Horked this meme from wordnerdy. (Sarah's right; these things are like potato chips. Or crack. Or crack-flavored potato chips...)

1) Total number of books in your house:
Around 700

2) The last book you bought was:
Sandman, vol 2: the Doll's House by Neil Gaiman, et al.

3) What was the last book you read before reading this message?
Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany by Ben Schott

4) Write down 5 books you often read or that mean a lot to you.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Malingering by Susan Compo

5) Who are you going to pass the stick to (to three people) and why?
no one (i stole this meme so i don't need to play by the stinkin' rules, man!)

Turns out the indecency email that started all the hubbub was actually about a Fela song, not Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. So yeah... completely different story there. Oddly enough, I was just talking to Rick! last night about Fela and indecency and the song "Expensive Shit." Anyway, I feel fairly bozorific for having gone off about something that turns out to have been a simple case of someone misreading an email.

Following up on last night's indecency ranting -- I noticed that VH1 Classique is showing bowdlerized versions of at least some videos. The ones I've caught so far are "Laid" by James (now "she only hums when she's on top") and "Living on the Ceiling" by Blancmange (now "up the t-t-tree" instead of the original "up the bloody tree"). I wasn't aware the "bloody" was offensive enough to anyone to be looped out. Then again, what the hell do I know from offensive? On the top row of my bookshelf rest all of the Anastasia Krupnik books. And we all know what they're like...

Last night at the station, whilst I was sorting thru the playlist CDs trying to decide what all to play, I noticed that someone had written a note on my review of the new Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan CD (yes, I know he's been dead for years but the post-mortem career is hardly a novelty these days). Which note read "track 1 = indecent." All together now: wtf?!!? After posting to the list about it, I found out that earlier in the week someone had posted a message to the request line to tell the DJ that the track they'd just played was indecent and they should note that on the case. None of which is out of the ordinary or eyebrow-raising. Except, again, wtf?!!? Aside from the fact that XDU has no policy for screening indecencies in Punjabi or Urdu or any south Asian language. Aside from the fact that, no, foreign words that just happen to sound indecent are not in fact indecent. Aside from the fact that I'd already listened to this particular 18 min 48 sec track several times while reviewing the CD without noticing any indecencies. And then went downstairs after my show and listened to it again. Even without all that, still... dude, WTF!??! Is there some sub-genre of gangsta qawwali with which I was previously unfamiliar? (and if so, where can I buy some?) I know, I know... it's a good thing that DJs are listening to the station and trying to catch and correct mistakes, esp. with regard to audible indecencies going out over the air. But even the most superficial awareness of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan oughta be enough to tell you that, whatever you think you just heard, he did not say "shit" in the middle of 18+ minutes of qawwali vocal improvising. It really did take me several tries to get my email comments to the DJ mailing list (last night) and the XDU board (this morning) not to just be all up in someone's grill. (that's what this blog is for -- lucky you!) My main concern there was to clear up for any DJs who might want to play the CD that, no, it's not indecent and not get into any huge brouhahas. But here on my time I'll just wrap up by saying that, really, there's just NO excuse for that level of ig'nance and if one really does know that little about foreign music/language/culture one ought, politely, to keep one's fucking mouth shut

Some old news, dating back to my trip to Maryland at the start o' the month. If you find yrself in the area and thirsty, I recommend Du Claw Brewing Co.. I've only been to the Arundel Mills location -- a brewpub in a mall? Brilliant! Combines two of my fave activities: shopping and drinking. But I've tried several of their beers and they've all been excellent.
Back in the local and present, I'll be on the air tomorrow night, 8-10pm, 88.7fm or streaming from the XDU website. Not sure which I'm more excited about -- Konk on the playlist or the fact that I now have "Lose Control and Do the Stomp" on CD (thanks Bill!) and available for airplay. w00t!

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 20 feb 05) ::

Brazilian Girls :: Brazilian Girls
Remezclas de la Casa :: Ojos de Brujo
Guarda-Me a Vida Na Mão :: Ana Moura
Amassakoul :: Tinariwen
Rough Guide to the Music of Central Asia :: various
Buena Vista Social Club Presents :: Manuel Guajiro Mirabal
Voices From Heaven :: Soweto Gospel Choir
MandinGroove :: Cheick Tidiane Seck
Living In The Positive :: Nasio
African Holocaust :: Steel Pulse

So yeah Hunter S. Thompson is dead. Self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Which, while sad, isn't all that terribly surprising as an exit strategy. My two fave Thompson memories: (1) reading all of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72 during one three hour Trailways bus ride to Bawlmer. This would've been sometime in the early 80s. Certainly reading it didn't turn me into a jaded cynical bastard. I think one has to have a pretty bent worldview already to even pick up a Thompson book. But it probably had a lot to do with the styles and flavors of cynical bastardness I ended up drawn to, at least in my 20s. (2) saw Thompson speak at NYU later in the 80s. He was, predictably, late. Very late. 90 minutes or so (I can't remember exactly). And he was pretty spun by the time he took to the stage. Mostly he read stuff and talked about his experiences as night manager at the O'Farrell, an adult movie theater in San Fran. Then he answered questions from the floor. The one I most remember was some kid asking about ether. Which question either got hooted at by the audience, or else the moderators tried to brush off the question (I seem to remember they were trying to steer the questions away from drug-related areas). But Thompson barked them down, told the kid it was an excellent question and proceeded to give a concise detailed response on ether, its effects, and why you wanted to stay away from it.

Lisa's post today about other 80s fashion was eerily in synch with stuff I was thinking about this afternoon, namely other 80s music. A decade-plus of 80s revivalista/flashback TV shows, CD compulations, etc have pretty much cemented what 80s music was -- essentially, commercial new wave. There are a few exceptions. The first Rhino 80s CD compilation series was so broad (8 or 10 CDs I think) that it pulled in some of the weirder fringes of new wave. And the 3CD Postpunk Chronicles set is essential. And some of VH1 Classic gets it right. But so much of what my 80s were about is missing. Gone. Forgotten. Or maybe not. Thanks to the efforts of XDU's glorious music director, the station is now in possession of the Soul Jazz compilation the Sound of Konk. w00t!! Here's the review I wrote to go on the CD: In a different, better world more of the 80s would’ve sounded more like this (and less like the kinda stuff you now hear on every single frikkin’ “I Luv da 80s” compulation). But they did, at least in selected parts of downtown NYC. And here’s proof. Konk were a sprawling, massive, funky mess o’ Latin percussion, JB horns, Contortions skronk, and the kitchen sink. Liner notes are outstanding on the history of the band and the scene and the times. High point is track 6 which absolutely ruled the club floors of NY back in summer of 84. Track 9 is a deconstructed mix of 6, made for DJ remix users (same thing with 10 of 5). 7 is a big percussion throwdown. 3 was Konk’s first single. 11 is a live version of 1, which works in some early Sugarhill style rapping. Fun facts: Daniel Ponce guests on track 4. Richard Edson went on from Konk to appear in movies (inc. Stranger than Paradise, Platoon, Strange Days).

Thanks to Minty for pointing me towards the trailer for the new HHG movie over on Amazon. Just too cool! Like BW Ventril, I was immediately struck by how Magrathea appears to have been filmed in the exact same location as the BBC series. I pulled my paperback off the shelf and read a few pages earlier. Noticed that I almost didn't have to read it, that whole passages just spooled off in my mind. Partly from having read it many times. More from having seen the BBC series even more times. Mostly from having listened to the album version of the radio series many many many times. And, yes, the 2LP version of HHG is probably the vinyl I still kick myself for having sold (back in those dark days when I sold off most of my vinyl).
Here's a nice Douglas Adams tribute site

A few stray thoughts on a few movies I've seen recently...
Cowboy Bebop: the Movie: Watched this last night. Looked great. Tons o' style. Plot was immediately disposable (slight variation on psycho badguy out to destroy the world). Not in the same class as movies like Roujin Z or Ninja Scroll or a series like Serial Experiments: Lain but enjoyable. I was expecting the music to be better, though, having heard some of the music from the original series. I wonder if they re-scored the movie for the dubbed version (which is what we watched)
Finding Nemo: Sweeter and less frenetic than Monsters, Inc but the expected brilliancy of animation from Pixar. WTF is Disney gonna do for animation now that Steve Jobs has packed up his toys and moved on? Well, for one thing, I guess they'll continue to tell stories featuring dead Moms. What is the deal? Do they have some kinda rule book? (Page 1: if Mom is not dead, kill immediately)
Shaun of the Dead: Hilarity definetely ensued! For some reason, I had thought this was an Aussie movie. Of course, it's Brit. And was filmed at Ealing (as I learned from some of the bonus material on the DVD) (no sign of the Creeping Kid, however...) Anyway, this was quite gory. But funny as hell. And they understand the zombie shuffle. No CGI-ed crankhead zombies here.

So, I've been memetically tagged on these music questions by L. B. Rockmeier and it would seem unnecessarily pissy to decline to play...

1. Total amount of music files on your computer? 2.53gb on the lappy. Some of those repeated on the iPod Mini. I used to have way more on the old lappy but I burned most of those to CD before I transferred files

2. The last CD you bought was... the Fluid Soundbox by Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited. I've been craving this for a while. I discovered these guys early on in my days at XDU. They're Swiss and they do kinda 60s space hi-fi swanky soundtracky stuff. XDU used to have this CD but it disappeared a while ago. But now I have my own copy. Happy me..

3. What was the last song you listened to before reading this message? "O Munno Se Move" by Enzo Avitabile and Bottari. The bonus live version from the CD Save the World -- I was listening to a recording of Mondo Mundo show from back in 11/04 whilst driving into work this morning.

4. Write down five songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you. (this is tough -- here's five I love, off the top of my head)
1) "Burning Down the Spark" by Nancy Sinatra

2) "Make Believe Mambo" by David Byrne

3) "the Box" by Orbital

4) "l'Homme des Marais" by les Negresses Vertes

5) "Song from the Edge of the World" by Siouxsie and the Banshees

5. What 3 people are you going to pass this baton to and why?
Sarah (well, duh...)
Minty (cos I'd like to read her answers)
B.W. Ventril (to give him something to be cranky about)

top wrrld CDs @ WXDU for week ending 13 feb 05

Polka King :: Frankie Yankovic
Brazilian Girls :: Brazilian Girls
Gitane Cajun :: Beausoleil
Buena Vista Social Club Presents :: Manuel Guajiro Mirabal
MandinGroove :: Cheick Tidiane Seck
Voices from Heaven :: Soweto Gospel Choir
Living in the Positive :: Nasio
Mugum Sayagi: Music of Franghiz Ali-Zadeh :: Kronos Quartet
Amassakoul :: Tinariwen
African Holocaust :: Steel Pulse

boing boing readers will already have seen this, a brilliant bit of art world fun by the Austrian collective Monochrom, who created a fictitious participant for the São Paulo Biennial, and then sent him into battle with the organizers (and the Chinese gov't, by extension).
Somehow, the whole Georg P. Thomann story reminded me of Yello, those Swiss musical madmen. And, hey, they have a new CD, the Eye. (haven't heard it yet... more to follow...)
Finally, the title for today's entry comes from one of the local grocerettos where I saw a sign announcing that today was "Super Fried Friday."

New variation on the XDU anxiety dream last night. Ever since I started DJing, my anxiety dreams have taken the form of somehow being unable to get the next song cued up, causing dead air. I've had masses of people in the way, studio under construction, all the equipment in different rooms, even one where the entire station was outdoors. But last night the crisis was that I left, thinking my show was over, only to realize once outside (with no way to get back in) that I'd left an hour early, that it was only 9pm and not 10pm. Another odd thing is that I was initially unable to find any kind of clock to tell me what time it was. And when I finally did, it was one of those bank sign digital clocks and it was reading 10:68.

thanks, y'all...

Was half out of it most of the day. Partly from not sleeping well. Then getting up early to go into work to try and catch a 7.30am training session. Only to get there and discover it was actually a 7am session. And so on and etc. But, y'know, compared to Monday and Tuesday, a veritable stroll thru the piazza.
Watched another Zatoichi movie tonight (Fight, Zatoichi, Fight). I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Zatoichi's Flashing Sword which was more innovative in terms of the action scenes. Tonight's was more innovative perhaps in terms of character scenes. (aka too much talking!)
I'll be on the air tomorrow night, 8-10pm, 88.7fm if you're local or streaming from the XDU website. Since I was a Sharon Jones 2 weeks ago and R!ck was at Sun Ra last week, this is the inaugural appearance for a regularly scheduled DJ in that timeslot. Okay okay I know that's weak. But it's February. We're deep into the spring sched at this point... there's not much of a sense of occasion left.

Sarah pretty much said everything there is to say... i just wanna find a hole, crawl in, and pull the hole in after me.

so, how's your week been going?

Back home. Still sick. Woke up Friday AM with a sore throat. Almost bagged the trip but as I was feeling better by Friday afternoon, I decided to go anyway. Which was fine. Very low key weekend -- didn't do much of anything but it was nice to see everyone. By last night I really started to fade. It's been up and down since. I made the drive back fine. Now I'm just feelin' like crap tho.
Before I drift off to sniffly sleep, wanted to mention this absolutely insane movie we watched Friday night - Kunoichi: Lady Ninja. Grade B, at best, Japanese swordplay movie. FX straight from an episode of Power Rangers. Female ninja nudity. Twitchy bleached blonde samurai villains. Arterial spray. Costume design apparently by the House of Kaga. So far over the top it's almost beyond description.

I'm off to beautiful downtown Glenelg tomorrow to visit my bestest friend Pru. So sporadic posting (if any) this weekend. And semi-enthralling photos of my recent acquisitions from the land of gadget pr0n will have to await my return. Two words, though: iPod Mini...
Meanwhile, hilarity is ensuing wildly. Sarah had tipped me to this earlier in the week. And now bookslut has also picked up on it. As is widely known (by those who know it), the publishing biz is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Well, some of it is. And the only thing worse than a vanity press is a vanity press that lies about what they're about in order to more effectively sheer the sheep.

I was rewatching some of Buena Vista Social Club the other night and was struck, again, by the dilemma of the movie. Yes, clearly, the music is of paramount interest. So one could just watch with eyes closed. But then you'd miss seeing all the musicians. Plus the footage shot in Havana. All very interesting. What's the dilemma, you axe? Wenders insistence on cutting to Ry frikkin Cooder every 29 seconds or whatever. He's as ubiquitous as G.E. Smith used to be on Saturday Night Live. And looks every bit as smug. The first time I saw the movie, it started out puzzling and ended up annoying. On repeated viewings I've come to see it as fairly condescending. Wenders and Cooder, well, they can appreciate Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, or Eliades Ochoa. But you, benighted Pleasant Brunch Music™ listener that you are, clearly need the presence of some white guy playing guitar to make these old Cuban guys interesting.
If you get the Ovation network on your cable, check out Afro Cuban All Stars at the Salon of Dreams. It doesn't have quite the star wattage of BVSC, and it's a bit overly reverential towards Juan de Marcos, but at least you're spared Ry Cooder's smirking mug.

This is the pic I was trying to get posted last night. (hey, it's 8am and I'm running late for work -- lemme stop and take a photo of the new Docs) When I was shopping, I spent a lot of time going back & forth on whether to buy these or a black pair, without ever really being able to articulate why I was hesitant. It wasn't until after they arrived and I put them on that it came to me: I'd been having doubts as to whether I could pull off the style. Of course, Sarah reminded me that I have 1 pair of shoes with flames and another with spiderwebs. So, yeah, I guess maybe sometimes my brain gets stuck in an earlier, less socially confident setting...