Wednesday, 6:57pm (October 1, 2008)
I went to the dentist today and got a crown, actually a temporary cap, and the permanent will get installed in a couple weeks. Right now my right face is going from numb to punched in the jaw feeling. In general, life is pretty good... with a few minor challenges here and there. Last Saturday morning we had to remove a dead possum from under our house. The next day Mrs. R found another dead possum outside our house, and the last couple days we've been smelling that smell again, fearing another one under the house. We HAD animal proofing done a few years ago, but obviously some serious checking and repair needs to be done. And why the heck do we have this sudden die-off of possums? (Assuming this current smell is that and not a squirrel or raccoon.) I certainly hope nobody in our neighborhood would be fuckwit enough to poison animals. A seriously scary thought. Perhaps an illness, or pure coincidence. But I do NOT relish the thought of going down into our insanely low crawl-space tomorrow hunting for another maggoty carcass. However: it's got to be done.

In rather more pleasant news, I have another gadget glow going. But bonus! We didn't have to spend money for this one. Some 5 or 6 years ago, Mrs. Random won a Palm m505 handheld PDA as a doorprize at a work-related conference in Texas. She used it for several years for phone numbers, addresses, and appointments. Then I guess she kind of lost interest, and our data-keeping moved to laptop computers, teh Google Cloud and other new fancy things. I've been, for the last few months, secretly jonesing for an e-book reader, inspired by the Amazon Kindle and the buzz it's created. But give me a break! Three hundred bucks is way too much to spend for a dedicated e-reader. Please, it's gotta be under $100 or I'm not going to even consider it. Anyway, a few days ago I idly googled "cheap e-book reader" and found several hits... among which was the suggestion that old Palms were a very cheap way to go. "Buy 'em for $25 on E-bay" someone wrote. Then I remembered my wife's languishing PDA. She was only too happy to bring it home. I got busy searching for Palm OS stuff, and came up with several readers and lots of sources for free e-books. Yeah! I've suddenly become hooked. Last night I stayed awake late in bed reading Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. An awesome novel, by the way. If you're concerned with our growing "security society" you should read it. Doctorow released it free as an e-book download (of course, you can read on a regular computer too). Also, I've never read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, although I've owned several copies since grade school. I'm reading it now on the Palm. I've got a bunch of stuff now waiting to be read a few little chunks at a time, at opportune little moments. When I turn the unit on, it comes right up where I left off reading last time. Cool!

There, a blog. Plop!

Thursday, 5:11am (September 25, 2008)

New minting location. Space money production proceeds.

Monday, 5:07am (September 22, 2008)

Early morning delivery at Cornucopia, 17th & Lincoln, sometime last week

Wednesday, 4:20am (September 17, 2008)
Slow internet energy for me for the last week or two, as is probably obvious, yes? Check out M. Fuchs' new blog The Circuit Breakers.

Had a great time at Eug. Celeb. on Friday night at Luckey's and Saturday afternoon at the Library Stage. Yay for The Ovulators (twice!), The Underlings, Yeltsin, and Alpha Dahlia!! I got my money's worth, that's for sure. Twelve bucks for three days of music? That's "so expensive"? I guess everything is relative. Sounds like two hours of minimum wage work to me. Or two sixpacks of decent beer on sale. Sheesh.

Have ta say: I'm hearing more and more of my peers(?) talking like grumpy old men lately. "Music these days" "Kids these days" "Everything sounds the same nowadays" "There's no soul" "All music today is boring" "I just can't get excited about the Eugene Celebration"... blah dee fucking blah.

IF YOU'RE BORED, THAT MEANS YOU'RE BORING. Or at the very least (I think) you seriously need to open your senses to the amazingness of the life around you. Apply some effort and get excited. Otherwise, you are boring me, and I'm going to stop listening to you. That's pretty much all I have to say about THAT subject at the moment.

I did catch Menomena at the Rogue stage, and they were fun, although I kept wishing they had a woman in the band. Weird, I know. I had a moment of musical depression before leaving Helle's Belles (Library Stage), contemplating a band that completely devotes itself to covering the songs of one famous band, i.e. a tribute band. I would love to see that lineup playing originals. But after some perspective-building time (4 days?), I do admit that tribute bands are just fine and I was having my own "grumpy old man" moment there. Heh.

Saturday, 7:20pm (September 13, 2008)
Check out my rock star wife...

Wednesday, 6:32am (September 10, 2008)
Working on a relatively massive project: sorting and organizing CDRs and DVDRs of computer data from the past 7 years. Also, I've been "blogging" but I've been using this awesome technology that needs no electricity or special hardware. It also has the advantage of being nearly completely private. Pen and paper! Yeah! The disadvantage is that I only get "hits" when I open the notebook, so its Page Rank (tm) is abysmal and thus it will never win a EW award.

Friday, 6:06am (September 5, 2008)
I've been playing with Google's new browser, Chrome, and looking forward to Firefox implementing the tear-away tab feature, for sure. And sandboxing. Chrome is open source, so I expect to see its successful innovations incorporated in other browsers. But of course Google is all about the Cloud, net-based computing, using primarily applications that reside, not on a particular computer, but which are accessible through any net-connected machine via a browser. Chrome is a browser optimized for Google's applications, like GMail, Docs, Search, etc. etc. I think Chrome will evolve to the point where it might become an "operating system" itself that runs without the need for a conventional OS like Windows or Linux or OS X. If all your apps and files are in the Cloud, then your browser essentially IS your operating system. It's ironic that the personal computer took control of programs/data away from mainframes (one big central compuer with multiple "terminals" i.e. screen+keyboard stations), and now via personal computers a similar model is emerging. Little terminals (netbooks, media players, phones, blackberries, etc. etc.) connected to the big cloud server where all programs and files reside.

Hey, I hear Dawn Baby's having a party on First Friday (i.e. TONIGHT) at her salon (1355 Willamette, across from new Fire Station). The bands are London Flush & SootheSayers.

Wednesday, 6:07am (September 3, 2008)
Oatmeal, coffee, and a little prose:

But what these deprecations acknowledge, however tacitly, is the degree to which the cinema books resist easy assimilation, for Deleuze's two volumes are, in their own way, astonishing. Whatever their intricacies and digressions, The Movement-Image and The Time-Image fundamentally contend that, beyond all other arts, the cinema opens the possibility for deterritorializing the cogito, the rigid "image of thought" that in one form or another has dominated Western philosophy. The cinema provokes us to see, to feel, to sense, and finally to think differently, and while this induces Deleuze to write his two volumes, those volumes in turn compel us to return to the cinema, to see its images in the light of our own captivity to the rituals of representation, the philosophical-narrative program we have been running. Ultimately, the cinema books should be read precisely because of their ambition, because they constitute, to twist a phrase of Foucault's, an "introduction to non-fascist thinking."

-- Gregory Flaxman, Introduction, The Brain Is The Screen: Deleuze and the Philosophy of Cinema, p. 2.

Tuesday, 5:19am (September 2, 2008)
I've been thinking a lot about relationships lately. About real-time relations between people and things, things and things, people and animals, animals and animals, and especially people and people. Vectors, continuous variation, entanglements and freeings, co-pilotings, solo efforts, groups, configurations, assemblages, territorializations, deterritorializations, reterritorializations.

Monday, 5:12am (September 1, 2008)
Twas a music filled weekend, with a lovely Swarm yesterday and the Secret Gig at Luckey's on Saturday night going quite well, although flying in the Missing Man formation. It's hard for me to disagree with Frank Zappa. "Music is the best."

Friday, 8:16pm (August 29, 2008)

The Legendary London Flush is a local Yardbirds cover band. I saw them at the Whiteaker Block Party. Peter Weinberger and John Barley are two players I recognized in that band. I met the singer, but forgot his name. I don't think they have a website at this point. Put on your disguises and come rock out at Luckey's on Saturday!

Thursday, 8:44pm (August 28, 2008)
A wonderfully quiet evening here at Chez Random. I mean, there has been a band playing over in the park, but they're good, and it drowns out the squabbling park denizens. I cooked dinner tonight. We're gonna get back to something a little more equal in the dinner-cooking department. My wife is a total cooking enthusiast, but during the week it can get to be a drag to have to cook. It's time again for me to stop totally coasting. So, we decided I'd start with Tuesdays and Thursdays, and maybe we do a team-cook on Fridays. Wednesday is band practice usually, so we snack or do our own things. She likes to food-shop and cook on weekends, and often shops for Monday as well. I think that covers the week.

I had a physical today. Blood sugar is good. Cholesterol nawt so gud akchully. The doc is pestering me to start drugs, but I don't wanna! I've been not sticking to as strict a regime as a year ago, both in diet and exercise. Time to redouble efforts!

I had intended to dive into projects when I got home from work this afternoon, but all of a sudden I realized I was very tired. I've been burning both ends of the candle lately, and a busy weekend coming up (MDLS gig Saturday and LP swarm Sunday). So I just went to bed and had myself a nice two-hour nap! Was much better after that. And now that dinner is in my belly, I'm getting sleepy again. To bed at an early hour tonight, quite possibly.

View from Willamette St. near 24th Place: Spencer Butte peeks above the low clouds.

Thursday, 5:33am (August 28, 2008)
Yesterday was social-y. "Ad change" day at work, which means time on the floor and more people-interactions per minute than I generally have at work on most days. Then we had a staff picnic/party at Alton Baker Park, which Mrs. R & I attended during the dinner hour (6-7p). Nice chatting with Kate & Justin, who are sadly leaving for Austin shortly, and Babs, and Tony, et al. But we didn't really mingle much. I'm not big on work parties, and I know some ppl were surprised to see us at all. But it was fun, and kinda cool to see co-workers out in the world in their civvies with drinks in their hands and kids running around. After that we headed back to our home neighborhood and took in some live rock and roll in Scobert Park: our friends Alpha Dahlia shook the trees and the blades of grass with hot music. My favorite moments were their cover of "Heroes" and their rendition of one of my fave A.D. songs: "Emily Rose." The band was in fine form, both visually and sonically. Sassy's hat, yeah!! And it was really cool to see Kim, Shar, and Kellsj already digging the music when we got to the park. Orbital Disco Dave made a brief visit on his bicycle. Looks like he's got a stylin' new haircut. Head for my Flickr if you want some glimpses of the evening.

As we were leaving the Capella staff picnic at Alton Baker Park last night

Wednesday, 6:23am (August 27, 2008)
I woke up with a hangovery like headache this morning, but I didn't drink last night. Probably didn't drink enough water yesterday, but then I had another thought. I usually drink coffee all day at work, and sometimes after work. But yesterday I only had a cup at home and none at work or after. The headache is probably a withdrawal symptom due to not maintaining my normal dosage of caffeine. And not drinking enough water, too, probably.

Tuesday, 10:27pm (August 26, 2008)
Back from band practice across town, well musicked. Snacking on Vietnamese cabbage & chicken salad that Mrs. Random made for dinner, but we had practice early (and on a different night than usual) so I missed dinner at dinnertime. Yummy midnight snack! Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 27, in Scobert Park, on Fourth St. just west of Blair, 7pm... ALPHA DAHLIA plays an outdoor free show for the neighborhood. Come on down!

Today at work I listened to Beltline, Bossa Nova 2600, and Ex-Hustlers. There was some awesome indie rock being made in Eugene during the mid-late-90s, when Jealous Butcher Records (Rob Jones) was still here. Looking at the Ex-Hustlers CD, I remembered that three of those guys were co-workers of mine at Oasis Fine Foods--Pete, Matt, and Kyle. Remember Rally Boy? The Power Jack? Ten-Steppin' Jains? Whoa. Stop me.

On the way to work, I took a bunch of pictures. But I'm too tired now to upload them. Maybe tomorrow.

Hey, you know Kayla the drummer for The Ovulators? She just posted a video that she acted in recently, which answers the question: "What you do when you have all day, no money, and an out of town underage guest to entertain...?" You should srsly chk dis owt. Srsly.

REVENGE

Tuesday, 7:43am (August 26, 2008)
I just noticed that due to a couple of ill-advised feed edits, Google Reader shows my posts out of order and with duplicates. I think I learned my lesson, though: don't edit a feed item once it posts, else it risks reposting out of order. And I think Google Reader must cache feeds, since if you look at the actual XML file, it doesn't have any duplicates, and the posts are in order. ANYWAY, part of the reason for posting THIS post is to get the latest post on top of the Google Reader feed for subscribers to Mr. Random's Blog of Randomness. Now back to your regularly scheduled randomness, such as it is.

Tuesday, 4:40am (August 26, 2008)
Up early, sitting out in the living room, a kitty perched on the couch back near my head, purring in my ear. That one's Phoebe. Last night Friend decided there was enough room on the black leather recliner for her, even though I was sitting there with a laptop. She just sort of wedged her way between me and the arm of the chair and snuggled right in. We haven't had a snuggly cat for ages.

Since I've got a FEED now, I feel the need to post. Not that I have any actual real important content. But this is blogville style entertainment. The bar is set low. It's like eating popcorn. Here, have another.

My interest in the Olympics echoes my interest in the elections. Not much. I'm disgusted by the R's, disheartened by the D's. Disgusted by Chinese gov't, disheartened by drugged and sponsored showbiz athletics. The veep pick is quite pro-RIAA and pro-establishment/gov't/big biz. BO is a charismatic politician. The messianic aura that some peeps are seeing around him.. that's kinda scary to me actually. But whatEV. The real stuff for me happens a lot closer to home. The world/nat'l stage is for drama that just sucks local energies and attentions. IMHO, of course. On the other hand, you could say I'm just a narcissistic head-in-the-sand peterpan with a couple blogs.

Speaking of politics and blogs, you might be interested in Organizing Grievances, a group blog run by some lefty labor types, including P. Hayden (aka Lex Dexter) of Prisonship and Deke Falcon fame (among other fames). PH is currently blogging at OG from the Democratic National Convention site.

Friend flirting with the photographer.

Monday, 9:41pm (August 25, 2008)
Oh how things can change over a weekend. Well, maybe it's not that dramatic, but on Friday I blogged that I wouldn't be patching RSS onto this blog. Well, for some reason I found myself motivated tonight. I love RSS feeds, and I use Google Reader all the time to keep up on all my favorite blogs and sites, and it just IRKS me that my hand-built Blog of Randomness doesn't have one. SO, I found a freeware called SuperSimple RSS Generator and just experimented. And now it appears that Mr. Random's Blog of Randomness now has an RSS feed: http://www.efn.org/~fletk/fletk.xml. Now you can subscribe to my blog just like you can to any old Blogger or WordPress blog!

Sunday, 9:30pm (August 24, 2008)
I'm listening to The Von Bondies, courtesy of a friend. Never heard them before. I like! Also on this cdr are Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks. I'm not sure if I've heard them before. Coming up.

I've been pretty unsocial today, except for when some relatives came through briefly on their way to CA. And out to dinner at Anatolia w/Mrs. R.

Javi and his parents stopped by for a bit on their way through town.

Otherwise I've been in the Chamber of Randomness, focused on making podcasts. I'm a podcast maniac this weekend! At this point I've recorded a show for each day through Thursday of this week (to come out in time-release fashion). Pretty dang fun. The new studio set-up I've made creates a realistic radio station simulation. I've been making these shows in real-time, as opposed to building them in a multi-track editor on the computer. I've got 2 CD players, a turntable, and this computer... all feeding into my Marantz PMD 740 cassette four-track which I'm just using as a mixer, feeding the stereo output from that into an old Windows 2000 laptop, recording with the free open source Audacity program. After I've recorded a show with Audacity, I export to a wave file, transfer it to the newer faster laptop. There I convert it into an mp3, tag it, and upload it to archive.org. Once uploaded, I make a post on the RadioNOT blog, including an embedded player and links to the audio file. If the post is to appear on a future day, I postdate it, and it will appear automatically at the time and date I specify.

Hey, Pass Out Kings have a MySpace page! That's cool, and there are some great songs posted on the player.

Back to the radio studio setup, I'm finding all kinds of ways to play music with the computer. I can stack up a bunch of stand-alone MySpace players for various bands, so they are in effect "queued up" ready to play. Plus, I'm using this cool freeware DJ mixer called Mixxx, which lets me DJ songs from my hard drive(s) and/or thumb drive(s). Also SeeqPod and YouTube are great sources for online instant music. If I think of a song or band I want to play, and I don't have it in my collection, I can often find something online that works.

I like the flexibily of being my own podcast DJ. Time and scheduling is not an issue. I can make a podcast anywhere and I don't have to show up at a physical radio station at a certain time. I just got tired of that. And the FCC regulation and station policies just got to be more of a hassle to me, especially given my growing lack of interest in being a live radio DJ for a college radio station. Anyway, I'd done it for 7 years and I was ready to move on. At the same time, I miss the more widespread reach of KWVA. It's definitely a couple of magnitudes or more of visibility. I benefit greatly from the exposure I got at KWVA. And I'm obviously not done being a DJ. Just moving the venue into more flexible time and space.

Saturday, 4:35pm (August 23, 2008)
I've managed to spend a nice day inside playing with electronics and music. I got into DJing and made a couple more radio shows. One's up already, and one will post early tomorrow automatically. A fair bit of local music from their MySpaces. I like it when I can really get absorbed in a project. It's contenting. Soon I will be lured outside by social interaction, a bbq with friends. Mrs. Random is already making a dish to contribute. Tonight I am told that Hot Drama opens at 10pm at Luckey's. Intergalactic debut! Half of Hot Drama is half of Alpha Dahlia, and THEY are playing on Wednesday at 7pm in Scobert Park.

I'm reenergizing my efforts to sort through, cull, and organize my STUFF, especially upstairs. I also stopped drinking again. Yep. I'm really excited about the upcoming MDLS gig at Luckey's next week with The Legendary London Flush and another band. And I'm also really excited about some recent LaunchPad recordings that we'll soon share. We're also continuing to work on new official CD release. Things take forever, it seems. We all have multiple ongoing projects and bands and such, and it takes perserverance to keep these ideas alive and manifesting over months of time. What's freshly motivating us now is that more than one KWVA DJ is playing LaunchPad songs from an ancient CD recorded when we were just a year or two old. Our newer stuff is so much better and more powerful. So, we need to make a new CD for the local shelf! And to sell at CD World. And at shows.

Reed, Bryant, and Ed playing with the Extended Underlings at the Joe Strummer tribute/benefit at WOW Hall on August 16.

Friday, 6:27am (August 22, 2008)
Dum-de-dum, what to blog today... maybe blog about my blogs a bit. I'm calling a halt to posts on mrrandom.wordpress.com, and transferring those energies back over here to the ~fletk blog. I don't know if that really makes much difference, except that my occasional "philosophical" bloggings will happen here rather than there. This here blog doesn't have an RSS feed, and I'm not going to try to patch one onto it. Enabling comments was enough modernization.

So my three active personal blogs are: this one that you're reading, my Tumblr blog, and RadioNOT. The Tumblr blog, if you haven't checked it out, is where I do quick and dirty posts linking to stuff that catches my eye on the internet. It's a fast, efficient way to share cool and weird links, quotes, photos, and videos that I come across. Often there are up to half a dozen "tumbls" per day there. That one has an RSS feed you can subscribe to if you want. RadioNOT has expanded to include Mr. Random TV shows, which are short collagey things and other vidiocy, as well as Seeqpod playlists, and band sessions. But I'm still doing radio-show style podcasts. I'm posting one today, but archive.org (where I upload the audio files to) has been having troubles, and you might not be able to listen or download it for awhile. Here's hoping they get things fixed soon!

I know everybody has too many entertainment options already. But that's not stopping me from offering my own local/personal-based art for potential "consumption" by you lurking netizens out there.

Thursday, 6:45am (August 21, 2008)
I see The Ballot has started appearing in the EW, and that means I oughta start blogging more in order to justify your vote. This entry will be full of variety.

First off, I'd just like to say I'm very very happy and very very grateful that David Snider remains among the living after his harrowing rafting experience last weekend. No Joke. Read about it here (with bonus x-ray): Run With The Hunted.

Next up: the brand new Eugene band Hot Drama debut their stuff on Saturday night, Aug. 23, at Luckey's. That's Sassy, Gina, Mickey, and Matt. I've heard the recordings. This band is one to watch.

And THIS band is the one to really watch out for, making another rare, furtive appearance downtown: My Dirty Little Secret plays at Luckey's on Saturday, August 30, opening for The Legendary London Flush and another band TBA.

The Eugene Celebration is coming up on September 12, 13, 14, and I'm excited after perusing the schedule over at the EC's website. Lots of local bands. The Ovulators play TWICE. Alpha Dahlia, The Underlings, Fast Computers, etc. etc. Yay!

And finally, I toss some fine cheese your way. Yes, I'm embedding a MySpace video. But this is kickass. Star Wars vehicles in the sky and on the ground in San Francisco....check it out: Death Star Over San Francisco

Wednesday, 5:33am (August 20, 2008)



This morning has involved metallic paint.

Here's what I finished painting last night, and harvested from the drying floor this morning:

Tuesday, 8:18pm (August 19, 2008)
It's just us two Randoms here at home tonight, with 3 girl cats. As we suspected might happen at the next temperature drop, Friend seems to have decided to move inside. She's been napping on the old black leather recliner. She almost disappears in the blackness. Not as much as Shakti did--she was all black--but Friend tucks her white in and becomes nearly invisible in the warm leather. I love the rain and the cooler temperatures, at least for a little while. It can get hot again, and it will I'm sure, but this is a treat. Very soothing to have the evening to ourselves, listen to space music, and putter and read while cats lounge about.

A picture taken during the heat a few days ago. Our bird bath attracts some attractive bathers. The honeybees are big fans of the bath, too.

Saturday, 11:41am (August 16, 2008)
I hear that The Slug King has begun accepting your fealty. More anti kool royal propaganda here.

Bonus fact: slugs are hermaphrodites.

Thursday, 6:22pm (August 14, 2008)
My friend and bandmate lelulaserlight has started a new business, and she just blogged about it. Look for her down at Saturday Market!

Another friend and bandmate, Mickey Fuchs, is up to something. Watch out Eug. Celeb.!

Wednesday, 5:26am (August 13, 2008)
This evening, today, August 13th... CHANTEUSE PLAYS SCOBERT PARK AT 7PM. Chanteuse is Tina, Sleeve, and Chaia, and they've been playing together since June of 2005. Scobert Park is on 4th just west of Blair in the glorious Whiteaker Neighborhood of Eugene, Earth.

In other news, I just posted half a Swarm at RadioNOT for LaunchPad fans and for the merely LaunchPad-curious.

Tuesday, 4:26pm (August 12, 2008)
Who's your Slug King?
SLUG KING I & SLUG KING II (12 minutes)

Tuesday, 4:58am (August 12, 2008)
The internet is a great place for narcissim as well as activism and publicity. I think most of my net activity falls into the first and third categories, although I think an overall activist spirit is the underlying animation of all my efforts. The activism is just not focused on what most people would see as activist goals. I'm not the type of activist that works for organizing people. I tend more toward encouraging people to seek their own passions and pursue their enthusiasms deeply, and to connect with other people and the material world from that attitude, perhaps based on my hunch that we'd all be better off if we were all energetically determined to manifest our lives as personal art work, guided by our own heartfelt desires.

That being said, I need to mention that there's a new post over at the Space Money blog, a cool little video of my friend Tony's son Bleu explaining what he sees in his pieces of space money. AND, I've been posting like crazy on my RadioNOT blog, both "radio shows" and "tv shows" and now I'm starting to post recordings of my bands' sessions ("rehearsal" and "practice" don't really cover what we do, since the bands I'm in are all improvisational; e.g. LaunchPad calls them "Swarms"). This morning's RadioNOT entry is a 65 minute recording of Anti Kool Vultures' session last Wednesday night.

Sunday, 4:23pm (August 10, 2008)
Wow, that was fun. I.e., yesterday. Block Party, LaunchPad gig, and then into the wee hours. Black Forest had The Dead Americans, The Decliners, and Alpha Dahlia. I got to bed at 3 a.m. Movin' slow today. Mostly languidly computer surfing, reading the electronics ad flyers in the newspaper, sipping coffee, now wine. Feel free to plough back through my Flickr for some photos of the day and night. LaunchPad's show at the 941 W 3rd stage was pretty cool. We had a lovely crowd, most with smiles plastered on their faces as we gave 'em our version of Music. It was so great to have so many old friends and Capella workmates in the crowd. Yeah! Alpha Dahlia played on a sweet little backyard stage at the Whiteaker Hostel across the street a little earlier. They sounded great, as they did later in the evening at Black Forest. I'm really too zonked today to give reviews of all the bands I saw yesterday, but suffice it to say, Mr. Random continues to be a big fan of the Whiteaker Block Party, and hopes that next year continues the tradition.

Friday, 2:35pm (August 8, 2008)
I haven't found a link on the R-G site for this, so I just snapped its picture and uploaded it. Please note, you are invited to see my band LaunchPad play at 5:20pm on the "Slash & Burn Stage" at 941 West 3rd. See you there!!

2008 Whiteaker Block Party,
Saturday, August 9th.
Schedule as printed in today's Ticket:

Tuesday, 7:00am (August 5, 2008)
This morning on my walk to work, I saw a poster up for the Whiteaker Block Party outside of the Whiteaker Station coffee house (5th & Blair). I've never hung out there, not really being someone who hangs out (not since college days), but that place looks cool. I walk or ride past it nearly every day, and there's always people in there. I love all the little businesses around the Whit.

Another radio show and another TV show are up at my RadioNOT blog. Check 'em out when you have a little time to get random.

Time for a random photo. I call this one

CLOUD COMPUTING:

Monday, 6:02pm (August 4, 2008)
Tip of the party hat to MFuchs for this further information related to Whiteaker Block Party:

Eugene Whiteaker Hostel
970 West 3rd
August 9th

3:00 Alpha Dahlia
4:00 Uncle Stumbles
5:30 Jupiter Hollow
7:00 The Great All Merge

BAND & STAGE LIST 

 Ninkasi Brewing Stage
 1pm- omega 3
 2:05- vega
 3:10- Hot For Chocolate
 4:15- the soothesayers
 5:20- medium troy
 6:25- yeltsin
 7:30- Rythym Pimps
 8:15-10:00pm- Matt Belway, Charles Thump, Shawn Kahl (DJ dance party)

 Territorial Wine Company Stage
 1pm- ultraterrestrial
 2:05pm- Dynamite Love
 3:10pm- dan jones and the squids
 4:15- tom heinl
 5:20- Chesapeake Blue
 6:25- children of dischord
 7:30- ninth moon black
 8:35- Mister Marv and Big Daddy Scamp

 G-spot Stage
 1pm- painted plane
 2:05- sam hahn
 3:10- jesse meade
 4:15- girin guha
 5:20- micah sikes
 6:25- unkle nancy
 7:30- wopner county country all stars

 Whiteaker Stage 4
 1pm- TBA
 2:05- anne in your dreams
 3:10- baitball
 4:15- Adam Goldthwait
 5:20- launchpad
 6:25- salt lick
 7:30- disco organica
 8:15 - Marv Ellis

Monday, 6:00am (August 4, 2008)
(Photo by Mrs. Random)

O Hai! Whoa, lots of stuff happening. FRANTIC had another awesome show with artist Peter Herley, this one in the alley between New Zone Gallery and Eugene for Obama. Eugene Weekly's Chuck Adams blogged about the event along with other First Friday Art Walk happenings. FRANTIC had a hilariously negative effect on the Obamans... once we started playing, they packed up their tables and scurried inside to the safety of their campaign headquarters, with pursed lips. Heh. We attracted admirers and the curious, though, and one 4-year-old(?) little girl just went nuts dancing and spinning on the ground to our music. FRANTIC is the future.

Friday after the FRANTIC gig, I went over to the Oak St. Speakeasy (my first visit) to see The Underlings and Dan Jones & The Squids play. Also saw May Harpoon, a newish(?) local band, and was pleasantly surprised to see Jerry Parker playing keys & bass. Also pleasantly surprised by the arrival of Melissa Moon and her bachelorette party entourage, Tina and Stardust and Jess and Bethany! Fun! I stayed up way too late, and was rather bleary on Saturday (slept until 1:30pm, whoa).

On Sunday, I created several RadioNOT episodes, but I'm time-releasing them, one per day. WordPress has a cool "post-dating" feature where you can create a blog entry but delay its publication until whenever you want. Over the next few days, you can return every 24 hours to radionot.wordpress.com and find a brand new podcast. ALSO, I'm adding video to the RadioNOT blog, and calling it Mr. Random TV. Ten-minute chunks of seemingly arbitrary footage, for your bemusement.

Coming up this weekend, another band I'm in, LaunchPad, has scored a gig at the Whiteaker Block Party this coming Saturday, Aug. 9, at 5:20pm Whiteaker Stage 4, which I believe is on Jackson Street, probably near 3rd.

Sunday, 4:58am (August 3, 2008)
Thank you all for your kind words of sympathy and support. They have meant a lot to Mrs. R and me.

Wednesday, 2:18pm (July 30, 2008)

Hoist one for Nigel. My kitty died today.

He had some weird brain thing that started two Sundays ago, where his head was tilted and he couldn't really use his left side. Actually when we found him on the porch, he couldn't get up, and he was in pain. We took him to the emergency animal hospital in Springfield, and he stayed overnight, got pain killers and xrays etc. The E.R. vet suggested several possibilities ranging from serious to terminal, and sent us home with steroids and antibiotics and instructions to keep him confined and under surveillance.

Nigel seemed to improve slightly during the week after the trip to the E.R., able to pull himself around the back yard with his good right side, and use his litter box (with some difficulty, but he could do it). Still, he needed nearly constant attention, or confinement in a safe room, and assistance with lots of things. Mrs. Random and I had some reason to hope it was a temporary malady (google idiopathic vestibular syndrome, which fit some of his symptoms, roughly).

However, his condition got markedly worse over the weekend, until by Monday night, he was constantly trying to get his balance, twisting and writhing and banging his head, with intermittent agitated meowing. He spent yesterday in the hospital getting fluids and sedatives. The doc said it was a case he would need to refer to a neurosurgeon, but we all agreed brain surgery on a cat is doing no service to the cat or to us, because even "success" means a lengthy recovery period and still there's no guarantee the cat will regain all functioning. (Not to mention the issue of financing, but it does need to be mentioned.)

So we brought him home last night and thought about it (we've been thinking about it for awhile, actually) and decided to facilitate his graceful exit. I spent the night with Nigel, mostly with him lying on my belly and chest, and he stayed pretty calm and slept a lot. I think it would have been a bad night for him if I hadn't been there. He's been thrashing around a lot when left to himself. Then this morning I called our vet and told him our decision, which he supported, and he said we could have it done at home.

So the doc and a tech (from Eugene Animal Hospital, where we've been taking our cats for several years) came over today at noon and gave Nigel the Big Shot. He died quickly and peacefully. The process couldn't have been easier, for Nigel and for me. I am so grateful to Dr. Maddox and his assistant for a smooth, quick, sensitive and dignified death for our suffering kitty. It's a couple hours later, and I feel waves of sadness alternating with waves of relief.

Here's to Nigel, one of the awesomest cats ever.

Monday, 3:25pm (July 28, 2008)
If you missed our Gallery Obscura show, please avail yourself of this second opportunity to see my band FRANTIC perform:

Wednesday, 4:40pm (July 23, 2008)
In lieu of a flyer, which I'll post here if it gets done, here ya go:

Friday, July 25, 7pm
FRANTIC plays at
GALLERY OBSCURA
1255 Railroad Ave, Eugene
in conjunction with an art show
by Peter Herley, and the
Last Friday Art Walk.

FRANTIC is my band with tHE bOY, who is also known for his radio show on KWVA, Mondays 2-4pm, AND his brewing skillz at High Street. We hope to see you there!!

Wednesday, 4:35pm (July 16, 2008)

I posted a new podcast yesterday, and here's the playlist:

RadioNOT for 15 July 2008 (80 min.)

INTRO/TALK
MIX:Quality Embarrassment
REM - Lightnin’ Hopkins
Oswald Five-0 - Premium
Heavenly Oceans - Raenie Afternoon
SPOKEN WORD
Fugazi - Provisional
Shout Out Louds - Shut Your Eyes
TALK
Activator - Heartless
MIX:Special Containers To Ride The Waves In
The Roots - I Can’t Help It
Opal - Revelation
Mudhoney - When In Rome
Armored Frog - Best Song
MIX:Hirsute Demands
TALK
Black Sabbath - Megalomania
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies - Irish Whiskey
TALK
Dead Americans - Snake In The Grass

Monday, 8:42pm (July 14, 2008)
I spent a lot of the weekend doing video. "Doing video" means filming, downloading, capturing, layering, editing, sequencing: in no necessary order or preference or emphasis. Here's some video I "did" (silent, 20 minutes, color). There's a long black stretch at the beginning. Full screen recommended....:

Gammastretch from Mr. Random on Vimeo.

Thursday, 7:29pm (July 10, 2008)

Thursday, 3:56pm (July 10, 2008)
Meanwhile, over at the Nader blog....
We Welcome Disillusioned Obama Supporters — Ralph Nader for President in 2008.
Here's a quote from yesterday's post: "For now -- at least -- stand with Ralph Nader. Our campaign has far more promise than you have been led to believe. With only a modest increase in our poll numbers, Obama and McCain will be debating Nader this fall. Google and YouTube are sponsoring a debate in New Orleans, and the bar is set at 10% support. Nader is at 6% and growing. Such an event could bring a seismic shift in our politics, because the public is far more progressive than the corporate media would have us believe."

BONUS: Nader Audio on Telecom Immunity (posted yesterday at votenader.org)

Thursday, 8:30am (July 10, 2008)
Such a lovely time in the park last night. The Underlings entertained us mightily!

The Underlings 7/9/08 @ Scobert Park

Wednesday, 4:23pm (July 9, 2008)
I hardly ever blog politics here anymore (contrast to 2000 election year, eg., and post-9/11). BUT, SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE FUCK, BARACK OBAMA?!?!. My cynicism saves me from heartbreak. But next time I hear some bullshit Obama idealistic "change" talk, I think I'm gonna puke.

Help me out here, BO supporters, why should I vote for a guy who votes the way he did today (breaking his word, btw)? Only because he's not as bad as McCain? Okay whatever. I'll go back to painting and making music now.

A little more, though, first: Salon's Glenn Greenwald on just how fucked up Obama and his campaign are on this issue and how it affects his basic credibility and his entire presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, LaunchPad is not running for president (President Orbital Disco Dave claimed victory several weeks ago, thus relieving us all of a grueling summer of insipidity, so I don't even know why I'm blogging about Barack!), but we are working hard for our peoples (see Fig. 1 below): Fig. 1: LaunchPad 7/5/08 @ Monroe St. Cafe

Tuesday, 5:52am (July 8, 2008)
Here's this summer's Scobert Park concert calendar, from the poster that was dropped off at Chez Random a couple weeks ago:

Fri., June 27 - Loop Whole
Wed., July 9 - The Underlings
Wed., July 16 - Brian Cutean
Wed., July 23 - Samba Ja
Fri., July 25 - Dead Americans
Wed., Aug. 6 - Urban Ocupi
Wed., Aug. 13 - Chanteuse
Wed., Aug. 20 - Fortune Cookie
Wed., Aug. 27 - Alpha Dahlia
Fri., Aug. 29 - Spin One-Half

Speaking of uninvolvement, I'm sitting out this year's Oregon Country Fair. I've been working in Entertainment since 1997 (co-managing Shady Grove stage for the last two years), but taking a "sabbatical" this year. I made the decision several months ago, and was wondering if I'd regret it when July rolled around. Nope, don't regret it. I'm just not feeling it this year. I AM excited on behalf of friends who are going... they're gonna have a blast. And I'm going to keep puttering away on projects here at home, as well as go to work as usual. The one downside is that Mrs. Random doesn't get her yearly vacation from me! I'll have to be extra nice.

LaunchPad's gig at Monroe Street Cafe on Saturday was awesome. We played for two full hours without a break for a nearly full house of very attentive audience members. Our take: three pitchers of beer and a tip jar full of singles, not bad!

Monday, 5:17pm (June 30, 2008)
All right, you can go listen to a new RadioNOT podcast featuring a 34 minute segment where I visit The Underlings' band practice on Saturday afternoon. They kicked out 7 songs and some chat. It was a hot and sweaty good time in the garage, let me tell you. There's pictures too!

On Saturday night, I attended the Sarasvati show at WOW Hall, mainly in support of lelulaserlight, providing projection assistance for video-collage accompaniment to her performance. The acts were all incredible. Muke, Nyghtowll, and DJ KaatSkratch were also on the bill with lelu. I had a great time, and so did several other people. I do have to admit astonishment that there were basically only the WOW Hall volunteers, performers, and their friends. I don't think I saw anybody else. Saturday night, 28 June 2008: the most sparsely attended WOW Hall show I have ever been to. It was a really hot day, and lots of stuff happening in the area all day, so that kind of explains it. But it was such an awesome show, and the performers really gave it their all as if the place were packed. A lightning strike took out electricity and forced DJ KaatSkratch to end the show during her set. Luckily, each performer seemed to have some friends there to appreciate them. lelu's posse had a great time in the bar downstairs in between sets and then some of us kept the party going at her place. Great times. Smiley face :)

After a random hiatus I seem to be easing back into space money minting. It's a nice non-verbal activity and people seem to like this kind of cash. Join the space money economy!

Saturday, 7:38am (June 28, 2008)
Today I'm going to record The Underlings for RadioNOT. Probably like 4 or 5 songs and a little interview action. Hoping to get it embedded into the next podcast and uploaded before the weekend is over.

Yesterday lelulaserlight and I made a 48-minute video-collage accompaniment for her solo performance TONIGHT AT WOW HALL. I'll be there to set up and run the projector for the gig. I'm super excited!

Next Saturday, 7/5, at Monroe St. Cafe (1123 Monroe St.), LaunchPad will be performing at 8pm for a free show. I'll post a flyer here soon.

Coming up on the Last Friday of July (7/25), FRANTIC will be playing at Gallery Obscura (1255 Railroad Avenue, Eugene)... two sets, one inside and one outside, for Peter Herley's art show. And on the First Friday of August (8/1), FRANTIC will be performing in the alley next to New Zone Gallery in downtown Eugene (164 West Broadway), again for a Peter Herley art show. I believe he will be doing live action painting on big pieces of butcher paper while we shred.

Here's a picture I took a couple days ago in our back yard: