jeff mills and cat power

Saw Jeff Mills on Sat. night with Duane, shown here, we are ready, awesome techno. the three turntable master. Then I saw Cat Power last night at the Filmore. Amazing. Mills was intense, relentless. I have not heard hardcore techno like that in a while, and dancing like that I see why people resort to chemicals. It is draining and energizing.

CP was talented, quirky, cute, hot, and funny. She dances and acts out her songs in mimish and/or schizo ways. Her connection with the audience reminded me of folky patter but for people who may never go to a folk festival, at least not until they grow out of their alternativo ways. Other non-urban areas are probably more hip in that regard. Great connection. I swear she smiled at me...

I loved almost everything she did, even the snippetes of covers she didn't finish, like White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane. Her resemblance to Grace Slick and her Mick Jagger impersonation during Satisfaction are...what they are. Cool. Yeah. I was super glad she played The Greatest and also that she played solo guitar and piano. Her band, The Memphis Rhythm Band, was ok. Without her they were not ok. Thankfully they played with her most of the time, which is their purpose on this earth. Everyone was awesome as a musician except maybe one guitarist, and the blase drummer. Awesome trumpet, backup singers, slide guitar. Gotta have that.

loudQuietloud

Aside from continuing my viewing of X-men: Evolution, the animated series, and getting ready to move, and setting up an appointment to get a new tattoo, I saw the following: new documentary about The Pixies called LoudQuietLoud. Very good, playing at the Roxie this week. All about their 2004 reuninon tour. Amazing how messed up they are, especially Kim Deal and the drummer. Joey Santiago the guitarist is oddly normal.

Also last night saw Rob Zombie and Godsmack. Two very strong bands. Highlights of Zombie were his horror film clips and preacher-like oratory. It was the last show of their summer tour. Highlights of the ultra-talented Godsmack include the singer and drummer playing dual drum kits while doing a medley of their favorite classic rock songs: at one point they conducted a singalong of Black Sabbath's War Pigs! Very appropriate indeed.

looking to move soon

due to getting a new landlord who wants to make some money by evicting us, I am now looking for an apartment or room to share in san francisco.  I would love to live with creative people and have space to work on my painting and sculpture.  Let me know if you know or hear of anything. 

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barney and tomatsu

Saw the Matthew Barney and Shomei Tomatsu shows on sunday, last day for Tomatsu so I am glad I went. Aesthetically Barney was nice but lacked solid and interesting ideas, for me, and did not live up to the hype. Tomatsu on the other hand is a master photographer and should get more attention here. The link above goes to the SFMoma site for Tomatsu and the photograph is one he took in Afghanistan. His work in Nagasaki is powerful and he reluctantly took that assignment. Barney is fine but it is ironic that he had a show investigating Japanese culture to some extent while the floor below was indeed Japanese. Barney was impressive but Tomatsu is perfect.

novels and such

After reading Seth Godin's blog linked above I am probably going to put my novel Blue, my 1st novel, up for free pdf download soon. That will be good. Was thinking about keywords: it's about drugs, insanity, and linguistics. The new novel, which I am thinking of calling "beautiful noise" is about sex, art, and language. and the environment. and music. and technology. mainly nanotechnology. this brings up comparisons to the diamond age, although mine is more about the next ice age. if kafka wrote science fiction, or paul bowles did. grim. with lots of high fidelity sex and dating neuroses.

apparently "beautiful noise" is a neil diamond song. interesting.

stay tuned.