twist it 'round yo head, spin it like a helicopter

Doesn't look like anyone's having much fun out of this bunch. Poor Ben Stiller. Guess everyday can't be as much fun as Zoolander.

Just heard the news concerning Ali G tackling Pamela Anderson at her dog's ocean side wedding. And he came on shore via an inflatable turtle wearing a leather jacket and playing a keyboard. Amazing.

The Dead Prez are playing in Montpelier tomorrow night. Some good old conscious hip hop. Not sure if I'll cough up the 25 bucks. The Central Vermont scene is all sorts of blowing up. Positive Pie 2 is bringing it (Inspectah Deck), so is Langdon Street Cafe (my boys Toubab Krewe played both venues last week), as well as The Black Door. All three opened since I lived in the downtown. Jealous? Sure, but it's great to see things jumping at night. Holy jumping cats.

RIP

Bob Moog passed away two days ago. Never before has such a true engineer been a greater influence on the world of art. I had the opportunity to seen him twice. The first time was in 1995 at a Theremin workshop at RPI. A few buddies and I went to a viewing of Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey one evening. The next day we skipped classes and attended Circuits for Space Music: How to Design a Theremin. It was all beat-frequency osciallator circuit jargon and we weren't able to absorb any of it even though one of my compadres was soon to go to engineering school himself and the other was to attend school for math. But it was fun. At the end of the session we moved to the front of the classroom and asked Dr. Moog to autograph a Rentals cd jacket. He responded "They look like Kraftwerk."

The second time was in 2000 when I and a friend visiting me at college decided to track the man down. We spent an entire day searching for the good Dr throughout Asheville's River District. Near the end of the day we found his shop Big Briar in a non-descript metal building. We entered the door and just stood in the lobby. No one was there, no one came out. Afraid to snoop we decided to leave. While sitting in the car disgusted with ourselves we saw the white haired Dr. Moog leave the building and walk to his car. His vehicle was a crazily painted 4wd Toyota Tercel Wagon that had rainbows and clouds and other far out images all over it. In amazement we just sat not knowing what to do.

So I haven't really known him much, but from the ground breaking Switched On Bach to the hit making Good Vibrations to all that followed (Emerson Lake and Palmer, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, The Monkees, Yes, Devo, Stereolab, Stevie Wonder, Moog Cookbook, etc) the man that was 100% engineer revolutionized the world of music. For that I am grateful.

BONUS INFO: Have you ever wondered what's up with the Switched On Bach credit to Wendy (Walter) Carlos? Well it's just what you think. She transitioned in the early seventies (or you could say that she switched). Now that's the power of the Moog! W. Carlos is also credited with the music on Tron, The Shining, and A Clockwork Orange.

Pretty Wicket

Doing a search for Ewoks (yeah, I know) and I came across this amazing site. The things people do to dogs.

But this is nothing compared to yesterday's cryptozoology conversation and resultant trip to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization website. I have a coworker that is fascinated with this stuff. I have a hard time believing that enough people are worked up about Sasquatch to warrant monthly public expeditions across the country, but it happens.

The Comprehensive Field Database didn't show anything really exciting happening in Vermont (go figure), but I must say the 911 call from Washington State's Kitsap Peninsula in the 1990's is pretty crazy. It creeps me out actually.