Country music has to hit me just right to work, and a lot of it doesn't. I like this, though, and while they never broke my guitar, United Airlines has put me through some gawdawful bullshit in the past, so this video strokes me in a number of fuzzy places.

If anyone out there understands WordPress and ComicPress AND can show me how to apply them to a webpage layout of my own design AND could suss out how to make 3 or 4 such sites "talk" to each other through a central hub site without breaking teh Intarwubs AND can help me accomplish all this on the cheap OR can provide a recommendation for someone who could do all of the above, drop me a line, okay?

Chris Ware: painfully revealing human misery and making you chuckle all at the same time.

Quimby The Mouse from This American Life on Vimeo.

So, a friend sent me a link to some article about how PETA asked the Pet Shop Boys to change their name to the Rescue Shelter Boys or some silly crap like that - really PETA, make yourself look like complete drama whores - but in the process I found a link to a new video by the pair, which has the double advantage of A) being a catchy tune, and B) being visually interesting. Enjoy.

 

I wonder if I can find the new album in the freebie bin, hur hur.

Just curious to see if anyone I know is going to show up at AnimeIowa this year. Just got the registration card in the mail, and possibly early registration would keep potential costs low.

I'm planning on going to WizardWorld in Chicago during the previous weekend, but AnimeIowa is within very convenient driving range, so if there's a reason for me to go I can probably fit it in. However, I'm kind of ambivalent about going if all it turns out to be is a big shopping trip. (Especially after coming off what will be a very expensive con.)

I have no idea if there will be any reason for me to try and go as a pro/artist myself; probably not. Don't know if I can swing table fees, anyway.

Come to think of it, I can't even find any Artist's Alley-type info on the AnimeIowa website, at all.

So I was at the comic shop, and saw this can under the counter where they keep all their Japanese snacks like Pocky and such:

And of course I had to buy one. This was after I also had to buy this after seeing it in a CD store:


And I've seen other energy drinks based on the Simpsons and Family Guy as well, and I was wondering who the hell does that kind of stuff? Well, it turns out it's Boston America Corp, who produces a lot of drinks and candy based on licensed stuff. Of course, a Naruto energy drink, a Bleach "Soul Candy" dispenser, Slurm soda from Futurama - what a blatantly obvious and fun way to sell overpriced sugar water to nerds!

But check this out from the FAQ page:
Just imagine having enough disposable cash on hand to have 15 thousand cans of your own custom energy drink made up. Wouldn't that be something to sell at a con?

Because, for crap's sake, I am sick to death of stupid people trying to avoid having to think about the conversations that are happening right in front of them by bleating "but you're arguing semaaaannntics" as if "semantics" was some sort of disease that was going to make what remains of their brains come dribbling out their nose.

I hold this truth to be self-evident: You can't have a meaningful conversation unless all involved parties understand and agree upon the meaning of the words used. In that much, at least, sorting out semantics is important, just so that everyone knows what the hell they're actually talking about, and then you can decide who's actually right about something.

But besides that, "arguing semantics" has become one of those side-stepping dodges, used not just in cases where someone is actually, you know, arguing semantics, but any time someone's choice of words or use of some phrase is criticized or questioned. It's a catch phrase used to avoid such criticism. It's the "get out of talking-like-an-adult-with-a-functioning-English-vocabulary free" card.

Complain to me about "arguing semantics" and I will consider you sub-literate, a student in the remedial classes, who is more concerned about not having to think too much about the nonsense they blurt out than actually communicating a worthwhile idea.

This message brought to you by the National Department of Shut The Hell Up Until You Have Something Worth Saying.

Here, have a brick of awesome...

Kutiman: The Mother of all Funk Chords




Kutiman has made an album of sorts called "Thru You" - the idea is, he's made the music and videos completely from sampled and remixed YouTube videos. That he puts together anything listenable is amazing enough; what pushes it over the edge for me is that quite a few of the 7 songs are actually pretty damn good. "Mother of all Funk Chords" is currently my favorite, but "I'm New", and "Babylon Band" are also amazing.

Official album site: http://thru-you.com/
Kutiman's YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/kutiman
Alternate YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/downwithutube

Really, go listen.

Sigh.

It has become clear to me now that even if the factory was to call on Monday and say that the entire week of work was canceled and I was free to do whatever the hell I wanted, I still would not have enough time to finish work on my RPM album project and have it completed by the end of February.

So that's pretty much that, especially since I don't foresee such a complete shutdown (even though one happened in January).

I can trace what happened - too much time was spent at the beginning of February just searching for small nuggets of interest, tiny things on which to begin draping songs - but nothing seemed to "gel". I've got folders of rough crap that just goes "duuuuhhhh" and is not likely to produce anything worth listening to.

It's only just now that I've managed to winnow out a handful of "sketches" with some promise, and now I can start to see the outline of the album and its songs take shape - too late, of course, for me to finish in time. A couple things look like they might even turn out, well, pretty good. (In fact, I'm a little worried over one song that is sticking in my brain - it's a catchy thing and I'm terribly worried that I've heard that riff elsewhere besides inside my own head and that I'll release the song and get sued by Huey Lewis or somebody.)

In contrast to my 2008 RPM attempt, which sank like a rock when it became obvious I wasn't going to make it, I've still got enough enthusiasm over this forming material to keep working on it - so even though I won't make the challenge, I'm still planing on making that album. Just not as soon as planned. Maybe in another month or two.

Fingers Crossed.

My favorite physical CD-buying emporium is Record Collector, in Iowa City. It's not huge, but it has a wide and varied selection (one of the few places to get vinyl records), and being in a university town, there's always a decent rack of used CDs, sold by some student looking to ditch his avant-garde phase of musical listening for some beer money.

I buy CDs there often, especially used. Found many gems, picked up some duds based solely on cool cover design. Oh well.

Now, in a corner there's a box which contains free stuff. These are things that the store won't buy from people, who say "well, I don't wanna carry this crap back to my apartment or car" and just ditch it there - or old unreturnable stock that's never going to sell, whatever. Usually what you find there is old vinyl that someone foolishly assumed was worth something just because it's from the 60s or 70s - cf my earlier Salvation Army post.

Packrat that I am, I often take some albums from the box, sometimes great big wads of stuff. And CDs show up too - promo items some label dumped, used CDs that languish even at a dollar - and sometimes, CDs which are popular but just not in good enough condition for the store to buy.

The other day, I picked up four free Pet Shop Boys albums.

I'm not a huge Pet Shop Boys fan, but I do like some of their songs well enough, so when I saw the CDs sitting there, I nabbed them - just in time, as another guy started sifting through the box as I was sitting there, plucking out some Rick Astley album in the pile. So now I am the owner of Discography, Introspective, Disco the Remix Album, and Very. A year or two ago, I found a free copy of the album Alternative in the box. For not being too rabid about the band, I have a lot of their albums now.

My own inspection of the discs reveals no flaws to speak of. Either Record Collector is a far fussier CD buyer than I am, or they don't think they can sell the discs (no demand?), or... they just don't like the Pet Shop Boys.

Well, my gain, then. And the Very album, you know, even if the music is crap: Day-Glo orange Lego-style CD case for the win.