Scratches

A short consciousness & society note

2011-08-31T22:33:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of crap on the Internet which is downloaded from various sources. My fight here is with ignorance.

People are parting the curtains, so-to-speak, and taking their first peeks back into esoterica: Alchemy, Theosophy, Exopolitics and anything else popularized by Dan Pinchbeck's, Reality Sandwich. Unfortunately they are starting to create their own internet salads of cultural misappropriations. Keith Wyatt's The Quickening is one such salad.

I've mentioned this at least once on my program. There is a global belief pattern beating the drum for apocalypse. Miserable human beings awaiting a dark end etc. etc. In the West it was first propagated by the Churches in the Second Coming of Christ. If you have a paralell belief system on the Left Path some will believe one can precipitate "The Second Coming of Christ" by willing apocalyptic destruction.

I have decided to interrupt or cut off my own faucet of thoughts on these subjects. I really believe at this stage there is a concerted effort to herd each individual mind into a global song of surrender to the most horrid destruction possible.

LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE APOCALYPSE DOESN'T

There are things that are safe to say and then there are things that are not safe to say. Some things I will agree are better not to be said by me.

One of the best arguments in the field volleyed against Facebook I have read, with as much Wikileaks factual integrity you could muster, was completely rolled up by a UFO-Area 51-Alien conspiracy writer from Seattle, WA. So much for being closed minded or going along with my disassociative news-snobbery disorder. But it doesn't make me regret any decision to put a tourniquet on apocalyptic destruction mongering. I will starve it by denying it the energy source my mind provides.

People are much more receptive to the idea of aliens being around. My personal experiences aside, I haven't had a legitimate contact with an alien worth proving for scientific or societal improvement yet. It will be cool and landmark and relatively unbelievable when and if it does happen.

But until I can get the situation where I'm in a safe-triple paned security glass alcove sitting across from an alien *LIVE* where they can speak for themselves, I'm not buying any of the second hand Wizard of Oz stuff from contactees.

I learned this time, it is possible to learn between the lines from anyone. This is the collaborative brilliance of the Internet. Alan Wyatt's perception is not a total wash, it's just not the complete picture of all possible outcomes. Nothing may happen and everything could happen.

Apocalyptic visions historically are paired with civil, economic and political times of unrest where food is scarce and times are hard for all of humanity. That is why Voltaire wrote Candide. All manners of public horrors in the world are with us simultaneously. We just perceive it in full force because we have the Internet.

All I'm saying is...make room for the existence you choose too.

Again - alt news media is like a giant flea market for news reprobates. You can find some great stuff in the bazarre, but there is just a ton of stuff you'll never touch from disinterest or from an intuitive level gut-check which says "NO."

Here's an example : People accept the Cathy O'Brien story, Project Camelot as the complete take over of US mass media and marketing to usher in "mind control". It's like they forget all light, spirit and the quest for a different experience other than the darkest corner of Manchurian candidate/Stepford wife programming. Some people are into the stories because it helps them solve their inner issues of defeat and powerlessness and so many other reasons I can't relate to or even pretend to understand.

The other example is the obsession with the "blood cults of the elite". Boring. Old world and uninventive and been around forever and... boring. Big lizards body snatching little children, placing them in forced underground camps where they are later consumed for food is like... the Grimm Fairy Tales. Shapeshifting witches luring children into slavery only to later eat their live essences is a metaphor for occult child abuses. It's awful and sad and dark and...I'm just not compelled by it. There's no sense of empowerment, wonder, or outstanding victory for the every day truth of those living free, pursuing the joy of being alive. There is no gratitude for breath and life. Those stories are simply just tales of endless, grinding fear and morbidity. :P

One of the main reasons I just refuse to accept most of the MK-Ultra Predictive Programming lines is not because I want to discount someone's journey or their life story. I just can't buy that little girls wearing butterfly barrettes were participating in MK-Ultra programming. The US government simply is not powerful enough to ruin butterflies for little girls. If they were paid with our taxes to convince me - they failed miserably.

There's a lot of bad shit out there. Maybe you can find a place in your heart to take all the dark baggage and put it on The Man before the burn him all the way down. That's one way to do it.

There is a reason why I am “quitting” government altogether

2011-08-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

If government actually governed, I would support it.

Government requires the consent and support of the people.

As government becomes another visage of the ungovernable, the intractable and the unreasonable, I refuse all support: voluntary or coercive.

By reason of this premise, I see no government.

This is my very simplistic manifesto for the refugee camp of the ideologically and economically orphaned. We become the adult by default. Where there is no service we subordinate ourselves only to our inventions and our imaginations.

Let none of these be harmed.

I will support art and all basic and elevated forms of human expression. This will encourage the enlightened self-steerage and co-operations of the morally sane and ethically tact to produce a better society.

The corrupted are on their own to mire in their own wasted time and energy and their products. I abandon these to the elements and the natural laws of equals & opposites.

The benefits of my attention are in high demand and they are now moving elsewhere.

Let love integrate the despairing halves into a life-realistic whole.

Bird brained architect

2011-07-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

little brown and tan angel
dark eyed determination
the mountain heights will be cold

breathes deep she coos through
her beak
she hops to test
the weight of their hopes

shes just a little beast

she rests her wings against her sides once more before
the flight
she knows not whether she lives or dies
but the mission is sure

as she lifts from the earth floor
she beats her wings against herself and the air
making flight from nothing
the stillness just as appalling as an aggressive gale
she chooses her course

with each beat of her wings
his heart he sings
her heart she brings
mundane weights as her burden
passion and peace
everthing else is nothing

dirt in her eyes
polluted air in her feathers
the weights getting heavy now
she brings the branch
to the top
to the nesting top
of the mountain

it is the first of ten hundred flights
she makes
all she has is a flimsy twig
against gravity
and watching greedy mouths
death is deviation
only one focus on her mind

with each beat of her wings
his heart he sings
her heart she brings
mundane weights as her burden
passion and peace
everthing else is nothing

she wins no award for
her perilous flight
what she earns
is place to roost at night
she has the right to keep her hopes up
high on the mountain
where they won't be swept away

Why I am constantly freaked out.

2011-07-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

written January 26th, 2011 in Redwood City, CA (Bay Area)

In my quest to know the terrible truth I find the traps clapping shut over my freedoms while I watch.

Months ago I updated my status to “It’s an electronic cage,” on Skype.

My idealism preceeded me into the Bay Area in 2010 when Facebook, like the world of Tron, turned to enslave the user by selling every iota of our digital data generated to someone else. That and every other week there is some snatch and grab legislation proposed by a public official convinced that pre-conviction is the one true path to their ability to stay on top.

I just wonder if there are enough of us regular, semi-sane people left who won’t put our heads down and go back to work when they do this. It’s a full time job to watch these evil grown up children play their games with federal money. This currency is competitive with actual Monopoly money. Their rules say if I print my own money that’s a reason to go to jail. However, when the Federal Reserve does it, it’s legal because the government needs that for wars. The wherever-you-want wars.

[So why are we borrowing from China, again?]

Throw in a black budget with 28 pay grades past the authority of the US President and I just sit around wondering why we have to pay for any of it. I feel cheated. I feel wronged.

My rib cage feels so small. My need for oxygen increases. Thankfully, breathing has not become a pre-criminalized offense.

I am now grateful for things I never would have been grateful for 5 years ago. There are no corporate or city sponsored surveillance cameras in my neighborhood. I’m closer to nature. I know more about what to do. Like take the battery out of my cell phone. Wear humongous 70’s sunglasses and stylish hooded sport outfits, like a jerk from West L.A.

I still get upset when I see that drones are being deployed in Austin, TX to do routine police work. Like it wasn’t enough for the DNA captures on infants, or the Guardasil scandal, or the involuntary blood draws for DUI suspects, the Fusion Center or whatever. The list is getting long.

Instead, I moved to a place where people are enthusiastically discarding freedom and privacy for cool gadgety awesomeness and THINGS. Northern California already had 3 data surveillance [fusion] centers. Its so weird to walk around in the BART centers and listen to Janet Napolitanos voice on the loudspeaker reminding us that America is now Stalinist Russia or New China...whatever. And now legislators want my ISP because I won’t volunteer for a national encryption login.

I wish I could start the Leave Me Alone campaign. The armies are awake enough to do it.

ESSAY: On Zeal

2011-07-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

written August 31, 2006 in West Los Angeles

I was walking down the street to a favorite retail store, Brat, when I saw a late 1970s model Dodge Van. It was the kind with the kind of bubbled roof on top; white, with black tinted windows and vinyl white lettering. There was script was religious Christian propaganda on the side of the van saying things like "Thou shalt ...," and "There is only one road to Heaven." So forth and so on. Creedence Clearwater Revival was audible from the sidewalk where I stood. I finally resumed walking after I saw the following quote:

"Many are called, but few are chosen." And doot doo-doo, lookin out mah back door.

I wondered at the competetive version of God this van owner seemed to be calling up in Olde English script. This seems to be the exact same guy that says things like, "My god can beat up your god," after a hard day of "fag" bashing and counseling young football players on how to wriggle out from under date rape allegations from "unchristian" young women. I shuddered at my crazy imaginings and resumed my walk.

Upon arrival at Brat I heard the spinnings of Dj Rev. Dan whos religion, for all I knew, was indie styled music, featured on a local college radio station. I marvelled again on how personal authority can be when it comes to things like identifying God-hood.

Nancy was engaged in yet another discussion about physical fitness when I became informed of a neighborhood Yoga Nazi. This man stood at the door and played the numbers with students until his very selective class filled up. Then he surreptitiously turned away people who wanted yoga. The girl began to ask about calisthetic styled yoga because she didnt really care for the esoterics that accompanied the stretching. Largely ignorant of yoga, I said,"What esoterics?" My question was met with knowing and jaded commentary about how hypocritical, relativistic yet virulently militant yoga class leaders can be. That and how most people who do yoga, "arent living their yoga".

Misplaced zeal. It's everywhere.

Then Nancy informed us that basically anyone can get yoga certification in 3-5 days. She then offered to be our personal yogi, because she had been recently certified to be a yoga class leader. To this day, I still think yoga is just really great stretching exercises. Ignorance is bliss.

Apparently, the Yoga Nazi's students were, equally, wrapped tightly. A neighboring True Tone employee witnessed a woman in full yoga gear dumping a brand new car battery, a fresh new pair of puma sneakers, and other high priced mens apparel in a dumpster behind the store. Similar anecdotes followed involving yogis swearing and harassing neighbors and other distasteful and bizarre behavior. Thus, proving that yoga in LA does not mean the end of a stressful lifestyle.

Nancy's general commentary on the matters at hand was that Americans will do anything to absolve themselves from wrestling with inadequacy and how to fail-safe their lives. This can range from driving massive SUVs they dont need, overcompensating with plastic surgery, to just giving up, or making a religion of being super contrary to the might-is-right militia-mindset. It was then that I concluded that America has a dangerously high number of randomly zealous people. There is literally no way to be completely on top of what everyone believes so as not to offend. This is why innocence is not just billed as white, but bleached with an addictive amount of sucrose and vanillin to make it platable for "everyone".

This is when I woke up to a modern misconception. There is no, "evil they". There is no United States of America. Theres a bunch of random self-proclaimed, self-authorized people groups who started with one guy's different idea. It then attracted people with a tendency to agree with those ideas, begetting followers. The price of being a follower may mean falling out of touch with a personal vision because they are busy obeying someone else's vision.

So you really just have a lot of people willing to fight to-the-teeth to protect "what they believe." Even if it becomes so obviously borrowed by powers-that-be. Followers volunteer to consolidate power to a maneuvering puppeteer so there is approval for what is believed to be "best".

Everyone has a different idea of what is best.

I have concluded then there is only the evil "us". That is, the person we tend to become after we block someone from living as they necessarily choose to based on our personal code of ethics. A really typical example would be if we start shoving a multi-level marketing scheme down a neighbor's throat because we think that is what will solve every ones' problems. Such that, money, and the making of it, often is the only true American religion observed with any kind of uniformity at the end of the day. This may be why the poor are villified by zealous overcompensating earners.

So what is really at the heart of this? Why can't we be sated with moderation? We seem to be entertained enough, wealthy enough and able to produce enough amenities. So what's missing? It's simple. The only way metamorphosis can resume is with the pains of struggle. Americans were once valiant pioneers. We have now become big pools of fat monied people with Disney at our fingertips. What is left to really conquer?

PLENTY! Environmental crisis, world hunger, women and children's human rights, animal rights, international corruption in modern government, nuclear war, eradication of native cultures-- that should be enough to keep us busy for awhile before we go back to being self-centered. Buuut we can become overzealous about these things as well....

When do we get to a place where we can find strength in holding back ? Where are the examples of reluctance for action which are REALLY overboard? We need to start looking.

I'm looking for it. My personal devastation in life comes from investments of lifetime and energy on organizations supporting my ideals, only to get burned by interactions with others who are too zealous. I tread so carefully, seeking, testing others' responses with a mental type of geiger counter for that zealous radiation that clearly erases any personal good I can contribute to a worthy ideal. I am so paranoid and fearful of committing to any group who could easily step over the line and misrepresent the intention I so carefully sowed into an ideal-based effort that I will simply stop being involved. I realized at one point, I was doing nothing, saying nothing and going nowhere with no one because I had to seek cover from the zealous flare of other's religious, political and sociological ideals. I had then fallen out of touch with my own motives for bringing good about into the world.

I guess moderation, like charity, starts at home, right where we live. We get to pace ourselves vs. slamming ourselves into an extreme overdrive Mountain Dew guzzling contest to get to the next red light. It's just wasted energy which produces nothing but destroyed selves, this overzealousness. Its a shortsighted way of life where no one looks past the frenzy of the adrenalized moment of instant RIGHTNESS BY FORCE. I don't want to be the person in that frame of mind. I've had my moments and I just don't want it to be me.

I dont want less. I dont want more. I want just enough, in a reasonable amount of time where everyone has a chance to get what they need too without anything going to hell in a blaze of nuclear fueled GLORAYY.

action to forgive

2011-07-01T16:47:00.001-07:00

Afterall the time
miles of silence
my senses filled
with the smells of sorrow
always pinching
whichever way I turn

IF you reached for me
I would not pull away ...

but

put the my hand to the back of your hair
and bow my head
and pray
that the sour shell dissolve
waiving the halt
between our hearts
craving hope
craving strength
ending a famine of wisdom
to momentarily hold you
right back

I would need nothing more.

POEM: One summer in D.C.

2011-07-01T16:05:00.001-07:00

Stone tolls to the river stix

Prepared to bear the message & retrieval

on the pads of the panther

I check into Persephone's hotel

White as bone and light on the outside

Summer quiets the moon

Snakes are in a better mood

The sultry weather tempts to pry

the boundaries of a vigilant mind

Posable figurines

Plastic postures

Mercury drips from the native trees

rolling around grounded playfully

Misunderstanding deliberate for the benefits of conflict

Secrets talk

Looks and behavior a dagger

Invitations are constant

to run quickly through a field of razors

All the advice

goes against walking committed to the Donner parties

Knowing all the meat and wine is poisoned

One may still be polite

Tantrums and ultimatums

bitching over compromise

Starcrossed bedfellows

spending away loveless hours

Watering holes are packed

The world's finest anesthesiology

on tap

Through one good nostril,

you may breathe

If the rest is

as it should be,

hermetically sealed.

One looks up at the very same stars

remembering

how to live

Unrepentant heart

2011-07-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

The heart, a gypsy whore

saves a kernel of

virgin gold

just for itself

every moment it is beheld from its eyes

is a moment of triumph

this.. is just to survive

there are those with better hearts

who give rise to better souls

who wont accept

the devil made me do it

the breach of intelligence

falls dumb, like a tongue cut out

and thrown into the dusty floor

the mind observes numbly

the stripes

the bloody and stinging stripes

of a filleted whore heart

raining soft red droplets

on an axis of conscience

a hungry child watches the spectacle

it looks into the eyes of the heart

with understanding

I only know what I want, it said

who made you do it? An inquisitor grills

the answer is

the same

every time

it gets caught in the crossing

it was me, it was always me,

the unrepentant heart said

doing this to myself

WineandMusic.com: Emerging Wineries: Caduceus Cellars

2006-06-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.wineandmusic.com/Palate_independent_arch.cfm?ArchID=13

Caduceus Cellars

by Sheila Dean

Arguably, the most prized legacy to Maynard James Keenan, lead singer to modern rock bands Tool and A Perfect Circle, is sitting in an arid Northern Arizona valley.

"I've lived in Arizona since 1995. I consider it my home and therefore the place where I would establish a family business. The Verde Valley in Arizona is a perfect spot for pioneering a vineyard. This became very obvious to me while traveling through parts of Italy, Sicily, or the Rhone Valley of France. Difficult terrain and harsh weather conditions provide just enough friction for the right vines to produce an excellent wine grape."

Keenan earned a fortune in one of the toughest businesses in the modern Western world: music. He could have had any number of entrepreneurial ventures. However, he chose one of the most high maintenance forms of agriculture known to man: a vineyard. His direction and motives for a wine enterprise are spiritual in nature.

"There seems to be more of a sense of magic that surrounds a vineyard as opposed to say a Christmas tree farm or a cabbage farm. Most individuals who have spent any quiet time walking through a vineyard would agree. Wine is a living breathing entity. To truly align yourself with its process is to choose a spiritual and connected path. Like the path of any artist, it's a process of becoming more conscious of the world around you and your place in it."

Keenan's duties to Merkin Vineyards, the vine farm that produces the grapes for Caduceus Cellars, has profoundly committed the Keenan family tree. "To give you a glimpse into the depth of this commitment, you should know that I will not live to see the full potential of these vineyards in my lifetime. This will be my gift to my children and my grandchildren, should they choose to continue on my path. As it turns out, I have family on my father's side who owned extensive vineyards in what was, Northern Italy. Now it is a part of Southern France. I trust my intuition. I have to believe that I would have somehow found my way into a vineyard regardless of my musical venture."

Keenan's progression toward wine-making started with a 1992 Napa Valley Silver Oak.
"I had it with the right meal, at the right time of day, in the proper quiet space and it changed me."
While Keenan's music career was considerably time consuming, he somehow found time for his wine craft. Opportunity met its destiny in mentor, Eric Glomski of Page Spring Cellars, as he created a forum to learn the art of winemaking.
"Many winemakers do custom crushes and bottle wine for small restaurants and/or individuals who make a comfortable living and just want their own wine label. I have to assume that Eric initially thought I would be one of those people. Completely hands off. I believe he was pleasantly surprised to find me there on the morning of crush to help as much as I was able to. I'm guessing that he saw in me the same passion that had infected him. So the relationship has grown from there."
Keenan chose his vines based on his international experience and passionate tastes in wine. He then factored in local terrain and weather. The creation was a wine suited to his own palate. The end product was Caduceus' 2004 Primer Paso, a Syrah blended with 12% Malavasia. The Primer Paso, like all of Keenan's wines, is only available to be purchased and tasted from Page Spring Cellars in Cottonwood, Arizona.
Keenan only produced 225 cases of the wine this year. He indicated the production for 2006 would be considerably larger. His wine label is Caduceus, named after the staff of Greek god, Hermes. The Caduceus was used to mediate quarrels among gods, turned everything it touched into gold, and exercised influence over both the living and the dead (spirits). The Caduceus was also the even exchange for the lyre invented by Hermes, herald of the gods given to Apollo, the god of music. In Greek society, it was the mark of the ambassador, the herald and holymen. Keenan chose his Caduceus logo based on a philosophy of his life.
"Caduceus, is the staff of Hermes: the herald of commerce, temporality, transformation, and thieves. The double helix of serpents relates more to the rising kundalini and our DNA. It spirals upwards and moves towards the wings of Hermes. For me it suggests a spiritual awakening to a higher ideal and our temporary nature. DNA and kundalini rising has a very specific meaning in and of itself: to transcend our temporality. Live for the moment but look to the future. I think at one time or another I was a slave to either one perspective or the other, planning only for the future and sacrificing the moments, or living only for the moment and wallowing in a selfish lifestyle that had no future. I'm attempting to perfectly blend the best parts of the two."
Visit Caduceus Cellars

A Metaball Letter

2006-06-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

I had a really interesting response letter to my article published in February, Scratching For Spiritual Resources. It can be found in the Letters Section of March's Edition of The Meta Ball Online.

http://www.metaball.ca/ball_Mar-06/letters.html

Asia Argento's the Heart is Deceitful Above All Things

2006-06-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

Asia Argento's the Heart is Deceitful above all Things

Asia Argento's auteur film The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, had sensational elements to draw an audience to her film. Unfortunately, the film was so tough to sit through I doubt it could keep much of the audience in their seats.

The character portrayals were extreme and one-sided. The film was imbalanced by what could pass as a pornographic portrayal of a young child dragged to the bad side of the railroad only being held there by his impressionability, deceit and a very limited attachment to his biological mother.

What bothered me most about the film was not simply the portrayal of pedophile rape, abuse and serial neglect, but the writing and directing of the child in this film was cartoonish. Jeremiah, the protagonist, was a tabula rasa with absolutely no will or identity of his own. If there was any evidence of the "hoax" of J.T. Leroy, it was revealed here.

After the initial rape/abandonment scene, Winona Ryder gave a scary performance of a pushy, uncompassionate child therapist. It became obvious Jeremiah, his family and the other characters were merely colorful cardboard cut out puppets of sorts . The problem with this was "sensitive" material became a hipster joy-toy, recruiting acting employments of shock-originals like Marilyn Manson. For people who worship deranged sex and damage, it goes cow tipping. For the rest of us, it's just damn disturbing.

I have a tendency to dismiss projects like this one based on the fact that I really do not like people making light of others misfortune. The general public knows bad things happen to children. It's one thing to regard it with understanding. It's a another to make carnival art out of it.

2006-02-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

Studio City, CA- While TOOL is quietly managing the recording of their new album, Danny Carey booked several performances to display his chops as a performer. Most of these performances take place in the Valley. While many possible appearances have been advertised to see Carey there were no real guarantees that he would show.

La VaLee is a respectable jazz club with an intimate setting. If the truth be told there isn't a single "bad seat" in the house and reservations are recommended. The warm and somewhat modest interior of the nightclub had an almost seaward feel, with salmon pink walls and sturdy deep oak furnished interiors. We weren't seated quickly. Our male waiter lacked finesse and was unattractive. The mediteranean food was fair and arguably overpriced for what it was. Anyone could say that this was a mediocre venue to support jazz pallate enthusiasts with a jazz wallet.

Over the span of the late Spring and throughout the Summer, Carey has made several appearances in clubs of the same calibur; modest settings attracting jazz flies. The genre tends to absorb some of the most accomplished talent market wide. It has been remarked in the past, that if you can play a decent jazz set you can play just about anything. A very tall Carey appeared sometime around 10 PM before the final set. An intermission was officiated where eyeryone had time to notice & absorb what was going on. TOOL fans who made it out were both nervous and surprised to be in such close proximity to Carey. One ToolArmy member, a fan who paid $90 dollars for "insider" status with the band commented that Carey had gotten his booth seat, but had no real complaints knowing he would show up. Other fans smoked and milled around hedging on the approachability of Carey. Carey reputedly has somewhat of a rather intimidating association with an "uncommon" belief system for the West. He also is, by far, the most accessible member of Tool with regards to his availability to press the flesh. Tribal Tech, organized by Jazz player Scott Kinsey delivered an engrossing and interesting set; fusing electronic & tribal world elements. A common thread worth noting that was the comical use of "Deep Forest" Pygmy song samples. Again, it could have been an indirect props to one of Carey's other side projects: Pygmy Love Circus.

Prior to Carey's appearance, Tribal Tech's performing drummer was also the lead singer for another one of Carey's side projects, VOLTO! It seemed as if this was a circular knot of close musical associations for him. Carey appeared relaxed, after sharing drinks with friends. He was later formally announced, and handed drumsticks to begin the set. He then delivered a quite technical, fluid set with with bright and clean changes. A sound different from TOOL's drumkit, but noticably it was the same guy being followed by the other musicians on the stage.

Danny Carey would never immediately come to mind as a "jazz man", appealing to a more musically sophisticated audience, but the substance is there. At the end of the day, it seems that Mr. Carey just likes improvisational cues with other players, like many many other musicians. He seems to have been frozen in some capacity by the TOOL gig, but not for long. The defrosting Jazz trickles are nonetheless associated with TOOL, as well. The web community at Toolband.com represents and promotes activities and events loosely tied with ideologies of the band's players, along with being a well rounded community artisan, and just being a plain old TOOL fan.- SD

Good Hurt and the Curse of the NY Yankees: Butcher Show

2006-02-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

Friday, October 14, 2005

Venice, CA- Ordinarily I would not be caught out on Full Moon in September, but I never saw Butcher play out live either. Hence the draw.

The earlier part of the evening I watched the opening acts. Surprisingly enough, there was a common thread: husband-wife teams playing in bands together. It worked. It's a phenomenon, but at husband-wife teams in business and artistic endeavors have proven a workable combination when it comes to output. Camella Grace, Butcher's lead singer is the wife of Adam Jones the guitarist for Tool. Jones artistic influence on Butcher is tangible.

Both bands had different styles from Butcher. Butcher's sound was muchmore elaborate with engrossing visuals (SPIRAL EYES) and a professional cadre of players [Scott Reeder, Sasha Popovic and Phil Trujuque] . The consistent question of the evening was, of course, "What's up with the girdle? "Camella was wearing a white corrected-brace "thing" with an elaborate lace up pattern over her black dress.

Tool's tribal impressions were imminent in Butcher but it didn't steal the identity of what Butcher was doing with the music. Camella Grace gave an emotional performance illustrating past words and sound, what a pain it is to carry such a criminal world on one's shoulders. The competition was tough between keeping your eyes on the band and baby rhinos defending themselves from jackals, evil geishas, and the ritual slaughter of something hard to identify trying to save itself up on the screen. One of the most compelling songs in the set (next time I'll get the set list) depicted someone essentially wounded in the heart area of the chest. You can see the damage done. The question is answered when you see the cute little Asian girl nibbling on organ (presumed a heart) meat and then flinging it against the rocks. Ouch...

It was much more of an art performance and a great surprise. The band talented performance penetrated a stage so dark you couldn't se the players. The gist of Butcher's sound is dark, cavernous and ethers with lowing ghostly vocals echoing up from the bottom spreading into the room. The tonality rolled kind of like smoke.

I could have guessed but I realized mostly too late who was who at Good Hurt that night. What was especially odd were, the people there who knew who I was that I didn't know very well or at all because of mischievous Members of TOOL showed up. I met all of the members of Butcher. There was probably some sort of an afterbirth, but I opted to sneak off with another began Burning Man instillation artist instead. I left at closing time. As I turned to go, the crowd huddled around the patio door like grounded vultures hoping to get a piece of the TOOL family action.

Inara George Review: WineandMusic.com

2006-02-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

Some months ago I saw Inara George's live show at The Echo in Echo Park, as their feature performer Monday night. Songs from her LP, All Rise have been featured on KCRW's Morning Comes Ecclectic. At first appearance, you could mistake the Topanga native as a dead ringer for Alyssa Milano with a pixie cut in a vintage mod-style dress. Like any professional, she made articulate singing look easy.

Her astonishing sound centeres around her seamless silky voice and a natural sounding lilt, punctuating expressions as she sings. On her more frank and upbeat songs, her tones become buoyant giving the listener company for the electronic retro ride shetakes them on. As an original talent she has a definite fit in the current Adult Alternative format.

One can hear a coordination of the band's influences drawing from Stereolab, Bjork, Radiohead, Coldplay, The Cranberries, some Moody Blues, and even Nina Simone. If you do get All Rise, there isn't any song that is worth skipping.

Her live players that night each had as much character as she did. The band was Inara George, an intense, gangly redhaired keyboardist, a comically enthusiastic drummer, a coolly relational bassist and her co-writer and guitarist, Michael Andrews with a stylish mop-top and mod striped belbottoms. Andrews who produced
All Rise also has a background in film scoring for films like Donnie Darko.

George ended the evening singing Autumn Leaves andpromoting a Topanga tribute to Leonard Cohen. Her ballads in particular are extremely bare and intimate.

The emotional tones in her ballads express a languid,
gentle sadness, both warm and melancholy . For introducing these elements into a special evening W&M suggests a 2001 Mondavi Merlot, a juicy quenching vintage with a lucid balance and soft finish.
-Sheila Dean

Interview with Director David Greboe for CFQ

2006-02-07T09:43:00.000-08:00

CFQ caught up with Dave Gebroe, indie filmmaker to follow up on his plans for his film Zombie Honeymoon; a unique romantic comedy about the dilemmas a new bride faces when her husband is turned into a flesh-eating corpse.Zombie Honeymoon’s aim was to combine both high and low art as an inspired tribute to his sister’s dead husband. Gebroe, halfway through the script of his next horror film, reflected back on that process from start to finish.

"When it's just a pile of pages, you have to paint a very detailed picture to try and convince people that what you have is of some kind of worth...as the process grinds on, you have to do less and less talking, and can rely on the film to sell itself. It's a relief, since you naturally begin to be sapped of energy anyway."

Gebroe continued to stress how important determination is to making a horror film.

"You just can't give up. If you think it's possible. If there's even a glimmer of possibility that you'll sputter out and collapse before the finish line, all I can say is--DON'T BOTHER. Low-budget filmmaking is one of the ultimate exercises in masochism, where you're doing most of the work by yourself and the ultimate reward is generally the finished project and the memories of brutalizing yourself on a daily basis for years."

Gebroe cited his experience on the first day of rehearsal as an example of how crucial real determination is to the filmmaking process.

"I got a call…from the main investor. Who broke the news to me that he was pulling out his entire investment. I didn't let on that we no longer had the money to make the film. I made sure a fake smile was plastered on my face the entire time. I didn't start crying until I had said good-bye to the actors. Then I broke down and wept for hours. And then, of course, I pulled together the remainder of financing necessary to continue with the picture, and I did it within 48 hours."

Zombie Honeymoon went much farther than simply finishing as a production. The film’s momentum picked up after it’s premier at The Hamptons in October 2004. The film started grabbing publicity and reviews in trades like, Variety. ZOMBIE HONEYMOON then headed for the film circuit. ZOMBIE HONEYMOON became a featured selection at festivals like Slamdance, Barcelona, and Sitges.Gebroe commented on ZOMBIE hONEYMOON’s initiation into the both the film circuit and the distributing market for his film.

"Slamdance was work, since it was early on and we didn't yet have a distribution deal. It was grueling, although it was definitely fun, too. A lot of cast and crew were out there hitting Main Street, handing out swag and supporting the film. By the time of the Sitges Film Festival in October, the film had already been picked up so I didn't have to break my back promoting it--plus it was a horror/fantasy film festival, so I knew it’d be well-received. And I was out there alone, so it wasn't as much of a group-spirit thing. Not to mention, Quentin Tarantino and FX wizard Greg Nicotero were there, and loved the film. They were really impressed with it. That was worth the trip alone."

"We've shown in many different festivals, most of which I didn't even need to enter. The reviews have been amazing all around, and the entire experience since it started screening has been less and less of an effort because people hear about it and they want it...instead of me having to sell it to everyone."

Gebroe is still fighting the good fight.

"You'll always find opposition from others in making a film. It's like pushing a humungous boulder up a steep hill with one set of hands. But if you truly believe in what you're doing, and it's a good project, it'll get made."

More information is available about Zombie Honeymoon online at www.zombiehoneymoon.com .
- SD