A flower?

Summer's here, finally. Wisconsin actually had a reasonable Spring this year. The weather has been great, and the rampant hormonal race of Spring is beginning to ebb. Mother Nature is kicking in with her flora 'n' fauna hugely.

Ahh, 6 days straight attending to the maintenance requirements of the bar are now behind me.

Isthmus Jazz Festival happening, Saturday is a rare concert on UW campus with Joan Wildman. Hopefully we won't be stuck with the Rathskellar as a venue for the free offerings. It's not a room for music, for most groups.
Drummer Roy Haynes (who is 92!) is playing the big theater, but I cannot attend cuz it's pricey.

Brother Hal is passing through town on Monday and we will 'do lunch'. He's between tours, finishing a week with Moody Blues Sunday. Next up is Tom Waits merchandising! He seems very excited too, going to Europe and many shows have multiple dates in the same city, time off to hearseesmelltouchtaste the sights.

Things have been quite interesting around work lately. What else is new?
A personal goal: trying to slack off from the drinking until the wee hours and not being physically and mentally drained the next day. And there's plenty of work, business is OK, for summer. So I am a lucky guy then, he typed with no irony intended.

Otherwise, life is good. The weather is finally allowing the car to be left at home. Biking around almost exclusively. I love biking, always.

Starting up a project with pal Jack helping him tame technology, or at least watching his struggles, eventually to write and perform some of his very sharp music yet this year. A slow cooker to be sure, but I am learning some things I want to dig into (latest Mac stuff for playing samples, with that *old school* MIDI). We'll get there. My trio of yore with Jack and Jon rehearsed for sumpin like a year before playing out.

And thank god for Mother Fools, or I'd seldom get to play drums in public. That's par for the course when it's the 'difficult listening hour' kind of stuff. I told Nicole the other night 'I don't want to play experimental music (anymore). I want to play successful music.' Time to leave the avant guard to others and rock out or something.


Listen:
Adrian Belew - Side One
Ouija Radio - OH, NO... YES! YES!
The Bears
Gateway Trio live 1982
Joni - Night Ride Home
Nels Cline Singers
The Mic 92.1 Madison
WORT-FM

Read:
Sound on Sound mag (thanks Greg!)
National Geographic
J.G. Bennett - Energies
Tape Op

View:
A Scanner Darkly
lots of PBS

whadya know, it's spring

or at least the calendar sez so.

Biked in to see the fun and extraordinary Asylum Street Spankers tonight. The first 2 times the Spankers played at our club I was on door duty, tonight was a chance to see whazzup near the stage. SEE THIS BAND before you can't anymore. I laughed, I nearly cried, smoked (outside) and drank, lol. ASS (great acronym there) play at about the level you would hear if they were in a smaller room without electricity. Fucking ace! They are great musicians, and just good genuine people. Inspiring

Worked on and off all weekend and kinda sleep deprived from the wackiness of all that...time to recline.

Listen:
King Crimson - The Power to Believe
Bill Nelson - Practically Wired
David Bowie - Outside
Latin Playboys

View:
hey I think a repeat of Meet the Press is on about now!

Read:
John Godolphin Bennett
manuals and boring stuff
DPF

back in the saddle again

out where a friend is a friend

And speaking of which, just returned from another fun hang with pal Gregory. Yes, a hearty devouring of Monty's desserts and stuff. We had a fab gig in Minneapolis together this last Saturday. And joined by visualist Mark Henricksen, the band is back together, man!

Quite an adventure, traveling up to Mpls for the Spark Festival on the Greyhound with 2 Samsonites for a performance. Everything worked and we turned in a reasonable little set. Turned around once for a view of Marks kicking visuals and then back to forward focus. GT and I were side by side and about 3 feet apart, Mark and screen in the back of course. Packed house, the other performances were great and a diverse (not all male, not all geeks) and supportive crowd mostly hung on for the ride.

In the world of wage-earning toil, the ladies at the bar lined up a replacement for my Sat AM janitor shift. Now it's back the the good stuff on Saturday: making music with the P.Soup trio. We have a coffee-house show lined up for Sat. May 10th.

listen:
Talk Radio
PGT - temporary habitations
Andrew Pask, Richard Devine and many more - Spark Festival live

read:
Arthur mag

view:
PBS

The long winter of our collective discontent

Long time silent or 'not typing' on this page, no? Long winter of nothing much exceptional, yes?

"I have nothing to say, and I am saying it!"

In lieu of anecdotes,
Winter Tips
based on unwritten anecdotes...

-Car door is frozen shut? Get a bucket of super-hot water and a rag or towel. Pour over the door frame, open and dry quickly.

-If you use Ben Gay, wash your hands thoroughly before taking a pee.

-It's going to keep snowing, make a pass with the shovel NOW, you'll be glad you did (and so will your neighbors)

-Be kind to grumpy folks, even if you feel as grumpy as they appear to be. This one demonstrates the axiom:
The higher blends with the lower to actualize the middle (Gurdjieff)

-Get out in the sun even tho it's cold as a female black magic practitioner's mammary gland.

-Layers, layers.

-Pray that Jimmy the Groundhog got it right.

-If you didn't go out and vote, stop complaining

-If you did vote, thank you, also stop complaining

listen:
Brian Eno - Another Day on Earth
Erika Wennerstom - live 2007
Heartless Bastards - All This Time
Material - Memory Serves
Critters Buggin' - host
King Crimson - The Power to Believe
Larkses Tongues
92.1FM The Mic - Hillary at Monona Convention Center, Rachel Maddow
WORT-FM - RTQE, Weekly World Noise, In One End

read:
Postneshin Jelaluddin Loras Interview
Mastering Audio - Bob Katz
Energies - J. G. Bennett

view:
No Country for Old Men
Enemy of the State
too much television, excepting PBS

ahh

A legit day off today! Listening to some new disks, catching up with domestic tasks involving trash, recycling, putting things on top of other things, others in boxes, drawers and various containers. Nice card from bro Halton, a call to make to Rochester tonight and the slightly far flung family members there. Mom called last night and I gave her news that barring the kindness of traveling friends, I won't be home for Xmas. My car isn't up for 'over the river and through the woods'. Somewhat complicating things: agreed to house/cat-sit for buddy Steve B. Sun to the following Sun. Works for my bah-humbuggy attitude about the holidays.

Listen:
The Mic 92.1FM - Steph Miller, Norman Goldman (Ed Schultz sub)
Steve Reich - Drumming
Elaine Radique - Trilogie de la Mort
Poopshovel - I Came, I Saw, I had a Hot Dog

Read:
Bob Katz - Mastering Audio

got me working day and night

Whew, busy weekend! Sold Out show at the bar Friday and hard cleanup the next morning. We're talking 11 hour door shift, 2.5 hours sleep and then 4+ hours. whew - somewhat relieved that our monthly Primordial Soup jam Sat at Noon was shelved, although concerned for the health of those who made the call. Bounced between the couch and bed all day yesterday and now today after this morning's scubbing and furniture placement. Highlight of yesterday was a fantastic burger at Monty's Blue Plate, enhanced by Swiss cheese and bacon. I know I shouldn't eat animals but I love animals. You always eat the one you love. sorry
Tending to eat a bit more meat in the winter months with this calorie-burning job. Glad to see it's gonna stop SNOWING for awhile. We might even get temps above 30 degrees this week.

Good news: upcoming 2008 Spark Festival in Minneapolis have given Gregory and I a slot, tentatively Sat March 1st likely at Nomad World Pub on Cedar Ave. We will be the final support act (2nd or 3rd on the bill) before headliner Richard Devine (!), lucky us. Bonus news from a few weeks ago-we will reunite our trio of Spark 2006 in the good company of visualist Mark Henrickson. Should be an exciting and fun event. Hoping to attend more (or at least *some*) of the festival next year. I had to miss Spark 2007 action cuz of the blizzard in late February that stranded many travelers. I was fortunate not to be one of them, although missing the festival was a major bummer. My usual obsessive gig prep involved assembling a more mobile version of my coffeehouse rig that can be quickly assembled. I am so old school there with all the laptops.

Pal John is off the road now for the holidays and paid a visit last Monday. Much fun cavorting and a return to Chataura on State St. I hadn't had the pleasure of dining there since our last trip there about 3 years ago. Nicely prepared Halibut fillet and greens, yum. Discussion of employment opportunities: maybe I too can be a Zappa plays Zappa crew boy? Hmmm. Prolly not a good idea given my love-hate relationship with the omnipresent electric guitar, set on STUN). Sorry guitarists. I love you all, really. Please stop drilling a hole in my eardrums tho.

listening:
Robert Fripp - Frippertronics 1980
Timbuk 3 - One Hundred Lovers
Adrian Belew - Side One
RTQE

it must be December

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Just made it home before the roads turned into trenches. White fluffy stuff is flying, supposed to get 6in. Best to take a pass at the sidewalk soon.


So an afternoon of hunkering down, a nap I hope, and back to work at 7:30.

3rd rental of the week awaits.

listen:
Laurie Anderson - Strange Angels
Agitpop - The Comm3 Sessions
Jack the Dog samples (UVLittle kiosk)
Jan Garbarek & Miroslav Vitous - Atmos

read:
Isthmus
Tape Op
Willy St Coop news
that Mastering book (Thanks Greg!)

view:
Deadwood 3rd Season/Features