smoking fish

Well, the photographic evidence is beginning to trickle in from West Virginia. As you can see in the following shot, one of Jeffs smoking fish ads for his website is prominently displayed on top of a Welcome Home Jessica Lynch banner

This next part of my post is a private message to my readers in West Virginia:

You should be ashamed of yourselves. How could you let Jeffs readers beat us to this? Why arent there flyers for MM.com in the background of every CNN broadcast? Don’t you realize that this is war?

You have disappointed me.

Wait, I have an idea. Can someone quickly make up an MM.com t-shirt and ship it over to Iraq? If we can get someone to slip it onto the body of either Uday Hussein or his brother, wed be back in the lead. Photos of their bodies are going to be all over the net tomorrow.

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the factory

Theres all this stuff taking place tonight. Things are being created. Its a neat feeling.

I mentioned in my last update that someone and I have been chatting about the possibility of shooting a documentary on the Monkey Power Trio. Thats just part of it. Theres also another guy, an illustrator named Collin whos stuff Ive posted here before, that is working on an animated video for our song, Someday Well Reach the Moon. In addition to that, Linette and I are designing a line of shirts focusing on the sordid and wonderful history of Ypsilanti. (I expect you all to buy one.) On top of this, Patty, our designer friend from Chicago, and I are kicking around some super-top-secret plans for a unisex handbag to be marketed directly at two huge demographics: people with obsessive compulsive disorder, and the readers of MM.com. (Thats all I can say about that right now, but stay tuned for more.)

So, all of this, plus a few other things that I dont want to jinx by mentioning them, are happening this week. Its cool. I dont read the horoscopes, but, if I did, Id bet that something was in line with something else or something.

As for collaboration in general, Im all in favor of it. I cant speak for the rest of the band, but I like the fact that people can get on-line, take our songs, and do things with them. I like the fact that an animator like Collin can take our music and incorporate it with his own visuals. I like that fact that a DJ like Sleepy E can download our songs, chop them up, and use them in his own work. I like that people find this site by accident (if there are such things as accidents), write me a letters telling me things that I dont already know, and then I can share those things with hundreds or maybe even thousands of other people. I like that Crimewave exists as a channel to get the creative output of our friends out into the world. I like operating this little bus station along the highway on which all of these ideas are traveling.

Maybe that sounds sappy, but I feel sappy today. I feel like all of these little seeds are starting to burst out of the soil. I feel like ripples are starting to move across the surface of the pond I could probably think of a lot of other really good analogies, but I need to go to sleep now.

In conclusion, Id like to say that the internet is great. It allows a man like me, an average man from Ypsilanti, Michigan, to dream of being a part of something bigger, a kind of virtual version of Warhols Factory, a place where ideas are traded and plans are hatched.

Goodnight. I promise Ill be cynical and angry again tomorrow.

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monkey power update

The last Monkey Power record was just reviewed on a site called MusicMisfits.com. We get reviewed on the same page as Cheap Trick. Our record, they liked. The new Cheap Trick record, however, they say, sucks squirrels. I like it when were reviewed alongside platinum-selling bands that once sold-out stadiums and people like us better. It allows me, at least momentarily, to feel good about myself Its like the time when Fox Sports chose our song over Marvin Gayes for their national ad campaign. (Of course, that was probably just because we were a hell of a lot cheaper.) I was happy for an entire hour that day.

Oh, the guys who operate the Music Misfits site are also running a contest this week to give away a copy of our record. I think that all you have to do is write in and tell them why you deserve it or something Good luck.

In other news, Ive been exchanging emails tonight with a guy who says he might be interested in shooting a documentary about the band. I dont know what will come of it, but its been fun kicking around ideas… In a perfect word, there would be a documentary about the band every ten years or so, along the lines of what Michael Apted has been doing with his 7 Up series. (Hes been visiting the same group of people every seven years since 1964, when they were all seven years old. The last film in the series was 42-Up.) I think it would be great to have footage of us every ten years. Next year will be our tenth anniversary and I know weve already changed a great deal from when we started this little art project of ours. I imagine it will get stranger and stranger as time passes and we become old men, tied to this obligation of meeting one day a year for the rest of our lives and recording music off the top of our heads.

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a few more things

OK, just three more things before I leave. (Can you tell that I dont really feel like going?)

One Multimillionaire John Gilmore is suing John Ashcroft and the US government over his right to remain anonymous.

Two While in Iraq yesterday Paul Wolfowitz, the architect of our war in that country, utters the surprising quote: “I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq.”

Three Paul Krugman asks, Whos Unpatriotic Now?. Heres a quote:

Well, if we’re going to talk about aiding the enemy: By cooking intelligence to promote a war that wasn’t urgent, the administration has squandered our military strength. This provides a lot of aid and comfort to Osama bin Laden who really did attack America and Kim Jong Il who really is building nukes.

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candidate dean

Howard Dean for the past few days has been sitting in for Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig on his popular blog. Lessig is back now, talking about the experience. If you have time, you might want to go and read through Deans posts. Its neat the way hes taking to the internet and using it as a tool. Heres a clip from one of Deans posts:

No matter what the issues are that we as individuals care most about– whether intellectual property, healthy care, the environment I believe that the only way we are ever going to come to a real solution on any of these issues is if we all stand together against the special interests in Washington. There are now 33 lobbyists for every member of congress. How do we change that? By working together. One of the amazing things about this campaign is how the Internet has allowed people to meet and work together in common cause. Only by taking an active part in our democracy will we be able to restore a government of, by and for the people.

Im still not completely sold on Dean, but I do like what Ive been reading lately. Of particular interest to me these last few days has been the web site Republicans for Dean. The folks posting there have pretty interesting perspectives.

This isnt exactly related, but lately, over the course of the past year or so, Ive been like McCain a lot more too.

OK, now I really do need to get going to the bar.

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