annielin’s Neighborhood

These four songs? Well, the first two I've heard live, and they rock. The second two would be awesome live performances.

The first one above is Rasputina covering "If Your Kisses Can't Hold the Man You Love," and the second is Rasputina's "HIgh On Life."

David Hewlett's A Dog's Breakfast came out a couple months back. I ordered it from Amazon and only recently just watched it. It's a really fun movie, so I suggest everyone give it a try! The whole cast is fantastic and the twist at the end was great.

Next suggestion is A Couple of Days and Nights, in which Erika Amato of Velvet Chain plays one of the leads. I... actually haven't gotten this one yet as I'm a putz and keep forgetting to order it. But I hear it's good, so, you know, check it out!

The whole Voltaire thing has turned into a debacle, though maybe only in my mind. A few days I ago I started getting comments on my Vox from random people telling me that my Voltaire files were uploaded without his approval.  I thought, "huh. I don't think Voltaire would have a problem with it." It seems Vox had eaten the description I put in that had his URL in it. I fixed that. I also e-mailed Voltaire to ask what his policy was on uploading tracks as streaming only. Well, another comment and digging later, I find out that he links to one of my Vox uploads in a MySpace blog. About Robot Chicken. And at the bottom, he snarks about how he knew that there would be an illegal copy up somewhere:

For the record, I'm not even sure what the fuck this site is that has my monologues up on it.... I certainly didn't authorize it. But somehow I figured that if I did a search for the monologue name I'd find it living illegally SOMEWHERE....

Okay. Fine.

So I e-mail Voltaire for whatever reason to let him know that I just saw his blog and I'm sorry I hadn't asked permission first, but I didn't think he would mind since they were streaming only and I had linked to his site (which, he said himself is okay!) and I hope that it's okay. That's his opportunity to tell me he'd rather that I take them down. He didn't.

My email:

Voltaire,

Via various comments left on my page to have your clips taken down, I discovered that you'd linked to one of my files on your myspace blog.

I had posted those files for my friends in the 501st because they'd been hearing me talk about you, your monologs, and your Star Wars song all weekend at con. I didn't really intend for anyone else to have general, publicly-linked access to the files. When I posted them, I had put a link to voltaire.net on them so that the guys who were interested could go to your page. It's been months since I posted them and somewhere along the way, Vox lost the description.

Yesterday I e-mailed you to ask your opinion on posting streaming files online. I apologize for not asking before I put them up. It was not my intention to take money from you, but rather to promote your work.

The files are still there, still streaming only and not downloadable, and I have amended the description with an apology and a link to your myspace page. I hope this is still okay with you and I'm sorry for any trouble.

regards,

What I get back is this:

I remember you email about Cantina several days ago.

So what you're telling me is that you decided to ask me for permission
months after you put these up?  And only because you realized I caught
wind of them?

shady.

v

Yeah, actually, that e-mail was a hypothetical as it started with, "IN YOUR OPINION" and went on with, "if I were to..." But whatever.

Also... wtf calling ME shady? Huh.

I wrote back with:

Uh. Sorry? When I e-mailed you yesterday, I had absolutely no idea that you had hotlinked my file from your blog -- I don't even read your blog. I have worked with other musicians and they've never minded streaming files as long as it's not the whole album, it's not downloadable, I'm not making money off it, and I link back. Vox ate my link at some point. I'm sorry. I actually don't check it all that often.

When people started leaving comments on my blog as if they were an official spokesperson or whatever, I decided to email you and ask your opinion because I didn't think you were one to get all bothered over it -- I admit that it was wrong of me to assume. I just found out about the blog post today at 9:00 this morning. I felt bad, apologized on my blog, apologized to one of the comments, and sent a letter of apology to you.

Sorry if it seemed "shady." If you had a problem with it, you could have just left me a comment or sent an email asking me to take it down. Instead, you used it in a blog post along with another "illegal" clip from YouTube on an unrelated topic and then made some off-hand comment about the availability of illegal copies. That is, in my opinion, rather hypocritical. Either condemn the entire practice or just don't bring it up whilst using said illegal clips to illustrate your point.

I am not out to rip you off or cheat you out of profits. I spend $40-60 easy every time I see you at ICON, nevermind occasionally buying things when you offered them online. I own all of your CDs and I have gotten several other people to purchase your CDs.

I have not posted any other files elsewhere and these files were really just meant for my friends in the 501st because I thought they'd find it amusing and be willing to check out a "Goth" musician once they heard some tracks. If you want me to take down those files I will and once again, I apologize.

What I get back from him is a long ass e-mail basically trying to come down on me. Uh. Whatever, dude. It's freakin' long, so I'm taking snippets.

Mentioning that is like saying, "hey I bought your house so I guess it's
okay if I steal your car"

No, actually, mentioning that I buy all your shit is me letting you know that I am a fan and I'm trying to support you. The car analogy makes no sense. Let me fix it. It's actually like saying, "hey, I just bought this awesome house this guy built! Come check it out. Stay in some rooms and see how it feels. Go buy a house from him!" Especially since none of the files were downloadable so I wasn't giving anything away for free.

All things said, the only point I was trying to make is that you should
ask the artist FIRST.. not AFTER you get caught with your hand in the
cookie jar.

Did he even read my e-mail? I said that I didn't know anything about his stupid blog post because I don't read his freaking CrackSpace. Get it through your gel-covered skull -- I had no clue about your blog post until one of your fans mentioned it while telling me to take down files -- even though you didn't -- AFTER I told them I e-mailed Voltaire already.

(Emphasis below is mine.)

For the record, I'm FINE with people putting stuff up for stream-only.
I think you should be able to see/hear absolutely anything you want to on
the internet. It's just when people make your stuff available for download
that it turns not so good for me. Because doing this stuff is how I feed
my child. So naturally people giving it away means he doesn't eat. It's
really that simple.

Yeah, I know, jackass. That's why I posted them as streaming files and didn't just upload the MP3s to my server or MegaUpload or sendspace or yousendit or any of the other dozens of file sharing sites out there. He just said -- right there -- that he has no problem with streaming-only and that's what it is! Show me where there's a download link on Vox for that. Show. Me.
 

As for me being a hypocrite, I don't put up ANYONE's stuff EVER!!!! I may
point to something that's up... but Cartoon Network is free to pull it at
any time. It's their right and believe me, they do it frequently. They
tool off the songs of mine that were on Youtube. And hey, that's fair.
They have the right to make that decision. I won't cry about it.

Actually, the hypocritical part comes in where he says, "I think you should be able to see/hear absolutely anything you want to on the internet." By that reasoning, I ought to be able to post those streaming files that did initially include a link to his site, without him snarking on his blog about it. Of course, finally he coughed up the point that I should have asked first. Look. Sorry. In hindsight I guess I could have asked first. But realistically who thinks to do that when they're posting stuff for their friends? I wanted someone to hear it, so I put it up there. By his own admission, I should be able to do that!

This entire thing could have been avoided if he didn't make that snarky comment on his blog about being able to find illegal copies via Google, then hotlinking my vox file, and not bothering to comment if it was that big of a deal. He could have just said, "I don't know what this site is or why my monologue is there, but they could have just asked first." Instead he's got crusading fantards coming after me.

The fact that the blog wasn't even about the illegal uploading of his files just makes it more annoying because if it were, I'd fire off an "oops, sorry" e-mail and take them down. Now I'm just going to leave them up and be bitchy.

All things said, the only point I was trying to make is that you should
ask the artist FIRST.. not AFTER you get caught with your hand in the
cookie jar.

Yeah. Fine. Except I DIDN'T have a damn clue he knew. I didn't think he was one to be concerned with people promoting him in a way that did not involve posting full MP3 downloads everywhere. So I initially e-mailed him to double check so I could write those morons back and tell them Voltaire was fine with it. He admits that he is! So stop trying to make me feel guilty, you wanker. As far as I'm concerned, it's more akin to discovering that someone is spinning your CD on a local indie station. What's the blog post for that going to look like? "Who's this fuck playing my songs on the radio? I didn't say he could." Get a grip.

It was just the semblance of subterfuge that bothered me.
Do you know what I mean?

Semblance of subterfuge"?! Whatever.

Maybe I should have put it this way:
I'm glad you like the music! i'm glad you shared it with your friends!
Next time please just ask first being making it available.  cool?

Yeah. Probably would have been a better idea.

I replied to that whole e-mail with:

Okay, I understand. I'm sorry for the confusion, any trouble, and for calling you a hypocrite. I won't be promoting your music in such a manner again.

By "hypocrite," I mean "I should have called you a cheap Hot Topic goth." And by "promoting your music in such a manner again" I mean "promoting your music ever again."

I didn't get any sort of reply to that. Which is fine.

Honestly, it's not even what he said, but how he said it. If he had asked me to take the files down, I would have -- even if he was a jackhole about it. I offered; gave him an opening to tell me to take them down and he didn't. Instead he bitched that I didn't ask first. Okay, fine. I GET IT. I could have done without the bitching, though.

I know I'm being petty and I'm not exactly 100% (or even 60%) on the moral high ground. But, seriously? For an artist who depends so much on word of mouth, he was being rather jerky. With a money-shelling fan. Nice one. ... All I'm saying is that he could have been slightly more diplomatic.

I'm still getting residual comments from his fantards telling me to take down the tracks and referring to his blog. You know what? Voltaire didn't ask me to take them down, so I'm not taking them down. And frankly, this is all making me very, very cranky (if you haven't already picked up on that, being at the end of this rant).

Here's a lovely one I got today:

The link goes to your site--otherwise I would have never found it.

Hence, Voltaire was pissed that you put his work on your site without permission.  Especially since Voltaire is generally pretty easygoing with people using his work when they ask him about it, provided they credit him.

Hey, if you've gotten permission since 26 October 2007 (so, within the week), brilliant.

But the fact remains that you originally put it up without his permission, and it annoyed him.

I was just making you aware of the fact that, as far as Voltaire was concerned, at that point in time, he didn't give you permission to post his material.

Yeah. Thanks. Whatever.

If Voltaire was that upset about it, I think he and his net-savvy self could have figured out how to use the comment button or found an e-mail link to tell me to take it down. So piss off, Voltaire fantards. If he hasn't asked me to take them down, I'm not going to so you can all keep your comments to yourself.

So, Simon Pegg is going to be Scotty in the new Star Trek movie. For those people who for some bizarre reason think Pegg can't do the Scottish accent (wtf??!) here's a clip from when he hosted the XFM radio show during the Edinburgh festival in 2002.

This is a comedy piece and Pegg can do a proper Scottish accent. Not that.. Scotty had a proper Scottish accent...

Waking up at 6am and sitting in the car for a couple hours does have its benefits, like listening to the commentary on NPR with Nancy Pearl on further under the radar: more books not to miss, including After, a book of poetry from Jane Hirshfield.

To Wake at 3:00

To wake at 3:00
and not want to go back to sleep
is different
from waking and wanting
not to go back to sleep.
Thoughts
come to the mind,
predictable almost as breath.
The day's small errors and failures.
wrong words that were said,
right ones that were not.

Outside the window
a truck, with yellow lights
running the length of its body
and R&L Cargo lettered large down its side,
diesels the street inexplicably backward.

Making its own deliveries,
equally exhausted, from some great distance.

From After by Jane Hirshfield. All rights reserved.

Psst....

I've got Amazon Prime, if anyone wants to take advantage of free 2 day shipping...

They start out looking innocent enough:

But if you miss one in the climbing leaves and vines, they morph into the size of the cats (honestly, I checked and checked and this was the one I just missed):

Some of the other ones caught before becoming gigantic in size make for good toppings on salad, though running with the play with your food theme, you could play tic tac toe with this one cumber:

First batch of pickling good, so next batch underway:

Recipe soon, must spot check C's work for emailing.  

The aforementioned tomatoes that are not turning red are hefty and now possibly under attack by Bert and Ernie, on either side of the garden.

That's a tobacco hornworm, upside down, yo and talk about patches of goosebumps, right?

These are the tomatoes that have survived and there's a patch of green ones in the center of the garden that we're hoping will make it:

Incidentally, hornworms turn into moths
 

Pests: friend or foe?

 

All righty. The vegetables in the garden are growing like crazy and first we have butternut squash galore...

Like the baby growing:

And then the stockpile:

It's gotten so that we're creating art of sorts from them (check the two at left whispering to each other about the one about to be sacrificed):

All fun aside, the squash shan't go to waste and after a search online, and some quality time at the stove with $10 in ingredients, ladies and gentlemen, butternut squash soup:

Ingredients:

One 2-pound butternut squash—quartered, seeded, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
6 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
5 thyme sprigs
2 garlic cloves, halved
2 medium leeks, white and pale green parts only, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 celery rib, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 thick slices of bacon, cut crosswise 1/2 inch thick
2 packed cups coarsely chopped collards or kale
One 15-ounce can pinto or roman beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium carrot, finely diced
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
1 cup corn kernels
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1.    In a large, heavy pot, combine the broth, squash, thyme, garlic, leeks and celery and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes.
2.    In a medium skillet, heat the vegetable oil. Add the bacon strips and cook over moderately high heat, turning once, until crisp, about 7 minutes.
3.    Discard the thyme sprigs from the soup. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender. ***you may want to save a few chunks of squash for presentation purposes*** Return the soup to the pot. Add the bacon, collards, pinto beans, carrot, bell pepper and corn and bring to a boil. Simmer over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 7 minutes. Season the soup with salt and pepper and serve.

Make ahead: The soup can be refrigerated overnight. Reheat gently.
Nutritional content for one serving: 264 cal, 10 gm fat, 1.4 gm sat fat, 37 gm carb, 7 gm fiber.

Thanks to the lovely photos on What Did You Eat for being the inspiration to make this delicious soup.