Archive for the ‘observation’ Category

Adult Lyrics, Adult Swim, and Finding Happiness

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Listening to music on a long commute, Dr Octagon has started me thinking. Kool Kieth’s alter-ego populates his world with space doodoo pistols, baboons with buffalo wings, his dangerous 208 year old uncle and the narrating halfsharkalligatorhalfman. The album’s interstitials rival Cartoon Network bumper images in random humor. Note the nurse’s musings between Real Raw and Blue Flowers

“Dr. Octagon please come to the office. Come now.
Oh fuck! Patient just died in room 105.
Cirrhosis of the eye.
Nurse, come in please. where are you?
Fuck it, he’s dead.
Oh shit there’s a horse in the hospital.”

Like SeaLab, Aqua Teen, Venture Bros, Arrested Development, 30 Rock and most of the things I enjoy from the small screen, this music revels in the random.

The album reminded me of how much I love that perfect balance of nerdy humor and genius samples, beats and scratching. Think Andre 3000, Handsome Boy Modeling School, and Del. Father explains how important these fellas are in an Italianish Gabe and Max tone: “If it wasn’t for Prince Paul and Automator, I would be modeling in Albania or some Balkan country…still. Also, in my closet, shoes, so many shoes you can’t believe it. And next to it, a drawer with socks, full of socks, more than enough for each pair of shoes. Beauty is truly in the eye of the tiger.” When you aren’t laughing you are dancing and when you aren’t dancing you are wishing that when Michael Bey wanted to know how awesome an epic-space-robot-battle could be, he would just consult Dee-Ee-Elly. Then you notice how the magical touch of the Automator makes everything just right, keeping the silly from being soft.


I am in my car at least 7 or 8 hours a week now. And as inconvenient as I find the constant back-and-forth, I am thankful for this time to reconnect with music. The world consistently attempts to draw our attention with Jersey Shore marathons, chores that have piled up, friends pouring you oddly disgusting yet unrejectable shots, after-hours work/school crises and days lost to compulsive link clicking. And as important as indulging in those distractions are – isn’t that how we find new things to cherish? – it’s priceless to suddenly find yourself wrapped up in what truly brings you joy.

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Baddies

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

The nerd has no choice but to become a super-villain.
The heroes just do not want to be around him – for all of the reasons that make him a nerd. Left alone to make his own way, the choices are to become a superhero, a leaping punching vigilante, or to confess other skills and run from the fighting. To let robots or goons (like the nerd in that no one wanted them but also anti-nerd, all muscle, headbutting, and car chases) do the battle scenes. The nerd couldn’t take a punch. Or throw one. Could only flee. And rational choice comes to equate to cowardice.
Would have been perfectly happy as a sidekick, hiding behind the brick wall of the hero’s cape, yet still indispensable. Ever important. Serving as another manifestation of the hero’s heroism. But that is not the way. That is the job of a dame.
And the nerd is forced, not from evil desire, but from necessity, to create his own order.

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I didn’t know you had a rock-n-roll record until I saw your picture on another guy’s jacket

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Having siblings a decade older than me means I got exposed to Purple Rain, Ratt, Nightmare on Elm Street,The Lost Boys, etc… at a very impressionable age. Maybe it is a problem that I knew about Camp Crystal Lake in kindergarten but tonight I heard Great White and Twisted Sister and got a bit nostalgic for my childhood. And I am okay with that.

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nostalgia

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

just thinkin about the grotto. ralph stanley, lord t and eloise, crystal method, janis ian, mark farina, and A LOT of great locals. i will never miss having to meet the cops at 4am or pulling my hair out trying to order, pay for, store, and serve enough beer for sundown. but as time goes by, it gets easy to remember only the good stuff.
on any given night it was so frustrating or perplexing or awesome to see people behave in a way that they only did in that crystal basement. i met so many people that i love in that glittery madhouse. and sometimes, at such surprising moments, i miss it.

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In Retrospect

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Because folks are still asking me what is the big deal with McQueen…a very short video.


mcqueen youtube



The things that speak to me are his mastery of both grace and edginess, an ability to speak of Dior and noir in a single breath, the address of the gothic and the modern – a reference to the past and the future, femininity, theatre, fear, empowerment, and of course, serious respect for a fabulous hat.

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one app to update them all

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Trying out Glue to see if it makes everything easier or just a mess.

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defying expectations

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

today, i saw three of america’s youth (complete with floppy clothes, big hair and skateboards) trying to help a floundering baby bird. the boys were carefully guiding it back into the grass and away from cumberland ave.
they should get an award for sweet.

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