Conan Visits Beauty School

In this classic from 2002-2003, Conan visits a hair styling school and learns the secrets of the trade. The revelation that "if hair is too long, cut it" is mind-blowing.

Let's gather the required postage and follow him to Danger Town:

You may or may not recognize the employee, Aaron Bleyaert. These days he manages the "online" division of Conan's show (the blog, twitter, web exclusive videos, etc).

Conan and The Blizzard of 2003

---As promised---

With New York City shut down due to the blizzard, Conan takes to the (surprisingly desolate) streets to stir up some comedic comedy.

That news story by Maurice Duvois gets me every time.

New Press Photo

Sure, we don't want this to become a Radiohead Fan Blog but, uhhhhh....

So anyway a new press photo of the band was released! Desperate for hints and clues as to the new album as we are, this counts as major news (for now).

Here it is:

[Note: The photo contains 3 invisible ponies.]

Now THAT is a sweet photo. Judging by it, I'd say the new album is going to sound like The Band's self-titled album. Yaaaaay! Or perhaps Neil Young's Harvest album. Yaaaayy! Or maybe it'll be like "The Wild Wild West" soundtrack. Oh, BOOOO! Or maybe My Morning Jacket's new album that isn't released yet. Cool? I guess maybe this has become an entire genre of band photo. But still it's good.

Who Cares Wins: Internet

How did I learn to operate Blogopolis? Max and Gabe taught me.

Thanks Max and Gabe!

Here Comes the Limb King

The eighth Radiohead album "The King of Limbs" is available for pre-sale now and will be downloadable this Saturday, February 19th 2011.

Its gonna be HUGE, Conan. I've officially been waiting on this album for 4 (calendar) years and after not a hint, not a suggestion, not a word, it's all of the sudden going to be OUT in 5 days. WOW. Their previous album, "In Rainbows" was announced 10 days before it was released. I wish they didn't do things this way. If they would have only announced it two months ago, I would have had something to look forward to for those two months. Instead, it's 4 years... BAM, NOW!

And along the lines of the "no info" front. Little to nothing is known about this album, not even the tracklisting or how many tracks there are. Although the Japanese are saying it's got 8 songs. That would seem low and I don't think that's correct. There were some tracks that have been played live and not yet recorded but there always are. Furthermore, those tracks that ARE known were only played acoustically or with guest musicians so that's not much help. I'm rooting for "Big Boots" or "Follow Me Around" to finally land a spot.*** All in all, I'd venture to say this is the least I've known going into any Radiohead album, ever.

The album purchase is available in two varieties: download only (wav or mp3) or "newspaper album" which comes with the download as well as two vinyl records, the CD, the ability to download everything and tons of artwork. There's been a lot of speculation as to what "newspaper album" means.... Ok, there's been almost no speculation and what little there is has been ridiculous. I would speculate that it's one of two things: 1) An expression of the nature of the artwork (ie. the artwork will be arranged like a newspaper or 2) All of the materials will be recyclable/biodegradable like a newspaper. Radiohead, after all, are known for being super eco-friendly and that would be the kind of thing they would brag about.

Ok, as speculation goes, this probably isn't the most exciting stuff, but that's all I got.

I should say also that I don't like the title... "The King of Limbs". Reminds me of Kings of Leon (it actually comes from a tree (much like a newspaper! mMM!)). But I'm taking that as a possibly good sign. After a 3 year wait in 2000, the new album "Kid A" was announced and I didn't like THAT title because it reminded me of Kid Rock. And that album turned out PRETTY good.

*** Denotes an old-timey, hardcore-fan reference to songs that will probably never see the light of day. Ha ha? But really, I do love those non-songs.

Conan Visits the Day Spa

Certain dead musicians continue to release new music long after they're gone because people keep "finding" "lost recordings". And so it is with me. Except I'm not dead. But I had ripped all my old VHS tapes long ago and was much disappointed by what I had apparently failed to keep. Recently new VHS tapes were uncovered and so I'll be ripping/editing them for days to come. Some - but not many - will even make it to youtube.

And so here's the first of hopefully many.

This is going all the way back to February of 2003, Conan is feeling run down and decides to visit a day spa for a day of relaxation.

This is one that I can tie to a specific time and place. I brought the tape on which this piece was recorded to a friend's house and we watched it during a particularly heavy snowfall (there was a blizzard in '03 but I think this was a few days later). We went through the tape, laughing, eating, making jokes, cracking wise and generally enjoying life.

And after a good amount of that, a little bit of reality set in. His parents wanted us to shovel the driveway. This was particularly important as it occurred to me that I needed to get home. The next day I had class and I had a paper to do. Problem was, his driveway was like 40 or 50 yards long and the snow was (as I recall it) about 20 inches deep and heavy. In the face of those kinds of numbers, there we were just two regular dudes and a couple of shovels. It was not looking good. I think I shoveled a single strip about 8 feet long before I hit the wall (even in those days I was out of shape) and realized that I wasn't going to survive. Not good. With my primary mission to get myself home, looming in the back of my mind is that I have a paper to write that's due tomorrow and I haven't started yet. It was an essay for a Media class where I had to write a 4 page analysis of a local news broadcast. Sure, it helped that part of the assignment was just watching TV but I dread trying to expand the material to cover 4 pages. The local news is the local news. It loomed over me every bit as much as the snow clouds.

The giant driveway snow tonnage didn't kill me but it was a close call. After an hour of back-breaking labor (over which we made approximately 0% progress), a dude with a snow plow came by and offered to clear the driveway for 20 bucks or something. The deal was made, I was able to get home, record the 11 O'Clock news and get the paper done in the wee hours of the morning.

The day of basking in the warmth of late night comedy while the snow fell down was a fleeting happiness but it's a memory I'll never forget.