BeaucoupKevin(dot)com. BlogMachineGo.

It's raining fiercely outside. I've got the Miles Davis and John Coltrane: The Complete Columbia Recordings box set on shuffle-play. Magic Hat's #9 is resting next to my hand, within easy drinking distance.

Life could be worse.

Aaron's putting figures on a shelf here at the shop. Comments about the Zombie Charles Schulz eating his brain have been stated.

The library was productive - I found two books of interest - the new Hunter S. Thompson memoir, and Dragon Hunter, which is not fantasy at all.

I am at the Boston Public Library. The guy next to me is looking at "German" porn. Oh yeah, that's appropriate.

(PS> Courtney needs to update her blog.)

I found old issues of Skrull Kill Krew at the shop. Oh lordy, it's...something. That's the only way to describe it.

Earlier today, I was at Cheapo Records in Cambridge and spotted a copy of The Brady Bunch's greatest hits on CD for $1. Yeah, I had to buy it. I also purchased other, less insipid, recordings at the same time, but I'm too busy grooving to "Keep On" to care.

So, I lost my shiny new job.

Blah blah blah, call volume down, most recent hire, blah blah blah.

Already have another interview lined up, though. Huh.

Pal David loaned me a stack of jazz books, including the most excellent Setting The Tempo: Fifty Years of Great Jazz Liner Notes. Thanks to this bit of altruism on his part, I have a list of about twenty recordings I need to get, including some from people I have never come across before.

I got my retail on today and picked up a copy of Spirited Away at Best Buy. God, I hate the mall. I hate the smell of Cinnabon and perfume counters clashing. I hate the teenage "thugs" that hang out, looking moody when they should be in algebra. I hate the same blank look on every retail associate's face. I did, however, really like the price for the DVD - $17.99. And the slice of pizza I got from Sbarro wasn't the most agonizing thing ever, oddly enough. I do know that it's going to all end up being gross-tastic for me in a while, though. Mall food does that to me.

AV was nice enough to let me borrow a big stack of Neon Genesis Evangelion on DVD - I watched the first four episodes last night. Holy shit - talk about good. I always dismissed this as Otaku Giant Robot Crap and I really, really, really regret that now. Some of the images in the second episode are still messing with me, 12 hours later.

Just when I didn't need anything else to read, I discovered the Lemony Snicket series of children's books. Funny, knowing, and easy-to-digest, this is everything I've wanted in fiction but haven't found outside of a few writers. It feels like it's championing the spirit of Edward Gorey and I quite like that.

(Kristin, my much better half, knows someone who knew Mr. Gorey quite well and apparently, he was the Nicest Guy On The Planet. Go figure. He feeds children to bears in print, but helps you unload your groceries in real life.)

Josh: This customer just said "200 minutes? Isn't that two hours?"
Matt: Maybe if you use metric time.
Me: You can only use metric time if you're an astronaut, though.
Josh: So, I should ask if this guy's an astronaut?

Yeah, this is a fine workplace.

So, Comics Not-Quite-Great-But-Still-Pretty-Cool Peter David was at the shop tonight. I had him sign an old issue of DC's Star Trek for me because it was one of the first books I bought on a regular basis and I loved what he did with the supporting cast established by previous writers. Very, very nice man - we've got a customer nicknamed "The Jawa" that he signed a Hulk toy for. The Jawa loves The Hulk. Loves. Loves. Loves. The Hulk.

Anyway, PAD mentioned that he's no longer on Marvel's comp list and actually has to buy recent stuff. That made me sort of sad.

I've not listened to Aphex Twin's 26 Mixes for Cash, but I have the distinct feeling it was worth the $14 I paid for it last night. I mean, the reason you listen to an RDJ version of a track is not to hear his "interpretation" of the original material, but to check out what strange and wonderful noises he's come up with in the studio. There's always the Lemonheads Remix story to consider when you see he's done something to someone else's work.

(If you don't know, Mr. James was commissioned to do a remix of a Lemonheads track when his coolness was being fawned upon by the record companies. He forgot about it until the courier was at his door. He grabbed a DAT with an all-new track he'd not even finished mixing down and shoved it into the courier's hands.)

I also found the cd-single for Yoko Ono's "Walking On Thin Ice" and it's...interesting. I'm not sure what I think of it yet, but it's...interesting.

This is important, so look at it.

This song gets stuck in my head for like, days at a time; that irks me - my general loathing for Mick Hucknall and his Simply Red band is well known among certain circles. A few weeks ago, I actually bought the single, as the Rollo and Sister Bliss remix is one of the most excellent dance tracks ever. I filed it under "Faithless" in the CD collection so I'd not have to start a Simply Red section.

You need to visit this site:

It's official:

I fucking hate The White Stripes.

Jack White can't sing, the playing seems to be inspired by a spastic colon, and goddammit, they are just not that clever. Who decided they were cool, or "deck" as that stupid online quiz puts it?

PS> Nobody gave me the memo on Lisa Marie, either. First she makes Nic Cage sell his comic collection and now she records an album of bad, Shania Twain-like crap country? Good lord. What is this world coming to?

This morning, I finished the new Avengers Korvac Saga trade paperback and while the story has some great setpieces and a powerful conclusion, it's burdened down with typical 70's Marvel-styled thrashing about with a convoluted plot. I figure this is what inspired Busiek's insipid, overly long Kang "saga" that really, really, really stank.

I attempted to read Hannibal over the last couple of days and hit a roadblock - I glanced at the last few pages, and upon discovering the final fates of Starling and Dr. Lecter by glancing at a single sentence, I got disgusted and tossed the book in the "To Be Returned To Goodwill" pile. Good god, how ghoulish and unnecessary. The degradation of Starling's character by that point would only make me angry, as I admire her strength in the film and text versions of Silence Of The Lambs. I suppose I won't bother with the film at all, now. (Yes, it takes me a while to get to these things - it's not like they change between the time they're released at the time I get around to them.)

I loathe the new Kyocera 7135 SmartPhone. It's the biggest pain in my new job, as people A) want it right now, dammit and B) Verizon seems determined to piss of their customers concerning the phone's price and activation procedures.

I watched Signs last night and had the Jesus scared out of me. It touched on some of my primordial monkey-gland-based fears I've had since seeing Close Encounters Of The Third Kind when I was way, way too young for that sort of thing. I still prefer Unbreakable over Shamalyan's other films, but they all seem to grab me in a new, unique way. He's also such a nice fellow in all of the supplementary material, too.

Dave secured three great CDs for me on the cheap at a Newbury location I don't stop by very often. Miles Davis's Volume One on Blue Note, Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage (which I like quite a lot, as it's not "funky" wank stuff that bores the piss out of me), and the very nice We Play Requests: The Oscar Peterson Trio, where they play, well, their favorite requested tunes. Nice stuff.

Last night, I finally got around to watching Brotherhood Of The Wolf and my pal Doug was right - the damned movie has everything you'd need to make a subtitled film exciting to even the most mundane of person. Conspiracties, incest, giant creatures, awesome martial arts, kinky camera work, and Monica Belluci.

Newbury Comics had stuff I needed on sale. I picked up The Beatles' Abbey Road CD (don't look shocked - I like them, but it's been years of getting over bad classic rock flogging them into the ground and Law-ra's guidance in the matter to discover anything they did besides Sgt. Pepper), the new Miss Kittin DJ mix, and Rost Pocks - the Mouse On Mars EP collection. I also spotted an import version of the last band's Niun Nugging LP, but didn't have the dosh to spend on that, or the new Aphex Twin remix collection. Soon, when I have cash, they will be mine, my pretties.

Coming into the shop today, it appears that Carl and Mike had fun. There were bone sacraments strewn about, Spongebob Squarepants hanging upside down from the ceiling, a sign saying "Redrum" in the hands of one of our many Lon-Chaney-As-Wolfman figures, and empty beer bottles.

Yeah, I laughed pretty hard at that.

I was flipping channels last night and came across Entertainment Tonight, which showed the current American Idol finalists signing "God Bless The USA" by Lee Greenwood.

I wonder if my rental insurance includes Elvis-style television restructuring.

Carl Cox, Live At The Complex. It's only available on a free CD that came with DJ magazine in 96 or 97.

He starts with "Born Slippy.nuxx" and it gets harder from there. Yeah, it's good. Really good.

YOU WILL KNEEL, JOR-EL!

God, that cracks me up.

OK, that's it. I've learned my lesson.

Ron says "Hey, I'm going to Friday's" - anybody want something?

I look out the window and say "Well, better him than me" and ask him to pick me up a Gardenburger.

Bad idea. I hate chains and Gardenburger makes one of the least palatable fake foods I can think of.

So now, I just eat the wilted salad with ranch (ack!) dressing and think about all the ingredients for good food under my desk that I can't utilize while at work. I went to Haymarket and got asparagus, green beans, lemons, peppers, and some very nice dry cheddar. Surely I could whip something up with those. Dammit.

I am at the new job and so far it's OK.

I am overly excited about Bulletproof Monk, even though I doubt it will be very good at all. Chow Yun Fat looks like he's having great fun in the trailers.

And, oh happy day, look what I found - the unofficial Glengarry Glen Ross site, where you can geek out over the best movie about salespeople without the words "Death Of A" in the title. Highlights of this little bit of webdom include links where you can read the dialogue for scenes and the banners linked to the DVD's site - I especially like the "meet your agent" one.

Saturday, April 26, 2003

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Monday, April 21, 2003

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Monday, April 14, 2003

Saturday, April 12, 2003

Friday, April 11, 2003

Thursday, April 10, 2003

Wednesday, April 09, 2003

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

Sunday, April 06, 2003

Saturday, April 05, 2003

Friday, April 04, 2003

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Ego.

Contact.

Feeds.

My Webcomics.

My Print Comics.

Other Projects.

Links To Right-Minded People.

Music.

Comics Blogs.

Genius.

Affiliations.

Archives.