CONSCIOUS DECISION

Just sent out our biggest single order of Cliff Face Comics to the great Comic Relief in Berkeley, CA. This is pretty thrilling for me, as CR was the first MAJOR comic store I'd ever been to. I'd been to many New Jersey stores at that point, but I still hadn't been to the big New York stores or Lambiek or any of the stores in San Francisco or anywhere else. Stepping into that store was like being transported into another world or a scene in an occult noir film. The sort of place you might make veiled references to the shopkeep about the secret graphic novels made by Paul Revere and he'd usher you into the back room, looking over his shoulder the whole time.

Of course, it wasn't like that at all. In fact, the place was bustling with all sorts of people, from all walks of life, enjoying the seemingly endless comicbook options before them. But there was a palpable atmosphere. A feeling that I had stepped into some place special.

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I made a concious decision to not buy any music last night until I had listened to some of the stuff I'd got in the past few months. I've lisened to all of it (well, not all of the 8 million things of Kenny's that invaded my harddrive like swarming Huns), but I felt like I should really listen to SOME of it again, before it fully enters the shuffling churn.

On King, T.I. is the closest thing we've got to Tupac, stylistically. In fact, on the ballad tracks (what do they call these in hip hop? the songs we called ballads on hair metal albums?) he sounds suspiciously like him. I don't think he's quite as smooth and he's not as good at the wordplay, and he doesn't have anywhere near the charisma, but there's something there. He can also do a mean doubletime. I think there's a reason he's mangaged to secure such furious production, and I think his similarity to Tupac is was it is.

I've clearly listened to more of Aphex Twin's Drukqs than I thought. I forgot how much it has dominated my 'wordless' playlists. You have to hear it to remember it and you have to listen or else the music just vanishes into whatever you're doing. I think it's MEANT to vanish into whatever you're doing. This is music to do other things to, not to sit and listen to while the world happens outside your parents' basement. It's all good, but it's all for the background.

I ruined my CD copy of Elf Power's A Dream in Sound a few years and a couple of jobs ago. It was only recently added to iTunes on one of those incredibly rare days I actually checked to see what had been recently added to iTunes. Leaving no dim glimmer of synchronicity unexplored, I quickly reacquired it. Then I didn't listen to it. Why should I? I had already listened to it about a hundred times before. There's something nice about listening to an album nostalgic for a time you can't remember (the height of psychedelia) after reading a book nostalgic for a time you can't remember (Jonathen Lethem's Men and Cartoons) and just before sending out a package to a place you remember but realize is no longer the same. It's especially nice when you then find yourself at the diner for the first time since the abyssmal smoking ban and all the textures, tastes and sensations seem wrong. And it's extra nice when the album activates your own nostalgia. It's super nice when the album is as good as this one.

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I don't know where my aunt found the Hulk Rage Board Book. I don't know why my aunt bought the Hulk Rage Board Book. I don't know who a Hulk Rage Board Book would be be for. I can't even imagine why a Hulk Rage Board Book even exists!

I only know one thing:

I LOVE my Hulk Rage Board Book! It's the Hulk versus the Abomination! It's eight really thick pages of double-page spreads featuring the Hulk versus the Abomination! The Abomination steals a secret military weapon! It's a Yellow Cone! Luckily, the Hulk found out about the theft before the Abomination got it in his head to use the Yellow Cone! The Abomination attacks the Hulk! The Hulk uses JUDO IN THE NICK OF TIME to flip the Abomination! The dancing military police handcuff the abomination and take their Yellow Cone back! Hulk proves he is strongest one there is!!! Buy the three other Hulk Rage Board Books: Birth of the Hulk! Follow the Leader! and Here Come the Hulk!

Awesome.