A New Stereophonic Spider Spectacular

I have a nasty habit of picking up on good music several years after it has hit its prime and moved on to the bottom shelf of the CD rack or the clearance section at the record store.

The last few months have proved no exception. So, over a decade late, I would like to recommend the following:

Space - Spiders


Do you remember that song Female of the Species that was popular in the late 90s? It featured a large marimba part and a singer who couldn't quite tell if they were female or male. I hated this song when it came out and stabbed wildly at the radio whenever it came on.

But twelve years later, this song has become quite catchy to me, and even better, the entire album has that odd dark quirkiness that can't be shoehorned into any genre. The track Neighborhood also received airplay on X96 back in the day, but there are a lot of hidden gems on the rest of the album, especially Money and Dark Clouds.

I don't know how to recommend this CD to anybody because they don't really sound like any other group out there, so I guess give it a listen if you like weird stuff like bacon-print wallets, massive doses of Swedish Fish, obscure license plates, or t-shirts with giant happy tacos on them.

Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular


This is also a debut album, but isn't quirky like Spiders. Hooverphonic is Portishead after taking Zoloft, with some extra keyboards thrown in. The songs aren't as erotic, but they're not depressing either. They're also more harmonically rich, although not quite as interesting in their technical nature.

Listen to this album if you want lustful energetic sex, as opposed to seductive kinky sex from Portishead's self-titled album.

Next year I look forward to recommending albums released in 1997.

Damn kids - get off my lawn!

I came home from work today to find this drawn on my sidewalk with some chalk:



My neighbor also had a picture along the same vein drawn on their sidewalk (although the piece of anatomy belonged to a different gender).

Those kids are lucky I'm nice and spry and still young. If I was 30, they would get a good tongue lashing.

And while I appreciate the girth they depicted, they could have been a little more generous on length. I mean, if you compare this drawing to a picture of my penis (not safe for work), you'll find the proportions are way off!

Geezerdom Incoming

So I turn 30 in slightly over two weeks.

Normally I would have a huge party planned for such a big (yet depressing) event.

However we're 16 days away and I don't have anything going on.

So, here are my options so far:

1) Throw a combination birthday/poker party, since that weekend is poker night anyway.
2) Drop $550 on a plane ticket to Cancun and bum around with some friends for three days.
3) Wait until October when Jenny gets here, and throw a combined 30th birthday party for both of us. This will have the benefit that all of you can meet one of those crazy gosh-durn liberals they have over in Sweden that make Barack Obama look like Karl Rove. Her visit is about halfway between our birthdays.
4) Watch midget porn all day.

I don't even know who would come to a birthday party now - my social circle is so odd these days.

So chime in here people. And you better show up and bring me lots of presents and booze and hookers.

Musing

So it's been a while since I've posted anything. I've wanted to post, but I just haven't had anything interesting to say.

The big news in my life, of course, was receiving my YAY TACO shirt, but we all know about that, so I guess I can't really write about that any more.

Oh, I know! So, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I bought an iPhone. Yes, I am now firmly a Steve Jobs sackrider. The iPod was acceptable, the Apple TV was definitely pushing it, but the iPhone just puts me over the top. Next think you know I'm going to have a Macbook and will be sitting in a Starbucks, trying to type out a script for a play. OH THE HUMANITY.

That said, I love my iPhone. It's half the weight of my previous AT&T Tilt, and although slightly larger, it's about 1/3 of the thickness, which is very noticeable in my pocket. The larger screen and expandable browser windows add points.

Most importantly, though, is the Application Store. Yes, Sudoku and Tetris and some crossword puzzles were vital. However, there are some specialty Apps that I love. One of them is called Shazam, and it will identify popular music for you. Just hold your phone up to the speaker for a few seconds and it will identify the song for you.

Unfortunately, that doesn't help me with the song I've been trying to identify for the last eight years, because the last time I heard it was, well, eight years ago. It was in Rainbow Casino in Wendover, and the only lyrics I remember are "I am so lonely now" which pull up about 800,000,000,000,000 hits on Google. Oh well.

Thanks to Facebook, I found a long lost friend that I worked with 15 years ago. I met up with him last night and chatted for several hours. He now does professional photography for work. I got to check out his 70-200mm f/2.8 which caused my pants to become very sticky. I must acquire one of these somehow. And a 10-22mm f/3.5. Crap, so many lenses to buy, so little money! We're going to hang out in a few weeks and just shoot photos for fun.

Oh, and the new Batman movie was pretty tyte. I know some people find her odd looking, but I have no problem saying that I would enjoy sexual relations with Maggie Gyllenhaal. So if you're reading this Maggie, feel free to drop by.