micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links

Bill Hicks passed away 16 years ago today.

I wonder what he would be doing now.

Top ten audio recordings of the 2000s

I had meant to write up some notes on each of these entries, but I ran out of time. So anyway they are listed in order of release:

Dominic Duval with The C.T. String Quartet Under the Pyramid (Leo Records, 2000)

Lewis Black The End Of The Universe (Stand Up! Records, 2002)

David S. Ware Quartet Freedom Suite (AUM Fidelity, 2002)

David Cross Shut Up, You Fucking Baby! (Sub Pop, 2002)

Maria Bamford The Burning Bridges Tour (Stand Up! Records, 2003)

Tom Waits Real Gone (ANTI-, 2004)

Mats Gustafsson + Sonic Youth with Friends Hidros 3 (To Patti Smith) (Smalltown Supersound, 2004)

George Carlin Life Is Worth Losing (Atlantic, 2006)

Weasel Walter Quartet Revolt Music (ugEXPLODE, 2006)

Sun Ra and the Omniverese Jet Set Arkestra The Complete Detroit Jazz Center Residency December 26, 1980-January 1, 1981 (Transparency, 2007)

Bill Hicks passed away 15 years ago today

George Carlin

George Carlin died 10 days ago, as I am sure everyone reading this already knows. Save for my father and myself, no single person is responsible for making me laugh more than Carlin.

I was first introduced to Carlin’s work via the 1992 special Jammin' in New York. I loved his use of words and I admired Carlin for saying that golf is a stupid sport that deprives the homeless of shelter. Somebody had to say it."

Most of all, I took great delight and solace in the fact that Carlin’s criticism of Gulf War was neither guarded nor full of platitudes about supporting the troops. The comedian took it for granted that the war was wrong and his job was to humorously explain how we got into such a fucked up position. Carlin explain lots of such things during his career –check out his take on the absurdity of planning a suicide from 2005’s Life is Worth Losing, for one of my favorites- and he usually did so brilliantly.

A few years ago, a friend of mine commented that I was good at swearing. I did not overuse the term "fuck,” she said, and when I did employ it, I did so to emphasize my point. If true, I owe all my skills to George Carlin.

Perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay to the deceased is that I do not believe his death caused me to reference Carlin’s work in my head, and sometimes aloud, anymore than I had done in the previous 10 days. A several times a day event is a several times a day event.

As you probably know by now, Richard Pryor died yesterday as a result of a heart attack.

I have nothing profound to say, but I am sad.

Oh yeah, I'm sure that he is having a long conversation with John Lennon right about now.