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Mary Beth and I went to Ballet Memphis to see their "dance in 30" performance of selections from Napoli (this Danish ballet from 1842). This program/series this is for little short pieces that are, as the name suggests, about 30 minutes long. So we saw a little bit of dancing! Not a whole lot else. I went to bed at a decent time but we stayed up in bed obsessing over our word puzzles on our phones so I got to sleep actually a bit late. I feel just fine though!
Brahms Unplugged
Sep. 5th, 2025 08:02 amMary Beth and I went down to the Halloran Center for one of Memphis Symphony Orchestra's "unplugged" concerts (the first one we'd been to...were kind of confused as to the meaning of "unplugged" in the context of an orchestra...but it's more of an (relatively) intimate "deep dive" into one composer or work that mixes in a lecture with the concert). This was for Brahms's Symphony No. 1. So for the first half Robert Moody (the conductor) was giving a lecture with amusing anecdotes and stuff about Brahms's life. After a bit all of the strings came out and they did the Hungarian Dance No. 5 (so that was nice!). Then he was going into the musical elements of the symphony, and the rest of the orchestra came out and they would play brief little sections of it as he was talking about them (lots of references or homages to Beethoven in there, but some other stuff). Then after the intermission they did the whole symphony (with some notes here and there referring back to the lecture projected behind them). It was good and I really enjoyed the piece. Nice to finally know what the whole "unplugged" thing is all about! I think the real first season premier concert is in a few weeks, but it was fun getting a soft opening. I quite liked the Brahms piece they did in the last season so it was nice to dive in a little more.
Not a whole lot to report, but there is something that I, like a major idiot, forgot to mention in my last post. On Tuesday afternoon, Michelle gave Mary Beth a facetime call and I was able to sneak up to it and in the call we got to see Zoe (our new niece)!!! Of course she's so damn cute! (Oh wow, I just realized that she's our first niece! It's only nephews on my side of the family!) She pretty much was asleep the whole time. It was good to see Michelle too. Okay, that's it from the aunt and uncle.
I got some things in the mail. My replacement lid for the Zoviet France box set arrived. The day before DHL was going to suspend all shipments to the U.S., he just went ahead and sent the few replacements for broken parts to the U.S. and I didn't even have to reach out to him about it first. So it came and it's not broken, that's cool and that was very nice! I also got the small straight brackets for my modular power supply! The size of the brackets themselves is perfect, I think...but the only problem is that they're just A HAIR too small for the machine screws that screw into the board. I think like the base of the screw is just the size of the holes and the threads push them over. Very frustrating. I may be able to use Josh's drill press at some point to widen the holes just a teensy bit. God this whole thing has been annoying. I'm perpetually SO CLOSE. Anyway, also in the mail a couple cds: Dead Voices on Air: Abrader Redux and Coil: Astral Disaster Sessions Un/Finished Musics Vol 2 (I wonder if I'll ever be able to get the first volume or the actual album...I seem to have missed the boat and just barely even gotten this one). Anyway, I meant to share this next thing in my last post but then I forgot. I did a review on fb for this root beer I got at TFM recently.
It's a little-known fact, but the reason this is called Devil's Foot is because that's what it tastes like. Even though it has the appearance of bougie, over-marketed, overpriced bullshit, I was willing to give it a shot because of its claim to be made with real honey (and should it be merely half as good as Sprecher, that'd still be something special). But in spite of that and its further claims of using cane sugar and brown sugar, it somehow manages to taste like diet root beer. I really tried to give it a chance since I'd already spent too much money on it, but 2.5 cans out of 4 are getting poured down the drain.
Had a pretty lazy Labor Day. In the evening, Mary Beth did her lawn bath and I hung out in the front yard reading and drinking one of the last of my Mexicokes (will I ever be able to get more again?). That's about it for that day.
I did remember something I forgot to mention when talking about The Lamplighter show on Saturday. Between the acts, some guy came up and talked to me. Asked me which band I was there to see so I mentioned both of them (how I love Drop Ceiling and also how I had been in a band a long time ago with one of the guys in Revenge Bodies). He said he'd just come 'cuz he saw it was a punk band playing. He asked if I made music and I mentioned how I mostly just set up experimental music shows and he was like "are you Memphis concrete?" (pronounced without the accent as most people who don't hear it from me naturally would!). Anyway, fun to see that it's just kind of something random people at least have heard of. Also, ran into Matt Jones before the show and he was just gushing about how good The Terminator live score was so that was nice! Okay, that's all I've got and I'll shut up now.
I did remember something I forgot to mention when talking about The Lamplighter show on Saturday. Between the acts, some guy came up and talked to me. Asked me which band I was there to see so I mentioned both of them (how I love Drop Ceiling and also how I had been in a band a long time ago with one of the guys in Revenge Bodies). He said he'd just come 'cuz he saw it was a punk band playing. He asked if I made music and I mentioned how I mostly just set up experimental music shows and he was like "are you Memphis concrete?" (pronounced without the accent as most people who don't hear it from me naturally would!). Anyway, fun to see that it's just kind of something random people at least have heard of. Also, ran into Matt Jones before the show and he was just gushing about how good The Terminator live score was so that was nice! Okay, that's all I've got and I'll shut up now.
In the afternoon, Mary Beth and I went to Paradiso to see a big ol' IMAX screening of Prince's Sign "o" the Times concert movie. (Though I'm not a Prince fan, Mary Beth does like Prince a lot.) I did like when the band came out towards the end of the first song playing marching toms. The dramatic elements were pretty ridiculous and it feels a bit weird watching a "concert" that was mostly recorded in a studio and on a sound stage, but I guess the theater is the point of it. After that I went and met Paul at the Java Cabana as he's back in town on a brief visit. So we talked and hung out for a while and it was great to see him again. Then later Mary Beth and I went to Mark's birthday party at Betsy's and his house. It was a nice back deck hang with a fire pit and everything (even though it was still technically August yesterday, the evening was pretty on the cool side, maybe the fire was hopeful, but it's still fun to be around). Saw a lot of people and hung out and talked and stuff.
Mary Beth and I went to another class at the Metal Museum. This one was for making spoon rings. They provided the cut off handle of a baby spoon and then we bent it til it was made into a ring. There was a machine to help with it and Mary Beth used it, but since there was one I figured I'd just do it the hard way they also showed of hammering it while it's in a vice so other people could have a chance to use the machine if they wanted. There were a variety of tools to use but it was a little bit of a pain to get it just the right size, the slightest thing would make it either too big or too small. I dinged mine up a whole lot, and in the end got some help to finish the last touches. It was fun, though easily the hardest of these that we've done! Coming home we swung by TFM and picked up a few things.
Then at night I went to a show at The Lamplighter. There was kind of this deconstructed Drop Ceiling performance. First, Peter did a duet with Spence (I found out Peter wasn't at that last Drop Ceiling show because he just got back from Germany). And it ended up with Schaeffer doing a duet with Logan. And then in the middle all four were playing together for a little bit. So it was this continual shifting configuration. It was really good as those dudes always are. Then the other group was Revenge Bodies (not to be confused with Jacques and his Revenge Body)! They're from Little Rock and this is Dave's current band, Dave who currently lives in Little Rock but was in Memphis for a good while back and I was in a punk band with him and Jason Ledet called Culture Rubs You the Wrong Way in the late 90s. So I hadn't seen him in forever. I knew Revenge Bodies was punk and I was expecting something maybe on the hardcore side, and while I guess there is something of that element, they mostly reminded me of Fugazi and they were really good. So that was awesome to see him again and dig his band so much. They did a Dead Kennedys cover and that was fun (Dave was also warming up before they played with "Down on the Street"). He plays bass in this band (he played guitar when I played with him so I was expecting that). He also does a cool thing now and again where he hits a chord on the bass and it's a little dissonant and heavy and cool-sounding. Anyway, that was a fun show!
Then at night I went to a show at The Lamplighter. There was kind of this deconstructed Drop Ceiling performance. First, Peter did a duet with Spence (I found out Peter wasn't at that last Drop Ceiling show because he just got back from Germany). And it ended up with Schaeffer doing a duet with Logan. And then in the middle all four were playing together for a little bit. So it was this continual shifting configuration. It was really good as those dudes always are. Then the other group was Revenge Bodies (not to be confused with Jacques and his Revenge Body)! They're from Little Rock and this is Dave's current band, Dave who currently lives in Little Rock but was in Memphis for a good while back and I was in a punk band with him and Jason Ledet called Culture Rubs You the Wrong Way in the late 90s. So I hadn't seen him in forever. I knew Revenge Bodies was punk and I was expecting something maybe on the hardcore side, and while I guess there is something of that element, they mostly reminded me of Fugazi and they were really good. So that was awesome to see him again and dig his band so much. They did a Dead Kennedys cover and that was fun (Dave was also warming up before they played with "Down on the Street"). He plays bass in this band (he played guitar when I played with him so I was expecting that). He also does a cool thing now and again where he hits a chord on the bass and it's a little dissonant and heavy and cool-sounding. Anyway, that was a fun show!
No One Left Who Would Be Interested
Aug. 30th, 2025 10:36 amI got some cds in the mail: Dead Voices on Air: Piss Frond, Dead Voices on Air: Shap, Lozenge: Doozy (thanks to Mary Beth's other cd of their I guess she didn't even realize was something she has), Aube: Triad Thread, and Francisco López: Absolute Noise Ensemble (this last one has a lot of collaborators spliced into it...one of them happens to be Mike Honeycutt, so!). I finished reading Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor and it was really good. It overall doesn't have a bleak FEEL and it can be humorous and charming and all, but when it hits those very sharply pointed moments, it can be pretty devastatingly bleak (and I guess that sense of hopeless isolation and loneliness hovers over the whole thing). And in two pivotal moments it had me weeping a bit (not in a sentimental sort of way...it does have a light touch but the touch in those moments are very penetrating and abject). There are also a lot of complexities with the characters and their relationships to each other. The one person who's closest to being an "antagonist" is the one you end up feeling the sorriest for, and the person who is the best and most "helpful" (I mean, he really is in a sense) is also...well, it's definitely not an altruistically perfect thing (which doesn't take away from the good there is). Shortly after finishing the book, I discovered there was a movie adaptation in the aughts and I was hate-reading about it (from a pretty universal impression, even from positive reviews, that it's a bland, heartwarming, soulless, feelgood movie that makes the friendship between the young man and the old woman too perfect (even people who like it claiming that that part is very unrealistic...which is way the opposite of in the book, how even when it's good, it's still awkward and flawed and somewhat begrudging), turning what was at its core an unflinching depiction of the descending stages of the indignity of old age into a sappy little moral lesson on the importance of chosen families (which, the importance of chosen families is something that is in the book...but it's not romanticized and while it does bring about the best things that happen, it's also unreliable and inconsistent and doesn't save anything)). Okay, I've ranted enough about a movie I haven't even seen! At night Mary Beth and I hung outside on the deck with Peanut for a little bit.
Talking about Some Cats
Aug. 29th, 2025 07:56 amAfter work I went quickly to a different Kroger than I went to the night before, just for a few things I wasn't able to get at the one (and managed to get at the other, so success). In the evening Mary Beth and I went on another walk. Similar length. This time, on one of the streets we walk on, we crossed the street to a side we don't usually walk on. This is the one where all of the Ori offspring live (see...this one cat we call Lori (think she's a stray, but hangs around a few houses, she seems to be good friends with this cat that has a house named Tori who she hangs out with over there a lot, even more now) had some kittens a ways back so we named them Nori, Rori, and Jori...hence the Oris...they ended up all being taken in by another nearby house). Well they were all out on the porch and we're usually across the street when we see them and we stopped and looked and admired them, but they saw us looking and they all jumped down and started approaching us...VERY friendly! Well, we had to extricate ourselves before we got too entangled. We also think we saw Io (who lives a few blocks over) inside a window for the first time. The joys of walking again...seeing cats! Also, the weather was just insanely nice. It almost felt cold outside (for August anyway)! Mary Beth wanted to enjoy it and sit out on the deck at night so we did and Peanut joined us and was very cuddly and friendly. So we had a nice "fall" night hangout.
Had what feels like a major breakthrough yesterday. Mary Beth and I went for a walk in the late afternoon after work. The first one since she tore her calf muscle. We cut it a little bit short as she didn't want to push it too hard, but we walked the majority of our normal route. Also, the weather has been weirdly lovely for August the past several days so it was nice to take advantage of that.
Mary Beth and I did our Superlo grocery run on an off day yesterday as we have something else to do tonight! We also threw in a Target run while we were at it. So yeah, mundane shopping! I also finally finished mixing The Memphis Concrète Electroacoustic Chamber Ensemble recording from the festival. I had recorded all the audio at the festival off the board. Now for something like this, with mic'd acoustic instruments, that's not the best way to do it of course (but a cheap and easy fire-and-forget way to get most of the festival recorded in a way that does work for most of the artists). So on that recording, the instruments that are quieter in the room are louder in the mix and vice versa. So I mixed it with the audio from the video camera. Now that gets all the room sounds with all the pros and cons of it. I took a while fiddling with the eq and such. The flute was the hardest instrument to bring out. It was the second loudest in the board recording but the violin was consistently louder. And it was the instrument physically farthest away in the room from the camera (along with not being as loud as the closer ones) so at times it was a little harder to hear (often it came through fine, but still). So I did a bit to boost the highs but that also brought up the general noise and made it sound a bit hot if I did it too much, so I spent some time trying to strike the balance there. In the middle of it I got to where I was thinking it wasn't sounding good. But after I finished and stepped away and uploaded it and listened again, I thought it sounded good. But I'm not one to be able to tell! Last night I had that Sunday not-able-to-fall-asleep thing so time to wake up, damnit.
Larry the plumber came by and fixed a toilet that wouldn't stop running. He also looked at our deck to see what'll be needed to fix it as it's starting to get decrepit once again (I guess I shouldn't refer to him as "plumber" as he pretty much does all the handiwork now, though he started off as more of just a plumber). Not a whole lot else. In the afternoon we ran a few errands including going to TFM for a few things including sushi for dinner. That's about it.
Mary Beth and I had a double feature last night. First we went up to the Brooks for this candlelight Fleetwood Mac string quartet thing. It's all run by some corporate thing that's pretty annoying, but the actual music was fun. It was musicians we recognize from the symphony. It was good but I can't believe they didn't do "Dreams"! (At least they did "Rhiannon".) Funny crowd at that one, I mean, what you'd expect. We got there and went downstairs to wait for them to start letting people in because they have this weird sectioned seating they're very anal about (Mary Beth had been to one before) and she knew it'd be a pain to get a seat where she could see if she didn't get at the front of the line. Upstairs they had a bar and people were milling about getting drinks and stuff. We're there downstairs waiting for them to open up for a little while. Just before they finally do a couple comes down to start waiting too and the woman starts off edging down the stairs like she's poising herself to get ahead of us. Then the woman at the door tells Mary Beth she can come up first and that woman behind us starts throwing a little hissy fit saying "we were here thirty minutes before they were" and the guy with her was quietly trying to be like "why are you doing this?" and the woman at the door just ignored her and gestured to Mary Beth. But then it was mildly awkward (only mildly, really, 'cuz we were just laughing at her) because the woman checking us in kept acting like they were about ready but then would look in the room and wait longer so we were just standing there with the obnoxious lady right behind us (at least she didn't keep up with it after her initial outburst). Anyway, of course being second in line for something like this makes absolutely no difference in where you can sit and she wasn't even in the same section as us (of course they had the super expensive front row section) so being behind us made no difference to her. It's just funny when people are like that.
Anyway, after that we went down to the Print Shop to see Drop Ceiling and Rob Magill. This time it was in the small room that's kind of like a separate event space (but air conditioned as compared to the big warehouse space they usually use...this is the same room we saw if...else do that long droning installation kind of thing a few years ago). Rob Magill played solo first and he started with guitar (and vocals) and then went to saxophone. Then it was a big Drop Ceiling lineup. They had Jenny, Art, Logan, Rob Magill, Schaeffer (of course), Bennett, Berto (the only one I didn't really know before), Spence, and Laura. They played a nice long and good set, pretty psyched out and stuff. I picked up a bit of merch: Jeonghyeon Joo / Rob Magill: An evening with Jeonghyeon Joo & Rob Magill in Ojai, Eugene Chadbourne / Rob Magill / Daniel Masiel Trio: To Granny, Rob Magill / Jehf Jones: Scaling the Heat, and Rob Magill: Let the World Cry Vol. 2. Stayed up late last night and now waiting for the plumber to show up.
Anyway, after that we went down to the Print Shop to see Drop Ceiling and Rob Magill. This time it was in the small room that's kind of like a separate event space (but air conditioned as compared to the big warehouse space they usually use...this is the same room we saw if...else do that long droning installation kind of thing a few years ago). Rob Magill played solo first and he started with guitar (and vocals) and then went to saxophone. Then it was a big Drop Ceiling lineup. They had Jenny, Art, Logan, Rob Magill, Schaeffer (of course), Bennett, Berto (the only one I didn't really know before), Spence, and Laura. They played a nice long and good set, pretty psyched out and stuff. I picked up a bit of merch: Jeonghyeon Joo / Rob Magill: An evening with Jeonghyeon Joo & Rob Magill in Ojai, Eugene Chadbourne / Rob Magill / Daniel Masiel Trio: To Granny, Rob Magill / Jehf Jones: Scaling the Heat, and Rob Magill: Let the World Cry Vol. 2. Stayed up late last night and now waiting for the plumber to show up.
Ancient and Accepted
Aug. 22nd, 2025 07:46 amMemphis Heritage gave a tour of the Scottish Rite "Cathedral" for members (we just became members, and this is the organization that advocates for building preservation...not some nefarious use of the word "heritage"). So yeah, we got to check out this big old masonic building! It's still in use too, but I guess they meet once a month so it looks vacant most of the time. Most of the second floor is taken up by this theater (they seem to put on little morality plays related to each of their "degrees"). But it has this complicated system of three dimensional backdrop curtains that have all been there since the place was built (in 1909). (Also, a scene in Walk the Line was filmed there so now I feel I should see that movie at some point maybe.) I didn't know anything about how the different types ("rites") of freemasonry work and how they're related to each other so we got some info on that. There are also tons of little hat boxes around the building for their goofy hats. Anyway, it was fun to get to see the old "mysterious" building.
Online Shopping
Aug. 20th, 2025 07:58 amI spent hours last night really trying to hunt down a part to mount this power supply. I tried a few different things that seemed even better than my initial idea (these l-shaped standoffs) but I could only find small ones for small circuit with the holes at the edge. But I finally ended up finding a bracket that seems to be the right size (smaller than the one I'd gotten before!). But THEN, I had found it at this website for this very big store that I'd prefer not to buy from but I was holding my nose since it'd been such a pain to find anything...and THEN they just kept auto-cancelling my order as soon as it was placed...as being "flagged" or some shit. Well fine, it's a relief not to buy from you, but I was getting frustrated since it'd taken so long to find where I could buy something. But after that I did find it somewhere else (I had also ordered screws and then had to buy the two things from two separate places). But at least I finished this shit. Well, this part. We'll see if it actually works when it all arrives...
Mary Beth and I went to the Dixon. We spent a little time in the garden but not a whole lot because we're in full-on August heat misery. I grabbed a book from the little library they had there (not something that happens very often for me): A Naked Singularity by Sergio de la Pava. Then into the nice air conditioned galleries. The main exhibit was on "women artists of the Progressive era" mainly focusing on Susan Watkins. There was a lot of good stuff in it, mostly realistic portraits and such but of a time when Impressionism was still holding a bit of influence. And Watkins's use of lighting and color could be pretty incredible at times. Then the local gallery had an exhibit featuring three artists and landscapes and such and the works by Sowgand Sheikholeslami were especially great. (I liked the others too, by Anthony Lee and Matthew Lee, no relation.) Oh, I will say of the first exhibit, it wasn't my favorite painting but they had this one by Ellen Emmet Rand and it captured a black cat's face perfectly. After that we went and had an early dinner at Tamboli's. Not a lot the rest of the night but I still got to sleep too late for some (or no) reason.
