i wasn't able to get a straight answer out of anybody at the radiology department regarding why the second mri was requested, so i've cancelled it. i was specific: do you think you might see a tumour? do you think you might see a lesion? all i could get was "the doctor is requesting a second mri". an appeal to authority is simply not convincing to me.
i have verified at least that the information was sent to the referring doctor, so i will call them on tuesday for further exploration of the issue.
while it is possible that the radiologist was just incompetent with his notes - that he has a good reason that he didn't specify because he's lazy - my reading of the situation is that he's just looking for a way to bill me twice, and that that's actually probably a good sign because it probably at least rules out the tumour.
as mentioned previously, i'm leaning more towards lyme disease at this point. but, i'm going to need to see the scans myself....
Sunday, July 31, 2016
ok, i just woke up. i had checked my inbox, half asleep, during a mid-morning urination awakening and they want to inject me with some isotope of something...?
what it does is make the tumor or lesion more visible in the scan. that seems to indicate that there is a tumor or lesion. but, i need to know what it is, first, before i make any decisions. injecting me with some kind of metal seems kind of reckless, unless it's a mitigating factor. harm reduction. i'm not there yet.
are they lesions? if so, i'd rather get a blood test for lyme disease. and, i mean, there's not really any treatment for ms, anyways. i'll just take the diagnosis to my nearest odsp office and otherwise forget about it. no, really. so, i have ms. what does injecting me with a heavy metal for an mri accomplish? but, what if i only have lyme disease? there's safer ways to determine this.
do they think they found a tumour? how aggressive do they think it is? this is the one situation where i may consent to this...
....but i also need to see the existing scans first. apparently, it was the radiologist that requested the second scan. who is what? a technician?
"oh, i'm not a doctor."
two things i'm worried about.
1) all industry exists for the purpose of maximizing profit. even in canada, people get paid. and, what that actually means is that we have a lot of unnecessary procedures done because somebody gets paid. on first glance, too much health care might seem better than not enough. but, this is one of those circumstances where too much may be worse. i'm not ruling the procedure out on principle, i just want to make sure that we've gone through the safer - less expensive - options first.
2) i talk a lot of shit in a lot of places. i keep pointing out that i'm harmless, but i'm not sure i'm winning that argument. would somebody go out of their way to get rid of me? it's not impossible. it *is* outrageous. it *is* ridiculous. but, the world we live in is outrageous and ridiculous. i just need to be a little bit more careful than the average bear, i think.
so, i'm going to go call them back and tentatively cancel the appointment. i need to have them articulate exactly what they're looking for, and confirm that they've actually sent the results to the doctor that referred me. i also want to know when i can see the scans, myself.
what it does is make the tumor or lesion more visible in the scan. that seems to indicate that there is a tumor or lesion. but, i need to know what it is, first, before i make any decisions. injecting me with some kind of metal seems kind of reckless, unless it's a mitigating factor. harm reduction. i'm not there yet.
are they lesions? if so, i'd rather get a blood test for lyme disease. and, i mean, there's not really any treatment for ms, anyways. i'll just take the diagnosis to my nearest odsp office and otherwise forget about it. no, really. so, i have ms. what does injecting me with a heavy metal for an mri accomplish? but, what if i only have lyme disease? there's safer ways to determine this.
do they think they found a tumour? how aggressive do they think it is? this is the one situation where i may consent to this...
....but i also need to see the existing scans first. apparently, it was the radiologist that requested the second scan. who is what? a technician?
"oh, i'm not a doctor."
two things i'm worried about.
1) all industry exists for the purpose of maximizing profit. even in canada, people get paid. and, what that actually means is that we have a lot of unnecessary procedures done because somebody gets paid. on first glance, too much health care might seem better than not enough. but, this is one of those circumstances where too much may be worse. i'm not ruling the procedure out on principle, i just want to make sure that we've gone through the safer - less expensive - options first.
2) i talk a lot of shit in a lot of places. i keep pointing out that i'm harmless, but i'm not sure i'm winning that argument. would somebody go out of their way to get rid of me? it's not impossible. it *is* outrageous. it *is* ridiculous. but, the world we live in is outrageous and ridiculous. i just need to be a little bit more careful than the average bear, i think.
so, i'm going to go call them back and tentatively cancel the appointment. i need to have them articulate exactly what they're looking for, and confirm that they've actually sent the results to the doctor that referred me. i also want to know when i can see the scans, myself.
i initially noticed facial tics around my left ear some time around ten years ago. i had an mri done but i didn't hear anything back and i forgot about it. it was kind of just a mild annoyance. at the time, i was thinking something more along the lines of heavy metal poisoning from living on a busy street with a lot of truck traffic (bronson avenue) than anything else.
the issue of the facial tics would come and go, but never really got out of hand as anything more than an annoyance until a little over a yea ago when i noticed i was having an extended period of difficulty swallowing (dysphagia) that has yet to really resolve itself. i initially brought this up with a nurse at the camh here, who did not take me seriously. i asked several times for an mri, and he kept telling me we'll talk about it later. it never happened.
the first few years i was here, i was struggling to find a doctor willing to prescribe me hormones. i was able to finally find a family doctor last fall that was willing to not just prescribe but also to increase my dosage, and that has had some positive effects. he has also finally taken my concerns about dysphagia seriously. while he suggested i should see a neurologist, i insisted on seeing an ear doctor to start and then graduating to a neurologist as the issue resolved or complicated itself.
the ear doctor initially did not take me seriously, either. however, i pushed for a hearing test - which discovered some loss in the affected ear. she still refused to take the situation seriously, suggested that the test was just error and insisted that i take it again. i instead pushed for an mri - which i had on monday.
i felt the mri would be the best idea because it could determine three things:
1) is my jaw crooked? in 2006, i fell of my bike and landed terribly on my face. the tic and resulting dysphagia could be the result of a skeletal abnormality, which could either be broken back in place or just dealt with. it would be useful to know, one way or the other.
2) do i have brain lesions? if i do, are those lesions more consistent with something like ms or more indicative of something like lyme disease?
3) is there maybe a tumor in there? i'm considering this possibility to be extremely remote due to how long i've had the issue for. one does not have a malignant tumor in their head for over ten years. i'd be dead by now.
i just checked my email and realized that somebody called me on the saturday of the long weekend to book a second mri. while i will not know the reasons for this request until i call back, i'm considering this to be somewhat ominous. it is possible that there was some error and they need to redo it, but i would think that a request for a second mri indicates that they found something that shouldn't be there. is it a lesion or a tumor?
i think they open at 6:00 am.
the issue of the facial tics would come and go, but never really got out of hand as anything more than an annoyance until a little over a yea ago when i noticed i was having an extended period of difficulty swallowing (dysphagia) that has yet to really resolve itself. i initially brought this up with a nurse at the camh here, who did not take me seriously. i asked several times for an mri, and he kept telling me we'll talk about it later. it never happened.
the first few years i was here, i was struggling to find a doctor willing to prescribe me hormones. i was able to finally find a family doctor last fall that was willing to not just prescribe but also to increase my dosage, and that has had some positive effects. he has also finally taken my concerns about dysphagia seriously. while he suggested i should see a neurologist, i insisted on seeing an ear doctor to start and then graduating to a neurologist as the issue resolved or complicated itself.
the ear doctor initially did not take me seriously, either. however, i pushed for a hearing test - which discovered some loss in the affected ear. she still refused to take the situation seriously, suggested that the test was just error and insisted that i take it again. i instead pushed for an mri - which i had on monday.
i felt the mri would be the best idea because it could determine three things:
1) is my jaw crooked? in 2006, i fell of my bike and landed terribly on my face. the tic and resulting dysphagia could be the result of a skeletal abnormality, which could either be broken back in place or just dealt with. it would be useful to know, one way or the other.
2) do i have brain lesions? if i do, are those lesions more consistent with something like ms or more indicative of something like lyme disease?
3) is there maybe a tumor in there? i'm considering this possibility to be extremely remote due to how long i've had the issue for. one does not have a malignant tumor in their head for over ten years. i'd be dead by now.
i just checked my email and realized that somebody called me on the saturday of the long weekend to book a second mri. while i will not know the reasons for this request until i call back, i'm considering this to be somewhat ominous. it is possible that there was some error and they need to redo it, but i would think that a request for a second mri indicates that they found something that shouldn't be there. is it a lesion or a tumor?
i think they open at 6:00 am.
Saturday, July 30, 2016
it's less that it took me a long time to get started today and more that i was out doing some end/beginning of the month shopping. i didn't sit down to eat until close to 6:00 pm. and, i did have some loose ends to do, including closing inri013 over the vlog.
i actually didn't get a lot of sleep last night so i don't know if i'll be up all night or crash early. but i do think that i can at least get a tracklisting for inri014 done...
i actually didn't get a lot of sleep last night so i don't know if i'll be up all night or crash early. but i do think that i can at least get a tracklisting for inri014 done...
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
i think that a big part of the reason that i'm floaty is the mri. it's some kind of repressed anxiety. even when i'm not explicitly thinking about it....
we'll have to see what it says. but, i guess the next thing to check is my jaw, if my ear comes back clean. but, i'm kind of still convinced there's something in there. it sure feels like it...
the other big thing i'm concerned about is if it comes back with lesions. i'm actually becoming more and more convinced that it's lyme disease. i had said i would get that checked last month, but i decided i should wait for the mri, first. short of finding a giant tumour in my eustachian tube, that's almost certainly going to be the next thing i check.
you can imagine it's a little distracting. so, cut me some slack for a few days, here.
we'll have to see what it says. but, i guess the next thing to check is my jaw, if my ear comes back clean. but, i'm kind of still convinced there's something in there. it sure feels like it...
the other big thing i'm concerned about is if it comes back with lesions. i'm actually becoming more and more convinced that it's lyme disease. i had said i would get that checked last month, but i decided i should wait for the mri, first. short of finding a giant tumour in my eustachian tube, that's almost certainly going to be the next thing i check.
you can imagine it's a little distracting. so, cut me some slack for a few days, here.
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Monday, July 25, 2016
"i think the mri itself is closer to what i listen to than the radio station in the headphones."
i got some sleep when i got back and am just waking up now. this is a better part of the day to be awake for the coming turn over to mixing album 2, so i should be aiming for overnights.
i'm going to need to take the afternoon aside for vlog recitation. this won't be a long process, i hope.
i got some sleep when i got back and am just waking up now. this is a better part of the day to be awake for the coming turn over to mixing album 2, so i should be aiming for overnights.
i'm going to need to take the afternoon aside for vlog recitation. this won't be a long process, i hope.
Thursday, July 21, 2016
i mother earth & tea party at edgefest ninety.....bluesfest 2016?
i remember reading an article a few years ago about how the iconic canadian rock band, the tea party (often cited in the short list of best canadian rock bands of all time), refused to sell it's domain name to the corporate-dominated american political movement of the same name. rumours were running up to seven figures. yeah, they could have used the cash. but, which koch would have written that cheque?
i missed most of the preamble, but this combined track of an original (requiem) and a well known cover that he does regularly (hurt, by nine inch nails) was dedicated to the united states in the wake of rising racial tensions and police shootings. a requiem. it's not smug. you can dwell on "what have they become?". or you could dwell on "my sweetest friends". it's more about concern than superiority. but, it's a requiem, nonetheless - a requiem in the face of what is increasingly obvious american decline. would eight figures have shut him up?
how many times have i seen the band? i don't know. lots. so, getting a chance to see jeff martin play an acoustic set opening for a reformed i mother earth was a nice addition to the show, in the sense of it being a throw back. he played mostly tea party songs, and i don't think anybody was upset about it. but, i want to point out that seeing jeff martin play acoustic is not your average folk performance. i don' check setlists; i happened to catch a more toned down track, even as it was presented kind of heavily. most of the tracks featured foot driven percussion. he was playing a 12 string at one point (the badger). the truth is that he can fill the sound up on his own: he didn't really need to bring a band with him.
as it turns out, he brought one with him, anyways.
here is a full set from the same week:
given that jeff martin was coming home from australia for the set (something he pointed out as he was playing 'coming home'), it was sort of obvious that he would at least try and get his bandmates up on stage. and, it happened to work out. this is the complete band set, at the end of his solo set. the first track is a led zeppelin cover, and the second is a track from their first record, splendor solis.
yeah. you're not seeing things.
they're on a twenty year anniversary tour for scenery and fish, and i enjoyed every second of it. again: how many times did i see this band in the 90s? i don't know. lots. the setlist was pulled from both of their records. you can pick up from the footage that the audience knew all the words...
this show was pure nostalgia, and nobody pretended otherwise. i got everything i wanted out of it: some sing-alongs, some guitar freakouts, some drum circles - and even some pot floating around through the audience. score.
you can probably pick out almost immediately that this wasn't your average 90s alt rock band. i've argued pretty strongly that they really foreshadowed the sound developed by the mars volta, although they themselves were drawing heavily on the more progressive side of alternative rock: rhcp, jane's addiction, the smashing pumpkins. with a dash of rush, for canadiana? sure, even if the lyrical references are largely on the level of satirical post-modernism rather than serious objectivism. they were and remain viciously virtuosic on their instruments, and worth the price of admission simply for that fact.
if you weren't around to see it the first time, you're not going to get as much out of this. but, it's something that kind of got lost. to be clear: they were huge in canada. when they played edgefest '98, they co-headlined a concert that included green day and foofighters as opening acts. that's right: they didn't open for foofighters and green day. green day and foofighters opened for them. that's how big they were in canada, for a few years in the 90s.
they then completely imploded before they got a chance to build an audience outside of canada - the singer bolted and the band didn't recover. this is the original singer, apparently performing with the band for the first time in 18 years. so, it's something special for us old 90s canucks.
here is a full set from earlier in the month:
i walked out of this concert completely fried due to minimal sleep, overexposure to my ears (remember: i saw swans on tuesday, too), alcohol, nicotine and the other one that's still a few months away from open mention. so, i'm not done sleeping yet. but there was an experience near the end of the show that i want to say something about. it was one of those really surreal moments of racism that you just can't do much about besides point out loudly and shake your head about. so, i'm going to scream about it for a few paragraphs.
i mother earth were a kind of iconic canadian band in the 90s, and they were uniting here with a singer they hadn't played with in many years. the announcer said 18 years. i'm not sure if that's literally true or not, but it's been a while. the audience was consequently full of nostalgia: an older and mostly white crowd rocking out to records released in 1993 and 1996. much drinking, yes.
now, everybody knows you're not supposed to smoke anything at all in these kinds of outdoor bank concerts. you're just supposed to shut up and drink your over-priced beer. that is, of course, the economic purpose of this event: to sell over-priced beer. but, you can't actually enforce this rule once the sun comes down a little, the least important reason being that most people in the crowd at rock concerts like this actually don't agree with bans on smoking at outdoor concerts. many of them actually even smoke. and, not just cigarettes.
the smell of marijuana is pretty normal at outdoor rock concerts. it's a part of the experience - whether you're actually inhaling, or just taking in the aroma. it wouldn't be a real festival, without it. whatever the eventual legality of the substance in canada, that smell is not going to lift from the concerts of the nation. there will simply be a trail of corrected signs "thank you for pot smoking".
the spirit of this event, combined with the nature of the audience, actually at one point near the end of the set had joints passing around amongst strangers. somebody decided everybody at the show ought to be high. or it seemed that way. they were just circling around. my nose and eyes caught multiple burning around me.
so, i will acknowledge that there were people smoking pot in the audience. see, but that's just it - *everybody* in the audience was smoking pot. no exaggeration. nine out of ten, anyways.
so, you'll imagine how absurd it was to watch security swoop in, walk past several burning joints and key in on the only black guy in eyesight - who, yes, was caught green-handed. like, they took it out of his hand. ok. drug abuse. but, they had to blatantly walk by scores of stoned white folks to do this, and then scores more as they were escorting him out. 90 out of 100 people in the immediate audience were stoned. it was being openly passed around. but, only one person in the audience was black.
i didn't stay for the literal headliner, so i don't know if they came back later for more minorities, or even for some white folk - or maybe if they just backed off and let people have a good time. but i know what i saw and how obvious it was.
i don't really have any point besides the obvious one: it's really not ok. i don't know exactly who the security personnel were (mall cops?), either, but....i guess the way i should articulate this to organizers is that i don't want to see anything like that ever again.
of course, this has nothing to do with the band. the actual show was excellent, for what it was. tight. no fuck-ups. the tracks were identifiable, but expanded upon enough to play out. i'd need at least two hands to count the number of times i saw this band in the 90s, and they were always a strong live set like that. so, i will actually have some footage coming up in the next few days of i mother earth with edwin in 2016. that's something that is actually happening. there's some teaparty footage, too.
here is the vlog for the day:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/07/14.html
i missed most of the preamble, but this combined track of an original (requiem) and a well known cover that he does regularly (hurt, by nine inch nails) was dedicated to the united states in the wake of rising racial tensions and police shootings. a requiem. it's not smug. you can dwell on "what have they become?". or you could dwell on "my sweetest friends". it's more about concern than superiority. but, it's a requiem, nonetheless - a requiem in the face of what is increasingly obvious american decline. would eight figures have shut him up?
how many times have i seen the band? i don't know. lots. so, getting a chance to see jeff martin play an acoustic set opening for a reformed i mother earth was a nice addition to the show, in the sense of it being a throw back. he played mostly tea party songs, and i don't think anybody was upset about it. but, i want to point out that seeing jeff martin play acoustic is not your average folk performance. i don' check setlists; i happened to catch a more toned down track, even as it was presented kind of heavily. most of the tracks featured foot driven percussion. he was playing a 12 string at one point (the badger). the truth is that he can fill the sound up on his own: he didn't really need to bring a band with him.
as it turns out, he brought one with him, anyways.
here is a full set from the same week:
given that jeff martin was coming home from australia for the set (something he pointed out as he was playing 'coming home'), it was sort of obvious that he would at least try and get his bandmates up on stage. and, it happened to work out. this is the complete band set, at the end of his solo set. the first track is a led zeppelin cover, and the second is a track from their first record, splendor solis.
yeah. you're not seeing things.
they're on a twenty year anniversary tour for scenery and fish, and i enjoyed every second of it. again: how many times did i see this band in the 90s? i don't know. lots. the setlist was pulled from both of their records. you can pick up from the footage that the audience knew all the words...
this show was pure nostalgia, and nobody pretended otherwise. i got everything i wanted out of it: some sing-alongs, some guitar freakouts, some drum circles - and even some pot floating around through the audience. score.
you can probably pick out almost immediately that this wasn't your average 90s alt rock band. i've argued pretty strongly that they really foreshadowed the sound developed by the mars volta, although they themselves were drawing heavily on the more progressive side of alternative rock: rhcp, jane's addiction, the smashing pumpkins. with a dash of rush, for canadiana? sure, even if the lyrical references are largely on the level of satirical post-modernism rather than serious objectivism. they were and remain viciously virtuosic on their instruments, and worth the price of admission simply for that fact.
if you weren't around to see it the first time, you're not going to get as much out of this. but, it's something that kind of got lost. to be clear: they were huge in canada. when they played edgefest '98, they co-headlined a concert that included green day and foofighters as opening acts. that's right: they didn't open for foofighters and green day. green day and foofighters opened for them. that's how big they were in canada, for a few years in the 90s.
they then completely imploded before they got a chance to build an audience outside of canada - the singer bolted and the band didn't recover. this is the original singer, apparently performing with the band for the first time in 18 years. so, it's something special for us old 90s canucks.
here is a full set from earlier in the month:
i walked out of this concert completely fried due to minimal sleep, overexposure to my ears (remember: i saw swans on tuesday, too), alcohol, nicotine and the other one that's still a few months away from open mention. so, i'm not done sleeping yet. but there was an experience near the end of the show that i want to say something about. it was one of those really surreal moments of racism that you just can't do much about besides point out loudly and shake your head about. so, i'm going to scream about it for a few paragraphs.
i mother earth were a kind of iconic canadian band in the 90s, and they were uniting here with a singer they hadn't played with in many years. the announcer said 18 years. i'm not sure if that's literally true or not, but it's been a while. the audience was consequently full of nostalgia: an older and mostly white crowd rocking out to records released in 1993 and 1996. much drinking, yes.
now, everybody knows you're not supposed to smoke anything at all in these kinds of outdoor bank concerts. you're just supposed to shut up and drink your over-priced beer. that is, of course, the economic purpose of this event: to sell over-priced beer. but, you can't actually enforce this rule once the sun comes down a little, the least important reason being that most people in the crowd at rock concerts like this actually don't agree with bans on smoking at outdoor concerts. many of them actually even smoke. and, not just cigarettes.
the smell of marijuana is pretty normal at outdoor rock concerts. it's a part of the experience - whether you're actually inhaling, or just taking in the aroma. it wouldn't be a real festival, without it. whatever the eventual legality of the substance in canada, that smell is not going to lift from the concerts of the nation. there will simply be a trail of corrected signs "thank you for pot smoking".
the spirit of this event, combined with the nature of the audience, actually at one point near the end of the set had joints passing around amongst strangers. somebody decided everybody at the show ought to be high. or it seemed that way. they were just circling around. my nose and eyes caught multiple burning around me.
so, i will acknowledge that there were people smoking pot in the audience. see, but that's just it - *everybody* in the audience was smoking pot. no exaggeration. nine out of ten, anyways.
so, you'll imagine how absurd it was to watch security swoop in, walk past several burning joints and key in on the only black guy in eyesight - who, yes, was caught green-handed. like, they took it out of his hand. ok. drug abuse. but, they had to blatantly walk by scores of stoned white folks to do this, and then scores more as they were escorting him out. 90 out of 100 people in the immediate audience were stoned. it was being openly passed around. but, only one person in the audience was black.
i didn't stay for the literal headliner, so i don't know if they came back later for more minorities, or even for some white folk - or maybe if they just backed off and let people have a good time. but i know what i saw and how obvious it was.
i don't really have any point besides the obvious one: it's really not ok. i don't know exactly who the security personnel were (mall cops?), either, but....i guess the way i should articulate this to organizers is that i don't want to see anything like that ever again.
of course, this has nothing to do with the band. the actual show was excellent, for what it was. tight. no fuck-ups. the tracks were identifiable, but expanded upon enough to play out. i'd need at least two hands to count the number of times i saw this band in the 90s, and they were always a strong live set like that. so, i will actually have some footage coming up in the next few days of i mother earth with edwin in 2016. that's something that is actually happening. there's some teaparty footage, too.
here is the vlog for the day:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/07/14.html
i decided against the play. it's this thing called "mr. burns", some kind of musical about people bonding around the simpsons after the apocalypse and then the process taking a life of it's own. i like the premise. but, i....i find the medium to usually be kind of childish: adults prancing around in masks, singing off key to poorly composed music.
it would just be very hard to put a play together that would live up to my standards.
instead, i have continued the close/review process. i want a single for think, but i need to attach it to it's noise component, which pushes it back to the end of may. likewise, a single for wish could not exist until the end of may, either. that means that the new inri010 is for the track why. i'm currently putting this together. it should be finalized today or tomorrow.
this track has a vocal version that i'd like published, which puts it in the same category as the previous singles with vocal tracks. this category had been rejected the first time through, or at least until the very end. there's also a glitch mix and some various stuff from 96 and 98.
the track is actually one of my favourites from the early period. it works on the level of political satire, on the level of industrial/no-wave dance/noise punk, on the level of guitar music and also on the level of hip-hop - which was unintended at the time. i just always listened to art rock. where's the art rock equivalent style of hip-hop? if it's out there, i never found it. but i've always dabbled around it's idm and industrial fringes, too.
anyways, the ep is currently being condensed. it's 9 tracks right now. i should be able to get that down to 5 or 6. i'll post when it's ready.
it would just be very hard to put a play together that would live up to my standards.
instead, i have continued the close/review process. i want a single for think, but i need to attach it to it's noise component, which pushes it back to the end of may. likewise, a single for wish could not exist until the end of may, either. that means that the new inri010 is for the track why. i'm currently putting this together. it should be finalized today or tomorrow.
this track has a vocal version that i'd like published, which puts it in the same category as the previous singles with vocal tracks. this category had been rejected the first time through, or at least until the very end. there's also a glitch mix and some various stuff from 96 and 98.
the track is actually one of my favourites from the early period. it works on the level of political satire, on the level of industrial/no-wave dance/noise punk, on the level of guitar music and also on the level of hip-hop - which was unintended at the time. i just always listened to art rock. where's the art rock equivalent style of hip-hop? if it's out there, i never found it. but i've always dabbled around it's idm and industrial fringes, too.
anyways, the ep is currently being condensed. it's 9 tracks right now. i should be able to get that down to 5 or 6. i'll post when it's ready.
good morning. afternoon. evening and goodnight?
i've got the cover art for inri009 up, along with the link to the physical disc. in the process, i added a hidden track to inri007. so, i have three tracks now with inricycled b fragments - 006, 007, 009 - and they all show up as hidden tracks on the disc. that's a pattern. you'll notice these patterns, if you'd like to.
that closes everything up to the end of march, 1998 and i can't for a moment think of anything else i'd like to add to any of these releases, except the eventual liner notes at the twenty year final close point.
i'd like to see a play tonight. but, i'll be making choices about the remaining april tracks. i'm leaning towards the maximal exploration at this point.
i need to eat and then formally close inri009 over the vlog. so, this may be the last post until tommorow.
i've got the cover art for inri009 up, along with the link to the physical disc. in the process, i added a hidden track to inri007. so, i have three tracks now with inricycled b fragments - 006, 007, 009 - and they all show up as hidden tracks on the disc. that's a pattern. you'll notice these patterns, if you'd like to.
that closes everything up to the end of march, 1998 and i can't for a moment think of anything else i'd like to add to any of these releases, except the eventual liner notes at the twenty year final close point.
i'd like to see a play tonight. but, i'll be making choices about the remaining april tracks. i'm leaning towards the maximal exploration at this point.
i need to eat and then formally close inri009 over the vlog. so, this may be the last post until tommorow.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
the walk to the store left me pretty happy with the tracklisting to inri009. i realized over the walk that that was a good 40 minutes, both ways. so, i was gone for well over an hour. i did end up watching the vlog for the 15th after all, although i haven't done the write up for the i mother earth show yet...
it turns out that i'm getting my tax refunds this year, after all. it will actually be a nice chunk in august, although i wish i would have gotten it in july instead. so be it. august may be an indoor month, in the end. baroness is the only thing that is at all likely, right now. we'll see what comes up.
as mentioned, i need to close some things today, and inri009 is in fact basically done. soon.
for right now, in looking over whether i should make a single for 'think' or not, i've realized i overlooked the album edit of 'skaters' and realized that dropping it into the single position resolves a number of problems with the release. i'm going to have to update that before i do anything else.
right now, i'm expecting this to be a long day. it could be a two-day vlog. i feel the need to get a lot done in this space.
so, i'm updating inri005 a final time and then moving on to closing inri009.
it turns out that i'm getting my tax refunds this year, after all. it will actually be a nice chunk in august, although i wish i would have gotten it in july instead. so be it. august may be an indoor month, in the end. baroness is the only thing that is at all likely, right now. we'll see what comes up.
as mentioned, i need to close some things today, and inri009 is in fact basically done. soon.
for right now, in looking over whether i should make a single for 'think' or not, i've realized i overlooked the album edit of 'skaters' and realized that dropping it into the single position resolves a number of problems with the release. i'm going to have to update that before i do anything else.
right now, i'm expecting this to be a long day. it could be a two-day vlog. i feel the need to get a lot done in this space.
so, i'm updating inri005 a final time and then moving on to closing inri009.
yesterday was a total bust, and i even forgot to upload last night on top of it. tomorrow's a two-day-er so i'm safe for the day.
i've got a day worth of ice cream and a day worth of mayo left, so i'm going to get something to eat and head to the store and then get right to listening. i guess i can tracklist while i'm doing that. so, no basic ritualism today.
i have to close some discs today.
i've got a day worth of ice cream and a day worth of mayo left, so i'm going to get something to eat and head to the store and then get right to listening. i guess i can tracklist while i'm doing that. so, no basic ritualism today.
i have to close some discs today.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
swans.
swans. fuck.
swans...
i feel like i should have a novel to write, here. i've stated a few times that the shortest reviews are the best shows. it kind of doesn't matter.
i'm ultimately going to refer you to the vlog, other than to point out that i wasn't paying a lot of attention to the show in the weeks leading up to it. i made a choice a few weeks ago that i'd wait to see the show before i heard the disc. it was part out of pragmatism: i've been closing discs this week. so, i kind of stumbled the few blocks there, and then stumbled the few blocks back, after.
i really should have been tired. i only had a few hours worth of sleep. yet, i got a boost of energy walking out that lasted me until well into the next day. i think this was as psychological as it was anything else; the excitement didn't hit me until i was there, and it didn't peak until i walked out.
in hindsight, i can see that the show was *meant* to have a kind of mystical quality to it. i point out in the vlog that the feeling gira is alluding to in describing a spiritual connection is really just the coming together of human beings. i think it's ultimately a sad reflection on the neo-liberal era that it's most important artistic creators are so alienated from social connectivity that they misinterpret social connectedness as something divine. but, then again, that's why we do the organized religion thing in the first place, right?
the show was in a deconsecrated church. at the end of the day, discussions and debates aside, i'd certainly rather worship with swans than with any kind of organized religion.
if you've yet to experience swans, you likely only have a few weeks left in which to do so. i cannot overstate how strongly i recommend doing so.
here is some footage from the show:
here is a full set:
& here is the day's vlog, with a more lengthy review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/07/12.html
swans...
i feel like i should have a novel to write, here. i've stated a few times that the shortest reviews are the best shows. it kind of doesn't matter.
i'm ultimately going to refer you to the vlog, other than to point out that i wasn't paying a lot of attention to the show in the weeks leading up to it. i made a choice a few weeks ago that i'd wait to see the show before i heard the disc. it was part out of pragmatism: i've been closing discs this week. so, i kind of stumbled the few blocks there, and then stumbled the few blocks back, after.
i really should have been tired. i only had a few hours worth of sleep. yet, i got a boost of energy walking out that lasted me until well into the next day. i think this was as psychological as it was anything else; the excitement didn't hit me until i was there, and it didn't peak until i walked out.
in hindsight, i can see that the show was *meant* to have a kind of mystical quality to it. i point out in the vlog that the feeling gira is alluding to in describing a spiritual connection is really just the coming together of human beings. i think it's ultimately a sad reflection on the neo-liberal era that it's most important artistic creators are so alienated from social connectivity that they misinterpret social connectedness as something divine. but, then again, that's why we do the organized religion thing in the first place, right?
the show was in a deconsecrated church. at the end of the day, discussions and debates aside, i'd certainly rather worship with swans than with any kind of organized religion.
if you've yet to experience swans, you likely only have a few weeks left in which to do so. i cannot overstate how strongly i recommend doing so.
here is some footage from the show:
here is a full set:
& here is the day's vlog, with a more lengthy review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/07/12.html
Friday, July 15, 2016
i walked out of that concert completely fried due to minimal sleep, overexposure to my ears (remember: i saw swans on tuesday, too), alcohol, nicotine and the other one that's still a few months away from open mention. so, i'm not done sleeping yet. but there was an experience near the end of the show that i want to say something about. it was one of those really surreal moments of racism that you just can't do much about besides point out loudly and shake your head about. so, i'm going to scream about it for a few paragraphs.
i mother earth were a kind of iconic canadian band in the 90s, and they were uniting here with a singer they hadn't played with in many years. the announcer said 18 years. i'm not sure if that's literally true or not, but it's been a while. the audience was consequently full of nostalgia: an older and mostly white crowd rocking out to records released in 1993 and 1996. much drinking, yes.
now, everybody knows you're not supposed to smoke anything at all in these kinds of outdoor bank concerts. you're just supposed to shut up and drink your over-priced beer. that is, of course, the economic purpose of this event: to sell over-priced beer. but, you can't actually enforce this rule once the sun comes down a little, the least important reason being that most people in the crowd at rock concerts like this actually don't agree with bans on smoking at outdoor concerts. many of them actually even smoke. and, not just cigarettes.
the smell of marijuana is pretty normal at outdoor rock concerts. it's a part of the experience - whether you're actually inhaling, or just taking in the aroma. it wouldn't be a real festival, without it. whatever the eventual legality of the substance in canada, that smell is not going to lift from the concerts of the nation. there will simply be a trail of corrected signs "thank you for pot smoking".
the spirit of this event, combined with the nature of the audience, actually at one point near the end of the set had joints passing around amongst strangers. somebody decided everybody at the show ought to be high. or it seemed that way. they were just circling around. my nose and eyes caught multiple burning around me.
so, i will acknowledge that there were people smoking pot in the audience. see, but that's just it - *everybody* in the audience was smoking pot. no exaggeration. nine out of ten, anyways.
so, you'll imagine how absurd it was to watch security swoop in, walk past several burning joints and key in on the only black guy in eyesight - who, yes, was caught green-handed. like, they took it out of his hand. ok. drug abuse. but, they had to blatantly walk by scores of stoned white folks to do this, and then scores more as they were escorting him out. 90 out of 100 people in the immediate audience were stoned. it was being openly passed around. but, only one person in the audience was black.
i didn't stay for the literal headliner, so i don't know if they came back later for more minorities, or even for some white folk - or maybe if they just backed off and let people have a good time. but i know what i saw and how obvious it was.
i don't really have any point besides the obvious one: it's really not ok. i don't know exactly who the security personnel were (mall cops?), either, but....i guess the way i should articulate this to organizers is that i don't want to see anything like that ever again.
of course, this has nothing to do with the band. the actual show was excellent, for what it was. tight. no fuck-ups. the tracks were identifiable, but expanded upon enough to play out. i'd need at least two hands to count the number of times i saw this band in the 90s, and they were always a strong live set like that. so, i will actually have some footage coming up in the next few days of i mother earth with edwin in 2016. that's something that is actually happening. there's some teaparty footage, too.
right now, back to sleep....
i mother earth were a kind of iconic canadian band in the 90s, and they were uniting here with a singer they hadn't played with in many years. the announcer said 18 years. i'm not sure if that's literally true or not, but it's been a while. the audience was consequently full of nostalgia: an older and mostly white crowd rocking out to records released in 1993 and 1996. much drinking, yes.
now, everybody knows you're not supposed to smoke anything at all in these kinds of outdoor bank concerts. you're just supposed to shut up and drink your over-priced beer. that is, of course, the economic purpose of this event: to sell over-priced beer. but, you can't actually enforce this rule once the sun comes down a little, the least important reason being that most people in the crowd at rock concerts like this actually don't agree with bans on smoking at outdoor concerts. many of them actually even smoke. and, not just cigarettes.
the smell of marijuana is pretty normal at outdoor rock concerts. it's a part of the experience - whether you're actually inhaling, or just taking in the aroma. it wouldn't be a real festival, without it. whatever the eventual legality of the substance in canada, that smell is not going to lift from the concerts of the nation. there will simply be a trail of corrected signs "thank you for pot smoking".
the spirit of this event, combined with the nature of the audience, actually at one point near the end of the set had joints passing around amongst strangers. somebody decided everybody at the show ought to be high. or it seemed that way. they were just circling around. my nose and eyes caught multiple burning around me.
so, i will acknowledge that there were people smoking pot in the audience. see, but that's just it - *everybody* in the audience was smoking pot. no exaggeration. nine out of ten, anyways.
so, you'll imagine how absurd it was to watch security swoop in, walk past several burning joints and key in on the only black guy in eyesight - who, yes, was caught green-handed. like, they took it out of his hand. ok. drug abuse. but, they had to blatantly walk by scores of stoned white folks to do this, and then scores more as they were escorting him out. 90 out of 100 people in the immediate audience were stoned. it was being openly passed around. but, only one person in the audience was black.
i didn't stay for the literal headliner, so i don't know if they came back later for more minorities, or even for some white folk - or maybe if they just backed off and let people have a good time. but i know what i saw and how obvious it was.
i don't really have any point besides the obvious one: it's really not ok. i don't know exactly who the security personnel were (mall cops?), either, but....i guess the way i should articulate this to organizers is that i don't want to see anything like that ever again.
of course, this has nothing to do with the band. the actual show was excellent, for what it was. tight. no fuck-ups. the tracks were identifiable, but expanded upon enough to play out. i'd need at least two hands to count the number of times i saw this band in the 90s, and they were always a strong live set like that. so, i will actually have some footage coming up in the next few days of i mother earth with edwin in 2016. that's something that is actually happening. there's some teaparty footage, too.
right now, back to sleep....
Thursday, July 14, 2016
13/14-07-2016: i mother earth & tea party at edgefest ninety.....bluesfest 2016?
concert footage:
1) jeff martin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEEpUJAofbY
2) tea party: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Jtjw6U39Q
3) i mother earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FTEh-Xiij0
review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/07/14.html
tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1
1) jeff martin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEEpUJAofbY
2) tea party: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Jtjw6U39Q
3) i mother earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FTEh-Xiij0
review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/07/14.html
tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
12-07-2016: swans.
show footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meMFTR8eAJc
review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/07/12.html
tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meMFTR8eAJc
review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/07/12.html
tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1
my ears are a little fatigued; swans are known to play kind of loud, sometimes. ear plugs are such a terrible solution. it's like listening to the show underwater. so, i go ear-commando. always.
i'm still toying with i mother earth on thursday. it's likely, but not certain. i'll need to crunch the numbers and see how they come out.
for the short term, i'm going to give my ears some rest. i had a nap yesterday afternoon, but i'm otherwise running on a 36 hour day. i'm going to get something to eat, get some rest and then spend the overnight doing some filing. we'll see how i feel about the show tomorrow. i wouldn't expect it to be nearly as loud, so if i go i should be back to mixing on friday.
i'm still toying with i mother earth on thursday. it's likely, but not certain. i'll need to crunch the numbers and see how they come out.
for the short term, i'm going to give my ears some rest. i had a nap yesterday afternoon, but i'm otherwise running on a 36 hour day. i'm going to get something to eat, get some rest and then spend the overnight doing some filing. we'll see how i feel about the show tomorrow. i wouldn't expect it to be nearly as loud, so if i go i should be back to mixing on friday.
listening to swans tonight
swans were expectedly awesome. but, my brain is confused. it just dealt with two hours of ridiculous noise. it doesn't know whether to be excited or to shut down. i'm consequently kind of floating.
i haven't heard the new disc yet. i'm kind of thinking that what i want to do for the rest of the night is listen to it in the fetal position.
https://swans.bandcamp.com/album/the-glowing-man
i haven't heard the new disc yet. i'm kind of thinking that what i want to do for the rest of the night is listen to it in the fetal position.
https://swans.bandcamp.com/album/the-glowing-man
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Monday, July 4, 2016
03-07-2016: closing inri002 (period 1.1) and seeing the ear doctor for a third time
Saturday, July 2, 2016
ok, so what happened was that i spent thursday night looking for something, and then i figured i couldn't find it - so i said i'd do some listening on friday. but, then i found what i was looking for on friday and hence did not do any listening. but, i've put the vlogs on hold, i've done the prep that was required and i'm ready to get to some serious listening for most of the next week.
while i was doing prep, i spent a lot of time listening to inri002 and have developed some further ideas about how to distribute it. so, i'm going to be abstractly packaging some cassettes - but i don't have a cassette deck, so i can't actually make them. instead, i'll put the packaging in the download.
in fact, i think that i'm going to do that across the board. it may act as an incentive for digital purchase, and that might help me with eventual physical distribution. i'll have to be forthright: you don't get a number with a download.
that's yet another added level of complexity to the process, which is just more information overload. but, i'll eventually finish the packaging.
i haven't done headphone listening of either inri002 or inri003 yet, but they are definitely closed, audio-wise. i'm just waiting to get the proper time stamp.
while i was doing prep, i spent a lot of time listening to inri002 and have developed some further ideas about how to distribute it. so, i'm going to be abstractly packaging some cassettes - but i don't have a cassette deck, so i can't actually make them. instead, i'll put the packaging in the download.
in fact, i think that i'm going to do that across the board. it may act as an incentive for digital purchase, and that might help me with eventual physical distribution. i'll have to be forthright: you don't get a number with a download.
that's yet another added level of complexity to the process, which is just more information overload. but, i'll eventually finish the packaging.
i haven't done headphone listening of either inri002 or inri003 yet, but they are definitely closed, audio-wise. i'm just waiting to get the proper time stamp.
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