Book Signing at The Source 2 pm Oct 19, 2017 (and a midweek mix)!

Sorry for the brief intermission between posts. Been working on the house so I was away from my usual posting routine due to these projects.

But this post isn’t about remodeling! It’s about a book signing!

If you are in St. Paul, Minnesota on Thursday, Oct 19 (2017), you should stop by and say hello. I’ll be at The Source (2058 Snelling Ave N, 55113) starting at 2 pm, writing my name in books with my friends Dan and Kate.

Event details straight from The Source’s own newsletter!

 

You can find out more about the book here
You can also check out the Facebook event page here

And since I have a couple banked up, a mid-week podcast too…

Listen to and/or download this podcast! The Funkomaticjamatron Presents… originally mixed the week of 10.19.17

NOTE: New “The Funkomaticjamatron Presents…” podcasts are generally posted on Fridays. The show archives are around ten shows deep. Beyond that, if the link isn’t active, the mix has been deleted to make way for new material.

Song – Artist
Maneater – Hall & Oates.
Party All the Time – Eddie Murphy.
Take Me Home Tonight (ft Ronnie Spector) – Eddie Money.
Take Me Home – Phil Colins.
Cruel Summer – Bananarama.
New Sensation – INXS.
Run To You – Bryan Adams.
Your Love – Outfield.
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) – Eurythmics.
Material Girl – Madonna.
A View to a Kill – Duran Duran.
The Politics Of Dancing – Re-Flex.
You Can’t Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want) – Joe Jackson.
Everybody Wants To Rule The World – Tears For Fears.
Once In A Lifetime – Talking Heads.

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In Print, Banality, and the mix for 9-29-17

If you are here that must mean that you are tolerant of my writing. Perhaps you are even here because you actually enjoy my writing. If either of those are true, you will be interested to know that I have a story in a book soon to be published (Oct 19, 2017). Proceeds from the sale of the book go to benefit the MS Society so if you aren’t doing it for me, do it for good. Pre-order here!

Dan Takes 30 for the Team.

Another thing to listen to: This is the BBC program called “In Our Time” which is a social sciences podcast. This episode is about the philosopher/political scientists Hannah Arendt. The section that struck me most is about 25 minutes in, on the banality of evil, and its relevance and accuracy in today’s political situation.

Listen to and/or download this podcast! The Funkomaticjamatron Presents… originally mixed the week of 9.29.17

NOTE: New “The Funkomaticjamatron Presents…” podcasts are generally posted on Fridays. The show archives are around ten shows deep. Beyond that, if the link isn’t active, the mix has been deleted to make way for new material.

Song – Artist – Album
Gone Gone Gone – Trip Shakespeare – Across The Universe.
Nightwatchman – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Hard Promises.
Little Dreamer – Van Halen – Van Halen.
One Rainy Wish – The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis: Bold As Love.
New Lines On Love – Sniff ‘N’ The Tears – The Best Of Sniff ‘n’ The Tears.
Night Flight – Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti [Disc 2].
Sleepy Time Time – Cream – Those Were The Days [Disc 1].
Ballin’ – Santana – Viva Santana! [Disc 1].
Blue Desire – The Silencers – A Letter from St. Paul.
Cat And Mouse – Gerry Rafferty – Sleepwalking.
Fascination Street – The Cure – Disintegration.
Oceans – Pearl Jam – Ten.

Weather, The New Blogging, and the mix for 9-22-17

The current heat index in St Paul, Minnesota is 101F (temp of 93F with a dew point of 72F according to the app on my mobile). It is the first day of autumn. As one who has a penchant for jackets, coats, and the weather that allows for the wearing of such things, I object to this in the strongest possible terms. Further, as I consider myself a science-literate person, I object to this weather because of the clear case that humanity has had a large hand in making this happen.

While eating my lunch today I was adjacent to a conversation that I found intriguing. Two young people were merrily conversing as if a) I wasn’t sitting there first in peace and quiet away from other people on purpose and b) their voices were inaudible to the person (me) sitting in the next chair. Much of their exchange made my eyebrow arch as it was so predictable for the time/space/age of those involved as to almost be satire. Anyway, one of the parties entreated the other one to listen to their podcast. This person and friends had started a podcast (which shares a name with 28 other podcasts apparently) and recorded an episode every day since the start of term on the topic of “just sitting around and talking for an hour”. The other party stated their interest in giving these recordings a “proper listen and critique”. It dawned on me then that podcasting is the new blogging. I have no idea what to do with this information, but now you are aware of it too.

Today’s theme was suggest by Maria and is Part 1 in the series. Part 2 will show up eventually.

Lightning over the house. These are much easier to get in the digital age, but you still have to risk life and limb to stand there.

Listen to and/or download this podcast! The Funkomaticjamatron Presents… originally mixed the week of 9.22.17

NOTE: New “The Funkomaticjamatron Presents…” podcasts are generally posted on Fridays. The show archives are around ten shows deep. Beyond that, if the link isn’t active, the mix has been deleted to make way for new material.

Song – Artist – Album
Tears In Rain – Vangelis – Perfecto Presents Another World [Disc 1].
Rainfallic – Dinky – Anemik.
Jagged Rain (Vocal) – Laurie Mayer – Black Lining.
Rain (97 Remix) – MOT – Sunshine State Of Mind.
Make It Rain – The KLF – The White Room.
When It’s Raining Cats And Dogs – P.M. Dawn – The Bliss Album…?
Naked In The Rain (Fire Dance Mix) – Blue Pearl – Naked in the Rain 12″ single.
The Rain – Forecasters – Deep House U.K. Vol. 2.
Acid Rain – SM Project – Elements EP.
Drippy – Banco De Gaia – Big Men Cry.
It’s Raining Men – Geri Halliwell – Bridget Jones’ Diary.

Awake Again, Farrago, and the mix for 9-15-17

Do you hear that squeaking and clattering? That strange whirr of air that tells you something is moving in another room brings a pressure change with it. Timbers are vibrating with the life of machines in sub-sub-basements. Wires once static now carry a message encoded many different ways and pushed through light and copper, plastic and liquid crystals, to be light received by the bio-mechanism that is you. Can it be any wonder then that the return to creation and outreach brings with it a drawn look in the eyes and a just noticeable slouch of the shoulders?

This mix was built sometime over the hiatus in a folder titled “farrago”. No other evidence hints as to what the kernel that produced this fruit was.

The school year is off to its normal clattering, smoking, careening start both on the side of the students and the staff. Such as it ever was.

Just before the return to structured days the family took a trip to flirt with Canada. Many dusty drives through forests, vast lake shores without another soul in sight. A visit to an unmeasured waterfall that stand on the map between two friendly countries. A bear, an ox, a duck, two fish, and a man, all of titanic proportions were seen. It was a delight.

Here is the skull of a monster from an inland sea taken from where I stand in my home nation and the opposite shores are foreign.

There are yet wonders on the edges of the world.

Listen to and/or download this podcast! The Funkomaticjamatron Presents… originally mixed the week of 9.15.17

NOTE: New “The Funkomaticjamatron Presents…” podcasts are generally posted on Fridays. The show archives are around ten shows deep. Beyond that, if the link isn’t active, the mix has been deleted to make way for new material.

Song – Artist – Album
Moonrock Mambo – Yo La Tengo – Summer Sun.
Live 4 Love – Prince & The New Power Generation – Diamonds And Pearls.
Mooz – 808 State – Don Solaris.
This City Never Sleeps – Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This).
Tiger Tiger – Duran Duran – Seven And The Ragged Tiger.
For Phoebe Still a Baby – Cocteau Twins – Blue Bell Knoll.
Love from a Stone – School Of Seven Bells – Lafaye single.
Mad World (The Crystal Method Remix) – Zen Cowboys – Trip Hop Test Pt 2.
Dream On – Depeche Mode – Exciter.
Gonna Be Right – Sister Machine Gun – sistermachinegun: 6.0.
Opinions – The Fixx – Reach The Beach.
Lonely Tonight – The Power Station – The Power Station.
Dark And Long (Dark Train) – Underworld – Dark & Long EP.

Summer Stuff, TdF, and the mix for 7-31-17

Oh! Hello. I didn’t think anybody would be around. Just popping in… can’t stay long (checks watch, looks towards door)…

My world in July is dominated by the Tour de France. I built a mix on the topic and I figured I had better post it in July or else… well, I don’t know. But I’m sure it’s bad, like getting a visit from The Flat Tire Fairy or something equally as miserable.

Other thoughts:
-Summers as an adult are disappointing.
-Having a stereo in a work space (in my case, the garage) is great.
-My ratio of being a groomsman to being a pallbearer is getting uncomfortably close to 1:1. I prefer the former to the later but will gladly serve in any way I can if asked. That is what friendship and family are about.
-Does anyone else not see someone post on Social Media for a couple weeks and start to get worried that something bad has happened? I mean, how would you know, right?
-It is more fun to take pictures than to do the work to create a working archive of those pictures.
-For my money, the picture below (taken at the 2017 Back to the Fifties at the MN State Fairgrounds) is the absolute peak of things I want in terms of automobile wishes.

1959 Cadillac in sea foam green (swoon)

Listen to and/or download this podcast! The Funkomaticjamatron Presents… originally mixed the week of 7.31.17

NOTE: New “The Funkomaticjamatron Presents…” podcasts are generally posted on Fridays. The show archives are around ten shows deep. Beyond that, if the link isn’t active, the mix has been deleted to make way for new material.

Song – Artist – Album
Theme for Velodrome – The Chemical Brothers – Theme for Velodrome single.
III/4 – Phantom Heart Brother – Pete Namlook & Klaus Schulze featuring Bill Laswell – The Evolution of the Dark Side of the Moog.
Bad Radio (ft Tunde Adebimpe) – Leftfield – Alternative Light Source.
Mind Of A Beast – The Glitch Mob – Love Death Immortality.
Ren 2 – Photek – Animatrix: The Album.
Accelerate (Rat Race Mix) – Skin Up – Big Hard Disk Vol 1.
Full Throttle – The Prodigy – A Life Less Ordinary.
Red Zone – Robert Miles – Dreamland.
Hypnomania (Head Trip Mix) – LaTour – Hypnomania 12” single.
On The Road (Vocal Mix) – Alex Armes, Sam Stizer & Thomas Penton – Mixtape: Future Funk.
This Race (Moscow 061027) – Underworld – Collected Live & B-Sides.
Tour de France – Kraftwerk – Tour de France.