Justin Townsend

Ok, the east coast isn't entirely bad-I've just discovered corn pudding.

I hate going to the west coast. I've been struggling with the sleep schedule all week. Today I got back to the hotel, worked out for a bit-enough to wake me, and didn't start to conk out until 8pm. Woke up, well rested, ready for the day-at 11:15pm. sigh.

Holy smokes, I haven't posted for a while-Twitter's been taking care of me-I need to get a feed going from there to here.
Just got back from PA-hopefully, that will be the last of my travel for this, our busy season. I was on the road for two weeks, this time. On the bright side, I got to go see TK&L in Brooklyn over the weekend-my first time to NYNY! It was pretty cool, but perhaps too crowded for me. I do like that "old city" feel-NOLA and San Francisco both have it too.
Our big touristy thing was going to see Avenue Q. Awesome. I do wish that there was a big theater scene here-it would be cool to be able to easily see smaller, off-Broadway productions. I do like me some musical theater.
*EDIT* Well, I guess I shoulda checked. There's a huge theater scene about an hour west of me. Duh.

I'm finally going to get to go to New York City!(sans rope.)
I don't think anyone else on my f-list is there, but I'll be there this weekend...

Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress

All the news outlets have called it. I'm still trying not to get too excited-memories of Florida...

..is how provencial it is. I just read an article from a Kenyan paper with this:
For us here in Kenya, another myth will come crashing down. No serious person will ever say again that a Luo cannot lead this country. If Obama, who by clan line is clearly Luo, can be elected president of the world’s most powerful country, would it make any sense for anyone to say that a Luo cannot rule Kenya?

But this Obama factor will cut much deeper and broader than just legitimising Luo leadership. It will effectively rationalise the leadership of every tribe. If a Luo can lead, then so can a Tugen, Nandi, Luhya, El Molo or Turkana. Obama’s victory is poised to shake, not just the US, but the rest of the world. Even though tomorrow’s election will be taking place thousands of kilometres from our borders, there is a very real sense in which the voting will be taking place right here.

I know I couldn't name any ethnic group in Kenya before reading this..

It's old (from September,) but my new favorite official reason (excuse?) for crossing party lines comes from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, endorsing John McCain. Why? Referring to Obama - "I feel like he is an elitist."

Someone nabbed our "No on Proposition 8" lawn sign. Luckily, we have a backup in the garage window. FYI for non-Californians, Prop 8 is the proposition that outlaws gay marriage.

*EDIT* Just a clarification, lest you think it were Halloween shenanigans, rather than political douchebaggery, it was missing when the kid got home from school today, around 15:30

Here's what I'm listening to while passing out the treats:
Bauhaus - Gotham
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Iron Maiden - A Real Dead One
Iron Maiden - Best of the Beast CD1
Iron Maiden - Best of the Beast CD2
Iron Maiden - Brave New World
Iron Maiden - Dance of Death
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden (Bonus Disk)
Iron Maiden - Killers
Iron Maiden - Killers (Bonus Disc)
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind (bonus disk)
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
Morphine - Cure For Pain
Morphine - Good
Morphine - Like Swimming
Morphine - Yes
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Live Seeds
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call
Oingo Boingo - Best O' Boingo
Oingo Boingo - Nothing to Fear
Ozzy Osbourne - Speak of the Devil
Renaldo and the Loaf - Title In Limbo
Residents - Commercial Album
Residents - Duck Stab - Buster and Glen
Residents - Eskimo
Residents - Fingerprince
Residents - God In Three Persons
Residents - Meet the Residents
Residents - Petting Zoo
Residents - Third Reich and Roll
Residents - Wormwood-Curious Stories from the Bible
Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel - Nail
Various Artists - Eyesore - A Stab at the Residents

( my thoughts on California ballot propositions )

Here's some things that bug me, from the left and to the right.
To the right:
Actually I should say the religious right. I just read Victoria Jacksons delightful piece (here's her website:http://www.victoriajackson.com/ scroll down a bit.) where she says: "I don't want a political label, but Obama bears traits that resemble the anti- Christ and I'm scared to death that un- educated people will ignorantly vote him into office."
Ok, let's just ignore the insanity of this statement, as hard as it might be. It bugs me, but I learned to blow off this type of Christian growing up in rural Louisiana. What actually bugs me is the amount of self-importance and hubris of anyone talking about the end times being right around the corner. For some reason, every generation seems to think that things are *so* *bad* right now that surely, Jesus is puttin' on his savin' clothes to save us (them,) because surely, it's never been this bad.
That, and if he were the anti-christ, it seems like you should vote for him, cause Jesus can't come back until the Anti-Christ gets here(__---===* The More You Know)

From the left:
People who talk about moving to Canada if McCain wins. You know what? Democracy means that sometimes you don't get your fucking way. I don't want McCain to win, but I'm not going to ditch if he does. I'll just try harder next round. One thing that worries me is that whoever wins, the other side is going to start up the lawyers. There are some issues with voter fraud, we deal with them as best we can. When the starter in my car went bad, I didn't burn it down or ditch it, I got a book, hit the web, and figured out how to fix it. And it was hard. A government is bigger and harder(*snork*). You know what? It might take longer than a lifetime to fix it, we might not get the instant gratification. I think that's what happened to the boomers, they wanted instant results, didn't get them, and decided that it wasn't worth it, might as well go make the money by any means necessary.

As an end piece, I'll give it to a Republican (most often the "other side" to me,) for doing the right thing for democracy:
"He just blew Florida for John McCain," a Florida Republican says of the decision made by Charlie Crist, a fellow Republican.
Here's to you, Charlie Crist

Trying to head off a potentially embarrassing state ethics report on GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, campaign officials released their own report Thursday that clears her of any wrongdoing.
-Matt Apuzzo Associated Press Writer
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=5990499

There was a time (or so I'm told,) where it wasn't considered cool, or even ok, to be all about money, or at least there was a pseudo-shame to being showy about it.
Now while we are trying to prop up the walls from a greed-induced meltdown, the Chinese had a spacewalk and are getting ready for putting their own station in orbit, and a moonwalk. I'm getting the feeling that while we are scrabbling over crumbs, and who has the biggest/fanciest/most expensive whatever, the language of space might end up being Chinese.

So I'm getting T's old iPod, and I thought I'd put together a list of my favorite albums. The criteria for decision was I had to have listened to the albums *way* too much. It's hard-a lot of the time, the albums weren't the "best" critically, or even what I would listen to now if I wanted to listen to the artist. I'm sure I missed some..
( Anyway, here's the list )

One out of four people sweat more than 75% of the population.

Lord help me, I cannot stop listening to Vampire Weekend.

Special hetauma (heta uma?) edition (Japanese for bad/good? Help me out allartburns )

Best new cartoon award goes to The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. It's silly and weird and I like it.
Best movie goes to The Machine Girl insanely awesome combination of violence, gore, technology, and schoolgirls.
Best old school sounds goes to Three Day Stubble who I've been re-enjoying of late. They were hardcore nerd before it was cool. When nerdiness *hurt*
Best dead tree media is Tokyo Zombie Badass outsider zombie judo comics. Special props to the creators' (yes the apostrophe is in the right place, you pedantic bastard) blog of high-weird manga SAME HAT! SAME HAT! which includes many fine fan-translation of twisted manga.

Also even though it's not bad (in that it's good,) you should go buy Porn and Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture because you love video games and pornography. Yes, I'm talking to *you*

Here's a thing that really bugs me. It doesn't have to do with the morality of the recent US military actions (recent as in the last decade or so,) but rather the idea that people don't want to pay for it. Everyone talks about supporting the troops and whatnot, but when you start to talk about raising taxes, then starts the shit-fits.
Anyway, it's just been bugging me with both candidates talking about how little they're raising taxes (or not raising them at all.) I'd love for a politician to say "Hey, we're in a war. Wars cost money. Suck it up." I would even accept it if they said it nicer.

Sometimes I really miss NOLA...
I Am A Vagina-Friendly Mayor