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Friday, January
16, 2004 at 13:02:34 (EST) |
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His
cup runneth over
 On
the one hand, a budget
surplus for the city is good in that a surplus of anything
except American Idol wannabes is good. But I can't see
it as anything but a byproduct of mismanagement, however far
it falls on the happy side of error. Bloomberg raised taxes,
cut a bunch of city services, so what a surprise! A budget surplus!
Now he's taking the magnanimous-Bush route and offering $400
rebates to property owners. No word yet if he'll yank it back
next year like Bush did with his refund.
Everyone likes getting a big refund on their tax return,
yet we are all vaguely aware that it would be better financially
is we had been able to keep the money in the first place,
instead of allowing the government to hold it all year. It's
natural the surplus will be seen as a good thing, and it is.
I would be really pissed if after all this we ended up further
in the whole, but it would probably have been better if Bloomberg
had aimed closer to the mark on his budget projections.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Friday, January
16, 2004 at 10:37:27 (EST) |
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I love
livin' in the City
 I
wake at sunrise (which is the only time of day I get anything
like direct light in my room)*. My house is on a piece of property
with as large an acreage of anybody I know in these parts. It's
far enough from Manhattan that it is often dead silent at night;
you can see the stars. There's a chill in the air (because the
landlady keeps scrimping on the heat), so I put on three layers
of clothes, gloves and a hat. Once I'm dressed, it's time to
feed the livestock (several very insistent cats). Then I make
grits. Last night I baked cornbread. If I'm lucky, I'll be able
to keep the Man from the Bank at bay for another day.
So how did I go from Brooklyn to living like a farmer? Except
for, you know, all the manual labor.
And oh yeah, the hot water pipe in my sink doesn't work,
as it does every winter. I guess the well done froze over.
*I should point out that I don't actually
get out of bed, but the sunlight does momentarily wake me
up.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Friday, January
16, 2004 at 01:44:18 (EST) |
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To
survive the tide love divides
 Over
Christmas, I was catching up on my popular culture by watching
a lot of TV. At some glorious moment, some channel (it couldn't
have been MTV since they don't seem to show videos anymore)
played "Separate
Ways" by Journey.
Such a snapshot of the 80s!  If
you recall the video, the band is hanging around a warehouse
on the docks. Part of the time they're playing their instruments,
part they're playing 'air' instruments. And the drummer occasionally
plays a set of oil drums. Brilliant. All the while the band
members are looking earnestly into the camera, lip-synching
as though any of them besides Steve
Perry was singing.
 Meanwhile,
a woman in full 80s regalia keeps walking past the camera,
the apparent subject of the song's lyrics. Hey guys, do you
know what kind of women hang around down on the docks? You
might wanna rethink your undying love there, Steve.
 Anyway,
to honor this great moment in American Pop History, I re-recorded
one of my recent songs but stuck in the lyrics to "Separate
Ways." And I got Nick Cave to do the vocals! No, really.
You may be surprised at what a good fit it is.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Thursday,
January 15, 2004 at 16:04:41 (EST) |
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I was a snowball in hell
This is ridculous. Here it is the 21st century, and we still
have things like weather. Wasn't global warming supposed to
stop all this? No, no. Global warming is bad, mmmkay? But
this cold has got to go! I want to frolic in the streets,
but I can't. Instead I wrote another
song. This one is pretty straight-forward, like the last
couple have been, but I do mess around with some effects in
the middle. 'Sfun.
UPDATE: I've re-done Forget-Me-Do
and added some nifty effects to make it appeal to the American
Idol generation.
Check the music blog
for more songs.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Thursday,
January 15, 2004 at 11:27:13 (EST) |
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When
the walls came down
Sometime within the hour, Brian
Lehrer is gonna talk about the arena
issue. His guests include the guy from the NY Sun who wrote
the editorial that uses the specious logic that if the neighborhood
doesn't want the arena, we won't ever want to build anything
here. Supporting the protesters is that guy who used to be a
major league baseball player (Jim Bouton), the one who spent
a lot of time trying to save stadiums from destruction. I suppose
it's somehow fitting that the contrary voice is somebody who
has tried to protect worthwhile stadiums in the past. Of course,
his viewpoint seems to revolve around the idea that the Frank
Gehry-designed arena will seem dated in a few years and people
will want to tear it down. I'm still hoping a person with an
urban planning background will step forward and denounce it
in terms of its effect on the neighborhood. Or better yet, I
wish there was one (1) super-rich person in the world who would
step up and attempt to buy the LIRR trainyards out from under
Ratner's nose and then do something that was neighborhood-positive.
But it's a pipe dream. There aren't any goodhearted rich folks
anymore. Where are the Beverly Hillbillies when you need them?!
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Wednesday,
January 14, 2004 at 10:54:54 (EST) |
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What's
that floating in the water
 You'd
think there were no animals in Manhattan besides miniature dogs.
An opossum
drew a lot of attention yesterday in Murray Hill, where, as
I understand it, nobody has anything better to do than stand
around and gawk at marsupials. People thought it was a rat,
a cat, or, most perplexingly, a hedgehog. Apparently there are
lots of opossums in the city, but being nocturnal, we don't
normally see them during the day. When you do see a nocturnal
animal roaming around in broad daylight, it can be a sign the
animal is rabid. Somehow, nobody even thought to ask that in
the article. Didn't even cross their minds. I guess opossums
in Murray Hill simply do not have rabies.
Previous urban animals:
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Wednesday,
January 14, 2004 at 10:16:03 (EST) |
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Beyond
the rim of the starlight
Fellow Internet enthusiasts, we have received validation: Internet
'Geek' Image Shattered by New Study. The main revelations
counter the antiquated image of the websurfer as antisocial
and Star Trek-obessessed,
Instead, the typical Internet user is an
avid reader of books and spends more time engaged in social
activities than the nonuser, it says. And, television viewing
is down among some Internet users by as much as five hours
per week compared with Net abstainers, the study added.
 Then
again, last night the band had a spirited discussion of the
superiority of Star
Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. But dammit, it's just
a fine movie and no amount of fresh air and exercise will
change my opinion of that.
Apparently, people are generally believing what they're reading
the web, too. This seems like a bad idea, but will keep the
Urban Legends
Debunkers in business. Swedes, according to the study,
are most skeptical of info available on the web.
This brings me to my other point: I have been getting huge
amounts of traffic to this site from IP addresses that originate
in Sweden. I'm getting a bunch of referrals from a site called
www.playahead.com,
which is some kind of online chat community for Swedish kids.
So are these guys passing the link to my site around, telling
their friends how great it is, how they check it every day,
and someday dream of journeying to America to shake my hand?
No, I'm pretty sure they're all linking to a song I posted,
the Wild
Bunch's "Gay Bar." Recall that this song is
the original version, before the band changed its name to
The Electric
Six and re-recorded it. I was thinking of taking it down,
but I figure as long as I stay within the bandwidth restrictions
of my host, it's no big deal. Plus I still think that version
is superior to the remake. And I'd prefer a cup of coffee
to either of them right now.
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Khannnnnnn!!!! |
It's
not reaaaaal!! |
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Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Tuesday, January
13, 2004 at 16:06:21 (EST) |
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We
love our audience
 I
resisted South
Park for many years. I first saw it years ago when the infamous
"Jesus
vs. Santa" short was making the rounds on 10th-generation
VHS tapes (yes, it was a long time ago). When I heard they were
making it into a TV show, I couldn't imagine it would be any
good. Over the years, I've caught episodes here and there, but
I still didn't get it.
Recently I finally started watching some episodes and I finally
realize the genius of it. I suppose I unfairly lumped it in
with that "Beavis & Butthead" kind of humor,
which it does demonstrate. But there's also a lot more going
on. My all-time favorite character is Jimmy.
I know, he's not one of the originals, and didn't show up
until something like the 5th season. But I can't get enough
of him. As you can see his legs are nonfunctional and he gets
around on some reinforced crutches. In the episode in which
he and Timmy try to join "The Crips" gang (thinking
it's a club for crippled children), a gang member names him
"4Leggz." So he's Jimmy 4Leggz, so call me "Jimmy
2Leggz."
 Jimmy
is a standup comic, despite a bit of a stutter and a dubious
sense of humor. Below are some samples of his act:
You may have to take my word for it that this is really funny
stuff. The weird thing is, despite his infirmities the writers
never mock his "handicapable" status. They might
mock the word "handicapable" but not the
person. Anyway, I bring this up because I keep talking about
Jimmy, but only James knew who he was (must be some weird
connection the J name). What happened to all the slackers
I used to know?
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Tuesday, January
13, 2004 at 11:07:49 (EST) |
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Can't
build a house on a weak foundation
Spalding
Gray has been reported missing as of Saturday night. If
he hadn't been acting so nuts for the past year, this might
be cause for amusement. But considering the guy keeps attempting
suicide and disappeared without his meds, I'm not sure we'll
have an amusing punchline ending to this one. Though I do gotta
say, when I hear about people disappearing, I always think of
the Dada artist whose final art piece was claiming he would
circumnavigate the globe in a one-man rowboat. He was last seen
rowing off towards the horizon and was never heard from again.
I hope that's how I go, too.
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Monday, January
12, 2004 at 01:26:03 (EST) |
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Shut up! Drink up!
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| Z attempts to reach the Mars probe |
According to my calculations, we spent in excess of 13 hours
this weekend practicing and recording stuff for the band.
I'm sure my new upstairs neighbor just loves us to death.
As soon as we finish the rest of the overdubs, I'll probably
post mp3s of the new material. If all goes according to plan,
this stuff will become our 'demo' EP, to be distributed to
people who can get us gigs. If you are a person with such
industry ties, please allow us to kiss
your butt.
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| MRK sings his little
heart out |
Little else to report due to the incredibly awful weather
this weekend. I checked it out: it was fully 20 degrees warmer
in Fargo friggin' North Dakota on Saturday. That pisses me
off for some reason. I did make it out to see Les
Triplettes de Belleville, a nicely insane animated
film. Is it me or does a lot of animation that comes out of
Canada tend towards the grotesque? I mean, more so than popular
animation from other countries. I feel like I've seen a lot
of really screwed up stuff that boasts the National
Film Board of Canada logo. Of course, Canada gave us Julie
Doucet (I'd sure like to see Dirty
Plotte done as a film!)
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| I don't really
play drums, but they're cooler than the guitar |
After the movie we went to Freddy's,
which is always a good time. In fact, I'm nominating it for
consideration as an Endangered Natural Resource, due to its
fun-producing agents. If approved, then no rich
jerk will be able to bulldoze it for a dumbass arena.
Some guy puked while we were there; if that isn't a sign of
fun-times-had-by-all, I don't know what is.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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