Lullaby-eee

Oh-kay. Time for me to get back to some regularity (!) both on my blog and in my everyday life (!!). Wish me luck. I've been thinking a while how I can return to regular posting after such a massive event in my life, and I thought I'd make it a smooth transition with a bit of audio.

Iggy is asleep (for the moment), I'm settling in to do some work for a few hours - coffee at the ready. My hope is that by posting this, the waves of calm and (quasi) lullaby-hood will permeate to the corners of the internet and resonate back to my newb. Again, wish me luck.

I was looking through my collection for something appropriate in this transitional era, and I reckon this pretty much fits the bill.

The track is by Opal who went on to become the better known Mazzy Star. It's from the brilliant Early recordings (1989) compilation album. Said album is only $119.95 US on Amazon! I had no idea of it's rareness! A "tape" of the same album is only US$20. It's a little cheaper elsewhere if you look around, I found a copy on Ebay for around $70US.

Lullabye - Opal [8.2MB mp3 file]

[Disclaimer - if you have a beef with any .mp3 files you find here, send me an email and I'll remove 'em. Files are for evaluation purposes, and will hopefully get someone out there to buy the original]

More of the Iggy

You remind me of the babe.
What babe?
The babe with the power.
What power?
The power of voodoo.
Who do?
You do.
What!?
Remind me of the babe.

First night with the baby last night. Fun, laffs and shenanigans aplenty!

Happy birthday!

Well, wouldn't you know it. My wife had a baby last Wednesday (the 24th of October)! He's as cute as the proverbial button, healthy and in my humble opinion, perfect. He weighs 3.206kg, is 50cm long, and was born at 9:54 in the PM. Internets, meet Ignatius (Iggy) Victor Matthews!



Momentousness!!!

Ancient modernity

Here's an artist I discovered while in Japan: Akira Yamaguchi. There's not much I could find about him on the internet, which is a shame cos I'd really like to research some more of his work. Here is some background on his work and a reasonably large image (click it for larger), and here is a short essay and small pic (of an awesome work).

I love the dense technical and industrial quality, but also how he manages to maintain an older sensibility through Ukiyo-e stylings - synonymous with classical Japanese art. Above is a scan of a postcard (title unknown) from 2002. Click to see it larger.

You're so cute when you underestimate my superior intellect

Yep, I'm one of those people who keeps a notebook on their person at all times. You never know when you'll get one of those ideas that will stick (the trade-off being that you have to wade through a lot of garbage to sometimes get there) or simply when you'll need to take down a number or have a shopping list on hand.

After a while, these notebooks take on a life of their own - becoming a huge coagulated mess of ideas and concepts vaguely pertaining to where you were at a given time in your life.

I thought I'd scan and post these pages, as they show some of the ideas and brainstorming I did to come up with a blog name that I liked (among other random notes). Note that the name of this particular blog is nowhere to be found on the scans here.

By the way, today is the due date for our soon-to-be-born son! Yowp!

No geography on the internet

Dear Amazon,

I was wandering around the web just now and I got excited. Being an Einstürzende Neubauten fan for some years and owning many of their albums (until a whole slab of them got stolen when I was robbed a few years ago - I'm slowly re-acquiring my collection) I heard about a digital download you had of the Weil Weil Weil digital single.

To date I haven't gone for the whole digital download brouhaha but since, in recent history, you made your digital downloads DRM-free (for this I salute you) I thought the combination of some fresh Neubauten-ness combined with tracks I can put on my computer AND/OR portable media player would be more than enough to warrant a purchase. So I navigated to the page, set up an account, plugged in my credit card details and rubbed my mitts together with apprehension and a degree of glee. However, you needed to know where I live. Yes, it's true - I'm not a resident of the US. I'm an Australian. Here's your condolences:

We could not process your order because of geographical restrictions on the product which you were attempting to purchase. Please refer to the terms of use for this product to determine the geographical restrictions.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

From your 'Terms and conditions' page:

As required by our Digital Content providers, Digital Content will, unless otherwise designated, be available only to customers located in the United States.

Required by your digital content providers!?? Digital content providers - if indeed that is your real name - I had money ready, I had my earphones on, had converted the price to Aussie dollars and had even installed the Amazon Mp3 downloader application before you BROKE MY FREAKIN HEART by not allowing content to this humble Australian music fan. Granted, granted, I should have read the terms and conditions CAREFULLY, and I did. To a degree. I guess I missed that part. Still, I was flabbergasted by the nationalism of the internet. I can buy an import CD and get it sent over here, no problem. But no dice with the digital download. And the only way I could find this particular music is as a digital download! It's a global medium, people - start treating your content that way and I guarantee an increase in sales. You may even get rid of some of those pesky downloaders that are (allegedly) killing the music industry.

The internet can generate a BUCKETLOAD of hype and (this may come as a shock) but people WANT TO BUY MUSIC. People WANT TO SUPPORT ARTISTS. I know I did. But... I am a Neubauten fan, and I will get this album whenever it hits our shores (remember, there are no 'shores' on the internet), but for now my music purchasing enthusiasm has ebbed and I will not be buying anything from your site digital, physical or otherwise (for the moment, at least). If you want to avoid this kind of thing - localise Amazon to Australia. There's quite a few of us down here, and at least then we'll know what music can be eked out to us and when.

At least Neuabauten released one track officially. And I'm gonna post this track in an effort to generate even more hype about their music. Let the people buy. Buy, and... Be happy.

Weil Weil Weil - Einstüerzende Neubauten [7.0MB mp3 file]

'E' is for 'Entropy'

(Click for larger, it's worth it)

To quote Han Solo: "I feel terrible". Granted, I haven't been tortured in order to lure someone into a nefarious plot, but I do have a head-cold and I'm feeling sorry for myself and loved ones, who are sharing in the aforementioned head-cold. Inconvenient to say the least. In times like these (workloads permitting) I think it's helpful to reflect on the true nature of the universe.

Here's something to consider. Perhaps it's my state of mind, but this stuff seems to make more sense when you're gurgling along in your own phlegm. What a word. Phlegm.

"Yuurrghmk... *SPLET*".

Hige Raku postcards

Here's some scans taken from a postcard book of Japanese adverts, published is 2006. The best I could find on the internets about this stuff was a URL (in Japanese) on the inside cover of the book. Here's the Google translation of said URL. The illustrator's name is Hige Raku, and it's tough - for me at least - to find info on him anywhere on the web in English. Maybe my searching skills aren't as razor-sharp as I initially wanted to believe.

However, I still thought sharing some scans of this work was worthwhile. Maybe they'll eventually have an English version of his site cos I personally would love to see more of this type of thing and also see if Raku does non-commissioned work. Sophisticated colour schemes, dynamic line work and curious octopus action. The ingredients are all there!

The method...

I did this drawing in the morning from the daily paper. In stark contrast to my usual morning hostility and general uptightedness I aimed for a relaxed and whatever approach while drawing this. Now the key is to apply this method to my everyday life.

Does not exist

Ah-haaaaa, my new scanner turned up and is now freshly installed in the studio. Freshness!

Making music with insects making music

"(I play bass)"

I was talking about this album last night and I thought I'd post a couple of tracks from it today. Graeme Revell is a NZ born composer responsible for scoring many Hollywood films such as Grindhouse's Planet Terror, Until the End of the World and even the Street Fighter movie! However, the album "Musique Brut' AKA 'The Insect Musicians / Necropolis, Amphibians & Reptiles' Revell a) composes music based on the sounds of insects, and b) composes musical responses to the work of artist Adolf Wolfi.
I found this album through studying Wolfi for an 'Art and psychoanalysis' subject at uni and was completely floored by the quality and innovation it presented.

The tracks I'm posting are from the 'Insect musicians' "side" of the album. Maybe I'll post some of the Wolfi stuff at a later date - it's very good - but in some respects I prefer the insects. If you want to track down the album, I wish you luck. Amazon has an entry here, and Discogs here, but it's kinda rare. If you like these tracks, I recommend hunting it down as it's a really nice package complete with a booklet containing info on the recording process, a breakdown of the insects used and some good data on Wolfi.

The Insect Musicians - Invaders of the heart - Graeme Revell [6.1MB mp3 file]
(Created from: hive bees [disturbed], wood boring beetle, queen bee, European cicada and Death's Head hawkmoth).

The Insect Musicians - El Spiritus Sanctus - Graeme Revell [5.5MB mp3 file]
(Created from: hive bees, house cricket, queen bee, Oakleaf miner, worker bee).

Here's something to look at while you're listening!

Small...er...Alien

We were recently shopping for baby goods at Fragile and I picked this up for the n00b:
On closer inspection, it appeared to be no ordinary alien but...
Scandalous! And reasonably priced to boot!

Huh-huh-huh-huh

I'm fixing to go to the Laurie Anderson 'Homeland' gig later this month, and thought I'd post a coupla tracks from an album I've had for years: 'You're the guy I want to share my money with', an album Anderson appears on with William S. Burroughs and John Giorno. Anderson's material on this album is pre-Big science, and I've posted a version of 'Born, never asked' here, which appears on the aforementioned release. It's similar to the 'Big science' version, but is missing the "[...] you were born, and so your free. So happy birthday" spoken section at the start, which I like. Still, quite the valid track.

Born, never asked - Laurie Anderson [5.2MB mp3 file]

Dr. Miller - Laurie Anderson [5.1MB mp3 file]

[Disclaimer - if you have a beef with any .mp3 files you find here, send me an email and I'll remove 'em. Files are for evaluation purposes, and will hopefully get someone out there to buy the original]

Long limbs, small heads

Giacometti was hit by a car and felt it was an integral part of his destiny. The charcoal work above is one of my all-time favourites.

Baltan! Plush!

A friend recently alerted me to these Cthulhu plushes and I thought I'd post a little something I picked up in Japan for my impending "junior" - the humble Baltan Plush, made by MegaHouse (2006).

And the detail:

Baltan is a crab-clawed enemy of Ultraman. For context here's a still taken from the awesome 3-disc series one, volume 1 set, available here.
I gotta give credit and kudos to my pal Spacey Space for pointing out and suggesting the plush AND gifting the DVD-set to me! What a bloke!!!

Good day!

Genius?