Fort Pastor

Back in September, in one of the first blog posts, we mentioned a band by the name of Fort Pastor.

So, a bunch of us, (Repicheep, myself and some others) were able to see them in concert recently. I can say, for myself that they are absolutely astounding.

Linkage time. If you listen to them (or have had the honor of seeing them in concert), what do you think about them?
Fort Pastor created the Social Justice Army, a non-profit organization about helping your community, at least one hour a month. What the Army is doing is absolutely incredible, and we ask that you look into it!

Some links would be things like these:

Fort Pastor Official Website
Fort Pastor MySpace
Brant's MySpace
Jeff's MySpace
Jono's MySpace

Being at a small concert like the one that we were at made it much more personal. We were able to chat with the band a bit and get some stuff signed, which was a lot of fun.

So check these guys out!! Join the SJA!

Sunshining Lady-Person

Pulling out of the darkness, arises a post

Asking many forgivenesses for not posting in so long, in Sunshining Lady-Person.

So hi! For this post, I'm going to talk about the new SOIA (Singer Of Incredible Aptitude), one Imogen Heap.

I've already done some promoting of her work recently, but I feel I should expand upon it and add to the ROC world.

Imogen Heap. Yes, that would appear to be her real name. Imogen is from the UK and has so far been a smashing success internationally. I personally had been browsing the music charts when I found the crazy haired young woman's music. It was the name that caught me. Anyway, the song that totally got me hooked was 'Say Goodnight and Go'. It captivated me and started another obsessed round of music listening for me. With the release of her new album, up bubbled music videos and again, I was captivated by her performance.
She's also done songs for movies. Her remix of 'Holding Out For a Hero' appeared on the Shrek 2 soundtrack (a personal favorite song of mine, long before I knew who sang it) , as well as 'Can't Take It In' from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe soundtrack.

Her amazing voice and incredible technical talents have led her to be something of a 'one-woman band'. In the past she'd mainly worked on collaborations, but these days, she's clear for solo-sailing. I personally intend to buy her new album, entitled Headlock, as soon as financially possible.

This post wouldn't be complete with some AILCTSM (and yes, you can say that) (Actually Important Links Concerning The Subject Matter)

Imogen Heap's Website

Some video links---
--'Headlock'
-- Live, 'Just For Now' (Note, the audio and visual are a little off here)

The PureVolume site and the MySpace site

Yay! Lots a' links to check out!
~

I'll be posting more soon... *bows out*

Sunshining Lady-Person

(And remember! You too can blog about totally cool, totally random, totally obscure culture if you join up today!)

"English Jack", the Hermit of the White Mountains

This ROC was discovered at Clark's Trading Post. I'm really excited about it because its so obscure that there are only a few references to it online, and not one of them has any details close to what I saw at the Trading Post Museum. This also means I have no sources to link and nothing to double check to verify its validity, so forgive me if I'm a tad off on anything. Any information anyone has about Jack, I would greatly appriciate.

A long time ago, probably during the 20's or so, there was a man from a tragic childhood in London. He settled down in Crawford Notch, NH. But he didn't settle down like you might think: he had no officially owned property, no regular job, and no friends. "English Jack", as they used to call him, was a Hermit. He lived by himself up in the white mountains. He built a rickety shack from scrap wood he scavenged from the surrounding area.

He was a fascinating man, and despite his sought after seclusion, he became known for his eccentric ways. He was a poet, a musician, a craftsman- and a bear tamer. He was the first person in recorded history in the North East to train a black bear. He kept it as his pet and sole companion.

People would come to see him so much, that he finally decided to play into it. He would take money from people to tell them his life story, which he sometimes did in the form of a long poem. He would do a bear show for the visitors. He even decided to embrace his image as a freak amongst the tourists- one of the stranger things he would do for money was bite the head off of a snake... or even a chicken, if the price was right.

He built crafts and whittled small wooden keep-sakes during the winter. When the weather warmed up and people would come back, he would sell off as many of the knick-knacks as he could to the tourists. He even made post cards- mostly of himself, along with the view from his shack.

English Jack may have lived a very colorful and strange life, but no one could argue that he didn't live it to the fullest.

Here's to English Jack, the hermit- Craftsman, artist, business man, animal trainer and poet. His peculiar imprint on the culture has never been duplicated.

556.7 years and an interview.

Sunshining Lady-Person would like to express amazement at the following.

So, I guess there's a tenth planet? Now, I'd been hearing about all this 'tenth' planet stuff and all these weird numbered names. And I put little to no stock in it until it settled down. I mainly did this to avoid personal confusion. I don't think it worked. Dang. Okay, onto the gist of the post, a RIWAOTSRT *snickers* ( a Random Interview With An Object That Shouldn't Really Talk)

-----

Narrator: "And now, for tonight's VIP, give a big warm welcome to the tenth planet, 136199 Eris!"

SL-P: "Hi Eris, welcome to our first ROC interview. How're you tonight?"

136199 Eris: "Fine, thanks! I'm glad to finally be here!"

SL-P: "So, sources say that before gaining the official name of 136199, they called you 'Xena', is that right?"

Eris (laughing): "Yeah, actually, they waited for a celestial body larger than Pluto to do that. It's after the old TV series, Xena, Warrior Princess. So, for a long time Xena was my nickname. They referred to my Moon as Gabrielle, which is an important sub-character from the TV series."

SL-P: "That's really neat. I loved that show... Anyway, what's your Moon called now?"

Eris: "Dysnomia, after the daughter of the Greek goddess, Eris; Dysnomia was a demi goddess of lawlessness. Which is funny, because the actress of Xena: Warrior Princess' real name was Lucy Lawless, so the whole thing is just really pleasant and neat all around."

S: "So, about your orbit. It takes you about 556.7 years to make your elliptical orbit around the Sun?"

E: "Yes indeedy, that's the truth. It's a long run, but somebody's gotta do it!"

S: "Now, all our readers are dying to know. Has the fame gone to your head? Has Pluto, who used to be the last planet of our Solar System gotten jealous in anyway? By the way, mentioning Pluto, what is your opinion on the Dwarf planet controversy? Do you think it'll last?"

E: "Well, now... I'm of the opinion that--"

S: "Oops! That's all the time we have, but thanks for coming in tonight Eris, glad to have met you."

E: "Thanks for having me."

S: "For more information on 136199 Eris and her moon, check out this page, and this page. For a bit about the Pluto controversy, go here. That's all for tonight's interview, again, thank you and remember-! It only LOOKS like potato salad!

----

In other headlines:
The World was pronounced flat in the kitchen of one P. Smith yesterday. Later he was proved wrong, yet authorities say it shocked the neighborhood to the very core. Investigators are still searching for clues as to what might have led Smith to such a controversial view in so uncertain a time as 3:26 PM, September 15th.


BAGGED SPINACH IS RECALLED IN AMERICA!! ONE DEATH HAS RESULTED FROM SUCH IN WISCONSIN. See ---> here.


Sunshining Lady-Person OUT

~*~

Getting into the first ROC RUT, but probably not the last

Repicheep here, coming at you with your prescribed dose of RUT (Random useless trivia-or alternate: Ridiculous useless trivia). Take twice daily, and call if internal combustion or other complications occur.

Today's factoid: On Friday, September 15th, 2006 the unfamous (not to be confused with infamous) website, "SpreadROC.blogspot.com" went down between the hours of 8AM and 1PM or thereabouts. This caused mass panic nowhere and everyone went on and lived their lives without noticing.

Also in this day in history:

In Berlin, the Reich under Adolph Hitler adopts the swastika as the national flag.
The environmental group Greenpeace is founded.

Coincidence? I think not.

A note on Arthur Rackham, MuteMath and Stones

Sunshining Lady-Person would like to state the following:

Arthur Rackham (whom APPARENTLY Repicheep hadn't heard of until now), actually shares his birthday with Repicheep! Isn't that neat? Hereby things like that ought to be referred to as VVWBC (Very Very Weird Birthday coincidences).
Born 1867 (Arthur Rackham, not Repicheep), and died 1939 (Again, Arthur Rackham not Repicheep). He illustrated many works, like A Midsummer's Night Dream and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, as well as Alice in Wonderland. A very cool dude all around. I thought I ought to talk about that, since I just thought it to be so cool.

Another note (heh.); It's come to my attention that MuteMath is going to be coming to Boston November Fifth. Last year, Repicheep introduced myself and numerous others we knew to this incredible band from New Orleans. And I for one, was BLOWN away by the sounds I heard. He graciously loaned me his copy of the CD, to which I listened to with loving ears. Sadly, I missed the concert when it came around shortly after. So THIS year, I'm determined not to miss it. Hahaha. But for all of you out there, you NEED TO HEAR IT IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY.

MUTEMATH

So, a random tidbit about today.

Worrystones. No, no, no, not like gallstones. Worrystones are smooth rocks that you place in your pocket and rub when you're worried. Like a stress ball. Only smaller and harder. And probably less apt to self-destruct in your hand when you start freaking out about something or other. Reep (Repicheep, sillies.) recently won a prize from my personal blog, on which I had posted a slight challenge, where I promised a prize to the first person to come back with the answer. Well, yes indeed, he won, and his prize was a small grey stone I had. It's a very special stone. And I'm telling you this basically pointless story to promote worrystones.

RPOUO for all of you out there who don't know. (Random Promotion Of Useful Objects).

And that then concludes my notes. Thank you.

Sunshining Lady-Person

Some Links to Click On.

Sunshining Lady-Person here, giving a first list of some random links to some interesting ROC stuff. To use an AA, RBLFCO (Random Bizarre Links From Crazy Origins).


We have first up, in music,

Fort Pastor from Melbourne, Austrailia (Reep: And Manchester, NH!) (I take no credit for this one)

(Repicheep: I do. This is a band I found by chance while at a music festival. Its pretty much impossible to describe what they sound like, but Americana/folk rock married World Beats/Jungle techno, this is what their child would sound like. Though they are much better live then on disc right now)

and

Hem from Brooklyn, New York.

~*~

And a RPFL (Random Picture From Literature)

Alice and the Caterpillar


There will be more to come. Don't worry!

~Sunshining Lady-Person (ROC Member)

Welcome to the house of ROC

Welcome.

ROC is simply an AA (Arbirtary Acronym) for Random Obscure Culture. It formed out of a mutual affection for love of random, generally below the mainstream cultural memes. Quite often these memes are in the realm of music, poetry or some other art. Ideas however can also be ROC- a good example would be memes themselves.

This blog aims to be a collaborative site on which to post these strange nugget of beauty for a greater audience to see.

Enjoy,

The ROC team