The night was hot. The night was wet. Hot and wet. That’s humid. The night was humid.
Remember that movie? Oh man, I loved that little gem. The “what was that other movie she was in?” I got asked a dozen times by parents at a recent sleep over for 10 year olds where they screened The Goonies. Yeah, they were talking about the scary old Mom with the thick tongue and the terrible attitude.
Of course, you might ask what that has to do with cigars. Well, what the hell do you think?
As the king of indie nonsense, I am a huge fan of cheap business card printing. I have musician cards to hand out to baooking agents and club owners, I have Mad Science The Card Game Cards for distributors and retailers, I have Skateboard Heroes cards for comic book industry folks and readers. I should probably get into the printing business myself. Then I could have business cards for my business card printing business. Makes perfect sense, right? I bet you wish you’d thought of it.
You know what I need to go with my kickin’ hard core camping gear? Customized sunglasses. They’ll go good with my speeding too, even if we all know that speed may be a factor… implying that it “might” be a factor but is not “definitely” a factor. Is the combination of style and car accident humor wrong? Maybe this is a path I should avoid. But really, shouldn’t we address the truth here? I mean, stylish sunglasses could be as responsible for a serious accident as a lot of other things.
I want to get a kickin’ backpack for hiking and camping. I was never into hiking and camping before, but now that my kids are so involved in scouting, I kind of want to get some decent equipment. Yeah, we have some tents that are pretty alright, and foam pads and fairly standard sleeping bags, but… I don’t know, some part of me wants to be the mega-trekker I never was in my youth. You know, zero degree mummy bag, dehydrated peanut butter, water backpack, magnesium fire starter. The hard core. I’m all about the hard core.
Just not sure my 7 and 10 years olds are ready for the ride.
A couple days ago there was a fatal accident a couple miles from our house. A young woman went off the road, flipped her car and was “partially” ejected from the car. No seat belt so no seat belt cutter necessary, and multiple speed “may have been a factor” quotes from the powers that be. Yes, officer, I agree that she “might have been speeding” when she rounded the curve, rolled her car and ended up upside down in a swamp.
The dissembling is what bothers me. See, we all know she was driving like a bat out of hell. It’s really hard to flip a sedan if you’re not driving at a decent rate of speed. And the curvy part of the road where she crashed… yeah, it’s like a 30mph zone. So yeah, speed was most definitely a factor. Conjecture about cell phone use or intoxication might require careful speech, but really? Speed. Uh… duh! But, of course, everyone is afraid of the almighty libel suit. Who wants to take a chance that the survivors won’t start the good old litigation machine, right?
The nickname we have for the doctor who kind of went nutbag with my diagnosis over a year ago is in somewhat questionable taste, but it sure does make me and the old lady laugh and laugh. Really, I look back with something akin to gratitude, because while he his doctoring skills are way off in the crappy part of left field where he must spend a lot of his time searching for some bedside manner, his overreaction (for lack of a better word) did put me on somewhat of the straight and narrow. So… thanks for that.
I still wish I had my old doctor, but the ridiculous games the various health management organizations play (those same games that have all but destroyed private practice among decent physicians under the age of 50) chased him away. My new doctor is great. I have seen him a couple of times in the last year and he really doesn’t disappoint. But <blank> <blank> Charlie (again, the nickname is sort of in bad taste) really soured me on the medical profession. So much so that I was almost ready to but a couple medical texts and see if I could find an ekg machine for sale. You know, really embrace my personal medical health and say “screw you” to the establishment.
I mean, I still say “screw you” to the establishment, but I do so with a documented primary care physician. So… that’s a proper, adult decision, right?
For a minute there I thought my little flat screen was fried, the one in front of my elliptical, and the daily grueling exercise regimen that keeps me off crazy-ass medication was about to get significantly more tedious. I was saved by a little old school CRT from the kitchen that has barely been watched since number 3 was born. I got the little flat screen working but I kind of prefer the old school TV for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is shear volume. Over the grind of the elliptical in mega-resistance mode coupled with the fan that keeps me from sweating a river that could drown the kittens, the added decibels helps.
But it all reminded me of a plan a couple months ago that I’m glad fell through. I’m not one for floor stand mounts and funky home theater contrivances, but on a whim I bought a clearance wall mount for smallish flat screens a while ago. I had just installed the LED monster in our living room, so I have an idea how much these things cost, so the clearance one was a worthwhile gamble. It was my plan to get my little exercise flat screen off the glorified plant stand and onto the wall so I could move my machine forward a foot or so and free some extra footage for the home studio. Alas, my little flat screen was not compatible with the inexpensive wall mount. Then I saw a Black Friday deal on a smallish flat screen that would definitely fit the mount for something like a hundred bucks. But I just didn’t have it in me to risk a tramplin’ at the Kingston Best Buy at 4am with a bottle of Vinho Verde and Mom’s incredible stuffing still metabolizing in my gullet.
Ah well. Anyone need a low profile mount for a 20-24″ flat screen? I’ll give you a good deal. <wink>
Holy freeform progressive lenses, Batman! Have you seen the new Friends of Skateboard Heroes (F.O.S.H.) page? We finally got around to loading up the awesome sketches collected at the New york Comic Con a few months ago. Sure, it’s been a bit of a wait, but we were busy setting y’all up with new comic pages. But now, as we draw to the conclusion of the Issue 1 Antecedental story, we have another sketch or two on the backburner. So, we’ve got to work through the backlog. Only fair, right?
The astute music-file/recording artist/duplication provider may actually find the title of this post amusing because it combines some musical terminology that may not be familiar to the general public. See, when you cover a published song on a distributed recording, you have to pay royalties to the songwriter(s) and publisher(s) of the source material. It’s called a mechanical royalty and is based on the number of units you produce. Interestingly enough, you can actually perform any covers you want live (as long as they are not recorded or broadcast) without any sort of royalty payment ot the intellectual property owner. So… we can blame that little lapse for the mind numbing number of times I’ve had to hear Piano Man while trying to enjoy a nice meal in a mid range restaurant with my bets girl.
Anyway, the thought that inspired this post was my love of album or CD covers that use mechanical or industrial objects. Sometimes it is just an object. Sometimes it it is a collage or constructed image using metals and spools and pulleys and things. I just love that kind of stuff. Shiny, rusty, greasy metal. So cool.
Examples? They may date me. Or maybe not. My tastes are pretty fixed.
Check out these awesome covers from Jawbox, The Orb, and Cop Shoot Cop.
Hey, did I mention the awesome free Skateboard Heroes mini-comic we handed out at the annual Toys For Tots Extravaganza hosted by Alterniverse in Salt Point. It was totally radical and is totally free to download at www.SkateboardHeroes.com.
Do it!