more filming of the cosby show friday and saturday got us almost to the half-way mark! of filming, leaving the arduous process of editing entirely on my shoulders. that aside, this week has been pretty tite. i got the HBML site redesign and catalog up and running, and already the orders have been coming in, in a slow trickle to be sure, but hopefully the sort of trickle that is indicative of a larger flood, and more stuff getting added every few days, so, uh, let’s be exponential, monied interests!

friday my bike finally caught a flat. well, actually, i got fed up with waiting and popped the tire with a pin. i know this seems ridiculous, but the tire had a worn-out section that went through the black (exterior) rubber AND through the white (interior) rubber, and you could see an eighth-inch section of the tube itself! and moreover, i’d been riding it like that since last winter! friday i was carrying my computer and pars’ camcorder, plus sshirts and stickers, and i just knew i was going to catch a flat and be late to the shoppe, so i took ML’s old ROLLFAST chopper, which he half-gave to me, and then just because, i went “way of the samurai” and popped that b myself, just to see how much it would take. the important part of this story is, riding the chopper totally rules. leopard-print banana seat, ape hanger handlebars, front and rear fenders… shiiiiiiiiit. it’s a knee-burner, and i have to walk it up all bu the most slight hills, and the understuffed seat is like sitting on another bony butt, but still… shiiiiiiiiit. i thought i would get a lot of people heckling me for being a tall dude on a tiny bike, or being mad for going hell slow in the street with wide squirrely steering, but surprisingly all i got was respect. also it was the latin american fest downtown this weekend, so lots of other lowrider bikes were out, their owners giving me what’s ups. really really fun. here’s a video, shot during nat needle’s “creative laundry” event at elm park: don’t blink.

friday like i said we got some more shooting in the can for the cosby show idea, plus dan and sue came in from boston and hung out, and delivered a bunch of awesome stuff for the shoppe from the sue jeivan lifestyle collection. that night there was a show at the wheelchair, featuring a band from holland called “antidote”, and other usual suspects. great crowd, the bands were fun, i had a blast. there were some brief moments where some people were just acting crazy, then one of them decided this craziness was an act of war, not of love, and things got tense and violent, and then they got broken up, and then one of the parties stormed over to the other party and you think “here we go again”, but then the stormer says “i was only being crazy, let’s hug each other”, then they do. this was totally cute and happened, like i said, a few times. the warhol twins were there except they both dyed their hair back to natural and it’s too hot to wear leather jackets or maybe they were only borrowed. also radical rodney the casual commie, bruce bertleman, dan and grant from nadir, (almost) all the stars. oh, and it was cameron’s 21st birthday, and he got wasted and lovey-dovey, it was totally cute.

during antidote matty buttcakes was throwing fireworks into the crowd from sort of a balcony area, and someone from the venue came up all hard like “are you the one throwing the fireworks?”. buttcakes was sheepishly like “yeah…” and the someone said “why are you throwing them in the middle of everyone? really hit someone!”. pause. “well, not just anyone… uh, hit that guy (points).”.

ok, lots of funny stuff happened at the show but the funniest was that when antidote started playing, all the cushions from the couches (which remain perennially soaked with beer spilled before, during, or after digestion) started flying, and there was a big greasy pillowfight, it was totally pure fun, and big silliness, and perfect. the band was initially psyched but then one of them got his hat pushed back and they stopped to apparently admonish the crowd though no one could tell what they were saying due to language and distortion issues. they resumed, the pillowfight resumed, and then they stopped again while someone collected all the pillows and hid them, then people decided en masse that if they could only be crazy in a sanctioned way it was peace out time, and the rest of the set was pretty lackluster on the audience side of things. if i’m ever in a band trying to get people to wall of death and someone gets from a backroom a boogie board and starts using it as a shield and i’m upset, wedgie me.

saturday more filming at the shop, although i went in early to have breakfast at the diner next door (which was decent) and read comic books i got tricked into buying the previous day (omega the unknown #s 1 - 6, which the comic books store ordered for me even though i only wanted #7 (which they did not order)). saturday a steady drip of folks, then on the way home i ran into vaula van who took me out to dinner at da lat, just when i was good and hungry. dan, you were right about me having it pretty sweet.

last wednesday’s power day was so righteous. blister pack was great, kpars’ first band playing guitar, and they had a song quoting jonny houston– “i like it, it tastes good, i have one.”. also they played “where are they now?” and i lost my mind yelling the names of people that moved out of worcester. bone zone and terribles are a classic one two, nothing surprising but everyone was playing as hard as they could. the terribles had fresnel lenses hanging in front of their microphones, so their screaming faces dwarfed their miserable bodies. genesis climber was two basses and drums, and one of the bass players knows old friends by their old old names, a nice surprise. very prog, ripping for days. at one point someone called out for rise above, but they didn’t know the words so dominic jumped up perfect and in a pinch. i realized only later that all their songs are about ascension. black rainbow killed it. lots of fun, lots of moving around, everyone going nuts all night. i even went swimming afterwards (and possibly caught a pond infection in my throat). in the morning, breakfast in the fashion.

today (ssaturday) at HBML we’re doing another silk screen day. the image is a geisha applying make up to her tense face, but i blanked out all the patterns on her clothing, so you can color it in with the pattern of your choice post hoc. i will have some fabric markers there for this purpose, although i don’t know about drying times. hustling all day yesterday to prepare a zine for the event, or at least a little one-sheet, about different patterns and their meanings, japanese and otherwise, but my nice, perfect for this applictation, “japanese patterns” book is MIA. i even tore apart my room, in a way that made it more orderly even, to no avail. very frustrating. i tried to not do everything super last minute this time, but here it is, nigh-on to the last minute…

you know when it’s hot all day and then it rains way hard and it’s awesome but you say well, it’s awesome but i’m happy i’m not out there and then you’re like wait, am i? and then you’re like no? that happened the other day but by the time i had emptied my pockets of everything ruinable (everything except soda money and keys) the rain had really let up to a degree that a mythical regular person would enjoy walking in and stubborn in my resolve i walked a really long way away from my point of departure until it hammered down again and mission accomplished. it was cool, i used to walk late at night a lot, this was like that except it didn’t make me depressed. i walked all the way to the 7 11 near my old house for a suicide soda, which i’m sure helped to elevate the mood, although also someone told me about ionizing properties of falling droplets of water that cause your feelings to better but now that i write it down and look at it, that seems like pretty bogue science. ok, maybe it’s just this, which we all know: there’s a certain flavor of “dumb + confusing + valueless” fun that, when realized, is a fine draught of amiable meaninglessness.

and sspeaking of no-wrong-answerhood, last night’s incisor / tinsel teeth / nadir show was a ripper with lots of fake blood and white clothing and masks and nice dresses. mike’s new pedal pooped out so even though we practiced a hundred times (aka 4 times) the universe conspired once again to sound us like ten eggs in a box in a swamp, WHICH IS FINE. nadir has a 7″ out, which rules, and it’s two different genres if you play it on 45 (as intended) or 33 1/3. tinsel teeth was good although it’s awkward to watch someone’s unpicked wedgie.

sold more t shirts to the comic book store, so even though i’m pretty strapped for cash, i got some awesome comics (utilizing the player’s discount that is “payment in trade”). i got 2 paperbacks of old family circus (”PEACE, MOMMY, PEACE!” (1969) and “WANNA BE SMILED AT?” (1970)), 2 issues of jack kirby’s 2001 comic, and the new fantagraphics book of the comics of lyonel feininger. the family circus books are really good– better design than later ones and the jokes seem less trite maybe, or you maybe you think they’re more “classic” or whatever; the 2001 comics are pretty nuts– a ten issue series filling in the gaps between the apes and the spacemen in batshit kirby style; the feininger stuff is, duh, awesome. i’ll try to do a full review once i digest a little.

tomorrow is my earth day. i will be entering my 30th year, continuing my infinitesimal creep towards death.

inthe past few days i’ve been doing a fair amount and being lazy about writing and then remembering that when i don’t write i get sort of crazy. sunday was bratfest, i missed opie and king tuff’s band PHASED OUT but still had a fun time, hanging out with dan wars, jackie susanne, and a miscellany of locals and nigh-locals. KT has another band called NAM BUDDIES that is full grunge riffers, led by some 17 year old baggy pants, it was awesome, as was RUTHIE.

deer tick / jana hunter show was great. jjbb also played, as did a lady with a totally fake shampoo commercial singing accent, who coasted through a brief set on popular themes. jana added phrase sampler looping pedals to her repertoire, and even though those things usually rub me the wrong way, this time it was perfect. i gripped the new record, which is as the last one: good. deer tick played a bunch of new songs that are great and spotlight his incredible use of vocal overtones. also this line: “i don’t want to be a millionaire / if it’s only a million of one thing”.

me and JK and jay skonietch went to see boris at the middle east, and it was pretty boring. i like boris but my buttons just didn’t get pushed. plus it’s weird now seeing a big show with a stage and lights and everything. so mediated. also matt carroll’s brother band opened up and were followed by a very similar band: BORING. and not even actively boring, like a drone band or something. this was just rock music with nothing going for it, no personality or weird twists. jimmy’s a nice guy, but this was just boring rockers boringly rocking, no finesse, no lack of finesse, no transgression, no refinement.

the yoni show was fun, i played a computer set, all sine wave cultivation and reading from “remembrance of things past” (or whatever you want to call it), which i threatened to do and then realized that was my best idea at the moment. as promised, yoni played for a long-ass time, it was awesome and matt coe was in heaven starting from the soundcheck.

silk screen saturday last weekend at the shop, the deisgn was a t rex stomping on a gas station labeled “HBML”, under which it said “FOREVER”. someone asked me what it meant and i said “either ‘HBML FOREVER’ or ‘PICTURE A T REX STOMPING ON A JUNK SHOPPE FOREVER’”. i’ll be making a few extras on white shirts with spray paint accents, look for them next week.

this has been fujichia core dump, an essential part of fujichia minutia reportage.

kar trouble was right– my problem of the past few days, of fogginess and sluggishness and crabbiness and whatnot, was by and large hydration. late this afternoon commenced the drinking of many tap waters and the return of the feeling “OK”.

not that the past few were without merit– yesterday when i finally left the house me and baby bear went and got some technical pizzas ($2 smalls on tuesday), then walked around elm park looking at the new public sculpture installation, all of which is pretty great, and boy are we kicking ourselves for each talking ourselves out of it when the email arrived. boo us! my favorite piece was the small garden of enormous, striated buttplugs. also good was the three burned wooden obelisks crawling with all color of tiny insect, and the far-away listening tube for spying on park bench mashers and playground bullies. en route we saw jon “the prince of worcester” shirley, and all together we set up our own sculpture in the park, which was an artificial christmas tree we found on the sidewalk in a box. jon was on his way to look for the huge turtle that lives in the pond, and then he did look for it, and then he found it, and it was great– maybe three feet from nose to tail, with a head as big as a flatiron. we also saw several turtles of a more manageable size, and ducks, and a heron, and those fish that eat your spit when you spit in the water (you know, stupid fish). drove in with nik and jose lynn to providence, for that show at the stairwell, which was fun but as implied above, i was pretty out of it. eli keszler played solo drum set with bells and bowed cymbals, totally awesome and inspiring, as it was the last time. the other bands were on tour together, and it was a good tite jazz band called “other people do the killing”, and then that same band but with a singer, which was called “puttin’ on the ritz”. it helped that it was a beautiful night outside with fresh salad on a sidewalk table, but this second act really cleared the room, and even i eventually left– not offensive or actionable, just one joke that isn’t funny anymore over and over again, the joke being “inept lounge singer”. pretty miserable really, but the band, i thought, was great. i played not great, messing up a lot and to some degree “just getting it over with”, but there were times i forgot who and where i was and what i was doing and why, and how i got there, and that made it all worthwhile. again, super out of it, feeling better now.

tonight’s show ruled hell hard. i didn’t play any exactly new ssongs but no one seemed to mind, annikki dawn was indeed “that lady with the tiny guitar who sings beautiful and… kind of medieval?”, diego perez was perfect and whimsical and approachable and glib, and geez, ID M THEFTABLE was awesome! sadly he had car trouble and broke down a few blocks from the house, but he decided to play “full acoustic” instead, and it blew everyone away. his act is “extended vocal technique”– lots of gargle, throat-clear, inward singing, stuff like that, organized in a freeform fashion and with playful changes in density, and also conducting the audience to “do as i do” when his hand raised. in my mind the audience participation “get everyone involved” angle is what pushed everything from being interesting to being important, a real group thought ur-vibe. i always get nervous booking a noise sshow, or a show with a noise act, but thus far (and remember that i know how to choose ‘em) it’s been gnagbusters all around, with folks i think won’t be into it getting waay into it. i feel like this was a big show for a lot of people. lovelife. out!

dan burke is a professional soul singer and his band is called “the orange ocean“. ssaturday they had a big cd release party in a weird downtown office, it ruled. the music is kind of like, i don’t know, 70s piano pop? i kept giggling the whole night, thinking about the cops showing up and being super super confused by a bunch of stunners from the nonprofit sector party-lit by red lights and robotic globes, mellow choogling to classic keyboard patches while the cops silently turn around and walk out, or sometimes don’t even leave the elevator, and a dog raises its dog eyebrow, whimpers maybe. a quest for aggression harshed.

some notes:

• my girls from the art supply store were there, they flowed me drinks flowed to them by a be-flirted and inebriated barkeep.

• there was a duck yao table of food items for sale. i had to watch it while someone smoked a cigarette, so i wrote party slogans on the underside of all the hors d’oeuvre plates: “I’M ‘PREPARED’ FOR ‘WHATEVER’” “I SEE YOU SEEING ME” “HEY, SHUT UP”.
• JK the sensual vampiya told a guy crowd-scanning with a digicam “any pictures that have my face on them, you have to delete”. i said “yeah, he has a… thing” real nebulous and the guy said “oh yeah, totally! no problem!”. later: “i feel like this is both being an asshole and being reasonable.” i agree! also, JK made a joke about goethe and his theory of colors, then at least an hour passes before a guy none of us had ever seen turns to us and makes the same joke! i was like, are you fucking kidding me? as it turns out, neither of them had read the book, they just both knew that it was “important”. cherry, baby.
• dan burke is a great guy who is really good at what he does and what he does is something i wouldn’t necessarily seek out, but it’s delightful and a wonder to behold. guys, i’m not saying it’s “cute” or “quaint”, and i’m not trying to use world music language here. but let’s be frank: i left my zone. and: i had a super fun time in the traditional custom. and: i saw the strangeness of a border area and: that strangeness was cowed where all rivers meet. i know, this is like “duh”. but again– a squatted office, party heels, tom petty, cape codders, spinning dance lights, spray paint, sitting on the fire escape above the city with a beautiful manager, where the DJs still play “hey ya”. all one or none!

pictured above is LA in his natural state. i’m thinking of getting a photo hosting community thing– anyone have any recommendations?

the barbeque yesterday was really fun: lots of folks, lots of food, music and dancing, and wrassling, and getting muddy. billy blue played what he said might be his last worcester show, being as he’s moving to portland oregon, and we wish him all the best. terribles played their long-awaited cd release show, for the new joint “in congre∫s”. the terribles take turns in designing album art, this time it was matt carroll’s go, and he chose to make it look the title page of common sense: “Of the SYNCOPATION and HARMONY of Mu∫ickal in∫truments in general, with con∫ise Remarks on the A∫pects of Righteou∫ne∫s.” etc.. and of course it’s matt carroll, so *everything* is *perfect*. well done gentlemen.

the party was in the backyard of billy’s house and no one called the cops, and it rained a bit on three occasions throughout the night but nothing got ruined and that includes no one getting electrocuted. AND, in addition to this ssummer being “summer of worcester (again / still)” and “summer of having love” and somewhat inexplicably “summer of hand-whittled zippers”, it was also decided that this would be “platinum summer”, so pars whipped out the bleach and many got did, including yours truly. also, it was the first genuinely hot day of the year, so there was a lot of leg showing all around– a lot of fresh, weird, frog-belly leg.

all this week i’ll be bleaching my hair over and over again, until it looks like my head is made of pure cocaine.

a few weeks ago me and nik perry were in the liquor store getting swamp water supplies when he noticed that the nice indian ladies who work at this particular liquor store had drawn a beard and mustache on the babe calendar. we broed down a little about this compulsion, then as we were leaving, the lady said something in hindi to her mother, butme and nik both thought she was talking to us, and we both heard “good luck, archimedes!” and we both didn’t know how to respond, which is probably for the best.

the other day there was a guy at the grocery store going on and on in the meat section about how good the haddock was, to point of stopping people who were walking by and saying “you gotta try the haddock!”. i told him “you sound like my wife– it seems like every night she has a haddock!”. the guy said “huh.”. i’m sorry but this did happen, and i’m sorry.

karaoke was fun, i sang a few, including “fernando“, which was just out of my range so on the high notes i had to grab my throat and physically change the shape of my windpipe, which is something i read about akon doing.

the show last night was also fun, although for no reason i was totally out of it. as in, my brain and body were all weird. i liked all the bands, especially grass widow, and it was super great to see matt tobey tear on the guitar! and the house totally smelled “crusty”, which is cool.

kevin driscoll has a new screwed-down mixtape, it’s good, even though it’s named after a kind of fart: NIGHT WIND. george washington carver myers also has a screwed mix tape that just came out, but the source material is all dancehall, and when you screw down the huge bass drops already present in reggae they turn into a sound like a cable is a little loose, or something is improperly grounded. my screw tape is coming out next week, dead serious, cd + download, another “new trend” release.

here’s the flyer for tomorrow’s B*X+Q. nik perry made it (the flyer):

today was a crafts fair in the park, which was good and i did OK, and more than that i had a fun time talking fast and counting coup with passers by and those i just walked right up to. i bought a bunch of tiny glass elephants and some soap that smells like oatmeal cookies, the idea being that i would start to smell like cookies and subconsciously you would connect the smell of cookies to me, and then when you made cookies you would think to yourself or someone nearby “you know who i should call?…”. pretty devious on a few fronts really. pictured above is ashling’s arm, she got a cool sunburn which you can well imagine. see also: heavy reppin’ (with pogo), a laffy lady (with dark clouds (that flew by really fast with no static)).

yesterday there was a lot going on, but i didn’t go to the bone zone show, i went to the noise show at the firehouse, which was as advertised but shirt quitters didn’t play. chris cooper (angst hase pfeffer nase) destroyed it with a classic table top guitar set on the ground, and i filmed it and already put it up on the internet. there was almost no one there that didn’t live there, which was a bummer, but the lesson is “book a local draw”. i gave them all the money i had, and was glad to do it: a big change jar, with a lot of quarters in it, except for $1.50, which i got a coffee with later (although the diner didn’t charge for the coffee). i told george washington myers that i would say something about him on the internet so here goes: hi george!

tonight i went to a show that jenine played, at the go go. also matt f and a touring act called led to sea, which was good songwriting over violin with phrase samplers, outside by the fire, real nice. tomorrow i catch up on some bullshit, start some new bullshit. bed!

yesterday was a pretty weird day that i won’t get into but it started with eating cereal in the park with annie p (which was totally sweet) and ended with going to see autechre in boston with josh tumblecat, chris cooper, and holmes. me and josh and chris all had pretty much the same experience, which was wondering what the show was going to be like, and then once we were there, saying “oh yeah, this”. what it was was looking towards a darkened stage where presumably music was somehow being controlled, a few people head nodding, a few people hand pumping, but for the most part people just standing there holding beers. really, i’m only familiar with one autechre style, which is “things skittering out of control / atomic dissection often in reverse”, and that’s what i used to try and extrapolate the show during the deciding-to-go-to-the-show process. needless to say, that style was not in effect, and the night was mostly semi-anthemic bangers (which, as mentioned, few actually banged to). we ran into marky metal at the falafel palace afterwards, where josh and chris got turkish coffees and we had the pleasure of watching chris navigate his famous mustache around that tiny tea cup. lots of really horrible conversations that were fun to overhear at the restaurant. all in all, another great night.

oh yeah, and i guess me and purtle’s play is sold out already. sorry i didn’t get the ticket information out earlier, i didn’t know what it was (i didn’t know the information).

about to drive in to the west for another play rehearsal, still reeling from yesterday. first, riding my bike around picking up large checks that people had for me, and putting them immediately in the bank. made some neccessary phone calls and then joanne, CK and soccer camp, came in joanne’s van to grab me and kpars, we split for providence. this is like 3 o’clock.

we visited j9 a little and started to go to the fabric store (the main reason for our trip) but then we realized that it was going to be not open, so instead we went and got coffee at white electric and i played monster bash pinball, my favorite table. then we sat in the car for a really long time trying to figure out where to go eat, which seems like a bummer but was actually really really fun. joanne has a real party wagon, in which the back seats face each other, so it was really just like kicking it in a tiny apartment. at one point a dog with funny ears passed us in a truck and we peeled into action, chasing after the truck and driving erratically and demanding a picture, which we got. just a fun jam out nowhere session, driving around laffin, pointing out other cool dogs and peeing behind things. as day turned into night they went to a party first but i went to the show at as220 (where they showed up later)- monotonic, dark meat, black pus, kites. dark meat was a 15-piece, full horns, banshee vox, barn burner, and they played “universal indians”. i got the record, despite it being $20, which is crazy, and in addition to being named after an ayler song (the aforementioned “universal indians”), it says “ayler” three more times on the packaging. OK! monotonic was next, from israel, a tite three piece in a rock vein with explosive crazy movement- the singer climbing the rafters and sinewing around, the drummer moving his drums further and further into the crowd or being held aloft with his full kit, or the singer running into the bathroom to grab the trash can and then pour it over his (the drummer’s) head. the guitarist was perfectly stoic and pointing. i broke my glasses and then fixed them, it was awesome. kites followed this and what an act to follow! he played straight-up electric guitar in long piercing lines, very feeding back, until a serious “no regard” section where all of a sudden he became the scarecrow from the wizard of oz, bouncing around as if tendons had been cut. it ruled and the whole time there was this great teenager trying to cast witchy love spells on him, fully saturated with complete nonsense. black pus was pretty great, everyone was crowded close leaving lots of space in the back of the room for mellow kickin and exploratory movement– push ups, pinching, miming, struttin’, stuff like that. at a certain point joanne ran to the car and got her double dutch ropes. shit, all of a sudden the only sound was a bunch of wigs getting pushed back. nicole and natasha went ape and definitely tore it. serious session that outlasted the band and out into the street, picking up weird dudes walking past that yell to their friends “i’ll walk home!” and jump in and we all chant “new guy! new guy! new guy!”. i was in absolute heaven. we all drove home delighted.