MTV 1981

When I was younger, so much younger than today, I visited my grandma's house. She lived alone, smoked a brand of cigarettes I never heard of, drove her automatic transmission sedan with two feet, and she had cable. I used to lay on the rug in her living room, it was a hard and itchy wall to wall affair, low nap, with a sort of meandering line thing going on between the lumps of nap. It had a peculiar smell, exactly like the rest of the house. A smell from the past. 

Anyway, I would watch her TV. 1981 or 1982 maybe. It was summer. I should have been outside, but we (my sister and I) didn't have much to do outside in Kenmore, so I stayed in. Watching cable. Watching... MTV. First there was that video by REM, The One I Love. Just them playing on stage singing. Kinda good song, maybe I heard it before, maybe not.

And then this song came on... which I'd never heard before, but would again and again.

Cable never came to my house. I never had it growing up. My cousins had it, my grandma had it, but no one else I knew had it. When I finally got cable after college I couldn't afford MTV, it was a premium channel and I was your textbook Basic Cable Subscriber. Over at a friend's place we'd catch the only videos on MTV that weren't on at 2am - on Beavis and Butthead. At 11pm. It was good and damn funny, but I wanted Music on my television. I wanted to know what was awesome and new every time I tuned in. MTV hit a home run on the first pitch with me. But I was never a real fan. Never had season tickets.

Earth Hour, earth power... The Power Hour

Google reached more people and informed more people today about Earth Hour than probably any advertising could ever reach.


Power of the internet unleashed?

UConn won, get over it.

UConn won, get over it., originally uploaded by Jrome.

(Not Judas)

This morning I was singing, as I am wont to do in the mornings (such memorable classics as Strawberry In a Cup, Jasper Doodle, and There's a Present For Me in that Diaper) when Maddy shouted from the living room that I was being too loud.

Memories of my own father being told to hush by my sister and I came flooding back. Good memories. I miss my father and his singing.

here's another memory from my mom:

Saw some church service last night and it reminded me of the time Dad participated in the Maundy Thurs. pageant at our church( Cincinnati,Maderia).  Men were dressed in costume and the last supper was enacted so when it was all done it was the scene of the last supper(like the painting).  dad was one of the disciples (not Judas).  Quite an impressive sight.  We loved that church.  The minister was as young as we were...in our 30's and it was a growing church.  Lunardini's were their names...can't remember their first names.They had a daughter the same age as you, Linnea.  I ran the Bible school in the summer for a few years.  Did some work here in Tully, too. ...with just the Sunday school.  But once I got working at school I couldn't handle all the extra activities.

You know what Good Friday is.....Jesus was nailed on the cross at noon...put in a tomb and rose on Easter Sunday.  Just in case you've forgotten.

Green Fried Food Powered Subaru

This is my dream. Take a Subaru. Standard issue, diesel model. Turn it over to the Greasecar dudes in Easthampton MA. Drive it forever while stickin' it to the Man and his corporate Oil Baron hoodlums.

Until now, this was my own little pipe dream (i.e. there weren't any diesel subbies to convert to veggie power), but now my dream isn't so far fetched, at least not in the UK:

For Immediate Release

"On sale from February 2008, the Subaru Legacy Sports Tourer and Outback crossover mid-sized estates are priced from just £19,995 on-the-road for the Legacy 2.0D R model. Saloon versions may follow once supplies become more plentiful."

The D is for Diesel.

naked portafilter

naked portafilter, originally uploaded by tonx.

Too funny. I've been experimenting with our X1 to get awesome crema on our morning, afternoon and late afternoon espresso shots. I wanted to see what I could find on Flickr that could compare. Well, of course there are shots of espresso crema on Flickr. Too funny. Too cool. This is a bit of an absurd post.

(sorry.)

Exactly how I put on my pants every morning

see more crazy cat pics

Raconteurs' New Album: Consolers Of The Lonely

This Just In: email update from The Raconteurs, new album to be released to just you...

The Raconteurs are happy to announce that in one week’s time their second album, entitled “Consolers Of The Lonely”, will be available EVERYWHERE Tuesday, March 25th.

“Album” meaning: full length vinyl, CD and digital formats; and “everywhere” meaning: local mom and pop Indie retailers, corporate superstores, supermarkets, iTunes, Amazon, the band’s own website and any other location that could get the record up and going this quickly (some places couldn’t move this fast, so they will join in as soon as they can).

It contains 14 new recordings and is being released globally on Third Man Records in conjunction with our marketing/distribution partners, XL Recordings and Warner Brothers Records.

The album was mastered and completed in the first week of March. It was then taken immediately to a vinyl pressing plant. Then to a CD pressing plant. Then preparations to sell it digitally began. March 25th became the soonest date to have it available in EVERY FORMAT AT ONCE. The band have done no interviews or advertisements for this record before this announcement.

The purpose: to get the album to the fans as soon as possible and as we promised. We wanted to get this record to fans, the press, radio, etc., all at the EXACT SAME TIME so that no one has an upper hand on anyone else regarding it’s availability, reception or perception.

With this release, The Raconteurs are forgoing the usual months of lead time for press and radio set up, as well as forgoing the all important “first week sales”. We wanted to explore the idea of releasing an album everywhere at once and THEN marketing and promoting it thereafter. The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by it’s first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it.

Another purpose was to also allow people to have their own choice as to exactly which format they would like to hear the album in IMMEDIATELY, rather than having to wait for their favorite format to become available. The band are also not releasing any version of this record that contains bonus tracks. Musically this album will be the same as the band created it no matter what format it is purchased in (The sound quality of each format however, is a different story. The Raconteurs recommend hearing it on vinyl, but the choice is of course up to the listener).

The band also prefer that fans buy the album as a whole instead of breaking up the tracks, but until iTunes and other digital services allows bands to release their albums with the option of NOT breaking it up, it will be sold in that fashion on those particular sites. On the band’s website however, the album will be sold in its entirety as an mp3 at 320kb bit rate. Also in Japan, fans will be able to download the record via their mobile phones, as that is how a majority of recorded music is consumed there.

The reason we are announcing this release one week ahead of time is because of retail pre-ordering and stocking, information about this album’s imminent release was bound to come to light and could be confusing to fans. Also in the event that the record leaks, we didn’t want this method of release to be seen as a REACTION to such a leak. It’s not. The actual worst thing about a leak is the usual poor sound quality, akin to watching a movie on a wristwatch instead of in a theater. Which for the album’s creators is a bit of a letdown, but again, it is completely up to the listener.

There will be a video up on the internet for the first single, “Salute Your Solution”, on the 25th as well, provided it gets edited in time. We just filmed it the other day!

We hope not to confuse anyone with too many options, or deny them the formats that they like best. The Raconteurs feel very strongly that music has worth and should be treated as such. Thank you to all those who respect music in this fashion, and thank you to our label partners for working with us to get this album to fans in as many formats as possible all at once.

Thank you, and we hope that you enjoy “Consolers Of The Lonely”.

Sincerely,
The Raconteurs

Album cover image available at www.TheRaconteurs.com

Old Shirt

IMG_0005.JPG, originally uploaded by Jrome.

Nicole found this shirt in a box in tucked away at her parents house. In the same box was a vintage Thrasher Magazine sweatshirt (brand new) that I now have commanded.

When I saw this t-shirt I was reminded of John's story about going to the Elvis Costello concert in St. Louis. I forget most of the awesome details, maybe John will come by and leave it in the comments?

It takes a city

ZoneTag

ZoneTag Photo Friday 10:20 am 3/7/08, originally uploaded by Kaeru.

http://zonetag.research.yahoo.com

and then there's the research paper too...
http://groups.sims.berkeley.edu/pics/papers/Ahern_et_al_zonetag_pics06.pdf

Twitter in Plain English

I love these!

faun

IMG_4959.JPG, originally uploaded by Jrome.

He's perfect, ain't he?

The Secret to Enjoyment

Nikki, originally uploaded by Jrome.

There is really no secret to enjoying life, but to live well and recognize it from time to time. The lucky ones recognize it all the time. I'm getting there.