The plan

There is something of a plan taking form. It involves the shaking off of this subdomain oppression, and embracing a full domain. It will probably be that all this content, if it is indeed that, remains here. I couldnt be bothered porting it over. Not yet at least. May be that I do indeed use this still. So, if you are of a mind: http://theemeraldbuddha.com

Madonna, or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying & Love the Recording Industry

First off, I've had this damn piccolo-synth line strutting around my head for two days now, unrelenting. It's got that damn marching anthem type underbeat to just add potency to the hook, as it were. Its Madonna's new track Hung Up that I am talking about, or more accurately, her use of ABBA's hook from Gimme Gimme Gimme. I could not tell you whether I like it or not. If the question were posed. Its just one of those melodies that has a certain, hrm, purity to it, for want of a better word. Insofar as that it just works. Genetically predetermined perhaps to absorb the sound signature, and some long unused portion of the brain is awakened and releases endorphins because it knows the signature to be happy. Or a mutation of part of the cerebellum during those disco days of the 70's caused by too tight denim hipsters recognises the signature and feels the call to disco. The incorrect and sadly initial assumption on my behalf was that Madonna was doing the usual pop music ploy of remaking old tracks by old artists and fooling the kids (hardly a difficult undertaking) into thinking it were straight out of the ghetto, or other interchangable collective noun for an area of highly concentrated self pity. Please, these people (eg: rap/hip-hop/r'n'b, err, 'artists') can barely construct an intelligible sentence, let alone write lyrics laced with double enterdre, or layers of track structure... oh wait, that isnt there anyway. So riddle me this; how is it concievably possible that a person can become a musical prodigy by having the singular ability to sing a couple of ditties that someone else has penned. Which reminds me of a -somewhat well placed- TISM line, from the rant at the end of B.F.W. (thats an acronym for Big Fucking Whoopie for you laymen) where Ron says: "Who writes the songs? / That's the thing / Any clotheshorse can learn to sing. / *beeped* (Kylies?) albums are all eponymous / But the songwriters stay anonymous." But I've digressed. What I was getting at is that the track uses a sample from an old track, an ABBA track, and then I realised that Madonna was about 21 when the ABBA track was released, and so probably remembers when the original came out so thats excuseable. That and she is nearly 50, she has quite amazingly maintained a pop-star status, somehow finding enough cracks to slip through and niches to fill. Which has to be admired. And I really had more important things to do than this, but I got sidetracked. Who knows what the original intended topic was. Probably about the weather or something.

Afroman's Cheap, Really Cheap, and Stupid Mods

If you are feeling the need to do something constructive, but dont want to have to go far or spend much, then check out 'Afrotech's Ghetto Hardware Fun' You can learn how to recharge alkaline batteries, or wire up a jacket so that it is heated for those cold winter nights. And the site has a pretty nice interface, well, it is very apt, maybe at times a little too 'ghetto' though.

:Link:

Nokia 888 concept phone

I'd take out a second mortgage on my mother for one of these.

:Link:

Say it with boobs

Lost for (polysyllabic) words? Lost your frontal lobe? Or just a lost cause? Well this is your lucky day (you were bound to have one eventually, although the string of bad ones has probably meant the damage is irrepairable - sorry!).

:Knock yourselves out:

This however, is much more high-brow. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but if I learnt anything growing up in todays fast paced-slow thinking society, its that the only trick they need learn involves squatting on their haunches, raising a leg to an impossible azimuth and then shamelessly clean themselves most thoroughly. And in my efforts to educate the world -its one step along the road to my grand plans of conquest- you may learn something :Here: though I daresay some of you are old hands at this...

Flashback

This was the flyer for my first rave. Man, so long ago (relatively). It was dirty, sweaty, skanky, really sweaty (there was a light rain falling all night... we were indoors), crazy, absolutely awesome. I dont have any inclination to go partying like that anymore, er, dont quote me on that, id do it again in a second as long as the party has no kiddycore elements, and maybe not happy hard either, but I have been listening to much oldskool and its both tip and top. Another thing stopping me is that I'd feel really old. Not as old as the DJ's though, these guys keep getting older whilst the crowd gets younger? Do they enjoy the conversation? Or do they relate to the kids? I guess it could be about the music, but...

Do you daydream?

Does it ever resemble this?

:Link:

Whacky. I like it.

Chickens in suburbia

Earlier today I saw some chickens. Or roosters. Whatever, it doesnt matter their gender, but they were by the side of the road and right near my house. Now I dont live in anything resembling a rural area, except perhaps for all the four wheel drives, so this stood out pretty significantly, much like a cow would, if the road were a little bigger. But this is the second time I have seen them, the first I put down to mild psychosis, but now this confirms it (the chickens, not the psychosis). Too encase this with concrete, and let it bare scrutiny, I also took pictures.

Served by Katie at Lane 2

Just went up to the bottle shop to resupply dad and his work chums, as none of them could drive, and they had been at a lunch meeting and follwed it up with drinks here in the sun, possibly on a pretense of relaxed discussion of the outcomes of said meeting. Anyway, the girl working was a cutie. And working alone, she must have been 18 or 19, now if I were going to knock off a store, I'd be hard pressed to find a better alternative. It was empty save for myself, there was a single staff on, and a young girl at that (whether she was single single, I didn't enquire, I was on a mission for benson & hedges and crownies). There wernt many people around, but as the station is across the street that would be highly variable. Not that I am planning that, but it was the second thing to cross my mind as I made my purchases.

Today's storm, some pics

How massive was todays storm. Just snuck on through and -wham! I was on the freeway, just after coming out of the tunnel and I could not see the road- couldnt see anything. I had my music as loud enough to dislodge fillings, but I couldnt hear it, I thought the windscreen was going to shatter. Never seen cars pull off the freeway to seek shelter under bridges, or just stopped, it was probably sensible, but wow it was intense as it went over. I took these when I got to work, really good place to track it as it moved to the south. When I checked the Bureau site, the colour gradient was at the dark maroon colour, which signifies an intensity of 300 mm/hr. Yes, thats 30 centimetres per hour.