PEOPLE AND COMPUTERS
Returning to work today, my pal Bart asked "how was your weekend?" I had to fight the temptation to say, "Great! It's all on my blog." Does anyone else have this problem? This is why I have a love/hate relationship with the world of blogs. Of course I value talking to people in person more than the impersonal blog entry. In a week I'll forget the details of this weekend but my blog has it all laid out in detail. It keeps me going back to the quote, "Our experience on the Web enables us to recapture the truth of our experience of the real world." Recapture it for whom? And, why? Raw ingredients for the blogumentary stew.

More along these lines at Fork in Socket, a beautiful and thought-provoking site from a fellow studying at the Interaction Design Institute. Why Interaction Design? "Human life is an interactive life. From birth we interact directly with people and with our environment, using our senses, our imagination, our emotions, our knowledge. But today, computers and telecommunications allow people to interact indirectly. Interactive technologies have become a medium through which we interact with each other and with our environment; and they are transforming every aspect of our lives."

And yet, "we don't interact with the world; we dwell in it."

I found Fork in Socket from Sellke.com. I'm really digging the new Wilco album on Sellke Radio. Wilco is trying to break my heart. I need an audio stream on my site... somebody tell me how to do it.

HOORAY FOR AMERICA!
We komedy fans have been waiting years for this day. Years! Bob, David and the Mr. Show gang brought the hijinks on the road and delighted our cynical arses off. Let's face it, these guys have changed the face of comedy forever. Monty Python, SCTV, Saturday Night Live, Kids in the Hall... Mr. Show. It's evolution. Welcome to the future Mr. Pantsyfarts. I normally can't stand seeing TV sketch comedy (re)performed verbatim live on stage, but fortunately they kept that to a minimum. Highlights: Three Times One Minus One's classic R&B "flava" (with a rap by Brian Posehn), John Ennis shouting about anything, and Bob Odenkirk's "Newsie's News Special News News Report" (or something like that). Oh... we geeked out and got our stuph signed by them outside, too. They were all SUPER nice. I asked Brian Posehn to be as vulgar as he wanna be, and he didn't disappoint. He wrote "I fucked up your fucking poster. Sorry you fucking dick." My lord how this makes me happy. Naughty words funny make me laugh! [See also: The Time We Partied With David Cross ]


CARTOONS ARE THE BASTION OF COOL
The only TV I watch is the Daily Show and Adult Swim. Both are fucking brilliant. Actually Adult Swim is hit and miss, but Space Ghost/Harvey Birdman/Sealab 2021/Brak Show/Aquateen Hunger Force are the beans in my rice, the chips in my salsa. The spunk in my junk. Now they're playing The Oblongs, a family chock full of physical abormalities due to their proximity to a polluted swamp. Recognize the voices? That's Will Farrell as the dad in Oblongs, and Designing Women's Jean Smart as the mom. Mission Hill's design nicely rips off Daniel Clowes but the writing suffers. Listen for Mr. Show's Brian Posehn and The Go-Go's Jane Wiedlin. The themes songs are hip, too - Oblongs theme by They Might Be Giants and Cake does the Mission Hill theme. Of course nobody can hold a candle to our nerd lord Tom Kenny, King of Kool Kartoon Voices: Spongebob Squarepants, the mayor/narrator of The Powerpuff Girls, and about a million other roles. PLEASE NOTE: There is some weird technical problem with the post below this one. Hopefully it will go away.

LONG LIVE THE ZOMBIES
Oh, sweet sweet harmonies from one of my dearest 60's pop gods, The Zombies. Fantastic show at First Avenue tonite. Colin Blunstone's smoky theatrical voice was as sweet and strong as ever, amazingly so. They played a few favorites from my favorite slice of 60's soft magic and wonder, Odessey and Oracle - "Care of Cell 44", "A Rose for Emily", "This Will Be Our Year" and of course "Time of the Season". I was deeply thrilled for the first three. I sang along and squinted my eyebrows in feeling and pain. I can't say it better than Kate Sullivan: "Colin Blunstone is a soft hero, a blooming treasure, and he makes any song, however familiar, a work of poetic surprise." Some fine solo stuff from both Colin and Rod Argent, including classic rock staple "Hold Your Head High" which was actually really good. They did another good Argent song "Pleasure" that I hadn't heard. Note to self, get some Argent vinyl. Note to self, Get record player fixed first dumbass.


DISCO HITLER
After The Zombies, Lori and I headed to the Minneapolis Institute of Art's Sublime party. A "circus of the senses" and a "cavalcade of kinetic art adventure." Also, "an excuse to put a boobie on the MIA web site". Also, and excuse for me to dress up as Disco Hitler. We got there late so the shenanigans were winding down. Venus (of All the Pretty Horses fame) apparently won the most revealing costume award. S/he looked gorgeously angelic with white wings and bare white ass.
Lorika and I shook some booty to the funky DJ delight of Danny Sigelman and friend. People seemed to enjoy the Disco Hitler look, although many assumed I was just some sort of confused clownish Austin Powers. I'm diggin the Hitler stash, but Lori sez it's prickly so off it goes.


FAREWELL FRIDAY NIGHT POKER PARTY
Friday nite was the last nite of my favorite radio show (next to Cosmic Slop, natch). Dangerman and Babs went out with a spies and private eyes theme, clearly getting trashed on the air and loving every minute. For seven years they've been playing the coolest hot rod, rockabilly, surf-a-hooly, sci-fi/spy garage-o-matic tunage you'll ever find. Sprinkled heavily with their tongue-in-cheek bafoonery between sets. I'll miss them on my Friday drive home. Their site seems to be down, but there's a blurb on KFAI.

SCHMOOZIN' -N- BOOZIN'
Just got back from the Sound Unseen closing nite party. Ran into Brian D. and got me a hot fresh DV-CINEMA DVD! It's so exciting to have stuff on a DVD. We're talkin' Komedy Koven "I Told You Not to Tell Anyone" and my little experiment, "The Man Who Couldn't Breathe." And other stuff way cooler than that. Brian said he's kinda sick of the whole thing after seeing it all over and over. That happened to me working on the Stan Ridgway film. That's always a weird problem with a creative project - by the time you're done refining it and making it good, you're sick of it and ready to move on. But that's when you're supposed to be excited about it cuz other people are seeing it for the first time. And then you get some gratification and excitement back again.

I got some of that gratification tonight. I felt very uncool and not social - it's been awhile since I've been amongst such a hipster crowd. Not so much my thing these days. I did talk to some nice folks though, new and familiar familiar faces. Chris Strouth was telling people about the stuff I did on his film and how cool I was. Also cool because I knew who 60's French mod rocker Jacques Dutronc was. Which makes him cool too, and then we're both like so cool! Hey man, you know, if you don't know who J.D. is then like, totally bug off man. Tee hee! Like my hand is all in your face like "Talk to my hands dude cuz my ears are plugged up with bullshit." My hands are all up like "nu-uh, my hands are all up here so don't even" like that!!!!! (?) I also was flattered by all the ladies checking my ass out. Literally - some girl squeezed my ass when she walked by. These things do not happen to me. Unless it's Lori doing the squeezing, which she has full license to do. And maybe Jonathan. Okay, actually I have seen licenses to squeeze my ass on ebay but I do NOT condone these cheap and illegal imitations.

DESIGN IS EVERYTHING, BOSS
And I keep changing mine. I started making an olde-tymey theme, but it wasn't working so I ditched it all and started over. I got some inspirado from thebestdesigns.com and went with the New York City theme. Good enough for tonight. I'm totally obsessed with design right now. Could be the design class I'm taking at MCAD. I really want the blogumentary to have cool design, and to not be lame. How to make a blogumentary interesting when it's just people typing on their computer? I have a few ideas... but I really want input from the blogosphere. How would the blogosphere want to document itself? Can I get a meeting with the blogosphere's sleazy agent?

NOOZ
Google's new News Search is out of beta. Check it out. Just found out that ecstacy may cause more brain damage than previously thought. They gave squirrel monkeys a lot of E and it gave them brain damage. If I was a squirrel monkey forced to endure animal testing, I'd want to be in the ecstacy test. Warplanes hit airport in Iraq - they fired at us and we fired back, only we hit a civilian airport? Our smart missiles seem dumber all the time. Hooray for America! Ahhh well, Mr. Show are interviewed in City Pages so just shrug and laugh it off. Ha ha! Aha hahahahaha! Owwww I crapped my pants why does it hurt when I crap mommy? Mommy? Nooooooooooo!

BORING PERSONAL CRAP
Just when you thought my blog was getting off to a strong start, ZOOOOK! Comin' at ya with a picture of my cat! This is why blogs suck. So anyway, my evil kitty Jasmine knocked something off the coffee table. Rustle rustle... she was trying desparately to rip into it. Turned out to be a pack of Marlboros. That's my kitty! She really needed a damn cigarette. She also goes nuts for coffee, ice cream and pudding. I hope she doesn't end up on the kitty version of Jerry Springer.

Oh, and Happy 60th Birthday to my mom today! She is the best mom ever. And the coolest, cuz she has a new iMac and as of today, her own domain: moschmit.com. Maybe my mom will blog? Do moms blog?

Not front page news?
We just started getting the Sunday New York Times. Lori sez "I've learned more from reading this paper than I've learned from the Star Tribune all my life." Cases in point, a couple of startling news nuggets:

Rumsfeld announced on Monday that American and British warplanes had begun bombing major air defense sites in Iraq, a move that could prepare the way for an invasion. [ NY Times full story ]
Buh? Since when is bombing a mere preparation? Why isn't this a big deal? Do we bomb Iraq all the time and nobody hears about it?

More Sci- Than Fi, Physicists Create Antimatter [ NY Times full story ]
Holy crap! When do I get warp speed gas for my Mazda 323? CERN scientists don't see any practical application for the forseeable future, but instead are going to figure out if Einstein's theories mesh with the "weird rules of quantum mechanics. The most ambitious such 'theory of everything,' which portrays particles as strings wriggling in 10-dimensional space-time, seems to preserve the matter-antimatter symmetry, but theorists do not really understand why." I'm just so glad there is a Theory of Everything outside of my head. Except it's supposed to be called "The Interconnectedness of All Things." Ahh, apparently ahh, they "didn't get the memo." Heh-heh! As if I had sent out a memo to that effect. Heh heh. "Didn't get the memo."

fucking hell. hello.
Welcome aboard. This is my new blog. My name is Chuck. Welcome to my world.

RANT Does the world need another blog? Yes! Because the world needs more conversations, online and offline. I'm more engaged and informed than ever, thanks to MeFi and the ensuing discussion at Space Waitress. Me mates and I, we even pickup the conversation using REAL LIVE HUMAN TALKING over breakfast. Mostly about our evil/idiotic president.

"Our experience on the Web enables us to recapture the truth of our experience of the real world."

BLOGUMENTARY Oh yeah, I'm also doing a documentary (blogumentary?) about blogs. I need your help. Watch the saga unfold here and email me your ideas and thoughts.

I really truly believe that blogs and the web are the evolved tendrils of our human existence and the interconnectedness of all things. Like Space Waitress sez, it's our collective human memory. Our collective brain. Perhaps something greater will be gleaned from it all. Something like V'ger.

MUSIC + FILM Meanwhile - sorry, long-ass first entry here - I've been digging the Sound Unseen Festival. I saw a short doc about the Langely Schools Music Project. You know, where the school kids from 1978 sing all the classic rock hots of the day with innocence and despair in their little voices. The producer of the cd was there. He's a DJ at the esteemed WFMU and remembers when he first heard this strange cover of Bowie's "Space Oddity" a listener had sent him. He thought it sounded like these children were in a cult singing in a dungeon... imagine a choir of children singing "Ground control to Major Tom." Creepy but glorious. Music of the gods! It's so heartwarming. I love the children. There was also a fine doc about Wesley Willis. They showed the genesis of syuch lyrics as "Suck a donkey's dick" and "Suck a grizzlybear's bootyhole with Heinz tomato ketchup." I saw Wesley Willis in Chicago years ago before I knew who he was. I was super lamely standing outside a soldout rock show at the Metro (Foo Fighters, Mike Watt, and a band with Eddie Vedder's wife) and along comes this huge scary black man demanding to see Eddie Vedder. I know you are in there Eddie Vedder! I thought there was gonna be trouble, but the dudes at the door seemed to know him and Wesley said he had some new tapes. Shoulda got one yo.

MUSIC I went to Cheapo afterward looking for the Langely cd. No dice, but I got the new LOW which has my new favorite fucking song in the universe right now, "Canada". Lori thinks it's about a train. I'm not yet sure what it's about, but it.... rocks? Low's site sez their new album Trust "features cameo appearances by Gerry Beckley from soft-rock giants America and was mixed by Tchad Blake (Latin Playboys, Lisa Germano, Pearl Jam, etc.)" cool! Also: Daft Punk Live 1997 used, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

FILM Crap, this is long. I just have to say, my film action has been going strong lately. I made my big screen debut in a real film at Oak Street - "Stan Ridgway: Holiday in Dirt". I did the opening credits and treated some inbetween bits, all with my stoopid-fresh After Effects skillz. Now, "Mixtape Genius" is slated to screen at the Walker's DIG.IT festival on Oct 17, 6PM. "Grandma's Elixir" and "Bad Date" apparently will screen at the Low Voltage Film Fest this fall. And, Brian just released the DV-CINEMA DVD which has the Komedy Koven's "I Told You Not to Tell Anyone" and "The Man Who Couldn't Breathe." I'm also hoping Simon's Dream gets included in the mnartists.org "5 minutes of fame" webcast experiment. Great jesus gonzos.

Rock over London, Rock on Chicago. Diet Pepsi - Uh Huh!