virginia is for suckers.

diclaimer: the folowing is chock full of hate and profanity. youve been warned.

its the day after thanksgiving. i just got a call from a collection agency. the lovely county of fairfax virginia wants $300 because i was unfortunate enough to call that dump of a suburb home for 6 months. six months of 2007. this was well over a year ago. and the only reason those ass clowns know i lived there at all is because arlington county, of the same bullshit state, ratted me out.

tax time last year, early spring, i was fortumate enough to move out of that particularly boring part of the south and into another particularly boring part of the south. also at this time, arlington came after me for unpaid personal property taxes on my truck. above all else, this has got to be the biggest racket in taxes i can think of. you pay income tax on your money that you make, then you pay sales tax on the car you buy, then the the fucking capitol of goddamned gridlock decides to charge personal property tax on your vehicle so that they can not plow the roads when it snows.

anyway, i fought with arlington and was able to prove that i left that county and only owed half of what they claimed. and im sure that those bastards sent that lease copy on to the ass clowns in faifax so that they could try and get their cut. but these fucktards arent smart enought to pick up a goddamned phone for more than a year. i moved out of that hell hole late last summer. i moved again since then, so evidently the snail mail theyve been tying to send me has gone to pevious addresses unanswered. lets see, try to get the money in a couple of letters and that didnt work. the next logical for a local government drone is to get someone else to do your work for you. a collection agency for 300 fucking dollars. you have got to be kidding me.

so this guy at the collection agency calls me. the day after thanksgiving he calls me. of course he cant fucking help me. ive got to call the black hole of time that is any given government office. no suprises here, theyre closed in observance of the holiday. i know from previous experience with arlington that this is going to take at least ten phone calls and probably as many faxes to prove that i dont live in thei shitty suburb and will no longer be paying them taxes and it will be terrifically difficult for me not to yell 'die in a fire!' into the phone while trying to minimize the damage to my bank account. because the holidays are the ight time to sick a fucking collection agency on anyone because youre too goddamned stupid and/or lazy to do your own job. all it took is a phone call. and since this collection agency is involved, fairfax might see a third of the money. my head feels like it will explode with the combination of bewildering laziness and stupidity in the part of fairfax va and the rage that all of this bings up in me.

fuck you virginia. fuck arlington and fairfax. someone please shoot me in th face if i ever move back to that state or, god forbid, those counties. but im sure the rampant MS-13 activity in those lovely burbs will be happy to provide that service.

never live in viginia. ever. just dont fucking do it.

doesnt follow directions

i just heard that Dan Auerbach is releasing a solo album called "keep it hid." being a fan of his well known work in the Black Keys, he has gone into his studio to make his first solo record. i imagine that this effort will be more wide reaching than the Keys' primarily blues rock style.

if you look back to my previous post on the Black Keys you will see that i was really impressed by the guy. he seems to have been born for making music. i hope he follows through on this threat: "This record is a mixture of things I like to listen to, psychedelia, soul music, country harmonies." it may sound odd, but i think its really going to be something. ill keep you all posted on this as the story develops. the record is supposed to drop February 10th, but you can bet ill be working the back channels for a preview... or pre-listen.

oh, and he's going to be touring with Hacienda, who i was turned on to by MOKB. check the link. the tour starts up in DC(me first) at the end of February. dont miss this one.

snow!

back in Detroit they call it an Alberta Clipper. its not a hair style or stylist. its a cold and dry blast of air coming out of the Canadian arctic that tends to drop temperatures significantly and frequently dump snow. the snow up north comes from the great lakes, which at this time of year are warmer than the air, so that this dry air picks up moisture, then cools again over land and the moisture falls as snow.

that little science lesson explains the chill here in the mid-atlantic. Canada is exporting its cold air to us. the snow flurries in the air that have us all excited, im not sure where that moisture came from. perhaps leftovers from the snow that fell in Detroit and Cleveland. anyway, for a boy missing the midwest the chill and flurries are a bit heart warming. reminds me of the homeland.

its times like this i start looking at the farmers almanac to see if perhaps its in the tea leaves for a good ski season. i hope so. it would be nice to get out on the slopes without having to get on a plane. im crossing my fingers for a snowy winter. at home, that means a bit warmer than normal as warmer air can bing more moisture and snow. here, that may mean a colder winter, but im from Detroit, i grew up with snow as a normality, life goes on. and if the roads are covered in a foot of snow, then its time to go sledding. who's with me?

photos

i added a photo over to your right that links to my flickr page. i got some nifty photos over tha last week and it reminded me that i like taking photos. some will surely appear here, but more will over there. ive got this idea of incorporating photos with some words, but im still working it all out in my head. anyway, check em out!

The Coup

im hyping hype here, but its not like hyping hype over Radiohead. what i am hyping is The Coup. they are one of those hip hop duos that should be more popular than they are. they are very smart and politically charged and not afraid to be very un-PC and ruffle some feathers. the released and album called steal this album. they also have a song called babyletshaveababybeforebushdosomethincrazy.asd

anyway, my old kentucky blog played my favorite mutiny on their blog radio session yesterday. its a good jam featuring Talib Kweli, but my favorite happens to be ass breath killers followed closely by laugh/love/fuck. check em out. Boots Riley and the Fucnkstress make some good tunes.

oberst in retrospect

ive been a mild fan of Bright Eyes for a few years... i guess like half a decade now. Conor Oberst is an incredible if emo songwriter. being one who has a dorkish love of language, im amazed by the way he says things. he is a true wordsmith. he follows a poetic tradition in saying volumes in a few simple lines. he can make you mind run for hours with lines like 'the whole loves you if youre a chic chameleon.'

so monday night, finally having the chance to see him live, i was admittedly a bit giddy. he had rolled through on tours before under the Bright Eyes name, but i either couldnt make it or was too poor to afford it. but this time it was Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band in a small venue with affordable tickets. and he didnt disapoint. but, first, lets give the opening acts their due.

first came Rig-1, this wierd hip hop group. but it was an emcee, a guy with a guitar that he played maybe six notes on and primarily pushed play on the computer supplying the beats, and a bassist. i enjoyed the first few songs, and the emcee's delivery was good, but i was really distracted by the guitar non-player. and as the set went on, it all blended together. all in all, not a bad act, but rather monotonous. they would do better to get a guitar player and a dj and brach out beyond the Garage Band beats.

next came The Felice Brothers. holy wow, they are good. you just cant mess with well executed home grown music, no matter the genre. these guys worked it out with the usual guitar, drums, bass combo, but threw in an accordian and a fiddle for good measure and a washboard in a couple of songs to bring home the flok factor. i am still unsure as to how to classify these guys. some songs were super folky, others were stright up rock with the addition of the accordian. anyway, it was hard not to get moving. they were so genuine, so real, and so good, that even the most uptight of hipsters(who tend to populate the d.c. music scene) were scene tapping their toes. and people like me, who forget to be self concious when the music is playing were bouncing off their neighbors and apppologizing during the breaks between songs.

and finaly Conor and the MVB came on. it was everything i could have hoped for. but i would like to start by remarking on how much of a rock star Conor is. i had assumed that he would be the type to shy away from the spotlight, stand back, and sing his songs. but to the contrary, he was front and center, with his hop-step swagger. he jumped up on the drum riser, at times i thought he might try to climb the drums. he didnt have the swagger of Jack White or Augie, but he carried the show like they might, all the while sharing the spotlight with his band mates and allowing them to shine.

as for the set, it was good, but i had hoped to hear some Bright Eyes tunes. i was not surprised that they didnt play any, but a bit disapointed. i really would have loved to have heard 'something vague' and 'well whiskey.' at any rate, the set came together really nicely. when he played 'cape canaveral' i got goosebumps all over. it was really moving. and really good. the execution of the show was pretty flawless, which is not really surprising since they guy has been at it since he was in middle school.

i think 'sausalito' and 'moab' are probably the most catchy songs on his most recent release, and they definitely got the crowd going. and being song i enjoy, got me forgetting to take pictures as i had wanted. but i did catch a few, which i hope to post over the weekend. but my favorite song on the album was also my favorite of the show: 'i dont wan to die (in the hospital).' i just love the dark subject with the uptempo rock feel of the song. and it hits home for me, because i spent 10 days in the hospital once and at times thought i might not see the outside world again. i dont want to die in the hospital. as performers do, he mixed up the song a bit. here is a point of contention with me. Conor pulled it off flawlessly, as have the Raconteurs, Okkervil River, and the Hard Lessons. but it doesnt allways come off so nicely. i once saw Rancid totally destroy an extended version of''ruby soho' which was a bit surprising, because they tend to be a stellar live band. anyway, its a risky move. the fans know and love the album version, so mixing it up can prove to be a disapointment. but if you have the chops to pull it off, it makes that great song even better.

in the end i was really happy with the show. ive heard that at times when Conor isnt feeling it, he puts on a terrible show. he was obviously feeling it as the show was great. he was full of energy and kicked beer bottles and threw a stool out of his way. more of a rock star that i was expecting from the guy who wrote 'make a plan to love me.' i dont think i could have asked for a better performance, perhaps a slightly tweaked set list, but all things considered, it was a great way to spend a dreary monday night in the district and well worth the ticket price.

so Rig-1 was so-so, The Felice Brothers we fantastic, and Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band were on point.