I Am A DJ; I Am What I Play

Bowite

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:13:12 GMT

I get to represent Virgin in small claims court today.

Blue & Brown

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:45:49 GMT

Kuma-Chan 2012

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:07:00 GMT

Phil philbutrin and I are relaunching Kuma-Chan this year as an online-only label.

This is our updated logo, designed by Chris dizzi_d. I love it!

Diuretic

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:17:43 GMT

I saw my doctor this afternoon because my foot is starting to swell again. It's just fluid building up and not a reinfection, but it's going to take me back out of commission for a few days. I'll be off work tomorrow and Monday (which is not a holiday for me), while I keep my foot elevated and take a diuretic in effort to purge some of the fluid.

Right now

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:30:25 GMT

Spindle

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:09:44 GMT

Over the past month I've been revisiting some recordings I made during the summer of 1991 under the name Spindle. My setup at the time included:

Yamaha PRS-48 keyboard
Korg DW-8000 synthesizer
Casio SK-1 sampler
Roland TR-626 drum machine
Tascam Portastudio 414 mkII 4-track recorder
Boss RRV-10 digital reverb

I wrote and recorded 12 songs, but shortly thereafter I joined forces with my friend Brian to form a new band called Overhead, and while a few of my pieces found their way into our earliest live shows, I never did anything with the original recordings.

It's been a lot of fun listening to these songs again. Most surprising is that they were recorded during a very confusing and troubling time for me, having just come out and left the church, yet I'm able to listen to them for the first time without reliving all that angst.

They're nothing groundbreaking - just the sound of an excited 20-year old Wax Trax! and Mute Records fan getting his hands on keyboard gear for the first time - but they have a certain naive charm. I'm transferring everything into the computer so I can use Logic to remix and tweak things, and do some additional production like recording vocal tracks that were never finished. I'll fashion it into a proper album and post it online for free.

Christmas

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:49:19 GMT

Thomas and I regularly do a little Amoeba/Amazon shopping spree for our Christmas gifts. Here's what I bought for myself.

Mute Tonal Evidence USA - 1991 label sampler CD featuring Wire, Fortran 5, etc. Long out of print, under $1
Crack Of A Belgian Whip - 1990 KK Records/Cargo sampler CD of European industrial bands. Long out of print, under $1
Possessed by Kode IV - 1990 industrial CD by an SF duo. Long out of print, under $1

The Complete Metropolis - restored DVD
Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler - restored DVD - Fritz Lang's 4-hour epic
The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse - Criterion DVD
Maya Deren - Experimental Films - DVD
The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari - restored DVD
Phantom Museums: The Short Films Of The Quay Brothers - DVD
Slacker - Criterion DVD

I also got a Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard off eBay for $30, and, umm, a Larry Norman double album from 1986 that has one song on it I've been trying to find for 25 years.

Cellulitis

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:28:19 GMT

Cellulitis is a bacterial infection below the skin. You can get it from something as simple as scratching a bug bite when your hands aren't clean. I had it once, in the fall of 2000. My right shin turned red and swollen in a matter of hours, very sensitive to the touch (I was at band practice of all places, and I use my right leg to play the bass drum). I went to urgent care, was given a round of oral antibiotics, and sent home to keep it elevated. It cleared up in about four days.

A couple of weeks ago, on Saturday December 17, Thomas and I got up early to drive down the coast to Pacifica. We'd loaded all our laundry in the car with the intention of using a big strip mall laundromat after eating breakfast at Denny's. Although we have a washer and dryer in our building, it's nice to sometimes get outside San Francisco - where the competition for laundromat machines can be high - and get everything done in less than two hours.

As I was getting dressed, I noticed the top of my left foot was a little red. I'd been wearing new shoes, so didn't think anything about it. After breakfast, laundry, and arriving back home to put everything away, I decided to lay down and take a nap. When I woke up, the redness had spread significantly, and I had to limp when I tired putting any weight on the foot. I asked Thomas to take me to the emergency room at Kaiser, and sure enough, it was cellulitis. The doctor used a Sharpie to outline the red area (which, apart from the whole top of my foot, had started one little tendril creeping halfway up my shin), gave me a round of oral antibiotics and some Vicodin, and sent me home to keep an eye on it.

danlmarmot was in town visiting that weekend - our friend Jesus actually waited around at our apartment to let him in, since we were at the ER when he arrived at our place. Once Thomas got me back home and I sat up in the recliner to elevate my foot, we ordered food from Tower Burger and sat around talking. Despite the Vicodin my foot was getting increasingly more painful, and sometime around 8pm I went to bed.

I didn't sleep well at all, and the following morning, the redness had doubled in size, and I was running a fever of 101. I waited out the morning until Dan headed off to lunch with friends, then had Thomas take me back to the hospital. It was clear they were going to admit me this time. I was started on IV antibiotics right away, given some morphine, and had to wait about six hours for a bed in a shared room.

The first night and following day was rough. Because I was on a constant saline drip to keep me hydrated, plus being pumped full of antibiotics, I had to piss every five minutes - literally. Using a portable urinal while laying in a hospital bed isn't easy, and I was hesitant to take a sleeping pill, so that first night I got zero sleep. To top it all off I had an obnoxious elderly roommate who was foul-mouthed and hard of hearing. He'd been there for three weeks and was one of those guys who thinks he's smarter than the doctors. He had a constant stream of visitors because Kaiser doesn't enforce visiting hours, and I was too drugged and bleary to watch TV or read, so I had no choice but to lay there and listen to his every conversation.

Thomas had been having a sore throat for a few days, and on Tuesday morning he went to see our doctor. He was diagnosed with strep throat and told not to visit the hospital for 24 hours while he started his own round of antibiotics. I literally spent that entire day watching the clock rotate 24 hours.

By Wednesday morning I'd kinda reached my limit. I couldn't move, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't get any peace and quiet, and to top it all off, the thermostat in the room was set to 75. I was on day three of a 100 degree fever. My bedding was soaked from sweat and I was starting to stink. I'd been hooked up to a heart monitor since Sunday, with lots of little sticky pads stuck all over my chest, and the heat was aggravating everything. In a fit, I ripped all the sticky pads off, along with my gown. A nurse came running in to see if everything was alright, because what they saw in the nurse's station was that my heart monitor went flat. I started yelling, getting all my frustration out on that poor nurse.

They got me calmed down, dropped the room temp, brought in a portable fan for me, changed the bedding, got permission from the doctor to keep the heart monitor off, and took me off the saline drip so I would stop pissing constantly. I guess word traveled fast because from that point on the floor manager stopped in my room regularly to make sure I was comfortable, and nurses who'd been assigned to me earlier in the week would peek in to say hello. I kept apologizing profusely and let them know I wasn't angry at anyone I was just frustrated at being so uncomfortable.

By this point Thomas could come back to visit, and brought along Jesus. My fever finally broke, but I still had one big hurdle. Despite having no appetite and living off juice boxes and tiny portions of fresh fruit, I'd not had a bowel movement in four days. I was being given stool softeners twice a day, and late Wednesday night they started to work. I had a bedside toilet seat with a bedpan in it, since I couldn't make it to the toilet in the room. I managed to swing myself out of bed, and as I sat upright for the first time the pain in my foot was excruciating. I spent 20 minutes pushing and straining as hard as I could to get out five nickel-sized pellets, and all that strain was forcing blood down into my foot. By the time I struggled back into bed I was soaking wet with sweat and my foot had turned black. I was given a strong dose of morphine and I passed out.

Over the next 24 hours I went three more times, and each time was causing further bruising to my foot. The bacterial infection was largely cleared up, but I was still in a lot of pain and couldn't walk. On Thursday I pushed myself to use a walker and made it to the bathroom a couple of times by myself with great effort.

Finally on Friday the doctor was ready to send me home. Thomas got me set up in the recliner, and we had a nice low-key Christmas watching TV and napping.

Because his office closes the week between Christmas and New Years, Thomas was home this past week, which made things a lot easier. I had crutches to help me get around, but it wasn't until last Friday that I could put any weight on my foot. On Saturday morning I ventured out of the house for the first time so we could go and have breakfast, but it was a little too much for me, and by the time we got home I was exhausted and slept for hours.

I was supposed to return to work today, and that was worrying me. I'm still weak, still taking painkillers that make me foggy, haven't driven the car in two weeks, and can't put a shoe on my left foot. Although I'm scheduled to have a phone appointment with my doctor today, I called yesterday morning to see if I could get an evaluation appointment in person. Kaiser was running on a holiday schedule, but I got in to see a nurse practitioner, and she agreed I needed additional time to heal, so she excused me from work until next week.

And that brings us up to today. 18 days after that first ER trip I'm at home with my foot propped up. All the bruising killed the top layers of skin, which have been peeling like a bad sunburn. The swelling has started going down and I can hobble around slowly without a cane or crutches, but my foot is still discolored and gross. Thomas just left to go back to work - his first time in two weeks too, since he was off for his strep throat in addition to the scheduled office closure.

I don't want to push myself too soon, but I'm really ready to get back into my normal routine. I've breezed through a couple of books and I've been watching some movies I picked up right before this happened. I'm piddling a bit with music and trying to stay occupied so I don't fall into an endless loop of watching Judge Judy or VH1 Classic. With any luck maybe I'll go into work on Thursday afternoon or Friday, instead of waiting until next week.

Tascam

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:01:52 GMT

Borrowing Pete's Tascam 4-track recorder to work on some 20-year old recordings.

Sunlight

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:21:23 GMT

Whole set here.

Remember The Party

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:13:46 GMT

Last month both Bruce brunorepublic and Vinny sohipithurts flew out for Remember The Party. Of course it's always a pleasure to see Bruce, and having Vinny here made it extra special, since the three of us have worked on projects together, yet neither Bruce nor I had met Vinny in person.

This year's event was a huge success as far as we were concerned, and it's now becoming our annual tradition. :)

Group photos here, taken just before we headed inside.

Reunited

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:25:58 GMT

Last night a reunited New Order took the stage in Belgium for the first of 2 scheduled concerts (the second is tonight in Paris). Gillian has rejoined, Phil Cunningham remains, and a bloke from Bad Lieutenant is filling in for Hooky on bass as a 5th member.

You can check the setlist and watch a lot of HD video here. Some true surprises surfaced in the set, like Elegia and 586. Despite my expression, I'm happy. :)

Razormaid!

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:39:54 GMT

Razormaid! DJ Service - Anniversary Six Point Zero - released 1991

1. People Are People - Depeche Mode
2. New York New York - MCL (Micro Chip League)
3. Humatic - League Of Gentlemen
4. Houseman - Voyou
5. The Different Story - Peter Schilling
6. A Donde - Cetu Javu
7. The Hack 'N Sack Medley - Information Society

Enjoy!

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:40:06 GMT

Of the 91 people on my friends list, only 35 have posted within the last 5-6 months. Maybe 10 of those post daily.

The CDO side of me wants to remove the ones who've moved on, but I keep hoping a few of them will come back.

I think I finally accepted the demise of LJ when Dave White stopped posting. :(

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 14:48:52 GMT

I'm still here. I'm reading daily, and LiveJournal is the default page to which my browser opens.

I don't have much to say these days (Google, Facebook). Life seems to be in a bit of a holding pattern and I start feeling a lot of the old, bad sort of anxiety if I think about it too much.

We bought a car. I would like to have more time to devote to musical projects - particularly writing and recording. I'm going to Portland next weekend to DJ Bearracuda, and we have houseguests (standardtom, ex-Jeff, brunorepublic) for three consecutive weekends following that. Family vacation is coming up at the end of October. I'll be applying for a promotion at work as soon as it's listed.

San Francisco Giants

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 16:07:29 GMT

See the full set

Yesterday I got to DJ on Virgin's Pride float (sitting stationary) in Willie Mays Plaza, before the Giants/Phillies game, as part of Virgin America's 4th birthday celebration. We gave away a bunch of Fly The Beard t-shirts, and Giants team mascot Lou Seal joined us. It was a blast!

Butthole

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:42:20 GMT

Anyone who's spent any amount of time around me knows my listening habits tend toward obssessing over a particular artist for a few days, then moving on to someone else. Getting the iPad last Christmas has amplified this, since I must have everything in my digital library tagged with hi-res artwork of no less than 600x600 pixels so it looks good on portable devices. I'll go to sync a particular album to my iPad or iPod, and then start retagging everything by that particular artist on my laptop so they're all done, then falling into a hole and listening to that artist for several days.

I'd always been a little scared of Butthole Surfers, and knew them more by reputation than any of their music, but I wanted to listen to their cover of Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man. I went to put it on my iPad, then figured I should probably get better acquainted their work, downloaded their full discography, and dove in head-first.

Holy crap, why had I never really paid attention to them before?

I'd always assumed they were more punk and lo-fi than psychedelic, even though I have the Jackofficers side project of dance music that Gibby Haynes and Jeff Pinkus did in '90. I'm realizing they did a lot more with electronics, studio effects, found sound, and disorienting/uncomfortable sound, which is right up my alley (hello early Severed Heads), and their production values are great.

They're Texas redneck acid casualties in the best sense of the word.

So Thomas can look forward to hearing nothing but Butthole Surfers for about two weeks. :)

'00s

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 04:04:31 GMT

For no particular reason I've been compiling a playlist of my favorites from the last decade - but the list tapers off around mid-'07 when I moved back to San Francisco, because I view that as an entirely different period in my life.

I'm sure I'll add some things.

Annie - Anniemal (Chewing Gum, Love Plus One)
Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Beck - Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime
Björk - Vespertine, Vespertine Live, It's In Our Hands, Triumph Of The Heart
Client
Coldplay - X&Y
Cut Copy - Saturdays, Lights And Music
Danger Mouse - The Grey Album
Daft Punk - Alive 2007, Robot Rock
The Darkness - Permission To Land
Depeche Mode - I Feel Loved, Remixes 81-04, Precious, Suffer Well
DFA Christmas compilation, Remixes parts 1 & 2
Erland Øye - DJ Kicks
Fischerspooner - Emerge, Odyssey
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Franz Ferdinand - s/t (Take Me Out), You Could Have it So Much Better, remixes (Max Tundra)
Go Home Productions - mashups
The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry, Strict Machine remixes, Supernature
Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl
Hercules And Love Affair
Hot Chip - Down With Prince, Over & Over, Boy From School, Made In The Dark
Iron And Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
Jens Lekman - Maple Leaves
The Juan Maclean - Less Than Human (Give Me Every Little Thing, Tito's Way)
Junior Boys - Last Exit
Junior Senior - DDDon't Stop The Beat (Move Your Feet)
Justin Timberlake - SexyBack, My Love
Katamari Damashi soundtrack
Kelis - Milkshake
The Killers - Hot Fuss (Somebody Told Me)
KISS - Alive IV Kissymphony
Kloq
The Knife - Silent Shout, remixes
Kylie - I Believe In You
LCD Soundsystem - s/t (2xCD) and remixes, Us And Them
Lily Allen - Alright Still (LDN)
McClusky - Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues
M.I.A. - Galang (10 Dollar)
Mika - Life In Cartoon Motion
Morrissey - You Are The Quarry
MSTRKRFT - The Looks
Mylo - Destroy Rock And Roll, Drop The Pressure remixes
Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack
New Order - Waiting For The Sirens' Call
No Doubt - Hella Good
Outkast - Hey Ya
Peaches - Fuck The Pain Away
Pet Shop Boys - Flamboyant, I'm With Stupid, Minimal
Playgroup - s/t, Reproduction (2xCD remixes)
The Postal Service - s/t (Such Great Heights)
The Presets - Girl And The Sea, Are You The One, Apocalypso
Prodigy - Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned, Girls remixes
Radiohead - Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box, I Might Be Wrong (live)
The Rapture - House Of Jealous Lovers, Sister Saviour, Echoes, Woo Alright Yeah Uh Huh
Rex The Dog - I Look Into Thin Air, remixes
Richard X
Robyn - Every Heartbeat, s/t
Röyksopp - What Else Is There
Scissor Sisters
Soft Cell - Monoculture
Soulwax
Strong Bad - Techno
Tiga - You Gonna Want Me, Sexor
Underworld - Two Months Off
VHS Or Beta - Night On Fire, You Got Me
Weezer - Green, Maladroit, Keep Fishin' single
2manydjs

I'm Raving - classic techno mix for download

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 04:14:19 GMT

LINK

Pride 2011 - mix for download

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 02:11:51 GMT

LINK

Pride 2011

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 01:20:25 GMT

I've uploaded a full set of Pride photos to Flickr.

Sleeveface

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 01:18:58 GMT

Thomas is listening to Quincy Jones.

Otto

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:13:58 GMT

We got to the SF SPCA vet clinic right as they opened at 8am. We didn't have an appointment for Buster, but he'd been experiencing some pain in his hindquarters to the point that he wouldn't walk to his food and water or use the litter box, so we wanted to get him checked out (turns out he'll be OK, he's just arthritic - but that isn't the point of this post).

Thomas had run back to the car to grab something, so I was sitting in the waiting area by myself when a young couple in business casual burst through the door, cradling a small orange tabby. As the receptionist got on the intercom and paged "Good Samaratin! Medical assistance! Tech stat!", I overheard what was going on. The couple had witnessed the cat being thrown into the street from a moving car, and then hit by another car. He couldn't have been any older than 4-5 months, and he was bleeding from his eyes.

A doctor and about five techs came running from every direction. The poor kitten was scared to death, yowling, broke free, and started running. They got him cornered, wrapped in a blanket, and whisked off to be checked.

I started crying.

What kind of fucking lowlife scum could do something like that to a defenseless animal? It doesn't make any sense to me.

Before we left the clinic we inquired about the kitten, and were told he'd be OK and someone had already spoken for him.

Buster is staying at the clinic until 5, so I dropped Thomas back at home and I came into work. I started thinking about that poor, terrified kitten, seeing the blood running down his face from the corners of his eyes as they rushed him past, and started crying again. So I called back to the clinic to confirm he'd be alright, and that he was indeed spoken for. He would be, and he was.

I can't completely lose faith in humanity after seeing so many people rush to the aid of this tiny little fella, and I'd gotten it in my head that if he wasn't truly spoken for, we would take him. I want Buster to have a friend for when we're not home, and the whole scenario left me heartbroken.

I'd have named him Otto.

I called Thomas and told him what I was thinking. One cat is already costly, and I wouldn't want to do anything irresponsible, but we'll consider adopting another. If and when, I feel like he should be Thomas' pick, but I'll hope for an orange tabby.

Flickr

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 03:50:34 GMT

OMG, photo dump!

Scissor Sisters in LA

Bearracuda Los Angeles

d'Arnaud visits San Francisco

I visit San Diego

Terminal 2 opens at SFO

Coachella

Vogue

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 21:07:27 GMT

ME AT NINE, PERFORMING TO MADONNA IN SUMMER '91! from Robert Jeffrey on Vimeo.

I wish I'd been this secure at age 9. This kid is made of pure awesome.

PS: 200,000 views in only 4 days.