Art of the Odd

I told NovySan a few weeks ago that I just didn’t think I got Nick Cave. I said, “I keep trying to like him, and I just haven’t gotten there yet.” I wasn’t sure what it was - it wasn’t the voice. I’ve always liked Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Lou Reed, Shane MacGowan, and the previously-mentioned Tod A of Firewater. Tom Waits took me awhile, too, though, so I kept trying, thinking “Sooner or later, I’m going to hear the song that breaks through to me.”

I heard it today. (And many thanks to Radio Paradise for playing it for me.)

Now, I’m aware (because I read the WikiPedia article) that “Where the Wild Roses Grow” was Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ most popular single back in 1995, which means it’s going to be one of his more “accessible” songs, and I’m sure Kylie’s lovely vocals helped too. Maybe that’s what I needed. But I’ve been browsing YouTube clips, and I can confirm it - something’s shifted. I get it now.

Of course, having said Tom Waits took me awhile, too, I went searching for a duet. I haven’t found one yet, but I did find this:

Logged in to check my email on this account this morning, and the webmail interface looked funny. No matter. I remember Dreamhost said awhile back they were testing a new webmail system. So I put in my username and password, and… Why can’t I log in? I go check the status blog. And the discussion forum. No one’s saying anything about webmail problems. Odd. So I try the webmail for another domain. Yep, it’s fine… Weird. I wonder if I can log in to Wordpress? “This domain is parked free, courtesy of GoDaddy.com”? Huh?

Turns out, www.artoftheodd.com expires today. And I didn’t get the renewal notice why? Oh, because I’m a dork, and when I transferred my hosting to Dreamhost, I didn’t set up an account for the email address I had attached to my Whois record. Fine, I’ll transfer the registration to Dreamhost, since I have to renew anyway. What do you mean it’s going to take a week? Do I have to look at that “parked” page for a week?

(For the record - no, I didn’t. The transfer was complete in less than an hour.)

Moral of the story - know when your domain names expire, and make sure your registrar can actually get a hold of you to let you know that’s happening.

George Romero’s Diary of the Dead came out today.

Peter Hartlaub’s written a column on surviving a zombie invasion, which I discovered via a link from The Apocalyptic Workout, wherein the Slackmistress notes that some may wonder whether she will continue with her end-of-the-world fitness program now that the writer’s strike is over.

There’ve been several lovely zombie stories in Weird Tales recently, including zombie love stories by Joe R. Lansdale (”On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks”), Lisa Mantchev (“Six Scents”
), Carrie Vaughn (”Kitty’s Zombie New Year”) and Michael Boatman (”A Father’s Work”).

So I’ve been thinking about zombies.

Which is why, when a helicopter passed over just a few minutes ago, I tensed and wondered whether I could get to the machete in time.

1) A young, attractive backhoe driver, slamming levers and tearing through asphalt, with a sullen gleam in his eye and a cigarette dangling off his bottom lip.

2) A pair of Mexican immigrants, clutching poles studded with cotton candy, pink and blue, running across the street in the rain.

3) A blonde in a tiara vomiting at a stoplight. On a Wednesday night.