Thursday, December 31, 2015

Most Listened to in the 2015

1. The Cramps
2. The The
3. The Beatles
4. Deerhoof
5. Low
6. FFS
7. The Smiths
8. Sleater-Kinney
9. Morrissey
10. The KLF
11. The Fall
12. Sparks
13. Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield
14. Carl Perkins
15. PJ Harvey
16. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
17. The Future Sound of London
18. Charlie Feathers
19. Chevel
20. Elvis Presley
20. Lillie Mae Rische

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

recent paintings




Music For Morons 36: Technical Solstice


00:00 AquaSonic - ??? 
03:48 Görkem Şen - Yaybahar 
08:11 Glenn Kotche - Anomaly: Mvt. III 
12:00 Russell Haswell - Heavy Handed Sunset (Autechre 'Conformity Version') 
15:07 ADR - Favicon 
16:20 Matmos - Ultimate Care II excerpt eight 
20:10 Matt Nolan - Björk's Gameleste - the making of 
22:18 Marilyn Donadt - The Wing Sound Sculpture Solo 
25:07 Chas Smith sounds 
30:28 completion

Music For Morons 35: A Central Part Of Your Mind's Landscape


00:00 Orphx - Cut Through 
03:17 Slag Boom Van Loon - Butch (Tipper Remix) 
04:36 Foetus - How To Vibrate (Mike Patton Remix) 
07:42 The Soft Pink Truth - What's a Computer? 
08:52 Elizabethan Collar - 08 
10:11 Nervous Cop - Nuflesh, Old Thirst 
11:43 Olaibi - New Rain 
13:17 Matthew Dear - Juice 
16:08 OOIOO - Gamel Kamasu 
18:48 The Future Sound Of London - Her Face Forms In Summertime 
20:38 Lucy - Catch Twenty Two (Shapednoise Remix) 
25:07 Rrose - Waterfall 
29:54 Slag Boom Van Loon - Butch (Tipper Remix) 
31:50 Orphx - Cut Through 
35:22 completion

Monday, October 19, 2015

Music For Morons 34: Immanentize The Eschaton



00:00 Chevel - Comb 
03:55 Holly Herndon - DAO 
07:24 Dasha Rush - Antares 
11:20 The KLF - Madruga Eterna 
15:46 Eschaton - Age of Iron 
22:44 Speedy J - Hayfever 
24:52 completion

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Kurt Vonnegut's Novels Rated


After three years, I've finished re-reading Vonnegut's 14 novels in chronological order. It's pretty silly to rate novels (or anything else) with numbers, but the numbers aren't to do with technical, objective literary merits, just my attempt to reflect how much they did or did not resonate with me.

Vonnegut In Retrospect: Timequake

Timequake (1997)

My memory of reading Timequake 15 years ago was that it was a disappointing, disjointed final novel for Vonnegut, so I wasn't looking forward to re-reading it that much. What a difference a changed head space can make. It's not even a pure novel but more like a wizened old man's greatest life lessons, beliefs, jokes, and tragedies distilled into a final love/hate letter to the world. There is also half a novel woven in that involves a "timequake" that rewinds time 10 years and everyone is forced to live those years over again in exactly the same way. That part is great too, but the book is a true treasure for the parts in which Vonnegut is just talking to the reader like a friend. Seemingly every page contains a striking and/or hilarious passage, and it is a more than worthy end cap to Vonnegut's incredible string of novels published between 1952 and 1997.

9.2/10

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Vonnegut In Retrospect: Galapagos, Bluebeard, and Hocus Pocus



Galapagos (1985)

I unfortunately have waited so long to write down my thoughts on Galapagos that the book is no longer fresh in my mind. I know I enjoyed it, but I also took forever to read it for some reason. The premise, the last humans on earth being stranded on an island and evolving into something else, is a good one and mostly overcomes some sloppy structure that drags in parts.

7.9/10



Bluebeard (1987)

This is one of Vonnegut's most readable and focused novels. Written (like Mother Night and Hocus Pocus) as an autobiography by a fictional character, Bluebeard is the memoirs of abstract expressionist painter Rabo Karabekian who used a type of paint that unexpectedly eroded and fell off the canvases after just a few years. The cast of characters is small and the story straight as an arrow.

8.5/10
Hocus Pocus (1990)

This story is like a shotgun blast, with a few pieces hitting the mark and others flying around uselessly. It's the memoirs of Eugene Debs Hartke, Vietnam vet and college professor. The novel is set in the not too distant future with foreign interests having taken over the American economy and things generally going to pot for the country and Hartke personally. An unsatisfying and meandering tale.

6.4/10