Maddoff the Hutt

I saw this article on Msnbc about the upcoming auctions of Bernard Madoff's stuff. The title of the article is " Spoils of Madoff's feast go on the auction block". I couldn't help but think of Jabba the Hutt and his little pet that lived off the bits of food that fell out of Jabba's mouth. I mean the article says that they have a partial pad of post it notes with the company logo on them. Why not make up t-shirts that say "I invested my retirement with Bernie Madoff and all I got was this t-shirt" I mean come on people.

Meanwhile I have to go bid on those post it notes.

werdz r phunny

I was looking up the word cult today and saw that it hasn't always been a derogitory term. The word can be a positive, negative or neutral. Depending on which online dictonary I looked it up in the first definition changed back and forth from " A religion or religous sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader." to " a particular system of religous worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies."

Carrie Prejean, Sarah Palin, and everyone else can fuck off

Someone I know on Facebook said it best, "Lets put all the reality TV fools in a fake sound stage and tell them they are on a show." The plan wasn't worked out past the brainstorming stage ,but in theory it could be cool. Feed them fake press reports and hire fake paparazzi, then wind them up and let them go. Jon Gosslin, Nayda Suleman, Carrie Prejean, Kate Gosslin, so on and so forth. Just let them duke it out, "Escape from New York" style. We could add some political figures like Sarah Palin or Bill Clinton just for fun.

Roman Polanski is a rapist

So I seen plenty of reports in the media over the last couple of days about Roman Polanski's arrest in Switzerland. People seem to be confused about the issue.

He drugged, raped and sodomized young girl.

He came to a plea agreement, then left the country before fulfilling the requirements of the agreement. He has stayed out of the US since leaving to keep from being prosecuted further. Those are all actions of someone who is trying to keep away from the law.

I have also seen it reported to no end about the woman he raped saying she doesn't think he should be charged any further. At the time of the incident she was too young to give consent, and under the influence of drugs, which also means she couldn't give consent.

He broke the law, fled prosecution, he should go to jail.

Approve Referendum 71

Please spend some time to educate about Referendum 71 on the ballot in November in Washington. Go here to learn more about approving Ref. 71 .

Mallahan can't decide when to vote.

Check out this link to the Stranger slog post about how little Joe Mallahan cares about voting in local political races. As they said, "he’s missed more elections than he's participated in". I think I might have to vote for McGinn.

hipster ass

I took this photo by accident when I was trying to take some photos of Stardeath and White Dwarfs.

Flaming Lips

Hot

It is still to hot in Seattle. Please California take the sun back from us. I'm melting.....

B/IAS and Pieces of Eight

So B/IAS is a private sculpture garden in Burien, Wa where several art pieces are on display. It would just be a empty lot, but a couple of people had an idea to place some temporary art pieces up until the owner of the land begins the next phase of buildings. In August one of my musical pieces will be played in the Pieces of Eight performance.

If you check out their website you can see the latest controversy about a new sculpture that went in the space.

Recent deaths in the media

So several celebrities died in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday in particular two dropped in the same day, from unrelated causes. I must be the minority because I don't have much emotion towards these events. I do have some feeling towards how people have treated these events. I don't need to elaborate, I'll just end up getting in trouble.

tunnelled

iPhone 3.0 pt 2

So its 11:04am and I just started downloading. I hope they don't crash in the middle. OooHHH the excitement all over nothing.

iPhone os 3.0

So I got up in the middle of the night and checked to see if the update was yet available. No luck. Now I see that reports are 1 pm pst, unless they got it wrong then it will be 3pm pst. All I know is I would like to get the update or I will be pstted.

Shellac 06_11_09 Vera Project

middle of the week around city hall

some fun photos from last weekend's rave show in Oregon

My new Stang

Benefit for the Dutchman Sat. May 23rd with Goodness

So a long time ago I used to be a live sound engineer. One of the only bands I worked for that I would like to work with again, if I ever decided to come out of retirement is Goodness. In a total throwback to the 90's in Seattle they are going to play their first record in its entirety. There will be other bands too and it is all for a good cause, The Dutchman . You can read all about it on the website. Come on down it will be a fun night.

Glee

So the other night we watched the pilot for "Glee" a new show on Fox. I could do a total breakdown of all the TV shows and movies it borrowed from, but I won't. Comparison will only sully what I think will be a very enjoyable, funny, and upbeat show in the fall, unless some bottom feeding TV exec decide to cancel before it has a chance. My wife was not totally happy with the lip sync performances, but getting a cast to actually sing the harmonies might be too much to ask. One cast member I love is Jane Lynch (40 year Old Virgin, Best in Show, Party Down) is hilarious as the drill sergeant-like cheerleading coach who schools the new Glee coach about the high school caste system (Glee club is in the sub-basement).

If you missed it the other night it can be seen for a couple more weeks on Hulu. Check it out. It is worth it just for the Journey cover as well as a cover of Amy Winehouse.

No turkey

Didn't see any over the weekend. I will have to wait for fall season.

Turkey Hunt

I will be going turkey hunting for the first time this week. Hope we see some.

jasuto modular pt 2

So I have had the app for a few days now. I still haven't played with it enough to make patches super fast, but I did find one aspect that is amazing. Patches can have automated movements that are so simple to implement its unbelievable.

The app has a few patches that come with it and I loaded them to help me understand how to better create patches. The second one I tried was a remake of the THX sound sweep. All of the osc's had automated movements. You just record the movement and loop, shazam its done.

If you like synths and have a iphone or itouch, get this one quick before the price goes up.

jasuto modular synth

So after impacttestdummy played a couple of show using only our Iphones as sound sources I thought I wouldn't find anymore cool apps to manipulate sound with or they would be too expensive. Today I was browsing the iheartnoise messageboard and I found a post about the Jasuto modular synth app . It is amazing. Building sounds is easy or complicated what ever the user chooses. Trying out weird ideas it simple want to move an lfo from the input of one osc to another just slide across the screen. I just started playing with it, so I will post more later.

Bars

Tell em like it is Genesis P.

Funny Shoe Store

Some photos from Throbbing Gristle I messed with

Mates Show

Throbbing Gristle

So it is just a few days away. I'm heading to SF on Thursday looking forwasrd to the show.

Anvil movie

So I took my wife to see Anvil, The story of Anvil this weekend at the Varsity in the U-District.

First the U-District has gotten much sketchyer at night. I haven't been there in a couple of years at night time. We ate at a Falafal joint a couple of blocks from the theater and the collection of drug dealers/users and random homeless was massive, They left us alone, but the reports of muggings recently made me wary.

The movie was great, a little slow, gave a good history of the band and a look into their lives a couple of years ago. Debbie was overcome with the bleak outlook, but I assured her fame has sort of returned for them.

So we went to the movies...

To see the 3d version of "Monsters vs Aliens". It was quite good. Go see in the theaters in 3d or Imax 3d if you can. The comic relief of both Hugh Laurie and Seth Rogan was perfect.

After we headed to see Fast and Furious. Not in 3d, though that would have helped. They spent too much time talking and no enough driving fact cars and smashing them up. Being that I am male I still want the 1970 Dodge Charger from the movie or any of many of the cars in the film.

i'm lame

So I was going to go out last night, then I stayed home and watched movies instead.

When people are afraid of clowns

Mates of State/ Black Kids, Loaded

My wife got us tickets to the upcoming Mates of State/ Black Kids show Apr. 17th at Nuemos. The Mates have a mashup that was done by DJA of Mad Decent here .

This Thursday Loaded has their record release at the new Crocodile in Belltown. I think I might actually make it out to this show. I like the first single that has been getting a little airplay this week.

haven't seen any new movies

Lately. Been catching up on stuff I got from the library.

"Låt den rätte komma in" also known as "Let the Right One in" was movie I have been waiting for. I read the book and loved it only to find out it had already been made into a film when I was reading it. I missed in the theaters, but it was still good on dvd. Some of the background is lost in the film, but it is still an amazing story. Check it out.


The Wackness is a coming of age story about a teen age drug dealer who falls in love with his therapist's daughter over the summer of 1994. Its a little heavy towards the middle, but worth checking out.

I want to see the Anvil movie, as I have seen friends post about the premiere on Facebook, but it hasn't been released up here yet.

Emerald City ComiCon

So I don't really read many comics these days. When I was in grade school I loved them. This was back when they cost like $.25 and I bought them at the drug store. Around when I hit high school I gave them all to someone else who liked comic books. When I hit college, I had some friends who read comics, so I became exposed to the world of underground comics. I still didn't buy many, but I read my friends comics.

I still like comics, but I don't buy them. I wait for them to be combined into a graphic novel, then I might buy them, but I might just read it at Barnes and Noble when I'm killing time before going to the movies.

This weekend was the Emerald City ComiCon a convention for comic readers/buyers. I never would have known, but I ran into my friend Eric Singletary at Safeway the other day and he told me he had just finished the first issue of his new comic, "The Two Percent Solution". So I thought I should go check it out.

After going to breakfast and dropping my wife off at work, I headed down to the convention center. the line for the cash machine was long, but the line to get in was epic. Two rooms worth of line snaking back and forth, no end in sight.

I saw a few people in costume, most were dressed like video game characters or Star Wars. I didn't find any comics I thought I needed to buy. The stars available for autographs/photos left me wondering if this was the only job they have now and trying to do the math on how much money they could make in the weekend.

Overall it was fun, saw some cool comics, lots of fun people watching and the general size of most of the people made me feel a little bit thinner. With that I'm off to the gym.

virus

The sickness has held me in its grip for several days now. My vision is blurred and spotty. I feel weak, like the part of the herd soon to be fallen by predators. Skin on my hands is dry and cracked. My throat is raw from coughing. I don't feel well......

April Fools sickness

So I have a different kind of April Fools Virus, not the kind that effects my computer, but my body. I makes me very cranky and not able to laugh at many jokes today. The joke today is mainly on the joke makers as I haven't found any that have warranted even a chuckle.

photo from Vancouver, Wa

We had a great time playing in Vancouver. Took this with iphone fron the back area of Westside Welding and Machine. Messed with it in gimp to give it the streaky look. I'm sick so keeping this brief will treport more later.

photos from Chapel show last Friday

Facebook games

So a few months back I decided to join Facebook. Much like my first foray into Myspace, I didn't really know much about the site. I knew it was a social networking site and it was started at Harvard for use by the Ivy league schools, which then expanded to college students and now seems to be taking over the whole world. Other than that I was not hip to its uses. But after a few notices from friends who had joined, I thought I would check it out.

At first I reconnected with some friends from high school, which was OK as I have never gone to any reunions, so it filled that void of curiosity, but after a week or so I had read every ones profiles, checked out recent photos and conversed with those that wanted to hear from me. Then I was bored.

What to do now.

I started to play the application games available. The first was poker which I could play on my phone as well as on any computer against real people all over the world. I didn't have to pay for chips, so it was a good way to pass the time in line at the store or on my lunch break or whenever. Then I tried Scramble and Word Twist. They pit you against your friends in a spelling war. Fun, but very frustrating if you aren't a good speller.

After that someone invited me to Mafia Wars. Now there are quite a few games on Facebook like Mafia Wars and they all function in a similar pyramid set up. You have to convince your friends to join you in playing the game to become a more powerful player. At first it is kind of fun, buying guns, buildings and vehicles. You fight against other players and win money and loot. But soon, like real life, the game get boring. I can only make a billion dollars and buy another 5 Mega Casinos so many times. In a game you can't die in that takes no skill, it is only a matter of time before it gets stale.

Poker has some interesting aspects to it as well. Players can give gifts and chips to other players. I don't really grasp the need for virtual drinks, cigars and joints/bongs. Why would I want someone to by me a virtual shot of tequila? Will I get virtually high/drunk and lose all my virtual chips like I would in real life? Players have also become virtual beggars. On more than one occasion I have had people ask the players at the table I was at to give them some chips and some people have obliged. Mind you these aren't people they know, they are asking for money from strangers, and getting it. Virtual panhandlers on the digital range.

I still play the poker game, but not very much. The other games not so often.

phase3 in Vancouver, Wa March 28th 11pm

Odd stuff on MSN Home Page

So MSN has started posting what it refers to as A-List Searches on the bottom of the MSN home page. Today the main search is "Sexting". If you click through to the follow up page, which is really just a Live Search of that topic, in addition to the news articles there are descriptions of acronyms used in texting. Check some of these out.

POS or PoS : According to Wikipedia stands for Parent over Shoulder, Poly cystic ovary syndrome or Point of Sale. I always thought it stood for Piece of Shit, but I'm out of the loop. I don't know why kids would need to text that, if a parent can read the tiny screen they are texting on then those kids have much more to worry about then them being over their shoulder because their parents are superheros.

DDML : Drunk Dial Me Later, self explanatory. Anyone who invites this behavior deserves what they get. if you catch your kids texting this, tell them friends don't let friends use the phone drunk, unless they are recording it.

TDTM : Talk Dirty To Me, self explanatory. If you need to refer to a Poison song as your digital courting ritual, I'm sorry that's just sad.

FOL : Fond Of Leather, self explanatory. Now its getting real fun this reminds me of when I was in high school and I saw the movie, "Cruising" with Al Pacino.

143 : I Love You, Urban Dictionary defines 143 as I love you. I think it is from a song. I haven't heard the song, so I haven't decyphered the code yet.

So look out if you see your kids texting and you can read the little screen on their phone watch out for these acronyms. Or don't worry about it because MSN just wants you to use Live Search over Google and scaring parents by putting POS right before DDML, TDTM, and r u FOL really makes me LOL.

Later......

Movies help me think

So when I got this morning before making breakfast for my honey I was watching "That Thing You Do!" and one of the scenes reminded me my old band Hell Upside Down . The scene when the band gets their first record. I remember when we made our first single. We all sat in our singer's living room with boxes of singles and the covers folding and stuffing them together. The feeling of satisfaction, of creating something real. Then later hearing the song on the radio, at work in the kitchen of a bagel restaurant on a beat up radio covered in flour dust. It doesn't get better than that, or maybe it does....

fragments

Watchmen

I was very pleased with the Watchmen movie. My wife who reads almost no comics liked it as well. I thought the content that they couldn't fit in to the almost 3 hour movie, wasn't needed. The changed ending was still good. It was a good movie, go see it on Imax if you can.

Sorry

For the lack of posting. I will try to write more.

Phase3 at the Chapel

Face sticker

Saw this down on Alki.

Chickenhed Church 2-22-09

Here are some shots I took with my iphone last night at the Chai House.

Show, Oscars, Fired Up and so on....

Last night we played at Chickenhed Church at the Chai House. Good turn out people had a good time and we played a short, but powerful set. Briz was up from Vancouver and he sounded great as well. I didn't catch Dr. Jones as we went to La Isla for some kick ass Puerto Rican food.

The Oscars were not too surprising, I really didn't have any total favorites, I was glad for the winners, sad that some lost.

We saw "Milk" the day before the Oscars and I liked it quite a bit. I thought all the actors had great perfromances.

We saw " Fired Up" the day of the Oscars and I still have yet to meet a movie about cheerleaders I don't like. No matter how bad they are, they will cheer me up a little.

impacttestdummy at the Josephine 2 - 26 - 09

608 NW 65th StSeattle, Washington 98117United States

Come on Down.

Benefit Last Night at The Josephine

Here are some shots of Herpes Hideaway at last night Benefit show.

Sleepy Eyes and the slummy millionare

So this weekend I went to see Sleepy Eyes of Death at Nuemos in Seattle. I had read many a good review of this band in the Stranger of both their live shows and recordings. When I listened to the bands myspace page as I am right now, I thought the synth sounds were very Kraftwerk/ Depeche Mode 1980's analog sounds. I personally don't connect that with the shoegaze moniker I kept seeing in the reviews and interviews with the band. They filled the stage with smoke and had floor lights too illuminate the band, which was cool to look at for all of 5 mins then I was bored. Live they seemed not so electronic and not very shoegazy.

On Monday we also went to see "Slumdog Millionare". It was much better than Sleepy Eyes were and lived up to all the hype. I still like "The Wrestler" for the Oscar, but Slumdog is a close second.

Yummy

information superhighway

The Wrestler

So Friday night after work, my wife and I went to see, "The Wrestler". It is full of great performances. The movie captures not just those performances, but also the feel of their enviroment so well. The strip club,the trailer park, the school gyms and Elks clubs that the matches are held in. It was a very complete movie. If you get a chance go asap.

Big TV

So having been sick for too many days as well as having a block from ideas to write about, I haven't talked about our new TV. I took some of my bonus money this year and bought a new TV for the house. We jumped from a 27 in CRT to a 42 in 1080p LCD. The difference is quite amazing. I highly recommend the switch if you are thinking of investing in a television the newer HDTV's look very good and quite a few are coming down in price. It looks great when I play video games as well.

mini photo

impacttestdummy at the Mercury