It's like All Hallow's Eve, but without the candy

I've seen 45 sunsets since I secretly told myself the following, and it still holds true: Hoots & Hellmouth (also known as Hoots & Hellmouth) are maybe the best band in the world, probably the best in Philadelphia, and certainly the best in whatever physical space they're currently occupying. I can count on one hand the number of times that I've seen a show that was so immediately and intensely affecting...actually, I can count those times on just 4 fingers. I defy you, oppossable thumb!

"45 sunsets?! Are your days and nights so busy that you can only think about writing during the briefest of brief sun-setty moments, and then not even follow through?" Sort of -- hence why I'm sitting here writing on Christmas Eve, what some people consider the very eve of Christmas. It's been a busy couple of months looking for a better job (one writing, and writing about exciting things, no less!), catching up and reading and long abandoned dreams of musical achievement, and seeing friends old and new. Plus, I'm still reeling from the fact that not one person visited to download the Dr. Dog tracks -- seriously, how do I get people to read this, and thus impel myself to write more regularly and better?

Since my last audio blog arch-accomplishment went by unnoticed, this one is decidedly non-musical. And extra-hyphenated, even when it's unnecessary.

For those of you frantically writing last-minute Christmas cards and wondering whether it's less pedestrian to wish a "joyous holiday season" than a "blessed holiday season," look no further than Wordcount.org:

"...an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonness. Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance."

It's a really fascinating tool, and it's extra fun to look for words like ne'er-do-well and scallywag. Incidentally, "blessed" is the 7,778th most commonly used word, and "joyous" is the 21,664th.

"Ne'er-do-well and scallywag? Unless I'm in immediate danger of being swashbuckled or flim-flammed by a dashing rogue, why would I use such harsh words? This is not the grisly and unrefined Victorian Era, sir!" True so true, but with a bit of Steampunk ingenuity, you could be sending me that kind of acerbic and hypothetical rebuttal from a computer such as this:

This is an HP laptop adapted by Richard Nagy (see the Newsweek article here, and his own website here). Steampunk is a really fascinating and probably all-consuming movement that results in things like this pickguard, featured on SteampunkWorkshop.com:

If you're not in the mood for high academia or counter culture engineering feats -- if you're a man of the people, the Street Spirit made flesh and blood -- then perhaps your love for language is best expressed in tattoos. And if you have a taste for adventure and/or a poor grasp of English, try English character tattoos such as "Frunk" and "Crymph."

Fresh musical features are coming and, with a little luck, a much nicer non-stock layout for the site. So tell your friends, tell your ma, don't make me send ya back to Arkansas where viewing this page is probably more difficult what with all the moonshine and whatnot floating around.