I’m Going To Throw Up

I’m Going To Throw Up

Please, please, please help me understand!

Why do bands/musicians take a perfectly (in most cases) good song and screw it up. What is the obsession with covering songs? Okay, I can understand when you may take a song that is not that good (maybe this is all relative) and you make it better or at the least, don't trash it. Apparently this is too much to ask for a lot of bands. I know that imitation is one of the highest forms of flattery or maybe the original musicians don't really own the songs and that is how they end up getting raped, for lack of a better term, by some girly hip-hop band.

I just recently listened to a cover of "Such Great Heights" - Postal Service, by some group, if you want to call them that, called Iron & Wine. Terrible (said like Charles Barkley for added effect)!!! Don't take a great poppy, electric, entertaining and up beat song and turn it into a funeral procession. Why, why, why must great songs be ripped from their original genre or worse yet, put on some commercial about mood enhancing drugs. I always used to hear that music was not for the money, but for the music. I don't think this exists any more. I am not a musician. I have no musical talent. I have not been on the inside of any bands or around the business, so I am not informed at the least. I still want to understand why this happens. Is it just about the money? Is it because you are flattered that someone likes your song that much? Is there some sort of musicians' code that makes you okay with this? What is it?

For those that cover songs. Is it because you are not able to come up with songs of your own? You want to create some early notoriety? I once heard a band say they did a cover, because they were a huge fan of the band/song they were covering. What the HELL!!! Are you serious!?! You just slaughtered the song of the band you claim to be a big fan of? WOW!!! If I were a fan, I would want to do some kind of justice to the song/band I say I am a FAN of!

Please someone help me obtain some answers. Are there any musicians or someone that is more in the "know" than I am, that can help me with this struggle? I just don't understand. I bet I am blind to a lot of cover songs that are played by some of my favorite bands, but at least they sound good. Is it just my own bias toward my favorite bands and musical tastes that makes me see past this? All I know is when I hear bad covers, I hear BAD covers. Please let me know what you think.

- Dr. Worm

Features

Starting the New Year off right, with a “cold”

HAPPY NEW YEAR... and then it hit me. I was enjoying a great New Year day. Slept in, kicked it around the house, and went to a movie, without a care in the world. Work the next day, but that is okay, because I am having fun. I felt fine, or so I thought. I bit of a scratch in the back of my throat and a runny nose, but it is just a cold. Wrong, wrong and wrong. The movie theater was a little cold. THE MOVIE THEATER WAS A LITTLE COLD!!! Oh cruel world! Why have you bestowed upon us such things as bacteria?

No sooner than I had exited the movie theater did the uncontrollable chill hit me. You know what I am talking about if you have ever had any spectacular illnesses. It’s the chill that will not go away. You pile on blanket after blanket and then lay there trying to convince yourself that this is not happening. I will just sleep it off. I have to warm up soon, right? Then your wife comes in, touches you on the head, and says you are on fire. Huh? I am freezing. Temperature is taken and it is way higher than it should be. Damn. Wife looks at throat and there are white spots all over it. DAMN. Time check; it is after ten at night. DAMN! Do we go to the doctor? Not a big fan of hospitals, but the decision is easy when you are shaking so bad you can barely stand and throat is so swollen you cannot talk. Off to the ER. Funny, didn’t I spend Christmas evening in an ER as well?

Covered in many layers of clothing and blankets, I felt like the kid from The Christmas Story (didn’t watch that this year, damn). I got in, filled out the paperwork, and they took me back to a bed rather quickly. Thanks to the nice nurse and her magic, heated blankets, seriously these blankets were awesome, I warmed up rather nicely. Took about an hour for a doctor to get to me, but I didn’t really care, because I was covered in magic blankets. The doctor took one look at my throat and said, “strep”. What I already knew, but did not want to hear. Straight penicillin was prescribed and I begged for something to take the pain and swelling from my throat. A couple Lortab and we were out of there.

I get dropped off at home, another trip through the freezing cold – should have asked for magic blankets to go - and my wife and sister in law are off to get my prescription. I don’t let my wife know enough that I love her. It is times like these that she truly needs praise. My wife is a super hero. I love her so much for helping me through this. She made me soup, brought me medicine, stayed up late with me and just put up with a whiny sick guy. Thanks sweetheart.

Well, it is three days latter and I am ready to do New Years all over again. This time without the ~GRAPHIC~ bloody phlegm balls, raw and savaged throat, having soup for every meal and forcible coach zombie syndrome (look it up). Today I actually went and got some solid food and a shake. I was very sick of soup. I have tried to do a little more today, not too much though, to get myself going again. I will have to have some fun this weekend, if I am up to it, and then it is back to work.

All in all, I consider this a great start to the New Year. Things can only get better from here. The ones I love the most, were there for me. That is the most important thing. I can always count on them and I will need more of it this year. So, I will start of the New Year with a “thanks”, not a whine, whimper or complaint. Thanks. Thanks for my newly found and increasing health. Thanks for my wife and family. Thanks for all that I have, because there are plenty of people who don’t have much. Oh, and (insert sound of phlegm being hacked up as throat clears) HAPPY NEW YEAR HIPPIES!!!!!


- Dr. Worm

Features

Reflections on laziness

Isn’t my life and that of my family pretty important? Is this a question I really need to ask? The answer to both of these is, yes. I have been thinking lately, about life, and what I will be in the future. To set some ground work, I will tell you what I am now, lazy. Yep, I am really lazy. I need lots of motivation and direction to do just about anything, unless it is something for me and I have a passion for. Why don’t you just find things or more things you are passionate about? Great question and I think I am trying to answer that right now. I have been pressing more and more into specific areas that I am interested in. Why specifics? You see, I am a man of many talents. A Jack of all trades, so to say. I am good at too many things I try and I try too many things. This creates a problem, in that I get bored or have too many things to do and never truly master anything. I am good at many, but master of very few. Is this a bad thing? Not in and of itself, but it does bug me. You see I bounce around with no real direction. Not sure what I want to do or who I want to be. Not saying I don’t know who I am as a person, because I do more than ever, just what I should make of it.

Why does laziness factor into this, because I have a lot of wasted time. I think I get overwhelmed and rather than vent this constructively, I let it out by becoming a lazy lump. I will watch TV, play video games and do several other non-constructive forms of entertainment. Not bad, as there are many other vices that could be worse, but still not what I want to continue doing. Maybe it is a mind body thing. I am pretty chunky lately and way out of shape. If my mind did not have to keep compensating for all of this, maybe I could turn things around. If anyone knows a good entry level work out routine, please let me know. I also find that laziness is a big impact to my relationship and home life. Why take out the trash, when I could be beating the Ice Castle? Why clean up the living room, when I could watch another episode of Myth Busters? Sigh, why not do all of this stuff first and clear the table of stress and wife backlash, then read a book or write something?

On top of all of this, I procrastinate. I almost did not write this last sentence, because I could do it later. I am wearing a shirt my wife gave me. Written on it is:

Top ten reasons I procrastinate:
1.

That is all. Funny, funny stuff! Lucky for me, my wife knows me and still loves me for who I am. More than that, she centers me. She always gets me to where I need to be. Whether it is through gentle persuasion or excessive use of force, she will bring me back down to earth. I love her so much, just for hanging in there.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, I will be losing my job I have had for the past seven years and it is time to move on. Will I get another job? Will I go back to school? Will I move to the country and become a Hill-Billy hippie? Who knows? These will all be things that will weigh heavily on my mind, going into next year, and neither laziness nor procrastination are going to be much help. Direction and clarity is what I need right now. What will I be going forward? Who knows, so just sit back and enjoy the ride?

Happy (Early) New Year!


- Dr. Worm

Features

They Might Be Giants: The Experience

Yeah, you have all probably abandoned this BLOG a long time ago. I need to update more often, but right now I have an event that must be BLOGed about. I had a once in a life time experience this past September and need to tell you about it. Yep, a once in a life time experience and I will now share it with y’all (going to start using this contraction).

I have to start from the beggining to really do justice to the story. It all started with news that my favorite band, They Might Be Giants, was going to be coming to my town. SWEEEEEEET!!! I was excited. We are lucky to get them every two years and I think we had waited that long or longer to get them to come this time. I have gone to every show I could, since I was 12. When I was 12, I went with my sister to my first concert of theirs. I was not tall enough to see the band. I had to stand on a chair and my sister convinced security to let me. I was 12 and that was back during better times. It was a life changing experience, but not the one I mentioned before. To wrap up this sub story, as the entire band was leaving the stage, I found myself in their path. I was a small 12 years old and was prepared to get moved aside, but that was not the case. The band stopped and shook my hand. The whole band! Then to my wonder and awe, my sister asked them to sign my shirt. I was expecting them to shoot her down. Nope, again I was amazed. The whole band signed my shirt. I wore that shirt into the ground. Not a good idea, in retrospect, but hey I was 12. This experience is what solidified my never ending love for this band.

Well, back to the main story. My favorite band is coming to town. YEEEEEESSS!!! Wait, there is even better news. The concert is free. Wow! The concert is FREE!!! I would gladly pay a pretty penny for tickets, but FREE!!! This is all too good to be true. Sadly, that was the case. It was too good to be true. The tickets to the concert were being distributed by a local radio station, 101.9 The End. I did not have anything against them, going into this whole thing. That would soon change. How hard can tickets be to get? It is a free show I just have to show up and get tickets, right? WRONG!!! I soon find out that in order to get tickets, I would have to perform insane tasks and getting tickets would be next to impossible.

You see, there are people who love to jerk people around. Maybe they don’t have a choice. Maybe they do it because they enjoy it. We have all been around it in some fashion or another. In our personal and work lives, we are always going to have to deal with these people. Then there are the people who take this whole process to the extreme. The term for them, is radio DJs. The worst of which, are those with 101.9 the end. Sure you can get tickets, just come on down to our remote location. Oh, you want to know where the remote location is, too bad. You must listen to our station. Okay, that is annoying, but I don’t care I will do anything for tickets. So I am off to Mordor, to get tickets. Oh, sorry you cannot just get tickets. We need to enter you into a drawing because we have a limited amount of tickets, but thanks for coming to Mordor. That sucks! Oh, you should easily be able to get tickets. We have plenty and everyone who enters into this drawing will get some. We will call you if you win. Okay fine, as long as I get tickets.

Wait, wait and wait some more. No call. No tickets. Listen to the radio more. There has to be another way to get tickets. Radio is terrible. The DJs are terrible. I wanted to hurt myself several times. Okay, not a big deal. Hey, anyone that wants tickets plays our games and wins them. Keep listening to our ridiculous show and you can win. If you can swallow a gallon of water while tap dancing on a 3 inch wide pole, you can win too. Crap!

After all of this and still not being able to get tickets, I gave up. Yep, I gave up. Yeah, I know. You say that if I really am such a true fan I would go through anything. Well, I had to draw the line somewhere and I reached the line. I consented to not being able to see my favorite band when they came to town. I had one last act to admit everything was over and come to grips with my situation. I posted a comment on the TMBG MySpace site and told them what I thought of the situation. How I probably would not be able to go to the show. Whiney? Maybe, but I am not one to whine. Just getting the facts out and pleading my case. I did not post it with the intention of getting anything out of it, or even expecting them to care. I seriously did not think I would get a response at all. It was just my last way of giving in to defeat.

A week passes and that is when things take an interesting turn. I get a message back from the TMBG MySpace people. They ask simply what is happening with the SLC show. I reply with a little more description than what I put in the MySpace comment. Again, I don’t feel I am being overly whiney. Another week passes and they reply that I need to send an e-mail to one of the main TMBG accounts. Of course I am not going to give it out here and if you asked I would not give it either. I email this new account, copying information from my last e-mail, and send it on. Within a day or so I get an e-mail that says something to the effect of “you are on the list”. Okay, but I have never been “on the list” and what is this all about. I reply back just asking for a little more info. They tell me that if anyone gives me any trouble at the show, talk to the tour manager and tell them that I, plus one guest, are on the list.

This is pretty sweet, but I am still pretty skeptical given the entire process I had gone through. Several weeks pass by and the day of the concert arrives. I am traveling with a friend who happens to be listening to the above mentioned radio station. What to our wondering ears would they say? Oh, we have a lot of left over tickets that we are giving away. We did not give away enough of them so there are plenty of extras. ASS HATS!!! You put everyone through all this shit, claiming that you would not have enough tickets, only to find out you poorly miss managed the whole thing and now have excess on the day of!!! Did I already say ASS HATS!?!

Quickly I call my friends and family that have been suffering along with me, so they are aware of the situation. They hurry and go to the location, as I am still far away from the area. I tell them to get my wife and myself two tickets, because I want tickets in hand, in case “the list” thing does not work out. Besides, they have plenty of tickets left over. I arrive at the venue and they were able to get two tickets for us. Sweet, we are going no matter what. We are hanging with our friends in line and are just happy to know we get to go to the show. Then another twist. The band is about an hour late and we are all still standing in line. Crap. Well, should we test the list thing? What is the worst that can happen, since we already have tickets in hand?

We walk up to the VIP line, which had just barely cleared out. Go up to the desk there and tell them that we are “on the list”. The lady at the counter looks at us kind of funny and like we are from another planet. She starts checking lists and asking us if we are from the media or part of the band crew. We say no and she keeps looking. Then I say, “They told us to talk to the tour manager and let them know we are on the list.” She says, “Oh, you must mean the BAND list.” She turns around and gets a small list, maybe four to five names on the list, and asks for my name again. There I am! Top of the list! The lady completely changes. All smiles now. Here is your VIP pass. “Would you like to attend the meet and greet with the band?” Uh, yeah!!!! Gives me a special sticker to meet the band and hang out until they arrive.

We get to sit in the private bar and eat tasty food. The owner of Ken Garff auto comes and shakes our hands and thanks us for being there. My wife and I are having an awesome time. We are on cloud nine, but that is not even the best of it. After waiting about a half hour to forty-five minutes, the band arrives. They announce to everyone in the bar that if you want to meet the band, then to go to the room next door. We go in and they have several gifts for us, including a TMBG foam finger. After we get our gifts and hob knob with the pretty people, it is time to get autographs. The band signs the said foam finger and the VIP passes we got. They also allow us to take pictures with them. My wife pulls out the trusty camera phone; thank goodness we had that, and she snaps some photos. Flans put his arm around my wife. I sat next to Linnell and he told me not to spill his coffee. Did I hear that correctly, Linnell told me not to spill his coffee? WOW!!! The band was great. They were really nice and patient as everyone badgered them for photo shoots and autographs. They were real champs about the whole process.

After the meet and greet, everything else was gravy. We could not come back down from our high. The concert was incredible. They did not disappoint. I had my doubts given the free concert status, but they rocked the house. The venue was great. We were so dazed from our VIP experience that we did not even sit in the VIP section. We stayed with our friends in the back of the venue and had a great time. I would have probably liked that better than the VIP section anyway, but it did not matter, we got to meet the band! They played all of our favorite songs. I don’t think they left a single song out that I wanted to hear. Great stuff! So great, that I have since purchased the concert from the TMBG website. I can relive the experience. Well almost, since I cannot meet the band again when I listen to it.

Jealous does not even describe how everyone felt about our experience, but I did not rub it in anyone’s face. Nothing could taint that night. Nothing could make it less of an incredible time. To top it all off, I used a trick that Flip taught me and was able to escape with a set list. SWEEEET!!! After the concert we bought our shirts, CD’s, etc… Flip and I took a moment to do some weird poses outside the venue and then it was off to home, so we could soak in the greatness of what just happened. Here are the pictures of the stuff we received. Also, I have included the pictures of us with the band.

Thank you TMBG!!! Thank you TMBG MySpace people!!! Thank you TMBG crew and tour people!!! Thank you sponsors for paying for the free show!!! You all came together to make this a great show and a once in a lifetime experience. I went from thinking there was no way I would be able to attend this concert, to getting the VIP treatment. I will never forget this and you have further solidified my love for this great band. Thank you!!!



- Dr. Worm

Features

Indie Pop/Rock

As promised, here is my radio station for Indie Pop/Rock bands. I still am not sure what it is about this kind of music that makes me like it so much. Maybe that it is so different and out there. I really like music that has several layers and depth. Not noise necessarily, but structured layers and components. More than just a song, but something that is built up. Maybe it just makes me happy and I am a sucker for music that lifts the spirits. The lyrics are usually simple. Not a whole lot of thinking required. My wife says it brings out the inner 12 year old girl inside me. I have never really been a big fan of pop music, well most anyway. This is more than that, though. Not pop, not rock, not techno, but something in between.

Okay, enough with the rambling. Here is the station. Again, I have tried to weed out the stuff I did not like, to leave the good bits. Have it a go and let me know what you think. I didn’t have any responses on my last post, so step it up hippies.

Great bands of note:
Architecture in Helsinki – Thanks Flip. I really like this band.
Psapp
New Buffalo
Stereolab
Playradioplay
Ms John Soda – “tidy up my binary” – I’ll tidy up your binary!
The Blow
Yo La Tengo – have not listen to it much, but liked what I heard – really different stuff
The Postal Service

There are many others, so just listen to the station.

- Dr. Worm

I love Celtic music. I really love the sound of female Celtic singers. More than that, I love Celtic Rock and Celtic Punk bands. Using the awesome power of Pandora, a great online music site, I have been able to expand my base of bands exponentially. I have created a great little station and weeded out most of the crap I didn’t like. There are a bunch of great bands in this station, so enjoy (Click Here).

Some bands of note:
Flogging Molly – My first taste of Celtic Punk and will always be my favorite. Their live shows are awesome!
Oysterband
The Real McKenzies – Not those stupid fake ones
Dropkick Murphys
The Young Dubliners
Street Dogs
The Elders
Carbon Leaf

I know a few of you may have already heard of most of these bands, but if that is the case why didn’t you share with me. Hippies, every last one of you! Well give them a go. Listen to my Pandora Radio station.

Next time, some Indie Pop and Indie Rock!

Later hippies

- Dr. Worm

Features

The Bed Bugs (Day Three)

You know that instinctual reaction that you get when someone mentions Head Lice, Leeches, Tics or any other fun parasite? Your skin begins to crawl, you get goose bumps all over and your mind plunges you into an indescribable paranoia. You itch all over and it never really stops until your mind is some how put at ease by finding out that you do not have any of these parasites. We have all been there; admit it. No one likes these things and as a result our brain goes into a panic state that is hard to put at ease. Well, welcome to my recent hell.

My work, which is a very, very big building, recently made it known on Friday that we have a Bed Bug infestation. Five, yes FIVE, cubicles were completely covered in the little buggers and it took about a week, reportedly, to reach this state. It was said that when the maintenance crew went to assess the situation, they were getting covered in them. Yep, you heard me correctly. Fortunately, I sit on the other side of the building from this main outbreak. This, by no means, has put any of my nerves at ease. I few bugs spotted here, a few there and a cube mate stating one crawled across her foot are a few of the things we have to deal with. Yeah, this could be peoples' minds playing tricks, or their own paranoia induced responses. The mind is a funny thing.

I will tell you right now, I better not get an infestation of these things in my house or cube. All of the above is serious. This is no lie. An old cube mate of mine got an outbreak of these in his apartment and it nearly drove him insane. They sprayed the building over the weekend, and reportedly last night. Will that fix the problem? Are they still wondering the building? They lay about 5 eggs a day, can go nearly 7 months without eating and can hide in any space that a credit card will fit. Exterminators have said that they, next to termites, are the most difficult pests to get rid of. That is just what I want to hear as I am trying to scratch my skin off.

When you think about how bad your job may be or you are just sick of work. Just think about that itch on the back of your leg. Is it just an itch? Things could be a lot worse.

Sleep tight hippies and don’t let the Bed Bugs bite.

- Dr. Worm

Features
Drive your self crazy with this Bed Bug information: (Click Here).