Yes, I SHOULD spend 445 dollars on this

Yes, it's a "True Faith" promo "pin" on ebay.  I really should spend the money!  Remember how heartbroken we all were when I failed to pull the trigger on the Haircut 100 promo comb.

I could wear it as a tie tack!  No one would know what it was, except me.

Oh, Brett

Well, all the good old-timey bands I care about (PSB, The Darkness) are putting out new stuff in the fall and of course I have my fingers crossed for the new reunited Suede album.  Plus it means that Brett Anderson is back to making his artfully-crafted-yet-devoid-of-meaning comments such as this, about the new music:

What does it sound like? Oh! I don't know, probably like some artist on some drug, engaged in a game of quoits with some other artist on another drug, you can adopt your own journalistic cliche if you haven't grown up yet.


Yay!

Yes, you

Overheard:

"I mean, what with the time travel and everything else..."

Another app

Surely there needs to be Gawker Stalker type app that tells the user what Justin Bobby is up to?

Dadaist shenanigans of the kids across the street

The kids across the street adore Rafe, to a girl.  Last night they came over to adulate and they brought with them a bird cage full of rocks:

I chuckled at their seemingly nonsensical gambit.  "I'm on to you guys!" I parried. "This is a takeoff of [Duchamp's] Why Not Sneeze, Rose Selavy?":

Good natured joshing then followed, with Lexi (age 4.5) saying that Tristan Tzara was just as important as Duchamp, Lissa plumping for Hugo Ball  and Leah flatly asserting, to my astonishment, that I was wrong, that Warhol was more important than Duchamp, just for sheer cross-culture breadth of influence!  This made me cross, naturally!

Then a raccoon was noticed up by the attic dormer windows across the street and all was forgiven.



Little one!

Something 70's Floyd about this pic...

Holy crap!  Our friends Christie and Julie are trying for a baby!  It's so on!

Ol' Nazi Neck

This beverage depresses me

Yes, I owned a vinyl copy of Legend, just like every incoming college freshman (as was, then) in 1987.  To be clear.

But this is weaksauce:

The Bride vindicated!

(cnn.com)

Save the date!

I've even got the stones to let my first three tracks be revealed ahead of time:

"Just Say Stet" > "I Wonder U" > "Vincent Come On Down"...

Apocalypse Now Redux Redux

It was hotter than the 'Nam up in BHA, weren't it?  And the Ian chest hair, gerrymandered as it was with surgical scars, did indeed look like a map of Operation Breakfast at a 1971 Pentagon buffet.  Anyway, this pic sleigh(bell)ed 'em.

Poolside!!

Your cabana boy is willing to fill and refill, bring you iced coffee
with Almond Joy creamer AND smoke a white grape cigar in 90 degree heat!

Lovely summer flora rises from Marge Memorial Gardens to provide
a modicum of quiet privacy!



"I'm ready!"




Well received, even though it was already bathtime
in the morning!



"They said I couldn't get in, so I made my own pool!"
BRILLiant, Picci!

Baby's first "Kill Bill, Part II"

"Wow!  You're right, Dad, Bud would make an
excellent first Hallowe'en costume!"

"My conclusion?  Bill was a bastard, but I'm
sure he had reasons!"

Next week: baby's first Robocop!  Probably!

God bless America

Seen on a tee shirt in a fucking Walmart.

Kit-tens!

A small lump of them, just one street over! 

(L-R: E Lois, Tab, Narwhal and Fluff)

Kyle and Kelley covered their kittening area last night, in advance of today's downpours.  Checking...

How to wear a yellow jumpsuit, inconspicuously!

Birthplace of aviation in extremis



Motorcycle cops getting in on the action!




I dreamed that the local independent arts rag printed a cover that had
Steve Jobs and Wilbur Wright on it...wait.  THAT WAS NO DREAM!!!



John Cheever is 100 today

Weekend

"Could pleats come back?"

(This has been a Smells Like Sullivan post, wherein thoughts that pop into my head that sound like Andrew Sullivan topics are thus commemorated/enshrined/remembered/recorded/entombed)

Of course!

Moonrise Kingdom is not going to play here until July. 

Ominous!

When I was getting the trash can in from the alley yesterday, this was laying by the trash can (it was not something we had thrown away):

Very Lost Highway.  Unmarked.

Guy paid 10,000 for it/I'm scared to play it but I probably will, etc.

Tantalus's misfortune is your gain, world!

Ah!:

Don't forget Tantalus and Ixion!

You know how baby Rafe is always going on about life being a "Sisyphusian struggle?"

Well, he needs to know about two other Greek myths o' torment.  Join us!

1. Tantalus - this poor bastard was left submerged in a stream where he could almost get to the fruit that hung from a tree above him but remained eternally out of reach, and, when he bent to drink from the stream, the water would recede.  D'oh!

2. Ixion - this guy!  First dude in Greek myths to kill kin, then got a bone for Hera so Zeus tricked him into nailing a Hera-shaped cloud (natch) and was then bound to a "fiery wheel" for eternity.

All this to remind you that not everyone's lives are as simple as yours.

Questionable!

"Talking on the iPhone/sippin out the styrofoam"

I was worried that this summer would fail to produce a jam that competed with last summer's abundance.

I needn't have worried!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0Y39QnwRvY&ob=av2n

Cat thing # 3

Here's Picci, having a rest on some to-be-framed "art" sitting around the house:

What do you say about it, Teen Moz?

"While I loathe cruelty in all its forms, someone
have that loathsome feline made into a pashmina
at once and given to Sir Cliff!"

Oh!

Cat thing #2: my brother loaf

Cat thing # 1: Roof Kittens!



You can sort of see mom in middle of porch roof, and a
dark kitten by the down spout.  They're there, I swear!



Walking through the neighborhood last week, we saw a proud and protective mama protecting her brood on a roof! Again: ROOF KITTENS!



One barber closes, another window opens (cue music)...

The sorta-sports place barber I've been going to (around the corner from Pine Club) has lost their lease!

With all the other daily sadnesses I must face down, I didn't think I had the energy to go into the shop and get a final trim while everyone looked all sad (they could still follow the blog, I suppose...but some of the barbers have kids!).

So I chickenshitted (chickenshat?) out and went to the little barber college place just up the road that i had driven past a half-million times but had never considered.  It was great!  Young Hannah cut my lid, seven bucks, we discussed her new table-sized smart phone, and I learned about barber college.

Plus, look at the results!:

Huh? Spiritualized?

Like you, I've had this new Spiritualized taking crucial memory space for months, but have been put off listening to it by the daunting song lengths.  That, plus we've never cared about them at all.

Well, was shocked when, in a moment of weakness, I clicked play.  Turns out it's great!

Here's a quote for an ad:

"If I were 27, I'd love this.  As it is, I'm a busy man...but still: good for you, Jason!" - Nick Eddy Relents

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" x infinity

Google images of/for two interestingly named places

Had contact today with two interestingly named places: Bernalillo, NM and Ballston Spa, NY.  Had never heard of eother of these places!  Two quick google image search results:

Bernalillo: he's a road runner, honey

Ballston Spa: official city slogan is "We're Cheevery as fuck!"

News about earthquakes!

Above: WRONG!

Hey, apocalypse buffs!  Yes, the weather is effed up because your mom used cooking sprays and you drove to Dairy Queen last night. 

But, hold on to something: EARTHQUAKES are NOT WEATHER.  So stop talking about "extreme weather like hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes."

Thanks!

Sunglasses Miracle X 2

Last Tuesday I drove about eight miles with my current cheap sunglasses on the roof of the Subaru Outback.  They did not fall off!  Miracle!  Got home and there they were!

Then Saturday night they were gone again!  Damn.  Don't worry, I had a backup new pair set back for such an eventuality.  Then I remembered I had cut down a giant weed in a friend's yard, using my pocket knife to saw through the the tense fibrous stalk.  Such was my violent hacking that I thought it wise to set my sunglasses on a nearby piece of fencing.  When I went back to the spot, there they were.

If you try to call me and it's busy, it's because I will be on the phone to Vatican, trying to get someone to affirm The Sunglasses Miracle!

Man of at least two hats

"I tell you, it's the damn distributors..."

Sci-fi Midsummer Night's Dream wreath meets
"I was at Sunrise in '89" vibe

"Me?  I had carrots for dinner.  Why?"

"Uncle Kyle, tell me about the pastel
Clydes again..."