Happy belated birthday to keighsie and ayasdollz!

When we spent a day with them out in Arizona, we got to take a ride in their car. As it happens, they had the Transformers score on the stereo. I had seen the movie, but it was raucous enough that I didn't really get a feel for the soundtrack. But this was the kind of lush, majestic program music I really enjoy. So a few weeks ago when putting together a CD order, I decided I wanted that.

It turns out the score was not released originally, the soundtrack CD that was released was the other music from the film. But the fans really wanted the Steve Jablonsky score, so it was released afterward. Apparently only the one pressing, and none of my usual vendors had any copies. I ended up buying one on eBay from a nice fellow in Japan. I'm glad I got it, it's great driving music, thanks!

First, we got to see Don Dixon and Jamie Hoover at Jammin' Java in Vienna, VA in April. Don was very friendly, chatty, and huggy. Later, we heard he wouldn't be touring any more, which made us sad.

But then he showed up at the fabulous and bizarre O Mansion, where we saw him on Sunday! He brought along Marti Jones as a surprise guest! With him were Mark Bryan (of Hootie and the Blowfish) and Danielle Howle, who were also a lot of fun. Poetry, singing, silliness, and much music. Good crowd, too.

And Don's playing with his band Arrogance in September down in North Carolina! Yay!

I had never heard of Tuba Christmas before I met muzikmaker21, but it sounds like a fine idea to me. Unfortunately, we never got to one while he was still local. And I missed most of the local ones this year for various reasons. However, there's tomorrow (Sunday) in Leesburg, VA at the outlet mall at 2PM! Granted the mall will be full of madding throngs of crazed shoppers, but I'll be there anyway. fizzygeek may turn up too, if she can take her lunch hour then. Anyone want to join me?

The first thing was when my TiVo cheerfully informed me I could now watch youtube videos on my TV. Fine and dandy, blurry time waste just works better for me on the big plasma screen. Then, while searching for You Laugh, You Lose material, I found a YLYL song package for StepMania a (the?) free Dance Dance Revolution engine that runs on Mac. While perusing the StepMania site, I found their videos page. Which lead me to Anime Music Videos (AMV). Which led me to AMV Hell. Which is totally eating my life. And introducing me to music my friends would much rather I not be exposed to.

The other day, I was musing on a song I'd heard once on Doctor Demento's show years ago. Advertised as a recording from 70,000BC by The Shaggs, the tune was My Pal Foot Foot. So I figured I'd see if this random bit of doggerel was available on the iTunes Music Store, which has quite a random collection, with many obvious things missing, but many oddballs present.

To my surprise, there were no fewer than three different versions of the Shaggs song, along with a cover version by another band (on a Shaggs tribute album whose existence boggles me).

There is truly some odd stuff out there.