Uh oh! Y'all in trouble now! My man Jamesage gave me a scanner some months ago and my brain just now figured out how to set it up! That is me very little, and more where that and everything came from. It's on.
This is like when me and Billy Frolic hang out! Except our shirts are cooler. Thanks to the Main Man for pointin' this out to me and http://www.the700level.com/ for having it.
"PC v. Mac" or "I Don't Know Anything About It and Here's What I Think"
It seems today that one of the grandest brand wars in America is the ol' PC v. Mac. It's like Coke v. Pepsi before Pepsi emerged victorious and donned ultra modern skins. And much like some conspiracy theorists will tell you that Coke is Pepsi (ludicrous), I wonder if one computro-brand is actually any better or just a matter of taste. My first suspicion was my observation that "PC" stands for "Personal Computer" which I believe Macs are as well. So is the discrepancy is Mac v. non-Mac? Why would that be? They are all good Operating Systems. I guess that they set it up that way themselves, primarily through those (as deemed by most) unbearable "I'm a Mac" commercials starring that douche bag from "Waiting." They cast themselves as unique, and feigned hipness (which may have been their biggest mistake), while stating the features of a Mac (and any computer) as if they were exclusive to Mac. This would not have been a very effective campaign, except for the other, subtler aspect they were selling that Mac truly could boast: a groundbreaking aesthetic and a foray into a new kind of interface. Remember the predecessor ad with the multi-colored Macs set to "She's a Rainbow" by the Rolling Stones? Things would be forever popping, jumping, curving, moving, dis-appearing and re-appearing, and this would tacitly make computing funner, and somehow easier or more efficient or better as well.
Now I had a long and positive history with Apple. In computer class in grade school we had Apple 2E's and Apple 2GS's on which you could play excellent games like Oregon Trail and Odell Lake, and most awesomely to me was Logo Writer. In Logo Writer your icon was a triangle that was also a turtle, and you wrote basic programming that, when you entered commands on the display screen made the turtle constructs shapes, scenes, and eventually movements/animations. In seventh and eighth grade I was on the school "Computer Team" and competed in Dover! At my friend Mike Voit's we also played the excellent Sierra series of "Quest Games": Police Quest, King's Quest, Space Quest, and the awesome Leisure Suit Larry In the Land of the Lounge Lizards, whose sexual antics resulted in a small amount of guilt for young Daniel, which I quickly dealt with and became sexually on par!
At my house, my dad had been working writing programming since the seventies, and we had exclusively PC's. Every single program we used on the Apples at school and Mike's house were available on PC, with a slightly different interface, and what would become my favorite thing about computers, the word processor, was mind-bogglingly superior. I helped run a fantasy baseball league and Excel did all the work that I previously did by hand, and I could refurbish my writings at a moments notice. It was sleek, and Mac was clunky. Just imagine!
After that the Mac became sorta irrelevant until it made strides in the area of graphic design. While the PC could do almost everything best, the Mac became the premier tool for digital design and zeroed in on this niche with the multi-colored monitor cases. They did look way cool, and Mac began it's reinvention of its insides. In 2001 the completely redid their Operating System to keep up with and in some area excel past other PC's, giving consumers and computers a viable option with a unique personality.
In late 2006, I asked my dad for a new computer for X-Mas, and he asked me what I wanted. Well, my boy mc Ben had just gotten a new Mac and it was fly, I particularly reveled in iTunes (I've since developed a love/hate relationship with that program). My dad explained to me that Macs are overpriced and inconvenient, non-upgradable and overrated. That they do actually crash proportionately to PC's based on units sold, and when they do repair is far more difficult. He told me not to be fooled by the aesthetic. Most importantly he told me that PC's can support absolutely anything a Mac can, including my precious iTunes. I succumbed and have had a problem-free Dell for two plus years. Now comes the hilarious part... within six months my dad had purchased a new Mac on which he does all his work and most of his play. He actually just signed up for Apple TV!
Now, I have no room nor reason to hate on the Mac or Apple, my iPod houses the best music ever made, and most of my friends (Billy Frolic, Toddy Purse, Timmy "Main Man" Toner (whose MacBook Pro is named Miley), JamesageYetter, mc Ben, Bobby Campbell, Brendan Huffman, Paddy Robinson, Reese Robinson, and probably more) are very satisfied with their Macs and so am I when I use them. So, why have I become such a proud bastion and supporter of my PC? Especially when I'm not "Mr. Computer" - my entire usage is word processor, excessive internet use, iTunes, pirate bay, VLC player, blogger, CDisplay, etc... I think it is the self-righteous better-than-you mentality cultivated by the company itself (which I know none of my friends considered in their purchase nor give a f%$^ about). It is the aire of hipness allotted to nerds due to the type of computer they own. In my day, we argued the merits of Mizuno v. Rawling. When it comes down to it, computers are a tool, and not one as cool as a hammer, neither! On my level of use, it comes down to personal taste and whimsy and I like whichever one I'm typin' on at the time.
PC Tip #185 - Those "Entertainment" coupon books have free firewall/virus protection coupons! Sign up once a year and stay off boob-sites and your PC should have no crashes, viruses, or worms!
Here are some amazing photos of my grandpop Robinson from the 1940's plus one from when he was little with his dogs and one with him and my beautiful grandmom! My dad recently restored these and they look awesome! That's Laurel, Delaware.
It was December of 2003 and I had forgotten who I was. You could easily say it wasn't my fault, but I can't. No public opinion or way of the world should have altered my divine-ish mission. I should have always had the strongest jaw. But there we were and Delaware hadn't a leader, someone beyond reproach, so I guess we were vulnerable, and I knew I had to thrust that greatness upon myself, as always.
Almost a decade before, I had started high school. My freshman year I was still feeling things out, but knew already what I was. I just felt, and rightly so, that dues of some sort had to be paid. That is, I knew you can't just say, "I'm a punk rocker" and then you are one (though that's the tract most took.) I knew you had to know something, and that you'd have to figure it out for yourself. Of course I didn't know that while I was cultivating my quasi-religion, others were participating in a fad! Regardless, that summer I bought some records (notably "BoogadaBoogadaBoogada" and "All the Stuff (and More) Vol. 2"), taught myself how to play them on guitar, learned who was playing on them, what they were saying/doing and why, wrote a bunch of my own numbers, and I came back to school my sophomore year with spikes, a sneer, and the knowledge and confidence to call myself a punk rocker, even if it just meant being a die-hard fan of the Ramones, I knew it was the truth.
And of course seeing the Crash play at the school talent show that year was the turning point in my life, probably the single most significant thing I have ever seen.
One thing I held as a tenant at the time was a vehement disregard of all things conflicting with my punk rockedness, be it aesthetically, socially, or especially musically. So a band like Led Zeppelin was anti-everything I liked: successful, popular prima-donnas, socially conflicted with a down and dirty, ballsy American suburban teen, though that was always Led Zep's fan base. And the music was lumbering and dark, no fun at all. But Zeppelin is just an example of how things went all wrong in rock and roll.
Someone who did as much home work as me could tell the difference between Zep and the MC5, but the common man could not! You see, pretty much since its inception, rock and roll has been perverted by neophytes and businessmen. When simply wiping it out didn't work, they went about ruining it. The astute punk rocker/rock and roller can differentiate that which has been perverted from the pure. And the pure isn't always better music, but it's better music, get it? Then one can always do music that isn't supposed to be rock and roll at all and that is ok, cause they aren't perverting anything, but that is off my radar.
The good stuff can be traced from the beginning with certain bands/songs/genres that serve as Platonic Forms from which the real deal is derived.
Black Soul, Rock-A-Billy, and Jump Blues lead to first wave Rock and Roll, which was perverted into teen idol music but spawned the British Invasion, Girl Groups, and Motown, which lead to American Garage and Bubblegum, which coincided with the folk-rock scene, and resulted in Heavy Metal (soon to be perverted into Stadium-Style Dinosaur Rock), Country Rock, and Punk Rock. When Sid Vicious died, Punk went back underground to birth a thousand bands and scenes, labels and zines, while metal pussed and popped it's way to U.S. mega-popularity by the 1980's. The mesh of pseudo-punk and hair metal that was Nirvana hallmarked the grunge scene of the early 1990's, and only when lead singer Kurt Cobain blew his brains out could American music be saved. Pop-punk, a Ramones derived style of melody-driven heavy hard music hit the mainstream airwaves. This was our chance, our door out of the mundane that defines pop music and maybe-life into a secret world set up twenty years prior that somehow, nobody had cared to mention to me in the mean time. What I started to understand, but would take me awhile to grasp, was that there is a wide, wide variety of acceptable ingredients, (when coupled with a punk rock surgeon's precision) if one were to want to build the Great American Band. Observing the nature of change, I should have been ready for it, but before it had hit it was already unpopular again. Emboldened by their so-called punk creds, would be Zeppelinites started "underground" style bands that reach out more to atonal metal and noise bands than any given harmonizer. Half-breeds like Hot Water Music and Braid made their ways onto popsters even my turntable. I guess I was just trying to be cool. Like, if this is what we got let's make the best of it. I was wrong.
One problem was that any outward showing of "punk fashion" was deemed uncool and indeed much of it had grown to parody itself. It was almost like it was bred out of us by 1999. But that kind of fashion, if you will, is just a metaphor for the music. 99.9% of people who got into punk rock at any point, be it 1974 or 1994 or 2004, and then stuck with it, got into it for the music, not for an excuse to dress "weird." It's because they are sentimentalists that at least one time got that secret message beamed through a.m., and then f.m., and then vinyl, and then disc, and then digital media and it hit so hard that it just stuck. Usually because of some combination of "The Ramones and..." Now, if you like what listening to this kind of music says about you, then frequently you look to express yourself through clothing as well, to continue spreading the message of who you are, such as, "I fucking love the Ramones so I will wear this leather jacket to express that!" Or, "I am rather aggressive and not to be meddled with, so I will wear this spike bracelet and these tough lookin' boots, and scowl at you!" Or, "I don't care for showers." And to me that is cool, but in that odd post 9-11 America, I was an aberration. So I kept it simple, a sweet brown suede coat and Vans shoes while my black leather and all-black Chucks sat in my room.
As I lay complacent, telling no one about themselves or why their taste in music sucked, music got worse. The bane of the underground, "emo" had creamed to the top and the lame inherited the earth. Their bland and whiny offerings became the new status-quo and their avatars stand as reps for "white" music, what most citizens then think is rock and roll. I had a vague inkling that that enraged me, the misrepresentation and underestimation, yet I did nothing. Like a comatose super-hero, waiting to hear the trigger word and resume my place in the Invisible College, I did nothing. Until with a little luck and some elbow grease and a whole lot of bravery, I triggered my own damn self.
Billy Frolic's parents had recently celebrated an anniversary, and Billy got to take the remainder of the booze home with him. Now, I was still a bit of a drunk at the time and was more than happy to help him drink all that hooch. Dee Dee must have been smiling down on me, because at the same time, Billy's then-fiance Betty had just gotten the "Freaks and Geeks" tv series on DVD, and we drink and watched and drank and watched, and finally "Noshing and Moshing."
I watched that, and like magic, I remembered, and said, "I ONLY LIKE PUNK ROCK."
Dude... 7-11 (as revered in songs by Green Day) on Greenhill Ave. has, get this: 20 oz. coffee (I prefer the Vanilla Cupcake Cappucino) and two Fiesta Omelet Taquitos for $1.99. Thought you'd like to know. Others have blogged on this topic and added analysis. No analysis needed.
Here is a very impressive and apropos number about our Chief Exec, Mr. Barack Obama, as sung by the very talented Garrison Keillor and backed by the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band on Prairie Home Companion, weekends on NPR, 90.9 on your FM dial.
Ah yes, the good guys win! As exemplified by my man Toddy Purse.
However, if you listen to Laura Ingrahm, as I frequently do out of a masochistic need, the bad guys won, America is ruined and our children are being indoctrinated with commie ideals. She is a dumb #@%*! America Rules!
Jump in the car and drive on out to the Domino Room in Oregon to catch Hands on Throat tomorrow night, or jump in the time machine and pop on over to catch 'em yesterday!
This is way overdue, but you should check out Oregon's own Hands On Throat!! Featuring the incomparable Sean Rule of Plow United and to a slightly lesser extant Power of IV fame on the drums! Seany is an Urkel-level bodhisattva whose penchant for good-will and kindness is matched only by his prowess on the skins. Hands On Throat is Sean's destiny, playing FOD meets JFA style metal-punk-metal and sorta freakin' rules. There stuff is catchy and hard, they seem to have a sense of humor, and the drums, of course, are spectacular! These videos are a bit older now, from April 2007... I only delayed my H.O.T. love out of a bit of jealousy... who wouldn't miss Sean? http://www.handsonthroat.com
"If Joel Tannenbaum is the Ty Cobb of the Wilmington/West Chester Punk Scene, then Dan Robinson the Lou Gehrig." - The Hic-Up 2009
"His greatest record doesn't show in the book. It was the absolute reliability of Henry Louis Gehrig. He could be counted upon. He was there every day at the ballpark bending his back and ready to break his neck to win for his side. He was there day after day and year after year. He never sulked or whined or went into a pot or a huff. He was the answer to a manager's dream." - Sportswriter John Kieran in The New York Times
"Gehrig is the game's No. 1 batsman, who takes boyish pride in banging a baseball as far, and running around the bases as quickly, as possible". - Time Magazine 1936
"I never knew how someone dying could say he was the luckiest man in the world. But now I understand." - Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle farewell address (1969)
"Lou Gehrig was to baseball what Gary Cooper was to the movies: a figure of unimpeachable integrity, massive and incorruptible, a hero. Today, both are seen as paradigms of manly virtue. Decent and God-fearing, yet strongly charismatic and powerful." - Kevin Nelson in The Greatest Stories Ever Told About Baseball (1986)
"The ballplayer who loses his head, who can't keep his cool, is worse than no ballplayer at all." - Lou Gehrig
"There is no room in baseball for discrimination. It is our national pastime and a game for all." - Lou Gehrig
You guys know batting stance guy right? Well here he is face to face with the Big Man and crackin' wise with much success. Thanks to www.thefightins.com for this one.
I have spent winter months in deep ponderance of the philosophical and moral ramifications of all things Philadelphia Phillie, I'll let you know what I came up with soon.
Oh, that over there? In the sidebar? Well that is a couple of new widgets, they call 'em. The top one contains the entire new record by the Headies, entitled Sugar and Spice (and Everything's Fucked) and is due out on Madison Underground Records in February, but since yer cool and you know me, you get it early. It also has bonus tracks off our first EPIt's A Super-Man's World, of which a few copies are still available! Underneath that is the epic and legendary Endless Mike Jambox with the full-length Another Hot Freshy-Freshy! I know, this is generous and unexpected, but that's Wilmington punk rock baby! Listen, ten times a day for a month and come to all our shows! Thanks to computer-genius Billy Frolic for widgetting me up!!! Check in with my favorite bass player at www.scribald.blogspot.com.
New Year, New Look, New Tit Patrol Videos! Live at, you guessed it, the Urban Bike Project in Wilmington, January 11, 2009. Video courtesy of Jamesage.
"Cough It Up"
"Monsters Go Home"
"I Don't Wanna See Yer Face"
"Get Rid of You"
"(I Fell In Love at the) Punk Rock 40 Party"
"Beaches Love Pizza"
"Hot Dog Emergency"
"Drive Away"
"I Can't Save No Money" and "Tree Branches"
"Baby's Ridin' Tonight"
"Danny Sez" (by the Ramones)
"Burger Fever" and "I Don't Wanna Be a Part of It"
Alright, usually, if someone is doing something artistic, funny, or having quality at all which is closely related to my illusory-self's interests, motives, agendi, I begrudge them their success for having a not quite so thouroughly perfect project as I would were I to have the project at all. Get it? But, I can find absolutely nothing wrong with the so-called FIRST punk rock web comic, "Nothing Nice To Say" by Mitch Clem. It is so good, if I had money it'd be pandering. Now, I warn you, it may not be for everybody. There are no "I can't believe he said that" kinda moments or controversy or anything. It's just a comic strip about two dudes who live for pop-punk and willingly embrace all the psuedo politics that accompany it whilst parodying the very same. For those of you who don't know me, that is what I do too! Clem has the whole thing up online from 2002 til the present, and I am a bit jealous of the self-contained pop-punk epic, but strangely, even more, it makes me fell really happy that somebody else out their gets it. It's also really cool to see the characters develop and the drawings as well. It's a culture that existed everywhere in the mid-nineties, and now on your PC! (or Mac) Check out these hilarious samples and then buzz over to http://www.mitchclem.com/nothingnice/ for the whole story.
Here are the Impatients at the Urban Bike Project! Only one song because some joker turned off the lights on the second song, rendering the video black and useless under the pretense of "mood lighting." Bah! You never saw Plow United! Anyway, this show was crazy cause the Imps and Tit Patrol (us) were sharing all our equipment, back and forth, song to song. During one of the Tit's first numbers, "I Don't Wanna See Your Face", I rocked this open E super hard and jacked Ally's/my bass way out of tune. So, it sounds a little off, but you can see my butch arm reaching in and tuning her up, mid song! As always, great footage by Jamesage!
The Headies (2007-present) Tit Patrol (2005-present) Endless Mike Jambox (2002-2007) Power of IV (1998-2002) Ninja Attak (1995-1998)
Best Team: Philadelphia Phillies Best Bands: The Ramones, Plow United, MC5, The Stooges, New York Dolls, Chuck Berry, The Heartbreakers, The Queers, Screeching Weasel, The Vindictives, Mr. T Experience Best Region: Mid-Atlantic Political Party: Great Ape Society
March 6 @ the Mason Jar - 1901 Harrison Ave. Claymont, DE 19809 - The Headies w/Disco Machine Gun, Lowdown, and Misanthropy - All Ages, $5 goes to Save the Spot!!
March 12 @ New Jersey TBA
March 13 @ the Riff, 1615 Main Street, Port Jefferson, NY - Benefit Show for Long Island Pit Rescue - Tit Patrol w/Hands Like Feet, Fellow Project, the Broosevelts, Critical Condition, Mailbox Baseball, the Young Leaves, Yesterdays's Heroes, Devil Sits Shotgun, The Scutches, Zombie Culture, Canons, Hooliganism, This'll Kill Ya, Common Enemy, Disclosure, Brace Face, Strong Arm Law - 2pm, $10, All Ages
March 14 @ the Mason Jar, 1901 Harrison Avenue, Claymont, DE, 19809 - Tit Patrol w/Disclosure, Ba-Durr!, and TBA - 1pm, Donations Go To Touring Bands, All Ages
March 14 @ the Cube16 Marrows Road, Newark Delaware 19713 - Hot Toddy and the Wilmington Wastoids!! w/Belly Dancers!
March 15 @ 198 Madison, Newark, DE - Tit Patrol w/One Short Fall, Disclosure, Brace Face, Holy Dirt, and Ba-Durr! - 4pm, Donations Go To Touring Bands, All Ages
March 19-21 Tit Patrol Recording @ Second Story Sound w/the Mad Splatter
May 14 @ Rugger's Pub, 40 South 22nd Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15203 - Tit Patrol w/TBA
May 15 @ Cedar's Lounge, 23 N. Hazel Stree, Youngstown, Ohio 44503 - Tit Patrol w/Johnie 3 - 8pm
"Sugar and Spice (And Everything's Fucked)" Now Available on Interpunk!
Uh oh! Y'all in trouble now! My man Jamesage gave me a scanner some months ago and my brain just now figured out how to set it up! That is me very little, and more where that and everything came from. It's on.
This is like when me and Billy Frolic hang out! Except our shirts are cooler. Thanks to the Main Man for pointin' this out to me and http://www.the700level.com/ for having it.
Here are some amazing photos of my grandpop Robinson from the 1940's plus one from when he was little with his dogs and one with him and my beautiful grandmom! My dad recently restored these and they look awesome! That's Laurel, Delaware. 
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