Highgate

Wednesday

Portrait of a record store shitter


The Pure Pop bathroom is probably the oldest john in Burlington, possibly the united states. Our toilet is off limits to customers for there own safety, when you sit down on the seat, it makes a subtle "squishing " sound from somewhere around the base. If you notice, from the pictures and flyers hanging up, some from the 90's, we don't clean the bathroom very ofter, re: Ever. Enjoy.

I should be sleeping right now

Structured procrastination is the art of making this bad trait work for you. The key idea is that procrastinating does not mean doing absolutely nothing. Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, like gardening or sharpening pencils or making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it. Why does the procrastinator do these things? Because they are a way of not doing something more important. If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on earth could get him do it. However, the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.
- The rest over @ structuredprocrastination.com
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Farewell Michelle, we'll all miss you - you're one of the sweetest, kindest, smartistest, people I've ever known. There will always be a home for you here in Vermont!

Monday

Happy Memorial Day

It's on this day that we commemorate those who fought and died in WW3, and celebrate our freedom, wretched from the cold lifeless hand of those Red Devils, no not those Red Devils... the communist ones. If it wasn't for the Wolverines and other brave souls like them around the country, Our Homeland would be the Motherland, we'd be speaking goblty-gook instead of good ol'merkin inglish, squating down and kicking our legs out like morons instead of dry humping and doing the shopping cart, drinking cheap vodka instead of Ol' grandad, and teaching our kids about how we were liberated by the kind freedom loving ruskies, instead of how we, in all our omnipotence and goodness, liberated Iraq.

Go out and rent the 1984 re-enactment of the events that took place in Calumet Colorado, watch it with your loved ones, and by God, you will weap. Especially when those bastards kill the Eckert brother, bastards.

Swayze? Sheen? Jennifer Grey? Powers Booth? Marty McFly's girlfriend (and mom) can someone please say Greatest movie ever?
IMDB (link)
Wikipedia (link)
bonus link (Wilhelm Scream)

----------------------
Deadbeat featurette

Saturday

Juzz Gays

The rest of the pics are in my flickr, check em out.

Friday

Indiana Jones in...

That's right. Check it out... (link)

More importantly though, is this... a bunch of what i can only guess are barnett college students have taken it upon themselves to make a new Indy Jones game in the vein of the old Lucas Arts classic "The Fate of Atlantis". Check out these screens!
this game rocked my small world years ago; it was one of the first computer games i spent anytime playing, this and Police Quest, which was fun cause you'd type your commands like "Pick up newspaper" but mostly i spent my time with my friend Josh trying to get the little pixelated cop to do things like "Touch girl's boobs." and "Touch other girl's boobs" which never worked, maybe if i had actually known the proper word for boobs it would have worked...
Indiana Jones and The Fountain of Youth (link) (demo)

Thursday

Knights Templar

"No downfall was to be so complete and spectacular as that of this arrogant order of monastic knighthood. Formed during the crusades to be the sword arm of the church in defense of the holy land, the Templars had moved from ideals of asceticism and poverty to immense resources and an international web of power outside the regular channels of allegiance. They were not known for charity and unlike the knights of st. john, supported no hospitals. With 2,000 members in france and the largest treasury in northern europe, they maintained a headquarters in the "Temple", their formidable fortress in Paris.
Not only their money but their existence as a virtually autonomous enclave invited destruction. Their sinister reputation, grown from the secrecy of their rituals , supplied the means. In a pounce like a tiger's leap, Philip seized the Temple in Paris and had every Templar in France arrested on the same night.
To justify confiscation of the Order's property, the main charge was heresy, in proof of which the King's prescecutors dragged into the light every dark superstition and fearful imagining of sorcery and Devil-worship that lay along the roots of the medieval mind. The Templars were accused by suborned witnessses of bestiality, idol-worship, denial of the sacraments; of selling their souls to the Devil and adoring him in the form of a huge cat; of sodomy with each other and intercourse with demons and succubi; of requiring initiates to Deny God, Christ and the Virgin, to spit three times, urinate, and trample on the cross, and give the "kiss of shame" to the prior of the Order on the mouth, penis and buttocks.
To strengthen resolution for these various practices, they were said to drink a powder made from the ashes of dead members and their own illegitimate children."
- excerpt from "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century"
by Barbara W. Tuchman Pages 42-43. (Amazon)

A complete history of the Knights Templar (link)

My house

This is a picture of Highgate (the town) from space. The building in the middle is the Methodist church next door, my house is to the right. (terraserver)
from Wikipedia:
The median income for a household in the town was $41,556, and the median income for a family was $44,697. Males had a median income of $30,342 versus $25,000 for females. The per capita income for the town was $16,505. 10.0% of the population and 7.4% of families were below the poverty line. 12.5% of those under the age of 18 and 8.3% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. (link)

Burlington Telecom. Thank you.

I read today in Sevendays, that the Burlington Telecom is finally open for business as of the 25th. This is great news for anyone that spends as much time on the internet as I do; information junkies rejoice!
At the moment me and Todd have our digital cable through Adelphia, (not to mention the upstairs neighbor's Wifi...) and our basic phone through Version. We don't have cable, cause neither of us really watch much T.V. - though if I am feeling like catching the new episode of project runway I can always head over to Eva's. Regardless, the Digicable is running us 45 dollars, and the lan line is costing 33 and change. That comes out to something like.... 80 bucks.

Here's what I can get through BTC.

@ $44.10/month after discount
  1. Television: BTV Basic: approx. 20 channels
  2. Internet: Digital Bridge: up to 256Kbps symmetrical service
  3. Telephone: Community 1000: 1000 minutes local calling, low long distance rates

I'm not a mathematician, but that means i can have at least, 10 more slush puppies a month!
Plus i won't have to deal with Crapdelphia's non existent customer service, version's either... only problem is i have to wait till service expands to Hyde street, probably in 2020...

Cathy Resmer's article (link)
Burlington Telecom (link)

Tuesday

The Pants

I spent this evening with Eva, relaxing on her couch - waiting out the damp weather with dinner and a movie, and a little sewing. In the basement blankets were soaking up water that was threatening to fill up the basement.
Dinner was Penne and Vodka sauce, the movie was Age of innocence, and the sewing, was true hodgepodgery. I've had this one pair of pants for a very long time, going on close to four years, they were bought for me by an old and nearly-forgotten friend at a used shop in Williamsburg and were literally, my first pair of jeans. Until that point I had only ever worn slacks, cords, and in grade school, "Bugle Boys". Jeans always felt uncomfortable... They were tight, when I bought them, and this friend who worked at Barneys on 5th avenue (or some other avenue. I dunno.) said they were Levis, "custom made" for someone, I guess with long chicken legs and no ass.
Time wore on, as well did my ass on the seat of the jeans, and before long the ass/crotch section was not really there anymore; I couldn't get rid of them though social conventions, much like those of Edith Wharton's New York, permitted me from exposing my testicles.So out came the sewing kit, old hankeys, shreds of pants, iron-on patches, and the like. When I was finished, I had saved my pants. Temporarily. As time passed, as it's want to do; it passed again, like a bullet train, through the seat of my beloved pants. This time, ripping in new places, along new tension lines created by new seams. Leaving, now larger, more jagged holes.
Again I brought out the kit; hot glue guns this time, my old compatriot SP brought out her sewing machine; the patches were mended, strengthened, and all was right again in the world.Tonight as I was sitting - sewing; I wondered how many more times I'll be able to sew these same pants. When should I get some new ones? More so, I thought about entropy, and worried about the rate of pant-decay vs. The rate of pant sewing skills/pant acquisition...
But then, these are still good pants; they encourage me to learn new skills; to sew, they teach me to be more considerate, I'm sure to pull them up a bit when I sit down. Patience, while I slowly tie on another patch. They may be faded, out dated and baggy in the wrong places, but damn-it, they're my pants.

Saturday

The Death Waltz

I think it's in an alternate tuning.
DADFAD maybe?

The 80's Interpol forgot to warn you about...

Drunk + YouTube =
The Birthday Party...

Clock DVA...

Coil...

Einstürzende Neubauten...

Psychic TV...

Skinny Puppy...

SPK...

Throbbing Gristle...

The Virgin Prunes...

Friday

The Telcos owe us some Money

If your telephone company is one of the companies that decided to take financial compensation from the federal government in exchange for illegally proving your records to them they owe you $1,000. Now IANAL but this seems pretty damn clear cut to me.

The Stored Wire and Electronic Communications and Transactional Records Access, Section 2703(c) outlines exactly five reasons that a phone company can disclose your records to the fed:

a warrant
a court order
the customer’s consent
for telemarketing enforcement
administrative subpoena

Keep in mind that the NSA does not have subpoena power and it is easy to see that not only is your federal government breaking the law by stripping you of your expectation of privacy in your papers and effects but that the Telcos are breaking the law by supplying this info to the Fed.

Section 2707 of the Communications Act says that the phone company are liable for $1000 per individual violation of the Act and outlines a private right of action to any customer “aggrieved by any violation.” - Courtesy of This Damn Blog

for further information, check this out: (Link)

Thursday

Potluck in the Rain

The sun came out in Vermont today for the first time in a week, and while i love my dreary, my drab, and my dismal, it was nice to see it peak out for a second, and then be quickly covered over with still more grey. The day off for me went so fast, probably cause i didn't get out of bed until 3pm. I then i spilled my carmel latte right on my pecker. that smarted, but i was able to salvage half the latte, my pecker... well, we'll have to see.
Then there was potluck; Eva made her favorite stuffed mushrooms and i made a very tasty and simple spinich salad w/ red onions, mandarin oranges, gorgonzola and candied pecans. hells yeah. It was all vegetarian to boot. Jb and Mike came over for a pre-drink drink, and we all watched the Jazz guys videos, pretty funny, but honnestly, who hasn't watched someone come all over Herb's face? I mean, where's the joke?Potluck was wonderfull as usual, full of bright and smiling friends, delicious foods and carafe carafter carafe of blogwine (i want an explaination.) but the most favorited thing of the night had to be the Thunderstorm that completely kicked a weeks worth of drizzle's ass in about 5 minutes. Rainbuckets beware!A bunch of us were standing outside on the patio sipping wine and puffing cigarettes and chattering and i was thinking about how when i was a kid and the thunderstorms would start; how I'd get so nervous and my dad would round me and my sister up and we'd all go out on the porch with a blanket and some popcorn and we'd watch the lightning, ooohing and ahhing. Nature never ceases to amaze me.At one point however i realized that all our windows in the sinagog were open; so i dashed home to make sure everything was ok; when i rounded the corner of Megan and Gahlords house there were three people standing on the sidewalk, two girls and a guy, and they were naked. very very naked... and they were pretty nice looking too... They took off running down the sidewalk wooping and hollaring. They were aparently going my way so i jogged along behind them in my soaking sweater and soggy converse (at a safe distance) for a little while till i got too water logged and winded (about 30 seconds).Now the rain's let up a bit, and it's drizzling outside my window, occassionally the russians next door are coming out and blathering on, my guess is about vodka and rubles. Nagisa Ni Te is on the radio and a cuddled up and tired Eva in bed. What a lovely evening.
By Mike, take care!

Wednesday

Have you ever seen the Rain?

Tonight is Yoga night; But first I gotta blog... Then I can yoga. Things have been kind of busy and fun lately; Mike is back in town for a bit; tomorrow night it the Seamonster Potluck as well as the first ever Homeitems show (or is that breastmaterial....) at the Narthex.
I took the night off from work so I could attend both, gotta think of something yummy to cook. Might even be vegetarian... Probably not though. Steak probably. Wrapped in bacon. Stuffed in a whole pigs mouth, carried in on the backs of 10,000 stampeding, doomed lemmings.

I digress.
I want to take the time to informally introduce a couple of new contributors to this here little clusterfuckparty. Chris and Herb, two of my good friends, who also happen to be my co-workers, fellow musicians, a part time Mime and a fulltime germanophile (respectively), not mention social malcontents and sodomites of the highest degree. They are, however, great writers and extremely intelligent, more so than myself. They will be responsible for adding actual value to Highgate, and it's about time I figure.


Linkspiracy!
-------------I got high recently and ended up in a Philosophical
conversation; I don't much like philosophy; Kant makes
me violently Ill; very little practicality in it
Bertrand Russell explains why: (
Link)The Homeless Hacker Adrian Lamo,
a wonderful read (wired)
Torrent of The Gospel According to
Philip K. Dick (Link)
The real search for the real
Da Vinci Code for real!
(NY times)Ever heard of the Jasons?
Probably not, but they 0wn you.
(Seed Magazine)

audio announcements

Chris here.
Sometime ago I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the excellent Finnish psych-folk act Paavoharju. Curious to learn more about these fascinating Finns, I sought out their website, where I was thrilled to discover that they had recently released a FREE mp3-only EP now available at some website called "Miasmah." I went there. I downloaded it. It was great. And then... I started exploring.
Holy. Crap.

Maybe it's the Leffe talking, but I think I can safely say that over the past few hours I have enjoyed some of the finest ambient, psychdelic and experimental electronic music I've heard in months.
Hooray for creative commons!

Here's just a taste... I've chosen some of the more "active" tracks for web-friendly consumption.



Paavoharju - Tartu Tähän Hetkeen




Lomov - Laubenwalzer




Muhr - Tsuriai




Xhale - Earlier Today



On top of all that, there's some excellent festivals coming up very shortly, a true rarity on this side of the Atlantic.

First up is Montreal's Mutek, possibly the finest international symposium any where in the world. So much more than a series of performances, the festival includes everything from tech demos of the most exciting new electronic hard- and software to open panel discussions with programmers and musicians alike. The line up this year includes a lot of unknowns, but don't let that deter you, it's going to be great.

Next, and this is a ways out, comes the brainwashed's 10th anniversary celebration in Boston. Brainwashed is, and always has been, a fantastic resource for those interested in fringe music in general, and they've got the clout to pull together a seriously fantastic list of performers. Already confirmed are Z'ev, The Dresden Dolls, The Caretaker, V/VM, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Cock ESP, Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound), Irr.App.(Ext.), Charles Atlas and a host of others, with more to be announced. Only 500 tickets are available, and it's three days of wonderful music for under $80. I've already got mine, so buy away people!

EDIT: In a striking omission, I left local hero Greg Davis off the list of confirmed performers at the brainwaves festival. His excellent work opening for The Books recently, which I'm sure many of you were fortunate enough to witness, should be yet another incentive for the lot of you to be in attendance come November.