Wednesday, April 28, 2004

WXYC Wednesday 4-28-04 (6-9 PM)

<6:00>
(H) Austin Pietre - Jolie Blonde (from Cajun Champ comp)
Michael Hurley - You Got to Find Me
Brother JT3 - Be With Us
Oakley Hall - Color the Shade

(H) Murs - Bad Man!
Sound Dimension - Drum Song
Phyllis Dillon (R.I.P.) - One Life to Live
Sam Cooke - Bring It Home to Me

(M) Noxagt - Acasta Gneiss
The USA is a Monster - Somehow
Gentle Giant - The Boys in the Band

(H) Trio Derome Guilbeault Tanguay - Marcher sur des braises
<7:00>
Stark Reality - Dreams

(R) Destroyer - To the Heart of the Sun on the Back of the Vulture,
I'll Go
(H) The Skygreen Leopards - Walk with the Golden Cross
The Pentangle - Hatian Fight Song

(M) Candi Staton - He Called Me Baby
Etta James - How Big a Fool
Huey "Piano" Smith - Pop Eye
Hopeton Lewis - Boom Shacka Lacka

(H) End - World Went Down
Lex - Fourteen Days (off Disco Not Disco 2)
(S) Aceyalone - Junkman

(H) Orchestre G.O. Malebo - Foreman Ali Welcome to Kinshasa (from the
Hits & Misses comp)
Lonnie Youngblood - African Twist

<9:00>
(R) The Album Leaf - One Minute
Giant Sand - Dirty from the Rain
(S) Elliott Brood - Bowling Green

(R)(M) Ratatat - Seventeen Years
The Victims - Television Addict (from Do the Pop! comp)
(H) Mission of Burma - Absent Mind
Erase Errata - Glitter
(H) Ex-Girl - Hettakorri No Ottokotoy

Fritz Ostermayer - Nimh Ihn!
The 6ths - Puerto Rico Way
The Ronettes - Baby, I Love You

(R) Oingo Boingo - Nasty Habits
(R) Os Mutantes - Quem Tem Medo De Brincar De Amor
(S) Carl Henry Brueggen - Rum Toddy

Why is the sky Carolina blue?

Today is one of those beautiful North Carolina spring days in which the sky is literally more blue than I've seen anywhere else in the country. And it's 65 degrees outside...which is almost perfect. I want to go to the OCSC patio (or even He's Not Here) and get drunk...anywhere outside. But, alas, I have a radio show to do at six tonight. No fair.

Monday, April 26, 2004

Update

Last Wednesday I went to Duke for their annual free end-of-school year concert, which is on their campus in which thousands of Duke students get drunk on their wet campus in celebration of their last day of the semester. This year was Kanye West and Dilated Peoples. But DP never showed up. The sound sucked for Kanye West, but it was still a fun show. It was weird feeling buying and drinking beer on a college campus. Members of Carolina's basketball team were there as were members of Duke's. I saw Damion Grant, Rashad McCants, Jackie Manuel, and Melvin Scott for UNC. I saw Shavlik Randolph, Daniel Ewing, and Sean Dockery for Duke. Everyone except Randolph wore some sort of basketball throwback jersey. It was weird seeing Rashad and Randolph embracing and acting as if they were friends. Before Kanye went on, somebody near the stage held up a McCants #32 Carolina jersey. There were more cheers than boos, which was odd considering we were on the Duke campus...probably because there were many North Carolina Central students, who I presume prefer Carolina over Duke. I did hear a "Fuck Carolina" behind me, though.

Friday was the Six Organs of Admittance show at Nightlight, which I enjoyed very much. Before Ben Chasney amazed me and everyone else with his guitar playing was this local old time band. After Six Organs was local sludge metal band, Face Down in Shit, who I'd never even heard of before...but their ferocity and headbanging made an impression on me for the 15 or so minutes I stayed. I just couldn't take the heat and the stench of metalhead body odor. Plus, I was a little too high for my comfort. It was a good (or bad depending on how you look at it) reminder for me to not get high when there are a lot of people around...since I get very self-conscious then very paranoid. Perlmutter and Coach D kinda freaked me out, but I swear they had to have been fucking with me. Bastards.

WXYC played WXDU in our annual kickball bragging rights game. I think XDU had a three game winning streak or something like that before last year, when we crushed those bastards. This year we had approximately 30 DJs or so show up in comparison to their 15 or so. So our talent was diluted, and also since they invited some of their sports show nerds to play. They got off to an early lead, although there were some questions on how many runs they scored early on. We made a furious comback late (helped by a 2-run RBI double from yours truly), but we ended up losing 7-6. Basically, they just cheated better than we did. They must have learned from Coach K...they know how to work the refs to their advantage, i.e., cheat.

Thursday, April 22, 2004

WXYC on Jeopardy!

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This pic was taken from my friend, Tim's blog. This was on Jeopardy a couple of nights ago (4-20-04). I wish I had seen it. The answer, by the way, is "What is North Carolina?"

And as Tim said in his blog, the cold hard facts behind this "belief." KJHK and WREK can suck it. Bitches.

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Sinner, you better get ready

I got a call from CD Alley last week while I was in Chicago telling me that the Goodbye, Babylon boxset I had them order had arrived. Today I picked it up, and I'm listening to it right now.

For those not familiar, this boxset (made by the new and fabulous 78 reissue record label, Dust-to-Digital) features five discs of old time gospel music (both black and white) from the years 1902 to 1960 and one disc featuring 25 sermons from the years 1926 to 1941. Yes, it's even better than it sounds. The packaging is hand-made, and it's beautiful. It comes in a wooden box, and when you open the box, you'll notice that there's cotton lined up inside. A 200+ page book is also included. There are 135 songs from the obscure to some more recognizable names such as Hank Williams, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Bill Monroe, to name a few. It's well worth its $100 pricetag ($89.95 at CD Alley). Christ be with you, bitch!

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Sunday, April 18, 2004

Lots of shows

There are some good shows that will be coming to the area in my last couple of months here in North Carolina. I should probably attend these shows instead of skipping so many as I have in the past, some regrettably.

This week itself will be hectic. Wednesday night at Go! is Four Tet. I think I might have free tickets to see Nas at the Dean Dome on Thursday, but I need to follow up on that. Friday is Six Organs of Admittance at Nightlight followed by KRS-One at the Cradle, which I have a free ticket to. I might attend the Tortoise show (with Beans opening) at the Cradle next Sunday, but it's $14/16. If it's Beans (from Antipop Consortium) and not the post rock band Beans from Vancouver, then I might be more inclined to go.

Other shows I'll probably attend include: Patton Osawlt (from King of Queens), Brian Posehn (from Mr. Show), and Jon Wurster (from Superchunk) on 4-30 at the Cradle (a little standup comedy); the USA is a Monster at Nightlight on 5-3; Ex-Girl at Go! on 5-18; Need New Body and Hella at Go! on 5-30; Acid Mothers Temple at Go! on 6-16 (if I'm still here). There are others I might attend, but these caught my eye at first glance.

I want an iPod

Somebody buy me an iPod or give me money to buy one. Do it.

Friday, April 16, 2004

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Knowing the criteria and characteristics for Bipolar Disorder from my training and education as a psychologist, I know I'm not a manic depressive. But, damn, I can have some fast mood swings. I was pretty angry and bummed out most of yesterday from my experience looking for an apartment here in Chicago this week. Some of that anger is still there, but there's basically no point in staying mad. First, my new apartment is cool. Second, the rent is very reasonable. And third, as I looked at the map of Chicago and where I'll be living, and having my friend Paul drive me around for a bit, I noticed that my apartment's location within the heart of Ukrainian Village is a very good one. I'll be a block away from the Empty Bottle. It'll also be a short walk to many cool bars, restaurants, record stores, etc. And apparently, I can walk to some friends' apartments easily. Also, I'll be a few blocks away from a hospital...so if I ever get stabbed or shot, I can run over to the hospital in no time. But my neighborhood and surrounding area seem pretty safe, so I don't expect to get assaulted. Besides, with the sawed-off shot gun I carry with me at all times, no one's going to fuck with me.

The process of finding this apartment fucking blew. But I think the end result looks pretty good.

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Fuck this

I hate something. I don't know exactly what or who I hate, but right now I hate something. Let's just say that this apartment hunting experience has been one of the most frustrating and stressful experiences I've ever had that has had nothing to do with grad school. I want to say "Fuck Chicago," but it's not really Chicago's fault. Having lived in college towns (Columbia, MO and Chapel Hill/Carrboro, NC) for the past ~9 years or so, my experience in finding apartments has been different. I'm used to finding a place to live 3-4 months in advance, but I guess in Chicago (and large cities), most available places are looking for people to move in immediately or in a month at the latest. But since this is the only time I can make it up here to look at places before I actually move, I wanted to secure a place before I had to go back to Carrboro.

To make a long and boring story short, a couple of hours ago, I signed a lease to this pretty decent apartment in Ukrainian Village. I'll be living with my old Columbia chum, Mr. Jeff Carrillo, guitarist for up and coming world beaters, Mahjongg. The catch is, the lease starts May 15, which puts a financial strain on both me and Jeff. My job ends in early June, and my current Carrboro lease ends June 30th. I was planning on moving to Chicago on June 29th or 30th or July 1st because I wanted to spend a few weeks in North Carolina partying and impregnating women, but I guess I'll probably now be moving up to Chicago sometime in early to mid June.

Anyway, the apartment itself is pretty cool, and it's affordable for such a big city. It's on the third floor (top floor) of this building, and from our windows, you can see parts of the Chicago skyline. I figure once I get settled in and used to living in the city (I'm guessing by mid-July-ish), my anger at this experience will have faded.

So I'm going to go get fucked up tonight and then drive back to St. Louis tomorrow. Then the next day I'll drive back to North Carolina. I fucking hate my life.

Sunday, April 11, 2004

Notes from the road

I'm back home in good ol' St. Louis, the Gateway City, home of the Cardinals, Blues, Rams, Imo's Pizza, toasted ravioli, Chuck Berry, Nelly, and the bowling hall of fame. I made it in my usual ~13 hour trip from Chapel Hill. It was one of the smoother roadtrips because I didn't run into too much traffic, even though I almost got rear-ended by two cars during a sudden stop in St. Louis due to a car accident by the Galleria.

Notes from the road:

North Carolina: What a beautiful state. I dare to call it the most beautiful state not on the west coast. West of Winston-Salem, I saw a really tall flagpole by I-40 with an American flag and a Confederate flag right below it. Sometimes I forget that I live in the South since Chapel Hill and most of the Triangle doesn't really feel like the South. I made to Asheville in a little over 3 hours, which is a new record (it usually takes about 4 hours). I love Asheville. It's probably the only other place in North Carolina I'd consider living in.

Tennessee: Also a pretty state to drive through, mostly. But it's rednecks and Christian-right galore. Lots of large cities (and medium-size cities) are ugly to drive through, but Knoxville takes the cake. What a fucking dump. It's like the world's largest truckstop. I have lots of mix cds to listen to, and they really helped me tolerate this drive. And mix cds are the best on roadtrips, although I have to say that the Fucking Champs' IV is an awesome roadtrip album. I rocked out to it while driving through Nashville.

Kentucky: Not much going on in this state. Their car license plates are the pussiest license plates I've ever seen. It's a picture of a sunrise, and the sun has a fucking smiley face drawn on it. Jesus, even the queer eye for the straight guy dudes would call that gay. I listened to a lot of Black Dice and Wolf Eyes through Kentucky, which surprisingly makes for good and soothing roadtrip music when you're by yourself. As I was about to leave Kentucky for Illinois, I noticed that the miles tracker below the speedometer read 666. I wonder what if that means anything...

Illinois: What a shitty state. The southern tip of Illinois isn't too bad, but when people think of the stereotypical midwest with just flat land and nothing worthwhile to see, I don't understand why Illinois isn't typically included with the likes of Indiana, Kansas, Iowa, etc. (Leave Missouri out of it...it ain't the best, but it's a hell of a lot better than those states.) The drive from St. Louis to Chicago doesn't take too long, but it sucks due to how shitty Illinois is. Fuck that state. The only two redeeming things I can think of Illinois are Chicago and East St. Louis, the strip club capital of the midwest. It was a little creepy at times driving through Illinois, due to the rain, and because of the lack of traffic, very little light anywhere. Plus I was listening to the Swans' Children of God album.

Missouri: I love rolling into St. Louis from the Illinois side. First, it's because I'm leaving that dreaded state. But it's also because I love seeing the St. Louis skyline coming in from the east. St. Louis doesn't have the most impressive skyline, but the Arch definitely makes it look nice. I never tire of seeing the city coming in from the east. As I crossed the Mississippi, I knew I had to come back home gangsta style. So I switched from the Swans album to Dr. Dre's Chronic 2001. Word.

Now I'm back home and am relaxed. I wish I could spend more time here and hang out, but tomorrow I'm heading out to the Windy City to look at apartments.

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Addiction

I thought I was good this weekend when I decided not to attend the record fair here in Carrboro. I decided I didn't need to be spending any more money like P Diddy.

But today, I said, "Fuck it," and went to CD Alley and spent what little money I have on some records and CDs...and right now, I'm glad I did.

CDs bought: Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days (Sub Pop) and Various Artists - Hits and Misses: Muhammad Ali and the Ultimate Sound of Fistfighting (Trikont) - a compilation of music about Muhammad Ali or stuff performed by him, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and others...I haven't really listened to this yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Records bought: the new Noxagt - The Iron Point (Load) - I'm listening to this right now, and it's awesome; the Motörhead - England boxset (Earmark) - this has three LPs: Overkill in green vinyl, Bomber in blue vinyl, and Ace of Spades in gold-colored vinyl; the new Black Dice - Miles of Smiles EP (DFA); The USA is a Monster - Tasheyana Compost (Load) - I already have this on CDR, but this record comes in hand-made screenprinted package; and a little Philly soul: The Delfonics self-titled album (Philly Groove).

Passed on: too many to name.

Didn't have but really want: the new Fennesz

Still waiting to arrive: The Goodbye Babylon boxset

I think it's time to go back on the Ramen diet. Fuck Atkins.

Monday, April 05, 2004

Hello Kitty Bong

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You put your weed in there.

Sunday, April 04, 2004

Happy Kucinich Day

Today, April 4th, is significant for a few reasons. First, it's my sister's 25th birthday. So that means she can legally drink now. Second, it's the date of Martin Luther King's assassination. So that means that my sister was born on the day he died, and I was born on his birthday, which is January 15th. I take that as to mean that my sister and I are honorary members of the the African-American community. I've always liked the fact that MLK and I share the same birthday.

But today is a special day here in Carrboro, North Carolina. For those of you who don't know, Carrboro is kind of like the lesser-known and more liberal sister town to Chapel Hill. The University of North Carolina is basically at the Chapel Hill-Carrboro border. Chapel Hill has a reputation for being liberal, but I think it's largely in part due to Carrboro.

And today was designated "Dennis Kucinich Day" by the mayor of Carrboro. And the guest of honor was...you guessed it, Congressman Dennis Kucinich! I'm not sure how everyone feels about him, but he, to me, is the IDEAL person for this country, whether it be as president or any other leadership position acting on behalf of the good of this country. Even though I have doubts on whether he can be an effective president because there would be so much opposition from the powerful (Republicans, rich Democrats, corporations, the national media, and people just afraid of change), I still support him wholly on his quest to make some changes in both the Democratic party and the lawmakers in Congress. He still beats the hell out of Bush, John Kerry, John Edwards, and others.

Today also makes me appreciate even more the town I live in. Carrboro (and Chapel Hill) is a special and very progressive place, and I realize what I'm giving up by moving to Chicago at the end of June. The people here are how the rest of this country should be like...hell, the rest of fucking conservative North Carolina. You may remember that the Daily Show with Jon Stewart came here last year to do a piece on Carrboro's "French Appreciation Month," in response to all those anti-French sentiments because of the war in Iraq. (The term "freedom fries" originated from somewhere in this state.) I fucking love this town. I can easily see myself moving back here when I want to settle down...or if I find that Chicago's not a place I want to live in after all.

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Thursday, April 01, 2004

Damn!

That Three Times One Minus One song (from Mr. Show) is stuck in my head...specifically the part where Bob Odenkirk's character says, "Damn!" And I can't think of a better part of any song to be stuck in my head right now. Today, after work, I bought a spindle of blank CDRs and the She's All That DVD for $10. And I just treated myself right to a pound of filet mignon. Damn!