some kid called chi3sa made us a video for the song "the animals are here!" off parts is parts. it's pretty good, so check it out:
good times.¶
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
genre busting
a couple days ago i was hanging with some friends, when one of them mentioned that he'd seen me referenced in nuvo in the past couple weeks. while i do kinda-sorta pay attention to nuvo, i don't read it every week, so this was news to me, and i figured i should try to locate the article in question and see what it says.
i finally tracked it down, with the help of one of my myspace friends (thanks hissica!). for one thing, it wasn't in nuvo; it was in intake, which might tell you a thing or two about the strength of the intake brand, lo these three years the paper first hit the stands.
at any rate, as a tie-in to the oranje event that happened a couple weeks back, intake thought they would offer up "a guide to music, Indianapolis-style". a noble idea, perhaps, but considering the end result, perhaps they should've left well enough alone.
i'm listed as a local example of electronic music. or at least, someone called "Stalio" is listed. now, i know my name breaks various conventions of spelling and punctuation. the currently correct spelling, for the record is stAllio!—small s, big A, exclamation point at the end. but i know most people will get that wrong, so i'm not bothered when someone uppercases the S or forgets to add that bang at the end. i imagine The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band probably feels similarly to being misattributed as "Rev. Peyton and his Big Damn Band". but "Stalio"? they don't even get the right number of L's. that's just sloppy. it's the word "stallion" with no N at the end. how hard is that?
even worse, the article also manages to misspell the names of two national bands: "Siouxie and the Banshees" and "The Locusts". (the correct names are of course "Siouxsie and the Banshees" and "The Locust".)
so anyway, electronic music is defined thusly:
so somebody at intake remembered that nuvo had written that circuit bending article back in june, and felt obligated to include it. therefore, "Stalio" is listed as a electronic artist who does circuit bending. that puts me (or Stalio) in the same field as depeche mode. of course, that piece was much more about baconhanger than it was about me. but let's move on.
personally, i would be more likely to classify myself as "experimental" than "electronic", but i wasn't listed there. this is how intake defines experimental music:
possibly the worst definition of experimental i've ever seen. "experimental" apparently equals "obscure". examples such as lee "scratch" perry are given, because there is no other term to define the wacky, crazy music of artists like lee "scratch" perry.
i'm also not listed as noise. you have to check the sidebar for intake's definition of noise: "When your music makes less sense than the sounds put out by the vacuum cleaner. Just kidding, but this stuff is pretty unorthodox in structure and output." if you didn't know what noise was before reading this, did it help? anyway, this is where "The Locusts" come in; they are the only example given. (tip: if you think the locust are noise, you probably don't listen to real noise.)
you might think i'm grumbling just because intake got the facts wrong regarding my obscure little styles of music that nobody really listens to. but i'm not! check out these other oh-so-helpful definitions:
christian music—'Any music with Christian religious overtones.' thanks, intake!
classical music—'Think Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. Anything that has violins gets tossed in there.' so The Devil Went Down to Georgia is classical music. got it.
folk music—'Music that kind of derived from acoustic stuff'. it goes on from there for another sentence, but i think you'll agree that all you really need to know is that it "kind of derived" from "acoustic stuff".
goth music—'"It's kind of based off alternative rock and punk stuff," Williams said. "It got its origins from Siouxie and the Banshees -- it has a darker outlook and feel to it."' again with the kind of stuff! is this really worthy of a direct quote? maybe we could, you know, kind of, like, reword it, or something? incidentally, i've met ryan "sweaty b" williams, who's being quoted here, and i imagine that he knows how to spell "Siouxsie", though i could be wrong.
r&b music—'Classic R&B is rhythm and blues. Modern R&B can refer to anything from Rhianna to R. Kelly.' so modern r&b is not rhythm and blues, and can range anything from the r&b side of pop music to the pop side of r&b music.
and finally, here's one of my favorites:
twee pop—'Sweet, innocent pop music written by, well, twee rockers.' the words 'twee' and 'twee rocker' are not defined.
all in all, while i'm flattered to be name-dropped at all, it would've been nice if some proper editing had been done. this thing was most likely edited to oblivion so that only the errors remained. and if anyone reads it and tries to look up "Stalio" on google, they won't find anything (unless they happen to find this blog post), so even though too much editing was done, clearly not enough was done, either.¶
i finally tracked it down, with the help of one of my myspace friends (thanks hissica!). for one thing, it wasn't in nuvo; it was in intake, which might tell you a thing or two about the strength of the intake brand, lo these three years the paper first hit the stands.
at any rate, as a tie-in to the oranje event that happened a couple weeks back, intake thought they would offer up "a guide to music, Indianapolis-style". a noble idea, perhaps, but considering the end result, perhaps they should've left well enough alone.
i'm listed as a local example of electronic music. or at least, someone called "Stalio" is listed. now, i know my name breaks various conventions of spelling and punctuation. the currently correct spelling, for the record is stAllio!—small s, big A, exclamation point at the end. but i know most people will get that wrong, so i'm not bothered when someone uppercases the S or forgets to add that bang at the end. i imagine The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band probably feels similarly to being misattributed as "Rev. Peyton and his Big Damn Band". but "Stalio"? they don't even get the right number of L's. that's just sloppy. it's the word "stallion" with no N at the end. how hard is that?
even worse, the article also manages to misspell the names of two national bands: "Siouxie and the Banshees" and "The Locusts". (the correct names are of course "Siouxsie and the Banshees" and "The Locust".)
so anyway, electronic music is defined thusly:
ELECTRONIC
Music that is either totally or mostly performed on electronic instruments -- sometimes even horribly mangled electronic devices (that leads into a subgenre called "circuit bending").
so somebody at intake remembered that nuvo had written that circuit bending article back in june, and felt obligated to include it. therefore, "Stalio" is listed as a electronic artist who does circuit bending. that puts me (or Stalio) in the same field as depeche mode. of course, that piece was much more about baconhanger than it was about me. but let's move on.
personally, i would be more likely to classify myself as "experimental" than "electronic", but i wasn't listed there. this is how intake defines experimental music:
EXPERIMENTAL
Any music that does not have a large enough number of artists or acts with enough commonality to form a cohesive, easily identifiable group, White said.
possibly the worst definition of experimental i've ever seen. "experimental" apparently equals "obscure". examples such as lee "scratch" perry are given, because there is no other term to define the wacky, crazy music of artists like lee "scratch" perry.
i'm also not listed as noise. you have to check the sidebar for intake's definition of noise: "When your music makes less sense than the sounds put out by the vacuum cleaner. Just kidding, but this stuff is pretty unorthodox in structure and output." if you didn't know what noise was before reading this, did it help? anyway, this is where "The Locusts" come in; they are the only example given. (tip: if you think the locust are noise, you probably don't listen to real noise.)
you might think i'm grumbling just because intake got the facts wrong regarding my obscure little styles of music that nobody really listens to. but i'm not! check out these other oh-so-helpful definitions:
christian music—'Any music with Christian religious overtones.' thanks, intake!
classical music—'Think Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. Anything that has violins gets tossed in there.' so The Devil Went Down to Georgia is classical music. got it.
folk music—'Music that kind of derived from acoustic stuff'. it goes on from there for another sentence, but i think you'll agree that all you really need to know is that it "kind of derived" from "acoustic stuff".
goth music—'"It's kind of based off alternative rock and punk stuff," Williams said. "It got its origins from Siouxie and the Banshees -- it has a darker outlook and feel to it."' again with the kind of stuff! is this really worthy of a direct quote? maybe we could, you know, kind of, like, reword it, or something? incidentally, i've met ryan "sweaty b" williams, who's being quoted here, and i imagine that he knows how to spell "Siouxsie", though i could be wrong.
r&b music—'Classic R&B is rhythm and blues. Modern R&B can refer to anything from Rhianna to R. Kelly.' so modern r&b is not rhythm and blues, and can range anything from the r&b side of pop music to the pop side of r&b music.
and finally, here's one of my favorites:
twee pop—'Sweet, innocent pop music written by, well, twee rockers.' the words 'twee' and 'twee rocker' are not defined.
all in all, while i'm flattered to be name-dropped at all, it would've been nice if some proper editing had been done. this thing was most likely edited to oblivion so that only the errors remained. and if anyone reads it and tries to look up "Stalio" on google, they won't find anything (unless they happen to find this blog post), so even though too much editing was done, clearly not enough was done, either.¶
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
i really hate my comcast dvr
my dvr is so stupid that you can have your "series recording" set weeks in advance, and check multiple times to confirm that your show is set to record, and then at the last minute, it will just decide to record a different showing instead. it screwed me this way with doctor who on friday (and that was the episode i'd been waiting all season for!), but that wasn't too bad because i was able to catch it at 1a.m. but tonight (monday night), it screwed me on the season premiere of heroes! rather than record it tonight at 9 like had been planned, it decided to reschedule my recording for saturday night, for no particular reason.
thankfully (and confusingly), in our decadence we now have two comcast dvrs—a new one in the office where the computers are and the old one in the living room—and the one in the living room did record heroes at 9, like i asked it to last season. but virago is asleep and i don't want to risk waking her by watching tv in the living room. she needs her sleep so she can go to work and support me financially.
my one glimmer of hope is that comcast will soon offer tivo service. the deal, announced way back in 2005, will allow customers to upgrade their existing motorola dvrs to use new tivo software, without requiring a visit by a technician. (if you opt in, your box will simply download the new software over the cable wire and install itself.) apparently comcast has finally begun rolling this out in boston, so hopefully it'll reach our area within a few months.
at any rate, while the dvr in the office screwed me on heroes, it did properly record the show that airs immediately afterward, journeyman. so, as i found myself here, ready to watch an hourlong pilot but with no heroes to tide me over, i watched journeyman.
journeyman
as i said earlier, the pitch for this show is basically quantum leap meets the butterfly effect. a san francisco reporter suddenly starts jumping back and forth in time, trying to "set right" things that went wrong in the original timeline. so yes, it's very much in the vein of quantum leap or voyagers, but decidedly darker, as the changes dan makes aren't always for the better. also, when dan returns from his little fugues into the past, he doesn't return to the same time or spot he left, so his family and friends think he's crazy. the apparatus by which dan travels through time is currently a mystery, but seems to have something to do with his ex-fiancee, who supposedly died but is now mysteriously alive.
i thought the pilot was pretty solid. i'm not entirely sold on the idea that his thought-dead ex-fiancee has something to do with his time travelling, but i'll wait and let them sell it to me, because they got the rest of the show pretty much right. it's a new twist on a classic concept; the one thing i didn't like about quantum leap (and also other shows like early edition) was that it was so unrelentingly light and uplifting; i don't think that's going to be a problem with journeyman (though no, the pilot is nowehere near as dark as the butterfly effect). then again, moon bloodgood might be hot, but she's no dean stockwell, and gretchen egolf didn't blow me away as dan's wife-slash-baby momma either.
if they can keep up the level of quality in the pilot, this could turn out to be a strong little show. it'll probably never be my favorite or a show i'm biting my nails in anticipation for, but it looks like it could be an hour of good watchin' every week, assuming it doesn't get cancelled.
overall grade: B
well, the earlier i get to bed, the earlier i can get up and watch the heroes premiere... ¶
thankfully (and confusingly), in our decadence we now have two comcast dvrs—a new one in the office where the computers are and the old one in the living room—and the one in the living room did record heroes at 9, like i asked it to last season. but virago is asleep and i don't want to risk waking her by watching tv in the living room. she needs her sleep so she can go to work and support me financially.
my one glimmer of hope is that comcast will soon offer tivo service. the deal, announced way back in 2005, will allow customers to upgrade their existing motorola dvrs to use new tivo software, without requiring a visit by a technician. (if you opt in, your box will simply download the new software over the cable wire and install itself.) apparently comcast has finally begun rolling this out in boston, so hopefully it'll reach our area within a few months.
at any rate, while the dvr in the office screwed me on heroes, it did properly record the show that airs immediately afterward, journeyman. so, as i found myself here, ready to watch an hourlong pilot but with no heroes to tide me over, i watched journeyman.
journeyman
as i said earlier, the pitch for this show is basically quantum leap meets the butterfly effect. a san francisco reporter suddenly starts jumping back and forth in time, trying to "set right" things that went wrong in the original timeline. so yes, it's very much in the vein of quantum leap or voyagers, but decidedly darker, as the changes dan makes aren't always for the better. also, when dan returns from his little fugues into the past, he doesn't return to the same time or spot he left, so his family and friends think he's crazy. the apparatus by which dan travels through time is currently a mystery, but seems to have something to do with his ex-fiancee, who supposedly died but is now mysteriously alive.
i thought the pilot was pretty solid. i'm not entirely sold on the idea that his thought-dead ex-fiancee has something to do with his time travelling, but i'll wait and let them sell it to me, because they got the rest of the show pretty much right. it's a new twist on a classic concept; the one thing i didn't like about quantum leap (and also other shows like early edition) was that it was so unrelentingly light and uplifting; i don't think that's going to be a problem with journeyman (though no, the pilot is nowehere near as dark as the butterfly effect). then again, moon bloodgood might be hot, but she's no dean stockwell, and gretchen egolf didn't blow me away as dan's wife-slash-baby momma either.
if they can keep up the level of quality in the pilot, this could turn out to be a strong little show. it'll probably never be my favorite or a show i'm biting my nails in anticipation for, but it looks like it could be an hour of good watchin' every week, assuming it doesn't get cancelled.
overall grade: B
well, the earlier i get to bed, the earlier i can get up and watch the heroes premiere... ¶
Monday, September 24, 2007
fall premieres
the fall premiere season basically started a couple weeks ago, but it seems like it's just now entering full swing, what with new nbc shows premiering and some of fox's hottest shows returning this week.
nbc has been promoting its new shows particularly hard, even offering the pilots of some of its new shows weeks ahead of time to interested viewers. i watched two of the nbc pilots on comcast on-demand and offer my thoughts for you here, in advance of the actual premieres.
chuck
nbc has been promoting this show pretty heavily, and it's on the schedule right before heroes (one of my favorites) so i thought i'd give it a shot and check out the pilot. i shut the damn thing off after 20 minutes.
this show is simply stupid, and not in a good way. i can deal with "average joe becomes super secret agent" stories—after all, the new adventues of beans baxter was my favorite show of the '87 season. but the premise of chuck is ridiculous: through contrived circumstances, nerdy chuck ends up with all the cia's secrets stuck in his head. unfortunately, this depends on a conceit—the cia stores all its intel in the form of seemingly random-looking images—that i can't imagine any real geek taking seriously for even a second.
of course, i pretty much knew what i was in for when i saw in the opening credits that the pilot was directed by mcg (also an exec producer for the show), who's perhaps best-known as the director of the charlie's angels movies. so if you like vapid hollywood crap like that, then maybe your time is worth so little to you that you might want to watch chuck.
overall grade: D
bionic woman
i've been looking forward to this show for months, and i really wanted it to be an A+, but it wasn't quite. the pilot episode, at least, is no ghost in the shell or battlestar galactica. still, despite its flaws, i definitely enjoyed it, and it does show promise to grow into the show i've dreamed of.
my first complaint about the show is that the special effects weren't as good as they could be. they weren't terrible, but they weren't great either. still, this is a problem i can overlook.
my other main complaint is that i just didn't feel the emotional connection to jamie that i should have. the main exception was the awakening scenes, where jamie wakes up in a hospital bed and her boyfriend tries to explain that large parts of her body have been replaced with machinery. jamie, naturally, freaks out big time, and these scenes are both powerful and believable. but later scenes that are supposed to convey jamie's sense of disorientation and disassociation at what's been done to her just don't hit the way they should. they gave me the feeling that the pilot was several minutes too short, like they filmed a bunch more character development but had to cut it all out to fit into 43 minutes.
still, this is just the pilot episode, burdened with introducing the cast as well as the main concepts. and unlike battlestar galactica, they didn't have the benefit of the pilot being a four-hour miniseries, so they had to cram a lot into those 43 minutes. so while it wasn't quite the geek wet dream i'd been hoping for, it could still grow into that later in the season, once things really get going.
overall grade: B
i also thought about watching the advance pilot for journeyman (which premieres tonight on nbc after heroes), but it disappeared from on-demand before i got around to it, so i have the dvr set to record it tonight. the premise behind this show is basically quantum leap meets the butterfly effect, which could be pretty good or could be not so great. but it stars kevin mckidd, who was pretty good in rome (and i'd forgotten was also in trainspotting), so i'm going to give it a chance.¶
nbc has been promoting its new shows particularly hard, even offering the pilots of some of its new shows weeks ahead of time to interested viewers. i watched two of the nbc pilots on comcast on-demand and offer my thoughts for you here, in advance of the actual premieres.
chuck
nbc has been promoting this show pretty heavily, and it's on the schedule right before heroes (one of my favorites) so i thought i'd give it a shot and check out the pilot. i shut the damn thing off after 20 minutes.
this show is simply stupid, and not in a good way. i can deal with "average joe becomes super secret agent" stories—after all, the new adventues of beans baxter was my favorite show of the '87 season. but the premise of chuck is ridiculous: through contrived circumstances, nerdy chuck ends up with all the cia's secrets stuck in his head. unfortunately, this depends on a conceit—the cia stores all its intel in the form of seemingly random-looking images—that i can't imagine any real geek taking seriously for even a second.
of course, i pretty much knew what i was in for when i saw in the opening credits that the pilot was directed by mcg (also an exec producer for the show), who's perhaps best-known as the director of the charlie's angels movies. so if you like vapid hollywood crap like that, then maybe your time is worth so little to you that you might want to watch chuck.
overall grade: D
bionic woman
i've been looking forward to this show for months, and i really wanted it to be an A+, but it wasn't quite. the pilot episode, at least, is no ghost in the shell or battlestar galactica. still, despite its flaws, i definitely enjoyed it, and it does show promise to grow into the show i've dreamed of.
my first complaint about the show is that the special effects weren't as good as they could be. they weren't terrible, but they weren't great either. still, this is a problem i can overlook.
my other main complaint is that i just didn't feel the emotional connection to jamie that i should have. the main exception was the awakening scenes, where jamie wakes up in a hospital bed and her boyfriend tries to explain that large parts of her body have been replaced with machinery. jamie, naturally, freaks out big time, and these scenes are both powerful and believable. but later scenes that are supposed to convey jamie's sense of disorientation and disassociation at what's been done to her just don't hit the way they should. they gave me the feeling that the pilot was several minutes too short, like they filmed a bunch more character development but had to cut it all out to fit into 43 minutes.
still, this is just the pilot episode, burdened with introducing the cast as well as the main concepts. and unlike battlestar galactica, they didn't have the benefit of the pilot being a four-hour miniseries, so they had to cram a lot into those 43 minutes. so while it wasn't quite the geek wet dream i'd been hoping for, it could still grow into that later in the season, once things really get going.
overall grade: B
i also thought about watching the advance pilot for journeyman (which premieres tonight on nbc after heroes), but it disappeared from on-demand before i got around to it, so i have the dvr set to record it tonight. the premise behind this show is basically quantum leap meets the butterfly effect, which could be pretty good or could be not so great. but it stars kevin mckidd, who was pretty good in rome (and i'd forgotten was also in trainspotting), so i'm going to give it a chance.¶
Friday, September 21, 2007
i guess i spoke too soon...
oops, apparently at indystar.com someone didn't get the memo that muslim-related stories should have talkback disabled... this story was posted at 12:29p.m. and has already racked up 388 comments and counting in less than four hours.
yes, all those muslim cab drivers are our open enemies!¶
The Rev. Jerry Hillenburg, pastor at Hope Baptist Church on the city's Far Westside, is calling on Mayor Bart Peterson to halt the installation of the floor-level sinks at the Indianapolis International Airport.
Hillenburg, who plans to preach a sermon Sunday titled "Stop Caving in to Islam," sent a letter to the mayor seeking a face-to-face meeting to discuss his concerns.
In a press release, Hillenburg said he opposes the use of taxpayer funds for the support of a single religion.
"We also oppose the fraternization with our open enemies during a time of war," he stated in a news release.
yes, all those muslim cab drivers are our open enemies!¶
Thursday, September 20, 2007
our new loveseat
then my mother suggested home reserve. home reserve is a mail-order outfit (located in fort wayne, indiana) that makes couches, loveseats, chairs, and more. you assemble the furniture yourself out of jigsaw-like hunks of pressboard, and can later disassemble/reassemble it when it's time to move. they have 100 different fabrics to choose from, so if you get tired of one, you can order a new fabric and switch it up.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
hey kids, want to be in "my indiana in voices"?
i stopped by the star's opinion section because i heard that marion county prosecutor carl brizzi had a letter to the editor. it was kind of dull; turns out he's concerned that his bar investments will suffer underage kids will start drinking because of a recent court ruling allowing hoosiers to order wine online. (today's tully column was a more interesting read.)but while i was there i noticed this fantastic opportunity! apparently there's this summer tradition whereby you can tell the star your "stories about life in indiana" and they'll, like, print 'em in the newspaper. on august 5th and 12th, 2007.
you'd better hurry, though, 'cause the deadline is july 30, 2007!
(click the pic for a larger shot, clearly showing that this screenshot was taken on september 19. in 2007.)
i know i pick on the star a lot, but it's so easy! and the more people they lay off and refuse to replace, the easier it gets!¶
in other news...
the indy star has finally learned its lesson regarding all the disgusting hate speech that would appear in their talkback section whenever they would post anything muslim-related. now, when the star publishes a story about local muslims, like this one about footbaths at the airport, they simply turn off talkback! it's that easy! but don't worry... the racists still have places to leave their vile comments, like over at gary welsh's advance indiana!
speaking of gary... apparently now he's in favor of dumpster diving, as he heaps praise on a journalist for "rummag[ing] through pharmacy dumpsters". i'm sure he'll be apologizing to wilson allen any day now.
in the not-exactly-news department, hoosiers hate high property taxes, but don't know what to do to replace them. and no matter how much the right-wingers holler, people don't blame bart peterson for the property tax mess. people might not be happy with the way things are in the city, but they're not so unhappy that they'd vote for that ballard guy, whoever he is.
and kanye west has demolished 50 cent in first-week sales, selling half again as many albums as fiddy sold. now 50 cent will begin the long process of backpedaling from his promise to quit rapping.¶
speaking of gary... apparently now he's in favor of dumpster diving, as he heaps praise on a journalist for "rummag[ing] through pharmacy dumpsters". i'm sure he'll be apologizing to wilson allen any day now.
in the not-exactly-news department, hoosiers hate high property taxes, but don't know what to do to replace them. and no matter how much the right-wingers holler, people don't blame bart peterson for the property tax mess. people might not be happy with the way things are in the city, but they're not so unhappy that they'd vote for that ballard guy, whoever he is.
and kanye west has demolished 50 cent in first-week sales, selling half again as many albums as fiddy sold. now 50 cent will begin the long process of backpedaling from his promise to quit rapping.¶
miss ann's case comes to a draw
miss ann's long legal struggle against the city is over... or is it?
the city and miss ann recently reached a settlement in the city's two-year lawsuit against her and the dominatrix business she formerly ran out of her house.
miss ann (under her birth name melyssa donaghy) has been commenting on various blogs trying to spin the settlement as a victory. similarly, city attorney kobi wright claims that the city achieved its objective in shutting down her business. but while the indy star article doesn't list all the details of the settlement, it seems clear that this resolution is at best a draw. as part of the settlement, miss ann has agreed to stop practicing her dominatrix business out of her home, so this is clearly not a victory for her. and the city did not get a conviction, nor will miss ann pay any fines (in fact, if anything the lawsuit radicalized miss ann, turning her into a committed peterson opponent), so it doesn't really seem like the city won, either.
but you haven't heard the last of miss ann! in the past months she's taken it upon herself to become one of the city's most vocal property tax protesters. in fact, just last sunday morning she led a micro-protest in front of the mayor's house. (i know i said that if you hate the mayor, it would make more sense to protest in front of his house than in front of the governor's mansion, but 10 people at 8:30 on a sunday morning is kind of creepy.) so we're destined to keep hearing about her at least until mayor peterson vanquishes that ballard guy in november's election.
not only that, but melyssa is now considering a countersuit against the city, for the mental anguish she's gone through. so even after ballard loses, we might keep on hearing about miss ann for ages to come. incidentally, if you are having trouble understanding why, after complaining so vociferously about all the taxpayer money that has admittedly been wasted on her case, miss ann would want to waste tons more by countersuing, well, don't worry... it doesn't make sense.
so what have we learned from this sad, sordid tale? blowback is a bitch. the mayor/the city tried to score some political points by shutting down a dominatrix who was running a business in a residential area. while they eventually succeeded, they also transformed that dominatrix into a political activist and vocal opponent of the mayor. two years ago, when the case started, i was one of the only local bloggers who even took the case seriously. but now that she's become a devoted peterson foe, she's gary welsh's best buddy and a champion of the bart lies crowd. whether you consider her a credible peterson opponent is up for debate, but it does seem like she wouldn't be one at all if the city hadn't tried to shut her down back in '05.¶
the city and miss ann recently reached a settlement in the city's two-year lawsuit against her and the dominatrix business she formerly ran out of her house.
miss ann (under her birth name melyssa donaghy) has been commenting on various blogs trying to spin the settlement as a victory. similarly, city attorney kobi wright claims that the city achieved its objective in shutting down her business. but while the indy star article doesn't list all the details of the settlement, it seems clear that this resolution is at best a draw. as part of the settlement, miss ann has agreed to stop practicing her dominatrix business out of her home, so this is clearly not a victory for her. and the city did not get a conviction, nor will miss ann pay any fines (in fact, if anything the lawsuit radicalized miss ann, turning her into a committed peterson opponent), so it doesn't really seem like the city won, either.
but you haven't heard the last of miss ann! in the past months she's taken it upon herself to become one of the city's most vocal property tax protesters. in fact, just last sunday morning she led a micro-protest in front of the mayor's house. (i know i said that if you hate the mayor, it would make more sense to protest in front of his house than in front of the governor's mansion, but 10 people at 8:30 on a sunday morning is kind of creepy.) so we're destined to keep hearing about her at least until mayor peterson vanquishes that ballard guy in november's election.
not only that, but melyssa is now considering a countersuit against the city, for the mental anguish she's gone through. so even after ballard loses, we might keep on hearing about miss ann for ages to come. incidentally, if you are having trouble understanding why, after complaining so vociferously about all the taxpayer money that has admittedly been wasted on her case, miss ann would want to waste tons more by countersuing, well, don't worry... it doesn't make sense.
so what have we learned from this sad, sordid tale? blowback is a bitch. the mayor/the city tried to score some political points by shutting down a dominatrix who was running a business in a residential area. while they eventually succeeded, they also transformed that dominatrix into a political activist and vocal opponent of the mayor. two years ago, when the case started, i was one of the only local bloggers who even took the case seriously. but now that she's become a devoted peterson foe, she's gary welsh's best buddy and a champion of the bart lies crowd. whether you consider her a credible peterson opponent is up for debate, but it does seem like she wouldn't be one at all if the city hadn't tried to shut her down back in '05.¶
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
a confession (droplift II)
okay, i admit it. i am the presumptuous bastard who made "droplift II".
like i said yesterday, i'm a member of the snuggles mailing list, where every few months someone will start a new thread asking "when are we going to make droplift II?"
two or three weeks ago, i was checking my email, reading the umpteen-millionth thread about droplift II, and i turned to my girlfriend (also a list member) and said, "someone should just record droplift II, the entire album, and just post it to the list."
she responded, "you're going to have to be that person." we have conversations like that fairly regularly, whenever i have some "clever idea" for a project, and typically i just shrug my shoulders and move on. but this time, the idea was just too good. i resisted, but in the end couldn't keep away.
the problem with the whole "droplift II" concept was that there was never any "there" there. droplift II, as discussed every few months for the past god knows how long, was basically a romantic fantasy, whereby a bunch of obscure musicians who make an obscure style of music would release a compilation and suddenly somehow attract tons of international and media attention. it was a beautiful fantasy, made more seemingly realistic by the fact that snuggles had done it before, but it was a fantasy.
past successful snuggles comps were successful because they had some hook to draw people in. the original droplift had an innovative, edgy new distribution method. FSFS had focused, high-quality political content. dictionaraoke had "the singing dictionary". these were strong ideas that not only motivated us as artists to create and release the music, but also attracted hundreds of thousands of listeners, media interest, and more.
in comparison, what did "droplift II" have? nothing. like rush hour 3, it was just going to be the same old crap, only years later after everyone had forgotten about the first one. it had nothing for us to get excited about, so it never even got off the ground. and even if it had, it had nothing to attract audiences, and so was doomed to be a flop.
any compilation worthy of the media attention we craved would need to have a good hook behind it. and if we ever found another such hook, clearly we would want to give our compilation a name that related to that idea. (this is why we called the last compilation "free speech for sale" rather than calling that droplift II. the name "droplift II" has been floating around since the year 2000.) and i'm not saying anything that hasn't been said onlist multiple times throughout the years, and yet here we were, still talking about droplift II!
it was obvious to me that we would never release a compilation called droplift II. yet, we were actively promoting it as "our next project"! at the top of the droplift site, there is a blurb announcing that "droplift II is coming!" even now, the footer of every snuggles email contains a dead link to a nonexistent droplift II website. for months, we've been promoting an album that would probably never exist.
so i decided to make my own droplift II. i could simultaneously take advantage of the marketing that had already been done, while putting the final nail in the coffin of the name "droplift II". and in so doing, i could jam the jammers. not only that, but unlike the "real" droplift II, this one actually had an idea behind it: it was not truly a compilation, but a parody of a compilation. (i'm sure someone somewhere has released a parody compilation in the past, but i'm personally not aware of a precedent.) the fact that it was not the "real droplift II" became the hook that droplift II lacked.
that night i began work on my own droplift II. i pieced it together largely out of samples i already had lying around, which allowed me to work extremely fast. since it was a parody compilation, to make it more fun and more challenging, i decided to try my best to explore many different styles of plunderphonics, including styles i normally wouldn't play around with. i made sure i had text-based stuff that sounded like the piss or wayne butane as well as really abstract stuff with little decipherable text, and everything in between. in particular i wanted to compose some homages to one of my favorite collage artists, the criminally obscure orchid spangiafora. i even toyed around with the idea of doing parodies of "famous" plunderphonic artists like girl talk or jason forrest, but ultimately didn't because i wanted to finish the record within a few weeks and duplicating their complex styles would've just taken too long.
it was important to release the record anonymously, as that way i could get more honest reactions to the prank (and the record), but i always planned to unmask myself after a couple days or weeks. in fact i left a number of musical clues in the recording about my identity, some of which were fairly blatant. but in the end, if anyone pieced together my identity using the clues, they kept it to themselves. the only person who's identified me did so by tracking down my IP address.
yes, i created a new email account called "droplifter23" to post the initial announcement. and i tried to use an anonymous web proxy to scramble my IP so it wouldn't be obviously coming from me, but i'd never used a web proxy before, and for whatever reason (most likely user error), it didn't work. the email clearly came from my IP address. oops. i then rebooted my cable modem, thinking that i would get a new IP address lease, and while the email would be traceable to my ISP (in indianapolis), at least it wouldn't point directly to my home. but apparently, even that didn't work. let that that be a lesson to you, kids: you're not anonymous when you're online. protecting your privacy is hard work.
so there you have it: droplift II. it was just a big art prank, but then again, so was the original droplift. despite that, i think it stands up as a quality recording. i made it extremely quickly, so it's rougher and has more flaws than it might have, but even still, i like to think that if someone downloaded it without knowing the backstory, they might be fooled into believing it really is a comp rather than a solo release. so go ahead, download it, give it a listen, and enjoy.
update: download droplift II via bittorrent.¶
like i said yesterday, i'm a member of the snuggles mailing list, where every few months someone will start a new thread asking "when are we going to make droplift II?"
two or three weeks ago, i was checking my email, reading the umpteen-millionth thread about droplift II, and i turned to my girlfriend (also a list member) and said, "someone should just record droplift II, the entire album, and just post it to the list."
she responded, "you're going to have to be that person." we have conversations like that fairly regularly, whenever i have some "clever idea" for a project, and typically i just shrug my shoulders and move on. but this time, the idea was just too good. i resisted, but in the end couldn't keep away.
the problem with the whole "droplift II" concept was that there was never any "there" there. droplift II, as discussed every few months for the past god knows how long, was basically a romantic fantasy, whereby a bunch of obscure musicians who make an obscure style of music would release a compilation and suddenly somehow attract tons of international and media attention. it was a beautiful fantasy, made more seemingly realistic by the fact that snuggles had done it before, but it was a fantasy.
past successful snuggles comps were successful because they had some hook to draw people in. the original droplift had an innovative, edgy new distribution method. FSFS had focused, high-quality political content. dictionaraoke had "the singing dictionary". these were strong ideas that not only motivated us as artists to create and release the music, but also attracted hundreds of thousands of listeners, media interest, and more.
in comparison, what did "droplift II" have? nothing. like rush hour 3, it was just going to be the same old crap, only years later after everyone had forgotten about the first one. it had nothing for us to get excited about, so it never even got off the ground. and even if it had, it had nothing to attract audiences, and so was doomed to be a flop.
any compilation worthy of the media attention we craved would need to have a good hook behind it. and if we ever found another such hook, clearly we would want to give our compilation a name that related to that idea. (this is why we called the last compilation "free speech for sale" rather than calling that droplift II. the name "droplift II" has been floating around since the year 2000.) and i'm not saying anything that hasn't been said onlist multiple times throughout the years, and yet here we were, still talking about droplift II!
it was obvious to me that we would never release a compilation called droplift II. yet, we were actively promoting it as "our next project"! at the top of the droplift site, there is a blurb announcing that "droplift II is coming!" even now, the footer of every snuggles email contains a dead link to a nonexistent droplift II website. for months, we've been promoting an album that would probably never exist.
so i decided to make my own droplift II. i could simultaneously take advantage of the marketing that had already been done, while putting the final nail in the coffin of the name "droplift II". and in so doing, i could jam the jammers. not only that, but unlike the "real" droplift II, this one actually had an idea behind it: it was not truly a compilation, but a parody of a compilation. (i'm sure someone somewhere has released a parody compilation in the past, but i'm personally not aware of a precedent.) the fact that it was not the "real droplift II" became the hook that droplift II lacked.
that night i began work on my own droplift II. i pieced it together largely out of samples i already had lying around, which allowed me to work extremely fast. since it was a parody compilation, to make it more fun and more challenging, i decided to try my best to explore many different styles of plunderphonics, including styles i normally wouldn't play around with. i made sure i had text-based stuff that sounded like the piss or wayne butane as well as really abstract stuff with little decipherable text, and everything in between. in particular i wanted to compose some homages to one of my favorite collage artists, the criminally obscure orchid spangiafora. i even toyed around with the idea of doing parodies of "famous" plunderphonic artists like girl talk or jason forrest, but ultimately didn't because i wanted to finish the record within a few weeks and duplicating their complex styles would've just taken too long.
it was important to release the record anonymously, as that way i could get more honest reactions to the prank (and the record), but i always planned to unmask myself after a couple days or weeks. in fact i left a number of musical clues in the recording about my identity, some of which were fairly blatant. but in the end, if anyone pieced together my identity using the clues, they kept it to themselves. the only person who's identified me did so by tracking down my IP address.
yes, i created a new email account called "droplifter23" to post the initial announcement. and i tried to use an anonymous web proxy to scramble my IP so it wouldn't be obviously coming from me, but i'd never used a web proxy before, and for whatever reason (most likely user error), it didn't work. the email clearly came from my IP address. oops. i then rebooted my cable modem, thinking that i would get a new IP address lease, and while the email would be traceable to my ISP (in indianapolis), at least it wouldn't point directly to my home. but apparently, even that didn't work. let that that be a lesson to you, kids: you're not anonymous when you're online. protecting your privacy is hard work.
so there you have it: droplift II. it was just a big art prank, but then again, so was the original droplift. despite that, i think it stands up as a quality recording. i made it extremely quickly, so it's rougher and has more flaws than it might have, but even still, i like to think that if someone downloaded it without knowing the backstory, they might be fooled into believing it really is a comp rather than a solo release. so go ahead, download it, give it a listen, and enjoy.
update: download droplift II via bittorrent.¶
Monday, September 17, 2007
droplift II?
as some of you know, i'm a member of the "snuggles" mailing list, ostensibly a list devoted to the culture-jamming collage band negativland, though n-land doesn't really come up that much.
over the past decade, the members of the list have banded together to release several online compilations of collage music, some of which have generated serious media attention (the first to really get attention was droplift; most recently there's been dictionaraoke and free speech for sale, which seems to be down, if not down permanently).
but it's been a few years since the last comp. so every six months or so, someone will post about doing another project, generically referred to as "droplift II", and then there'll be a brief discussion about it and then everyone will forget within a week. there is even a blurb at the top of the droplift site that "Droplift II is coming!" and a similar note at the bottom of every snuggles email... despite the fact that work has never even started on such a project.
until now. last night, some presumptuous bastard posted this message to the list:
a parody compilation... all the band names are parodies of snuggles bands or bands that appeared on past snuggles comps. and surprisingly, it's pretty good! though a bit on the short side (it's only 30 minutes long).
unfortunately, there was just that crappy rapidshare link to the audio. that wouldn't do, so, at least temporarily, i've posted the mp3s to my site (much like i did for stephen mcquillen a couple years back).
so here it is:
http://www.animalswithinanimals.com/droplift2/
if you're into mashups, collage, plunderphonics, et cetera, you'll probably enjoy it.¶
over the past decade, the members of the list have banded together to release several online compilations of collage music, some of which have generated serious media attention (the first to really get attention was droplift; most recently there's been dictionaraoke and free speech for sale, which seems to be down, if not down permanently).
but it's been a few years since the last comp. so every six months or so, someone will post about doing another project, generically referred to as "droplift II", and then there'll be a brief discussion about it and then everyone will forget within a week. there is even a blurb at the top of the droplift site that "Droplift II is coming!" and a similar note at the bottom of every snuggles email... despite the fact that work has never even started on such a project.
until now. last night, some presumptuous bastard posted this message to the list:
Hello everybody.
I got tired of waiting for you guys to get around to recording
Droplift II, so I went ahead and made it for you.
All you need to do is download the mp3s from Rapidshare, upload
them to the Droplift site, and you're done! Well, I guess you
might need to make some HTML files, too.
http://rapidshare.com/files/56214517/droplift2.zip.html
Tracklist:
1. Sharp Implement - Growing Up
2. Cannibals Eating Cannibals - Theme from Droplift II
3. Naked Rabbi - Cars That Go Boom
4. Orchid Spongiform Encephalopathy - Flesh's Art Trash Self
5. WRPLU - What's Lesbianism?
6. the Brainiac Figures - Havin' a Ball
7. Paranoid Exporter - Unravel
8. Stallone - A Parliament of Ritz
9. The Sh*t - My First Girlfriend
10. The Former Czechoslovakia - Adman's Lament
11. Duane Pisstake - Droplift the Needle
12. Brain Shivers - Questionable
13. Orchid Spongiform Encephalopathy - The Search for Meaning
Enjoy!
a parody compilation... all the band names are parodies of snuggles bands or bands that appeared on past snuggles comps. and surprisingly, it's pretty good! though a bit on the short side (it's only 30 minutes long).
unfortunately, there was just that crappy rapidshare link to the audio. that wouldn't do, so, at least temporarily, i've posted the mp3s to my site (much like i did for stephen mcquillen a couple years back).
so here it is:
http://www.animalswithinanimals.com/droplift2/
if you're into mashups, collage, plunderphonics, et cetera, you'll probably enjoy it.¶
Friday, September 14, 2007
how stupid does the recording industry think people are?
this stupid:
to reiterate: jay rosenthal thinks people are so stupid that when they go to youtube and watch videos of hitler dancing to "YMCA", they will actually believe that the village people support hitler. it's just too absurd for words.
and incidentally, has the term "mashup" completely lost all meaning, or what?
But what the Village People want to say to their fans is that they don't support Nazis. They also argue that YouTube is allowing people to suggest that they do.
A review of YouTube turned up several clips featuring archival footage of Hitler combined with the Village People songs, such as "Macho Man" and "Go West." It's obvious that the videos' makers are trying to be funny. The clips are edited in a way to make Hitler appear as if he's dancing and singing the songs.
But the Village People aren't laughing, said John Giacobbi, Web Sheriff's president, in an interview on Friday. He said that one has to consider that the two men who wrote the Village People's 1978 hit song "YMCA" are both Jewish.
"If there is any promotional benefit to bands like the Village People from mashups its only negligible," said Jay Rosenthal, co-legal counsel to the Recording Artists' Coalition, a group that advocates for the rights of music artists. "The fans of this group are unlikely to go online often. But what could hurt the artist is when someone sees this video and thinks that the Village People have somehow endorsed Hitler or the Nazis. To some people I think it may not be clear that they haven't."
to reiterate: jay rosenthal thinks people are so stupid that when they go to youtube and watch videos of hitler dancing to "YMCA", they will actually believe that the village people support hitler. it's just too absurd for words.
and incidentally, has the term "mashup" completely lost all meaning, or what?
Mashups are also hugely popular on YouTube. They typically feature a person lip syncing to a popular song. Other YouTube video creators shoot videos with snippets of songs played in the background. EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have all signed licensing deals with YouTube, acquired by Google last October for $1.65 billion, that allows users on the site to either access video, music or both.¶
Thursday, September 13, 2007
questions for thursday
now that greg ballard's campaign manager has quit, does anyone still seriously believe that ballard has a chance of winning? judging from the comments on the indystar site and on right-wing blogs, the dominant right-wing meme seems to have changed from "peterson's going down!" to "the GOP doesn't want ballard to win!"
what is up with the right wing's pathetic, paranoid obsession with wilson allen? it was bad enough when gary welsh announced that wilson had "earned a place in hell". now it's gotten to the point where gary is devoting entire front-page posts to slinging mud at wilson. the irony is that if the tables were turned, and wilson were posting personal info about gary, the anonymous commenters at AI would be up in arms, calling wilson a "dumpster diver" and all sorts of other names. but when gary posts personal info about wilson, the anonymous commenters at AI are up in arms... calling wilson a "dumpster diver" and all sorts of other names.
wilson allen is, of course, a former congressional staffer and campaign volunteer for julia carson. 90 out of 100 marion county residents have probably never even heard his name before, but local right-wing bloggers seem convinced that he's some sort of gay karl rove. (sorry, did i use "karl rove" and "gay" in the same sentence? oops.) i know part of it is that they blame wilson for eric dickerson's defeat in last year's congressional election (wilson turned up the infamous dickerson police report). and at least part of it is simple homophobia. but there has to be more to it, doesn't there? ¶
what is up with the right wing's pathetic, paranoid obsession with wilson allen? it was bad enough when gary welsh announced that wilson had "earned a place in hell". now it's gotten to the point where gary is devoting entire front-page posts to slinging mud at wilson. the irony is that if the tables were turned, and wilson were posting personal info about gary, the anonymous commenters at AI would be up in arms, calling wilson a "dumpster diver" and all sorts of other names. but when gary posts personal info about wilson, the anonymous commenters at AI are up in arms... calling wilson a "dumpster diver" and all sorts of other names.
wilson allen is, of course, a former congressional staffer and campaign volunteer for julia carson. 90 out of 100 marion county residents have probably never even heard his name before, but local right-wing bloggers seem convinced that he's some sort of gay karl rove. (sorry, did i use "karl rove" and "gay" in the same sentence? oops.) i know part of it is that they blame wilson for eric dickerson's defeat in last year's congressional election (wilson turned up the infamous dickerson police report). and at least part of it is simple homophobia. but there has to be more to it, doesn't there? ¶
Saturday, September 08, 2007
things i'm psyched about part 4
the bionic woman!
i don't really remember the original, but since i was a kid i've been fascinated by bionics and cybernetics. so i'm more than ready for a gritty modern american take on the subject. (until now, all i've had is ghost in the shell.) and the fact that it involves executive producer david eick, who helped bring us the excellent battlestar galactica, just makes me more excited.
please don't let this show suck, or worse yet, be awesome but quickly cancelled!¶
i don't really remember the original, but since i was a kid i've been fascinated by bionics and cybernetics. so i'm more than ready for a gritty modern american take on the subject. (until now, all i've had is ghost in the shell.) and the fact that it involves executive producer david eick, who helped bring us the excellent battlestar galactica, just makes me more excited.
please don't let this show suck, or worse yet, be awesome but quickly cancelled!¶
anyone read portuguese?
a few weeks back, i did a brief interview (via flickr private message) with a brazilian journalist about glitch art and image databending. now, i've done my share of mysterious online "interviews" that never turn into anything, but not this one: i just found the article after another brazilian was inspired to contact me about it.
so... yeah, a brazilian article about glitch art. i don't know what it says, but it looks like a basic introduction to glitch art. sooner or later i'll run it through babelfish, though i don't have high hopes that machine translation will be enough to decipher its mysteries. at any rate, even if you don't read a word of portuguese, you can still check out the article and click on one of the pictures to launch a pop-up gallery of 12 cool glitch images by me & other artists.
incidentally, there seem to be a lot of burgeoning glitch artists in south and central america, or at least i seem to run into a lot of people from places like chile. ¶
so... yeah, a brazilian article about glitch art. i don't know what it says, but it looks like a basic introduction to glitch art. sooner or later i'll run it through babelfish, though i don't have high hopes that machine translation will be enough to decipher its mysteries. at any rate, even if you don't read a word of portuguese, you can still check out the article and click on one of the pictures to launch a pop-up gallery of 12 cool glitch images by me & other artists.
incidentally, there seem to be a lot of burgeoning glitch artists in south and central america, or at least i seem to run into a lot of people from places like chile. ¶
Saturday, September 01, 2007
take out the papers and the trash
so a couple weeks ago, indy star editor-in-chief dennis ryerson admitted in a column that the star's talkback forums had deteriorated into a humiliating cesspool of ignorance and hate. he announced that the star was implementing new rules to try to get things under control there.
then, yesterday i noticed an article on indystar.com about this week's islamic society convention in plainfield, and immediately felt that sinking in my stomach that means "oh boy, the talkback commenters really hate muslims". then, remembering ryerson's column, i decided to check the comments to see if things had calmed down any. to my surprise, the talkback link was dead! hmmm... i wondered, did someone at the star kill the talkback thread because of too much anti-muslim hate speech? i smiled, thinking that maybe things are improving over there.
then i woke up. today, the star has a new story on the islamic society convention. so far, it has 109 comments and ranks an 11 on the raghead scale (i.e., you only have to read 11 comments before you find a comment that uses the word "ragheads" as a slur). also, a quick search turns up this star story from thursday, with its own rambunctious comments. (to be fair, while there's plenty of racist anti-muslim stuff at that thursday thread, it doesn't rank on the raghead scale. whether that's because there were no such posts, or because any such posts have since been deleted, i can't say.)
i don't know the solution to the talkback problem, other than much heavier moderation. but posting a short list of rules doesn't seem to be cutting it.
update: someone at the star has been deleting talkback threads! the thread that contained the R-word is gone... the whole thread has vanished. similarly, today's feature on the islamic society convention has no talkback thread whatsoever. thursday's thread is still up, though. it's not as audaciously racist as some of the others, but it's still full of lovely quotes like this: "The only problem that I have with Muslims is that so many of them breathe."¶
then, yesterday i noticed an article on indystar.com about this week's islamic society convention in plainfield, and immediately felt that sinking in my stomach that means "oh boy, the talkback commenters really hate muslims". then, remembering ryerson's column, i decided to check the comments to see if things had calmed down any. to my surprise, the talkback link was dead! hmmm... i wondered, did someone at the star kill the talkback thread because of too much anti-muslim hate speech? i smiled, thinking that maybe things are improving over there.
then i woke up. today, the star has a new story on the islamic society convention. so far, it has 109 comments and ranks an 11 on the raghead scale (i.e., you only have to read 11 comments before you find a comment that uses the word "ragheads" as a slur). also, a quick search turns up this star story from thursday, with its own rambunctious comments. (to be fair, while there's plenty of racist anti-muslim stuff at that thursday thread, it doesn't rank on the raghead scale. whether that's because there were no such posts, or because any such posts have since been deleted, i can't say.)
i don't know the solution to the talkback problem, other than much heavier moderation. but posting a short list of rules doesn't seem to be cutting it.
update: someone at the star has been deleting talkback threads! the thread that contained the R-word is gone... the whole thread has vanished. similarly, today's feature on the islamic society convention has no talkback thread whatsoever. thursday's thread is still up, though. it's not as audaciously racist as some of the others, but it's still full of lovely quotes like this: "The only problem that I have with Muslims is that so many of them breathe."¶
