Last year I downloaded the behemouth SXSW featured artist torrent which had something like 5 million bands on it. I still haven't listened to them all, but I will venture to say that 4 million of them are awful. I spend a great deal of time deleting bands from my iTunes every day.

Two days ago, I had my finger on the delete button ready to delete the George W. Bush Singers. First off that's a horrible name. Secondly I hate leftist (or rightest for that matter) exagerated propaganda. Thirdly, that's just a really horrible name. However, something inside me decided to give 'em a shot, and you know what? Great song.

It's not going to change the way we hear music, but it's undeniably catchy. The GWBS sound like the Partridge Family on a really really good day. Happy and collected and positive AND the only lyrics that the GWBS have are actual GWB qoutes. Top that all off with the fact that their album is titled Songs in the Key of W and I'm sold.

But don't take my word for it, give it a listen

GWBS - deep thoughts part 2.mp3

p.s. Apparently Carnie and Wendy Wilson of the hit band Wilson Phillips are Brian Wilson's daughters?! How come no one ever told me this?!

We have a quiz today. You have 20 minutes to complete it. It is worth 10% of your grade.

Ready.

Begin.

1. Which of the below are awesome?

A. George Harrison's 1970 album All Things Must Pass
B. Boris Pasternak's 1958 novel Dr. Zhivago
C. You
D. All of the above

2. True of False: George Harrison's song My Sweet Lord, released as a single in 1970, was his most successful solo song ever, and rightly so because it kick ass.

3. True of False: George Harrison's re-recording of the song My Sweet Lord, which was released in 2000 and included in the copy of All Things Must Pass I recently acquired, is also a fantastic piece of music and is in no way an unnesessary attempt to modernize an already great song.

4. Rate the dvd released seasons of Kiefer Sutherland's hit television show 24 from best to worst. (1 being the best, 4 being the worst)

1. ___
2. ___
3. ___
4. ___

5. Which of the below am I not going to do anymore?

A. Use a computer for blogging
B. Web Design
C. Substitute teach
D. All of the above

Time's up. Papers and pencils down.

Answers:
1.D - 2.T - 3.F - 4. 1(1) 2(3) 3(2) 4(4) - 5.C

To wrap up, both Dr. Zhivago and All Things Must Pass are good; My Sweet Lord is awesome but My Sweet Lord(2000) is not; This season of 24, while good, is in no way as good as seasons 1 and 3; and I got hired to do contract work for Art Center's alumni department and will thus not have to substitute teach anymore. Hurray!

another mixtape. june.

"I read a piece like that the other day: 'A gray day, like yesterday. Rain since morning, slush. I look out of the window and see the road. Prisoners in an endless line. Wounded. A gun is firing. It fires today as yesterday, tomorrow as today and every day and every hour.' Isn't that subtle and witty! But what has he got against the gun? How odd to expect variety from a gun! Why doesn't he look at himself, shooting off the same sentences, commas, lists of facts day in, day out, keeping up his barrage of journalistic philanthropy as nimble as the jumping of a flea? Why can't he get it into his head that it's for him to stop repeating himself -not for the gun- that you can never say something meaningful by accumulating absurdities in your notebook, that facts don't exist until man puts into them something of his own, a bit of free human genius -of myth."

Dr. Zhivago
Boris Pasternak

And, in other news, the internet helps you make your cat a royal fruit helmet and dress your ipod like a cowboy.

via and via (respectively)

{the following post in which the author admits in a hilariously round-about way to being a nerd was deleted due to technical problems and overall tom-foolery. please accept our sincerest appologies and this equally-hilarious addendum.}

"Clearly you need more RAM, bitch"

August and July now up! Two for the price of one featuring a Longshoe and Summer Hit (or two).

Enjoy!

For those of you using the ol' my.yahoo, do yourself a favor and add the daily kitten as a sidebar item.

What better way to start the day than with a cute kitten by your side?

None better way.

"...I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

"I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

"This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Martin Luther King Jr.
August 28, 1963

There's nothing like some good ol' fashion prog/metal muscial masterbation to get your weekend kicking in to high gear.

Eat your heart out Pachelbel!

Eat your heart out Bill & Ted!

I'm sensing a glorious comeback to the music that made noodling famous.

Merry Christmas month from Mouse & the Billionaire

December 2005

The always fabulous Make Magazine features a great article by Mister Jalopy this month on how to turn an old phonograph cabinet into a vinyl-to-ipod conversion cabinet.

Though cool, and quite beautiful (in a nerdy tech-savvy kind of way) this huge and lumbering thing got me thinking...

Does anyone really want to do this?

I mean, I do; I transfer songs from my vinyl all the time; But am I part of the all-important music-buying collective? How many of you buy vinyl, let alone transfer those songs? It's a pain in the ass. Does anyone want both?

Apparently enough people do.

Saddle Creek is unveiling it's new vinyl/ipod sales plan I like to call Operation: Awesome.

Starting with our old friends Two Gallants, anyone who buys the vinyl album will be given a code for a one-time mp3 download of the whole album.

This is what I'm talking about! With the apparent coming demise of CD, we need something to instill pride in music purchase again. No more bulls#&*! A marriage between pristine analogue goodness and technical ease. Two thumbs up to Saddle Creek, and all you other labels best follow suit (yes, I'm talking to you, Barsuk. Stop playing with Susie's pigtails, and start paying attention when I'm teaching)

Steve Jobs announced the new MacBook Pro today. With the new Intel Core Duo chip, it's 4.3 times faster than the G4 Powerbook, and includes a built-in iSight camera, remote for dvd/cd/photo control, and a fancy new magnetic battery connection.

If our MacWorld tickets would have arrived by now, we'd be there to play with it. But then I'd probably come home with a pocket protector and complete set of Magic:The Gathering cards. I'm dangerously close as it is.

The Blog Herald reported today that Myspace is now at 47.3 million users!

47.3 Million users!

That's more than 10 times the number of people in Los Angeles! That's more that twice the number of people in the entire Metropolitan area of New York! According to the 2000 census, no state in the union has more people than that! In fact, the state of myspace has more people than Colorado, Idaho, Arizona, Illinois, Nevada, and Michigan combined!

Are you shitting me?!

It gets better.

Not only that, but myspace gets 160,000 new users every day! Every day! Between 1925 and 1965 the United States got that many immigrants every year!

And still I only have 44 friends?! That means I have .0000000933% of the possible friends I could have. I gotta go. I got work to do.

I typed in f---ing funny in google search, and this picture came up. Now, it's funny. But f-ing funny? I don't think so.

Moderately funny.

Amusing.

But not f-ing funny.

When I picture f-ing funny, I think of walruses (walrusi?) wearing cross colors singing the theme song to the Fresh Prince. Or maybe a 200 foot baby making poo poo on a carload of nuns. That's f-ing funny.

No, that's not f-ing funny either.

Damn.

My funny broke.

Someone help me. What's f-ing funny?

File this under: funniest thing I have seen all week.

Apparently multiple people in Hawaii have opened their brand-new iPods only to find raw meat where the iPod should be. A worker at the local Wal-Mart was found to be the cuplrit.

How awesome is that?!

About as awesome as a 14 year-old Boy scout surviving after a Leatherman knife is accidently lodged between his eyes

I kid you not.

I am sick.

Woke up yesterday morning an felt like the poopie.

Today I feel worse. I have an elephant stuck in my throat. He makes me sound like a husky transvestite. Actually, that part is kind of cool. The cloggy nose-thing and the hard to breathe through throat thing? That blows.

All that to say, good day to you. I'm off to bed.

That was some week. Captain Ahab and his wife showed us a damn good time, and the year-turning were fantastic. We congratulate everyone for a well-played hand!

And now we begin again. New resolutions (for some). New plans (for most). And a new year (for all).

Let's take advantage of this calendar-enforced beginning point. Let's reflect on where we want to go as people and friends. Let's rid ourselves of the things that make us innefective, and put on the things that help build others up. Take a moment today and see what needs to be done. Where do you want to be a year from now? How do you want to have helped others? How do you want to have grown? What don't you want to have wasted your time with?

Sometimes we get preachy (and we know that never seems to instigate comments), but 'tis better to be a true challenge than a false comfort.

Happy New Year!