life as a dog…

First off, congrats goes out to my brother. I am an uncle again (this makes #3 for my brother, #6 overall for me). He is now the father of a boy and TWO girls.

I finally went ahead and went paid on flickr. But it’s going to take a while to upload everything and tag it. Work in progress.

You learn something new every day. On my drive home from work, I always pass by this sign that says, “Birchmere Entrance.” I’ve never really given it much thought. But today I was reading DCist and they mentioned it. It’s a small music hall. So I went to their website. I must check it out. Who played there this week? Suzanne Vega and Nick Lowe. Thomas Dolby is tomorrow night. Howard Jones is a couple weeks away. Billy Bragg and Cowboy Junkies are next month. Aimee Mann played about 2 months ago.

So a coworker and I were talking about music in general. He’s younger than me, but does seem to have a keen ear for music. We were on our way to a job site in my truck with XM Fred playing. He mentioned how he originally had only known Ministry from Jesus Built My Hotrod and since. (You know where this is going, right?) He finally was able to hear some “older” Ministry. Didn’t know they had that good stuff… Yes…”that good stuff.” Ha! Their BEST stuff, really. So we ended up talking about Industrial and Goth. Actually, I think that’s how the conversation started – I said I would love it if XM had an Industrial/Goth channel. There isn’t enough for either on their own to have a channel…but put them together…good stuff.

So I started looking at what I already had and what I could get. Which of course, brought me to wikipedia’s entry for Wax Trax! Records. That was my favorite label ever. I was able to visit their Chicago store before they went bankrupt. They suck now (all rap, last I heard). Anyway…I’m rambling. Industrial…I remember listening to all of it… Front 242 (my favorite), KMFDM, Ministry, Bigod 20, A Split Second, Nine Inch Nails, Revco, Nitzer Ebb, etc, etc. Of course, if you know anything about industrial, you know that nearly all those groups had at least one person in common with the others – either they collaborated or were in several groups. Al Jourgenson was in god knows how many projects.

Then there are the newer groups (or rather, not in the original wave) – Velvet Acid Christ, Din Fiv, Apoptygma Berzerk, Assemblage 23, etc. All good.

I’ve come across some newer stuff that I hadn’t heard (well…it may not even be new, per se). One that stands out is a remix of Bow Wow Wow – I Want Candy – the “Razed in Black” mix. It’s pretty damn cool. Very old school industrial.

That reminds me of many “remakes” the industrial groups did…and did well. Remakes like…Bigod 20 doing Madonna’s “Like A Prayer,” Laibach doing the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil”… Revco doing Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”…

So now I’m on an industrial kick…it’s been a while.

Is it real? The answer is, for all intents and purposes, yes. I saw the local freecycle list. But I dunno…some of these things seem a bit out there – not because they are nutty. Although, apparently there really are people out there that want a partially used package of shampoo? That just strikes me as a little gross. It may be perfectly ok…but still…it’s been in someone else’s shower – sharing a shower with a dorm mate or some other friend is bad enough…but we’re talking about total strangers.

Anyway… some things have popped up on freecycle that just blow my mind. These aren’t offers, but wants. So far, on this list people have posted “wants” of a pelican case, a light meter and a microwave. If you know photography, you know that a decent pelican case is a minimum $200 – with an *unlimited* lifetime warranty. Who would GIVE one away??? And a light meter? A microwave…maybe. It just seems a lot of people who have signed up on this list fall under one category…cheap. Or maybe they are looking for a sucker to get free stuff from.

I know…am I a hypocrite, since I signed onto the list? I don’t think so – simply because I would never expect to get a valuable item from it.

As you can see, I’ve changed the look of the blog. Actually, I updated the WordPress version – bumped it from 1.5 to 2.2. I figured it was also time to change the picture on top. The current one (yellow outlet) was taken at the Smithsonian Portrait Museum…back in the conservation area they have behind glass.

I should have some new pictures up shortly – four albums (though not many shots in total). But this weekend should change that – it’s another Whippet playdate, and with a better lens this time – the Nikon 18-200 VR. Fast dogs require VR!

I may do a little more tweaking of the layout – it’s much easier with the new version of WordPress – a lot of drag and drop ability now.

Edit to add: Pictures have been uploaded to the site. Four albums – 3 from DC, 1 from Virginia.