Reporting Live From Beneath a Snowbank...No snow until three days before Christmas and then all hell broke loose. Previous years have been similar but not quite this bad. So as the snowblower stalls and the back strains to shovel the piles of sludge at the end of the driveway from the roadplow, we bring you this not quite timely but yet still festive newsletter.The Underground Prepares for a Bundle of Joy...2001 has definitely been an interesting year. We began with the purchase of a home near E. Grand Rapids. Then trips abroad. And now... Sloth and Steph are expecting! Yes, a newborn child will join Mr. James Matthew (currently eight years old) around May or June 2002. Steph’s tummy is just showing a little so far - be sure to give her and the kid a hug! Sloth and his wondrous fiancé are heading in for an ultrasound in January, and at that point we’ll know more details... but destiny says it’s a girl, so if you hear Sloth referring to "Heather" you’ll know what he’s talking about, eh?Steph Visits the Isle o’ Green!To be completely fair, we have to give equal time and space for Steph to relate to you her adventures on the Emerald Isle of Ireland. This trip has been virtually a life-long dream for her, so we’ll turn the reigns over to her at this point.The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center occurred a mere 48 hours before I was slated to depart for Ireland. The shock of this horrible occurrence shocked the nation and Sloth and I were wondering if I was going to be able to travel abroad at all. But my AMAZING travel agent hooked me up after the airports opened once again, and off I went only a day off schedule. After an overnight flight, we landed in London at around 6:30am local time... exhausted and excited at the same time! It was too early to check into our hotel and so we went on a bus tour that went all over downtown London. I got to see the Big Ben clocktower, Buckingham Palace, and much more. Overall, London was a wonderful place to visit, but let’s just say that my sinuses did NOT share this sentiment... I think visiting and sight-seeing is much more tolerable than actually LIVING there!
Above Right: The Cliffs of Moher. They look steep. They are. |
After two days or so of sight-seeing, we departed for Ireland by way of Wales. We traveled by bus and then by ferry across the water. The ferry was not your average Mackinac Island ferry, either... those ships contain everything from entire movie theatres to shops and restaurants. We landed in Waterford and had our first morning there in a WONDERFUL bed and breakfast. And let me say this: Ireland is AHEAD of the U.S. in one respect: their McDonald’s sell veggie burgers! Whilst in Waterford, we visited the Waterford Crystal Factory and had a chance to watch the crystal being fashioned by masters of the trade (it takes 10 years to claim the title of "master"). Then we were off to the West Coast, where we visited Blarney Castle. I didn’t kiss the stone for the pure fact that I didn’t think I needed the "Gift of the Gab" (I have enough of that as it is!). The view from the top of the Castle was absolutely gorgeous. The next stop on our whirlwind tour was the Cliffs of Moher. Imagine looking from a dizzying height of hundreds and hundreds of feet STRAIGHT DOWN (and I mean straight down) to the sea. Fairly amazing. Galway City was next, with its picturesque northwest Ireland hospitality. We visited Kylemore Abbey in County Galway - a still functional Benedictine Abbey and private school for girls. Sligo, a half-hour away from the northern border, followed. The situation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is still tense, so we were warned to watch what topics of religion and politics we chose when conversing with the locals. In Dublin City we stayed in the Temple Bar District, right off of the River Liffey, and visited Trinity College - only a five minute walk from our hotel! I saw the Book of Kells firsthand, and brought a copy of the history of this famous text home to the ‘States. St. Patrick’s Cathedral was also in Dublin City, as well as the famous Guinness Factory, where I experienced at last the wonders of the Guinness beer straight from its source... and many a pint was consumed! The last night of our journey was held at Johnny Fox’s in the Dublin Mountains, where we watched Irish dancers and listened to the merry sounds of a true Irish band. I met and became friends with many people in my tour group and many of us exchanged addresses and hugs to remember each other by. Needless to say, Sloth and I had no knowledge of our young one at this time and she was able to partake in many pints of Guinness along with the rest of us: we’ll see if Guinness does, in fact, make one stronger! Cheers! |
Maxwell LIVE...Alicia Keys and Maxwell graced the stage at the (under construction) DeVos Center this past fall - and what a presentation! Alicia, after two years of working on her debut album, is one of the more outstanding newcomers to the urban / soul scene, with tracks orchestrated by none other than funky veteran Issac Hayes. The crowd was definitely pleased with her spunky crowd-interactive presentation, and only with slight sighs of hesitation did they make way for the soulful, passionate voice of Sade-backed protege Maxwell. Sloth danced and sang along with delight as Maxwell performed classic favs "Sumthin’ Sumthin’" and "Until the Cops Come Knockin’" as well as new hits from his LP Now. If you were unable to witness Marvin Gaye in concert, this man may be the soul medication you need.Sloth Becomes "Right-Sized"...After surviving many rounds of layoffs from Old Kent Mortgage Company, Sloth finally became unemployed right next with the rest of them on November 15th. So far, nothing has bitten fully... perhaps he can make a living with his housecleaning? But then again, the mortgage doesn’t pay for itself... and 30K+ a year doesn’t squeeze itself out of the plaster. Stay tuned!!!Mulick Park Elementary Gets a Helping Hand...With more time on his hands, Sloth has been instrumental in assisting Mulick Park Elementary (his son’s school) in acquiring new logos for a series of brand-new T-shirts and sweatshirts. It helps to know friends who were actually able to finish college and go on to more professional positions in the industrial marketplace. Do you know someone who could also benefit from the skills of a cutting edge visual designer? Visit www.fallenmitten.com!The Sloth Underground Website.What has Sloth been doing for the past month and a half or so, besides the usual daily task of chasing potential job leads? Well... you should know him well enough to realize that he hasn’t been playing Age of Empires II all day.The Dawn of www.slothwerks.com...After all this time, Sloth at LAST purchased the domain name of www.slothwerks.com. Available at this URL is a more professionally-concocted version of the Sloth Underground Website, with a much more advanced version of the Official Sloth Website (established waaaaaaaay back in 1995). Punch it in and check it out, and be sure to report to us any technical bugs! Our email address is slothwerks_productions@yahoo.com.The End of the Snow Weasels?The Snow Weasel Society has their hands full with the invasion of a parasitic alien species! Or could it all be a horrible ploy to kill off the majority of the main characters and run into an intellectual property lawsuit from H.R. Giger? We will never know. Witness the carnage at:http://www.geocities.com/general_sloth/Episodes.html Project: Au is Severed!!!With the Snow Weasel Society episodes paralleling the life of Sloth, it was inevitable that the fledgling crew at Project: Au would be downsized and laid off from work. Check out updated Character Profiles and their newest adventures at...http://www.geocities.com/general_sloth/Au_Project.html |
NEW MUSIC NEW MUSIC NEW MUSICUnder normal circumstances we usually have some kind of Christmas poem to put on the last page here, but things have just been too funky. So let’s get you all in the mood to chase those winter blues away with some cutting edge tunes!
Jamiroquai A Funk Odyssey - It took me about
3 seconds to warm up to this release from the
U.K. group that took an American idiom and
improved upon it: think Stevie Wonder meets
George Clinton meets Maxwell (!!!!). This time
around, Jay K and crew experiment with full
symphonic score and Eastern instrumentation
("Corner of the Earth"), as well as mellow
samba tunes (see "Picture of My Life").
Meanwhile, we are able to enjoy what
Jamiroquai does best: fun-spirited, ecstatic
disco tunes ("Little L") with social commentary
("Black Crow"). THANK YOU!!!!
Prince The Rainbow Children - Prince is known for his commercial successes, but not necessarily for his commercially viable business decisions. You can hate him or love him for it, but now Prince releases a project LP that embodies the black music and social movement of the 1960’s and 70’s. It reminds one of the socially-aware Around the World in a Day (the fallible follow-up to Purple Rain) with the sound being of the acid jazz being released around the time of Prince’s early childhood (see: Miles Davis, Bitch’s Brew). Najee, a veteran jazz sax player, joins the NPG line-up along with the usual gang including Larry Graham Jr. on bass (from Sly & The Family Stone). Definitely a worthwhile listen simply for the artistic side of things. Check out "Muse 2 The Pharoah" and "Mellow"... what a change from "I Feel 4 You" from Prince’s debut album, and yet what a return to form! YES!!! Dido No Angel - The girl named "Dido" sounds very much like Sarah McLachlan on her hit single ("Here With Me") but her style leans more towards a female Beck: a woman who composes things acoustically and then has them digitally enhanced and/or distorted in the studio. This has made her work a favorite of remixers, entranced by her simple yet captivating vocals (not unlike Tracy Thorn from Everything But The Girl). If you enjoy the work of Fiona Apple, Sarah, or Paula Cole (as we do), you owe it to yourself to pick up this album.
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