Author: Lord Bob

Lord Bob
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Oddities

A few months ago we ventured down to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas to check out the Oddities & Curiosities Expo.

I’ll start by saying this is not really my “tribe.” I knew that going in. I prefer the nerd stuff. Happening simultaneously, and unknown to us,  was Fan Expo Dallas in another of the huge areas at the convention center, which is closer but still not really a direct hit on my nerd/fandom target.

When we got down to the convention center is was early in the day and already the place was getting packed. No biggie. I just chilled and found us some parking.

As we walked over the the venue the variety of humans was impressive. For the Oddities Expo you had the weirdoes with all the piercings, lots of tats, black clothing, etc. I say “weirdos” only in the positive sense. I appreciate a harmless weirdo enjoying their thing. Side by side with what I can only call pseudo-goth-horror-weirdos were the cosplayers there for the Fan Expo. Looking for a dude with a beard dressed up as Little Bo Peep or whatever the current anime trend is? We got you covered.

Cosplay is fine by me. People create amazing things.

I support it when people get together to share their interests. I had a good time. I was kinda hoping the Oddities and Curiosities might be a bit more varied.  It is mostly stuff like taxidermy (seriously), horror-inspired gruesome art and knick-knacks, etc. Again, just not my thing. It’s like the New Jim Rose Circus blew up in there. Body horror, mutilation, whatever. I feel like a lot of the vendors were just selling shit they ordered from a Chinese factory. However, a lot were in fact selling stuff they had made themselves, and that’s cool. We found on vendor who was selling her own art, which featured some very beautiful colors and really stood out in the sea of disturbing stuff. We bought a small print which is, in fact, quite beautiful.

But again, people should 100% follow their instincts on this stuff, because I’d rather have a neighbor with a house full of stuffed raccoons and a bone through their nose than a conservative republican who hates everyone that has a personality or any joy in their lives.

Lord Bob
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The Hard Way

I saw some new Adobe Podcasting AI tools in a video today.

I began using computers and the internet during grad school in 1994. I had barely touched a computer before that.

I’m glad I got in on almost the ground floor of the web (compared to most people), because I learned how things work and how to build things by hand.

As tools like thew new stuff from Adobe allow people to “optimize” their audio without having a clue what’s really being done to it, and more tools allow people to create without knowing the process at all, I find myself returning (willingly) to doing things the hard way or simply not adopting new technologies because I want to understand things.

Lord Bob
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In Praise of Horsegirl

Last Friday we went down to the Sons of Hermann Hall in Deep Ellum to see this band, Horsegirl.

The venue is cool. Read about it with the link. It’s on the very outskirts of Deep Ellum, so you can get in and out without having to deal with too many of the idiots, scumbags, or idiot-scumbags down there. I like that. I love going to see music, but honestly when you go to “entertainment districts” you always see, and sadly sometimes encounter, some fucking dirtbags. I’m just way too old and grumpy to deal with what bullshit very well.

So before I rain praise down upon the main act, I have to say that the Unnamed Opening Act was, in short, dreadful. I mean, really really really really really really bad. I lay most of the blame on the singer. Generally when young people are out doing their thing, performing on stage, chasing their dream, or whatever, I usually support that. I think it’s good. Go for it, I say. Fuck the Man. Fuck your parents who told you not to do it — to go look at a computer screen all day while you contemplate suicide. But occasionally you encounter a young person whose parents told him he was a super special do-no-wrong angel one too many times, and that may have been the case here. My wife said she didn’t like his sorta “menacing” stage persona. As usual, she got it right.

And now to the praise…

Horsegirl was awesome. They were recommended to us by a friend in Virgina who saw them a while back. Three young woman playing some really good stuff – guitar/bass/drums, with a little keyboard here and there. A bit of Sonic Youth, a bit Silversun Pickups, and maybe some others we haven’t quite figured out yet. Really great. It was super good, and very much the sonic antidote to the ear-poisoning we’d gotten from the openers. We went from a 100% bullshit act to a 100% ZERO BULLSHIT BAND.

My wife (you can say that like Borat if you want to, and if you are too young — or old — to know who Borat is then probably stop reading my blog) picked up one of their LPs. We listened to it the next morning. Excellent. Sounded great on the Big Stereo, and she ordered another from them.

the band horse girl performing in Dallas Texas in August 2025