Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

A Tune-Filled Friday
I'd been in early everyday to work this past as the new person we hired on a 3-month contract hasn't worked out, and I've inherited his projects as well as mine. Choicest part of the week was when he announced that one project had suddenly gotten "hot" and needed tending, and that he had been directed to concentrate on something else, and then him coming to my desk later -- after dropping a large project in my lap unceremoniously due later that day -- and asking "if there was anything he could do to help". I held my tongue, though I wanted to say something about "If you could do any less...". Will be surprised if we get more than a dozen paragraphs of new content out of him, and a draft I saw was riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. Ugh.

So I left early with Bill on Friday after finishing my work, with no regrets. He took the scenic route to his home since he wasn't feeling well -- a bit dizzy and he seemed to have a slight fever to boot. Didn't want to be on the highway at top speed like that.

Erika had taken the girls up north by that time, so I went for a stroll in the Queen Street East area. First stop was Penguin Music, a favourite used CD shop just up on McCaul. Came away with a number of discs including:

• The House of Tomorrow by The Magnetic Fields
• Greatest by Duran Duran
• Twinkle Echo by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
• a DVD of Hitchcock’s Vertigo

The Magnetic Fields CD (really an EP of 5 songs) was worth it if only for a single track Bill had played for me before: "Love Goes to Paris in the Spring", which is as evocative as you'd think. The Duran Duran purchase was a case of "I'll buy it if I can get it for $10 or less". The song that went straight onto my iPod from this was not any of their earlier songs but "Electric Barbarella", an oddball favourite of mine. The CD by the one-man-band Casiotone for the Painfully Alone was a pure whim, as it was playing in the store while I was there and I found what I had heard playfully quirky. Someone with too many early beat boxes, cheesy organs and simple studio effects than is safe. ;-) Sounded somewhat Miscellaneous 'S'-ish, but more polished (which wouldn't be hard to do). Will see if it holds up to a closer listen. The Hitchcock DVD was a no-brainer -- a classic movie and one of my favourites of his.

After that I headed down to the Chapters down on John Street. Had to pass by a growing crowd gathering in front of MuchMusic, doing setup and rehearsal for what turned out to be the debut of a couple of young, female hiphop artists, one called Rhiannon. The music didn't really grab me, and it sounded canned rather than live. Made my way through the crowds to get to the bookstore.

Picked up a remaindered $20 wonder on ancient Egypt that looked like it had some solid info on the subject in addition to all the pics. I pondered a second, much weightier (literally) tome on the same subject for the same amount, but went with the lighter book on the subject, mainly because I didn't think I could carry the weightier book home easily.

Got home and cracked open the UFO DVD that Bill had loaned to me along with a few others. It was a Gerry Anderson production done in the late 60s, and the story was set in 1980. I didn't remember the profusion of gull-wing cars, women in mini-skirts or people smoking in the workplace back in '80, but the show was and interesting look at futuristic retro. I remember the show mainly as one I wasn't allowed to stay up and watch when I was very young. I usually got as far as the theme song and then it was off to bed, with dreams of what the then far-off year of 1980 would hold for me. ;-)

Was disappointed to find that the Vertigo DVD in fact contained a music CD instead.

Retired early, in an effort to catch up on sleep lost over the past week.