HBML is closing down immediately, tomorrow. everything that can be sold off tomorrow will be, after that it’ll all go to the little store or the trash (or the trash via the little store). 4 pm to 9 pm.

more old flyers, this was from this show, at stone soup, in 2007 forever. click for unreasonably large. i made this flyer really quick, when we had the photocopier at HBML, and there were some kids hanging around that i wanted to invite– i think i overheard one of them saying “do you even like music?” while i was putting it together.

today was day two of the stone soup cleanup, and i got to go inside the building and look around a little, it’s pretty crazy. fire damage up the back stairs and back rooms, water damage throughout (horsehair plaster walls that will ALL need to go). earn a bike is (was) in the basement, and it is crazy burned out (link to pictures). the craziest thing was that when folks went down there to look around, the radio suddenly turned on and started playing totally spooky harsh noise– it was circuit bent by the fire! here’s a picture of the radio followed by a video of the sound– the video’s a little grim because all we had was natural light through one door, and i couldn’t really go inside because i didn’t want to get caved in should a joist give out, but remember that all the sound that isn’t me or grey talking, is this shorted radio–

there was a fire at stone soup last night (thursday night), and it was pretty bad but no one was hurt. right now my information is that it started in the basement towards the back, and traveled up the stairs into the second and third floors. no one knows yet how it started, and luckily no one was in the building when it happened. the building is pretty messed up but the feeling i got was no major structural damage. very important paperwork, computers, the firecracker library are all smoky but (i think) pretty much not ruined, as the fire stuck to the back mostly (i think). earn-a-bike and the graphics shop are totally fucked. the groups that meet at stone soup have been offered alternate places to meet although that’s still being worked out.

clean up tomorrow 10am – 5pm. send donations to “stone soup” c/o Neighborhood Network Center, 301 Pleasant St Worcester, MA 01609.

today we cleaned up all the glass and shit from the outside, tomorrow we’re going to go in and salvage what we can.

MASSIVE THANKS WORCESTER FIRE FIGHTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

how to help:

VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES

Saturday, March 28

10:00- All Day Volunteer Work Day at Stone Soup
All are welcome, please bring shovels, rakes, gloves, brooms, etc.

5:00- Community Meal at Castle Street Garden (Rain location: Pilgrim Church) Donations of vegetarian/vegan friendly foods are requested, contact Stephanie 603-305-0323. Before 5:00, food donations may be brought to the Artichoke Food Coop at 800 Main Street.

Saturday, April 4

1:00- Volunteer Work Day at Stone Soup
All are welcome, please bring shovels, rakes, gloves, brooms, etc.

DONATIONS
Stone Soup is in need of donations of time, money, and other items. Please send donations (checks made payable to “Stone Soup”) to The Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center at 301 Pleasant Street.

INFORMATION
For status updates, work day updates, and other information, please visit www.stonesoupworcester.org

i got a tite scanner from pat sawyer, i’m going nutso with it. here’s some HBML flyers of interest, click for too-large:


yup, it’s donald duck, dr doom, iggy pop, and mr butch


more to come.

i’ve been lugging around an old imac (bondi blue, baby) for too long, today i’m getting all the old files (mostly music, mostly unreleased) off it and chucking it (the computer) into my own lungs via the landfill and ten pounds of particulate exhaust en route. the main logistical problem is that i can’t figure out how to plug the damn thing into the house network, so i’m loading everything on to a 4 gig thumb drive and sneakernetting it over. of course, even though storage is not an issue, if i try to copy too much to the drive in one pass, the whole thing goes belly up– i have to babysit, dragging 5 or ten files at a time. a pain in the place to be sure, but not an actionably-deep hell. anyway i pull stuff off, i shuffle it around, let’s see what we can make of it. LOTS of unreleased whatever from the past 10 (!) years, some of it ok, some of it totally annoying. also tons of old email, which i have already been enjoying looking through. what to do with non-public digital artifacts?

to be watched both at once with the sound on just one or both or however

thanks lilah.

pretty psyched about this upcoming move, and trying to pare down etc., which has been discussed. but more to the point, this pare down and down-to-business-get wave has also led me down a path of serious overhaul of the websites, which has yet to happen but much thought on the matter, maybe as an escape from other things i should be thinking about (money). also in re:spring cleaning, i gave myself a nice buzzcut (not pictured) to shed all this year’s platinum. which i mostly got (rid of, the platinum), although the little left behind just looks like salt in the pepper. plus i look Oi, and i’ve proven conclusively that my head has distinct corners, and one pointier than the other.

not that it matters but for you rss junkies, i just discovered that i’ve been absent-mindedly producing this website (google reader shared items).

believe it or not new england, it’s finally spring. the past few weeks we’ve had (as noted) pockets of wonderful melty niceness– walking around in a sweatshirt, getting crushes on people, rolling down hills. of course soon after that a bitter wind blows in again and the ground’s all hard again and everything’s snow dusted and looking like a fried dough. well, officially anyway, spring is here, and with it as always, a modicum of rebirth.

to that end, a few words, and if we’re lucky, a song, from the aztec god of spring, “the red smoking mirror”, “the night drinker”: xipe totec, “the flayed one”. he appears here in his traditional aspect– skinless but wrapped in the hides of others. please remember that though sacrifices were definitely made to this princely fellow, it’s not entirely fair to say that he “demanded” sacrifice. although at the same time, not to be a creep, but if, sometime between now and 20 days hence, if you were to get into a mindless scuffle or scrape, if blood were to be drawn or a bruise formed, and you opened the bruise up to let some of the bruise blood come out to show them, as maize seeds lose their outer layer before germination and snakes shed their skin, that would be, uh, honorable.

(repost from HBML.org)

spring days matched with missing engagements and shake-up talks with milk leslie in an exciting transitory mood. i’m weeding though records in emption of an exodus and it’s a nice though tense matter. currently i have 1.5 shelf-feet that is all to sell off / let them throw away. pop music, as predicted, is getting decimated, dimated even. the weirdest section now is “future project” (things i was going to do things with) which may also go out the window because there’s no shortage of certain kinds of ideas and in general stuff is cheap and space is expensive, and moreover the world does not lack for stereo demonstration records, hawaiian escapades, basil rathbone narrations, and haunted houses. i’ve been putting on records i picked up years ago and never listened to (and moved several times with), only to find actual different records in the sleeves all along. eli and maralie told me that before they met me they bought my CD in france somehow, brought it back to little rock, then sold it when they moved to new england, where boxes of them sit in my mother’s house.

oh, i’ll be subletting cybele’s place in olneyville starting june. AND i’m piecing together travel plans for fall, hopefully to be somewhere warm in winter. dear friends please keep a peeled ear for residencies, gallery ops, and funky stores near you that i could session in the form of an installation, performance (musical or lecture) and/or straight hawking, hopefully making some money at where you are while i sleep on your floor eating cold beans undercover in a pricey cafe. true story!

friday the 13th part 2 was a tweak-out birthday party for MARCH GALES at dogshit cocaine house in providence, with a beeramid (or x-amid) of sparks (which you soon won’t be able to get and good riddance). plus a b52s cover band, dj downtown dan playing the ass, titties, ass & titties, ass ass titties titties ass & titties song, and yours truly being inconsolably neurotic due in large part to effects of the aforementioned new age beverages; just pacing around being a raindrop in a cloud, itchy and twitchy and unable to access the idea “fun”, waiting for the ride to be over and eventually and finally walking off alone into the night actually wringing my real hands. days later and only just now can i find a modicum of stillness and the quality of non-flourescent lighting. the party was would have been really fun, the crowd was tops– as devo said, a beautiful world. “”. as vices and personality-encoded beverage decisions i’ll stick to coffee and sugar, cola, sun figs, vinegar dregs, chocolate, turmeric, thick ginger half dollars, oi music, and being painlessly knocked out with a telephone book.

came back to crow town for the st patrick’s day parade which was boss. matt carroll’s float was once again tops, plus a few other friends were in the parade, and the weather was beautiful and it’s nice to be around a ton of people all in nice moods. i was with other weirdos and afterwards some dude got pretty exasperated with us (even “stymied”) as he tried to bro in re: hardcore bands that we obviously listen to. “do you listen to halfheart?”, “half fart? no way, full fart– let it out”.

tonight we watched singing in the rain, which is really really good and cyd charisse is amazing. robert pickle told me that we’ll get another crack at friday the 13th this november, so keep your shoes tied.

jamie decided last month (“metal month”) that this month was going to be “finish what you started” month, which i’m psyched about but where does it end? it didn’t really pop for me until the other day i was hanging out with jong ouida and drinking coffee and me giving him (and me) a pep talk about stopping reading corruptive french novels and reading william blake instead and asking at critical junctures, W.W.W.B.D.? so then that night i sat down and made a (lousy) cover for my 24 hour comic, then the next day, ran out and printed some up. din dan don! but also, where does it end? this is the million dollar question, “it” being “finishing what you started”. do you catch my meaning? do you follow me? do you pick up what i’m laying down?

the days since have been largely superb, a very nice time in provvvvvvvvidence, dinner at nboom’s new spacious solo living scenario, late night BS sesh with scott rebar and just cozz, then the next day, ALL DAY hanging out in the sunny street in mostly one spot with no guilt or tension or apprehension, like a dandelion or a stain you think is a puddle. at night a weird worcester show at bldg 16 featuring dungeoneers, bloody swimsuit, and blister pack. i sold zacherlino my old drums so he doesn’t have to feel weird about smashing them– as a consequence the dungeoneers set was batshit insane, uncomfortable, and occasionally, overwhelmed by spectacle. when the show ended some kid tried to talk to our mr z, but he grabbed the kid and dragged him into the shower with him fully clothed and turned the water on, yelling and screaming. what’s crazy is that he’s a high school teacher and somehow a kid from his school was there– there’s a distinct blackmail possibility.

once i got back home to worcester it stopped being so nice out, snowing even, and also for other reasons i got pretty bummed and crazy feeling. finish what you started month continues… i know now that i have to close down the store and most likely leave town, and move on to the next big project. mixed feelings obviously, but mostly: psyched for the future and worried about money. no concrete plans. this war had such promise…