you found WHAT in there???!

if you know me, you know i work in inflight entertainment, which is the 'industry' way of saying media and stuff that goes on airplanes. my department puts music on planes, for example. however, i find myself more often a passenger or consumer on an airplane, rather than a person who is researching stuff for my work. and passengers put their own stuff on planes...

all this because i heard a crazy story on NPR today, about what was found in seatback pockets of airplanes. an interesting thing of note was that the grossest stuff was usually in the pocket behind the middle seat...

the story interviewed writer Scott McCartney. "You'll never look at, or reach into, an airline seat-back pocket the same after reading this. Besides being a repository for magazines, newspapers, books, iPods and air-sickness bags, seatback pockets get stuffed with all kinds of disgusting trash, from toenail clippings to mushy meals."

read about what other nastiness you can find, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal's 'The Middle Seat' column.

two weeks ago or more...

it's all a blur pretty much, but i figure it's worth jotting down a few things just so i can have a record of the events for when i completely lose my memory. sorry if there's not enough detail, and sorry for not using more punctuation...but i wanted to get all this down as quickly as possible, and halfway through i didn't want to write so much any more.

love and rockets at the glass house in pomona: 22/4/08 - very cool, lots of old songs, bad sound but it was fixed, lyric cheat sheet during 'Haunted', LOTS of forty-somethings (i think) dressed in black, friendly drunk people in the parking lot and outside of the venue

san francisco/burlingame & VA: 24/4/08 - flew up at 8.30, plane was dark and had no inflight entertainment (IFE), drink coupon, took sheraton shuttle to VA office, meeting with new IFE content director, mexican food & mole enchiladas, return flight had IFE, used drink coupon, met writer Benji 'from Rolling Stone' (who i did see at Battles at Coachella the next day), came home at 5pm, nearly lost my ticket for parking lot, paid maximum of $30 anyway.

portishead: 24/4/08 - 'rehearsal show' at the Mayan, talking to guy in line (Dustin) who ended up being a Chapman student and turns out went on choir tour with me years ago but who is now super cool and funny and a writer, met people from DMX in line: Ken/Kenkai, Dave, cute English guy who replaced Boris, show was good but sounded pretty much exactly like the records, good crowd.

14th wedding anniversary: 25/4/08 - i love you, alx!!! we spent it at the first day of coachella.

coachella: 25/4/08 - BATTLES was awesome and i can't believe they pulled off what they did cos they played everything live but it was hot and hard to see cos we could barely get inside the tent, FREELAND was great as you have read in my previous posts, it was really difficult to find/connect with BriKa and his g/f Da because they didn't get inside until quite late, the RACONTEURS were freaking fantastic and i wish we had stayed for their entire set, APHEX TWIN played a sick sick set with some abstract stuff then classic acid house and then super dark noisy breakbeat for nearly an hour!!!!

coachella day 2: ...

you gotta sign a contract to join the church of scientology

i was turned on to this post by SLATE.COM today.

at the end of the article, there was a link to this Church of Scientology Religious Services Enrollment Application, Agreement and General Release . i haven't read the entire thing yet.

crazy. my next question is, what about children who are born in to it? at what age do they have to sign it themselves?

100 Worst Album Covers?

YOU decide...but there are some pretty hideous ones here...

RIP Albert Hofmann

Jan 11, 1906 - Apr 29, 2008

Albert Hofmann, the man credited with finding the molecule known as d-lysergic acid diethylamide 25 has passed away at the delightfully old age of 102!

Thank you, Dr. Hofmann, for cleaning that shelf and for being a part of Sandoz before they became a part of the big evil known as the pharma industry!

Roger Waters (& Obama!) continued...

"(The pig) emerged Sunday while Waters, a co-founder of Pink Floyd, played a version of the band's 1977 song “Pigs,” The Desert Sun reported. The pig, which was held above the crowd from lines held on the ground, displayed the words “Don't be led to the slaughter” and a cartoon of Uncle Sam with two bloody cleavers, according to the newspaper.

The underside of the pig read “Obama” with a checked ballot box alongside, referring to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

A stunt during Waters' performance drew criticism. A small aircraft dropped small slips of paper confetti that read “Obama” with a checked ballot box over the crowd. The confetti managed to spread within a 2-mile radius and into the yards of dozens of homes in Indio and La Quinta, Indio police spokesman Ben Guitron said.

“I've been addressing complaints from residents all day,” he said. Guitron said Waters' management was responsible for the Obama confetti and not Goldenvoice, the company that produces Coachella Fest. “Goldenvoice although not responsible... has offered to help with the cleanup,” Guitron said. “I can tell you we (Indio police) will be addressing this issue with Roger Waters' management.”

Courtesy of the San Diego Union Tribune.

i love how much English musicians seem to care more about the outcome of our November election than a lot of Americans!!!

help find ROGER WATERS' PIG!!!!

it sounds like something eerily predicted in a Simpsons' episode...

Courtesy of NiPe of RED in New York...

MUSIC: coachella part 2

MARK RONSON played nearly an entire set of some amazing music. god his horn section is so tight...and there is nothing like the sound of live horns in a stage setting like that!

Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs sang on 'Oh My God' and KENNA, of course, sounded fantastic and got the crowd going with his version of 'Just'. turns out there the biggest surprise of the evening, for me ('twouldn't have been a surprise if i lived on the coachella forum cos they've been talking about this for weeks now...), was the Charlatans' TIM BURGESS' guest appearance for the 'Only One I Know'. he looks like he wears a wig now. kinda creepy. i'll look online for some video or something. i'll also try to post the setlist once i get it scanned.

sasha and digweed really sounded amazing, and the crowd was really really into it. unfortunately our tired butts only half-danced, half-sat during their set.

we suck. we didn't stay for prince. SO TIRED. and today, i'm sore.

Freeland's DAFT OBAMA at Coachella 2008

MUSIC: coachella part 1 - freeland and obama

Adam freeland propaganda @ coachella
Originally uploaded by Courtenay

so far, here is the only photo, let alone video, i have been able to find of freeland's set in the sahara tent at the coachella music and arts festival.

he's a fantastic DJ, kickass remixer and a pretty good producer, but the thing i like the most about him is how politically aware he is. in fact, i feel he has used his production skills to gain his reputation for being a political dance music artist. anyway... i could say a lot about his set last night but the best part was when he segued from an anti-george bush portion in the music (pretty de rigeur for freeland) into an "O-B, A,M,A" tune that freaking rocked. after getting the entire crowd (mostly) to chant the letters, the music broke into a computer-similated voice, stating, "you are correct!". this was punctuated by an LCD ticker running under his turntable coffin, reminding everyone to vote, to vote at least for someone. awesome. pretty cool for a music artist to do, especially since he's English, but now living in L.A.

i wonder if he's a citizen now, and thus able to vote?

BTW the 'propaganda' caption is not mine...