...more recent posts
Heart of Gold
, Neil Young's that is
Lucinda Williams, preview sound clips from new album : Essence / due out 6/5
The United Lodge of Theosophists
what's up with these cnet auctions? some people at my office have gotten very cheap computers, laptops, all (i think) new.
A few years back you could easily find a video moniter to buy and hook up to your vcr to receive cable. No need for the duplicate receivers in both your TV and VCR. Now all those moniters seam not to be avavilable as much. (Tom got one back in the day.) Whats keeping you from plugging any old computer moniter into a vcr for cable purposes ? The plugs are different ? How about adapters ? This is a cross post and should realy be filed under alt.sytstems_junk , but what the hey.
Seems like this happens every week: it's Thursday again. Local? Back to 8 mile Creek? Sunset in Central Park? More art? What say ye socialites?
a lady walked by my friends store--she loved this little chair @ $150 bucks she had only 40 so she said it come back with the money in a couple months so i said "hey just send me 2 checks for 110 over the next couple months"--off she goes with the chair--inside the store another two friends of the owner are talking one sez "the children of Palistine should learn Hebrew in school and the Jews should learn Arabic so they can talk in each others language..."--simple thoughts big meaning--karma all a round
"I invented lighting matches at concerts. Sorry, I did."
- Kim Fowley
Invasive emigrants displace natives in metro area. plants
For futrue reference: I'm thinking the next two Thursdays will be slightly more important (or is that boring?) than usual. I want to use this time to start explaining my thoughts on the new system (at least during the opening hours of the night.) I'm at the point of really needing some feedback, so please help if you are able. This week maybe Local again (nice to all sit around a table - we can go for dinner afterwards somewhere) and then on the 5/3 I'd like to host something at Rivington. Also this is my birthday, which I insist on celebrating in strict Hobbit fashion.
Also, the larger gathering is really taking shape now, so I'd like to throw out a tentative date of Saturday June 2nd. I won't consider silence a commitment to attend, but does anyone have any unavoidable conflicts with this date? Shaping up to be quite an interesting event.
Setting up Tom's archive led me to discover that this system was fairly broken. Apparently no one could access any individual days through the archive for any date in 2001. Accessing whole months at a time was still working. Did anyone tell me about this before? Please speak up. It's fixed now. I think I got everyone's page, but let me know if I missed someone.
Possible meteor shower tonight.
new media music for the masses (of executives)
Looks like it's Thursday again. How time flies. Anyone interested in keeping the streak of socializing alive? Maybe back to the Local? Anyone? Maybe it will be a small turnout due to the poor planning, in which case our options for venues will increase slightly. So let us know if you're on the bus or...
An effective, low-cost solution to combat mind-control.
Sandy Bull, a Master of Musical Fusion With Open Ears, Dies at 60
By JON PARELES 4/14/01 for NYT
"Sandy Bull, a guitarist, composer and improviser whose extended fantasias merged American
folk styles with jazz, classical and world music, died on Wednesday at his home in Franklin,
Tenn. He was 60.
The cause was cancer, said a friend, Jeff Hanna of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Mr. Bull came out of the folk revival of the 1950's and the early 60's. But while many of his
contemporaries were trying to recreate backwoods American styles, Mr. Bull turned his ear to
the wider world. During his career he performed not only on acoustic and electric guitars, but
also on electric bass, piano, banjo, oud, sarod and pedal steel guitar. His instincts, and his
fondness for the drone at the basis of many music styles, led him to what would later be
called fusion or world music.
Mr. Bull was born in New York City and grew up in Florida, living with his father after his
parents separated. He briefly studied drums and got his first guitar when he was 8. His
mother, Daphne Hellman, is a harpist whose repertory spans jazz and classical music, and he
began living with her in New York when he was 11.
He listened to Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly and Pete Seeger, and as a teenager he took banjo
lessons from Erik Darling of the Weavers.
By the late 1950's, Mr. Bull had begun a peripatetic career as a performer. In 1959 he played
on the streets in Paris, where he first heard Algerian music.
While studying music at Boston University in the late 1950's, he performed at Boston and
Cambridge clubs, sitting in with singers including Joan Baez. In New York in the early
1960's he worked around Greenwich Village at the Gaslight, Folk City and the Bitter End.
His music was constantly broadening. He heard Lebanese music in a friend's jewelry shop on
Macdougal Street in the Village and the Indian sarod on an album by Ravi Shankar and Ali
Akbar Khan.
Mr. Bull recorded his first album, "Fantasias," for Vanguard Records in 1962. It included
arrangements of classical pieces by Carl Orff and William Byrd, gospel and Appalachian
tunes and an extended piece based on Indian tunings; the band featured the drummer Billy
Higgins, who had been working with Ornette Coleman. Mr. Bull's next album, "Inventions,"
included Bach, Brazilian tunes and Chuck Berry's "Memphis." Mr. Bull also became a disc
jockey for a radio program called "Music of Man" on WNCN-FM in New York.
Mr. Bull moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1963 and shared an apartment with Hamza
El Din, the Nubian oud master. In the late 1960's Mr. Bull spent time in London and in
Egypt, where he performed on Radio Cairo. But by the end of the 60's he had become
addicted to heroin, a habit he finally broke in 1974. He re- emerged playing oud at shows in
Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975, and he studied sarod with Mr. Khan in 1976.
But from 1972 to 1987 he could not get a recording contract. "Some label people wanted me
to play the way I'd done on my first two albums," he said in an interview with Folk Roots
magazine. "But I was always trying to do something a little different, change, try different
approaches. I didn't want to repeat myself."
He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980's. His 1988 album, "Jukebox School of Music"
(ROM), included salsa-flavored tunes and programmed keyboard parts. His "Vehicles" in
1991 featured the Senegalese percussionist Aiyb Dieng.
Mr. Bull moved to the Nashville area in 1992 and in 1996 started his own label, Timeless
Recording Society, which released "Steel Tears," the first album to feature his singing. He
had surgery for lung cancer in 1996. In 1998 Vanguard released a compilation album, "The
Vanguard Sessions." Mr. Bull had been working on an album of instrumentals, including
solos for oud, sarod and electric guitar and a piece with percussionists from the Tito Puente
Orchestra.
He is survived by his wife, Candy; a daughter, K. C.; two sons, Jesse and Jackson; a sister,
Daisy Paradis; a brother, Digger St. John; and his mother."
Golden door closed.
The new Ellis Island Records site opened yesterday, but I haven't been able to get in yet. May try changing my name to Vilsonsku.
How those internet rumors get started.
(I was looking for a quote from Sheridan, honest.)
Situationist International Anthology
SI primer
a west wing creators problems mushroom.
chinoiseries, chinoiseries, chinoiseries, chinoiseries, chinoiseries
In following Bill's billiken link I was not entirely suprised to find that one of my favorite childhood places, Seattle's Ye Olde Cruiosity Shop had a role in clarifying the origin of the good luck charm.
The site is a bit goofy on my browser because of all the Java but some may find it worth the poke around.
Especially you James Ensor fans, this is the sort of souvenir shop he lived and worked in.
favorite charity at this moment
i should be happy i get to go to French Guiana for two weeks but i cant help but think of how in some whys it will be a sad trip--taking a river (tourist) cruise to visit some indian tribes (they dont let you all the way into the deep interior), seeing first hand thier lost of ancient ways--maybe its because i finished "Tales of the Shaman's Apprentice" or that i spent much time in the early 80's partying in Venezuala just a few 100 miles away instead of seeing first hand one of the last holdout's of ???? (the first McDonald's arrived this year) well there is a Creole/Amerindian etc food fest in one town while i am there:>)
Seems to me like the posting frequency is going up a little bit around here. Remember, if you are signed in, and the new post tracking system is driving you nuts because you can't or don't want to keep up - you can turn it off for certain pages in your preferences (link on the left of the home page - and I'll add my standard disclaimer about the interface being horrible and also how much better it will be very soon.) Also, if you like the tracking, but just want to get caught up in a single swoop, just go to clear.php3 and it will zero all the counters for you.
I Live In Weird New Jersey.
The Origin of the Billiken
Zig-Zag Man
wow. how bout matt haughey on the cover of brills content. heres the blurb.
From today's New York Times:
"Richard Evans Schultes, a swashbuckling scientist and influential Harvard University educator who was widely considered the preeminent authority on hallucinogenic and medicinal plants, died on Tuesday in Boston. He was 86 and lived in Waltham, a Boston suburb.
WFMU's most self satisfied
Douglas Wolk
I was watching ccn last night as the plane taxied acoross the tarmac and took off live from china (7:30 pm edst). The tv crew had a hand held dig video camera with a (cell?) telephone connection. Then the cops came and made 'em stop. "W" listened in on a cnn audio feed and the Generals at the pentagon watched on cable.
Any links available for info on that broadband two-way satelite company ?
Tomorrow's Thursday gathering serves as Bill's birthday party! (It's actually on Good Friday the 13th, so if we stay up till midnight you can ask him if he knows how old he is.) I don't think any firm plans have been hatched, so input is welcome. This could be an opportunity for early-comers to check out the Paul Laffoley show at Kent (Prince & Crosby), which should definitely been seen. It's only up till the 21st, and till 6:00 PM.
You just gotta love a rat eating Hawk
Wheel: I met the Butthole Surfers on the Lollapalooza Tour and we stays friendly until they stopped touring.
Paul Leary: Lollapalooza was the first tour where we didn't have to drive our own vehicle, set up our own equipment, tune our own guitars, and collect our own money at the end. That set us free so, we could get a
little bit fucked up.
Jim Berry: We all enjoyed it because we played the second slot in the afternoon. I'd be rolling the last case in by 4:30. They always took care of us, gave us plenty of beer and liquor. Our bus was a good escape for Perry Farrell and everybody else who'd want to hang out and not be bothered. No one would think, to look on the Butthole Surfers' bus.
Hale Milgrim: They totally were into improvisation. I'm a Deadhead, and I like the Butthole Surfers for some of the same reasons. This group kept on changing their sets, kept on growing and improvising. I knew that we would have some problems with key accounts that unfortunately are into censorship. I talked to the Capitol promotion department. I said, "Look, whatever you can get the group to go along with, the 'B-Hole' Surfers, would be appreciated [by the sales and marketing staff]." But I knew what I was signing. The A&R people didn't come to me and say, "Hey Hale, we want you to sign the 'B-Hole' Surfers."
Wheel: It was after the band signed to Capitol that the started playing the same show every night, I remember one day after 4 shows that were almost the same I said "You cant do this the same people come to each show" They played some different songs that night.
Yes, we experienced a fairly severe problem this morning. The server our site is hosted on went down. I'm still unclear as to the exact time (any help?) as I didn't check in as early as I usually do. From examining the logs, I believe the server was up as late as 8:18 eastern time this morning. Sometime after that it went down, and then it was back up again 12:52 pm. Not terrible, but I was a little paniced because I could tell that it was not an intermediate router that had failed (which is what usually happens when the site is slow or unreachable) but acutally our host server. Luckily everything seems to be O.K. Knock on wood, and maybe say a little prayer (or whatever you do) to the magic elves at hurricane electric for basically keeping everything working pretty well.
Yes, we experienced a fairly severe problem this morning. The server our site is hosted on went down. I'm still unclear as to the exact time (any help?) as I didn't check in as early as I usually do. From examining the logs, I believe the server was up as late as 8:18 eastern time this morning. Sometime after that it went down, and then it was back up again 12:52 pm. Not terrible, but I was a little paniced because I could tell that it was not an intermediate router that had failed (which is what usually happens when the site is slow or unreachable) but acutally our host server. Luckily everything seems to be O.K. Knock on wood, and maybe say a little prayer (or whatever you do) to the magic elves at hurricane electric for basically keeping everything working pretty well.
the prisoner appreciation society
official sister site
(From the very nice blog Dave linked to: Wood S Lot)
"NASA's main goal [in the Mars program]
is looking for life. And so life means looking
for water," said Arizona State University geologist
Phil Christensen. --AP Story
Every popular press article on Mars has a similar
quote, or line of argument. Mars-Water-Life.
Mars-Water-Life. (Christensen reversed the usual
order, but whatever.) Journalists fear that if they
don't raise hopes of finding ET in the first
paragraph, the public won't read the rest of the
story ("It's just about boring rocks and stuff"),
and scientists are afraid of losing their funding.
We're desperate, as a species, for an
extraterrestrial Daddy figure who's going to explain
it all to us: God's been something of a
disappointment the past few thousand years, so now
we're pinning our hopes on gnarly little beings with
big eyes and chicken hands. I keep hoping some
scientist will tell the Times, "Look, stop putting
words in my mouth about water and life
and all that crap. Chances are excellent
that Mars and Europa and every place else in the
solar system we're looking at are dead,
dead, dead as fucking doorknobs. Please tell your
readers that what this is really about is
astrophysics, geology, chemistry, and other
subjects they slept through in school."
It'll never happen, but I can dream.
wkcr (89.9)is playing non-stop billie holiday today, tonight and into the wee hours of the morning, so if you are home, tune in. she would have been 86 today.
Just keep in mind,there is "no known medical use" for this substance, plus you can theoretically be put to death in the U.S. for possession. Oh yeah, and it's also natuarally occuring in everyone's brain where it plays a key (if not quite understood) role in memory formation.
I say we just cut to chase and lock everybody up. (thanks to bruno for the link.)
1% er
Ratfink gone
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, godfather of hot rod culture, dies at 69
By Paul Chavez
April 6, 2001 | LOS ANGELES (AP) --
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, whose fantastic car creations and anti-hero Rat Fink
character helped define the California hotrod culture of the 1950s and '60s,
has died. He was 69.
Roth died Wednesday at his studio in Manti, Utah, said Joe Bennett, a
dispatcher with the Sanpete County Sheriff's Department. The cause of death
wasn't immediately given.
A generation of teen-age rebels across the country found a hero in Roth,
whose chrome and fiberglass creations stirred awe at car shows. Many adopted
his airbrushed anti-hero, the bug-eyed, menacing Rat Fink, who became a
cultural counterpoint to Mickey Mouse.
While Roth worked on custom cars in his garage-studio near Los Angeles,
youngsters across the country broke out the airplane glue to work on
intricate scale plastic models of his "Outlaw" roadster, bubble-topped
"Beatnik Bandit," or futuristic "Mysterion."
As a designer, Roth was considered a genius and visionary, not only for his
radical designs, but also for his pioneering use of fiberglass in car bodies.
He was described by author Tom Wolfe in his 1964 essay "The Kandy-Kolored
Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby" as the "most colorful, the most intellectual
and the most capricious" of the car customizers.
"He's the Salvador Dali of the movement -- a surrealist in his designs, a
showman by temperament, a prankster," Wolfe wrote.
Roth created Rat Fink and a host of wild characters to help finance his car
design work.
In 1974, he converted to the Mormon church and abandoned his rebel lifestyle,
however he continued to work on car designs.
"My fanaticism with cars has just destroyed my personal life," he told The
Associated Press in a 1997 interview. "It's an obsession, an addiction. Every
day I pray to God, `Release me from my calling!"'
David Chodosh, a friend and business associate, said Roth was still working
at the time of his death and was hoping to tour a new car in 2002.
"The guy over the years has epitomized cool," Chodosh said. "Even now, in so
many ways, he is still the Boss Fink."
I'm thinking that one of these days it would be fun to take a train up to the Harvard museum to see the
glass flowers which are currently being refurbished.
In 1886 the museum's first director, Mycologist George Lincoln Goodale, commissioned Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, a father-and-son team of German artisians to create the glass models.
Is any one in the treehouse interested in going up there?
This letter was in my in box this morning. I've been a fan of Bibliofind for the past couple of years, not sure I'm happy about this merger.
Dear Bibliofind Customer,
As one of our valued customers, we'd like to thank you for making
Bibliofind a leading destination for buying used, rare, and
out-of-print books. We are proud of the integral role Bibliofind
has played in developing rare and used bookselling on the Internet
and appreciate the support of our community of dealers and
customers.
Today we are pleased to announce that as of May 7, 2001,
Bibliofind will unite with Amazon.com through Amazon's Marketplace
and zShops operations. This move will better serve Bibliofind
customers by offering the unparalleled selection and ease-of-use
for which Amazon.com is famous, while continuing to provide access
to many of the Bibliofind dealers you already know and trust.
As of May 7, 2001, customers will visit a new Bibliofind home page
where they can search for millions of rare, used, and out-of-print
books presented by a network of independent booksellers through
Amazon Marketplace and zShops.
Please note that although we are joining our service with
Amazon.com's we will not transfer any personal information that
you gave Bibliofind to Amazon.com or to any other party.
Thank you again for your support of Bibliofind.
Sincerely,
Bibliofind.com
"continuing to provide access
to many of the Bibliofind dealers you already know and trust." I guess this means not all of them. I thought Amazon was going out of business.
Thursday at Rivington St.? Bereket; out by 12:00? Opinions, complaints, suggestions, modifications, updates, confirmations, alternatives, questions, lewd comments, propositions, squabbles, rants, or raves?
Someone had suggested we meet at the Top of the World. I like this idea, but I was hoping to invite a few new people along this week, and I fear that might make us a bit too big to be out on the town en mass. But if this, or any other week, turns into a light turnout maybe we should attempt this. What say you Bill, master of the WTC, is the view worth it?
Dirty detritus for filthy lucre:
Antiques Roadshow is coming to town! (Does ebay tour?)
Slow as molasses. Yes I know. Made some changes this morning in an attempt at a stop gap solution to the speed problems we've been having. Didn't seem to help too much but your mileage may vary (I can always hope.) Anyway, we are close to a solution to this problem, so with the risk of sounding like a broken record, hang in there for just a little bit longer. I'm going to fix the problem with the only sure fire solution available to someone who's not that good at building faster software - I mean, of course, I'm going to throw more hardware at it. Soon. Soon.
On a related note, I'd appreciate some feedback on possible dates for a slightly larger than average gathering. This would be something like a launch party if this were a real site that did things like have launch parties. I'm thinking sometime after the second week of May. We should be running the new software on new (dedicated) hardware by then. I guess I'd like this to be a Friday or Saturday night. And of course I'd like as many of you as possible to be able to attend. Any late May scheduling conflicts that anyone is aware of at this point? Take your time. Thanks.