In Memorium.

I read somewhere that more people die on or around Christmas than any other day of the year. Whether or not this is true, I do not know. But, I do know two very important historical figures died this year on or around Christmas, but more important, to me at least, a great musician (that's not James Brown) died only a few weeks prior to Christmas. His name was Logan Whitehurst, he was 29, and he died due to complications from brain cancer. You've probably never heard of Logan, and if you have it is probably because of his amazing work as the drummer for The Velvet Teen. However, he was much more than a drummer, his solo albums were amazing, and his last one was released the day after Christmas. It is titled Very Tiny Songs, and contains 81 tracks. If you listen to Dr. Demento, you've probably heard some of his work.

I met him once. I think it was September or October of 2003, and his band, The Velvet Teen, had just played at The Middle East, in Cambridge Mass. He was a really nice guy. The other two band members were all dark and moody, but Logan was as bright as a spring morning. I've never spoken to a musician that was more enthused to talk to his fans. I told him how I totaled my car because of him. I was driving up to the Tweeter Center in Mansfield Ma, to see Radiohead, and listening to his album while doing so. It had rained earlier and we were in stop and go traffic, but I was so into his song Robot Cat (while writing this blog entry I had my iTunes on shuffle, and out of some 5,000 songs, this one came on when I was about to post), that I failed to notice the person in front of me had stopped, and my car slid right under hers. He found the story to be rather amusing, and in jest he offered me compensation.

It wasn't long after that performance that he had to leave the band. He came down with a mysterious illness, and was barely able to finish recording the album Elysium. The album turned out to be epic in every way, it was, without a doubt, the best album of 2004. I have never heard anything like this album either before or after. Unfortunately, he was not able to tour for the album, and they brought in some hack to replace him. It was his cancer that stopped him. He didn't stop being a musician though. After he felt as if he had his cancer under control he went to work on the above mentioned Very Tiny Songs album. I wrote Logan an e-mail this past autumn. He had posted on his MySpace blog that he had beaten cancer, and then it had come back, and then he had beaten it again (or at least that's how I interpreted it, it can be hard to understand what Logan writes), but in late August his doctor told him he would die within the year. I had hoped to hear from him before this happened, but it never happened. I told him how much I loved his music, and that he was a really nice guy the one time we met. I told him how much I was looking forward to his next album. I don't hold it against him that he never got back to me, he was dying from cancer and probably had more important things to do, I know I would.

On December 3rd of this year, 2006, Logan Whitehurst died from brain cancer. He will be missed.


Logan & Vanilla the Plastic Snowman!!

Here is an excellent essay Logan wrote on how to be cool. How to be Cool.

Santa Tracker

It's Christmas somewhere. Right now it's still Christmas Eve here on the east coast, but you can still track Santa. Thanks to NORAD you can see where Santa's been and where he is now. Go check it out.

NORAD's Santa Tracker

None of your Business

Not that it's any of you business, but I thought I'd share anyway. Yesterday, after I had made the post about EnglishRussia, I was heading to school to meet with some friends to study for today's exams. After I pumped some gas on the way there I experienced the most painful thing I've ever felt. The left side of my chest hurt like I was being stabbed. The pain was so bad it almost knocked me off my feet, I went weak in the knees. It felt like someone giving me a purple-nurple from the inside out. I ended up having a couple of these little outbursts of pain over the next 10-15 minutes. So I decided I should go to the hospital, something I normally wouldn't do. I'm not a fan of hospitals, I feel weak if I ever have to visit them. It's the same reason I don't take anything for headaches. In fact this was my first visit to a hospital, as a patient, since I bit the tip off my tongue as a 5 or 6 year old, so over 15 years. At the hospital they gave me an electro cardiogram, and some chest x-rays, but they didn't see anything. According to them there's nothing wrong with me. I just hope they're right, I'd hate to drop dead Christmas morning.

The highlight of the day were the people I shared a room with. There was the old couple, Daisy and her husband. Daisy had fallen a few days ago, but because of her alzheimers she has no recollection of it, or why she's at the hospital; then there was the ghetto lesbians, the manly one had been bitten by a spider on her stomach and was in severe pain. Her crying was only interrupted by the occasional scream, making out with her girlfriend or telling the nurse she was "in FUCKING pain." The whole this was wonderful to listen to. The old man kept having to hold Daisy down so she wouldn't fall out of this bed too. And the ghetto lesbians kept yelling at the nurses and doctors. Here's an example of one of their conversations:

Ghetto Lesbo 1 (the one in pain): (in a strong masculine tone) AHHHHH, I'm in FUCKING pain, it huuuurrttss!!!!
Ghetto Lesbo 2: It'll be ok baby
Creepy old Doctor: We don't need any of that in this hospital.
GL2: What??
GL1: (in mousy tone) It was my mouth.

And they more or less repeated that exchange with 2 or 3 doctors and at least 3 nurses.

Aside from the excruciating chest pain it was a good day.

Finals.

Sorry for a lack of updates, but it is finals time. I'll be done tomorrow around 7pm.

In the mean time check out: EnglishRussia.com

It is full of Russian (and former Soviet) real life humor.

Here is a sample of whats to come:

Describing Kazakhstan: "Real people of Kazakhstan don’t look like Sasha Baron Cohen, but more like Jacky Chan."

Or how about this wonderful music video from Kazakhstan. If you ever wondered what rap would sound like coming out of Central Asia, you now have an answer.



You could spend all day exploring the site. Most of it is in broken English, but you can figure it out. Anyway, back to school work.

Hear No Evil Smell No Evil.

Recently Gallaudet University has been in the news as they try to replace the president of their university. In case you didn't know it, Gallaudet is the nations premiere university for the deaf. After hearing more than one story about Gallaudet on NPR, combined with a particular meal at a local Irish pub/ restaurant, it got me thinking. When you are surrounded by nothing but fellow deaf people, can you fart with impunity? I know they are going to smell it, and perhaps they may even notice you squirm as you try to hold it in, but are they going to know it if you just casually let one rip? There is no way to narrow in on a culprit.

Your Weekly Moment of Zen #9

Apparently if you're a fruitty Arab dude it's difficult to express yourself. You can't wear a dress, even the straight dudes wear those. You can't get married, most marriages in the middle east are arrainged marriages, and it's tough to tell whose a gay when you're pairing off newborns. I got it, you can be a figure skater. But, wait there is no ice. Nevermind, just improvise like these "dudes."



BTW: Don't you wish we had roads that smooth in the US?

Well I Missed It.

The past three nights Ryan Adams & The Cardinals were playing at Town Hall in NYC, and I missed each and every show. It was a small venue, and they promised not to repeat songs. I read last week that they expected to play between 70-80 songs over the span of three nights. Eighty songs? I've seen Sigur Ros 6 times, they've been around over 10 years, and I don't think they've 80 different songs over the course of their career. It is times like this that I wish I lived in NYC, and could figure out Ryan Adams' web site better. You should check it out, it's a bit schizophrenic, Ryan-Adams.com. I don't know if he has a mailing list or not, and the way he just seems to play one off shows when ever he pleases I don't know if I'll ever get to see him live. I haven't yet pulled myself to check the set lists for the last three nights. I haven't been to a concert in so damn long, I haven't been in the mood to travel to Boston or NYC, and the only shows in CT have been crap. I'm going to try and see Explosions in the Sky in Boston in February, and I'll try to catch MONO in Boston in April and NYC in May. I saw MONO in the spring of 2005 at an American Legion Hall here in Wallingford, and it was crazy loud. The venue, if you can call it that, was just a big room, it wasn't even that big. I was about the size of the living room and kitchen combined at my old house. I think there may have been 40 people there. After that show, I'll keep on seeing them till that make me go deaf, because they are oh so loud. Now I'm rambling, Goodnight, or Goodmorning.

The Fountain

I went to see this movie Friday night. I had heard rather mixed reviews about the movie itself. Every professional reviewer completely panned, more or less shit on film. Every individual I encountered that had seen it praised the film. I got the theatre as the previews were about to start, and was afraid I wasn't going to get a good seat. Before going in, I talked to the ticket taker guy (I guess you'd call him an usher), and he told me the last time they showed the movie, 8 out of 10 people left early. Not a good sign. Finally the girlfriend finishes in the bathroom, and I hurry in to get a seat. Whoa. We were alone in the theatre, and it stayed that way. Never before have I been to a movie this empty. This was on a Friday night, the lobby was packed, and I had to wait in line to buy tickets. But, no one but the GF and TGT wanted to watch this movie. The movie kinda sucked. I have no plans to see it ever again, but it wasn't as bad as some of the reviews I read, and it was nowhere near being bad enough to make me want to leave. I don't want to say "I didn't get it" because I think I got it, but there just wasn't much to get about the movie. The story was weak. The budget was obviously too little, at one point they are in the snow, you can hear the snow crunching, but none of the snow moves, and there are no footprints. Would I recommended you watch this movie? No. Is this movie as bad as Darren Arronofsky's first film, Pi? Hell no, I don't think I'll ever see another movies as bad as Pi.

HDTV

It's finally here, I have HD. My family has had a TV capable of High Definition for some time now, but as of yesterday we finally got a HD Digital Cable box and DVR. HD is ok, but I love the DVR. I never really was excited about this sort of thing, but now that I have it, it is fricking awesome. I was pausing TV last night, just 'cause. I've scheduled recording for 2 weeks from now, just 'cause. Now all I need is a Wii, and I'll be set. Let me record TV shows while I'm playing $5 20 year old video games. I love you technology.

Your Weekly Moment of Zen #?

Well there you have it. Look at the way the little one moves, kinda creepy.