Agh! The internet burns!
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Bringin on the heartache...
So, played with The Heartaches Thursday night. They were really great. Nice guys, good songs, killer energy. Really inspiring. They had the whole socal big song thing down to a tee.
Mike bought one of their LP's and they said it was the first that they had sold. Very sweet band moment. We all had a group hug. No, really. Okay, no.
I think we really played a good show. We showcased the new incarnation of our song 'The End' which really needs to be renamed so as not to collide with the opening of Apocalypse Now. We also played our new song penned by Brad "Srendi Vashtar" which is currently my fave to play. I love playing Brad's songs because they're so pop-a-riffic that every time I make a chord change I have the feeling that I'm bowing to inevitability. There's no possibilty that any other chord should or would be played there.
Myself I'm always struggling with the desire to make form reflect my subject as much as the content does, but I think that gets in the way some times. Luckily, we can all take elements of each others strength in this band. Makes it a lot of fun.
Also, The Heartaches are on Swami records which might be a target for our new self released EP. If you're reading this (and I know noone is) and you're an obsessive music freak, you might enjoy their forum which I have just discovered:
http://swamirecords.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=1
There, don't say I never did anything for ya.
Mike bought one of their LP's and they said it was the first that they had sold. Very sweet band moment. We all had a group hug. No, really. Okay, no.
I think we really played a good show. We showcased the new incarnation of our song 'The End' which really needs to be renamed so as not to collide with the opening of Apocalypse Now. We also played our new song penned by Brad "Srendi Vashtar" which is currently my fave to play. I love playing Brad's songs because they're so pop-a-riffic that every time I make a chord change I have the feeling that I'm bowing to inevitability. There's no possibilty that any other chord should or would be played there.
Myself I'm always struggling with the desire to make form reflect my subject as much as the content does, but I think that gets in the way some times. Luckily, we can all take elements of each others strength in this band. Makes it a lot of fun.
Also, The Heartaches are on Swami records which might be a target for our new self released EP. If you're reading this (and I know noone is) and you're an obsessive music freak, you might enjoy their forum which I have just discovered:
http://swamirecords.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=1
There, don't say I never did anything for ya.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
So,...
I live.
I bring this blog back to life because I feel a weird need to get stuff off my chest. I stopped because my email account I was using for my freelance work has this domain. So if someone thought 'furrycheese.com' was cute and looked it up, they would know that I looked peaked at the meeting I had for a multi-thousand dollar contract because I wrote on my blog that I drank tequila from a hookers navel the night before.
This sort of thing might not be good for my business.
Now that things are moving along with my design partner I'm more and more using a different email address so I might start this again. I don't know.
One of the problems is that since I now work for a bunch of bands I feel obligated to shut up about music. I mean, it's not like I give my blog address to the record label we work with and it doesn't take much to find me with google. I feel constrained to not talk shit about a band I hate, which frankly, since bands I like can't afford us, is pretty much any band I might work with. That's weird.
I mean looking over the posts I've made in the past, I don't really go on about music, but the constraint feels weird.
I don't know still thinking about it.
I bring this blog back to life because I feel a weird need to get stuff off my chest. I stopped because my email account I was using for my freelance work has this domain. So if someone thought 'furrycheese.com' was cute and looked it up, they would know that I looked peaked at the meeting I had for a multi-thousand dollar contract because I wrote on my blog that I drank tequila from a hookers navel the night before.
This sort of thing might not be good for my business.
Now that things are moving along with my design partner I'm more and more using a different email address so I might start this again. I don't know.
One of the problems is that since I now work for a bunch of bands I feel obligated to shut up about music. I mean, it's not like I give my blog address to the record label we work with and it doesn't take much to find me with google. I feel constrained to not talk shit about a band I hate, which frankly, since bands I like can't afford us, is pretty much any band I might work with. That's weird.
I mean looking over the posts I've made in the past, I don't really go on about music, but the constraint feels weird.
I don't know still thinking about it.
Monday, July 03, 2006
It's Alive!!!!
So, I killed my blog for some personal reasons I won't get into. Probably, I'm going to have to change the setup of this site in a bit. For the time being I'm going to just post photos as they come my way. For instance, this lovely photo of Brad Of and I just before the first Steel Tigers of Death show. The show went swimmingly, thank you.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Media roundup....
Suffice to say, I haven't been posting because my life is really up and down right now, and I'm trying not to obsess on it. With that in mind, here's some shit I think deserves a litle linky love:
WFMU is doing their annual fundraiser this week. Which means, next Tue evening is the traditional Yo La Tengo live fundraiser. By pledging, you can choose any song in the world you want them to cover, and they'll gamely do their best. It is hands down one of my favorite things in the world to listen to. Here's the info page.
Our great NY pals Kickstart got interviewed by the BBC a while ago and there's an mp3 on their site. Fun.
Also, FMU posted an mp3 of something I used to play on my old radio show all the time. It's the 'Langley Schools Music Project' covering 'Space Oddity'. I've always found it oddly charming and wished I had been in that high school gym.
And finally, today on metafilter somebody did a nice post about Doris Wishman. Somebody responding posted this quote from her:
"Let me tell you something. All movies are exploitation movies."
Brilliant. RIP, Doris.
WFMU is doing their annual fundraiser this week. Which means, next Tue evening is the traditional Yo La Tengo live fundraiser. By pledging, you can choose any song in the world you want them to cover, and they'll gamely do their best. It is hands down one of my favorite things in the world to listen to. Here's the info page.
Our great NY pals Kickstart got interviewed by the BBC a while ago and there's an mp3 on their site. Fun.
Also, FMU posted an mp3 of something I used to play on my old radio show all the time. It's the 'Langley Schools Music Project' covering 'Space Oddity'. I've always found it oddly charming and wished I had been in that high school gym.
And finally, today on metafilter somebody did a nice post about Doris Wishman. Somebody responding posted this quote from her:
"Let me tell you something. All movies are exploitation movies."
Brilliant. RIP, Doris.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Memories of a book that never was.
So, we're in New Hampshire at my mom's house. It's great, the dogs are great, the folks are great, the food's great. I miss my cats and my computer and my guitar, but I'm cool with that. I'm thinking about stuff, of course, because it takes about 6 black russians to stop me from thinking.
My folks left out a book I gave them when I finished it, and I picked it up again. It's the great A Year at the Movies. Kevin Murphy, a former writer for MST3K, spends a year going to the movies every single day, and writes about it. It's a great book, and I love to read it. I'm also totally jealous.
Anybody who knew me back in oh, I'm gonna say 95 or so, knew about my grand plan to write a road book about drive-ins. See, I was going to write this great book where I took about six months and rode my motorcycle to all the remaining drive-ins in the country and took photographs and saw movies, and wrote about it. This did not happen for a number of reasons, which I will get to in a minute.
When I first got a copy (a present from my dad) my first response was "Hey, why didn't I do that?" Well, I had my own version of it in my drive in book, and I even shopped it around to a couple low level publishers I met. It didn't happen for several reasons and just for fun, and work out my jealousy, I'd like to contrast it with why Kevin Murphy's book was made.
1. I HAD NO MONEY
I couldn't take six months off to ride around to drive-ins. I couldn't take a week off to go to the beach. I was frigging broke. Even if I could have taken the time off, I couldn't afford to stay in motels and feed myself. I would have had to live on rice and sleep in national parks. My humorous account of pining for a lost pleasure would have turned into some retarded cross of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and "La Boheme." I would slowly go insane without protein as I froze to death in my tent.
Of course, my big plans involved living on an advance from my publisher, which is what Kevin Murphy did. Unless he just lived off of MST3K money, I don't know. Of course, I'd have to convince a publisher to give me and advance, which leads me to reason number two.
2. I HAVE NEVER WRITTEN ANYTHING LONGER THAN THIS BLOG POST
A slight exaggeration, but true where it counts. Kevin Murphy wrote a successful television show for that ran for like, ten million years. My poetry has been published in a couple college magazines, but past that, I'm not a writer. I'm not sure what idiot courage led me to believe this was not going to be an obstacle, but that's what I thought. I'm a relatively amusing guy in person, and I just figured shit would happen that I could take down, and I'd work out the grammar later.
Well, of course, writing is a skill. Sure, talent in storytelling helps, but you have to do it to be good at it. I don't do it. I'm much better at fucking off. Kevin Murphy did it a lot. A whole lot. It shows. And let's be honest. What kind of a publisher would give me a pile of money after I said "Well, I just figured I'd work the writing part out later"? A publisher soon to go broke, that's what kind. A publisher buys into things that will make them money. Things by people who never did anything before rarely get completed, much less make money. I was trying to sell it on the basis of it being a great idea. Which leads me to point 3.
3. GOING TO DRIVE-INS ON A MOTORCYCLE IS A STUPID IDEA
Okay, a drive-in is made to go to in a car. A car. I have gone to drive-ins on my motorcycle, but that was with friends who drove, and they brought lawn chairs, and we generally had a full on picnic experience. Going by myself is a stupid, stupid idea. I thought it was iconoclastic and planned on bringing some kind of camping chair with me. Of course, we all know those camping chairs suck, and it probably would have been a miserable experience. And let's just forget about rain, okay? Because I sure did.
Kevin Murphy only came even vaguely close to this level of obstinate stupidity once in his book. He decided to live for a week on food sold at concession counters in theaters. He didn't make it the full week, but I'm pretty sure he went a greater percentage of his concept than I would have gone on mine. And let's face it, my idea was stupider. Really.
4. WHO THE HELL WAS GOING TO BUY THIS BOOK
This probably goes back to one of the other reasons I wasn't getting much interest from what publishers I managed to corner. Nobody has been going to the drive-in for a long, long time. Why the hell did I think people were going to read about the drive in? I mean, Americans don't read! And the don't go to the drive-in! Ipso facto, the percentage of Americans who want to read about going to the drive-in has to be down around the percentage of people who voted for Nader twice. And the fact that I fit both of those categories doth not a best-seller make.
Kevin Murphy did the whole gamut of movie theater experiences, but mostly he went to multiplexes. That's what most Americans do, if they see movies at all. Plus, he had that whole "I'm doing something you do to an extent you would never do" thing going for him. My idea was "I'm doing something you don't do, in a way you would never do if you did, and expecting you identify." Not a real crowd pleaser. Here endeth the list.
Okay, Kevin Murphy wrote a better book than I ever would. Though mine would have poignant photographs, but that's a minor difference. And, to be fair, he has a chapter drive-ins on route 66 that's great. As he points out in his chapter, between the time he planned the trip and the time he went on it, about half the drive-ins closed. This was a plan to document a doomed experience that was becoming doomed so fast, I probably wouldn't have been able to document it. It never would have happened the way I wanted it to.
But I like to imagine it would have been great. And my consolation prize is this: within a week of marrying the love of my life, we were at one of the last remaining drive-ins in America in Skowhegan, Maine, having a blast. That's the kind of memory that makes your losses perfectly acceptable.
My folks left out a book I gave them when I finished it, and I picked it up again. It's the great A Year at the Movies. Kevin Murphy, a former writer for MST3K, spends a year going to the movies every single day, and writes about it. It's a great book, and I love to read it. I'm also totally jealous.
Anybody who knew me back in oh, I'm gonna say 95 or so, knew about my grand plan to write a road book about drive-ins. See, I was going to write this great book where I took about six months and rode my motorcycle to all the remaining drive-ins in the country and took photographs and saw movies, and wrote about it. This did not happen for a number of reasons, which I will get to in a minute.
When I first got a copy (a present from my dad) my first response was "Hey, why didn't I do that?" Well, I had my own version of it in my drive in book, and I even shopped it around to a couple low level publishers I met. It didn't happen for several reasons and just for fun, and work out my jealousy, I'd like to contrast it with why Kevin Murphy's book was made.
1. I HAD NO MONEY
I couldn't take six months off to ride around to drive-ins. I couldn't take a week off to go to the beach. I was frigging broke. Even if I could have taken the time off, I couldn't afford to stay in motels and feed myself. I would have had to live on rice and sleep in national parks. My humorous account of pining for a lost pleasure would have turned into some retarded cross of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and "La Boheme." I would slowly go insane without protein as I froze to death in my tent.
Of course, my big plans involved living on an advance from my publisher, which is what Kevin Murphy did. Unless he just lived off of MST3K money, I don't know. Of course, I'd have to convince a publisher to give me and advance, which leads me to reason number two.
2. I HAVE NEVER WRITTEN ANYTHING LONGER THAN THIS BLOG POST
A slight exaggeration, but true where it counts. Kevin Murphy wrote a successful television show for that ran for like, ten million years. My poetry has been published in a couple college magazines, but past that, I'm not a writer. I'm not sure what idiot courage led me to believe this was not going to be an obstacle, but that's what I thought. I'm a relatively amusing guy in person, and I just figured shit would happen that I could take down, and I'd work out the grammar later.
Well, of course, writing is a skill. Sure, talent in storytelling helps, but you have to do it to be good at it. I don't do it. I'm much better at fucking off. Kevin Murphy did it a lot. A whole lot. It shows. And let's be honest. What kind of a publisher would give me a pile of money after I said "Well, I just figured I'd work the writing part out later"? A publisher soon to go broke, that's what kind. A publisher buys into things that will make them money. Things by people who never did anything before rarely get completed, much less make money. I was trying to sell it on the basis of it being a great idea. Which leads me to point 3.
3. GOING TO DRIVE-INS ON A MOTORCYCLE IS A STUPID IDEA
Okay, a drive-in is made to go to in a car. A car. I have gone to drive-ins on my motorcycle, but that was with friends who drove, and they brought lawn chairs, and we generally had a full on picnic experience. Going by myself is a stupid, stupid idea. I thought it was iconoclastic and planned on bringing some kind of camping chair with me. Of course, we all know those camping chairs suck, and it probably would have been a miserable experience. And let's just forget about rain, okay? Because I sure did.
Kevin Murphy only came even vaguely close to this level of obstinate stupidity once in his book. He decided to live for a week on food sold at concession counters in theaters. He didn't make it the full week, but I'm pretty sure he went a greater percentage of his concept than I would have gone on mine. And let's face it, my idea was stupider. Really.
4. WHO THE HELL WAS GOING TO BUY THIS BOOK
This probably goes back to one of the other reasons I wasn't getting much interest from what publishers I managed to corner. Nobody has been going to the drive-in for a long, long time. Why the hell did I think people were going to read about the drive in? I mean, Americans don't read! And the don't go to the drive-in! Ipso facto, the percentage of Americans who want to read about going to the drive-in has to be down around the percentage of people who voted for Nader twice. And the fact that I fit both of those categories doth not a best-seller make.
Kevin Murphy did the whole gamut of movie theater experiences, but mostly he went to multiplexes. That's what most Americans do, if they see movies at all. Plus, he had that whole "I'm doing something you do to an extent you would never do" thing going for him. My idea was "I'm doing something you don't do, in a way you would never do if you did, and expecting you identify." Not a real crowd pleaser. Here endeth the list.
Okay, Kevin Murphy wrote a better book than I ever would. Though mine would have poignant photographs, but that's a minor difference. And, to be fair, he has a chapter drive-ins on route 66 that's great. As he points out in his chapter, between the time he planned the trip and the time he went on it, about half the drive-ins closed. This was a plan to document a doomed experience that was becoming doomed so fast, I probably wouldn't have been able to document it. It never would have happened the way I wanted it to.
But I like to imagine it would have been great. And my consolation prize is this: within a week of marrying the love of my life, we were at one of the last remaining drive-ins in America in Skowhegan, Maine, having a blast. That's the kind of memory that makes your losses perfectly acceptable.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Coffee is an occupational hazard here.
I drank so much coffee today my head exploded into fragments.
One fragment described a high angle, low velocity arc that scraped the troposphere. When it returned to earth, it lodged in the skull of a man in China. It made itself at home there and now my thorax is occasionally under the impression that it is a pirate DVD seller from the town of Wu Xan. Which is just ridiculous.
Another fragment embedded itself in one of those featureless gray boxes you see at intersections all the time. Rather than being a phone junction box, it turned out this box was a router for the Echelon 3 spy and listening system set up by the shadowy agency that lurks behind the CIA, NSA, and FCC. Instead of damage, it caused a complicated cross routing that has caused three sleeper agents to activate, turn rogue, and get the girl in the end.
A third fragment passed completely out of the gravity well of the earth. Thanks to a double banked gravity slingshot of Mars and Jupiter, it has approached a creepily high velocity and is now catching up, albeit slowly, to the voyager probe. It is entirely possible that aliens, coming upon the fragment chasing the probe, would think that the dominant culture of the earth changed radically after sending the probe and launched a ballistic object to destroy it. Perhaps in some attempt to hide our collective lights under a bushel. I fully expect this to result in the destruction of the earth by a superpowerful race that is simply looking for something important, like a child shaking out a sock drawer looking for a hidden birthday present.
So, it's important to monitor your coffee intake is what I'm saying.
Also, I ranted to Sheri the other night about Sharper Image. Mostly about how they didn't represent technology of any interest and just packaged airplane catalog crap in silver to attract the magpie eye of the young over paid type. I stand by that. And yet, I actually want this animated robot chimp head more than any other useless toy I've seen lately.
Perhaps Sharper Image could make a living out of marketing toys that are not just super cool, but a little scary and disturbing. The beauty of that gift page is also that if you buy one, that's fine. But if you buy a second it's markedly discounted. As if one animated robot chimp head wasn't enough. I guess the demographic they are pointed at is willing to buy a second creepy gift if it's marked down. I firmly believe that two of these pointed at each other with a furby in the middle would summon some dark power from the void. And I wish I could prove it.
Here's hoping your holiday is filled with creepy monkey heads.
One fragment described a high angle, low velocity arc that scraped the troposphere. When it returned to earth, it lodged in the skull of a man in China. It made itself at home there and now my thorax is occasionally under the impression that it is a pirate DVD seller from the town of Wu Xan. Which is just ridiculous.
Another fragment embedded itself in one of those featureless gray boxes you see at intersections all the time. Rather than being a phone junction box, it turned out this box was a router for the Echelon 3 spy and listening system set up by the shadowy agency that lurks behind the CIA, NSA, and FCC. Instead of damage, it caused a complicated cross routing that has caused three sleeper agents to activate, turn rogue, and get the girl in the end.
A third fragment passed completely out of the gravity well of the earth. Thanks to a double banked gravity slingshot of Mars and Jupiter, it has approached a creepily high velocity and is now catching up, albeit slowly, to the voyager probe. It is entirely possible that aliens, coming upon the fragment chasing the probe, would think that the dominant culture of the earth changed radically after sending the probe and launched a ballistic object to destroy it. Perhaps in some attempt to hide our collective lights under a bushel. I fully expect this to result in the destruction of the earth by a superpowerful race that is simply looking for something important, like a child shaking out a sock drawer looking for a hidden birthday present.
So, it's important to monitor your coffee intake is what I'm saying.
Also, I ranted to Sheri the other night about Sharper Image. Mostly about how they didn't represent technology of any interest and just packaged airplane catalog crap in silver to attract the magpie eye of the young over paid type. I stand by that. And yet, I actually want this animated robot chimp head more than any other useless toy I've seen lately.
Perhaps Sharper Image could make a living out of marketing toys that are not just super cool, but a little scary and disturbing. The beauty of that gift page is also that if you buy one, that's fine. But if you buy a second it's markedly discounted. As if one animated robot chimp head wasn't enough. I guess the demographic they are pointed at is willing to buy a second creepy gift if it's marked down. I firmly believe that two of these pointed at each other with a furby in the middle would summon some dark power from the void. And I wish I could prove it.
Here's hoping your holiday is filled with creepy monkey heads.
