A little of this
July 18th, 2008 John Posted in The Last Visible Blog |
News that Canadians saw a record number of UFOs in 2007 suggests to me that they aren’t any less whacked out than we are, just much more polite. Which still makes it a preferable country to me.
We will be heading to New Brunswick, after skipping a year in our annual respite to the gentle wilderness to the north. I have a feeling we won’t be encountering any UFOs, just your general Canadian-ness.
Which is a long way of stating that I haven’t put much up here recently and felt like posting. Jana went out on her backpacking trip and relatives were swirling around and I’ve been doing lots of things at the newspaper and it’s very, very hot. And since Jana was taking a week off of The Bob, I decided to do the same on my two more time consuming creative projects, Danger Brigade and The Secret History of El Comics.
Top John news:
Got an iPod Touch. It’s the best gadget I’ve ever had. It replaces my Palm (if anyone wants to buy a used Palm off me, speak up) and it fulfills that need plus some. For one, it’s actually compatible with my Macbook. For two, it’s simpler to use than the Palm. For three, you can go online with it if you find a wireless network. For four, I get to watch snippets of old British science fiction shows that I can’t imagine having the time for other than within the nooks and crannies of my life.
Workwise, I had several excellent interviews these last couple weeks — Nick Zammuto, of The Books, about his Laser Show at the Williams College Museum of Art — love Nick, he’s such a great guy. Also, Ike Sheldon from The Wilders , the best new band that I have encountered. They’re an all acoustic hillbilly band with tinges of bluegrass — they rock the hell out of most the crap that sells these days. Ike was a real nice guy and a great character. Best of all, I had a great chat with comic artist Joe Staton, who will have a gallery show down in Pittsfield. I flipped when I saw he was going to do a show locally — Joe is all over my childhood, he drew practically everything I loved, and now he does stuff that Harry and Hugo love. Couldn’t pass that opportunity.
Oh, the Transcript now has a feed for my entertainment pages if anyone cares to subscribe.
I bought a new needle for my turntable and it broke in a day. I tried to get my money back, but have gotten no answer. I’m back to using the old one, which still sounds fine, but it’s annoying. The damn turntable is 20 years old and works like a dream — best electronics purchase I ever made.
I was getting really frustrated with new music I encountered and pulled out all my old Yazoo comps. Blues, country and jazz from the 20s and 30s has been the majority of my listening these days — seriously. Although I alternate it with artsy synth music — early Simple Minds, Dalek I Love You, Ladytron, very early Human League, stuff like that. It’s a mix that works better than you think it would and, strangely, really captures my North Adams surroundings.
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