OK, My computer has gotten a bit old. Eight years old to be exact. And over that time it has developed some quirks that strike me as somewhat odd. Today I am going to talk about my dvd drive. Over the past few years it has developed a strange need. You see it won't play any dvd I put in it unless I first put in what appears to be it's favorite dvd and play a little bit of it. What, you may ask, would be the favorite movie of an 8 year old dvd drive? Why The Big Lebowski of course. I swear it does not play any other dvd unless I put The Big Lebowski in first. Then it will play whatever I want.
I've been going through my photos looking for good one's of Duke. This is one I like a lot, you can see how big his mouth was (his breath smelled like the well dog breath... or the beach at low tide.)
John Renbourn who played guitar with Pentangle released a solo album in 1968 called "Sir John ALot of Merrie Englandes Musyk Thyng And Ye Grene Knyghte." A meditative album of celtic fingerstyle guitar backed up by flutes,recorders and African drums, Finger cymbals and even Glockenspiel. I picked this up a couple weeks ago for $6 at my local vinyl Emporium. A good deal even if it was because this was a re-release, and a decently clean copy with not too many pops*. This was a record that really deserved to be kept in print. However for some unknown reason Windham Hill shortened the title to "Sir John Alot of" I'm supposing that the original title must have been too sixties for the minimalist new age Windham Hill, still cutting it off randomly like that does not show much respect for the original release.
Pentangle was one of the bands that was part of the english folk revival thing going on in the late sixties and early seventies. While the Fairport Convention electrified english folk music Pentangle kept things acoustic. Renbourn solo work covers a lot of ground including the blues.
*back in the day when we played these things called records some surface noise was almost inevitable. Oh how did we ever surrive?
Here it is the end of January already. I'm tired of winter and mildly stressed out. On the other hand I have some vacation time coming up and I like my job so things aren't too bad.
current music: Jerry Garcia & David Grisman - The Pizza Tapes - 02 - Man Of Constant Sorrow
Inner Party Member You scored 69% American Film, 76% Foreign Film, and 92% Classic Film!
You definitely know your stuff, and have sampled a wide range of fine cinematic delights. If you're male, you probably find Angelina Jolie boring and Emma Thompson incredibly hot. If female, same rules apply to Antonio Banderas and Colin Firth. When you hear about an upcoming film, you probably ask who directed it first, and who's in it second. When the revolution comes, you'll be on the safe side of the rifles.
This test tracked 4 variables. How the score compared to the other people's:
At fourteen years old I woke one morning to find that John Lennon had been shot to death the night before. While I slept he walked up to the doorway to the Dakota apartment building where he lived and was shot in the chest by a man named Mark David Chapman. His fortieth birthday had only been two months previous.
For a teenager who had only really just gotten into The Beatles and Lennon's solo music this was a shock. Very few dates come to mind as being that much of a shock in my life. While for an earlier generation the assasinations of JFK, RFK and Martin Luthor King jr. were all great moments of singular tragedy, bookmarks in the timestream that loomed large over their lives, this would be the first for my generation. To come would be the destruction of a space shuttle, the collapse of the twin towers and then yet another space shuttle burning up in the atmosphere.
It struck me that sometime in the last couple weeks I passed the age John Lennon was when he died. That I am now moving forward, in my own personal time, into an age that he never knew. I find that a little disquieting here at the dog's end of the year.
Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak.
There is a scene in Easy Rider where George Hanson(Jack Nicholson) and Billy(Dennis Hopper) are discussing why the rednecks hate Billy and Wyatt(Peter Fonda.)Billy says its because of the long hair. George tells him no, its because Wyatt and Billy represent freedom and that a truly free individual scares people and makes them dangerous. So how is it that the same people who 35 years ago were scared and angry at seeing a free individual are now the ones claiming that the country is being attacked by people who hate and fear our freedom?
current music: Grateful Dead (73-06-10) - Ramble On Rose
I've been thinking a bit tonight about what I would consider my absolute favorite albums. Strangely enough this list only represents a portion of my collection. I have attempted to only include a representative album where this sort of restriction is applicicable.
1. The Beatles - The White Album (The Beatles)* 2. Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet 3. The Doors - LA Woman 4. Pink Floyd - Meddle 5. The Kinks - The Kinks Are The Vilage Green Preservation Society 6. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground and Nico 7. Jimi Hendrix - Axis Bold As Love 8. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisted 9. Bo Diddley - Got My Own Bag Of Tricks 10. The MC5 - Kick Out The Jams 11. The Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow 12. Various Artists - Woodstock 13. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass 14. Paul McCartney - Band On The Run 15. John Lennon - Imagine 16. Jethro Tull - Songs From The Wood 17. Led Zeppelin - How The West Was Won 18. Captain Beefheart - Shiny Beast Batchain Puller 19. Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All 19. The Who - Live At Leeds 20. Love - Forever Changes 21. Grateful Dead - Live Dead 22. Bob Weir - Ace 23. Jerry Garcia - Garcia 24. Phil Lesh - Seastones 25. Diga Rhythm Band - Diga Rhythm Band 26. Traffic - Last Exit 27. Crosby Stills Nash and Young - So Far *& 28. Todd Rundgren - Something Anything 29. The Soft Machine - Soft Machine 30. The Flaming Groovies - Teenage Head 31. The Zombies - The Singles A's and B's 32. John Cale - Paris 1919 34. Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs 35. Dr. John - Gris Gris 36. 13 floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere 37. The Red Crayoloa - The Parable of Arable Land 38. Van Morrison - Moondance 39. Santana - Santana 40. Yes - Yessongs 41. Country Joe and the Fish - Electric Music for mind and body 42. Jack Bruce - Songs for a tailor 43. Mountain - Climbing! 44. King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black 45. Can - Ege Bamyasi 46. Steve Hilliage - Fish Rising 47. Procol Harum - Salty Dog 49. Spirit - The 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus 50. Big Brother and the holding co. - Cheap Thrills 51. John Fahey - The Legend of Blind Joe Death 52. Leo Kottke - Six and Twelve String Guitar 53. Nino Ferer - Metronomie 54. Serge Gainsbourg - Gainsbourg A Gainsbarre 55. The Firesign Theater - Waiting for the electrician of someone like him 56. The Firesign Theater - How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all 57. The Firesign Theater - Don't Crush That Dwarf Hand Me The Pliers 58. The Firesign Theater - We're All Bozos on this Bus Ok, All Four of these albums are essential but if I had to pick only one it would be Dwarf. 59. Roger Waters - Music From the Body 60. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmos Factory 61. The Fugs - Golden Filth live at filmore east 62. Neil Young - Decade 63. Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield 64. David Bowie - Lodger 65. Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Come 66. The Moody Blues - In Search Of The Lost Chord 67. Allman Brothers - Filmore East 68. Jeff Beck - Truth/Beckola 69. Paul Butterfield Blues Band - East West 70. Derek and the Dominos - Layla and other love songs 71. Paul Katner/Jefferson Starship - Blows Against the Empire 72. John Mayall & The Blues Breakers - A Hard Road 73. Pentangle - Essential Pentangle 74. Shawn Phillips - collaboration 75. The Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter 76. Various Artists - The Real Bahamas 77. Joseph Spence - Living on the Hallelujah Side 78. Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man 79. The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations: Smile(bootleg with 15minute Good Vibrations) 80. Elvis Presley - The Sun Sessions 81. Simon and Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence 82. Paul Simon - Negotiations and Love songs 1971-1986 83. Chuck Berry - The Great Twenty-eight 84. Dick Dale - Tribal Thunder 85. Squeeze - Singles 86. Ustad Sultan Khan - Sarangi: The music of india 87. Ravi Shankar - Live at the Monterey Pop Festival
This next section is basically late 70s through today but there are some holes. These correspond to times when I stopped listening/ buying new music due to what was going on in my life at the time or to times when I was so into older music I lost track of the cool new stuff.
1. The Stranglers - La Folie 2. Wire - Chairs Missing 3. The Clash - Story of the Clash 4. The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime 5. Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade 6. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation 7. The Pouges - If I should Fall From Grace With God 8. Pixies - Surfer Rosa 9. Camper Van Beethoven - Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart 10. Mudhoney - Superfuzz Bigmuff 11. Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription 12. The Meat Puppets - Up on the sun 13. Nirvana - Unplugged 14. The Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician 15. The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness 16. Belle and Sebastian - Tigermilk 17. Tom Waits - Franks Wild Years 18. Ciccone Youth - The Whitey Album 19. Firehose - If'n 20. Elvis Costello - King of America 21. Crash Test Dummies - God Shuffled his feet 22. XTC - Skylarking 23. Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots 24. They Might Be Giants - Flood 25. Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary 26. Henry Kaiser - Those who know history are doomed to repeat it 27. The Dukes of Stratosphear - 25 O'clock 28. Bauhaus - 1979 -1983 Volume one 29. Pubic Image Limited - Live in Tokyo 30. various artists - Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye, A Tribute to Roky Erickson 31. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables 32. Bongwater - Double Bummer+ 33. Babaloo - Punk Mambo!
Jazz
1. Louis Armstrong - The Hot Five and Sevens 2. Duke Ellington - The Blanton-Webster Band 3. Benny Goodman - Carnegie Hall Concert 1938 4. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue 5. John Coltrane - Blue Train 6. John McLaughlin - My Goal's Beyond 7. Mahavishnu Orhcestra - Inner Mounting Flame 8. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew 9. Dexter Gordon - Go 10. Sun Ra - Atlantis 11. Joe Pass - Blues Dues 12. Modern Jazz Quartet - Django 13. Dave Brubeck - Time Out 14. John Scofield - A Go Go 15. Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters 16. Miles Davis - 'Round about Midnight 17. Charles Mingus - Ah Um 18. Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch 19. Thelonious Monk - Himself 20. Jimmy Smith - The Preacher 21. Charlie Parker - The complete Savoy Sessions Vol.1 22. Artie Shaw - Begin the Beguine 23. Django Reinhardt - Swing 39 24. John Zorn - The Big Gundown
Blues 1. Muddy Waters - His Best 2. Howlin Wolf - Chess Box Set 3. Robert Johnson - Complete recordings
Classical 1. Mahler - Symphony No. 9 - Bruno Walter 2. Mahler - Symphony No. 7 - James Levine 3. Kurt Weil - Threepenny Opera 4. Edgard Varèse - Amériques 5. Stravinsky - Rite of Spring
Soundtracks
The Beau Hunks - Play the "Little Rascals" Music from Pulp Fiction Ennio Morricone - Film Music Volume I Ennio Morricone - Film Music Volume II The Carl Stalling Project (music from the warner brothers cartoons 1936-1958) Wings of Desire King Kong (original movie) Zabriski point The Big Easy Pump up the volume
*Or Revolver on alternate thursdays with an R in the month *& Or Deja Vu
You scored 0 in the "I'm an ignoramus" category and 100 in the syntactical enlightenment category
100% - Your syntax sizzles! Feel free to get shitty with the lingo! (Those who know the rules, can break the rules) 90% - You are an amazingly gifted grammarian, and I would be pleased to read what you have to say. 80% - Sentence structure is not your forte, but your sentences are not crap. 70% - I guess you fall into that sadly average category. below 70% -- Get your ass in school!! Sometimes pejoratives are all right despite what your crusty old English teachers taught you.
My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
Aggressive, but with the brains to back it up: You are a Spellsword! Score! You have a prestige class. A prestige class can only be taken after you’ve fulfilled certain requirements. This may mean that you're an exceptionally talented person, but it probably doesn't. Spellswords combine arcane might with combat know-how. They're much tougher than mages, like to wear armor, and can cast spells through their weapons. They're very, very, good at doing lots of damage to a single target very quickly, and while not quite as tough as most fighters, are still pretty hard to kill. You're both smart and aggressive, which means that you're probably pretty dangerous when pissed off. You also tend to be somewhat straightforward, which is nice, and don’t have much use for spirituality or mysticism.
My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
Jude You scored 44 shyness, 19 bitterness, 65 moral, and 35 eccentric!
Hey Jude! You are the average Joe/Jane, a decent person striving to make their place in the world. Full of hopes and dreams, but one of the things you want most is that special person to spend your life with. Don't despair if you can't seem to find them - you're a prize! "And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain, Don't carry the world upon your shoulders. For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool By making his world a little colder." - 'Hey Jude'
My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
Hmm, they made a movie out of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake. Better yet it looks like it may be a decent adaption of the book. Her book of short stories, The Interpreter of Maladies, is well worth reading as well.
current music: Stefan Grossman - St. James Infirmary
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