John's Taste update: recorded Lounge Interlude; recorded third song, "Flying Workers"

It's a Cloudy Day in the Neighborhood

"I have really never considered myself a TV star. I always thought I was a neighbor who just came in for a visit." -Fred Rogers

Mr. Rogers leaves his living room for good. I'll miss the guy. In a time when shows like "Teletubbies" and "The Wiggles" are actually damaging childrens' minds, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood seems more heroic and necessary than ever. It was just last week when I was watching the program, and I thought to myself "this show is genius." He wasn't reciting lines or trying to act like a happy, mentally deficient adult (that guy from "Blues Clues"...). He would just chill out in his house, feed his fish, talk to a trolley, go into a crazy make-believe sequence, and sometimes visit some local institution. In watching his show I was shown things like how crayons are made, and the skill it takes to be a baker. I remember him visiting the local museum and having artists tell him about their sculptures and the colors in their paintings. During the episode last week, Rogers said something to the effect of "Art is different things to different people, and that's what makes it wonderful. You can create something that is beautiful and artistic in it's own way." If only we could view this episode in my Philosophy in the Arts class! There'd be nothing left to discuss!
Even in my older years I could come back to the show and find it entertaining, such as the timeless episode in which a young breakdancer shows Mr. Rogers his moves, then encourages him to try it himself. Fred Rogers pulling off a somersault to Run DMC music is a classic TV moment in my book.

What Chad and I found interesting - and a bit morbidly humorous - is that you can go to PBS Kids online and read "Talking to children about Fred Rogers' Death". I guess this would be enormously helpful to many parents, but...well, you just have to read it for yourself.

Sausage Links

Cody.com - Here's a slick site from Mr. Cody Donahue, of daytime talk-show fame.

Bowienet - The name may be a bit silly, but...well, so is the man, I guess. Sucks that you have to sign up for a membership to access the goodies of his site, but it's cool that David himself updates it.

racist dogs - I thought the drawing alone is priceless.

D'oh!

I am in the book fortress right now. Tomorrow morning I will take a mythology exam, so I am reading up on the Trojan War and the roles of women in classic myth. For the most part, women got jerked around in classic mythology. They would die, get abandoned, turned into animals, stuff like that. The goddesses didn't get much respect, either; the most powerful goddess, Hera, is continually written as being a nagging bitch of a wife to Zeus. Aw, but you can't hate that guy. Zeus, God of gods, the big lord of the heavens, is a leacherous buffoon. He's a Homer Simpson, a Dean Martin, a big lovable bumbler of divine mischief. You never know what that crazy Zeus is gonna do next! Whoop, he just turned into a swan to seduce the girl next door! And he succeeded! Sometimes I wonder what Christianity would be like with an almighty like ol' Jupiter: "...And thus the Lord snuck out of his palace at night, and went to his mortal mistress's house, and they got completely wasted on wine, and they slept together. And the Lord's nagging wife threw a pot at him upon his return the next day..."

John's Taste update: rerecorded second song, tweaked and prepared third song.

Baby Jake Gets and Indian Name

Today marks the U.S. release of Fischerspooner's somewhat-acclaimed album #1. Today is also the day the band has gone fischin'! Oh ho ho ho! Oh... somebody had to say it.

So I guess March 5 is the big protest day, and I guess it's all out of spite and anger now that President Monkey-Face has already made his statement: "I will not be deterred by the actions of the protesters. They may want peace, but I tell you whut, as soon as I get the chance I'ma gonna bomb the bejesus outta somethin'. Because I'm the Predisent of the Unised Taste. Yeee haw! Fool me once, fool me twice, fooling chicken soup with rice!"
Anyway, next Wednesday students everywhere are urged to skip their classes and play kazoos and eat whatever hommade junk-food you can manage. That's what I'll be doing, anyway.

And just so you know, I am making a tape of electronic musical compositions for a gentleman in Montana. I was unable to work on it for a long time, due to busy things, but now production is picking up, and I can post little updates on my site, like so...

John's Taste update: Intro and first two songs recorded. Second song scheduled for rerecording as soon as I can do the damn thing.

I didn't post for a few days. Why? ...I don't know. Just didn't have time.

Let's see...
Ladybugs have been showing up around my apartment every now and then, and I thought it strange, so I put the last one I found in a jar. I've named him Manly. If I find any more ladybugs they will join Manly in the jar, and if the jar gets full we can sell it down in California.

Just one thing I'd like to point out about that C.O.P.S. show I linked to last time; in the series, the president of the united states is an African-American Woman. How's that for political correctness? I guess the show takes place pretty far in the future...

I didn't have time yesterday to post thought 2, and I don't really have time now, so here's what I was gonna talk about:

C.O.P.S.

Thought 1

www.foxglove.co.uk
A sharp website from a sharp online writer with a sharp sense of humor who writes sharp short stories and sharper poetry and makes some pretty damn sharp cartoons. I like knowing that there are people like this in the world.

What I Looked At Today

Flip Flop Flyin' exhibition
Japan continues to recognize the world's best new artists. (www.flipflopflyin.com)

Oh, you should also check this out. An ol' mate ran my beloved site through some crazy filter. Nice work, Ben!

I will now rant about my "work":

For those of you who didn't know, I've been looking for a new part-time job. I grow weary of the one I have, and I grow weary of people asking me if I grow weary of it. Weary!! Not that there's anything wrong with the job; there is. But I just feel it's time for a change, for Christ's sake. I know it's boring and uneventful work, but I didn't mind that for a while. It was kind of like "Hey, there's a job like this. And I did it." That sort of thing. I'll admit, last term was more satisfying, because I had my precious Sunday shift. Sunday I would work for 6 hours, 3 of which I was on my own during the breakfast portion of the day, so I had a lot of things to keep me busy and I could go outside in the morning air and sweep and shit like that. For the second half of my shift my coworker Lance would join me, and we would spend the remaining hours of my shift not working, whipping things with our rags and discussing various trivial concepts. For example, Lance had an undying faith in pyramid schemes. He was convinced this would be his ticket to wealth and security. "You know they have programs that can send out 300,000 random e-mails a day?" he would ask me. "And I heard that with figures like that, you usually get a 1% response. That's still pretty good, man. Of course, I'd need something to sell..." He must have asked me twice more after first telling me his master plan "Hey, did I tell you about my e-mailing idea?" Then there were the discussions of Ouija boards, the existence of extra terrestrials, The Who.. all just to distract us from whatever we were supposed to be doing. For a while last term there was also a worker named Steve, who was a jolly chap, who would sing Queen songs while cleaning, and with whom I shared a few misadventures (the "woot" happening being the most amusing).

But Steve quit, and nowadays I don't work with Lance very often, and I don't have my Sunday shift, and some new girls have joined the team that just don't have that "this job is boring, so let's whip and break things" demeanor. Oh, how I would like to finally gain employment at the great Valley Library, returning to the duties I felt so at ease with in my later high school days. But they won't let me into their ranks. I think they have some kind of conspiracy. They got this one guy there who I swear was not there a couple months ago, yet they continue to tell me "the student jobs just aren't very frequent around here. Here's a computer programming job for graduate students, if you want to take a look at that." But I've got them. Their armor is slowly being chipped away, and soon the tender underbelly will be exposed, for I have been stealing their little half-pencils from the reference areas. I'm looking at one right now, here in mine own villa!! Har har har! What's this?? The Harpy's shriek!? Blast you, Agammemnon! And curse your son's righteous corpse!!

In other news, it was raining at the Daytona 500 when I watched it the other day, and it was funny to hear the guy driving the Viagra car say things like "I'm driving a real great car, and I think if we just keep pushing forward we can finish in a good position."

My Band Name Aesthetics

"You know, Stellar Melody would have just been that much cooler, but whatever.... or is there a reason you went with Melody Stellar? "

Stellar Melody is too descriptive. It is standard adjective-noun structure, to be taken at complete face value as either an 80s retro description of an aspect of the band's music, or just a nostalgic title derived from something the band read somewhere. Most bands with serious aspirations wouldn't name themselves something like Fantastic Beat or Groovy Reverb, because they just don't sound like names. They're, well, 'hokey'.

But Melody Stellar can't be pinned down so easily. The fact that this is a pairing of words that you would never hear in everyday speech gives them a freshness, the quality that they can only exist together in this form as a name of something. One also hears in the words the possibility that this is a person or character's name, hence the "Ziggy Stardust" nod in the title (Melody Stellar and the Lizards from Venus... sound familiar?)

Using this knowledge of band-name-aesthetics, we can come back to our poor, aspiring bad-example bands and change their names to Reverb Groovy and Beat Fantastic. Hey, they don't work as well as MelStell, but they do sound better than they did, now don't they?

Melody Stellar and the Lizards from Venus

My girlfriend's search for a new roommate may be over, as Friday we met with a girl from Taiwan to show off the half-empty apartment. The girl's name is Melody. As to be expected, she brought a friend for backup. Her friend's name is Stellar. I've heard that it is normal for Taiwanese people to have American names, but it's not very common for American people to be named after nouns and 80s slang-terms. I really wanted to point that their names together sound like some kind of pop group, but I figured it would only confuse them. So I kept it to myself, and I have toyed with the name in my head since Friday and come up with an entire history for this imaginary group:

AMG Expert Review-
Melody Stellar came together in 1996 as the pairing of college friends Anna Melody and Nicole Stellar. One majoring in music and the other in astronomy, the two decided to form a musical outfit out of their shared love for such bands as Devo, Black Flag, Amadaeus Mozart, Tortoise, The Commodores, and the Muppet Jug Band. Upon realizing that neither played any instruments, they recruited local experimental band The Lizards from Venus to provide music for the songs they wrote, which featured lyrics of cloy optimism and baseless metaphors. After playing local venues with the singers and gaining a small following, The Lizards inevitably dissolved, but the band's producer and creative force Matthew Foxglove stayed with Melody Stellar until they signed with Micro Fish records in 1998. Foxglove left to persue a solo career but would later return to produce their first EP. As the pop duo steadily gained popularity so grew Stellar's cocaine fixation, resulting in Jim Morrison-esque rantings during live performances of songs like "My Bubblegum You" and "We're the Turtledoves of Spectacular Kool-Aid". After releasing their debut EP, "A Love that Kills", in August 1999, Melody Stellar took some time off to deal with Stellar's drug problem and mental lapses, but they were back in the studio in no time recording a new full-length album. "AT-ST Walkers in my Bed" was released in early 2001 to mixed reviews, and the duo achieved semi-stardom in Russia, China, and Greenland. Melody Stellar kept busy in 2002, touring with Japanese rockers Bullshit and releasing a second album, "123 Fuck", in December.

Heh. Heh heh.

Happy Post-Valentine's Day

Last night at about 11:00 I wondered how many people in the city of Corvallis were gettin' it on at that very moment. I'll bet there was a bunch!

I read an interesting column in the campus newspaper a few days ago about how Valentine's Day is an awful holiday. I have to say that my head was nodding as I read, but yesterday was still fun for me. Even though it may be considered "annual failure day" to millions of single guys and girls, and even though the holiday seems to be based on consumerism (if you don't buy chocolates and flowers, YOU are a bad boyfriend), I enjoyed it because, for me, it was a new experience. I felt like an immigrant who had finally become enough of a citizen to participate in this national holiday. I was a little reluctant in following he crowd to buy the obligatory gifts, but I felt good when I witnessed their effects. Plus, I had the chance to make a rad pastel card which turned out great except for a small error in my katakana skills. Anyway, maybe someday I will oppose this holiday as vocally as I oppose required high school math courses, but for now I can say "kinou wa omosiirokatta desunee."

Oh yeah; just thought you'd wanna see this. I'm part of something big.

Thought 3

COWBOY: Howdy!
ADAM: Howdy to you.
COWBOY: Beautiful night.
ADAM: Yeah.
COWBOY: Sure want to thank ya for drivin' all the way up to see me from that Beverly Hills Hotel.
ADAM: No problem. What's on your mind?
COWBOY: Well now, here's a man who wants to get right down to it. Kinda anxious to get down to it are ya?
ADAM: Whatever.
COWBOY: A man's attitude ... a man's attitude goes some ways toward how a man's life will be. Is that somethin' you agree with?
ADAM: Sure.
COWBOY: Now... did you answer cause you thought that's what I wanted to hear or did you think about what I said and answer cause you truly believe that to be right?
ADAM: I agree with what you said...truly.
COWBOY: What did I say?
ADAM: That a man's attitude determines to a large extent how his life will be.
COWBOY: So since you agree I guess you could be a person who does not care about the good life.
ADAM: How's that?
COWBOY: Well, just stop for a little second and think about it. Will ya do that for me?
ADAM: Okay, I'm thinking.
COWBOY: No. You're too busy being a smart aleck to be thinkin'. Now I want ya to think and quit bein' such a smart aleck. Can ya do that for me?
ADAM: Look ... where's this going? What do you want me to do?
COWBOY: There's sometimes a buggy. How many drivers does a buggy have?
ADAM: One.
COWBOY: So let's just say I'm drivin' this buggy. You fix your attitude and you can ride along with me.
ADAM: Okay.

(taken from the pilot episode script. Script provided by www.script-o-rama.com)

Thought 2

Today at work while setting up a conference room (6 tables, "O" shape) my coworkers and I somehow got into a conversation about how the U.S. government controls and manipulates the research and selling of drugs. Apparently they regularly seek out small research labs around the country, steal any and all medicinal breakthroughs, and destroy the scientists' practices. A scientist in Texas discovers an effective treatment for 3 types of cancer, the government shows up and takes away all his rescources, and a couple months later a govt-funded medical research company unveils their new, effective cancer treatment.
Then my other coworker introduced the theory that the government (gotta love it!) is holding back on AIDS research because they think the virus is an effective population regulator. I was just thinking how great it would be for someone to walk in and find three minimum-wage earners tossing around conspiracy theories.

Thought 1

"Japan is a society which loves children, a society where it sometimes seems that all adults model themselves on an inner child, and certainly where commerce -- from fashion to banking -- uses childish characters, colours and scrawls and an all-pervading, all-conquering tone of cheerful cuteness to sell things. Put these tones -- Formalism and Cuteness -- together and you get the somewhat unexpected style I call Cute Formalism." - Momus


"Here in the states I think there is a definite backlash to all things seen as "cute", "ironic", etc... I call it the "new sincerity". I have even gotten a bit swept up in it myself while working on the new album! perhaps it is a response to the very frightening political situation here right now?" - Nathan Michel

Remember those days?

Earlier today I was amusing myself with these great sites. There seems to be a whole generation out there that specializes in poking fun at the lost "Saturday Morning Culture" as I like to call it.

seanbaby.com - Looking at the pictures of this guy you'd never guess that he spends all his time playing video games, watching crappy instructional videos, and writing some of the funniest smart-ass essays and critiques around. I never get tired reading this guy's stuff, primarily because there's so damn much of it (this site also includes a complete collection of the comics Marvel did for Hostess. Funny funny!).

i-mockery.com - Here is a more game-oriented site which is still endlessly amusing. Their politically incorrect versions of games are great, but my favorite feature of this site has got to be their list of every single M.U.S.C.L.E. figurine ever made, complete with given names and humorous profiles.

newgrounds.com - This one isn't really SMculture oriented, but it's got lot's of fun stuff nonetheless, like those keen Xiao Xiao movies.

"You there! Tell me, what day is this?"

Why, 'tis Momus's birthday, sir! Let's all wish him a happy avant-electro-ironic-folk-Tokyo-Paris-glitch-kitsch-fashion day!

Airports and Flaming Afros

Okay, it does work. For a few minutes my site was inaccessible and I was worried that it had fallen into a coma.

Yesterday I went to the Portland airport in the morning. I love airports. They're so clean, so modern... Each nice, big airport is like a sampling of the ideal progressive world, always being updated with the latest technology, services, and architecture. Portland's is almost like a mall, with restaurants and shops for rich travellers to paroose (a $4 bagel is a little much for the average joe). I still don't see who would buy some of the stuff they have, considering it is an airport. I can't imagine some business man, suitcase in hand, thinking "Let's see. I have 30 minutes to find gate...Oh! A recliner! And it's on sale!" I noticed that the Portland airport even has sculptures by Jeff Koons on display to glance at as you're boarding your flight.

Also yesterday I viewed the Japanese movie "Waterboys". In a nutshell, it's a comedy about a gang of high school geeks who form their own synchronized swimming team. I was overall quite amused but I had a couple problems with it, namely the unbelievable/underdeveloped romance and the gratuitous "funny" homoerotic scenes. Maybe it's just me, but I can only watch so many high school boys dancing in speedos before it just isn't funny anymore. My favorite part of the film was a slow motion shot of a boy jumping head-first into a swimming pool with his afro on fire. Now, something like that I could watch over and over.

Test. This is just a test to see if the server is awake.

Videos (and Momus too)

Just so everyone knows, Momus's new album "Oskar Tennis Champion" will be released in the U.S. February 11. Furthermore, you will most likely not find it anywhere in the state of Oregon. But you know I will look anyway.

Speaking of the tender pervert, he was recently featured in a song by the neato Canadian band Bran Van 3000, and you can even see him in the video for it at this site. Shame, Momus never made any videos for his own songs. I suppose maybe he just didn't have the time or money or connections to produce any, or maybe videos just aren't his cup of tea. artandleisure.com produced some great Flash videos for songs from the "Folktronic" album.

It seems the practice of making music videos has almost been ruined by institutions like MTV and VH1. The videos commonly aired on these channels have become more like commercials than visual-musical expressions. I remember when my brother and I would stay up until 1a.m. to watch "120 Minutes" on MTV. During the day you were assaulted with Master Ps and Goo Goo Dolls showing off their designer clothes their instruments, but late at night you could catch a glimpse of what the more obscure bands had been up to in the video department. I remember seeing video's like "Fender Bender" by Kid Koala and "Common People" by Pulp, and how I felt like I'd just seen a really good movie. They weren't just random displays of sets and band members. They were something to watch, something to laugh at, think about, marvel at, or make you just sit back and say "shit" (I have to say that was my initial response to Radiohead's "Knives Out" video).

Anyhoo, I gotta go. I want you all to think about the greatest videos you've ever seen, and say "yeah...that was pretty good."

I took my Japanese oral exam this afternoon. There were not many hesitations, and I think I did pretty well, but it went quick. Maybe too quick. The whole match was supposed to run about 5 minutes, and I was out of the ring after about 2. But oh well. Had it really been a Japanese shop rather than just a scenario, I would be content that I bought a small yellow umbrella, a grey handbag, 2 black pens, and 3 blue pens without having too much trouble.

So I saw the Walkmen last night. They did a great job; the singer seemed a little surly at the beginning, but they put up a nice wall of sound nonetheless with their beat-up instruments. They were sandwiched between a punk-rock piece of bread called Thermal and a big, wet slice of salami called Hot Hot Heat. I'm not quite sure what to think of the latter group. I remember thinking "this band is so bad they're kind of good." Some of their songs are catchy, and I suppose they are succeeding in whatever it is they are trying to do musically, but I still feel like I was laughing at them rather than with them. The major problems I had with 'triple H' are:
#1: The guitarist was one ugly sunovabitch.
#2: There was a large group of flaming homosexuals in the crowd singing along to every song.
#3: The lead singer played Journey-esque keyboard.
#4: The lead singer was wearing a Chicago t-shirt.
#5: They had tendency to suck.
Well, okay, I guess number 5 isn't an actual reason in itself, so you can just count number 3 twice. Anyhoo, I'm sure they are very nice boys.

Tristan says Jennie sends a lot of dumb forwards to Cody's email. Yay Jennie!

Well, I couldn't get the comment thing to work. The Blogger site 'help' feature is worthless, and all the other DIY comment sites seem to assume that I know what I'm doing. Hopefully I will figure it out someday. Stupid fucking konpyuutaa...

I took my Japanese written midterm this morning, and I know you don't care, so I will just say that I think it went well. I'm going to see the Walkmen tonight, which should be a jolly good time, and then I will study until the wee hours for my oral Japanese one-on-one battle-royale tomorrow. I gotta train. I'm gonna eat lightning, I'm gonna crap thunder.

I have to go to Philosophy of Art in a few minutes, so I'm leaving you with a babysitter; Mr. Bolan.

I am trying to add a comment feature. This post is a test to see if it worked.

They'll Never Make It to Dedaelus

I should probably say something about the Columbus disaster.

Man. That sucks.

Of course, it was NASA's oldest space shuttle, and all those certified rocket-scientists shrugged off the big chunk that broke from the vessel shortly after the launch, but it is still a tragedy. And to think, they invested a good 90 mil into renovating the ol' starship last year. Where did the money go? Fixin' up the shit-hatch??

Hey, does anyone remember that movie "Space Camp?" All I remember about it is that 3-wheeled robot named Jinx that befriended the main kid(a young, annoying Joaqin Phoneix). The robot looked like a space-age trashcan rolling around, and it's voice sounded like some guy inhaled a bunch of helium and did a crappy ET impression, but man, if only the astronauts on Columbus had had a witty little droid to bond with. Perhaps then they could've...no, I guess they still would've exploded, and then people would be finding pieces of Jinx scattered across the southern states. "Yooooooo Maaaaaaax. Jinx is deeeeeaaaad."

Yeah, well, anyway... My condolences...to the families...yeah.

free twenty dollars

Hey everyone!! Those bastard record companies owe us money for jacking up cd prices! Go get yours!! www.musiccdsettlement.com

"Schizotypal
Many believe that schizotypal personality disorder represents mild schizophrenia. The disorder is characterized by odd forms of thinking and perceiving, and individuals with this disorder often seek isolation from others. They sometimes believe to have extra sensory ability or that unrelated events relate to them in some important way. They generally engage in eccentric behavior and have difficulty concentrating for long periods of time. Their speech is often over elaborate and difficult to follow."

I took this test, and I scored high in the aforementioned area. Hm. Go ahead and try it for yourselves. It will make you say "hm" also.