Surfdog CD Store: "Surfdog is very proud to announce: "THE VERY BEST OF THE BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA". This definitive album features classic live recordings from Montreal and Japan. And they smoke! This two-disc set also features a 28-page booklet written by Brian Setzer himself. It will be in stores July 13 and you can pre-order your copy now. "

Now we're talking...This will be a must have. I've seen the orchestra about ten times. The first was at the Warfield in San Francisco, when the first album came out around 1994. The band smoked, of course, but since they had only a certain amount of songs worked up, they had to do the first couple of songs from the set over again as the encore. Maybe someday I'll put the story up about the Christmas show two years ago.

Check out Brian's site, and the Hoodoo Voodoo Lounge.

Judge rejects slave trauma as defense for killing: "Bynum told police he hit his son with a watch strap during potty-training. He said the day before the boy died, he was playing 'helicopter,' swinging his son around the room, when the boy hit his head on a table. "

This boy was two years old, and killed by his dad. That is outrageous, but even more ridiculous is the defense a mongaloid lawyer is trying use to defend the killer.

"Randall Vogt is offering the untested theory, called post traumatic slave syndrome, in his defense of Isaac Cortez Bynum, who is charged with murder by abuse in the June 30 death of his son, Ryshawn Lamar Bynum. Vogt says he will argue -- "in a general way" -- that masters beat slaves, so Bynum was justified in beating his son."

Nice. Take some responsibility, you menace.

"An autopsy found Ryshawn Bynum died of a brain injury and had a broken neck, broken ribs and as many as 70 whip marks on his legs, buttocks, back and chest that were of various ages."

The man tortured and killed his two year old! Using race as an excuse is pathetic. Somebody should play helicopter with this guy and his lawyer.

Argh.

Why Nerdbilly?

Part Nerd, part Hillbilly. The Nerdbilly.

I was born in West Virginia, and moved to California almost twenty years ago. Like the Skynyrd song and many others say, "You can take the boy out of Dixie Land, but you can't take old Dixie from the boy." It's true enough. Everything is seen through the eyes of a guy who as a kid pitched hay, milked cows, shot squirrels and fried them up for supper, and learned one of the best ways to relax after a long day is to sit in the shade of a hickory tree fine tuning whittling skills with a sharp pocket knife. Hillbilly.

Now though, I live on the sunny California coast, and have spent years working for big companies doing technical work. Nerd.

I vividly remember one wet summer day sitting on an old, wooden milk crate with my head buried deep in a cows flank to keep her from knocking over the milk bucket, working to pump the bucket full, and looking out the barn door at the mud, fog and rain outside and thinking how nice it would be to have an office job where you could wear a white shirt with no fear of getting it dirty. I could picture myself at a clean desk pushing papers, and as lame as it may sound, I liked the idea of being able to decide when I would get my hands dirty. Hillbilly.

Twenty years later, I spend at least eight hours a day pushing buttons. Other than flying to and from work and owning a robot maid, I'm a lot like George Jetson. A hard day at work for George would be when he had to push the button twice, so he's still got it significantly better than I do, but really, I'm closer to George than not. Nerd.

Nerdbilly.

Bedroom Rights: "Said John Kerry, 'Abortion should be rare, but it should be safe and legal because the government should stay out of the bedrooms of America.' Just by the way, the bedrooms of America aren't where abortions are had; they're where seeds are planted that lead to abortions. "

More goofy Kerry logic, of which Mr. Buckley has pointed out the flaw. The more quotes I read from Kerry the more I think he's just some sort of automaton Democrat - the evolution of all liberal catch phrases and cliches - wrapped up into one necktie-dyed in the wool over his eyes politician. I've heard nothing original.

"Mr. Kerry, what is your position on _______?"
Kerry, in Robot Voice, "Danger! Danger! Voter disenfranchisement!"