nah pop, no style

Here are some music-related tidbits to keep you and me happy for a short while:

- Last night our LIVE STUDIO X SESSION aired on The X. It was a strange situation to be in — just to be asked to do that in the first place, and then to deal with it when you’re three dudes with a not-so-sunny view of Clear Channel. Our ultimate call was that we had more to gain from the appearance than they did, and that it was worth it. Vinnie, who hosts the show we were featured on, is a super good dude who likes good music and manages to have a show where he actually plays some good music. And the mix on the radio sounded really good. And a couple people have already ordered copies of the EP after having heard us on there. And hopefully maybe it’ll cause someone new to come to Roboto one of these days right soon.

- Tomorrow evening (Tuesday the 18th) we’re playing at AIR with Cerebrus Shoal, Air Guitar Magazine (they’re releasing a CD!) and Micah Blue Smaldone. We play first, so far as I know.

- We’re also going to be playing on the 26th of October at Roboto, the 1st of November at Roboto, the 6th of November at Roboto, and the 13th of November at the Blue Violet Cafe in Rochester (PA).

Okay, I hate to admit that Charles Krauthammer sometimes makes me think (and is even a pretty good writer . . .), but I’ll do it. His most recent column, which ran in the P-G today, is about the recreation of the 1918 Spanish Flu and its possible repercussions, the idea of which plugs in to a lot I’ve been thinking about lately, especially in the context of the aesthetic and ideological trajectory of the band I’m in. About the advancement of science and the decisions that have to be made in short order to keep up with the quickening pace of new technology. While I’m not so much into his alarmist take on the matter and his concentration on “the bad guys” (what else could we expect?), the questions he raises are pretty fair.

The whole thing reeks of Frankensteinian what-have-we-wroughtness (which, after Dolly and the rest, we’re pretty de-sensitized to), but at the same time the prospects of being able to use the newly-recreated virus to help fight similar epidemics in the future are enticing. Sometimes you have to kill it to keep it alive, sometimes you have to bring it back to life in order to kill it. Contradictions and ambivalence abound. “Have a nice day,” if you will.

There was a hostile vibe throughout the fair city of Pittsburgh today, which made me feel as if staying inside all day, instead of just for the first several hours of the day, would have been ideal.

- I witnessed at least two shouting matches in Oakland.
- The friend I met for lunch regaled me with the tale of a fight (an argument, not fisticuffs) with a roomate which occured earlier in the morning.
- I was nearly run over (SERIOUSLY MACKED) by a bus whose driver was apparently “fresh out of give-a-fucks” and ran a red light, which I didn’t realize he was doing until I was just past the lane and his vehicle was directly behind me, going about as fast as logistically possible, given that he had been stopped completely when the light turned yellow.
- On the 54C headed to the South Side, we were pelted with small rocks by some middle school or high school-aged kids on the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue.
- Waiting (50 minutes) for the 54C back from the South Side, I heard what sounded to be the beginnings of yet another shouting match, apparently brought about by someone sitting or standing on an angry man’s car.

Let this be your warning. I hereby command you to CHILL OUT before tomorrow begins.

So, by way of an update — here are the current facts regarding ANDYFEST 2005!

Friday, Nov. 4 @ Roboto:

facedowninshit
Sequoia
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
+ 1 more tba (soon!)

7:00/$6

Saturday, Nov. 5 @ Gooski’s (This show is no longer at Quiet Storm!)

The Close
Life in Bed
We’re Wolves

10:00/$4

Sunday, Nov. 6 @ ModernFormations

Bellafea
Bibis Ellison
Allies
the sea, like lead

7:00/$5

As mentioned elsewhere I believe, if you’re interested in attending all three shows, we can work out some sort of package deal.

I was talking to a friend tonight and she mentioned having to have blood tests this morning, and noted that she didn’t even really know why they needed to be taken. Which of course reminded me immediately of the current plight of Peter Parker, who in today’s strip (which I would post, but my digital photo downloading and posting abilities are limited right now) is being subjected to yet ANOTHER blood sample, and still worrying about his SECRET IDENTITY.

Flash back to September 1st:

Yes. It’s been six weeks since he entered that doctor’s office for that physical. In six weeks, we have learned precisely this: that Peter Parker’s blood is somehow mystical, and that the (evil?) doctor wants to use it as a miracle drug and make money from it, and Peter is afraid of being outed as Spider-Man. The entirety of September and half of October have been spent in the Doctor’s office and the hospital, all watching Peter writhe about his spider DNA. This is the equivalent of a psychological thriller movie that lasts eight hours.

My best guess is that perhaps Stan Lee has gotten himself into the ultimate cartoonist’s predicament: he’s created a dilemma for his character WITHOUT PLANNING HOW HE WOULD PULL THROUGH IT. And now he’s stalling, trying to figure out how Peter can get past this (especially since in the newspaper comic he’s not even a scientist! What’s a photographer to do when faced with an evil doctor?)

Good luck, Stan Lee and/or his band of underlings. Good luck.

Are you familiar with the Minutemen? Not the Minutemen, the Minutemen. There was a story in the Trib on Sunday (DON’T ASK!) about a local couple who are going to “vacation” at the Arizona border, using their binoculars to watch for Mexicans instead of birds or dolphins or whatever retirees are supposed to look at in binoculars on vacation. And, in case you were worried about them, fear not. They’ll “both be packing pistols just in case.” Sounds like an excellent vacation to me.

Also, in case you were worried about them being RACIST XENOPHOBIC CRAZY PEOPLE, you can rest assured that this is NOT about immigration. It’s about ILLEGAL immigration. Their concern is not that there are different-looking and acting and speaking people coming into the country, it’s that they’re doing it against the law. And, to be fair, these two sit outside banks in the South Hills with their pistols and binoculars during the rest of the year, so they can call the police iff’n they see a robbery take place, and go to dark alleys on the North Side with their night vision goggles so they can alert the authorities to suspected drug deals.

Today I hung out with my mom and nephew some, and we had dinner at Eat’n'Park at the Waterfront, and then they had to run in Giant Eagle to get a few groceries, and I was staying in the car. Thirty seconds after they left, they returned, and my mom stuck her head in the window, looked at me and said: “I just wanted to let you know that Jim Ecker and his wife are loading groceries into their big black car.”

It was, of course, a Cadillac, and I wish I had seen what his vanity plate said, but I couldn’t quite make it out. I’m content to only imagine it (”NT GLTY,” perhaps).

If you, like I, were arrested three years ago(!) at Pershing Park in D.C. on the 27th of September while assembled and trying to avoid being arrested, go here and fill out the form to keep in contact with the Partnership for Civil Justice, who are litigating the class action. I’ve been pretty confused about the whole process, and I know I was in contact with Covington and Burling about the suit they were bringing with the ACLU, but apparently that’s not the “real” suit, and that one isn’t around anymore. This is the one, and these are the people you’ll need to be in contact with in order to be part of the class if we’re ruled in favor of. And I don’t see how we could possibly not be. Unless the courts are all screwed up royal-like. Oh wait.

Continuing with our theme of interactive and alternative media, I was surprised and pleased to see this AP article about citizen reporting in the Post-Gazette this morning. It’s another sign that the type of media activism we’re doing and the philosophy of communication we’re pushing is making an impression on people and making a difference in “the real world” beyond Crazy Lefty Land.

As an aside, one thing that struck me when I was looking for a link to the article was the difference in headlines assigned to the story by different papers. The Raleigh/Durham/C-Hill “News & Observer,” to which I link, titles the story, Traditional media experiment with citizens as news producers, making the move sound quite tentative and even radical. This was presumably a headline suggested by the AP, because Canoe.ca uses a similar, if more ambiguous and frightening, hed — Traditional media experiment with citizens. The Freepers posted the story with that headline, and added (Media adopts blogging), because blogging as a news medium (I think) still has a built-in elitism, and that’s more their speed than admitting that we’re talking about a wholesale change toward the democratization of communication. The Post-Gazette’s headline? You, too, can be the media!

Did I mention to you that I love Pittsburgh?

(PS I think I’m going “camping” (sort of) with Emma at her folks’ farm tonight. It’ll be the first time I’ve done such a thing in two years or so, as the parents sold the cottage last year. It should be good for me.)

So, I discovered this thing the other day. Wikinews. I guess it’s new. It’s like Wikipedia and Wiktionary, but with news. In another interpretation: it’s like Indymedia, but without the inherent political slant that’s hard to get around (believe me, we talk about it all the time).

My first reaction was territorial — “There’s ALREADY an open-source news page. It’s called Indymedia. GET INTO IT.” Then I thought a little more about it. There are definitely shortcomings to Indymedia that I worry can’t be overcome (e.g., the impression that the site is “just for activists/protestors/anarchists”). So, perhaps having this as an alternative is good. Perhaps this is even . . . BETTER THAN INDYMEDIA?!

But then I looked closer and realized that most of what’s being posted on Wikinews (at least at this point in the game) is not so much independent, original reporting as it is synthesis, combinations of other news sources (mostly mainstream) into more concise articles written by non-professional reporters. It’s not that helpful in getting alternative views aired, and it’s not structured in QUITE the non-hierarchical way that the IMC is (although it’s much better than the corporate media structure, to be sure). It’s cool, it’s useful, but it’s still not the holy grail of alternative media that we’re looking for.

Somewhere in BETWEEN, I think, lies the ideal type of reporting and communication — something decentralized, with independent, original writing/media, produced by people from all different backgrounds, read with a discerning eye for bias, and no overall political agenda.

Is that too much to ask?

Perhaps right now it is, but trust me, it’s evolving.