Just in time for the holiday weekend!

Meow baby, meow.

What's my favorite kind of kids book? The free kind!

I stopped by the free book table that loiters out in front of one of our local used book stores and I picked up all these kids books for free. Free! Free, I tell you!

Some really cool illustrations in this one.


The cover of this one just screams, "Hey, look, it's the American version of 'Are You Being Served.' "

This is all about how cool and special the oil industry is. It came out in 1975, right around the time of the OPEC oil crisis, so I guess it was meant to calm our fears that we might lose all our precious oil.
This one is full of great photos of marching bands and parades.

This is only the second 'we live in' book I've owned, I previously had the one on East Germany which I scanned, put on Flickr, and got linked on Boing Boing. There's a whole series of them and they came out in the early 1980's. I'm on the look out for the rest of them, especially the ones on the old Soviet Union and it's satellites.
This is the fourth '...is for me' book I've owned. I've had the ones on bicycling, karate, and horseback riding. I really want the ones on serial killing, poisoning, and blaspheming.

Free picture books, epic win for Dr. Monkey and his blog empire!

Do you like free music? (Updated)

Oh yes! A reader tipped me off to this great website, Free Music Archive. It's just what it's name implies, it's free download-able music. All kinds of MP3s for your listening and CD making pleasure. It's all out there on a Creative Commons license! Yay!

I discovered a slew of cool new music from such groups as The Pine Valley Cosmonauts, The Sadies, The Legendary Shack Shakers, and my new favorite band, Trailer Bride! I also found some cuts by Graham Parker and The Be Good Tanyas. And I found all of that just on the first few pages of the 'Country' genre section. I haven't even begun checking out the International, Rock, Pop, Spoken Word, and other sections of this great website yet.

If you love free new to you music, then you've got to check this site out.

*************UPDATE**********************
The main welcome page seems to be down for some reason,
so click here.
And then go the 'By Genre' tab to access the free music.

I'm feeling generous...

...so everybody who reads this gets a can of BFC brand Chromic Acid on me! Click on this link for details on how to get your can!

Tanya went to Europe and all I got was this lousy 1998 Berlitz guide book

Look what the hottest gal in Toronto sent me:

Thanks for the book my little Tanya.  

Safety tip and positive news item of the day

I found that great vintage photo in here:
This was one of a series of four books published by the folks who did Weekly Reader. They all came out in 1947 and they are little more than pro growth propaganda that advocates wild consumption of virtually every natural resource that we had at that time. I got two of the books in this series for free today, they were in a box marked "Free!" in front of one of the stores where I buy used books. I also picked up a children's song book from 1951 and it is chock full of great illustrations. And I also picked up a geography book from 1920 that is full of great vintage photos. I'll be scanning all the great photos and illustrations soon and I'll post them to Flickr when I get the chance, I'll let you know when I get them all up and you can rummage through them and use them for whatever nefarious purposes you may have.

Swag review

I listened to all of the CDs I got yesterday at the radio station and here's my review of them:

Okay I admit it, I chose this one because of the good looking woman on the front cover. I also chose it because these cats looked like an alt country group that I might like. After giving this one a listen I can honestly say that I don't like them, I fucking love them. They've got a great diverse alt country sound. At times their songs are moody little country infused ditties, at others they sound like playful less exuberant clones of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, and on other songs they sound like some retro folkie types. The songs alternate between the guy doing the singing and the gal doing the singing so one doesn't get tired of either of them. She's got a great melodic voice and the guy's voice has a nice country-esque feel to it. If you're into roots music, folk, country (and I don't mean current country radio top forty country), alt country, or just good music then you'll enjoy this CD. I highly recommend the Little Country Giants.

I picked up this CD because I thought it was going to be one of those rockabilly type of groove thing CDs that I love so much. I could not have been more wrong about it. Instead of being a rockabilly guitar driven CD it's more of a piano/trippy singer songwritery CD. And it's damn good as well. Smith tells some great stories in his songs and the songs themselves sound really cool The music is at times pop sounding, and or trippy and dreamy and it's always compelling listening. I particularly liked the songs "Good Folks Bad Folks," "Mario," "Bad Cop" (there is a version of this song on You Tube), and "Curtis On The Corner." All in all this is a keeper and I also recommend it.

Ick. Hated it. I turned it off after the third song.

This one is horn based modern jazz. I rather liked it because it wasn't all experimental on my monkey ass. It didn't feature long ear splitting horn sax solos, the most of the music was melodic and fun. A couple of the compositions went on a bit long but one gets that with jazz. I found myself scat singing along with some of the music, and it's a good thing none of you heard my jazz vocals.

I realize that these may not be out for sale in all music stores since I got them at the public radio station but I'm sure you can find copies of them if you try hard enough. Thanks again for the free music you guys at WETS!