how did i not hear about this until now?

i was reading an article in the leftcoaster about the xtian right, etc... the part at the bottom of the page talks about an amusing anti-bush billboard. not quite culture-jamming, but close: taking back the billboard from the corporations & using it for free artistic expression. then i realized it was talking about indianapolis.

here's a quote from the original nuvo article:




when i saw "I-65/I-70" it dawned on me... holy shit, that's downtown naptown!

the billboard is brought to you in part by a non-profit called YourArtHere: check 'em out while their first-amendment rights are still protected. as for me, i just might need to go downtown soon, before this goes away...

i had great fun visiting connie in san francisco for xmas. we had some great meals, went to union square and chinatown on xmas eve (it was a madhouse), & had chinese food delivered on xmas day. nothing too eventful: just pleasant memories with a special lady. i gave connie some old magazines from the 40s-60s & an art piece i made for her, where i did a google image search for "connie" & printed the most interesting results, then made a collage with them. connie's main present for me apparently didn't arrive in time, so i'll have to wait for that.

things not arriving in time & waiting... unfortunately, those were major themes of the trip. the actual visiting with connie stuff was good, but traveling there & back was awful.

i was worried about being stuck in the plane for hours during de-icing, but that didn't happen. no, the dread winter storm didn't even hit until i was in the air (then it dropped nine inches of snow), as i'd hoped. but that didn't mean my flight worries were over.

i was supposed to depart at 3:45pm. at 4pm, us airways staff finally came over the PA to acknowledge that our plane hadn't even showed up yet. anyone who had a connection in charlotte earlier than 6:30 should come up to the desk to be re-routed, they said. so i stood in line for 15 minutes or so, only to be told that they couldn't do anything for me at the desk by the gate, so i should go back to the ticket counter... on the other side of the security checkpoint.

after a bit more waiting in line, the ticket counter sets me up with a whole new flight plan on their sister airline, united, that took me through o'hare instead of charlotte. i took the opportunity to smoke a couple cigarettes before going back through security & left a message for connie to call me back so i could give her the new info. then, since my new flight wasn't scheduled to leave until after 6, i stopped for dinner & a drink at the dick clark's american bandstand. connie called me back, i gave her the new info, & i had some tasty southwestern eggrolls. everything seemed to be going fine.

so i was waiting at the gate when my cellphone rang. it was connie telling me that my flight was delayed. sure enough, i looked up & the screen now said my flight was delayed until (i think) 7:20. this only gave me 15-20 minutes to change over in o'hare, but i stuck with the new plan.

sure enough, i arrived in o'hare only 15mins before my next flight was scheduled to leave, so i powerwalked, then sprinted my way to my new gate, in a different terminal (of course; this was o'hare, after all). i reached the gate in time & while boarding asked the attendant what were the chances of my checked bag getting on the plane? he told me they were still loading baggage, & indeed the plane left a good 10-15min late because, they told us, of baggage. so i was appeased. the onflight movie was shark tale. capsule review: don't waste your money. i could elaborate for paragraphs on why this movie was mediocre, but i won't here. if you really want to know, ask.

finally i got to SFO where connie was waiting... but my suitcase was not. once the conveyor stopped moving & it was clear my suitcase was not going to appear, we got in the long-ass line for united baggage claim customer service. eventually i got to file a claim & was told that if the delivery service hadn't called by 10am the next morning, i should call the united baggage claim hotline, an 800 number. so we grabbed a taxi & went back to connie's house. i had no clean clothes, & no presents for connie.

over the course of the next day, i got to know simon (the voice recongition united baggage claim hotline) pretty intimately. but my bag didn't show up the next day. we ended up sticking around the house in until dinnertime, in case it showed up. we finally did go out that night to meet one of connie's coworkers for a tasty indian dinner, but if i hadn't been worrying about my delayed bag, we might've gone out earlier & i might've been able to do some record shopping while i was out there.

in united's version of a christmas miracle, they delivered my bag to me at about 2:40pm on xmas eve (simon had said it would be there between 10:30 and 2:30). i was finally able to relax the rest of the way & we had a good night tromping through chinatown, shopping & trying to locate the building where my grandfather once lived. then we had a nice sushi dinner & went home to relax.

we spent most of xmas day relaxing at home, watching dvds & live tv, eating chinese food. it was fun, though not particularly interesting to read about.

the next day we got up early, showered, & made our way to SFO. we ate breakfast at subway then said our painful goodbyes before i entered the line to go through security.

i boarded on schedule, though our plane sat on the runway for a good 45mins awaiting clearance to turn around & take off. but the pilot assured us that thanks to good winds and sky conditions, we would still arrive on time. the onflight movie was supposed to be first daughter, which i was not remotely interested in watching, but something funky was going on: vertical hold problems and bad image quality. so before long an attendant came over the PA to announce that something was wrong with the tape, & she was going to put in elf instead. it was funny. so here's a reminder: shark tale: not worth it. elf: funny.

the plane was a 747 divided into three columns of seats. i was in the middle column. to my right was an attactive young couple. to my left was a youngish mother: her husband and two young kids were in the left column. her young son was very well-behaved & slept most of the flight. but her daughter, no more than 4-5 years old, spent the bulk of the flight whining, bitching, & truly capturing the essence of the annoying bratty child. in contrast, in front of me was a very young child, no more than 2, who made virtually no noise the whole time, & peered at me through the seats with big cute eyes.

anyway, we did indeed arrive at o'hare within 5 minutes of schedule. but when i got off the plane i discovered that my connecting flight to indy had been delayed, from 7:45pm to 8:32pm. now that i had a layover of more than 2 hours, i searched valiantly for a smoking lounge, then simply for a way outside so i could smoke. finding a way out was not easy. my father had been supposed to pick me up from the airport, but now i had a cellphone that barry (my brother in law) was going to do it instead, because now dad was sick. so i called home & gave the news that my flight was delayed a bit. then i finally made it outside & smoked.

once i was inside & through security again, i noticed on the boards that now my flight wasn't scheuled to leave until 9:27. so i searched for an atm, then a bar in my terminal where i could have dinner & a drink.

once i was done there, i discovered that the boards said my flight would now leave at 10:20. i called home again, & my sister suggested i take a taxi home. barry was already asleep, & i wouldn't be arriving at home until after midnight. so taxi it was.

i sat down somewhat near the gate (it was very crowded), occasionally glancing up at the board. suddenly, i looked up & my flight had vanished from the board entirely. i panicked & jumped in a line for several minutes until it became clear that the woman running that line didn't know anything helpful. i darted off to the united customer service desk, but the line was ridiculous so i went back to the gates & got in a different line. the board now claimed that my flight had departed. eventually someone comes on the PA & announces that my flight is now scheduled to depart at 10:40. then it was bumped back up to 10:20. there was another indy flight after ours that was delayed even further.

as the time neared, i got up & stood semi-impatiently near the gate. but we never started boarding. the rumor started to circulate that our plane was there (indeed it was right at the gate) but there was no crew to operate it. the boards still said our flight had departed, but someone announced that our flight was now pushed back until 1:25am, & they would put us up in a hotel if we wanted. i wasn't sure i wanted to go to a hotel, but i got in line to reserve the option. that is, after calling in to work to say there was no chance i would make it in.

some time later, a crew arrived, but they thought they were headed to buffalo. indy passengers pleaded with them to fly us to indy. i got out of line. but no, it was announced that the plane we'd thought was ours was in fact going to buffalo, & our plane was due to land at 12:50.

foiled, i sat back down & waited for the new 1:25 flight time. the buffalo crew came out into the concourse with their drink cart, passing out sodas & party mix to those of us who had been waiting so many hours.

surprisingly, our plane actually did land sometime before 1 & we got to board. first class was virtually empty, so an attendant asked a few of us in the back to come up front, for counterbalance purposes. but then we sat there in the plane until after 2am before finally taking off.

we finally arrived in indy after 4am. i had a cigarette & a bathroom break before going to the baggage claim. the airport was dead except for us & a small number of employees. the baggage claim carousel started up... & soon it became clear that most of our bags were not there. a bunch of us got in line at the baggage claim service desk & filed our complaints. we were told that another flight would be arriving in an hour or so, & our bags might be on it, but i wasn't going to wait for that after being stuck in o'hare for more than 7 hours. so i caught a taxi & went home. i got home at about 5:30am. no real reason was ever given for the delays, other than the butterfly effect: someone somewhere slipped on a banana peel, delaying one flight, which caused more flights to be delayed, which eventually caused a couple hundred united passengers to be stuck in o'hare for hours waiting for our planes to show up.

fortunately, this time around united was able to return my bag the next day: it was delivered here shortly before 4pm. my ordeal is over (except for the call to customer service that i feel almost obligated to make... maybe filing a complaint online would suffice).

now it's late & i am still jetlagged. tomorrow i return to work, after getting an extra day off thanks to united's ineptitude. i don't think i'll ever fly united or us airways again... unless they give me some serious vouchers to make up for their terrible service.

by my house, it snowed maybe an inch or so overnight. but up here in carmel by my workplace, it hasn't snowed at all (yet). during my last break, i was talking to someone who lives on the west side (where the airport is) & she said it had barely snowed over there also.

ah, those fickle weather reports... yesterday estimates were that we'd get as much as 4 to 8 inches of snow during the day today. but as of this morning, it looks like now most of that snow won't hit until this evening. here's what the national weather service has to say as of right now (last updated at 8am est):


1 to 2 inches isn't much at all. we were a bit worried about the drive to the airport, but with only 1-2in possible (& a 20% chance it won't snow again at all), the drive will be as easy as falling off a frozen log. i'm still a bit concerned about de-icing the plane, though.

this is likely to be my final blog entry before i leave. i'll still have computer access while in san francisco, so i'll be reachable by email & could possibly post while i'm there, but i might not get around to it.

to those of you who're still stuck in the winter wonderland, have a good holiday, and bundle up warmly! it's gonna be colder than a witch's tit out here (in indy the temp is supposed to drop below zero on xmas morn). & to connie and all you san franciscans: i'll see you soon!

i could've sworn i blogged about this months ago, but apparently not...

back in september i was contacted by arie altena, from amsterdam. arie was editing an academic publication to be titled Unsorted: an A to Z for SonicActs X. sonicacts x was a corresponding live event/conference, with lectures & performances by all sorts of cool acts like dj /rupture and venetian snares.

in the email, arie informed me that mitchell whitelaw had written an article about databending & sonification that mentioned my work. whitelaw had also suggested that some of my databent images should be used as illustrations, so arie was writing me for permission to print them. of course i consented.

i got my copies of the book in the mail today. it's a little pocket-sized thing on yellow paper. you can actually read whitelaw's article, hearing pure data as a pdf on his website (courtesy of the university of canberra, where he teaches). the book is organized alphabetically by title: whitelaw's article is filed under H. as a consequence, my images are filed under S for stAllio!, and that section is even listed in the table of contents.

so the "stAllio! section" is two pages long. it includes the text of my june 12 blog entry announcing the databent image gallery, along with five thumbnails: rr8-1-bent, rr8-1-bent2, rr8-2-bent, rr8-5-bent, & rr8-7-bent. not the images i would've chosen, though this was printed in black & white, so maybe those were the most viable choices when stripped of their color information & shrunk os small (i know b&w bending for print is tricky stuff: i tried creating some bent art to use for the true data labels, but everything i did looked awful when printed, so i abandoned that & did more a traditional design).

fyi: as far as i know, the sales increase of the true data 12" from this notoriety has been exactly 0 units (oops, misplaced the decimal: it's actually 0.0 units).

i leave wed afternoon to spend xmastime with my dear connie. i believe this will be my first ever xmas without my parents or family around (though we'll have lots of family time the following week), and probably my first xmas outside the midwest to boot. it will be interesting to spend the holiday in a more moderate climate.

i return on 12/26, the busiest travel day of the year, which will likely be hell. but i'm not worried about that: i'm more concerned about chances of snow during my departure. right now weather reports singal a chance of snow that day: from 40% to 70% to 80% depending on the source.

i've been stuck on a plane during de-icing before, & it's a long tedious process. so i'm hoping that if it snows that day, it will either stop for awhile before i depart or just not start until after i've gone. otherwise there's a chance i'll miss my connection and be stuck in the airport in charlotte, NC, of all places until i get a new flight.

it's still too early for meteorologists to even pretend they know what will happen with any accuracy. so far this indystar article has the most detail:


that "by wednesday night" is promising: i'm scheduled to depart at 3:45pm. and the last paragraph i quoted is even more promising: it might not snow at all. but really, this is the most telling sentence in the article:


of course, the article is at odds with the star's own weather forecast:


if i ever even get out of indiana & away from the storm that might not be, i'll be home free. weather in charlotte looks fine, as does weather everywhere on 12/26. & san francisco promises to have highs in the 60s & lows in the mid-40s all week.

we've had these mp3s for a little while, but are now ready to officially release them to the public. check 'em out: http://badtaste4life.com/craptacular/

lots 'o' good stuff here. i think my set is probably the best stAllio! live recording in months.

all mp3s recorded november 6, 2004 in bloomington indiana.

so the loud computer sound that woke me up the other night was definitely a fan noise. even worse, that "siren" sound came back before long. it seemed awfully strange that i was having more fan trouble already, but the last time we'd opened the case we'd noticed that i didn't have very good circulation in there, so last night we went to compusa & bought some new case fans to install.

once we got home & opened the case again, barry discovered that the brand new heat sink i'd bought last month had already broken. there was even a big crack in the fan! i imagine the sound that woke me up was the fan itself cracking. what a hunk of junk.

fortunately, when i went back to compusa today, they gave me no hassles exchanging the broken heat sink, even without its packaging. i also exchanged one of the case fans i'd bought yesterday: i needed one with a different adapter. however, the only fan i found that was the correct size and had the correct adapter at the correct price turned out to be one of those tricked-out bling-bling fans with LEDs in them.

barry installed all my new fans & things are working fine again, with better circulation than ever before and a faint green glow coming out the bottom.

at about 4:30 this morning my computer suddenly started making a loud buzzing/humming/grinding sound. loud enough that it woke me up. so i turned it off & went back to bed. when i got up i turned it back on & the sound returned.

i just replaced my heat sink a couple weeks ago... this is a totally different sound. maybe it'll be something trivial & we'll get it fixed today (or barry will, anyway). because the thing is too damn loud to actually use without being distracting.

because i've been watching the fuck out of some movies on my new directivo, i figured i would throw out some capsule reviews of movies i've seen recently. reviews range in length from short to insanely short.

texas chainsaw remake: an enjoyable flick but not nearly as good as the original, and hardly even the same film as the original... various details were changed, generally for the worse. it just ain't the texas chainsaw massacre without a birthday scene.

the life and death of peter sellers: geoffry rush is amazing as peter sellers! amazing i tell you!

cherish: fun, quirky, indie film. entertaining but not outstanding. the main character listens to cheesy music and explains to everyone why it's actually good.

the road to perdition: excellent. tom hanks plays a badass, and pulls it off.

shattered glass: as an editor and someone who follows the media closely, i found it fascinating.

solaris (soderbergh/clooney remake): entertaining but almost excruciatingly slow. (in fact, i watched a few minutes of the original russian film years ago but stopped watching because it was too slow. though maybe it wouldn't be too slow for me now.) kind of like watching only the weird nonsensical parts of 2001 if you add in a romantic subplot and lots of melodramatic flashbacks. except 2001 was a much better film.

looney toons: back in action: has a lot of nice touches. the museum chase scene is priceless. but let's face it: this film begs to be compared to who framed roger rabbit? & frankly, this film lacks the magic that roger rabbit had. roger rabbit created a framework in which the cartoon and real worlds intersect & took us on a stylish journey through both. looney toons simply expects us to accept that toons are real. i think that symbolizes the difference in quality and vision between the two films.

full frontal: i'm not sure what to make of this one, the second soderbergh film in these reviews. it has a metafictional "film within a film" but seemingly both films have the same plot. okay, maybe "plot" is too strong a term, since this is one of those indie films where there are a bunch of people, then stuff happens, then it's over.

i'm probably forgetting a few, but that's enough for now.

word from daniel is that bad taste collaborator dr death also known as melody assassins committed suicide a few months back.

he was a good artist and positive influence on the scene. he was featured on the bad taste sound not fit for human consumption compilation in addition to his solo releases and appearances on comps for other labels.

much fun last night at the party at the secret location. bobby vomit, his cousin (matt turd), and mike (former vomit roommate who now lives in indy) arrived at my house shortly before 9pm, & we relaxed here for a few watching family guy before caravaning over to the place.

the house party had four rooms of music: the living room (mostly rock bands), a den/dining room area (where we played), the kitchen (acoustics and singer-songwriters), and the basement (turntables). it took us awhile to find our way down to the basement, but once we did we spent most of the party down there (or at least bobby & i did). dj cuemark was down there all night spinning electro and italian disco type stuff. it was downtempo and occasionally on the verge of being too clubby, but overall much better than what you'd hear in most clubs around here.

robert inhuman was in town. i'd been told he was columbus but during his set he said cincinnati (apparently he's originally from columbus but lives in cincy now). he did a short set using solely microphones, amps, and a couple petals. solid feedback in varying tones intercut with screaming. it was quite good, but piercingly loud and shrill. i probably shouldn't have stood as close to the speakers as i did. his set did not actually clear the room, a very good sign that put bobby vomit at ease. i traded him a copy of maura for a couple cds that i haven't gotten to listen to yet: one project called realicide and another that's apparently called bukkake.

after robert tore down, i set up my gear. after that we went back downstairs for a bit. bobby's compulsive need to spin records was in full gear and he managed to con his way onto cuemark's tables for a bit. lock grooves, anti-drug propaganda, and other silliness. it was fun but before long i had to go upstairs to get ready to perform.

i had hinted on imn that i would play some hanukkah material ("because christmas music is overplayed", & especially because the party was taking place during the hanukkah holiday). the hype on that picked up to the point that i spent a lot of time friday morning finding funny hanukkah pictures to bump the promo threads (in addition to the previous link, see here and here). so it was essential that i live up to the hype and deliver a strong hanukkah set.

i played for at most 20 minutes, with some elmo hanukkah stuff, a splash of daily show, just a little sandler, a chrismahanukwanzaka loop, and a bunch of harsh data noise. then, in the spirit of wowing them and leaving them wanting more (this was a new crowd after all), i busted out that mean grinch who stole xmas complaining about all the "noise noise noise" for a finale. i did manage to lose a chunk of my crowd but i got several compliments, including one guy who said it was awesome because "i hated you so much". he said he couldn't wait for me to finish so he could scream at me. but he was thanking me for this, apparently moved by the sheer intensity of his reaction. so i'm taking it as a very big compliment, the way i believe he intended.

after me, someone played briefly in the kitchen. then a very noisy band played in the living room. at the time we thought it was re vera but apparently they didn't show up and it was "chow chow something or other" (maybe they're just called chow chow). hopefully i'll find out their actual name because i liked their set: distorted electronics, feedback, percussion, and distorted grunts and screams. the singer for that band had actually been to two of our bad taste shows, & hearing the band it made sense. they were the most pleasant surprise of the night.

next, bobby vomit on five turntables and sampling keyboard. harsh rhythms, falling keyboards, and people jamming out right there. good stuff, and once again i was pleased with how receptive the crowd was to this crazy stuff.

we went back downstairs to chill for a bit more but it was nearing 3am. even worse, mike had to get up at 6am to go to work, and had tried to call a taxi hours earlier but the taxi had never come. so i could've stayed and chilled for longer, but i gave mike a ride home and then went home myself.

big ups to ben the host, the other performers (especially robert inhuman and chow chow whatever), justin from the CoS, karl from melk for booking me, etc...

if anyone else is experiencing the "source code" problem (wherein you visit my blog and see the source of the page, in plain text, rather than the blog itself), please let me know. personally i'm only experiencing that at work, which suggests the problem is either with my work computer or with the network here in the office.

here it is, people: 66 minutes. 192kbps. ~90 megabytes. the official mp3 of my set at rr9. big ups and jah love to everyman for hooking me up with the recording.

also be sure to check the recycled rainbow gallery for more downloads, including the excellent rr9 set by the black fives and more rr9 recordings to come.

it's been a week since my incredibles post, and the only item on my xmas list this year (other than socks and happy meal incredibles toys) was a tivo (specifically a directv dvr, aka "DirecTiVo"). libby & barry have one in the living room already, though i haven't used that one much.

the other night barry & went xmas shopping, & because "we're all adults now", barry went ahead & bought my tivo while i was there with him. the reasoning was that i pretty much knew i would get it anyway (since it's practically the only thing on my list), so there wouldn't be much point in pretending to keep it secret. the model i'm getting is made by hughes, and says "up to 70 hours" on the box, suggesting it has an 80gb drive.

even being there during its purchase, i still wouldn't have dreamed of "opening it early", so i left it downstairs to be placed under the tree, etc. but the next morning people seemed surprised that i hadn't opened it immediately, and everyone said i might as well go ahead & hook it up... so what the hell.

my directivo has been hooked up since friday night. it's definitely more convenient than traditional tv with a vcr, although i don't agree with all the nonsense that's been in the media recently about "the death of the vcr"... millions of americans still don't own any digital video media (vcr, dvd, digital cable or satellite), and millions more still own large libraries of vhs tapes. i sure have tons of them, and until i get a dvd burner (probably not anytime too soon), i'll continue using vhs to archive my favorite programs. but i digress.

tivo is very handy & easy to use. i was already comfortable using directv menus and guides, so the learning curve is not steep at all. i've set up a few season passes for shows i like, but perhaps even more convenient is the ability to set it to catch up with movies that come on satellite. we have several hbos, starz channels, sundance ifc, and several more, and there are probably a bunch of movies in rotation that i've been meaning to see but come on at weird times or opposite other shows. now i can record them in the middle of the night (or the workday) & watch them at my convenience. already i have it set to record shattered glass and lost in translation this week. and i recorded the remake of texas chainsaw massacre last night.

not to mention that if i'm ever watching tv and hear a sample-worthy line, i can just rewind, open a wav editor, and record it to my computer immediately.

obviously i like it, but i've only had it for a couple days so it hasn't revolutionized my watching experience just yet.

in other xmas news, my employer decided to give us all an extra day off for some reason. i'm not entirely clear why (probably some kind of reward; i'm not complaining). but i've taken advantage of the extra time and scheduled another trip to san francisco to visit connie for xmas. i leave on the 22nd & return on the 26th. air travel will be crazy on the 26th, but i think it'll be worth it. months ago, connie & i had explored the idea of her visiting here for the holidays, but because of how our time off worked out, if we'd done so we wouldn't have been able to get together again until may. rather than go five months without seeing each other, we decided she should visit here in february for her birthday instead. that trip is already scheduled, those tickets already purchased as well.

but this extra day off was a boon, and in addition to getting 12/24 off for the holiday, gave me just enough time for a quick trip to california. i'm not sure i've ever spent xmas outside the midwest; if i have, it would've been in san diego in the '80s. so christmas in the bay promises to be a new experience. hopefully we'll find some interesting events or shows going on...