Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Copacetica's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, July 8th, 2006
2:16 pm	No Subject Wow. I haven't posted since December 19th, and haven't read any of your posts for a couple months. Like Takeru Kobayashi downing 53 and 3/4 hot dogs in 12 minutes on July 4th, I feel overwhelmed, even slightly mentally bloated, by reading a month or two's worth of posts. Here are a couple of sites I came across that took up some time I should have spent studying for exams. A website devoted entirely to Cats that look like Hitler A list counting down the 100 worst album covers ever. Hey, I own some of those! I guarantee you will be amused for a few minutes. Have a good weekend, everyone. (Comment on this)
Monday, December 19th, 2005
7:29 pm	My family drove wagons I was reading the NYTimes Sports page while sitting in Starbucks this morning, and saw an interesting article on the back page (D8), which was the Automobiles section; an article titled- "With Wagons' Comeback, New Interest in Originals". It had some cool (albeit in black and white) pictures of some classic wagons from the days of yore, such as this one, a 1957 Mercury Colony Park: That pic was from the online version of the article. The online article is Here I think the only other person who would be geeked about an article like this would be the_other_beebe (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 11th, 2005
7:41 am	random string of words to bypass the spam filters Some recent spam subject lines and the supposed "senders" who are sending them: acclaim thorpe ritwtun - Virgil Vargas machination descriptive ofrhtaw - Caroline Horne plea tenebrous fpojyte - Earnest Baez FW: She brad as distillery - Sybil Voss Re: But also idempotent i'd apostle - Daisy Peck Get alteration what deliquesce - Alyson Clifford Hey there paprika i've estonia - Harry Gleason DBut also gay papua - Clifton Sanford CShe moderate beefsteak - Reginald Poe Ll'll arrange electron - Robbie Travis Tl'll periwinkle armstrong - Elise Whitfield I get maybe a dozen of these a day. I don't like it, though in a way I commend their capitalistic opportunism and ability to manipulate current technology. On the other hand I want to break all their fingers. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too. Then again, maybe I can, if I really lock down my filters. But then, the browser may drop all those unknown addresses from old high school classmates who find me on classmates.com who used to have crushes on me, and contact me wishing to get their belated freak fantasies fulfilled. (Isn't that the whole purpose of classmates.com?) Current Mood: dour (Comment on this)
Monday, October 10th, 2005
9:11 pm	It may be a first, but I bought something as a direct result of watching a television commercial. Part of the commercial may be seen on Pontiac's homepage. It should load and automatically play. The song, "Don't Save Us From the Flames", is by a French band named M83. I saw the ad (over and over) one night while watching a lot of VH-1. I would provide a link to an mp3 of it, but I don't have the patience to search for it. I didn't buy a Pontiac, but I bought the cd, titled "Before the Dawn Heals Us". They are on the Mute label. The song gives me a totally beautiful feeling inside. It makes me feel nocturnal and urban and like an international boy. The lyrics are quite bizarre, but it's the sonics that capture me. Another really interesting band I heard is named Metric. They are from Canada. I really like the singer's voice. Her name is Emily Haines. I'm at a loss to describe how they sound; indie/punk-new wave. All I know is I like it very much. Their cd, titled "Live it Out", is on the Last Gang Records label. Here's an attempt to locate some mp3 downloads of their songs: negativebeats usounds thelarrypage Hastily cobbled together links; not sure if they will produce positive results. Be sure the antivirus is sniffing. (Comment on this)
9:02 pm	It was nice seeing rainygirl, Dan (forgot his lj username already), orions_muse, and luriel last Saturday, however brief those moments were. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 19th, 2005
1:36 pm	"You cannot cut off a man's nose, and then offer him a rose to smell." - Indian proverb (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 15th, 2005
9:23 am	Maybe Communism is worse than Fascism I remember reading an article on Susan Sontag the day after her death, December 28, 2004. One passage that resonated with me was when it was written of her propensity to court controversy: "...she drew the ire of leftists when she equated communism with fascism". Why do many leftists give communism a free pass, given its most horrendous history? After all, they damn free-market capitalism for its perceived excesses and abuses. There seems to be a lot of articles on China lately, in Newsweek last month and in the latest U.S. News and World Report. It seems they've gradually embraced free-market capitalism, while maintaining their socialist government philosophy. When it comes to the real world, communist philosophy never translates well, especially for those who should benefit most, the "People". Supposedly, if one listens to "Democracy Now!" and "Flashpoints"on Pacifica, or Air America much, it must be self-evident that over the past five years, our freedoms and civil liberties have been increasingly infringed upon. Or, as a favorite Pacifica commentator phrased it, "rolling back the Constitution". Yeah, right. Aren't we the spoiled rotten bourgeoisie Americans, with our "free speech" and "democracy"? This article---> 'China's Secret Internet Police Target Critics with Web of Propaganda' makes me want to laugh anytime a liberal speaks approvingly of socialism/communism, then decries the "sorry state" of civil liberties in this country. And, Microsoft is quietly going along with all of it(Chinese Target Web's 'Prohibited Language'). Now, I admit that free-market capitalism is an exploit for the greedy. So, conversely, who is it that is exploiting socialism? The fascists? goh-goh hai moh lai tao(everyone is a scatterbrain, in Cantonese) (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 8th, 2005
8:29 am	Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love This came in the mail on Monday. It's called the Elvis Trouble Mood Indigo Zippo Lighter. Yeah, it's a long ass name, but that's what they call it on NetLighters.com, where I ordered this beauty. (Shown larger than actual size) Yes, I'm one of those people that buys Zippos, but doesn't smoke. And yes, I don't even fill the lighters with lighter fluid. No, I just lovingly polish them, admire them, revel in their heft in my hand, wanly closing my eyes as the music of that patented 'click' caresses my ears when I open the lid. But no, I'm not one of those people, like here: who learn all these fancy, flashy ways to light their Zippos. There used to be a very nice site for this type of thing called zippotricks.com, but if you take a look at the name of the site (the part that starts with a 'z'), you can figure out how it might not exist anymore. Still, lightertricks.com features many vids of dexterous hands engaging in the Rube Goldbergesque playful obtuseness of lighting their Zippos. Ah, Elvis and Zippos. How can I conjure in you the feeling of those two icons joined together? No, peanut butter and chocolate does not come near evoking the bliss I feel. Do you love dogs? Do you love the Beatles? Well, picture your favorite song by the Fab Four sung by a Golden Retriever, a Yorkshire Terrier, a Schnauzer, and a Cocker Spaniel. No? Then let's say you're packratshow, and you really love awful, cheesy movies, and you love Jennifer Connelly. Well, you'll end up with the movie . (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 10th, 2005
11:10 am	Religion and Science are Converging An uplifting article on UC Berkeley professor Charles Townes, the co-inventor of the laser: Physicist Wins Spirituality Prize An excerpt: "'If you look at what religion is all about, it's trying to understand the purpose and meaning of our universe," he said in a telephone interview from New York this week. "Science tries to understand function and structures. If there is any meaning, structure will have a lot to do with any meaning. In the long run they must come together.' In a 1996 interview with The Times, Townes said that new findings in astronomy had opened people's minds to religion. Before the 1960s, the Big Bang was just an idea that was hotly debated. Today, there is so much evidence supporting the theory that most cosmologists take it for granted. 'The fact that the universe had a beginning is a very striking thing," Townes said. "How do you explain that unique event' without God?" (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 26th, 2005
11:21 am	the way of the future "Religion may be the opiate of the masses, but television does a much better job" -Aldous Huxley (somewhat paraphrased) Watched "The Aviator" last weekend. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Utterly riveted from beginning to end. Clouseaux is on hiatus as we figure out our raison d'etre. Rhonda has moved to Austin for school. We haven't done any new material in over a year. No gigs scheduled for the forseeable future. Secret Agent 8 will be performing Feb. 10 at The Meridian as part of Ska Fest, featuring The Toasters. That's all I know so far. We're sharing Los Skarnales' practice space and drummer right now. Past week and a half spent taking antibiotics for throat infection. Taking the codeine sparingly as it makes me feel funny. Can't wait to stop coughing. Taking three classes at North Harvard (North Harris College): PC operating systems, Network Essentials, and Project Management. I am inexorably lurching toward getting MSCS certification. I've come to the conclusion that computers are our friends. Yes, they are. Current Mood: insouciant (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 5th, 2005
1:00 am	Boogadaboogadaboogada Hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season and a great New Year's. One of my resolutions for 2005 is to post more on LiveJournal. Have a swell day, everyone, and be good to one another. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 15th, 2004
11:29 pm	13. "Jockey Full of Bourbon" - </i>Raindogs</i> (1985) Tom Waits. There are a number of Waits' songs I could pick as my favorite, but this one just does it for me. The old adage "write what you know" makes my head swim when I consider that this guy's probably witnessed with his own eyes the things which he puts to rhyme. I would like to just spend a year just milling about the country and experiencing of life what there is to experience. Then I'd have something to write about, and not feel like a pretender. I think I can actually write a tune and drop the city "Memphis" somewhere in the title, since I've actually been there. Didn't live there, just played several gigs there and had a taste. How many songs are there with "Memphis" in the title whose writer never even stepped foot in that place? Marc Ribot plays the slinky guitar melody in this song. He's been on other Waits' records, including the latest. I first heard of him after he appeared on one or two of John Zorn's multifarious avant-garde Tzadik projects. What a name - Ribot. A perfect guitar melody. "Edna Million in a drop dead suit Dutch pink on a downtown train Two dollar pistol but the the gun won't shoot I'm in the corner in the pouring rain 16 men on a deadman's chest And I've been drinking from a broken cup 2 pairs of pants and a mohair vest I'm full of bourbon, I can't stand up Hey little bird, fly away home Your house is on fire, your children are alone hey little bird, fly away home Your house is on fire, your children are alone Schiffer broke a bottle on Morgan's head And I've been stepping on the devil's tail Across the stripes of a full moon's head Through the bars of a Cuban jail Bloody fingers on a purple knife A flamingo drinking from a cocktail glass I'm on the lawn with someone else's wife Come admire the view from up on top of the mast Hey little bird... Yellow sheets in a Hong Kong bed Stazybo horn and a Slingerland ride To the carnival is what she said A hundred dollars makes it dark inside" repeat first verse and chorus -Tom Waits I wrote something a few years back, and copped the words "mohair vest" (a vest made of an Angora goat's hair). I feel somewhat bad about doing it, but not that bad. It was my tribute to Waits. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2004
11:26 pm	Last week, as I was driving West on F.M. 1960, just past Ella Blvd., I saw to my left that which had not been seen before - a Krystal Burger franchise, in full operational mode. The drive-thru line looked a 1/4 mile long. It is a very small establishment, perhaps a little smaller than the Lucky Burger on lower Westheimer, and definitely bigger than that walk-up burger stand right across the street from 11th St. Cafe on...11th St. Krystal serves the world famous "slider", those little square burgers that you can consume within three mouth bites. They were the main plot device in one of my favorite movies of 2004, "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle". I think tomorrow will be the day that I expose my gastronomy to the puckish delights known as "sliders". I could be wrong, but I believe this is the first Krystal franchise in Houston. And here it is, up in NW Houston, aka the "Northside", aka the "281", aka the "suburbs". Speaking of "sliders", I really wish Roger Clemens had thrown just one of them in Game 7 of the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals. Current Mood: All Horned Out (1 Comment |Comment on this)
11:12 pm	I hardly ever watch television anymore on a regular basis. Usually it will be news at night while I wolf my dinner after getting home from work. Or, it'll be my obsession for the past three years, watching Rick Steves' Europe on Sunday afternoons on PBS. I actually went to his website and bought the 4-DVD, 30 show set. But, I digress. On Sunday night, I sat my tight Asian ass on the sofa and watched "Desperate Housewives", which is a fantastic show. Guys, whatever you may have heard, it is not a girly show. Well, sort of, but not in an emasculatory way. I only wish I hadn't missed to pilot episode. Then, I kept my ass parked on the sofa for "Boston Legal". Also a wonderful show. There was a part where William Shatner has something to say to the judge in his chambers, and sort of falls back on the halting, lunging, Capt. Kirkesque declamatory style. And for some reason, every time I see David Spader, I keep picturing him in a car with a woman, then purposefully causing a car accident, then getting turned on, and having sex in the car post-crash. "Desperate Housewives" - highly recommended. Current Mood: horny (3 Comments |Comment on this)
10:59 pm	Just finished reading A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. A great book. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981. That in itself doesn't mean squat to me, sort of like the term "Harvard educated". But, the last Pulitzer Prize winning work I read really seemed to merit that recognition. Anyway, the story of the author was a factor in my first showing interest in the book. Toole was in his early 30s, living in New Orleans with his parents, when he wrote Confederacy in the early '60s. In '69, he drove his car out of the city, parked it, stuck one end of a garden hose into the tailpipe, and the other end through the car window, and committed suicide. Apparently, he didn't take failure very well. His manuscript for the book was rejected at first, and that led to him giving in to a vicious, spiraling depression that eventually took his life. His mother sent the manuscript to a professor at LSU who, after reading it, regarded it as something quite special. I wouldn't say it was special, but I definitely felt it enriched my life in some gestaltian, circumspect way, having read it. Highly recommended. Current Mood: horny (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 1st, 2004
12:20 pm	rivethead culture 12. "Stigmata" - Ministry, The Land of Rape and Honey 1987. This song was the gateway drug which ultimately led me to the opium den that was in the back of the meth lab which in turn was a front for the crack house that was industrial music. I saw the video to this on some cable show when I was a sophomore at UT, which was a long time ago. I had not heard anything quite like it up to that point: agressive yet danceable drum machine, loud guitars, vocals run through a filter, machine noises and electronic blips, samples from movies or other sources. For the next four or five years, I sought out ever more extreme expressions of this music. This led to the original industrial artists like Einstürzende Neubaten, Current 93, Throbbing Gristle, Controlled Bleeding, etc. and to contemporaneous groups like Skinny Puppy, Front 242, Frontline Assembly, KMFDM, and NIN. I never really got into Front 242 or NIN because it just sounded too "poppy" for me. Noise bands like Merzbow and Zeni Geva followed, and of course all of Alain Jourgensen's varied side projects: 1000 Homo DJs, Pailhead, Revolting Cocks, Lard, et al. But, it was the taut, agressive industrial metal that still appealed the most to me. And for that, "Stigmata" is the perfect expression of that style. Current Music: Burt Wolf praising the many joys of Geneva (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 27th, 2004
8:49 pm	fits and starts to number 20 11. "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" - The Police, Ghost in the Machine(1981). Sting was writing the story of my tortuous adolescent infatuations in this song. Yes, "King of Pain" is much more angsty and bleak, but this song pointed at a source of the singer's hurt. "Though I've tried before to tell her of the feelings I have for her in my heart everytime that I come near her I just lose my nerve as I've done from the start Every little thing she does is magic Every thing she do just turns me on Even though my love before was tragic Now I know my love for her goes on Do I have to tell the story of a thousand rainy days since we first met it's a big enough umbrella but it's always me that ends up getting wet... ...I resolved to call her up a thousand times a day and ask her if she'll marry me in some old fashioned way but my silent fears have gripped me long before I reach the phone long before my tongue has tripped me must I always be alone..." It was as if Sting watched my life for a few weeks, and wrote this about me. Current Music: "Jenny was a friend of mine" - The Killers (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, October 22nd, 2004
7:58 pm	Spurred on by packratshow, I'm going to itemize my favorite songs. I've had to revise my list over the years, to add or delete songs. I think in the end, I keep the songs that were introduced to me during pivotal moments in my life. Or songs that still give me the shivers like the first time I heard them. I also am not very "current" in terms of the songs I love. They've got to pass the test of time, I guess. Anyway, here's my list of favorite songs. 1. "Up, Up and Away" - 5th Dimension, written by Jim Webb. I think I already wrote extensively about this song a couple posts ago. I'm too lazy to link to it here. Just go back two entries on my journal. This is one of those songs that is a favorite for purely personal and sentimental reasons. It makes me feel so good every time I hear it. It links me to an innocent and happy time in my childhood. 2. "Aikea-Guinea" - Cocteau Twins, 4ad 12" import record. Still holds up as the single most beautiful piece of "rock" music that has ever met my ears. To this day I have absolutely no idea what Elizabeth Frazier is singing, but it really doesn't matter, because this song is all about an aching melody, ethereal textures, and the sweetest female voice ever. 3. copacetic - Velocity Girl, 1993 subpop/caroline records. This is a conceit I will revisit later, but I have to count this entire album as a favorite "song". I cannot listen to one song off this cd, I usually listen to it all the way through. I so adore every single song off this album I can't single one out from it. Catchy noise pop with very sweet female vocals that are just sort of inscrutable. 4. "It's Alright Ma (I'm only bleeding)" - Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home 1963. I had heard of Bob Dylan before I heard this song. I knew he was the folk poet laureate legend of our times. I had heard "Blowin' In the Wind", "Mr. Tambourine Man", "Tangled Up in Blue", etc., and I thought, "okay, he's pretty good and all, but I don't see what the fuss is all about". Then I heard this fierce, rhyming epic and in my heart I conceded that Mr. Zimmerman was all he was held up to be. 5. "The Saturday Boy" - Billy Bragg, Brewing Up with Billy Bragg 1983. Solo electric guitar and a cockney accent never sounded so affecting. Add in an understated trumpet solo and this song totally captures the bittersweetness of teenage unrequieted love, albeit in some gray working-class English town. I can, and have, listen to this song over and over and over and it will have the same effect on me. 6. "Midnight at the Oasis" - Maria Muldaur, 1973. For some reason, this song has magical powers over me. This song has "70s" seeping out of every lilt of Muldaur's vocal stylings. I love the imagery and the storytelling of the song. I love how it makes me feel. I've only really started liking this song about a year ago, when I heard it on 790AM. I've been smitten ever since, and as I related in a previous post, I finally found a nice el-pee copy of the record with this on it. 7. "Beatnik Boy" - Talulah Gosh, 1986 from their compilation called Backwash. Preceded by a decade bands like Tuscadero and The Rondelles; girl vocal bands mixing a 60's girl group sound with punkish style. I must have a thing for sweet girl vocals, because the girl in this defunct English group has the perfect voice for the refrain "You're my beatnik boy/You make me jump for joy/Each day I wonder why you'll never be mine". This song always reminds me of a girl I met during summer school after my freshman year of college, Jennifer Parker. I first heard this song through her, and she sang the refrain a lot, out of the blue. I wanted to be her beatnik boy. 8. "I Want to Live" - This Mortal Coil Filigree & Shadow late 80s. Another 4ad band that I really got into during the late 80s. Difficult to classify this music, but very atmospheric and ethereal at times, with a mix of earthy instruments (strings) and synthy ones, depending on the track. This song will never fail to make me feel somewhat melancholy and...dark. The female vocals are very nice, and in fact are accapella through much of the song other than an organ sound. 9. "Nadia" - Jeff Beck You Had It Coming 2000. written by Nitin Sawhney. Most people think of Jeff Beck as that psychedelic British blues guitarist who was in the Yardbirds, then working with Rod Stewart, then recording a string of acclaimed instrumental guitar albums. This album totally took me by surprise. Jeff Beck collaborated with some producer who worked in all these drum 'n' bass lines and used string and synth pads and Pro Tools style cut and paste on the record. He really pulls it off. Beck had been influenced by Les Voices Mysterieux de Bulgares after hearing a recording of them. He attempted to capture the microtones of the scales the vocal group used, by way of his Stratocaster tremolo (or "whammy") bar. I cannot even begin to describe how painfully beautiful this song is. It has an exotic, Middle Eastern sound to it, mixed with string pads and these bhangra-like drum n' bass rhythms, a lá Talvin Singh. My heart almost weeps every time I hear this song. I definitely am not thinking "this is an instrumental guitar album by some old fart who was around since the 60s". Transcendant. 10. "Broken Wings" - Mr. Mister Welcome to the Real World 1985 (or '86). I know this is kind of from left field, but I just love this song. Every time I hear it, and I mean every single time I hear this, it makes me feel the same wonderful feeling I had when I was in high school, on a Saturday, pre-dawn, chilly Fall morning, getting on a school bus on my way to an all-region band audition. I suppose I cannot convey fully the way it affects me. It is also a nicely constructed song, by the way. I'll have to enter Nos. 11-20 in another entry. I think in a way I just arbitrarily numbered them, and any one of them could be in any position, other than No.1. "Up, Up and Away" is definitely the acme of song perfection for me. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 20th, 2004
10:06 pm	8 to 5 at 160 For some weird reason, I have lots of dreams that somehow incorporate marching bands. Very early this morning, I had a dream where I was trying to cross a street, and was trying to get around, first, parts of the UT marching band, then two marching bands that looked to be on a collision course. On other occasions, I'm part of a marching band, involving various scenarios too convoluted to even mention. I wasn't that much of a band geek in high school and college. Okay, I kind of was a big band geek in high school. But that was a long time ago, and I only marched with the University of Tejas "Showband of the Southwest" for two years. It just baffles me why marching bands have such a consistent presence in my dreams. I wonder how many people saw the movie Drumline who had never played in a marching band. I read in the news a couple days ago that Tommy Lee, former lead drummer for Mötley Crüe, performed with the Nebraska Cornhusker marching band. When Fleetwood Mac used the USC Trojan marching band as part of their 1979 hit "Tusk", I'm sure that for the 37 weeks the album charted, there must have been a noticeable drop in the number of wedgies administered to band geeks nationwide. Speaking of marching bands, I dig the latest U2 song "Vertigo", which has been playing every hour on 94.5 The Buzz, it seems. The first time I heard it, it didn't even sound like U2, other than my musing "that singer is doing an awful imitation of Bono". I have to admire them for their ability to evolve musically while not pandering to the latest musical conventions. Speaking of U2, at a library book-sale last weekend, I found lp copies of AMBIENT 1: Music for Airports, and AMBIENT 2: the Plateaux of Mirror, both by Brian Eno (who co-produced U2's The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree). I think I got them for about .25 each, since I bought a bunch of other books and records. And speaking of Ry Cooder, I finally found a copy of Maria Muldaur's eponymous debut. It contains my sixth favorite song of all time, "Midnight at the Oasis". I had a newfound respect for Sofia Coppola for using a part of that song as part of a scene in Lost in Translation. The whole soundtrack to that movie is phenomenal. She has a knack for picking soundtrack music that rivals Tarrantino's supposed genius. I saw a student film of Coppola's about five or six years ago, Lick the Star, and what impressed me most was the music she used: The Amps, Free Kitten, Land of the Loops, and others I don't remember. I lament the lost art of the album liner notes. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 11th, 2004
11:50 pm	Yes, it was in the 70's I probably need to get out more, but I have a natural inclination to be reclusive. When I was a kid, my mom never could send me to my room because I seemed to always be in my room anyway. Not exactly always. My skin would probably be a lighter tone today if I wasn't always out playing as a kid. Not exactly always. I am also rather loath to divulge anything too personal about myself. There are things I would rather just keep to myself. And mostly I think most people couldn't care less. For instance, at some distinct moment a couple months ago, I came to the conclusion, like satori, that my favorite song in the whole world is "Up, Up And Away", by Jim Webb, the guy who also wrote "Galveston", and "Do You Know The Way To San Jose". I am in the process of seeking out every available and unavailable version of that song I can lay my hands on. By far the most reknowned rendition is by The 5th Dimension. They did "Aquarius". When I was in third or fourth grade, there was a guest presentation from the Goodyear Blimp people at my school, Haude Elementary. It's pronounced "Howdy". German, I believe. Every school in the school district had (has) a German name. Hildebrandt, Strack, Wunderlich, Klein, et al. Most of you probably don't know that there was a Goodyear blimp base north of Houston, in Spring, up until '87 or '88. Us Springites took that blimp for granted, for it would go on daily flights, and we would hear the propellers going from miles away. It was a part of our everyday lives. At night during events like football games, it would fly and the array of lights on its bulbous silver hull would put on quite a show. Anyway, that day at Haude, we had a class assembly in the cafeteria in front of the stage. We sat Indian-style as we watched a slide presentation with accompanying taped music and narration, documenting the fabulous Goodyear Blimp. The first song that came on was "Up, Up and Away", by The 5th Dimension. The memory is indelible. It has made me the person I am today. That song takes me to a place nothing else can. So far, I have the 5th Dimension version, as well as versions by Andy Williams, The Lettermen, Ray Coniff and his Singers, Johnny Mann and the Singers, The Living Strings, and Def Leppard. Okay, I made that last one up. But, it would have been nice if they had done a cover of "Up, Up and Away". Alright, I didn't mean that either. I think instead of making a mix cd of all the different versions (the ones I have now are all on 12" LP records, btw) I can find, I think I will just fill a CD with just the 5th Dimension version, 21 times in a row, in a continuous mix. Ah, melancholic, nostalgic bliss. This, you may have surmised, may explain why I don't get out much. Current Mood: Up, Up and Away-ish Current Music: "Up, Up and Away" - 5th Dimension (17 Comments |Comment on this)