that I will never be an astronaut
Im am either too short, too fat, will be too old, or will never have enough money.
I have however been weightless before, and I can at least kick back in my chair cruising the cosmos from the relative safety of my very own studio. My latest trip was to Titan, where I plan on eavesdropping on the atomosphere sometime at the beginning of 2005. Until then I will just have to make due with the wonderful supply of pictures and information waiting for me at the jpl homepage of the Cassini-Huygens probe.
Lucky folks in the states who can get NASA-TV got to watch the flyby on TV over the last couple of days. I only have KABSI which offers a wonderful selection of local programming, but I had to rely on my computer for CASSINI coverage.
Aside from the Titan shots, you can check out some pretty cool pics of Saturns rings, some audio of the radio signals they send out and loads of other tasty treats.
Newspapers are announcing who they support, celebrities are getting political, and one very large, well armed country is getting ready to discuss their political differences with each other.
Welcome to election time.
This has been a truly amazing race. Conservative punks have come out of the woodwork, Michael Moore became a millionaire, an extremely conservative newspaper has announced their support for Anybody But Bush and now Marshall Mathers has found his soul as a protest singer.
The second single from his latest album is titled Mosh, the video appears to have just been released on the 26th, and it's very, well, political. Sort of. Lyrically, it's about equivalent to your average anti-Reagan track from any forgotten hardcore band. The video is sort of cool though, and it's most likely going to be seen by waaaaaaay more people than any of those ancient eighties tracks.
Well, in 1977 in a split level rambler in a Suburb of Minneapolis to be more precise, I discovered something that would change my life. I was playing star wars with my best friend. We should have been in his room, but we were bored, his brother wasn't home, and there was a big sign on his brothers bedroom door that said Keep Out.
I was 8 and an only child. I had never seen a real teen-agers room until that day.
It was almost boring. No star wars stuff. No comics. Not a dinosaur to be seen. Just piles of dirty clothes, lots of strange looking posters, and thousands of records. Maybe it was only hundreds. I don't really know.
Now as an 8 year old, I already had a small record collection. I had inherited my fathers 45's, a stack of about 50 records, mostly Elvis, with some Jerry Lee Lewis and other early rockers whose names I know longer remember. I had a Star Trek album, one story album about Peter Pan, a Bonanza Record (Hoss Rocked!) and the soundtrack to the Yellow Submarine. I thought it was cool that a cartoon actually brought out a whole big LP.
I was clueless.
My friend's brother wasn't though. He had been hanging out at a local record store that was owned by a guy who had spent some time in London. The record store owner had friends who sent him John Peel's show on tape. He frequently used that to look for new music to stock, which then went on his own promo tape that could be listened to at the store.
It wasn't until I was old enough to go downtown that I would begin to free myself from the musical umbilical chord in my friends brother bedroom. I was still being fed by John Peel though. Something I didn't even realize until I had come to Austria and moved into an apartment with some interesting folks, including one extreme music freak, Peter Rehberg.
Living with Peter taught me everything I knew about music from the early nineties. Hell, it taught me a lot about bands I had enjoyed for ages. It also taught me about John Peel. 13 years after my first exposure to John Peels Influence, I heard his voice. I also began to realize that no matter who I had been getting my music from, Mr. Peel had been behind most of it.
Sort of six degrees of Kevin bacon, just enjoyable.
I have two links for you then. One is Mr. Peels homepage on the BBC, and the other is a pretty nice collection of links to music featured on his show and other Peel resources including a list of his festive fifties from 1976-1999.
That yearly event to let the watchers know we know we are being watched, is about to happen. Tomorrow night in flex you can check out the event, emceed by Hubsi Kramar, featuring some of the most offensive observers and a pretty good live act, Wie Spät.
If you still want your voice to be heard as well as observed, get on over to the homepage to take part in the Volkswahl. You can also find out more about the awards, the ceremony, and the offenders as well as find links to some of the other awards across the globe.
Wien | 29.10.2004 | 10:39 
