Rewritten by machine on new technology

My latest video (of last night's party) still hasn't appeared in the sidebar ... and my last one (at Xmas) never did, so I am taking matters into my own hands.  Because I really want you all to see (hear) the PIRATES!!!

View here.

Yarrrrr!

Answering Boz's challenge ... finally.

1. What is the name of your imaginary band?

The Couch Potatos.

2. How many bites of liver can you take before it tastes like sand?

Depends how much ketchup is on it ...

3. Quick, you're going into an adult chat room, what's your screen name?

Ice Queen

4. What is your biggest sexual fantasy?

Star Trek aliens ... hahaha!

5. A historical figure has just asked you to go bar hopping, who would that historical figure be?

Dorothy Parker

6.  What is something you'd be embarrassed to purchase at a drugstore, but would do it anyway?

athlete's foot cream

7.  Go to your CD rack or holder, close your eyes, and choose a CD at random. What is it?

Nine Inch Nails - Broken

8. If there is a hell give one reason why you are going there.

I disowned my parents.

9. If you could be a character in any movie who would you be?

Bette Davis's character in Now, Voyager.

10.  If Leona were your best friend what would be her greatest attribute?

her towering intellect.

That is all.

It's been a crazy run up to my holiday trip to glamourous Edmonton, Alberta.

Monday at the last minute I remembered that I had to both chair and executive secretary a meeting, and another on Tuesday, so there went my plan to start my baking, wrapping and packing. 

After the Tuesday meeting we all went out for beers at the bar across the street, which could have been cleaner I guess, because in the morning I had food poisoning and suffered 12 hours of excruciating indignity.  I also missed rehearsal for a singing gig in Feb.  So no baking etc happened Wednesday.

Then Weds evening I got a call from the friend who is helping me upgrade my computer, saying he'd be over in half an hour.  I said no, I'm sick.  He said, Aw, it'll only take two hours!  So I said ok.  Three hours later, I had to chuck him out the door bodily.  Then I went to bed.  So no baking that night either.

Thursday I slept half the day recovering from the sick.  The other half of the day I spent doing cleaning I wouldn't have had to do if I hadn't been sick.  I finally, FINALLY got to the baking Friday morning.  Then the wrapping.  Then the packing.  Mostly.  And in the midst of all that I forgot to touch base with the neighbour who will be catsitting while I'm in Edmonton ... so unless I catch her tonight, I will have to leave my darlings with a note and keep my fingers crossed.  *bites nails*

But all will be well because THE SUN IS COMING BACK!!!

Happy Solstice, Merry Xrismas and all the very best in 2008, Buzzfriends!

Paxgitmo turned me on to Stephan Pastis's Pearls Before Swine a few months ago.  Now I get the strip daily in my e-mail ... & the last few are really pulling my heartstrings.

OK, so I don;t exactly know anything about Schmap except that it's an online travel guide ... & it looks like this:


My photo they chose:

I am excited!

Inspired by Funksteena; originally from Newageamazon.

"Here's how you play:

Make a music mix featuring one song from every year you've been alive.  Doesn't have to be a top ten single, but should be listed by Wikipedia as either being a top single in that year, or as having the album the song appeared on released that year.  Look at your life in music.  Or, you know, don't."

1973. Danny's Song - Anne Murray.  There was no escaping Anne Murray in Canada in the 70s.

1974. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/Yellow Submarine/Abbey Road.  My parents were of the age to have a few Beatles records lying around ... I honestly thought it was kid's music!  Especially George Harrison's compositions.

1975. Magic Man - Heart.  Yup, I have always been a metalhead.  I can remember chillin on the kitchen table in one of those baby chairs while mom cooked dinner, listening to this album and wondering what was so magic about the man anyway.

1976. Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  My dad liked to play his favourite songs for us kids when we were little.  And then we'd sing them full blast while bombing around the backroads of farm country.  That's how I learned about Three Dog Night, Jim Croce, Hank Williams, and of course this all-time Canuck classic.

1977. Riders on the Storm - The Doors.  Picture if you will an old wagon rut of a rural road, winding up a hill out in the arse end of farm country.  A blizzard is blowing and you can't see where the road ends and the fields begin.  The snowbanks are higher than my dad is tall.  We're driving along, slowly, my dad & I, when there's this loud thump and the car skids to a stop on a pile of wet snow.  Dad gets out to survey the damage ... rummages in the trunk for the shovel ... puts on the radio to keep me company, and sets to digging us out.  Guess what song comes on?  Yup.  Skeeeery!

1978. Too Much Heaven - The Bee Gees. Heard on the radio while securely strapped in, riding around in a car.

1979. Hot Butter - Popcorn.  Ditto - backseat memories.

1980. The Guess Who - These Eyes. I spent a lot of time in the backseats of cars as a kid, listening to whatever my parents were into.  My dad had this mixtape of folk rock hits that we listened to in the car when he picked us up from mom's on his weekends & drove us back to the farm ... my sis & I got so into it that we insisted on hearing it over and over and over again ... until dad got tired of it and "lost" the tape.

1981. J. Geils Band - Centerfold.  My sister & I used to shake our cans to this one ... thought we were so grown up.

1982. Culture Club - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? I remember seeing the video, and then the album cover in the store, and wondering if Boy George was really a boy.

1983. INXS - Original Sin.  My aunt (she's only 10 years older than me) made a stack of mixtapes, and some of her selections are still my favourite songs.  Then she grew out of New Wave music and gave all the tapes to me!

1984. Sunglasses At Night - Corey Hart.  Again, there was no escaping it.  The government required all girls to have a crush on Corey Hart in the 80s ... it was a CRTC regulation.  CanCon triumphs!




1985. Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill. Of course I was the only kid my age who liked this song & video ... I was way ahead of my time :)

1986. Rock Me Amadeus - Falco. When I discovered that there's more to be explored in the world besides American pop culture and CanCon subsidized pop.

1987. Duran Duran - The Chauffeur.  I had a very rich fantasy life when I was 14-15 (and beyond).  I used to imagine that I was European royalty but was raised in obscurity in Canada, only to become a legendary rock star, reclaim my heritage and take over the world.  I  picked out all the most melodramatic pop songs I knew and arranged them into my dream discography, mixed it all onto cassettes, and even designed a live show.  The Chauffeur was my closing number.  It's just as well not all fantasies come true, isn't it viewers?

1988. S-Express - Theme from S-Express.  This was big the year I went on a highschool exchange to France.

1989. Jane's Addiction - Stop!

1990. Harry Connick, Jr - Recipe For Love. My mom was thrilled that, for a brief moment in time, we liked the same musician ... and he wore a suit!  That didn't last long.  We listened to this cd while driving from Toronto to Boca.

1991. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana.  'Nuf said.

1992. Ministry - N.W.O. Back in the 90s my mom's car had a big-ass engine and a wicked sound system.  I always had my copy of Psalm 69 with me when I was driving by myself.  I preferred to roll at a steady 30kph over the posted speed limit.

1993. Metallica - One.

1994. Reel 2 Real - I Like To Move It.  I worked in a nightclub 5 nights a week for six months ... they played this every single night.  Also Whigfield's Saturday Night, and Swamp Thing by The Grid.

1995. The Lady of Shallott - Loreena McKennitt.  The Tennyson poem set to music.  Loreena KcKennitt has my dream life.  

1996. I was into traditional Celtic music around this time.

1997. I Couldn't Get High - The Fugs. Great party song!

1998. Goin' Out West - Tom Waits.  Thinking about going out west.

1999. San Andreas Fault - Natalie Merchant.  This was the year I moved west.
2000. I'm Not Angry - Elvis Costello.  I was really f'in angry.

2001. Radiohead - Kid A. When I first started getting hopelessly hooked on the Interwebz, I used to sit up all night with this on my headphones, followed by Tool's Lateralus, and then back to Kid A, & so on, & so on...

2002. America Is Waiting - Brian Eno/David Byrne. Around this time I was hanging around a lot with some artist friends, and we loved to get together & yak about art, politics & philosophy.  One of them liked to get drunk (a lot) and declaim on learned topics like the works of James Joyce and Salvador Dali ... once, he lectured us on his interpretation of My Life In the Bush of Ghosts ... really smart guy!  Then they moved back to Toronto - quitters!

2003. ESG - Step Off

2004. Oh - Sleater Kinney.

2005. Fuck the Pain Away - Peaches.

2006. Feuer Frei! - Rammstein. I couldn't get enough Rammstein for a while there.  This particular song I have in a folder titled "Wakey Wakey" on my mp3 player ... I put it on if I get tired in the afternoon :D

2007. Alala - CSS.  Wheeeeeeee!

The rules are simple:

1) Pick your 10 favorite musical artists. List them or elaborate like I do.
2) Tag the journal "top10bands" so we can have a full tag page of all our lists!
3) Pick 8 more people to do this! Make sure to link them to your original post.

I am choosing to interpret this challenge as a list of the top ten most influential bands of my life, because if I had to pic 10 present favourites, well ... I couldn't possibly narrow it down.  So this leaves me nostalgia trippin' on a lot of stuff from the 80s and 90s that I used to sing along with on my stereo through all those lonely teenage nights alone with my Sassy magazines.  And ... one or two new faves.

Thanks Rhiwena for the tag!


   The Smiths (pop)

I can say no more than what Mark/Pana said about this band in his post.  Except that I learned to sing by copying Morrissey's style.

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

& those reams of melancholic lyrics:

   Depeche Mode (pop/new wave/synthpop)

It was sort of mandatory to like Depeche Mode at my highschool.  That one thing at least I could go along with, because I've always had a thing for boys in make-up playing synths.

Never Let Me Down Again



   Metallica (heavy metal)

I first came to Vancouver in 1993; stayed in a rooming house for three weeks; bought a copy of ... And Justice For All, used, at BC Collateral; listened to it regulary for the rest of the year.  Drove my mom and sister crazy.

One


   Jane's Addiction (heavy metal/surf rock/punk)

Yup, I was present when Lollapalooza rolled through Toronto in 1991, and Ice-T cussed out the audience for "sitting on your fat asses" while Living Colour played, Siouxsie Sioux wore Pucci, & Perry Farrell got naked with two models.  It was a coming of age, and all that crapola. 

Dave Navarro, dudes!

Stop!


   The Tragically Hip (rock)

Many tragically hip Canadians will opine that the Rheostatics are the greatest Canadian rock band ever.  Once, a tragically hip friend of mine pulled out her brand-new iPod and said "All I have on it so far is the Rheos double live.  What's on yours?"  I said "Tragically Hip's Day For Night."  She said "Ew, what is this, Saskatoon?  What are we, farmers?"  Heheh. 

So this is coming atcha outta the backwoods of Ontario (not the band, me).

I've always loved their groovy guitars & anthemic lyrics (written by Gordon Downie, poet & lunatic frontman).  I am so glad this band has stuck together for so long (since 1981), because there is just something about the way Gordon Downie's voice and Rob Baker's guitar mesh together that should not be messed with. & the whole band is just tight.  About half of their songs send shivers down my spine; the other half make me go hmmmmm. 

Here's one of the shivery anthemic ones, from 1989: New Orleans Is Sinking


   Consolidated (industrial/rap)

Where I learned how to rant about politics.  The white boy rapping isn't that great, but their lyrics read like a whole library of anarchist/feminist/ animal rights/vegetarian/anti-war tomes.  This band would (for some reason) invite audience members to speak at their early shows, then mix the resulting speeches (some supportive, some hilariously ignorant) into their albums.  For example, the southern belle who got up on stage and declared:

Meat is good and if you don't like America go live in Russia.
(Good comment, you'll make the next record for sure. OK why is meat good?)
Meat is good because, well, apparently y'all are saying... You seem to be
making this radical statement, radicalism is in, let's get against this,
everybody together, dumb American mentality, OK that's what 1 just got out
of this, well now the new trend is let's be a vegetarian let's be a little
hippychick, Peace love all this shit. Well that's just another way of
following a trend. The Lord God said thou shalt have dominion over the
animals of the earth; he didn't say say thou shalt have dominion over a big
wad of tofu. 

Hahahahahaaaaa!  & there was also this classic soundbite:

We just wanna party!  Life is hard enough, and we don't want this serious shit!  Stop it!

Friendly Fascism (1989) was my favourite of their releases ... after that the humour seemed to go out of their stuff.  & I couldn't find any videos!


   Tool (heavy metal/industrial/prog rock)

I just really love guitar hooks and anthemic vocals, what can I say?  Tool do sometimes thrash away at very great length when they should have finished the song two minutes sooner, but you get the feeling they are following some sacred vision into the higher spheres (they are not dumb hair metal dudes by any stretch of the imagination) and so I tend to forgive them.

Oh yeah, Tool's guitarist, Adam Jones, is also a sculptor & stop-motion puppeteer whose work is featured in most of the band's videos.

Parabol/Parabola


   Julian Cope (new wave/prog rock/acid rock)



This guy is fascinating. I know he's fascinating because he loves to tell us about all the eminently cool stuff he does on his website Head Heritage, one of the first blogs.  He has also published a respected guide to the ancient pagan sites of Britain, The Modern Antiquarian; guides to exotic subgenres of postpunk rock history, Krautrocksampler & Japrocksampler; an autobiography called Head On about all the crazy shit he did while touring with the Teardrop Explodes; and oh yeah, he plays a mean guitar.  A hallucinogenic guitar.  I've been a fan since about 1994.

Upwards At 45 Degrees (live)

I wish I could find a copy of my favourite of his songs: Las Vegas Basement


   CSS/Cansei de Ser Sexy (funk)

The kids are alright.  & this video is so great!

Alala

So fulla attitude, I love it!

Honourble mentions: Gorillaz, Kate Bush, 10,000 Maniacs, Guided By Voices, Metric, KMFDM, Radiohead, Sugarcubes, Beastie Boys, Kraftwerk, MIA, PJ Harvey, Tom Waits, Portishead, Sonic Youth, New Order, Duran Duran ... etc etc

Well, I don't know about that, but celebrity crushes are a nice diversion while you wait for your soulmate to come along.

Panasonicyouth has tagged me to spill all, so I guess I'd better get on with it ... boy this is gonna be embarassing.  And fun!  Thanks Bree & Huldaholm for coming up with this game!

RULES:

1. You post your top 10 fantasy guys/girls
2. You tag 10 people.
3. You CANNOT tag someone who has already been tagged.
4. You have to let the people you tagged know that they've been tagged.
5. These are the rules they must be repeated every time.
6. THERE MUST BE PHOTOS! AT ALL TIMES!


Chronologically:

I won't be including my first ever celebrity crush, because it was Michael Jackson and I was an innocent 10-year-old and we all know now that he was yankin' our collective chains.  In a manner of speaking.  So moving along to age 13:



Falco! I was seriously obsessed with this guy back in the day of "Rock Me Amadeus".  He's dead now & has one of the most garish & tasteless grave monuments ever built ... it's on my must-visit list.



Age 15


Bono circa 1987 graced my locker door in grade 9.

Age 18


Martin Gore!  When I was a teenager, my mom & my aunt teased me about liking the "starving artist type" :)

My fave Depeche Mode tape was Black Celebration ... saw them live in '91 ... in the rain ... I loved his hair!

#4


Keanu.  Whoa. 

I have a friend who has spoken to him on the phone and she says he's very nice!  Eeeeeeeeee3e!!!


In no particular order...


Now we get a little embarrassing, because yes, this is in fact a Star Trek alien on my list.  And a space pirate!  Very exciting!  And excruciatingly embarrassing.  Why am I telling you all this??


I'm detecting a bit of a pattern here...


Mark opened it up with Edward "And why is he so goddamn hot as a Nazi skinhead? My morals are crushed" Norton.  Honestly!  Sometimes I get so angry at tv and movies when they pull this kind of fast one on me. Yup... Voldemort is hott.

#7


I love a good costume.  That's Russel Crowe in it of course ...

I also enjoy a little Full Monty...


Robert Carlyle has the nicest eyes.

He played this wicked devious cannibal in Ravenous - an underrated flick - with Guy Pearce, another hottie ...




Still in no particular order...


Conan O'Brien isn't my #2 celebrity crush ... I guess I'm just accustomed to his face since I watch him most nights ... & I love it when he says "yeeeeeah!" and "keep cool my babies!"

#1


I'm usually not this much of a testosterone junkie.  So much for the starving artist type, eh?  I seem have moved on to the beefcake artist type.  It must be an over-30 thing.  I currently believe Till Lindemann is the hottest person alive.


I tag:

thatmissgrace

dawnanthony

yorrik

ghostgirl

intentionalart

blowitupbob

bluesbro

artsysf

derek

twisssssted!

I did my research & I am able to pass on this crucial bit of information: your custom header image for your gallery banner must measure 810 x 70 pixels to look fab in the new Buzz.

Someone had to tell y'all...

Okay.  SO.... Mark  (a.k.a Panasonicyouth) started this thing, and Funksteena passed it on to me.


Here are the rules:

1) Only list 8 facts.
2) You must then list 8 TAGS at the end of the post. This means you must name 8 people on Buzznet who now must do the same blog.
3) Go comment on their profile and tell them to come read yours! Mark demands participation.






1.   I am a big loner who would rather sit around and read SF novels than make plans to go out ... until I get bored, and then I go and socialize like crazy for a week or so ... then I burn out and turn into a hermit again.

2.   I am much bigger in real life than I am in photos. 

3.   I'm late for dinner.

4.   I harbour bitterness against my parents.  It doesn't go away with time; instead, I just discover more reasons to feel ripped off as I get older.

5.   I procrastinate.  I think I'll finish this list later.

6.   I love to ask people "If you were a species of Star Trek alien, which would you be?" but I never get the response I expect.

7.   I have used up my life's quota of fear and self-hatred.  I will never have to feel those things again.  My circuits have burned out.

8.   Eight is a lucky number.  I was born on June 8; my sister on July 8; my sister's son on August 8.



I tag: knitgirl, csad2549, pothole62, miketroll, tomdog, rasdva, geeknostalgia and spudhead!

Each of you must tag 8 more people and you can't tag someone who has already done one. Make a friend.

They have hundreds of archived Buzznet pages over at the Wayback Machine!  Not all still have their photos in them ... but the links work ... sometimes ...

Remember what Buzznet looked like on January 29th, 2004?  Have a look:

Hello friends ...

Just to let you know, I have new videos on my video page, but they have not been showing up in new posts ... even though I can see everyone else's videos.  I'm trying not to take it personally ...

My Mixtape galley now boasts links to YouTube videos for some of the songs listed!  Only the best, cheesiest, or most obscure ones, to be sure ... 

You may be interested in going back through the gallery (now is the time - there are only 7 posts!) and partaking of some 80s synthpop or other cult classics.  Including Particle Man!

(Triangle wins.)

Following Tuck's lead, I am submitting a pic to Jpg mag's Are You Ready To Rock theme.  Vote at the link below!  Please!

Interviewed by Boz48730:



1. Your 15th birthday is coming up, what 5 cassettes would you just die for?

Well, CDs did exist when I was 15 ... but I didn't have a CD player, so I got most of my cassettes filled up with music off the radio.  Acid House was the big thing that year ... so I (and everyone at my school) was listening to tracks like Theme from S-Express and Doctorin' the Tardis, as well as the odd song about cocaine and sex and other things I knew nothing about. 
The only cassettes I actually paid money for were all by The Smiths.
And I got U2's Rattle & Hum for Christmas that year.

2. Who would you rather face in the Western Conference semi-finals the Red Wings or the Sharks and why?

To be honest I would rather face Roberto Luongo, and preferably not on the ice, but that's beside the point now, isn't it.
The Red Wings then; I'm afraid of sharks.

3. Who is the greatest Canadian of all time and why?

Dr. Norman Bethune.  Early proponent of universal health care; developer of battlefield emergency surgery procedures; international adventurer.

4. If you had to pick a new online nickname what would it be?

I am a gemini - I cycle potential nicknames weekly.  But definitely something science-fiction related.

5. How do you plan to celebrate May Day this year?

With beer, I think ...

I had plans to go up to Whistler yesterday for the day ... my cold was really bad & I almost cancelled, but then I figured walking around Whislter and maybe checking out some ski n snowboard events would be better than lying around home sniffling.  So I dressed warmly and headed out ...  Of course it rained.

On the ride up there I was stuck sitting behind Mr. Chatty, who hadn't seen me in a while and so wanted to cheerfully talk my ear off throughout the drive, which took two hours due to weather and rather intense construction along the entire route ... giant machines and wooden scaffolding propped up against the cliffs, stacks of cut trees ... Snow ...

By the time we were in Whistler Village, it was snowing huge wet flakes.  There wasn't much of a view to enjoy, and of course no-one felt like hiking out to where the skiing & snowboarding was.  Buck 65 was supposed to play an outdoor set ... no-one felt like sticking around ... so instead we went into an art show, where Mr. Chatty strolled around dissing the art and the music (he's more into Country, it seems).

Then, when I got home from Whistler, wanting nothing more than to get warm and dry and have a cuppa tea, what do I find but my entire building has no power!  No elevators, no fire alarms, no keyscan security!  No hot water, no hot dinner, no cuppa tea!  Our day staff person was running around frazzled trying to look after everything, but in the end we spent

(shit I'm still in shock.  what a mess.)

In the end we spent 30 hours without hydro.  It just came back on at 7pm tonight. 


Tomorrow - the feast of a half-dozen thawed steaks!

I've been asked to put together a party mix of music for International Women's Day (March 8).  Some folks are having a lil office party and they want EMPOWERING MUSIC to play after they turf all the men out of the room.  So far I have heaps of Aretha Franklin, Eurhythmics, Alanis Morissette ... what else ... oh, a few mellow ones from Natalie Merchant and Aimee Mann.  But I need more songs!

Bottom line is, my audience will be older, classic rock types and not up-to-the-minute hipsters like myself, and that means I'm not sure if they're gonna want 2 hours of Sleater-Kinney and Le Tigre comin at 'em.

So can I ask you guys a favour?  I need yer fave rock, funk, soul etc songs for the over-45 blue-collar set, that are full of love & strength, and absolutely ZERO bullshit!  Suggest me some titles!

Because I know you guys are cool & the shit.

Rock on!


*******************************************************************************

UPDATE - April 11
requested by ArtsySF

Artsy posted a comment reminding me to follow up on this and tell you all what I ended up playing.  So here it is:

I started out  playing Shawn Colvin's cd "Steady On" while everyone was meeting and greeting and drinking their coffee.  Then we had some speeches exhorting us to use our votes to turf out the stupid government and/or restore funding to women's and children's services ...  and then everyone got down to some chatting & eating and arts & crafts, & I put on the rockin mix I had made with your suggestions :)

Respect - Aretha Franklin
Sisters Are Doin It For Themselves - Aretha & Eurythmics
Army of Me - Bjork
Energy Sucker - Luscious Jackson
Just a Girl - No Doubt
Brass in Pocket - Pretenders
Would I Lie To You? - Eurythmics
I Love Rock & Roll - Joan Jett
Thank U - Alanis Morrissette
Fake French - Le Tigre
Let It Go - Luba
One Beat - Sleater-Kinney
Lost Ones - Lauryn Hill
Hit Em Up Style - Blu Cantrell
Rise Up - Parachute Club
We Are Family - Slister Sledge
Think! (Freedom) - Aretha Franklin & Blues Brothers
Wet Blanket - Metric
Evolve - Ani DiFranco (this one was popular!)
Manic Monday - Bangles
Eat For Two - 10,000 Maniacs
Wonder - Natalie Merchant

Hmm - I was just about to post a few of these songs and like to them, but I see that the music player is gone from my page.  Does anyone else still have audio?

I'll just leave the post as is for now.

Yay!  My sis Lady Ailis is back on the Buzz!

She has pics of the farm n' family life back in Ontario, including:

Cute aminules


Cute babeez


Interesting Goings-on


She may not be able to post or comment very often due to a slow rural connection, but now that she has a new 'puter, I think there will be no stopping her.

Let's get her hooked!

Oh no, wait, that wouldn't be nice.