I'll have to cross-post this to Facebook, but by a show of hands, how many of you are NOT going to Lazy Bear this year because of money (including unemployment)?

EDIT: Include Bear Week or any other major vacation-y event.

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Five years ago in May 2004 Robert bigsabu bought a red plastic wind-up robot he named Murray. Robert was living in Seattle at the time, and he sent Murray off to make the rounds among his LiveJournal friends for photo ops all over the country.

I had him in Lexington/Louisville for a little while before he made his way down to Mississippi with Jayson standardtom.

I'd forgotten I took these, but stumbled across the folder while looking for something else. In addition to local landmarks like Col. Sanders' grave, the Louisville Slugger museum, and Churchill Downs, you also get a guest appearance from chrisglass who'd come to Louisville to attend Wonderfest the previous day. Bob digibob is still here (and still in that house), but Aaron beary_poppins passed away from renal failure in September 2007.

Robert, if you're reading this, whatever happened to Murray? Did he find his way home?

Last night Scott and I drove up to the Marin County Fair, where we enjoyed a nice plastic cup of blush while roaming past booths offering info about Palestine and selling sweaters knitted from free-range alpacas.

Also, we saw Berlin knock out an hour-long set of hits and covers to a surprisingly large (and middle-aged) crowd. They rocked.

We need to get a sitter more often! ;)

My set is ready. My nerves are calmer. I shouldn't still be awake because we have to get up at 6:30. I don't expect I'll sleep very much (the fact that we're having a little heat wave doesn't help).

Tomorrow morning I'll be DJing in front of a million people.

Perspective, though...my barber said "seen by millions, remembered by none." LOL, so true.

I'll post the final set list here.

This just has djmrswhite written all over it. :D

Just get me through this week, please.

Also, I'm in a holding pattern on the NO project until Friday. I NEED A PROJECT OR I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF.

Does anyone in the bay area have a large scale scanner that can handle a 12"+ square in one pass?

I have a really good scanner, but the piece I'm trying to do has a metallic sheen, and even with multiple passes I'm getting too much variance to stitch it together and have it look right. Add embossed text to the equation and it's a nightmare.

I haven't asked at Kinkos yet because they normally quibble over copyright issues.

Alternately, if any of you graphic designers know a few tricks that could make it work, let me know.

If you haven't seen Iron Maiden's Flight 666 documentary on VH1 yet, set your Tivo/DVR, or just go buy the DVD. It's one of the best documentaries I've ever seen about a band, and they can still fucking SHRED.

\m/

Apart from Sandinista! by The Clash, and 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields, who else in rock has released a triple album? I don't mean live, either - it has to be a studio LP.

Oooh, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins was pressed as a triple LP.

Also, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.

bbbuster turns 5 today.

I think he'll celebrate by spending the day sitting in the sunlight, with the occasional running around in spaz mode.

Jim bearadjacent, Christian xianjessen, Bruce brunorepublic, and Thomas.

I didn't write much about Bruce being in town, but it was wonderful having him here. I think I'll head off to Toronto for a few days this fall.

A few more photos can be found here.

Scott sftekbear posted this a couple of days ago.

He's doing the AIDS LifeCycle fundraiser ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles this week, after having dropped 130 pounds in the past year.

Scott is my hero.

You can follow his diary of the ride here.

Ever heard the collaboration New Order did with Cabaret Voltaire in September '80 featuring manager Rob Gretton on vocals?

How about the original version of Let's Go, an outtake from the Lowlife sessions that ended up as an instrumental on the Salvation! soundtrack and was re-recorded with entirely new lyrics in '94 for that best of comp?

How about the instrumental mix of Sunrise that came out on a cassette-only compilation in '85?

You will.

Yes! Kicking and Screaming is being released as the 5th single from The Presets' Apocalypso album.

These guys are a stadium act in their native Australia and elsewhere. What's wrong with you, America? Embrace this band.

I just can't stop laughing at this. The longer I look, the funnier it gets.

And in case anyone needed further proof that I am, in fact, eight years old, the following schoolyard chant popped into my head this morning after being dormant for 30 years:

Your mama, your daddy
Your greasy granny's got holes in her panties
Got a big behind like Frankenstein
Going beep beep beep down Sesame Street!

I'm still married to Thomas, and always will be, regardless of the law.

Time to regroup and push forward.

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Attention kevin_v5: Chimp Magazine did a feature story about Stephen Morris' collection of tanks.

Reposted from growler_south, I am literally crying because I'm laughing so hard. Before anyone cries fowl, I do this to bbbuster all the time (minus the socks). I can assure you I care about my cat more than I care about most humans, and I'd never harm him.

Holy crap, does this crack me up!