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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Tesco Mutherfuckin Vee's Blurty:
| Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 | |
| 5:30 pm | Cannabis Arriba! What a fond memory of days gone by.  Back in the days when myself and a couple of other friends would grow, I would clip a leaf from the first plant harvested from each crop. I kept each leaf tucked away in the inlay cards of various CD cases as a way to keep track of strains and harvest dates. As I went through an old box of empty cases I pulled this Floyd case from the rest and found a decaying surprise. I thought I had disposed of all those old leaves. I guess I missed one. According to the scribble-scrabble, this leaf came from a strain of JackHair that was harvested on November 11, 1993. Fucking potheads. |
| Monday, December 14th, 2009 | |
| 11:42 pm | Icebreaker GREAT spliced footage from the Austin Skinny Puppy show. Note the part early on when some failing anus rips down a prop curtain. It's douchebag shit like this that can redirect a performer's mood, effectively deucing a show. To his credit, Ogre didn't miss a beat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7SWGJpqhD0 Oh...and here's the post script: DON'T BE A RUDE, SELFISH, THIEVING BITCH, DAMNIT! |
| Sunday, December 13th, 2009 | |
| 5:52 pm | ZZZZZzzzzzzz...Huh!? Whaaa...? Vol. 2 of the Skinny Puppy tour review will appear soon. I'm so fucking tired. I really, really need to clear my plate. |
| Saturday, December 12th, 2009 | |
| 12:20 am | Put Another Dime In The Jukebox, Baby! So the dinner/dance at the civic center was actually the tits. My lady and I WON the $500 dance-off by swinging our way through the 50s jams, and then capping the proficiency by slamming each other to the likes of Joan Jett! Fucking sneaky assbag bitches. Fuck it, we won that shit anyway. Goddamn Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. |
| Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 | |
| 9:54 am | In Solvent See Tour Vol.1 One week ago today I arrived in Austin for their brush with the In Solvent See tour. I pulled into my old parking spot under I-35, dressed for the weather, made a few phone calls and pulled a few off the bottle before stepping out into a city I've tormented for far too long. At first glance it became apparent that some of the business fronts were different, but all in all things haven't changed much. I walked along 6th until I got to Red River and wondered who was still around, wondered if some of the old faces were still making appearances in ATX. I never did see Leslie. I popped into Emo's to snap a couple of pics before grabbing some lunch when I ran into Ogre, complete with a plastic Santa Claus under his arm. After a couple of words of hello, I took to a little eatery down the road where I met up with a fellow Skinny Puppy fan. It was over great conversation when I first noticed my note-taking habit coming into play. We talked of music, performance art, image manipulation in relation to web design, and other fidgity topics. After a good period of time (and a few mood-setting boilermakers) this fellow and I headed back down to the venue for a final sound check. For me, sound check is likened to the knee-weakening torture of a lover whispering their intentions in your ear a few hours before you finally get to have a monsterous go at each other. I like the torment. It keeps my dick hard for more. Supplies...  Hello, Old Friend...  If walls could talk...     As the night progressed the mood lightened from broody and preparatory to something more social and celebratory. I saw a bunch of old friends and ran amok in the middle of tight little nerd herds. It was a cold night but the blanket of friendly interaction kept the crowd warm. I toured Emo's a couple of times, swirling a bit in my inebriation and poking the nose of curiosity into other's affairs. I found that, despite my being intrusive, people were being quite approachable and fun loving. Back when I was much younger people socialized in this way (usually fueled by love drugs). Nowdays people tend to be more possessive of their space and to be honest it chimes the Hell out of me. On this night, however, the walls were nonexistent and the animals seemed to be more social. Thank God.      I screwed a mystery woman against that railing during a Melvin's show on Halloween night sometime around 1994. Sluts. Werd.  After the opening act finished I made my way to the mixing board where I found Ken "HiWatt" Marshall tweaking settings for the SP set. Now, a little history lesson is in order before I can go further. Ken Marshall is a sound engineer, producer and straight up magician when it comes to mixing recorded works. He has worked on a lot of Skinny Puppy material going back to the Rabies days. Some of my favorite pieces have been produced under the critical ear of HiWatt. Where I envy him most is from his time at Mushroom studios in Vancouver where he and Dave "Rave" Ogilvie would sit in on brap sessions with Cevin Key and Dwayne Goettel. Unbeknownst to the composers, Ken and Rave would record and engineer some of the most spontaneous and influential segments of recorded works in electronic music. A lot of those recordings would become sequence elements to be used on the albums they were working on at the time. This was not common with recording sessions at the time and is a true testament to the artistic and creative merit established in electronic music, specifically by Skinny Puppy. If anyone tells you that Electro is not music, kick them in their crotch for me since I won't be there to do it myself.     The SP set itself was phenomenal given the tight, inefficient space they had to work with in the venue. For all its worth as a great up-and-comer venue, for a performance art-based show like Skinny Puppy's, Emo's was not the right place to work. As it was explained by Ogre earlier in the day, they were "just gonna have to get punk rock with it." And they did. The set was tight, yet loose enough for elaboration. Marshall did a wonderful job as sound man considering that he was working signals through an unfamiliar house board. Ogre did not have much room for physical expression, but did a fantastic job through the use of lighting and the cctv system they had brought along for visual interpretation of the "hidden, faceless racism in America" concept. Apparently, the sound up front was a bit bloody, but since I spent all my time at the board, I didn't get a chance to hear for myself. They did have a FOH tech backstage, but had little room to work with in such tight quarters. To their credit, they managed to present the full spectrum of sound with little loss to bad acoustics. Bravo, bitches. Favorite song of the night: Dead Lines. Here's a short clip of Marshall working the sound equipment during the show. Pay attention to the bass vibe making the camera spasm. Fucking glorious! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw1TsLS7busThe night was spectacular. Of course the majority of the appreciation comes from the music itself, but the element of great social/catching up time was wonderful as well. I had a chance to sit with Paul Barker, ex-Ministry bass player and current member of U.S.S.A. We had a great time talking about days gone by when he was something of a fixture in the music scene in Austin around 1994. He even remembered my "dick hitchhiking" exhibition as Ministry rode their hogs down 6th street after last call. Good times spent with great people! My big brother of the tour, Ken HiWatt Marshall  Paul Barker wearing the same expression and cock-of-the-head he displays in almost every picture  I had a great time in Austin. What was even more enjoyable was knowing that Dallas would offer the same and more. I left the venue and headed back to my car as the autograph signing began in the back of Emo's. I shifted from feasting to searching as my need for a room for the night came into play. Alas, the smile never went away, even as I lay down for the night.     |
| Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 | |
| 3:35 pm | Chewing It Over... Even though, over the years, I have accommodated and been involved with touring bands on a more promotional level, I never really had a chance to get a feel of things from the road. At the age of thirty-six I finally had the chance. I had the chance to get a feel for road gruel and elation as I briefly followed the only recording artists to ever capture my complete devotion. On the cold early morning of December 5th I sat next to the tour bus enjoying the pleasure of hotel coffee and deep thoughts. It was there, down by the melting chunks of road ice, where I made a deeper connection between the desire to get close to the music and the inspiration to feel/think something poignant. This is where I differentiate between simple fanatacism and a genuine devotion to one's art. Alas, despite my own awareness of genuine interest, I felt this very strange ebb and flow of fan boy obsession as the days progressed. I know that the feeling came from a fear of being misunderstood, being seen as a "hang on", a groupie. Eventually I let go of the awareness of embarrassment and enjoyed the humility in me that produced it. Watching from afar was how I connected. Observing from the point of view of a stray mongrel dog was more fitting it seemed. Oh so fitting... Whether or not the Skinny Puppy family was truly aware of my intentions, they were heartfelt and kind nonetheless. A fine group of people who treated this stray dog with respect.  |
| Monday, December 7th, 2009 | |
| 9:04 pm | The Toilet Seat Is Up Over the course of several months I've encountered some rancid strains of douchebaggery infecting various people of the female persuasion. I've done my best not to attack the gender but have had no choice but to recognize the obvious. A few years ago I saw this movie titled As Good As It Gets which features a quote that is rarely repeated or discussed in coed company. The line is stated during a scene in which a publisher's secretary asks the protagonist, an author, how he writes women characters so well. His answer: "I think of a man and I take away reason and accountability." Now the movie was fairly entertaining, but what stuck out the most was that line as it hit the ass right in the stinker. There are a lot of women out there who bash men for their own brand of douchebaggery but rarely take their own tendencies into account. Women can be some of the most irrational, scatterbrained and unreasonable creatures to walk this Earth, but can hardly call themselves out on it. A fuckload of these giner-packin' wingnuts will run guys through the gauntlet of shit, watching them dance from one foot to the other, and give them shit for ending up pissy and uninterested at the end. The real problem I have is the lack of accountability for producing such a result and the rare application of reason when being called out for it. Women, the fix is simple: recognize and be accountable for your irrational behaviour, accept some of your inherent faults and when you're being fucked up, don't let the passage of time facilitate denial. Absolving yourself of guilt as a method of denial is counterproductive and chickenshit. Just say "Hey, I was just being a douchey, selfish little shit and I'm sorry." Word. Oh, and if you're reading this and irked, you're one of those douchey, selfish little shits.  |
| 5:37 pm | Going Over It I'm uploading pictures. At present time I have eighty-five images I intend to share. There are a few I'll have to omit due to illicit activity and personal/private nature and a shitload of pictures that make sense to only me. I'm very happy that I am in the position to descriminate. It was such an enriching experience. |
| 8:53 am | Skinny Puppy Process Miles driven: 1,848Travel expenses: $1,114.02Rekindling your love for writing while indulging in your greatest passion: PRICELESS |
| Friday, December 4th, 2009 | |
| 10:26 am | OK... Even though I have the booze shakes this "morning", I'm in a better condition to elaborate on my current position. In short, over the last few days I have endeared myself to the Skinny Puppy crew by simply being a good guy. I arrived in Dallas at around one or two in the afternoon and spent the day observing and writing. As cold as it was, people actually began to feel sorry for me, seeing me shiver and stomp the feet every now and then. At two different points Ogre came out to care for the tarded little boy in the back of the club. The guy offered some extra clothing and at one point actually came out to bring me some soup and a sandwich. I must have really made an impression, looking completely nuts out there for hours. Alas, this is what I love to do. Following this tour for as long as I can is more than I've been able to do in the past, financially and logistically. I consider this a gift. For my loyalty and the better part of twenty-three years of support, they've graciously placed me on the guest list for the rest of the tour. I hope I can make it further than New Mexico, but I'm having my doubts. As much as I want to sieze the moment, I do have responsibilities to attend to. This tour will end, but my responsibilities won't. Adieu for now as I've a ten hour drive ahead of me ;) |
| 4:36 am | Unreal So here I am in some redneck part of the woods after dropping back from the tour bus and opting for a night in bed. I, once again, have no idea where I am staying and, quite frankly, am too fucking hammered to care. For the record, I believe I'm at a Hampton Inn...or some shit. Today was COLD. That's the first and foremost descripitve. Outside of that, it's been a spectacular day. I spent QUALITY time with members of Skinny Puppy and was lucky enough to have had Ogre come out and hook me up with some really good food. The show was phenomenal and I got some really good shots from the mixing booth. Anyway, honestly, there's a fucking sausage mcmuffin steaming it's ass out from my back pack and I'm really, really tired. I shalll go to my room to slumber. Oh, yeah...I'm heading to Albuquerque ;) |
| Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 | |
| 10:06 am | Word I don't even know what hotel this is... Last night was spectacular. Met up with and spoke to Ogre while he stood there, a plastic Santa Claus tucked under his arm. I also got to spend a couple of hours with Ken "Hiwatt" Marshall and Paul Barker. Something surreal, talking about school districts for their children and the pros and cons of living in L.A. Enough name dropping. On to Dallas... |
| Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 | |
| 7:21 am | Adieu, Fair Hermans I'll be heading out to handle my bidness in another ten minutes. As soon as my local obligations are attended to, I'll depart the countryside and head out in search of satisfaction. I'll get into Austin around 4p.m. and hang out until the crowd begins to swell at Emo's.   This show is supposed to wield an impressive light show in support of the performance art concept. I'm looking forward to the theatrics and lovely, lovely sounds. Adieu ;) |
| Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 | |
| 10:37 am | Take It I am going to ramble on here with thoughts as they come to me. I have a point to make here. I respect coherent composition. Sometimes, in the great heated rush of thought, those things do not go hand-in-hand. And so it goes... As much of an assbite as it is, I'll be missing tonight's Houston Skinny Puppy show due to an early morning meeting with clients. Such is the responsible life. Alas, after that meeting I'll be tying up a few loose ends, loading my shit into my road hog, burning offerings to the gods of hot convenience store coffee and safe travel, and then hitting the fucking road. I must admit that two things are bothering me. First, I'm quite disappointed in the fact that I'll be sharing this venture with no one. Second, despite the true nature of these circumstances, I feel that I'm lacking an appropriate level of enthusiasm. I attribute a large portion of this sentiment to the first point made, but still feel that there's another element fueling my lack of a boner. If I delve into it I can see that this tour has an air of neccessity rather than passion. I feel that the group (S.P.) is pumping this one out for financial reasons as opposed to the enthusiastic support of a recently released album. True, there have been major issues surrounding their record label problems (a new record being held back from press) and related legal happenings. And there's the undeniable lack of magic in the group stemming from the loss of D.R. Goettel. But, aside from these things, there seems to be this air of detachment exhibited by the band, the kind of "feeling" one has when artists are not as interested in the project as they used to be. As I type this I realize that I've felt this before. I hope I'm wrong and that I'm merely overreacting to their extreme disappointment/disillusion stemming from their legal woes. Having shared that, I can say that I am excited about the same thing that has kept me maniacal for this experience for nearly twenty-three years: my PASSIONATE immersion into LIVE Skinny Puppy music. I can not express the way I feel about the presence, the sights and sounds. There's this connection to the music that transcends ordinary fanaticism. In fact, I could never use the word fanaticism as it does not describe my level of interest. The typical "fan" scrapes the surface tissue and absorbs the sensationalism attached to the personages and scene itself. I, with as much humility possible, consider myself to be a critic. To find a certain negativity in the word "critic" does a disservice to the position, as a good critic judges with respect to the goals set forth by the artists themselves. The music is created and presented by the members of Skinny Puppy. It is my responsibility to absorb their work with as much objectivity as possible, which is often next to impossible. As a true critic, I sometimes find myself out of favor with some of their works. As a respectful critic, I love the work, nonetheless. Every album produced by Skinny Puppy is met with the same period of judgement and intricacy. My love of this process, as a critic, is being stripped of me this time around. I will have to find a way around this disappointment. For this tour I shall indulge in what is already familiar. Despite some of what's been stated here, I'm looking so very forward to listening the live presentation of songs I've known as the aural element to a live worth remembering. I've seen and felt the good and the bad extremes in this life thus far, and this music was present for quite a few of them. I suppose it's an honor and a gift to be able to pay homage to memories of what/who built me through the mere presence of music. This is what one describes as passion. The ability and presence of mind enough to percieve things in such a way is a gift and not one to be taken lightly. I never have taken it lightly, and I never will. Bring on the Skinny Puppy. |
| Monday, November 30th, 2009 | |
| 7:56 pm | Say Enough Right, so now there's a fuckin' Slap Chop rap video commercial complete with dancers and vocal processing for "Vince's" voice. I can not tell you how bunched up my nuts are right now. Yes, that's right, this horrid shit stank commercial has produced a physical response that's typically reared in the face of midget sex and kicks to my groin. If this commercial were to appear in human form, I'd quickly locate its anus and jam a barrel cactus up there.  'Nuff said. |
| Sunday, November 29th, 2009 | |
| 11:52 am | The Absent Minded Photographer I spent the day yesterday hopscotching around San Anto for some shopping, eating, errands-in-general, and seeking out an old friend. After a quick stop by Nagel's gunsmithing, I dropped by an old friend's house to see if he was still living there. To my utter surprise, Chris G came to the door and gave a muthafucka a hug. This dude and I have a good twenty-three years of history together. Actually, the math is incorrect since I haven't seen this person in almost seven years. Anyway, we talked for a bit, exchanged cell numbers and made loose plans to have him out to my house for some R&R/catching the fuck up. I invited him to come with me on my Skinny Puppy road trip but learned that he's in the delicate process of beating addiction and getting his shit back together. Since there'll surely be shenannigans on this jaunt, I was more than understanding/supportive in his decision. Here are the usual random pics...without one single pic of the monumental reuniting :/       The Holiday lights in downtown Metropolis...err, Uvalde.   Meh...those pictures blew. I have to say that the reality of the moments were much more entertaining. I also failed miserably at snapping away the images worth seeing. Sometimes I just leave the damn camera in the car or up my ass. So it is. So be it. |
| Thursday, November 26th, 2009 | |
| 9:45 pm | Happy Spanksgiving! So today was the family turkey day gathering at my parent's place. It became painfully obvious that having family get-togethers at the old lakehouse was MUCH better since there was more room. Alas, it's not my place and it was all about family time and not efficient entertaining. I skipped the initial idea of taking a bunch of pictures and snapped some here-and-there shots. Let's go over them quickly and then talk a little bit about Skinny Puppy, bitch. The morning sky at time of departure from home. Another good coffee break.  Settings  EVERY fucking television in the place had a shitty football game on.  A quick stop by my favorite theatre.  I fucked a lot here in days gone by. Saw a lot of freaky shit as well...as in ghosts, not sex.  Got really nasty under that bridge in days gone by.  And as I drove home, I reflected on the time spent with my family. I was actually thinking of an annoying quirk often displayed by one particular family member when I came across a reminder. No matter how bad, tired, annoyed, farty and full of food one may be, there are people out there who are having an even more horrific Thanksgiving. So as I snap this picture I realize that my family is great and I should just shut the fuck up and smile. Thanksgiving is about appreciating what you have and where you are. We bitch about our petty troubles and rarely stop to think...  So...now that we covered that... SKINNY PUPPY...will be swinging through Tejas this coming week and I will be slamming my way through the doors of Emo's in Austin on December 2nd and the Granada theatre in Dallas the following night. Can't tell ya how excited I am. Pictures WILL follow. |
| Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 | |
| 10:03 am | T-Day, Biatch! I'm going to head up to my parent's early in the morning in order to assist in the Thanksgiving Day fare. I'm currently aging some great duck breast cutlets in a homemade marinade. The breasts have been aging in the fridge for the last few days and should be nice and tender by now. With these breasts I'll be making "duck rolls", which is simple enough to prepare and is very tasty. Basically, all you do is pound each breast out until they're near a quarter inch thick, stuff with muenster cheese and sauteed onions, then roll up and skewer with toothpicks to hold. Lightly season with a homemade seasoning and flash broil for about five minutes per side. NOT overcooking is key with duck. Unlike most wild game meat, duck can be seared to a point of rare and doesn't have to be thoroughly cooked (since "sick" ducks can not complete the migratory flight South) leaving one with ample room to play with. The other meat I'll be preparing is a wild boar ham that I packed in a paste made from cinnamon sugar and smoke seasoning, and then wrapped in foil. Before shoving that fat ass into the oven, I'll stipple the flesh with cloves. The side I'll bring with is a simple sweet tater casserole topped with crushed pecans (from my tree;) and mini marshmallows. I found that recipe in Cooking Light so we'll see exactly how light that shit really is. I looked up the counts in carbs and found it to be around thirty grams per serving. Yeah, sneaky fuckers. I'm already full after simply typing this up. Ahhhh...Thanksgiving Day food...and those sweet, sweet leftovers. FYI - for those looking to keep their asses manageable, studies have shown that half of a person's yearly weight gain occurs between T-Day and New Year's Day. Just sayin'. |
| Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 | |
| 8:48 pm | WoW, It's An Ugg Chink Spam Handbag I'm really fucking tired of the chink "WoW gold/leather handbags/ugg boots" spam inundating the comment section of my posts. It's bad enough that there are no moderators left on Blurty to deal with the ONSLAUGHT of spam blogs, but to have the shit pepper your own page is boolsheeeit. |
| Saturday, November 21st, 2009 | |
| 10:05 pm | Saturday I had a hard time deciding what to do with my day today. I finally settled on an invite to go to Sea World with some friends and their kids. After kidnapping a partner in crime, we headed out. Immediately upon arrival we noticed a theme...holiday cheer and all that. And as usual, pictures.     Now I've heard of Scuba Steve...but Scuba Santa? WTF?      Wait...WHAT? Isn't this how you load unruly kids into a car?  Oh...and for sticking around to see 'em all, I've included a bonus. For those of you who know me personally, you might fall out of your chair when you learn that I picked up a CAT at the Humane Society. Cool cat. Friendly as shit. Anyway, this cat has taken to a very entertaining passtime. It enjoys swatting the balls on my little tin doggy. Even though the sound of tin being tapped at three in the morning annoys, it's still worth a sleepy snicker.   Werd. Viola! |