Uglyography in the air!

Sorry for the absence. December has been a strange month. I was sick and now I'm better. Other stuff happened, too.

Uglyography's performance at Fantasy records was a little shaky but rather a hit nonetheless! Things went well at the "dark carnival", all in all. The best part was that the local radio station 100.5 MaxFM was there doing promotions. One of the DJs, Alfredo Torres, was into Uglyography. Mr. Torres hosts a show on the station on Sunday evenings from 8 - 10 PM called Locals Lounge where he spins music by local bands and musicians. He talked to Matt about possibly being featured live on the show sometime in the near future. How wonderful!

At about 8:10 PM on Sunday, Uglyography made its radio debut with "Keychain & Beads"!

Hurray! It was great, it sounded terrific, and I'm so proud of Matt!

Requiem for a Pinup Queen

As many of you have already heard, the glorious Bettie Page left our world yesterday at the age of 85. She changed many lives, had a major influence on the fashion world (she's still the epitome of rockabilly style) and incited lust in men in the world over from the '50s through today. Her look and style has been imitated but never duplicated. She was beautiful, smart and sultry, but her great asset was her ability to project a sense of delight into every photograph. She also helped pioneer the mainstreaming of the bondage and dominatrix style. Look into any issue of the current fetish magazine "Bizarre" and you'll find some direct or indirect homage to Bettie and her style.

My friend at Punchbuggy Blues sent me the link to CNN's obituary. The obituary reads nicely enough, but the photo is distressing. The photo is of a cardboard cutout of actress Gretchen Mol as Bettie from the film The Notorious Bettie Page. It's a great flick, but Gretchen Mol is not Bettie Page. Shame on you, CNN! Bettie was one of the most photographed women in the world, gracing the covers of endless magazines including Playboy, of course. I find it hard to believe that a picture of Gretchen Mol is the best that they could do. I chose to post the image from Bettie's 1955 Playboy cover shoot since it's supercute plus is also appropriate for Christmas.

I am saddened by the world's loss of its greatest pinup, but it's no tragedy. Bettie lived a long life and a very eventful life. I've no doubt that she will be remembered and worshipped by vintage fashionistas and S & M aficionados for years to come. She'll forever have a special place in my heart and in my home (my pink bedroom room is practically a shrine to her).

Ciao, Bettie. Your sexy little light shines on.

Potty trained?

Okay. Tonight we have an A Capella singing group performing at my work. They are supposed to be funny. They have been sound checking for maybe 20 min and they have been singing the same lyric again and again. The line I've heard 150 times in the past 20 minutes is :

"Get party trained".

I'm guessing that the idea is that it's supposed to sound like "Get potty trained" and therefore is supposed to be funny. I have no idea. I'm losing my mind.

What the?

I don't know what this is. It's on FilmDrunk today. Most excellent.

Revision: This song is called "Shine On Me" by a hottie named Chris Dane Owens. He's obviously the greatest actor and singer ever of all time.

Uglyography reborn

My favorite band Uglyography has reinvented itself and is reborn tomorrow night at Goody's Pub in downtown Hampton. Uglyography is now a one-man band and a whole bunch of fun. Also appearing are The Kneeling Drunkards which should be one heck of a hootenanny, too!
If you're in the Hampton Roads area, be sure to visit Goody's Pub Saturday nite!

memory lane

I love Christmastime. It's lovely. However, I often get overly sentimental at this time of year. Right now I'm pining for my beloved London. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that it has been a whole decade since I lived there. My memories are getting fuzzier, but occasionally I'll hear a song, see a movie or even just see a photograph and I'll collapse into tears. I wept like an idiot watching Bridget Jones' Diary last weekend. I miss the sights, sounds and smells. I miss the pound coins. I miss the tea. Yum yum tea. I miss the fresh bakery that sold the most heavenly bread. I miss the pubs (oh, you have no idea how much I miss the pubs, good grief). I miss the cool music. You could go anywhere and hear excellent bands coming from any random stereo or just playing the the shops. I miss the tube, I miss the shopping, I miss the incredible Indian cuisine, I miss it so much. I miss the BBC (BBC America just doesn't cut the mustard). I miss my awesome friends. I miss English Christmastime.
I feel like going home, taking a hot Radox bath, drinking some Earl Grey and listening to Belle & Sebastian's The Boy With the Arab Strap or PJ Harvey's exquisite Is This Desire? (still my favorite album by Harvey) or Placebo's Without You I'm Nothing. I gotta get a copy of the NME, dammit.
Okay, enough reminiscing.

Why do so many people think that flamenco dance is called "flamingo dance"? The group here tonight is Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana. The manager said that once they were playing a show and they were introduced as "Carlos Santana and The Flamingos".

Scary business

I get e-mail updates from the lovely Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls. As some of you probably know, Amanda released solo record a couple of months ago called Who Killed Amanda Palmer? and its quite excellent. She's been releasing videos with startling regularity and the latest is for the song "Leeds United".
According to the e-mail that I received yesterday:

This video has a somewhat sordid backstory.

if you were at my london show, you already know this, because i mentioned it from the stagem but for the rest of you, hear ye.

the fine folks at roadrunner records wanted us to re-cut this video so that shots of my belly wouldn't be included. they basically told me that I looked too fat. i told them to fuck off.

the saga continues, but i'll fill you in later.

long live the belly.

love,

AFP

Roadrunner Records thinks Amanda is too fat. I watched the video, incredulous because I've seen Amanda in person and she could be described as petite, I thought.
If this girl is fat then I must look like Jabba the Hut and that's terrifying. But she's not fat, it's just the music industry being their usual c@cksuc#ery selves. I'm delight that Amanda told them to "f^c# off" cause if it had been me I would have edited the video and never left my house again.
I'd boycott Roadrunner but they have been good to the Dresden Dolls and they also have DragonForce on their roster.
But geez, what is this world coming to?