i wonder if the divx rip of evangelion: death and rebirth has finished yet. it's kinda like waiting for the cake to finish. well, not really, but kinda. sorta.
1:40 PM

Sunday, February 16, 2003  
"while the rest of the neighbors 'duct & cover'..."

...i'm burning up time that i could be using to hermetically seal our home by slogging through tom clancy's ghost recon: game of the year pack (didn't i say something about game titles getting longer and longer?). while i wait for tom clancy's rainbow six: raven shield (ditto) to hit the shelves, i'm manhandling my squad of six l337 (or "elite," for those of you blissfully unaware of this newspeak phenom) military specialists through the forests of georgia (the former soviet republic, not the republican state) and through the dusty deserts of eritrea.

the level of realism in weapons simulation, as well as the graphic "oomph," comes second after america's army: operations, and the a.i. of my five squadmates leave a bit to be desired at times (although they do prove to be better shots than most of my presumably flesh and blood comrades-in-arms of a typical aa:o net game). however, if you were to approach it as a scaled-down tactical strategy game with a goodly amount of first-person shootage, ghost recon is definitely entertaining. they do have one recent expansion pack that takes place in a recently-de-castro-ized cuba of the future, but it got me wondering about someone doing a pack based on larry bond's red phonenix book, a clancy-esque read about a hypothetical second round of the korean war during the eighties.

in the meantime, i've uninstalled soldier of fortune ii. it's definitely the most "comic book" of the three military shooters mentioned here recently, and the main character's john holmes moustache was really bothering me.
11:01 PM

Tuesday, February 11, 2003  
"you're in the army now (again)"

by some weird pull of pseudo-military magnetism, i was drawn to download and install america's army: operations on my computer. again. i hadn't played this u.s. army-developed public relations tool since last summer when i'd been totally flummoxed in my attempts to hit 36+ of 40 targets to make my way into sniper school. perhaps my recent infatuation with soldier of fortune ii: double helix (i guess at some early point in their evolution, game titles pick up roman numerals, colons, and second titles) had fired up my interest in this combat sim. who knows?

so, on this whim, i downloaded the 350mb executable, installed the game, and signed up as a new recruit (duff_mojo, if you have to know). i went through the basic training bits (rifle range - a respectable 31 outta 40, obstacle course, a crash course in handling a grenade launcher and a light machine gun, and an urban warfare target practice run) and preceeded to get my ass kicked on the training missions, the first of which is a simulation of the army's answer to laser tag.

there seems to be a number of changes, minor and major, since last july. first of all, they musta nerfed the rifle range, as i was able to get 39/40 and 36/40 on my fourth and fifth tries, getting my expert badge and entry into sniper school. nextly, they threw in airborne training, where they first drop you off a tower, and then off an airplane, and you have to pull a series of proper maneuvers as to not leave a small crater. needless to say, i made a lot of small craters, especially in one of the missions where the assaulting side must (a) jump out of a plane, (b) land safely, and (c) take over an airfield from a quartet of machinegun-toting baddies. in the early missions, i never made it past (b).

but i got better. not by much, but just enough to keep from sucking horribly. and just enough to throw away entire evenings getting shot and grenaded by total strangers and just occasionally repaying the favor (sometimes on my own teammates - by accident, mind you - often with devastatingly deleterious results).

anyway, the unreal 2-based graphics are fantastic, the gameplay is addictive, and the in-game "honor" system keeps the players generally well-behaved. this is so much more entertaining than counter-strike. for now at least.
10:12 PM

Sunday, February 09, 2003  
"a word or two on finisterre (or saint etienne is dead?)"

i love saint etienne. actually, i used to love saint etienne. or at least at some conceptual level, i still love these guys. they made smart, exuberant, cosmopolitan pop that made sense on the dance floor as well as in melody maker-festooned bedrooms and on mix tapes that you made for the object of your crush. they mated neil young with the pet shop boys and then left the offspring with richard "aphex" james as the babysitter. they sold hair products on television and still made you cherish your second-hand cardigan. they encouraged you to loooooose yourself in london. they got douglas coupland to write their liner notes, and this time around, they got mark "alternative tv" perry to do the honors. they were worldly, cool, definitely been around the block, yet still friendly and charming like julie christie in billy liar.

that said, finisterre, their latest long-player, bores me. not quite to tears, but it’s dull. and it kills me to say it. and it's not because it's bad; rather, the whole thing is a bob/pete/sarah creation through and through. parts of it still wear their spawn-of-bacharach-and-longet heritage like a proud pastels pin from ’86. other parts are car commercial tunes that come up a few octane points too short to make it to a mitsubish ad (not a bad thing). other parts have that post-numan electr*cl*sh clearcoat finish (almost a bad thing). while other bits, like mc wildflower’s hip london patois on "soft like me" (gotta admit, that tune is catchy as fuck), are puzzling. it’s not a total wash, as there are some tracks that do tickle my fancy. perhaps i’ve changed, the world has changed, or they’ve meandered down some sideways avenue, but this just ain’t quite the same etienne that i think i know and love. oh bother.
10:06 PM

 
"tunes on the (mp3) jukebox"

• the young gods - l'eau rouge (play it again sam) in which the lads sing... um, grunt... um, emote in french, which is good... now i wonder where my la muerte albums went...


• swans - children of god / world of skin / cop / young god / greed / holy money (young god) quintessential 80's n.y.c. pigfuck


• kmfdm - uaioe / money (wax trax!) white and trashy and incredibly dumb... oh, yeah


• freeform - human (skam) less ethnoforgery, more skammage


• keith fullerton whitman (a.k.a. hrvatski) - playthroughs (kranky) music for active directories


• the patti smith group - horses (arista) pre-n.y.c. punk, but gritty and real


• loose fur - loose fur (drag city) half of wilco take repeated, lengthy ciggy breaks with jim o'rourke; results aren't quite yankee hotel foxtrot, but lovely and fun (and maybe a bit self-indulgent, but who cares?)


• massive attack - 100th window (virgin) dark, claustrophobic, smoke-filled, and not (officially) out until this tuesday


• coil - scatology (threshold house/world serpent) remastered and reissued for maximum effect

it's almost midnight in a far-from-perfect world; the dog is chilling out on the natty ikea rug in the study while nan and i type away at our respective machines. mac os 10.2 is installing on nan's old imac, and i'm gonna head on up shortly to climb into bed and listen to filth by the seminal n.y.c. pigfuck maestros, swans. not what readily comes to mind as bedtime muzik, but then, a friend used to go to sleep listening to the birthday party, which is pretty fucking cool, methinks.
11:57 PM

Thursday, October 24, 2002  
"the sound of one pneumatic drill drilling..."

the german experimental/noise combo par-excellence, einstuerzende neubauten, have finally gone digital with a website. that in and of itself isn't much too much to write home about, but what is remarkable is that they are using this site to rally "supporters" to help fund their next album. from what i gather, it kind works like this:

the neubauten lads seem to be without a record label. whether voluntary or otherwise, i'm not sure, but based on what's been written about their upcoming reissue of some of their backcatalogue, it looks like they haven't been paid a single klingklang penny for a lot of what they've released in the past by the record labels. not surprising if they were a bunch of bluesmen or jazz musicians who got screwed outta royalties in the 40's and 50's, but i guess "screw the artist" game happens at all levels of the music industry hierarchy, even in the sacred halls of the indie world.

so, to make a short story long, they are asking their audience to pony up $35 to help defray the costs of (a) making the next album and (b) operating the website. in return, you get a special edition of the new album (due out next year) as well as access to a "supporters-only" section of the website, replete with segmented forum and chat, as well as audio and video streams of works in progress. and the band welcomes feedback. well, yeah, that kinda feedback, but also the constructive variety as well. it's kinda like the days when artists had patrons (and i guess that's still the case these days), but it's a lot of patrons for one artist. you know, kinda more democratic-like (although that seems to be a concept on the wane these days...).

on one hand, the notion of paying $35 for a single album sounds like the sort of price-gouging shenanegans that the muscle-headed goons at the r.i.a.a. have wet dreams over. on the other hand, the price of an import cd + a pair of tickets to a show would cost a heck of a lot more, and the idea of the funds going straight to the artist without any middlemen is rewardingly subversive in this time of middlemen out the wazoo (on a total tangent, i overheard that southwest music distribution, the largest local music retail distributor, is looking for a buyer and is headed for a shutdown - i guess even the middlemen have it tough these days).

personally, i like the idea of directly supporting the artist. especially ones who are as influential and iconic as neubauten. i remember being intimidated and fascinated by the unrelenting rhythms of "yu-gung" as a freshman in the late 80's, and even after a listening hiatus of over a decade, i still find their work both alienating and engrossing. i sent over $35 to the cause (and in these times of mad ebay-ing, i found it strangely funny that even e-n have a paypal account), and while it's a drop in the proverbial bucket when it comes to the cost of producing an album and maintaining a content-heavy multimedia site (i shudder to ponder their bandwidth costs...), it's kinda like voting with yr checkbook. and maybe that's about the last democratic option available nowadays.

btw, hats off to nan for pointing out the blurbage in the october issue of the wire regarding the neubauten site and their supporter effort. see, she turns me on to all the cool shit. ;)
11:44 PM

Saturday, October 19, 2002  
"disaster recovery"

my old isp, neosoft, got bought out in what seems like a s.c.i./kroehner-type absorbing of local isp's by internet america. and as a result, they moved my e-mail over to hk@airmail.net (although hk@neosoft.com still works - it just gets forwarded), and as part of this account migration, everything on www.neosoft.com/~hk got wiped. the subsequent conversation with a ben wahlquist, director of customer support at internet america, turned out to be a total waste of time, as the gentleman had neither the abilities or the authority to do anything to remedy this situation. perhaps a letter to the v.p. of customer support, peter trembley, might result in... absolute nothing. corporate drones thrive, even (or especially) at the executive levels.

in the meantime, i've moved everything that was on neosoft to this new address - www.router-rooter.com - with various subdomains for various needs, such as botm.router-rooter.com, hk.router-rooter.com, farrago.router-rooter.com, and blog.router-rooter.com, all hosted by yahoo. from one faceless corporate monolith to another corporate monolith. with such choices, how can you win?

in the meantime, check out real world solutions, a new services organization that a friend and i are putting together.
11:43 PM

Monday, October 14, 2002  
"looking for a job is a full-time job"

which leaves surprisingly little time for indulgences such as blogging. six weeks and still looking. sad, eh?
11:02 PM

Friday, August 30, 2002  
"if you can't share the joy, spread the misery"

in hk's i'm-a-fixin'-to-have-no-job mix:

• a perfect circle - mer de noms


• nine inch nails - the fragile


• marilyn manson - remix & repent

and friday did indeed come and go. the good news is that we got paid. the bad news is that we no longer have any work. i think it's time to study and take one of them certification exams and start really pounding the pavement in search for the next gig.
10:16 PM

 
"prior to the resurgence of babushka-chic"

was the backs-and-balls-to-the-wall battle for moscow, purchased for cheap at half price books, along with a copy of strunk & white's elements of style (absolutely critical in straightening out the its/it's usage conundrum, yet there's nothing worse than a grammar-fetish) and a bargain-basement, mint-in-box copy of rainbow six: rogue spear: black thorn (don't you love it when the number of colons in a game title corresponds with the sequel-generation of the title?). a quitessential shopping & violence moment. ahh.
10:25 PM

 
"and if you made it down this far..."

check out these mp3's (amazon.com registration required - sorry!):

• three rainy days in june - drones and tones in that forbidden planet/deep undersea trench vibe


• pantone color wheel
- swirls, swooshes, and washes of white, pink, and otherly colored noise

and yeah, i do realize that i hadn't written jack in almost a month. it's been a pretty stressful past few weeks, and unfortunately it ain't over yet!
11:04 PM

Wednesday, July 31, 2002  
"(uncle) ho says go"

dinner at jenni's noodle house. packed house. on a wednesday night. this is a good thing, i think. i had the "super wonton" - egg noodles, pork, and dumplings in a comforting broth, and nan had the "art car curry" - red curry with tofu and veggies with really yummy semi-sticky rice. the veggie eggrolls were a minty treat, with nicely chewy tofu strips. apparently the new t-shirts hadn't come in yet, but soon. steve (jenni's hubby) mentioned something about their ad in the houston press resulting in a couple of curious phone calls of folks wondering if they were communists. the ad has a picture of ho chi minh and the slogan, "ho says go". steve showed us the next ad, which has a picture of the buddha with the words "enlightend lunch." it's cute. it's clever. and for the folks who wondered if these folks are commies, i have these words:

the cold war is over!!!!!

shit, if you can make an ad for a restaurant that pokes fun of a pretty major communist figure, you have to figure the capitalists have won. regardless, dinner was yummy, and i really am not as crabby as i might have just sounded. :) for emphasis.
9:40 PM

Tuesday, July 30, 2002  
"i know i get what i ask for"

okay, so on a whim, i volunteered myself and nan to sub for the tuesday nitro program on ktru this evening. as far as i know, this is an hour-long "punk rock" show. whatever that means. anyway, i figured this might be the perfect opportunity to haul out the various punk/postpunk goodies from '77-'82, what we consider here to be something of the "golden age" of uk punk. it's kinda like imagining that one was working or hanging out at the rough trade shop on talbot road in the early 80's. or something.

the following is the playlist from our stint on the air. it was a pretty harrowing hour for me, as i hadn't run the boards in ages, but nan pulled records, picked out songs, cued up discs, and basically helped keep me from totally losing my shit. she is beyond cool.

anyway, here's what we played during what might have been the shortest hour in a very long time:

gang of four - i found that essence rare entertainment! (emi)
swell maps - let's build a car collision time revisited (mute/restless)
the homosexuals - my night out the homosexuals record (black noise)
the buzzcocks - fast cars another music in a different kitchen (emi)
the slits - love und romance the peel sessions (strange fruit)
liliput - ain't you liliput (kill rock stars)
stiff little fingers - suspect device all the best (chrysalis)

quentin crisp - stop the music for a minute pillows & prayers (cherry red)
delta 5 - mind your own business 7" (rough trade)
wire - i am the fly chairs missing (emi)
the soft boys - i wanna a be an anglepoise lamp 1976-81 (rykodisc)
a certain ratio - do the du early (soul jazz)
josef k - the missionary endless soul (marina)
the pop group - words disobey me y (radarscope)
this heat - s.p.q.r. deceit (these)

malaria! - mensch compiled 1981-1984 (indigo)
x-ray spex - i am a cliche germ free adolescence (artificial products/virgin)
the table - do the standing still guillotine (virgin)
the clash - career opportunities the clash (epic)
subway sect - nobody's scared we oppose all rock & roll (overground)

wire - the art of stopping read & burn (pink flag)

technically, the last track does not fall into the '77-'81 timeframe, but hell, it's wire, it's new, and it rocks, so i had to play it. i mananged to record this show onto minidisc, soon to be transferred to cd. if for some weird reason you'd like a copy, let me know.
10:32 PM

Monday, July 29, 2002  
"warm hands"

i'm kicking myself for forgetting to mention this, but last sunday, eric pearce gave us a copy of warm hands, his book of drawings whose originals are currently on display at mixture gallery. words cannot describe how wonderful (and wonderfully twisted) this book is (actually, go over to mixture and catch the summer drawings show while there's still time!). we're bowled over. completely.

we also got a copy of eric's collaborative work with daniela madeiros epstein, josh lowry, eileen maxson, and kelly ulcak - if you can read this, we are too close - a masterfully silkscreened folding portfolio that encompasses the other artists' contributions. of particular note is josh lowry's collection of abstract electronics (not electronica - nary a breakbeat to sell cars or shoes to be found here).

thanks, eric! you rock!!!
7:07 AM

Sunday, July 28, 2002  
"an egg timer"

wire's chairs missing is an absolute classic. nan and i listened to it on the way to and from kaldi cafe this morning, and it was just great. actually, the first three wire albums - pink flag, chairs missing, and 154 - are pretty much godhead post-punk records that rewrote the rules of pop while crafting some gems within those rules. highly recommended. sound exchange has copies of the u.k. remasters from 1994 which are definitely superior in sound quality to the reissues that restless put out in the late 80's. now if only someone would do the same for mark stewart's pop group.

on winamp now is deadringer, the new lp (not el-p) from rjd2. it kinda feels like i'm listening to dj shadow's other second album - not the private press which just came out, but some hypothetical lost album that was supposed to be endtroducing... part ii. well, that's just a first impression anyway.

jumping back in time 24 hours, nan went to the texas psych fest, a kick-out-the-jams quadruple bill at rudyard's. she went with our friends dave & gina, and i stayed home and did laundry. and worked on some digital photography and a short, electronic piece (soon to be available through amazon's music download service), so it's not like i sat home and moped, fer crissakes. honestly, i can't go out anymore - can't stand smokey clubs, loud bands, shows that end after 2am. too old. :)

so, thus wraps up another weekend that's gone by too freakin' fast. nan's been pulling rekkids and cd's for her turn on dj-ing the genetic memory show on ktru tomorrow night. another late night, but this doesn't involve cigarettes or loud music (at least you can turn down the volume, as opposed to a band on a stage with a deaf engineer running the p.a.), and i think nan does a great genmem show, but don't tell her that - it'll make her nervous. ;) anyway, not that i know dick about experimental music.

on one final, real world note, those miners getting rescued in pennsylvania is pretty amazing. although i guess i'm dreading the "movie of the week" that i'm sure someone (or multiple someones) in the major networks are scrambling to cast. makes you wonder if eric roberts' mobile phone's ringing off the proverbial hook....
9:45 PM

Saturday, July 27, 2002  
"my noodle's bigger than yours"

what better way to start the day with lunch at jenni's noodle house? actually, we did get up earlier than that, but we kinda lounged around the house this morning. i was downloading mille plateaux and force inc. tracks from emusic*, and nan was watching the basquiat film, downtown 81.

anyway, on our second visit, we had some steamed veggie pot stickers for starters, nan had the spicy shrimp soup, and i had pho, the reliable staple of vietnamese cuisine. and the iced coffee. yum. all the sugary, caffein-y goodness of the d.i.y.-filtered-at-your-table vietnamese coffee with condensed milk, but minus all the d.i.y.-ness. and a slice of pecan pie for dessert. how texas is that? the folks who run the place are super nice, and it's kinda fun noshin' on pho with abba and depeche on the stereo.

jenni's also has t-shirts, although they're out of 'em right now. they're getting more in mid-next week, with baby t's and regular shirts bearing slogans like "ozzy brought the kids," "madonna eats here," "get your curry on," etc. i foresee a return visit in the coming days.

afterwards, we stopped by sound exchange, where we picked up the debut album from glitcy/noise/exp combo ohne, the 1994 remastered edition of wire's classic chairs missing and a few 7" singles by the durutti column, chris & cosey, etc. we also got a collection of promo videos by air, simian, stereo total, clinic, etc. and all that before 2pm! boy, do i feel productive!

maybe i'll take a nap now. :)

* : yes, i pay to download mp3's. emusic does have a pretty limited selection of stuff, but they have been expanding lately. actually, it's kinda exploded. there's a shitload of mille plateaux and matador stuff, as well as more pete namlook crap than you can shake a stick at. and apparently those fucknuts at universal music group are dipping their festering toe into emusic, but i guess the upside is that i can download silver apples and select dusty springfield tracks.
3:50 PM

Friday, July 26, 2002  
"a fellow tree falling in the forest"

nan has a blog. :) i think she's great. :)
8:33 PM

Thursday, July 25, 2002  
"ozzy brought the kids"

shouts out to pat & claire for pointing us to jenni's noodle house, a new addition to houston's restaurant roster (an aside - if there are two things that houston has going for it, they have to be its collection of excellent eateries and its lively art scene). located just off-downtown, jenni's offers a fresh melange of japanese/chinese-influenced vietnamese/thai dishes, all very fresh, and very well-priced. we just had dinner there with pat (claire couldn't make it, as she had prior commitments), and i had the stir-fried egg noodles with vegetables and tofu (okay, it doesn't sound exciting, but it was very nummy), pat had the very herb-y "mama tran spicy sour shrimp soup," and nan had grilled lemon grass shrimp. and i only noticed the desserts after i'd made it through about 80% of my plate o' noodles. oh, well, next time. and the spring rolls that started off the meal were (a) fresh and (b) minty. next time we go, we're gonna pick up a t-shirt, too.
9:17 PM

Wednesday, July 17, 2002  
"dyslexic umbrellas"

bumblechute is the "melodic electronic alter-ego of buddha on the moon." there are two songs for download from amazon - "memory is an act of magic" and "song for an aluminum fish". these songs are also available as a hand-packaged business card-sized compact disc single. inquire for additional details.
10:16 PM

Friday, July 12, 2002  
"that's just a whole lotta beaver..."

this evening, nan and i checked out the opening of the summer drawings group show at mixture gallery (we went to the preview a couple of nights before, but figured we'd go back, hang out with our friends, and see if we could snag a copy of eric pearce's zine). among the artists featured are patrick phipps (a.k.a. dj trickhips), bill willis, rachel hecker, neil farber, the aforementioned eric pearce, mark flood, the art guys, and a number of other folks whose names i forgot. after all, i'm only a tech nerd and little more than a freakin' dilettante who's figured out that certain art openings are more fun than music shows (they're quieter, no one smokes, there's free wine, and you're done before 8pm - holy kerroppi, i'm getting old!). anyway, the mixture gallery website has one of them quicktime-ish surround-view of the gallery with the current exhibition. not much for detail, but for those who can't get there, i guess it'll have to do, eh?

afterwards, we had a bite to eat at van loc, so rightly noted in our friend claire's check please zine as the perfect place to dine after an opening. nan did teach me a new french word - vernissage, which means "varnishing," and also seems to mean "art opening" in the context of smaller galleries. i think there's a different word for museum openings, but i forget. again. sorry, nan. :(

i think i'm going to head upstairs and read some more beevor.
10:21 PM

Thursday, July 11, 2002  
"the sound of the satellites"

leave it to nan to find the coolest things to hear. we're currently listening to the utterly far-out soundz of the "bermuda triangle" program (or should that be "programme"?), hosted by the folks from these records and webcast through london's resonance fm. we tuned in a shade too late to catch chris cutler's show, and i think we're going to return for clive graham's sound poetry show this sunday. as i said, these folks webcast from london, and not 24/7. check out their website for their programming schedule, and plug http://bigboy.spc.org:8002 into winamp or itunes (or 104.4 fm if you happen to be within radio earshot of london).
7:03 PM

Wednesday, July 10, 2002  
"your very own lee scratch perry"

thank you, dj trickhips, for forwarding this link. this is a flash-based musical gadget that lets you assemble your own virtual dubplates by selecting a particular natty groove and triggering one of numerous "studio one"-esque drum shots and sound effects. b.y.o. doobage, however (and it's virtually legal in the u.k. now - makes you wonder if phish would move across the pond now...).
9:29 PM