Elmer's Electric Tricycle

So. Don't tell me I never gave you nothing.

(Hat tip to Woodshed at Uke Hunt)

"Technically, you're already a cyborg. If you keep your cell phone with you most of the time, especially if the earpiece is in place, I think we can call that arrangement an exobrain. Don't protest that your cellphone isn't part of your body just because you can leave it in your other pants. If a cyborg can remove its digital eye and leave it on a shelf as a surveillance device, and I think we all agree that it can, then your cellphone qualifies as part of your body. In fact, one of the benefits of being a cyborg is that you can remove and upgrade parts easily. So don't give me that "It's not attached to me" argument. You're already a cyborg. Deal with it."

Every time I see someone with a Bluetooth earpiece for their cellphone I tap my ear and say, "You know, that's how the Borg started."

I confess, I'll probably have one of those earpieces one of these days. I'm still hoping that I'll be around — and can afford it — when they're installing cerebellum jacks so I can jack right into the web.

Meantime, I want me a Dilbert Pocket.

Unlike the earlier movie I was filmed for, this one actually had the camera focused on me for an entire take so I ended up doing the make-up and wardrobe thing for the first time. The wardrobe basically consisted of what I usually wear and a sweater vest. Near as I can tell it's because the scene I'm in will cut between the camera looking over my shoulder at the crowd I'm playing for (including the two stars of the flick) and a "face on" view to establish that it's this busker with a ukulele. Since I was wearing a white shirt, they had to do something so I wasn't washing out the camera right behind me.

The make-up was just a light application of base and powder, a sort of "anti-lip gloss" (goo with a matte finish that Dawn the makeup lady said she used to make sure the guys lips aren't all shiny) and then I retouched my moustache (Dawn gave me a little stiff-bristled brush — I think it's originally for eyelash goo — that works well for mustache waxing and shaping). All this mustache talk brings me to the pic above and to the left.

No, it's not taken today, but after the sagging, tired, old droopy-stached me in this photo, I wanted to show y'all the mustache when it's still early in the day and is feeling all waxed and perky.

Now let's talk briefly about the pic to the right.

They were allowing actual Market shoppers to walk through the scene, but they had selected extras to be the actual "crowd" watching me play. If you picture them in sort of an arc in front of me, the one at the far left looked real familiar.

Sure enough, it was Audra of the Titillation Twins. She's the one on the right in the picture (I'm pretty sure). The pic was taken backstage at the Columbia City Theater where I opened for the burlesque show "Sex & Chocolate: A Libertine Banquet." This was back in late March of 2007. You can read about the whole weekend here. Audra says she's not doing so much burlesque lately, preferring to be a vocalist with an electronica band.

A fun day though I wish, like the first movie, this one paid me at the end of my bit instead of mailing me a check. Oh, and the wardrobe guy insisted I remove the Route 666 pin from my hat. The Fallen Angel brought it back for me from her most recent visit to Hell, Michigan and I kinda like it on my hat. Click the pic for the full monty.

Ah, show biz.

If you click on the image you'll get a larger version in a popup window. The yellowish arc that the monkey is sitting on is the top right part of the mirror on the dresser in my room. A few months back I made a similar post, but that one features a tiny plastic monkey. To give you some idea of the scale on this monkey, the stick he's mounted on — it says "PLA" on it in the pic — is a the kind of tongue depressor sold in craft shops.

Getting him installed up there was easy. Since the mirror — a pretty weighty plate glass thing — is just sitting on the dresser top and the top leans against the wall, I simply stuck the tongue depressor part between the mirror and the wall. Look, Ma! No holes in the wall! It also serves two purposes. First, it gets the little monkey visible where I can enjoy him and second, it gets him off the top of the dresser, reducing the clutter thereupon.

As I mentioned in the previous post, a while back I wrote a song called Naughty Monkey — one of a number that I have written since I switched over to ukulele — and it was the inspiration for the puppet. For anyone just finding my blog, here it is as recorded by my band, Snake Suspenderz, on our CD, Serpentine.

Hope you enjoy!

Here's me, in the Post Alley busking spot, madly strumming my ukulele — while simultaneously spreading fezerocity of the most fezalicious kind — and singing Fly Me To The Moon.

Hope you like it!

The digital camera that I use to make my YouTube videos works fine but the battery door is broken. So I use it on a tripod, plugged in. Whatever works, right? But several times recently I've found myself wishing I had a camera with me. It would have been real helpful at a couple of recent gigs for instance.

The one I got is a Samsung Digimax 301. It's a 6 year old model — though I think it's "new old" stock rather than a used camera — and I think it was kind of a low end one back then, so there's not a lot of hi-tech whizbangery with it.

It's got a space for an SD card (instead of the paltry 16mb it comes with) but since I can't seem to locate my extra one, playing with the video features will probably have to wait.

But the battery door seems to stay shut, Linux recognized it right away and let me offload the pics, it's still working even though I haven't put new batteries in and, unlike my other one, it is a portable method for snapping some pics.

And it was cheap so I'll work with it.

It also prompted me to take my very first "hold the camera at arms length" self-portrait. I understand that all the hip kids are doing it. It was taken on the bench near the iron stairs busking spot after a long, hard day. Can you tell?

New details available at either my shows page or Snake Suspenderz' shows page.

Again, sorry for any confusion, we were working off of the schedule we were given. Those of you who are my Pike Market Facebook friends, please pass the word. I don't know that I'll be able to catch everyone that I told about the show to tell them the changes.