Annoyed even more PS

Seems the FCC thinks that Saving Private Ryan is OK for all of us to watch. Thanks, guys. After all, there's no nudity or sexual content, so it's perfectly safe. We'll just ignore the fact that the movie features people getting blown to bits.

Oh, the hypocrisy. The FCC is SO concerned about sexual content, but more often then not completely disregard violence. All this fuss about Janet Jackson's breast, but let's forget that this took place during the halftime show for one of the more violent sports in our country. I wish the powers that be (yup, that'd be you, George, and all your neo-con fuckhead buddies) would get the sticks out of their asses and lighten up. Europe's "decency" standards are much lower and yet they're not all moral corrupt.

Not to mention the fact that they kill each other a lot less than we do.

Imprisioned by corporate America

Arg.

They've just restricted access to external email here at work. This just sucks. Don't get me wrong. I don't spend all day writing emails to folks outside of work. It's just nice to drop a note to people now and again, as well as keep up with anything anyone is sending me that's not work related.

The reason behind the ban is apparently some kind of "regulatory issue". Businesses regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are required to save electronic mail and instant messages for a minimum of three years. Since outside mail can't be saved (sorry, Big Brother), they have to restrict access.

Did I mention this sucks?

I suppose I'll just have to start using my work email more, which I hate because it's Lotus Notes and Notes is perhaps the most pathetic excuse for an email client since smoke signals.

Boo hoo.

In other news, spent a good part of the weekend on Long Island with my friend Abbey and a bunch of her friends. Neat folk. Had a blast. Got no sleep, but had an amazing time. Also bowled a 170!

Who's the man?

Anyway, here I remain, electronically trapped in my ivory tower.

Damaging my hearing today:

Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant
(yes, those guys again)

Immortal - Sons Of Northern Darkness
(everyone needs to hear "Tyrants"; the song just stomps)

abstract audio systems - gossamer
(mellow mellow mellow; some self worship goin' on here)

Cheers,
Ben

Sweaty, tired and happy

Well, I've managed to drag myself out of bed for the weekend. Got in at 4am this morning after seeing Kid606 at Rothko last night. Man, what a show. I haven't danced that hard in a long time. It was crazy. The shirt was drenched in sweat and then off within the space of about five minutes. Just great. I'm grinning like the village idiot just thinking about it. I'm sore this morning (not as young as I used to be), but feeling tres relaxed. Nice nice nice.

Also just put the finishing touches on the new Abstract Audio Systems release, "gossamer". I like this one quite a bit. Mixed all kinds of disparate elements to create the sound, from straight up electronic to acoustic piano. I'm especially fond of the title track. Everyone should check it out and give me comments. Also check out "Ghosts In Silt" from my Bonechurch project. Spooky!

Still haven't heard back from the folks at Worthy about "breaks the blank day", but I suspect Anne is usually crazy busy. Not easy running an indie label. Trust me, I know. And hell, her's is actually fairly successful!

Anyway, hope everybody is just perky.

Today's specials in the audio aisle:

Immortal - Sons Of Northern Darkness
(stripped down Norwegian black metal brutality; RRRRRRRR!)

Mr. Ozio - Analog Worms Attack
(crunchy Derrick-May-on-steroids-and-crack technofunkage)

Various Artists - Crimson
(Terminal Dusk's first compilation; wicked breakcore nastiness)

Timeblind - MP3 Compilations 1&2
(This guys is all over the place: dub-inflected house, breakbeat, dance dance dance)

Various Artists - Down And Out With The Blues
(compilation I threw together of old 78s from the 1920s and 30s)

A Worthy PS

Almost forgot to mention. I just finished reading "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" (Mitch Albom). Excellent book. I highly recommend it. It's a very quick read (I did it in a day) and manages to be sentimental (yet emotionally powerful) without getting sappy. Choice.

Puccini was a punk

Katherine, Dawn, and I went to see "Madame Butterfly" at the Met last night. Excellent production. The male lead was simply fantastic and the soprano in the title role was also quite good (little too much vibrato when up top, but that's just my opinion). However, I'd forgotten just how annoying the libretto is. The opera is populated exclusively with men who are assholes and women who are completely spineless. Made me want to jump down from the box and throttle everybody. Grrr!

What could be more infuriating than "You've left me! My life is over! Take my child!" Jesus, woman, wake up. Your supposed husband is a dick and you're better off without. Equal fuel for my rant against this foolishness is the aforemention beau. "Well, I'll just have my way with this wench for awhile and then go home and find myself a real wife." Three years later... "Hey, I'm back! And oh, I got married again. I'm here for my kid..." (realization sinks in) "Oh, I'm such a terrible person! I'll never rid myself of the guilt! I must run away!"

What a prick. Thanks for making the lives of decent fellows that much harder.

Luckily, the post-show discussion did not include a great deal of male bashing (which I was dreading). It's one thing to say "Hey, that guy was a selfish dickhead" and another thing entirely to say "Hey, all guys are selfish dickheads". Fortunately, this point is not lost on Katherine and Dawn.

Yet another reason I like 'em.

Anyway, seems I've spouted enough for today.

Comforting my ears today:

Austere - Remittance
(again with the obscure guitar ambient! man, Ben, what is your problem?)

Building Castles Out Of Matchsticks - It's Raining In My Bedroom
(tasty experimental electronic from Anne Sulikowski, head of Worthy Records; soon to release my CD! Booyah!)

Scorn - Governor
(huge bass rumbles and dark downtempo from the god that is Mick Harris)

Scorn - Imaginaria Award EP
(did I mention that Mick Harris is a god?)

Rode hard and put away wet

What a weekend.

The gig at CBs was a smashing success. Thanks to the Zoppa brothers, Nado, Danny, and everybody else for making me feel welcome.

Contempt was a blast, even if the girl Rick wanted me to meet was not what I'd hoped (nor was I for her, apparently; that worked well, I guess). Danced my butt off and started a sweet mosh pit. Tasty.

Sunday was spend recovering. Nice.

Everybody needs to go see my friend Bianca's show. It's great.

Anyway, busy busy today, so short note without my usual verbosity.

Today on BH FM:

Beef Terminal - The Grey Knowledge
(more tasty guitar ambient from Canada)

Jimmy Behan - Days Are What We Live In
(Jesus! I cannot get this CD out of my head)

Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon
(Like the Behan, this one is stickin' in my craw too)

4 CDs given to me by the Zoppa brothers for their party
(all over the place, these; just like I like it)

'Til later,
Ben

Marathon weekend

So I'm currently gathering my strength for the next couple of days. It's going to be NONSTOP.

Mom arrives today around 5:30. Then my gig at CBs starts at 1am. Then it's off to see "The Gates" in Central Park and the Peter Paul Reubens exhibit. Then Contempt at 10:30 that night where I'm supposed to meet "a friend" of my friend Rick's (oh, R, you match maker, you). Sunday will be a decompress, although I may go to Motherfucker that night. Doubt it (sorry, Rebecca). Then Monday... no work! However, I'm sure Mom and I will be up to something during the day. Then it's my friend Bianca's art opening.

I'm going to be dead by Tuesday.

Today in high rotation...

House of Pain - House Of Pain
(look at me! I'm Irish and I'm drunk! Jump around!)

Eric B & Rakim - Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em
(that DJ made my day)

Blade2 Soundtrack
(Massive Attack and Mos Def?!?! Ah yeah!)

HeadPhoneOverTone - MP3 Compilations 1-3
(awesome guitar ambient you've never heard)

Sooth the savage breast

Had the good fortune to see Wynton Marsalis at the Village Vanguard last night. What a show! His sextet was just fantastic (piano, horn, alto/soprano sax, bass, drums). One of the best things was that he had several young musicians (i.e. fresh out of high school) sit in at different points during the show. The female vocalist (who's name escapes me, unfortunately) he featured was excellent, as were the others. In all, it was such a comfortable set. Intimate and relaxed. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Today's audio treats:

Wynton Marsalis - Standard Time Vol. 3, The Resolution Of Romance
(as I said, the show was REALLY good; I want to keep it going today)

Enduser - From Zero
(breakcore, baby!)

Deru - Trying To Remember
(tasty fuzzy glitchy)

Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon
(RRRRRRRRR!)

Wynton, meet Dimmu. Dimmu, meet Wynton.

When ol' biddies attack

Hell hath no fury like someone ancient and pissed off

More shouts into the Void

So Valentine's has come and gone. I was supposed to go to a "No Date Required" party last night (neat idea), but decided to nest instead. It was cold and rainy and the prospect of hanging out with several hundred complete strangers seemed rather unappealing (and more than just a bit desperate).

However, good news rises even in the blackest hours. I've landed a gig on Friday, spinning at CB's Underground. Should be fun. Old school hiphop, 80's, all that good stuff. Should be a hoot. And might actually even get paid! What a concept.

Currently listening to:
Headcase - Mushiness

Jimmy Behan - Days Are What We Live In
(see yesterdays lovefest blog about this)

Heaven Deconstruction - Heaven Deconstruction

Freescha - What's Come Inside You

Various Artists - 100 Golden Oldies

The joys of melancholy

Just received a new CD in the mail: Days Are What We Live In by Jimmy Behan. It is just excellent and so appropriate for Valentine's Day. There's a subtle thread of melancholy that travels through the whole disc, coupled, however, with a palpable sense of hope. It's that wonderful ache you can get in your heart. A kind of pining. Great stuff. Can't recommend it enough.

Back home again

Well, I've just returned from a brief jaunt to Philadelphia for my grandmother's memorial service. It strikes me as odd sometimes that one can have so little in common with one's relatives. I found myself surrounded by many people that I didn't even know, let alone recognize and it seemed that procedure dictated I speak to them about stuff other than what had brought us all together in the first place (more specifically, my grandmother's death). This did not go well. Lots of um-img and aw-ing. Adding to this the fact that I did not have the closest relationship with my grandmother, I found myself rather uncomfortable and missing the familiarity of New York. It is good to be back in the arms of my loving city (with its blessed anonimity) and that of my furriest of furries, Mr Boop (that would be the cat).

Love hurts

Being single is no fun. But would you take it this far?
Serious non-fan of Valentine's Day

Bleph

So I've been sitting here all day, waiting for the mighty HelpDesk to install software on my machine. In point of fact, I am writing this blog entry on somebody else's computer since mine is still down for the count. Why is it that helpdesk people can be so... unhelpful? I suppose I should know the answer to this mystery, as I used to be a member of this elusive yet somehow bellicose tribe. One would think that in this age of "give you my IP addy, take over my machine", things would get done more quickly and efficient. Of course, this is discounting the existence of Microsoft, rugged champion of all things inefficient and non-backwards compatible.

Grand moment in epic cinema: The South Park Movie. Bill Gates being shot in the head.

Oh, the rage.

Worst part about it is that the computer I am on right now has no sound card. Thus, no music. This is quite a trial for me, exacerbated by the fact that I have the James Brown box set with me today, along with other goodies like Hive's "Working With Sound" and "Mezzanine" by Massive Attack. So much audio tasty and no means to listen.

Oh, the Vogonity.

But I do have to take into consideration that this is a brand new blog and nobody's reading it anyway. So I slave away in my little cube here in the wilds of Jersey City for naught.

In a vacuum,
Ben

Evil music

So I've been engaged in a fiery debate with my friend Gio regarding the evils of black metal versus those of gangsta rap. For those of you who are unaware, black metal is a particularly virulent strain of heavy metal that involves a lot of growling about Satan, how cool he is, and how much Judeo-Christian religion sucks. BTW, it also sounds really excellent.

Anyway, I'm a longtime fan of both genres. Gio has always been a hiphop head and is just beginning his sojourn into the fetid realms of all thing loud and fast, i.e. metal. Not that Motley Crue shit that passes for metal but is, in truth, simply overheated hard rock, nor the whiny-little-bitch love-child of hair metal, Emo. I'm talking real metal. Bands you've never heard of. All those weird T-Shirts with names you can barely read. We're talking drummers who simply cannot be human, given the speed of their double kicks. Evil, evil music.

Yeah.

OK. Tangent over. Back to work.

So the debate is... are these genres equally offensive? Gio has mentioned that while he likes the bombast and overall energy of black metal, he finds the lyrical content difficult to listen to at times and sometime even finds it offensive. He does not, however, find the same flaws in hardcore gangsta. I, on the other hand, find both styles cartoonish (yet profoundly enjoyable) and am therefore offended by neither.

Yes, the PMRC would not like me.

Not at all.

Goody.

Anyway, I've been slightly at a loss as to how to convince Gio otherwise. Not that this is some shining goal who's completion will forever enlighten my somewhat pitiful existence. It's done more in the simple spirit of debate. I've drawn parallels between the popularity of horror movies (with their attendent festivals of pointless violence and gore) and that of the aforementioned black metal. So far, no luck. But we'll see.

For those of you interested in further exploring the joys of black metal (or just metal in general), please investigate my current faves:

Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon
Slayer - Reign In Blood
Entombed - Wolverine Blues
Nefilim - Zoon

Likewise, you should also check out the following:

Madvillian - Madvilliany
R.A. The Rugged Man - Die, Rugged Man, Die
N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
Redman - Dare Iz A Dark Side

In the meanwhile, I'm going to go listen to some John Coltrane.
Genres are bullshit.
Listen to everything.


Cheers,
Ben

Here we go

So I guess this is where I spit out all the details of my life to complete strangers.

Nifty.

Geez, I haven't even filled out my entire profile yet. And where to get a pretty pic of me...?