A Few Quick Hits...

Long time no post. As always, just been too busy to come up w/ something worth putting in front of anybody. Nothing of great levity to report at present time...Mrs. Famous (and, thusly, the Wonder Twins) are doing okay...the D-O-G is still a sweetheart (but a handful)...took in a few Cubs games (where they lost to both the Cardinals and Brewers)...LOST is back on the air and the season premiere was pretty good...VH1's Hip Hop Honors airs on Monday (decent list of honorees, but the scheduled performers look kind of weak...blah, blah, blah.

Luckily, I do have a couple of musical suggestions worth mentioning:

DIOS MALOS

'dios (malos)'

Awful album cover, but a great band out of Hawthorne, CA. Breaking away a little from tripped out Grandaddy covered by the Beach Boys sound of their debut (which was stellar BTW), the band offers up a heaping helping of uptempo psychedelic folk rock for the indie stoner set. I've loved this band since their first EP was released a few years back and it's great to see them come back strong. I'd list highlights, but really...I like the whole thing cover to cover. DL the lead-off track ('Feels good Being Somebody') and two of my favorite tracks from their previous disc HERE.

M83

'M83'

I gave a brief round of props a few months back to M83's 2005 release ('Before the Dawn Heals Us' )and the previous album ('Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts') is one of my favorites to grace my iPod in the past few years. As luck what have it, the French duo's (now a one-man-show) debut album from 2001 received domestic release earlier this month. Orchestral and sparse in the same breath, this is more of the M83 brand of synth-heavy ambient pop music that ranges from spooky to frenetic. Good stuff. You can stream samples from all of their albums HERE.

So, there you go...for now. Enjoy. Peace.

Puppies and Babies and Cigarettes...OH MY!

Say hey there kids! It's been a long time since i've both posted and rock'n'rolled...so here's a little update to (hopefully) kickstart me back into throwing down some of the inane junk that you love so much.

First off, and probably the biggest thing going on in the 'House of El', Mrs. Famous and I are happy to be able to say we're expecting. When I say 'expecting', I mean in a having a baby sort of way...and when I say 'having a baby', I mean in a we're having twins sort of way. Yep. TWO. We're 13 weeks along as of yesterday and both spawn of Famous, as of our last ultrasound, are looking really good. Our projected due date is March 16 of 2006, but per the doc...could happen a little earlier. Without going in to detail, this is an absolute blessing for us and we've been working at this for a while now. We've got a long road to travel over the next 6 months, but as of today I feel like the luckiest cat in the world. Obviously, expect periodic ramblings about me becoming a father to come. Yay babies!

Nowhere near as monumental, but pretty cool nonetheless, would be the status of our current 'baby' Penny. I still haven't posted pics or anything, but for those of you who were reading a few months back, Penny is the Golden Retriever puppy we brought home back in June. She is an absolute trip and has been both fun and an exercise in patience. She's already grown so much and everybody that has seen her keeps informing us she's going to be huge. Looking at the size of her paws and seeing how much she weighs today w/ another 7-8 months of growing up to do, it's kind of hard to disagree. We've been going to obedience training and her last class is next week. She is an absolute socialite, loving both people and dogs and inanimate objects alike. Smart as a whip, but still dealing w/ the goofiness that comes w/ both her age and her breed. That said, methinks she's going to be a great pet in the long run.

Finally, you may be asking yourself: 'self...w/ two babies on the way and a dog and all that other cool stuff, where is my favorite hipster doofus at w/ the quitting smoking thing?' The short answer would be: right now? Nowhere. I'm, uh, regrouping so to speak. It's something I absolutely have to do and will. I just think my last pass at it wasn't anywhere near as organized as it needs to be, so i'm coming up w/ a plan and then deciding on the best time to put it into motion. As the whole pregnancy thing seems much more real to me, it is weighing heavier on my mind and a hell of a good inspiration. So, as always, stay tuned and wish me luck...again.

So, there you are, we're pretty much all caught up. I've seen a few flicks and listened to a few new albums, but nothing so exciting I feel the need to go off about them. I'm not going to go too far into the whole horrible Katrina thing right now...it's a disaster on so many different levels and i'm just praying for the best for all those affected by it. If you haven't yet...DONATE. Then, after you've donated some coin, look into donating your time or any other resources you have available...religious or no, churches in your area may have organized efforts underway to provide relief and it's going to be a huge job. Bottom line, do something. There will be plenty of time for picking apart what went wrong (as there was plenty) and bitching about gas prices soon enough. Peace out until next time and God bless!