Here is my list of English musical acts from the last 30ish years that have had a significant influence on my life and continue to play vital roles in the way I dramatize my thoughts. (Even though The Beatles are further down the path than 30 years, they can go eat a bag of Dicks)

(in no particular order)

• Chumbawamba: Behave (from Shhh!)
• Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine: The Only Living Boy in New Cross (from 1992: The Love Album)
• Ride: Cool Your Boots (from Going Blank Again)
• Joy Division: Atmosphere (from Substance)
• James: Sometimes (Lester Piggot) (from Laid)
• Pulp: Like A Friend (from This is Hardcore)
• New Order: Ceremony (from Substance)
• Pink Floyd: The Final Cut (from The Final Cut)
• Porcupine Tree: Sentimental (from Fear of a Blank Planet)
• The Verve: Velvet Morning (from Urban Hymns)

(*special nod to Underworld)

A ballet may be wonderful to watch, even though you take nothing home with you (save for memories).  A recorded album may be listened to and enjoyed over and over again.   A painting may hang on one’s wall for years and eventually end up in a museum for millions to view and analyze.

Katie Paterson went to Iceland and recorded the sounds of glaciers… basically running water and ambient noise.  She then pressed the audio into ice records made out of glacial water.  They played as they melted, producing what sounds to me like running water turning into white noise.  I don’t mean to be cruel or over-critical, I respect the idea of the artwork.  So, I guess for me the question remains: is art worthwhile as simply an idea? I suppose if the entire event was captured in video and available to view on DVD, then a finished product it would be.

Ideas like this are brilliant, in my opinion.  Reminds me of Flaming Lips project album Zaireeka and subsequent boombox experiments.  However, listenability and usefulness after the fact is paramount to my personal definition of art.

Below you will find two of the best music videos ever created.

In The Defamation of Strickland Banks, Plan B tells the story of an aspiring actor who rises and falls in the eyes of his love.  Ok, not really.  He is a schmoozing celebrity who shuns the affections of a one-night-stand.  She cries rape and he is imprisoned.  Life on the inside is hard and some of the best tracks relay the scenes in which Banks struggles the most.

Overall, the story is interesting.  The tracks themselves are phenomenal and do not require each other to be thoroughly enjoyed.  Defamation is excellent.

and there was the dog looking at me with a blood mustache.

(Reuters) – A Michigan man credited his dog with saving his life by chewing off his diseased big toe as he lay passed out in a drunken stupor.

Jerry Douthett, 48, woke up on a Saturday night in late July in his Rockford, Michigan home to find his Jack Russell Terrier, Kiko, had gnawed off his right big toe.

“The dog always lays with me on the bed,” said Douthett. “That night, I woke up and looked down at my foot, and it was wet. When I looked it was blood, and there was the dog looking at me with a blood mustache.”

Douthett’s wife, Rosee, rushed him to a hospital where doctors found he was suffering from Type 2 diabetes. His toe was badly infected and surgeons amputated the remainder of the digit.

Douthett’s wife, a registered nurse, had been urging him for weeks to have his infected toe examined by a doctor.

On the night Kiko ate his toe, Douthett said he had been out with his wife and drank about “six or seven beers” and a pair of giant margaritas “big enough to put goldfish in.”

“I was self-medicating at this point,” he said. “The moral of the story is that the dog saved my life, because otherwise I never would have gone in to see a doctor.”

The couple said they were amazed that Kiko appeared to know Douthett had an infection that needed treatment.

“He kind of chewed off the infected part and stopped at the good bone,” said Rosee. “We joked that we shouldn’t have had to pay the co-pay because he did half the job by chewing off half of the toe.”

~ § ~

That is one badass, sick mothereffin’ dog. And one incredibly stupid human. -RKU

As ashen as the world had become, I felt the same and probably looked it, too.

Recently, I had the chance to watch the movie.  Disappointment was as scarce as food.  IMDB and RottenTomatoes both offer a solid 75% rating, though I would give it another 10 points simply for sticking to the book.  Viggo rocked the post-apocalyptic casbah and the boy did no worse.  Effects were stunning, though minimalism really carried the entire story.

The only part of book and film I didn’t enjoy was the end… and that was because I wanted more.  Redbox or Netflix it.  This film will not get you laid, but it will make you cuddle your canned goods.

Band of Horses is the lover and the mother you wish you had and hopefully do.  Have a listen to the beauty that is the Horses.

Widmer Brothers' Reserve Limited Release #2 April 2010: Prickly Pear Braggot

Redhook 2010 Limited Release: 8-4-1 Expedition Ale

What we have here, folks, are a couple of delicious strong ales with a predominant honey flavor.  I haven’t tasted beers of this alcoholic caliber that didn’t give me the feeling I was chasing a shot of bourbon until now.  Smooth isn’t a good enough adjective to describe how easily I could get bent drinking these.  ~$10 per 22oz bottle will suffice to keep me out of the poorhouse and out of the gutter. Widmer’s selection comes in a nicely designed cardboard box, which makes you feel like you are getting a much nicer beer, though it really isn’t much different from Redhook’s (which is $2 less at Safeway).

If you have a chance to try either of these, I highly recommend it.  Cheers.