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Saturday, May 8, 2004 |
Gas Prices Up, Hybrid Cars in Demand
Sales of Prius shot up 62.4 percent. The Baltimore Sun provides some useful info on the current status of hybrid cars in the American automobile market: U.S. registrations for hybrid cars rose more than 25 percent last year, to 43,435...Sales of Toyota's new Prius shot up 62.4 percent in the first quarter compared with sales in the first three months of last year...In March, Honda sold 2,725 hybrid Civics, the most ever in a single month... Half of the hybrids sold in 2003 were the Honda Civic hybrid, and just under half the old model Toyota Prius. Over 11,000 were registered in California, with Virginia coming in at #2 with about 3,400 new hybrids in 2003.
[Another World Is Here] European and American car manufacturers better take notice. I have had several European cars in the last decade, but I won't even consider a non-hybrid car at this point. [Ottmar Liebert]
1:13:26 PM 
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The Acoustic Storm in Flagstaff and Prescott
The Acoustic Storm Radio Program continues to move across the country. KWMX-FM, Cool Oldies 96.7 in Flagstaff/Prescott, AZ is on The Acoustic Storm Radio Network. They air the show Sunday mornings from 8-10 in northern Arizona.
The Acoustic Storm can also be heard every Sunday on:
KSLX (Classic Rock at 100.7) in Phoenix (7am-10am).
KIHT (Classic Hits, K-HITS 96) in St. Louis (8pm-10pm). As a bonus, K-HITS streams The Acoustic Storm on the web Sunday nights at http://www.k-hits.com
WWUZ (Classic Rock 96.9) in Richmond/Fredericksburg, VA (7am-10am).
Visit the Acoustic Storm official website at http://www.AcousticStorm.com
12:53:25 PM
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Lolla Thang
Concert update. The Lollapalooza 2004 tour, which stops at the Tweeter Center Aug. 14-15, has announced more of the schedule for the first and second days of its stop. Among the acts appearing on the main stage on the first day will be Morrissey , Sonic Youth , PJ Harvey , Modest Mouse , Le Tigre , Black Rebel Motorcycle Club , ... [Boston Globe -- Living / Arts News]
8:48:33 AM
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Ohio and the Notion of De-Evolution (DEVO)
WWDD?.  On a whim, I picked up a DVD collection of DEVO videos last night. I was probably inspired by a brief discussion with the Cartoonist about bands that wear matching uniforms onstage.
Now I have to confess that I'm not a huge fan of DEVO. I never saw them when they played the club circuit in LA back in the late Seventies because the band and their fans had a serious rep for violence...yup, you heard me right...violence. A friend of mine was badly injured at one of their early shows at the Whiskey in Hollywood after Mothersbaugh leapt off the stage and cut a huge gash in his head with a guitar. At the hospital, the Whiskey's manager (El Arsehole Supremo, Kim Fowley) actually tried to strongarm him into signing an injury waiver so he couldn't sue them! Needless to say, these kind of antics didn't endear the band to me at all.
Nevertheless, their music has grown on me over the years, sorta like a crotch fungus, and I have purchased and enjoyed a couple of their albums. So I thought that viewing some of their old videos might be fun. Boy, was I wrong. I had forgotten how grainy and headache-inducing ancient video technology is on the eyeballs, especially when viewed at high-resolutions, and their de-evolution schtick seems pretty lame now in retrospect. My kids fell asleep watching it with me, and I came pretty close to nodding off myself. Unfortunately, their best video "Are You Experienced" wasn't even included in the collection, and the rest of their back catalogue (with the possible exception of "Whip It") is extremely amateurish and poorly produced. At least they could've done a little post-production clean-up to get rid of the horrible bluescreen artifacts and remixed the sound.
I've also never forgiven Mothersbaugh for scoring Rugrats. Sir, have you no shame, no sense of decency? You could have at least embedded a low-frequency tone into that sappy, tinkly theme song that induces instant diarrhea in viewers à la the comment Casale made years ago during their legendary (and apparently unwebified) interview with William S. Burroughs in Trouser Press.
Oh yeah, during my search for DEVO-related linkage to go with this post, I stumbled upon this ironic gem; kind of like forming a club for underachieving students and naming it the Subgeniuses or something, eh? [Eye of the Goof]
8:43:27 AM
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books and covers
 Good Books. Violet Books. The galleries of dust covers are amazing. Via linkfilter.Violet Books specializes in Antiquarian Supernatural Literature, including literary ghost stories, Victorian science fiction, Yellow Nineties Decadence, H. Rider Haggard & haggardesque "Lost Race" novels, Marie Corelli & other occult romancers, Rafael Sabatini & Jeffery Farnol & all vintage swashbuckling historical romances, westerns, Yukon adventures, jungle tales, Sax Rohmer & all weird thrillers, classic detectives, vintage children's & young adult fantasies & series books, & all things old, fictional, adventurous, & weird. [The Cartoonist]
7:44:10 AM
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© Copyright 2009 Gary Santoro.
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