Almost an update!

Hi there, y'all! After a long summer hiatus, this almost counts as an update! I just rock, no? ^_^

As you can see, I've got a much different look in mind for the site...gone are the garish colors & the, as my brother put it, "very 80s" graphics. Right now, it's not quite done—I'm still throwing together the content. However, I've got something brewing which just can't wait!

I'm looking to relocate to the Madison, Wisconsin, area sometime around the beginning of 2002 & I am searching for a job up there. So, while you're here, check out my resumé & look around the old site so you can see what I can accomplish when I set my mind to it. Then hire me!

If you're still not convinced, come back in a week or so when I'll have all the new content for the updated site ready. What can you expect? Well, there'll be a little run down on how I spent my summer vacation, some ruminations inspired by my recent trip to Dragon*Con, your chance to grade me like a piece of meat, a whole bunch of cool links, plus observations from Carrollton, GA...the ragged edge of civilization!

Ta^2 for now! See y'all real soon! ^_^

Now I am somebody!

Okay, it's not really that exciting to anybody except me: glassrope's made it onto Google, Yahoo! & AltaVista. Hell, yes! This rocks! Honestly, I feel like Steve Martin in The Jerk, when he gets his name in the phonebook! All day I've been wandering around singing to myself: "I'm picking out a thermos for you!"

Oh well…simple minds, simple pleasures, no? ^_^

In other site-related news, my fledgling connect page has a new addition. Yup, in order to be multi-interconnective, I've hopped over & gotten myself a Yahoo! Instant Messenger ID as well. So, now instant communication with me can occur in three separate forms. Feel free to utilize them, okay?

Some cool links & new glassrope stuff…

• First things first: my connect page is up! What's on it? Well, I've got a nifty little guestbook, plus my email address, ICQ # and AOL (blecch!) Instant Messenger handle. Why? Because I enjoy talking to people. So, feel free to give me your opinions of the site (be kind…& if you can't be kind, at least be tactful) or just to get in contact with me, 'kay?

• So, I get home from work on Monday & waiting for me on AIM is a message that, surprisingly, is not a solicitation for porn. Instead, it's from Cleo's Apartment, an unsigned band out of Des Moines, Iowa, asking me to check out their tunes. I did, & they're pretty good in a spacy, jazzy, smart & hip-hop kinda way.

• Are you one of those borderline obssessive individuals who judges a movie more by its continuity than anything else? I am, sometimes, & this page caters to such people…caters to us with a vengeance.

• Personally, I'm a technophile. I walk around most of the day vaguely disappointed that here it is the year 2001 & I have no flying car & am not hanging out on a space station. However, every now & again something comes along that makes me think I might not be as far away from meeting George Jetson as I think.

• On a final, serious note, the folks over at The Morning News are, apparently, going through a rough time. For those of you who don't know, TMN is one of the finest digests of smart, often (but not exclusively) web-related news around. So drop by, join the update mailing list and make sure you wish Bill a heartfelt "Get well soon."

EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! OKGO GETS SIGNED!

Well, it's just been a banner day for updates! I get home from work & check my email & find out that OKGo, my current favorite band, got signed by Capitol Records. Sure, some guys like Indie Rock Pete'll say they sold out, but Damian Kulash, OKGo's lead singer, sure sounded pretty happy about it!

If you're looking for the other two updates I've done today, just scroll down a bit, then scroll up a bit! ^_^

EXTRA! EXTRA! PAC MAN BLOWN AWAY BY RAMBO!

DOH! Man! I can't believe I forgot this one that remarcable sent me. The touching story of a music fan & what he's gotta do to get to a concert. Considering the fact that he lives in just about every Atari 2600 game ever made, that's quite alot! Awesome @#$%ing soundtrack!

If you're looking for my regular update, just scroll down a bit. ^_^

Take care y'all!

Some entertainment + a twitch update…

• Are y'all into puzzles? Normally, I'm not…but the investigation of Evan Chan's death has me completely engrossed.

• I'm not much into TV, or dictators, but the folks at smalltime industries have come up with an awesome little time-waster. BTW, I stumped it with the late Merritt Buttrick's character Johnny Slash from the less-than-hit '80s sit-com Square Pegs.

• twitch news: Well, my monitor has arrived, so I'm much happier & much more likely to update on a regular basis. Now I just need to work on getting a new computer, which should happen shortly after the government gives me back the money they've so kindly held for me…without paying me interest.

"So," I hear y'all ask, "twitch, tell us…does that mean we can expect an update this weekend?" Nope. I'm off to Aiken again, this time to play a little Mage Knight &, hopefully, a little more Last Blade 2. However, I will be home on Sunday, so y'all could expect a little something up here then.

Believe it or not, I'm making friends on the web! Weird, 'tis true & 'tis true 'tis weird, but I'm kinda happy about it. So, if you wanna, drop by & see some personal pages by mcfreak66 & AstroChick420. Sign their guestbooks, but be nice—these folks are my friends!

Y'all have great weekends! ^_^

NEWS FLASH…

This just in! My buddy remarcable got his car stuck in a ditch this evening! "So what!?" you say? Well, he wrote a pretty funny narrative about it, that's what.

I am, I am Superman…

I've been sorta depressed lately (hence, no updates), & I'm seriously considering a career change. So you can bet that when remarcable sent me this link, I started getting my resume together. ^_^

twitch news…

I know, I know…I'm slack & haven't updated since last Wednesday. But I can explain…

Dial-up access really sucked for me, so I signed up for some speedy cable access. This, of course, meant getting cable TV, which in turn meant that my old TV had to go, because…well, it sucked. So Thursday afternoon, my usual update time, was spent waiting for the cable guy to arrive (which took for@#$%ing ever, I tell you!), then going out to get a new TV, then…well, watching it. So, no update.

Friday was the day for the internet access installation. This didn't take as much time as the TV installation, but I was hampered by the fact that my only monitor at home is now a 14" Magnavox which only supports a 640x480 pixel resolution! So, I couldn't even LOOK at my own page, much less update it very well. Plus, I've never had high-speed internet at home, so I got kinda caught up in it. Luckily, my new monitor is on it's way, so I should be fully up & running very, very soon!

Mini-monitor news…

Speaking of small monitors, I only found two sites that translate back into the admittedly anachronistic 640x480 size, & I wanted to send out my congratulations to both the designers for setting up such versatile pages:

• waferbaby: daniel just @#$%in' rocks anyway. Clean layout, frequent updates, awesome content. This is the Platonic ideal of a blog to which all lesser blogs (for instance, mine!) merely aspire.

• Fontalicious Fonts: Ben Balvanz consistently makes the hippest fonts on the web, & does it all because he loves it! Look around on his page…no ads, & no fee for his work! & his use of bright, websafe colors definitely influenced me here!

Creations & contortions…

• Wow! This is a brilliant idea. I wish I'd thought of it.

• This week The New Yorker features a neat photo of an old guy driving a railroad spike up his nose. The photo was taken by Joel-Peter Witkin, who I'd never heard of but who is, apparently, everywhere.

• House of Prayer teen says "Honey, I'm leaving you for another family." I say "Right on!"

• This actually affected my life yesterday, as I live in Carrollton & work at Tanner Medical Center. If you were driving that red pick-up: suck it up coward—turn yourself in.

• Trying really, really hard to end on an up note: this is just @#$%ing hilarious.

The prodigal artist returns!

One of my favorite sites on the whole, wide web is explodingdog. Sam, the artist, has been M.I.A. for about a month. Sometime after I went offline yesterday, he updated. So, if you haven't already, go check his new stuff out. And if you've never been, look around through the archives. It's beautiful, I promise.

It's pissing rain & the rent is due…

• Do y'all want one? I know I do. However, 3,200 euros translates to $2,871 and I don't own anything worth that much.

• First their parents beat 'em up, then Georgia state employees take a couple whacks: I wonder, WTF do these poor House of Prayer kids think of the world?

• Man, & I thought I was all about the garish colors! Look around, though—there's lots of very good info here.

• Beware the robots!

• Thank you, Modern Humorist, for keeping this tired joke alive for just one more @#$%in' day.

• Mike Doughty, of the now defunct Soul Coughing, is going out on tour. Why? I dunno. Why don't you ask him?

Art & cats, fairies & T-shirts, assorted gibberish…

• Generally I try not to rip links off of other sites, but this is simply too beautiful not to point out.

• "See, our God comes before our kids," so says The House of Prayer. Sure, omniscient, omnibenevolent, omnipresent, omnipotent beings are much more important than real, live, albeit limited, children. And if the tooth fairy wants to kick my cat…well, I guess I'd let her.

• Speaking of kicking cats, that's apparently not normal, y'know?

• Furi-Furi are officially my heroes. If you speak or read Japanese, make sure you check out their T-shirt shop. Then, do me a favor & ask them how much to ship some of the long-sleeved shirts to the U.S., then tell me, okay?

• glassrope news: Every now & again, I run a Google search for "glassrope," just to see what comes up. This is, by far, the most unusual thing yet. Can anybody at all tell me WTF this is all about?

Putting the ROCK in 'Geek Rock'…

They Might Be Giants with OKGo
The Roxy • Atlanta, GA
Wednesday, March 28, 2001

They Might Be Giants have always been synonymous with quirky, eclectic rock & roll. From their origins as a couple of guys named John who played accordion & guitar to a canned rhythm track, all the way through to their current live incarnation as a 5-piece (2 guys named John + 3 guys named Dan), TMBG's music has always promised generally upbeat rhythms which contrast nicely with their imagery dependent, sometimes obscure & frequently disturbing lyrics. Going to a TMBG concert, you would expect to see two of the smartest, strangest songwriters active today soaking up the adulation of their admittedly geeky fans. And to some extent, you'd be right.

Except you'd be missing the fact that these guys can really @#$%ing rock!

In the studio, They Might Be Giants are consummate craftsmen, layering in various instruments to fill out their sound. Put them on-stage & it all boils down to rock & roll. All of their songs took on an amazing, edgy quality that I hadn't expected. Yes, we still had the upbeat rhythms, the idiosyncratic lyrics, the accordion—all the trappings of extraordinary geek rock. But add to that a much more frantic pace & overdriven guitar and you'd be hard pressed to find any geeks on-stage. That is, until you looked at them.

Now, that's not to say that TMBG's stage show lacked at all—quite the contrary, in fact. The lighting was good & effective. But John Linnell (the accordion playing John; the little one with the longish hair) has won a prize in my book for being the strangest looking man in rock & roll. This guy can't weigh more than 120 lbs. Even when he's playing the accordion, he slouches. He sings with his head cocked at an angle, rolls his eyes expressively and seriously reminds me of Tom Waits, if he decided to sing AND reprise his Renfield role at the same time. He insisted that people in Atlanta must be as sick of hearing their city referred to as "Hotlanta" as New Yorkers are of hearing that city referred to as "The Big Apple." So he decided to call Atlanta "The Big Apple."

And John Flansburgh (the guitar playing John; the big one with glasses) simply couldn't stand still. He played his guitar behind his back, he rolled around on the floor, he kicked, he leapt like Eddie Van Halen before the much needed hip replacement. He was also responsible for most of the between song patter, proving himself to be a witty & engaging MC. Did I say MC? Scratch that…he proved himself to be a witty & engaging frontman/rockstar. However, there's something incongruous about a tall, heavyset guy with short hair & specs getting the role of rockstar/guitargod dead on perfect. I found myself laughing a lot: not at Linnell, who looked like he was into it; not at Flansburgh, who looked like he was having a good time, or even at the incongruity I've already mentioned. I was laughing because I was having FUN, a quality which often seems to be lacking at rock concerts.

So, besides edgy & fun, how was the music? In a word: awesome. The Three Dans (on guitar, bass & drums) are an amazing bunch of musicians, interpreting the entire gamut of TMBG songs with a skill & respect that belies the fact that they are, essentially, backing musicians. If I didn't know any better, I'd think they'd been an integral part of the band from the beginning. On TMBG's older stuff like "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," "Particle Man," "They Might Be Giants," "Angel," "Ana Ng," "Meet James Ensor" & "Birdhouse In Your Soul," they provided musical interpretations that differed enough to keep the music fresh & the audience aware that they were seeing a live show, not just listening to the album at home, but didn't differ so much that longtime fans would feel alienated. On more recent stuff like "She's Actual Size," "Dr. Worm," "I've Got a Fang," "Robot Parade" and "Cyclops Rock," the band was tight without being oppressively so. These are, after all, the songs written since TMBG began touring as a full band, instead of just two guys & a drum machine. All of these songs went off without a hitch, blending the practiced chops of a bunch of musicians who've been playing together for quite some time with the spontaneity of people who still really enjoy what they're doing.

Finally, the crowd. TMBG fans defy any easy, stereotypical description. I saw punks at this show. I saw the hairlines & cellulite that signify rapidly encroaching middle age. I saw tragically hip kids, young professionals out for a night &, no kidding, people there with their teenagers. EVERYbody had a good time, nobody got killed or stomped on & the ringing in my ears that usually plagues me when I leave a concert was gone by the time I crashed for the night. All in all, a good night & a great concert that I can highly recommend to those who like their rock smart & their shows polished, but not without surprises.

OKGo: What a magic combination…

Speaking of surprises, the big surprise of the evening was OKGo, TMBG's opening act. How to describe these guys? Well, I suppose if you took The Kinks & bred them with The Who, took the offspring & raised them on Queen, then taught them how to approximate every genre of music from doo-wop to metal, rap to punk, Dixieland to folk, & got them to cut an album with Beck sitting in & Prince producing, you'd have a pretty accurate idea of what OKGo sounds like. But it still doesn't approximate what these guys are like live.

Hailing from post-Smashing Pumpkins Chicago, OKGo (pronounced just like it looks: "Okay Go") are the most exciting new band I've encountered in a long, long time. Their influences are unabashedly eclectic, their chops are excellent, their energy is high & their sense of humor is ironic & earnest by turns. Honestly, I viewed the thought of the opening act for They Might Be Giants with a bit of trepidation—who could possibly serve to warm up a TMBG crowd? OKGo were perfect: just as smart & talented, but coming from a different musical space entirely. Highlights of their performance included their cover of "Crimson & Clover," "Heavy Metal High-School" (their improv instrumental while Damian, the lead singer/guitarist changed a string), the incredibly long-titled song about "the train & the symphony," "We Dug a Hole," "It's Tough To Have a Crush When the Boy Doesn't Feel the Same Way as You" and their cover of "Kiss Me, Son of God" by, who else, They Might Be Giants. If you go to see OKGo, & I strongly urge you to, encourage the guys to do their rap act for you: I promise you, you'll like it. Also, pick up their CD single, on sale at the T-shirt stand. It's only $3, & worth twice that, easy.

Hodge podge o' stuff…

• Ray Larabie adds to his ever-growing list of freebie fonts for you with Pakenham!

• Strength Industrie did an awesome little Flash site for OKGo (who opened up for They Might Be Giants on Wednesday, as you'd know if you'd read my review), but their site isn't even up yet. Must be nice to get work just like that!

• In the continuing saga of The House of Prayer, we find out that, while Georgia's pretty redneck, Alabama's even more so!

• Largo over at MegaTokyo turned me on to this site. Honestly, I know next to nothing about current games, but there's some exquisite work going on here!

• And, while it ain't all about me, here's a bit more personal news. I'm not adverse to updating on the weekends, but this weekend I'm headed to Aiken, South Carolina, to play a little Last Blade 2 & pick up my new 12" Mandarin Spawn! So unless something weird happens, don't expect anything new until Monday. Have a good weekend! And let me know how the first week's gone, 'kay? Ta^2!

What's another word for euphemism?

• Not sure what you should say? Check out this handy euphemism generator!

• Daniel over at waferbaby has posted a new, really neat pixhell: Zeldman vs. Tycho.

• *sigh* Atlanta is a great city which, to its credit, is rapidly outgrowing the typical, Southern stereotypes. However, to its detriment, it's still the @#$%ing buckle of the Bible Belt.

• In personal news, I'm going to see They Might Be Giants at the Roxy this evening. The last time I went down into Buckhead to see a show, I didn't get in until 5 a.m. So, in all likelihood, I'll be sleeping tomorrow & won't update, but expect a concert review on Friday. And if you're going to see TMBG tonight, say "Hi" to me! I'll be the geeky guy with glasses. :-)

Random connections…

• Go make your own cartoons at toon-o-matic!

• J666 of mulletsgalore talks about…well, a bunch of stuff.

• Probably an old one, but I just found it: punks watch TVLand, too!

• In the "No Kidding" category: Americans are sleep deprived. Great, something else that'll keep me awake worrying.

Check for gills…

Before I even get my morning coffee, I discover a new episode (#8) of Shawks has been released! My Monday morning is definitely looking up!

A basic mission statement…

Glassrope is primarily an attempt to connect with other internet users through the media of art, thought & design. Through film reviews, poetry, visual art, critical essays, short fiction, creative writing, opinions, interesting website design & sharing links, bookmarks & favorites, I hope to find people of similar talents & interests and bring them together. Part online literary magazine, part blog, part news & reviews, Glassrope will constantly evolve to reflect what's happening on the web & what's happening to its contributors.

Right now, the list of contributors is limited to me, but by encouraging submissions from all & sundry, I hope to change that. Send me your submissions, please! Poetry, photography, website design, thoughts, stories, anything at all is welcome—you will retain sole copyrights to anything I post. I can't promise that I'll put it up, but if I decide not to I will at least tell you why.

Some other facts: I'm not a professional website designer, so Glassrope will become better as I learn more about designing for the web. Eventually, I'd like to make it much more interactive. Also, Glassrope is non-commercial—it does not exist to make money, but because it seems like a fun thing to do. That's it! Get in touch with me if you have any suggestions, questions, comments or submissions!

Thanks!

Whatever makes you happy…

Go. Get thee to a video store. Rent Happiness, by Todd Solondz. The same guy who brought you Welcome to the Dollhouse made this movie in 1998, but we've just found it on video. It's brilliant, beautiful, disturbing, weird & about as true as any movie can be without being a documentary or a dumb "derived from a true rumor" movie. Keep your eyes peeled for a full blown review in the features section shortly! Unrated & not for the faint of heart, so it probably won't be at Blockbuster. Go get it...really!