Holiday Party -- Now With 20% More Party Pictures!

We had our 7th annual Holiday Party at the house last night -- lots of food (click here for the menu and picture of the table), friends and some new faces. With all the bad weather Friday and into Saturday morning, I wasn't expecting many people beyond the neighbors (and even then it might be a dangerous trip across the street). But, we ended up with 24 26 people, and one of the newest members of the planet, Eight-Day-Old Alex Olsen (pictured here w/ his mother, Dawn).

Yet Another Remix

It's been a busy couple of weeks musically -- This time a remix of the Lovespirals song "Walk Away" available here. Keeps the original version's theme and instrumentation, but with a little more dub and some jazzy vocal phrasing...

I'm also AFRAIDOFSCISSORS

More SIMRONAN remixing here. Dig those scissors as hi-hats samples...

I'M AFRAID OF SWORDS

So, do you Like VNV Nation? then this may be for you ;)

I had too much time on my hands yesterday w/ the snow and all... so it would help to go here first and read from the bottom up. (Cliff Notes version -- it's a parody site of VNV Nation, hence the SIMRONAN name -- don't miss the "How To Get That Futureperfect Sound", inside synth jokes abound).

When you get to this, download it. Then later came this, and see how I spent an hour of my life yesterday.

Huge props to batty_ for hosting the track...

10 Seconds

During this holiday season, if you live in the Cleveland area, and you happen to see a commercial for Alson Jewelers, listen to the music...

Yes, that's me.

It's amazing how much time and work goes into writing and producing of a short commercial ;)
Thanks to the fine folks at Rosenberg Advertising for the opportunity.

Man, this blows...

Tony Thompson dead at 48.

Somewhere on tour Andy and John Taylor are thinking "I'm next"...

Saturday, November 8 / Pat's In The Flats (Cleveland)


tofu
no_tech
Subliminal Self

Saturday, November 8
Pat's In The Flats
2233 West 3rd
Cleveland, OH
(216) 621-8044

(at the bottom of literary hill in tremont)

The tofu set (this time) will fall somewhere in the Bremuda Triangle of downtempo, dub and glitch played with assistance of circuit bent instruments (SK-1 in particular).

The show will also feature Subliminal Self (synthpop) and no_tech (technical/melodic/chaotic idm/post-rock/dancepunk mayhem).

Show starts at 10pm, the cost is $5.

Post-Gig Wrap-Up and other hyphenated words

Thanks to all those who came out to the show Friday night -- great costumes all the way around, especially jeremy and batty_ for their borg-licious outfits.

Tenant opened the show in fine fashion with some great music, tasty drumming and very nice vocal work... I'll see if Steeeeve has pictures that we can link to... (bonus points for the DEVO outfit and energy dome).

Our set went pretty well considering it was only our seventh rehearsal... I pulled the bass DI out for a few minutes between songs, which made me look sillier than usual trying to figure it out (duh!) but all the songs sounded good (plus a nice version of "Killing Moon") and by far the best version of Pyscho Killer to date -- bringing along the French lyrics to the middle section really helped ;)

Of course the big closer "Everyday Is Halloween" by Ministry ended the set -- we did the song the original way during the verses (fake british accent and all) and then re-imagined the chorus sections as if present day Ministry were playing it. Yow!

All in all a fun evening... I think we're ready for next year.

Why I Hate Homework...

My son's homework that is. Every night it's at least three assignments, and on top of it, they're also taking their CBE's this week. Part of the problem is time management is not something a nine-year-old grasps intuitively. TV, internet, video games, Harry Potter all fight for his attention and homework comes in a distant second. Our only rule on homework is it has to be done before dinner. I'm sure there's a way to show mathematically the time allotted divided by homework load equals a very small number of minutes.

That, and much of it is writing -- lots and lots of writing. I try to stay out of the way, available for spelling checks and missing words, but some nights are better than others. He gets stuck or I have to nudge him in the right direction, or sometimes even do part of it to show him why this works and that doesn't. I don't remember 4th grade being this hard... and I know it's only going to get worse. I'm dreading the day Algebra starts...

Thankfully my daughters 1st grade homework is a little easier (plus she has the same teacher as my son had, so I'm prepared). She wants to do it right when she gets home so she can play afterwards. Check back with me in three years...

Everyday Is Halloween

As mentioned below, I've been rehearsing for a show at The Hi-Fi Club in Lakewood on Halloween night.
If you'd like a copy of the flyer Patrick made, go here.

Last Monday's practice went well -- we went through the set twice and knocked off the rough edges
on a couple of tunes and nailed others down -- we're probably 90% there with one more rehearsal to go.
The set contains songs from Bauhaus, Joy Division, Ministry, Misfits, Echo and The Bunnymen, Talking Heads and Concrete Blonde... it's been a great deal of fun to play with a band again, although my fingers might not agree. ;)

Cubs Fan Witness Protection Program

Woe to the guy who possibly cost the Cubs their shot at the World Series. They'll have to put him in the witness protection program, but the Feds would probably off him too.

Or as Craig put it -- "That wasn't a baseball game. It was a lost Seinfeld episode, with George in a front-row seat."

OK, tack this one on to my holiday list...

The Bass Station is one jacked up boombox, yo

802.11b, a 120GB hard drive, and an MP3 decoder, and that is controlled using a web browser. Besides being able to play MP3s, it can also stream audio to other devices in its local area network, double as a file-server for file-sharing. Sure to come in handy for our next breakdancing battle.

Yet More Wine Tasting

It's time again for the big Holiday wine trade shows with four scheduled last Sunday alone. Logic and logistics indicated we could only hit two shows in the time frame and still spend some quality time at each tasting. First off was the Vintage show at their huge warehouse -- 26 tables including some really nice single vineyard Zin's from Ravenswood (Monte Rosso, Barricia, Big River, Teldeschi), including the tightly allocated Old Hill Zin. Bonus points for the tchotchkes (clock, buttons and antenna balls). Also got to try some of Markko's Select Reserve Chardonnay (Late Harvest) and Pinot Noir as well as see Arnie Esterer again.

Other highlights included the Burgess "Enveiere", Domain Drouhin Pinot Noir, Mount Veeder 2000 Cab, Franciscan Meritage Magnificat, Franciscan Simi Valley Lanslide Cab, Veramonte Primus, Kenwood Jack London Cab (and bonus taste of the first Ohio pouring of their "Artist Series"), Dominus, Chateau De Pez, Pride Mountain Merlot, Mayacamas '98 Cab and the fabulous '90 Cab.

Then after a quick trip across I-480, we rolled into the Private Reserve tasting. Once settled in after receiving our "tasting tour t-shirts" we headed straight for the Shingleback (shiraz and cab) and Gatekeeper (shiraz) table (both are brought in from Precept -- and we were not disappointed. Keep an eye out for those two Australian's plus their third wine, Red Knot (shiraz and cab).

Other Hightlights: Chateau Caronnes Ste Gemme Cru Bourgeois Haut-Medoc, Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley (Volnay) Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens, Domaine Robert Arnoux Nuits St. George 1er Cru Les Corvees Pagets and Nuits St. George Les Poisets, Domaine Paul Autard Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee la Cote Rhonde, Franco Cesari (Verona) '98 Amarone Classico Superiore "Il Bosco" DOC. Bridlewood 2000 Arabesque and Syrah, Milliaire '99 Clockspring Vineyard Zin Port, Stuart Cellars '98 Zin Port (even though there's half a case in the basement already) and Duck Pond 2001 Port which is made from Merlot grapes, which is unusual...

NP: Jassen -- Juno 106's Swan Song

It's October 2nd, Right?

Liz got all the plants in off the deck on Tuesday and Wednesday in anticipation of the clear cold night (and the threat of frost), but we awoke to f'ing snow flying past the window. Then, in typical Ohio weather fashion -- the sun came out. It did look interesting on the radar though, striaght-line lake effect snow streaming off the lake, right to my house!

Cat Town. Go. Now.

It's William Faulkner's Birthday today -- go read "Light In August".

Sportscasters I Loathe, Part 27

Add Trev Albert to my growing list of guys that make me grab for the remote. Joing Bob Trumpy and Cris Collinsworth in the hall of shame.

The restraint that Rece Davis showed from choking him was commendable... I tried to sit through College Gameday Final this morning, but kept flipping over to A&E to watch the great NRBQ show (side note -- Keith Richards has finally become a talking skull -- frightening).

I've got blisters on my fingers!

I did something tonight, I haven't done in six years: I went to band practice.

There's a Halloween gig coming up in Lakewood and I'm playing bass for a cover band -- playing all your alternative Halloween favorites, such as "Bela Lugosi's Dead", "Psycho Killer", "Every Day Is Halloween", "I Want Your Skull" and who knows, depending on just how much alcohol is involved -- "Monster Mash" (as re-imagined by Ministry).

My fingers will be hurting tomorrow...

On the drive to practice, the sun was setting behind a localized rainstorm which made it look as if it were behind a smoky orange gauze curtain, very ethereal and hypnotic looking. The only other time I'm seen a sky that color was on the way to the Smiths "The Queen Is Dead" tour at Public Hall going over the same bridge (Valley View)...

The Man In Black

Just passing this link along as nice tribute to Johnny Cash. It's down at the bottom of the page. While it's no Wall Of Voodoo, it's my second favorite cover version...

alternative to what?

Matt Welch (via the Columbia Journalism Review) casts his keen eye on the recent Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) convention in SF and finds the current batch of Alternative Weeklies somewhat lacking.

All the newspapers looked the same — same format, same fonts, same columns complaining about the local daily, same sex advice, same five-thousand-word hole for the cover story. The people were largely the same, too: all but maybe 2 percent of the city-slicker journalists in attendance were white; the vast majority were either Boomer hippies or Gen X slackers. Several asked me the exact same question with the same suspicious looks on their faces: "So . . . what's your alternative experience?"

Hello, Cleveland! If that's isn't hitting both targets (Free Times / Scene) with one missive...

While all the points contained in the piece won't be news to most bloggers, it is a strong overview of who is out there and what buttons they're pushing with Journalists (with a big J).

Richard Karpel (AAN Executive Director) responds:

Too bad he didn't read the papers instead of just looking at them. Because the notion that alternative newspapers are all "the same" is an absurdity that could only be uttered by someone who hasn't read any of them. Does anyone who has spent fifteen minutes with, for instance, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the Chicago Reader, have any doubt that one is from Mars and other is from Venus? Is there a New Yorker aware of The Village Voice and New York Press who doesn't know they are vastly different in both substance and style? Are there residents of Seattle who can't tell the difference between Seattle Weekly and the Stranger? Or Cleveland Free Times and Cleveland Scene? Or, or,or .... (emphasis added)

Obviously he's never looked at the two side by side -- without looking the cover (especially if they're flipped over so the back page is showing) you'd be hard pressed to differentiate between them.