I love to move in here

Err... No. I don't love moving. It involves the one thing I hate more than all others: packing. Packing sucks. It means you have to go through all your crap and realize just how much junk there is to clean or throw away. And when that's done you have to take whats left and somehow manage to put it all in boxes. Ugh. What a pain. Even if you get through all that, then you have to tape all those boxes up, and don't ever (and I mean EVER) put the tape down. Cause you'll only lose it. Probably it'll wind up in a box, which you will then tape shut. Yeah, don't even try to wrap your mind around that one, it's like trying to understand an M.C. Escher painting, just know that I speak the truth. In spite of how much I hate moving, somehow I found myself doing just that a few weeks ago. The good news is, shiny new place! And while the unpacking similarly sucks, I now get to organize and find places for things, which I LOVE. You don't even know.

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Now playing: Moby - I Love To Move In Here (Holy Ghost! remix)
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Buy this car to drive to work, drive to work to pay for this car

I'd like to see someone do some number crunching, myself, before I wholeheartedly accept this as fact. But still, how interesting. Might be worth a read...

"The best all-around alternative to the automobile for short trips is probably the bicycle. . . . The cyclist obtains the equivalent of 1,000 passenger-miles per gallon--noticeably better than most sub-compacts--and consumes food, not petroleum. If, following Ivan Illich's suggestion, we attribute to the automobile not only the time spent behind the steering wheel, but also all the time spent earning money to purchase, maintain, fuel, and insure a typical car, and compare that aggregate figure to an equivalent number for a bicycle, the bicycle emerges as considerably faster for all urban trips."

from Denis Hayes, Rays of Hope: The Transition to a Post-Petroleum
World (1977)

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Now playing: Metric - Handshakes
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Outta gas, still burnin (cont'd)

There were none of last pot's crazy wheeled contraptions. There were other unconventional things. That, I expected. But the dinosaur, that was a surprise.

Does anybody like real music, sweet music, soul music?

My name is Marcus... and I like music. Is there an anon. group out there for me, I wonder? I should check that out, maybe get some help.

I don't listen to the radio much in this modern age as finding stuff on the internets is more suitable to my schedule and attention span. Between last.fm and hype machine I really, truly do not need to spend any more of my time discovering new music. (Really. Have I mentioned the addiction?) Sometimes, though, it really comes through. The other day on KDHX I caught the sound Choklate, just a taste, but enough that I wanted to look into it further. After listening to her latest album To Whom It May Concern, I am floored by how amazing this artist is who was nowhere on my radar. For the most part she's got this neo-soul flavor thing going, but mixed in at times is a bit of hip-hop and - slightly surprising - a hint of disco. My favorite track right now is "The Tea", which reminds me of Jamiroquai's style. Makes me want to get up and dance.

And because everything is degrees of separation, I was reminded to take a second listen to one of my longtime notable favorite emcees, Chali 2na (Choklate and Chali did a little something something together). Been diggin' him since back in the J5 days, of course, and also some of his collaborations (Chali + Galactic = fantabulously zawesome, that was easily one of the all-time best shows I've been to). Somehow I hadn't paid a great deal of attention when came out with his solo work Fish Outta Water. I don't know if on his own he quite brings the depth that was standard from J5, but it's definitely worth a few listens. I should slap myself for sitting on this for so long without putting it into heavier rotation.

A little closer to home...
Loyal Family isn't a... label? Production / promo company? I don't even know how to identify them, I know so little about them. I think they may have had something to do with a music festival I went to once upon a time, and maybe with a band(s) that I'm into. Not terribly sure, though. Whatever the case, they sure seem to be getting up to a lot lately. Checking back over the blog I see quite a few quality shows that I would have loved to see, had I not been so busy having my head up my bum. That's the only inexcusable reason I can think that I missed freakin' Digable Planets comin' through town. Gah. How silly of me.

Eleven magazine, formerly dedicated to expanding the musical horizons of the Wash U set, is trying to get all big for its britches. They'll now be aiming for a wider St. Louis audience, focused predominately on indie rock, rock, hip-hop, soul and funk. Yes, please, and yes, yes, yes and yes, I will take the works. I figure more exposure of the scene can't hurt, 'specially if they're going to hit pretty much all of my favorite genres without any uninteresting dead weight. Something new to keep an eye on.

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Now playing: The Roots - Good Music
via FoxyTunes

Outta gas, still burnin

I can ride my bike with no handleb... hey wait, that's no bicycle.
I've got an idea. Let's invent some stuff. But not just any stuff, mind you. I'm talking weird stuff. Let's make it so weird that it barely has a purpose, and so cumbersome that it can hardly be considered efficient. But we'll make it real expensive, so people'll feel like they HAVE to buy it. Cause people are suckers! They'll buy anything. As long as it's new, they have to have it. Having stuff, it's their drug, and I'm your pusher man. If I was making this up, it might be funny. If only, if only. But it happens to be one of those strange truths of the world, if not the thought process then at least the end result.

4. With this one, I can kind of see where the design makes some sense. Sure, you'll look like a weirdo, but a weirdo who's making the most of what he has. Now that's what I call a leg (er... arm) up on the competition.




3. If a tricycle and an elliptical bumped uglies and had a bastard love child, this is what it would look like. Congratulations, it's a... beast.








2. Just when you think you can count on the ingenuity of human-kind, someone comes along with something to screw it up. Why would you want to use some of the largest muscle groups in your body, when instead you can just go for some much smaller and weaker? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to engineered imperfection.


1. And finally this must be my favorite (to hate). If you like running, if you like complications, if you like tools that actually make your job harder and slow you down, then the treadmill bike is here for you.







Here's to hope that the weather is decent when I step outside for biking on the interstate. Figure I might as well check it out since it's right there and all. With some careful planning and placement, I could roll directly out of bed and onto the bike, I'd be practically halfway there already. Decided to go with the more legal method instead of rolling with the FBC's patented brand of crazy. It's fun times, but it was too cold and wet for me. And I didn't know they would have fire on a bike trailer. Couldn't have guessed that one. Live and learn.

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Now playing: DJ Shadow - Mashin' on the Motorway
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