Garden Of Blog

"The Best of CozmiKast" straight from our friends at Spinning Vortex Studios! Starring a broad cast of characters including: DJ Darth Hucklebuck (and various other Hucklebucks), Jessica Del Greco, Abby Del Greco, RAMrozi, Funkfoot, Steve Allen, Black Hoxie, CJ, Skip Hirtle, Kirk Remignanti, The Rhythm Ship, Katie Mae Produced by Spinning Vortex Studios (Hoxie and CJ) down on beautiful Cape Cod!! CozmiKast is an uncensored, collaborative art project. Content may be hazardous to something or other.

This is a great song for the working man by Frank Black:

Chip Away Boy

It reminds me of programming, which is my work, and probably most every other kind of work. Try to get your hands on it, from the “Black Letter Days” album. Limewire it or something.

Also on that album is “Cold Heart of Stone” which is so Rolling Stones, it’s uncanny. Not only does it borrow from “Heart of Stone” (which is a cliche anyhow), but when “winter blows through [Black’s] coat, chilly and cold” he’s brazenly channeling Mick Jagger singing “Angie”. And it’s great.

http://www.frankblack.net/

"Cheerios Kid" by Sykofant, "Ralph" by Oneside and "He Bought The Farm" by Marc Del Greco.

Check out this old tune of mine that RAMrozi and I hauled out and recorded. We did a demo of it for the RPM Challenge and later thickened out the horn arrangement and added backing vocals. Jamie from the Rhythm Ship substituted our machine beat with natural drums.

Good old Cozmik Corkscrew lives on. Hopefully soon we’ll get a visit from Black Hoxie, who is rumoured to be working on a “best of” CozmiKast’s 1st year!

Our friend Debby Applegate just came out with a book from Doubleday this year, The Most Famous Man In America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher.

Beecher is not so famous these days but most have heard of his sister Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

The book is nothing short of captivating.  This tale of the Reverand Beecher’s life, fraught with hardship and scandal, but also marked with the greatest of success, is the best depiction of man’s duality that I have ever read. 

I was struck by truth being stranger than fiction at several points in the book.  The timing of Beecher’s big speech in the South with Lincoln’s assassination is uncanny, and Debby structures the telling for maximum drama.  The most intriguing behaviour to me was that of Theodore Tilton, one of the men Beecher supposedly cuckholded.  You’ve got to read it.  The actions of these people are explained by their living in a nearly unimaginable social context, but Debby makes you imagine it.

One thing a parent can’t help but notice is the frequency of child death in 1800s America.  The Beechers lost several children.  I am humbled by people who have trudged on through loss after loss like that.  It is no wonder they thrashed about in search of dignity and joy.  It seems few modern people have any such excuse.

At any rate.  Thanks, Debby.  This book really affected me, not to mention, it’s a huge scholarly achievement that is bound to propel you into being “The Most Famous Historian In America”!

Amazingly, turning off comments within WordPress (setting wp_posts.comment_status to “closed” in the database) only affects the display of the comment form. Comments can still be submitted if the commentor or bot knows the comment URL and the correct parameters to submit.

So to totally fool WordPress spammers, do this:

1) Change the filename of wp-comments-post.php to something_spammers_dont_expect.php (or something more creative)

2) Alter the “action” value of the form tag in comments.php to point to whatever new filename you came up with in step #1.

Now all those bots can eat this: 404 Not Found.

Comments are open again on the site.

Note: you also might need to change the filename of wp-trackback.php… those damn bots were backdooring me through that too!

The Garden is getting hammered with pornographic comment spam, to the tune of 100+ garbage comments per day.  Bummer.  So, comments are closed on the site until I figure out some sort of spam-blocking solution.

"Superstar" by Scott O. Moore, "Wasted Youth" by Deathkorpz, "You Have To Be Joking (Autopsy of a Devil's Brain" by Jeremy Young, and the following recordings by The Sheep Fiends: "White Man" "Metamorphoses" "Overpopulation" "I Love America" "More Than Suicide"

Today I finally received my gold star on eBay.  That means I have 10 “positive feedback” points from 10 transactions, buying and selling, on their website.  It’s amazing how effective simple “attaboys” can be: Feedback Star Glossary

When I saw my star, I beamed.  What a child.

Now I want my blue star.

Yes, these are all comic book related materials I’m dealing in.  This is either a reaction to realizing my thirties, or I never grew up in the first place.

Boston

Tried to get a good pic of the lights on the Tobin Bridge. Failed.