everybody is an icicle

Damn, it’s cold outside. Not as cold as last night, when I intended to write this post but instead passed out watching Battlestar Galactica, but still cold enough. Just three days ago, the temperature in Boston brushed close to the 60 degree mark. Very strange, but it 2006 has been a strange year weather-wise from the start. Cold and wet, then hot and wet, with an on-again off-again Indian summer that extended into the first week of December, it’s just not right. Whether one chalks it up to global warming or a statistical anomaly, having three “hundred year” storms in a decade is a tad disconcerting.

The funky weather played havoc with my wife’s ambitious gardening plans for 2006. At least half of what she planted rotted in the ground, due to the heavy rains. The vegetable garden, especially the tomato plants suffered something fierce, and what was shaping up to be a huge raspberry yield slipped away and went to seed. Next year will be different, though. I’m going to invest in a ice cream maker and a box of Mason jars, and put the berries to good use, even if it involves going out and picking in the middle of a hurricane.

A Blaze Colour – Cold As Ever (from A Blaze Colour EP, 1982) – Obscure minimalist synthpop from Belgium. If you’re the kind of person who would enjoy this track, that’s all you need to know.

King Missile – Frightened and Freezing (from Mystical Shit, 1990) – Most folks associate King Missile with John S. Hall’s surreal deadpan monologues on tracks like “Detachable Penis” or “Jesus Was Way Cool,” but the band did record a number of bona fide songs, like this no wave-y bipolar spaz attack. It's not as good as "Margaret's Eyes," a sweet love song about S&M, or "Mr. Johnson," a piss take on 60's love-in nonsense, but it does fit with today's theme.

Magazine – Permafrost (from Secondhand Daylight, 1979) – Punk, synth, and post-punk collide in this creepy, downbeat track. Sample lyric: I will drug you and fuck you/on the permafrost. I wouldn’t be surprised if it showed up on the soundtrack to CSI: Juneau (coming this fall to a CBS affiliate near you).