I forgot to mention the funniest part of the concert. Chris and I were settled into our balcony seats (not the best location, but not too bad) waiting for the concert to start when this dude comes stumbling down the next aisle, taking the seat directly behind us. He was wearing a slightly off-center baseball cap and a t-shirt with an unbuttoned seersucker dress shirt in multiple colors over it. His pants were also seersucker, BUT a totally different loud pattern of seersucker from the shirt. For all the tumbleweeds and crickets reading my blog out there who may not be familiar with seersucker, I have pasted a picture of some samples of it to the left. As you can see, the reason I'm noting his ensemble is because it was LOUD. And so was he. Did I mention he had a tumbler of rum and coke from the theatre's bar in his hand? Yeah, he reeked of it. Even before the concert began, he started shouting out random, drunken things. When it did finally began and Wilco took the stage, before each song began he would shout out "Wishful Thinking" several times at the top of his voice. What especially cracked me up about this is because "Wishful Thinking" is such a quiet, quiet, thoughtful song and this man was definitely not. During the first five songs or so he decided to garble the lyrics at the top of his lungs. Several times Chris and I both expressed we were on the verge of punching the man out. But then it grew quiet... I assumed he must have finally passed out from all the booze. Instead, he disappeared for the ENTIRE concert. When the lights came up in the theatre I asked Chris if he thought the guy had been kicked out. He conjectured that he was passed out in the bathroom somewhere or at the bar. Sure enough, when we exited the balcony there was seersucker dude, completely red-faced and sloshy, standing by the bar and yelling to his friends. Sigh. What would we be without wishful thinking?
19 June 2007
A Seersucker Concert Addendum
I forgot to mention the funniest part of the concert. Chris and I were settled into our balcony seats (not the best location, but not too bad) waiting for the concert to start when this dude comes stumbling down the next aisle, taking the seat directly behind us. He was wearing a slightly off-center baseball cap and a t-shirt with an unbuttoned seersucker dress shirt in multiple colors over it. His pants were also seersucker, BUT a totally different loud pattern of seersucker from the shirt. For all the tumbleweeds and crickets reading my blog out there who may not be familiar with seersucker, I have pasted a picture of some samples of it to the left. As you can see, the reason I'm noting his ensemble is because it was LOUD. And so was he. Did I mention he had a tumbler of rum and coke from the theatre's bar in his hand? Yeah, he reeked of it. Even before the concert began, he started shouting out random, drunken things. When it did finally began and Wilco took the stage, before each song began he would shout out "Wishful Thinking" several times at the top of his voice. What especially cracked me up about this is because "Wishful Thinking" is such a quiet, quiet, thoughtful song and this man was definitely not. During the first five songs or so he decided to garble the lyrics at the top of his lungs. Several times Chris and I both expressed we were on the verge of punching the man out. But then it grew quiet... I assumed he must have finally passed out from all the booze. Instead, he disappeared for the ENTIRE concert. When the lights came up in the theatre I asked Chris if he thought the guy had been kicked out. He conjectured that he was passed out in the bathroom somewhere or at the bar. Sure enough, when we exited the balcony there was seersucker dude, completely red-faced and sloshy, standing by the bar and yelling to his friends. Sigh. What would we be without wishful thinking?
18 June 2007
Human Plows
I attempted this position in yoga tonight. I looked exactly like the woman pictured to the left only I wasn't wearing an aqua bodysuit, my toes were resting on a chair, my shoulders were on blankets, and my yoga instructor was in the background commanding us to make sure we were rolling our "side thighs" to the ceiling while keeping our knees and "backchests" straight. I don't think this is a relaxation asana. Especially when you can't figure out how to roll your side thighs or what a backchest is exactly.
16 June 2007
Wilco at the Murat Theatre, Indianapolis June 15, 2007
In February of 2005 I got to see Wilco on my university's campus and they opened with "Hell is Chrome" - a really haunting song whose almost-cheerful opening piano chords betray the lyrics and Jeff Tweedy's resigned, but achingly beautiful voice that follows (apologies for all the hyperbole, but it's deserved!). That song set the tone for a wonderful concert over two years ago and I finally got to see the band again last night. The show was really good but it seems like Wilco has changed in the last couple of years - this is a completely unfair complaint but last night nearly every song they played just sounded... too happy (even the wrenching ones - like "Jesus, Etc." and a really amazing, newly orchestrated version of "Sunken Treasure") . Maybe this is a reflection of their new album or the addition of Nels Cline to the band, but it seems like they have shifted towards a new focus on longer instrumental jams that display the guitar talents of Cline and away from a band who had/still has at its center an amazing singer/songwriter whose lyrics resonate so intensely. Then again maybe it was just an off night and the vocals were set too low compared to the instrumentation... they still play well, long, and with so much energy. Unfortunately no cover of "Don't Fear the Reaper" last night either - instead we got a macrame owl with a goofy light display on it :)
12 June 2007
A "Gay" Bomb. Ummm, what?
US military pondered love not war
The US military investigated building a "gay bomb", which would make enemy soldiers "sexually irresistible" to each other, government papers say.
Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath.
The US defence department considered various non-lethal chemicals meant to disrupt enemy discipline and morale.
The 1994 plans were for a six-year project costing $7.5m, but they were never pursued.
The US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, sought Pentagon funding for research into what it called "harassing, annoying and 'bad guy'-identifying chemicals".
The plans were obtained under the US Freedom of Information by the Sunshine Project, a group which monitors research into chemical and biological weapons.
'Who? Me?'
The plan for a so-called "love bomb" envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among troops, causing what the military called a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale.
Scientists also reportedly considered a "sting me/attack me" chemical weapon to attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats towards enemy troops.
A substance to make the skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight was also pondered.
Another idea was to develop a chemical causing "severe and lasting halitosis", so that enemy forces would be obvious even when they tried to blend in with civilians.
In a variation on that idea, researchers pondered a "Who? Me?" bomb, which would simulate flatulence in enemy ranks.
Indeed, a "Who? Me?" device had been under consideration since 1945, the government papers say.
However, researchers concluded that the premise for such a device was fatally flawed because "people in many areas of the world do not find faecal odour offensive, since they smell it on a regular basis".
Captain Dan McSweeney of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate at the Pentagon said the defence department receives "literally hundreds" of project ideas, but that "none of the systems described in that [1994] proposal have been developed".
He told the BBC: "It's important to point out that only those proposals which are deemed appropriate, based on stringent human effects, legal, and international treaty reviews are considered for development or acquisition."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/4174519.stm
Published: 2005/01/15 06:38:30 GMT
© BBC MMVII
The US military investigated building a "gay bomb", which would make enemy soldiers "sexually irresistible" to each other, government papers say.
Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath.
The US defence department considered various non-lethal chemicals meant to disrupt enemy discipline and morale.
The 1994 plans were for a six-year project costing $7.5m, but they were never pursued.
The US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, sought Pentagon funding for research into what it called "harassing, annoying and 'bad guy'-identifying chemicals".
The plans were obtained under the US Freedom of Information by the Sunshine Project, a group which monitors research into chemical and biological weapons.
'Who? Me?'
The plan for a so-called "love bomb" envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among troops, causing what the military called a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale.
Scientists also reportedly considered a "sting me/attack me" chemical weapon to attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats towards enemy troops.
A substance to make the skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight was also pondered.
Another idea was to develop a chemical causing "severe and lasting halitosis", so that enemy forces would be obvious even when they tried to blend in with civilians.
In a variation on that idea, researchers pondered a "Who? Me?" bomb, which would simulate flatulence in enemy ranks.
Indeed, a "Who? Me?" device had been under consideration since 1945, the government papers say.
However, researchers concluded that the premise for such a device was fatally flawed because "people in many areas of the world do not find faecal odour offensive, since they smell it on a regular basis".
Captain Dan McSweeney of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate at the Pentagon said the defence department receives "literally hundreds" of project ideas, but that "none of the systems described in that [1994] proposal have been developed".
He told the BBC: "It's important to point out that only those proposals which are deemed appropriate, based on stringent human effects, legal, and international treaty reviews are considered for development or acquisition."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/4174519.stm
Published: 2005/01/15 06:38:30 GMT
© BBC MMVII
03 June 2007
That's the look of sheer joy.
Joey Chestnut broke the world record for hot dog eating yesterday by eating 59.5 HBDs (hot dogs and buns) in 12 minutes. The previous record was set by the Tiger Woods of eating contests, Takeru Kobayashi, who ate 53.75 HBDs in 12 minutes last fourth of July. Chestnut is also the champion at eating jalapeno poppers (118 in 10 minutes) - a contest that I like to refer to as the "Flaming O-Ring Challenge." “These guys’ numbers have just been going up at a tremendous clip,” Ryan Nerz (representative for Major League Eating) said. “I always thought there was a limit — a limit to the human stomach and a limit to human willpower — but I guess not.”
The true test for Chestnut comes on the fourth of July when he faces Kobayashi at the premiere hot dog eating contest of the year held by Nathan's Famous on Coney Island. In speaking about Chestnut's chances, xenophobe and chair of the International Federation of Competitive Eating, George Shea, argued, "the Fourth of July has been stolen from Americans because of Kobayashi's dominance and now America has someone who they can get excited about."
30 May 2007
youtube: my digital xanax
So earlier today I planned a vitriolic (and even violent) post against Kobe Bryant but I was kindly reminded I have a seriously warped sense of sportsmanship. I will have to wait to see if he actually wants to be traded or be a "Laker for Life" and instead I retreated to youtube to watch relaxing videos. My favorites today come from damienfilms, who has decided to subscribe to my stupid videos. What I like most about his/her videos are the titles. I present to you "Adorable Cutest Doggy" (featuring a near-catatonic husky and funny whispering) and "Hamsters - Wheel of Death Too Much Fast" (nine seconds of bliss). Let's just say I'm much calmed down now.
28 May 2007
Kimmy P: I just want to tell you how I'm feeling... gotta make you understand
KP: I know you got mad at me for recycling pics, but there are a lot of majorly talented people who recycle material. I provide video evidence below. Two performances separated by twenty years, and yet the song has still "got it." So does Rick Astley. He is set to go through puberty any day now. Can we set Peabo aside for a moment and make it the summer of Rick?
25 May 2007
1 Year and 100 Posts!
oh, and probably only 1 reader!I would ask for a prize, but procrastination is gift enough itself.
19 May 2007
From the LA Times today...
In the wake of his tragic death, friends remember 'a true artist' who loved to explore new sounds.
By Greg Burk
Special to The Times
May 19, 2007
Guitarist Jim McAuley had no trouble this week recalling his first meeting with fellow guitarist Rod Poole. It was at the home of Nels Cline, well before the three recorded their "Acoustic Guitar Trio" album.
"I was standing in Nels' kitchen, sipping coffee, when these amazing crystalline tones emerged from the living room," McAuley said. "Rod Poole was just tuning up, and already I was mesmerized by his sound."
Cline, a key player in L.A.'s experimental music scene and now a member of Wilco, described Poole as "a true artist, probably a genius" in a note on his website, posted after Poole was stabbed to death on Sunday in the parking lot of Mel's Drive-In.
His wife, Lisa Ladaw-Poole, was there when it happened.
The couple was walking toward the restaurant, after attending a concert at the Dangerous Curve art gallery downtown, when a car nearly struck them and other pedestrians. The musician spoke up; the vehicle's driver and passenger both got out, the latter allegedly with a knife, according to police. A half hour later, Poole died.
A security camera provided images that led to the quick arrest of Michael and Angela Sheridan. They were arraigned Wednesday.
Ladaw-Poole fielded a lot of phone calls this week, many of them from the parents of Poole's guitar students who hadn't gotten the news and were wondering why he didn't show up for their children's guitar lessons.
"These children loved Rod," Ladaw-Poole said Wednesday. "He was really kind with them."
Poole was a highly unusual guitarist, equally drawn to the distorted sound bombs of Jimi Hendrix and the spontaneous microcosmic tracings of Derek Bailey.
"I never could quite figure out how one man with one guitar could generate such an all-enveloping aural space," said Devin Sarno, an electronic drone artist who recorded Poole twice for Sarno's W.I.N. label.
Having left his native England in 1989 to find a more exploratory climate, Poole fell in with a devoted cloister of Los Angeles pathfinders that included Kraig Grady, Brad Laner and Motor Totemist Guild.
Grady, who composes in microtonal scales that employ the frequencies between Western music's traditional 12 tones, introduced Poole to his own mentor, Erv Wilson. Wilson is a pioneer in microtonal music and "just" intonation, which tunes to vibrations' natural mathematical ratios rather than the tempered scales used in orchestras.
Never one to take halfway measures, Poole lived in Wilson's house for more than five years and emerged with his own way of hearing.
He had a Martin guitar re-fretted to 17 tones and, using his already precise, shaded finger-picking technique, began improvising trance-bound variations on spacious arpeggios that could extend until time vanished.
Poole's solo, group and bowed-guitar recordings have appeared on the W.I.N., Transparency and Incus labels (the last being Bailey's imprint).
Poole's music was the first and last thing heard Wednesday on KXLU-FM's (88.9) "Trilogy" show, this night hosted by old Motor Totemist friends Emily Hay and Lynn Johnston.
Pinging and plucking, gently contracting and expanding, with "just" harmonies fluttering their intangible physicality throughout, the improvisation exuded an uncanny sense of peace. In contrast to its quiet beauty, it was titled "The Death Adder."
Earlier in the day, Johnston described Poole as "a low-key guy — he was only in your face about music."
Two words that surfaced repeatedly when people talked about Poole's artistic temperament were "passion" and "intensity."
Experimental guitarist Jeremy Drake, a curator of the "Sound" concerts at Schindler House in West Hollywood, wrote on a Poole tribute site: "Rod was always fully present. Good mood or bad, you got the full Rod Poole experience whenever he was in the room."
Cindy Bernard, a primary "Sound" series organizer, said Poole was extremely meticulous about the many recordings he engineered for the series' archive: "It's rare to know someone whose enthusiasm for music is so pure."
Instrumentalist and composer Vinny Golia, long the most pervasive influence in this city's edge-music community, agreed. Poole once recorded a performance Golia had done with German bassist Peter Kowald. When Golia wanted a copy, Poole broke down his equipment, carried it over to Golia's house and made the transfer there, not wanting to take any chances that the copy wouldn't be perfectly compatible with Golia's system.
Guitarist Carey Fosse, who knew Poole mainly in Poole's transitional period of the early '90s, called him "a wonderful improviser, very disciplined, and with beautiful articulation. I think his technique led him to areas he hadn't imagined."
Poole had been disappointed by the lack of opportunities to play forward-thinking music in Los Angeles. Though he had made few live appearances for several years, Bailey's death in late 2005 inspired him to help fill what he felt to be an artistic gap.
Poole's wife said he had been working on "just"-intonated interpretations of Irish folk songs, and that the noted film sound mixer Giovanni Di Simone had made new recordings of him.
Grady recently received an invitation to perform at a microtonal festival in Germany and was asked if he could help extend the offer to Poole.
He will be there in spirit.
Ladaw-Poole said she will take her husband's ashes back to England. A memorial service is being planned.
By Greg Burk
Special to The Times
May 19, 2007
Guitarist Jim McAuley had no trouble this week recalling his first meeting with fellow guitarist Rod Poole. It was at the home of Nels Cline, well before the three recorded their "Acoustic Guitar Trio" album.
"I was standing in Nels' kitchen, sipping coffee, when these amazing crystalline tones emerged from the living room," McAuley said. "Rod Poole was just tuning up, and already I was mesmerized by his sound."
Cline, a key player in L.A.'s experimental music scene and now a member of Wilco, described Poole as "a true artist, probably a genius" in a note on his website, posted after Poole was stabbed to death on Sunday in the parking lot of Mel's Drive-In.
His wife, Lisa Ladaw-Poole, was there when it happened.
The couple was walking toward the restaurant, after attending a concert at the Dangerous Curve art gallery downtown, when a car nearly struck them and other pedestrians. The musician spoke up; the vehicle's driver and passenger both got out, the latter allegedly with a knife, according to police. A half hour later, Poole died.
A security camera provided images that led to the quick arrest of Michael and Angela Sheridan. They were arraigned Wednesday.
Ladaw-Poole fielded a lot of phone calls this week, many of them from the parents of Poole's guitar students who hadn't gotten the news and were wondering why he didn't show up for their children's guitar lessons.
"These children loved Rod," Ladaw-Poole said Wednesday. "He was really kind with them."
Poole was a highly unusual guitarist, equally drawn to the distorted sound bombs of Jimi Hendrix and the spontaneous microcosmic tracings of Derek Bailey.
"I never could quite figure out how one man with one guitar could generate such an all-enveloping aural space," said Devin Sarno, an electronic drone artist who recorded Poole twice for Sarno's W.I.N. label.
Having left his native England in 1989 to find a more exploratory climate, Poole fell in with a devoted cloister of Los Angeles pathfinders that included Kraig Grady, Brad Laner and Motor Totemist Guild.
Grady, who composes in microtonal scales that employ the frequencies between Western music's traditional 12 tones, introduced Poole to his own mentor, Erv Wilson. Wilson is a pioneer in microtonal music and "just" intonation, which tunes to vibrations' natural mathematical ratios rather than the tempered scales used in orchestras.
Never one to take halfway measures, Poole lived in Wilson's house for more than five years and emerged with his own way of hearing.
He had a Martin guitar re-fretted to 17 tones and, using his already precise, shaded finger-picking technique, began improvising trance-bound variations on spacious arpeggios that could extend until time vanished.
Poole's solo, group and bowed-guitar recordings have appeared on the W.I.N., Transparency and Incus labels (the last being Bailey's imprint).
Poole's music was the first and last thing heard Wednesday on KXLU-FM's (88.9) "Trilogy" show, this night hosted by old Motor Totemist friends Emily Hay and Lynn Johnston.
Pinging and plucking, gently contracting and expanding, with "just" harmonies fluttering their intangible physicality throughout, the improvisation exuded an uncanny sense of peace. In contrast to its quiet beauty, it was titled "The Death Adder."
Earlier in the day, Johnston described Poole as "a low-key guy — he was only in your face about music."
Two words that surfaced repeatedly when people talked about Poole's artistic temperament were "passion" and "intensity."
Experimental guitarist Jeremy Drake, a curator of the "Sound" concerts at Schindler House in West Hollywood, wrote on a Poole tribute site: "Rod was always fully present. Good mood or bad, you got the full Rod Poole experience whenever he was in the room."
Cindy Bernard, a primary "Sound" series organizer, said Poole was extremely meticulous about the many recordings he engineered for the series' archive: "It's rare to know someone whose enthusiasm for music is so pure."
Instrumentalist and composer Vinny Golia, long the most pervasive influence in this city's edge-music community, agreed. Poole once recorded a performance Golia had done with German bassist Peter Kowald. When Golia wanted a copy, Poole broke down his equipment, carried it over to Golia's house and made the transfer there, not wanting to take any chances that the copy wouldn't be perfectly compatible with Golia's system.
Guitarist Carey Fosse, who knew Poole mainly in Poole's transitional period of the early '90s, called him "a wonderful improviser, very disciplined, and with beautiful articulation. I think his technique led him to areas he hadn't imagined."
Poole had been disappointed by the lack of opportunities to play forward-thinking music in Los Angeles. Though he had made few live appearances for several years, Bailey's death in late 2005 inspired him to help fill what he felt to be an artistic gap.
Poole's wife said he had been working on "just"-intonated interpretations of Irish folk songs, and that the noted film sound mixer Giovanni Di Simone had made new recordings of him.
Grady recently received an invitation to perform at a microtonal festival in Germany and was asked if he could help extend the offer to Poole.
He will be there in spirit.
Ladaw-Poole said she will take her husband's ashes back to England. A memorial service is being planned.
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