Slept late, didn't wake up until 7.30a. Got up by 8, checked email, got a shower and headed to Lawrence. Stopped at the Farmers' Market to pick up the bagel order; offically sold VerminusRex out. Wandered through the vendors, then headed over to Brits and Au Marche. Picked up a few things. Daw a Kangol-style Guinness hat and Guinness slippers. Maybe another day (hat did look goood, though).

Met Fireguarder at Lawrence Remedial Hospital where she and I discussed plans for printing the Nominee Certificates and winner cards for Anticipation, then took her along to Wheat State for the KanPoly meetup. A good crowd, including 5Rings and Tensegrity, plus some KC people who came up after attending the KCPoly Munch a few times. Good conversation, good pizza, good times.

Dropped Fireguarder at home, then took the back road to KC (no sign of whether the Water Department checked out the broken cutoff valve; we'll have to call them Monday to find out what's going on). After some down time, Rohanna, NPulsifer and I went to Grinders to see Brewer and Shipley and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. It was a lovely evening, and the bands were both good (though Shipley was in less than perfect vocal form; on the other hand, when you've been doing it for 41 years, an off night is to be expected occasionally). After their set, the Daredevils hit the stage and kicked ass. Fronted by three of the five original members (John Dilllon, Steve Cash and Michael "Supe" Granda), they put on a solid 90 minute show, covering the hits while digging reasonably deep into their catalog. Good stuff, indeed.

I should be in bed, since I want to be up by 8a (CDT) to watch Tom Watson attempt to win his sixth British Open tomorrow (today), but I wanted to leave you with my favorite OMD* cut, from their first album, which they did not perform tonight. If there were any justice (or musical sense) in the statehouse, it would be the Missouri State Anthem. Maybe next time.







*No, not Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark. Pay attention

When I left for work this morning, the plumbers, backhoe people and whoever else had arrived with their implements of destruction, and were working on figuring out exactly where the various gas, fiber and other lines were. The concensus was they'd have to tear out a chunk of sidewalk. At 5p, just as I was getting ready to leave, Dragonet called to say they were getting ready to turn off the water to do the connecting, and it would take an hour or so. I headed oout sortly thereafter, and pulled up in front of the house and headed for the door, to be greeted by those very special words, "We have a problem."

Turns out that when they went to turn the water off, the valve was so old and deteriorated that it was no longer functional. The plumber had called the city, who is going to send an inspector tomorrow morning to confirm that the valve is dead and will have to be replaced (by the city; it's theirs). Until that happens, we have some equipment parked in the back corner of the driveway and a big hole in the front yard. Joy. At least we still have water. So far. And there's no rain in the forecast for the next several days. So far.

I got home last night to find the yard and street decorated with a series of yellow, orange and pink dots and dashes. No, it wasn't grafitti from the Morse gang, it was in preparation for today's assault on the yard and basement by the plumbers. In a better world than this, it would be done by the end of the day, but I ain't betting on it. Thanks again to those who have helped us out. It is greatly appreciated. And on to the tunes:


1) Bodysnatchers (Live @ Jools Holland 020108), Radiohead

2) Go Amanda, Steve Earle

3) Heart Of Gold. Neil Young & Crazy Horse (Aichken Taiikukan, Nagoya, Japan 3/3/76)

4) Build It Up, The Byrds

5) You Don't Know Me At All, Bettye LaVette

6) Eulogy, Tool

7) You Can't Resist It, Lyle Lovett

8) School Blood, King Black Acid

9) Streets Of London, Anti-Nowhere League*

10) Gates Of Steel, Devo


And the vigorish:

11) Merry Christmas Emily (Album Version), Cracker

12) Motorcycle Mama, Neil Young

13) Ya Rayah, Rachid Taha



Another busy weekend on tap: tomorrow morning we head to Lawrence for a bagel fix and the Kanpoly lunch meeting at WheatState Pizza. In the evening, Dragonet will be dropping in on a birthday party, whilst Rohanna, NPulsifer and I will head to Grinder's to flash back to the '70s with the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Brewer and Shipley. Sunday I am sending the ladies to see "Harry Potter and the Halfwit Prince." Since I am reliably informed there will be no hot Bellatrix Strange-on-Hermione action, I shall remain in the belfry, doing something relaxing. Oh, and mowing the lawn will happen, probably tonight. We have a couple-three nice (mid-70s for the high) days happening here, and it needs to be done. Hope everyone else has a good time or three planned.


*Yes, a punk cover of the Ralph McTell classic.

My long international nightmare has finished. The Anticipation Souvenir Book was uploaded* to the ftp site this morning, and with a couple of final, minor tweaks** is now on its way to the printer. The cover was sent along earlier this evening.

I have to say I had no fucking clue whatsoever just how big a kidneystone this was going to be. Of course, the fact that I couldn't read half of it didn't help any (my French is limited to oui, non, sacre merde et quel fromage, and the occasional, wistful, "voulez vous couchez avec moi?"). I was certainly aware of the, shall we say, malleability of deadlines in producing such items, having done almost half of ConQuesT's 40 program books, but damn, people! Despite all the chaos, the book was delivered to the printer on time, and should be waiting for the lucky attendees when they arrive.

Is it perfect? Oh hellz no. But I do think it will match up well with recent souvenir books. I do have to say I am eternally grateful that the program participant bios were moved to the Convention Guide. The Souvenir Book wound up at 168 pages, and even with taking chainsaws to the submitted bios (and, of course, the people with the least to recommend themselves have the longest, most turgid bios), they would have easily added another 100 pages to the finished product.

In other duties finished news, today was the memorial service for long-time KaCSFFS member Julie Hise, who died of a rare form of cancer on June 27th. When I saw her at ConQuesT, her first words to me were "I want you to do the eulogy." So I was up until 2a this morning working on that once the final corrections to the Souvenir book were made. After re-writing the same sentence three times, I decided that some sleep would be a good thing, and got back up at 8.30 to finish it.

There was a very large and diverse crowd, including present and former club members, along with co-workers of Julie's from UMKC. I got through it without breaking down, though it was close a couple of times, and her father, aunt and brothers all thanked me for a job well done, as did her husband, my friend Bob Hise. I am glad people think I do this well, but it's not something I'd want to make a habit of.

( Here's the text )

Following the part when people came up to share their stories of Julie, we played "When I Go," by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. Here's a live performance of this powerful song.







Don't know what I'm going to do toomorrow, with no pressing items on the agenda for the first time since May. I'mm sure I'll think of something.


*Sadly, not uplifed, otherwise it could have bee multilingual without human intercession

**René was kind enough to call me this evening to let me know he had made changes to the book, and as I imagined some horrible error I had made, he told me the printer had asked us to add four pages to finish out the last signature, so he'd put four pages headed "Autographs" at the end. Very sweet of him to let me know, but I nearly had heart failure

Yes, I have finally emerged from the madness of laying out the Anticipation Souvenir Book. Who knows, might even get some sleep eventually. For now, some songs:


1) Eight Days A Week, The Beatles

2) Solitude Tide, Blind Spectator

3) Happy, The Wrens

4) little stone, NICO

5) Custard Pie, Led Zeppelin

6) Feeling Yourself Disintegrate, The Flaming Lips

7) Swir, Swir Oberek, Brave Combo

8) Walking On The Water, Indian Jewelry

9) Chapter 6, David Clemmer

10) Just My Imagination, Donald Byrd


More!


11) Radio Days, World Party

12) Unbeliever, Matmos

13) Fine, A Beautiful Machine


I would also like to thank everyone who responded to Dragonet's post earlier this week (especially smofbabe and parrismcb for spreading the word). I am stunned by the response, and eternally grateful. Thank you, thank you all.

Visitation and memorial services for Julie Hise will be held on Sunday, July 12, 2009, at the Westport Presbyterian Church at 201 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO. The visitation will begin at 1:30 PM, and the services will be held at 3:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, donations to the St. Luke's Hospice (St. Luke's Hospital Foundation (Hospice Donation), 4225 Baltimore Ave., Kansas City, MO 64111) would be greatly appreciated.

It will be my sad duty to preside at the service, and deliver the eulogy, which will include an opportunity for people to share their memories of Julie. Any reader who would like to have a message read at that time can send it to me through the "Private Message" button on my user profile page here, or send it directly to me at dr-paisley at kc dot rr dot com.

Julie Hise, long-time Kansas City fan and co-chair of ConQuesT 23 (the Roman Decadance ConQuesT), died this morning after a brief but intense struggle with a rare (800 cases a year) and virulent form of endocrine system cancer. She was 47.

Julie was a wonderful witty, snarky force of nature. No matter the situation, she had a series of barbed responses swaiting. When I heard she and her husband Bob were in the Con Suite at ConQuesT Saturday evening, i rushed there. She greeted me, gave me a hug, and the first words she said were "I want you to do my eulogy." once again, the diwoside of spending the $15 for a Universal Life Church ministerial grant came backk to bite me in the ass. I had no choice but to say yes. Then she offered me some wine she and Bob had brought back from their trip to her old stomping grounds in West Virginia.

There's a tribute site here:

http://www.w2digitaldesign.com/friendsofjulie/julieALIPmain.html

Anyone with pics of Julie should contact them. The details of her memorial service are being worked out; as soon as I know them they will be posted here and elsewhere. If anyone reading this is unable to attend the service but has a memory they would like to share, please contact me at dr.paisley at kc dot rr dot com.

farewell, dear friend. I won't pretend to believe there's some afterlife where we'll meet again, since you didn't believe in such things either. But I will keep you in my memory as long as I can.

Hitler has font problems, via Pandagon.









Truer words, people.

In other news, the a/c unit is back in the window downstairs, and works!

http://sarahtales.livejournal.com/148663.html

The ever-proseltyzing Scalzi's current "Big Idea" post is from Sarah Rees Brennan, concerning her book The Demon's Lexicon.* Her description of writing from the point of view of "That Guy**" was quite intriguing, and I checked out her lj. The link above is to a story (or part of one) concerning one of the minor characters in the book, and is just amazing. One of the best pieces of short fiction I have read in quite a while, and it has definitely whet my appetite for the novel.

go. Read. Now. Just amazing. Must have this book. Anyone who happens to be in Ireland and finds a copy in their luggage when they get home will have my heartfelt thanks, at the very least.


*Yes, the cover made me think "oh noes, Sparkly Vampire Romance!," but her post quickly disabused me of that notion.

**Examples of "That Guy" she offers include Heathcliff and Mr. Rochester, complete with excellent dialogue between characters and the reader.

After signing off, I went downstairs, got dressed and then down to the first floor to put on my shoes and head to work. I went to get some change from the bowl on the side table in the living room, and it was missing. That's when I noticed the air conditioner was not in the window, and the front doors were wide open. I shut the door, went back upstairs and called Dragonet, who was over at John's, then called the police, Margene and work.

After grabbing the change bowl, the intruder came up to the 2nd floor and boosted Dragonet's laptop, carefully disconnecting everything from it first. While I obviously don't know for certain, I think that was when I shut down up here and headed down, because nothing else appears to be missing, and our camera was sitting out in the open by her desk. All of Ro's stuff was untouched, and my wallet, which was on the bookcase by the front door, was there with everything still in it.

Had enough now, really.

It's been in the upper 90s all week here, and while the belfry has an air conditioner and a fan, by the time I get home from work they are barely able to keep the temperature a few degrees lower inside than outside. Work on the Souvenir Book progresses. Wait, is that music I hear?


1) One hundred years, The Cure (Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia)

2) Morning Bell/Amnesiac, Radiohead

3) The Times They Are A-Changin', The Byrds

4) You're So Great, Dreamboy

5) Disintegration, The Cure (the secret gig)

6) Hot Rich Girls Dropped In A Grange (Gwen Stefani vs. Snoop Dogg vs. ZZ Top), Torero

7) Naive Melody, Gunnar Madsen

8) Crazy (Live Lounge 30/3/06), The Kooks

9) The Floppy Boot Stomp, Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band

10) The Last Saskatchewan Pirate, Arrogant Worms


And then these happened:


11) Borderline (8-bit mix), Brad Sucks

12) Crosseyed And Painless (Talking Heads Cover), Brazilian Girls

13) No Story, Honey For Petzi


and off we go. 85˚ out already. Joy.

During the 2:30:14 phone conference between myself, the editor and the division head concerning the Anticipation Souvenir Book, the celebrity deaths today came up. I stated that while Farrah Fawcett would be included in the "In Memoriam*" list in the book, Michael Jackson would not. One of the others asked why, and I pointed out that Farrah had credits in the genre ("Logan's Run," "Saturn III"), as well as "Charlie's Angels" for a very broad definition of "fantasy." The editor metioned the Moonwalk, and I said that didn't qualify, and neither did Mr. Jackson's general domination of the category of Freakazoid.

My list, my rules. And Bettie Page and Spacebat will be on the list.


*Yes, "memoriam" is spelled with an "a," not a "u," no matter how many times it's misspelled everywhere else.

Happy birthday to joyflgrrl! Hope it's been a good one.

To joyflgrrl! May your natality be loaded with fun, and the coming year be full of goodness.

Birthday greetings to elaine_brennan. May the day be full of fun and surprises, and the coming year bring you the good things you so richly deserve, darlin'.

Another long week. Finally got all the Mo Dept of Natual Resources signs done and on the truck back to Jeff City, so work is back to its former pretty much nonexistent level of activity. One of my co-workers will be gone for a couple of months after yet another operation on the hole in her leg where they fixed her torn Achilles tendon last winter, so more stuff for me to do, though not more hours. And my friend with the terminal cancer is on her way down, sleeping 16-18 hours a day. So far only occasional pain, whi is being managed, though that doesn't help her coherenece when she is awake. Her husband has been and continues to be an incredible rock through all of this hell. I am slowly gathering information for her eulogy, which I am not looking forward to giving. Even diinner last night was a bit melancholy; 53 or so people showed up to say goodby to Star and Pooch, who are off to conquer Washington, D.C. Was fun to see all those people, and re-connect with some friends I hadn't seen in a long time.

Added to all this is the Anticipation souvenir book, which is just full of the sort of chaos I expected it to be. And now, some popular tunes.


1) Loveology, Regina Spektor

2) PLAZTIK, DOCKTA VALKUS

3) Tent, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

4) 540 Groove, Rubblebucket Orchestra

5) I'll Get You, The Beatles

6) Springtime Can Kill You, Jolie Holland

7) Golden Slumbers, The Beatles

8) Conditioned Soul, Eurythmics

9) Dustin' off the Bass, Rob Wasserman

10) A Case Of Coors Beer, Austin Lounge Lizards


And since too much is not enough:


11) Big Mistake, Tim Fite

12) Just a Crush, Pine Box Boys

13) Sultans Of Swing, Dire Straits


Tonight it's the Greg Brown concert (going with Dragonet, athenaartemis, Star Straf, Npulsifer and Gisele), tomorrow the KaCSFFS picnic and Sunday morning church to see athenartemis preach. I must love the kid, she's got the 9a slot.

15 Albums That Stuck With Me/Made an Impact (ganked from flemco)


1) Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles

2) Tonight's The Night, Neil Young

3) The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse, Bonzo Dog Band

4) How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All, Firesign Theater*

5) Born to Laugh at Tornadoes, Was/Not Was

6) Flood, They Might Be Giants

7) AM/FM, George Carlin

8) The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and The Holy Grail

9) The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd, Original Cast Recording**

10) Whipped Cream and Other Delights, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass***

11) Sticky Fingers, The Rolling Stones

12) Making Movies, Dire Straits

13) Stay Awake, Various Artists

14) Waiting for Columbus, Little Feat

15) Kiko, Los Lobos


and a couple more, to make it prime


16) The Confessions of St. Ace, John Wesley Harding

17) Come Away with Me, Norah Jones****


Go ahead, share with us.

And speaking of PJ Harvey (see below), did anyone else catch her on Letterman tonight? Not gonna see that on Conan or Leno, fer damn sure.



* Part of a very special evening that involved a field trip to the frontal lobes, two viewings of CE3K and playing the six sides of the first four Firesign Theater albums that form a coherent narrative (for extremely interesting values of "coherent" and "narrative") two days before Christmas 1977. Dragonet and I got to tell Phil Proctor about it at Minnecon many years later. He was amused.

** This was in my parent's record collection (and I would have sworn I had listened to it in our Prairie Village house, but it didn't come out until we'd moved to Topeka), and even at a young age, I identified with poor oppressed Cocky in his battle against Sir.


*** Flemco thinks Enya was hardcore. Hah! Hardcore is Herb smashing his trumpet at the end of each and every show, motherfucker! Where do you think Pete Townshend got the idea?

**** For reasons I choose not to explicate, but remember very, very well indeed.

I would love to know how this came about. Pavarotti looks like the anamatronic Lou Reed in the video from the '80s where "he" tears his own skin off.










Like I said, Luci looks like this:






Oops! Forgot, ganked from theinferior4

"... tell you how I know.
Read it in the papers, fifteen years ago.
We're all riding rocket ships, and talking with our minds.
Wearing turquoise jewelry, and standing in soup lines.
We are standing in soup lines."
--John Prine, "Living in the Future"


But this is just amazing.

Ganked from flemco.

After a trip to the far western reaches of the metroplex, I hae a very large and heavy tv in my office again (thanks to Seantaclaus and friends for the TV, and NPulsifer for the heavy lifting). It works. Good.

On the other hand, the Water Department showed up yesterday to install one of their spiffy new meter thingies that allow them to read the meter from their fortified bunker or something, only to discover that the pipe going into the meter was not so good. So they called the city, who sent out a code inspector, who concurred the pipe was fragile and close to the edge (though not telling any tales from the topographic ocean, alas), and it will need to be replaced by a real plumber in 30 days.

Tired. Really tired. Looking for surcease in my music.



1) Run To Your Grave, The Mae Shi

2) Inside Outsider, Atmosphere

3) Horse to Water, R.E.M.

4) None Shall Pass (Clean), Aesop Rock

5) Ramshackle, Beck

6) Closing Time, Lyle Lovett (Live In Texas)

7) Flying Sorcery, Al Stewart

8) Interlude A La El Hopo, Jamming With Edward

9) International Airport, Dump

10) Unnamed, Absinthe Minds


Obligatory extra tracks:


11) My Man My Bomb, team9 vs. Stereogum

12) Hearts Of Stone, Los Lobos

13) Santa God, Pearl Jam


The highlight of the weekend will be a party tomorrow for Helen Harmony, Marlin's mother who is turning 100. Marlin is my mother's second husband, and since they got married when I was 27, "stepfather" doesn't really seem appropriate, somehow. A new linguistic need is identified.

And now, work. Another long day of making signs for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. I guess they are finishing off their budget for this fiscal year, because we've got 50 or 60 signs left to mount fo them. Katy trail, War of Treason in Defense of Slavery sites, history of the state capitol and other categories I don't remember. Definitely a vicodin night tonight.