Intergalactic House of Paisley

Suddenly, the floodgates open, and it's been go in early and stay late all week. Of course, it's still all one-time stuff, so we're still not back to full time. Here's some music to wake up to.


1) Be My Lover, Mojo Nixon

2) Johnny Come Home, Jeppe

3) Sunrise, Yeasayer

4) I Want To Hold Your Hand, Al Green

5) Feel Flows, The Beach Boys

6) Part Of Me, Electric Tickle Machine

7) Dixie Chicken, Jack Jones

8) Hummingbird, Born Ruffians

9) The Night the Aztecs Stormed Glasgow, Matthew Bissett

10) Big Orange Monster, the DVDs


commentary tracks


11) I Don't Remember, Peter Gabriel

12) My Girls (Mexicans with Guns Remix), Animal Collective

13) Neon Crossing, Our Lady Peace


Tomorrow is the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society's 40th Anniversary Shindig and Brouhaha. I have to finish the 'zine for it tonight. Saturday might also include a trip to Lawrence, depending on whether or not Rohanna has recovered from whatever bug she has picked up. Sunday might be a ballgame, if it doesn't rain. On the other other hand, after one 90˚+ day, it's been quite fall-like here. I have not expectation of it lasting.

Due to Jon being gone this week, I have had to work every day (still only 7 hours, but still!) this week! And late Tuesday, suddenly it was realized that the Maker Faire was this weekend, and all the signs and banners and such needed to be printed in time for it. So in addition to working all week, Wednesday and Thursday were 9+ hour days (but no overtime, alas). Now here's some music to get me moving toward going to work today.


1) Uncertain Smile (Original Version), The The

2) Blackout, British Sea Power

3) Fantasy Sequins, George Harrison

4) French Disko, Stereolab (Irving Plaza 2008-10-02)

5) Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye, Leonard Cohen

6) That's All, the Old Believers

7) Leave Me Alone, Lou Reed

8) Hotel California, Gipsy Kings

9) G Wants the Same Capital, ToToM (Nine Inch Nails - Capital G vs. Scissor Sisters - Everybody Wants the Same Thing)

10) Country At War, X


plus plus plus


11) The Perfect Me, Deerhoof

12) Helter Skelter, Dwight Twilley

13) Caroline Knows, Splitsville


Tonight it's off to see the Cubs and Royals. Ideally another home run will be hit to us on the party porch, and we'll show up on MLB.com in the highlights. Saturday I'll be helping the Means family move for a bit. Sunday might have a meeting in the afternoon, then NPulsifer and I are planning to check out a 50+ musician tribute/show to honor local singer-songwriter Howard Iceberg and his ever-mutating band, the Titanics. It's also a release party for his 7-cd box set, "Welcome Aboard!" Come on down to the Crosstown Station, 1522 McGee. $5 to get in (proceeds go to the local community radio station, KKFI) and you get a free cd!

Twenty five years ago, I was working a 5p-1.30a shift in a typesetting factory (we did Western Auto tabs, and when we got those finished, we would work on the "Contemporary Authors" biographical series. Actually set Michael Moorcock's entry, though the bosses didn't care when I pointed out the bibliography was woefully incomplete, and I could document that with a couple of dozen books from my library). I usually got home by 2a, and would take my time winding down, rarely getting to bed before 4a.

So on January 28, 1986 at 10.39a CST, I was asleep. I knew that Challenger was going to be launched that day, and had vaguely planned on trying to wake up in time to see it, but the first thing I knew my phone was ringing. I stumbled into the kitchen and picked up the receiver, to find Nancy Nutt on the other end trying to find out what was going on. I mumbled something and turned on the tv to see what she was talking about. She asked if she had awakened me, and I politely lied. I remember staring at the screen, seeing that terrible footage over and over, finally telling her that they were gone. There was no way anyone could have survived that. Fuck. Just fuck.

And on to the tunes.


1) Ready Steady Go, Paul Oakenfold

2) Summer Of Love (Original Unreleased Mix). The B-52's

3) Debate Exposes Doubt, Death Cab For Cutie

4) A Forest, Okkervil River

5) marie (randy newman cover), the morning benders

6) Blue Berry, Bombay Laughing Club

7) Harvest, Blitzen Trapper (2009-10-16 - Canopy Club)

8) Hey Ya, Booker T.

9) Is There A Ghost, Band Of Horses

10) You Met Your Match, Stevie Wonder


and onward we go


11) No Surprises, Marissa Nadler (Feat. Black Hole Infinity)

12) Big Bros Don't Cry, dj BC

13) Satisfaction, The Rolling Stones (11/09/69 Oakland Coliseum CA Soundboard


This has been an interesting week, as they say. Came up here to the Belfry Monday morning to discover one of the cats had managed to get on my desk and knock over a large mug of water (whose lid I had failed to close) over one end of my keyboard. Said keyboard was no longer functional, oddly enough, so I got the wireless one back out and reconnected it. It is working fine, Alas, the wireless mouse was still dead, so I am stuck with the wired one that loses its connection to the machine every five minutes or so, but finds it again when I unplug and reconnect it.

There has also been work at work, pretty much all week, even! Nowhere enough that we'll be going back to fulltime in the near future, but perhaps it's a start towards that. Would be nice.r

Labor Day weekend already. I can see the head!


1) Unravel, Adem

2) Animal (Peter Bjorn and John Remix), Miike Snow

3) Happy When It Rains (Long Version), The Jesus And Mary Chain

4) The Future, Leonard Cohen (Beacon Theatre New York,NY 2009-02-19)

5) Don't Let It Get You Down, Fuzzbubble

6) Sukie In The Graveyard, Belle & Sebastian

7) The Whole Damn Thing, Those Darlins

8) i found a new love, Magic Sam

9) Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, The Beatles

10) I Don't Want to Get Over You, Redbear


and on and on and on


11) Passing By, The Beach Boys

12) Will The Wolf Survive, Los Lobos (12/10/84 King Biscuit Flower Hour 1977 Cincinnatti Ohio)

13) Upside, James (2008-06-05 - Live KCRW)



Marge continues to improve, has been getting up and walking to a chair in her room and sitting for a significant time. Probably will go to a rehab facility after the holiday. Dragonet begins her fall gig fleecing the rubes at Ren Fest. Rohanna and I will be attending the KC Irish Festival at some point this weekend, and there will be burnt offerings on at least two days.

I spent most of the day at work today at the Nelson-Atkins Museum, helping install some cut vinyl lettering for an upcoming exhibit of early Western art. I finally got to see one of the fake sarcophagi I made for the new mummy exhibit, and damn if it didn't look pretty good.

Have a happy and safe holiday, and to all the folks at WorldCon and DragonCon, I sincerely mean it when I say fuck all y'all.

No, really.

At 4.27p, Darrell came into the laminating room and asked me, "So how packed is your day tomorrow?" Yes, I was within three minutes of my prediction. Though he only wants me to come in for a few hours tomorrow to clear the decks for the next round, which will begin Tuesday. Could have been worse.

In amusing news, I was totalling up my time card to see how much over time I had so far, and discovered that my stint last Saturday clocked in at 6.66 hours.

So another busy week of full time work, plus the four hours on Sunday. Money is nice, but I am tired. Dragonet has had enough of my whining, and fled to Colorado for a weekend with her employers at RenFest. Conveniently enough, they have a booth/tent at a local jazz festival, so she will be spending part of her vacation selling jewelry, but without having to wear funny clothes. And now the musical interlude.


1) Disclaimer, The Dears

2) VROOOM, King Crimson

3) Babylon Sisters, Steely Dan

4) Life On Mars?, Anggun

5) Working Undercover For The Man, TMBG

6) The Universe Is Designed To Break Your Heart, Burning Star Core

7) Tidal Crusher, Cavalier Rose

8) The Magic Beads, Jane Siberry

9) Night Voices, Somewhere off Jazz Street

10) Yesterday, The Beatles


and then some


11) Lima Time!, The Baseball Project

12) Do You Realize??, Beck and The Flaming Lips

13) Sango Montamaria, Hal Willner


Off to see Tool tonight with NPulsifer, Gisele and Eric. The last time we all went to see them, Eric fell asleep during the opening act, Meshuggah, the World's Worst Finnish Metal Band™. I'm sure that won't happen this time.

So, the fruits sof my labor at work will be revealed to the public beginning tomorrow at the Nelson-Atkins Museum here in KC. All the sarcophagi and related materials made over the last month are installed and awaiting the big reveal. Of course, this means we're back to scrabbling for work. Right now there's a fairly large order for signs for the KATY Trail in the shop, but like most of the stuff we do any more, it's one and done. All the clients who did regular orders have either found cheaper alternatives (not difficult) or taken it in-house. What shall become of us? Maybe the tunes have the answer.


1) Peek-A-Boo [silver dollar mix], Siouxsie & The Banshees

2) My Horse Must Lose, The Sound of Animals Fighting

3) It's Thunder And It's Lightning, We Were Promised Jetpacks

4) Carey/Mr Tambourine Man, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Phil Ochs

5) I Am the Key, Spoon

6) Sugar, Ladytron

7) Love, The Magician; Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer

8) Black Hole Sun, The Moog Cookbook

9) Tribulations, LCD Soundsystem

10) After Hours, Caribou


Please sir, I want some more . . .


11) Been to Kansas City in A Minor, Frank Zappa

12) Turn You Inside-Out, R.E.M.

13) Am I Awake?, TMBG


And off to another thrilling day in happy land. I have now spent a third of my life at this job, and given the level of atrophy in my knowledge and use of the current tools of my alleged trade, I would/will need to find another career (yeah, right) track to start over in when the inevitable occurs. I figured out that if I could find a full-time job at $11.20/hr, I would be making what I do now in part-time land. I keep looking in all the job-search engines under "Paisley," but nothing ever shows up, damnit all.

Wait, an idea: maybe I could start a fast food place with the employees in animal costumes. "You want Furries with that?" could be the next great catchphrase, right?

The alarm didn't go off at 7, and though I only slept for another 10 minutes, I was running behind this morning, so the songs got listened to, I just didn't have time to post them. Anyway, here ya go:


1) The Sun Is Shining Down, JJ Grey & Mofro

2) Shakin' All Over, The Jet Black Berries

3) J.R., New World

4) Devil In Her Heart (Live On The BBC), The Beatles

5) Oviedo, Blind Pilot

6) Black Steel (Public Enemy), Tricky

7) evil side, michal lotan

8) Suspect Device, Stiff Little Fingers

9) Trust, The Pretty Things

10) I'm the Man, General Caine


And the ever-popular more:


11) Halazium, ZeniX

12) Whispering, The Majestic Twelve

13) Cancel The Day, The Easy Tigers


The business survived the first week without Chuckles, and even got a bunch of stuff done, in particular work for Ha//m@rk for their big trade show display of next year's stuff. At last, they have made something I want: a plush Adam, aka Frankenstein's monster*, wearing a paisley vest. But there could be more fun: apparently, some muckey-muck looked at the products we had run, and said "I thought these colors were going to be more pastel," and, when told that it had been decided to go with brighter colors for the backgrounds, announced that he wanted pastels and they'd have to be run again. Of course, Ha//m@rk is desperately trying not to have to pay for their error, and I have no illusions that our douche canoe of a sales dweeb won't screw this up somehow and wind up costing us money, because that's how he rolls.

He also rolls like this: at 3p, the boss stomped out, saying Herb (not his real name, but he does remind me of Mr. Tarleck, though without the clothing sense) was on his way back and I should check the email on the off chance something came in. Herb walked in a few minutes later, and immediately ensconced himself on the only available computer with teh intarwebs. I wandered back a couple of times and had him check the email, and he was putzing around on Craigslist as he often does when the boss is gone. At 4.30, however, when I walked back to have him check one last tiem, he was looking at a page of pr0n links, with no attempt to hide it, or even the grace to be embarrassed. I guess now that Chuckles is gone, and no one else is back there, he'll be cruising away.

Now, the boss is very anal (not a euphemism, insofar as I know) about the web use at work, and has been known to monitor the activity from home. So I am mentioning this both as an amusing anecdote, and to document the situation should any questions arise. I have no plans on bringing it to the boss's attention, but if he asks me about it, I will tell him exactly what happened. And probably use the bottle of hand sanitizer more often when Herb's been on the computer.

Tomorrow is the monthly KanPoly meetup at Wheat State Pizza at 23rd & Louisiana in Lawrence, and the KaCSFFS Xmas party in the evening at the Writers Place in Kansas City. Both are open to the public, so drop by if you get the chance. Sunday we will go to the Film Cadets outing to Avatar, since the Chefs game is blacked out due to some kind of mercy rule, I think.

The lasagna went over well, both Dragonet and Rohanna raved. The latter had more for lunch and dinner today. I was reasonably happy with it. Inasmuch at Ro is not a fan of red sauces in general, I decided to try using a recipe i found in the current issue of Cooks Illustrated whilst performing my nightly ablutions (yes, our bathroom reading is cookbooks and cooking magazines). It used crushed tomatoes (though I subbed diced tomatoes, because I couldn't remember when we were at the store), rather than tomato sauce as a base, with onions and garlic* sauteed in butter with the usual herbs and spices.

Overall, it was good, but I think the sausage was a bit bland (I had intended to get a half-pound of hot Italian sausage, but Cosentino's only had largeish packages of Scimeca's hot, and i didn't need that much), and I should have added more seasoning to the mix. Next time I'll drop a tablespoon of Italian seasoning in the ricotta/mozzarella/egg mixture, and maybe a small can of tomato sauce in with the crushed tomatoes. The ladies liked it, so good, but I'm my own worst critic in this, like so many areas.

At work, I spent most of the day dealing with all the work that didn't get done on Monday, which seems to be a continuing theme of the new system. Of course, I'm supposed to get everything caught up on Friday when we're short a worker, but that doesn't seem to apply when I'm gone. The most amusing part came when a box of material we sent out Friday came back from a client in Topeka. it's a bunch of stuff for the 100th anniversary of St. Francis hospital in Topeka. Apparently a number of the pieces were supposed to be C.O.B.'d** but no one mentioned it to moi. And then there was the problem that several of the pieces, which were 2.5 to 3 feet tall, and mounted on a 1/8" plastic board, weren't standing up straight enough for the client. Well, duh! The material in question is no more capable of holding itself up straight than your average freshman at their first kegger. After a couple of experiments, I figured out a way to attach strips of gator board to the back of the signs that seem to be enough to provide a Cialis-like boost to the signs (individual bathtubs not included, and what the fuck is up with that imagery anyway? But I digress; I have always had digrestive problems). We sent one sample back, if the client likes it, I'll fix the rest of them tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and fuck Clapton. Greinke is God! Six starts, six wins, two shutouts, 45 innings, two earned runs. Leads the majors in wins, strikouts and ERA. Now, if we could just dump Sir Sidney and bring up Hochever, the Royals would have the best starting staff in the majors.


**Cut Out Background. Like removing the sky above a rooftop, or a building behind a person, so it/they stand out from the rest of the graphic.

UPDATE!: Oops, I forgot the first footnote, which should have read something like: "*The recipe called for two cloves of garlic, which is not even remotely enough to be worth considering. I used six or seven medium to large cloves, which is the low end of enough. Have I mentioned that my cookbook, when I publish one, will be called "Garlic Is Assumed"?

I did my first ConQuesT Program Book in 1984. It was a natural outgrowth of my journalism degree, employment in a type shop and the fact I was editing the KaCSFFS 'zine. I did 15 of them before burning out and stepping away. After three or so years off, I came back too handle an emergency stuation and created a program book from scratch in 72 hours, and there I was again, pounding them out year after year. Along the way I also added designing and writing the progress reports to the mix.

With the fold, spindle and mutilate party coming up Saturday, I put out a call for info to the committee, and Wednesday night I went looking for the files from last year. Couldn't find them. Not anywhere. Finally decided they had to be on the old hard drive. Thursday morning I loaded it into the computer, booted it up, and looked around. All the files for ConQuesTs 35-38, but no 39. I grabbed the pr files from 38 to use as a template, and headed off to work. I kept thinking about it all morning and finally, just before lunch, I realized that I didn't have the files because I didn't do any of that stuff last year! I was able to find last year's pr online when I got home, and I spent the evening trying to cram everything in, what with the new hotel info and al the stuff going on. I should have it done tonight (since the meeting is tomorrow, that would help).


1) Smells Like Teen Spirit, Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

2) I Want To Talk Abut You, John Coltrane (Live At The Half Note)

3) Dreamer In My Dreams, Wilco

4) O.P.P. (Ultimix Mix), Naughty By Nature

5) Don't Let Us Get Sick, Warren Zevon

6) Desconocido, Fósforo

7) Golden Age (Beck cover), Dresden Dolls

8) Walkin All Night, Little Feat

9) The Whole World Lost Its Head, The Go-Go's

10) There's A World, Neil Young (Live At Massey Hall 1971)

And some extra for a lightly snowy morning (Update: It's really snowing now):

11) Please Stay, The Cryin' Shames

12) Get Older, Matthew Sweet

13) Attack of the 50 Foot Drum Demon, Bass-O-Matic


In work news, my co-worker Charlotte, who tore her Achille's Tendon off her left foot, has returned to work from her second hospital stay and home rehab (to clean out a major infection and get the incision healed up properly). While this has its amusement values (she's gimping around like Chester in a communinty theatre production of "Gunsmoke: The Musical"), the boss is getting cranky again, because now he's paying her and we still have dick for work.

ONce I get the progress report finished, tomorrow holds the monthly trip to Lawrence for pizza with KanPoly, then a rush back for the ConQuesT meeting, followed by the KaCSFFS meeting and, maybe, a trip to see Venus Envy, a new band featuring the guitarist from BCR. Sunday is feetsball, though I am not overwhelmed by the options. All I can say is Kurt Warner must be stopped. Jesus has plenty of things to do without having to take over the Cardinals again.