Whudda W.A.S.T.E.: Not Richard Cheese, but close enough

About Me

Name: Monstro

Location: Northampton, Massachusetts, US

"Behind the intials was a metaphor, a delirium tremens, a trembling unfurrowing of the mind's plowshare. The saint whose water can light lamps, the clairovoyant whose lapse in recall is the breath of God, the true paranoid for whom all is organized in spheres joyful or threatening about the central pulse of himself, the dreamer whose puns probe ancient fetid shafts and tunnels of truth all act in the same special relevance to the word, or whatever it is the word is there, buffering, to protect us from." Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

Monday, September 06, 2004

Not Richard Cheese, but close enough

So, lately I've been at my computer a lot. And for no reason, whatsoever, I have been attempting to look at every option that my programs have available to them. I think this all started when Jason told me that the new version of Winamp had video stations and that they had something called Ween TV, and well... hell yes, I want to watch a station that does nothing but play Ween videos. Finally.

Well, anyways, I figured as long as I was enjoying Winamp, I might as well enjoy it with as many skins as possible. I'm up to 58 now. My favorite is Turner Classic, but then I'm into the retro skins. I just set my Winamp to choose a different skin every time it plays a song. Yes, I realize that this is a colossal waste of time, but whatever.

The point of all this is that I discovered a skin, dedicated to Tom Kafafian. Who the hell is Tom Kafafian? I don't know. The best part about this skin is that when it opens, it also opens an explorer window for Tom's website. How pathetic is that? So, now if I love my winamp going on random, as I am want to do, I will inevitably come back to find that my computer is trying to suggest new music for me to listen to. No thanks, any more cheese and I don't think I'd be Atkins Friendly.

2 Comments:

Jason said...: Having for some time now been an aspirant in the Order of Kafafian, I was excited to get Brian’s tip on the Kafafian Winamp skin. The website (www.tomkafafian.com) offers all that the neophyte to Kafafian lore could want: pics of Tom’s gratuitous bangs, his album cover art, setlists for concerts you’ll never see, and did I mention his fabulous bangs? It’s hard to decide on a favorite part of this website, but if pressed, I would have to go with the “Tom’s Hand-written lyrics and artwork” section, which attempts to prove the following things:

1. Tom’s lyrics were not, in fact, written by a supercomputer, but by a real man, with real feelings and real bangs, on real lined paper.
2. That anyone, regardless of preference in musical style, can carefully study the lyrics to Tom’s “At the Station” and begin signing Tom’s checks in no time.

Besides the lyrics, one gets to see the inner workings of Tom’s mind through all the stick-figures and scribblework adorning the lyrics. After seeing the artwork, particularly that on “Circles,” Tom takes a place in my heart right next to Stevie from Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Agent,” another diligent artist expressing similar breadth of intellectual pursuit.

If you live in the NY/NJ area, don’t bother to go to the website: you’ll be able to pick out Tom on the L.I.E. According to the “Bio” section, Tom writes most of his music while driving. Given that we already know that he writes lyrics by hand and includes doodling in the lyric-writing process, you’ll most likely see Tom on the motorway, veering wildly and “trading paint” with other cars while exploring the depths of the human soul. When his car rams into yours, please yell that Jason sends his love.; 1:07 PM
Avram Hooknoobie, Grand Muck of All That is Writ said...: This explains the odd driving behavior of East Coastians -- which Monstro has described. Everyone must be artistic oddities of genius who are composing and combing their bangs whilst "trading paint" with other follicly-gifted vulpinous highway perambulators.
I look forward to epic tales of battle with a green Continental piloted by a gesticulating coiffeur endlessly throwing lumps of pomade on a potters wheel.

Just goes to show John and John are right. "Bangs are that on which the world hangs."

They Might Be Giants: http://www.tmbg.com/froMain.html; 1:11 PM