirety of the nearly six-hour 1996 BBC mini-series version of Pride and Prejudice. Oh! It was so much better than the recent movie (which I like well enough for what it was, but you just couldn’t capture this book in a single ~2 hour film). Really, I thought the entire cast did a fantastic job of presenting the characters almost exactly as they had appeared in my head. And Ms. Ehle was enchanting as Elizabeth — truly if there was a flaw in the production it was that I had to suspend disbelief in order to accommodate the plot’s assertion that Jane was the pretty one.
• As much as I like Miss Austen’s work, I am bothered somewhat by her tacit approval — if only by way of accepting it as the norm for her time — of a terrible class-ism that one could not begin to justify today. Still I’d prefer not to let my passion for egalitarian justice for the proletariat taint my appreciation of a lovely romance : )
• The living room makeover continues, slowly but surely. I had to put a third coat on two walls and will likely have to go yet another round just to touch up some spots. Red is a beast to paint. But hopefully I can get that done Tuesday or Thursday this week, then finally get back to the parlor to tackle the glazing this weekend. THEN I’ve still got to do the trim in both rooms. I think I must paint slower than most people. I’d say I’m just being a perfectionist, but the results are far too imperfect …

D’OH! I totally remember now. I learned that if your dental hygienist breaks off a piece of floss and leaves it stuck between your teeth, you may be able to get it out later by “flossing” with one of those twisty-wires that you use to tie up electronics cords.

Did you ever say something stupid, and then want to apologize for it, but you don’t know how to even start because it was so stupid that you really don’t even want to bring it up again? Yeah. I made a dumb joke the other day, as I’m wont to do, and it came out all wrong and I think I offended some people I care about. It was actually *supposed* to be self deprecating, but it didn’t come out that way, and it’s been bugging me ever since. OK, well, I really am sorry.

I also feel like an ass for not paying more attention to someone, but that starts to unravel a whole deep and twisty ball of neurosis that I’m probably better off not tugging at.

Sigh. There’s a reason my handlers don’t let me spend much time around the other humans.

Well, BeerCamp was fun. At least the parts I remember were fun — I did have a little beer. OK, a lot of beer. Too much beer. Did I mention there was beer? Well, beer AND a ludicrous amount of heat, prompting rapid consumption of said beer.

I think I met a few cool people, and saw some good presentations, and of course saw many friends, but, ya know … the beer…

I was in a weird mood anyway. Somehow I wound up spending some time listening to a lot of the old band material in the morning before coming out, which always does strange things to my head. Then there was the “I spend 40+ hours a week buried in internet geekery, do I really want more of it on the weekend?” aspect. Figuring “probably not”, I just made snarky comments and had more beer :)

Well speaking of the old music, it’s probably time to throw another one up, so here ya go:

NV (Re-Animated Tissue)

This is another one from the Acid Fist X days, so it’s a bit of a rough recording (resurrected from a well worn cassette), but not too bad. Musically it’s sort of a weird conglomeration of an industrial-hip-hop thing with a space-rock groove. Foreshadowed Linkin Park meets Hawkwind, maybe? It’s funny how it’s always the little things — my favorite part of this one is the creaking-door sample timed & pitched to harmonize with Jim’s guitar harmonic . Good times.

Kudos to Kate for the most awesome comment on Roger’s take on bad blogging.

For the record I don’t really consider myself “a blogger”. I’m just a guy who keeps a journal and happens to make it public.

All we’re doing is trying to encourage the idea that there can exist a politically radical culture within popular culture. Where Emma Goldman used a soapbox we now have TV and compact discs.
– Chumbawamba, liner-notes interview June 2, 1996

Holy shit. I’d forgotten just how good that Chumbawamba disc is. It has made an excellent soundtrack to tonight’s soup-making ritual.

Nothing ever burns down by itself, every fire needs a little bit of help
Nothing ever burns down by itself, every fire needs a little bit of . .
– from “Give the Anarchist a Cigarette”

Could almost be my anthem.

Aunt B tells us all about the latest we’re-not-racist-wink-wink immigrant hate group. Their name?

Wait for it…

…T-FIRE

Yup. Hey, I found their logo!

Well Cletus, I guess we cracked your code.

Saturday night I find myself at TPAC, enjoying the intelligent highbrow comic stylings of Paula Poundstone in a performance benefiting the Nashville Public Library.

Sunday night I find myself at the Exit/In listening to the trashy fetish-charged disco industrial of My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult.

Yup, I’m a study in contradictions.

Well, Miss Poundstone was fantastic, she kept me and the rest of the Polk theater in absolute stitches for nearly 3 hours. And seeing as she’s been on my shortlist of top celebrity crushes for a decade or so, I naturally couldn’t pass up the chance to meet her afterward and get an autograph. Shame that I couldn’t actually say any of the numerous quips that I conjured up while waiting in line, any one of which would have been infinitely more memorable than the ‘uhh… hello’ that I managed to get out, but there ya go…

Anyway, Paula, on the off chance that Googling yourself ever happens to bring you here, do know that I wish I had pointed out that they really would need you in that bomb shelter. I mean sheesh, if bombs are falling everywhere and the whole world is going to hell, people are absolutely going to need a good laugh. An e-commerce website? Not so much : )

The Thrill Kill Kult on the other hand was less awesome. I mean they were OK, but… Well actually I’ve never been a huge fan — they’ve got a couple of good songs, but mostly the schtick runs a bit thin after a while. But I’d never seen them, and they do have one really fantastic song — of which my old band used to do a ripping cover — called “The Days of Swine & Roses”. So all would have been well had they played it. They didn’t. Bastards.

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult – The Days of Swine and Roses

I’m not having any luck with that embedded last.fm thing on this machine, but I’ll throw it out there anyway, maybe you’ll do better. I’ll just say that any song with a sexy female voice chanting about “Christ-ian Zom-bie Vam-py-res” has my vote :)

Netflix, you just lost an enormous amount of goodwill and customer satisfaction:

Your system is not compatible with instant viewing

Your computer’s operating system is not compatible with instant viewing. Try again from a computer running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista.

Apparently Netflix only wants to serve customers who are willing to spend exorbitant amounts of money on defective software. I guess my “instant viewing” needs will continue to be serviced through, umm, underground channels.

PS: Shouldn’t we also get a discounted membership, since you’re not providing us with full service accounts?

The other day at work the topic came around to Chumbawamba, and I mentioned the little known fact that they were actually a long established part of the British anarcho-punk scene long long before they had that big hit with the corporate gig. Well that of course got me all nostalgic for this awesome album that I used to play the hell out of. Sadly I lost my copy, I think while moving once several years ago.

But yay! In these magic and wondrous times in which we live, Amazon was able to hook me right up with a vendor that had it. So it will soon be restored to its rightful place in my CD cabinet.

Oh yeah and it comes with a disc of Chomsky’s spoken word too. Kickass.

Creeping towards contender

…with remarks about Richardson’s appeal to “independents”, which clearly in this case refers to those of us in the gray area between “low-tax liberal” and left-libertarian — you know, the group that tends to deliver Democrats a victory whenever they stoop to acknowledge us.

And speaking of his left-libertarian appeal…

… with good points on why Ron Paul and Barack Obama are not the droids we’re looking for, even if we root for them among their peers.