We Are the Dying World
On the afternoon of Saturday the 15th, the wife and I went apple picking in Dekalb. While picking apples, we were forced to listen to Jesus music and smell donuts. Then we ate at O'Leary's where we were forced to listen to 80's pop (like It's Hip to Be Square) while eating
On the evening of Saturday the 15th, mi barrio celebrated the 16th by having everyone of predominately native blood genuflect to the altars tyranny in a dull display of pomp and circumstance. Up on stage, the Ricardo Montalbans of the 'hood stood around in conservative suits. Behind them, busty women uniformally dressed in low cut red outfits, and bannered pageant style, reminded the crowd that the curvaceous things in life were out of reach. A compact disc probably titled Military Drum Drills with Trumpet played over the public announcement system. Some mariachis sans instruments paraded around for a bit.
The crowd, high of cheek, low of stature, and dressed for the day in the things they usually peddle to gringos, was led in cries of ¡Viva Mexico! Beyond them stood Chicago's Finest, bored silly thankfully.
As I walked away, the sound of a hundred snares was replaced by that of a piano lesson.
On the afternoon of the 16th, an attempt to celebrate the world was made by attend the Chicago World Music Festival. Unfortunately Peter Margasak's critique was right on the money. I did enjoy the interplay between guitar and koto. Huong Thanh's greeting, "heh low shee caw goh," was inviting. Overall the Fragile Beauty Quintet was a bore.
The evening of the 16th was spent attempting to celebrate local hipster craftsmanship. The only thing I was tempted to purchase was a piece of paper that read make your own shit. Just because that would be an absurd thing to do.
The rest of the evening was spent contemplating my upcoming band reunion as I listened to the precise craftsmanship of Camper Van Beethoven, a band reunited. I also wondered if Mari (a NAP guest poster) was ever reunited with her sky blue stratocaster that was recently loaned to CVB so that they could finish a tour.
I was surprised and somewhat disappointed that CBV performed Sweethearts off Key Lime Pie.
Surpised because I like that song and in essence it is timely but since it is about Ronald Reagan it is also just a tad dated.
Disappointed because David Lowery altered the lyrics to replace the proper name Ronald Reagan with "the President" and I don't think that works. It's tricky business for sure on account of the Alzheimer's but I would have been happier with altering the verb tense.
Small crowd which was great for those who made it. A perfect evening for an outdoor show. Word on the street was that the fest was crazy the night before for local heroes Urge Overkill.
Well whatever, I'd rather listen to a piano lesson.
Which I did.
P.S. My old bandmate is on tour with English label mates, the Hipshakes. Check them out - Cococoma. They'll be playing Denton, Austin and Gonerfest in Memphis, among others.
P.P.S. Yesterday we learned through sonically derived imagery that she is indeed a she.
Song
Abdel Ali Slimani - Moi et Toi
Labels: We Are the Dying World
25 Comments:
congrats on the girl! girls do rule.
I always think its curious how americans are generally so happy to celebrate 5 de Mayo (a totally minor mexican holiday), but have no idea about Sept 16. I always tell people that Cinco de Mayo is a misappropriation and that the original holiday had nothing to do with a day of the month and it was all about the sinking of a ship carrying a large mayonnaise cargo, sort of like the boston tea party.
Congrats, Kilian! That's too cool...and yes, girls rock. Oddly, I was a bit nervous that we'd have a boy, 'cause then I'd feel obligated to do all that stuff like show him how to play football and teach him how to make fire using just sticks (I suck at both)...
And even down here in Tejas there are people who've got no idea about 9/16 but who think Cinco de Mayo is the be-all and end-all of Hispanic holidays.
My team at the office works with a group of Bolivian software testers, and they had a couple of days off at the beginning of May, for whatever reason, which led to this conversation at the next teleconference:
U.S. Developer #1: Hey, guys; did you party too much for Cinco de Mayo, eh? (laughs)
Bolivian Team: (awkward silence)
U.S. Developer #2: Dude, it's a different freakin' country.
U.S. Developer #1: What? No, no; it's a South American holiday, right?
U.S. Developer #2: Oh, man...it's a Mexican holiday, you moron. That's like asking Canadians if they celebrate the Fourth of July.
Bolivian Team: (nervous laughter)
Ah, gotta love America...
It's a girl's world man.
Yeah well I live in the heart of Chicago's Mexican community. Many Houstonians don't realize that the Mexican community in the upper midwest is huge. In fact there are more Mexicans in Chicago than Houston. And I don't mean latins, I mean Mexicans. When you add all the other hispanics it's really big. So it's hard to screw up the holidays here.
Cinco de Mayo is a lot like St Pat's - it's an excuse to sell beer. If you want to meet a real Irish man, don't try going in to an Irish bar on St Patrick's Day.
On the other hand, September 16th is a load of bullshit too. I hate the way it is played up here. Driving around with flags out the window looking for fights. The Mexican community is more organized than in recent years due to the rally around the immigration stuff. Still, all this nationalistic fervor ain't my thing. It's phony.
Speaking of national bills and laws, remember when we had a discussion about laws in the work place and drowned out Rosa's lovely post? In the Doctor's office yesterday I saw that six or seven states have bills coming up to stop bullying in the work place. John, we may not have to put up with asshole bosses much longer.
That's funny Gaijin.
Silly Eastern Europeans.
(kidding)
Yea for girls! And yes, I did get my guitar back, though it was actually a sea-foam green strat. He gave it back to Trey at the Orlando show (he was there for a conference).
Trey traded the blue strat in for another guitar. I'm still a bit miffed about it.
Hey cool for you guys. A girl. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but don't be mad at her if she changes her mind before she gets out.
Now you have plenty of time to ponder names. Incidentally there are a ton of online names databases, unless you already know she's gonna be Kiliana or something.
I'm excited for you guys.
I also can't stand the Nationalist posturing but maybe thats because I'm not at home with my Aussie loved ones guzzling beers and surfing.
And thanks again for the music you sent. It's pretty interesting in context and out of context.
Mari - I wish I had remembered the sea foam green bit. It's a much better color for the post.
HS - I did see labia, via synthetic bat-sight. But yeah gotcha.
As far as names go, we haven't tossed around too many but we're not likely to go the posterity route. My first name is Charles and I'm actually the fifth but whatever. It's not like I inherited a title. Tricia's name is weird because it's not short for Patricia. I mean, the true origin of the name is Patricia but in her case it's not.
I was born in Germany. The patron saint of the town I was born in was an Irishman, Saint Kilian. He was beheaded and his skull is on display in that odd fashion of Germanic Christianity.
Anyway the name is fitting to me since my dad is Irish and mom is German and that's where I was born. It's not so fitting for this kid. I do like this idea though and have tried to find a name with local significance but haven't found it yet.
I babysit a kid named Paloma which is a neighborhood name. Her middle name is Mekong, along which she was conceived I believe.
As far as the music that HS speaks of, that would be the Danielson Famile album Tri-Danielson!!!
If you recall, HS requested that I send some Christian Rock from that post I did because she couldn't check it out on vacation. I wanted to tell Justin to check it out when he was complaining about not finding any weird music but I had been peddling Christian stuff a bit much by that point.
I left a comment but what happened?
Congrats Kilian for adding another female to the populace.
(PS - Baleen, I have no idea what happened to your comments.)
I saw Danielson Famile play live last year in Austin. I guess there's weirdness there, but I wasn't all that blown away by it.
The name thing can get interesting. My wife and I made a list of names we liked and since we work opposing schedules, we would delete names while the other was away. Having done this for a couple of days and by process of elimination, we derived a name that we could agree on. It wasn't as clinical as it sounds because there was discussion throughout. Just an idea.
Tricia threw out Cabbage as a joke and now that's all I can think to call this kid.
Justin - I haven't seen them live but I'd think it would hard to get their sound right. The album released on Secretly Canadian is studio stuff. Anyway I don't they take anything from Gang of Four =P
The name thing is pretty fun. I have been trying toi convince friends for years to name their boys "Doctor" and "Roman" and "Radar". And had my little hellion been a male, one of those names were likely. I had a friend named "Rule" when I was growing up... hmm.
We settled on Electra for her. It snuck up on us. It made sense. Her name and my name were derivative of same meaning. Of course when we were at the movies while staying in housing to have her... My husband pulled me aside looking ashen. There was a poster of Jennifer Garner dressed as Elektra the comic book character. He was afraid everyone would think she was named after her... which isn't such a bad thing you know... and fuck what people think about your little baby's name. My mother in law dogged on half of my names because she said they sounded like strippers. She said if the first name has 2 syllables then the second name should have 3. Like I was gonna call my kid Dig Dug or something.. She never got the Victorian name for her grandughter out of us. She got the perfect name. My daughter is almost three and has two feet of flaming red hair and she is full of electricity... Just one mom's story there with the name deal. You'll know. Keep it a surprise!
so this indian comes running out of his teepee and nervously looks around. inside he was just born a son and by tribal tradition he must name the papoose after the first natural sound he hears as long as no one else in the tribe already has that name. He hears a hawk but of course there already is Chief Screaming Hawk. Then he hears the wind rustling through the trees but alas Blowing Leaves is already taken as well. He's starting to get anxious. Just then his neighbor walks by and says "what is troubling you, Two Dogs Fucking?
Umm, actually, the reinvented Daredevil comics in the early nineties from which Electra was introduced were fucking great. Sorry, but they were. As for the movies...
Claire, tell your husband not to feel bad. My name is John, and my son is Julian. Total accident, but I catch shit for it. Of course, I don't give a shit about that. Not only that, but we found out that Mara is a biblical name meaning "bitter." Who cares really? I love the name Mara, and my daughter wears it well. Unless you intend to go all Frank Zappa, what's new anyway?
Which reminds me, and leads to my chagning the subject. I kind of think that band names are a stupid idea, a sort of contrivance. Why must a band have a name anyway? I tried to get Project Grimm to go nameless, but I was outvoted by everyone to me. And look where that led us... to one of the worst band names ever.
Yeah, I totally don't have a problem with the Original EleKtra comic character, especially the Daredevil tie. When I worked at a comic book store, I used to think she was one of the cooler femme characters... It was a far cry from Vampirella and Conan's bitches, and side kick flimsy superbroads... And then there's Electra of greek tragedy... no problems there either really. This feels like a gay parent forum now. Leave it to me.
Nothing against Project Grimm but I always say band names sound stupid depending on whether or not the band is any good. In other words just pick a name it's not going to make much difference in the long run.
Except the band Fuck actually called themselves that to demonstrate that they could give a fuck about a big label contract, Mtv and all that stuff. On that note, you could pick a name so bad that you couldn't get gigs or something like that.
HS - I told the story here once about how I was scheduled for oral surgery but I woke up that morning covered completely in hives so I canceled the surgery.
The rest of the story is that I went to a dermatologist who turned out to be one of the hottest babes I have ever seen. When I first met her I was totally naked. Yeah! And when she opened the door and took her first look at me she literally gasped. Yeah!!
Unfortunately it was on account of the hives so then I was really scared. Her name was Dr. Electra.
"Man. I went to the doctor the other day. All this guy did was suck blood out of my neck. Never go to see Dr. Acula."
Hey Kilian, congrats to you and the missus on the little girl!
I was lucky on the name thing, because we already had a boy name agreed on way in advance. Had Isaac been a girl, we'd probably still be calling her TBD and arguing over names. I think girls' names are way harder to pick.
Why is that creepy to me?
Whats creepy John? Kilian making professionals gasp or Dr. Acula doing what he's been doing for years or SOH struggling with girl's names... or something else I missed maybe. Something more sinister than the eye can see...
If you don't get the name done by the deadline, it's $500 and about 3 months of paperwork. I know this first-hand.
In NC you they wont let you go home without getting a birth cert which means you need a name. I knew somebody who pronounced her name Feemahli, but turned out to be spelled Female. Apparently the parents waited til the last minute.
At any rate, the name will come to you. search and search and make lists, and suddenly out of nowher you both know.
And if all else fails, go with "Arthurlenie Tollofree". My first part-time job back in high school was as a mailroom guy stapling insurance policies together, and my friend and I would make lists of all the best names. That one was at the top of the list, and even got included in our special Christmas-time office version of the 12 Days of Christmas, which ended with "...and a guy named Arthurlenie Tollofree!" But I figure with a name as weird as that, it could be for a guy OR a girl.
I think you'll be doing fine as long as you avoid the common "porn star" names, like Candy, Trixie, Lolita, or Tits McGillicuddy.
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