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.