new adventures in sound...

I spent the afternoon at the radio station hanging out with fellow people who know way too much about music as we did our music refiling, which to some may sound like drudgery but I'm an academic peon so I'm reasonably comfortable with mundane tasks provided that the company is good and I might run across something interesting.

The music director had me organize the new stuff, where I found lots of things I'm going to have to check out, and then me and one of the other world DJs went to work on our world vinyl, which includes mostly roots reggae, overproduced "world beat" from the 80's but also ancient Babylonian chants, field recordings of pygmy music, and loads of polka music from Nebraska (who knew?).

Many of the countries that these records came from now either don't exist or have different names, so we were debating whether or not we should still label Kashmir, Sikkim, Yugoslavia, and Tibet as their own countries for the sake of continuity or not, and now I know that we do indeed have Somali folk, classical Persian works, and Dutch trucker country music. Seriously. Thanks to my Viking ancestors, some of the titles are relatively easy to figure out. And it sounds about what you'd think it'd sound like.





And yes, I am totally giggling in my apartment at this.

and the pills that mother gives you...

Back in my Kent State days, I was a library shelver who later moved up to the circulation desk, which enabled me to read all day, get my homework done, and pick up 30 hours a week on top of going to school full-time, most of those hours being between 11pm and 1am involving watching clips of Kids in the Hall and The Young Ones and listening to the Red House Painters and the Talking Heads with my boss at the time, making weird collages on the copy machine, and getting hooked up with day-old muffins from the kid working the coffee stand.

I will never have a job like that again and I knew that at the time. I was allowed to wear whatever I wanted to work which was mostly old band t-shirts and hoodies and I had a cassette walkman and a stash of early 90's thrift store cassettes and mixtapes full of Sonic Youth and the Buzzcocks.

"Your job looks like it's so boring," people would say, but I loved it.

Most of the other students hated the 10th floor where the Government Documents were. They were classified differently, and it was isolated and creepy with the blinking florescent bulbs and row after row of paper copies of congressional hearings including the PMRC ones with Zappa and Twisted Sister, and volumes with titles like "The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report" "Wool Production in New England," and "School Bus Rollover Fatalities."

Oh, and Fat Albert and the Cosby gang don't want you to be a commie.



So I've been hooked on Bibliodyssey for a bit now, and their links are pretty fabulous too. Here's a collection of more guvvermint propagandism via comic book. All sorts of good stuff about the War on Drugs, the Invasion of Grenada, a Europe without Borders, and a bunch of 80's teens learning about the banks.

I've never even fooled around with drugs in my life but I had a lot of friends who did, and I think that along with heavy metal, horror movies, and Big Chuck and Little John, stoner humor was part of growing up in the working class burbs. Having very long hair and a love for Led Zeppelin and the Seattle bands meant that a lot of my high school teachers thought I was one of those smart kids on drugs anyway.



Since then, those "Mexicanized dishes" might be sending me down the road to perdition. That and the caffeinated beverages and the stoner rock. I've seen these guys below three times, (opening for both the Icarus Line and Sleater Kinney and then headlining) and the whole trippy shoegaze meets Sabbath thing rocks my world. It's a shame that I have yet to pick up any of their records. Might do that this weekend.

more fun with Craigslist

Things have gotten weird and Nordic here on Cleveland Love recently.

But if you want a "volunteer" opportunity to be a Viking, here's your chance.

>>> Viking festival - an amazing volunteer opportunity in Iceland
Date: 2010-05-24, 3:01PM EDT
Reply to: comm-xeqgn-1757275963@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

Viking Festival
COME JOIN US
June 6 - June 23, 2010

During the annual Viking Festival, which will trake place from the 11th until the 20th of June, Icelanders and "Vikings" from abroad celebrate their heritage. The Vikings settled Iceland around 874 AD and the Icelanders are very proud of those brave people who had the courage to start a life here in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The Vikings' wild and adventurous spirit lives on today, in the people of this unique country. In Hafnarfjörður there is a small Viking village where the volunteer project will take place.

The event is a lot of fun; there are displays of ancient arts and crafts, and large gruff men in full Viking attire demonstrate their ancient battle skills to anyone brave enough to challenge them.

The volunteers will help with the preparation before the festival and afterwards help the organizers to run the festival. You will receive Viking costumes to wear and different tasks to perform. Tasks will vary and include controlling the venues, giving assistance to visitors, helping the other Viking volunteers and staff in the kitchen or serving the meals. Working hours are flexible and in this project it is important to be very flexible as well. Sometimes the festival is very chaotic but the old Vikings were also known for lack of organization so that is a part of the programme.

Apart from our group of Vikings, there will be around 120 more Viking volunteers coming from all around the world! A big collection of artists will be at the Festival: warriors, bowmen, wrestlers, woodcarvers, stonemasons, blacksmiths, storytellers and enchantresses, musicians and magicians. The working hours are not completely fixed and they will be established according to the different phases of the festival.



Location: Hafnarfjörður is a town with population of 23.500 people. It is located 10 km away from the capital, Reykjavík. Hafnarfjörður takes its name (meaning Harbour-fjord) from the area's excellent natural harbour. The town is first named in the medieval "Book of Settlements," and the earliest reports of voyages to Hafnarfjörður date from the end of the 14th century. Today, Hafnarfjörður is one of the nation's largest fishing centres and the site of Iceland's first fish wholesalers' auction market.

Hafnarfjördur is famous for having one of Iceland’s largest settlements of elves, dwarves and other mystical beings, which are usually called ‘Hidden Folk.’ Centuries-old folklore has it that whole clans of such beings reside in the rocks that make up part of the town’s centre. We do not doubt this at all. Though elves are visible only to those with second sight, a great many Icelanders believe in their existence. Indeed, there is much evidence to support this belief, as stories abound of instances where new roads or housing developments were under construction and strange happenings took place. Hidden Folk enjoy a certain regard, and nowhere more so than in Hafnarfjördur. There is even a Hidden Worlds tour that takes you to their home sites, stopping at places like Hellisgerdi Park and the base of the cliff Hamarinn, which is said to be home to the Royal Family of the Hidden Folk. Along the way, the guide relates ancient folk tales of the magical hidden worlds and describes how the town grew and developed in harmony with the Hidden Folk.

Project language: English
Age range: 18 and over

More information and enrollment: www.cadip.org/volunteer-in-iceland.htm

For volunteer opportunities in other countries please go to: www.cadip.org or give us a call: 617-502-0400 (US); 604-628-7400 (Canada)

photoweekend

And of course, life in Cleveland is not all mid-20s angst all the time...

There is still graffiti to be photographed, even as it looks like the Metalcrete building by the funwall is being buffed and fixed up (who would buy that anyway) and there's a camp of homeless people now living underneath the 25th Street bridge.









And, on the way out to the east side, we had an encounter with the Heaventrain in a parking lot on East 30th.





I need to start carrying my camera with me everywhere. There's too much I'd miss otherwise.

I know what I'm having for dinner tonight.

Seriously now.

Peta, you've really done it this time.

all i want for christmas...

you are never too old for dinosaurs.

so this past family vacation was a bit stressful, but i did get some good pictures out of the deal, despite the great mayfly invasion and rain and so on.

there is so much in the way of amazingly absurd signage and crazy tourist traps, and this time, actually having a functional camera, i got to capture what glory i could of prehistoric village/mystery hill, site of a "vortex" and many scale model dinosaurs.



and totally amazing murals of sweetness:




this is my favorite:

they're all still alive

when i was in college, i worked at the circulation desk at the library there, where we would amuse ourselves with games of freecell, indian pop music videos, and going on the internet white pages and looking up the names of random dead celebrities and fictional characters. a friend of mine and i tried this the other day and here's what we came up with:

3 willy wonkas
49 clark kents
1 marvin gaye
15 elvis presleys
2 tupac shakurs
1 layne staley
1 biggie smalls
5 andy warhols
4 kurt cobains
30 frank zappas
1 sid vicious
36 curtis mayfields
4 joe strummers
1 frank sinatra
300 marilyn monroes

6 joe schmoes
17 hong kongs

messed up.

too many creeps.

friday night at the rapid station...

got hit on by an aspiring yoga instructor/physicist who was really just a nasty dirty hippie who wondered if my backing away from him had to do with "space issues" that i had because evidently "something happened to you as a child" or "you're on medication aren't you?" and somehow my shoe size has something to do with all of this. because he asked about that too.

no, i don't need my chakras opened up. no, i'm not a nice hippie kind of girl. no, i'm not interested in dating you. no, it's not that i have space issues, it's just that you're completely creeping me out. maybe people in cleveland seem unfriendly because you're really freakin' weird.

yes, i'm going to be sure i get on the other rapid car that isn't yours and hide behind the seat and hope you don't notice until the doors close and i'm home free. thank God he got off at the next stop.

he came up to my shoulder so i wasn't really afraid, just irritated. no more funky tanktops and vintage earrings. i'm going to start rocking the hooded sweatshirt/bandanna look again. it feels good to be left alone.

looking for elton/tom araya

although i bought my 'sexy saturn' (dubbed as such by the palestinian gas station clerk down the street from me) off of craigslist, the "musicians" section is not nearly so promising, full of aspiring van halen tribute bands and teenage metalheads.

but this one was a keeper as far as giggles go.

Tribute band looking for lead vocalist/stage manager. We are a professional touring tribute act that combines the 70's glitz and glamour of Elton John with the heavy, brutal, speed metal assault of Slayer all performed as a Broadway-like stage production borrowing heavily from Death of a Salesman, Cats, and the Lion King.

5 years as an operatic understudy required. Voice must be clear for Elton parts and harsh and evil for Tom Araya parts. If you play an instrument, be sure you've mastered it, and it's either piano or electric bass. Ideal person would also have professional ballet training, or interpretive dance experience. Ability to script and direct a stage production required. We are committed to only achieving EXCELLENCE with this project. We will be working above the stage at some points, so those afraid of heights need not apply.