GROOVE...

!

 ...ON

The Ummagurau.com History & Update Log (Dating Back to Mid-2000.  Site in some form or another dates back to some point in 1997.)

(This page is a complete hideous wreck because, let's face it, who really needs it?)

Updated 03/04/06: Dr. Casino site redesigned...again...a year and a month after the last update, which was the same exact thing.  Added the subpage for the Doctor Casino album, Orange Blossom Spaceship.  Lots of new stuff and gimmicks at Painting, and a new blather section for Books I Read.  Oh, and a link to my Flickr photoblog.  Cleared out some not-likely-to-be-missed junk (bio page, record collection, "not yet" links to stuff, high school miscellaney).

now playing: Love Tractor, "I Broke My Saw"   now reading: Nancy Farmer, The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   AOL IM: Umguraian   Updates: Here.

Sincerely, Addison Godel.

Updated 01/20/05:  Dr. Casino site redesigned; Painting added-to.  This was sort of an impromptu update spurred by me looking at the Dr. Casino site and realizing I hated it.  So, none of the "coming soon" stuff I actually planned to do is done yet.  Coming Soon!

now playing: nada   now reading: Various, Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   AOL IM: Umguraian   Updates: Here.

Sincerely, Addison Godel.
 

Updated 12/22/04: Ummagurau Magazine lives!  Unfortunately, since that's about all I've been working on for the last several months, that's about all that's in this update besides some reorganizing to Comics and a few broken-link fixes, the biggest one being the Old Stuff page above.  Revel in its animated-GIF mania.  Oh yeah, and the equivalent dumping-ground for anime stuff is now open as well, minus animated GIFs.

I'm also now highlighting "updated" stuff in orange, because I think it looks pretty.

Coming Soon - 1.  Russian Record update with some new images and important announcements.  2.  At least one of the "Not Yet" items, probably the Academic page, since my Eminem paper keeps coming up in conversation.  3.  I'll also start weaving content from the magazine into the larger site; for example, the record reviews could be cross-linked from the record collection page (in addition to the Desert Island reviews, which are now linked in said fashion).  4.  I am also very close to having a comprehensive, indulgent page of commentary on every book I've read over the last year; this is being retooled and then it'll be up too.  So, watch this space.

now playing: nada   now reading: Neal Stephenson, The System of the World
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   AOL IM: Umguraian   Updates: Here.

Updated 9/6/04: New site design brutally unveiled!  Several things have been quietly shuffled out of existence but you probably won't notice.  Other things have been recombined, brought front-and-center, or placed on "not yet" status to allow time for reorganization.  There are also a few actually new pages here and there, but nothing to slaughter yourself over.  Hopefully this layout will free me up to produce new content in a much more organized and efficient manner; we'll see.

now playing: mix tape from my pen-pal Ash   now reading: Flanner O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   AOL IM: Umguraian   Updates: Here.

Sincerely, Addison Godel.
 

4/18/04: I acted like a dustbin lid.   Redesigned the Songs That Time Forgot page to make it less unreadable; added a few songs while I was at it.  It's still linked in the Umma Spotlight below.  I've also fixed one or two broken links, but there's still a lot of them around, I fear; this business of being on a case-sensitive server has yet to become fun.  Added some stuff to the Doctor Casino website.  Upcoming: A lot of somewhat minor, silly things.  It's all about getting this site up to something remotely presentable as my body of work. That's going to mean more purging, but also a lot of cleanup and freshening.  I've found I enjoy the Songs That Time Forgot format for pages - it's something I can do pretty easily in small chunks without having to ready a massive update, and gradually it could accrete enough material to be one of those unspeakably extensive sites that you occasionally stumble on and blow an afternoon at work surfing.  This is my dream.  Who's with me?  Anyway, I don't know what else might follow the format of the STTF, but I've been kicking around the idea of a gradually expanding collection of half-baked musical performances, but I think that's what the Doctor Casino site is anyway.

now playing: Doctor Casino & the Casinophobia, "Jump"  *   now reading: Jaime Suchlicki, Mexico
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   *  AOL InstantMessager: Umguraian
Updates & History: Here  *  Umma Spotlight: Songs That Time Forgot

Lyric of the Week:

<mysteriously absent>


- Roger Miller, "Dang Me," Twenty Golden Greats

2/15/04: In the first place it's probably just paranoia.   Cosmetic update: Ummagurau.com is now available in color where available.  And where available basically means this main page, the index pages of each of the four subsections, and a number of more recent subpages created since I got over my total aversion to color in webpages.  This "pastel era" of Umma may last a while and it may not, but hopefully this will make things a little easier on the eyes.  I also did a little bit of organizational legwork, deleting defunct, unlinked stuff from the site, but that's pretty much behind-the-scenes.

now playing: Geoff Reacher, "Snarling Wheels of Sin"  *   now reading: school stuff
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   *  AOL InstantMessager: Umguraian
Updates & History: Here  *  Umma Spotlight: Songs That Time Forgot

Lyric of the Week:

They say roses are red,
and violets are purple
and sugar's sweet and so is maple surple
and I'm the seventh out of seven sons
My pappy was a pistol;
I'm a son of a gun

- Roger Miller, "Dang Me," Twenty Golden Greats

2/4/04: I'm a bullet in a soundwave.   Smallish update: completely retooled The Russian Record (under Art) to make it a little less boring-looking.  I may have just made it incredibly garish, but, whatever.  Also added some notes and a couple of new images.  Meanwhile, I added three Songs That Time Forgot (see Umma Spotlight below) a week or two ago without telling anybody.  Coming soon (?): the Ummagurau record label and all that goes with it.

now playing: the unexpressive silence of the evening  *   now reading: school stuff
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   *  AOL InstantMessager: Umguraian
Updates & History: Here  *  Umma Spotlight: Songs That Time Forgot

12/31/03: Can you picture that?   Well, I missed my one-month goal by...well, a month.... but by the last few years of my standards, that's actually a pretty impressive performance.  What do you get for your troubles?  New sections and cleaned-out garbage at Art and Writings!  Check it: a super new Photo Album page and awesome, highly colorful homepages for all my musical projects (in Art); and the new Songs That Time Forgot section plus a Survivor geek page (at Writings).  

now playing: The Equals, "Baby Come Back"  *   now reading: Better Together (Putnam & Feldstein)
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   *  AOL InstantMessager: Umguraian
Updates & History: Here  *  Umma Spotlight: Songs That Time Forgot

Lyric of the Week:

Me and my Arrow
Straight up and narrow
Where-ever we go,
everyone knows
It's me and my Arrow.

- Harry Nilsson, "Me And My Arrow"

11/01/03: For three years I been wanderin'.  Or just about that long.  Devoted Ummafans (and I know you're out there) have seen this site suffer all manner of indignities as my "real life" has gradually taken over through the course of my college years. While we'll never again see the kind of regular, mad updating I used to accomplish way back in the day, I am pleased to announce a renewed commitment to providing you with new variations of the same quality content you've come to expect here at Ummagurau.Com.  Of course, my idea of what "quality" entails has evolved a bit over the years, so I'm in the midst of a lot of cleanup and new work.  There's nothing new in this update except the page you're reading - although I did finally fix all the broken links created when Umma moved to a new, case-sensitive (!!!!!!) web-server half a year ago.  So if you're dying to go peruse the 100 Nightmares From Afar again, go to it.  I've even made it the Umma Spotlight below, just to encourage you.  And believe me, based on the genuinely massive number of emails I've gotten asking after the whereabouts of the James Hetfield Nightmare picture, clearly that page (and this site as a whole) had more regular fans than even egotistical me was willing to believe.  Anyway, the point is, there will be a fair bit of new content coming soon, mostly stuff I've been tinkering with for the past year: a Survivor fanpage, a completely redesigned Sorry Sods homepage, Songs That Time Forgot, and (perhaps most excitingly of all), the Ummagurau Record Label homepage!  Within a month, I swear.  Until then, thanks for your devotion and lifelong support.  Et cetera.

now playing: The Hobbit Soundtrack, "Goblin Town"  *   now reading: Letters to Wendy's (Joe Wenderoth)
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   *  AOL InstantMessager: Umguraian
Updates & History: Here  *  Umma Spotlight: 100 Nightmares From Afar

Lyric of the Week:

Well everybody knows that the world is full of stupid people
So meet me at the mission at midnight, we'll divvy up there
Everybody knows that the world is full of stupid people
Well I got the pistols, so I'll keep the pesos...
And that seems fair.

- The Refreshments, "Banditos"

6/02: What's all this talk about...love?  Once again, it's been way too long.  I really need to ditch this tendency to prepare single big updates at the expense of doing anything else the rest of the year.  But here we are, finally.  Writings: Added a number of half-finished poems and stories, as well as my gargantuan field study of the city of Atlanta and a soon-to-expand collection of essays on record albums.  Art: Reorganized.  New Photo Album section, redone Sid Swift page, new pages for Doctor Casino and Homemade Junction recordings.

Back in 1999 I used to do updates like this on, like, a monthly basis.  Blasted social life.

Anyway, so, as of tomorrow I'm leaving the country for the better part of six weeks.  I'll be semi-responsive to email but largely absent in many other ways.  Peace.

now playing: Dixie Chicks, "Ready To Run"  *   now reading: The Voyage Out (Virginia Woolf)
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   *  AOL InstantMessager: Umguraian
Updates & History: Here  *  Umma Spotlight: The Desert Island Collection

Lyric of the Week:

I laid down for a while, and I woke up on the ocean
Floating on my back, and staring at the gray
It was completely still!  Except the pounding of my heart...
Was bringing me back, from three strange days
Three strange days...
- School of Fish, "Three Strange Days,"

11/13/01: Yes we're going to a party party. Special birthday update (again!): Rewrote and resculpted Natalie Beall's Peeps page into a work of love.  The larger update of Umma I promised on my last birthday-based update is still a ways off, but I am gathering material and putting things together.  Forgive me, life's been busy, but in all kinds of wonderful ways.

now playing: Oasis, "Columbia"  *   now reading: Women Race & Class (Angela Davis) - still!
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   *  AOL InstantMessager: Umguraian
Updates & History: Here  *  Umma Spotlight: Pastorale

Lyric of the Week:

Big train,
Big train,
Do you want to ride my big train?

- Mike Watt, "Big Train," Ball-Hog or Tug-Boat?

9/28/01: We're gonna have a good time! Special birthday update: Valerie "Val" Lake added to my Friends page.  Much love, and a larger update of Umma coming soon.

now playing: Sit n' Spin, "Lupine Valentine"  *   now reading: Women Race & Class (Angela Davis)
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   *  AOL InstantMessager: Umguraian
Updates & History: Here  *  Umma Spotlight: Video Games Reconsidered

Lyric of the Week:

I have a recurrent dream:
Every time I lose my voice, I swallow warm glowing lights
My mother and son baked for me
During the night, they do a trapeze walk until they're in the sky
Right above my bed,
Where I'm asleep
My mother and son pour into me
Warm glowing oil
Into my wide open throat

- Bjork, "Heirloom," Vespertine

7/01: Time for a few small repairs, she said.

now playing: Klark Kent, "Don't Care"  *   now reading: Can't Buy My Love
Email: agodel@ummagurau.com   *  AOL InstantMessager: Umguraian
Updates & History: Here  *  Umma Spotlight: The Russian Record

Lyric of the Week:

And when the body finally starts to let go, let it all go at once
Not piece by piece, but like a whole bucket of stars dumped into the universe
Watch it go!
Goodbye small hands!  Goodbye small heart!  Goodbye small head!
My soul is climbing tree trunks
And swinging from every branch.

- Sleater-Kinney, "Get Up," The Hot Rock

Updated 5/01: Harder to wake Galileo.  

Only a couple updates this time around (ignoring some subtle fixes here and there, which will be officially announced in the next update): added the super-cool Russian Record subpage to Art, and got my journal thingy somewhat up to date (under Writings).  Check 'em out post-haste.  Coming soon: tons of stuff for the Photo Album and Friends - and maybe even some new comics and writing.

Well, I rapped upon a house with the U.S. flag upon display
I said, "Could you help me out?
I got some friends down the way"
The man says, "Get out of here, I'll tear you limb from limb!"
I said, "You know, they refused Jesus, too."
He said, "You're not Him!
Get out of here before I break your bones, I ain't your pop!"
I decided to have him arrested; I went looking for a cop.

- Bob Dylan, "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream," Bringing It All Back Home

Updated 4/01: This building's totally burning down!

Did you miss me?  This update has taken way, way, way too long, but I think the variety of new material I've cooked up over the course of the school year should make it worth the wait.  Harvey, tell 'em what they've won!

The art doesn't exist.
It's only the business.
I ate all of the millers.

Updated 11/00: On the next plane to London.   Just a minor update - added Umgurai Act 50.  Be back soon.

You're no rock and roll fun
Like a party that's over before it's begun
You're no walk in the park
More like a shot in the dark with clues left for no one

- Sleater-Kinney, "You're No Rock n' Roll Fun"

Updated 9/00: Owls fly out of oven doors.  Once again I'm afraid I'm going to have to put off some of the grand new masterpieces I've been promising since before the beginning of the summer - the video games page is a big, big project, and several crucial items still need to be completed.  As usual, I just got tired of holding off on updating all the other stuff I'd finished in the interim.  This includes just about everything - all of the Grid of Nine sections except the Web Handbook and Umgurai have tweaks.  Okay, I'm cheating a little - the only tweak to the Film Society is that this index page now acknowledges that the FS page is going to be history as soon as the video games thing is done.  So anyone who was, like, a die-hard fan of Film Society records from two years ago, better download 'em while you can.  What do the other updates entail?  This:

Writings: Finally added "Burning Beliefs," a very short essay piece from earlier in the year that I consider to be the single best thing I've ever written, and also the most important.   Anime: Hunk & Babe tweaked to acknowledge that updates in the future will be few and far between; also added some art.  Comics: Redivided the subsections, establishing a separate Russell page.  Also expanded the Links and gave them their own page. Personal: A number of fabulous updates to Peeps (some of which have been up for a while but never announced), plus a few new quotes.  Evafic: The first stages of the grand purges of the archive and some other revisions.  Art: Added new art; took out old art.

Hey, what more do you want for three months' work?

But I guess they still don't understand
And they can never understand
And they said go find 2000 man
And they said tell him they've got it planned
But instead I'm here to tell you, friend:
... I believe they want you to give in.
Are you giving in, 2000 man?

- Grandaddy, "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot"

Updated 6/29/00: And he shall be LeVon.   None of the grand new projects are complete yet, but progress is steady (if slow).  The only officially updated thing this time around is, of all things, the Evangelion Fanfic Archive, whose vast advertising potential I recently discovered while poring over the Umma hit statistics. 

 Terror.

In the same vein, I'd like to give a shout-out to the enormous (and inexplicable) support of Vienna, Virginia, from which a huge percentage of Umma readers hail.  I don't know if it's just one guy in a basement somewhere or a city-wide fad, but either way, a hearty how-do to all 15,000 of you crazies.  I attempted to make some sort of graphic out of the Vienna town seal (which Virginia-ite and Umma devotee Mark Herbkersman located for me at the town webpage), but every time I load the seal in PhotoShop, it crashes the program.  So maybe the whole "Vienna" thing is just a massive viral attack.  I can't say for sure just now.  But I recommend you not open any emails with the subject tag of "A fan from Vienna :)" just in case.  Ah well.  Discuss amongst yourselves.

Hang on / hang on tight

- They Might Be Giants, "They Might Be Giants"

6/13/00: Laughter in the sands.  Possibly the most uneventful Umma update ever.  There's an update of the Anime Hunk & Babe of the Month, but besides that, no content should have changed anywhere.  However, a couple of notes...

First, after about a year of trying to get around to it, Umma has been moved from the buggy, poorly-supported servers of Clever.net (or whatever they call themselves now) to something called InterLand.  This shouldn't make any difference for you readers, but for me, the payoff is that I can finally look at site usage statistics again - Clever's having not updated since around when the Evangelion fic site closed.  Indirectly, this will help me get a grip on the site's marketing strategy (and yes, even nonprofit sites have to market themselves to be effective), and may push me to reorganize some things to make it easier for casual surfers to become regular readers.  It's going to take me a while to build up a useful amount of data and then act on it, though, so don't expect this to mean much for a while.

Second, I've been hard at work on what, for me, is an extremely high-tech new subsite that will be taking the place of the Film Society in the Grid of Nine below.  I say "high-tech" because it utilizes frames (and, I think, utilizes them quite well), something I've never even touched before.  The content?  It will include my existing Nintendo humor page, presently housed in Writings, but will have several other new sections, including a massive Mega Man character discussion, as well as lots of fun Nintendo video clips and other weird stuff.   I think it'll be great - but it's still a while, possibly a month and a half, in the making from this point.  In the long-term, I may be reorganizing other Umma sites, such as the anime section, around frames eventually - but don't hold your breath.

Third, as far as all the other stuff I need to do is concerned, expect it to just go up in the same batch as the new video games page, whenever that is.   For those with short memories, my to-do list includes, but is not limited to, cleaning up and updating the Peeps entries, reorganizing the Comics section, and establishing some sort of new Personal or Art subsection to house a quick little album of photos I've taken but never put up anywhere.

Gone savage for teenagers with automatic weapons and boundless love
gone savage for teenagers who are aesthetically pleasing, in other words fly
Los Angeles beckons the teenagers to come to her on buses;
Los Angeles loves love...
It is FIVE AM!  And you are listening  to Los Angeles.

--- Soul Coughing, "Screenwriter's Blues" Ruby Vroom

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