the column.

so yeah. i bought kevin drumm's audible disease convulsion cn-1 for a fair price considering how seldom the cn-1 turns up on the used market. although the convulsion was not particularly high on my immediate gear acquisitions wish list, i had pretty much resigned to the fact that when i did come to coppin' it, i was going to have to buy the cn-2 brand new from noise fx. which i was not looking farward to considering i have a strange nonsensical penchant for buying used gear & i wanted the cn-1 & not the cn-2. [boring minutiae...] so i was most pleased about that.

so now basically i've narrowed it down to three pedals that are on the short-term gear acquisitions list: the Korg Kaoss Pad KP3, the Flower Electronics BPNG & a guitar multi-efx (most probably the Digitech RP150 or the Korg Toneworks AX30G). but these are just things i want, although the the multi-efx is what i "need" the most. i definitely "need" a cheap pawn shop PC©. or an old copy of ableton live 4. or a decent Tascam digital multi-track. or maybe a Roland MV-8000 for a reasonable price. or perhaps a refurbished Zoom H4. something along those lines. i used Audacity last sunday & i was quite pleased w/ the results considering it was my first time using computer software for recording.

so...speaking of Flower Electronics, i discovered the radio shack edition of Forrest Mims III Getting Started In Electronics lodged in b/w a stack of back issue Harper's that i got from the now defucntly erstwhile Blak Casl. it was definitely a surprise & i'll probably begin reading that & a basic electronics textbook i've had lying around. The Art of Electronics is @ the library & i have been meaning to buy Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking on halfdotcom for sometime now. I just basically want to circuit bend some toys, maybe make an A/B pedal, wire a 4ms terry plumming Noise Swash or maybe build a MXR Blue Boxxx clone or something. you know. nothing big. you know. just wanna have a hobby to keep my brain stimulated so it won't turn to moogoogaipan next year.

soooooooooo yyeeaahh!!! Peter J. Woods + Insurgent Theatre paid a visit to the Eyedrum last monday. I was not able to stay long but i was there long enough to make a concerted effort to touch PJW & hang out w/ Jesi Langdale. Of course Jesi was looking inordinatelyravishing, completely decked out on some iamavirgoandyouarenot in turquoise flats, gold lame leggings, a hand-drawn kitten tee & a blueyarnscarf. she also smelled really nice. i wanted to eat her. jesi is someone who is both completely entralled by hyphy msuic & the choregraphy of kate bush videos. seriously. she just discovered hyphy literally like yesterday & you have no idea how entertaining it is to watch the enthusiasm on someone's hperanimatedface as they extol, w/ endless youthful exbuerance, the golden virtues of "Tell Me When To Go". but like in 2008. anyway. now that i think of it, she had a handful of releases put out this year, all of them in keeping w/ the weirdo experimental swamp collage post-psychedelic sound that seems to be a heavy trend w/in the avant-garde Florida underground. (she is from florida...) there was self-released CD-R, a tape on kristin calvarese's burgeoning boutique tape label, a small edition cassexxx on scotch tapes, and an Analog Synthesizer Ensemble side project appearance w/ Hal McGee & Bobby Charlie. that is just the stuff i have offhandedly compartmentalized in my peabrainmemory. of course there is probably more. definitely get in contact w/ her & seek these hidden gems out if you feel a strong need to fill the empty boring void that occupies your conservatively unfulfilled american mind. i will miss her when she & kristin depart for los angeles in the spring. it will be yet another continual death knell coup de grace for the ATL--

so. yes sir. 13 months of sobriety the day after christmas & a full year tomorrow. christmas was wonderful & spent visiting my godfamily in birmingham, alabama. well i mean pelham, which is just outside of BroHamaBama. the food was of course off the chain & gave me standard winter holiday stomach cramps enshrouded w/in the nervous specter of looming regurgitation. there was honeybakedham, obnoxiously huge pork tenderloins & smoked turkey, which tastes like BBQ. if gluttony were a crime they would have had to thrown me under the jail. i also watched my first NBA game of the season. Shaq has obviously lost a few steps and he basically looks like a sumo wrestler out there on the court but in the paint shaqdieselstein is still a beast. of course the Suns got out-coached & Omarie was a complete non-factor or whatever but anyway i saw the trailer for the Biggie movie which was somewhat of a surprise cuz i thought it was going to be like a documentary or something. (& oh yeah my godcousins have the Google phone so now i want the Google phone too...)

so...here was my horscope from last week: "How do you slay the dragon?" journalist Bill Moyers asked mythologist Joseph Campbell in an interview. By "dragon," he was referring to the dangerous beast that symbolizes the most unripe and uncontrollable part of each of our lives. In reply to Moyers, Campbell didn't suggest that you become a master warrior, nor did he recommend that you cultivate high levels of sleek, savage anger. "Follow your bliss," he said simply. Personally, I don't know if that's enough to slay the dragon -- I'm inclined to believe that you also have to take some defensive measures -- but it's definitely worth an extended experiment. Would you consider trying that in 2009? which of course i mean dang gum whenever fleasible i have been following my bliss since i was like in the first trimester or whatever. and obviously i am not afraid of delusion. and yes of course ignorance is bliss. i know that. i play zen tetris & i like friendly warm estrogen smiles from strangers and such. but alas. i have no idea what will transpire in 2009, and i have this latent sinking feeling that each of us will have to fight just a little bit harder to maintain our small places in this present fullness. our ears may become a tad bit more anechoic. our hearts colder & more desensitized. of course i desperately HOPE™ that my instincts are wrong & my fingers are infinitely crossed for a 2009 that resembles a really happy Weezer song. so many awesome people died this year. it really hurt. yes 2008 sucked but there were a few euphoric highs & more than a few valuable lessons learned. tonite i am going to drink some plain rice milk, nibble on a Kroger croissant, soberly watch King Kong vs. Godzilla on VHS for the second consecutive newyearseve and HOPE™ for a "new day rising" come january 1.

peace out.