For those of you who follow the business-doings of the internet, the last few months have provided plenty of captivating knockout punches, along with more than a few left jabs and body blows. Of course, everyone is waiting with baited breath for the Google IPO. We haven't seen anticipation like this, arguably, since the heady days of Netscape's IPO, when the sky wasn't the limit - the universe was.

Social networking, the internet's newest fad, is starting to make inroads - the mighty Google launched Orkut recently, which is not typical of Google - following in someone's footsteps. Friendster, Tribe.net and a few others were there already and Orkut is not much different than any of them. Maybe some different colors here and there. But if Google wants to play in the public spectrum, they're gonna have to throw a lot of toilet paper at the ceiling to see what sticks, because right now they have just one source of revenue - paid search. I know one thing, I wouldn't touch a public offering with a ten-foot pole for a company that has once source of revenue that just happens to be hot right now. Who knows what that market will look like in a year.

Yahoo made their big move last year with their acquisition of Overture. Don't let any of Yahoo's press releases fool you - their comeback has not been fueled by great content or their partnership with SBC. Yahoo's comeback is because of Overture's paid websearch program. Period. End of story.

Anyway, roughly at the time of the Netscape IPO, two good friends and I were in the process of shutting down our little record label (more on that later) and I was, somewhat unknowingly, about to be plucked out of the HotJobs database and dropped into the internet bubble. At the time, I didn't see myself as an internet guy as much as I saw myself just flailing around trying to latch onto something for a while. The record label was supposed to be my life. Music was supposed to be my life. Instead, there I was, freshly dumped (although somewhat mutually) by a long-time girlfriend, my record label dream shattered and I was severely in debt, living in a five-bedroom house in Allston, MA - and no idea what to do with myself, personally or profressionally. That period of my life, although not one I look back on with too much glee, changed me forever. It made me so much stronger and eventually gave me a little shot of self-esteem, which is probably still something I could use more of to this day. But that's a story for another time. Bottom line: I dug myself out.

After many years in the record business, I landed at a dot.com. The name doesn't matter and they don't exist anymore. Over the next two years, I worked at two dot.com's, met the person who is now my fiancee, managed to get myself out of debt and learned quite a bit about the "business" of the internet. I don't necessarily consider this a major turn-around or anything - I was never ready to jump off a cliff or clinically depressed. Instead, I took a left at the intersection where I would normally take a right. Whereas in the past, I was always calculating and very careful, I decided to try some new things. At the time we shut down the record label, I believe I had enough foresight to comprehend that just being in the music business wasn't going to be enough for me. Part of the reason the record label was shuttered was because I (and maybe my partners) started to lose passion for the one thing that put me in the music business - music. Duh. Anyway, I badly needed additional skills if I was going to have any measure of professional success and I spent those next two years getting them.

Which brings me to today. Thanks to a couple of people at the company I've been working at now for almost three years, my skills have been expanded to places that I never thought I could reach. I couldn't have ever guessed back in 1998 that I would be where I am today. Again, those occassional left turns make all the difference. If I hadn't met up with my girlfriend, I would have never gotten this job. If I hadn't been randomly called by the person who ended up being my boss for a while during those first dot.com days, I would have never gotten to where I am today. If I'd gone right back to the music business, the only thing I would know is how to call up magazines and radio stations and beg to get records reviewed or played on the radio. Those skills in and of themselves are fine skills, but I knew it wasn't enough for me.

So I think about where I was and who I was when I was 20, 25, and now 32 and I really cannot believe what has transpired in those 12 years. At 20, I never wanted to be who I am now. At 25, I didn't know where the hell I wanted to be except at a nightclub, with a beer, seeing good music. At 32, I look back at 20 now and see how wrong I was. Sure, it's all part of the passage of time and maturity. It's part of realizing that life doesn't revolve around one person - myself. What matters is the constants - the people who stick with you through any and all stages of your life, supporting you as you change and as you strive for......whatever. It doesn't matter what you're striving for - if someone is there and they have your back, there's no better or more comforting feeling. Because all of life's changes, left turns and ups and downs - they all happen because of chance meetings and people you know - the human factor - not the chair you sit in at the office you work at. IPO's will always be around. Businesses being acquired will occur long after we're gone.

How does this all tie in? Fuck if I know. The biggest period of change in my life has come from 1998-2003, and the bookends of that period have also brought the internet bubble full circle. I think that's the best I can do to tie it all together. If you knew me in 1998 and still communicate with me today, in one way or another, you are one of those people who stuck by me. So thanks.

By the way, it took me four years, but I am very much a music fan again.

Song now playing: Otis Redding - "Just One More Day"

Occasionally I'll bitch and moan when I forget something, drop something or when I have to miss a scheduled day at the gym. I'll whine about something at work. Complain when I have to go somewhere I don't want to go. Everyone complains selfishly at one time or another. So when I see an article like this, I feel like such a boor. I've been reading Donald Murray's articles in the Globe now for a couple of years and they never fail to stir my emotions. His matter-of-fact style of writing and his reluctant acceptance of the unavoidable passage of time always make me grateful for what I have and what I've done. I'm also grateful that I've come to "know" Donald and Minnie Mae, not in person, but through his writing. This man's articles always seem to fly under-the-radar, but I never pass over his articles.

Then there's this immigration inspector, who, pre-September 11th, had the gumption to stand up and say something about a certain Saudi airline traveler, despite whatever the flak the U.S. or immigration would be subject to. Did he save Washington DC? Of course, we'll never know and it seems dramatic to assume such things. But I applaud him for his actions.

Song now playing: Big Star - "The Ballad of El Goodo"

If only I could break into the printing press where US magazine is produced and do something like this, it would be so worth getting arrested for. Which brings me to an interesting question - what would be worth getting arrested for, within reason? We could make this more specific - if you know you'd only be fined $750 dollars and arrested/released, what would you do? I think I might run out onto the field at Fenway Park during a Sox game. That might be worth getting arrested.

We've been spending most of our recent weekends re-doing the third bedroom in our recently purchased house. I'm here to tell you that re-doing a bedroom is quite deceiving. I know this because I've done three of them in a span of five months and it is just plain exhausting, especially when you add the removal of old, thin, stubborn wallpaper to the mix. That said, I give you a blow-by-blow account of the five major steps involved. The first picture in this set is a picture we shot on the very first day we saw the house. The middle three were taken during the last couple of weeks and the last picture was taken at about 4pm yesterday.

Finally, this cannot really be true, can it? All indications point to this being a real story. Please make note of the picture, too, which is just too surreal. Can you imagine? "See here, yo? I'll do some toprock first, then this is poppin' -- sweet, huh??!! Want me to do some swipes? Floats? Flares?"

Song now playing: Grant Lee Buffalo - "The Last Days of Tecumseh"

I'm no expert at web development or anything, but Blogger has a new feature called "Atom" that will allow you to syndicate this site and read it via your own preferred method (another site, PDA, software, blah blah blah). If anyone tries it out, please let me know if it works. To use it, you'll see a link in the table on the right side which says "XML Site Feed." Enjoy.

Time for the news:

- I have to wonder if, while scanning the job description, this fella found the words "chasing elk."

"No, really it says to walk right over here and there's a beautiful vista, let's check it.........ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

All the Howard Dean parodies have really been cracking me up, particularly the Howard Stern version, where they created a medley of classic rock songs that mention states and they cut in the screaming Dean. Songs like Led Zep's "Going to California," Neil Young's "Ohio," and The Eagles "Hotel California" never sounded so funny.

So now that Ben and Jen are officially done, does she have to give back the 6 carat, $1 million dollar ring? Despite all the publicity, Affleck has only appeared in two good movies. Can you name them?

30 days until spring training.

Last night I couldn't get the old Ringo Starr song "Photograph" out of my head. I play hockey on Thursday nights, so it occured to me more than once that I was probably the only person in the world last night humming "every time I see your face it reminds me of the places we used to go..." while playing ice hockey. Yep, this is my life.

Song now playing: Grant Lee Phillips - "Lily-A-Passion"

At a recent work trip to Chicago, I found myself, somewhat inexplicably, staying in The Four Seasons. You see, a co-worker had some kind of personal connection and we got like 65% off the "public price." Normally, I shy away from the chains and stay in hotels like this one, which have far more character than the culturally devoid chains. But when given the opportunity to represent (yo) in The Four Seasons, as Mick Jagger once said, you gotta move.

This leads me to today's post, which is about soap. And shampoo. The Four Seasons had what I believe to be the best soap and shampoo ever created. I wrote down the brands of the shampoo, shower gels and conditioners (not the soap, though) and took whatever was remaining in the room. Last week, I ran out of everything and now I'm back to using, like, Dove. Or Finesse. Those brands are fine in their own right, I've never been terribly picky about such things, but these Four Seasons offerings were just too good.

So I got on the phone last week and called the hotel and let them know that I loved thier soap and asked if they could please give me the brand and flavor, etc etc. Not only did they do that, they actually offered to send me some in the mail. I was like, "wait - for free?" She was like "of course. I'll send you some today." I was like "I don't have to pay anything?" and she said "nope. I'll send them today."

What a racket! I wonder if I can call ALL the Four Seasons now and get my soap for free? Just yesterday a FedEx package came for me, and sure enough I open the box and there's 10 bars of the soap! 5 full-size bars and 5 half-size. Can you even believe it? Can you even believe I am so fired up about soap?

I'm off to call the Four Seasons in Washington DC to see if I can get some free shampoo now....heh. By the way, here's the soap I speak of.

Song now playing: The Cars: "Moving In Stereo" (always think of Phoebe Cates when I hear this)

My suspicion is that there have been a lot of people through the years who have been very excited upon winning fabulous prizes on the TV game show "The Price Is Right," but I'm not quite sure you will ever see anything like the freak-out this guy has. Truly incredible (that link is a Real Video download - you won't regret it).

I don't think I watched one whole Patriots game until the playoffs - and now we're going to the Super Bowl and I am on the bandwagon. I pretty much only watch football when the local team is in the playoffs and I am not ashamed to admit my bandwagon support. It's okay.

It's almost time to buy an Ipod.......as soon as I get it, I wonder if I'll be the only dude in the United States with the Vulgar Boatmen's "Opposite Sex" on it. One of the greatest albums never released in America. Thankfully, a friend was able to copy it for me last week....

Happy MLK

Song now playing: Pink Floyd - "Mother"

This has got to be one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. I mean, stuffed animals, Wesley Clark, pancakes, "fart dust" old, John Kerry, Carol Brown, voice chips, Howard Dean, Gore, Secwetawy Snuzzles and Dizzle to E-A Nizzle. Hopefully, that's enough to get you to click that and read the whole thing. It is just plain genius.

This is kind of a cross-blog update. A few months back my friend Dan wrote a small overview about how silly the shaving-razor game is getting. Well, the next step has arrived, and it's not a fifth blade......how about the newest, pulsating razor? No kidding.

For the first time in my life, they've cancelled school in just about every town in Massachusetts due to temperature. That's right - it's so cold here that they didn't want to risk children getting frostbite while waiting at bus stops. Certainly a first.

Finally, they held the the annual bull taming festival in Palamedu, India, today. To win a prize, competitors try to hold onto the bull and run with it for about 164 feet (my question - why not 166? 153?). Anyway, if the bull escapes, the prize goes to the animal's owner. This picture, snapped just minutes ago, shows me in a good position there on the right side and I'm glad to report that I was only thrown 23 feet, sustaining a minor skull fracture and a mere two broken legs. What a rush.



Song now playing: Earlimart - "The Movies"

Monday night found RustedRobot at The Paradise nightclub in Boston, attending a show put on by The Thrills. The Thrills are one of several bands making inroads in the U.S. as part of what seems like an "The Irish Invasion" - Damien Rice, The Frames and now The Thrills, all of whom are starting to make waves in our country. The Thrills recent album, So Much For The City, slowly made its way into heavy rotation in my stereo and now, after seeing the band, will remain in that rotation for a bit.



Clearly influenced by the sounds coming off the west coast of U.S. during the 1960s, The Thrills set out to make a sunny, sandy pop record by moving themselves to San Diego for four months to record the album. The result is a set of songs that make an almost embarrassing amount of references to the California standards - Santa Cruz, Big Sur, Hollywood, etc. One will easily believe upon first hearing this that it's just another Los Angeles band of merry, stoned surfers. Backed by a rich assortment of instruments including a variety of horns, cello, violin and banjo, the album is a very satisfying, swift tribute to a simpler, inventive time in American music. It's yet to be determined if The Thrills will continue on this path or if this was just a one-time event to get "the California thing" out of the their system, but one fact seems certain - this is a band that stands far above the seemingly nameless, faceless "garage rock" bands that are infiltrating the music landscape. That's one nice thing about The Thrills - the 60s west coast influence is clearly there, but the show (and the album) have just enough grit to it that they're lumped in with the Strokes, etc as one of those "type" bands. An unfair classification for sure, but it's allowed them to reach a larger audience. A highly recommended album and a fantastic show - keep your eyes peeled....

I did go to this show with every intention of getting some good photographs. However, after snapping off about 5 shots, a tragedy occured - the small door where the batteries are housed slipped open and the batteries spilled out during the show. I wasn't about to get down on my hands and knees to search for two AA batteries (too many people there), so I just shrugged it off, put the camera in my pocket and enjoyed the hell out of the show. So I give to you an abbreviated Thrills slideshow of just six pictures. Better than nothing. By the way, an amusing sidenote in the first picture of ths set - it was a total accident that the neon sign at the far right says what it says.....

Lastly, will the average internet user even notice this?

Song now playing: Thad Cockrell - "Taking The View"

Ladies and gentleman, I give you the eighth wonder of the world........TOT-HENGE.



Song now playing: Jets to Brazil - "Little Light"

This is very very strange. I mean, how did the kid get in there? How did nobody notice? I mean, his dad didn't notice, that's probably not uncommon. But nobody noticed? The picture might be the funniest picture I've seen in years. The funniest comment on this came from Ken, a friend of mine, who wrote me and pointed out that the most suitable end to this story would have been if the father went and got a roll of quarters and played the game to get the kid out. I couldn't agree more!

They were playing Van Halen on the Howard Stern show this morning because they had a woman in the studio who, unbeknownst to them, was one of the models used in the "Hot For Teacher" video. My only comment on this is actually a question of sorts: I feel like the song "Jump" was the real end of Van Halen. This song marked their transition from rock band to "synth-rock band." Anything after that, in my eyes, was complete trash. Agree?

Song now playing: The Grateful Dead - "Tastebud"

The recent holiday break found Rustedrobot looking to the past quite a bit, ruminating on times gone by and things we used to do - like buy CD's. Yes, actual compact discs! Remember those crazy little, shiny discs? Oh, how I long for the days. Of course, I am half-serious, but the CD itself is a dying breed. I predicted here some time back that CD's very well could be dead and buried by this time in 2006. That theory will become reality sooner than we all think. For now, though, this post is about the CD's I bought during my time off.

1. Jet: "Get Born" - Really, if I wanted to listen to AC/DC, or Cheap Trick, or The Sweet I'd just go buy their albums, right? Right! Jet's "Get Born" is so embarrassingly derivative of heavy '70s rock you can almost smell it. But you know what? I've not heard such delicious licks in a long time, even if they are copped. Perhaps my favorite purchase of the lot.

2. The Beatles: "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver" - not much needs to be said here. Part of my initiative was to stock up on old classic catalog, and these are no-brainers. The Beatles had their cute period and thier stoned period, but these two albums mark that transition from the former to the latter. Two must-haves.

3. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros: "Streetcore" - this makes me sad because of "what could have been." I wasn't so much into the previous Mescaleros offering a couple of years back, but this album really packs a punch, coming closest to capturing the hunger and bite of "London Calling," one of the best rock albums ever made. Strummer runs the gamut through several of the standard Clash sounds like rock-reggae, punk and pop, etc. A really encouraging, strong set of songs here. Of course we'll get no more from him.

4. The Black Keys: "Thickfreakness" - Bought on a whim. Had never heard them before, but this album showed up on a friend's top 10 list and I really admire the guy's taste, so I risked it. It definitely helped that it was on the Fat Possum label, which rarely releases a crappy album. The result wasn't crappy. They're a two-piece (guitar/drums) from Akron, Ohio and while it is reminiscent of grossly overrated White Stripes, it's a good listen. One can only so much with just a guitar and bass, but these two dudes are headed in the right direction.

5. Damien Rice: "O" - My friend Dave Klug had copied this for me, but I felt the need to support the artist. Isn't that nice of me? This is a very quiet, almost haunting debut album from Ireland's newest export. Other than the last song, which seems to drone on for nearly 20 minutes, it's a great debut. Rice is a terrific songwriter and good singer, whose "Volcano" has been all over the radio. My perception was that this wasn't even the strongest track, though. There's one called "Cannonball" that is quite stunning and I'll be surprised if it's not the next Rice offering you hear out there in radioland.

6. The Byrds: "Live At The Fillmore West" - I had never really heard a clean-sounding, live Byrds record until this one, so I was pretty excited to find it. Part of the flood of Byrds re-issues over the past few years, this was recorded in 1969, when most people thought they were past their prime, but very few people realized that one of rock/country's greatest guitar players, Clarence White, held lead duties for the band. Vocals were still handled by McGuinn. A lot of the material is culled from the highly underrated "Notorious Byrd Brothers" and "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" albums and the sound is just pristine. A really great listen!

7. Bruce Springsteen: "Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ" - do I need to say anything about this one? Probably not. Suffice it to say, as much as I hear songs like "Growin' Up," "For You," and "Sprit In The Night," I never manage to get sick of them.

8. Johnny Cash: "At San Quentin" - this is a serious upgrade from the original vinyl version and also doesn't need much description. This is the full show, including the song "San Quentin" played twice in a row due to prisoner demand. A classic moment. The first moments of "Big River" are just huge. The man at his peak, perhaps.

Song now playing: Black Sabbath - "Sweet Leaf"

Great to walk outside this morning here in Massachusetts to find my car completely encased in solid ice.....explain to me again why people live in the Northeast?

I'd like to start the year 2004 off with a poll:

How many of you wash your feet in the shower? What I mean is, do you actually place soap onto your feet and scrub them, or do you just figure that the soap will cleanse and clean your feet as you rinse the soap off your body, since it's going through your feet on the way to the drain. Or do you just not wash your feet? I need to know. Please leave comment.

Song now playing: The Books - "The Lemon Of Pink"