The question is: which era?

Deme is adding Larry Hagman to my celebrity mix. Discuss.

Ooh-Papa-dah!

Its official! I'm adding Dizzy Gillespie to Adel's Celebrity Mix

Welcome To TV Carnage--'I'm Not Working For McDonalds'

from an underground series called 'tv carnage.' WARNING: DO NOT WATCH WHILE ON HALUCINEGENICS

You Watch Me Talk Goodnight

Stick with this please...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Wait a Second....

.....Wally Phillips wasn't already dead?

Hump day Jam

Who knows what the Jackson's last Top 10 hit was? It was....wait for it.....

"State of Shock", featuring Mick Jagger. Michael's vocals are pitch-shifted into chipmunk range, but that doesn't keep this from being a killer track. Everyone remembers the Mick/Tina collab at Live Aid, but the original is better, I'd venture.

Rumor has it that it was originally recorded by Michael and Freddie Fucking Mercury.

Now that I want to hear.

"State of Shock" - The Jacksons featuring Mick Jagger

MD-80 notta so greaty

Click Here for The Story

Did Billy Write This?

Dr Pepper Will Give Everyone* in America a Free Soda If Axl Rose Releases New Guns N' Roses Album, Chinese Democracy, In 2008



*Guitarists Slash and Buckethead Will Not Be Eligible For Free Soda

PLANO, Texas, March 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Tired of a world in which
Americans idolize wannabe singers and musicals about high schoolers pass as
rock 'n roll music, Dr Pepper is encouraging (ok, begging) Axl Rose to
finally release his 17-year-in-the-making belabored masterpiece, Chinese
Democracy, in 2008.

In an unprecedented show of solidarity with Axl, everyone in America,
except estranged GNR guitarists Slash and Buckethead, will receive a free
can of Dr Pepper if the album ships some time -- anytime! -- in 2008. Dr
Pepper supports Axl, and fully understands that sometimes you have to make
it through the jungle before you get it right.

"It took a little patience to perfect Dr Pepper's special mix of 23
ingredients, which our fans have come to know and love," said Jaxie Alt,
director of marketing for Dr Pepper. "So we completely understand and
empathize with Axl's quest for perfection -- for something more than the
average album. We know once it's released, people will refer to it as "Dr
Pepper for the ears" because it will be such a refreshing blend of rich,
bold sounds -- an instant classic."

Show your support for Axl and get on the nightrain of encouragement at
http://www.chinesedemocracywhen.blogspot.com -

About Dr Pepper

Dr Pepper is a leading brand in the beverage portfolio of Plano,
Texas-based Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages (CSAB), a subsidiary
division of Cadbury Schweppes plc (NYSE: CSG). CSAB is one of the largest
producers of soft drinks and premium beverages in the Americas. CSAB's
brand portfolio includes Dr Pepper, 7UP, Snapple, Accelerade, Mott's Apple
Juice and Sauce, RC Cola, A&W Root Beer, Sunkist Soda, Canada Dry, Hawaiian
Punch, Schweppes, Diet Rite, Clamato, Mr & Mrs T Mixers, Holland House
Mixers, Rose's, Mistic, Yoo-hoo, Orangina, IBC, Stewart's, Nantucket
Nectars and other well-known consumer brands. For additional information on
CSAB and its products, visit http://www.brandspeoplelove.com.

Are You Directing Me?

Uke Aquatica!

Its getting to be that time again, Lake Effectors. Grab your Uke and dive into your repertoire of songs relating to water, in any of its forms. The next show is Saturday Night, May 10, at Silvies of course.

See you there!

Simo, doesn't this look like Kevin?!

Harry Bailey (always had a crush on him)

I Officially Pronounce "John Adams"

Hilarious.

It also time for all of us to admit that the Founding Fathers were some of the most strangely dressed people in recorded history. Seriously - what people of any era wore clothes that were less functional, more frilly, and altogether...unusual?

KB Fay's Closet raid-Howard & Friends

A Rainbow of Color

Tonight on "Dancing With the Walrus"

1. "Smooth Criminal" is still a jam
2. NOT a tribute to Neil Aspinall

John Adams

Is anybody watching this? I mean, except me? Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's good/bad, but only rarely is it bad/bad. Check out this picture of David Morse as George Washington:




I mean, that's comedy.

Good Friday Calls For Ween

This deliriously filthy nugget comes from last year's La Cucaracha. My favorite couplet:

"I'd love to be your ass shaker/Stick it up in your ass
I'm gonna be your lawnmower/And cut your fuckin' grass"


Ween - "With My Own Bare Hands"

On that note...

Have you fucking seen this??!!!!

Suicide Killer Robot

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article3591734.ece

"It was a big black thing about 9" long"

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/03/20/bayles.uk.rat.tiolet.itn

Happiness Pie

I'll cop to looking a little like Bruce McCollough in exchange for making the rest of you watch clips from the Kids in The Hall movie, Brain Candy.

And if you don't remember, the plot of the movie revolves around Gleemonex, a drug that makes everyone happy, including previously angry rock stars:

More Muppets

Now I'm obsessed. Here's another song by the Muppets featuring Beaker on vocals and Animal on drums. Watch until the end where Animal joins in on some backing vocals.

Beaker's Belated St. Paddy's

courtesy of BA's Blog

Celebrity Mix Update

Bruce McCulloch of Kids In The Hall figures prominently in Tony Bianchi's mix.

Discuss.

And It Shows

Biche and Ella flew Delta yesterday, the home airline of the SLC. They claimed to have never heard this particular sound clip, which was an interweb classic around 2001-ish.


Delta Spot

Somebody Gonna Get Pregnant

The Winner takes it All, The Drummer takes a Fall

"Watch This!"

MADRID - A former drummer for 1970s Swedish pop group ABBA, Ola Brunkert, has been found dead after an apparent accident in his house in Mallorca, Spanish police said on Monday.
Brunkert bled to death from a throat wound which police suspect was caused after he accidentally smashed a pane of glass, a spokeswoman for the Civil Guard police said, adding that authorities were awaiting the result of an autopsy.
The official Web site of the band said Brunkert was possibly the only instrumental musician to appear on all the albums released by the band. Abba's two male and two female vocalists were among the world's best-known faces in the 1970s with hits including "Waterloo" and "Dancing Queen."

Cuz You're So Great and I Love You

With so many Lake Effectors out in the Vay Gay I thought I would step up to the plate and make some posts. I pulled this CD out the other week and it's been in my car getting played on repeat since. Obviously it has the humongo hits "Bettlebum" and "Song #2" (WHOO HOOO), but I just love this one track in particular. I'm convinced Damon Albarn got his mind blown by GBV's "Bee Thousand" and this was his homage/version of a super low-fi indie pop nugget.

Enjoy Vegas gang! David texted last night to say he was up $100, which means he is down $60. As Wesley Snipes says "Always Bet on Black!" or was that "Never pay taxes on them shitz!"


http://download.yousendit.com/D90040CB17246E28

We Are The Japanese World

First, We'll Take Manhattan

The Stars Come Out in NYC

Beware-Serious Namedropping to Ensue

David Singer & Band arrived in New York last Friday ready to paint the town.

The boys arrived late and went to meet Paul & Liza for drinks at a bar above Orso, where they were seated behind Morley Safer and across from a bearded Brian Cox.

A torrential rain storm came on saturday, but that didn't keep the D&M from standing in line to get into the Biennial Exhibit at The Whitney Museum, which was astoundingly good! After a short rest, the gang headed over to broadway to watch August, Osage County, the score for which David had written, and members of the band had recorded. On the way to our seats, we passed an extremely irate Alec Baldwin, yelling at someone on his cell phone!

The show was great, and it was a surreal and exhilarating feeling to hear the very music that David had written and we (in part) had recorded back in a Chicago studio coming up at us from the Broadway stage! After the show, we went to a party downtown where Paul & Liza were staying, thrown by members of the Cohen Brothers production team, where Joey "You'd Know him if you saw him" Slotnick was in attendance.

Joey Slotnick

Sunday night was the main event, a show for David and the band at Joe's Pub!
Despite a few minor technical difficulties the band had a great time playing, and the "this is your life" audience seemed to have a swell time too. Sitting right in fromt of the stage was none other than the pixie-ish Soviet Born, bronx bred singer, songwriter and pianist Regina Spektor!



After the show, the band and company took over a bar in the east village and celebrated until the wee hours. We hope to be back soon!

Here's some vid

Jarvis Vs. Jughead

This is exactly why Al Gore invented the internet.

Pulp - "Common People"

My Hero

Colbert's singing is the shiz.

This is what's getting me through the day

Monday at LaGuardia

I drank so much the night before it gave me Guzmania.

Advice To Mrs. Spitzer

Ancient Gossip Hag Cindy Adams weighs in from the moral high ground of the NY Post -

March 12, 2008 -- NO way to write today about the Lindsays, Parises, K-Feds, Katies, Toms, Nicoles or whocares. No body cares about anything except New York's Gov. Must be something in the water in the Northeast because we've managed to upend three governors - McGreevey of New Jersey, John G. Roland from Connecticut and now Spitzer the shpritzer. But while the world addresses his situation legally and politically, I want only to address his wife.

I want to tell her - so what. She may not longer be New York's first lady, but a husband hooking up with a hooker is not reason enough to no longer be a married lady.

Sex, a primal need, outpoints fear, hunger and love as mankind's No. 1 driving force. Unless you're a pig or a monk, many an able-bodied - and I use that term deliberately - 48-year-old husband of 21 years has grazed. I'm not advocating it. I'm merely saying, so what? It's like takeout food. Less work for mother.

In Louisiana it's the currency. In Nevada those odds beat the tables. In DC it's a revolving door. In California they marry the hookers. In France he becomes president.

A man who adores a woman enough to make his family with her and wants her forever as No. 1 in his life in a drawing room or dining room might also respect and treasure her too much for what he wants in a bedroom.

Paying a pro isn't disrespect to his wife. Disrespect is keeping, supporting, housing a mistress with whom there's an ongoing relationship and with whom you share not only time but emotions and thoughts and life. Disrespect is dumping into a trash bin that partner, long out of the workforce after giving her all including her youth, to marry whatever new twinkie works your male menopausal pinky. This "f - - - ing steamroller" didn't do either. If he did, it wouldn't be enough for his wife to hate him - we'd all hate him.

George Washington buried his wooden teeth in ladies other than Martha but, predating the Internet, texting, computers, cellphones and cable TV, his itch was kept quiet. Grover Cleveland's illegitimate son fostered this 1884 ditty: "Ma, ma, where's my pa; gone to the White House, ha ha ha." Married Warren Harding laid on so many mattresses he could've died of bedsores. There was a little Andrew Jackson stickiness. And Eleanor Roosevelt's social secretary Lucy Mercer took more than dictation. She took FDR.

Forgetting Bill Clinton, there was Dwight Eisenhower and his WWII driver Kay Summersby, who went riding even out of the car. JFK? Please. I mean, please. Jackie supposedly knew about Judith Exner, Angie Dickinson, Marilyn Monroe and the cast of thousands. Lyndon Johnson's healthy appetite was never satisfied by Angus beef. Jimmy Carter and his peanut? We know he actually said he'd "committed adultery in my heart many times."

The one-time candidates? Womanizer Wendell Wilkie? Newt Gingrich, who had an affair then divorced the missus then had an affair then divorced the second wife who was suffering from cancer. And 1988 gave us Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, who left Mrs. Hart home while he dandled and diddled Donna Rice and blew his election chances. And everyone knows about R. Giuliani.

The Bushes. Adulterous brother Neil zapped his longtime wife who bore him three children, Sharon.

And these holier than thous - besides the Catholic priest scandal, there's Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Jim Bakker, Rev. Ted Haggard and the heavy into family values Sen. Larry Craig, who's getting an airport bathroom named after him, and something named Livingston, who was forced to resign en route to becoming House speaker.

What exactly it is about men in power needing some extraspecial release, I don't know. I only know that sex - missionary style, whambamslam style, deviant or pristine - is so primal a force it has been known - as in the OJ and Robert Blake cases - to end up with the wife suddenly dead. But whereas these guys are free to golf, Spitzer's facing jail.

Look, with only addressing his situation humanly and personally, not legally or politically, the plain fact of handling your needs with a professional is a so what. It's maybe the only way out (or in) for those in the white-hot spotlight. In any case, not a reason to walk away from long-term marriage.

Probably the real reason for this highly intelligent woman to react with fierce anger is toward her husband's stupidity. He's Mr. Clean, who has himself wiped out prostitution rings. He's a law enforcer who knows from the Mann Act. Even apart from the headlined Joe Bruno and Dick Grasso and Hank Greenberg, he's made powerful enemies up the kazoo. So, who knows who tipped off whom?

I love Silda Spitzer. In truth, handsome, educated Silda might want to smack him. But leave him purely and simply because he grabbed a little sex on the side? Or wherever he grabbed it? Naaahh. If this lawyer wife really wants to get him, she might just cool it a few years then run for president.

Emitt Rhodes

Listen to this song. Would you believe that it isn't McCartney? It's actually Decatur, IL's favorite son Emitt Rhodes, who had a couple of minor hits and then disappeared. The long and interesting story is here.

Luke Singer hipped me to his stuff, and I've managed to BitTorrent his second record, 1971's The American Dream. Great songs, amazing arrangement. He had a song on the soundtrack of The Royal Tenenbaums too - Wes Anderson is cooler than all of us.

The internet hasn't just leveled the playing field between majors and indies, but also between new music and old music - 10 years ago, I never would have been able to find this.....

Emitt Rhodes - "Holly Park"

We Are The World Redux

Berthy sent me this....

The Google Challenge Continues

I didn't know she was a fan!

howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight

http://www.howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com/

15

Lenny Gets His

Lady in a Green Hat

If any readers of this Blog were trying to cross Damen Ave at Division St. against the light, this morning around 9 am as they tried to get into a cab ...

That was me in the silver Volkswagen (with a busted bumper) that almost hit you.

I am sorry, I should have stopped.

From A Mustang GT

CLICK HERE

Secret Artist?

Click here to see the creator.

Peeps at night

Ever heard of Google?

People, let's GO! Google each other, for chrissakes, it's right there and it's easy. I hereby challenge everyone to Google another Effector and post some funny result(s). I know, I'm asking for it, but there's some great stuff out there on us: pictures, quotes, blog stuff, dirt from our past...

Without furthur (I spelled it that way three times in a row, and it looks like Furher, so I'm leaving it) ado, as the initiator I will take the easy way out with an Adelstein hit that cracked me up.

It's...

Paul Adelstein's Natal Chart!!
(courtesy vegaattractions.com )

Three things about this: What the hell?...Who the hell?...WTF?!?

(begin)

DS & the SS in NYC

I wish for you all to collectively break a leg...or many legs, as the case may be.

Project Runway season finale (sigh!)

As an impassioned reality show-hater, I have surprised myself at how bummed I am that yet another season of Project Runway has come to an end. So, who watched it last night? Do you agree with the outcome?

Slackerville-The Intersection Between Art & Tourism

Jon Stein gives a history of Slackerville and Wicker Park

One of my duties as "consultant" is to come up with new tour ideas for groups visiting Chicago. I thought it would be cool to do an art tour from the perspective of a working artist, where the folks could learn firsthand about process, the gallery scene, etc. I asked Jon Stein to be the guide and he said yes.



Today was the first one and I just got back from Slackerville. It was quite a kick to see 45 seniors walking around the place, with all the memories of the mid-nineties craziness winking at me from every nook and cranny. Even Kiki was there, looking all of her 17 years.

When Bon Iver's highly anticipated album finally came out a couple weeks back, Quickdraw remarked to me that it reminded her strongly of Doris, but in eternal falsetto. I didn't hear it right away, but I now totally agree. This track for instance, would not sound out of place on Between You And Me.

DOWNLOAD FLUME

Do you Henley?

click here to enjoy
As I listen to my colleagues sing along to End of the Innocence by D. Henley, though I cringe, I must admit that I purchased a Henley 45 back in the day (as they say).

How do you indulge in the Hen? (Do you talk about forgiveness? DO you go down to the Sunset Grill?)

Google>Med School

Found while searching for sore throat remedies.....

2/6/2008: Brandon from Pasadena, Maryland writes: "Hello, today I got a bad sore throat and found this site. I'm only 15 so I don't have a lot of this crazy stuff people have laying around but I read about people using different kinds of hots, so I thought about things I have like that. A1 Steak Sauce (best stuff ever) came to my head. The way this work is, you get a table spoon and fill it with A1, then one by one drink 5-10 spoon fulls of it in a row very fast(between 5-8 sec between each spoon full), in about 3-7 min my throat stopped hurting. The measurements for this will probably varies for more or less server cases, and I don't suggest chugging the bottle. Only thing bad that happened is a bit of face sweating from the A1. ((And you'll have less sauce for your steak!!)) One more thing that could be important is, my A1 was cold, I know it adds something to it that I don't get from warm A1. So if your a steak guy, or a woman married to a steak guy, or a steak woman this is a great tasting cure for a sore throat."

Aneurysms Use Up TONS of Hit Points

Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Dies at 69

6:37 PM CST, March 4, 2008


Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and is widely seen as the father of the role-playing games, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69. He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.

Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies.

Gygax always enjoyed hearing from the game's legion of devoted fans, many of whom would stop by the family's home in Lake Geneva, about 55 miles southwest of Milwaukee, his wife said. Despite his declining health, he hosted weekly games of Dungeons & Dragons as recently as January, she said.

"It really meant a lot to him to hear from people from over the years about how he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, what he gave them," Gail Gygax said. "He really enjoyed that."

News Flash: Airborne Is For Suckers

From Salon.com....

One morning several summers ago, mortality drew me close. My nasal passages were inflamed, my mouth dry, my head heavy.

This cannot end well, I said to myself, and I visited the local apothecary in search of some salve. There, on the shelf, I beheld a small vial. It was decorated with images of sad souls like myself -- people pushed tightly against one another in airplanes and schools and offices, ugly, murderous germs passing freely between them. The vial promised salvation. Take this potion, it offered, and your ills will be remedied.

I did. And it worked! I did not get sick. And from then on, I was hooked. At the first hint of sickness, I would reach for this magical drink. They -- and by they, I mean Oprah, a fervent proselytizer -- called it Airborne, and everyone used it: A couple years ago, sales of the stuff reached $100 million a year.

But was I tricked? I did not get sick. But was it the Airborne that kept me healthy? Had I not taken it, would I have gotten better anyway? On further uses, I found the potion less effective. I'd drink some at the first rumor of illness. Half the time I'd get sick, half the time I wouldn't. So was Airborne working, or wasn't it?

It wasn't. In 2006, ABC News discovered that the "clinical study" that the company had been touting as proof that its product cured colds was not really very clinical, nor much of a study.

"There was no clinic, no scientists and no doctors," ABC reported. "The man who ran things said he had lots of clinical trial experience. He added that he had a degree from Indiana University, but the school says he never graduated."

That report sparked a class-action lawsuit. Now, while not admitting any wrongdoing, the company has agreed to settle the lawsuit, and it will offer Airborne customers a refund on sales, paying out $23 million.

You can claim your refund by filling out a form at this Web site. Airborne will refund the full price of all Airborne products for which you have a proof of purchase.

But if you don't have a receipt, you can still get a refund on up to six products. The company will give you $10.50 per box of Seasonal Airborne, $2.75 per box of Gummi Airborne, and $6.99 for all other Airborne products.

Since the ABC report, the company has laid off claims that its product "cures" colds. Now the word "cold" appears nowhere on its packaging, and the company's CEO, Elise Donahue, told ABC that "We don't know if Airborne is a ... cure for the common cold." Rather, she said, the product "helps your body build a healthy immune system."

The New York Times' Mike Nizza wonders if news of the settlement will hurt the company's sales. I'm going to wager the company stays healthy.

There's an attractive creation myth to Airborne. The product was created by a schoolteacher who was "constantly exposed to germs in her classroom." This story carries no medical proof, but it's got charm: Doctors have labored for years to cure the cold, but trust a get-down-to-business schoolteacher to figure it out.

Airborne can't hurt you, either. So maybe it doesn't always work -- you take it, and still get sick. What about the times it does work? Sure, maybe the effect is only placebo. But doesn't that still count?

If it only makes you feel as if you're feeling better, you're still feeling better.

And that's the bottom line. When you're feeling down, you want to take stuff that feels good for you. Airborne feels good for you (it tastes pretty good for you, too).

Informed about the settlement, one customer told ABC, "What's so deceiving about it? ... It's vitamins and stuff like that that's supposed to make you feel better and make sure you don't get sick, right?"

OMG!

War Kittens??!!!
ahhahahahhahahahah

Please watch this bit of advertising. (I guess those finance charges really boost the ad budget)

To interpret as you see fit.

A sudden and improbable rise to fame?

Soaring imagery and/or themes?

Rabid following among young college-educated types??

Yep, Arcade Fire & Obama, together at last!

... Arcade Fire, the popular indie-rock group who announced that the leading members would perform for [Obama] on Sunday at Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville [Ohio]. ... (Aides to Mrs. Clinton, distressed that a band with many fans at the Clinton headquarters would join the line of supporters heading into the Obama camp, pointed out that the band was Canadian; in fact, while its members live there now, they grew up in Texas.)

And that means nothing, of course, but have at it, Lake Effectors ...

Fright Flight

Terrifying...


HAMBURG, Germany - A Lufthansa jet carrying 131 passengers was caught by gusting wind as it tried to land during a storm, causing a wing tip to graze the runway before the pilot got the plane back off the ground, the airline said Monday.

The incident happened on Saturday as the Airbus A320 approached Hamburg airport on a flight from Munich.

Airline spokesman Wolfgang Weber said the plane was rocked by wind clocked at 155 mph as it tried to land.

The left wing grazed the runway for a moment, but Weber said the pilot was able to stabilize the aircraft and take off again in what he called an "absolutely professional maneuver."

The plane landed safely shortly afterward on its second attempt.

"It was a dicey situation," Weber said. "People were quite shaken."

"It is hard to describe — it went very quickly," passenger Hansi Kuepper said on n-tv television. He said there was silence on board for several minutes after the incident.

The plane went back into service Sunday after repairs, Weber said.

I Wish I Knew How To Quit You

Johnny Cash, as we all know, was an innovator. But is it possible he wrote about gay cowboys before Annie Proulx? Check out this beautiful song from "Johnny Cash and His Woman", which you can download in its entirety from the great Joe De Vivre blog I mentioned earlier.

Johnny and June Carter Cash - "Tony"