Uncorrected Personality Traits

Psychedelic Levis Jeans Ad from Early 1970s

2009-05-29T00:36:00.002-05:00

The only thing harder to believe than the fact that American tv once showed commercials this weird is the fact that American tv allowed an ad to air that is based explicitly on the idea of evolution!

Trash Aesthetic

2009-05-27T23:34:00.013-05:00

UPDATED
I have added some new photographs Matthew has recently posted on his facebook page.

My old college friend, Matt, is currently in Barrow, Alaska teaching circus camp (he is a professional clown). Not only is Barrow the northern-most town in the United Sates, it is also home to some of the best public folk art I've had the pleasure of seeing. The following pictures are of dumpsters from Barrow painted with decorative images and public service admonitions for what I assume is the primarily Iñupiaq population.

The prog comes on little cat feet

2009-05-20T00:40:00.003-05:00

Much to the embarrassment and consternation of my punk rock wife, I have been on a prog rock kick the last few years. There's just something so appealing to me about it. It's the combination of pretension, sincerity, cluelessness, amazing musical chops, incredible arrangements, and a general "kitchen sink" mentality that does it for me. The lack of self-conscious irony is refreshing. Plus I love epics. I love big sloppy stories. Prog Rock appeals to my inherent lack of subtlety.

Anyway, Bill Bailey (he of the great British comedy series starring Simon Pegg Spaced), recently hosted a top ten countdown show that names the greatest prog rock bands of all time. There is some great stuff here. Plus, some of Bill Bailey's comments are priceless.

Let's Burn One

2009-01-27T11:22:00.003-06:00

Sound artist Brian Joseph Davis created this collection of banned albums that have been burned then played.

Here's a link to his site where you can find many other works and experiments by him.

You Won't Believe This!

2009-01-24T14:19:00.003-06:00

I know I'm a little late on posting this. I've been busy procrastinating. I did want to comment, however, on the joy I felt when our President tipped his hat to us "non-believers" during his inaugural speech. I certainly don't feel like a put down minority or anything like that, but it's nice to have you leader acknowledge your presence.

Here's an op ed piece on the NY Times political blog about it.

Who's a good girl?

2009-01-05T20:59:00.006-06:00

Here's a link to an early performance of one of Tammy Wynette's first big hits, "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad" from 1967.

Wait for the chorus and the incredibly awkward yet endearing appearance of the backup singer.

10 out of 11 Doctors...

2009-01-03T14:27:00.003-06:00

Yet another Doc Who post.

I just posted this over at Denton Rock City in response to a question regarding how I felt about the choice of Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

There's definitely some Peter Davidson + David Tennant action going on. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7808697.stm">Here's an interview .

You know I had reservations about both choices for the last two Doctors and they were unfounded. I think this guy looks the part, I just wonder why they cast a similar type right after Tennant. I heard rumors that they were gonna cast the bad guy from Serenity, and think that that would have been a good idea. The pattern has always been to cast opposite from the last Doctor.

1 - grumpy old man
2 - hobo/clown
3 - dashing man of action
4 - eccentric hippy type w/bouts of melancholy
5 - sensitive young man
6 - slightly sinister and deranged
7 - clownish manipulator
8 - Byronesque Romatic
9 - no-nonsense working-class street type
10 - cool school teacher-dandy
11 - ? not sure how they're gonna play him yet

I think this guy could be good, but maybe after another guy's run who could really distance the series from the strong presence of David Tennant. Anyway, with Stephen Moffett at the helm, I have faith that the next series will be solid and my reservations will be proven wrong.

I think way too much about this stuff.

Doctor Mew

2008-12-31T14:31:00.002-06:00

Doctor Who... cats? by ~TardisCat on deviant ART

I know! I know! Not another Doc Who post. I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist. It is rare to find a work of art where two great nerd obsessions come together in such a perfect and beautiful way. So for those of you who love both cats and that renegade Time Lord from Gallifrey - here is your dream come true.

Thank you TardisCat. Thank you.

Katz

2008-12-29T23:22:00.005-06:00

I was recently cleaning out an old back-up hard drive and stumbled across this picture. I have no idea where I found this image but I'm so glad I kept it. It is beautiful.

Cats Off!

2008-12-23T19:19:00.003-06:00

A Maryland couple have rescued more than 3000 cats over the last 10 years. What started as an isolated rescue turned into a full-time job for Bob and Katherine Rude.

CNN reports:
A few years later, they bought a ranch house in Harwood and converted it into a shelter. Eventually, Bob and Katherine left their government jobs to work at the shelter full time. They now work seven days a week, morning through night, caring for their cats and dogs...

...The Rudes originally planned on keeping the shelter on one floor, and living in the rest of the house. But they quickly found that many of the cats required full-time care, so they expanded the shelter throughout their home.

..."For the evening meal, we go through about 25 cans of cat food. For the whole day, we go through about 40-50. ...We go through about 100 pounds of dry food a week for the cats, [and] 10,000 pounds of cat litter a year," Bob said...

Even buying in bulk hasn't helped the Rudes escape the financial woes that have begun to plague most business owners. Katherine says that so far, they have been able to support themselves but are concerned about rising costs and falling donations.

In the spirit of this story here is a link to my local humane society and to the national organization. Donate if you can.

Pamela Colman Smith

2008-12-23T13:13:00.006-06:00

Pamela Colman Smith 1878-1951
Pamela Colman Smith may not be a name familiar to most, but her illustrations are arguably some of the most viewed and influential images of the past 100 years. She also was one of the century's great characters who was little noticed in her own time, although the company she kept included such heavyweights as Alfred Stieglitz, W.B. Yeats, and the famous occult group The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Colman Smith was born in England to a white American father and a black Jamaican mother. When her mother died when Smith was only 10, her father sent her to travel with an acting troupe with which she lived until 15. She later attended the Pratt institute and became a professional illustrator, and was represented by the famed photographer and art agent, Alfred Stieglitz.

Colman Smith was not only an artist, but a larger than life figure. An independent woman of eccentric dress and company, she lived part of her life alone in an apartment in London when such a lifestyle would have been considered outrageous even for a man. Colman Smith was involved heavily in researching the occult and associated herself with some of the major players in the nascent esoterica movements that what would later mutate into the New Age movements of the mid to late 20th century. Colman Smith died in relative obscurity in her 70s, but her work as one of the 20th century's great illustrators has grown considerably over the years.

Although Colman Smith was a published illustrator and writer, she is most famous for her design of the Rider Waite Smith tarot deck, first published 1909. Colman Smith was commissioned by fellow Golden Dawn Member Arthur Edward Waite to illustrate his new revised edition of the standard Tarot deck. Her illustrations would prove highly influential and serve as the iconographic standard for many subsequent versions of Waite's deck.

Although her work adopts the sinuous line of Aubrey Beardsley and combines it with the flat, vivid color of Caldecott, it is her efficient, economical line that really sets her apart from her contemporaries. There is a strong influence of early German woodcuts and Japanese Ukiyo-e prints that create a bold and strong quality to her work. It is this quality - simple and sure, yet sensual and vibrant - that helps make her images so iconic.

h2g2 biography
Gallery of Images

"Comme" All Ye Faithful

2008-12-22T15:13:00.005-06:00

Just in time for the Christmas season Bedazzled has a great Scopiotone of the song "Les Rois Mages" ("The Wise Kings") from 1971 by the French artist Sheila. I swear that this song and "video" were lifted directly from my head because they contain some of my favorite things ever: French chanteuses, Medieval imagery, choruses with hand clap break-downs punctuated by percussive Neil Diamondesque acoustic guitar strums, Mod fashion, refracting lenses, the list goes on.

I have reprinted the lyrics below the video. The song is basically about how the singer will follow this guy like the three wise men followed the star to Bethlehem and Christopher Columbus followed the sun to the Americas. I love how the song has reduced key events of history and religion to a metaphor about relationships (and this is a few years before ABBA's "Waterloo" which did something very similar).

Comme les Rois Mages en Galilée
Suivaient des yeux l'étoile du Berger
Je te suivrai, où tu iras j'irai
Fidèle comme une ombre jusqu'à destination

Comme les Rois Mages en Galilée
Suivaient des yeux l'étoile du Berger
Comme Christophe Colomb et ses trois caravelles
Ont suivi le soleil avec obstination

Plaise au ciel que j'ouvre mes fenêtres
Le matin au bord d'un étang bleu
Plaise au ciel que rien ne nous arrête
Dans ce monde aventureux

Comme les Rois Mages en Galilée
Suivaient confiants l'étoile du Berger
Mon Amérique, ma lumière biblique
Ma vérité cosmique, c'est de vivre avec toi

Plaise au ciel que s'ouvrent les nuages
L'éclaircie dévoile le chemin
Plaise au ciel qu'au terme du voyage
Son triomphe soit le mien

Comme les Rois Mages en Galilée
Suivaient confiants l'étoile du Berger
Comme Christophe Colomb et ses trois caravelles
Ont suivi le soleil avec obstination

More Who Nerdiness

2008-12-16T21:13:00.004-06:00

I am currently on Christmas break from teaching and am spending my first week off doing preety much nothing but stuff I enjoy. I've been watching tv, reading non-school related material, and making stuff. I'm currently working on a new album cover for my band, a Franeknstein's monster statue for Rhonda, and today I worked on two pieces of Doctor Who related fan art. The first is a watercolor of all 10 Doctors that will take me a while. The other is a little pop art inspired banner I threw together for fun.

Here Comes the Groomer

2008-12-14T11:16:00.003-06:00

My friend Jenn Gooch alerted me to the incredible talents of Sandy Hartness of Sandy Paws Pet Grooming Shop in Yucca Valley, CA. Her work speaks for itself.

Re-TARDIS

2008-12-11T21:44:00.004-06:00

I've been a Doctor Who since the mid-80s when KERA in Dallas began airing the Tom Baker episodes on Saturday nights. They eventually aired the the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th Doctors, but did not air the early 60s episodes, at least through the early 90s. Despite my huge fandom of DW, I've only seen a handful of early episodes over the years via video, although I did read every single Target novelization while still in high school.

Anyway, my plan is to slog through every single DW episode from "An Unearthly Chld" through the end of the Sylvest McCoy era via the magic of Netflix. I was watching the first disc of the Early Years set (includes the first 3 serials) and stumbled upon a series of skits that aired in 199 on the BBC in conjunction with "Doctor Who Night" (am I dreaming?). They were created by some of the guys responsible for Little Brittain, and are quite funny. The skit below is probably the best, and probably my favorite Doctor Who parody period.

The Pitch of Fear

Slam Drunk

2008-12-10T14:48:00.004-06:00

I know of no one who loves a sad song as much as I do. I'm not talking about the kinds of songs that make you feel a little wistful and melancholy. I'm talking about songs that make you double over with the sudden shock that life is nothing but horrible, inescapable suffering and the only recourse is to collapse, snot-faced and trembling in a wet, squirming mockery of the fetal position writhing on the floor. This is probably why two of my favorite kinds of music are classic country and Irish ballads. I must admit that there is also an over-the-top bathetic quality to many of these songs that I find appealing. Although I see how people could see that this approach could be ironic, it isn't. I love music that has shed all the cloaks of public decency and goes straight for the jugular vein, in terms of trying to pry emotion from its listener.

With that being said, here's a link and the lyrics to the Ferlin Husky classic "Drunken Driver." It is nowhere near as creepy or gloriously ridiculous as Dolly Parton's "Me and Andy," but it just as worthy of hearing.

"Drunk Driver"
Friends there's somethin' been hauntin' me and I just got to tell you bout it
I saw an accident one day that would chill the heart of any man
And teach them not to drink a drop while the steering wheel's in their hand
This awfull accident occurred on the 20th day of May
And caused two dear little children to be sleeping beneath the clay
These two little kids walked side by side along the state highway
Their poor old mother she had died and their daddy had run away
As these two little kids walked arm in arm how sad their hearts did feel
When around the curb came a speeding car with a drunk man at the wheel
The drunk man saw the two little kids and he hollered a drunken sound
Get out of the road you little fools and the car it brought them down
The bumper struck the little girl taking her life away
While the little boy in a puddle of blood in the ditch lying there did lay
The drunk man staggered from his car to see the damage that he had done
And he let out a yell you could hear for miles when he recognized his dying son
Such mourning from a drunken man I've never heard before
While kneeling at the running board he prayed to heavens door
Saying oh God please forgive me for this awful crime I've done
And his attention then was called away by the words of his dying son
And he said daddy why did you do this to us how come you run us to the ground
It was you and mommy we was talking about when the car it brought us down
And I was just telling little sister that I knew we'd see you again someday
But daddy why did it have to be like this why did it have to be this way
Why daddy why

I Should Coco

2008-12-06T23:34:00.003-06:00

Here is the latest addition to our little animal family. Her name is Coco and she is a Denton animal shelter rescue. She's a min-pin and chihuahua mix. She's about 7. She's a grumpy, eccentric old lady. Although she is up in years, she had never been fixed. She also had heart worms and really bad teeth. We spent almost $500 on her before we even got to take her home. She was worth it.

I love her very much. The cats aren't so sure.

My wife, Rhonda, took these amazing pictures.

Sweet, sweet memories of mama boiling corn

2008-12-01T20:06:00.006-06:00

I grew up watching Hee-Haw and late night K-Tell commercials. This SNL skit from 2004 reminds me of both of those beloved memories. Watch for the song "Ain't Nothin' Cuter." It is God.

Doctor Uke

2008-12-01T17:39:00.003-06:00

The Doctor Who theme play on ukelele. The two great tastes that taste great together.

Book Review: Little, Big - John Crowley

2008-11-28T12:24:00.004-06:00

Little, Big by John Crowley

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
LB is lush, beautiful, and strange. It is one of those books, also, that sent me scurrying for other sources to help make sense of what I am reading. The language is poetic, but not dense. The characters are memorable, but like the book, a little removed and detached. I found myself reading this book from a distance, as opposed to feeling involved and part of the story. Which again is also apt, because the book is ultimately about a Tale and one lone family whose responsibility it is to spin it by acting out an ages old set of circumstances set forth by outside forces. The Story which this family enacts is theirs alone and sets them apart, literally it seems, from the rest of the world. Despite the aloofness of the novel, however, I found LB to be rewarding and rich. It is not a casual read, but thick with allusions to other tales, fables, and myths. John Crowley does not simply do this to flex his highly developed literary muscles, but the very nature of his Tale depends upon the existence of these other established ones.

View all my reviews.

Straw-ng Hold

2008-10-04T11:09:00.004-05:00

East Texas man builds house out of mud, hay, and sand.
I must admit that building this kind of structure has always been a dream of mine. Who wouldn't want their own ecologically sound Hobbit hole?

Suarasama

2008-08-12T12:47:00.004-05:00

I am so happy. A few years ago I stumbled upon a twenty volume Smithonian/Folkways collection of Indonesian music. Most of it was really great but the last disc pretty much blew my mind. It was a collection of guitar music and every track was absolutely incredible. What struck me was how all-over-the-place everything sounded. Some of the songs were made on funky home-made guitars and sounded like weird Delta blues filtered through Middle Eastern ude music, while other stuff sounded like Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Out of all of this great music, one band and song especially stood out. The song was called Fatas Di Atas Awan and sounded like nothing elese I had ever heard. I'm not going to describe it here, but you should give it a listen for yourself. The band was/is a male/female duo called Suarasama, and I've been looking for their album on and off for the last 7-8 years and just discovered today that Drag City will be re-releasing their full-length album, Fatas Di Atas Awan later this month.

Yay.

Since I'm kind of obsessed, I just ordered it on CD and LP. Although I've only heard the title track, which is the song on the Smithsonian compilation, I can't imagine the album being a disappointment.

Frankie Lee and Judas Priest were the best of friends

2008-07-31T15:19:00.004-05:00

I've been listening a lot to Judas Priest lately. I never listened to a lot of metal growing up because I was a clueless little snob, but over the past few years I've seen the errors of my ways. Anyways, Sin after Sin is one of my favorite priest albums, and I especially love the song "Diamonds and Rust," which was written by none other than Joan Baez. What's awesome about this song is that it was written for Bob Dylan after he unceremoniously dumped her and treated her generally like dirt. Whenever I listen to the Judas Priest version of this song, I picture Rob Halford in full Priest leather get-up singing to Bob Dylan at the height of his Rolling Thunder weirdness. So my friend and band mate Ryan Thomas Becker sent me this image that he made in honor of my rock and roll fantasy.

Damn you Ryan, damn you.

My Barbarian Invasions

2008-07-20T23:20:00.001-05:00

About 18 months ago I was introduced to the performance group My Barbarian by my friend Colleen who sent me a link to a video for a song called "Unicorns LA." I subsequently discovered that it was mentioned in boingboing about three years ago, but somehow I missed it. Since then I have become obsessed with their somewhat singular take on post-ironic performance art. The only way I can describe them is as if Bob Fosse choreographed a Renaissance Faire to be filmed as an after school special to be shown at an early 70s Californian hippie commune, then you have a vague idea of what this group is about.

The most bizarre thing about them is that they somehow manage to project both sincerity about what they are doing, while still being completely self aware of the ridiculousness of their performance. I don't know what to call this approach. "Sincere irony" perhaps?

My interest in them comes partially from my interest in the way popular culture interprets the medieval world. I study medieval art history and I am always confronted by people who misinterpret what I do. I don't know how many times I have been asked if I go to Renaissance Faires, or if I "dress up" in medieval garb. How come nobody asks Egyptologists if they put on Pharonic headwear? Anyway, I do understand that medievalism has a particularly geeky/fanboy subculture aura around it, and it is this aspect that initially attracted me to My Barbarian. I think that possibly only Civil War buffs maintain the same level of intense fandom around their historical subject as medievalists do.

My Barbarian explore so much more than medievalsim. Their whole shtick is an examination of/commentary on, and weird embracing of 1970's Southern California new age culture and its interests. What I love most about these guys is the way they can both satirize this culture for its excesses while also embracing it for its hopefulness and sense of possibility.

The one to watch.

2008-07-20T00:45:00.005-05:00

This is pretty darn cool. iTunes along with the makers of the upcoming Watchmen movie have just published the first chapter of an animated webcomic of the Alan Moore classic graphic novel. While I still have my doubts after seeing the new preview for the 2009 film version made by the guy who brought us 300, I'm quite excited by this animated version.

Ten out of Ten Doctors...

2008-07-19T15:00:00.000-05:00

A comix artist named Rich has created a surprisingly good Doctor Who fan comic featuring all ten Doctors. The art and the story are both very good, and are in some ways more entertaining than the last season of DW.

HeLP!

2008-03-30T23:14:00.002-05:00

I've been going record crazy. It is an addiction I cannot and do not want to curb. I am going to go broke. I don't care. Vinyl is precious to me. It gives my sad little life direction. It keeps my hands out of my pants (except when I reach for cash to buy record). I used to hate people like the one I have become. I worked at a used record store for ten years. I once mocked and loathed the sad, empty-lifed recluses who came into the store and snot-pawed the vinyl like some middle-aged pizza loving Gollum whose one-ring was an out-of-print Italian prog album. Now I am that person. I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs. I try to eat fairly healthily. I exercise regularly. I collect vinyl. I am new at it. It is a corrupting influence. I don't know exactly what caused this mania. I got a new job. I am in a band that makes me happy. My life has changed significantly in the past few months. This coincides with my new habit, but I'm not sure how the two fit together.

Here are my recent acquisitions of the past month or so:

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Geraldine Fibbers - Butch
XTC - Skylarking (Mermaid Smile version)
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
Jethro Tull - Warchild, Heavy Horses, Living in the Past
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Lou Reed - Transformer
Big Star - 3rd
David Bowie - Scary Monsters, Changesonebowie & Changestwobowie
Billy Bragg - Workers' Playtime
Can - Ege Bamyasi
Decemberists - Crane Wife, The Tain, Her Majesty, Picturesque
6 Nonesuch Explorer Albums

There are more, but I'm too weak to go on.

Rest in peace, Arthur C. Clarke

2008-03-18T20:23:00.003-05:00

There were two major authors that completely consumed by brain from about the ages of 10 to 14 - Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke. Ray Bradbury showed me that there was something beautiful, scary, and poetic in almost everything around me, while Clarke taught me about potential.

Almost everything that guy wrote was about how we could achieve anything we wanted as a species as long as we just rolled up our sleeves and got to work. Nothing happens to any character in a Clarke novel if they just sit on their hands. His heroes are always people who think big, question everything, and look ahead. Unfortunately, it is our inability as a race to live up to Clarke's vision that I am so disappointed in the world right now. I feel that we're asking all the wrong questions, setting all the wrong goals, and simply not applying ourselves. We could be achieving greatness, but instead we're fighting over whose god is better than the other.

In spite of this, I refuse to give up hope. It is because of people like Arthur C. Clarke that I cling to one last shred of optimism. He never gave up on us, so I guess I can't either.

Glove Makes the World Go Around

2007-12-03T00:00:00.000-06:00

My friend Jennifer Gooch, who is a MFA student at Carnegie Mellon has created a website called onecoldhand.com that seeks to reunite lost gloves found in the Pittsbutrgh area. She has been getting mad attention from some major news sources.

Here's a link to the AP article about her endeavor:

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- It's like an online dating service for long lost gloves. No, that's not a typo.

A Texas native who experienced her first snowflakes in Pittsburgh last year was miffed by the lost gloves she spotted all over the city last winter. Whom did they belong to? Wouldn't they want them back? Why were people just walking past them?

So Jennifer Gooch, who is pursuing her master of fine arts degree at Carnegie Mellon University, started onecoldhand.com in an effort to reunite dropped gloves with their mates -- and in the process spread some goodwill.

Universal Soldier

2007-11-30T14:23:00.000-06:00

I'll admit it. I am a big fan of musicals. I was raised on Singin' in the Rain, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Jesus Christ Superstar, Wizard of Oz, and all of the other great musicals. I have never understood some people's dislike (in some cases revulsion) to movie musicals. The argument is usually that they are unrealistic, the plot is too thin, ridiculous and unbelievable, the characterization is weak, etc., etc. Of course these are the same people who love slapstick comedies and sci-fi actioners, two genres both entrenched in their own brand of unrealistic conventions, but that's another story (Note: I love these genres too, I'm just saying).

As a big musical fan, Beatles buff, and a fan of the director Julie Taymoor, I have been very excited about the new musical Across the Universe. I saw it over a month ago, but I'm only now getting around to completing my review. Although I totally loved it, the reviews have been decidedly mixed, it's at 54% fresh (read: good) at Rotten Tomatoes. Some of the negative reviews are spot on: that it is ham-fisted and overly naive (true), that it depicts a cliche-ridden, overly nostalgic and overly-simplified view of the 60s (also true), and that it is full of embarrassing cameos (half-true). What these critics hardly ever mention is the sheer inventiveness of the musical numbers, the excellent acting and singing, the amazing visual effects, the great score and performances of Beatle standards, and the film's palpable exuberance towards its subject matter.

One of my biggest complaints about some critics is the inability for many of them to temper their reviews based on the material. Criticizing a musical because the plot is thin, or the characterization is weak is like complaining about the lack of special effects in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Each film genre has its own inherent strengths and weaknesses, and although we should expect high quality from every film and also expect films to push the envelope of their respective genres, it is kind presumptuous to expect one kind of film to deliver a complete experience that is beyond the constraints of its genre in every single aspect.

While ACTU almost wallows in some of the hoarier musical conventions (boy meets girls-loses girl, big sing-a-long production number as deus ex machina, etc.), it fills the screen with some of the most beautiful and inventive images I've seen in a long time. The bizarre production number featuring "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" remade as a plaintive broken-hearted lesbian soliloquy set amongst a choreographed football practice is worth the price of admission alone. There are some numbers that take these very well-known songs in such unexpected ways, that I sat through much of the movie with a big, goofy smile on my face in anticipation of what was going to happen next.

In the end, if you're a fan of musicals and/or the Beatles, you'll probably enjoy this one. If not, then don't go.

En-"list"-ed

2007-11-30T12:14:00.000-06:00

My friend Jennifer Gooch (who's becoming quite the cause célebré as an artist and a songwriter) posted a list of words on her blog pertaining to themes and ideas in her art work. It's kinda like Eno’s Oblique Strategies inverted.
After reading her list I made one of my own for songwriting. I was slightly surprised at the results. My list reads like the personality traits of the child of Neitzsche and Faulkner - a Southern Gothic Ubermensch?

Here’s my list:
1. regret
2. family
3. memory
4. death
5. renewal
6. tokens
7. brotherhood/sisterhood (in the sense of bonding together against or for a common cause)
8. names
9. outsiders
10. metamorphosis
11. language
12. body parts
13. declarations
14. science
15. abuse
16. sexuality
17. small town life
18. escapism
19. story
20. lying
21. defiance
22. (inability to) travel
23. secrets
24. war

Rock Lottery

2007-10-10T11:46:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I participated in an annual event called Rock Lottery which celebrated its 10th anniversary with a two-night event. I’m not going to go into details about the event rules since you can read about that here. Suffice it is to say that RL is an exhausting but very rewarding process, that takes a few days from which to recover.

This year was a little different in that there was the possibility that a band could be drummerless. I was in that band. Also, I was in a band with arguably the most experimental musicians on the roster. I would like to say that I had a really great time and that working with the people with whom I was assigned introduced me to ideas and working methods that I had never tried. My bandmate Sarah Alexander especially had some really cool improvisational techniques that really opened my eyes to new ways of working. Although I listen to a lot of experimental kinds of music, my own music is folk based and rooted firmly in traditional American and British songwriting structures.

As a band, we intentionally avoided going for the comedy or outrageous stage show angle and really tried concentrating on making interesting sounds. I will agree that our performance could have had more polish, but overall I was happy with the direction and ideas. All of my bandmates agreed that we could have used a few more hours practice (and some sleep). The reaction of the crowd was definitely mixed. Some saw us as a mild disappointment while others were supportive of our more experimental approach, while there were others who didn’t like us at all. The best compliment I had was from my friend and Rock Lottery 9 alum, Ian Johnson, who said the band sounded like what the Replacements or another 80s Minneapolis band would have sounded like if they were from a parallel universe and played experimental music. We were definitely the strangest band that night in terms of the kinds of music we were playing, which veered from rhythmic and textural experimentations, electronic dance, Velvety post-punk stuff, to powerpop.

Ultimately I think we played in the best spirit of the Rock Lottery, and I’m happy with many of the things we did. I also had a really great time working with Cory, Sarah, George, and Rob, and hope to have the opportunity to play with them again some day.

Goodbye, Syd.

2007-09-20T17:45:00.000-05:00

I had to put my 15 year-old cat to sleep today. He had cancer. He was diagnosed about two years ago, but was doing ok. Over the last few months his tumor had gotten really large. I had already decided not to do chemo, so I was prepared for the worst. He had stopped eating the last few days, and he moved very little. I decided to take him in to the vet today. I got to say, "Goodbye," to him.

He was a great cat. He was very affectionate and even natured. He loved people. He was a gentle soul. He was also polydactyl; he had extra toes. His front paws looked like he was wearing little gray boxing gloves. Syd was a smart cat. He would come when his name was called. He understood other commands, too. He was very clever. He would pull my hand out from under my pillow with his paw as I slept. He would then drag my hand over to his head to be rubbed.

He loved to get in the shower right after I used it. He would wait until I left the room and then jump in the tub. He loved to drink water from the tub. He didn't drink water in the normal way that cats do. He would dip his paw in the water and make a little paw-cup with his thumb.
I miss him very much.

Heavy Pet-ing

2007-09-15T20:32:00.000-05:00

This is an animation featured on youtube. Even though millions of people will see this, I had to post it because it is so damn charming. A student named Julia Pott at Kingston University made this as her final project. The short film consists of animation of cartoon animals synched with audio interviews of various people talking about there first crushes.

Civic Duty

2007-09-13T23:40:00.001-05:00

I'm not a car person. Never have been. I never understood the love for an automobile. I just recently bought a '97 Honda Civic. I can't say that I love it, but I do enjoy it more than I have ever enjoyed a car before. I had to get it because I just got a teaching position in a town 33 miles away, and my wife and I can no longer carpool to the university. Plus, the gas for driving the Jeep everyday was killing me.

This is why I enjoy my "new" car - it's economical, kinda bland looking, no frills, yet enjoyable to drive. I like to think I now own the automotive equivalent of myself. Kinda weird and egotistical, like the old tv show "My Mother the Car" as an ego driven masturbatory fantasy.

Still, I really miss riding my scooter everyday, and hope to one day have a job in Denton that allows me to take 2 wheels instead of 4 everyday to work. Either that, or I'll live in a city with real public transportation.

Psych!

2007-09-11T00:46:00.000-05:00

So I stumbled across a BBC2 radio special on the history of psychedelic music. Some of the interviews are really cool, especially with Joe Boyd and Mike Heron. However, some of the interviews are lifted directly from the tv documentary Rock and Roll: An Unruly History.

Unfortunately, the narrator adopts a kind of jaded a holier-than-thou attitude and thinks it is necessary to make dismissive jokes demonstrating how naive and ridiculous everyone involved in the 60s counterculture now looks. If you can get past the self-conscious narration, the series is pretty good.

For the Record

2007-09-11T00:29:00.000-05:00

In honor of my friend Matt, I am going to try and post the LPs I have been purchasing of late.

From Half-Price in Dallas 9/10
Robyn Hitchcock - Invisible Hitchcock
Pentangle - Cruel Sister
Brinsley Schwartz - Nervous on the Road
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead

Ebay
Incredible String Band - Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking

From Recycled over the past month
Willie Nelson - Phases and Stages
Rolling Stones - Through the Past Darkly
Mike Heron - Smiling Men w/Bad Reputations
Pentangle - Solomon's Seal

From Forever Young
Incredible String Band - 5000 Layers of the Onion
Kinks - Lola vs. Powerman...
Incredible String Band - Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (accidentally scratched and immediately replaced - see above)

Waterloo and Cheapo in Austin
Neutral Milk Hotel - Aeroplane Over the Sea
Pogues - Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
Palace - Days in the Wake

I have also raided the $.25 bin at Recycled and grabbed a bunch of stuff from Fleetwood Mac to the Clash. I'm also building up my Dylan and Pink Floyd catalogs.

Up Rotoscope

2007-09-04T00:11:00.000-05:00

Here's a nice little rotoscoping animation set to music of the wonderful band, Neutral Milk Hotel. I spend a good deal of time scoping youtube for interesting animation. I really need to focus.

The Vinyl Solution

2007-09-03T12:08:00.001-05:00

I have never been a huge collector of stuff. I usually own just what I need. I tend to have a lot of books because I'm an information junkie plus I just finished writing a thesis, so my shelves right now are brimming over. However, I'm usually not the kind of person who fetishizes the object and surrounds himself with knick-knacks and curios as a kind of expression of identity or as a shield against the world (excuse my over-simplified psycho-babble). As a matter of fact, I'm known for purging my belongings every few years when I get the feeling that I have amassed too many material goods. However, recently I have started collecting vinyl records at a rate that threatens both my physical living space and my budget. I attribute this need partially to the huge changes I have recently experienced in my life which have rendered the near future as a gigantic question mark.

I have spent the last near-decade working as a clerk selling used lps and books at an amazing independent bookstore. A small portion of our clientèle consists of vinyl fetishists who are so annoying, weird, and compulsive, that any interest I had in lps was quashed by these strange men who spend insane amounts of money on music that nobody else in their right mind would ever buy in a format that is antiquated and obsolete. "Yes, yes!" I cry. I am aware of the archival stability of records, and I am certainly no stranger to acquiring music that could rightly be called, if not obscure, then at least not top 40. However, my need to purge every few years, coupled with my distaste for the collector mentality, has rendered my collection of lps to an amount that never exceeds more than two small 1' ft. square boxes. I am a huge music fan, and I do work at a great music store, so I always have plenty of music on hand. It is simply that I don't feel the need to hold on to things forever.

During the last few years, I have become a big proponent of digital music, my hard drive is filled with around 80 gigs of music at any given time, because it allowed me to acquire a huge library of music, without the material build-up. However, I have recently found myself unsatisfied with this as my sole means of musical acquisition in that the music itself seems temporary and ephemeral. I really like the thing-ness of an album.

I think that this is only half the equation. I think that my recent graduation with an MA, and my uncertain future have driven me to turn to material goods as a kind of security blanket. I have had mini-occurrences like this before, where I balanced instability in my life with material things, only to purge later on. However, I think that this time I might hold on to these albums a little while longer. I feel a real kind of sea change coming regarding both material goods and music. I don't know what it is, but I feel that there is something deeper and conservatory about keeping these records. I'll let you know when I find out what it all means.
I promise to post more in the future.

Avoir les Robots

2007-04-07T19:42:00.000-05:00

Last year my wife and I went to Paris where I was doing some research for a project with my mentor professor. Of all the amazing things we saw, this image was probably one of my most favorite things I saw the whole time there. It was wheat-pasted on a wall outside of the hotel where we stayed in the 6th Arrondissement about 3 blocks from Notre Dame. I almost forgot about it, but was looking for another image and stumbled across it. The thing I love most about the image is the fact that it is a robot with bucked teeth. This means that if this were a "real" robot, then somebody intentionally designed an anthropomorphized robot with a condition most people consider a physical defect. Second, it means that somebody decided to give a robot a set of teeth in the first place!

Holy Belief System!

2007-04-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

The fine folks over at adherents.com have a page dedicated to the religious affiliations of hundreds of superheroes and supervillans. Every geek worth his slightly flabby salt knows Kitty Pryde is Jewish, but I must admit that I did not know that Green Arrow was a practicing Buddhist!

Centaur-fold

2007-04-01T22:35:00.000-05:00

I really need to post more often. I am trying to finish my Master's Thesis and blah, blah, blah.

Here's a lovely Centaur t-shirt I give to you as a peace offering for my being absent for so long. Go here for more geeky, mythological, fantasy t-shirt needs.

Pop and Locke

2006-11-04T20:12:00.001-06:00

Most of you who know me know that I have an irrational love for the television program LOST. Even though the third season has been somewhat in shambles thematically and in plotting, I still watch diligently.

Anyway, here's one of the nerdiest things I've ever posted in my entire internet existence. Not only does the fact that it is a LOST tribute picture make me a mouth breathing fanboy who is barely able to control his bodily functions in public due to the intense mental acumen required to project himself in a state of constant immersion into his sad little fantasy world, but it is also based on the lamest of warmed over word-play. Ladies and gentlen - I give you my sad little life.

Neu Kid in Town

2006-09-23T18:35:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite videos ever on youtube. The formula is simple: baby + solid color background + bubbles + pioneering Krautrock band Neu = pure visual bliss.

When All is Syd and Done

2006-09-14T11:20:00.000-05:00

Here is a video from July 2006 of John Frussciante of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's playing Syd Barret's "Jugband Blues" at a concert in Manchester right after Syd's death. I am by no means a huge fan of the Chili Peppers, although I admire their longevity and their desire to give 100% when they play live, but I've always appreciated John Frusciante, and really enjoy some of his solo albums. Anyway, Frusciante has always played around in the same kinds of territory (both musically and mentally) as Barrett, and I find this cover of one of Syd's more upfront songs about his mental condition, Jugband Blues, to be a sweetly moving tribute by a fan after the passing of one of his musical heroes.

Space is the Place

2006-09-10T00:57:00.000-05:00

Ain't it Cool News has a piece on a really interestingly looking documentary called Future by Design about architect, designer, and scientist Jacques Fresco who designs Utopian cities that look like 1950s visions of the future.

This film looks amazing to me as I grew up looking at the work of artists like Don Davis, pictured above, who created a vision of the future so exciting to my 8-year-old brain, that I couldn't wait until the year 1995 when I could live in a space colony orbiting the planet. Needless to say I'm more than a little disappointed in the progress made in that area. I'm just happy to see that there are still people in the world like Mr. Fresco who still have that wide-eyed kind of vision about the future that fueled so much of my formative years.

Show and Tell

2006-09-06T22:47:00.000-05:00

I hate to use this space for shameless self promotion, but I am playing my first show in months this Friday, September 8th in Dallas at the Cavern. It's located 1914 Lower Greenville, Dallas, Tx.

Mad (Office) Max

2006-09-05T21:06:00.000-05:00

Evidently this has been around a while, but it's new to me. A person known only as the Whaler posted this on the Denton Rock City board. Here are four panels from a sixteen panel pamphlet by the artist Packard Jennings, which provides detailed instructions on how to overthrow your work place and create an anarchic agrarian utopia from its remnants. It is meant to be sent back to companies who send junk mail in the very same business reply envelopes which they provide. It's in a frame so when you go here, take the link that says, "Business Reply Pamphlet." Of course the artist's other stuff is also very much worth checking out.

69 Videos

2006-09-04T02:23:00.000-05:00

My friend Jamie Courville is a film maker in NYC and also part of a collective that is making videos/short films for every single song on the Magnetic Fields' masterwork 69 Love Songs. Below are two videos made so far. The first is the wistful and beautiful "Abigale Belle of Kilronan" made by Jamie herself. The second is the brilliant and kinetic "Crazy for You but not that Crazy" made by an Irish gentleman whose name I can't remember.

Irish Manuscript Found in Bog

2006-09-03T14:13:00.000-05:00

I know I'm a little late on this, but a bulldozer driver working for a fertilizer company in Ireland unearthed an 8th-9th century psalter in a bog. This article calls the find akin to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I think that's jumping the gun just a bit, but it is a remarkable and very cool find nonetheless.

Centaur of Attention

2006-09-03T13:24:00.000-05:00

Kyron is a man who dresses as a centaur. He is available for parties.

link

Tropocalia Pioneer Tico da Costa

2006-09-03T12:43:00.000-05:00

Here's a video of Tropocalia pioneer Tico da Costa telling stories about the guitar playing styles of his "four uncles" and demonstrating said styles. This video not only shows the immense musical talent of this legendary performer, but also his sense of humor.

Thanks to Chris for shooting and providing the video.

George Washington

2006-09-01T15:10:00.000-05:00

My friend Brian alerted me to this. It's an animated video about the greatest warrior of all time, George Washington! It might be one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. It feeds into my latest fascination with humor that is based upon giving completely erroneous information about well-know things. In the same vein I also highly recommend the BBC series "Look Around You," which are parodies/tributes to in-class science programs from the 70s and 80s.

Update Sept 3, 2006

It turns out the creator of the "George Washington" song and video is Austin, Tx comic artist Brad Neely, author of Creased Comics. Mr. Neely is also the creator of the very funny and subversive alternative soundtrack to the film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" called, "Wizard People, Dear Reader".

Moondog

2006-08-29T19:15:00.000-05:00

I've recently been re-discovering Moondog, one of the great American eccentrics and experimenters. This blind street musician spent most of his time in New York in the 50s and released several albums and 78s throughout the 60s and 70s. He composed many different kinds of music including: jazz, classical, folk music (especially rounds), and weird genre bending stuff where he made his own instruments much like Harry Partch.

Moondog was known for wearing a Viking helmet and carrying a spear. How could you not love the guy?

Medieval Knievel

2006-08-17T01:12:00.000-05:00

I study medieval art. I especially love Insular art, otherwise known as art of the British isles. I look at Hiberno-Saxon Manuscripts, which means stuff that's a mix between English and Irish. Specifically I'm interested in things from Northumbria.

It's difficult enough sometimes trying to explain to the average Jane or Joe what it is exactly that Art Historians do. Most of the time people think I'm a painter, and I usually leave it at that. Most Art History people I know have this problem, and in the end it's not that big of a deal. People generally understand that I am in someway involved with some kind of academic pursuit, and that's fine. On the other hand, as a Medievalist I get asked all the time if I go to Renaissance Faires or if I am a member of SCA. Sometimes people even ask me if I dress up in tights and play with swords. The answer to these questions is always a firm no, except for the tights part, but that's a long and very private story and ultimately has nothing to do with Medievalism.

I always want to ask these people if they think that people who study art of Rome walk around in togas. Look, I know that because of things like the SCA that people assume that all Medievalists are re-creationists, but this is simply not true, although admittedly there are some. I do understand where people get the impression; just do a search for "medieval" on youtube, and you'll se what I mean. To set the record straight, however, most medievalists tend to leave the chainmail off.

The only other kind of historical scholarship I can think of right now that also has an entire culture of people who dress and act from that period on a mass scale are American War buffs. I wonder if Ken Burn's ever gets asked if he dresses like General Lee? This isn't to say that there aren't other re-creationist groups out there, it's just that the Civil War and the Middle Ages seem to be the two biggies.

I guess my point is that next time you are at a party with a Medievalist, don't assume that he or she has a sword in the trunk of their car, or that they make leather cups, or that they play D&D. While most of us are fairly geeky, we don't necessarily dress the part.

First post of the new era

2006-08-09T15:00:00.000-05:00

I've spent most of this Summer away from Texas. I was in France from the last week in May until the first week in June. After that I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the month of July. It's been nice. Texas is always unreasonably hot in the Summer, so it was nice to be in two places where the weather doesn't assault you as soon as you open the door to go to work in the morning.

I'm about to start my last year at UNT and finish up my Master's in Art History. I'm really excited. I'm starting the long process of applying to various Ph.D. programs. I'm not sure where Rhonda and I are gonna be in a year, but it will be my first time to live outside of Texas. This semester I will also begin writing my Master's thesis. I'm looking at Insular (British and Irish) medieval manuscripts, specifically 7th and 8th century gospel books. I'm also ging to be teacher assisting this semester along with working at Recycled Books on the weekends. As always I will be incredibly busy. The most difficult thing is making sure that I spend enough time with Rhonda. Sometimes it's easy to get wrapped up in the grad school whirlwind that I forget to do my job as a husband.

Speaking of, Rhonda and I pulled out our respective insturments last night (guitar=me and drums=Rhonda) and played. It was a lot of fun. Maybe this could turn into something...

We shall see.

Long time....

2006-08-09T14:40:00.000-05:00

So here's the thing...
I've decided to try and update this here blog every few days. Originally, I thought I'd only put stuff here that either really chapped my hide, or stuff I thought was really interesting. Things didn't go exactly as planned. I have found that the most important things in life are found through the daily details and the little things. When I try to separate the monumental from the quotidian, whatever I write seems forced and unnatural. So, what I'm shooting for is something a little less grand. From now on, nothing but the trivial things that make up my life.

Don't you just love the way it seems that the whole internet appears to be designed to serve one's ego?

2nd verse same as the 1st

2005-12-12T01:55:00.000-06:00

I knew when I began this thing that I would not consistently keep it up, but I had no idea that I would take this long to post my second entry. Oh well.

Sometimes I forget how much I love music. That sounds really stupid, but it's a Goddamn revelation to me.

So I've been thinking about the whole desert island disc thing, and I've come to the conclusion that that's a completely moronic endeavor. First, it's a completely artificially constructed notion that in no way is applicable to my life. If I'm on a desert island, I want my one and only question to be, "Where's the food and water?"

The thing is, I am not a complete fool, and I do understand the intent of the question, which is, "What albums define you?" This question is a slippery slope which leads to other questions, such as: "At which point in my life." Am I required to list songs according to importance to my own person-building, or ones I really love right now, or maybe albums that I think I wouldn't get tired of, but mostly play the role of background music.

Anyway, I just made a list of even more stupid questions to answer a merely silly one. So here goes:

I'm allowing myself 11. Here's the list as of today. These maybe aren't my favorites of all time, or the most important to me or anyone else, but these are the albums that keep me from going completely insane.

Bach-Goldberg Variations-Murry Perahia
Van Morrison-Astral Weeks
Neutral Milk Hotel-In The Aeroplane Over the Sea
Kronos Quartet-Early Music
Erik Satie-Complete Piano Works-Aldo Ciccolini
Bela Bartok-Concerto for Orchestra-Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Jethro Tull-Thick as a Brick
Bob Dylan-Blood on the Tracks
Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Neil Young-Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
John Coltrane-A Love Supreme

I'm sure I left out some good ones, but I had to stop at eleven.

A political

2005-05-23T18:08:00.000-05:00

It's not that I don't have strong opinions about the way things should be run, it's just that I've more or less given up on humanity in general. I think we are all capable of displaying 'goodness' on an individual basis, but something happens when you get more that three of us together, and it all goes to shit. I'm more curious about how we maintain the power structures we create to make ourselves feel safe. Religion, government structures, etc. are ubiquitous. The fact that they are contradictory, reactionary, and inhumane is not new information. What we believe is nowhere near as interesting as how we believe. Why are some cultures iconoclastic? How does a culture define genius (if at all)? Why do some societies hold in esteem the individual, while others embrace the group? Do mass consuming societies replace the unique object with an abundance of variety?

I often wonder if our destructive nature is not some sort of regulatory system. As our self-awareness and adaptability allows us to leap over natural safeguards that keep the population down, I wonder if this will have a positive or negative effect on our species. Are people who are born with defects such as poor eyesight (such as myself), or who acquire diseases now treatable skewing the gene pool? I don't know. Part of me wants to believe that we are all equal and necessary, that there is some kind of larger plan. The other part of me is kind of happy to see all of us getting rid of each other so quickly. We don't seem to be doing such a good job taking care of each other and the planet. We may all be better off just disappearing altogether. Other species seem to be on much better behavior than we are.

The thing is, I'm not really a negative person. I'm not nihilistic. Nihilism requires a purpose to negate. I view the world as simply ‘is.’ We create our own goals and needs to keep ourselves alive, not the other way around. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. I have no real way to comprehend oblivion, and I don’t want to begin anytime soon. I would much rather exist. I’m not, however, denying structure. I just believe that structure is relative. Like in physics, some things behave one way in certain situations and differently in others (like how light behaves around intense gravity compared to low gravity). These rules are consistent within certain contexts but irrelevant in a different situation. The universe is way too big a place for one set of rules.