Show with Tim Gilger at Cocktails 5.18.06, Nashville

This was supposed to be a short, two-person set at 8:30, but therewas a last minute add-on of a singer-songwriter named Mary (who was very good, though I did not catch her last name. ooops)

Tim and I recently wrote a song together, 'Sweetwater Road,' which has yet to be played in public because we both are a bit fuzzy still on the chords and words. We keep intending to, so one of these times it might actually happen.

I did play a new song, a sort of sweet love song that is still finding its right chords and changes. For it being a new song, though, the performance was quite comfortable. I think it will become a part of the reportoire. I also played a really solid version of "N Judah" (Tim helped out with this great atmospheric lead line) and then, for the last one, I started out with playing "Wasting Time With You" and it was rock solid through the intro and then I realized I forgot the verse chord progression (which never happens to me. Very weird). I had to scuttle it (sadly, because it was so solid a lead-in) and I retuned quickly and fired off the old standby "The Girl Explains", which went well, again with Tim on lead guitar.

Tim's set was solid, as well. I have gotten comfortable with his songs to the point where I can just jump in with harmonies and words and shaker, so I did that. We had a good groove going.

I wished I could have stayed late to hear Jerry Oliver's set, especially since he seemed to be playing with some folks from the Fido coffee shop, who I have yet to hear. Alas, I had to scoot. Next time.

Categories: shows played

They Might Be Giants at Exit/In, Nashville, on 5.5.06

I am embarassed to say that, prior to this, I had never been to a TMBG show. My friend Lyndsey won free tickets and invited me along. Hands down, this was the best show I have seen in a long time.

The opener was Michael Leviton, playing a ukelele and singing some pretty hilariously skewered anti-love songs (think the Mountain Goats meet Tiny Tim) - and the crowd was right with him. The place was packed even for the opener set and yet I still had a lot of room to move and didn't feel crowded the whole night.

The show that TMBG put on pleased me especially because they dipped into a lot of their back catalog. The only disappointment for me was "Rhythm Section Want Ad" (an absolute jump around favorite of mine) which felt like it dragged a little (ironically, the drummer looked tired and like he was struggling to keep up while playing it). I was introduced to several new songs (because I am lame and don't have a lot of their newer stuff) and one in particular, "Dr. Worm," flat knocked me out.

So Lyndsey and I danced and sang along and had a great time. Highly recommended.

Categories: shows seen

Everything louder than everything else.

Every once in a while you meet someone and fall in love with them. This is often very inconvenient. It happens to me all the time. My life (even oh yes in America) is full of inconveniences.

Uncomfortable pause.

But see, here's the thing. Yes - there is an art to falling in love properly and on that scale I'm more likely a Jackson Pollock (it's meaningful but it's rarely pretty). Disaster is the word I am looking for. But this does not deter me. It is like breathing - a natural reflex.

Every once in a while you meet someone who loves you back. This is rare. Rarer still is being loved back in a convenient way. Times and places are always all wrong. My life (even oh yes in America) is full of inconveniences.

Every once in a while you meet someone you can't touch, or perhaps can't hold the way you'd like to, or for as long as you'd like to. But still, they bring something out in you. Suddenly you're doing pushups again. Or you take another shot at learning to skateboard. This is the secret truth Shakespeare knew, this is what drove Mr. Rogers and his neighborhood. People matter. The love we show and the love people show us matters. This is the crushing weight of the Real that cannot be avoided. Shouldn't be hidden from. Don't work on the antidote.

A little tip of the hat and a thank you to the Universe for inconveniences.

Hurts to Laugh / Xperimental Dental School at the Basement 5.1.06

I know Eric from Hurts to Laugh from Baja Burrito (my favorite burrito joint in town). This is the second time I have seen them, and they have developed both a coherent stage presence and quite a good following in the space between my two appearances at their shows. I enjoyed them last time, I really enjoyed them this time.

They have some stage gimmicks that they do - somewhere between audience participation and a self-help group. On another group this might be annoying, but here the chops are solid and the tunes are catchy (and a bit dark. I like dark and catchy) and did I mention that they brought a hibachi and had a pre-show grill-out for the fans? Class.

So I recommend 'em. Go see 'em.

An unexpected surprise was the opener for HtL, Experimental Dental School - a band out of the Bay Area on tour in the South. I'd call 'em a mix between Enon and the Shaking Ray Levis, with touches of Dead Kennedys, Fred Schneider, and Oingo Boingo thrown in for good measure. The songs are intricate and there's a very prominent organ which makes it all sound like a carnival gone wrong. Mucho energy and very tight stage presence. I'd go see 'em again in a heartbeat, and I bought the CD.

Categories: seen

It's a small world, after all

I just found out that Bishop Gene Robinson is a fraternity brother of mine from my chapter at Sewanee.

This means it is quite likely that I have caroused in the same house, spilled beer on the same floor (and pissed on the same tree) as the man whose very presence threatens to split the Anglican communion worldwide. I find that simultaneously humbling and incredibly empowering.

Time passes. That is all. Make sense who may.

It is not lost on me that my final passage to the Roman communion of the church roughly coincides with the centennial of Samuel Beckett's birthday. These are certainly unrelated events in the way that all events are unrelated.

Still, there is something strangely incongrously pleasing about it all. The anniversary snuck up on me. About a month ago I recieved this amazing DVD box set I had ordered, Beckett on Film, and have been exploring that. The plays are both nice to watch and nice to sleep to. I have done both.

Good Friday. Birth, death, new life. Trying to figure things out long after you're well into the process of each. This is appropos of my experiences with Catholicism, with Beckett, with much.

Cocktails 4.13.06

This was a 9pm writers round played with Tim Gilger and Mike Dominguez.

The show got started a little late. We were preceded by a round of Nashville songwriters who none of which played instruments. Instead, they played backing tracks off a laptop and sang along. This was initially amusing, but the hard drive soon started shrieking and skipping, and other technical problems ensued. Nightmarish, like karaoke from Hell.

Once Tim, Mike and I got on stage, however, that all seemed to be quickly forgotten. The stage monitors at Cocktails are always a bit dicey, but they seemed in better shape than usual. There was a very good chemistry between the three of us - Tim played lead lines on Mike and my songs, Mike did a lot of percussion work for Tim and I, and all of us jumped in with harmonies throughout - even on songs we hadn't heard before. There was a good pace and feel to everything on stage, and this was definitely one of the best Cocktails (and Nashville) shows I've been a part of.

Some highlights: 1) Mike played a new song that just absolutely kicked ass. At one point during it Tim and I looked at each other with this silent "wow" and we both raved about it later to Mike. Good stuff. 2) The rendition of "N Judah" had exactly the right rhythm and atmosphere - Tim was doing fantastic lead lines on it, the harmonics from my guitar were ringing out clear as bells, and Mike's percussive additions were perfect. 3) This dude from New Jersey was dancing real close to the stage and singing lyrics back at us - he seemed very into the show, which was both cool and a bit unnerving.

Thanks Mike and Tim for a great show, and thanks Cheley Tackett for booking us. Also a big shout out to the Disciples' House crew for coming out en masse and cheering us on.

my set: Easting by the Psalms (fast version), The Man Who Lost the Sea, N Judah

Categories: showsplayed

His Master's Voice

Amazon.com has new recommendations for you based on 28 items you purchased or told us you own.


We recommend The Sublime Object of Ideology
We recommend Metapolitics
We recommend Philosophical and Theological Writings
We recommend The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis


Sincerely,
Amazon.com

We hope you enjoyed receiving this message.

Categories: conspiracy, reading

Ice cream, Mandrake. Children's ice cream.

Many of my friends have observed that I do not drink so-called "soft" drinks, opting instead for one of several brands of seltzer water. In fact, with the exception of a ten-day stint in central Mexico, I have not had a"soft" drink in close to a decade (the significance of my extraterritorial imbibing will become clear in a moment).

Some friends, observing this, have occasionally asked me my reasons for soda water over so-called "soft" drinks. So here, for once and for all, I intend to set the record straight.

First of all, go to your local library (while it's still free) and get your hands on a copy of The Plays of Ford, Webster, Tourneur and Wharfinger, published by the Lectern Press, Berkeley, CA. Try to find the 1957 edition (it's a reprint. I think the first edition was a textbook). This version is important because it provides the only published version of Richard Wharfinger's play The Courier's Tragedy taken from the 1687 folio edition (most other published versions come from the Quarto, several years later) which replaces the closing lines of the fourth act:

"Who once has crossed the lusts of Angelo,"

with

"Who's once been set his tryst with Trystero."

As far as Jacobean revenge plays go, Courier's Tragedy is no masterpiece. But it is remarkable in that this (called by some corrupt) interchange of refrains is the first known mention of the Tristero.

The full stanza reads as follows:

He that we last as Thurn and Taxis knew
Now wrecks no lord but the stiletto's Thorn
And Tacit lies the gold once knotted horn.
No hallowed skein of stars can ward, I trow,
who's once been set his tryst with Trystero.

Dr Emory Bortz, in his 1967 monograph Plotting the Stealth and Intrigue of the Jacobean Revenge Plays lays out a convincing argument for the Folio over the Quarto refrains by comparing and contrasting what the audience's understanding of each would have been in Wharfinger's day:

"The 'hallowed skein of stars' is God's will. But even that can't ward, or guard, somebody who has an appointment with Trystero. To merely cross the lusts of Angelo would provide any number of avenues for escape: leave the country, for example. Angelo is only a man. But the brute Other, that was something else again. Evidently Wharfinger was convinced that, to his audience, Trystero would symbolize the Other very well."

Now, it can be argued (as some have done) that all such references are aberrations with little or no historical founding, and scant literary reference. In short, they sound like myths. True. But this fails to take into account the truly repressive clampdown on the flow of information during the political height of the Thurn and Taxis postal monopoly (the repurcussions of which, it can be argued, are still in evidence today. "Going Postal" is merely the most egregious contemporary example of a trend which has existed for quite some time).

The scant but constant fringe references to the Trystero (later Tristero) throughout the recorded history of the Thurn and Taxis (and even, it has been argued, such proto-modern postal organizations e.g. the Pony Express) is made all the more interesting by the almost complete hole of silence surrounding the name in the more commonly known histories of the politics of central and western Europe through the eighteenth century.

The silence begs the question: has there been, for five centuries, a viscious and arcane plot to undermine the established postal service? (in Europe and possibly even in this counrty) And if so, is this "silence" a direct result of fierce and constant repression on the
part of those who controlled the ebb and flow of facts through most of that period (Thurn and Taxis itself, and later systems based on the Taxis model) or, more insidiously, has the silence been generated by the Trystero itself?

Information historian Gossett Englebart may have unknowingly prefaced just these questions when he wrote of the advent of email and it's possible effects on the global information economy (in his article in The Economist reviewing Alvin Toffler's Future Shock and John Naisbitt's MegaTrends). Could it be that what has seemed all along like a safe, decentralized process of spontaneous generation and improvements (starting with the Arpanet and extending now through the World Wide Web, and particularly the ready availability of Eudora Light, Outlook, and now G-Mail) has really been a well coordinated, all out and perhaps final assault upon an
information management monopoly whose influences have been felt since the early days of western civilization?

One could put these questions to Gossett's cousin, Douglas Englebart (co-developer of the Arpanet and, not coincidentally, credited creator of the "mouse" - the hardware architecture
that made "surfing the web" a conceptual possibility literally within the grasp of millions) but he isn't talking. Perhaps he, too, knows the value of silence.

It is entirely possible (the evidence is there to support the proposition) that there is a long standing and not-coincidental connection between several key events in our recent history:

1. specifically (and already mentioned) the rise of a viable, "decentralized" long distance information courier system based on the Arpanet model (email);
2. the dramatic rise in deaths related to postal workers going over the edge
   
3. there is evidence of connection between between the government backers of arpanet in the sixties and the MKULTRA counterintelligence program which supervised mind control and destabilization experiments around the same time (see particularly the July 1989 issue of the Covert Action Information Bulletin, pp 15-21);
4. the "revamping " of the Coca Cola formula in the mid 80's, and its near immediate withdrawl and reintroduction as "Coke Classic" with a slightly altered formula which replaced good ol' sugar with high-fructose corn syrup
   
5. there was a particularly interesting study recently on the effect of high doses of corn syrup sweetening agents on the prevalence of psychotic breaks in occupations of high stress and repetitious activities. One interesting conclusion was the finding that service workers such as postal clerks were particularly susceptable;
6. and the collapse of the Soviet Union (with one result being that suddenly the much coveted Georgian and Ukrainian corn harvests were allowed to flood the global market in the interests of "stimulating the economy").

One could definitely make a case for it, and I agree with them. That's why it's seltzer water only for me, folks. The evidence is there, if you dig. Go do the detective work yourself - I think you'll agree.

Hope that clears things up.

Categories: conspiracy

Cocktails 3.30.06

Played a writers round set tonight with Tim Gilger and Chris Warren. The set started around 7:45 and we each did three songs through the course of the show. I played "Wasting Time With You," "N Judah," and "Telegraph."

I felt like the energy was good, but we all seemed to have trouble hearing each other on stage, so I didn't feel comfortable playing much on the other guys' songs. So I mostly shook the shaker. There were some points, though, where I was able to do some nice harmonies on both Tim and Chris's songs. Tim's I know pretty well, and Chris just writes good, accessable choruses. I had fun doing that.

I don't feel like it was the best I could have done on my material. Some nights you just feel 'off', and this was one for me. Tim and Chris seemed to have a good time, and there was a good crowd there. Some folks were loud and didn't seem to pay much attention (ahh, typical...) but there were definitely folks listening and getting into the show, and that makes it worthwhile.

Now, I just need to work on my sales pitch so I can sell some CD's. Yep, that's me. It's all about moving the product, isn't it?

(No, it isn't).

Categories: showsplayed

Things I see when I run

So I was out running late last night, passing the second mile on the east side of Vanderbilt. There was a strange assortment of things on the sidewalk.

First, I passed an abandoned pair of flip-flops. About a hundred yards later, two slices of bread - eaten completely except for 3/4's pf the crusts, such that they made half-moon shapes or a pair of "C's" or horseshoes - aranged in a sort of "S" shape.

About a hundred yards later, there was a second set of bread crusts, arranged again in that "S" shape.

Running, listening to 'Out the Other' on WRVU on Wednesday nights, my mind is well-lubed and pithy. I began to wonder, as I wandered, what sort of story was behind all this. What would cause someone to suddenly abandon their footwear? Was it the same individual who was also leaving these cryptic bread-letters? Was this a message of hope (new shoes and bread for all)? Of tragedy? How will the late observer (in this case, me) make sense of these signs?

I think today I'll err on the side of hope - the discovery that one's feet are tough enough to face the bare Earth and sidewalk on their own; enough bread that all can eat our fill and play with our food; enough time to play and dream that we connive cryptic messages, writ in letters fleeting enough for poetry, to leave for those to come - we know not who.

this is a test

And with this I am testing the blog.

Categories: musings