Another Day In The Life Of An Audio Nerd
So we have a cat in the studio I mean "house" now...
posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 @ 02:13:10 AM || So tell me what you think.
1 comment thus far, made by Wm on Monday, November 10th, 2008 @ 09:31:57 PM.
A day in the life of an audio nerd...
posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 @ 03:31:21 AM || So tell me what you think.
5 comments thus far, last comment made by Dan on Friday, October 17th, 2008 @ 12:52:19 PM.
Strange thoughts on this nervous night in Vegas...
There is no real point to this post except for how interesting some connections are, how they act as recurring motifs or wave patterns in life that allow us to imagine, if we wish, that there is a clear and distinct narrative thread in life and that we are protagonists in our own story, that there is a story, period.
I first became aware of Hunter Thompson in 1998. At the time I was working for the largest independent business machine reseller in the midwest, managing inventory, doing some computer-y stuff, but mostly counting hours until I could go home and make music. In the repair and refurb department was a hippie. An honest-do-goodness, tie-dyed-in-the-wool throwback, who'd had actually been in San Francisco in the middle 60s, and had done more drugs than I would ever even hear of. He got very excited when he found out I was a musician and would ever after continuously ask me if I had, or could get him, some good drugs: "Me and the wife, we're still interested, you know, in going other ways, in moving reality sideways...backways, upways, downways, anyways, you know, whatever you can get." He loaned me his copy of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," and I thought it was great. I could tell it was an Important Work, even if the book's essential plotlessness and unabashed drugginess rendered the themes opaque to my inexperienced eyes and lilly white ears. The crazed energy coming off it was undeniable and made an impression.
Thinking he'd found a person to carry the torch of the hippie lifestyle, he loaned me everything he had; Herman Head comix, a VHS copy of Rainbow Bridge, more HST, etc., but it was lost on me, I couldn't stop treating it all anthropologically, as an interesting snapshot back into an era I could never possibly understand rather than as a living manifesto.
My father was also a child of the 60's, but in a different way. I never found out just how different. By the time I met my hippie friend at work, my father had been dead for over a year. I would have liked to have been able to tell my dad that I was reading Thompson and all the other stuff I'd been loaned just because of the conversation it would have sparked, just to get his version of his story from the 60s. Dad didn't go to Vietnam, but didn't take part in peace protests or love-ins or whatever (neither, to my knowledge, did my mom), and I always wish I could hear more from people like that; people who weren't on any front lines of anything and have nothing invested in keeping the 60s alive. People who were just people, doing the best they could on the cusp of the death of the Old America.
I didn't think much of Duke and Gonzo until HST's death, and then again last year, when staying at a friend's place. It was in an anonymous apartment building in Los Angeles and we were staying with him after a show. While we hung out, he put the Johnny Depp/Benicio Del Toro version of the movie on the projection TV, and I was mesmerized. I was also exhausted, though, and in a noisy room with many distractions, and so I didn't really get to see the whole thing, but bits and pieces. The irony of watching that movie while various chemicals were ingested all around me was not lost on me, nor on our host, who always chose his background media wisely, to set the mood. Such was the night.
Recently Mercedes got interested in HST, and so checked out Fear and Loathing from the library. We also went and saw the biopic, "Gonzo" that's in certain theaters right now, and to round things out, last night I thought it would be cool to watch the movie again, this time in an environment more conducive to media absorption, so we rented it on the way back from the gym, totally on a whim.
Sitting in the upstairs of my house in a quiet suburb of Wisconsin's largest city, I couldn't help but reflect. It's been almost exactly ten years since I first heard of the good Dr. Thompson. I was 24 then, I'm 34 now. When my father was in his mid-30's, he had a wife and three children and lived in a burned-out old mining town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, rusting machinery and other detritus of the Old America around him at all times. I know this, but I don't know what it means; I can't draw any parallels. Probably there aren't any. Probably it means nothing. But 10 years is a nice round number, and it's just this type of numerical coincidence — the resurgence of interest in a particular cultural figure occurring 10 years apart — that makes us look for narrative arc in our lives, inspires us to retroactively close another chapter in the book of our own personal adventure, to tie things up and begin anew, at least in some way.
But part of what Hunter was telling us, I think, in Fear and Loathing, and in the "Wave Speech" in particular, was that convincing ourselves of the presence and importance of historical narrative was problematic at best, and a terrible thing to do to ourselves at worst, and that this was one of the great crushing disappointments of all those freaks and hippies, the glorious self-proclaimed culture warriors convinced of their victory over the Old America, of the inevitable prevailing of their energy. He knew the only narratives we get are retroactive, and that there's little we can do to write the story as it goes.
As I was riding the bus home Friday, I watched a young college student jog up the sidewalk. She was blonde and lovely and her legs were light, easily lifted and set back down, her head yet held high. With the right kind of eyes, I can look back and see the high watermark of when my youth ended — and it has ended — and a new era of responsibility and change began. Thing is, I don't know when exactly that day was, and nor would it matter if I did. It didn't correspond with any other cultural shift or great change in my nation. It quietly went about its business, and now I go about mine, and all my beginnings and endings wait for more time to pass so they can reveal themselves to me, and help me to understand what it is that's been happening to me all these years.
posted on Saturday, October 4th, 2008 @ 06:45:08 PM || So tell me what you think.
2 comments thus far, last comment made by Tim on Sunday, October 12th, 2008 @ 03:25:14 AM.
Finally Made It Back To The MAM
Mercedes and I made our way downtown and caught the last day of the Gilbert and George exhibit at the MAM this weekend. We felt some trepidation in planning to do so since this weekend was also the 105th anniversary of Harley Davidson and so the city streets were clogged with 50-something bankers and lawyers and Vietnam vets on their Hawgs, but as it turned out the busses still ran on time and most of the bikers got their freak on Saturday and were pretty mellow come Sunday, when we ventured into town.
I was eager to see the G & G, but didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. While none of their work struck me as Timeless Messages of Truth and Beauty, that's not their point, not what they're going for. I was mostly just invigorated by their pieces as a modern art exhibition has not invigorated me for some time. I found their work to be very accessible, sometimes silly, but quite deep when they wanted it to be. Overall it was a fun and bracing ride that got me thinking about my own ouvre, and things I wanted to do artistically.
We also saw an exhibit of the portraiture work of Shimon and Lindemann, two Wisconsin photographers doing pretty incredible stuff. Two of the hallmarks of their pieces that I found fascinating were their use of different media (Laser Printer, Gum Bichromate, Tintype, etc.), and the fact that they only shoot subjects with whom they have a personal bond, and sometimes photograph those people multiple times over the years, so there's a fascinating contrast of same photographers, different media, and same photographers, same people, different media, different day, month, or even decade. It's some pretty incredible stuff, and it was a day well spent browsing both exhibits.
posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 @ 02:51:23 AM || So tell me what you think.
4 comments thus far, last comment made by Amy on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 @ 01:09:56 AM.
Dark Clan Music Video
It's a one-minute promo for the new album, but I think it still counts as a music video! Thanks to the mighty David_R of Korporate Media for all his work and Glenn-whose-last-name-I-still-don't-know for helping out so much, and also to The Gothsicles for helping to make the video easy on the eyes.
Share it! Link it! Spread it!
Also, go BUY MY RECORDS!
posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 @ 01:08:14 PM || So tell me what you think.
2 comments thus far, last comment made by mi lil sis on Monday, May 19th, 2008 @ 05:28:39 AM.
The Dark Clan is in ReGen Magazine's Artist Spotlight!
Word up, people, check it on out: Wherein I talk about guitars, gay men, glowsticks and goth.
This is a big honor for me, and it was super fun to do!!
posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 @ 06:53:21 PM || So tell me what you think.
3 comments thus far, last comment made by Mom on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 @ 09:19:13 PM.
Dark Clan on WORT tonight!
Hey y'all, the new Dark Clan record, The Vampire Wore White will be the New Disc At Nine on Dr. Ryan Parks' show Something Wonderful on WORT in Madison tonight!
In addition, I'll be in-studio with the good Dr. Parks to talk about the record, the upcoming midwest shows, and there will be giveaways, for sure! What'll I be giving away? Well, tune in and find out!
When? 8-11pm tonight, Monday, April 21st. I reckon the interviewing will begin around 9-ish.
Where? 89.9 on yer FM dial if you live 'round Madison.
Online? Youbetcha! Listen here: http://wort-fm.org/listen.php
Tune in, call in, check it out!
posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 @ 12:11:13 PM || So tell me what you think.
1 comment thus far, made by Mom on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 @ 05:14:25 PM.
Madison Dark Clan CD Release Party!
posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 @ 04:16:12 AM || So tell me what you think.
Long Time Comin'
The all-new mercyskye.com is up and running and definitely needs for you to go on and check it out. So nice to see MDM writing again. Her review of Cloverfield is magnificent.
posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 @ 03:29:13 PM || So tell me what you think.
1 comment thus far, made by Mom on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 @ 02:08:30 PM.
ANOTHER Free Dark Clan Track
Check it out: MORE FREE MUSIC!!!
Download New London right here!
That's right, this is the second of three free promo tracks I'm giving away to plug my new record, The Vampire Wore White, coming out February 29th on Sonic Mainline. This radio edit version of the song was mastered by Eric Oehler of Null Device in lush and wide Stereo-Awesome-Phonic Sound! It really rewards headphone listening.
Download this track, play it, share it, spread the word!
One more free track, this time a non-album special, will be released on Valentine's Day, just two weeks before The Vampire Wore White hits the streets. Be there!
posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 @ 07:31:01 PM || So tell me what you think.
2 comments thus far, last comment made by Mom on Monday, February 11th, 2008 @ 02:55:47 PM.