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...  ¶ 10:43 PM

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.  ¶ 9:43 AM

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.  ¶ 10:12 PM

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...  ¶ 2:15 PM