Malderor's Rants

Next Up: Piss Clear Book Release Party

Tue, 26 May 2009 22:59:03 GMT

This rather snuck up on me. But it's day after tomorrow, and I'll be spinning something besides mash-ups! Current plans are for a semi-industrial set of windstorm favorites. Come on by. Shake your thing. Get your book signed. Only $5 if you decide not to buy the book. That said, the book is pretty entertaining. (If I do say so myself, given my humble contributions here and there.)

More info on Laughing Squid:

http://laughingsquid.com/piss-clear-book-release-party/

or here:

http://www.pissclear.org/party.html

Steve

Friday's Show in NYC, at The Crash Mansion

Wed, 13 May 2009 05:40:32 GMT

These are the details for my DJ gig in New York on Friday:

www.bootienyc.com/

Taking off for the Big Apple at 10am. We're getting Bicoastal with it.

Steve

Another recent tale...

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:22:21 GMT

For whomever isn't on the Fandango List....

How I spent my Saturday morning, by Steve Courtney. Backstory: You know the light-up Saturday Night Fever dancefloors we built for Burning Man, and that my old housemate Tom had in his living room? They somehow ended up in a warehouse in Oakland, and I went to get them this morning, so we can take them back to the desert.

---------------

Short version: We got the dancefloors back. They will need a little TLC to get them fully operational again, as the wiring looks stomped-on and one of them has the plexiglass halfway popped off. Oh, and the other one looks like it fell off the back of a truck.

Long version: I tracked the dancefloors to a warehouse full of Burning Man crap on Treasure Island. My trusty helper-monkey Kristian had sworn up and down he'd help me with the heavy lifting today, but the last time I saw him he had a bottle of whiskey in his hand and he was at a party in the Mission and it was 2am. This morning he failed to respond to texts and phone calls. So I went out there on my own, trusting my luck that the warehouse dude would help me load them into the truck. (Oh, big thanks to Joho for lending us her pickup for the adventure.) I get there, and it turns out the warehouse is shared by Peter Hudson, (http://www.hudzo.com/), the guy who did "the swimmers" and "the divers" and that awesome thing last year with the swinging monkeys. (I think they're called zoetropes?) So he helped me find the dancefloors and load them into the truck. There are a bunch of artists sharing the space out there, and none of them even knew what the dancefloors were. When Peter found out, he began rhapsodizing about the Church of Funk and the stained glass windows of James Brown and how great it was as an alternative to all the "oontz oontz" music out there. So that was all well and good.

Have you ever gotten back onto 80 from Treasure Island? You basically go from a stop sign on an on-ramp, bang, right into traffic. You've kinda gotta jump on it, or risk never getting into your lane. You see where this is going, right? I didn't tie the dancefloors down, as I figured they were plenty heavy and wouldn't be sliding around. And they were *just* too long to shut the tailgate.

Plexiglass is kinda slippery. That's all I'm saying.

So I go shooting off into traffic and hear "kathump" and look back and the smaller of the dancefloors is sitting in the middle of the lane on the Bay Bridge. Traffic is blazing around me at 60mph, and the thought of backing up to get it briefly crossed my mind. But it's like a 1/4 mile back, and reversing just seems suicidal. So I do the six-mile long u-turn, where you have to drive into downtown SF before you can whip around and come back the other way on the bridge, and by the time I get back to Treasure Island again, somebody has thrown the dancefloor over the side of the on-ramp, out of the way. I can see it, but there is no way I can move it myself, as I would have to park on the on-ramp and then haul it, solo, a couple hundred feet.

So I drive into town and go to Cory's. (Big thanks to Cory for offering to store the dancefloorsuntil Burn-time. And bigger thanks to him for dropping whatever he was doing to come see if the two of us could save the one that had fallen off the truck.) Cory and I drive back out to Treasure Island, and go dashing on foot across the on-ramp and along the side of the bridge for a bit, and manage to wrestle the (really quite heavy) dancefloor back onto the highway and back into the truck. (It's got a crack in the plexiglass now, about six inches long. It might have been there before, or it might not. You just can't get good help these days...) I eased into traffic at a leisurely pace, and we deposited the second dancefloor into Cory's garage without further incident.

This all seemed like a microcosmic version of Burning Man to me. "Hey, I think I'll go run a quick errand" turned into a couple of wasted hours, and a bit of casual self-endangerment, and a lot of "goddamnit, this is a pain in the ass!" But it's done. Cory and I will probably repair the floors this summer, as the event grows closer. (For his part, Cory is doing the sensible thing and going to m*therf*cking Cancun instead of Burning Man.)

Anyway. Just thought you'd enjoy knowing that one of the dancefloors spent a little time in the middle of a lane on the Bay Bridge today.

Steve

Get Hammered, Cure Cancer...

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:44:30 GMT

2 mile run in Noe Valley. I think I managed a run on Wednesday, too.

There is a fundraiser (against cancer) this evening at the Anon-Salon Gallery. Full details behind the cut. (The short version is that I'm DJing at 11:30, and again at 2am. I'm expecting the other "real" "tech-house" DJs to look on my humble mashups with scorn and derision. But I'm hoping the lingerie-clad crowd cares more about bootie-shaking than about DJ "credibility".)

Steve

The venue for this party is the Anon Gallery. This is located in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco at 285 9th street. This is a great venue for private underground parties. The door is on 9th street and there is a sign above the door that reads "Climate Gallery"

Please remember this is a Private invitation fund raiser for Carcinoid Cancer research and education. We are asking everyone to make a $10 donation at the door. You can also help Carcinoid Cancer by donating your money at the bar as well.

MixinVixin will have two bars open. One on the main level and one on the roof top deck. They will be making a variety of Martinis (Chocolate martinis, orange creamsicle martinis, lemon drops, cosmos, dirty martinis, Bombay Sapphire martinis, etc. They will also have beer, wine and a variety of other mixed drinks.

The sushi is our way of saying thank you for coming out and supporting a good cause while you party in your PJs.

We have a great lineup of DJs spinning house, breakbeats and mash-ups until the wee hours of the morning. The DJ's are:

Tym Ryan

Steve Courtney from Bootie

Shannon Shalako

Sulaiman Ahmad

Location

The venue for this event is the Anon Gallery. This is located in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco at 285 9th street. This is a great venue for private underground parties. The entrance is located on 9th street and is located right under a sign that says "Climate Theater".

Date and Time

Saturday Feb 7th from 9:00pm to 4:00am

What to bring

Clothing: Wear your pajamas. If you don't wear them, we will dress you from the Pajamas we found at the thrift store. I've heard someone say something about dressing the men up in sexy moomoos and homer Simpson slippers. You really want to be dressing yourself for this party. If you are running last minute and needing some inspiration, you may want to check out LoveBomb from 2:00pm to 7:00pm at Club Mighty. (more information on LoveBomb at the bottom of this email)

Money: This is a charity fund raiser, so please bring some cash to donate to Carcinoid Cancer research and education. We are suggesting that you bring $10 to donate at the door. If we wind up dressing you it would be nice to throw $20 into the donation jar. Of course you can always donate more. This is for a good cause. We will have information on Carcinoid Cancer and the organizations this party will be supporting in case you are interested in knowing more about Carcinoid Cancer.

Attitude: This is going to be a fun event with a great crowd. Have a great time and meet some great people. Please be respectful of others at the party. Yes, there will be a lot of people in their Pajamas. This is not an invitation to be disrespectful or agressive. If your conduct makes others uncomfortable you will be asked to leave.

Transportation: Actually, leave this at home. Please plan on safe, sober and sane transportation. Take a taxi from your home, hotel, etc. and back again. We also have the Freedom bus making limited shuttle runs throughout the evening. There are over 250 people RSVPd for this event and the Freedom bus only holds 8-10 people at a time. You do the math. Plan on having transportation, but if you somehow find yourself without transportation or over the legal limit to operate your own transportation, we prefer you play it safe and let us give you a ride home. More information on the Freedom bus at the end of this email.

What to leave at home: Weapons, gang clothing (do gangs have Pajama wear?), bad tempers, drama, ill will, negativity, your underage friends (this is a 21 and over event), your dog or cat, your American Express. I know what the commercial says, but for this evening, you really can leave home without it.

We are really looking forward to seeing all of you there.

Freedom Bus info

We have the freedom bus making limited runs throughout the night. Here is the schedule:

The bus will be picking people up from three locations in the city from 9:00pm to 10:30pm. The bus will resume operations at 1:30am to deliver people back to these locations.

The locations are as follows:

Mission District

The Uptown

200 Capp Street

On the corner of 17th and Capp

Noe Valley

The Dubliner

3838 24th Street

on 24th street between Church and Vicksburg

Lower Haight

Noc Noc

557 Haight Street

On Haight between

The timing of the pickups will depend on how full the gets and how many trips it has to take, so make yourself comfortable and the bus will probably be there in about a half an hour or sooner. Look for someone in Pajamas holding a sign that says "Sushi, Martini, Pajama"

The Freedom Bus is a short bus and only holds 8-10 people per run. Seeing as how so many people in San Francisco have found themselves unemployed recently, I would like to suggest that if the bus is getting full, you offer to take a cab if you can afford it to make room for those who are not expecting a pay check next week. We want to make this a fun and inexpensive event for everyone.

The Freedom Bus will resume operations at 1:30am and will continue taking people home until the party is over. The bus will be taking people back to the three stops listed above. The drive may make special trips to other locations if there are enough people all going to the same place. This is not intended to be door to door shuttle service.

Some work.

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:35:15 GMT

2 mile run in Noe Valley. My f*cking craigslist iPod decided to konk out at exactly the furthest point of my run.

This is a "teaser trailer" for the Audi spot my agency did for this weekend's Superbowl. There's a long annoying story about dipsh!ts "leaking" advance rough-cuts of the finished spot, so my agency hastily cobbled this together in an effort to minimize the damage. It's a little hokey, but it's better than having unfinished work out there. The actual spot won't go live until Sunday.

It's better if you click the "Watch in HD" button, above the number of hits. The low-rez version is low-rez indeed.

Steve

Peeved Pencil-Pusher? Angered Accountant?

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:20:58 GMT

2 mile run in Noe Valley.

Perusing the pages of Terrorizer magazine continues to yield unintentional hilarity. This month's case in point: a band called "Irate Architect". I stumbled across their name buried at the bottom of the lineup for some multi-day heavy metal festival in Germany.

(Please use your best "Sunday-Sunday-Sunday, Monster-Truck-Madness" voice to read the following list...)

Other bands on the bill include: Bloodbath, Bolt Thrower, Obituary, General Surgery, Purgatory, Dismember, Facebreaker, Hail of Bullets, and good old Impaled Nazarene. Oh, and "Irate Architect". Next to this bunch, the name "Irate Architect" strikes me as a particularly flaccid effort. It's may as well be "Disgruntled Civil-Servant" for all the menace and "bad-assitude" it conveys. Or "Slightly-Annoyed Mathematician". By comparison, the next lamest band-name on the bill is "Imperious Malevolence", which I think we can agree pisses all over "Irate Architect" from a very great height indeed.

"Irate Architect". Hee.

Steve

Better Than You Might Think...

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:42:10 GMT

Yesterday: 2 mile run in Noe Valley. Today: 2 mile run in Noe Valley.

"Trespass" (1992) was Walter Hill's re-take on the themes of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." I had all but forgotten about the movie, but Amazon suggested it based on my recent purchase of "Escape from L.A." It was something I saw in theatres, and I vaguely remembered it being worthy, so I decided to give it a whirl. Starring Ice T, Ice Cube, Bill Paxton, and William Sadler, (you had to be named "Ice" or "Bill" to be in the cast, apparently) it's considerably better than you might imagine. While not truly rising to the ranks of "lost classic", it is a worthwhile way to spend a drizzly Saturday afternoon, especially as the plot winds tighter and tighter, and the protagonists get in deeper and deeper. While the end is visible from a great way off, (must everyone get exactly what they deserve?) it was still well worth the $5 it cost me on Amazon.

Also of note: The gangsters have the advantage over the protagonists throughout the film because they have all adopted a new-for-the-time technology: cellular telephones. It's amusing to cast a glance back at the era of non-cell ubiquity.

For some reason this film also made me want to revisit "Judgment Night", a film I don't recall being any good at all. That'll be coming up soon on "B-Movie Reappraisals With Steve."

Steve

Box Sets and Silence

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:44:15 GMT

Yesterday: 1.5 mile run in Noe Valley.

Rhino Records have compiled a box-set of Jesus & Mary Chain b-sides and rarities that I've been actively coveting for several months now. (Check out the product video on Amazon to see the impressive job they've done with the packaging and bonus features.) I went ahead and ordered it today, finally, as a reward for beginning to get my taxes in order.

Of course I already own roughly 75% of the material in the set, since they had previously put out three other b-sides compilations. ("Barbed Wire Kisses", "The Sound of Speed", and "Hate Rock & Roll".) But I own some of those on vinyl, and blah blah blah. I would have bought it weeks ago if it had been more "essential".

Some folks have asked me if I've abandoned Livejournal.  This is not the case, although I have let it lie fallow for several months. The reasons for this are several. One is that Facebook provides a much speedier, lower-involvement method of checking in with your friends over the course of the day. (I was resistant to Facebook for ages, but I've given up.  At least it's not MySpace.)

The other reason is that I think it's the job of an online journal to entertain. If I'm not posting something that is conceivably of-interest to another human being, I don't believe I should be writing. (Yes, I know, you can do whatever you want with your own journal. Knock yourself out.) And as boring as I know it reads, my life has been consumed by work as of late. And I'd rather not write about being slammed at work unless I have something interesting to say about it.  There's not much I can think of that is as dull as reading other people whine about how busy their jobs are, except perhaps listening to people expound at length about their medical procedures. (Or their taxes.  See above.) So I have been dormant on the Livejournal front.

Work is easing up, somewhat, so perhaps this will lead to a new era of postiness.  We'll see.

Steve

Bootie, December 13, 2008

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:35:48 GMT

Oh, hey, I went to the kickboxing gym yesterday.

Bootie, December 13, 2008
Originally uploaded by Malderor

We're taking over the upstairs lounge at Bootie again.

-----------------------

Its Bootie! Yep, the folks of Fandango are taking over the upstairs lounge at Bootie on December 13th. There will be decor, Fandango djs(Steve and Steve-O), and holiday cookies produced by the Fandango Ladies Auxillary. In addition, you get all the fun of a holiday party thrown by Adrian and Mysterious D! We will no doubt get some sort of "get in free or cheap" word, so watch this space for more information next week.

------------------------

I might add that I'll be playing a (much) longer set than I did on the main floor a couple of months ago. I'll probably tag-team some with Adrian and D, too. Also, we will be debuting some brand-spanking new "Bootie Exclusive" mashups, put together by CW and John-John.

Steve

Nothing To See Here, Move Along.

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:27:19 GMT

2 mile run in Noe Valley. Work has been taking most of my time (and many of my weekends) and I seem to have lost my discipline for working out. It's been almost a month since I did anything at all. This delights not me.

Recently the band "Hatebeak" came to my attention. It's a death metal/grindcore band, fronted by a parrot:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=68459563

Yes, seriously, a bird. (Am I the last one on the internet to see this?)

And, in the same vein, here's a (militant vegan) grindcore band fronted by a pair of rescued pitbulls.

http://www.myspace.com/caninus

or

http://www.pitbullgrindcore.com/

While neither of these bands would qualify as "good", it is interesting that they're out there. And I wonder if they would be there if there was not an internet to offer them a potential audience?

Steve

On telephones and taxicabs.

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:00:03 GMT

2 mile run in Noe Valley. (I've been failing to log my miles lately. Not that there have been all that many...)

Should you be unfortunate enough to leave your cell phone in a taxicab, it's worth noting that Yellow Cab's official policy, (as posted on bulletins all over their main office) is that their drivers are not to answer any phones they find abandoned and ringing in their cabs. They are to turn them off, and hand them in to Yellow's lost-and-found department at the end of their shift. (Apparently there is a law requiring them to turn in any found items at the end of their daily tour of duty.) The reason for this, (as opposed to say, answering the damn thing and driving around the block to return the thing to its rightful owner, for a healthy tip) is that "we've had some problems with driver's trying to return the items on their own."

?!?!? What kind of trouble could they have had? And, if some cab driver ran up a few charges calling the numbers in your phone looking for you, would you really make a big deal about it if you got it back and didn't have to buy a new one? "Oh, no, you called my mom in Des Moines, and it cost me seventy-five cents. I'm calling your dispatcher to complain. Wah." Are people really that douchey?

In any event...if you lose your phone in a cab, you need to call the cab company and ask for the lost-and-found department. (Or, in my case, a number of probable companies that it might have been...) Don't expect anybody to call you first, or for the driver to pick up when you're desperately calling him a couple hours after you notice it's gone. Trust me on this one.

(All that said, hurray for Yellow Cab for returning my cell phone to me. It only took them four days to call me back, but in these troubled times, not having to replace my handset is pretty awesome.)

For what it's worth, the Yellow Cab Co-Op offices have all the warmth and charm of a bail-bondsmen's office, or maybe a check-cashing place in a particularly derelict ghetto/junkyard. But they got me my damn phone back, so hurray for them.

Steve

Cyclecide Events

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:32:43 GMT

2 mile run in Noe Valley.

Pedal Monster 08′

September 26, 2008
7:15 pm
September 27, 2008
5:00 pm

Cyclecide unleashes it’s fourth annual PEDAL MONSTER weekend event.

Poker Run _ Friday Sept. 26th

Pedal Monster party _ Saturday Sept. 27th

Join us on September 27th at the Ace Junkyard for the Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo fundraiser & annual bicycle club gathering. This year Pedal Monster will coincide with “Bike! Bike!“, the annual conference of community bike projects, hosted by San Francisco’s own Bike Kitchen and Santa Cruz’s Bike Church. The convergence of Pedal Monster and Bike! Bike! will bring cycleistas and marauding mutant bicycle clubs from all over the country and we’re gonna show ‘em how we do it Bay Area style, It’s bound to be a week of raucous good times.

Saturdays’ show features local music and performance along side CYCLECIDE’S PEDAL-POWERED CARNIVAL MIDWAY and HEAVY PEDAL BIKE RODEO with its MUTANT BIKES of DEATH, DESTRUCTION, and RIDICULOUSNESS for all to ride.

Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo with Los Banos (punk rock mariachi)
Cookie Mongoloid (heavy metal cookie monster also known as Cookie Mongo)
Whores of War (punk, hardcore)
Murder of Crows (rap)
Hammer Horror Classics (punk horror them tunes)
Derailleurs (all girl bike dance troupe)
Waco (born again Rock!)

… as well as food and bevs for the all-day players …

Such cacophonous carousing can’t come free, but be assured that your admission fee will fund the finest in free-form, alter-bike fracas for years to come. Don’t forget Friday night’s Poker Run–bar crawl.

Friday the 26th, bicycle enthusiasts of all shapes and sizes (and legal drinking age) are invited to converge upon Dolores Park at the conclusion of Critical Mass to join the PEDAL MONSTER POKER RUN. For a $7 entrance fee, participants will receive a bad-ass CYCLECIDE keepsake and rodeo clown signifier. Then they’ll drink beer, hopefully, and embark on a madcap two-wheeled bar crawl, in an effort to collect the best poker hand and win prizes by the end of the night. There will also be drink challenges, Cyclecide theatrics, stupid awards ceremonies, and special surprises along the way.

——————-
So COME ONE, COME ALL … TO THE SHOW THAT IS TOO DUMB TO DIE! The Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo
——————-

EVENT INFORMATION:

POKER RUN
Friday, September 26th, 2008
Registration begins at 7:15; start time at 8:15
$7 entry fee, 21 and up
Dolores Park, SF

PEDAL MONSTER
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
ACE Auto SF 2255 Mc Kinnon St. San Francisco
5pm-midnight, all ages
$10-20 sliding scale

——————–

Steve

Political Hoo-hah.

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:24:20 GMT

Running: 2 mile runs in Noe Valley, on Weds., Sat., and yesterday.

Some friends of mine are hosting a fundraiser for the Obama campaign tomorrow, (Wednesday, September 24th) at the Verdi Club in San Francisco. They are having a silent auction, a band called The Cons, and a comedian, (who is apparently half of Siskel and Negro, who are actually quite funny).

Full details are here:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gs5zhw

I will not be in attendance, but if you're considering donating to the campaign, this should be a diverting way of doing so.

Steve

Latenight Query

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:28:51 GMT

Mon: 2 mile run in Noe Valley. Weds: 2.2 mile run in Noe Valley.

My new-to-me iPod loves Spacemen 3. Seriously, anytime it's on shuffle, you can guaran-damn-tee that Spacemen 3 will come up at some point. Its "random" setting is weird that way. My last iPod loved the Pietasters, to the point I had to remove their mediocre third-wave ska albums from my hard-disk.

I assume this problem is epidemic. Is there a band your iPod plays all the frickin' time?

Steve

Amusing BM Site

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:47:30 GMT

2 mile run in Noe Valley.

This is amusing.

http://www.bmticketbuyback.com/

I wonder what happens to your name and email address?

Steve

Bootie: BRC

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:31:48 GMT

BootieBRC3_flyer
Originally uploaded by Malderor

2 mile run in Noe Valley.

This is the flyer for this year's Bootie: Black Rock City. (I've been upgraded to "resident DJ", btw.) We're doing it Thursday night in Fandango, for the people who know what's what, and then again on Friday on the Esplanade, for people who are ambling by and didn't realize how sick they were of trance and techno.

Steve

Reminder, If One Were Needed

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:23:39 GMT

Yesterday: 2 mile run in Noe Valley. Today: 2.5 mile run in Noe Valley.

Bootie61_flyer
Originally uploaded by Malderor

This is on for tonight, as I have no doubt reminded most of you time and again. I'm quite looking forward to it. I'll be debuting at least one new track of my own, if I finish it. (And if I then decide it doesn't totally suck, which at this point is a 50/50 call.)

Steve

Was this already all over the internets?

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:37:25 GMT

Guitar Hero III, Online version.

1,2,3,4,5 on the keyboard, Enter to strum.

The One Armed Swordsman vs. Nine Killers

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:15:38 GMT

Yesterday: 2 mile run. Today: 7am kickboxing class. This was my first class in seven (!) months, and it was as grim and plodding as one might theorize.

There are lots of things afoot, and I've been shockingly busy, so here's a kung-fu movie review:

The One Armed Swordman vs. Nine Killers

Synopsis: This is a late-entry in the "One-Armed Swordsman" series, and the filmmakers assume you've seen all the previous films. Therefore they spend exactly zero time telling you where you are, what's going on, or why this guy only has one arm. They just launch into the action, and you get to guess at what might be the backstory. (My guess: the guy was seeking revenge against the people who chopped off his arm, but, heck, maybe he was just gassy.) It starts off with a dark fight on a dark street where the one-armed guy, who, it must be noted IS NOT CARRYING A SWORD, kills some other dude. (Number One of the "Nine Killers" in the title.) The next day(?) he wanders into a clearing where an old white-bearded dude, (played by an actual old dude, unlike so many of these "old" people) is playing chess with human chess pieces. As you do. It's made clear that Old Guy is not one of the "Nine", so One-Arm has no quarrel with him. But somehow they end up playing "chess", which is really more like kung-fu mahjong, but still with human pieces. One-Arm beats the old man, and leaves. Old Dude, shamed in front of his chess-pieces, picks up a sharp stick and commits suicide with it. Then One-Arm rescues a prostitute, (I think) who was tied up in the sun for reasons unclear. Then somebody shoots him with a poisoned-dart, so he and the prostitute go to a chemist, who tells him the poison is deadly, which it isn't, and gives him an "antidote" which is actually a much deadlier poison. One-Arm convulses, but uses his amazing kung-fu skills to spit the deadly-poison pellet into the chemist's mouth, and the chemist expires immediately. One-Arm then goes to a temple and fights a hermaphrodite, I guess, for some reason. Uh...at this point you can see a linear plot-summary is impossible.

The Big Bad Guy is just some voice-from-a-tube, dispatching his minions to fight the One-Armed Guy, who is moving inexorably closer. One-Arm keeps whupping-ass. It was somewhere along here that my ($3 Hong Kong bootleg) DVD seized up, and skipped an entire chapter. I don't feel as though I missed out on much. We returned to the action with One-Arm tossing some guy off a cliff into the ocean. (Oh, bonus points for having outdoor-locations, as opposed to the sound-stages used in so many of these cheap old HK flicks. If only they'd spent some money on a script. Exposition, such as it is, comes rarely and is usually so deadly-dull that I use it to refresh my beer. There are also lots of shots of One-Arm walking up and down staircases. This is a common mistake with inexperienced editors. "If we don't see him walk up the stairs to the temple, how will the audience know how he got there?" Cue endless shots of people walking to and fro.) At some point One-Arm picks up a smiley-friend who works for the Big Bad Guy, but really just wants to be One-Arm's friend, and smile a lot. Okay, we meander to the end-scene, with some pretty decent pre-wire kung-fu. Apparently the Big Bad Guy behind the speaking-tube is actually that Old Guy who committed suicide back in Scene Two. So he and One-Arm go at it, and Old Guy hacks off One-Arm's one-remaining-arm. (Oh, I forgot to mention. The "One-Armed Swordsman" has never used a sword the entire movie, and would more accurately be called "The One-Armed Boxer.") So One-Arm is now No-Arms...Or is he?!? There's a bit more gimpy kung-fu, and suddenly No-Arms pulls his remaining Other Arm out from behind his back, where he's been hiding it the ENTIRE MOVIE, for no reason. And stabs Old-Dude in the gut in a move best described to Western eyes as "sneaky". One-Arm walks out of the temple and down a long path...The end.

Review: You may not be able to discern this from this synopsis, but I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. It made no sense, but in the glorious way of the best 70's kung-fu extravaganzas. It also moves very quickly, so you're not bored. Except when they're walking up and down the stairs.

Steve

Tr2n?

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:29:06 GMT

2 mile run in Noe Valley.

Tron 2 trailer, via an amazingly rubbish bootleg (presumably from the San Diego comicon):

http://gizmodo.com/5029479/tron-2-trailer-video-makes-pants-wet-worldwide

As one of my coworkers said: That may be the most excited I've ever been about a video that crappy.

Steve

Bootie, August 9th, Main Room

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:38:19 GMT

Bootie61_flyer
Originally uploaded by Malderor

I'm certain I will mention this again, as the date approaches, but I'm DJing at Bootie's 5th Anniversary Party, in the main room.

What My Weekend Was Like...

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:08:42 GMT

DSC03599.JPG
Originally uploaded by mills42

(I swiped the photo, as I had forgotten my camera that evening...)

Fourth of July on the Playa?

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:11:55 GMT

Last night: 2 mile run in Noe Valley. It had been ages since I did an evening workout.

A number of my friends are heading out to the Black Rock Desert for 4th of July. Apparently several hundred people have started heading out there over the long weekend, for a sort of spontaneous group campout. I am seriously considering tagging along, as I can hop a space on the Freedom Bus without much effort. Initially, I wasn't really all that enthusiastic about the whole outing. In my advancing years, the idea of traveling a long way to sleep on the cold hard ground holds less and less attraction. And yet, the more I thought about it, the more it started to appeal. I'm rather hoping that I'll go out there and experience the things I miss about the Big F*cking Camping Trip; guns, fireworks, motorcycles, hot-springs, blowing shit up, driving fast on the playa, and being able to drive into town when you want to grab more ice and/or visit a real toilet. So I'm currently leaning towards going.

I wonder what I'll encounter, though? Will it be the same sort of anarchist-industrial-demolition vibe from when I started attending Burning Man? Or will it be a bunch of dingbats that can't let the event go, and want to be out there at every opportunity, blasting motherf*cking "psytrance" and coating the hotsprings with a thin layer of patchouli oil? The kind of person that takes Burning Man waaayy too seriously, and wants it to last all year long. (And where do I fall on this spectrum?)

There's also the issue of effort. One of the things that makes Burning Man fun and hilarious is the amount of work people put into amusing others. I remember the first time somebody brought out a La-Z-Boy, and how hilarious we all thought that was that they brought furniture. Part of what makes the event great is the utter imbecility of dragging all that stuff out to the middle of nowhere, just for the folly of it all. But I'm seriously fried, and I'm only really interested in going if it's easy. I don't want to fry my synapses for the next two weeks at my job because I gave myself sunstroke building a camp in the desert. shortbusboy seems rather more ambitious than I am about taking creature comforts for our camp, and seems to be planning to load the top of the bus, as well as a trailer, with generators, futons, tables, chairs, and so on. I'm sure these will all be lovely to have, but after last year at the Burn, repacking our 25' truck in a 14-hour windstorm...I just want to take an ice-chest full of beer and a sleeping bag and be done with it.

Anyway, I am undecided. It could be a great low-key weekend in the desert, or it could be a dusty suck-fest that requires way too much effort. I don't know.

Steve

The Machine Girl

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:36:33 GMT

Weds: 2 miles. Today: 2 miles.

It was looking less and less likely that I could make it to a screening of this:

But they've added another show next Sunday.

http://holehead.withoutabox.com/festivals/event_item.php?id=16243

That said, I bought it on DVD when I thought I wasn't going to see it. So we could watch it whenever.

Steve

We Shall Cleanse the World...

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:10:51 GMT

2.25 mile run in Noe Valley. Time to start adding some distance...

A couple of random reviews:

Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible & Fried: My Life As A Revolting Cock, By Chris Connelly. This book probably has "selective" interest, as it's a tell-all rock-star biography, but of a rock-star so minor that most folks have never heard of his band(s), much less him. That said, if you were an industrial-obsessed club-kid in the late-80's/early-90's, this is a hilarious page-turner. Connelly was the lead-singer for the Revolting Cocks, and some incarnations of Ministry, and was there in the industrial trenches, drinking and drugging himself near to death for my amusement. I have a weakness for drug-addled rockstar biographies anyway, (hell, I just read Eric Clapton's autobiography, and I actively hate his music) but it's as though this particular volume was written specifically for me. I was a Wax-Trax Records geek, and sought out all of Al "Ministry" Jourgensen's many releases under all his various guises. To have this insider's perspective on the era is fascinating. Al comes across as a megalomaniac whose behavior is unpredictable in the extreme, and who surrounds himself with fawning yes-men. The book could _really_ have used some editing for clarity, (Connelly will often yammer about some minor character for several chapters before telling you who they are or why they're important) but it's a breezy read. Bonus points for not having any "recovery" hooey tacked on at the end. (See: Eric Clapton's three-chapters-too-long pile of dung.) Not that there's anything wrong with recovery programs, it's just refreshing to read a book that doesn't follow the "my life sucked and then I got help and now I'm all better" plot trajectory. In Connelly's case, it's more of "my life sucked and I was surrounded by idiots, and I was an active participant until I got sick of it and stopped." The book also earns credits for Connelly's unflinching honesty about his bandmates and their acolytes. A lot of folks would temper their comments for fear of harming the few people who might actually read the book; ex-bandmates, sound techs, and hangers-on. Connelly flails on them all, or those that deserve it, to an extent that one assumes he plans to never again see these people. Commendable.

Sacrament, by Lamb of God, Bonus DVD - In a similar "selective" vein, Lamb of God's most recent album comes with a bonus DVD that documents the making of the record. Unlike a lot of these fluffy bonuses, this is actually a fairly in-depth look at the creative process, and how it applies to the construction of a modern extreme metal record. Everything is covered, from drum tracking to the writing process to the producer's role. It's instructive if you're one of those folks who wonders why bands don't just walk into the studio, play a live set into a microphone, and walk out an hour and a half later with a finished album. Like I said, it might not be of general interest, but I found it very watchable. Also, while not venturing into Metallica "Some Kind of Monster" territory, they do allow the cameras "warts and all" access to the band's internal interaction, particularly in discussing the other member's disgruntlement with the lead singer. His lack of involvement in the writing stage and his substance abuse problems are both covered with surprising candor. As I said, an interesting insight into the creative process. Or the creative process as practiced by some southern rednecks making a heavy metal album.

Steve