Flamingos Dancing

Also, and this? (Beware of auto-audio if you click on the link)

A sign!

It truly was a sign from IDOT.

Carson's Last Stand

By any other name...

As a kid, I was a junkie for crap with my name on it. Pencils. Keychains. Stickers. I bet you were too. You know who you are. Michael. Jenny. Robert. The Ramonas, Quinns, and Apples of the world were usually out of luck.

Now we can all go nameless and let Starbucks define us. It's not the same as the rainbow shiny type on the back of my jersey tee in the second grade, but Starbucks is giving away tshirts with your personalized drink on it. You know who you are Grande Decaf XHot.

If that's not your cup of tea, let Miss Britney Spears send you a personalized fantasy. I'll warn you that she has a limited vocabulary for names though. You probably already knew that. She couldn't say Peaches, so I decided to go look for the shot glass with my name on it.

Good luck, Tall Skim Mocha Soy.

Nothing on the radio? Try Dollar Tree Radio Network.

Did you know there's such a beast as "Dollar Tree Radio Network"? I needed to buy marbles last week and wandered into the Dollar Tree that's in the strip mall next to my El stop. This is the same strip mall that contains the eye doctor's office where I once saw a very hung-over looking optometrist actually lifting the eye exam machine from the back of her dented mini-van as she swore like a sailor. Oh and there's also the Murray's Auto Parts Store with its toothy mascot -Then there's Dollar Tree and Dollar Tree Radio apparently. I'm struggling to figure out why the radio network that's pumped into all Dollar Tree stores both comforted and disturbed me all at once. I think the comforted part came from the fact that I am not a good bargain shopper. I'd like to be, but I just become overwhelmed until I can't decipher what's really a bargain, what's simply the giddiness associated with "just a dollar," and what's just crap. So the announcer anchoring me with "You're listening to Dollar Tree Radio" between Buddy Holly and Carly Simon was somewhat of a relief. A voice to guide me - kind of. Though there is the disturbing marketing scheme. They're reminding you around every shelf display that "everything's a dollar." It's the name of the store. Do you need a radio announcer too? It felt cult-like.

By the way, there were no marbles at Dollar Tree. Also, there's a strange amount of videos posted to YouTube that take place in Dollar Tree stores.

But wait, there's less!

Oswald Wang (sadly, me) has another remix uploaded to the WFMU Sixty Second Song Remix Contest! It's a minute's worth of "Ballroom Blitz" by The Sweet. You'll find it in Update 9 here:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/01/the_sixty_secon.html

Other favorites (since the last time) are:
People Like Us - 4:33 (John Cage)
Stephen McQuillen - Tell Me Quickly Do You Love Me (The Contours)
N - Hell O n You (Nina Simone)


This boy has had too many apples. Do you know this feeling?

Happy Valentine's Day

Last night on the elevator, the most tired man on earth bringing home 12 long-stemmed roses.

Bjorkdiddy

I feel so stupid laughing at somebody's animated gif. That, plus I'm laughing. Thanks to whoever made this.

oPossum Detail, 1 & 2

Below Zero and Ornery

Every morning this week, I've checked the temperature before scuttling off to the bus stop. It's not been above -1 yet. Somehow it feels like this is the one week you earn your bragging rights to being a Chicagoan for the rest of the year. 101 degrees, asphalt bubbling on the Michigan Avenue bridge, and people could still be boasting about making it through the Chicago winter.

People tolerate the cold for about 6 days I've found and then start to snap and frankly, completely lose it. It sunk to a whole new level on the bus this morning though. Bus was late, packed to the doors not shutting point, blah, blah, blah. We were all tolerating it, except the very last woman that squeezed her way on. She was complaining, a lot, loudly. I was sardined in next to "kissing couple." Every few minutes one or the other would peck his/her beloved, then swoon. I had counted 33 kisses about 40 minutes into the ride. Then, "Complaining Girl" tried to push past "Kissing Girl" and KG called CG an unsavory name. CG complained even louder, then waited until the next stop, pulled her arm back and hit KG square in the back of the head.

Mass *gasp* from the rest of the bus.

Then some other fed-up passengers pushed CG off the bus in a swell of collective frustration. Everyone had wanted to call CG the same unsavory name, but instead got to eject her from the bus that she had waited so long for to begin with.

Maybe it will be warmer next week. For now, we'll just keep earning our badges (except for CG who the rest of the bus decided doesn't get one).

Vista: Look, it's quite simple...

If you think you can do any better, go right ahead!

"Microsoft Vista is an upsell masquerading as an upgrade. It is an overall downgrade and regression. It is a ruse to compel the further transfer of control over peoples' computers to an external and mysterious certification authority with peculiar standards of “genuine”. It is a ploy to artificially motivate the purchase of expensive, unnecessary hardware."
– from BadVista.org

One Minute, Man

I've got a couple of remixes submitted to the WFMU Sixty Second Song Contest, one as myself and the other in my nom de guerre, Oswald Wang.

Have a listen, it'll only take a minute. Two, if you listen to both.

The Velvet Underground: "Rock And Roll"
The Beatles: "Magical Mystery Tour" LP

Other favorites (not mine):
"Super James"
"Take One"
"Purple"

COLD ROCKS

I went with my friend, Onny, to see the Camera Obscura/Essex Green show at the Logan Square Auditorium on Saturday. Shit, it was cold out. Logan Square is a no-smoking venue which was good for me and bad for Onny. Onny forgot his cigarettes, but desperately needed a smoke before the show. So, I went directly into the venue and Onny went on the hunt for cigarettes.

I heard someone by the ticket table say that there were only 30 tickets left. Pretty good for an eyeball-freezing night.

I had silkscreened some posters for the show and decided to give them to the merch table to sell. It was cool to see people purchase the poster and then run over to show it to their friends. Not that I hovered around the merch table much.



Onny finally arrived, two cigarettes down and freezing.

The Essex Green opened and I was pleasantly surprised. I had bought a couple of their albums years back and remembered them being very dreamy and wistful. I honestly hadn't put on their albums in a year or so. Their new songs seemed to have a tighter structure. Their sound on Saturday night bridged the gap between country, folk and 60's pop.

Here's "Don't Know Why (You Stay)" from their latest album, Cannibal Sea.

I enjoyed their set so much that I bought Cannibal Sea from the merch table at the show. That's the best way to support a band you like, I've been told. Bands only get $1 from a sale when you buy at Virgin or Amazon. I think they get $8 and up per cd sold at a show.

Camera Obscura, the band I came to see, both for their amazingly strong songs and for their adorable lead singer (Lillian Gish eyes, Scottish accent and pocket-sized frame), weren't as exciting. Their set was perhaps too soft and quiet for such a big room. They're known for the upbeat pop of their breakout single "Lloyd, Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?", but the last time they came around to the Empty Bottle I was really impressed with the intimacy and longing of songs like "Country Mile". I think they probably performed the songs the same way, but they didn't play out the same in the room.

I will say, however, that this time around I noticed how much their bass player contributes to their songs' melodies. He stood in the dark at the side of the stage and never looked up. Typical bass player.

What?!

Now You're Clean