I smell a weekly post in the air. We'll see if it lingers. I always like to share music, and what better way to do so than the internets?

Here's what I've been listening to all week during my long-ass California commutes:

1. Beck: The Information - Another amazing album. "Cellphone's Dead" has been on repeat all week.
2. Silversun Pickups: Carvavas - This LA band has had me hooked for the past month or so.
3. Salsoul Presents: The Definitive 12" Masters Vol. 1 & 2 - I used to have a lot of these on vinyl, but it's oh-so-nice to listens to cuts from the best disco label ever on CD.
4. Discotheque Volume 1: The Hacienda - All the stuff that got me into DJing.
5. Meat Beat Manifesto: Storm the Studio - Jack Dangers is one of my all-time favorite DJ/Producers and this is my favorite MBM release.
6. Mogwai: Mr. Beast - I slept on these guys for the longest time so I just recently discovered how amazing they are.
   

After last weekends escapades in Palm Springs, I'm beginning to think that I may be going through some sort of mid mid-life crisis. The streak continued this weekend with 2 nights of heavy-ish drinking and silly antics at Long Beach's finest drinking institutions. The highlight of friday evening was watching a friend hang a three foot piece of toilet paper out of the pants of another friend. He pranced around the bar for a good 30 minutes before noticing to the enjoyment of us all. Yeah. I know. It's pretty sad, but when you're three sheets to the wind, enjoyment at the expense others is some seriously funny shit.

So, yeah. There's definitely some sort of crisis going on right now.

This afternoon I decided to go surfing to clear my head and, well, speed up the detox process. With a nasty sewage spill contaminating most of the beaches in north Orange County, I went down south to my old stomping ground to hit Salt Creek. The surf report said it was small, but I should have know better because the Creek is always bigger than everywhere else.

A good hour of paddling around and getting slammed twice proved to be enough for me so I headed back up the PCH to enjoy the view and the sunset. And I wanted to try out my new digital camera. So I snapped this pic in Laguna Beach at probaby my favorite break, Brooks Street. If you look in the background, you can even see Catalina Island.

This is why I love California.

Then I got back on the 405 and battled through an hour of Sunday traffic to get back to Long Beach.

I mention in an earlier post that I was toying around with the idea of DJing again and at least doing a little of my own production work. Well - no longer inhibited by tons of outboard equipment, MIDI trauma and all the time it takes to set that stuff up, I'm now able to create everything on my itsy bitsy laptop. For the past month I've been doing some experimenting with Sony Acid and last night I finished my first mix since I stopped playing about 3 years ago.

It's not a typical, straight-forward DJ mix. It's more of a hybird type thang with a couple of my own creations, lots of loops, samples and various oddities. And when I was listening to it last night, it's also very evident that the majority of it was created before the elections

It can get a little tedious in parts, but give it a chance. And it's a littel depressing in parts... but then again, it's not like I'm trying to please some random Nancy Boy who just walked into my booth and said "Ummm... can you, like, play something that I can, like, dance to.... like Madonna?" ... or ... "There's this one song that I want you to play. I, like totally don't know the name of it... but they talk about Love." ... or ... "Do you know where the dealer is tonight?" NO!! I'm doing this for my enjoyment - so back OFF! And no! I won't play any ABBA. No more fucking ABBA!!

Oh - and one more thing, bitch: NO!!!

Sorry. Old memories die hard. It has, afterall, been a while since I've done this, so please be patient when you download this massive MP3. And please let me know what you think.

Bill Coons - November '06 Mix

I'll put up a track listing a bit later.

I expected the Democrats to have a good night last night, but in no way did I expected a blowout. I'm especially happy for my home state of Missouri whose people decided to accept Stem Cell Research, a new minimum wage and a change in the war in Iraq. I was still living in St. Louis during the build-up to the war and attended many anti-war demonstrations - and a couple of them were incredibly scary. We were intimidated by police, and many were arrested. Right wing thugs tried running me off the road on a couple of occasions, and at another protest, two women were beat up by a group of Bush-supporting men.

For a while there, I thought this entire country was fucked, but last night when the war loving incumbents pictured above were voted out of office, my hope was restored. And it would appear now that all the intimidation that we endured, and all the protesting may have actually been worth it.

Additionally, maybe Santorum - or any other politician - will think twice before comparing homosexuality to beastiality. And maybe Harris will keep her breasts off of my television. And Talent - well - maybe he'll just stop looking like the creepy Nazi freak from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

And to all the other Republicans out there... now you know how the rest of us felt on November 3, 2004. Kinda sucks, doesn't it?

First, there was my fabulous virgin voyage to the Palm Desert this past weekend to attend Palm Springs Pride. The decision to go was made at happy hour on Friday, and when road trips are born out of spontanaity, they always finish with a bang. And oh my - it sure did. But if you want to hear about all the debauchery, you're gonna have to call me, cause I certainly will not be publishing it here.

It's now Tuesday evening. And as the election returns are coming in, I couldn't be happier. It's only 7:20pm Pacific, but I broke out the wine an hour ago.

Woo Hoo! GO DEMOCRATS!!