I "Was" Somebody Else

"So much has happened in 4 weeks, it's hard to know where to begin...

Shaving my chest was not that big a deal. The tattoos though, getting those has made me feel like a whole new person."

(actual ad, I just sliced and stacked it to fit here better)
(and they get extra points for the misuse of quotation marks)

Let us pray... er... prey.

Tickled!

Go on and watch it. You could use a smile on your face.

Book burning rained out

Remember that church that was holding the the Halloween Book Burning so they could burn all of "Satan's Bibles," the ones that were not the King James Version... and they also included "Satan's popular books" written by "heretics" such as Billy Graham, Rick Warren, James Dobson, Mother Teresa, The Pope, and a long list of others, as well as "Satan's music such as country, rap, rock, pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, southern gospel, contemporary Christian, jazz, soul, oldies but goldies, etc."? Here's a link to their site, but be warned... the pages play non-Satanic music that has no mute button, so you'll have to use your computer's sound controls to do that.

Well, it was proclaimed to be a great success even though nothing was burned! Wouldn't you know... on the day of the big burning event, God made it rain! And then "those in authority" reminded them that they couldn't legally burn stuff anyway, so they just tore everything up (indoors) and threw it in a trash can. They made a video of the whole thing. You can view it here (it's a .wmv file and will prompt you to download it*) and it is a surreal 30+ minutes featuring a plastic trash can being filled with ripped up books, shots of feet, and closeups of the preacher's butt as it moves back and forth retrieving more stuff. There is some non-satanic music playing in the background and announcements of titles as they go in... Andy Warhol would have been proud. The most disturbing thing in it for me is when he broke and trashed the Tom Petty's Greatest Hits CD.

The lack of fire was disappointing, just picture it... a raging bonfire of Bibles under the moonlight on Halloween... how very heathen!The church's website is a butt-ugly horror with a bazillion pages, including one for ungodly politicians, which includes Obama of course, but also includes Dubya Bush, Kay Bailey Hutchison, John McCain and Sarah Palin! Actually the whole site is perversely entertaining, with their lists of things (including the good, bad and ugly of their county, such as a gas station that doesn't sell beer or lottery tickets - that's in the category of "good"). If you want a similar website for yourself, you can get ahold of this guy. He did it, and did it godly.

*I was soooo tempted to upload it to YouTube, but was afraid people would think it was really my video.

Weekend Roundup

Here it is Tuesday, so I'm trying to catch up with posting (plus I still have an award to pick up and run with). MrB returned from St. Louis, bringing me this souvenir (he's allergic to peanuts, or I would not have been gifted with this).

Saturday was beautiful, warm and sunny. I shopped at the chains on Brodie (for necessities) and spent time pulling weeds and being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Ended up wimping out on Saturday night of my Home Alone weekend, but that's not surprising. These days I'm not used to going out alone and not that comfortable with it. It's been years since I did that. Even after my friend called me at 9:30 or 10pm to tell me that Eric Johnson was in the house at the Saxon Pub I couldn't bring myself to get presentable, drive across town, then try to find parking followed by trying to squeeze myself into an already packed house for Stephen Bruton's birthday celebration. (geez, I am pathetic.) The Saxon Pub is a great place but IMHO does not do big crowds well. It's the tables and chairs... standing room only is one thing (such as Antone's), but dealing with seated people who want you to get out of their line of vision is another. It can be unpleasant... {sigh}. Last time I went through that it was worth it though, because it was New Year's Eve eve, and Stephen Bruton himself performed a couple of songs. He was fighting cancer, which finally got him him a little over four months later. Anyway, Saturday night I did watch the Austin City Limits Band of Heathens episode on TV, where we did get a crowd cameo shot, as I thought we might. :-)

Henry the cat was doing much better over the weekend. His pain meds are doubled now, and that's been a helper. He was a very bad patient on his day admission Friday, and I have to think it was because of having pain.

Sunday found me running through a parking lot with a full grocery cart in the pouring rain, but most of the stuff in there is bundled in plastic, glass or metal (Save the oatmeal!!!!). The rain on Sunday also got me out of MrB's yard work duties. Birdbaths = filled!

Monday I started out by stupidly burning my fingers on the hot stove (my brain disappeared briefly at approximately 4:45AM). Great way to start the week! They are fine today. I put ice on them immediately after, which is exactly what the Mayo Clinic website tells you NOT to do... so don't do that... but it didn't hurt me any. Today (Tuesday) there's some tenderness and a possible blister forming but that's it. Fine.

It's coming up on 6AM now, so gotta go get in the traffic soon.

Home alone weekend

I will be on my own this weekend, MrB is going to St. Louis to see his family members, leaving me with the cat care, birdbath duties, and trying to figure out all these damned remote controls. There are lots of events I've got penciled in, but will probably end up staying home instead, at least at night.

Henry the cat is having some health issues (picking him up from his day admission soon) so I might need to ratchet up my role of kitty caregiver. He wasn't able to stand up last night, his legs wouldn't hold him. My theory is that he jumped down from something, and with his arthritis ended up temporarily hurting himself. This morning he could walk again, but I wanted the doc to check him out anyway. [back from the vet now, don't know anything for sure, could be what I thought with the jump impact triggering sciatica, or possibly a heart issue... we won't know without an ultrasound at the cardiologist -- sigh]

Some weekend options:
The Celtic Festival is this weekend, both days. I loooove that music and this festival. It's in the blood. Cost is $12 per day I think, plus beer and snacks (some of which contain "treacle"). There's also Fun Fun Fun Fest if you prefer something harder. One of my favorite local bands, Shearwater, will be playing but I think I will have to wait for their CD release tour to see them.

Saturday night, Ruby Jane is having her 15th Birthday party at Roadhouse Rags. There will be good music, BYOB, and admission is $10. Also on Saturday night, Crooked Still is playing a free show down in San Marcos [venue]. Two excellent choices.

This is the last weekend for the Chuck Close exhibit at the museum. I think admission is $5. I really want to go to this so will probably drag my butt downtown for it on Saturday, and knowing me, will wimp out on the nighttime events.

Jon Stewart does Glenn Beck about Glenn Beck's appendix

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The 11/3 Project
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Bravo! Brilliant! Huzzah!

heh heh.. yeah...

"Suck it, Jesus"... not just Kathy Griffin's Emmy acceptance speech, it could also be Ringo Starr's reaction to his image being discovered in a droplet of water. Take a look at it here.

You'll get weird looks but won't even know it.

Having problems with glare? Maybe you bought a Snuggie® and it doesn't quite bundle up all the right things? Or just need some privacy?

Featured as one of the 15 Stupidest Products of All Time.

Austin's Heathens out there in the world now

Saw the Band of Heathens on Friday night. It was a beautiful crisp night in Threadgill's beer garden. They've been one of our favorite local bands since sometime in early 2006... thereabouts. They are getting out there in the world a lot lately, constantly on tour, so we don't get to see them that often here anymore... no more weekly gigs at Momo's or the Saxon Pub, and their latest record is #1 on the Americana playlist chart (there's a little animated ad on the sidebar of that page that I make, you can probably guess which one if you are a regular here). MrB took a bunch of videos, which all turned out good and are posted on my YouTube channel. Here is one of their new ones, an incredible song. I just love it.

Here's another one, this one is about 9 minutes long with some sweet vocals, organ, and guitar jams. Sit back and enjoy (hope it isn't hard to load, might need to hit pause and wait for the buffer to get ahead of you).

If you get Austin City Limits in your area (on PBS), they will be on there next week. Check your local listings.

Saturday Halloween, giggles and screams

Halloween was on Saturday this year, and MrB wanted to do a costume (two things that are many many blue moons apart) so we gave out all the candy and went out afterwards. We found out that his costume was way too scary for some of the really little kids, and a few of them freaked out when he opened the door... I mean screams, tears, the works. I finally had to started answering the door (sans the box), because I could pass myself off as a weird Santa, when actually I was Dick In A Box (except that my "dick" was Dick Cheney).


It was really very funny having a fake beard, because I really could have passed for a man. I was coming out of the stall in the restroom and some women freaked for a moment, then we all had a good giggle. Here are some pics from down on 6th street where thousands of people milling around in costumes.







Around 10 we went down to Cheer Up Charlie's on East 6th (which was away from the big crowds) to see Or, The Whale from San Francisco. They are a wonderful band but they don't really have a following in Austin. It was a patio party with a great band, a fire pit, vegan food, and free beer (for tips). The whole night, including the beautiful weather, was a real treat.

New decorations and venue plugging

I've done some housekeeping here at the blog. No, I didn't (knowingly) throw anything away, but I did make a little storage area further down the sidebar - a blogroll of places and people I like, but are not updated so often these days, so if it looks like you are missing you might be relocated. Also got a new banner up.Just like the previous one, it's a shot taken at Roadhouse Rags. You won't find a more "South Austin" place than that. Friendly, great music, BYOB, BYO dog (but there's already a pretty cool dog there), and they sell vintage clothes. Here you go, there's your backstage pass.

And, I have to add, that I've never in my life seen a prettier port-o-potty. This is the women's (obviously). I didn't photograph the men's.

Here's a previous post with some pretty cool photos of the place.