Garden Of Blog

Loving it.

Hey Kirk… you probably don’t read this but…. let’s do this one. I’ll put it in our songbook.

It made me cry tonight. It’s so touching how George is singing to the unloved, encouraging them that ‘love comes to everyone’.

And I always thought those lines “something that’s never changing… something that’s never aging” were a pretty easy rhyme, nothing special, trite at worst. Another crappy pop song with a worn out theme. Not so, not so. George meant those. Think about it… “There in your heart…”

It also strikes me that the tune is recorded too slow on the album, as though something is on its way, but the wait is protracted. “It only takes time…”

Houston has introduced me to Psychostick, The Bloodhound Gang, and humorcore, a genre of music hitherto unknown to me but apparently coined by Psychostick (readers: correct me if wrong, this is 1 minute of Google research talking). The Urinal Mints, The Assholes, Insane Clown Posse and others turn up on a search for “humorcore” as well. I’d add The Bloodhound Gang, which I also heard first here in Houston.

Humorcore has, to me, a sharp ironic edge (exemplified in Psychostick’s “Beer!!!” and The Bloodhound Gang’s “New Vagina”) that I hope is not lost upon its 12 year old listeners, but likely is, and totally. Still, who cares. Mistakes are still for each of us to make, only later to appreciate the ironic art that depicts the same imbecilic behaviours.

I love discovering new music in new places. Larry Wall commented today how, growing up in the grid of Los Angeles, all of his childhood memories are paired with the cardinal direction he was facing at the moment, north, south, east or west. This reminded me of my geotagged musical memories.

Update: an alternative to “humorcore” is “tardcore”, which appears in the title of a Bloodhound Gang song. I believe this rather better captures the spirit of the genre.

Branden: from what I can tell, Psychostick is just harder edge speed metallic, although their “Orgasm = Love” is actually a ballad, which can only be described as having a haunting beauty. Check it out!!

Fans of CozmiKast have long suffered a lack of access to past episodes. Due to the disk space limit on our webhost, we can only offer between 5 and 10 of the latest shows for download at any given time.

The suffering has ended. Thanks to Tim, DynDNS.com, my D-Link router, Damn Small Linux and my old Compaq Armada 1700 that used to run Windows 95, the complete CozmiKast archive is now online. That’s right. All 39 episodes (by latest count) that you can’t get on cozmikast.com. They’re being served up from underneath my audio rack right here in the studio. [NOTE: you can get them on cozmikast.com actually, but they are being hosted from the Archive.]

The power fails often up here in Alton, NH, though, so if the archive is ever down, check back the next day. And thanks for listening to CozmiKast. I know it’s an effort sometimes.

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/

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!

Those of you who purchased tickets for Mindfest should have all received notes today regarding your refunds.  If anyone has been neglected, please let me know.

Check out Kirk and me, busking in Portsmouth: www.radionh.com

English is the second most prevalent language among blog posters internationally, Sifry said. Thirty-seven percent of postings are in Japanese; 31 percent in English.

THE TRUTH ABOUT BLOGGING / Lots of us do it, and it’s not political, according to study

Also, check out the Planet Japan podcast, a favorite of mine hosted by Amy and Doug.

Paul from Pun Salad loaned me Dylan’s collection for Victoria’s Secret, a project which has to be one of Bob’s most cryptic and mysterious gestures to date. Victoria’s Secret? They could not have been the only company that approached him last year. A guy like Dylan can choose carefully, and artists often make a game of this.

Victoria’s Secret. It is as though he is saying, “Here are a bunch of deep songs. But they’re basically about sex.”

Just continuing the tradition of reading way too much into Dylan’s every word and move.

But assuming he was saying something like that, this would be a jaded man with a sick sense of humour.

On the collection is a song I never listened to much, “Boots of Spanish Leather.” I never noticed what a total Part Two it is to “Girl From The North Country,” which would move me to tears consistently in high school and college. I’d usually start leaking around “… please see for me if she’s wearing a coat so warm…”

It could probably move me to tears now, if I would let it.

But I am just as jaded and hardened as old Bob these days. My feelings are apparently buried very deep, although I can articulate their ebb and flow. I am like a sports announcer commenting on the action down below.

A later tune of his on the collection: “Things Have Changed“. Yeah.

Also on the collection… one I’d like to learn: To Ramona. Might be singing that a lot. Maybe this whole thing is a journey back to feeling again, and once I do, it’ll be far too late. Then it’ll just be me and Bob again.

Billie Holiday rules. I was just listening to a CD of her and this tune came up. I couldn’t believe what she was singing, what she was saying. Looking for chords to the song, I noticed Eric Clapton had covered it, and omitted some of the most affecting lines.

I very much prefer the original, and not because I am in favor of domestic abuse, but for its perspective on privacy and the will to sacrifice all for love. The singer is saying, “yes, I know the situation’s unhealthy, but I’m still in love, so leave us alone.”

I am excited because Justin and Chris are coming up from the Cape to co-host today’s CozmiKast (featuring Funkfoot with us here in the studio), and do some playing and recording with me afterward. I’ve been neglecting CozmiKast as well as this blog lately, but thankfully, both wait for me with devotion. Unlike the fans, who line up outside the studio door chanting things like “fair wages!” and “death doctor!”. The former demand might not be fiscally pheasible, while the latter accusation may be true.

Hoping Michael and Kirk stop by as well.