Last night each member of The End Times earned $6.66 for our half-hour set at the Funhouse. Thanks, Jeremy, it was a very heavy evening.

Our current dial-up at the homestead makes YouTube exploration an irritating venture, but I got a tip about a Fireworks video and had to post it up on the long-ignored Frenzy of the Visible site. Go crazy.

The dark winds of Fall began blowing Sunday morning, and since then I've been in a dour, cloudy mood ... it's amazing that through my everyday haze of assorted medicines I can still be so rudely affected by something as subtle as a shift in the weather. My seasonal depression is apparently very real, and realizing it yesterday went a long way toward lifting my spirits. My doctor wrote me a prescription for a light box, and I'm gonna fill it.

The End Times will open the show Thursday night for a handful of noisy, druggy rockers at the Funhouse. Get a load of this flier. We'll be there early, so come on by and drink with us.

My favorite song of the moment is "Tropical Hot Dog Night" by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, specifically the live 1978 version available for download here at nevergetoutoftheboat.blogspot.com. "Like two flamingos in a fruit fight/Everything's wrong and at the same time it's right." This defines our era, I believe. What will the women do when the men have tropical hot dog payday? Will they come out to meet the monster tonight? I wish I knew.

Just now, 3:00pm on Friday afternoon ... in the course of my duties as Purchasing Coordinator at Westward Seafoods, I telephone a vendor to inquire about a price discrepancy. The operator answers, puts me on hold and what do I hear? "Shoot to Thrill" by AC/DC off their unbeatable Back in Black LP. Is this the Muzak of our age?

"Shoot to thrill/Play to kill/Too many women with too many pills/Shoot to thrill/Play to kill/I got my gun at the ready, gonna fire at will/Yeah"

If that doesn't get you in the mood to buy 3" Sanitary Clamps, I don't know what will.

Happy Birthday to the late Fred "Sonic" Smith, who would have turned 58 years old today if a heart attack hadn't nailed him in 1994. Always my favorite member of the MC5, the man went on to such legendary feats as forming the Sonic's Rendezvous Band, marrying Patti Smith and inspiring Sonic Youth's name.

I only caught Sonic live one time, and I'm sad to admit it was a bummer ... he and Patti played some kind of benefit in Ann Arbor and it was a big deal, as they'd both been retired from music for a decade at this point. Fred Smith was a gaunt husk of a man and the reformed Rendezvous Band did their best to prop him up, but he seemed freaked out by being on stage again and the effect was dispiriting. Of course, Patti Smith had enough energy for both of them, and her set completely destroyed me ... I hadn't paid much attention to her before then, but her frenzied, righteous performance converted me on the spot, so it still ranks as one of the greatest shows I've ever seen.

Dig more at www.sonicsrendezvousband.net.

Kate bought a screen printer. The future promises an excessive amount of End Times "merchandise" made for pennies and sold for peanuts. T-shirts, business cards, inspirational pamphlets, decorative covers for CDs and 7-inches, maybe even armbands again ... not to mention ever more elaborate invitations every time Ms. Chapman decides to throw some kind of themed party. I'm looking forward to her "Christmas in July in December" bash, or at least looking forward to hearing how it went after I decide not to go at the last minute.

More info available at www.thesearetheendtimes.com