Marimba Eroica

My pal Steve Dollar's article on the Japan Society's upcoming restaging of Harry Partch's "Delusion of the Fury" next week in NYC.

What an endeavor! This piece hasn't been performed live since it's one time in 1969, due largely to the awkwardness of moving around the enormous, heavy, unwieldy instruments that he invented, not to mention the time-consuming process of rehearsal time and coordination it takes to learn how to play them. And there's just no way I could make it up to New York to see this, which I imagine must be sold out by now. Yeah, some days it just doesn't pay to live where I am. Some days more than others.

Check out part one of Partch's "Delusion Of The Fury" performance, including an introduction to his exotic array of bizarre instruments with their beautiful, evocative names. For the other parts, as well as more Harry Partch information, click here for more youtubery goodness:



If you're up that way next week, go see. And report back here to me. Go, my minions! Fly! FLY!!!

She's Going The Distance

It just occurred to me that I haven't talked about cute boys in awhile.

Jack Stehlin is giving me reason again to return to Los Angeles. The new Shem Bitterman play Harm's Way is being performed by the Circus Theatricals opening December 1st at their Circus Theatricals Studio Theater, which I still haven't had the chance to see since it opened. A blurb from the press release: "Harm's Way tells the tale of a career Army prosecutor who investigates a possible war crime against Iraqi civilians by U.S troops - while at the same time fighting to save his troubled daughter here on American soil". Dear Yod, I am so starved for anything Jack these days. I finally just caught the episode of Weeds that he appeared in for less than 15 seconds and it only fueled my desire to leap aboard the next flight out to L.A. and, I dunno, root through his garbage cans or something appropriately creepy. Naaaahhh.. Jack's a sweet guy, and his wife is fantastic. If it hadn't been for Brett bodily dragging me through the Odyssey Theater lobby, my heels digging into the floor, to confront Jack after The Misanthrope I probably would never had the courage to meet him, and dammit, meeting him kicked even more ass than I thought possible. Well, one-a these days I'll make it back there again. Maybe I'll be less of a slobbering imbecile in Jack's presence next time.

Joe is in Washington DC for a few days visiting his mom and uncle. I'm home, alone in the house, and there are cop cars in front of my driveway, cop helicopters circling my building, and cops wandering up and down the street with flashlights. Meanwhile all I have to defend myself from a potential home invasion is a plunger and a giant sized bucket of Clorox disinfecting wipes. You can tell how scared I am by my limp attempts to be lighthearted about a stressful situation.

Not (Quite) The Residents

A peculiar lot these Caroliner folks be.

Or Caroliner Rainbow. Or Caroliner Rainbow Open Wound Corale. Or Caroliner Rainbow Susans & Bruisins. Or Caroliner Rainbow Customary Relaxation Of The Shale. Or whatever suffix you might chose to attach, I suppose. Or not. Caroliner seems to have been around for quite awhile as an arty San Francisco psychedelic free-bluegrass outfit (complete with their own, er, outfits) who claim to channel their music straight from the spirit of a semi-famous 19th century singing bull of the same name as well as put out albums with covers created out the garbage that they find in the streets of their city, some of which are even too unspeakably filthy to touch.

When I showed this clip to Joe he instantly rolled his eyes and said that they reminded him of about half the gimmicky art-rock bands that he booked back in the 90's. But I gotta admit, I kinda dig it. Seems to me more the you-kind-of-have-to-be-there kind of act where the combination of the cacophony coupled with the retina-scalding day-glo light display can be fully taken in and appreciated. Kind of like my bedroom back in the early 80's when I used to shop a lot at Spencer's Gifts.

Enjoy the violence.

Extra

The ultrasound showed nothing. Soooooo, why was I hurting? Who knows. One of the many unneeded quirks of being inside this mercurial body. A body that I'm not feeling very happy with right about now.

I have had zero energy today. I slept all afternoon, and was never able to quite wake up ever since. I've been drifting in and out of Heroes Season one DVD and dreaming about drawing again. Dinner is sitting like a rock in my stomach. I'm feeling like a kid that just flunked out of school.

I need to hear some Dagmar Krause.

Tijuana Bible

First 20 tracks on my iTunes this afternoon wondering where both my iPod and my cell phone disappeared to...

1. "Groovy Gravy" - Bill Cosby

2. "Who Do You Think You Are?" - Spice Girls

3. "This Fire" - Franz Ferdinand

4. "Rock With You" - Michael Jackson

5. "Our Love" - Dag

6. "B Line" - Lamb

7. "Holler If Ya Hear Me" - 2Pac

8. "Your Dragging Feet" - Polyrock

9. "Technorocker" - Kaos & Ethos

10. "Fortune Teller" - Tony Jackson Group

11. "40" - U2

12. "Jump" - Kriss Kross

13. "Because (It Turns Me On) - Kid-K.O.

14. "Nowhere To Run" - Martha Reeves & The Vandellas

15. "Royal Crown Hairdressing Ad" - Little Richard

16. "Billy Bones" - Monaco

17. "Something Else" - Sid Vicious

18. "Leaving Here" - The Bird

19. "Hateful Hippie Girls" - Lida Husik

20. "Give Up The Funk" - Parliament

Schedule

Sat 24: 3-cl
Sun 25: 12-8
Tue 27: 3-cl
Wed 28: 9-4
Fri 30: 3-cl
Sat 1: 9-4

That's Good Television

They've got a real swell Alfred Hitchcock marathon on AMC this morning. I've watched Shadow Of A Doubt, The Man Who Knew Too Much is almost over, and Vertigo is coming up next. Joe's in the shower, and we're getting ready to head out to Great Bridge to see my brother and parents for a quiet afternoon of gluttony, with a smidge of guilt.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Click Your Fingers Applauding The Play

So has anybody actually seen this series called Garth Marenghi's Darkplace on Adult Swim? Because I kinda dig it. My old friend Randy introduced it to me earlier this week and I'm still going through the episodes bit by bit, when sitting at the computer permits. Reminds me a lot of the old campy sci-fi/horror serials like Dark Shadows and Doctor Who that I used to watch obsessively as a kid, which I guess is the whole point, or rather a parody of the whole point. Randy told me that it was out on DVD but all I see are out-of-print Region 2 versions on Amazon. Anybody got a lead, baby?

I woke to my throat hurting this morning. The way it does when I'm about it get a cold. Which typically brings about It Which Must Not Be Named. Pray for me, my friends. I can only take so much torment in one year.

Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck

A full pelvic and abdominal ultrasound, to quote Bart Simpson, both sucks and blows. Where else can you discover so many unnecessary new things about yourself, like your kidneys being tucked too far up under your ribs, creating nearly half an hour straight of torturous probing hilarity. And that long wand they stick up your hooha and swirl it all around to find your ovaries? Lets just say my cervix hasn't been put to that kind of endurance test since my years in gymnastics. But it's done, and I don't know what they'll find as far as my gut pain issues but I have to say that since Sunday I've been feeling pretty okay with no agony to speak of for a change. But the fact that I did have constant pain steadily for almost a week should say something was definitely wrong at one point, and here's to hoping they find out why. I have a follow up appointment next week. Let there be no dyin' until then.

And I have Thanksgiving off this year, which I guess is a good thing. I worked last year, which was pretty insanely busy and I was quite exhausted and ready to not be there by the time closing came 'round. But I was okay with it, seeing as how I really wasn't up for the usual family get-together since my grandmother died last spring. In fact nobody wanted to experience their first Thanksgiving without her, so if I remember correctly nobody did much of anything anyway. I think my parents are having food and football at their house this year, which beats that wretched buffet at the Holiday Inn that my grandma, bless her soul, loved so much. Even happier, I don't have to open on Black Friday. I do have to close that night, but I'll take cleaning up after the batshittery rather than having to be in the thick of it any day.

Meanwhile, I have NOT stopped laughing at this.



I just realized: I have no favorite albums of 2007.

What the hell good came out this year? And did I remember even hearing it?

I should be fired.

Bookmark This Link

Been meaning to post this link for awhile.

Animal Rescue Site. Click purple button. Sponsors fund food for rescued animals.

November has been a good month so far, especially in the last few days. Over 150,000 bowls of food donated in just the past couple of days, and that's just for each day.

It's a good deed, folks. Save the link, and remember to click every day.

Bat Dance

Hey kids... today is National Talk Like Mark E. Smith Day! Yes I know, the date changes every year. But so does Buffalo Frog Day, so GO GET YOUR SLUR ON SUCKAHHHH-suh!

Schedule

Sat 17: 3-cl
Mon 19: 4-cl
Tue 20: 3-cl
Wed 21: 10-6
Fri 23: 3-cl
Sat 24: 3-cl

No Time For Space

First 20 tracks on my iTunes this morning, wishing for some reason that it was 1990 again.

1. "Beyond Belief" - Lambchop

2. "Bodies" - Drowning Pool

3. "Tembe Na Tembe" - Liengo

4. "The Song Of The Heart" - Prince
5. "Why Can't I Touch It?" - The Buzzcocks

6. "Come Again" - Headcase

7. "At This Moment" - Billy Vea & The Beaters

8. "Landside" - Fleetwood Mac

9. "Through Being Cool" - Devo

10. "Time Fekill 1" - Papa's Culture

11. "Suspect Device" - Stiff Little Fingers

12. "Bodyheat" - James Brown

13. "I Can See Clearly Now" - Johnny Nash

14. "Synthetic Forms" - Front Line Assembly

15. "Love Apnea" - Dirt Merchants

16. "Noise Annoys" - The Buzzcocks

17. "Rats" - Schlong

18. "Final Solution" - Pere Ubu

19. "Dry" - PJ Harvey

20. "Hot On The Heels Of Love" - Throbbing Gristle

The Cheese Stands Alone

The doctor isn't sure what is wrong with me, it seems. It could have been a ruptured ovarian cyst, which I have had for several years, and sometimes within the second week of a woman's cycle they are known to burst and become very painful. But I'm barely on my first week's cycle. And I'm not bleeding. No fever, no nausea, everything else in working order. But I'm going in for an ultrasound next week for pretty much that whole zone down there and see what pops up. It's not as bad today as it was yesterday, although I had a bit of a freakout this afternoon when I lost my wallet and I was racing up and down the stairs, pacing around the bank trying to get my cards cancelled, and everything started hurting so bad and I was stressing so hard on top of it all I just sat in the car and cried, which I rarely do in situations like these but I think today on top of the pain I just couldn't get keep it together very well. Luckily Joe found my wallet, and all I ended up cancelling anyway was my debit card so there was no tremendous los and the day was saved, thanks to Jose Vlad. And I called out from work again, which I didn't really want to do but I knew I wasn't going to make it in under the conditions I was experiencing. I laid on the couch watching the Criterion edition of The Honeymoon Killers and amazingly it calmed me right back down again. I guess sometimes one needs to know that no matter how lousy your day can get, there is always somebody out there that you would never dream of trading places.

Speaking of movies, I finally bought a DVD replacement for my long-lost VHS to The Tingler.

William Castle's wacky suspense thriller about a centipede-like creature that grows on the human spine whenever we experience fear (that tingling sensation we feel down our backs) and the only way to kill it is to scream, or else it will choke us off at the base of the brain. When a deaf-mute woman dies from fright, the "tingler" escapes her body and wrecks havoc, even escaping into the movie theater audience. Castle was famous for his horror flick gimmicks -- he secretly placed "joy buzzers" in random seats in the theater to zap unsuspecting audience members to heighten their fears, getting people to scream or else "the Tingler will get you too!" I love this movie to pieces, and I'm quite pleased to be owning it again.

It's been a cruddy day. I think I'm going to go turn out all the lights and enjoy this again.

Not Again

The pain is back.

Not anywhere as severe as it was that day, but I still called out from work and took it as easy as possible. But unlike that first day, the pain didn't fade after a few hours. This morning it woke me up, to where I was even dreaming about having the pain until I opened my eyes and discovered that it wasn't a dream. And after taking some Aleve it became a bit bearable so long as I don't sit for too long. But I spent from about 10:30am to 2:45pm fast asleep, and it's 6:42pm now and it's still about the same as it was when it shook me awake this morning. That tears it. I'm going to the doctor first thing in the morning if this persists throughout the night.

Former WCW wrestler The Maestro will be the guest on the Minority Round Table tonight with "Jobber Joe" at 11Pm EST.

Okay, gotta go lay back down again.

Schedule

Sat 10: 3-cl
Mon 12: 3-cl
Tue 13: 11-7
Wed 14: 3-cl
Thur 15: 10-6
Sat 17: 3-cl

Curiouser And Curiouser

I don't know why this made me laugh, but somebody stole this CD from my store yesterday...

As in they ripped into it, tore off the sealing, ganked the disk, and left the jewel case stuck between some Rodney Carrington CDs in the comedy section. Boy, somebody really wanted to hear Don Rickles. Speaking! But apparently not wanting the crude cock-sucking gesture album cover to go with it. I saw Rickles live in Vegas and he told me that I had "Alice In Wonderland hair" and that I should get rid of it because I was over forty years old. Believe me, compared to everyone else in the room, I was mercifully spared.

I feel really good. Yes, I just said that. For the first time in over a year I'm feeling healthy, losing weight, regaining my energy, and most importantly, I am no longer suffering from my usual faux-narcolepsy insulin resistance falling over face-first drowsies that kept me on a perpetual coffee buzz at work and then pass out at home with sadly no life to speak of. I don't know how much I've lost, but I feel my pants starting to go lowrider on me, and as unlovely a sight that must be to see it's still a welcome relief from the direction I was heading before. I feel awake and alive. Wonderfully alert. I remember how this used to feel. I missed it terribly. I don't ever want to lose this feeling again.

Time for power walkies. Pet me! I've been a goooooood girl!

Fever Patrol

The trailer for Don't Think I've Forgotten. This look both equally devastating and wildly intriguing. Plus I've been playing that infectious Dengue Fever song for almost the the entire past year.

Schedule

Sun 4: 11-7
Tue 6: 3-cl
Wed 7: 9-5
Fri 9: 11-7
Sat 10: 3-cl

Chipmunks Down My Shirt

The Friday Five:

What is...

1. one place you volunteer (or would like to)? Why?

It's been awhile since I volunteered anywhere since that stint feeding the homeless kids down at the beach several years ago. I've had a steady urge these days to look into volunteering at a learning center or someplace that teaches reading skills to adults. Many years ago when I worked at a music store in a very poor area of Portsmouth I was overwhelmed by the number of elderly people who didn't know how to read, and couldn't even sign their own names. Trying to imagine going through their long lives as they had, getting by, and missing out on so much, all because they didn't know how to read. I lack the education myself to teach others, but I would love to do some kind of volunteer work in that area, if possible.

2. one book you'd like to see made into a movie? Why?

Sirius by Olaf Stapledon. Then again I'd hate to see their idea of a giant-headed talking dog making love to a teenage girl done in cheap CGI. Er, not that they should use a real dog instead, I mean. What I mean is.... aw nuts, I don't know what I mean. But yeah, I wanna see it happen. NOT THE SEX WITH THE DOG PART! I mean the book, I mean. I mean... I mean... *thud*

3. one creature (living, extinct, or mythical) you'd like for a pet? Why?

Been a dragon fanatic since I was old enough to know what they are, so I would probably still go with that choice. When I was little I used to have dreams about a dragon named Solo who would come and rescue me if I was in danger just by calling him with a magic bag of M&M's candy. Of course, after he would save me he would ravage the town, killing people and destroy everything in his path. Oh, how I miss my Solo.

4. one place on Earth you'd like to visit? Why?

There are far too many places that I long to visit in equal measure so I simply can't choose just one over them all. When it comes to places I have never seen, based on my father's glowing account of his trip to Copenhagen, right now I would love to see the Tivoli Lights on a still, snowy night.

5. one talent or skill you'd like to develop? Why?

Juggling. So that people will think that I have talent. Fools them every time.

This Can't Be Good

This is just.... wow. As in, wow. I dunno. Just... wow.

Hat Trick

The Fall 2007 edition of The High Hat is out now. Articles include Phil Freeman's musings on The Reagan Diaries, a horrifying look at the Red Sox's other curse by Nate Patrin, Leonard Pierce's thoughts on driving as a culture-specific syndrome, and my dear Greg T. Hough's long-awaited (for me!) article on the music of Nick Lowe, to name a few.

Enjoy!

People Have More Fun Than Anybody

Joe does this quirky little thing every time he goes to the grocery store. He goes up to this soda machine that sells this oddball brand of generic-looking soda called Super Chill, and one of the buttons for flavor options is this blank button with the words "Mystery Flavor" typed in on a piece of white paper. All it is really is just all the other flavors of Super Chill in the machine lined up to come out randomly without knowing what you're going to get, but Joe always pops a quarter in every single time and takes home whatever random flavor of soda that comes out of the chute. So we have this fridge full of various Super Chill sodas that Joe never has any intention of drinking, because Joe only drinks Mountain Dew and very little else. Told you it was quirky.

So an interesting thing, last night. We were passing out Halloween candy to the neighborhood trick-or-treaters where we would hand out the bowl of sweets at the door and let the kids pick and choose what they wanted, and suddenly Joe starts to randomly throw a can or two of the various Super Chill sodas that he has been accumulating over the months. And here's the thing: Over the Reese's cups, Junior Mints, and mini Milky Way bars in the candy bowl, the children were choosing the cans of soda instead. In fact they were quite thrilled that we were passing out soda. Even their parents seemed to like the idea. Joe kept filling the bowl with Super Chill sodas to the point where he gave out every last one that he had been squirreling away for the past few months -- and it's not like he was foisting them off on people in lieu of candy... the kids preferred the soda over the candy. They were choosing it over candy. What they hey?

Then again soda is pretty much liquid candy as it is. But still, why soda? I figured children drink sodas more regularly every day than being allowed to have candy. I know families who let their kids drink sodas with every meal, but only allow candy in certain occasions. Maybe they chose soda because they already had a bag full of candy from all the other neighbors. Maybe there really is something perpetually enduring about soda to children, a staple in the life of every high-fructose-red-blooded American boy or girl ever since the dawning the 20th century. It was certainly an interesting experiment. And much more successful than that one year when Joe and I ran out of candy and started giving out soy sauce and ketchup packets from our overflowing bowl of take-out condiments. Boy, the kids were pissed that year.

I also want to congratulate Joe for winning the hosting contest this week where he will now co-host the Minority Round Table on CTIradio.com every Tuesday night at 11pm EST, discussing various pro-wrestling topics with occasional gust stars and taking calls. Tune in, if that's your bag. Waytago, toots!