nah pop, no style

I’m gonna be off the internet for the Cadbury holiday weekend. Come see us play at Roboto tomorrow night. Satisfy your hungry mind with this exciting show announcement from me:

Old Time Relijun
Free jazz punk throat singing stuff on K Recs (http://www.krecs.com/oldtimerelijun/)

Midnite Snake
You know these dudes — mind-melting riffage, minimal pounding drums
(http://www.birdmanrecords.com/midnitesnake.html)

Natura Nasa
Beatiful soundscaping stuff, ex-Arco Flute, What Secrets? etc.

possibly one more.

Saturday, May 27 at AIR (518 Foreland St., North Side)

$7

7:30pm

The radio show yesterday was fun, as any time cooped up in a room with Potter and Abie would tend to be. The other guest was David from 2politicaljunkies, a much more established and more “traditional” (I guess) blogger than I. I would’ve preferred a little more talk about the nature of internet communication as opposed to other media I guess, rather than talking about practical political applications of blogging specifically, which I just don’t know that much about. Regardless, I tried to not sound too too stupid, and hopefully succeeded.

Also, yesterday, riding into work, I witnessed a turkey trying to cross the intersection of Craig and Fifth. He started out on the side where Duranti’s and whatnot are and crossed with traffic for a bit (Fifth Avenue traffic had the green light), but then the light changed and he was basically in the middle of the intersection and looked mighty perplexed. I rode past him and sort of winced as everyone in their cars kind of tooted their horns lightly and kindheartedly, because no one hates a turkey, and wished that he would get back on the sidewalk and wait for the walk signal.

I did not stick around to see how this story would end.

I guess tomorrow (Tuesday) evening, I’m going to be on Chris Potter and Abie’s show on WRCT, between 6 and 7, talking about digital media, blogs and message boards and Indymedia and stuff. If you’re near your computer, maybe stream that shit? I bet I’ll sound stupid. That’ll make it worthwhile.

Hi!

Here are things that are currently making me happy:

- The weather is beautiful here in the PGH. A little chill on, but the sun is out, and it’s not too cold to ride your bike, so there are no complaints to be registered.

- I watched a couple good movies this weekend: The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb, a beautifully creepy stop-action Bolex Brothers joint that comes highly reccommended, and Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst, which, despite a little overkill now and then, was really interesting, and which I enjoyed.

- Emperor X and Franklin Delano — the show, and the folks, and the records. I didn’t properly debrief in this forum after the show, but basically all there is to say is that the people who turned out and stayed for the whole show (thank goodness it was more people than either band’s last time here) were blown away by both. Chad is probably my favorite performer to see play right now, period. Probably. He writes beautiful songs and they’re a part of him and he’s a part of them and his voice and his energy are beautiful. His new 7″ is fantastic and you should get it if you don’t have it already.

- Chilling with good buds all weekend. Sometimes I do the thing where I just presume that everyone else is busy and I shouldn’t try to hang out with anyone, but I managed to not really do that this weekend (so far) and while I haven’t gotten my room cleaned yet this weekend, I also haven’t spent too much time sitting around feeling shitty.

- CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood. For whatever reason, this show really appeals to me - the reporters, a lot of the things they cover, the animals they show for a couple minutes at the end of each show. It’s pleaseing when I manage to catch it, as I have two weeks in a row.

Seeya!

I have a letter to the editor (second one down) in the Post-Gazette today (Saturday) about the godforsaken intersection of Baum and Millvale. I find it nearly impossible to keep letters to the editor to 250 words, so they ended up cutting my Bob O’Connor rant (”It, uh, just seems like you’re going off on a tangent,” explains Alice Rowley). But whatever. At least the thing ran. For a while there I was starting to think I had gotten on their bad side and that they wouldn’t run anything from me ever again.

Meaning at 5:00 pm on April 6, tune in to WPTS to hear Emperor X live on Keith’s show. Thanks.

I’ve said it several times now, but it’s worth hammering home. If you’re in Pittsburgh, there’s only one place to be:

Franklin Delano
Emperor X
Aydin
.isha&zetta.

ModernFormations, doors at 7, music PROMPTLY at 7:30. $7 (I have two touring bands to pay here, and one is from Italy. You can handle it.)

So, tiny lady wrote the other day about her growing admiration for Anti-Flag, in the grand scheme of things. In Pittsburgh, you have to have an opinion about Anti-Flag, and most people have the same one, but mine is maybe a little different, so here goes:

Yes, their music is pretty boring, stock, and completely filled with recycling and rehashing. Yes, “Die for the Government” was a Varukers song first. Yes, “Their system doesn’t work for you” was predated by Aus-Rotten’s “The system works for them.” Etc. etc., we could go on ad nauseum. I don’t find them to be appealing artistically in the least.

HOWEVER, those dudes are pretty damn stand-up. They’ve given money to lots of organizations doing really good things in Pittsburgh and outside of the area. They’re not making off with all the profits and moving to upscale neighborhoods and forgetting about their ideals. And honestly, I’m pretty much certain that they have the absolute best of intentions. We all have different ways of attacking the same problems, and I often think that the tactics you use to approach the problems of the world are as important to you yourself as they are to the rest of the world. A lot of different approaches to “social justice” or whatever have a certain amount of effectiveness; finding the one that does the best job of affecting the world around you AND you yourself in a positive way is the real task, I think. So, respect to them, even though I can’t sit through one of their songs anymore.

Which reminds me — like Jessica said, this is the kind of political think that appeals to kids who are 14, 15 years old. It did when I was that age, and by the time I was 18 I was diving into activism pretty hard. While that’s the exception to the rule with most fans of bands like Anti-Flag — fans who, I can say from experience, having tabled at their shows, have a tendency to be comeplete dickhead high schoolers — it’s a really awesome exception to have, and I figure, if it worked to an extent for me, who am I to criticize?

(You can argue, based on other aspects of my life history, that I was ripe for becoming a lefty yawhoo activist type anyway, Anti-Flag or none, and that may or may not be the case, but I’ll give credit where it’s due, just like I do for Punk Planet and the like, and say that listening to stuff like Anti-Flag was definitely an important part of my development, ideologically. Take from that what you will.)

I have things that I’ve been pondering and/or started to write, but I’m just too busy and disorganized and overwhelmed right now to make that a priority. More later. In the meantime, read the people who are linked to in the sidebar.

Today was the day, or at least this weekend was the weekend. I think between Friday night and tonight I saw everyone I know in Pittsburgh at least once. Our show Friday night was wonderful — Lovely Ladies were very good; I love seeing Dan and Joseph both doing good things, and even more so seeing them doing them together. Natura Nasa (minus Pete) were beautiful. I missed The Drift because Keith and I scattered to get to MoFo to see Lovers. Cubby did not disappoint, and while I was sad to have missed The Drift, I was glad to have seen nearly all of her set. She sang “Winter Takes a Lover” as an encore, which I noted once before in these pages as having made me cry whilst walking to work.

In other news, today, sitting outside 61C Cafe, I observed an old, old, decrepit man place a brand new-looking child’s toy of some sort — sort of a plastic chain with some funny characters hanging on it — on top of a fire hydrant and shuffle away. Then, less than five minutes later, an old woman, straddling the border between Grandma and Bag Lady, stopped, looked it up and down, glanced around, picked it up and kept going. I presume it was something completely random, but part of me felt like maybe, just maybe, this was some Amelie type shit, and there was a romantic note of some sort on one of those character heads.

PS — I think I’m gonna go see Slim Cessna’s Auto Club at Quiet Storm tomorrow night. I’ve not seen them before, but I’ve heard good things. And I guess Slim lives here and works at the Mattress Factory now? Maybe?