December 13th storm 9

December 13th storm 9, originally uploaded by mattduanegriffin.

And here I am at home! Next door you can see the neighbor happily blowing the snow away with his little tractory thingie. I can see home and warmth, and the end of a far too long journey home.

December 13th storm 7

December 13th storm 7, originally uploaded by mattduanegriffin.

I realize this is up backwards, but I'm posting it as I'm telling the story, and for me it's forwards! I kinda like doing that Chris Nolan style storytelling, anyway.

So I'm on my own street finally, and I've forgotten that it's freezing cold. I'm jazzed to see that everything is covered with this thick layer of virgin white. I can see that the orange of the street lights is reflecting around everywhere and it's way brighter out than it ever is at night otherwise.

December 13th storm 5

December 13th storm 5, originally uploaded by mattduanegriffin.

So eventually, I ended up back at the original stop, and waited through about three overcrowded busses coming by & me being unsuccessful at getting on. When I did finally get on a bus, it turned out it was the same bus I had missed the first time, and it was on its next trip through the route from the one I had not made it onto. Usually, this route takes less than an hour, but this was over 3 hours later.

Anyway, I got home well after dark, but with the storm still going strong. There's something about the first snow of the season that doesn't suck at all, though. I find it beautiful. There's a different quality to the sound, there's a quality to the light, as the snow crystals bounce the light around, and I just find myself stopping and staring in wonder.

December 13th storm 4

December 13th storm 4, originally uploaded by mattduanegriffin.

argh.

When I got to the bus stop, I realized that everything was affected. I spent some time here at this stop, waiting for a good long while for any bus at all to come. When the bus did finally show up, it became immediately clear that I wasn't gonna get on it. So I desided to waste a little time, and maybe even try an alternate route. But it was no go. I went to Central Square, and that seemed even worse.

December 13th storm 3

December 13th storm 3, originally uploaded by mattduanegriffin.

As I made my way through Harvard's campus, I realized that everyone had had the same idea.

December 13th storm 1

December 13th storm 1, originally uploaded by mattduanegriffin.

The first big snow of the season started about the middle of the day on December 13th. The boss emailed me and said, "You should go home early." Lesley was closing, which they hardly ever do, so I got out of work about 2:30 and started the commute home.

Guitars in Low Light 4

Guitars in Low Light 4, originally uploaded by mattduanegriffin.

Part of a set I took with my ancient digital camera. low light allowed me to get a really cool double exposure effect here. There are 6 others in this set posted at flickr.com

Randi Rhodes Detroit Speech

This speech is a pretty good condensation of our political situation. It builds as it goes, and I think is very well written. I agree with pretty much all of it.

carpet

carpet, originally uploaded by mattduanegriffin.

This carpet was on the floor of my office at work. It's gone now. I came back after a Doctor's appointment last Thursday and over half the room was flooded with grey sewage. The room had too much stuff in it. There are things we have to have on the floor, there's just nowhere else to put them! So we chose fairly well, I think, and we're pretty much in tact, having lost a bit of software, but nothing too horrible.

This week I've had my own office because of it. Kinda cool, actually.

But I better not get used to it, I'm going back to the dungeon (what we call the basement room I work in) next Thursday.

UPDATE: Thursday is over and we didn't move. How long will we wait? January? Thanksgiving? meantime I have a window to look out of at work. Ah, amenities...

NEW YORK B'TY SALON

NEW YORK B'TY SALON, originally uploaded by mattduanegriffin.

Just happened to be walking through east Cambridge and saw this door. Now I need to go back again and see what the little black thing in the middle pane of the door window is.

Drunken Triple

Drunken Triple, originally uploaded by mattduanegriffin.

I saw this from the 70 bus last Thursday and came back to photograph it on Sunday.

This is the Best Commercial Ever Made

Scariest Slumbering Song Ever

The Scariest Song Ever by Slumbering shows that Slumby really does know what's scary.



Slumby herself always seems like she stepped out of a Tim Burton movie to me -- she's Sally all brought to life and living in Los Angeles. This song carries with it the whimsy and humor to make my comparison stick, I think. It has a bit of musichall or maybe biergarten and a subtle but serious jolt at the end. Macabre!

Missing Piece 8 by The Light Dreams

One thing that I really love about some of the Electronica guys at macidol.com is that they really pay attention to their artwork. They understand that visuals can add a lot to a listening experience, and they design their art for their pages accordingly. The Light Dreams has a voluminous jamroom, and there are many really cool pictures accompanying his compositions.

Missing Piece 8 is his most recent addition, and is great, spacy ambient music. I'm going back to find the other 7.

In honor of the most surreal fatwa ever...

I was hanging out on the boards at airamerica.com and there was a video of Cenk Uygur talking about how in Iran, homosexuality is a capital offense the first time you're caught (lesbians have more leeway). The odd thing is that evidently the Ayatollah Khomeini (the guy from the '70s) in his wisdom, issued a fatwa that condones gender reassignment.

Interestingly, there are about 150,000 transgender people in Iran, making them the second-largest intersexed community in the world behind Thailand. Essentially, what seems to be happening is that a lot of gay folks, who have no choice if they want to survive, become transgendered, or possibly try to hook up with someone transgendered.

So anyway, in the comments for the entry, someone who posts as Uffdaguy said he was afraid of what he would find if he googled "Persian Transsexual". Well, being a helpful guy, I did a google image search and came up with this.



This is a pastry called a "persian" and it was the top hit when I googled.

That Special Time of Year

Avast, mateys. Here we be again, arrr. Crack open that barrel o' rum, and commence emptyin' it down yer gullet, 'coz it's International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Yer parrrrticipation is greatly apreciated, and will likely save ya a few puncture wounds, I'm guessin'.

Shiver me timbers!

Kerry says and does nothing, nor does anyone else

I've seen a bit of press on this in the mainstream media, but most everyhting I've seen makes this guy look like a troublemaker and a malcontent. But you know what? He had every right to ask his questions, and the police acted illegally and in the most ugly fascistic way possible.

And John Kerry, that unforgiveable wimp, as well as that whole crowd of 100 or so supposedly politically aware people, sat by and did nothing.

How shameful.

Branch Reflection

branch reflection, originally uploaded by mattduanegriffin.

I live in Watertown, a few miles north and west of Boston. It's pretty well settled around here, but one of the amenities of my current living situation is that there's some nice parkland along the Charles River, which I can reach by walking a block from my house. This picture was taken yesterday morning as I walked back towards my house from Watertown Square.

11th Hour

Recently saw this movie & it did get me thinking.

I can't say I think it's a great popcorn movie, it's rather dense contentwise, but it is thought provoking and at the end of it, I felt like I wanted to do something about the problem.

At the time, I found myself comparing it to The Day After Tomorrow, because while the Roland Emmerich potboiler has zero credibility, it is a good popcorn movie. I've probably watched it 20 times (if not more), because I think Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhall are both really good in it, acting their hearts out over a script that is actually overly praised if you call it drivel. Also, the effects are wonderful, though they are used to fairly stoopid ends.

11th Hour has the exact opposite problem. It's a long 2 hours of talking heads, interspersed with stock footage of various environmental disasters (boy are there a lot of environmental horrors in this world right now). It's a very heady film, without a lot of emotional lift.

Of course, the best environmental film out there is The Al Gore Flick, which begs the question "Do we need another one of these, only half as good?" I think the answer is yes.

What I'd like to see is a good ecological thriller, one with three dimensional characters, emotional and intellectual logic, based on good science and worthy of a bucket of popcorn.

Dream on, right?

The Game Of Thrones

I have only nice things to say about the series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. I am currently most of the way through the 4th and most recent book in the series, A Feast For Crows. I am a fan of fantasy to begin with: Yes, I am the dork who's been through the Lord Of The Rings extended edition on DVD 20 or more times. As you would expect, this series is marketed to the modern fantasy reader by equating it to Tolkein, and yes, this is medieval high fantasy, complete with dragons and wights and magic, but it is also an entirely different animal. It's lurid, gory, mystical, spiritual, huge in scope, and completely enthralling.

Four books in, the character arcs have had time to mature: some of these characters are little kids at the beginning, but time is passing so they're slowly becoming adults during a protracted civil war over the course of years. Martin is a gifted storyteller, and is able to move his nicely three dimentional characters through the bloody wartorn landscape of his well imagined world at their own leisure. He deals with it by jump cutting, and also by shifting perspective at chapter length, so the story is told as a series of vignettes.

Very ingeniously created, very human stories, great characters...

I am so looking forward to this as a tv series

Minneapolis

The rot is coming around. When are we gonna stop lying to ourselves? To be a Republican today, you absolutely have to be lying to yourself, imo.

I think we need to get out of Iraq and raise taxes. And we have to find a way to limit corporations' power, too.

Peteykins re: Nino's Steak House

"The coldest drinking fountain in the world
"Makes your lips freeze together.
"Sure it hurts when you pull them apart --
"But oh, it's nice in hot weather!"

Singer/percussionist Pete who used to be in a band variously called Jon Rosen's Army, The Skin Consultants From LA, (others I hope he will be so kind as to remind me of) and P. S. Bingo, on the place that was the only bar in town a weirdo band like us could even hope to gig. It was indeed as described. The b*stards didn't give a damn for any of the various bands I was in that played there, and we loved them just as much.

Frankly, I've played worse gigs than those, but there's something special about your first business relationship with coke-snortin' hoodlums that leaves an indelible imprint.

Last time I was in Tucson, I think that building was a feed store, which struck me as fitting.

Frank Panucci

There's this guy I've known about on the web for... gawd... over 10 years. Never met the guy, we've had a somewhat cordial relationship although I'm sure he thinks I'm a mow ran. His name is Frank Panucci and I know him from Devo fandom. Frank is way more Devo than me, and it's all to the good, or possibly evil: I'm not sure.

Frank is an animator, and a very freaky and good one. Here is a video he did earlier this year that I find hilarious, and the weird thing is, the more I watch it the more hilarious it gets. Most comedy doesn't work that way, but this does. Check out the video:



And note that the link in the right hand column called "Reperkussionz Production Blog" is to the production blog for his microbudget computer animation mixed with live action movie.

Bash & Pop -- Friday Night is Killing Me

Over the last few years I've become more enamored of the Replacements & Paul solo and also what Tommy Stinson has done post Mats. The contributing factor has been that I've become more familiar with the Faces and Mercury-era Rod Stewart, and I can hear what devotees Grandpaboy et. al. are.

Nowhere is this fixation more apparent than on Tommy's first post Mats outing c. 1993. On one level, you hear the Replacements legacy, but the more I listen to this, the more I hear them English fellers. Tunes like "Hang Ups", "Tickled to Tears" and "He Means It" boogie in a very particular way, and even where the Faces are less apparent, you can still get that hit in the looseness and jauntiness of the way the band is jamming. That is not to say that this is a Georgia Sattelites clone; B & P are more romantic than that, prettier, even while being a funky, rockin' mess... I'd say 2 or 3 levels deeper than Dan Baird & Co. and way more rockin' than Westerberg's solo output in general.

This alb was so much better than people give it credit for, and the title track shoulda been all over the radio, that's what I think.

Curt Kirkwood -- Snow

Produced by Pete Anderson, who is Dwight Yoakam's producer. Essentially you have a kinda country-pop Meat Puppets record. Soaring and Byrds-like at times, never raising its temperature above that of a warm October day. The lyrics are Curt's style; somewhat impressionistic, they resonate but never tip their hand.

Curt plays about half the guitar and also splits backing vocals with his producer. Kirkwood's playing keeps the seedee from becoming any kind of cookie cutter Nashville pop affair, but Pete Anderson's contributions are definitely those of an ace nashville cat: clean, supple, tasty. He's a nice foil for the M. P. Interesting to note that a solo record is the first time you hear Kirkwood as half of a guitar duo; he's usually the whole ballgame.

On the whole, this is a very nice album, spotlighting the Meat Puppets leader as a songwriter of considerable merit and a soulful, tuneful singer. For me, this one stacks up against any Meat Puppets record after Up on the Sun.

My prediction -- the presidential tickets

This is 'way early, I know, but looking at the poll numbers at pollster.com, I would predict that the likely nominees for the Dems and the GOD GOP at this moment are Edwards and Romney. The overall numbers show Clinton and Giuliani, but the Iowa & New Hampshire #s favor the other 2 candidates. The one caveat I have at this point is that Gore is still saying he won't run. If you look at the national numbers for the Dems, you will see that all 3 major Dem candidates are trending downwards in the polls, but that Gore's numbers are going significantly up, in hopes of a possible candidacy. If he changes his mind somewhere down the road & does jump in (it will depend on this groundswell continuing to tumesce) it will, for the second time in history, be Al Gore's race to lose.



Can he do it, folks?

Quote of the Day

If by "dentist" you mean "apple pie," then I totally agree. --The Queen of Cans and Jars

Jessica Rylan

Is a noise musician based in the Boston area. She builds her own synthesizers and has a band called Can't which she is the lone member of. I believe she is currently touring out west, but tonight is her last show, in LA.



Her music is full of white and pink noise, arranged in contrasts and textures. Sometimes she has lyrics, but more often, I think, she does soundscapes. I remember seeing this video on local television, once upon a time, but I didn't know the artist's name at that point, and so never followed up on it. I saw the article on her in the current Signal to Noise, and was pleased to recognize her. She has several mp3s streamable and downloadable at this page, and if you have an ear for outsider electronica, you'll find her stuff unique and exciting.

This is especially recommended to fans of the great Vann Steppladder...

(more on Vann at some near future point...)

Poll 1

Best one minute song of the last ten years. discuss.

King Wilkie's New Material

Last night I saw King Wilkie on their mini-tour in support of their new CD Low Country Suite. They've just moved to Rounder Records from Rebel, and seem to be taking the ambitious move as a time to reach out beyond the bounds of bluegrass into country-tinged pop balladry.

I've seen this done before, and I've never seen it work. I'm reminded of Salamander Crossing who were a promising bluegrass band who put out an album of Gram Parsons influenced country rock called Bottleneck Dreams and promptly died.

"So," you are probably asking, "Are King Wilkie, one of the finest young bluegrass outfits in the country (if not the world) about to die the death of the inconsistent?" Well, bluegrass fans do like their bluegrass pure, and boy, is the new material I heard last night outside the box. But some of the songs were extremely pretty (as are them boys), and they're fine musicians, and their front man has some charisma. But what's the market for bluegrass bands that don't play bluegrass? I liked most of what I heard last night, but I was really longing for some uptempo material by the end of the night.

I think they're in for an uphill slog.

Jandek

I have been listening to a lot of Jandek recently. I find him intriguing. On one level, you kinda have to think "The boy must have $$$ to throw away" because he's done so many lps and CDs (50 releases in 29 years), and they're all so obtuse. I like obtuse. I got my eyes on the new live one. He's playing synth and the guitarist is Loren Connors. I haven't heaerd as much of LMC's music as I have of Jandek's, but I have heard a few things: very compatible with Jandek. There's also a rhythm section, so I'm most interested to hear what I imagine will be some very psychedelic music.

Of the 14 Cds I have, there's a whole bunch of the early ones, and a couple of the later ones (I love Khartoum). I have nothing from the nineties, and I'm feelinging the lack. I try to buy them at Twisted Village Records in Harvard Square (great store!), and they carry what's current and the early classics, but of that "middle" period, I have only seen one of the spoken word ones in there Put My Dream On This Planet and that was not one I was all that interested in. I keep hoping they'll get Glad To Get Away or White Box Reqiuem, but not to date.

I think Jandek's music is spooky, mysterious, timeless, primal. It's little-boy naive, it's old as the hills. It's blues, it's country, it's noise, it's a kind of subconsious diary...

I don't know how long this current fascination will last: I've had a few little bouts with this music before, but they kinda go away. But I feel like I'm hearing it on a new level now, I'm catching more of the lyrics (which are quite good) and hearing what he's doing with the guitar more distictly now, too.

So, maybe I'll be listening a bunch more? We'll see.

Noisettes

I had to let you know about this new band called the Noisettes. Their April 2007 CD is called What's the Time Mr. Wolf? and it is classic rock 'n' roll. Singer and bassist Shingai Shoniwa (pictured below) is one of the best rock singers I have ever heard. Impassioned, technically brilliant, expressive, she goes from a purr to a scream in nothing flat, and hits the emotional notes with the same jujitsu she hits the pitch with. And the rest of the band is just as killer. They remind me of the early Police a little bit, if the Police had had a lot more range of styles than just the 2, and if Sting had been a better singer.



Photo is from mookychick.co.uk

This is a widget from last.fm that shows my recent listening habits.

Recording Others.

As I may have said previously, my passion is music. The recent channel for that passion, for the last 18 months or so, as I may also have said previously, is macidol.com. Making music and posting it at macidol has been a great pleasure and an interesting experience. There is a community there in the forums that I feel pretty strongly attached to. All but one of the blog links on the right side of this page currently goes to a macidoler.

One aspect of this style of musicmaking is that it is somewhat masturbatory. But so is solo folksinging, which I've also done for years.

But let me tell ya a secret about me. I used to be in bands, and in those days couldn't imagine making music any other way.

I used to wanna play fast & loud. I still do in a way, but I have developed into an acoustic musician. That's what I like & what I do. I do not own an electric guitar. I would like to at some point, but for now, I have a small collection of cheap folk instruments and as my ethic as a recordist is decidedly lofi, I do pretty well with that. I will brag just enough to say that I think I have a couple of good tunes. But not many of them are in any way collaborative. Collaborating is hard. You have to give ego space up enough that you can let someone else's ideas in.

I am not the best at this. But I'm trying to get better at it. I've done it a few times and it sure isn't easy. Everybody brings expectations to these things. Me, too. But I try to have an open mind and can usually (not always) accomplish it. In my younger days, when bands were what I wanted to do with my passion, I could be pretty hardnosed. And that is something no musician deals with well. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I understand that people get an idea of what they want from a collaborative experience. In a band, that could change over time. A band can evolve its memberships' expectations, and to some extent their expectations can be met. Makes me wonder what it's like to be in a totally democratic band like R. E. M. that is still sharing all writing credits, and still almost all the same people since 1982 (they lost drummer Bill Berry in 1997).

I have managed a few things, though, and some of them are in my jamroom, some are in other's jamrooms (look for "Greyhound Run") and some ain't nowhere.

Nature of the game I guess.

Blades of Glory (slight spoilers)

Last night I saw a preview showing of the new Will Farrell / Jon Heder flick Blades of Glory. I looked at trailers for this movie a month or so ago and by ghawd cringed at it. It looked like a homophobic sophomoric mess with two directors and five writers and I could not imagine that it would have anything to recommend itself to me. That should have been the end of the story. But the GF found out about this free showing sponsored by the Boston Globe and WBCN and Newbury Comics, and as I was free for the evening and was in the mood to hang out with Missy Ma'am, I kinda said, what th' hell, I'll go see a bad movie. Might be a kick just on that level.

It was kinda across town on the Brookline verge of Newton, at this beat cineplex called the Cleveland Circle Showcase Cinema, so there was the 45 minute travel time to conted with, into somewhat unfamiliar territory. I took two wrong turns, but even after the 2nd one, I was still able to orient myself. We got there in pretty good time, like 5 minutes before the show. Very young crowd. K said "we're skewing the demographic" and that was obviously so. The house was about 5/6th full -- the front five or so rows were empty, and the theater was kinda long & narrow.

So anyway, not long to wait for the movie to start, and they didn't show any previews. So we walk in, sit down and BAM!

The opening titles were actually kind of understated, a montage of beautiful, fuzzy shots of kids skating. Not what I expected at all. The whole movie is like a preteen boy's fantasy about what skating is, a total flight of fancy and so extremely over the top. It was hilarious, with a couple of outre, hammy, raucous, great performances at its center, and a truly top notch supporting cast including Craig T. Nelson, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Jenna Fischer, and William Fichtner.

I think no comedy stands up to analysis, and this one dares you to try and analyze it. (I will get the DVD when it comes out, so I'll figure some of it out then, I guess...) I actually found it slightly homophibic, but not nearly as much as you might expect. Note that the only "gay" character never actually comes out and is a stalker. If you are sensitive about such things this may not be the movie for you. I'm pretty easy to offend actually, but this didn't piss me off: You end up liking the gay stalker character. (yes, like much of the movie, that's so wrong!)

So, if you like your comedy burlesque and a little edgy, I think you might find this a pleasantly spent hour and a half.

Going on 2 years ago now, I went on tour to the Southwest. I loved that trip -- it was one of the best things I've done in my life, but the aftermath was a bit harsh. My own fault, of course. I was not wise about money & caused myself trouble that I'm still dealing with and probably will be for another year or so, if not longer. TMI, really, but it affects a lot of things.

I will always play music. I love it, but more than that, it's like a basic drive to me. Writing and singing and recording and listening to new music are as important to me as breathing, even at this late date. So I feel safe in assuming that I will continue to do it. But I think it has to inhabit a different place in my existence. And that comes down to $$$. As it always does.

The internet is where I'm doing most of my music these days. I have a mac with garageband. It is my salvation, along with macidol.

You can find my music by clicking the link over there on the right labelled "Frogmorton (Home Recordings)".

Me and Boris the Bull's "Neck Romantic"

My buddy Boris over at macidol.com has been lurking in the forums for a couple of months, but in that time put together a couple of bodacious tracks. Back in mid-February he posted National Pastime which has a dark, evil tone and words by Babe Ruth(!). Very unique, a little bit hip hop influenced and a pleasure to hear.

This week Boris (or "Me" as I like to call him) posted another new one called Neck Romantic. He says he was feeling a bit naughty when he made this one. He does all the voices (including the "hot chick") and has created something that sounds like a state of the art rap tune from oh, 'bout 1983. It's twisted (check the title) but it should be an awesome dance party number.

For both tunes, there is a button for downloading, but it wil stream automatically when you click on the links.

Something About the Sex Pistols

There was this awesome documentary on Youtube yesterday that was basically interviews with all responsible / surviving parties about the making of Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, but it's gone now. I think it is available as a DVD, so copyright infringement is probably the issue. Much of what is said in the doc is not news to me, but I found it interesting that Steve Jones at least had very definite ideas of why the band didn't survive, and feels that if two things had gone differently, there could have been more Sex Pistols music. The two things were: If they hadn't gotten rid of Glen Matlock, and if they'd never gone on Bill Grundy's show.

That's a pretty short list of things going wrong, but they're pretty crucial things. Glen Matlock was a great bass player and the other Pistols acknowledge that he was a big part of their songwriting. I never got off on the Rich Kids (Matlock's post-Pistols outfit) but I actually really like his current band, The Phillistines. The first few things by Steve Jones' and Paul Cook's post-SP band The Professionals are very Pistol-like and very cool: For instance -- Join the Professionals, by the Professionals.. They're trying to be a pop band like the Romantics, but their lyrics don't quite make it. They needed Johnny.



I wonder what a second or third Pistols album would have sounded like...

currently, nothing of interest to report!

Nothing much of merit to say at this point, I just wanted to have something inhabit this blog while I figure out what I'm gonna do with it. I have been writing things at myspace, but I find the fact that you can only have about 8 or so entries at a time rather annoying, so I am starting this. I imagine this will not be too focussed, but rather a buncha nonsense, and also some about various fascinations of mine. Will there be anybody out there reading this? I guess we'll find out!