toad the wet sprocket

ok, here's another fave pop confection from the days when i usedta have three jobs and my idea of a good time was drinking whiskey by myself while listening to freedy johnson's this perfect world. then i hit 40 and started playing and writing again. lucky for me.

the la's

guilty pleasure time. i love this song. even though i want to punch the little noel gallagher wannabe creep that sings it. i saw the clip of them doing it live on letterman and he couldn't hit the falsetto quite so well live. plus it looked like they had to hire a grownup to play the 12-string part.

joe strummer doc on u.s. dvd 6.24.2008

pretty much what i said.

pfffft! defined

...from urban dictionary. while it's probably more like "a lotta hot air," i'll take "that whew after sex kinda thing."

mind if we dance wit' showdates?

stumptone cd release party for gravity finally released is sat'day night at lola's. and it's a matt hembree weekend at fredfest, with goodwin and pablo & the hemphill 7 closing the show sat'day, and stoogeaphilia playing at 7pm on sunday. the mighty me-thinks, featuring a bloodied-but-unbowed mike bandy, take the stage at 5pm sunday.

i-94 barman digs pfffft!

go here if you wanna see a pic of me before i had the beard and "birth control" glasses. as an aside, he said our sounds were "offensive enough to get me howled at by the kids for volume excess."

mo' gtr shite

so for the pfffft! gigs, i've been using my son-in-law james' squier tele in place of my long-suffering strat. as i've commented before, it's less responsive and occasionally makes me work harder, but listening to the 4.20.2008 recording confirms my belief that i sound the same no matter what shit i'm playing on, so i might actually start using the tele for stoogegigs, too. only non-snazz aspect is either there's a bad fret in the neighborhood of F#/G on the low E string, or something in the hughes & kettner doesn't like those notes for some reason. will have to investigate further. other differences between pfffft!/stoogeaphilia setups: 1) i use reverb and a phase shifter for pfffft!; with the stoogeband, everything goes out dry and phasing-free, and 2) with pfffft!, i've been borrowing hembree's dod distortion pedal to add another color; it's just ever-so-slightly darker and warmer than the marshall bluesbreaker i got from sir steffin.

peter green's fleetwood mac

the guy in the vids who looks like joe vano is peter green, the one guy from the whole '60s brit blooze boom that had the originality (and the balls) to go head-to-head with b.b. and jimi and not come away ashamed. i also like the fact that he's singing a song about jerking off ("rattlesnake shake") on playboy after dark.



similarly, i like the fact that he's so amused by his own lyrics to "oh well."



cat definitely had his contemplative side (like thisun, "man of the world"). in the fullness of time, he freaked his way out of the music biz, gave away all his money, became a gravedigger. the band he formed went on to garner much '70s fame 'n' acclaim and provide bill clinton's inauguration ball song, but i don't think that the menlo atherton high school edition of the band was ever as good as this.

pfffft! @ the chat room, 4.27.2008

1) that's right, only four "f's": eric harris didn't play. oh well.

2) had another "poetschke on improvisation" installment to digest, along with varying degrees of bad news: found out that mike bandy from the me-thinks busted his head up jumping off the drum riser at the aardvark the night before. at least he's ok. also heard that a 22-yr-old friend of a coworker o.d.'d on massive amounts of cocaine and xanax. a sad way to go for someone who'd barely had the chance to live. and dre's dog maggie's been ill -- found out later she's suffering from heartworm and blood clots that are preventing her front legs from working. hoping for a good outcome there, at least. on the way to the chat room, resolved to do like karl said and empty my mind in preparation for playing.

3) pulled up in the parking lot and was surprised to hear a band already playing. wtf? turns out that seattlites the lonely h, who'd played there friday night, dug the room so much they didn't wanna leave. who could blame them? so we got a lot of extra beer-and-bullshit time before we hit.

4) found out ben rogers is the new stage manager for the polyphonic spree! luckily for us, ben gets to keep his job booking bands at the chat, because the spree doesn't tour _all_ the time. ben told me he digs acid mothers temple so much that he once rode a motorcycle cross-country from seattle in three days (after finishing a stint on an alaskan fishing boat!) to see amt play at hailey's, pulling into the parking lot as they started their second song. in other words, he's _our kind of guy_.

5) soundman eric ortiz had told me he was gonna be out of town camping, but he fell by to make sure that dave the bartender (who was running sound after being shown the board _a couple of hours_ before the show) was ok. dave did fine; trial by fucking fire, dude -- same way we roll. btw, eric's going to be on the bill when the stoogeband plays the chat on my b-day (6.28) with flipside trio and scene girls.

6) clay stinnett is the groovemaker and drives the dynamic shifts. he also winds things down and shuts them off before they have a chance to meander too much. if jon teague likes to play a little behind the beat, clay is always a little bit ahead of it -- always listening for _the next thing_.

7) matt hembree establishes the harmonic contour of the pieces, resisting the urge to over-embellish (like, um, adding a fourth chord). he'd rather have oral surgery than play a bass solo, but that's not what this gig is about; what he's doing here is more along the lines of _spontaneous composition_.

8) tony chapman is the wild card, adding surprising colors and textures. my only beef is that i can't hear him all the time.

9) i'm trying to refrain from playing habit patterns, but thinking about _that_ too much can be self-defeating. i have to admit that i feel some guilt over playing the "old man card" and sneaking in a steve cropper riff that evabody usedta know but prolly no one else on the stand did. i'm allowing myself to veer into areas of atonality, including attempts at "sonny sharrock chaos-slide."

10) a few failed experiments this time (playing along with the radio signals coming through the monitors; matt sez the tejano polka and "acid country" song really just didn't work) but that's a given when using this method. the next time we do this, we're all gonna wear snap-button shirts. it'll be the "pfffft! rodeo."

katboy's pfffft! archive

i haven't written anything about last night's pfffft! performance because i'm still processing the recording of the previous week's debut that katboy has now posted here. look for pics and audio from last night's show soon. if i may say so, i think the entahr second set _kills_. and set 1, track 12, ain't no slouch, neither.

further poetschke thoughts on improvisation

an example to prt. 2

in the previous letter to you i had mentioned how being aware of your thoughts while performing can lead to other avenues of creativity. many times these thoughts will present a theme. as an example i found that my thoughts tend to lean towards "what to play" and "will this be what needs to be played". i can't tell you how much wasted time i spent with these distractions while the infinity talented rhythm section was laying down an amazing background.

the theme i found was that i was too preoccupied with wanting to "play the right thing". put on another level my ego was simply not wanting to get "hurt" while all the time disguising the issue as an ignorance to "knowing" what to play. this fear was based on the fact that i just wanted to "play something cool" that my band mates and the audience (when there was one present) would like. this brought me to the realization that a change in my relationship with my band mates and the audience needed to take place. i needed to spend more energy listening to them.

since this affliction happened more with audiences, i started with them. when someone coughed, or laughed, or when the sound of breaking glass came from behind the bar i responded to it through my music. i was so focused on listening that my thoughts, or even the need for them, began to dissipate, and i found myself playing new musical ideas and contributing to the music more often. this eventually developed into an awareness of the emotional state of everyone in the room and responding. however, this took over a decade to realize.

with my band mates it evolved into a "knowing" that these guys would always be there for me musically and that i was totally free to try anything and go anywhere and that my ego need not be burdened with the responsibility of "letting them down" with what i played. this sense of security allowed me to explore and respond with infinite freedom. the creative gain from this can't be put into words by me.

this was one of my personal examples. everyone will have their own, but i hope you can see how this practice can lead you in a new direction in your music and open a "space" for creativity.

as always your insights are greatly invited.

i don't even know...

...what day it is anymore.

walk on the wild side

wow! according to farren, the movie sukkked, but the title sequence (directed by saul bass, music by elmer bernstein, starring an ancestor of midnight) is the bomb.

boris @ rubber gloves, 6.27.2008

oh my. they're coming. thanks to my buddy andrew in philly for the coat-pull.

poetschke on improvisation pt. 2

timely on the eve of the second pffffft! performance:

Learning to listen: as i stated before a state of no-thoughts or "tabla fucking rasa" as ken puts it (i like that!) is essential to pure improvisation or spontaneous group composition. the first step is being aware of your thoughts while playing yet remaining detached from them. i call this the "observation of the minds actions" mode. on a side note i must mention that music is essentially an affair of the emotions and less a display of mental acrobats. if only the young collegiates could get over what they "know" how to play and let themselves express more what they feel then maybe the denton scene would find more of them participating in a creative way! anyways..

after practicing this "observation" through-out a series of performances you will begin to notice that there may be a theme that surfaces or a group of themes much like if you where to catalog your dreams over a period of months (see carl jung "man and his symbols"). these themes are your unconscious farts and can lead you to yet another avenue of creativity if you follow them. what were you thinking about? was it positive or negative? was it about what to play? how to play it? what was going on around you? or were they just random thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere? the more honest you are with yourself here the more you will glean from it and the more creative outlets you will discover.

it seems that by observing our thoughts and not giving them any energy, dissipates them and allows and empty space (or womb) to grow. this "womb" then becomes the birthplace for our unconscious mind to birth itself into musical creativity.

broooce says so long to an old comrade

i'm not a springsteen fan, altho he did play two of the best live shows i've ever seen on his 1980 tour supporting the river. but his eulogy for e street band keyboardist danny federici touches upon a lot of the things that keep me writing the same story -- the one about ppl who grow up playing music together -- over and over and over again.

Miles From India

How timely that Miles From India: A Celebration of the Music of Miles Davis should arrive when I’m in the midst of an obsessive electric Miles phase. It seems like a no-brainer: Conceived by Times Square Records honcho Yusuf Gandhi and produced by Bob Belden, the man responsible for Columbia’s vault-cleaning, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink series of archival Miles box sets, this double CD brings together former Davis sidemen -- ranging from venerable Kind of Blue drummer Jimmy Cobb to Benny Rietveld, who played in one of the iconic trumpeter’s last touring bands -- with classical and jazz musicians from India.

The concept’s not as random as it seems. Miles employed Indian instruments in his music during 1972 and 1973 (live and on the albums On the Corner, Get Up With It, Big Fun, and Miles Davis In Concert), although as Miles Beyond author Paul Tingen points out, it’s likely that Miles did so more out of an interest in having an additional color or texture than from any profound interest in or understanding of Indian music. That said, the match is a good one, since India’s musical traditions (like Miles’ post-Kind of Blue music) are characterized by both monophony (the absence of chord changes) and modal (scalar) improvisation.

Most of the basic tracks for Miles From India were cut in Mumbai and Madras, after which the American musicians overdubbed their parts. You wouldn’t know it from hearing the results, which are seamless, with a natural-feeling, organic groove. The tunes are largely drawn from Miles’ most popular and influential albums -- three from Kind of Blue, two each from In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew – with another three from the odds-and-sods collection Big Fun (including fast and slow takes of “Ife”), and one lone selection from his ’81-’91 comeback.

The first disc’s opener, Bitches Brew’s “Spanish Key,” plays thesis-antithesis-synthesis, leading off with a lyrical exposition featuring Davis disciple Wallace Roney on open horn and Indian muso Louiz Banks on acoustic piano, then introducing Indian elements with a section that contrasts Roney’s muted horn and Banks’ shimmering Fender Rhodes with the sounds of vocalist Shankar Mahadevan and flutist Rakesh Chaurasia, before moving into a groove section in which Rietveld and Lenny White (who drummed on the original) blend their sounds with those of the mridangam and kanjira (Indian percussion instruments). There’s a smoldering alto sax solo by Rudresh Mahanthappa and one by guitarist Mike Stern that replicates the fury of the one he played on 1980’s “Fat Time.”

The version of Kind of Blue’s “All Blues” is fine, once you get past the strangeness of hearing the head played on sitar (which initially hits like some attempt to add Indian spice to the soundtrack of a ‘60s Peter Sellers movie). The fast “Ife” features three members of Miles’ monumental ’73-’74 band: reedman Dave Liebman, bassist Michael Henderson, and guitarist Pete Cosey, who takes a characteristically slash-and-burn solo. It’s good to hear Cosey on disc again, considering he’s made fewer recorded appearances since his days with Davis than the average alumnus.

The late Josef Zawinul’s beautiful melody “In A Silent Way” is played on sarod, while the triumvirate of keyboardists (Chick Corea-Herbie Hancock-Zawinul) on the original recording of “It’s About That Time” is replaced here by latter-day Davis ivory-tinklers Adam Holzman and Robert Irving III. The real news on this track, though, is violinist Kala Ramnath, who carries the head and then solos with abandon (in between concise statements by altoist Gary Bartz and Cosey). The version of Miles’ sing-songy late-period signature tune “Jean Pierre” contains the fewest Indian elements of any tune here, with guitarist Stern copping a bit of his ‘80s section mate John Scofield’s sound. The uncredited wordless vocals (by Mahadevan?) are as redolent of hip-hop as they are of the subcontinent, and Rietveld takes a nice solo. (Producer Belden's vid of Mike Stern's studio solo appears below.)



Corea himself makes an appearance on the second disc’s opener, “So What,” after some more “voice percussion.” The trio of percussionists -- Selva Ganesh, Sridhar Parthasarthy, and Taufiq Qureshi – makes the groove elastic. As on all the Kind of Blue tunes, Miles ‘60s bassist Ron Carter is on board, in this case mixing it up with Ndugu Chancler (who’s also on “It’s About That Time”). The track flows seamlessly into “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” from Bitches Brew in the manner of the onstage medleys the Davis band played from the ‘60s onwards. Once again, Roney does an effective job of invoking the master’s style on open horn. The rhythm section swirls around a hypnotic Henderson ostinato while Holtzman essays guitar-like sounds from his electronic keyboard, then Cosey unleashes another distortion-and-feedback laden firestorm, giving way to a percussion-only jam, featuring Vikku Vinayakram on ghatam (an earthenware pot).

The lyrical mood of Kind of Blue’s “Blue In Green” is transformed by Dilshad Khan’s sarangi (a kind of bowed lute) and Mahadevan’s melismatic vocal. “Great Expectations” juxtaposes a “Peter Gunn”-like vamp (with solo spots featuring bass clarinet -- played by Miles’ ‘80s collaborator, bassist-producer Marcus Miller -- sitar, and Cosey’s scorching guitar) with a lyrical Holtzman keyboard interlude. For this listener’s money, the set’s finest moment comes on the dark and mysterious “Ife (slow),” with Henderson and original tabla player Badal Roy (watch Belden's vid of him laying down his part below) providing the foundation for solo excursions by Liebman (on tenor), Bartz (on soprano) and Cosey (who provides effective lead-rhythm). Not to worry the point to death, but merely to emphasize how nice it is to have a new Pete Cosey record in 2008. The last word goes to guitarist John McLaughlin, who did some of his best playing with Miles (although he declined to join the trumpeter’s touring band) and has worked with Indian musicians since his 1970 album My Goal’s Beyond. His commissioned original “Miles…From India” closes the set on a ruminative note.



Totally enjoyable on its own terms, the "East meets West" effect of this tribute is evocative of the Tabla Beat Science (see clip below) project that Zakir Hussein and Miles’ Panthalassa remixer Bill Laswell undertook in the early ‘00s. While the Indian musicians are virtuosic, their mastery doesn’t seem as exhibitionistic as some of the fusion foolishness that followed in the wake of Bitches Brew’s ground-breaking melding of jazz and rock aesthetics. While fusion was about formal complexity and technical flash, Miles’ own ‘70s work was more concerned with simplicity of form and depth of expression, making it a good fit with the spiritual and meditative aspects of Indian music. Miles From India also serves notice that Indian musicians are demonstrating mastery of western improvisational forms, as well as their own.

pffffft! @ the chat room tomorrow night

that's right, they asked us back, so we'll be bringing our "king crimson meets yo la tengo meets free jazz improvisational madness" (hembree's descriptive phrase, and it's a goodun, methinks, altho i haven't heard his recording of last week's debut yet) back to the li'l chat room at 10pm on sunday night (unless there's another sporting event, in which case we'll start promptly when it finishes). once again there'll be no cover, and this time around, the lineup of chapman-hembree-stinnett-myself will be augmented by ex-yeti gtrist eric harris, whom i've been trying to jam with for _years_ (hence the five "f's" in our appelation for the evening).

haltom city nights @ the aardvark tonight

it's been quite a week at my j-o-b -- had one coworker from my department quit and another go on light duty, so it's been pert near "the bulk department, c'est moi." consequently i've been pretty knocked out in the evening times, plus i've been opening every day ('cos that's the shift when the deliveries come in). all of which is by way of saying, we'll prolly make it to "haltom city nights" at the aardvark tonight: that's the mighty me-thinks, shotgun messenger releasing their new cd, barrel delux gettin' ready to drop a new e.p., and texian whom i know not from adam but their main guy played in a band with john frum once or something. however, i will prolly not be able to "go the distance," owing to the fact that i gotta open sunday a.m. and fun is fun, but there are limits. but that doesn't mean you shouldn't.

mitch ryder book review @ i94bar.com

the review i penned of james a. mitchell's it was all right: mitch ryder's life in music is online now at i94bar.com. gee, that was fast!

mitch ryder

i'm reading a bio of mitch now for i94bar.com reviewing purposes. here are a coupla clips from the german rockpalast tv show (dated 1979 and 2004, respectively) that demonstrate what a great singer (and a big weirdo) he is. the man in black in the last clip is robert gillespie, a real detroit rock 'n' roll guitar player.







ADDENDUM: here's a recent interview with mitch.

edgefest band haikus

...from the dallas observer. thanks to katboy for the link.

you can't put your arms around a memory

oh, btw -- johnny thunders died 17 yrs ago yesterday. i like the fact that his best song took its title from a line in an episode of the honeymooners.

stumptone alb available online

if you have a paypal account, you can cop the new stumptone album (on green marbled vinyl with cd included, stunningly depicted here) online via worksprogress.net. or you can be like me and wait to cop it until they play at lola's on may 3rd.

love reign o'er me

for echo. and steven.

the greatest fake beatle record of all time

from 1965, the sole hit by the knickerbockers from bergenfield, new jersey: "lies." maybe it ain't the beatnix, but in its day, it fooled more'n one beatlemaniac.

prairie fest

herb levy sends:

Who: Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area.

What: The third annual Fort Worth Prairie Fest
"Celebrating our connection to the natural world"

When: April 26, 2008. 11am - 7 pm

Where: Tandy Hills Natural Area - 3400 View Street, Fort Worth

Website: http://tandyhills.org/prairiefest

Contact: Don Young @ 817-731-2787

Prairie Fest is:

- Wildflower/Prairie tours led by master naturalists at the best place to see spring wildflowers, Tandy Hills Natural Area.

- Sustainable and green living exhibitors representing clean energy, green building, yard & garden, recycling, transportation, food & agriculture and conservation. (over 60 booths)

- A forum for all environmental organizations in the the north Texas region, with a keynote speech by Jarid Manos, founder of Great Plains Restoration Council.

- A special gathering of North Texas artists (including Alison Aldrich, Tina Bohlman, Rachel Bounds, Georgia Clarke, Sarah Green, Ginger Head Gearheart, Tom Huckabee, Carol Ivey, Debob Jacob, Sheri Jones, Sunnie LeBlanc, Victor Manuel, Chris McHenery, Rose Marie Mercado, Cecilia Robertson, Julie Wende, and Trish Wise) creating works inspired by Tandy Hills Natural Area in our Plein Air painting event. Take one or more of these paintings home with you by bidding on them in an auction during the festival.

- Music, dance, poetry and other performances for all ages. Featuring: The Ackermans; Kerri Arista; Brave Combo; The Butterfly Connection; Cri Crow; Darrin Kobetich & Blackland River Devils; Footprints, a new performance collaboration by Lori Sundeen Soderbergh, Tammy Gomez & Chris Curiel; Mimi Kayl-Vaughn; Trigger Fish; and Walking Contradictions.

- Food and drink provided by Chadra Mezze and Grill; Hot Damn Tamales; New Belgian Brewing Company; Rahr Brothers Brewery; and Smokey's Barbecue.

- FREE and open to the public

an engineer's guide to cats

pfffft!: what went down

(the title of this post is in accordance with the convention hembree proposes, wherein the number of "f's" should correspond with the number of musicians present.)

we played two sets to a handful of ppl and got off. matt was using his new b:ASSMASTER for the first time, and i decided to bring the squier tele that my son-in-law gave me on extended loan before last year's fredfest. it's not as responsive as the strat, and at times i kinda felt like i was fighting against it, but i figure that to be an advantage for this project, if it keeps me from just playing habit patterns.

jesse sierra hernandez fell by and mentioned that tony chapman had played at his first-ever art show (wearing a high school band jacket and feather boa -- "it was during my hendrix-emulating days," sez tony). cadillac fraf was there, too, and a little later, jon teague and eric harris. tony said he hadn't had all of his stuff set up in awhile, and his volume was kinda low the first set, but after he turned up, things sounded better.

clay and matt had a real nice dynamic playing together. while we were waiting for the stars game to end so we could start, clay told me that he got his first drumset when he was five and started playing with the choirs at his father's church (his pop's a preacher) when he was nine, trying to disguise the hendrix/zeppelin/metallica influences in his playing.

i asked chat room soundguy eric ortiz if we could get another date in about a month, and he told me that the next couple of months are booked pretty solid, but next sunday's open, so we'll be returning to the chat with what hembree calls "our King Crimson meets Yo La Tengo meets free jazz improvisational madness." and maybe eric harris on gtr for the last set, so it'll be "pffffft!" then.

a sad note: after we finished, matt got the word that his cat echo ellen hembree had passed away. she had a good long life, and she was loved. peace.

homeless james bond

this is just wrong...

shakespeare's "pulp fiction"

...is here. (watch out, kids, there's adult content.)

as a parent who's made every possible mistake...

i'm surprised to find how irritated i am
by other people's kids i encounter at work --
at least the ones that don't know how to act,
which seems to be about 70% of 'em.

in fairness to the kids, i have to say
that it's probably harder to get
mom and dad's attention nowadays,
since everybody got so _busy_.

one thing i'd like to share with those parents:
in the fullness of time, some of the stuff
that seems so _important_ right now
isn't going to seem so important.

and i promise you, at the end of your life,
you're not going to care whether or not this deal went down
but it's entirely possible that you will regret
not having taken the time to answer your child's question.

pfffffft! (for karl poetschke)

try to make your mind
tabula fucking rasa
and then use your ears

fw teen artists @ gallery 414 this saturday!

works from the modern art museum's teen artist project will be on display at gallery 414 (414 templeton) from april 26-may 25. opening reception is 6-9pm this saturday evening.

hasslehorse

holy shit! there's a hasslehorse myspace thingy! you can go there to hear two songs ("soul surgeon" and "black and tan") from the e.p. they recorded after the chicken factory. yeah!

stop talking to yourself and play

this -- from ex-ghostcar trumpeter/mastermind karl poetschke -- seemed particularly relevant in light of the fact that i'm playing with two of his former bandmates tonight:

the fulcrum of improvisation is the art of listening and the beauty of learning to listen is that it can be practiced anywhere at anytime. listening intently is the key to knowing where you are in the music and where the music is headed. however, there is an important technique that must be mastered in order to listen at this level of clarity.

you must be able to stop the constant chatter of the mind. the chatter comes from a host of sources that our ego develops in order to reinforce and validate it's existence so it can be difficult to slow down this stream of thoughts.

how often do you say things to yourself in your head? alot...huh?

the mind is a tool for receiving and storing information more than it is a tool for determining our actions. in our western-reason dominated society, this can be hard to grasp mainly because it challenges our "reason" which many times is at the center of our egos. this leads to a whole other study that i will not get into for now.

next time you play music, especially if improvising, pay attention to your thoughts. what is it that you are saying to yourself while playing or not playing? make a concentrated effort to let these thoughts come and go with no emotional investment in them i.e. don't let the thoughts dictate what you play. strive to reach a place of no-thought during performance. this does not mean you now have licsense to vomit forth any bit of crap that comes up. actually it just the opposite. in the state of no-thought you must be "listening intently" to what is happening around you...in the music, in the room or as far as your ears can reach and then you will hear what it is your are to play even before you play it.

your contribution will then be a true product of inspiration from your environment and your own inner creativity. it is this marriage that validates the practice and art of improvisation and differentiates it from being simply alot of "stream of conscious" anarchy...if however that is your intent, so be it.

this practice, of-coarse, implies that you have already acquired enough technical mastery of your instrument that your body can readily and easily play the instrument without too much resistance.

drunk & disorderly episode 13

holy cow! the mighty me-thinks are on a podcast from orstralia!

video by brock miller

...featuring music by his old band, monsters and dust.

encore dom mariani

here's the aussie power pop king doing "foolish" with rippled souls on spanish tv, 2006.

more h.c. history

...from captain goodwine.

new stumptone album out april 22nd

just a reminder, my early pick for alb o' the yr, stumptone's gravity suddenly released, is out (on marbled green vinyl w/cd) next tuesday, april 22nd, with release parties skedded for dallas (good records, april 26th), denton (j&j's, may 2nd) and fort worth (lola's, may 3rd). yeah!

stems @ the dirty water club in london

courtesy of the i-94 barman, here's aussie band the stems, fronted by dom mariani. hey, ant'ny, is this guy a cousin of yours or what?!?!? (here's an ancient (1991) interview from noise for heroes fanzine.) btw, nice sg, dom.

PFFFFFT @ the chat room: stinnett's perspective

this sunday evening at the chat room in fort worth @10pm will be a performance of unbridled passion and intensity so fierce that you should bring protection for you, your mom, and your future selves........no set list, no rehearsal, no practice as ken says. we are calling it pffffffffffffft because its so smart and cool and the soundmakers include me on drums, ken shimamoto on gtr, tony chapman howling at the moon for some ungodly reason, and matt hembree totally slaying on the bass which i look forward to, oh you don't have to pay for it either.

come one come all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

myself, i'm "preparing" for the gig not by _practicing_ or anything like that, but by listening to '70s miles davis -- "he loved him madly," "calypso frelimo," "black satin," and pete cosey's masterwork on agharta sound familiar as heartbeat, and the documentary miles electric: a different kind of blue provides some interesting insights into the _process_ behind that music (not that we're gonna sound anything like that) -- and getting ready to _listen_ to the other cats on the stand. and hembree's planning to unveil the b:ASSMASTER. you've been warned.

captain goodwine's h.c. history

read the first two installments of transient songs mastermind john frum's ongoing history of the haltom city-riverside crew here and here.

"teenage pierre schaeffers"

yep, it's electronic music by high school kids.

dennis gonzalez

here's vid of dennis gonzalez teaching gtr to some of his disd middle school students.

another pete cosey int

...is here (from the website of a book about miles' less-inspahrd '80-'91 period).

'round midnight

"i used to dress my cat in dog clothes"

only in japan: the success story of a woman who sells clothes for cats online. inspahring.

modern 'til midnight this friday

from the modern art museum of fort worth:

Modern ’til Midnight: Martin Puryear and FOCUS: Kehinde Wiley

Friday, April 18, 6 pm–midnight
Admission is $15; FREE for Modern members

This event is presented in conjunction with the special exhibitions Martin Puryear and FOCUS: Kehinde Wiley. Martin Puryear is on view through May 18, and FOCUS: Kehinde Wiley opens early for attendees of Modern ’til Midnight and is on view through May 25. Tickets will be available at the door or can be purchased in advance; call 817.738.9215 or visit the museum admission desk.

Modern ’til Midnight returns April 18 with a night of world-class art and unique performances. Experience the art with tours designed to engage and entertain by providing imaginative ways in which to connect with the artists’ creations. To celebrate the opening of FOCUS: Kehinde Wiley, a special performance by the Trimble Tech High School marching band, performing a unique composition by Patrick Grant under the direction of Earnest Colvin. Patrick Grant is a New York City composer who is the Musical Director for Special Projects for Kehinde Wiley. In addition, Yellow Fever, The Theater Fire, PPT, and Strange Fruit Project will provide an incredible evening of music. With dinner served in Café Modern from 6 to 9 pm, late-night shopping, and DJ Sober, DJ Other, DJ Boom, DJ Marcos, and DJ Panda Flower in the lobby, there is sure to be something for everyone. This event is open to the public. Admission is $15; free for Modern Members.

Live Music

11 pm – Strange Fruit Project

10 pm – PPT

9:15 pm – Trimble Tech High School Marching Band performing a unique composition by Patrick Grant under the direction of Earnest Colvin. Patrick Grant is a New York City composer who is the Musical Director for Special Projects for Kehinde Wiley.

8 pm – The Theater Fire

7 pm – Yellow Fever

Café Modern and Lobby Bar
Cash bars and a coffee bar are available from 6 pm until last call at 11:45 pm. Enjoy a global assortment of Modern appetizers and Café Modern food service from 6 to 11 pm.*
* Full menu available from 6 to 9 pm; beverages and food are not included in admission price.

Sponsored by the Helen Irwin Littauer Educational Trust, US Trust Company

texas ballet theater @ iloveftw.com

a piece i wrote about the texas ballet theater is online now at iloveftw.com. what, you don't like ballet?

ha! i found my old amp online, too

univox.org describes it thus:

1245 - separate w/ 5 tubes, 60 W, 2 channels, same controls as 1060 (no tremolo) and 2 12" Univox speakers. Also, the amp and cabinet has handles. The 1245 combo consisted of the amp (1245) and the cab (1205).

pretty spiffy looking, no?

cat playing a theremin

self-explanatory. i wanna jam with this guy.

more yells at eels live in poland

here's a vid dennis gonzalez shot of yells at eels' recent polish tour, with saxophonist rodrigo amado.

PFFFFFT @ the chat room: another view

from stoogeaphilia:

Ken and Matt from STOOGEAPHILIA are playing an unrehearsed improv show with Clay Stinnett and Tony Chapman, formerly of GHOSTCAR, under the curious rubric "PFFFFFT!" It'll be at 10pm next Sunday, 4.20.2008, at the CHAT ROOM.

Ken sez, "While we have no preconceived plan, in a sense I suppose this could be viewed as a case of 'Hey! You got Stoogeaphilia on my Ghostcar!' versus 'Hey! You got Ghostcar on my Stoogeaphilia!'"

And oh, by the way -- it's FREE (as in no cover).

Love,

THE STOOGEAPHILES

P.S. -- See you at FREDFEST, 7pm, Sunday, 5.4.2008.

gtr shite

for yrs, i've prided myself on playing black stratocaster clones "exclusively," because they're the only $150 electric gtrs left on earth. at a certain point, i discovered that i sound the same no matter what piece of wood/box i'm using, because my ears have a certain set of freqs they like to hear and i'll optimize any gtr/amp/effect combo accordingly.

the indonesian squier i use now was gifted to me by keith wingate (bless him) after i'd sold off _all_ of my gear while i was writing for the paper. i also have a squier telecaster clone that was given to me by my son-in-law, which i've been dinking on around the house and may yet use for some sinister future purpose.

of all the gtrs i've sold over the yrs, there are three that i wish i had back. the harmony-built sears silvertone 1478 jazzmaster copy that i'm holding in the default pic on my myspace thingy was the first electric gtr i ever owned. you could talk into the de armond pickups and get signal thru the amp. i think i paid $50 for it; now, these ppl want _eight bills_!!!

i've owned two different gibson sg's: the first one, which i now believe was a '68 special, not the '65 it was sold to me as (i was a dipshit and wouldn't have known that pre-'66 sg's had the itty-bitty little scratch plate); i bought it 'cos it had p-90s and looked like the ones pete townshend usedta play (and smash). the second one was prolly a '71 standard; it had humbuckers (from which the guy that owned it before me had removed the covers) and the lyre tailpiece like the angus young signature model they're selling now. it was a real nice piece of work. i paid less than $300 for each of those gtrs; now they sell for two or three grand apiece!

epiphone has a "limited edition '66" version of their g-400 sg clone, which seems to sell for about $400 at all the online sellers. i'm hoping when our income tax return comes in, maybe i can swindle a deal on one if i walk into gtr ctr with cash. film, as they say, at 11.

band of gypsys

if they'd had the intarweb when i was a snotnose, it wouldn't have taken me nearly so long to learn how to play gtr.

sonny sharrock

time for a little sonny sharrock vid, i'm a-thinkin'. here's one from the knitting factory in nyc, 1988.



same venue, around the same year, w/melvin gibbs (bs), abe speller (ds), sonny's cousin ted daniel (tpt), dave snyder (kbd). such sweet thunder.



here's sonny throwing down with bill laswell's material (including henry kaiser) while keith haring action-paints at montreaux, 1983.

"visionary metaphors and bold assertions"

here's gary giddins, writing for the new yorker about ornette's recent nyc "homecoming." at this point, i believe it's likely that our man in jazz feels the same way about the fort as i feel about lawn guyland, e.g. "it's a good place to be _from_."

spring 2008 mix

1. yol aularong - jeas cyclo
2. boris - statement
3. replacements - customer
4. stumptone - gravity suddenly released
5. robert wyatt - mob rule
6. miles davis - black satin
7. transient songs - southern city saturdays
8. sun kil moon - duk koo kim
9. the great tyrant - weidorje
10. carey wolff - nineteen years
11. ppt - to me mum
12. papa m - turn turn turn

tammy gomez in picking up the tempo

from tammy gomez:

Judy Gordon, wife and artist-colleague of legendary Texas "outlaw poet" Roxy Gordon (R.I.P., Roxy), has been publishing PUTT (Pickin Up the Tempo) for about a year now.

Read it online here or sign up to receive each monthly issue via email.

Two of my newest poems are featured in the current issue.

Click on "TAMMY GOMEZ" in the sidebar to read 'em.

You may also consider submitting some of your latest scribbles and raw words.

love,

T

the holy curse

speaking of gallic rockarollas in japan, here's a clip of detroit/oz-obsessed parisians the holy curse.

kinks "days"

here's my other fave ray davies song.

further richard pinhas

since teague pulled my coat to '70s french prog-rockers heldon and their mastermind, fripp disciple richard pinhas, i've been trawling the web and found: a good article from blastitude 'zine; a page of their releases on cuneiform records; and a couple more intriguing slices of vid -- thisun (with japanese subtitles) and the one below.



ADDENDUM: found some streamable heldon music online, too.

the fairmount is open

speaking of things to do on magnolia ave., the terminal location of dear departed acoustic venue machenry's has been reborn as the fairmount, presenting a mix of local, regional, and national talent, seven days a week. that's right, you heard right: live music _seven days a week_. darrin kobetich is there solo tonight, and he sez: "when the word gets out, this place will rival poor david's in dallas!" we believe.

i want to come back from the world of lsd

here's a cover, by spanish garage revivalists the mirror crackers, of the fe-fi four plus 2's pebbles artifact. i just think the title's funny as a fish.

PFFFFFT @ the chat room next sunday, 4.20.2008

oh, yeah. i got a gig next sunday. here's the bull:

Last fall, ex-Ghostcar drummer Clay Stinnett invited me to play an improv show with him and a handful of other musicians at 6th Street Live. We never rehearsed; in fact, some of the players had never met each other prior to the gig. It was some of the most fun and cathartic music-making I've done since the early days of "Lee and Carl's Jam" at the Wreck Room (RIP). A few days ago, Clay and I ran into each other, and we talked about doing something similar again.

The folks at the CHAT ROOM graciously agreed to give us a venue, and so at 10pm next Sunday, 4.20.2008, we're going to repeat the experiment. With us will be my good friend Matt Hembree (Goodwin, Pablo & the Hemphill 7, Stoogeaphilia) on bass, Tony Chapman (ex-Ghostcar) on guitar and synth, and possibly some other surprise guests. It'll be extemporized, unrehearsed, and in-the-moment. We might fall on our asses, or we might levitate the room. Please come join us.

ADDENDUM: btw -- it's FREE.

stairway to heaven

this is by the beatnix, a '90s-vintage orstralian beatles tribute band. it's almost too perfect. thanks 'n' a tip o' the lid to katboy for the link.

the chat room @ iloveftw.com

an appreciation i penned of the chat room is online now at iloveftw.com.

creem book review @ i94bar.com

a review i penned of robert matheu and brian j. bowe's creem: america's only rock 'n' roll magazine is online now at i94bar.com.

black flag hair timeline

this one's for steve steward.

transient songs review @ iloveftw.com

a review i penned of plantation to your youth, the new cd from ex-hasslehorse frontman john frum's new project transient songs, is online now at iloveftw.com.

today

...is my middle dtr's wedding day. hooray!

also celebrating the return of electricity to mi casa. and what better way to do that than with this vid of the great curtis mayfield, playing, um, a confusatron cover.

b.o.c.

by some strange coincidence, i was thinking last night about a big influence on dr. tek: blue oyster cult. before they made _that song_ ("more cowbell!") and became fixtures on the county fair circuit, they made a coupla good toons, including thisun.

the visitors live, 3.20.2008

courtesy of the i-94 barman, here's live vid of deniz tek with his reunited post-radio birdman band the visitors, in brisbane a coupla weeks ago. nice perspex dan armstrong there, doc.

miles in 1970

what a difference a year made: wayne shorter out, gary bartz in, and keith jarrett added to the live lineup, sounding rockier than the previous year's edition. this is the unit that john mclaughlin augmented for the live-evil studio sessions. here they are at tanglewood, ma.



that same summer, they played the isle of wight festival in the uk. at the time, miles was a health freak and his chops show it. watch keith jarrett doing the "mad scientist head thing." you can see the whole performance (in four parts) here.

bitches brew

here's miles davis' "lost quintet," playing "spanish key" at the antibes (france) jazzfest, 1969.



and here's the same band playing "bitches brew" in copenhagen. sounds a lot more "out" than the record. (you can view all six parts from here.)

turbonegro: "pointless?"

_you_ decide!

bill pohl, darrin kobetich, jimmy joe natoli, kavin allenson

...all got together and had a four-way gtr free-for-all in the ridglea theater lounge back in january. darrin recorded it, and kavin just posted a coupla excerpts here. ni-i-ice!

waterloo sunset

i finally figured out how to sing the song i'm supposed to do at my dtr's wedding without descending below the nether regions of my negligible vocal range: by playing the song in the original key (E). duh. thanks, youtube!

ph7 @ central market, 4.10.2008

if you've been hankering to hear pablo & the hemphill 7 in a family-friendly environment where you don't have to stay out all night, they'll be playing at central market from 6-9pm this thursday, 4.10.2008, as part of the fwweekly-sponsored "thursday night live" series. i'll be working that night, so come back to bulk and buy some nuts and grains, why doncha?

in a silent way/it's about that time

one of my fave rekkids of all time is miles davis' ambient masterpiece in a silent way. here's a snippet of miles playing "it's about that time" from that alb with his "lost quintet" -- wayne shorter (tenor), chick corea (electric piano), dave holland (bass), and jack dejohnette (drums) at ronnie scott's club in london, 11.2.69.



and here's miles near the end, reunited with wayne shorter and joe zawinul, playing "in a silent way" (with zawinul playing all the chords miles edited out!) and "it's about that time" in paris, 1991.

da kobe's masterpiece?

so darrin kobetich went home one night last month and recorded a single song that's an hour long. he's calling it the end of one enchanted evening and selling it at gigs (of which he has many). this i gotta hear.

james hinkle @ fred's, 4.11.2008

i'm gonna be at my middle dtr's wedding rehearsal/dinner, but that's no reason for you to miss local blues eminence james hinkle at fred's this friday, 4.11.2008. according to the flyer my sweetie photographed the other day, james' band will include my friend professor robert cadwallader on key, paul klemperer on sax, danny stone on bass, and austin allen on drums. should be a fine 'n' mellow evening.

more kosmische miles

because too much is never enough, here's the same '73 miles band performing "ife" in vienna.

bertha coolidge @ lola's, 4.16.2008

from bertha coolidge:

hey everybody,

bertha coolidge will be doing a very rare reunion show in fort worth on wednesday, april 16 at 10pm!!!

ever since drummer rich stitzel moved to chicago, and aden bubeck joined country superstar miranda lambert's band, the award winning "texas garage jazz" quartet has been a rarity in their hometown of fort worth, tx.


rich and aden are back in the fort and will join their partners in crime joey carter, and paul metzger.


it should be an awesome night of music!!

(especially because there will be no rehearsals.

its straight from the airport to the venue!!)

miles as kosmische musik

here's a lengthy julian cope rant on the '70s miles davis albs get up with it, dark magus, agharta, and pangaea. while you're reading, you can stream this three-part vid from miles' "funk collective" at the '73 montreaux jazz festival.

burrito benefit pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

my sweetie posted some of her pics of the fort worth burrito project benefit at fred's, along with some images of the changing scene around that beloved fort worth institution, at meezlady.blogspot.com. (you can click on 'em to make 'em big.)

death by blogging

this is stupid. i mean, really.

uncle walt was right

went to get a haircut at 7th street barber shop (now in the old backwoods location) and stopped by fonky fred's for a chicken fried steak 'n' a beer. ran into clay stinnett and we talked about doing a kamandi show with matt hembree, tony chapman, and billy wilson at the chat room (film, as they say, at 11). the lady sitting next to us, darlene pugh, said she was a blues bassplayer who now has ray reed -- with whom i played in lady pearl's b.t.a. band -- on gtr in her band, the blues slobs. i think i remember seeing her play somewhere, maybe the keys lounge. anyway, jeffrey williams walked in looking for directions to a sign maker's shop and wound up staying for a fredburger. he told me that cynthia foster is talking with him, ron geida, and john shook about making a cover band -- an idea with some merit, i'm thinking; those three guys having played well together in kulcha far i, jasper stone, and barber mack. and terry vernixx valderas' uncle was sitting at the end of the bar. how random is that?

tribute of sorts to charlton heston

another one from my big sis.

shine a light

matthew hembree, a muso whose love of music is _epic_ rather than _lyrical_ (in the sense that milan kundera defined two different styles of womanizing in the unbearable lightness of being), just saw and enjoyed martin scorsese's new rolling stones documentary. while "mick 'n' the boys" (to give them the name that loathesome clear channel dj's seem to like to use) embody everything i find dispensable about rawk-as-spectacle (having seen keef 'n' woody at tarrant county on the new barbarians tour -- when i swear to gawd keef tossed his cups onstage _while singing_ -- and the stones themselves in the piss-pouring rain at the cotton bowl on the tattoo you tour), and sir mick himself everything i find pointless about rockstars-as-celebrities, in the fullness of time, keef has attained the stature of a figure like chuck berry or b.b. king, whose music ceased to be relevant long ago but the mere fact of whose _survival_ is noteworthy. still, i can prolly do without 50-foot-high ronnie woods.

r.i.p. quincy brown

i was saddened to learn the other day that quincy brown, longtime bassist for lady pearl johnson's b.t.a. band, left the planet a couple of months ago following a lengthy illness. i had the outstanding honor of playing with quincy at the now-defunct swing club at evans and allen for a few sunday nights in 2002-2003, and one memorable road trip to play a poorly-promoted gig in a freezing-ass community center in midway, texas, on christmas eve 2003. quincy's dad was a navy man who was killed at pearl harbor, and he himself was a career air force nco who started his musical career in earnest when he retired to the fort in the '80s. i'll miss hearing quincy sing junior parker's "driving wheel," and hearing him greet me with "_there_ you are, you rascal!" before asking if i had "any of those left-handed cigarettes." a really nice man and a fine muso. go easy, now.

burrito benefit; new stoogestuff

my participant's-eye-view of the fort worth burrito project benefit at fonky fred's is online now at iloveftw.com. i just uploaded some of velton hayworth's pics of stoogeaphilia's performance there to the stoogeband's myspace thingy. if you go to the comments section of katboy's myspace profile, you can see a pic of the speaker that we set on fire; the trail of destruction continues.

matt also updated katboy's stoogeaphilia archive with some of my sweetie's photos from our 11.30.2007 6th street live stand, as well as audio of our complete 3.9.2008 set from the chat room. a couple of selected toons from that set are also on stoogeaphilia's myspace music player. i think they're pretty hot in spite of my gtr's almost complete inaudibility; the energy comes through, and that's what's important. next show is fred's fest, 7pm on may 5th, once again at fred's.

a final note from my unnamed source at the burrito project:

We are excited about how well our benefit shows went, and we are very grateful to everyone who contributed in any way to its success. Fred's, The Bronx Zoo, and 1919 Hemphill were wonderful for letting us use their stages, and of course, we are thankful for all of the bands who participated, and drew the crowds that came out.

datapanik in the year 2008

former village voice/current billboard scribe chuck eddy continues to champion the fort's own fellow americans, comparing 'em to seminal cleveland art-punks pere ubu. yeah! (and wtf, chuck -- i _like_ raygun suitcase.)

to kill a mockingbird

gregory peck checked out five years ago, but today woulda been his 92nd b-day. here's a clip from my favorite book/film of all time.

"a politician with no purpose but their own standing"

here's a, um, hillary-ous piece from the belfast telegraph.

r.i.p. m.l.k.

forty years ago today, martin was killed
and cities across the nation burned.
a recurring theme of the american '60s
is that if you give people hope,
you will be cut down.
barack, be careful.

may you never be alone

nothing like a nice depressing song to take the edge off at the end of the day. with that in mind, here's my favorite hank williams tune, which i actually first heard on an album by the godz (mentioned in the previous post).

van the man's contract-breaker

in between "brown eyed girl" (which is near the top of my "50 songs i never want to hear or have to play ever ever ever again" list) and astral weeks (which is sublime), van morrison sat down and recorded 31 songs, "composed" on the spot, as a gambit to break his contract with bang records. this stuff rivals contact high with the godz for non sequitur weirdness.

marlon brando

today woulda been brando's 84th berfday. could this be the greatest scene in the history of cinema? perhaps.

meow mix

from wfmu's beware of the blog: a page of vids of cats as dj's.

cecil taylor

here's something you don't see every day: vid of cecil taylor, performing in paris, 1966, with the unit that made student studies: jimmy lyons, alan silva, and andrew cyrille. dig.

proof positive (as if anymore were needed) the '90s are over

he doesn't even add that inappropriate "r-r-r" sound anymore. i particularly like the improv lyrics: "buy me some peanuts and crack," indeed.

boris find denton dude's ear, write song about it

this is the strangest thing i've read in awhile. but it must be true -- it's from pitchforkmedia.com. thanks to my buddy andrew from philly for the coat-pull.

r.i.p. klaus dinger

another great one's gone. klaus dinger, who drummed in the seminal krautrock bands kraftwerk, neu!, and la dusseldorf, and originated the "motorik" beat that defined the genre, left the planet on march 21st, just four days shy of 62.

blackland river devils @ fairmount friday

the blackland river devils -- that'd be the bluegrass outfit featuring darrin kobetich and mark deffebach -- be's at a new spot, the fairmount (the old/new machenry's location at 600 west magnolia) this friday. yeah!

jhon kahsen @ scat jazz lounge tonight!

speaking of jhon kahsen, the pianist brings a trio (with drew phelps on bass and duane durrett on drums) to the scat jazz lounge downtown tonight.

backsliders review @ i94bar.com

a review i penned of the backsliders' new ceedee you're welcome is online now at i94bar.com.

this is fucking sad

aquarius records in san francisco is folding the tent and turning into a video arcade. damn.

ADDENDUM: fucking goddamn april fool jokes!

mark kozelek

after a good stoogeprac, what better way to wind down than with a live version of the saddest, most depressing music i love (after mahler's symphony no. 9, which i listened to all day today)? that's right, it's a live version of "duk koo kim"...

vinyl sleeve heads

my sister sent me this. go fig.

jhon kahsen cd review @ iloveftw.com

a review i penned of three, count 'em, _three_ new cd's by fort worth jazz piano institution jhon kahsen is online now at iloveftw.com.

dengue fever pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

my sweetie just posted some of her pics from dengue fever's 3.30 lola's show at meezlady.blogspot.com. (click on 'em to make 'em big.)

our kitten

...can jump in the refrigerator faster than you can say, "no, augie!"

today

...all i've gotta do is drag mr. lawnmower around the yard before heading out to thrift town w/my sweetie to buy pants (been slicing 'em up with my boxcutter at work) and head out to the rehearsal spot for stoogeprac tonight. finally got some sleep after dashing off another screed for iloveftw.com (just so you'll know, i have pieces in the pipe about jhon kahsen, ex-hasslehorse frontman john frum's new project transient songs, and the chat room). was the only person in my department for eight hours last night. apparently it takes lotsa adrenaline to pour stuff out of bags into bins and sweep the floor every 20 minutes. just finished some of my sweetie's yummie quiche and will drag my ass outdoors as soon as i finish washing up the dishes.

greg ginn X 2 @ the moon, 5.22

darth vato's resident cali punk, steve steward, reports that he just booked two bands led by gtrist greg ginn to play at the moon on may 22nd (a thursday). one's a jamband called (what else?) jambang, the other's a "western swing" outfit called the texas corrugators that sounds (from the evidence on their myspace thingy) more like a collection of hubert sumlin loops than anything bob wills'd recognize.

while steve sez he's been instructed not to promote the gig based on ginn's illustrious past, let's just say that joe carducci described the muso's '80s progress as being "as if the same guitar player had passed through the stooges, black sabbath, and king crimson," if you can imagine that (and you should). the most "wtf" thing about the links steve sent is the gtrist's ostensible location: apparently, ginn now lives in taylor, texas, just north 'n' east of austin.

ronnie lane

it blows having superinsomnia when i'm not worried about anything, or working on anything. guess i'll just take advantage of the oppo to wish happy berfday to the greatest april fool of 'em all, the sadly departed brit rocker ronnie lane, by all accounts a real nice gent.