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Wednesday, August 28, 2002 Huh. Just got my copy of Turquoise Days - The Weird World of Echo and the Bunnymen, today in the mail. They used a pic of mine, real tiny, on page 37. posted at 9:52 PM Tuesday, August 27, 2002 Now reading 'To Major Tom: The Bowie Letters.' Jenni just finished reading it. I was going to get back to the theme of memoirs by Southern White Women (having just finished the two Rebecca Wells memoir-novels) with 'Liar's Club' but Jenni started reading it while I was finishing the Outsider Music book. So, I'll keep on with the theme of books that really, really make me miss Audiogalaxy. I have a lot of early David Bowie CDs, but hardly any of the other period stuff the author mentions. posted at 1:36 PM Damn. Poor Dad. While he was in the rehab place -- I don't think I mentioned that he left the hospital Friday for Health South Rehab, where he was supposed to begin physical therapy -- he developed a blood clot in his leg... or rather, he probably developed it lying in ICU for 2+ weeks ("prolonged immobility causes blood to pool in the veins of the legs..."). Yesterday he had to have a Vena Cava filter inserted into the vein to keep the clot from traveling through the vein to the heart and lungs. They can't give him anticoagulants because of his recent surgery... what a mess. posted at 11:29 AM Synchronicity, of sorts, two days in a row. This morning's synch happened when I turned on the radio, tuned to KVRX-FM (UT Student Radio), and heard the Danielson Famile playing a cover of The Shaggs' Who Are Parents. Synchronous, 'cause I just finished reading about the Shaggs and other 'outsiders' in Chusid's book. These Danielsons sound like a trip unto themselves. Can't make out if they're in or out. Yesterday started off in the same way... driving to work, I was fumbling through my small pile of CDs (Joy Division, Pregnant, The Fall, and Jandek... all of which have been in the car for awhile ('cept Jandek), and I wanted to hear something different (though I was most tempted by JD's Unknown Pleasures at the moment.) Flipped on the radio (KVRX) -- and I haven't listened to the radio in months -- and what should be playing but Joy Division's Disorder from Unknown Pleasures. Unfortunately, KVRX's signal is so weak that I lose them half way to work. posted at 8:54 AM Monday, August 26, 2002 "Songs in the Key of Z" by Irwin Chusid | The Curious Universe of Outsider Music Cool. Just discovered that there's a website (lots of links, too) for Chusid's book, which I finished last night, and the companion CD, which I haven't ordered yet. Reading this book really made me miss Audiogalaxy! posted at 2:50 PM Yeehaw. Went mountain biking with the kayak gang at the Bike Ranch @ Rocky Hill. Very much fun, except the heat exhaustion towards the end. It was around 100° F. out there. I'm not used to that sort of exertion, without the relief of a cool swim or eskimo roll. I still feel wobbly today. posted at 1:16 PM A couple of weeks or so ago, I blogged about the rising amount of spam in my mailbox and commented that I get one of those African money-laundering scams per week... Well, the African money launderers must've read that and felt sorry for me, because now I get one a day. Thank you, but I don't need them. You can stop sending them now. At least I haven't received the Amy Grant Spam. posted at 10:28 AM Friday, August 23, 2002 Dad finally got out of ICU yesterday. Just in time for my mother's birthday. He's still in the hospital, but doing well after his surgery Tuesday. posted at 10:09 AM The Austin Chronicle did a feature on Ryan and his nutty collection of 50's and 60's Lesbiana. I've been working with him on his website, www.strangesisters.com, and it's lookin' purty good. posted at 10:00 AM Tuesday, August 20, 2002 Forget it! I can't work with Jandek strumming and wailing. Can't concentrate. I'm drooling on the keyboard. posted at 10:12 AM I read more of Chusid's Outsider Music book last night and this morning. The chapter on Tiny Tim was quite interesting. I remember Tiny from his guest appearances on Laugh-In, when I was a kid, but didn't follow his career after that. I do remember his re-appearing with young hipsters in the 80's or 90's but didn't get pay much attention. Chusid's chapter on Joe Meek showed more of the author's insensitivity that initially bothered me. His chapter on Jandek just made me want to punch him ('cause I like Jandek, and he doesn't). Don't know much about Song Poems. Not sure how much I want to know about them. Oh, well, the book is a good read... and it got me to pull out a Jandek CD, Interstellar Discussion, and listen to it on the way to work. Listening to 'Ready for the House' now. posted at 8:55 AM Monday, August 19, 2002 Just finished reading Rebecca Wells' Little Altars Everywhere and The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, back to back. Really enjoyed both of them, though it took me awhile to adjust to the difference in tone between the two. At first, I feared that Ya-Ya was the pop poop I had originally prejudged it to be. But it isn't. Jenni read Ya-Ya last year some time, and I had zero interest in it. I thought it was a "Ladies' Book" or something. And then the movie came out (which made it even more suspect, and which I haven't seen -- but then I rarely see movies). When Jenni recently finished Little Altars Everywhere, I picked it up and couldn't put it down. These two stories of family felt particularly poignant to me, while Dad is in the hospital, in ICU, still. This morning about 3 A.M., with a bad bout of insomnia (probably partly brought about by a spicy meal at Kismet), I started reading Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music by Irwin Chusid. I started it awhile back and put it down, because I didn't like what I perceived as a condescending 'insider' tone to his writing. But I began again, and got over that initial hump -- I still think Outsider is a totally loaded word and shouldn't be used so carelessly, if at all. This book is hilarious. I guffawed out loud when I read in the chapter about the Shaggs that Lester Bangs had compared the drummer's rhythmic (in)sensibilities to a "peg-leg stumbling through a field of bald Uniroyals (tires)" and when the author quotes Carla Bley as saying "They make my mind come to a complete halt." I like that very much. If only there was something that could make my mind come to a halt when I'm up with some raging insomnia! The Shaggs, I don't think would do it. They sound too awful for words. However, I do like Jandek very much, something Chusid can not do. I don't look forward to that chapter. I'm sorry, but Jandek sounds like music to me! posted at 4:08 PM Thursday, August 15, 2002 Rich Beale is the greatest singer in the world. And you've probably never heard of him. That is a crime. I would never have heard of him either, except that I've been running a website on The Pop Group, an extremely great post-punk band from Bristol, UK, for 5 years, and Rich was The Pop Group's house artist and later collaborated (as singer) with Gareth Sager of The Pop Group in 'Head' in the 1980's and 'Pregnant' in the 1990's. He has many different noms de song, or whatever you'd call it. Clevedon Pier. Don Mandarin. Bertie Beale. Probably others. He has recorded with Head, Pregnant, Apache Dropout, Receiver, Applecraft, solo as Don Mandarin. When we were in Bristol, we stayed with Mike Crawford, the guitarist and apparent leader of Apache Dropout. We timed our trip to coincide with an Apache Dropout reunion, so we got to see them. And we got to meet Rich and hang out with him a little bit. It's quite an exceptional thing when you meet someone whose art you've admired for a long time and he turns out to be an incredibly nice guy. I wrote about our trip to England on the Pop Group site. With photos, too. Tonight, we have Pregnant's "Mood Master" and Applecraft's "The Shining City on the Hill" in the 5-CD-Changer, on the shuffle setting, along with Bob Wills, Link Wray, and U-Roy. A variation on last night's track list, where we had Tricky and Apache Dropout instead of Pregnant and Applecraft. See Jenni's blog for more on last night's listening pleasures. posted at 10:58 PM Helping my pal Toast with another website. This one is on his obsession with Lesbian pulp fiction from the 50's and 60's. Hold on to your socks and file this one under Art. www.strangesisters.com His other site, which I also help with, is on really obscure punk rock. www.breakmyface.com posted at 10:46 PM Stopped by the hospital on the way home from work. Dad was asleep, and I hate to wake a sleeper. Visited with Mom a little and headed off for my massage appointment. posted at 10:42 PM Had a really, really great massage this evening. I felt more relaxed than I've felt in a really, really long time. Massage is something I've wanted to include in my mental/physical health regimen for a long, long time, and now I've finally gotten around to it. Shelly is a miracle worker. posted at 10:41 PM Wednesday, August 14, 2002 One has to distract oneself.... I opened a can of worms today in my web browsing. I guess I actually popped the top awhile back but didn't realize what a mess of info would flow out until today. Or was it yesterday? Anyway, I was looking over old blogs and looked at the random image I posted in my June 26 blog, which was just a list of songs I like, and not necessarily together. The image is a collage I made over a single by one of my favorite punk-era bands, Alternative TV (or ATV). (Mind you, the punk-era from the perspective of an old punk, y'know, late 70's; THE punk era, not the punk era that's become radio friendly.) In the image from the single, Mark P includes one of his influences, presumably, and in my image, I include Mark P as one of my musical influences. So, to get to the can of worms, yesterday I looked at the image and figured out the album sitting in front of Mark P's record player. (Record Player, folks!! Ain't that quaint? Well, it wasn't retro then.) Kim Fowley's Outrageous. Well, maybe I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but this sounds like one weird album. I searched said LP and found this review on Julian Cope's site. From the review, it doesn't sound like something I'd actually want to hear more than once, and then only in a morbidly curious sort of mood. (Oh, god, this just makes me miss audiogalaxy all over again!!) But, it IS intriguing. I mean, I have to think, Mark P owned this LP and apparently liked it enough to have it at the front of the stack of records when the pic was made. So I search Kim Fowley and find he has his own website. I think this page is a good intro to the weirdness within. (Check out the cover of The Industrials' Voodoo Island. What a bizarre collection of records!) I've never known anything about Kim F, but I think that will change. He sounds like quite a character. So is Mark P. Here's the unmodified cover of ATV's You Bastard single on a Squeeze fan site!! (They were on the same tiny label back then.) posted at 8:13 PM Tuesday, August 13, 2002 Jenni and I visited Dad (and Mom) in ICU, after work, then we went and had a sinfully delicious dinner at Marakesh. Lordy, it was good. posted at 8:06 PM Man, communication gets messed up. Dad did not have the new shunt put in yet. They removed the old one, and now he'll have to wait in ICU for another week (hopefully less) before they put the new one in. Jeez. But they really are taking good care of him there in ICU (at Seton Hospital, which is just a few blocks from our house). posted at 8:04 PM My Dad had more surgery today. Had a new, programmable shunt put in. He's been much more conscious (or rather, he's been conscious, period) the last couple of days when we've been by to visit him. The surgery went well, and the neurosurgeon expects him to recover... eventually. He's been through a lot in the last week, and it's taken a lot out of him. It sure was good to see Dad smile this morning, something I wasn't sure I'd see again. posted at 2:20 PM Sunday, August 11, 2002 Jesus. My Dad is having a hard time. I had no idea it was so bad. He's been in Intensive Care since Wednesday. The doctor says all the vital signs and CAT scans look fine, but my Dad does not look fine. It is hard to see him like that. He was a marathon runner, and I kind of think it's his runner's heart that's keeping him alive now. It's a hell of a race he's running now. posted at 11:35 AM Thursday, August 08, 2002 Jenni and I had dinner at Marakesh Cafe and Grill, a Moroccan restaurant, again last night. My oh my, so good. Afterwards, I went to visit my Dad in the hospital, but he was in ICU, recovering. My mother had called to say the operation went smoothly. Apparently, the neurosurgeon was not removing the shunt, just shutting it down temporarily. But he also had to drain a subdural hematoma. Ick. Went by this morning, too, but he was still in ICU. Should be moving to a room this morning. posted at 11:07 AM Wednesday, August 07, 2002 My Dad's in the hospital again. He has Adult Onset Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, and a couple of months ago, he had a shunt put in to relieve the pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid. But now there's something wrong with the shunt, and they have to take it out. From what I've found on the web, this is not unusual. Modern medicine hasn't quite figured out how to deal with hydrocephalus. It seems there have not been any significant advances in the last 25 years. I went to visit last night, but he had just been taken down for an MRI. The shunt really worked well at first. He was much more agile and lucid than before the operation. I hope the neurosurgeon can figure something out. What my Dad's MRI does NOT look like. posted at 9:42 AM Tuesday, August 06, 2002 Wow. Have you seen this pic of Earth at night, from way up on high? Amazing. posted at 2:20 PM There's more to life than kayaking? Says who?! Joined quite a large group (10) paddlers Saturday for a 10-mile trip down the beautiful Medina River. Sunday afternoon, I went out in the blazing heat for a little hike around the relatively new McKinney Roughs. Pretty nice nature preserve. posted at 1:39 PM