My most recent mix of songs that sound cool to me and may or may not put something that I think into words that are better than mine.

Interpol - The New
The French Kicks - Better Time
Joy Division - Isolation
Thom Yorke - And It Rained All Night
David Bowie - Breaking Glass
Sonic Youth - Kim Gordon & The Arthur Doyle Hand Cream
Death Cab For Cutie - The Sound of Settling
Nathan Asher & the Infantry - Turn Up the Faders
A Decent Animal - Don't Look Down
Okkervil River - No Key No Plan
The Cure - The End of the World
Scott Carney - Sweet Bloody Murder
Pearl Jam - In Hiding
Peter, Bjorn, and John - Young Folks
Talking Heads - Pulled Up
Dismemberment Plan - Ellen and Ben
Belaire - Through the Wire
Spoon - Stay Don't Go
Deadboy and the Elephantmen - Stop, I'm Already Dead
Eels - Everything's Gonna Be Cool

Labels: music

well shit. Now it doesn't matter... It's sold out anyway. I should have figured... probably been sold out for a while, but I just found out it was happening yesterday. Kind of like how I missed the Ministry show... EVEN THOUGH I'M *supposedly* ON THE FREAKIN' MAILING LIST. Maybe I'll just go and see if anyone's selling tickets or if I can just get in regardless. Damn. Did not want the desicion to be made that way.

but, on the other hand, good for Charlotte for selling out a show that damned well SHOULD have sold out! :)

Labels: music

Is it hypocritical of me to complain that good bands never come to Charlotte and then skip out on the Melvins show at the Milestone b/c I think I'd rather save that $16 to go towards the Hawaii trip? If I don't go to this show, I can't complain about Charlotte music for at least, like, a month.

Labels: music

After we were in Amsterdam for about a week, we went back to London for the weekend. I don't like London. I didn't like it the last time I went, and I didn't particularly like it this time. Amsterdam is a MUCH nicer place to visit. And not just because the pot is legal. But I digress...
The first night we were there, we went straight to a pub to eat. Allison had a beer . Well, we both had a beer. Actually beerS. And they weren't actually that expensive... considering that everything over there is twice as expensive as it is over here anyway. Stupid USA. (have I ever mentioned anywhere that I really REALLY fucking hate george bush? Not that it's necessariliy related, but still...) Somehow we managed to start talking to some guys that were sitting behind us... in particular, this guy named Victor. (I might be spelling it wrong... if so, that sucks, and I'm an ass.)
After a while, Viktor's girlfriend Alie (I also might be spelling that wrong... I totally suck) joined us as well... After a few, they invited us into their abode which was this SWEET pseudo-underground apartment thing just a couple of blocks from the bar. I have no idea how late we stayed there, but it was LAAATE. I only know that I didn't take any pictures for some reason, lots and lots and lots of alcohol was drunk, and it definitely made me like London better. Even tho Victor is from Amsterdam (that's how the conversation started!) and Allie was from South Africa via Saudi Arabia. Cool. CityBag. If you hear of it, it's Victor's. Hopefully.
After crazy night out with our newfound foreign friends (where WE were the foreigners), we managed to actually wake up and try to do something... or go somewhere... which turned out to be more difficult than it should have been. We couldn't quite exactly figure out where we wanted to go... and, when we did, we didn't know what bus to take. And then it was kind of raining, and Allison had her hair all cute for later functions of the day... I tried my best to save it with this make-shift hat. If you see this in London today, it was our fault. (The same, I suppose, with weird chopped up sideburns) Allison posed for three photos - The Wistful Look, The Pensive Look, and The Suggestive Look. Magnum? What's Magnum?
After some debate, we (probably *I* b/c I'm an ass) decided that we should walk down to the British Museum. Which might be my favorite place in London.... They had this here rock as well as a bunch of dead people. Really really really dead people. Last time I was there they also had a bunch of old books and a copy of the Magna Carta and... just stuff that I couldn't find this time. A guide or something overheard us talking about the Magna Carta and said that it had been moved to the British Library about 4 years ago. Suck. I was definitely interested in seeing that and some of the old Shakespeare stuff again.
Oh. And they had this on display too... I have no idea wtf that is supposed to be, but it's got to be the ugliest display in the entire museum. Which, I suppose, is saying a lot considering there's that picture of the gooey rotted mummy above...
After hanging at the Museum for a while, we met Victor and Allie again at a Dutch Pancake house for bitter balls and pancakes. Somehow we didn't get pancakes when we were in Amsterdam... although we did have waffles and ice cream and cherries. Holy shit. Maybe the best thing I've ever put in my mouth. (I think I can say that with a straight face.) Anyway... we hung out with them at this place which was really quite good and Victor made us have sweet pictures taken of ourselves...
Having had enough of the silliness, we headed back to the hotel to get ready. Allison's boss was kind enough to give us money for (what turned out to be) this really really really really great restaurant called Asia de Cuba. (14 St. Martin's Lane... I don't know why I remember that) It ended up that we didn't actually HAVE to dress up, but we did. We were hot. Kind of.
I didn't even drink a lot, but I somehow managed to end up looking like this after the meal. (damn, it was good!)
In an effort to get rid of all that awesome food, we zapped on the Underground down to the Tower of London. It was kind of sad that it was so dark (for us) b/c we couldn't photograph much. The easy thing to photograph was, naturally, The Tower Bridge.
As we walked around the Thames, we took about a zillion pictures. Most of bridges. Here's only a few...
'tis London Bridge... at night. Walking around the Thames at night really only affords one photo opportunities of bridges...	And these were at the end of the Millenium Foot Bridge on the North side of the Thames on the way to St. Paul's Cathedral. You can't see Allison very well, but I thought it was a neat idea for a picture.	While we were walking we came upon this play that was just kind of randomly happening near the banks of the river. I don't know what it is, and we didn't stay very long, but I thought it was neat that you could just happen to come across a play.
	And then we had to leave. This is Allison demonstrating the saddness at the airport. We were supposed to go back and see Allie and Victor, but we tried calling four times and had our money taken or the phone was broken every time. It sucked; definitely would have liked to have hung out once more before leaving. Ah... bygones, Allie... bygones.

This is now the longest journal entry ever, and I refuse to proofread it. Especially since I'm already pretty sure I spelled both names wrong. And I don't know if sarcasm translates well into Dutch.

Labels: Allison, London

and here we go again... a little less exciting, maybe... but they are what they are. These are from the day after Pearl Jam. There should probably be more pictures b/c we saw other cool stuff, but the battery in my camera was dying, and we couldn't find a US power convertor anywhere... The one we brought with us was supposed to work in England only. Even tho it didn't actually even work there... ellipsis.

Right. Even though there are many pictures of Rijks, we actually didn't go in. We went to Van Gogh this day and then spent too long just wondering about. Rijksmuseum was closing when we went over. (But the Rijksmuseum is FAR more impressive than Van Gogh from the outside) The next day, however, we did go... but my camera was dead. Which is too bad, b/c all of those white tents you can see in a few of the pictures were around a reflecting pool kind of thing in front of the Rijksmuseum... and, the next day, they were filled with incredible spreads from different local restaurants. I've been to street parties or whatever, but NONE of them compared to this. It all looked like real mini-restaurants inside the tents. Just ridiculous. Lots of people, some music, a couple of people riding wake boards in the reflecting pool... right. Some cool stuff that I wish I would have photographed. Que sera sera.

This is actually the first place we went in Amsterdam after getting our stuff to the hotel. We just didn't take a picture of it b/c we were in too much of a hurry to find our awesome pizza place. And this apple was "free" with our breakfast in the hotel. I'm, err... kissing it. Because it tasted like the place in the last picture. Yep.
This is the entrance to the Rijksmuseum... that's all there really is to say about that.	And this big ass "IAmsterdam" thing was just kind of out there...the reflecting pool is behind it. I dunno how Allison managed to take this shot and have only me in it. Kind of cool. Fuck everyone else! :)	And this is just a far away shot from across the big green field that's in front of the IAmsterdam sign. I just thought it was pretty to have that sign with the entire width of the Rijksmuseum behind it. And it is.
These three are all just some kind of random pictures from inside the garden that surrounds the Rijksmuseum. There were more, but I'll spare you... mostly.
This hill looked pretty neat due to its triangular nature. The picture's not as cool as I thought it'd be. This is at the far other end of the big green field in front of the IAmsterdam sign.	And this is actually back in the gardens. I don't know what the hell she's doing.	And, lastly, for total randomness... here's a street corner in Amsterdam. Back near our hotel. Sweet.

Labels: Allison, Amsterdam

It seemed to work last time... so I'll try again. These are the select few that didn't look like total complete shite from the Pearl Jam show day... at least the ones I haven't already posted.
I apologize now for the copious amounts of blur.

These two were in front of the Neuwe Kirche (spelling?) before we left for the day... they're dumb, but also kind of funny. Kind of.		And these... These are the golden tickets... and the pink wristband... which was SUPPOSED to get us way up front... but landed us in the middle/front instead. dammit.
Everybody. In blue. I almost didn't put this cuz of how blurry it is, but it's the best one, sadly, that I got of the whole band.	Eddie doing something weird... I think that's his signal for "Give me all of your money."	And Ed and Jeff...
Also was close to not making it, but there were so many of Mike that were almost good... I decided this one would go. Even though there's no "action." As it were.	Lots of attempts to get something good of Matt. But, damn, drummers are difficult... This sucks but was the best I had. Matt and Stone's back.	If this was a LITTLE less blurry, it would be really awesome. Pretty classic Jeff pose regardless.
Another, shittier, full band shot. But Ed's wearing the george bush jacket and, if I recall, just took to stomping on the bushy mask that just got thrown on the floor. EXCELLENT. :)	Eddie and Jeff again... mostly b/c Ed's actually kind of clear in this one.	Mike finally decided to come hang out on our side (I'm sorry, but Stone is not as much fun to watch)... so this is Mike. Along with that guy who keeps making the band sound worse. grrr...

Labels: Allison, Amsterdam, concerts, music, Pearl Jam

Yellow Ledbetter is a great fall driving song with the windows down when you're not trying to speed along TOO quickly...

for that matter, almost all of Lost Dogs Disc 1 fits that criteria.

Labels: music, Pearl Jam

Looks like I'm bored again... Pictures from our first day in London...

Allison in front of the Buckingham Palace gates...	And the "palace" itself...mostly... it's not all that pretty.	And Allison in front of Big Ben... from afar.
A couple of the pictures we took while walking through St. James park. I used to know the name of that body of water, but I forgot... maybe something as stupid as "St. James River." Even though it doesn't look like a river on the map. I dunno.
I've been to London twice. Neither time have I actually gone into Westminster Abbey. Annoying. I'm actually in this photo... under the "Give Way" sign...	And this is just the side of Parliament... kind of neat, but nothing overly special.	And here we're about to head back to the airport to go to Amsterdam. 'tis me in front of Victoria Station.

This is the first time in years that I've updated this from a client instead of directly on the webpage. I hope it works.

Labels: Allison, London

I just now scanned this, which is a shame, but I got Erik Larsen to do a little sketch of that character The Shrew... the one that got eaten up by a pair of chainsaws... on the backer board for SD #1... perhaps of mild interest. Perhaps not.

Labels: Comic Books, Original Art

hmmm... Can I actually get there now? I have no idea. *Here's hoping*

Labels: Pearl Jam

Stupid camera. I've gotten picture happy since I got it... Scott's birthday was last weekend. And Thomas's not long before it. So Scott and Thomas and Bryan and I converged on Scott's super-rad pad on St. Simon's Island.

Here's what happened... well, some of it.

06 & 07 October 2006... and so it goes...
And we arrive... Thomas and Scott have been slaving over the stove all day just so that Bryan and I can feel welcome when we arrive. So precious.
We celebrate partially at some weird place that I thought was karoke. But it was an actual "band." Scott wanted to dance with some of the hot babes...	...but he was too shy...	and Thomas was too cool. Babes? Fuck that.
After ditching the hot babes, we headed back to Scott's... where Bryan made himself comfortable, cards were dealt, and Scott became beligerent. (this is Raven... she made Scott's shirt. She doesn't like photos. And she's getting flipped off.)
I'm not quite sure how this happened, but apparently Thomas and Bryan and I had glamor shots made. And I dunno why Scott doesn't have one. I'm pretty sure he wasn't taking the pictures or anything. Perhaps he was flipping people off while this was happening.
Look, mom! I can fly!	One of the many many... many... many. pool games played over the weekend...	And the next morning, Scott lectures Bryan on the health benefits of showers vs. baths. "Stand in the place where you are!" "Your head is there to move you around!" (Bryan might get that reference, and Scott will think it sucks.) Regardless. This is a hot tub. On a screened-in porch. With a stereo. And a TV. And the water is just outside. Cool.
After being too lazy for far too long, we manage to motivate enough to go to the beach. Thomas looked so cute with all his gear... and Bryan... Bryan's always cute. ---> ---> ---> --->
Someone (probably Bryan) chucked the frisbee into the ocean far before anyone was ready to get wet. Valiantly, Scott went to fetch. Although it was probably to impress the girl sitting by herself on the beach. Her dog, however, had the same idea and went to get the frisbee instead. It turns out that she was from Savannah, so it was cool that the dog won the race.	Unfortunately, no one was around to capture our godlike bodies crashing through the surf of low tide at St. Simon's. The whitecaps rolled in and over but couldn't phase our determination. Like modern day Prometheii, we brought light to the people. As they saw us struggle, man against nature, we conquered again... and again... and yet again! Despite the best efforts of God and Neptune, we still threw that damned frisbee. Back. and Forth. And Back. Here, Thomas is doing is best to capture the waning light of passing-godhood as it slowly drips off our bodies to sink to the bottom of the sea. Yes.
08 October 2006... and so it continues...
Yes... technically it was the 8th, but it was really just the end of the 7th. I think. Regardless. This is the moon. The pictures below are also of the moon. Not the sun. The moon. The last one is the first time I realized that I could really raise the exposure on this camera. That's a 15 second shot... with me trying to hold the camera still by hand. Hence the shakiness.
After a little too much to drink and a little too much regular pool, it was time for the super stupid pool tournament. I'm pretty sure this (as with the frisbee game) pitted me and Scott against Thomas and Bryan. and yeah... that's 30 balls on the table. Not including Scott's.
Almost lastly... me. After, most likely, making a terrible terrible shot in pool. And lastly... There is no lastly. DISCLAIMER: Bryan took most of these pictures that night, which is why he does not appear in day 2. It's not any bigotry towards Bryan. Except for that last picture b/c he crashed early. That was bigotry.

Labels: bryan, Raven, Scott, Thomas

Bryan took this photo at Scott's place on St. Simon's... more to come, but this is probably the best. Sucks that he's taking the picture instead of in it tho...



and I totally ripped off this idea from someone at valiantcomics.com. Although I bet he stole it from someone else too... who's to say.

Labels: Scott, Thomas

Friday the 13th, and I've managed to secure a pair of tickets to some industrial music down the street in a nice dark dirty loud club. yeah. KMFDM. I remembered they was fun, but I'd forgotten how much fun. And not really any bad luck befell me. As far as I can recall anyway...

I wasn't too psyched to see CombiChrist as the opener as I'd never heard them and any band with an "Army" is kind of lame, but they put on a GREAT show. When's the last time you were at a show with two drummers, a DJ, and a lead screamer? Cool. Their lyrics mostly sucked... although some were trying to be poignant... I think there was one about how rape is bad. Duh. (Disclaimer: Schmakt Dot Com says, "Don't rape people.") They also came out wearing masks... which is also kind of lame... but they didn't totally gimick it (can I use "gimick" as a verb?). Masks were tossed into the crowd after the 1st song and weren't used again. I fear that the energy at the live show will not transfer to a recording well at all, but I still might pick up the record if I find it for cheap. Photos were kind of difficult, but here are a few...

>		>
Drummer on the left (on the kit)	The whole band... mostly	Drummer on the right (on the stand-up djimbae (or something))

---

Oh yeah... and here's us before we went...
Allison looked pretty hot.
I kind of look like a muppet.

And then there was KMFDM... I had a ton of cool picturs of Sascha K, but it was mostly because he looked like badass with his blonde mini-mohawk, so whatever I took looked kind of cool. Terrible time with Jules b/c he was behind the pole, Steve wouldn't stand still... and, well, there are always problems with drummers. Sorry. That was a waste of time.

The show was fucking fabulous tho. Sascha and Lucia both sounded great, and the mix was really really good too. With Allison in tow, I managed to stay out of the mosh pit. Which meant I could actually watch the show more. And hanging out with her drinking and watching the funny people was definitely awesome. But there's something about going to a concert and not coming home with at least one major bruise that doesn't sit right with me... They played a pretty damned long Set 1 with a 3-song encore and then another single-song 2nd encore. I was, first, surprised that it wasn't another full 2nd set as it wasn't THAT late and then, again, surprised with the 2nd encore. That was cool. Especially since people started leaving after the 1st set. Whatever.

They played Hau Ruck, which is the only thing I REALLY wanted to hear. Figured they'd play it and they did, so I was glad. Got versions of Light and A Drug Against War as well. Not on the top of the must-hear list, but still cool nonetheless. Oh. And we sang happy birthday to Jules. He seemed happy. I definitely would have gone back for a 2nd night show had there been one. Or even travelled somewhere if it was closer than Atlanta. And not Atlanta. Anyway. Photos. Here.

I was going to caption those, but I don't think it's necessary. Enjoy.

Labels: Allison, concerts, music

I'm a little bored... here are some more pictures from Amsterdam. These are all from August 28... the day we went to see Radiohead. Hence the pictures of Radiohead. As usual... click for a massive sized version. Perhaps I should have used widescreen a little less often tho, yeah?

Allison with our tickets between our hotel and the canal	a couple of photos of the whole band. Radiohead. the "band." as it were.
And some pictures of people in the "band." Radiohead. Some of the ones that I didn't think were completely horrible.
My favorite pizza place ever. Sorry, Amici. The kitty that hangs out at my favorite pizza place ever.

Labels: Allison, Amsterdam, concerts, music

The weather is so perfect right now... about 45 degrees and overcast. Perfect for disc golf. Now if I can just find a damned partner...

Last night I FINALLY watched Nirvana's Live Tonight Only or whatever it's called. It's been in my house for ages, and I just never got around to it. Mostly b/c it's on VHS, and VHS sucks. But it was pretty freakin' awesome. So sad to not find that kind of thing around here. At least as far as I know.

Also watched Live Unplugged again... *eh*
and The Phamily's (Family Force 5) little DVD thing... mostly sucks, but it gets a small number of points for humor
and watched Blind Melon's performance at Woodstock... awesome, but, damn, the drummer is kind of lame. (I can't remember his name)
And then I watched the DVD I made of filboyd studge performances. worst. dvd. ever.

Labels: music

uhm... and here are a couple of more... I'm really going home after this...

It's the front of our hotel (Allison wasn't ALWAYS standing in front of it) and the view from the front door across the canal.

Labels: Allison, Amsterdam

And here's two more b/c they're stupid and funny and stupid.

We were going to see Pearl Jam.

I would like to be going to see Pearl Jam right now.
I can probably make it to Australia... hmmm...

Or maybe even Bridge School... I wouldn't be FORCED to watch Dave Matthews, I don't think...

Labels: Allison, Amsterdam, Pearl Jam

A few days ago, I bought someone a present. I also bought myself a present, b/c that's what I do. My present was the hardcover of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. I'm trying to read Catch-22, but it's going slowly. It's funny and entertaining, but it's not really grabbing me. It's not really fair to pick up Dostoevsky in the middle of trying to read anything else b/c the "anything else" will definitely suffer. Poor Joseph. At least he was friends with Kurt Vonnegut... *sigh*...

So, anyway. That was, like, 2 days ago. Then yesterday, I picked up the hardcover of 1987's "Kraven's Last Hunt" by JM DeMatteis and Mike Zeck. First time I read this story was in 7th grade when doing one of those "spend-the-night-with-a-friend" things. One where we, mostly, just got to sit around all night and read piles of comics. That was fun. I remember really liking it. And I've since purchased the individual comics and reread it. It was still good... and the art... Man, Zeck was ON. I reckon maybe even non-comic readers might recognize the cover to Web of Spider-Man #31?



Or maybe not. I dunno, but it's awesome.

So far this has all been setup for the actual point of this "story." I read DeMattheis's intro to the book and, while interesting, the basic idea is one that I've heard before in many different ways. What really caught me, however, was this:

But buried in this Marvel Universe entry was one intriguing fact: Kraven was Russian. (To this day I don't know if that was something that was established in continuity or if the writer of that particular entry tossed it in on a whim.)

Russian?

Russian!

Why should that excite me so? One word- Dostoyevsky. When I read Crime and Punishment and the Brothers Karamazov in high school, they seeped in through my brain, wormed their way into my nervous system....and ripped me into shreds. No other novelist has ever explored the staggering duality of existence, illuminated the mystical heights and the despicable depths of the human heart with the brilliance of Dostoyevsky. The Russian soul, as exposed in his novels, was really the Univeral Soul. It was my soul.

And Kraven was Russian.

In an instant, I understood Sergei Kravinoff. In an instant, the entire story changed focus.

(Thanks to Cyberman on the CBR forums for typing this for me as I forgot to bring my copy with me.)

It's that "One word-" There's something about seeing someone who has "made it" as it were refer to one of your own... heroes. Can I say that? "Heroes." It all kind of just fell into place. I haven't yet begun Crime and Punishment, but I read the intro. And even reading the intro it was like coming back to something comforting. And while reading the "Kraven" intro, I was just waiting for it. As soon as he said, "Russian" I got all tingly in anticipation of seeing "Dostoevsky" on the written page in front of me. Thereby bringing together two different but very similar interests. It was exciting and thrilling... and really really lame. I think it pretty much officially makes me a, howdoyousay, "loser" for being excited by seeing the name of a long dead author in a reference in the introduction to a hardcover collected edition of a comic book.

Regardless. It did make me happy. And allowed me to read the story in a whole new light. Kraven's character immediately became a thousand times deeper and more interesting. His motivations became so much clearer, and I felt like I could identify with him more as an actual person than a two-dimensional character. Simply by having the connection to Dostoevsky's characters and the amazingly lucid histories associated with them.

Did I ever get to an actual point?
Dostoevsky is still amazing.
Mike Zeck was a wonderful Spider-Man artist.
DeMatteis creates a great story.
All of my verbs are of the wrong tense.

Re-reading this story again through this new filter made it like I was reading it for the first time. Perhaps the best $20 I've dropped in a while.

And here are some pictures I took in Amsterdam.

They're all of the same thing, but I can't figure out which one I like the best. Timing is everything. Or something like that.

Labels: Amsterdam, Books, Comic Books, Dostoevsky