blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

Failed Attempt

ateolf — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 22:32:30 GMT

Finally got proactive and went to the gym yesterday. Mary Beth was up in Nashville for some legislation stuff. I also sat around and watched a few episodes of Rick and Morty (finally getting to the second season). I set my dreamwidth account and tried to import this lj over but it failed. So I'm still posting here again! Maybe I did something wrong? We'll see when I try again.

If you don't see any more posts from me, I've moved to: http://ateolf.dreamwidth.org/

Uh...

ateolf — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 22:41:00 GMT

Not a whole lot right now. Ran some errands last night. Worked today. Hard to focus. Distractions. A little bit of a headache. Didn't make much progress. Anyway, back to the whatever it is it's back to.

Review

ateolf — Mon, 17 Apr 2017 23:27:13 GMT

Did some coding work yesterday and pretty much finished my webhook stuff much sooner than I was kinda expecting. Met my parents and nephews for an early easter dinner thingie at Soul Fish yesterday. Tidied my code up at work this morning and had a code review in the afternoon. It went pretty well. Have some things to change but overall not horrible. Mary Beth made these West African cookies that I brought to work. They're apparently almost the same thing as a certain Indian pastry, a bunch of my Indian coworkers were remarking on it. Okay, that's about it for now.

Condomonium

ateolf — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 17:41:34 GMT

Got Jacques to give me a ride to pick up my car so that's done and I have a car now and we were able to do fun things like finally go to the grocery store! Later in the evening was Condomonium. Mary Beth accompanied me and we walked over to Playhouse. It was pretty cool. Looked at some of the costumes/dresses (none were quite like the Van Gogh's "Starry Nights" via condoms dress they have on display up at Choices from a previous year, but there was still good stuff). There was a cabaret down in the basement. Some burlesque, some drag, some comedy, some music. The first thing we saw was burlesque to Grimes's "Genesis" (there was some Rammstein burlesque later that was a little lacking). This one drag we saw later was really good. Cole (am I spelling her name right?) who we used to work with back at relay was really funny (seen her once before at another Choices benefit a year or so ago...enjoyed her material then too). Lisa was mcing and was funny in her little bits. Okay, upstairs for the fashion show. Lizz Winstead was the host (she's one of the creators of the Daily Show) along with D'Lo (in costume as his Sri Lankan mother). First there was an auction of a few things. Dinner with Steve Cohen was first and his presence was enjoyable as usual (all things given, at least we have an awesome congressman). Then it was the condom-laden fashion show. Ooh and someone brought a bulldog on stage, which I know can be a cheap move...but it was a bulldog on stage and it was awesome. There was more cabaret downstairs for a little bit, but it was about time for my volunteer shift. I'd signed up for clean-up as that's the one no one else had signed up for at the time. When I got there (after trying to find what was going on, I guess it's the end of the event and things are a little looser) there was one other volunteer for that shift. First to pick up cups and stuff. I took it upon myself to clean the auditorium and I'll just say that people are animals. I mean, we know this, but I'll say it again. Can't say I've never been guilty of leaving a cup behind at my seats at an event. But it needs reiterating, people are animals. Then moving Choics's stuff into the room by the back door and finally into a car. Then we walked home and I passed out. There you go.

Ready and Waiting

ateolf — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 18:28:28 GMT

Walked over to Playhouse on the Square for some volunteer orientation for Condomonium (Choices's big fundraiser event). Good thing it happens to be so close! My car is ready now. I've got someone coming to pick me up in less than an hour. Finally. Wasn't quite as cheap as I was hoping but it's not expensive either. Anyway, having a car again will be a good thing. That's about it for now.

Friday

ateolf — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 21:06:49 GMT

Pretty alright day at work today. Not a lot of people there. I was pretty productive. Realized a thing I was doing for the webhooks was too extra so I had to back it out. Then I was working on the one last thing I needed to do. Testing and all that. My car still isn't ready. They want to charge the battery or something so they're doing that tonight and will fix it in the morning, I hope. It'd really better not take longer than that (especially considering how long it's already been to even start). Anyway. Got out of work early today because of the non-holiday. Woo. And I'm trying to post and the damn internet's down. Nice. Looks like the ol' unplug-the-router trick actually worked!

The Wait

ateolf — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 23:04:55 GMT

Got a ride to work from Zach this morning. Got some Ching's wings for lunch. Stephen was there but he was at another table so I'm not all too sure what's up with his new job. Felt pretty productive today. Made some progress in improving my webhooks stuff. But I keep doing new stuff and each time I got really really stuck on something for a good while. Then it turned up in every case to be with the wrong string somewhere (though once it was actually the class name misspelled and the string representing it was "right"). Anyway, that's that. My car still isn't ready. The guy didn't come today, at least not yet. He needed a part to be picked up and Kanan is going to do that for me. Should be tomorrow...hopefully!!! Got a ride home from Zach again. That's where we're at now!

Start

ateolf — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 00:42:34 GMT

Well, today was fuckin' something. I'm leaving work and get in my car and it just will not start. No sound, nothing, so I'm wondering how deep this problem goes. I got in touch with Zach and he was able to come around and help me try to jump it. We tried and it wouldn't take. As we were giving up Kanan came by and he works on cars as a hobby so he had a battery tester and we were able to better diagnose the problem. I may need a new battery too, it is pretty old, but the main problem is the starter. He has a friend who works on cars who he's going to get to come up and check it out in the parking lot. So hopefully that will resolve itself alright. I got a ride home from Zach (he lives just about around the corner anyway). Mary Beth's window is still out, the people called her today and they can't get to it til Monday. Yikes. Hopefully I'll get my car working soon. Til then I guess it's a matter of getting more rides. A minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things, but that's where it's at now. Also in sad news, Bored Lord apparently just moved to California so he can't play the festival anymore. Sad. I wasn't aware of him before, but I really dug his stuff after checking it out and he's probably the biggest name we had on the lineup. Ah ah well. We'll make it on our own gumption, I say!

Pass Through

ateolf — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 03:02:24 GMT

Didn't get much sleep last night so I was pretty tired today, but I was pretty productive at work. The webhooks thing I've been working on (the universal code for all apis to use) has passed its first rough draft and is actually working. Needs some cleanup, I think, and it may need a little more functionality but we'll see. Came home from work to find Mary Beth's car has one of the back windows busted. Yikes. On a more pleasant note, I came home to some things in the mail: Forbidden Planet dvd (to be played during the Memphis Concrète festival!) and a couple cds: The Hafler Trio: Fuck, Grauzone: Die Sunrise Tapes. Anyway, we went over to Sarah's for seder. It was my second seder ever (the other being years ago at Hanover's parents' place). It was nice fun and some good food. We did a humanist script. Fun day to be thinking about passover given Forty-Five and Co.'s antics today of all days. Anyway, came back home to tape up Mary Beth's window but someone should be coming by to fix it tomorrow. Well I guess that's it for now.

Jerk

ateolf — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 22:44:08 GMT

Not a whole lot. Mild design work yesterday. Back to work today. My scrummaster thought I've been mad at her. I don't really know why and I feel bad. I guess I've just reverted back to my standard awkward behavior and I should make some kind of gesture to make up, but what? In other thoughts, is dreamwidth my best option? We'll see if I can actually make a jump after oh shit reall? 17 years? Is this almost adulthood?

Serves

ateolf — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 18:16:06 GMT

Mary Beth and I went up to Impossible Language last night. This time it was sort of guest curated by a group over from Fayetteville, AR. All the poets were really good. Later in the night we went to a party over at Jesse's. There was supposed to be karaoke but there were technical issues. Mostly just people talking. Most of the people were fine but there was this one obnoxious guy, a self-proclaimed "asshole." At one point he spearheaded the conversation into a religious debate that devolved into arguing over the literal definition of the word "agnostic." Then I just bring up the definition of the word because this is pretty tedious but he still argues against it. Anyway, I'm feeling at a crossroads because of all the lj shit. I've been on here so so so long. And I don't mind how dead it is, sort of makes it feel like a little personal journal. But with this new shit I don't know. I wonder if there's a comparable site to switch to. I'm not prepared right now. We'll see.

Day Date

ateolf — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 22:31:23 GMT

Got up this morning and went to the writers' workshop. So some more prompts and a few more beginnings of things that will probably be pretty good if I ever finish them...like all the ones so far that I haven't finished! After that, since I was around the corner I figured I'd swing by Heather's bookstore. I thought there was supposed to be a star trek day or something, but I think it's tomorrow. She wasn't even in the shop. I still picked up a book: Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler. It really stayed with me when Mary Beth read me the title story. Today is the day of the crawfish festival down the street at Overton Square. So we did like we do most years and walked down to it to pick up some crawfish. It's definitely spring. We sat on the back deck where there's no shade and dug up my sun hat. I got down my technique much quicker and better than I usually do. Of course, you twist the tail off at first to get more meat out of the body. Then the other trick I've had trouble with in the past I guess is peeling back the tail's shell with the thumb, getting all or as many segments as possible at once together. Then you can mostly peel it back as if it were hinged. I thought it was a pretty successful strategy. Then what? Then more grocery shopping. Alright! Oh, I should mention that tickets for Memphis Concrète are available for purchase! Not that anyone's really here to read it, but: here's the link anyway.

Homes

ateolf — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 22:32:36 GMT

Went to the gym last night. Nothing intense, just steady cardio for a while. Today at work, John was crossing the street from a meeting in the other building and slipped and fell and someone had taken him to the hospital. He ended up fracturing his elbow. I wasn't around for all that, but I did drive his car home to him. Other than that, those jboss issues reared their head again a little bit. Oh, and I helped a little last night with testing a production change so I went home a little early today. Alright.

Issues

ateolf — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 23:10:32 GMT

Last night Mary Beth introduced me to some Red Dwarf which I had never seen before and the few episodes I saw were really dern funny. She also noticed a had a little bit of a rash on my stomach. Hm. I noticed she was right. Then I wake up this morning and it's spread on my arms and other places. I felt it a little bit on my left arm but it seemed to let up some throughout the day and I don't feel it anymore. Hope I just don't have some damn rash on me and this resolves. Work was kinda annoying today. Felt like I was making progress on the thing I was working on then all these jboss issues popped up in test and I got tied up and sucked away into that and didn't really accomplish a damn thing this afternoon. Balls. Also, the guy from Holy Gallows seems to have gotten mad at me about the festival and money. He had asked for an amount and I said we couldn't meet that guarantee and then he said I don't know how to negotiate. Okay. I'll try to nicen things up in an email later. Don't expect him to end up playing now, but wouldn't want to leave things on a bad note with anyone. Definitely not my intention. Okay!

Boring Stuff

ateolf — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 22:49:09 GMT

Did work stuff at work today. Working on this one thing where I'm encountering some new stuff so I've spent a while just trying to wrap my head around all that. Think I was finally starting to figure it out at the end of the day. But I'm using events (and delegates) in c# and I've never done that before. I guess it's a bit like callbacks in javascript, but I'm not super-fresh on that either anyway. I left an hour early today to make up for the time I stayed late on Monday. So that's something.

Ambergris

ateolf — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 23:50:58 GMT

A pretty normal day at work today. But I do have a couple bits I'd forgotten from earlier posts. First is the Radiohead show. The bass was really loud, which can be cool but it often swallowed the other instruments. That's all, just a memory of that aspect of the show. Didn't stop it from being a good show of course, but wanted to make note of that. And I forgot to mention a wonderful thing that happened yesterday. Mary Beth and I listened to a podcast about ice cream while eating ice cream! Fantastic.

Continued

ateolf — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 02:23:33 GMT

So work. Blah blah blah. Kinda normal day. Got another email from my employer that the freeze in raises has been extended at least another month. Big surprise, yeah. Oh, but we're assured that the system of periodic raises as an integral and important and essential component of the program. Alright. There was a production issue there was a meeting about at the end of the day so I was held after for an hour. I wasn't actually doing anything in the meeting, but whatever. Not a whole lot else. I dunno.

Radiohead, Atlanta

ateolf — Mon, 03 Apr 2017 03:08:43 GMT

Got out on the road yesterday a little later than expected. Zach was delayed in picking up his rental car. But we made it to Atlanta. Was expecting traffic to be horrible given the collapsed bridge, but it really wasn't bad at all. Less bad than any time I remember being in Atlanta. Maybe being the weekend had something to do with it. Anyway, we got it and got to the hotel and didn't have time for record shopping or going too far to eat so we went somewhere within walking distance. It was pretty good. I had a brisket sandwich and grits. Then we got a lyft to the arena downtown where the show was. I picked up an expensive t-shirt and got my seat. Dudu Tassa & the Kuwaitis was the opening act and they were alright. They had a few songs that were really good. They did a slightly rocked up version of traditional middle eastern music and overall it isn't my thing, but I let my mind be open to appreciate it. And overall it was pretty good. I was there a little early (well, most people just hang out where the "restaurants" and "bars" around the arena are before getting their seats) and this one guy sat there I talked to a little bit. His seat was right next to mine and we were the only two people in the row. Talked a little about Radiohead, of course. Zach was down on the floor in the general admission area. My seat wasn't too bad. It wasn't nosebleed and was relatively close. Not the best seat, far from the worst. The show was good (though the In Rainbows tour show Mary Beth and I saw was the best). Some highlights were "Idioteque" (of course, they've played that every time I've seen 'em, of course it's been amazing every time too) and "The Gloaming" and "Bloom" (which was awesome as I haven't seen them since that album came out), also they had three drums on stage for it (they brought out a kit for Johnny and there was already a second drummer on most songs). I'd assumed there was delay on the drums or something but it's extra drums! Also "Myxomatosis" was really good. The version of "Street Spirit" was really good live. They did "Subterranean Homesick Alien" which they apparently don't play very often. It was Radiohead, lots of songs and they were good. After that we got a lyft back. We walked a bit to get away from the crowd then we were in this nondescript area and it took the driver forever to find us. Oh fuck! I forgot something. After the show, I'm taking out my earplugs and I see something fall. One of my attenuators had popped out while I was taking it out. So I'm searing on the floor all around my seats. I eventually find it or part of it. There's another part of the plastic that anchors it in the mold better. All of it's just tiny clear plastic so it was really hard to find it at all. But I'm looking for the other part and eventually get kicked out by security (nicely but still kicked out). I'm a little frustrated but I'm thinking about it and I think maybe I lost part of it a few years ago at that Devo show. That was the first time it fell out and I had to search for it on the floor. And ever since then it hasn't stayed in the plug as well. It could be because the anchor piece fell off so it doesn't stay in as well. The volume reduction part is still there so it still works, just a little more fragile. Anyway, all this is very interesting to me, so apologies.

Today we got up and we were gonna get breakfast food. Zach's a little in a hurry 'cuz he's going to New Orleans to see them again and is meeting up with family there tonight. Well, we get to the breakfast place and see a line wrapping around outside so that was off. Didn't want to just drive around looking so we headed to Little Five Points where the record store is and figured we'd find something there. Not a ton of choices but we ended up at that Vortex burger place with the skull door. I had a peanut butter and fried plantain burger. It was okay, I mean it at least met the minimum criteria of being what it was so by virtue of that it had to at least be good. More apologies for my convoluted wording. Then it was a visit to Criminal Records. I got some stuff: John Coltrane: Offering: Live at Temple University; John Cage Meets Sun Ra: The Complete Concert • June 8, 1986 • Coney Island, NY; Nigeria Soul Fever; Boogie Breakdown: South African Synth-Disco 1980-1984; The Psychic Paramount: Gamelan into the Mink Supernatural; New Brutalism: Territorial Reconstruction; Matmos: The Civil War; Fleetwood Mac: Tusk; Trans Am: Sex Change; Silkworm: Italian Platinum; Xiu Xiu: Forget; and David Bowie: Stage. After that Zach dropped me off at the car rental place so I could pick up my car (after finding it after driving around the airport a bit). My ride back home was normal I guess. I made it back and the damn rental was more than I was expecting. I had reserved by the cheapest rate but it turns out that was a base price with an additional 30 cents per mile that was mixed in the fine print and I wasn't aware of. I wasn't charged THAT (which would have been way more given the distance) but was given the normal rate which was still more than I was expecting. Not insanely more, but still. It was just a little annoying to find out. But I'm back home and all is well. Oh! I almost forgot! Sarah finished artwork for the Memphis Concrète flyer! I may make a couple minor adjustments but it looks pretty darn good if I say so myself. Getting ready to really get things to start rolling. Okay.

Fonts and Logos

ateolf — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 23:11:20 GMT

Finally got a chance to look at fonts yesterday but still nothing was right, so I said fuck it and proceeded to make my own damn font (at least the characters I would use in my logo). So I found some website where you can design your own font that probably isn't the best and easiest way to do it but I got it done and reworked it a few times til I got something I think is pretty good (and then second-guessed some more and fixed a couple characters this morning). So yeah, I did work at work but it's also the day of service where all the "full time" employees are off doing community work and the contractors are left at the office. I did a little bit of that font work and also worked on putting an early logo together to put on the facebook page (along with a succinct logo design with just the MC). Anyway, I like my font. It looks like Avant Garde (you know, the REAL Avant Garde with the slanted characters) crossed with some old arcade game's logo font that I can quite place and maybe only exists in my mind, and they got together on a circuit board. That's what it's like to me. Oh, and there's a little bit of sawtooth wave in it for good measure. I also finished reading Exterminator! by William S. Burroughs. It was really good and very Burroughs. So in the news, this bridge section of I-85 in northern Atlanta caught fire and collapsed (no one was hurt, they had cleared the area before it collapsed). But yeah, there's a huge hole in the interstate. Guess where I'm going tomorrow? Atlanta! (With Zach to see Radiohead). We won't be in that part of town or too near where it happened, but I know it's going to have ripple effects in traffic throughout the city (and Atlanta's already a horrible city for traffic). So that is crazy. We'll see how it all goes.

Universal

ateolf — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 23:16:44 GMT

I went to an Indie Memphis screening last night. A movie called Cheerleader and it was really good. Mary Beth was going to go too, but she was still feeling overwhelmed from all the activity of our near week-long trip and didn't feel up to more activity. So I left the extra ticket for whoever showed up after me. It was a high school kinda movie, but very stylized and...it's kinda hard to categorize. Mary Beth thought it was horror but it wasn't horror. There were funny moments but it wasn't a comedy. I'd also hesitate to call it a drama. There was a phone interview with the director afterwards (Ryan held up his phone to the mic) and he said one of his influences for this was Boogie Nights (and while I haven't seen that, from what little Paul Thomas Anderson I have seen, that makes sense). One question from an audience member was about how he was able as a guy to so accurately portray what it's like being a teenage girl: thoughts and emotions and what they have to go through -wise. Overhearing her after it was over, she didn't like his answer though, which was something along the lines of he tried to write from the basic universal emotions we all feel to come from somewhere genuine and filter it through the lens of a different character (in this case a teenage girl cheerleader). I think I remembered a couple Big Ears fragments. I really just wanted to comment on what, for lack of a better term, I call the whole "vibe" of the festival. It was just a really pleasant atmosphere. Everyone was nice and most of the musicians seemed very open about what a great experience it was for them on their side. I think part of it had to do with the way it was integrated in with the city. It really felt like a place (as opposed to some detached field in the middle of nowhere or whatever). Also everything was pretty well organized. And everyone was just nice and really felt like they wanted to be there and wanted to experience something new. Okay, another thing was being able to pick up some French Broad chocolate from that pharmacy place. Just started eating it. So delicious! I'll see if I can even remember anything else later.

Pointless

ateolf — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 22:46:05 GMT

Not a whole lot. More work. I remembered some Big Ears stuff. If I still remember it. Fuck. I can't remember it now. Let's see if I ever remember anything else or if it's lost forever to time.

Forget

ateolf — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 01:00:28 GMT

Back to work today. Pradnya, the new developer on my team, started yesterday. So we'll see how she does. Still getting everything set up. I'm hopeful as the interview went well. Didn't get much sleep last night so I was a bit on the tired side today. I remembered some things I'd left out of my Big Ears posts. Can I remember them now? I didn't mention the Roedelius shirt I picked up from the merch table (like a poser!). It's for Roedelius/Hausswolff: Nordlicht. I can support him even if I missed his performance. There were at least a couple other things... Can I remember now? God, my mind's going completely blank. I guess that's good for now. Maybe I'll reremember and write it down so I don't forget again!

The End

ateolf — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 04:09:38 GMT

The performance! It's of Pauline Oliveros's "Rock Piece." We try to form a circle inside but there's not enough room so we go out onto the patio. While going out I walk right past Jamie Stewart who was in attendance! Too bad he didn't go out with us or I could have said I've played with Jamie Stewart. Yeah. Okay, enough dorkiness. So we all form this huge circle. First we do this hand squeezing around the circle thing but then we get these rocks someone had gathered ("resonant" rocks or something). So we're supposed to find a rhythm and keep that rhythm irrespective of anyone else's rhythm and if we happen to sync up with someone we need to stop and find a new rhythm. Okay, there's a rock shortage so I just pick one rock and I'm going to hit against the concrete (instead of two rocks against each other). I almost immediately crack the rock in two. Well, that kind've solves the problem. I now have two rocks to hit against each other (though one piece was much smaller than the other). Anyway, that was a lot of fun. Oh, also those podcast people were there and we talked with them a bit more before the panel. Next we walk across to the Knoxville Museum of Art for Flicker & Wow 1 (a screening of experimental short films). It was good, a couple were really good. Between the next screening Nief-Norf was playing again with Michael Pisaro playing a few of his pieces. Very minimal. The first was a solo for snare drum that consisted of rubbing a series of things against it and later pouring various (solid) things on it. Then a few more pieces. This is a day I'm very tired so maybe not the best day to appreciate this, but it was pretty good. Not the best of the experimental kind of performances, but still good. Then Mary Beth went to see something that sounds like it was amazing and I'm sad I missed (it was her favorite show the whole festival) and I stayed for Flicker & Wow 2. The first one in this was the best of the shorts. It was called...crap. I kept the program but I can't find it. Let me check my memory. I think it was by someone named Christina Nguyen. Okay, memory failed me for the title but google didn't (I did get the name right though): Parallel Inquiries. Okay, after that I have a little time so I walk to the square and eat at this bar called The Stock & Barrel. I ate a burger with benton bacon and blueberry jam. It was good though maybe so over the top gourmet all the awesome elements almost cancelled each other out? Anyway, it was a big ass burger and I was hungry. I walked down to the Tennessee theater to catch Deathprod. Mary Beth ended up making it over there after me and I switched seats to be next to her. It was very dark. The whole stage (and a very tall stage it is) was filled with fog machine (Supersilent used a lot of fog as well, a Norwegian thing?) and he sat alone at this small table with a laptop. A single spotlight shone down through the fog and distance amidst the stark darkness. It was a pretty awesome visual effect. Very minimal but very striking, especially given the height of the theater. It was a pretty great drone set. At a few points he hit hard with these very loud, very noisy stabs. A few people left, but some people moved even closer. After it I went right over to the Bijou to catch Henry Threadgill. There was a line outside so I got in. This old couple behind me also came from Deathprod and were talking about it. It was pretty endearing. They were talking about it to some friends of theirs and were saying they were up in the balcony but came down to the floor because they had to feel the physical vibrations. They said they couldn't call it "mood music", "all mood but no music, there wasn't any music to be found." So they had this interesting takeaway that was slightly confounded by it but also positive, they didn't "understand" it but they enjoyed the sheer force and power of it on a possible physical level. And I don't say this talking down on them. I think it's pretty awesome they allowed themselves to get out of their comfort zone and find something to appreciate in a music that's typically alien to them. And I think that somewhat demonstrates a lot of what I feel about more experimental or extreme music, most of what turns people away is a lack of familiarity more than anything else and if people are willing they can get past what's unfamiliar and it might even be possible to appreciate the pure sound of what they might not even consider music. A lot of that is what I'd LIKE to accomplish with my festival, but I'm rambling now. Henry Threadgill was a good show. It was another unusual setup for a jazz band: drums, cello, tuba(/sometimes he played trombone), acoustic guitar and Henry mostly conducted/orchestrated but sometimes he played (mostly flute or double contrabass flute [I had to look that up, never seen nor heard of] and a little saxophone). It was more composed than the other jazz I saw, but it still had "free" elements. And it was kinda angular/jagged in a way though closer to being more traditional, it still wasn't quite that. It was kinda unique and didn't quite sound like much I could put in my vocabulary other than it did sound like jazz. It often had fusion elements, especially in the drumming. Alright. Then it was back up to the Mill & Mine for Xiu Xiu's final performance. We got to watch them sound check. Jamie just sang "meow meow meow" for all his vocal checks. We got right up front center for this one. Okay, this was a great fucking show. Probably my favorite of the whole festival. They were only a two-piece (they were a three-piece for the Twin Peaks show, Angela was at that one but not at this one). Oh, I forgot to mention how awesome Shayna's drumming was on that first Twin Peaks show (when she drummed, sometimes she played vibraphone and with the Twin Peaks score, there was a lot of vibraphone). Anyway, it was still awesome at this show though she didn't play a full kit, she was standing up, no bass drum though now there were gamelanish cymbals and she could dance around while drumming (though she almost kinda did with the sit-down kit). Jamie was very theatrical and, again very Jamie Stewart. A few songs he freaked out in the most amazing way. "I Luv Abortion" was amazing. There was another song he freaked out on and I forget which. They did the best version of "Fabulous Muscles" I've heard. The version of "Sad Pony Guerilla Girl" was incredible. It was all just very very good. Damn. Hard to go into. I was very happy after that show.

Anyway, I'm back home now. To get there we drove back home! Slept in a little this morning and got some much needed catch-up sleep. Stopped and had breakfast at this place in Knoxville called OliBea. We were standing outside deciding whether to go there or the tamale place across the street and a guy walking buy heard us and insisted that it was really good and we should eat there so we took his advice. It was good though maybe a little overly fancy. The biscuits were amazing in the technical feat of how soft and fluffy and melty they were, but the best biscuits have SOME heft to them (I'm sure difficult to do, but they're heavy things with a lightness infused into the heaviness, makes no sense I know but it's like taking the quality that makes the best biscuits so good and taking it so far that they're no longer biscuits, I shouldn't try to be a food critic, again they were good but it seems like in being fancy they missed something of the point somewhere, but then again I guess it's good both things can exist, but they can't outdo Bryant's biscuits with pure fanciness). Then we had the best of both words 'cuz we got tamales to go for the drive home. That was pretty uneventful. We stopped at a point to at the tamales. First attempt I turned off on Cuba Landing exit to find a place to stop and eat but we took a turn down a small road by a redneck nutjob's house and were turning around to head back when these dogs kept getting in front of the car. Managed not to hit them and hit the road and stopped to eat later. The rain was bad around then. I also took a route I'd never taken before, I-840. Saw something about taking it to avoid downtown Nashville. Well, it was the middle of the day on a weekday thought that might be a good idea. Not sure if it saved time or was the same time or what. It was very scenic. Okay, back home to Trudy and post this stuff and I'm losing coherency. If I can remember any of the stuff I've forgotten I'll post it up here later!

Big Days

ateolf — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 03:19:30 GMT

For Xiu Xiu I got as close and center as I could get. It was a pretty great set, the one I was most looking forward to coming here. It also came at the cost of the most painful skipping of another show at the same time: Roedelius. Agh! At least Mary Beth got to go to that show so we could spread the love. But Xiu Xiu was really good. I have the album they put out last year so it was like that, but awesome to see it live. They had footage projected behind them, but it was very minimal. It was just three successive images that looped. The first was the stairs with the fan at the top. The second was slo-mo trees blowing in the wind. The third was a close up of the fan. Jamie did a Leland impersonation towards the end that was pretty sweet. I could tell people were uncomfortable during "Sycamore Trees" because the music was very soft and quiet and Jamie Stewart was at peak Jamie Stewart and awkwardly loud (in a good way, but a way that made many people uncomfortable). This was the only show we overhead multiple people talking negatively about. Later in the day at a restaurant we heard this guy talking to the person he was with about it saying how much he loves the original music and how they made it sound too much like Xiu Xiu. Later at the art museum the next day some more people were talking about it with similar comments. Mary Beth wrote them down. I'll try to get the quotes later. Amusing stuff. After this I book it in high high gear all the way up to the Mill & Mine. I made it "on time" but then everything was behind anyway and I waited fifteen minutes before they pulled down the ropes to let us in anyway. Musica Elettronica Viva played in the middle of the floor as well. Everyone sat down encircling them. One guy played piano and the other two had keyboards/laptops (one had a little Moog Mother 13). They were good, musique concrète-ish stuff, electroacoustic to use a term I'm using a bunch anyway, improv, it was good. I'd only heard something of theirs from back in the 60s or whatever. I think I go to the Terminal maybe. I may have missed some stops and purchases. At some point I picked up from the merch table: Harmonia: Musik von Harmonia, Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Tim Story: Inlandish, and Qluster: Rufen. At another time later, I picked up: Meredith Monk: Songs from the Hill / Tablet, Meredith Monk: Our Lady of Late, and Carolina Eyck with American Contemporary Music Ensemble: Fantasias for Theremin and String Quartet. I know the latter purchase was at least later in the day Saturday because it was after I actually saw her. Can't quite place the times on these though. Mary Beth met up with me and we continued the rest of the night together. Back to the Mill & Mine for Colin Stetson's "reimagining" of Gorecki's third symphony. I think this was the show where we were up close and then this girl cut in and got next to this guy right in front of Mary Beth and she couldn't see anymore so we went to the back. The show was really good. Yeah. So we make it to The Standard to see Jessica Moss. I'll say she was good, I keep saying things were good! She did violin and lots of pedals. She did loops and drones and played with effects. Side note: she's in A Silver Mt. Zion. I was enjoyed it but we had to leave about halfway through to make it down to the Bijou to catch Henry Grimes's set. That was fantastic. He had an interesting setup. He played bass as he does and he had a drummer, cellist, and flautist. I felt really privileged to have gotten to witness him play. Next we had to book it all the way back up to the Mill & Mine to catch Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. That venue was still running behind so we weren't late. She was really good. Makes sense she's collaborated with Suzanne Ciani as her sound's pretty similar (and Buchla, though she uses the electronic easel). Some drunk guy kept bumping into me which was mildly annoying, that was really the only show where that typical drunken obnoxiousness played out at all, and still it was really mild. Mary Beth's feet were too tired to make it down to the Bijou again (and back up to the bridge between the venue and Jackson Terminal where our car was afterwards) so we did the only between shows driving the whole festival. It was pretty late so traffic and parking was lighter and more available than most parts of the day. That made things easier. Supersilent was fucking awesome. Mostly droney with jazzy little flourishes (I'll make another In a Silent Way comparison) and often really noisy. A few times these chaotic, loud percussive blasts happened and number of people left at that point. They were another one of the better performances of the festival. Really glad I got to see them.

Okay, back up and sleepy for another day. Sunday! The final day of the festival. I picked up some more breakfast to eat while walking to my first event. Oh, I also picked up my final cd: Colin Stetson: Sorrow: a Reimagining of Gorecki's 3rd Symphony. Okay so I'm walking on the bridge and who do I walk right past but Colleen! (I know that's not her actual name.) Though I happen to be stuffing a biscuit and gravy doughnut into my face as I'm passing her so yeah. I make it down to the Tennessee theater to catch a screening of Meredith Monk's only film Book of Days. I wasn't able to catch the whole thing because of another event, but what I saw of it was really incredible. I'm going to have to track it down and watch the whole thing later. I went back to Jackson Terminal for a panel discussion on the impact of Pauline Oliveros's work. It was with Allan Curran (of Musica Elettronica Viva) and a lady whose name I forget and isn't in the program (Mary Beth saw her play piano later at a performance that I wasn't at, I think she runs an organization of some sort as well, I forget shit). It was mostly Allan talking about knowing her back in the day, but ooh here's a fun spot to leave off. Something very special happened afterwards. I was in a performance! To be continued after the cut.

Bigger Ears

ateolf — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 02:43:36 GMT

After my meal and bit of shopping (also, found out Lonesome Dove, one of the food vendors, does breakfast so made a note of that as well!) I went back up to the Mill & Mine to see Anna Meredith. She was pretty good. A lot of interesting things (sometimes bordered on whimsical a little more than I typically like, but overall there was more good than bad). The guitarist got a bit shreddy but oftentimes in this Fripp/computerish way that could be cool. I enjoyed it but I didn't feel too bad cutting out a few minutes early to make it down to The Square Room to check out Matthew Shipp & Bobby Kapp. That was REALLY good. Possible the best jazz show I saw the festival (and I saw a few great ones). Pretty free-form, piano and drums. Matthew's playing reminded me of Cecil Taylor in a lot of places. At one point he was reaching into the piano to pluck the strings directly, that was fun. Considered leaving early to get to Blonde Redhead in time, but I knew I was enjoying this more than I would that so I stayed til the end. The Mill & Mine (where most of the shows I saw were) is the northernmost of all the venues and a little removed from the rest. Anyway, I made it up there for Blonde Redhead. I missed their first few songs but that's okay. They were billed as performing the album Misery Is a Butterfly (which I think is kinda mediocre, definitely not bad like the one that came after it, but the least exciting of all their stuff I own, I think there's one song I really like and the rest is just okay). They were playing with a string quintet and their performance was a little staid even given the source. It wasn't a bad show but it didn't blow me away. The came back for a short set after the album and played some new stuff with the strings for half of it and played the rest as just a three piece. They still didn't play anything from before the album in question. They were more energetic as a three piece. I was hoping for at least one older song from back when I liked them, but no luck. Ah well.

At this point I'll take a little break and mention something I realized I forgot. The first day in Knoxville, while scoping out the venues and the lay of the land downtown, we stopped to do some planning/routing at this pharmacy with a soda fountain and got some ice cream stuff. Not really that noteworthy, but I like mentioning stuff. I'll also take advantage of the break to talk a little about the layout of this festival. There were nine main venues (not counting the Terminal which was like the headquarters) spread all over downtown. Downtown Knoxville isn't huge as downtowns go, relatively small, but still a good amount of space to cover when going back and forth between different venues. A few were close together, but the Mill & Mine is a little apart (with The Standard being pretty close). The Knoxville Museum of Art is also a little removed from everything else, over by the Sunsphere (Wigsphere) on the western edge of downtown. So, with festivals there's the standard issue of maybe having to miss some things you'd like to see due to conflicts where something else you want to see is playing at the same time. This setup has the added effect of limiting you not just by time but spacetime as well. If you've got two shows you want to see that don't necessarily overlap but they're at opposite ends of downtown and then maybe you'd have to go to one end and back right after for another show, that limits you as well as you might take up half the show just walking (and you're doing so much walking and standing as it is, all day). Anyway, not as easy to fill in every gap as it would be in other festivals where everything is closer. On the other hand, it does provide a nice atmosphere that feels integrated with the city and intimate in its own way. So that was kinda nice. Give and take I guess. It mostly limits some things you're a little interested in or curious about if they're too soon and too far.

Now we're on Friday. We did get up to make it to stuff in the morning. There was this show I was going to go to real early but we were a little late. I had some time to catch part of it, but I wanted to be early to Matmos. We got some breakfast tacos as well as these biscuit and gravy doughnuts (sounds weird but was amazing) and checked out the merch again. At some point, Wild Honey got some new stuff in so I'll assume it was then and I picked up: Brian Eno: Music for Films and Tortoise: TNT. So I rush down to the Tennessee theater (the biggest venue, and old ornate Orpheum-styled theater) to see Matmos. Well, I felt dumb that I rushed so early as they weren't letting anyone in yet and I had to sit on the sidewalk for thirty minutes (and there really wasn't even a line yet). Anyway, the show was good. Not nearly as good as when I saw 'em at Day for Night (doing the Ultimate Care II show). They were doing an interpretation of Robert Ashley's "Perfect Lives (Private Parts)." They did three sections: "The Park," "The Bar," and "The Backyard." In the first there was a string section and flautist accompanying along with two singers who punctuated with repeating key phrases (spoken but in kind of a singerly way). The one guy did electronics and the other Matmos guy just read the text. In the second part they did a complete wardrobe change and the strings/flute were replaced with piano. It fit with the piece, but the piano was mostly doing a kind of boogie woogie thing. The last section was the best. It was just the two Matmos guys and the one guy was playing acoustic guitar and synth along with reading the text. From what I understand, all the text was based on but different from Robert Ashley's original. After that I walked over to the Knoxville Museum of Art to catch The University of Tennessee Electroacoustic Ensemble. This was really awesome. There were a bunch of musicians spread around the bottom floor in this big open room in these little stations around the room. There were different electronic instruments (one synthesizer, an EML no less) and different acoustic instruments (traditional band stuff). Really enjoyable experimental stuff. After a while the musicians went upstairs where there were other musicians in similar stations in a couple different rooms. So you could walk back and forth between the rooms and hear different things. Towards the end the initial musicians went back downstairs and picked back up again. Even though it wasn't a "real" band (stupid distinction I'm not actually making) it was one of the better performances I got from the festival. They had some cdrs out on a table so I picked one up: The University of Tennessee Electroacoustic Ensemble: Vantablack. I had a good amount of time to make it up to the Mill & Mine so I took a leisurely stroll back up that way. The next act was American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME). A string quartet (at least for this performance, mostly). The first piece was just a cello solo. Then the rest of the strings came out. They ended with Charlemagne Palestine's "Strumming Music" with a larger group including a percussionist guitarists and vocalists. They were really good. Modern classical stuff. I picked up their cd Thrive on Routine from the merch table. I probably took a break and ate something like a sandwich from The Tomato Head at the Terminal. Anyway, next was Jóhann Jóhannsson's "Drone Mass" (also performed by American Contemporary Music Ensemble). Jóhann wasn't onstage during the performance but he did come out for the applause at the end. That was also really good. I picked up his Orphée cd from the merch table. Would have gotten a t-shirt too but the biggest they had were mediums (European mediums at that!). Mary Beth had met back up with me for that show and we continued the night together (and the rest just stayed at the Mill & Mine). After a gap we watched Colleen. She was really good. We sat out on the patio and listened watched her sound check through the window. I think we had some tacos from Goose Island's tent on the outside of the venue. Mary Beth was getting very excited 'cuz she was soundchecking all her favorite songs. The set was really good. We got up front and people were yelling at us to sit down. See, this is not a venue with seats. People were sitting on the floor, which is something they did at some of the shows there and not others. If there were seats, I'd understand the complaint. But we ignored them. Other people were standing too. The show was really good. Afterwards we sat outside again and these people approached us saying someone recognized us as having painted murals in Memphis. So yeah, that's not something we've done. But after mentioning we are from Memphis, well they're from Memphis and we talked a bit. They do a podcast about experimental electronic music so I got pretty intrigued. I checked it out later. It's called Sonosphere. Looks like it's got some awesome stuff. Also, the first post was about that Wolf Eyes show here a few years ago. Awesome. Mary Beth brought up my festival so when I had to talk about it I kinda flubbed it up. Anyway, we went back inside to catch Tortoise. They were also really good. Lots of really good shows, hell. The drumming was pretty spectacular especially the one guy (they switched it up a bit, two drum sets on stage, not always both played at the same time, but sometimes). The one guy who does the most drumming was really badass and he beat the shit out of those drums. He was playing synth at one point and the cameraman who was filming on stage was right on his back and I thought it was kinda funny, looked like he was humping him. Later, going back to the synth from the drums, he waved his arm at the guy and yelled at him to keep his distance. I guess I wasn't the only one who thought it was a little unusual. I picked up a t-shirt and Tortoise: s/t from the merch table.

Now we're on to Saturday. This was the most eventful day of the festival for me, unsurprisingly. Let's see if I can get everything in. I grabbed a couple breakfast tacos from the Terminal which I ate walking while rushing down to the Regal Riviera to catch the screening of Instrument (with Jem Cohen and Guy Picciotto doing a q&a afterwards). And I made it just in time. The movie was really good. Mostly just footage. Live footage and clips of things. I thought the way it was structured was really good. Hard to explain. I'll try to talk about it the best I can while not neglecting all the live music and things I saw this festival. Okay. Impressive moment during a show at a gymnasium: drums are under a basketball goal and Guy jumps up and climbs through the hoop and hangs upside down and proceeds to sing. Speaking of drums, Fugazi's drummer! (He has a name, Brendan Canty). There are clips of this interview Ian and Guy did with with a girl in middle school for some school program with awkward pauses and camera edits and nervously scripted questions and it was pretty wonderful. A good bit of 90s nostalgia to be mined from the clothing and the number of benefit shows. They had bits where they did headshot kinda things of people in line for the shows, but the most memorable of this stuff was coincidentally enough outside the Knoxville show where they actually interviewed people. The negative comments were amusing. The band apparently liked those and hated the compliments and Jem Cohen (the director) I guess had to fight a little bit to get any of the positive comments in. The guy who moderated the q&a was actually one of the people in the movie with one of those positive comments. I really liked the movie a lot and the q&a was pretty cool too. It went on a long time so I didn't get to catch much of Meredith Monk's set at the Bijou. I caught about the last twenty minutes. What I saw was really good. Operatic and modern. After that I head over to the Tennessee (luckily all these are in the same area within a couple blocks of each other) to catch Xiu Xiu's performance of Twin Peaks music! Well, I'll leave you in suspense as I head off to create a new post.