2008 YTD Realized Gain/Loss = 46%
2008 YTD Unrealized Gain/Loss = -1.62%
Current Money Market/Dividends/Distribution Yield = 11.96%
]]>
2008 YTD Realized Gain/Loss = 46%
2008 YTD Unrealized Gain/Loss = -1.62%
Current Money Market/Dividends/Distribution Yield = 11.96%
]]>
Ok I'm just going to start off by saying this sort of noisy, ambient, sample ridden cluster fuck of sound is so up my alley it's actually IN my alley. And to quote a famous new wave band, I just can't get enough. Remote Control Frequencies latest album Tempus is about 45 minutes of some of the coolest stuff I've heard in a while. It's all fuzzy guitar, echoplex madness, swirling drones, manic organs and vocals that are just buried under all that sound. Throw in a healthy serving of what sound like samples from late night infomercials and you've got yourself one hell of a party. I would really be hard pressed to narrow this down to one genre so I'll go ahead and describe this best as ambient post shoe gaze hip-hop.
Remote Control Frequencies is a two man wrecking crew of awesomeness consisting of R-Rock handling the vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass, noise, digital signal treatments and other effects with long time collaborator LG handling the drums. there are a few guest appearances on the album by Player 1, PJ Sumroc, and Sharkula. Despite all the sonic madness there is still an underlying pop sensibility here that is very keen. The hushed vocals do a great job of not overpowering the true artistry of the music, and overall R-Rock and LG have done a splendid job of taking elements from a diverse selection of genres and creating an pastiche of musical styles. I would definitely suggest this album for fans of psychedelic music and pretty much everyone with an open mind about music.
You can find out more about Remote Control Frequencies by visiting their myspace page at www.myspace.com/rcf (although they claim to have lost the password so it might not be updated), or by going to their label's web site at www.tslos.com, and as always be sure to stay tuned to W♥M for the latest in independent music. Next week I'll be dusting off the old phonograph to bring you a few gems from my vinyl collection. Yay records!
Stay classy internettes,
Links:
myspace.com/rcf
I have this book of Jules Verne stories that I decided to read recently. I started off with 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea but was only able to get about halfway through it when I got tired of the excessive descriptions. It would seem the story moves along nicely for several paragraphs and then there are two paragraphs of endless description of sea life. It reminded me of the prayer for the Holy Hand Grenade in Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
And the Lord did grin and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats and large chu... [At this point, the friar is urged by Brother Maynard to "skip a bit, brother"]...
I have this problem when reading most classical literature. I can handle some of it, but the writing styles are sometimes just too much intellectual masturbation.
So, I decided to give up and read something else. I began with Gilbert Hernandez's Heartbreak Soup which is a collection of the old Love and Rockets comics from the 80's. Good stuff, and nice light reading to clear my head of Verne.
Just recently I finished reading something called Go-go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler. This one is a hoot. One review says "part Christopher Moore, part Quentin Tarantino" which is pretty accurate. I blasted through this one in a couple of days because it was so much fun. If you've read any Christopher Moore and liked it, you'll love this. I defintiely need to pick up some of his other books.
Currently I'm on John Scalzi's Zoe's Tale which is a slightly more serious sci-fi novel about planetary colonization. It's the latest book from Sclazi's Old Man's War series which I haven't read any of until now. I need to find the first couple of books in the series but so far this one doesn't seem to be leaving me lost without reading the earlier books.
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Tour Dates
09/10/08 Boston Music Festival - Ned Devine’s Boston, Massachusetts
Discography
09/20/08 Atlantis Music Festival @ Smith’s Olde Bar (Atlanta Room) Atlanta, Georgia 10/02/08 Spike Hill Brooklyn, New York 10/05/08 Rockwood Music Hall NYC
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 Set List ♥ Arcadia, Minneapolis (09/04/08) |
The Acadia sits across the 400 Bar, but you wouldn't know it was called the Acadia as the signage reads "RIVERSIDE". I've seen this place from the outside through its numerous large windows and looking in at the band on stage.
I don't know how often these "Diverse Emerging Music Organization" (DEMO) shows goes on, but they seem to operate on donations and benefits local artists. I caught the last few songs of Backstories, a full band and all nicely dressed. I don't really know the band's back stories (haha), I'll bet they get that a lot. They have some songs available for download on their myspace.
Eli Ratner said it was his first time playing (I thought he meant his first gig ever), but I guess he meant at the Acadia. He seems really comfortable on stage with his acoustic guitar. It would seem, according to his myspace, that he's normally a duo with Peter VonDeLinde.
It's clear that the real star is Leerone, who earlier in the day appeared in St Paul's Station 4. The report I got was that her keyboard "got messed up" and she ended up renting a full Yamaha keyboard.
Her set was understandably short, lasting no more than 45 minutes, and included a "made up" a cappella song that's not written on the set list.
Highlight of the show seems to be the announcer calling her "Leeroni" and "Leerona".
PS, more details later, including pictures and art.
]]>http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card
Excellent video from the Daily Show. It essentially shows how the GOP and the right wing journalists have a double standard when it comes to republican politicians. This is basically what I was arguing with a certain poster who insisted that this is a uniquely Democratic phenomenon. Here we see it in plain detail.
Sarah Palin is nothing more than the GOP's attempt to cozy up to the extreme right, once again. It's '92 all over again, anti-abortionists, apocalyptic religious nuts, gun nuts, militias, secessionists, oh my! This woman has virtually no experience no matter how much the GOP tries to propagandize her other than experience with the extreme fringes of the right. She was a beauty queen, a mayor of a tiny town and most recently governor of Alaska for a little over a year. The only change she can bring to America is for the worst.
Here is Sarah Palin expressing her knowledge of American history:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/01/palin-on-pledge-of-allegi_n_122965.html
With all the media brouhaha about Obama's preacher and here we see this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palins-church-may-have-sh_n_123205.html
What? You haven't heard about it? No fucking wonder, the mainstream media isn't going to cover it because they don't want to piss off their overlords. Here she is, Sarah Palin, speaking on stage, not just attending. At some lunatic church that believes the war in Iraq is some sort of biblical prophecy.
You know what? I didn't fucking vote for this war! I certainly did NOT vote for some biblical end-times apocalypse. This is NOT what democracy is about. This is NOT what our founding fathers had in mind! THESE PEOPLE ARE TRAITORS! Plain and simple. I am fucking sick and tired of these nutjobs hijacking the ideals of this country for their own purposes. It is time for all of us who stand for FREEDOM and LIBERTY to vote these FASCISTS out of office! McCain and Palin represent the extreme right. The extreme right represents FASCISM. Do NOT let them win.
]]>Found while browsing Nico Douga, this is so amazingly funny and cute!
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I can't believe September is already here.
Appearing tomorrow at the Temple Bar is Love Psychedelico, who we've previously mentioned a few times on W♥M.
It's too insane, this band sold out the 14,201 seated Nippon Budokan in Japan - several times, I might add - and the lucky people in Los Angeles gets to see them in an intimate setting.
Find out more details about the gig on our news.w♥m and their official (US) and myspace.
Also, tomorrow I'm supposed to be around for a free show at the Acadia Cafe to see singer/songwriter Leerone. I believe earlier tomorrow she will also be at Station 4 in St Paul for the "Concert for Change Festival". The republican convention happening in St Paul is just coincidental.
You can find details of her other appearances on her website or the 'space.
One last announcement: many of you probably don't know that I am a closet comic book fan. I am the creator of the almost-ten years george-perez.com and I got the announcement that Perez was involved in an auction to help save and preserve "the Superman House". It's all over the news, but I thought I'd mention it here as I feel strongly about it. You can read all about it on ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com
By the way, the most interesting item in the auction is a hand-written draft of Neil Gaiman's upcoming book. It's currently at $530, way above my budget.
In actual W♥M news: the podcast is going strong!! Stronger than ever.
I'm pleased to announce the re-appearance of former W♥M writer Valley Girl on this Sunday's podcast. Now that I've embarrassed her, I can guarantee another awesome dudecast.
Also, I have just added radioexile.com to news.weheartmusic.com. If you have a blog and/or website and would like to be on our link roll, just send me an email.
OH! Also, as a favor, I 'investigated' wordpress using a free version via weheartmusic.blogsome.com. I spent a lot of time looking its codes and I can tell you that if you ever want to customize your WP blog, you will need to really understand how CSS works. CSS have really replaced the original html, in my opinion. It's very flexible and it's also easier to understand.
My first impression is that it's half-manual and half-automatic. WYSIWYG doesn't always work, even with some of the best plugins... and if you really want to do make splashy posts, you still need to hand-code things (much like how I compose all my posts prior to putting it on vox).
I also like the ability to create users and "comment approvals". There's a lot of cool stuff, but you know, for new users, I would have to recommend them to check out vox and sites.google.com. I'm not afraid to admit that WP is too complicated.
OH2! Watch my crappy video! The music at the end is by Dylan Champagne, which I will be reviewing soon-ish.
UPDATE 9/4/08 8:40pm: People have complained about the vox search - I will admit it's not the best (I think it doesn't index anything older than 6 months). So starting today, you will see a box on the very low/right of the sidebar. The search also search W♥M News and Press Release, as well as any future websites in the WHM family. I have tested out IE and Firefox and even Chrome, but if you are having issues, please let me know.
Also, as a special bonus, is a drop-down menu of current writers. Clicking on a name will take you to their articles. If you're still active, send me a note and I will add your name to the list.
UPDATE 9/6/08 8:53am:
How to add Google Custom Search to your blog
1. Create a Custom Search via google.com/coop.
This will be great if you have multiple blogs and/or websites.
Unfortunately that also means duplicate results if you cross-post same
articles.
2. Copy and paste this code into your blog's main page. On vox, the sidebar width is only 150pixels, so you may have to change the "size" to less than 15. Change "Search" to "Go" if you want to shorten the submit box - however this box is not necessary (the return/enter key should work just as well).
How to emb audio on your blog
One of the nice thing about vox, is that it allows anyone to emb media on any website that allows embedding.
Click on any
audio and there is an option for "emb", which admittedly DEFAULTS to
autoplay=true. You must change this to false.
If you're not too crazy about the 500 pixels (too large), you can change all "500" to "320" or "200". There is a small hack for 150 pixels, but you must "wi" in place of "pi" after 150 for the image and it will work. This probably won't mean a whole lot to any of you unless you start using the embed feature on your blog.
Another hack you might want to check out is to just place the
"mediaURL" to your own MP3. Have fun and ask me if you're still having
trouble setting up any of these for your blogs.
I have added our latest podcast on the sidebar, just click on the play button and it will automatically play.
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