Good lord. You idiotic, Born Again Christian twats: "we (heterosexuals) are living out a "lifestyle" like billions of others who believe that family / morals / pro-creation are the backbone of our well being..." {via Plums}

Oh my... So if you're perhaps physically unable to pro-create for some very real reason, then you are immoral? If you are the child of a non-nuclear family, then you are immoral? People make me sick sometimes. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. How is this {'straight pride wear'} any different to 'white pride wear'? How about a nice cleanly pressed white T-shirt {not too tight} with a nice heartily blazing cross on the front of it? People make me feel very tired sometimes. All I see is scared little WASPs behind those gleaming white smiles.

From certain angles, she looks like there are two of her, like she’s sitting next to an identically dressed twin, whispering in her ear.

"The I AM 'Insult Alarm' emits a high level sonic pulse that renders all persons within a twenty meter radius of the wearer temporarily incapable of processing or producing human speech." Scholtz Vitrine News.

David Lynch’s 'cinema de l'autisme': those inexorable pauses, the hesitant amateur performances. “What’s the number for 911?” Asks Dorothy [The Straight Story].

"Flash mobs - unlike truly 'smart mobs' - do things that have no clear point, such as dancing like chickens in a department store. The threat to them now, of course, is that people will try to impose agendas on them. Marketers will create 'fake' flash mobs to draw attention to retail environments... And then people will become suspicious of flash mobs - is it a real one, or not? Who is calling this one? Is it a reputable flash mob syndicate member? Get ready for flash mobs called on the same day or night by competing conveners." Rushkoff.

I'm currently suffering from Hey Fever-induced... fever, and the inevitable sleep deprivation. So just some random musings for you today:

The trouble with philosophy: thinking about being is not the same as simply being.

We cannot learn when we assume that what we know now is {our} absolute truth. Life is change. We are here to grow, here to do.

Time is food for the flower of change.

Tired of looking 'boyish' {'fresh faced', too much hair, far too skinny}.

The urge to look as 'normal' as possible.

The fact that I'm missing a certain someone, and her beautiful, brilliant mind {not that the rest of her isn't brilliant and beautiful, it's just I'm missing the brainy bit at the moment}. The perils of moving away.


Meanwhile, in the real world:

Yesterday, I spent an entire afternoon dismantling my fried PowerBook G3. I managed to dismantle the entire thing, install a new motherboard, and put it all back together again with no problems. Surprised myself in this - as I'm pretty much the most accident-prone, untechno-savvy person I know.

Naturally, once assembled, the thing still didn't boot up {sorry to get all 'technical' here - it's just that it's a good example of my infamous 'Negative Midas Touch'}. So now I have to find the cash for a new processor.

And so, after an hour or so of attempting an existential sulk with my head under a pile of clothes, curled up beneath my desk, I was left feeling kind of good about the fact that I'd at least tried to sort the thing out. Ultimately I have to remind myself that it's not the end of the world, it's just that I'm so tired of pretty much everything I come into contact with going wrong.

I don't know whether it's to do with growing up a little, or the whole Objectivity / Fourth Way thing, but I don't get down like I used to. A couple of years ago dealing with broken computers, moving home etc. would have left me a miserable little ruin. Now I know that none of it's really that important. "In the moment, but not of the moment." And that's enough moaning.

"Children and animals alone have the property of pure magicality. They do not philosophize." Margaret Anderson, The Unknowable Gurdjieff.


Some links:

The fabulous imaginary technologies of World Power Systems.

The ever-wonderful world of Seze.

Erin Bauer interview. {Because I really need to get over my crush on this woman!}

My labour of lurve: spoken word mp3's!

Scholtz Vitrine News.

And not forgetting the Zero Gravity Toilet.

Rollo. "You know... for kids!"

A blast from the past / A hard act to follow...

"The Unpredictable, Unfathomable, Uncomfortable commercial nightmare side of the Unscene Experience. Stray Dog City / Odeama consisted of Ade (repairs, swearing, obnoxious behaviour) and Martin (polemic, confrontational behaviour) and a pile of brutalised electronic equipment." TAR: Stray Dog City.

Found the page while idly browsing through the TAR Records sight. Set my pulse racing in a half 'my God someone's writing about me' and half 'those were the days' rush.

Was that really me? It feels like a life-time ago. Manic times, manic frames of mind, manic music. And so much fun. So much fun.

So how can it be in the past? How has my life become so deflated, so not manic? Why aren't we making music like that any more? Because we're not as mentally unstable as we were? Because we did exactly what we wanted to do [make exactly the kind of music we wanted to hear and play, entirely on our own terms]? Because we're scared we can't compete with our former selves? Because we don't want to repeat ourselves?

The irony is - as difficult as I was in those days - I don't think my life is as much fun these days. I don't think I'm as much fun. Have I 'grown up'? Or have I just become conventional and boring?

I was living in Ade's studio / lounge. Everything I owned sat in two cheap sports holdalls. I washed my clothes by hand, and [literally and perhaps symbolically] my boots were much too big for my feet, because they weren't mine. My clothes were held together with gaffer tape. My hair, lobido, complexion, relationships and bank accounts were all disasters. And I never had it so good.

We [me, Ade, Jane, Gilbert] were making / listening / talking about music pretty much 7 days a week for a period of twelve months. We were all going through some pretty difficult times - and on and off for two years we managed to create a kind of oasis using music, projection screens, alcohol, a certain herb, and pizza.

We were bombasts. We really were 'trouble' on a scene full of quasi-humility. We really did have on-stage fits and 'moments of clarity' - but we also had a bloody great time.

Where are any of the bands from those days? Ade now plays dirty cop show punkfunk with Richard [cocktail spypunkers Halon 1301 / Post-hardcore Bloodbath Picnic Heroin] and Mark [Halon, The Colossus Institute] in Compsey Tribunal. As to the rest - Vicky [Avrocar] moved to south London with some cool French dude. Avrocar are still going I think - but they don't sound like that any more [and despite internal and external politics, for a while there they really did sound like bliss in a can]. Rocket Science dropped the live instruments, changed their name to Magnetaphone and signed to 4AD. Jameson are probably the same as ever.

The vast library of material that we recorded during that time is still waiting to be dealt with. It's like a freakish offspring, literally locked away in the attic. Maybe one day we'll all go up there and face it.

Last week, me and Ade started talking about making some new music. Right now, it's a beautiful night in Brighton. I'm listening to Billy Holliday, Lush, Erin Bauer, and The Walker Brother's Night Flights album.

"I don't like music."

Ironica: music that – for better of worse - ‘rocks out’ whilst simultaneously mocking the notion of ‘rocking out’. See Devo, Robbie Williams, Godbreath, Paul Frayletee, The Sisters of Mercy, and [possibly] The Darkness?

Ambulant: music of a seemingly therapeutic or ‘chillout’ nature, with disturbing undertones. See Chris Morris’s Blue Jam, Glitch and Milk, Rafeatus. Music to play while you’re on your way to Accident and Emergency.

[G]Rave / Graver: Gothic House; weak Eurobeat / Trance, German accents. Goth with dance pretensions. Impossible to dance to.

Nu Vague: late 90’s - early 00's crop of ambient guitar bands: Stray Dog City, Broadcast, Halon 1301, MeMePlex Prime, Avrocar.

Acrid House: post-Aphex Twin style ‘difficult dance music’. See Seb Cox, Dirty Hand Job etc.