The Good News is You've Lost 100lbs....

The bad news is that you're now a white woman.
The ad above is real. It was found on Wolf's Kompaktkiste's Pink Floyd Trance Remix page. It links to the Life of Lisa "blog" touting the weightloss benefits of the Acai Berry and a product called Colon Cleanse. Apparently the use of these products will not only lighten the load on your feet but it will also, by becoming a white woman, bump you up a notch in the American social strata. Of course this will make it much easier for you, as a newly slimmer white woman, to snag yourself a newly well-to-do Black man because, as every Black woman knows, as soon as a Black man makes some money the first thing he does is get himself a white woman to show off how successful he's become.
Maybe that's not such bad news after all...

Album Cover of the Day

I got this album from my friend Donna Grove (nee Greenwald) while I was working at The Bomstein Agency. Donna used to live across the street from Ian MacKaye's house in Glover Park. It was in a box with about 15 other records that Ian gave Donna and she gave them to me because she knew how much I love vinyl and music in general.

I've been listening to this LP over and over for the last few days (a) because I really like it and (b) because I was trying to burn a copy to CD for my mom. The funny thing about his LP is how misleading the information on the cover is. First, Amos Milburn's name is misspelled. Second, it's not really an album of "oldies" even though the songs were some of Milburn's most popular tunes they were re-recorded for this album by the legendary Johnny Otis. Otherwise this is fairly awesome record of Milburn's rhythm & blues and Southern-style roadhouse stomp made even more incredible by the fact that, according to the liner notes, Amos had suffered a stroke that affected the left side of his body so he played the right-hand piano parts and sang while Otis played the left-hand parts.

Now, I haven't heard any of his early records, but if they're half as good as this then they are definitely worth checking out. This LP is probably going to be hard to find since it's produced on Johnny Otis' small indie label Blues Spectrum Records which is, sadly, no longer around. I have seen compilations of Amos Milburn on Amazon and elsewhere.

Great Rhythm & Blues Oldies Volume 10: Amos Milburne

Blues Spetrum Records BS 110
Produced by Johnny Otis, 1977
Vocals and piano: Amos Milburne [sic]
Drums and piano: Johnny Otis
Saxes: Jack Kelso, Fred Clark
Guitars and bass: Shuggie Otis
Bass: Edgar Willis
Guitar: Melvin Wonder

Life. Stilled.

Swainson's Thrush (Catharus ustulatus swainsoni)
(Click on picture for full-size)

I found this bird today while I was at work. It had flown into the window of the Temple Sinai Social Hall and fell into the little rubberized playground outside of the Nursery School. It was the third one I've seen that had crashed into that window. I think it's a very beautiful bird and I wanted to preserve it. This photo was made with my scanner (my art tool of choice lately) and Photoshopped a little bit to keep the background as dark as possible. Until I can figure out a way to spread it's wings or pose it differently without too much damage I'll keep it in a Ziploc in my fridge.

There was a woman with her kids nearby while I was putting the bird in a Ziploc (I keep a box of them in my car...) who asked me what I was going to do with it. When I told her I would photograph it she asked if I had seen Peter Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts and wondered if I was like the protagonists in that film. I assured her that I was not and thought to myself, "At least, not in such a way that you may find me dead in the woods naked and covered in live snails."

Todays Plays in the Mondo-Mobile:
Various Artists - Elemental Chill Volume 3: Air
Amos Milburn[e] - Great Rhythm & Blues Oldies Volume 10
The Orb - Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here" Remixes
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights