tonight there was a last-minute phone book show, because j-skon is in town and wanted to play a show himself (as “candy secruity”). it was kind of a bummer because practice always rules and we did what we do during practice (which really isn’t practice so much as free swim), but i’m still only ever loud enough in our tiny practice room, and my phone book guitar broke so i had to play my other one which is not in tune past the fourth fret, and these things combined meant i wasn’t steady enough to go all out, which is the only way we can succeed (pretty much). the countess recently inherited some manner of 6′ cabinet, we talked tonight about me getting a head and the two of us sharing it. if that comes through i’ll be able to cross the first line of my three step phone book plan (which goes on from “get a really loud amp” to “put out a 7″” and “go on tour”). jim and i agreed not to play another show until we’re “on it”, or alternately “all up in it” or even are “it”.

candy security was like a burroughsian nate dogg, or anyway that’s what i felt it was going towards. ok, that’s what i would have liked for it to have been. with video projections.

i’m making a calender to sell at the store. if you’re about to buy a calender for the new year, don’t. if you already have a calender, convince yourself that you don’t like it. they drop friday (hopefully).

oh my god, i forgot to mention the best part of tonight’s show, which was jim wearing a silver velour sean john jumpsuit. yes.

UPDATE interested parties have until friday to get their birthdays in for publication in the calender. of course, if i put your birthday in, i’ll expect you to buy one (at $3 – $5).

fujichia mp3 reissue:
cat and bird hospital – noise thriller

download entire album zipped
stream in standalone player (flash)

[ratings]

(more…)

christmas eve dinner at my aunt’s was nice, as could be expected. among her other decorations (pictures of the swedish elf who leaves oranges in your shoes) she had a dry erase board on her fridge with her own scrawled spiritual/motivational notes. in addition to things like “full responsibility” and “see yourself as god sees you”, at the bottom it read “salad and desert”. totally.

did you know that india banned beauty contests in 2000, despite being home to the reigning miss world and miss universe pageant winners? neither did i, until i found a trivial pursuit card stating this very fact on the street a few days ago. what a great move. as alan lomax said about jelly roll morton’s louisiana (which equally applies to india): “the most beautiful women raised on the spiciest food (and courted with the hottest music)”. ever since eating at udupi the other night i’ve been saying this quote to myself, along with this nonsensical bit from an old national geographic: “large eaters of highly-spiced foods relaxed from fatigue in interminable feasts” (as i was telling peter- all national geographic writers are 100% living it, and marked less by clarity than by “in it”ness and “get psyched” vibe).

other auspicious trash- walking up the hill to nick’s house to hang out with aross and jbruce, an apple came rolling towards me of it’s own volition and at quite a clip. i laughed and hopped out of the way, and really felt like i had but a brief and brilliant cameo role in a star-studded slapstick historical epic. not that i’m necessarily sowing seeds of discord– something about the pitch of the hill and the irregular nature of the apple made the whole thing seem like a sped-up goofball chase scene. and for what’s it’s worth w/r/t sowing, i’m not trying to not, as maybe this incident shows. i mean, life’s for living, right? a dog’s gonna bark and an apple’s gonna roll.

• salad *and* desert
• spice-fueled beauty, music-fire as romantic capital, the engine
• fujichia: an apple’s gonna roll
  
  
  

a classic from james lee (whose wiggy sig i eventually decoded) and someone else (whose identity i was never able to discern). any nice folks who want to send mail can now reliably do so to: jacob c/o HBML 420 pleasant st worcester MA 01609. i’m trying to get back into regular mail. let’s see how long that lasts.

there’s lots of people visiting worcester for the holidays- old old famous pals like jbruce, aross, willy shakes, timbro, jskon, number one, emily bloodmilk, psibs, abel “danger” russ– it’s a trip. jeremy asked me if i’m eating good and i told him i am, but actually i’m eating good in two ways– i am consciously eating lots of brain food at home plus eating out with visiting dignitaries fairly often- udupi twice in two nights and dalat after that. quinoa with flax seeds and nutritional yeast for breakfast every day, constant snacking at the store on candied ginger, chocolate covered coffee beans, and walnuts, drinking bottomless green teas, feeling good. i’m eating simple and good enough that when i eat decadent and good i feel totally on drugs. ideal.

it’s been a serious holiday rush at the store, which is a great falling domino that has already set in motion a lot of other weird things for the next few months, including new t-shirts designed by mel (in color: lavender), plus better storage space in the back (which in turn means i’ll finally be able to build that planetarium) and hopefully in the next few weeks me and josh tumblecat will be able to drive down to jenine’s house and get those pinball machines (josh- i’m looking for you about this). oh, and it looks like i’ll be putting out some sort of newspaper, either of the sort earlier delineated or not, full details when i have them.

despite this half-bragging of stacked cheddar, really it’s more the case that there’s room to finally breathe money-wise. the rent club is still going good (~15 slots left if you’re interested in this run) , although it’s never on time (and realistically, it never will be) and i worry sometimes about wearing people thin (although i’m not begging people for money, and i am totally psyched on paying my friends to make awesome posters, and subsequently seeing/having the posters). anyway the important part of these three paragraphs is that i’m doing my damnedest to stay sane and productive this winter (even though one can hardly say it’s winter already with the weather so beguilingly temperate). sorry all you stuck at your parents’ houses this holiday season and toddling around on the predictable internet- i can’t write all day, as i have babies to shake and hands to kiss.

i missed a day a day ago, or rather, i lived it, most of you missed some of it, all of you missed all of it. carlos (russian tsarcasm, slime freaks), sasha (heart2heart), christopher (kites, low tide), and kate (teenage waistband) came to town on tour monday, but not playing music individually, performing a play (“mutation collapse”) together. thinking that a play would be enough for an entire show, i didn’t get anyone else to perform, and the play was 15 minutes long, so it was a 15 minute show. and it was great. the play was a sci-fi story, less on the crying robot tip than the spiritual cavebeast tip, on the noise / garbage / face paint axis. there was a lot of goop, slime, crud, and gunk; dripped, poured, and wiped on. black light, strobe light, gnarly times. awesommme.

oh, the picture above isn’t from the play. i don’t know who those people are.

today working at the store was great, lots of people came in for christmas shopping, psibs came to town, we got south indian food at udupi (in shrewsbury), always choice. i’ll be uploading the other cat and bird hospital record in a few, by request. this is good, right? i mean, this is a good way to organize the mp3 rerelease of fujichia backstock, right? any suggestions? requests?

fujichia mp3 re-issue:
cat & bird hospital – get well soon

the single- I Have A Secret
download entire album zipped
stream in standalone player (flash)

[ratings]

(more…)

uh, the new terribles page is up. right now there are just 2 albums, and they are zip files (with partial lyric sheets even). soon i’ll be uploading them to archive.org as individual tracks, which will take a load off the server, but more importantly make it so that mankind will be able to listen to the songs in 14 billion years. playerrrrrrrrrr.

oh, and while i’m at it, i’d like to point out that we’re now accepting ads on the site. we’re using text-link-ads, so if you’re into it, sign up, then check us out here. also also on the page update tip, maybe this isn’t something to brag about, but i made what i think is a really nice 404 page.

today was pretty sweet, even though i almost didn’t do anything. got up, ate the standard grits (now with ground flax seeds in an attempt to resurrect correct omega-3 levels), then eventually hoofed over to the store and hung out with the store closed putting together mail-outs for the hbml rent club (still slots left if you haven’t signed on yet!). walked down to the post office, hung out at the pleasant st neighborhood network center, came home, now me and pars are going to watch a movie at midnight. now let me say a few words about worcester post offices.

post offices are famously staffed by weird characters, like the one in lexington that acid dad chris langberg works at (hi chris!) or the one near mz’s family’s house that employs the famous horror host dr dreck, or the post office in providence where the handsome satanist reigns supreme in his cool gray skin. well, in worcester, people tell me the predominant characteristic is grouchiness, but i only ever go to two post offices, and both are staffed by total dreamboats. laughing and goofing and carrying on and making everyone’s life a little better, the folks at the downtown office (in the denholm building) are like honey on toast. why, just today one of them winked at me! also 100% on point is my man mike at tatnuck postal and business center- always friendly, knows everyone’s name, bakes sugar cookies at holiday season, lets me run a tab… truly a prince. west siders, if you’re not seeing mike for your postal needs, you’re fully chumpin’. downtowners in need of a smile, find something to mail and mail it. one time (i swear to god) the lady behind the desk in the downtown spot started singing rapper’s delight to me. i was in heaven, total heaven.

walking up and down pleasant st today i realized how into pleasant st i am. there are lots of cool businesses that i already have business crushes on, exacerbated by the fact that most of them i have no business being in (lots of dress shops and “urban wear”). judging from the stores you’d think that only completely beautiful people visit pleasant st., and you’d be right. my new scheme is to step up my “i love paris” magazine idea, with the first issue focusing on pleasant st.. if those scumbags who made “worcester paparazzi” magazine could big up themselves in all the lousy clubs, i see no reason why i can’t big up myself in, oh, “chic d’afrique” or “botanica san miguel”. hopefully i can bankroll it with ads, or get a grant or something.

attn: zoback- if you run this in the womag “blog log”, can you change “scumbags” to… uh… …………………………. ……….. ………………………… ……………… ………………………….. ……………….. ………………… …………… ………… ………….. ….. “human wastes”? no, uh………………………………… ……. ………… ……………………….. ……………………. ……….. …………… ………… ………… …… …… …. “ersatz players”? also, can you add “ps- ‘the numbers’ is not lousy.”?

me and JK had to take sarge to the emergency room the other day after a virus took ample advantage of the deleterious effects of the drug cocktail she was taking for her asthma. she’s on the mend now (this was two days ago) but it sure was scary (but not too too scary because she’s a tough egg and has trod this road before). i wouldn’t wish the hospital on anyone but i kind of had a good time kicking with jon in the waiting room for 5 hours talking total sleep-deprived garbage. anyway like i said she’s on the mend and going back to family in texas for a few days, so i imagine she’ll be back heavy sassin’ in no time.

billy blue had the release party last night for his new cd “blues in my room”. the cd is great and the show obviously ruled. billy blue is the only person i know who plays the sort of music he plays, but i didn’t just enjoy the show because i enjoy glorious edenic variety, i enjoyed it because his band is tight, he’s a great frontman, and it’s a joy to behold someone you like doing something they love. i got a prerelease of the cd, so i already knew it was awesome (if you like dancy blues music) and i already saw the cover art, which rules (billy playing harmonica with his old dog wolfie (who passed away earlier this year)), but now i’m really into the back cover, which is a meticulous arrangement of the stuff in his room relevant to music production, including tons of harmonicas, microphones, cassette tapes, a stereo, records, empty liquor bottles, and blues ephemera. mike and i were joking that it could be a load release, as the “amp display” has been a steady album art motif (kites, usaisamonster, the body, get killed, even paperrad). anyway we have some cds at the store if you’re into it.

today after work and dinner i ended up watching two movies, but both times they were social events (blues brothers with MZ and left behind 2 with march madness), and both movies had really weird arcs. blues brothers is a prolonged chase in which progressively more and more people get mad at the two main characters until the culmination of their plan, at which point all the frantic anger condenses into stillness and silent fury. left behind 2 is the second in this series of movies about biblical prophecy (starring kirk cameron), and it’s a weird determinist movie with thriller indicators- even the heroes know that the villain (the antichrist) is going to get the big win- their goal is to lessen the blow and convert as many people as they can (although they know they won’t get everybody, or nearly everybody, or even half everybody). bah, the more i think about this movie, the boringer i think christianity is– god as member of the team / jerker of chains / quasi-mutable auditorium full of dominos. at least the paintings are still good.

oh, the other thing i like about left behind is that i think most of the extras are volunteers from the christian community, and it’s corny and fun to see them play total “church? i’m SO outta here!” sinners, the way it’s funny (in two ways) to see your math teacher be a teenager for halloween.

did i mention that i can’t stop listening to that silver jews record i said i didn’t like? it’s still my least favorite but it’s still a silver jews record… “i had this friend his name was marc with a ‘c’ / his sister was like the heat coming off the back of an old tv”. i’ve been reading some of his poetry too, but it’s like his songs but harder to remember.

this is a repost but who cares.

i’m setting up a shoebox diorama exhibit at HBML (the visionary junk store i co-ruin). it’s going to be in february, open submission, some stipulations. entries are due january 20th, please see the original post for mildly more clarity. no money, honey, just plain stay alive in winter vibe.