last.fm already had some tracks of mine, uploaded by somebody else, plus one track under "just john" that wasn't by me. It's not a unique name.


However, here's stuff that is mine, uploaded by me as an "album" called uncle ekted. (As in "uncollected." Get it? Huh? Huh? I gotta dozen of 'em. Be sure to tip your waitress.)

From farting around last month with Ableton Live Lite:

Zocalo Fourth
Industrial Bakeshop

John le Carré's Mission Song is the first book I've read all the way through the first time in less than a day. (Re-reads of Terry Pratchett books are about as fast.) I started it at the laundromat early in the afternoon, and was through by mid-evening.

It's a good book, as you might guess. He uses the first person here, which I don't remember in any previous book of his, though I might be wrong about The Tailor of Panama.

I bought the book on a whim as I was picking up Season Five of The Wire. Later I noticed that this mass-market paperback was $9.99. Ah, for the days of the sixty cent PB ...

She smiles all the time, he thought in alarm. She smiles like a television commercial. She's afraid we'll switch her off if she stops smiling. -- John le Carré, The Night Manager, p 210

Today marks the release of the Season Five DVD set of The Wire. I've got one on reserve already, to be picked up on my way home from work.

You can tell I'm not the only one anticipating this, as shown by this bit from a review of something else entirely in today's NYTimes:Hiding behind the scenes, Trubus controls his empire through cutting-edge technology: a hidden microphone that allows him to eavesdrop on his minions, and an electronic slate that instantly transmits handwritten messages. But Mary and her policeman are able to turn this frightening new technology against Trubus — they use a phonograph to record incriminating conversations on wax cylinders ...

I'll try to resist watching the whole ten hours (plus extras) tonight. I've budgeted four or so.

The musical phrase, "A Taser Bunny" ... to the tune of "A Taste of Honey".




Edited to add: I'm glad that, when I went to Google, there were no meaningful hits on "taser bunny." The world is less sick than I'd feared. Or was, before this post.

My all-time favorite blogger is back!

The forecast reads "New rainfall amounts ...," and my automatic thought is, "What about OLD rainfall amounts ...," but then I realize that's covered by the "Flood Watch."

Is it any coincidence that Dr. Horrible introduces us to Bad Horse at the same time Dr. Who gets spooked by "BAD WOLF"?

Maybe so.

It was fun seeing Nathan "Cap'n Tightpants" Fillion as Captain Hammer (corporate tool) and also seeing a crowded house of oppressed Brits drunkenly singing Bohemian Rhapsody together in between attacks from space and time.

It got me to wondering what Trace Beaulieu was doing these days. So I went and looked, and found this bit of press. Seems Joel Hodgson has gotten much of the old gang back together, perhaps to compete with Mike Nelson's Rifftrax. So far, no bad animals seem to be involved in either venture.

Clinical Specialist - Pain/ITB

A specialist in being a Pain In The Butt?

(I've been trying to avoid posting these, 'cuz after all, they're really the low-hanging fruit in the online comedy universe. There's been a listing for "Folder - Garment" there for a long time, and while yes, I can hold a group of documents together pretty well, I don't think draping me over your shoulders would keep the chill out.)

That's what the headline says, but I'm not going to read the article itself.


I find it far more amusing to think that the thousands of petition signers are doing so outside of Texas, like maybe Oklahoma.

It's the Summer Solstice, and for some unknown-to-me reason, the ice cream truck going by is playing a medley of Xmas tunes: Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer, followed by Silent Night.

That's what I think of whenever I see the weather service post a "Special Marine Warning."


(Which, by the way, they are doing for the eastern end of Lake Ontario. And we in the Mid-Hudson Valley should be getting some big thunderstuff this afternoon. That'll be appropriate punishment for my "Special Marine" gag, I imagine.)

Criminy, what a crappy day so far.

Ever have two pens run out of ink within a half hour? That sort of day.

And this weekend, it's due to hit 95 degrees (Fahrenheit) ... and I'm really not a fan of anything over 80.

Wish I had the spare money to see Fred Eaglesmith tonight, across the river. Tickets: $30. Average menu item: $19. I guess I'll just order the new CD. ($20)

Yesterday, Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo was reporting on McCain's assertions that Iran's current threat to the USA is as big as the Soviet Union's ever was. I sent the following in an email to Marshall:


Growing Up At Gunpoint
"For if the bomb that drops on you
Gets your friends and neighbours too,
There'll be nobody left behind to grieve." -- Tom Lehrer
Regarding the claim that terrorists and/or Iran are the biggest threat this nation has ever faced, well, that's just an insult to all of us who spent the first decades of our lives with missiles armed and aimed at us.

Laurie Anderson reminds us that the context to Andy Warhol's "15 minutes" remark was that, at the time, it would take our missiles seven and a half minutes to get to the Soviet Union, and a similar amount of time for their missiles to reach us. So 15 minutes could be all we had LEFT.

This was a central fact of my childhood. It was a central fact of hundreds of millions of childhoods.

And to claim we're currently facing a more immediate threat is to insult us.