Funny Song

So I've gotten into the habit of listening to Radio Akasha online. Came across the song "If I Only Were A Goth" by Thou Shalt Not. It's not as good as The Magnetic Fields' "I Don't Want To Get Over You" but it get's an A for effort.

Sometime after March 1st I'll get back to blogging. I'm just really busy with a lot of deadlines.

Later.

Top Ten Favorite Whoopie Songs (in no order)

Stuck at home missing Paul and Devon play Gravity Lounge? Ya girl or boyfriend over a hundred miles away? Me too, and it sucks. But I took a break from the homework, had a Guinness and watched a so bad it was funny 50's romance flick with my folks. That was amusing.

Anyway, for everybody humming "one is the loneliest number" while sitting at the computer screen, here's something to amuse.

Top Ten Favorite Whoopie Songs (in no order)

I'm not saying they're the greatest. I'm not saying that I have, or would, or anything like that. All I'm saying is, anybody getting it on to any of these is probably getting it on right.

1. Tom Waits - San Diego Serenade

Tom may not be known for the swooning by most people these days... but he certainly has written some fine love songs over the years. This is an early one a little more on the steamy side.

2. MC5 - Let Me Try

Most underrated whoopie song EVER!!! Nuff said.

3. Massive Attack - Tear Drop

What was with the 90s and all those CGI babies?

4. Bob Dylan - Lay, Lady Lay

When most people get their neck broken in a motorcycle accident, they don't come out sounding this smooth. Bob Dylan is not most people though.

5. Stevie Wonder - I Believe (When I fall In Love With You It Will Be Forever)

Ok... the thought of someone actually getting the whoopie on to this make me giggle. It's too... um... bombastic. Just be happy I used restraint and left the Righteous Brothers out of this.

6. Bob Marley and The Wailers - Turn Your Lights Down Low

You know it.

7. Berry White - Love Serenade, Parts 1 And 2

...

...

...

Panties.

8. Tricky - Overcome

This almost did not make the list for the same reason Frank Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours didn't make it. It's more of a total album experience than just the one song. Still I like it, and it does hold its own pretty well. Also, unlike Wee Small Hours... the idea of making the whoopie to the entire Maxinquaye album is a little troubling even if it works.

9. The Cure - Pictures Of You

An explanation doesn't feel necessary. It's just a great song.

10. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Little Wing

I hesitated listing this one. As soon as I typed it the whole can of 60s psychedelic worms busted open. Janis, The Animals, Muddy Waters (revival)... its treacherous waters, but damn it, this is still a pretty hot song and the list has to end somewhere.


Ok, I showed ya mine, now you show me yours.

Happy Singles Appreciation Day!

R.I.P. Cola

In the webcomic world, Cola was an empress. Pit bulls have a bad reputation. Even I'm afraid of them, and I've often thought of some day getting a rottweiler for crying out loud. That said, had I known that Cola was a real dog, I would have taken an offer to meet her in a heartbeat.

My dog Buster that I'd had since I was five passed away at the start of this semester. My sincerest condolences go out to Vivian, Rob and Ramon over at Butternut Squash for their loss. I know very well that things have to be hard for them right now.

Ha, ha... dumplings...

50 geek points to the first person to get that very bad joke.

Anyway... this... this troubles even me.

Via The Daily Whackjob

Happenings

I was hoping to take a bus trip to Richmond with the President of PVCC and a handful of other students to visit the General Assembly. Sadly all this snow talk made them cancel it. I'll go more into that later. On the up-side, I really didn't have the time to go between trying to meet the deadline for my application to UVA (March 1st!) and a still somewhat nasty backlog of homework.

For now, blogging's getting pushed further back a bit among my priorities. Here are two things that caught my eye though:

1. Bob Marshall was at it again. Silly rabbit. (Via Waldo)

2. I'm really enjoying the discussion David and Whackette are having over at Equality Loudon. Good stuff!

3. And this... because nobody in my government class today seemed to get my salamander jokes. Sigh.


High Rotation:

Iggy Pop - Lust For Life

The Stooges - Raw Power

Patti Smith - Radio Ethiopia

Arcade Fire - Funeral

The Jesus and Marry Chain - Psycho Candy

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

Beck - The Information

Beck - Midnite Vultures

An Odd Question.

Does anyone often read this blog from the PVCC Library on computer Lib-18? The reason I ask is that everytime I go to use it the computer already knows my blog's address when I start to type it in. The first time I noticed this it really surprised me since I hadn't used that computer in at least a week. They assure me that all the computers are wiped clean every night, but that this has happened every time has me wondering if this one is getting missed somehow.

On Banning Smoking

I've said this before and I'll say it again: Just because I don't agree with something doesn't mean it should be prohibited.

So here are a few suggestions for better things to do besides flat-out ban smoking from bars and lounges.

1. Instead of prohibiting smoking, encourage non-smoking! Give tax breaks to restaurants and bars that don't allow smoking. If it wouldn't cost them so much business, a lot of bars would ban smoking anyway. So let's give them the compensation to do so!

2. Just because people might have the right to smoke does not mean it can't be discourage. Tax the heck out of tobacco/tobacco products. Allocate the money to fund health and/or compensate for the tax breaks to bars and lounges that don't allow smoking.

3. Encourage better quality cigarettes. Set higher standards for levels of carcinogenic, addictive, and otherwise harmful additives. Give tax breaks to Organic tobacco farmers.

4. What about tobacco being a major cash crop in Virginia? What about the farmers? Encourage alternative crops. I'm not a big fan of ethanol as an alternative fuel, but there are other things out there. If less tobacco is produced than less cigarettes will be too. They will become more expensive and thus fewer people will buy them.

5. Lobby to nationally legalize industrial hemp farming. No, this isn't crazy hippie talk. Hemp actually is a very versatile plant that is good for soil replenishment (unlike corn and cotton) and can be used for heat-retaining textiles, high-quality paper (the Declaration of Independence was written on it for crying out loud!) and many other things. It's a better source of Omega-3 fatty acids than fish oil or flax seed. All these things are far more beneficial than tobacco. It's an excellent alternative with a diverse market to keep farmers afloat. It just needs to be legalized.

Unlike a big easy imposing law, most of these solutions won't happen over night, but few things that cause real positive change ever do. If smoking is banned it won't effect me at all. I don't smoke and the only lounge I frequently (term used loosely these days, sadly) hang out in is Gravity, which already bans smoking inside. I understand the arguments of both sides and tend to agree with both. I don't like the government telling me what to do with my body and I don't want to get cancer secondhand from all the fools around me. So to me these seem like more win-win solutions than bills like SB1161.

Via 750 Volts.

Benefit Show for Slate Hill Phil's Duaghter

I really, really hate it when blogger dies while I'm trying to post something and edit it.


Been thinking alot about old friends I haven't seen in a while. Sometimes I wonder if I saw people that I haven't seen in more than a year if we would still have anything to say. I don't mean that in a mean way; I'm just being frank. Music seems to be a little further than just on the back burnner for me these days. I started to put lyrics together into book organized from 2002 to present over break and it was like two different people's faces should be on the front and back covers. Heck, even movies aren't as big a deal as they used to be! My focus has been growing more and more towards college, politics and playing around with prose. Even prose works are catching dust, but granted this is a pretty busy time for me right now. Strange how we change, huh? Just sorta happens.

Anyway, no more nostalgia for me. I just heard about this benefit through my former bandmate Annalise's myspace page and thought I'd help spread the word. I've got to hit the books before class, so here's a rough copy and paste number:

An Evening Celebrating the Life and Music of Phil Gianniny

WITH
JAMIE DYER
SPENCER LATHROP
HANS THE ODDITY
ACORN SISTERS
JIM WAIVE
CHARLIE BELL
LOVELL COLEMAN
SARAH WHITE
SIAN RICHARDS
STRATTON SALIDAS
THE STAGGERS
HOGWALLER RAMBLERS
THE SCREAMING INFIDEL
SNYLE CLINE
ANNALISE LOVELACE
JOHNNY RED
REV.EDWARD HOPKINS
ACCORDIAN DEATH SQUAD
& SURPRISE SPECIAL GUESTS

ALL PROCEEDS GO TO HIS DAUGHTER – JULIA
SATURDAY NIGHT FEB.10TH 6:00 TILL MIDNIGHT 1304-B E.MARKET ST. AT MEADE ( THE LINEN BUILDING)

BRING A SONG, A STORY, A PHOTOGRAPH, SOME FOOD FOR A POTLUCK AND/OR JUST YOURSELF AND SOME FRIENDs

That's one hell of a local line-up! Should be a great show.

Bob Marshall taints The Virginia Bill of Rights AGAIN with HB2797

I would like to go into more detail about HB2797 when I have more time. For now I feel compelled to address one major issue I have with it.

1. § 1. That life begins at the moment of fertilization and the right to enjoyment of life guaranteed by Article 1, § 1 of the Constitution of Virginia is vested in each born and preborn human being from the moment of fertilization.

In my eyes any government that forcibly deprives a woman that has been raped the right to take immediate measures to prevent pregnancy or abort an egg fertilized through rape, and thus forces that woman to bear the child against her will, is thus an accomplice to rape. As an infant develops I fully understand the ethical complexities of abortion even under such extreme circumstances as rape. However, at such an early stage as conception, I see no shades of gray to which the government should be concerned. This bill would not merely outlaw a date rape pill or some other controversial method to which there is still some question as to its safety. This bill would prohibit any attempt to terminate a forced pregnancy at the most earliest of stages. To make matters worse this is a constitutional amendment that would taint the first article of our bill of rights!

Don't be fooled by the moralistic language of this bill. The implications and overt consequences are simply unacceptable. Any legislator, regardless of their personal views towards abortion, that fails to see that is unfit to conceive of bills that can change our constitution.

Brady Earnhart at Gravity Lounge Tonight!

We don't get many chances these days to hear Brady in C-ville, so it bugs the heck out of me that I missed the last one and am most likely going to miss this one as well. (Stupid neck problems still persisting and backlog of homework looming over me.)

For those that can make it, the show starts at 8:00 and tickets only cost five bucks according to the site.

Also, he's got Rebecca Maxon on cello! Brady with any good cello player is like Danny Schmidt with Joia Wood: something to get off your butt and go listen to!