BLOG TO COMM

AIN'T NOTHIN' TO DO

Sorry there isn't much to today's post, but to put it mildly, I'm bored! Can't even get in the mood to write a review of some old gem I dug outta the collection and spun for the first time in twennysome years. Maybe it's the time of year bein' the Christmas season and all that's getting me down...now, back when I was a stoolboy I used to love getting away from the salt mines for the Christmas break and like any other normal uncultured brat I spent a good hunka the month of December anticipating unwrapping all the presents I was gonna get December 25th morn, but (sad to say) them days're gone forever. Now Christmas is nothing but the last "big event" of the year before I have to look forward to three more months of bitter cold, and at least those months were made merrier by the presence of not only high energy television but rock & roll and comic books to get all obsessed over as I froze my fat butt off! Maybe if Christmas was more like it was back in those golden days of fun trash growing-up suburban ranch house living...really, wouldn't it be great if us grown ups got two weeks off from work (with pay!) and just goofed around at the mall or over at someone else's house breaking their new toys and all that fun stuff??? I mean, I'd really love to spend Christmas Eve with the cousins just liked I usedta, joking around and turning on all of the lights and appliances tryin' to blow the fuses in order to rile up the old folks and eating and drinking until we got sick and staying up late watching some old movie on TV because it made ya feel like a big guy---real big kid stuff! And of course for Christmas we could get more of those goodies we wanted oh so bad as kids! I make it no secret that I'm hoping this year Santa'll leave me a whole buncha old MAD magazines and paperbacks, some classic Corgi Toys, a Mattel Vac-U-Form and of course that SUPERCAR model with the pre-patterned directional guide that I've been lusting after for as long as I can remember. Naturally I'll spend my Christmas dough at the mall browsing through the records in the import bin just like I did during my influential mid/late-teen years "pouring my money down a rat-hole" (as my dad used to say) on Monty Python and Amon Duul albums! Now if I can only get hold of Mr. Peabody and his Wayback Machine so's I can live my fantasies out and not just grumble about the real ghosts of Christmas Past like some post-modern Scrooge! At least when I was a kiddie Christmas meant something, and it wasn't this "peace on earth" drivel! It was pure, unadulterated GREED, goofing off and eating till ya burst, all of which we can use a lot more of these sissified days!

As for other things (non-Christmas related), right now I'm not only kicking about how to execute (key word) my year's end (perhaps literal) rundown but dreaming up ways as to how I could/should write about the new Albert Ayler HOLY GHOST box set which has been released on "John Fahey's" Revenant label a few months back (but Chrissy-come-lately has just received it---hey, it's not like I'm Rockefeller 'r anything!). My review of the pre-release sampler can be read here, but you'll have to wait for my epic-dimension treatise on the entire nine-plus CD set which not only comes in a genuine plastic box but includes a professionally-bound book, neat inserts and even a flower from Ayler's casket! I've only had the opportunity to wade through the thing and listen to two of the disques (don't wanna overdo myself all in one sitting!) but for an initial impression of this endeavor all I gotta say is that yeah, I'm glad it's out, but gee willikers I hate it! Well, not because of the music (of which I've heard so far is phenomenal), but because these box sets are so hard to access. Not only do the clumsy dimensions make it hard to store amidst the rest of the compost disques, but the entire packaging seems so fragile especially with the delicate paper sleeves that house the CDs...I feel like I should be using rubber gloves and handling this thing in that same hermetically-sealed room where the Bubble Boy used to live. It's not like I can just drag the thing out and slap in on the old whatever it is you slap CDs onto...when I get my copy of HOLY GHOST into my mitts I feel like I have to use the same sorta care one would give an original Gutenberg Bible! After I chew up and digest the whole thing spinning each disque a few times (and osmose the book and booklets while I'm at it) I'll give you a probably much-anticipated (right!) report you probably can't live without.

Other goodies are heading my way as well, and if there's something of value and worth for me to write about you can bet your bottom that I'll be scribbling a little or a lot about it more sooner than later. Hang in there, and if you have any old issues of ARCHIE'S CHRISTMAS STOCKING to send my way please do so, if only to get me into a real mid-Amerigan suburban brat mood for the next Holiday Season!