[You] should say that you’re back in Texas for a bit longer… you’ve got a great opportunity to write something about the similarities and differences. I’ve been in some sort of bizzaro-world for a little while where everyone I meet who wants to comment on my accent wants to talk about Texas. Not New York or Florida, as usual, but Texas. Yee-hah. I just tell them, yep, well Tennessee and Texas are ideologically and alphabetically next to each other.

The building I work in while in Texas is six stories and my office is on the top floor.  I found myself alone with the security guard in the lobby waiting for the elevator.  The guard, looking straight ahead said; “Yup.”  All I could say was “Mmm-hmm.”  I felt like Boomhauer from King of the Hill.  (Okay, okay, I’m really more of a Dale.)

And from what I’ve seen King of the Hill is not that bad of a starting point when it comes to understanding Texas. The older neighborhoods have alleys so driveways and garages are on the back of the houses, just like on KOTH, there are big white water towers and propane tanks, pick-ups are nearly even with cars in number and…get this, the local exterminating company owns the minor league arena football team.

San Angelo has about a hundred thousand people, maybe a bit more.  It’s home to San Angelo State, Goodfellow Air Force Base, and is currently the center of the FLDS madness. The surrounding country side is mostly farm land.  I read in the paper today that cotton planting season is about to begin.  In the city there is of course Sitel, my purpose for being here, as well as Verizon and Blue Cross call centers, and a few collection agencies.

I found a baby cage like they had in the nursery at the Iroquois Avenue church in Oak Ridge in a thrift store. It was $45.  I bet the church paid a lot more for theirs.

The NPR Station comes out of Austin and is about a billion times better than Knoxville’s.  They have the normal shows (Morning Edition, All Things Considered, etc) and when they’re not playing those they play music.  Not classical or jazz but music people actually want to listen to.  I’ve heard Steve Earle, Dwight Yokum, Allison Krauss, and a new discovery for me, She and Him.  It’s NPR that I would actually consider donating to.  It’s that good.

Back in the very early days of the blog I posted a bit about a local radio station, WDVX, that plays alt-country, bluegrass and americana.  While I was tickled pink to have an awesome indy radio station right here in Knoxville, I missed rock music.

I recently discovered WFIV, an independent rock station broadcasting out of Farragut.  They play great alternative rock from the eighties, nineties and the current stuff.  They stream so you can check them out no matter where you live.  I recommend listening late on Fridays where Todd plays really mellow “ambient” music.

It’s not listener supported like WDVX and NPR, but quite honestly I’d rather listen to commercials than have programming interrupted for a week while the hosts beg for cash.

Here’s a blast from the past, Dr. Jack Kevorkian (a.k.a. Dr. Death) is getting out of the pokey after doinig 8 years of a ten year stint.  For those of you who weren’t paying attention Dr. Jack was the guy who built a death machine (literally) in his basement with old soda bottles and some fishing line and started hooking people up to it.

Since Dr. Jack was pushing people into the hereafter in Michigan, where along with 49 other states its illegal, the doc was tossed in the slammer for his ‘assistance’.

Here’s the thing.  The “Right to Die” crowd couldn’t have made a worse choice for their poster child.  First of all the man is crazy.  Second, according to the picture below he’s a giant.  Those microphones are smaller than his index finger.  He’s got to be at least 30 feet tall.

Then there’s this. I actually used to own this record. It was less than great but the reactions people had to seeing it in the CD case was well worth the $2.00 I paid and the room it occupied in my CD wallet.

So Jack’s getting out.  I’m sure he’ll be up to his old antics again in no time.  Picking off the sick and old and screaming on CNN about how mean the government is for not letting him murder people.

I’ve mentioned The Shins before.  They were on Austin City Limits this weekend - good show - and I’ve been playing the heck out of my CD.  This song is getting played over and over and over and… 

 Turn On Me

You can fake it for a while,
Bite your tongue and smile,
Like every mother does an ugly child.
But the stars are leaking out,
Like spittle from a cloud,
Amassed resentment counting ounce and pound.You’re entertaining any doubt,
Because you had to know that I was fond of you,
Fond of Y-O-U,
Though I knew you masked your disdain.
I can see that change was just too hard for us,
Hard for us.
You always had to hold the reigns,
But where I’m headed, you just don’t know the way.

My google homepage gives me an Ask Yahoo every day.  Today’s was the best question ever: “What is emo?”

The short answer is emo is best defined by looking at ‘emo kids.’  They have lots of weird hair, tight clothes and can be found at the mall looking sad and hungry.  They’re the kids you either want to hug or feed. 

If you’re interested in Emo music, bands like My Chemical Romance and Taking Back Sunday seem to popular choices. 

It’s been a while since I’ve talked music so I thought I’d give it a go.  Lately my musical tastes have been changing from the Bluegrass and Alt-Country of the past few years and into more indie rock.  Here are some recent favorites:

• The Shins “Wincing the Night Away”
• Shearwater “Palo Santo”
• Bela Fleck and the Flectones “Outbound”
• Ollabello “Riverside Battle Songs”

Along with these new favorites I’ve added some old stand-bys back into regular rotation.

• The Judybats “Native Son”
• Todd Snider “East Nashville Skyline”

Last night at the Fat Penguin show we got to hear the first few tracks of “Dub Side of the Moon”, a track for track reggae cover of Dark Side of the Moon.  Not bad.

Just so Mel doesn’t think her nagging isn’t falling on deaf ears, here’s a post.

Kurt Vonnegut is dead.  For those of you who read him in high school, he wasn’t as great as you remember him.  For those that read him after, I’m sure you find his death to be nothing more than a footnote.

What the heck is going on in Virginia?

My nephew watched Bugs Life and picked up the ‘you’re fired’ thing Tuck and Roll do when the flea fires them from the circus.  He’s also associated the term with people actually loosing their jobs and has learned that people say “you’ll find a better job” to people who’ve suffered this misfortue.  The other day he was in a McDonalds and looked at the manager and said “You’re fired! But don’t worry, you’ll find a better job.”

I went to my first Widespread Panic show.  I got to hear some favorites; Down, Big Whooly Mammoth, Immitation Leather Shoes and Pigeons.  I also had to suffer through Casa del Grillo and the obligitory Drums.

It was a two night show and I only went on the second night.   I missed Tall Boy, Little Lilly, Climb to Safety and my personal friggin favorite, Nobody’s Loss.  I’m going to buy the show.

We also were able to walk the lot after the show so I got nearly the whole experience.  It was a good first show, a good show by all standards I’m told.

Oh, I also need to mention Johnny Hart died.  He did the Wizard of Id and BC comic strips.  BC was good stuff, Wizard of Id was hit or miss.

So that’s it.  I’ll try to do better about posting.

Well here we are again. It’s that time of the week that we try to bring you some of the little gems we’ve found on the net. This weeks was a bit tough though, as I lost my bookmarks late last week - and bookmarks are key.

• Domain names are cheap and if you’re paying to host one low traffic domain its cheap to start hosting another. With the web being so cheap its no wonder people will register domains for just about anything. Free Bill Stickers is one such site.
• If you spend much time on-line you’ve come across the term Web 2.0. This pretty much means that the site welcomes interaction from visitors. It doesn’t take much. StillSpinning.net is 2.0 because people can comment. There have been a lot of voting sites that have popped up. Blufr is a favorite. You’re given a ‘fact’ and you have to decide if its true or false. A great time sink.
• Only 2% of the US polulation is left handed. At one point at work a few months ago, nine of my thirteen agents were left handed.
• And finally we’re going to talk music for a second. I have, in the past, been accused of being a music snob. Its true I take pride in the fact that I don’t listen to commercial radio and I don’t buy music a big box stores, but that’s pretty much the end of my snobbery these days - its more of a blissful ignorance. But not all commercial pop is bad, just poorly executed. Proof? Check out the cover of Outkasts Hey Ya.

Last April I posted about Kyle McDonald and his quest to trade a paperclip for a house. He’d finally done it.

I went out last night and saw Fat Penguin, a local band play at Charlie Peppers. They’re worth a listen, sort of regaee, hip-hop fusion.

Things are looking up for old Jeremy…if things continue to go well there will be updates.

The Swiss bootleg site Pirate Bay was brought down a few weeks ago by the MPAA and the Swiss equivalent APB. Now that they’re back they’ve sent a response to the MPAA and APB using the same methods that took them down. You can see the text of their message after the jump.

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