THE BEST OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD

these are my favorite songs/performances of The 'Dead.  You may notice some of the "froms" happen to be the most scrutinized 'Dead releases (SYF, DP24), but I don't expect this to be going onto the shelves of BestBuy anytime soon, although making my own CD of this will be difficult, since it's rare to find 10+ minute songs that you can buy without having to buy the whole album...

DISC ONE

Estimated Prophet (Terrapin Station)

Feel Like A Stranger (Go To Heaven)

Black Peter (History/Dead)

He's Gone (Europe '72)

One More Saturday Night (Europe '72)

Jack Straw (Europe '72)

China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider (Rockin' the Rhien)

Brown Eyed Women (DP24)

Stella Blue (SYF)

Black Throated Wind (Dick's Picks 24)

Scarlet Bogonias (Closing/Winterland)

DISC TWO

Dark Star (Live/Dead)

St Stephen (Two From/Vault)

Good Lovin' (Fillmore East 1971)

Fire On The Mountain (Closing/Winterland)

Truckin' (Rockin' the Rhein)

tt4n

another day of paradise - one big deal!!!

OMFG!!!!!!  I gotta tell the world about - RYT NAW! (Weird Al quote)

Ok...I have been searching like CRRRRRRRRAZY for a good or decent quality portable CD player.  As it turns out, a $20 & under one is almost always not worth it, Best Buy dot com had a Philips one for sale, which was taken out of stock (it was an "outlet" item for like 2 months...) just a few days ago.  So aside from the now-retired option of a $22 (w/ S&H) Philips player, the only logical options were SONY.  And they only have two CD players worth their salt and they are both $30-$50, depending on when/where you get them.

WELL, WELL, WELL!!!  I got a email from SonyStyle (dot com) alerting me of a "holiday coupon" of $50 off "select" items - which was pretty much all their items with the exception of several items that were totally out of my price range, like digital cameras etc.;

You're thinking there was a spending limit, right?  WRONG.  The total out of my pocket cost, with S&H & tax factored in, was $5.21.  I got my relatively Hi-Q portable CD player PLUS a CD by pop-punk band Cartel (their newest one, which wasn't a bad price to begin with - $7.99 + tax), which until their newest one came out were signed to SONY incidentally...of course, they started out on Militia Records, and when they signed to Sony, they (Sony) re-released Cartel's sole Militia Records release, with an altered version of "Save Us" (a piano ballad, which, under Sony's care, was given the all out orchestral treatment, which sounded kinda fake, IMO...).  But anyway;...I GOT IT , I GOT IT, I GOT IT. - PRACTICALLY FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU SONY!

~Jonathan

some stuff!!!

I'm using the Opera browser now.  Used Revo Uninstaller to delete Firefox, since it apparently has too much junk attatched with it, although "not as much" as Internet Explorer.  Safari is heralded as the Great One, but I've felt the urge to delete Apple's iTunes program from my computer (which I've RE-installed at least twice...silly me...ahgh!!!) and everytime I've used Revo Uninstaller to do so, I see ALL TONS of junk that the built-in uninstaller would have just left sitting there!  Why should I trust Safari??

That same day I managed to do over something I'd been thinking about with a "oh, if only I could live it over again..." type of self pity;;: about a year or so ago, I found a BRAND NEW FACTORY SEALED copy of Genesis' 1981 CD ABACAB that someone took to my/their local CD store - Hastings; see gohastings.com - and b/c it wasn't "direct from the distributor", Hastings aka gohastings.com shoved it into the used CD bins.  I actually didn't notice it was "brand new", just that I wanted it...

Well, it happened again, with the exception that this time it's the 2007 remix, not the original recording...oh, well; that's actually three similar but different opportunities to furkk up; the one I haven't mentioned is - wait for it - ordering 2 brilliant Genesis CDS - Abacab (the original) and an earlier live recording from 1973 - with a gift card my Grandma gave me for Xmas that year or the year that'd just passed...

Hopefully I won't strike out this time...

Oh, but the BEST FIRRRRKKIN' PART IS: Hastings was selling this gemstone of an item for $2.99 + tax.

AND: an item that I got from Hastings earlier this season, like late Oct/early Nov, for $0.97 + tax I sold to a neighboring CD store for $1.50.  And managed to spread the good cheer by buying FROM that neighboring CD store - Pmac Music - a CD priced $5.99 minus $2 by way of online coupon ($3.99) minus, of course, the $1.50 from the CD I sold to them...and that, too, I think, was a CD I got rid of out of haste...pretty sure it was the same exact copy, too (eek!!).  But hey!  It was no more than what Amazon sellers charge when you factor in the s&h, and it was probably less given the $0.50 (apprx) PROFIT I made off of the CD I sold there in exchange for the CD I got...

To make things generally sweeter, I'm 223 pages through a Swedish book (translated to English of course!) called LET ME IN, which was made into a film called LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, which is being remade currently as an American film called LET ME IN and I wrote 3 pages apprx of a script I've been working on for about 10 years now (and counting), a few days ago...(this is NOT the first draft; I no longer have the first draft, actually - it disappeared from a floppy disk I had it stored on...).  Not only did I write these pages, I managed to think a bit more about WHAT I was writing...took longer, but why invest any time at all if you're not doing it right?  Haste?  That's the best reason you got?  Yeah, me too...

And...my mom was in a very good mood, it seemed, and she bought me coffee, and I ate two polish dogs with some money she gave to be "just because" and managed to keep from eating more later...the timing of the polish dogs eating was a bit early, but I had an early breakfast and lunch, so it fit right in.  My mom got a gift for my sister that she sent Priority Mail... and I was happy for her and my sister for that.

oh, and I got a package i was expecting in the mail.  a CD I ordered from Amazon that I'm actually thinking I'll keep since the day I got it was so sweet and...it's not too shabby of a CD, really...

Open to ignorance

I heard from my mother that the ACLU is now on a rampage against using the phrase "Merry Christmas" to express "wishes of happiness this holiday season". Of course, Christians feel offended by being told their ideology is offensive & that they should act accordingly, but since when does the ACLU control society? It doesn't. Never has. If someone says "Merry Christmas" to me, I don't even think of their religious beliefs. It doesn't bother me. Christmas is a nationally recognized holiday, even amongst people who have no interest in The Bible or spirituality. Of course, this also represents apathy, which is equal to ignorance in its danger, but I really don't see why the ACLU feels the need to push these things. If they wish to make the world more loving and true, why don't they begin a publishing company to promote books that represent their ideas? Those who refuse to read them or can't read them will at least hear about it/them, unless they are of the utmost close minded, which can't be changed...
Personaly, I think society is making its transition towards a universal religion without the ACLU coming up with new ideas like this. The transition has been subtle for the most part, and very slow moving. I think the ACLU's move in this instance could even be a step back.
Andy Rooney (sp?), or whatever that guy-who-rants-on-60MINUTES' name is, back shortly after the 9/11 attacks, indicated in one of his rants that on Sunday we act like there is only one God, then we go to work and deal with people whose beliefs differ from ours and have to get along with these people, so we adopt the idea that they may be right about their religious beliefs and we may be wrong about ours. To me, although not as true in smaller towns, reflects where society is at as of now in that regard. However, I'd rather have a world where people do the right thing because of their reverence or fear of God than have a world of anarchy. Ideally though, as I myself am proof of (or so I'd like to think...), it is possible to have a world where people do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. What worries me is the lack of discipline that a lot of people are being raised with; the expectations of children is increasingly low, even though their brain capacity is incredibly large and they soak up knowledge like a wet foot absorbs dirt; people are too short sighted to see a bad habit before it forms and prevent it, and worst of all, our main artistic outlets (movies, music, etc.) are suffering. 99.9% of movies are junk, more or less, and most of the other 0.1% would have benefited greatly from having more time to work on them to get all the kinks out. And the whole world is stuck with a 3/4 baked film that can't be fixed due to copyrights laws and greed.
Basically, the ACLU has a good idea in that people should choose their words carefully, and respect others' beliefs without forcing them to ponder "a better way", but to push that on people is a bit wrong, IMO. It's one thing where you have TV ads that prompt everybody to unite in reading The Bible and believing all of it and just disregard all other religious avenues, regardless of how central they may be to one's heritage or family practices, or put a ad on TV that says "Got Jesus? Just a question", as if the person saying "just a question" really wants an ANSWER TO that question, as opposed to some emotional or physical response, which would more likely than not be either a nodding of the head and "Yes sir, A men!" or a swirling of anger as they ponder why they are being asked that question when it is nothing more than a fork in the road - go North, or go South; either way you've made the wrong choice.

Review: DINOSAUR JR.'s 'BUG' (1988, SST Records)

With at least 10 million and counting copies of Nirvana's NEVERMIND and a not-quite-as-flattering sales rank for Counting Crows' 1st 4 CDs + their 2004 best of CD, the answer would seem "yes", at least if you go under my creative writing teacher's shallow philosophy that the point of making music to make money. I say this album tops anything the "alternative" era (phases 1) produced, including the majority of Dinosaur Jr.'s work of that era. But, honestly, perhaps music like this is just too intense, especially coming out of the synth pop/hair band regime of 1979-1990...maybe if radio stations played this ultra-sad rainy day album circa 2004 instead of continuing the by-then (& now) totally futile practice of payola, audiences outside of the internet could relish in this sweet beauty of a record. Payola, btw, may have done some good in an ironic sort of way back when hair metal needed Nirvana to shoot it down with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and the audience was gullible enough to buy into the record label's well placed nudges into the mentality that 'Nirvana is God', but since internet radio networks such as Pandora, Launchcast (which no longer has customizable radio, but it did last quite a while and was the first one I started using, personally) and LastFM and the Iraq War & 9/11 etc., people, generally, are a bit more 'in the know' about music in general, and 'indie' is actually seen to be a compliment rather than an insult, which was the not the case less than 5 years prior.

I once read a scathing review of Counting Crows' 3rd LP THIS DESERT LIFE claiming that the lead singer seemingly thrives on sorrow. Although I wouldn't say that Dinosaur Jr.'s lead singer/songwriter is a spoiled brat, or even intentionally imply that, I think he has a bit in common with Adam Duritz in the respect of the aforementioned scathing review's writer's reference to his state of mind. I haven't heard any of the new Dinosaur Jr. albums, so i don't know if J. Mascis (the lead songwriter) has found more to live for or not, but this album, in my opinion at least, does a far better job with its emotional content than that of the more concisely written however mild songs on Counting Crows' 1993 debut AUGUST & EVERYTHING AFTER. While sloppy and loud and noisy, it just about spills over with feelings of cold loneliness. The album differs from the short lived Joy Division - the ULTIMATE Prozac popper music - in the sense that there's a small ray of light, a sense of hope that things will get better.

One dude once said Kurt Cobain (lead singer/guitarist of Nirvana, who called home to the same record label as the aforementioned Counting Crows), was a J Mascia wannabe. Like I said, at the time this may have been too intense to sell to the former Madonna belly dancers of 1991/1992, but sometime after the Vietnam Conflict/War ceased to be the last "major war" the U.S. was involved in, and the "give peace a chance" state of mind of the nation gave way to a reluctant wake up call known as 9/11, and people's use of the internet became more heavily used than even most scientists could have predicted less than 100 years prior, I think this CD deserved a chance, a chance it would have perhaps got if the major labels weren't insistent upon trying to control the tides.

I didn't want you to think I was intentionally wasting your time...

http://www.somethingdifferent.tv/index.php

2 questions 1) how much is the cost of transferring 3 VHS tapes to DVD? 2) Do your DVDs come with cases?

I should have enough money to pay you for your transfer service by the 1st of Feb, or January if your DVDs come with cases, maybe sometime this month if I can get some stuff sold at my Amazon storefront. The films I DEFINITELY want transferred are

THE LAST UNICORN
& THE EXORCIST (the version we all HAVE seen, and have BEEN seeing long enough for it to technically be a classic...)
, and I already have E.T.

Might return to your aid when I have enough gumption and disposable income to get that KISS Animalize concert video, even though I'm not a KISS fan, I used to be...boy, 14 was some good times.

I owe my ex-land lord a ton of $ (he hasn't yet told me how much but I can only imagine while I wait for him to call me back...), so even though TLC & TX are only $8 apprx at Amazon's Marketplace, I only have about 1/7th of that, so I'll need to prepare. CultCine has Gregg Araki's nowhere fortunately, and I really mean fortunately b/c it's over $20 just to buy the tape at Amazon - used.

Sorry if this email is too long...

~Jonathan