Released 40 Years Ago Today

Stevie Wonder: Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants (1979)

Much like the Brothers Johnson's 12-inch red vinyl single for Strawberry Letter 23 smelling like strawberries when new, this 2-disk vinyl set smelled like orchids when first opened.

Armageddon

Ben and I were both exhausted last night, so—very strange for us—we were both in bed and asleep shortly after 8 pm. I don't know about Ben, but I was immediately dead to the world, and actually slept well all night.

That was, at least until around 4 am or so. With everything in that's happening in the world, I'm not at all surprised that my subconscious chose to generate a 2012-inspired nightmare last night.

I was sitting in a Starbucks (natch) right on the beach in what felt like San Diego. (I've only been to San Diego a couple times, but this didn't feel like Los Angeles or San Francisco, although I suppose it might've been Santa Barbara.) Anyhow I glanced out the window at the parking lot and watched incredulously as a small light blue coupe parked there started hovering. It rose about ten feet in the air and then began drifting and slowly made its way back to the ground, hitting a silver sedan parked several feet away as it did so. Needless to say this caught the attention of everyone in the store and we were soon watching as more cars started exhibiting the same behavior. I started gathering my things and advised people to get out of the store because this—whatever it was—was not normal and we should all get as far away as possible. But no, instead of fleeing the store, people started gathering outside filming the phenomenon on their cell phones…

When other, small bits of broken metal objects began falling from the sky, however, I knew it was time to take my chances (although it probably would've been safer staying inside), grabbed my stuff and headed out. It was then I noticed that the ocean was rapidly receding. Remembering the Indonesian earthquake from a few years ago, I knew what was coming and everyone had to GET THE FUCK inland, and started yelling.

I ran away from the coast. I got lost in a maze of office buildings and glanced back to see the ocean surge begin in the distance. I pressed onward, and then found myself lost in a residential neighborhood and trapped in someone's back yard. I turned around and saw the wave; it was easily a thousand feet high  and now only a few miles offshore. I realized that no matter what I did, I was done for. There was no escape, and surprisingly I calmly accepted my fate.

I woke after that.

While I still ponder the deeper psychological meaning behind this, the practical aspects certainly fascinate me. It was obviously an asteroid strike in the pacific, something big that would affect gravity (or at least attract metals and not organic objects). In any case, the visual effects were stunning.

A Thing of Beauty

But—at least for the moment—he still holds the nuclear codes, and that has me terrified.

Fuck.

I should've realized something was up when the dogs let me sleep in until almost 5:30, even though one started making noise around 4:45 and I thought, "Please God no. I only went to bed at 12." The living room light (on WEMO plug) wasn't on. I figured it had malfunctioned, or had done a firmware update or some shit. So I got up and let the dogs out, and as I was getting their breakfast together, wondering what I was going to fix to take for lunch. I realized I didn't have anything to fix (did we not get anything at the store yesterday?) and then it hit me…it was Sunday. We hadn't even been shopping yet.

Fuck. Once the dogs were back in we all went back to bed.

So I'm Scrolling Through Tumblr…

(That's still a thing, right? Is that still a thing? Tumblr, I mean…)

Anyway, I'm scrolling through Tumblr because I haven't been on it in ages and not all of the pages that I follow there can be attached to my RSS Reader, so I wanted to get somewhat caught up and see if I missed anything interesting.

Oh my lord…there are…penises!…back on Tumblr.

Granted, not in the numbers they were before the purge, but they're still there and proudly pointing to the sky (or ass, or mouth, or whatever).

It was kind of shocking after not seeing genitalia online to have them pop up (pardon the expression) in my face!

Released 25 Years Ago Today

Madonna: Bedtime Stories (1994)

Probably my favorite music video of all time.

The album itself is also available in a very limited edition 2-LP gatefold edition on pink vinyl. It is, of course, priced in the stratosphere and a completely unrealistic purchase on my salary. (And frankly, I'm not as hot to get it as I once was, learning that it's on hot pink vinyl, not the powder-pink I feel it should've been.)

UPDATE: I had the date wrong on the release of this LP. It was actually October 25th, not the 5th.