So I have a ticket to Darwin from Denpasar on Feb. 3, and despite some of the impressions afforded by the Bingtang sleeveless clad Aussie masses swarming around Kuta, I’m going. My general plan is to possibly take The Ghan down the middle of the country to Adelaide, then with gumtree.com/au rideshare make my way east, hitting Melbourne, and most likely fly back to the US from Sydney later that month.

Sometimes, with this blog, I don’t know… I’m proud I keep it up, and it’s rewarding in it’s own right, but I wish I got more meaningful response. From strangers I mean, the kind of strangers I’d like to meet. Of course I appreciate the old friends who follow along. That having been said, I have had two pleasant comment encounters in the last few months. Once from an old friend of Patrik Keim who found me via his small image archive here; and another, a reader who put me back in touch with an amazing woman I met in southern China in 2010. He claimed instantly to know who I was talking about and had no doubt from my description. Now, much of that is a testimony to the power of her personality, but it was also “good to blog” validation for me.

So as I try and build my itinerary for AU, I’ll go ahead and put this out there: where do you think I should go? Unfortunately the West is out on this trip. I will have a finite amount of time, and some financial resource, but as I’ve been earning RI Rupiah for the last year…not THAT much. And their economy is doing well compared to the rest of the world, in part because they seem intent on mining up all that China will buy. Beers are $10 each at the moment, ouch!

All I know are Grinderman dates don’t currently extend past Dec.; I’d like to have some bizarre, quasi-Star Wars via Tatooine experience in Cooper Pedy; I must go to Melbourne; and might try and swing Tasmania. So give me all other recommendations for the Central and SE areas, oh Darwin too, though I don’t plan to linger. Band dates, film festivals etc that might overlap the time I’m there – essentially February 2012.

I summon thee, o dark and mystical forces of the Interweb! Speak! Er, I mean… Comment!

Excellent use of Eno’s Apollo soundtrack (ed 12-14: I see now from Wikipedia it isn’t credited! Well it is under Apollo soundtrack, but not the Drive entry. It’s also unclear exactly what Angelo Badalamenti did on the film. His name is clearly seen in the opening film credits, and A.B. wikipedia has Drive listed with his name, but he’s not mentioned in Drive wikipedia.) Other music is techno and seems an odd choice, but it works. It’s an early 80′s techno sound.
It isn’t huge “blow you away” sort of film. More of a subtle classic.

Here’s another. Make’s ya wanna have have a swingin’ knife fight…

A few things you don’t get from this: that lot completely filled with 20,000+ scooters, cars and buses and it was quite difficult to find my own in the dark with no lighting at all, ever so slightly buzzed on Arak. Lesson learned, next time some sort of flag or marker to help with rapid, ill-lit, scooter identification when parking in such scenes. Also the older couple, guy with The Ramones shirt, where the coolest Aussies I’ve met so far, actually knew the Dirty 3 and Grinderman – the first I’ve run into who did so. Also some of those 20-something Indonesians are in a Death Metal band and hopefully will call me to come check them out next time they play Bali. They were from Java, came over to the island just to drink in the lot without tickets or the ability to afford them. That’s Metal. You proabaly could have heard the show from where we were sitting, but I took off soon after dark, before the music (from a band I don’t really care about anyway, just nostalgia – though I’m not saying I don’t still occassionally spin cuts from NotB or Powerslave) and potential clusterfuck could ensue. And the guy in the final shot was a satay vendor, most likely wearing the hat just for sales and to fit in, but I found it classic.

And tell me the chorus of this Chrissy Zebby Tembo song doesn’t have Ozzy written all over it…

If you like it, get more here. Props to Aesop and his Cosmic Hearse blog.

I’m trying to get some tracks uploaded to attach to this post but can’t figure it out right now. More later…

But how exactly to spontaneously pitch this?
I guess he wasn’t too impressed, for his response came, and I’ll never forget,
“You have a bookstoaahh?” like a junkie Elmer Fudd doing an impersonation of a New Yorker.

And then quickly some student union handler whisked him away with a promised carrot juice. Surely he was tired after the reading, surely wackballs approached him constantly, and as the sage N. Peart reminds us “one must put up barriers to keep oneself in tact.” I’m not bitter or anything, that’s just my little Jim Carroll story. He came of age in a great city at a unique time in it’s history and wrote some great stuff. I first saw this photo on the inner sleeve of J. Giorno’s compilation “Your a hook”.

J Carroll and P Smith in 1969. photo by Wren D’Antonio

My sister had an 8lb daughter yesterday, both are now doing well. The gbv song has little to do with this, other than the title and the recognition of aging, though it has all actually happened in good time.

He’s the Uncle

Here’s one resource page, and goodreads. A heavy hitter of 20th century outre fiction! Two other BBC articles on JGB references in music and as a Seer of the Atomic Age.

Finally found a great Ballardarian animated tribute. I’ll be doing more research on this filmmaker!

This looks like a rather amazing line up – can’t imagine how it’s free… I guess some car companies still have huge advertising budgets. But how many headbanger metalheads can they get driving Scions, no matter how customized?
It’ll probably be a packed madhouse by the time Mastadon and Neurosis take the stage, but hopefully I can have a reasonably pleasant experience if I try to catch Boris and Harvey Milk.

“Rock ‘n’ Roll specialists”

I love this show, and am happy to find from the one episode I’ve seen from season 2 so far, the quality is being maintained. Sometimes the song bits can be a bit much, but sometimes they are spot on. It’s hard not to draw comparisons to the comedy of The Mighty Boosh, or Tenatious D, but if you think about it, I’d argue they have their own original style going. Good support from characters like Mel and Murray help as well. Here’s a recent interview. Clips.

Letting this end is so foolish! If it is no longer profitable for your company, why not sell off the formula and let someone else hang on to it for the diehards? Supposedly the company is open to doing this after 2009, but I won’t be comfortable until the deal is made. Vinyl wasn’t allowed to fully die in the 90′s (thank you turntablists), horses can still go places cars can’t. Gung ho technology and all that, but never eliminate the hard copy. Anyone who has ever wound up a Victrola by candlelight during a power outage knows how cool a feeling that is. Also see Polanoid.

Found dead in Portland, OR.

This is an engrossing, but long, French psychological thriller adapted from the Harlan Coben novel. The many twists and turns keep the pacing taught, and though you may get lost once or twice, everything is essentially wound up at the end. The was one shot with a “shaky cam” that nearly made me nauseous, but it was quickly followed by one of the greatest multi-car pile ups I’ve seen in film. If that was CG, consider me completely fooled. I also loved the sympathetic gangster thug angle, a homely organ grabbing interrogator, and soundtrack with included 60′s soul, ambiance and Sigur Ros style instrumental drama ballads. A great foreign film to see!

It couldn’t have been easy being that bald in the 70′s. But the chain jacket helps…
And Jesse Jackson definitely needs to go back to his old look!

Bo Diddley

I’m a huge fan of this little bar, which is a fine place to catch a film or play a poker tournament in the room on the right hand side. There is of course music going on most nights over there as well, but seldom an evening as well booked as last night. Madeline did some new material with horns, and one man band Geoff Reacher is back in his old Athens haunt for a few nights. Here’s a little home brewed video from “Look me in the Eye”.

creston and tanner

evil creston

Had a double dose of Athens greats Harvey Milk recently, once there over the past weekend and last night in ATL @ Drunken Unicorn. Overall I must prefer the first show, though this is a minority opinion due to their more drunken state at the Caledonia Lounge. But it was when Tanner came out with the gem that became this entry’s title. But I’m definitely glad I didn’t miss the brief “Pleaser” material the second night. The Thrones Joe Preston was a welcome addition both nights on additional vocals and second guitar.

Click image for larger. There is no funky photoshop filter at play to make Creston look like a Siekiewicz drawn goat-creature in that second one, just random bad lo light photography, but using the approved MUS “2 handed” method…

Here’s a link to his myspace page.

I had a “what ever happened to” moment with this distinctive comic artist recently. I was a fan of ‘Stray Toasters‘ in the 80′s, apparently there has been some work on a film project – not sure how I feel about that, but I guess this would be the era in which to do it. If it does happen, hopefully they will keep it nice and dark. His main site. He’s also been working with Roger Waters, which is one of those “surprising, but not” discoveries…

Feeling old? Well that’s because you are-

AND through the sparkplugcomics site, I just learned I’ll be town during the PDX zine symposium! Looks like I’ll skip going to Seattle Meltdown with the MarchingBand…

So before making my way to this mega-”here come the cops again” summer houseparty, I went with Fasil and Trevor to see Talkdemonic at the Aladdin. Interesting stuff some of you will be taken with, in the vein of The Rachels, or defunct Asa Nisi Masa. I missed the openers, but I’d check out the headliner again. You can hear an MP3 here, or more at Myspace, including the super cool ‘Indian Angel’ (which sounds more Japanese to my ears…).

I often bitch about the ATL film scene (and Athens is even worse…) and people tend to not believe Portland’s to be superior when I try to explain this to them. That’s their problem: I definitely know better. Having seen some recently released powerful stuff before I left, I wasn’t surprised to find the same things playing here, plus various lingering gems now in Portland’s $3 theatre circut, but it’s really about the vast number of small but great films that also run here. TWO D+D documentaries have come out in recent months? WTF!
So I read about the Floating World Animation festival going on at the comic shop and headed down. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but imagine my surprise when I found the event not only free and connected to another gallery full of illustrative art, but also with a free liquor bar! Goddamn, I love this town*

The program broke down into a first set of jewels under 10 minutes, then a retrospective on the influencial Adam Beckett, Hooliganship played live in front of a pseudo-Mario Bros. animated set, then another group of shorts put together by e*rock, but by then I was mostly tanked and talking with Pam Turner, Beckett’s biographer.
I can’t recreate the entire experience for you obviously, but here’s some info I was able to get on several of the animators presented: Joanna Priestly, Christophe Blanc, Howie Shia, Mariola Brillowska, Aidan Koch, Graham Annable, the supercool Rob Chiu, Vivian Wong and that’s all for now. You fuckers can do more research if you’d like from the FWC info provided, I’m too hungover…

1. Music One of the things I miss the most when I’m away, and even if you have your own tuneage on a trip, there’s nothing quite like catching some Great American Song when you are elsewhere to bring up a misty-eyed feeling of home. Appalachain old time and bluegrass, JAZZ!, blues, classic country, rock and roll (to a large extent), soul, funk, metal, punk rock (to some extent), DIY hardcore, post punk, indie rock, neo-metal, electronica, minimalist neo-classical (not to dis great straight classical composers like Arron Copeland, very American), and anything else not covered by the categories mentioned. Several of these genres have ‘ethnic appropriation issues’, but for better or worse, it’s American Music now. Unfortunately, ask a random member of another nation these days to name an American musician, and they are likely to name some pop star who knows more about make up and dance steps than the key of D minor, but this marketing by which they have been effected can’t erase a few centuries worth of innovative music – what I see as one of our cultural gifts to the earth.

2. Geography I’ve canoed through swamps, wandered around sand dunes, walked entirely around and over different types of mountains – some so old they are worn, some relatively new and dynamic, rode over praries that seem to never end, relaxed near and been exhilirated by two distinct oceans, myriad clean and dirty rivers, roamed very different types of forest, seen mineral deposits that paint rock formations in a most bizarre and beautiful fashion, been energized by big sky and horizon, gotten lost and been terrorized by intense weather of various extremes, and know for a fact if you go a little further, stray a bit more from the trail, there is still terra incognito in which the hermit can practice his solitude and learn. And this all in America. I’ve been to all 50 states and wish more of my countrymen could make the same claim. I wouldn’t mind if Guthrie’s “This land is your Land”, replaced the National Anthem, but that won’t happen. At least make sure the kids keep hearing the song, deleted civil disobedient versus too. I don’t mind the actual National Anthem, but have never heard a more beautiful or more accurate version than that played by James Marshall Hendrix in August of 1969 in Woodstock, NY at a music festival, within a few weeks of when the first terran, an Adventerous American, stepped foot on the moon.

3. Porn OK, so maybe we didn’t invent it, but we took it to astounding new levels, despite the purtanical influence that still pulls like undertow in the American tides. You see estimates in the billions, but who knows how much revenue has been generated in this place by still and moving images of the naked human form in carnal digressions, especially as organized crime (which doesn’t exactly share their ‘bookkeeping’) has been involved from so early on. I direct any who are disgusted by this fact of American living to this case study of pornography in Japan. We clearly have some issues to work out with this ‘good cop/bad cop’ thing we have going with sexuality and the documentation thereof, but under this umbrella I want to ‘shout out’ to all the strippers in the states that allow them to dance (though let’s be clear – this is ‘fantasy’, not ‘sex’…guess by now you know I’m no rich cokehead), and though I have never legally (directly) paid a woman to copulate with me in this nation, shout out to you too Nevada – like your style.
I would further like to thank former Vice-President Al Gore for inventing the internet, and thus my continued exploration of Id and every fetish I never knew I had. I am the infidel you seek to destroy Bin Laden (you too, you blue blood, WASP, ‘god says this’, square-ass motherfuckers), come and try to get me… Meanwhile, this infidel Jacks It for Freedom! (wow, sort of the ‘patriotic jack off’ I promised you wouldn’t get here- oh, well)

4. Indie Spirit I felt this especially pronounced after a trip to China about a year ago, but you even see traces of it in European culture. There is something to be said for the American willingness to defy tradition, family, common sense, and plain good judgement to ‘think outside the box’ when it comes to finding new ways to ‘get things done’, and generally ‘step out of line’. If you’ve got a better way to do things than your boss here, and assuming you have some capitol, you quit and become the competition. Now, clearly, this ‘bold steppin’ and ‘rule breakin’ gets us into hot water too, but that’s not the focus right now. I want to take a moment for every kid who moves out of his parent’s nest before they can truely afford to do so and works drudgery to pay the rent and hold on to some crackerbox they can call their own. Are rents so much lower here than in these countries where the youth stay at home until marriage, and then some? Not really, but we make it happen anyway, it’s just part of the indie spirit (well…there are also economic realities, and relative stability that make this plausible…not to undermine my own argument, but I’m being real – no famine, roaming gangs of raping soldiers, not many children orphaned by carpet bombing in the States these days). Mother of invention, ‘know how’, gumption, ‘coming up with a new way’ (for better or worse), THAT’S how we roll. You don’t like it? Figure out some new way to roll, yo!

5. World Hotties No offense to any hetero turned on by corn fed, small town, blondes, but that’s not who I’m into. I love the diversity of different types of beautiful women you can find here, especially in the cities, but it’s slowly getting better everywhere. It goes back to one of my favorite metaphors for America – ‘the melting pot’. Some choice fucking going on here folks, DNA combinations creating some beautiful women. Even though I do a lot of bitching about ‘the modern American female mentality’, I realize this construct is actually a myth, or something too diverse to be defined. My complaint once again is with puritanism and the forced socialization of the genitals. I truely believe, and this is just Darwinism 101, that the best hope for humanity is when we have created the ‘uber-mut’ (the group with the largest genetic diversity has the best options to attain adaptibility and survival) and salute inter-racial breeding, though not so much breeding in general. If you feel you must procreate, I urge you to do so with a beautiful partner who’s genetic background differs from your own substantially. This again is misleading, as we share 99% of our genetic make up with a freaking fruit fly, but perhaps you see what I’m getting at – no more ‘straight up white’ Ms. America’s! And double points if she’s got some slutty skeleton in her closet. ‘Slut’ is a myth; read the old testiment, if Baal or Ashera had won out over Yaweh, I’m telling you, ladies, you’d definitely be a ‘star’ down at the temple when it came time to worship… And in terms of copulation for non-reproductive purposes, this ties into point 3 as well, obviously.

6.Writers including poets. From The Transcendentalists to the Post-Modernists, this country has produced some great writers who represent a certain individuality. Jack London to Jack Kerouac. Walt Witman to W.T. Vollmann. And never to exclude those who leave their own nations, bring something new to the mix from their old, and help to redefine yet again: American (I’m thinking specificly of Haruki Murakami here). Melville to DeLillo. And a special ‘Poe award’ to all who have trod the nether-realms and burned the candle at both ends. And not just novelists and poets, screenwriting is a very American thing (I suppose very Indian as well, as Bollywood is the film capital of earth). So thank you too, playwrights -David Mamet and Sam Sheppard. I exclude all who ‘write’ for the purposes of adversitizing specific products- ya’ll vampires suck.

7. The Road Trip This ties into points 2 and 4, but I think deserves it’s own distinguishment. From the days of ‘you kids get in the wagon, we’re gonna try somewhere else’, to ‘wonder where that train goes?’, to ‘fuck it, what’s over the next hill?’ there is a rich history of movement in vast America. I’m intentionally avoiding potentially negative topics like ‘oil’ and ‘Detroit vs. the rail system’, and even though it can be oppulent and wasteful (though not as bad as NASCAR) there’s something to be said for the American wandering(rolling) spirit, and exploration of unknown tarmac. The best way to see this country is still by automobile, which sadly surpassed the horse – which I assume used to be old ‘best way’. Homogenous convience islands have cropped up at many interstate exits, but the old two lane highways are still there, the forgotten little ‘one traffic light’ towns, the real America, under-represented by sitcom television. It’s amazing the amount of cultural influence NYC and LA project onto the rest of the country, and then the world, but there are many shades in between not represented on the TV and in film (which is slightly better about capturing lesser known locales). I’m not saying it’s all good, and you might need to put on your ‘David Lynch filter’ to appreciate some of it, but never forget about the small towns and the state parks, the one of a kind mom and pops that are still holding on, either through altruism or stubborn laziness. Maybe some day this country will just be one giant strip mall, but that day isn’t upon us yet. Get out there, if you have a little time and money, and see it! Cross country, maybe just something new in the next county over, what’s really stopping you? The rolling mental institution commonly know as ‘Greyhound’ is often another cheap option, depending on where you want to go; if you, like I currently do, find yourself carless.

8. A History of Violence This one’s a little sketchy, but for better or worse this has long been a land full of violence. I’m not justifing it, just stating truth. And like it or not, there is something in me that responds to this violence. Though we have abstracted it through media and superficial projections of ourselves, we have a high threshold for violence. I have no problem with the second amendment and truely see the problem in our mentality, the gun itself is just a tool. Watch Brits, or Aussies fistfight, somehow this art as been lost here, which is a dis to human pugilism. Any little bitch can hide behind some misplaced potshots, there is nothing manly about it. Despite the tension and victor, assuming there is one, fistfighters will walk away with more respect for one another when the bout is over.
Another spin an older, biker friend put on this out in Oregon: if you must hide behind a gun, LEARN TO SHOOT. What’s with the ratio or ‘shots fired’ to ‘hits’? How can so much ammunition be discharged without more entry wounds?
Something has been lost in the testing of American mettle. Our willingness to create violence seems in tact, but somehow the testoserone and raw balls need to be reproven. How can the pungy sticks and IUD’s of willful opponents add up to satelite imagry, all the bombs you can buy, and unmanned drones? Despite these insurgent issues, we seem to have taken violence to some abstracted place away from real human interaction.
And all you bitches hung up on respect, and shooters who feel they must turn High School into the ultimate proving ground: be patient, grow up and run away to join the circus like everyone else did. The ‘bullies’ will prove themselves sad enough in time, and you’ll need to save your energy for far more crafty and wealthy bullies.

9. Pure Escapism When the bar has been set so high, I’m surprised by how many settle for the same ol’ dreams of a nice car, plasma TV and trophy wife. In this sense, Howard Hughes, Phil Spector and Michael Jackson are sort of heros for allowing their neurotic fantasies take them to new heights, at their own expense, mentally if in no other way. Rich and poor, we are a nation of dreamers. A War on Certain Drugs, while they want to be sure nearly everyone is on something they must score from the establishment. An entertaiment industry to match the incarceration industry. A free press controlled by a corporate oligarchy. Everyone talking about freedom, most on their way to or returning from doing something they most likely would choose not to be doing, for money. We identify ourselves through our jobs, our cars, our network of spouses and peers, and let’s get real now, by our penchant for dreaming. But let’s up the ante, gang, sky’s the limit. Ah, sweet luxury and that which it affords. Now immortality seems some unspoken American goal, or at least it would seem from the continuing legislation. Are we out of touch with our relevance on the little rock human’s call home? It bums me out and I buy into it at the same time-

I don’t have a 10. Fuck nice round numbers-

*also props to Sam Dunn for general research and info*

Space Giants(Japanese title ‘Ambassador Magma’) came a few years later to the Americans, though the shows were created at the same time, and was after school afternoon programming during the week. The show itself was rather lame, but watch a few episodes linked to the intro in youtube to see how far your disbelief could be suspended with the lofi changeover of Gam from boy to rocket, not to mention Rodac’s ‘Fro. But I suppose it was the idea of having a whistle which could summon robo-saviors that could carry the show in a young boy’s mind. Love the jazz themesong and the way everyone is caught up with the story idea during the intro.

I can’t find a link to my favorite quote of his, so I’ll parphrase from a documentary through which I heard this:

‘I’ve found the greatest relief for my asthma to come from the aroma of gunpowder.’

It’s also John Lennon’s birthday. He was killed by a paranoid wacko as well. Both of these guys have been much mulled over in the public mind, and most Americans have some impression of each. Leftists who stood tall with a middle finger raises to ‘the Man’, fighting in different ways and to different result, but both clearly ‘enemy’ to certain minds. One said ‘Peace’ often while the other was more into saying ‘War”, but both were also saying in no uncertain terms ‘Revolution’.

It may be harder to find megolithic Rock icons these days, but Latin America still represents with the revolutionaries. Subcommandante Marcos in a way embodies the spirit of both John and Che, check him out, and the excellent documentary A Place Called Chiapas.

The entire thing is weird on several levels: imagine what the average Dylan fan looked like in ’69 and Bob himself appears relatively conservative. He was a few years past his ‘gone electric’ ‘sacrelidge’ against the folkies, recently having turned out a rather straight up country record – always mixing it up and refusing stasis for the sake of fandom. Johnny himself presenting more enigmas: a man with a history of dope and delinquency putting forward the face of ‘wholesome country host’. In all, an interesting era on many levels for a variety of reasons. They were actually friends behind the scenes, and according to the recent Scorsese doc, Bob was really touched when The Man in Black preserved a country music tradition by giving his guitar to the younger songwriter – a symbolic and literal ‘passing of the torch’.

It’s got your buddy and ATL regular, David Cross (don’t miss the link to his open letter to ‘Larry the Cable Guy’ at the bottom), a lol Rush jab, not much of the actual tune, but a laugh riot experience. I don’t know if this aired on Mr. Show or what…

Hella yeah! It makes you wonder if drumming might have gone from Mitch Mitchell to Zach Hill without the influence of electronica/technology effecting music as it has…..

A word about the name: ‘banana’ is derogatory Asian slang – as in yellow on the outside, white on the inside. This Japanese band may have some other meaning in their name as well, but they hold the flame of US 80′s DIY hardcore in their mix of Japanese noiserock.

As a nod to Pakistan’s independence day, I remind you of the great Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. You’ve most likely heard him sing at some point but might not have been aware of his background or Sufi form of Islam. I love this tidbit as well:

Apparently, when Nusrat toured in foreign countries, he would watch television commercials in order to identify the melodies and chord progressions popular in that country. He would then try to choose similar sounding songs from his repertoire for his performances.

So last night I made the scene at an underground venue in Athens going by the name of Secret Squirrel (among other things) and was priveledged to catch HAm 1 back from a Tennesee mini-tour and their friends The Mattoid which is an outfit lead by this guy whose wanderings began in Helsinki, Finland and currently calls Nashville, TN home. The music itself is something akin to the Velvet Underground, but he has a definite infectious kooky charm – for example, at one point during the set he asked the audience ‘Who’s ready to do some cocksucking?!’ and picking a woman from the audience he pointed and said ‘You! I can tell you are-’ and as everyone was laughing added ‘I can already see the cock in your mouth’, somehow had this entire exchange come off as amicable and hilarious. They then launched into a song I believe was called ‘We are here to suck your cocks’. The backing band, made of equal parts male and female, performing this routine with complete professional seriousness and occassional gospel style reverence definitely helped to pull it off. He is also supposedly a tri-toned throat singer and has invented his own guitar rhythm known as ‘sango’. You can hear some songs through the link above, and also through their myspace page and here’s a link to youtube video with questionable sound quality. He does some rippin’ covers, but unfortunately had to explain to us how Lionel Richie had stolen ‘Hello’ from him.

‘Grantchester Meadow’s’ above isn’t from either album, it’s from Ummagumma, around that general era. I believe these are alternate lyrics and a slightly different arrangement to what ended up on the album version.

Also, go out and read some more Bukowski!