some birds are funny when they talk
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Fellows:

Aijung
Alyssa
Angela
Bobby
Carla
Dave
Ester
Jesse
Jonah
Josie
Kate
Lillie
Nori
Rabi
Rebecca

Mincetapes

e-mince

Photos!

Nice

Archives:

Stuck in my Head
"Kiss Me Harder" by Bertine Zetlitz
"Hot" by Avril
"Brain Problem Situation" by They Might Be Giants


Now Reading
Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro

Recently Finished
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggers
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Mad Tony and Me by Carl Hoffman
Sweet Soul Music by Peter Guaralnick
This Must Be The Place: Adventures of Talking Heads in the 20th Century by David Bowman
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Movies Lately
Sicko
4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days
Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts
Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour
2 Days in Paris
United 93
The Savages
The Bourne Ultimatum
Sweeney Todd
The Departed
Juno
Enchanted
What Would Jesus Buy?
Ghost World
Superbad
I'm Not There
She's The Man
Superbad
Lars and the Real Girl
Romance and Cigarettes
No Country for Old Men
Into the Wild
Gattaca
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
Across the Universe

Shows Lately
Damo Suzuki/Stinking Lizaveta @ Mill Creek
Death and the Maiden @ Curio
Devon Sproule/Carsie Blanton/Devin Greenwood/John Francis @ Tin Angel
Assassins @ The Arden
Oakley Hall and the Teeth @ Johnny Brendas
Isabella and Flamingo/Winnebago and Map Me and Gatz and Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Sonic Dances and Strawberry Farm and The Emperor Jones and No Dice and Hearts of Man and Principles of Uncertainty and Isabella and BATCH and Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre's 20th Century and Car and Sports Trilogy and Explanatorium and Wandering Alice and Must Don't Whip Um and Festival of Lies and A Room of Ones Own and Recitatif @ the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe
Martha Graham Cracker and Eliot Levin and Kilo etc. @ the Fringe Cabaret
Lullatone and Teletextile @ Boulder Coffee [Rochester]
TV Sound @ the M Room
Aretha Franklin @ East Dell, Fairmount Pk.
Romeo + Juliet in Clark Park
Daft Punk @ Red Rocks
Spoon @ Rockefeller Park
Ponytail at Pony Pants' House
Mirah/Benjy Ferree @ the 1UC
Tortoise @ World Cafe Live
Hall & Oates...ish
"Nuclear Dreams" - Mascher Dance Group, x2
The Four of Us @ 1812
Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines Machines by Rainpan whatever
Mascher Dance Group/Nathaniel Bartlett
Cornelius @ TLA
Sloan @ World Cafe
In Fluxxxx
Slavic Soul Party!/Red Heart the Ticker @ I-House
the Fantasticks @ Mum
Peter Bjork + Jorn/Fujiya + Miyagi @ fkaTLA
John Vanderslice @ Johnny Brendas
The Books & Todd Reynolds @ 1UC
Into the Woods @ LPAC
The Fishbowl @ the Frear
Caroline, or, Change @ the Arden
Low & Loney, Dear. @ 1UC




Tuesday, April 19

come now my dissector

i don't know if this is of interest to anyone else, but i've got to record at least a bit about djing on saturday night. particularly since djing is currently my biggest, if not exactly newest, preoccupation (whoa, that word could be interpreted interestingly.) especially since friday's making time party, where the djs in the main room reminded me a lot of myself (the ones that bill their music as "cocainsexjams/partytrainanthems.") actually i'm more like a mix between them, the housey/dancey guys downstairs and the soul guys upstairs. dancing to djs that are just like you is almost better than actually being the dj, except that then you're not the dj.

so, my set saturday was a typically eclectic one, even without any hip-hop or electronica (almost.) a lot of 60s stuff - mod/soul/garage - with some mid-aughts pepper, plus between. also a fair amount of reggae, as per suggestion, which was a fun change. i didn't genreclash much, but it was interesting to see what folks could get into. not the kind of party where people were constantly on the floor, more like spurts here and there. but i don't really think that was my fault - i think people were just more interested in talking. come to think of it, i don't remember seeing mari dancing at all. her mom was going wild though.

it was fairly unpredictable which songs would get people to dance. some of the most successful: "brown sugar" (obviously - this was the no-brainer), cm's "spoon," dj /rupture's "mosquito" (such a hot song), "don't leave me this way" (tara's right, this is absolutely brilliant, plus it sounds just as good at 33 instead of 45. that would be the screwed part, right, not the chopped?) on the other hand, plenty of should-be crowd pleasers failed to draw much response ("love train"?)

maybe my favorite bit conceptually was a bunch of motown stuff > you can make it if you try > you can get it if you really want > reggae version of i second that emotion, but you can't tell from the intro > boogie on reggae woman, which is not reggae. good requests. there was this really drunk guy who might have been obnoxious if he weren't as amusing, who asked me to play the eagles, twice, and then creedence clearwater (no, no, yes) - the latter led into the rock megathon set of rebel rebel > brown sugar > rock the casbah, etc, chelsea, and eventually "government center" which a couple of people got into, that was cute. and i liked going from that into "brick house" (another request.)

after the salsa set, the dancers got sparser, so i tried out everything from of montreal (that had only been repeating endlessly in my head all day, what's it called, wraith pinned to the mast, whatever?) to the four tops, shapeshifters/o'jays, ub40, finally got some of the kids out with "chewing gum," then pulled the "car wash" trick again. drunk guy was weirdly bent about it - "what you have is employees dancing!" he chid me (some swatties working the food tables), well, what do you want to hear? "…elvis presley. …now." okay, suspicious minds was a funny transition but almost made sense. that into "last nite," "1999," "you can call me al" (again, no/few dancers?), and that goes beautifully into "sunshowers." beautiful. people danced to that. then "dip it low," haha, so weird and delightful. then i had to stop as i was about to kick it into gear, because it was time for the party to be over.

that's when i dropped my phone. and i unthinkingly passed up a ride back to philly, which would have been the sensible option because of course herr jonas was busy passing out at the foot of some stairs in willow grove or something. the upshot there is that my djstuff is still out at swat, meaning not just my turntable and, oh, maybe 5% of my music collection, but also my desk chair (which doubles as a vinyl crate), so now i'm using the accordion case instead except that i'm actually just writing from my bed. which doubles as a bed.

hey, isn't this such a smooth line?:

she said "you a playa, ain't you?
you can have what you want, cain't you?"
i replied "i'm also an artist, baby; i could paint you."