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| Two more songs last night - "Tri-State Killing Spree" and "Ain't No Party Like This." I'd like to write more like the latter and less like the former but we'll se what comes. Have been really reimmersing myself in music - retraining myself to play in key on the synth, for instance. It's kind of nice how quickly it's coming back to me. Two or three more to go tonight. I have faith. Record cover is done, back is done, disc label is done. All I gotta do is finish. Yo! |
| Continuing to hum along, work days speeding by as I struggle to head home, plug my headphones in and spend the evening in a tinnitus haze. Nine songs done, three or four more to go, I am confident. I would like more happy, funny songs but I am at the mercy of my hands which do what they want to. |
| All right, we're gonna be running on the Samoan calendar for a few days around here and November now goes 'til the 33rd. Good day of recording yesterday, inching closer and closer to the finish line. I wish I could just sit down with a guitar and let it pour outta me but no, I have to love fuss and hiss and noise and layers and turn out these little mini-symphonies or whatever. I hope you like them as much as I do. |
| Holy crap, I may pull this off after all. A bout of fortuitous insomnia last night left me with two new songs and I'm taking a half-day today to finish up, so I may just make the NaSoAlMo deadline after all, assuming I can stay awake. There's something oddly soothing about sitting in a blanket tent on your bedroom floor at 4AM singing "Piss yourself, piss yourself some sunshine / shit yourself, shit yourself a rainbow" and hoping not to wake up your roommate. OK! RECORDARAMA. |
| New interview here at Comixpedia. Lots to get done this morning, but I have epic faith. How are you all? |
| Woke up to rain pouring gray on the window screen, went back to sleep with a cat walking paces around my pillow, decided to rouse when the weather cooperated and went out for a long ramble around the neighborhood, streets hosed down with new moisture, my last twelve dollars burning a hole in my wallet. The whole place smelled great and I walked and walked and bought a Fuji apple and a can of tomato rice soup and a Portugese roll and came home to a cat and a blanket and the Office on DVD and home, I came home to home. |
| Went out to Schnack with E. (as she was buying in exchange for me helping her move) and, before that, to the PO box and the office and some other places, but this weekend has me all fogged over and curdled, all I want to do is sleep and make music and draw, which I am doing, but yo! Getting a little bearded and inhuman. Ah, it'll pass, I hope. Mustache growing in nicely, if by nicely I mean horribly. |
| Ok, this NaSoAlMo thing is not going as well as expected. This is, of course, what I get for fecklessly procrastinating and not even buying a recording device until half the month is gone, but still! Staying in, recording jams, averaging about one a day at best. They're charmingly primitive synth & bass rockouts with muffled vox as per usual. I think I may shoot for the Noble Failure variant and just keep working on it until it's done - probably Dec. 3 or 4 at this pace. After all, I'm not playing by any rules but my own, as usual. |
| Went over to the lovely Joan Reilly's for a house packed with people, cats, dogs and kids and food for a fine, relaxing Thanksgiving dinner. Due to poverty I was limited to making asparagus but loose lips resulted in a promise to make another Turducken next year - uh-oh. Well, I have 365 to prepare, and hopefully will remember to do prep early this time. Stuffed full, headed home, tried to stay awake and failed. Sweet, glorious tryptophan - take me away. |
| Holiday pre-day, there's like four people in the office me included, so I'm taking the time to get as much work done as possible out in the open - drawing, printing, burning CDs, whistlin' little tunes, the whole shebangazilla. I am looking forward to eating tomorrow, especially as I have $6 in the bank because I'm not enough of a grown-up to handle my own money apparently (and I forget when the gym membership payment is automatically deducted, among other things). Hopefully I'll be able to get my roommate's half of the utilities and that'll stave off despondency until Tuesday when I get paid. So, thanks for that. More thanks tomorrow. |
| Slow-moving Tuesday, this week's the one where I have to grind hardcore on the NaSoAlMo project, not getting as much done as I'd like due to confluence of poverty, sleepiness and cat-ownership, but whatevs. I'm in pretty high spirits as I creep towards the finish line on Red Eye, Black Eye and gear up the first chunks of the new project. Somehow I feel like my cosmic Tetris skills are letting blocks fall a little more smoothy lnto place these days. Let's hope that I don't get too cocky and have to play Hatris next, that game sucked. Hats - I mean, really. |
| Hello back to work, tonight's the first Mustache Appraisal, I have raised $145 but still need your help. Things are pretty good in the world - I feel productive and rested and wanting to make and do and explore and create. I hope you're all well as well. |
| Saturday was a lot of fun but Sunday (today) - holy crap, just a crazy vortex of ridiculous happenstances. We (Becky & Sara Bee & I) took the dogs to the arboretum and a whole bunch of goofy things happened, from the tiny Japanese women walking the enormous Bermese Mountain Dog to almost running over a pair of hedge trimmers in the street to the BEST RADIO SHOW EVER hosted by a 10 year old kid out of what sounded like his bedroom and we called in a request and he played a Marshall Crenshaw song for "some guy named - Thor, I guess - who's on his way to the train station. Uh, anyway..." His name was Julian AKA Twister! And then on the bus ride home I had to sit next to a Japanese woman chewing gum with her mouth open the whole way, ENORMOUS FROWNY FACE. |
| So the bus leaves Chinatown a little late and we're making decent time up out of the city, I've got my Walkman on and I'm not worrying about anything, we pull through a toll plaza and for some reason the driver pulls over and grabs a wrench from under the dashboard and goes outside. We sit there for like an hour, the cops come, eventually somebody manages to get enough English out of the driver to learn that they're sending another bus from NYC to get us. I guess you get what you pay for with the $15 deals. I get into Boston at 1AM bus-dirty hungry and cranky. |
| HELLO FRIDAY. Had some folks over for Oh! Mikey last night, smashing success, many beers drank and Thai food ate, etc, and then to bed with the new cat sleeping at the foot of it down by my feet for the whole night (super great) - I think she realizes I'm a be out of town all weekend. Only a couple hours before I hop the Fung Wah. The day is going simultaenously slow and fast. Does anybody out there know anything about "Brains" Benton? That shit's my new obsession. |
| Blau! Too much to do today - some store orders have been lurking way too long, gotta get those out, gotta finish this week's comic, gotta playtest, gotta grow a mustache, gotta do the usual and the unusual, but it's almost the weekend. I'm going to Boston this weekend, drop me a line if you want to get a drink or something. |
| I am growing a mustache for charity. Read about it here. |
| Last night headed out to th Alligator Lounge, now my proud holder of possible best Bar Gimmick in NYC - buy a drink, get a free brick oven pizza. I'm serious. They've got an oven burning in back and instead of sellin' them they just bring 'em out if you want them, and for free pizza it's pretty m-fing good. Was there for a preliminary Mustaches For Kids meeting - stay tuned for information on how you can donate money to charity while at the same time watching me grow a totally sweet dirtlip. And then home to a cat who didn't want to let me draw at all. |
| Yesterday I helped E. move and slept, slept, slept. Missed Jaap Blonk because I thought the show was at 8:00 when really it was at 5:30 which I don't even know how I did that. Come back to America soon, OK? And play a better venue. Today I am working and writing and getting things done. What more can you ask for? |
| Like this! Today was the Chengwin vs Chunk homecoming game (pics here and here (and by God, I'm learning that no matter when I shave my face looks like I just rolled it around in a charcoal grill in photographs) and it ruled pretty hard. Since I don't own any white clothes but a T-shirt, I stripped down to it in the 30something degree chill to show much love to my #1 homie Chengwin. Yes, I could have bundled up nice and warm in black but then I'd be on Chunk's side and fuck that. And, of course, I was vindicated in the end, with good ending up victorious. Then home where I fell asleep and was late for dinner but made it anyways. I got like 9 hours of sleep this weekend, nuts. |
| Holy shit, the Wu were amazing. Probably the best-paced rap show I've ever been to - they each did individual 15-20 minute solo sets (U-God (eh), Inspecta Deck (eh), Cappadonna (eh+), GZA (awesome), Masta Killa (good), Raekwon (got fat!), Ghostface (great), Meth (amazing), RZA (super amazing)) and then they all hit the stage for an out of control, amazing, raucous group set. The crowd was crazy, jumping and hollering along. We were on our feet for hours in total so it was good to hit Bellevue and drown in beer and Big Buck Hunter, despite some faggot loading the juke with wall-to-wall Billy Idol. Home and asleep at about 4, a mistake. Wait, this is supposed to be about Saturday but I'm going to write about Saturday on Sunday. |
| Friday, finally - with nothing to punctuate it besides the work/home loop, this week has mos. def. dragged on a little too much. Now watch this weekend zip by so fast I won't even notice it, just to punish me for hubris. We'll see. It's raining all to hell here and I have seven and a half hours to kill before I'm free. Wish my murderin' hand some luck, yo. |
| Quiet week leading up to loud weekend - seeing the Wu-Tang Clan tomorrow night in Jersey, Saturday I'll be running all over the city (PO box, Chengwin, cat drop-off, dinner, etc) and won't have a moment's rest, Sunday a little quieter but for Jaap Blonk that night (and you should go to that, quite obviously), gonna miss the only TV shows I like (Arrested Development and My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss, I know, I am scum) but whatevs, only so many hours in the day and I just can't seem to get through all of them. Back to work! |
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| Working, drawing, percolating - watched a pretty interesting thing on PBS last night about Ted Turner - did you know, when he first took over TBS, he was required by law to show two hours of news but since he couldn't afford a newsteam (most of the rest of his programming was Gilligan's Island reruns) he put together this completely goofy, bargain-basement news comedy show? They showed a clip from it with a dog in a dress walking across the news anchor's desk. I totally need more of that footage, please. I like Ted Turner a lot. The rest of the show was on Russel Simmons and uh I don't like him that much. Then I finished my drawings and went to bed. |
| TODAY IS LIKELY TO SUCK, YOU KNOW? |
| And today? Worked, wandered around the neighborhood (weather's a little warm and I was taking advantage of it), tried to not spend any money as I am pretty railin' right now and need to stash away some ducats for Christmas this year - and yet, pretty fine on the face of it. Got a bunch of drawing and music writing and then, sleeping. Worth it. |
| O man I did things today that I have to keep secret for a few months but good lord they were completely awesome and you will dig them. And then I went to Jersey to watch some professional wrestling and I am the thinnest, most handsome, best-smelling man in the world. Also I can spell things right - best shirt seen read "HOMOSIDAL SUICIDAL GENOCIDAL!" |
| Wow the inside of my face sure doesn't feel very excellent right now, thank you. Forgetting to eat anything but disco fries and having like a million beers and playing Berserk (KILL THE HUMAN!) and then going home and trying to make beats and draw will do that to you. I almost stayed home from work today but then decided to grit my teeth, doff my pajamas and git 'er done. |
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LIVING FROM NOW ON (OR HOPEFULLY FROM NOW-2008) 1) Please don't leave. If you are the kind of person who's talking about leaving, in all probability, you are the kind of person that we need to have around. Sure, you could go to France or Canada or Iceland or Sweden and live there, and in all probability be happy, but do you really want to scatter to the four winds? Yes, things are going to be bad here for a while, maybe forever. But I come from a poor family, and when things start to break down, you can't afford to just toss them. You get out the duct tape and the Bondo and you hold that motherfucking shit together the best you can. 2) Please don't sink. OK, you're mad and you're blaming and it's really, really easy to pound down those Red states, those Christian inbred uneducated hilbilly Red states. Guess what? That's not helping a single iota. Nobody ever won an argument through condescension. If we're going to win the hearts and minds of America in four years (and in two years, et cetera, this isn't just about one big job), we need to communicate to the desires, values and ideals of Bush supporters and truly convince them, with facts AND emotions, of the wisdom of the alternative. No matter how low the road others take, keep your own head high. 3) Please don't cry. I'm still alive today and you're still alive today and we can get a lot more done if our eyes are clear. We've got four years to build anew, and what we need to do is work. Work politically, work culturally, work artistically. But there's an important lesson learned - we lost here because we defined ourselves in opposition to the enemy, and when you use the system's words, the system's structure, it automatically beats you because you acquiesce to it. New maps, kids - instead of "well, I'm not him," let's go for "I'm me." I have a ton of ideas. I hope you do too. 4) Please don't fall. There are going to be a number of attacks on our freedoms and liberties over the next several years. Now more than ever an informed, resistant populace will be necessary to challenge and, if possible, prevent these. It'd be so easy to shut mouths now, let the tank roll us over, but just because we lost one battle doesn't mean that we're losing the others. Now, more than ever, we have to plant feet, straighten spines and stand up. I know where I'm standing. Let's do this shit. |
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Promise me this A world dripping wet with poetry Where every object is dense with meaning and where I can't even look at your face without being blinded by beauty in an infinity of expressions Radiating from it |
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| Another month, I am racing madly down the finish line to getting the first draft of the book out to eager and not so eager publishers, hitting deadlines barely, tomorrow I want every single person reading this to vote, OK? Please, please vote. I am still very sleepy and raggedy and want to take a long hot bath and a long cool nap. OK. |
OCTOBER
all content (c) 2004 k. thor jensen
