kung

You've got to see Stop Making Sense just for the bonus interview with Byrne's interviewing himself. Basically he's in and out of different costumes interviewing himself. It gives alot of insight into his genius and what's going on below the surface in Demme's movie.

That is precisely why I'm going to see the Slip in MTL next month - 'contact danse'.

Much apologies to everyone, I just needed a little uh inspiration. Plus my master opus 'Ween, Shit, Piss - fecality and fecundity in the music of Ween' is taking up all of my time lately. Anyways here it is, as usual a work in progress.

NorthernHeads

I definitely actively participate in what I would call hippy baiting. I also don't think of myself as a journalist or a professional which is part of the problem. It's not like I have a degree in journalism or put letters after my name. I've read some books and seen some bands. I really try to bring as much to bear on the music as I can. The music deserves that. Storytelling is lying, claims to knowledge are claims to power. More of a hack comedy writer anyways. I'm truly fascinated by how little probing writing is done about the music and culture we listen to. If you think about it even the best reviews you read are almost always faithful representations of exactly what went down moment to moment.

First off I agree with Tool Of The Week, that's about how I feel. But I truly thought of this forum as a semi-private community of listeners somewhat familiar with one another, certainly not a wider gateway to say the States. Maybe that's naive but this often feels like a gated community. Plus there's supposed to be at least some modicum of privacy even though everyone (apparently) knows one another. The decision to pull the passes, whatever, sure it's a prudent decision but as a result of what, playing cyber sleuth and poring over threads of message board discussions. Sorry but that seems rather inane for a major American band or publicist. Besides the fact that the statements were all true, I really was wrestling with the cost of going out West despite the free tics. That seemed like an odd situation, like 'you can't pay me to go see that band'. The Slip to me was worth the money for the trip and the Cheese was a bonus. The Slip seems to me more relevant, compelling, more legitimately musical, more intelligent, more refined, more likely to produce lasting records of consequence etc.

Everybody is hung up on the fact that because I make some low brow comments in advance of a performance I can't then be objective. For the record I expected to be blown away by the Cheese, by their effortless mastery in playing but not by their deft songwriting ability. That's a no brainer. I vote with my feet when I'm at a show anyways. Anyone who actually knows me knows I rarely stand still when I'm at shows. So I would have been there and open to the experience, able and qualified to report on the experience. But I made a bed and I have to lie in it. When people are involved with a cult of personality it's very difficult to be the person who is willing to try and translate that into a broader sweep and tide. To bring all that you can to the performance both in terms of participation and reflection. In any case the last thing the Cheese needs is unbiased objective reporters who AREN'T taking drugs going to their shows. Either your on the bus or your off the bus. Outsiders could rightly mistake this music for masturbatory polyethnic tripe.

"In times past, knowledge of the bowel was more widespread and people were taught how to care for the bowel. Knowing the ways of keeping the bowel healthy, and in good shape, is the best way I know to keep away from the grip of disease and sickness."

-Dr. Bernard Jensen, Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management

'But to what extent does the exquisiteness of culture and images, the beauty of the external forms really shake us, deal with us? We do not know. We merely want to savor our beautiful memories. We do not want to question our experiences too closely. It is a sensitive area.'

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

a talk given in the fall of 1970

Boulder, Colorado

Controversy of the day:

Someone or multiple people contacted Madison House (SCI's mother company) alerting them to the fact that someone named Kung on this message board was saying they'd gotten free tics and was 'talking shit'. A stream of calls to Madison House wanting free tics resulted. As per a telephone conversation with their head honcho today I was informed that my press passes were being pulled as a result of 'shit I had been talking on my website'. After apologising somewhat profusely and blaming anything slanderous on Abe I realized she was talking about message board chitter chatter, supposedly anonymous insular Canadian hayseed chatter. The conversation took a turn their as I had never actually been called by anyone in the 'real world' over shit spoken on this board. Further evidence that baiting hippies does not pay. Anyways I asked the question isn't it akin to pulling a theatre critics tickets because they are known to give particularly harsh reviews (as happened quite recently between CanStage and the CBC's theatre critic). She insisted that this was not the case explicitly and rather that I had, I don't know, broken my journalistic oath by behaving like a child or something to that effect. It seems largely to come down to the fact that she had a bunch of extra work, 'filtering', to do as a result of people trying to sop up comps. Or that it seemed like I wasn't actually intending to cover the events journalistically. But there's the curious fact that our conversation began with 'because of shit you've been writing on 'YOUR' website', not THEIR website or A website. It's probably all of the above.

Don't get me wrong I feel like a first class chump in hindsight but knowing who I am I know I never could have avoided this turn of events. Knowing also that I have the strength of my convictions (sometimes) I would prefer not to experience a band that needs to bother with idle message board chitter chatter pro or con. I explained something to this effect which I think was largely lost on her by this point. Something along the lines of 'it's curious how these family organizations with all of their apparent open mindedness feel the need to edit or censor a full dialogue'. I went on to say that my feeling was that these bands should be judged by their own merit in terms of music in general not handicapped as some sort of jamband genre, and that my own experience was that for all of the brighter blissful aspects of our culture their are just as many sombre, dark even morose elements. I'm sure we've all seen and experienced enough of that. Of course this was all by this point entirely extraneous to the matter at hand and she had long since tuned out. I apologized again and that was that.

I am major pissed that I'm going to miss The Slip though. Oh and shit I won't hear How Mountain Girls Can Love. A job well done gives me satisfaction.

see Americans Really Do Read This Page

Now I'm dancing around like a panser singing: 'way down in the south of France all the ladies love to dance'. It's hard to fathom that Lowell George produced that album.

What chump cashed in their Slip and Pork Tornado discs?

I'm in for all of the above. Calgary Cheese, Vancouver Cheese, THE SLIP, New Deal plus Nero on Friday. Fucking Jurassic 5 is playing that night too it's sick. Never seen the Cheese though and up until now my only impression has been that they're pictures of colonic health. Don't know if that's going to change anytime scene, clean colons that can jam like hell.

Keep Your Day Job!

And I can't believe anybody put Greatest Story and Looks Like Rain on their fucking lists! More like some of the best Dead tunes. Provided your down with a little Bobby.

I guess none of the Cheese shows are selling too well. I hope the tickets are snatched up last minute. I feel shitty for Upstream.

Been totally debating making the trek west for Calgary and Vancouver Cheese. The Slip and New Deal make the decision easier but still dicey. Anyways hooked up free tics, press passes and after show and I'm still not for sure. It's just that they don't really mean anything to me.

It's an Eminence Front

It's a put on

Gents,

I'm pretty sure Pete and Tasha are away this weekend but you're more than willing to stay at my place. My kid bro is up but that still leaves a spare bedroom, futon, couches etc. Just give me a buzz at home (519) 780-0546 and we'll work it out. Or if any random snivelling hippies want to call and berate me that's cool too.

The Slip - Angels Come On Time

The Slip - Live Is My Jumby

neither have left the drive in weeks

Umphrey's McGee - Local Band Does OK

Blind Willie McTell - compilation

Hall & Oates - Greatest Hits

fuck that noise

Yeah he doesn't sing because of the cancer. This is really what he wants to do right now, not any of The Band stuff- at all. The repertoire is a throw back to the stuff he grew up on - songs like Short Fat Fanny. It's great that he works with his daughter, I think that's the benefit for him. There's a bit of griping amongst the Woodstock musicians (Crowmatix etc.) that the Burners aren't that shit hot a band but it's more roots feel music then anything.

The album Local Band Does OK is definitely worth buying. So many great songs, infinitely more developed then any of our bands. Considering the midwest is almost like Canada it shows you how far we have to go. Blue Echo is my favourite song of theirs thus far.

I couldn't get quicktime to play and was petrified you were all talking about me!

I have both of JBT's albums, the first is more of an EP and the sedond a somewhat major debut disc. Both albums have a kind of busker quality to the playing and songs, good busker you could say. He's something like the fourth biggest artist in Oz which for an independent is huge. I know what you mean about veering to the middle of the road, I was hesitant to see him but missed the show more because of work. He does have great socially conscious songs, Media is one that comes to mind. Maybe another called Pickapart? One song can't remember the title deals with domestic abuse. Betterman is by far the best song of the bunch, and it does justice to his voice: "A betterman I am says I comin' through on back to you, cause you have taught me so many things about myself and you know this is true."

On another note Upstream rocks that is for damn sure.

I think it was a Shakedown lot party at the Ball and actually I think Shakedown was playing come to think of it. I'm all gooned, there's a tank set up under the tent, dancing my ass off. Then I see racoon eyed Mike and am kind of stunned cause he's just standing there checking shit out. So I run up to him and I totally want to talk to him about Wagner and Nietzche and the like, then I get right up next to him and I'm looking at him and I think this isn't him this is somebody that looks just like him (driving around on a golf cart?). So I just walk away and go back to dancing and he gets a good laugh in.

Scores of others but the alltime life highlight is meeting Bob Dylan's idol Ronnie Hawkins about a month back at the Garth show. Got a pick with him spat a few Ronnieisms at him, 'happier than a dead hog in the hot Georgia sun'.