Up the Tree

  • NY sky

    Tom Whitehouse, my sweet and eggplant shaped grandfather peacefully passed away in hospital today in Petersfield, one day before his 93rd birthday.

    He was a sweet little man with more wrinkles than a bloodhound, long sleve shirts buttoned to the top, glasses thinker than the bottom of milk bottles, and a voice smaller than a shout – yet louder than a whisper. My granddad was a rockstar of an old man.

    Whenever people would ask about my granddad I would tell them that my Tom had two identical black Casio watches, one on each wrist. They would stare at me for a moment – wondering why. Thinking up long explanations, balancing delicate psychoanalytical diagnoses, or making connections between my granddad and I. Ultimately asking “Why?” as I had when I noticed the two watches 10 years ago. Tom had turned to me beaming.

    “You see, I have these two programs that I like to watch on the tele. The left one’s alarm goes off for the first show and the right for the second. That way when I’m sleeping I’ll be sure to watch my programs. Would you like one? I’ve got another 6.”

    I wish him the best of luck, wherever he next calls home… I hope they have black Casio watches.

    Bye Tom.

  • p=. Download me to your iPod

    Ah show 11. The first show of 2005 with Josiah – a celebration of our mutual love of talking about nothing.

    *Played on today’s show*

    # You’re Fired – “Jon Sebastian”:http://www.jonsebastian.com/ – Dreamsicle
    # The Staunton Lick – “Lemon Jelly”:http://www.lemonjelly.ky/ – Lemon Jelly
    # Broken – “Buddahead”:http://www.buddaheadmusic.com/ – Crossing The Invisible Line
    # EPISODE #1: “Where It All Begins Again” – Grant Baciocco & Dougg Price – “The Radio Adventures Of Dr. Floyd”:http://www.doctorfloyd.com/
    # Growing Up With GNR – “Aqueduct”:http://www.aqueductisgoodmusic.com/ – I Sold Gold

    *In the Cast*

    * Please send us your vote over at “Podcast Alley”:http://www.podcastalley.com/
    * Staunton Lick with “Loft 405”:http://www.loft405.com/blog/ Remix

    Peace.

  • This week has been way too much for me. All the projects in 2004 have gone critical in 2005. Everything went terribly wrong while I was away on my lazy week vacation and now god is making me pay.

    *Seems like I never had a vacation to begin with.*

    Then, to compound things, Funtime Diane gets sicker than a dog and is bed ridden and needs me to prepare foods, prop her up, open boxes of tissues, and bring washcloths… you name it. It’s a mess and all the while in the back of my mind I know I’m going to get sick. It’s there as a small ache in my back the hint that the moment I get some down time my body is going to fall apart.

    It’s at this moment that I try to arrange a get together with Josiah to record show 11… well that’s been moved to Sunday, because his sister is in town and plus I’m kind of wiped out from work and care-taking. When it’s bad it’s very bad.

    The good news is Josiah and I have set aside some quality time to record some shows. We should be making up to lost time and PodCasting far more regularly. Again I’m sorry there’s no show this week… which brings us to a grand total of 3 empty weeks! My PR people are going to freak out.

    I would also like to apologize for anyone who hasn’t received an e-mail back from me in the last two weeks… I’m very far behind. I’m catching up and hope to respond to everybody.

  • When you look at our country. The people in it. The wealth, the poverty, the rhetoric. Sometimes I wonder if there are any people in this country, aside from you lovely people of course, who understand what it means to be a human .

    *-80,000- -114,000- More than 140,000 people have lost their lives in East Africa and South Asia*

    Our government has promised to aid the east asians suffering from one of the most devastating earthquakes in history by giving -15 Million- 32 Million dollars!? That is absolutely pathetic. “Jan Egeland, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, has quite rightly called us out for being *stingy.*”:http://www.washtimes.com/national/20041228-122330-7268r.htm

    In other news, “Amazon.com”:http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/my-pay-page/PX3BEL97U9A4I/103-1630758-3699822 is collecting private money’s for the Red Cross relief effort and has already raised over -4 Million- 11 Million dollars. If you can ask private citizens to donate money for relief efforts and the money collected from one organization after 5 days (from 73422 individuals) equals one third of your nations offerings, you know that we should be giving a shit load more to this effort!

    Take a little out of our weapons budget if you have to!

    So please give. Even $20 can make a huge difference to somebody needing food or water. Visit “Amazon and show our country what compassion looks like.”:http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/my-pay-page/PX3BEL97U9A4I/103-1630758-3699822


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  • Deck Your Halls with Boughs of Indie Fa-la-la-la-la La-la-la-la!

    p=. Download me to your iPod

    Probably the last show before the new year. Let your holiday be merry and full of yummy things. We end the year (and show number 10) the way we started podcasting — alone and full of beer.

    *Played on today’s show*

    # Lost in the Plot
    No Cities Left
    “The Dears”:http://www.thedears.org/index4.html
    # “Combat Baby”:http://www.epitonic.com/artists/metric.html
    New World Underground
    “Metric”:http://www.ilovemetric.com
    # Man Ray
    “Futureheads”:http://www.thefutureheads.com/
    # You can’t hurry love
    “The Concretes”:http://www.theconcretes.com/
    # “Johnathin Fisk”:http://www.epitonic.com/artists/spoon.html
    Kill the moonlight
    “Spoon”:http://www.spoontheband.com
    # Misery Is A Butterfly
    Misery Is A Butterfly
    “Blonde Readhead”:http://www.4ad.com/artists/blonderedhead
    # (Do Not Feed The) Oyster
    Pig Lib
    “Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks”:http://www.stephenmalkmus.com/
    # “The Mansion”:http://www.epitonic.com/artists/johnvanderslice.html
    Life and Death of an American Fourtracker
    “John Vanderslice”:http://www.johnvanderslice.com/

    *In the Cast*

    * Please send me your vote over at “Podcast Alley”:http://www.podcastalley.com/
    * What are your favorite 3 (or 3 1/2) albums of 2004? Leve me some comments, I’d love to know.
    * Wishlists on “Amazon”:http://www.amazon.com Rock! Get yours today.
    * Tips for Podcasters with retrieving information from Garageband crashes. Remember that you can always retrieve your audio files from any Garageband file by holding down the *control* key and selecting *Show Package Contents.* There you will find a hidden folder called *Media* with all of your unsaved audio files in tact as AIFF files. Just pull them out and rebulild your composition better and stronger. Oh and press *save.*
    * Benjamin Walker over at “The Theory of Everything”:http://www.toeradio.org/
    * Seth over at “WHYME”:http://www.paintthesky.org/whyme.html
    * Mikey over at “Loft 405”:http://www.loft405.com/blog/

    Peace.