ill-sorted ephemera

Maggie's latest song:

"stupid rain,"

based on a post i made complaining about the rain last sunday on peoplesforum.

most excellent, maggie! i love it!

i hear she'll have an entire album out soon, will keep everyone posted on where to procure your very own copy...

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire teaser!!! sweet.

The Casting Couch will be playing on Thursday (May 12) at the Hole in the Wall, with our good friends Fluffers Union.

We start at 10:30 p.m.

We should have some new songs to play for you, and fun will be had by all.

Hope to see you there.

- T.C.C.

hey waitaminit...if anakin's indeed the person who built C3P0, howcome he doesn't remember who the heck vader is in star wars? this and other questions of supreme metaphysical importance analyzed in todd seavey's "Star Wars: The Science of Consistency"

too early for actual thought. how about a nice internet quiz?!




What
Audio Format are You?

You are shiny in a sort of transparent way.

You have a shelf life of approximately 70 years if you stay out of the sun or extreme heat.

Some people call you "CD" for short.

in some news, stephen colbert gets his own show!

..."The Daily Show" regular will star each night in "The Colbert Report," likely starting in September. Comedy Central is revamping its schedule, recognizing that late-night programming is essentially prime time for its youthful audience.

"It's as if my character on `The Daily Show' got promoted," Colbert told The Associated Press.

He'll be a "very well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot, not unlike some people who have these shows in the real world," he said. ...

...One segment of his show, "Worthy Opponent," will feature Colbert debating Colbert."

when, you might ask, will this air?

...The series will air four nights a week, as will an untitled show with Adam Carolla that pokes fun at pop culture events of the day. Carolla's show will have a celebrity guest and viewer participation.

The two shows will directly follow "The Daily Show," which airs Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m. Eastern. Comedy Central hasn't decided which will come first, spokesman Tony Fox said.

sweet.

and in other news, i've recently become aware of a blog for LANL employees! you get the real scoop here, folks. scott rosenberg's salon blog brought this to my attention, and it looks like they've been getting plenty of other attention, as well:

"... blog rebellion among scientists and engineers at Los Alamos, the federal government's premier nuclear weapons laboratory, is threatening to end the tenure of its director, G. Peter Nanos.

Four months of jeers, denunciations and defenses of Dr. Nanos's management recently culminated in dozens of signed and anonymous messages concluding that his days were numbered. The postings to a public Web log conveyed a mood of self-congratulation tempered with sober discussion of what comes next.

"Some here will celebrate that they have been able to run the sheriff out of Dodge," Gary Stradling, a veteran Los Alamos scientist who is a staunch defender of Dr. Nanos, wrote Tuesday on the blog."...

well, and it's also good for keeping up with general los alamos news, in case you care at all, for one thing, you might be interested to know that Ed's Food Market (known to us in high school as "Sped's") is going to close soon, and many at the LANL: The Real Story blog blame the policies of Peter Nanos, LANL director. me, i know it's all because Sped's Sucks, and always has. anyway...

fun with the scanner...

my brother and me, probably around 1980:



some early influence from my mother...



probably the reason i ended up with UT for grad school...i was doomed from an early age to become a longhorn at some point...

The Austin Chronicle reviews the casting couch's 5 songs EP: "...Patched together by government employees, students, and a few transplants from Athens, Ga., this fivepiece could become one of Austin's most exciting new bands...."

the rest of it's quite nice, as well! sweet.

Serenity trailer!!!!

how many days until 9/30/05?

too many, that's how many.

but wait! a tip from a friend...

****************************

THIS IS STRAIGHT FROM SERENITYMOVIE.COM BUT THE LINK
IS DOWN AT THE SITE. ANYONE IN/NEAR SACRAMENTO
INTERESTED IN COMING UP?

Preview of unfinished movie is 5/5 at 10 pm the
following cities:

Hollywood north 24, Chamblee GA 770-936-9468

Gateway 16, Austin TX 512-343-5480

Boston Commons, Boston MA 617-423-2568

Rivereast 21, Chicago IL 312-596-0333

Palms 14, Las Vega NV 702-507-1525

Eastport 16, Portalnd OR 503-775-0000

Roseville 14, Roseville CA 916-797-3466 (I called them
and they said earliest they will be on sale will be
afternoon of 4/27 and yes you could call the theatre
for tickets)

Loews Meridian 16, Seattle WA 206-622-2434

If all sold out more cities might be added and also
each person on serenity site gets 200 pts.


All have a link to Fandango but when you get there it
says "Sorry, tickets not available for purchase"
--

...and the casting couch's 5 songs ep gets 7 of 10 stars from Americana UK Reviews...

The Casting couch consists of former residents of Athens GA, Wendy Mitchell, lyric writer and vocals, and Lynn Boland horns, piano and accordion (a member of various Elephant 6 projects), who shipped out to Austin TX hooked up three more members to cover drums, guitars etc.. What comes out of it is a dishevelled loose alt country bunch of songs that is not without charm, a rougher more home made version of current critic favourites Rilo Kiley. Imagine a few songs along the lines of Wilco’s “Passenger Side” played, all acoustic, in the back of a smoky bar, with a female vocal. Nothing causes any instant impact of note, yet it all drifts by very comfortably, and when it ends it really seems a shame there’s only 5 songs. “Copper Girl” in particular has a “play me again” appeal. A full-length record is something to look forward to.

back from New Mexico (los alamos, to be exact). 13-hour drive today. not so bad. very spacy now, though. animals incredibly happy to see us. had wonderful time with parents and friends from the church i grew up in, as well as fiancee...but of COURSE he's wonderful. that's a given.

not up for intelligent blogging. found internet personality quiz (on maggie's blog). took it. you may now view the results:

Your Taste in Music:

80's Alternative: Medium Influence

80's Pop: Medium Influence

90's Alternative: Medium Influence

Punk: Medium Influence

Adult Alternative: Low Influence

Classic Rock: Low Influence

Old School Hip Hop: Low Influence

Progressive Rock: Low Influence

now going to bed. g'nite!

dutcher and i are driving to the hometown in NM today! see y'all on tuesday, when i return!

chris at literate perversions takes on response to the gay law student taking on scalia with a return question about scalia's own sexual practices with his wife. aw yeah! you go, power of logic!

pink dome's got a good summary of the most hateful, bigoted, asinine legislation to come out of our good state lege in a long time, barring gays and lesbians from becoming foster parents. not only that, the amendment to the Child Protective Services revamping bill would basically force CPS to become some sort of Secret Gay Police, rousting all those upstart homersecksuals, and effectively marking and tagging them to keep the children safe! it's all about the children, dammit! (coz, you know, there are so many hetero parents just clamoring to be foster parents that we don't have enough kids to go around)

if you're free tomorrow, and you have a stake in the matter (we all have a stake in this matter), or even if you just care passionately about civil rights for everyone in this country, even if some other people get squicked by the sight of two men or two women holding hands and expressing an iota of love for each other, standout is organizing a rally and protest tomorrow at the capitol tomorrow, April 22, 2005:

Rally For Your Rights Friday

In light of recent attacks on the LGBT community by the Texas legislature in the form of SB 6, an anti-gay foster care bill. It would seek to further solidify the place of the LGBT community’s members as second class citizens. StandOut of the University of Texas at Austin is organizing a Rally and Protest at the Texas Capitol, this Friday April 22nd.

What: Save Texas Families Rally and Protest
Where: In front of the Capitol Gates, 11th and Congress
When: Friday, April 22nd –
12:00 pm Gather and make posters,
12:30 pm Rally begins,
2:30 pm Rally ends.

Why:
StandOut has organized this Protest and Rally in reaction to SB 6 which seeks to reform the Texas Child Protective Services Agency. Rep. Robert Talton’s amendment to this bill though would do, among other things:

* Prevent Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual people from fostering children in the state of Texas
* Take the foster children away from all 43,000 Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual people already fostering children
* Remove these children from loving, stable families and place them back into the already overburdened Foster Care system
* Emotionally destroy these Texas families
* Allows the new CPS Agency to conduct “investigations” into suspect foster parents not already officially identified as Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual
* Will cost the state of Texas an additional $8 million dollars every year

We will not tolerate this kind of discrimination. We will stand together. We will fight. We will make ourselves heard.


(from burnt orange report)

from spidra:

• Reply to this message telling me which of these 25 artists you have also seen.
• Take the ones from my list that you have seen, and post them in your own LJ.
• Add more until you have 25.

* X
* Camper Van Beethoven
* The Cure
* Nine Inch Nails
* Meat Purveyors
* Otis
* Guy Forsyth
* Toni Price
* The Gourds
* Wilco
* Red Hot Chili Peppers
* Hot Club of Cowtown
* DJ Jester
* The Pink Swords
* Brave Combo
* Shorty Long
* The Derailers
* The Asylum Street Spankers
* Jane's Addiction
* Sally Timms
* The Mekons
* The Black Keys
* Feist
* The Arlenes
* Buttercup

(i didn't know whether to count, say, Fear, coz i OWN TICKETS to that show...but never made it. or the Knitters, coz you know, i've seen various members of them do various things. that kinda thing.)

me an' my new uke, bess:



bess and tiny (the soprano uke):

come tiptoe through the tulips...with me...

aw yeah, after seeing buttercup (listen!) last weekend and then perusing ukulelia.com for a while, i up and procured myself a cheap-ass baritone ukulele!

sweet! it's tuned D-G-B-E, just like the high four strings on a guitar. which means i already (vaguely) know how to play it! re-stringing it is what's gonna be a pain in the neck...the strings are just somehow wound around the bridge, securing them at that end. i may have to get help to ever change those strings. we'll see.



(this is WAY smaller than life-size...)

also, because i just had to have one, i got a mini-harmonica (only four reeds or whatever/eight notes!):



(this photo is WAYYYY bigger than life-size! weird!)

i'm a regular one-girl band, i am!

also in the mail came a third package, from a long-lost, feared lost forever, good friend of mine -- full of her legendary chocolate chip cookies. aw man. it's a good day today, a very good day.

The Pope Name Generator: "

If I am elected, my pope name will be: Pope Scandalous Harold III What's your pope name? Name:

"

texas fight! has more on the smoking ban, including a discussion of the specific organizations representing the anti-smoking and pro-business factions. and a voice in the wilderness took a good look at the issue a while back.

the election is may 7. go vote.

some texas bloggers i've been meaning to add to the sidebar for quite some time now...and i say there's no time like the present!

killfloor
grits for breakfast
voice in the wilderness
i blame the patriarchy
burnt orange report
in the pink texas
100 monkeys typing

and a couple of catch-all austin blog aggregate sites:
austin stories
austin bloggers

smoking ban in austin?

Killfloor's got a little about this (scroll down his city elections guide to where he talks about the propositions up for vote):

"Currently around 46,000 businesses in Austin are completely smoke free. This initiative would make it a point to single out the remaining 211 businesses that allow their patrons to indulge in “smokes” (when children under 18 are not present, as dictated by the current ordinance) and effectively ban smoking in these places as well. 200 of these businesses are bars, nightclubs, and music venues. Since statistics show a slow in bar and restaurant growth in states which have enforced a similar initiative (such as California) the live music industry in Austin (particularly the fledging clubs in the burgeoning Red River district) is generally against the initiative."

see? there's already lots of choice in the matter for all you non-smokers. he also says that bar business HAS slowed in places like CA with smoking bans, especially for the smaller clubs, i will research and find out where he gets this (although i suspect that the statistics will be different depending on which faction is doing the compiling and reporting).

the austin chronicle also has a couple of articles on the matter, especially about how austin IS different from NYC, large CA cities, and other nonsmoking-only cities, notably in types of bars that exist and that will be affected by such a ban. darcie stevens discusses many austinites' fears of how this will affect the austin club scene, specifically my favorite bit of town, the red river district (encompassing Club 710, Beerland (more on them in a bit), Elysium, and other fabulous indie-music-friendly clubs). she also rightly points out that if this ban is enacted, it can't be discussed, changed, or even tinkered with for two years - an eternity in the life of a small venue.

"From Hole in the Wall to the Broken Spoke, every music venue in this city will change. And while Onward Austin keeps reiterating that studies show New York City, Boston, San Francisco, and other cities all doing fine with similar smoking bans, some man-on-the-street reports from those same cities are far more jarring. (See News, p.32.) According to such accounts, smaller neighborhood bars and venues are the first to go. Locally, that coincides with the heart of Austin's rock scene, the Red River district, where the Live Music Capital's lifeblood pumps every single night.

The most important thing to remember? If the smoking ban passes on May 7 – early voting begins this Wednesday, April 20 – it can't be amended, repealed, or remedied for two years. That's more than enough time for any affected venue to go out of business. Two years in the turbulent world of the music business is an eternity. If there's any doubt about this smoking ban, maybe the risk is just too high."

the second article has daniel mottola chasing down club owners and musicians from those cities where smoking bans have been enacted and finds a mixed bag of reactions. interesting reading for those on both sides of the fence.

the Austin American-Statesman is also running an article about the smoking ban, with viewpoints from either side of the fence, and they mention what i'm perhaps remembering as the opening of a specifically non-smoking club in austin:

"Randall and Donya Stockton launched Beerland on Red River Street almost four years ago with 12 cases of beer and a dream to fill a need for punk and garage bands.

Neither one a smoker, the Stocktons saw an opportunity to create a punk scene without the haze of cigarette smoke.

"I thought there was an untapped market when we first opened. So we tried it," said Randall.

The nonsmokers did not come, but the smokers did. And they wanted to smoke.

"I had to adjust the model to focus on people who actually come," Randall said. "That's what enables us to be open. That's what enables us to incubate talent . . . and reach an audience."

where were those non-smoking hordes of wannabe club-goers when we needed 'em, eh? from the darcie stevens article:

"Last June's revised ordinance – reworked after the City Council reversed former Mayor Gus Garcia's stringent ban – forced live music venues to offer nonsmoking shows on Mondays, 52 weeks a year. So the clubs did ... and according to them, nobody came. Sure, it was Monday, but compared to smoking-permitted Mondays immediately before the rule, there was a huge drop in attendance. No fans mean no bands want to play. No music, no show.

So what of these nonsmokers? What of this huge contingency of people that Onward Austin claims will appear when the bars go smoke-free? There are two types of nonsmokers: those who already go to shows and support the scene, and those who don't go to bars, period. The current nonsmoking clubgoers, for the most part, oppose the ban. While some think it would be nice, most are afraid their favorite bars will close or face economic problems."