Clean, clean, clean.

Sweep, Sweep.

Moppity mop.

The Whalewatcher and his fine lass are staying over for two days. We are excited as can be, but need out house to gleam and sparkle. The whalewatcher and his missus are classy people, and they deserve some classy accomodations.

Dust, dust, and dust some more.

Hoovering, hooving, heaving, having, halfing.

We also need a clean house for some new-years day brunch-time relaxation. Sugar-bacon, mimosas, and bloody marys. Oh-boy. We will be ready even though some of us are walking on crutches.

"God bless us, every one!"

Here's wishing you
a super Christmas!

Love,
Mouse & the Billionaire

Here's hoping your Christmas is not a waste.

Love,
Mouse & the Billionaire

The Jesse Gloyd and the Longshoes show last night was a huge success. I attribute it to the hard and grueling practices, the no-nonsense attitude, and the copious ammounts of bourbon drank before the performance. Congratulations to all involved.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about today. I wanted to talk about something that has taken the internet by storm. It has infected it. Tarnished it. Destroyed it's fragile composition.

No, I'm not talking about viruses. (or virii).

No, I'm not talking about porn either. (or pRon, for that matter)

I'm talking about Wham! covers.

Yes, Wham! That band/onomatopoeia featuring ol' George Michael (aka Georgios Kyrriacos Panayiotou) who was famous for stuffing his pants on stage and including unnesessary punction marks in band names.

And now every damn blog I look at has some link to Copy, Right?'s collection of Last Christmas covers. (including me now. shit.)

Now. This may be the worst Christmas song of all time. It's repetitive, inane, and annoying. It doesn't warm my heart. It hurts it. I guess the sentiment expressed in, "last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away. This year to save me from tears I'll give it to someone special." really hits it home for the indie rock sad sacks, but not for me! I want cheer! I want cocoa! I want people covering White Christmas.

Or The First Noel

Or anything that a self-respecting person would want to hear around the holidays. It doesn't have to be happy either. Cover Elvis's Blue Christmas if you want something sad and sappy. At least that song sounds good!

Sorry for ranting, but let's be honest, this has to stop.

That being said Erlend Oye's version of Last Christmas by Wham!!! is actually pretty good.

A ha!

Started filling in the ol' back-catalogue. September is the first one done and it features a certain Philistine. Enjoy!

Here's the deal.

I'm loving this whole old-timey nautical vibe right now. If I don't watch myself I'm gonna become that creepy guy down the street who spends all day putting ships in bottles. Or, at the very least, Jimmy Buffet

But I can't help it.

I love it.

I'm not sure if it's sailing in general, or the order it involves, or the wicked cool style, but I'm head over heels. I think the Gloyd's and the Kennedy's are both partially to blame.

I recently bought a blue sportcoat and the first thing I think is, "if I wear a pink shirt, white shoes, and khakis, I'm totally going yacht-style."

In fact, I do have a pink shirt. And white Sperry's. And I'm going to watch the NB boat parade on Saturday with my family wearing all of the above. From a yacht, And yes, I will be incredibly styling.

These two kids think Harry Potter is pretty cool.

Actually it looks like the kid dressed like Ronald McDonald dressed like Ron Weasley (which would produce a dmh-worthy mash-up of Ronald McDonald Weasley) thinks he's pretty cool, and the kid dressed up like Harry Potter probably looks pretty much like that every day, and thus isn't too keen on the idea.

And after reading Order of the Phoenix in like 7 hours or something I have to agree with the Whalewatcher. Harry Potter is pretty cool.

These things are also pretty cool, but in a nerd-tastic way:

Harry Potter legos

Harry and the Potters: the all HP-themed rock group

the HP calculator museum

H.P. Lovecraft

As for me and the little lady: we've packed our transistor radio, a couple 10 cent paperbacks, and suntan oil, and are off to The Ol' Yacht Club. Thar she blows!

Talking Myspace generation.

Utterly fascinating article about The Myspace Generation at businessweek.com. The concept of social marketing has been used for a long time (I know a certain smoothe alternative band that played a CAA party for a bunch of taste-makers not too long ago), but it's amazing what marketing firms now have the power to do with on-line venues like Myspace.

With 20 million of its members logging on in October, MySpace now draws so much traffic that it accounted for 10% of all advertisements viewed online in the month

10% of all online advertisement! That is insane!

The interesting thing for the future will be if Myspace can keep it up. Can they remain on the foerefront of cool, or wil it be replaced by another upstart idea with a brand new way to reach teens? Them teens are fickle sum-bitches, and they sure do like to drop something as soon as it gets to popular. (Except for wearing copious amounts of make-up, gossiping, and being rebelious - these have been popular since Jimmy Dean redefined the youth of America on October 27th, 50 years ago)

So these things may pass, but as for now "check out our myspace page. It's cool. Everyone's doin' it.

November's Mouse & the Mixtape now up.

This week's episode: Mouse & the Billionaire Get Organized.

We are king geektown right now in the Billionaire mansion. We've spent the last few weeks taking near daily trips to The Container Store™ to further build our home-office wall of power. We've still got a little bit to go, but it is starting to look sweet.

It looks a lot like this picture, only we've forked over the extra cash for the platinum colored surfaces. It's like the whole wall is in a G4 Powerbook costume. Sleek and stylish, yet highly practical and functional.

I know you're already in the midst of scoffing, but let me sway you a bit with this:

Mouse and the Billionaire's List of Things That are Also Highly Organized but Still Retain Their Awsomeness

1. Sailboats
2. N.A.S.A.
3. Modern Design
4. The Death Star
5. Maps

Of course this list could just go on and on, but we know you get the point. Organization is awesome. We are awesome. Our new elfa wall of organizational power™ is awesome. And you are awesome for so readily and eagerly agreeing that we are awesome.

Thank you.

One-man bands are cool. Bert from Mary Poppins was a one man band. Thelonius Monk on Solo Monk was a one man band.

Nothing is cooler than a one-man band.

Not true.

One think is cooler than a one-man band.

What is cooler than a one-man band?

I'll tell you what's cooler than a one-man band. A one-armed one-man band. Check out ol' DubCee sitting above us. How awesome is that guy! How in the world does this guy play that guitar? The Mouse & the Billionaire first-ever concert on the 22nd of this month will probably look a like like this but with a few more arms in the mix.