Klaus Nomi: Total Eclipse (1981)

I just watched the 2005 "Nomi Song" doc. One snobbish commentator said that in this song, Nomi had "sold out" because he was performing with a rock band and there was the case of "their faces" (seriously, this idiot was offended that the players had natural human faces rather than personae or literal masks) and their "stupid" guitars and their overall lack of panache. While my initial reaction was to agree that Nomi should indeed appear in a more refined atmosphere... Appearing here with back-up hold-over shaggy rock musicians didn't detract from Nomi's persona at all---in fact, the contrast was a bit interesting. The late-'70s SNL-type house musicians and the New Wave (though much more than "New Wave") Nomi breaching the gap...

Klaus Nomi: NYC's early-cable "TV Party" (1979)

I don't know anything about opera. I've read that Klaus Nomi was a talented "Counter Tenor."
Was he actually good? Could he have been a real talent in the 1700s or 1800s, or whenever opera was at its peak?
He is mystical and beautiful to listen to. But, again, I don't know if this singing is really good or not, for the ages or not.
What I do know is that he ended up in NYC in the late '70s. His talent roughed up for the then-current times. And perhaps his sexual habits roughed up for those current times. (As an honest American gay man once recently wrote: "Being gay ain't all about rainbows and Pride parades." While, via social media propaganda, younger people have been led to believe in the latter and not the reality.)

Klaus Nomi: Lightning Strikes (1982)

[Verse 1]
Listen to me, baby, you got to understand
You're old enough to learn the makings of a man
Listen to me, baby, it's time to settle down
Am I asking too much for you to stick around?
Every boy wants a girl he can trust to the very end
Baby, that's you, won't you stay? But till then
When I see lips begging to be kissed
I can't stop, I can't stop myself!

[Chorus]
Lightning's striking again!
Lightning's striking again!

[Verse 2]
Nature's taken over my one track mind
Believe it or not, you're in my heart all the time
All the girls are saying that you'll end up a fool
For the time being, baby, live by my rules!
When I settle down, I want one baby on my mind
Forgive and forget, and I'll make up for all lost time
She's put together fine and she's on my mind
I can't stop! I can't stop myself!

[Chorus]
Lightning's striking again!
Lightning's striking again!

[Verse 3]
There's a chapel in the pines
Waiting for us around the bend
Picture me in your mind, love forever!
But 'til then
When I see lips begging to be kissed
I can't stop, I can't stop myself!

[Chorus]
Lightning's striking again!
Lightning's striking again!

Two Hoots and a Holler Live: '91 Black Cat Lounge (Austin)

Austin streets taken over by street-racing incidents | FOX 7 Austin

issues

Let me tell ya a story... Years ago, my father once said to me upon reading a news story about people spray-painting graffitti on buildings: "Shoot 'em. That'll stop it."

At the time, I was horrified. ("You don't just SHOOT someone for graffitti!")

My military dad was also once stationed in the Philippines under Marcos in the '70s. He was impressed that there wasn't much street crime under Marcos.

If modern-day Marxists can't control something basic like street crime (or illegal border crossings or fake racial issues), then there's going to be a response from law-and-order/merit advocates. And at this point, despite my own liberal past up through 2016, I'm going to 100% support whoever can control the chaos and utterly destroy the "Woke" idiocy.

RE the video of what happened this past weekend: Austin police funding has been decimated by the Marxist Austin City Council. And two whole rookie police classes were cancelled. This chaos is the result.

One sadly hilarious quote from one Marxist council member Ryan Alter after viewing the above: "We need to look at this holistically." (No, Ryan, we need to fire you and ask questions later.)

Rent increases in Austin

I moved into my current 2-bedroom apt in Austin in 2017.

Rent History:
$1275 (2017 and 2018)
$1350
$1377
$1600 (May 2022)
$1800 (Just rec'd notice of my new rent)

Oh, how sociologically interesting: What is to become of me. I guess I can just barely afford $1800 monthly rent, though I can now no longer afford to replace my 2011 car. (And the apartment owners just tacked on a random $15 "Renters Legal Liability Fee," though I already have Renters Insurance.)

I like my current place for its 1200-sq-ft. Though there's no view or sun whatsoever. There's a small backyard, though you can't sit in it without neighbors looking at you from 10 ft away. The laundry room is close, and the pool is close. The maintenance room next door is sometimes loud during the day, but not after 5:30pm.

I have a job where I work from home, so there's no driving. I would really like having the sun come into my windows. I would really like a backyard where people aren't looking at me, and where maybe my cats could go out. It would be nice to have laundry connections in my own home.

You'd think that for $1800 a month that I could have something much better. Currently, I have a decent-sized 1200-sq-ft place, with no loud neighbors (and only occasionally loud maintenance men during office hours). I've lived here for 6 years, and hate to move. Upon a brief search on craigslist and Zillow, there's nothing else available in Austin.

All of that said: Who pays $1800 for a place with no sun that you don't really like? Who pays the grand sum of $1800 per month for a place that isn't a palace of some sort? I've got to move out of protest, but...where the hell to move TO? I've lived in Austin since 1983, when I came here to go to school. Ever since then I've lived in many a cheap student place: garage apartments, duplexes, apartments, etc. (ranging from $250 to $675). And then later, a house where I paid $810 for 6 years.

You'd think that $1800 per month would get you something actually good, like a HOUSE maybe... I'm utterly trapped. The new price of my current apartment is totally outrageous, but where am I supposed to move TO?

----------------------------------

Met with my apartment manager on Tuesday, 2/21 after receiving the above notice last Friday. Gave her my arguments re why my rent should not be $1800 per month: 

(1) I've lived here for 6 years and have never been late with rent.
(2) The same-sized apartment next to me has been empty for 6 months, listed at the $1800 price. If I moved out, and my apartment were only empty for 2 months, the company would lose more money than if it let me stay at a cheaper rent for a year.
(3) The company website and Craigslist both have apartments of my size going for $1756. I should at least get that rate.

My manager was nominally nice: After she consulted with her company, I was then offered $1725 per month rather than $1800. Initially, I celebrated! But then I read the lease: Aside from the new $15 per month fee for "liability" (no option to change this), there's also now a new $20 "pet rent" fee per pet. I officially have 2 cats, so that's a new $40 per month. $55 new fees total. So... Though my $1600 rent just went up to $1800, and I then allegedly got a break down to $1725... The new fees of $55 just brought me back up to $1780 per month. Weeeeee! I was paying $1600 last year and now I'll be paying $1780 instead of $1800! (With all of the utility add-ons, there's always at least $100 tacked on to the bill. I pay a stupid $50 per months for sewage, for instance.)

I'm fucking sick. But, as I've pondered before: Where the fuck else am I supposed to live. I wasn't prepared to move this year. And I've, of course, checked out various other options on the Austin market. There's nothing else out there for what I'm paying, unless I move to a shitty crime-infested neighborhood, or move 50 miles outside of town. I'm fucking trapped.

Let this be a lesson to me: Plan ahead for next year. Spend the next 12 months of being trapped in this idiotic, awful lease planning to get the hell out of it this time in 2024.

George Jones: Live in Tennessee (1993)

GEORGE JONES - Austin City Limits (1980)

One thing I noticed was the huge up-sweep in energy when fiddle-player Gimble came on and did "Ida Red." George reacted to him in a great way, musician to musician (Same with "Milk-Cow Blues."). Most of the rest of the show was Jones being a tame show-pony for his hits. Not as he used to be onstage.

I also appreciate the "Tammy Wynette" T-shirt on the keyboard player!

George Jones: The Grand Tour (1974)

Sam Smith, Kim Petras: Unholy (Official Music Video)

I like this song as a song.
But let me see if I get the theme right: Mommie is supposed to be worried about her fat slob of a husband (is the schlubby Sam Smith supposed to be decadently sexy?) getting it on with trannies at a sex club....
Sam Smith: Nah. Sex Club: Nah. Anyone who's actually been to a sex club (and I have) knows how actually creepy and depressing they are. 

And sorry---despite all of the current Trans propaganda, Kim Petras doesn't pass as a sexy woman (much less one capable of giving her man a baby, as she claims, in auto-tune, in the song). In general, we as a society need to stop encouraging trannies' mental illness: they're not women. We should be tolerant of them but not be forced to participate in, or honor, their mental illness.

Four Whole Days Without Cable/Internet!

From Wednesday, Feb. 1, thru Saturday, Feb. 4, I had zero cable TV or Internet. Austin had a freeze on Tuesday night that extended into Wednesday; my electricity was out thru 1pm on Wednesday---which I understand contributed to why Spectrum cable was also out thru 1pm on Wednesday. At that time, I got a text from Spectrum that cable/Internet would be restored by 4pm Wednesday. It was not. Despite the fact that there were no more freezing temperatures in Austin after that. After that one text from Spectrum, I heard nothing else.

I called Spectrum on Thursday and Friday and Saturday. Asked to speak to representatives. Tried to be, and was, polite to the poor suckers who had to take such calls. (Each time: "Please tell your higher-ups that it's not cool to not tell customers when service might be restored. And Austin hasn't had freezing weather since Wednesday---why is the cable/Internet still out?")

Four whole days without cable or Internet was the first time I'd been without such since I moved into my current apartment back in 2017, and Spectrum sent a series of incompetent idiots to hook up my service, which ended up not being on for about 2 days after I moved in. I thought THAT was bad! (I was also enlightened during that time to how insanely left-wing NPR Radio was! When I'd previously only listened to them for 15 mins or so in the car, they seemed perfectly rational...)

This time in 2023: First and foremost is the inability of Spectrum to contact their customers to give updates on progress for service restoration. Again: I completely understand why service was off during the freeze (which ended Wednesday). But why then did it take another 4 days (during non-freezing weather) to get service restored? And why no updates to customers?

As for my personal habits: As was first made painfully clear to me back in 2017, I am utterly addicted to cable TV and the Internet. (Well, also: Since I've worked from home since 2020, I absolutely need the Internet for work, though there was a workaround with a smart-phone hotspot---much slower access to files, though.) 

As for personal use: I just like having the TV on. I live alone, and I like having news stations or "On Patrol Live" or TCM or sports on low in the background, either while I work from home during the day, or while I try to go to sleep at night. I lived out in the country as a kid, and that was fine for going to sleep in utter silence because everyone else around you was asleep at the same time. But in the middle of this apartment complex in Austin in 2023? I need some white noise. And, frankly, I also need some thought-blockers! The natural psychedelia that goes on in my mind in utter silence at the end of the night isn't as charming or interesting as it once was when I was 15 or so! (p.s. That's one reason that I've never taken LSD, despite the left-over rock-press hype from the '60s when I was growing up in the '80s---I absolutely do NOT need any more of that!)

Soooo, the last 4 days: Rather than just filling the silence with music (which is hard to work and think to), I had to have some low-key visuals and talking in the background, so started putting in some of my DVD collection that I hadn't yet watched. During the workdays last week, had on various films from my 9-disc "Busby Berkeley" collection, which was good for that. And stuff like "42nd Street" was also good to go to sleep to the first two nights. And then I tried to just read myself to sleep in silence, like in the olden days---that was an OK experiment for one night. And then on Saturday evening and night, sans any work or any other stimulation for the whole day, had on DVD docs for The Knack and Lizzie Borden and Tammy Wynette videos and a "Hee-Haw" episode (featuring George Jones and Tammy Wynette) and then, finally, a 4-hour PBS doc on Andy Warhol that took me to sleep. When I woke up today, Sunday, at 6am, the cable/Internet was finally working, thank god!

Now, I do have some DVD sets of Bergman and Fellini and Cocteau films that I could have started working thru from the beginning... But I didn't want to do so while so utterly uptight at not having cable! I want to watch those in leisure, in a calm frame of mind!