Skate or Die!

Guts Man

Here's a video of one of the better records I picked up while in Tokyo last week:



NIIIIIIIIICE!

Just Like Jimmy Carter

In defense of Jimmy Carter:

"In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption.... But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning....

Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We can spend until we empty our treasuries, and we may summon all the wonders of science. But we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources – America's people, America's values, and America's confidence."

Read more HERE

Back to stage one

Here's a hip-hop mix that I made for a friend who is learning how to breakdance!
http://phatnphunky.com/mp3/blog01-hiphop.mp3

Let it be known that I am aware that this isn't fast enough for breaking, but she specifically requested slower jams so that she could practice slowly. NICE NICE NICE!!!

Thanksgiving

My friends the Dorseys invited a bunch of folks over for Thanksgiving festivities last night. Somehow, a turkey got cooked in a microwave oven, there were mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, falafels (?), and I brought 10 cans of rare ROOT BEER. Sure enough, the Brits in the house that night thought it tasted like some sort of toothpaste. We also treated ourselves to several boxes worth of KFC, the next best thing in a country seriously lacking in turkey (though that microwaved turkey was actually really good!!!).

Today, through a twist in circumstances, I went to get some curry with some Australian and American friends, and 3 exchange students from America, Sweden and Germany respectively. The American girl smiled and exclaimed halfway through the meal, "Oh my god! This is my Thanksgiving!" A strange cast of characters and an odd setting for one's Thanksgiving, but good times nonetheless.

Following the meal, a necessary Thanksgiving tradition was upheld as I napped away the day.

What's in store for Christmas?

Dream Fighter!!!

I have no explanation or excuses, but here is my latest discovery in the pop music world:

Vote Bob 2016

With every nutjob across the United States trying to stop Obama from becoming president, the claim that he was born outside of the United States was only one of many ridiculous attempts to do so. But, did you know that John McCain was actually born on a naval base in Panama? I heard, however, that a senate resolution was passed to just let him be and not trifle over the definition of a "natural born citizen" as one must be to be eligible for the presidency.

I remember having heard from my high school history teacher, Mr. Hicks, that a certain George Romney had run for president back in 1968, despite having been born in Mexico. Both of his parents were American citizens however, so he was born a citizen as well. Also, Lowell Weicker, a former Connecticut Senator, Representative, and Governor, was born to an American father and Indian-born British woman in Paris, France. He entered into the presidential race in 1980 but dropped out of the running before the primaries even happened.

Under the Act of 1795 it was noted that "the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond sea, or outside the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens of the United States: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons, whose fathers have not been resident in the United States."

I guess the only difference between me and Mr. Weicker up there is that I was born to an American mother and foreigner father in a foreign country, so I might be ineligible to run under those crazy old 1795 laws. The odd thing is that there have been other Supreme Court cases wherein children born to American fathers and foreign mothers have had their citizenship revoked because their fathers' paternity had not been proven (Miller v. Albright [1998] and Nguyen v. INS [2001]). In my case, my mother is the American, so my American lineage isn't in doubt at all.

Under one precedent I'm iced out of the presidency, but under the others I'm more of a natural born citizen than Weicker, NO DOUBT! (An unnecessary usage of hip slang if there ever was one!) Looks like I've got my constitutional arguments ready when the time comes for my presidential run to begin.

Consumption pt. III

I think that Weezer's "Buddy Holly" is one of the greatest songs ever. Simple, sweet, sincere, and with a rippin' guitar solo to boot! It popped into my head out of the blue while riding my bike to work, and I was singing it out loud as I passed grannies out for a morning stroll and school kids with their bright yellow hats. There's an understated sense of urgency, or desperation, perhaps, that I think isn't necessarily so apparent in the lyrics, but is really brought out in that brief wailing guitar solo that still sends shivers up my spine to this very day.

I feel like expressing your love of Weezer is like saying that you think Barry Bonds is the greatest baseball player of all-time. You know... they would've been the best, if they hadn't gone and mucked things up for themselves halfway down the line.

Sigh...

Consumption pt. 2

You didn't think that consumption only referred to that of pop-culture, did you???

My friend Rob, who also watches a lot of the Wire, was inspired to start eating/drinking raw eggs with his beer by the dockworkers in the program who down a beer and egg together in the 2nd season. The first time that he did this was at the mall next door to my house, in the food court, with an egg that was meant for his beef bowl, and he just ate that one straight from the shell. The 2nd time he did it was with me and our boy Randy outside of a convenience store in Sakae at about 2 or 3 AM, each of us downing two raw eggs straight from the shell. We were soon treated to a show 10 feet away as two drunks started to scuffle.



The cops came to break up the fight, only to let the instigator walk away and give the erstwhile victim a stern talking-to.

The point is that the tradition had spread to more people.

A few weeks back a few of us finally decided to try those eggs in our drinks. The good news is that the drinks kill the taste of the eggs, which would get a -1 on the -3 to +3 via scale, but it is much less conducive to swallow those gooey lumps of egg out of a glass than it is straight from the shell.

Just this last weekend, at that same convenience store, again at 3 in the morning or so, I ran into some other friends out of the blue. I enjoy the fact that I constantly am running into friends, even just acquaintances, everywhere I go these days. Whether I'm riding my bike back to my apartment and it's my neighbors on the way out to dinner, or arriving at the train station at 11 PM only to see my friends waiting there, people I know grabbing a quick pre-made lunch at the supermarket the same night as I am, or people who are pulling another all nighter in Sakae because they've missed the last train, it's super comforting to know that you'll always have someone around the corner waiting for you.

Yesterday, I brought my new best friend, Tiny Boy, back from the hospital.



Tiny Boy was suffering from a bad case of bad intonation, so my dawg down at the Melody Shop hooked a brother up with a free repair job!!! Yes, Tiny Boy is bright pink, and, yes, that is a koala on my pillow case (fabric courtesy of Joa, case courtesy of Yumico). I almost got hit by a car while bringing Tiny Boy home, holding Tiny Boy in one hand and steering my bike with the other. The gangster-looking Brazilian dudes driving probably would've been mad at me for riding in front of them if they hadn't been laughing at some fool with a pink guitar riding by them.

And now some only half-ancient J-pop for your viewing/listening pleasure:

CONSUMPTION pt. 1

I've been reading a lot of books, watching a lot of movies, and watching a lot of the WIRE recently, on top of my aforementioned obsession with old J-pop. I finally felt like it was time for me to write about the things that have been boosting my spirits in recent weeks.

Well, it's strange to start off with this book, since it's not much of a spirit-booster, but I just finished Underground by Haruki Murakami, which is a series of interviews conducted with witnesses and survivors of the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo commuter trains in 1995. The interviews are broken up into sections that focus on each particular train line that was hit, painting a narrative for each train from many different perspectives. Every narrative shares some similar points, mainly that of a gradual onset of the symptons of poisoning, the symptoms reaching a head, someone finally pinpoints the source of the problem, and then people scramble to try to survive or help the survivors.

One of the most shocking things about the accounts of the day is the apathy, or obliviousness, most people had to what could have been happening to them. Many of the interviewees witnessed other people passing out and such, but continued on about their merry way, off to work or wherever they were going, despite the fact that they were or would soon be falling victim to the same sorts of symptoms that had hit those around them already. Some of the interviewees, who had escaped the trains and train stations and managed to make it out to the streets, or even to work, acted as if these crazy headaches and blurred vision, etc, weren't anything too bad. Some also mentioned how passersby and even the news media reporting on the incident live and onsite failed to offer a helping hand, unless they were specifically badgered or hounded by someone to do so.

One of the survivors mentioned that he/she (I forget which) believed the attacks hurt so many people because Japanese people have a cultural tendency to grin and bear "it", in this case "it" being some unknown ailment suddenly setting upon them, soon to worsen and eventually be revealed as sarin gas poisoning. This same interviewee, who had lived in New York for some time, thought that Americans would be hooting and hollering and getting something done about it as soon as they noticed the strange smell on the train, or the onset of their symptoms. I agreed to a certain extent that some nosy, perpetually irked, sue-happy Americans would've probably disposed of the sarin packages on the trains much sooner than they were in reality, followed by drawing out a draft of their lawsuit against the train company. However, I don't think that the average American passerby would've done any more to help those suffering around them any more than the people did that day, since people everywhere seem to have the same "it ain't my problem" mentality. Additionally, the emergency response system is painted as inept by the desperation and frustration of the interviewees' accounts, but I get the impression that they were doing the best they could in a situation that very few could've expected (unlike, say, Hurricane Katrina).

There's also a small section of the book devoted to interviews with former Aum members, Aum being the cult that perpetrated the attacks, and that section was super interesting as well. The common thread in these accounts for the most part is of people who don't quite fit in or have any particular direction in life suddenly finding a place where they fit in and embracing it wholeheartedly. This led to people allowing themselves to, initially, be separated from their family and earthly possessions, to, later, being forcibly locked in sauna-like jails, secretly experimented upon with LSD, and given amnesia-inducing electro-shock therapy. Most of the people interviewed in this section had renounced Aum as an organization and the cult's leader as the divine guru after the attacks occurred, but all still appreciated their time in the cult, all having claimed to have seriously experienced great and mystical things unlike any other experiences in their lives. It certainly seems like any other religion in that sense, capable of bringing extreme happiness, but also capable of manipulating people who are at their most vulnerable.

I totally recommend this book, and the interview format makes it very easy to pick up at the drop of a hat, and, conversely, put down at the drop of a hat (or when you arrive at your train station) without breaking up the momentum of the book.


At my friend's Skylar's suggestion I also recently read Superstud by Paul Feig, creator of the beloved TV show Freaks and Geeks. The book is his account of his attempts to find love (and sex) while trying to remain true to his romantic ideals and the engrained pressure of his religious upbringing. Having experienced some of the same stuff as him, I got a kick out of reading what he had to say, though there are parts of the book where things drag. There are some moments of 100% absolute stupidity on his part, though, that equate with comedic GENIUS and make the book a worthwhile read. In particular, the last two major sections of the book have some comedic gold contained within which make it worthwhile to read everything up until then. This one is also an easy read, perfect for those 10 minute long train rides to and from work, or for those 10 minute long escapes to the toilet for a little poopoo session

More later...!!!

Yo Soy Amerikajin

Here's a review I wrote about the Sakerock show I went to in Nagoya about a month ago:
CLICK HERE!!!

Please Make Me Shutup

In a long tradition of idiots who go to another country only to complain about everything, I would like to comment today on how wack I think Japanese fashion is. I'm not talking about Fruits Magazine type crap, because we already knew that ish was wack anyway!



What I'm here to talk about is the hidden, yet very blatant, new wave of Japanese fashion. It's part California surfer-dude, part Blink-182 loving jerkweed, part super-feminine waif, all WACK!!! Let me be more specific, every young person between the ages of 14 and 21 out here has Abercrombie or Hollister-esque t-shirts that say either "California", "Surf", "Santa Monica", "Surf", "Reggae", or "Surf" on them, along with mesh hats cocked to the side, baggy cargo shorts or super tight jeans, crocs, and bleached blond hair (including eyebrows) that makes them look like albino zombies. Perhaps most people are unaware of this new fashion phenomenon, because I suspect that people in big cities where tourists gohttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=15628641&postID=1445399750455135130
Blogger: This Song Is Good - Edit Post "Please Make Me Shutup" actually have some exposure to fashion of better taste, but the suburbs of Japan are swarming with it!!!

The other extreme that represents a small, but equally laughable, portion of the Japanese youth fashion scene is the wannabe gangsta, or WANKSTA, as that fool 50 Cent once put it so aptly (I still think he's the worst rapper of the century). I saw one of my students at the mall food court (don't ask what I was doing there) and he walked up wearing some white jeans and jean jacket, both probably 4XL in size, with a bandana around his head, and a ridiculous chain hanging around his neck. This wasn't a typical bling-bling chain, but more like the type of chain that you put around some gigantic box, like a freight cargo container, to keep people from opening it up. This is the same kid with nearly no eyebrows left because he has plucked them all off who greets me in the hallways with "HELLOOOO! YES! OKAY!" on a daily basis. 'Nuff said.

Yes, I have no life.

OH! I did finally buy a record player out here, so I was finally able to listen to this awesome 45 I bought of a girl in a sailor uniform holding a gigantic rifle.
Here's the girl singing it live (skip ahead to 1:35 or so):


And here's another dope jam recommended to me by my boys Shawn and Ric.


I'll be keeping my eyes open for these hits in the used LP sections of my favorite junk stores.

More Stupidity

Last weekend I met up with some of the usual suspects out here in OHGACK! Good conversation, good tunes, and good folks. The only problem was that I was supposed to meet my friend Reiko early the next morning to hang out in Nagoya, and getting to sleep at 3 AM isn't exactly the best thing to do when that's your plan, but I was up at 8, in Nagoya by 10, and at Nagoya castle by noon. Nagoya castle's grounds are pretty cool, a super giant moat, lots of greenery, a nice park where we witnessed a bunch of creepy dudes following a girl around who would stop and pose periodically at different scenic locations... but I'm off on a tangent now. I guess what I was trying to get at was that, even though I enjoyed visiting the castle, it's more of a museum to the old castle than it is a living monument. The inside has way too many visible modern conveniences and an elevator, so I was a bit disappointed. Regardless, though, it was good times.

We headed out to Osu next to meet up with the usual Nagoya suspects for lunch. Reiko wanted to eat specialties specific to Nagoya, so we had miso-katsu, and later on we had tebasaki (super salty chicken wings) and IT WAS GOOD! (imagine the Rock reading Genesis so you can get what I was going for there) Reiko ended up coming back to OHGACK where we met up with the same usual suspects and chatted for a bit and watched a Pteradon video, as well as video from the super awesome 38-band punk festival I went to in Tokyo last week (you're gonna have to wait to read about that one!).

The next day, Reiko had to catch the bullet train back home to meet up with her boyfriend, whose birthday it was, so we stopped off at my favorite Brazilian place for lunch. AND IT WAS GOOD! By chance, there were some pamphlets on the table for an art festival happening in town, but I didn't think much of it, even though I had heard a bit about a different music festival happening at the same time. On the way back to the station to drop off Reiko we happened upon this art gallery whose walls and floor were covered in scrawled gibberish, kind of like a horror movie set or something. It was tight. We also walked through an underground tunnel with rocks that moved on their own accord. N?

Reiko left and I decided to check out more of the festival, which actually ended up being pretty cool. There was a really cool book compiled featuring photos of signs from all over OHGACK, and a camera obscura bus thingy that you could ride inside of and see images from outside the bus projected onto a screen inside. If I ever figure out how to transfer photos from my cell phone to the computer, you may actually see some of the stuff someday, but for now this insufficient description must suffice.

My friend Josh's band was playing as part of the music festival that evening, but since it was raining, they moved the performance into this giant gym so the sound was pretty awful. I was impressed by Josh's skills though, so that was N. The band that performed before him was made up of a bunch of 16 year olds, one of whom was wearing a tuxedo vest, and another who was wearing a sweater-shawl combo thingy. They looked goofy, but they could all shred, so who am I to diss these 16 old prodigies???

Anyway, the next Tuesday a bunch of us went back to check out the art and music again, this time to see some OHGACK hip-hop. There was a giant dude in a Yankees jersey who kept on pronouncing Ogaki as OHGACK, doing his best American-thug impersonation. One of the other bands was this really sleazy, all-girl psychadelic band. Not sleazy in a racy sense, but more just that their music was super dirty and garagey sounding, it was actually alright.

I was pretty jazzed to see some art and culture in Ogaki, even though it was kind of disappointing to find that so few people knew about what was going on, and the events didn't seem too well attended.

Tonight I finally found the one club in Ogaki that hosts live music, and some of us are thinking about starting a band, so keep your eyes open for what may come...

Ah yes, yet another stupid post, hurried due to my rush to finish it before my tenuous internet connection stolen from my neighbor's wireless signal fades...

PEACE!

Life Is Forever

My new favorite TV show is this show called 青い瞳の聖ライフ, or Aoi Hitomi no Sei Raifu, or Blue Eyes' Pure Life (that's my wack translation anyway). It's this show about an American girl named Beth from New York who ends up in Japan somehow at a Japanese high school, and she falls in love with this dufus named Yuu, and her dream is to organize a rock festival at the school and marry Yuu. But, every episode, someone gets hella mad at Beth and they yell at her for being such an insensitive foreign/white/American bitch, even though Beth is unimaginably thoughtful and kind. Beth speaks perfect Japanese in the most ridiculously butchered American accent, and I'm not sure if she is purposely hamming it up, or if she really is incapable of bettering her accent. Heck, I get made fun of everyday by my students for speaking Japanese, and my accent isn't even a tenth as bad as Beth's is (but her Japanese skill absolutely destroys mine regardless). Did I mention that this show was made in 1984? I don't know why they're re-running it on TV here now, but it is the highlight of my cold, lonely, depressing, dreary evenings... *sigh* (I only pay $50 in rent, suckers!!!!)

I dug up as much info as I could on the show, so here's some more info and videos for all of you, who I'm sure are VERY INTERESTED, right???

Here's the opening theme:



Here's Florence Haga, the star of the show, [poorly] singing a cheesy pop song:



Here's some links too:
Screenshots and Info

Japanese Wikipedia Entry



What is wrong with me?

Yesterday...

...was one of those days. All those stereotypes that really annoy foreigners finally popped up all in one day, and more!!! I got a "You're good with chopsticks!" and another "Wow, you can write Japanese!" for the first time since I've been here, which actually didn't annoy me all that much. What really annoyed me was that on my way home some guy commented as I rode my bike by "Oh, a foreigner..." HELLO FOOL!!! There's thousands of foreigners all across this town!!! I even rode next to four spanish speaking women this morning on the train, not to mention all the Brazilians, Indians and whiteys I see every dang day. I'm not so annoyed about having been recognized as a foreigner (because I totally am!) but that it's such a big deal for this guy to comment about it out loud.

ALSO, to cap off the bummer that was yesterday, the rain starting pouring cats and dogs a few minutes before I left work, only to subside completely right about the time that I arrived at the station near my house. I tried to cheer myself by going to my favorite restaurant in town, Landy Shop III, but it was closed inexplicably. On the bright side, I went to Hard Off, the local junk electronics shop, and found out that they're opening a second location in town! WOOHOO!!! I saw the same guy there digging through old LPs that I talked to at another junk store across town. WHICH REMINDS ME that I think all you loyal readers should know about the Warren G record that I found for 100yen in said junk store amongst hundreds of Seiko Matsuda and Southern All Stars records.

This is probably the stupidest blog entry ever.

Otsukaresamadeshita

HELLO!!!
Loyal readers, here I am writing to you live from Ogaki, Japan. My town of 150,000 has a lot of shopping malls, a lot of "snacks" (places where you pay to go sing karaoke and drink with old ladies), and a lot of Brazilians!!! The Brazilians are the good part of that statement, because they make the best dang food in this town, and they also take the heat off of me, because I'm not the only foreign looking guy around.

I always think of stuff to write about while I'm walking around town, but I forget it once I sit down to actually type, so, thus, I will just recap my final weekend for you:

Friday night, I thought about going to the neighboring city of Gifu, so I hit up a few of my homies out there. I went to Gifu and found a little punk rock/hip-hop record store called Sabotage Records, where I bought a 3000yen BREAKfAST 7", then I finally heard back from a friend who invited me to go get sushi. I met up with her and 3 other girls, but we were soon joined by another dude. The sushi was super expensive, but super good!!!!!!! I went home around 10pm, and as I was exiting Ogaki station I ran into my next door neighbor and some other friends who were waiting for someone, and he exited 10 seconds behind me. I ended up hanging out with them until 4am!!!!

The next day we were supposed to go to some posh all-you-can-eat/drink place in Nagoya, but it was on the rooftop of some building and due to the heavy rain we'd been having it was cancelled. A small group of us went anyway, AND IT DIDN'T EVEN RAIN!!!! But, since it had already been cancelled, we just ended up meeting up with my friend Adam in Nagoya and went to this place called Misfits where he works. Apparently it was a bit of an off night for the place, and there was a total dufus playing bad covers on his guitar with drum machine accompaniment, but we all had a good time. After leaving Misfits, a couple of us wandered down to Sakae, the hub of activity in Nagoya, and there we went looking for a place to settle down. Whilst waiting, we decided to be all Rocky-core and down some raw eggs, which may or may not have been a great idea. Right after we had finished doing that, we witnessed an old drunkard grab some young dufus by the shirt and start pushing him around. It was a super tame fight, and when the cops pulled up to stop it, they actually just sat in their car watching for a good minute before getting out. They let the old guy walk off and gave the young guy a stern talking-to. NICE?

We ended up getting some kebabs from a cart on the street, except they were more like falafels (there was no stick). Apparently they call them kebabs in the UK when they're like that anyway, but I digress... Adam ended up meeting up with us again sometime around this point with a friend of his and we went to check out some place that his friend recommended. There were tons of young'uns hanging about, mostly Brazilian, and this one skater fool came up to us and asked us to "go smoke the hemp" with him. I borrowed his skateboard to try and ollie, but ended up bum rushing me from behind, took his skateboard and proceeded to go full speed into a wall. NICE?

This night progressed until we ended up at a ramen shop called Coco Ichiban, where they serve ramen on a spicy scale of 1-10. My Japanese coworkers say that 3 is hot enough, my American friend from Chicago said he could handle 7, but I went for the 10 of course, DUH!!!... What a horrible decision!!! I couldn't even finish it, and I felt pretty disgusting the rest of the night, which I ended up spending napping in a Denny's for about an hour. After that, it was about 6am, at which point I was able to catch the first train of the day back to Adam's house and sleep.

The next day Adam and I explored the town, and I found a rare 7" with the only Fruity song not included on their complete discography CD, and a copy of the first Alkaline Trio LP for super cheap. Ebay, here I come!!! We hit up some other cool places, had dinner with his in laws, and I went home and slept at a reasonable hour.

Good times...? YES!

Love,
B

July 17, 2008

The Unicorns - Jellybones
Pavement - Gold Soundz
Chris Murray - Moment
Sebadoh - Ocean
---
The Hold Steady - Sequestered in Memphis
The Botticellis - Old Home Movies
Otis Redding - Try A Little Tenderness
The Specs - Everything You Wanted
The Weakerthans - Sun In An Empty Room
---
The Television Personalities - This Angry Silence
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks
The HOLiDAYS - Your World
The Muffs - A Little Luxury
Track Star - West Coast Weather
Hockey Night - Style Raiders
---
Mr. T Experience - I'm Like Yeah, But She's All No
The Cribs - What About Me
Beulah - Slo-Mo For the Masses
Apollo Sunshine - Money
The Morning Benders - Damnit Anna
Weezer - No Other One
---
Jason Webley - Almost Time To Go
Modest Mouse - All Nite Diner
Mu330 - Baby Rats
---
King Khan & The Shrines - Sweet Tooth
Harold Ray: Live In Concert - Ain't Nothin' But A House Party
Toys That Kill - Illegitimate
The Soviettes - Bottom's Up, Bottomed Out
---
The Lawrence Arms - Cut It Up
Alkaline Trio - Goodbye Forever
Les Savy Fav - Blackouts On Thursday
All You Can Eat - Their Glass Ceiling
Minus The Bear - Let's Play Clowns
The New Trust - The Lost Language
---
We Versus the Shark - (After)life Things
Unwound - December
---
Spring Heeled Jack - Mass Appeal Madness

July 10, 2008

Minus The Bear - Let's Play Clowns
Unwound - Seen Not Heard
No Knife - Your Albatross
GO!GO!7188 - Ukifune
Modest Mouse - Interstate
---
Death Cab For Cutie - You Can Do Better Than Me
Alkaline Trio - Snake Oil Tanker
Jets To Brazil - Starry Configurations
Boilermaker - Norman
Weezer - Pink Triangle
---
Superchunk - Hero
Track Star - These Horses Carry Blood
We Versus The Shark - I Am A Fantastic Battle
Short Round - Same Old, Day Old
Jawbreaker - Jinx Removing
Pixies - Velouria
Husker Du - Celebrated Summer
---
The Weakerthans - Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure
Jason Webley - Little Sister
Bomb the Music Industry! - Get Warmer
Bracket - Warren's Song Part 9
The Shins - So Says I
---
The Specials - Monkey Man
Pizzicato Five - Kanashii Uta
Baffalo Daughter - Sky High
Making Time - I Gotta Move
---
Falafle Babies - An Ode To Keith And Ted
:Dz: - I Don't Understand. Do I Say The Right Words?
Augustus Pablo - Ape Man
Dinosaur Jr. - Little Fury Things

June 26, 2008

La Plebe - Mi Tierra
Skankin' Pickle - It's Not Too Late
The Aquabats - Cat With 2 Heads
Slow Gherkin - I Only Smoke When I'm Drunk
The Siren Six! - Burn
---
Satori - Finding Your Place
The Slackers - Henderson Swamp
Bad Manners - Sally Brown
Fishbone - Ugly
Sugarhill Downtown Orchestra - Home Made Song
---
Bomb The Music Industry - Depression is no Fun
Common Rider - Signal, Signal
Toots & The Maytals - Pressure Drop
Rx Bandits - Apparition
Hepcat - Yoko Zuna
---
Blindspot - Right Field
Blue Meanies - Johnny Mortgage
Mu330 - Baby Rats
Operation Ivy - Yellin' In My Ear
Fruity - Cinderella Boy
Shiina Ringo - Mayonaka wa Junketsu
---
Alkaline Trio - Help Me
Alkaline Trio - For Your Lungs Only
Ging Nang Boyz - Trash
Lemuria - Pants
Little Mercury - I'm Not & You're Not
Jimmy Eat World - A Praise Chorus
The Thermals - An Endless Supply
No Age - Here Should Be My Home
---
Minus the Bear - Let's Play Clowns
Boris - BUZZ-IN
Unwound - Unauthorized Autobiography
Bangs - Sweet Revenge
Blue Hearts - Chernobyl
---
The Night Marchers - I Wanna Deadbeat You
Superdrag - My Day Will Come
The Cherry Tempo - Treble Is High
The Buzzcocks - What Do I Get?
---
Andrew WK - Party Hard

Bullet (not the Misfits song)

I never knew that there was more to this than just rumors, but here is the California High Speed Rail Authority website, detailing their plans and ideas for routing and financing the bullet train that will be able to travel from San Francisco to LA in just an approximate 2 hours and 40 minutes. With the prospect of a drive to LA from San Jose looming ahead for me, the idea that I could cut the trip time in by a third and do it for cheaper has me very excited!!! (Note: a projected 2020 completion date has tempered my excitement a bit)