Pretty Alright photoblog
updated Mon, 22 Feb 2010
today i get to buy candy and pass it out at the store. i hope you trick or treaters remember that if a house doesn’t give you any candy (and their lights are on) you are not just allowed but obliged to mess up their house, with eggs, toilet paper, compost balloons, whatever. however, if all the lights are off, then the house cannot be messed with. and no bag snatching– let’s end kid on kid crime.
well the halloween show/party at the go go went ok. as a show there were 2 quiet acts (anne l and matt fox) then incisor, so pretty much we were playing “warm up” which ssucks but someone has to do it but why me all the time. brian didn’t show up, so we got dan o’neill to play second lead guitar, which we had been trying to do anyway for a while. the blondie set went pretty good even though no one i’m sure could tell what the hell i was saying anyway. all the lights were out and i had a flashlight taped to the microphone. it was fun, but the rest of the night i had a hard time looking anyone in the eye. i guess, when your band hinges on this idea of the end of time, it’s hard to shmooze at the afterparty. bonezone was awesome of course, and the dungeoneers, and the terribles did a misfits cover set which obviously everyone loved, but i just couldn’t get into it. i tried to hang out by the fire but burned myself, for the first time ever. after a fair share of classic pacing and numerous small talk scenarios, i ended up leaving fairly early.
needless to say, as a party, it was a bummer, but i site two main reasons (that aren’t “things really going downhill”): first, there was confusion as to whether it was the big halloween party or just a show, and as a result, the people there were either people that come to shows, or people who were confused. secondly, as it pertains to parties v shows, parties have an air of possibility, a centerless universe– shows are a bunch of people watching something. this sounds like hakim bey now, but it’s true– previous parties at the go go (especially halloween parties) really presented a wild mutation and radical view of the world as it secretly can be. this year, well, this year (and no fault or blame) it did not happen.
my sore throat is now a full on cold despite plenty of fluids and miso soup every day for breakfast. today there’s that show, which some people think is a party, but unfortunately it isn’t, it’s a show, and not only that, it’s a too-long show– 6 bands now, maybe 7! and i still don’t have a costume. and there was no time for incisor to practice. and i guess there’s no big halloween party to speak of. also it’s raining out, which is normal for this time of year.
last night i had a dream that i was watching a movie with a bunch of friends but i was so comfortable in a position in which my head wasn’t facing the screen that i just watched a swimming pool full of water reflect the sky.
i didn’t say before but since i can’t remember the words to the incisor songs, i’m just going to do a blondie cover set. i don’t think i told everyone else in the band this but that’s ok.
all used goods at HBML are now 95 cents. that’s everything that isn’t on consignment– all toaster ovens, all lamps, all toys, most clothes. i’m trying to pull the rug out from under myself. bring the war home. w th f 4:30 – 8:00, saturday 2 – 5.
ML and nik perry got three hot dogs for a dollar at pennywise, the local bottle redemption / loose cigarette / 3 for a dollar hot dog place down the street from me. ml’s verdict is that it was gross, and my verdict on his verdict is no shit. i don’t trust any meal that 1 dollar gets you as much of as you would want to eat.
incisor is playing a show this saturday at the go go, our first show in a year, with nik perry filling in for GT on drums. we’re “practicing” tonight but i’m wary– my throat is all sore from a miscellaneous sore throat illness going around. i can’t remember the old words but i have something special planned. the show is with the dungeoneers, bone zone, and the terribles (featuring MZ). that’s right- matt is in every band!
so the show was on saturday but i went down early on friday to eat tacos at la lupita and attend “the corlies” an awards show for everyone on the label (in which everyone gets an award). pretty player. it was at the dirt palace, everyone was really dressed up, there was excellent food, it ruled. the awards show part of it went pretty much just like i think it always does– slower than you’d like, making everyone kind of antsy. after a while people got rowdy and started throwing shit. someone threw a chair at MT while he was presenting an award. there was a party afterwards but i was too antsy and just paced around. oh, i won “most charming”, which i’m sure some of you out there will find to be quite the farce. again, this wasn’t really an award, i mean, everyone got one, it was mostly a way to just get everyone to get together and clap for everyone, and eat lasagna. it was nice.
i slept over at the dirt palace and the next day took too long to get to the show which was obviously fine. the line-up had to be changed around a little and i got moved to even earlier, which meant some people missed me, which is, in the words of the poet “the way of the world”. i did ok. who was awesome? VVLTVRE and bonedust were both awesome, i thin kthiss was the best bonedust show i’ve seen, which sucks because they broke up and it was a reunion show. but it was haunty and poundy with drums of spirit war and beautiful ssinging, and everything was mixed really well. work/death was awesome, having just that day returned from tour and still looking 18-hour-drive crazy. GM pointed out that his sset was really confident, playing for the people in the front. lazy magnet was epic– full band with GM on drums, sakiko on keyboards, scott on bass, guest solo by jason mcgill on ssaxophone. alternately epic prog, tender late-nite, and thrilling form, with a dash of steely dan and always the undercurrent of wide-awake void-staring. it ruuuuled. the body wass having equipment troubles and only played one song before giving up, a total bummer. nightwounds didn’t make it, but black pus filled in, which ruled. all in all, an epic night.
oh, i got a messs of the dvds, which i’ll have at the store if anyone out there wants one. i also got the new CF book, “POWR MASTRS”, which rules so hard and maybe more on that later
lilah totally came through with a new computer for me! well, it was old to her but new to me, an 800mhz powerPC g4 laptop. totally awesome except that yesterday i plugged the pod into it and everything got erased! which if nothing else is a good lesson on and reminder of “the way of all things”.
i can’t really start any new computer projects, as i’m waiting for the new OS to drop so i can wipe the hard drive and sstart fresh (and see if this thing can actually do what i need it to do). but the new computer, unlike the old one, is fast enough to handle youtube, so wanting to play with the new toy but not being able to do anything really constructive with it means i’ve been really geeking out and watching tons of dumb awesome shit. basically, i’m in love with the modern world. today, over and over again, i’ve been watching the chicken noodle soup video, which i found via wayne and wax in a post about regional dances like detroit jit, chicago juke, stuff like that. there’s a lot to like about the chicken noodle soup, but for me it’s that it’s wholesome, it’s filmed in a sunny, tree-lined street, the dancing is regimented enough for everyone to participate regardless of confidence level, but open enough for individual expression, there’s cool slang like “vright” and “flage” (which are shown on screen so you’ll know that it’ss slang, not just a word you can’t understand), the editing is total imovie, and lyrically, it sounds like a dan beckman song– “chicken noodle soup, chicken noodle soup, chicken noodle soup with my hammer on my side”. also, “dumb out” parts are way waaay better than mosh parts. everybody listens to rap music nowadays!
AS220 October 20th, 2007. 2pm-1am. $8. in addition to being an anniversary celebration, this is also the release party for the DVD comp and the new lazy magnet album. playerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
first, i should mention the drive down and back, a heroic 28 hours. obviously i cannot drive so MT did the whole thing, and splendidly. we left rhode island at 2:30pm, borrowing mikey hotsauce’s cool newish station wagon. on the way down we stopped at a waffle house somewhere in south carolina and at rad librarian travis fristoe’s place in gainesville, then heave ho to miami where we met up with jim drain at his and naomi’s studio, got some burritos, and crashed out at their cool condo. the whole miami fine art / condominium living scene is totally weird but i quickly got over it enough to function.
wednesday we woke up and went to the gallery (which is the front quarter of naomi and jim’s studio) and spent most of the day taking down mike’s installation. the gallery/studio is great– it’s in this totally weird mall where miami chill-out jungle music bumps 24/7, and at least a third of every storefront is empty so that the building owner can display his art collection (which is an investment in cred upping). i think they barter for rent with their own artworks, but this wasn’t clear. as i may have said before, jim and naomi are big-name artists, and i like what they do, but i still don’t understand how they get over, unless the whole fine arts world boils down to a few eccentric multimillionaires, which i suspect it does. while i was there they received a commission to make pieces for an “artists only” party to be held during art basel, which as you know is “the most important art show on the American continent and a cultural and social highlight of the Americas”. it’s commissioned works, so they get paid without the works ever selling– naomi wanted jim to make a couch for their condo. i told him to make a year’s worth of groceries. hey, i was just riffin’.
that night we got pizza at a place in this pedestrian mall and watched people. the pizza was pretty good- huge square slabs about 1/4 the size of a conventional large, which were then cut into nine pieces. it was boutique style, meaning there were a bunch of pizzas already made, and you selected from which pizza you wanted a slice, then they heat it up for you. they didn’t have plain, which i think is a strike against– i got the plainest they had, which was spinach and bleu cheese. it was good. the really weird thing about the pizza place is that every set of toppings was like an entire salad– pine nuts, cucumbers, barbeque chicken, stuff like that. two different styles had hard boiled eggs. two! eating pizza and pointing out funny-looking people put me at ease and i had a way way better time than if we had gone to a fancy party or upscale bar or society art opening. also i got the feeling that jim was happy to have some real goons to dirtbag around with. after a while we went off to a condo that a friend of mike’s lives in, to try and use the hot tub– we couldn’t get it to turn on so we just dangled our feet in it and talked shit for a while. the condo was called, no lie, “nirvana”, but i guess everyone was already way over making nirvana jokes because i was the only one. the air mattress i was sleeping on had a hole in it but i think this is something more mattresses should have- i went to sleep super comfy, when i deserved comfort; i woke up on the floor, when i needed a reminder of an uncaring world.
the next day we got up and got breakfast and cuban coffee at a restaurant with huge square plates that are more like cafeteria trays. this was a place of big eaters. the coffee (which i now drink occassionally) was really strong and really really sweet, and comes with ten paper thimbles to drink out of, the idea being that one cut supplies the whole job site. me and MT each drank one obviously. just like that the return trip began and we went back up to northern florda to stay a night with mike’s folks, which i enjoyed. i love seeing trees from which apples don’t fall far, and ma and pa taylor were just this sort, telling jokes, cooking egg rolls, and being catty. we all watched a comedy movie with a hilariously long and awkward sex scene, it was cool. the next day we stopped in gainesville to see mike’s brother dan taylor, then hauled, in the fashion we were accustomed, towards home. all in all i had a great time, me and mike t are still friends, and now i owe jim a bunch of cool toys and comics for the cool toys and comics he gave me.
oh, i got my grant application in the other day, it’s not perfect but i did it.
i got back from miami last night after a solid 30 hours of travel (including the bus from providence and walking from the bus station) and maybe 3 hours of sleep (in 20 minute chunks). more on miami in a day or two. as for today, today i’m licking into shape my first serious grant application, which is due at 5pm. the worst part easy is the “artists narrative”, in which i say how on point i am with everything, how central i am to tons of boss shit (despite a dearth of “art world” accolades), how “por la vida” i am, and how access to funds will transform me into a hulking behemoth, an intelligent ape with steam shovel arm, a mental master able to transmute matter into energy and back, carve the world into a jack o’ lantern, and harness the power of the human heart in a single candle flame brighter than the sun but a comfy 75 degrees. believe me when i say “no problem”, and believe me when i don’t get the money and say anyway “no problem”.
i’m in miami. it’s awesome. as soon as we got near miami we turned on the radio and listened to french speaking haitians laughing, sometimes echo-drenched. helping mt remove the exhibit, which is, in a way, more satisfying than putting one up; painting the walls white again, packing everything into the car. ok, i gotta go be here. back in worcester on sunday.
as it happens, mike t and i are leaving for miami tomorrow, to return saturday or sunday, so the show with karl blau is something i might not be at (but will happen without me). well, actually i’m leaving for providence tonight. HBML will be on a one-week hiatus.
i’m going on this trip primarily as ballast, but i’m still pretty psyched. it’ll be nice to get out of worcester for a week, brainstorm / shoot the shit on a long car ride, see gas stations in different states, and catch a little bit of miami’s weirdo art scene.
speaking of weirdo art scenes, the worcester cultural commission’s annual fellowship grant i was applying for is due next monday, the day after i get back. the fellowship, of all the grants they give out, is the sweetest peach, but even if i don’t get it, it’ll be good just to finish the application, just to prove to myself that it’s no big deal. of course it goes without saying that i alone could further the arts in worcester further than anyone else given an award of, say, $5000.
as gas can pointed out in the comments the other day, little andrew has put his pictures of the fashion show up on his show-picture website.
i’m playing a show on the 13th of this month with nick jackson’s band and karl blau. i think the show is going to be at my house.
i’m also playing a show on the 20th at as220 in providence, and not just a show but the corleone 10 year anniversary show! full lineup: Barnacled, Alec K Redfearn & the Eyesores, The Body, Get Killed, Tiny Hawks, Jacob Berendes, WORK/DEATH, Lazy Magnet, VVLTVRE, Bondust, Uke of Spaces Corners County, Night Wounds, Fred Thomas, Lorna Doom, Mahi Mahi & the Pines of Rome. epiiiiiiiiiiic… starts at 2pm.