Partial to Grey

E.B.S.

This is a test of the emergency bombast system. This is only a test. If this were a real emergency things would be far more bombastic than this.

Late for late registration.

I was reading the Playboy interview with Kanye West in the March 2006 issue this morning. I haven't paid much attention to West. I think I remember seeing him perform at an awards show of some sort once. If I remember correctly, indeed if I have the right rapper in mind, he proffered one of those gospel based bits of theatre that I confess I prefer (much like great sports moments) when reduced to a set piece in a film. Please forgive me that.

I remember the hoopla (I believe that is the scientific term) when he said something about george bush not caring about black people. I didn't check the quote, no need to correct me if I got that wrong as I don't care about that. That is the kind of event that I think of as a sort of cultural bullion cube. Someone says something to a whole lot of people at the same time. It is then boiled down and concentrated so that it may be dissemenated (by the time it is spoken) - like a bullion cube. But once the moment is reduced to a political statement in the pre-requisite bumper-sticker format it does nothing 'cept maybe polarize people. The bumper sticker loses the spice of truth/falsehood/opinion/viewpoint/honesty/deceit/et al that might have originally given the moment value. So basically, I'm saying that I didn't consider that blip on the socio-political radar worth thinking about. I didn't hold it against Mr. West, but I didn't take any additional notice of his offerings either.

But after reading the interview I think I'm going to give Late Registration a listen. I'll likely post about it again if it moves me as it has apparently moved so many other people.

Christina was disturbingly tickled when I called Bourbon a "pillow biter".

One simply logical way to view an issue: My dog is gay - I love my dog - homophobes fear/judge/hate/oppress homosexuals - homophobes fear/judge/hate/oppress my dog - I fear/judge/hate homophobes.

I often refer to heterosexuals, collectively, as "hets".

A glimpse of winter!

Finally! A glimpse of winter! It's about time we get a decent snowfall! I've not been digging the perpetual spring we've been experiencing this year...

We forgot to measure the snow, but the picture of our deck railing I've included in this post should give an idea.

We woke up with lotsosnow! Jeah! The power went off, briefly, three times in the night. This morning we lost it around 8:30 AM for about an hour, but luckily it came back. I noodled around on my new mandolin while Christina played with Bourbon and snapped these photos (excepting the
two pics of Bourbon - I took those).

We went back to bed for a while, fully embracing
the concept of the proverbial snow day, and continued working our way through the Kama Sutra - after all, it is a new year - then we shovelled our way out.

Yesterday we watched Hustle & Flow with the aid of Netflix. We thoroughly dug it, it is a fantastic film, methinks. It had been on our "list" since before its theatre run, but we didn't have the time to view the flick until yesterday. It is about a pimp and the people in his life struggling to make it in the music industry in Memphis TN. Obviously everybody knows someone who's pimped their share of ho's in Memphis, but despite this overly obvious every day premise the film is touching in ways that are unexpected. After viewing the film (and all of the extras... yeah, it's that good) my little gay sheltie, Bourbon walked around for the entire weekend singing the lyrics to one of the film's primary songs:

You know it's hard out here for a pimp
When he tryin to get this money for the rent
for the Cadillacs and gas money spent
Because a whole lot of bitches talkin shit

Bourbon sings in a sort of tar-paper falsetto. That fact coupled with the fact that he's a little gay shetland sheep dog who is pampered and spoiled beyond words makes it truly strange to hear him singing this stuff.

I decided to try the Typepad photo album tools today... If it worked you should be able to see more of Christina's photos in the P2G photo album - Snow 12 February 2006

Mmm... creamy...

Chrissy was hung over so BLUE got puddin'.

Little obsession and new Favorite Band!

Sometime 'round the middle of the Katrilma disasters I became obsessed with the ukulele. I'm not joking! Somehow I'd totally overlooked the ukulele, ignorantly considering it a novelty instrument and a "little guitar". This is quite unusual as I'm generally fond of assorted instruments and have been known to use a variety of odd instruments on record.

I had no idea about the history of the uke or its unique tuning. The ukulele, for those who don't know, is tuned very differently than a guitar. It has four strings and boasts a fourth string (the string closest to the player's head when playing) that is pitched higher than the third string. This creates an instrument whose chord voicings usually sound inverted.

I started my obsession and immediately researched and ordered my first uke. I ordered a tenor Lanikai of which I am very fond. The ukulele has an incredibly clear, round and bell like tone. It is "endearing" in a way that I cannot fully describe. As I was plucking on the thing more or less nonstop, Christina found herself enamoured with the instrument and I purchased "her uke" soon thereafter. It is a concert sized Oscar Schmidt. I tweaked hers extensively, including a somewhat drastic bridge modification and it now has a quick action and a sweet tone. Then a friend from work became interested, bought a concert sized Lanikai (it is gorgeous!) and I've been giving him daily lessons at the day-gig.

Earlier this week, having heard about my uke obsession, my pop picked up an old Silvertone uke at an auction. It is solid mahogany and though it only has three strings on it currently, I suspect it will have a great tone. I can't wait to clean her up!

Overall I have no real point to this post, but earlier this week I discovered my new favorite band in the world - The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain!

Their website is http://www.ukuleleorchestra.com where you can listen to clips, purchase songs, CDs, a T-shirt and/or a DVD and watch a few short film clips. I placed an order earlier this morning and figured I'd share the link.

Just a thought...

On the Food Network it seems perfectly reasonable to grab a mortar & pestle because you want pepper.

Neuronic sputter

I found myself pondering the work of Uwe Boll and subsequently became befuddled by the idea that people continue to give him money to make movies with. Suddenly I wondered if perhaps Michael Bay hired Uwe Boll to distract people from his own efforts at helm.

Tagged for four.

I'm behind on my blog-reading. As I was catching up on Loup's life via because I said so today I found that I had been tagged for a nifty little bloggitty profiley thing... I've skipped a bunch of those things of late, mainly because I have trouble figuring out who to tag next... and because, frankly, I'm not that interesting.

But I'm in just the right mood to do this'n, excepting the tagging part:

FOUR THINGS:

Four jobs I've had in my life: Artist, IT, DJ, bag-boy (grocery store).
Four movies I could watch over and over: Evil Dead, Braveheart, From Dusk til Dawn, Scream (and many more).
Four places I've lived: Never been allowed.
Four TV shows I love to watch: Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica, The Wire, Family Guy.
Four places I've been on vacation: I've never been on a vacation, but we're saving for a trip to New Zealand in 2006! Yay!
Four websites I visit daily: I live in Babble-on and I visit the blogs on the right whenever I'm surfing.
Four of my favorite foods: Is Booze a food?
Four places I'd rather be: Instead of places I'll say I'd rather be allowed - freedom, liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness. But since we're actively pursuing emigration we'll be evaluating a real list throughout the next couple of years.
Four albums I can't live without: I could never narrow it down to four!

A positive statement about the society that owns me!

I'd suspect that by now, anyone who reads this blog is aware of the fact that I despise the society that owns me. There are no words to fully convey the degree to which I loathe my owners. I'm not what one would call a happy camper.

With the obvious out of the way, I've been making a concerted effort for the past five or six months to think of something positive I could say about the society that owns me. Something dignified that could provide contrast to my usual outrage. Something positive and truthful. Not a dishonest platitude, but something legit - thus the difficulties.

Well, I've finally done it! It took every brain cell I've yet to kill and it took a hell of a long time but I've come up with one positive statement about the society that owns me.

A physically attractive person who is willing to suck cock can usually earn a tidy living.

I can't begin to tell you, my dear readers, how proud I am that I finally came up with something. I couldn't wait to share it here.

Yay!

Day of the dumb.

"Leave it to Chrissy," I thought, "to walk away from the window to check the weather on her Power Book."

There was a long deep rumbling of thunder. The thunder of a too warm winter. It sounded like rage. The kind of rage that lacks the catharsis of violent outburst. It felt homey.

"We're not supposed to be having a thunderstorm." she said from her computer.

"You know I'm going to have to blog about this, right?" I said.

I've been amusingly dain bread all day; puttering about with the precision of a zombie well below the reasoning capacity of Bub. I would have thought that yesterday's vegetation in the land of Romero would have been sufficient, but apparently I needed more time. I have a fairly lengthy post about the exploits of the weekend, but it probably won't go up until tomorrow. Right now I... uh... um...

What was the question?