| There is no reason why. |
[Aug. 17th, 2008|08:59 pm] |
It's the most impossible profession in the world. I am the most stupid man, to have become a wire-walker. But again, I didn't choose it. It chose me. So here I am - a prisoner of something I love.
hmm that sounds familiar. Just replace "wire-walker" with "experimental musician" and that about sums it up.
The quote is from this man:
He is the subject of the new film Man On Wire. In 1974 he secretly (and illegally) strung a cable between the two towers of the World Trade Center, then walked across the wire several times before finally finishing his performance and subsequently being arrested and becoming the biggest celebrity in the world.
Aside from being a well-made documentary, it's one of the most inspiring stories I've ever heard in my life. Within minutes of leaving the cinema I was immediately struck with several good ideas for new music and performances. I thought of a name for the concert series I'm planning, something I have been unable to do for a few weeks now.
Petit completely gave himself over to accomplishing one of the most ludicrous tasks in history for the simple idea of doing something beautiful. He didn't do it in the face of death but without any regard to even the possibility or concept of death. It just simply had to happen. If that's not inspiring I don't know what is. Let's all get busy. |
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| That Lochte is so hot right now |
[Aug. 15th, 2008|09:59 am] |
Have you been watching the Olympics? We sure have. In fact, we have watched so much Olympics that it's becoming increasingly difficult to do anything else. I love the Olympics.
If you've been paying any attention at all to swimming and the Michael Phelps phenomenon then you know his biggest rival is a guy named Ryan Lochte. In their infinite hard-on for Phelps, the NBC swimming announcers constantly refer to Ryan Lochte as, "the best thing to happen to Michael Phelps." Sure Phelps usually beats him, but doesn't Ryan Lochte deserve a little bit more attention? Who's the *real* Ryan Lochte? What makes him tick? Wonder no more!
http://jezebel.com/5036655/the-world-of-ryan-lochte-is-one-of-diamond-grills-and-bad-doodles
We've all enjoyed drooling over pictures of the U.S. men's swim team over the past few days, but if you care about the man behind the body, you must watch this clip of Ryan Lochte, which aired before his backstroke heat this morning. Some commenters have suggested that Lochte may be a more worthy lust object than Michael Phelps, and while there's no doubt that Ryan Lochte is both talented and beautiful, evidence has emerged which may influence your pick for favorite water boy. Can you still love a man who sports a diamond-studded grill? A guy who thinks he's "different" because he liked to throw rocks while all the other kids were playing tag? A man who considers himself an artist because he draws doodles of "rain going up" and fish that turn into comets? Be warned: these are the quandaries one must consider upon entering "The World According to Lochte."
In between sheer amazement and gut laughs while watching the above clip, I couldn't help but notice a stunning similarity to this video:
Enjoy! |
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| Just a thought... |
[Aug. 8th, 2008|01:39 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Kickball - Fight | ] |
Why have I only seen Kickball play once in my life? It needs to happen more.
In other news: OLYMPICS! |
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| True Patriots |
[Aug. 6th, 2008|12:52 pm] |
"RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE will give a rare performance at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 3rd — the same week as the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. for $60."
Emphasis added by me. |
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| Idea |
[Aug. 5th, 2008|12:49 pm] |
A Clap Your Hands Say Yeah cover band called:
Who All Seen The Leprechaun Say Yeah
For the uninitiated:
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| Yowza |
[Aug. 4th, 2008|09:11 pm] |
I swear I didn't do this.
AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) -- Firefighters were called to the A+ Buffet in the 7600 block of North Lamar Boulevard just before 2 a.m. Monday for a one-alarm fire. When crews arrived on the scene, heavy smoke and fire was coming from the restaurant.
Officials on the scene said the flames spread to the Super Spin Laundromat next door, after starting in the A+ Buffet. Four other businesses sustained smoke and water damage. |
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| Twlight |
[Jul. 31st, 2008|11:09 pm] |
Wherein Nick realizes once again that he is too tall for the average keyboard percussion instrument. Thanks ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) narnarthinks for the photos:
The terrible (i.e. great) three above. Love these two dudes (Bill Baird, Alex Keller)... and the rest of the group too, of course. Honored to noodle on the vibes with these folks. |
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| Meme! |
[Jul. 31st, 2008|01:36 pm] |
I was driving back from picking up my burrito that turned out to be more of a giant taco (i.e. I unwrapped the paper and found a flat tortilla in front of me piled with rice and vegetables) and thought to myself for no good reason, "This is a pretty damn boring week. I wish someone would tag me for a meme or something."
Moments later I thought, "What do I need them for?" Below is my answers to a meme that doesn't exist. Thanks everyone for tagging me. I tag nhennies. I can't wait to read his answers.
1. Gentleman Jesse & His Men
Catchiest songs I've heard in I don't know how long. I've had this for about two weeks and I think I've listened to it at least a few dozen times already. An exponent of what I guess you would call "power pop" but I'm only informed enough to recognize the sound of a genre and not able to tell you who else is doing this, much less pioneered the style. The Replacements? No, probably not. At any rate, this is likely to stay pretty far under the radar since I see at his label's website the LP is already sold out despite having been released less than a month ago.
Here's a track: You Don't Have To (If You Don't Want To)
2. Air Conditioning
Do you know how hot it is here? DO YOU?! My car does not have air conditioning. My work and house do. The 20 minutes between work and home is hell.
3. Wandelweiser
I've had long enough with this music now (for the unfamiliar, we'll call it (for lack of a better term) hyper-minimalism. Are you paying attention The Wire? You can have that one for free.) that I'm noticing about every two years I get obsessed with this stuff and want to play it, listen to it, share it constantly. It's often been my mode of choice for composing and probably will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. That said, I'm starting a new monthly concert series at Salvage Vanguard for these sorts of things. I have yet to come up with a more elegant way of presenting this idea in a written form, but essentially it will be a show once a month with one or possibly two pieces of extended duration focusing on intent listening.
Hm, maybe that's not such a bad way of putting it. Anyway, more to come on that.
4. Mad Men
This is the best show on TV. Period. For a much better piece of writing about it than I could ever hope to pen, hop on over to The Sad Billionaire's blog.
5. Barton Springs at night
(not my photo) |
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| Twilight & Ghost Stories tonight & tomorrow |
[Jul. 29th, 2008|08:35 am] |
Press release from COTFG copied below.
Related link:
http://www.chrisschlarb.com/
_____________________
What: Chris Schlarb's "Twilight and Ghost Stories"
When: Tuesday July 29th and Wednesday July 30th
(open rehearsal the 29th, performance the 30th)
Where: Salvage Vanguard Theater 2803 Manor Rd.
Presented by community arts organization: Church of the Friendly Ghost
times: 9PM both nights, doors at 8.
cost: The open rehearsal is free of charge.
The performance admission is $10 and admission includes a copy of the "Twilight and Ghost Stories" CD on Asthmatic Kitty records.
In the last week of July 2008, Church of the Friendly Ghost will be
presenting its most anticipated concert of the new series held at SVT to date.
After a little more than one year of programming an ongoing music series at Salvage Vanguard Theater, Church of the Friendly Ghost (with help from our good friend Chris Cogburn of Ten Pounds to the Sound, No Idea Festival, Etc.) applied for a grant from MetLife Arts Foundation called "Meet The Composer" with the hopes of bringing Chris Schlarb to Austin to perform "Twilight and Ghost Stories" with an all-Austin ensemble.
We got the grant (our first at C.o.t.F.G.) and Chris will be performing "Twilight and Ghost Stories" (for perhaps the last time) on July 30th at The Salvage Vanguard Theater with an ensemble organized by musician and composer Nick Hennies (of Weird Weeds, Austin NMC, Orphans, etc.).
Here's the list of players in the 10-piece Ensemble:
Bill Baird - guitar, voice
Steve Bernal - cello
Diane Cluck - guitar, voice
Chris Cogburn - percussion
Jon Doyle- reeds
Nick Hennies - vibraphone, voice
Alex Keller - electronics
Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza- electronics
Aaron Russell - guitar
Chris Schlarb- acoustic guitar, devices
We are so excited for Chris Schlarb to be performing this piece in Austin! His inter-disciplinary approach to Improvisation and composition in this work is novel and very interesting, and the piece suits the Creative Music movement in Austin almost as if it were written to perform here! Just take a second look at the ensemble!
Ararat Mediterranean Catering will be available, as usual with their wraps, sweets and refreshments so you can show up hungry!
Church of the Friendly Ghost is a growing community organization dedicated to the proliferation of creative musics, future-minded expressions, experiments in sound, and cutting edge jazz. While we place an emphasis on home-grown music (Austin/Texas) we also seek to connect the local audience with new performers and composers and serve as a hub for the creative music community in Austin. By providing an alternative to traditional bars and venues, a logistical and promotional network, and serving as a forum for artistic discourse, C.O.T.F.G. seeks to nurture and enable a more diverse range of creative musics, and curate a truly exciting series of performances accessible to the public and inclusive to the community as a whole. Church Of The Friendly Ghost seeks to raise the profile of creative music in Austin and Texas worldwide.
We at Church of the Friendly Ghost believe that Art is a right and a public resource.
Thanks for your support and interest!
C.o.t.F.G. is a 100% volunteer run organization, and volunteering opportunities always abound!
if you would like to volunteer for this show, or any of our upcoming shows (there are 5 in the next 8 days and 3 more in August after that) just contact us.
churchofthefriendlyghost@gmail.com
-or-
aaron mace at 512 786 2015 |
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| tee hee |
[Jul. 25th, 2008|12:33 pm] |
From an Olympics protest in San Francisco:
Original photo here. |
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| Coming soon |
[Jul. 24th, 2008|12:09 am] |
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| Offend Maggie |
[Jul. 22nd, 2008|10:42 pm] |
Deerhoof is releasing a new album this fall called Offend Maggie and they're doing something similar with this one that they did with The Runners Four to help promote the album. Last time they put up individual instrumental tracks for people to remix. This time they've put up sheet music of their new single and are encouraging people to record their own version, having never heard the original:
http://deerhoof.cashmusic.org/
I just got a new recording software and have been eager to test it out, so here's the results of my Deerhoofing:
http://nhennies.com/audio/FreshBorn.mp3
Not carefully made at all but I think it came out ok. The only main departure from the sheet music is that I decided not to sing the words and just leave the melody instead. Of course it would be better with singing, but I didn't feel like trying to do a Satomi imitation and I seem to have misplaced/lost the only mic I had that was decent for vocals (and also I ran out of tracks!). |
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| Oh sweet Jesus |
[Jul. 10th, 2008|10:35 am] |
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| Everyone drink some fluids... have a little bite to eat. |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|09:27 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere | ] |
Anyone who silently (or not so silently) poo poo'd the idea of going to see Andrew WK - I know you're out there - can just sit right down. The man is a party genius and whipped the crowd into a frenzy I haven't seen the likes of since my days in Louisville going to see punk rock/hardcore shows. His performance now consists of himself, a microphone, a keyboard, and prerecorded music. Nothing else. Emo's was packed to the gills but rather than come right out with the big rock out songs AWK instead spent 10-15 minutes talking over some cheesy sounding electronic music about how to properly prepare to party, what the party was going to be like, etc. The whole thing seemed design specifically to make people edgy and impatient with anticipation, sometimes to the point of comedy. Case in point:
The audience was getting angry; a guy walked on stage and into the microphone yelled, "What happened to Andrew WK?!", two guys in front of us started complaining that the show sucked.
By the time he finally arrived at "It's Time To Party" - and oh boy did he - the place absolutely exploded. I've never seen anything like it, actually. Within 2 songs there were at least 40-50 people on stage, people were literally hanging from the rafters, and after a certain point Andrew WK himself was barely even necessary. He became more of a facilitator than a performer, which I'm guessing was his aim all along.
I'm not positive but I would guess that Emo's eventually cut him off prematurely out of fear because security didn't have a chance of controlling the crowd. It was one of the most fun, joyful performances I've ever seen and well worth spending my 4th of July in cruddy nasty Emo's.
Spent the rest of the weekend celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary in true hedonistic style which sufficiently prepared both of us to hate going to work more than ever... and that pretty much brings me up to right now. |
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| So long, Charlie |
[Jul. 3rd, 2008|09:11 am] |
I saw the Sun City Girls/Charles Gocher farewell tour last night. The $17 ticket price was a little out of hand but, as expected, was worth every penny. The highlight, aside from the 40 mins of Gocher's films that kicked the show off, was Alan Bishop scattering some of Gocher's ashes on the ground/audience during one of his spoken word rants. I'm assuming they've been doing that at every show. Amazing.
Here's one of the very first things I ever saw on youtube, which was also part of the film last night:
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| How You Know You Married the Right Person, #29348732 |
[Jul. 2nd, 2008|01:01 pm] |
We've got tickets to see Andrew WK on Friday. I wanted to know what he was doing (solo, full band, whatever) so I found a clip from last month. It looks like he'll be performing solo:
While watching Meghan says, "Yeah, we should probably drink a lot before we go."
There's something oddly appealing about Andrew WK solo. I have this theory that it's a personal challenge to himself to see if he can put on just as intense a show without a band. From the looks of it, he can. |
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| Wrap up |
[Jul. 1st, 2008|09:03 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Kurt Weisman - Spiritual Sci-Fi | ] |
I guess I have to finish this thing, yeah? So I will.
Early on Chicago looked like it was gonna be a real blow out with a lot of people showing up really early but after three bands before us it was pretty well cleared out by the time we went on. We still had a good crowd watching us but definitely not as many as the two locals that played first, another in a series of reminders that very few people seemed to be specifically coming out to see us play. Saw lots of good friends I hadn't seen in a while and we played better than most other shows of the tour so I don't have any real complaints aside from the fact that the club tried to make themselves seem charitable by informing me that "according to the deal" (whatever that was) we should have been paid $4 (yes, FOUR) but "because we like you guys" they paid us $50 instead. To quote Aaron, why is it that in these big clubs like the Knitting Factory and Empty Bottle the bands always seem like they're the last person to be paid?
Ames, IA turned out to be probably the best show of the tour. Small DIY venue (sadly closing in a month because the owners are moving out of state) with a GREAT crowd. Attentive, appreciative, etc. etc.
The tour ended on a sour note after we once again were stuck playing last on a four band bill on what was already a small show. By the time we went on, literally only two people were left in the room aside from us, leaving me on the long drive home with not the thought of "good tour" (even though it was) but more along the lines of "what the hell am I doing this for?"
I don't want to get into a whole thing here but it's become harder than ever to make being in a band financially and emotionally sustainable. Insane gas prices made us lose money for the first time ever and despite three albums and several tours the number of people coming out to shows or being enthusiastic about the music doesn't seem to grow. Rather, we just seem to play for whoever happens to show up every night. It's just difficult to keep going. I'm sure my attitude will change after I settle back into being home and stop thinking about it so much.
But right now it's back to work. |
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