cleaning my ears....

i finally decided on an ear cleaning product. i decided i am too much of a wuss to use those ear candles. i went with the drops and squeegee thing. it all went great until i forgot to test the temperature of the water i squirted in my ear.

that is when they brought the pain. it was incredible.

may you never experience comparable pain.

there should be state-sponsored bat mitzvahs...

for all educators with personal debt. check out this story.

for the most part this girl and her dad have horrible taste. they probably could have got the mountain goats for a bargain.

$ $ $ $ $

speaking of "arrow-smith", as my aunt would say, they suck. feel free to leave comments about what else sucks.

I will start the list (again):

- children who don't claim responsibility for their actions because of their inept, worthless parents

- anything that has been in the freezer too long

boring boring

check out the Huffington Post.

i need to go somewhere in february for a week but i need to find something cheap and worthwhile.
i also need to get some photos enlarged, bills payed, papers graded, and pages read.

electronics make me want endless amounts of cash - that new lg phone is crazy.

my muttology

Maternal
nellie mccormick - tipparary, ireland
joseph roeder - german
stephan mach - austria, hungary
vincentia "winnie" moravec (1893) - bratislava, slovakia

Paternal
david morrison - irish or scottish
anna ryan - irish
frank massar - slovakia
anna nei - slovokia



painting by Anne Neely

Happy Thanksgiving

from your local wax turkey, pilgrim and indian association.

from your local candelilla crafted poultry, early anglo-settler, native american association.

random coincidence? check it out

Habitat 67

my path to discovery:

i love those buildings across the river from old montreal
i wonder what they are

i google earth old montreal
find the street and then straight-up google
the street and "building"

there it is... habitat 67 - built for the expo, ran out of money, internal cables, patios and architectural magazines.

flearse?

I had a day full of sub-dued wonder. Go check out my new account at flickr

mugs - for the love of spanish nectarines.

records
books
cds
cups
mugs
placemats
coasters
clothes
coats
scott lafaro playing endlessly in any room. always.

scarfs
hats
caps
and bags

blankets
shoes
toys
and
indigestion

tight necks
loose keys

sportscoats
and
sweaters
and
dvds

pillows
plants
and many wires

money
drinks
and old candles

paintings
photos
magazines

dust
and
light

onwardly focused capacties
unopened bottles of decent white wine
cascading stairways and vines
remote controls

new growth
and
dead leaves

electronic beats
and
droaning strings
with patient melodies

Friday.

what a week
left me weak
and meak

ragtime pianos
quittin' time
constant waves

the highlight of my day...

.....is always a new mountain goats show up at archive. is there anything better?

today was the honor roll assembly. I am pumped because a half hour before the festivities about ten of the kids were listening to masters of war and hattie carrol in my class. most of them have never heard someone sing truths before. you can tell because they sit glued to their lyrics - they stop talking and look shocked. i lifted my eyes from the paper after the last verse of masters of war and there were ten hands up.

we talked about power, bush, our grandparents, policy makers, soldiers, the unborn... i am glad that some of them get to hear dylan sing about things i know they have been thinking - questioning - feeling. that is a comforting thing at certain ages.

for me, later on , it became depressing because no matter how many people i met that had similar ideals and beliefs... they were never - screamed out, force-fed and commercialized.

that is changing though.


this has been as exercise in vague meaningless generalities. thanks for your time enjoy this recent version of international small arms traffic blues

song courtesy of www.archive.org

glengarry glen loss

so. the music in the production of glengarry glen ross at the waterfront theater is borderline despicable. (the play itself was incredible)

seriously, the amount of effort the cast puts into the dialogue and majesty of this play is nearly sqaundered by the bad-porn style music in between scenes - the finale of which, was that horrid song "money money money eeeeeeehh money" - (i think they use it on the apprentice). horrible! outrageous!

a random sampling of the music on my ipod produced three superior tracks in less than ten attempts (on random). they were:

dc 3000 - by the thievery corporation (by no means a good song)
gloria's step - bill evans trio (with scott lafaro).....enjoy the song
iron man - four tet

these were random plays and they all fit well. this made me think that perhaps i have a hidden talent. i quickly dismissed that, realizing my talents have nothing to with theater or the thievery corporation.

the plant pictured above is some kind of herb - like mexican parsley? not that that even exists. it thrives in out house though and the little piece i cut off is strong and beautiful.

have a fantastic day - if a plant that does not exist can - you can too!



my cousin just sent me this:

from here:

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com

oh, nikita you'll never know...

the show last night (see previous post) was fantastic. about halfway through the couple sitting next me, about five glasses of white wine later, asked me what brought me to the show. i said i had heard about the bands and did not want to regret not going later on.

their response made them the coolest parents on earth. apparently, their son left an arcade fire cd in their car and they both fell in love with it. the dad was a huge bowie and cure fan so... i guess it makes sense.

this event highlights the fact that my parents (as cool as my mom has become and despite my fathers love of willie nelson) completely sheltered me from the american reality. no beatles, no dylan, no led zepplin definitely no stones, bowie or good elton john.... plently of nikita to go around though.

anyway. the show was beautiful and their drummer, stef, is really fun to watch. he is an excellent drummer. they were a really happy band considering their songs are so complex emotionally.

the other news of the evening is that i met a guy that work for st. mike's radio station. while not the largest or hippest station around, he did offer me to cover his jazz slots on wednesday from time to time. i would love that opportunity.

another way to put that would be - i will rock that mo'fo' out pretty hard.

turn the music in the headphones...

great things have for $16

there are some fantastic things happening in the next few days...

glengarry glen ross is playing at the new waterfront theater in burlington for the next two weeks. i just got tickets to the matinee tomorrow. can't wait - i wanted to go down to see it new york a few months ago but did not get the chance. perfect first trip to the new theater.

also tonight the bell orchestre and clogs are playing at the flynn. i have elected to not listen to what they sound like and just go for it. they are playing maxwell's in hoboken so the flynn should make them happy.




remember everyday to acknowledge the importance fruit preserves.
they're delicious!

'Sup Breau?

click on this picture because
"whoa" rhymes with "breau"

i picked up the lenny breau cd i ordered from pure pop - a.k.a. the bunch of lamos i am stuck buying cd's from for the next four years.

something is missing from that store - of course they have the usual indienst obnoxious attitude but it's something else.... it just sucks. maybe it is that they have never heard of the cds and magazines i request until i find them in their racks six months later. bitches.


anyway lenny breau. get a lenny breau cd. get this one. levon helm plays drums and rick danko plays the bass - it was recorded in 1961 before the band, dylan or anything else.

he died a few years later which is horrible like scott lafaro (absolutely inaccurate). imagine scott lafaro and lenny breau recording together? god.

(apparently i am a moron. he was killed in 1984 - like strangled! the bastards!)

anyway, the record is beautiful.

listen to/download this track as proof of your new found need: mearse

the nine minute snooze...

i just realized how rediculous it is. was it the outcome of a meeting or the continuation of an industry standard?

not an actual transcript from said meeting:

Harvey: So the snooze, how long should it last?

Don: Well, the GE models all go with seven minutes...

Roger: Why not ten?

Sue: Our surveys and polling - well, the research - shows people like less than ten more than five.

Harvey: There you have GE's seven.

Don: Let's go with nine minutes... three squared is nine... and three is the magic number.


anyway... you snooze you lose.

finckle and einhorn...einhorn and finckle

brownback
dubious
cramhammer


faltering
sanctity
and
moderation


what inhabits my core?

prayers and tears (part two)

beauty

i just got the prayers and tears of arthur digby sellers record in the mail. the woman at their label wrote me an email last week to tell me she found a copy floating around in her office. what does that even mean?

anywho. the record is fantastic. i can't wait to listen to a few times. the lyrics, song structures and recording are very pleasing to my senses.

the dylan class went well today. we watched some interviews and then listened to "hard rain". the students favorite lines were:

Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
one of them told me they thought the class would be boring but she thought he was fascinating. he is. she's right. she's 12. thank god.

beauty

pay for soup - build a fort - set that on fire
-jmb

Wait, There's More...

Plants in non-aerated pots rot! When will I learn?

Paul Weller can't afford to come to America.
Smooth Jazz musicians want to prove themselves to skeptics.
Movie Soundtracks don't have any of the score in the movie on them.
Simply Red doesn't like that people call his soul "Blue Eyed Soul".

All this and more on last week's edition of NPR Music. Subsribe here.

Errand Boy (a.k.a. "Bob Boyland is my hero")

the errand boy bought two dvds, two eggs with rye toast, a frame, photo enlargements, two cheeseburgers, fries, a medium coke, and a car wash today.

the all songs considered podcast is so great! imagine having this guy's job? it makes my head spin.

i wonder how much he gets paid... not that it matters - his music collection is free for the most part.

you should go get it here

"gleefully phonetic"

Bob Dylan 101... for middle schoolers

i start teaching my bob dylan class on monday. i am pretty excited because i have not really listened to him in about a year and half... not really anyway.

so far i have selected about 45 songs and this weekend i am going to look for pictures, video, magazine covers, and newspaper articles from the months and weeks the songs were recorded. i am going to try to place them in historical setting.

all this despite that fact that most students will not get it or end-up dreading walking through the doors. that's alright, it's life and life only.




the picture is from here

The Licker

moonyi is a licker. he licks everything.

mostly he licks his left paw. he also licks dead things, turd, and then, of course, us.

however, as is evident, he is the cutest thing on the planet... as least as far as not-so-miniature miniature schnauzers go.

Did you ever notice....

...how you can't have more than a few good days in row?

...how other people make your problems seem miniscule?

...how bureaucracy clogs the halls of reason and common sense?

...how bitter the reality of having a scratchy throat and runny nose are on an exceptionally beautiful day?

...how much of a commitment to winter daylight savings time really is?

...how many ingredients actually are in lasagna?

well....

I figure you probably have.