Priorities: Unsure...Giant Tub of Beer: Check!

Obligatory post!

That's right kids, this is that "oh-so-special" blog entry that comes when it's been a while since my last one. Expect little, and you might enjoy it. Which brings me to a bit of advice I think would benefit many of you(this is primarily directed at people that probably don't read this tripe). It seems that there is an ever-growing trend out there, particularly among the young( by young I mean below middle-age...and what IS middle age now?) of feeling unjustly entitled. In other words, everybody wants something for nothing. Well, all I have to say about that is unless you've got dirt on someone, a sugar-mama/daddy, or just a rich daddy, it AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. Oh, and if you think I'm going to put up with the behavior that this mindset inspires you can think again. This is where all these "30 thousand-dollar a year millionaires" are sprouting up from. I don't know about anywhere else, but Dallas is literally crawling with them. You might have noted that I've been a little bitter lately. I'm hoping it will subside soon.

In more important matters my deepest sympathies go out to those who have been effected by hurricane Katrina. I don't personally know anyone that currently lives there but it's overwhelming to think about what has happened nonetheless. On the purely selfish side I noticed that on the Goner Records message board that they are thinking about relocating The Rockening from New Orleans to either Jackson, Miss. or Atlanta, Ga. I mention this because I'm really looking forward to it and it would be really cool to meet some of these folks, many of which are going through a very difficult time. This may be a good time for them to blow off some of this tremendous stress and celebrate life with some great music. I'll admit I haven't been watching any of the flood footage on TV but I've seen some photos on the web, and the most connected to the event that I've felt has been from reading personal accounts from the many musicians, and fans on the Goner board. It has been very inspiring to see how generous people have been with offers of accomodations, food, and job leads. For someone who only a few years ago was anti-internet, and particularly anti-forum/chat room (still hate IM/chatrooms) I have learned not to citicize things I don't know about once again. I have this recurring trend where I end up fully embracing the very things I was adamantly against at some earlier point. I don't think of this as a lack of conviction, or flakiness, but as the talent to recognize my ability to be wrong, as well as the need for personal evolution. How you say PSYCHO-BABBLE!?

The Kings of Budget Rock! 

I can SING! (sort of)

Well, Matt Louis and I wrapped up the majority of the recording last night, and if I do say so myself it sounds pretty durn good. We basically started from scratch as I had my head planted firmly in me arse the previous night but it worked out better this time anyway. We even finally got that "fuzzy" tone I wanted for the overdub of the main guitar riff. But the most suprising part of the whole process was recording the vocals. As far as I know I had never done any kind of decent recording of any of my "music" let alone documented my attempts at serious vocals. If I hadn't been in on all the action I wouldn't have known the voice that emerged was mine. This isn't to say that I sang in an overly affected manner, or that Matt put some kind of crazy effect on my voice, it's just that the sound you get from a decent microphone when singing over your own music somehow sounds better. Of course I'm biased, but it sounds pretty cool.

The only things we need to do at this point are replace the sampled drums with real ones and do the final mix. What's even greater is that Matt says he'd like to do more of this in the future. He's used to playing and recording at the same time so this has been a good way for him to get more experience with recording. I've been really lucky to have friends like I do that can allow me this type of experience. Thanks to Randy Parker and Matt Louis! I can't wait to get the comp. cd and listen to my song amongst all the other contributions.

In more exciting rock and roll news my buddy "Wild Bill" Ivy just hipped me to the fact that the legendary Mummies are supposed to be playing at the Rockening in New Orleans, La. just before Halloween. I'd sell a kidney to be there, but I may be able to avoid that.

I do not know the nice lady with the SCARY clown paintings.

People still freak me out!

You know how things will be going along just swimmingly and then all of a sudden some (I hesitate to use the word)...PERSON has to go and do something to remind you that not everyone thinks, or behaves the way you do or would like them to. Why does this have to happen? I'm just constantly amazed at the oblivious and thoughtless behavior exhibited by many of my peers. (and by some of those well above, or below me on the social heirarchy... oh yeah, sometimes by me too!) I guess the reason I mention this is that a friend of mine that I have known for over two years casually asked me what I did for a living during a conversation recently. Now I realize that I don't talk about work much, but unless you have a really interesting job then I'd suggest you don't either. It just kind of sends a signal to me that this person might be a bit more self-centered than I thought. I already knew he was absent-minded with a tendency to drone on about his every activity. Maybe it's just me.

A few random thoughts...

This weekend Matt Louis and I are going to record my opus...a mind-bending version of Hipsville 29 B.C. by The Sparkles. We plan to use anything we can get our hands on for percussion and to keep it really crude. I plan to channel the spirit of the seemingly more-alive-than ever Roky Erickson( of Thirteenth Floor Elevators fame) when I let loose with my patented demented, white boy vocals. Roky has been more lucid in the last few years due to taking his medication, and he's been performing more and more around the Austin area. I must see him at all costs.

I'm ready for summer to be over. Bring on the Nordic Frost, post haste.

What was going on in the 1970's that made scary clown paintings, big-eyed kid/Margaret Keane paintings, and depressing music so popular? I mean I love them all, but I'm a little odd. It seems like there was some kind of hazy, yellow melancholy that blanketed most pop culture of that era. What's popular in the mainstream today couldn't be more different. Gordon Lightfoot could only exist as some kind of college/indie/Drag City recordsish character. If for no other reason than the fact that an attention span, a capacity for abstract thought and the ability to appreciate music with real human emotion are required to enjoy this type of expression it couldn't happen today. I still can't explain how anything other than ironic humor is gained from that weird ass artwork though.

Old Ink Drawing with NEW cheesy color. 

Hipsville 29 B.C...

...is the title of a song originally recorded by a West Texas band called THE SPARKLES that was active in the '50's and '60's. They seem to have started out like most groups of the time playing early rock and roll, which was an mix of country(and western), and blues that sometimes careened into rockabilly. They stayed together long enough to change with the times and this song in particular is the only one I'm actually that familiar with. It sounds like a lot of "garage" type songs with simple fuzzed out guitar, and the singer channels a little James Brown to great effect, but the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts as they say.

I'm going to record my own version of it with the help of some friends in the next few weeks and I'm getting pretty amped about it. I haven't recorded music in any form since college and never in a manner approaching professionalism. I may end up playing a majority of the instruments but I will at least play rhythm guitar and sing lead. The motivation into these largely uncharted waters came in the form of a call for entries in the Shakin' Street forum on Garagepunk.com. They are asking for '60's covers focusing on garage rock. They seem to be pretty lax in their standards though I think they're expecting people to suprise themselves which I hope is the case. I remember the reference to something like "a guy with a tape recorder and an out-of-tune guitar" and this can be a beautiful asethetic if you are at all familiar with tastes that run toward the LO-FI or RAW/PRIMITIVE. This is not to say that there aren't some certifiable "legends" of various eras involved, like Tom Kirby of TONTO AND THE RENEGADES fame whose song "Little Boy Blue" is a very well known example of the genre. The tentative title for the compilation is Under the Covers, and I like it.

I also wanted to mention the fact that my big screen debut occured on Wednesday night at of all places The Studio Movie Grill in Plano, Tx. I had a walk-on in my friend Justin's short film THE HISTORY OF THE LURKERS which is going to be part of an anthology of shorts based on H.P. Lovecraft stories. This is just a warm up for the debut of his feature length POT ZOMBIES in which I have a larger role. This should come out in the next few months.

http://www.thesparkles.net/

(Check out Pot Zombies at Myspace!)

Kind of...

BLOGdundancy!

Oh yeah, I have this blog thing. I've been lost in the sauce for a while, but one thing I'm pretty sure of is the fact that most blogs truly suck. Add that to the fact that there are so dang many of them and you've got one big, nasty mess. The worst of them all are the ones that document the minutiae of some (usually boring) fools life, and I guess the second worst are the ones that simply parrot other sites for news, or links in lieu of any real content. I won't even touch on the half-assed attempts by teens, children, businessmen, or religious zealots. About the only ones I've been able to tolerate are the cream of the crop of the underground music blogs, and photo blogs. Some folks seem to view their blog as the new milennium's answer to the "family newsletter". Every family has at least one relative(usually that oddly chipper aunt) that compiles an all-encompassing list of the activities and major events in their clan, right? Blogs and this type of document share the following attributes:

1. They often blather on and on about insignificant information.(Lil' Timmy took his first poo today, etc.)
2. They gloat about personal accomplishments.
3. The information is generally about people and activities that
are either unknown or irrelevant.

That being said here are some links to a few blogs that seem to have some merit. At least they post easily downloadable mp3's of music I actually enjoy...

http://blog.wfmu.org/
http://www.sexkittenscratches.blogspot.com/
http://vinyljourney.blogspot.com/
http://somethingilearned.blogspot.com/
http://strangereaction.com/
http://www.spoiltvictorianchild.co.uk/

Musklat Rove... 

Willis Alan Ramsey, and Jim Lauderdale.

I had a lucky birthday yesterday. It started off well when I awoke to a lovely hand made card ftom Kara, and then received a free breakfast-pizza(?) from some poor Papa John's guy when I was getting gas on the way to work.(?) I then proceeded to get a free lunch consisiting of a steak, baked potato, green beans, Texas toast, and iced tea. The best part was getting free tickets to see two of the most talented singer-songwriter's alive today at the Granada Theatre. The Granada is one of the nicest, if not THE nicest venue in Dallas and if they would book a more diverse group of bands I'd gladly go there more often.

Bob and I walked in just after Jim Lauderdale's set had begun and though I was familiar with the name from KHYI (95.3-The Range) and the paper I was hesitant at first. I was completely mesmerized within minutes. This Nashville based(go figure) musician is extremely talented and has a long list of accomplishments including having songs recorded by George Jones, and making records with bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley(made really famous by the O' Brother Where Art Though? soundtrack.) As I listened I realized that I already really liked a few of these songs as I had heard them repeatedly on The Range and I had no idea who they were done by. If you like Gram Parsons, Gene Clark, George Jones, Johhny Cash and others I suggest checking him out. I need to buy some of this stuff.

http://www.jimlauderdale.com/

Willis Alan Ramsey took the stage with all the stage prescence of somebodys stoned uncle wipping out his guitar at a barbecue to play some Skynnard, Dylan or some such fare. But after a bit of a rough start he proceeded to blow minds. I won't go into too much detail here but Willis Alan Ramsey(WAR) is one of those legendary artists that is very well known, and loved amongst Americana/Country/Folk/Blues musicians and the die-hard fans but otherwise completely unknown. He released ONE self-titled album in 1972 that was met with much acclaim. Apparently it was too much acclaim for the young WAR to handle so he backed off from the whole affair, WAY off. As far as I know he hadn't performed at all until the last year or so since the mid-seventies but that didn't stop him from influencing virtually every artist that could fall under the nebulous Progressive Country/Americana/Alt-Country(eww!)/Outlaw/yadda,yadda umbrella. Lyle Lovett is perhaps the most obvious example of this and WAR even co-wrote some of Lyle's songs including "That's right you're not from Texas". The crowd of mostly grey-haired folks knew all the words and get very excited when WAR played the hits, so it made for a great time.

I'll have to admit that I was a bit let down that he didn't play his best known song "Muskrat Candlight", renamed "Muskrat Love" and made famous by The Captain and Tennille, but at the same time I can undertand his aversion to the song. WAR is releasing a new album and I hope for his sake that it catapults him to the level of fame and fortune he so greatly deserves.

http://www.willisalanramsey.com/

http://www.khyi.com/

Shriners. NOT Oddfellows.

I.O.O.F. and the proposed Freedom Tower.

I don't believe I've mentioned this before but I am a member of a secret society. That's right, it's SO secret that I'll tell you (almost) all about it and our members are proud to display related emblems, and symbols on their bodies, cars, and clothing among other things. There are secret rituals, signs, and grips that can't be revealed to a non-member but the wacky, mystical incantations and human/animal sacrifice are kept to a minimum. I've been a member of the International Order of Oddfellows(I.O.O.F) , Waxahachie Lodge # 80 for more than a year now and I'm currently trying to interest a few friends in the group.

The Oddfellows are referred to as "a friendly society" meaning that membership is open to anyone, and this goes along with the strong themes of socialization and helping one another out. The motto is Fellowship( or Friendship), Love, and Truth or F.L.T. for short and is most often represented within three links of chain. In some ways it is not so different from the Mason's parody on the Simpson's where the "Stonecutters" are wearing cloaks and other ritualistic garb and then someone screams, "Now let's get drunk and play ping-pong!!", but it's more serious than that and we do more than our share of charity work.

This might sound like something your grandpa would be into, and if it weren't for the extremely diverse make-up of our lodge you might be right. There is a core group of gentlemen in their 60's and above that have been members for many years but there is a larger group of younger men that have such disparate professions as gallery owner, artist( tattoo, fine art, graphic-design, etc.), software developer, contractor, teacher, musician, etc. Many of these individuals own their own successful businesses as well. It's been a worthwhile experience and I plan to get more involved as time permits.

http://www.oddfellows.co.uk/history.htm


The following is from David Byrnes journal NOT blog. It's about the proposed replacement for the Twin Towers and I thought it was pretty dead-on:

"The new proposal is a glass tower on a massive fortified concrete base. 20 stories (!!) high almost windowless concrete. Basically, a fortress. Or a prison. It wouldn’t look out of place to have a gun turret or anti-aircraft weaponry on the roof. My daddy’s reaction was, “this says: ‘we have no faith in the future.’” I think he’s right. The site could have stood for all that is good and open and innovative about the United States. The can-do spirit, the possibility of re-invention, tolerance of all kinds of weirdos, mixtures of a multitude of races and creeds, all living together. Sometimes the U.S. is like that anyway. And the site could be a way of saying THIS is what we believe in and what we stand for.
This instead is a big fuck you to the rest of the world at the entrance of NY harbor, it says we are isolationist, protectionist and closed. As dad suggests it says we don’t think things will get better, we don’t believe good will triumph; instead we think things will get a lot worse. It’s back to medieval days for us..."

"On a purely practical level, what kind of attack are the people who thought of this expecting? A car bomb that could somehow get across a well-protected plaza? Didn’t the previous attack come from the air?
I think it’s not really about the practicalities of security or protection, but about symbolizing an attitude, a climate of fear and of a walled-in nation."

http://www.davidbyrne.com/journal/current.php

I couldn't agree more with Mr. Big Suit. This sums up the overall mood that hangs over our lives right now, one of apprehension, fear, and confusion. But what's with a grown man referring to his father as "daddy"? Creepy! The challenge is balancing awareness of the trouble in the world with a complete disregard for the same. It seems that distancing ones self, or desensitizing to some degree is appropriate. I plan to immerse myself even further in my obsessions.

The namesake of one of my favorite breakfast sandwiches.

Juan Epstein...Ubu...Wiki-Wiki-Wiki!

That might be the most non-sensical title for one of these here posts yet but it is based in reality, and here's how. Kara and I are switching gears yet again but I'll get into that soon enough. We made our traditional weekend breakfast of scrambled eggs, cheese, and salsa on a bagel a couple of times over the holiday. I decided that as they are a sort of combination of two very different cultures cuisines a fitting name was in order, and from now on they shall be known as Juan Epsteins after the character from the TV show WELCOME BACK KOTTER. For those of you not in the know he was the self-described "Puerto Rican Jew".

The UBU part refers to the web site Ubuweb.com( which is temporarily down except for the bit I'm about to talk about). From what I remember the site usually covers avant-garde and experimental music leaning towards performance art. I believe they had some footage of Joseph Beuys, and Michael Peppe among others and the Ubu may refer to the band Pere Ubu but I digress. In 2003 they embarked on the ambitious project of posting one mp3 by an Outsider Musican a day for a year, thus THE 356 DAYS PROJECT.

http://www.ubu.com/outsiders/365/

I've only scratched the surface with these songs but I can say that the version of Kenny Roger's "Lady" by Wooshie Spkamoto now ranks among my all-time favorite songs. Even those familiar with the genre known as Outsider Music will find a lot to take in. The conspicuous absence of the usual suspects (Wesley Willis, Hasil Adkins, Mrs. Miller, Daniel Johnston, etc, etc.) makes one realize that we are in the midst of the TRUE devotees and obsessives of this stuff. WFMU dj Irwin Chusid is represented along with The Hoof & Mouth Sinfonia and the track "Next", and the selections were curated by a looong list of folks including musician R. Stevie Moore. RSM brings me to my next subject, the website WIKIPEDIA.COM the free and interactive encyclopedia. Here's the entry I made for him yesterday which some kind soul already took the time to expand, and improve upon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Stevie_Moore

I found the site when it kept popping up while I was Googling various subjects. I finally gave in and it's pretty amazing just for the sheer amount of information it contains and for the revolutionary hands on feel. I felt honored that my entry wasn't just automatically deleted, and I just felt Mr. Moore deserved a mention.

Stolen from somewhere..."The Symbolic Lotus of a Thousand Colonels."

More Wacky Social Commentary!

"This is the real battle occurring on planet Earth. The winners and losers of this battle are what truly determine the "evolution" of societies and the world. Now, and in the past, most of what is being sold is trash, as it usually denies and oppresses that which is capable of believing and attaching meaning - you and your mind. Your mind and everyone else's minds are the true source of any quality of life that will ever exist. Solely and completely. Recognition, education into the functions, and empowerment of minds results in success, decency, morality, strength, sanity and greatness. Denial and suppression of these things results in failure, perversions, immorality, weakness, insanity and mediocrity. Materialism as a belief system has the effect of denying these things."

"This is not an argument of materialism versus spirituality. Almost all historical periods, even when characterized by "religious" or "spiritual" influences, have been actually "materialistic" because Man's mind was largely neglected and oppressed in favor of arbitrary belief systems about the physical universe and man's relationship to it. The history of this planet has been mainly characterized by the use of force against Man and his mind to alter belief and behavior, whether these forces were "religious", "political", "economic" or "social". Any perceived dichotomy of "materialism" versus "spirituality" is an illusion and is not part of this discussion. Materialism here means the viewing of everything as inherently physical, with the neglect of man's mind a usual by-product of such a view. Religions have done this as much as any modern "scientific" materialism. "

...uh, cool. I wish I knew where I got the above quotes from because I think it's good food for thought(no pun intended). Since I'm getting all quote-crazy (or lazy) here's a great, and much shorter one from a formerly brilliant comedian...

"The Theory:

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends up. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death. What's that, a bonus? I think the whole life cycle is backwards.

You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating.........you finish off as an orgasm."

-George Carlin

Yes you guessed it...I have nothing to say right now but I didn't want ya'll to think I forgot about you. I'm greatly looking forward to this weekend for many reasons including: seeing my brother Andy and his family who are moving back from Cincinatti after years away, a four-day weekend, and having money for the first time in weeks. I think Kara and I are going to go to a cook-out at my folks place much like most people.

Young Steve Alba.

I'm coming out of retirement...

That statement is really applicable to most aspects of my life at this time but I'll focus on the area relating to the cool photo above(which was taken by the great Glen E. Friedman and hastily edited by myself). I'm itching to do some "real" skateboarding again for the first time in years. I never lost interest in it, but I haven't skated more than a day or two a year for some time now. Reasons for this renewed interest are numerous but include feeling like getting back to my roots, having friends that are into it/back into it, needing some exercise, missing the feeling of skating, availability of good decks and wheels again, the explosion of cement skateparks, and the movie Dogtown and Z-boys.

Having said that you might find it strange(if you're an obsessive old-school skateboarding nut like me) that I chose to have someone other than Tony Alva, Jay Adams, or another of the infamous Z-boys pictured above. I thought this was a very cool photo of a great pool-skater, and he is riding an Alva board. Not only that but it reminds me of the time I was skating at the best ditch in the world(or at least Dallas), whip 'n dip and some smartass "new school" skater kid thought he was insulting me by calling me Steve Alba because of my "dated" skate-style. I'd be willing to bet that in the 15-ish years since then he has either got a clue and loosened up his trucks, quit skating( because how fun can it be to ride on a board that doesn't turn), or become a roller-blader(yechhh!). It makes me feel fortunate to have been exposed to real skateboarding just before the advent of the new-school. The guys I skated with were old-school even for the time. Their trucks were so loose they were about to fall off, and they had little or no desire for their wheels to leave the ground. It was a real education in carving, grinding and riding ditches and parking garages. Thanks especially to Dave and Mandon.

I also skated with some guys that were more into street-skating and that was fun too but I'm glad I got the foundation I did by just riding a skateboard the way it was designed to. There's a kick-ass new cement skatepark in Allen which is about 30 minutes North of here that I'm dying to ride. I've got to get a good set-up before I do though. Right now all I've got is a 4-foot long Powell longboard, and a popsicle board and neither of them would do for carving transition. I'm currently researching all the "pig" boards I can but the Factory 13, Deathbox, and Alva boards are looking pretty good to me. I really don't care what I ride as long as it's fat and feels good when I'm grinding coping. I'm actually on the lookout for ditches and abandoned pools a lot lately as I drive around. I wonder if I can wash my salty, smelly old rector pads?

These here are related linkage:

Pretty cool article I stumbled upon...
http://www.thelandofplenty.org/skateordie.html

See this before LORDS OF DOGTOWN...
http://www.sonyclassics.com/dogtown/

Best Skate mag around...
http://www.concretewavemagazine.com/

Leonardo gets introspective.

'Bout to jump outta my skin!

I realize I've been getting boringly personal, and whiny lately but as this is a non-commercial venture that's probably more about the act of creating the blog than trying to address the "audience" I don't feel so bad. If it is more about the act itself I guess that would make it conceptual and I generally try to avoid that term and things it encompasses with a ten-foot pole. So in other words I'm going through a period of great transition, a crossroads in life as it were. I'm engaging in some cliched "soul-searching" type activities like growing a beard, going on solo walks, listening to depressing music, playing my acoustic guitar a lot, and questioning my beliefs. It's a laugh riot.

I am getting very amped up about my sadly-neglected creativity though. I'm about to burst with the desire to start a band, a loud band, a cathartic, rockin' band. I need to find a drummer that plays like a shitty Keith Moon, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. I'm at the point with my guitar playing where I either need to learn more technical information or start bashing out some rock AND roll(filtered through punk, natch). I vote for the latter, especially since the aesthetic I have the greatest appreciation for stresses expression over virtuosity. I feel like painting, and doing some print-making and other artsy stuff. Hell, even interpretive dance is starting to look good. (This is in jest, of course) I may do some painting, but what I am going to do is finish this comic book that's been hanging over my head for a few years now. That's right, I've had my head so far up my ass that I haven't been able to bring myself to complete a nearly-done comic that will be published upon completion. I'll scan some pages to show you what I'm talking about, but it's based on a local film called CORNMAN: AMERICAN VEGETABLE HERO by Barak Epstein, which is really quite funny in a Troma kinda way. I know Barak wishes he'd never met me because though he's liked what I've done, he wanted it a loooong time ago. I need to finish it so I can start work on my next comic project which will be created entirely by myself. Somebody kick my ass if I'm not done with Cornman by 2006!

http://www.cornman2.com/

Rick Griffin art featured at the Texas Surf Museum.

I'm back, I think...

If I ever again have some kind of weird logic for coming back to work on a Friday when I could have had the day off you have my permission to smack me. At least I will be that much closer to reality when I return after the weekend. Forgive me if this is short, and not to the point. perhaps bordering on cloudy. Kara stayed in Corpus for a bit of an extended stay and when I got to the casa last night I felt like being sociable so I went to Bob's place. I ended up having a few beers and then I didn't sleep very well, so I'm feeling sorta rough today. I don't miss feeling like this and usually worse at work on a daily basis. I'm glad to be a lightweight these days, and for few years now.

The trip was a lot of fun, despite the lack of activities. It was relaxing and I even enjoyed the drive. Kara and I had a good time with Steve, and Ericka. Steve and I even got in some guitar-playing, and skateboarding. We ended up skating a couple of ditches, my favorite one was called HOT LIPS, which seems to be a completely arbitrary monker. Corpus is a nicer town than I'd imagined. It's pretty laid-back, and if you're into the beach thing you can sort of think of it as a poor man's Cali. The architecture seems to have hit a plateau in the 60's and 70's which is mostly a good thing. I guess that's when the town stopped growing, which I believe had something to do with the oil industry( don't most things?). I even visted the TEXAS SURF MUSEUM, which isn't as pointless as it seems. The waves can't really compete with more famous surf towns but you can really surf there. The museum was kinda cool, and they even had some original Rick Griffin art including some covers and illustrations for Surfer Magazine. Rick Griffin was one of the original psychedelic poster artists and underground cartoonists of the 60's.

It was great to see my old pal Billy in San Antonio. It was exactly as predicted and a nice way to break up the drive back home. I ate nothing but Mexican food the two days and nights I was there. I could eat that stuff everyday. We drank beer and listened to good music while filling each other in on the last few years. Bill was living in Brooklyn and hanging out with a large contingent of Denton musicians and artists all loosely related to the former Good/Bad Art Collective. He had too much fun and realized that he's happier in a less metropolitan town. I guess it really says something about Dallas that for years now whenever I visit another place I immediately want to move there. Corpus and San Antone started looking really good to me, but I'm still trying to find some utopia in the Northern U.S.

On a more somber note Kara and I are taking a break from each others company for a short time. Without going into too much detail, it's something that needs to happen if we want our relationship to be successful in the future. We've been dealt a tough hand since we got together and though it will be a big adjustment we both feel it's the right thing to do. Maybe I'll get off my kiester and produce some artwork now.

The cover of this ESSENTIAL album only vaguely relates to the following...

Decompression Time!

Kara and I are leaving tomorrow for a much-needed, and long overdue vacation. I hear Paris is amazing this time of year, but Corpus Christi, and San Antonio are going to be just as good to me. We're going to hang out with her sister Ericka, and Steve "The Boyfriend". It should be fun, as they've lived there a little under a year, so the town is still new to them but they know where to go. I look forward to a little beer drinking, skateboarding, and goofing off around the beach. Steve is about my age and still skates regularly, and fortunately he's into old-school skating like me so it should be fairly mellow. There's a skatepark in Corpus, and I think they have a bowl, which I would be into riding. I'm bringing along plenty of bubble-wrap. I'm going to San Antonio after a few days to see my friend "Wild Bill" Ivy.

I suspect that Bill and I will drink more beer, and eat endless amounts of excellent Mexican Food. I think that's about all there is to do there if you're not into the tourist trip. It won't take much for this to be a successful break. I can't wait to get on the highway and "open her up", if you know what I mean. I expect this all to go a long way to maintaining my sanity. See ya Dallas!!

Good Grief!!

A.D.D. Special!

I'm feeling spread-thin, all over the map. I don't think I've really got a.d.d., but I am easily distracted. I think it's way over-diagnosed. I do think that most people that grew up when I did and watched tons of bad TV have short attention-spans. I also think that there probably are a lot of folks that actually have a.d.d., but I think medicine is over-prescribed. But whenever there's money to be made you'll suddenly find a large portion of the populace that can't help but buy what their selling. This gets me to thinking about the whole "People have always been like this/We are just more aware of it because of the super fast transmission of information" argument. Topics that lend themselves to this are generally of the negative kind such as pedophilia, teen pregnancy/drug alcohol use/delinquency, violence, greed, fraud, and a slew of others. Topics that are perhaps more controversial or hard to classify in nature that prompt this debate include homosexuality, mental illness, child-rearing, materialism, family values, and the mysterious obsession most dudes and some women have with sports.

I tend to lean towards the side proclaiming that people are basically the way they have been since the dawn of time. There are more people alive today than the sum of all people that lived before them (supposedly), so it makes sense that one and all of the many quirks of the hairless ape would be exponentially widespread. This in combination with the fact that for whatever reason bad news is the most popular kind, and the fact that this news can travel the globe instantaneously would create the illusion that the world/this country/kids today are going down the toilet. I won't even get into the fact that I believe the media is intentionally instilling us with an irrational fear. This brings me to something that has been on my mind more and more in the last 5 years, human nature. People never cease to amaze me, and like it or not the ones that have the greatest impact on me are the assholes. I am constantly blown away by the highs and lows of the way people treat others( or themselves for that matter). Let me just say that I am far from saintly, selfless, or philanthropic but I like to think I give as much as I take in most of my dealings with others. I have seen recent examples of extreme generosity(see previous posts) and of extreme selfishness.

I must have been living in a fantasy world to a larger degree than I thought while going to U.N.T. in Denton. That and the fact that most of the people I mingled with were delusional as well (ie. artists/musicians/freaks) made for a harsh reality-check when I moved back to Dallas to become a part of the rat-race. The faster pace, materialism, and lack of a sense of humor or an interest in culture I was accosted with nearly every day caused me to consider relocating many times as I plan to in the next few years. It's really due to a combination of things that I had to deal with more truly evil people in any one of the 8 years or so I've been back than the whole 6 or so I lived in the little college town 30 minutes to the North. For example, I have had far more landlord/housing problems in Dallas. The worst being the cute, little grandma types. They get away with murder because most people are afraid to ask them for anything, and when you do they play dumb like a little wrinkled pro. And don't get fooled if they happen to be "artsy" or liberal or "laid back", they're the most dangerous. I just feel like venting and everybody else is already sick of listening to me. I've got a lot of craziness in my life that is beginning to come to a head right now despite my best efforts. If things get just a little better soon I'll feel like the last few years of struggle have been worth it. At least I'm starting to feel like my cajones are back if you know what I mean.

So as not to be a complete bummer here's some mindless fun:

http://flashface.ctapt.de/

Ambassadors of Dino Park, and "me" in the future.

Found in the back seat of a tricked-out Delorean!

Yes, the above photo was in fact discovered recently by an anonymous source when detailing the interior of an exotic, 1980's sports car with major modifications including, but not limited to, a flux-capacitor and, inexplicably, one of those dash-mounted, disgusting, plastic spitoons popular among the "snuff-dippin" crowd. (I am aware that this is a probably a run-on sentence!) For those of you who have been spared from being intimately familiar with my face I can attest that this guy looks VERY MUCH like what I would look like with a simulated age-progression of 15 plus years. I hope I mutate in a slightly more pleasing manner, but the truth hurts, right?
In reality the photo is of some golfer who played at the Colonial or something featured in The Dallas Morning Snooze, I mean News.

As this is a limited topic I thought I'd make a quick mention about last weekends very enjoyable trip to Dinosaur Valley Park in Glenrose, Tx. Kara and I were invited to accompany our friends Matt, and Sharon Bagley along with their baby-girl Arabella. We met at their house and went to breakfast at Barbec's on Garland road. Barbecs is a popular greasy spoon famous for their beer-biscuits. We hit the road and about 1.5 hours later we were feasting our eyes on a town put on the map by the fact that there are honest to goodness, extremelly well-preserved Dinosaur tracks, as well as hiking/biking, swimming, and camping areas. The first thing you see when you pull into the park is two big statues. One is a T-Rex, and the other the dinosaur formerly known as the Brontosaurus, and now known as something else. The baby instinctually pointed and babbled repeatedly. We of course hit the gift shop right away. Then we went to the area with most of the tracks which is a shallowish creek. This was my first clue that this day might involve a lot of crossing over slippery, precarious rocks while carrying strollers and other baby gear.

We made the crossing unscathed and headed out on the trails. This was great fun, even with the necessity of carrying the baby-jogger over the harder to navigate sections which were plentiful. Matt, and Arrabella seem to be fairly fearless and I was impressed. In addition to being in contention for cutest baby of all time Arrabella is also brave. She's going to have to be to keep up with her father. Hanging out with Matt is always an adventure, largely due to the fact that he is very active, a free-thinker, and a bit eccentric. Most of the best memories of my college days involve him. We've both come a long way, but I like to think that we've maintained many of the traits and values that were so important to us then.

After hiking for at least 2 or 3 hours we decided to leave and grab some food. We had planned to swim originally but we were all tired, and hungry. Besides that we did all get our feet wet when we removed our shoes to cross the riverish part. Bare feet in contact with rocks that have been rounded off over the years still hurt. Who knew we were so tender? We headed back to Dallas and had dinner at The Lakewood Dixie House. We plan to go back to the park for more, and this time we're going to stop at the CREATION EVIDENCE MUSEUM for some laughs. From what I understand this is the "brainchild" of Dr. Carl E. Baugh who claims to have a master's degree in archeology and a Ph.D. in education from the mythical Pacific College of Graduate Studies. Youv'e got to give it to a guy that would devote a whole museum to debunking evolution in a town littered with evidence to the contrary. I hear they've got some hilariously bad art there. I can't wait. Here's the link, which even I haven't looked at yet:

http://www.creationevidence.org/

The Knights of the New Crusade!

Reviews by !#*$!*@! default!

I haven't been able to buy new music to the degree that I would like to for quite a piece now so I will review two "newish" albums I have been listening to. The first being MY GOD IS ALIVE! SORRY ABOUT YOURS! from The Knights of the New Crusade, and the second being BLACK FOREST from The A-Frames. The Knights are up to something, and what that is, is a topic of debate. On the surface they are an "accidentally" comical, right-wing, ultra-Christian/Fundamentalist garage-ish rock and roll band. They dress as medieval knights in chainmail with helmets made out of what appears to be strategically cut metal buckets. It's a great look. (Get ready to hear elements of zillions of record reviews featuring things that there are no better words to describe...) The sound is stripped-down, no frills, rock AND roll. The players are obviously well schooled on the history of raw, garage rock and they should be. The word on the street is that they are in reality a supergroup of sorts( at least to the relatively small world of garage/punk fans). At least one member of the legendary MUMMIES and/or a former member of the PHANTOM SURFERS are involved. The Mummies pretty much defined early '90's garage rock and were among the most true to the form of a handful of groups doing it at the time such as THE GORIES.

Whether or not they are serious about the "message" they are spreading is obviously a joke in itself. The lyrical content of the album is almost entirely straight-forward, consistent with the Christian image, and seemingly serious other than one use of the word FUCK. The approach and ideology are however WAY over the top, which is a signifier of irony, or social commentary. On this level it seems like a big middle-finger to what is apparently the mentality of the majority of the United States, particularly the Bush supporters. There is the slight possibility that the Knights are employing a brilliant display of double-speak. That is to say that at heart they do have some kind of Christian values and they're pulling the wool over everyones' eyes. They've got the Christian kids listening to good old rock and roll (with punk undertones), and they've got the more open-minded garage rock fans listening to songs about God. They actually played at what is supposedly the most popular Christian teen club in the U.S., THE DOOR, which is here in the Deep Ellum Area of Dallas. Unfortunatley this was a few days before I caught wind, and though I am not a Christian or even particularly religious I wouldn't have missed it for all the SUV's in Dallas. (which I would sell and/or destroy) Either way this is one of the best albums of the year. They've really beat the odds, but by combining a controversial "gimmick", rehashed, and in some cases appropriated(stolen) classic "garage" classics, with a great sense of humour and love of good music these cats have created something new in a genre that is both underappreciated, and overdone at the same time.

http://crusadenow.com/

The A-Frames are rehashing some ideas too but not quite so much with the stealing. I just mean that they sometimes wear their excellent influences on their sleeves. These guys have been embraced by many garage/punk fans and I guess that's because of their minimal, mid-paced, and agressive approach, but I think they would be bigger with the indie/eighties people. It's like a droning, robotic, ominous kinda thing with vocals that sometimes recall early Joy Division. I'll admit that I bought this because I kept seeing their name mentioned amongst other bands that I enjoy, or might enjoy and I found a new copy on Amazon.om for a few bucks. If I had paid $12-16 or so for this I would have been slightly dissappointed as I like to own albums that are at least 90% (oh what word to choose...?) listenable. That's not to say that nearly every track on this disc isn't, but I'm attempting to make a point. The obvious standout song being EXPERIMENT, I wish they were all more in that direction. I'm all for variety in a band or even a album that genre-hops like mad but I tended to like the louder, more tense songs the most. There even were some good ones that had backup vocals by the girl-person in the group but I liked the less "indie" sounding material best. They're on Subpop records(who seem to have gone soft, but in an o.k. way) but played at the HORIZONTAL ACTION MAGAZINE BLACKOUT in Chicago, which is the like the punkest of the punk amongst modern garage-punker types. They're kind of between two worlds and thats a good place to make interesting music.

http://www.subpop.com/scripts/main/bands_page.php?id=442

Hasil Adkins performs, while who I think is writer/director/producer Caleb Emerson does his best "Alan Lomax" field-recording thing.

Underdogs and gutter-punks

The Fringe Media Film and Music Blah-blah was last night and it was perhaps the most well attended of the recent shows. This was due in no small part to the many "friends of the band" Sleezus Fist and the Latter-Day Taints brought in. Some of them were funny too! Like the drunk-rocker girl who tripped in the dark and tried to play it off by remaining on the grimy floor of the Redblood Club, and having what I'm sure was a very important conversation on her cellphone. This was done quite loudly I might add! The short film was forgettable and I didn't stick around to see the band, having gotten my fill via their website, but the feature film made it all worth it. DIE YOU ZOMBIE BASTARDS was great, not perfect but very entertaining. If it were perfect I wouldn't be wasting my time writing about it here for all you fine folks(!?!). Perfect films/music/art/books are pretty much covered by many other more capable writers. I love the underdog, and even the most brain-washed and undiscerning of you probably have or will at one time or another. It's that phenomenon that occurs when a creative person or group still has the rough edges, a fire in their belly, and hunger to do it for the right reasons. This doesn't mean they won't, or don't want to sell out it just means they're nowhere near it yet.

I think the guys that made it are out of Rhode Island, and they have had some stuff at Tromadance, and a big movie festival in Berlin. The story involves a loveable, eloquent, homicidal maniac in search of his wife who is kidnapped during an idyllic picnic of a decapitated head and champagne. The evil Dr. Nefarious has seen her own depraved, and cannibalistic acts via his remote viewing technology and must have her for his own. Conflict firmly in place, our "hero" scours the globe visiting different locals on a seemingly aimless quest for her. This does allow for the insertion of many colorful characters, the most entertaining and legendary of which is the recently deceased rockabilly, one-man-band Hasil Adkins who I kind of eulogized in a previous post. As a fan even I was suprised at just how genuinely eccentric, backwoods, and brilliant "The Haze" was, and I kick myself for missing him at last years Las Vegas Rockaround. The film is entertaining, absurd, and funny enough to satisfy those that are already familiar with what comes with watching a low-budget, independent, undergound movie like this one. If you're only used to watching Hollywood mind-rot then stear clear, OR try it out, maybe you'll be converted.
Almost forgot about the gutter-punks. Not much to say but as they are often around when Justin is involved I just think it's funny that they are oblivious to the fact that they and most of the other varieties of "hard-core" punkers have a stricly regimented uniform that smacks of mindless conformity. As I've often heard those that were around before punk broke big the first time (in late '76/early '77) say(approximately) "...the minute you saw mohawks and the standard leather jacket everywhere it was nothing but posers...", and that was a LONG time ago. Or as I used to say in high school, "Everyones trying so hard to be different that they're all the same". I know it's been said before, but what hasn't.

Watch the trailer, and look at the purty pictures:

http://www.dieyouzombiebastards.com/dyzblobby.html

X. They Rock!

X-The Unheard Music

If you've never heard the great, L.A. band X do yourself a favor and pick some up. It's a crime that they aren't more well known, thus the title of the excellent documentary about them. The Unheard Music is without a doubt one of the best rock and roll movies of all time. This is the kind of movie that I think could be appreciated even if you weren't crazy about the band. The band is comprised of Exene Cervenka on vocals, John Doe on vocals and bass, Billy Zoom on lead guitar, and D.J. Bonebrake on drums. If you've seen the film The Decline of Western Civilization then you already know that they left the other the L.A. punk bands at the time in the dust, musically at least. Maybe they couldn't match Black Flag, or The Germs for sheer sonic-attack, or attitude but they made up for it with VERY catchy, well-written and well-executed songs and originality. They also had more charisma than a hundred Erik Estradas on top of musical chops for days.
They took the idea of cowpunk to such a level that it evolved into a rare and listenable mix of punk, early rock and roll/rockabilly, and country with some kind of previously unknown, mutant harmony. Exene who handles most of the lead vocals is backed up by John Doe who knows just how to compliment her often atonal, beautifully droning voice. I know bow down to the blonde god of guitar, Billy Zoom. To say he makes it look easy is a great understatement as he looks straight ahead with a huge, childlike grin on his face never once looking down at the fretboard while he tears off blazing licks and solos like a punk-rock greaser with soul to spare. The whole thing is held together with the steady pounding of Mr. Doe's bass but the real secret weapon is drummer Bonebrake. He has found that perfect balance between keeping it simple and playing his technically superior little ass off. He says something in the film about trying to make up for the lack of other orchestral type instruments. He does manage to work some original beats into what would normally be by-the-numbers rock and roll drumming.
John and Exene met in a poetry workshop and that sentiment is a common thread throughout their music. Emotional without a hint of sappiness, serious without pretension, and "party" music without overt stupidity, X stands the test of time again, and again.

Hasil "The Haze" Adkins R.I.P. 

Bad month for Good Music.

It is with a great sadness that I report the death of one of rock and rolls largely unsung heroes, HASIL ADKINS. Hasil was making tapes in his bedroom throughout the 50's and 60's, eventually making some "proper" recordings. He was one of the prime originators of what has become an underground craze; the one-man band. The story goes that when he first heard Hank Williams on the radio as a teen he thought old Hank was playing all the instruments himself, and singing at the same time. This encouraged Hasil to figure out how to do it, and boy did he ever. He developed a raw, humorous, and often scary rockabilly style heavily influenced by Jerry Lee Lewis. Hasil gained a lot of exposure when the Cramps covered his song "She Said", which became a concert staple for the band. He had been enjoying a resurgence in popularity in the last decade, still living in his "hunchin' shack" in some West Virginia swamp. Apparently Mr. Adkins was on the porch of said shack petting his dogs when some deranged, teenage redneck in a monster truck pulled up and rammed him. This caused him to fly some distance which caused enough injury to land him in the hospital. From what I have been able to determine he passed away in his sleep after a few days. Supposedly this little scumbag went and rammed somebody else directly after this. He deserves some kind of nasty torture. No motive is known. This comes almost a month after Billy "Bass Wolf" of Japanese garage-rock band Guitar Wolf passed away in his mid-thirties and supposedly of natural causes. The world of primitive rock and roll/garage/punk/what-have-you has lost two of it's greatest contributors.

http://www.hasiladkins.com/

http://members.tripod.com/~Hasil_Adkins/

The bare necessities! 

Dallas-APATHY CITY!

This town never ceases to amaze me, and it's not generally in a pleasant manner. The Fringe Media movie/music thingamabob was last night and the turnout was even worse than the last one. O.K., it was on a Sunday night. O.K., it was raining a bit. O.K., it did feature a movie that has been shown in town a few times already. O.K., Nomeansno was playing the same night. O.K., it did feature a rather pointless, short opening film, and a relatively unknown(but pretty good) band. That doesn't explain or forgive the fact that LOTS of people said they were going to be there and didn't show. What's it going to take to get people to try something different?

This town has a reputation for having lame crowds/audiences and deservedly so. A lot of bands and other "creative" types skip Dallas for this very reason. Besides being one of the most conservative places in the country, Dallas is also one of the most superficial, status-obsessed bergs this side of L.A. If Austin weren't so crowded with young folks, and uber-hipsters I would have moved there years ago. I need a vacation, NOW! I need to remind myself that there is life out there. So as not to be a complete bummer, here's a cool link to a page about optical illusions:

http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/index.html

This album helped restore my faith in humanity. This other thing was never in my nose! 

Convenient Hitler moustaches and extreme generosity!

I had a great experience recently that was one of those that renews your faith in an increasingly dissapointing human race. As I was perusing garagepunk.com, as I am prone to do I saw a "thread", I guess you would call it, titled "Do you like the Rolling Stones?". As I do I decided to see what all the fuss was and I'm very glad I did. A gentleman known only as Soundog had started this "thread" with the goal of distributing, at no charge to those interested, a mystery prize that he described as "vintage-ish" relating to the Stones. His only request was a short statement (preferably of 75 words or less) elaborating on the subject. He gave examples such as "They turned me on to Bo Diddley.", and something about the coolest mellotron sound of all time amongst others. He got a variety of good responses with differing levels of effort put into them. After a half-dozen or so of these he declared all to be winners and requested that the particpants "PM", or "private message" him with their mailing address. I'll have to admit that as I am not used to such selfless generosity, especially from total strangers , I was at first wondering what, if any scams, or repercussions could result from this. I threw caution to the wind and in a couple of days I was graced with a 2-cd set of live, early(good) Rolling Stones. I was, how you say, stoked! I just want to express my gratitude for the kindness of Soundog, and also say that it was nothing short of inspirational. As an interesting side-note, the cds smelled like brown sugar, though the song of the same name was not on them.

In totally unrelated news I noticed that this weird, little attachment that we have at work that goes to the vacuum cleaner would make a great Hitler moustache in a pinch. I would have tried it out, but I'm trying to get away from putting filthy things in my nose.

The Culprit as a younger fool.

My own worst enemy!

I have been my own worst enemy at times in the past. This is no longer the case. This is not to say I don't sometimes engage in self-defeating behavior. With my last post I have engaged in something that I consider to be one of my pet peeves when others are involved: I've become a bit of what I refer to as a COAT-TAIL RIDER. You know these people. You may even BE one of these people. They are often the "hangers on" that are always on the scene with a band or some other group that is actually accomplishing or producing something. The defining characteristic of this type is the constant reference to this nebulous "We" when referring to the activities of said group. For example, "We're going down to Austin for a show with The Meaningless Molecules. They love us down there!". Now I don't believe I am as guilty as most in this case as I was 50% of the intial inception of this production company, for lack of a better word, . But I will admit that Justin Powers deserves most of the credit for putting on consistently fine events. I simply help out by providing artwork, promotional materials, support, and a fool to brainstorm with. If I ever let this happen again in relation to any other group or activity of which I am not truly a part of please shoot me!

"New Archetypes"(modified detail) -Scott Krakowski 1996

Fringe Media

Fringe media is by definition(at least the type I'm referring to):

Fringe- A marginal, peripheral, or secondary part: “They like to hang out on the geographical fringes, the seedy outposts” (James Atlas).
Those members of a group or political party holding extreme views: the lunatic fringe.

Media- A means of mass communication, such as newpapers, magazines, radio, or television.
media (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The group of journalists and others who constitute the communications industry and profession.
A surrounding environment in which something functions and thrives.
The substance in which a specific organism lives and thrives.
A culture medium.
A specific kind of artistic technique or means of expression as determined by the materials used or the creative methods involved: the medium of lithography.
The materials used in a specific artistic technique: oils as a medium.

So to cobble together my own definition I may say that Fringe media is the expression or communication of culture by those with extreme, sometimes seedy views. Back in 2000 my friend Justin and I started doing events under the name Fringe Media. It was generic, yet specific. By specific I mean that it referred to culture that is widely marginalized. It wasn't meant to say "Whoah, look at us! We're SOO out there!", it was merely stating a fact. It took many years of immersion in what I considered to be essential pop culture to realize that in general any type of expression that is pure, raw, full strength as opposed to watered down, quirky, passionate, wildly original, controversial, or just a bit left of center is forced to the fringes. I didn't ask for the kinds of art, and entertainment I and others of my ilk enjoy to be deemed "underground", "punk", "independent", or "avant-garde". It's there and will be there to an ever-increasing degree primarily because of the "dumbing down of America". If you don't believe that this is being done as part of some larger, sinister agenda then you haven't dug very deeply below the surface. For a concrete, black and white example for the disbelievers just compare an older,English-language dictionary to a more modern one. The definitions not only get shorter, and therefore more simplistic but they also seem to promote a type of "neo-conservatism". Here's an article that sums it up extremely well:

http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/thought_control.htm

The reason for my tangent is the new Film and music series we are doing at The RedBlood Club in Deep Ellum, here in Dallas. Every other Sunday evening from about 7 to 10:30 we will show one short film, a feature film, and have a band play afterwards. The films are often of unusually high quality and are always independently produced. Bands will vary in style but will most often be local folks. Last night we showed local films The Portal, and A four course meal, which were followed up by an acoustic performance of The Bobby Weaver band. Come out to support truly independent culture.

http://www.redbloodclub.net/

Sometimes originality is over-rated.

MVPA's!

This is about the Most Valuable Pathetic Assholes I've either encountered or heard about lately. They are "valuable" in that they tell us which direction NOT to go in. First off there's a clip that I think is on EBaums's World but since I hate that site here's a link that has it (scroll down to "self-involved much":

http://www.gordonkeith.com/wordpress/

It's a 911 phone call from a woman in line at some fast-food place trying to get the cops to do something about her order that has been made wrong 3 times. Now I agree, these guys screw up a lot of orders, BUT when does it start to make sense to you to involve the police. This soccer mom needs to dipped in the deep-fryer one limb at a time until she comes to. Now on to the warm up rant...

I found these two twerps through Gordon's site as well. I think I understand people that are into body modification, I jokingly call them Future Primitives after the name of an old skateboarding video. They feel an overwhelming desire to set themselves apart from the pack. The "underground music", dyed hair and wacky clothes weren't doing it. Tatoos sufficed for a bit, but then everybody got them, often with full sleeves/facial tattoos, etc. What do we do now?
I know, I'll have earlobes like my 90 year-old granny, get a nasty brand seared into my flesh and if I'm really desperate some kind of implants like little beads or horns under my skin. I've seen even more extreme projections of this way of thinking but this one seems the most ridiculous to me. These fuckers cut off their ring fingers rather than get wedding rings:

http://www.bmezine.com/news/pubring/20050401.html

Call me conservative. Call me "old-fashioned", boring, closed-minded or what you will but all I can muster is a big "WHO CARES?!!". I'll bet these "fringe-dwellers" are still religious about watching Desperate Housewives or some such drivel. Read the article if you want the particulars. This BMEzine seems to be a haven for the body-mod. folks. Let me reiterate, NOBODY CARES!

My new enemies, the cheerleaders of THE DALLAS MARATHON, and I met last Sunday morning after they woke me at 7 a.m. from a wonderful rest. To make what I would love to make a long story, short, I went down to see what all the fuss was, after hearing various "Woo!"'s, "Woo-Hoo!"'s and "You can do it!"'s for about an hour with a pillow over my head and my girlfriend starting to get irritated as well. I went up to the loudest and most distinctly voiced twentyish, sorority type and said "Where do YOU live? I live right back there and I've been listening to you scream for about an hour now, etc. etc." I gave her the "my only day to sleep in" thing, and asked her if this was for charity (which would have made me a smidgen more sympathetic). She said it was just a race and gave me a sheepish, "sorry..". I then went up to one of the cops blocking traffic for three blocks and asked him if their permit included all-the-noise-they-could-make as well. He said "They have a permit, that's all I know." And to cap it all off as I slithered back into my hole looking like I just crawled out of one, I actually wondered whether I was an asshole for doing this. Well, the answer is an emphatic NO! Pandering to neurotic joggers, and middle-aged goobers (Though I might fit that description) that have to prove that they can "Do It!" is not justification for using tax-payer money to have cops re-direct traffic. Not to mention the gall and poor planning of the "organizers" of the event who decided to have their noisy, watergirls right in the middle of a residential block rather than in many of the less populated areas nearby. Thankfully my girlfriend, Kara has bigger balls than everyone else in this neighborhood. When we left a few hours later and they were still at it she yelled, "GIVE IT A REST, YOU FUCKING CATTLE!!", which was heard for miles around. And another thing, "You kids stay the hell outta my yard!!"...

This is my happening and it FREAKS me out!! 

Actually went to a show!

In what I hope is a sign of things to come Kara and I went out to see live music on Wednesday night. We even got so caught up in the freshness of the whole thing that we went and had a beer at The Lakewood Landing afterword. A friend of ours named Aaron(sp?) lives at a former church that has been converted to a residence and studio with a few others. It's a really nice space with an informal, but in no way approaching disgusting, feel. Unlike so many other similar ventures it was clean, and though there was a keg, people were polite and only reasonably rowdy even responding to a request for silence during a very quiet segment of one performance.

The line up was as follows: Wanz Dover's Wild Bull Electronic Experiment, Yells at Eels(Mutant Jazz Family), and an improvisational duo whose name escapes me. Wanz's performance was well-done and intriguing but ultimately not my cup of tea. While I enjoyed the more experimental bits, I was turned off by the segments with typical dance/techno beats. From what I could see he was operating a p.c., mixers of various types, sample pads of some kind, and other electronic thingamajiggys. I've seen his main band The Falcon Project once, and I really liked them. Yells at Eels is comprised of Stefan on drums , Aaron(sp?) on elecric bass, and their father whose name escapes me on trumpet. I guess I need to carry a note pad around with me if I'm going to be writing about these excursions. If I had to easily describe their sound I would say free-jazz, with a prog-rock influence sprinkled with bursts of noise that have a punk energy to them.

Does that sound as silly as I think it does? Well, let me assure you that there is nothing silly about their music as they are all accomplished musicians and not only that, they sound great. I do have to say that Stefan is one of the best drummers I have seen in quite a while. He and his brother bring a slightly subversive element to the group as they have been around the punk/metal scene for years with their own two-piece hardcore band Acolyte. I'd probably be spewing a load of crap if I tried to descibe it any more than that since I'm more of an authority on the traditionally structured side of music, or pretty much anything that is generally comprised of guitars, drums, and/or keyboards, vocals, etc. I hesitate to call this pop, rock, blues, country, what-have-you.

I regret not seeing more than half the first song by ???????????????? , but Kara and I were getting restless and it takes a special mindset to listen to more free-form music than we did in one sitting. They were a two piece of Asian descent. (Why this is important I don't know. I think it helps you visualize the whole thing, and besides that I like that sentence.) She played the Cello, and he the drums, both in an unconventional manner. Most of the time I watched he had some various cymbals and drum sticks on top of the floor tom and was doing his best to make screeching sounds, cut through the head, or slice a finger off. And then he would let go with a blast of more traditional percussion that made me want to stick around to see what happened but that was it for us. I look forward to more shows at The Sanctuary Studio.