SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!

SELF PORTRAIT THURSDAY!
5.17.12

I think this photo is a bit too dramatic for such a sunny day, but it’s the best one I could get this morning.

It also sums up how I was feeling yesterday: antsy and depressed. I couldn’t leave the apartment all day because I was waiting on UPS to arrive—yet somehow I still missed them, annoying!—and it was really humid in my apartment. Wasn’t able to get/feel comfortable. I was feeling down and needed some sort of validation but none came. You know those days where you just need someone to say, “Hey, you’re doing a good job” or “I appreciate you” or even “Nice ass”. It sounds stupid, but I think everyone needs a pat on the back every once in awhile.

But later I went to a show in Williamsburg with my pal Carly and that cheered me up. It was nice to listen to music and make jokes and get a little drunk because that’s what I needed.

This afternoon I’m going to Courtney Love’s art show. Tomorrow night is the Lil’ Kim show. Super excited.

What was I complaining about again?

xo
craig

WE’RE ALWAYS HAVING FUN

Someone gave me an old iPod, so I’ve been listening to a lot more music. I put down that copy of Anna Karenina I found on the street, and I picked up my big headphones. So, music has been occupying my time on the train.

Instead of blogging a lot, I’ve been recharging my brain. Getting new inspiration in order to prepare for the new year.

Things that are going on in my brain:

Honestly I’m just feeling the urge to strip off all my clothes and cover myself in mud and paint and hang out outside. I’ve been wanting that for a long time now. I think that would be beautiful.

xo
craig

METRO BLUE

Last night my pal Max S. and I went to see this really good punk band called Nü Sensae.

Being at the show reminded me of being in high school (and certain parts of college)—but in the good kind of way, of course. You know, being in a hot, smoky club, listening to really great/loud/raw music, maybe smoking a cigarette and sipping a beer, but definitely shooting the shit with your friends between sets and meeting new people. Good times.

Listen:

I feel like the shows I go to now—if I actually go to one— are different. I’m not sure why. But it’s not the same. There is an edge that has been lost.

I think one of the best shows I’ve ever been to (in retrospect) was when I went to see Bratmobile play at Mary Jane’s in Houston about ten years ago or so. I remember paying $6 in quarters, which is damn ridiculous, but I was broke/determined. Bratmobile headlined; Hawnay Troof, Gravy Train!!!!, and Erase Errata opened.

I think it’s one of the best shows because it gave me with so much music to listen to over the years, music I still listen to. One of those shows I’m proud to say I went to.

Cool.

xo
c

STINK TALK

The other night I had my friend Lillian G. over to play music. We are in a sometimes-band called Lazy Susan, which specializes in improv noise and spoken word pieces.

I wanted us to do something different this time, so I suggested we write a love song. It’s something I’d never done before. I thought it might be kinda fun to write a cute/dumb little song.

So, here is our song:

Lillian G.: keyboards and vocals
Me: guitar and vocals

It was fun to make, I think.

I wonder what other kind of “real” songs we can write in the future…

doubting me

I finally got to meet my Etsy friend, Stacey Rebecca!
We've been internet friends for awhile, but just finally got to meet last night. And we had lunch together this afternoon.

But she left today to go back to Phoenix.

We took this right before I said bye to her:

me and stacey rebecca!

She's a good person.

But I hope my conversation was okay because:

1) I always feel nervous about meeting internet friends because I feel like I have to live up to something. (I mean this in the least conceited way: I think people think I'm much more interesting than I actually am.)

2) I've had a lot of things on my mind lately, so I can feel a bit distracted/preoccupied when talking to people. I don't know what my problem is.

Do you like Ut?
I do.

Tonight I'm watching a DVD of Jan Švankmajer shorts.
Hopefully it's good.

And I'm leaving for band practice in about half an hour.
Haven't played music in awhile.

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TOP 40 SLEEEEZE

If I mailed you a slide photo, would you carry it around in your pocket for a week for me? (Limit 5 people. I'm probably one of the poorest people you know.)

I wanna see how it'd look by the end of the week. Before and after photos. I'll take them. You send the slide back to me. (PLEASE.)

I just put a slide in my pocket this afternoon. It's not going to leave until next Friday. (I hate Fridays.)

I don't know why this seemed like such a good idea, this asking people to let me send them slides. I thought of it last night while I was on the subway. (I think it was that Adderall. Ben J. let me have some that aren't the same kind that I take. Affects me differently.)

But anyway, I have a bunch of slides I found in the garbage about a month ago. Sometimes I'll put them in packages I send out to customers. But most of the time I forget to do that.

So, let me know if you want to carry around a slide for a week.
There wouldn't be any sort of compensation for this except the feeling of having created something. (Yes, carrying a slide around in your pocket for a week is some sort of creation.)

A lot of the things I do have no point, really.
I just do them to do them.

Like carrying around a slide for a week so that I can photograph it.

When I recorded my "album" I was mainly just doing it so that I could create music and teach myself how to record music (it was difficult then for me… I couldn't work the equipment) and experiment with sound and such.

I don't even think anyone really liked the music I wrote. Maybe a few. Most didn't. (I used to sell music in my Etsy shop, but not anymore.) I do, though, because it was fun for me to do/make.

We can listen to the most approachable song on "Körperkonfigurationen/." (album name) since it's Friday night and you can dance to it. (I know I've probably put this song on my blog before, but I like it. I think it might be the best song I ever wrote. But not the best song I will ever write because I still got some songs left in me.)

02 Groin2Groin Resuscitation

Cubist Literature

In other news, this is what it looked like outside my studio early yesterday morning:

foggy Red Hook

foggy Red Hook

foggy Red Hook

I like Red Hook because there are a lot of historical buildings up. And it's a pretty historical area. (But not historical in an annoying way like Boston. Blech.)

But doesn't it look kinda creepy, those photos?

They've torn some stuff down because of that dumb Ikea they've put up. It's not open yet.
I think they're tearing more things down. For the parking lot, perhaps.

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AFRAID TO DIE HERE, AFRAID TO DIE ALONE!

Did I tell you that I got a new girlfriend?

Well, I did.

Her name is Debbie.
I met her last night—I found her by the garbage—and brought her home to live with me.

She's way taller than me.
And there's something cold about her.

She also falls apart when she falls over. (Just ask Desira cuz Deb fell on top of her last night while she was taking some photos.)

This is what she looks like:

Debbie

Desira dressed her.

This is what I look like today (wearing one of the shirts I sewed this afternoon):

Talon Aguille

I named this shirt after this really great/nice Toog song.

Listen to it:

11 Talon Aguille

Toog

I emailed him this afternoon because I hadn't talked to him in awhile.
Hope he's well.

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ARTISTS ARE PUSSIES

When I was at KateBlack's apartment the other day, rummaging through her belongings, taking things, and drinking her booze, she showed me this video:

 

 

JEFFREY LEWIS – ‘WILLIAMSBURG WILL OLDHAM HORROR’

 

It's pretty good.

Sorta almost too long.

But still pretty good.

 

 

It's funny, too, since I hung out a lot in Williamsburg while I was in Brooklyn.

Sometimes I thought that place was too hip to function.

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philosophic music man seduced into carpentry

Harry Partch is one of my favorite musicians/composers.

He made his own instruments.
And his approach to music and theory was very different from almost everyone then and now.

He died in 1974.
But his music lives on my music shuffle.

I discovered his music one day a couple summers ago when I was DJ'ing for a show at the radio station called the Scordatura show. (It basically showcased modern classical and other compositions, modern and contemporary.) I've been in love ever since.

 

I woke up this morning thinking about him, so I decided to watch this BBC documentary made about him a long time ago.

 

Harry Partch – BBC Documentary – Part 4 of 6

 

 

Another one of my favorite composers is Pierre Schaeffer.
He created musique concrete, which uses recordings of everyday sounds and arranges them into compositions and such.

He pretty much influenced the use of electronics in music today, I think.
Such as sampling.

 

 

pierre schaeffer – "etude aux chemins de fer"

I really love his work a lot.
It's also something that comes on the shuffle a lot when I listen to music.

And I also accidentally discovered his music that one summer when I was Scordatura DJ.

 

 

 

 

 

I really respect artists like these because they offer another way of examining and thinking about music.

Whenever I'm tired of listening to the repetitive verse-chorus-verse structure of mostly everything that's out there and also on my laptop, I'll just listen to Partch or Schaeffer.

It makes me feel fresh.

 

Like I just took a shower.

 

Which I really need to do actually cuz I haven't showered in a few days.

 

Ta-ta!

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DOT FRAUD!

I thought about making a list of my favorite bands.
But then I got stuck on the issue of Erase Errata.

I mean, they ARE one of my favorite bands, of course. But they're just not the same anymore.
They used to be a sort of experimental/art-punk band with somewhat political undertones.
But NOW their sound isn't as interesting and they're overtly political.

PAR EXAMPLE, this video from '02 (the year I first got into them when I saw them open for Bratmobile):

Erase Errata – Louisville 7/12/02

The recording isn't very good, so I'll include some audio of one of the songs they play in that segment:

11 A Thief Detests the Criminal, Elements of the Ruling Class

Erase Errata

So, it's political, I suppose, that song (which is from the second album, not the first, which is more "artsy"), but it's not as explicit as it is in their newer stuff.

PAR EXAMPLE:

This song ("Tax Dollar") from their newer album:

Erase Errata – Tax Dollar

I think it's just too political.

And I have nothing against bands/music being political—I mean, I also really like Sonic Youth and Le Tigre and other bands—but I prefer somebody's "message" to be downplayed and the music to be upplayed(is that a word?).

Being political in your art or music or whatever definitely puts an expiration date and other limitations on who's going to be able to enjoy it.

Does that make sense at all?

(Besides I'm also rather cynical when it comes to politics.
Rarely will you hear me complain about/discuss "hot topics" and such.)

Okay, I'm just going to stop there.
I could go on and on.

I just had to get that off my breasts.

Did you see these photos I took?

sunrays along the highway

broken windows—solo action

powerlineage

infant

graveyard view

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