Friday Cat Blogging

Hmmmn. Gotta get some new photos. Keep saying that, I know, but really.


Still seem to have a few OK ones I haven't put up yet.


So, here ya go:





Moni looks deep in thought. Moni has no capacity for thought, let alone deep. Her world consists of "Mommy," "Mine," "Kill," "ME!," and "What?" An admirably simple worldview. Right now as I type, she's lying in my lap, purring, and jealous of the attention I'm giving the computer and keyboard, leaning her hard occasionally in to get between me and whatever-it-is-I'm-paying-attention-to-that's-not-her. She is sweet. but stupid and jealous.





Here, Berit holds Hooker. Now that I see this better, on a good monitor, I see that Hooker looks a bit wary. This is not unlike how he looks twice a day currently when we have to force him to take his antibiotic and ear medication.

Berit prepares the medicine in the kitchen while I spread a towel out on the bed and find the boy. I pick him up and hug him and try not to make him suspicious (more and more, an impossible task) as I carry him to the bedroom. Berit comes in with the medicine, sets it down, and takes him from my arms, hugging him and reassuring him. Then she THROWS him down on the bed onto the towel and quickly tries to wrap it around him like a papoose as I try to help by holding it together so his flailing legs don't get out. Then I hold his head as Berit squirts the antibiotic in his mouth and puts the drops in his ear. Moni stands there and makes complainy noises 'cause she's not getting the attention, he is. Then they get half a can of soft food to share as a reward (they normally only get dry food), which seems unfair, as Moni didn't get tortured, but there's no way of giving one of them food and not the other that they'll put up with. This goes on till Sunday.

The aural hematoma in his ear is even bigger, and it now looks like there's a superball in there. I worry, but everything I've read tells me it's okay. Back to the vet on Tuesday.





Oh, Lord. After writing all of the above a half-hour ago or so, Hooker had another epileptic fit. Pretty bad one. Really messy one. He's lying on a towel on the bed now, recovering. Hope he's okay -- I spent most of the half-hour comforting him and manually blinking his eyes so they didn't get damaged. Then I tried to clean him up and he started growling (which he NEVER does), so I backed off for a bit. Finish this up and check in on him now.

Friday Random Ten

Well, I don't think Hooker completely has his sight back (he loses it during epileptic fits), but he's up and moving around and seems okay -- I hope he'll clean himself off soon; he's rather icky and stinky still.


So, I'm relaxed enough to go ahead with a Random Ten for the day. The iPod stands at 19,054 songs, 65 GBs. What comes up?


1. "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" - Phluph - Phluph

Dylan cover from next-to-unknown late-60s Psychedelia band. Not a psych-style cover, though, kinda peppy and upbeat for them. Funny. Actually does point up the humor of Dylan a bit more.


2. "La Bamba" - Dusty Springfield - Dusty volume 2

Rather kitschy. Not Dusty's most shining moment, though, as always, she sings great. Eventually I'll cull out the lesser Dusty tracks -- right now I just have all of them on here, without judgment. Oooh, very "Vegas" ending; yeah, this'll go at some point.


3. "Simon Says" - The Shangri-Las - Myrmidons of Melodrama

Nice early R&B single from the Queens girls before Shadow Morton grabbed them and changed their whole sound and act. Didn't know they could rock like this until I got this comp (finally! after years of waiting for a good Shangri-Las comp, though this one is from the UK with a smart-ass name and liner notes far far more interested in the lives of the girls and the record business rather than the music).


4. "Misery Goats" - Pere Ubu - Datapanik in the Year Zero (1980-1982)

Great spiky track from the tail part of the first, "classic," Ubu period. No idea what LP this is on originally right now, as the Datapanik box just puts all the tracks in order across several CDs . Love Ubu, but don't have all of my fave tracks in the iPod, as some of them just don't work on random.


5. "This World" - World Party - Egyptology

Lovely airy pop-R&B number. Only listened to this album for the first time last year when putting songs into the iTunes. Tim Cusack bought me this album as somewhat of a joke when it came out in 1997, as I was directing him in Richard Foreman's play with the same title as the album at the time. Didn't look like my bag, so I filed it and never listened to it. Pulled it out to check when going through all the CDs and discovered a handful - two handfuls, actually - of good tracks to put into the massive randomizer. Lesson there.


6. "Dis-Nous Dylan" - Les Five Gentlemen - Pebbles volume 12 - The World

"Il est un vietnik." No idea what they're saying for most of this, but they're asking Dylan (and {ahem} Donovan) to speak and sing to them of important things. Silly, amusing pop.


7. "Santa Dog" - Poxy Boggards - Eyesore: A Stab at The Residents

Excellent acoustic cover from a Residents tribute CD, based mainly on the '72 version, maybe a bit on the '78 one, too. Suddenly it's a traditional folk song.


8. "I'm Trouble" - Sado-Nation - Sado-Nation 7" EP

Punk on the edge of Power Pop. Terrific.


9. "Raide Raide Raide" - Les Innocents - Post-Partum

Pleasant French folk-pop I got somewhere, no idea where. No idea also when it's from. Pretty.


10. "It's My Pride" - The Guess Who - Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond, Vol. 3

UK garage rock, late-60s. Young, loud, and snotty. Gotta love it.


Okay, stuff to do today and stuff I want to write later. Got to get going, got to check on the cat.

It's All The Same Fucking Day, Man

Janis Joplin would have been 64 years old today.


She died October 4, 1970 instead.


My favorite recording of hers is the version of Big Mama Thornton's "Ball and Chain" with the Full Tilt Boogie Band that can be found on the Greatest Hits album, and also, I think, on the In Concert album.


But I'll take any version of her doing that song over almost any other recording anyday. Though I prefer, mostly, versions with Big Brother & The Holding Company. There's a few videos on You Tube of the song; here's the best one that I'd never seen before:

Watch on YouTube