Category: analog

Ever seen Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life?

In 30 seconds? With bunnies?

Here’s your chance!

Brilliant.

The dollar store had boxes of Sugar Babies near the register. I loved these as a kid. I was always super-ecstatic when I got some at Halloween. Among my favorite candies of all time. Hadn’t had any in years.

Apparently they’re still among my favorites, and no less addictive. I can’t stop eating them. Stupid dollar store.

A group of New Zealand lifeguards was recently saved from a great white shark by a pod of dolphins. Here’s the full story.

Dolphins kick booty. Period. That is just so, so cool.

A marine biologist insisted that dolphins … “like to help the helpless.” Humanity could take a lesson here.

“Man Stabbed in Melee at L.A.-Area Rap Awards Show.”

In related news; water is wet, outer space is cold and listening to rap music makes you into a violent, posturing, uneducated idiot.

Evidence to the contrary? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

This week a tree service removed a large, dead birch tree from our front yard. In the process they unearthed yet more soaker hose from a defunct irrigation system. Yesterday I decided to try to yank it out of the ground.

Less than a minute in, I threw my back out. First time that’s ever happened. And yow, it hurts. It feels like my spine is going to shoot out of my bum like some kind of Chinese yo-yo. I woke up about every hour last night to gingerly change sleeping positions. Getting out of a chair or off the sofa/futon is like scaling Everest. Ibruprofen is my new best friend.

Youth is squandered on the young. Waaaa …

I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown
South Howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces
Hey, ho, way to go Ohio

Well I went back to Ohio
But my family was gone
I stood on the back porch
There was nobody home
I was stunned and amazed
My childhood memories
Slowly swirled past
Like the wind through the trees
Hey, ho, oh way to go Ohio

I went back to Ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government that had no pride
The farms of Ohio
Had been replaced by shopping malls
And muzak filled the air
From Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls
Said, hey, ho, oh way to go Ohio

Chrissie Hynde

Note: Posted before any results returned. Non-partisan. No matter the election outcome … way to go, Ohio.

Oh my Gahd! Tha Bahstah Red Sahks won tha World Series! Wikked pissah! Fathah Bahb, my dahtah, the cahps, even my dahg, we’re ahll supah ovahjoyed with pleasah! Winning the Series! It’s, like, ahgainst Gahd’s Lah!

And in the midst of the Series win a full eclipse of the full moon. Coincidence?

Hahdly.

Congratulations to the Red Sox. And congratulations to all us Sox fans, who have put up with years of disappointment. John Peel, between songs tonight could you let Charlie Leonard know his Red Sox won? And that his grandson thought of him while looking at an eclipsed moon and trying to wrap his brain around the news.

Man, Heaven got the best DJ just in time for the big party!

The music world has lost one of its best champions. John Peel, BBC DJ, agent provocateur and the force that launched a thousand careers, has gone to his reward. I mourn his loss more so than I have most individual musicians. While the individual musician takes a soul of talent with him, John Peel takes the springboard. David Bowie, The Sex Pistols, Joy Division, The Smiths … Peel launched them all. He leaves not a hole in the music world, but a giant gaping crater. As one fan put it, “Music is the water, John Peel was the quirky little man working the pumping station.”

Thanks, John. For all you did for music. For all you did for this listener on the other side of the pond. You will be sorely missed, and by bigger names than mine.

Rock on.

This one’s filed under History, for indeed, we saw history made last night. And history that would have made my late maternal grandfather beam.

The Boston Red Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the New York Yankees in the ALCS. In New York. Simply astounding.

Born and raised in Connecticut, I was torn between Red Sox and Yankees loyalty. My father’s family were all from the New York area, and were die-hard Yankees fans. My mother’s family were all from Massachusetts and have similar feeling about the Red Sox. I wore a Yankees baseball hat between the ages of 2 and 6. I also attended games at Fenway Park and cheered mightily for our doomed heroes. I always loved the Red Sox. ALCS match-ups between the two teams tended to leave me confused. But I tended to root for the Sox, since America loves an underdog. Something that got very hard to do when my family lived outside Albany, NY during the late 1970s. I was a 90lb Red Sox fan among the horde.

Being a Red Sox fan requires a certain amount of Slavic fatalism. Bucky Dent. Bill Buckner. The Curse. And in typical seasoned Sox fan style, going into this Series I hope for the best but expect the worst. Much like a Russian would have meant when they said, “Stalin has defeated the Germans.” Yay. Yippee. We’re probably screwed.

But today we celebrate. And like the apocryphal story of Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown, the band plays The World Turned Upside Down.

Note: Today would be my grandfather’s 98th birthday. He died a month to the day after my birth, after returning from a game at Fenway. This one’s for you, Charlie.

Back in the summer of 1987 seminal sampler/synth band The Art Of Noise played Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT. At the time I was a DJ at WRTC-FM, the radio station of Hartford’s Trinity College. I hosted a show I called Mutant Central Broadcasting that delved into punk, new wave, synth and all kinds of new (at the time) music. Cutting edge “you-don’t-hear-this-on-commercial-radio” stuff.

One of the perks was free concert tickets and backstage passes. So when The Art Of Noise played Toad’s, I grabbed a mic and deck and made the 45 minute trek. It was a great show, and afterwards AON member Anne Dudley gave some interviews. She was very charming, but I could tell she was tiring of the same stupid questions from the same type of “music reporters.” She perked up a bit when she found out I was from college radio, and even more so when I said, “Why don’t you interview me? You seem bored of the same-old same-old.” We had a blast.

After Anne’s full interview of her interviewer aired on my show, local fanzine Subculture (long since deceased) asked for a portion in written form for their magazine. I obliged. And recently I found my old issue of Subculture with said interview snippet, and have transcribed it to HTML.

Submitted for your enjoyment is Anne Dudley of The Art Of Noise interviewing yours truly. Thanks for being such a brick, Anne. And for the fond memories. And you know, in hindsight I should have taken you up on your offer to run away to Canada together. You’re a great gal. 🙂

mneptok interviews anne dudley
of the art of noise

july 15, 1987
toad’s place – new haven, ct usa

from the hartford, ct area fanzine subculture

---

slip of a tongue
an interview with anne dudley of the art of noise

the art of noise are people, not machines. the art of noise know their limitations. the art of noise sing and dance. they move and remain in flux. they played toad’s place july 15th. they spoke to me after the show and queried …

anne dudley: do you come down to toad’s place very often?

mneptok: only when the art of noise are in town. so i’ve been here about six times in the past week.

ad: really? and which version of the art of noise did you prefer? the mutant version, the minimalist version?

m: i liked the small version.

ad: the small version. that would be our jazz trio.

m: right. the benny goodman cover tunes were terrific. the production was very clean and the band seemed to have a genuine interest in the music they played.

ad: so you were totally taken in by it?

m: i haven’t been able to put it out of my mind.

ad: well, i’m very flattered. you see, i wasn’t even there. as a matter of fact, none of the art of noise were there at all; we sent our managers. we have very attractive managers, we just put them in costumes and make-up…

m: i couldn’t believe the guy dressed up as yourself, he was very convincing as a woman.

ad: exactly, i just control him from my satellite in orbit around new haven.

m: is it small in there? do you have to sit with your knees around your cheeks?

ad: well, have you ever seen doctor who? do you have doctor who here?

m: oh! you fly in a police box!

ad: yes, yes. all british people do that.

m: is that a regulation 32-j/c flying police box?

ad: i’m afraid i’m not at liberty to divulge that information.

m: i always liked tom baker as doctor who. he had a really cool scarf.

ad: yes, he did. what else do you remember about him?

m: curly hair…shifty eyes…

ad: shifty, like most of our band. we were going to have him in the art of noise if he could have played anything at all. anyway, tell me what it’s like to live in this part of the country.

m: well, we buy records, listen to them a lot, come to see the bands and then talk with them because they have nothing better to do than drink beer and talk with us.

ad: you know, nobody eats in england. three or four pints of english beer a night fills you. i can’t say i’m very impressed with the food in america. it’s all sort of bland. like turkey sandwiches.

m: well, the closest that stuff has come to to turkey is driving by a turkey farm on the way to the store. it’s all spun by monsanto chemical corporation. no nourishment, it won’t keep you going.

ad: you know, the only way i make it through the show is saying “to be in england in the summertime…” people seem to think that me saying that is the funniest thing in the world.

m: why, don’t you like england?

ad: i wouldn’t be anywhere else.

bus driver: five minutes!

ad: oh no! time to go to canada.

m: upper new york state is beautiful this time of year…

ad: you could come with us…

m: i hardly think that likely.