Speeds, trajectories, accelerations, decelerations, accretions, erosions, flows, breaks, stoppages, ruptures, diversions, connections. We are immersed in and composed of these, and these too: collisions, splittings, pairings, edits, mixes, realtime amplifications and attentuations, detentions and freeings, rememberings and forgettings.
Hermit network, the network of hermits. Building up the voice charge. Aware of when I mute excitement and when I amplify it to please the bright network organize smile community togetherness VERSUS internal combustion alchemy ecstatic ports & enigmatic allies like free kittens, some new thing every day.
Continuous variation now. How to plough this field of view… or let it lie fallow, recovering from brutal cultivation. I have one male eye and one female eye. My third eye is questionable. Did somebody have a question? Somebody let off a stink bomb and now everybody has to breathe it! Calling upon the whirlwind is only one option. Subroutines multiply under consideration, values added and reward points adopted, like chirps of despair, hopings, pleases and thankyous.
Dick Higgins to George Maciunas, letter, November 19, 1974, Collection Archiv Sohm, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany. From p. 123 of At a Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet:
I do not believe in amateurishness: that isn’t what it is all about. But in amateurism, is simplicity. An art (by which I also mean non-art, if you prefer, so long as it is aesthetic in some way) on which one cannot hang a cycle of professional crafts and dependence. An art which by its very nature denies its perpetrators their daily bread, which must therefore come from somewhere else. Such an art must be given, in the sense that experience is shared: it cannot be placed in the market place and in this way it differs profoundly from the Fluxus-derived “movements” of earth-works or media-hype forms of concept art. Much of that work I enjoy—I even love . . . I must reject, not because it isn’t officially Fluxus, but because it isn’t free. It’s just so many hat racks for careers to be hung onto. When the name of the artist determines the market value of a work and not its meaning in our lives—beware!
I just made a podcast over at radionot.wordpress.com, about 45 minutes long. Medium bandwidth entertainment, including a few local bands. Huzzah!
Fleur chases her mom, Dr Tinycat, across the yard.
Scribbled notes, here:
Netbook as THE cultural device.
Future arrives unevenly and layered/mixed with past…
Stopped drinking (since late April) but not underindulging in coffee and chocolate. Need to drink more water.
Kittens at 3 months.
Everything: broken half the time & no reliable instructions. Strategies must be invented, then renegotiated at irregular intervals.
People like to put down what they don’t understand or don’t relate to.
I let the kittens and Dr Tinycat out of their locked upstairs suite at 5 this morning. I’d already been up for awhile, tending to data and such. Tiny wanted to go outside, so I let her. But the kittens are having fun times in the living room. Griffin totally loves the catdancer type toy… long thin strip of fabric on the end of a 1ft clear plastic rod. Now both he and Fleur are having their way with my expensive walking shoes.
Yesterday I purchased a 1 “terabyte” external hard drive. They have dropped in price dramatically over the last year. In real terms, its actual capacity is 931 gigabytes. (Computer science and marketing departments have different definitions of what a “gigabyte” is and what a “terabyte” is: marking deparments like base 10 arithmetic and computer science prefers base 2, technically speaking, and for different reasons.) As I’ve blogged in the past, I deal with large volumes of digital data, including lots of multitrack audio sessons, like band practices and gigs. Not to mention photos and videos. So more space is good: I can make safety backups and have more room to organize bits. Not exactly one of those fun-n-sexy gadgets, like an iPod, but a big hard drive is extremely useful in my cyborg life.
My tweet upon returning home from the show with Mrs. Random last night:
Santigold at Cuthbert did not disappoint. She even played a STIFFED song! And her dancers/backupsingers were beautiful robotic perfection.i
Sitting out on the patio in the back, on gorgeous day. The kittens got their first exterior excursion this afternoon. Mrs. Random saw most of it, as I was tending to a new mass storage unit (1 terrorbite external harddrive—FAT32 needed to be NTFS, yo). Dr Tinycat took her charges on an extended educational field trip around the edges of the property behind our house, mostly along the fence and in the gardens: showed them her path, her places, the big ceramic water bowl, how to catch a bug, and secret things, of which we humans will forever know nothing . I think they were out at least an hour. A very nice day to run and sneak and hop around in a brand-new big fresh-air world!
Hello blog readers. I don’t even know if I’m a “blogger” anymore. Or maybe everybody’s a “blogger” if you count Facebook. The stream is more popular than the blog now in popular consciousness, I think. Or maybe “blogs” are like big rocks out in the middle of the stream, stable regions among the constantly moving Tweets and Updates and Flickrs and ‘Tubes. As the case may be, here is another “blog entry.”
You likely have heard about the kittens and our cat tales of the past few weeks. Mrs. Random has been faithful chronicling these things in her blog, which is an honest-to-goodness journaling blog. We now have 6 cats, 2 of whom are soon closing in on 3 months (born March 10). Our house is full of felines.
Music: LaunchPad continues, strong and musical in our spy/glam/sci-fi way. We continue to meet for Swarm every other Sunday at Chez Random, and we continue to work on new projects. Our gigging schedule has been sparse lately, due to other commitments, but that could change at any time. We are post-future and not tied to earthspectations. My other bands are at best on hiatus, and a couple of them could even be finished: I hope not, but it’s not in my control, and I do not really know any more than that. HOWEVER, there is a new thing in the works, but I don’t feel like internetting about it quite yet. Something really new for me, though. So new that I’m a little apprehensive while also highly excited.
Speaking of excited, I was super lucky and was offered free tix to Santigold on Sunday at Cuthbert. YAY YAY YAY!! I love Santigold (formerly Santogold, had to change her name because of legal reasons). If you can find a copy of the record her old band Stiffed put out, do it.
Word is that that we might get more Pony Prance (new band: Tina, Kelani, Raenie) in July. I am very stoked about that! If I get more specific info, I’ll try to pass it on.
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: http://twitter.com/mr_random (@mr_random). Would love to see more of my friends tweeting. I like it way better than Facebook, for what it’s worth. Facebook is cool but feels a little clausterphobic to me. Twitter is a worldwide open conversation with friendly strangers along with friends/family. TWEET TWEET.
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Mrs. R bought me an electric guitar for my birthday and surprised me by giving it to me a week early. I’ve been playing and recording with it since Saturday. Gibson Epiphone SG G-400, 2 humbuckers, wine-red. I love the look, feel, and sound of it. The new guitar, along with Ed Cole’s founding of the 4-Track User’s Club of Eugene, has inspired me to record new soundz on my 4-track recorder.
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The era of kittens is soon coming to an end as they grow up, and two will be leaving for a new home next week. Dr Tinycat has an appointment for spaying and shots and all that. I’m apprehensive because she is basically a newly tamed feral cat, and she freaks out easily. Hoping for and visualizing the best.
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The Ovulators play what well might be their last show ever on Friday, May 15 at Sam Bonds. I still have hopes that they will release the CD they have worked so hard on over the past year-plus, and match that with a CD release party. But transitions can have a life of their own. I really don’t know what will happen.
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Space money is still happening. I have been working steadily in the mint.
Blogging and Facebooking down, MySpace even lower. Podcasting zero this month.
But Twitter http://twitter.com/mr_random
And Flickr http://flickr.com/photos/mrrandom
Looking for magick based outside of the net? May Be.
Ah Tuesday, here you are. The weekend was great, very satiating and creatively fun, including an Ovulators show at Luckey’s, and LaunchPad Swarm at Chez Random. Lots of puttering, thought experiments, rocking out, musical adventurism and so on. At the same time, feeling clouded and weighted by events and stuff I am feeling more heavily than I probably need to. Difficult for me to let go and float. I don’t even want to let go and float. Not my style. But I want to be less imprisoned by unnecessary mental and emotional attachments.
Dr Tinycat & her 4 kittens in Nest III
The kittens are 4 weeks old today, and they are starting to be mobile and playful and exploratory etc. So Mama Kitty has found a very secure and tight spot for Nest III. Mrs. R and I have been brainstorming ways of helping Dr Tinycat keep her constantly growing kittens safe, as well as preserving her freedom to come and go. We are not sure we’ll be able to do this, so the Dr might have to stay behind shut doors w/her family while we are not around to keep an eye on things. It’s an evolving situation. The kittens are an active little gang of ne’er-do-wells, you can tell already! I like the idea of placing two pairs in two different homes, and we have a couple top candidates that we’re in talks with. But it’s still early days (tho’ becoming less so every day). Thank you to all who have shown interest! And yes, for the record, Dr Tinycat will be going to the vet for spaying a.s.a.p. But the kittens need to be weaned first.
Transitions, grace. Jettisons, space.
Fresh new growth of crystal seeds,
illuminated by past glowing through.
Please come dance with me at Luckey’s on Saturday night, as Blue Horns open for The Crosswalks, and The Ovulators headline.
Ovulators fans, my advice is: be at this show!
I have some time to blog before dinner. Haven’t had much blog energy the last few days. Which is fine, since nobody pays me to post! Had lots of fun this weekend, and feel a bit exhausted today. Friday lelulaserlight came over and we worked on a LaunchPad mix after brainstorming some band projects, including silkscreening teeshirts, releasing Swarms as CD albums, with hand made packaging (Tina or Ed, I think, last night suggested releasing thumb-drive albums when I mentioned LaunchPad’s plan… are CDs over and done with?), and making music videos for LaunchPad songs. Then Mrs. Random came home and lelu went home to pick up Jonathan, and we all met at Fisherman’s Market for dinner. I had halibut fish and chips, a Ninkasi IPA and shared a plate of Poki (raw ahi with seaweed sesame salad..so good) with Mrs. R. Orbital Dave found out where we were and came and harassed us mercilessily as we were departing the restaurant.
Mr. Random during Earth Hour (photo by Tina Sarno)
On Saturday, we had the Sarno-Cole clan (sans Louis) over for dinner, and Robin prepared a lovely feast for us all. We observed Earth Hour from 8:30 until probably 10pm… we were enjoying the candles and Ed & Cosmo’s acoustic guitar playing so much that we didn’t stop at one hour. I took Tina upstairs for a successful kitten viewing–while Dr Tinycat was there! Mama allowed us to handle her babies without complaint. Later, the Dr denied a similar viewing for the Cole men. Bummer!! After our company left to relieve babysitter Sleeve, I headed over to Sam Bond’s and promptly broke birthday boy Michael Fuchs’ shotglass full of Maker’s and promptly bought him another. Happy Birthday Mickey! Chatted at length with Thom (ex-Ginger Husters back from 10 months in Nashville, full of tales) and Sleeve, back from 3(?) months in Peru working on a stoves-for-rural-familes project with his partner Laurie. (Check her blog about the project: http://pencilsforperu.blogspot.com/.) Then I rocked out to Yeltsin, who sounded and looked great.
Today, I’ve been taking it easy. Okay, time to go to dinner… Blog atcha later.
Dilettante, wishing Seeqpod playlists would embed in this WordPress blog. Dr T has taken her kittens to a further, deeper undisclosed location, safer than ever from prying eyes and fondling fingers. I will say no more.
The hits on my “Disappearing tweets” blog entry from last week went way up overnight. I think because Twitter lost a bunch more tweets yesterday. I know I lost some. Twitter is straining under heavy use, I’m sure.
I’m mixing LP swarm tracks in headphones, early morning. I know mixing in headphones is not indicated by anybody who knows anything, but it’s too early for loudspeakers.
I think internet social services encourage a lot of passive sharing. Youtubes, y’know. Definitely a few steps advanced in interactivity from talking about what I saw on teevee last night.. can send it to you, embed it in my FB etc. But still, there is so much opportunity for DIY creative production activity beyond sharing youtubes. I remain idealistic.
Is it really a good thing to be creating and enhancing “industries”? Just spitting that out there. I don’t like the word consumer and I don’t like the word industry. So industrial-era, so pumps-and-valves. Think of how those words pre-create (i.e. postulate) assumptions about the world and your life. Sure, those are fine words for speaking from within certain systems, certain rhetorical-economic contexts. But those systems & contexts are losing power and interest. Ancient knots/nots are coming untied, negated. Consumer, producer, industry, market… doesn’t all that terminology seem faded and jaded and ready to crumble? HOW DO WE WANT TO LIVE?
Just some random meandering thoughts that ended up here…. Have a good day!
My Tumblr Feed:- Amazon's Kindle 2 gets a $60 price cut, now at $299
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- mr_random on Twitter:
- @dankrag Cool! Hope to see you, Dan. We practiced our acoustic mode last Sunday. Pretty damn fun. Look for me around Shady Grove, daytime.
- FYI my band LaunchPad is planning an after hours gig @ #ocf in vicinity of Hilltop Bakery & booth P15 on Saturday. Time? 8? 9? Check at P15.
- are they gonna samba around the block?? love it when they do that
- sounds like Samba Ja in Scobert right now ... nice
- @rgticket Thanks, I appreciate that! :)
- @EdtheHead123 I'm diggin the mix tape. Thank you!!
- My July 4 visualization: the human spirit routing around tyranny & letting it die of neglect as we slough off the chains & embrace desire.
- Happy Fourth all you humanoids, robots, cyborgs and freaks. Keep on rockin' in the free world, wherever you can find it!
- Feel like I'm living in a RudyRucker/PhilpKDick world RT @LRO_NASA Wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July from the Moon!! :-)
- bass lines and changes
- InfoWeek writer tries googling w/Bing for a month, finds interface too distracting, returns to googling w/boring Google. http://bit.ly/EFyo7
- Feels like reactions to Palin's resignation are about the same as they were to her selection as McCain's running mate: "WTF??"
- just had slow-cooked beef spare ribs special w/garlic mashed spuds & broccoli w/redbellpepper at Papa's Soul Food kitchen. YUMYUMYUM
- god I love happy spaceships RT @LRO_NASA Having a great time orbiting the Moon while LROC takes more images and LOLA lases.
- RT @Katrinskaya RT @retronius: Palin is resigning because Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell performed a silent coup. #whypalinwhy
- My Most Recently Created Pandora Stations:
- Black Grape Radio July 6, 2009
- Siouxsie And The Banshees Radio May 6, 2009
- The Durutti Column Radio April 6, 2009
- The Transmitters Radio April 3, 2009
- Mary's Danish Radio April 3, 2009
- Dash Rip Rock Radio April 3, 2009
- The Funeral Party Radio April 3, 2009
- Metric Radio March 16, 2009
- Sound Tribe Sector 9 Radio February 25, 2009
- Meat Puppets Radio January 20, 2009
- Isis Radio January 7, 2009
- Stiffed Radio December 18, 2008
- Salt-N-Pepa Radio November 28, 2008
- Yob Radio October 29, 2008
- A New Kind Of Army Radio October 29, 2008
- Melt-Banana Radio August 27, 2008
- Don't Say(I Told You So) Radio August 1, 2008
- Dillinger Four Radio July 25, 2008
- t.k.akabones's QuickMix July 4, 2008
- Symptom Of The Universe Radio July 3, 2008
