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:

Friday, 7:32am (June 20, 2008)
I would talk about recent rock experiences, but they are necessarily SECRET. You probably already know more than you should. Nevertheless, said recent rock experiences were very excellent and satisfying for this participant. The Randomz are preparing for a short camping trip in the Ochocos. Hoping for warm weather, at least during the day. Cold camping is not my cup of tea, although I remember enjoying a bit of winter camping when I was in high school. Obviously I didn't get hooked on it. I like to hike, and I like to read in a camp chair in the sun. Usually I have more fun if I have some cyborg gear with me, like a camera or recording equipment. I'll probably just take the camera this time. The woods are a great place to film video. Now that I have a projector, all my footage takes on new meaning. It's fodder for shows. Every band I'm involved with could use projected video during gigs, so I'm working on appropriate thematic material for various usages.

Reminder: I also blog here and here and I podcast here. And FWIW, I myspace here. My web territories are fractured and partial, just like all of the territories I occupy, navigate, and inscribe. Take care and have a nice weekend!

Tuesday, 8:09am (June 17, 2008)

TONIGHT:

I just posted a new podcast at RadioNOT, featuring HONEY VIZER in a live performance/interview that we recorded on Sunday. Also, I play several local and Portland bands, as well as a couple obscure-ish 80s bands I recently found out about. Here's the playlist:

RadioNOT for 17 June 2008 (84 minutes):
Downloading and streaming options • Direct link to MP3 file

Playlist:
The Rainy States - In Basement Air ?
German Techno - Pumpkin With No Eyes ?
Serpentone - Pearls ?
Sick Sick Sister - Not Me ?
The Decliners - Don't Even Try ?
Pirate Radio - I Eat Babies ?
Pirate Radio - Parfume de Guerre ?
SPECIAL: Honey Vizer Live Podcast (6-15-08) ?
truffleHunter - Side By Side ?
Science Heroes - Panopticon ?
Blast Wagon - Over Like The Bridge ?
German Techno - Like The Seasons ?
My Dirty Little Secret - Douche Bag ?
The Bongos - Question Ball ?
The Drivers - Tears On Your Anorak ?
The Decliners - The Wolf ?

Friday, 11:53am (June 13, 2008)

Saturday, 10:06am (May 31, 2008)
I spoke too soon. I'm STILL snotty and sniffly and scratchy. Arg. But I am feeling better in general. And have been fairly productive this week. Lots of audio mixing and space money making. Met with lelu yesterday and made "evaluation CDs" for her and Orbital Disco Dave... we've got 20 possibe LaunchPad tracks, and we're going to winnow those down to a more manageable number for a NEW ALBUM! Some listening/rating sessions by all of us will yield a fabulous CD that we will put into a gorgeous handmade package. We'd like to make 100 copies and sell them to our adoring fans :)

MY DIRTY LITTLE SECRET has a gig: JUNE 14 (SATURDAY), BLACK FOREST, opening for THE DECLINERS and THE FRIENDLY SKIES. Mark your calendars, wear disguises, and come to the show! We seem to be doing gigs at a rate of one per year so far. This is a rare happening, people! And it's FREE.

Tuesday, 12:12am (May 27, 2008)
Well, the cold thingie kept going through Sunday. LaunchPad was scheduled, train comin' down the track (rocketships don't have brakes, they just blast off), and so I did my best to keep it together. I didn't party, I just played music, half the time sitting down. I wasn't sure during the actual playing, but on listening back to the recording during dinner, I affirm: we rocked. But I was dead tired, with a runny nose, scratchy throat, a marginal attitude, and no hunger. I only ate the soup for dinner, foregoing salmon cakes, mozzarella-beets-and-greens salad, and Key Lime cheese cake, but I did eat three bowls of the soup. Mulligatawny? It was awesome spicy stuff. Got me sweating, which I think is good when you have a cold. I was still low energy today, and took the day off work (we only get Xmas holiday off at the store). Napped much. So much that I'm wide awake at midnight, damn it. So thus I blog some of the energy off (a couple sips of Mrs. R's scotch to speed the zzzzzs along). I think I'm on the mend for sure, if I'm up this late and being semi-coherent.

The last RadioNOT needed a re-upload. Go there and try again. I believe success has been achieved this time. Although with this new Mercury Retrograde (o noes!) I will not trust computational devices so much akchually. One bit at a time. Listeners, thank you so much for listening. This is a big passion of mine, and if you are familiar with my old KWVA show, you'll recognize the shtick. Not much of a shtick maybe, but I try to wield it well.

Saturday, 4:47pm (May 24, 2008)
Ugh, I've got some kind of cold/allergy cough going on, lung crap, nose drool. Nyquilled myself at 2am, and am still feeling the effects of that nasty stuff at almost 5pm. Spent most of the day sleeping, with a break for a hot bath. I'm such a baby when I get even a little sick. I'm taking it very easy today. Not going to any of the three parties I'm invited to. Hope to be functional for LaunchPad Swarm tomorrow.

I did upload another RadioNOT show yesterday morning, but there's been some problems at archive.org, so most of yesterday and today it hasn't been playable. Maybe check back tonight or tomorrow.

Okay, bye for now.

Tuesday, 7:49pm (May 20, 2008)
Happy Election Day. I hope you did yer civic duty. Saturday I did go to OUT/LOUD (much better loved the previous name LESBOPALOOZA, but probably not appropriate? dunno). Team Gina was infreakincredible, although I thought their set was way too short. Short but pretty damn sweet. Prior to them was an all-transgendered band from SF called Lipstick Conspiracy. They were a great rock band, and I loved their guitars, their vocal harmonies, and their hair. But they didn't bring a drummer or keyboard player: they played pre-recorded drums and keys, which they played their instruments to. So I don't really know the story about that. I read about them on Wikipedia, and Lipstick Conspiracy is a popular band in San Francisco, and they normally have a drummer and keyboard player, a five piece band. If they had their dummer at least with them, I would have loved them completely. But my prejudice about that prevented me from completely loving them. They need a live drummer to do the rock band thing, come on! But maybe they had a good reason. Other than the bands, OUT/LOUD featured some hot hilarious burlesque and comedy. I don't have the patience to describe it. And really: you had to be there. I was actually there for Team Gina and everything else was bonus. It was great to chat with Kayla, who's got some cool stuff going on up in Portland, in addition to her gig as the main drummer for The Ovulators.

Check Ed S.'s blog for links to The Ovulators videos on VIMEO, which is significantly higher quality than the YouTube versions. I already Tumbled one of 'em.

I posted a new RadioNOT show last night.

Space money production proceeds apace. I hope your week is going well.

[tacked on at 8:11pm] Jesus, I almost forgot to mention that after WOW Hall, I walked over to John Henry's and caught the last song and a half from Station Wag... actually got sweaty during that 10 minutes! Then a band I've heard on recordings but never experienced live: The Rhythm Pimps. I loved their set! Danced deliriously. Thanks, TRP, you guys rock as hard as anyone in this town. Wow.

Friday, 7:01am (May 16, 2008)
Hot! Weekend nearly here! Visitors from Seattle who wanna move to Eugene! It'll be interesting to view our city through the eyes of visitors looking to live here. We get pretty stuck in our usual routines if not actual ruts. Showing them around will be like showing ourselves around. Whenever I zoom back to get more perspective, I'm struck by all the cool and amazing things I DON'T know about Eugene. I'm kind of doing that with local music all over again, this time via MySpace profiles rather than the KWVA local shelf.

Saturday night there are options. Patrick Hayden is having a CD release party at Sam Bonds. Read his blog for appropriate details and links. I definitely want to buy the album. But I have a feeling that my bones will be itching to DANCE, and the hot spot as far as I can tell for that on Sat is WOW Hall and the OUT/LOUD show with Team Gina et al. (I hear that Kayla T. of The Ovulators will be presiding over the TG merch table!) So maybe I'll end up there? Dunno really. That's almost 3037 hours away. Who knows what'll transpire.

QUICK UPDATE: I see that Station Wag is playing Saturday night at John Henry's. They rock so good.

Wednesday, 5:44am (May 14, 2008)
Here at the Random mixing labs, some more product has rolled off the line. Please give a listen to TWO NEW TRACKS EACH for LaunchPad and My Dirty Little Secret. Those links take you to their respective MySpace profiles, where you can listen to and download the songs. If you have a MySpace account and aren't already friends, please take a moment to ADD them as friends. Thanks!

(Coming soon: new tracks by Frantic and Anti Kool Vultures, plus more RadioNOT.)

Monday, 5:36am (May 12, 2008)

Sunday, 6:07am (May 11, 2008)
Got up really early and worked on space money, mixed some My Dirty Little Secret songs (soon to myspace, also look for a new CD, and gigs!). Today is LaunchPad Swarm day, but we're not sure if lelu will be joining the music-playing part or just coming for dinner. She's moving into a new house and that kind of thing tends to take priority! Frantic hopefully tomorrow. We've been playing very well lately and I need to get some new recordings released. Whip: crack!!

Mrs. R and I had a great time at the coast. Lots of pix on Flickr. It was our 21st anniversary yesterday, and my 48th birthday last Friday. Yow.

Oh, and I posted a new RadioNOT show yesterday.

Thursday, 10pm (May 8, 2008)

Thursday, 9:30am (May 8, 2008)
Ah, taking a couple days off to celebrate our wedding anniversary and my birthday, both happening soon! Going to the coast for a couple nights. Supposedly free wi-fi at the place where we're going, so I'm taking computering gear. Speaking of which, I just acquired for nearly nothing a Dell 8000 laptop, circa 2001, in nearly new condition. It's kinda surreal to be using an old laptop that feels brand new. Windows 2000, 128 meg memory, 10 gig hard drive! But it works fine, has built-in microphone and a stereo line INPUT (rare on modern notebooks--seems like an external audio interface or addon PCMCIA card is standard these days). I bought a 30 dollar wireless card and I'm in bizniss. Somebody asked me "you got ANOTHER computer, what are you going to do with it?" Well believe it or not, I keep my computers fairly busy, cyborg that I seem to be.

Tuesday, 6:53am (May 6, 2008)

Pirate Radio from Eugene, at The Wandering Goat last night. Awesome punk rock. I also liked The Martyr Index and the band Saxon and a singer named Sam (not SootheSayers Sam) were in... damn can't remember, but they were great, too.

Sunday, 1:35pm (May 4, 2008)
A nice relaxing Sunday, after a nice relaxing Saturday. Ahh. Here's Nigel relaxing about an hour ago in the Random back yard:

Mrs. Random bought a new Adirondak chair today for the way-back-yard area where we used to have a chair made out of branches that eventually fell apart. This one is super cool and should last a few years. I helped put it together, so I feel vaguely productive today. Here it is in its new home:

I spent a large part of Saturday working on my newly transformed RadioNOT. Check it out. I've installed a Local Shelf of Eugene/PDX and other regional bands. It's been really fun exploring the MySpaces of so many bands I've not been keeping up with lately. A LOT is going on. I'm especially happy to see so many young bands out there. Parents who rock are producing kids who rock, and of course parents who DON'T rock probably produce even MORE kids who rock, since rock and roll does still carry a whiff of rebellion in some strata.

One more note: Fierce Mary has appeared on MySpace!

Friday, 6:29am (May 2, 2008)
I just posted another radio show over at RadioNOT. Click on over to read the playlist and enjoy the sounds.

Thursday, 5:15am (May 1, 2008)
Happy May Day! Yesterday morning I was thinking about May'68. Forty years, ya know. Then I saw PH's blog mentioned it. I wonder what kinds of recognitions/etc the anniversary month of those amazing days will bring.