Ten Records I Didn't Buy in Prague

They forgot the umlaut. 

Yugoslavian Abba 7" with the reversed "B" transversed.

Russian Beatles 7"

The b-side is "Disco Duck Pt. 2," the instrumental mix. Believe me, I would have bought the vocal version in Czech.


BONUS PHOTO: The store where I didn't buy "Disco Duck" wasn't this one.

First Loves (Something, Money)

[EDIT: I wasn't even thinking when I wrote this about the fact that YouTube is in the process of eliminating this sort of thing from their site. Parent company Google already has in YouTube a unique and immensely popular site motored by ad revenue. Do they really need to drive users away by getting many from the users willing or able to pony up?]

* * * 

It's saying nothing new, I know, but how amazing to be able to type memories into a machine and have them called up to live again.

It's hard to put into words just how unspeakably cool it was for there to be a cool, an actually COOL band in Springfield, Illinois, when I was 13. My friend's dad used to call ahead to the place where they usually played (it was called "Crow's Mill School" but minors weren't allowed) and arrange to escort us there, kindly sitting with us so we could see our very own, homegrown new wave band. And rather amazingly, Food & Money also did a half hour community access show in St. Louis which was preserved to videotape and then digitized and uploaded. I've become reacquainted with guitarist John Novak by means of the Facebook machine. He plays around up north of Springfield with the Guitar Circle of Chicago.



There were other bands around, of course, but not another truly great one to lay claim to until packing off to Illinois State University in a town called Normal (by which time I could get into bars on my own, even if it required a fake ID). I'm a little surprised there isn't more video of the Something Brothers out there because they amassed a faithful following. But then, back then wayback machines didn't fit in your pocket.

The Art of How to Better Public Speaking in Public

Writing and doing radio are very public, very solitary activities. People read what you write and listen to what you play and what you say on the radio (or that's the hope anyway), but they don't look<\I> at you. Nobody's staring. 

I had opportunities last month to speak in front of people, something which makes me more than a little nervous (which I guess is why I did it). And as it happens, friends showed up at each with the intention of videoing.

On May 28, I was one of seven WFMU hosts who read at KGB Bar in something that we''re hoping will be a quarterly happening. I read excerpts from "Why Do We Scream at Each Other: Letters to Prince" (and just over a week before the Purple Yoda from Minnesota's birthday!)




And on May 14, I accepted a challenge from Andrew Singer to try my hand at stand-up comedy. He does a monthly "first timers" night at Sidewalk Cafe.





Thanks to Natalie Knezic and Brett Laurence for viddying and to Andrew Singer and Dan Bodah (host of the Airborn Event, Mondays from 9-midnight on WFMU, who also read at KGB) for organizing. And big love and respect to the rest of my fellow WFMU hosts who all read their brilliant work:

Bronwyn C and Jim the Poet of Sportsy Talk Mondays 6-7;
Jesse Jarnow of the Frow Show (on hiatus);
Dave Mandl, whose World of Echo is heard Sundays from 10 to midnight;
and Amanda Nazario of the Nazario Scenario, which can be heard on the WFMU Give the Drummer Some stream Wednesdays from noon to 2.

For my part, I'm humbled by the opportunity to appear on the WFMU airwaves Fridays from 3-6 pm.

The complete text of "Why Do We Scream at Each Other" (which is a part of my in-progress collection) is available for a short time in PDF form at my Lulu store. 

I've uploaded a few selections from my in-progress collection of holiday stories to my Lulu shop. "The Audiocalypse Project" is by far the longest in the collection, probably maybe technically a novella. "Why Do We Scream at Each Other? Letters to Prince" spans from Prince's birthday (June 7) to New Year's Eve and acknowledges that as a Jehovah's Witness he himself probably doesn't celebrate holidays. I've also reposted "Reading Genomes," the Father's Day entry in the collection. 

I'll also be reading from the Prince letters this Wednesday at KGB with six of my fellow WFMU writers and on-air personalities. Please see the flyer over there or check out the Facebook event. 

Also, on Saturday the 31st I'll be doing an improv guitar duo with Robert Hardin at Charles Lear's studio on Thames as part of the Bushwick Open Studios. Not sure what time but hopefully not too early since I'll be at theWFMU Record Fair all day and all weekend (broadcasting live there on Friday and selling on Sunday). 

Happy Memorial Day!

May is National Drinking Water Month - Here's how I'll be celebrating.

Now when I first saw this, I read “drinking” as a verb, and thought we should all be drinking water all month, which wouldn't be a bad idea. But then I realized it was probably an adjective and that the month had likely been designated for some sort of campaign about the water we drink, most likely in terms of cleanliness. I didn't really look into it further, I just figured that made sense. But then I thought, well, if we're concerned about the cleanliness of the water we drink, it's because we're drinking it, right? So it is about the act of drinking water and so it's kind of the same thing either way, right? It's like it's drinking drinking water month. Nationally. 

I spent a little while trying to think of a good water song to include and settled on this one. Maybe not the wateriest, but I really do love it. 

Of course, it could have been reconfigured so “drinking” would be a gerund which would have been totally hot. But enough about that. May is also a month where I'll be publishing, self-publishing and reading stories. Probably writing some, too. And telling some jokes. Here's how it goes:

My story “Present Tense,” from my book Little Apples has been included in the new issue ofA Gathering of the Tribes. I was glad to see it come out since Tribes has fallen on hard and then harder times. Check out their website and if you have a way to help them out, do.

On May 14 I will be a part of a night of stand-up comedy by people who have never done stand-up comedy. Andrew Singer contacts people who have never done comedy on stage before and cajoles them relentlessly until they buckle and agree to give it a try. Soce's First-Time Stand-Up is at the Sidewalk Cafe starting at 8 pm. I think it's free with a drink minimum. I'll be having a drink minimum in any event.

And on May 28 I will be reading at KGB Bar with six of my fellow WFMU radio hosts. Thanks to Dan Bodah for organizing it. Also reading (along with Dan) will be Amanda Nazario, Dave Mandl and Bronwyn C and Jim the Poet. This one I know is free with a minimum, from 7-9. O'clock, not drinks. My plan at the moment is to read selections from my unpublished workWhy Do We Scream at Each Other: Letters to Prince. Around that time I'll be putting the whole text up on Lulu, as well as my novella The Audiocalypse Project. Both are included in the in-progress collection of holiday stories which sometimes get posted to Lulu for short and at seasonally-appropriate times of year. And now through May 11 you can get 10% either of my books or digital versions of my Easter story “A Bag of Doughnuts” or the script for my play Under a Scar-Filled Sky: The Buddy Zinn Mysteries at Lulu by using the coupon code MOM10 (all caps) at checkout.

In nonfiction opining and postulating, I have been talking about Paul McCartney and Wings all week over at One Week // One Band. Today I'm on about Wings Over America, Thrillington and the beginning of the end before wrapping it all up tomorrow. Here's a Spotify playlist to carry you along. 

Happy May Day!

To Read or Fight?

To read or
writing is
bullfighting
are we to
wrestling
or working
caressing
and cajoling
words
to doing
bidding.


It is, and so it is,
Mister Reed said:
writing is fighting
if one may be so
bold fight those
words, you
know better
than them.


They do nor
know better tho
intimidate so but
one must let
them know
what's what.


Do not take no
for an answer take
no for drinks out
on the town wine
and dine no and
don't you know
yes will not be
far behind.
(Bitter rivals
they.)


Words are small
smaller than you
smaller than your
thumb than even
your thumbprint.


Mister Dumpty said
you can make them
meant what
you mean
them

to.

XM+@WSB100