Latest Updates:
12/11/2008 from Niko
Although we no longer live in Lubbock, we have recently heard that KTXT 88.1 is no longer on the air.
Its a sad sign of the times in a commercial musical world. Everywhere you go has the same Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Starbucks, and the same Top 40 radio inundating the masses with the same songs on heavy rotation. KTXT was a beacon of light in a black hole of the 'more of the same' attitude that dominates the airwaves of not only Lubbock, but the country in general. 88.1 had always been a safe haven of local/independant/up and coming/flat out strange music in Lubbock, TX. It's impact on this band, and many more like it will be missed by future bands in the area.
It's sad to see that a university that constantly raises tuition, rebuilds entire department buildings and controls almost half of Lubbock's income can't find it in their budget to maintain a station that music lovers hold dearly. This is a sad day in Lubbock music...
Read full story here
(Stiles' $.02) I'm saddened by this news, but not too surprised. It's extremely unfortunate that it happened, but as much as most of Lubbock liked its indie rock scene (hint: not too very much at all), it loves blatant commercialism even more. Hopefully someone with an independent spirit and deep pockets will take up the torch and continue illuminating the small caches of non-Clearchannel non-mainstream media in the Lubbock area. In the meantime, rest in peace, KTXT.
I was looking for a 'lighter note' ending to this, and in doing so came across a Portugese video of a dog and a bust of Napoleon playing Street Fighter (with all the requisite ineptitude and smack talk), then wrapping it all up with a rousing piano rendition of "Scatman," but I can neither link directly nor embed, so... here's an old commercial. It says 'balls.'
11/21/2008 from Stiles
I know I've been horribly remiss in my postings lately, so here's something of an olive branch.
It may not be an extremely verbose, rambling dissertation regarding whatever happens to have sparked my ire recently, but, damn it, it's got a hell of a third act.
As an infinitely wiser man than myself once said; "Only two things are infinite; the universe, and human stupidity, and I'm not certain about the former."
11/7/2008 from Niko
It has been difficult for us here @ Valentino to figure out what kind of post to put up to follow the one directly below this. So I decided there is only one way to do it.
and this
and of course...
10/16/2008 from Stiles
At approximately three this morning, we lost an outstanding musician and exemplary human being to an act of pointless violence, and the world is that much worse a place for it. Daniel, you will be sorely missed...
10/9/2008 from Stiles
On every shredder, there's the inevitable warning not to put your tie in it while it's on your neck. This, in addition to being a solid piece of advice, always conjures (for me) a hilarious mental image of someone stuck to the waste paper bin while it gets closer and closer to their face as they shriek and flail wildly until one of their thrashing limbs happens to unplug the perceived death trap, and it stops just short of their jawline. It's at this point (in my hypothetical scenario) where they realize that the shredder would stop at the tie knot before it got to them, it could probably have been removed from the tie with nothing more than a good firm tug, and that a device that has trouble handling five sheets of paper at a time isn't likely to cause their unsightly demise. But I digress.
Next, there's the warning to keep your hands clear of it. Now, due to my curious nature, I've thoroughly examined the top and bottom of the shredder to see if there's any place even remotely finger sized. Damned if I could, without severe modification, see a way to fit even the smallest of digits in the miniature maw of this beast. So again, we'll just chalk that one up to corporate ass-covering, and give them the benefit of the doubt.
To the immediate right of that one is the pictograph warning against engaging in an attempt to shred running water. Also sound advice, as I'm willing to believe there may be someone out there who decided to use their Shredmaster to ribbon-cut some ham for a salad, and that very same Nobel laureate might then decide to rinse out the machine when they're done. This warning, while not admonishing them for their ill-advised ham-shreddery, may well prevent them from exiting the gene pool in a particularly Darwinian fashion.
Moving on, there's also another image I can't positively identify, but which appears to be a ring of pearls. I'm going to assume this one is telling you not to give the shredder a pearl necklace, and I'm just going to leave that one completely alone for a variety of reasons.
Now, all of the above warnings are embossed on the main body of the shredder, just slightly raised above the surface as if in hieroglyphic braille. They don't particularly stand out or grab the attention, as they're the same color as the rest of the unit. The only exception to this is the final warning; the biggest, brightest, warning label. The only thing on the entire unit that's not the monochromatic, injection-molded same. It's a sticker that had to have been affixed after the main manufacturing process, possibly due to someone actually doing the deed depicted, and the company deciding to prevent its repetition by warning others against doing it.
At this point, I planned to reveal the final warning and go into a bit about how it appeared to be warning against doing the physically impossible, and how there was a sublime humor in such a thing. Then Google intervened, and ruined everything.
Here's an unrelated video.
Stupid Google, always explaining things.
