Michael's Texas Embrace

Oh man, I am so wearing the top half of a home-made samurai costume right now. It's hella sweet. Maggie is sewing me some makeshift hakama pants right now that are looking damn fine. And soon, I will be the hairiest chested samurai since Richard Chamberlin donned his kimono for Shogun. Watch out, the Scottish-looking Samurai is on your ass. I'll be like Sean Connery in a Kimono. Mwa ha ha.

Sah-weet-ah!

Okay, I don't know if any of you have noticed yet, but you will. (If they get that far north and east...) What will you notice that I have already noticed? This: there has been a great increase in dead raccoons beside Austin's roadways. In the last couple of days, and in a limited area (downtown-ish, greenbelt-ish) I have seen no less than four different dead raccoons. This can only mean one thing: the assault has begun. Our initial counterstrike of automobiles seems to have eliminated the advance guard of the raccoons, but this is surely only the beginning. There will be more, and they will refine their tactics. They will be riding on top of our cars, rather than being struck by them; they will penetrate us, our secrets, our movements. They will know, and as they draw close for whatever terrible and final strike awaits, they will tear away their masks and reveal their true selves. My God, my friends. It is practically already over. We've lost before it has really begun. Pray.

For you, just for you, I made a special painting about my feelings. It shows us for us, and me for me, and the world as it truly is--as all great art does. A break with tradition, the critics may say, but true art never breaks from observing some truth. I think in years to come, seashell. The fan is on. Ahoy to the ups.


Crappy thing.

Well, I got through that crappy week of stupid homework. When I say homework, I mean reading novels that I don't want to read and don't care much for. I have nothing interesting to report, it just seemed like I should blog something.

Ummm...I've been hunting for records recently, and the other day I scored a near-perfect copy of the Beatles "White Album" on vinyl. It sounds fantastic! I was rocking out to Ob-la-di-ob-la-da, While my Guitar Gently Weeps, Sexy Sadie, etc, today. I think the big differences between analog (vinyl) and digital (CDs) is really all in the nuance. The drums sound different. The record drums sound warmer and snappier, and the background sounds, vocal, extraneous noises and the like, pop out a bit more. The Beatles really do sound better on record, and I think it's because they have so many extra sounds that just show up with a warmer tone on the vinyl. I must continue my search for records though. I need "Dark Side of the Moon" on vinyl, for sure. "London Calling" would be nice. So would "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and something by Queen. And maybe a Good Led Zeppelin or Rolling Stones Record. Tomorrow I am off work and have no classes. I will go and scour the recent arrivals bins and the record stores. Mwa ha ha. What other records should I look for?

Have you wondered what it would be like if I had a friend that had a Moog, and we played "somewhere over the Rainbow" sort of crappily in a reverby parking garage? I did, so I made a recording to simulate that. Here's the link (if that doesn't sound interesting to you at all, don't click on it. It won't ever be interesting. But the end is nice, hearing two moog filters, self-oscillating, both being swept down at once in a dense reverb. It sounds pretty neat.)