Video of the Year - Bjork's Wanderlust

just because...

it's the holidays. i'm going home from work. and rockstar degeneracy and nature make me hot. cut to 3:22 for the moment that says it all.

old people are all the rage

THIS IS AWESOME and as it should be.

more on hot oldness here.

just in time for the new year, a horoscope that truly resonates

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): "My deepest emotional wound has also been the source of in exhaustible blessings." I'm not going to tell you why that statement is true for me -- it's way too personal -- but I assure you that it's one of the fundamental facts about my destiny. Could you make a similar assertion, Virgo? Is it possible to interpret your life in such a waythat you could see how a painful experience you suffered in the past has also given you tremendous insight, inspiration, and vitality? Two thousand nine will be an excellent year to make that leap of understanding. And the time around the solstice -- right now! -- is a perfect moment to get started.

da doot, da doot, da doot-doo

i'm starting piano lessons again with Larry Karush. i've got 3 or 4 jazz songs i want to start with, and by next xmas, i'm going to record another piano CD, with a completely different rhythm and blues feel from my last classical/ambient pop improvisational meld.



here's 'black coffee,' one of the first 3. yayayayay!

beating the evil phone giants with my smart-stick

here are some self-discovered saavy tips for f**ing back those that try to f you. in my case, it's att/cingular/whoever-else-from-back-in-the-day-that-was-swallowed-whole-by-these-greedy-sloths ...

#1: PRESS 1 when prompted to 'do a brief survey after the call press 1' or 'don't do a survey press 2.' i tried both, and noted a distinctly different 'doot-doot' sound in the 2 numbers pressed after your selection to direct you to a rep. It is my suspicion that they send you to their Grade A make-you-happy-no-matter-what team upon the selection of said #1, so that your high grade will allow them to fudge their customer service stats. After receiving the best service of my life, my suspicion is pretty strongly confirmed. 'Y'know, I'm going to not only reverse those charges from last month, I'm going to look into your statements since September, and just reverse all of 'em! How's that? And while we're at it, I'm just gonna toss in 1,000 extra roll-over minutes.' this actually happened.

#2: use your phone company for a year or so while refusing to pay and jacking up a giant bill, then threaten to sue them for not fulfiling their end of the contract in providing available service, and they'll drop your entire year's bill! apparently a friend of a friend just did this, and he has ATT like me, and like me, gets no service anywhere.

#3: don't feel bad for being a jerk because: when you try to click on 'view my bill' online, the 'online store' is conveniently positioned overhead with a trigger-happy rollover feature that means you get redirected to the store over and over when you try to look at your bill.

And FINALLY: vote 1 out of 10 when they finally send you to 'the survey' and throw their numbers inexplicably off, leaving them high and dry when it comes to soliciting other major corporations to advertise on their new mobile marketing campaigns that will target you in disturbing and invasive ways.

hahaha. they're so gross and smooth with their manipulations, and i don't feel bad at all for hitting 'em with my stick.

get the pepsi some prozac!

there's a side of me that loves that Pepsi went here.

of course, it was only in germany, and they had to pull it like, 5 minutes of outraged twitter posts later.

the baleful MoMo on one of his nameless neighborhood missions. my neighbor Matt, an excellent photographer, has been using his iphone to capture the very essence of MoMo; a curious but suspicious ninja who sees rooftops, trees and humans as solely existing to serve his travel and dietary needs.

Where Are All the Acorns?

Being that I subconciously continue to cling to the fanciful, psychadelics-induced conviction of my teen-years that I was a druid in a past life, I find THIS heartbreaking and disturbing.

It also makes me want to point people in the direction of the best book I've read all year, this post-apocalyptic novel of grim, poetic beauty:
NY Times: 'the road would be pure misery if not for its stunning, savage beauty' and (because it deserves it) the coming movie.