Shake It Like A Baby

First I start a blog, now I got a podcast. What's next? Home videos on YouTube? Not likely.

You can check out my podcast over here at linoleumblownapart.podomatic.com. I was inspired by my friend Scott, whose podcasts can be heard over here at babyfeet.podomatic.com. As a music junkie, I've been thinking for awhile I'd like to do a What I'm Listening To list, but that seemed weak and uninteresting. But, a podcast/ mix-tape? OK, now we're on to something.

Just to get my feet wet, I uploaded a mix I made in August for my buddy Jim's birthday. Aside from the birthday song I performed and recorded for him, I thought it was one of my better mixes. So, sans birthday song, I elected to share that with the greater public as podcast #1. The track list is as follows:

1. New Fangs - "Paper Skulls" from their debut, Bayonets. The guitarist, Dave, and bassist, Karlis, are both veterans of local bands The Blow Up and Tractor Sex Fatality. I like TSF, but boy howdy were The Blow Up great. Find and purchase True Noise. Karlis was an old buddy of mine from college, but we haven't talked in ages. You out there, Karlis?
2. Go-Betweens - "Lee Remick" I think this is their first single. I got turned on to these guys after hearing The Wedding Present's cover of the their beautiful song "Cattle and Cane."
3. Suicide - "Fast Money Music" off Suicide's second album. God, I love these guys!
   
4. DJ Frenchbloke and Son - "Sexy Model" A mash-up of Kraftwerk's "The Model" and Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy". Nice.
5. Cheap Trick - "He's A Whore" Bonus points for those of you who know why this song is here. And no, it has nothing to do with the title.
6. Unnatural Helpers - "Your Way Back Down" from The Funhouse Comp Thing. There's at least one guy, the singer/ drummer, from Popular Shapes. If you don't have Popular Shapes' Bikini Style, go get it. While you're there, pick up anything by The Intelligence, especially Boredom & Terror on vinyl, because you get a bonus CD with more music. A couple guys from Popular Shapes now play in that band. Then snag anything by A-Frames and get The Dipers album. Both feature Lars, who is basically The Intelligence. That's a good start. Go ahead, go. I'll wait.
7. Stephin Merritt - "Ukele Me!" Merritt is the man behind The Magnetic Fields, Future Bible Heroes, The Gothic Archies, and The 6ths. This track is one of two songs here from his "Showtunes" album, a collection of music he penned for three different theatre productions and performed by the casts.
8. Delta 5 - "Mind Your Own Business"
9. E.S.G. - "My Love For You" The Dirtbombs did a bang-up cover of this tune.
10. Puffy Amiyumi - "Can-Nana Fever" from the Guitar Wolf tribute album, I Love Guitar Wolf...Very Much. Guitar Wolf song with an accordion solo? I'm in.
11. The Wedding Present - "Shivers" A B-side from The Wedding Present's recent work with Steve Fisk. Fisk's 448 Deathless Days is one of the best records ever made. This is the second of two tracks the Weddoes did using Steve's Optigan. "Spangle" off their other Fisk-produced and out-of-print record, Watusi, was the first.
12. Peter Gabriel - "The Book Of Love" A Magnetic Fields song. Taken from the (gag) "Shall We Dance" soundtrack. My wife and I had the lyrics to this song read at our wedding. Awww.
13. Stephin Merritt - "What A Fucking Lovely Day!"
14. The Country Teasers - "Please Ban Music/ Gegen Alles" What a fantastic band! This is off their latest, The Empire Strikes Back.
15. The Fiery Furnaces - "I'm Leaving" from the Sunday Nights: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough tribute album.
16. Optiganally Yours - "Empire State Human" More Optigan magic. This is from the Reproductions: Songs of the Human League album (which I think Stephin Merritt put together). I'll post this group's outrageously good cover of OMD's "Genetic Engineering" in a future podcast.
17. Beck - "Everbody's Gotta Learn Sometime" I still have the Korgis' single of this song I bought when it came out in the 70's. I was thrilled when I heard Beck's cover of it at the end of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, more than anything because someone else had heard of it. I'll post the original later.
18. Duran Duran - "The Chauffeur" I'm not a fan of Duran Duran. I like Japan much better, whose music and hairstyles (!) Duran Duran clearly ripped off. But this song is a stand out from their album, Rio. Sexy, lush, and super creepy. I love it.

It Huffed! It Puffed!

The Pacific Northwest was hit last week by a doozy of a windstorm, leaving to this day hundreds of people without power. A friend at work just got his back last night, but many won't until after Christmas!

We lost power during the storm around 1:30, Friday morning. I know this because we barely slept a wink all night with the battering of the wind and the fear that one of the many gigantic trees around us would tire of fighting the battle and come crashing into our bedroom. This happened to the previous owners (they weren’t hurt) so there’s precedent. An unexpected torrent of rain flooded the sewers and part of our garage. That's how I learned that leaving three bags of mortar on the floor four feet from the garage door is a bad idea.
We spent the day cleaning up, listening to the radio, and keeping a fire in the fireplace. That evening we rounded up all the candles and lamps we could find. While a candlelit night was fun in its own way, waking up to freezing temperatures the next morning killed any element of cute for us. Luckily, our power returned Saturday evening, but so many others were and still aren't so fortunate.

I know I shouldn't be, but it shocks me how helpless we become without electricity. No lights, no TV, no computer, no fridge. At least our gas water heater worked. It also reminded me that it's very important to matches handy, and ideally you remember where you put them. Speaking from experience, nothing beats stumbling around in the dark looking for matches.

Sick, Oh So Sick

Boy howdy did the family get whupped by the sick stick but good! The party started in the wee hours Saturday morning when I launched into an hourly purge cycle. Most of the heavy duty horrid stuff stopped before dawn and I ended up sleeping all day. I thought it was food poisoning at first, but it seemed too tenacious for that. Sunday was slightly better. The entire time I felt like I'd been beaten. My body was sore, and I was winded just standing up, let alone holding Cooper or doing anything constructive. By Monday things were getting back to normal, but virtually 72 hours after my initial attack, Lisa's started. I stayed home with her and Cooper Tuesday so she could sleep. While his body didn't eliminate everything from it as violently as ours, Cooper didn't miss out on the fun. We worried a little about dehydration after he deposited not one, not two, not three, but four gigantic loads of spit up all over my chest Tuesday night, but, like usual, he just smiled a big smile like he'd met a milestone. Which, I suppose, he had.

Birthday Bashed

It's time to find a babysitter. Lisa and I went out to a fabulous local steakhouse last night for her birthday, and we brought Cooper along too. Lisa and Cooper had been out all afternoon shopping and he really hadn't taken a nap. We thought that may be a good thing, because he'd be tired and maybe take a little snooze while we enjoyed our dinner. Long story short: he didn't. Atypically acting like a typical baby, Cooper started crying when we walked in the door, spent more time fussing than eating, and ultimately made it clear he was sick of his high chair right about the time our food arrived. Lisa ended up scarfing down what was probably a great filet mignon while I tried to calm our son down. I finally put him in his stroller and he fell asleep. We salvaged what was left of our meal and had a very nice flourless chocolate cake, but all in all, it wasn't really a night out as much as a work out. So, babysitters, we're taking applications.

Baby's 1st Santa

We took Cooper to get his picture taken with Santa this weekend. Like everything with him so far, it was painless. Beautiful day, old-timey Christmas carolers, no line, and an authentic-looking Santa (real beard, not drunk). I don't think Cooper even noticed him. He was more engaged with the photographer and decorations in Santa's little shack to notice that he was sitting on the knee of some big old guy in a red suit. We're looking forward to seeing the no-tears photos this weekend. On the other end of the spectrum, BoingBoing posted a link to this funny collection of Santa photos yesterday. This is not how it happened with us. Yay, we win.

Speaking of crying children, my personal blogging hero, Matthew Baldwin of Defective Yeti had this recent post. It's funny cuz it's true.

Our Star Blazers!

One of the perks of my early morning workouts is I get to watch programs in which Lisa would have zero interest. Tomorrow I'll receive the first disc of Star Blazers. I fondly remember Star Blazers from my childhood, when I was steeped in fanaticism for Star Wars and the original Battlestar Galactica. Star Blazers was another early Japanese anime import like Speed Racer and Marine Boy, the latter of which was one of my favorite cartoons. But unlike those shows, Star Blazers was much less of a kid's program.

Star Blazers, aka Space Battleship Yamato, was a serialized show about the crew of the Argo (renamed by the American translators who decided to gloss over the Yamato's WWII Japanese Navy history) who were off to save the Earth from destruction. The first two seasons only aired where I lived, but there was a third with a cast of different voice actors that is available on DVD. There were also movie versions that offered slightly different variations on the TV series. I've seen Arrivederci Yamato, which was The Empire Strikes Back of the series - darker, moodier, and almost everyone dies. After its success it was converted into the show's second season, The Comet Empire, (good, but the movie's superior) where the characters lived and the franchise continued.


Of course, the draw for me was the villain. Like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, the protagonist of Star Blazers, Derek Wildstar, was sort of a twerp. But the villain was evil, icy, cool. Desslok, the Gamilon leader bent on the destruction of Earth in Season 1 and the returning anti-hero in Season 2, was a regal, blue-skinned, blonde military genius clad in a an over-the-shoulder cape. In an inexplicable move by American translators, he was voiced with a fey, lilting falsetto. The effeminate, bored voicing of this ruthless general made him all that more chilling and mysterious. I think you'd truly have to see it to appreciate it, but Desslok by far is my favorite sci-fi bad guy.

I initially was going to skip right to Season 3, but decided to start at the beginning. That means I've got 12 discs to view before I get to the all-new-to-me third season chronicling The Bolar Wars, but as long as my memory of the series hasn't betrayed me like it did with Speed Racer's campy goofiness, I think I'll relish every episode.

Go to StarBlazers.com for a lot more info on the show, and check out their all-new online comic book serial, Star Blazers Rebirth. It's kind of a Star Blazers: The Next Generation play on the series, and so far it's been pretty darn cool.

Bond, James Bond

My folks babysat Cooper Saturday night so Lisa and I could take in a movie and go out to dinner. We saw Casino Royale, which in my humble opinion, is the best Bond film since On Her Majesty's Secret Service (which, despite Telly Savalas' Blofeld, was a really good Bond film). Sean Connery will never be replaced, but this movie's handling of the Bond genre was very authentic. It was far from the cartoonish blockbusters of the last, well, thirty years. There's an extensive gymnastic chase scene involving people leaping from very, very tall cranes that had my palms sweating.

On the flipside, we saw RV on DVD with my parents, which definitely trumped Wedding Crashers as biggest pile of crap I've seen lately.

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with my family in Walla Walla. It was Cooper's first flight outside of his mom (we went to Hawaii last Christmas while she was pregnant). Naturally, since he's some sort of angel-baby, he was a peach the whole way. Even checking in turned out to be a breeze. With one exception.

Fun fact: baby formula is apparently less explosive than water. Our friends from the TSA will allow you to bring baby bottles filled with formula through security, but if those bottles are filled with water to make the formula, well, that poses too great a threat. Fortunately for us I was able to dump the water we packed in the trash. Unfortunately for the travellers behind us, they had to wait for me to dump the water into the trash.

I can't adequately express my anger at the over-hyped airport security in response to our so-called War on Terror. Finding a note in my luggage telling me that it's been rummaged through by security does not make me feel safer. It's just reminds me of yet another civil liberty we gave up to combat an imaginary threat. Really, we all stand a better chance of being poisoned by a blowfish than we do of being blown up in the air. Unfortunately, there's a historical precedent for giving up your rights in the name of defense, and it never ends well.

On a lighter note, we have a slew of Thanksgiving photos posted on our Flickr account, mainly of Cooper, that will make you pop with all its images of super baby-cuteness.

DST and DVDs

With winter in full Seattle-style swing (cold and rainy) we're finding time to catch up on movies.

There's been some ringers. I highly recommend Thank You For Smoking, Lucky Number Slevin, and Art School Confidential. I was pleasantly surprised with Ju-on, the original Japanese movie that was made into The Grudge stateside. This and Ringu have convinced me that the Japanese are far better at making creepy psychological thrillers than their American re-maker counterparts. I don't even like horror films much, but if these two movies are representative of the Japanese take on the genre, I could see getting in to them.

There's also been some stinkers. As if we needed more reasons to think little of the American movie industry, we had the displeasure of watching Wedding Crashers yesterday. Holy cow. That was truly sucktastic. And I really enjoy Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson and Will Farrell, but good lord! What were they thinking? Man!

Speaking of the Japanese, I've been taking advantage of reliving my childhood memories of some Americanized anime, starting with my old favorite, Speed Racer. Funny thing about not being 10 years old: that show is awful! I mean, it's still good campy fun, but sweet lord it is dumb! So I've decided to move on to Star Blazers. I just hope that turns out to be as good as I remembered it.

Q-SPAM

Periodically I get random text messages from some guy called "Q" with little nuggets like this:

Yep its goin down. Wrappin up the video shoot tomorrow:noon:chocolate city on madison n seattle. Holla at cha guy

I'm unsure if this guy is under the impression that my cell phone number is that of one of his buddies, or if this is some form of really ineffective spam. Should I care that the video shoot's wrappin (sic) up tomorrow at noon? Video shoot for whom? Are those directions to Chocolate City?Do you need me there, Q, or is this just FYI?

Prior to the show there's a industry netwoking event @ 9. you'll wannabe there 4 it. if ur down let me know by thurs. Night.

I was half tempted (read as: not remotely interested) to go check it out. I've never been to a "netwoking" event before. Sounds tasty. Nah, thanks Q, I've got stuff to do at home.

Later messages became more specific, with addresses and lots of "holla"s and "u"s and "b"s used in place of the more complex "you" and "be." I also got two "Happy New Years" greetings, which made my heart warm with the kind thoughts.

The guy's number comes along with the messages, so I could just text him back and let him know he's got the wrong guy. But I sorta like the messages. It's like a watching a little soap opera. A little, very uninteresting but somehow entertaining soap opera. What will happen next?

Insult and Injury

Lisa, my wife, has had a rough month. She returned Sunday from several days of hospitalization, and while improved, she's still not 100% better. Yesterday she fell rushing to answer the phone and broke her nose.

OK, she didn't break it, but she thought she did. It bled, though, but it's just a little sore today. She was running to the phone because earlier she had called her doctor to set up the next step in treating her ailment, and she thought it was the clinic calling her back. It was, in fact, me calling to see if the clinic had called yet.

One day we'll look back at this and laugh.

Soggy Monday

Lisa came back from the hospital yesterday. The therapy there helped, but didn't put the problem into complete remission, so it's on to the next treatment. She won't have to go into the hospital for it, so we're happy for that. Her parents went home yesterday too, so she's keeping warm and dry at home with Cooper, while outside the rain continues to pour. It's unusually wet here in Seattle, so much so that many areas are flooding and car accidents have abounded. For a town so soggy, you'd think people would be able to handle the rain, but they can't. Truth told, the drivers in this town are so bad it should come as no surprise that they are flabbergasted by rainfall.

Finally posted pictures of Cooper's first Halloween. He wore his too-big-for-him bat costume. I also put together a big fence that goes around his play area so he can't start pulling himself across the room into danger. He can't crawl yet, but that doesn't seem to stop his curious nature.

Loves Me Them Hospitals

Outpatient treatment for Lisa's ailment wasn't going as well as her doc would have liked, so she was admitted to the hospital Tuesday. Fortunately, it looks like the treatment there is doing the trick and she's turned the corner. Playing with Cooper on her bed the other day, I realized it was the first time in a month I heard her really laugh. It was good. She may have to stay in there until Monday, which isn't any fun, but my Dad and her folks have come up to help us out.

We asked for a bassinet or something to put Cooper in while we were visiting, and the nurse ended up wheeling in this gigantic baby cage. It's about the size of small bed with a frame reaches up to the ceiling. You can slide the crib's locking barred walls up and down, and the mattress is at mid-riff level, so it's easy to take him in and out. He loves it, and it's good for us considering how squirmy he's been lately. The day he figures out how to crawl we are doomed.

So it struck me that I've spent more time in hospitals with this woman than anyone else (except my folks), and I've seen a lot of hospital time. Even though I have dangerously high cholesterol that has landed me in a heart attack and stoke prevention clinic, I consider myself to be relatively healthy. Until you see my track record:

• Jan. 1995- Dec. 1996: Hospitalized for ventricular tachycardia (v-tach). Had heart ablated to correct problem. That didn't work, so I'm on a med to take care of that.
• July 2002: Hospitalized after a car turned in front of Lisa and me on my scooter. Majorly messed up and in for a long time. Lisa was fine but got to watch me heal, which I think was worse. Compound knee fracture, reconstructive facial work, lost my sight in one eye and messed up my sight in the other. And the scooter was totaled ("sniff").
• A few months later, 2002: Went back in for a second knee surgery to remove all the extra bone that grew in around it (?). Had extremely annoying biker roommate. Good times.
• Sometime in 2003: Went to the emergency room with another v-tach. I was doing one of those herbal cleansing things and apparently messed my electrolytes up or something. Damn hippies.
  
• April, 2006: Cooper.

So, except for this April, none of it has been all that pleasant. But, I suppose folks don't think of hospitals as a party destination. Which is surprising, what with all those pills.

New Pics

I've put up some new photos of Cooper on our Flickr account today. He's got this thing these days with his tongue. He sticks it out when he's happy, and he's razzing too. I have been wrongly accused of teaching him this behavior just because I played one (one!) game of Stick Out Your Tongue with him.

We've got sneak peak pics of his completely too big Halloween costume. The site we ordered it from showed an infant, called it an infant costume, but was selling a toddler-sized costume. I did not see that part, obviously. I could and may return it, but in the meantime, the little hat fits and looks very cute on him. Take a peek.

iPodiquette

Speaking of iPods, a subject of which I speak often, there's a very nice article on being a well-mannered iPod user on the Morning News today, written by Margaret Mason, owner of the mighty fine Mighty Girl blog.

Where's Bobby?

My wife's recent and extensive illness, from which it looks like she is finally recovering, got me thinking about the last year. I came to the conclusion that I really could have done without it expect for two things: my son and my iPod. This of course assumes that (most of) the people in my life, Lisa, my family, and my friends, remain. But the rest? Eh, not so much.

It isn't that the last year has sucked. Entirely. My last year at work has, for reasons on which I needn't and shouldn't elaborate. That resulted in a year of frustration and confusion that affected how I felt about everything else, which, while not ruining it, has certainly dulled the year's shiny finish for me.

So Cooper and that iPod are really the only two new things I would miss if we hit rewind and started over. Heck, I could even do away with the iPod. I'd end up getting it anyway. Cooper, on the other hand, is the single most excited thing to happen to Lisa and I, and we wouldn't change a thing. But, Lisa was pregnant over a year ago, so I figure he's exempt too.

Why don't we just call a do-over? It worked on Dallas, didn't it? I'll just keep opening the shower door, waiting to see if things changed back to the way they were. Oh well, I guess I could always start looking forward to tomorrow.

Well, Welcome!

Welcome to the new home of Cooper, Lisa, and Branan. I started a website for us at lisa-branan.com when Lisa got pregnant with our soon-to-be son, Cooper. I was sort of blogging, after a fashion, but gave up the ghost in February. That's lame. We've been busy with Cooper since April and the former site never got updated. Well, I should change that this week, basically announcing this site and redirecting our URL. Sure...

So, I will try to keep this updated. With what? Lord knows.