Howlin' Wolf - Howlin' for my Baby

Ok, so the 'Tube is good for one thing.  Napster was audio only; YouTube gets some really happening visual information tacked on sometimes.  Like this Howlin' Wolf "video."  Home movies is more like it.  Where do they get this stuff?  Couldn't tell you, but in this case it sure is great. 

Travoltas - Sorrow (Bad Religion Cover)

Pretty good song, I'm not familiar with Bad Religion.  This is a cover by the Travoltas, whom I do know, and love. 

More typically a semi-frenetic Punk-Pop band, the Travoltas are Dutch, or were, they went inactive in 2006.  I discovered them on the late, much lamented Napster in about 2000.  Napster was so great, I still miss it almost every day.  The 'Tube is pretty good now, but you could BROWSE on Napster.  I had a list of six or eight users that I really respected, and I could check their lists all the time to see what they had that was new.  I found a lot of great shit that way.  I don't think there's anywhere to do that anymore. 

I've said it before:  Napster was the greatest advance in music since the invention of the piano forte.  One can only hope that we will ever see its like again. 

Soulphisticate, I still love you baby. 

A Nice Wedding

I attended a nice wedding last evening.  For a change, the bride was actually the most beautiful woman there.  She's a prof at my university. 

A small gripe: what's with this new fashion in men's suits?  Everyone from Ryan Seacrest to Mr. Tom, Dick and Harry all over the world is wearing these tiny, tiny suits.  They're all over the award shows.  The pants and the jackets are so tight that you wonder how they can breathe, and the jackets are short, short, short.  They don't look good on anybody, and fashion be damned, isn't looking good still the goal?  Just another reason to hate fashion I suppose. 

To Nite My Love

For those of us who struggle with Thai, English words spelled in the Thai alphabet are a constant source of enjoyment.  Thanks everybody!

This is a "massage and entertainment" place in Bangkok named "To Nite."  Pardon my unseemly delight. 

Mobile Buddha Delivers

This truck and its sacred passenger were outside my local mall last week.  Some of the faithful took small vials of water and poured them over the Great Man's shoulder. 

I'm not a religious man, but if I were this is the way I'd go.  The Buddha part, not the truck.  Buddhism has no strange or impossible directives, no disagreeable prohibitions.  It's more of a way of life than a religion, in Thailand anyway (and Lao, Cambodia, Burma and Sri Lanka). 

New Fashion Motorcycle In Bangkok

It's hip, it's new, it's some kind of Kawasaki.  Is it comfortable?  Is it practical?  Is it fast?  Those things I couldn't tell you. 

You see a lot of them now in BKK, it's mostly young men riding them.  It's not a toy, it's got a 100 cc engine at least, and those can move you along just fine if they are tuned carefully.  Check out the brakes, the frame, etc.  It's all there, just a little bit smaller than usual.

Definitely couldn't picture myself riding one around though, I should probably make that clear. 

The Self-Google

I just Googled myself, a sure sign of a weak mind with too little to do.  Oddly, Google was sure, absolutely sure, that I meant to find information on one "Fred Keeley."  "Did you mean Fred Keeley?"  And at the page bottom, suggestions for Fred Keeley. 

This is a nightmare of a certain sort.  All of my life, people reading my name have mistaken me for a Fred Keeley.  I heard that a million times when some teacher or official came to my name on a list.  "Fred, er . . . Keeley?"  No, it's Fred Ceely, thank you, as in "Sealy," which spelling would have made things easier. 

Not a bad showing though, my Googling.  Interesting that as much comes up for "Fred Ceely" as for "fredceely," an Internet shorthand that I tend to use.  I Google names from my past sometimes and often there's nothing there at all.  True, most people have names that are more common than mine, so the Google is diluted.  Still, for me, things came up right near the top that I could be proud of.  So that's good.