Koleman Strumpf's Web Diversions
- Chapel Hill (my old home-town) music:
- Current faves:
Superchunk,
Southern Culture on the Skids,
Sorry About Dresden
- CH affiliated:
- The Mountain Goats:
John Darnielle (the man behind the MG's)
recently moved to Durham, NC! John's
songs are amazing--they unfold like
novels. Definitely see the MG's live,
since they only play at small clubs and
feature John's great banter.
BTW, I thought the MG's were cool with
file sharing based on
this
article, but I am not so sure based
on some additional conversations.
Anyway, there are nice links to live
shows streams for MG's (and tons of
other bands) at the
Internet
Archive Live Music Archive .
- The Magnetic Fields:
Stephin Merritt's main (?) band used to
be on CH's
Merge records
where they released the amazing 69 Love
Songs. They are now on Nonesuch and do
not seem to come around Chapel Hill
anymore. Sigh. Anyway, much like the
Mountain Goats the lyrics are amazing.
Last year I finally saw them in concert --
you should too!
- Spoon (from
Austin,TX) and The Arcade Fire (from Montreal).
Both are on
Merge records.
- Bright Eyes
is basically Conor Oberst, whose brother
is in CH's Sorry About Dresden (BTW, for
a group you have never heard of it is
amazing how often BE are featured in the
New York Times).
- The past: Archers of Loaf,
Squirrel Nut Zippers,
MayFlies USA,
Flat Duo Jets, June, ... :(
Cats Cradle:
Great place for shows. Sadly the Cradle's smaller cousin
Go! Studio
is no more.
- More local clubs
-
AMCH: Semi-official home of
alt.music.chapel-hill.
Here
is a related site.
- WXYC: UNC's college
(non-NPR) radio station. WXYC is one of the
best college radio stations I have heard (and also
apparently the first one on the Web).
- More music:
- Matador records
(The New Pornographers, Pavement, JSBX, Yo La Tengo, Cornelius, Cat Power, ...)
- Ninja tune (DJ Food, Coldcut, Amon Tobin. Kid Koala)
- Thrill Jockey records (Tortoise, Mouse on Mars)
- Astralwerks (Air, FatBoy
Slim, Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, ...). Lots of great streaming stuff :).
- Stereolab
(older site, may go down).
-
Massive Attack:
In 2003 they finally put out their fourth album, 100th Window. I saw
them at Rock Werchter
in Brussels (click on the icon below for the amazing festival line-up).
The vocals were, unfortunately, pretty weak. Hopefully they will make it
to the states so I can see them again. :)
Here are some more MA sites:
- DJ Shadow:
Another site which is
constantly updated with great downloads and reviews of summer
2002 tour (I saw him in Chicago)!
- Need web sites:
- Dan the Automator: producer behind Deltron 3030, Handsome
Boy Modeling School, the Gorrillaz, and many others.
- Rjd2: DJ Shadow, circa 2002.
-
Just getting into them:
- Sufjan Stevens:
Illinois(e) is an insanely great album.
- Jens Lekman:
"sample-happy Swedish singer-songwriter with the
boyfriendable baritone" (Pitchfork).
His take on P2P:
"You can download my entire records with filesharing
programs, I don't mind that but if you like my music
please support me - buy my records, come to my shows
or make a Paypal donation to jens@srvice.com."
I am seeing him in Dublin in May 2008.
- John Vanderslice:
power pop music + SF indie producer + former front-man for
MK Ultra.
Also runs the awesome
tiny telephone site.
- Aimee Mann:
not that 'til tuesday nonsense
- Samples in music:
on-going project compiling original sources for samples. I submitted the
source
for DJ Shadow's Mashin' on the Motorway :)
Rock musicians are going
to Hades. You may or may not agree with the authors' premise, but it
does list the age and cause of death for many well-known rockers. Be
sure and play the "I CHOOSE LIFE" and "I CHOOSE DEATH" game at the bottom!
-
Am I right.
Song parodies, crazy band names, and (my favorite) misheard lyrics. Just
type in your favorite (or most despised) band.
- The Smoking Gun:
See what your favorite thug artists have been really up to. Mug shots of
the famous and even some B-graders. Frequently updated.
- Ken Nordine's Word Jazz:
My best description: imagine if Captain Kirk did spoken word. Definitely
give it a listen! BTW, Ken Nordine's new shows are on
WBEZ Sunday's at midnight cst.
- MIT List of Radio Stations on the Net
- Allmusic
- Streaming music:
(1),
(2).
- Streaming concerts:
(1),
(2),
(3).
-
Web history:
The Wayback Machine
caches old versions of web pages. One day historians will use this.
Here
are some of my pages.
- Southern culture: While I am still a Yankee, I am learning. Try
The Dialectizer to
translate text or whole web pages into Redneck (or Elmer Fudd or Cockney
...).
- Coffeekid.com is the
super-site. In particular, check out
vacuum/siphon brewers--
the Hario I own is
pictured below. Ultra-smooth taste and awesome to watch (plus need to
recall high school physics to understand why it works!).
- Cigars: The
Fuji cigar page has links to tons of distributors, so you can find the best
price on your favorite brand. But always remember Mark Twain's wisdom: "I
smoke in moderation. Only one cigar at a time."
- Gambling
- Horses:
What goes better with cigars than
horse racing?
Too bad gambling is illegal in North Carolina. BTW,
here
is another nice collection of horce racing links.
-
The Wizard of Odds:
Ever want to know what the house edge is on a 5 team parlay? Here are
the formulae.
- MAME (multiple arcade machine emulator):
Gen X touchstone and my most recent research killer. This program plays
virtually every arcade game from the 1980s (400+ at last count,
everything from Pac Man to Mr. Do's Castle) all for free. These are
exact clones of the originals--all of your old tricks still work.
There is a TON of MAME stuff on the web. The only problem is the sites
disappear and pop-up with great regularity-- just type MAME in
Google and check out the first
couple of matches.
-
New York Post:
All the news The New York Times does not consider fit to print.
-
Speaking of cartoons, John Kricfalusi (the deposed creator of
Ren and Stimpy) has a cool web-based serial involving
George Liquor and his idiot nephew
(requires the Shockwave plug-in). It has some of the best animation quality
I have found on the web.
Another nice site is Shockrave
which has short clips from Comedy Central cartoons (yes--Mr. Hankey from
South Park is there), Shockwave-based games, and a place where you can
make an interactive music video.
-
Der Struwwelpeter (Slovenly Peter).
One of the most intense children's books ever written (originally in
german, obviously. What is it with these guys? Grimm's Fairy Tales are
pretty hardcore too). A series of stories from the 19th century with
some rather severe lessons. I include below the one about thumb-sucking
which is sure to give any five year old nightmares (and likely scar him
for life).
 |
"Konrad !" cried his mamma dear,
"I'll go out, but you stay here,
Try how pretty you can be
Till I come again," said she.
"Docile be, and good and mild,
Pray don't suck your thumb, my child,
For if you do, the tailor 'll come
And bring his shears and snip your thumb
From off your hand as clear and clean
As if paper it had been."
|
Before she'd turned the south,
He'd got his thumbkin in his mouth!
|
 |
 |
Bang ! here goes the door ker-slam !
Whoop ! the tailor lands her-blam !
Waves his shears, the heartless grub,
and calls for Dawmen-lutscher-bub.
Claps his weapon to the thumb,
Snips it square as head of grum,
While that lad his tongue unfurled
And fired a yell heard 'round the world.
|
Who can tell mother's sorrow
When she saw her boy the morrow !
There he stood all steeped in shame,
And not a thumbkin to his name.
|
 |
- Triumphs of TV capitalism:
-
Flowbee: Attach cutting blades to
high powered vacuum and place on head. I doubt that will lead to any
problems.
- Chia Pets: While
visiting their site, notice that the same company makes the
Clapper. Could anyone be this stupid twice? I think they are really
just part of some Mafia money laundering scheme.
-
Hairagami: The new kid on
the block. "In Japan, the art of folding paper is Origami. Now
experience the art of folding hair with Hairagami." You can use it make
a Hair Sushi (I kid you not).
-
Mr. Microphone: "Hey, good looking! We’ll be back to pick you up later!"
From the geniuses at Ronco (Ron
Popeil=genius). Even made it as a Simpsons reference. Seems to have
disappeared from existence--even hard to find on eBay.
- Name madness:
- No Koleman?
According to this 1990 Census tabulation, there is no one with my first
name in the US. I will use this when I am audited.
- Another Koleman:
Maybe we should start a club. Also, I want that web address.
- Koleman's bbq.
In Pontotoc, MS though I have never been there myself.
- Koleman.com:
Koleman goes corporate. My name was hi-jacked to form some
sort of bike, boat and car trading site. Can I sue like McDonalds to get
my name back?
- The meaning of
Koleman: See the opinion of the Society of Kabalarians of Canada, a
group "dedicated to creating mental freedom in the world by revealing
the universally applicable principles of the Kabalarian Philosophy to
help everyone live a more progressive, constructive, and healthy life
through the knowledge of the Mathematical Principle which applies to
language, name, mind, and cycles." It says I will have some big time
problems unless I have a "balanced last name." Whoops!
- Strumpf
font: Adobe seems to have put a trademark on the Strumpf
Font (and they will sell it to you for only $49.99). The description:
"True to its comic-strip inspiration, Strumpf is highly animated;
every letter has its own bouncy personality ... Use fun-loving Strumpf
for setting single light-hearted words or phrases, rather than lengthy
headlines or text."
- Strumpf Noir Society: "Black
smurf" in French. Part of the open source software development
community. Nice graphic :).
See ya' around.
Sylvester has scared away
visitors since 1997.
