My Favorite T-Shirt In College

A recent Flaming Lips pic tweet reminded me of My Favorite T-Shirt In College, and I was able to find a really nice image from here... I still have the shirt, completely riddled with holes, thinner than Kleenex.


[click for full-size]
As I recall, the orange sections were really more pink... and all of the colors were more flourescent, rather than just bright (although not glow-in-the-dark).



"One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Morning" by The Flaming Lips (live 1988)

So, yeah. I bought the shirt at the 4/28/1988 Austin show (at The Ritz), opening for Butthole Surfers. Second time I ever saw them, and second night in a row - after the 4/27 Houston show (at Numbers). They were so ridiculously loud back then!



Another one I wore a bunch was my Butthole Surfers shirt, based around the 1st image in this collection of LSD sheet art. Definitely got that one at a later show - possibly The Ensemble on 12/9? The octopus was screened in thick black ink over an orange field, with BUTTHOLE above and SURFERS below.



"Jimi" by Butthole Surfers (live 1988, London)

I liked to wear it to Grateful Dead shows in the late-'80s/early-'90s. It was a big hit!

And just in case you doubted nary a word of what I've told, I now produce evidence!



There it is!! Funny, I don't remember ever noticing the right edge being so distorted. My perception during this era might not have been entirely reliable...



As advertised??



Bonus pix: This was my usual go-to Dead shirt around the same time period - fairly generic, but it got the job done.



One day I will tell the stories of Star Laser Force.

Snow Day 2009

Well, it snowed again in Houston yesterday. The last five years have probably equalled the snow of my previous thirty-odd years here.


A photo by Kristine reflects perfectly this "winter" - flowers have been fooled by 70-degree weather into thinking it's spring. Only to have 30-degree snow dumped on their heads.


I end up taking regular photos of this complex of powerlines over our corner intersection. Like the flower, these birds appear confused. Probably trying to figure out if they accidentally made a u-turn and are now back in snowy Kansas.

A Whole Mess o' Bluesmen (A-M)

While driving this morning, I heard this song on 91.7fm Rice Radio, and decided right then to open up an Astral Headspace Juke Joint!

Mississippi John Hurt (1892?-1966) "Nobody's Dirty Business" ~



Rev. Gary Davis (1896-1972) "Death Don't Have No Mercy"

John Lee Hooker (1917-2001) "Boogie Chillun"


Lightnin' Hopkins (1912-1982) "Lonesome Road"

Son House (1902?-1988) "John the Revelator"

Elmore James (1918-1963) "Dust My Broom"


Skip James (1902-1969) "Hard Time Killing Floor"

Blind Lemon Jefferson (1893-1929) "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"


Robert Johnson (1911-1938) "Crossroad Blues"

Leadbelly (1888-1949) "Rock Island Line"

I'm no kind of Blues expert, so I went with classics or songs I knew, and especially focused on awesome stage names and iconic blues-style song titles.

Limited Editions of 200!

Thrill! To a dark vision of something grainy!
Witness! My terrible photography "skills!"
Check Out! The two ltd-ed releases I got this week!!

[Click all my photos for giant size]
First up is the new solo effort from A.E. Paterra (drummer for Zombi), as Majeure: Timespan (2009). Pitchfork has one track up for the streaming/download. Two slabs o' vinyl, three songs (with full mp3 download)! The fourth side has an etching similar to the inside of the gatefold cover. The 2xLP record itself isn't limited, but the sky blue-white-navy splatter vinyl is!

Sides 1 and 3

Sides 2 and 4

Inner Gatefold, with bonus shadow!

Order up! [$12]



I also got Austin post-rockers The Calm Blue Sea's 2xCD score for Fritz Lang's silent Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1923). Full title is... Siegfried: An Original Score by The Calm Blue Sea (2009). You can check out the whole thing, with film, at this YouTube playlist! Also limited to 200 copies, this is packaged in recycled card stock, and all the artwork appears hand-stamped in black ink.

Front, bound in twine

Back of package

Order up! [$15]

Ultimate Destination Travel Snaps

Another Living Social/Facebook list of 5 - this time it's
"Places I Want to Visit" (unexpanded). Here we go!


1. Angkor Wat - Cambodia
Gigantic temple complex (Hindu, Buddhist) built over hundreds of years. Lots of Khmer towers, tons of intricate stonework. [Wiki]
[Music: domestic Cambodian pop, Dengue Fever]



2. Chichen Itza - Mexico
A huge Mayan capital in the Yucatan - with pyramids, temples, sports stadium, and an astronomical observatory. [Wiki]
[Music: funked Mexican hip-hop, Control Machete]



3. Macchu Picchu - Peru
An Incan royal stronghold in the cloudy Andes mountaintops, it of course has temples and all the amenities. [Wiki]
[Music: Afro-Peruvian icons, Peru Negro]



4. Petra - Jordan
The go-to site for movies looking for iconic ancientness, it's still an entire city carved into the cliff walls over 2,000 years ago. [Wiki]
[Music: Bedouin ethnic music superstar, Omar Al-Abdallat]



5. Lunar surface - The Moon
Yeah, I'd kind of like to go to the moon. Just get away from it all, and relax a little... It actually seems more likely than vacationing in Isfahan nowadays. [Wiki]
[Music: Iranian Depressive Black Metal leader, Aras]