Bryter Later

Well; in desperation, and based on this post of Jennifer's, last week I went back a year, then two, looking for something good in my back catalog.  And then spent the better part of the week going through my old posts.

And you know what I found?  Yep; I found that I am one whiny fuck of a zombie.  Once or twice a year, without fail, I regularly give up, tune out, and tell everybody to fuck off.  Fuck, if I am going to be manic-depressive, when do I get the manic part?

So, apparently I am weathering this year's nadir-cycle.  Funny, I always thought I bottomed out during October-November, but perhaps that is more based on a character's musings in The Dead Zone than reality.  Fuck if I know.

(sorry about the profanity.  I think the Fuck You Fridays have made me permanently sailor-mouthed.  Well, hopefully it will at least it keeps the pearl clutching wingnut types away.  Shit, it probably keeps EVERYBODY away.  But considering the commenting during early days, should I care?  No.  I started writing this for me, and why the fuck not keep on writing it for me?)

Maybe in the coming days I will talk about what I've been doing and where I've been; but then again, maybe not.  If I promised, I would only end up breaking it, and while Bob Mould can make great music from that kind of thing, I can't; so better to not even start.


Well.  Anyway, in recent days, one bright point I have been able to hang on to has been the release of Collapse Into Now, from that obscure college band R.E.M.  Some of you might have heard of them.  It's no secret that they are one of my favorites;  back when they released their first album, I was going to college in cow-town Wisconsin, and my alternatives for new music were driving to Madison or Dubuque.  Madison had better stores, but Dubuque was closer (and from that description, I bet you can figure out what cow-town college I went to) and I don't remember were I picked up Murmur.  It might have been the local supermarket/general store, but as I think back, I start to doubt that.  I don't even remember why I picked it up, but suspect it may have been a Rolling Stone review.

And the album hardly left the pile of often-played vinyl by the stereo for quite some time, and even made the Big List Of Songs That Made Me Zombie.  Nobody else in town liked it, and I didn't care.  Like I do now (Mekons, anybody?).

In the next couple of years, I moved to Milwaukee, REM released their second album, I lived in Janesville, was homeless for a short while, and missed them playing at Summerfest.  It's True!  And inexcusable.  But I made up for it by seeing them on the Life's Rich Pageant tour at the Oriental Theater, and subsequently have been kind of obsessed with their work, even the post-Bill Berry stuff.

They are musicians who have never compromised, never pandered, and still become one of the biggest bands in the world.  I respect that; I envy it.

So, and in the great Empire traditions of the song by song review of 21st Century Breakdown as well as the  song by song savaging of Peter Gabriel's last album, I am going to run through the new R.E.M. album just to amuse myself and do something besides self-pity.

hmpf. I was going to do a full review of that album, but then I got sick and didn't sleep at all last night and I can't concentrate on anything and it just didn't seem worth the effort, so if you're willing to take my word for it, go ahead and get the new R.E.M. album because it's pretty good. 

That just the slightest bit of finesse
Might have made a little less mess
But it was what it was
Let's all get on with it now
Discover

So here are pictures of robots and the robotics team:

yes, that's Dean Kamen

go team

fuckin focus.

fuckin heavy

it worked.  Kinda.

Now I am going to go home, crash on the couch and watch MST3K and see if I'm gonna throw up.