okay, i haven't quite gotten back into the swing of blogging now that i'm not so busy with wedding preparations. you could say that i'm having trouble overcoming the inertia of not blogging.
but here are some things that are coming in november:
exciting new backgrounds
more regular blogging
wedding photos on flickr
finally, part 2 of my databending primer
also finally, the 2008 election!
frankly, i've reached the point where i'm just ready for the election to happen, so it'll be over with and we can move forward. but that doesn't mean i'm getting complacent. tomorrow morning, virago & i will be doing some last-minute volunteering for the obama campaign, something we were unable to do earlier because we were too busy with wedding prep. hopefully they'll be able to find some non-canvassing work for us to do—i'm far too introverted to be any good at canvassing.
i'm not doing anything too special for halloween... i went to a costume party last week and wore the same costume as last year (though i'm slimmer now than in those photos). and i painted my fingernails black, because we had black nail polish, and if you can't paint your nails for halloween, then when can you? but that's pretty much it for our halloween plans. we don't even get trick-or-treaters in our apartment subdivision. maybe we'll watch something halloweeny on tv tonight.
p.s. if you're looking for some halloween music, my epic halloween collage "halloween monster mania" is still online for your listening pleasure. ¶
here is all you need to know about secretary of state todd rokita's latest partisan shenanigans involving ACORN:
"We will remind the public that both local and state election officials confirmed that ACORN must turn in all applications, including those we flagged as bogus, incomplete, or duplicative. The secretary, for his own purposes, appears to have changed his opinion on this question two weeks before the election," Ordower said.
so there is a state law mandating that all applications must be turned in, and another law stating that it's illegal to turn in faulty applications. ACORN asked for guidance, since they knew some of the applications were fake, and were instructed to turn them in anyway. then... wham! todd makes a big show of the fact that they've turned in fraudulent applications, a class D felony.
my question is this: can members of todd rokita's office be prosecuted for instructing ACORN to commit a felony? ¶
i suppose i should get around to blogging about last weekend, since it's now almost wednesday.
we had a private wedding ceremony and reception early friday evening at the propylaeum, a beautiful victorian house on the old northside. we kept the ceremony short and sweet—almost too short—so we could move on to the fun stuff: the reception, and later the doormouse show.
the catered dinner was delicious—better than your typical catering, and surprisingly inexpensive considering we had prime rib. (though it wasn't perfect; we asked for a mushroom risotto that was to be the main entrée for our vegetarian guests, and we got a basic pilaf with some mushrooms in it.) the servings of prime rib were massive; mine almost completely filled my plate, covering most of my side dishes until i could eat some of it out of the way.
entertainment at the reception was provided by my old friends in il troubadore, and after a while i lost track of how many people told me they thought the music was great. they really rocked the house, playing some traditional numbers as well as odd covers like "sunglasses at night" and even a rendition of daler menhdi's "tunak tunak tun":
eventually it was time for the reception to end and head over to therapy for the show. dj empirical went first, spinning a nice mix of electro, dubstep, and other interesting electronic stuff. it was a good start to the event.
i played next. my set went pretty well, with few mistakes. i had busted my ass for weeks preparing new material, so i would have some new stuff for people who were already familiar with the mash smarter not harder material. the crowd, which was smaller than i would've liked but still bigger than average for such shows in indianapolis, seemed pretty into it.
after my set came dr. butcher m.d., who rocked the house as usual. booking him was a no-brainer, since he's indy's best (perhaps only?) breakcore artist and makes some damn fine tracks. so i was glad to expose him to some of the doormouse audience... and it looks like he may get another gig based on his performance.
next came the headliner—doormouse, a midweset legend in the scene. he began his set by hiding under a sheet, then casting it off to reveal that he was wearing a new kids on the block ringer t-shirt. (ironic and self-deprecating humor are hallmarks of the midwestern style pioneered by doormouse and his two labels, addict and distort.)
doormouse's set was massive. he played tons of old material, classic hard-as-nails doormouse stuff—the stuff we used to have to drive 5–6 hours to hear him play in a barn in rural wisconsin back in the day. all the while, he interspersed his songs with wisecracks and other zany antics like plucking out his armpit hair (or pretending to) and eating it. we lost a bunch of money putting on this show (not to mention the actual wedding and reception), but it was all worth it for the doormouse set alone.
last up was sir.vixx. he had the most difficult slot of the night: 2 a.m., after the headliner. that would be a lot of pressure no matter who the headliner was, let alone playing after one of your biggest inspirations. but sir.vixx pulled it off, playing a high-energy set that even brought him out into the audience to do jumping jacks.
with that, the show was over. we said our goodbyes, packed up our cars, and headed back to our room at the mariott courtyard, which we had rented to give ourselves a couple days of mini-vacation. the room was quite nice, with a large tv and a whirlpool tub in the room. (the whirlpool tub option was a major factor in why we selected the courtyard. when we used it, we learned a valuable lesson: adding bubble bath to a whirlpool tub causes a veritable eruption of bubbles, similar to a baking soda volcano.)
saturday we mostly relaxed, eating a satisfactory-but-not-great breakfast at the hotel, getting some ribs from dick's for dinner, and watching tv in the room. (luckily for us, napoleon dynamite was on comedy central.)
sunday morning, we decided to try breakfast at a different (nicer) hotel, and walked over to one south in the hyatt regency. this was the best breakfast i'd eaten in some time. the buffet wasn't particularly large by midwest buffet standards, but everything on it was high quality—the waffles were the best i've had in years, if not ever. that afternoon, we drove up to springfield, illinois, to spend some time with the in-laws, where we watched part of the colts game but were spared from having to watch the whole thing. on the drive back, i narrowly avoided running over a deer on i-74 in rural illinois, which surely would have been a foul way to end our wedding weekend.
all in all, it was a fantastic time. thanks to everyone who came out to the reception and/or the show, who sent gifts, or who sent their congratulations and well wishes. we'll probably upload some photos of the reception soon. dj empirical has some photos of the show here. turningmostly has some video of the show here. and there's a short video of dr. butcher m.d.'s set here. if anyone else has photos or video of either event, send them my way! ¶
so i haven't been blogging for the past couple weeks, but longtime readers surely know why: i'm getting married today! and then tonight is my wedding show starring doormouse—a.k.a. doormouse's last show.
so all my spare time (and money) recently has gone to wedding preparations, promoting the show, and preparing new material for my set tonight: i will have two brand-new songs that nobody other than my lovely fiancé has heard.
yes, i'm nervous. but i'm also excited. and also, i'm ready for all this stuff to be over with so i can stop stressing about it!
so if you're in the midwest and you like breakcore or other hard electronic music, come on out to the show tonight. we've got a great lineup, and our headliner doormouse will be playing his last show for the foreseeable future. plus you'll get to see the newlywed couple! ¶
Traits (Snake Pillage) Ann Arbor, MI (LIVE Raggacore/Breakcore)
Sedition (FWPC) Fort Wayne, IN (Breakcore/Dub Terror/80's Pop)
Nomad Fort Wayne, IN (Drum & Bass)
21+. O'Sullivan's 1808 W. Main St. Fort Wayne, IN 46808
as a reminder: doormouse's last show for the foreseeable future (a.k.a. my wedding show) is next friday, october 17, at therapy nightclub & lounge, 605. e. market st in downtown indianapolis.
$10 advance tickets will remain on sale until thursday, october 16. but if you want a paper ticket, you must order by 11:59pm EDT today to give us time to mail them to you. if you order after this time, you'll get an e-ticket that will get you into the event, but no paper ticket to show off to your grandkids. ¶
so the city of indianapolis website—indygov.org—has a new design! the most striking part of the design is the honkin' big photo of mayor ballard in the center. this week's behind closed doors in the star has more:
That didn't sit well with Democratic City-County Council member Angela Mansfield, but it was just one of many complaints she had about the site. The site was experiencing numerous technical problems, including links that did not work and words piled on top of each other.
Mansfield said the city should have tested it for bugs before the public launch.
"This has been a complete waste of money, as well as an embarrassing presentation of our city," Mansfield said. "It's a mess, and it looks like kids designed it."
the huge portrait does seem a bit vain and needy (ironic from a mayor who so detests going in front of cameras or talking to the media), but the technical issues, dead links, and overlapping text are more embarrassing. indygov.org is a major website that gets a lot of traffic. a site like that seriously needs to go through some major testing before it's rolled out, or else... well, your bad rollout ends up as a story in the newspaper.
on a whim, i thought i'd run the site through a validation tool, and surprise surprise, the code doesn't validate. now granted, my site probably doesn't validate either, but i'm just an amateur putting this site together on my spare time in between work and other artistic endeavors. there's no excuse for a site like indygov.org not to validate. the fact that it doesn't shows just how crummy this redesign is.
elsewhere in today's star is a story about the city's spending priorities. the article centers around the idea that if you want nice stuff, you have to be willing to pay for it, and explains that this is why indy's public transit system is a joke (likely to grow worse still) and why other cities have better parks, libraries, etc. the article then naturally concludes with a quote from melyssa, who would prefer the city spend nothing and have no nice stuff whatsoever.
indygov.org's new redesign was no doubt done on the cheap, like everything this administration does, and it shows. i was no fan of the old design, but at least it didn't have dead links and overlapping words on the front page. by all means, redesign the site, but if you're going to do it, spend the money to do it right: have professional developers write industry-standard, validated code, and then test it thoroughly before rollout. ¶
if you want a paper ticket, you must order by 11:59pm EDT, friday, october 13, to give us time to mail them to you. if you order after this time, you'll get an e-ticket that will get you into the event, but no paper ticket to show off to your grandkids.
don't miss this opportunity to see Doormouse's last show for the foreseeable future.
Doormouse -- Addict Records founder and midwest legend Dr. Butcher M.D. -- Indy's breakcore mad scientist stAllio! -- post-mashup madness DJ Empirical -- Cincinnati Serato flavor Sir.Vixx -- Chicago breakcore insanity
9pm-3am, Friday, Oct 17, 2008. 21+ with ID. Therapy Nightclub & Lounge 605 E. Market St., Downtown Indianapolis, 46202 myspace.com/therapynightclub¶
