So if you thought Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was the hottest thing coming out of Scandinavia these days, think again. He’s 34 days old as of today. His Facebook page has 20,000 followers, and I’m sure there will be many more before the day is through. His name means “ice” in Greenlandic.
Here’s another video clip.
And, these aren’t nearly as cute, but I’ve added a few new art pieces to my tumblr page, which you can view here, but here are a couple of samples.
Filed under MY ART BLOG
Bourbon balls, a Christmas tradition at the Sublett household, and espresso, a daily addiction.
If it’s bourbon balls for breakfast it must be Christmas morning. My wife, Lois, makes the best bourbon balls in the land. This year they’re made with Canadian whisky, which we bought a half gallon of for Dashiell’s Thanksgiving holiday trip home from Whittier College and somehow he did not drink it all, and some was also left over from the sweet potato pie, which is another tradition here, made by Lois to perfection. Her recent blog post on From Punk to Putanesca gives her instructions for the bourbon balls. This is a short post because, after all, it’s a holiday, plus we have the Sunday New York Times, company coming over soon to make a feast, and naturally, it being a holiday, I’m holed up in my studio office writing, drawing and recording. This weekend it’s yet another attempt to perfect my solo acoustic epic version of “Streets of Laredo.” Happy Xmas, peace, love & bourbon balls. Ah, yes, one last thing, in celebration of Xmas, click 09 Rye Whiskey mp3 to hear “Jack of Diamonds (Rye Whisky)” by Jon Dee Graham, backed on upright bass by my terrible self and drums by Tom Lewis. [PS why is the photo sideways? I dunno. I rotated the picture but it won't stay upright. Too many bourbon balls????]
Filed under MY ART BLOG
UPDATE: A reader informed me that this bird and the surrounding work is just part of the immense and fabulous output of Barry George. I should have known that, but I didn’t, and I’m looking forward to meeting him soon.
One of many, many reasons I love the East Side. I frequent Texas Coffee Traders, which is on East 4th, just down from the Scoot Inn, one of the oldest bars in Austin, almost as old as Scholz’ Garden. Anyway, almost every time I go over there, and that’s several times a week, I see something new that makes me smile. You may already know about this scrap metal sculpture, standing in a yard that’s full of the stuff, conveniently situated a block and a half from the metal scrap yard. If I’m not mistaken, this is a gray crowned crane of Africa, Balearica regulorum, the flesh and blood version being probably the showiest of all crane species. There’s also a sub-species, the black crowned crane, which is the only crane that roosts in trees. Like our whooping crane, Grus americana, the crowned cranes are endangered.These African cranes grow up to 3.3 feet in height. Whoopers get up to five feet, the better so they can peck your eyes out.
Filed under MY ART BLOG
A couple of news bits here, completely unrelated, I think. First, I’m sure you’ve seen the vile, psychotic Rick Perry ad in which he complains about how “gays can serve openly in the military, while our kids can’t celebrate Christmas openly.” And goes on to lie about some mythical “war against religion” being conducted by President Obama. (Hey, I was thinking, if a person really wanted to sign up for this war, where would they go to find it? I can’t find a single place to volunteer, offer aid or anything. In fact, I can’t find any evidence of such fanciful beast.)
Anyway, so look what Gov. Rick Perry, CEO of the nation’s dumbest and most deprived state, is wearing in this anti-gay ad: The jacket from Brokeback Mountain.
I stole this from alternet, by the way. Click the link to read the full post.
The other, unrelated news is that the reissue of The Skunks’ first single, “Earthquake Shake” b/w “Can’t Get Loose” is now available from Last Laugh records. This is a true artifact, recorded in a garage in the west campus area in early 1979 on a two-track reel to reel recorder. We bounced the tracks once to add backing vocals, mixed it down and sent the half inch tape off to a pressing plant along with our $300 and then when the records arrived, drank a case of beer while we slipped the 45s into a sleeve designed by our roadie and which was printed for free by a fan who worked at the Ginny’s in Dobie Mall. This is a true facsimile production in glorious low-fi; not remastered or recorded or sweetened in any way. This was the first punk single to emerge from the Austin, Texas scene and it helped put Austin on the map. We headed off to NYC to conquer the world from the stages of CBGB, Max’s Kansas City, Hurrah’s, etc. and crisscrossed the USA in shitty vans, playing in the midwest, Deep South, Oklahoma, LA, and every bar and dive across Texas who was brave enough to take a chance on a loud glorified garage band from Austin, Texas. OK. so we didn’t conquer the world. Like a dog catching a car, what are you gonna do next? So there you go. Last Laugh plans to release our big hit, our terrifying albatross, our “Stairway to Heaven,” —- “Cheap Girl” — next. Stay tuned.
Last Laugh, based in Brooklyn, NY, where a lot of other cool stuff comes from, also does some contemporary bands, including the totally rocking new release “Yeah Buddy” from the band Liquor Store. Some of the tracks are reminiscent of early New York Dolls. And what great cover art. {see above}
Order your copy of “Earthquake Shake” here, just in time for Xmas.
Filed under MY FAMOUS BAND, THE SKUNKS, politics
