the sticking point

Pointcast One: Dry Mouth, Lip Smack and More!

Amtrak / en route to Providence.
Smile, you're traveling! It's Friday, it's the Fourth of July, and that could mean only one thing: the first of the Pointcast things I've been promising since March is here.

What goes up, must come down. I’m proving it today, heading up the eastern seaboard and back down again without so much as time for meal in between.

When I came home from the Yankees game last night I worked on the Pointcast and some other projects, hammering away until past 0300 hrs this morning. I finally got in bed and read the Dean Wareham book for a while, before lights out around 0400. I knew I could sleep in today, maybe as late as 0930, because all I had on the itinerary for this July 4 was to wrap up the last pieces of writing for the song list below, drink some coffee, get a good workout, and then wait for Mrs Sticking Point and the boys to arrive home from their week on Cape Cod. My comet of non-stop work and to-dos and errands would flame out, and I could relax today; well-rested and work completed.

Ha! My feeble "itinerary" is a mere yarn-ball between the giant paws of fate: toyed with, and ultimately swatted under a couch.

The phone woke me up at 0727. It was my wife. Feeling ill and feverish, the 5-hour-plus drive from the Cape (with our two Subaru-monkeys in the backseat) looked unmanageable in the least, unsafe at the worst. She asked, could I at least meet her and the boys in Providence to get them the rest of the way home?

I could, at least, so here I am. Sweaty, tired, and somewhere between Stamford and Bridgeport.

I bought a ticket on the Internets, packed stuff into a bag and hurried out to catch the subway to Penn Station. I had 70 minutes before the ticket, waiting for me somewhere in the cyber kingdom, became non-negotiable and utterly useless. My intensity and nervous froth eased up when I finally sat down on the E train.

It was short-lived comfort. At one stop, still in Queens, a creature boarded my train car. It would take a while before I could discern the lumped, hunched figure as female; what I knew immediately was fear.

It was dressed in a bright white shirt and bright white pants, the cuffs of which bunched up atop a pair of very new, very bright white shoes. Industrial white shoes like ER nurses wear. And, as I said, brand new. On its head was some sort of white cloth, a piece of apparel difficult to identify because the human-like entity was covered entirely with a plastic raincoat. Clear plastic, of course; and thin as Saran Wrap.

It had arrived on the train with two large and over-packed Duane Reade shopping bags that seemed quite heavy, and it stood in the center of the car. Nearly everyone stared warily at this stranger and I was relieved that even a pack of jaded New Yorkers might be as nervous and hyper-vigilant as I.

Nervous. Hyper-vigilant. Because… while this odd passenger stood, hunched over and incessantly adjusting and readjusting its head cloth and plastic hood, I patched together the details and wondered if maybe somebody woke up with Sarin gas attack on his itinerary for this holiday of American independence. The train crawled nearer to the underwater tunnel linking Queens and Manhattan, and I wondered if there were others; what if I looked through the doors and saw cellophane-covered creatures in the train cars ahead and behind? I decided, well -- that would make it time for some go get ‘em. Maybe I could stop something tragic, or diminish the horrendous aftermath, even a little. I conjured the inevitable press conference on the steps of City Hall. “No, no, no; I just did what anyone else would do. But my wife, she’s a hero. If she hadn’t been ill enough to suggest I meet her in Providence… Ha! It was providence! Does anyone else find that ironic? Hel-lo?! Is this on?!”

Idiot funboy can laugh now, but as we left the last subway station before the tunnel, and the featureless figure in white took down her hood to tie the white headscarf more firmly, I got about as fight-or-flight nervous as I’d been since September ’01.

The cult group that carried out the attack in the Tokyo subway was clad all in white and transported the Sarin in bags. They used the tips of umbrellas to puncture the bags and release the poison. There was something about the brand new white shoes keyed me up. They seemed more than just part of a uniform. The white headscarf up top and new white shoes down below lent a ritualized look to the wardrobe.

But. You already know the punch line to all this is that there is no punch line. No soap – radio, as they say. Without incident, the abominable terrorist and I both detrained at 34th Street/Penn and went separate ways.

*** ***

Before we cue the music, here's one quick note to the struggling couple:
I think it is a parental felony to leave your children (one of whom is about 90 days old) in Florida while mommy's in Paris going forth with the Lance Armstrong of Rock and daddy's in the Bronx batting fourth for the New York Mediocritees. But I'm sure you've got it under control.

*** ***

All aboard the kundalini express, here's the all-new Friday 10 Pointcast -- five songs at random, and five songs chosen. Every Friday that I can capably accomplish it, I'll record a podcast with all ten tracks and commentary. You can download it by clicking the link provided. Each 'cast will be available for one week. If you miss one, or discover the site weeks later, write me at TheStickingPoint@gmail.com and I'll get it to you.

Your feedback means a lot, so even if you don't share your own Friday 10 in the comments section, let me know you were here and what you think of the music.

Download this week's complete file (which will open in iTunes)
CLICK HERE:
TSP Pointcast 070408

01 Media Blitz - The Germs: From the must-have complete Germs anthology. What a cool place to start these Pointcast things, with "Media Blitz."
By the way, could Pat Smear be the Forrest Gump of punk rock? Befriended Darby Crash and formed the Germs (with original drummer Dottie Danger a.k.a. Belinda Carlisle). Joan Jett produces first album. Crash commits suicide. Smear joins the Adolescents. Leaves Adolescents, is asked to join Red Hot Chili Peppers (1992). Turns down offer. Befriends Courtney Love. Kurt Cobain asks Smear to join Nirvana. First gig with Nirvana is SNL (09.25.93). Cobain commits suicide. Smear joins Foo Fighters. Quits Foo Fighters (1997). Serves as Creative Consultant on the Germs film What We Do Is Secret. Rejoins Foo Fighters as touring guitarist.

02 Ghost Rider - Suicide: Track one, side one from the "oh-you-don't-have-it -- what's-your-problem" debut album. Suicide was part of that great New York No Wave scene in the 70s that included Lydia Lunch, Mars, James Chance, Theoretical Girls, and DNA. Rollins Band once throttled this song; find it on Do It.

03 Freddie Freeloader - Miles Davis. (Kind of Blue): Recorded at Columbia Studio on West 30th in Manhattan. If you look up all the lineups Miles assembled over the decades, it's like a who's who of top-shelf, mind-boggling jazz legends. People write volumes about albums like this, jams like this. They are experts, and I'm just the unwashed zoomtard from Podunk who knows nothing but I sure like them sawngs.
Brief Wynton Kelly writeup here.

04 Dirty Water - Jesus and Mary Chain. (Stoned and Dethroned): I have loved this group from day one, the first time I heard the "Never Understand" single, in 1984. I went certifiably over-the-top apeshit for it, and the unimpeachable Psychocandy album that followed. That year, my friend Liz and I saw them play the Ritz -- the best 30-minute concert I've ever witnessed. And where is that long-rumored JMC box set?

05 Illumination - Rollins Band: From Get Some Go Again, criminally overlooked and underappreciated. (GSGA is right near the very top of my LastFM charts.) Features "On The Day," which I've now listened to a few times a week for several years.

06 Shout Bamalama - Otis Redding with the Pinetoppers: From the Definitive Otis Redding collection, the sound of a man singing his pain away. On "Shout Bamalama" though, his 19-year old voice has twenty-five years of thuggin' in it. A great one from the great one.

The George Carlin piece is from a 1986 HBO special called "Playin' With Your Head." My brother-from-another-mother Neil and I used to watch it several times a month; it was on a well-worn VHS tape that had Animal House on it, too. With my caveman audio gear, I was able to take it from TV to CDR to The Sticking Point.

07 You Want The Candy - The Raveonettes. (Lust Lust Lust): I have three of their disks, but never really paid close attention. A few tracks from this new one put the hooks in me, so maybe I have something to gain by giving their back catalog the time of day.

08 Son - 5'nizza: Pronounced "pyat NITsa." And guess what? Their name means "Friday" in Ukrainian. It's a duo that played together for nearly eight years, broke up in 2007, and of course I only discovered them this past February while trolling mp3 blogs for new sounds. It's about the most fun Eastern European music I've ever heard. The layered vocals are amazing and that guitar... are you kidding me?!
Paying it forward: I bumped into this band on the redoubtable Aurgasm weblog. If you go to this well-informed site, you'll leave with a few new favorite songs.

09 Dethbryte - Dax Riggs. (We Sing of Only Blood or Love): "The fragile wave of days / They break against the shore / Of all these years." I'm going to play a lot of Riggs on these Pointcasts, because you have to hear it. Mrs Sticking Point gave it to me. A great album... but you knew I was going to say that.

• Check out the "Dethbryte" video here.
• Dax performs a swamp-ified version of the Misfits' "Skulls" here.

10 Plastika - Idoli: Belgrade Rock City! It's been hard to find info on this band, but I sometimes see their name published as "VIS Idoli." One thing I did learn, is that we all missed out on quite a scene in the former constituent republics of Yugolslavia. I mean it. The Killed By 7 Inch collection is on Redrum Records, the label that releases the endless, rewarding Killed By Death series of obscure punk. You can download the KB7I collection for your own self HERE.

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Now, do it yourself. Put your digital jukebox or mp3 player on "shuffle all songs," and let me know the first 10 tracks out the chute.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Constant Pain from the album Corpse Love - The First Year by Pussy Galore

Link Dump

From SO'C:
Duh.

From Wallie:
Wow. This is awesome.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Space Tourist from the album Fake French by El Guapo

Meme Work

I found this meme on ChicagoMama today. Thought I'd give it a shot, too.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
"I didn't have those gray hairs last week."

2. How much cash do you have on you?
$11.33

3. What's a word that rhymes with “DOOR?”
SPORE. (For some reason, I have had in my head the line from Ghostbusters: "I collect mold, spores, and fungus.")

4. Favorite planet?
This one? (Least favorite: Planet Hollywood.)

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My wife's older sister's husband.

6. What is your favorite ringtone on your phone?
"Los Angeles," by X

7. What shirt are you wearing?
Navy-check pattern buttondown by J. Crew. It's got persistent sweat stains inside the collar. And I am wearing a Black Flag T underneath.

8. Do you “label” yourself?
Yes. And the label is four feet long.

9. Name the brand of your shoes you're currently wearing.
Biltrite? Or is that just who makes the sole? These are pretty generic black wingtips.

10. Bright or Dark Room?
Dark. Getting darker every second.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
I enjoy her weblog, but don't read it often enough. I think her musical taste reminds me of Brian Last Stop's.

12. What does your watch look like?
It looks like a Swiss Army Watch by Swiss Army.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Whining. And hoping for just 20 consecutive minutes of sleep.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
Why would it be my last?! What do you know that you're not telling me?! (My most recent message read thusly: "Sheff to Tigers.")

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
About 300-400 feet from my building.

16. What's a word that you say a lot?
"Great." Everything I like is "great." Even spectacular things.

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
S.

18. Last furry thing you touched?
That's personal.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
One. Caffeine. Vitamins and herbal supplements, but no other medications or drugs.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
Zero.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
Four was real good. No school. No work. I was unaware of the world's evils. "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)" by Daddy Dewdrop was on the radio all the time.

22. Your worst enemy?
Attention Deficit Disorder.

23. What is your current desktop picture?
A most amazing photo of my wife and our oldest son. They are lying side by side, she is kissing his head. It's an action shot. It's beautiful and exudes love, like photos John and Yoko used to take of each other.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
"I'll talk to you in a bit."

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
Give me the money. Why fly?

26. Do you like someone?
Are we eleven?

27. The last song you listened to...?
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix Experience

28. What time of day were you born?
15:24.

29. What's your favorite number?
18

30. Where did you live in 1987?
Yonkers, N.Y.

31. Are you jealous of anyone?
Yes.

32. Is anyone jealous of you?
I hope so.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
First, in bed in Brooklyn, NY; then sobbing on my rooftop deck.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Blame myself.

35. Do you consider yourself kind?
Yes.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
My next will be on the in-side of my right lower leg.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Korean.

38. Would you move for the person you loved?
From one city or country to another, yes. From the couch to the door to pay the delivery guy, maybe.

39. Are you touchy-feely?
No. But I have a hard time NOT kissing my 2-year old son's head and neck.

40. What's your life motto?
"I Don't Have One." It's a stupid motto, but the woman who begs for quarters on Court Street always understood me.

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times.
Wallet, wedding ring, tattoos.

42. What's your favorite town/city?
So many: London, Seoul, San Gimignano, Philly, Toronto, Providence, Indianapolis, Chicago.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Lunch: turkey burger deluxe (with cheddar), Met-Rx protein drink, slice of marble pound cake.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Around 2002, to my sister-in-law staying in Pennsylvania.

45. Can you change the oil on a car?
No. But I know how to get it changed.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
That she was overweight and living in Florida. I believe the story, however, to be apocryphal.

47. How far back do you know your ancestry?
I know I had great grandparents. (Or: "spectacular" grandparents.)

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
Sorry. As I am not a dandy, I do not dress "fancy."

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
My nerves.

50. Have you been burned by love?
Of course. But getting burned by hate is worse, every time.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: God Only Knows from the album Pet Sounds by Beach Boys, The

Getting Up To Adventures

On the flight to Korea, soon-to-be-a-big-brother H discovered Pororo among the choices on the 747's seat-back video on demand. It was a series of Pororo shorts, edited together into about 20 minutes of Pororo-tainment. We were never too sure what it was all about, as it was in Korean, but the kid -- he was crazy about it. As in needing to watch it for 13 consecutive hours crazy. As in -- I am not fucking kidding about the 13 consecutive hours. And then again on the flight home.

Here's how Wikipedia sums up the program: "Pororo is a little penguin, living in Antarctica. He gets up to adventures with his friends: Poby the polar bear, Loopy the beaver, Harry the hummingbird, Petty the penguin and Eddy the fox."

If you go to the website, wait until the theme song ends, and then mouse over the sign that reads: "Pororo the Little Penguin" and listen to what the voice says. I don't know what this means in Hangul, nor even how to pronounce it, but H thought it was the funniest thing. He'd yell "Fa Fada Da DAH!" This wacky little show, it speaks to him.

I bought him a Pororo DVD while we there, which of course is also Korean and coded for the Asian region, so I'll have to be start using my Apple DVD region changes sparingly.

I'm sorry, does any of this make sense? I am so frigging sleep deprived and jet lagged that Pororo might all just be a hallucination. This morning's Friday 10, though, is for real.

01 Evil Friend - deadboy & the Elephantmen. All these months later, I'm still not burned out on this great band. This is from -- as you must already know -- the We Are Night Sky disk.

02 Lamentations - Diamanda Galas. I love Galas, but I could get how some wouldn't. What a voice; it's the sound of gods and demons fighting it out. I was lucky enough to sit in on a bunch of her rehearsals in 1988 and '89, and I've seen her in performance a few times -- always jarring and brilliant. Galas works hard and means it. "Lamentations" is from The Divine Punishment, which is composed of the first two parts of her Masque of the Red Death trilogy. This one has Deliver Me From Mine Enemies and Free Among the Dead. "Lamentations" is part of the latter work. I just checked out Galas's website and found an interview she did recently with Bay Area Reporter.

03 Hurt (L) - Trent Reznor. I always admired Reznor from afar, but once he played this song, in this manner, on the MTV REACT NOW Katrina telethon -- I was hooked in. What a great song, amazing performance; just Reznor's voice and piano.

04 Bedpan Hunting - Ism. A few months back I was trolling the eBay and found a copy of the Ism disk that collected all the singles, b-sides, and EPs. All I had known previously were the songs "John Hinckley Jr.," "Proud To Be Guilty," "Nixon Now More Than Ever," and that cover of the Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You." When this disk arrived I immediately realized how unrepresentative those songs are of the Ism canon. This is great stuff; fun punk rock along the lines of Tuff Darts, Dictators, or Murphy's Law. (The chorus of "Bedpan Hunting" always reminds me of Cheap Trick's "ELO Kiddies.") I listen to some Ism nearly every day. You should too. Trolling the webnet, you find that Ism has a myspace page, a wikipedia write-up, and a page of info on the Punk Vault site.

05 Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan. Title track from one of the greatest records in the history of recorded music, and an album I've been listening to a lot lately. I've been listening more carefully, trying to hear everything that's going on in these songs, like how Mike Bloomfield's guitar does a call-and-response thing with itself at the ends of lines of lyric. I love what Bloomfield did on this record -- he brought a rock and blues guitar style into folk music, and there was no blueprint for it. He was an originator. And Al Kooper! Come on. Kooper made the whole Dylan goes electric thing work, pulling it all together on his keys. (And it was Kooper's idea to have Dylan play a police whistle instead of harmonica on this song.) Amazing stuff here, what I think is Dylan's best collection of snide, smartass, fuck you lyrics.
Hey, Check This Out Office of Useless Information: MIke Bloomfield grew up rich; his dad was the inventor of the glass and metal sugar dispensers with the flapper lids.

06 Justified - Amen. From We Have Come For Your Parents. This CD will rip your head off. I remember playing the first Amen CD for Micken on the way to the Rollins Band / X show in New Jersey a few months ago. Micken heartily approved of what he was hearing. Amen lead singer Casey Chaos did Black Flag's "Depression" on the WM3 album. Killed it. Great voice.

07 I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts (1997 Mix) - X. This one is from the Beyond & Back comp. Not as good as the version on More Fun in the New World, I think. Earlier this year when I was going for the X tattoo, this song title was the runner-up. ("Make The Music Go Bang" was second runner-up.)

08 Get Off The Phone - Heartbreakers. The version of this song on the Live at Max's album is OK, but this one -- the one I heard today -- from L.A.M.F. (The Lost '77 Mixes) is fucking godhead. Unbelievable. I have played this song about 500 times in my life and I'll never be tired of it.

09 How Low Can a Punk Get? - Bad Brains. My memories of the details of the time I saw bad Brains are mostly faded now, but I do remember seeing lead singer HR's body flailing (or was it flying) all over the stage. 100% energy, total commitment. One of the best bands ever. This is from the classic Black Dots LP, the band's first session, recorded live to tape at Don Zientara's. In the punk rock world, Black Dots is Led Zeppelin IV.

10 Way Up High - Galaxie 500. Aw, man, I love Galaxie 500, an impossibly cool band. One of those great G500 songs that no one really ever talked about much.

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Do this yourself: Put you digital jukebox or mp3 player on "shuffle all songs." Let us know the first ten you hear. Because it's Friday.
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[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: I Am Bewildered from the album Get Out Of The Car by Berry, Richard

Seoul: Monday Dispatch

Monday, 10.23.06

2039 Hrs. Seoul, Korea

Amazing day. We met and held baby W for the first time today. It was profoundly moving. It’s pretty amazing. Since I’m less overwhelmed than I was the first time around, I think I was better able to take notice of the feelings I was experiencing. I'm not going to go into it here, because I think it's so personal that it would read like drivel anyhow.

Seeing him today for an hour and now having 48 hours until he joins the family is like an espresso shot, a short blast of what my new family feels like.

He’s a sweet sweet boy, with an amazing and full smile. He is, as S has aptly described him, heavy but not chubby. He’s solid. The word in Korean for healthy and strong sounds like “konga,” and that’s the word the foster mother and her daughter used.

He is very attached to them, and they to him. We can say about Mrs. Han and family that we couldn’t have asked for a better, more loving and caring family than they. As we sat in their living room, I actually enjoyed talking with them (through an interpreter, of course) and liked watching them hold and interact with W. The daughter showed me half of a three-minute video she took of him with her cell phone yesterday. He was cooing and making gurgly noises. It was great.

I’m looking forward to Wednesday, for W to be part of the family, for H to interact with his new little brother, and to begin seeing how this new person changes our lives forever.

** ** ** **
I went into that record and CD store around the corner from where we're staying and bought a bunch of stuff, all CDs: the Korean release of Janis Joplin’s Greatest Hits, Pat Smear’s So You Fell in Love With a Musician… (which I didn’t know existed), a Beggars Banquet sessions bootleg, a strange two-CD Jane’s Addiction bootleg of shows from ‘89 and ’91 that are printed in Australia but come with a Japanese OBI band, the Japanese edition of Paul’s Boutique (with two extra tracks), and the U.K. Subs’ Live at the Roxy.

Long day.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Smash It Up (Parts 1 & 2) by Damned, The

Seoul: Sunday Dispatch

Seoul, Sunday 10.22.06 /  0648 Hrs

As I write this, H is laying on the floor of our room watching his battery-operated Thomas train swirl around the track past his face.  We have been up since 0400. Jet lag's got him all fouled up, too. For me, the strangest thing is to be totally exhausted at around 1900. I think I will be back on track in a few days; maybe by Wednesday. Of course, that's also the day that baby W joins the family.

We fly back to NY on Friday, a day that will begin for us around 0500, and end some 28 hours later. Like last time, I haven't a clue when rest will come.

I don't know how weird or disjointed these entries seem, and I'm sorry about that.

Yesterday, we visited the Namdaemon Market area, and walked around all the stalls. It reminded me of Morocco. Not that I've ever been, but -- I've seen it in film and video.

We also visited two palace gates, and were lucky enough to catch ceremonial processions at both. At the park in front of City Hall, there was something called a Cultural Religious Festival, which was a sort of celebration of the variety of religions here. I didn't understand much of what I was looking at, but enough to know how cool it was. I thought it was something Americans can use, a pan-religious celebration like this. It sort of reminded me of the mass they held in Yankee Stadium after 9/11, where a variety of religious leaders shared the duties of leading the congregation.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Pop Song from the album Dope, Guns and Fucking In The Streets Vol. 7 7 inch by Jesus Lizard

Seoul II Seoul

1945 Hrs. Seoul, Korea

We landed here on Wednesday at around 1610 hrs. It’s been like a wave of eating and sleeping, hard to keep track of the time as it passes. I think we are finally getting caught up on rest, but I’m still feeling disoriented at times. Today, we were standing on a corner waiting to cross the street and I had to look up at the buildings because the moving traffic was making me nauseated. Finally, I just had to cover my eyes for a second. I don’t know what this is about, as I don’t think I’m jet-lagged exactly; that would be more of an effect of going in the other direction, west to east, wouldn’t it?

I’m grooving on the Circle Jerks right now, playing all the tracks I have on my iTunes.

I found a record store on a small street nearby where we are staying. Although I passed it twice, I didn’t see a cash register. Just one guy, unpacking boxes of vinyl. I told S that it’s probably just that guy’s collection and he rented the space to store it and show it off.

We hit a Starbucks this morning, and I had one of those sausage croissants like I enjoyed our last time here. Ecch. Just not the same.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: World Up My Ass from the album Group Sex by Circle Jerks

Seoul Town

We are in Korea. It's me, H, Mrs. Sticking Point and my mother in law. The flight here was intense. The boy didn't sleep until the last half hour of the 14-hour trek. We are just beginning to bank some rest and preparing for the week ahead. We meet baby W on Monday morning.

I'll write more when I can.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta from the album Office Space Soundtrack by Geto Boys

F10: Global A Go-Go Edition

This is a real quickie. I wanted to supply a Friday 10 as well as pass along the news that Mrs. Sticking Point and I got the long-awaited travel call from our agency. Looks like we're leaving this Tuesday for to bring home our new baby W.

01 Everyday - Saw Doctors (Same Oul' Town).

02 Cheapskates - The Clash (Give 'Em Enough Rope).

03 Bhindi Bhagee - Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros (Global A Go-Go).

04 Welcome To Paradise - Green Day (Kerplunk!)

05 If It Ain't Ruff - N.W.A. (Straight Outta Compton).

06 Help Me Mary - Liz Phair (Exile in Guyville).

07 Typical Girls (Live) - The Slits (Punk Archives).

08 Waitin' For A Superman (Remix) - The Flaming Lips (The Soft Bulletin).

09 Kerouac - Willie "Loco" Alexander (Willie Alexander and Boom Boom Band).

10 Happy (Reprise) - Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins (Rabbit Fur Coat). Perfect! I'm in the 5th row for her show at Town Hall tonight.

PLEASE try a Friday 10 yourself. Put the mp3 player or digital jukebox on "shuffle all songs," and let us know the first ten you hear.

[posted with ecto]

Can I Take It?

Here's an update:

We got our approved I-600 form in the mail this weekend, disproving my long-held belief that "nothing good ever comes on Saturday." This means that the only remaining steps in the adoption of baby W are for the Korean government to send a fax to our adoption agency here in NY giving us travel clearance, our agency to tell us the fax has arrived, and for us to go to Seoul.

This all could happen any day now. Any day. Depending on when we get the clearance, we may be ready to fly within 1-3 days. Good thing we went to IKEA and Buy Buy Baby this past weekend.

S called some airlines this morning, to check prices. She let her mom know the latest travel guesstimate. (We've asked my M.I.L. to travel with us. We'll need her eyes and hands and insights as we bring one child halfway around the world and come back with two.)

Now, my A.D.D.-addled brain (ADDled?) is jumping through every detail of secondary and tertiary importance. (Because the big stuff I leave to the professional: my wife.) Who will move our car on alternate-side parking days while we are away? Which side of the back seat is the baby's car seat going in on? That luggage catalog that's been dog-eared and shuffled around on the end table for three months? It's time to place our order. I hope the new laptop battery arrives soon. Do I own anything with gel in it?

I went to the government's Department of Homeland Security site to pull all the latest info on what we can and cannot bring on the planes, and -- typically -- found it to be no help. The best source for this info is the TSA, which has a very detailed list of what may be carried-on ("toy transformer robots"), what may be checked (flare guns), and what must be left at home ("flares in any form"). This list has more shocking surprises than a Paris Hilton pap smear. It flat-out doesn't make sense.

Knitting needles? Sure, bring them on board! But leave your mouthwash at home, Stinky, fresh breath is too dangerous up in the friendly skies. Here's some of what you can or cannot have your backpack when you stuff it under the seat in front of you:

Bubble bath balls NOT ALLOWED

Cigar Cutters ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT!

Corkscrews ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT!

Right Guard Spring Fresh Gel deodorant NOT ALLOWED

Eyeglass repair tools (including those small screwdrivers) ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT!

Neosporin NOT ALLOWED

Knives NOT ALLOWED

Purell Anti-Bacterial Hand Sanitizer NOT ALLOWED

Nail Clippers ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT! (Great. Can I have back the clippers EWR security took from me in 2002?)

Nail Files ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT! (Never mind the fact that, with a little sharpening, they're every bit as dangerous as the box cutters used on 9/11)

Box Cutters NOT ALLOWED

Personal Lubricants ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT! (The Mile High Club obviously has a powerful lobby.)

Scissors (with pointed blades up to four inches) ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT!

Toothpaste NOT ALLOWED

Corkscrews are OK? Holy shit. I hope I have my knitting needles on me when a terrorist makes for the cockpit door brandishing his corkscrew. A lot of this doesn't make sense to me. I wonder what would happen if I filled a bag with many allowable items from the list -- three cigar cutters, ten scissors, five nail files, five corkscrews, a dozen knitting needles, six eyeglass repair kits, and my tube of Scandinavian personal lube jelly. Would I get on? (Would I get off?)

You can't really blame the airlines for all this nonsense. They're taking their cues on security from the federal government. Besides, the airlines are too busy delaying flights, making sure there's so little Sprite on-board that I can't get a full can, and editing the next boring issue of the in-flight magazine to be certain that the puff piece on Ray Romano doesn't actually cross the line into the informative.

But that's not what I wanted to write about.

I just wanted to tell you all that the Baby W Threat Level has gone from "Any Week Now" to "Any Day Now." Lots to do. Like, if the Department of Homeland Security has figured out how to Google, try to get my name off the Watch List.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Moonshake from the album Future Days by CAN