09.21.98

Final Nite in Prauge

Posted in General at 12 pm

It’s the last night in Praha. Amy and I have done a ton of shopping today for gifts and keep-sakes. Now at 9:00 pm, we’ve ended up in the Terminal Bar <http://www.terminal.cz> to check some final messages before heading home.

We’ve been using a hotmail account for temporarily sending out mails, but it’s interminably slow tonight.

I got a sub-par recording of the Mode show which I’ve titled Never Let Me Down A-Gahan a rather snappy pun of the lead singer’s last name. The recording is only of the first 6 or so songs, and is not worth writing home abou… er, well maybe having the recording is worth writing home about, but the quality certainly isn’t. But there’s some stuff I’d like to try out before doing another concert recording. (Wrapping the microphone in a sponge? Figure out how to dampen the lower range…)

Meanwhile, the picture of Fletch and myself is really cool to have, and Amy’s got a great photo of her and Martin. Well, we’ve got to get going, it’ll be nice to be home, though we’ve got a long trip of cramped butts ahead of us. 🙂

czech

09.15.98

Depech a la Praha

Posted in General at 6 pm

Tuesday afternoon, and we’re getting ready for the Mode concert. AMy’s got a cold something terrible, but I hope that if I tie her down to the couch with a think blanket on top, we might get her through. Looks like we’ll be trying to get a scalped ticket for Patricia, and I hope we can, as I’d hate to leave her out in the cold, even though she say’s it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.

It hasn’t been very exciting, but it has been beautiful here! Though last nite, I did find a nite club that was playing DM, Enjoy the Silence! That was great, though I couldn’t stay since I was searching high and low through the Prague streets for a late nite pharmacy… but found none.

Headed back to the apartment to check on Amy.

3-2-1…

09.12.98

Arrived in the Czech Republic

Posted in General at 12 pm

We made it to Praha! Amy and Patricia and I had a long flight a short 8 hours in Paris, then slept the whole last leg to Prague.

I’m at a Cafe called the ‘Terminal Bar’ <http://www.terminal.cz> which has internet access obviously. Most of the Internet things I set up to run in my absence are working well from what I can tell.

I’m going to try and drop an e-mail to a few people. We’ll see how that goes.

Prague is georgeous. The buildings are works of art, and the people are nicer than I expected, though I have had a few roll their eyes at us ‘crazy Americans’. But there has been no problems with the people.

Three of our four pieces of luggage were lost for the night, and we needed to change apartments once, but I think we’re settling in. More later…

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08.30.98

From the bargin bin:

Posted in General at 8 pm

(From the bargin bin:)

Gravity Kills, GK, promo release, no Jewel case

Loved the single release of ‘Guilty’, and thought the album would be good. It is…. very good. Melting too.

NE, Kick It (CD MUTE 155)

Never been a big fan, but figured this might be nice to try. Not expecting much, have been pleasently surprised. I’m more interested in the mixes rather than the original track.

Full price:

FSOL, Lifeforms

FSOL has been long on my list of bands to get a sample of. The only release I had was the ‘Paupa New Guinea’ single. This 2 disc set seems more trance, less dance than I hoped, but still good. Bought mostly for it’s tracks/price ratio. Anyone with better recommendations?

NC&tBS, Kicking Against The Pricks

This is the final album from Nick’s discography that I hadn’t bought. (Now I can focus on soundtracks.) I’ve already heard a few of the tracks of this covers album from compilations, but I’m still greatly anticipating this studio version of Jimmy’s ‘Hey Joe’ and Roy Orbison’s ‘Running Scared’.

Spiritualize, Pure Phase

Spz has been my best new find in the past two years. I’ve got all the releases from the latest album/singles sweep, so now I’m moving back up the chain. ‘Pure Phase’ was the the previous album before ‘L&GWAFiS’. I had an ep release from just before this album that includes ‘Medication’, and It’s great. I’m expecting more of the same electro-blusey sonic blankets from this album.

Other recent purchaces:

VA, For The Masses

This disc reminds me just how much Dave’s voice is _such_ an integral part of Mode’s music. Martin’s music is still part of most of these songs, and I like the alternative looks at instrumentation. I even like the lounge-y version of ‘Master And Servant’. This is a fun album. No one should take it too seriously. Especially with the laugh _riot_ that is Rammstein’s ‘Stripped’.

Blondie, Heart of Glass Single (From the Remixed, Remade, Remodeled Project)

Vaugely disappointing. I’ve already got 3 of the 5 tracks, and one that I didn’t wasn’t worth it. I’d like to find the Union City Blue single.

Crime and the City Solution, Paradise Discotheque

Wow, this is great. I’d heard ‘The Dolphins and The Sharks’ from a Mute/Electra promo, and have been lusiting after the other releases from this band. I’ve put together a web site for them at: http://www.bad-seed.org/crime/ The releases are hard to find, but well worth the effort.

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08.28.98

Transportation Anticipation

Posted in General at 12 pm

Anticipation.

Waiting for the gears to mesh, plans to set in motion.

I feel like I’m on the verge of a number of big changes, but each one is keeping me on the edge of my seat like some Hitchock thriller.

Will the travel plans work out? Or will the Evil Nothwest Airline Pilots TM atta.. err, stike? Will the trip go off as planned? Will there be some terrorist threat?

Or perhaps the job situation, with it’s moving lunch date to set salaries, shadowy names and odd power structures will keep your attention?

I guess it’s no wonder that I’m having so much muscle pain. First my back, now my shoulders. I can almost feel my body tighten up, forcing me into a fetal position in the long term. That’ll be interesting: I’ll put the monitor on my shins, and my keyboard under the small of my back.

Hot baths aren’t helping anymore either. I need to get a masuse (sp?) or something.

At least I’ve learned how to write a script to upload files to a web site. Now OMSI’s marketing department can put their Word files press releases on the web site with no intervention from me. I hope they thank me for it. I put it together in one day, and that just happened to be in the middle of the vacations of the two people who would most benefit from it… grrrr.

Don’t talk to me about the Zoo project.

….

08.25.98

Venomous

Posted in General at 4 pm

Yesterday, the world lost a bit of color.

I recieved a venoumous piece of hate mail.

I’ve heard that e-mail is like a pipe, straight from the Internet, into your head. If that’s the case then someone just sent a digital harpoon to me.

The e-mail was from a ‘white-power’ fanatic. He took offense a Nick Cave’s music and decided that I should receive a screen full of anti-semitism, anti-diversity, anti-people ranting and raving.

And it hurt.

I almost feel like it’s wrong for me to hurt by it. After all, I’m probably the ‘correct’ genetic material that this guy wants to rule over all others. His hate is directed towards other people, other races first; and then towards Nick Cave’s person and work second; and then only incedently towards myself.

But it did hurt me.

I thought ‘how do I deal with this?’ Do I confront him aggressively? (No, no one wins in a war.) Do I try to open a dialog and share my views with him? (Ineffectual, somewhat like trying to teach a pig to sing.) I’m at a loss.

Talking it over with Amy has put it in better perspective for me. On an individual basis, I can read holocaust literature, delve into the world ugliest, terrifying moment in history and educate myself.

During our trip to Prague, we will visit a former Nazi death camp. Auswitz. I will learn, so I can remember. I will remember so that others will know.

I’m not part of the Holocaust. My father was not involoved in WWII. My family is not Jewish. I have only a thin slice of German blood.

I am one who needs to remember.

This is the test of the human race. I’m the second generation after the terror. I’ve no experience with the plight of the those sentenced to certain death. But I must remember what happened to the Jewish people.

At this point, I almost feel like thanking the man who doled out his hate to me. It reminded me of my pity for him (not hate) and my personal role in this play.

But I don’t thank him.

/^=^\

08.21.98

Quarters for Cleaning

Posted in General at 4 pm

Added a slew of updates to the news section at Bad-seed.org and watched a video tape of Nick Cave footage from various interview and videos this morning. They were great and sometime frightening.

Looks like I’m playing catch up again this weekend. Trying to get everything done that needs to be done. I hope I’ve got enough quarters for laundry. 🙂

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08.20.98

Job Prospects

Posted in General at 1 pm

What a week. I’m still working on the new job prospect that landed in my lap last week, I’ve got this ZooWatch website still breathing down my neck, I had a “strategic planning meeting” this morning with 40 of OMSI’s staff, Amy’s working ont he details of the Prague trip (but we need to sit down together and work out the schedule of things, or at least have her tell me what she’s got planned.

And there’s more that’s happened, like the luncheon I gave a speech at yesterday at RHI Consulting (overview of Internet technologies, etc.), and of course car things and such.

The one thing I feel I can point to as an accomplishment lately is the Crime and The City Solution website I’ve put up in record time, using concepts and technologies on the server end that I had worked out in my head, but up till now hadn’t designed a whole site for. I think it’s very cool conceptually, and eventually will gain strength graphically too.

I’m using this page as the jumping off point for it, because I own that location, but if things change at OMSI, this site (surface) and the crime sit will have to move… I hate moving sites and trying to get people to update their links. Why oh why didn’t Tim set that up in the first HTTP spec, I’ll never know.

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08.17.98

Untitled

Posted in General at 9 pm

My ISP has lost some of my mail. I’m using this journal entry to send myself a mail. Let’s hope it works.

🙁

08.12.98

Mixed Metaphors

Posted in General at 12 pm

I wrote about one of these before, so here’s another one:

“[the telecom industry] is moving to IP backbones, and AT&T and BT want to make sure they’re not dragging up the rear.” – Internet World, Aug 1998

What do we have here? ‘Bringing up the rear’ and ‘dragging their rears’. Funny. 🙂

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