The Mooney Suzuki

I bought their new album about two weeks ago. I gave it repeated listenings because I believed in them. I remember the first time I saw them play and they dedicated a song to the electric guitar. They believed in Rock. I bought their first record and singles. Dear Persephone and My Love is a Gentle Whip are straight ahead rockers. Their first record, People Get Ready, is a classic, you should go buy it tomorrow.
The above reasons had me looking forward to their new record. Man was I disappointed. I've listened to it 5 times now, just to be fair. There is not a decent song on the record. Most of it is adolescent dreaming about groupies. Naked Lady is far and away the worst song. They sound like The Guess Who trying to do acid rock. It really is just awful. It also happens to be an enhanced CD. The video for NY Girls shows them decked out like rejects from a Doors cover band. This record could mistakenly be played on classic rock stations tomorrow and no one would notice. This record is destined to be overplayed by stoned short order cooks.
Now there is an MP3 blog I check out regularly called Rock N Roll in the Real World. This guy is a Mooney Suzuki fan and his music taste is generally right on. I heard about the Tokyo Sex Destruction from his blog. So instead of listening the hellacious new Mooney Suzuki record, cruise his blog, get some good downloads and find a good band like Tokyo Sex Destruction.

My Backpack

So I've gone through all the crap in my backpack and removed a good portion of it. I had to basically empty the recycling when I was done. It know weighs significantly less than it did this morning. However it is still heavy enough that if I were to fall into a body of water and Erik Estrada was nearby he would have to take off his gun belt, aviator sunglasses, and motorcycles boots (revealing his pristine white tube socks) and dive in and save me.

Sunday Morning

I woke up and promptly spilled my coffee when it finally cooled down to the perfect temperature for taking big swigs instead of sips. I think I'm losing the apartment security deposit on the carpet. I do this about once a week, and spray the carpet foam stuff down and clean it, but there is an ever growing light brown spot around my desk. I think if I ever move out of this apartment (which is going to happen about two seconds after I get my first paycheck after the bar) I'm getting a place with wood floors or at the very least coffee proof carpet, beer proof and wine proof would also be nice.
On Thursday there was a march to support the dream act. About 400 people showed up and there were a bunch of chants. It was a good time. A lot of people saw us, hopefully it will get some notice.
I'm gonna clean out my back pack today. I'm tossing any handout cases that I won't ever read again, any flyers for the latest career services event and PMBR classes. I fully expect my backpack to weigh 8 pounds less. I should also type in notes, but I'll probably just try to find some net cartoons or something. Maybe I'll make a new mix for my MP3 player.

An Honor

Well, I was checking how people got referred to my sight and it turns out I'm number one on a very special yahoo search. I can't tell you how proud I am to know that my readers are getting to my blawg through those kinds of searches.
I came up with an awesome idea today while looking through bankruptcy CLE manuals. Pop Up CLEs. There are tons of places where a pop up would make the material clearer and easier to understand. You could have a trustee pop up, maybe sitting at a table with a bunch of creditors, and when you pull the tab all the creditors could wave their unsecured loans around. It'd be great and take the edge off of reading those manuals. This idea could easily transfer over to other CLEs, especially civil litigation and landlord tenant. I'm telling you it's the way to go.

New Shower Curtains

I bought some new shower curtains at the grocery store yesterday. My goal was to finish my homework and read some articles on prior restraint and then clean my bathroom. The shower curtains were to motivate me. My current shower curtain is dying. It holds on to the shower rod with a failing white knuckled grip of about 3 shower rings. Before I would put a new one up I would have to clean the tub and the rest of the bathroom. If I didn't it'd be like putting on dirty underwear after taking a shower. I still haven't got around to it. I have done most of my homework though.
While I was contemplating how much busier I am this year than last I came up with an idea for a new class. Application of Legal Theory to Life Obligations. Basically we'd sign up for the class and earn 3 hours. The class would take place at the laundromat and the grocery store so I would have a chance to actually get that stuff done. I wouldn't mind paying the $6,000 or whatever to do chores. I have to do them anyway. Why not weasel some theory into them. We could talk about slip and fall claims and tort reform and it's effect on small businesses like the laundromat or something. Let an adjunct teach it, I don't care. Maybe we could make it a clinic, we can review the leases on the washing machines and whatever other contracts they have. Same thing for the grocery store. We could do Commerce Clause stuff in light of interstate produce shipments. I'd get my laundry done, have some food in my fridge, and get a couple extra hours of credit. The school would get $6,000 more dollars and some professor could teach a fluff class. It's win/win.
I also want to complain about the weather. I am entitled to another month of decent weather. This rain is crap. The Portland winter isn't supposed to start until the middle of October. In exchange I don't whine about the weather until the middle of June. It's cold, windy, and rainy and I'm not going to stop bitchin' until I get my sun. If Texas wasn't so ass backwards I'd move back right now.
Last, Elena Mary is right that those high heeled shoes suck. I admit that no one should have to wear them. Basically when I say I find them sexy I know it's about the same as giving a big thumbs up to Chinese foot binding. I understand all this on an analytical level. Unfortunately the analytical level of my mind is not controlling on this issue. The "monkey, drooling, pork rind eating" level of my mind controls on this issue and it likes the damn high heeled shoes. It also has a strange predilection for women wearing Superman underoos. I regret this, but I cannot control it and everyone has this section of their brain. I don't blame anyone for reading romance novels or watching Springer. Live and let live, that's what I say(actually I don't. I'm kind of a dictatorial bastard, but in this one instance I'm saying it).

More Johnny

The N.Y. Times has Johnny’s obituary and Kurt Loder has this one up on MTV’s website. Normally I would spit on anyone trying to learn about the Ramones off of MTV, but Kurt Loder has been a long time fan and he understands the music. I don’t understand how he could listen to the Ramones and still have that lame haircut he sported through the eighties and early nineties, but he is legit. He did the liner notes on the two All the Stuff and More compilations and there’s good info in there. So in this one instance the taint of MTV does not override the value of the information it provides.
Photobucket is down right now so I can’t change the picture unless I hot link someone’s. If it’s not fixed by this afternoon then that’s what I’ll do.
I don’t really have a Ramones story. I’ve been a big fan, not just in a total mass sense, for a long time. I remember the first time I heard Blitzkrieg Bop when I was about 8 and I saw Vacation. Mania was the first CD I ever bought. When I was about 19 I got a Ramones eagle tattooed on my arm. That was my first tattoo and still the coolest. I started seriously scrounging for their records about 6 years ago. I’ve got a copy of the European pressing of “Leave Home” with Carbona, Not Glue and a copy of Ramones with the “Beat is on the Brat” misspelling. I think they are the single most important thing to happen to Rock N Roll after 1974. They are the only band that I have listened to nearly every single day since 1992 and Swallow My Pride is still in my top five favorite songs. I never got to see them live. In ’96 when I had the chance I skipped it b/c they were going to play with Pearl Jam. It seemed like a valid reason at the time and I figured they would always do a reunion tour once the world caught up to them. When Joey got sick I realized that wasn’t going to happen and its one of the regrets that I think is worth holding on to. Now I guess I’m left with Rock N Roll High School. If you haven’t seen it you’re a square and that’s a natural fact. Rock On.

Johnny Ramone

Johnny Ramone passed away Wednesday afternoon. He only played on the downstroke. Rest in peace Johnny.

The Fifteen

The bus ride has been a little jerky lately. I’ve been riding during the general commute and the buses are usually standing room only. I don’t mind riding the bus standing, but other people mind me. I’m big, fairly broad shoulders, clumsy, and I’ve got a law student backpack strapped to me. The backpack usually extends another 18 inches off my back and weighs roughly half a dwarf star. Every time the bus jerks to a stop the weight in my backpack shifts and pulls me off balance. I try to stumble into the back of a seat but consistently end up bumping old ladies or young girls with very delicate feet.
Now the point of this post, if you’re on the bus and you’re standing halfway down the length of the bus and there are more people getting on and the front of the bus is full and the back of the bus is empty, then back up. Walk your ass to the back of the bus and make room for everyone else. It’s simple. Stop staring slack jawed forward at the people packing in, turn your head, notice the empty space, and move back. This will give big clumsy law students with backpacks room to stumble around and not knock over old ladies or crush pretty girls feet. Also, if you’re fourteen and an old lady gets on the bus stand up and give her your seat and then follow the above instructions about moving to the back of the bus. Women with small children, old men with canes or anyone with groceries are also entitled to the seat your in. This is an obvious universally recognized social responsibility. No whining, just do it.
Lately b/c of the fashion trend of pointy stiletto heeled shoes (which I love, it makes me think of Josie Cotton) the office girls are having an especially hard time standing on the bus. The bus will be barreling down the street, jerk to a halt at the stop (or when some asshole cuts the bus off), and they’re trying to maintain their balance on about .75 square inch of shoe surface. Add my big monkey ass with an enormous backpack bouncing into them and it’s damned hard for them to stay standing. So I’m now broadening the social responsibility of fourteen year olds to give up their seats to include office workers with sexy Josie Cottonesque high-heeled shoes. So says I, now obey.

Yesterday's attempt to do homework

I made it to the store and bought a new set of headphones, hauled ass and made it to school by 4 and spent some quality time with the Reference Librarian(she gets capitalized now). She just moved here from Washington and didn't know that in 1953 the Oregon Legislature got a bug up its ass and renumbered all the statutes. I showed her how you find the old ones and then she helped me look up committee minutes. Does anyone in the world like Microfiche? Can't we digitize this stuff and put in pdfs or something, seriously.
Anyway after being at school roughly an hour and a half I had set up my work area, combed some legislative history, listened to part of the Libertines CD and a little Asian Kung Fu Generation, and started my Prop Trans. Then my phone started going off. Some friends were having a BBQ and I should come. I wave them off, and seconds later another call from someone else at another BBQ, another friend simultaneously comes to drag me to the first BBQ and I caved. I now have a shitload of yesterdays homework, today's homework, a meeting at 6 and a study group at 4, and what am I doing? I'm wasting time blogging and watching cartoons on the net. You couldn't teach me time management with a brick to the head. Man I'm stupid.
The Cartoons are from Ill Will Press and they're quite funny. I especially like squirrel songs. So if you've got a lot to do and a good wireless connection I highly recommend it. Also I want to recommend Kingblind Music. This is the MP3 blog that I use the most. A lot of good music, tour updates, news, and videos. It's great.
Last, before I go change the cat box(I already vacuumed the apartment, took out trash and recycling, and washed my dishes), I met someone who actually knew I had a blog. I don't blog anonymously or anything(mostly b/c I can't spell anonymously without ten spell checkers) so it shouldn't have come as a shock. I just kind of figured this was an exercise in solipsistic egoism. So with that in mind I'm going to stop shittalking my classmates and BigLaw and maybe Walmart. Actually I probably won't change at all. Discretion is something else you probably couldn't teach me with a brick.

Reference Librarian

The reference librarian goes home at five. I've got a shit load to research and I need her. However, to utilize the reference librarian I have to get my ass to school. That shouldn't be a problem, except I don't want to go and if I'm there I'll realize how much freakin' homework I have to do and how much freakin' time I'm wasting blogging and watching cartoons on the net. More importantly my good headphones are broken and how can I study with broken headphones. I could take my ghetto ones, but I hate studying with those headphones.
So I'm trying to fix my headphones and I figure at this point I'd be better off buying new ones. I have coping wire, electrician tape(It's aesthetically better than duct tape for headphones because of my color rules for electronic devices), aviator snips, channel locks, and a pair of pliers spread out on my desk in front of me while I dink with these goddamned headphones. That's just ridiculous when I have an hour an a half to get to school to catch the reference librarian.
So if I go buy some new headphones I can make it to school by 4 and spend an hour with the reference librarian. Hopefully no one else needs her today. She's the only person that I'm jealous about. I hate seeing anyone else with her, I need her, she's my reference librarian, back off, I've got statutes to research.
Of course I have to dig through CDs to find what I'm gonna listen to while doing homework. I can't find the fucking Asian Kung-Fu Generation CD which is what I really wanted to listen. Goddamnit. Ah, it's in the CD tray. Alright I'm going now. Fucking homework.

Mini Disc

I lost my minidisc player a couple weeks ago and finally replaced it. When I went to get a replacement they only had ones in weird colors. My personal take on electronics and color schemes is that they should be limited to black, grey, or silver. Any other color takes away from the seriousness of the device's purpose. We've all had CD players. The high end ones are one of the above colors and the Hello Kitty ones for little girls are pink. I want my electronic device to look serious and not like it came with a happy meal.
You've probably guessed that my minidisc was not one of the sanctioned colors. It's white, with chrome and orange. It doesn't look like it came from a happy meal, but it does look like a cast off from a storm trooper uniform. Sony really wants me to pony up and pay full price for this? It looks like Fischer Price My First MP3 Player.
I bought it, but I don't like it. I'll probably put a bunch of stickers on it or something, but man it looks lame. The first CD I put on it was the new Crime CD. This is on Swami records, which looks like it's out of San Diego. The only other Crime record I have is the one off of Planet Pimp records. The new one is far superior in every respect. This is my first exposure to the band that lets me glimpse their greatness and why they were so important to the American rock n roll scene. I would put this record in the category of need for anyone who's serious about rock n roll. You must have this if your record collection is to be taken seriously and if you want to comment knowledgeably about rock n roll on the west coast in the early 80s late 70s.

BTW the minidisc looks like this but orange.

Bumpershoot

I went to Bumpershoot Sunday night and I got to see the Pixies. I never got the chance to see them and this was a wonderful experience. They played a set heavy on Doolittle, but with favorites like Caribou. It was in a big football field. The venue detracted from the intimacy and connection with the band, but the fact that they packed a football field was a wonderful tribute.
There were tons of people in the old farts section with their kids. It's really cool that these parents took their kids to this show. The parents are trying to share one of the most important parts of their development as a person with their kids. That beats the hell out of buying them an Xbox in my book.
If the Pixies are coming through your town on tour and you can't decide whether to see them or not just go. I wasn't too hot on seeing them when their tour first got publicized, a bunch of old fuckers trying to rip me off with a reunion tour, but I started to think that if I missed I'd never get the chance to see them again. I went and wasn't disappointed at all.
The only complaint I had about the show was that over the years of listening to the Pixies their sound had become very wooden in my mind. It didn't allow for change. At the live show they changed it up to make it interesting and it kind of jarred with my perception of their music. It took a few songs for me to loosen up and listen to the music as they played it instead of how I wanted to hear it.
I'm very tired now and I think I'm going to sleep for about 12 hours.

Reviews and a link

One of the CDs I bought was the Ted Leo/ Pharmacists CD "Tell Balgeary, Balgury is Dead". It's not that good. I said go out and buy his CD b/c Me and Mia was such a good song. None of that comes through on this CD. The whole thing sounds hollow, more like a practice demo than an actual release. There is also a cover of the Pogues' Dirty Old Town which I found to be atrocious.
The link is for Bubble Gum Machine. They generally have two new songs a week. It covers pop songs from between the 50s and 70s. There's been some really interesting stuff on there and some stinkers. I've probably downloaded ten songs of the site and tossed 3 or 4. I think the best service this MP3 blog provides is for bands who are thinking about covering something but they want it to be obscure so they can show off how vast their influences are.

Homework

This is a topic that I have already made reference to this week, and it's only my fourth day of classes. Homework is the big motivator in my life. Homework originally inspired me to read blogs. Say it's 11pm, you have Prop at 9am and you have 60 pages of reading, that means you can read at least 15 blawgs, 4 personal blogs, and check fark 18 more times before starting your homework.

Reading blogs wasn't the only way I avoided homework. I also started reading random law review articles, trying to find random people on Lexis, cleaned my apartment, started doing laundry. None of this was enough for me though. That's why I took up blogging. I'm not out to share my experiences to make the world a better place. I don't even want to pontificate on Rock N Roll, actually I kind of do sometimes. I want to avoid my homework.

Now that school is back in I will probably be cooking more often. I will improve my ability to solve crossword puzzles. My apartment will be cleaner, I bought a new vacuum( I'm a big dumb consumer whore. I totally fell for the advertisement for bagless vacuums where you can see the dirt build up in the container in the front of the vacuum.) I will be updating my blog more often.

I updated today, the crossword link changed and Jack's Blog is back up. The Clerk is gone and I added a new section of links. I was planning to do this big post where I went over all the great MP3 blogs I've found but I never got around to it. So I'm going to do it one at a time and add the links over on the side. The first one is Lost Bands of the New Wave Era(I'm not linking it b/c it's over there -->). It's a cool site that puts up about 1 song a week. The music is generally interesting and b/c there's a retro thing going on now with bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Strokes, and Libertines it is incredibly relevant. Some interesting Synth Pop shows up there as well as surf divergent stuff that later influenced everybody's favorite band The Pixies. So that's the first one, more will show up.

I went and blew my paycheck on hookers and Maker's Mark....
No I meant on records. I'll post some reviews of the stuff I got soon as well, maybe as it relates to these MP3 blogs I've been trolling. With that said I should probably go find out what I'm supposed to have read for tomorrow.