Mingering Mike

I was catching up on m'News of the Weird and saw this classic:

"...a Washington, D.C., man whose love of music led him, in the 1960s, to meticulously hand-make and hand-paint facsimile record album covers of his fantasized music, complete with imagined lyric sheets and liner notes (with some "albums" even shrink-wrapped in plastic), and, even more incredibly, to hand-make cardboard facsimiles of actual grooved discs to put inside them. "Mingering Mike," ...His 38 imagined "albums" were discovered at a flea market after Mike defaulted on storage-locker fees."

I had to Goodsearch that and found Mingering Mike's web site. Please. Check it out.

Z ROCK Redux

Now I know why in showbiz they say you should never work with kids or animals:
Because kids are animals. And they will karate chop you in the nuts without even blinking. At least, that was my experience over the last two days. Being surrounded by a bunch of little kids was exhausting. I have renewed respect for teachers. [And I wish I had read this article before going on set.]

I can't say much more without spoiling the episode's plot. But I will say that, from what I saw, the guys in the band are genuinely good with kids and the crew was a great bunch of people to work with.

Z Rock Season 2 starts June 7th. I appear in the 6th Episode, which should air Sunday, July 12.

Joe Cocker Captioned

This ain't mine, but my pal Brian sent me this hilarious link. If you got four minutes to kill, you could do worse.

Z ROCK!

I just booked two days next week on Z Rock, which airs on IFC Channel; season 2 starts in June.

Phonoharps + Koto

Saw this article about Walter Kitundu in the January/February issue of the Utne Reader.
This guy takes turntables and incorporates them into stringed instruments of all stripes.
Check it out on San Francisco Public Television via YouTube:


At about 5:24 he plays something that looks like a koto. I first heard the koto in my student days at Augustana College. Jeff Wichmann was a senior my freshman year, and he still plays it and the trumpet combined with loads of other instruments; check out his MySpace page.

Also check out today's Recession This!