Month of April, 2005

Nothing like coming home from a kickass Parts & Labor wee waa BAM BAM BAM sorta sloppy tunarific freak out thinking, 'man I guess I'll read the whole Aquarius newsletter, because maybe there really is some awesome hypen-doom band that I should be listening to to make it all make sense,' and then AQ delivers with descriptions like:

Everybody's favorite Oakland-based Carcass-worshipping death metallers (Impaled)

or

a completely unforgettable, loping
seasick main riff, relentless double kick drumming, totally heavy and

Was listening to this new Colleen album on Leaf and thinking about this argument new sparring partner Christopher put forth about how indie rock is such a watered down junk culture that corporate America and the agencies that sell it feel totally okay using it to sell their Hummers (hey, Ratatat had a Hummer ad?

Hey hey former Columbians, students, workers, friends - there's a strike at Columbia University this week. If you're around Wednesday, there's a rally at 4pm, hoping to build enough support to convince the university to allow for a grad student union. Why? Because as amusing as it is to waste the most productive years of your life teaching undergrads the beauty of Beethoven's 5th, it is not really very lucrative. I would sort of prefer to limit the number of hilarious but not very lucrative professions I have to one.

Elijah Wald: presentation on the huge set of racial and ethnic stereotypes on stage at the turn of the century, point: it wasn't just blackness that was debased/satirized. Reminds me: of the movement to understand the importance of Chinese labor in the American West. Butte, Montana.

Steve Waksman: as always, best hair. Amazing dude from Smith University, talked about Alice Cooper's art school tendancies. Great thought, maybe a Bangs quote: Alice Cooper reversed the rock standards by using music to sell hype.

just got back from EMP - great, amazing, many new friends and great ideas. will blog tomorrow.

in the meantime, make your own annoying conference paper at home with this cool link. Refresh for the truly inane wonder!

Just saw a post about the book DIY: The Rise of Lo-fi Culture by Amy Spencer. It looks promising - ahh, summer reading! I wish more stuff like this had been around when I did my undergrad thesis on DIY publishing - the only text I knew at the time was Stephen Duncombe's "Zines," which is a great book, but not broadly historical.

oh my! the only thing lamer than having too much work to do on a beautiful day is blogging about it. duh.

Anyone in town April 16, who is a raving Messiaen fan or Cabaret Voltaire fan, should go to Why Birds Sing at NYU. A little different than your given Jason King explosion, but good none the less.

In the "Youth Is Wasted On Our Young" dept. isn't there something slightly off about Avril and Usher being the childrens' choice winners at Nickelodeon?

He he he.

This might be really tasteless, and you know, half the reason I was so sad last night was reading Douglas Brinkley's excellent tribute to Hunter S. in Rolling Stone: