6/28/07
Another busy week…
After I wrote the last email the parades just kept going, all of Saturday night. I was stupid (not used to carrying the money) and took some cash down into the crowd where I was promptly pickpocketed in the crush of people. No ID or cards, just cash and my goddamn 70-sole tourist ticket which I had to buy again.
Sunday we got up early for the festival of Inti Raymi (Quechua for “Sun Festival”), which brings in some hideous number of tourists (like 80,000). The day begins at the ancient Inca temple of Qorikancha with a 10 A.M. ritual. We skipped that and decided to head up the hill to the Inca fortress of Saqsaywaman to try and get an early seat for the main ritual. Got there around noon, thinking that it started at 3, fortunately it started at 2. We were some of the last people to get decent seats (which was nothing but a steep hillside, the “real” seats cost $80 US). At 2, elaborately costumed actors began the performance of this ancient solstice ritual, which involves over 600 costumed participants arranged in groups all over the different levels of the fortress. Very impressive, although the entire thing was narrated in Quechua and therefore difficult to understand.
That night I went out to Perro’s and the owner got me sick-drunk on too much free pisco, which he kept pouring into my glass. I met a cool older guy from Montreal and took him to Ukuku’s to see Amaru Puma Kuntur one last time. Fortunately I got sick later that night instead of in the morning, because we had big plans for Monday.
On Monday afternoon we took a bus back to Ollantaytambo, had dinner, and caught the famous train to Machu Picchu at 8 P.M. – the only way to get there. We arrived in the Pueblo Machu Picchu (until very recently named Aguas Calientes after the hot baths there) at 10 P.M. and got a hostal room (El Tumi, very nice, cheap, and recommended). In the morning we arose, got a ridiculously expensive breakfast, and got our bus tickets to go up the road to the site.
Nothing I have seen here previously could possibly have prepared me. The scale is immense, the scenery is more amazing than anything I have ever seen, and the sound was also just unbelievable – you can hear everything from the valleys down below rising up the mountain chasms along with the songs of dozens of bird species. These days, scholars think the site was a summer resort for the Inca royals, not primarily a ritual site as had previously been thought. It was also possibly a retreat/refuge, which I can believe due to its ridiculous inaccessibility and the fact that it is totally hidden from below. We spent all day there, but were unable to make the climb to the adjacent (and higher) peak Waynu Picchu due to it being an unusually busy tourist day. Still, there were many times when we were totally alone. We also took a short hike to an ancient Inca bridge that you can view from a distance, however the rest of the trail to it is in ruins. Really, words fail me, I promise to have Flickr pictures up this weekend.
Spent a leisurely night in the Pueblo before catching the 5:45 A.M. train back to Ollantaytambo, where we had breakfast and continued on by bus to Pisac. There we presented our tourist tickets and hiked the Pisac ruins, some of which are pre-Inca. They have a pretty amazing volcanic rock sundial thing as the centrepiece, which of course is totally invisible from the valley floor. It was a long hike and we took an even longer pathway down a side canyon instead of the terrifying stairs that are the main access. It seemed to me, like Ollantaytambo, to be an almost impenetrable fortress and I can’t imagine how the Spanish dealt with it.
Today we tried to get maximum use of our tickets (since Laurie’s expires tomorrow) and went to Qorikancha (the Temple Of The Sun where the morning Inti Raymi ritual is performed), the Santa Catalina Monastery Museum (tons of hideously gruesome Christian death-worship, even more than usual, along with a lot of really cool stuff like wall frescoes and this amazing “trunk of the Story Of Christ” that folded out into a 300-piece diorama of staggering intricacy and detail depicting various biblical scenes), and the Regional Museum of Cusco (more pre-Columbian stuff and some later Christian paintings and furniture). Tomorrow we visit Tipon (an aqueduct site) and some pre-Inca ruins in between here and Pisac. Then our tickets expire, although we still have personal invites to the Museum of Popular Art that we plan to use on Saturday. Sunday is our baptism, on Monday we leave!
I’ll write one more update after we return discussing this last weekend. Friday the 6th slideshow is still a go as far as I know. And, of course, I’ll let y’all know when I get the pictures up.
6/23/07
What a week. Many things to write, best to go day by day…
Last Saturday we had a little party for all the people who had helped us here. Attendance was kinda low, but it was fun. We stayed up pretty late talking to Pave and her sister Sefora about all kinds of stuff. And we had leftover guacamole and bread and soda!
The next day, Sunday, we went out to C’Orao where there was a little goodbye party for us in the Purikuq weaving market. Most of the families came, and a couple of other ones showed up to present us with a very official (stamps and all) request for 14 more stoves. Apparently they are all part of some neighborhood association along with the 4 stove recipients (who actually got theirs for helping with Purikuq as I understand it). Unfortunately we are too broke right now, and we need to research the ceramic rockets. We told them we’d get back to them. There is a very sweet 13-year-old girl (named MaFre, for Maria Fernanda) who has adored Laurie since L made a special trip back to C’Orao with pain meds for her when she had a bad tooth. They walked around arm in arm the whole time and she made Laurie a special deep-fried cuy that was much yummier than the usual oven-baked version (which I got, along with one for Laurie, giving her two cuy). With Pave’s guidance Laurie cut the heads off and gave them to the little kids, who sucked happily on the brains.
Later that afternoon we went to a chicken dinner fundraiser for an artists’ collective that Chicho joined recently, basically a way for some of the more creative types to legalize their street vending. It was the first time that everything clicked socially and I actually knew more than one or two people. There were lots of different performers with an MC and a PA and a beautiful view over the city. People played music, told stories, read poems, juggled, did a little play, it was a lot like some talent show night at Sam Bond’s in Eugene. We bought lots of beer and shared it with people. Then we took Chicho out for an extravagant dinner at Perro’s.
The next day we went to Sipascancha for our goodbyes. Took a few more photos and bought some really nice weaving. For a bunch of reasons Laurie outlined last time, we felt kind of bittersweet about leaving, definitely mixed feelings about the experience there. On the way back down the mountain range we stopped in Cuyo Grande for lunch with another one of Laurie’s godchildren, little Jose Anderson and his parents Quintin and Paulina. Jose’s adorable 4-year-old cousin was also there, can’t remember her name. I pleaded vegetarianism, having tired somewhat of cuy the day before. Ours came without heads this time, and I tore the little legs off for the kids.
FRUIT INTERLUDE: While we were there we tried yet another new fruit, the tumba. Kind of like a very sour, orange pomegranate with more fruit on the seeds. Looks more like a cucumber though. We have also tried:
Lucuma – very sweet and avocado-like. Starfruit – crunchy and super tart, more of a garnish fruit. Chirimoya – luscious, more melon-like, need to try again. Pepino – super delicious pear-sized cantaloupe-ish yumminess. Granadia – another melon-like thing, but you suck the pulp and seeds out of a harder shell.
There is also maracuya which I have not yet tried.
On Tuesday we took the Sicuani bus to Quiquihana to say goodbye to Hermana Nellie and the pirate radio nuns. We also went to check out a potential project for next time, the village of Usi. Nellie lent us her car and found us a driver and we went up a ridiculous road (4WD necessary). Sister Luz Marie accompanied us and said an elaborate prayer as we began our steep climb. When we arrived in the village we found the presidente and talked to him and a few other guys. We learned they have village meetings on the 30th of each month and decided to try and get Pave to go to one in the next few months. The scenery was even more beautiful and mindboggling than usual, and the village also seemed much more compact (houses closer together, little tiny streets, etc.). They have a tiny little school with maybe one teacher and a health person visits once a month. That’s absolutely it. They also have water, but no electricity. The poles have been laid on the road going up, but it will probably be a few years before lines get added to them and fully installed. All the roofs are straw, they have no access to the clay tejas that more populated areas use. We got a good vibe from the place.
After inspecting the initial rockets (one of which works great, the other of which does not have enough space around the edge of the pot for the heat to rise up the sides and needs either a chisel or a skinnier pot), we headed back and turned in early. Wednesday we got straight back on the bus and headed to Ollantaytambo, but we took a different route that was a bit shorter than last time and through different country. After arriving in Ollantaytambo we hooked up with Laurie’s friend and local dude Carlos, and we got a ride up to a tiny village about 10 minutes away. There Carlos recruited a local kid and we set off on a trail up to a pampa (grassy, shrubby plain) that overlooks the valley and city. The entire valley has been laid out as a solar calendar, and the light does very specific things on the dawn of the solstices and equinoxes. We ran kind of late and ended up hiking the last 20 minutes or so in the dark, but had plenty of light to set up our tent. Carlos and the boy (13-year-old Isaac) went scrounging for wood and we built a fire, ate food, and had a bit of rum (except for Isaac). We didn’t really sleep much, but we were warmer than we expected to be (Ollantaytamba is about 500 meters below Cusco). The light in the morning was predictably amazing, but I don’t think we’ll have flickr pictures up until this next Thursday or Friday. Sorry.
We spent the next day and night in Ollantaytambo. Having bought our ten-day tourist tickets the day before we were now authorized to enter the ruins. So we spent the afternoon hiking around the last true Inca stronghold before the Spanish took over, marveling at the engineering and general scale of things. On Friday morning we took a combi to Urubamba and hired a taxi to take us to two famous places nearby – the 1000-year old salt mines of Salinas and the Inca agricultural laboratory of Moray.
As we approached the salt mines I was totally flabbergasted yet again, even more than any mindblowing mountain scene so far. The scale is huge, the construction is intricate, and this giant complex grows out of a tiny little stream only a bit bigger than Cougar Hot Springs. Plus, it is at least 1000 years old, people have built successive layers of pools and gathered salt there for a really long time. Now it belongs to the nearby village of Maras.
About 8 kilometers down the road from Maras is a restored agricultural site that the Incas built that looks kind of like an amphitheater, except the successive lower levels are all terraces. Here they experimented with different plants at different altitudes (at least, that’s what most of the folks who studied it think). It is also huge and amazing, with an irrigation system and clever little stairs made of long flat rocks that stick out of the walls at intervals. We returned to Urubamba, had lunch, and then made our way to the nearby town of Yucay in order to discuss an impending baptism with a priest friend of Laurie’s. Laurie is probably writing more about it, but we are arranging a baptism (in Cusco, by request of the family of Pedro, Juanita, Laurita the godchild, and the other two sisters). It takes place the day before we leave. Knowing no priests in Cusco proper, we were very lucky that Laurie knew this guy (Father Rene) from before. He is the pastor for the oldest church in the whole Sacred Valley, dating to the year 1600. We didn't look inside but the grounds were quite beautiful with lots of peach trees, although it is definitely a fixer-upper and one whole living quarters building is unusable without a lot of work. He arranged everything for us, got us a priest and a church and a time, and generally saved our asses. Some of the family has never been to Cusco before, and I’m sure none of them have ever been in a Cusco church (well, maybe Pedro since he went to school here). We had this vision of the hopeful family arriving on Sunday morning and us having nowhere to take them! So after breathing a big sigh of relief, we headed back to Cusco and arrived around 7 last night. Sometime during this week we discovered we had miscalculated our budget a bit, so now we are going to go just a bit into the red for our last week (don't feel sorry for us, we have been more extravagant than planned). On Monday we are going to do Machu Picchu, and then we have more ruins and museums to visit than we probably have time for until Friday evening, when our tickets expire.
Today is the day before Inti Raymi, the traditional festival of the Sun/Solstice, and the whole week in Cusco has been nothing but parades, 7 A.M. firework explosions, and huge-scale events in the main plaza. Last night there was a full on rock concert, right now there is another parade and announcers. Tomorrow is the big day... Inti Raymi was banned for almost 400 years, the Catholic church only relented in the 50's (we think).
For you local folks, we are tentatively planning a slide show and presentation/lecture for the Friday after our return, the 6th, at my house. Potluck dinner at 7, slides as soon as it gets dark wnough, we’ll probably do 45 minutes on Sipascanchas and the stove project and then another 45 or so on the ruins and culture. I’ll confirm this next time I send out an email, which will be the next-to last in all likelihood!
6/15/07
First of all, you folks who aren’t on Laurie’s email list should read her last two posts about Soncco, she says a lot more (and a lot better) than I could this time around for sure.
http://pencilsforperu.blogspot.com
We have been back in Cusco since Wednesday afternoon. As Laurie says, the Soncco giveaway was a big success, 34 families in one day. We had so much basic interviewing to do that I started doing my first solo ones, getting a crash course in Quechua at the same time. I learned like 5 new words, fortunately I have a more extensive Spanish-to-Quechua dictionary than my English-to-Quechua phrasebook. Our liason Christobal was a big help, good thing he was there.
Nonstop fiestas seem to be the order of the day, both today and yesterday were holidays. I spent the afternoons at the Yanapay School, but they were slow days and I only helped one little girl with triple-digit multiplication. Yanapay is really an afterschool program for kids (many of them orphans) with nowhere else to go. Lots of volunteers, usually there are more kids. Thursday afternoon we watched Shrek in Español! English subtitles helped a lot. I had never seen it before! What a great flick.
We have spent the last two days cleaning up, preparing for our thank-you party tomorrow night that we are having for all the people who have helped us here. Next week we will spend one morning in Sipas saying goodbye (and giving out our last seven LED lights to the teachers, some of them got defective ones). Then on Tuesday we are going back to Quiquihana (where the nun’s pirate radio was, site of our first two stoves) to go up into the mountains and check out a village called Usi, where we are tentatively planning to do a stove project next year. Laurie is thinking about forming a 501(c)3! Wednesday we start our real vacation, we will head out for Machu Picchu but haven’t formulated a definite travel agenda yet (except to be back in Cusco for Inti Raymi on the 24th).
6/8/07
Three weeks left! Last week we had a few extremely busy days in Sipas. Of course, everybody waited until the very last minute so Wednesday was absolute chaos, but when the dust settled we had given away every single stove! Early on Wednesday morning I went with a truck and 34 stoves to drop off in Soncco (alternate spelling is Sonqo, Quechua is one of those indefinite languages like Arabic where there is no exact spelling). We were worried, because that left us short on stoves for Sipas, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending, since now we don’t have to buy more) we had enough no-shows that it turned out OK. The last three people had to draw straws for the last two stoves. We included a bunch of new people (around a dozen, I think) who we put on a waiting list until 10 A.M. when we decided we had given the slackers enough chances. Most disappointingly, a number of the no-shows were families we had already taken the time to interview. Sipas has a really bad reputation for this kind of behaviour, we will see if Soncco is different next week.
We also took some time on Tuesday to give out all of the pencils that my nephew’s school had donated. The power outlets were hellishly capricious as usual, so I only got around 8 minutes of video, but that included a class of kids singing the Sipascancha theme song! Also lots of photos, I think we’re going to have a Flickr posting marathon this weekend.
Today I went and got fitted for a tailored suit that I am having made. In my search for the Yanapay school (more later) I found a whole street of tailors and decided to take advantage of the hideously unfair exchange rate to get a suit for about $70 US. It’ll be ready next week. After much searching, I finally found a hat to go with it in the San Pedro market today. The look is very classic, like a Bogart movie.
Next week I am going to spend a few afternoons tutoring math at the Yanapay school, a local nonprofit. It should be fun, the kids range from six to twelve. Discussing the current curriculum with their teacher, I had the horrifying realization that I can no longer remember how to derive square roots (or cube roots, etc.) through the long division type process that you use for such things, I need some math books in Español! Since they (of course) don’t have any I will buy them some and do a quick crash review before next Thursday. The following week, we are going back to Sipas to say our goodbyes and then starting on a crash course in tourism at the end of the week.
I thought I’d describe the journey to Sipas in a bit more detail, it is just a little too familiar to me now. We get up at 4:15 A.M. on Mondays. Usually we walk to the Puputi bus station, only about 10 minutes away. We catch a bus to Pisac at 5 A.M. which is invariably packed to capacity. It takes maybe 45 minutes to get there. In Pisac, we fight our way off the bus through pushy crowds of Peruvians vying for seats, and then we immediately go to the panaderia to get fresh hot bread – the best part of the morning! Then we wait with the other teachers for the combi (basically a stripped out VW van type vehicle with seats) and pile in with (not kidding) twenty other people. They usually insist on us sitting, so I’ve only had to stand once so far. It can get really insane.
The combi travels up past Pisac, and the road turns into a dirt one. We drive along the side of a mountain for a while (see earlier picture on Flickr of the view down 1000 feet to the river), and then climb through a number of different communities. One of these is the Parque De La Papa, essentially a bioreserve for potatoes with over 200 varieties cultivated and studied. Then comes Cuyo Grande, then Quello Quello, and there are a few more. All of these places are a little more urban and well-off than Sipas.
Finally we come to the last pueblo and the road continues to climb through grazeland until it starts a series of switchbacks that take us over the mountain pass into the next valley – the District De Colquepata. Sipas is just over the mountain, down another set of switchbacks. The combi lets us off up above the pueblo because the road is too rough for anything except big trucks (although some hardcore Peruanos do drive their cars down it on market day). Then it continues on to Soncco, which we will also do next week. The trip from Pisac takes about two hours. It can be very bumpy, some combis are worse than others. Finally, we hike down the hill to the clinic, usually arriving around 8:30 or 9 A.M.
Yesterday, as usual, we walked unsuspectingly down the street towards our fave breakfast spot and were confronted with a massive hoo-ha (word coined by my friend Rachel, means a big party essentially). It was El Dia De La Corpus Christi! The cathedral had a huge amplified mass out on the front steps. Everybody eats a traditional meal on this day called chiriuchu, which we had for dinner at Eggo’s. It consists of indigenous food – cuy, chicken, toasted corn kernels, seaweed, fish eggs, dried and reconstituted mutton (salty, like a lunch meat), and sausage (which they were out of). Also, everybody eats coconuts and sugar cane. It was the biggest fiesta I’d seen yet, at 2:30 I tried to go to the Yanapay school and literally could not get into the plaza. Around 4 in the afternoon it started clearing out a bit and Laurie and I walked around some. I made field recordings of the numerous different brass bands competing with each other, and we drank a bottle of beer with two older Peruano men who turned out to be artists. One was the director of the Museum of Popular Art in Cusco, and he gave us free tickets! We talked to them for a while, it was fun to converse with intellectual left-leaning atheistic Peruvians. Definitely a different perspective. We asked them what they thought of Bush and they said they thought he was a dry drunk who beat his wife. We also talked about the U.S. treatment of indigenas and as usual I had to apologize for my fucked up country, which they really sincerely appreciated. EVERYBODY was drinking in public, it is one of the few days where that is tolerated. Corpus Christi is not, apparently, an official Catholic holiday, this is another example of syncretism.
Next week we will report back from Soncco, and then we start to say goodbye and wrap things up!
5/30/07
It’s a rainy Wednesday in Peru. Laurie gets back from Trujillo tomorrow! It has been a quiet week, I have had exactly six conversations in English, most of them short. Also have become proficient enough in Spanish to have conversations, which is nice. I keep buying the papers and reading them, looking up words I don’t know over and over. Past tense is still elusive, but whatever. Quechua remains even more elusive, although I can pick out words I know at times I still can’t form sentences more complicated than (e.g.) “don’t touch” (“ama llami”, but different pronunciation than Español). I bought nail clippers from an old guy on the street who was delighted when I thanked him in Quechua, most people here get enthusiastic when I say even my bare minimum of words.
Last Wednesday, we had a successful day at the Sipas market, giving away 16 stoves! Our total is now 20 that are on houses. Soon we will post photos. When we returned to Cusco, there was an email for us from a German guy who is also doing freelance stove projects. He gave us important new info – that the metal rockets don’t last very long in the Inkawasi models and that we should coat them with clay before installing (with the ash layer around that). This results in a fired piece of clay in the shape of the rocket once the metal wears out. So we scrambled around that night to coordinate with Pave about getting a message to the folks we had just given stoves to!
The same guy also told us that they were training ceramicists to make rockets for a tenth of the cost of what we just did. But there is nobody even near Cusco yet who could do it, and we still aren’t sure how they could possibly be transported up the mountains to Sipas! So perhaps next year…
I have been walking a lot, about two weeks ago it was like somebody flipped a switch and there are noticeably more tourists here. New traffic lights keep appearing as well, the latest one right on the street outside our apartment! Yesterday I discovered an entire street devoted to shops with religious wall hangings. Scrounging the few English book exchanges for good books, we have gone through what we came with (me: Ulysses, Laurie: 100 Years Of Solitude).
I have finally managed to stay up late enough to check out some of the bars and clubs, which don’t really get going until 10:30 at the earliest (for bands) and usually midnight (for dancing). Went to Ukuku’s around 1 A.M. on Friday with two friends (Chicho and a Belgian woman named Karen that Laurie and I met in Ollentaytambo) and it was full of dancing and revelry. Last night I discovered a yummy pastry place that serves little savory empanaditas.
Eating breakfast specials in the morning, usually a bowl of fruit/yogurt/granola plus juice and coffee for five bucks, pretty expensive but good fruit is a luxury. I could eat meat and rice down the street for a dollar. And that usually is what I have for lunch, although the lunches are huge and come with soup for about $1.50. I have experimented a little bit with pisco, a clear grape brandy that is Peru’s national drink, but only had one kind that was truly good, very grapey. Mostly I stick with the Cusqueña, brewed locally and quite drinkable.
During breakfast, I can look out a balcony onto the main plaza. There are small armies of cleaning people dressed in blue that totally remind me of Oompah-Loompahs. They sweep the streets and sidewalks. There is another group of people dressed in green – the Garden Gnomes – who tend the flowers and grass of the plaza. Ironically, the dogs are given free reign to run around everywhere including the plaza, while people and even toddlers are chased off the grass. The dogs in the city are totally indifferent to people, often running in groups on some top secret doggy mission. Or else they’re just casually wandering the streets or pissing in the flowerbeds on the plaza. Or sleeping on the sidewalk. This is in great contrast to the dogs of Sipas, who are always scrounging for food during the day and very hostile and territorial at night.
It is moving into winter here, we have learned the meaning of the term “abrigarte!” (“cover yourself”, roughly). Next week we will return to Sipas for three full days and hopefully give away the rest of the stoves for them. Then it’s on to Sonco and one last visit to Sipas before we morph into tourists and then return.
5/22/07
So, this has been the least amount of time we’ve spent in Sipas yet. After my last update, we went up for a day while the market was happening to publicize our stove distribution plan. Laurie already wrote about this on her blog, so I’ll skip that. Tomorrow we are going up for a single-day visit again, hoping that a lot more people signed up on the sheets Laurie left with Adela.
This past weekend we went to one of the private museums that isn’t covered by the official 10-day tourist ticket. It was a truly amazing collection devoted to pre-Columbian art, a lot of it on loan from a Lima museum that has the world’s foremost collection. Many beautiful examples of bottles (carved like cormorants, owls, or realistic likenesses of human heads), strikingly painted plates, and a really stunning wooden staff with a duck head, so simple and so realistic. The Mochila people did the best wood carving, and the Nazca had the most elaborate painted bowls. Also examples of other pre-Inca cultures like the Huari and Chan Chan. As it turns out the Incas were only on the scene for a couple of hundred years – more on that later.
Yesterday Laurie and I took a bus to the town of Urubamba, you go north from Pisac instead of east to Sipas. We passed through the town of Calca, regional pride increases as you travel north and Calca has signs saying (loose translations) “Calca: We Don’t Vend, We Defend” and “To Lie Is To Act Like A Slave”. Urubamba was small, clean, and lazy, with a tiny little Plaza De Armas. We ate lunch at a tourist sofa bar and then continued on by cambi to Ollantaytambo, our destination for the night. Laurie is friends with a family who lives there.
Ollantaytambo is where the royal Incas fled after the Spanish conquest. It has unbelievable ruins that are directly above the town on the mountains, with huge steps that the Spanish couldn’t figure out how to climb (there was a secret back path). After the Spanish dealt with that (it took them a while, it seems) the Prince and the remaining Incas retreated to Patakancha, 1200 meters up into the mountains (higher than Sipas!). Today they are 90% pure descendants, but of course have lost most of their culture and heritage (and I note again that the Incas basically gained a lot of their knowledge through conquering others and were really kind of latecomers compared to the Huari empire). Anyway, Ollantaytambo has that “never really been colonized” feeling bigtime. The streets are pretty much the same as they were pre-Conquest, with gorgeous little canals running all through them. I took a ton of pictures. It felt like being at the edge of the known world.
There’s a new wanna-be conqueror in town though – global capitalism! Since Laurie was there 3 years ago, hostels and cambis have doubled in price. There is an explosion of turisto type places. The family Laurie is friends with owns some property in town where they have a non-profit restaurant setup that feeds local kids for free. Since the last time, they have moved the restaurant to new digs down the street and are now renting out the space to other businesses. Carlos, the lead kid of the family (there are like 5 brothers) said that it is good for the economy, but that some customs are being lost. Interesting to note that there are a lot of cultural pride type measures going on, though – I kept wanting to mention that there’s this whole program in Sipas where the kids get traditional style backpacks instead of whatever hand-me-down 1st World Disney or Nike crap comes their way. That’s just one example – the Calca signs are another.
Last Sunday we also gave away our first stoves in C’Orao! Very exciting. They have to sign an official contract saying they can’t resell the stoves. We are going to post everybody’s picture when they receive their stove. Tomorrow after our visit to Sipas we will see the first ones fully built and installed in people’s actual homes!
I am continually amazed by the hidden courtyards here. A door you never saw open before can suddenly reveal a whole world behind it. That and the narrow stone streets really appeal to my Dungeons & Dragons sensibilities. I bought a map of Cusco and have been studying it, walking around to fill in the gaps of my knowledge.
This coming week Laurie goes to Trujillo (north of Lima on the coast) to visit friends. I will be wandering Cusco solo, perhaps even visit some outlying areas although most have to wait for our ten-day tourist ticket period at the end of June. More news next week…
5/14/07
That was the longest time between updates, I think. After we got back to Cusco and Laurie went to the clinic, she returned the next day for another shot. Then she went home with some more drugs, but two days after she stopped those (last Thursday, this was) her headache started to get worse and she went back to the clinic. By this time I was flat on my ass with my own flu-like sickness, which lasted around four days in total. Around 9 PM Pave came and got me, we went to the clinic and it turned out they were keeping her there.
She just got out this afternoon after spending four nights there. In addition to sinusitis and pharyngitis, she was diagnosed with a case of near-bronchitis, salmonella (“only at normal Peruvian levels though”, says the doctor), and another amoebic parasite whose name began with “H” that isn’t in our books. They gave her excellent care which is fortunately being covered by our traveller’s insurance. Every morning this entire delegation of doctors and nurses and etc. would visit her and discuss her condition.
After the second day I started walking to the clinic, it takes about 15-20 minutes and I go past the Wanchaq Market which I have mentioned before. It is cleaner and more utilitarian than the San Pedro Market - where, in addition to all the animal parts you could imagine, there are better flower stands, more dried goods, and a whole section of ultra-creepy dead mummified fetal goats and pigs that the brujas (witches) use. Wanchaq has more locksmiths, barbers, and such. There are different districts, Wanchaq is one of them. They are kind of like the boroughs of New York and have some degree of independence. After five minutes of walking I almost never see any more tourists, but this part of the city is quite safe even at night, very populated and open with lots of vehicles and lights.
Saturday night while Laurie was in the clinic, it was time to load up Isidro’s truck with all the stove parts. Pave met me at 6:30 and we headed into the rough, crazy, and somewhat dangerous Santiago district to meet Isidro (this is the one place we have repeatedly been warned about by friends and strangers alike, Chicho says gangs use trained dogs to rob people and he has had to run from muggers on his way home before). When we arrived at the welder’s, the HUGE (multi-block) weekly used/flea market was just breaking up, it was dark, and there were piles of trash and dogs and sketchy guys everywhere. Since the streets were still blocked we walked down and met Isidro under the Santiago bridge, the whole scene was very Blade Runner-esque. We drove and loaded up the barillas (rebar pieces to support the pots) at a different place. By the time we got back, the street was open. Isidro, the welders, and I loaded everything in while Pave counted and took pictures, then I paid them the huge sum (6350 soles, about 2 grand) that I had been carrying around warily thus far. The dogs ran around, security guys randomly blew their whistles, and about a dozen middle-aged women did a slow, graceful pre-Mother’s Day dance with each other in the middle of the trashed-out street while torches flickered and music played on a boombox. Not for the first or last time I reflected on how far away my experience is from anything the average tourist would ever see.
The next morning I got up at 5:45 and met Pave and Nino at the Puputi bus station, after taking the bus to Pisac we met Isidro and drove up to Sipas. There were a bunch of people there to help and everything was loaded into the church in 20 minutes. We drove back down and I ended up home at 12:30. Six hours of travel for 20 minutes of work! But it was worth it, now all Laurie has to do is distribute the stoves to the families and get more interviews in the process. There is some question about the Sonco stoves (missing people on the list), but that will be resolved eventually. Our job is more than half over, so is our time here.
In the intervening days I walked around in this weird limbo, a non-turisto in the tourist places (mostly due to needing a lot of fairly reliable good food to recover). Laurie and I watched a lot of cartoons, Camp Lazlo and Rugrats are pretty funny when all the voices are in Spanish! On Mother’s Day almost everything was closed, there were a bunch of confused tourists wandering around. I have been drinking the local beer, Cusqueña, which is actually quite a decent pilsner brewed with Saaz hops and local barley. There is a sweeter dark one too. Root asked me about the chicha (corn beer) but after all this sickness I am afraid of it, plus that’s one thing people warn us NOT to drink, especially up above.
In the midst of all this, it turns out that the village is going to start paying to chlorinate their water again, so THAT’S a relief at least. Laurie was in full on rant mode the other day about the sanitary conditions up above, quite justifiably I think (the doctors told her “all those kids are loaded with parasites”). So we will try to be even more careful. Who knows how she made it through that 15 months 3 years ago with no ill effects whatsoever!
Thanks for everybody’s words of support! Laurie is updating as well, and soon we will load up more pictures on the Flickr site.
Until next time,
S
5/5/07
Well here we are back in Cusco. After I last wrote we were kept up all night by some crazy May Day celebration down in the Wanchaq district, away from the turistos. Wednesday morning we got up at 4:15 to catch the bus to Pisac as usual. We bought yummy fresh hot bread in Pisac and piled into the cambi with the profesoras. Nino made some last minute adjustments to our new bicycles. Wednesday evening we managed to squeeze in two more interviews. One of the houses had a little calf living under a bed, surely one of the cutest things I ever did see (yes there are pics but not yet).
Thursday morning after a light breakfast we headed out on our bikes to Colquepata, allegedly a 40-minute bike ride. It took us two hours. The ride was gorgeous, we were way high up in those mountains and the scenic vistas were staggering. We fortuitously met the president on the way there, he was working on road repair. So Laurie got to discuss our concerns and set up a meeting for later in the evening. As we descended down into the town (population circa 1500) we noted with dismay that we were riding down a long, steep, rocky hill.
Once in the town, a young man (Ediberto, age 17) who had ridden with us most of the way went and found the director of the radio station. Laurie had her first on-air experience! “Hola Sipascanchas, soy Laurie!” She told the village to have their adobes, mud, and ceniza (ashes) ready for Sunday the 6th when the delivery of stove parts was scheduled. This was Adela’s idea and a good one. While she was in the station I had a moment of concern as I was surrounded by six men who were very curious about the bikes and eventually asked if they could exchange one of theirs for mine! Um, NO.
Once Laurie finished being a radio star we went down the block to the health center to meet Humberto (the doctor we previously met in Sipas). He was full of advice – the guys on the street were harmless, my giardia almost certainly came from the water in Sipas, not the food, etc. He had all the demographic info Laurie needed on his computer, unfortunately we didn’t have a blank CD so we will copy it later when he’s back in Cusco.
After a quick meal at a local restaurant Humberto took us to, we prepared for our return. We walked up most of the steep slope out of the town, and then found to our further dismay that it was basically uphill the entire way back. It took us three hours in the blazing afternoon sun. Laurie started to feel worse and worse. We were in sight of Sipas when Nino caught up to us, riding his bike home from the day teaching in Sonco (one of the small towns in between and the site of 21 more stoves to be put in). By that point Laurie had to stop and was vomiting, with a severe headache. I booked back to Sipas on my bike and met up with Nino who had taken a shortcut on Laurie’s bike (breaking both pedals in the process, cheap ass plastic bullshit). I gave him water to take back to Laurie, then he returned to where she was and led her down into the valley and back up on foot carrying his bike. She barely made it. I ran to meet them once I could see them on the trail with some coca tea for Laurie.
We put her to bed and rested for a couple of hours, but then she began to get worse – headache not responding to pain meds, vomiting, etc. I went to get Nino and Adela and looked up stuff in the “Where There Is No Doctor” book, for a few terrifying minutes I thought she had heatstroke but her temperature was too close to normal. It was probably heat exhaustion. Nino and Adela swung into action (Adela comes from a jungle family of healers) and mixed up a concoction of coca, urine (Adela’s) and rubbing alcohol which they rubbed on her legs. Then they wrapped her legs up in a towel, Laurie said it heated them up until well into the night. They also mixed up egg whites and put them in her hair, covering her head with another towel afterwards. At some point during this Cyprian (the president) showed up, but it was obvious we couldn’t meet with him. Adela and him went off to discuss our main bullet points, Nino stayed with Laurie and I.
We spent a miserable night in the clinic, Laurie’s cough got worse and worse. By the next morning she was a wreck and could barely walk up the road to meet the cambi back to Pisac. We took a taxi from Pisac (after having to lay down the law to the cabbies once again) and Adela took her straight to the clinic in Cusco. She was diagnosed with sinusitis and pharyngitis. They shot her up with antibiotics. Last night was another sleepless, cough-filled night, so harsh. About an hour ago we returned from our second visit to the clinic where she got another shot and (finally) a cough suppressant. Wish her a speedy recovery, folks!
In the midst of all this Pave called us to say that the soldaduras (welders) weren’t ready. They were still working on the small grates that hold the wood up above the base of the rocket entryway. Yesterday she came over and with her communication skills and Laurie’s cell phone, we managed to reschedule everything for NEXT Sunday – El Dia Las Madres! Seems appropriate. So now the plan is to meet Isidro in Cusco Saturday night, load up the truck, have him stay in town overnight, and go up in the morning, returning to Pisac after we offload 100 rockets, 100 chimneys, 100 grates, and 1000 chimney hats into the almost-abandoned church. From then on, our role is mostly supervisory, plus continuing the interviews. So we have a whole week to rest in Cusco and recuperate, I am going to work on my Spanish and Quechua.
OK, back to the apartment to start some chicken soup. I had planned a more general update, writing more about history and language and culture, but that will come later this week.
Love to all,
S
5/1/07
Happy International Workers of the World Day! Celebrated in a lot of places but not the US, god forbid we should have the same holiday as those communists. The internet café is still open, the girl here works 7 hours a day, 7 days a week, and goes to school in the mornings. She doesn’t keep any of the money, it all goes to her family (Laurie found all this out the other day). There are a lot of places closed today.
As some of you know, we decided to stay an extra week. There were several reasons for this. One was that we were leaving on the morning of the biggest holiday of the year here in Cusco, the summer solstice aka Inti Raymi. People were urging us to stay and it also was a bad day to travel. In addition, we have come to the realization that we are working a lot. Even on our days off we have been planning, checking in with people, and dealing with banks. This week we got our first real time to chill and have a few days off. So we are planning to actually act like tourists for a change at the end of June, see some ruins, and relax before our redeye flight from Lima.
Friday, after the antibiotics finally started to kick in, we went out with Chicho to my DJ night, but they decided they didn’t want me to play after making us sit there for an hour. It was hard to parse all the reasons (the bar has this weird family scene), but I think Cesar really just wanted to copy my iPod. Laurie was pretty pissed, I was just confused, and Chicho said it was dishonest and lame – so that time it wasn’t just cultural differences. So we went to see one of the traditional groups. There is this group of bars that cater mostly to middle class Peruanos – I asked Chicho where they worked and he said “in tourism”. They are all kind of allied, put on events together and such. Saturday we did the same (at a different bar) except this was a group that Chicho is friends with and that Laurie had seen before on one of my DJ nights. They were called Amaru Puma Kundur (a reference to the Inca worldview – serpent below, puma on earth, condor above). They were super excellent, reminded me of Hamsa Lila. I bought their CD. They would go over real well at the Country Fair, lemme tell ya. But I don’t think the Fair pays airfare for nine people!
I have mostly been on the super bland diet, but yesterday we went to Eggo’s for our traditional mid-day meal. They had adobo con chancho (pork adobo) and warned us that it was picante. FINALLY! Actually, it was cooked with a pepper that you could choose to cut open if you wanted to ramp up the spice factor (in this case times ten). It was very good but a bit overwhelming, today I am back to mostly blandness although I sampled some of Laurie’s chicharron today. Tomorrow we leave for Sipas at 5 A.M., ride bikes to the Colquepata health department (so Laurie can see the records for what kind of health problems the village has had during the last year) on Thursday morning, return to Sipas that afternoon, and go back with the teachers in the cambi sometime on Friday afternoon.
We have been going to the crepe place more and more, we discovered these cheap dessert style crepes for like 5-6 soles plus they have the best and cheapest café con leche we have found so far. Last night our waiter was a young American woman whose mom had married a tourist guide. They are involved with a children’s library in Pave’s neighborhood, this library also has adobe stoves! We plan on visiting at some point soon.
The street vendors are getting to us, especially the relentless “massage” girls who seem to own the street next to ours. Laurie has started lecturing them – “look, I’ve walked past you every day for a month and said no, gonna be here two more months, can you please stop asking?” On an individual basis, this seems to work. We have also started sitting in plazas once removed from the main one, which helps a lot. The other tactic that I finally started ignoring yesterday is for someone to ask “Where are you from?” after you’ve said no to whatever item you’ve been offered. If you respond, it triggers this script where they say “Estados Unidos! Capital Washington D.C.! President George Bush! Former president Bill Clinton! Monica Lewinsky!” (I wish I was making this up). Then next comes “Por que no?” Sigh. Other than that, I have made it a point to be nice and say no, lots of tourists act like those people don’t even exist which is icky.
Till next time,
S
4/27/07
OK, we have all the LEDs we need. Thanks everyone!
Well, it´s been a month. Today we went and checked on the welders who are building the stove parts, everything seems to be going fine. The rockets weigh around 15 pounds apiece! Good thing Isidro has a big truck. We also searched unsuccessfully for used bikes, but we found a place that sells cheap new ones with the help of a very nice Peruvian guy we met in one of the bike shops.
It is my patriotic duty to inform you, as a temporary Peruvian, that today was the day Peru had a big push to get people to vote for Macchu Picchu as one of the New Seven Wonders Of The World. When I walked down into the square this morning, there was a huge hoo-ha going on with an endless parade of schoolgirls, campesinos, dancing troupes decked out in traditional finery, guys in suits, military marching bands, etc. All of them had banners and balloons and such urging people to vote. As Laurie pointed out to me today, one good reason to do this is because it will enable Peru to further protect the area. So if you so desire, go to www.n7w.com and vote!
Last week in Sipascanchas we went to build the first demonstration model stove in the kitchen where the mothers cook for the kids, which has been unused recently due to budget shortages. We had it all planned – a friend of Pave’s was going to drive us and Edy #1 all the way up to Sipas, wait for Edy to complete the work, and take him back. It was a good deal, too. So at 6 A.M. on Monday Laurie and I made our way to Pave’s to get picked up. After an hour, Pave discovered that the cambi driver was drunk (at 6 A.M.!!) and had lost both the keys and some important card (license? registration?). It was Pave’s car! She was furious, seems that she has helped this guy out a lot in his life.
Anyway, off we went on the bus to Edy #1’s shop. He was barely ready as well! Good thing we were late… Then we hired a taxi to Pisac and after that a taxi to Sipas, cost us almost twice what it would have.
When we arrived there were a bunch of guys sitting around doing nothing and no adobe bricks (which we had thought we lined up beforehand). We found out their plan was to have each mother bring one brick! Except… almost all the mothers were in the city of Puno (8 hours away) for a microfinance conference! And they wouldn’t be back until Thursday! Hell of a lot of good that does… So we ended up reluctantly buying some adobe, which of course sets a very bad precedent. Hopefully nobody will complain about having to come up with their 40 adobes on their own now. Later we learned that the guys were sitting around for a big community meeting, not waiting for us – a good example of how easy it is to misjudge things with the language/culture barrier.
The stove was built quickly, there are pictures up on the Flickr site. Later that day, I started to get diarrhea, and by the time we came back to Cuzco on Wednesday and consulted Laurie’s invaluable “Where There Is No Doctor” book, it was obvious I had giardia. A little more research on Wikipedia and the U.S. CDC website followed, and we learned to our surprise that it is not just waterborne – it takes the form of a hardy dormant cyst that can be found in just about anything – dirty hands, dust, toys, food, etc. Once ingested it turns into the amoeba. Washing my hands fanatically appears to be the only other thing I can do besides the precautions we already take. Laurie and I are still mystified concerning the wheres and whens of the transmission vector, since she is not sick and we eat almost exactly the same stuff. Anyway, I am now on 500 mg of Flagyl 3 times a day for 7 days – this was the pharmacists’ recommendation since the giardia here is tougher (normally 250 mg 3x/day for 5 days). Hope that’s the end of that part of the story! I will say it was much less unpleasant than I imagined – no pain, no fever, etc.
On Wednesday we found out that it was a special day – The Day Of The Cows (Dia De Las Vacas). Celebrated in all of Peru, but more so in our region, it is a day where all the cows get special treats from the children (apples and flowers), get to stay in their stables all day, don’t have to go grazing up above in the mountains, and, if they’re lucky, get to wear garlands of flowers on their heads all day. Adela led me and the whole preschool class (about 25 kids) to a stable where the kids said hello to the cows. Then they all took turns laying down their gifts on a blanket while saying blessings to the cows in Quechua. Again, there are numerous pictures (of a cavity-inducing level of sweetness) up on the Flickr site. I think there was more to the ceremony, but I had to leave to catch Isidro’s truck back to Pisac.
Last night was the big soccer game, Cuzco’s Cienciano team against the Mexican Toluca team. They put up a huge screen in the plaza so everybody can watch. Laurie, our friend Chicho, and I went to a local bar for the first half. We were just a tad early and snagged a table, 15 minutes later the place was full. It was fun to watch crazy Spanish TV during the pre-game. The Toluca team had these cheerleaders who were so outrageously over-the-top sexy that it actually worked somehow (more raw, less airbrushed), there were quite a few whistles in the bar at that point. We settled in, the game started, and… they got slaughtered. I used to play futbol aka soccer and although the score was only 1-0 (from a dubious penalty kick awarded to the Toluca team) at the end of the half, they would have been down 15 points if it was basketball. Consistently outplayed, it was harsh. Peruanos in the bar were putting their heads into their hands and shaking them as their beloved team made bad pass after bad pass. The score ended up being 2-0. Today Laurie asked a cabbie about the game and he didn’t even want to talk about it.
My friend Eric asked about the names in Sipas, some of the photos are misleading because that was one of the only families so far where all the kids’ names were Americanized. Significantly, it was also one of the only houses with a DVD/TV setup. Some of my favorite names so far: Incarno, Narcissa, Honoraria, Efraim, Cyprian, and Flor De Mayo.
We’ve been trying to read the local papers, which sometimes gives me a surreal and incomplete idea of the news from home (hmm, ships trapped in ice in the North Atlantic, hmm… KRYPTONITE DISCOVERED IN SERBIA!?!) I saw a particularly memorable political cartoon a few weeks ago, a replica/parody of the Iwo Jima flag raising scene except the soldiers were raising a Confederate flag and there was oil spouting out of the ground where the flag went in. ‘Nuff said there.
Next week is a big week, we will spend 4 whole days in the mountains including a bike ride to Colquepata (about 2 hours probably). Won’t be back until Friday, I’ll probably write again next weekend.
Regards to all,
S
4/20/07
It´s been beautiful here the last few days, sunny yet temperate as we head into the fall season south of the equator. We are settling into our routine, this week Laurie did seven interviews up in Sipascanchas (I think I will say ‘Sipas’ from here on). I had less to do this last time, but in the coming week I will be videotaping some interviews and the construction of the first model stove for Sipas. They got a lot of work done on the jardin (aka kindergarten) building while we were gone, there was a whole playground installed with slides, climbing structures, and grass! They cut the sod from somewhere else. It isn´t going to be finished until the end of the month, so they keep chasing the kids away from the playground. There will be a big party on the 2nd of May to celebrate. I recorded some cool stuff – an deeply weird radio play in Quechua that we heard by chance (only an excerpt but WOW), the sound of the men calling a village meeting by blowing on conch shells, and the maniacal garbled radio noise that our neighbour starts blasting out of a big speaker at 5 A.M. I can’t figure out whether they’re showing off or performing a public service in the form of a wakeup call.
My initial impression of Sipas was somewhat inaccurate, it is actually considered somewhat of a happening place out there in the rural Andes. People move there from places even further out, kind of like the equivalent of La Grande or Kelso/Longview. And there is a lot of work being done. Still, they won’t pay one sole a month per family to chlorinate their water, go figure.
I am starting to dissolve in the sea of languages here, I can feel the English kind of floating away.
Other impressions of Cusco… we have made a habit of going out on Sunday evening before our Sipas trip and taking our leftover food in search of a single parent begging on the street. Sadly, we haven’t had to look for more than ten minutes yet. The first time it was a mamita who was nursing an older boy, probably four, because she had no other food. Sigh. The second time it was an older man with a young boy.
Is it some kind of law that every European under 30 has to have dreadlocks? I swear, it awakens my inner cynic.
They burn some kind of scented wood here, not like cedar but sweet. I know the smell has already percolated into my DNA in that unique way that only smells have, it will always remind me of being here.
Yesterday we spent a long time in the huge Molino market, Laurie got a portable CD player and a bunch of CDs from local or regional artists (plus superstars Mana and Manu Chao). As she was listening to various things, a guy asked me what kind of music I liked. It turned out he was a bar owner and was looking for new music. I hit him up for a DJ gig and it was decided I would come by in the evening. Turns out they show movies at his bar until around 9, then they have music. Like a lot of the bars and restaurants here, it is entirely filled with couches/sofas. No dance floor there, but they have cool games for people to play (Pictionary, Scrabble, lots more). I started playing stuff off of the iPod (which seems to be OK as long it’s not on battery power, thank god) around 10 or so and kept it up until after 1 A.M. The owner (Cesar) was happy although along the line it was requested I throw in more rock and less dance, which actually works better for me. A brief note on DJ psychology: You need to read the crowd, figure out why they are there and what they want (and how to get them to stick around). These folks are mostly hanging around after the movie and want to talk, drink, and play games – not dance. By 1 the place is usually cleared out because the turistos have headed out to the dance clubs. I am going to try and have a regular gig there on Friday nights after the movie, so I’m going back tonight.
Last night we also had an old friend of Laurie’s over for dinner, he went with us to the bar and they cheered me on. He is from the north and told us some fascinating stories about his indigenous tribe, who were conquered by the Incas sometime around 1000-1200 AD, probably. They are the people who were doing brain surgery in the years BC (!!!). He said the Incas took the wisest people from his tribe south with them, which was a typical Inca move it seems – they imported a lot of knowledge from the conquered areas.
Tomorrow we are having the doctor and lawyer (who are married, it turns out) over for dinner. Sunday we go to C’Orao again to meet a busload of American turistos who are coming there. Pave is sick so we will be their liaisons.
In the past week I had had increasing problems with one of my canine teeth, so yesterday I went to a dentist who Laurie knew from before, definitely NOT sketchy and quite the professional. He is giving me four fillings for the equivalent of approximately $80 US. The value-for-money ratio is really mindboggling here sometimes, Laurie bought a bag of coffee for a dollar yesterday. The nurses she knew in the hospital when she was here before made about $80 US per month. And Peru has the most up-and-coming economy in all of South America!
Until next week…
4/15/07
OK, it´s a slow sleepy Sunday in Peru… We got to take in easy in Cuzco for a few days, Laurie went to the welders and ordered our 100 stove parts after waiting in lines at the bank all day. I went to Spanish class. Friday we spent a night out on the town and last night went to an “electronica night” at a bar just up the street where it´s all couches, no dancefloor. Place was tiny and crowded by 11 PM. One guy spun vinyl, the others used CDs or possibly MP3s, couldn´t tell. We ended up talking to a friend of one of the DJs, they were both from Holland and in Cuzco for a week. All the Holland people Laurie and I have met are really nice and speak excellent English. We plotted to get me an off night opening up as a DJ there. We definitely aren´t on the tourist schedule here, they all stay up til 5 AM dancing!
Today we went back to C’Orao with Pave to do interviews with the 3 (possibly 4) families who want stoves there. We’ve got it down to a routine now, depending on the number of kids it can take less than 45 minutes. One family, Andre’s and Honoraria’s, had a 13 year old daughter with a brutal toothache, she was really miserable and crying quietly the whole time. Laurie took a taxi back after we returned to Cuzco with pain meds (Tylenol etc.) and a few other things like some colored pencils for the other kids (3 younger boys, super cute and studying diligently, I took pictures). C’Orao is close, she was back in under an hour. I showed Pave the Flickr site (where I mislabeled Claudio as El Presidente, hope Laurie fixed it).
We also brainstormed with Pave about getting more turistos to stop at the weaving corral, it´s kind of like a flyover zone to the more well known and popular market & ruins in Pisac. We decided to make flyers in English and hand them out ourselves. In another positive development, the nuns had brought in a sewing machine and a loom and some locl women were teaching the Sipascanchas folks to use them in return for being able to use the machine/loom for their own projects. So hopefully they will stock up before the main tourist rush hits (in late May when the rain dies off).
Tomorrow we head back to Sipascanchas, we’ll probably write more on Wednesday evening.
Take care, all
S
4/12/07
OK, here we go. Donations etc… numerous people have been asking about how to make donations. It’s complicated. For starters I recommend some basic reading about microfinancing and microcredit, there are books and probably essays as well given that the last Nobel Peace prize winner was the Bangladeshi microfinance guy. But the thing about just donating the money to GIVE stoves straight up to people is, well… it doesn’t really work. You see, people in these situations won’t use something new/unfamiliar that they don’t have a personal investment in. We have seen this directly borne out in the situation with the bathrooms at Sipascanchas. They were built by outside parties, for free, and a LOT of the people still don’t use them. They are treated like some kind of status symbol, not used for their actual purpose. One of the key philosophies of the microfinance movement is that people have to have some kind of personal stake or investment in whatever improvement is being made. So our offer is: 20 soles for a stove (which we are not keeping but putting back into a tree planting project), OR two of the families’ best cuy (guinea pigs) donated to a cuy-raising project in Sonco (another nearby village) OR donate labor for free to build stoves for the 7 or 8 single-mother families. Even then, we are keeping it on the down low that we’re giving stoves to the single moms (thanks, Drake), because if word gets out everybody will want one for free. I hope this makes sense, folks. Right now, it seems that by far the most useful way to make a donation to this project is to go out and buy as many cheap little LED penlight/nightlight things as you can afford, preferably red (for keeping your night vision) but any color will work. We were able to find them at Tru Value Hardware in Eugene for $2 apiece, pay no more than that. Then AIRMAIL them to: Laurie Iaccino (do not use c/o) Machu Picchu Spanish School Calle Arequipa #251 Cuzco – Peru They are one of the single most useful things we have found to give people, and we are quickly running out of the 40 we brought. If we end up needing money, Laurie has an account set up with her credit union that people can donate to, much better than Paypal. OK, lemme get my outline out now. Some random notes to start off with… After seeing how invasive the eucalyptus is here, and learning that the Australian colonists imported it, I have come to the conclusion that Australia deserves their cane toads. Payback is a bitch, as they say. The weather here is crazy. It’s so high up that it’s similar to a desert vibe, hot in the day and cold at night. But it’s the rainy season, so there are periodic cloudburst/thunderstorm type moments during the day as well. Sometimes at night it just POURS like nothing I have ever experienced except the most intense Midwest thunderstorms, except this can go on for hours. Just amazing. All the streets and fields have channels cut into them for drainage. When we went back to the cathedral, the hunger strikers were gone. No idea what happened, but today I watched a march of differently-abled folks demanding rights and respects (one sign said NO MAS EXCLUSION, no more need be said). Just yesterday on our way back from Sipascanchas I asked Laurie “boy, people in wheelchairs are just shit out of luck in this country, aren’t they?” So this was yet another example of recent synchronicities (more on that later). My friend Root has a brother who is working in the Peace Corps in Ecuador, and he had an interesting take on the smoke which was that, in the jungle at least, it keeps the mosquitos away and reduced the spread of malaria. A mixed blessing for sure! Laurie’s response is: “They need to use nets, not smoke”. Monday morning we got up at 4:15 A.M. and caught a bus to the town of Pisac with Nino and Adela. When we reached Pisac, we bought fresh warm bread from a panaceria and waited for a kombi, kind of like a big van with 8-10 seats. Probably 15 people crammed into it, we were early on purpose so as to get seating. Up the mountain we went, at points there was literally a thousand-foot drop down to a river that started FOUR FEET OR LESS away from the tires. I will try to get a picture next time. About two hours later we were dropped off on the road above Sipascanchas, it is impassable during the rainy season except to really big trucks or 4-wheel drive vehicles. We decamped and sorted out where we were going to stay, we ended up in the old clinic which has been pretty much unused since Laurie was last there. All over the walls were educational posters that she had written during her last stay here, very weird and surreal. We arrived around 9 A.M., during a break in the school day, and were constantly followed around by 25-30 curious children, probably ages 3-10. We unpacked, had tea, and watched the men building the roof to a new kindergarten – first the framing, then a thick layer of bamboo, then mud, then these half-cylinder type pieces of clay called tejas (I think) that were laid out in rows, one up and one down, overlapping so as to drain the rain off. A guy named Alberto invited us to lunch (almuerzo), Laurie is the godmother of his youngest daughter. Well, here we go! The daughter led us to her house, straight up a 30 degree slope, occasionally looking back with this puzzled expression as we struggled along behind her. Sure enough, the meal was fried cuy (see above) which was actually quite good and well seasoned. Also potatoes, more than I could ever even think of eating. After we gnawed all the meat off of the little cuy legs we threw the bones to the dogs. Unfortunately, it was partly an elaborate setup for him to ask Laurie for a lot of money. I’ll let her comment further on that. Periodically during the day the clouds would roll in, the temperature would drop 20 degrees, and it would rain. Almost everybody walked around in the cold mud with nothing but sandals, some of the better off folks have rubber boots now. Mud and cowshit everywhere. After lunch we interviewed Alberto’s family, Laurie has a number of medical test devices to measure lung capacity, pulse rate, and percentage of oxygen in the bloodstream. Later in the day we interviewed the family of the new president, who seems sharp and motivated. She was puzzled because all of the numbers seemed really low (i.e. bad) – more on that later. Tuesday we spent a full day, eating, napping, and interviewing. We are limited in the times for interviews because the whole family is usually home in early morning and early evening only. After a couple of fairly exhausting treks (mostly done by Laurie), we decided to have the families who live further away come to the clinic for the interviews. The houses are humbling – dirt floors, blackened ceilings, smoke. Occasionally a TV/DVD setup, weirdly enough – two out of five so far. There are more stores in the village now, another sign of improvement, although the term “store” is used fairly loosely here. On Wednesday, we attempted to do some more interviews but it was too late in the day – we went to three houses unsuccessfully. Feeling defeated, we retired to Adela’s room/office for breakfast (desayuno). Totally by chance, there were two folks there visiting the village – a doctor from the local health department of sorts (Humberto), and a lawyer friend of his whose role was somewhat unclear to us (Meribel, she lives in Cusco so we will find out more). We would have missed them if we had been doing interviews. Humberto explained to Laurie that her readings were normal, they just acclimate to the low levels. He also offered to help us get the donated vitamins that have been held up by customs in Lima! Very, very fortuitous. On Wednesdays there is a market set up and people come from even further out. The men get drunk on chica (fermented corn beer) and the women sell stuff (with a few exceptions, notably Alberto, who was at his table the whole time). We bought some essentials for our time there like a blanket, dish soap, bleach, matches, etc. Packed everything up in our room behind two locks and caught a ride back to Pisac with one of the big trucks that comes on market day. Laurie and the driver knew each other from before, and we chatted with him on our way back down, maybe 90 minutes. On the way into Pisac, he was stopped by two very intimidating Peruvian cops for no apparent reason, I’ll let y’all know how that turns out because we disembarked at that point. We decided to pay for a taxi back to Cusco because we were feeling burned out, the buses are crowded and it sometimes takes a while to get one with enough room. The first taxi we asked wanted 40 soles! We expected 15 at most. Laurie went off on an inspired tongue-lashing in Spanish, people across the street were watching and laughing. We stalked away down the street with our backpacks as the taxistas followed us, progressively lowering their offer until we got down to 20 soles. Laurie continued to (justifiably) lecture the driver as we headed towards Pisac, pointing out all of our bullet points: not tourists, volunteer workers, been here before, and WHAT THE FUCK IT’S 40 SOLES TO TAKE A GODDAMN TAXI ALL THE WAY FROM SIPASCANCHAS TO CUSCO (my emphasis, not hers). She told him to let all the other drivers know who we were and not to try and rip us off anymore or we would just take the bus (which we will probably do a lot anyway). I love my girlfriend! Once we got to talking basic chit-chat, it turned out that our driver lived in one of the smaller towns along the way and knew this family that Laurie has another godchild with! Small world, ain’t it. She wrote a note for him to deliver to them and we paid him an extra 5 soles, we were on good terms when we were finally dropped off in downtown Cusco. We decided to celebrate our good fortune with the doctor etc. by going out, so we went to one of our fave local spots, Los Perros (The Dogs) for a magnificent meal of: two 14-ounce glasses of fresh juice, a chicken and avocado salad, two big bowls of one of the best pumpkin curry soups I have ever had, and two STRONG mugs of rum-laden hot chocolate to finish off. Total was approximately $20 US. We walked for a while, hung out at our apartment for a few rounds of Yahtzee, went up to the crepe place for a dessert crepe (chocolate and fresh pear this time), and then down to a local bar where they have traditional music. Drank some more rum (straight dark stuff from Cuba this time) and watched a 6-piece band run through a bunch of great-sounding traditional stuff. Electric bass, drums, this fascinating mandolin-type instrument with 10 strings (5 are harmonic strings, like a 12-string guitar), two guys playing flutes and/or panpipes, and an acoustic guitar. Finally got home around midnight and slept, but our sleep cycles have been pretty whacked out so it wasn’t as restful as we hoped. Sorry for not closing the door, Laurie! (the lights shine through and keep us up). In about 90 minutes I’m headed to my penultimate Spanish class, I paid for 5 days which takes the form of two two-hour sessions per day with different teachers. My early afternoon teacher, Karina, told me about this movement in Peru called the “neo-rural” movement, where people from the cities take over abandoned pueblos and renovate them. Nobody else has had a clue what I’m asking about when I try to get more info, so I am going to grill her about it. As a final note, I asked Adela about the land situation when we were up in Sipascanchas. She said that families reserve pieces of land for their kids with the understanding that they will give some of the produce back to the community as a whole. She also told us that there are no papers of official records of any kind for any of the land. I’ll just let you Americans roll that concept around in your head for a while, it warmed my anarchist heart lemme tell ya. Until next time, Sleeve
4/8/07
I think I'm running out of adjectives. We got back early today so we are updating before we go to Sipascanchas at 5 A.M. tomorrow. Saturday we got up at 6 and took a bus to Quiquihana, about two hours to the south of Cusco. Pave came with us. Some of the nuns have a convent there and they are in the process of building yet another orphanage. The countryside on the way was amazing, the mountains go straight up from green plains. Lots of deserted adobe buildings, Pave said that the occupants leave during the rainy season (December to May) because of the danger of landslides, then they return if they can. The nuns gave us a brief tour of the convent and I was amazed to see a 200-watt pirate radio station! It´s so far out in the middle of nowhere that nobody cares. Those naughty nuns! Also impressed to learn that it isn´t just religious broadcasting, but music and local news as well. Then we went to the orphanage-under-construction where the stoves were to be built. Welders Eddy #1 and Eddy #2 were already there, along with two Quechua guys who we think were construction workers already on site. It took us about 4 hours to build two stoves, which were somewhat larger than the Inkawasi blueprint that is our norm. Sister Nelly was right in there with us working, Eddy #1 somehow managed to go the whole afternoon without getting his spotless and creased pants the least bit dirty. I filmed the whole process but not before we discovered we had TWO dead batteries and had to hack together a jerry-rigged electrical cable that went about 100 feet. The power kept going out and Laurie would have to go back to the blackened, melted, charred outlets and try new combinations until it worked. Conscious of the fact that I was filming an instructional video that would not be edited, we went in stages. I would start filming, Pave would explain the steps in Spanish, then one of the local guys would translate into Quechua. Then I would stop the camera until the next phase. Laurie took pictures but (I can hear the groans from here) we won´t have them until Thursday. The most inspiring thing was watching how quickly the Quechua guys caught on and how excited it made them. One told us that he lived in a pueblo with 70 families and he was sure everybody would want them. We fired up the stove as a demonstration, but they still needed to let it dry and form the concrete plate that sits on top. After we were done the nuns took us back for almuerzo, the big midday meal. Couldn't help but notice the two locals weren´t invited. Hmm. Anyway, we were well fed and talked about Lent and Easter. Laurie was quite taken with one of the older nuns, I bet she writes more about it. When it was time to go back we realized that the buses don´t stop in Quiquihana, so Sister Nelly drove us to the next real station. All along the way we passed people waiting for the cheap buses, more like vans, called kombis. It was just total poverty all the way back into Cusco, I wonder how long those people had to wait - a day? Two?. Today we did it all over again, going east this time to a weaver´s market that folks from Sipascanchas and Sonco have put together with the help of the nuns. Beautiful, incredibly detailed, expensive (up to US $150) blankets and scarves and purses among other things. The people come down from their villages and spend the week there. This was much nicer than the construction zone we worked in on Saturday, with grass, alpacas, sun, and some very curious little kids. We went with three families to look at their kitchens, Laurie took photos of the blackened walls and talked to them some. Lots of qui (guinea pigs) running around, also pigs and dogs. This time Adela's husband Nino came with us, he is a teacher in Sipascanchas and will probably be supervising the stove building operation, so add him to the cast of characters. Again, the stove building created quite a bit of local excitement and people picked up on it right away. As soon as we got it going, the weavers put their big pot of natural dye on it. It got to boiling in like 10 minutes! Immediately the weavers started throwing skeins of yarn into the pot to be dyed. So it was already being used before it was even dry! Didn't even have a chimney yet! During the process I took a break and walked down the alleyway because I heard singing. It was Easter Sunday service at the local church, and I recorded some chants and hymns for a little while, sitting outside. I decided not to record inside any of the churches here because they don´t allow film or pictures and, well, they deserve respect. But this church was blasting the service out through a big loudspeaker, so I figured it was fair game. Also wanted to note that on Friday night I was going out for bread and we heard the BOOM BOOM BOOM of marching drums. It was another parade for Senor De Los Temblores! That dude gets around. They carried him right past our apartment. Then we went down to the main plaza and saw an even bigger statue of the Virgin Mary being carried along, apparently this is the parade where they go out, meet each other in the street, say hello, and go back to their respective churches. When we got back today we took Pave and Nino out for chicken and watched people get hyped up for another soccer game. A bunch of red-clad guys came down the street with drums chanting the Cienciano (Cusco´s team, see Laurie´s blog for more info) chant which goes OOMPAH OOMPAH OOMPAHPAH!!! I also recorded the team song off of some loudspeakers. Now it´s off to shop for supplies and then to bed!
4/6/07
Well! It's Friday, I think it{s Good Friday. God DAMN these weird keyboards, I{m just gonna use the bracket as an apostrophe. After I wrote the above update, we checked out the ceremony, a very solemn parade where they carry this big statue of the black Jesus through the streets downtown. There were live hymns being blasted through huge speakers in the main plaza as the Senor De Los Temblores was carried along with people throwing flower petals at him. I recorded some of it! Unfortunately I had to go to class, but afterwards we went back down to the plaza just as he was being returned to the cathedral. the crowd was packed and massive, even worse than the worst Country Fair that year they oversold. I thought we were gonna get trampled for a few scary seconds once. Tuesday we went out for a dinner with some of the other students and teachers at the Spanish school, and then went for beer and pool with a few of the students and an Americano friend of one student. They{re really into pilsners here, that{s about it as far as beer. The pool table was ridiculously surreal and warped and we watched our balls do some highly unlikely curves and twists, but it made the game last longer. That same day, my iPod died and lost all its files. As most of you can imagine, I was less than thrilled with that development. Fortunately, it made a mysterious miracle recovery yesterday and the files are back. As we continue to prepare for our first trip to Sipascanchas it is becoming apparent that we won{t be building all 120 stoves, probably more like 60 or 70. Not all the families have come up with their share of the cost (20 soles, about $6 US) and we decided on a deadline of April 20th. Still no photos, Laurie needs to dump her camera card onto CD first and it is kind of a hassle. Sorry. On Wednesday afternoon Pave took us and two of the nuns to an orphanage where she used to work 10 years ago, we were ostensibly delivering a big sack of sugar but I think she wanted to give us a tour. 40 kids, from babies to teens. The whole thing is funded by two Spanish (as in, from Spain) sisters who have family money. It was really inspiring, lots of love everywhere, happy kids, clean, food, etc. They said a lot of times the babies are literally left on the doorstep. They also have a 100% placement rate for the younger kids, at a certain point adoption just doesn{t happen any more and then they care for the kids until they are 18. Last night we had a surreal experience up in San Blas, the neighborhood above the main plaza. We were just walking around and ended up in this super small super fancy crepe place. Had a delicious dessert crepe, candles and wine, a wood stove (we were originally drawn in because their sign said "ecological wood stove" but it wasn{t a rocket type), and it felt like we were in Europe somewhere. Then back out on the streets with the beggars and hustlers, what a culture shock. I feel true pity for the next privileged hippie who tries to sparechange me back in Eugene, they{re gonna get a serious earful. School is going as well as a one week crash course can be expected to, irregular verbs are a pain no matter what language it is. I am definitely more proficient, though, and can go shopping by myself now! Yesterday we were on the Plaza and noticed a hunger strike off to the side of the cathedral (with signs and such). About 5-6 men, workers at the cathedral, striking (I assume) for better work conditions. We talked to them briefly and we are going to try and interview them later for possibly an indymedia article. They are very brave, demonstrations are technically illegal here (which explains the teargas from the other day, apparently that situation was only defused because the univeristy administrator agreed to meet with the student activists). Tomorrow I take my first trip out of the city, to Quiquihana to check out one of the trial stoves. Then Sunday it{s another trip to another city, I forget which, and then we leave for Sipascanchas at 5:30 on Monday morning. We decided not to spend the whole week there, so I will probably update again this upcoming Thursday. Bye!
4/2/07
It's Monday. Today is a huge Easter-related holiday involving Los Señor De Los Temblores, a black Jesus who they say saved the city of Cusco from an earthquake in 1650 on this day. I bought a little pamphlet about his history today, there is a procession starting at 2. Saturday evening after my last update Laurie and I went downtown at night for the first time. We walked into the most insanely huge and ornate church on the main plaza and they were having evening mass. The minister or whatever was leading the hymns through a fantastically distorted amp system, and the crowd was responding. The hymn was in Quechua, and with the echo in the huge basilica it was literally spinetingling - the first time I have felt not just "different country", but "totally different reality". It could have been 100 years ago. The examples of syncretism in the church were jaw-dropping, like a huge painting of the Last Supper with the Black Jesus and a table full of roasted guinea pig (a delicacy here, haven't tried it but Laurie says it tastes like chicken). Unfortunately I will miss a lot of this thing today because my intensive course en castellaño starts today (NOTE: saying "castellaño" instead of "español" is better form). I brought a professional field recording unit (an M-Audio 24/96) and will be recording a lot of this kind of stuff as I get the chance. We also found out that the demonstration was about Peru´s plans to privatize it's education system, which seems like a damn good reason to raise hell. There was teargas, injuries, and 1 arrest, but we seem to have totally missed all that. Yesterday Laurie and I moved into our own apartment. We have our own bathroom! And a small fridge!!! (an uncommon luxury that we were not planning on). We got settled and then went shopping. First up was the food market near the main plaza, an absolutely insane spectacle that would make any US health inspector keel over and die on the spot. Dogs, flies, craziness, a whole butcher aisle with heads, jaws, tongues, internal organs, and who knows what else on display. Lots of food booths and such. we stocked up for our new kitchen and got some basic stuff like a 5-gallon bucket for saving water (although our apartment seems to have in 24-7 you can never be sure). Then we went to a mercantile market, also huge and amazing, kind of like the Fred Meyer of Peru. We found speakers for the iPod so now we can rock tunes in our new crib, most excellent. Today we kind of accidentally found a different market that Laurie had never been to by asking a cabbie where to go to dupe keys. There were no dogs allowed in this one, and cheaper blankets than Laurie had seen anywhere else. We're going back in a bit to get three blankets - one for our bedroom window and two for our beds since there is no heat to speak of and lots of gaps in the seams of the roof. Our project has a name now courtesy of Pave! "Allin Q'Unchakuna" which means "better kitchens" in Quechua. I also wanted to note that although we are financing the stoves ourselves (about $6500 US), the Catholic Medical Mission Board paid for our tickets and traveller's insurance and is also giving Laurie a stipend - credit where it's due. After this week we will go up to Sipascanchas to begin the interview process that Laurie is doing, it also includes some basic lung diagnostics. I have been deputized as the official videographer of the project, armed with Pave's 8mm videocamera (I worked on a live community television show for like six years). That's all for now, more in a few days probably.
3/31/07
I thought I´d start here by giving some background, a lot of the people on my email list don´t know all the details of what we´re doing, plus I´m reposting on ILX and my blog, so... Rocket stoves are a way to reduce indoor air pollution by achieving a higher combustion rate for wood-fired cookstoves. In much of the Andes, the primary means of cooking and heating is with open fires in a closed area (house). As a result, respiratory illnesss is Peru´s leading cause of death. The stoves not only reduce the amount of smoke, but will also have chimneys venting to the outside. In addition, the higher combustion rate means that wood is burned more efficiently, reducing the amount of firewood needed. We are building 120 stoves, 100 for the village of Sipascanchas and 20 for the village of Sonco. We´re doing this with our own finances, no non-profits are involved in the stoves. cast of characters so far: me- Sleeve, some guy from Oregon. Laurie- my awesome girlfriend who worked as a nurse in Sipascanchas for 15 months (from 2002-2004). this is kind of a homecoming/reunion for her. Pave- our temporary host, she has also done a lot of volunteer work in the village. Juliana - German volunteer teacher also staying with Pave Rossana- Laurie´s friend who runs the Machu Picchu SPanish School which I will be attending next week. Adela- native Quechua woman who is a teacher in the village. OK... It´s Saturday now, feels like forever since we got here Tuesday morning. Thursday night I had my first real sleep. Friday we got up and went into the Centro (center of town). The first thing we saw was a big demonstration! Probably 150-200 people chanting things outside of this government building, probably 50 riot cops in full gear. After a few minutes they all marched into the building, I couldn´t be sure but it looked like a lot of the people in front were in classic anarchist black hoods and such. There was also a press conference going on. When we walked down the street to try and find a bank, we saw another march that was part of the same demonstration. This was all campesinos, mostly older, with the mujeres (women) marching first and chanting "la lucha continua" (the struggle continues). we applauded and smiled, I think it´s important for them to see sympathetic white faces. We asked around but nobody could tell us what specifically the demo was about. Laurie tried to open an account but she needs a Peruano to go with her to vouch for her. So we walked around a bit and saw some of the famous Inca walls made of giant stones perfectly fitted together with no mortar. The archaeologists and scientists and historians still don´t know how it was done. We stopped at a restaurant Laurie had been to before and had our first real meal - potato appetizer with some fascinating sauce, soup, trout, and filet mignon of alpaca which was freakin´delicious. Also this yummy drink made from red corn, pineapple, and apples. Later we went back to the apartment and Pave came back, having spent the day comparison shopping among welders. I´m not sure whether she called Victor´s initial labor estimate an "outrage" or an "insult", but the point was clear. We are going to let her do all the finance negotiations from now on! And possibly go with another welder, as long as they also speak Quechua. I wanted to talk linguistics some, it´s very interesting. When I started studying Quechua a few months ago, I was struck by some of the similarities to Finnish - suffixes which change the meaning of words or sentences, for example. Last night Pave told me that this is actually a real similarity that linguists have found - Finnish, Hungarian, Mongolian, and Quechua all come from some common base before the Bering Strait and Indo-European migrations. I am also having this disorienting effect of having my high school German come up, I want to say "aber" instead of "perro" and "und" instead of "y". Juliana speaks excellent English so I haven´t been practicing much German with her. Last night we all went down to the hardware/welding district to price sheet metal. we decided to go with thicker metal, 1/8 inch, to increase the longevity of the stoves. I am also looking for a voltmeter and soldering iron, wishing I had brought mine. Other notes... the water is only on here from 8 Am to Noon, so you need to plan ahead and fill up pitchers and buckets ahead of time. There are taxis EVERYWHERE, whole lines of them along the busier streets because very few people have cars. Emissions control? Ha! Dream on. It gets pretty toxic at times. Adela came by today for the first time, she tells us that many things are better in the village which was a relief to hear after all the bad news. All the houses have running water and bathrooms now (!!!) but they don´t really use the bathrooms yet - some education is needed. They will also supposedly have internet in 3 months also! These improvements are due to the municipal government, which is apparently doing a good job. We move into our own apartment on Sunday! Hot water! (Laurie says it´s really lukewarm at best, but still a luxury). Next week I start intensive Spanish school, 4 hours a day. Probably another update early that week. Ciao!
3/29/07
now I know how Ron feels when some strange computer eats his message. I had a long one and fucking EFN logged me out. and of course there´s no cached page for the "back button". OK, anyway. flight was totally uneventful. landed in Lima 10:30 PM, a taxi driver took us to our hotel. one of the first things we saw was one of the famous street dogs of Peru, what Tami used to call "ur dogs" aka "uber mutts", basically prehistoric dog model. pointy ears, ridged back, upright tail, mixed coat color. we drove through some different neighborhoods, the socioeconomic level changed drastically at some undefined point to become more upscale. all we did at our fancy hotel was sleep. in the morning another taxi took us back to the airport. the driver had owned a factory before Garcia came to power the first time (in the 90´s sometime we think, he was recently reelected). he had 50 employees and then the inflation rate went up to 2 million percent and he went bankrupt. Now he drives the taxi. he said the reelection was probably due more to forgetfulness than forgiveness. a lot of the houses in Lima and Cusco have these unfinished upper levels with 10 feet of rebar sticking up, apparantly it is related to how people borrow money, one floor at a time. when our flight got into Cusco it turned out that we had miscommunicated and Pave had come to pick us up the day before. Fortunately Sister Nellie had come to check for us! She got us a taxi and we went to Pave´s house. Pave´s sister and Nellie put two beds together for us and made us coca tea. we lay down. at 3 Pave came home, we talked, had a bit of food, and I went to bed at 6 and stayed there until 3 the next day. Laurie pushed herself and stayed up, then got very sick. Better by the next afternoon, whew! the next day, Wednesday, we went to visit the welders who are building the stoves = Victor (father), Edy, and Edy (two sons). They will be welding the elbows for the stoves as well as the chimneys and the cement top plates (with rebar inside). It will take them about a month. Pave and Laurie entered into extensive negotiations en espanol and I was left in the dust. Later we walked back to Pave´s and stopped at a store for soup ingredients. I was in bed at 7:30, gonna try to make it til 9 tonight. this morning the welders came by with a total price quote. Laurie and I had been panicking about the durability of the elbows, metal doesn´t last but neither does ceramic (we´re talking 5 years max). fortunately they can be replaced fairly easily while leaving the stove more or less intact. this afternoon we went down into central Cusco to visit Laurie´s friend Rosanna. I might take classes there next week. we are moving into our apartment on Sunday. saw the first white faces today, Pave´s is off the tourist track. I´m gonna email this now and maybe add more if it goes through. um... I wanted to talk about Pave´s street, Calla Del Estrella. everybody has ur dogs and they live outside the locked courtyards (before the locked gates) all the naughty dogs bark and bark at night, I want to record some! Pave´s dog is named Gos, or "ghost" and looks more husky than ur dog. the neighbor´s dog is a small dachsund looking hound type named Laika (SO CUET). we think she is the naughtiest barker but we´re not sure yet. fortunately we have capones (earplugs). I am going to try and hook up Pave´s new second bathroom shower, all the shower heads are electric and are the only grounded things I´ve seen so far, all of Peru runs on ungrounded 220 volt power (scary!!!). Yes she has a fusebox! We probably wont´go to Sipascanchas until next Saturday. From what Pave tells us things are pretty dismal there, the greenhouses fell apart from lack of care and were cannibalized for wood and plastic, there is no money for the school lunches, and the medical supplies were sold for personal gain. We´ll see how bad it is when we go. Pave got a car and we night even drive there the first time, seems our licenses are valid! That sounds even scarier than the bus, though. the welders are going to be up there Monday through Friday and I will probably be helping them while Laurie does clinic work. the first month, while the parts are being made, Laurie is going to do her health surveys. Victor speaks Quechua so that will be pretty much essential. OK, all for now! More next week!

3/20/07

Probably my last blog entry that I do from home. I have been sending out email updates and soon I will just be cut-and-pasting those into the html here. Changed the links so that Laurie's blog is linked directly above. Onward!

3/12/07

Well... I leave for Peru in two weeks. Triage is occurring on a number of levels. I bought an iPod that is filling up, and I'm still agonizing over whether to buy some simple recording device. Laurie and I are looking at some apartments in Cusco. All our papers, shots, schedules, and finances are in order - we just need to start packing. I think I will be able to update this blog via Freewebs, but I will also send out email updates. We are actually leaving Eugene on Saturday the 24th and spending two days in Portland. The amazing band OOIOO is playing one of only six shows in the country that night and we have tickets... so excited. Unfortunately it looks like Eyvind Kang will only open for them in Seattle though... we damn well better get something quality to replace that!

I also got to see long-time favorite band Charalambides for the first time recently in Portland... they did an amazing set in the Reed College Chapel where the ornate wooden interior fit their outer psychedelic explorations perfectly.

Chanteuse went into the studio to do some recordings, more on that page...

The mp3 blog scene is totally, overwhelmingly insane. And I thought I knew what information overload was like...

2/12/07

For maximum cute cat jpg rofl's, check out the ILX IS DOWN PAGE and keep refreshing.

Here's my recap of the 19th annual Record Convention... I went through my CD's and put a bunch up for sale, but sold much less than I expected. Probably $75-100 total. I've only had a table 3 or 4 times in the last 17 years though. Once I cleared $1500! In 1996, I think, selling old hardcore records. KWVA was broadcasting live from the room and it went really well technically, which was a relief. I spent all day there, hanging out at the KWVA tables (there were like 6 of us in a row selling records). And here's the scores. From most expensive to least...

Alice Coltrane - World Galaxy LP. Beautiful copy. A rare record of swirly cosmic jazz.

Konstruktivits - Glennascaul LP. I sold this in one of my purges and regretted it greatly. I'm keeping this one. My favorite of his.

13th Floor Elevators - S/T LP. Shockingly, I have never owned a copy of this record, having made do with a tape Steve Millen made me in the 80's. Not as good as the 2nd one, but still classic. This is a Warner/Radar repressing from 1978 or so, near mint.

V/A - Objectivity: The Object Singles Album LP. Just found out about this label and somebody had this for cheap along with a ton of amazing UK DIY 7" goodies I couldn't afford.

The Cramps - Psychedelic Jungle LP. This record is more subtle than the debut. To replace a CD copy that I sold.

Chris & Cosey - Songs Of Love & Lust LP. Shockingly, I have never even HEARD this record. Until now. It is really great.

Vic Godard & The Subway Sect - A Retrospective LP. On Rough Trade, a handy collection from this tragically underdocumented band. These bits and pieces are all we are likely to have.

Tom Waits - Foreign Affairs LP (white label promo). Slowly finding all of his stuff. This is a total classic, of course.

Suicide - S/T LP with 3 bonus tracks. And a different cover! On Red Star! It's a 1980 JEM repress. (UPDATE: this also includes the "23 Minutes Over Brussels" flexi disc, which I once paid $25 for alone and have since sold. What a deal for $10).

Yello - Claro Que Si LP. Original on Ralph. A bit warped but OK and not scratched or worn at all.

Siouxsie & The Banshees - The Scream LP. Cause that remastered single CD SUCKS (overmodulated, clipped sound) and I am selling it ASAP. I used to have this, etc.

Richard Thompson - Live (More Or Less) 2LP. US repackaging of the "...Bright Lights" LP with a bonus mostly-live album that is one of his best things ever, especially the long versions of "Night Comes In" and "Calvary Cross" on side 2... Thompson has never sounded heavier to me.

Killing Joke - Fire Dances LP. Replacement of a CD copy, mint.

Black Flag - Everything Went Black 2LP and The First Four Years LP. Used to have "Everything", needed it back. Don't have the singles and comp tracks on side 2 of "First Four Years" so it was worth it.

Einstuerzende Neubauten - Haus Der Luege LP. Replacement of a CD copy, also in great shape.

CTI - ELemental 7 LP. Upgrade of this stellar Chris & Cosey side project.

Ramones - Leave Home LP. Dubious Portuguese pressing with "Sheena", sounds just fine though.
|
Captain Beefheart - Ice Cream For Crow LP (promo). Absolutely pristine and beautiful, replacement of a CD copy.

John Cale - Paris 1919 LP. Ditto.

Nina Hagen - Nunsexmonkrock LP. Upgrade of this fantastic LP. One of my early 80's favorites.

The Creatures - Feast LP. Don't usually see this around my parts, never had or heard this before either.

Yoko Ono - Approximately Infinite Universe 2LP. Eight bucks! Hell yeah!

New Order - Blue Monday/The Beach 12". Replacement of my copy I stupidly traded in for some noise record circa 1987-88.

The Glove - Blue Sunshine LP. Never had this LP and it was $7. Sounds better than that new remastered CD.

Herbie Hancock - S/T 2LP on Blue Note Reissue Series. I listened to this last night, classic stuff, nice clean copy.

Neil Michael Hagerty - The Howling Hex 2LP. Probably the highlight of Hagerty's post-Royal Trux years, I foresee many listens ahead (UPDATE: listening to more of it right now).

Miles Davis - Water Babies LP. Outtakes from various eras. Upgrade copy.

Bush Tetras - Rituals EP. Drastically underpriced ($6) VG copy of this classic EP that I used to have.

Siouxsie & The Banshees - Join Hands LP. Replacement for a copy long since traded in.

Big Black - Atomizer LP. Ditto.

Bikini Kill - Pussy Whipped LP. Only had this on tape, I think I have all their stuff now.

Miles Davis - Jack Johnson LP. One of the best!
John Coltrane - My Favorite Things LP. A classic.
Miles Davis Quintet - Miles Smiles LP. Ditto.
Miles Davis - E.S.P. LP. Ditto.
Miles Davis - My Funny Valentine/In Concert LP. Haven't heard yet.
James Blood Ulmer - Free Lancing LP. I'm excited to hear this, from Ulmer's classic period.
Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari - Tales Of Mozambique LP. Looks very intriguing, from what I've read.
(all in good shape for $5 each from one dealer, I didn't have any of these before)

Gong - You LP. Pretty beat up Virgin Records copy, I need to compare sound with my Charly version. This one has a different cover.

The Doors - Morrison Hotel LP. I probably sold this 20 plus years ago, bought it again for "Peace Frog" and will probably discover other good things I forgot.

Wall Of Voodoo - Call Of The West LP and Dark Continent LP. Definitely an ILM-influenced choice. $7 for both!

and, for $1-2 each:

Steve Reich/John Adams - split LP on Phillips
Yello - Live At The Roxy Dec. 1983 1-sided LP
Prince - Controversy LP
- Sign 'O The Times 2LP
- Kiss (extended)/(heart) Or $ 12"
- Let's Go Crazy/Erotic City 12"
Grace Jones - Slave To The Rhythm LP
- Nightclubbing LP
Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers LP
Neil Young - Comes A Time LP
The Cure - Just Like Heaven/Breathe/A Chain Of Flowers 12"
Modern English - After The Snow LP
V/A - Guillotine 10"
The Blue Nile - A Walk Across The Rooftops LP
John Prine - Prime Prine LP
V/A - This Are Two Tone LP
Led Zeppelin - In Through The Out Door LP
- Houses Of The Holy LP
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Ozz LP
Robert Fripp - Exposure LP
Alice Cooper - Greatest Hits LP
Maddy Prior/June Tabor - Silly Sisters LP
John Lennon/Yoko One - Double Fantasy LP
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska LP
Love & Rockets - Ball Of Confusion/Inside The Outside 12"
Chaka Khan - I Feel For You (remix)/Chinatown 12"
Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance EP (5 mixes)
Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle LP
Art Of Noise - Into Battle With... LP

1/24/07

Went out to see a few shows recently. First was the fantastic Portland band Talkdemonic at Sam Bond's (instrumental band with violin & drums and lavish backing tapes). They had an excellent opening band called Bright Red Paper (mostly instrumental, standard 3-piece plus cello). I reflected on how much of a total sucker I am for the cello.

Talkdemonic were crazy good, and the sound was great (good job, Brian!). They remind me somewhat of the Dirty Three in terms of approach and dynamics (plus the violin). I bought their record and was disappointed upon initial listen, perhaps that will change. I'm not even sure what it was that I didn't like except that the LP didn't sound as rich and full.

On Saturday after an extensive private listening party I floated out to the Wetlands to see Ed Cole's first gig out with his new band The Underlings. Well, well worth it... I missed a few tunes but got to see Ed rip through numerous originals, an awesome version of his old band Activator's song "I Remember The Fuzz" (w/Dan Jones guesting on fuzz guitar), and a totally killer cover of Television's "See No Evil" with Patrick Hayden on extra guitar. Check 'em out!

Next was this band from Portland called Yoyodyne. I saw them a while back opening for the Heavenly Oceans show at Luckey's last November, and I liked them even more this time. 3-piece, the woman who plays bass sings about half the time, they cover Dock Boggs and Galaxie 500 (interesting reference points), and sound like some lost Rough Trade band. Very cool.

Dan Jones has a new record coming out soon and rocked the house. He even put down his guitar at one point and did a couple of tunes with like 5 or 6 guys rocking out behind him. It was pretty glorious. Turns out his girlfriend's 14-year-old son has been coming to shows at our house recently, so it was nice to talk about that as well.

We leave for Peru on March 26th, I think we buy our tickets this week. I have had my physical, I have a prescription for some preemptive antibiotics to take with me, I'm getting travel vaccinations on the 31st, and am now trying to increase my red cell count and learn more Quechua. Laurie is going to bring hundreds of bottles of vitamins that are being donated from the Vitamin Angels.

1/13/07

Happy New Year. Sad news of the day is that Alice Coltrane died last night. I am putting her records on right now in tribute.

And wow, do I have the system to do her records justice. Although some of my friends have beaten me to it in blogland, I had a listening party for my new ultra hi-fi system last weekend. I now have a Music Hall MMF-5 turntable, a pair of Paradigm Studio 20 Version 3.0 speakers, and (the weak link now) a Nakamichi SR-30 amp. Vinyl that I have had for over 20 years sounds like a CD now. New vinyl sounds like the musicians are sitting in my room.

I am selling a bunch of my CDs to fund this new investment in vinyl. Mark my words, records will outlast CDs.

12/3/06

Joanna Newsom put on the show of the year for me at the WOW Hall last night, you could hear a pin drop as she and her band finished a jawdropping set. She is the new Joni Mitchell, circa 1972, filtered through novel-length literary impulses. classically trained harp acrobatics, and witchy Northern California hippie philosophy. Just amazing. I think the WOW Hall was sold out. I can't even remember the last time I was at a sold out WOW Hall show - Fugazi 1995?

Tonight I am going to a Green Scare benefit at Sam Bond's with Mood Area 52 and Peter Wilde. All but one of the defendants in that case have taken pleas now, and the infamous "no contact list" that had my name on it has been officially expunged by Judge Ann Aiken. Thanks Judge Aiken!!

Started studying Quechua in preparation for our trip to Peru. The web is proving incredibly useful, the Wikipedia entry had a lot of good basic info plus links to more comprehensive sites. In this modern age, I can click a button on the computer and hear the word pronounced correctly in any of the numerous dialects. The Cusco area has its own version. In contrast, I was unable to find a single actual textbook for Quechua on the net.

In other news...

Chicago anti-war activist burns himself alive to protest Iraq war.

11/20/06

Well.

I believe that was the longest period I've gone without an update. You know when Tina is asking you to blog more that things are slow. I have been focusing more on Shards Of Beauty (see link above) in the last two months.

I'm going to Peru in April! Laurie and I are going to try and introduce rocket stoves to the village that she was a nurse at. I'll be there for three months.

Locally, I went to Heavenly Oceans' record release party and bought their new LP, a finely designed and great sounding product. Glad they're gigging more, I caught them maybe 6 weeks ago at Luckey's and I believe it was their first actual headlining gig. Tons of people danced during their set! Since I am on record as having them as one of my favorite local acts for what, two years now, this new spurt of activity is very gratifying. Semi-new melodica player/tambourinist Shehan is a great addition as well.

Caught the Ovulators this weekend at the Downtown Lounge. They played with this newer band called Nodding Tree Remedies. I liked it! Young, totally hippied out but with other influences like some Beck-style hiphop, weird oldtimey stuff like banjo, and this dude scratched a reel to reel! Ovulators sounded good as per usual, almost all newer material in the set - #2, I Want Me, Cage, I'm A Girl, that other sweet new Dori song ("you know you got it bad"), that Creamy Creamy song (a Venus cover?). The opening "Five Aggregates" rocked.

Velvet Trap was settting up when they discovered that their kick drum and a backup guitar (just bought, never played live) had somehow been stolen out of the fenced back area. Much fuming ensued. Hard to say where that responsibility lies - I'm not a lawyer - but if I were the club manager I would definitely give them a good night to book for a benefit. And tell bands to not put their shit back there anymore.

Anyway, they had a new lineup and in fact may not have played since the last time I saw them at Sam's Place - not sure. I dig their vibe, basic unpretentious 4-piece leaning towards punk in the Ramones/Saints/Dolls style with occasionally more unusual chords and structures than a lot of that stuff. Which I like.

Also went to my first Poetry Slam of the new generation, the one where I don't work at it! The new art gallery setting is awesome, really perfect. They should sell the beer for less than $3 though. For art! I was struck by how less tolerant I am of bad poetry than bad music. Fortunately, enough was good that I left happy.

Oh yeah, Chanteuse played a gig here at Le Sous Sol. We weren't so hot, so let's not talk about it. More regular blogging to resume, hopefully...

9/5/06

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Had a sparsely-attended beer tasting party last night (Monday isn't really the best night for a party), Chaia and I played a drummer-less Chanteuse set and we got to see the debut performance of My Dirty Little Secret. Since the band threatened to kill us if we said anything about the gig, I can't tell you how great and noisy and spacy it was, or about the perfect improv/structure balance the band has hit. Can't tell you about the disguises, nope, forget it.

The Halleluwah Festival in Portland was glorious as expected. Expected highlights: Michael Hurley, Vashti Bunyan's FIRST SHOW IN AMERICA EVER AFTER A 35-YEAR BREAK FROM MUSIC, Sir Richard Bishop (who scared my girlfriend with his heavy vibes), Deerhoof and Erase Errata (both bands that people have tried to get me into, I never "got" the records but I "got" them both live). Unexpected highlights: the Evolutionary Jass Band (seriously great, see them if you can, CD out on Community Library Records), Grouper, Plants, Golden Bears, Dengue Fever, Nice Nice, and the Rank Strangers. Biggest disappointment: Birch Book (Bee from In Gowan Ring's new band), not for their performance but for the massive sound problems throughout their set, really a shame. When it worked it was great, though. Saw some utterly mind-boggling movies in the basement also... a full length promotional animated film for Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" (!!??!!), some really ridiculous late-70's era Can footage, crazy live Kraftwerk set with robots from 1978, a piece where German jazz-funk artist Eberhard Schroeder (Schoeber?) collaborates with a fucking Balinese gamelan monkey chant ensemble (this may have been the single strangest thing I have ever seen from the world of 70's television), a reggae documentary called The Land Of Look Beyond, and various vintage 80's video footage courtesy of Yeti (and formerly Chemical Imbalance) editor Mike M.

8/14/06

New post at Shards Of Beauty is the Liz Phair demo tapes a.k.a. Girlysound, recommended to any fan of hers.

8/1/06

EVERYBODY GET YOUR SHIT STARTED
THIS IS YOUR MOTHERFUCKING PARTY

The Coup RULED THE WORLD tonight. The idea of them playing at Sam Bond's was kinda insane anyway, and the weirdness of the times just went with it. It was one of the best shows I have ever seen in Eugene - that's fifteen years, ya n00bs.

Back in 1989 I was living in Bloomington Indiana. For a brief moment (eight months?) we had a legal all-ages club right downtown. It was called 39 Steps. I still have flyers from this club's shows - I saw the Laughing Hyenas, the Mr T. Experience, Yo, The Cynics, and numerous other 80's bands there. Aside from the usual punk rock panoply of memories there is one that stands out with the intensity of pure fire...

I was standing at the edge of a fairly large pit. Local heroes The Walking Ruins were playing, doing their slow swamp-rock tune "Lake Griffey Monster". I was at the far east end of the club, standing on a bench that ran along the wall. With me were my friends Mike and Bill who were some of my closer friends back then. We watched a sea of dancers swirl beneath us, knowing many of them. We felt the power of our community.

Tonight, I was on the far west end, standing up, watching a sea of people dance. Next to me were numerous amazing people. We know a lot of the people dancing. The place is fucking packed. The opening band is a bunch of genius young-uns from our community, some of whom I have known since they were six or seven. Spoken word, anti-militarism films, and then the headlining band blows the roof off.

The parallel experiences were quite odd in a (positive) synchronistic way. As I write this, I am once again feeling an eerie split with my former Midwest life. Some time within the last few nights I dreamed about being in Bloomington.

7/30/06

Note my new MP3 blog, Shards Of Beauty. I just couldn't stand how cool that scene has become. Here's a bunch of links to get you started.

Ended up seeing a bunch of stuff this weekend, kind of unintentionally. Thursday evening Laurie and I got takeout from Papa's Soul Kitchen (YUM) and sat in Scobert Park for a Dead Americans show. Quite a treat to see the newer version of the band gel. Kira seems fully there (rather than newly added) and the new songs are super memorable and catchy.

Friday night I did a quick stop-in at The Ovulator's CD Listening Party at Feinstein's, hanging out in the splendid sci-fi "stereo chair". Then it was on to the Maury Jacobs Gallery! Mike Walsh had another art show up which he had invited Launchpad to play at. Tara sat in w/them playing didgeridoo which sounded much better than I might have expected.

After that I ran into my old friend Elijah so we went down to John Henry's and caught some of my roommate Will's new band Middian. Glorious, loud, semi-structured heaviness as one might expect from ex-members of Yob and Ahisma.

And LAST night there was a show at Luckey's with a band called The Upside Down that my old friend Root Mugwort does lights for in Portland. Unfortunately he was not with them but the 6-piece band put on an excellent Stereolab/Spacemen 3 inspired drone-rock set for about ten people.

I also keep meaning to note that I saw the Fast Computers a couple of months ago and they were really great, check them out around town if you haven't recently.

7/19/06

The thing about the Fair is that I primarily get excited about recycling innovations. This year it was metal flatware (therefore no plastic forks in the compost for the first time ever) and bio-remedial mycelium test plots. I saw some good shows, especially former Recycling Crew member Laura S and her Girl Circus.

RIP Syd Barrett...

"See Emily Play" (WAV file, mono version from 7" single)

my favorite thing that I've read (among many) is this:

"Chris Cutler talks a lot about Barrett in his book 'File Under Popular', and in various interviews. Wondering aloud why Barrett never got his due as a rock guitarist, and claiming that he was easily the equal of Hendrix when it came to his revolutionary use of feedback in psychedelic rock (w/ Hendrix coming from the R&B side and Barrett coming from a more purely experimental angle, name dropping Keith Rowe & AMM & so on).
The reason why of course is because Hendrix was widely bootlegged & filmed, so we can hear it, while the only thing that remains of Pink Floyd in full swing are the clips from Tonight Let's All Make Love In London and a few other clips... it's a huge loss that more of his wilder guitar playing wasn't documented, because I keep hearing from the people who were there that he was pretty much the guy who got everyone thinking about absolute freeform noise in a rock context." (from the ILM board)

Youtube link #1 (promo video for "Jugband Blues")
Youtube link #2 (part of BBC documentary)

7/4/06

Gearing up for my eleventh year on the Oregon Country Fair Recycling Crew. There will be no blogging for a while.

Lately, well, there was Tina's wedding which has been fairly well documented in my blog circle. I will say that the chorus line of little kids freaking out to The Ovulators was certainly a high point. Also note that this wedding had perhaps the highest party-to-ceremony ratio of any marriage I have ever attended - 9 hours of party, 8 minutes of ceremony.

And there was much rejoicing.

6/20/06

I went to California for a week to see Nurse With Wound's first public performance in over twenty years. It was a real vacation, Laurie and I were gone for a week. First we drove down to Arcata, which was beautiful because I had never been past the Takilma road on 199 going to Cali. Stayed with friends of L's in Eureka for a couple of days, lazing in the sun drinking rum. Then we drove down 101 to San Francisco, another new vista experience.

Our plan was initially to stop and camp on the way because everybody told us it took a long time. But as we flew down the coast and approached the city, it was only 5 PM! We kept going and found a hotel around the block from the club (the Great American Music Hall). We decided to go to the FIRST night of NWW performances - there were two and we only had tickets to Saturday. They still had tickets so we ate excellent Thai food and settled in to the club. Somebody dressed as a huge surreal starfish-like creature was playing the accordion as an opening act. Then the NWW crew came out with augmented members and performed a version of their track "Salt marie Celeste". Long, oceanic drone with shivering noises scampering around the outskirts. We were impressed but not blown away.

After a day of record shopping and exploration of the Golden Gate Park Conservatory's butterfly exhibit, we ate some excellent tapas at Cha Cha Cha (right next to Amoeba on Haight, if you're going there). Ceviche, jerk chicken, and an unbelievable fried banana dish with a black bean sauce. Yum!

That evening was the major performance, and we were not disappointed. As the lights dimmed and the strains of NWW's "Soliloquy For Lilith" filled the air, three mermaid-like creatures in full costume with ornate masks came weaving through the crowd from different outside points, converging in front of the stage. As the music changed into a different, more rhythmic NWW piece, a giant 12-foot sun god puppet entered the hall. They all danced around, the music changed some more, a giant 12-foot moon goddess puppet came in and they all danced around some more. Then four more apelike creatures came in, there was more dancing, and they left. It was really pretty amazing, the creatures looked quite alien.

Moe! Staiano (formerly of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) was on next, and he did a virtuoso percussion performance on a series of 78's set up on foam pads and mic'ed. One by one he broke the records until they were all destroyed. Fun!

The main NWW event featured a slightly different lineup including Moe. All of the music was new for the most part and there were some pretty heavy psychic emanations going down.

For the first 40 minutes or so of the set, there were three people sitting at the front of the stage. One had a moon mask, one had a flower mask, and one had a kind of frog-like mask. The moon and the flower sat at two chairs with a small table between them and wrote on a piece of paper. When they decided it was ready, they handed it to the frog (sitting at the edge of the stage), who walked out into the seated audience and handed the piece of paper to a random person. Then the two seated people would start another piece and the process repeated. They must have done this a dozen times. A nice effect, and a great souveneir I'm sure.

We staggered out with our brains all fried and went back to our king-size bed. The next day we drove back to Arcata and stayed with some old friends of mine, then drove to Eugene and made it to my radio show with 15 minutes to spare. Whew!

6/3/06

Keg party at my house tonight! No joke, we are celebrating the completion of our firepit. YAY!!! Tell your friends.

5/20/06

As reported in the R-G yesterday, Jeff went to jail for refusing to testify. If they keep him in for more than a month, I will be involved in some fundraising so his partner can make their mortgage. I'll keep y'all tuned.

I'd also like to note that the Weekly was NOT there, and that their reporting on this entire affair has been abysmal.

5/16/06

Chanteuse is playing another show on May 22nd. We are at Sam Bond's opening for Los Mex Pistols Del Norte. The show is free! Happy hour all night! More info on the Chanteuse page.

I did my last poetry slam on Saturday. It was just time. Marietta is leaving, she founded it, and a new group of people are planning to reincarnate it in another location. Plus, it was pushing my tolerance levels. I successfully heckled a judge into leaving before the third round, for example. The bad judges and the bad poems just got more and more annoying after four years, which is not unexpected. It will be nice to check it out next year as a spectator.

5/15/06

And now, an important announcement...

Protest Against Grand Juries and the Green Scare
May 18 at 10 am, Eugene Federal Bldg.
UNITE!
EXPOSE THE GRAND JURY!
STOP THE GREEN SCARE!
Federal Grand Jury Witchhunt in Eugene
Federal Building, 7th & Pearl
May 18 • 10 am
Jeff Hogg has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. Join us for a show of community support and resistance to the Green Scare and the corrupt grand jury system.
Act now to end the criminalization of dissent!

There are several issues at play here. For more general background info on the Green Scare go HERE. In this particular case, the issue is not only that these people are being excessively charged (which makes this entire process a very sick joke as well as a travesty of justice). Another issue is that federal grand juries are only supposed to be used to make indictments. The people in this case have already been indicted, so Jeff is being subpoenaed in order for the prosecution to get more info to try and build their case, which is FUCKING WRONG.

Please consider showing up, or contact me for more information.

4/29/06

Our back yard is resembling a large-scale Roman fortification as Shade embarks on our long-planned firepit/amphitheater. He dug a 20-foot diameter circle that was then dug down 18 inches or so. We picked up our fire ring (the mouth of a manhole cover) with 4 people and moved it about five feet. Now the chunks of concrete slab are being fitted in with sand. We're going to leave the piles of earth as berms. Shade finished the 3-foot flat stone section around the resituated firepit yesterday. Today we will build seats up the insides of the berms. Later we will plant the outsides with various stuff.

Um, anyway, so what the fuck is up with the WOW Hall booking The Ovulators without asking them? On a night they had an out-of-town gig? Just wondering.

4/24/06 (and updated below later on)

WELL.

The most amazing thing to have happened in the last 3 weeks is that I SAW JANDEK!!!

I was such an enthusiastic geek that I bought a disposable digital camera (it's actually totally reused except for the battery which is recycled) from the Rite Aid across the street from the Hollywood Theater in Portland. I haven't used up all the pictures yet but here is another person's:

As with the last 12 or so shows the man has done since October 2004, there was no acknowledgement of the audience. Here's a (brief) review I wrote for the Jandek mailing list:

Big old theater, nice place, sold out. The representative entered through a side door, all in black. probably 90 minutes, no breaks but there were pauses between songs. The backing was, to my ears, noticeably more "rock" than the primarily improv musicians used thus far, and I thought this made it interesting. The man in black was rocking out at times, practically banging his head. Some lyrics, paraphrased from memory:

first song:

i like you too
i know other guys like you
but i like you too
she said "thank you"

and then, later:

thank god i'm alive
and the pain is gone
thank god for life
and the glory of humanity
i know we got troubles
but i don't care

I am probably not the only person here who finds those lines particularly interesting. there were some quite beautiful parts in a song about wanting to be with someone all the time, at the end he was almost singing and Sam C was playing a bass melody.

then, a mindfuck yet again as two women got up on stage and performed backing vocals for a song that began "quantum physics got me down". they repeated a single line in a "Governor Rhodes" style call and response, that line being "whose mister is this?".

I saw the drummer today and he confirmed that the three "styles" were the same as before (blasted, blues, and ballads iirc) and that the representative was quite particular about what he wanted. They had the standard day-of rehearsal, about three hours worth.

another lyric i just remembered:
the flowers are blooming
the placid river scintillates

there were two videographers present. I left feeling pretty lucky. Quite an experience. I was also struck by the slow deliberate aspect of his movements, it was very considered. no interaction with the audience, but he smiled numerous times. I also saw him tune once, briefly.

So that was my Jandek review. I might also add that it was genuinely spooky. THe dude looked like a ghost. Laurie said he looked exactly like someone who has just had cancer (speculation that he is/was ill is one theory about his sudden decision to start playing live). In other exciting news...

DJ SLEEVE PRESENTS THE "BEST OF 2005" MIX!!!

Here you go. I had to re-encode a bunch of these files at 160K to comply with YSI's new 100MB limit. It totally pissed me off, but hey, the point is to get y'all to buy some of these records, right? As with last year's, this will burn perfectly to an 80-minute CDR for those of you who prefer that format. Enjoy!

http://download.youREMOVETHISPARTsendit.com/18B998D8315478E6

4/3/06

I picture Mr Random in the lab, clicking away on the treat button. It doesn't come.

Just got carried away there with the mundanities of life... Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been getting a lot of cheap vinyl and such. There was little of interest to report UNTIL...

I have been introducing Laurie to the Moomin books, which sparked a most interesting Wikipedia search for the author. And, lo and behold, the five years of comic strips she did are being released in hardback by Drawn And Quarterly this September (swoons blissfully). I can't wait!

3/13/06

Tons of stuff, way behind... Saw Robyn Hitchcock do a "top ten Sam Bond's shows ever" kinda show with Peter Buck (REM) and the Minus Five backing him up.... also saw a sold-out Animal Collective show in Portland. They were great as well. The Ovulators rocked me pretty hard at Sam Bond's last Saturday, and my mom just gave me the new paperback of Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up And Start Again, the definitive (and thus far only) book on the post-punk years of 1978-82, arguably my favorite musical period. Excuse me, I have to go read now.

Oh, wait. Did I mention that we don't want a corporate Whole Foods in a town with so many independent farmers and grocery outlets? Did I mention that there's a big anti-war rally this Saturday at the Federal Building? Oh, and I forgot to comment on the whole "Republicans-newly-against-Bush" phenomenon. And those impeachment articles. Also, the Weekly FINALLY did a story on the recent "Green Scare" arrests.

OK, back to the book.

2/27/06

Octavia Butler died from falling on the sidewalk outside her house. So so sucky. I almost cried when I saw it in the paper today. You should read her books if you haven't.

2/26/06

Here's a bunch of Youtube links for y'all:

David Bowie - "Oh You Pretty Things (1972)
The Monks live in 1965 on German TV (just amazing)
Patti Smith TEARING UP "Dancing Barefoot" and "Rock And Roll Nigger" recently
Patti doing "Land" in 1976
Os Mutantes and Gilberto Gil on Brazilian TV

Go search for your favorites, music lovers! (Hint: pause the screen while the flash movie is loadaing, otherwise it will keep stopping. Want to save them to your desktop? Go HERE.)

2/25/06

Well, all you Pandora fans and users, you can tell that site to get back to me when they recognize Faust, Amon Duul, or The Pop Group. Frankly, that is really shocking to me. It's not like those are obscure artists or anything (especially frustrating that it knew Amon Duul II but not Amon Duul). Three strikes, you're out. At least for now... I guess they don't have any music that sounds like the stuff I go for.

Ovulators, Hot Box, and Aluminum Babes play tonight at Luckey's, a benefit for Sexual Assault Support Services. I suggest you consider going.

Launchpad played last night at Mike Walsh's 35-year retrospective art show, currently up at Maude Kerns. The art was so mind-boggling that I didn't actually pay that much attention to the band. I love site-specific art in general, installations, stuff like that. This was like that to the 10th power. I can't even describe it, you need to go.

2/22/06

Stardust, this is for you:

Shocker Toys announces they have acquired the rights to produce GWAR action figures in Shockini form and 6-8 inch fully sculpted figures. GWAR has been the most horrifying band since it’s inception in the 80’s, the present and ongoing. Oderus Urungus, Flattus Maximus, Beefcake the Mighty, Jizmak Da Gusha and Balsac the Jaws of Death will be featured in the set based off of their GWAR characters.

Under a license from GWAR, the GWAR action figures will retail for around $15 and will be available at specialty stores and mass retailers in Summer of 2006. Each figure will come with plenty of murderous accessories and a GWAR comic book for a little reading after dark! Also to be produced will be Shockini versions of GWAR shrunk down into 3 inch block figures they will kick the block figure world square in the blocks!

2/21/06

My friend Mlle. Brico has a lovely remininscence of fave band Chumbawamba and the concert we saw in 1990 on her livejournal page (2/19 entry).

2/20/06

I really should have gone to the John Cage tribute, but... zzzz.

2/16/06

I really should have gone to see The Ovulators but I was tired. Valentine's Day is our semi-ironic anniversary, that was when I started working for them (which lasted for exactly one year).

2/15/06

Willie Nelson gay cowboy valentine OMG WTF!!

Here's the ILM thread if you want to read what other people are saying.

2/12/06

Should I really run this down? I think so. This was the year for cheap records at the convention. Also the most hobnobbing... I saw Ed Cole, Pat Zook, Nick from Acid Ants who was jonesin for that $100 Rats album, Arlan and Amy from the much-missed Onomotopoeia, all of The Costars, and like half of KWVA.

These records were a dollar, or two in some cases:
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory LP Fantasy 8402 1969 F
Otis Redding/Jimi Hendrix - Monterey Pop LP Reprise 2029 1967 VG+
Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow LP RCA AYL-1-3738 1967 VG+
The Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man LP Columbia CL 2372 1965 F mono
V/A - The Bebop Era LP Columbia CJ 40972 1987 NM
Pete Shelley - Homosapien LP Arista AL 6602 1982 VG
Klaatu - S/T LP Capitol ST-11542 1976 VG
Hula - Threshold LP Red Rhino REDLP 83 1987 VG+
Paul Revere And The Raiders - Just Like Us! LP Columbia CL 2451 1966 F
" - Midnight Ride LP Columbia CL 2508 1967 F
Dustdevils - Rheinyard's Grin LP Rouska RSKA1 1987 VG
T.V. Smith's Explorers - The Last Words Of The Great Explorer LP Epic 37432 1981 VG+ promo
Patsy Cline - The Patsy Cline Story 2LP MCA MCA2-4038 1973 VG+
Jobriath - S/T LP Elektra EKS-75070 1973 F promo
Helios Creed - The Warming/Your Spaceman 7" Amphetamine Reptile SCALE 33 1991 VG

These records were three dollars each:
The Rolling Stones - Aftermath LP London PS 476 1966 F
" - Let It Bleed LP London NPS-4 1969 NM digital remaster
Ramones - Rocket To Russia LP Sire SR 6042 1977 F w/inner sleeve
Cyndi Lauper - She Bop (special Arthur Baker dance mix) 12" CBS 05011 1984 VG+
V/A - The Gospel Sound 2LP Columbia G 31086 1966 VG+
Delroy Wilson - Best Of... LP United Artists UA-LA807-H 1978 VG+
The Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday LP Columbia CS 9442 1967 F
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane LP RCA LSP-4852 1973 VG- w/inner sleeve
Ray Charles - Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music LP ABC 410 1962 F
" - The Ray Charles Story Volume Two LP Atlantic 8064 1959 F

These records were four dollars each:
The Allman Brothers Band - Live At Fillmore East 2LP Atlantic CPN-2-0131 1971 VG+
Traditional Folk Songs Of Japan: East Japan LP Folkways FE 4534 A/B 1961 VG
The B-52's - Wild Planet LP Warner BSK 3471 1980 VG
Neil Young - Trans LP Geffen GHS 20181982 VG 1st press misprint w/inner sleeve
Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age Of Wireless LP Harvest ST-12203 1982 VG+
V/A - Nuggets Vol. 1: The Hits LP Rhino RNLP 025 1984 VG
The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesty's Request LP London NPS-2 1967 VG+ w/inner sleeve
Lou Reed - Street Hassle LP Arista AB 4169 1978 VG
The Grateful Dead - Live/Dead 2LP Warner 1830 1969 VG

You get the idea. The MOST expensive record I got this year was a $20 Nocturnal Emissions CD that has been out of print for over a decade and cost almost that much back then.

I have actually had to make more space in my room setup because of this weekend's accumulation. Now I'm pretty much done for a few months while I do a lot of listening.

2/11/06

The record convention is tomorrow... I already got another 25 albums (a buck apiece) at the KLCC Brewfest & Record Sale. First time I went. One of my friends walked away with a pasteover Beatles butcher cover ($2000-4000), also for a buck. I scored a bunch of good stuff - Miles Davis' Get Up With It 2LP, Psyclones, Jacobites, Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger... But the real action is tomorrow.

Here's an awesome picture of my grandmother...

2/6/06

Ahem. Anyway, I went to the Civil Liberties Defense Center benefit last night and Laurie and I won one of the GRAND PRIZES! A year's worth of chocolate!!! Actually, it turned out to only be 75 bars, but it was all the dank organic goodness. 15 bars of Dagoba, maybe 40 of Conscious Creations (whose krispy mint bar is one of the best chocolate things ever), maybe 20 of these Green Goddess things from Cali. We will put it in the freezer for the year to come.

For those of you curious about the legal developments in the recent cases, you can check the CLDC archives and this Portland Indymedia page.

2/2/06

Clearly some people (including, sad to say, several of my friends) who were at the Gossip show last night need a detailed explanation of why Ghostland Observatory was THE WORST BAND I HAVE SEEN IN YEARS. So here it is...

1. Fuck that stupid classic rock voice. Like the worst of Journey and Rush combined, dripping with oh-so-hip ironic pretension. Or maybe a really bad Jack White parody...

2. Fuck the self-conscious posing and preening. That wasn't energy, it was coldly calculated crowd manipulation.

3. Fuck their tuneless, hookless, riffless, lazy-ass attempts at writing songs.

4. Fuck wearing your sunglasses indoors at night. You ain't fit to lick Keiji Haino's boots, motherfucker. And that standoffish hipster attitude makes me want to kill you.

5. OK, the keyboard dude played some cool shit. Too bad the singer sucked.

Can we just please stop being all post-modern and ironic about our music now? That shit was inexcusable by any objective standard you care to apply...

Just how badly Ghost whatever-the-fuck sucked became crystal clear when The Gossip hit the stage. Laurie and I were discussing those intangible qualities that make a band "the headliner"... is it experience? stage presence? good material? tight performance? Whatever it was they had it in abundance. If there's any justice in the world they will be famous in a few years.

Oh yeah, The Ovulators and The Numbers were both quite good as well. Go WOW Hall!

1/25/05

Incredible show coming up at John Henry's...

Sir Richard Bishop at John Henry's in Eugene Tue 2/7/06

"Bishop is a splendid acoustic guitarist with a sure touch and an impressive vocabulary... Some of Bishop's compositions isolate one influence, others melt them together, but all of them possess a singular grace that deserves to be heard far beyond the confines of underground rock." ? Inkblot Magazine

Headliners are Akron/ Family-(toured with Michael Gira as Angels of Light band.....)
"Akron/Family are also incredibly adept at creating heart-breakingly beautiful and atmospheric pieces of music." "The music is like a fusion of Radiohead, the Beatles, folk, country, pop and even a smidgeon of noise just to satisfy everybody."

I am so there, and I will drag you there as well.

I'd also like to publicly whine about the apparent total lack of promotion for the No Neck Blues Band show, which I JUST HEARD ABOUT TODAY! AARRGH! It was a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I missed something, but I sure didn't see any fliers etc.

UPDATE: Keith sez:
"There were a bunch of flyers and handbills up and out for that show, it was in our Eugene Weekly ad for 3 weeks and the show got a small write up in the ticket…"

Well, shit. Not only does this mean I'm not paying enough attention, it means that Eugene continues to exhibit utterly shameful levels of apathy as regards to out of town bands. There was ONE person at that show, people. Please, please, please, get off your asses and go out to support stuff like this.

1/18/05

Long time, no blog. Ton of great shows this weekend, all of which I will miss because I am going away to Astoria for the weekend with my sweetie Laurie. If you are in town, I recommend the Lelu Laserlight/Jayme Vineyard/etc. show at Sam Bond's on Thursday and The Ovulators' show at the Vet's Club on Friday (which will have some songs we haven't heard in a very long time in the setlist, hint hint nudge nudge). Not to be missed.

Sony's infamous rootkit that they added to certain CD's has now been detected on government and military networks. Read the full article HERE. Are criminal charges appropriate yet? Any hacker who did this would go to jail immediately. Fuck the class action suit, I wanna see Sony's executives behind bars.

Anybody want a sampler of the Rhino Girl Group box set? Got broadband, or decent dialup? Here you go.

1/7/06

For the start of the new year, let's try a new thing.

FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

DJ SLEEVE'S BEST OF 2004 MIX!

MP3, 110 MB, WILL FIT ON ONE CD

TAGS AND INFO INCLUDED

http://s48.youREMOVETHISsendit.com/d.aspx?id=14VXCEDX4RNNX1DOXOTBUK8ATF

(25 people only, or one week - whichever comes first)

Broadband recommended, unless you want to tie up your modem for a couple of days.

1/1/06

Almost two years of blogging! Thanks to The Ovulators and Mr. Random...

Let's do the year-end rundown, shall we?

ALBUM: Fuck if I know. Strong ones from MIA, Alvarius B, Kate Bush, Fannypack, Six Organs Of Admittance, Devendra Banhart, and Animal Collective. I'll get back to you next year.

MY PICK FOR NOW: Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, The Days Of Mars (DFA/Astralwerks). This static, shimmering cosmic synth-fest isn't really anything new, but it hangs out at a particularly rarified level of quality. I suspect I will still be listening to it years from now. Most original record has gotta be that Animal Collective album, very cool.

ARTIST: Tie between Kate Bush (unexpected comeback award) and the DFA (producing every other hot club track all year long).

SINGLE: Johnny Boy's single, the Animal Collective/Vashti Bunyan EP, and a seemingly nonstop series of killer jams from Lady Sovereign, who wins hands down with "Hoodie". Or "Random". Or "Fiddle With The Volume". Whatever.

REISSUES: Oh god, so many. Probably the best was Girl Group Sounds: Lost And Found, the 4-CD hatbox set from Rhino (thanks, Dad!). I also grooved heavily to The Ex's Singles.Period. CD, Vashti Bunyan's Just Another Diamond Day, and the Siouxsie And The Banshees' CD box set of B-sides, Downside Up (thanks, Mom!). I think I'm also going to go for the NEW Sandy Denny box set (even huger and rarer than the old one) - thanks again to Mom. And then there were all those Brian Eno and Can remasters...

BEST ALBUM I HAVEN'T HEARD YET: Coil's The Ape Of Naples CD.

I-AM-SO-BEHIND ARTIST I SHOULD HAVE ASSIMILATED YEARS AGO AWARD: Tie between Sleater-Kinney and Nomeansno.

BEST RECORD FROM 2004 I DIDN'T HEAR UNTIL THIS YEAR: DFA Compilation #2, holy fucking shit. I had to rearrange my whole "Best Of 2004" CD. Honorable Mention: MIA & Diplo's Piracy Funds Terrorism mix CD.

12/22/05

Happy Solstice, everybody.

Twenty years ago today, D Boon of The Minutemen died in a car crash. I suggest you crank their albums up real loud today. There's an FM-quality live show up at Dimeadozen, but you have to be a member to get it. If you aren't, it is also at archive.org.

12/17/05

Really enjoyable show last night courtesy of The Fast Computers, who did a set of their own followed by a pickup band that backed up a series of guest stars singing various, um, less well known Christmas Songs. Dori did "Santa Baby" which will now be stuck in my head for weeks, Tina and Ed sang something like "By Golly By Gosh", and Annie and Peter did a Pogues song, very cute. Dave Snider sang some great song I had never heard before. Crowded as all get-out, but good for the soul. I left early, but left happy.

12/15/05

Although Mr. Random and Stardust wrote nice Chanteuse comments, we were not happy with our show. Interesting that Stardust thought our first three songs were tightest - I think that's because playing the whole set at practice earlier in the day killed our energy for the show. I knew that was a bad idea. Anyway, the fact that we have actually gotten better in the last 4 months made it even more obvious to us that it was far from our best set. We played it a lot better last week. Funny that once you play better the mistakes are even more obvious. Scrambled Ape asked us to play with them again next month ( I think), so we'll see what happens with gigs. I actually think we should play again ASAP. Thanks to those who came.

12/8/05

For bonus John Lennon reading credit, here is Lester Bangs' obituary piece on him. Really one of Bangs' finest moments.

"John Lennon at his best despised cheap sentiment and had to learn the hard way that once you've made your mark on history those who can't will be so grateful they'll turn it into a cage for you. Those who choose to falsify their memories--to pine for a neverland 1960s that never really happened that way in the first place--insult the retroactive Eden they enshrine."

12/8/05

As soon as you’re born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool
Till you’re so fucking crazy you can’t follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
When they’ve tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can’t really function you’re so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped with religion and sex and tv
And you think you’re so clever and classless and free
But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
There’s room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

RIP JOHN LENNON 1940-1980

12/6/05

I need a thread to talk about Dina Emerson and Jonathan Segel's new band Chaos Butterfly

12/4/05

Oh it is decadent harvest season in Eugene for sure. None of my web compatriots have come to grips with the insanity of this weekend so I will step up to the plate.

THURSDAY: The !!! show at the WOW Hall (see below) was a great success. Lots of people. The band was dead on. Total destructo dance-funk-punk. After the (traditional?) opening "Dear Can" we were treated to 5 or 6 new songs from the forthcoming-and-not-yet-out album. Then there were a few "hits" and the (traditional?) closing number "Intensify". Basically we all freaked out. I love the depth of the band, that their seven members switch around on drums or percussion or bass or guitar or trumpet or sax as the song requires. My favorite was the 2-bass-player-and-4-drummers-with-one-singer tune they did. I was happy I had earplugs.

FRIDAY: The Crow's Nest was flooded. Mr. Random and I had driven the 10-15 miles south to see The Ovulators, The Decliners, and two other bands at this relatively new all ages venue. Neither of us had been there before, although I was familiar with CG. This night really warrants an entire essay, but I will attempt to do it justice here.

The kids in CG are basically enjoying a TAZ (look it up), and it was eerie how much the scene reminded me of Icky's. The Ovs and The Decliners both had teenage fans there who knew the bands from Myspace. Most of the kids were excited and energetic. When we arrived, we discovered that the recent heavy rains had flooded the roof. The Crow's Nest, as befits its name, is on the top floor of an old building on Main Street in CG, above a bar and some offices. The room holding the main stage was totally flooded, and the painstakingly painted ceiling mural tiles were literally crashing to the floor as Mr Random and I stood there talking to the Decliners. Punk rock!

The first band was The Old Howl And Smash, who have played around Eugene for a while but whom I have never seen. I thought they played for too long, but Tina argued that they were just matching the energy in the room that liked them. Whatever, I still thought they played too long. Still, they were good, with super three-part vocal harmony stuff going on over their melodic punky ruckus. I thought of The Buzzcocks at least once.

The Ovulators tore it up after that, and I really started noticing how equal-gender the scene was. There were as many girls rocking out up front as there were boys. There were two retro-punk boys with mohawks and Ramones/Exploited jackets who started thrashing from time to time, invariably knocking over the girls who were trying to enjoy the show. Fortunately, it seemed like they were all friends. People got picked up quickly, and the guys at least apologized and checked in. At least one other woman complained to me about it... So dudes, chill the fuck out, OK?

The Decliners' drummer had failed to show up. Another classic punk-show motif. Nolan forged ahead with Kelani and Tina guesting on drums, the guitarist also played valiantly. I forget his name now. They played like five songs.

Last up were Decliners' Portland friends the Black Market Babies. Amazingly, they rocked it out Stooges style for the five or so people still in attendance, including the three most dedicated kids.

At some point during this last set a woman wandered up the stairs from Main Street and talked to me about how much history the space had and how she used to see shows there in the mid-70's. Cool.

SATURDAY: I saw lawyer extraordinaire Lauren on Friday and she convinced me to go to the Cascadia Wildlands Project's auction night. I unsuccessfully bid on a lunch with Pete Sorenson, the Lane County Commissioner who may run for Governor. I also got outbid for a mushroom gathering walk with a mycologist. Oh well. Ten bucks got me a lot of food and beer and fun talks with folks, Saxon was the straight edge bartender and Misha was the vegan auctioneer selling fishing trips. Heh. I also talked to a person who has an office in the aforementioned flooded building below the Crow's Nest, and he confirmed that they are paying no rent currently (the building's sewer system is also fucked and they are relying on portapotties). I love the close connections in Eugene, that I can get info so fast from so many different sources.

Lastly, I want to note for my friends in France this very interesting article in the New York Times Magazine about the role that architecture and urban planning may have had in the recent riots.

11/30/05

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Chanteuse will be playing our second gig! We are at Sam Bond's Garage on Monday, December 12th at 6:30 PM. This show is free and all ages. Hope to see you there.

11/30/05

!!! a.k.a. Chk Chk Chk, Pow Pow Pow, etc. play at the WOW Hall tomorrow. Excitement is building. You should really consider going, this band totally kicked my ass last summer.

11/29/05

There will be a new Mecca Normal album on Kill Rock Stars in April of 2006. Hopefully they will tour the Northwest this time.

They have a newsletter.

And new music on their Myspace profile.

11/24/05

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Did Dylan ever write a song more drenched in righteous fury? Even "Emmett Till" pales in comparison. Happy fucking Thanksgiving, warmongers. In the immortal words of Crass... "...and if you're eating your delicious turkey tonight... I HOPE IT FUCKING CHOKES YOU!"

Consider the internet curse cast.

11/23/05

R.I.P. Link Wray. Every guitar pedal ever made was because of him. I'm listening to a cut off of his superb "Guitar Preacher: The Polydor Years" collection, I recommend you put him on as well.

11/22/05

Douglas Wolk has an interesting article on college radio for Slate. Check it out.

11/21/05

I really need to blog more. I can feel Mr Random's disapproving clicks on my site (that's in a good way, Ken). So here we go.

I went out all dressed up for the evening on Friday to see Mr. Random's art show, he was also showing with Gil Freeman who I thought I didn't know and of course did, she's one of those old school punk Eugeneans who I sorta kinda know. Also her sweetie Eli had some pieces, a very cool big Rudi Peni looking black on white ink piece and a (nicely framed and mounted) destroyed red Converse high-top entitled "Seven Years" (my favorite, at least conceptually). Gil had these neat little card/books and also some nice intricately constructed art-shelves for going on your wall and putting cool little things on. Mr Random had some, well, random paintings at random prices. Some seemed less random than others, though. I guess that's REALLY random, when it doesn't seem like it. That's what the mathematicians tell us.

Lest I forget, we were also treated to an acoustic Launchpad set which was mostly a Lelu/Random duo due to the late arrival of Orbital Dave. I missed them do this at the Country Fair and would like to put in a request for a full acoustic gig soon.

Saturday night there was a lotta stuff (Pinkies at John Henry's, great Japanese movies at DIVA) but how could I resist a pink party with The Ovulators? I wholeheartedly support the awesome Blue Room space and them bringing in shows. I hope it goes well for them, I unfortunately missed the Viking Moses show they had there a while back.

The pink event consisted of, uh, shit, I think it's Meet Me In The Frozen Torso Heap, but it might be "Bury Me...". Anyway, they were this insane kinda atonal prog metal, not what I expected (which was doomy sludge). Nice, sharp, technically and compositionally impressive. They were also weird enough to keep me happy, nice to see them at last. They've probably been playing out for at least a year.

I was excited to see what Simpleman would sound like now that Jayme Vineyard (her of the steel cello and many other talents) had joined on bass. The last time I saw them I think they were a 4 or 5 piece with Adam Hedwig in the band, this time just a trio. And, well, fuck. What a trio. Easily my favorite new Eugene band of the year. LONG songs that somehow walked an astonishing line from early Cocteau Twins (wailing vocal, atmospheric keyboard/guitar wash) into late Swans (poundpoundpoundcrunch thudSLAM) during the same freakin' piece! They played like four songs in 40 minutes. The drummer killed it. I want more.

The Ovulators were their usual splendiferous selves, my friend Laurie who I brought to the event (having never seen any of the bands before) liked them the best. I'm so jaded that it's, like, boring to me when they "just" play another great show *yawn*... My favorite part was Tina hitting crazy-good new heights with her solo in "Movie" and seeing Kelani look up at her with this little grin on her face, I knew we were thinking the same thing then. It's so cool when all the pieces just click into place like that. When the fuck is somebody with a couple of grand gonna put that record out? You know you should do it.

And just for variety, we bopped down the street for a bit to the annual Blair Housing Co-Op party, where there was another good band playing, although very different. This was much more "Eugene", with African/reggae/world influences galore. Lots of hippies dancing. The band was good but I didn't quite get the name, Maccao something. They had the tuba player from Wheel Of Meat who I was recently introduced to, but I forget his name right now. It made a nice contrast to the pink party.

11/15/05

Just beginning to assimilate, eating lots of good food and diving into stuff - poetry slam, band practice, radio, now home for the evening. The nights are getting darker sooner, chill in the air.

11/7/05

In Virginia. I just got back from a weekend in Baltimore going to my grandmother's memorial service. It wasn't too trippy but I feel some delayed emotional turbulance. I'm at my childhood home, up in my sister's old room. My old room has now been destroyed and rebuilt as a downstairs bedroom for my folks. Blogging in straight HTML as usual when I'm away. Hope these line breaks come out OK. I feel weird.

10/23/05

I've been posting about music on ILM a lot, so some of my blogging here is suffering. I'm going to start linking to my active threads there from this blog, as follows:

In Praise Of: Alvarius B's "Blood Operatives Of The Barium Sunset" LP aka Sun City Girls 2005 thread

Runzelstirn & Gurglestock/Schimpfluch S/D, C/D (note: this means "Search And Destroy" as in "what is good and what is bad" and "Classic or Dud?" as in, well, duh.

and if you have ever wondered why The Fall are my favorite band, this explains it all... SO GOOD!

Favourite lines from Fall tracks

We had the first Poetry Slam of the year (year four! wtf!) last night. Jerry Wagner destroyed the competition, although I must note that he used old material to do so. Sara Z and Dakota had a haiku battle to break the tie for 2nd. Every year we're a tiny bit more together, this year there are T-shirts/hoodies, glossy handbills, programs with ads in them, chips and snacks, and beer for sale! Angelina and Ellis were our distinguished bartenders. I'm not sure if Territorial Winery will let us do that next month or not - this slam was one-time-only at Flamingo's because of a late harvest. See you Nov. 12th!

New albums:

the aforementioned Alvarius B record (aka Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls). Jesus christ. Album of the year?

Sun City Girls - Montreal Pop live bootleg LP (if I didn't have this as a deluxe, both nights, triple CD torrent, I would be very happy - now I just have a collector's item) .

Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day LP + 7" EP. Gorgeous vinyl reissue of this lost-and-newly-rediscovered 1970 brit-folk classic. But, ya know, what's even better are the songs from her London hipster days in the '65-'67 era (check out those mindboggling pictures of her on her website). Fortunately, the bonus 7" (with another great photo as the cover) has some of these tracks, and the p2p world has the rest.

The Cure - In Between Days LP and Disintegration LP. Total score at House Of Records, these days records like this last for less than a day in their racks. In fact, they had just put them out. I'm slowly building a Cure collection, I never really had tons of their stuff back in the day although I sorely regret selling my "Lovecats" 12". These are both great albums.

Fleetwood Mac - Tusk 2LP. The last great statement by one of the 70's most deservedly massive bands, this is a fascinating, coked-out, self-indulgent world of its own. I've barely begun to absorb it, it's one of those classics I never got to, like (Led Zeppelin's) Physical Graffitti which I am also looking for pretty hard right now.

10/15/05

If anybody is reading this, please go see XBXRX at The Indigo District on Sunday. I'm gonna make calls today. Under-the-radar show and band, you'll thank me later.

Yes, the Animal Collective album is still really good. No, the station doesn't have it. Fuck it, I'm bringing an MP3 disc on Monday.

I have also been checking out the new Fall album (Fall Heads Roll) which is maybe a B+ on their scale (which makes it an A for anyone else). Also Delia Gonzalez/Gavin Russom's The Days Of Mars CD (10/10 A+ cosmic synth swirl, one of the year's best) and Deerhoof's The Runners Four (only heard it through once, no opinion yet). Gang Of Four's re-recorded album of old songs sounds great, and, I hesitate to say, better than the original recordings on both the tunes I heard.

10/10/05

Listening to: new Animal Collective album "Feels". I really hope it's at the radio station today, it's overdue.

Went to a couple of shows this week... first up was Kiki opening for the Gore Gore Girls at Sam Bond's. I liked Kiki's shimmy pop girly bubblegum approach, complete with keyboards. I'm like the most enthusiastic person in the world for less-than perfect bands so I found their wobbly newness pretty endearing. They'll obviously get good fast, they have a fairly ambitious upcoming show schedule. I did not like the embarrassingly sexed-up set-ending cover of "Burnin' Up" at all and it left a bad taste in my brain. It was, like, trying too hard.

Gore Gore Girls were one of the finest retro-garage-snarl acts that I have had the pleasure of witnessing in quite a while and their songs and stage demeanor were topnotch. "I want her to beat me up" a friend said to me. Mr. Random's 10/7 rant about dancing seconded, as is the love for Sam Bond's.

I then saw the aforementioned Mr. Random and his cohorts do their Launchpad flipout gig for a great random collection of people on the mall during First Friday, tucked back in an alley. You could hear the music for like two blocks. It was groovin'.

TEN BEST SAM BOND'S SHOWS, off the top of my head:

1. Ghost, 1998
2. Chris Knox, 1997?
3. In Gowan Ring, 1998
4. Faun Fables, last year
5. Elliot Smith, 1998
6. Amy Denio & The Shaking Ray Levis 1996?
7. The Tiptons, last year. A dozen people there. What the fuck?
8. Michael Hurley, 2001
9. William Hooker & DJ Olive, 1996
10. Irving Klaw Trio, probably 1997 or so

10/5/05

The time lag between songs being leaked and/or on the net versus when the album actually comes out is getting surreal. I asked House Of Records about Lady Sovereign the other day (who has a hotly anticipated short tour coming up, has already played in the U.S. once before, and has been all over MP3 land). The album doesn't come out for another couple of weeks. There's ONE official single ("9 to 5") which isn't even the song her record company first put out as a promo MP3.

In other tremendously exciting music-geek news, Kate Bush is releasing her first new album in 12 years. She was a high school favorite but I was kinda cool on her last two albums - a little too adult contemporary coffeehouse for me. The new single is FANTASTIC, though. Heads up. Album comes out on Nov. 4th and has NOT leaked, see this article in The Guardian.

10/3/05

I stayed up until 4 A.M. on Saturday night working on a Chanteuse song that had previously languished as an instrumental. The songwriting muse fascinates me, it's like teasing out little threads of your subconscious bit by bit. And like all muses, you gotta run with it when it hits.

Last night my roommate Shade had a movie gig at Sam Bond's so I got to wallow in early-noughties videographer riot porn nostalgia. I forgot how much music of mine got used for some of "A Year In The Streets" especially. There's a Catalyst track in it! (that was Rex Trimm and I)

Skipped the entire Eugene Celebration this year, I was super underwhelmed with the bands which is what I've gone for the last two times. Plus the October rain came in this weekend and killed my motivation to do much of anything.

Now on to Chanteuse practice armed with new material...

10/1/05

Finally, someone has a name for this decade that works: the NOUGHTIES.

9/30/05

September rolls into October. Tonight the city smells like wood smoke and rain, the clouds were coming in all day and it was muggy with anticipation. I saw Wally at the bar and he gave me a shirt that had belonged to his dad, who died last week. An excellent red wool Pendleton with elbow pads. His dad was close to the same age as my grandmother, and they died within a week of each other. Life goes on...

"I believe in life before death" - bumper sticker

9/26/05

Scored some Thinking Fellers live recordings on the net last week, a true joy. Also Miles Davis (1967! With Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter!) and Gastr Del Sol DVDs. In response to getting an accidental free TV, I bought a $40 DVD player that plays pretty much all of the currently dizzying number of video formats (MPEG2, VCD, SVCD, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW, not to mention the whole PAL/NTSC issue). This thing (the Cyberhome 300) does on-the-fly PAL to NTSC conversion, which means I can now watch my 1973 New York Dolls footage and my 1971 Johnny Cash concert. And probably some other things I forget.

Riding my bike through the U of O campus is always an interesting seasonal experience. Today was the first day of classes, with hordes of very young-looking people swarming around looking innocent and naive as they talked on their cell phones.

New at the station this week: The Fall's new single ("I Can Hear The Grass Grow", a Move cover that they did on last year's Peel Session). Much joy. Also a new Juan Maclean single that I did not listen to.

9/21/05

Happy Equinox. Life swirls on, unblogged. My grandmother died at the age of... 91? 90? last Sunday. Although I'll miss her, I admire her savvy living will which forbade any excessive measures to keep her "alive" - i.e. no respirators or machines - and allowed only medical comfort measures (oxygen mask, morphine).

I am digging: new Devendra Banhart album (Cripple Crow, lovely), The Ex 's Singles.Period CD (collection of all their 80's singles, very nice), Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, and Rudimentary Peni's "The Archaic" EP which just shreds.

9/11/05

One more apocalyptic New Orleans post, this one goes out to the person who DIDN"T BELIEVE Jackie's account below as related to them by Tina. Just pretend it's all OK, right?

http://prorev.com/2005/09/what-two-paramedics-saw.htm
[Bradshaw and Slonsky are paramedics frorm California that were attending the EMS conference in New Orleans]

LARRY BRADSAHW AND LORRIE BETH SLONSKY, EMS NETWORK NEWS -

We suspect the media will have been inundated with "hero" images of the National Guard, the troops and the police struggling to help the "victims" of the Hurricane. What you will not see, but what we witnessed, were the real heroes and sheroes of the hurricane relief effort: the working class of New Orleans. The maintenance workers who used a fork lift to carry the sick and disabled. The engineers, who rigged, nurtured and kept the generators running. The electricians who improvised thick extension cords stretching over blocks to share the little electricity we had in order to free cars stuck on rooftop parking lots. Nurses who took over for mechanical ventilators and spent many hours on end manually forcing air into the lungs of unconscious patients to keep them alive. Doormen who rescued folks stuck in elevators. Refinery workers who broke into boat yards, "stealing" boats to rescue their neighbors clinging to their roofs in flood waters. Mechanics who helped hot-wire any car that could be found to ferry people out of the City. And the food service workers who scoured the commercial kitchens improvising communal meals for hundreds of those stranded.

Most of these workers had lost their homes, and had not heard from members of their families, yet they stayed and provided the only infrastructure for the 20% of New Orleans that was not under water.
On Day 2, there were approximately 500 of us left in the hotels in the French Quarter. We were a mix of foreign tourists, conference attendees like ourselves, and locals who had checked into hotels for safety and shelter from Katrina. Some of us had cell phone contact with family and friends outside of New Orleans. We were repeatedly told that all sorts of resources including the National Guard and scores of buses were pouring in to the City. The buses and the other resources must have been invisible because none of us had seen them.
We decided we had to save ourselves. So we pooled our money and came up with $25,000 to have ten buses come and take us out of the City. Those who did not have the requisite $45.00 for a ticket were subsidized by those who did have extra money. We waited for 48 hours for the buses, spending the last 12 hours standing outside, sharing the limited water, food, and clothes we had. We created a priority boarding area for the sick, elderly and new born babies. We waited late into the night for the "imminent" arrival of the buses. The buses never arrived. We later learned that the minute the arrived to the City limits, they were commandeered by the military. . .

The police told us that we could not stay. Regardless, we began to settle in and set up camp. In short order, the police commander came across the street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should walk to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the greater New Orleans Bridge where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the City. The crowed cheered and began to move. We called everyone back and explained to the commander that there had been lots of misinformation and wrong information and was he sure that there were buses waiting for us. The commander turned to the crowd and stated emphatically, "I swear to you that the buses are there."
We organized ourselves and the 200 of us set off for the bridge with great excitement and hope. . . It now began to pour down rain, but it did not dampen our enthusiasm. . . As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.
We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the  West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be
no Superdomes  in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are  not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New  Orleans. Our small group retreated back down Highway 90 to seek shelter from the rain under an overpass. We debated our options and in the end
decided to build an encampment in the middle of the Ponchartrain Expressway on the center divide, between the O'Keefe and Tchoupitoulas exits. We reasoned we would be visible to everyone, we would have some
security being on an elevated freeway and we could wait and watch for the arrival of the yet to be seen buses.

All day long, we saw other families, individuals and groups make the same trip up the incline in an attempt to cross the bridge, only to be turned away. Some chased away with gunfire, others simply told no,
others  to be verbally berated and humiliated. Thousands of New Orleaners were prevented and prohibited from self-evacuating the City on foot. Meanwhile, the only two City shelters sank further into
squalor and disrepair. The  only way across the bridge was by vehicle. We saw workers stealing trucks,  buses, moving vans, semi-trucks and any car that could be hotwired. All were  packed with people trying to
escape the misery New Orleans had become. Our little encampment began to blossom. Someone stole a water delivery truck and brought it up to us. Let's hear it for looting! A mile or so  down the freeway, an army truck lost a couple of pallets of C-rations on a  tight turn. We ferried the food back to our camp in
shopping carts. Now secure with the two necessities, food and water; cooperation, community, and creativity flowered. We organized a clean up and hung garbage bags from  the rebar poles. We made beds from wood
pallets and cardboard. We designated a storm drain as the bathroom and the kids built an elaborate enclosure for privacy out of plastic, broken umbrellas, and other scraps. We even organized a food recycling system where individuals could swap out parts  of C-rations (applesauce for babies and candies for kids!).
This was a process we saw repeatedly in the aftermath of Katrina. When individuals had to fight to find food or water, it meant looking out for yourself only. You had to do whatever it took to find water for
your kids  or food for your parents. When these basic needs were met, people began to  look out for each other, working together and constructing a community. If the relief organizations had saturated the City with food and water in the first 2 or 3 days, the desperation, the frustration and the  ugliness would not have set in.

Flush with the necessities, we offered food and water to passing families and individuals. Many decided to stay and join us. Our encampment grew to 80 or 90 people. From a woman with a battery powered radio we learned that the media was talking about us. Up in full view on the freeway, every relief and news organizations saw us on their way into the City. Officials were being  asked what they were going to do about all those families living up on the freeway? The officials responded they were going to take care of us. Some  of us got a sinking feeling. "Taking care of us" had an ominous tone to it. Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped
out of  his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the  fucking freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the
sheriff loaded up his  truck with our food and water. Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced off the freeway. All the law enforcement agencies appeared threatened when we congregated or congealed into groups of 20 or more. In every congregation of "victims" they saw  "mob" or "riot". We felt safety in numbers. Our "we must stay together" was impossible because the agencies would force us into small atomized groups.

In the pandemonium of having our camp raided and destroyed, we scattered once again. Reduced to a small group of 8 people, in the dark, we sought refuge in an abandoned school bus, under the freeway on
Cilo Street. We  were hiding from possible criminal elements but equally and definitely, we were hiding from the police and sheriffs with their martial law, curfew and shoot-to-kill policies. The next days, our group of 8 walked most of the day, made contact with New Orleans Fire Department and were eventually airlifted out by an urban search and rescue team. We were dropped off near the airport and managed  to catch a ride with the National Guard. The two young guardsmen apologized  for the limited response of the Louisiana guards.
They explained that a large section of their unit was in Iraq and that meant they were shorthanded and were unable to complete all the tasks they were assigned. We arrived at the airport on the day a massive airlift had begun. The airport had become another Superdome. We 8 were caught in a press of humanity as flights were delayed for several hours while George Bush landed briefly at the airport for a photo op. After being evacuated on a coast guard cargo plane, we arrived in San Antonio, Texas. There the humiliation and dehumanization of the official relief effort continued. We were placed on buses and driven to a large field
where we  were forced to sit for hours and hours. Some of the buses did not have air-conditioners. In the dark, hundreds if us were forced to share two filthy overflowing porta-potties. Those who managed to make it out with  any possessions (often a few belongings in tattered plastic bags) were subjected to two different dog-sniffing searches. Most of us had not eaten all day because our C-rations had been confiscated at the airport because the rations set off the metal detectors. Yet, no food had been provided to the men, women, children, elderly, disabled as they sat for hours waiting to be "medically screened" to make sure we were not carrying any communicable diseases. This official treatment was in sharp contrast to the warm, heart-felt reception given to us by the ordinary Texans. We saw one airline worker  give her shoes to someone who was barefoot. Strangers on the street offered us money and toiletries with words of welcome.

Throughout, the official  relief effort was callous, inept, and racist. There was more suffering than need be.
Lives were lost that did not need to be lost.

Bradshaw and Slonsky are paramedics from California that were attending the EMS conference in New Orleans. Larry Bradshaw is the chief shop  steward, Paramedic Chapter, SEIU Local 790; and Lorrie Beth
Slonsky is steward, Paramedic Chapter, SEIU Local 790.

9/7/05

Harrowing eyewitness reports via the S.P.A.Z. folks

Jackie from the Dragon's Den wrote:
> Just a note to say Im alive.
> i am extremely tramatized.
> The anarchy,storm,flood water and the smell of rot
> in the city can not be put into words.
> I am healthy except my stomach is sick and my feet
> are slightly infected from contaminated water.
> My house is perfectly intact and all the trees fell
> away from it.
> The French Quarter from Canal to Burgundy up to
> Poland Avenue is an island.
> It is starting to smell like bodies and birds are
> starting to flock.
> We didn't get water in our neighborhood until
> yesterday.
> Ive become a pro at looting for food and all the
> neighbors get together.
> I am now outside Baton Rouge.
> We had to siphon gas to leave and it was stressfull
> with all the down trees and lines,military and
> gangs.
> People in our neighborhood are walking on the
> streets with shotguns,axes,bats.
> Houses are getting robbed and buildings are getting
> blown up.
> People are hotwiring city buses and running them
> into houses
> People are getting shot over gasoline and water.
> I don't know who's alive and who's dead.
> People from the neighborhood are taking canoes over
> St.Claude and France area to pull people out of
> water.
> There are dead Children on Canal Street
> Dog Packs are forming
> I am

9/5/05

Further outrages, continued (via The Daily Kos):

On the Al Franken show this afternoon I mentioned this article from today's Salt Lake Tribune which tells the story of about a thousand firefighters from around the country who volunteered to serve in the Katrina devastation areas. But when they arrived in Atlanta to be shipped out to various disaster zones in the region, they found out that they were going to be used as FEMA community relations specialists. And they were to spend a day in Atltanta getting training on community relations, sexual harassment awareness, et al. This of course while life and death situations were still the order of the day along a whole stretch of the Gulf Coast.
It's an article you've really got a to read to appreciate the full measure of folly and surreality.
But the graf at the end of the piece really puts everything in perspective, and gives some sense what the Bush administration really has in mind when it talks about a crisis. The paper reports that one team finally was sent to the region ...
As specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

Pretty sick, huh?

Check The Daily Kos' comment section for the hundreds of livid, seething reactions from the people of this country. And write your local media and representatives with your outrage. And secede from the country.

9/3/05

So yes, this entire mess in New Orleans is a racist, classist act of deliberate mass murder committed by our fascist military government. Just in case you were wondering. I like what my fellow bloggers have to say and wonder if my roommate Shelley can actually raise $2900 to get Kevin Hornbuckle to drive his bus down to Houston to bring refugees back to Eugene for relocation. That's her current plan. We'll see. That's $10 each from 300 people. Think about it.

If you check Portland Indymedia (on the links sidebar) you will also find an article that makes one very good point: The military shouldn't have any trouble meeting their recruitment goals for the next year, what with creating thousands of newly desperate homeless. Numerous eyewitness accounts have spoken of the soldiers at the nearby Air Force base doing absolutely nothing while the city drowned. Oh wait, that was UNTIL they started "stealing" food, water, and diapers out of the ruined, unlocked, deserted stores. Then they started pointing guns and arresting people.

And those shots fired at the helicopter? Wasn't that just one incident? Would you like Lane County to be deserted by relief efforts if a few tweakers freaked out after a huge earthquake? Maybe, like numerous first-hand accounts I have heard, the helicopter flew right by stranded people on rooftops waving white flags, and that was just one flyby too many for that person.

And Stardust is right. There will be more of this to come in our lifetimes. Much more. I suggest reading Octavaia Butler's "Parable" books and learning more about survivalism and disaster preparedness. And being nice.

9/1/05

Tired and dirty, but had to blog just a little about various things. I loved Stardust's story about the guy who grew up in her house when it was built. Check it out. Honey Vizer had another killer letter in the Weekly, and, well... that's about it for Eugene.

Like most people, my attention has been focussed on New Orleans. I wonder if the Green Anarchy clique would care to drop by the city and get a taste of what they so callously advocate from their privileged ivory tower. No? Didn't think so. As of press time, Fats Domino and Quintron are confirmed alive, and Alex Chilton is still missing.

8/27/05

Added Mr. Random's review of the debut Chanteuse gig to our web page (see link above).

Also, you can hear a taste of the upcoming Ovulators full-length studio CD on the Myspace site for their Northwest mini tour. Sounds freakin' great.

8/17/05

Off to Seattle this weekend to visit my friends Rachel/Tim/Isaac (who I have not seen in like TWO YEARS) and assorted others. Almost finished moving back into my room, which I have slept in for only 4 nights or so since July 6th.

8/16/05

I am now officially in love with the AMF. Two scenes just barely begin to sum it up...

A blasted wasteland of broken rock greets you as you walk up the spur road. As you round the bend, you see a massive cliff about 200 yards away. The only things in the area are a bus, a tented sound equipment area, two 15-foot high speaker banks, and a single couch placed directly in the sweet spot for the mind-melting onslaught of jungle/techno/noise emitting from the speakers. I have never heard music sound so good and be so loud. At night the crew running this scene were projecting video imagery on the cliffs.

As you walk down the forest road at 3 AM, the circus is sobering up. The funniest clown I have ever seen (Ed The Clown from New Orleans) is running endless patter for the two dozen or so stragglers watching The Circus Of Tiny Invisibility. "Seven more minutes, folks... just seven more minutes until the show." After a while it becomes apparant that this IS the show. Ed introduces his cohort Bobby Panama who proceeds to eat some light bulbs, break a bottle over his head, eat the cap, and fake a bunch of blood and misery upon doing so. As he staggers off into the darkness two elderly campers who were most certainly not in on the joke offer him some Ambesol as the circus hecklers yell "Hey Bobby, here's a dirty band-aid!". As people drift off, Ed sinks down mock-dejected on to a chair. "Fuck, I'm never gonna be famous. I'll be working this goddamn job for the rest of my life." The patter begins again for a new round of people.

So, are you going with me next year? Spewgene Camp in da house, yo.

8/11/05

First Chanteuse gig went OK from the Virgo perspective. Didn't ruin any of the songs although we staggered through a couple. People seemed pleasantly surprised. We certainly have more work to do. Launchpad absolutely ruled my world, best show I've ever seen them do. Now it's off to the Autonomous Mutant Festival for a few days. Ah, summer.

8/2/05

The first update to the Chanteuse web page is up, in honor of our upcoming debut.

7/30/05

Another amazing evening in Eugene. Last night I had the immense pleasure of attending the Last Friday Artwalk's premiere of Justin's Whiteaker Puzzle project, a map of the district blown up and cut into about 150 8" by 8" wooden puzzle pieces which people then made art on. A lot of it was specific to the location of the piece - e.g. Tiny's, The Keystone, the Washington-Jefferson overpass, Sladden Park, etc. There were so many cool things that I hung out there for literally 2 1/2 hours and still didn't really look at all the pieces. Also, I saw dozens of friends and there were two great bands - new volume-mongers Simpleboy and a great bluegrass quartet. Then Lelu Laserlight and I did some power club hopping and caught some of Botox's set at The Black Forest before moving on to the highlight of the evening - Captain Midnight's Secret Squadron Mystery Bike Ride (it starts at midnight in Monroe park, email me if you want to be on the list). This time our Mystery Location turned out to be two stops, the first along the Willamette River bike path (where I jumped into the river for the first time in at least a decade), and the second up a super brutal hill to the top of Hendricks Park. With us for most of the ride were such luminaries as Orbital Dave, Kari, Luna, Karl The Cranky Cowboy, Ratner, Rosie, and assorted others. It was extremely cool. Rosie and I finally rode home at like 2:15 A.M. after a hair-rasing descent down obscure Hendricks Park trails in the dark. Congratulations, Captain Midnight! And thanks for the fancy membership card. I can't wait for the next one!

7/27/05

Whew. That might be the longest I've gone without blogging since I started this thing. I have been away, away, away. The woman I co-own my house with came back after almost three years and I wanted a break. It's interesting, the emotions are very similar to single-parent issues. We finally got to talk today for the first time since July 5th or 6th and compare experiences. In a way, I just wanted to let her deal with it for a while and see what she thought was needed. It seems clear that we will be making a lot of changes in the house. A new paint job is only the beginning.
In other news, Chanteuse has a gig! We will be opening for Launchpad at The Black Forest on Wednesday, August 10th. I think this is our setlist: Seasons, Downtown, Dusk, Spiders, Star 21, Bus Stop, Wave, Speechless, Chanteuse. I changed two of those from the plan but I will discuss it with the band later, it's a work in progress. Those are all of our songs currently, although we've messed around with some covers (Jefferson Airplane, Devendra Banhart, Wire, Hank Williams - hope that tells you something about us). I'll update the band page when I go back to my house. Tonight there's a punk show so I am staying away. I'm sick of doing shows for a while, unless they are mellow experimental nights.
The Fair was good this year. Hardly any nasty crap in the compost (e.g. batteries, cans of bug spray, glowsticks). The hippies did a pretty good job of cleaning up after themselves. This year about 50% of the food vendors went with early adoption of metal flatware (which, Thank Goddess, will be mandatory next year). Thanks to all of them for making our job easier. Not only was the compost really clean, but we organized our work better and down at the Recycling Dock they had SIX TONS LESS WASTE than last year (10 instead of 16). After 2004 we were all really discouraged, but it looks like we are still making progress towards being waste free. Unfortunately it took Food For Lane County and assorted volunteers about 165 hours of work time to wash all the silverware. Oops. Better luck next year, I guess.
This past weekend I went to Manzanita (on the North coast of Oregon) to visit with my sister, her adorable children, and lots of in-laws (also with adorable children). I ended up driving there with an old friend of mine who I re-met at the Fair and am now dating. It's my first real situation like that in over three years, you know, the kind of thing where you spend a few hours in the car talking about the relationship, feelings, histories, all that stuff. I must be mostly healed because it isn't scary. Blog world, meet Rosie. More about her later, I'm sure, although she's taking off soon for the Autonomous Mutant Festival. All you sappy Valentine's Day lovers can still fuck off. She hates it too (if there was a typeface for sarcasm, that would be in it).

7/5/05

Vacation time. I will be at the Country Fair until the weekend of the 16th, then I will be vacationing at my friends Jim and Taunia's house. You can reach me by email still, though. Blog at ya later.

6/28/05

The wedding was a big hit, especially the part where Mielle said "Will the ring bearers please come forward" and Jebediah whistled for their two dogs, who immediately trotted up with the rings around their collars, one each. The woman next to me started to cry. It was stunningly beautiful on the coast, and my mom got to be there too. However, I didn't sleep at all and am still kinda recovering. It was quite the party.

The next real night (i.e. Monday) I kept trying to leave Sam Bond's but was held up by Mike Schaefer (visiting from Arizona), Rose (us bonding about her letting her house go), and the aforementioned Mielle (visiting from Cuba) in that order. Finally I made it out of that blackhole vortex of socialization and went to the best show Cozmik Pizza has ever had. For all y'all who missed Skygreen Leopards, Castanet, and Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice, well, you missed out bigtime. Awesome stuff. Glenn Donaldson of SGL and about ten other bands gave me three CDs of his, and I bought a Castanet CD plus a WWVV LP.

Today I spent pretty much the whole goddamn day in court testifying in the Tiny's case. It absolutely disgusts me that certain revisionists in our hood (I'm looking directly at you, Secret Hippie) would like to pretend that it's cool to go there again. It isn't, and it won't be until there's a new owner. Hopefully the kid who got his teeth knocked out will get his medical bills paid, after almost two years of inexcusable delaying tactics by the current owner (who no longer deserves a name).

6/23/05

I neglected to mention my extensive feature on the band 17 Pygmies over at The Mystical Beast. You can still get the MP3s, and a former member even provided a bunch of extra info in the comments! I love MP3-blogging.

6/20/05

Very deficient on the blog front. Tina had the best party so far this year, including the Ovulators' debut of their new drummer (Kayla) and a new Stardust song ("Cage"?) that just about ripped my head off with its snarling, stuttering brilliance. Wow.

I spent the weekend at my first ever bachelor party, which says a lot about my life and the company I keep. Jebediah and Darrah are getting married next weekend in Yachats... it was a good mix of Jeb's engineer geek friends and us geeky activist types. Lots of talk about Bluetooth, Toyota diesel imports, and other such technology advances. Then we strung Jeb up naked by his ankles between two trees, spanked him, made him drink whiskey, let him down, and put him into the luxurious bathtub we had brought out to the woods with us. His disbelieving "I get a BATH?!" is a fine memory indeed, him sitting there with his Shriner hat, cigar, and glass of whiskey amidst the candles and the oils and the stars up above.

6/9/05

Before the weekend starts, two invitations... (also note that I am still guest-blogging on Tiny Lights at Mystical Beast).

YOU ARE INVITED!
To: a (potluck / decompression session / group hug / general love-in) to (celebrate / commiserate / reflect on ) the fact that though a cherished member of our community has been taken away from us and kept in a concrete cage for FIVE YEARS,
he ISN'T DEAD YET, and
NEITHER ARE WE!
Where: The River Ruin (Shelley & Sleeve's house) at 375 River Road
When: Sunday, June 12th, 2:00 pm
Why: It's been a fucking LONG five years of complete global insanity and it doesn't look like it's getting better. Since Free went to jail, right wing Amerika has invaded two countries (that we know of) and smashed through most of our remaining civil liberties in their mad dash for complete full-spectrum dominance. The Forces of Good are on the defensive. It sucks. Let's take a break!!!
So come one, come all! Bring some solid food if you can. But no matter what, _don't_ stress about it! If it's all you can do, just bring your traumatized shell-shocked liberal/radical hippy punk ass down to the River Ruin, have some food, and get a good hug!Brought To You By Friends Of Jeff Luers and Break The Chains.

INVITATION #2: Well, there's The Ovulators at Luckey's on Friday... that night I am DJing my friend Tara's party on 16th and Lincoln, collaborating with a woman who spins breakbeats. Should be interesting. Also Yeltsin's CD release party at Sam Bond's on Saturday. Many choices... also locally produced movie Pizza Girl is at DIVA on Friday night.

6/8/05

Listening: Coil's first post-Jhonn Balance "release", a live recording of their All Tomorrow's Parties gig made in 2003. Superlative, mostly new material - I had this on MP3 and subsequently lost it in a data reorg. Getting a swank digipak with pristine audio CD in a nice replacement. The record is called The Ambulance Died In His Arms... and that was its working title before his death. There is one more official project from Coil to come out (the last album, almost completed at the time of Balance's accident), and I'm sure there's 3 or 4 mostly-finished things lurking in the woodwork that will also see eventual release. Unlike Bryn Jones of Muslimgauze (dead for 6 years this last January, still has at least 50 unreleased albums) there isn't much left. Coil were always heavy on the quality control, to their benefit.

Recovering: A last-minute excursion to John Henry's to see The Shudders get back together. Props to Eugene most original cover band and to Mr. Random for blogging about it and therefore spurring my interest. They had a few new tracks but, as usual, they were fairly obscure covers unknown to me.

6/6/05

This week I will be guest-blogging again at Mystical Beast, telling the story of a great band called Tiny Lights (attention Rachel, John B, Katherine, and others...) complete with MP3s, personal anecdotes, and uncirculated live tracks recorded by me on a boombox in Louisville Kentucky in the summer of 1988. Check it out!

5/29/05

Reading: the Mekons United book - art punk at its finest. 200+ pages, dense theoretical writing, gorgeous color prints, lyrics, punk history, fiction, and so much more. There's even a CD included! Too bad it's a bunch of crap Mekons outtakes.

Listening: Gang Of Four - Going through a major revisiting/re-evalution of this high school favorite since they are this year's influence du jour. Burned all my vinyl to CD and also DL'd a spectacular DVD with some truly amazing early footage of the band in full tension-and-release mode. I always thought John King played 2nd guitar, but he just sings (and sometimes plays melodica, thumbs up). Andy Gill plays ALL OF THAT CRAZY GUITAR SHIT. I remember going to some mall in Harrisonburg, Virginia on tour with the debate team in 11th grade and finding a cassette of Another Day Another Dollar, which I happily made my first Go4 purchase. It literally scared my teammate Peter Wildman to the point that he said "I don't think we should be listening to this" as the guitar feedback and vocal howling of "To Hell With Poverty" blasted out of my tiny 1982 tape player.

Downloading: a DVD of the New York Dolls playing San Francisco's Matrix club in 1973. Arthur Kane (bassist) was relegated to backing vocals for this show because the infamous Connie (Dee Dee Ramone's future girlfriend immortalized in the book Please Kill Me) had tried to cut off his thumb with a knife. Punk rock! I can't wait to see it (but I have to, until tomorrow. The internet doth spoil us.).

Burning: A mix CD of "the best of 1980" for my friend Rose who was born that year. It was SO MUCH FUN to make. I was inspired by I Love Music's CDR700GO! series. Damn, those are some good albums - Back In Black (AC/DC), Remain In Light (Talking Heads, arguably STILL the decade's best album), Sandinista! (Clash), Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (Dead Kennedys), Metal Box/Second Edition (PIL), Crazy Rhythms (Feelies), Songs The Lord Taught Us (Cramps), Scary Monsters (David Bowie), Doc At The Radar Station (Captain Beefheart), Los Angeles (X), Underwater Moonlight (Soft Boys), etc...

Thinking: Eugene is really pretty cool right now. People seem to have learned from our millenial community meltdown and those of us who have stuck it out have a newfound sense of surety and purpose. My friend Wheels and I are discussing an oral history project on Eugene from the Warner Creek era until now. I'm also thinking a lot about doing a raging Memorial Day show tomorrow on KWVA. Look out.

By the way, in the Sunday comics today Snoopy goes AWOL in "Peanuts" right above Doonesbury's listing of the U.S. Iraqi War casualties' names. My roommate Shade posted the two together up on our fridge with the comment "you just can't make this shit up". True dat. Give it up, neocons. Even the comics hate you.

5/24/05

Jandek's latest coup literally took my breath away. This just came through to the mailing list, a report of the Glasgow show... (note to newcomers: this guy has anonymously made 40 albums over 27 years and this was his 3rd show ever - all this year)

Barry Esson came onstage beforehand and announced that Jandek would be
playing a "meditative" set of about 90 minutes and that we'd want to sit
down. There were only a few chairs in the room, so mostly we sat on the
floor. He also requested that if anyone were to get up and leave they
should do so quietly; there had also been signs to that effect posted
around the venue.
Reportedly the title of the night's performance was "The Cell", but it
wasn't announced or posted, so I can't be certain that's official.
The house lights came down, leaving only some quite dim blue stage
lights to illuminate a drum kit, double bass, and grand piano. Alex
Neilson and Richard Youngs came out of the door by the side of the stage
and took their places, followed by Jandek, who walked slowly and
deliberately across the stage and took his seat at the piano, placing a
sheaf of lyric sheets on the stand above the keyboard. The piano bench
was against the wall on the audience's right, so Jandek was facing the
other musicians. I'd staked out a spot on the floor in front of the
piano. The stage was only about two feet high and the audience could
come right up to it, so unlike the more distanced setup in Gateshead
(high stage, seats), Jandek was, like, RIGHT THERE. Without his hat,
and without a guitar, he was less of a costumed figure, more simply
himself.
The first section was instrumental. Jandek's piano playing wasn't at
all what you'd expect from his only recorded performance on piano, the
long and predominantly quite wild solo piece on "The Beginning". The
piano was a high quality instrument, normally tuned, and everything he
played was slow and deliberate: totally consonant, melancholy Satie-ish
melodies walking gently up and down the white keys, often just single
notes, some gentle chords, transparent, not dense, the two hands
coordinated but independent, not in lock-step. Richard accompanied with
slow, somber long tones played with the bow, confined to a narrow range
of pitches. Alex played hushed and intermittent drum sounds, brushes on
cymbals, the lightest taps on the bass drum.
We didn't know whether to applaud when the first piece completed, so we
remained silent. Later it became clear we'd made the right choice,
because the evening was one long suite. There were sections with short
pauses between, but the whole suite was quite consistent in tone and in
musical material, and held together as well by recurring phrases in the
lyrics. In the second section Jandek began to sing...
Gotta run. More later!

(report by Seth Tisue, who runs the defacto Jandek website)

5/14/05

Two links for your pleasure... if you haven't yet heard of it, the "I Love Music" discussion board.

And also Tofu Hut's unbelievable genre-organized list of MP3 blogs. Fucking amazing. My favorite of the bunch so far is Radiant Slab's Phonography Archive, where people upload their own field/environmental recordings. Birds, streams, traffic, etc...

5/12/05

The crazy weekend starts... I will be DJing at Luckey's with The Ovulators and Setting Sun this Saturday. Melt-Banana at the WOW Hall on Sunday. Don't forget Faun Fables at John Henry's. AND...

Monday May 16th 8 PM
Le Sous Sol/River Ruin presents:
Frozen Rabbit (Phil Weston and Tim Hill from Skinny Puppy & Download, from BC)
Connect_i_cut (also from Vancouver, BC)
Orbit Service (from Denver)
Warning: Broken Machine (from Eugene)

This should be an excellent show. I'm really excited. See you there!

5/5/05

Nice alliterative date there. Cinco De Mayo is a big deal in Eugene. I had a margarita after work but am staying in cleaning house, and being an internet geek. I just read the most fascinating article in a long time. Written in 1997 but very relevant, an alternately amazing and horrifying account of how major labels actually take "care" of their archived recordings - metal plates, acetates, tape, you name it. Seriously, if you have any free web-browsing time (I'm thinking of you, archivist mom and assorted geek friends) this is as good as it gets:

http://www.billholland.net/words/vault.html

For extra credit, here's an almost as fascinating piece chronicling the post-millenial developments in the record industry. Written by new Coolfer contributor Alec whats-his-name, this is like a thousand times better than anything he's written on Coolfer so far and makes me understand why he got picked as a contributor.

And let's not forget that unreleased early acetate version of The Velvet Underground And Nico recently bought for 75 cents at a Chelsea, NY garage sale. Thanks to Mystical Beast for the link. Whoah.

5/2/05

Nice show at Sam Bond's... The Dead Americans returned with their old name and new lineup and were honestly really great. What a treat. Jamie Vineyard's debut solo performance (she was a founder of High On Peeps) was some cool acoustic song passion and then the wildly weird sounds of her homemade steel cello, which I could listen to for like four days straight. Launchpad had their usual improv mix of one quarter sleepy tranced beauty, one half sci fi groove freakout, 15% scary distortion throb, and 10% intolerably unfocused fucking around. At least that was the batting average when I left.

I'd especially like to thank the Sam Bond's staff for playing Springsteen's "Nebraska" all night to match my black cloud mood.

5/1/05

Happy Beltane.

Seems like Patti Smith is having an insane week of concerts in London in June... check this lineup:

PATTI SMITH'S MELTDOWN - FIRST EVENTS ANNOUNCED

Friday 17th June, QEH
YOKO ONO

Friday 17th June, RFH
RACHID TAHA with special guest PATTI SMITH

Saturday 18th June, RFH
Songs of Innocence Protest Songs and Lullabies
Feat. PATTI SMITH, SINEAD O'CONNOR, BETH ORTON, KRISTIN HERSH (Throwing
Muses)

Sunday 19th June, RFH
STEVE EARLE & PATTI SMITH

Wednesday 22nd June, QEH
The Coral Sea feat. PATTI SMITH and KEVIN SHIELDS (My Bloody Valentine)

Thursday 23rd June, RFH
Stand Bravely Brothers
A homage to Berthold Brecht feat. PATTI SMITH, MARC ALMOND, NEIL FINN,
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS, DRESDEN DOLLS, LONDON SINFONIETTA

Friday 24th June, QEH
ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS

Saturday 25th June
PATTI SMITH performs Horses
With special guest JOHN CALE

Sunday 26th June, RFH
Songs Of Experience
The work of Jimi Hendrix and the music that inspired him Feat. PATTI
SMITH, JEFF BECK, FLEA & JOHN FRUSCIANTE (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and
many more

plus AN EXHIBITION OF PATTI SMITH'S PHOTOS
------------------------------

Whoa... KEVIN SHIELDS??!! (ex-My Bloody Valentine)... I'm just gonna move to England now...

4/25/05

Busy busy.

This weekend was my house-owning-partner Shelley's 40th birthday. We had a pretty mellow party, and Shade and I did a ton of work outside during the day as other people came by.

The fig tree Shelley brought from her old house at 5th Street has transplanted OK, but has not produced fruit for the 4 1/2 years we've lived here. On Saturday morning I went out to the garden and saw that it had fruit for the first time since the move. Happy Birthday, Shelley.

The second poetry slam playoff was also Saturday. John LaBrouce, Miranda, Sam, and 2 others qualified for finals.

This week? Insanity. As Tina mentioned, our friend Chaia has joined Chanteuse and we finished recording the Led Zeppelin song ("Battle Of Evermore") for Rob Jones' tribute CD. We had our first real practice together this afternoon. Tonight? Oratrix make a welcome return to Sam Bond's. Wednesday? Kinnie Starr and The Ovulators, also at Sam's. Thursday? 4-band show at River Ruin. This weekend? 3 or 4 shows. Insanity. This weekend I am actually fleeing to Portland for a brief vacation. If you go see just one of these, go see Kinnie Starr. Seriously.

4/17/05

Yeah, I second Mr. Random's Luckey's comments... a good show all around. Although I cannot tolerate Bitch Machine's loud aggro schtick, I had to acknowledge some improvement and they are really nice guys, which is always a plus in my book. Nolan has definitely found his groove with the Decliners, and they did the first ever cover of an Ovulators song! (that would be the sadly neglected "Waitress And A Junkie", not played by the band for close to a year now - and where's "Five Aggregates"? I want my Five Aggregates back!!!). And then the Ovulators in black-and-gold-and-silver late night splendor. At least they played "Angry Inch" for the first time in a while.

All neglected-song-bitching aside the band were great as usual these days. They are auditioning three potential drummers this week.

4/16/05

Well, I just went to my first "Friends Of The Library" sale... this is a Eugene institution, with thousands of donated books, plants, videos, CDs, etc, but I just went for vinyl and was, well, less than enthused. An hour's wait outside in the rain (no big deal, this is Eugene) got me nine fifty-cent records. Four of Jean Michel Jarre's (completing my collection in one fell swoop) which unfortunately are like VG- vinyl, two mint Odetta albums on the Tradition label, a mint Pentangle LP, Big Brother and The Holding Company's Cheap Thrills (in excellent shape also), and an Erroll Garner LP. OK, but not exciting.

In Bit Torrent land, however... I have been freakin' out on some SUPERB Miles Davis shows from 3/6/70 (Fillmore East) and 6/19/73 (Tokyo), some mindblowing Sandy Denny pre-Fairport solo home demo CDs (plus two good 1972 live shows, one solo and one with band), and an absolutely killer X show from Detroit in July 1982.

4/9/05

Easytree, predictably, has reincarnated like all the best Temporary Autonomous Zones. Sweet.

If you are thinking about having an event on May 14th, STOP RIGHT NOW. I officially declare a stimulus overload for the night. Not only is it the night of the Eugene Poetry Slam finals... Not only is there a Luckey's gig with The Ovulators, our ex-LA friends Setting Sun, and yours truly as DJ... NOT ONLY are the Evolution Control Committee returning to John Henry's for Freaks In The House Night... But freakin' SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM AND FAUN FABLES are playing an EARLY show at John Henry's as well.

So if I don't come to your party, this is why. Don't say you weren't warned.

4/5/05

Easytree has been shut down after receiving a nasty lawyer letter.

Fuck. At least I was a member since November. I got literally hundreds of recordings in that time. It was the coolest music-focused community I have ever been involved with, and a lot of people are saying that it was the best site in the history of the web. It will be very, very much missed. I'm going to go listen to my five discs worth of Kawabata Makoto's "Private Tapes" now and feel bummed out. Yeah, it's OK to sell bootleg CDRs on eBay, but don't you dare trade unreleased live shows...

On the other hand, I will have a lot more free time now.

4/3/05

Don't you hate it when you're in a bar and it's 2 A.M. and then all of a sudden it's 3 A.M.? I got spoiled living in Indiana for six years, where they have the good sense to ignore Daylight Savings Time.

Staying up was worth it, though, as I got to see one of the best Ovulators shows ever! They played at new-to-shows bar Sam's Place along with another band's debut and a drag king revue.

I kinda hung back during the Playboys drag show because there were a lotta dykes in there who had mostly come for that, and it was pretty crowded up front. They seemed to be a big hit.

Next up was the debut of Velvet Trap, a new band with Ana (sp?) from Station Wag on drums. They all kicked ass in a major way, easily the best debut gig I've seen since Launchpad. Snarling, powerful rock/punk bashed out by four tough-looking women playing with confidence and skill. Very cool, plus they were really nice. I hope to see them again soon.

The Ovulators, well... this was their third year playing in drag as The Ejaculators, the all-boy Ovulators cover band (see the archives). "Kevin, Dirk, Gino, and K.C." played a freakin' fantastic show. I don't know what it is about Kasey leaving (five more gigs?), but they are really on right now. Somebody caught a couple of tunes on video and I was so glad. I actually ended up working for real at this gig doing sound, and was correspondingly decked out in red dress/blonde wig sound-girl splendor to match the band. That Gino's such a dick. Just 'cause I fucked him on that roof in L.A that time we got drunk he thinks he owns me. Jerk.

The Sunday record score of the day is (gasp!) a GOOD collection disc from the Cleopatra label, generally renowned for shoddy sketchiness. For only ten bucks new I got an expertly compiled CD of the best of Chrome, featuring numerous tracks I only had on tape (well, two, but there are eight more that I only have on vinyl). And the track selection, for once, is truly the best of the best, right down to picking "Perfumed Metal" off of Blood On The Moon and nothing else. Plus all three tracks off of the Subterranean Modern comp, another high point. Amazing. I can't think of a band that needs the deluxe reissue treatment as much as this one, this is the only thing currently in print I'm aware of. At least it's the cream off the top...

3/29/05

Spin gave the Beck record a B, the Out Hud a B+, and the Decembrists an A-. I would reverse those myself.

Cheapy record of the week was a 5 buck copy of John Cale's Slow Dazzle, a truly great 1975 LP that sounds much better than my "remastered" CD reissue. Along with a VG- copy of John Coltrane's Ballads, that was all I had to show for two hours of searching through the used stock Sunday afternoon at House Of Records. Vinyl is getting harder and harder to find. No Led Zeppelin. No Neil Young. No Queen. 80's stuff like Siouxsie, Cure, New Order, Killing Joke? Forget it. Haven't seen 'em in years. Another used Cale (the stunning Helen Of Troy) and the Bevis Frond's Triptych were both twelve bucks. Ouch. I better fill out the missing spots in my collection ASAP. Portland roadtrip, anyone? How about Corvallis?

Oh yes, and Jandek is playing an advertised gig in the UK on May 22nd. What was that about the end times again?

3/28/05

It's new album week around town... Beck, Out Hud, M.I.A., Bloc Party, Decembrists, and who knows what else will await me at the radio station today. I'm lukewarm on the Out Hud after hearing the single and reading reviews, I've been listening to M.I.A. and spinning it at parties for weeks already (the official release was delayed a month after we got the promo), and I could care less about the hot new indie flavors, so that leaves us with the new Beck album, a return to Midnight Vultures/Odelay style "dumb ass party albums" to quote the man himself. The new single ("E-Bow") is perfectly good, but it troubles me that I find it blurring together with another album track, "Black Tambourine", even if that one does have one of the coolest videos ever (hint: change that file extension from ".html" to ".mov" and you can DL it). I still much prefer this stuff to Sea Change. What a downer album, and not in a good way.

Favorite shows that came down the Easytree pipeline recently:

1. Neil Young at The Bottom Line, NYC, May 1974... A super downer, in a real good way. Most of On The Beach performed solo along with other naked, desperate material.

2. Bongwater live in England, 1991. Mind boggling. They cover "Not Fade Away", "Willie The Pimp", "The Pusher", "In The Court Of The Crimson King", and "Hey Joe". In between there are ferocious renditions of Power Of Pussy songs with Dogbowl AND Randy Hudson on dual guitars... Oh my.

3. Flipper live @ The On Broadway, SF 1982. Devastating sludge attack, unbelievable sound.

4. This Heat live at Scala Cinema 1979. With Gareth Williams! Joy all around.

5. Einsturzende Neubauten - 1st gig, 1980. Punk rock! With noise!

OK, I guess I'll change the links later. I am so behind, all the time...

3/21/05

Happy Spring Equinox... the plants are starting to grow.

I cannot believe I have failed to link to the Censorship Quotations File, seemingly updated in no particular date order but vast and interesting nonetheless. Here's a good one:

"The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account."
--Walter Lippmann

Expect a serious revamping of my links, at least, coming soon....

3/14/05

No updates for a while... many interesting things. I never specifically mentioned here that I fixed my CD burner by resetting the firmware, which is fancy tech-speak for unplugging the unit from the power source entirely, which resets certain things deep within its digital heart.

Last Thursday I had planned on going out to Sam Bond's to see Happy Bastards, Station Wag, and Non-Dairy Larry. However, before that I went over to the WOW Hall to hang out at the back door for the KRS-One show. And he let us all in for free! Damn! So we all rocked out for a long time. I missed the Sam Bond's show, my apologies to Station Wag who I really wanted to see - it's been a while.

The whole KRS-One thing is, of course, a little controversial just because he's so outspoken and serious. But I like his thing. About 15 years ago I saw him speak at the EMU Ballroom, and I remember a member of the audience being disturbed by his references to the necessity of the ghetto arming themselves for protection. Whatever... the man speaks some heavy truth. He referenced the fact that by doing this show together we were engaging in ancient ritual that was older than music, older than race. He talked about how we live in a patriarchy and that hip hop, if it could do one thing, should elevate women to their rightful place. All that good stuff mixed with killer beats and get-down shoutouts. Maybe some might have found it preachy, I dug it. Especially FOR FREE.

On Saturday I had a very different music experience, my first venture into the high-priced world of The Shedd (our local "highbrow", for lack of a better term, music venue). The occasion? A rare appearance by Laurie Anderson. Having seen her in 1987 and 1995, I didn't want to miss my chance in this decade. Ms. Anderson is one of the first artists I really got into that I remember my mom really liking and tuning into. The United States Live box set was frequent bedtime listening during my late teens.

Her show this time was a reflection of her experience as the first (and last) "Artist-In-Residence" at NASA. It was stripped down, minimalist, bleak, hostile, and long. Just like outer space. Very minimal set with candles laid out over the stage like stars. One screen with a static black&white shot of a pitted moon surface. An armchair and an instrument station. Mostly electronic backdrops with Laurie telling her trademark stories over them... violin fills in between the stories, mostly open-string moan with occasional virtuoso runs. One continuous 90-minute set. She talked about how this war will never end because it is the war of the future, about how her dog looking up at hovering vultures reminded her of Manhattanites after 9/11, about how ridiculous it is to get up and pretend that everything is normal after a really weird dream, and so forth. Typically human and observant. As with her previous shows, I feel like I will be absorbing it for a long time. This was one of only five performances of this piece, we are lucky folks here in Eugene.

3/3/05

Noise show tonight at Le Sous Sol with the Portland Bicycle Orchestra, WARNING BROKEN MACHINE, and another artist T.B.A. We are at 375 River Road, showtime approx. 8: 30 PM. No alcohol, band donations encouraged.

3/2/05

My post about the Eugene music scene, with 6 local MP3s, is now up at Mystical Beast.

2/27/05

READER COMMENTS:

"so? give us the skinniest on 'the greatest social weekend in a long time...'!"

Well, THIS Friday's experience of a super-hoppin' Whiteaker Artwalk and then swimming in a heated pool while abstract movies played was pretty superb. The real meaning of LAST weekend was feeling tight with people. Thursday, someone had a birthday party and a whole bunch of cool people who hadn't all hung out in a while came over. At one point, back by the fire, one particularly favorite human of mine blurted out "I don't want to seem sappy... but.... you're all REALLY AMAZING PEOPLE and I love you all SO MUCH." That inspired me greatly, and the next evening (after seeing the VERY COOL debut of a friend's new band, Public Liar) I made a point of telling somebody how much I appreciate them. She got all choked up. It was beautiful, man... And the Poetry Slam was pretty cool too, some nice new faces and a good feature. And THEN there was a full on Olympia band invasion at Grandma's House, featuring a guest set from Micah Sykes and assorted pals (Micah left Eugene for the starquest of L.A.). Another beautiful night with campfire and good people.

And tomorrow I start another guest week at Mystical Beast, this time with a post of all the weird forgotten cassette artists of the 80's. Stay tuned for a post with a bunch of Eugene bands on Wednesday!

2/20/05

Hunter S. Thompson shot himself.

The Ovulators website is updated, finally...

And I had the greatest social weekend in a long time... .more later.

2/18/05

I love more in the monitor. Check this quote about Kaki King: (2/3 entry)

"Her fingers are tiny little robot warriors mowing down every guy who ever gave a girl a dirty look when she walked into a guitar store."

2/16/04

It's 5:31 PM and I can still see the sun. YES!!! I can feel the light soaking into me.

Mr. Random brings up some interesting points regarding improv, practice, and rehearsal in his recent entries. Chanteuse is mostly a "let's try that again from the top" band, but we do have two pieces that are freer-playing, one is almost solely improv (but still has structural elements, one verse and two notes). But I have to say, continuous improv over the course of many shows with no recurring structural, musical, or lyrical motifs seems like an aesthetic dead end to me unless you are playing to an improv-oriented audience, which Launchpad definitely does not. Now Frantic, that's a different story... In the excellent rock theory book The Sex Revolts (which I unfortunately no longer have so I can't find the quote), the authors make a very strong case for the best music teetering on the line between chaos and order, improv and structure, loose and tight. I refer you to Can, the 70's-era Miles Davis albums, and perhaps F/I for further study. This has been very influential in how I've approached music for the last ten years or so, and was a major component of Catalyst, my band with ex-Daddies sax player Rex Trimm. So maybe I'm just biased. Let the debate continue...

2/15/04

I think I traumatized several members of my blogosphere last year with my bitter rants about Valentine's Day, which I still think is "the cruelest holiday". However, my approach this year was a little more balanced. Did a full on freak out KWVA show that I was quite happy with. And no, I'm not fucking sleeping with anybody. Leave me alone. I don't wanna talk about it. I'll just quote LCD Soundsystem instead:

Nobody's falling in love
Everybody here needs a shove
And nobody's getting any touch
Everybody thinks that it means too much
And nobody's comin' undone
Everybody here's afraid of fun
And nobody's getting any play
It's the saddest night out in the USA...

I'm gonna cover that tune with Chanteuse and we're gonna dedicate it to the Portland hipsters who are too cool to dance...

Discussion between Kelani and I on Sunday Feb. 6th as we sit on my couch admiring flyers in the stunning coffeetable book of flyer art my mom gave me:

K: "So I'm making these really cool flyers for our gig with Yeltsin. It isn't REALLY on Valentine's Day, but..."
S: "That sounds rad. Like you could make a little check box and say "Do you want to go out with The Ovulators and Yeltsin? Check yes or no..."

(long pause)

S: "Hey, did you notice my total lack of irony or sarcasm in that last statement?"
K: "Actually, I did."

If you are considering buying a new album, I strongly recommend the debut full-length from LCD Soundsystem, which has two tracks that are EVEN BETTER than "Losing My Edge". Although not as verbose and funny, they have a more immediate impact. Full on freak out times ten, the party cowbell album of 2005 for sure.

While on the subject of total freakouts, the 17th annual Eugene Record Convention was crazy this year. Here are my top five scores:

1. Lemon Kittens - Cake Beast EP. On my top ten want list for 15 years. Paid 50 bucks without even hesitating for a second (and the guy was nice enough to knock five bucks off). I have never seen a copy before and most likely won't again. Indescribably great, not just rare. Danielle Dax sings about writing "I love you" on a kite and flying it "high above you, for all to read". I can now hear an entire woodblock percussion part that was inaudible on my several-generations-removed cassette copy. Wow.

2. Rip Rig And Panic - God (double EP) and Attitude LP. Two out of the three full-lengths from this post-Pop Group band of lunatics featuring a very young Neneh Cherry on vocals. Two more top twenty want list entries knocked off, now I only need the 2nd LP I Am Cold. Truly, the end is in sight...

3. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Where's Officer Tuba? EP. The only TFUL282 record I didn't own, an extremely out-of-print UK import with 4 otherwise unreleased tracks. Obviously essential, and I hadn't ever seen a copy before.

4. Ramones - It's Alive 2LP. Perhaps the greatest live album ever made. New Year's Eve, 1977. 28 tracks with, like, negative space in between songs. The last chord is barely fading out before Dee Dee goes "1-2-3-4!" and it starts all over again, 28 times in a row. Even the fake crowd noise can't kill this one.

5. Kangaroo Kourt - S/T LP. This record has languished in the category of "Why didn't I buy that when I saw it at House Of Records that one time" for the last ten years. I have the other two (is that all?) records by them, and they are freaky noise masterpieces just like this one. And this band is even more obscure than, say, The Residents. I mean, no one knows ANYTHING.

Honorable mention: Flipper's Gone Fishin' LP, four Nonesuch Explorer Series ethnic LPs, Patti Smith's Trampin' double LP and the Set Free EP with otherwise unreleased spoken word track, two Cure albums (Pornography and The Top), 17 Pygmies' awesome Welcome LP to replace my KRVM-sale copy that well-known fucker and ignominiously deposed ex-Music Director Johnny Etheridge PHYSICALLY SCRATCHED THE SONGS WITH CUSS WORDS ON. What a loser.

Oh yeah, I got one CD. It's pretty good.

2/11/05

Router freakout continues, none of my peeps should expect to reach me via email for about a week. I've already gotten one "are you mad at me?" email, please, no more...

2/9/05

The weirdest people read this blog. I mean, Pam? Weird. Such a random assortment of family and friends. In another convergence of the two, my very good friend Lacey is moving to my home town of Charlottesville, VA, which Lacey informs me is the longest single-word city name in the US.

Listening now to one of my severely gratification-delayed Xmas purchases. I got two. Allow me to record-geek for just a second. First up is the John Cale New York In The 1960's box set. Five LPs in a solid box made out of 1/4" wood painted black. These comprise the three (out of print) archival CDs of Cale's 1960's (duh) era recordings, plus a bonus tenth side of Cale and Angus Maclise performing with Jack Smith. Apparently these side 10 recordings were previously released on another Table Of The Elements label release, but I was unaware of that. Absolutely stunning drone minimalism by this original Velvet Underground member and producer to the stars (Nico, Modern Lovers, Stooges).

Due in the mail ANY DAY NOW is the semi-ultra deluxe remix/reissue of Current 93's In Menstrual Night LP. I have the original picture disc and the first LP reissue, and it remains one of my favorite C93 albums. This is a limited editon of 200 (sold out in preorders including mine) double LPs on some heavy-ass vinyl, in a red cloth bag, with a bonus PICTURE DISC SEVEN INCH. The double LP (also in a regular edition of 2000) is new remixes of the original IMN material, the limited picture disc 7" is extracts from the original material. In the wake of the death of John Balance, the album has been retitled from "We Love The Moon" to "How He Loved The Moon". and an additional edition of TWENTY (count me out) with extra funeral-related acetate 7" is due at the end of the month, with an even more special edition of one that will be sold on eBay with proceeds donated to a leprosy haven.

1/30/05

Damn it. It IS the burner. I finally achieved enough irregularities to confirm it. Hopefully Sony has a fix (long, bitter laugh). At least I don't have to install fucking Panther again.

I MUST have this record (just reviewed in Brainwashed):

"THE FURTHER SOMNILOQUIES OF DION MCGREGOR"
Torpor Vigil Industries
Dion McGregor was a down-on-his-luck Broadway songwriter living in New York City in 1960, sleeping on the couch of his friend and partner Michael Barr, when Barr first noticed McGregor's unique propensity for speaking his dreams aloud. In the early morning hours before McGregor awoke, he would rattle off remarkably coherent narratives that were by turns surreal, disturbing and hilarious. It was not until 1961 that Barr began to record Dion's sleeptalking, and he recorded his roommate faithfully every morning until he moved away in 1967, amassing a collection of thousands of McGregor's so-called "somniloquies" on mountains of reel-to-reel tapes. In 1964, Barr approached a Decca Records executive with the idea of releasing an LP of Dion's best dreams. In possibly the strangest major label move ever, Decca actually agreed, releasing not only the classic LP The Dream World of Dion McGregor (He Talks In His Sleep) , but also a companion book with many more dreams transcribed, with accompanying illustrations by Edward Gorey. The book and LP both sold poorly to a largely bewildered public, and in the intervening years the cult of Dion McGregor slowly grew, and the book and record both became collector's items. McGregor died quietly in 1994, and then seemingly out of nowhere, Tzadik released a sequel to the Decca album (1999's Dion McGregor Dreams Again), with more than an hour of dreams deemed to be too obscene for the original LP. I assumed that was probably it, but surprisingly, Torpor Vigil Industries has dug deeper into the Barr tape archive to put together yet another hour-plus collection of somniloquies from the same bountiful source as the other two classic releases. I was apprehensive about this volume, thinking that most of the best dreams would have already been used on the first two albums. I was wrong, however; the 24 tracks that make up The Further Somniloquies are vintage McGregor, full of surreal humor, oddly disturbing mental imagery, and that same fey delivery that made the other dreams so supremely funny. Just as on the earlier recordings, the sound of NYC traffic noise can be heard in the background throughout (Dion liked to sleep with the windows open), and every dream ends with McGregor shrieking and waking himself. The man's sleeptalking talent was truly outstanding: from the opening track "Scavenger Hunt" ("A yellow robins egg...a wolf's dream...a Welsh shoelace...a dirty napkin used by Garbo"), to the finale of "The Wet Parade" ("Walk straight into the sea, goddamnit! Hup, two, three, four!"), McGregor's dream world is utterly bizarre, frequently hilarious and always fascinating. Along the way McGregor plays "Food Roulette" with a lazy susan of poisoned eclairs, talks about living in a boarding house full of circus freaks, and reveals his obsessions with mangoes and horseshoe crabs. Many of the dreams are so meticulously realized and performed that I have often wondered whether or not the whole phenomenon was really just a hoax, despite the volumes of anecdotal and medical documentation regarding McGregor's peculiar case. Even if it is a hoax, it's an amazingly entertaining one, and that should count for something. - Jonathan Dean

1/30/05

Amidst the sickness and tech-meltdown hell, I still laughed at the list of the 50 Most Loathsome People In America. Here are two samples:

38. Toby Keith

Crimes: The worst kind of proud-to-be-brainwashed dolt, one who feels he should express himself. The fact that this ambulatory hamburger’s opinions were ever given public forum is an indictment of our entire civilization and all human history leading up to this point.

Smoking Gun: Plays country music.

Punishment: Impaled on improperly installed American flag attached to tractor-trailer, dragged for 12 hours, eaten by wolves.

24. Ronald Reagan

Crimes: The greatest monster in recent American history. Reagan’s excruciating sanctification during his agonizingly protracted funeral was enough to make anyone with knowledge of his true legacy blow up a radio tower. Newspaper columnists performed astonishing feats of selective memory in canonizing Reagan, disregarding any inconvenient evidence of supporting terrorism, ripping off taxpayers for outrageous defense programs, or introducing crack cocaine to America, because we need our heroes.

Smoking Gun: Responsible for telemarketing and infomercials.

Punishment: Reanimated and killed again.

Too bad it hurts so much to laugh...

I am also very annoyed by Made Explicit slipping from #7 to #135 on Google. What UP?

1/30/05

Everything sucks. STILL sick, the worst in years, but today might be the day I feel normal at the end of the day. My stand-alone analog CD burner is fucked up in a manner so maddening, so esoteric, and so complicated that I am probably the only person who can do anything about it. Allow me to elaborate.

These new 80-minutes CDRW's are a great idea. I can burn a full disc of analog music without having to roll over the extra six minutes onto another CDRW. Recently I got a couple, was laying down yet another cassette onto CD, and let the disc roll all the way to the end. 79 minutes, 58 seconds, all normal. But when I finalized the disc, I got an error. Being the stubborn type, I said "Oh Yeah?", hit "finalize" again and it worked. This, I think, was the fatal mistake (after spending the last few days in fevered detective mode).

Now the burner will burn analog CD/CDRWs just fine, and they sound fine in both it and my regular CD player. But when I take the disc and try to import it to the G4, the files come out all tinny, low-level, and distorted - like a wrongly matched preamp on a turntable. FUCK! This is a disaster of unparallelled magnitude for my system. Most of my functionality is now gone. What this means is that I cannot record anything from analog that I want to edit, chop into separate tracks, loop, MP3 blog, or whatever. If there isn't some kind of factory reset I can engage, I'm basically out 600 bucks. At least the thing lasted for five years.

There is a very small chance that this might be a G4 problem related to my unsuccessful attempts to extract audio CDs using the xACT program. If so, a total system reinstall and xACT version upgrade might help. But I doubt it. FUCK! This screws up the Poetry Slam, too.

I hate being on the cutting edge of computer audio. Can I just go back to 9.2.2, which at least had the good sense to recognize unfinalized discs? What's up with that, Apple? Since when does an OS upgrade LOSE functionality?

Does the Internet have any ideas for me other than "get that burner some professional help"?

1/27/05

Went back to work today after days of 12-hour sleep, still tired and achey but noticeably better. Quote of the day, courtesy of Dooce:

"Just like TV makes people look 2 inches taller, the internet makes people seem about 35% crazier".

1/25/05

Sick. Completely spaced the ECC show last night, I'm sure it was great. I just biked home from the out of control Ovulators-hiphop-dance-fashionshow-pet benefit event ("Fo Paws") that immensely talented former KWVA alum Lauren Zavrel put together. Actually, Tina and I went to the afterparty for a bit and got destroyed by a Sobe gravity bong, not a smart idea to mix with Dead Guy when you're already sick... Tina actually had to get me to finish hers. No wonder I just biked home. I remembered the show this morning.

1/23/05

The Grado is installed on the turntable, and it is a revelation. Comparing it to vinyl I recorded off of the old one, there is a ton less surface noise and general audio garbage. Records that have NEVER sounded good, like the beginning of side 2 of Attrition's In The Realm Of The Hungry Ghosts LP (on right now), are sounding just fine. Total audio heaven, at least for now...

Our router has been down for a week now, so no internet for me. We'll probably get it going today.

my first Wetlands show
Happy Bastards Dirt Clod Fight
Minutemen covers!

1/16/05

Current obsession: Joni Mitchell's "Dreamland" from Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. I realigned my turntable cartridge and it sounds much better. I also bought (oooh) a Grado cartridge and needle, but am holding off on installing it. You see, in the audio geek world, belt-driven turntables are preferable to DJ style direct (motor) drives. They won't stop and start on a dime, but they have quite a bit less hum. So now I have to fix my belt drive table, which is missing a channel on the output. I suspect it's the cable and will solder a new one on, if not I'm kinda screwed for tiptop vinyl sound....

Listen to the sound of the Huygens probe descending through the atmosphere of Titan.
(link courtesy of my mom)

Friday gig reports in haiku:

Launchpad swirls a lot
breaking stuff and shorting out
cold moon ice soundscape

missed Hot For Chocolate
all but two songs gone for good
love to shimmy fast

Activator, whoah
those dudes are blowing my mind
more reunions please

Ovulators rock
new song and "Release", my GOD!
Sleeve was happy then

The Poetry Slam got started late because they couldn't get enough judges at first, but the feature was excellent as usual - Roger Bonair-Agard from NYC. Jes Painter ran away with my heart in the slam by doing a KILLER poem about the radiator system in her apartment in a cold city. She deservedly placed a guaranteed spot in the playoffs, which are in April...

1/14/05

Tonight Launchpad & Deke Falcon play at Luckey's, and The Ovulators, Activator, and Hot For Chocolate play at the Downtown Lounge. Looks like some club-hopping is in order. Reports will follow.

Alice Bag of The Bags has a website. There are MP3s of rare Bags tunes! And a blog!

Eric Kleptone of the Kleptones has a blog.

Did I mention you really need to be checking out Coolfer if you are in any way part of the "music industry"?

And Stylus Magazine's 40 Worst of 2004 (the same as their 40 best, but funnier)

1/12/05

Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from France and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the Internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Berlin.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties.
But I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge, but I was there.
I was there.
But I was there.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1974 at the first Suicide practices in a loft in New York City.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
I used to work in the record store.
I had everything before anyone.
I was there in the Paradise Garage DJ booth with Larry Levan.
I was there in Jamaica during the great sound clashes.
I woke up naked on the beach in Ibiza in 1988.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody. Every great song by the Beach Boys. All the underground hits. All the Modern Lovers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Niagra record on German import. I heard that you have a white label of every seminal Detroit techno hit - 1985, '86, '87. I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records? This Heat, Pere Ubu, Outsiders, Nation of Ulysses, Mars, The Trojans, The Black Dice, Todd Terry, the Germs, Section 25, Althea and Donna, Sexual Harrassment, a-ha, Pere Ubu, Dorothy Ashby, PIL, the Fania All-Stars, the Bar-Kays, the Human League, the Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Niagra,
Joy Division, Lower 48, the Association, Sun Ra,
Scientists, Royal Trux, 10cc,
Eric B. and Rakim, Index, Basic Channel, Soulsonic Force ("just hit me"!), Juan Atkins, David Axelrod, Electric Prunes, Gil! Scott! Heron!, the Slits, Faust, Mantronix, Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines, the Swans, the Soft Cell, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.
You don't know what you really want. (x15)

1/10/05

Yes, it's true. Tina Sarno and I have decided to form a band. We are Chanteuse. We had our first practice today, and she blogged about it in real time. I think it was very humbling for both of us. Ed's Gibson bass was far too sensitive for my crude unpracticed fingers, which hurt by the time we ran out of time. We didn't have it together to get vocal mics running, or record, or anything... which was probably OK this time. I have the next week to make backing tracks... duos are all about backing tracks. She did inspire me to dig out and digitize almost all of my band projects and present them to her as a resume... I've been in six bands! Which is a lot for someone who explicitly does NOT identify as a musician. OK, The Innuendos only played one gig, and so did The Vortex, and Red Wine never played out although we were the only band to release official product, but those other three bands! Man! There's some good amateur stuff on those tapes! (that would be Sine Nomine, Catalyst, and Blouse, all total unknowns except to very small groups of people) Thanks for re-inspiring me, Tina! (and Launchpad inspired us also, I should note... I caught their Black Forest show and had no regrets about naming them one of my fave bands in town on the basis of the one previous show I saw... .it's just that nobody is doing what they are, sounding like a band from the club in Liquid Sky).

I'm gonna shut up about our band for a few months now until we don't suck.

1/9/05

My sentiment for the day: FUCK THE RED CROSS. Did you know that some 9/11 survivors are still waiting for their RC money? Just do a Google search on "Red Cross money problems". I hate how nonprofits get corrupted into putting their own institutional budgets ahead of their real cause. Some RC chapters are also allegedly listing tsunami donations as "local" so that the money stays in their district.

I really loved Mr. Random's rant about Wild Oats, and by extension corporate culture.

Gig review: Happy Bastards, Ms. 45, Bitch Machine at the Downtown Lounge:

Went out to celebrate my badass lawyer friend Lauren's birthday last night, the Bastards were opening. Yet again there was confusion at the DL about the schedule, the third band I guess got added late and the sets were cut short. They sounded quite good, I like how the DL has moved their stage. I think the only new song was "Niketown". Ms. 45 (from Portland) were good! I liked 'em! Total Epoxies/Fastbacks style femme-fronted pop/punk, complete with a Rezillos cover. They should play with The Ovulators. I got their demo for the station. Bitch Machine were forgiven for being FUCKING INTOLERABLE because they were obviously really young. Total Nirvana wannabes, not bad but annoying in their whiney sincerity and loud/louder dynamics.

Did I mention that I plan on bitching more in the New Year? Maybe The Ovulators could help me reduce my bitch quotient by updating their fucking website (in all fairness, I know they're working on it RIGHT NOW). Cause I really wanna bitch about that. And no more sugarcoating the sucky bands. You're gonna get yours in 2005!

1/9/05

And now, a few words from Patti Smith, as of December 31, 2004:

suffer not your neighbor's affliction
suffer not, extend your hand
extend your hand
lest you disappear
into the mist
of the great sea
lest you be engulfed (x2)
the simple (?) mysteries of man
when all nature awaits (x2)
from the sea to the desert
to the city of baghdad
all the things... all the things we dream of
nestled, cradled in the branches of the tree
in the branches of the great tree
the cradle of civilization rocking gently, rocking gently
and then overturned, overturned
and the children fell like leaves
they fell like leaves to their death
and the children were swept out into the sea
and all of nature, all of nature looked down at man and the hands of man
and said you, you who would inflict war, all your little wars upon one another
the hand of nature is greater than thee
so man, man, listen, listen well, extend your hand to one another
or she will come down
she will come down with a force more terrible than you have ever seen
oh people of the world, people of the world, unite
look down, go into the great sunlight (?) and look down at the earth
look down at our world, at the seas, and the desert, and the people
are we not one?
will we divide our states?
will we divide ourselves up?
red state, blue state, will we divide ourselves up?
christian, moslem, buddhist, what is it that divides us from our own mind?
because nature, nature will come down
and have no prejudice who she takes
in her grip out into the sea
all man is one (??)
we see children, children fall
one suicide bomber takes down
24 maybe 50
missiles, shock and awe, taking out the hundreds and the thousands
[...] thousands, david had his tens of thousands
and nature has its one million
nature cannot be stopped
she says I embrace thee humankind
I will rock thee to sleep but I will
I will hit you with a force
unite
people of the world unite
all men are brothers (x2)
in the time of trouble (x2)
do we not embrace one another?
in the time of trouble
why are we fighting?
why are we fighting one another?
enemies
it's an illusion
it's a fucking illusion
bring our boys home
bring 'em all home
we're fighting an illusion
we are one people
we can find a way to communicate
cause the only thing we should kneel to
is nature and her awesome force
and mothers grieve for their children
an iraqi mother takes off her veil
and covers the face of her child
as the bombs fall shock and awe above her home
a mother watches her child swept out into the sea
all mothers grieve
all mothers believe, they believe
in the future
they believe because they begat
they bring children into the world
they bring them into the world to
drink sweet water, to breathe clean air
are we not one people?
is not every mother, every mother ourselves?
are we not here to protect, and teach, and love our children?
yet we send
we send bombs down upon their heads
so mother sing sleep sleep my child (?)
and I will tell you of the awesome power of nature
I will tell you of our great city
built in the time of peace
perfection's circle, circle (?)
come, come my child
and rock me in the cradle of civilization
rock in the cradle of civilization
sleep... sleep... sleep...sleep... and the bombs and the great wave comes...
sleep (x16)
run (x8)
we fight with one another
we bring harm to our children
we, we bring harm, and yet
our neighbors need our extended hand
our neighbors need, they need compassion
love one people
are we that one people? (x2)
people of the world unite
we are not red states, blue states, we are one people
one people
suffer not, oh suffer not
they're robbing the cradle of civilization
and we're robbing the cradle of civilization (x2)
suffer not
your neighbors affliction
suffer not
but extend your hand

1/6/05

I love Easytree. Right now I'm listening to Patti Smith's New Year's show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. She covers Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" and totally shows what a great song it is.

This Monday on my radio show I will be featuring noise artist IDX1274. We will talk, play a couple of rounds of "invisible jukebox", and he will perform a set of noise music. Check it out!

1/4/05

Portland Indymedia post lists The 25 Dumbest Quotes of 2004.

1/2/05

2004 rundown:

Song: "A Thousand Birds" by Six Organs Of Admittance
Album: "A Night At The Hip-Hopera" by The Kleptones
Artist: Devendra Banhart
Live show: Banhart, !!!, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Event: Nurse With Wound record release party
Reissue: Arthur Russell's World Of Echo w/DVD
Website: Coolfer
Local Artists: The Ovulators, Happy Bastards, Launchpad
Local show: Ovulators/Activator/Yeltsin, Halloween at Sam Bond's
Local Restaurant: Iraila's, Priya (in Santa Clara square)
Local DJ: Karl The Cranky Cowboy, Martha, the Latent 80's guy

Most of this will come as no surprise to regular readers, although I haven't really extolled the virtues of those two excellent (and CHEAP) restaurants or talked much about the high level of DJ quality at my beloved radio station. We are so lucky.

Anomalous Records has closed for good. Another great resource lost. I'm sad that Eric has had a hard time with it. For over ten years he ran the best mailorder catalog in the world for experimental and avant music, as well as a label with at least twenty releases. I was lucky enough to be working next door to them in Seattle around Y2K, so a big chunk of my records are from Anomalous. They will be missed. Their label catalog is still available through outlets like Forced Exposure.

12/31/04

I posted some tsunami links for folks like Autumn who were wondering how to help. Waxy.org is torrenting independent video of the disaster, you need a Bit Torrent client to download the files and most are Windows Media Video. It's worth noting that NW Medical Team sends 96% of its donations directly into the field. I just gave them 25 bucks.

12/31/04

And lastly, we have an extensive Half Japanese posting at Mystical Beast. Fifteen tracks!

The Ovulators almost did "Reconfigure Me" last night, but Kasey wasn't ready and nixed it. Next time... They played an exceptional set to a packed house. Brian G was there, on break from Indiana! Nice to see him.

12/30/04

Arthur Russell is today's featured artist at Mystical Beast, with six rare tracks. You gotta hear "Kiss Me Again", the best disco song ever written...

12/28/04

And now, a message from The Ovulators:

"It seems the clubs are all messed up with what's what and The Ovulators with Deke Falcon and DJ Dan Craig is not going to be advertised in any papers. Instead, a gig that we are not playing will be advertised.
Would you please mention the correct info on your blog, since this is our only means of getting the word out? Thanks so much."

That's The Ovulators, Deke Falcon, and DJ Dan Craig at SAM BOND"S GARAGE, on THURSDAY DECEMBER 30th. Ignore all other alleged Ovulators shows. See you there!

A selection of my rarest Coil MP3's is now up at Mystical Beast.

12/23/04

The hype is already starting over at Mystical Beast.

I got the most insanely beautiful Christmas Card from my best friend, Katherine Gross. Her twins have their faces pressed together, laughing. I can totally see her in them. Perhaps this requires a scanner...

Oooh, I see that Tina Sarno has named more names and dissed the "party" a little harder. Go Tina!

Lastly, a Made Explicit web exclusive, from the printed program of Portland's 11th annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival but not on their excellent website:

REFLECTING ON HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT

August 20, 1891 - March 15, 1937

by Patti Smith

There are those whom we seek and there are those whom we find. Occasionally we find, however fractured the relativity, one we recognize as kin. In doing so, certain curious aspects of character recede and we happily magnify the common ground.

Thus, I have found a most unlikely chum in the writer H.P. Lovecraft. A study of his process has led me through a labyrinth of scholarly pulp horror toward the city of Providence, where I am preparing to fall by for future application. I look forward to visiting his resting place in Swan Point Cemetary as well as streets with names such as Benefit and Angell that felt the beat of his nocturnal walks. His disdain for modern times was so acute he preferred to live at night, navigating the areas of his beloved city that boasted eighteenth century architecture.

What a weird life. I know so much about him but somehow do not wish to tell. I can say that he spooned enormous amounts of suger into his endless cups of coffee, wrote longhand and detested the rise of technology and the plummeting of what he distinguished as the gentleman's code.

He was the noble eavesdropper who pressed his ear to the ancient balustrade. He heard the whispering of the eaves. He perceived the triumphant gestures and the unavailing supplications of man in the branches of mystical trees. No terrifying dimension was barred from him. Yet, no holy order was invoked to deliver him.. He eavesdropped on the eighteenth century. He eavesdropped on himself and so created Randolph Carter who eavesdropped on the cosmos. And each claimed the other in a swirling vortex of abomination.

He was born in Providence. He died in Providence. "I am Providence" was his credo. When I visit Providence I am sure to find him, as the moon rises, in the red-brick and wooden-frame Colonial houses, in the vale flanked by small hills and in the moody New England fields. Perhaaps I will chance upon his gangly spectre, and he, being a gentleman, will stand me for a cup of coffee.

(Blog writer temporarily freaks out. As both a Patti fan and a Lovecraft fan, oh my goodness. Quintessential Patti. Readers may recall a Patti Smith show in Portland that I wrote about (now in the Archives) where she discussed Mr. Lovecraft at some length)

12/22/04

Happy Pagan Day. I didn't do anything special yesterday because I was too busy working and getting over my late night with The Ovulators at perhaps the most bizarre "employee party" ever... five restaurants' employees, no food, cash bar, five bucks for non-employees to get in. What was the point again? Oh well, we were dressed up and on "the list". The Ovulators played along with an excellent DJ whose name I didn't quite catch but heard was Dan-O-Mite. It was all worth it to see a somewhat drunken Dori Prange mercilessly harangue her non-dancing co-workers, and threaten to "kick their asses at work the next day".

On more important notes:

I will be guest MP3-blogging at Mystical Beast again next week. I'll keep y'all posted. The lineup right now is Half Japanese, Arthur Russell, and Coil. Only three days this time, but more music for each one!

I will also be doing my first 2-6 A.M. radio show since 1998 (the famous Elijah-going-away all night KRVM freakout) Christmas Day night. So actually Sunday morning. Maybe my friends in France can listen for once!

I'll be playing a choice selection of anti-Christmas tunes, this year's favorites, and whatever has cuss words in it that I really miss playing.

12/12/04

Did y'all ever see that Onion headline after 9/11? Just a picture of the tower exploding and 48-point type that read "HOLY FUCKING SHIT".

That is how I feel after the Nurse With Wound "concert" last night.

First of all, Steven Stapleton's assorted musical endeavors place him in my top three artists of all time, along with The Fall and a rotating third place. To stand in a beer line and talk to the guy about his kids was pretty amazing. To have him sign my Half Japanese "1/2 Gentlemen Not Beasts" box set was great too - I didn't bring any of my NWW vinyl 'cause I wasn't sure... and that was headphone music for the train ride back. To have my good friend Ellen K. MAKE OUT WITH HIM in front of me was positively mind-boggling. And his "DJ set".... absolutely as good as any of his studio material, ultra-weird obscure records chopped and mixed and altered to a most pleasing level. His fascination with the female voice really came to the forefront.

Along the way, I met the great folks at Beta-Lactam Ring Records, who were also essentially being honored at the gig, as it was a record release party. And I had a beautiful, transcendent moment because of eBay... let me explain...

About 2 1/2 years ago I had a serious eBay purge of my collection. I sold a lot of rare records. One was to a guy from Everett, WA named "Stanarchy" on eBay, and Stan in real life. I remember emailing the guy and telling him to take good care of the record, and getting back a very nice reply reassuring me that the guy would treasure it as it deserved.

So here I am back in the beer line at the Doug Fir lounge. The guy next to me has the COOLEST Sylvie And Babs T-shirt on (a NWW album). I compliment him, we talk briefly, he reaffirms what a special event we are at (like, people flew from out of the country to Portland for this - it was Stapleton's only U.S. appearance EVER). Later, I observe him recording the DJ set. After the show, I throw myself on his mercy and beg for a copy. As we talk, I discover that his name is Stan.

"Hey man, I know you! I sold you the Ohrenschrauben album on eBay!"

His eyes light up. He (literally) puts his hand on his heart. He's like "Oh, man, you don't understand..."

I look him right back in the eyes: "Oh man, I DO understand."

The affinity was instantaneous. The Ohrenschrauben compilation LP is one of the holy grails of Current 93/Nurse With Wound collectibles, featuring (still) otherwise unreleased tracks from them both. There were only 250 copies made. I love selling records to people who will love them as much as I did. Stan told me that Stapleton's music saved his life, that he had gone down the junkie path and almost died but NWW had reached in and intervened somehow. Funny how everybody you meet who's seriously into this tiny music microcosm is always so damn nice and sincere and worthwhile.

So my hot little hands may have a recording of that set soon (insert many exclamation points here). I must also note that Stapleton came out for the last Irr.App.Ext. song and they all jammed on a version of NWW's "Cooloorta Moon", but without the sax. This alone was totally brain-exploding.

Words fail me at this point. It was one of the most fulfilling, surreal moments of my life. Everything was like a dream.

And Elijah... we got a poster autographed for you.

12/11/04

Well, that was a pretty great Luckey's show. Launchpad were much better than I was expecting for a first gig, all friendship issues and self-generated hype aside. They need some condenser mics for all those things they rattle and scrape. A very expansive, deep sound. More ambient and improvised than I was expecting, and they somehow tricked out their one-chord one-rhythm jams so that it became trancelike instead of annoying (an occasional High On Peeps characteristic). Many local luminaries yet again, with Mrs. Random looking particularly stylish.

DJ Audio Schizophrenic is everywhere these days. Where he throws on the vinyl, people start dancing. We heard some crazy house-style Peaches remixes and god knows what else.

The Ovulators played their best gig with Kasey so far. It felt like a real step forward. We excitedly discussed the plans afoot for a debut 7" single. I successfully (I think) prevailed on Dori to not let some of the older songs die... she just wants to focus on her newer material first. I'd love to see Kasey play "Reconfigure Me".

Tonight I go see the alleged Nurse With Wound concert in Portland, which I still think might "just" be a DJ set by Steven Stapleton with opening acts Irr.App.Ext. and Colin Potter. But anything could happen. We'll see.

12/9/04

I'm only gonna leave this up for a little while, you should check out The Wire or Savage Pencil...

(Jandek cartoon deleted)

12/6/04

Whatta weekend. On Saturday Heather and Taylor inaugurated their winter digs (at Wally's) with a sushi party, many local luminaries were in attendance such as Kari, Tobias, Marietta, Mel, Rose, myself, and (most wonderfully) Chris and Karen, up from Humboldt. We discussed how much of a community healing experience their August handfasting was, and moved on to discuss strategies for planning on the aging of our community. I know that people have left the commune my folks helped start in Virginia over this issue, and we feel like starting to talk about it now is a good idea. Great talks and food.

Then we all piled into two vans, hit Leslie Erickson's going-away party, pared down to one van, hit Tim's jam-band Sagittarius party, and ended up at Wade's party on W. 4th to dance to DJ Audio Schizophrenic until the cops shut it down at 2 A.M. Everybody I saw all night had a big smile plastered all over their pretty faces. Nothing like a raging night in the 'hood to take away those winter blues.

Yesterday I did, if I may say so myself, a world-class fill-in job on the Jazz Trip show. Reminded me of what a a luxury a 3-hour freeform show is. However, to do it right you need a huge stack of stuff, not exactly bike friendly. I'll stick with my two hour rotation/mix show, thanks. But it was a blast, and I taped it.

New stuff to talk about: Arthur Russell's unbelievably gorgeous limited edition specially packaged CD with bonus DVD reissue of the 1986 LP "World Of Echo", one of the most original works of music ever made (I'm not kidding, out of all my 5,000 records this is easy top five for creativity). Audika went all out with this one, in a special oversize case with glossy booklet and, of course, bonus DVD of an abstract video and live-in-the-studio Russell footage. For those of you who missed this (it's already out of print, they pressed a thousand) it's coming out in a regular single-CD version soon. And I've only heard it as 128Kbps MP3s, the sound here is revelatory.

Riffing off of that subject, I'd like to encourage all of my musician/industry friends to bookmark Coolfer's site. Probably the most essential music industry blog on the web.

Oh, yeah, Break The Chains had a very successful World AIDS Day benefit on Friday, you can read about it on their site but I would just add that it was inspiring to see Sam Bond's packed full for a hip-hip trio. D was taking pictures of the crowd to send to political prisoners.

12/1/04

Happy Death Day, Craig. Here's Danny Dollinger on the man:

what can one say about the fabulous thundercraig
craig beneville, halogen high beam smile and a laugh like a freight train whistle,
was brilliant, funny, sweet, twisted and adored yep, he was plenty deluxe
and a bit more than life sized and then there was the fabulous
thundercraig I hear the named chanted around the fires of the nefarious
"THUNDERCRAIG! THUNDERCRAIG!!!!"
and as he approached, the crowd would part like a drunken red sea, leaving plenty
of room for the man turned monster and his mighty guitar with a right hand like
a locomotive piston and a foghorn powered voice, thundercraig’s driven beseechments
for life, liberty, vasectomies, the uncompromising pursuit of happiness no matter how
debaucherous, and his deep and burning desire to be your dog still reverberate across
a cosmos more meaningful for his presence and reeling at the blackhole left in his wake
like any deity worth the attached dogma there can only be one thundercraig and I
suspect that Johnny Cash is learning his set list right now and sid vicious is getting a
long overdue bass lesson
well done brother …….well done

Me? I'm gonna have a shot of whiskey and go over to Tina and Ed's new place for dinner.

11/30/04

First off, some catchup George Bush videos for ya (as always, either bandwidth or patience is required):

George And Tony At The Gay Bar (pretty funny, and my queer friends agree)

Dubya: The Movie (very, very funny)

Totally remiss in my blogging, this is why:

Bit Torrent streams downloaded over the 4-day weekend via Easytree:

Fiery Furnaces, Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, 10-13-04
Devendra Banhart & Friends live in Copenhagen, 10-15-04
Michael Hurley, Vienna, Austria, 3/28/95
Patti Smith, NYC 7/30/77
Eno/Byrne, demos for "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts"
Sonic Youth - 1st gig, 6/18/81 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! etc., totally different than any other stuff by them, omigod)
Sun City Girls, Montreal, 6/4/04
Sun City Girls, Montreal, 6/5/04
Camper Van Beethoven, Germany, 3/12/90
C.V.B. live in 1988, I forget where
Tom Waits, Berlin, 11/15/04
Liz Phair - The Complete Girlysound Demos (encoded in shn so I haven't dealt w/it yet)
The Fall, CMJ Conference, NYC, 10/15/04 (1 new song!)
The Pixies - Purple Tape 2 demos (maybe I'll finally hear something that impresses me)
Elliot Smith, Sam Bond's, 9/25/96 (I freakin' SAW this show. Trip out!)
Pink Floyd, Germany, 3/14/70
Talking Heads, Max's Kansas City, NYC, 10/9/76 (!!!)
The Clash, Atlanta, 1979

Cassette tape-trade recordings of various 90's New Zealand artists burned to CD:

The 3D's - Fish Tales EP, Swarthy Songs For Swabs EP, Outer Space/Baby's On Fire 7", Hellzapoppin' CD
This Kind Of Punishment - A Beard Of Bees CASS (I actually have this tape)
The Terminals - Disease LP, Disconnect EP, Uncoffined LP, Witchdoctor/Psycho Lives 7"
Peter Gutteridge - Pure CASS
Snapper - Buddy +3 12" EP (tried to record the LP but the tape was warbled to hell, bummer)
V/A - Xpressway Pile-Up CD
V/A - Killing Capitalism With Kindness 3xEP
V/A - Shrew'd: A Collection Of New Zealand Women's Music
Goblin Mix - S/T 12", Son Of Goblin Mix 12"
Chris Knox - Song For 1990 10"
Peter Jefferies/Jono Louie - At Swim 2 Birds LP
Cyclops - Simpleton/Lunar Fall 7"
Olla - Septic Hagfish 7" EP
Dadamah - Nicotine/HighTime 7"

For those not keeping track, that's around eleven solid hours of New Zealand. The 3D's totally won out in terms of the music holding up over the years, but the Jefferies/Louie (instrumental) record is great also, and the comps are no slouch either. I never really listened to the Terminals records, so that was cool too.

I already raved about the Banhart show, but the Fiery Furnaces one is stunning as well - a 48 minute, 36-track medley of almost their entire catalog, with songs done in different keys, chopped into pieces (some as short as six seconds) and played at different times during the show, and no break whatsoever. Amazing. Nobody has EVER done what this band is doing live.

The Fiery Furnaces fansite Blueberry Boat will tell you more, with audio as well.

I haven't even decoded the last five shows, let alone listened to them. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) rules, and has made me totally uninterested in downloading any more MP3 files over the course of a single week.

Although... that might also be because I have around 50 gigs of MP3s now.

11/23/04

STILL totally high off of the Banhart show. In retrospect, one of the best shows I've seen in my life.

Ten others, off the top of my head:

1. Camper Van Beethoven, Jake's, Bloomington IN '87 and '89
2. The Jody Grind, Jake's, Bloomington '89
3. Tiny Lights, Uncle Pleasant's, Louisville KY '87
4. Useless Pieces Of Shit, Trax, Charlottesville VA '85
5. Sonic Youth, Hoosier Ballroom, Indianapolis IN '86
6. Laurie Anderson, Hult Center, Eugene OR '95
7. Hitting Birth, WOW Hall, Eugene OR, any '91-92 shows
8. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Berbati's Pan, PDX '04
9. Einsturzende Neubauten, La Luna, PDX '98 or so
10. Pharoah Sanders, Bunbershoot, Seattle '99

Finally got on the Bit Torrent tip via Easytree and downloaded a Devendra Banhart show from a month ago in Copenhagen that features a very similar set to what I saw. I've been listening to it incessantly, playing it on the radio, and having it run through my head at work. We chose rejoice...

11/19/04

More on Devendra Banhart, from the Saddle Creek webboard on Nov. 8th:

"Has anyone seen him play this tour? I saw him last night at the bowery ballroom, and I feel like I now know the meaning of life. It was awesome, by far my favorite concert ever."

11/17/04

Went to see Devendra Banhart last night. It was extremely life-affirming. I will write a long show review tonight... for now I added some of my sister's comments to the entry below.

OK. So let's talk about the show. Opening artist Scout Niblett, a woman from (I believe) England, sounded way too much like Cat Power to me on the songs she did with guitar. I guess Chan Marshall has crossed over the line from "Young New Artist" to "Influence On Today's Young New Artists". However, Ms. Scout redeemed herself with several loud, gleeful, crazy, stop/start tunes where she played drums and sang (and that was it, super minimal). Those didn't sound like anybody else. Cool.

I didn't know what to expect from Devendra Banhart. I had read some interviews from this current tour where he talked about getting into reggae. He came out sporting his best Manson/Jesus look and (proving that we both have good taste) reeled off two of his best, "The Body Breaks" and "Little Yellow Spider" on solo acoustic. Playing loose with the words and phrasing, he has very unique expressions. Odd and pronounced mouth contortions, eyes rolling, very distinctive. After the first song, he stopped and said "This is a really sexist club. They just have an open stall in the men's room. What's up with that? I think I'll never play this club again just because of that." You could hear everybody's thoughts going "Uhhh...".

And then, kinda unexpectedly, he introduced a backup band, White Buffalo Woman Returns. Five guys filed on stage and they proceeded to joyously rampage through Banhart's catalog in full hippie-jam mode for the better part of two hours. Banhart lived up to his communal spirit by doing three songs that were written by other band member's projects (Viking Moses and Vetiver) and turning the mic over to Viking for his tunes. The vibe got more and more deliriously happy.

After a crazy, showstopping version of R. Kelly's "Step In The Name Of Love" (live MP3 available HERE in the November 9th entry) he apologized profusely to the crowd for "being so negative" earlier, talked about how bad he felt that he had called this woman a goth (let's face it, she totally was), had people come up on stage and dance, handed over the mic to random folks, went on an extended rap about how Portland and Jamiaca need to unite because they're both islands, apologized again, said that "the show should really start now", and generally lived up to his reputation as eccentric genius. Then they played a ton MORE songs, did a reggae cover, dedicated a song to Ol' Dirty Bastard (RIP last week along with John Balance), did a new tune of his about being a "white reggae troll", and finished it all up with a kickass, uptempo country hoedown version of "This Is The Way" (can you believe that shit?) that took the last verse ("we had a choice/we chose rejoice") on to an extended, full-band, gospel choir coda.

Wow. Did I say "life-affirming" enough? Life-affirming...

11/16/04

Listening to Coil. Thinking about dead people as tears dry on my face. The photo of my dead friend Suzy Whybark hangs above my door. I got it when I revisited my college town of Bloomington, Indiana for the first time in ten years (February 2000). Well, technically, I got it in Louisville Kentucky from a Bloomington expatriate on my way there. When I met my friends I ended up at the end of the night with Ransom Haile and Misty Macintosh at Ransom's tattoo studio on Walnut. We smoked joints and cried as he xeroxed the print that still hangs above my door.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez says that nobody really dies until everybody who knew them is dead. Looking at this photo of my friend, I know this to be true. Twenty years ago, this person was my third lover. The first person I did hallucinogens with. A roommate, a community recycling partner, a zine writer, and more. I don't think there's a single person who was close to her who doesn't still feel her now on a regular basis.

There's more to this story, like the piece of art Suzy left above the door of her room at South Fess that I moved into in 1987 (and which is also above my door, and has been above every door of mine since then). There are all the objects in my room right now that have seen her, and still remember her.

I don't know what else to say. I miss John Balance. I miss Suzy. I miss Craig. I accept the process, and I accept the tears. I will live the life that shines the light, as much as I can.

READER COMMENTS:

One thing that always makes me feel better about people who have died is this dream I had about Grandy shortly after he died:
 
I dreamed that we were all going to visit him. The dream was all in black and white. You were there, me, Ellen, and Grammy, maybe Alan. All the adults were young, and we were too. We got there and discovered Grandy was living on this beautiful tropical island, taking pictures with his cameras. He was young and happy. I asked him how things were and if he was really OK, and he handed me his camera and told me to look through it. When I looked through it and focused, the island changed to gorgeous technicolor. We left him there but I remember waking up with a sense that he was really OK wherever he was/is.

11/15/04

Ouch. I literally learned about thirty seconds ago that Coil's John Balance aka Geoff Rushton fell, hit his head, and died today or yesterday at his home. I just played Coil on the radio today. He was unquestionably one of my favorite artists and will be sorely missed.

11/12/04

Honey Vizer has the most badass letter in the Weekly (scroll down to the twelfth letter) about the Eugene library's sexiness quotient. Go Honey!

11/11/04

Wonkette comments on Fuckthesouth.com:

Yes, if we had a dime for everyone that's emailed about "fuckthesouth.com," we could buy a sophisticated enough spam filter that we would stop getting messages about how the election was "hacked"! "Stolen"!

Whatever!

As for the site itself: Never has incoherent rage been so embraced by those who like to think of themselves as intellectuals: "No, No. Get the fuck out. We're not letting you visit the Liberty Bell and fucking Plymouth Rock anymore until you get over your real American selves and start respecting those other nine amendments." We especially like the flag-based argument, "Who do you think those fucking stripes on the flag are for? Nine are for fucking blue states." And you thought taking the Bible literally was crazy!

We love the South, without which we'd be denied Faulkner, twirling competitions, and bourbon.
Oh, and put things in perspective: Like those backwards hicks would even miss the Liberty Bell. Just let them marry their cousins and play with their guns. We'll take over eventually.

11/10/04

Mmmm... space key... and arrows... yum.

For the links and contacts in this rant, go to Fuckthesouth.com. (rant/link courtesy of my sister)

Fuck the South. Fuck 'em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they'd stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves - yeah, those are states we want to keep.

And now what do we get? We're the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really?

Cause we fucking founded this country, assholes. Those Founding Fathers you keep going on and on about? All that bullshit about what you think they meant by the Second Amendment giving you the right to keep your assault weapons in the glove compartment because you didn't bother to read the first half of the fucking sentence? Who do you think those wig-wearing lacy-shirt sporting revolutionaries were? They were fucking blue-staters, dickhead. Boston? Philadelphia? New York? Hello? Think there might be a reason all the fucking monuments are up here in our backyard?

No, No. Get the fuck out. We're not letting you visit the Liberty Bell and fucking Plymouth Rock anymore until you get over your real American selves and start respecting those other nine amendments. Who do you think those fucking stripes on the flag are for? Nine are for fucking blue states. And it would be 10 if those Vermonters had gotten their fucking Subarus together and broken off from New York a little earlier. Get it? We started this shit, so don't get all uppity about how real you are you Johnny-come-lately "Oooooh I've been a state for almost a hundred years" dickheads. Fuck off.

Arrogant? You wanna talk about us Northeasterners being fucking arrogant? What's more American than arrogance? Hmmm? Maybe horsies? I don't think so. Arrogance is the fucking cornerstone of what it means to be American. And I wouldn't be so fucking arrogant if I wasn't paying for your fucking bridges, bitch.
All those Federal taxes you love to hate? It all comes from us and goes to you, so shut up and enjoy your fucking Tennessee Valley Authority electricity and your fancy highways that we paid for. And the next time Florida gets hit by a hurricane you can come crying to us if you want to, but you're the ones who built on a fucking swamp. "Let the Spanish keep it, it’s a shithole," we said, but you had to have your fucking orange juice.

The next dickwad who says, "It’s your money, not the government's money" is gonna get their ass kicked. Nine of the ten states that get the most federal fucking dollars and pay the least... can you guess? Go on, guess. That’s right, motherfucker, they're red states. And eight of the ten states that receive the least and pay the most? It’s too easy, asshole, they’re blue states. It’s not your money, assholes, it’s fucking our money. What was that Real American Value you were spouting a minute ago? Self reliance? Try this for self reliance: buy your own fucking stop signs, assholes.

Let’s talk about those values for a fucking minute. You and your Southern values can bite my ass because the blue states got the values over you fucking Real Americans every day of the goddamn week. Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate you marriage-hyping dickwads? Well? Can you guess? It’s fucking Massachusetts, the fucking center of the gay marriage universe. Yes, that’s right, the state you love to tie around the neck of anyone to the left of Strom Thurmond has the lowest divorce rate in the fucking nation. Think that’s just some aberration? How about this: 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are fucking blue states, asshole, and most are in the Northeast, where our values suck so bad. And where are the highest divorce rates? Care to fucking guess? 10 of the top 10 are fucking red-ass we're-so-fucking-moral states. And while Nevada is the worst, the Bible Belt is doing its fucking part.

But two guys making out is going to fucking ruin marriage for you? Yeah? Seems like you're ruining it pretty well on your own, you little bastards. Oh, but that's ok because you go to church, right? I mean you do, right? Cause we fucking get to hear about it every goddamn year at election time. Yes, we're fascinated by how you get up every Sunday morning and sing, and then you're fucking towers of moral superiority. Yeah, that's a workable formula. Maybe us fucking Northerners don't talk about religion as much as you because we're not so busy sinning, hmmm? Ever think of that, you self-righteous assholes? No, you're too busy erecting giant stone tablets of the Ten Commandments in buildings paid for by the fucking Northeast Liberal Elite. And who has the highest murder rates in the nation? It ain't us up here in the North, assholes.

Well this gravy train is fucking over. Take your liberal-bashing, federal-tax-leaching, confederate-flag-waving, holier-than-thou, hypocritical bullshit and shove it up your ass.

And no, you can't have your fucking convention in New York next time. Fuck off.

11/06/04

Mmmm... blogging... A new keyboard with a space key tomorrow, I promise. I weary of brevity, especially upon going back and rereading entries.

Very interesting maps of the country available HERE (11/4 entry) and HERE. Thanks to despiseyou for the links. I would post them myself except I can't figure out that damn .jfif file shit.

So, I was re-reading entries because I have received several oh-people-really-are-reading jolts lately. I ran into Don from Busholini at the Bondage the other eve in the company of another couple I know. In one of those "oh, duh" moments I figured out that he has a kid with the woman, and that said kid was at the Busholini show at our house. And it was pointed out to me by said mom that I have not mentioned Busholini here in this webspace. Hmm. Not an intentional omission. I liked their show here more than I thought I would based on the demo disc. They were tight and energetic, and did a really good Bad Brains cover, which I don't think I've ever seen ANYBODY do.

Later in the evening Don, in his true black-humor style, quipped to me that the "Welcome To Eugene" signs should also have a line underneath reading "Where Couples Come To Die". It's funny because it's so true. And I can laugh, 'cause it happened to me too.

I believe that the benefit for Kelani and Marietta raised some bucks. I managed to go with my roommate Shade, but arrived late, missed all of Heavenly Oceans (ouch, that really sucked), got too drunk (albeit with a major head start), and left before The Shudders, managing only to be there for a too-short DJ Luscious and the overlong Piss Shivers set. As The Ovulators know, opening bands who overplay make me very cranky. Difficult evening on my part, but I've been in the "stay drunk 'til 2008" mode until today, when my second hangover of the week has brought back some grounding. How about "stay pissed 'til 2008"?

11/05/04

From the Patti Smith mailing list, a Canadian weighs in:

"Years ago I found this little companion book to "Life's Little Instruction Book," called "Life's Little Destruction Book." The title was unfortunate in some ways but spot on in others, as the book contained such profound wisdom as:"Never hesitate to make fun of someone's religion, especially if it's a really stupid one like Christianity." We (and I include a substantial number of Canadians as well as people in different cultures all over the world in this blanket "we") have a society in which fairy-tales are the opiate of the masses, statements in our courts are sworn on a work of historical fiction, and too many people have given up their responsibility to think for themselves for pathetic reliance on nonsensical jargon, such as this:

Regarding the religious right, an evangelical friend of mine from high school recently sent me a short note via e-mail in response to my words to him for my not voting for Bush.
Here are his words:
"I still fail to see why you hate the United States and our freedom so much. And why you are so willing to betray our country and all that it stands for -- It makes little sense."
He signed off with this:
"God and the soldier we adore, In time of danger, not before! The danger passed, and all things righted, God is forgotten and the soldier slighted."

The author of this cannot or does not yet understand that freedom is not a right granted by any God or any politicians, but is earned through responsible action, tolerance and compassion and indeed must be defined and defended against those who would limit it arbitrarily for their own purposes. How is it that leaders throughout the world so often epitomize the antithesis of these ideals? Are we truly to be doomed by the blood-lust of power? The men who now lead your country are the most dangerous in the history of
the planet, not because they are any different psychologically from the deluded, deranged pathological tyrants who came before them, but because they control devastatingly powerful military technology and have repeatedly demonstrated that they are insane enough to use it for whatever measure of aggressiveness can vaguely be defined as "defence." How long before they drop even that pretext? And what God decided they were fit to decide who is fit to possess "weapons of mass destruction?"
It will be an uphill battle to stop them, but it must be done.
Whew. How, I wish I knew.
Mike"

Wonkette, again:

Turn your "Kerry Edwards/A Stronger America/JohnKerry.com" bumper sticker into "darK dry sEwer/Error Gets a Maniac/hornyJerK.com."

11/03/04

I don't wanna hear about it.

Wonkette had the best election coverage, hands down. At about 9:30, when the KE04 mood had changed from "orgy" to "sober" I headed out to one of Eugene's finest, Cafe Soriah. There I had Prawns Naseem and Irish Coffee as the stunned, bitter Kerry folks trickled in only to be met by my relentlessly optimistic chorus of "Well, Nixon got re-elected and look what happened to HIM!" Aside from my obvious anarcho-perspective that democracy is the tyranny of the majority over the minority (especially obvious in this 50/50 political landscape), I just wanna remind folks that Bush will now have to wallow in his own shit-filled bed for the next four years. It isn't gonna be pleasant for us, but it'll be worth it in the end when he's judged by history. And we're all still pretty well off compared to those folks in the Sudan.

After my taking of the public pulse, I headed home for some intoxicants before heading out once again to see a late night movie I knew absolutely nothing about thanks to my friend Scott's rave recommendation. I am thrilled to report that Ghost In The Shell 2 is perhaps the finest animated movie I have ever seen. Astonishingly gorgeous blend of Blade Runner, philosophy, and impressionistic art. Unfortunately, tonight is its last night at The Bijou. Do yourself a favor and catch it on the big screen.

And batten down the hatches. Is it 2008 yet?

11/01/04

Happy Day Of The Dead. So much to blog, so little time. The Ovulators put on a good show Saturday. I also managed to catch most of the bands at our house, and I want to report that Dirt Clod Fight (covering The Minutemen) absolutely RULED. Our new favorite house band!

In other news, Launchpad was busted by the cops for a Sunday afternoon practice and hit with a $350 noise violation. Is this even legal? It's the middle of the day! What the fuck?! Please vote NO for their new expensive cop shop.

I'd also like to get people up and noticing the first of two benefits for Kelani and Marietta. John Henry's is the place to be on November 5th! The Shudders! The Piss Shivers! DJs!! And fuckin' HEAVENLY OCEANS!!! What more do you want? Get out and support two of the hardest-working scenesters out there!

10/27/04

More Famous Dead People... famed British DJ John Peel has died of a heart attack at age 65 while in holiday in Peru. His influence on modern rock music has been immense, perhaps more so than any other non-musician. I suggest you Google him to learn more.

10/24/04

Kitt Jennings, The Reverend Fergus (?), and a woman named Sara were the three finalists at the first Eugene Poetry Slam of the season, our third. Held in the cavernous Territorial Winery building on 3rd and Adams, the echo was unreal. Bleeding into the recording through the mic, reverb city. Kind of less than ideal, but we'll see how the CDs sound. I really enjoyed the Fergus poems in particular - one that was a witty mixup of product warning labels and one that was a tribute to whiskey. There was a good crowd, so it seems the audience has successfully transferred from Foolscap. I was, and am, in a bad mood due to needing a $700 crown for a dead tooth which has now partially broken. The impact in my life will be considerable.

But, even still, The Onion made me laugh out loud several times recently about their genius headline:

Jacques Derrida "Dies"

...chuckle...

10/19/04

Picture of Jandek playing (as far as anybody knows) his first show ever in a 26-year, 37-album career. And still, nobody knows his real name... More info at the premier Jandek site.

And a late add, now that Mr Random has linked here... There are freakin' MP3's of this show at the excellent MP3 blog Teaching The Indie Kids To Dance Again. That blogger correctly identifies this as a clear sign of the end times.

10/18/04

Courtesy of a friend...

Voting for the First Time: Interview with Utah Phillips

By Carolyn Crane, The Nation. Posted October 15, 2004.

Phillips, a committed non-voter who was taught that his body is a ballot, will be casting a real ballot this year.
He is a folk singer who tours the United States, delighting audiences with his outlandish stories and challenging them with the ruthless honesty of his insights. A veteran of the U.S. Army who served in Korea, he rode the trains for years after coming home in despair from what he'd witnessed overseas. He met Ammon Hennessy in Utah at the Joe Hill House for Transients and Migrants and discovered anarchy and pacifism.

These tenets have since shaped his life and work. Phillips and I live in the same Northern California town, Nevada City, where he was one of the founders of our thriving Peace Center of Nevada County. It was from the community radio station there that he produced Loafer's Glory, a collection of stories, poems and songs set to the accompaniment of Woody Guthrie-influenced guitarist Mark Ross. And it was to that radio station he went in late September to share with his community an important political decision he'd made, which caused him great difficulty and pain.

Q:You surprised many people who are familiar with your work with your announcement that you were going to register to vote for the first time ever.

A:This is not easy for me. I'm an anarchist and I've been an anarchist many, many years. The anarchy that I've followed and practiced all of that time came to me through Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers, through Ammon Hennessy, the great Catholic anarchist and pacifist. Ammond taught me, as he did, to treat his body like a ballot. My body is my ballot. And he said, "Cast that body ballot on behalf of the people around you every day of your life, every day. And don't let anybody ever tell you you haven't voted." You just didn't assign responsibility to other people to do things. You accept responsibility and see to it that something gets done. That's the way he lived and that's the way the past forty, going on fifty, years that I have lived. It's a way to vote without caving in to the civil authority I'm committed to dissolving.

But, we are in a desperate situation here. And it's not just us in the United States. There are people all over the world who are affected by these people who have staged a coup on our government. I can see a shopkeeper in Damascus who's threatened by being bombed out. I can see a schoolgirl who's collaterally
killed by the action of these people. There are millions of people in the world who are affected by the actions of this government, and they can't vote in this election. I have no use for Kerry. I have no use for Bush. I don't like either one of them, but these folks can't vote in this election. They have to have people vote for them. And I intend to be one of those. What's the best chance they've got to keep them from being bombed and killed? I don't know. Kerry is an unknown quantity. Bush is a known quantity. A crapshoot, isn't it? But I'm going to stand in for one of these people. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong by myself.

Q:When you made your announcement, you talked about women who have inspired and influenced your decision. Can you talk a little about that?

A:I learned a great deal from Judi Barry. I drove and talked with her the day before her car got blown up in Oakland in 1990. She had come around to the idea that direct action and political action are two hands of the same body. I think as an anarchist and when you keep company with other anarchists, as I have in the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World, and this is my fiftieth year in the IWW, you develop a great antagonism toward the political process, toward statism in any form. However, many of us have come to realize that political action and direct action are two hands of the same body. We have to learn how to work together: the street and the ballot box. In places like Philadelphia or Boston, Mass., when they put freedom in jail, when they put freedom of assembly and freedom of association and freedom of speech in a bullpen with razor wire around it, they put freedom in jail. In the bullpen on Pier 57 in New York, when my daughter [Morgan Phillips] was jailed for trying to shut down Wall Street in an act of nonviolence civil disobedience. They're trying to tie that direct-action hand behind our back. If they succeed in that, how long will it be, how long are we going to hang on to the other hand, the political action hand? Every significant social movement in this country - anti-slavery, suffragette, labor movement, peace movement - all started on the street. All of them began on the street. Don't give up the street. The street's where we win. We vote with our feet. That's where it all begins. Made a song about that, "Bodhi Busick." Put a nice tune to it. No, I won't give up the street. But in this instance, at this time, at this place, I think the situation is so dire that yes, I have registered to vote and I am prepared to stand in for one of the victims of the kind of brutality that the people in Washington bring to the world.

Q:You've said that your choice to not vote, to not participate in the system in that way, is one of the most sacred promises you've made. I know what it means to you to make this decision. It's sobering, because I think: Are things really that bad?

A:Yeah, it is that bad. Now, I am not putting myself forth as an example. I'm not putting myself forth as a role model. Anarchists don't make rules for other people. You make rules for yourself and then people have got to learn how to trust you. And if you blow it you have the courage to change, and you do change and an anarchist is always something you're becoming. I don't need any congratulations for what I'm doing at all. I feel lousy about it. I don't feel good about it all. I'm simply going to do it. And if there are consequences of my
act, than I harvest those consequences. That too, is anarchy.

OK then. And yes, I'm voting, although I honestly care a lot more about some of our state's ballot measures than I do about the presidency. Still, the main point of Phillips' argument (that we are voting on behalf of the third world Bush is oppressing) is the single best argument I've heard for voting Kerry.

10/12/04

everyone please... bow your heads and pretend to be serious...

my milkshake

brings all the boys to the yard

what they like

it's better than yours

damn right

it's better than yours

I can teach you

but I have to charge

READER COMMENTS:

o! at club amazonia, the indescribable health club i joined here in bordeaux, the teevees are always tuned to M6 music which plays an astonishing assortment of pop-y dance-y club-y "tubes" (tube. that means, hmm, top 40 style hit here in france) and that song! that milkshake song! i used to see the video for that song on a daily basis for a little while there. it's a great elliptical trainer song. hah!

10/10/04

Ohmygod the KLEPTONES. I'm serious, people. Although having the cultural references for the Queen songs helps, I don't know almost all of the raps and it's still a massive, life-changing, history-making event. Since it's hopelessly impossible to actually release commercially, you have to give it away.

10/8/04

I have seen the future of music,,, and it is The Kleptones. Download their album "A Night At The Hip-Hopera" right HERE. Get the whole thing, you'll thank me later. Genius mashup of Queen, various raps, and a zillion samples, totally illegal and addictive. You doubt me? Download track #3 before you say that.

10/4/04

Finished with Neil Young. I managed to fit everything up to & including 1979's Rust Never Sleeps. I did end up overflowing a bit, though. Couldn't get most of 1977's American Stars N Bars aside from the classic "Like A Hurricane" (off of my copy of Decade). And I snipped from the fairly bad Stills/Young 1976 LP. Everybody Knows..., Tonight's..., and On The Beach are still my faves but it was nice to hear Gold Rush and Rust... again, both great LPs. Along the way I got to learn a great deal about the wealth of unreleased songs (some bootlegged, some not), whole unreleased albums, early versions, B-sides ("Ohio" was only on a CSNY 7"), and other varied output. Damn. There's also a seven-disc set coming out, Decade 2, with many unreleased goodies.

9/29/04

9/28/04

In honor of Mr. Random's request, let me tell you a bit about the Eugene Chadbourne show...

You gotta love a guy who opens up with songs by Thelonious Monk, Jimi Hendrix, and Merle Haggard (in that order). Later on we were treated to Johnny Paycheck ("I'm The Only Hell My Momma Ever Raised"), a parody of "The Girl From Ipanema" called "The Girl From Al-Qaeda", a freakin' BACH composition, and, to my stunned disbelief, Fairport Convention ("Who Knows Where The Time Goes") and Nick Drake ("Riverman"). Also originals along the lines of "New New New War War War". And I was treated to some of the best out-there virtuoso guitar and banjo I have ever heard in a live setting. I was very happy that Ed Cole and Pat showed up because of my plugging on the radio. Wow, it does make a difference... Chadbourne's been doing this stuff since the 70's, and this was my atonement for missing him more than once at Bloomington club Second Story in the 80's. And he made decent money too!

9/27/04

Heh, heh... the following was lifted from comments on Portland Indymedia...

ANGRY CAT STEVENS VOWS TO RESUME SINGING
Broadcasts Threat on Al-Jazeera

Hours after being refused entry into the United States, 1970's recording artist Cat Stevens lashed out at the U.S. government today, vowing to resume his recording career "immediately" as the ultimate act of revenge.
Appearing on the Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera, a visibly angry Mr. Stevens threatened to attack the U.S. with the full force of his insipid folk-rock music.
Brandishing an acoustic guitar, the erstwhile pop star warned that "no one in America would be safe from my insidious melodies" before launching into a spirited rendition of the song "Peace Train."
A spokesman for the CIA said today that experts need more time to study the chilling video, but that it appears to be authentic: "We do not believe that anyone but the real Cat Stevens remembers the lyrics to 'Peace Train.'"
On the campaign trail, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry blasted President Bush for the Cat Stevens incident, saying that the President's reckless actions had resuscitated an irritating singer's long-dormant recording career.
"When George Bush took office, Cat Stevens was not a problem," Mr. Kerry told a rally in Akron, Ohio. "Through a successful policy of containment, his music had mainly been limited to classic rock stations."
"But now, thanks to George Bush's misguided decision to provoke Cat Stevens, we may be subjected to renditions of not only 'Peace Train,' but also 'Morning Has Broken' and 'Moonshadow' for years and years to come," Mr. Kerry said.

LATER: I should clarify that I actually like a lot of Cat Stevens, especially in the context of "Harold And Maude". Although I own no actual albums they walk all over most other singer-songwriter stuff from the era.

Did a kickass radio show today, fueled by great new albums from Camper Van Beethoven, Tom Waits, and Devendra Banhart. It's such a rush when it works...

9/25/04

tHE bOY rants about his experience trying to dance to The Ex amidst standoffish PDX hipsters! Read about it HERE. And yes, this is sadly a true stereotype of Portland. When I went to see !!! somebody complained to my friend David about being TOUCHED. Hello? You're at a freakout rock show, in the third row. Grow up.

But really, Rachel, this entry is for you. This afternoon/evening I did sound/video for a big Eugene event. There was a panel discussion with Daniel Ellsberg, Medea Benjamin, and Norman Solomon, all holy grails of what I reluctantly term the "liberal left". But first, there was a meet-and-greet and award ceremony at Cozmik Pizza. First they gave an award to Ellsberg, then they had a brief video introduction to the next award recipient, a guy named Eugene Lazowski. Turns out Lazowski was a doctor in Poland in the 30's and 40's. Many of the Jews deported from Germany in the 30's ended up in a ghetto literally next door to his house. As he saw what was coming down, he and a colleague devised a method of getting people to falsely test positive for typhus using a vaccine. This cleverly took advantage of the Nazi's germ phobia. Eventually they quarantined the entire area. Lazowski is credited with saving over 8,000 peoples' lives in the town/region of Rozwadow. There's a documentary movie about him that will be released soon..

When my very good friends Phil and Jen got up to introduce him, I was struck by how much emotion there was. Phil couldn't even get through his intro without choking up. Then, as his partner Jen introduced Lazowski, I realized (for the first time) that he was her GRANDFATHER. With their 3-year-old Jade also on stage, there were four generations of Poles. Again, she could not get through her intro without crying. That's when my table-mates (Cecelia and the utterly rad 80-plus-year-old activist Mili White) and I started crying too. It dovetailed perfectly with Ellsberg's assertion that we are in the equivalent of 1936 Germany and that NONE of us are doing enough. Trust me (and him), our grandchildren WILL ask us why we didn't do more.

9/24/04

Damn, I can't believe it's only been 24 hours. The Ex ruled, what did you expect? tHE bOY got me so fucked up on that good High Street ale he brews that I was literally seeing double during the openers (Tara Jane O'Neill and the excellent Electrelane). Fortunately I sobered up enough to really get The Ex's set. And you know what? I couldn't hear a single fucking word of the vocals. But this time it didn't matter. They were so good that there isn't even any point talking about it. All new set, all from the new record. I guess if you get a new bass player it's easier to just write new stuff than teach her a bunch of old songs.

I do have one observation - both Andy and Terrie (the guitarists) have the most battered guitars I have ever seen. I'm pretty sure Andy's is the same one I saw him play with Dog Faced Hermans ten years back. Cool.

Michael Hurley is today's post for Mystical Beast, the last one for me (until he wants another break). Dana tells me that my Raincoats posts got over 500 downloads apiece. Hell yeah! If you haven't downloaded my Mystical Beast MP3-Blog tracks, you better do it soon. They're going down this by Monday.

9/23/04

The Ex are today's Mystical Beast band... four rare singles in honor of their show in Portland tonight that I am attending with tHE bOY. We are very excited. Full report later.

9/22/04

The Raincoats will be tomorrow's band at Mystical Beast, with 4 tunes criminally not reissued by Geffen along with the Moving CD.

The Neil Young journey has begun. In honor of a friend, I am converting 8 vinyl LPs into CDs and then MP3s, also including half a dozen Buffalo Springfield cuts, 2 bootleg CDs, whatever off of Decade that I don't already have (quite a bit, actually, I'm missing Zuma and Gold Rush plus most 80's-90's stuff). This means not only listening to the LPs, but actually paying attention. I will make her an 8-hour best-of MP3 disc and archive the complete recordings. Hopefully it will take less than two weeks. Right now I'm done with the Buffalo Springfield and am grooving on his first LP. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere comes next, all right!

9/21/04

This Heat tracks are now up at Mystical Beast, 5 rare or unreleased tunes.

9/19/04

OK, here's the deal. I have no space key on the keyboard so...

Friday...saw Hentchmen & Tarantula from out of town, not knowing them and kinda randomly. Both great.
Jackie-O laid back, mellow. Botox tight, squeaky. Shudders ruled. You know, the usual.

Saturday just went for the awesome might of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, they had a new percussionist/trumpet player and a new full set and a new CD. They were amazing. Too bad the rain drove people to stay in a lot. I don't blame 'em, but damn that show was great.

My first installment of Mystical Beast goes up tomorrow with 3 Virgin Prunes MP3's. Check it out!

And OK, there are plenty of nice, good blues artists. It just gets to me sometimes.

9/16/04

The Eugene Weekly deserves a special batch of hate mail for their unreadable, inscrutable schedule for the Eugene Celebration that came out today. Not only is every stage listed separately (an extremely annoying trend that they started with their club listings a year or so ago and that every single person I know hates), but they aren't even in fucking alphabetical order. So I had to sort through every single venue AND day to figure out the list below. Thank me, not the Weakly... Please note the unpublicized FACE EATER set on Sunday at 11:30 AM, thanks to Martha's Taco's for the info (and that was Snakefinger, not The Residents, OK...)

Sleeve's EC picks for 2004:

Friday:

6:30 PM - Manishewitz @ 10th and Olive stage
10:30 PM - Jackie-O Motherfucker @ the Wow Hall (PDX freakout psych improv)
11 PM - The Fast Computers @ John Henry's
11 PM - Eleven Eyes @ Luckey's
1 AM - The Shudders @ John Henry's

Saturday:

2 PM - When Oregon Rocked Out - The Far Out Story Of Vortex 1 @ the Eugene Library
4 PM - The Ovulators @ Broadway Plaza stage
4 PM - Danny Barnes @ 10th and Olive stage
6 PM - Old Time Relijun @ 10th and Olive stage
6 PM - Unkle Nancy @ Luckey's
8 PM - Son Melao @ 10th and Olive stage
9 PM - Silverhawk @ Diablo's
10:30 PM - Sleepytime Gorilla Museum @ the Wow Hall (DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW)
11 PM - Rantmusic @ Luckey's (bad time slot, bummer)
12 midnight - The Fireballs Of Freedom @ John Henry's (another do-not-miss)

Sunday:

NOT ON SCHEDULE!!! 11:30 AM - Face Eater @ Washington Park (20th & Washington)
Noon - Mood Area 52 @ 5th avenue stage
3:30 PM - Toad In The Hole @ Broadway Plaza stage

Please note: All dorky "sponsorship" names for public stages have been eliminated for reasons of grammatical aesthetics and human decency.

As far as the whiny article in the Weekly today about blues musicians feeling "excluded" from the EC booking, well, I feel like the state of current music would be vastly improved if every "blues" musician under 70 dropped dead. So there. Take your rotting, exhumed genre and consign it to the dustbin of history, where it belongs. God, I hate that stuff more than bad techno, power ballads, or adult contemporary - and that's saying quite a lot.

LATER:
I should note, to provide context to my contempo-blues rant above, that I own the complete Robert Johnson recordings, the complete Bessie Smith, and the 6-CD Smithsonian Anthology. Great stuff, if you were alive in the 20's. Ever heard of Devendra Banhart? Or Animal Collective? From, like, now?

Kinda surprised and flattered to see my parents-find-blog/public-persona thread picked up by a few folks. For those of you who are "longtime" readers, you may have seen a few rants in this space previously that directly acknowledge the attention of others. I have no illusions about the public nature of the internet (I'm thinking about you, Green Anarchy clique, and I still think I was right to call you out as jerks in public). But parents, for some folks, are a much more problematic thing, which is why I wrote about it. Also, it was just so funny to hear about someone's stepmom going "Oh, is Mrs. Random a real person? Don't tell me! I don't want to know!" Sometimes it's so hard to explain the everyday weirdness of our lives.

9/15/04

The week goes by like water, slipping around me.

"Sleeve, my parents have discovered the blog" my friend says to me. Her voice is weary. She doesn't wanna deal with it. Yeah, it's a mixed bag. As she puts it, "Do they really want to know how adult I actually am?"

The car stereo spits out KWVA through one blown speaker, distorting every bass pulse. A high end of hissing static crackle rides on top, like a Whitehouse or Merzbow record gone bad. In spite of this, I heard Martha's Tacos kick out a great show today, playing Amon Duul 2, Pere Ubu, The Contortions, PIL, and the Residents all within a 45-minute span. Go Martha!

9/8/04

Stardust provides a full account of the car wreck HERE.

Thanks to Keith from John Henry's, Eric Jensen, and Station Wag, all of whom emailed with offers of support for benefits. I'll be out of town until this weekend but we'll all put something together soon, I promise.

Just back from seeing "The Corporation" documentary, now at the Bijou. I liked it. The CEO of the world's largest carpet company (which has reduced its "ecological footprint" by one-third since 1995) stole the show with a riveting display of humility and conscience. The movie ended with him addressing a business group, his first line was "Do I know you well enough to call you fellow plunderers?" He also likened our current civilization to a poorly designed airplane trying to fly off a cliff. Lots of footage on the Bolivian resistance to water privatization as well. It would work well for video (we're not talking cinematic scope here, it's mostly talking heads) but is worth a viewing however you choose.

Oh, yeah... speaking of corporations, I wanted to steal this very cool lead-in to a Douglas Rushkoff essay from Large Hearted Boy.

"I believe the greatest power of the blog is not just its ability to distribute alternative information - a great power, indeed - but its power to demonstrate a mode of engagement that is not based on the profit principle."

9/7/04

Intense news from Tina post-Burning Man. Don't worry, nobody (that we know) is dead. But Stardust and Marietta rolled their car and Stardust has a badly broken leg while Marietta has a broken wrist. This is all secondhand, so details may be off, but probably not by much. Stardust in particular will need financial help and support, as she will be unable to work her job which she was supposed to be back at today. Benefits, anyone? I'll put together a Le Sous-Sol event for the two of them, but I'm thinking, say, the 80's Night crew? Something a bit more, shall we say, substantial? Let's organize. And don't forget to visit Ms. Stardust while she can't walk. Email me (or each other) with ideas, folks.

9/6/04

The Ex freakout continues, in caps when necessary: Touch And Go (their US label) have ANOTHER MP3 from the new record available HERE. They are doing a U.S. tour (EEEEE!!!) starting in fuckin' New York City on 9-11. How cool is THAT? They hit Berbati's in PDX on Thursday the 23rd, you can bet I will be there hoping that the evil soundperson who RUINED their vocals (read: inaudible through the ENTIRE set) at the Crystal Ballroom show with Unwound a couple of years back will NOT be behind the board. That was the first time I had ever seen them after loving them for almost twenty years and it SUCKED, all because of some loser who I guess had never seen a fader before.

I'm just full of cranky today. Some total jerk brought Patti Smith's new record back to KWVA this week, after "borrowing" it for THREE AND A HALF MONTHS. That's right, a new add to rotation by a major artist, and some loser takes it for the entire time we're supposed to be playing it, during her tour, and while her label is watching radio charts. I'm halfway convinced that there are DJs who deliberately take records they don't like. Prove me wrong - leave the rotation the fuck alone. And no, the 4-song sampler was NOT sufficient. Jerk.

9/4/04

Happy birthday to ME (and Antonin Artaud, thanks to Mr. Random for the link).

So many things, so little time...

Last night we were fortunate enough to witness the debut gig of the soon-to-be-well-known teenage tornados known as FACE EATER. Featuring Raenie (Shudders, House Of Records)'s son Cassidy on drums, Debbie (KWVA's "The Mother")'s son Max on guitar, Lou's son Ian on bass, Patricia's son Vince on vocals, and another guitarist who I didn't know (either him or his folks). Raenie's folks were there (along with a bunch of other parents and teens) making three generations of rockers in our basement. They were GREAT! Seriously. Mostly originals (!) and a cover of an early Black Flag song. All of them are 13, I think. Most of those folks cleared out after Face Eater's opening set, escaping the unbelievably loud death-smash of Human Certainty, now a 4-piece with 2 guitars. Ouch. By the time Happy Bastards took the stage, there was a completely different, albeit smaller, crowd. They rocked also, unveiling their new cover version of CCR's "Fortunate Son". Unfortunately, I think our website said 9 PM start time, so a few people missed the teen onslaught. Sorry about that.

I added a new blogosphere member/friend, despiseyou and her blog "Big Hoop Earrings Is The Poser Exposer" because she said it was OK to put up a link. I think her blog rules, in spite of the fact that she thinks I'm silly for thinking that.

More later, maybe. I need to go be lazy with Tina.

LATER:

EEEE! The new (double CD) record by The Ex is out! There's an MP3 from it (along with lots of other tracks from other albums of theirs) on their website, but there's also an MP3 blog out there with two versions of the mighty "Theme From Konono". This is the first time we have really gotten to hear new member Rozemarie's double-bass (upright, stringed acoustic through an amp) work, and it sounds just stupendous. Check it out if at all inclined.

I just emailed my sister and we agreed on the superiority of the blog Dooce, a woman (mostly) writing about her first child. Another addition to the Exo-Blogosphere links.

9/1/04

God damn, it's September. Here we go again...

To my immense excitement and delight, I have been invited to be the "guest blogger" at the MP3 blog Mystical Beast in the 3rd week of September. Stay tuned.

My mom comments on the entry below:

"I read with interest your blog-tale of this evolution. One of your remarkable abilities is keeping former partners as good friends. (Ron and I often tell people admiringly of this when there is talk about relationships.) I know that transforming the relationships from partner to friend has not always (ever?) been easy, but you have worked at it and been successful. I always think it is sad that most people assume breakups should and will mean an absolute break, that a broken relationship, like a broken cup, should be thrown away. It seems to me such a waste to simply discard all the strong bonds people form rather than working to help the bonds evolve into a new kind of relationship. The pieces of a broken cup can be glued together, and can still hold water even if the shape is different. Sometimes the shape is actually better. (perhaps I'm pushing the metaphor, here!). At any rate, the circles and cycles of your caring relationships may take some people aback, but I think the people without such relationships are the poorer for that lack."

8/30/04

As Mr. Random said, when you drink out of little taster cups you lose track. It's all part of our fiendish party plot... It worked on him, Being And Becoming, Chaia, and several others who were among the 3 A.M. hardcore holdouts. I tried a really great heather ale that I remembered from last year, a chocolate stout, the unbelievably good vanilla-nutmeg stout that Beth and I brewed and I was too impatient to let sit for long enough (I finished all of mine months ago, Beth brought her last bottle), and many others. Broke out all the rest of my saved homebrew and plowed through the last 4 lavender bottles. YUM.

But really, this entry is about circles and cycles. I have these friends... we'll go with O, E, and A. O is an ex-partner of mine, and A, when we met in 1993, was her six-year-old son. E is one of my closest Eugene friends. O and I were together for about a year and a half. We ended up living together and homeschooling A through 2nd grade. I taught him how to read, at his request, by using the liner notes for punk rock albums, specifically the "Bloodstains" comps. O and I had a hard breakup (written about in Made Explicit #1 a little bit). She ended up involved with E about a year afterwards. For three years they went back and forth about their relationship. Meanwhile, O and I resolved our issues and became friends again, and I taught A 4th grade math. In August of 1998, O and E moved to Albuquerque together and bought a house. A came to live with them around 2 or 3 years ago, after spending most of middle/high school with his dad, plus a few years with me at the Fair for a week in the summers.

I was very jealous, I thought, of O and E being together at first. He had been part of our breakup (was living with the two of us at the time) and had spent many evenings offering advice and counsel, as well as mediating. It hit a little close to home. When they finally moved and started getting along, I was surprised to discover that I wasn't actually jealous. I had just hated seeing two of the people I love the most make each other miserable.

Fast forward. It's 2004. O, E, A, and O's given-up-for-adoption-and-later-reunited adult daughter J come to visit. A is now 18. Through magic synchronicity, they are in town for our 2nd annual beer tasting party. O and E are breaking up. We all got drunk on little taster cups and talked about it, I think we may have taken some guests aback but who gives a fuck. We have had intense 3-way conversation before on this subject. E cried on my shoulder, O seemed guilt-stricken about being the "breaker" as opposed to the "breakee". Both of them, separately, said "you're the only person in the world who can understand this". I tried my best to counsel them with good advice. They're both awesome people. I just want them to be happy.

In the midst of this, it was decided that A will come and move in with us here at Le Sous-Sol after Burning Man. As may be apparent, this is kind of a mind-boggler for me. Cycles and circles... ten years down the road and here we are. I think about him being six and asleep and it just about makes my fucking heart explode. All of us are still friends. I love this community and I thank it for giving me the skills and examples to hold on to these relationships that matter so much. The light is pouring out of my skin and eyes...

This entry is dedicated to Queen Autumn and the soul-searching entries of hers that have inspired me.

8/24/04

Numerous links for your attention:

The end of cheap oil... this is the must-read link. For real! What will you be doing in 2010?

More on-the-ground opinions from the people of Iraq (8/21 entry... heartbreaking, this one).

Elena of "Ghost Town" website fame is putting together a new photojournal, a history of the city of Kiev called The Serpent's Wall.

Four things Yahoo can do that Google can't (PDF file).

8/20/04

It was just another sad day, everything was in the key of A....

More unrestrained Patti Smith geek out...

Ran into Howie and Rain at the show, very cool. Lots of positive comments on the show at the Portland Indymedia site.

I spent last night listening to rare Patti vinyl at full blast even though my stereo needle is totally thrashed (if I told you how long it's been since it was changed and you know my record collection at all, you would turn white). Also wrote a long letter to a friend of mine who I am engaged in a complicated emotional dance with. Today I feel totally burned out and am just waiting for pizza to arrive. Yeah, I know I'm broke. The ramen noodles come in September.

Been doing my cannibis in the form of a glycerin tincture lately, a pretty interesting (and healthier) delivery method.

And in honor of that, I just threw on a total reggae classic, Linton Kwesi Johnson's "Dread Beat An' Blood". I have loved this album since my old school friend Jim Reed turned me on to it at about age 18. Spacy, melodic, political poetry with some of the heaviest bass ever found within the genre. Thanks to Patrick Neve for burning me a copy, I've only had a tape for decades.

8/19/04

Here's my Patti review as posted to the Babelogue listserv/discussion group, the only one I currently subscribe to:

Portland show review

Set list:
Trampin'
Stride Of The Mind
Jubilee
Break It Up
Birdland
Space Monkey
Beneath The Southern Cross
My Blakean Year
Looking For You?
25th Floor
Cash
Seven Ways Of Going
Dancing Barefoot
Free Money
Peaceable Kingdom
Gandhi
PHTP
Encore: Rock 'n' Roll Nigger

Just over 2 hours is my guess. No opener. The band seemed a little tired (not really surprising), Mr. Ray in particular was pretty subdued and still wearing a big bandage over his whole right eye. They did break through into the "zone" or whatever it is they get to several times, I thought the older songs sounded particularly impressive. Oliver played an amazing solo during "Southern Cross" that sounded like it came straight off of the Velvet Underground & Nico LP, very cool. "Gandhi" was great too. Clarinet came out for "Seven Ways", she also took her boots and socks off during "Barefoot". Not much spitting.

A couple of funny extended raps - a woman yelled out "Patti for president", and she said that if she was elected the first thing she would do is make Ralph Nader president (many cheers, some boos). Reminded us that if she was president we'd have to let her do what she wants (note: this is different from telling people to vote for him, methinks). Said that everybody would also get a free copy of the Declaration Of Independence, all the clean water they want, and a jar of seeds. "Put the seeds in purified poop, add the water, and trees will grow - apple trees, pear trees, ears of corn... and we'll all be happy."

At the beginning of Blakean Year she did an extended, singsong thing while playing a chord on the guitar about looking for H.P. Lovecraft books even though she had already found lots in Minnesota, noted that Portland was having a Lovecraft film fest in the fall, talked about seeing people in Powell's (famous PDX bookstore), and getting excited because "the whole Crystal Ballroom was gonna be filled up with nerds like me", eliciting a loud cheer from many fellow nerds.

She also did a furious, profanity-laced, firebreathing rant during the encore about "the fucking corporations, the money, snapping kids spirits like twigs, the advertising, it all fucking sucks, we need a spiritual revolution or it's gonna wipe us the fuck out." Hell yeah.

All quotes paraphrased, more or less.
Love to the list,
Sleeve

I'd like to give profuse thanks to Being And Becoming, who called me up at 6:30 PM last night with a free ticket, and my roommate Shade, who let me drive his truck to PDX. Obviously I was meant to be there.

8/18/04

I'm going to see Patti Smith!
I'm going to see Patti Smith!
I'm going to see Patti Smith!
I'm going to see Patti Smith!
I'm going to see Patti Smith!

But YOU should still go to Sam Bond's, I gave them my 5 bucks already, so there.

More reports later on this historic moment.

8/17/04

Great article courtesy of Stardust, your day's recommended reading...

No Sex, Please, We're Republicans
Right now, to be sexually attuned and kinky is to be part of the anti-Bush revolution. Vive la résistance!

OK, I can't resist this excerpt...

Nowadays, the slightest hint of sexual kink in your life and you get to feel all dirty and naughty and outlandish. Slightest salacious twinge in your groinal region and you get to feel like some sort of delicious deviant, a heathen, a whore, a pagan, a loveslut, a wet-hot dreamboat of yes, something to be feared and loathed and dreaded by much of the antisex born-again leadership while simultaneously deeply, secretly desired by most of them. I mean, what's not to like?
Because right now, to be wantonly open about sexual matters is to be smacked down as some sort of radical, is to be scowled at by the FCC and the CIA and the petrified BushCo evangelicals, is to be considered the dreaded Other, all slippery and self-defined and dangerous. Go ahead, wave your vibrator. Feel like a revolutionary.

8/16/04

president's bullet-ridden body in the street ride, johnny ride kennedy's shattered head hits concrete ride, johnny ride johnny's wife is floundering johnny's wife is scared run, jackie run texas is an outrage when your husband is dead texas is an outrage when they pick up his head texas is the reason that the president's dead you gotta suck, suck, jackie suck president's bullet-ridden body in the street ride, johnny ride kennedy's shattered head hits concrete ride, johnny ride texas is an outrage when your husband is dead texas is an outrage when they pick up his head texas is the reason that the president's dead you gotta suck, suck, jackie suck arise jackie o, jonathan f kennedy well, arise and be shot down the dirt's gonna be your dessert my cum be your life source and the only way to get it is to suck or fuck or be poor and devoid and masturbate me, masturbate me then slurp it from your palm like a dry desert soaking up rain soaking up sun like a dry desert soaking up rain soaking up sun

Didn't you always wanna know the words to that Misfits song? Me too. Danzig's finest moment. I could digress into I-was-there stories about Glenn swilling jug wine after Samhain gigs back in Bloomington, but I won't.

8/15/04

Yow! MP3s of the new Peel Session by The Fall (broadcast on August 12th) are available right HERE. Killer, killer stuff - four new songs and one old one. Listen for it on my radio show tomorrow!

8/15/04

No right to legal representation? No right to free association? No right to remain silent?
You’ve been subpoenaed to a grand jury.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 13, 2004
A joint communication from Break The Chains, Cascadia Media Collective and Eugene Peaceworks
Subject: Federal grand jury underway in Eugene
A new spate of federal grand juries have been called to investigate “radical” environmentalists throughout the Pacific Northwest. In Eugene, authorities are using the highly controversial Romania fire that burned 35 SUVs in 2001 as a catalyst for gathering general information about local dissidents. Grand juries are a coercive, archaic practice that target vulnerable people and should not be welcomed in our community.
Grand juries are a holdover from English Common Law that operate outside of the “freedoms” granted by the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They are used by the federal government to seek an indictment when they lack a suspect and/or evidence. They are sweeping in both scope and design and use the threat of incarceration to compel those subpoenaed to answer all questions put before them. If a person refuses to answer even one question they can be held in contempt.
For nearly a century activists have accused the federal government of using grand juries as a tool to quell dissent. Grand juries serve to disrupt the cohesiveness of group, generate internal fear and discourage new people from getting involved, thus preventing such groups from being effective in opposing government policies. In a time when the federal government continues to broaden the scope of who and how they are allowed to investigate – and in a time of “you are either with us or against us” – the need to resist such an intrusion on individual autonomy seems clear.
People who choose to resist the grand jury do not inherently have something to hide. In fact, resisting the grand jury is often a matter of principle and an effort to protect others from unwarranted governmental intrusion. If people choose to resist this current grand jury, they will have our support.
We encourage you to learn more about the current grand jury and the grand jury process by attending “Stop the Grand Jury” on August 18th and by contacting our organizational spokespeople.
STOP THE GRAND JURY: A public event and benefit
Wednesday, August 18th, 7pm at Sam Bond’s Garage $5
Speakers, information, and musical performances by Los Mex Pistols, The Happy Bastards, and others TBA.
_________________________________________________________________________
For local information: Brendan Avakian, Member of Break The Chains anti-repression and prisoner advocacy organization, (541) 343-7828
For general information about grand juries: Melinda Power, Attorney and Member of the National Lawyers Guild, (773) 278-6706

8/14/04

I am so inspired by the MP3 blog thing. I am looking at some ways to do it, we should have upload bandwidth available. I may have to create a separate site for that, but that seems to be recommended anyway. For those of you out there using Limewire or Acquisition (Mac P2P programs), I already share about 225 files of out-of-print or unreleased music. I don't share copyrighted stuff in general. A lot of this stuff would be perfect for MP3 blog publishing, like the great early Virgin Prunes, unreleased This Heat, early Boredoms acetates, live Patti Smith, early Television, etc. etc. etc. So stay tuned. Meanwhile, keep on top of the MP3 Blog Aggregator for the current finds... the new Bjork record is leaking all over the place despite being due out on the 30th, 2 weeks from now.

8/12/04

Big changes underway in the frames department, as if you can't tell.... minor things to be worked out yet, but functional.

8/12/04

Man, the Animal Collective is really rockin' my world. I have heard some hype, but didn't expect THIS. Their new (third) record is called "Sung Tongs" and you can see a video from it at their website. Has all those elements that I'm a sucker for - dreamy children at play, open tunings, melodic droniness, spaciness, and, at times, a very welcome and concise Beach-Boys-esque songwriting style. Check 'em out! Plus, the video is actually worth watching!

8/11/04

The MP3 blogs overflow, with excellent soul 45's, Eno bootlegs, and Leadbelly. Added a few more entries in that section of the links.

I am skipping Samba Ja right now to eat a meal from the garden - onions, basil, broccoli, tomatos, kale. I'm sure the 'hood is hoppin'. I'm entering a sedate period, partly in honor of Mrs. Random's astrological predictions (8/9 entry).

8/10/04

Went to a pretty inspiring wedding this weekend, there was a whole crew of local and not so local folks, all of whom I was happy to see... also a nice pagan handfasting ceremony (legal comes later this summer), many kegs, half a pig, overnight camping in a state park next to the Santiam river, acoustic guitars, a PA/DJ setup on Saturday night by yours truly, lighting & power by our own kickass electric company crew, and lots of fringe benefits. Wow.

Added a ton of links, including a bunch of MP3 blogs, a good new way to waste time and bandwidth. The Lacunae site in particular has an excellent Roger Miller/Clint Conley (Mission Of Burma) side project 7" B-side available probably for a few more days. Also Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Cul De Sac, Terry Riley, and a few others to the Discogs.

8/4/04

Great self-critique of martial law/political junkie-dom and/or paranoia/conspiracy theory from Portland Indymedia:

blah blah blah
what the fuck ever
Oh Jesus, like what's going on NOW isn't bad enough?
If you're looking for an excuse to blow off your pointless day-to-day life and head for the hills, just DO it already. Go for it. Let us know how it works out. Some of us already tried that. That's how we ended up in Oregon in the first place.

8/4/04

I do believe that the DNC has proven that blogs are now a political force to be reckoned with. Witness this comment on Kerry's speech from Tom Tomorrow's Blog:

"Yes, there was the military posturing, but there was also a lot of real bite in there, a lot of references to things that, three years ago, nobody was discussing in public except for bloggers and left wing cartoonists."

On the more radical tip, anarchist writer Hakim Bey (aka Peter Lamborn Wilson) has emerged from a long silence with this interview. Lots of scathing commentary on the false promises of the Internet, anarchist infighting, and post 9/11 politics.

Here's another Salon excerpt about the Sandy Berger "scandal":

"But if you think the press rushed in to follow-up the Journal's report about Berger being cleared by the 9/11 commission, guess again; the press' subsequent silence has been deafening. "Ever since they invented ink and paper, charges have got more space than the truth," says Joe Lockhart, the former Clinton press secretary who has been acting as Berger's spokesman. "Am I disappointed more people haven't picked this up? Yes. Am I surprised? Absolutely not." Not one major newspaper, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, or Washington Post, has reported on the Journal's 9/11 commission findings. And in the four days since the Journal report, CNN has aired just 6 very brief mentions of the development. None of CNN's reports lasted more than 60 seconds, and none involved CNN interviewing experts to get their take on the news. Stitched together the six mentions totaled maybe four minutes of TV time. Compare that to two weeks ago when the Berger story was first leaked and CNN aired more than 40 in-depth segments, covering hours and hours of airtime.
Then again, CNN's six mentions is five more than the NBC/MSNBC/CNBC news team has managed to date. That, compared to the 22 Berger segments it ran. Fox News has not reported the Journal's finding, despite the fact it ran more than a dozen Berger stories/segments two weeks ago."

That's American Media 101, folks...

7/29/04

For you news/politics junkies, here's a link to a gateway site for all of the DNC bloggers. Practically up-to-the-minute coverage and commentary. Looking forward to see Michael Moore's RNC commentary, supposedly he was invited.

7/27/04

we came to respirate

you came to perspirate

sweat dripping down your face

it's early not too late

By the time the 7-piece band !!! tore into their 4th or 5th song at Berbati's last night, we were all drenched in sweat. The drummer comes out from behind the kit and tears into a falsetto, and it was just so so good. At the end, the drenched lead vocalist said "you can't want an encore. It's too fucking hot, we need to go outside, and if you aren't that hot, then you weren't dancing enough." Look for this band to be playing arenas near you in a year or two. Stunning. I saw Queen Autumn there afterwards and all I could do was laugh knowingly. Some ridiculous idiot panned them really hard in the new Mercury (Portland's "naughty" weekly, there's two), and this person may in fact not like the records. But how any human with soul could not have been won over by the crazy scene last night is beyond me. Probably the most extreme dance/mindblow/freakout event I've been to since Crash Worship in '94 or so, but without any theater elements - just seven very normal looking dudes on stage with one unified goal - tune in, turn on, GET DOWN. I missed the openers due to catching up with a friend down the street, but the folks I came with said the PDX duo Nice Nice were great. We told ghost stories in the car on the way back, a great boy's night out.

7/24/04

Late at night, back from The Ovulators' first post-Hedwig performance. Granted, they stretched themselves a bit thin - they did the last night of the show and THEN went out to headline at The Black Forest - but they turned in a good performance nonetheless. It was even more tantalizing to see the flashes of total greatness that they will be wallowing in once they get a month or two of real "Ovulators" practice in (they have only been rehearsing the stage show practically since Kasey joined). I was napping til 11 PM due to the record heat (103 degrees today) and missed Yeltsin, but got to see Sombrero (James West and Eric from Pellet Gun as a loud noisy duo).

Mr. Random already reported on the lovely Bingo Band show last Thursday, I just wanna add that besides sounding like the Dead on a good day, they also conjured up the spirit of Television with their guitar interplay. Kevin Richey didn't even bring his banjo. Too bad there wasn't a good crowd... I was taking to Peter Wilde the next day and he pointed out that they rarely play here because they have a built-in Portland crowd and get good gigs without having to drive. Sad to have such genius musicians (bass player Dave Reisch is a longtime Michael Hurley cohort) so close and yet see them so infrequently.

Sad news courtesy of KUSF, forgive the fractured syntax, it was in the original. This Heat are one of my absolute favorite bands and Gareth Williams was their secret weapon. This is old news, but new to me:

Gareth Williams, who has died of cancer aged 48, was a founder member of This Heat, a rock trio whose significance and musicality the historically minded listener would favourably compare to Cream or the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but whose recalcitrant experimentalism led them far away from mainstream success. Williams was born in Cardiff in 1953. After taking his A-levels, he took up a job as a Drugs Rehabilitation Counsellor in Newfoundland. By the mid 1970s he was working in retail as the deputy manager of the Cranbourn Street, Westminster branch of HMV, a post he held with a madcap degree of irresponsibility. Once, to win a television set offered as an A&M sales promotion, he purchased for the shop hundreds of copies of Rick Wakeman's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII". On receipt of the tv, he returned the records as faulty, having himself scratched and made unsaleable the entire shipment. Williams was a fanatical listener and record collector and as such attracted trt on the February 13 1976, mere days after it had formed. (As a sign of their confidence from the outset, they included "Rainforest," recorded at this gig, on their debut LP). In the early days noisy instrumental improvisations dominated; but This Heat were also adept at songs and gradually achieved a balance between the abstract and the formal. In concert, trance-like ambient soundscapes would typically fade into riotous, even danceable, anthems before giving way to a heady shower of glorious noise or leery episodes of half-stoned silence. This Heat attracted an audience of fervent admirers and enthusiastic critics, for whom Williams became "the musician's non-musician." This Heat took to using tape recordings in concert, with Williams becoming adept at playing cassette machine as a solo instrument. For them tape was a legitimate element in its own right, a creative rather than recreative musical source which allowed them to bring into the mix sounds from another time and place. It provided This Heat with a upbeat song "about the sunshine" which allowed Williams to display his now considerable skill as a musical bricoleur. This was followed by "Deceit" in 1981, an LP which put its finger on that fearful era's g-spot, decrying the nuclear arms race and media disinformation in a sequence of exquisitely executed but agonised songs. If it voiced a bitter anger at the world in general, "Deceit" perhaps also articulated the tensions within the band. By the time it was released, Williams had quit the group.. Having once declared that This Heat was the music the three of them made together, Bullen and Hayward nevertheless carried on, now joined by bass player Trefor Goronwy and keyboardist Ian Hill. The band's final concert took place in London on May 18 1982. By then Williams was in Kerala, south India, where he studied kathakali dance-drama. He converted to Hinduism, mainly to gain easier access to temples. On his return to London, Williams co-authored the first edition of "The Rough Guide to India" and took a Degree [The age] of compact discs had led to a renewed interest in This Heat and the albums were re-released, along with the archival "Made Available: John Peel Sessions" and "Repeat". Williams was diagnosed with cancer in September 2001. Early in December 2001 the three members of This Heat got together once more and tentatively rehearsed with a view to a live performance or new recording. Before any resolution to their diverse musical or temperamental differences could be reached Williams died, on Christmas Eve. He is survived by his partner, Nick Goodall. [Gareth John Williams, musician, born April 23 1953; died December 24 2001]

7/21/04

Mr. Random grants my wish with a long entry about his Country Fair experiences right HERE. Love his concept of "Fair Time" (it really is like that) and the dreamlike nature of the experience. And what the hell is 'Nixon Cantina"? There are so many little microcosms there...

7/20/04

Salon scores again! They just posted a superb interview with graphic novel writer Alan Moore (Watchmen, From Hell, etc.) that I highly recommend. You have to watch a brief ad to access the full site, but damn this is good shit. Allow me to blog-whore an excerpt:

"We always win our wars in the movies, and I think there are people raised on war movies who thought that was what real war was going to be like, that once the cameras stopped rolling, all the people who were killed would be able to get up and carry on with their lives. It's a shame that we seem to need one of these things every generation just to teach a very simple lesson: War never accomplishes anything. It's never going to look good in the history books. People are never going to look back and think, "He started a lot of wars; what a great leader he was!" That's not the way it works. God knows how many more of these things we're going to need before it starts to sink in."

7/20/04

Boy, the Eugene bloggers have been lazy... must be July in Oregon. I ripped my finger open just the tiniest bit with a table saw yesterday and it's all wrapped up, typing is a little tricky.

Anyway, I wanted to add a (late) note to Ed Cole's great 6/25 entry on cassette tape and 4-tracks. Ed noted, correctly, to clean the tape heads (on your tape decks also) with rubbing alcohol and Q-tips - forget the expensive cleaner junk. But I must bring up another point, magically remembered from my college audiotech class - move the q-tip back and forth in the direction the tape travels. This means left to right, not up and down. There is a very small slit in the tape head that the magnet is behind (check it out!), and you increase the likelihood of getting junk caught in it by going the wrong way.

I think I'll clean Dori's 4-track when I get home today...

7/19/04

Had a blast doing radio today, for the first time in two whole weeks. Not much really new in the rotation, but still tons of great stuff. We had seven people listen to our audio stream last night! I am not really here typing these words, still psychicly fried from the OCF with tons of unprocessed stuff raw in my head. Now I will hibernate for four days or so.

7/18/04

OK, we aren't doing video, but we are streaming audio of the show tonight. Click on the Le Sous Sol link above for the streaming link. Enjoy!

7/17/04

Well, Queen Autumn also wrote a lot about the Country Fair, her impressions are more general and not quite as crew-oriented as mine, but check it out for more perspective.

I got unexpectedly trashed at Sam Bond's last night, it was really cool to come back into town and see lots of people come out to see Happy Bastard's first "bar" gig. I must say I think they are the most "hardcore" band to ever play there, Todd even had to give some wannabe thrasher a talking to when he started going a bit wild.

The Fair has given me a renewed sense of the depth and breadth of my community. I ran into my old roommate Faun outside of Red Barn and she said her son Ravi still mentions me. I think that's so sweet, he was a teenager when he lived with us. His dad is the famous herbalist Howie, but I knew Faun and Ravi for years before my friends started taking Howie's classes. Also seeing all the folks out for the show and going to a little afterparty was quite nice. Back from the Fair, where no amplified prerecorded music is allowed, I am in awe of the power of my stereo. Damn, that's loud.

Note to internet geeks, family, and faraway friends: We plan on doing video streaming (!!!) of our Le Sous Sol show tomorrow. More details as they develop.

7/16/04

My mother and my sister were both born today. Happy birthday, family.

Well, the local serial rapist cop did, in fact, get more years than Free did (94 vs. 22). What I want people to pay attention to is the appeals process for both of them. Also, it seems that Magana will be assigned protection in jail while Free gets solitary for telling nazis to fuck off. The justice is only on the surface...

I would have started off this entry writing about the Oregon Country Fair, but I read back into the blog a bit to catch up. You see, I have been in an alternate reality for the last ten days. I don't think Mr. Random or any other Eugene bloggers talked nearly enough about this, but perhaps my perspective is different because of my nine years on the OCF Recycling Crew (OCFRC) and the intensity of our situation.

Listening to: Pink Floyd's early acetate bootleg of "Lucy Leave"

The thing about the OCFRC is that we (90-120 people) are all one crew, unlike any other group that size at the fair. We get up at the same time, camp in the same place, and deal with each other year after year. It imparts a very cyclical nature to our interactions. Once a year for a week we live and work with a bunch of people, most of whom we don't see in the "unFair" world. We see the kids grow up, see people change and grow, and feel for each other. We see things in microcosm...

A young girl learning how to ride her bike without training wheels for the first time.

A man still obviously grieving for his lost twin, one child whole and healthy and the other gone. Last year the loss was fresh and still raw and unprocessed, this year the lines of sadness are in his face like an etching made out of tears, speaking immense words that cannot be verbalized. I broke down crying at one point due to that and other such emotional overloads, but that is far from what we as a culture think of as "sad". It was more like release and empathy.

A woman rides back on a truck from a night sauna and shower. With her is her young son. He tells her of a hard day involving older kids being mean to him. She listens, loves, and hears him. When the truck stops at our camp, it turns out that the "mean" kid's mom was sitting next to them the whole ride. She confronts her son and holds him responsible for his actions.

A woman is on our crew post-fair. She works another crew during the fair, but likes to hang and work with our crew in the week afterwards. We are sitting by the fire and a man comes up who she has issues with from her other crew. I tell her that this is a safe space to speak her mind. She asks another member of our crew to hold space with her while she speaks. She says what she has to among people who have her back.

This is the true meaning of community. I learn it slowly, year after year, and bring the lessons back into my daily life.

More about the Fair later. I must go see Happy Bastards, Deke Falcon, and Yelstin at Sam Bond's as my sole post-Fair show aside from !!! at Berbati's in PDX on the 27th...

7/6/04

Update kinda stuff, changed some link structure, added links, added Charalambides, Organum/David Jackman, and Asmus Tietchens to the Discogs.

Song in my head at work this morning: Legendary Pink Dots "Third Secret" done live on this week's Brainwashed Eye video (broadband only, the damn thing is like 43 minutes long). That faded into Missy Elliott, but that was cool too.

And god damn that Mark E. Smith! Just after The Fall's best album in years (The Real New Fall LP) gets put out in this country for cheap with two extra songs (one of which is AMAZING) and two different versions including the THIRD version of "Sparta F.C.", he up and fires and/or forces to quit (the reports vary) the two guys who did the most on the record, including Ben Pritchard, the sole guitar constant for the last four years. A true Fall fan knows this heartbreak well, Mr. Smith has now gone through like four entire lineups more or less since 1998. I think about 50 people are ex-members of The Fall. Who knows what will happen next?

Listening to: new Black Dice album and single

7/3/04

Today's topic is rumours...

1.... There has been a rumour going around amongst the punk community that some of the Green Anarchy-associated folks physically threatened people at our house. This is NOT TRUE, we have received no such threats and in fact have been engaged in dialogue with some of them. So all you punks can calm down a little bit. Please.

2.... Le Sous Sol has heard a rumour that the nazis in town beat up the owner of the Samurai Duck. Can anyone deny or confirm this? I know some club owners and such read this blog...

3 .... There was a rumour that The Ovulators were playing for free at The Downtown Lounge. This was not true, it was a $5 cover. Good thing I was on my way somewhere when I stopped by. God, I really didn't like the vibe there at all, but I guess that's a personal opinion.

Patrick Neve has posted some MP3s of the noise show, you can listen to either Robert Inhuman/Realicide or IDX1274 collaborating with CTRL-ALT-DEL by clicking the links. Thanks Patrick!

7/1/04

The noise show was fantastic. Thanks to the folks who showed and were very generous, thanks to the folks who played. They had had a crowd of exactly zero in Seattle last night, so they were thrilled to get five (typical for experimental music in this town).

I have had a lot of blog swirl in my head, but not getting it down. Maybe a little later.

Yesterday I talked on the phone for a while to one of the Green Anarchy people that I have been having conflict with. Some communication did take place, I felt. It seems some apologies are in order - this person has not engaged in the kind of public attacks others have, and has left me some clear phone messages about being upset and why. So yes, that split could have been handled better - on all sides, including mine. Sorry. This person and I are going to try and have a mutual friend mediate some conversation in the hopes that we can express ourselves and be done with it.

6/30/04

Yes, we still sometimes have shows at Le Sous Sol...

WEDNESDAY JUNE 30th (TODAY):

Realicide - powerelectronics + harsh noise punk from Cincinnati

Ctrl+Alt+Del - breakcore inspired digital noise experiments from Columbus

IDX1274 - experimental noise with car horns and metalgrinder from the mountains an hour east of Eugene (Foster/cascadia)

Summer Kamikaze Tour 2004: www.geocities.com/morepunklessrock

Showtime is 9 PM, email me if you don't know where we are.

6/27/04

Well, Ella Peepsgerald made it to FOUR events last night (Hedwig, Slam Cover Night, Yeltsin, and Dori's birthday party). I thought I was a partyhopper and only did the Slam and Dori's, such is the fate of a DJ. The Slam Cover Night was a cool idea, 5 bucks for a bathtub full of PBR and snacks, about 15-20 people from the local slam scene did poems by other people, some local, some not. I spun some dance tunes before and after, then went to Dori's at 1 AM and raged for hours, did a tagteam DJ set with David (him on vinyl and me on MP3 player, bouncing tracks), got shut down by the cops at around 4 AM, and came home as the sky was lightening up in the east, first time I've done THAT in a while, maybe since L.A.

6/25/04

Club hopping. Ten hour days. Take a bath. Still sore from my new Kung Fu class at the Corestar center. Broke again. But I can die happy, now that I have seen Rebecca Gates sing Arthur Russell's "A Little Lost" with cello accompaniment. Wow and double wow. Her voice has lost none of its sultry alto power. Then I made it briefly to the Black Forest to catch Ed Cole, my roommate Shade was hoping to see Billy Barnett play after recording with him at Gung Ho. Alas, no such luck, the College Girls Of Tora-Bora were not in attendance. Ed played with a multi-track DAT backup for the first half, then Brian Gardiner came on for a really quite amazing turn on the drums for the rest. I am still physically destroyed and almost didn't make it out, so I had to leave before Dan Jones came on, bummer.

I will say that I think the Black Forest is on to something with this no cover/free shows thing. Seems like people are being exposed to music they otherwise wouldn't go see, and of course it comes in handy when you're broke. Too much house stuff to fix...

6/19/04

Summer bursts in, we were dripping sweat yesterday. I have several major house projects today - a dump run and (finally) the planting of all our tomato starts, plus a few eggplant. Time to get our roommate search underway, if anybody out there knows somebody get in touch. Think art, music and gardens, not politics.

OK, I'll slow down. Thanks for the concern, friends.

Today I did the dump run, weeded, pruned the heck out of the astonishingly lush and bountiful cherry tree, cleaned house, fixed Stardust's Vox wah pedal, went to Saturday Market for a brief minute, gave away tomato starts, dumped the recording of The Ovulators June 10th show down on to CD from a 4-track, and still had time to process with my excellent remaining housemates. I had to blow off a party, but it was worth it.

6/17/04

A friend from Portland weighs in with further critiques of Green Anarchy:

"The thing that surprised me the most about the Free Solidarity event was the presence of Green Anarchy in the tabling lineup. The reason I was surprised, and also more than a little pissed, is because of the recent dissing of Jeff Luers on Cascadia Alive by Rotten. Rotten was at the time responding to a reading of Jeff's critique of what is needing to change in the
anarchist community, using Eugene as just one example, since that is what he is most familiar with. The response by Rotten, a relative newcomer to Eugene, coming from the east coast, was to say that Free hadn't been in town very long, that his comments were not relevant and he went on to defend GA. Jeff was also dissed in a recent GA article. For these reasons, I thought it was not only inappropriate but hypocritical for GA to be at this event. I would have thought GA folks had a little more class than that, but they were probably just there
taking up space so they could slander, once again, the good work being done by Break The Chains folks, one of the few groups in Eugene that is getting shit done and walking their talk, instead of just spewing hypocritical rhetoric."

Ouch! Well said. And this was also added:

"...the energy got me all depressed and I decided to just go home after the show.... everyone was talking to ME, just not to each
other... and and and - it just showed the fucked up-ness of the situation so clearly and in my face I couldn't stand to be there another hour & we headed home rather than me having to focus on how really fucked up shit is between people I respect and care about.
But it was a good event."

Kill the myth of the "Eugene Anarchists" now! Down with ego!

6/16/04

Well. Spending a week at home, cleaning up the house. Green Anarchy just put out a long flyer giving their version of our recent falling out, which is filled with so many deliberate lies and inaccuracies that it would be a total waste of time for me to go point by point, just like "John Conner"'s huge and pathetic essay attacking me in issue #5 or so which I responded to in about two paragraphs. Pretty fun stuff, though. I look forward to seeing it reproduced in the form of murdered trees in their next issue, so as to further alienate the general public and the rest of this town. (there was a bunch of bitching here but Stardust called me on it).

Beautiful water molecules. Peak experiences. Life is here to enjoy.

This just in from the Rogue Brewery:

- 3 beers a day reduces the risk of coronary heart disease by 24.7%

- Moderate drinkers have a lower incidence of late-onset diabetes

- Studies have shown an association between alcohol consumption and the decreased risk of gall stones and kidney stones by 40%

There are a bunch more statistics, but I shall spare you, dear reader. Drink up!

The latest batch of beer I brewed was a borage beer. We'll see. Our pilsner is almost ready to drink, after an outrageously long primary fermentation period.

Our house band, the Happy Bastards, are finishing up the final mix of their split LP with Human Certainty. I predict many people in this town will be blown away. It sounds great. Why would you go anywhere other than Gung Ho Studios?

6/13/04

"I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes." (W. Whitman)

6/12/04

Back from the second night of Hedwig And The Angry Inch, at the Actor's Cabaret Theater Annex (I'd link them but their web site is way out of date, hint hint, it's the 21st century, hello?). Apparently this was better than the first night in terms of things going wrong, but Dori/Yitzhak's vocals were only going through the stage monitors for like the first four songs. Bummer. Being a total geek, I was struck by all the differences and similarities to the movie. I never realized Hedwig smashes tomatos all over herself during "Exquisite Corpse", as a veiled reference to his/her first gig in East Berlin. I detected significant differences in the stage versions of both "Sugar Daddy" and "Exquisite Corpse", although Tina and I debated the latter. Adam spit water on the crowd and hammed it up like a pro. The Ovulators ruled, I could detect no flaws in their performance. And they're gonna let Chaia come with her four kids! Alright! (FYI the ACT was hesitant due to the adult content/rock band volume, reminds me of my mom assuring the tellers at R-rated movies "It's OK, they're Shannon (local commune) kids". The ACT relented when Chaia pointed out that her kids had seen the movie a dozen times and that The Ovulators have played in her living room).

Riding home, I steered clear of all the unmarked cop cars on the street. You see, the FBI issued a nationwide "terrorist activity alert" for Eugene, Olympia, and some Cali locations in response to this being a day of solidarity for the unjustly imprisoned Jeff "Free" Luers. This alarmist bullshit was playing on fucking CNN by this afternoon, with references to the WOW Hall benefit/show with Blackfire and Ramona Africa tonight. Fuck these government liars. Nobody believes you. You are the real terrorists, and way too many people know it for you to get off easy this time.

You can disagree with what Free did (burn up three SUV's), you can say that a jail sentence is deserved, you can argue that it was counterproductive or ineffective, but TWENTY TWO FUCKING YEARS is a travesty of justice when our local serial rapist cops will get less than that. And, as an astute local letter writer noted, this travesty "serves only to alert the average joe that the disdain these anarchists have for our government may be somewhat warranted".

6/12/04

The utterly disgusting Reagan coverage continues unabated... oh, wait, I already said that.

The Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 proved to me and a packed house at Berbati's that they are one of the best bands in the world last night. For what they do - complicated, surreal, furious, dreamy multifaceted compositional interplay - they are simply THE best. Their first show in three years was a career overview, with "Sister Hell" from 1990's Tangle LP all the way up to "Sno Cone" from 2002's Bob Dinners. They also played "Nothing Solid" and "Four O'Clocker 2" from Lovelyville, "Undertaker", "Million Dollars", and "Hurricane" from the 10", "Hornet's Heart" and "Hive" from Mother Of All Saints (plus maybe another one or two), "Lamb's Lullaby" and "Brains" from I Hope It Lands, and a good half of Strangers From The Universe, generally their most loved record. The crowd was in an ecstasy of near-religious fervor. Mark Davies hit some vocal notes that he held for at least 10 full seconds more than once. They did not miss one single note in their insanely complex mesh of genius until the rabid crowd forced them into (I assume from the nervous band discussion offstage) some less practiced songs for the encore, and even then the wobbles were corrected in seconds. Pure heaven, show of the year for me so far. I ate a total of four Voodoo Doughnuts in the course of the evening - nothing intense like the Strawberry Quik, Oreo, or Bacon Maple (for reals!) ones, just plain, although I did try their excellent caffeinated doughnut.

I also saw my old Indiana/Northwest friend Sara Lund, who no longer drums for Unwound (who have amicably broken up), but has some new Portland projects including a band called (I think) Apeshape.

6/11/04

Clarification of the "quote" that got me all hot and bothered below is brought to you courtesy of Scott Von Rocket:

Hi Sleeve,
  I was totally misquoted there.  I never said all the good local bands have broken up.  I'm starting to think it's a bad idea to ever talk to anyone in the press about anything.  If you'll notice in that article he even claimed that I said my own band has broken up, which we clearly have not.  I was merely talking about a time not too long ago when a lot of local bands had either broken up or moved away.  I never said one thing about whether those bands were good or not.  He also neglected to mention that pointed out bands like the Sawyer Family that have been at it for years and are still sticking to their guns.  Hope that clears things up for you a bit.
Thanks,
Scott Von Rocket

Thanks for the non-flame clarification! I must go see the Thinking Fellers now.

6/10/04

I'll never match Mr. Random for number of entries in a day, but here's another good political link: an analysis of the Bush "torture memo" by a law professor.

6/10/04

So many rants, so little time... The utterly disgusting Reagan coverage continues unabated, at least there was a "good riddance" letter in the RG today. NPR should have its license revoked. The Rock & Roll Soldiers obviously have never read Steve Albini's essay "The Problem With Major Labels", and so they deserve the hell that they will live in. And all those other derivative local rock bands that wanna follow in their footsteps? Have fun owing some rich fuck a bunch of money... after the dust settles, you STILL won't be as rich or famous as Fugazi, in fact you'll be broken (and broke) has-beens. Doesn't the fact that The Melvins ditched Atlantic as soon as they could to start their own label ring ANY bells in those oh-so-pretty rock and roll heads? I could turn this into a whole rant about Scott Von Rocket's ridiculous comment in the Weekly about how "all the good local bands have broken up", but I won't.

The Ovulators and The Slow Poisoners tonight at Sam Bond's. Thinking Fellers Union in PDX tomorrow. Hedwig stage show on Saturday, Kelani styled David and I out with comp tickets. Just another rock and roll weekend...

For those who missed our neighborhood excitement yesterday, the apartment above Tiny's (which is owned by the same jerk who caused the Tiny's boycott) was busted for allegedly harboring a meth lab. Word on the street is that it was "huge", there sure were a lot of cops and guys in hazmat suits there yesterday. Rumours about a dead body in the parking lot have been floating around, but a Red Barn employee told me today that the cops said that wasn't true. Absolutely NOTHING about this in the paper, so I guess this is my first blog scoop.

I leave you with this excerpt from the excellent blog of Mike Whybark:

"The current administration’s international and domestic policy is nothing less than an attempt to export the totality of Reagan’s disastrous, immoral, and dangerous Central and South American policy to the globe and to import the best parts - e.g., those that involve the violation of constitutional and human rights - home to the U. S.

Chilean coup plotters and defenestrators, John “Death Squad” Negroponte, the “controlled” deployment of inhuman, antidemocratic methods for the exertion of power: our current troubled administration is naught but the logical extension of Reagan’s foolish brutality. It’s not the final logical extension, though. That will come when the election is suspended and democratic practice is shaped with the exact variety of careful pruning that that evil motherfucker Pinochet inflicted on his people, in an operation that undoubtedly took place with the connivance and cognizance of the Nixon administration at least.

I leave my conclusion as an exercise to the reader."

6/07/04

Well. Stardust and I went to see Mission Of Burma last night. Stupendous concert. 10-song 1st set, 11-song 2nd set, 4 song encore. Clint Conley blew my mind with his massive stage presence and power chord bass. On record, his contributions are a bit hidden behind Roger Miller's demolition harmonics on the guitar and Peter Prescott's overwhelming drums. But on stage, he ruled the band. Raenie was there with her son Cassidy and some of his schoolmates, she took him as a graduation present (from middle school). They were ecstatically front and center. She alleged that Conley is, in fact, the key player. I could hardly argue, plus he wrote most of their "classics". The band was obviously having a great time. They had a big sign on stage reading "No New McCarthy Era" and mentioned that this was the first time they had ever played Portland. They played most of the new album, at least one new as-yet-unrecorded song, AND...

(cue anguished wails from the folks who weren't there)

"Peking Spring"
"Fame And Fortune"
"This Is Not A Photograph"
"Academy Fight Song"
"Mica"
"Trem Two"
"Ballad Of Johnny Burma"
"That's When I Reach For My Revolver"
"Learn How"
"That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate"
"Max Ernst"

Now THAT is a damn concert. They must have played for 90 minutes or more.

6/04/04

Fuck Ronald Reagan. I joyfully piss on his grave, that scumbag plaything of what Dorothy Allison calls "the real people, the ones who make the rules." Hearing that he died absolutely made my fucking day. Burn in hell, you soulless shell. Do I even need to go into the history lesson for you youngsters out there on the Web? The sabotaging of Carter's hostage-rescue Marine helicopters which threw the 1980 election. The Iran-Contra hostage release for weapons deal. The utter destruction of the social services that had been built up in this country since FDR and the New Deal. The end of CETA (look it up!). Wars all over half the fucking world. The beginning of the end of America, says the pessimist in me. The punks sure were screaming bloody murder. Me in 1988 at age 22, home with a case of heartbreak, crying to my mom and saying that I don't know if we have another 20 years as a species to survive. Is it Reagan's fault? Hell no. But he was the face, the pawn, the shell, the facade. He sold his soul to the devil. And I will not forgive him. If there is a hell, it waits for him, not me.

6/03/04

I am languid beneath strong hands. My breath comes slowly, surely. I am clear, centered.

I have always been bi, but I date men infrequently, and it's different. On the Kinsey scale, I'm probably a 2.5 or 3 (1 to 6, 1 being completely hetero to the bone). I guess I'm just picky that way, a lesson I could learn in my hetero relations as well it seems. Lately I have been involved in my first male dating experience in 9 years. It seems to be doing my head some good.

A very cool member of my extended community just bought the (huge) house 4 houses down from us, on the street where all our friends park. Theda owns a small store here in town (Antrican) that my ex Olive worked at for years. Now she owns a mansion next door. I don't envy her task (it's a "fixer-upper" built in 1929), but it's awesome to have a cool neighbor. Plus, if we keep the blackberries on Fir Street clear, we can park there for all eternity. One of my many new visions, the River Road Radical Homeowners Association, is one step closer to reality.

6/01/04

Queen Autumn continues to amaze me with her content... a true blog inspiration.

The home destruction and rebirth continues... Yesterday a roommate came home with a dump truck full of concrete slab pieces. We can use it for walkways, garden beds, etc. Only trouble is, there's about three times as much as we need. And the dump truck broke our front gate, so now we need to rebuild that. Sigh...

5/24/04

OK, I finally found a worthwhile political link... for your bookmarking pleasure, a gateway site for Iraqi blogs. Well worth exploring... and as a bonus here's another great Salon excerpt from their Table Talk section:

   "I'm not posting from a position of moral relativism. One of the things that I find so awful and ironic and morbidly funny all at the same time is that the very folks who were telling us that morality is absolute are now telling us that it's okay to be evil because our evil is considerably less than their evil. I don't find both sides to be good in this conflict; I find both sides to be evil.
   There are at least two Americas. There's my America and your America -- I'm making an assumption here, I admit it -- which is the America of the Deist founders, the America of Lincoln's second inaugural, the America of Thoreau and Whitman, of FDR and MLK Jr., of the part of the Pledge that I'm proud to say: one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Some posters on TT have derisively asked me what I'm for, and I find it easy to say: truth, justice, and the American way.
   Then there's the other America (oh, I know I'm oversimplifying). It's the America of the United Fruit Company, the America of slavery and Indian genocide, the America of Custer and Curtis LeMay, the America of the Bush family and Father Coughlin and Rush Limbaugh, of Cheney and Halliburton.
   Which America was attacked on 9/11? Which America was the target of bin Laden? Which America invaded Iraq, put hoods over men's heads, tortured and raped and murdered in the freshly painted torture rooms that once belonged to Saddam?
   The problem, of course, is that we cannot separate ourselves so easily, one America from the other, in reality as we can in rhetoric. Indeed, in many Americans both Americas exist at once: Jefferson owned slaves and used them sexually; Lincoln was willing to suspend habeas corpus; FDR may have manipulated events in regard to Pearl Harbor. And in the mind of the world's citizens, the confusion must be tremendous.
   We are now engaged in a great civil war, though not one shot has been fired by either side, to see whether this nation, or any nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men -- not just Americans -- are created equal and are endowed with dignity and are worthy of justice, can survive its darker self.
   I believe that this is the last time in my generation in which a choice can be made for the soul of America. As apocalyptic as it sounds, I believe that events in the next few years will set this country on a course: either to fulfill what I believe to be its destiny, to stand for and fight for truth, justice, and the American way, or to become the New Rome, the empire that will justify its wars, torture, oppression, and murder in the name of safety, security, and standard of living. Daily I consider the possibility that it may already be too late, for us and the world. If I believed in a Divine who could hear us and answer our prayers, I would be on my knees imploring it every day that the choice was still before us, not behind us."

5/24/04

Oh man, the Sun City Girls...

There is probably a whole essay in this, but let me be succinct. I found the show to be pretty disappointing. If I hadn't seen the particular show I saw three years ago (immortalized on the CDs Severed Finger With A Wedding Ring and Flute And Mask), I probably would not feel quite this way, but I still would have been disappointed in the crowd. Modern crowds are so jaded, so hipster, that they already know what to expect in the way of unpredictability, and it becomes harder and harder to make people leave a show wondering "what the hell just happened?". Cat Power did that to me when I saw one of her infamous "breakdown" shows at the old John Henry's. The Sun City Girls did that to me last time, where it appeared that they were genuinely possessed. This time, the crowd just laughed and egged them on with thrown cups when Charlie and Alan got into a bullwhip fight. I found myself wishing they would wade into the crowd, leave a few marks, and spill some serious drinks. No such luck. The improv seemed deliberately calculated to annoy and punish, which is OK by me, but it almost began to seem, well, formulaic. I never thought I'd say that about them. They also did two doowop-ish "Midnight Cowboys" kinda numbers, "Bitter Cold Countryside" (a real treat), "Opium Den" (ditto), the mind-blowing "Dreamland" (which they also did last time I saw them, but whatever) and not much else except a few instrumentals, improv, and (fake) bandfights. My friend Amy observed that free improv is pretty much a guy thing, and that when she looked around during those parts interest was pretty much divided along gender lines. I must also say that the 1st opener, Eric Gaffney of Sebadoh's new band, was bad indie rock. The second opener, Cerberus Shoal, were excellent. Demented circus swirliness. They've been getting a lot of attention lately and are touring with the Sun City guys.

Later on I freaked out when I saw that the fucking THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 are playing at Berbati's on June 11th, one of only TWO tour dates (PDX and SF), their first shows in three years. I am so there. I told DJ mR. bOY and he freaked out also.

5/18/04

I need to write about the Poetry Slam. Oratrix was incredible, I wish I could find print versions of their poems for you. All the contestants in the slam were good, but Jahan really went over the top in the third round and got the first standing ovation I have seen in our Slam's 2-year history. Eleven Eyes played for like 2 hours, I spun some records, and we wrapped it up around 5 A.M. I'd like to salute the Foolscap temporary autonomous zone for knowing when to cut and run, send a big "fuck you" and "ha ha" to the OLCC (our state's fascist liquor control people), and thank everyone who helped make those events so amazing. A woman from Oratrix said it was the best slam she had ever been to.

By the way, I'm looking for a ride BACK from Portland to Eugene on this Saturday, the 22nd. Anyone out there in Internetland?

5/17/04

READER COMMENTS:

You may have already seen this, I would imagine you have
http://www.greenanarchist.org.uk/Prim.htm

NOTE: this is a link to a very long, scathing, informed critique of primitivism and, by extension, the current U.S. Green Anarchy magazine. Here's a very relevant quote:

"In no way should Primitivists be suppressed or censored; this enables them to continue to regard themselves as a cruelly oppressed minority. Rather, they should be invited to give a full and clear account of their own ideas. These can then be discussed, analysed, and understood for what they are, in the full light of day. After much research into Primitivism, I believe that the time is right to publish my account; giving the reasons why the mirage fails, and why Primitivism ought to be consigned to the wilderness."

5/14/04

I just spent a delightful evening with The Ovulators. First I came to their "Hedwig" practice. For those who aren't in touch with their blogs, The Ovs have been cast as the part of the band The Angry Inch for the Actor's Cabaret Theater production of Hedwig, running June 11 to July 11 or so. I watched them run through early versions of "Midnight Radio", "Origin Of Love", "Sugar Daddy", "Angry Inch", "Tear Me Down", and "Wicked Little Town" with the guy playing Hedwig, Adam Goldthwaite, on vocals. Dori is playing Yitzhak. I can't wait! Adam is great! Kasey (their new, perfect drummer) is so rocking on the drums! We geeked out about techno artists, she's going to see Ellen Allien in Portland. After the practice Kelani, Dori and I went to Anatolia's and had a long dinner talking about life, love, heartbreak, death, family, healing, and all that good big stuff. The Ovulators play tomorrow in Corvallis at the Fox & Firkin (I'm thinking of you, Ann) with Setting Sun, our friends from LA who are on tour.

Last night The Shudders were supposed to play at the Black Forest, but Sam's father is very ill and she had to leave town. Please hold her in your thoughts.

However, High On Peeps still played, drenched in blacklight makeup and glowsticks. I thought it was the best show yet, although I've missed a few. Ella Peepsgerald was really on. My high point was when she screamed at Little Bo Peep "WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?" when he referred to her by the name of that chick who's body she takes over, I forget what it is. "Talk to the being, not the body." He had been eating a bunch of Peeps and was probably pretty high. Professionalism is overrated anyway. Mr. Random and I debated going to catch the end of Jason Webley, but it was kinda late and we ended up just checking the other band out, they were called Moscow Inn (from here) and although I liked their sound (front woman on keyboard, 4-guy tight band, vague indie Oly-sound references) the songs started to blur... I just like to be surprised a couple times in a set, I guess.

Released that night and now available is a new music magazine from Eugene called Synergy. Interviews with The Ovulators, The Shudders, Courtesy Clerks, (the concubot), and more I'm forgetting. It's free, look for it around town.

A reader notes that Devendra Banhart is playing in Portland in early June at Berbati's Pan. Since my income and logistics are already taken up by the Sun City Girls and Mission Of Burma shows in PDX, my attendance is doubtful but I'm sure it will fry your mind.

5/12/04

All I wanna listen to is Devendra Banhart's new record. Not to descend into hyperbole, but he is the new Nick Drake. To my joy and surprise, it was in the KWVA rotation for my Monday show. I had actually burned a copy to play, so I ended up giving that one away to Ann Marie, who turned me on the the new Loretta Lynn album. I could tell it was really good even when it was relegated to the background ambience of Sam Bond's. Lots of shows coming up - High On Peeps and The Shudders tomorrow at the Black Forest, Jason Webley at Sam Bond's also tomorrow, Poetry Slam finals this Saturday at Foolscap with Oratrix and Eleven Eyes as guests, where I will also be spinning records for the "Foolscap is closing for good" afterparty. Be there or be square, it oughta be a blowout of monstrous proportions.

And by the way, my site now comes in at #6 for a Google search on "Made Explicit". #1 is a William Blake discussion site. How cool is THAT? Thanks for the links, everybody.

5/11/04

Today the Register-Guard (our local paper) printed an editorial saying that Bush needed to fire Rumsfeld, dismantle Guantanamo Bay, appoint an independent investigation committee, and raze Abu Ghraib to the ground (!!!) as an absolute MINIMUM response to the currently exploding bombshell revelations (and we haven't even SEEN the worst photos yet). What is insane is that although this paper represents middle America all the way, the idea that Bush and Co. will do those things is inconceivable. They will either have to declare martial law, sponsor another terrorist attack, commit fraud to win another election, or some combination of all three. Otherwise, they are toast. Let me be the first to ask: could these fanatics plunge the US into an actual civil war?

It had to happen sometime... I created my own Links Page. There were too many blog links not on Mr. Random's site, as well as a bunch of music-related links I want to publicize (Brainwashed, The Vinyl Anachronist, and Beta-Lactam Ring especially). No politics links yet, I have generally been disappointed with the Internet in that regard. Any suggestions?

By the way, Queen Autumn's Blog, as well as providing lots of Coachella Festival gossip, also features some entries about the history of her family that are well worth reading in the context of the lengthening shadow of Abu Ghraib. Not for the squeamish.

5/9/04

Mlle. Brico is the first in my blogosphere to try and get her head around Abu Ghraib, read about it HERE. Good comments, too.

A comment (actually a whole page) devoted to my current favorite album:

"So what are you still doing here? Why didn't you jump up and run out the door to your favorite record store and buy (or special order) Have Moicy!, then run to all your friends' houses and make them listen to it so they'll run out and buy it? Haven't you been listening to anything we've been saying?!? Don't you trust us? What, do you need to be led by the hand or something? Want us to hum a few bars so you can fake it?"

5/8/04

Not to get down too hard on the Pixies (who have yet to write a single song that I can remember even after hearing those records all the goddamn time back in the day) or DJ Spooky (who's post-everything kitchen-sink approach ultimately signifies nothing unless he's playing with ringers like Matthew Shipp), but WAR was where the concert of the month was. Carrying none of the aforementioned acts' deadening sense of irony and/or postmodernism, they put on what some folks there said was the best show they've ever seen at the WOW Hall.

Our evening began after yet another ridiculous work week (6 days) at the pre-party thrown by Little Bo Peep. Man, that guy has at least twice as many records as me! I always tell people who gaze slack-jawed at my room that they just don't know any real record collectors. Plus, he has NO CDs AT ALL. How cool is that? We drank cocktails, he spun War tunes on the Technics, then we caravaned down to the show. Abakadubi put on a super opening set, you could tell they were in that "opening for big band" mode. Their legal troubles (basically a ridiculously inappropriate militarized pot bust) have been working out, and they seemed relieved and more at ease.

War kicked the butts of the packed WOW Hall audience up, down, and sideways. "Slippin' Into Darkness", "World Is A Ghetto", "All Day Music", "Me & Baby Brother", you know... Even folks like me and Chaia and the High On Peeps crew who were already excited just couldn't believe it. Rose (my ex-Sweet Life coworker and former Abakadubi member) got up on stage during "Low Rider" and kicked some diva ass on vocals. Did I mention "Cisco Kid" and "Galaxie"? I didn't think so.

"Why Can't We Be Friends" was one of my older stepsister's favorite albums in the 70's, so this music has kind of always existed for me. When I started DJing, I picked up a battered dollar-record copy of Greatest Hits and found myself slipping it in to sets frequently. In fact, the only song not played off of that record was "Southern Part Of Texas".

I realize that this effusive review may strike some people as inconsistent with my usual musical tastes, but it's all about soul in the end, and this band has kept it going for 35 years. There's also still nobody else out there who really sounds like them, what with their infusion of east LA Hispanic culture and music into black funk idioms.

The only concerts I have been to that cost more than this were: Arvo Part, Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, and Einsturzende Neubauten. That says something, but I don't know what.

Ella Peepsgerald, Little Bo Peep and I went to Soriah afterward, and I was reminded that civilization DOES actually exist in Eugene when we were able to order calimari at 1:30 AM. What a great restaurant.

(author of blog disappears under a tidal wave of enraged ironic post-modern Pixies fans)

READER COMMENTS:

yeah, I saw it coming and I knew it was going to be a kick ass show.  Regret missing WAR as much as missing Tom Waits at the Hult a few years ago.

5/2/04

Here's an update on the Chernobyl link, this pops up when you try the angelfire site:

"Ghost Town" story is here.
It is powered by company now. I was not able to pay for traffic.
I had 3 million people visited my site in two month. My only purpose was to show Chernobyl to people.
I wrote this story for no reward and I did it with love for my country.

Elena

Supposedly, there are new photos on the site from spring 2004, but I have yet to see them.

5/2/04

Open up, eternal lips
And swallow me
Free fallin' through the abyss
That's where I wanna be

I don't need no parachute
Don't you see the stars are winking
This time I will uproot
And down in the sky go sinking

---Michael Hurley, from his 1971 LP "Armchair Boogie"

the Sour Mash Hug Band now consist of:

Guy on fiddle and vocals
Gal on saw
Guy on washtub bass
Gal on accordion and trombone
Guy on washboard and dobro (I think)

Apple broke his banjo coming over to our house, but it was still a great show. They have gotten very very good. Check 'em out on a street corner or parking lot near you.

5/1/04

Happy pagan day, everybody. The Internationale will join the human race!

Tonight at Le Sous-Sol:

The Sour Mash Hug Band and Gotoxy present a night of old time music, electronics, and hip-hip DJs. Food served at 8:30 P.M., this is a benefit for Sherman Austin. I can only describe this show as semi-public, it blurs some of our lines. It was booked by Karly from The Spoke and another person, which is unusual for us.

4/29/04

Since we're on the topic of radio and cussing and such, I thought I'd throw in this great excerpt from the Freaky Trigger blog. I was thinking of this subject the other day as I played the "clean" version of Danger Mouse's collison of "Helter Skelter" and a foul-mouthed Jay-Z, who definitely used method #4.

"...it does make me think of how the technology of swear-removal has had to change (and fast!) over recent years as the amount of bad language has spiralled upwards. There seem to be four main ways for getting round the problem:

1/ Bleeping - almost never used any more, I think it would have a kind of retro charm to it now to be honest. Its heir is the dead-air solution: just remove the word from the vocal track. This never sounds good, it totally disrupts the rhythm of the song and in some cases you can't even tell there's meant to be a word there. Eminem radio edits are often rotten for this reason.

2/ Putting in different words - effective if a bit lame. The problem is you need to get the act in to re-record - OR DO YOU? Case in point, Pink's classically rubbish radio edit of "Get The Party Started", which replaces the word "ass" with a shitly-spliced "Benz" from two lines back in the song to baffling effect.

3/ Putting in funny noises - as used on "Work It" by Missy; in fact I think only Missy does it. This is GREAT - only problem is it's a lot of work. The elephant noise on "Work It" is so much better and funnier than a word would be (actually IS there even a 'dirty' edit of this song? My point stands though - USE NOISES!)

4/ Almost swearing - Eamon's tune may look like it's using dead-air but this isn't the case - what he's actually doing is saying "f'ck" and "shh't", in a sort of PRML SCRM style but very quietly. This kind of radio edit is pretty contemptuous of the whole notion of radio edits and is becoming more common. The next step is surely just whispering the swears and then the barbarians really will be at the gates."

4/27/04

Also on the Mission Of Burma website is this tidbit, I encourage KWVA DJs to check out the full story on the link:

"[...] there's been some drama at the home of Burma's May 7 hosts, KCOU [University Of Missouri]. We were recently contacted by a aggrieved disc jockey at this fine institution, who claimed that the station's programming had been usurped from the students and KCOU was now spinning classical music instead of the alt.rock we know and love. Said move on the part of management was supposedly provoked by the playing of 10 Frogs songs in a row. There's not much we can say about this other than music doesn't get much more classic than Mission Of Burma. Our thoughts are with the programmers at KCOU, their listeners, and of course, with the Frogs."

4/25/04

Music lovers: I am pleased to report that the Mission Of Burma album sounds great, what I've heard so far (there's a cover of The Dils' "Class War" on the vinyl!! Be still, my heart!). It comes out May 4th. Some MP3 and video is available HERE. They play at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland on June 6th.

And yes, the Slam finalists were Cassie, Jahan, and Shea.

4/25/04

My memory of the Eugene Poetry Slam is hazy. Must have something to do with the bottle of Jim Beam that Kitt was liberally dispensing. I know Cassie made it to the finals, but I forget the other two. Shea? Jahan? The website will tell you soon... Good stuff and great feature poets again - Brett Axel and Chavisa Woods. During the afterparty Brett recited this amazing poem called "How to win a poetry slam" by Dean Blehert. I couldn't find the poem for you, dear reader, but I did dig up an essay of Dean's about the topic. I went off to Chavisa about the sordid history of the Tiny Tavern for about ten minutes, which was tough given our level of inebriation.

4/24/04

Oh my GOD. There's a NEW Mission Of Burma record! (FYI the band has not been active since 1982 or so) Produced by Shellac's Rob Weston! On Matador! Double LP!!! I must investigate further.

4/24/04

THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES!
THE EPOXIES! THE gasp, catch breath...

WAIT! I'm not DONE yet.*

THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES! THE EPOXIES!

OK.

* - I stole that bit from Morris Stegosaurus, who finally writes about Eugene in his 4/21 entry.

I'd also like to give shoutouts to the great opening band, The Fast Computers, who nobody could believe were from here. Very colorful keyboard/drum duo sounds. The Ovulators did more of a "porch slop" type gig, which was nice but a bit chaotic, a good contrast to the WOW Hall. They turned in especially stunning versions of "Cream Cheese" and "Drag Queen". I'd also like to compliment the staff of John Henry's for a very professional "asshole extraction" job in the midst of a dancing crowd. Me and Phil were lucky enough to be able to get some innocent bystander people out of the way as the miscreants were marched out the door, ineffectually swinging fists in all directions. Rock and roll!

Eugene Poetry Slam semi-finals tonight, what a weekend. It's fucking gorgeous outside too.

4/23/04

Neal Stephenson in a new Salon interview:

"[Antonio] Damasio is arguing that one of the innate faculties of our brain is that we can envision a wide range of possible scenarios and then sort through them very quickly not by logic but through a kind of process of the emotions. Emotions associated with a particular scenario cause us to prune off whole sets of options. He claims that chess masters work that way. Part of the time it's this very logical, rational thing, but part of the time it's "This gives me the willies. I'm not going there." Damasio quotes in this book scientists like Einstein who quite explicitly say that their process of shifting through ideas and deciding where to go with their research has a very strong emotional component to it. I don't buy the idea of a split between a rational and an emotional mind. I suspect that idea is a lot more common among nonscientists. I think there's a whole complex of factors behind scientists being pegged as emotionally remote or out of touch with their feelings."

My emotions tell me to go and see the 80's new wave revival in full force at John Henry's as opposed to the 80's punk explosion at the WOW Hall, which I hope goes well.

4/22/04

Another long one...

Right now, I have 8 minutes. My days have been tight. Major topics I will flesh out when I return later this evening:

The war in Iraq begins to cause casualties on the comics page...

OK, yeah. For those of you who aren't in touch with that crucial barometer of American society known as the comics page, the war is hitting hard. First of all, Doonesbury's B.D. lost his leg in Iraq last week. This was foreshadowed in an earlier episode involving Boopsie receiving a letter (which turned out to be something else), and if I am not mistaken the panel where you see that B.D. has lost his leg is also the first time we have seen him without his football helmet in the strip's long history. Heavy. I kinda wish Trudeau had killed him off, just to make the point, like the dozens of people who are dying there daily.

And then, in weird comics synchronicity, Rob from Get Fuzzy is visiting his cousin, who also lost a leg. I am personally skeptical of this strip's politics sometimes, but it sure is funny.

Foolscap Books is closing...

I will just post Marietta's farewell:

FAREWELL!
After five years, I regret to say that Foolscap Books will be closing its doors at the end of May and selling exclusively on-line. The overhead of a storefront has proved too much for me and I’m looking forward to a more flexible schedule.

THANK YOU!
I’ve had a great time working in the community, hosting all kinds of events, and networking with our wonderful neighbors. I thank you deeply for your patronage over the years.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON!
I will still be producing shows – like the Eugene Poetry Slam, the Annual Tom Waits Tribute Night, the Songwriter Slam, and many more. I am currently exploring new venues to continue to keep our events all ages.

YOUR CREDIT IS STILL GOOD!
If you have trade credit, please know that we will still honor it for on-line orders. We will maintain our website – www.foolscapbooks.com – and you can browse the inventory and contact us through the site. And we will still be buying books! Please contact us via email (marietta@foolscapbooks.com), if you have books to sell.

LIQUIDATION SALE!
We will be liquidating half of our stock – over 10,000 books – over the next month and selling some of our fixtures. Please see the schedule below:
25% OFF
: Monday, April 26 - Saturday, May 1
50% OFF
: Monday, May 3 - Saturday, May 8
75% OFF
: Monday, May 10 - Saturday, May 15

HOURS!
We will have our regular hours (Mon-Sat: 10:30-6pm) through May 15th – but please come by after that, too, as there will still be books & fixtures available.

THE SLAM FINALS + FAREWELL PARTY!
I would also like to invite you to our Farewell Party on May 15th, directly following the Finals of the Eugene Poetry Slam. The Slam is from 8pm-11pm ($3-$5 sliding scale) and the Farewell Party (free!) will follow directly. Fancy dress requested! We’ll have live music, refreshments, and a joyous goodbye to the bookstore!

THE END!
Foolscap has been a great experience, but it’s time for me to move on. I would ask you to please continue to support local businesses – especially bookstores! – as we are all struggling in this difficult economy and corporate culture. Your patronage is essential for the existence of small business and an investment in our community!
UPCOMING EVENTS!
 
Friday, 4/23: ART EXHIBIT - the paintings & drawings of SARA MARIE TURNER.  Wine, music, art & a tribute to Sara.  9pm, FREE.
 
Saturday, 4/24: EUGENE POETRY SLAM PLAY-OFFS - nine of our top poets compete to advance to the FINALS on May 15th.  Featuring east-coast performance poets, BRETT AXEL & CHAVISSA WOODS.  Includes an OPEN MIC - sign up by 8pm.  Event starts at 8.  $3-$5 sliding scale.  All ages welcome.  Check our website - the POETRY SLAM page - for complete details & rules.
 
Foolscap Books               Local: (541) 681-9212
780 Blair Blvd.                  Toll Free: 1-877-600-9212
Eugene, OR 97402           www.foolscapbooks.com
marietta@foolscapbooks.com

The Ovulators and The Epoxies at John Henry's tomorrow night...

Also DOA, The Detonators, The Shudders, and The Anxieties at the WOW Hall.

Grand juries reconvene in Eugene to harass your friends and neighbors...

Yes, a federal grand jury has RECONVENED to once again investigate the 2001 Romania fire. As of yesterday, three new people had been subpoenaed. For more info on grand juries, why they suck, and how to help these people, call Peaceworks at 343-8548.

Local blogs rock...

tHE bOY and Mrs. Random have both been writing very cool stuff.

The Gizmos page...

I am now the semi-official discographer for a page devoted to the late, great Bloomington IN band The Gizmos. Stay tuned for more.

More in a couple of hours...

4/21/04

Here's my first comment from someone I don't directly know!

"Are you kidding? Do they really charge $9 a pitcher for Pabst? Cause that is ridiculous...P.S. Horsehead actually charges $5.50 a pitcher for Pabst, same as John Henry's..."

I will say that I have not personally confirmed that price, but several of my barfly friends who drink lots of PBR say that that is the sad truth. We discussed it while out for Christie's birthday over $5.50 pitchers at The Horsehead a week or two ago.

4/20/04 7:35 PM

I got more muddy today than ever in my life, soldering water pipes in a big muddy hole. Cool.

Mr Random unleashes a spectacularly great anti-cellphone rant right HERE.

4/20/02 2:32 AM.

OK, it's not a slow weekend anymore. First up for discussion is my downfall in money spending. After the WOW Hall tonight we went to Luckey's (we being Stardust, Phil, Bethany, Krista, Eric Drayer and myself) and Kelani hit me up for a beer after noticing that I had bought one myself. So yeah, I have spent money this month.

God damn, The Ovulators rocked. Casey, of course, knocked her snare drum off its stand twice because she hits 'em so hard. Pretty flawless set, but for us longtermers you could tell it was Casey's first gig. Truth be told, they've been practicing like demons. "Guinea Pig" made a welcome reappearance, and I just have to say this to the WOW Hall sound people:

When you do sound for The Ovulators, please DON'T take down their individual vocal levels in between songs. It was really obvious during their set that the sound person was going "oh, SHE sings on this. I better turn her levels up" at the start of every song. Like clockwork - song starts, you can't hear the vocals for the first two lines, then they come in strong. It was, shall we say, less than professional. It even happened on the backups. Once the levels were turned back up, they sounded great. It's those first two lines that kill it. I guess that's why I used to get paid to do their sound.

Kristin Hersh was also amazing with her new band 50 Foot Wave. People were freaking out on her bass player and drummer. Clearly she picks the best. I have been a fan of that woman's music for almost 20 years and was not disappointed. But where the hell was Reed?

Ooh, do you think the WOW Hall will call my friends indirectly now to ask them about my blog? Like some other bar that serves $9 pitchers of PBR while the Horsehead sells them for $5? Like that bar that fired the partner of a musician who criticized them online?

And by the way, don't EVER call me on my radio show and ask me to promo a Tiny's gig. I'll laugh in your face.

Too many lame bars. Not enough good music. Except tonight.

4/19/04

What a slow weekend! I didn't go out at all. Instead we prepped a huge bed in our garden, yeah!

Andy from Station Wag emailed me a good link to a Pere Ubu site, so I have added them to the Discography Page, although whoever gave "Datapanik In The Year Zero" a 6/10 should be smacked upside the head. Also added John Fahey, Spiritualized, and the brand spanking new Sun City Girls web page! Downloads and everything! Check it out!

4/16/04

Exhaustion. Much digging today. See, when you have all the water in a house turned off, and the meter is still running, that means the pipe has a leak. THAT means you have to dig out the pipe until you find it. They are 2-3 feet down. Dig, then repeat.

It's time to start thinking about the Oregon Country Fair again. I have been on the Recycling Crew for the past 8 years, this will be my 9th. It struck me today how the OCF is kinda like a fraternity/sorority in some ways... you end up making a lot of useful contacts. Because of my time on the Recycling Crew (and I'm, like, a middle-timer, we have numerous folks who've been doing it for 20 years), I know tons of skilled local people who I can tap for all kinds of things.

I love Eugene. When I was driving around town today I just saw TONS of people out and about. A good day.

BTW, I'd like to publicly thank all the people who come up to me around town and give props to my radio show (Mondays 4-6 PM). Waylon, Annie, the ones I'm forgetting right now because I'm totally wasted with exhaustion, y'all are the best. Thanks.

I can't wait to see The Ovulators debut their new drummer, Casey, on Monday (which will also be the first time I have seen amazing headliner musician Kristin Hersh live). Like Kelani said, they've only practiced once, and it was kinda iffy, we all got really stoned, but it's time for Phase Three. Somehow I have a feeling they'll pull it off ;)

4/14/04

Who am I kidding? The Mum record is great. More acoustic instruments, lots of those breathy little-kid vocals, trippy swirliness, insistent water themes (the record was recorded in an isolated lighthouse), just lovely. 12 tracks of genius.

Dan Jones is getting into Arthur Russell also (see his 3/27 journal entry). Must be a meme thing.

I'm super pissed off right now because I can't stop our porch from flooding with water unless we put up tarps over the front of it, ruining the feel of the whole space. I fixed the gutters and thought that would help but it didn't. Now we basically have a crisis every time it rains where a bedroom in the basement floods. I guess the tarps go back up while I look for clear plastic to replace them. SUCK.

On a later note... yeah, the money thing is getting hard. Hard in a good way, that is. My current perspective is that it seems like I go out to be social more than anything else... it's hard to do that and not spend ANY money. By deliberately making it hard I seem to have made it more of an interesting challenge. One of the things that influenced this experiment was a superb essay by Burroughs equating the need for money with the need for heroin - very stressful withdrawal symptoms, etc. I definitely felt it today, all I wanted to do was go to Sam Bond's, eat dayold pizza, drink happy hour beer, and socialize. Instead I'm at home and it's dark and pouring and I won't leave the house until tomorrow morning on my way to work. Yeah, Oregon in April...

4/13/04

Thanks for the responses to the 4-12 link below, y'all. Told ya.

The new Mum record (Summer Make Good) came out this week. My first impression is that it's good, but not quite as full-sounding. Since they lost a member or two, this is not surprising. Whoever played the tinkly keyboard seems to be gone... Also I found a good new interview with Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson of Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV/Coil fame right HERE.

Today I fixed one channel of the amp. I'll probably take a break and work on some other stuff next.

4/12/04

First of all, my mom sent me the most bad-ass link. Just shut up and spend half an hour here, or at least look at it:

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed

Damn, that Mrs. Random cooks some mean pasta. We had a fried-style noodle dish in what I believe was a "Catalan" style, with chicken broth and aioli. Also an exquisite shredded carrot, herb, and lemon salad with a green called lovage that I must track down. Edible perennial? Count me in. My favorite part of the conversation was swapping Ozz stories - I guess the Randoms used to be his neighbor!

And then, of course, when I stopped by to see Tina at the Broadway, and she styled me out with some chicken verde, she had an Ozz story of her own that wasn't as funny. Not that that's a SURPRISE or anything... (note to non-Eugeneans: Ozz is a six-foot-plus skinhead, but a "good" one, who can be both sweet and terrifying, and who I've been friends with for about ten years).

Brewed more lavender beer today because the last batch rocked so hard. The Boy has now procured us two 5-gallon soda kegs, so Beth and I are going to bravely move forward into the world of kegged beer...

Currently obsessed/immersed with the music of Arthur Russell, although Bran Van 3000 is still putting up a heckuva fight in the mind's jukebox.

4/11/04

The mighty Eugene Poetry Slam semifinals roared through town last night with Morris Stegosaurus returning for a triumphant opening set to a packed house. Kicking off in a full bunny suit with a rager about how he was the badass bunny of wrath or some such (screamed: "BEATRIX POTTER... I hate her too!"), he had us howling. Good poets, good judging, and the crowd had the decency to really like the new Fall album, which of course I played during breaks. Kitt, Sam, and Olivia made it to the finals. The afterparty kept us up til past 3.

Also last night, we had a show at our house. The cops came by beforehand and had the unheard of decency to warn us that if they got a complaint they would tell us to shut it down. Compared to our last experience (last summer) with 15 gun-toting cops storming our house and almost shooting one of my roommates, this seemed quite reasonable. Sean was all, like, "thanks!". I think that's a policy we can work with, and have a little less fear about shows in general. For now, Sean is done booking, so Le Sous Sol will only feature my sporadic and eclectic shows... He'll be back.

Wow! Mr. and Mrs. Random invited me to dinner! And Cheryl had a dinner party last night! I see why people get caught up in this lowbagging/couchsurfing thing. Mind if I eat those chips?

4/10/04

Gotta catch up on some show reviews...

Saw Frantic play at The Museum, I had never seen Ken and Lane go off like that at all. Very frenzied, physical, sweaty, free improv on guitar and washtub bass. Congratulations guys! I haven't seen anything like that in Eugene for a long time... Don Haugen (ex-Holy Rodent, Warning Broken Machine, etc.) did an uncharacteristically sedate electric guitar drone set with another guy under the name "Michael Jackson Quality, LaToya Jackson Prices" which is easily band name of the month. The art didn't make as much of an impression on me, but I'm a heathen that way.

Then last night Chaia took me out to see The Shudders, who played with two other bands that we missed. A little weird to see them at Sam Bond's (with at least four other Tiny's regulars in the audience) but they all looked stylish (Sam in particular) and ripped through a top-notch set that included several new tunes I didn't recognize and perhaps the best version of "I Need You" they've ever done. They singlehandedly converted a sparse-looking (even though it was 50-60) Friday night crowd into a dancing, cheering party. Even the casual onlookers seemed stunned by the onslaught. It was so tight, it reminded me of the new Fall record! Brian did a great job on the sound, IMHO, and it was nice to hear Jen's keyboard parts. Patrick and I launched into a hellish music-geek rant at one point that left all of our friends shaking their heads in bemusement/sympathy/pity as we babbled on about The Pop Group and 23 Skidoo and the DFA. Choice. Thanks for dinner and a show, Chaia!

4/9/04

I'd like to make it official: Bran Van 3000's "Drinking In L.A." and a couple of their other songs are currently saving my life. More accurately, they are assisting a lot in the process. When I look back on the last four years of my life, I see in hindsight that I seem to have been hellbent on ruining it in many (not all) ways. Fortunately, a phoenix-like transformation is in progress.

I listened to The Fall record again today, also... on tiny shitty speakers that connect to walkman-size devices hooked up to my discman in the truck. I could barely hear it but that was interesting also. The song "Contraflow" definitely sounds like a "wonderful And Frightening" track... the record continues to amaze. But the Bran Van shit is what gets me through my days...

Doesn't it seem like it should be illegal to buy Pepsi in 7-11s with food stamps?

I must go work in the garden now.

4/8/04

No, I didn't spend any money (besides the $2.50 mentioned before, which went to buy me and my house partner a beer each after THREE grueling hours in the accountant's office doing our taxes. See, we have to divide all the house stuff up first, then each do our own returns. I'm getting more of a handle on it each year (this is the third) but it's still intense. Shelley and I made dal and talked at the table. We have both had hard years (she co-owns the house but lives in Portland) and it was good to reconnect with our yearly ritual.

And yes, I'm still listening to The Fall. They got their name from a Camus book, y'know.

Big nights coming up - Poetry Slam semifinal round on Saturday, plus lots more events.

4/7/04

Music just might be the best thing in the world.

Cranking Bran Van 3000 (thank you Kelani for the tip) in total bliss after a long good hard day involving sheetrock and a mortar saw. And in keeping with her blog, I'd like to take a brief minute to run down some new records. But first...

I invite you, gentle reader, to participate in my new experiment. For a convergence of reasons, I plan on trying to exist without money for a month. Clearly this isn't strictly possible given my current situation, and I have already made two exceptions: Homebrew (we're on a fuckin' schedule, come on) and Phone Cards (cause mine is out). Karma assisted me today - I took Dancing On The Ruins money (the name of our trust that owns the house) to buy communal toilet paper and got undercharged by $2.50 at the store. Then in celebration (I'm also "allowed" to spend gifts or windfalls, and I actually found five bucks the other day) I bought two beers on sale with the change and through some inexplicable reason didn't get charged for THOSE either. Anyway, I have a cupboard of food, a stash of homebrew and medicinal items, and way too much stuff to do with my extra time. I might run out of shampoo and soap, but we'll see... I'll write a daily account. It'll be like Crimethinc for 30-somethings!!!

And now, the records...

THE FALL "Country On The Click A.K.A. The Real New Fall LP"

Holy fucking shit. Their best record in years and years... all really good. Awesome lyrics too. Parts remind me of Extricate and the early 90's Fontana records (Shiftwork, Code Selfish) but other parts are even more brutal, rawly polished, luscious and crazy and recall even earlier material for them. A little keyboard bit straight out of the 1979 lineup, a raveup that sounds like "Slates Slags Etc" part two, and even more that I haven't assimilated yet in 5 listens. Unfortunately, this is one of their least available releases right now (normal for them, it seems). I had to special order from the always reliable House Of Records and paid twenty-six dollars! Damn exchange rate. Worth any effort to find, even if it means trading me something good (hint, hint).

EDWARD KA-SPEL "Khataclimici China Doll" CD

Streamline reissue of an 80's LP (which I have, of course, being a Ka-Spel fanatic) but with a very important addition: an otherwise unreleased trademark electro-melody-space-flipout 24-minute track which sounds just fantastic (I only played the first 10 minutes on the radio so far, you see why I need time at home). The record's a good one, too, although pretty dark even for him. Gloomy, intense keyboard/synth/vocal spaciness. I wouldn't have tracked the reissue down on its own, but it was used and cheap at the House. Score!

BAUHAUS "Press The Eject And Give Me The Tape" LP

Cheapo ($2.99) beat-up (but great-sounding!) live 1982-era LP also found used at the House. Score! Although the cassette and CD have a bunch more tracks this was still a Bauhaus record I didn't have a good copy of, and a damn good album at that. Rockin' gothin' postpunk served ice cold.

MUM "Green Grass Of Tunnel"/"In Through The Lamp" 7"

Wow! Found at the wonderful Museum of Unfine Art, quality pressing on Fat Cat with exclusive B-side not found on their mind-boggling Finally We Are No One CD. Great stuff, dreamy children's electronic music for sunny afternoons.

OK, that's the rundown. And remember, music will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no music... (wink)

4/2/04

Overhead in the Sam Bond's women's bathroom last night... (that's a clue) :)

"Did you check out the Ejaculators? I don't like 'em as much as the originals."

"Yeah, they're pretty sloppy tonight. Maybe they oughta practice for another year. Those guys think they're so hot. Just cause they LOOK hot...."

"Yeah, they're hot. I did that one dude Tino once. He's such a slut though! I can't believe he talked about me on stage."

"And did you check out Jivana? She's not even trying to look like a boy! All-boy tribute band, my ass."

Of course, Faun Fables worked their unique magic on us as well that lovely Fool's Night out. Truly genius guitar interplay that had me going "I wonder what fucking weird key THAT was in?" all night. Blogging on lunch break, gotta go...

3/31/04

LET US NOW PRAISE THE BAND "HEAVENLY OCEANS"...

In this unbelievably packed week, I did in fact manage to get out last night to see the CD release party for Heavenly Oceans, a bad-ass guitar/drum instrumental duo from here in town. The last time I saw them was the time I recorded them at John Henry's, about six months ago it seems... They debuted new material and I bought a VERY stylish CD with super limited edition poster (Tony said 15 copies, Jake said 19, get yours soon!). However, guys, may I recommend CD labels instead of magic marker writing next time? Thanks.

These guys are really one of my very favorite bands in town (along with Onomotopoeia, The Ovulators, The Shudders, and Dan Jones in case you're wondering). Ferocious, melodic, rocking, just awesome. The turnout was almost nonexistant, but there's some good show like every single night this week. Heck, The Ovulators are playing three times! I plan on catching them at the Faun Fables gig at Sam Bond's on Thursday. Oh, excuse me, that's an all-boy Ovulators cover band called The Ejaculators... I get them mixed up sometimes. Anyway, the Oceans rocked my world. Then I got to see some of Patrick's new band, Deke Falcon, who were definitely more on the songwriting end of things than the aggro nervousness of The Woods. Home to bed early, now I'm blogging on my lunch break.

Shit. Now I feel all self-conscious for listing favorites. Rest assured that there's a dozen other bands/artists right behind those above that I love. In fact, I was talking with Greg from House Of Records last night about how amazing the local scene is.

3/24/04

As promised, The Hafler Trio, Diamanda Galas, The Birthday Party/Nick Cave, Can, Faust, Cocteau Twins, Einsturzende Neubauten (I thought they were already on there), Laurie Anderson, Talking Heads, Psychic TV, HNAS/Mirror etc., and Chris & Cosey have been added to the Discography Page. I also changed the Michael Hurley link to one that has track titles (oh, man, and that new reissue of "Blueberry Wine" is just.... ohhhh...) and changed the type color to make it easier to read, I hope. 71 listings now.

3/24/04

Many things making their way to the discography page... We'll see if my limit holds up. Listening to "new minimalist" William Basinski before going off to work. No, the amp isn't fixed yet. I literally blew up a couple of parts yesterday.

In an unparallelled fit of lameness, I fell asleep at 9 PM on Sunday, when I was intending to go out and see High On Peeps open for Moris Tepper. However, I have learned that Mr. Tepper didn't show, leaving me guilt-free. I think it was brewing beer, whcih of course also meant bottling it and drinking it. This time, we brewed a ginger honey lager, bottled a lavender light ale, and enjoyed an IPA that was ready in the bottle. Cycles rule. Next time, we brew a pilsner, bottle a stout, and try the lavender beer.

3/20/04

Finally, it's time to blog. I don't know how you 40-hour types do it. I spent this week being totally beat, blowing shit off, and going to bed at 10 PM. Now I can finally sit here in the gorgeous spring-for-real sun, smoking and drinking a PBR at 10 AM. Yes, it's a day off. And though I should go into my new job at the stereo repair shop (which is a VERY EXCITING THING for those who know me) to work on my current project a little more, I can feel the tug of the day at home.

Being a homeowner is like having half a kid or a part-time job, I swear. Two hundred and eighty nine dollars to fix our furnace's broken gas valve. Good thing we just spent about a hundred bucks fixing our infamous driveway gate, now the house can just be broke.

Also, we had an increasingly rare show last night. The next one isn't until April 10th, with perhaps The Ovulators and Takimoto in May sometime... Last night we had two bands with entourage, 13 people worth of black-clad anarchist punks mostly from smalltown Idaho. I've lost my ability to judge punk musically when it's in my house because so much depends on the character of the players. These folks were all really nice, so I liked them. They were the kind of punk band that talks about the topic of each song before they play it ("this song... is about the drilling in the Arctic and..."). I made 'em a big pot of food and they were happy with the 30 bucks we miraculously managed to collect from about 10 attendees. Heck, half the house gave 'em money!

At the stereo repair shop I am fixing a big-ass thousand-watt Bose amplifier. I messed it up MORE initially when I started work on it by making a stupid mistake, but hey, it's my first real repair job. Plus, I think that gave me clues since it just made more of the same circuit chain fail. At some point on this website I'd like to get a little more technical (I'd love to see an "Ed Cole's Audio Hints" page, hint hint) about electronics and sound but that might require a separate page.

Speaking of separate pages, I have added Alice Coltrane to the Discography Page. Her work for Impulse is arguably my favorite run of four jazz LPs ever, and "Journey To Satchidananda" is hands down my favorite jazz piece in all existence, which says a fuck of a lot if I say so myself. I've been listening to a lot of her work lately and only get more impressed. Thanks, Tami, for that one. There are now 60 bands on the page, and I might limit myself to a hundred. For one, that's more bands than most people have the time or energy (or money) to check out, for another, there aren't that many bands whose output is large enough to really require a discography. Look at the fuckin' Modern Lovers. Everybody loves them, with good reason, but they have like three albums plus a few live ones. No need, man, no need... Just get the first one (my usual advice).

3/14/04

Went to a bar that shall remain nameless (no, not THAT one, although I hear now that it is in fact being sued, which means any income there goes towards... sigh... you get the idea...) to say goodbye to Lina on her way to U of O immersion studies via Chile for 5 months. Many excellent folks to see her off. Did I mention that the burning effigy theme for the Outlaw party this year was the Skull and Bones Society? "John Kerry" on one bone and "George W. Bush" on the other, which is sad but true. Did I mention how excellent the Ovulators sounded at Luckey's? And Station Wag, yeah... We have been fixing things at the house - yesterday the gate, today the shower caulking. An emo-ish band from Israel played last night, along with some locals. Very chill.

The Dead Milkmen were a band I liked, not loved, but they meant a lot to many. Mark Prindle waxes eloquent on the recent suicide of their bass player with an inspiring appeal to humanity right HERE.

3/10/04

On marriage:

If the state isn't giving me health benefits, tax refunds, or a green card, then they can stay the hell out of my relationships. The fact that people think some piece of paper is more "legitimate" than a handfasting ceremony makes me wanna bang my head against a wall. Those three reasons are the ONLY reasons I support the piece of paper. Not that I write my married friends off, which brings us to...

On boycotts:

Allow me to wade in. There are several threads I have identified within this issue. First of all, what is the definition? If somebody is going to be attacked, shunned, etc. for even associating in any way with the boycott-ee, that is what I call a "spiritual" boycott. We have seen this essentially fundamentalist shunning process at work within this community for a while... if so-and-so doesn't like person X, then anybody who's friends with X CAN'T be friends with so-and-so. I view this policy as inherently self-defeating for a number of reasons. The boycotts I am interested in are the ones that have an objective... stop Home Depot from buying old growth lumber from Boise-Cascade, for example. They are clear-cut objectives in response to identifiable institutions or people doing VERY BAD THINGS. Then there's also the "they're fucked" boycott. I would identify this as Kelani's current feelings about the Indigo District, where her frustrations are numerous and having to wait 20 minutes for a drink has pissed her off at least as much as the LICK cancellation, to the legitimate point where a person might not want to hang out there. This would also apply to people who are really fed up with other people, don't want to see or talk to them, but DO NOT expect their friends to do anything but support their feelings. This is key in the "personal-distaste-for-a-business" avoidance technique that sometimes can resemble a "boycott". Heck, I know lots of folks who won't go to lots of places for different reasons - bars, recording studios, friend's houses, whatever. But these reasons are usually personal ones about people, not institutions... In this, it seems a balance must be struck.

My feelings about the Tiny Tavern are a combination of the last two (i.e I still talk to people who go there, and even went once myself while spending no money - see the archive page). It deeply saddened me to read about Dori and Eric's new band playing there. But do I hold it against them personally? Hell no! That would interfere with the possibility of me explaining why I don't like it and having them actually listen to me...

And did I mention that people should be talking about boycotts of bars whose owners hurt people instead of bars that are lame? I didn't think so. I feel ill thinking about Tiny's these days. At least the Indigo District has organic food and doesn't knock people's teeth out.

3/4/04

Added Crass Records, XTC, The Ramones, Michael Hurley (who is at Sam Bond's this Saturday March 6th if you aren't going to the Outlaw Party), Dirty Three, Captain Beefheart, Thomas Brinkmann, John Coltrane, Sun Ra, and Miles Davis to the discography page.

3/3/04

Another (older, wiser) friend of mine weighs in with an anarchist critique also:

I had the fortune of recently receiving a complimentary copy of the latest GA (thank you, Sleeve).  My main complaint is the title and use of the word anarchy, anarchist....  Currently (and for quite some time) this word is inherently alienating and has been so thoroughly infused with fear for the general public, that it's use functions as a divisive and self-sabotaging force, such as shooting oneself in the foot.  People who desire change... yes even revolutionary change would make more gains by dispensing with the attire, attitude and scenesterism that plagues the highly conformist and acrimonious anarchist ghetto.  The realization that the extremism of the anarchist stance is counter-productive is consciously suppressed, since the belief in revolution produces endorphins in the brain of the believer.  The bitter disputes and micro-fascisms that arise in the factionalized milieus of radicals is perhaps indicative of an unconscious realization that one's rhetoric won't ever get ma and pa to change. So, like rats in a cage of utopian ideology, anarchists, leftists, feminists, etc. turn on each other because nobody else wants to tune into the shrillness of their pie-in-the-sky-more-radical than thou-ism. Of course, one must have hope.  Disengage from the insular tribe and start doing and saying things in a way that commoners can identify with and see the practicality of.  

3/3/04

CRAIG:
It's another ELAW season. Memories upon me like wild hounds, leaping at my soul. A friend of mine told me last night that the first time she saw Craig he was playing his guitar at the Outlaw party. Every time I saw Craig in the last few years, he would ask me when I was going to put out another issue of Made Explicit. So in a way, this website is dedicated to him - it came out my grief during a darker time (emit radiant glow of vacation here). I guess I should post the first (paper) issue here sometime. He taught me a thing or two about being a gentle, strong man. My roommates were practicing "Long Time" today for the party and I am crying.

MY THERAPIST:
... has known me for twelve years now. I originally went to her with a partner for couples counseling... we split up but I believe that the dialogue she created helped us become friends afterwards. Later, after I was beaten up (in Made Explicit #1) I became eligible for state-funded couseling and we spent quite some time together, as I was going through another difficult violence-marred separation. The third time was after my breakup with Tami, seven years later. Obviously I still had things to learn. I wonder sometimes why so few of the men in the activist "punk" axis eschew counseling to the point of active contempt, while the activist "hippie" (I hope my sarcasm at these labels is evident, yet the stereotype applies) axis treats it as obvious and normal. And don't give me that "punks are poorer" argument - co-counseling and vipassana buddhism are FREE, motherfucker.

RACHELLE:
Many people have told me to write you a letter. I am afraid you would not read it. I am truly sorry. In my heart, we agree on much. There are things that I don't understand, but I believe you in every way that truly matters. Many other people are making contributions to the healing of our community, I feel more optimistic than ever. Let's try to listen to them and use our hearts to tune out the shit-talking and fight-mongering. Free's March 1st essay is a major wake-up call to all of us.

Love to all three of you,

Sleeve

3/2/04

Whew. I just spent a very stressful 24 hours checking in with all of my housemates and troubleshooting a whole bunch of problems from furnaces to house-impact issues to note-leaving etiquette to utility bills and house finances to (gasp) serious politics. I was afraid some people were going to move because of some of my decisions, but everything turned out OK. Basically, we had Green Anarchy magazine take an office space here in the basement on a trial basis. When I got home (and while I was on vacation) I realized that I and some other folks here had too many problematic issues with both the continued impact of their presence and some of the recent editorial content for it to work out. Since some of the people here are collective members, I was worried that it would become a big issue. They aren't thrilled, and they will have to move the office out within the month, but there were no big fights or move-outs. Score one for reasonable dialogue!

For some of the recent published critiques of GA, and by extension further reflections on the conflicts I have been blogging about, try this separate page I put up HERE.

My flight home was brutal. It has taken me over 24 hours to recover. I guess our national wheel-of-fortune security threat increased while I was in transit, because all the security folks at the San Francisco airport were total assholes.

2/29/04

Leap Day! Take the day off! Wow... This one might be a little long... Last night was the closing party/benefit for the WTJU rock marathon. The headlining band was a reunion of Charlottesville 80's legends The Happy Flowers, best known for such timeless hits as "They Cleaned My Cut Out With A Wire Brush" (IT HURT!!! NO ASPIRIN!!! IT HURT!!!), "All I Got Were Clothes For Christmas" (NO TOYS!!! JUST CLOTHES!!! NO TOYS!!!), and "Mom, I Gave The Cat Some Acid" (Mom... there's something I need to tell you...). They were on the famous 80's comp LP "God's Favorite Dog", alongside Big Black and The Butthole Surfers among others. Their music? Heavily art-damaged noise-punk with childhood themes. Think a noisier, LESS proficient Half Japanese. This time around the original members (Mr. Anus and Mr. Horribly Charred Infant) were joined by a drummer, Mr. Mike, who was in fact the drummer for the Goo Goo Dolls (I'm SERIOUS! Stop laughing!). This gave their set a more death metal edge amidst the art damage. It was a reunion of sorts for me, my friend George Coles came (who I have not seen since his days in Seattle). George and I last saw the Happy Flowers open for Sonic Youth at the now-bulldozed Trax club in 1988... I also encountered old Tandemites Sherri Edgecombe and Brad McCarthy (who I've known since 9th grade). It was very cool, we all hung out talking at the bar until migrating downstairs grooving to the Flowers, who made some cursory nods towards actual music by destroying the VU's "What Goes On" and, in a move that had me jumping up and down with glee, the BEST BIG STAR SONG EVER! (It's "Thirteen", just so you know). Watching Mr. H.C.I trying to read the lyrics off a piece of paper while singing them will remain a priceless memory. They also insulted the Dave Matthews Band (Cville natives), which I was informed by George was pretty much unthinkable heresy since "a quarter of this town makes their living off of them". Then Brad and George and I bailed, went to the C&O downstairs, and did last call while catching up with each other. I got pretty trashed, we went over to Brad's to sober up for another hour, and I drove home feeling very wary of Virginia's .05 drunk driving law, the toughest in the country I believe. What a great show. Now my fucking email is down AGAIN and I am ready to ditch EFN for good. My flight leaves tomorrow.

2/27/04

Up late, back from a smoky bar... Eugene is really truly blessed to have the smoking ban. I almost threw up once. When I was in high school, one of the people in my class, Daphne, had parents who played in a jazz/fusion band called Cosmology, perhaps best known today for being the breeding ground for Dave Matthews Band-associated guitarist Tim Reynolds. Tonight the parents, John and Dawn, played a jazz set at local hipster club Miller's, where I first held hands with my second girlfriend. I stayed for the first set, said hello to J & D (who immediately remembered me upon introduction, my sister and Daphne were best friends for a while), and retreated to my dad's to eat leftover Vietnamese food. Earlier this evening I had dinner with another old friend, Bill Covert, his wife Becca, and their two adorable sons. Then I spent a few hours debriefing with my sister and her husband Derek (oh, god, I don't know if I spelled that right). My sister, having read my blog, justifiably wanted to know what the hell I was talking about in the posts below. So I got to retell the whole tragi-comic tale of my epic five-year conflict with Rachelle. It took TWO FUCKING HOURS!!! Which is probably about fifty times as long as the half-dozen people who "hate" me (other than her) have ever spent getting to know me. Every time I tell this story, I gain more perspective. This time, my perspective was mostly about how much I actually like Ms. R. in spite of our intense tactical disagreements, and how it is mostly other people that have created our current conflict, through misinterpretation (Khaos) and outright scandal-mongering (Lisa). So once again, for the record: Me expressing my private doubts and confusions to two or three close friends (and one enemy) is NOT the same as what I say in public, or think in person when I take a deep breath. I deeply regret the misrepresentation and look forward to resolving it over the NEXT five years. Of course, this would be a lot easier if certain people in Eugene would stop acting like religious fundamentalists and actually talk to folks they have issues with.

"Why talk ABOUT someone when you could talk TO them?" - bumper sticker

2/25/04

Alright! I figured out how to edit from my mom's! Blog away! Last night I went to the inauguration party for the Charlottesville Indymedia site. As is typical in the informal North American anarchist underground, I met somebody (Greg from the Flying Brick house in Richmond) who knew folks I knew and had even BEEN TO MY HOUSE. Damn. I also met someone from C-ville who my friend Khaos had lived with for a few years. My old high school friend Tara Kabir showed up and we hung out for an hour or so, then Greg and I closed out the night trading our takes on the anarcho-microcosm. It was very inspiring, there were a LOT of people there for the site launch party. I guess a week or two ago there was an ELF action here, and it was one of the first things the site put up. Instant controversial craziness, getting off with a bang. And damn, the great music just keeps on coming. I heard this unbelievable show last night that was a "Requiem For The Pudhouse", a local basement venue that had had a lot of shows and had just been shut down by the cops after (I believe) a Weekly article. I turned on the radio and they were playing Quintron! Wow. Earlier that evening there was the "Black Sabbath Make Out Party", which was predictably great. I don't have any more major taping plans except for the 3-hour Johnny Cash show on Sunday. I'm starting to feel the time closing in, trying to make plans with some folks I haven't seen yet like my super cool ex-stepmother. Only four days left...

2/24/04

"Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you" - Sarte

"I was learning that it was actually possible to die of a broken heart. What poets have always warned us about was true." - Cookie Mueller

I would have put a more extensive Cookie quote there, in order to further pound in my dystopian anti-love rant below, but I forgot the book. That's my hot new score - a Cookie Mueller anthology! Very welcome because I think Mike Albers made off with my copy of "Wading Through Clear Water..." and all of that is included in "Ask Dr. Mueller". For those who aren't John Waters fanatics, Cookie was in all of his early movies except Mondo Trasho. She also wrote a fantastic advice column for the East Village Eye and an art column for Details, many excerpts of which are included. She died of AIDS in 1989.

Today's WTJU mind-boggler is 2 hours of the Throwing Muses, I thought of Reed Davaz the whole time.

2/23/04

PSYCHO THERAPY!
PSYCHO THERAPY!
PSYCHO THERAPY!
IS WHAT THEY WANNA GIVE ME!
If you ever need some serious cheering up, I recommend listening to two solid hours of the Ramones, now playing on the aforementioned WTJU. I was bouncing around uncontrollably in the car. Unfortunately, The Numbers had to cancel their 1-hour live appearance, but that just means extra Ramones bonus yumminess. Good lord, they played the whole "Rock & Roll High School" medley. Now THAT'S classy. Very therapeutic. And I must make the obvious comment that ALL of my fellow Eugene bloggers who wrote even semi-positively about V-Day have people who they fuck on a regular basis. Way to rub it in. But that's what the "holiday" is all about, isn't it? Making people who've had devastating breakups feel even more inadequate and awful... Whoever said it's "the cruelest holiday" was dead on. The only glimmer of hope came from Stardust, who noted that it is an excellent (i.e. socially sanctioned) time to make your feelings clearer to those who attract you, which I have taken advantage of in the past with sometimes surprising results (full disclosure: my first girlfriend broke up with me on Valentine's Day, and I have particular contempt reserved for holidays that Christians and capitalists stole from their ancestors). Whatever. When you're listening to 2 hours of the Ramones, nothing else matters very much.

2/23/04

So after I wrote the rant below, a couple of Bill Gates' thugs came over, tied me to a chair, and forced me to watch Microsoft training films for 8 hours until I agreed that XP is, in fact, not quite as bad as I implied. Then an group of EFN employees came over and kept me in a consensus meeting for 17 hours. Unfortunately, we failed to reach consensus. You know, when I call tech support, I DON'T want to hear "internet connectivity help is not available right now." Jeez, you'd think it was free or something...
The birthday party was a success, Simon seemed as pleased as a two-year-old can be. The destroyed shed is half down. The books are starting to be organized. Tomorrow I'm going to meet up with the Charlottesville Indy Media Center, who are having their inaugural party. I plan on imparting some words of wisdom learned the hard way from my comrades at the Portland IMC. Right now I'm in a taping frenzy because ultra-cool local station WTJU is having their yearly "rock marathon" where they have nothing but specialty rock shows for a week (they normally play all musical formats - classical, jazz, folk, rock, world, etc.). So far I have 3 hours of Al Green, 3 hours of Dylan, 2 1/2 hours of XTC, 2 hours of rare psychedelia (can't wait to review that one), an hour of D.C. go-go (D.C.'s own indigenous form of funk/rap, awesome stuff), and I am currently taping an hour of The Mekons. Hell yeah.

2/20/04

God DAMN those people at EFN. Anyone who reads this, my fucking email isn't working anymore and I can't call them til Monday. The site isn't down, it just refuses my password. What the fuck?
Whoah. I'm actually coding this in HTML via Freewebs, which I will have to do for the remainder of my (working) vacation. The next step... Tonight I went with my dad to the Historical Simulation Society, a group of gamers who have been meeting in the University of Virginia's Cabell Hall since around 1974. Him and I started going around '76 or '77, as Dungeons & Dragons gained worldwide popularity. Many of these people were my first adult friends outside of the family/commune axis. It made a huge difference in my life as a teenager to have people in their 20's and 30's to talk to about stuff - old enough to be cool and looked up to, young enough to be trusted not to rat me out. Not that I was a bad kid, far from it. The smell of the building was so evocative, and kicked in some major flashbacks. The sense that is most closely connected to memory... For many years this was the focus of my life, and a good bonding activity with my dad. Eventually, of course, I was bitten by the punk rock demon and phased out of gaming, although I worked for (and played with) a local RPG company (Iron Crown Enterprises, named after Morgoth's stolen Silmarils) off and on during the 80's. Tonight there were three old-schoolers and 5 or 6 newer people. I played "Settlers Of Cataan", a resource/building game, a quick round of "Oh Hell", and 2 rounds of a new game called "Alhambra", where you try to build the most spectacular Arabic palace. I even won the second round after old-schooler Coleman Charlton kicked my ass the first time. Projects on my table now include tearing apart an old shed at my mom's that collapsed in the winter snow; organizing my dad's formidable library of mythology, magic, wordplay, folklore, and esoterica; and setting up vinyl transferring software for my mom and stepfather. This last has been delayed somewhat because my mom's new computer is late arriving and because Windows XP is a horrific piece of crap that resists all of my stepfather's attempts to integrate his old files into it. I can't see Microsoft lasting another decade with this user-hating garbage. Tomorrow is my nephew Simon's 2nd birthday party. Also, my younger stepsister just bought land near here in Fluvanna County, about 3 miles from the commune we all lived on in the summer of 1973. Welcome back, Erin. Now I'm the only kid who's far away.

2/18/04

Delayed, on borrowed time. I was supposed to be on an airplane right now. Instead, I'm at home surfing Jandek lyrics for an extra day. Check it out:

You never smoke a cigarette when you are doing something
Only when you are half doing it
You are a teenage runt with a lot of cream, sparky
Gone floating down a river to Madrid
And a car pull in softly
Waiting for the footsteps
How has as she followed me here?
The tent I went to wasn’t mine, it was a cantaloupe’s
Cantaloupes are so good to eat
When you dream of your ??? in a shower
Gone floatin’ down a river to Madrid
I love you my lady
I love you like I do
Why you make me so blue?
A-kill me, kill me, kill me
Achilles, kill me
I think I’m a goner
When I see one of your shoes
Gone floatin’ down a river to Madrid
You’re the reason I live
You’re the cause of my death
I love what I can’t help
You took my success
Will you take my failure?
After Arny (?) took a pill from the bottom
He wasn’t n’er the same
You ought to be gone floatin’ down a river to Madrid
I hear you bought a new dress
A red the color of your kiss
Darlin’ are you with me now?
A-kiss me, kiss me, kiss me
Ahh it’s my time to die
When I think of your black lips
Gone floatin’ down a river to Madrid
Found a painted pony in your breast
Can I tell you the rest?
I lov