Yip!*: Capitol Hill Citizen

  

I've been reading this newspaper for a year or so, and it's a good read.  Produced by Ralph Nader and the editor/publisher of the fine Corporate Crime Reporter, it covers the dumb things Congress does do and the smart things Congress doesn't do.  Available by mail for $5 postpaid at capitolhillcitizen.com, it comes out roughly quarterly (it's bimonthly officially).  Ralph seems stuck in 1977 where Democrats are good and Republicans are bad, but Russell Mokhiber seems to understand that in the age of Trump it's not so much about left/right as it is about populism/anti-populism, so coverage extends beyond the usual liberal suspects to encompass such current political figures as Thomas Massie.  My local alt-weekly seems to get thinner every issue (it's also no longer weekly), and the local daily paper is no longer daily and seems mainly to regurgitate Washington Post garbage these days, so it's nice to have some new newspapers to fill in the gaps (literally, if you need some insulation after you're done reading).  This one has some moxie, as you can tell from the motto "Democracy dies in broad daylight" (making fun of The Post's motto, "Democracy dies in darkness"), which is hilarious.

*Yips! are good things!  So is my latest novel, The Front Yard War!

Yip!*: Back Issue

If you read comic books in the late 20th Century, then you'll likely also enjoy this magazine, which covers comics from that era.  Similar to what Roy Thomas does for mid-20th century comics in Alter Ego, Back Issue's writers examine comics in a critical and enthusiastic light, so you get interviews with creators, retrospectives of various series, and other features that illuminate the subject.  Founding editor Michael Eury has retired, but with luck the magazine will continue to be fun.  There's some danger that after more than 150 issues that they may have exhausted the subject, but they could always expand into the early 21st-Century at this point seeing how we're a quarter-century in now.  Every once in a while, the publisher will have a crazy sale.  I picked up a number of "back issues" of Back Issue for $5 a pop each.  There are very few ads, so the magazine is dense at 80 pages or so.  They also keep their eversions available, so one can read the entire run electronically if one were so inclined.  I found it better to dip into the issues where the comics covered were of particular interest to me, but the magazine is very good, so I am more likely now to read it regularly even when that issue's theme doesn't strike me as particularly interesting.  If, like me, you deplore much of what passes for contemporary comic books (variant covers, recycled storylines, cramming everything into 6-issue arcs, horrible computer-assisted art, too many unnecessary staffers causing the comics to be too expensive, and I'll stop ranting now, though I could go on and on and on), then Back Issue is a good way to still enjoy comics as it can point the way to overlooked gems from the past and get one to reappraise works one has read before.

*Yips! are good things!  So is my latest novel, Fast Guy Slows Down!

Yip!*: U.S. Right To Know!

It's spring, so unfortunately some of my neighbors are falling for the chemlawn ads and dumping unnecessary chemicals on their lawns, basically paying to poison themselves and then probably wondering years later why they developed cancer.  Well, I hope in the future that more people wise up that natural lawns with dandelions, clover, and other nice edible plants are better than the sterile, industrial green lawn.  To help that consciousness raising, it's nice to know that an organization such as U.S. Right To Know exists.  They investigate environmental, food, and health issues such as the recent rash of lawsuits surrounding Monsanto's Roundup being linked to lymphoma (meanwhile, I still see ads for the product in the postal mail store ads and neighbors walking around spraying it, seemingly unaware of the well-documented idiocy of using glyphosate). They've also been covering another nasty weedkiller called paraquat, which seems to be linked to Parkinson's disease.  Please, people, just pull or dig out any plants you don't like.  Don't poison the soil, yourself, or others spraying and applying these toxins.

*Yips! are good things!  So is my latest novel, Edna's Employment Agency!

Yip!*: Dark Side Of The Ring!

It's rare that I watch television.  There is nothing wrong with it per se, though I would rather read in general, perhaps because when one reads one controls the pace as opposed to viewing where the pace is controlled by the medium for the most part.  In addition, television is often aimed at the lowest common denominator to maximize the commercial potential, and those subjects don't often interest me.

The main reason I rarely watch television though are the commercial breaks.  I understand that is how the television producers make their money, and I have no issue with that, but as a viewer, it is annoying to be interested in something and then suddenly it stops and someone's trying to sell me a car or pizza.  So, usually, I'll just be patient and wait for the DVD to collect anything I want to see from tv.  Once in a while though, a program comes along that I watch as it airs (or for cable channels, cables, I suppose, since they aren't using the broadcast transmission method).  This is because I suspect it might not make it to DVD.  Such is the case with Dark Side Of The Ring.

It's an excellent program, a mixture of professional wrestling with true crime documentary, which is because basically it's a true crime documentary about professional wrestling.  No offense to the excellent AEW, but this show is the best wrestling product on tv.  I don't know that it would interest many people who didn't already have an interest in the bizarre sport spectacle of professional wrestling, but for those that do, exploring the often tragic backstories of such events as the Chris Benoit family murder-suicide, Bruiser Brody's murder, and the deaths of the Von Erich brothers is quite fascinating.  So far, two seasons have been produced, and season two is currently airing, er, cabling.  If it keeps being this good, then I will keep watching.

Maybe I will just do push-ups during the commercial breaks.  Sorry car- and pizza-sellers!

*Yips! are good things!  So is my latest novel!

Yip!*: Punk 45 Series

I have been enjoying the Punk 45 albums which, in the spirit of Nuggets and Shreds, compile a bunch of more or less obscure rock songs that deserve to be better known.  In addition to the music, the liner notes accompanying the albums are also excellent.  For example, the liner notes for the Akron, Ohio USA compilation, contextualizes the emergence of the punk scene there in the 1970s well (with the exception of confusing Market Street in Akron with Main Street in Kent--hey, the writer's British, so it's hard to get all the details right from a continent away) explaining how the decline of the rubber industry in the area merged with youth paranoia as a result of the May 4th Kent State murders helped to fertilize an experimental and self-reliant music scene.  These albums are not only interesting listens, but they are also good reads.

*Yips! are good things.

Yip!*: The Mekons Live

I saw The Mekons live last night for what I think is the fourth time.  They were great as usual.  It was sort of a greatest hits set since their new album hasn't been released yet (indeed, it hasn't been recorded yet since they are planning to do it live in one take next week).  I also got the sense from Jon Langford's remarks at the end thanking Cleveland venues that the band has played over the years that this tour may be a victory lap/final tour.  The band is older and spread out geographically, so it may be difficult for them to keep going.  That would be a shame but understandable.  I hope that last night was the not the last time I will ever see them, but anyone who does get to see them live while one still can is in for a treat! 

*Yips are good things!

Yip!*: Supershow!

I've attended two Supershows and had a good time at both. It's a comedy/variety show that features various comedians and other acts, all for $5 at a bowling alley in Lakewood, Ohio USA. It's a good deal. I usually find myself laughing quite a bit.  The latest version had Mike Polk Jr., ballerinas, a rap metal group, and more.  It's held the second Wednesday of every month.  I don't know if I can make the next one, but if I don't, I know that I'll be missing a good time.  It's good to see the local Cleveland entertainment scene blossoming.

*Yips are good things!

Yip!*: Jello Biafra Live

I was a big Dead Kennedys fan in high school, but I never got a chance to see the band because they broke up before I started regularly going to concerts.  I had seen their former lead singer and mastermind Jello Biafra do spoken word a couple of times over the years, and that was great, but I had never seen him in concert with a band, so when I saw he was coming to Cleveland, Ohio USA this week, I decided to check it out.

He was great.  He's older now, but he has more energy than some teenagers I know.  His band, The Guantanamo School Of Medicine, was terrific; he made some right-on political statements; and if the new songs weren't quite as good as the DK classics, then he more than made up for it by playing a few of those classics.  My favorite moment of the night though might have been this cover of "Sonic Reducer" just for Cleveland (for some reason, Jello doesn't know it's a Rocket From The Tombs song, as he said something to the effect that he loves Pere Ubu and Rocket From The Tombs, but this Dead Boys classic was his favorite song from Cleveland--what really happened was that co-songwriter Cheetah Chrome took this song with him when he left RFTT to the Dead Boys; since the two best Dead Boys songs, "Reducer" and "Ain't It Fun" were both at least co-written by RFTT members David Thomas and Peter Laughner respectively, Chrome should have kept writing with them as those were good songwriting pairings).  Openers Negative Approach helped out Jello's band on this version, and I'm glad that someone caught it on video, so you can hear and see it for yourself.

It's the next best thing to being there live! 

*Yips are good things!

Yip!*: The Return Of Big Dipper!

I was browsing in one of the few remaining record stores recently and was delighted and also totally surprised to find a new record from Big Dipper.  Big Dipper was a band from the Boston area in the 1980s who played a weird style of power pop.  I really liked the band's music.  The last Big Dipper album came out in 1990, so I was quite flabbergasted to find a new record from them 23 years later.  And, literally, it was a record, and not a cd, which made the experience even more surreal (of course, the store I found the record in sells new 8-tracks--yes, new 8-tracks, as in someone released an album in 2013 on 8-track as a format--so perhaps I shouldn't have been that confused by new vinyl from Big Dipper).  At first, I thought the record might have been a past album which I had missed.  When I was in Boston in 2000, I kept finding odd Big Dipper records that I never knew existed, but ever since Merge put out an anthology in 2008, I was pretty sure I had all the released Dipper.  Plus, the record looked too new; however, it was in the used section.  In any case, I scratched my head and bought it.  When I got home, I played the record, loved it, and looked up some information on it.  Apparently, the band had reunited and started recording new material.  They're even on Twitter now.  The new album, Crashes On The Platinum Planet, is really good and basically picks up where they left off many years ago.  You can hear a bit of it on the video above for "Robert Pollard", who apparently also is a fan of the band.  The only bummer is that the cd/mp3 version has a different track listing, so I had to download a couple tracks to complete the new Big Dipper experience (vinyl completists can find those same two songs on a 7"); I don't quite understand why record labels do dumb stuff like that as I'm pretty sure all twelve songs could have fit on the vinyl album (presumably, the fetishizing of rare vinyl by collectors and the subsequent inflated prices for vinyl these days explains it). However, the joy of getting even more new Big Dipper music soon soothed any irritation. On a final note, Big Dipper is also the band that the Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus are supposed to sound like (at least according to The So), but don't look for a reunion from them.  Still, if Big Dipper can pop back up, then perhaps even less likely things can happen!

*Yips are good things.

Yip!*: Citizens For Legitimate Government

A few years ago, an email newsletter popped up in my inbox. It looked like something my character Francine Apple from Blog Love Omega Glee would make.  Each edition would have a list of linked news articles with sarcastic commentary mixed in with the headlines and articles.  The prevailing political attitude was one of skepticism and paranoia about anything a government official said.

I loved it.

It made for a nice counterbalance to the disgusting gullibility and reverence for the status quo (especially the rich and powerful) that runs through most of the mainstream media.  I mean I appreciate the mainstream media, but if they were all I had to choose from as sources for information, then I'd feel as if I were living in the fictional world of Orwell's 1984.

So thank goodness for the Citizens For Legitimate Government (CLG) newsletter!  It helps me maintain a balanced media diet, which is very important when my country's elected leader is trying to whip up some war hysteria so he and his rich friends can get even richer (if you want to know what the proposed military intervention in Syria is really about, read the code in the words "chemical weapons" by dropping out all the other letters except for "o", "i", and "l" and then use them to spell a common word in English--my feelings about the USA getting further involved in the Syrian conflict are fairly similar to David Stockman's, who also regards it as a foolish pursuit).

CLG can be characterized as being written by conspiracy theorists, but that's refreshing when so much of mainstream journalism is written by imperialist lapdogs.  When someone is asking you to spend your money and time to kill people you don't know, your default answer should be no and not yes, and that's the way it is in every edition of CLG. 

 *Yips are good things.

Yip!: Convergence-Continuum

I saw the Sam Shepard play True West recently at The Liminis theater in Cleveland.  It's the second production this year I've seen by the theater group Convergence-Continuum, and they seem to always do a nice job (the other was Devil Boys From Beyond).  I read the Shepard play years ago, but nothing was like seeing it brought to life complete with eight or nine toasters popping toast!

YIP!: Charity Watch

Probably like you, I'm hit up with donation requests from charities all the time.  How do I know which charities are worth giving to?  I turn to Charity Watch, an organization that rates charities based on how much of the funds they raise actually goes to their stated missions.  Reading the thrice-yearly publication is eyeopening.  I had no idea that so many charities had executives and officers making well over a hundred grand a year (I know that everyone generally likes to make money, but couldn't people be found who could do the same jobs for less money and still make a decent living?  I suppose this is an issue in our society that stretches far beyond charities).  Some of the charities appear to be out and out scams preying on the ignorant and sympathetic to give them money.  Many have names similar to real charities but operate quite differently.  I stopped donating stuff to a couple of supposed veterans charities because they received grades of F (Charity Watch rates charities from A to F); I'll give my unwanted stuff to Goodwill, who gets an A (though their CEO apparently makes half a million a year . . . hmm, maybe I'll give it to someone else; I better check the latest Charity Rating Guide first though).   

YIP!: Akron Comicon

I recently attended the first Akron Comicon and had quite a nice time.  The event was well put together and made for a nice day out.  Apparently, the organizers are already planning next year's event, which is good news.  It's always been a puzzle why the Cleveland area has never had an annual major comics convention like many large cities have, even other nearby ones (for example, Pittsburgh and Columbus), so, since Cleveland can't seem to get it together, maybe Akron can "inflate" (sorry, I couldn't resist a blimp pun) theirs into the big con the area could use.  The event had many dealers, cosplayers wandering around (I got my picture taken with a Bane and a Ghostbuster), nice presentations (Gerry Conway gave an interesting Q&A and noted that though he created The Punisher, so far, he has gotten all of $300 from it, and Tom Batiuk had a nice slideshow documenting the history of Funky Winkerbean), and plenty of guests showcasing their comics and doing sketches.  I also got to hang out with some pals and find some cool stuff (no, don't worry, I'm not relapsing and building another large comics collection--these are just for reading).  Held at the University's Student Union, the facilities were nice (though, as a taxpayer paying partially for it, I don't know that college students need to study in such a Taj Mahal).  All in all, the con appeared to be quite a success.  I hope the bounce from it (sorry, I couldn't resist a rubber pun either) makes the next one even better.

YIP!: Rhapsody

Obviously, I like music.  Therefore, I really like a service that lets me listen to pretty much anything I want for only $5 a month, and that's Rhapsody.  I never liked the whole peer to peer piracy phenomenon because I could connect the dots ("But if bands don't make money, then how can they afford to stay together?" "No, man, it's cool, dude; music wants to be free!").  With such low prices, Rhapsody obviously isn't paying much, but at least they're legal and paying record companies and artists something.  Not everything's on there, of course.  Stuff that's out of print isn't, and some bands such as AC/DC have done the math and figured that they're better off just selling cds the old-fashioned way.  So I still buy records.  But a lot of stuff I only listen to once or twice just to see if I really like it, so Rhapsody is ideal for that.  In general, I like most music, but I only really like a bit of music a lot (this year, only Bobby Conn's "Govt" has done it for me).  So hooray for Rhapsody, which helps me find those rare nuggets!  

YIP!: News Of The Weird

The Internet might be the world's greatest newsstand in terms of all the information available, but it's hard sorting through everything to get to the good stuff.  Fortunately, Chuck Shepherd is there to help us along with News Of The Weird.  Where else could I in one handy place read about a woman firing the woman who donated her kidney to her, a mob war over pizza averted by a sitdown at Panera, a duel in Seattle by dogwalkers armed with pooperscoopers, and more, much glorious more?  Nowhere else.  That's why I'm on the NOTW email list, and each week's edition guarantees at least one outloud laugh.

YIP!: Hero Comics 2012

Every year, Hero Initiative publishes a benefit comic book, and every year I buy it even though it's usually not very good, being filled with castoff and quickie stories from a hodgepodge of  comics creators.

Why do I buy it then?

It's for a good cause.  Hero helps out comics creators in trouble, often older folks.  Since most comics creators are freelancers, they seldom have health care insurance, so many of them get devastated financially when they have a serious health issue.  Sometimes though, the comics folks are just hard-up and out of work.  The current benefit comic showcases the stories of Tom Ziuko, Russ Heath, Alan Kupperburg, and Robert Washington, names all familiar to me from decades of comics reading.  I found Heath's story to be the most ironic.  In it, he notes how Roy Lichtenstein sold a painting based on a comics panel drawn by Heath for $4 million dollars, while Heath got nothing.  He currently is 84 years old and survives on Social Security.  Thankfully, Hero has helped him out when he's needed it.

Sometimes even superheroes need to be rescued. 

Yip!: New Bobby Conn Album

American music has been pretty bland lately.  At first, I thought it was just grumpyoldmanism striking, but I've conferred with a few others, so it's not just myself who feels this way (if it is a delusion or mistaken assessment, then at least I'm not alone in thinking it; erroneous thinking is always more comforting in groups--think of  cults/religions or political parties).  In a lot of ways, it's 1975 again, a very boring period in rock and roll.  Fortunately, if it is 1975-like, maybe a grand explosion of punk/new wave is just around the corner.  If not, then at least we can content ourselves with a few bright spots, such as Bobby Conn, who has just released a new album, Macaroni.  So far, "Govt" is my favorite, but that could change.  Conn is a good songwriter, so he gives lots of options.

YIP!*: Submedia.Tv

The news can be pretty depressing these days. I always find it goes down easier when delivered by an anarchist who likes to swear a lot.

*Yips are good things.

Yip!: Seeing The Room In A Movie Theater

I've seen the movie The Room before but seeing it in a movie theater was even better. It was like being in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Usually I hate it when people talk during movies but The Room is a movie that is improved by audience participation. Its ineptness is its brilliance and the film can make me laugh harder than almost any other. Making people chuckle probably wasn't writer/director/star Tommy Wiseau's original goal, but since the film's newfound success as a cult comedy may help him finally recoup the money he lost on the film (and now probably then some) he seems to be taking things goodnaturedly and just says something to the effect that he doesn't care what people think of the film as long as they enjoy it.

And enjoy it I did!

Bring a plastic spoon if you go see it in the theater--don't ask why because you'll soon figure it out when you get there. And if you can attend the screening wearing a tuxedo and carrying a football so much the better.

*Yips are good things in case you didn't know!

Yip!: Kill The Hippies At Bela Dubby On 11 February 2011

Yip!: I felt like I was in a 1980s punk rock music video when members of the Lakewood, Ohio USA police force started surrounding the little coffeehouse that Kill The Hippies, one of my favorite local bands, was playing. Fortunately, it wasn't us they were interested in. They just wanted us to stay inside while they raided an apartment across the street. I still have no idea what exactly was going on, but judging from the fact that a woman was escorted into the apartment afterward and it involved about ten police cars and twice that many officers I suspect it was some sort of domestic disturbance involving a gun (Unless someone dies, Cleveland media outlets generally don't care and won't cover such an incident except in a police blotter a week later or so maybe). Whatever the case, it was a kick to be locked inside and forced to listen to KTH while police with riot shields and semi-automatic rifles roamed outside. Not that I ever want to repeat the experience, but it was interesting. KTH seemed undisturbed so I would guess that they've played around cops with guns drawn before.

*Yips are good things in case you didn't know!