Bleak Music for Bleak Times

Harking on about My Dying Bride again so soon, sorry. Anyway, was listening to the last album of theirs i ever got, the dreadfully entitled 34.788%... Complete (i bet there's a story behind that, but i really don't care). i wasn't that impressed with this effort back in 1998 and i have no idea of how they might've progressed/returned to their roots/degenerated into boring crap since then. i hope they got back on track, i was a big fan back in the day...

yeah, it was the perfect timing for that CD to come on - driving home in the pelting rain, doing 30 on the freeway, exhausted after several long, manic days. powerful, dismal, pretentious and hypnotic. it's funny how under certain circumstances even a dodgy album from a fave band can be enjoyable. i wonder if old fans feel that way about Jon Bon's latest shitfest?

ps. it sounds like they returned to their roots and displayed some good form (and their old logo) on their next albums... might have to back there one day.

Naive Art Explosion

Girl Throws Bike After Unknown Beasts That Appear to be Fleeing (or charging the 'artiste')


Happy Jumping Fish (detail)


Bemused Crab


Genderless Possum Clings to Tree with all its Might, as Shitbox Car Looks On (detail)

Dog-like Creature is Dropped into Bubbling Acid by the Artist's Disapproving Daughter

Who Needs Elephant Art...

...when you've got a 1.5er doing this?

obviously i had nothing to do with either of them. although the Pink Tigga graffiti almost never happened, the little girl was given another chance to stay up if she behaved... and lasted only about 10min.

i really like the colours in Deranged Doggie.

Will YouTube be the Death of the Music Video Show?

I've been watching a fair few clips, mostly live recordings, on the good ol' YouTube site, and it's really amazing how much stuff is there, even quite eclectic, like Japanese noise dude Merzbow, heaps of John Zorn's avant garde projects, home video recordings of Ween, interviews with people from TV, etc. it's truly a great resource for finding (and sharing) files. i guess the one major downfall is the quality is often pretty bad - i don't know how much of that is due to the size restrictions of files on YouTube or the fact that much of what i was watching was either filmed live by fans or recorded from TV.

i think music video shows (like my much beloved RAGE) will continue to live on, they are great for checking out new releases, adn for guest programmers. the excitement of not knowing what's next is a big part of the fun. and getting introduced to bands you've never heard of before.

anyway, since i finally got an account there, in order to be able to comment on stuff, i've now, many more months later, finally started to try out the 'favorites' and other features of having an account, and i like how it works so far. in case you find yourself particularly innerested in what i find enjoyable/intriguing, you can check out my faves, so far i've gone a bit overboard with Ween (but they are like totally amazing dude) and Secret Chiefs 3 adn John Zorn.

also, on a completely unrelated subject, for some unknown reason last night i started a travel blog. i don't know how it's going to go, but anyway, we'll see.

Awesome Doom/Death Metal Clip

I used to be obsessed by this band, My Dying Bride, back in teh 90s, and this was a clip of their first single (Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium), which other than it's awesomely over-the-top latin pretentiousness, blew me away back then, and is still excellent/amusing in that tacky way that most metal is. you gotta laugh, really. and with lyrics like:

" Failing Enochian tapestries / Depict the prince of fallen virtues / In almost poetic rhapsody "

... what metalhead can complain? and what the hell is 'Enochian' anyway? i think it's something from that H.P. Lovecraft's fantasy world, that somehow a number of metal bands (like Morbid Angel and even early Metallica) drew inspiration from, when those books really were a bit of a croc. actually, i've discovered Enochian really relates to magick. but it's still boring. actually, it appears as though old Lovecraft was seminal in horror/sci-fi writing back in teh early 90s, so maybe i should give him another go. looks like 'Tal were inspired by this book of his: The Call of Cthulhu - i shall have to give it a go one day when i'm less likely to fall asleep after the second sentence.

anyway, i'm just so glad of youtube in moments like these, when clips are at your fingertips, well, several minutes of loading, rather than having to find them on an old, grainy RAGE tape.

Update: just watched an amazing MDB clip, Black Voyage, which they pulled off really well live, even the awesomely eerie middle section. and great violin. never caught them live, so i'm glad to have an idea of what they might've been like. an amazing 9.5min song off their last good album, i reckon.

Update2: and while we're on Doom Metal, i couldn't pass up the opportunity to revisit my love of early Paradise Lost - here's their song Gothic (only audio)... wish they had Rotting Misery.

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The Ripple Effect

Another thing i came across on the intriguing Random Vandal site is Ripple - a charity organisation, which, has two easy and painless ways of raising funds: one merely by using their google-powered search engine, and the second if people click on buttons placed on a web page. either action, as far as i can tell, raises about 1 or 2 cents (paid for by an advertiser) for a range of help for less fortunate people - and 100% of the revenue is meant to be passed on. words from the site:

" ripple exists to harness the power of the internet advertising in the true spirit of the internet - providing a tool for people to help others. We are leveraging the market for internet advertising to generate revenue to help people rather than our pockets. "

check them out, you can easily make Ripple your homepage (and go straight to google search via them, which seems pretty much the same) and feel like it's also helping someone else to a very small degree. the more that use it the more money raised. i don't know how successful it will be, but i don't imagine it could hurt to try.

so i've just done the homepage thing, and it seems to work like a treat...

now i can do 'pointless' searches for eg. "hah!" - and i simply must check out the "Heathens Against Hate" site... and no surprise there's a wiki ref in there.

Later Note: don't go to that heathens site, it's weird, but more boring than anything and goes on forever. i'm not even linking it. whoever wrote that is all paranoid and wanting to be some peace loving heathen or something and distance them self from evil and racist heathens, and while that's fair enough, it just goes nowhere and eats up precious seconds of your life, rather like what this sentence is doing for me (and now you, unfortunate reader)...

i really do drop too many of those rabbit droppings...

Graffiti and Street Art

I've been totally lost in links of amazing artwork, starting from MissV's post of (and links to) the Crate People, then via another link of hers to Random Vandal, who posts some interesting graffiti art, and some thought provoking discussions follow on from the images. i then discovered Banksy (you have to scroll across to the right on this page) from a comment on Random Vandal - this Banksy dude appears to be quite well known, subversive, controversial and intriguing.

it's really a web of intrigue out there and you can never get beyond the tip of the iceberg.

The Mighty Boosh

How totally amazing is this show? I probably missed half of them, and i still can't get over the Old Gregg episode, with the infamous line (which i thought was cool, but now i've recently realised it's gaining cult status) "easy now, fuzzy little man peach" - that phrase gets over 3700 hits in google. and it was casually dropped into conversation last week sometime on the RRR breakfast show, totally blowing my mind on my drive to work. i surfed some Boosh stuff, freaking out over teh amount of stuff out there, obsessive fans reporting every single detail, quote, analysing the Boosh universe etc. and i know i shouldn't be surprised. it is awesomeness; the best comedy in years.

there's a funny interview of the Boosh dudes on youtube. they appear to be just as insane in real life, which is just perfect.

Cuttlefish and the wonders thereof

i've long been fascinated by these strange creatures and recently my wife adn i caught an amazing show about cuttlefish, which demonstrated amongst other things that they were the smartest of the cephalopods (and i love that that's greek for 'head-foot'!), when previously octopuses were thought to have been the nerds of the species. they have this awesome ability to change colour, and even to put on bizarre 'light shows' to dazzle their prey and also for attracting a mate - but it's just the males who do the prancing, ala peacocks.

here's another, smaller video which shows a 'light show' used in hunting (off Irian Jaya).

Amateur - Lasse Gjertsen

Awesome clip on youtube. you've probably already seen it; if not do it now.

and he reckons he can't play either instrument, but he's certainly got a good ear for music. somewhere amongst his answers to the more than 11,000 comments he explains that he used Fruity Loops for the audio, made a wav of it and then did the video editing on top of that, don't know what he used for that... in only 15 hours! i think it would take me a lot longer. gotta get better with FL, i think.

big thanks to Bruce n Jeff up in sunny(?) QLD for the link.

The Bumblebeez - Dr. Love

Just can't get this song out of my head. and thought this was some wacky Brit band, when they're from NSW... if i could stand listening to JJJ i might've known they were unearthed a few years back. Anyway, this is one of the best clips i've seen for a long, long time (and a damn fine song too). and I think they're singing about a mate of ours, Trevster - peace out to yo in the US!

(screen shot of an awesome moment in the song/vid)

enriched dopaminergic function

The previous post made me google "psychedelia", mainly to check that i'd spelled it correctly, and apart from all the music links, there was this one which spun me out. it seems to go on about the future possibilities of gene manipulation to make life more fun and less painful for people, even to the extent of citing Huxley's Brave New World as something of a desirable possibility (i think). here's an excerpt or two, gee i love the interweb:


"The prospect that what we describe as "mental" pain, too, could ever be eradicated is equally counter-intuitive. The feasibility of its abolition via biotechnology [...]"

"The application of nanotechnology, self-reproducing micro-miniaturised robots armed with quantum supercomputer processing power, and ultra-sophisticated genetic engineering, perhaps using retro-viral vectors, can assure the eradication of the root of all evil in its naturalistic guise throughout the living world. Eventually, the global ecosystem will be redesigned. The vertebrate genome will be rewritten. The advent of the post-Darwinian era will mark a major transition in the evolution of life on earth and beyond..." [punctuation included from original]

"...the neurochemistry of pain and malaise [...]"


also, i think it's great that the text is broken down into a few sentences per page accompanied by an aesthetically coloured illustration indicating the potential future nirvana with dolphins, rays of light, crashing waves and other such glorious and visually uplifting images. there's even fricken koalas on page 12. then lots of elephants towards the end. how weird.

and after all that i remain unsure of what the author is trying to get at. is it pro-psychedelic drugs? it seems to be plugging the idea of "designer babies" with "enriched dopaminergic function," leading to future humans living in absolute bliss with each other and the environment. hmmm. still, an interesting detour through someone's bizarre fantasies. have to get back to that "zombified trance-state" of my "mundane and minimal existence"...

aha, here it is:
"When Paradise - or something better - has been biologically implemented, then perhaps the very notion of tampering with our new-won "natural" condition and feeling "drugged" may come to seem perversely immoral. For who would want to contaminate the purity of their ecstatic biological soul-stuff with alien chemical pollutants? Until that era arrives, we still need chemical mood-enrichers to flourish...."

and now that i've read the abstract, it makes a bit more sense, but is still far-fetched to say the least.

Viral Psychedelia : Glitch Art

thought this was pretty cool too, continuing from teh last post. and if only i could capture my old PC screen crashes (the alt-printscreen way) i would have a goldmine of bizarro by now... should've got the camera out long ago. i think it's awesome to still be running on Win98 almost a decade after it was released, yet still achieving such 'high quality' 'music'.

Stratospheric Annihilation : Glitch Art

My Father-in-Law and I were trying to get a digital set-top box tv tuner thingo to work yesterday, and we couldn't achieve any coherent signal from any of the variations in connection arrangements that we tried, merely confirming the possibility that the item was already malfunctioning. However, all was not lost, since some beautiful colour patterns were displayed. I seized the opportunity and the digital camera, and have now got some awesome glitch artwork for my new noise band side project, Insolitus Sonitus.

Durer - Knight, Death and the Devil (aka "The Rider")

Just looking through my HD for stuff, thinking of starting a new solo noise band, just kicking a few possible names around. but came across this, in amongst all the files, and remembered how much i like this Durer, and saw a great print of it at the NGV a year or so back.

it's a print from a copperplate engraving, 1513.

how ridiculous and horrible does the devil look? and for go here for some interpretation. i'm sure there's much, much more out there.

nice work Albrecht!

Secret Chiefs 3 live review: 12 May 2007 melbourne

Secret Chiefs 3, Saturday 12 May 2007, at the East Brunswick Club, Melbourne. (ad from Inpress Magazine)

the gig was amazing, just as you'd expect. most of the guys pictured (photo below from their label's site) were there, and i can't be bothered working out all their names from the SC3 site.















there were 8 musicians on stage most of the time, occasionally i could only see 7, but it was hard seeing the drummers and occasional others at the back. from l -r in the photo: one of the insane drummers, possibly Ches Smith? (along with Danny Heifetz, not pictured), then Eyvind Kang wasn't there - which my wife and i were very dismayed about, but fortunately the other violinist was nothing short of amazing, Trey Spruance, obviously, looking great with massive goatee, that ninja dude in the front could have been Rich Douchette, and played this thing (photo from SC3 site):

then the dude to the right of 'ninja man' was the amazing new violinist (i think Timb Harris), who really impressed the crowd (and even pulled out a trumpet in the middle of Renunciation, the last song of the 2nd encore), then the final dudes at played keys (can't work out who he might be) and bass (i think Shahzad Ismaily), of course, also really impressively. Bar McKinnon was also there on flute, sax and other. and i think Adam Stacey might also have been there on keys and wind instruments and maybe other percussion, but now that makes 9... oh well. and i wasn't going to try to work them all out.

Trey walked through the crowd 10-15min before the start, and asked the girls on the merchandising stall how things were, and said 'hi' to a few people in the audience, and generally seemed like a good, down to earth kinda bloke.

they played for around 2 hours, including two encores, and i've been going back through the albums trying to work out what most of the songs were ... i'll have a stab at it:

The First Grand Constitution & Bylaws (1996)
Assassin's Blade - awesome, of course
Zulfikar ? but it seemed slightly different, perhaps it was Zulfikar/Zulfiqar II

Hurqalya: The Second Grand Constitution & Bylaws (1998)
Book T: Broken Glass Hearse
Renunciation - last song of the night (end of 2nd encore), so glad we got this!

Eyes of Flesh, Eyes of Flame (live, 1999)
(the track with 5 skulls pictured)
Mary of Magdalen (Eyvind Kang cover)
Jabalqa/Jabarsa (from Hurqalya album, but without all the noise)

Book M (2001)
Knights of Damcar
Vajra
Horsemen of the Invisible
Combat for the Angel
Dolorous Stroke
Blaze of the Grail
Lapsit Exillis

Book of Horizons (2004)
The End Times
The 4 (Great Ishraqi Sun)
The 3
Anthropomorphosis: Boxleitner

i think most of these are correct. i wasn't sad that they didn't play either of the two practically death metal tracks on the new album - i don't find them as interesting, even with my background in such music. they played a few newwies too, which sounded a bit like "The 3" and "The 4" from the latest album, which are by the SC3-subband Ishraqiyun (they now have 7 bands playing different genres within SC3, it's complicated), and the new songs were "The Fifteen", "Fast", and "The Nineteen", which you can see in live concert along with "The 3" and "The 4". Actually, not sure if they played the last one, The Nineteen, but there was one with an incredibly difficult rhythm, amongst a set of songs already with insanely complicated rhythms... that was probably it - and it was hard to even nod along to, i can't imagine trying to play it!

in fact, in that 21 minutes of video (which you can download), you can get an idea of what they were like live, they were just a lot heavier, but in a good way, not too loud or noisy. Trey was playing that weird guitar-like thing most of the night, there was only the violinist on the right (i think Timb Harris) not Eyvind, there's that weird instrument Rich Douchette plays (which you can hear really well just after 9 min in), and some sort of accordian and a keyboard, but not that dude playing that weird square sitar like thing (or that thing, as far as i could see), or that guy on bass?, and i think that's the same drummer (on the kit), and i don't think either of the extra percussionists on the floor were there, but there was tons of different and intriguing percussion coming from the back of the stage. my favourite part is The 4, which starts just before 15min. i've had that in my head for days now.


here's Trey and (i think Timb Harris), photo from an article in The Age, not the same gig.









and in case you're reading this and are unsure what SC3 sound like (and haven't bothered with any of the links), then here's a good attempt at a description of their newer material, from their (Trey's?) label's site, where you can also hear some samples:

What does this all end up sounding like? You will hear a kick-ass surf band playing in Arabic/Persian tunings, and then switch over to a wall of Penderecki-style orchestral chord clusters accompanied by AC/DC. Then, perhaps the traditional sounding, pseudo-folk Turk/Central Asian imaginal band will hit center stage with Dhol, Saz, Rabab, Esraj and rock drums and start whacking out to the original, catchy songs that no one knows or cares are in 19/16 time. This might be followed by a totally pummeling, nightmarish, not-kidding one bit blast-beat Death Metal band that employs Boulez-ish atonal serialism, played in dastgah tunings, which of course will naturally segue into a band that specializes in Hindi Film Music from the second Golden Era... you get the picture. We're scratching the surface here, not exaggerating. And again, it’s no joke.

PIXIES - live 4/4/07 and other rambling

ahhhh, that PIXIES experience last night (The Best of V Festival at the Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne) was great... and i couldn't resist (giving my goodbye) jotting down as many songs i could remember them playing, and can't remember the order after the 3rd song, but i think they went into the Trompe album:

[this started off as a quick email purge of the songs i could remember from last night, and then got way long... so i've blogged it]

1. Bone Machine - a totally perfect starting song.
2. Caribou Monkey Gone to Heaven
3. Wave of Mutilation

and they stopped mid-song in monkey with Frank Black demanding that a stupid big beach ball was removed. i think most in the crowd agreed with this. there was an amusing few minutes of discussion of where to re-start the song again.

the rest of the concert (in rough but pretty close order to what we saw, based on the set list posted here, we didn't get In Heaven or Holiday Song, but instead got Broken Face and I Bleed... i think we were more lucky):

4. U-Mass
5. Head On
6. Caribou
7. No.13 Baby
8. Tame
9. Hey
10. Gouge Away
11. Mr Greives
12. Broken Face
13. I Bleed
14. Here Comes Your Man
15. Planet of Sound
16. Debaser
17. Crackity Jones
18. Something Against You
19. Isla de Encanta
20. Nimrod's Son
21. Vamos
22. Where Is My Mind?

and joey's theatrics were great in Vamos, with the feedback and playing guit with a drumstick.

encore:
23. La La Love You
24. Gigantic

so 24 songs in total, a great set really. would've been great to have a song or two from Bossanova... and it's interesting that they ignored this album at the Gold Coast gig too. would've also loved (everything else!), but some of:
hang wire
is she weird?
ana
the happening - has to be one of my fave Pixies songs
all over the world
dig for fire
cecilia ann
alison

motorway to roswell - this song's really been getting to me lately, it's quite amazing
subbacultcha
distance equals rate times time
the sad punk

cactus - a fantastic song, and possibly Bowie's version is even better... contentious, i know
ed is dead
river euphrates
levitate me
i've been tired

and i can't believe all of Doolittle apart from 3 songs was played:
dead (would've loved this)
There Goes My Gun
Silver

and maybe, after looking at the songs played, i do like Doolittle the best after all. i've always thought i liked Bossanova more, with it's surf-rock feel, but apart from the overplayed monkey and wave, i think Doolittle could become my fave again, like back in the early 90s... i mean, Bossanova, still has a lot of totally mad, great songs, but in general they don't seem to have the same complexity and strangeness that permeates doolittle (and surfer rosa/come on pilgrim for that matter). but songs like the happening, is she weird?, all over the world, dig for fire, etc are still amazing. i think possibly the first track on Bossanova, cecilia ann says it all, it's amazing musically (and is apparently a cover of the Surftones), like the rest of the album, but Doolittle just wins by miles with its lyrical content.

i've never sung along so much at a gig, nor noticed such crowd response and knowledge of lyrics etc. and just having something like 11,000 fans singing along with the likes of Caribou, Hey, etc. sounded amazing. often i've been at gigs of bands i really love, and get bored with a couple of songs here and there, and get tired, and start wondering what good songs they still haven't played and hope that they play those and get it over with. but last night, despite sore back and legs, i could've stayed for hours and heard every pixies song (still, there's not that many more, even with the b-sides). i think that's a sign of just having so many amazing songs, and partly the reminiscing value, of a band i've loved since i moved to brisbane in 1990 and discovered them, the cure and the violent femmes. it was such a jump from milli vanilli and average top 40 pop. yeah, i found the discomfort didn't matter and instead of hoping for particular songs almost every song was a surprise - "what's that chord? yep, it's a good one...". apart from say Head On (the Jesus and Mary Chain cover) and Gigantic, both of which i find slightly ordinary. but i found myself singing along to both, regardless. i was really impressed by the sound at the bowl. and there was great guit playing by joey, he re-created all those great sounds really well i thought. his guitar was a little too loud in one song, but that was ok. frank screamed a fair bit and changed delivery of the occasional line. dave was awesome on drums, as expected. and i didn't have any problems with the bass, i didn't really notice it that much. kim's vocals were kinda average, but that's how i've always thought they were, and they certainly add to the songs.

it's funny, i've found hardly any reviews of the gig yet, except for here.


i was checking out the meanings behind some Pixies lyrics this morning, although it partly ruins the intrigue of songs... i started with what the hell "Uriah hit the crapper" means in the song Dead... i thought it was about Uriah Heap (i think i saw Frank playing a Uriah Heap tape on a doco of them on the road), but no:

The song is taken from 2 Samuel, Chapter 11.

After Bathsheba tells King David that he has impregnated her, David sends for her husband Uriah the Hittite who is fighting in David's army. David tells Uriah to "Go down to your house and wash your feet". But Uriah, being the faithful servant refuses and sleeps outside the entrance to the King's palace.

The reason David was telling Uriah to go wash his feet is so that he would go home, sleep with his wife, and cover up the pregnancy. That's where the "hit the crapper" part comes from... it's King David telling Uriah to go home to his bathroom and wash his feet.

I believe that the whole reference to "Dead" is the fact that starting with these evil deeds, King David's life starts to go downhill, leading to his death.

P.S. Frank Black confirms that this song is indeed about David and Bathsheba in a recent SPIN article, (Summer 2004).

and go here if you want more Pixies lyrical analysis.

and it looks like Gouge Away is about Samson and Delilah, which makes sense now.

after reading more of these lyrical analyses, i'm just blown away more and more by this band. i've always loved the colour and bizarreness of Frank's lyrics, like i'm sure everyone else has, but it still amazes me when eg. a song like Mr. Grieves, which i thought was pretty simple, actually could have a lot more levels and intertwined possibilities throughout it (it's probably well over-analysed, but Frank's got some complex stuff going in most of his songs which is intriguingly stripped back to almost abstractness):

also, i've never been a big fan of the choice of title for "Doolittle" but maybe that last discussion makes it a bit more clear. still it's better than what it almost was.


other comments on the V festival:

Jarvis Cocker was good to see. a seasoned front man, great to see him finally, but a big shame he didn't throw at least one Pulp song into the set. loved his in-between song banter and his general swagger and charisma.
missed the New York Dolls, and saw the last few Phoenix songs. they were ok. really just wanted to see the Pixies.

it was funny seeing the blatantly commercial tents around the perimeter, advertising mobile phones, and various drinks. i sortof think wonder if the advertising would have any impact on the middle-aged crowd who would certainly be very cynical about such stuff. especially a crowd that's into such non-generic music like the Pixies. but then i guess advertising will gradually filter into the most impervious minds, and that must be the plan. even discussing this with friends at the gig is promoting the ads to some extent, giving them credence.

and another great thing about the festival/evening was the middle aged crowd. i didn't feel too old like i have done at more recent Big Day Outs - people just wore everyday clothes; there was very little "hey look at me" statements of clothing, hair, piercings, etc. i guess 'cos it was a cold night most people had jackets on too, so all the band t-shirts weren't that evident. and there were a few, but no where near the amount you'd expect at other festivals. and again, the sound was surprisingly good and there was very little wind. a great gig all round.

The Forer Effect

I like this even though i do like the odd horrorscope, like this week's one for us Melbournian Gemini's (even though i profess not to have a birthday, i'll accept a birthmonth).... yeah, it was basically about having a good, fruitful week, which, after looking back, i did have. apart from yesterday when i had to take a day off due to almost no sleep with our poor lil' toddler and her teething pains... these teeth have been coming out for ages! she has double figures now, we're only somethign like half-way, it's driving me crazy. and i know she can't be loving it. why can't we just be BORN WITH TEETH? is that too much to ask? we're not like rats and stuff that need to keep grinding their nasty teeth down on all sorts of shite. why do we have to teeth twice in life when the final ones stay the same?

anyway, that really went wayyyy off track. i should just starting blogs more often with no plan, and see what happens. this time i had a vague plan, and came across this thing called the Forer Effect. i can't remember where i got that inspiration from, or reference. i assume it was somethign i'd read or heard that i'd googled. or possibly i'm ripping off someone else's blog. if so, sorry, but then the number of ppl that read this arent' exactly warranting of any sort of concern. so, like, i guess Wikipedia is the best place for this and they say intriguing stuff like this, which i repeat for no good reason, other than slight ease and the making of this post look longer:

The Forer effect (also called personal validation fallacy or the Barnum effect after P. T. Barnum) is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. The colloquial phrase that could best be applied to describe this phenomenon to the layman is the so-called Self-fufilling prophecy. The Forer effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some pseudosciences such as astrology and fortune telling, as well as many types of personality tests.

In 1948, psychologist Bertram R. Forer gave a personality test to his students, and then gave them a personality analysis supposedly based on the test's results. He invited each of them to rate the analysis on a scale of 0 (very poor) to 5 (excellent) as it applied to themselves: the average was 4.26. He then revealed that each student had been given the same analysis:

You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.

Forer had assembled this text from horoscopes.

and i think there's something in that for all of us.

Music Personality Tests and Personal Recommendations

My wife came across some intriguing stuff, including this blog, which asks the question, "how good is music as a measure of personality?"

What does your taste in music say about your personality? take this test... my results were reasonable accurate. then there's some other interesting personality tests here.

then there's some interesting development trends in personal recommendation software etc.

i just tried out this internet "radio station" called Pandora which targets music to what you like, and continually updates the playlist of a station (you can have up to 100) depending on what bands and songs you like. Here's what they say at their home page:

"Ever since we started the Music Genome Project, our friends would ask: Can you help me discover more music that I'll like? Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs. We created Pandora so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you. "

so, i thought i'd check it out and typed in "mr bungle" and then took notes on what happened. the program looked thru its database, and startd off playing bungle's "pink cigarette"... and stated something about it exemplifying certain recording studio qualities, syncopation and some other stuff. i am intrigued by this.

the next track i got was by The Citizens ... meant to have similar mixed acoustic and tonal something or other... wasn't that impressed by it. but i can see how that song had connections to the bungle song they played before. and i like this idea, of how they've analysed all these songs and use certain attributes to choose the songs they play you, not just like the amazon method, "people who bought this also bought this" type of prediction to what you might like. it's at a higher level.

...then i got freakin Switchfoot- gave that the thumbs down too.

next is Menomena which is very different...

then Blinker The Star... hmmm, ok. yeah, quite like it.

i guess this will get more and more personalised the more feedback i provide. it's an interesting way to hear new music. and i think it's a great idea to have a number of different stations, for different music styles at different times. i'll need a death/black metal station, and an experimental one, etc.

ohhh, next is Pernice Brothers ... don't like this sort of thing, pretty melodramatic soft piano shoe gazing pop/rock.. errrgh gets a bit better and more built up, but thumbs down. let's move on. i like how it kills the song immediately with a thumbs down.

Lisa Mednick. yeah, similar to Dead Can Dance. interesting.

and then that was the end of the trial. just set up a free account. all you need is an email address, and i had to pretend i was in the US with the zip code of 12340... seems to have worked. it was just for international licensing. but now i look like a seppo!

i've now learnt that you can actually add songs or bands to your station (and have up to 100 stations) and that widens the possible songs in a similar way to your initial 'seeding' choice. so i added John Zorn, Fantomas, Can, Einsturzende Neubauten, Tortoise, Trans Am, and Ween. i seem to be getting a lot of synth industrial now, like Skinny Puppy. but that's okay. have to keep playing with it, and set up some other stations. but i highly recommend!

Blackbeard (the Space Pirate)

Same details as per the prev. post:
"Blackbeard (the space pirate) found the tutu to be a rather comical fancy dress outfit for the gala..."

"The hawaian pirate was laughing as he was pioneering the pirate business in the space."

"Hawaian pirate, Skeletor "Tropiocalia" No-beard, considers interstellar travel and associated conquests in a tequila-worm hallucination."

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL MY VALUED READERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Indiana Jones as Santa Travelling via a Flying Turd...

EPYC-style, with the same playerz as the prev. post:

"Indiana Jones was very excited about being Santa; the children didn't seem to be pleased with Santa's choices of presents though."

"After travelling via a flying turd, the Mexican gangster in the stupid hat took the xmas tree hostage, confusing the onlooking midgets."

"A Mexican cowboy took a Christmas tree hostage and flew away on a Christmas Poo."

Ginger Wine can Cause Headaches if Consumed in Excess

Eat Poop You Cat - style...
not sure if i'm allowed to reveal the artists of this one. stay tuned and i'll see if i get clearance... it could be related to my bros.

"Ginger wine can cause headaches if consumed in excess."

" "Dan" spewed from both ends after having a ginger wine watered down with 'bad water'."

"Womby complains yet again of Bad Ginger Wine and poor quality drinking water as he is forced to ride the porcelain basin yet again...."

"Matt is sich again from drinking all his dad's ginger wine."

Meat-Wagon Hound was Sad

Yeah, haven't blogged in ages, was too tired to think of something to rant about. but thought i'd post this picture of a game we play sometimes, sometimes called Eat Poop You Cat, and other peoples' games can be seen here, here adn here... of course, i can't vouch for any bad taste shown on those sites. and the last one seems to be an on-line game, so that's 'interesting'.

anyway, here's our latest, and possibly least-crude:

the playerz were myself, my wife KT adn our good friend Timmy T. perhaps later i'll go back and translate some of the text.
yo

so here's the translation:

"Meat-wagon hound was sad."

"Slump the sausage dog was so depressed about being poo-shaped that he had to be pulled along on a trolley."

"Ethol the stupid hat farmer was looking forward to showing his wife, who he called Daniel, the steaming flat turd that would spice up their marriage. "

"The buck-toothed scoutmaster was clearly confusing viagra and colonic irrigation advertising, thought Jeremia, dressed as he was in a french maid's attire and still trying to avoid the horny cows. "

Garlic Bread & Spaghetti

couldn't sleep late one night a few months back, and came up with this. it freaked me out a bit, but by then i was tired enough to get back to sleep.

music videos

geez most 21st century music video clips are shite and overproduced

but i should stop there for fear of sounding too old and jaded

adn i do love seeing the odd one, badly-produced but actually interesting and different, usually around 3 or 4am on Rage when i've lost all hope in sleeping properly and have carried the screaming monster downstairs to see if there's anything we can both enjoy, now that we're totally awake and luckily it's a friday or saturday night and there's all-night music videos on tv...

and dont'cha love hte words adn and nad - you know exactly what they mean, and who cares if ya spell checker isn't on. you shouldn't need to spell everything out to people. it's pretty obvious in context. adn it's the same with teh. as if i want to backtrack adn fix that up when it's bleedingly obvious. anyway. thank god it's friday tomorrow.

Illustration Friday - Safe

i love hiding indoors, at home, safe from the horror.

Illustration Friday - Run

wanted to draw something far more artistic for a change(!), but haven't had the time. subsequently, i've rediscovered the fun of crayons after a couple of decades...

also, i was inspired by the showname: Run Like You Stole Something, on Triple R, the best radio station in the world.

although i really wanted to be a Fashion Consultant

it's not really a true story.