I think I need to get down and pray. There’s so much that’s going wrong with the world, and I’m told about it constantly. Turn on the news and all it’s all doom and gloom. Terrorists threatening big buildings and hamburgers threatening fat people. There’s no place to sit down and relax, to find somewhere that is calm where we can, ultimately, chill out and relax. I can’t escape my blackberry. The stock market never sleeps. The internet never sleeps, if you slip up for even a couple seconds, competition instantaneously will come up on you and bite you.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s competing for internet viewing time on blogs or finding a job handling computer outsourced jobs, this new world we’re growing into is murdering our humanity slowly but surely. Though it’s nothing new to be dependent on technology, luddites complained about it eons ago, what we have now is something new. It’s a digital world that is relentless. The rate of change in all aspects of society is accelerating past our ability to make any sense of it. We’re being choked by the very tools that we thought would emancipate us. Future Shock actually thought that all this technology would give us much more leisure time, so we’d all become fat from just sitting in front of our computers.

Well, we certainly all are stuck to the internet, but it’s not from a wealth of free time. We being swept away from 21 thousand things that we have to do today and we can’t keep up with it. People are still swindling each other just like time immemorial. We are just as elevated and depraved at the same time as we’ve ever been. But now with information flowing at the speed of pure change, we are constantly looking at ourselves and seeing the change regurgitating itself upon us all at once. It becomes numbing, and people fall back to old ways of finding order in the world or they just give up and find some sense of existential solace in apathy and ignorance to what’s going on around. Either that or we try to create an identity for ourselves out of some pastiche of past trends, hoping that will give us lasting importance to others.

That was, in my mind, a big point behind Watchmen. People became subsumed by trying to create identities for themselves in order to become something of value in the world, to make a living. Then they were replaced by Dr. Manhattan, by a being that could keep up with the increasingly fast rate of change. Everyone was outsourced out of existence by technology that made human beings inefficient. And in the end, the world sustains itself because of terrible tragedy and lies to cover up the well-intentioned (yet still terrible) mistakes of misguided men with power. It doesn’t matter if the end is as ridiculous as Watchmen was, what matters is that, within human reason, such things like that WILL be possible (if not already.)

So we look at the torturous consequences of becoming out of date and what matters anymore? Computer processor speed is increasing so much so that by 2045, the power of computer processing will be billions upon billions faster than the combined processing capability of every human being that has ever existed. And this inexorable surge in processor speed doesn’t seem to be slowing down. IBM has a computer called Blue Gene that has one tenth the processing speed of the human brain (10^16 calculations per second or so). By 2010, IBM will have a computer with the same raw speed of processing as a human brain.

The rate of human life expectancy has also been increasing exponentially since the middle of the 19th century. Mortality is now increasing by up to a year or two every few years now. 100 years ago people had the life expectancy of living to 50 or so. Now we have a life expectancy of around 80. With the tools that are becoming available with nanotech we will be able to create medicines that will eradicate viruses unlike anything we could before. These tools based on the smallest possible machines when combined with carbon computers and increasingly clever ways of modelling reality will ultimately give us the tools to create what is called a universal constructor, basically a replicator.

Simply put, with such technology and computer speed, it will be possible to turn everything into a commodity like music was into an mp3. The tools we have for modeling consciousness are becoming increasingly sophisticated to the point of which we can use the brain to move electronic limbs just by pure thought. They’ve been working on this for amputees for the longest time. And then there is, allegedly, research being made into anti-matter bombs and space engines by the military. We have Predator robot airplanes fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who’s to say that this technology is not being made for us to create synthetic soldiers to fight radio controlled wars of the future. Thats what the land warrior program's end goal IS isn’t it?

I’m 26. By 2045 I’ll be 63. Our generation will be the people who create the synthetic intelligences that will organize our reality into something new. We are the generation that is going to do this, and our music is one that is completely synthetic. This new electronic is the complete and utter collision of everything that has ever existed all at once. Niches seem to exist, but people already realize that music is all held together by similar strands, hence we love everything. There IS a universal appeal of music with good melody (and by that I mean music which has a compelling emotional argument and resolution in musically logical sounds).

This leads me to the New Alternative. These new forms of music, under the banner of New Alt, are basically a forwarding looking approach to the rapid rehashing of society around us. The new methods for creating music are totally different from how they’ve ever been. What we see is the creation of the new musicians, people who use tools like Live and Cubase and Logic to put together music more like chefs and painters than like traditional musicians. The thing is though, all these guys are traditional musicians. You have to be in order to write good music. But what they do is use the old forms of music as sort of a skeleton upon to drape all the different new sounds they are hearing in their heads.

It’s somewhat fitting that this new type of music is specifically a dance form of music. This was the first type of music, as far as we are aware, that people created. They used their bodies and random objects to drum stuff. And they probably danced and had sex afterwards. Sheesh, sounds like your last night at the disco doesn’t it? Ok, maybe not, but clubbin’ has been around since the dawn of reality, and it’s gonna be there as long as we stay human. And now we see with this music a philosophy that seems to embrace a ‘fuck reality lets dance around the volcano’ approach. Perhaps, maybe the ultimate end of reality is hopeless, but I don’t think so. I think the start of this new amazing music is only just beginning, as is the journey into electronic music, electronic medicine, and ultimately electronic life.

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All the above might be a bit much for the average individual so... sorry, I guess we didn’t get to choose what world we were born into when we got here. Maybe our lives started after some random encounter at a dance party. You never know how these things go. But regardless, now it’s time to post up a lovely soundtrack of new completely awesome tunes to rock out too while you contemplate that life is meaningless, computers are going to take over, and I’d rather agree with Pascal's wager than believe a God doesn’t exist and face the opposite consequences.

So, sorry about it all. Actually, I’m not sorry, I really don’t care to be honest. Live your lives and rock out because it’s all a choice. And here, this is the latest from Hostage (courtesy of Discodust). It’s the first Hostage tune that I’ve really dug. It’s called Sorry, it’s got an acid, tripped out ravish feel to it. And a sample which says ‘Sorry’ over and over and over again. It's distorted and relentless, sorta like the ole Janet Reno dance parties on SNL except way cooler and nothing like Janet Reno or SNL.

Hostage - Sorry

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I've been on a real kick with these newer wobbly bass styled tunes that often get cataloged under such misleading names as fidget house, blog house, blog this, blog that. Simpley put, it's house music with a four to the floor dance beat and a hugenormous uberly cataclysmical bassline of earth-quakeingly good proportions. A group I recently discovered, and I totally heart now, is Jokers of the Scene. Their tunes are HUGE! Here are their remixes of Vitaminsforyou, Walter Lilly & St. Plomb, Dandi Wind, and Muscles. All great. Subs required. Earplugs optional. It goes to 11.

Vitaminsforyou - Flesh Python (Jokers of the Scene Remix)

Muscles - The Lake (Jokers of the Scene Remix)

Walter Lilly & St. Plomb - Shake a Leg (Jokers of the Scene Remix)

Dandi Wind - Searching Flesh (Jokers of the Scene Remix)

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Does It Offend You, Yeah? is so way cool. The blog world knows about them, and like most things in the world they got like 30 seconds of love on myspace. Their an awesome electro-indie group out of the UK that mixes the new alternative type electro sounds with artsy, jangly indie like Bloc Party (Silent Alarm in particular). Their album is one of the highpoints of the year so far with a surprising contrast between violent hardcore banging about forcible sex on the dancefloor (Let's Make Out) to tender and sincerely heartbroken tunes about lost love (Epic Last Song).

Here is an awesome remix of the tender song put into a banging wobbly bass format. It really sorta suprised me, I totally dig on the Jack Beats, another group like Jokers of the Scene with unstoppably wobbly bass songs, but I would never have suspected them to remix 'Epic Last Song' over 'Let's Make Out'. Needless to say, I really like the result. It's got a cool combo of crystal clear basslines, well used placement of vocals, and a drop that includes the bridge of the original song very effectively. Mucho heartage aqui!

Does it Offend You, Yeah? - Epic Last Song (Jack Beats Remix)

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Busta Rhymes has been on a rampage. First the remix by Meterhead that I posted about recently. Then the Chew Fu remix that I tossed on top of Goose and Lies in Disguise in my recent mini-mix, and now the illustrious Bird Peterson taking 'Don't Touch Me', and speeding up Bustas rhymes into a hot dancefloor bootyfest that, if placed right, will totally start riots and make neighbors call the police on your party because they believe the end of the world might be starting in the basement of the house party next door. I can't wait to play this one out.

Busta Rhymes - Don’t Touch Me (Bird Peterson Remix)

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The whole world seems to be on drugs doesn't it? The pusher next door. The politician buying his coke from the local gang racketeering the local corner shop where you try to buy your prophylactics and beer. Oh, the loss of innocence. Where does our fall from grace stop Mr. Milton. Anyways. These two next tunes are all about drugs. The first one is by an artist I'm just getting familiar with, Edu K. It's a huge wobbly pleaser with a tribal middle section where a girl breathily intones, 'give me the good shit, I want a big hit.' If this tune were it, I'd totally take a hit. Pure hypnotic throbbing!

Cow Pie - Druggggssszzz (Edu K Remix)

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Adam Tensta is about my age. He obviously ALSO played Nintendo as a youth. How cool is that. Two people from totally different backgrounds, growing up playing Nintendo. One becomes a urban rapper sensation everywhere else other than in the US, and the other goes on to write about him. This tune is about a dopeboy. Now think for a second, does he look like he sells drugs? Is video games now permanently associated with pot-head dudes whacking around Guitar Hero? Is that what Mr. Nintendo intended? An opiate for the masses? Something for us to cover our eyes with while the floor is pulled out from under us by global monopolies in every industry imaginable. Who knows, who the F cares, go find your dopeboy remix right here.

Adam Tensta - Dopeboy (Neon Blak GT Edit)

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I already did a posting where I featured these two q2's on the top cover pic of it. But how could I not resist putting up another pic of them when I had this new Walter Meego Remix of Girls sitting in my inbox. God. Thats one of the great things about the internet, and you see that with alot of the blogs out there. They find the best music, and then they look for the pictures of the hottest chicks that exist on the internet. Lastnightsparty is notorious for putting the pictures of every hip party chicks tits online for the whole world to see. What lovely voyeurism. What class. At least these two above rock out. Shake it like a polaroid picture to Spruce Lee and Kato's remix. It's disco-ishy ala Bufi and the Twelves. Kewl.

Walter Meego - Girls (Spruce Lee and Kato Remix)

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Here's the tune which inspired this whole posting. It's a new remix by DJ Mehdi of the Aussie pop-star Sam Sparro. It's an ode about getting overwhelmed by the world. Sorta reminds me of Prince meets new alternative electro house meets edgy unnerving string and synth parts. I might not have all the answers. Einstein's cosmological constant might actually exist according to recent Chaos Theory theories. I prefer that girl to Einstein. And I'm done writing for now. Ciao bella.

Sam Sparro - 21st Century Digital Life (DJ Mehdi Secret Disco Dub)

Uncle Richie

Who is Uncle Richie, you ask? Well, I asked the same thing of Goose the other day when, out of nowhere, he said, "Unlcle Richie." It turns out that Uncle Richie is Alistair's uncle.

Goose's Favorite Sitter and I begged for more details, and here's what we learned: Uncle Richie is a person, not a dog. He lives in a house, but it's outside (whatever that means). And he has blue hair. Oh, and he's nice, too.

When putting Goose to bed the other night, he told me that Uncle Richie was upstairs. That kinda freaked me out. Uncle Richie was also over at our Favorite Neighbor's earlier in the week, according to Goose. No one saw him, though...

I'll keep you posted on Uncle Richie. Hopefully more details will emerge about this mysterious relative of Alistair's. :)

"My Girl"

Last week, we had a nice family dinner with Ba Noi (grandmother) and Goose's Uncles... at Hooters. Ha! The Geek and his brothers, and even Ba Noi, love wings, so there you go. I can't stand them--too much work for too little reward. Anyway...

We thought it would be funny to get Goose's picture taken with our buxom waitress. Mommy Goose had left her camera at home, so the Geek snapped a crappy picture with his crappy cell phone. Goose played all coy and shy, and barely looked at our bottle-blonde server. But... as soon as she walked away, he kept an eye out for her. "Where's My Girl?" he asked repeatedly, scanning the restaurant for her. "There's My Girl!" he'd say triumphantly when she walked by. The Geek and his brothers were proud!

While driving to our new lot in our new neighborhood I found these geese (and at least two dozen more) just hanging out.  These were shot from my window and I am amazed at how used to cars and people these birds are.

[viddler id=6074fe11&w=437&h=363]

Everybody mocks me for liking Top Gun.  I concede that some of the lines in the movie were kind of cheezy "Son, your ego's writing cheques your body can't cash", but it was/is a great movie.  The flight scenes in that were great.  And mock it if you like, but it's 22 years old and everybody still knows the movie and knows the characters.

I am in favour of trying a sequel.  You heard it here first.

As a side note, I laughed a bit when the Asian bad guy in The Dark Knight's name was Lau.

The new faucet is working swimmingly. But the repair also gave me an idea: The area under the sink can serve as a perfect "time-out" space for the Geek! That is, when I need a time-out from him. He fits in there quite well...

Thanks to our Favorite Neighbors for passing along the cute, Goose-sized apron! :)

If Elvis were to murder you with a toy assualt rifle from the 80's, he'd probably play this as his soundtrack to your untimely exit from this world to the next.

BlakeLight - Elvis Assault Rifle Live MiniMix

Popov - I'm Da Man of My City (Chew Fu Remix)
Gameboy Gamegirl - Sweaty Wet (G.L.O.V.E.S. Remix)
Goose - Original Run
Busta feat. Linkin Park - We Made It (Chew Fu Big Room Fix)
Messinian - Throw it Away (Designer Drugs Remix)
Shinichi Osawa - Electro411 (Lies in Disguise Remix)

As my friend and current flatmate Carla and I were enjoying some stir fry and a nice glass of red wine like 2 frumpy old ladies on a Friday night, a few unexpected visitors arrived. A recent flatmate, Mia, who had expressed her decision to stay on the other side of town not a few hours earlier, had spontaneously showed up, drunk as a peacock, loud as a barrister and loose as a goose, with 2 men at her side. (1 attractive 1 not, neither speaking very good English) 

I must say, though our night was going so sound without a hitch, I found it rather amusing to have this unexpected intrusion. Hardly able to hold a sentence by this time,  the extremely blonde, fake tanned Mia barged into the bathroom as I was brushing my teeth with half a shirt over her eyes, begging me to help her get it on straight. Bless her, she was putting on some sort of odd fashion show amongst her 2 suitors with the help of the illustrious Jack Daniels. Though they invited us to join, both Carla and I looked at each other and laughed, knowing perfectly well that Mia brought those men back to our place to carry on some very improper and scandalous 'mischevities.' (My new word) 

I bother writing about this because in retrospect, the entire incident made me contemplate whether or not this constitutes Mia as a floozy in my eyes. It wasn't as if this was done delicately and was both comical and tragic as it seemed like a desperate, rather shallow act. I suppose it was in the way it happened. But who am I to judge? 

Which brings me to my question. What I'd like to know from anyone who's reading is what exactly defines a 'floozy'?

You should have seen how stupid they all looked trying to get me to actually put my mouth in the water and blow bubbles.  How hope someone from the government reads this, because I really feel like I've been waterboarded.  Maybe I should get the ACLU to represent me?

My new friend Boswell told me that swimming is easy, you just have to follow through.  But he's a goose - of course he thinks it's easy!  They spared me further humiliation by not taking any pictures.  I overheard them saying that we are going back on Monday... we'll just have to see about that.

GB.

Well now I've heard about a blogging goose named Boswell.  Not only that - Boswell is a cancer survivor! Yeah, that lucky duck (sorry Boswell, couldn't resist) has undergone chemo treatments.

http://dailyhonk.blogspot.com/

I'll admit it: I'm a bit jealous.  Here are some things Boswell has going for him:

1. Good looks
2. Inspirational story
3. Potential Obamaesque rockstar following

How does he even type with webbed feet?!  Does he have some honk recognition software on his computer?

I think we could be good friends.  After all, I'm quite fond of ducks - I suppose I could make the leap to a goose.  Hey Boswell - congrats buddy - hopefully we can chat sometime.

Your friend,

Gremlin Baby

Goose Passed out on Paulie the Penguin...

And some more video.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5540194911550710006]

I love, love, love the way he says the words Purple and Pillow. :)

Dans of sterf
Op vrijdag was er de keuze uit drie verschillende podia: 2 indoorpodia in de Halles des foires en 1 weide in het nabijgelegen parkje. Bij mijn aankomst rond 16u en voor de eerste regenvlagen van de dag lag deze weide er spijtig genoeg al redelijk zompig bij.

Hmm, heeft er iemand laarzen bij?

Maar ik liet de modder niet aan mijn hart komen en Shameboy kreeg iedereen in de stemming met weeral een subliem setje. Daarna was Yelle aan de beurt. Deze Bretoense Spice Girl, bekend(?) van dé Tecktonik-hit 'A Cause Des Garçons', kreeg het publiek minder aan de waggel ondanks haar t-shirt met het opschrift 'Dance or Die'.

Typisch festival
Dan maar even binnen in de hallen gaan loeren naar het Luikse DJ-duo The G vs Magnetik die de 'Aquarium' mochten openen en alvast het beste van hunzelf gaven. Van al dat shaken kreeg ik een reuzehonger en ik besloot af te zakken naar de talrijke eetstandjes. Van Belgische frieten tot Aziatische gerechten, de hele typische festivalrimram is ook op Les Ardentes aanwezig.

Na een paar hartige hapjes en enkele aardige rondetijden in een Formule 1-wagen in de Playstation 3-tent was het eindelijk tijd voor Booka Shade. Dit was voor mij het muzikale hoogtepunt van de avond, al vergeet ik voor de gemakkelijkheid dat ene house-intermezzo. Het is hun bij deze vergeven.

Modderspringen
Ondertussen hadden ze daarboven beslist om de hemelsluizen nog eens open te zetten. Het reeds getergde festivalterrein kon deze extra portie water niet meer slikken en in een mum van tijd werd het (gras?)veld omgetoverd in een modderbad waar menig schoonheidsinstituut stikjaloers op zou zijn.

Feesten gelijk de beesten.

Dan maar dansen en springen in de modder tijdens Goose en Dr. Lektroluv, er was geen ontkomen aan. Want wees nu even eerlijk, het is gewoon onmogelijk om stil te staan tijdens een optreden van deze Vlaamse electro-talenten.

Vieze vuile uilen vangen
Rond 02u30 zat de show in de modderpoel erop, maar in de hallen werd er nog duchtig verder gedanst op de beats. Twee uren later was ik volledig leeg en uitgefeest. Vies en vuil ving ik een klein uiltje in de inkomhal, ik was zeker niet de enige die op jacht was met een vangnet. Ik had nog net genoeg kracht om mezelf op één van de speciale nachtbussen te sleuren richting station waar rond 6u de eerste trein richting Leuven vertrok.

Het was een doodleuke dag en Les Ardentes is een steengoed Electro Rock festival met het potentieel om uit te groeien tot een blijver. Maar misschien volgend jaar toch maar planken leggen voor het buitenpodium. Of een portie zon bestellen.

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a goose
zig-zags into a cloud
out of the blue

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(c) GINA 2008

[contact-form]

the young adult section of the library is so alluring. i just recently realized what books i ADORE. and what books i want to set on fire. i hate high school-teenage-lovey-dovey books. ewgh. but oh sweet flippendo, fantasy books make me become aroused with temptation. i just recently finished "the goose girl" by shannon hale. gay title, but it fits perfectly, amazing, lovely, weird, plot fulfilling. this made me finally realize i like to read again, and i found books that honestly could keep me turning pages all day. like the one i got today, it's a love story broken up into 3 parts, set in the peasant-nobleman ages. it's from a girl's point of view (zel), her overprotective sort of physco mother, and her lover. it's pretty scandalous, apparently she gets locked inside some tower and her mother goes all SHE WILL ALWAYS BE MY DAUGHTER! and the boy's feels that he's the only normal one and decides to save her from her mother whose falling apart. baha, then i took some random book off the shelf with cool pictures, it's a series about people who steal dreams. so i took the first two.

this all could just be part of my pmsing process, where i crave just supernatural stuff. but what's more supernatural then crazy normal people with stupendous powers? i hope this isn't the pregnant girl inside of me taking over, seriously.

I'm still blogging in my head every day.  If I had a brain machine that would type into the computer the things that I think to this blog while I'm doing other things, you could read a post every day.  Fewer pictures though.  And it would be really creepy.  I'm glad I don't have a brain machine.

Don't have a lot of time for fibre just lately either, alas.  I have been spinning a little - a border collie/blackface blend that I made out of these bags and bags of dog hair I got a while ago.

It's very very soft, and felts like a dream (if you dream of felting, which I personally don't).  I think it is going to be some lace, because although I am also massively behind on blog reading, I can't help but notice that Jen has been cranking out quite the stack of jealous-making lace things lately, and I want to knit the Luna moth shawl. Which by the way is totally impractical for me, and I'm crazy to want to do it because it will be snagged and ruined within moments I'm sure.  But I want to anyway. So since it's taking me so silly long to spin the stuff in the little snatches of time I've had lately, I'm going to spin it and the just look at it for a while and see if there's anything else it would rather be.

What's mostly been keeping me busy is this 'farm' thing.  I am by the way still using the word 'farm'; even though I philosophically agree with the 'homestead' linguistic, the word itself doesn't have any resonance for me.  I don't know if that's a Canadian thing, or just personal.  But I'm used to calling the [evil] big industrial farms 'factory farming' and/or in the case of the massive soy fields around here 'cash cropping' and we don't have any of that, we've just got some chickens and sheep and a garden.  And a goose.  Around here we'd probably be called a 'hobby farm', and I hate that description - this is definitely, whatever else it may be not a hobby.  Whatever you prefer to call it, the advent of the sheep last fall definitely marked a major change in the seriousness with which I have to approach the whole livestock rearing thing.  We've also started selling eggs, because only friends were willing to take them for free - even when 'free' really meant 'in exchange for the random bags of wheat you leave by the mailbox' or 'as a thank you for plowing my driveway'.  So I put up a sign, and by some weird small-town speed-of-light gossip thing, people who never even drive down my road instantly knew that we had eggs.  Now the chickens are self-supporting, and I don't have a fridge full of too many eggs.  Good deal.

Also as a result of my egg sign, someone dropped off two incubators that they'd been looking to get rid of, as they have no chickens and these things were taking up space they would prefer to use for lawnmowers and things that they do have.  This is so many shades of cool.  First, I have very much been wanting to try hatching eggs myself, but y'know, sitting on them for a month seemed impractical, and I have no warm feathers.  My first choice is of course to let the hens do it themselves, but nobody has shown an inclination so far this year, and anyway I need to increase the flock at a somewhat higher rate than the one-and-two chicks per hen that we've had so far.  (Really I should let Patches live and run two cocks.  He's nice enough, he's just kind of a wuss.)  So I've got some eggs in an incubator and we'll see if anything hatches.

But just having an incubator turn up on my doorstep is not the coolest bit (although it is very nifty) - the coolest bit is this:

Two of 'em!  Aren't they gorgeous?  They're Buckeye "standards", which I found listed in a trade manual from 1913 - by the 20s they were making them in cast iron, so they're definitely from around that time.  They belonged to the grandmother of the ex-husband of the woman who dropped them off.  Her dad says his mother had one just like them also.  One of them is converted to run off a light bulb, or either one of them could be run off of the original lamps.  They even came with the manual, which is some great reading, let me tell you!

Another thing that has been keeping me out of trouble and away from the knitting is - pretty floors.  You may or may not remember when I did the bedroom last year, and the only thing I couldn't do anything about was the plywood floor?  Well, we've had a pile of scavanged wood sitting in our front room since sometime after Christmas, and we finally laid a floor in the bedroom.

Ain't that just a mighty big improvement over paint-speckled plywood?  But that's not all, folks!  There was, as it turned out, a LOT of wood piled in my front room.  (People who have been here and had to sort of climb over it will verify this.)  So we managed to put a floor on the front porch as well!

As you may have noticed, I spend a lot of time on my front porch.  We both do.  It's warm on sunny days in winter, because Raven enclosed it with glass doors.  The animals like to sit in the doorways and get sun and breeze.  It's a nice place to work on things.  It's also an easy place to let a pile of crap build up, and since we had this old chunk of carpeting on the floor to block drafts, it got pretty gross, between us tracking in mud, and Phil sleeping there lately... ew.  And of course it's the first thing people see when they come in, and it looks so junky - actually I think "junky" is almost complimentary sometimes.  It was pretty bad.  I have a 'before' picture somewhere, but I don't even want to show you.  Ick.

But here it is now!

Only about a million times nicer, and easier to clean too.

Ok, you've stayed with me this long, (or you haven't, and you're just skimming down for goose pictures.)  Either way, here's Phil at eight weeks:

You will notice that he's wearing a sling.  When his feathers started coming in, one of his wings was very wonky.  Looked almost as if he'd broken it, except of course he hadn't - 'cos you know, being as he was with us all the time, we would have noticed.  Also, he wasn't in any pain, he just had this crazy floppy wing.

See?  (Also, you can see some of the gross carpet.)  Anyway, we were worried that he wasn't going to  be able to fly, and also that it was going to hurt his social life when he got older and interested in dating - because you know what teenagers can be like, they make fun of you if you're 'different'.  Well, after a morning spent on the telephone trying to find an actual person involved in animal rescue/natural resources, which division of government around here is apparently run by ansa-phones, I found a nice lady who explained that this is a growth thing caused by a high protein diet (so much for 'he needs lots of protein', which by the way came from the same source as 'he's a duck') and it happens in the wild too, so we didn't have to feel bad - but we should tie up his wing into the correct position and keep it there while he finishes growing.  So Phil has a sling.  He can still flap his wings, he just can't extend the "wrist" bit on one side, but he can reach to preen his feathers, which he couldn't before.

Here's another cute picture from about three weeks, just to show how fast the little fella has been growing:  (And to make sure you are well sated with cute birdie pics before I sign off!)

I admit it. I didn’t really like dance music or electronic music before I got into the New Alternative. Growing up a little rocker kid I was always a fan of actual songs with catchy hooks, distinct lyrics, strong melodies… not these seemingly boring, repetitive things called DJ mixes and / or VIP tunes. If you wanted something to hit you right, you put on the Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Bush - Everything Zen. The Offspring - Self Esteem. Radiohead - Paranoid Android. But times changed. 9/11 killed all of us a little bit inside, and it metaphorically laid the seeds for the creation of a new musical aesthetic, of the New Alternative.

Woodstock 99 inaugurated the era of caricatures of the original energy of 90s grunge and hip hop, Creed-esque rock, Nu-Metal and Gangsta Rap. Of course there were different trends there too, but these have been the predominant trends in our culture as the Billboard charts have historically shown. Pearl Jam derivatives developed into Creed and now Nickelback and crew. Tupac and Biggie gave rise to a whole culture of rapper imitations. But like the history books show, there have always been other trends there too.

Outside of their similar sheer noisy dissonance, Korn sounded nothing like Nirvana. It hit at a chord in the public that resonated. People felt the pain underneath the feel good 90s. The extramarital affairs of our drinking, drugged out parents hurt us deeply. So did presidential terms engulfed in sex scandals. Our country became a little less innocent and alot more emo. But emo didn’t come out of the blue. The Cure and the Smith’s were popular in the 80s, but the 90s wasn’t about that same sense of self absorption, it was more about punching reality in the face, just listen to any Rage Against the Machine album and you know what I mean.

But like all things, the hippest trends are usually derived by something that is at least 20 years old, and we see at the dawn of the 2000’s a resurgence of interest in the 80s. The Killers, the Bravery, the Faint, Coheed and Cambria sounding like a carbon copy of Geddy Lee (yet totally different), jangly nu-brit rock bands like the Strokes, the Hives, etc; the rediscovery of the Gang of Four and the bands inspired by them such as Bloc Party, We are Scientists, etc, and groups like Fischerspooner bringing back the sequenced sounds of 80s electro into their classic album, Odyssey.

Isn't it appropriate that at the dawn of the 2010's we see the development of a new music that takes it's energy and inspiration, in my mind at least, from the sheer violence and electricity of the 90s. Straight up, no chaser here, Trent Reznor and his music was phenomenally ahead of it's time. Say what you will about the lyrics; his use of sequencing electronic instruments, layering distorted sounds versus clear / basic sounds, and his strong DIY ethic is, to my mind, the driving, inspirational energy that propels the creation of this new electronic alternative music.

Nine Inch Nails, in it's early incarnation, took the trends of electronic music and brought them together into a cohesive, pop-oriented music focused towards a mass audience. It had raw sexuality, pop melody writing, and shocking, stunning noise. Similarly, the new alternative, which saw it's first salvo occur with groups like Justice, Digitalism, Boys Noize, et al, has the same sense of electricity. Just listen to Waters of Nazareth and you can hear the beginnings of a raw, bloody, jarring, convulsing sound, which has since grown into a large array of styles which we at Straight No Chasa conveniently call New Alternative ( for simplicitie's sake)

Of course, there is another set of trends that totally underlie the growth of this new music, namely that aforementioned 'boring' dance music which I didn't grow to appreciate till recently. The origins of House, Detroit Techno, and more importantly, Drum n Bass, gave rise to the techniques and mindset which provides the philosophical and technical foundation for making this new type of music. But that is something which would require a whole entire other set of posts to elucidate. The point here is simply this, the New Alternative isn't about emotions, it's about fucking dancing. It's about punching reality in the face, just like NIN, just like the 90's.

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Appropriately, I gather that people expect that on these new types of blogs that there should be music posted on here to satisfy a need to actually HEAR that of which we so passionately seek, read about, and oh yes, listen to. So without further ado, here are Straight No Chasa's selects from the last few days (and boy they're that good this week.)

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First up on our hitlist from great tunes to grace our emailbox from this week, a huge remix from up-coming and unknown, to us at least to now, producer Meterhead from LA. Their remix of Busta Rhymes' song Get Down is absolutely off the hook. From it's huge fidget step bass line, whateva that means, to its fucking hot use of Busta's rappin, this remix is absolutely and uberly hot. I wanna hear that motherfucka say... DL this shit cuz it be blowin up.

Busta Rhymes - Get Down (Meterhead Westside Remix)

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Lots of tunes run across the blogosphere gracing the covers of the best blogs out there, but few are as hugely rocking as this Crookers remix. Sure you've heard it everywhere already, but here is the best quality mp3 I've heard of this tune to come out yet from one of my favoritest other blogs out there at the moment, You Can Call Me Pelski. Check it, Rock it, Buy it!

Busy P - To Protect and Entertain (Crookers Remix)

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They might not be Daft Punk, but Romulus and Remus wrote what is one of the hardest banger tunes that I've heard in a good while. Wait till it hits around 1:00 into the mix: it's a huge party rocker that is definitely hip and legit. They haven't got much press but they seem to be friends with the very cool Trashbagskids Blog from that land down under. Look into them both!

Romulus and Remus - Rar

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Corporate America seems to be taking a liking to new hip, alternative stuff. Look at the recent Scion sponsered IHEARTCOMIX Mix. Nike here apparently sponsored the awesome group Goose in creating a new tune to run too. I'm not exactly sure if I would run to electro, but I would definitely take this tune and mix it into my live sets to create complete, utter, awesome chaosness. Buy it now!

Goose - Original Run (Nike Commission)

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I heard on NBC the other night that Brazil's commodities market is booming, as is the rest of their economy. Other than that news, or from Marky, I don't know of much other stuff happening in that large place known as Brazil. Thank the lord I recently discovered young fellow alt-dudes from Sao Paolo, Database. Here's a distorted, discofied remix of Scenario Rock's, Both Gotta Move On. Exciting, propulsive, Electro-DJ-friendly Sweetness.

Scenario Rock - Both Gotta Move On (Database Remix)

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And last but hardly least, here is a great remix of some dude known as Usher. Taking the basic structure of the original tune, Morsy's remix clubifies it into a hot, poppin' mix. This is one of those remixes where the words 'tasteful adjustment' are quite appropriate. This tune is very similar to the original, yet at the same time, it's not. It has a huge, extroverted dancefloor sensibility the original lacks. I love it, let's bang.

Usher - Love in this Club (Morsy Remix)

 The white guy was swimming around with the ducks late this afternoon.   They were at the far end of the creek so this is as good a picture as I could get.  I went through two bird books and the only thing that matched the beak was a Mute Swan.  I went through all the goose, duck, gull and shore birds since we are only 30 minutes from the ocean.  As you can see, it is about the same size as the Mallards.  See how much smaller it is than the Canada Goose?  That long yellow beak with the black at the base makes me wonder.  Is it a youngster?  I was hoping it would come down the creek forward me, but it headed out to the river.

I'm still laughing at the story my Lil told about the kid who admired Big Baby's "muscles." Maybe that's what I should start calling my fleshier spots... :)

Friday we headed to Goose's Future Wife's house for a 4th of July party. Lots of fun was had by all. And maybe a few of the adults, maybe even the one writing this post, had a little too much fun... and maybe even got a little sick in every single bathroom of the house... Well, maybe...

Goose especially loved playing in the water table. And, yeah, he stuck his whole head in there!

Here's the Geek looking awfully festive in a fancy, blinged-out patriotic tie!

Later that night, our friends broke out a karaoke game, which quickly became the focal point of the party. Sadly, the photos of Yours Truly at the mike got deleted somehow. The following movie, from the next morning, survived...

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4388928290032105482&hl=en]

That's Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" that the guys are singing (badly!). [And go me for figuring out how to post a video--woo-hoo!]

We finished off the long weekend back at home. Goose and the Geek stole picked blueberries from our Favorite Neighbor's yard to make pancakes.

Finally, Mueller left us a gift to cap off a wonderful holiday weekend...

And it turns out that several of his friends are, too. My friend J traced the sickness back to a birthday party we all attended on Saturday. The kids had a blast--the parents did, too!--and they all played and sweated in a huge, inflatable bounce house. Hence, the Bounce House Bug or BHB, for short.

Oddly enough, Goose's illness didn't stop him from trying some of the Geek's bizarre Vietnamese loaf. I swear the nasty stuff could spawn some form of BHB all by itself. But Goose gobbled it up... much to the Geek's delight.

Isn't the above picture the perfect illustration of why his codename is the Geek? :)

Enough said...

We met a Beanie look-alike at the Park on Friday. Her name is Bailey, and she's half Chihuahua and half Boston Terrier. And Goose could not get enough of her! He lost interest in the playground equipment and just wanted to sit by her. Thankfully, she and her human Mom were kind enough to indulge Goose. It was a nice prelude to the real Beanie's visit for the weekend.

Who else would save the environment?

It was bound to happen eventually that the Sabres would re-sign Paulie, but now there's no worry about other teams making offers to try to be a-holes.  Haha, in your face, dumb people.  For all I know the Lightning could have been madly plotting to lure him to Tampa Bay with a bag of bread or crackers or something.  Well he has all the bags of bread and crackers he wants in Buffalo and that's where he will be staying.  So remember to give a honk for Goose today!