FOXNews.com

"Otherwise, the VMAs were the usual sad, illiterate affair, full of yo's from a bunch of yo-yos. 50 Cent and Beyonce looked confused among their June Taylor-type dancers. Nearly all the music sounded like it had been made up on the spot, although even host Chris Rock looked impressed at the end of Coldplay's song. Combining elements of The Beatles, Travis and Radiohead, Coldplay's Chris Martin performed the only actual song of the evening with a melody, harmonies and a hook."

-- FOXNews.com

I'm so glad other people see the ridiculousness of the MTV culture. David and I watch it in disbelief (when we actually *watch* MTV)... it's like watching a car accident. You can't help but stare in awed horror at the absolute stupidity of these artists who can't even speak English. Yeah, I know. I'm old. But the above quote says it all.

I'm really tired of hearing about the Britney/Madonna/Christina thing. Total publicity stunt. Maybe if they'd make decent music, y'know, sell a few records that way... well, but what do I know. Hey, maybe I need to take some lessons. If we cause enough controversy, then we won't have to write good songs anymore. That would make my job as an artist so much easier! Why didn't I think of this sooner?

I'm eating a Krispy Kreme hot glazed donut right now with my morning blog quad cappuccino. Starbucks and Krispy Kreme... life doesn't get any better than that.

Tonight shall be movie night at the Martin house. David rented "Gangs of New York" and "The Two Towers." I'm looking forward to seeing "Gangs" just because my girl Maura O'Connell is in the movie as a street singer. Man. I love Maura. What a stinking GREAT voice she has. David and I fell in love with her "Stories" CD... and in my opinion, it's right up there with Mary's "Babes in the Wood." I could get lost in those two CDs for years and never get tired of them.

Our friend Michael Bartelle gave us Damien Rice's CD. It's really beautiful. There are pieces of David Gray, Ryan Adams, Van Morrison, and even some Tom Waits in there... I freaking LOVE the Irish. That's where all the good music comes from, y'know? That's it. We're moving.

I need to get on the September LJG newsletter... We have tons of stuff going on suddenly! This is a good thing. I think we may even have a radio interview on the 11th... still have to firm up a definite time with them, but I'm pretty sure it's on.

Today David and I are going to work on some new cover tunes. The ones we've been doing for 4 years now are, well, stale. So we're gonna ditch them and replace them with new ones... any suggestions? I love doing unexpectedly weird ones, like I think we're going to work up Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" or something really random like that. Maybe I'll pose that question to the Message Board crowd and see what they come up with.

NP: Damien Rice "volcano"

Golly ned, has it really been almost 2 weeks since I blogged? I'm such a loser! Such a loser! It was nuts there for a couple of weeks, and then I was unable to get online for like a week, so there ya go. Anyway, okay. Ummm.... let's see. School has started for Punky. I have been freaking out. That's pretty much the gist of my life the past couple of weeks.

I spent this week setting up my home office and getting organized, ready to launch this new CD and season of promoting and selling it. Suddenly there are gigs everywhere. I booked 5 this week... really am happy about that. There are all sorts of "best kept secret" sort of places around town that need to be discovered. We *do* have listening rooms in San Antonio. That's encouraging.

So it's felt good to actually have office hours and have a job again... the album is nearly complete... all we're waiting on is art... and then it's off to the duplicators. The art should be done in the next few weeks. That means that we're there! I can see the finish line (finally). I can't wait.

Mars. Have you seen mars? It's cool... although I'm sure much cooler with binoculars or a telescope. It just looks like a red version of Venus to the naked eye. Or, as they say here in Pipe Creek, the nekkid eye. Is it me, or does it sound more nasty when it's pronounced "nekkid?" I have never liked that pronunciation. Texans are funny.

Playing tonight with David Kauffman. He's doing lots of liturgical music right now, and, not being Catholic, it's all foreign to me. But since it's new to me, it's also very fresh and very inspiring. I felt refreshed and fed after I left rehearsal last night... good for the soul. His music is really very soul-reaching. Nice change.

So anyway, I'm outta here but I will blog more. More is coming. Things are happening. And my blog mascot, Bob the Alien, who sits on my desk and stares at me with his big black alien eyes, won't let me off the hook very easily for missing 12 days here. Yeah. Be back later.

Papa Smurf is evil.

Leather-bound librarian provided 'sadistic, yet caring' services online.

Y'know, I wondered why our website was getting so many hits lately. Unfortunately, this woman's site comes up when someone does a search for us, and I hate that, knowing how many young teenagers we have as fans. *cringe*

But this article is pretty funny. She's been outed. heheheheheh.

I'm very tired... just got back from the coast. I'll type more about it tomorrow when my brain and fingers are working in conjunction with each other. I had trouble just now as I was typing "conjunction." Time for bed. Will blog tomorrow.

Didn't see any dolphins this time. Waaaaaaaaahhh!

"You know there's an old saying about a wannabe cowboy: all hat, no cattle. Well, with George W. Bush I think it's all hat, no jobs. All hat, no healthcare. All hat, no clue."--Dick Gephardt

Do these people realize how amazingly stupid they sound? Can they not string together one intelligent zinger for Bush?

Good one, Dick. Wish I had thought of that.

God Coffee

This is wrong on about 6 different levels.



Canned coffee? From a vending machine? Called "god coffee?" In different flavours? Geez! What is wrong with people?

Umm.... I missed yesterday because I was all wrapped up in microsoft hell! It was ugly. I somehow contracted the msblaster virus, and I figured it out on my own because I somehow missed all the hullabaloo on the virus. I noticed it when I was working Monday night on Kazaa (probably where I got it!) and I got a very "official" looking XP window that said, "Your system needs to shut down." and it counted down from 30 seconds and then shut down my computer. Hmmm... so I restarted, went to Windows update to try and fix whatever was wrong, and windows update told me that my serial # was wrong and that I couldn't download the service pack I needed. Long story short, I finally got around it by updating my Norton, editing my registry, and downloaded the patch.

Which brings me to my next point: MICROSOFT SUCKS! I want a Mac. I have always been a Mac person and I settled for a PC. Macintosh doesn't release crappy products that have to be fixed after you buy them... Microsoft makes a habit of it. Macintosh doesn't crash every 32 seconds. Macintosh doesn't have a "blue screen of death." Mac doesn't have nearly as many viruses...... Anyway, yeah... next computer is gonna be an EMac.

I made Peanut Butter Drop cookies last night... and I'm sick because they are so good and can't stop eating them... but they are so rich. They go well with coffee. I'm actually having my afternoon quad cappuccino right now, so there.

I am SO READY for autumn! It's so nice today... mid 80's, no humidity... it's just a tease. A terrible, terrible tease, I tell you. Next week it will be 300 degrees again. The low temps put me in such a fall mood... and then my hopes get dashed because we still have like 3 months of hot, horrible weather till it decides to become winter. THAT is what I miss about Nashville. Mmmmmm, seasons.....

FOXNews.com

Sunshine Days II

London Hits 100 Degrees.... poor, poor Europe. Really. It's been so stinking hot here, but in Texas in the summertime you expect it to be hot. Still, I complain and whine and if my car A/C doesn't cool off fast enough for my liking, I'm whining more. But London hit 100 for the FIRST TIME EVER! and it's so bad that they are warning people to be careful and take lots of water when they get on the Tube ("mind the gap and take your water")... no a/c down there apparently. And most folks don't have a/c anyway, because it just doesn't get hot there. The stoney beaches are not exactly "lay-out-and-surf" type beaches over there, yet they were jam packed this weekend. Poor London.



Played the Boardwalk Bistro Friday night... I usually get the TurkeyWorks sandwich, which is really good, but since I've gone Veg I got the PitaWorks which was fab. Loved it. Our friend Chris Taylor came out and played with us, which is always fun, and it was especially good this time because my cello was out of commission that night (the bridge snapped in half literally as we were walking out the door for the gig). I played mandolin, and that was fun. But OH MY STARS was it hot. Like so hot we might as well have played outside... it actually would have been cooler. Customers were sweating. Their a/c doesn't ever work in the summer, but especially not Friday. It was bad. Despite the heat, though, it was a super fun gig. My brother came out and it was good to see him. He actually came back home with us and spent the night, which we really need to do more often... we agreed that it's stupid that we never see each other now that he lives like an hour and a half away. Stupid!

Yesterday was the 17th (!) anniversary of my dad's passing. I dunno, but for some reason I was really bummed out by it this time. Usually the day passes and I think about it but it doesn't affect me much anymore... it's been so long... but it just really got under my skin this time. Ed (brother) and I talked about it for the first time ever, I think, and maybe that's part of it, but no, I was funky about it before that too. Maybe because this summer in particular, for some reason, that period of my life has come back to visit me... friends that I haven't talked to in years that were with me through that time... all the youth group stuff I've been doing has reminded me of being in youth group that summer that he died, etc. It's just weird what triggers things in you, and you think you're over something, and then there are sharp reminders that this is just part of who you are and will always be a little burr in your psyche. Odd.

This is the first day in a week that I've had decent blog coffee! Friday, when I posted last, I was drinking really REALLY bad coffee... because I was out of my espresso and just really couldn't go back to just tea. So I rooted around in my cabinet and found a can of coffee (there was my first mistake... I NEVER drink coffee that comes from a can. UGH!) that I swear must have been part of my Y2K stash (and yes, I did have a Y2K stash, I'm embarrassed to say)... or at the very least was on reserve in case we had a second annual 150 year flood. At any rate, it was very, very foul. Now if we had been flooded in, okay, I might have drunk it with a smile on my face, knowing that at least there was caffeine to be had, but because it wasn't a true emergency, I just couldn't find it in my heart to be grateful for this abomination that was loosely named "coffee." It was more akin to burnt antifreeze that one might lick from the third rail of the London tube, and such an experience might actually be more pleasurable than what I had to endure in this cup of coffee. Which is why I gave up on my blog after my computer crashed... I just didn't have it in me. But it's dang good to have my usual quad cappuccino with Horizon Organic Milk again. Life is good.

Alright then. Must be off to work on my website and make it purty.

Green tomato pie is nice.