Frequent man.under.stress contributor and former book reviewer, “chilly,” or in the preferred Taoist nomenclature, “chi-li,” began podcasting interviews with friends and acquaintances, the unsung celebrity of the everyman sort of thing, some time ago. Well now he’s expanded the service into a full blown blog, complete with the continuing series of podcasts, PLUS, psychedelic arcana, all things Asian and much, much more. And so far he’s out of the gate and running, with sometimes more than one daily post. That’s more than I can say for my sorry ass. When Chi-Li is not slurping a Starbucks mocha frapp in the comfort of his Tarantino shrine, we can assume he’s hard at work finding interesting things for you to contemplate. So check out and bookmark The 10,000 Things.
I’m going back to my Black Metal roots. After an early Metal apprenticeship of Motley Crue, WASP, Grim Reaper, and Iron Maiden, I was won over by a more intelligent and nimble lady by the name of Punk Rock. Later I was grossly disappointed when bands like D.R.I. began to crossover into speed metal land. Aside from Slayer, it didn’t seem like anyone could do it right. And the formula…come on. Then I was bludgeoned by the time elapsed slow-core of The Melvins, and Earth. Metal had transformed itself by then; it had proven it could be intelligent and arty for once.
Today there is something of a Metal renaissance going on, albeit more of a droney Black Metal thing, with Sunno))) and Khanate (is that the dude from Die Kruezen singing or what???) Their indie stardom is quite amusing. Who knew the kids could be so ironic. Still, if you want to hear the real deal, or the original deal, check out Burzum, perhaps THE original BM band from Norway who’s lead singer is in jail for killing a dude. Now that’s Black Metal, bitch.
Perhaps I will sleep in my crawl space to inspire my own black dreams. Gotterdammerung, baby.
Recently employing the power of ironic advertising for this website (which has to date yielded a net $1.60), I do like the idea of guerrilla advertising, but only with escape option, as opposed to the captive audience assault. It should be a crime to make folks who pay ridiculous movie ticket prices sit through ads, as we have all complained about at one time or another. But what if the methods were more spontaneous and creative, say a street troupe of mimes busting into a Starbucks to do some little routine for earplugs or a toothbrush or the NYT or something? Or some streaker jets across Turner Field with a banner advertising an upcoming IKEA sale? You would be startled, you’d laugh, you could just leave, or best of all, you could heckle them. Businesses are already paying to advertise on gimmick sites, and by way of tattoo on idiots. I see this as the next wave. Today’s singing telegram dude will be tomorrow’s guerrilla ad-man.
Driving the manual transmission car left-handed isn’t nearly as difficult as I thought. Slight fear at the rental moment, mostly due to jet lag, but within minutes I was already cursing inept Irish drivers. Finding my way to Dublin was easy, but finding the hotel wasn’t. Pulled over into a car park and asked the attendant, a Bill Clinton look-alike, for directions. He proceeded to take my out to the streets and point out the way, step by step. Still, in the frazzled state, I made it close. But had to just park it and take a cab. Slept 3 hrs and hit the steets. Temple bar is the typical city “strip,” with bars, clubs, cobblestone, falafels, the obligatory drum-circle with fire juggler and dancing drunk-guy, only it’s nice, with quaint old buildings and wooden tables, and very mixed age crowd.
Sunday began with a great full Irish breakfast courtesy of hotel. The weather, was wonderful, according to the locals, cloudy with fits of sun, brisk, slightly windy. Had no idea, but in addition to Easter, today was the 90th anniversary of the “Easter Rising” revolution of 1916, with a full-on parade through Dublin. Good fortune, though that killed the plan to hit Glendalough and some of the country due to mad traffic and roads closed. It was a military parade, mostly uneventful as far as parades go (the usual lots of people who can’t see anything), families, Irish flags and green cowboy hats abounding. I mosied about drinking bad coffee and taking pictures. Beckett festival going on as well, with various plays and films and stuff on tv. Made it out to Kilmainham Gaol for the afternoon, and it was free due to the anniversery. Super informative tour, with film and guide. Jail is restored but in a modest way; no cheesy mannequins or re-enactments.
Tomorrow off to the country winding up in Belfast.
NYT on the phenomenon of the beard:
On city streets, too, trends in scruff have reached new levels of unruliness, a backlash, some beard enthusiasts say, against the heightened grooming expectations that were unleashed with the rise of metrosexuality as a cultural trend. Men both straight and gay, it appears, want to feel rough and manly.
Since shaving my beard of 2 years last September, I can safely say, beards are so 2005. The ironic mustache however, is making a comeback.
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