Category: Life

More From Our London Bureau

Here’s an update from John and Susan, my expat people in London. You may recall them from last year’s vacation travelogue.

“We’re all good. Had to buy a bike to get home, but Susan wanted a new one anyway. The English are pros at this sort of thing — no one is freaking out, we kinda expected it. The response was, “let’s have a cuppa [tea].” They should re-open all the tube stations tomorrow morning. Wow. I’m very impressed. The incident is being treated like a crime scene, very cool and professional. It sounds like the Americans are taking it harder than the British – wacky. You changed to orange alert from yella. Very curious.”

Reality Upgrade

“Tube Blasts: Commuters Dead” read the Evening Standard headline placards across London. I can see them at Flickr, which gives me something that the traditional news media never quite deliver: firsthand perspective. With the help of Flickr tags like “blasts,” “bombs,” and “London,” I can get an idea of what my fellow photobloggers on the street in London are seeing. They become, in effect, a worldwide network of amateur news photographers.

So far, at least one of them was on the Tube this morning, and his cameraphone pictures are now making their way up to the major media.

So this morning brings to our attention not only that the Western world is still a terrorist target (lest we get complacent in our relative lack of post-9/11 trauma), but also that we have avenues of information that we didn’t have in, say, 2001.

Please Shop at Anthro-Pop

If you live in Little Rock[1] and you need a CD, then please just get it at Anthro-pop. Rod can special order anything in the world and usually have it in faster than Amazon.com. Sure Amazon is cheaper, but then there’s that whole shipping charge, isn’t there? Sure you could shop at Best Buy, but you must realize that if you do so, you are effectively crushing music stores everywhere. Remember music stores? Remember High Fidelity? These places are getting fewer and further between because Best Buy loses money on every disc they sell. They just want to get you in the store to buy an appliance or a computer. It’s a shrewd business model, but if you care about music then you’re not necessarily concerned with business excellence are you? Do you want to watch a movie about John Cusack and Jack Black working at Best Buy? I would hope not.

The sad state of music retail aside, I say all this because Anthro-pop is a fabulous place to spend an hour or two and because Rod is an exceptionally knowledgeable and generous guy. I bought a couple of CDs and he gave me Season 3 of Land of the Lost on DVD for FREE. It was a promo thing he got for free, but still. Fun excerpt from the back of the box:

“Behold the fire-breathing dinosaur Torchy – menace to Human, Pakuni, and Sleestak alike!”

I have no idea what that means but how can it not be awesome!? Thanks, Rod!

1.) If you live in North Little Rock, then please buy from Bill at Arkansas Record/CD Exchange.

I am Lane Meyer

You know that scene in Better Off Dead where John Cusack has been dumped and he’s driving along and every song on the radio is a breakup song? That happened to me this morning, except that every song came from the same album, in this case one of my all-time favorites, Sugarbomb’s Bully. I had never noticed that the record is populated almost exclusively by breakup songs. Witness:

“Waiting”

Waiting for the phone to ring (refrain x 3)
and I hope it will be you

“Hello”

One thing’s for sure
What I would give to simply open my door
And see your smiling face

“Mail Order Girlfriend”

It’s over I feel it
She’ll never come visit

“What a Drag”

What a drag how people change
Once you really get to know them

It gets even worse when you get into “Poster Child for Tragedy” so I’ll spare you that one. Suffice it to say that the defunct Dallas band made one of the great one-album wonder classics. If you can find a copy, it has my highest recommendation.

Here’s an Unlikely Sentence

My brother had dinner last night with Jim Nabors.

Actually Jim (aka Gomer Pyle for those of you too young to know) was at the next table for a birthday dinner in honor of James “Dan-O” MacArthur of Hawaii Five-O fame. They needed someone to take a picture of the group, so my brother obliged.

This month my brother is in Hawaii, my dad is in Europe, and my mom and sister will be in New Zealand. When’s my turn?

Welcome Arkansas Times Readers

So now the harsh light of publicity will shine upon this site and not inconsequential numbers of people might actually read this stuff. Some of the golden anonymity I usually enjoy will wear off, at least for a few weeks. By all means, click the icons at left to take a look around the site, and nevermind the fact that this page looks a bit different from the rest. Heath recently installed WordPress for me, and it’s so much more convenient than duct taping the site together as I previously had been. Be sure to check out the Photolog (Plog) and thanks for visiting. Oh and in case the Times doesn’t credit it, the “Rock” picture is courtesy of Brian Hickman Photography.

And for the musicians in the audience, please check out the forum at LittleRockMusician.com