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February 26th, 2004 Apple couldn't suck harder if they tried... they should just hand me a Windows PC and be done with it. Cunts.    February 22nd, 2004 Listening to: My tub filling, and Takeshi's Castle on TV downstairs Ooh-wee, we got a nice blue Fender Squeir bass from Ian's mum today! I played it for a bit & it's just awesome. Derry is playing the bassline to "Chains" by Fleetwood Mac on it as I type this. He never stops the suprises! So now I can start some doing some digi-logue (trademark) tracking. Today I just fooled around with multiple delays and overdrives, making spacenoise to a fat downtempo beat. Unfortunately although I had a good headphone mix, nothing was mic'd hot enough so I'll have to try again later. It's a new software program to me so I ain't gonna kick myself for not getting it perfect the first time. Now Derry's playing one of his own on my SG (3 pickup '75 custom) ...that guitar has such a beautiful tone, and when all 3 pickups are on you get a natural autophase effect. One of the better investments I've ever made. I sold my Les Paul Artisan last summer (along with the '65 Hagstrom bass) to come here and I don't really miss it. It reminded me of a sad time in my life (even though it was an amazing, gorgeous guitar) so even though it had a lot of "cool factor" I was kinda glad to see it go (sorry). I got it at Ritchie's music in Rockaway, New Jersey on route 46 in the summer of '94. Once I had a '66 Fender Jaguar, which I sold at St. Mark's Music when I was a young, poor idiot for a pittance. I just didn't know what I had, and I'm still feeling a bit sore about it too. Funny thing, I bought the SG there years later & they catalogued it incorrectly - they thought it was a '80 so I paid way less for it than it's actually worth. The minute I saw it I knew they were wrong but didn't let on. It helps, but not much! Ach, enough sentimentality, the bubbles are calling...  February 21st, 2004 Listening to: Alone Again Or by Love We ordered The Osbournes uncensored first season DVD from Britannia video / books online, and what did they send us? PAINT YOUR fucking WAGON!!!! I know! How could anyone make that mistake? Just take a look at the cover of what we got:  Now compare it to what we ordered:  OK, so O and P are next to each other, most likely a stock puller error, but still! In case you don't know what Paint Your Wagon is all about, it's a wholesome family romp where we get to hear Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood SING and as if that weren't enough, THEY SHARE A FUCKING WIFE. If you ask me, that's more deranged than anything Ozzy and family ever did. Here is a synopsis from some film site: Marvin and Eastwood star as California prospectors during the Gold Rush of 1849-50. Eastwood is the calm, restrained one; Marvin is noisy and rambunctious. Marvin buys a wife, Seberg, from a local Mormon. Then, to make sure the lonely local miners will leave his new bride alone, he hijacks a wagonload of prostitutes and takes them to the prospectors in the mining town he has founded, No Name City, setting them up for business at a saloon. While Marvin is away, Eastwood and Seberg fall for each other; but when Marvin returns and discovers the affair, Seberg declares that she'd like them both as husbands. Really. Wife buying? Prostitutes? Lonely miners? Bigamy? This thing has moral bankruptcy written all over it. Needless to say we are sending off for the exchange today. I saw Wagon when I was about 11 and I just couldn't get my head around its weird premise then either. Yeah, it's won awards and it's a classic but weird is still weird in my book. Then I found this dorksite, nitpickers.com, which goes on to comment (further doing my head in for the day): "...but it does have a few technical errors. It supposedly takes place in the early 1850's California Gold Rush. 1) One scene underground - Ray Walston says that he will put a stick of dynamite in the kid's mouth if he tells of their 'gold mining' enterprise. Dynamite did not exist then - only black powder. When dynamite came out, it was called Giant Powder. 2) Nearby scene shows Lee Marvin with a lamp on his hat. This type of miner's lantern (generates acetylene gas) wasn't invented until about 1912. During the Gold Rush days it was strictly candles. These two are easily forgiven: 3) Early on, Marvin & Eastwood are completely fumbling with a 'rocker' - a device used for saving gold from gravels. 4) Early on, one "miner" is shown "panning," and he is absolutely clueless as to the technique - he's just swishing stuff around..." posted by Will in Tampa. 'Will', did they model the comic book guy from The Simpsons after you? Sheesh. Anyway, to cleanse my palate here is a pic of my hero, Jack Osbourne. Don't question my choices, just live with them. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. We saw a thoroughly freakish plush doll of Jack thursday night and damned if I don't go back and buy it today. It was almost 2' high and on sale for only 7 quid! Oh if poor Jack only knew... If I still lived in LA I have a feeling we'd be right good mates.  go Jacky, go!  February 20th, 2004 (Written during my lunch break today) This is just so awesome, you MUST go to the slide show for this piece! Made me well up. I don’t need to go into greater detail, do I? I just had the weirdest lunch ever… from the lunch wagon, er, caravan down the road. Cheese and pickle on a soft roll, and a hot chocolate. These are not green crunchy dill pickles slices like I expected but odd little brown bits in a sugary-sour sauce. Buh-zarre. It was a toss-up between that and cheese and tomato. Or multiple meat-containing mysteries. Bringing a lunch as I have been doing is clearly the option to stick with going forward! While I sit here I could lurch into a trivial blab about my first (full) week and check from this job, but I won’t. I don’t want to give my 9 — 5 life that much importance. Someone asked me if I missed being in the US music scene. I said no, I did it for long enough and have racked up enough insane memories and cast of characters to last me the rest of my life. I did more living and laughing in those years than most people are allowed in a lifetime. (Sidebar: Someone just asked me if I was depressed today, because I look down in the mouth. No, I am not depressed, I am experimenting with blue and grey eye makeup instead of my usual pinks and browns… note to self: go back to pink and brown.) Not to say that it’s over, but I am relieved to be away from certain aspects of being in a band. If the right situation came along I might be tempted, but I am having an awfully good time just chillin’ out. The frequent clashes of personalities, and often having to be both performer and psychologist, can be very draining indeed. Take my last endeavor in the states: 3 art school guys (and yours truly), all having very different ideas about where the music should or shouldn’t go, engaged in constant philosophical debates about it that just go round and round and round ‘til it gets personal, instead of actually playing and letting it just feel good and find its own way. It was a strange balance of power; a prolific singer/songwriter, a spacy yet gifted guitarist, and a talented yet over-opinionated drummer… funny thing is looking at it on paper, it could be hundreds of bands! Then there was me. The indie-pop-punk singing bassist (who is usually a guitarist, fyi) who just wanted to PLAY. All I wanted to do was create, and play gigs, and hopefully go into the studio to record some of the new stuff we were coming up with that was borne out of the spirit of collaboration, more than just "here’s my new song, and it goes like this…" His songs weren’t bad at all, but it was very exciting the direction the music was taking and I was really getting into it. I have some MP3s still but am not ready to listen to them. But there was a lot of heartache too. Too much drama. Everything was a fucking battle. So of course once I fell in love, it was clear to me that I was going to leave (the band and the country), and my decision was met with a certain amount of hostility. Nice way to find out you’re wanted! Anyway, to make a long story short, there are certain aspects of the music biz I miss: the collaboration — those moments when you’re all in the same place, mind, body and soul… and playing live shows: the physical feeling of music passing right through your body, like electricity. Seeing people rocking out to the noise you’re making is like a drug. For those who have never done it, all I can say it there is nothing like it in the whole world. Nothing. So sue me if I think I’m over-quota on the fun meter! Married life is great. I’ve played house before but never had the sense of commitment and love I do now and it kicks ass! J    February 18th, 2004 Listening to: Something Baroque (in my head) Seeing Lori and Wright last weekend messed up my mind a little. It reminded me of SF, maybe a little too much. It's been just grey, grey, grey here everyday anddddddddddddddddd, yeah I knew that I was moving to the UK but it has affected me a little. I am adjusting. When it does get warmer we will walk to work every day (if not ride bikes which is what I am accustomed to) which I am looking forward to. Not enough physical activity lately. Usually I belong to a gym or at least the YMCA... why this is a thoroughly dull and self-indulgent ramble. Pathetic too. No entertainment value whatsoever. Perhaps you should flip the telly on. That's my plan as well. God I hate me right now.    February 16th, 2004 Listening to: Holes by Mercury Rev Tired of livin' and scared of dyin'. No, not really. Nothing frightens me anymore. Pesticides, tumors and cars frighten me. OK, three things frighten me. I'm just tired.  February 13th, 2004 Listening to: absolutely nothing First I found this: An Austrian circus dwarf died recently when he bounced sideways from a trampoline and was swallowed by a hippopotamus. Seven thousand people watched as little Franz Dasch popped into the mouth of Hilda the Hippo and the animal's gag reflex forced it to swallow. The crowd applauded wildly before other circus people realised what had happened. Then I found this... Somebody please help me. February 12th, 2004 Fuck. have you been to the apple home page lately? It sucks. Here's the letter I sent them. I know it's like a piss in the ocean, but I was just so mad when I went there today I had to send their marketing department my thoughts... Regarding your mainpage: I think the emphasis on "legal" iTunes/Mp3 downloads emblazoned with the Pepsi insignia, for promotional reasons or otherwise, is tasteless and tacky. Any class that was once associated with being a Mac owner is diminishing by the millisecond. Thanks for once again cheapening the image of what could be a great American brand. I might as well buy a PC and be done with it! Wow that font colour sucks. And I meant to be patronizing with that "great American brand" comment. I couldn't give two fucks about that shite. You have to talk to these morons on their level. Basically I hate that Apple is catering to PC people in the first place (no offense to you PC people but there are very good reasons why Mac & PC are 2 different OS! Come on!), and most of the new Apple downloads are designed for OSX. I have the option to toggle between OS9 and X, but why the fuck should I? Fuck you Apple. Now this is even more fucked up... as I type this, IE keeps crashing when I view the page. There it goes again! My computer is host to spying evil satanic Apple demon worms!!!!!Here's another rant, albeit a much saner yet geekier one. Much, much geekier. But he makes many valid points. Okay, enough of my yakking. Time for a nice veggie Tikka Masala with my sweetie! :)  February 11th, 2004 Listening to: FFF by Public Image Limited I just didn't want to get out of the bath tonight. My head sometimes gets flooded with memories of places and things from the past; it's overwhelming and doesn't necessarily feel good but I don't try to stop it either. Sometimes when I first wake in the morning I can't remember where I am; as I lay there with my eyes closed I try to recall which apartment, city or country I'm in. It's harder than you'd think, but not frightening at all. Secretly I wish I could prolong the amnesia for as long as possible. Having no identity for the duration feels really good, it's warm and floaty and calm. I don't know if these things are good or bad, they just happen. So I let them. 
 February 8th, 2004 Shallow as paper and twice as brittle. 
 
February 7th, 2004 Listening to: Places Named After Numbers by Frank Black I too am sad about the Pixies being sold out already. Unfortunately when they were the dahlings of the US indie scene I never saw them. Why not? Well usually cos I was too busy with my own stuff, and also because the Village Voice *loved* them so much I was appropriately suspicious. In my book I go into great detail over the whole "pixies debacle" as I like to call it. Don't ask me where, but it's there somewhere... One of the only factual things in there, I must assert (and assert again)! Those last couple sentences read like a nice fall down a flight of stairs. Ouch. Tuesday I start a temp job, which is all I'm gonna say about it. It's more high-tech computery stuff, cos I'm a geek and interface nicely with machines. Okay THAT's all I'm gonna say about it. Looking forward to a nice suppy of aubergine mozzarella stacks with cremolata, and orichetti on the side. All organic mind you. We (finally) found a Rushmore DVD for about 8 pounds in our wanderings, so yee! Now if only we could locate a cheap copy of Galaxy Quest... And Thursday Lori gets here, koo koo ka choo! What a wahini, all the way from Frisco no less. February 5th, 2004 Listening to: Relaxin' With Cherry by Kid Loco We had a kick-arse time in London the last few daze. Sadly for the transportation factor we couldn't stay later in the evenings, and hopefully this weekend we can get a Brighton excursion going. Ah, the lanes, the piers, the crepes, the ocean breeze, the fun fair rides, the CANDY FLOSS (yes Jen that's for you)... it has a special place in my heart to be sure. So fun and carefree.
Food is very important to me. I simply can not think of anything more important and elemental than how we take care of our bodies, and the people we love. When Gran says "you are what you eat", she knows what she's talking about. I am so thankful that I was raised in a home where the art of meal-making was not taken lightly. My italian Gran would only prepare whole, fresh foods. TV dinners, soda pop and sugar cereals were not on the menu. She (and my Grandfather, the intense Russian) didn't even regard those as food. They were for other people. I remember her picking out produce at the Sloan's on Broadway and 97th street; shaking her head woefully at the sad orange tomatoes. How can anyone eat this? She would ask. I ask the same questions today. It makes me happy to think maybe she can see through my eyes for a moment and know that I learned from her, and I hope I can help other people to think that way too.
New pics added to the nav bar at the right, some quite incriminating at that --->
Hands up who wants to go to Brighton Saturday! February 4th, 2004 Listening to: bizarre Belgian pop Wow, lots o' stuff. Too tired to write. As Ozzy Osbourne said,  February 2, 2004 Listening to: Khmer Remixes by Nils Petter Molvaer A new month, a new page, a new life. Hot damn. The aero animation icon is still looming, lurking above, waiting for you to click on it. Aw, go on... I know you got the memory. |
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february 2004 :.. more linkage ..: Photophobia_1.
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