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Not a whole lot to report (as I obviously haven't done much since posting other than going to sleep and waking up). Let's see remember anything I've forgotten from last posts yet? No, my brain isn't awake yet. Though Justin H. sent me a text message this morning. Hadn't talked to him in years! And Ace Frehley dying was the impetus for it, haha. Anyway, carry on!
Autechre and More Trip
Oct. 17th, 2025 10:52 pmOkay then we get into the show and start waiting for Autechre! David showed up too and we talked for a while with him. Then the music started. Cygnus was first and he had some pretty sweet Detroit-ish styled electronic music (it was a bit of later idm still swimming in Kraftwerk inspired sounds). It was good! Then it was Mark Broom and he was pretty good, idm-ish, more straightforward, a lot of sampled hip hop vocals. At some point during the openers Karl and Gretchen showed up but as the music was going on I didn't really get a chance to talk to them. There was no break between the two openers, they were very back-to-back.
This time Rob and Sean didn't crawl under the table to get onstage, but the house shined these bright red lights at the audience so we were pretty much blinded into not being able to see them go onstage. So there's this ominous droning music and these bright red lights are blinding us and this goes on for a little while while they get set up. Then all the lights shut off like before and they start in with it. They had a pretty brief drone to start and then it was just into it with pure unadulterated Autechre pummeling us. I mean, it was very very Autechre and maybe felt like the most unrelenting beat-wise of the times I've seen them (but my memory isn't great). I mean, it starts off like there's almost a normal kind of driving beat but it quickly shows its seams as it mutates into varying levels of incomprehensibility. So yeah, nonstop sounds and it was sooo good! They played a long set, probably about an hour and a half. I picked up a t-shirt afterwards. Then yeah, back to the hotel to sleep. But yeah, it was a great great show. It was worth the trip along with everything else we did.
Okay, then we get to...today! We wake up and check out. We didn't eat first thing for once, but our breakfast/lunch was a bit of a ways out of the city. On the way we stopped to check out a sex shop called Kalli's Love Stuff. Then it was to this town called Bessemer that on a map kind of looks part of the metropolitan area or maybe a suburb or something but it really feels like a rural small town (a large-ish small town but totally has that feel and doesn't feel connected to Birmingham). So we eat at this old old-school diner called The Bright Star. Snapper is their thing and fried snapper throats. It sounds weird and I was a little scared to get it...but it's delicious. I'm thinking maybe that's organ-y but it's just meat (fish meat). It's friend and the fish itself had a soft quality that reminds me of alligator nuggets or a slightly fluffier fish. Really good. And we had all these sides that were delicious and dessert that was delicious. Really good. Well, to add to the small town feel...while we're eating a parade has ended up starting on the street that the restaurant is on...as well as that our car is parked on. We had no idea a parade was about to start up so we are of course completely trapped until it is over. It didn't last super long and we weren't in a terrible hurry. So when in Rome, we sat back and enjoyed the three different marching bands that came past us (as well as lots of what looked to be homecoming queen contestants so I'm guessing it was the town's homecoming parade). When we finally got freed up we went back into the city to check out this bookstore called Jim Reed books. It's another piled-high place and I picked up a few books: Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes, Martha Quest by Doris Lessing, Long Division by Kiese Laymon, The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie, and Broken April by Ismail Kadare. Then a quick jaunt into a grocery store (Publix, so exotic!...I mean, we popped in briefly but it does seem way better than our Kroger monopoly!). I wanted to pick up some Grapico which I did (and some local ginger ale that I haven't tried yet but figure I might as well give a go). THEN we pick up some barbecue that we were too full to eat but to pack in a cooler and eat later. The place is called Miss Myra's and it had been recommended as the best so we wanted to try it even though there weren't enough meals/time to do so! We had a little taste and it's promising! Okay, now we're out of the city and hitting the road. While talking to David at the show, he'd recommended this burger place in Tupelo he said he was stopping at 'cuz it's the best burger ever, according to David. It's called the Neon Pig and we stopped there too. It was really good, though it kind of feels like it's cheating and something other than a burger as it's got so many types of meat blended together in it...but yeah, it was really delicious. And yeah, still full as fuck from that. Anyway, we made it back home. I'm sure I missed something, but I guess I'll try to cram in anything else I can remember into future posts.
This time Rob and Sean didn't crawl under the table to get onstage, but the house shined these bright red lights at the audience so we were pretty much blinded into not being able to see them go onstage. So there's this ominous droning music and these bright red lights are blinding us and this goes on for a little while while they get set up. Then all the lights shut off like before and they start in with it. They had a pretty brief drone to start and then it was just into it with pure unadulterated Autechre pummeling us. I mean, it was very very Autechre and maybe felt like the most unrelenting beat-wise of the times I've seen them (but my memory isn't great). I mean, it starts off like there's almost a normal kind of driving beat but it quickly shows its seams as it mutates into varying levels of incomprehensibility. So yeah, nonstop sounds and it was sooo good! They played a long set, probably about an hour and a half. I picked up a t-shirt afterwards. Then yeah, back to the hotel to sleep. But yeah, it was a great great show. It was worth the trip along with everything else we did.
Okay, then we get to...today! We wake up and check out. We didn't eat first thing for once, but our breakfast/lunch was a bit of a ways out of the city. On the way we stopped to check out a sex shop called Kalli's Love Stuff. Then it was to this town called Bessemer that on a map kind of looks part of the metropolitan area or maybe a suburb or something but it really feels like a rural small town (a large-ish small town but totally has that feel and doesn't feel connected to Birmingham). So we eat at this old old-school diner called The Bright Star. Snapper is their thing and fried snapper throats. It sounds weird and I was a little scared to get it...but it's delicious. I'm thinking maybe that's organ-y but it's just meat (fish meat). It's friend and the fish itself had a soft quality that reminds me of alligator nuggets or a slightly fluffier fish. Really good. And we had all these sides that were delicious and dessert that was delicious. Really good. Well, to add to the small town feel...while we're eating a parade has ended up starting on the street that the restaurant is on...as well as that our car is parked on. We had no idea a parade was about to start up so we are of course completely trapped until it is over. It didn't last super long and we weren't in a terrible hurry. So when in Rome, we sat back and enjoyed the three different marching bands that came past us (as well as lots of what looked to be homecoming queen contestants so I'm guessing it was the town's homecoming parade). When we finally got freed up we went back into the city to check out this bookstore called Jim Reed books. It's another piled-high place and I picked up a few books: Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes, Martha Quest by Doris Lessing, Long Division by Kiese Laymon, The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie, and Broken April by Ismail Kadare. Then a quick jaunt into a grocery store (Publix, so exotic!...I mean, we popped in briefly but it does seem way better than our Kroger monopoly!). I wanted to pick up some Grapico which I did (and some local ginger ale that I haven't tried yet but figure I might as well give a go). THEN we pick up some barbecue that we were too full to eat but to pack in a cooler and eat later. The place is called Miss Myra's and it had been recommended as the best so we wanted to try it even though there weren't enough meals/time to do so! We had a little taste and it's promising! Okay, now we're out of the city and hitting the road. While talking to David at the show, he'd recommended this burger place in Tupelo he said he was stopping at 'cuz it's the best burger ever, according to David. It's called the Neon Pig and we stopped there too. It was really good, though it kind of feels like it's cheating and something other than a burger as it's got so many types of meat blended together in it...but yeah, it was really delicious. And yeah, still full as fuck from that. Anyway, we made it back home. I'm sure I missed something, but I guess I'll try to cram in anything else I can remember into future posts.
Birmingham Trip
Oct. 17th, 2025 09:56 pmAfter work on Tuesday, Mary Beth and I hit the road and went over to Birmingham. The drive went pretty smoothly, but just before we got into Birmingham, we saw some emergency vehicles get on the interstate just a little way up ahead of us and then pretty soon we were passing an incident with a car completely engulfed in flames on the side of the road and the firetrucks had just gotten there. There were a couple of other cars stopped a little before on each side of the road but they didn't look damaged like they were involved in an accident. I was focused on driving past it all and out of the way of the emergency and other stopped vehicles so I didn't get a good look but you could feel the heat from the fire as you drove by. I'd thought the car looked like it was just stopped and on fire (but as I said, I didn't get a good look), but later Mary Beth said she saw that the car on fire was upside down. So that was pretty disturbing. But not much else to do but get out of the way and keep on going. It was night when we got into the city and there's not a whole lot open at night (it wasn't super late, but still). We just went to this bar kinda placed called Jack Brown's as it was about the only thing open (turns out there's also one in Memphis just down the street from us). They do burgers with involved toppings. The burgers themselves were kinda fast food level (not bad fast food, but kinda small and nondescript anyway). I had one with mac'n'cheese on it and that was okay (Mary Beth's was better with her mushrooms and stuff). I'd try the one in Memphis again to at least try the peanut butter one, but not in any sort of urgent hurry. Then we got to the hotel and stuff and checked in and went to sleep. Oh wait, first we went to this bar Mary Beth wanted to try and sat next to a Sloimer Ghost Buster (they had lots of Halloween stuff up). I had a nice mocktail with beet juice and other things and it was good.
Then Wednesday we got up and went and had barbecue for breakfast! So this place is called Dreamland BBQ and it was sooo good! We had variations on rib tips and they had the crispiness but also bits of deeply soft and melty fatty rib that was just so good. We got totally stuffed up for the first of many many times this trip (pretty much every time we ate, everything was so damn good!). Then we went and knocked my record shopping out of the way. There are only two record stores that really come up in Birmingham and neither is very great, but I got a couple of things. At Seasick I picked up Jaco Pastorius: Word of Mouth (this one's a bit of a risk because, while I've heard one song on it that's surprisingly great, I'm not sure sure about the rest of it and feel it could be a case where I love one song and hate the rest, but we'll see!). The next record store is Renaissance and it's the better of the two, though a bit crowded with decades of stuff (some of it junk, and it can have a junk shop feel as you go around, but at least there's a little charm with it). I picked up Chad Anderson: Mellifluous Excursions: Where you Been (it's on Mahakala so while I don't know this one in particular, it should be some good jazz). I had also tried to look at this one Coltrane Prestige-era box set but it was missing the booklet so the owner talked to me about jazz a bit and he was nice. Then we went towards the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute where we had our appointment for our tour (it's a little weird where you scheduled when you go within timeslots). We were a little early and we hung out for a bit at Kelly Ingram Park across the street. There was a guy who set up his drums and was playing along with music blasted from a speaker, kinda drum karaoke. It had a cool sound echoing in the park with the buildings around (it's not a huge park). Anyway, then it was time for our appointment and we went to the civil rights museum. It's interesting, living in a different time with its own civil rights museum, the slight differences in focus given the regional area of the civil rights movement and the different regional focuses (obviously, the things that happened HERE will get a little more focus HERE, etc., anyway it's nice to expand my perspective). So yeah, good museum, though towards the end when it's starting to get into the progress made and how things have gotten better (it doesn't really do a "oh everything's all better now and we won" kind of thing, it does get into places where the struggle continues but it leans more towards civil rights issues in other countries), but that's where it started especially hitting me with the depressive feelings thinking about how much it's all sliding back and how much worse things are getting right now. Anyway, after that we went to this place called Paramount. It's a bar with a little arcade in the back as well. Mary Beth wanted to try a couple of appetizer things there that sounded really good. So we ate them even though we were still full from breakfast/lunch and had a big dinner looming around the corner. But the risotto balls and peanut hummus were really delicious. I also finally got to try Grapico (tried one other place but they didn't have it anymore) and it was delicious, never heard of it but Mary Beth suggested it's something I should try! Then played around in the arcade. There were signs that it was closed for a private party but an employee said it wouldn't start for a little while and we could play around for like thirty minutes or so. So that was nice and we did! I really wanted to play some skiball but the machines ate my credits and I wasn't able to play. But I dicked around on the modern versions of Asteroids and Pac-Man and the original Simpsons game as well as little bit of pinball. I didn't do well but it was a fun diversion! Then we went back to the hotel to gussy ourselves up for our nice dinner reservations. We went back downtown to this place called Helen and had a really delicious dinner. We had some Iberico pork and lamb and okra and it was tasty. Now, I arrive at dinner thinking I'm full to start with but I trooped forward! For dessert I had this muscadine sorbet that was just absolutely delicious. Really tasted like muscadine grapes, subtle and refreshing while you're eating it and then the aftertaste with that sharp skin flavor. Then we walked over to this other bar that's nearby where they don't have a cocktail menu but you give an idea of what you want and they improvise for you and I had some delicious mocktails! Okay, back to the hotel for sleep.
I awaken with some time to have digested and other things and we start our Tuesday with a fancy breakfast/lunch at a place called Chez Fonfon. It's French food, as you may have guessed, and it was another delicious meal. We started with steak tartar and I got coq au vin (this information will be recalled in a little bit). Some delicious dessert too. Okay, next we went to the Birmingham Museum of Art. We were really impressed by it the last time we'd gone so we went back again (and it's free too). It's still a really good art museum. Okay, then it was back to the hotel for rearrangement and rest (don't know if it was intentional but we both ended up taking a short nap). Well, back to the city to get ready for the show (I say city and we stayed out of it a little bit, but really not far outside of the city, maybe still technically in a suburban part?, but our backs-and-forths only took a relatively small number of minutes). We went back to Saw's for some pre-show barbecue. There's a location right across from the venue. There was also a show at this venue across the street, no one I'd heard of but it was a little earlier than ours and people were queued up for it outside so there was a lot of traffic with both shows to be going on at the same time. Anyway, Saw's! It was just as delicious as before. Barbecue chicken with white sauce and it was just divine. Sides were divine as well. Then back across the street to Saturn, our venue. We were a little early and going to wait a bit. They had just about every generation of videogame console and I was about to play Ninja Gaiden on the NES but by the time I went to look around at everything else someone else had taken up Double Dragon on the NES so I snoozed and lost! But we hung out a bit to await the show. Well...maybe this is a convenient place to break it up and start a new post!
Then Wednesday we got up and went and had barbecue for breakfast! So this place is called Dreamland BBQ and it was sooo good! We had variations on rib tips and they had the crispiness but also bits of deeply soft and melty fatty rib that was just so good. We got totally stuffed up for the first of many many times this trip (pretty much every time we ate, everything was so damn good!). Then we went and knocked my record shopping out of the way. There are only two record stores that really come up in Birmingham and neither is very great, but I got a couple of things. At Seasick I picked up Jaco Pastorius: Word of Mouth (this one's a bit of a risk because, while I've heard one song on it that's surprisingly great, I'm not sure sure about the rest of it and feel it could be a case where I love one song and hate the rest, but we'll see!). The next record store is Renaissance and it's the better of the two, though a bit crowded with decades of stuff (some of it junk, and it can have a junk shop feel as you go around, but at least there's a little charm with it). I picked up Chad Anderson: Mellifluous Excursions: Where you Been (it's on Mahakala so while I don't know this one in particular, it should be some good jazz). I had also tried to look at this one Coltrane Prestige-era box set but it was missing the booklet so the owner talked to me about jazz a bit and he was nice. Then we went towards the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute where we had our appointment for our tour (it's a little weird where you scheduled when you go within timeslots). We were a little early and we hung out for a bit at Kelly Ingram Park across the street. There was a guy who set up his drums and was playing along with music blasted from a speaker, kinda drum karaoke. It had a cool sound echoing in the park with the buildings around (it's not a huge park). Anyway, then it was time for our appointment and we went to the civil rights museum. It's interesting, living in a different time with its own civil rights museum, the slight differences in focus given the regional area of the civil rights movement and the different regional focuses (obviously, the things that happened HERE will get a little more focus HERE, etc., anyway it's nice to expand my perspective). So yeah, good museum, though towards the end when it's starting to get into the progress made and how things have gotten better (it doesn't really do a "oh everything's all better now and we won" kind of thing, it does get into places where the struggle continues but it leans more towards civil rights issues in other countries), but that's where it started especially hitting me with the depressive feelings thinking about how much it's all sliding back and how much worse things are getting right now. Anyway, after that we went to this place called Paramount. It's a bar with a little arcade in the back as well. Mary Beth wanted to try a couple of appetizer things there that sounded really good. So we ate them even though we were still full from breakfast/lunch and had a big dinner looming around the corner. But the risotto balls and peanut hummus were really delicious. I also finally got to try Grapico (tried one other place but they didn't have it anymore) and it was delicious, never heard of it but Mary Beth suggested it's something I should try! Then played around in the arcade. There were signs that it was closed for a private party but an employee said it wouldn't start for a little while and we could play around for like thirty minutes or so. So that was nice and we did! I really wanted to play some skiball but the machines ate my credits and I wasn't able to play. But I dicked around on the modern versions of Asteroids and Pac-Man and the original Simpsons game as well as little bit of pinball. I didn't do well but it was a fun diversion! Then we went back to the hotel to gussy ourselves up for our nice dinner reservations. We went back downtown to this place called Helen and had a really delicious dinner. We had some Iberico pork and lamb and okra and it was tasty. Now, I arrive at dinner thinking I'm full to start with but I trooped forward! For dessert I had this muscadine sorbet that was just absolutely delicious. Really tasted like muscadine grapes, subtle and refreshing while you're eating it and then the aftertaste with that sharp skin flavor. Then we walked over to this other bar that's nearby where they don't have a cocktail menu but you give an idea of what you want and they improvise for you and I had some delicious mocktails! Okay, back to the hotel for sleep.
I awaken with some time to have digested and other things and we start our Tuesday with a fancy breakfast/lunch at a place called Chez Fonfon. It's French food, as you may have guessed, and it was another delicious meal. We started with steak tartar and I got coq au vin (this information will be recalled in a little bit). Some delicious dessert too. Okay, next we went to the Birmingham Museum of Art. We were really impressed by it the last time we'd gone so we went back again (and it's free too). It's still a really good art museum. Okay, then it was back to the hotel for rearrangement and rest (don't know if it was intentional but we both ended up taking a short nap). Well, back to the city to get ready for the show (I say city and we stayed out of it a little bit, but really not far outside of the city, maybe still technically in a suburban part?, but our backs-and-forths only took a relatively small number of minutes). We went back to Saw's for some pre-show barbecue. There's a location right across from the venue. There was also a show at this venue across the street, no one I'd heard of but it was a little earlier than ours and people were queued up for it outside so there was a lot of traffic with both shows to be going on at the same time. Anyway, Saw's! It was just as delicious as before. Barbecue chicken with white sauce and it was just divine. Sides were divine as well. Then back across the street to Saturn, our venue. We were a little early and going to wait a bit. They had just about every generation of videogame console and I was about to play Ninja Gaiden on the NES but by the time I went to look around at everything else someone else had taken up Double Dragon on the NES so I snoozed and lost! But we hung out a bit to await the show. Well...maybe this is a convenient place to break it up and start a new post!
During my lunch break I finished reading The Hundred Brothers by Donald Antrim and it was really good. Then at night, we had a great show up at Havenhaus. It was a show where everything conspired to make it run really late (I'm always trying to be pretty punctual with shows and even broadcast the estimated start time of each set beforehand). For one thing, two of the artists played for 45 minutes for their 30 minute sets! (And when it hit 45 minutes for the second time and the person was about to keep playing, I had to go up and tell them that was time. I hate doing that, but there have to be some limits, especially when it's well past the limit.) There was a pretty decent turnout. Hard to tell exactly how many people were there for the show because they had some sort of activist meeting in the space right before and a few friends hung around, some pushing people to sign a thing for stopping xAI (which I'm all for that, though it's a little weird when outside things are set up at a show like a fair or something). And a couple people I know just wandered in from the street hearing the show and not knowing what was going on, which is cool. The sets were all great. Shake Machine Down had his little Crayola 3d-light-bright-lookin' toy with a camera fed into a laptop for his projections and that thing's cool. His wife (Katherine, I think her name is, trying to get it down right) was running the video stuff and moving the camera around at times and stuff. Real cool video stuff. Also a really great set! neon glittery was next and she was really good, she seems to always be getting even better and better. B|_ank was next, he'd come here earlier in the year with his minimalist/ambient project (playing as William Todd) and this is his main project and it's very different. It's drums triggering electronics and a good bit noise rock (he has past and upcoming shows with Lightning Bolt and Melt-Banana and that grouping fits). So it's awesome drumming and other sounds and it's pretty intense and awesome! It was a really good show and everyone there was into it. Last it was Outside Source and his set was also really good. I picked up a B|_ank t-shirt. What else? I guess that probably gets it all. It was a good time!
Mary Beth and I walked over to Playhouse on the Square to see a Collage ballet/dance program. It was very good, four very good pieces: I Am My Work (Hope Boykin); The Rate in Which I Am (Joshua Manculich); Four Solitudes (Crystal Pite); and Only Light, Only Love (Nocolo Fonte). Four Solitudes was probably my favorite, just given the straight up power of the dancing itself. For this one they actually wheeled a piano out and the music was performed live (a Schubert piece played by Adrienne Park, who we know from seeing at MSO and other stuff sometimes!). The Rate in Which I Am was also really powerful with the way it used spotlights around the stage, coming on, coming off. Anyway, really good program. This little girl was sitting next to us who was just super super into it. She was sitting on the other side of her mom, who was next to me, but after intermission when we came back for the last piece, she sat on her mom's lap. Throughout it she kept moving her arms along with the dancing and sometimes pointed at the dancers and sometimes whispered excitedly to her mom. Talked to them a little bit afterwards and, yes unsurprisingly, she's already started to dance. She's also four years old! So so so cute and it was warming my heart seeing someone so young get so into it while it was going on. Anyway, good time!
Mary Beth and I went to Ballet Memphis to see their ballet production of MacBeth and it was good! It was MacBeth and it was ballet and I thought they did a good job of it. I was a little annoyed today to see this Halloween show I was asked to play (night before Halloween) get posted without me even though I had agreed to do it. Now, I'll start with this being likely all for the best as my show next week (in a week, wow!) isn't that long before it, but still. Now, I also admit that my response agreeing to it was poorly worded and probably confused him, but my annoyance comes from not having been asked for clarity if that was the case or any sort of follow-up. I was asked the morning I was packing up and right about to leave for Louisville, so I was a little distracted, but this is what I said, "Let me see. I may be able to do that. I'm literally getting ready to drive to Louisville in a few minutes so my brain's a little distracted right now. But fuck it, I'll go ahead and say sure and think about it later." (Followed by laughing emoji.) Actually, looking back on it again, it doesn't seem THAT ambiguous. My "sure" = "yes" (heightened by its following the "But fuck it") and "think about it later" was about thinking about what I would actually play later. I pretty quickly came up with an idea for it I liked and was looking forward to putting together, I guess also fueling my annoyance. Again, not a big deal and probably for the best, but it's a little annoying that I never got any sort of response or follow-up at all after that. (Now here's my shrug emoji.)
Who Is This Man?
Oct. 10th, 2025 07:59 amMary Beth and I went on a short walk around the neighborhood last night just before sunset. And it reminds me about this next anecdote that happened on the day before's walk that I forgot to mention in my last post. This cat we're always wary of making eye contact with because it has no qualms with just hanging out in the middle of the street all the time (it's a residential street, but still!) and just follows anyone at the drop of a hat, (once Mary Beth saw a woman have to pick it up and place it on the other side of a fence because it wouldn't stop following her), well we saw this cat coming for us (we hadn't even made eye contact, it was just already on its way towards us) and so then it's there and we stopped on the sidewalk and hung out with it for a minute. I was able to check the collar and see that his name is Charlie. Charlie is a very friendly boy! We were worried he might just try to follow us around, but after a little bit of pets he went on his separate way. It was nice to actually meet him and not just have to run away from him! (To be fair the running away is fear that something bad is going to happen to him in the middle of the street!) Okay, now back to yesterday! Later at night Mary Beth finished reading to me Black Swans by Eve Babitz and it was good! Now onto today.
Some Stuff Again
Oct. 8th, 2025 08:04 amI finished reading Travesties by Tom Stoppard and it was really good. After work I went up to Goner to belatedly put up some flyers. While there I picked up a few used cds: Brian Eno: The Shutov Assembly, Nina Hagen: Nunsexmonkrock/Nina Hagen Band, Jon Hassell: Power Spot, Jon Hassell: The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Dead Things by the Power of Sound, Lou Reed: The Bells, and Spacemen 3: Playing with Fire. Then I hopped over to Burke's as it was the day of the release of Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon! So yeah, I picked up my pre-order. That's about it right now.
Not a whole lot has happened since my last post, unsurprisingly! I did want to mention how that right as I was leaving the city was about when the fucking national guard was arriving thanks to that turd of a fucking president. So it was surreal reading and knowing about some of what's going on while I'm not even here (I mean, even if I was here I'd probably mostly just have been at home so...I don't know, the whole thing's just weird and garbagey).
Louisville Experimental Music Nights
Oct. 5th, 2025 09:50 pmOkay, back to Louisville Experimental Music Nights! Blanket Swimming was there, she goes by Thea now. Good to see her after a while! We also traded some merch and I got Thea Maloney: The Jewel in the Creek. Blanket Swimming was on the lineup from the beginning though there were several cancellations. One of them ended up having Belly Full of Stars as a replacement so I was super excited to be reunited with both of them (and it was going to turn out that I was sandwiched between their sets which is fun!).
Okay, first up was Emery Miles and her set was just phenomenal. She mostly played saxophone run through a laptop (max/msp) and there was also some pennywhistle and vocals and clapping but mostly saxophone. Next up was Tender Mercy and he did a very minimal, very spare, slowcore songs (pretty short songs for how slow they are! but maybe it's all relative and they seemed short 'cuz I'm at an experimental music festival expecting thirty minute blocks of sound?) with guitar and vocals. Anyway, it was really good. I picked up some merch from him: a t-shirt and some cds: Tender Mercy: The Veil Falls, Tender Mercy: Live at Chapel of St. Philip Neri, and v/a: Doodlehound XV (the last is a comp he's on that he threw in...also, Chapel of St. Philip Neri is what Woodbine Chamber was called up until maybe last year or so? that's what it was called when Low played there!). Next was Blanket Swimming and she was phenomenal as always, just a really deep mixture of soothing ambience and intensity. Then I played! It was okay! All my stuff worked which is great. And seeing how the power in the building can be slightly wonky (if the overhead lights are on, guitar amps hum) as it's a very old building (it was completed in 1898!), I was very glad I did replace the power supply in spite of the HUGE pain in the ass it's all been (but I can't fucking imagine getting there and having that case powering off after all that traveling and shit). I based my set around two samples, one for each half. I probably talked about them but first is a tribute to Louisville in general (a really goofy tribute) where I sequenced the notes of Slint's "Breadcrumb Trail" in Impulse Tracker with a baseball-bat-crack sample. The second half is me playing (more or less) the guitar part of Low's "Condescend". I thought of that after I realized that live album was recorded there, so I had to pay tribute to that while I was paying tribute. Of course, they're both run through the Morphagene and chopped up and pitched all around so the original sources of inspiration are in no way discernible. Anyway, I was getting to something with this. In the middle I switched to the second sample and then I got flustered because I wasn't hearing it. Previously, I'd noticed it wasn't quite as loud as the first sample, so I figured it was a volume issue and I messed up all my levels by turning up the mixer I was plugged into and then all my sounds down on the modular side (as I'd already turned up the sample's channel) but I'm still not hearing it. After a little bit of time, just a few minutes, I remembered that the samples were being triggered by an on/off switch, the same switch I'd been using to turn the on and off the whole first half of the set. Just switching to the next sample made my brain forget this very basic thing. So then I got it going but volume levels were a little touch and go from that point. Oh well, sometimes me fucking up could add a good layer of chaos? Eh, whatever, what's done is done! Okay, after me was Belly Full of Stars and she was just great as always! Then it was Wayne Robert Thomas and he played guitar and it was very minimal, very soft and pretty and droney. Good stuff! Last it was Verity Pariah, who got added on VERY last minute, literally the day of the show (one of the artists had their equipment break right before). He was really good. His main instrument was this drum synth and he used it very interesting ways. He had these industrial sound collages going and a lot of what he did with the drum synth was cool and blown-out synth sounding. Really good stuff. Yes! Everyone was great! It was a cool festival and I'm happy I had a little vacation and got to play it too. I also met Kensaku who I know from online (friends of friends) but never got to meet in person so that was cool. He lives in Louisville and plays as Sinister Senile. I'd made those shirts "for" this trip and I didn't sell any (though I did sell a little bit of other merch) though that's fine as now I can fully peddle them to locals at a couple of upcoming shows that are lined up.
I woke up this morning and didn't really dawdle around. I hit the road and just made a stop in Nashville again to go to the Riverside Grillshack and get another fucking delicious burger! Then I got home and got to see Mary Beth after days of not seeing Mary Beth! Woohoo! We sat outside a little bit drinking champagne (was gotten ready for our anniversary but with the other things we did we didn't get around to it, so it was a back-together celebration) out on the deck and we were joined by Peanut who was very friendly and cuddly. As always, I'm SURE I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff, but maybe I'll remember it later. For now, that's what I've got!
Okay, first up was Emery Miles and her set was just phenomenal. She mostly played saxophone run through a laptop (max/msp) and there was also some pennywhistle and vocals and clapping but mostly saxophone. Next up was Tender Mercy and he did a very minimal, very spare, slowcore songs (pretty short songs for how slow they are! but maybe it's all relative and they seemed short 'cuz I'm at an experimental music festival expecting thirty minute blocks of sound?) with guitar and vocals. Anyway, it was really good. I picked up some merch from him: a t-shirt and some cds: Tender Mercy: The Veil Falls, Tender Mercy: Live at Chapel of St. Philip Neri, and v/a: Doodlehound XV (the last is a comp he's on that he threw in...also, Chapel of St. Philip Neri is what Woodbine Chamber was called up until maybe last year or so? that's what it was called when Low played there!). Next was Blanket Swimming and she was phenomenal as always, just a really deep mixture of soothing ambience and intensity. Then I played! It was okay! All my stuff worked which is great. And seeing how the power in the building can be slightly wonky (if the overhead lights are on, guitar amps hum) as it's a very old building (it was completed in 1898!), I was very glad I did replace the power supply in spite of the HUGE pain in the ass it's all been (but I can't fucking imagine getting there and having that case powering off after all that traveling and shit). I based my set around two samples, one for each half. I probably talked about them but first is a tribute to Louisville in general (a really goofy tribute) where I sequenced the notes of Slint's "Breadcrumb Trail" in Impulse Tracker with a baseball-bat-crack sample. The second half is me playing (more or less) the guitar part of Low's "Condescend". I thought of that after I realized that live album was recorded there, so I had to pay tribute to that while I was paying tribute. Of course, they're both run through the Morphagene and chopped up and pitched all around so the original sources of inspiration are in no way discernible. Anyway, I was getting to something with this. In the middle I switched to the second sample and then I got flustered because I wasn't hearing it. Previously, I'd noticed it wasn't quite as loud as the first sample, so I figured it was a volume issue and I messed up all my levels by turning up the mixer I was plugged into and then all my sounds down on the modular side (as I'd already turned up the sample's channel) but I'm still not hearing it. After a little bit of time, just a few minutes, I remembered that the samples were being triggered by an on/off switch, the same switch I'd been using to turn the on and off the whole first half of the set. Just switching to the next sample made my brain forget this very basic thing. So then I got it going but volume levels were a little touch and go from that point. Oh well, sometimes me fucking up could add a good layer of chaos? Eh, whatever, what's done is done! Okay, after me was Belly Full of Stars and she was just great as always! Then it was Wayne Robert Thomas and he played guitar and it was very minimal, very soft and pretty and droney. Good stuff! Last it was Verity Pariah, who got added on VERY last minute, literally the day of the show (one of the artists had their equipment break right before). He was really good. His main instrument was this drum synth and he used it very interesting ways. He had these industrial sound collages going and a lot of what he did with the drum synth was cool and blown-out synth sounding. Really good stuff. Yes! Everyone was great! It was a cool festival and I'm happy I had a little vacation and got to play it too. I also met Kensaku who I know from online (friends of friends) but never got to meet in person so that was cool. He lives in Louisville and plays as Sinister Senile. I'd made those shirts "for" this trip and I didn't sell any (though I did sell a little bit of other merch) though that's fine as now I can fully peddle them to locals at a couple of upcoming shows that are lined up.
I woke up this morning and didn't really dawdle around. I hit the road and just made a stop in Nashville again to go to the Riverside Grillshack and get another fucking delicious burger! Then I got home and got to see Mary Beth after days of not seeing Mary Beth! Woohoo! We sat outside a little bit drinking champagne (was gotten ready for our anniversary but with the other things we did we didn't get around to it, so it was a back-together celebration) out on the deck and we were joined by Peanut who was very friendly and cuddly. As always, I'm SURE I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff, but maybe I'll remember it later. For now, that's what I've got!
Okay, so I'm still at this long fundraiser concert. I think that aside from the people who work or volunteer for the venue, I was the only person who stayed for the whole thing, start to end. It was mostly small groups of people coming for each section they were there for. Next came the bands. First it was more of a rock set. There was this "punk" band. And the singer started off by saying they were "punk econo" which he said meant they have a lot of words. I was all, cool, maybe that's like a Minutemen kinda thing. I was hoping I could get into it but then they really weren't very punk at all (one song kinda had a Rockets to Russia sound and that's okay). Mostly they sounded like "Ballroom Blitz" meets John Cougar Mellencamp (at his more rockin') with some more distortion (not heavy distortion, but maybe like Green Day level distortion, though they didn't even sound as punk as Green Day, it was just kinda like 80s hard rock with a dash of new wave and heartland rock in the sound). Oh, and how he said there were a lot of words...not that this really matters, but there was very much a normal amount of words for a rock band...normal verse-chorus and stuff and each had a very normal amount of words for any band that has vocals...only bring this up as a point of confusion as to why he'd use that as the big descriptor of their music. He was trying to tie it in with the poetry readings we'd just heard, sure, but, well, anyway. Also, before they started he said there will be screaming but he's not screaming at us he's screaming with us. Once again, there was absolutely no screaming. There was a lot of pretty standard melodic singing. Anyway, the band would mostly be forgettable except for how they described themselves being very much at odds with what they delivered. The next band was setting up and I was amused to see the keyboard player wearing a King Diamond shirt. Then they're setting up and kinda soundchecking and I'm hearing some stuff that sounds kinda spacey or krauty and I'm thinking this could be good, but they go full on into whatever I imagine Wilco sounds like or The War on Drugs or whatever. I'll just say it was very much Not-My-Thing, big roots rock sound. Towards the end of their set, they got into what I guess one would call "boogie rock" (when late 70s Southern rock bands felt they had to move towards disco to sell records) so it's more of the same with galloping octave bass and some disco drum beats. Maybe less bad than their other stuff but not good.
Okay, now we get to the last part of the night! I'd just been sitting on this wooden pew for hours (okay, a few bathroom breaks but mostly just sitting there) and now it's becoming worth it all! Charles Rivera started things off and he started with electric piano (he's this guy that kept being mentioned throughout the night by all the levels of performers, he seems to be pretty involved with the venue and the music scene all over). This was very free/space/fusion jazz and cool. He played a few more instruments too like saxophone. Then he was joined by someone on synth to become the band Kink Head. They had three people on stage reading this sci-fi screenplay called The Exhibition so it was like this avant garde theater thing and they did lots of drones and weird sounds with weird acting. At one point Charles played bass clarinet and that's an awesome instrument! It was really cool and fun and made for a nice end to the night. I should have mentioned earlier that when I arrived I picked up a Woodbine Chamber t-shirt. Cool!
Oh, though now is where the weird and unsettling thing of the trip happened. I was coming home from that back to the hotel and getting downtown, about to cross over the bridge and I see a firetruck's lights coming up behind me so I stop at the intersection to give it room to pass and then it stops right next to me. Then a couple cop cars come up from the other street and stop right in front of me so I'm literally boxed in. First I'd been preoccupied by the emergency vehicles so I didn't notice that what looked like people just crossing the street on the crosswalk almost right next to me were not actually crossing the street but gathered around a man who was lying on the street at the crosswalk. So there'd been some kind of accident shortly before I'd arrived. I couldn't really figure out what exactly happened as I wasn't trying to but it was right there next to me while I was stuck. There was also a motorcycle propped up at the side of the road. There was also a guy who was kind of wandering around the area sometimes just standing by sometimes talking to people or the police. At one point he got into the cop car by himself though in the front passenger seat. So I'm not sure if the guy was hit by a motorcycle, hit by car (maybe the motorcycle was someone who stopped), was on the motorcycle and was hit by someone or ran into something (it didn't look damaged, but I didn't even notice it for a while). And the guy that got into the cop car, not sure if he was being arrested (why would he get into the front instead of the back?) or if he knew the other person. After not too long an ambulance arrived and the guy was put onto a stretcher. The troubling thing is that after he was loaded in, the ambulance didn't leave. So I may have seen a dead person, which is pretty upsetting. It looked like they'd put a respirator on him, but maybe that's just protocol? Someone swept the road around there (didn't seem like there was a lot to sweep) and then I was on my way after about maybe fifteen minutes. So yeah, a pretty weird and unsettling end to the night and I had a little trouble sleeping.
I did manage to sleep in a long time so I was able to get some rest for the show day. I again didn't have too much to do beforehand. Mary Beth wanted me to get even more coffee (it's her favorite and we don't get the chance to get it often!) and I was more than happy to oblige! I went back and got more. I also went and grabbed some lunch. I wasn't intending to get barbecue again but was looking for a good sandwich place. Well, I found a sandwich place that also had barbecue called Morris' Deli and like the name says, it's mostly a deli, well...that's also in a convenience store and liquor store. I felt this is a good sign...places that are recommended for their food that also happen to have sprung from a convenience store (or hell even a liquor store) do so because, often, the food is fucking good. And I got there and there was a good line of people waiting. I mean, that's the number one tell of course. And in a small, weird place, fuck yeah. I'd seen they have a lamb and pork barbecue sandwich and that's something unusual that I can't normally get! HOLY FUCK! This sandwich was so fucking good! So so fucking good! I was expecting maybe shredded lamb and pork but it was all ground together and greasy and with onion and pickles and I was in heaven for a few minutes eating it in my car. I'd luckily gotten two 'cuz I thought maybe I'd want one for dinner since I'd be at the show a while but they're really small sandwiches (cheap too so it makes sense) so it was good I got two. Really made up for the subpar barbecue the day before. Man, kinda would have been worth the trip for that alone had there not been other awesome stuff going on. I had a little time to kill and it was back to the hotel and I ended up finishing reading Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. It was not good. Actually, I thought I might have a bunch to say about it but buried in all this trip talking it doesn't make a lot of sense to get into. I may right a review later and re-share it here, but yeah, not gonna consider myself a Tom Robbins fan.
Okay, back onto the subject! Back to Woodbine and I got there early to be able to set up and practice at least a little bit since I hadn't touched my stuff in days. Okay, then after a little bit Louisville Experimental Music Nights started! ("Nights" is plural but it's only a one night show, but I guess there was one last year, so that makes it plural if it happens more than once!) I met a few people I don't know. Exchanged merch with Wayne Robert Thomas and he gave me his collaboration cd: Thomas / Kaufmann-Buhler: I Remained a Stranger to the Birds. Oh, it's on Somnimage and I happened to have been wearing one of my Post Doom Romance shirts (I had left planning to wear the 2025 Memphis Concrète shirt at the show, as I usually feel too self-conscious to wear my own kind of shirt around town, but then while in Louisville I felt self-conscious about wearing it on stage of all places, I'd debated it before too, so ultimately decided against it and wore the MC shirt the day before and my PDR shirt to the show...I know, I know, nobody cares about that level of detail, well fuck it!). Okay, I'll get into this show more in my next post!
Okay, now we get to the last part of the night! I'd just been sitting on this wooden pew for hours (okay, a few bathroom breaks but mostly just sitting there) and now it's becoming worth it all! Charles Rivera started things off and he started with electric piano (he's this guy that kept being mentioned throughout the night by all the levels of performers, he seems to be pretty involved with the venue and the music scene all over). This was very free/space/fusion jazz and cool. He played a few more instruments too like saxophone. Then he was joined by someone on synth to become the band Kink Head. They had three people on stage reading this sci-fi screenplay called The Exhibition so it was like this avant garde theater thing and they did lots of drones and weird sounds with weird acting. At one point Charles played bass clarinet and that's an awesome instrument! It was really cool and fun and made for a nice end to the night. I should have mentioned earlier that when I arrived I picked up a Woodbine Chamber t-shirt. Cool!
Oh, though now is where the weird and unsettling thing of the trip happened. I was coming home from that back to the hotel and getting downtown, about to cross over the bridge and I see a firetruck's lights coming up behind me so I stop at the intersection to give it room to pass and then it stops right next to me. Then a couple cop cars come up from the other street and stop right in front of me so I'm literally boxed in. First I'd been preoccupied by the emergency vehicles so I didn't notice that what looked like people just crossing the street on the crosswalk almost right next to me were not actually crossing the street but gathered around a man who was lying on the street at the crosswalk. So there'd been some kind of accident shortly before I'd arrived. I couldn't really figure out what exactly happened as I wasn't trying to but it was right there next to me while I was stuck. There was also a motorcycle propped up at the side of the road. There was also a guy who was kind of wandering around the area sometimes just standing by sometimes talking to people or the police. At one point he got into the cop car by himself though in the front passenger seat. So I'm not sure if the guy was hit by a motorcycle, hit by car (maybe the motorcycle was someone who stopped), was on the motorcycle and was hit by someone or ran into something (it didn't look damaged, but I didn't even notice it for a while). And the guy that got into the cop car, not sure if he was being arrested (why would he get into the front instead of the back?) or if he knew the other person. After not too long an ambulance arrived and the guy was put onto a stretcher. The troubling thing is that after he was loaded in, the ambulance didn't leave. So I may have seen a dead person, which is pretty upsetting. It looked like they'd put a respirator on him, but maybe that's just protocol? Someone swept the road around there (didn't seem like there was a lot to sweep) and then I was on my way after about maybe fifteen minutes. So yeah, a pretty weird and unsettling end to the night and I had a little trouble sleeping.
I did manage to sleep in a long time so I was able to get some rest for the show day. I again didn't have too much to do beforehand. Mary Beth wanted me to get even more coffee (it's her favorite and we don't get the chance to get it often!) and I was more than happy to oblige! I went back and got more. I also went and grabbed some lunch. I wasn't intending to get barbecue again but was looking for a good sandwich place. Well, I found a sandwich place that also had barbecue called Morris' Deli and like the name says, it's mostly a deli, well...that's also in a convenience store and liquor store. I felt this is a good sign...places that are recommended for their food that also happen to have sprung from a convenience store (or hell even a liquor store) do so because, often, the food is fucking good. And I got there and there was a good line of people waiting. I mean, that's the number one tell of course. And in a small, weird place, fuck yeah. I'd seen they have a lamb and pork barbecue sandwich and that's something unusual that I can't normally get! HOLY FUCK! This sandwich was so fucking good! So so fucking good! I was expecting maybe shredded lamb and pork but it was all ground together and greasy and with onion and pickles and I was in heaven for a few minutes eating it in my car. I'd luckily gotten two 'cuz I thought maybe I'd want one for dinner since I'd be at the show a while but they're really small sandwiches (cheap too so it makes sense) so it was good I got two. Really made up for the subpar barbecue the day before. Man, kinda would have been worth the trip for that alone had there not been other awesome stuff going on. I had a little time to kill and it was back to the hotel and I ended up finishing reading Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. It was not good. Actually, I thought I might have a bunch to say about it but buried in all this trip talking it doesn't make a lot of sense to get into. I may right a review later and re-share it here, but yeah, not gonna consider myself a Tom Robbins fan.
Okay, back onto the subject! Back to Woodbine and I got there early to be able to set up and practice at least a little bit since I hadn't touched my stuff in days. Okay, then after a little bit Louisville Experimental Music Nights started! ("Nights" is plural but it's only a one night show, but I guess there was one last year, so that makes it plural if it happens more than once!) I met a few people I don't know. Exchanged merch with Wayne Robert Thomas and he gave me his collaboration cd: Thomas / Kaufmann-Buhler: I Remained a Stranger to the Birds. Oh, it's on Somnimage and I happened to have been wearing one of my Post Doom Romance shirts (I had left planning to wear the 2025 Memphis Concrète shirt at the show, as I usually feel too self-conscious to wear my own kind of shirt around town, but then while in Louisville I felt self-conscious about wearing it on stage of all places, I'd debated it before too, so ultimately decided against it and wore the MC shirt the day before and my PDR shirt to the show...I know, I know, nobody cares about that level of detail, well fuck it!). Okay, I'll get into this show more in my next post!
In Louisville
Oct. 5th, 2025 08:28 pmContinuing Louisville! We're still on Thursday and I'm in the middle of record (mostly) and book shopping. The next stop was a place I'd spotted that looked interesting called Carmichael's Bookstore. It was a pretty cool bookstore, all new so I didn't work in bulk volume, but I don't often buy new books so hey, occasionally I could actually support the publishing industry? Let's do it:
Suder by Percival Everett, The Apple in the Dark by Clarice Lispector, The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada, and Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer
And then it was on to the last cd shopping bout at Great Escape where I picked up:
X: Wild Gift, Simple Minds: Reel to Reel Cacophany, Simple Minds: Life in a Day, The Chinese Stars: Listen to Your Left Brain, Alessandro Cortini: Volume Massimo, and Oxes: s/t
Okay, now a nice long day has passed and it's getting on evening. I skipped lunch (or didn't even think about it) and now I'm off and about and I'm getting a little hungry and I have no plans and no idea of what to do. Jason brought up grabbing dinner after he was done recording (he's doing a residency at Woodbine so spends a few days a week there recording and stuff). I wasn't sure what time it'd be but I figured I could grab a small bite of something to kill time and hold me over (oh, I also really had to PEE and I was unmoored in the city and record stores don't often have public restrooms and eating establishments usually DO). I quickly found a barbecue place and was on my way when he called. There was a little bit of a time gap so I figured my best bet to pee was to go back to the hotel. I did so and grabbed a couple bites of doughnut for the tiding me over (yeah, they came in handy for more than just breakfasts!). Then I met him back in the city at a place called Ramsi's. It's a bit of a world fusion place with bits of Mexican, Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, etc. etc. After the heavy hamburger from the day before, I was wanting something a bit different so this was perfect. I had these onion rings with this sauce that sounded awesome (it was too, the onion rings were awesome too) and some pad thai. I also had some mocktails that were delicious. One was kombucha which I normally don't go for but this had cardamom in it and it was delicious and delivered! I ordered another one from this list of "refrescos"...I forget what it was...like blackberry or raspberry and something good sounding...I forget. The waitress came back and was said they were out of the syrup for it and suggested the other one that was my next choice anyway of passionfruit and honey. She said it was the best. So I was like sure, but then she came back and said the bartender was able to scrounge up one more of the other one. Well, when I finished that she asked about the passionfruit and I was like, yeah, I'd gotten convinced so I wanted to try it too. Then yeah, it was super duper good and she was right that it was the best! It even had a fancy cherry, delicious. Then Jason and I just hung out and talked. I ate like a pig but I'd skipped lunch and it was all hitting the spot. He had a greek salad for an left the olives and I was like, this is gauche but fuck it, can I have your olives because I fucking love olives! So bonus olives! We just kinda hung out for a while. After that, that was the night so it was back to the hotel. I loafed about a bit before going to bed. Talked to Mary Beth on the phone again. Read some. Okay, then sleep.
Then it was Friday, the day I really didn't have too much at all to do. There was going to be this fundraiser concert at Woodbine that was kind of tied to the event I was to play. So I figured I'd check that out too but it wasn't until evening. I slept in like every day so it was all fine. I was still in the room when there was a knock on the door from housekeeping. I was almost ready to head out so I went to the door to say that I'll be leaving soon. She didn't speak English though so then I tried to tell her in Spanish and we had a short, confused conversation with me trying to speak Spanish, even badly, just enough for a smidge of understanding, and her responding and sometimes using her phone to translate what she was saying for me. I'd confused things by saying I was leaving soon 'cuz then she thought I meant I was checking out but I just meant I was leaving for the day. I thought maybe they wanted to get into the room and clean and just letting them know I'm about to leave. But anyway I just confused things 'cuz she just wanted to exchange towels and for me to hand over the trash. Well, sometimes I kind of made myself understood even if badly. Okay yeah, so it's out on the town I go. I went to pick up some coffee from Sunergos that Mary Beth really loves. Then I found a grocery store to get a whole fuck-ton of Ale-8-One. You can get the bottles in Memphis, but I've never seen cans so when in Louisville I really like to stock the fuck up with several twelve-packs of the cans. I even got more than I might have because it was buy-two-get-one-free so I got six. No fucking regrets! Okay, so the dinner the night before was delicious as fuck but the vegetables and peppers and such (what I got really wasn't that spicy, but that's just how I roll, I guess) had me, uh, in some urgent need of frequently going back to the fucking hotel (to defecate, yes!). So I did those two short shopping things then hurry back to the hotel! Then I should eat, back out again. Since I hastily had almost gotten barbecue the day before, I thought I'd try to find some more. I settled on this place called Mama's Mustard, Pickles & BBQ. It was pretty mediocre. It may have been my fault as I should know better than to get brisket pretty much anywhere outside of Texas without good cause to think otherwise (hell, once in Texas I even found out you've gotta be careful there too!...though then to be fair that was a case of only-thing-open-on-Sunday, but I digress), but everything else on the menu felt too close to what I could get in Memphis and that didn't feel right. Anyway, from the feel of the place, something else probably would have been better but I'll wager that it wouldn't have been great (there is redemption to come later, however, stay tuned for that excited tale!). And uh, well, more of the same! Back to the hotel, etc. Back into town. I made my way back to Woodbine for the fundraiser concert. It was a bit of a marathon from 5 til about midnight, but I literally had nothing else to do so why the fuck not!? It'd be cool to check out the scene. I didn't know much about it but I checked out literally one act on the lineup for like a second and they seemed weird and interesting so at least worth a shot. The show was divided up into several distinct parts. The first was mostly folk-y stuff (or maybe coffee-shop, songwriter). I say it was mostly folk and it was, there was one artist in the middle that was like piano jazz singer-songwriter. She sang with this faux old-timey voice that was pretty annoying. Sometimes what she did on piano was interesting though and she did two Mary Lou Williams songs and those were really good (as there was no singing). The next section was poetry. Some of the poets also had music. One of the poets to me seemed pretty good. A lot of the others had that kinda reductive activist thing (especially one, the most popular one), the venue seems to be run by a lot of activists. Which is cool and all, nothing at all against that. Though sometimes that can be accompanied by buzzwords and saying the things that other activists want to hear with little else involved. It wasn't all like that...but some of it was. I will continue on another post. I'm not intending to end on a negative note. A positive note will follow! And again, some of the poetry was good. Just notating some thoughts. Okay, shutting up...
Suder by Percival Everett, The Apple in the Dark by Clarice Lispector, The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada, and Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer
And then it was on to the last cd shopping bout at Great Escape where I picked up:
X: Wild Gift, Simple Minds: Reel to Reel Cacophany, Simple Minds: Life in a Day, The Chinese Stars: Listen to Your Left Brain, Alessandro Cortini: Volume Massimo, and Oxes: s/t
Okay, now a nice long day has passed and it's getting on evening. I skipped lunch (or didn't even think about it) and now I'm off and about and I'm getting a little hungry and I have no plans and no idea of what to do. Jason brought up grabbing dinner after he was done recording (he's doing a residency at Woodbine so spends a few days a week there recording and stuff). I wasn't sure what time it'd be but I figured I could grab a small bite of something to kill time and hold me over (oh, I also really had to PEE and I was unmoored in the city and record stores don't often have public restrooms and eating establishments usually DO). I quickly found a barbecue place and was on my way when he called. There was a little bit of a time gap so I figured my best bet to pee was to go back to the hotel. I did so and grabbed a couple bites of doughnut for the tiding me over (yeah, they came in handy for more than just breakfasts!). Then I met him back in the city at a place called Ramsi's. It's a bit of a world fusion place with bits of Mexican, Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, etc. etc. After the heavy hamburger from the day before, I was wanting something a bit different so this was perfect. I had these onion rings with this sauce that sounded awesome (it was too, the onion rings were awesome too) and some pad thai. I also had some mocktails that were delicious. One was kombucha which I normally don't go for but this had cardamom in it and it was delicious and delivered! I ordered another one from this list of "refrescos"...I forget what it was...like blackberry or raspberry and something good sounding...I forget. The waitress came back and was said they were out of the syrup for it and suggested the other one that was my next choice anyway of passionfruit and honey. She said it was the best. So I was like sure, but then she came back and said the bartender was able to scrounge up one more of the other one. Well, when I finished that she asked about the passionfruit and I was like, yeah, I'd gotten convinced so I wanted to try it too. Then yeah, it was super duper good and she was right that it was the best! It even had a fancy cherry, delicious. Then Jason and I just hung out and talked. I ate like a pig but I'd skipped lunch and it was all hitting the spot. He had a greek salad for an left the olives and I was like, this is gauche but fuck it, can I have your olives because I fucking love olives! So bonus olives! We just kinda hung out for a while. After that, that was the night so it was back to the hotel. I loafed about a bit before going to bed. Talked to Mary Beth on the phone again. Read some. Okay, then sleep.
Then it was Friday, the day I really didn't have too much at all to do. There was going to be this fundraiser concert at Woodbine that was kind of tied to the event I was to play. So I figured I'd check that out too but it wasn't until evening. I slept in like every day so it was all fine. I was still in the room when there was a knock on the door from housekeeping. I was almost ready to head out so I went to the door to say that I'll be leaving soon. She didn't speak English though so then I tried to tell her in Spanish and we had a short, confused conversation with me trying to speak Spanish, even badly, just enough for a smidge of understanding, and her responding and sometimes using her phone to translate what she was saying for me. I'd confused things by saying I was leaving soon 'cuz then she thought I meant I was checking out but I just meant I was leaving for the day. I thought maybe they wanted to get into the room and clean and just letting them know I'm about to leave. But anyway I just confused things 'cuz she just wanted to exchange towels and for me to hand over the trash. Well, sometimes I kind of made myself understood even if badly. Okay yeah, so it's out on the town I go. I went to pick up some coffee from Sunergos that Mary Beth really loves. Then I found a grocery store to get a whole fuck-ton of Ale-8-One. You can get the bottles in Memphis, but I've never seen cans so when in Louisville I really like to stock the fuck up with several twelve-packs of the cans. I even got more than I might have because it was buy-two-get-one-free so I got six. No fucking regrets! Okay, so the dinner the night before was delicious as fuck but the vegetables and peppers and such (what I got really wasn't that spicy, but that's just how I roll, I guess) had me, uh, in some urgent need of frequently going back to the fucking hotel (to defecate, yes!). So I did those two short shopping things then hurry back to the hotel! Then I should eat, back out again. Since I hastily had almost gotten barbecue the day before, I thought I'd try to find some more. I settled on this place called Mama's Mustard, Pickles & BBQ. It was pretty mediocre. It may have been my fault as I should know better than to get brisket pretty much anywhere outside of Texas without good cause to think otherwise (hell, once in Texas I even found out you've gotta be careful there too!...though then to be fair that was a case of only-thing-open-on-Sunday, but I digress), but everything else on the menu felt too close to what I could get in Memphis and that didn't feel right. Anyway, from the feel of the place, something else probably would have been better but I'll wager that it wouldn't have been great (there is redemption to come later, however, stay tuned for that excited tale!). And uh, well, more of the same! Back to the hotel, etc. Back into town. I made my way back to Woodbine for the fundraiser concert. It was a bit of a marathon from 5 til about midnight, but I literally had nothing else to do so why the fuck not!? It'd be cool to check out the scene. I didn't know much about it but I checked out literally one act on the lineup for like a second and they seemed weird and interesting so at least worth a shot. The show was divided up into several distinct parts. The first was mostly folk-y stuff (or maybe coffee-shop, songwriter). I say it was mostly folk and it was, there was one artist in the middle that was like piano jazz singer-songwriter. She sang with this faux old-timey voice that was pretty annoying. Sometimes what she did on piano was interesting though and she did two Mary Lou Williams songs and those were really good (as there was no singing). The next section was poetry. Some of the poets also had music. One of the poets to me seemed pretty good. A lot of the others had that kinda reductive activist thing (especially one, the most popular one), the venue seems to be run by a lot of activists. Which is cool and all, nothing at all against that. Though sometimes that can be accompanied by buzzwords and saying the things that other activists want to hear with little else involved. It wasn't all like that...but some of it was. I will continue on another post. I'm not intending to end on a negative note. A positive note will follow! And again, some of the poetry was good. Just notating some thoughts. Okay, shutting up...
To Nashville and To Louisville
Oct. 5th, 2025 07:35 pmI hit the road solo for my trip to Louisville Wednesday morning! The drive up was very smooth. I made a few stops in Nashville along the way: record store and hamburger. My first stop was at McKay's and I got some cds:
Curtis Mayfield: Superfly soundtrack, Nina Simone: Original Album Series, Charlie Hayden: Liberation Music Orchestra, Larry Young: Unity, Augustus Pablo: Original Rockers, Jean Michel Jarre: Equinoxe, Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird • 4 Studies Etc., Steve Reich: The Cave, Tom Waits: Bad as Me, The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold as Love, The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland, and Mogwai: Rave Tapes
One thing I didn't remember from before about this place is that they price some thing by apparent popularity. Whether it's actually rare or not. Like, some AC/DC albums and they're at least twice as much as the regular used cd and it's just because they perceive them as popular (or there's currently a "demand" even though that because they're popular they were mass produced and not hard to find). Anyway, whatever I just didn't get anything overpriced, but still annoying in principle. The next stop was to the Riverside Grillshack (I think really the name is just Grillshack and it's on Riverside Dr., but it's always been fixed in my head as Riverside Grillshack so I think that will just stay!). Then I made a stop at Grimey's and got some more cds (most used but some new ones in there):
Metallica: Master of Puppets, Metallica: Ride the Lightning, Radio Birdman: The Essential (1974 - 1978), James Johnston and Terry Edwards: Dora Suarez, Grachan Moncur III: New Africa, Swell Maps: The John Peel Sessions, Jlin: Akoma, Actress: Ghettoville, Battles: EP C, Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committe Part Two, Cul de Sac: Ecim, The For Carnation: Fight Songs, The Sea and Cake: Runner, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson & Sigur Rós: Englar Alheimsins, Emahoy Tesge Mariam Gebru: Church of Kidane Mehret, To Rococo Rot: The Amateur View, Richard Youngs: Festival, and Richard Youngs: Sapphie
The last few were from the super discount shelves and I went through them on the floor and hit super paydirct weeding through as those Richard Youngs were in there and that album of his I got in the Table of the Elements grab bag sale was really incredible, so that was a super-duper for me find! There was a little bit of traffic backup getting out of Nashville but other than that it was very smooth sailing to Louisville and I arrived at night. I felt I should get some food but wasn't super hungry given the heavy hamburger I'd had and I didn't get a chance to really plan in depth (or at all) the food I was going to eat but I found there was a twenty-four hour doughnut place called Jeff's Donuts and I went and picked up six doughnuts to take back to my hotel. They were huge fucking doughnuts. I figured I'd have something leftover for breakfast (well, that was correct! I had something leftover for the next three breakfasts!). They were pretty delicious too! Anyway, got to the hotel and it was very weird. I mean, it was fine but it was weird getting to the room. The hotel was across the river in Indiana. That's fine, it was still not far from everything. I mostly took the old bridge to avoid the toll (I mean, one or a few times isn't significant but I went back-and-forth a good bit and it'd have added up). Going out of the city was always quick 'cuz the road goes right into the highway/interstate ramps and there's no stopping, but coming into the city you hit downtown and a traffic light right away so it could get backed up, but most of the time I had all the time in the word to spare. Anyway, back to the hotel. It was weirdly sprawling and it was like a series of buildings linked together and the one where my room was (I'm sure why it's so cheap) was far away from the desk/entrance so you had to take this winding, labyrinthine series of corridors to get to the elevator to it. Luckily they had plenty of carts to lug one's luggage (and in my case, gear). (I mean, not luckily, of course they did and even moreso than usual due to the layout situation.) Anyway, of course this is what I get the one time I'm hauling music gear and shit. It wasn't too bad though. I was able to get everything onto the cart (just barely, ooh! like how, and I forgot to mention this earlier, I got everything, just barely, into my trunk for the trip! I mean, I still had the backseat, and front seat to spare, but I was making stops and I didn't want my stuff sitting out there, anyway, yeah!). So yeah, it was a bit of an "ordeal" but I made it to my room and talked to Mary Beth on the phone and ate some doughnuts and slept!
The next day (Thursday) was my big Louisville "sight-seeing" (read: cd shopping and some book shopping) day. My first stop was Guestroom Records and I picked up some stuff (probably mostly new but a few used things):
Blanck Mass: In Ferneaux; Clipping: Dead Channel Sky; John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies: Firestarter soundtrack; Brian Eno: Film Music 1976-2020; Grouper: Grid of Points; Godspeed You Black Emperor!: No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead; Rachel Grimes: The Clearing, Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage; Guru Guru: UFO; Ibibio Sound Machine: Pull the Rope; Galaxie 500: Uncollected Noise New York '88-'90; Alan Sparhawk: White Roses, My God; and Thom Yorke: Anima
While there I'd gotten a message from Jason (of The Corrupting Sea fame who put on the Louisville Experimental Music Nights that I was there to play!) that he was at the Woodbine Chamber (formerly called the Chapel of St. Philip Neri, the venue where all the magic was to happen). So I met him up there and dropped off my modular gear as he'd graciously taken on holding it for me while I'm in town since I was nervous about leaving it in the hotel unguarded while I was out and about. So I dropped that off and I also got to see this beautiful venue, just looked around like a tourist and such. So one awesome thing that I may have mentioned before, but this is the venue where Low recorded the live album One More Reason to Forget so it's even more excited I got to play there. And I found this out a little later, maybe on Friday, but it turns out I know the person who put that out! Michael Drekka put that out on Bluesanct! Holy hell! Small world and that's pretty awesome. Anyway, then it's back to my trekking about the city. The next stop was Surface Noise. Brett wasn't working that day. I did pick up a couple of books:
The Colonel's Photograph and Other Stories by Eugène Ionesco and The Hideout by Egon Hostovský
Then I went to the record store that's just a few doors down called Matt Anthony's. It's mostly vinyl-focused (I mean, what isn't) and they didn't have a lot of cds. They had a few. I ended up picking one up:
The Sea and Cake: Oui
My next stop was this place called Book & Music exchange. I started trying to comb through all of their cds but they had a lot and a lot of lots of dreck (that wording was intentional, really want to emphasize how much dreck!) and it was in the kind of shelves that go down to the floor and after a bit I was finding it not at all worth my time. I did try the books but nothing there, but then I stumbled on their small "rarities" section where they had a few things together with prices that were different from the standard price everything else had, higher prices of course, but I found some things that made it worth it:
Zoviet France: Just an Illusion, Edward Ka-Spel: Khataclimici China Doll, and Choice Provisions: Bit.Trip Void Bit.Trip Runner Original Soundtracks
Yes, the Zoviet France is redundant with that huge box set I just recently got BUT this also was originally packaged in a fancy wooden box and it was just too cool to pass up (and while the price was higher than the dreck, it wasn't too badly priced for what it is). They also had another album of theirs but it was just a standard jewel case and that one wasn't worth the extra price since I also already have it in the box set. Okay. More thrilling stuff in another post!
Curtis Mayfield: Superfly soundtrack, Nina Simone: Original Album Series, Charlie Hayden: Liberation Music Orchestra, Larry Young: Unity, Augustus Pablo: Original Rockers, Jean Michel Jarre: Equinoxe, Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird • 4 Studies Etc., Steve Reich: The Cave, Tom Waits: Bad as Me, The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold as Love, The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland, and Mogwai: Rave Tapes
One thing I didn't remember from before about this place is that they price some thing by apparent popularity. Whether it's actually rare or not. Like, some AC/DC albums and they're at least twice as much as the regular used cd and it's just because they perceive them as popular (or there's currently a "demand" even though that because they're popular they were mass produced and not hard to find). Anyway, whatever I just didn't get anything overpriced, but still annoying in principle. The next stop was to the Riverside Grillshack (I think really the name is just Grillshack and it's on Riverside Dr., but it's always been fixed in my head as Riverside Grillshack so I think that will just stay!). Then I made a stop at Grimey's and got some more cds (most used but some new ones in there):
Metallica: Master of Puppets, Metallica: Ride the Lightning, Radio Birdman: The Essential (1974 - 1978), James Johnston and Terry Edwards: Dora Suarez, Grachan Moncur III: New Africa, Swell Maps: The John Peel Sessions, Jlin: Akoma, Actress: Ghettoville, Battles: EP C, Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committe Part Two, Cul de Sac: Ecim, The For Carnation: Fight Songs, The Sea and Cake: Runner, Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson & Sigur Rós: Englar Alheimsins, Emahoy Tesge Mariam Gebru: Church of Kidane Mehret, To Rococo Rot: The Amateur View, Richard Youngs: Festival, and Richard Youngs: Sapphie
The last few were from the super discount shelves and I went through them on the floor and hit super paydirct weeding through as those Richard Youngs were in there and that album of his I got in the Table of the Elements grab bag sale was really incredible, so that was a super-duper for me find! There was a little bit of traffic backup getting out of Nashville but other than that it was very smooth sailing to Louisville and I arrived at night. I felt I should get some food but wasn't super hungry given the heavy hamburger I'd had and I didn't get a chance to really plan in depth (or at all) the food I was going to eat but I found there was a twenty-four hour doughnut place called Jeff's Donuts and I went and picked up six doughnuts to take back to my hotel. They were huge fucking doughnuts. I figured I'd have something leftover for breakfast (well, that was correct! I had something leftover for the next three breakfasts!). They were pretty delicious too! Anyway, got to the hotel and it was very weird. I mean, it was fine but it was weird getting to the room. The hotel was across the river in Indiana. That's fine, it was still not far from everything. I mostly took the old bridge to avoid the toll (I mean, one or a few times isn't significant but I went back-and-forth a good bit and it'd have added up). Going out of the city was always quick 'cuz the road goes right into the highway/interstate ramps and there's no stopping, but coming into the city you hit downtown and a traffic light right away so it could get backed up, but most of the time I had all the time in the word to spare. Anyway, back to the hotel. It was weirdly sprawling and it was like a series of buildings linked together and the one where my room was (I'm sure why it's so cheap) was far away from the desk/entrance so you had to take this winding, labyrinthine series of corridors to get to the elevator to it. Luckily they had plenty of carts to lug one's luggage (and in my case, gear). (I mean, not luckily, of course they did and even moreso than usual due to the layout situation.) Anyway, of course this is what I get the one time I'm hauling music gear and shit. It wasn't too bad though. I was able to get everything onto the cart (just barely, ooh! like how, and I forgot to mention this earlier, I got everything, just barely, into my trunk for the trip! I mean, I still had the backseat, and front seat to spare, but I was making stops and I didn't want my stuff sitting out there, anyway, yeah!). So yeah, it was a bit of an "ordeal" but I made it to my room and talked to Mary Beth on the phone and ate some doughnuts and slept!
The next day (Thursday) was my big Louisville "sight-seeing" (read: cd shopping and some book shopping) day. My first stop was Guestroom Records and I picked up some stuff (probably mostly new but a few used things):
Blanck Mass: In Ferneaux; Clipping: Dead Channel Sky; John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies: Firestarter soundtrack; Brian Eno: Film Music 1976-2020; Grouper: Grid of Points; Godspeed You Black Emperor!: No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead; Rachel Grimes: The Clearing, Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage; Guru Guru: UFO; Ibibio Sound Machine: Pull the Rope; Galaxie 500: Uncollected Noise New York '88-'90; Alan Sparhawk: White Roses, My God; and Thom Yorke: Anima
While there I'd gotten a message from Jason (of The Corrupting Sea fame who put on the Louisville Experimental Music Nights that I was there to play!) that he was at the Woodbine Chamber (formerly called the Chapel of St. Philip Neri, the venue where all the magic was to happen). So I met him up there and dropped off my modular gear as he'd graciously taken on holding it for me while I'm in town since I was nervous about leaving it in the hotel unguarded while I was out and about. So I dropped that off and I also got to see this beautiful venue, just looked around like a tourist and such. So one awesome thing that I may have mentioned before, but this is the venue where Low recorded the live album One More Reason to Forget so it's even more excited I got to play there. And I found this out a little later, maybe on Friday, but it turns out I know the person who put that out! Michael Drekka put that out on Bluesanct! Holy hell! Small world and that's pretty awesome. Anyway, then it's back to my trekking about the city. The next stop was Surface Noise. Brett wasn't working that day. I did pick up a couple of books:
The Colonel's Photograph and Other Stories by Eugène Ionesco and The Hideout by Egon Hostovský
Then I went to the record store that's just a few doors down called Matt Anthony's. It's mostly vinyl-focused (I mean, what isn't) and they didn't have a lot of cds. They had a few. I ended up picking one up:
The Sea and Cake: Oui
My next stop was this place called Book & Music exchange. I started trying to comb through all of their cds but they had a lot and a lot of lots of dreck (that wording was intentional, really want to emphasize how much dreck!) and it was in the kind of shelves that go down to the floor and after a bit I was finding it not at all worth my time. I did try the books but nothing there, but then I stumbled on their small "rarities" section where they had a few things together with prices that were different from the standard price everything else had, higher prices of course, but I found some things that made it worth it:
Zoviet France: Just an Illusion, Edward Ka-Spel: Khataclimici China Doll, and Choice Provisions: Bit.Trip Void Bit.Trip Runner Original Soundtracks
Yes, the Zoviet France is redundant with that huge box set I just recently got BUT this also was originally packaged in a fancy wooden box and it was just too cool to pass up (and while the price was higher than the dreck, it wasn't too badly priced for what it is). They also had another album of theirs but it was just a standard jewel case and that one wasn't worth the extra price since I also already have it in the box set. Okay. More thrilling stuff in another post!
I attempted to try Goner again for flyers after work, but they still haven't taken down the Gonerfest display so whatever. I spent some more time working on my modular set and I think it's come along alright. Then I wasted a bunch of time and had to pack and get ready and all that in a hurry. I didn't get all the planning on what to do while I'm in Louisville done so much as I'd wanted so I guess I'll get there and figure shit out. Then I had trouble falling asleep with the whole subconscious pre-trip excitement thing or whatever. I had a little trouble then I fell asleep for a little bit then I woke up and then had a lot of trouble and was up awake for a little while. But hey, I guess I'm getting to it soon.
Some Stuff
Sep. 30th, 2025 08:00 amAfter work I went out and did some flyering. Goner still hadn't taken the big Gonerfest display out of the window so I skipped there but hit most of the other few places I go. I wasn't going to go into Shangri La but the person working was outside when I arrived and then said something flattering about always being interested in what I put on so then I didn't want to be all awkwardly like "alright, see ya later, jerk!" (which I know it's not like that and I'm a sucker, but also a couple cds isn't a bad thing), so I picked up: Grifters: Ain't My Lookout and John Coltrane: Both Directions at Once: the Lost Album. Then at night I practiced a bunch for my upcoming show. Also getting things situated with the setups (I have stereo planned for once so I had to get that arranged trying to find adapters for my outputs but then realizing my output module doesn't correctly pan the stereo and it's all mixed so what's it even matter! Then I re-remembered what I did before and just skip that and output directly from the mixer module). Anyway yeah, I didn't get as much practice-practice as I would like to as I was figuring out some logistical stuff but I did get some. Hopefully today I can get a little in and get things sounding more pared down and being able to both cut sounds out as well as pile them on!
In the early afternoon Mary Beth and I went up to the Listening Lab in Crosstown for a Silkworm q&a session. It was just Tim doing the talking but it was a really good talk (I mean, Tim's a good talker so it makes sense he'd be the one they send to do it). I guess I didn't know too much detail-wise about the history of the band, so it was informative and entertaining! It was a pretty good long talk too.
After that I went over to Josh's to have a look at my modular case. It ended up being much easier to fix than I'd expected! It took a little troubleshooting with the multimeter but he found the cause. It was a fuse that was blown, but not one of the fuses on the power supply; it was the fuse in the power inlet that's built into the case. (So looking over it all more, the old power supply didn't have a fuse built into the board but used that as its main fuse. I'm pretty sure it was also a good deal less powerful than the new power supply and this fuse had a much lower threshold than the ones on the board.) I had looked at that fuse but didn't see where it was connected to anything so I dismissed it as a spare. (Though to be kind of fair, there are two fuses in that compartment and one IS a spare so I wasn't completely off-base. It was easy to test 'cuz we quickly swapped the blown one for the spare that was right there and then it worked again. Once we'd found that was the cause. By "we" I mean, Josh of course!) Then afterwards I went up to Home Depot and picked up fuses with a higher threshold so it couldn't ever get tripped up too soon again.
Later Mary Beth and I watched a little more Treehouse of Horror (this time with spaghetti and banana splits!). And I spent the rest of the night working on my stuff for the out-of-town set now that I could again! Now it's coming along nicely. I still have some more practice and fine-tuning to do in the next couple days (since my delays took up time I should have been working on it!) but as it is now, I think I have enough of a grasp on it that I could pull off something decent. Still want to get familiar with everything and get my approach a little more organized, but happy with where it's headed at least.
After that I went over to Josh's to have a look at my modular case. It ended up being much easier to fix than I'd expected! It took a little troubleshooting with the multimeter but he found the cause. It was a fuse that was blown, but not one of the fuses on the power supply; it was the fuse in the power inlet that's built into the case. (So looking over it all more, the old power supply didn't have a fuse built into the board but used that as its main fuse. I'm pretty sure it was also a good deal less powerful than the new power supply and this fuse had a much lower threshold than the ones on the board.) I had looked at that fuse but didn't see where it was connected to anything so I dismissed it as a spare. (Though to be kind of fair, there are two fuses in that compartment and one IS a spare so I wasn't completely off-base. It was easy to test 'cuz we quickly swapped the blown one for the spare that was right there and then it worked again. Once we'd found that was the cause. By "we" I mean, Josh of course!) Then afterwards I went up to Home Depot and picked up fuses with a higher threshold so it couldn't ever get tripped up too soon again.
Later Mary Beth and I watched a little more Treehouse of Horror (this time with spaghetti and banana splits!). And I spent the rest of the night working on my stuff for the out-of-town set now that I could again! Now it's coming along nicely. I still have some more practice and fine-tuning to do in the next couple days (since my delays took up time I should have been working on it!) but as it is now, I think I have enough of a grasp on it that I could pull off something decent. Still want to get familiar with everything and get my approach a little more organized, but happy with where it's headed at least.
Fine Dining and Worm
Sep. 28th, 2025 08:52 amI was able to record the second sample I plan to use in Louisville if all goes well (even if it doesn't, I think I'll still use the samples just maybe load them on tape instead of my modular). I just recorded myself playing a little bit of a certain song on guitar (probably not exactly right and still played badly but that's okay for my sampling purposes).
In the evening Mary Beth and I went and had our anniversary dinner at Erling Jensen so it was very nice and fancy and we had some delicious stuff and stuffed ourselves with it.
Then later we went to another day of Gonerfest pretty much just to see Silkworm. We got there as Radioactivity was playing (if the name makes you want to think there's some kind of Kraftwerk influence, it is not at all so! pretty straightforward punk rock, not terrible but not memorable in any way). After they played we managed to get up to the front and Mary Beth was right on the stage (I was behind but towards the end for the last few songs some people left and I made it to the stage). Silkworm was really good live. And Joel is with them again so it's really cool to see him sing. Promotional stuff before the tour was saying that Matt Kadane would be joining them on keyboards but he wasn't there (didn't see him in any of the photos Jacques took as he followed them around for a week so I knew not to actually expect that). They played my favorite song of theirs, "Don't Look Back". All in all a very good set and they played for a long time, almost an hour and a half. They went on at 11 so I assumed they'd play til 12 but they went well past that. I picked up some merch as we were leaving (tried to before but no one was at the table). I picked up The Crust Brothers: Marquee Mark on cd and a SKWM t-shirt and all as they're somewhat aggressively shuffling everyone out of the area. I woke up earlier than I should have, but whatever!
In the evening Mary Beth and I went and had our anniversary dinner at Erling Jensen so it was very nice and fancy and we had some delicious stuff and stuffed ourselves with it.
Then later we went to another day of Gonerfest pretty much just to see Silkworm. We got there as Radioactivity was playing (if the name makes you want to think there's some kind of Kraftwerk influence, it is not at all so! pretty straightforward punk rock, not terrible but not memorable in any way). After they played we managed to get up to the front and Mary Beth was right on the stage (I was behind but towards the end for the last few songs some people left and I made it to the stage). Silkworm was really good live. And Joel is with them again so it's really cool to see him sing. Promotional stuff before the tour was saying that Matt Kadane would be joining them on keyboards but he wasn't there (didn't see him in any of the photos Jacques took as he followed them around for a week so I knew not to actually expect that). They played my favorite song of theirs, "Don't Look Back". All in all a very good set and they played for a long time, almost an hour and a half. They went on at 11 so I assumed they'd play til 12 but they went well past that. I picked up some merch as we were leaving (tried to before but no one was at the table). I picked up The Crust Brothers: Marquee Mark on cd and a SKWM t-shirt and all as they're somewhat aggressively shuffling everyone out of the area. I woke up earlier than I should have, but whatever!
