Toys In The Attic

Hi.

Haven't been around much, I know. Got read the riot act by Zelmo last night, and he never actually appears outside of his house anymore.

This season is the nightmare. Crazy inconsiderate and ungrateful clients, EOY activities, Holidays (bite me Billo) and a primary birthday, plus SNOW SNOW SNOW!!!! We've got 12" of the white crap - as Cecil Adams would say: kaniktshaq moritlkatsio atsuniartoq. Anaq.

I have a couple of good posts percolating away. Maybe nothing on the order of a Snagalicious 'Leave-It-To-Beaver-from-the-planet-of the-Vogons post; or even a Jennifer's Twisted Painting Grannies post, but they are bitter and hopefully a little funny, so I'm trying to get to them. Give me a break, willya?

Last night's Olbermann Special Comment was a doozy. Haven't seen him that visibly angry in a while. Sadly, Baby King George is so protected in his bubble and it probably won't touch him; the shame would prevent him from appearing in public through the rest of his term. "Mr. Bush, you HAVE NO BUSINESS being President." Not bad, not bad.


Let's sum up the week, shall we? George Bush is a liar, Giuliani is an adulterous cheating liar, Romney is a flipflopping opportunistic liar and moralistic hypocrite, and Huckabee is a rapist-releasing liar religious extremist. Bring in the B team, Repubs. Sheesh. I know that to the wingnuts it seems like the news media has a bias against the Republican candidates, but that's only because the transgressions are so egregious and numbingly obvious that only Maureen Down can ignore them. Let's get down to the level of scrutinising the amounts they tip at restaurants, or if they ever forgot to wear their fake-patriotism lapel pins in public...

Cloud Cult at Turner's tonight. Music now.

1. Barely Beating from the album "The Big One" by Jack Devine Don't know who this guy is. Got the disc free from CDBaby in an order. It's OK. Starts with a nice pulsing electronica sound. Nice big guitar slash in their, kind of like the accidental riff from 'Creep'. I'm starting to like it.
2. He'd Send In The Army from the album "Entertainment!" by Gang Of Four. Isn't that the fucking truth? Except first, he'd send in the bombers, because those are kewler. GoF were schoolmates of the Mekes, but were better at playing the label game and so saw a certain amount of success. In recent years, though, they have been reduced to hollow echoes of themselves, playing the oldies circuit for aging punks, while the Mekons have continued flying under the radar and making challenging, engaging music and continuing to explore new ways of expressing themselves. Which reminds me, I need to stop by the gallery and pick up the woodcuts I bought when they were in town. Good, slashing arrhythmic guitar stomp song though.
3. Help Save The Youth Of America from the album "Talking With The Taxman About Poetry" by Billy Bragg Another Billy doing another good one, as applicable now as when it was written twenty years ago....

Help save the youth of america
Help save the youth of the world
Help save the boys in uniform
Their mothers and their faithful girls

Listen to the voice of the soldier
Down in the killing zone
Talking about the cost of leaving
And the price of bringing him home

They're already shipping the body bags
Down by the rio grande
But you can fight for democracy at home
And not in some foreign land

And the fate of the great united states
Is entwined in the fate of us all
And the incident at tschernobyl proves
The world we live in is very small

And the cities of europe have burned before
And they may yet burn again
And if they do I hope you understand
That Washington will burn with them
Omaha will burn with them
Los alamos will burn with them

sing it, brother.

4. The Pass from the album "Presto" by Rush A non-screechy Rush song, Jennifer. Well, I guess it's just for Zelmo, brando and me.
5. Afc Song from the album "New Deal" by Waco Brothers "Alcohol, Freedom, and a Country Song." Rock it out, brothers. One of the best bar bands going. If you live in Chicago, you've probably seen them by now. If not, what are you waiting for?
6. Picture Book (Stereo) from the album "The Village Green Preservation Society" by The Kinks Heh. One for Nick to prove that they are out there, lurking within my iTunes. An oldie, from a remastered version; I especially like the designation 'stereo'. Old farts like me, AG, can remember when there were such things as vinyl LPs, and singles, and even 78s; there were ancient, clattering steam-driven players that would melt if presented with less than a single track signal, and would send pulses back through the ether to destroy FM stations that dared to broadcast in stereo. It would be necessary to 'press' different 'versions' of these 'albums' to correspond to this equipment. and to ensure you fully enjoyed the scraping, popping, scratchy and sensitive highest fidelity of these components, that usually cost 35 dollars at Radio Shack. It was a different time, children, and dinosaurs roamed the cities while the suburbs were still being formed from white-hot magma...
7. Birdhouse In Your Soul from the album "Severe Tire Damage" by They Might Be Giants we saw them. Zelmo didn't. This song rocked the Turner. What else would you want? except Ana Ng, of course.
8. You Don't Fool Me from the album "Made In Heaven" by Queen Last music from Freddy. This is a good one for a Winter's Morning, actually. This is a very fine album, even if it was posthumous.
9. In the Congo (Live In London) from the album "Drums Along the Hudson (Special Edition)" by The Bongos old skool pop-punk. somewhat like first-album XTC.
10. Helvetica from the album "Badger-A-Go-Go" by Couch Flambeau Blistering punk-metal classic from Milwaukee garage banders. Punks called 'em metal; metalheads called 'em punk. Screechy falsetto vocals, thundering bass, squalling guitar and trippy, weird lyrics. I loved 'em.

bonus number 11 (You are number Six!) : Crater Lake from the album "Whip-Smart" by Liz Phair
one more : I Remember You from the album "All The Stuff (And More)" by the Ramones

It's gonna be a good day. Be good to each other.