Kick Ass Weekend
4/30/2006
Friday night I went to bed early. Slept for 11 hours. I felt fantastic Saturday when I woke up. However, it rained cats and dogs, and our leaky roof just got worse and worse. The kitchen is like a giant showerhead of leaks now. We're trying to get it fixed, but $5,000 is a lot of money and we just don't have it. I'm hoping for a miracle soon or I might not have a structure to live in.
Saturday, woke up, worked on PG5YP's site (fun fun fun). Played a gig with the Jonas Adrian Trio +1 (Tim Casey). We packed Saffron, and we totally kicked ass. Just ask anybody who was there. This momentous occasion has recharged me and renewed my love/lust/obsession for playing my djembe.
Sunday, went to the pizza buffet, watched the latest episode of Doctor Who (Sarah Jane Smith and K9 and Tony Head and an awesome score... absolutely the most perfect episode yet), and came home to finally kick Sigma's robotic ass (dig my awesome homage below).
Woo Fuckin' Hoo!!!
posted by novachild @ Sunday, April 30, 2006,
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This Saturday: Help Feed The Poor
4/28/2006
WE'LL SING FOR FOOD
A Charity Benefit for Madonna House
Monetary donations and canned food accepted.
Featuring:
The Jonas Adrian Trio
Terry Aziere
Bubba Blues
Others TBA
When: Saturday Apr 29, 2006 at 8:00 PM
Where: Saffron - 1148 S Harvard Ave - Tulsa, OK
Click Here To View Event
posted by Edward Svengali @ Friday, April 28, 2006,
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A Wise Man Once Said...
4/26/2006
Tom Robbins attracted me by the curious 'Camel Cigarette' nature of his book cover for Still Life With Woodpecker. This was back in 1993 or so. I was smoking a pack and a half of them every day, hanging out at coffee houses, doing my quirky poetry/school/punk show/single guy lifestyle thing. Dating lots of goth/punk chicks and drinking more than a healthy dose of cheap american piss (that's beer for you unenlightened folks). Tom Robbins spoke to me (and still speaks to me) in the way that the New Testament speaks to many protestants, in the way that a humming engine speaks to a NASCAR-loving redneck, in the way that flailing oneself speaks to members of Opus Dei (well, I may have gone a bit too far with that one).
His prose was a light upon my swirly, cloudy soul. Or rather, many psychadelic lights of wisdom upon my creepy spiderweb of a mind.
Every time I go on a blog-commenting rampage, get involved in a political argument, or mull over the possibility of using my fist in a violent manner to avenge the honor of some poor sap (usually myself), this quote sneakily comes to mind.
"If you believe in peace, act peacefully; if you believe in love, acting lovingly; if you believe every which way, then act every which way, that's perfectly valid— but don't go out trying to sell your beliefs to the system. You end up contradicting what you profess to believe in, and you set a bum example. If you want to change the world, change yourself."
posted by Edward Svengali @ Wednesday, April 26, 2006,
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Breathtaking
4/24/2006
Two weeks ago, PG5YP was taking a break at our Cherry Street recording session (to hammer in some vocal parts for Nobel Peace Prize, I Day Red and All The Young Men). TimbreWolf, Gypsy and myself stood outside, chit-chatting and enjoying Wolfie's secondhand clove cigarette smoke.
Quite out of the blue, in the Eastern sky, a HUGE shooting star left a blue-green trail as it descended and moved beyond the rooftops. It sparkled and glowed much like a roman candle.
I've never seen a shooting star as beautiful as this. It seemed so alien, so otherworldly. It was the prettiest thing I have ever seen in the sky.
posted by Edward Svengali @ Monday, April 24, 2006,
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China "Heckler" Charged with Harrassment
4/21/2006
Reuters reports:
A heckler from the Falun Gong spiritual movement who disrupted a White House appearance by Chinese President Hu Jintao was charged in federal court on Friday with harassing, intimidating or threatening a foreign official. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington said the misdemeanor charge carries a penalty of up to six months in jail. The woman, who entered the White House grounds as a reporter, interrupted a formal arrival ceremony between Hu and President George W. Bush on Thursday and shouted: "President Hu, your days are numbered. President Bush, make him stop persecuting Falun Gong."The embarrassing episode marred the South Lawn event and created a diplomatic stir. Bush personally apologized to Hu for the incident.
Bush is in bed with China. Leather whips, fuzzy handcuffs and all.
The corporations that stirred up the 'need' for the War in Iraq are starving the US Economy while making a terribly large profit. Those same corporations are represented within the Government itself (see Cheney... ex-CEO for Haliburton). The US government borrows heavily from China to sustain our increasing debt, something that would not be happening if it were not for this terrible, greed-driven, unnecessary war. Iin order for the US Government to sustain itself, the Bush Administration must close its eyes and ears to some of the worst Human Rights violations on planet earth. We are locked in, and ONLY the corporations benefit while the government is chipped away, little by little, of its power and influence.
This is the GOAL of the Bush Administration.
The 'heckler' mentioned in the Reuters story is a member of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement from China that has been banned by the Chinese government.
From Wikipedia:
(Falun Gong) is a system of qigong introduced by Li Hongzhi in 1992. Falun is also sometimes translated as dharma wheel or chakra. Central to Falun Gong is five sets of meditation exercises (four standing, and one sitting). A few years after its public introduction in 1992, Falun Gong quickly grew to become one of the most popular forms of qigong in Chinese history, and has been growing in popularity around the world.
Falun Gong is a peaceful and nonviolent religious practice. The Chinese government have been persecuting and imprisoning Falun Gong followers since 1999 because it has attracted so many followers. Such a corrupt government cannot conrol an enlightened society; they must imprison, torture and exploit their population to maintain power.
Recently, reports of concentration camps and organ harvesting have been brought up for investigation. These are serious human rights issues.
Bush should not have apologized to President Hu. He should have apologized to the Falun Gong practitioner and reprimanded the Chinese Government for their abuses of power. What better time to stand up and proclaiming the ethics of a free society? To prove once and for all that he believes in the American ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Instead, we are presented with yet another disgraceful act in a long series of corrupt, greedy, self-serving acts by the Bush regime.
This brave 'heckler' should be granted all of the praise Americans can muster; Wang Wenyi (the 'heckler') embraced the American ideal; She spoke out for the oppressed. We should be granting her an award and putting action behind her call. Instead our leaders once again prove how incapable they are at representing American values. Fortunately, many of us HAVE listened to her call. And the call of thousands of oppressed people.
This is the sort of damage that a 'yes' vote for Bush has caused. Conservative America, you got what you deserved and you are now only beginning to see the truth.
Go back to sleep; we don't need you.
posted by Edward Svengali @ Friday, April 21, 2006,
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NEW PROJECT
4/19/2006
I want to create a poem. Randomly. Using phrases YOU record. This will be mixed in a Novachild-ish way and probably will have a beat. It will not sound like poetry in the traditional sense; it may sound alien and strange. I have no idea and no preconceptions, which is the beauty of it.
What I need from you:
Exactly 10 seconds of decent quality audio. This will be in the form of verbal communication. No music or found sound. Just voices. A slice of your life.
- Recorded conversations at dinnertime.
- A telephone conversation.
- Children playing, laughing in your living room.
- Just you saying anything into a mic
- Someone you have interviewed on the street
- Crazy Preacher at your church
- A mentally-ill person in your family (ROFL)
- Etc.
RULES:
- 44.1 WAV FILES. Mono or Stereo.
- No toilet humor or racist slurs or hateful stuff.
- 10 seconds strict.
- Email them to maximumhong (at) gmail dot com with the subject "RANDOM POETRY"
- Also, include what name to give sample credit to in the subject line.
- Put in your email "I authorize you to use this sample for any purpose whatsoever, free of charge, forever."
- You must submit it no later than Sunday, April 30, 2006.
Really, that's about it.
So what are you waiting for?
posted by Edward Svengali @ Wednesday, April 19, 2006,
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I Want...
A new computer. For live music performance.
For ages, I've been considering getting a laptop for their 'ease of use' and portability. However, I've recently been questioning my motivations for doing so. Do I want a dedicated music machine, or do I want something I can haul around to coffeeshops for a bit of web surfing and emailing in my evening hours? Do I even GET evening hours, especially if I'm doing what I really WANT to do? And do I need such a powerful machine for simply dorking around at a wifi coffeeshop?
Granted, I can't afford any of this right now. But I've learned to know what I want. When the money presents itself from whatever universal portal it appears from, I will have more ambition to take it and use it. 'Build it, and they will come!'
RACK:
I want a rack and a rackmount case. No more of this hauling the home PC around. I want to be able to unplug two or three things, put the cover on, and shove the entire kit into the back of the car without having to do it piecemeal. A rack would also protect the gear.
SKB R12 Rack
CASE:
The Circotech RM-4170 looks nice. Reminds me a bit of a Dell PowerEdge case (the little grill holes on the drivebay covers). Compared to most other rackmount cases, this one seems to have enough fans to get the cooling job done, too. And the price ain't too shabby. They also make a nice keyboard tray, but it's $150+ and I can probably find a better deal elsewhere.
INNARDS:
I don't want bleeding edge, but I do want cutting-edge. I suppose it doesn't really do any good to detail the inside of the machine until the time comes to actually buy it. I do know that I want at least 2-3 megs of ram and a HUGE drive, maybe a couple of striped drives or something. A full RAID5 array would be cool, but way too expensive for me. Dual procs, most likely.
KEYBOARD TRAY/MONITER:
THIS would be cool, but it's WAYYY out of my budget.
So there you go. My dream performance setup. I can see myself hauling this up onto the stage, a rack with my PC, power amp, mixer and FX processor, then connecting my trigger finger, midi controller and a couple of mics. Such a small and compact yet POWERFUL way to perform. This would give me the energy to be my own roadie for life. LOL
posted by Edward Svengali @ Wednesday, April 19, 2006,
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Armageddon Days Are Here.... Again
4/15/2006
Tonight...
In the aftermath of Jack Chick's glorious birthday, after I have fought diligently through a horrid double-feature at the drive-in (the forgettable Ice Age 2 followed by The Benchwarmers, possibly the worst movie I have ever seen at the drive-in), I bring you the most popular post on my little blog.
Strange. I would have expected Cat Butt to have attracted more attention by now.
A year ago, I was much less busy. I had more time to pay attention to the crap in my mailbox. I posted more frequently to my blog. I ranted and raved and spouted off every fucking thing, occasionally in an artful way ... but not always.
Some times I vented to the point of nauseating self-indulgence, thus joining the 'angsty-bloggers' club that has spread across the universe. Sometimes I posted poetry, thus incorporating myself into the large cesspool of 'bad poetry blogs' that have infested cyberspace with mostly pointless, meaningless crap, with the occasional nugget of beauty, wisdom, and relevance. My how I've neglected you, my lovely little space.
It's not that I've become disenchanted with my journal. It's just as enjoyable as it always has been. I just keep so fucking busy with bands and gigs and things. I enjoy writing. I miss it terribly. I need a laptop.
So I urge you, dear reader, to put the good vibes in the universe that will help manifest a nice, useful laptop into my current reality. With a laptop, I could actually read Revelations from the Apocalypse between band practice and sleep. Imagine that! I could also compose more music, surf more blogs, waste more time I don't really have anyway.
So manifest me a time machine as well, so I can slow things down a bit. Sheesh.
posted by novachild @ Saturday, April 15, 2006,
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Happy Birthday Jack Chick!
4/13/2006
I love Jack Chick comics. He's an effing genius, somehow able to combine fire-and-brimstone judgment, racism, xenophobia and religous persecution into a strangely likeable package.
Check out the Jack T. Chick Museum of Fine Art.
posted by Edward Svengali @ Thursday, April 13, 2006,
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Cat Butt
4/10/2006
Somehow when I think of yummy raspberry sour candy, this doesn't really come to mind:
I've never actually had a pet cat that I could call my own. I 'cat sat' for my sister when she was pregnant, and I roomed with a lesbian and a completely manic cat that tore up all of my posters and pissed on all my clothes. I wasn't even terribly fond of cats ....That us until a friend of mine convinced me to take home a little cute and fuzzy tabby cat about 4 months ago. Now I'm won over. His name is Captain Jack, named after a character in the new Doctor Who series. I'm a cat lover now. Not a freak, but a lover.
And I know what those litter boxes can smell like when you use ANYTHING but Arm and Hammer litter (the expensive shit). And if THAT can smell like THAT, and THAT's where THAT came from, then you bet your feline arse that I would not normally entertain even the slightest strange connection between cat anuses and raspberry tarts.
Still, I'd be up for sampling a box of Cat Butt Tart Raspberry Sours. Am I worth $2.50 to you? Send them along...... ROFL
posted by Edward Svengali @ Monday, April 10, 2006,
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Dark Days Ahead
4/06/2006
I fear that the worst times are ahead of us. Something's going to give soon. I can feel it.
It won't be the Armageddon that the salivating religious right openly advocates. It will be something much more real and less impressive. No seven-headed dragons, whores of Babylon, horsemen, demons or antichrists. No Balrog, eye of Sauron or the like. Instead, the cast will be the typical drooling, buffoonish politicians 'we' have elected. Also present will be a nation of sedated, apathetic subjects sitting idly in front of their TV sets, and all the while the rich and the powerful and the greedy will continue to rape what little is left of our dignity.
Fortunately for the human race, no amount of human stupidity will prevent human beings from evolving. So, like all things, this too shall pass. And hopefully I will survive along with many of you to see through to the brighter days.
posted by Edward Svengali @ Thursday, April 06, 2006,
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