I'm still here reading, I haven't had much to say lately, as most of what I have been doing is getting set up in the new digs...

Present and correct, sir, but The Man is getting in the way of The MOG as school's in...

My personal fave Kier line, "Come at me like a panther cause you know yes is my answer." I'm still mogging after all these months. I think a lot of peeps are on vaction right now too.

^I must echo Joxley's sentiments. Grad school is kicking my ass PROPER right about now. 450 pages and three papers this weekend. Ouch.

KEEP IT DOWN!!! Some of us are trying to get some work done. Sheesh....

Oh, I mean grad school has got me weirded out, too. nothing serious like my lady M, but just getting started and not knowing what I'm getting into, you know? Picking topics for research papers. WTF to write about? Shizz like that.

Love the track. It's got me all tranced out. I'm well, drumming up freelance work and MOGging a bit. Getting divorced, but life's good.

Just chillin kid. Hope ya doin good out there in LA. Hey, does this track sound familiar to anyone?

@nicki: runaway! runawayyyyyy!

@Iren: das right, getting ready to shoot over to the land of lutefisk, ja?

@jox: ..tell the man, to get stuffed (whenever possible)...keep flexing the muscles that matter...

@fistula: word...dug that scratch piklz...you on "air quotes": M?...(wink, wink)...

@michelle: same applies here...think of the days when your boy would Don Johnson would light up a smoke on that big ass TV set in the study hall while Jan Hammer played his theme song...those days are gone...you're runnin' with the big dogs, now...hahha...it'll be worth it in the long run...but you already know this...

@Samster: gotcha...not really dead hours where I am...but a lot of combing over details...cool people though...

@Queen: ..it does ask one of life's burning enigmas, and speaking of which...WOAH, Nellie! That last one kinda stuck out...hope you find some freelance shite (you already know that I couldn't get arrested for a minute a while ago)...you got my info, give me a holla sometime...shooting some of those "freelance vibes" from Los Angeles, over the mountains in the middle country and across the pond...keep on truckin', mama...

@Pete: Nice pull...gotta get up pretty early in the morning to pull one over on old Popeye...you get an extra pat of butter for rockin' that phat Devo Kangol...don't lose it, son...

I yam what I yam - which is hammered by the hysteria on your home turf, C.P. But I'm squeezing in (I hope) relevant posts, and commenting where it fits and when I can. Never give up! Never surrender! (Yeah, I watched "Galaxy Quest" this weekend, preceded by some old Popeye cartoons. Why do you ask?)

Thanks Crashman! Glad you dug it! Im tryin to keep the Mog skills sharp!

Mike: Those old toons are so great. I gotta pick up that new Popeye dvd boxset. Ug Ug Ug!

Cheers, doll. Love that you called me Nellie. Not many people call me that, except my mother. All's well and good in Saaaaf East London. No mountains or valleys to look at, though. Lucky you!

just hiding out here in my comfy cave in afghanistan.

@Mikey: Sho'nuff Bit Fish...nuttin' but a thang, yo...

@Pete: I see you've been workin' out in the Dojo...the force is strong in this one...yeah, that's right, the one over there with the flower pot on his head...

@Helen: well, these LA mountains are kinda grubby compared to the ones back east...but better than nuthin' I 'spose...

@Leftover: one man's cave is another man's "spider hole"...do you know how long I've been waiting to use the word "spider hole" in a comment...thanks for the assist...I can check that off my "To Do" list...hahaha...

lol. glad i could help crash.

Man, MOG couldn't get rid of me if they hired The Killer, The Professional, and Crying Freeman. Yeah! I'm that hard. :)

I am inching back in after the hiatus, but I was always watching.

whats happening................well I will be teaching again in less than a week. Played it cool like the other side of the pillow

@leftover: all's you need is some Kurt Rambis, taped-up specs and you'd be through...hahaha...spider hole...

@TP: word...harder than a coffin' nail, you are, guv'na...

@Cody: I feel you...been doing some of the same but still posting, not as much as I used to though...glad you're pumpin' the funk...

@CooP: nuyce, maybe this time you can get comped a Batmobile! cooler than a fan, my man...

with teaching it would be the one featured in the Adam West series..........that might not be too bad

...if they try to pass off those cheap ass grappling hooks, go for the bat cycle...a total score as well...

Crash: It's more like out of the land of lutefisk, and into the land of people that gave that up a century ago.. but, yeah torsdag jag ska resa til.. shit my swedish fails me, and well... ok English I do speak it...

here is my real question, how is it that one gets into the freelance game? I guess submission and desperation more than anything else... I have the allmedia empire in my new back yard, and hoping that the gig I interviewed for last week comes though, but it would give me the downtime to try and kick out some freelance stuff...

anyway, good to know that the troops are still lurking about, even if mostly in summer recovery mode....

@Iren: ...it's rough out there, son...if you're not already on somebody's masthead...I think the best thing to do is to keep pitching but in the interim, create your own heat because when the time comes for someone to check you out, you should have your own content somewhere for them to check you out on the low w/o telling you (even if they don't admit it, if they're looking for talent, they will b/c nobody wants to be that dude who turned down a potential rain-maker...allmedia's always a great bet (pimp your swedish skills b/c I think they're looking for writers outside the US r/n who speak/ write other languages (the US market's saturated which is why I stopped lookin' there...but dude, their brick-and-mortar is a stone's throw from you...build a blog with some of your shite on there then hit 'em up....that's what I'd do...small indie papers are worth a try too...they might not pay much, if at all BUT, you'd be surprised how just being "out there" helps...lotsa coffee houses, lounges, etc...

Crash - good of you to try and pull everybody out their spider holes. ;-) I've been on a kind of self-imposed hiatus while I've been trying to switch gears in my pathetic career life and get my shite together. Took some hemming and hawing and soul searching, but I've decided to throw in the towel with the music industry, or at least to set the towel aside for a while. Tough, cuz I love working in the music biz, but I feel like me and a lot of my indie brethren and sistren are being forceably sidelined or benched at this time. Gotta believe it's for a reason. I'm going in search of the dreaded day job to get some cash flowing while I look for some work with a non-profit or government arts organization. I know that's not the most lucrative area either, but at least it would not kill my soul as much as a corporate gig. I know I'll be back to posting and commenting in a couple weeks.

@lady Miss: good to hear that you're (foregoing the soul-killing stuff and) looking for something more edifying...that racket's reached critical mass (so has the filmatic side) but that don't mean that the diy aesthetic should be eschewed...it's refreshing to sit a few rounds out...I was listening to Sound Opinions last night and Rick Rubin, of all people, was talking about "the new business model" for music is (drumroll) THE MUSIC...that's a big duh, dude...he was saying that the "wave of the future's" going to be subscription-based with a focus on marketing/ merch and live shows (which will definitely put the smaller concerns in a pinch)...I can't call it...but I think it'll correct itself eventually...stay strong and true to what you believe, which it seems you're doing and the worm will turn in your favor...it's the long run that separates the chaff from the wheat...remember when CDs came out...?...not to wrap up like some half-assed pitched letter but: I look forward to hearing from you again...but I really mean it, in this instance...onward and upward, yo...

I heard that sound opinions and it made me think of last Sept's (2006) issue of Wire Magazine, where they were talking about the future of music... I don't know that I agree with Rubin about the subscription deal, but I am most def (sorry been watching The Wire) on the side of the future being the media corp that markets the tee shirts and shows...

Present and listening sir!!!.... nice one Crash, liking the roll call, always present and correct', lovin' Miss Kier and Pop I Pete's Herbie. Mog Rules KO.

On the subscrip model.. If the record company is gonna get involved with shows and merch (which they didn't get a piece of before) are artists gonna get ripped off like never before? Less money for the band from CD/DL sales and less from touring?

I'm just asking, I don't know the answer.

I was in college when Rick was in college, so I always had a soft spot for him, back from the Def Jam purple labels. I did read the Times Magazine piece on him and he has the ultimate Music Biz job...He is paid millions to listen.

I hope the business tries something radical, 'cause what's happening now, obviously ain't working, and it is bad for the music culture as a whole. Since Rick is all about good songs and artists who will stick around, I'm willing to listen to what he's got to say, even if I don't think the business end is totally solid.

I'd like to see music become less ubiquitous, less involved in using it's cache to sell other things in mega-companies synergy plans.

Less could be more.

Roll Call was a cool idea, You Rock Crash.

Im still Mogging away although not posting much as I never get the time!! Setting up my own music venue at the moment so that takes most of my time!!

Good idea on the roll call, Was wondering who else was left out there too after all the new smiling faces have joined!!

@Iren: I really don't agree with that portion of his argument, it reeks of that self-fulfilling prophecy stuff big companies got away with on all those blues/ R&B/ rock artists since the early days...felt like he'd forgotten the DIY part of what he's done since his days at NYU...that was the appealing aspect of rock, jazz, hip hop, ska, etc...in the early days the artists gave the status quo the bird and made great sounds what the "subscription model" does is insure that the Big Four will retain all the juice...but the digital age makes that virtually impossible...still I don't take umbrage in the fact that he'd say something like that...he's been made ten times over since he hawked the teenaged LL Cool J and that troupe of unknown white rappers who were once a punk band called The Young and the Useless and changed their name to the Beastie Boys...all of this reminds me of one of my fave Hunter S. Thompson musings: "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. "

@changling: righteous, glad you're still in the mix...

@Cody: I kind of covered this above but would like to add that, I too would like to see more performers return to wanting to be "artists" instead of hawking the unrealistic in hopes of cashing in..."it's called show business, not show friends" takes on a whole new meaning...think of how stale our collections would be if all those cats who did it first for the love of creating something new, curtailed their impulses and, instead, started writing genre-specific jingles (which a lot of that new crap sounds like...allow me to channel the good doctor for a few seconds...oh! the Fergie-licious of it all)...I want to see more risk takers, not at-best, marginally talented fame-seekers who wouldn't know Don Cherry from Wild Cherry or Neneh Cherry and the Notorious Cherry Bombs-- and where they all fit in the grand scheme of things...I wanna hear more cats who will take some chances for the greater good of the medium, bank balance be damned, you can't take it all with you...nothing ventured, nothing gained...because it certainly hasn't hurt my record collection...there, I think I'm done...good stuff, Code...

@youthcard: nice...furthering the cause the old fashioned way, niceness...let us know when you get the wagon rolling on the music tip...

simon here crash! though i have had shit to say or time to say it, but i check in at least a few times a wekk. i guess i am a voyer, but i like to at least leave a comment or 2 around. peace brother

Hi, Chris, what a great post. This reminds me of the old days, y'know like last year about this time...when people would jump on those 50-, 60-, 100-comment posts and just let loose.

But you can probably tell by the fact that I'm only finding it late, and after you gave me a pointer, that I haven't been commenting much lately. I look at my trusteds once a day or so...they seem very cluttered with stuff that I'm not that into. I miss the MOGO-Sphere, that's how I met most of the people I really like here.

Oh, and it doesn't help that when I do muster up the passion to comment on something, the comment gets eaten by the brain about half the time.

I sort of said screw it last week, but I'm back posting at least this week.

But as for the Rubin thing...I haven't seen what you're referrign to, but I did read the Times article and he seems to be singularly without original ideas. Christ, his "new" band, the Gossip, has been around almost ten years. His radical subscription plan is already in play at eMusic. Whatever he says, I think people knew about Johnny Cash well before he started working with him. And he thinks he invented street teams, for god's sake. What a parasite. What an asshole.

And yeah, I think that when the money all drains out of the music business, there will still be music. The people who are really doing it never made any money anyway.

best,

jk

@Simon: duly noted, Sir Simon...voyeurism's a good thing every now and again...I won't scream if you don't holler...BTW, your "clean shaven" advice was a good call...sometimes I forget to shave and spook the natives in "buttoned-up Land"...hahaha, danke...

@PK: and that is word, Jenny...guess we're at the big bend in the bottom of the bell curve; the suits will lose interest and just create (more) easily dismissed pap and then the people toiling away at their craft underground will rise to prominence...kinda like what happened in England with Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies who looked across the waters of the Atlantic toward the American south, helped introduce the Blues to a grip of those British hard rockers who came over here in the second wave of the Invasion and precipitated in all those supergroups that set the pace for everything that happened in the 60s...man, you've just gotta love the forces of entropy, dontcha?...I'm eagerly awaiting for whatever's next...

Chris, OTM, everything you said, and I am very much looking forward to whatever's next. But damn, Forces of Entropy...what a great band name!

haha...you can have it for your "imaginary air-band"...here's the band name I gave Micki: MC 10,000 Foot Tall Bitch...I don't write set lists anymore, though ( I was the guy who did it that for years in my old band t'was kinda like DJ-ing but with magic markers)...hahaha...

hey CP - just quietly lurking here and there. Seems I've lost the spark for the time being, but I'm using the time to get a grip on what's important ... living life, breathing the air outside, going back to my old music loves, getting work done (amazing how much I've accomplished after forcing myself to detach from the internet). For a solid week I actually took care of an orphaned newborn squirrel I found in my back yard - I woke up twice a night to feed it formula with an eyedropper, no joke ... there's a mog post with fitting song (save Bless the Beasts and the Children) swimming around in my brain for that one ;) All that aside, I'm sure the ineluctable pull of the mogos will have me back in the grip before long. Nice post - rock on homefry! ;)

...sometimes the ardor cools...happens to the best of us, GMO...a little reprieve is in order sometimes...I've been working online, writing on that book, doing my side stuff on there too and talking with friends and the "tactile factor" gets subsumed by reading e-stuff...cool that you helped out a critter...give him a little hat and mask...name him "secret squirrel"....hahaha...

@contra: congrats on the crumb-snatcher...the MOG army grows...

Damn. Like an ear I'm still hear. Lame as that may be, I gotta post at work, cuz with the newest little one I'm out like Cross Colors by like 9.

heyyyy Crash, still here, just had a busy coupla weeks with work/music/family/socializing...between work and music i've been passing out on my couch the second i have more than five minutes to sit! hope you're well!

"Give me a HO if you got your funky bus fare"

HO!

Brother, I'm in here...

Been hella slammed trying to put the finishing touches on the new album but I'm Baaaaaack!

Yo Crash. I'm still with ya'. Reading. Haven't had much time to post recently, I've been busy keepin' my head above water, making a wave when I can.

Tomorrow I'm off to Sweden to photo a big boat concert on the Baltic. Hopefully somewhere down the road I can get the photos published or shown. At any rate it'll be good for my ongoing documentary of rock and roll.

I'll have new tunes to post about when/if I return.

@Lyle: sweet, dude..can't wait to hear it..all of it...

@Stefan: Have a great time, son...wish I could go with...so take those funky-fantastic snaps for us...

Not awol, Sgt Crash, just way busy with 'real life' - but real life with cheques attached! The only thing wrong with that is that it gives me less time to push the nouns up against the verbs. What's our mission today, sir?

Hanging in the shadows lately, and obviously waaay behind on MOG-mails.

@Ingham: your mission: should you choose to take it, is find the time to get those nouns next to those verbs and point them at some music thought bombs...I feel you about being on the paper cha$e, I ain't mad atcha...keep fighting the good fight..with music, as Brother Bob might'a put it...

@tybees: I'm hip, I'm hittin' and runnin' too but I did check your pics when you came back to the fold...glad you're coming back around and as far as the mail notices go, things have been kinda kooky with all the fixes getting aligned...so get with that .."my trusteds" list like I've been doing when I don't get nothin'...keep on truckin', yo...

I was actually a bit relieved when the notifications went down a while back - gave me a chance to catch up. I think AJ needs to do one of her "reminiscing" posts so that people get a chance to highlight posts they're proud of that may have been overlooked by some of us.

I've been holding it down here on the WestSIDE. I've had trouble logging on to MOG, and then waiting forever for the pages to load when I do (I'm sure it's this laptop, but the same has happened on my work comp). I did manage to upload my latest icon, though.

5 1/2 months here in LA and life is good. Summer was mostly spent with gf until she moved to Germany. (We were only together a few months so there was no great attachment; I knew she wanted to move there someday.) Been to SD for a best friend's wedding I was in, going to Vegas this weekend to celebrate my friend's 30th bday, but otherwise I'm playing it like Main Source and just hangin' out. Got a few nice mixes off Blentwell, streamed Christine Moritz's show yesterday, as well as Quincy Jointz's latest mix on Lime Sorbet. Like tybees said, a reminiscing post would help me catch up big time.

Respect.