office mantra

desert lights

But Don't, Dear Children, Be Alarmed

wall decoration from my cubicle, 2005.07.19

T-9's Liquid Diner #003: Xmastacular

Christmas is top festive tune white Christmas. Christmas is the most magical of all celebrations. Christmas is important for understanding our own story. Christmas is a pagan holiday. Christmas is a time for giving.

Christmas is almost here.

[download me]

*SPOILER WARNING*


01. Sufjan Stevens - "Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!"
Indie musician Sufjan Stevens, famous for his ongoing Fifty States Project, just released a five-EP boxed set of Christmas music called Songs for Christmas. The man doesn't mess around when it comes to themed undertakings.

02. The Temptations - "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was a short story in verse created by orthodox Jew Robert L. May for Montgomery Ward department stores in 1939. May's brother-in-law Johnny Marks adapted the story into the popular song. The Temptations' version was created for their first Christmas album, The Temptations Christmas Card. It was used as the basis for the California Raisins' version, as seen in the Claymation Christmas Celebration TV special.

03. Kaffeinik - "The Auld Lang Syne Hop"
The tune to which "Auld Lang Syne" is universally sung is a pentatonic Scots (or possibly Northumbrian) folk melody - probably originally a sprightly dance in a much quicker tempo. This heavily retooled version is one of many that can be heard on the Comfort Stand Recordings compilation Auld Lang Syne, which is available as a free download. The album's cover art is considered to be some of the best cover art ever created. It's a picture of an infant lying in a pool of urine.

04. "Merry Christmas, Mr. Wayne" [excerpt from Batman Returns]
Bruce Wayne is a billionaire industrialist and socialite born and raised in Gotham City. Gossip columnists wonder when this notorious bachelor will settle down and start a family. He is either a lapsed Episcopalian or a lapsed Catholic, depending on who you ask. In this clip he seems to be making an oblique reference to Luke 2:14 and the angels' message to the shepherds upon the birth of Christ, which is often quoted at Christmastime.

05. Aimee Mann with Michael Penn - "Christmastime"
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) causes sufferers to experience depressive symptoms during the winter, and is thought to be caused by variations in exposure to daylight. People who live in the Arctic region are especially susceptible due to the effects of polar nights.

06. The Ventures - "Snow Flakes (What Child Is This?)"
The concept that no two snowflakes are alike is not necessarily true. Strictly speaking, it is extremely unlikely for any two objects in the universe to contain an identical molecular structure; but, there are, nonetheless, no known scientific laws which prevent it. In a more pragmatic sense, it's more likely, albeit not much more, that two snowflakes are visually identical if their environments were similar enough, either because they grew very near one another, or simply by chance. The American Meteorological Society has reported that matching snow crystals were discovered by Nancy Knight of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The crystals were not flakes in the usual sense but rather hollow hexagonal prisms.

07. Bob Atcher & the Dinning Sisters - "Christmas Island"
There are actually two Christmas Islands, both named for the time at which they were discovered. One is located in the central Pacific Ocean and is more commonly known as Kiritimati (a rendering of the word "Christmas" in the native language). Kiritimati, part of the tiny Republic of Kiribati, is the first inhabited place on Earth to experience each new year. The other Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. This Christmas Island is famous for being overrun by an enormous red crab migration every December.

08. Kim & Buran - "New Years Party by Toptygin (live)"
Kim & Buran are a Russian surf/lounge/electronic duo. This track's title doesn't make any sense to me.

09. Mafialligator - "Feliz Navidad"
"Feliz Navidad" was written in 1970 by Puerto Rican singer/songwriter José Feliciano. Blind since birth, Feliciano taught himself to play guitar as a child by locking himself in him bedroom and practicing for as much as fourteen hours a day. In 1968 he caused a minor furor by daring to perform a Latin jazz version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the World Series.

10. Squirrel Nut Zippers - "A Johnny Ace Christmas"
John Marshall Alexander, Jr. performed as "Johnny Ace" for about three years, having a string of hits and being named Most Programmed Artist of 1954 in a national DJ poll. He accidentally shot himself (legend has it he had been playing Russian roulette) on Christmas Eve that year while drinking backstage at the City Auditorium in Houston, Texas.

11. dma-sc - "the first blip blop noel"
"The First Noel" is an English Christmas carol, possibly dating as far back as the 13th Century. Dma-Sc is chiptune composer who has produced music for various videogame platforms since 1993, including some professional MIDI music for cellphone games. This particular track was made on the Atari ST.

12. "Sad Yuletide Story" [excerpt from Gremlins]
Chinese/Filipino/Russian/Jewish former actress Phoebe Cates, who played the part of Kate Beringer in the Gremlins films, opened the Blue Tree boutique in New York City last year, which sells graphic novels, toy robots and $600 necklaces. This website has over 1700 photographs of her.

13. Odds - "Kings of Orient (We Three Kings)"
"We Three Kings of Orient Are" was written by Rev. John Henry Hopkins, Jr. of New York City in 1857. The "kings" of the title were originally referred to in the Gospel of Matthew as Magi. Magi were astrologer-priests of Zurvanism, which was a branch of Zoroastrianism that is believed to have died out by the year 900 CE. Odds were a Canadian power-pop band that died out in 1999 CE.

14. Sy Mann - "My Favorite Things"
This song was written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for their Broadway musical The Sound of Music in 1959. It was famously recorded by jazz saxophonist John Coltrane the following year, a version which was considered an important revival of the soprano saxophone. Sy Mann played the song on a Moog synthesizer ten years after that, and since then the song has also been covered by Andre 3000 and Kenny G.

15. The Moog Machine - "Little Town of Bethlehem"
The town of Bethlehem, birthplace of Jesus Christ according to Luke and Matthew, has a current population of about forty thousand, with a Muslim majority. It has been under the control of the Palestinian Authority since 1995. One of its sister cities is Burlington, Vermont, home of cartoonist/rock musician James Kochalka.

Trivia provided by Wikipedia.

gonna splode

If you or someone you love feels like they're gonna splode, please seek help.

RPG

Digital conflabation of stolen images.

blog feed shenanigans

If anyone out there is subscribed to the blog feed you may have noticed that it's not working so great. I've been reorganizing and moving stuff around (hope you like the new backgrounds), and the feed is now located at http://www.swizzlestuck.com/atom.xml. Of course, if you're subscribed to the old blog feed you may just think I've stopped updating and will probably never read this. And the rest of you are just confused. So never mind.

Oh, also I should say that the recent posts in the feed are temporarily messed up because I'm going back and tagging all my posts with categories, so if you see some old posts coming back up, that's why. Soon everybody will be able to just click a category and see all the dream posts at once, etc. IT'S LIKE LIVING IN THE FUTURE MAN. Like 2003.

Penny is still looking for a home

Shake off that typtophan haze and go forth into the Holiday Future. Make strong your heart. Make elastic your trousers.

tree

Hell yes it's a tree. Happy Thanksgiving.

clarity

This man has some sort of eye problem.

Archibald

Cadwallader Cacomistle

pentabird

LESS FUN COMICS #1 now on sale

Joe Annabi's SparkleShoppe is now open and offering copies of our first printed minicomic collaboration, Less Fun Comics #1. It contains:

"I Suck @ Life"
Balki the Vampyre ruminates with the help of his pet leech, Molly. URBAN DRAMA.

"The Race"
Happy Transistor Man and Panda race to the castle. SPORTS ACTION.

"Where Are You?"
Cadwallader Cacomistle scales Maslow's pyamid. SEASONAL HIJINX.

"High Plains Drifter"
The Pepperoncini Cowboy sees something the like of which he's never seen. ZOOLOGICAL INTEREST.

"To Fetch a Pail of Water"
Cadwallader takes a tumble. SUPERNATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT.

Maybe I'll set up a SwizzleMart one of these days. Anyways, we hope you'll check it out. Annabi and Sedillos, together, like chewy nougat and caffeine pills.