In the Land of Ass-Kickery...

Resides many a thing, here's a list of a few:

The Couscous Express Soundtrack-courtesy of Larry Young. I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet, but damn Larry Young kicks all kinds of ass. Not only did I get the CD (part of the Mixed Bag deal Lefty Brown had going), but Larry sent along a copy of the graphic novel as well (sidenote to Larry: Anytime you want to send me some GN's to review, feel free! Heh.). Thanks to advanced word on this from Lefty, I sent my copy of the GN to Jim over at Jumbotron as part of a "my bad" for the Kochalka contest he won awhile back. Seems the book got shipped to the wrong place, so I had to reship it, so I threw this in as a peace offering. Which reminds me, if you read this Jim, let me know if you've gotten it, or when you do, I sent it out about a week ago.

I also got Mike Sterling's mix CD in the mail today too, along with Mercury X23's, who I should add to the sidebar tonight or tomorrow. While Mike's disc looks...intimidating (I've heard of no one except Ookla to Mok, not saying that's a bad thing), X23's looks to be an instant favorite, with performers like Radiohead, Grant-Lee Phillips, The Flaming Lips, William Shatner, and a current fave of mine, Jamie Cullum (not only that, but it's Twentysomething, one of my favorite songs!). Tomorrow I'll dive into all three discs as well as get mine out the door. I hadn't intended to provide a track listing, but seeing as how these fellas were nice enough to do it, I will as well, only in invisible ink! Kidding, of course. As for some of the other discs I'm most looking forward too, well that's easy: Tom the Dog, Fred Hembeck (the fact that he didn't begin to love Bing Crosby until the early nineties baffles me, c'mon Fred, everyone loves Bing!), Johnny B, and of course, Dorian. Mostly because I've read each of them post passionately about music, so I just cannot wait to get ahold of the discs. I've read the listing of Johnny B's tracks, and am uber-psyched to get ahold of it.

Also, I've apparently not linked to last week's Permanent Damage, so if you haven't read it, do so now. It's a short column, but it does have the next entry in the "Creating Comics" group of essays. Here's hoping Steven Grant collect these as a whole once he's finished, as they will be an invaluable tool to future writers and artists.

I had not planned to go to my LCS last week, but I had a few dollars burning a hole in my pocket so I decided to stop by. Lucky me, as I would have missed out on a copy of the new Jon Sable book. and to prove I'm not entirely untimely with my reviews, I'm working on a review of it for CBG at the moment, should be finished by tomorrow. I remember hearing about a new book, but it had slipped my mind completely, serves me right for not reading Previews I suppose.

Finally, Rob Vollmar and Pablo Callejo, with the help of the ass-kicking Alan David Doane, have launched The Bluesman Project, as well as Rob's very own Blog. So, if you didn't win a copy from me, or order one initially, now's your chance to solve that problem. It's one of the best damn books ever, and everyone should own a copy. Even if there is no love for The House on the links page, heh. BTW, if you're reading this, I dig the crazy smiley face Rob, I have some copies of Bluesman coming at you to sign, much thanks, and I'll get with you in email about the shipping!

So, yeah, that's all the news that's kicking ass around these parts.

-L