Thursday, February 23, 2006

Berlin Up Data Bass

X-TRA Info Berlin.
Go to : www.mentalzirkus.net for final line-up 3 + 4 March '06.
3rd - Ghetto Raga / Echodrive with Tom Zunk, Gunter Schickert, Jean-Herve Peron, + myself.
4th - "Art is not a mirror" - Audio Visual Performance/Installation, with me and the crew.
I'll do my best to write a review when I'm back @ HomeBass.

MoreVeg@Hamburg


Experimenting with a few
more pictures of myself,
Lucianne Lassalle, and
Tom Zunk in Hamburg,
September '05.....
2pm in the afternoon.




href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4028/1837/1600/t%201.jpg">



All photos copyright Uwe Schumacher.

www.uwegrafik.de

www.germanrock.de

Monday, February 20, 2006

Fashion Statement Reminder

don't forget........
S
F C U K
U
C
X

Aliens@T-4-2-Ceremony

A lot of you out there if you can be even bothered to read all this stuff might think I'm just a miserable old bastard coming down on every~body / thing that pisses me even the slightest bit off......partly true, but I try to keep an open mind. I don't spend all my time dissing partypeoples or moaning about the horrible state of the world....just a question of keeping a balance - on the ball, knowing who the enemy is, not forgetting to have a good time. The party gig on Saturday was great - big gaff, loads of good food, booze, people, two room DJ setup, a bit chav-central in places but at least concentrated into ghettos (the kitchen?? very english!) so enough space to cater for all palates......and no real serious aggro towards us the whole night (= as in "When I left at 9.30am the groove was still going strong."). Pill / Powder fuelled of course, which I can honestly well do without...too dark for my taste, white but dark - still making it through the night on loads of weed and a couple of glasses of wine.....red + green, stop + go.....good enough for me. Highlights of the gig - local Hastings-based blues singer Mama Josie seriously belting it out over funk-hop trax with live scratch, very electric sax + flute (see previous post), and our new wonder-mix-man processing everything in sight from the music to the stars......so it seemed anyway....and not forgetting the usual top-draw VJ-ing. We didn't get into too much of the seriously X-periMental stuff we've been playing around with at our own open rehearsal parties - total free electronics, ambient to fierce --->> we stuck with laying down more grooves and tried to leave some open spaces normally overflowing with background noises, but still a lot of it was already way pretty way out over the collective heads of the majority......not to sound elitist.....just the way it is......also I guess those ancient oriental scales can sometimes be very powerful (spiritually speaking), and intense - a lot of people haven't yet developed their sonic senses enough to know how to deal with it. So they stuck to the well-worn path of Bm-Ch-Bm-Ch-Bm-Ch in the main room eardrumbleeding scene (bad move to put the food table 3 inches away from the sound system - didn't seem to bother most people......all deaf?). We were much more user-friendly on that score....copped the billiard room opening out into the chill sofa optional dance salon sector....the house was apparently on loan from the Kaiser Chief's manager - he wasn't there (just namedropping, maybe not even true?)...the vibes were though......HomeGrown dishing the dirt once again...here we come, shaking the invisible walls between reality and the rest of the planet....
More info and downstreams:

L€TTeRs + NumBEr$

almost 2.45am - or a bit later - 2-2-3? - just been downflooding a free uniquely personalised legally tagged anti-viral mP3 - cut myself shaving yesterday - new giLLetTe m3P not all it's cracked up to be - movie on Ztv 2 at 3pm, sponsored by moTo rAZa v3X - must be a good one then - they always are - have to admit it was more me than the razor - and just on the edge of my left upper lip now covered with the compulsory small bit of almost dry blood spotted loo-paper - worst scenario - when you take the paper off, the cut opens again - gig tonight -I'll be really fucked for playing sax if that happens - luckily got a free-handy-pack-pocket-size capsule of X-streAM cONtrol VO5 Hair gel - at least that should take the attention away from my lip - oh shit - misread the tv paper - 3pm 2day? thought it was 2morrow - distracted by the pAGE3 Gurrly G-Thing advertising pantEN V-10 ultramoisturising shamPOO - wooah - and who came up with the great idea to call a mobile phone a RAza? Talk about rubbing salt in the wound - now I'm like free to cut my left cheek as well while I'm checKING out the sPEAKing clock - it is now 3pm - precisely - time to start thinking about the gig - shit - forgot to call my eX-wife yesterday - just got this AMaZing new Dead RINGer v-AMp (v.3) - really wicked man - like a V-irtual guitar AMp so it gets like out of control sometimes like negative feedback noisenik stuff man - mAkes my horn sound like some ZedZen-HEADgrOOve nu-jaZZ from heLL Klub 666 stYle - like Tibet man you know? - bardo states - yo man I hear U - can't wait to check it all out on this latest Version of Q-bAsE VsT/32 5.1 R1 sekwencing soft WARe packAGE - so cool man - midi-D up with my old kORg X-3 - sounds wicked - and that new otTO lINK 5** soprano mouthpiece is the reel biz you know - yeh i no man i no 2 - shooting cRAP killing time B4 the gig - 1st throw 7 or 11 wins, 2, 3, or 12 loses, but you can keep the dice or pass them on - any other number's your point - throw that one again you win, unless you throw a 7 1st, then you lose and pass on the dice - hence the 7/11 conspiracy - it's a quarter 2 3 - C U L8R.
Update 14/08/06 - new XYZ's CD out 09/09/06?

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

My Bloody Valentine



St.Valentine's Day 1978,

Lambeth Town Hall,

Brixton, London.

www.mccbglobal.com

(Red Balune - Reviews and/or New CD Pages)

The Sacred Mushroom

too easy....
I was just reading
about how some
Bloggers use
posting strategies
based on shock value
and/or controversial material to enhance their chances of getting more hits, comments, links, etc, even at the risk of being banished from this wonderful cyberland where freedom of expression, joy, and happiness sit comfortably side by side with dark forces of decadence, destruction, and ultimately Satanism. With a lot of sex as well of course, but then where would we be without that? Dead in the water my old sunshine. Oh yes. Dead ducks. Living in Burnley or somewhere. So anyway... to cut a long story short, it's St Valentine's Day, and I thought yes, why not give all the boys and girls out there a nice picture of my digitally enhanced organic homegrown Sacred Mushroom?
Not to be actually eaten, you understand - it's image must remain for ever frozen ice-like on these virtual pages, a symbol of the mushroom's potency, a metaphor for it's strength and power in the inner/outer worlds of illusion, visions, dream states, and hallucinations.
And so on and so on.
Spot the click - click the spot ---->>>above or below ----^^^^ 80/20 chance of winning...

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Techno Prisoners

Oh dear...
Just as I thought I was getting the hang of this Blog stuff, I realise I'm all at sea with the technology.
I happily deleted all my posts I didn't want, but there they all are stranded in some kind of cyberspace prison, apparently impossible to get rid of, there for anyone and everyone to view, (or not?). Some of them in plain old English, others in HTML, others a rough mix down of the two. And I still don't quite understand exactly how to access or edit everything on my Blog - sometimes feels like being in a house with several different front doors -which one should I knock on? The BlogHelp is still mainly mumbo jumbo to me. Still, I'm slowly making progress - improvise and hope for the best. Understand more about my profile, although still a way to go. But I'm still fed up to the back bloody teeth with the endless stream of DodgyBlogs that link to sites advertising "How To Get Sex In Burnley". (Burnley?? I can't wait! Do they have live alien sex online?), not to mention all those poor sad souls who think "Oh great, a Blog! Wow! All mine", then find they can't hack it (no pun intended) and end up leaving this microscopic byte of their miserable earthly life with one post, no photo, half a profile, nothing to shout about except a projected blank space of their own creation.
So here I am with a fellow time traveller desperately trying to hotwire this earthbound technology so we can communicate with the mothership before our time here runs out.

TECHNO PRISONERS - DIVIDE & RULE!

You have nothing to lose but your wireless virus.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

George Bush - Golf in the Gulf

Well I guess finally I have to get into some real realtime politics here after all this arty stuff, which can become completely divorced from the real-world, leading to head-up-arse-syndrome, rendering us all couch-mash-potato-like, stranded in the semi-unconscious fascist right-hemi-segment of our incredibly intolerant minds and brains........unlike George Bush of course.

Have you ever watched him play golf?
He has a curious style, although I've heard from other golfers (I need to say right now that I've never played the game and intend to keep it that way) that it isn't unique, although I don't find that
particularly reassuring.

You know what these golf people do......look at the target, checking out the distance to the hole, even though they know it anyway, choose the appropriate club, make sure the ball is sitting really comfortably on the tee, fiddle about with their shades or whatever, get their balance and stance sorted out, generally with much shuffling of the feet, do a few dummy runs without actually touching the ball, then.......contact.

George? No messing with all that wishy-washy liberal stuff......like a real hero he strolls casually up to the tee, stands somewhere in the general area of the ball, looks around to make sure everybody is watching, then swings his club just once, hitting the ball. Quite amazing. I can't say whether this approach actually works as well as the more conventional ones. Maybe any golf bloggers (blog golfers?) out there could shed more light on this? But I get a strange feeling that this is the way he approaches everything, and that really does make me nervous.

Having old-wave evangelical post-Alpha nutter Billy Graham as his "personal spiritual adviser" is bad enough, but at the end of the "war" and the beginning of the"liberation" of Iraq, our George wanted to send Billy's son (can't remember his name) over there to spread the word of the Lord to the infidels........is this what they call "intelligent design"?

Maybe the Yanks should change the name of their fave missiles from "Cruise" to "Crusader", although Tom-you-know-who might get pissed off, and then we'd have to start worrying about Scientologists as well as Fundamentalist Christians.

At the end of the 1st Gulf War, several Americans went over there just to make sure the oil was in the right hands (no mixed metaphor intended), including pre-Bush government topdogs Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, both representing consortiums of major American oil companies.
And they say the war (sorry, occupation) has nothing to do with oil.
American companies based in Iraq who lost money the 1st time round are actually still being paid compensation by the Iraqis! Economic madness.....

One of the most positive signs in the buildup to Golf War 3 was the way the American government handled themselves in the media, especially on TV of course. Time after time we heard top military brass and leading politicians say "I can't really comment on that, given the sensitive nature of the security risks involved etcetcetc". Fair enough. But then even after seeing various ex-military/political experts telling us "This war will make Vietnam look like a picnic etcetc", strategic plans were suddenly being revealed and even discussed quite openly. The most classic example was the continual insistence on the importance of winning the war quickly, with as little danger to the troops as possible, by first using massive air-strikes to "soften up" the Iraqis, so the ground troops would be able to move in with as little resistance as possible. "THE LAST THING WE WANT IS A GROUND WAR" they all said......on TV.....again and again.....Mmmm.....very cunning.......sounds like an intelligent design strategy to me comrades. I mean imagine all those anti-USA Iraqis sitting around watching TV and thinking "Yes....no ground war......aah.....now how the hell can we build a counter-strategy for this plan.....phrr.....ah...yes!...BRILLIANT IDEA! We have nowhere near enough military resources to resist a total invasion, so we put on a brave face, make the best effort we can to fight back without losing too much pride and honour, wait a bit, and then...... mmm.....yes..... GIVE THEM A GOOD BLOODY GROUND WAR!" (OK I'm taking liberties with the truth here - this is just an imaginary situation, and it isn't my intention to offend anyone, unless they happen to be BushBaby supporters).

So I say "positive sign" because it's now clear that the majority of Americans seem to be following George's example, and are apparently mindlessly golfing their way into oblivion under a growing mountain of governmental and corporate corruption, lies, acts of violence against anyone and everyone in America or anywhere else who won't toe the crooked line of the creator gone crazy.
Up against the wall mothers.....

To be continued. By others.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Live Update

Private House Party - Saturday 18th February - Hastings area.
By invitation only. Email for details.
HomeGrown dishing the dirt with live musicians, realtime processing,
vocals, beats, loops, scratch, tunes, extreme free electronics, and visuals.
Mental Zirkus @ Supamolly Club, Berlin, Germany.
Friday 3rd & Saturday 4th March.
Mini-mixed-media-festival with many artists from Berlin & Rotterdam.
Music, performance, words, visuals, installations etc.
Ghetto Raga / Echodrive are
Tom Zunk (waterphone, percussion, devices)
Gunter Schickert (guitar, trumpet, electronics)
Geoff Leigh (soprano sax, flutes, voice, bits & bobs, electronics)
Elke Postler (dance, performance, slides, video)
and will be playing on Friday.
Special Guest Jean-Herve Peron (Faust).
On Saturday I'll be performing "Art Is Not A Mirror",
an audio-visual-x-traver-gender incorporating
music, lights, a mirror, & a well-known tool.
Full details to be announced on the day.
Why give away the whole story in advance?
Always expect the unexpected.

How many anagrams can you make from "Ghetto Raga"?