Dr Frank Weakly Reader for 01.25.2019
Welcome to another “weakly reader”. (Am I tired of that “weakly” thing yet? Well, you’d think so wouldn’t you, but somehow I am not. Not yet. It’s already too late to change it anyway because, as I’m using this as a sort of index, it has to be unambiguously searchable. Such is life.) Anyway, here once again is all the stuff you missed last week, the current state of things, what’s going on in the world of Dr Frank and MTX and all that.
FRONT BURNER
— Mtx forever: You can still vote (here) for songs you’d like to see on the forthcoming MTX retrospective compilation album:
— The 50 MTX Starship shirts in assorted sizes in Sounds Radical’s pop-up went in a few hours, but they’re now offering an opportunity for custom orders for shirts and hoodies of that design for those who missed out. For a limited time only. The hoodies are “California style” (i.e. rather lightweight) — probably my favorite version of the hooded zip sweatshirt I’ve ever had, for what that’s worth. Comes with an enamel pin and sticker.
More Mtx forever
— Tape Hunt Notes: my Medium post this week compiled some of my notes and comments on the vagaries of the MTX tape archive.
— The strange tale of the DR-001 / LK 37 (Everybody’s Entitled to Their Own Opinion) master.
— From the Mixed-Up Files of Dr Frank E. Basilweiler: more mislabelling follies.
— new comments, from: Chuck; Joe; Sarah; Curt; Daniel; Arjan; Ben.
ACROSS THE MTX-O-VERSE
— Love Is Dead slip: someone on twitter noted that the new Chvrches album called Love Is Dead has driven the MTX Love Is Dead off the Google front page, which was an occasion for reposting my essay on “The Love Is Dead Club”.
—Love Is Dead iversary: Lauren, who’s keeping track, notes that Love Is Dead turned 23 years old on Jan. 19. Doesn’t seem quite that long ago, does it?
— An old flier, defaced, spotted by Dougie Tangent of the Putz at a St. Louis studio.
— The Mr T Experience — “Scientific”, live in Hamburg, 1992, video on YouTube. And the “minor secrets” thereof.
— John’s mom, rockin’ out to “She’s My Alcatraz”.
— lots of photos of MTX shirts through the ages, many of them worn by Marisa, at this Sounds Rad post.
— and your Friday morning “You Today”, from, once again, Marisa.
More such covers here.
A DOCTOR OF NOTHING, MISS SMITH…
— ’tis I: onstage in St. Louis.
OTHER PEOPLE’S MUSIC
— Good morning, world: Masshysteri — “Hatkarlek”; The Emperors — “I Want My Woman”;
PICTURE BOOK
— posted: anything but saintly; they don’t make ’em like that no more; from Virgil Finlay; bff; Ishtar, Burney Relief; terribly dull; couch macrame; country pickin.
IN THE NEWS
— evidently I wasn’t the only person to think of this C. S. Lewis quote about willful preference for the worst in contradiction of facts in view of recent internet craziness, but I did quote it.
— seen on twitter, from Antonio Garcia Martinez: “A new version of Sid Meier’s ‘Civilization’ game, except that if you attain the Social Media technology (which requires both Networking and Smartphone technologies as prerequisites), your civilization just instantly implodes.”
— “The Gawker reboot faltered because the entire media world has become Gawker”…
