GOING TO KAKAMURA

It's a real gem of a day out and I'm surprisingly not-too-groggy after an incredibly logy start. Erin and I slept horribly: Chacho's stomach was so loud it woke us at 5am and I spent a half hour with him outside as he paced the yard and took a couple leaks. Next door, construction continues: hammers, chainsaws, and loudmouths all before 8am!

Last night, Scott stopped over followed by Robert and both stayed for a few hours to smoke and laugh. We discussed a wide range of subjects before Brian began reading translations of a story I wrote in spanish. Using Altavista's Babelfish to run it through five different languages and back to english, the results were outright hilarious. To see the final translation, go here:
http://charlesatlasbythe.blogspot.com/2007/10/six-generation-translation-humidity-of.html

Erin and I made dinner (a "real pro-looking meal" quoth Robert). Though I promised myself I wouldn't become one of the people that posts pictures of their dinners and how they made them, I'll cheat and just say what we had: cous-cous, chicken, and a fancy portobello cap. To quote ACL, "when you have nothing else, at least there's good food." Of course, I was incredibly hungry and hazed out so I scarfed the fuckin' thing in a matter of minutes.

Also, I drank my first Samichlaus Bier. Dubbed "the world's most extraordinary beer", this sucker is 14% alcohol and made once a year on December 6. It's aged for ten months before bottled and can be kept for years. Thomas--if you're reading, find this beer! It's a unique beast. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samichlaus

Town & Country is getting some play lately after a long absence. Their last album, Up Above, didn't do a lot for me but methinks it was just a matter of me catching up to its sound. Along with some of Gavin Bryars work, T&C were the first group to seriously introduce repetition as a viable form of creativity in my own music. Like the minimalist drone music they developed after playing and touring with Tony Conrad, I imagine some of the songs from their albums prior to Up Above require quite a bit of endurance to play. That all their albums are recored entirely with acoustic instruments and no samplers is a real feat.

Conversely, after a recent survey of some of my past works, I'm inspired to record a short album of sampler-based tunes. Using rhythm tracks I made over a year ago from sampling myself pounding on tables and friends flicking lighters and clapping, I'll sample short organ and guitar phrases to make loose compositions inspired by some of the 1960s and '70s soundtrack music I've been so damn hot for lately.