from proust

…my greatest pleasure was the asparagus, bathed in ultramarine and pink and whose spears, delicately brushed in mauve and azure, fade imperceptibly to the base of the stalk — still soiled with the earth of their bed — through iridescences that are not of this world. It seemed to me that these celestial nuances betrayed the delicious creatures that had amused themselves by becoming vegetables and which, through the disguise of their firm, edible flesh, gave a glimpse in these dawn-born colors, these rainbow sketches, this extinction of blue evenings, of the precious essence that I would still recognize when, all night following a dinner where I had eaten them, they played in their crude, poetic farces, like one of Shakespeare’s fairies, at changing my chamberpot into a bottle of perfume.

ugh! this site’s been down for a few weeks i guess due to server problems that resulted in a switching of servers which i didn’t have to actually deal with (and good thing)but i did have to wait for (which is nothing new). writing is such a huge part of my learning and remembering process that when i can’t or don’t write, things start to go bad. this time i did ok, though (i think). so what happened in the interim? oh, the weather was nice, i walked around.

• there were a couple shows, enough that i got temporarily sick of shows. i will highlight one- nadir, the dungeoneers, trap them, furnace, and some other band with a basement-themed name, at maniac mansion (in the basement obviously). this was supposed to be the dungeoneers tape release but things didn’t happen in time (as they tend to not), so it was merely “the second-to-last show” (before matt carroll returned from germany and the terribles could continue being a band). nadir played before them and totally destroyed. i know no one likes to be put in a box, but nadir is a grind-oriented band from worcester. guitar drums vocals, and everything is so fast and so tech it’s like watching hummingbirds- all wrist, all twitch. i’ve seen them a couple times and i like it more and more, and more and more they make other bands on the bill look like a bunch of sleepy kittens by comparison. i don’t remember who the third band was- my understanding is that hardcore is now (and has been for some time) driven by a sort of nerd so psyched on specific parts of previous canonical hardcore bands that only nerds can really tell you if a band’s sources are valid and their construction sound, making them good. but no need to hate, as electronic dance music is also driven by specific tempo ranges, lustrous clichés, and precision homage, and that’s still fun (though also not my idiom). anyway, i absolutely had to leave halfway through, as 2.5 bands is my limit in the basement of maniac mansion- all the smoke you know, but mostly it’s the low ceilings that force me into a bad posture which gives me horrible stomach cramps.

• there were these beautiful russians visiting some friend of a friend and we ended up hanging out and talking about music, prisons, hygeine, and the internet. the best part was when one of them asked me why punks didn’t shower and i gave her a brief but thorough breakdown of the ways in which not showering displayed the best of the punk ethos. basically, that being OK with your own body odor is an enourmous step towards being OK with your body; that it is the tantalizing smell of action; that smelling like a person sets one apart in a clear and unfakeable way from the the beauty standards of a possibly large and certainly objectionable set of people who would rather smell like a supermarket aisle, and more in line with the rest of the animal kingdom. the one talkative lady told me i was very funny, and moreover that i “say good things”, which made me really happy and to some degree rescued me from a foggy outlook. she had a weird shirt with a very high moderately floppy collar, long straight black hair with one ear poking through, high elfish cheekbones, and sharp facial features set farther away from each other than might seem reasonable in a planning stage. in short, the sort of person it is simply nice to be amid, like a full-spectrum lightbulb.

• my show at julian’s with adam gnade was really fun- i was really stressed out but all the stress just made me want more and more to get lost in myself and my friends and abandon myself to rogue operators and sing super fucking loud, which is what i did and it worked. also they gave me really good food– i got a side order of asparagus because i’d never buy it for myself, it was delicious.

• went to the art museum two weeks in a row (still free on saturdays before noon), first to see the pettibon / ed ruscha exhibit, then to manage a scavenger hunt for esther and jen.

  • pettibon/ruscha killed. obviously i like both of these guys a ton. ruscha (“ru-SHAY”) for his great boringness, his californiosity, his craft, and for being another great creator in the perambulatory mode (basing his paintings on things overheard while walking around the city). i look at “styrene they called her”, his book of word paintings, at least once a month. pettibon i like for his lineage (black flag duh), his subject matter (scummy hippies, trains, surfers on huge waves), his goony style, his handwriting, his inclusion of texts, and the texts he includes. both i like a lot for their dry wit, and for employing reading as a skill. the show at the art museum was 1/2 about “the end” and 1/2 about “the bible”. i expected their collabs to feature pettibon on the images and ruscha on the texts, but it was actually quite the reverse, and not a disappointment. it’s still at the art museum, i’d really like to hear a review by someone with a black flag tattoo.

  • the scavenger hunt totally ruled, a version of an idea i had a while back regarding my own personal relationship to the worcester art museum (with the ultimate goal of getting others to develop such a relationship as well, and work the paintings of the museum into a local artistic vocabulary). the scavenger hunt featured about 20 items- all pieces in the museum. the clues were jokes about or things i think about or funny things in any of the given paintings- “a lady that is a spaceship”, “a dude, holding”, “a garish and sinister mess from which the only comfort that can be had is tackiness.”. it went great and they got most of them (with a little help). i’ll post the full list of items when i get the sheet back from esther (maybe never).

well, that’s enough of the past off my brainback to allow me some rest. there’s always more, but we are now sufficiently caught up that i can go draw, or make food, or read comic books, or anything, and not feel the weight of recent memory compounding. glad to be back.

today me and little andrew filmed my music video for the upcoming corleone records dvd. it’s good, it made a huge mess, and it almost made me throw up. in fact, i still feel totally gross, hours later. as the above image indicates, it is the video for the song “twin elephants” from my most recent release crypt of everything.

oh, and don’t forget that i’m playing in providence tomorrow (tuesday), at julian’s (a restaurant on broadway that has really good root beer on tap). the show is after the kitchen closes, at like 11pm, so come early if you want to get food. also playing is adam gnade.

also, wednesday: bastard noise, landed, and peter “machine gun” brotzmann, at as220 (providence again). i ask you- what the fuck.

not much to say on last night’s billy blue show- lilah bought me beers, the antifaustian allure of blues music weaved it’s spell for good or bad on a floor full of chooglers, mz said that the decor was “ugly-new” (dim lighting over garish colors, no dust, patina, or signs of use etc.). anyway i had a good time. of course the music was great, billy was so psyched to be there and lived up, and the band is always on point. i especially delight in the guitar player, who has a great lemon-eating guitar face and new errol flynn mustache. as for the crowd, like i said, some real chooglin’ going on, some people flaunting the fact that they took dance lessons, karl lagerfeld was there, lots of students or whatever. there was one lady sore thumbing amongst the people on dates and full-on beering in a red sweatsuit who was OG from the old gilrein’s, i’d love to get her take on the whole thing. ok, back to this, but as for me, i guess i echo bucky jones’ cyber squat piss-take on the affair- that all the cleanliness, the marble, the lines, the lack of character, the idea that lack of character embues a profitable safeness, all these ideas, are sad. white bite.

also, i’m willing to admit to the possibility that the guy i saw just looked like karl lagerfeld.

i mean, really, really slow? tonight there was a party for trish’s birthday, which was also, i was unaware until halfway through the night, a show. the show featured jjbb, nat baldwin, and sam rosen. the party, or the first hour of it anyway, featured a tiny actual horse. anyway because of work and getting lost i arrived just in time to see the horse loaded back into it’s trailer and the trailer drive away. the rest of the night was drunky screechy with the regular players, and me being ,not overwhelmed, but whelmed in a displeasing manner somehow anyway. while nat baldwin was playing his beautiful cyclical upright bass music i laid behind the couch and shut my eyes, and it was ideal, as good as the time i went to see the band karate and fell asleep in a super-comfy chair. anyway after being aimless and unable to interact for a sufficiently long time i snuck out and walked home super duper slow.

when we were in grade school, nicky revs and jbruce and i went to an advanced kids program called “PEAK”, which took place once a week, during school hours, at the worcester center for crafts. the bus would bring us back to school at the end of the day, with like 20 or 30 minutes left of class, and we would always walk suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper slow, getting back to class, ideally, right as the bell rang. since then, walking really slow has alway triggered in me this pleasantly wrong feeling of “other path”ed-ness, like the feeling i got playing baseball in gym class when i realized that if i struck out i could go sit in the shade- losing their game, winning mine. oh, there are other benefits to a nice slow walk (point of fashion: wavelength), but you yourself can discern them if so inclined. my rules for walking slow (which date back to grade school): no stopping or dawdling (maintain a relatively constant speed) and no rambling (take the path you would take if you were regular walking).

uh, that show at julian’s isn’t today (tuesday) it’s the 17th (tuesday). but the thing about the ketchup is still true. anyway, sorry if that messes up anyone’s plans.

jean coz (“secret door”) put up pictures of this year’s “new your city” building extravaganza. new your city is a five day event that jean facilitates in which kids of all ages build a crazy cardboard city at the fox point library in providence. i didn’t get to go this year but i checked it out last year and it ruled. the week ends with a performance in and around (and maybe through? and maybe destroying?) new your city by the what cheer marching band. if you search around on the pictures page you can see scott work/death fully exhausted by children.

this thursday (the 12th of april), come see billy blue at gilrein’s, 802 main st, 9PM. gilrein’s used to be a big destination for blues acts and fans from all over, partly by virtue of being a cheap, cool spot. they closed down years ago and have reopened this month totally redone as a nice restaurant, with valet parking even. billy, who was a staple at the old gilrein’s, is excited about the reopening, and he’s trying to get a regular gig there (which would be great for him) but had to fight to get the cover down to $3 (from $8) so his friends (us) could go. as for me, i can’t stop thinking about the popular phenomenon of tearing something down and replacing it with an overpriced parody of its former self. and then there’s this. well, take a look around this thursday, we’ll compare notes and strategies.

oh, and on topic here, a condo that one of jean’s kids made, which is really quite well executed:

johnny hart, who wrote and drew the comic strip “BC” and wrote “wizard of id”, passed away at his drawing desk a few days ago. i’m sure many of you are wondering why i’m taking time to note this, so here is a brief synopsis of the unstated facts in BC for those familiar with but perhaps unaware of the significance of the finer points.

BC’s constant references to christ as someone who lived and died (and whatever else) make it clear that the strip does not actually take place “BC” (before christ). jokes about modern technology (without ever showing modern technology) coupled with a few weird references to modern events that took place “a long time ago” (read about in “an ancient scrap of newspaper”), point to a period far in the future, possibly after some terrible collapse that turned every building and material object to sand (possibly late tribulation). the population has been decimated and only a few people remain– a handful of more or less interchangeable men and two women. one of the women is conventionally pretty, the other is named “fat broad”. occasionally a visitor arrives from italy. also, one of the men has a pen pal who lives across some uncrossable expanse of water. everyone has a name, but there are so few people the names are barely ever used. despite whatever horror they may have endured, they want for nothing and spend their day in idleness, strolling the hills and playing at having jobs. any one of the men might suddenly and just for a day become a car salesman, psychiatrist, or baseball player. some jobs, like that of baseball coach or guru, are so psychologically ingrained that those holding these jobs never do anything else. should the people ever need advice, they merely consult the rocks of the earth, which issue small index cards on which answers are printed. in addition to the people, there are a few (less that 20) animals (birds, snakes, turtles, anteaters, clams), and an indefinite number of ants. the ants alone have some sort of organized society- they go to school, get married, raise children, etc.. the ants are also the only creatures that die.

looking over the unstated facts i’m kind of amazed at how much crazy shit a person can simply roll with day to day. also it’s amazing to look back at the wizard of id, which stayed funny as BC didn’t, and note that (as comics curmudgeon pointed out) johnny hart wasn’t failing to be funny, he was choosing to be weird for this particular strip. and for that matter it speaks volumes that that the most evangelical comic strip has a more successful counterpart named after the id- the name of all repressed drives to human endeavor.

ok, start up your term papers!

hey, i’m playing a show tomorrow (tuesday) in providence, at julian’s, on broadway. i don’t know what time the show is at but i think brian said “after we close”, so if you’re in providence just look for flyers. i also don’t remember who the show is with, but there’s someone else with whom i am “a perfect match”, a proposition i find, well, unlikely, and this isn’t me being egotistical so much as pessimistic, defeatist even. the important part is that julian’s is a restaurant with really good root beer on tap. i’ll be singing new songs but i don’t have any more copies of the new tape, as i ran out of tapes and don’t right now have money to order more and that’s the way some cookies crumble sometimes.

one thing you should be aware of if you come to julian’s for dinner beforehand is that they have two kinds of ketchup, regular and the other kind. if you like ketchup, get the regular ketchup- it is exactly what you want. if you don’t like ketchup, the other ketchup really isn’t going to change your mind about ketchup. i think the secret reason they have the other ketchup is so you can be presented with the option and choose the regular ketchup, and say to yourself, hey, i may be eating these luxury french fries, but i’m using the same ketchup they use the world over.

UPDATE guys, i’m an idiot, the show at julian’s is on the 17th, which is not the tuesday mentioned in this post but the tuesday after. MY B.

this easter morning me and my friends at hollywood st decorated and hunted for eggs. well, i didn’t hunt them, as i hid them, but it was good just to observe. the living room is pretty small so we decided the best route to go was blindfolded. after a while i started calling out hot/cold to specific people, which had the result of everyone instantly swarming that person/going to the place of greatest activity. not as good maybe as the beer hunt that went down in providence but the world is wide with many things within. anyway it’s like ginsberg said- i rarely get an egg for my breakfast even thought my work needs an infinite amount of eggs to come to birth in eternity.

other resurrection shit this morning was watching “zombie” again, or at least the part where the zombie fights the shark, and it really only speaks to the supreme majesty and impenetrable mystery of the deep that, while this is my personal top zombie film moment, it hardly places in the category of “top underwater footage”. ok, time for me to eat chili.

UPDATE: after the chili we watched cool hand “i can eat 50 eggs” luke! no plan, it was just a movie they had meaning to watch for days, contributing to egg mania for serious, and adding a cool “no redemption” cast to the day.

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dan wars, i forgot to tell you that when we were in white river junction i met someone else named marky metal! but it was like “mark kimietel” or something. i didn’t ask to see ID, i should’ve. what reminded me of this is that my friend esther has a pal visiting whose name is cupcake.

oh hey, tomorrow (thursday) i’m giving a brief lesson on how to silk screen, at the store, at 7pm. come on by if you anticipate ever asking me to teach you how to silkscreen. bring a non-black blank (or turn-inside-outable) t-shirt and we will really print a design of a bear playing the accordian on it. bring snacks to share if you’re so inclined. if you want to bring soda, i have cups. the lesson will be not long– silk screening is ultimately pretty easy.