There’s something your stomach does when it feels an ending.

Somehow it connects with your brain while your brain is trying to think of the right words to say. There’s a 10,000 different ideas with 1,000 different words. As you turn them over, turn them, switch them up and come out unsatisfied your center spins with everything inside.

It’s usually worse when it’s empty but it stays empty. Protection against even more coming in. There’s a reason people think more clearly, more incisively and more decisively when hungry. There’s a reason your stomach tries to take some of the pain away; for most when it gets real bad they purge - involuntarily.

Does your stomach knot in the physical representation of the “not” you’ve been facing but refusing to accept? You think you should say “no” You might hear “no.” No. No. No.

There are these times in your life. If you’re lucky they’re rare. Or perhaps lucky is not the right word. Perhaps your stomach, as it does in so many ways as the pathway for nutrition, is acknowledging that these are important times and pain is so close to pleasure. Get through the pain, the questions, the wonder and pleasure will come regardless of your doubts.


Because one thing about many physical aspects – they are temporary, they change, they can be naturally fixed. The inside, the core of a human rarely changes as much, despite perceptions, despite what people think. What he is, what you are, what she is will carry you through everything. Words matter even though sometimes they feel useless. It’s why your brain rumbles, puzzling. It’s why your stomach does flips in the pit of believed despair.

Words come before action. Your stomach moves first.

No one made me do this:
1. Put your iTunes on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your next answer.
3. You must write that song name down no matter how outrageous it sounds!
4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing the game as well as the person you got the note from.
(Note i did FF through two songs just because they made absolutely no sense)

IF SOMEONE SAYS, “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?"Blank Expression" - Lily Allen
WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?"Cry Me a River" - Justin Timberlake
WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?"Player's Club" - NWA (hahahaha)
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?"Girls" - Beastie Boys. (ROTLMAO)
WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?"Operate" - Peaches
"WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?"I Love Rock N Roll" - Joan Jett
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OFTEN?"Babooshka" - Kate Bush (Ok, does that mean anything really in Russian?)
WHAT IS 2+2?"We're Not Gonna Take It" - Twisted Sister
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?"Troy" - Sinead O Connor
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?"Friend of Mine - Lily Allen
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?"Running Up That Hill" - Kate Bush
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?"Guess Who Batman (Fuck You Very Much)" - Lily Allen
WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?"Left Hand" - The Gaskets (um)
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?"Riad N' the Bedouins" Guns N Roses
WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?"Love Always, Charlie" - 7 Shot Screamers
WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?"Mr. Nice Guy" - Will Smith ("Sometimes you mistake nice for soft")
WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?"Kick It" Peaches/Iggy Pop
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?"Hey Lady" - Thriving Ivory
WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?"Straight Outta Compton" - NWA
HOW WILL YOU DIE?"Red Lipstick" - Landon
WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?"The Devil" - PJ Harvey
WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?"Summer Song" - Joe Satriani
WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?"Scraped" - Guns N Roses
WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?"Breath, Stretch, Shake" - Mase
WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?"Do They Know It's Christmas" - Band Aid (perhaps the best charity record ever)
DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?"Hip Hop Police" - Chamillionaire ft. Slick Rick
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?"Blaze Of Glory" - Bon Jovi
WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?"The Sensual World" - Kate Bush
WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?"Words Of The Dying Man - Alabama Thunderpussy

Name one successful company or endeavor that ends in K.

That's why Plurk.com is going to fail.

Oh and because, right now it's incredibly buggy, underpopulated and worst of all, for an alternative to Twitter, it's just much worse. Twitter has room for improvement - beyond a lot less down time but that's for another article. That down time is almost the only thing driving any sort of brief interest in plurk. Exhibit A, me.

I've had very limited use of Plurk.com. But by my 2nd pleet I was already forced to deride the thing:

"Not wanting to complain so early in the Plurk relationship - but where the hell did my photo go."

I'd just dropped in a new photo avatar. It showed up briefly but then was replaced by a small question mark and then came online and then hasn't come back online since, just the small question mark on a small BSOD. And I'm not used to the damn blue screen of death, I've never owned anything but Macs and have only, accidentally fixed friends' PCs.

Just yesterday I got invited to Plurk, saw three different tweets about it, either it's epic fail or it being squashed. In other words, whatever momentum it had from the first wave, just washed over it and already hit dead calm.

In my use - and I'm guessing Ajax backing but i could be wrong because I don't do Web site infrastructure - an update took a long time to load. A long time. Looking at the timeline, it kept on changing. It said I had two new "replies" but 1) I'd already read both and 2) One of the "replies" was actually one of my original pleets (and I don't know if that's what they're called but i had to get rid of the K cah cah sound.)

The timeline by the way, what's the maximum you can read, about 15 at one time if there's a major conversation going on. And they aren't organized so it makes sense, except by time, which for some inexplicable reason goes from right to left as if that's clever. Can anyone follow a conversation? No, not without a Grand Mal seizure to help you look randomly around the screen.

If you're using a two finger Apple laptop trackpad, well you can't move vertical when you're over the timeline. You can go left and right smoothly - and right there is the silver lining i didn't think i'd find. You can scroll across nonsensically ordered pleets, though it actually does so too rapidly.

www.plurk.com/user/templestark

Perhaps the final straw. I just tried to log in after I'd successfully done so on two different browsers earlier today and it didn't work and I didn't get the U or P wrong. I got this message instead --> We ran into following problem: The server has either erred or is incapable of performing the requested operation.

Well yes, in so far as the former is the same as the latter I'd have to say that's correct. And I still can't log in.

But back to language because language can be a satisfying part of any experience. It's fun to say Yahoo, Google, Twitter, and MySpace is a functional phrase, one that defines its purpose every time it's stated.

The use of plurk is just the most obvious extremely poor, extremely gauche use of language. I don't care if it does actually mean something, feces sounds better, though isn't, except if it's your newborn's, and even then aaah is so close to eeeeeew. So it is with Plurk.com.

There's also "Check out more interesting plurkers" next to other people we're supposed to find not only interesting but "more interesting" which at this point is unlikely to be true. Sure, it may not be what the plurking Plurk owners plurking meant, but if you're not going to include the two commas needed to get your meaning, well then, it's open to interpretation.

Then there's the tag line; "Your life on the line - Plurk" Where's tingle, zip, special or involved? It sounds like a threat. It brings to mind mortality. And who doesn't already have the threat of deadlines.

Who wants to be a plurker? Who's plurking? It doesn't sound sexy or cute, manly or useful or anything. It sounds like a desperate kind of obscene - without the long historical reference of spelunking.

Lastly, seriously folks, who wants to fiddle faddle fuck around with karma points? The only karma anyone should worry about is real karma. Karma points are just a waste of time, no matter if you're 10 or four-score and ten.

Wait, perhaps since I can't get in I've been jerked first? Karmic buuuuurn.

I found my two nieces and nephew on MySpace, and they wanted me to add them, so I did.

Now one - who suggested it first - hasn’t accepted, yet. But Shelby and Amber are nephew and niece. and they sit at the top of the friends list. Even though, you know, they’re family.

When I remind her, Brittany / Brits / Frgygrl will be right up there, too.

They’re the only immediate family that’s on Myspace, as far as I know.

It's Temple Bitch in my Myspace name (for now) refers to the first three words in Britney Spears' new semi-officially released single "Gimme More."

Ah, heck, here's the review, also featured at Desicritics.org and my BlastyourPodcast.com/blog:

Britney Spears - Gimme More

Britney tries to project coolness instead of clueless.

If Britney's going to channel her over-abundent energy, music is one of the healthier ways to do it.

That "Gimme More" might be a club hit, is not a guarantee, but it's rapidly becoming the conventional wisdom. The whole affair starts with a "It's Britney, Bitch" spoken declaration and that's the best part. The entire song gets slightly better if you listen to it a few times. A TI remix adds a welcome deeper buzzing to this as well, but not much more.

Still, "Gimme More"? That's either the most brazen "fuck you, I can take it" line (not at all borne out by the lyrics, unfortunately) or it's Britney continuing to be Britney, which at this point isn't a good thing. Is Britney totally unaware of the fuck-up she's become, of the open ridicule she faces for her actions beyond music, which started from her ill-fated, even-then-a-copy "Britney and Kevin: Chaotic" TV program? This highlighted so much about B.J. (Britney Jean) Spears that could not be admired.

"Gimme More" also ends in an pronouncement from the producer Nate Hills that this is the "legendary Ms. Britney Spears." Act like you've been there before, comes to mind. Infamous is the better word choice here.

Two other new songs have been leaked, "Cold as Fire" which is more fun, but still has the lack of self-awareness with its juiced-box subject matter. It's better than "Gimme More" just because it's different from the usual, but her voice has been digitally stretched to surgical proportions.

Britney songs that have packed sizzling heat include, "I've Got That, Boom Boom", "Toxic." "Chaotic" and, "I'm A Slave 4 U" despite the character weakness displayed in the title. "Lucky" also told a coherent story that likely connected with many fans. "Isn't she lovely this Hollywood girl? ... If there's nothing missing in my life, then why do these tears come at night."

But, really, doesn't "Gimme More" have instant Macarena status? That is, it took months for that song to become a cliche and passe and it's relegated to breaking the ice at wedding receptions, reunions and the happier-brand of funerals. But you don't hear it at clubs anymore because it's embarrassing and no longer new.

Doesn't "embarrassing" and "no longer new" perfectly describe Britney Spears now? The fact she's trying to project coolness when she's done so much in the public eye to come off as clueless, doesn't work. Does Tanya Harding still skate professionally? Is R. Kelly producing music? Does OJ have NFL endorsements? Does a bear wipe his ass in the woods with a fluffy white rabbit?

In this way, Britney Spears has prematurely aged. Can she create a new persona or enter a different musical room? Let's hope so, because she can no longer carry off what she could before. She is no longer credible. Trouble is, her voice is all breath and no body, and this will make highlighting her voice a problem.

She's filled the same niche from the beginning. The world acted surprised when In The Zone was released because it expressed a more sexual side of Britney Spears. The world was deluding itself. She was a cock-tease from the beginning with "Oops, I Did It Again." People still believed her good southern girl act, except she was also in a Catholic School girl uniform. In that song she even says, "I'm not that innocent" and people a year later swallowed, despite much evidence to the contrary, that she could be a virgin. Her first hit, "Hit Me Baby, One More Time" - which mentioned "loneliness" ("My loneliness is killing me") like so many of her songs do - more than amply demonstrated that she couldn't sing as she warbled out, "Oh baby baby, how was I supposed to knoooo--ohhhhhh? that something wasn't right."

Still people enabled her success because, well, I'm not completely sure why. She was hot, but guys weren't the ones buying the music, for the most part. There's another aspect to this that's worth mentioning. Guys first want to be rock stars because they "get the chicks." This raises the questions, why do they get the chicks and the flip side, what drives girls to want to be like Britney Spears? It's a puzzlement of society why people like Britney Spears achieve success in the little girl record-buying demographic. What, other than the success and money itself, makes girls think she's an example of anything worth emulating?

In the immortal words of Eminem, "Britney Spears is garbage." Yep, that's harsh and I feel bad for saying it but feel worse that it's been true for a long time. Sure anyone can feel sorry for her or wish her the best in life but that doesn't mean we have to listen.

A warning about overuse of Haiku


haiku falls down
struggles with weak abandon
common is common

short sharp seductive
becomes too precious for words
lazy burp loudly

beauty once it was
rare does a moment explode
seared to memory

Just so it is known, i put my top friends in Alphabetical order so don't read too much into it.

-Temple

Who will be my 100th friend
Will the intrigue never end

Who will be my 1-0-0
Someone far away or my hero

Most people I know in person
Don't have MySpace, I've been searchin'

I'm certain

99 was Eversaw, a metal group
A heavy Hanson flown the coup

Music is the likely choice
Bass, falsetto or scratchy voice

100 could represent zombies undead
Or the sound of purity, unbled

Still, the 100th friend has less worth
then those I face here on Planet Earth

Hawaii is a great place to listen to "leid" back music. I've had the Kokua Festival on my list of festivals for a while because they're rasiing mnoney for a cause and because, damn I wish I was there.

There are only five bands / musicians going on but that's a nice relaxing number, too. You can and will see them all. It's The Girlas, Matt Costa, Ernie Cruz, Jr., Eddie Vedder, and Jack Johnson, organizer of the event which raises money for the Kokua Hawaii Foundation.

It starts today - but being Hawaii - and the time difference - I don't think it's started right yet.

But they do have a Webcast tomorrow, sadly just on MySPace apparently. But it's there.

Hopefully this weekend, as I continue my delve through reviewing the 730-song SXSW torrent download I REALLY want to give a critical listen to all the music MYSpace friends I've got here. I listen to see if I like them before I add, so it's going to be a really pleasant experience, no doubt at all.

If any of y'all have particular songs / albums you're promoting now, please let me know. Cheers. Temple

Ok, who else started out Easter morning deleting a bevy of bloggy beauties from their inbox? A lot of names that ended in, A.

Jeez, i deleted about 80. That's way up from three or four a day. I know quite a few people nad the chainn of who i might now is way way larger so when it's not obvious - woman in bikini - I click on the links to be sure, but the request to download "ms viewer for adult content" leads me right back onto the right path.

Happy Easter. Don't put all your eggs in one basket,

Because I mentioned them in a music review, someone searching for Hanoi Rocks found my BlastYouPodcast.com site. I happened to look at the visitors there and saw that. Bada-bing badaboom, I found their official Web site and that they have a MySpace page. myspace/hanoirocksofficial

Can I just say that Michael Monroe had some classy singles on his own and to this day I still hum, Dead, Jail or Rock N Roll, and Not Fakin' It.

Taxi Driver is my all time favorite HR song because it's just so sleazy in attitude without having to use crude language to get the point across.

I can't make the Out Of Silence concert at Chapman University. I'm busy then. Marya's a sound therapist. But it sounds good (no pun intended).

You should go and tell me how it went. ....

i've been on an unnatural high all day (Tuesday) and now I know why. In the big scheme of things or even the small scheme of things it is of zero consequence but after weeks of languishment Tori Amos is on my friends list.

Ah, something is right with the world. Gawd love her, 'cause i do.

This calls for an iTunes download. ...