I feel like I should be writing some grand summing-up sorta post now that we're all here at the outer edge of the calendar. But. I got nothin'

So here's a pic o' the holiday tree. Which did I mention wasn't even in the house, let alone decorated, when we arrived on Xmas. At noon.

By the way, it's not your eyes. Staten Island is actually sepia-toned throughout. A little known fact... (sorta makes you think about Wu Tang in a whole new way, doesn't it?)

Show went well, I think. Got a couple of calls -- one from someone with questions about Enzo Avitabile, one from Team Mundo member Christine complaining that the set was too good and was preventing her from getting to the grocery store. I know that the whole "best of" concept is sadly lacking in originality but it's better at this point than another 2 hours of the same playlist that's been up since Election Day.
Double apologies to WTH -- (1) for not being able to find his request; (2) for not remembering to bring "Bow Down" and play it during the show.

Since it seems to be list time, here are some of my faves, in no particular order::
"wipe that sound" :: Mouse on Mars
"burning down the spark" :: Nancy Sinatra
"red hott" :: Lil Pocket Knife
"last night" :: Northern State
"bow down (edit)" :: !!Swanhunter
"invisible things (graybeards boom bang mix)" :: the Black Dog + Black Sifichi
"ready steady go" :: Cowboys International
"bopp sa bopp" :: Daara J
"catch up to my step" :: Junkie XL
"besela ya" :: Celso Piña

Blue Album :: Orbital
Save the World :: Enzo Avitabile & Bottari
Super Riddim Internacional vol 1 :: El Gran Silencio
Rogue Satellite :: Omni Trio
Now is Another Time :: David Murray Latin Big Band
Pod :: Afro Celt Sound System
Electric Gypsyland :: various
Perpetuum Mobile :: Einstürzende Neubauten
the V-Discs (1943-1952) :: Frank Sinatra
Bangzilla :: Mixmaster Mike

Radio radio tonight, 8-10pm. You know the drill... 88.7fm if you're local. Or streaming from the XDU website. Since this will be my last show for 04, I'm planning a not-at-all-original "fave raves" show. Assuming I have time to go thru my reviews for the year and find/remember all the various CDs in question.

Back in Durham. From about 2pm on Xmas Eve until about 10pm on Boxing Day is was a mighty fine holiday. Standing rib roast, dangerous kitchen tools, Ethiopiques, easy travel, ROTK on DVD, the Schott's food & drink book, pumpkin pie, Italian deli, caramel latté, wifi. Alas, it was pretty much all down hill from there. Sarah and I both got so sick we were sure we had food poisoning. Only to find out that a stomach flu had worked its way thru my entire family in the days before Xmas. I'm sorta annoyed that no one mentioned this. On the other hand, we already had plane tickets so I'm not sure it would've made any difference. Anyway, after not sleeping at all Sunday night, I basically slept all day Monday and was out of it most of Tuesday. So all sight-seeing and plans were completely shot to hell. And today we came back. Which was a long day but uneventful (just how I like my travel).

Xmas was pretty nice. Hope yrs was too. Not a long or terribly rough travel day, altho it did start early. Flew into Philly (much cheaper than any of the NYC airports) but even though the reservations were on United the flight was on US Air. Of the mysterious sick-outs and spiralling circle of discontent US Air. So really a mere half hour wait for our bags means we got off easy compared to many. Drive from Philly to SI was a snap. And it's a good thing we got delayed a bit cos otherwise we'd have caught my folks totally unprepared. As it was, I ended up helping decorate the Xmas tree. On Xmas. Really I have to say that's taking procrastination to almost "Calvin & Hobbes" levels. If I could I'd link at this moment to one of the C&H cartoons where Calvin's dad explains that they're going to wait until the 26th to get a tree cos then you can just drive up and down the streets and find one out by the curb -- sometimes they're even decorated. But it's hard/impossible to find C&H online so you'll just have to make do with memory or imagination. Anyway, a nice quiet holiday. Followed by a nice quiet today. Managed to find a cafe with wifi (only took 2 tries). Shopped at a cool Italian grocery. Mmmm... prosciutto bread. They're talking snow overnight but it should clear off by morning so if we can figure out what we wanna do tomorrow we should be able to go into Manhattan and do it.

Hope you're where you want to be, giving/getting good presents (if that's your thing) or not (if it's not), but either way having a fun time with fun people. I'm planning a nicely secular, happily commercialized day. The food may not be as good as its been some years. And the lights (while gleefully "outta control") certainly won't be as gaudy as they were the year we did xmas in Vegas. But that's okay.
(bah! enough of this... things get any more treacly around here i'll be making ginger snaps)

Today's nomination for beautiful words to hear: "direct deposit."
And here I was thinking that it was just a fluke that Bean Traders had brewed Jamaica Blue Mountain this morning. But, no, actually it was a portent of a pretty decent day. Most of the pre-holiday logistical nightmares were out of the way. Today was more typical, just running around making last minute emergency deliveries. Pretty quiet and uneventful, at least for those of us what already have our $$ and I was out the door by 2pm. Went to a not-too-terribly-crowded grocery store and bought the world's smallest standing rib roast which I'll be cooking for dinner tonight.
(belated) Happy Festivus to y'all!

Here's some info on Lenny Dee, who did one of the Xmas albums I downloaded from Basic Hip. Vivé le fromage! His tune "Mister Santa" (a Yulified take on "Mister Sandman") has to be heard to be believed.

Sadly, I forgot my 04 Xmasmix CD when we went to the station, so the Divaville audience did not get to experience the sonic wonder of Mr. Lenny Dee, the Three Suns, or the Border Brass.

And speaking of tonight's Divaville, I just checked a couple of weather sites and it turns out the temperature only dropped about 10 degrees in the 2 hours we were at XDU. It felt more like 20.

And, yes, there was a fire incident at work last night. Alarming but damage was minimal and contained and we were all back on the job today. In case you were wondering, it's a bad idea to keep a big heat source like, say, an oven running without any kind of working temperature regulator. But with only one day left to get thru, I'm starting to get more in the happy holiday spirit (another glass of this wine will help) and out of holiday stress/I'd hate to have to kill a man at Xmas mode.

Finally, are there words more wonderful than "would you like bacon on top of that?" (okay, I know some of you will refuse to agree with that but that's okay... more tasty pork products for the rest of us)

Work's making my head a-splode (again). I just tell myself I've only got to get thru two more days without killing anyone. Unless they succeed in burning the place down tonight or tomorrow. Don't ask...
Anyway, while we're waiting for something to happen, here's some linkage.
Cheezy holiday music #1: the Border Brass
Cheezy holiday music #2: Basic Hip. Most of the holiday tunes are gone by now, but it's a damn swanky site so check it out.
Doing my bit to spread the word (before DJBC gets the C&D letter): the Beastles
Hello Christmas!

It's the holidays so it must be time for Santa Rampage! I'm guessing that these events might have started to attract more of a crowd after that Bad Santa movie but like it says on the website, they've been doing it for 20 years. One of the art car people we know from Houston is down with the whole Santa Rampage crew.

Can't remember where I found this but it's clearly a breakthru in alcoholic scientician research. Put down that science pole indeed. I especially love the comments thread, which is full of people pooh-poohing the scientifying methods used, repeatedly asking the same questions over and over, and generally failing to enter into the appropriately drunken (and/or Frinkian) spirit

When asked "wine or beer?" I will pretty much pick beer every time. But within the last month or so, I have enjoyed several nice, reasonably priced bottles of Côtes du Rhône. So far I've had a success rate of 2-for-3 around the $10 price point from local WFMs.
Say what you will about the French, they know what to do with a grape...

Today was actually pretty okay, esp. for a day (1) that was decidedly above-tropical (see: fucking freezing); (2) that began with me punching a filing cabinet at work. I know... I know... I'm sposed to be taking the happy pills. But the boss wasn't in yet. And sometimes I just get tired of nothing ever being anyone's fault, y'know.

Actually, the winner of the annoyance rockaway prize for today is Salon's cover story on Flickr. I guess it'll become all über-trendy now and then die a horrible death, just like Friendster. Oh well, it was a good ride while it lasted.

BBC did a poll to come up with 50 things you should eat before you die.** I note, with a mix of pleasure and alarm, that there's only 6 things on the list I haven't tried. I'm giving them the Australian meat pie -- I've certainly eaten meat pies and I have no idea what's so special about pies from Australia. Fortunately most of the remaining 5 are obscure enough that it's unlikely I'll be able to woof them down next week and then keel over, mission accomplished. I can't tell if it's rather a lame list or if I'm just such a foodie reprobate that it seems uninteresting to me.

** = warning: page contains alarming close up of Ainsley Harriott

Holidays fast approaching, not unlike an out of control steam locomotive... Went out last night and bought some pine garland to decorate the entrance between the dining room and living room. It's sadly worse for wear in spots (which I couldn't see in the dark when I was buying it) and they could've cut me a break on the price, but still it's nice to have some evergreen in the house. Mmm... pine-y.

We were planning to attend the Raleigh Ringers concert this afternoon (Kevin, from the Bakehouse, is a member of the Ringers and was even nice enough to get us tickets) but Sarah's got to work and by the time I got done everything I needed to get done it was... well, it was now, with the concert starting in Raleigh in 15 minutes. So I don't think I'm gonna make it either.

In other holiday news, Sarah's folks sent us a big box o' bacon. For some reason known only to the gods of UPS, the box was deposited outside the gate into the front yard some time on Wednesday. Sarah was home all day Wed. but apparently the gate into the yard to get to the front door foiled them so they just left it on the walkway. I didn't notice it when I drove up Wed. nite. In my defense, I was exhausted (see previous rants about all-frikkin-day trip to Ratlanta). But it was the first thing I saw when I came out of the backyard on Thursday morning. Fortunately, the big box o' bacon was in styrofoam, with ice packs. And it was cold on Wed. and bitter cold overnight, so everything had stayed chilly chilled. Also fortunately, the 'hood hereabouts apparently does not have roaming packs of dogs, racoons or bears so the box was neither chomped up nor carried off in the night. What could be a more delightful holiday surprise than a collection of tasty pork products? Vegetarians will not agree (but that's okay and leaves more bacon for me).

Meant to post this last weekend but... anyway, the mystery show last week was a blast. Like I said, I was actually on from 9-11.30 so the "theme" portion of the evening was just dropped into the middle of the show. Started a bit before 10 and ran to a bit after 11. Playlist below. I'll have one more regularly scheduled show this year (12/30). Plus I'll be sitting in with Sarah for at least part of the Divaville Xmas show next Thursday (12/23, 6-8pm). And maybe some last minute subbing. But enough about me...

By the time you read this, it'll probably be over but I'm on air tonight, 8-10pm. As ever, 88.7fm if you're local. Or streaming from the XDU website. And what will I be playing, you might be asking? Perhaps some Xmas tunage. And lots of long songs as I'm seriously exhaustilated after yesterday's marathon jaunt down to Ratlanta. One thing I learned: Lemony Snicket books are the perfect length for reading on short plane trips. Also, in last night's edition of "don't be That Guy" I learned that, whatever dissatisfactions I might have with my job, it could be worse. Waiting to get on and then off the plane (altho strangely not during the flight when all was silence), I was stuck listening to That Guy go on and on (and on some more) about whatever business trip he was just coming back from. And not, as you're no doubt imagining, into a cell phone. No, he was travelling with someone. It was never clear if she was an executive assistant, or someone in a skills position that was supervising. Mostly that's unclear because he never actually said anything specific, just yammered on in vague biz school platitudes. At a certain point I realized that he wasn't in fact saying anything. He's either one of those people who just doesn't know when to shut up. Or the type who has to take over all the verbal airspace to demonstrate his inherent master-of-the-universe status. I really felt bad for the woman he was talking at. It's 11-frikkin-30 so she must have been listen to this chunkhead babble for untold hours (or possibly days, depending on how long a trip it had been). However much she was getting paid it can't have been enough.

That's a bit better. Stayed up way too late last night watching the Philadelphia Story. Which I've seen a gazillion times. I was just going to watch the opening. But then I decided I had to stick around for Jimmy Stewart's big drunk scene ("C. K. Dexter Haven, you have unsuspected depth") and by that time the movie's halfway over so you might as well watch the rest. Tonight we watched the first Zatoichi movie. Also grand fun.
And now I must to sleep. I'm supposed to be meeting Mike at the bakehouse at a quarter to "ohmigod"

Got to work this morning. Usual Monday havoc. At some point, clicked over to cnn.com only to find out who won Survivor, which we'd DVR'ed last night but I hadn't seen yet. Grrr...
Checking online tonight and found out that the log rack I ordered thru Amazon to store firewood on the back porch got delivered to some totally random address somewhere in Durham. A week ago. So now I've gotta write to the seller, get a tracer, blah blah blah etc. Grrr...
Wednesday it's down to Ratlanta for work. All day. And I do mean all frikkin day. Flight leaves at 7am and return flight's not back to RDU until something like 11.30. Grrr...
Some days ya just oughta be able to skip

While I was out surfin' the waves of pre-holiday consumerism, I bought a little sumthin sumthin for myself. Was digging thru the always disorganized world music section at Borders Chapel Hill when I found a couple of CDs by Monterey's El Gran Silencio. I've seen them mentioned around here and there but I think XDU has all of exactly one song by them (on some comp or other). But it's killer. They've got that Monterey colombiana/cumbia working. I picked up what I think is their most recent, 2003's Super Riddim Internacional! Vol. 1 and it's kicking much ass. They fall about smack in the middle between Control Machete and Celso Pina. (grr... while I was googling around to see if they had a website, I saw a listing for a show EGS did with Control Machete in Tucson)

support department out pliancy as rood
detention anomie?
carbondale ellsworth
no on doggone with quotient
me dispersive sorensen campaign
the us footstool dream
pretend the grosset to assuage
eat walnut


Ewan McTeagle couldn't have said it any better.

So I just spent the better part of an hour dealing with comment sp*m over on Sarah's blog. Talk about wasting yr time and annoying the pig. This, mind you, is not stuff that ever actually posted. Just stuff that was caught by Blacklist. Actually, after dealing with more messages than I could count I came to the email saying that the address had been IP banned for sending excessive comments within 200 seconds. I tell ya, if I could find the folks running that sp*mbot, I'd gladly hit them in the head with a hammer.

Last night I finished reading The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin. Fun read. (thanx Pru!!!) Quoting from the back cover of the book: "a lot of heavy drinking, bad behaviour, fast car chases, gratuitous sex and violence, bizarre toy fetishism and all-around grossness. Of a type not normally associated with Toy Town." Rodny sez check it out...

Weekend o' too much radio ahead. I'll be doing Mondo Mundo: the radio version tomorrow 1-3pm. You know the drill... 88.7fm if you're local. Or streaming from the XDU website. On Sunday, I'll be on from 9-11.30pm. At least some of that time will be taken up with the previously mentioned mystery show, "But Enough About Me..." Songs of unapologetic egomania. Playlist sure to include such gems as: "Look at Me, I'm Wonderful" "How Ya Like Me Now?" "I've Gotta Be Me" "All Hail Me" "Yu Gung" and more. Doubt I'll do the whole 2.5 hours on theme but we'll see how it goes.

In case you're wondering, red dye #2 doesn't have much flavor. So, other than pure hydrogenated evil, there's nothing to interfere with the usual Oreo-flavor.

I know this isn't the best picture evah. I even got Sarah's tripod out to try and get a decent shot. But after taking over 20 pics of evil Oreos, I'd about had enough. So I ate 'em

So, yeah... I've been way over-indulging my indolence. I was gonna say "this month" but really it started back before Thanksgiving. I will get around to wrapping up WriMo and Accessing Creativity one of these posts... no, really...
But it's December which means time to indulge in all manner of holiday goofiness. Sarah has already blogged about our Xmas lights, which are a hugely retro affair. And seem even more so here in Durham where it's all white lights all the time. But we're all about the big ceramic bulbs. Still trying to get a decent picture.
Last night I got my first chance to watch The Year Without a Santa Claus. My 2nd favorite Xmas toon (no, there are no bonus points for guessing what's my fave... too easy) and a high point in the Rankin Bass catalog. w00t!
Mention must be made of my holiday CD purchase for 04. I try to restrict myself to only one cool yule CD per year. Previous picks include Christmas Cocktails, Merry Xmas from the Space Age Bachelor Pad, and Christmas Remixed. For this holiday season it's A John Waters Christmas which mere words cannot do justice to. Get it and be fabulous!
December is also time for the Oreos of Pure Evil. double w00t! (again, I'm working on getting a decent picture)

top 10 wrrld music CDs @ WXDU (week ending 12/05/04)

Floating Roots :: Lena
Boomerang :: Daara J
Ce Soir Lá :: Lo'Jo
Whendo :: Gangbé Brass Band
African Underground, vol. 1: Hip-Hop Senegal :: various
Sincerely Hot :: Domenico + 2
South Pacific Islands :: various
Loteria de la Cumbia Lounge :: Charanga Cakewalk
Inspiracion Espiracion :: Gotan Project
Oil & Water :: Stephen Kent

As previously blogged elsewhere, this morning was the Chapel Hill Xmas Parade. Big fun. Some of my fave moments were the middle school football team chanting "bubbles! bubbles!" because Sarah had turned the machine off to save bubble juice while we were waiting to get rolling; the parade marshal who recognized the car and commented on what a great addition the bubble machine was. When we rolled 2 years ago, we either forgot to bring bubble liquid or something, and the first year we did the Chapel Hill parade Sarah hadn't got the big bubble machine yet so this was the first year for the full effect; the guy who saw the bubble machine and correctly identified it as a "disco machine" then came up and asked us if we'd seen a local art car with a racetrack on its hood (we haven't).
So, yeah, good times.

Tonight's the last night of the annual Great Cover Up and I'm making the scene with Lisa. And no doubt more XDU DJs than you can shake a stick at**. Last year the night I went had bands doing Gang of Four, Joy Division and Television. That'll be hard to top but I'm looking forward to seeing what's on the bill



(**please do not shake sticks at the DJs as it makes them cranky and more likely to play indie rock)