Violet DeMent returns to bring you a thoroughly enjoyable set of music. So get to the enjoying already. Here's the track listing:

Tragic Tantrum - Go

Aesthetic Perfection - The Bitter Years (Zeitmahl Remix)

Covenant - Lightbringer

Faderhead - Destroy Improve Rebuild

Psy'Aviah - Into The Game (Featuring Ayria)

Culture Kultur - Sieged

Celluloide - Et Si (Nouveau Mix)

Neuroticfish - A Greater Good

The Girl and the Robot - I Will Always Be With You

Placebo - Running Up That Hill

8 in 8 - Nikola Tesla

I've had a new episode recorded and waiting for weeks now. The newfangled Host won't let me upload it.

At some point this will be remedied. Till then...

I knew the next episode would take some time to create and publish - I never imagined it would take this long.

A new episode is coming. Know how much I've recorded of it? Not a red second. But I will. Sometime this week. I believe.

The fact is I've been working on a very important project that will show up here in a matter of hours to days that will explain why you have to wait for another dose of The Swinging Wake.

Violet DeMent and I are at Bats Day, mingling with the gothapotomai and wondering "just how much differnce do you think that waist-sincher is doing?"

There's a newfangled steampunk crowd emerging from the cauldron, so we're looking forward to seeing them out and about. In fact, they're going to be taking an excursion together on the Mark Twain Steamboat at 14:00.

Episode 25 is currently being recorded. Episode 24 is below, in which I discuss my feelings on Bats Day, past and present.

Yeah, the new episode is late. I'm not happy about it. But damn I'm busy.

Give me a day or two and I'll have something special to tide you over for the month of April.

If you are unsatisfied by this tardiness please return the unused portion for a full refund.

~Zoe Necrosis

We're going through with this. The decision was made on October 3rd, 2008.

I was drinking with anger while watching Game Two of the Divisional Playoffs. The Halos were being knocked out of the first round yet again by the Bahstin Chowderheads, the 21st century's magnetic pole for bandwagon yahoos and goatee pilots.

I was sitting on the floor nursing bottle number three (or so). Kat was lying on the sofa, passively observing another abysmal postseason.

"I can play baseball," she said, offhandedly.

"Really?" I replied. "That settles it. We're doing this. I've got to have something to redeem this travesty."

"Doing what?"

"We're doing Gothball in winter or spring of 2009."

I've wanted to do this for a long time. In fact, I drafted this notice a month ago. No more waiting.

The name could just have easily been 'Punkball' or 'Rivetball' or 'Postmodernball.' There's no alteration of the rules, nothing particularly 'Goth' about it at all, save for how my contemporaries tend to dress. In the end, it's just baseball with my friends and acquaintances. Same rules, less talent.

"That might be fun, Zoe, but I haven't played since Little League."

Me neither.

"I sucked back then."

Me too.

"I was never in little league."

Doesn't matter.

"I throw like a girl and couldn't hit water if I fell out of a boat."

So?

"No, seriously, I have no talent whatsoever. I'm clumsy, totally unathletic, uncoordinated, and allergic to oxygen."

Then you'll fit right in with everyone else. And if you can think of something better to do on a breezy weekend afternoon besides goofing around with friends while cheering, laughing, pounding Gatorade, and falling on your ass with gusto, then you should do that.

"... Why are you doing this?"

Because this is what I do. I come up with these wacky schemes and ideas, and then I rope all my friends into participating. And as the years go by, they get bigger and weirder. Haven't you figured this out yet?

"... Alright... What do I need to bring?"

A comfortable pair of shoes. And clothing you don't mind horsing around in or getting a pinch dirty. Whether this means jeans and a t-shirt or kilt and a billowy poet's shirt is entirely up to you.

"Do I need to bring equipment of some kind?"

Probably not. I'm going to try to assemble as much equipment as I can. If you already happen to own a glove or bat or something - by all means, bring it.

"Where are we going to do this?"

That part I haven't figured out yet. Somewhere in the 714 are code, probably. Most baseball diamonds I've come across are fenced off and fairly inaccessible. I'm still trying to find an open, readily accessible field we can use. Suggestions are very welcome.

"Can I invite some friends to participate?"

Does the Pope poop in the woods? Recruit everyone you can. I have to assemble two teams - we'll need a minimum of 19 people.

"Okay, what now?"

Now I'm going to take a tally of wiling participants. Email me at ZoeNecrosis at Yahoo dot com. I also need to know whether you are right or left-handed.

So... are you in or out?

Hey kids.

As you can see, episode 13 is not here yet. I had a plan to get it recorded, but my roommate ended up with a marathon illness, which played itself out on the living room couch for a couple days watching SVU dvds at full volume. So naturally I could not record.

Therefore I am putting together the next episode and programming it to publish on the 1st of October.

I will not be here at this time, but rather on the road. Violet DeMent and I are taking a road trip up the coast.

Stops will include:

Monterey...

The Bay Area...

Sonoma...

And Humboldt.

Try and behave yourselves until I return.

Oh, and I unearthed a special rarity that I'll be throwing your way at the beginning of the next one...

 

The next episode of The Swinging Wake will appear on or around September 1st. I have not had a chance to record an episode in time for my usual biweekly installment. When the next episode appears I intend to redouble my efforts to publish and popularize this thingamajig.

This will give you all a chance to catch up on an episode you may have missed or skipped over. Or not.

It occurs to me, however, that this is my very own dot com, and I can do whatever I want with it, really. So why don't I?

So in the meantime, here are a few other interesting things to note of late:

As you may have heard, Warner Brothers is pushing back the release date for The Half-Blood Prince from November of this year to July of 2009... double-you-tee-eff-question-mark-exclamation-point

The reasoning behind this is that Warner has, admittedly, jack shit to put out during summer of next year, and figure they can wrangle more summer vacation money that way.

Across the world, cosplayers and normal people alike are thinking the same thing:

AVADA KEDRAVRA!

Moving on.

Here's something weird I ran across, that is apparently real: this is how they ride motorcycles on the freeway in India.

Have you ever heard of Failblog dot org? Well, here's a few recent choice selections from this webpage, which I check daily...

I don't know about you, but that's the movie I want to see.

You get the idea.

Anyway, go enjoy an archived episode of The Swinging Wake. And don't forget to mark your calendars for this special upcoming day...

Harry Potter Day at Disneyland. November 2nd.

More later...

 

Hello Lovelies,

The next episode of The Swinging Wake will be a bit late. I don't know just how much. I haven't had much time to record or prepare lately. I'll explain why later.

Just know that I'm working on it and I'll have it up in no time at all. Check back in a few days.

Love,
Zoe Necrosis