skud

Mirrored from Infotropism. You can comment there or here.

Last May I posted about The Plan. You might have heard the quote, variously attributed to all kinds of people but apparently actually said by Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, “No plan ever survives contact with the enemy.” That’s not to say mean that there’s no point planning, but that your plans need to be adaptable and learn how to roll with it once the action starts.

I don’t really like to think of TAFE as “the enemy” but I will concede that a few months’ contact with it made it very clear that my plan needed to adapt. After lots of discussion (including on this blog the other day) I decided that I the benefits of TAFE (a structured curriculum and a piece of paper of dubious value at the end of it) weren’t worth the cost (4 days a week and endless boredom and frustration).

So, I let the people at school know I wouldn’t be back, and now I guess I’m technically unemployed until I line up a bit more paying work. Meanwhile I’m sidekicking gigs with a few different sound dudes, trying to get some more hours crewing for the production companies, looking forward to some studio work that should ramp up in a couple of months, helping a couple of people set up studios (home and pro), and doing a bit of low-key sysadmin on the side. My main goal between now and the end of the year is to get more paying work.

Oh, and I didn’t finish Anathem. I skimmed to the end, though, and found that even when I knew how it ended I didn’t really care.

Mirrored from Infotropism. You can comment there or here.

Went to see Girl in a Coma play the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI the other night, supported by Venus in Furs (warning: auto-playing music) and Little Red Wolf.

Girl in a Coma were great — hard to describe their musical style, but if I tell you that they’re on Joan Jett’s label Black Heart Records and that she plays guitar and sings backup vox on their recent album, that’ll point you in the right direction. Every website I’ve seen describe them takes the mashup approach: punk-alternative-latin-rockabilly-blues-rock, or some such thing, which isn’t inaccurate. Worth a listen anyway. I picked up two of their albums, “Trio B.C.” and “Adventures in Coverland”; from the latter I particularly liked their version of Joy Division’s “Transmission”, which starts out wistful and a little girlish sounding, but soon gets into some serious guitars-and-wailing type noise, and more than does justice to the original.

Much as I liked Girl in a Coma, my pick of the night were actually the first openers, Venus in Furs, a local Madison surf-punk trio. Their drummer Marlo was the best I’ve seen in a while (not that I’m an expert, but she really drew my attention with her tight beat, smooth handling of tempo changes, and use of the whole kit) and their bassist Nat had that over the top rock star demeanour that always makes for a fun show. Between the shirtlessness and the Gene Simmons tongue action she gave me some good photo ops for my new camera. I’m still working on how to make it do its best in low light but I threw up what photos I’ve got this Flickr set. Venus in Furs don’t have an album out yet but you can hear some of their stuff on their website.

Venus in Furs at the High Noon Saloon, June 1 2011

The other thing I wanted to mention is Sarchasm, a local kids’ band who regularly play at 924 Gilman St where I volunteer as a sound engineer. A few weeks ago I helped them record a bunch of songs live at Gilman, which they’ve now put up on their Myspace page. If you listen to one song, make it their punk-rock cover of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl”, which I guarantee will get you smiling. Their EP, “Take #924″, recorded by yours truly, is available for $5 from the band in person or drop them a note on Facebook and they can probably get it to you somehow. They have a show on Sunday June 5th, 6pm, at Ashkenaz in North Berkeley. Check them out!