This morning, I had a swollen left lymph node in my throat, a headache, and stiff shoulders. Ick. Went to do my five hours of not-hard-at-all time at the not-a-day-job, got home, futzed with the television which would not play the DVD (a recurring problem that I thought was solved), got that figured out, took two Advil, started to watch Steamboy... fell asleep.

As part of my attempts to Scale Back and Sharpen Up, I've pulled the plug on DIY Endeavors Radio.

Punk: Attitude is a Don Letts film that was, so far as I know, never shown in theatres and went from the Independent Film Channel straight to DVD. It's a real decent document of the origins of punk rock from its late sixties origins to, say, the early eighties. The DVD has an extra disc with a spotlight on the Los Angeles punk movement, and there are other features that talk about fanzines, the post-punk and indie movement, and so on. The extra features aren't really revelatory, at least not if you're old enough (or, like me, almost old enough) to have been actually in the scene in the early eighties. But the actual documentary and the extra features together serve an important purpose: educate and enlighten the kids today who don't have a clue as to whom the "punk" bands of today really owe their success. (start rant) I mean, just for example, let's do a quick Google search on "punk rock." The number one hit is Punk Music Explorer. They seem to have been fortunate enough to nab the "punkrock.org" domain name, and they're using it as pretty much a link farm for "punk" band websites. I guess…

It's the Go-Betweens "Bye Bye Pride." Originally from their "Tallulah" record, it's appeared in various forms (mostly live) on other recordings of theirs -- most recently a semi-acoustic live version on their new disk, "Oceans Apart." I know it won't have the same effect on you, but for me, every time I hear it, my chest tightens, I feel happy, I feel sad, I feel exhilarated, I feel nostalgic and a touch melancholy, and I feel optomistic and hopeful. Sometimes, purging tears spring to my eyes... not weeping so much as a gentle release of pressure. Every time. I love that song. I owe so much to that band, for that song, and for others that sometimes come close. But "Bye Bye Pride" does it every time. Just wanted to share. What's your favorite song ever? Why? Oh yeah... once again, thank you, Anne.

Well, the latest song I've put to the Garageband test has finished its run... "The Western Lands" ended up in the 65th percentile in the Acoustic category... which is actually just a hair higher than my last best rated song, "Elvis C." Here are some of my favorite reviewer comments for "The Western Lands" "Have I missed the point somewhere?" "Song is painfully sincere." "The lyrics lacked any real depth, and definitely need to be rethoughtout." "Oh my what a performance... I felt that... good job man... should be signed.. I thnk that if you should continue with that performance you should get signed pretty soon.." "could be a nice publicity for cocacola..or 7 up..." "I commend you on a seemingly effortless well made song." "You begin to lose sight of what is going on here, and that is, duh::: Music" "this is one of those songs that was onriginally done in the studio with electirics and drums and the whole kit and kaboodle and then the band felt like doing an acoustic cover of it." Note: all quotes pasted without correcting anything... the errors are the reviewers. So now, if you wanna hear the song, hop on over to…