The Rebel Black Dot Song of the day
The Hippos, "Australia" from The Hippos (T.L.A.M.)

No good deed ever, ever goes unpunished.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Dance Hall Crashers, "My Problem" (live) from The Live Record: Witless Banter and 25 Mildly Antagonistic Songs of Love (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"For some reason I don't know,
It doesn't feel right so I have to go.
Don't let it hurt your self-esteem,
You'll be some girl's everlasting dream.
I has nothing to do with you,
Please trust me for I'm being true."

Mildly antagonistic, just the way love is supposed to be.

Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday to The Sardine, my favorite single gal in old New Amsterdam, whose glorious new boots arrived just in time for the big day. Happy birthday, Amanda!

The Time Machine. For those intrigued by this story, I recommend the film Good Bye Lenin!, which I quite enjoyed, finding it both funny and touching.

CADMUS
The full ins and outs and exact limits of CADMUS as as yet unknown, and no definitive final goal has yet been articulated, but the endeavour is slowly but surely spreading into every aspect of my life. An informal recounting of the ongoing work:

Project TROIKA - a novel (Tier 1 has been achieved, Tier 2 is ongoing, commencing preliminary research into Tier 4)

Project TRITON - a novel or a short story collection, prequel to the TROIKA novel (ongoing)

Project EPIMETHEUS - the righting of an ancient wrong (ongoing, and previously alluded to as "Phase 1" of CADMUS, with Project TROIKA as "the non-sequential Phase 2")

Objective ZED ALPHA - Jeopardy! Unless and until I am selected for an audition, I have done all I can do. If I am not selected, I shall try again the next time the online test is offered, using the revised codename Objective ZED BRAVO and so on and so forth until I am a contestant on the show.

Project PANDORA* - finding and winning the girl of my dreams (delayed until the implementation and evaluation of Operation ÖSTERREICH)

Operation ÖSTERREICH - a renewed commitment to physical fitness, including tackling and conquering the One Hundred Push Ups and Two Hundred Sit-ups Training Programs.

Other CADMUS initiatives under consideration: Project RADIANT, Operation AXIOM, Operation SALAD DAYS, et al.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Paddy O'Brien, "Rigney's/Ambrose Moloney's" from Green Linnet Records: The Twentieth Anniversary Collection (T.L.A.M.)

*Project PANDORA should not be mistaken for a single-minded pursuit of The Sardine, formerly also known as "Codename PANDORA," though both are references to the same idea. I see myself essentially as Epimetheus, a Titan and the lesser known brother of Prometheus and Atlas, all sons of Iapetus. True to form, Epimetheus was also overshadowed by his wife, Pandora. I seek my own Pandora, a girl of wit and beauty whose great "flaw" is insatiable curiosity, and I shall not mind a wit being her Epimetheus.

Objective ZED ALPHA
The sadistic part of the Jeopardy! online test is that they do not tell you how you fared, neither objectively nor in comparison to your cohort. Beyond my recollection of the test and self-assessment of my performance, I have no idea how well or how poorly I scored, nor will I unless and until I am contacted for an in-person tryout/audition. "Objective ZED ALPHA" is simple: I will be a contestant on Jeopardy!, provided the show remains on the air for the foreseeable future. I shall try my utmost and, acknowledging that the fulfillment of ZED ALPHA is contingent on many factors outside of my control, if I fail it will not be due to a lack of effort.

Objective ZED ALPHA is a part of the increasingly intricate CADMUS, my renewal and renaissance. The CADMUS effort will last years, if not decades, and I greet with grim determination the cold, hard fact that not every objective may be achieved in the thirty-one years remaining 'fore I shuffle off this mortal coil. But I am busily engaged sowing dragon's teeth, and, by thunder, some of them will birth Spartoi before I am through.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
They Might Be Giants, "James K. Polk" from Factory Showroom (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I need to be more austere and severe.

"Austere, severe,
He held few people dear.
His oratory
Filled his foes with fear."

4 x 11 = 44
George Washington / John Adams / Thomas Jefferson / James Madison
James Monroe / John Quincy Adams / Andrew Jackson / Martin Van Buren
William Henry Harrison / John Tyler / James Polk / Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore / Franklin Pierce / James Buchanan / Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson / Ulysses S. Grant / Rutherford Hayes / James Garfield
Chester Arthur / Grover Cleveland / Benjamin Harrison / Grover Cleveland
William McKinley / Theodore Roosevelt / William Howard Taft / Woodrow Wilson
Warren Harding / Calvin Coolidge / Herbert Hoover / Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman / Dwight Eisenhower / John Kennedy / Lyndon Johnson
Richard Nixon / Gerald Ford / James Carter / Ronald Reagan
George Bush / William Clinton / George W. Bush / Barack Obama

Grover Cleveland was only one man, Mr. President, both the twenty-second and twenty-fourth presidents, but only one man. The president and his speech writers knew of the inaccuracy, but retained it so as to "avoid confusion." Meaning it was not a mistake, it was an intentional deception. Or, rather, it is an elegant statement of something you willfully blind fools would not permit yourselves to see as you worshiped your golden calves of "Hope" and "Change": President Obama will always lie to you if the lie makes for better oratory than the truth. Welcome to the parade of horrors.

Dire Jeopardy
Tonight's the night, tonight I take the online test that is the first step toward being a contestant on Jeopardy! My greatest concern is the nature of the test: typed responses to written questions. Reading the clue has always been essential to my playing-along-at-home success, but quite often I blurt out the answer, not in the form of a question, at the last second. My concern is that I shan't have time to type the answers once they come to me. I do not regard the anticipated difficulty of the test as a concern, because it is a variable over which I have no control. Concerns are only those things it is within my power to affect.

Fortes fortuna adiuvat.
--Terence

The Explorers Club
No. CIX - The Empire Air Training Scheme (the best of several variant names), 1939-45.








Dreadfully sorry for the lengthy delay, folks. I originally suspended "The Explorers Club" in late December because I felt I should not allow myself to work on anything else until I'd done my bit for Project TROIKA, and after that inertia and the hurly-burly of a new year set in. We've got a lot of ground to make up; so, episodes will be coming quickly and densely for the next few weeks. Prepare to explore.

M2K4... 5... 6... 7... 8... 9!
B.B.C.link and N.A.S.A.link I cannot emphasize enough the astounding nature of Spirit and Opportunity's longevity. These plucky little rovers were meant to traverse the harsh surface of the Red Planet for ninety days. They're exceeded that mark twenty-fold, enduring endless dust and sols with all too little sunlight during the Martian winter, yet they refuse to yield. Your human masters are proud of you, Opportunity, and we are proud of you, too, Spirit. Go forth, resolute robotic minions, for science! For America! For all Mankind!

Per aspera ad astra.

Proud Europa
Now that's art! Entropalink. Avail yourself of a closer look at the hilarity: Photolink. The lampooning of The Netherlands is uncomfortably close to the truth.

I have to believe there are a number of Britons who are in no way offended at having been left out entirely. Just try to imagine history without the English Channel.

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
Kevin Stermer, "Breaker of Hearts, Destroyer of Worlds" courtesy of K. Steeze (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: "But don't count me out, I've still got fight left in me." Words to live by, boys and girls.

Sonntag, 25 Januar
Elvis Costello & The Attractions, "Senior Service" from Armed Forces (T.L.A.M.)

See Slumdog Millionaire forthwith. You'll thank me.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Madness, "Night Boat to Cairo" from One Step Beyond... (T.L.A.M.)

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Elvis Costello, "Tear Off Your Own Head (It's A Doll Revolution)" from When I Was Cruel (T.L.A.M.)

Project TRITON
This I can disclose without violating my oath: Project TROIKA is the story of a friendship, how it is born and how it shall endure forever. This is a theme as old as Gilgamesh and Enkidu. TROIKA is now in the all too capable hands of The Professor, my friend and valued associate. Meanwhile, I have embarked upon Project TRITON, a prequel, a tale set before the bonds of unbreakable comradeship were forged. Backstory was one of the backbones of Project TROIKA; so, I believe Steeze shares my enthusiasm to explore each character's history further, in this case through TRITON.

Words as true today as they ever were: Grow or die.

The Queue
Recently
Kim Newman, Anno Dracula
John Polidori, "The Vampyre"
Ronald Searle & Kaye Webb, Paris Stetchbook
Saki, "The Interlopers"

Currently
David J. Brown, Bridges: Three Thousand Years of Defying Nature
various, Great Adventures with National Geographic (catch as catch can)

Presently
Kim Newman, The Bloody Red Baron
David M. Friedman, The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever
Ernest Shackleton, South
John Toland, The Great Dirigibles: Their Triumphs and Disasters (catch as catch can)
Sloane Crosley, I Was Told There'd be Cake
John Hodgman, The Areas of My Expertise

Distantly
Rudyard Kipling, The Man who would be King and Other Stories
Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Books
Rudyard Kipling, Kim
Saki, The Complete Saki

Uncertainly
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale (pg. 87)

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
The Blues Brothers, "Guilty" from Made in America (T.L.A.M.)

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
MxPx, "Move to Bremerton" from Life in General (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: The town of Bremerton, Washington was mentioned on tonight's Jeopardy!, and as I sat there at the dinner table I could not help but begin singly softly:

"Move to Bremerton,
We'll hang out.
Move to Bremerton,
We'll go all out.
Move to Bremerton,
Will you be mine?"

The 44th President of the United States
I believe with all my heart that we, as a body politic, will come to rue this day, but I hope against hope that I am wrong. I do so dearly pray I am wrong.

If I don't laugh, I'll cry; so, levity:



The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Sufjan Stevens, "Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)" from Michigan (T.L.A.M.)

Obamboozled
Has N.P.R. succumbed to permanent Obamania, or will there come a day when it is again tolerable? I don't have that many tapes, people; Lumi doesn't have a C.D. player; and I don't know if I still have the instruction manual to my home stereo, a necessary guide to making new tapes from my existing C.D. collection. So, if not N.P.R. - presently intolerable - what in the high holy hell am I supposed to listen to during my daily commute? I've never been a fan of silence.

The Queue
Recently
Richard Matheson, I Am Legend & "Witch War"
Caroline Alexander, The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
Richard E. Crabbe, Suspension
Kim Newman, Anno Dracula
John Polidori, "The Vampyre"*

Currently
Ronald Searle & Kaye Webb, Paris Stetchbook
David J. Brown, Bridges: Three Thousand Years of Defying Nature
various, Great Adventures with National Geographic (catch as catch can)

Presently
Saki, "The Interlopers"
Kim Newman, The Bloody Red Baron
David M. Friedman, The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever
Ernest Shackleton, South
John Toland, The Great Dirigibles: Their Triumphs and Disasters (catch as catch can)
Sloane Crosley, I Was Told There'd be Cake
John Hodgman, The Areas of My Expertise

Distantly
Rudyard Kipling, The Man who would be King and Other Stories
Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Books
Rudyard Kipling, Kim
Saki, The Complete Saki

Uncertainly
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale (pg. 87)

*Reputed to be the first English-language vampire story, "The Vampyre" set many of the conventions that still distinguish the vampire of Western literature from the vampire of Eastern European folklore. The story also happens to be utter dreck and I advise you never to sully your eyes with it.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Elvis Costello & The Attractions, "Oliver's Army" from Armed Forces (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: You don't have to agree with the characterization of the British Army in "Oliver's Army" to enjoy the song, as I most certainly disagree with Costello's charmingly witty lyrics.

Sonntag, 18 Januar
Carl Douglas, "Kung Fu Fighting" via iTunes (T.L.A.M.)

Bottle Rocket
Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Darjeeling Limited

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
Nouvelle Vogue, "Dancing With Myself" via iTunes (T.L.A.M.)

Freitag, 16 Januar
The Blues Brothers, "Messin' With the Kid" from Briefcase Full of Blues (T.L.A.M.)

Remember, kids, the title The Thin Man does not refer to the novel's protagonist, Nick Charles, nor does The Pink Panther refer to Inspector Clouseau. Even if the titles of many films based on both characters would lead you to believe otherwise.

Project OSPREY
Minnesota 78-74 Wisconsin (OT*)

After an unexpected, which is not to say unwelcome, dose of Scrubs this evening, (What? No Betty?) I took the opportunity to catch up on the episodes of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe and MythBusters (a rerun, alas) I'd taped Tuesday and yesterday nights, when I was otherwise engaged. Fast forwarding through these important commercial messages, I was finished with the sweet Discovery goodness in less than the alloted two hours. Not yet sated as a couch potato(e), I channeled surfed over to the Big Ten Network and caught the end of Minnesota at Wisconsin.

Apparently, at one point the luckless Golden Gophers trailed the pesky Badgers by as many points as fourteen. They had closed the gap to seven by the time I tuned in, and to my delight I saw Minnesota eat away at Wisconsin's lead, eventually tying the game with a last second three-pointer. And then in overtime the luckless triumphed over the pesky. Boy howdy, I love watching Wisconsin lose! It doesn't matter what sport, it rarely matters against which foe, I love seeing the agony of defeat written across their rotten faces.

Truly, we don't need no stinkin' Badgers.

*Those of you paying close attention will have noticed that I have staked a position of strong support for periods in initializations and abbreviations, such as N.H.L., N.A.S.A., and R.B.D.S.O.T.D. So often these days, you see initializations written purely in capitals, FBI and CIA instead of F.B.I. and C.I.A. (Don't even get me started on the British, who render N.A.S.A. and E.S.A. as "Nasa" and "Esa." Small wonder we rebelled.) My purpose here is not to compose a manifesto explaining my support for the humble period, but merely address the above inconsistency: why "OT"?

More importantly, why not "O.T."? Because I have only ever seen overtime written as one word, overtime, not as two words, over time. So, "O.T." is simply inaccurate, because there is no logic behind capitalizing an initial in the middle of a word. OverTime? What manner of abomination is that? And even so, it remains one word, rendering the T in O.T. completely meaningless. Overtime T. What the heck does that mean? I attended elementary school with a lad named Clay Jones. Everyone called him C.J. Even, all too often, "C.J. Jones." Even as a child, I hated this. The J is for Jones, you twits! C.J. Jones is the same as calling him Clay Jones Jones. So, I simply cannot abide O.T., since it could only plausibly stand for Overtime Time. To wit, I have opted for the imperfect and unsatisfying compromise between utility and principle, "OT."

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Reel Big Fish, "Beer" (live) from Our Live Album is Better Than Your Live Album, Disc 1: More Shtick Than You Can Shake a Stick At (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: "Anyway, I hate this song and I hate all of you.... Just kidding, I don't hate this song."

Project TROIKA
Phase 1 (of 5): COMPLETE.

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
They Might Be Giants, "Withered Hope" from The Else (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I've been Very Sad Sack, to a T, more than once in my life. Never again? I cannot say, because the kind of girl I want as a friend is exactly the kind of girl I want as a girlfriend.

"Very Sad Sack is a sad bag,
Very very sad, Very Sad Sack.
Withered Hope say she is his friend to the end
But she doesn't like Very Sad Sack.
Today Withered Hope saw the Very Sad Sack
And she tried not to meet his eyes.
And he cut out a paper heart,
Pinned it to his arm,
Gave her everything he was holding in his head.
This is what he said:

Withered Hope, I'm in love with you,
Want to live with you, Withered Hope.
Are you going to say to me, 'This can never be'?
Are you going to say to me, Withered Hope?

Sad sack.
Sad sack."

This next part is outside my experience.

"Withered Hope says she has a soul mate
Living in a city in another state.
But the soul mate thinks about a picture in a book
Of a beautiful crook.
And the picture of the crook in the book
Is in love with a brand-new motorbike.
But the motorbike doesn't like crooks,
It's obsessed with the Very Sad Sack.

Sad Sack, I'm in love with you,
Want to live with you, Sad Sack.
Are you going to say to me, 'This can never be'?
Are you going to say to me, Sad Sack?

Sad sack.
Sad sack."

Motorbike? When I was very young, ambulatory but insensate, my sister called me "Michael Michael Motorcycle." Or so I am told. Makes more sense than the later fact that I called one of my two Uncles Bob "Uncle Turntable."

Dienstag, 13 Januar
They Might Be Giants, "Yeah, the Deranged Millionaire" from Cast Your Pod to the Wind (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"He lived in a secret location,
Burnin' money all day.
And people from miles around
Were miles away.

...

Gold is diamond-encrusted
And diamonds are covered in gold."

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
They Might Be Giants, "We Live In a Dump" from Cast Your Pod to the Wind (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: "Why be realistic?"

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
Tally Hall, "Greener" from Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: A band and an album that have both grown on me over time. I love when that happens.

Samstag, 10 Januar
Mu330, "Speedbump" from Ultra Panic (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"He said, 'Hold on to that girl.'
I said, 'I'm trying, trying, trying.'"

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
The Articles, "Starsky" from Flip F'real (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: Sadly, Flip F'real features no song titled "Hutch." Bloody waste of an opportunity, that.

Donnerstag, 8 Januar
Avril Lavigne, "Girlfriend" from The Best Damn Thing (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: N.P.R. was working my last nerve and both oldies stations featured among Lumi's radio presets were in commercial; so, I tried the local top forty station and caught "Girlfriend" just as it began. The song that followed Ms. Lavigne's was truly abominable, at least the ten seconds of it I heard.

Mittwoch, 7 Januar
Elvis Costello & The Attractions, "Goon Squad" from Armed Forces (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: Via an iTunes gift certificate, this was a Christmas present. Woo and hoo. I hope one day to own the physical C.D. and liner notes, but for now the music will more than suffice.

The Victors: Project OSPREY - Michigan 59-59 Indiana, End of Regulation
What in the heck just happened? I watched it unfold and I still can't quite believe my eyes.

The Queue
Recently
Richard Matheson, I Am Legend (and "Witch War")
Caroline Alexander, The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
Richard E. Crabbe, Suspension

Currently
Kim Newman, Anno Dracula (just underway)
various, Great Adventures with National Geographic (catch as catch can)

Presently
David M. Friedman, The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever
Ernest Shackleton, South
John Toland, The Great Dirigibles: Their Triumphs and Disasters (catch as catch can)
Sloane Crosley, I Was Told There'd be Cake
John Hodgman, The Areas of My Expertise

Distantly
Rudyard Kipling, The Man who would be King and Other Stories
Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Books
Rudyard Kipling, Kim
Saki, The Complete Saki (firstly, "The Interlopers")

Uncertainly
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale (pg. 87)

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Epiphany
Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings" from Barenaked For the Holidays (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I lament all the years I wasted on the foolish belief that Christmas ended on Boxing Day.

"God rest ye merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay.
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born upon this day,
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray,
O tiddings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tiddings of comfort and joy."

...

"King forever, ceasing never."

The Rebel Black Dot Christmas Song of the Day
Duvall, "O Come All Ye Faithful" from O Holy Night (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: 'Tis the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas, dear readers, and upon the morrow we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord to we Gentiles. I hope this Christmastide brought you closer to both your family and He Who is Father to us all. For the last time 'til next December, Merry Christmas!

Project TROIKA
It's over, and it's not over. We're done, and we're not done. A weight is lifted, but there's yet so much work to do. Dedicating my time and energy to other endeavours will have to keep for at least a few days more.

Grow or die.

The Rebel Black Dot Christmas Song of the Day
Bing Crosby, "Pat-A-Pan/While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night" from Christmas with Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Dean Martin (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary:

"Like the men of olden days
Who the King of Kings did praise
With the sound of fife and drum,
To-re-lu-re-lu,
Pat-a-pat-a-pan,
With the sound of fife and drum,
To the Lord we shall bring our praise."

The Rebel Black Dot Christmas Song of the Day
Duvall, "Angels We Have Heard On High" from O Holy Night (T.L.A.M.)

The Rebel Black Dot Christmas Song of the Day
Mu330, "Angels We Have Heard On High" from Winter Wonderland! (T.L.A.M.)

All non-Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day bloggy blogging at The Secret Base is hereby suspended until the fulfillment of the looming Project TROIKA objective. The R.B.D.S.O.T.D. shall continue more for my sanity than any other reason.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the New Year's Day
Mu330, "This Year More Than Ever" from Winter Wonderland! (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I am slightly misappropriating a romantic song for my own platonic purposes, but warmest regards and fondest wishes go out to all the absent friends I had not the chance to see this Christmastide. Thank you for the pleasure and privilege of your treasured friendship.

"This year more than any year
I wish I was coming home,
But the snow and the ice
Has got me stuck out on the road.
If we were togther
I'd stay close forever.
This year more than ever,
I'm coming home."