Aves Specta

Collecting Ideas & Revealing Reactions

Soap bubbles float over a wide beach colored orange at sunset. Far away, people walk the water's edge.

Sometime somewhere someone committed something to semipermanence, suspecting sometime somewhere someone else would take it in and care. Sometimes I do.

2026

Bull Moose Music Grab Bag Report

Thought I'd add a couple of grab bags when buying back one of the CDs Bull Moose took off our hands 2 years ago. Kinda defeated the purpose when they shipped them separately from the single.

Lorrie Morgan | War Paint (1994) — Unremarkable country. Best track? Probably rockabilly "1-800 Use to Be." PASS

Reba McEntire | Reba Duets (2007) — Her 26th release. 11 tracks. Couldn't get through most. Only one I would listen to again: "The Only Promise That Remains" with Justin Timberlake. PASS

Billy Currington | Icon (2011) — Oof! Not for me, country boy. PASS

Little Big Town | A Place to Land (2007) — Listenable to a point. Nashville country with echoes of classic and Christian rock. Declines when too country or too Christian. Their third. PASS

Lynyrd Skynyrd | One More for from the Road (1976) — Didn't listen. PASS

ZZ Top | The Best of ZZ Top (1977) — Early enough in the band's history (selecting from 4 albums) to force not-so-great songs onto a best-of collection, but it has standouts: La Grange (dad pointed at the dashboard radio when it came on; I was driving and startled by the acknowledgment), Tush, Waitin' for the Bus, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Heard it on the X, and Blue Jean Blues. PASS

Clint Black | D'lectrified (1999) — Almost dismissed out of hand but some good'uns: Eric Idle collab is stellar; Hand in the Fire, Where Your Love Won't Go, Something That We Do (instrumental). MAYBE (for The Galaxy Song)

Random

2025

Random

2016

K Records Friends & Neighbors Report

(modified from October 29, 2016, blogger original)

A K Records warehouse-clearing deal delivered a big stack of CDs to our mailbox for less than the cost of one at retail. The friendly mail order department "miscounted" the dozen, so I had 14 new discs to spin. First time through, I picked blind. Second time through, I better knew what was coming, but still had things to learn and opinions to form. As a result, I've made a keep-or-pass list that looks like this:

Sylvain Sylvain & The Criminal$: Bowery Butterflies (2000) Munster — Not-too-raucous rock'n'roll straddling the boppin' '50s and punk '80s. KEEP

Various Artists: Shipwreck Day (2002) KnwYrOwn — That original What-the-Heck-Fest musta been some kinda fun. KEEP

the Weeds: The Faraway Flying of Broken Beating (2004) independent? — Emily Ana Zeitlyn leads. Some genre hopping. Most works. KEEP

Landing: Oceanless (2001) Strange Attractors Audio House — Dark sonic ecosystem with layers of rhythmic space noise. KEEP

The Gift Machine: …don't turn me off (2002) KnwYrOwn — Hooky rockin-pop with an uplift and a wink. MAYBE

Supersnazz: The Devil Youth Blues (1996) Time Bomb — Pop-punk out of Osaka. Starts strong but fades. MAYBE

Sarah Dougher: Day One (1999) K — Easy on the ear. Bella Abzug and a couple more rise above the neutral. PASS

le ton mité: Tickets to Real Imaginary Places (2006) Zicmuse, Richmond County Archives, K — Striving, occasionally achieving. Voice straining, instruments stabler. PASS

Bryce Panic presenta… Better Bizness Bureau (2006?) self — Infrequent clicks in this vocab-rich hip-hop shtick. PASS

Josh Bucci: Pan Da Mix Tape II (2005?) self-produced — Oddball gets B for effort, but results lag in 1991-2005 retrospective. PASS

Wolf Colonel: The Castle (2000) K — Messing around after a bad breakup. Keep practicing. PASS

Various Artists: Balance (1999) Readyrock — Short-of-middling rap, often quite. PASS

Various Artists: Wade-free Wherever, A Schtufff... Compilation (1995) — Speedpunkmetal of insufficient interest. PASS

Miranda July: 10 Million Hours a Mile (1997) Kill Rock Stars — Poemish egocentric artpunk fails. PASS

2008

Collecting Ideas

(originally posted October 19, 2008)

1980s-2000s

(transferred from a scrap of paper)

(transferred from another scrap of paper)

I have used many scraps of paper. Band names scrawled in journals. Tracks, titles, signature lines, reactions in the moment.

Notes

  1. About the image: Someone was floating giant soap bubbles over the beach. Seaside, Oregon. © 2025
  2. In part, originally posted to Blogger.
  3. Last modified July 3, 2026.

Aves Specta · Est. 1999