Thai peppers from plants I grew from seed. They're about as big as two joints of yr pinky...but, as opposed to my Habaneros, that's about as big as they're supposed be!
23 May 2011
Adventures in Gardening #2
Thai peppers from plants I grew from seed. They're about as big as two joints of yr pinky...but, as opposed to my Habaneros, that's about as big as they're supposed be!
22 May 2011
Is this thing on?
The Fast's LP The Fast For Sale must have had just come out recently (at the time, 1980) and Frankie says to me, "Didja know that there was a third brother?" And me, "No, really?" "Yeah," sez Frankie in his great gravelly Boston tenor, "Cal Zone!"
I pissed my pants laughin' at that one...and strangely enough, i still do every time i think about it. But i'm like that with certain jokes.
Gee, Frankie should've said he went on to be a pizza chef...! BA-DA-BING!
And i come to find out years later there really was a third Zone brother...but Armand doesn't make for laughs like Cal does.
I pissed my pants laughin' at that one...and strangely enough, i still do every time i think about it. But i'm like that with certain jokes.
Gee, Frankie should've said he went on to be a pizza chef...! BA-DA-BING!
And i come to find out years later there really was a third Zone brother...but Armand doesn't make for laughs like Cal does.
Grasping at straws
Hey, we're still here! The mother of all idiots and madmen is always pregnant. Here's the only Rapture i know...
Anyway, floating around on the squinternet is a page of a collection of various punk rock records, sub-divided by regions. Well, look what's on the New York page (ya gotta jump down to Jetz...well, hell, now i gave it away!).
I would guess that the single came out May 3, 1980 because of the "catalog number" 5380 (i can't think of any other reason why we would've picked that number), but that can't be right...i would've still been in high school, ergo not in NYC.
Regardless, i do remember that Peter Crowley refused to put that single in Max's jukebox because, thanks to the song Aryan Race, he didn't want anything to do with that Nazi stuff. WHAT?!? We were outraged! April was furious. It was lyrically a piss-take on all that White Power/Nazi bullshit and he interpreted it as promoting that! He probably never even listened to it and just judged it by the title. And me, being young dumb and full of it, it never occured to me for one second that that song could be taken seriously. I remember the first time i'd heard it i fell in love with it! It's a great fucking tune and i still stand by that. I could give a rat's ass about what you think about the lyrics. I know it was a joke. It was just a stupid joke. And as Larry Flynt used to say, if they can't take a joke, I'm fucked.
Some years after my move to the Rome office, upon discovering my chequered past in New York, record collector friends of mine busted my chops about being a Nazi because of that single. But they were just pulling my chain and we all laughed it off.
31 years after the fact, i guess i could see how the title Aryan Race could give some people the wrong idea about us...!
A side note, the single was on our ficticious label Ultramodern Records, a name which i would recycle many more times, but i can't remember if this was the first mention of Ultramodern or not. It's possible that the band we had before i'd left for New York was called The Ultramodern. It certainly was after i'd returned to Detroit. Joey, help me out here!
EDIT 2011-05-23: Joey confirms! According to minutes of awakening hibernated synapses together, Joey says that we had used the name Ultramodern at least as far back as 1980 in a high-school battle of the bands! The rest is for another post.
Anyway, floating around on the squinternet is a page of a collection of various punk rock records, sub-divided by regions. Well, look what's on the New York page (ya gotta jump down to Jetz...well, hell, now i gave it away!).
I would guess that the single came out May 3, 1980 because of the "catalog number" 5380 (i can't think of any other reason why we would've picked that number), but that can't be right...i would've still been in high school, ergo not in NYC.
Regardless, i do remember that Peter Crowley refused to put that single in Max's jukebox because, thanks to the song Aryan Race, he didn't want anything to do with that Nazi stuff. WHAT?!? We were outraged! April was furious. It was lyrically a piss-take on all that White Power/Nazi bullshit and he interpreted it as promoting that! He probably never even listened to it and just judged it by the title. And me, being young dumb and full of it, it never occured to me for one second that that song could be taken seriously. I remember the first time i'd heard it i fell in love with it! It's a great fucking tune and i still stand by that. I could give a rat's ass about what you think about the lyrics. I know it was a joke. It was just a stupid joke. And as Larry Flynt used to say, if they can't take a joke, I'm fucked.
Some years after my move to the Rome office, upon discovering my chequered past in New York, record collector friends of mine busted my chops about being a Nazi because of that single. But they were just pulling my chain and we all laughed it off.
31 years after the fact, i guess i could see how the title Aryan Race could give some people the wrong idea about us...!
A side note, the single was on our ficticious label Ultramodern Records, a name which i would recycle many more times, but i can't remember if this was the first mention of Ultramodern or not. It's possible that the band we had before i'd left for New York was called The Ultramodern. It certainly was after i'd returned to Detroit. Joey, help me out here!
EDIT 2011-05-23: Joey confirms! According to minutes of awakening hibernated synapses together, Joey says that we had used the name Ultramodern at least as far back as 1980 in a high-school battle of the bands! The rest is for another post.
20 May 2011
Adventures in Gardening
Before i continue i must apologize for the lousy quality of these photos.
These are two ripe Habanero peppers. Or at least i believe they are Habaneros (they could be Scotch Bonnets), as they actually are imported from somewhere in Africa, and that's the most information i can glean from the Bengalis i buy them from at the world-famous Piazza Vittorio market here in Rome.
These two babies are freshly harvested Habanero peppers from the plants i grew from seed last year, along with Locotos, Thai chiles and Bangla chiles.
And now, a photo of the four aforementioned chiles with two cherries for scale...
Try not to hurt yourself laughing so hard.
I think the Habanero plant needs more room to grow chiles of any decent size.
EDIT 2011-05-23: Nine sez they'd make great earrings...!
These are two ripe Habanero peppers. Or at least i believe they are Habaneros (they could be Scotch Bonnets), as they actually are imported from somewhere in Africa, and that's the most information i can glean from the Bengalis i buy them from at the world-famous Piazza Vittorio market here in Rome.
These two babies are freshly harvested Habanero peppers from the plants i grew from seed last year, along with Locotos, Thai chiles and Bangla chiles.
And now, a photo of the four aforementioned chiles with two cherries for scale...
Try not to hurt yourself laughing so hard.
I think the Habanero plant needs more room to grow chiles of any decent size.
EDIT 2011-05-23: Nine sez they'd make great earrings...!
15 May 2011
13 May 2011
Do No Evil
From the BBC article...
(...in reference to The Daily Beast article.)
In other googley news, Blogger.com is in read-only mode for the second time this week.
Let's not forget we are talking about two companies [Facebook and Google] that have spent billions in positioning themselves as 'nice, cuddly, sandal-wearing, Californian surfer dudes.'
– Richard Merrin, Manging director, Spreckley PR
(...in reference to The Daily Beast article.)
In other googley news, Blogger.com is in read-only mode for the second time this week.
06 May 2011
200 Trillion US Dollars
According to an article in today's La Stampa, the price on Osama bin Laden's head cost around US$200 trillion.
For the benefit of people who can't immediately process or appreciate a number like that (namely me), let me spell that out: US$200,000,000,000,000.00. I point you to this page for comparison.
But that's not exactly fair, comparing distances and age to dollars. As of today, the ppb of WTI crude is US$99.96, meaning that same amount buys a hair over 2,000,800,320,128 barrels of oil. Why, using the amended 2010-2011 annual budget of the Warren Woods school district (PDF) of Warren, MI as a general estimate, that same amount of money would have paid for the budget of 663902 school districts in the same time span. Michigan, the fifth highest state in school districts nationwide, has 550 districts. Using Michigan as a somewhat-high national average, that means that same amount of money could have paid for the decennial budget for the 13278 states(!) of the United States of America. But that number is most likely even higher, that is, covering even more non-existant states. Dare i say it, that same amount of money could easily have paid for the entire world's scholastic budget for ten years.
In other news, today here in Italy is a nationwide strike of basically everybody. I noticed going to the market this morning that someone forgot to inform the taxi drivers. I also noticed an abundance of police helicopters flying overhead. At Termini station, an inordinate amount of riot-squad Polizia and Carabinieri were rushing in vans, cars and on foot towards the station but for the life of me i couldn't see to what they were all headed to.
Still-italian-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, in order to “resolve” the what seems like a never-ending garbage crisis in Naples, announced yet again to send in the military to act as garbagemen.
And last but not least, Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Birthday, Feexy Weexy! WE LOVE YOU! Now when i say yr 20, i won't be wrong!
Rock 'n roll!
For the benefit of people who can't immediately process or appreciate a number like that (namely me), let me spell that out: US$200,000,000,000,000.00. I point you to this page for comparison.
But that's not exactly fair, comparing distances and age to dollars. As of today, the ppb of WTI crude is US$99.96, meaning that same amount buys a hair over 2,000,800,320,128 barrels of oil. Why, using the amended 2010-2011 annual budget of the Warren Woods school district (PDF) of Warren, MI as a general estimate, that same amount of money would have paid for the budget of 663902 school districts in the same time span. Michigan, the fifth highest state in school districts nationwide, has 550 districts. Using Michigan as a somewhat-high national average, that means that same amount of money could have paid for the decennial budget for the 13278 states(!) of the United States of America. But that number is most likely even higher, that is, covering even more non-existant states. Dare i say it, that same amount of money could easily have paid for the entire world's scholastic budget for ten years.
In other news, today here in Italy is a nationwide strike of basically everybody. I noticed going to the market this morning that someone forgot to inform the taxi drivers. I also noticed an abundance of police helicopters flying overhead. At Termini station, an inordinate amount of riot-squad Polizia and Carabinieri were rushing in vans, cars and on foot towards the station but for the life of me i couldn't see to what they were all headed to.
Still-italian-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, in order to “resolve” the what seems like a never-ending garbage crisis in Naples, announced yet again to send in the military to act as garbagemen.
And last but not least, Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Birthday, Feexy Weexy! WE LOVE YOU! Now when i say yr 20, i won't be wrong!
Rock 'n roll!
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