Warmas

Erie Choir is weighing in on the War on Christmas by playing a set on non-traditional, somewhat dubious "Christmas Songs" at the Local 506 this Friday, Dec. 23rd with a bunch of other local artists. Come, be merry, punk.

SPLENDID INSINCERITY

Do you need some Chess Openings?

I am terrible at Chess, unable to think ahead, to see anything, but I am very interested in it (in no small part be cause some of my favorite authors and directors were interested in it*), and the people who play it; and the machines. There is a great article in last week's New Yorker about Hydra, the world's best computer chess player. Computer chess is more complicated than I thought. Becuase Chess is even more complex than a computer can figure out, it all comes down to how the computer is programed (such as brute force v. strategy); comes down to the personality of the person programming. Grandmasters are studying computer chess matches and learning startling new things about the game, about what is possible, about what works. The Upshot: in most cases the computers are making plays that no human would ever attempt because they are, to us, crazy/stupid; irrational, inconceivable; but because a computer doesn't get nervous, it doesn't mind playing close to the edge.

Chess problems demand from the composer the same virtues that characterize
all worthwile art: originality, invention, conciseness, harmony, complexity, and
splendid insincerity.

-- Vladimir Nabokov, Poems and Problems, 1969 (via Ye Olde Dust Congress)

*and "One Night in Bangkok" is a great song.

Year End Wrap Up

AP would like to wish all of the readers, regular and otherwise, a happy:

a) Christmas
b) Hanukkah
c) Secular Time Off with Gifts

Take your pick.

This is the time of the year when we look back at all we acheived.

• AP played with Neil Hamburger. That was fun.
• We released our third EP, The Bunny is Not as Popular as Julius.
• We had a song--"Ghettos of the Sun"--on the second Compulation.
• We recorded half of out first record, Teenage Horses, with the brilliant and calm N. Peterson. Serious, this is the man to trust.

It was a productive year. Factor in the relase of the Nein's Wrath of Ciruits, the industry wide praise for Hotel Motel, the release of Erie Choir's Bad Tzars is a Drag (unless that was last year) and RB's myspace page: Whew! When did we sleep?

Oh right, on Ross Grady's show. Sorry Ross (and REM).

What were we interested in this year:

• Destroyer's new album, Detroyer's Rubies. In fact, the posts we've had about that album have been our most popular. Sad considering they say so little. Here is one that says alot; that says what we would have said had we been able to say it, or heard the new album, which we have not--though I am assured by Stark Pimp that we will all need new shorts in the new year.
• David Mitchell, David Mitchell David Mitchell. The first book I read in 2005 was Cloud Atlas--holy shit, what a great book. Since, I have read his other two books and am now eagerly awaiting his next book, Black Swan Green. All three of his books--Ghostwritten, Number9dream, and Cloud Atlas--are really strong. Also, all three are connected in really strange ways. Not just recurring characters, but small details--the comet--that really seem to point at Mitchell making his own world, just like Faulkner did. There are part of Ghostwritten that really have me stumped, so, everyone read it so we can talk about it.
• The new Michael Chabon book--I am pushing back my comments on it until 2007.
• Megalodon, Megalodon, Megalodon.
• Rock Static, an excellent NC music blog--like a second home for me and all the lost, bored children of the universe.
• Backwards City is cool too.
• Of course, White Dawg.

What do we have to look forward to? This:

• The finishing of Teenage Horses.
• The pre-production of both Dadport and Dudeplex--the Tropic of Food's first two films.
• The Silver Jews tour.
• A Destroyer tour.
• Our first show of 2006 with Criteria. Let's talk real Menergy!

Thank you to the folks that came to the shows and read our steady stream of hyper-evolving-wormhole-esque-non-sense.

Blog Refreshed. Ahhhh.

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Seven Years

It now looks as if I will not have to make the tough choice as to whether I will read "Black Swan Green" or "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" first. According to his webpage, Michael Chabon has pushed back the publication of "tYPU" until winter of 2007 because the publication was being rushed. Still no domestic dust jacket had been designed (though, as you can see, the British dust jacket had. Why not use that? I often like the UK covers better anyway.) and the people responsible for marketing the book had not even read it yet.

Chabon says he is going to take the opportunity to give the book another edit. He has been working on the book since 2002.

I was looking forward to April so much--two new books by two of my favorite writers. My question is this: winter of 2007--does that mean 02/07 or 12/07--there is a big difference. I think I can wait until then, but if I have to wait almost until 2008, I think I will cry, unless Mr. Chabon wants to send me a copy. I would be happy to offer edits.

I'm not really complaining. I respect a desire to do things right and take time to make sure you are happy with your work.

1940-2005

Richard Pryor passed away today. He was one funny motherfucker. I am writing this from the apartment complex office and I know that the Net Nanny is going to #### with my #### and not let me write what I feel.

There is no-one funnier than Richard Pryor; but he was better than funny. He was painful. He realized better than anyone that laughter comes from a dark place; and he knew how to take that pain and make it something profound. Pryor was funny the way Mark Twain was funny, the way Nabokov was funny--your laughter took your mind off the fact that he was cutting you up bad.

He was a scalding iron. He was my favorite comedian of all time. He was a genius.

There will never be another.

"Comedy rules! Don't let anybody tell you otherwise, and there are no rules in stand-up comedy, which I really like. You can do anything you want and you can say anything that comes to mind - just so long as it's funny. If you ain't funny then get the #### off the stage, it's that simple."

There's Wood Enough Within

Stylus has a list of Shakespeare Character/Hip-hop Artist analogies. Such as:

Caliban (The Tempest) – Three 6 Mafia Surreal, grotesque monster mash that teaches us more about style and the dark side of (in?)humanity then we ever realize.

Hamlet – Eminem Done in by the women around him. Responds in kind with pure misogyny. He’s focused on the past, obsessed with his mind, and only acts on half of his thoughts. At his worst he’s pure ego, but eventually he fleshes himself out without losing his one irreplaceable skill: a pure sense of language.

Perfect.

SUGARBUSH CORRECTION

ALERT! ALERT!


A correction must be issued. Previous reports of the screening of Run, Sugarbush, Run! were flawed. The film will be screened at the Richard White Auditorium on Duke's East Campus, NOT in the Bryan Center after all. Mr. Cohen regrets the error.

ArUaDdUiBoOdNrPaAmRaK

ROSS GRADY PRESENTS
live from the WXDU Lounge
the music of
AUDUBON PARK
preformed by members of
AUDUBON PARK
as listened to by
people in the surrounding area who know or happen upon it.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER the 11th, 2005
at
5pm

LISTEN in amazement as AUDUBON PARK preforms songs from their as of yet uncompleted debut LP, "Teenage Horses." WITNESS with your own ears by way of radio reciever tuned into the frequency 88.7fm or through he hotly contested magic of the internet at the address of www.wxdu.org. Never before has something such as this taken place, with the exception of the time Audubon Park played on WXDU two years ago! No songs repeated, no songs pre-planned, no-songs practiced. Spontaneous musical generation. Jerry Lives! John Lives!

IT IS NEVER TO LATE TO FORGET!

A film without peer

Audubon Park fanatics:
this Friday, December 9, at Duke University's Griffith Film Theater (in the Bryan Center), will be the premiere screening of "Run, Sugarbush, Run", a "film" by Finn Cohen and Benjamin Spiker (formerly known as the "Right-to-Work Rhythm Section"). This cinematic landmark is a stop-motion animation chase sequence involving President Bush and his pet squirrel, Sugarbush, which escapes his neo-conservative master. Shot in 16mm black and white film, this sure-to-be-a-Christmas-blockbuster-look-out-Peter-Jackson runs just over 3 minutes long. The showing will start at 6pm. The filmmakers hope you can attend.

I put new strings on my guitar...

Just a reminder, that Erie Choir, Meredith Bragg (and the terminals) and Samuel Robison (aka Rob [the puking wonder?}) will be making various sounds at Nightlight this Wednesday, Dec. 7th. And to celebrate I've put new strings on my guitar. I know some of you liked the old strings, but you'll learn to love the new ones.

A Jowl Without Peer

Plus: astonishingly,
this exists.

Stay Tuned

Soon there will emerge a jowlphoto that is second-to-none. Soon it will be posted. Soon it will be seen. Stay tuned.

Jowlin' Comes Home

Recently in Raleigh, some real live jowlin' was observed and captured on film by Finn Cohen, Lauren Carter, and Ben Spiker.

Here is Something You Can't Understand. . .

. . . how Cypress Hill could have been so ridiculous and good. Here are some choice photos from December 1, 2005, at Kings:

Hating

Seems there is some hating going on related to Conor Oberst.

Hmm.

Bob Dylan Can Be Really Funny

Since we have been rocking the Destroyer tip of late, here is an interview at Junkmedia from last year with Dan Bejar that is really good.

"I would never write something down just to confess it. Usually it's a pretty conscious effort to create something of aesthetic value. You know what I mean? I mean, my approach to language is not super conscious in that I sit down and have some over-arching idea that the language has to fit into. It's actually really instinctual. But the aesthetic is one of using language that just works. You write it down, and somehow it's just working for you. It's not what the words mean, but what they do, I guess. How the phrasing interacts with melody, and how meaning can change once you throw that in there. That being said, you could probably comb through my lyrics and find a handful of threads that would piece it all together."

This man is good, tell you. How about an other example (aside from the Bejar-o-matic):

THE SUBLIMATION HOUR

So you had the best legs in a business built for kicks,
but was this changing of the guards really supposed to make you sick…
It’s alright - The Sublimation Hour!

Medium Rotation, the Shock of the New,
and a memo from Feldman saying - “everything is true.
It’s alright - The Sublimation Hour!

Don’t spend your life conceiving that the widows won’t get sick of their grieving
till everyone walks out. Hey, isn’t that what rock ‘n’ roll is all about?
Princess, express your bloated self, willful and indignant in the face of
somebody’s lord.

You try to summon up the spirits live on Face the Nation,
but the Port Authority just taxed incantations.
It’s alright - The Sublimate Hour!

Auction off the temple. It’s money well-spent.
Hey, are those tears in your eyes as the wind cries enlargement?
It’s alright - The Sublimate Hour.

Don’t spend your life conceiving that the widows won’t get sick of their grieving
till everyone walks out. Hey, isn’t that what rock ‘n’ roll is all about, princess?
Confess your bloated self, willful and indignant,
in the face of somebody’s lord.

So put your hands together. I hear it’s a ‘must’,
until this phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust.
It’s alright - The Sublimation Hour.

I guess the streets will suffice till everybody makes nice,
but there’s a rumor going round even Destroyer has a price…
Don’t spend your life conceiving…

And what I know is one of Clint's favorites:

VIRGIN WITH A MEMORY

Was it the movie or the making of Fitzcarraldo
where someone learned to love again?
‘I can’t remember’ is not the same as ‘I don’t know,’
virgin with a memory.

Was it the movie or the making of Fitzcarraldo
where your mother decided to fashion herself
after the sad deity we left on the shelf.

She wanted blood, all she got was sacrifice.
She wanted blood, all she got was sacrifice.
She wanted blood, all she got was sacrifice.

Virgin without a memory, now is your chance to be free
of all those favorite bands you ditched for one that’s grander:
No Use For A Name to the Make-up -- it’s all the same.

The singer not the song, no!
The singer not the song, no!
The singer not the song, no!

Formative years - wasted. In love with our peers -
we tasted life with the stars. Anticlimactic as Mars was, still…

A red earth with no way of knowing this silver colossus exists
just to be growing.
A red earth with no way of knowing this silver colossus exists
just to be growing…

Was it the movie or the making of Fitzcarraldo
where someone learned to love again?
Where someone learned to love again…
Where someone learned to love again…

I often try and explain Destroyer to people in terms of Bob Dylan (which I know does not resonate with one popular reader of this internet news source), but I think the comparison holds: both are brilliant and frustrating, willing (actually, eager is a better word) to confound, confuse and destroy expectations and assumptions. Shaggy, inexplicable minds. I am really working myself up for Destroyer's Rubies.

Cover What?

Not to distract people from Recess on Saturday night, but instead to distract them from the Knot's Landing Reunion Special airing on CBS on Friday, I announce that the Wusses Collective, of which I am a member, will be performing Friday evening at Kings Barcade. This very eve(Thursday), Sir Stingwell will be performing alongside I say Cy, you say Rawls.

RECESS

To boot:

RECESS, this Saturday, December 3 at Nightlight in Chapel Hill, will feature new music from both David Nahm and Matt Kalb of A.P.

For better or worse, Nahm has chosen to be accompanied by Ben "Steady Conflict Rhythm" Spiker and Robert "Dark Crystal Synth Cloud" Biggers, and may or may not appreciate having his pick-up group referred to as Ocular Nookie. Or Despicable Beaches. Or Rhododendron Mitchell. But probably not Crowmeat Bob.

Also of the genus T of F, Rob Maggard will play several of his "suitcase instruments" (from the suitcase, not just playing suitcases), and the secret hot-shit-here's-why music will be played by Todd Emert (of Mowing Lawns). Be there at 2200h sharp to see Robison play foist.

Ad-Out and En Garde!
Presented by the Tired Nachos of My Mind, Inc.