Once and future thing

made this comic about dishes for a “providence...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:31:35 -0500

made this comic about dishes for a “providence yearbook”-style group show at MWM pawtucket; opens tomorrow

2012 heavy rotation

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:22:00 -0500

It felt like a rough music year - Lost a lot of time to my move; Felt like a lot of things I’d been following closely either stopped or went in uninteresting directions; “A google reader full of blogs” finally reached the point of being basically useless for accessing curated new music; I didn’t go to a lot of memorable shows - but then I made this list and realized I jammed a lot of really good Ones this year.

Not gonna youtube or search for zips for any of this, but you can definitely email me “for more info” - would be really interested in doing a huge “info” trade with anyone who’s got a similar list. Or really if you have pretty much anything you think I’d want to listen to and aren’t interested in trading or having a list or whatever at all, but just want to dropbox me a huge zip, get in touch.

GIGS

Russian Tsarlag / Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase at AS220 - AHPN was the most exciting live music I heard this year. Tsarlag was inspirational, one of the best performances I’ve seen in the last four years.
Tracey Trance at Blackbox
Tracey Trance at Operatheque - He smoked a whole joint by himself in like a minute at this one, under a can light with a green light bulb in it, blowing the smoke up into the bulb. Then he was too high to figure out how to plug in his keyboard. Still ruled!
Oubliette / The Body at Savage Weekend
Geoff Mullen at Sprague Street
Pak wherever I saw her

RECORDS

telecult powers “kiss the viper’s fang” - most preferred late nite/flickering flame record since vodka soap “un chand pyramidelier”
beak> - 2
kwjaz s/t on brunch groupe - great entry in the “dvd menu heard through a wall” category, right up there with matrix metals “flamingo breeze”
bill orcutt “how the thing sings”
bodyguard “silica gel” - pretty exciting to have followed the changeling ferraro’s arc for all of these years. definitely don’t feel “spoken to” by this one (as re: the best of his jam cd-rs/the skaters catalogue c.2005-2007) but what does it matter? this might as well be by a different dude entirely (and: he actually seems to be systematically redacting his back catalogue/life from those years as best he can); it’s “good” on completely different grounds from that material. compare with earth becoming a boring film music country group, while still claiming/referring to their legacy as a “legendary band.” gimme a break b/w something in here about admiration for relentless and maniacal transformation / letting each thing come and go as it may.
studio one records infinite comps and singles
silver bullets “citta invisibli” and “free radical” still - if anyone can put me in touch with this band I’d appreciate it
tommy wright iii tape from wfmu via the incredible legowelt memphis mix
tracey trance “pyper kub”
noise nomads “tone deaf”
rhythm and sound “w/ the artists” via jeff
lazy magnet “crystal cassette”
thurston dart bach french suites via nate davis
robert ashley in sara, menchken, christ and beethoven
gavin bryars “sinking of the titanic”

big returns to:

afx richard d james
gareth williams & marie currie ”flaming tunes” - heavy jamming after leaving providence; used to listen to this at the cable car with adam in 2009
kraftwerk ”computer world” - big renaissance with this after me and jeff listened to it one night late in the summer when I was down here visiting before taking my job

MIXES

jamal moss “sample pattern” - strong candidate for “favorite thing I heard all year”
hieroglyphic being fact mix
legowelt memphis rap mix
mikeq / kingdom / nguzunguzu / total freedom fadefm 002 mix
madlib “blunted in the bomb shelter”
dj /rupture http://www.negrophonic.com/dj-rupture-mixes-free-download/ full dump of all of his old mixes from earlier today
eastern standard time radio show on wkcr
phil schaap on wkcr

TRACKS

probably there’re a few more of these but these are the ones that come to mind -

secret boyfriend “coast witch ghost (black vapor form)”
jeff rehnlund “hypogeum”
ann steel “my time”
jandek “time and space”
saukrates “father time”
tsarlag “my leg is numb”
bodyguard “black and red”
fatherfinger “flora”
eroc “die Musik vom Ölberg”
bernard szajner “the memory”
ricardo villalobos “dexter”
testpattern “modern living”
derbyshire “sea”

AND

MBV car stereo late night bombing home with Shea
Anika record on the pa at a house party in austin
Later era misc. Paul McCartney record on the pa at Adam’s house
Various Erik Ymeraga bootlegs
BQE b/w church bells heard from new apartment

made this new One for the annual space 1026 art auction this...

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:02:40 -0500

made this new One for the annual space 1026 art auction this friday; if yr in philly go make a bid. maybe if yr on the internet too? http://space1026.com/

Everyone has had crazy dreams. Let me tell you a story about...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:16:22 -0500

Everyone has had crazy dreams. Let me tell you a story about this time where we almost ran out of gas and. Have you ever moved and thrown things away? I found this thing I’d forgotten about from years ago and. A video compilation of every time you took the last look at a room you lived in and then turned away (soundtrack: current favorite song). The lingering smells of the people who fucked, cooked, sweated and smoked in the new rooms stay there like milk in coffee warmed up many times. Photo of deep silt covering wall-to-wall carpeting, a reading chair buried up to its cushions, 10,000 terra-cotta soldiers unearthed, one reading a dusty red copy of the New York Times.

During a recent hurricane our lights flickered a couple times. A few blocks away our friends’ house was destroyed. Hard to think of anything indestructibly a part of myself beyond my family and my ideas, though I’m aware of my other current attachments. The internet went out for a few hours. I dream of the Susquehanna flooding sometimes, they’re crazy dreams and. On the way home from work I saw the Brooklyn Bridge disappearing into dark Manhattan. We made ravioli.

ospreys #1-10 redrawn over a couple days april 2011

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 23:49:36 -0400

ospreys #1-10 redrawn over a couple days april 2011

The lady at the bank said, “Sorry Thomas do you have time,...

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 23:15:00 -0400

The lady at the bank said, “Sorry Thomas do you have time, or are you swamped?” so I said I was on lunch. The lady at the bank put her hands on her hips and whispered, “I’m waving the associated fees.” As I was waiting the lady at the bank said, “Have another munchkin,” and I touched a chocolate munchkin (or donut hole). The lady at the bank said “Did you try the pumpkin flavor?” as I did so so I said “I’ll have the chocolate” and she almost rolled her eyes? Another lady at the bank who I’d seen before came out of the back room and smiled saying, “Hi Thomas, nice to see you,” and the lady at the bank said to the other lady at the bank, “We’re just going to go ahead and wave Thomas’s fees, we really need to take care of Thomas,” and “Thomas, have another munchkin.”

late july 1995 last page

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:27:18 -0400

late july 1995 last page

late july 1995 page 8

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late july 1995 page 7

late july 1995 page 6

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late july 1995 page 6

late july 1995 page 5

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late july 1995 page 5

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late july 1995 page 4

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late july 1995 page 3

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late july 1995 page 2

late july 1995 page 1

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late july 1995 page 1

At Busker’s, the Newport “gastropub” we go to,...

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 17:19:37 -0400

At Busker’s, the Newport “gastropub” we go to, the waiter says they drink Murphy’s in the North, and Guinness in the South. I keep going there wanting a shepherd’s pie but ordering something else. My new apartment is empty. I have one pot, one spoon, one fork, one bowl, and one plate. The first time someone tried to make coffee in the coffee machine at work, it overflowed. The first dinner I cooked in my apartment was a shepherd’s pie. The first time I tried to cook it I fell asleep. They serve Narragansett beer in some New York bars, but why? Regional darkness can’t really be exported; you’ve gotta be there. I haven’t been to Ireland since 1996. Newport is in the South of Rhode Island. I drink Murphy’s when we go to Busker’s.

To cook a shepherd’s pie without cookware, begin by taking a job. A month later, you’ll have an apartment. Begin boiling five potatoes. Clean the bathtub and kitchen tiles until you get too tired. Turn off the boil. Go to bed, then to work. After work, continue boiling the potatoes. When they’re soft, remove to your one bowl. Remove their skins with your fingers. Melt about a fifth of a stick of butter in the pot. Take the cloves from half a head of garlic. Crush them with your spoon and discard their skins. Add them to the butter. Pull the tops and bottoms from what you consider “a grip” of green beans; you can do this four or five at a time. Twist fistfuls of them in half and add them to the pot. Puncture a tomato with your fork around its middle, until you can twist it in half. Repeat similarly to create fourths. Tear these into pieces and drop in. Add half a pound of ground lamb, and break this up in the pot with the spoon. Shuck an ear of corn, hold the ear over the pot, and scrape the kernels from the husk into the pot with the spoon. Add salt. Throw in a handful of raisins. Re-add maybe four of the potatoes and smash it all together. Don’t put any cheese on it because all you’ve been eating is cheese on bread for weeks. Add more salt if you want. Drink Yuengling lager, a beer you consider regional because you couldn’t drink it for the past four years, though you recall drinking it as far away as Florida, but mainly in Philadelphia, as you spilled ink on the wall-to-wall carpets which were later torn up.

Now I live at 111 President Street #3, Brooklyn NY, 11231. My...

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 23:02:50 -0400

Now I live at 111 President Street #3, Brooklyn NY, 11231. My landlord is an architect. My past landlords have included a guy who goes to Canada, a company I never interacted with, a guy who shot softcore porn, a principal who smoked, a guy I never met, a woman who insisted I keep the second floor front room locked, a woman who kept my security deposit, and Bill Cartilage, who my roommates joked “drank gin at breakfast.” My landlord told me that when AutoCAD came out, he learned it. Not everyone from before AutoCAD did, I said. I know, he said, But why wouldn’t you?

Earlier I was thinking, I change my t-shirt every day now....

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 21:30:42 -0400

Earlier I was thinking, I change my t-shirt every day now. There’s a phrase, Wears the pants, used to refer to a person’s having power in a given situation. There’s another one about chaotic improvisatory or poorly-planned action, which is, [Flies] by the seat of [one’s] pants. So, if you’re sitting on your throne, you’re wearing pants directly; if you’re flying, freewheeling, rambling along, etc., it can still be safely assumed that you’re wearing pants. So, you always wear pants, but what changes is whether this is directly or indirectly understood. There’s a phrase, Wears many different hats, which to me has a negative, vague connotation of insincerity. When I buy new pants, I often buy multiple pairs. When I wear them, I wear them until they disintegrate. I do not wear a hat, but I keep my hair in a bun.

Part of the routine has been, KW gives me sheets, and I put the...

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 21:27:52 -0400

Part of the routine has been, KW gives me sheets, and I put the sheets onto the couch. Growing up I liked how the feet of the piano left deep indentations in the carpet. I had a hard time sleeping in beds between when I left Philadelphia and when I got to Providence. We called the room with the piano “the piano room.” I slept in there on the floor after I left Philadelphia. Different friends have slept on the piano room’s couch. Part of the routine has been, my mom gives them sheets. If you crawl into the piano room to look at the indentations it wears away the knees of your sweatpants. If you sit on the couch when the couch doesn’t have the sheets your friends sleep on, the couch’s upholstery is cold. If you sleep in one of the indentations in the carpet and look up into the piano, you’ll be in Providence. If you sleep on the couch without the sheets, and crawl along the cold upholstery, you’ll be in Philadelphia.

In my email a cameraphone of a page that reads “It felt so...

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 01:04:55 -0400

In my email a cameraphone of a page that reads “It felt so good / to get my sunburn / But now I’ve got it” and I write back “????? what is this.” Traditional masculine interests include: Tom Waits, William Burroughs. In the story of Ichabod Crane, it weirdly turns out that the headless horseman is Paul Revere. Recall that Ichabod is a school teacher, and am I wrong in thinking that Paul is from Boston, and works as a lawyer, researcher, or in a nonprofit? Traditional masculine interests include: other men. The sinking suspicion that all men who fly kites without day jobs in America equate themselves either on some level or at some point with Ben Franklin, and that doing a mysterious thing for abstract results is connected to a certain kind of classical wooly American masculinity, and that connecting to this particular masculinity can validate a certain kind of wasteful or extravagant behavior. Ben Franklin had syphilis (though I googled this and his biographer says that Franklin “never had a venereal disease” to which I’m like, well what about anxiety about roommate dishes?, what about a vague sinking feeling about the nature of his work?, what about the horrible feeling of thinking about his own inevitable private human failings and betrayals?, or at least, well, it makes sense: Franklin’s only ever discussed in the context of other 18th century Philadelphia men, so I mean, syphilis by whatever name, etc.). The page was (or is from) a Joshua Beckman poem. I enjoyed The Soft Machine a lot last year but don’t listen to Tom Waits much anymore. Recently I dreamed the Notorious BIG hired me to be a 4th string tackle for an NFL team he owned; we walked together through the stands and I worried that if i was put in the game, I would be killed. In the dream I found the young Biggie extremely handsome, with soft skin. I have no interest in football. I am very interested in stadiums, however.