And we're back

I might actually get a good amount of blogging done in the coming weeks. One of the computer techs at one of the high schools just went out on maternity, and they're making me sit at her desk for 3 hours every morning to give the impression that everything is working. Not a big fan of having to sit in one place and play help desk, but it does let me sit in an office by myself for a few hours every morning. Can't really complain about that.

Dandelions are a bitch. I don't remember having a severe dandelion problem last year, but this year they're all over the place. So I spent this weekend buying hoses and sprays and spraying my yard to try and kill the bastards. Last weekend I got one of those big containers of Weed B Gon that comes with its own little sprayer thing. You suck in an amount of chemical into the sprayer with a syringe like motion and then spray. It was good for the little front yard, but then I went in the back and got a real idea of how many dandelions were back there and said, "To hell with this! There's got to be a better way." And then I started making inventions in my head. It was a hose, see, that has an empty layer between the inside and the outside. You would fill the middle layer with concentrated chemical, and the middle layer would sweat a certain amount down into the hose through minuscule punctures as water traveled through it. So I was making plans to contact physicists to help me with the whole how fast gravity will drop the water into the hose, contacting a biologist and a chemist to figure out what chemicals would best kill that blasted dandelion and see if maybe we could mix them with something that will make the grass grow fuller. Of course, then I went to Home Depot and found something better, cheaper, and far less complicated that did basically the same thing, mixed the concentrate with water from the hose, and was already invented and for sale. What's even more annoying about the dandelions is that, at first you think they must want to be destroyed because they're bright yellow and you know exactly where to spray. But then they don't come out like that on a rainy day like today. So today I can think they're gone, but they'll just be back tomorrow. And what's even more annoying than that! If the neighbors don't take care of their dandelions, those spores are just going get blown into my yard and grow, and then I'm in the same old sad predicament. And the neighbors aren't taking care of theirs. Let me tell you about that.

After I moved in last year, I found out that the house next to me was owned by a couple who just happen to be the daughter and son-in-law of a librarian who works at one of the schools I support. She was a lady pastor at the church down the street. Very quiet. Bliss. So the librarian comes up to me a couple weeks ago while I'm picking up sticks and tells me her daughter bought a new place and, since she didn't want her daughter to lose money selling the house, she bought the house from her daughter and now is going to start renting it out. To three college girls. God. Damn. It. I cannot fucking get away from them can I? So, they haven't moved in yet (and the yard is just growing over, there's the connection) and I'm really hoping/PRAYING that they don't cause a lot of problems/NOISE. I'm hoping they'll avoid it, because on the other side of their house is an old man, he's not really crotchety, but if they're pissing him off he'll tell them. And it's basically a family neighborhood, so I'm hoping if they cause problems people won't put up with it. And if they're really being assholes I guess I can always just drop by the school she works at and complain to their landlord. Have to do it fast though because apparently she's retiring in June. CONVENIENT! Anyway, just really hope they'll keep their shit in order, because I DO NOT feel like moving.

Bets?

Bets on when I get around to blogging again? Personally, I bet on later than soon. As often as I think of things and say "I'd like to write something about that" and as much as I try to keep it brief, it's still really hard to get myself to sit down and do it.

Animaniacs

Between my Mel in the Morning phase and my kung fu phase, I was in a "what I watched in the afternoon" phase. You know what, Animaniacs was hilarious. Especially Goodfeathers and ESPECIALLY Chicken-Boo. Something about birds cracks me up, especially when their wings are just wings, when they don't use them as arms or hands. Which is weird because the wings are what freak me out about live birds, but animated it's hilarious. STILL hilarious. The one show I went back and watched that I wanted to watch a lot of. I can sit and watch an episode of Duck Tales, Darkwing, Gummi Bears, Rescue Rangers, but the Fox shows, and I guess a lot of them were Warner Brothers, like Batman or X-Men or Eek the Cat (but mayyyyyybe not so much Tiny Toons), as opposed to the Disney afternoon shows, still loved watching them. Semi-related note: I saw a documentary on Chuck Jones recently and it made me want to go watch a bunch of old Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Also hilarious. It's absolutely stunning the way those hold up, even the really old ones.

HEE-YAA! Ooooo....OOOOoooooooYAH YAH YAH

Last week I finally gave in and joined Netflix again so I can feed my growing obsession in kung fu/martial arts movies. I tried to feed it with torrents, but I actually found that to be too hard. Cuz I had to find the torrent, wait for the download, convert the download for a DVD, and then come to find out a few of them were in Spanish or of meh quality. Impossible to complain, cuz they were free, but it's worth the 9 bucks a month to me to not have to go through that. Anyway, I'm still waiting for the movies to start pouring in, so over the weekend I went through a couple more of my VHS's I still need to go through, such as Timecop and Bull Durham. Still have a lot of VHS to go through, and now I'm going to start piling on the DVDs. I think right now my Netflix queue is all martial arts except for Season One of Renegade. I've just kind of been dying to go back and watch some episodes of Renegade for a long time. Right now, Ong Bak is in my mailbox. Can't wait. It's funny too that this is sort of coming out of my always increasing fervor for mixed martial arts. Certainly the movies are, or at least look, a lot more furious than the sport, and when I watch the movies I don't really sit and recognize the skill, just revel in gorgeous choreography masquerading as fighting, where in the fights it's all about the skill and taking advantage of small details, and whatever flipping around and dazzling occurs is like icing. But I guess one interest has grown out of the other.

The couple new things I have listened to

The latest Neko Case, Middle Cyclone. It's very good, but not nearly as memorable as previous albums. One problem I had with Fox Confessor compared to Blacklisted was that it was very wordy. It's hard sometimes to get bowled over by her singing when she's trying to wrap around and pound out so many syllables, where I thought Blacklisted for the most part was a perfect balance. She likes to tell her stories though, but unfortunately that, rather than a performance, becomes what you'd identify the song by. I listened to the album a lot the couple weeks after I bought it. It's obvious she put a lot into it, and it's not like it's hard to listen to, but it ends up being, not quite forgettable, but unmemorable.

Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears. Better than the usual retro soul, I liked it more than most Dap-Tone stuff I've heard. Not so much reliance on funk they might not be able to pull off. I liked it. Plus they have a song called Bobby Booshay. I don't know if it's actually about THE Bobby Booshay, but I figure it's better than NOT having a song called Bobby Booshay.

Van Morrison's Astral Weeks Live At The Hollywood Bowl. I've actually only listened to about half of this so far, but so far I'm buying into it. Haven't formed a full opinion on it yet, it's really difficult to hear the album in such a different way. Not like hard to hear as if it churns my stomach to think of the album redone by modern Van. Not at all, completely the opposite, and I'd say to reviewers who have criticized it not having all its young glory are off base. I actually think rather than being straight mumbly old Van redoing the album that he struck a balance between the original album and something like the reworking of Cyprus Avenue on It's Too Late To Stop Now.

I have listened to some other stuff that I didn't like too, but I'm having trouble coming up with the names. They're forgettable and I'd like to keep them that way. I've been having trouble keeping up with Soulbounce lately though, need to get back on board.

Theme Time Radio Hour

I haven't been listening to much new music lately. Rather I've finally gone back and started listening to the crazy backlog of Theme Time Radio Hour episodes that I've built up. Last year's spring break my mom and I took a trip to my see my grandparents in Niagara Falls and I listened to several episodes on the way there. And I haven't listened to a single complete episode since then. That's practically a year, though I have been downloading and burning them every week. By my count, tomorrow he'll do his 99th show. In the last month or so I've listened in backwards order, or as they were coming out, episodes 97 through 69. Totally fallen back in love with the show. I don't remember him being such a joker, but I love that he's a total fucking ham on this show. Somehow it's completely the opposite of his public persona but fits perfectly. The other day I was listening to a show and he started quoting Robinson Crusoe. Then he says, "Daniel Defoe. You know Daniel Defoe. I think he was in the movie Platoon. Oh no, I'm thinking of Charlie Sheen." At the time I said, "What the hell does that even mean?" Just this second I realize he was "confusing" Charlie Sheen with Willem Defoe, but at the time I was totally puzzled. That's definitely not the best joke I've heard on the show lately, I'd love to memorize them all, but some of his best jokes are just lists. I have tried in the past to go through the shows and pull out the highlights but realized it would take me forever and I lost interest. Anyway, I am fully back on board. And the music on it is almost unassailable, so that's a plus. And he still pulls out juxtapositions that make me ecstatic. Like Buddy Guy, followed by Puff Daddy "It's All About the Benjamins" followed by The Clovers. And it all makes perfect sense when he's introducing it.