A smile and a whistle

The commercial has a very catchy whistled tune running through it, and here's a cockatiel who has watched the commercial extensively too!

This is soooo me!

Someone I work with got me this T-shirt. I love it! All I gave her was an origami pig (she has a pet pig). I folded it myself, but still... this is just a bit nicer!

So whaddya think? (that dude in the middle is troublemaker... yes?) ;-)

Purrsday Night- Face Time

Please put that camera down and we'll talk. Seriously. I mean it.

Tags and links: Friday Ark - Carnival of the Cats - This week's carnival is at Bad Kitty Cats on Sunday - Cats - Catblogging

Absolut Everything!

Ever make your own deodorant? Yeah, me neither. But check out this recipe for homemade deodorant [source]

Put 2 parts vodka, 1 part lemon or lime juice (if fresh, be sure to strain the pulp), and 1 part water in a container. (Optional: Use a few drops of the essential oils of lemon, lime, and/or lavender) for fragrance. Pour final mixture in a small pump (non-aerosol) spray bottle. Use liberally and adjust water content if skin sensitivity ensues.

They do add that it's safe for children but not recovering alcoholics. Sounds a bit like a vodka gimlet, doesn't it? (without the fragrance... and the spray bottle) Here's another page on that site that offers a perfume recipe make from 3 cups of vodka, and a half cup each of essential oil and orrisroot. hmmmmmm.

I also came across the following list of vodka uses. Who knew??

1. To remove a bandage painlessly, saturate the bandage with vodka. The solvent dissolves the adhesive.
2. To clean the caulking around bathtubs and showers, fill a trigger-spray bottle with vodka, spray the caulking, let set 5 minutes and wash clean. The alcohol in the vodka kills mold and mildew.
3. To clean your eyeglasses, simply wipe the lenses with a soft, clean cloth dampened with vodka. The alcohol in the vodka cleans the glass and kills germs.
4. Prolong the life of razors by filling a cup with vodka and letting your safety razor blade soak in the alcohol after shaving. The vodka disinfects the blade and prevents rusting.
5. Spray vodka on vomit stains, scrub with a brush, then blot dry.
6. Using a cotton ball, apply vodka to your face as an astringent to cleanse the skin and tighten pores.
7. Add a splash of vodka to a 12-ounce bottle of shampoo. The alcohol cleanses the scalp, removes toxins from hair and stimulates the growth of healthy hair.
8. To treat dandruff, mix 1 cup vodka with 2 teaspoons crushed rosemary. Let sit 2 days, strain through a coffee filter, massage into your scalp and dry.
9. Fill a 16-ounce trigger-spray bottle and spray bees or wasps to kill them.*
10. Pour 1/2 cup vodka and 1/2 cup water in a freezer bag and freeze for a slushy, reusable ice pack for aches, pain or black eyes.
11. Fill a clean, empty jar with freshly packed lavender flowers. Fill the jar with vodka, seal the lid tightly, and set it in the sun for 3 days. Strain liquid, then apply the tincture to aches and pains.
12. Make your own mouthwash by mixing 9 tablespoons powdered cinnamon with 1 cup vodka. Seal in an airtight container for 2 weeks. Strain through a coffee filter. Mix with warm water and rinse your mouth. (DON'T SWALLOW!)
13. Using a cotton swab, apply vodka to a cold sore to help it dry out.
14. If blister opens, pour vodka over the raw skin as a local anesthetic that also disinfects the exposed dermis.
15. To treat an earache, put a few drops of vodka in your ear. Let sit for a few minutes, then drain. Vodka will kill the bacteria causing pain in your ear.
16. To relieve a fever, use a washcloth to rub vodka on your chest and back as a liniment.
17. To cure foot odor, wash your feet with vodka.
18. Vodka will disinfect and alleviate a jellyfish sting.
19. Pour vodka over an area affected with poison ivy to remove the urushiol oil from your skin.
20. Swish a shot of vodka over an aching tooth. Allow your gums to absorb some of the alcohol to numb the pain.
21. If all else fails, just turn the bottle upside-down and drink it.

* not advocating this... unless it's you or them, and if bees are after you, you might need to cut back on the vodka perfume.

Try "la la la I'm not listening"

If the Virgin Mary or any other voice you hear tells you to kill someone, ask for some ID, and it can't be on a piece of toast. Then... call 911. They will take it from there.

Austin Music Poll - vote

There's still time to vote in the Austin Music Poll. You don't have to live here and you don't have to fill out the whole form. The musicians really do appreciate (and need) your votes.

There are lots of criteria to use in voting, whether you are a fan or just want to show some love to someone who had a tough year. There are musicians living around here who are pretty famous, and oddly enough, they don't usually win these awards although by no means are they exempted from the contest. Michael Corcoran, in this post, lays out his description of the difference between an Austin musician and a musician who lives in Austin, and tells why he doesn't think Iron & Wine qualifies. (When Sam Beam moved here, he was already big enough to sell out Stubb's, so he doesn't have to bust his ass every night in little clubs for tips. No crime there.) There are soooo many choices in every category you could list a hundred for each slot, but it's still perfectly alright to plug a few people.

Musician of the year: Stephen Bruton
He's battling throat cancer but still out there playing at the Saxon Pub, solo or with The Resentments. He threw a huge concert last summer called The Road to Austin, a FREE outdoor show with Kristofferson, Raitt, Eric Johnson, Bobby Whitlock, Joe Ely and lots more. He's a wonderful songwriter with a lot of soul. He's a treasure, and he got my vote.

Electric Guitar: Eric Johnson
He's world-class, and my favorite guitar player... period... and as unconceited as he can possibly be. If you want to embarrass him, tell him how good he is. His Cliffs of Dover is part of Guitar Hero III, Legends of Rock.

Acoustic Guitar: several plugs: Eric Johnson is great. Also Rick del Castillo or Mark del Castillo are favorites, and Monte Montgomery. All as fine as they can be. Monte is busting his ass every Wednesday night at the Saxon Pub, and that's not his only gig. This is a guitar town, so there are hundreds of choices for both electric and acoustic.

Bass Guitar: Chris Maresh. Versatile to the max, plays every kind of music and can keep up with the best of them. Roscoe Beck, also a good choice.

Drums: Tommy Taylor, who usually plays with Eric. There's also Terry Bozzio. You may have heard of him. Used to be in a band with Jeff Beck. Rattletree is a Zimbawean-style marimba band, and they made their own instruments.

Latin anything: Del Castillo or Grupo Fantasma.

Bluegrass: South Austin Jug Band

Strings: Brian Beken, Warren Hood, or Dennis Ludiker (my favorite fiddlers!)

Kid Band: though not technically a "band", our young friend Sarah Jarosz and her amazing mandolin won this last year, and she is still eligible. Also write her in for "Miscellaneous instrument -- mandolin"

Blues: Gary Clark Jr. hits the big screen this year in the movie "Honeydripper" directed by John Sayles. He's been playing in these clubs since he was way too young to be in them. He's the real thing, and my pick this year.

Bands, Roots Rock, Folk, Male and Female Singers, good grief there are too many to mention: The Band of Heathens, Mother Truckers, Gougers, Reckless Kelly, Texas Sapphires, Joe Ely, Mario Matteoli, Del Castillo, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Dixie Chicks, Willie Nelson, Iron & Wine, Dale Watson, James McMurtry, Ruthie Foster, Terri Hendrix, Belleville Outfit, Jon Dee Graham, The Resentments, Tea Merchants, any band that plays any night at Momo's, Antone's, The Saxon Pub, Emo's, Flipnotics, over on Red River, or at the Continental Club (what have I left out?).

Novelty or none of the above: Austin Lounge Lizards, Asylum Street Spankers, Friends of Dean Martinez, White Ghost Shivers, Eggmen...

World Music: Mundi

My favorite club this year was Momo's, the best acoustic listening room is still The Cactus Cafe.

Best Record Store: Waterloo Records

Want to explore Austin music? There's not a comprehensive guide, but there's this and this or this.

Here's the ballot.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music

Another annoying gnat buzzing around my face

With the Oscar nominations just being announced, it reminded me of one of my peeves.

When are they going to drop that tired old term “actress”? There is already a gender-neutral term in use, it’s “actor,” meaning one who acts. This is not one of those make-it-politically-correct-by-creating-a-new-term nit-picks. The word “man” is not contained within the word “actor” as it is in the job titles Spokes-man, Chair-man, and Congress-man. And we don’t have directresses, editresses, artistesses, photographresses, designresses, doctresses... see how silly it is?

I do see the term webmistress a lot, but I don’t use it (any more than I use designress or illustratress). What am I? Married to a website? Having an affair with it? Being "kept" by a sugar daddy? Cut it out.

(If you are going to remind me that Mrs. is short for "mistress", go ahead. I also hate the term Mrs. (Missus).

Heath Ledger

This is a tragic loss... so young and beautiful and talented. I am shocked and saddened. It doesn't even seem real.

Some decent tributes and coverage:
Awards Daily
SF Gate
NPR

---

Oh yes, and Entertainment Tonight, you suck! Well, that's just stating the obvious, but this was all over the news well before your slot came up, but not one word about it was mentioned. I know that exclusive interview with Britney's paparazzi boyfriend was expensive, and everyone is dying to hear about American Idol ad nauseum, but this snub is inexcusable. You would think that with his being a previous Oscar nominee for Best Actor (Brokeback Mountain, 2005) that you could have worked in one sentence about his passing. Same thing happened when Hunter S. Thompson took his own life, not a mention of it or the subsequent unique funeral arrangements made by Johnny Depp. But then we get months and months of Anna Nicole and what Dani Lynn ate for breakfast and the creepy Osmonds and those automatons you've got hosting. ugh. Sorry for the rant. I will change the channel from now on.
addendum: the day after it happened, they (ET) are all over it, but the rant stays!

Another night at Momo's

Saturday we got to Momo's early to see The Steps [listen on MySpace], who I've been wanting to see. They are a really good (teenaged) rock band. Their playing is tight, all are good musicians, and they've got a sound that's a bit of a throwback to the early 60s British stuff that I love so much, and I am not talking about the sweet stuff, I mean the Kinks, Van Morrison's Them, the Yardbirds, and early Beatles and Rolling Stones -- they are often compared to the Strokes as well. They are so young, 2 of them are still in high school, but they've already played the Austin City Limits Festival, toured in London, and have a record coming out next month. [read more about them]

I picked up their set list (which was written on a restaurant order check) and got them to autograph it afterwards. They seemed surprised, but they did it happily with a grin and a WTF look... but they might as well get used to requests like that. I think they are going to go somewhere if they can stay together, especially when that CD comes out. The kids are alright!

The main band we went to see came on next. It was the Band of Heathens, one of our favorite bands. They were having their live DVD release (Live at Antone's), and we were there at Antone's for the taping of it last June. The mayor of Austin was at the show too (he's a fan) so I got him to autograph my DVD too. The Heathens put on a great show, as usual. Mark del Castillo and his wife were sitting behind us, and he tapped me on the shoulder to say hi. They are doing an early show (7pm) at Antone's later this month, and we both agreed that their Austin shows are kind of a family affair (babies, moms, uncles, aunts and grandparents in attendance) so early is good, and besides... lots of us (including some in the band) have to get up early. They are both really nice people, it's always a pleasure to run into them or anyone else from Del Castillo.

There was one more band on the ticket, La Tampiquena, which is Will Dupuy's band (ex-Jug Band), and Warren Hood (Waybacks) (also ex-Jug Band) was sitting in, and it was sounding really good but it was time for us old folks to go home to some lonely cats, unhappy to have been left for the evening without the regularly scheduled pettins.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music

Scary-ass Tilt-a-Whirl

We went to see Cloverfield yesterday, opening day. That's our preference when a movie holds a lot of big secrets and people are bound to spoil for you as soon as they can. I won't do that here. I will say that I thought it was great, and should become a sci-fi classic. To say that's it's a wild ride is not a spoiler, and it's a warning that the movie deserves. MrB gets motion sickness (maybe not the proper term for this since the person is not actually moving except for their eyes trying to follow rapidly changing images), and he was feeling pretty sick for the duration of it. He was still a trooper and stayed in his seat until the credits rolled. He watched most of it with his eyes closed (does that count as a viewing?), and I had to drive us home. In spite of that, he gave it a thumbs up. So -- if you like a good scare, go and see this one and see it on the big screen.

(note: don't EVEN visit the Wikipedia for this one until after you've seen it. It's a total spoiler. The link I provided is for the IMDB)

Tags: cloverfield

Get it while you can

If Janis Joplin had lived, she would have been 65 on January 19. I was a huge fan of hers back in the 60s. That's my ink drawing of her that I did sometime when I was in high school.

I’ll bet you she would have wandered back to Austin occasionally, maybe to play at La Zona Rosa, or more likely at Threadgill’s where she had some history. Kenneth Threadgill hooked up with Janis before she got famous, gave her an opportunity to sing on his stage -- her first job singing! [LINK] She remained his close friend, and even went way out of her way, at great expense and hassle, to sing at his 70th birthday party (just 3 months before she died). They held the party out in a field that is about a mile from where I live now. [LINK] Back in 1970, I didn't live here though, I lived in Florida.

She appeared on the Dick Cavett show a few times (Dick Cavett was delightful, wasn’t he? He seemed so straight-laced, that was his schtick, but was really pretty savvy and not at all clueless), and I love those interviews. I recorded one of them by holding the mic from my cheesy reel-to-reel tape recorder up to the dinky mono TV speaker. Well, crap quality was all we could get...

I finally got to see her play at the Atlanta Pop Festival 1969. I was there with a bunch of friends and my mother as well. My mother was not there to watch me, she was there for the party, just like the rest of us. Here she is at another rock festival later that year. Note the boots in the window. We were having some down time, resting, reading, playing the guitar or otherwise getting prepped for the shows. That weekend she managed to get backstage by telling the guard that she was Janis Joplin’s mother! She was always dressed in bright patterns, stylish vintage thrift store stuff, and accessorized with fascinating and beautiful old or handmade jewelry pieces. Anyway, the guy fell for it! Then he ran her off when he figured out that she had fooled him, and she didn’t get to see Janis or anyone else back there, but she did have that little story to savor. I saw Janis' show, then she came out later and joined Johnny Winter on stage (one of my favorite guitar players, and in his prime one month before Woodstock). He was hugging her (with his guitar still strapped on) and they were spinning around so that I thought sure they were both going to tumble into the crowd.

Janis, here's to you, heart and soul, you are remembered.
Mural at top from wall of Cheapo Disks, Austin, TX

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music - Janis Joplin

Purrsday Night - Screen burn

This was taken about a week ago when the weather was balmy and we had the windows open. Now Henry is back to snuggling his radiator instead of looking for fresh air.

Tags and links: Friday Ark - Carnival of the Cats - This week's carnival is at Missy, KC & Bear on Sunday - Cats - Catblogging

Sad news for clowns

A study conducted by the University of Sheffield showed that kids don't like clowns. They asked 250 patients between 4 and 16 whether they liked seeing clowns, and none of them did. [LINK]. I think that clowns have been becoming increasingly unpopular as there have been more and more "scary" clowns, mostly in pop culture. The scariest clown in real life, of course, has to be John Wayne Gacy, who was convicted and executed for the murder and rape of 33 boys and young men. That's him in the picture.

Fear of clowns is called coulrophobia.

I used to live in Sarasota, where the Ringling Brothers had made the circus a big part of the culture. A couple of our friends were enrolled in Clown College, and were constantly trying to balance the brim of their hats on their noses (homework, I guess). That was back in the 60s, and I don't recall clowns being considered "scary" back then, and I loved Red Skelton as a kid. Gawd I'm old!!

Gallery of Gacy's scary thrift store quality paintings.
Anti-clown wear.
Why do people hate mimes?
What, exactly, is an ass-clown anyway?