Friday Five -- GoogleJerking

I got an e-mail from my friend Will Briarwood this morning.

“Yo K –

I’ll be working around the house this holiday weekend, so I thought I would do the Friday Five a couple days early.

You’ve seen plenty of articles or columns where the writer uses Google to make a point. Like writing about the prices at Starbucks, and pointing out that if you google “starbucks overpriced”, you get about 286,000 results. I don’t know if there is a name for this, so I will call it ‘googlejerking.’ At least until we think of a better word.

Here are my five examples of googlejerking:

(I was thinking about Dave Marsh and his biographies of Bruce Springsteen…) Marsh springsteen hagiography gives about 223 results

”Ann Coulter” skank gives about 49,600 results

Reagan senile has about 133,000 results

(This morning in the car, I was listening to a live recording of the Arcade Fire from 2005…) “Arcade fire” “joyful noise” has about 1,610 results

(And then I was listening to Nick Drake on the computer at work…) “Nick drake” tragic has about 55,800 results

Et vous?”

Thanks, Will. This is fun.

“deer hunter” small penis about 34,300 results

tofurky delicious about 545,000 results

"chicago cubs" "wait till next year" about 12,300 results

mtv crap about 1,820,000 results

”battlestar galactica" emmy about 1,390,000 results

Friday Five -- Shuffle

I got another e-mail from my friend Will Briarwood a little while ago.

“Yo K –

Sorry, not much in the way of interesting ideas for the Friday Five this week. So I just did an iPod shuffle, and added some comments, like the rock stars do in interviews:

Tangerine Dream / “Improvisation 1” / Live! Improvised!

A live recording that I downloaded from dime recently. Reims Cathedral – in France, I think? – from 1974. The artwork says Oh Boy on the spine, so this would appear to be a liberated bootleg.

Pink Floyd / “A Spanish Piece” / More soundtrack

I was a big Pink Floyd fan in high school, and in college – I remember playing “Echoes” at two in the morning, many times. But I didn’t get into some of their earlier stuff until later. This is a brief instrumental.

Pink Floyd / ? / Syncopated Pandemonium

Something else that I got from dime. I don’t think I know the source of this track – it’s a weird voiceover, with what I assume is Pink Floyd’s music.

Guru Guru / “Stone In” / UFO

More krautrock. I bought this cd, and many others, per the recommendations of Julian Cope in his great book Krautrocksampler.

Merle Haggard / “You Take Me For Granted” / Down Every Road 1962-1994

From the big four disc box set, which I probably got pretty cheap from BMG. My brother got a kitten recently and named him Merle.

Et vous?

WB”


I do not have an iPod, so I just hit the random option on the Windows Media Player on the computer.

Romeo Void / “Nothing For Me” / It’s a Condition / Strange Language

Recent, and long overdue, reissue of the first Romeo Void album, along with Debora’s solo record. I was a big fan back in the new wave days, and this was my favorite of their records. And this was near the top of my wanted list of lp’s that were not on cd.

Loretta Lynn / “The Other Woman” / Honky Tonk Girl: The Collection

People think that Merle is a rightwinger because of “Okie From Muskogee,” but I do not think that he is – Loretta is long-time Republican and Bush supporter. Saw her live in 2000, and she made sure to include a “vote for Bush” speech during her show.

Waterboys / “Carolan’s Welcome” / Fisherman’s Blues

This is from the second disc of the recent deluxe edition. One of my favorite – maybe my number one – records of the 1980’s.

Kim Richey / “Drift” / Chinese Boxes

I think I might have discovered Kim through the p2 mailing list, or maybe it was hearing her on Mountain Stage or E-Town. Her new disc is really good – wish I had bought it sooner.

Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler / “All the Roadrunning” / All the Roadrunning

This was one of my favorite discs of last year, and I think covivant said it was her favorite. I have been an Emmylou fan since Wrecking Ball and I was a big Dire Straits fan for their first few albums. I went out and bought some old Dire Straits cd’s after hearing this, and downloaded some of his solo stuff.

Sinead O'Connor, Symphony Center

I got an e-mail from my friend Will Briarwood earlier today. He sent me a concert review...



I keep meaning to tell you about some of the shows I’ve seen recently – I’ll try to send my reviews when I get around to writing them…






Who / When / Where: Sinead O’Connor / Sunday, September 23, 2007 / I think it’s called Symphony Center, at Orchestra Hall

Notes: They had problems with their sound all evening – I don’t know if it was their equipment, or the sound guys, or what.

Good show. Good mix of old songs and new songs (see setlist below). A bunch of songs from her second record.

Her first husband still plays drums with her, after all these years.

She still has most of that amazing voice. I am concerned that if she keeps smoking as much as I’ve heard she does, that she’s going to end up like Joni Mitchell.

Went by myself – Mary wasn’t interested in going.

Highlights: “In This Heart” was great. So was “Black Boys On Mopeds.”

I Wish She Had Played: “Jackie.”

Moron Factor: There was this young couple next to me, who showed up right as Sinead’s set started, and talked on and off all through it. It sounded like he had an accent, maybe Russian – I don’t generally confront talkers during a show, especially if they might be Russian drug dealers… Other than that, the crowd was pretty well behaved.

Opening Act: Damien Dempsey. Sort of a Damien Rice on steroids. He was quite good, and I saw that he was selling a lot of cd’s in the lobby after his set.

Reviews: Daily Herald, Concert Live Wire.

Setlist / Recording:

At dime. Downloaded it, have not burned to cd and listened yet. Setlist, per the taper:

1 EMPERORS NEW CLOTHES
2 STRETCHED ON YOUR GRAVE
3 THIEF OF YOUR HEART
4 THE LAMBS BOOK OF LIFE
5 NEVER GET OLD
6 SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL
7 VINEYARD
8 THREE BABIES
9 WHAT DOESN'T BELONG TO ME

1 NOTHING COMPARES TO YOU
2 THANK YOU FOR HEARING ME
3 IN THIS HEART
4 LAST DAY OF OUR ACQUAINTANCE
5 ENCORE APPLAUSE
6 BLACK BOYS ON MOPEDS
7 RIVERS OF BABYLON
8 SONG FROM THE WATER HORSE
9 BAND INTRO AND OUTRO

WB

Friday Five -- TV On Strike

I got an e-mail from my friend Will Briarwood this morning.

“Yo K –

Let’s bring back the Friday Five. I’ll start – which five tv shows will you miss the most if the writers strike lasts a while? My five would be:

Battlestar Galactica
Heroes
Torchwood
Ugly Betty
30 Rock

Et vous?”

I would agree with a couple of Will’s choices, but I will list five different shows:

Bionic Woman
Lost
Reaper
Supernatural
Jericho (but I did read that CBS’ seven episode mini-season will probably not be affected by the strike)

And my list would assume that shows that are not due back till next summer (Mad Men, The 4400, Eureka) would not be affected.

And Then There Were Two...

I was talking to my friend Will Briarwood earlier today. I had not talked to him for a few weeks.

“Sorry I haven’t been in touch. It’s been a tough few months.”

I know. How are the cats doing?

“OK, I think. It’s just the queen and the little guy, now – it’s been about nine years since we only had two cats. They get along pretty well, but she is twice as old as he is, and doesn’t have much patience for him sometimes. And some nights she will start walking around the house, crying – we’re not sure if she’s just getting old, or if she misses the other cats, or if she’s hungry, or all of the above. She passed her most recent exam, so I think we’ll just keep an eye on her for now.”

You and Mary doing ok?

“Aside from feeling terrible about the old girl and the big guy, I guess so. You know, a lot has happened this year, and I suppose at some time I have to start thinking about other things.”

In good time.

“I mean, Al Gore won a Nobel. The Cubs were in the playoffs for a few days, the White Sox were terrible, and it doesn’t look like the Bears are going back to the Super Bowl any time soon. The tv writers are on strike. There’s all kinds of problems with the economy – and Mary’s daughter’s fiancé just got laid off.”

Hillary Clinton could be the next president. Or Mitt Romney, or Rudy Giuliani.

“Assuming the country survives twelve more months of Shrub and Cheney.”

I was looking at my 401k a week ago, and it looked great. And then the stock markets starting dropping.

“We’re not retiring for what, fourteen years? Keep saving, and don’t mess with what you have.”

I will keep that in mind.

“And we’ll talk further about concerts, and tv and stuff.”

Ten four.