8.17.2007

8.15.07 debrief

ST! @ The Lucky Cat 8.15.07
thanks to ineveragreedtothat for the photo

It was a fun show at the Lucky Cat, though it felt a touch odd the whole way through. Huge difference in the sound of that club versus The Underscore. Fortunately, I could hear my vocals and Jeff's vocals fairly decently through a monitor, but I could barely hear my guitar at all. I'd kept it turned down slightly in the hope that the whole band wouldn't overwhelm the small brick room with unintelligible cacaphony, but I suppose I went too far. Rene couldn't hear the guitar at all, which actually helped him during our new song, Cleoporchcat, because he was able to concentrate entirely on Andy's bass.

On top of that, my guitar started cutting out during Liftoff and continued to give me problems through the end of the show. At the moment I'm blaming the cable... I hope it's not the amp again.

Overall I think we played decently. Not as well as at The Underscore, though. I'm not terribly happy with a couple of my solos and clammed chords, and I managed to sing the second verse of Boy twice somehow. Also missed the cue to go into my solo in Asteroids. But none of our individual problems threw us off in any significant way, which is a huge positive. The worst thing that can happen is that you get completely bent out of shape by some mistake and it becomes a downward spiral of bad.

About five people showed up of all those we invited, but there was a decent crowd of people affiliated with the bands after us who seemed to enjoy themselves.

I managed to completely forget to bring any guitar picks. Professional, yeah? Fortunately for me my very talented friend Laura from Bella Noir came to see us and happened to be carrying the exact pick that I use. Saved!

The show is available for download from seizethem.com, as usual.

8.15.2007

fame, it's not your brain, it's just the flame

Basically everyone I ever knew is more famous than I am.
This has been a strange week for sudden blasts from my past.

First, my parents sent me a clipping from our hometown newspaper regarding Jenny Powers, star of stage and screen and former Miss Illinois. In addition to being caught up on her latest exploits, namely landing the role of Rizzo in the revival of Grease and having been in Chris Rock's movie I Think I Love My Wife, I discovered via the IMDb that she also had a bit part in the pseudo-exploitation B picture Sexina: Popstar P.I.... which starred my roommate Don Red's ex-girlfriend's older sister in the titular role.

Second, my old NYU schoolmate Nicholas Jarecki (brother of filmmakers Eugene and Andrew Jarecki) has exploded into prominence. In addition to his book Breaking In and his documentary about director James Toback called The Outsider, he's written the screenplay for and is executive producing the movie The Informers based on the novel of the same title by Bret Easton Ellis. This is just about as appropriate a pairing as can possibly be, by the way.

The third instance of this oddness is also a hometown connection. Another of my roommates, editor Tyler Peck, has been expounding to me about this short film he's been working on called MADE: I Wanna Be A Hipster (doesn't seem to have a website yet) for some time now. Today I received a flyer for it in my email and discovered, to my shock, that the movie had been written by none other than Faran Krentcil, associate of mine from my theater days. Faran, it appears, is the editor-in-chief of fashionista.com, contributor to Fashion Week Daily and is something of a name in the New York City fashion world.

These last two entries can be filed under synchronicity, as well, considering that I found out both of these things after finishing reading Bret Easton Ellis' novel Glamorama. Which, by the way, I cannot recommend.

So, yes, I'm feeling a touch inadequate with all of these acquaintances of mine having such success. And I haven't even mentioned my other Broadway-luminary friend from high school or the friend-since-I-was-nine personal assistant to Tim Robbins.

Yes, goddammit, I will namedrop. I WILL. What else can I console myself with?

By the way: I'm in production on a feature-length documentary, my band is totally awesome (and playing tonight at The Lucky Cat in Williamsburg), I'm creating the most beautiful travel photomemoir you've ever seen, and I edit music videos for reggaeton stars. ALL HAIL ME. I knew there was a reason I moved to this town.

8.12.2007

paging Mr. Madison

I've recently taken to spouting at my Internet Friends that I feel the most important topic of debate for the vast armies of Presidential candidates is the aggrandizement of power by the Executive branch. The probability that the current Administration will hand the egregiously unconstitutional weapons it has created for itself down to whoever succeeds it should frighten all of us tremendously.

Fortunately, Bill Moyers recent journal is a discussion with constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein (a former member of the Reagan administration) and The Nation writer John Nichols concerning exactly what impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney would mean and why it is absolutely necessary.

PBS doesn't seem to have the episode available for viewing yet (check back later) but YouTube comes to the rescue. Here's the first part of the hour-long program.

8.06.2007

En Que Fallamos

For your viewing pleasure, the tele-novelaesque music video I edited for Ivy Queen's latest single "En Que Fallamos". Reggaeton, but less so than my previous reggaeton video for Don Omar.





35mm film -> DigiBeta -> Quicktime (320x136 H.264 339kbps) -> flash-ized by whatever version of On2's Flash compression software YouTube is usuing

8.02.2007

ooooooklahoma, and the wind

Some, most, or all of you may not know this (because I rarely think about it), but I have some roots in the state of Oklahoma. My maternal grandparents were from there, though they moved to California and raised my mother in Napa Valley.

Now I don't know much about Oklahoma. I've never been there, I've never met many of its citizens. But I do know that they've just created one of the most asinine goddamned things I've ever seen with my eyeballs, and it's this license plate:



First of all, the design is flat-out ridiculous with the faux-desert camo (hey! this Global War is going to be fought entirely in the desert, right?) and the incredibly shoddy clip-art eagle and inaccurate Twin Towers. Twin Towers, huh? Shouldn't that possibly be an image of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building? Must they appropriate a horrible event that happened in my city for their jingoistic idiocy? Maybe terrorism by white Christian people doesn't count in the Global War On A Tactic.

Which brings me to my second, more obvious point of ire: advertising the "Global War on Terror" with a license plate. What the hell is trying to be accomplished here? Do the trucks and SUVs of Oklahoma not already sport enough tacky, magnetic, Chinese-made ribbons "supporting" our troops? Are the faded US flag stickers proclaiming that These Colors Don't Run not making their owners feel sufficiently patriotic? Too embarrassed by their old War on Drugs plates?

Dear Oklahoma Tax Commission,
I realize you decided you could stand to make several bucks off of the fraction of your population that must constantly advertise their support of American imperial aggression, but not everything that can be done necessarily should be done. If these plates MUST exist, can we also get a plate featuring portraits of the major players in the Bush administration with the legend CRIMINALS printed below? It seems only fair.

Yours in slack-jawed horror,
QXZ