g u s t funnel

Verrifast Plaine Co Ltd

Given all the recent turmoil in the airline industry, I thought this clip was particularly timely:

May the wind be always at your rudder,

The new and improved music television

I'm excited.  This week, Pitchfork Media Inc., the seminal bastion of all-things-indie, has introduced the world to Pitchfork TV.  There's no doubt this new web tv experiment is aimed directly at fuddy's like myself who long ago abandoned the reality shows and teeny-bopper trash that took over MTV like poison ivy.  And, to top it off, we no longer have to wade through crappy videos by "artists" who shouldn't be calling themselves such...we can pick what we want to watch.  I love it.  They even have an old Ugly Casanova video (which was a side project of Isaac Brock's for all you Modest Mouse fans.)  It's indie-nerd heaven for sure and I'm playing a lute and wearing some kind of feathery toga.

Here's a clip from the introductory PFTV special "Don't Look Down", featuring none other than that rockin' Portland trio, those portents of Portland punk, The Thermals...playing atop a building in NYC.  Kind of like a latter day "Where the Streets Have No Name" without all of the Bono-drama.  Enjoy.

May the streaming feed be always at your back,

    

The More You Know

I'm suggesting this article, which was featured recently in The Economist.  In my opinion, the recent financial crisis is, as I've long maintained, a natural outcome of the continuous "progress" in financial product commoditization, whereby people fork over tons of their hard-earned money (or, rather, debt obligation) for products and arrangements that they don't understand.  These arrangements were buoyed by a gross misjudgment of risk, which fueled the seemingly cheap interest rates offered out like pamphlets in a grocery store parking lot.  Unfortunately, the ambiguity surrounding risk went hand-in-hand with irrational speculation as to the outcomes and implications of a potential fallout.  As each day's headlines suggest, we won't know the true outcome for quite awhile.

If there's one lesson that we should learn from this mess, it is that greater emphasis should be placed on financial education, particularly early on.    

May the Bulls be always guiding your 401(K),

      

5 songs

I love music...very much so.  These are 5 songs that I've been listening to lately:

"Feedback in the Field" - Plants and Animals : Another Canadian gem.  For a small, inferior country, the Canucks really produce a lot of great indie music.

"These Few Presidents" - Why?: This guy's yet another Midwest native who's flown to the warmer climates of California...Berkeley to be exact.  I love the recent resurgence of Bay Area Indie music, just love it...and Go Bears!

"Cherry Tulips" - Headlights: Spring has officially sprung in Chicago and these Champaign, IL residents have brilliantly expressed all the gushy excitement that goes along with the annual thaw.

"Seems Like Home To Me": - Two Gallants: Yet another great offering from the Bay Area music scene.  These guys kill it live, and are playing at the big "Outside Lands" festival in SF this summer.  I think the wind may have to carry me back for a few days...

"The Mending of the Gown" - Sunset Rubdown: Alright, so apparrently there's a California-Canadian theme going on here.  Despite having the best band name ever, SR has a frontman who spends half his time with other Canadian indie favorites, Wolf Parade.  This song is frantic and amazing, like Farrah Fawcett on Letterman.

May the wind be always at your ears,

Job of the Week: Pirate

O' ye swashbuckling sons of mayhem, 'tis time we break bread, swill whiskey and discuss career moves.  I know it's not all fun and games, rather more often blood and saltwater, but man if every white collar scallywag doesn't want to be a pirate.  There's even a "Talk Like a Pirate" day, which is lame.  It should be "Barbarize like a Pirate" day...that would be something.   Extra points go to the bold, creative genius who amputates their own leg and develops a debilitating bout of scurvy (or gout), all in the name of Blackbeard.

These guys really know what's up.

May the wind be always at your sails,

WhadooyouwanndewwwithhyerLIFE?

I was reading somewhere recently that Iron Maiden is back on tour and coming to your town, soon. Hide your women! (and your small farm animals).

Anyway, seeing that picture of Eddie Maiden I couldn't help but wax nostalgic for the days when my Sony Sports walkman (you know...the yellow one with the clamp?) was constantly cranked up to the likes of Metallica, MegaDeth, Danzig, etc...Yeah, I was a metal kid until Kurt and Eddie came down from Seattle and smacked me around a bit.

I could be wrong here, but I think that every red-blooded American male born since 1970 (and probably females too but I think they were more into NKOTB and stuff like that...at least as far as I recall) goes through a rite of passage that I call "the rebellious music phase". It doesn't really matter whether it manifests itself in the form of a searing Power Chord or thunderous bass ("crusin' down the street in my 6-4"), as long as it flies in the face of the establishment and makes your body move.  Stay hungry, people...this one's for the teenager in all of us.  Enjoy.

May the (devil's) wind be always at your back,

A little less sarcasm, a little more inspiration...

I love this man...he's truly an inspiration to us all. Despite the "created for TV" drama, when I watch this, I feel like a human python who's just swallowed a small mouse or perhaps a wayward and lame sparrow.  As Grampa Funnel is wont to say, "pounds yer heart like a side of bacon." Enjoy.

Gusty v 2.0

Okay...so it's been a long time.  A REALLY long time.  I'm sorry about that.  I've been lazy.  Basically, I was new at this blog thing and felt like everything I wrote had to be this crisp and fresh diatribe.  That can be a pretty demanding thing and I ended up running away from the blog like it was a giant sand monster covered in clams and seaweed.

Well, I'm back and determined to make this work through shortened posts that may not be as...theatric as those in the past.  I'll probably throw in a longer version here and there for good measure, but it's just not sustainable.

Anyway, glad to be back. 

May the wind be always at your back,

Bus Funnel

Who loves public transportation? Raise yo' mf-in hand.  Personally, I have a strange love affair with it all...I'd take the bus to my toilet if they had a route that ran often enough.  Budget cuts, homey,  whaddya gonna do?

So today I'm writing about the bus...however, the same can be applied to the train, the ferry, the whatever-smells-and-packs-more-people-in-then-it-should-transport-vehicle.   I love it...it's one of the few places on earth that brings together such a diverse group of people.  Even concert- or ballgame-attendees have more in common than bus riders.  A quick glance around and you'll see the crazy half-homeless guy who's sipping out of a paper bag and just  might kill you (or barf on you)...over there is computer-IT geek reading his PC world...there's pseudo-intellectual hipster reading some Kafka or DeLillo...there's the fresh out of school cutie whose gum-snapping flares her limited world like a smoke signal...there's the grumpy old woman who mutters to herself, flickering her whiskers as she goes, there's the awkwardly fat woman who's self-conscious about taking up so much seat to whom you just wanna say, "I don't give a shit...you're cool, I'll squish on in."  I love the [insert public transportation of choice]...

There are, however, some peculiarities.  One of my favorites is the universal phenomenon that affects all public transit riders: the blank stare.  I know that it's pretty unavoidable...but the fact that people spend 10+ minutes together, in such close quarters, without even looking at each other, is pretty funny.  I'll admit, sometimes I'm obnoxious.  If I'm not reading Kafka or DeLillo, I'll look around with a half-poop-eating grin on my face, just waiting to see if anybody else acknowledges me and sees the absurdity in the mindless avoidance...nobody does.  Everybody just stares ahead..as if they're about to de-board and take a huge bite out of the first pedestrian-brain they see.  Jesus, I know it's early in the morning people, but have a little moxy in you...work can't be that bad...can it?

So...I like to have fun on the bus...I really am fascinated by its unique place in society.  For instance, a couple of days ago, I pulled out my blackberry because I'm capitalist scum and noticed that the person next to me was glancing over my shoulder....oh heavens...mind starts racing...jackpot!  I really don't blame her, the blackberry screen is the zombie-equivalent of something really attractive...but that's for another day.  Given the captive audience, I quickly panned over my e-mail and sped with blackberry-like speed to Google, where I promptly entered, "e...a...t...i...n...g...m...o...n...k...e...y...f...e...c...e...s...d...i...s...e...a...s...e..". (not with all the ellipses, of course.)  I laughed milk out of my nose on the inside.  I'm 8 years old...it was great.

The other pleasure is watching people in their cars pass by, especially on Fridays.  Some are singing with reckless abandon, some are with their SOs and don't look so fulfilled, some are on the phone looking all-important-and-what-not, and some are fat.  I really like the singers...they make me feel good...even if the guy next to me is a gd suicide bomber.

Alright ladies and gents...it's been real.

May the wind be always at your back,

          

Back with a vengeance

My apologies...it's been a long time, I know.  You've missed me. It's okay to admit it...really it would be embarrassing if you didn't miss me, right?  Well, all I can say is, I've been busy.  I've got a job and sometimes that job is demanding...so there you have it.  Also, Mama Funnel was in town last weekend helping her decor-challenged son turn his place from a box-filled cave to a museum of cool (albeit slightly metro).  Propers to Moms.

Don't have much of theme at the moment...just licking my chops.  I've got some ideas, though.  Don't you worry.  Work should die down a bit here so expect more of me.  You lucky hijos de putas you.

I'm going to send a little love note to one of my favorite things, this...friends...is ode to hummus:

Chickpea lovely...

you swift garlic...or pepper...

I love you.

I hope you enjoyed it.  See you real soon,