Here's a bunch of old entries to the Official Ianto Ware Newsletter which you can look through at your leasure. Just remember that if you do opt, for some reason, to read old entries to my page you're really admitting that you're a bit of a nerd.
Click here to go back to the mainpage.
Entry:
Sunday August 5th
This weekend the postal service has insisted no fucking me. Not just the Australian postal service either. I got a package I'd sent to Germany back. It had got all the way to Germany where they'd decided the address didn't exist. The address does exist. They just fucked up.
And then I got an email from Tim in Queensland, he of being very nice and Tym Guitars fame. My Tym pedal had some problems, so I posted it back to him on Tuesday, and it still hasn't reached him. Fuck.
As if one postal service fuck up on one nation wasn't enough. It's like I'm being mocked by some sort of postal deity, angry at some minor infraction of postal rules and customs that I've breached. Maybe I didn't put the stamp in the corner, or I didn't write the post code down properly or something on a letter I sent, and now I am being punished.
Other than that I've finished some more zine related crap. That's about it.
Wednesday August 1st
For a breif moment there was someone on that wacky fun for the kids makeoutclub who had a line in their little bio thing about me being cool. Which meant you could do a search for girls with the interest of Ianto, and it would turn out a result. Sweet.
But I have more news. New copies of the live harsh noise tape will soon be available on Shamefile. I'm sending two over now and another three shortly after that.
I've also made two zines whilst bored at work, and those are kind of available I guess, and I'm making another one someone I know has offered to distro in Melbourne for me.
The combined effect of all this is to make me feel like a bit of a star. My energies are renewed enough I think I might even go do some reading for my thesis.
Sunday July 22nd
I'm once again sitting at home on a Saturday night, and I can't think of any better alternatives. I was trying to convince myself to do some work, and I sat down to start doing some more readings for uni and instead began reading the linear notes of one of the CD's I borrowed from the state library today. Geggy Tah's 'Sacred Cow', which I borrowed because I can remember seeing one of their songs on Rage in about 1997 back when I was a huge Weezer fan and all. And it was produced by David Byrne. Isn't that the Talking Heads guy?
That's my banality for the day then.
Friday July 20th
I got the dog's ashes back in a snazy blue urn the other day. The nurse at the vet's was really paranoid about dropping it.
I photocopied up a couple of zines I wrote whilst being bored at work, and I put them in my bag and now I can't find them at all. I think I may have posted them with all the mail on Thursday. Damn. Now I feel like a bit of a doofus. I hope I didn't leave them laying around at work, because then they'll think I'm an absolute nutcase, as well as a complete slacker. Which is worse than baffling some people at the post office. Hmm. I feel like a fool.
Monday July 16th
We took the dog to the vet this morning, and when I came home from work for lunch the vet had already rung and told my mother that he had a big, possibily ruptured cancer in his stomach. So we had to have him put down. Which was pretty upsetting. I guess I was kind of ready for it, and I was with him when he was put to sleep and all. That was about an hour and a half ago. I still keep expecting to see him wandering around the house looking for food. I dunno. Geeze I love my dog.
Sunday July 15th
We went to our normal vet yesterday morning about my dog Dennis being sick, and he said he couldn't feel a tumour, but he couldn't x ray him until all the weird shit in his stomach had gone down. We're taking him in on monday to get everything sorted out. Once the x rays are done we can tell if its a tumour, or just a fluid build up. If it's just a fluid build up then there's tablets for it. If its not, then I'll probably have to have him put down, because otherwise he'll have a short and not very pleasant time of things I guess. He's 13, so he's not a young dog, especially given he's pretty big and big dogs normally reach 11 or 12 or so. Still. I've had him since I was eight, and I've spent far more time with him then I've spent with most of my friends or, indeed, most of my family. It sounds cheesy, but I value him more than I did my dad. Which wouldn't be hard, because I didn't exactly spend a lot of time with my dad prior to his death in 1990.
Hmm. I hope things work out alright. It'd be nice if Dennis could just die quietly in his sleep. He's pretty obviously not going to get more than six months at the best. He ran out to greet me when I got home today, and after that he was sick for about two hours because he's so worn out. He's been a damn good dog, and I'd really prefer it if he could have a nice, easy death.
Friday 13th of July
Well. It's one AM. Just got back from the emergency vet on Anzac highway. My dog has some sort of tumour in his stomach, and given his age probably wouldn't survive surgery. We're taking him to the normal vet tomorrow to get things checked out properly, and x rayed in proper detail and stuff. But basically the chances that sometime this week I'm going to have to have my dog put down are pretty damn high. My solution to this; Smog's Red Apple Falls album.
Sunday July 8th
The show last night was predictably grisly. Fuckin' noise bands. Fortunately I've got this Mojo Nixon album, "Whereabouts Unknown", as well as the knowledge that there's a new Smog album coming.
Tuesday July 2nd
On July 7th (shit, that's this saturday) I'll be playing as part of improvised wanky noise outfit Hardy Coxwain. The event will take place at 10 Chowilla Street, Eden Hills and will also feature Rhizome, Roo Shooter, Circle of Destruction and most importantly Paul of Blood. Apparently it starts at 5 PM. You can email someone from Paul Of Blood about it at paulofblood@hotmail.com
Sunday May 31st
I was using the public toilets in the art gallery of SA today and the guy in the cubicle next to me. Man. He was a human Niagra Falls.
Sunday June 17th
I have my 6000 word take home exam tomorrow. I have to go into uni at ten and pick it up. I've taken annual leave from work, so I'm getting paid. Sweet.
As part of my exam preparation I purchased a second hand Oxford Reference English Dictionary. Its fuckin' huge. There's only two problems. It's from 1996, so it might be a little older than some of the stuff I need to use it to interpret. And its so big that if I drop it on my foot I could quite possibly rupture some blood vessels and die horribly from internal bleeding.
Ah hell. Here's a list of records I've been listening to lately:
Yo La Tengo: Painful
Art of Fighting:Wires
Volvox: The damage begins at the mouth
Ramones: Leave Home
Blood Sucking Freaks: Kill Kim Salmon Now
Dump: The skinny mother fucker with the high voice (the CD, Lee sent me the demo tape ages ago, but the CD has extra songs and sounds better)
There's a new film coming out from Todd Solondz. Best known for directing Welcome To The Dolls House, and my favourite film, Happiness. I fuckin' love that Todd Solondz.
Sunday June 10th
I'm in on swotvac. My exam is next week, so I'm pretty much busy with finding methods of time wasting. I'm opting for a 'zine and tape trade' theme. Hence I'm sitting here with an envelop all ready to be sent to Smitten Kitten zine distro, the url of which was given to me by someone I'm planning to trade stuff with. The URL is: http://tbns.net/smittenkitten/home.html
They've got issue 3 of Speak Easy, written by my friend Lee in Sydney. I didn't even know about this place until this woman in Germany sent me the URL after I bitched about the lack of decent zines I've read recently. They've also got two zines by people that live about five minutes from my house.
That's about it. I should be doing readings now.
Wednesday June 4th
I listened to the Marble Valley album 'Sauckiehall Street' today, for the first time in a while. Geeze, it's fuckin' A.
Pre exam stress is getting to me. So I'm putting a disclaimer on everything I say over the next couple of weeks. I probably don't mean it.
On the weekend I saw a Melbourne band that wasn't a bunch of pretty boys trying to sound like they belong on Matador or Thrill Jockey. I got their CD, but that wasn't so hot. Still, it was nice to see a band I didn't find myself severely hating and mocking.
Someday I forget the date of.
There's this guy on that make out club thing that uses the name 'ComicBookGuy'. You should go to that page and look up his entry. It's a fucking winner. That guy rules.
Monday May 28th
Biggest time waste of the day was: http://www.youseedavishardcore.com/shitindex.html
I don't know why.
I got quite a few readings done today. This means I am a big man. Sweet.
Sunday May 27th
My friend Jess joined me up at that makeoutclub thing. So I don't have to worry about issues. She even found a picture of me looking like a wussy pretty boy playing bass. That thing has been providing me with such a great time wasting source lately, with the result I've done less than half my readings and I've only written the first 300 words of my essay tonight. Because I've been busy enjoying a cruel laugh at the expense of a variety makeoutclub members who are alternately cursing it for being a singles club (yet still joining) or wallowing in their own self pity. Like the guy who's bio read simply "Last night I dreamt someone loved me". There's way more boys on this thing than girls, and for the most part the boys are hitting the extremes of being highly amusing or highly wanky with greater regularity. Geeze I love wasting time rather than reading Fanon. I liked the guy who listed his interests simply as 'acoustic grind core'. I'm assuming he was taking the piss. I also liked the guy in Melbourne who's photo featured him fighting a robot.
We had our first band practice tonight, for this new band thing. It actually went pretty well, though I'd like to see us rocking more.
Friday May 25th
My friend Jess has been trying to get me to join up at that makeoutclub thing, and I've discovered I have a world of issues. Issues. Geeze.
Tuesday May 22nd
I wrote the last two updates, but then couldn't be bothered up loading them. Then I looked at my website and noticed that the last few entries were all about having my tooth ripped out, which was a topic I enjoyed talking about in grotesque detail, but perhaps not one that the limited number of people visiting this page want to hear about.
Other than that it's been a week of reading. Yesterday I didn't do any, and then today I got all nervous thinking about how I haven't done any work lately when I've actually done at least 50 pages a day for the last week or so. Which is a reasonably steady, decent rate really, especially given the amount of that that's been close reading.
The combination of study and lack of food has been resulting in me doing silly things. Not very silly. But a bit. Certainly some other people I know have been doing silly things. Very funny silly things.
It's also resulted in me remembering occasions on which I recieved crazy person email or ICQ messages. Once I got this e post card thing with this weird kind of semi erotic animated .jpg of something like two underaged looking kids being overly romantic. I mean, it wasn't really weird. But it was getting there. And it was from some guy in England that had seen my homepage, and sent me the card to say he liked it. Turns out the card was actually part of a little e card business kind of thing he'd set up. So I wrote and said thanks, and he wrote back. And he sounded kind of weird, so I didn't reply. Then about three months later I got another message from him, like a christmas card. This time with the silhouette of what looked suspiciously like a naked boy standing in an animated .jpg snow storm.
At the time this didn't actually seem all that odd. Later on I thought about it and found myself saying, "What the fuck?"
Wednesday May 16th
My grandmother's been really sick this week, like fainting and all this stuff. The doctor thinks it might be like a nervous reaction to turning 70, which was the age her father died. Then I heard my mother talking to one of her friends and saying that at 70 "you can't say you have a good twenty years" or something. With the result I dreamt about my grandmother dying that night, and then the next night was getting kind of edgy and getting all philosophical. Then I was remembering back in the day when I had people I'd send lengthy emails to about these sort of things, and getting all reminiscent or something. I think this is the result of all the reading I've done this week. I estimated I've done about fifty readings this year, and read at least 8 books. Which doesn't sound like all that many, but its been a hard battle.
And I saw a fight in Rundle Street in the middle of the day. I was walking along and then there were these two guys on the side of the road outside that cafe thing near Big Star, and one was all hyper and aggressive and the other was just looking shocked. And the aggressive one threw a punch, which the other guy dodged, then the aggressive guy grabbed him and started hitting him in the head, and they moved across the road, ignoring any oncoming traffic, and the aggressive one said, "Come on mother fucker, you want to dance with me?" . "You want to dance with me?" Lorks a lordy.
It's like the other day I was waiting to turn right on a roundabout, and there were other cars going through the round about. And the person behind me honked at me, cause I wasn't crashing into said cars so they could get going. Some people need to get some real problems, and not act like having to wait ten seconds, or having someone say something stupid to you or spill your drink or whatever is worth fighting over.
Monday May 14th
Apparently Petra Haden got hit by a car. You can visit a fan page for her at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~dennisdm/
Things seem to be alright though, like she's got better since being hit by the car.
Have you ever eaten something despite, or even because, you knew it would give you gas?
Friday May 10th
The gaping hole that used to contain my wisdom tooth is really pissing me off. This morning I got up to go to my tutorials. And it was hurting. So I kept getting ready, then I'm standing at the bus stop. I can see the bus coming, so late I'll get to my tutorial about ten minutes after I should. I go to get out my bus ticket. It has no trips left on it. I have no money. My tooth is hurting. I came home mad. Dorky as it sounds I actually wanted to go to this weeks tutorial, cause it was on Spivak. And you need a tutorial for that. And now I just feel shitty. My tooth hurts enough that I don't want to eat, even though I'm really hungry and I've hardly eaten since I had the bastard out. I get the feeling that this week I should have just stayed home and not done anything but concentrate on not feeling like crap.
The hole is honestly so big you can fit the tip of an ear cleaner in there and not really notice it. And when you take the ear cleaner out, its covered with all this icky brown, gluggy muck.
I did the bastard test at http://test.thespark.com/ last night and found out that I am, infact, only 22% bastard.
Now I think I'm going to say fuck it all to hell and go back to bed.
Thursday May 9th
Today at work I didn't have anything to do, so I was sitting around and doing nothing useful. Then I went to lunch. After I came back from lunch there was some more stuff to do, cause it turned out there was no petty cash. So I was doing that. Then about fifteen minutes before I had to leave there was heaps to do, and I didn't get everything done.
The gaping hole in my mouth that once held a wisdom tooth still hurts, and the pain killer is still making me sick. Last night I decided to try and clean it out with ear cleaners. They came out brown. Which was kind of cool.
On the brighter side of things, thanks to Kynan's quick eyed second hand spotting, I got two motorhead records for $20. 1980's 'Ace of Spades' and 'No Sleep Till Hammersmith', although I think that's got some problems on one side. It needs to be cleaned or something.
Tuesday May 8th
I got the stitches out of my gums (the story of how I got stitches in my gums, which has to do with a troublsome wisdom tooth extraction, is detailed in the last entry) and now you can see what a fucking giant hole there is in my mouth. Huge, and surrounded with dead, gluggy white skin. Further more I'm not having a good reaction to taking nuerophen for so many days straight, and ended up feeling so sick on monday that I had to come home from work, and I'm seriously thinking about not going to a tutorial I have to do a presentation in tomorrow. The pain itself isn't all that bad. I mean, its enough to wake me up at night, but its not really horrible. Its more that its so consistant that it wears me out.
Saturday May 5th
Work on the upcoming T.O.B.P live album continues with the same high speed/high risk ratios that apply to the rest of my life. My life is a world of danger and amazing misadventure. Infact if only two words could be used to describe me they would be danger and misadventure.
Anyhoo. I had my other wisdom tooth out yesterday. And, good lord, what an adventure. The dentist had the pliers and he was trying to yank it out. And he kept losing his grip and the pliers would slip and wack around my mouth and he'd apologise. Then after doing that for a little while he said, "We're going to have to take it out surgically." So he gets the drill out, leans in real close and, as the drill is going into my mouth, says, "Don't breath". He said that twice whilst in the process of drilling my tooth in half so he could remove it. Then a bit of root was still left in there. So he had to dig that out as well. He let me keep the tooth, all three pieces of it. Its got two roots. Ugh. So if anyone wants to see my wisdom teeth I have them. I think at some point I might take the one that's still in one piece to a picknic or something and start casually using it mash at my food prior to putting it in my mouth. I should probably wash the blood off it first though.
I would also like to mention that I have read about a quarter of the readings in my major text book for uni. That doesn't sound like very many, but its been a hard won battle.
I may be hungry, but I sure ain't weird as Don Van Vliet would say. I think there's something in that for all of us.
Thursday May 3rd
That crazy Milkman Dan. He cracks me up.
Tuesday May 1st
I have a new car stereo. Car stereos kind of hate me. Installing the last one was a drama, and this time it seemed easy enough, but then instead of music you ended up with cracking noises. So I went up to my grandfather's and he fixed it. Had to rewire all these speakers and figure out where they went and whatnot. Last time he had to install a new switch cause the stupid radio wouldn't turn off properly. That man's a freakin' genius, I tell you.
A link: http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/
Red Meat by Max Cannon rules.
Wednesday April 25th
Today I got up early and went to the Anzac day march. When I told my mother about this she refused to believe me.
Hmm.
Today I have been listening to:
Motorhead: 1916 (which features Lemmy singing a keyboard and strings driven ballad to the troops that died in the First World War, which was kind of fitting).
Dick Dale: Best of (which I borrowed from the state library and liked more than I thought I would)
Sleater Kinney: All hands on the bad one (as per above)
Tuesday 24th of April
My mother used my computer last night. She went online to pay some bills, which didn't work cause she put her pin number in wrong anyway. But the result of her using my poor, battered old computer is that it once again started going really slowly on the internet and fucking up a lot when I dial in. I don't know what she does to computers. She has a record for fucking them up. The first one we had she decided she'd 'clean up the hard drive' shortly after we got it, deleted a config.sys file and the whole thing broke down. One time at the school she teaches out she caused a whole bunch of them to crash just by going near them.
When I was in year one, and through out year 2 my school had this pen pal thing going with kids from somewhere in England. It went on for a while, and it wasn't too exciting cause it didn't happen too much. Like once every few months their teachers would make them write to us, and then a couple of months later our teachers would give us their letters and make us write back to them. But I enjoyed it. So one day near the end of year 2 their teachers got them to send pictures of themselves, along with letters about what they did during their holidays. I remember the kid who was writing to me got a toy ambulance, and I don't recall being too impressed by this for some reason. But what was more interesting was the kid's photo. I swear he was an exact replica of me. Tidier though. But he looked just like me. For one reason or another I never got to write back to him, and then I lost his letter and forgot his name.
Sigh.
My room was starting to smell of poo, and I was thinking "Why does it smell of poo in here?" and then I found the cat had, for reasons of her own, brought in a piece of poo and put it on the floor by my feet.
Sunday 22nd of April
I've found I really like suddenly jumping musical genres. I've also found recently that I enjoy making 20 minute "EPs", especially when I can pass them off as "Live Special Edition EPs". I spent a good part of last night making another dodgy recording. One with something resembling a rhythm this time, and a fair bit of soloing. There's nothing in this life as fine as a guitar solo.
There used to be a time when I never showed any of the music I'd made up (and I use the term music there very lightly) cause I didn't think it was good enough. I still don't think its good enough but I've found that when I do try to show it to people, most people aren't listening any way, so its not much of a difference, and I feel better at having 'released' things.
Hence it wouldn't suprise me if tonight's recording, along with some more stuff I'll probably set down amoungst the hiss and whine of the four track, will end up making yet another shitty 20 minute tape. Geeze I freakin' love my life when it comes to stuff like this. I'm such a nerd, but I tell you a night with the four track and my old guitar and I'm a happy young man.
Friday 20th of April
The show last week actually went pretty well. I made $16. Sweet. I've also made my second silly noise tape entitled 'Brit Pop Is Crap And Other Lessons I Learnt At Sea'. It's not as good as the last one I made, the K.O.F.E.N Live Australian Tour release, but this one does feature the feild recording 'Barfing Up A Lung' with vocals by my mother. The name of that song really says it all.
Yesterday at work I think I got in a bit of trouble. Someone I'd taken a message for didn't get the message. I spent about ten minutes looking for them. And then I gave up, told my boss I couldn't find them and wrote down the message and stuck it up where I assumed someone would see it. And they didn't. Oh well.
That Akai Headrush I got couple of weeks back is a fine piece of work.
Friday April 13th
My internet connection has been pretty much crazy arsed all week, and the email still isn't working but I think things are mostly fixed now.
Hmm.
Did I have an unlucky Friday the 13th? No, not really.
I guess I should again mention that I'll be part of a band called Hardy Coxwain playing on sunday night at the Rhino Room supporting Outpost while they launch their new CD. The Tired Children, featuring Sarah Masters, will also be playing.
Motorhead fuckin' rules.
Sunday April 8th
My internet connection doesn't seem to be working. I'll fight with it later, but I'll write this now. I think I need to buy more time from Asiaonline. My mother 'borrowed' a supposedly half decent modem from her school ages ago, with the intention of supposedly buying it. I thought she'd returned it, but I just found it sitting on her desk. So if the buying more internet time thing doesn't work I'll try that. Plus it'd be good to have a 56 k modem rather than the made in 1997 thing I've got now.
That's completely uninteresting, I know.
On an equal uninteresting note I had another practice with the old French Extreme Noise tonight and it went substantially better than it did last night. I dunno. I guess I'm a fairly quiet person and I don't generally scream and shout, and I'd kind of forgotten the importance of that to making French Extreme Noise. I guess, in a more symbolic sense, Adelaide is a long way from Verdun.
I can feel the stitches and the scab where my wisdom tooth used to be. It's really gross.
This weekend I have been listening to:
Smog: Red Apple Falls
Motorhead: No Sleep At All
Which has been an interesting mix.
Friday 6th of March
Today I
(a) Got my new effects pedal, an Akai Headrush sampler/delay.
(b) Had one of my wisdom teeth out, and had a filling.
After the dentist ripped out my wisdom tooth and gave me some stitches to seal up the big hole in my gum I asked if I could keep the tooth, and he let me. So now I'm sitting here with this tooth with dried blood on it. The root bit is at least twice as large as the visable tooth. And its a lot harder than I though it would be. I had it pulled out at about 4:00, and the wound is only just starting to stop bleeding. I've been spitting blood all night.
I remember in primary school when this kid did something, I forget what, but he had a really bad blood nose or something and he was spitting blood and he told me, "I'm spitting blood. I'm really spitting blood!" in this tough casual way, and I kind of nodded and went away. Well, now I too have spat blood. I sure am a big man now.
But anyway, the wisdom tooth extraction wasn't as painful or scary as I thought it would be. It aches now, but the actual removal, thanks to having my entire jaw put to sleep, didn't hurt too much at all. I would like to mention that the dentist pulled out my tooth with this really battered, rusty looking thing that looked like it had been bought at a hardware store.
I actually bothered to do some silly French Extreme Noise practice tonight. And discovered I need to do more practice. I've forgotten how to do a lot of things I think.
Wednesdad 4th of April
Today I remembered one of the few pieces of wisdom my father imparted to me in the 48 hours or so we spent in each others company. This was: If you fart into a flannel, the next person who uses it will be able to smell it.
Then I was thinking about what potential advice I could give to any unfortunate and unlikely offspring I might have. The only thing I could think of was the time I got my arse caught in a plastic box by sitting into the open end of it. Now I'm trying to think of something else and I can only think of the time I tied myself to a table at age four and my mother didn't notice for half an hour.
What we can see from this is that if I have a child the wisdom I will be able to give to it is:
(1) If you fart in a flannel the next person will be able to smell it.
(2) Don't sit in the open end of a plastic box. You might get your arse caught.
(3)Don't tie yourself to a table. Its not as easy to untie yourself as it looks on TV.
I think its also of note that everything on that list I learnt before I reached the age of 11.
Yesterday my best friend pointed out that I've actually made playing guitar geeky.
She's right too. I'm 21. I don't go out at night. I don't drink. The most powerful drug I take is demazin. I don't know very many people. I stay at home and play guitar solos. I read harmony central guitar and effects reviews for fun. I actually own a t shirt advertising a guitar company. Fortunately its not as outright nerdy as a Fender, Gibson, or the downright pathetic Epiphone shirt. But I'm getting there.
It was my friend's opinon that I am inheriently geeky and this is what makes me playing guitar nerdy. She says when I played with my computer all the time as a 16 year old, or when I played dungeons and dragons as a 12 year old those activites were inherently nerdy, so it didn't show, but the fact I've actually managed to become a guitar nerd when playing guitar is still a relatively cool thing to do kind of points that the problem is more to do with me than the activities I partake of.
Although I do recall some pretty nerdy people playing guitar when I was in school. The ones in the lower year levels were always cool. The cool kids played drums and guitar, but they all sucked and dropped out by year 10. The people doing guitar in year 11 and 12, well. They were a bit more nerdy. Not as much as me though.
That reminds me, I should be getting a new pedal on friday. After that I'll begin work on the final stages of recording the KOFEN album I think.
The records I have listened to today have been:
The Ramones: Its Alive
The New Year: Newness Ends
Art of Fighting: Wires
Guitar Wolf: Jet Age
and the second tape of a two 90 minute tape Smog retrospective I made.
Sunday 1st of April
I'll be playing guitar in a band called Hardy Coxwain at the Rhino Room on Easter Sunday. That's the 15th of April, 2001. Also playing will be Sarah Master's new band The Tired Children and Outpost, who are launching their new CD.
Hardy Coxwain, the name of which was not something I chose and just thank your lucky stars some of the other suggestions that were made didn't get taken up, is kind of like the old band we were in called The Trip Up From Mission Viejo (which, sadly, I did name) except without the bits people liked.
Plus I got my new Tym Triple Tone distortion pedal the other day, so I've been rockin' real hard.
Here's an article Edward Said wrote about that crazy American election: http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2000/513/op2.htm
The fact I'm putting up a link to an article by Edward Said says something about my weekend.
Although I did get a call from a friend of mine who lives in Melbourne, and I haven't talked to her in quite a while so that was pretty good.
I was also in town on saturday and, whilst walking around and waiting for my best friend, I ended up watching one of those bands they've now got playing free concerts outside the museum. It was a ska band and there were all these overly happy punker kids who were probably about 16 or so running about amusing the hell out of me with their wacky dancing and general hijinks. A bunch of them ended up swimming in the big fountain/pool sort of thing. This I found endlessly amusing. Wacky kids.
Tuesday 27th of March
Today on the seat of the bus shelter at my bus stop there was this, I dunno, fruit I guess. It was like this giant lemon sort of thing. But about five times bigger, slightly flatter. Green with lighter green really little spots. I have never seen anything like it. I was standing at the bus stop poking at it and stuff.
On sunday night I continued my turning into a guitar geek thing by going up to none other than Baterz, whose quirky brand of comic acoustic pop I've criticised viciously for years, and asking about this sampler thing he was using shortly after he'd finished playing at Deadman's pants. I went up to the front of the stage, peered at the pedal and then asked about it. He was pretty surly about it when I asked him. I was like, "Excuse me, what is this [pointing at the pedal]" and he was all, "Its a sampler I think" which was pretty obvious from what he'd been doing with it. Geeze. But that's beside the point. I mean, I went up to the stage and peered at gear and asked about it. That sort of guitar nerd behaviour makes me deserving of surliness.
Oh yeah. I'll be playing a show with some other people on Easter Sunday as a support for Outpost's CD launch. We'll be doing what my old band used to do, but minus the bits everyone liked. It'll be a silly noise show. It'll be at the Rhino room.
Record's I've been listening to the last couple of days include:
The New Year: Newness Ends
The Ramones: Its Alive
Smog. I freakin' love Smog.
Friday 23rd of March.
I've had a couple of rock and roll practices with some guys I know with the intention of playing a show at the upcoming launch of Outpost's new CD. So I'm finding my enthusiasm for working on that tape I was fucking around with a while ago is back up a little. Geeze I have all these things I want to do and I'm just not doing them right now. I blame uni and work.
Apparently Joey Ramone is in hospital with cancer and he isn't expected to live. That's real sad.
Monday 19th of Marth
I had reasonable conversations with people I don't really know over the last couple of days, which is very odd for me. Sometimes I get the feeling more should have been done on the lack of social skills back when I was in therapy. There's this girl I used to do a tutorial with who I ran into whilst on my way to ye olde barr smith and I chatted to her for a good five minutes without even feeling socially akward. Gee she seems like a nice person. Every time I run into her we talk for a while, and she's always very friendly and I never feel too much like an idiot afterwards. And on saturday my best friend dragged me over to Trims clothing store and there was this girl I hardly know, and what little I do know is based on her having had the same mutual (ex) friends that I had about two years ago and I talked to her for quite a while about being poor and down on your luck. When I last talked to her abotu two years ago at a blue bottle kiss show no less she was all chirpy and teenagery and now she's, as my best friend commented, 'grown up by about five years'. I dunno. Its a nice to change to have little one on one conversations with people. I guess that's about as sociable as I get these days, although sharing pizza with people at this 'codec cinema' night on sunday was kind of nice. And 'Pulse' who played at that night were also pretty good.
Now I must go back to my university style reading.
Saturday 17th of March
Its been almost two years now since I broke up with my girlfriend. To commemorate this fact I have become a guitar nerd. Here's my website for the day:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/mosrite/the-ventures/english/e_mosrite_ventures.html
Taken from the website of the ultra nice Tym Guitars guy. Its a Japanese Mosrite/Ventures enthusiasts page. Mosrites being fucking brilliant guitars and the Ventures being the band that loved them.
Thursday March 15th
I saw that 'Virgin Suicides' film tonight. It, like 'Dancer In The Dark', was one of those films I've heard people talk about how great they were. And given that DITD was pretty shit, I went into this one somewhat skeptical. But I really liked it. I didn't expect it to be so funny. I guess I don't know too much about film, but I thought it was very well made indeed.
Wednesday March 14th
Apparently Weezer has finally finished recording their new album and it is currently being mixed with the intention of being released in April. Of course, it won't be released in April. It will take another year to get released, but still. It brings back memories of being seventeen and seeing them play in the basement of Big Star and getting my copy of the blue album signed by all members of the band.
There was also supposedly plans for them to play in Australia in January, which I guess we can say for sure didn't come to fruit. Oh well. Man, I used to love that Weezer. Back in the days I used to enjoy going to shows and didn't have a complete collection of Smog albums.
I guess I'm in kind of a nostalgic mood.
I got woken up this morning by my mother asking me to take her to the doctor. She's pretty sick. Not really sick, but barfing sick, and she has been so, on and off, for about a week. See my mother had a kidney transplant back in the mid 70's. Back then they didn't really know what they were doing, with the result that a lot of the transplants either weren't successful, or they packed up a couple of decades later. She also got Hepititis C from a blood transfusion. And, combined with the whole single parent/only child thing I guess I am a little bit rattled by this whole sickness thing. When my dad died when I was ten I got this whole phobia about my mother dying, and its kind of wussy, but I must admit that it never went completely away.
Gee, now I'm getting heartfelt and open. This page is way too much like a webjournal.
I was just looking at the homepage of someone who liked Yo La Tengo and Sloan. How could you have the good taste to like Yo La Tengo and then go and like Sloan? There must be split personality disorders involved.
Monday March 12th
I finally learnt something interesting from reading Marty Smith's 'Thougths' section in the Advertiser every day. Goethe's last words were 'More Light', ie the title of the J Mascis And The Fog album.
I got some more four track tapes for the first time in a while and I'll continue working on something or the other for some reason or the other. I keep feeling the urge to make silly little tapes that very few people will hear, and even fewer people will like. I think this is a rewarding past time indeed. It takes up a lot of my thinking time, and I like to practice alot. What with uni and work I now lead a resonably active life. Sweet.
Still, sometimes I find myself staring out the window thinking of my life at sea. The crashing of the waves, the harsh cry of the north wind, the soft and flaccid feel of a manatee, the sight of a flock of gulls after a long voyage, the smell of the salt wind, passing off any fermented liquid as 'grog'. It was a good life.
The Man or Astroman? record I got a while back rules.
That Tim from Tym guitars is plenty nice, I tell you that.
Friday March 9th
I've ordered a new effects pedal, which should be forthcoming soon. This is the first sign that I have a new job I guess. I was getting all panicky about money, giving I've ordered this pedal, I've got uni fees and I've got to get my car fixed. Then I did a big of a budget for the next two weeks, and I'll be able to cover it plenty well.
Oh yeah. I did another stationary order at work yesterday. There's something very masculating about ordering bulk stationary supplies, even if I am kind of scared of the phones at work and tend to make mistakes a lot and not order stuff right.
Thursday March 8th
I'm listening to the last Sebadoh album after listening to Dinosaur Jr all day. J Mascis kicks Barlow's arse, even more so now they're getting a bit older. And with Mike Watt in the Fog, Barlow don't stand a chance.
I was reading Mike Watt's homepage the other day. Man, he seems like a nice guy. On several occasions in his tour journal he mentions the importance of his Chuck Taylors in his life, and he was plenty happy that he got to take a collapsable bike on tour with him.
This J Mascis kicks Barlow's butt thing is, now I come to think of it, a long running theme. A while back I had a big debate with some guys I know about who'd win in a fight with Lue Barlow, an argument which began after discussing how badly Mascis would beat him. Then Jon Davis, the other guy from Folk Impolosion, would rush in and defend Barlow cause he wouldn't be no wimp. And he and Mascis would kind of glare at each other and exchange harsh words and slink away.
Mike Watt's so damn cool. You can visit his website, and look at the picture of his bass that is signed by Les Paul at: http://www.hootpage.com/index.html
Visit The Vapours website, the band responsible for 'Turning Japanese' at: http://hem.passagen.se/pareng/vapors.htm
Saturday March 3rd
I can't believe I have a proper job.
The second edition of my friend Jane's zine, 'My Name Is Not Susan', is out now. Its got a little bit of poetry by me in there, as well as heaps of other stuff by Jane and some other people who I've met once or twice but can't remember. Bim. I don't know if that's her real name. Who I met at Jane's housewarming, where I got introduced to a whole heap of people and got confused and forgot every one of them.
Today I delivered copies of 'Attitude' to the fine people of Glenelg, which will be probably my last delivery driving endevor for a long while. To my credit despite several whopping fuck ups on my part, it still took the amount of time it was meant to take, instead of two hours longer like it normally does. The best part was when I was walking back to the car and I heard this little kid, like about 10 or so, talking to his friend while they were following one of their mothers to the shopping centre. He was recounting to his friend the bit in Monty Python's 'The Search For The Holy Grail' when the French guy tells Arthur and his knights that, 'Of course I am French! Why do you think I am speaking in this outrageous accent', and laughing his little head of. Oh man, that's just what I was doing at his age. Which reminds me, it was my best friend from primary school's birthday on Thursday.
Oh yeah. My best friend got her bike yesterday.
Thursday, March 1st
I had my first uni seminar of the year. Gee golly am I going to have to do a lot of reading this year. To commemorate this fact I purchased one of the books I have to read, 'The River Between' less than 12 hours ago and I've already finished it. Man, I'm a reading machine.
Wednesday Feb. 28th
For some people the Cold War will never die. What is it about conservative right wing Christians that makes them such good conspiracy theorists? Here's a URL I found: http://jocom.tripod.com/war.html
The US has stockpiles of weapons the same size they did during the cold war. A couple of years back, while they were doing that whole 'Iraq chemical warfare stockpiles' scandal, they were breaking UN set laws about the amount of chemical weapons they were allowed to produce.
Russia's so fucking poor that they could hardly afford to feed their own army. If memory serves the last time they tried to wage war, against the half starved guerilla army of an ex-USSR nation, they got their arses whooped.
You decide who's the nuclear and military threat.
Note that according to this page a guy who pretty much bought his way into Harvard despite being a dunce, and got management positions in big business, which he fucked up also on account of being a dunce, and who got the position of president of the USA despite having 30,000 fewer votes than his rival, and who had to do a lot of shady things to even get that, is described as 'God's man... a man of honour, decency and integrity'.
Monday 26th of Feb.
Thankfully its been a few days since the last update. Maybe there's hope this homepage won't turn into another webjournal after all.
I saw J Mascis last night and it ruled. When J wasn't playing a solo Mike Watt was. That's right. Mike Watt was playing as part of the Fog. Fuckin' A.
One of the good things about rock shows in Adelaide is you can get right up the front and not get too cramped or have people kicking you in the head with their silly moshing dance. Hence I got the spend the entire show in the front line, right in front of Mascis and his vast array of amplifiers. And I came home afterwards and played some guitar solos of my own and debated what my next crazy cassette 'release' will be.
Which reminds me that I still haven't done anything on the last one. But I did start my new job today. I had to get up at eight in the morning. Then I felt sick. The nursing home I'm working in has a focus on Polish people. So there was this old guy talking to the nurses about his mother, and they were trying to explain to him that she was taking a dump, but he didn't really understand English, so one of the Polish speaking nurses started talking to him, and she kept using the word 'Poopa'. Infact, now I come to think of it, I heard that word several times today.
Here's a URL: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/2680/index.html
The feedback and advice to parents are the best bits.
Friday Feb. 23rd
I got that job I was being interviewed for, which means come monday I'll officially be a clerk's assistant/receptionist at St Teresa Aged Care Facility in sunny West Croydon, working a whopping 15 hours a week. I feel kind of bad about having to quit my delivery driving job. Sure, its only once a week but I've been doing it for a year. Plus I won't be able to give much notice to my boss, who yesterday brought along a birthday cake for my birthday the other week. Although I've maybe found someone else to do my run. And this week the run I normally do took longer than normal, and I had to do Unley Road as well (normally I do Glenelg). So it was kind of a reminder of the bad parts of that job. Hmm. Its the end of an era though, quitting this delivery driving job. Not much of an era, it won't make the history books or anything. I wouldn't write about it in any essays if I were you.
Anyway. I saw that 'Dancer In the Dark' film on wednesday night. The best bit was right at the end when everything went totally quiet and all you could hear was the members of the audience sobbing. That sounds really mean, but its kind of nice to see people being so touched by watching a film or something. The only other time I've been at a film where people cried was 'Boys Don't Cry', and that was full out bawling, not quiet sobbing.
That said, I didn't really like the film too much. I appreciated the emotional effect it had on people, like I said, but a lot of the film making was pretty sloppy, like stupid close ups and either it got butchered in the editing room or there were some bits that just didn't fit together right. Some of the acting wasn't so hot. It sort of seemed like they'd improvised and it just hadn't quiet worked. But I liked the musicals. There should be more musicals.
My favourite film, for the record, is probably 'Happiness', by Todd Solondz, who apparently has a new film coming out sometime soon. Its also of note that while I really liked 'Henry Fool', I've yet to be very impressed by any other Hal Hartly films. Even if they do have Yo La Tengo on the sound track.
Wednesday Feb. 21st
I've got this job interview at 4 PM (it's currently about 2 AM), and uni is going back next week and J Mascis is coming and I've got all this dentist stuff I need to worry about. So I guess I'm kind of tense.
Apparently unless I completely fuck up the interview, the job is mine. There's only like two other people who've got interviews and apparently if it just came down to resumes I would be kicking their arses plenty bad. I know all this cause my best friend works at the place, and is indeed the person I'll be replacing cause she has to quit for study reasons, as I think is mentioned below somewhere.
So yeah. Me doing an interview. That should be pretty funny. Even if the only other applicant was a mute chimp I'd probably still have my work cut out for me. I'm not much of a talker.
My best friend still wants to buy a bike.
Some hints that the same best friend has given me in regards to tomorrow's interview:
'You need to remember to talk'
'The problem will be if she (the manager of the place I'd be working at and also the person who'll be interviewing me) takes in instant dislike to you. She's done that before.'
Apparently Steven Malkmus/The Jicks will be appearing on The Late Show With David Letterman on April 10th. Of course I remember when they said Weezer would be playing on Letterman after Pinkerton came out, and it never came to be. I heard a Steven Malkmus song on the radio yesterday. It wasn't so hot I guess. Plus apparently he had to release the album under his name rather than a band name or something, cause Matador objected.
Still, it its true I'll watch it, and probably enjoy it.
I've been listening to the Dinosaur Jr album 'Green Mind' a lot today. It kind of got ignored in the thrill of finding that Smog record, plus the new Man Or Astroman?, but I've been listening to it all day today. Well. Not all day. But for bits during the day.
I just saw the ghecko that lives around our house walking across the window pane. Bitchin'.
Tuesday 20th of Feb.
My teeth continue to lead me into a world of shit. Apparently drinking fruit juice (I'm a big fruit juice fan) causes one's teeth to 'errode'. Apparently I also need wisdom teeth out, and more fillings. The only potentially good part of that is that if I have the wisdom teeth done now then it can be done at the dentists, not in hospital and it only hurts for a couple of days.
Hmm.
On the upside 'Burning Kingdom', the Smog CD I got the other day, thereby saving me the cost of ordering it, is a humdinger and has 'My family', for which I've seen the film clip. Geeze, that Smilin' Bill sure does kick some arse.
Oh yeah, I ate my first hot cross buns of the season. I love those hot cross buns.
My best friend wants to buy a bike.
Hmm. Anyway. I haven't done any more work on my shitty demo tape, but I probably will some time in the next couple of days, and there's not too much work to be done.
Why not visit the following homepage:
https://members.tripod.com/~junior_sub_soc_se/
Sunday 18th of Feb.
I spent the last little bit of my money on a Smog CD. Burning Kingdom. Bringing my Smog collection that little bit closer to completion. The only Smog album I don't currently own is 'Forgotten Foundation', and soon that too will be mine no doubt. I should be trying for the 'Look Now' single as well. Yeah. Sweet.
And my car cassette player is undergoing some sort of crisis. I guess for the $70 I paid for it that's not really suprising, especially as its seen out some pretty damn long road trips. I'll poke it with a screwdriver tomorrow and take it up to my granddad for futher proding. In my family an electrical appliance isn't truly dead until it can no longer submit you to low level electical shocks.
I remember the glory days of the internet. I remember when phrases like 'world's largest library' and 'information highway' and 'virtual community' ruled over the 'ebusiness' and 'ecommercy' bullshit of today. When you could go online without coming across pop up ads for online gambling and stupid, pointless show off javascript and plug ins. I remember when instead of unrequested ICQ messages advertising porn, I got sent a free postcard by Madison The Genius Cat (at http://www.keelerkom.com/home.html). Yeah, 96, those days sure were sweet.
Friday 16th of Feb.
I went out today and purchased a twenty minute tape for down mixing that silly noise tape I'm making, which has been mentioned at length in previous entries. So progess is going well. I also went and did my weekly shopping with my friend Ashley, who yesterday had to do life drawing for her TAFE fashion design course. She describes her fellow students as either 'slappers' or 'chiggas', ie the kind of people who go to Heaven nightclub a lot and think 'Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus' is a great piece of gender studies. One of them apparently has a dreadlocked mullet and wants to patent a pair of pants which somehow involve hooves.
There's a story at, http://www.grrl.com/main.html, in which the woman who runs the site remembers the time she dated a guy refered to simply as 'Cape Boy'. Which I found rather amusing. Although I fail to see what makes Bette Paige and Retro porn so freakin' cool. Let's just hope 40 years from now Anna Kornikova doesn't become 'retro' and undergo a similar revival. It's bad enough having to live through it once.
I continue to listen to the new Man Or Astroman? album and it continues to grow on me. Damn I love that Man Or Astroman?.
Thursday 15th of Feb.
Yesterday someone asked my best friend Ashley what she got for Valentines day, and she replied, "Depressed".
Ha.
Ha ha.
Ha ha ha.
Much amusement.
My love of aktavite has reached a new height. Now I don't even use a spoon when I'm making myself a cup, I just pour the aktavite straight in from the can.
Anyway, last night I spent some quality time timing how much I've got for my next silly noise tape. I've got about four pieces, none of which are too hot, but which come to a total of about half an hour. The typical time everything comes to, just to piss me off cause you can't get half hour blank tapes, hence you either have to leave a lot of blank tape, or put on less stuff. I hate listening to the eerie silence of an empty tape, and its so unprofessional (and I am very professional) so I guess I'll be putting out a 20 minute tape. I'm not too happy with it so I guess technically it's classed as a 'demo' tape, and when I get a little better I'll make a proper non extreme noise album or something maybe.
So there's some enthralling news, for all my fans out there. The general
point of the above is that I'll be making a 20 minute limited edition demo
tape, which should be available in the next week or two, but I'm not happy
with it and I'm kind of hoping one day soonish I'll have enough stuff on
enough quality to make a forty minute tape.
Tapes rule.
Oh yeah. I got the new Man Or Astroman? album the other day. Lorks a lordy the astromen rule. I guess this album, based on having only listened to it three times so far, isn't my favourite but they sure do know what time it is. They cut the mustard, and have the onions as my friend would say.
You can visit the Man Or Astroman? website at: www.astroman.com upon which you can read about how they're putting out another live album. Man Or Astroman? make me want to form my semi fictional ex patriot noise/punk rock band known as 'The Screws'. I've still got the tape of the one and only Screws performance (read improvised wankery) kicking around somewhere.
J Mascis is coming. Yeah!
Wednesday 14th of Feb.
Happy birthday to my friend's Lue and Lee, who both turn 20 today. Both of whom have given me some bitchin' presents in the past.
Wednesday 14th of Feb.
Happy birthday to my friend's Lue and Lee, who both turn 20 today. Both
of whom have given me some bitchin' presents in the past.
Tuesday 13th of Feb.
Today I purchased the Dinosaur Jr album 'Green Mind' second hand. Any album with a song called 'Puke and cry' is a winner, let me tell you that right now.
One of the greatest joys in life is playing a guitar solo. I've done a fair bit of that today. Man, I'm shit hot, I tell you that right now. I taught J Mascis everything he knows, and that ain't no lie. Ain't made no futher progress on the silly noise tape though. However it did occur to me that I should tape myself soloing, and then when one of my lesser guitar playing friends goes into a guitar store, they can take my tape and a walkman and use these to their advantage. See when you try a guitar in a guitar store, the guitar store guy normally says, "Alright, I'll just tune it to you", before he hands it over. Instead of tuning he plays a massive, intimidating blues or Steve Vai or Ted Nugent riff. This is essentially his (and its always a he, I've never seen a female guitar store person) attempt to prove he is a bigger, more burly manly man than you or any of your friends. Normally at this point, you're sitting there thinking, "Well, now whatever I play is going to seem pretty wussy". So you play the opening part to Pavement's 'Shady Lane' or something equally wussy, and the guitar store guys are all sitting out there in the front part of Derringers or whatever store you're in snickering at your expense. But if I made a tape of me soloing, then my friends who find themselves in this situation could take a walkman with them into the gutiar store, then when the guitar store guy goes off after playing his blues riff, they'd put the headphone of the walkman up against the guitar pick up, and play my soloing tape. On most kind of guitars the pickup, if its a humbucker at least, will amplify the music from the walkman headphone. So you can go in, ask to try a '66 Les Paul Goldtop (the primary choice of guitar store guys) and then they can hear the kind of wild, untamed solo that puts their guitar heros to shame. Then when they come back, all amazed at the wild solo they heard and saying stuff like, "It was as if the hoards of Genghis Khan were riding across the plains of the Gobi Desert" (all guitar store people worship warlords like Genghis Khan, its a lust for power thing), you can quickly hide the walkman and say, "Hmm. Yeah. These old Les Pauls, they're alright, but you know. They're a bit overrated. A bit for wankers you know. They're kind of limiting. I can't solo to my full ability".
Yeah.
Well. Maybe I can't solo all that well, I admit. But if I could I'd make
a tape like that, and give it to people so they could upset some guitar
store guys.
I have this horrible fear that the dentist put a filling on the wrong tooth. He had this new, girly assistant and they were getting pretty sociable, so maybe he didn't look at his tooth chart and did the wrong tooth. So now I've got the root canal finally done with, but I still get to worry. Such is the nature of life. I have to go back next monday for a general check up and have my teeth x rayed so he can find more horrible stuff to do to my teeth.
I have no book to read, hence I am very bored.
Now here's a link to Alien 8 records, which has put out the likes of Bastard Nosie, Merzbow, Masonna, Lorren MazzaCane Connors and many others.
Monday 12th of Feb.
It is currently 4:04 PM. I just got back from the dentist. I can't feel a good part of my mouth. And my mouth now has more plastic in it, and less tooth than it used to. I ment to go into town and do stuff today, but I didn't cause my mouth feels all weird and half my face isn't moving, I didn't. Which is kind of an interesting sensation. Except it gets boring after a while. Last time the dentist put my tooth to sleep before working on it, which was during the 'emergency removal of tooth pulp' it took about 8 hours for the stuff to wear off completely.
I think the thing I like least about going to the dentist, especially for this root canal thing I've been having done over the last couple of weeks, is when the dentists uses the thing which actually creates smoke and what I can only presume is a tooth burning smell. I kept waiting for him to slip and burn a whole through the side of my mouth.
I think, sadly, I've actually learnt a lesson from all this. Even more sadly that lesson is that I should go to the dentist every two years, rather than putting it off for five years like I've been doing. That's such an unrock thing to have learnt. Sigh.
Anyway. I've been relistening to the stuff I recorded last night, and at the current time it still looks like I'll be doing a twenty minute release of silly noise. I've managed to do enough stuff I can avoid using the stuff that's too obviously ripping off Chris Smith's 'Replacement' album. I didn't mean to rip anyone off, but I listened to it afterwards and thought, "Gee this sounds like a really crappy version of something else I've heard".
Enthralling.
For some reason tripod is being a bastard and not letting me upload stuff. Hmm.
Not to imply that there's anything wrong with being a bastard. I've known several people born out of wedlock, and they were all very nice people. I in no way wish to enforce the ideal of marriage as being important to the moral worth of the children of any given parental unit.
Monday 12th of Feb.
It's only just gone monday. That is to say its 1:14 AM. Quite literally a brand new day, and I just finished what will probably be the last of my recording for my next shitty tape. I haven't completely filled up the tape, but I think I'm done. I was relistening to it and I figure there would be at least ten minutes or so that I can use on that tape. And there's three others. So four tapes, each at around 25 minutes each and each with probably about 10 minutes worth of useable stuff each on them. So I'm not going to have any trouble filling up the final twenty minute release. Hell, I might have to go for a longer release. Once again I curse the lack of 30 minute tapes in this world.
One day I'm going to have the amazing ability to burn stuff on to CD, and not have to worry about this tape length thing again. And one day I'm going to get better microphones and better recording equipment so that it isn't so hard to record really quiet Smog rip off songs. My four track is great for recording silly noise stuff, and anything that's louder, but its not so hot if you want to record really quiet guitar and vocals stuff. Probably largely because I'm mixing down onto a shitty $45 tape deck I got from Cash Converters on Henley Beach Road.
But all this information is irrelevant.
The major premiss of this entry is that I've got enough stuff to make my next crappy release.
I've also been eating asparagus lately. The kind you get in a jar, that's all weird and off green and floating in weird juices. When I was younger I hated the stuff like poison. Now, hell, I've eaten an entire jars' worth in like three days. That's almost the same time it takes me to go through a tin of aktavite, which is my primary food source.
I don't know why I'm updating this page so much this week. I haven't done so many updates in years, not since the days when I was like 17. Its a crazy world.
I almost bough a lap steel (a type of guitar) the other day, but then
I didn't.
And I also almost joined my local Video Mania, down there on Grange Road.
But I didn't. I walked down there cause its not so far away, and I was feeling
pretty good, and I went in there and the attendant guy was rambling in such
a way that it would suggest that he was under the influence of some sort
of drug. I thought he was on the telephone, but walking home I couldn't
actually remember seeing him with a telephone. Not that I really looked
at him all that closely.
So I went into the video store and the guy was rambling, and I looked around to see if it was worth joining, and it wasn't cause there wasn't much that was very good there. There wasn't much there at all really. So then I left and the guy at the counter was rambling to the effect of, "Look at this guy, where you going!?! Look at this guy!" and then when I left I thought, "Hey! He was probably talking to me, or about me or something". Its a sad world when someone feels it neccessary to comment on the fact you're walking out of a video store, no matter what sort of mind numbing drugs they're on.
I think somewhere in this encounter there's a symbol of why the world is in the state its in. People just can't leave each other the hell alone.
Hmm. I am now reading 'Sleep it Off Lady', a collection of short stories by Jean Rhys.
I also recommend 'Red Meat' by Max Cannon.
Today I have been listening to Yo La Tengo's 'Painful' album and 'Microstoria: Reprovisers', which has the likes of C Schulz and Hajsch, Jim O'Rourke, Christophe Charles, Ui and Stereolab on it. At one point it was my favourite CD for falling asleep to.
On saturday my best friend through me a birthday dinner. I would like to thank her for this.
Sunday 11th of Feb.
My TOBP:KOFEN Special Editon Live Australian Tour Release tapes are now officially available from Shame File distro, and you can view their website, linked below, to read more about them as well as many other fine releases. I think I've detailed that enough below, but I just checked and TOBP:KOFEN is now listed on the Shame file online catalog.
3 more copies of that tape, and I'm up to the big double digits. Woo-eee. Exciting stuff. So to encourage potential buyers, if you buy or trade for one, I'll throw in some sort of crappy gift. Something that cost me nothing so I don't care about giving it away. Something that is totally devoid of value. But none the less, a free gift. It may well be a sample of foulo gum, cause I've still got some of that left.
I was chewing some of it yesterday and the damn stuff went to liquid form almost immediately and I had to douse it with more gum to get it to turn back to normal gum form.
Work on my next tape, which is so far untitled and probably won't be too hot, has slowed a little over the last few days. I want to do another four tracks worth of recording still, but I've got enough stuff already to do another twenty minute tape. I'm a big fan of the twenty minute tape. I'd do a half hour one, and that'd be better. But I can't find any half hour blank tapes.
I'd also like to say that I fully and wholeheartedly endorse 'Bickford's Old Style beverages', especially sarsaparilla. Which I really don't think should be spelt like that, but that's how it is and there's nothing I can do to change it.
Things I've been listening to lately include:
Undecided God: From the Undecided God/punch bag split cassette.
Sodastream: Looks like a Russian: It's like a flash back to about five months ago.
Smog's song 'Distance' from the album 'Dongs Of Sevotion'. I really like that 'Distance' song. That Smog sure knows how to rock it.
I think I'll now leave you with a piece of wisdom from Michael Moore. You can take joy in the fact that, regardless of what race, creed or gender you are, you can, in all honesty, say you're smarter than the president of the USA.
Thursday 8th of Feb.
Three updates in as many days. From a website that normally gets updated like once a month. Hell.
Truth be told I'm just bored, so I've got not much else to do. I finished my book about an hour ago, and there's nothing to eat but foulo gum.
Technically known as "Babaloon Bubble Gum - Rasa Buam". It comes from Indonesia. Its this big plastic jar full of balls of coloured bubble gum. You can get it at woolworths in the city for under three dollars a jar. You have to eat about four balls of gum before you can blow a bubble and then, unlike hubba bubba or something, it sticks to your face real bad. It gains the name foulo from the fact that after about fifteen minutes it become so bitter and horrible you either need to consume four more balls of gum, or spit out what you've already got.
For some reason I can't get enough of the stuff. This, aktavite and three bowls of weetbix is pretty much all I've eaten in the last three days.
I remember ages ago I was in this goofy improvised noise band, known as Ambiguous Stimulis and later simply Ambig Stim and we played two shows before turning into The Trip Up From Mission Viejo and using drums and stuff. Anyway. At the second, and worse Ambig Stim show, we gave the audience bowls of cheap lollies made in some of the poorest countries in the Asian region and boasted they were, "The best Asia has to offer" because, despite their cheapness they were very nice. I think foulo gum tops the lollies that we available that night.
There's this show on SBS called 'The Awful Truth', which is done by Michael Moore who also did one of my favourite documentaries of all time 'Roger and Me', which I strongly recommend. Michael Moore's a real funny guy, even though the stuff he talks about on the Awful Truth and that is really grim. His website is: http://www.michaelmoore.com/
You know the US and UK are still flying combat sorties over Iraq? And the sanctions imposed by the UN are largely responsible for killing 5000 children a month, and 1.2 million Iraqis have died, out of a total population of something like 21 million.
Ooo. And 90% of George W Bush's campaign funds came from 775 American millionaries. And he got 30,000 fewer votes than Gore, but that's alright because in the US, even more so than here in Australia, the two major parties are pretty much the same anyway.
I went to my friend's house tonight. And I just got back and found my mother had been using my computer, which isn't abnormal, and she'd left the foulo gum jar open next to the computer. Which is alright. And she'd left a great big piece of chewed foulo gum sitting stuck to the table. Charming.
Wednesday 7th of Feb.
Haven't written the bio bit I spoke about yet. I'll do that later, and upload this and the stuff from yesterday now.
I just got a letter from the RAA insurance people telling me I need to pay my fees pronto or I'm not covered. Shit. My mother said she was paying that for my birthday present. I guess she forgot. I've also got a bunch of forms I have to figure out, fill in and hand in. Including the insurance one, for which I have to find the phone number of the other guy and ring him up. I'm not feeling adult enough for all this stupid shit.
Seems like there's always somone bugging me to do something.
In Spanish there's a phrase, something like 'manana', which means 'Tomorrow morning' or something. In 'Homage To Catalona' much is made of the fact that whenever plans are made, or when someone is asked when they will do something in Catalona during the civil war they say 'Manana'. I think I adopt this as my anthem for these forms.
The last few days I've gone out walking for a minimum of two hours or so. This isn't uncommon, I go out walking all the time, but its been hot and I think the back of my neck is sunburnt. As I'm walking around I keep thinking, "Its really fucking hot. I should get some suncream, but I haven't yet. We did have some, but my mother has taken it all and hidden it somewhere. She does this with medicinal things all the time. I can never find any panadol. One kidney transplant and she thinks she has the right to hog all the house hold medicines and keep them at her place of work or in her car or something.
Sheesh.
Now here's a picture of a guy I kind of know from a mailing list called Depandants being silly:
http://www.ratemypicture.com/profiles/44635.shtml
I should go do the dishes.
Tuesday 6th of Feb.
The good news is that the first publically available French Extreme Noise tape is now available from Shame File mail order, from which you can also obtain the likes of Undecided God, Anna, The Frustrations and Isomer. Alternately you can get it from me for the cost of the tape plus postage (which is about $3.50 all up I think) or trade. Previously on this page I said I wouldn't do tape trades for other people's silly harsh noise. That was a joke. Not a very funny one, and I can't remember why I made it. I think it was meant to be irony and a cruel laugh at my own 'extreme noise' wankery. But, yeah, it was a joke. I like this tape trading thing, and I'll trade whatever I guess.
I turned 21 last thursday, and had my first car crash on the same day. Some luck. It was a pretty minor crash, and I don't know if the other guy has claimed it yet and I don't want to ring up and find out. Although I guess its not so much of a problem cause I got a lot of money for my 21st so I can pay the insurance stuff pretty easy.
Plus heaps of people remembered my birthday. Well. Heaps for me. And relatives not only gave me money but sent me cards and said stuff about being proud, so that was real nice. And a big thank you to them.
And instead of a cake we had a watermelon with the top cut off and candles shoved in.
Anyway. I've started working on another silly noise tape which isn't French extreme noise and, accordingly, lacks all the crazy inside joke 'humor' of my previous release. That should be available shortly. I've so far got through three four track tapes, meaning I've got about 75 minutes worth of stuff recorded, and I think the tape will be either 20 minute or, if it must be, 45 minute. Why can't I obtain half hour tapes? Oh how I yearn for a source of half hour tapes.
What I've been listening to the last couple of days:
The Vivian Girls: self titled album
I've had this record for a while now, and I listened to it a fair bit before. But I've been relistening to it again lately. It seems to be the season for listening to stuff I bought nigh on 12 months ago. I was listening to Papa M en masse last week, and its been almost exactly a year since I got that record. Apparently he has a new one coming out, which I look foward to obtaining.
Yo La Tengo: Painful
I obtained this the day after I turned 21. I figured, what with the car crash (or car ding as it could be more accurately described) an album titled Painful aptly expressed my experience of being 21.
Anna: Voucher and the Frustrations: Live In Leipzig:
A tape I got from a trade with Shame File, which I have been listening to mostly in my car. And was listening to Anna when I had my minor crash.
My own shitty non French extreme noise four track tapes:
Cause I'm currently not sure what to downmix and what's just too shit.