Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Strange Romantic Airs

Back in 2003, the Detroit-based baroque-pop band Pas/Cal released an EP called The Handbag Memoirs.

Contained within that six-song goldmine is a tune that still feels like the first bike ride of summer break, when the shackles of education have been loosed and you feel truly free to spend the few precious weeks ahead of you having as much fun as possible before September creeps back and adulthood lurches ever closer.

If you've not heard "The Bronzed Beach Boys of Summer (C'mon Let's Go)" you can remedy that now. And if you enjoy it, Pas/Cal offers it free to download:



Pas/Cal is no more, but their excellent music lives on via Bandcamp. If you like what you hear, listen, purchase and enjoy.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Let's Get Weird

Black Heel Marks' debut long player Feel Free will be available for purchase on June 25. In the meantime, stream the whole thing here.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Oh Honey, We're Ridiculous

As the solstice approaches and each day we eagerly rise and pad down to the TMI corporate p-patch to see if the artichoke is still alive, we try to encourage all Typing Monkey staffers to take a moment and let the amazing wonder of the natural world grab hold.

That's not difficult, since most of them are drunk and/or high most of the time, but if that makes them more suggestible to the precise beauty of those pale-green spiders that climb nimbly over the stones in the fake river-bed, so be it.

After all, it doesn't matter that you've risen later than intended and are watching fast-talking dames on Turner Classic Movies via the break room television while you eat leftovers for breakfast. What matters is that you saw a hummingbird pause by the window and be-damned if the emerald beauty didn't seem like he stopped to look back at you.

With all that in mind, take a look at this list from Wikipedia of the crop plants that bees pollinate. (Bats get a few nods too in the non-bee items.)

Bees of the honey, bumble, solitary, and stingless variety all come into play, and if we could, we'd high-five them or send them a thank-you note because we eat most of the items on that list.

Oh, and the word for what those bees are doing? Entomophily.

[Image courtesy of PD Photo]

Friday, June 14, 2013

... Y-O-U ... A-R-E ... D-R-U ... N ... K

We try not to hype consumer durables that we haven't personally tested on The Typing Monkey. But sometimes a product reaches us via advertising and just plain old PR reach, and we think decide to share it with our reader, untested.

Evil Spirits Distillery has devised a clever marketing scheme to sell their vodka, which may or may not be delicious. (It will most certainly get you drunk, but then so will Sterno.)

Regard:


Based on some of the photos posted at Who Forted? it looks like the "deluxe" bottle may come with an actual Ouija board. There's no indication how much it will cost, but we're sure it will be pricey. That's "perceived value" or some stuff. Ask your economics professor.


[Thanks to Who Forted? for bringing Evil Spirits to our attention. It's a fun blog with a regrettable name.]

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Television for Women

The Typing Monkey doesn't understand most "reality" television programming -- the shows themselves, not just the popularity of the shows.

And by reality TV, we mean the kind those shows that would have us believe that people with no discernible talent, and often with little of value to offer to the world, are somehow worth paying attention to simply because they allow a camera crew to follow them around and document the minutiae of their daily lives.

That's on us, and we're okay with not watching them because we can change the channel.

With that in mind, we urge you to read Dennis Perkins' A.V. Club review of a new show on the Lifetime network called Pretty Wicked Moms.

Here's an excerpt from his review that lets the reader know what they're in for: "Once you’re comparing the relative merits of various reality shows, you’re simply sorting piles of crap by size and color—you can do it, but you’re going to end up covered in crap."

And that's just a parenthetical aside. It's good writing and worth your time.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

"Somebody would come looking for the Death master tapes"

This looks like a fun ride, in the classic story arc of "band more influential than famous gets rediscovered by a world finally ready for their music."



A Band Called Death is available now via various on-demand and download services, but it's also coming to various big screens.

We'd have made plans to see this movie anyway, but thanks to the crate-digging work of Rich at The Day After the Sabbath, we knew a bit about this band and can't wait to learn more.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Solid Advice

We can't stop watching the Fake Adam West videos.



There are just four videos, but it looks like FAW is just getting started. Per Bleeding Cool, where we found this, he had only 38 followers on Twitter when they posted on Jun 2. We're guessing he's got a lot more by now.