journal.novachild.com: May 2006

Broadband
5/23/2006

I've decided to finally take the plunge. I'm getting broadband. In other words, this is the last post I will ever make using a crappy dialup account! Somehow, this seems significant. Pretty late for a geek to switch to broadband, but this geek has to eat, too.

Of course, I still won't have a mobile phone, which I don't mind living without.

1/ I HATE phones
2/ I don't like being immediately available to anyone
3/ I don't like the thought of being tracked by GPS, and
4/ I can't afford it.

Also, as the last couple of episodes of Doctor Who reveal, those weird bluetooth earpod devices can allow evil uber overlords to control your mind and turn you into cybermen.

Things I'm looking forward to this week:

1/ The finale of Lost, Season 2
2/ Getting hold of the Doctor Who episode I missed last week
3/ My gig on Saturday with Jonas (at the Gypsy, 9:00)
4/ Broadband at home!!!!!

Which means a new router, NIC card, and a particularly unhealthy download/surfing spree on Friday night. Funyon-breath, here I come!

My BIRTHDAY is also coming up on June 13. Since I've been attacked for my lack of cool tee-shirts by some very good friends, you might consider this post to be a good run-down of what I'd like for my birthday (in case you missed it before). Also, I do have an Amazon Wish List on the right-hand side of the page if you'd rather go that route. Not expecting gifts, exactly. Only hoping for two or three really awesome surprises on my 32nd Birthday.

posted by Edward Svengali @ Tuesday, May 23, 2006, , links to this post

Fencing Out the Brown Skins
5/18/2006

The US Senate has agreed to construct a 370-mile, triple-layered fence between Mexico and the US. To keep the illegal brownskins out.

So where's the US-Canadian fence to keep the hippies and French Canadians out? How many thousands of miles of fencing are we going to construct up there?

What? No Canadian fence? Is it because the Canadians know how fucked up we are and won't bother to step foot in Jesusland? Or are these politicians just a bunch of fucking racists?

First we remove them from Texas and New Mexico and Southern California, then we fence them out. The Native Americans would be outraged, and the Mexicans are no different. They were here long before these pompous, bigoted white men ever stepped foot on the New World. If anybody should build a fence, it's the American people. A nice, tall, square fenced-in area with razorwire, observation towers and prison cells for our corrupt, racist, and unreasonable politicians.

posted by Edward Svengali @ Thursday, May 18, 2006, , links to this post

PG5YP LIVE! SATURDAY!
5/17/2006

Blue Dome is this weekend. Saturday night, when you're done with all the art, come see us play around the corner at Gypsy Cyber Cafe. Exclusive performance! One of a kind! Don't miss it!

posted by Edward Svengali @ Wednesday, May 17, 2006, , links to this post

Blue Dome Arts Festival

Last year, it was many things for me. It was a nexus for creativity, a blossoming of what I (perhaps naively) considered to be an artful revolution in Tulsa. It's where PG5YP came together. It's where I met Jenna (the owner of Saffron), who has been a very good friend to me. It was one of the best weekends.

We worked our asses off to make that festival fun and relevant. I suffered from heat exhaustion and dehydration by the end, but the festival created such a positive stir in me that I didn't care. I recovered.

But this year.... I'm not sure. I don't feel quite as positive about it. They're charging for booth space. Even though it's not nearly as much as what Mayfest charges, it still feels less like a healthy counter to the expensive Mayfest and more like an attempt to sneak some profit into things. The organizers deserve to recoup their costs, but I don't want to see it begin to develop into a commercial enterprise (like Mayfest has become). I know I seem a little too cautious, but Tulsa has seen this happen with Mayfest, increasing the booth prices and excluding more and more local artists. I hope that doesn't happen. I will attempt to suppress my instinctive distrust and struggle to remain open-minded, no matter how cautious I seem to be.

Also, my more personal and egocentric gripe: I approached the music organizers two months ago to book PG5YP for the festival. I even offered to donate the use of my PA to curb some costs for the festival. I know we're at least as good as the best acts they've booked, and we all worked very, very hard to make it a special thing last year. When I didn't receive a single response to my multiple requests, my faith was dimmed. Just a little - but enough to make me slightly more pragmatic and less hyped about the festival. It's partly my fault for getting my feelings involved in the first place. I tend to do that with things I love and have a passion for, and I'm learning to deal with missed opportunities in a healthy way.

(as a side note, I also wanted to be involved in the "Poets for Peace," but it appears I've been overlooked again. My fault for being too damn busy with the bands. I will kick myself.)

Last year , it was a protest of Mayfest. Now it seems to be graduating, but in that process I hope it doesn't lose its sensibilities. May the Blue Dome Arts Festival continue to offer an open door to starving artists, creative types of all kinds, and volunteers who are crying out to turn Tulsa into a more artful place. May it keep a watchful eye on its own activities and try to remain sensitive to the needs of the Tulsa Artistic Community. Open at the top. That is what we all want as artists.

posted by Edward Svengali @ Wednesday, May 17, 2006, , links to this post

Disturbing
5/15/2006

Purity Balls. Christian 'party rituals' where fathers and daughters 'bond' to create an inpenetrable barrier to her special place. Personally, I think it's disgusting and laughable. As a teenager, I never would have pledged my purity to my mother. How creepy! Ewwww!

Not to mention how fucking boring would life be if I kept my 'purity' til marriage and discovered some serious sexual incompatibilities after the fact. Suckas. Pity the fools.

posted by Edward Svengali @ Monday, May 15, 2006, , links to this post

PG5YP WEB SITE
5/12/2006

People's Glorious Five Year Plan now has a web site. Designed by Novachild, of course! Stop by and check out the music samples and the quirky little bios.

The band is also featured on the Peace House (OKC) web site for a few days. Check them out and give them support as well. Below is the picture of (most of) the band they have posted; it was taken at the Bush Protest on 5/6. Gypsy is not in this pic, and it was an unflattering 8:00 in the morning, so it's perhaps not the best shot of the band in action. Still, it's evidence!

Last but not least, more pics of the anti-Bush protest on 5/6, one of which shows my favorite slogan ever: "Who will God tell you to Kill Next?" Mua ha ha!!!!!!

posted by Edward Svengali @ Friday, May 12, 2006, , links to this post

This has been a nice week for me. We (PG5YP) went to a Bush protest over the weekend, and I took the liberty of flipping off a Secret Service helicopter. It might even have been Air Force One, the copter variety. Just the thought of possibly having just flipped Bush the finger has made me fairly giddy for days.

OMFG. This can't be real, can it? A remake of Revenge of the Nerds? PANTY RAID! The ultimate in dumbness, I must say, though the original movie probably did inspire me somewhat to be who I am today. LOL

posted by Edward Svengali @ Friday, May 12, 2006, , links to this post

OMFG
5/09/2006

I will never drink from a barrel. Ever.

UPDATE: Even though it's gross (which makes it interesting), this story is 10 years old! And it may very well be an urban myth.... Still, new one for me.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The Budapest story headlined "Hungary workers get shock at bottom of rum barrel" issued on May 4 is withdrawn. Police said the incident, reported on a police magazine Web site, happened 10 years ago. Reuters has been unable to make any further checks to substantiate the story.

posted by Edward Svengali @ Tuesday, May 09, 2006, , links to this post

Tee Shirt Birthday
5/08/2006

Everybody, my birthday is June 13. It's a Tuesday. I will be having a party, most likely at Saffron, most likely at 7:00 PM. And there will most likely be music and everybody I know.

But no matter where this party is, I want ONE THING for my birthday. I want really cool Tee-Shirts. The reason: a few people have mentioned how sick to death they are of my Strongbad shirt. And my two anti-bush shirts are worn out.

Here Are The Rules:

1/ unny or surreal or leftie or geeky (Doctor Who related is a big plus).
2/ Avoid downright tastelessness.
3/ It has to compliment my persona in some way.
4/ XL or XXL
5/ Black, Brown, Dark Blue, Grey, Dark Green. No light colors if possible

Here are some examples of shirts I would really really like:

Cheat Commandos
Sparky Black Tee
Boards of Canada
Jesus Saves...
The Communist Party
Obey Your Noodly Master
Computers are Fun and Useful
Davros & The Daleks
TARDIS
Dalek
This with the FSM logo
I Bet You'll Vote Next Time Hippie
Xenu Is My Homeboy
Mega Man
Max Headroom
Blood Feast
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
Carnival of Souls
Keep Out of Direct Sunlight
Soylent Green is People

Anyway, you get the point. Something along these lines. If you know me, it'll be even easier! This could be fun!

posted by novachild @ Monday, May 08, 2006, , links to this post

5/6 Protest
5/07/2006

The Jonas Adrian Trio played a concert on Friday night, which was great, exhausting fun. I was completely worn out afterwards. To add more difficulty to my experience, just before we started playing, someone passed a message on to me that PG5YP (my other band) was playing at the Bush Protest Site Saturday morning. 8:00 AM. Ugh.

The Trio played well that night. PG5YP showed up to help break down, which was very nice, then I drove home half-dead to get some rest.

Woke up Saturday morning after only 3.5 hours of sleep. I was zombie-like and quite grumpy. We stuffed the car with last-minute items and left for Stillwater at 6:00.

Unloaded our gear at Happy Narwhal, the super-cool little record store that we would be partying down at after the protest. Arrived at the OSU campus shortly after 8, joining a crowd of at least 250 protesters.

The man who brought the PA only had 3 microphones, so the drums, accordian and backup vocals were completely un-miced. Also, the crowd was half-awake, so there was not a lot of enthusiasm at first. But the crowd became larger and larger, and some have estimated that, at its peak, there were around 500-600 people there protesting Bush's arrival.

The local media, as usual, portrayed the entire event as a nice, happy fun time that gave Bush a warm welcome, and that only about 250 protesters showed up. Total bullshit. No mention of the professors who walked out of the commencement speech. No mention of the small but significant riot stoked by the pro-Bush crowd (maybe a dozen people). Fuck you, media.

All in all, it was a kick-ass event. Solidarity in a red state makes it even more significant, I believe. Check out some reviews/pics of the protest here: Defiance_01's Xanga Site
And here: Tulsa Can't Wait

I have absolutely no photographic evidence of this event, so if anyone has pictures of the band playing, I would appreciate you emailing them to me at maximumhong (at) gmail dot com.

The show at Happy Narwhal afterwards was great, exhausting fun, though it wasn't properly plugged at the protest site and so few people actually knew about it. By the time it was over, I was ready to pass out from sheer exhaustion.

All in all, it was definitely worth the effort! I'm glad my drum and I played a part in giving Bush a cold-shouldered welcome to Oklahoma.

posted by novachild @ Sunday, May 07, 2006, , links to this post

Catch and Release
5/05/2006

Imagine you've got a free weekend and you'd like to do a little 'sportsman' activity to wind down and get 'closer to nature.'

So you get this great idea. You tie a stray cat to a long tether. This cat is hungry, so you tease it with a morsel of food. The cat cautiously moves toward you, and when it's close enough to take the bait you whack it on the head with a stick with a nail on the end. Not enough to kill it, just enough to stress it and cause it intense pain.

This cat learns your game, so you find another animal. Your neighbor's dog, for instance. Now he might take the bait two or three times. Maybe not.

Now imagine that every good ol' boy in your neighborhood is tying up all these animals and whacking them with nailed sticks 'for sport,' then letting them go so the next guy down the street can have his turn.

Later it is discovered that every 20th whack kills them. Do you feel much like a sportsman now?
Probably not.

So why do so many people think that 'catch and release' fishing is any different?

posted by Edward Svengali @ Friday, May 05, 2006, , links to this post

Music Recommendation: Ojos de Brujo - Techari
5/04/2006

I discovered Ojos de Brujo on LinkTV last summer. They have rocked my world.

I was immediately taken by their gypsy flair, the intense rhythms (tablas even), the flawless flamenco energy and the subtle fusion of dj/scratchwork/synth. Easily they have become one of my favorite bands ever, and their new album 'Techari' floors me each time I listen to it.

Ojos de Brujo is truly an exciting event in the realm of world music. I cannot recommend Techari highly enough. It's simply breathtaking in its intensity. My only wish is that someday I will speak the language so that I can sing along and know what in the hell I'm saying!

posted by Edward Svengali @ Thursday, May 04, 2006, , links to this post

TONIGHT: Jonas Adrian Trio @ Uncle Bentley's

For those of you who don't know, Novachild is 1/3 of the Jonas Adrian Trio. They are featuring at tonight's open jam at Uncle Bentley's. 10:00. Be there.

Uncle Bentley's Pub and Grill
4902 S Sheridan Rd, Tulsa, OK.
664-6800

Friday night, the Trio is playing a special concert at Harmony Church. Tickets are $5 at the door, and they come with several coupons for local venues (coffeeshops, music stores etc.).

Harmony Church: A Center for Spiritual Expression
9022 E 31 St - Tulsa, OK 74145 : Tel (918) 665-0607

Saturday, Novachild will be protesting GWB in Stillwater and playing a set with PG5YP. Don't miss it! Spread the word!

Cheers

posted by Edward Svengali @ Thursday, May 04, 2006, , links to this post