Month: July 2014 (Page 2 of 2)

‘He is a master sculptor of music and lyrics which are notable for their imagery, grace, lucidity and aptness of phrase. A wonderfully overwrought blend of vocal histrionics, rock cliché, extended metal noize, pop sensibility, baroque eroticism, and visual vulgarity is the hallmark of his songwriting, arranging, and production work. Inspired primarily by the styles of Wagner and Spector, Jim Steinman the innovator proves over and over that he is far more than the sum of his influences. He is the premiere artisan of the “Epic Rock” style of his generation and the father of the “Power Ballad”. He is to Hard Rock what the late director Alfred Hitchcock was to the thriller movie. He demands that his subjects hollow themselves out in much the same way as the Italian film director Federico Fellini insists that actors are and should be the medium between his fantasies and the rest of the world. In this sense, Steinmans’ not simply a songwriter or a producer but a director of theater. He is a non-conformist in a industry dominated by the predictable. He is an intelligent virtuoso boiling over with fresh ideas, explosive music and biting commentary. He is blending old and new schools of theater and rock and then taking it one step further. He is Jim Steinman. If God made albums, they would probably sound a lot like Steinman’s.’ — collaged

‘Most people don’t like extremes – extremes scare them. I start at ‘extreme’ and go from there. [My songs are] anthems… calls to action, cries against passivity, initiations by fire, doorways flung open, altars uncovered.’ — JS

‘I think rock and opera are probably closer to each other than to other musical forms…Rock and opera both make huge gestures, they’re both about extremes in content and form. Each puts incredible physical demands on a performer. And each of them has a great mix of the sublime and the ridiculous, heroism and humor. Seems to me that people’s barriers to enjoying both have more to do with sociology than actual music and performances.’ — JS

‘To me, all good rock ‘n’ roll is I think by definition political. Rock ‘n’ roll at its best is about breaking down barriers, going past limits. If music can make a pulse go faster, make a heart beat stronger, that’s in a way a political act. In a world full of cripples, the only pure revolutionary act is to get up and dance!’ — JS

‘I disagree that music’s only role is pleasure, that’s just a by-product. Its main role for me, like all the arts, is to provide heightening and amplification. It should intensify everything. I think music should be like plugging yourself into a Marshall amp, it amplifies people, it amplifies images and allows people to see they can be amplified themselves. I think it allows people to see that there’s more volume and feedback and sound inside them than they think, plus it allows them to see more volume and intensity around them.’ — JS

‘It’s been written that my music’s violent, even though it’s not a violent as a lot of other music, I think it’s ’emotionally’ violent. I just always thought that when treating love and sex in songs, it was pretty appropriate to treat them fairly darkly because they’re pretty dangerous things. Sex and love are dangerous and good…’ — JS

‘Sex was never “safe.” In sex you reveal yourself physically and emotionally – and that’s fucking dangerous.’ — JS

1977: Meatloaf Paradise by the Dashboard Light

1981: Jim Steinman Surf’s Up

1981: Jim Steinman The Storm/Love and Death and an American Guitar

1983: Bonnie Tyler Total Eclipse of the Heart

1984: Fire Inc. Nowhere Fast

1984: Barbra Streisand Left in the Dark

1985: Hulk Hogan Real American (Hulk Hogan Theme Song)

1986: Bonnie Tyler Holding Out for a Hero

1987: Sisters of Mercy This Corrosion

1989: Pandora’s Box Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere Else)

1990: Sisters of Mercy More

1993: Meatloaf I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)

1995: Bonnie Tyler Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad

1995 Take That Never Forget

1996: Celine Dion It’s All Coming Back to Me Now

1997: Anastasia In the Dark of the Night

2002: Opera Babes Vittorial

2005: The Everly Brothers A Kiss is a Terrible Thing to Waste

2006: Meatloaf In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher is King

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p.s. Hey. Today, Mr. James Hodges, a trusty, silent (thus far) reader of this blog, has taken over the curatorial and booking duties of my ongoing gig posts on this one occasion in order to focus on the celebrated and calibrated bombast that forms the meat and potatoes of the producing/ songwriting/ performing auteur Jim Steinman, and, as an admirer of Steinman’s big, self-conscious, pomo pop constructions, I am proud to sit in the wings today. See what you hear and think, thank you, and gratitude galore to you, James. Otherwise, beginning a little later this morning, the next short of phase of prepping and filmmaking on Zac’s and my part will commence, and here’s how I estimate that will affect the blog. My best guess is that a full p.s. is unlikely for tomorrow, but that depends on as-yet unknown factors re: not only a possible early morning meeting with our producers but also the early morning arrival in Paris of my visiting nephew and whether he will need me upon getting here or not. So, maybe a p.s. tomorrow, and a quick, short one, if so. On Wednesday and Thursday, we will be shooting all day and evening, and there will be rerun posts and pre-programmed ‘howdy’ style p.s.es on those days. After that, things should return to normal here until the next scheduled shooting period in mid-August. ** Kier, Hi, K. I’m certainly glad to hear that your friends from work turn out to be sharp, enlightened types. You rule. That’s all there is to it. End of story. ** Thomas Moronic, Greetings, Thomas. No prob on the absence, and you’re back with an amazing bang. Thanks for investigating the dead businesses. Yeah, strange melancholy there. Individually, and vis-a-vis the sheer number and pace. All of those closings have only been since January of this year. Lovely that you found the gig helpful, and that you were into Dominique’s work. And the slave sonnets are weird beauty incarnate, even on the quick scrolling read necessitated by my imminent need to dash off to film rehearsals. Your poems too, wow, and I’ll definitely savor them properly later tonight if my brain isn’t too dead. Thank you! How’s the new Morrissey? Evian Christ is really interesting. I’m not a Kanye West fan, but he can have a sharp eye for interesting artists to coopt sometimes. Right, about the Merzbow/Xiu Xiu collar. Me too, duh. Yeah, ‘AG:RC’ is my favorite XX album in a long time. So great. I, of course, am fully cognizant of Mr. Salerno’s genius, yes. He’s the cameraman/ cinematographer on Zac’s and my film, as you no doubt know. Everyone, here’s Thomas Moronic: ‘If anyone wants to see the beautiful artwork that Michael has given me for my new book, Skeleton Costumes, they can have a look at the Kiddiepunk website or at the Goodreads page for the book which is here …’ ** David Ehrenstein, Morning, sir! I look forward to seeing/hearing Ms. Leibowitz pontificate. Always a joy. Everyone, re: this past weekend’s dead NYC businesses post, Mr, Ehrenstein recommends you supplement that experience by watching this video wherein the sublimely sharp, funny Fran Leibowitz gives her take on what’s happened to NYC. ** Tosh Berman, Yeah, the turn over in New York is really startling. There’s something kind of amazing and exciting about it, but that requires an emotional detachment from what NYC used to represent, and that’s hard. I’m going to do an LA post of that sort, or a section of LA one, and I’m curious to see if the pace of closures there is similar. I would guess not maybe, but the ranginess of LA almost might make the disappearances less noticeable, and I’m curious to find out. Thanks for the thumbs up on the new Eno/Hyde. I’ll going to get it. ** Sypha, Hi. I didn’t find ‘MD’ boring, that’s for sure. Intensive descriptions of seemingly mundane things is kind of a fetish of mine anyway. ** Steevee, Yeah, the bleak aspect is bleak. And you’re relatively right there in the thick of it. ** Nicki, Hi, pal. Sounds really grim in the UK. I don’t think that precise thing is happening here in France. There’s kind of an elaborate, admirable worker protection system/tradition here, relatively kind and humane relative to the kinds of cut-throat tactics I’m used to, at least. You finished the first installment! I will find the first free time in my next crazy busy four days to sink my teeth (?) into that. Awesome. Excited! Everyone, here’s Nicki with something you really should do and read as soon as your schedule allows, and I would suggest now, even. Nicki: ‘I have finished the first installment of my Thramsay-Cooper-inspired (c)lit! (Or that should probably be ‘Sick Chick Fic’). I’ve just read it through and – although it starts off a bit shaky, and it isn’t really a thoroughbred Thramsay – I kind of love it. My overarching plan is to do an MSM horror-porn in reverse but beyond that, I have no idea. Anyway, for anyone who’s interested, it can be found here. (Don’t say ‘fnar’ at the title – it’s an unfortunate and unintentional double-entendre but fitting for a Thramsay).’ Yay! ** Marilyn Roxie, Hi, Marilyn! Always really, really nice to see you! Oh, wow, that’s great news about you starting at SFSU! In photography! I’ll be really fascinated and happy to hear how that goes about the work you do there, if you ever feel like clueing us/me in. I’ll go hear Space Funeral as soon as I get the first free minute. Thank you! ** Jeffrey Coleman, I peeked in one your writings to Sypha, if you don’t mind, and thoroughly enjoyed them while making notes. Thanks! ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Sombre is a good, apt word. What are your impending projects? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. ** Schlix, Hi, Uli. Yeah, I want to. And before the Charles Ray show is down, although all this film stuff makes getting away pretty nigh on impossible. But I’m going to try. ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. What is an electronic dictionary? Wait, I’ll google it. Like pre-internet electronic? LA used to be pretty okay as far as having small fix-it stores, and I think that’s probably still true since LA doesn’t have that real estate crunch problem that NYC has. Of course in Paris there is no shortage of very old, funny, helpful little shops like that. ** Misanthrope, Hey. Oh, I don’t know, I think jokes are the equalizer among communication possibilities. We’re all equally shallow and deep when we tell or hear them. Maybe. Long, slow things are definitely up my alley, that’s true. How dare you accuse me of being ass-centric! I challenge you to a duel! It’s true that for every closing noted on that site, there was an opening of a business very like the ones that closed, except in the cases of the really old businesses whose function has basically become obsolete. Those are the saddest closings, I think. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Costa Mesa, wow. That wow is only because I haven’t thought about it for a while. I used to go there a lot to do something I can’t remember. Well, I hope she has a nice away time there, and I hope that absence does that ‘heart grow fonder’ thing. Listening? Mm, I’ve been into the copeland album. I had a track from it in the last gig post. And this and that, random tracks. My weekend was okay, complicated. Long story short, one of the performers Zac and I were counting on to be in the scene we’re shooting on Wednesday flaked out, so instead of doing the normal rehearsals today and tomorrow, we have to figure out how to revamp the scene from a two-person thing into a solo scene. I’m sure we’ll figure it out and that Zac will make something great from the situation, but it’s stressful. That was kind of the ‘highlight’, ha ha, of the weekend. Oh, and the people who put out ‘Gone’ were in Paris, and I had a nice visit with them and got my copies of the book at the same time. Anyway, have a swell Monday, and I’ll do my best to as well. ** Okay. Dig the gig today. Maybe I’ll be back with the p.s. tomorrow, I’m not sure. In any case, you’ll get a very happy post in the morning, as you will see. See you asap.

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Lower Lost Weight, Perfect Skin
‘Lower make intense music. Seek Warmer Climes, the Copenhagen quartet’s debut album, sparkles with the harmonic dissonance and high-strung urgency of their underground music forebears. But Lower ­– Adrian Toubro (vocals), Simon Formann (guitar), Kristian Emdal (bass) and Anton Rothstein (drums) – also channel the romance and drama of great singer-songwriters, from late-period Scott Walker to Bryan Ferry. The result is a hugely ambitious and affecting rock album that enters deeply personal and unusual sonic and topical spaces.’ –– Matador

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Harassor Winter’s Triumph
‘Harassor are a rare gem glinting up malevolently from one of Los Angeles’ countless dark corners. The band was formed back in 2002, and after more than a decade of dues-paying and hell-raising, they’ve finally started attracting attention for their savage extreme metal hybrid. 2011 saw their inclusion on Southern Lord’s well-received Power of the Riff compilation, and two full-lengths later, Dais came calling to secure the rights for the trio’s fourth LP. The venerable experimental/noise label and the regressive-minded metal band seem like an odd coupling, but both parties seem chuffed with the arrangement and the result of their pairing speaks for itself. Into Unknown Depths is a delightfully dynamic approach to extreme metal’s usual grim-faced presentation. No two songs sound alike, but each one sounds deadly.’ — Kim Kelly

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Evian Christ Fuck Idol
‘Evian Christ’s metamorphosis from primary school teacher to Kanye West collaborator has been swift and stunning. The 24-year-old, who first came to prominence with 2011’s druggy Kings And Them mixtape, received an email last year requesting his services as a collaborator on West’s Yeezus LP. His new EP Waterfall is his first release since. Stand out track “Fuck Idol” matches squalling synths with deliciously grinding percussion. Reminiscent in places of Pan Sonic’s blocky brutality, Burial’s sudden atmosphere shifts and Vatican Shadow’s abrasive beauty, Waterfall is as brightly promising as it is stark and cold.’ — Resident Advisor

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Atki2 Knock Knock
‘Atki2 has long been performing his unique strain of dancehall, bashment, dubstep, and jungle, yet this is the first time he has released this style on its historical format of choice, 7-inch vinyl. Having co-promoted the Ruffneck Diskotek club night (a strong factor in Bristol‘s development as one of the globe’s most exciting hubs for dubstep and bass music) for nearly a decade with Dub Boy and other local cohorts, he is deservedly a much-loved and respected member of Bristol’s music scene. See his many releases on the city’s top labels such as Punch Drunk, Idle Hands, and Immerse, as well as further afield imprints like Shadetek and Actress’ Werk Discs, for whom he first recorded way back in 2005. With long-term partner Hanuman, Atki2 also helms Steakhouse Records, and the duo have been releasing bass-soaked music under the name Monkeysteak for several years.’ — frijsfo beats

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Cindytalk Guts of London
‘I mean, I think it is probably impossible to be any kind of… – what is the word I am looking for… intuitive sort of musician, a musician who improvises, without accepting that silence is every bit as important to the sound that you are making, if not in most cases more important. This is strange for certain people, myself included, who make a barrage of noise, but then, when you do create space and silence, it is much more noticeable. It’s a question about light and dark, and playing with both, of being aware of that. You can’t have one without the other. So yes, absolutely. I also think it is to some extent the Holy Grail to most musicians, a quest. When you are younger and fumbling around to find what you are looking for, I suspect one of the things we are all looking for is silence. I know that the older I’ve got – beginning life as a punk etc – that is certainly what I’ve been looking for, stillness, space, silence. Of the recent three albums I have released on Editions Mego, the most recent one is the stillest, the quietest, almost the most at peace with itself. The first two are much more fidgety, nervous, abstract, noisy, and frenetic and I have been looking for that space. I am constantly looking for a place where you can settle down inside, where something you are having to fumble about for, is there, not so much to have control over it, but to be at peace with it.’ — Cindytalk

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Ernest Gibson Everywhere You Roam
‘Looking to genres like exotica, folk, and maybe even touches of doo-wop, Ernest Gibson is an artist who is deeply entrenched in musty old tricks and spells of time gone by, but uses that platform as a way of twisting and re-imagining the sounds of the past, assembling them into a completely new form. Something nearly unrecognized by the elements that went into it. Think of the way that Daughn Gibson stretches, samples, and loops his music to give it a time-worn vibe or perhaps the way that Dirty Beaches recreates older styles with thick, heavy layers of lo-fi modernism and you’ll be getting a vague idea of what Ernest Gibson is up to on his album. It’s sort of a cratedigger’s wet dream. A lot of the time Island Records feels like, perhaps in another life, it could easily be packed away in a box with other lost gems down in a dank basement somewhere, waiting for the day when that box falls down on some adventurous listener’s head.’ — Portals Music

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Wolves in the Throne Room Celestite Mirror
‘Long tracks and slow builds have been near-constants for Wolves in the Throne Room, the Pacific Northwest band that helped push United States Black Metal to wider recognition. As you listen to “Celestite Mirror”, the debut track from their forthcoming fifth album, Celestite, you might keep expecting for the hammer to drop, for the black metal to rush in. But don’t hold your breath: Celestite follows in the grand black metal tradition of trading blast beats and suffocating guitars for pensive synths and slow motion. For “Celestite Mirror”, Wolves in the Throne Room build from an eerie drift of synth glow and gentle bass-drum booms into a Vangelis-sized organ roar. Ahead of the halfway mark, they back into a Manuel Gottsching-like series of flickers and clicks, dispersing the darkness they once conjured.’ — Grayson Haver Currin

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Diane Cluck Sara
‘After a seven-year hiatus, Boneset is the seventh album from modern folk artist Diane Cluck. Cluck’s uniquely clipped, glottal vocals and harp-like acoustic guitar embed in rich textures from cellist Isabel Castellvi and drummer Anders Griffen. Recorded to analog tape at Brooklyn’s Trout Recording, Boneset is comprised of songs written years ago, not so long ago, just recently, laid out in near-chronological order. Dark to light to dark, the album overends as a kind of mobius strip, songs seeded with birds, death, wealth, poverty, boldness and heart. “Diane Cluck is a virtuosic talent with an emotionality that feels at once ancient and alien. Her mastery of her voice as an ecstatic instrument is so compelling.” — Antony Hegarty (Antony and the Johnsons)’ — Important Records

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Communions Summer’s Oath
‘Communions is the Copenhagen-based rock band of brothers Martin and Mads Rehof, Jacob van Deurs Formann and Frederik Lind Köppen. They share a rehearsal space with Iceage and Lower at local DIY space and venue Mayhem, and recorded their debut EP, Cobblestones, between that epicenter of the city’s punk/industrial scene and Köppen’s bedroom. Communions are a band stuck between fun fun in the sun sun and their native Copenhagen’s desolate punk movement. Perhaps that’s why their music feels nuzzled by the comforting angst of pop-punk while still fraught with the yells of someone left behind in an abandoned asylum.’ — collaged

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Lone 2 is 8
‘Lone has stated that his two main role models are Boards of Canada and Madlib and Reality Testing sounds like a collaboration between those two. Madlib’s part comes into play in Lone’s expert beat making. The two singles released before the album’s drop, “2 is 8” and the 2012 house highlight “Airglow Fires”, combine ‘90s golden era hip-hop with slippery electronics. “2 is 8” is built around chiming brass and a languid synth that lazily slides around the song. The brass, when mixed with a sample of children screaming “YAY!”, make “2 is 8” sound like the soundtrack to the coolest episode of Sesame Street ever. “Airglow Fires” is a delightfully warm song that starts at a brisk, yet calming pace, before squelched keyboards come in and push the song to evolve into a dancer arena.’ — Pop Matters

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Sudden Infant Wölfli’s Nightmare
‘Industrial minimal blues noise from Switzerland’s most notorious wild man, produced by Roli Mosimann (Swans). The Cramps meets early Einsturzende Neubauten! Wölfli’s Nightmare is a major shift for Sudden Infant, as Joke Lanz is joined here for the first time by a bass player and a drummer, transforming this long-running and often underrated industrial noise project into a more avant-garde leaning mixture of experimental jazz exuberance and politically-minded vocals. It’s all very raw, sticking true to the industrial genre and punk ethics; the new formula seems to stick together well and gives birth to something which goes beyond Sudden Infant’s past while sticking true to the project’s vision and attitude.’ — collaged

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Philipp Quehenberger Uff Uff
‘Viennese-by-choice, Philipp Quehenberger counts amongst the most innovative and multifaceted figures in the Austrian electro-landscape. The ethos of this “musician coming from somewhere in the grey zone between hardcore, techno, and free jazz” (quote Quehenberger) has always been marked by insatiable experimentation, deliberate breaks in style, and a good dose of eccentricity. And anyway, what’s the point of definite form and content if it only really gets interesting when the turbulent raucous noise hits the dance floor? Or to say it in the words of the artist: “I always wanted to be pop. But under my conditions.”’ — donaufestival.au

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copeland Faith OG X
‘The clues start with the bewildering album cover, which features a strikingly abrasive, ice-cold stare from copeland, an image whose cultural implications find continuity in the music: “l’oreal” acts as both an affirmation of worth and a foil to the beauty corporation and its slogan (“Because you’re worth it”); “Fit 1” turns the objectifying Brit slang on its head; while “advice to young girls” suggests that an authoritative voice commanding empowerment is, by copeland’s own admission, a joke, even as it could be taken by listeners as a call-to-arms. With her tactics ranging from wincing sine-wave-damaged depth charges (“Faith OG X”) to the purposefully cliché (“DILIGENCE”), there’s no assurance that the listener is making a “correct interpretation” of its content (and my own here is clearly just one of many possible). But that she manages to evoke such contemplation on an album that’s only 30 minutes long, where half the songs don’t even contain vocals, is itself an incredible achievement.’ — Tiny Mix Tapes

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White Lung Face Down
‘I’m someone who always needs to keep moving forward and challenging myself to do something more. If you’re not going forward, you’re just standing still, and who wants to do that for too long? When White Lung started, my goal was simple: “I don’t want to be in my boyfriend’s band anymore—I want my own band that I actually like, and I want to play with Anne-Marie because she’s the fucking coolest drummer I’ve ever met in my life.” To think about where it’s at now, it’s like, “Oh god, I’m a band person now! How did this happen? Like, fuck. I chose to live like a clown for the rest of my life.”‘ — Mish Way, White Lung

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p.s. Hey. ** Nicki, Hi. Oh, well, it’s a positive rush, well, apart from the p.s. impact, so its positivity is imperfect, I guess. I didn’t have time yet to dip into Thramsay and get an initial, more fleshed out, personalized definition of it under my belt, as it were, but today’s easy-ish, so soon I’ll actually know what you’re talking about in a mildly back room way, hopefully. But awesome, natch, if the post fueled your writing. I mean, higher compliments don’t come in better nutshells or something. Ha ha, that’s interesting: semi-colon as image. I wonder if that’s why, or one reason why, I’m stand-offish about them, me being such a delicate flower and all that. Very cool about that book you’re planning. Fascinating and needed, as you well know. In Japan, ‘women-as-consumers/producers of gratuitously violent porn’ is a long-standing tradition, as is w-a-c/p of gay porn and ambiguously pedophiliac ‘gay’ porn too. Anyway, you being inspired, major! Thank you! ** David Ehrenstein, It’s amazing, or maybe, how many of the slaves I come across want contracts that they can’t get out of it. It’s a very common wish, and even more in the past year or so than previously. Slave profiles as litmus tests of broad societal anxiety trends or something? Almost everything is inside the computer now. Seems like nature (plants, trees, ocean, etc.) is the last hold-out. ** Bill, Hi, B. No, but I knew or at least suspected that you would suggest it could have been shorter. I think that, in that case, it needed the blather. The blathering was an unfurling mechanism. The blathering aspect was its key and inadvertent charm or something? ** Sypha, See, yeah, I’ve never played with one of those book reader things. I guess I imagined they were kind of dead like picture frames, but then again I never really imagined them fully. Huh. Geese are nice. ** Damien Ark, Hi, Damien. Yeah, the uncomfortable funny and disturbed at the same effect of them is part of what excites me about them. It’s an interesting combination, or at least when it’s real, or I guess I mean when it seems real since I’m virtually positive that most of those slaves are just fantasizing aloud. More interesting than the usual faked up, predictable horror movie funny/disturbing thing. Those ads you made are really nice, nicely done. ** Kier, Hi, K. Ugh, dislikable co-workers. I have one at the moment. Is that true about pigs? Interesting. Oh, actually, yeah, I think there have been killers who deliberately used pigs to cover their tracks. But I guess since I know that they must not have been so successful. You have that little poetry book? Cool. No, they said they’d send me one, and then they didn’t, and when I wrote and said, hey, where’s my copy, they said they were sold out and no copies remained. I’ll find one on eBay or something someday. I saw a picture of it. It looked pretty, I think. I loved the VK! ** Steevee, The self-described Republican slave was vortextual complex. I’ve seen the name Kratom, but I have no idea what it is. I don’t think it’s available in France maybe. What did your doctor suggest? ** Keaton, Yeah, I suppose it presupposes, but, yeah, so do I, you know, you know me. There are an incalculable number of how-to’s. It’s so fucking cool that way. Interesting that that gets on your nerves. Tropes are always bad. ‘The Bastards’ was okay. I like her work. It’s not her best by any stretch. It’s just nice to be in the presence of her doing her thing, basically. It was on the upside of okay and better. Happy … oh, it became July yesterday. I spaced out. Pay rent. (Note to self). ** HyeMin Kim, Hi. I have wireless at home only when I use the Personal Hotspot function on my cellphone, and since the landline internet here is wildly imperfect, I sometimes do, but I don’t want to get into habit of doing that for some reason. I don’t know the reason. Weird. Frozen mochi: intense, nice. ‘Double Dream’ is a great Ashbery, yeah. I don’t know if I could pick a fave book by him. I literally love every one of them. Even the so-called ‘minor’ ones like ‘Shadow Train’. ** Rewritedept, Hi. It didn’t rain at all yesterday. It looked like it was going to. The not fulfilling my expectation was nice. My yesterday was good. Zac got back from a trip to elsewhere, and we hung out, checked out the location for next week’s film shoot: the interior of a World War II bunker which will be played in our film by an old, empty storage room in the subterranean parking garage of a big artists squat here in Paris. That, plus some work, was my day. I was in a monsoon in Vegas once. It was quite awesome. Hope your Tuesday rules too. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T!  So cool about your impending Kiddiepunk haiku book. Excited! Thank you in advance for the slave haikus, yum, maestro. ** Right. There’s a gig composed of some musical stuff I’ve been into ‘of late’. Share and share alike, as they say, whatever that means. See you tomorrow.