Life in Balance and Credit

So, Jeff and I just got back from scoping out Piedmont Park. We were trying to decide if we wanted to fish there, since there's a lake, docks, etc. It seemed fine at first, but the deeper we got into the park, the nastier it got. There was literally a used condom or condom wrapper every 10 feet alongside of the lake. Methinks that's where Atlanta's hookers take their customers at night. *shudder* But that wasn't the crazy part.

As we were walking down the sidewalk, we noticed a filthy homeless guy slowly walking toward us, mumbling to himself. No big deal. Atlanta has tons of guys like that. But as he was coming closer, I noticed him slapping at his clothes... but not in a frantic way. I just assumed either drugs or schizophrenia and kept going. He got closer, and I heard this... buzzing. He had nearly passed us when I realized that he had BEES all over him!! And he was just nonchalantly swatting them away... like they were just annoying flies. Needless to say, Jeff and I got the HELL away from that guy. And we generally avoided that part of the park as well.

Something about Midtown makes me think of The Cure. Something about the feel of the houses and all the oak tree shade.

Not much luck with finding stuff to wear at Dragon*Con... local thrift stores are pretty empty of what I need. I did get a simple, functional black top with elbow-length sleeves and a pair of vintage onyx and silver earrings (that I love), however. I suppose I'll borrow some money from Jeff and see what's on clearance at L5P tomorrow after work...

I am so done with my current nail salon... I wish it wasn't the case, but I keep getting this one particular woman and she always does a sub-standard job. Plus, she makes my hands bleed EVERY time! And she just can't seem to understand that I want my tips rounded! I hate the way square tips look on my hands. How hard is it to file them on the sides a little more? Ugh. I'd do it myself, but it would ruin the paint job. And the paint, in a color called Avalanche, looks beautiful.

Anyway, I've got some homework to do...
Kate still has my phone, by the way. I'll be heading out to Snellville tomorrow to pick it up, plus my old flat iron.

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Wonderful though some of the music I YouTubed yesterday was -- empathetic, memorable, well-crafted -- musically it was fairly backward-looking and grammatically conservative; this wasn't a selection that inspired much confidence in the idea of pop as an artform with a future. So today I thought I'd serve you up some fresh, future-facing talent and -- why not, it's been a while! -- some music emerging from the Japanese underground, stuff I find exciting and encouraging. I picked an Osaka-based "elfin wizard of digital fuckery" (thanks, Pitchfork!) who started making music in 1999 under the name of Oorutaichi.



To my surprise I discovered that several of the biographies of Oorutaichi say I've collaborated with him. He's "rubbed shoulders with Kenji Haino and Ruins, collaborated with oddball popsters Momus and Taku Hannoda, and been producing his solo take on pop since 1999," says CD Baby, while Macaroni Records assures its readers that he's "performed with domestic and international artists such as FREEFORM, MAURICE FULTON, MOMUS, KEIJI HAINO, RUINS, FUMIYA TANAKA." A bit of googling revealed that this flattering (but forgotten) "collaboration" was nothing more than a gig we played together in Kyoto on July 2nd 2003. And I actually missed Oorutaichi's set that night because some "kind" soul fed my girlfriend about seven tequilas and I found her sprawled unconscious on the floor of the toilet. She had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance.



I would love to collaborate with Oorutaichi, though, because his music sounds new to me, now, the way Neu! and La Dusseldorf and Can and Faust probably sounded to David Bowie in 1977. Oorutaichi light-signals an eccentric but credible way pop music could get out of its tedious retro necro rut: by developing a new formal vocabulary which would make all comparisons with the past immaterial.



His first proper commercial album release, Drifting My Folklore, came out in November 2007. It reminds me of Yximalloo a bit, in the sense that it's one-man electronic ethnic music. I'm just about to write the CD booklet essay for Yximalloo's forthcoming Unpop album, and I definitely want to mention Oorutaichi, along with cohorts Shabushabu and Obakejaa. Once upon a time Yximalloo seemed very, very alone, but that's no longer the case -- which suggests to me that his time has come, or is coming soon.



You can hear the whole of Oorutaichi's Drifting My Folklore album at Stumble Audio (though it's a site that goes down a lot). The most Yximallo-ish track is probably Beshaby. The sampling on Hamihadarigeri has a Cornelius-Fantasma or Holger Hiller feel. You can work out to Misen Gymnastics. Enjoy -- and remember, you may not be able to whistle this stuff in the bath (though it is covertly melodic), but it's a fantastic kosmische trip, an electronic guide, a harbinger, a sort of Virgil leading pop music into a place where it can stave off -- for several more decades -- its otherwise-imminent museumification. I may never collaborate with Oorutaichi, but I salute him. He's giving music a future.

1. Yori Yoyo
2. Beshaby
3. Chusan
4. Misen Gymnastics
5. Hamihadarigeri
6. Boo Shan Boo
7. Pan 1 Nonaki
8. Uiui-Mar-Chan
9. Jimaji
10. Bii!tan

Как "Комсомолка" отфотожабила битла:
http://ibigdan.livejournal.com/3761905.html 

How do you find other players for games that aren't the top five FPSs? I don't know! I'm asking!

It seems that for any game other than Halo / Gears / TF2 / wev, the only way to get a decent XBox Live game going is to contact remote friends offline and set up a game. The Quick Match button is almost always futile, and plenty of games that seem like they'd be plenty of fun online and aren't even two months old (yes, I'm thinking of Schizoid) seem to have approximately zero joinable custom matches going on, at any given time.

This is rather crying out for a user-made scheduling system, and you'd think that it would exist already, but I'll be damned if I can find one.

Just so you guys know... coconutsandwich has my cell phone. She borrowed it and I forgot to get it back from her. So... don't call me. Or call Jeff's phone instead.

I just sneezed so hard that my headphones fell off. Nice.
Damn, Goteki's "Corrupted Files" EP is surprisingly hard to find...

Hung out with Jeff, Andy, and Kate last night... Kate's still asleep. I think she and Andy must have stayed up way later than me. Probably playing pool or something. I know Andy wanted to go swimming at some point. It was a pretty chill night... just the three of us tooling around.

Only 3 days until Dragon*Con! Still not ready!! I meant to go get my nails done for the con, but I'll do it tomorrow after I get the shipment with Dianne... I'm gonna go with a nice hematite gray... Hooray for pointless entries!