t0ybreaker

Merry Christmas from Connecticut.

About to watch the original Producers. :)
More in a bit.

posted by toybreaker @ 9:03 PM 0 comments

Untitled

UNTITLED FOR THE HOLIDAYS

MONDAY DECEMBER 26, 2005
our annual holiday gathering
celebrating music + drinks + bad behavior

untitled residents: MIKE SERVITO, RYAN ELLIOTT

introducing, untitled residents: ERIC CLOUTIER, GREG MUDGE, SCOTT BRANDON, SETH TROXLER

featuring: LEE CURTISS :[live]

Alvin's | 5756 cass ave. | detroit, mi. | 18+ |9p | $5

BLACKBX | GHOSTLY

posted by toybreaker @ 10:16 PM 3 comments

2005 music review

My "best of" music picks of this year aren't necessarily going to be centered around 2005 - since this was really my first year playing records publicly since my days at WTBU in Boston, I had a lot of catching up to do in the music acquisition department. So this will be the "Best of 2005 and a Few of What I Got Around to Finally Finding and Purchasing in 2005" list. I never do anything on time, why should music selections be any different? That being said, there were certainly some stellar standouts that happened to come out in the last twelve months, both singles and entire albums. (No numbered lists either. Math bad.)

Singles first. This is also the year of Holy Crap I Spent a Lot of Money on Music. Since the beloved other half has well taken care of the moodier power ballad department, I'll try to only go there occasionally and instead subject you to the list of Booty Shakin' Techno (um, ok...not really, but thanks Trent. ;)

In no particular order (of course):

LCD Soundsystem - "Tribulations" - DFA The video from this is also amazing. This is probably the most electro track on the album, and probably why it is my favorite. Seeing this live was one of my favorite concert moments ever.

Ladyron - "International Dateline" - Island. I've yet to hear the entire album but i know this is a fabulous release by just the few I have previewed..it just squeaked in for the end of 2005. So very, VERY dark. Woke up in the evening, to the sound of screaming Through the walls it was bleeding... all over me...Let's end it here... Dark, dark DARK! I think electroclash is ok again because it is darker. Yes. OMG BATS! Yay for dark powercheesegoth love/mope ballads. "Destroy Everything You Touch" is pretty incredible too.

Vitalic - "You are my High" - Different Recordings (The whole album should get a 'best of' also, but I think I have opinions on too many single tracks to bother with writing that list.) My Friend Dario also kicks major ass. I think this will be the year Detroit finally realizes how awesome Vitalic is.

Martin Peter - "Bad Day With JJ" - Compost Black Label #2 - CompostSo. Freaking. Good. Horrible things...inside me...horrible. Somewhere between NeoGoth/Dark Electro and I don't know what.

Zombie Nation - "Souls at Zero" - Dekathalon. 2003, but so what. Absorber, the full album, is also without a doubt a full favorite.

Also from the 2003 department, GDX - "Pain" - Interdimensional Transmissions. Probably one of the darkest and most evil releases ever, and very overplayed by yours truly. Always pantomimed by Mr.Burnlab and I. This 7" also has a version of the Sister's of Mercy "Corrosion" on it that is about the most faithful cover ever made. Always such a great idea at 2am...

And from the Zombie Nation camp again, John Starlight - "John's Addiction"- Television. A superlative electro standout. If you can't moodily dance to this one there's something wrong with your ass.

Alter Ego - "Rocker (Earl Shilton Remix)" - Klang From Rocker: The Final Chapter the argument still rages whether this metal version should be played at 33 or 45. I like things that both rock and confuse me.

T.Raumschmiere - "Sick Like Me (Motor Remix Tokyo)" - NovaMute. Opening for Mr. Raumschmiere ruled, and I made sure to remove all his records from my crate so as not to commit the Ultimate Faux Pas. In the age of on-demand music, this is why I do not use a laptop. Besides, I have someone else for those honors! ;)

Anthony Rother - "Father" - Subliminal. Most overplayed track this side of DethLab. I'll propose a New Year's resolution to not play it anymore, but that'll last about two hours and two drinks into a set.

Back to 2004 - Two Lone Swordsmen - "Sex Beat (Remix)" - Warp. Mr. Doyle played the original version right after. Far too much fun.

M83 - "Teen Angst" - EMI
A DethLab favorite, especially considering we dropped it twice in one set...actually, in the same 10 minutes. I was early..er...on time (for once), so it was an honest mistake.

Oh! speaking of the unfortunately much maligned Bravery...(bad segue...really, I didn't plan that...really.)
The Bravery - "Honest Mistake" - Island. Yeah call me a soulless pop-obsessed twit, I still like them. I don't care how MTV they are or their spat with the Killers, I like that damned track!

Also from the maligned department: Nine Inch Nails -"Right Where it Belongs" - Nothing. I don't think this has been released as a proper single yet, but I like the song, not exactly a dancefloor hit, but so what. The occasional "lay back and be goth" hits are just fine with me. This track literally made me stop what I was doing and lean back and listen, and I know it also incited some mutual 2am iTunes emailing (and the requisite lay back and sigh. Or something. Heh heh.) The DFA "Hand that Feeds" 12" remix is quite good too, but the remainder of the album is pretty crap.

And just flat out awesome to dance to:
Tiefschwarz - Wait & See (Alter Ego Rmx) - Four .
VHS or Beta - "Night On Fire (Cut Copy Remix)" - Kitsuné Music .
Le Tigre - "After Dark (NDB Vocal Disco Mix)" - Chicks on Speed Records
Lindstrøm - "I Feel Space" - Playhouse

(This list subject to editing and revising as the mood strikes.)

2005 rocked beyond belief, but not just in the chapter of music - but any review other than a music review would be decidedly not PG-13, and we wouldn't want that, now would we? Heh. Heh. Rhetorical question, thank you...

And as for this whole holiday apart thing...NOT OK!

posted by toybreaker @ 2:45 AM 3 comments

NYE and Dorkwave

Dorkwave New Year's Eve Gala. This will be the party of the century not to miss - up on the 25th floor of the Ponchartrain. We will be escaping the frozen wilderness of MI for the West coast NYE, but still expect phone calls from all of you overlooking Detroit!

posted by toybreaker @ 11:26 PM 0 comments

meow.

Happy holidays from Einstein! (And the new Charlie Brown tree.)

Back in Connecticut with the family..loooong traveling day. More tomorrow when my wits are slightly more about me. You know you are back in New England when you follow countless Volvo wagons with Christmas trees lashed to the roof. Wonderfully quaint, yet I miss "home." A lot.

posted by toybreaker @ 10:35 PM 0 comments

film

A nice warm sunny image of Detroit.That's what it looks like outside...right? RIGHT!

I've posted about this a few times before, but it is what is left of the old Piquette Market that burned down earlier in the year. These probably have a different feel than most of my work, I used film that had expired six years ago, and REAL film with a REAL lens....how fun! Gasp! I wish I could use my more, but unfortunately the instant NOW NOW NOW culture as it pertains to photography typically prohibits that. The price has come down quite considerably for putting images directly to disk, so if I have five seconds breathing room on a project and a small budget, I'll probably be using the old equipment more, there really is a quality difference.

posted by toybreaker @ 2:03 PM 1 comments

Old work

Sprouts. Steel and glass. 1997.

In a fit of nostalgia inspired by looking at the older work of Mr. Burnlab last week, I've started to scan a bunch of my old pre-Cranbrook portfolio. (His work is effing AMAZING, btw.) Unfortunately I can't find many of the slides I've been looking for, I'm sure they're somewhere...always that elusive somewhere. ;)

The slides are pretty much the only record I have of this work (there is *much* more I'll be documenting soon), I left Boston in not exactly the best headspace, six and a half years ago, and made few proper arrangements for the storage of my work. I left the majority of it at a small gallery that I have no idea if it still even exists, left some in the care of friends who have since moved and I've lost touch with (I had promised to be back in two years...) and gave quite a bit away in a flurry of procrastination and inability to face the reality that I was really packing up and leaving. I've come to terms with the fact that I'll probably never see any of it again, but one trade still irritates me that I never received my part of. Ah well, I shall be Zen about it and let it go, do I really need any more things on top of things on top of things?



Untitled. Steel and hog intestine. 1997.

Looking through all of it is a very bittersweet experience, I was a little more naive and a little less jaded then, making more of what I liked out of emotion rather than being foremost concerned whether it was derivitive of this or that, or adhering to or renouncing some -ism.

I think I need to make some real work again and stop thinking so much!

posted by toybreaker @ 12:15 PM 3 comments

salt and fat group.

BACON. Atomly would be so proud!

posted by toybreaker @ 5:55 PM 0 comments

Kompakt Painting

KOMPAKT PAINTING CO.
Interior/exterior
faux finishes.

OK. Who did this? Fess up, for it is abut the funniest thing I have seen in a while (aside from Blixa's Hornbach commercials). This is a real business card I picked up today in Frentz's Hardware, it's not even a crap inkjet one-off, which the spit test has proved. I've blacked-out the phone number to protect whoever may be guilty or innocent. Granted, this would be funny were it just floating around the internets, but I have a real card! I want to see the coveralls - are there little matching dots on them too? I bet they don't listen to WRIF while at work. Classy.

What's next, Wax Trax Industrial Finishes? The M_Nus Minimal Interiors and Tea House?

This is such a beautiful trope on the post-everything generation - fifteen years ago we had bad rave compilations ripping off the Clorox logo (and every other corporate identity to be bastardized for flyers) now we have obscure minimal German techno labels infiltrating the home improvement industry. Hey, if Blixa can do it over there, why can't we have the Kompakt aesthetic here?

Just wait for Dorkwave Landscaping, where they create icons of post-punk music history in topiary, spraypaint your drywall, makeout in your mom's bed, puke on your stereo and ravage the liquor cabinet. Personally, I'd hire 'em in a second.

Awesome awesome awesome.

_{Please tell me if I'm the last one to have heard this, as it is often the case.}

posted by toybreaker @ 4:17 PM 3 comments

I hereby postpone Christmas.

I was anticipating getting about ten presents done today, and I'm maybe one third done with one (though that one is going to be super-ultra-mega-awesome-one-of-a-kind and NEVER EVER for sale as herding one thousand rabid kittins I'm sure would be much easier.) This whole leaving early thursday morning thing to go home and the seemingly endless obligations between now and then is a bit daunting to the whole prospect of tangible xmas cheer. Hrumph.

I need elves.

Btw, that new Ladyron track is singlehandedly going to make "electroclash" ok again. I'm going to play it twelve times tomorrow.

posted by toybreaker @ 8:48 PM 3 comments

Oh Lardy!

Reason #23784676238 of why I love working at Cranbrook. Lard. It seems meat byproducts are all the rage these days, and this month there is an installation of lard in the archways right outside of my office. Seriously folks, this is one hell of a tub of lard. I'm getting this very sick pleasure of hearing visitors (and noting the demographic) who touchy touchy the art and end up getting a handfull of nice cold lard. Mmmmmmm!

The student, Jen Mills, is in the Ceramics Department.



Tonight, despite the eleventy-billion inches of snow, is our annual holiday party. We'll be dining on soup and sipping sherry under the gently falling snow. Quaintness. (And lard.) That is, if anyone shows up because it seems that this and all the surrounding towns are completely shut down due to aforementioned falling flakes.

posted by toybreaker @ 2:46 PM 3 comments

Black is back...

from LISTD
"2nd Biennial PAS/CAL Christmastime Special

If you're in the mood for an evil time PAS/CAL knows just the trick. In an effort to seperate themselves from the Dorkwave Dance party set, PAS/CAL gets sinister for the holidays, bringing out the black angel in you and all your friends. Don't expect the typical dance party classics, because its all about keeping things dark and darker. Dethlab will be along for the ride to verify that black is back. Johnny Headband also performs to add a little shock to the rock."

posted by toybreaker @ 2:11 PM 0 comments

PAS/CAL, DethLab, Johnny Headband

In celebration of their upcoming Christmastime special, PAS/CAL is taking up residence on the cover of Real Detroitthis week.



Despite what music critics would have you believe, Casimer Pascal does not like the summer season. “We had a single out in the spring called ‘Summer’s Almost Here’ and that was supposed to be like my anti-summer anthem,” Casimer says. ”I hate summer. So, being called a ‘summery pop band’ is like the worst thing ever. I love layers; I love lots of clothes; I love hiding my body … The whole song is about the dread of summer coming on, and then I read reviews and they’re like, ‘Ah, summery pop fun band writes a summer hit for the summer summer summer summer summer.’ I’m just like, ‘Uh, you fucking idiot!

Ahhh Winter! We love the biting chill in the air. (Only because it makes for better curling up under the covers.) Come see DethLab with shennanigans abound, and these two other most excellent acts at the Lager House this Saturday night.

Also, Jenna sure knows how to party. How Scene!

posted by toybreaker @ 3:29 PM 3 comments

ShangriLa

Interesting read today (as always) on Detroitblog about the new ShangriLa gallery and the graffiti show they had over this past weekend. As much as I support the all arts, including graffiti art, I'm a little unamused over what transpired at the opening. For those of you who do not know, ShangriLa is on the second floor of my building. I do not appreciate how the participants of this show took it upon themselves ot explore the rest of the building and tag the crap out of the stairwell and the property of surrounding businesses. This is my, and others' home, not part of the gallery which they were approved to paint.

Do not shit where you eat/sleep.

It would make sense that if the gallery "owners" (renters) had more than two braincells to rub together, they would keep their artists under contol if they had any hope of keeping the space for their intended purpose. I would love to see a functioning gallery in my building. I definitely will not complain, because it does not personally offend me, but I know for a certain fact that other residents will complain to those in charge. The address and exactly what was going down there are not only all over the internet, but featured prominently in last week's Real Detroit, so there is no way of getting out of it. It just angers me that their seeming lack of care for others in the building probably killed what could have been an interesting addition to the space. We all have parties and that is well and good (and sometimes annoying to others), but those businesses are going to be PISSED and now they know exactly who to blame.

posted by toybreaker @ 2:36 PM 3 comments

I have a hair appointment for Wednesday night. This scares the holy hell out of someone who is typically DIY...but somehow, I'm excited.

Also, Michael brought me the most awesome jacket back from California, such beautiful fabric. Life is good.

_{Be forewarned, this is lj-esque Meaningless Drivel Post Day.}

posted by toybreaker @ 1:25 PM 5 comments

Tract

oh, and God Hates the Scene.

thanks, mkbscratch

posted by toybreaker @ 12:44 PM 1 comments

art.

There is a student in the sculpture department who has changed his identity to a squirrel.

He has been wearing a full squirrel costume for three weeks now and forages for food from his fellow students and hordes acorns.

There was just a fight in the snow with a painting student who has a bear costume.

Somewhere on campus there is a construction paper beartrap tied together with pink yarn.

I SO love my job to no end.

posted by toybreaker @ 10:32 AM 3 comments

Sassy Saturday

SASS, Saturday night at Oslo (and well into Sunday morning) was an amazing time. It started off with copious amounts of marlin sashimi and chats with Kaku about exotic foods and what Americans won't eat, but us crazies will anyway. (He was quite impressed with our cranial eating habits. ;) People braved the dusting of snow to come out and dance their asses off, it was exactly what was needed on a cold December weekend. Mike and Nathan are some of the area's best dj's in my opinion, Nathan rocked a lot of new electro and Mr. Servito mixed in a ton of old GHEY favorites. We also celebrated Ritch's birthday, he is the newest initiate into the 30 club. Damn we're all getting old! Also, it was a fun welcome back to Mr. Doyle who was off being warm (and working) in LA LA land.







Full set here.

We finally have water and power back at Toybreaker HQ, that was annoying! A broken water main a few blocks away cut the power at about 10:30 last night for about 6 hours...at this point i realized that cats do indeed have a purpose, WARMTH! ;) The water pressure is supposed to be back to normal in a few hours.

posted by toybreaker @ 5:11 PM 3 comments

Meat Market 1

"It felt like my stomach was in my throat.''

Elizabethan Collar

posted by toybreaker @ 8:51 PM 0 comments

i once stuck my tongue to a flagpole on a dare

All the cars outside look like giant marshmallows. The reflection from the snow is so bright that I can read with all the lights off. That purple-orange light reminds me of the same color that would pour in through the window from fresh snow when I was a kid, causing endless hours of insomnia from the excitement over the prospect of having a snow day.

Detroit is even more desolate than usual tonight - no tire tracks, no footsteps, just giant quiet white blankets. It looks so ckean for once. I used to get really really angry and cry when I was little when the mailman or the neighbors would walk across the yard disturbing the new snow; I loved the soft shapes it made. I hated the brown leaves with their little crunchy points poking through the clean snow. When I'd go out to go sledding, I'd tiptoe in existing tracks or where my Dad had already shoveled so as not to make any new tracks. Still to this day I'm inclined to do that.

posted by toybreaker @ 1:22 AM 3 comments

record shopping

I did a bit of crate diving yesterday, nothing new* was really earth shattering so I combed the used bins with quite a bit of success (and the help of Keith Kemp who kept handing me stuff I'd never heard of.) I managed to find a few things I was looking for for ages, and the aforementioned surprises.

Two favorites of the haul:

Two Lone Swordsmen - Big Silver Shining Motor Of Sin EP. Sex Beat is the hottest track ever. This is far from new, but so what.


Musicsystem/Electric has an old track by LeCar on it that I also couldn't live without.

Also picked up Felix Da Housecat - Excursions which has and amazing Dot Allision and Bolz Bolz track. Also from the same year, Tube Jerk, Shift which is some of the dirtiest, nastiest electro i've heard in quite a while. (Yes, I know it isn't 2002, but allow me to be entertained by it momentarily.)

Going back 12 years, found a 12" of Bigod 20 - The Bog. Just, well, because more cheese is always necessary.

* and as for new, Nathan was so kind a few weeks ago to set aside for me the three new Interdimensional Transmissions releases. They are all hot, and rather sinister. See a theme? ;) Perspects - Skillset: Parts, Ecomorph - Chromed Out / XXX 12", and I.B.M. - Kill BIl 12". All three are pretty damned incredible, but the Perspects 12" has to be one of my favorite records of the year - dark, brooding but impossible not to move to.

I went in with the idea of getting a few more shoegazeresque treats, but I came out with more evil electro...looks like the other half of DethLab will be playing nice. ;)

The snow is piling up fast. Looks like tonight will be dedicated to playig records and studio work, I think I'm going a whole lot of nowhere.

posted by toybreaker @ 9:01 PM 3 comments

Fisher Body 21 and the Studebaker (Indiana)

<sub>note: to those who read this via LJ subscription, please click the link directly to the toybreaker blog at the top, links and images are often garbled in the syndication process.


third floor</sub>

I only have the most positive things to say about my experience with couchsurfing.com. It is little things like that service and the people who use it that restore some semblance of faith in humanity, and really helps to counter cynicism and amplify the idea that people are generally good, interesting, and open to new things and adventure. Meeting completely random people with frighteningly similar interests and experiences (although different enough to make conversation quite stimulating) reassures you of the fact that there are infinite pages of one's own history yet to be written. Chance meetings and strange convergences of time and place really underscore how excellent things are.

It makes me a bit sad for all the people who had knee-jerk reactions like "OMGWTF they could soooooooooo kill you!!!11!!," I can't imaging living a life paranoid most new people and places. There is risk in everything, but the rewards are much greater than those gained from rotting in front of your television. (Though sitting in a warm house curled up in front of a glowing box [fireplace substitute?] sound's REALLY excellent right now. Urban exploring in the winter is more healthy from a lack of mold standpoint...but that 12-15 degrees bit is pushing it for my taste.)

Yesterday the Folks I met from couchsurfing had just come from exploring the Studebaker Plant in South Bend, Indiana. They came with some incredible shots - although the architecture looked stunningly similar to Detroit's Packard Plant, what made it appear so strikingly different from the Packard (or any Detroit building for that matter) was how intact the contents of the building were. Little or nothing was scrapped. The heavy, metal positive molds for car doors - the piece that the massive stamping machines would pummel the sheet steel onto (pardon my lack of technical terms) - were still scattered about. What looked like fields of hundreds (Thousands?) of car engines were still intact, in neat rows, fan blades eerily pointing the same direction. Paper ephemera still in boxes, everywhere. Algebraic figures on whiteboards still proclaming their pale red and green calculations.

At its peak, the South Bend Facility alone employed more than 22,000 workers and produced as many as 35,000 automobiles and trucks per month. Built in the late 1890s had many uses over the years. It first housed ne of the original Studebaker wooden wagon assembly lines. In 1922, the building was renovated for making automobiles. The company closed in 1963.

On the matter of there being no coincidences...I'm so glad that the building was well documented, just today it was announced in the Indiana Star that the former Studebaker Plant is being razed. A ceremony is planned before demolition work begins sometime in January. Nice timing.

Anyway, enough hippie chatter. On with the pictures. We had been through Fisher Body 21 last Spring with the Alice in Wonderland Absurdists, so this was my second trip to the building, but I was the only one who had ever been before...and we all know how useful my sense of direction is...heh. But we were fine and found the appopriate entrances and stairwells pretty quickly, once somewhat stealthily passing one of the building's winter residents who had quite the little campfire set up. I'm not sure what he was burning, but it didn't smell all that great, so we decided it best to head right up to the uppermost floors to escape the smoke of unknown composition that was lingering around the first and second floors.

Entire set here

This time I concentrated on the textures and architectural details a bit more than usual, as it was less about the feeling of "adventure" and need for total documentation you get from first time encountering an unexplored structure. We still discovered many new places, but the overall feel was somewhat familiar so I was able to relax intot he art of the space. Since it was already past 4pm and very overcast, natural light was at a premium and the "found tripod" method was full in effect, meaning I was almost always crouched on the floor with my ass in the air, balancing my poor little camera right on the ground or a piece of rubble.

Fifth Floor:



Sixth Floor:













A little history: "The story of Fisher Body 21 began when brothers Fred and Charles Fisher founded the Fisher Body Company in 1908. Fisher soon became the industry standard and as orders came in from Detroit's auto manufacturers, Fisher expanded. For the first two decades Fisher's production facilities would be centered in Detroit in an area east of Woodward and south of Grand Boulevard. It would be in this area that the Fisher Body 21 plant rose in 1919.

Located at the corner of Hastings and Piquette Ave, just east of Woodward, Fisher Body 21 was just one of 40 buildings used by the company. By 1926 there was 3.7 million square feet of floorspace. Fisher Body 21, measuring 200 feet by 581 feet only accounted for 536,000 square feet of this total. The six story stucture was built with reinforced concrete in a manner developed by Albert Kahn.

Fisher Body 21 was built to house a body assembly plant. Between 1919 and 1925 it produced bodies for Buick and Cadillac. After Buick moved to Flint it continued to produce Cadillac bodies until becoming an engineering facility in 1929. The building continued as an engineering facility until 1956 when it again was pressed into production. This time around production centered around Cadillac limosine bodies. It continued in this service at least until 1974. The building's last use was in the mid-1990s as Carter Color." Fisher Body history text copyright 1999 - 2005, David Kohrman - Forgotten Detroit.

posted by toybreaker @ 2:20 PM 3 comments

couchsurfing

I'm excited, tonight I have my first couchsurfer! Couchsurfing is a really cool idea which is far more hippified than i'd typically be into, but I figured I'd give it a try as you can be as selective as you want. I've provided tons of crash space over the years for seemingly hundreds of band friends and random folks from thee internets, so having an organized site for this is a very interesting idea to me - I'm sure it's also a great way to get killed, but hell, I'm adventuresome! I spoke to the 'surfers at length and i'm pretty convinced these two are just on a great excursion across the country and not out to kill and maim me, and I have quite the "Bat-Sense" about that and besides, I love playing Detroit tour guide.

So these folks Sharon and Brian are coming by later, and I may accompany them on a little AHEM photographic tour of some of Detroit's finest while there is still some light - they're both thirtysomething photgraphers and he's a dj, and they are urban exploring their way from Florida to Seattle, and keeping extensive photo and writing jourals about their travels. They just got done documenting the Studebaker plant in Indiana this weekend and I can't wait to see their pictures. They're taking a trip I'd love to have the balls to take two months off from work to do, so I'm in to help some like-minded individuals!

Then it's back to the studio for me, I'm on quite a productive roll.

Anyone who may want in on potential photographic activity...let me know...

posted by toybreaker @ 11:52 AM 3 comments

words about music

Over the past few weeks I've been going through select chapters at a time of Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds. This has to be the ultimate Bible of music nerdery, and I'm loving every second of it. With its 608 pages it is far from a quick read, and I admit to skipping around to some of the particular bands I like best, first - but hey, it's non-fiction, so that's allowed, right? (And a big thank you to Rob Theakston for letting me borrow it.)

The passages on The Human League and Joy Division have been particular favorites, both confirming and adding meat to much of what I was already familiar with, and adding a ton more to chapters I wasn't very aware of in detail. A definite must read for anyone who makes music or plays other people's tracks, especially artists today who are really drawing from that era. ;) I'm really enjoying learning more of the regional aesthetic and political values that helped shape the music, as well as the artists' own politics and particular obsessions. It's voyeuristic yet unsensationalized, which for me rings as quite a good combination.

Probably the best chapter so far - Chapter 12 - Industrial Devolution: Throbbing Gristle and Music from the Death Factory. (Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse, Nurse With Wound Clock DVA, 23 Skidoo.) One of the most sincere, insighful, unbiased, shocking and exacting passages ever written on this genre of music. Not only does he aptly describe the brutal unlistenability of much of it, but he explains its roots in Fluxus happenings that predated COUM Transmissions, and how it was taken quite seriously in performance art circles.

posted by toybreaker @ 11:58 PM 3 comments

on spending time

<sub>spend (spĕnd)

v.,spent (spĕnt), spend·ing, spends.

v.tr.
1. To use up or put out; expend: spent an hour exercising.
2. To pay out (money).
3. To wear out; exhaust: The storm finally spent itself.
4. To pass (time) in a specified manner or place: spent their vacation in Paris.
5. To throw away; squander: spent all their resources on futile projects.
6. To give up (one's time or efforts, for example) to a cause; sacrifice.
v.intr.
1. To pay out or expend money.
2. To be exhausted or consumed.</sub>

A couple of days ago someone said something (actually, a few people brought it up in different contexts, but all with the same negative connotation) that has been eating at me for quite a while, so I looked up the etymology of to spend. As is plainly obvious, these are not the best connotations at all. It originally comes from the Latin expendēre: to use up; consume (mostly in regards to taxation purposes/calculations.) Well that sure is no fun!

I'm bringing this up specifically in relation to spending time. The individual in question was fretting about having to spend time with his girlfriend, his son, and his business - and how it was all WAY too much. So let's see, someone has to spend time with one's three primary loves, love/lust interest; family; creative outlet/profit. Is it me, or what is the problem here?

What I want is a new term for spending time that is unrelated to paying out, using up, sqandering or exhausting. Because when I am with love, creative work, or family, I NEVER want to imply such a thing. These are exactly the things I want to put my time into. I feel like our launguage really does a disservice to our interactions by implying that by spending in this way somehow we have less, rather than having more. Spending time to me is not squandering, it is investing. I feel richer, not poorer after spending creative energy or giving love. I'm very curious as to how other languages tackle this action. I know in French, many actions revolve around the verb "to make." The english counterpart is "to get" and this can even be found regionally in the US cities settled by the French, New Orleans for example, where people say they are going "to make groceries," rather than get them. (Says a bit about a making vs. consuming culture too...but that is a different topic for a different night... ;)

I would much prefer to make time on the ones I love and make time on my creative projects. That sure seems to subconsciously reinforce that one's action is a positive one rather than a wasteful one.

_{This post has had nothing to do with copious amounts of wine, just far too much time SPENT in silence in my car on the way home from work. ;)}

posted by toybreaker @ 9:40 PM 4 comments

cheese woes.

Dear Trader Joe's,

I am saddened that you are not longer carrying two of my favorite cheeses, St. Andre and Amsterdam Reserve. I've been getting both of them for years at Hirt's Market, albeit at twice the price. You have stopped stocking them and have replaced them with your own private label cheeses that you have the audacity to call "artisan." Well Mr. Joe, they are effing squishy flavorless crap, you may as well have replaced that fine aged silghtly salty, crystelline, nutty, flavorful gouda amazingness with Velveeta.

Not Amused. Bring back my cheese! I'm going to go cry now.

Love, Bethany

posted by toybreaker @ 5:56 PM 4 comments

zombies!

This has to be one of the best flicker galleries I've ever seen - knitted Shaun of the Dead ZOMBIES!



Her "Knitted Minions" are awesome.

posted by toybreaker @ 11:29 AM 4 comments