Happy Helloween!



We don't celebrate halloween because it's a holy day for devil worshipers and satanists.
Ghosts and witches make the baby jesus get polio.
- posted by Mason @ 9:58 PM (0) comments

TRB Radio Station Copy




I'm going to wait until this awesome radio station copy of the Tom Robinson Band's TRB2 is $1.98 at half price, then I'm going to buy it. I think it's so great. I already own two copies of it, but it sure can't hurt to have another.
- posted by Mason @ 9:58 PM (0) comments

Soy Whip



Well, OK SOYWHIP, maybe you're right. I tried to make my own whipped soy topping out of Silk Creamer, but it was pretty balls because that stuff is pretty skank. I have a cream charger at work (which is pretty cool) and I filled it up, shook it up, and let it rip. Goo. Just goo.

So I dumped it out, and started from scratch. I mixed double thick powdered soy milk with sugar (8 tbl PSM, 4 tbl sugar, 16 oz soymilk) blended it, filled the charger, shook it up and unleashed the glory. Yeah, still nothing. Better this time, tastier and thicker, but not NEARLY as good as SOYWHIP. You've got me beat, but I'm not going to give up. Later this week I'll try again. This time I'm going to make it even thicker (maybe add some agar flakes or egg substitute? they use carageenan) and we'll see what happens.
- posted by Mason @ 9:58 PM (0) comments

New Books



The Half Price on NW Highway keeps on getting better. I scored these two beauties tonight along with a nice QP copy of Gene Wolfe's (swoon) "Urth of the New Sun" (1987), sequel to the mammoth Book of the New Sun [The Shadow of the Torturer (1980), The Claw of the Conciliator (1981), The Sword of the Lictor (1982), The Citadel of the Autarch (1983)]. If you've ever read my blog before you know this is my FAVOURITE book/series I've ever read, and that devotion to all things Severian knows no end.

Anyhoo (as my friend JR says), I digress. My point was that Half Price is the slamingest for book club editions of 60's-80's sci-fi/fantasy. Also, if anyone has those nice editions of any of the Robert Howard stuff (Kull, Bran Mak, Conan) that they want to get rid of, let me know.
- posted by Mason @ 11:56 PM (0) comments

My Knew Knife



We found this knife in a box of art supplies at an estate sale today. I cleaned it up and spent about an hour sharpening it. (It was butter knife dull.) It's pretty sharp now, but certainly not razor. I'm going to work on it some more tomorrow. I'm going to start carrying it at work because I need to open boxes and packages all the time. I love that I have a job where it's perfectly acceptable to carry a large lock blade knife around in my pocket. I also love that I use my grandfather's old refrigeration repair thermometer to temp steamed milk. It's funny that at about the same age we both started using professionally thermometers for totally different things. I enjoy the circularity of it.
- posted by Mason @ 11:34 PM (0) comments

My Great Grandmother Died


megan snapped this picture of the vast wasteland of nothingness that is southwestern oklahoma/northwestern texas.

Jamay Moses, 96, my great-grandmother, died. She was a funny lady. She lived almost all her life in Mangum, Oklahoma. I hadn't been back there in almost ten years, but the town looked pretty much exactly the same. As a kid, I always thought it was really cool, like a town frozen in time. Like a lot of small towns, they're trying to revitalize their downtown area, without much luck. The old quaintness has been replaced by bad local art and shitty antique stores. Most of that side of the family spent a lot of their lives as alfalfa farmers, and big agri-business has pretty much destroyed that. Unfortunate, yes, but unavoidable given our nations insatiable desire for cheap meat. You're all fuckers.
- posted by Mason @ 11:06 PM (0) comments

All That I Want for Christmas



My new obssesion is finding a Peavey Hydra. Do you have one you want to sell? They're so amazingly cool and 80's. This was the ONLY picture I could find anywhere on the internet.
- posted by Mason @ 11:06 PM (0) comments

Ellen Ripley vs. Sarah Connor



During a vicious game of "Who would win in a fight between...?" this match up for which I have no answer was proposed. This is "Aliens" Ripley versus "T2" Connor [which makes it extra delicious because they're Cameron's two masterpieces]. I tend to come down on the side of Sarah, because she spent years on the run shacking up with ex-military types and learning everything she could about martial arts and weapons and what-have-you. Ripley, on the other hand, is simply driven by circumstance to be an ultimate bad ass. Think about it, make a list of pros and cons, and get back to me.
- posted by Mason @ 11:10 PM (0) comments

Polish Accordian Orchestras Destroy the World



More thrift store tape scans from me. I love this cover so much, I want to print it out giant.

Download the full size poster version here.
- posted by Mason @ 6:13 PM (0) comments

New Favorite Band



Rarely do I find something I've never heard before that's right up my alley. I mean RIGHT up my alley. I love Slovenly. I bought this LP at Half Price tonight (I paid $4 for it, ouch, but I was feeling wealthy) because it was on SST from 1986, and I figured that it couldn't be bad. I was correct.

It's great. It's like Television/Mission of Burma/Silkworm. How Mason is that? If anyone is interested, I'll rip it to mp3. It's OOP like a mother-fucker.
- posted by Mason @ 9:15 PM (0) comments

I'm Rich!



Well, it took me years to work up to it, but I finally sold my 1981 G&L G-200. They only made 209 of them, and I've had one for about 12 years. Until a few years ago, it was the only real guitar I've ever owned. I sold it to a collector and G&L enthusiast (which was what I've wanted) for $1,800. It was less than I was asking, but very reasonable. I'm sad to see it go, but I also know that could get a different early 80's G&L that was basically the same, and much less rare, for under $500 if I wanted it.

We also sold the Martin Megan bought at the thrift store for $1,700, and I sold my Akai for $500, so we did really well. Time to pay off all of our credit cards, and have money left over. YAY!

No, I won't loan you any money.
- posted by Mason @ 10:24 PM (0) comments

"Is There Life Out There?"



This is my favorite Reba McEntire video of all time. It features the indomitable Huey Lewis as her blue collar husband with a heart of gold. I wish this video had been made into a Lifetime movie, because it would be excellent.
- posted by Mason @ 5:17 PM (0) comments

Pulse Dialing, Midget Mac and SNUS


Set your phone to Pulse Dial or die, motherfucker.


Midget Mac is my new favorite person. He's on "I Love New York 2" on VHI it's the most endlessly exploitative thing on earth. He's a midget, he's a hype-man for Young Ca$h, he's the funniest man on earth. Watch endless youtube videos of my new favorite person.


Have you had SNUS? Apparently it's good for you, unlike smoking!
- posted by Mason @ 11:43 PM (0) comments

Mas Fiesta!



Our society would crumble with no phones or electricity. My life would do the same in the absence of Fiesta supermercado. You can buy five oranges for a dollar. $1 for 5 oranges. How lovely.

Some facts about Supermarkets (from a supermarket professional):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Supermarkets have food in them.
The shopping cart was invented in Oklahoma City.
Some sell beer and wine, depending on the state and county in which they are located.
People have jobs where they put items in bags.
Sean Combs has a lot of money.
- posted by Mason @ 11:13 PM (0) comments

Wallpaper for those in the know



I made some lovely desktop wallpapers for you. I made them because I love you so much. It's from some book I cut up years ago. I couldn't tell you which one.

1024x768 [for the masses]
1280x720 [for the HD kids]
1600x1200 [for the super high res kids]
- posted by Mason @ 11:13 PM (0) comments

Anybody want to buy an AKAI DPS16?



I'm selling my Akai DPS16. I need $500 out of it. It has the most current system software (ver 3.02) and I swapped the 10gb hard drive for a 40gb drive. It also comes with an external LaCie SCSI CD-R and a Samsonite travel case. This unit is 100% functional.

Since I've gone back totally analog, I really just don't need this anymore. I'll have it at the Arlington Guitar Show (GHS Booth) if you'd like to check it out.
- posted by Mason @ 6:39 PM (0) comments

I bet these were $5 each in 1986



I swiped this Nakamichi cassette insert from the Goodwill. I love it so much. I wish I could buy a whole box of these wrapped from 69 cents each. I can't imagine how much these little fuckers retailed at new. Wow. I bet in a Dragon they sound fucking amazing.
- posted by Mason @ 10:12 PM (0) comments

I'm on a scanner kick right now.


download the 8MB full res image here.

From the book "The Life Cycle Library for Young People" VOL. 1 (published by "Parent and Child Institute, Chicago, IL" 1969)

Also, just finished Gaiman's American Gods. If you haven't read it, you should. I think it's great that Gene Wolfe and Roger Zelazny are his two favorite authors (as I'm sure you're well aware, they're mine too!).
- posted by Mason @ 11:58 PM (0) comments

Beautiful Art



I scanned this image from an issue of "Golden Magazine" from 1971, vectored it and dropped it over this salmon background. It would be really great screen printed. Feel free to do whatever you want with it. I can hook you up with the floating vector image if you'd like. It's an illustration by a fellow named George Sears.
- posted by Mason @ 11:34 PM (0) comments

A new book for Mason to geek out on.



Also, our cable went out for a day and when it came back on we had 25 more channels. It makes me pretty happy.
- posted by Mason @ 11:20 PM (0) comments

Megan PWNS the thrift store



I walk right past it. Don't even see it.

From behind me Megan says, "Hey, pull that guitar down."

I look up. I see it. A Martin headstock. I reach for it.

24 dollars and 24 cents. We both assume it's fake. Even a fake Martin is worth twenty five dollars. I play it, it sounds good. I try to call my dad, no answer. We decide to buy it.

Later in the car, my dad calls. I say, "How much is Martin 00-17 worth?" We were thinking several hundred dollars, maybe ten times what we paid for it.

He says, "About a thousand dollars, why?"

"WHAT!?!" I'm shocked. "Well, Megan just found one at the thrift store for twenty four dollars."

"WHAT!?!" He's more shocked than I am. He's in town and coming over to look at it.

We get home and look up the serial number. We don't believe that it's right so we look it up again. We check a third time just to be sure.

The Martin website says it's a 1950. We look up similar 00-17s in similar conditions.

In bad shape, $1200. In good shape, $1800. Ours is very, very clean.

It's the buy of a lifetime. We've peaked. We'll never find anything better than this, and in some ways, it makes us sad. That sadness will be fully assuaged when we sell it at the guitar show next weekend.

Anybody want to buy a 1950 Martin 00-17 folk guitar? I'll throw in a new case.
- posted by Mason @ 11:24 PM (0) comments

I'll be home tomorrow

I'll be home tomorrow and I'll have a full report. I'm tired of staying at the hotel. I want my own bed.
- posted by Mason @ 7:45 AM (0) comments

Rocky Mountain Way

I'm still in Colorado.
- posted by Mason @ 8:29 AM (0) comments

Mountain Dew Extreme Sport Thirst Quencher

I'm in Denver. I rode on a plane to get here. I hate flying. Not because "I's skewed da pwane is gunna crash down", but because I'm endlessly sickened by the indignity of it all. By the FEAR and CONTROL.

"Remember, if you don't take your shoes off, the terrorists win."

I'd forgotten about that insane liquids nonsense, and I was forced to throw away an $8 bottle of organic shampoo. Fuckers.

Denver is great. Tomorrow is training! Yay!
- posted by Mason @ 8:50 PM (0) comments

"Jack of Shadows" by Roger Zelazny



Megan got our scanner back out so I'll be rocking the book covers again (it's been like a year and a half). This is Zelazny's novel right after the first of the Amber series. I'm pretty excited to read it. You know how much I love the RZ. I'll let you know how it is.
- posted by Mason @ 10:08 PM (0) comments

A five dollar computer



At a church sale this morning I spotted an IBM NetVista on a table. It wasn't priced, so I took it up to the front. The old man didn't even know what it was... he hemmed and hawed, and finally said "How about $5." I tensed up. I would have paid $20. The fucker had a forty gig hard drive in it.

I brought it home and painted it up. I'm going to load a really light linux distro on it, and run it as a mastering station. I wish there was a way I could set it up to ONLY run Audacity, but that requires more command line knowledge than I have.
- posted by Mason @ 9:55 PM (0) comments

Four Sigils of Goetia

========================================================

I got a haircut. Well, Megan gave me a haircut.
========================================================


Boneless Honey BBQ Wings typify everything I detest about suburbanites and the food they eat.
========================================================
Now I'm friends with the Gin Blossoms.

The Gin Blossoms added me as a friend on Virb. I almost pissed my pants I got so excited. They're so great.
=========================================================
The Philippine-American War is a shocking example of our imperialistic blood lust and the blind eye we turn to genocide.

Americans must stop talking about how great Israel is and how important our continued support of it is until they also acknowledge the atrocities committed against Filipinos between 1899 and 1913. They didn't tell you about our torture of civilians or the concentration camps in school did they? You didn't even know that war existed until I just told you, did you?

Everything you know is wrong.

History is written by the victors. That's why I decided not to be a history teacher.
=========================================================

The Moon Mission Death Squad burned Urbain Grandier at the stake.
- posted by Mason @ 11:15 PM (0) comments

The Island is a bad, bad movie.



We watched The Island, Michael Bay's 2005 box office bomb tonight. It was horrible and I hated it. Every second of it. It bombed horribly in the US, grossing only $35 million domestically. It cost $126 million to make. Worldwide it only made $163 million. Do the math. Dreamworks only profited $37 million (that's not including whatever it cost Dreamworks to market the piece of shit). My criticism of this film is so lengthy that I've chosen to not even bother transcribing it. I hated it utterly and completely. The product placement is simply overwhelming, to the point of nausea. And, in typical Hollywood style, not a single second of it is in any way original or groundbreaking.

The entire plot and tons of the dialogue (apparently) is completely stolen from a sweet movie called Clonus. So much stolen that Bob Sullivan, the guy who wrote Clonus won a undisclosed 7 figure settlement from DreamWorks. You can check out this list of shocking similarities between the two. From the looks of it, my time would have been much better spent watching Clonus.

---------------------------------------
The Moon Mission Death Squad are clones bred for organ harvesting.
- posted by Mason @ 10:23 PM (0) comments

White Mountain Cottage Tofu Salad!

This stuff is awesome. We ate it as a dip with tortilla chips. We liked it so much that we tried to make our own using the ingredient list as a guide. It was pretty tasty, but not as good. Demand that your local health food store carry White Mountain products. I've posted about their awesome Wheat Roast before, I think. I'm a big fan, grandma.

------------------------
The Moon Mission Death Squad can't get enough tofu.
- posted by Mason @ 11:46 PM (0) comments

The Complete Doonesbury



I WIN! Someone upped the complete Doonesbury 1970-2005 on mininova. It all fits on one CDROM. I love it so much. I put the first ten years on my pocket pc and have been reading back through them. I've already read most of the first six years, but the book I have leaves out a bunch of strips so I'm starting over from the beginning.

As a kid I really liked it because I always kept up with it (even if I didn't really understand a lot of it), but I stopped reading it in the mid-ninties and I didn't really know what was going on anymore. Now I have the chance to read every single one and I'm very excited. I love Trudeau.

I might start another blog where I upload one or two strips everyday and only tell people I know about it so they can put it in their feed reader. If you want that, let me know.

--------------------------------
The Moon Mission Death Squad loves dated political humour.
- posted by Mason @ 11:54 PM (0) comments

The Gin Blossoms are great



Hey, I bet you'd say you don't The Gin Blossoms, wouldn't you? Well, you'd be a fucking asshole then. The Gin Blossoms are totally fucking awesome. I love them. Here's a song I recorded on the most classic of lo-fi tape decks. I'm too lazy to run it from cassette into the computer, so I just held my pocket pc over the speaker as I played the tape back and recorded a wave file. It turned out exactly how I wanted it.



feed reader users click here.

----------
Because I'm obsessed with vanity googling my own band in a desperate attempt to make moonmissiondeathsquad.com or moonmissiondeathsquad.blogspot.com the first google result instead of the horrid old my$pace our old drummer kris started, I'm going to start putting the words MOON MISSION DEATH SQUAD at the end of every post. I'm pretty sure it will work. I'll also be cross posting everything band related (like this post) to the moon mission blog. (also linking to things over and over again makes them google higher)
----------------
The Moon Mission Death Squad eats soybeans incessantly.
- posted by Mason @ 10:52 PM (0) comments