GIVE HIM FLOWERS FOR HIS HAIR!

This is an amazingly high-quality clip of very early Dead or Alive, a rare performance of the song "Flowers" when they were in more of a post-punk phase. Pete Burns' vocals in this song put me in the mind of other classic artists and music-poets and experimental rock-n-roll bands, such as Jim Morrison and the Doors; Nico and the Velvet Underground; and Siouxsie & the Banshees. Enjoy... Pete Burns and Dead or Alive!

Siekiera - Szewc zabija szewca

Gender Benders

I'm up at 5:30 a.m. listening to Pete Burns' latest release, "Never Marry an Icon" the single. So much auto-tuner he sounds like a robot, but you can still hear that rough and scary Pete Burns in there underneath it all. Burns has been the subject of a few plastic surgery disaster videos on cable and the Internet.

What is up with British men becoming these androgynous alien-like things? Boy George is a less extreme example, but then you have characters like Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.

The front man from Psychic TV and former "head" of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, Genesis started transforming himself into a more female form around 1999, while living in New York City. I was also living in New York at the time and had the opportunity to meet Mr. P-Orridge at Tower Records. I'll have to upload the video sometime, when I have more time.

This is just a little before-work rambling. I haven't been to work since Friday. I had to take a 3-day weekend since Christmas falls on a Saturday.

Nightmares in Wax

I hate that image! It's been giving me nightmares ever since I first saw it last week... and I'm still not sure if I love or hate the music that goes with the image, the Birth of a Nation EP. It's a band from 1979 called Nightmares in Wax. You might know them as Dead or Alive, who released their first album Sophisticated Boom Boom in 1984. This 3-track EP is definitely a precursor to the 1st LP. Many are probably more familiar with their second LP Youthquake, which featured the hit single "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" -- which is hard to imagine if you listen closely to the first EP. It's punk disco. Totally inappropriate and antisocial. It really has been giving me nightmares. I'm going to just forget it and move onto something more upbeat and positive.

photography.

Pacers' lobby, in Lakewood.

Pretty Pictures

The staircase at work...



Not the staircase at work...

Ann Magnuson's "Pretty Songs & Ugly Stories" CD

Just giving this album its first listening-to and I must say, it's funny as hell and it's very well done, musically and vocally perfect. Lyrically insane! Prayin' for that miracle, like Jesus used to preach, but He can't hear the crying, 'cause God is fast asleep...