Lucky Dragons! Help my brain is exploding with found sound collages, quick reconstruct and recontextualize! Luke Fischbeck creates ecstatic yet beautifully odd music that completely transcends any sort of categorization or genre. I can’t really say what any of his work sounds like, any attempt to do so would be fruitless and fall short of describing his special brand of cut-paste electronic magic. His live shows are even better, a true celebration of the human spirit through unexpected music and noise. He data mines between the lines.

Next up on my reading list, Matt Rauscher’s critically acclaimed debut novel The Unborn Spouse Situation. Reviews have recently compared the book to J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. Heavyweight comparisons for sure, I’ll just be ripping my pants with glee if it’s a good book, which I think it will be, sit tight, I’m sure I’ll have more to say. The Unborn Spouse Situation, an underground favorite popular through positive reviews and online word of mouth, was turned down by virtually every New York publishing house, but has garnered praise in national magazines such as Instinct. The fiery, gay-themed novel describes a haphazard relationship between two college students: a 22-year-old gay aspiring filmmaker and an Indian American man already set up in an arranged marriage. Damn, I love that Mr. Rauscher submitted his own images of the book to Amazon, DIY or die.

In the 18th century Thomas Pink made the best hunting coat money could buy. The expression ‘In The Pink’ originates from the pride that the English gentlemen took from wearing one of Pink’s coats. Pink has evolved into a leading luxury shirt brand and an increasingly international customer. the unsurpassed quality of their shirts, ties and accessories and the distinctive pink packaging have become instantly recognizable and can be spotted across the world. Now they have their Commuter Tie featuring a pocket on the reverse to hold your iPod Nano and an extra fabric loop to keep headphone wires out of sight and close to your body. 100% Silk 100 smackers from Thomas Pink London. (Note: I believe this was covered all over the place Engadget, Gizmodo, iPod Lounge etc, but I’m placing it here so that I can remember to purchase one at some point, besides, I dig pink, especially with black and some pin stripes)

Yes, I get it, Moe Roo a.k.a. Most Recently Used as in, I’m sick of Apple’s fucking finder. MoRU 1.3 is a productivity enhancing utility designed to make it easy for you to quickly find, open, copy, move, delete, and inspect files. It combines the most commonly used features of the Finder and Spotlight into one, (so nice) simplified interface, (ah yes) and provides a few unique features as well. By organizing documents into different Smart Groups and sorting them according to when they were last used or modified, MoRU brings all of your recently used documents right to your fingertips. As files are modified, opened, or created, they bubble to the top of the list, keeping them easily accessible.

Not one to pass up a Damien Hirst moment, his new 35-foot high The Virgin Mother was erected in London Tuesday. The Virgin has layers removed on one side to reveal the foetus and the woman’s skull, muscles and tissue. The bronze statue, recalling Edgar Degas’s Little Dancer, dominates the courtyard in front of the gallery, and is visible from Piccadilly where passers by stopped to look as a crane hoisted it into place on Monday. Yes, it’s as creepy as you imagined. Oh, and if you are in the Cleveland area over the weekend check out the James Pernotto Show at The Butler Institute of American Art. May 3 through June 25, 2006. This twenty-five year retrospective presents works in all media by this New York artist and Youngstown, Ohio native. Admission is most definitely free and you’ll see some great art by one of my favorite painters.

The American Idol finale is straight over the top, Meatloaf, Clay Gaiken (with a strange hairclub for men topper) Dion Warwick with Burt Bacharach, and now Prince. I’m wrecked…so sick, so surreal, if I start licking the wallpaper or the floor starts to melt, I’m calling for help. I really have to stop watching Television…Taylor. Confirming my suspicions that they will market him to the adult contemporary Michael Buble VH1 market. Gospel choir, nice touch, I think. I’m going to bed.

Shift – Roller Rink Funk 12 Minute Extended Version
Mr. JMG’s post about the history of the disco orchestra reminded me of one of my favorite hard to find disco records; Shift’s Roller Rink Funk. Now available in a handy dandy 12″ format on Deep Disco Culture Vol 1: Underground Disco Rarities & Future Club Classics (Salsoul/Suss’d Label) or you can get on the down load…(wha?!) from above. Shift’s tune is all 12 whole delicious minutes of “Bounce Rock Skate” goodness complete with laser gun noises, train whistles, and a super funky CHIC style bassline. I’m going to take a stab and say this was released about 1979/1980 but don’t quote me on that date, enjoy and do what one does these days to bring down a tune onto your ‘puter’.

Nell Carter may be dead, but the girl needs to gimmie a break! Four days with a nasty throbbing migraine? I was nearly cross-eyed before it subsided, damn! I thought I was having a stroke. Migraine or not, I’m a sick bastard so I’m at the work, at the workout, at everything, except computer and or TV, hurts to stare at the screen. I’m seriously looking forward to the long ass weekend; my bike is tuned up and ready to be thrown into the car to take on some trails. It will be great to lose the shirt and show off some of my hard work in the gym, wurf*! I seriously dumped the swiss and bailed the cheddar. Sunny warm, 80 degrees, ah, beautiful indeed. Right now, I’m playing catch up with some freelance work, some of my own work, and updating this site so I won’t have to tinker this summer. Do people read weblogs during the summer? I’m thinking yes, so I’ll try not to sputter too much…well anyway, it was a nice brain burning ADD break but I missed writing down my thoughts and collecting items. I received the most hilarious mail whilst I was stomping around in a funk;

Just came across your blog…had to let you know that you are SO fucking hot that it makes my bones itch.

Ironic that more people watched people trying to make it than have already made it, perhaps not. Sandra Bernhard on American Idol. Honey her shit is off the hook, Miss Sandra with her own website, boutique and soon to be released album. Rock, I only hope her version of Whitesnake’s power ballad, ‘Here I Am Again on My Own’ is included.

My brain is on fire, the ADD is raging, all pistons are firing at once, smoke is definitely coming out of my ears. But, but, but…I’m tired and a dreaded layer of thick brain fog is sweeping in to cover my head. Common errors occur, faulty strikes and meltdowns possible today. I negotiated out of a few days of my usually non negotiable gym routine. Hardcore training with weights and a run won’t happen for another couple of hours so I’m seriously fucked. I’m transported back to when I was a young boy, overheated in oversized ill fitting hand me downs. I’m a little giant in my blue plastic school room chair, kid fidget with a draining battery pack, slumping further down into my seat until I’m under the desk. Uncontrollably, I’m sliding down and out, much to the chagrin of my classmates, until I’ve poured myself out onto the floor, drool slurping out of the corners of my tiny red mouth, until I’ve settled precarious on my back like a turtle. I’m dyslexic, I’m supposed to be learning to read, I might learn a multiplication table. The crumbling dot matrix ceiling tile is more interesting as yellow number 2 pencils prick out of the asbestos like hypodermic needles. I’m gone, glazed over from too much sugar probably, and the teacher is hovering over me, her Avon perfume is making me sick, her crepe souled shoes shuffling back and forth. What to do, what to do, what to do, you know you can only send a kid down to the principle’s office so many times, before you have to, want to let them soak it all in, from the floor up…slightly glazed over. But, now, I’m this sort of, adult cringing away, picking up transmissions, as my internal clock is fucked up, and my attention span is hovering into the nano seconds. My mind makes excuses based on info-mercials, you’re having a bad hair day, aren’t you? You’re not your Pepsodent best, are you, I see you’re wearing your glasses. Oxy-Clean comes in a ball…I’m an innovative thinker, thinks out of the box they say, dudes, I’m not even close to the box. I spin it, I put a good spin on the day; I am, yes, here it is; I AM a deranged Manga character ram raiding video game arcades while on a bender of a particularly strong food additive.

The Egg – Walking Away (original 7″ edit)
This tune has been bouncing around my head all spring, popping up here and there, when least expected, in that unguided tourist, accidental soundtrack sort of way. Shimmering guitars strum gently over a smokey duet with Sophie Barker of Zero 7. This ones a bit on the downtempo side, perfect for rainy afternoons and evenings. A fair bit of remixes can be found too, Tocadisco being the most popular, but don’t let em’ kid ya, it’s Kiki of B-pitch Control & Poker Flat that sets this one on it’s head. I fancy the original, as above, enjoy.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go

The Waking published in 1953 from The Complete Collected Poetry of Theodore Roethke

I love this poem for it’s play on different kinds of knowing, of waking, learning. You might be awake, but you might also be a sleepwalker. Learning to be awake is transformative, waking evokes affirmation, delight and gentle reverence…nuff said.

A wee update of the side bar links, will tinker with some items later, so if it goes up, and down, you’ll know why…a nice way to provide a list of things making the iPod Nano, books that have kept me reading, and an assortment of items, and ephemera that pump my nads.

Fucking, and I do mean fucking, because God knows it’s Monday, and it’s short attention span theater, and I just deleted a long ass post and it pissed me off, so I went grunting and growling back into my cave. Anyway, I’m back so, I once heard MGH slap on the Beach Boys ‘God Only Knows’ over that electro ‘MU’ record and my brain almost came out of the top of my head. This man is a damn rebellious jukebox of WHAT THE FUCK live from the psychic dancehall whats it. He’s so damn wacktose intolerant, and so very last year, but genius enough to have a few special mixes up on his myspace page, so poke around and see him live if you can, he’s a genius, a damn genius!

Straight guys are finding out what gay guys already know; prostate stimulation feels good and can be good for you! I can’t recommend one of the most popular anal toys for straight men, but I can recommend the fun filled assortment featured at Mr. S. Leather, with an evil grin.