orbis quintus

Even though most everyone i know is bored with the election recount, i’m not… so this case in Seminole County is pretty important to me. Gore’s people cannot officially get involved in it, as their position is that every vote must be counted, but in Seminole, it turns out that the county officials let the Repubulican party fill out absentee ballots that were not completed with voter registration numbers, ect. but disallowed the Democrats from doign the same. That’s illegal and unfair enough, but there’s talk that some of the registration numbers that were filled in were bogus! If these absentee ballots are cast aside, that’s a change of several thousand votes, and Gore would win. I don’t really want Gore to win under such shady circumstances, but i hate to see a criminal like Bush get away with this.

Am downloading an interview of Hunter S. Thompson off Salon.com as i type this. Just don’t feel like listening to it right now. Have been reading his new collection of letters at work, and feel quite delerious and giddy after a couple of pages of rants to William Kennedy (who i still must read more of,) the local television station, L.L. Bean, and Jimmy Carter. It’s fun how bluntly honest he can be in the same sentence that he’s obviously lying just for the sake of absurdity, as it makes my head spin. So what if he’s often full of shit?

As hyper as i felt yesterday, i felt exhausted today. The only CD that made sense to listen to was Johnny Cash’s new album, “American Recordings III: Solitary Man”. I dug it very, very much. It felt warm, and friendly, and loved, even though the songs were actually rather bitter lyrically. I pretty much agree with the Pitchfork review of the album, but I’m still ambivalent about Cash’s cover of Nick Cave’s “The Mercy Seat”. It seems a song that Johnny Cash could have written himself, but somehow, from the very intro, it just didn’t seem to work. Aside from the cover of “I See a Darkness”, my other favorite song was the duet with Merle Haggard.

It’s the day of Smog… Knock Knock and Red Apple Falls. Not terribly glam is it? Shit! Actually, in nursing a cold, it feels weird to listen to anything more upbeat than Smog, especially when there was light sleet outside this morning. There’s nothing like dosing up on echinecea, drinking lukewarm tea, and luring one’s consciousness into a low-energy misanthropic glee.

It looks like the news on Mars is the discovery of dried-up oceans. Still no news from NASA, but it seems the British press felt like leaking the story. The possible existence of fossils are mentioned several times, and that’s notable. The belief is there in the media. Fossils my rising fever! We will have living organisms to study if and when we make it to Mars… remember that the extraterrestrial observers are not exactly crazy about us knowing too much, and possibly have sabotaged several missions. Phobos and Demios natural satellites? Yeah….

Just read a book the other night that Lou sent me, “Fup” by Jim Dodge. Weird little tale. 99 year old man, a fence-building grandson with no livestock, and a giant duck named Fup. It makes me want to drink a pint of whiskey a day, and hope for the best. Not life-changing, but it left me with a wonderfully warm feeling… but right now it’s really feeling like the fever is getting worse. ugh…….

How bad is this fever? Well, now the sky has cleared up and i don’t feel like being misanthropic anymore, but getting whacky! Yeah! Whacky! Last night i bought Jurassic 5′s “Quality Control”, probably before i knew the fever was setting in. See anti-Napster bastards? I bought a CD after downloading mp3s! Am not listening to the words at all. The bouncy, rhythm tracks and flow of the vocals is all that can be deciphered. I admit that i was rescuing it in a way. The music manager Becki was trying to beef up the Rap section, and was rifling through Billboard magazine to see what was selling, to see what people want. I glanced over her shoulder and saw Jurassic 5 in there, and knowing that i not-quite-secretly dug the two tracks i heard before, i conned her into stocking it. For a coupel of months, it’s been sitting there forlornly as it gets passed over by kids trying to shoplift shit like C-Murder or Silkk tha Shocker. What the hell is wrong with these kids? I hate that No Limit/Master P garbage. Cash Money is even worse. Yeah, i’m definitely delerious, as i have no idea what i’m talking about… ranting about rap/hip-hop… but hearing this last J5 track, “Swing Set” is just a crazy Big Beat song.

And what about Amigothornot.com? I heard about it from Yahtzeen’s blogging, and now i’m addicted to it. It cracks me up beyond belief, and of course, i am giving virtually everyone but Count Chocula a 1… none of them measure up to my Supreme Gothness. And shit. Yeah. I got on my Black knit cap to add to the Goth Quotient, as well as the hip-hop one, and it’s certainly helping my temperature rise. Boil those Martian microorganisms outta my blood! Ever wonder what Gothic Hip-hop might sound like? I have, and it’s NOT trip-hop. I got a secret and i ain’t telling….

And thinking of cross-genres, what about a psychedelic Johnny Cash? Skip Spence’s “Oar” Damn. That was too easy. Is that going to make sense tomorrow?

Back to Goths… what makes so many of them think that so scary and intimidating? This cat on Amigeekornot.com beats everyone on Amigothornot.com hands down, and he seems like he’d be more fun to have a few shots of whiskey with. Ah, the stories he probably has to tell…

Okay, so i don’t wanna really be called Simon Nebula. Badger i am, and badger i shall always be… but glam is where it’s at! Just wait till i get bored with this idea…

What i am bored with is NYLPM’s attempts to justify some of the current batch of Top 40 pop. Well, maybe not bored… frustrated! I get the crazy notion that if i try hard enough, i can find the joys that they find in some of the music that they writer about, and after i put on the radio, i just feel dirty and used. i hate Madonna. I hate boy bands. I hate teen girls growling insipid lyics! I don’t know what i’m talking about though, as they have been writing about Robert Forster lately, and have Magazine and the Teardrop Explodes on their current Top 10 for listening. Wish myturntable was not on the other side of the house, as i’d love to hear those right now.

New craziness that’s not so crazy at NASA They are supposed to make a “major announcement” next week, and i find it interesting that they are making a big deal about it. The last time that they had anythign to report was the possibility that there could be free-flowing water on Mars. Then there’s this oddness about microbes in Earth’s upper atmosphere, 10 miles up, where they are just not expected to be. Some speculation is that they could be extraterrestrial, riding in on the dust of a comet! Now there’s also this little bit of weirdness. These Martian landscape photos look like they have biological organisms in them, possibly fungi or plants. Okay, so the announcement is not likely to be about that, but what do i care?

Have been listening to Brian Eno’s Before and After Science, and while it’s good, it ain’t meeting my needs at the moment. Seeing that “King’s Lead Hat” had both Robert Fripp and Phil Manzanera, i was expecting some blistering weirdness, but this album seems vaguely tame. There’s no lurking menace for me here, and despite learnign to learn some ugly synths, certain tones still just seem eternally blandly irritating, as opposed to intriguingly irritating. This is the kind of album that i can get into in the background on a quiet day, instead of jumping up and punch a wall, yelling, DAMN! Lately, i like that wall-punching business. Yesiree!

I’m going glam rock for awhile. Just call me Simon Nebula for the time being. See what listening to too much Mott the Hoople and New York Dolls can do to you? At least i’m not cross-dressing.

Took a break because i went on a trip to upstate New York, then continued the break because i was in a rotten mood, then continued the break because i was too busy, and then continued the break because the computer’s screen kept flipping up and down. How damned exciting….

I caved in, and voted for Gore, not Nader, and do not regret the last minute change. I also do not understand why Democrats were blaming Nader the close race, as it was not his responsibility. Have been keeping a close watch on the election recount in Florida through Bushwatch.com, but am getting a little bored with all of the details, even though i’m not the least bit impatient. I’m secretly hoping that Bush steals the election now, for the same reasons that Nader hoped (that it will wake peoploe up to the rampant corruption,) and how Marilyn Manson thinks a more oppressive government might cause pop music to get better, which is a little funny, considering his whole career fits inside the relatively laidback the Clinton administration, and i don’t remember hardly any good music in the Top 40 when Reagan was in office.

New CDs? I have the Caroline Now album, the tribute to Brian Wilson. Try as i might, as i respect some of the artists on here, and how some of the critics raved about this CD, i hate this goddamned CD!!!!!!!!!!!! It galls me to think of how many people Brian Wilson’s songwriting inspired, yet how cold his insipid meanderings leave me. I try! I try! His lyrics are limp and maudlin, and the arrangements seem syrupy. I’d almost learned to love Pet Sounds, but i put this CD on, after eager anticipation after reading a few rave reviews, and i had to take it off after just a coupel of songs. Yes, for a whole month i’ve been trying to stomach sitting through the whole thing at once, but it cannot be done by me. Maybe i’ve been listening to too much ’70s glam and punk, but this is like gorging on cotton candy and going to Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s hopefully now bankrupt Heritage USA themepark. My favorite part on the whole CD is when Kim Fowley is giving an intro to his cover of “Almost Summer” and taking a dig at the Wilsons’ father in that he had an all-girl surf band first, and it was a band, not merely a group. Crazy fucker! That was worth the price of the CD though. Still i gotta cleanse me ears with some Wire “Pink Flag” Yes, indeedy! i got me some Wire up in Plattsburg! Somehow it makes perfect sense that “Pink Flag”, “Chairs Missing”, and “154″ went back into print right when i took interest.

Now, I need someone, somewhere to put out some nice reissues of Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel’s “The Human Menagerie” and “Psychomodo”! So what if All Music Guide only gives them two stars each? This is wonderfully creepy glam. “Best Years of Our Lives” is out, and while i have half the songs on a Best of CD anyway, it’s worth having just for “It Wasn’t Me” or “Back to the Farm”. I don’t know too many people who have heard him before, as he was marginalized in the States. i really don’t understand Harley’s career during the time that he was at his peak, as i’ve never seen a good review of him or Cockney Rebel until recently. Mojo and Uncut are saying that his work aged better than anyone ever thought it would, but as much as i love those magazines, they tend to love anything old and get incredibly nostalgic. Yeah. i’m nostalgic about Harley in a way too, but i hated him when i first heard him! Damien exposed me to Cockney Rebel (how surprising….) as he covered “Death Trip” from The Human Menagerie back in the late ’80s. I heard more from the comp tapes of friends, but i ignored the songs as frilly bits of absurd froth with a horrid singer. The lyrics still grabbed me though. The absurdity had a true menace to them, coming more from mangled dreams than some ponce sitting around thinkign of words to stick together, trying to be the next David Bowie. No, it had nothing to do with that. Huge orchestration. Sick keyboards that sound like the direct ancestors to the Super Furry Animals. (Check out White Witch for more weird keys. Damien’s been working hard on the site.) Some of the songs still leave me cold, but after months of sitting around listening to Harley’s warped warblings over circus music, it made the oddest sense possible. Most of you probably listen to or have heard Harley anyway, so why am i telling you? For those who think you have not… did you see “The Full Monty” and do you remember the scene when they were playing soccer? That was “Make Me Smile”!

Anwyay, keeping with my “glam” theme, i was making a tape to listen to in the truck yesterday, but wound up throwing together a CD:

I feel a little disappointed by this collection, as i want more songs on there. I feel like i cheated Mott the Hoople and the New York Dolls, as two songs each were left off by them. They will be on the tape, but not this CD. Damn. Also, there’s no Sweet, Slade, or Gary Glitter as they felt too campy to fit alongside the others, even though i’ve been playing Sweet a lot as they crack me up. The worst is that there’s no White Witch, as i couldn’t figure out what songs would work best! Oh, and there’s no Bowie either… but that was a deliberate decision from the beginning!