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Ah, what a glorious time of year it is. And what glorious people about us. And what big teeth they have, grandmother. The better to floss with you, my dear...
Saturday, November 06, 2004
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| A Vernon sighting!:: Joe | | 6:25 PM |
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It's late.
At least late to be first waking up.
So it goes.
(Here's hoping Vonnegut doesn't start suing me...)
Finished a draft version of the album and now in the process of trying to figure out track order, spacing, crossfades and all sorts of related nonsense. Still have some rerecording and additional mixing that needs to be done, but not tonight. Tonight I'm thinking that I'm of going to see "Alfie" and overpaying for suspect popcorn and a Coke. Why? Because this is America and I'm free to eat horribly unhealthy movie theater crap when I darn well please. You think they can do that in Canada or Indonesia? That's why I live in the good ol' U.S. of A. Coronaries all around. Eat drink and be merry for eating, drinking and merriment will surely kill us sooner.
Anyway, not sure what else is up this weekend. Perhaps I shall harass poor Rex or Young Squire Josh, or even the unsuspecting Christophe der Soul Stealer. Perhaps I shall take pottery. It's a bit of toss up because while those folks are cool, I could always use a clumsily assembled mug or ashtray. Oh well.
I promised some impromptu fiction, but instead I'll include a brief, never-before-seen by the general populace snippet from "All Things Right and Beautiful," prepare your bladder for immediate release!
Vernon was checking out various local landmarks and museums. He really wasn't all that interested in visiting museums and landmarks, but that's what his family had always done for vacations. Vernon remembered as a boy going to a natural history museum with his father. His father was just standing there, staring at a wooly mammoth puffing on a Lucky Strike. Vernon stood next to him holding steadfastly to his blue helium balloon staring at the mammoth.
Vernon's father sighed and flicked the ash from the end of his cigarette. "You see son, that's called a mammoth. It's sorta like a big elephant mixed with a camel far as I can tell. They're all dead now. Probably just as well. If there were still mammoths around then zoos would just get them instead of elephants and camels.
"That's all fine and dandy until you figure there;d just be a bunch of elephants and camels wandering around with nowhere to go. And pretty soon they'd find a way to put cows and horses out of work by doing their work for a fraction of the cost. That would just create hostility and tension and then there'd be some sort of war and they'd all be dead and the mammoths would be left with some survivor's guilt complex. I really can't see a brighter tomorrow with a bunch of melancholy mammoths meandering and mulling around. Doesn't much matter, though. I'm sure your mother will tell you something different about the whole stinkin' mess anyway."
Vernon's father took a long drag off the cigarette and let out another sigh as he mumbled "Goddamn mammoths."
-Joe
Friday, November 05, 2004
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| Some are more equal than others...:: Joe | | 7:40 AM |
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Well, I thought the whole election thing would be over by now, but instead I seem to be confronted with either those who are of the smug "goodness overcame evil" camp or the hand-wringing "Apocalypse Now" camp. This better not last another four years like it did last time, cuz I'm freaking sick of it. Repeat after me, everyone: "Donkeys live a long time."
Or, similarly, "God gave us tails to keep the flies off, but I would sooner have no tail and no flies..." to paraphrase the keenly adept Eric Blair. For those of you puzzled you need to go here and look up the word "metaphor."
Anyway, I think I'm happy to say that lilies of the field is nearly complete. After doing my ultra rough semi-crappy (unless you ask Rex Havoc, in which case it's ah-ight, and God bless him for it...) demo drafty version of "Trying" I threw together a track which had been in the works for a while which I've tentatively titled "Wretched." I think that "Wretched" will be the final track for the album (from what I'm thinking right now) and rerecording and compiling/final mixing work should begin shortly. Jan 1 '05 is still what I'm aiming at, but you never know, Dec 1 is a possibility (yes, yes, try and contain your overflowing excitement...)
Anyway, depending on how Dust's life/work schedule pans out this weekend you just might see and update to the Features and Fiction pages this weekend. So what does this weekend hold for ol' Joe? Tough to say at this point, but perhaps I shall be able to harass Rex and young squire Josh to accompanying me for some name taking and ass kicking. Here's hoping.
I'd do some impromptu fiction, but I'm tired and Virgil is crying like a little girl. Later. Scout's honor.
-Joe
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
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| A very special message from the Ad council and this website::: Joe | | 6:49 PM |
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Report: Optimism may help you live longer
Maybe, but cynicism keeps you from being attacked and disemboweled by a herd of angry beavers.
Cynicism: you might not be happy, but you won't be embarrassed...
This Public Service Announcement was brought to you by Joe-Mammy.com where Happy Monkey Diaper Men are safe from marauding herds of vicious beavers.
-Joe
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| For spacious skies and amber waves of pain.:: Joe | | 6:23 AM |
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Well, I think I kick some ass. Despite being kinda sick pretty much all night, I've finally got a rough demo version (read: sounds like crap except for a few highpoints) of "Trying" done. Even at this stage I know there are going to be some significant reworkings of the vocals, and who knows what else, but the framework is there and it's just a matter of tweaking it. So the question is: is lilies of the field complete? Is the album that you lovely little Phase and P1 fans have been waiting for eagerly for five freaking years finally ready to be played with, massaged and assembled. The answer, I'm proud to say, is a definite "maybe."
Trust me, even if this is the final track, "Second First" needs a pretty substantial reworking as do a few other of the songs (mainly cuz they have questionable vocals at points) In either case, looks like my Jan 1, '05 prediction is going to be pretty close to the money. More details as they become available.
It's officially election day. You might be asking yourself "Gee, I wonder what Joe is going to do? What guidance can he give me for the election process? Who is he going to vote for? Who is he going to choose?"
Well, friends, I'm pleased to announce that I took the challenge, and I chose:
Jif.
Yup, it's extra peanut buttery and with both creamy and chunky varieties available, I think it's a decision that all of America can live with.
From sea to shining sea.
-Joe
Monday, November 01, 2004
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| You're older than you've ever been and now you're even older...:: Joe | | 6:15 AM |
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If I'm going to be kind to myself, this is what I'd call an essay. If I'm being mean, it'll be a cheesy nostalgic trip down the slum side of memory lane. And, if I'm being honest, it's probably a time-worn reflection on what getting older means.
I tend to think about the past--probably too much, which is a shame because I'm doing some pretty kick ass work now that a younger Joe would've never been able to dream of. But I've always believed it's good to know where you've come from--for better or worse; it tends to give you better perspective about where you really are and where you're really going.
I remember over a decade ago being so infatuated with a whole new world that was suddenly exploding right before my eyes. People were doing things--interesting things, notable things and things that tickled my imagination. You had the whole "grunge" (what a horrible word in retrospect) thing that had (thankfully) started disposing of the bloated power-ballad hard rockin' hair bands of the day. There were 'zines and the burgeoning world of the internet suddenly made things seem accessible. There was something out there, and even if you weren't sure what it was there was something you could do. It was a tempered, angsty kind of optimism.
I started thinking about some of the people that I thought had it made, who were going to turn the world on its ear and who were (and in many ways, still are) big influences on my work. I've found some obituaries (Cobain pops up first in most conversations, but Gene Eugene was a bigger loss for me. If you wonder why, try and find the song "Dig" by his band Adam Again...) Indie 'zines have disappeared or been assimilated into monolithic internet marketing agencies. The internet became too much of a good thing and collapsed under its own weight turning into mass marketing for penis enlargement, Vicodin, pornography and generally sophomoric crap pumped out by early twenty-something hipsters.
What's the most sobering for me are the ones that have gone from brilliant, to mediocre to just plain gone. Mike Roe and Mike Knott are two musicians whose music I still love (early stuff, mainly) and who are still technically around, but have just kind of stopped being important. Now I'm not knocking either of those guys (honestly I haven't heard either of their new albums which are supposed to be very good according to some reports...) but as the 90's went on, it just seemed like they were content to stop being vital and innovative. They'd flirted with fame and had gotten enough of a taste to know that being good at what you do is often the kiss of death for marketing and sales, and so they changed approaches. At least that's what it seemed like.
And then I remember the dinosaurs. The guys who back in, say, '95 were still wearing t-shirts that proudly proclaimed that Slaughter was the greatest band ever and that they just wish that this grunge shit would go away so real rock could come back. They had been left behind but still believed that they were on the cutting edge and that all the kids wearing flannels and combat boots with strange piercings were just some teeny bopper fad that didn't know its ass from a hole in the ground. And I realize I don't want to be the guy in the Slaughter shirt. I don't want to be extinct and fossilizing under a mountain of antiquated sediment. But I'm not going to like Nickleback, either.
I love baseball and watching the great home run chase between McGwire and Sosa was a moment that sticks with me. But three years later McGwire was gone, his record broken by an ingrate. It's probably just that I'm getting older, but the excitement in everything just seems to be bleeding away. What's more is it's not being replaced by anything. There was an energy in the early-to-mid 90's in music and culture that began falling apart as soon as bands like Bush and Matchbox 20 started getting play and now I can't turn on the radio without hearing some pop punk travesty that sounds like it should be (or has been) in some Hilary Duff movie soundtrack.
I was checking out a website by an established but still up-and-coming author. He was supposed to be blisteringly funny and insightful and the voice of a new generation. I read some of his samples and it was simply atrocious. I don't care that deeply about grammar or "naughty words" or strange themes (obviously) but this guy would make a vague claim, then swear a lot and then move on. He'd make an interesting character if he was being written because it would be clear that he was a satire, but since reality is apparently much dumber than fiction I was not privy to even that level of satisfaction.
Perhaps it's all this election nonsense, but I liked things better when the rule of the day was introspection and self-evaluation. Granted it did tend to lead to long entries of unbearably and unflinchingly angsty and vulnerable poetry from every corner of the globe, but it was a small price to pay. Now it seems like people are more interested in telling everyone else what to think and what they should consider important. It's all about painting in broad strokes and changing the world instead of trying to be a decent human being.
Now I know I'm over-generalizing and romanticizing a bit of the past. Perhaps the best way to look at it is a cultural low-point. It's all cyclical anyway, right? We're back in the Lief Garrett/New Kids on the Block cycle and soon we'll be, well, listening to metal again. Not exactly the high point I was hoping for, but it'll have to do for now, I suppose.
And it all comes full circle with me older and angrier than I was back then (but still with a full head of hair--score!) but just doing my thing. The thing about it is, spots of time that are "exciting" or "progressive" usually don't have much to do with what's come immediately before but what people have been doing all along but no one's really noticed.
Maybe that's what getting older is about--keeping that little flicker of what enticed you in your formidable days going while you do what you have to do to cover bills, pay the mortgage, or whatever. Just letting it sit and burn for a while, taking your opportunities as they come (because by now you've learned that every day is not an opportunity, but every now and then opportunities do come along...) and slowly carving something out of it.
Or maybe everything just sucks right now and we need to hunt and kill the bastard(s) responsible.
Either way.
-Joe
Sunday, October 31, 2004
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| Happy Halloween humble denizens of Mammyland:: Joe | | 10:30 PM |
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Ah, kicking back on Halloween, "Lay Lady Lay" just got done playing and now "Dig My Grave" is on. Wonderfully eclectic and strangely relaxing all at once.
New Feature and update to the Fiction page should be up soon. Good stuff and worth checking out. Not much else going on here at the moment. Seems I've been leaving little terrorist comments on Kari and Josh's Blogs more than bothering to write my own. So it goes.
Not sure what the next couple of days are going to have in store. I suspect that "Trying" will be closer to be finished by that time, but I'm not feeling a deep driving desire to spend 8-10 hours a day on it at this point (which doesn't mean anything for the long haul, honestly, or even the rest of tonight...) but so far it's sound pretty decent. I'll get it done and then see if/where it fits and then take a listen to see if the album's done or if I need more. That's probably the best way to say when "lilies of the field" is actually going to be done. It's not done yet, I know that much, but I really don't want to say how many more tracks are needed.
On another note, twas Bea's birthday a few days ago, so belated Joe Mammy birthday wishes go out to the most charming and girliest of devil pups.
I've been chatting on and off with Ray and Brian at the Birdhouse and looks like I've conned Ray into doing a post-season encore interview for the Features to bookend the one he did at the beginning of the season. Still working on lining up some other ones, but I'll let you know more right before I post them, just cuz I like to be mysterious and stuff.
Anyway, since there's no real goings on, feel free to lob arrows at your fellow man...
-Joe
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