I have always felt a kinship with Kermit the Frog.

I have also loved the Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” since the first moment I heard it.

Now these two things are one. (Quicktime).

Aliens! ALIENS!

They’ve announced that the terrifying suicide attacks on our country, resulting in massive death and destruction, two new wars, a poisonous atmosphere of fear, and abrogations of civil liberties not seen in our lifetimes, were the result of:

A Failure of Imagination.

Yeah! Where the fuck was TIM BURTON when we needed him? We need more IMAGINATIVE bureaucrats and apparatchiks! We need military intelligence officers who DREAM! We need to IMAGINEER this country into EPCOT!!

How much did I pay for this bullshit?

Naming of Parts

Vixi duellis nuper idoneus
Et militavi non sine glori

Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But today,
Today we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And today we have naming of parts.

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easily
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For today we have naming of parts.

— Henry Reed

No plates, primered, belching smoke, roaring down 17th Street in Costa Mesa. Yarr!!

CUL8R MYOB OIC TTFN ROFFLE!!!!

(kekekekekekeke)

http://www.i-am-asian.com/

http://money.cnn.com/2004/07/21/news/midcaps/krispy_kreme/index.htm?cnn=yes

When I was in high school I read a magazine called Op. It was published in the Northwest somewhere (Olympia?) and it covered experimental, underground, punk, new wave, and free jazz music among others. They would review damn near anything sent in, from real record label stuff to home made cassettes. Between them and the New Music Distribution Catalog, and KPFK’s late night radio shows, I learned all about the music that was hidden. Henry Cow, Pere Ubu, Clock DVA, Cabaret Voltaire, Joy Division, Suicide, Chrome, Eno, Carla Bley, Glenn Branca, all that crazy crap. Heady stuff for a young teen me.

Anyway, I bought records through the mail based on their reviews or the ads in the magazine. One of the records I got, for $1 or some fire sale price, was a 7” record obviously by a staffer there. It was on “Mr. Brown Records” and the artist was “Anonymous”. The two songs were “Snake Attack” and “Corporate Food”. It was great stuff! Weird, marginal electronica done on no budget with a great sense of humor.

I lost track of this record over the years. I don’t think I have it, even in packed-away boxes. “Corporate Food” turned up on an anthology called Let Them Eat Jellybeans which is pretty common, and on a few other comps. “Snake Attack”, however, disappeared.

I recently decided it was time to find it again. I loved that song! Menacing paranoiac mutterings about the snakes coming, scifi movie style vocals about the snaaaaake attaaaaaack, and occasional hilarious break-ins from a supermarket PA asking for Customer Service on Aisle 9. Who could beat it? But I found out that this 7” is now selling for fifty bucks, because it was the first record from Steve Fisk. Fisk, who must have been an Op writer, later on went to be the Svengali of Northwest Rock and produced or engineered a load of Nirvana records, etc., as well as doing his own stuff, and is a superstar nowadays. Sucks to be me, I lost my snake attack!

Soulseek rules, though. Someone had it, and so now do you: Snake Attack (6.4 M mp3).

Oh, and by the way, Op ended with its last lettered issue as it was supposed to, in 1982 or so. I later worked for their successor, Option Magazine, in Los Angeles as an intern. They were assholes with the exception of Richie Unterberger who is now also a superstar.

Keep your ear to the ground keep your eyes peeled if they find you it’s all over.