This is what I wanted for Christmas one year in the late 70's.
I was told that santa had unfortunately run out of them at the particular branch office of the north pole where he manufactures them.

old shows

should speak for itself.

RIP Bobtail Kitty

Bobtail Kitty 1988-2008
(AKA Skeletor)

you shall be deeply missed.

TIME ... 1979

a challenge

A "challenge" was brought on me to create a picture of "Interplanet Janet" using only found images using google.
Here you go Bert ...

old times

My friend Dylan from Tigersaw asked me to send him what I remember of old shows for this book he's writing about touring and whatnot. His book is called All My Friends Are Right Here With Me. Here is a section:

Lasting memories of times with Dylan and his merry Tigersaw gang. Sheriff Metrano's posse has done shows with testface over the years and those are the kind of things that will stay with you to the end.
Probably the most infamous of times was a short tour in the N.W. back in 2006.
Those shows in which we played together were:
• seattle - Conor Byrne -sept 16
• salem - cafe noir -sept 19
• pdx - mississippi pizza -sept 20
• eugene - luckeys -sept 22

Those shows consisted of Tigersaw, Hotel Alexis, Unbunny, and Testface. We rotated the lineup each night and each show had very different vibes. When I pulled into Seattle the first night I just had this strange feeling in my body. Part of it was the excitement of seeing all these old friends, but there was something I couldn't put my finger on. A hum in the wires as Sid would say. As my car pulled into the venue neighborhood, it was darker than usual, and I realized the only light in the universe was coming from my headlights. No power in that part of seattle. We all slowly trickled into the place and laughed and hugged and contemplated our game-plan sans electric juice. The bar had an odd sense of comradery. Dylan took one for the team and played first surrounded in a warm bath of candlelight. Ears listened for subtle things and tiny acoustics. Wonderful. Then about 1/2 way through the set ... the juice comes on and the entire mood of the bar changed. A blessing and a curse.
I did my testface set as well as playing bass for Sid in Hotel Alexis that tour. I remember the night ending with the power going out again and Sid pounding the keys in the back of the bar on an old upright piano. Truly a great start to a small tour-let.
The rest of the shows were equally as fantastic. Dylan has a way of captivating an audience in a simple way. Songs like "postcards & Letters" and "sing" could go on for endless cycles and it's kind of like beautiful thoughts being frozen in time. We ended the shows in eugene and I remember having a huge Italian feast with wine at my house with all the bands before the show. My livingroom was littered with Gregg Porter, Sid Lindner, Nate Groth, Dylan, Derek Trost, James Smith, Jarid and others. It looked like a Macworld Expo center with peeps rapidly sharing their well spent time with the universe. The show was epic ... at one point there were like 12 of us on stage singing in Dylans band. Every ounce of floor, bed and garage space was strewn with indie rock flesh that night.
Tigersaw has since been out here a couple times for shows with testface, but in my opinion, nothing could be more epic than that massive maelstrom of friends. All my memories are right here with me.

i'll find you and I'll kill you

Music and Animation by Chad Van Gallen

Homage to Thanksgiving past ...

A Conversation at the Grownup Table, as Imagined at the Kids’ Table
 
MOM: Pass the wine, please. I want to become crazy.
DAD: O.K.
GRANDMOTHER: Did you see the politics? It made me angry.
DAD: Me, too. When it was over, I had sex.
UNCLE: I’m having sex right now.
DAD: We all are.
MOM: Let’s talk about which kid I like the best.
DAD: (laughing) You know, but you won’t tell.
MOM: If they ask me again, I might tell.
FRIEND FROM WORK: Hey, guess what! My voice is pretty loud!
DAD: (laughing) There are actual monsters in the world, but when my kids ask I pretend like there aren’t.
MOM: I’m angry! I’m angry all of a sudden!
DAD: I’m angry, too! We’re angry at each other!
MOM: Now everything is fine.
DAD: We just saw the PG-13 movie. It was so good.
MOM: There was a big sex.
FRIEND FROM WORK: I am the loudest! I am the loudest!
(Everybody laughs.)
MOM: I had a lot of wine, and now I’m crazy!
GRANDFATHER: Hey, do you guys know what God looks like?
ALL: Yes.
GRANDFATHER: Don’t tell the kids.
 

digital

Like any self-proclaiming dork, I love looking at old computers (el porn de geek?) and the post space age interfaces that accompany them. But in addition to aesthetics, I have another vested interest ... my late father. He worked for digital Equipment corporation for 32 years. He was a tech writer and did a lot of work revolving around memory and chips. He told me this story about being flown out to seattle once to work on this amazing experimental hard drive in the 60's that weight a million pounds and held like 2 megabytes of information. Hilarious.

I'd go visit him occasionally at his massive work complex in Maynard, Mass. He would always have odd computer paraphernalia laying around the house. Instead of usb there was like 125 pin connectors the size of your fucking head. He brought home what would later become home computers. He had this text only Zork game we played (before atari came out) it went something like this:

game: You are standing in a room. there are walls. You are scared. What do you want to do?
you: go north
game: you cannot go north
you: go east
game: it is not advisable to go east
you: blow me
game: I do not understand your request
and so on ...

here is an online version

Digital no longer exhists. They became HP/Compaq and were essentially dissolved into memories and legend.
Man do I miss that guy. He would be 64 this saturday. Raise a glass to Luther this weekend.
-d

A visual survey of vintage computers can be found here

charles addams painting

feelin synthy?

before Bob Moog ...
before the acid tests ...

Elisha Gray Musical Telegraph"(1876)

 
Vladimir Baranoff Rossiné "Optophonic Piano" (1916)


The Optophonic Piano generated sounds and projected revolving patterns by directing a bright light through a series revolving painted glass disks (painted by Rossiné), filters, mirrors and lenses. The keyboard controlled the combination of the various filters and disks. The variations in opacity of the painted disk and filters were picked up by a photo-electric cell controling the pitch of a single oscillator. The instrument produced a continuous varying tone which, accompanied by the rotating kaleidascopic projections was used by Vladimir Rossiné at exhibitions and public events.

pass the kool-aid Vlad!

Hi, How are you?

me circa 2001 austin


finally saw The devil & Daniel Johnston last night. I seriously have no idea why it took me so damn long to catch this flick. Unbelievable. Moving, sad, hopeful, deeply beautiful.
Daniel has been famous for years but in case you live under a large rock ... check him out)

held the hand (from the end of the film ... sound is lousy, but the footage is wonderful)
This song blows me away.


story of an artist

mixwit

thanks dan jones for showing me how to make these!

Art du Jour:

Art du Jour:
Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński

No pussycats playing bridge

from ABC news:

Creepy art increases heart patients' blood pressure
Posted Jan 3, 2007

Works of art meant to hearten patients at a Canadian cardiac hospital as part of a study have been removed after complaints they made people feel tense and increased their blood pressure, a doctor says.
"The idea was to try to brighten up the place and make it alive," Dr Robert Roberts said, head of the Ottawa Heart Institute.
"But our choice of austere paintings instead increased our patients' blood pressure slightly.
"Most people who have a heart attack come here to feel better but the paintings made people feel tense and nurses noticed patients were more agitated while waiting to have their blood pressure tested."
The paintings used in the art therapy experiment, believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, included five portraits by artist Shirley Brown called The Queens.
Their "very piercing eyes were not necessarily the most pleasant thing to look at or cheer you up when you're in pain," Dr Roberts said.
They were removed.

Art therapist Sharon Mintz told public broadcaster CBC that art in hospitals should be safe.
"No pussycats playing bridge, dogs playing poker or Elvis on velvet," she said.
"But there are a lot more comfortable works of art, watercolours, softer pastels, something that will inspire relaxation in a situation like that."

The results of the study will be presented at the Society for the Arts in Healthcare conference in Tennessee in the US in April.

Oh you guys are sneaky ....

R.I.P. PBF

Tractor Op benny for cancer

Dolorean, Memomena, Eluvium and Tractor Operator to Destroy Leukemia & Lymphoma

Sunday, November 23rd at the Doug Fir.
Very excited about this show. I'll be playin bass in Tractor Operator that night.
no I can't get you on the guest list. sorry.

View the article here.

recent shows

thong
leo london
testface
jordan
jake
me
trost
halloween w/ squids
testface

why do I even bother with the weather widget. It's just gonna depress the crap outta me ...

"it's not about the hitpoints"

further proselytization from me on my fave new band. This is so damn funny:

ssssploitation

goodbye Dolemite. Your ass kickin' mad skills will be missed. RIP Rudy Ray Moore.



note ... trailer = NSFW

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson

pre thunderbirds ...

Halloween is in the air. My buddy Derek has a creepy dinner every year. Heres a nice guacamole holder.

and a Dalek pumpkin.

church sign generator!

posters

for some shows in the ain't so distant future I done made:

why my nieces rule

silver MF jews

Last night at the wowhall. Silver jews tore it up. David Berman is the shit. He and his Jews rocked my world last night. He had a sort of cough medicine swagger all night as he shuffled around the stage. Got to hang with some of the band for a bit of road story mayhem. Here they are rockin "Smith & Jones forever"


Monotonix opened the show. Insane band from Israel. At one point the drummer was hoisted up in the crown with his drums so he could play 6' above. They looked like borat/Ron Jeremy clones.

LP battles : round 13

returning champion Alan Parsons vs. tagteam duo Hall & Oats ... introducing heavyweight new contenders Roxy music