Cover of Björk's Homogenic (One Little Indian, 1997); image courtesy of slantmagazine.com

Cover for Björk's Vespertine (One Little Indian, 2001); image courtesy of harmony-korine.com

When I began conceptualizing this blog in the ol’ brainspace, one of the first sections I came up with was “Records That Made Me a Feminist.” I knew Björk was going to get at least one entry. Homogenic and Vespertine each played a vital part of shaping my politics. So, I figured out I’d probably have to write about them together.

Pairing albums for this section of the blog is something I originally wanted to do this when covering Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun, which I started listening to around the same time as PJ Harvey’s Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. I liked the idea of dialoguing seemingly dissimilar work by female artists with one another, but I feared covering those two albums together would short-shrift the artists who made them. However, talking about two distinct pieces of work by one woman seemed easier. And essential. So here we go.

I must admit that covering Björk’s 1997 and 2000 full-length releases present its own political challenges that makes me think critically about how I understand and practice feminism. Both of these albums made me a feminist largely because of the boys I was preoccupied with at the time.

But while my initial reception and resulting connections to them were tied up with potentially normative feelings around romantic angst and heterosexual coupling, I feel the albums speak to my development at the time as well as transcend it. In other words, Homogenic and Vespertine may remind me of boys I used to date, but they speak to larger, more overtly feminist issues as well.

Of course, being a feminist doesn’t mean you can’t like boys or be hung up on them from time to time, so long as you don’t let them run your life. Which I don’t think Björk endorses in either of these records, even though she herself has an ambivalent relationship with feminism (though not with calling out the music industry’s sexist practices of attributing male engineers and instrumental songwriters).

Importantly, as both albums were prescient to my development, they also went over my head when I first listened to them. Debut and Post were more accessible and, as a result, I liked them almost immediately. It was hard for 10-year-old me not to fall for the girl dancing through New York City on a flatbed in the music video for “Big Time Sensuality.”

But Björk’s next two albums took more time to process. Both albums mark advances in the artist’s production sensibilities, approaches to music-making, and interest in electronic instrumentation. Thus, just as Björk had to evolve as a musician before creating these albums, I had to mature a bit as a person before liking them as a fan.

So, Homogenic came out just as I was starting high school. I don’t exactly remember when I bought it, but I think it was sometime toward the end of junior year. I completely ignored it at the time. Or rather, I listened to it once, went “ooh, so angry!” and put Post back on.

The particulars I’ll keep to myself for the sake of decorum. Suffice it to say that I dated someone for a little while, fell in love, we broke up, and I spent a little over a year trying to get us back together. It didn’t work out. Eventually I got over him and whatever I thought we were, but not without some pain and denial and then serious personal re-evaluation. The healing process involved some righteous anger, loud parties, several bottles of wine and other goodies, and burgeoning feminist development. After a rough start, 19 turned out to be a pretty okay year. Homogenic was its soundtrack.

Now, I have no problem acknowledging that this guy was a total jerk to me. But feminism isn’t only about recognizing and calling out chauvinistic bullshit. It’s also about self-empowerment, personal accountability, and un-learning heteronormativity and patriarchal co-dependence. It isn’t always just the guy’s fault, even when it is.

Thus, I also have to own up to being really needy and delusional at the time. I pinned my worth on whoever I was dating without questioning whether being with them was actually good for me. So I projected my own big feelings and insecurities on someone who clearly didn’t want to be with me. I was ignoring the reality of the situation and, as a result, my own well-being. I finally recognized what I was doing when confronted with the lyric “How could I be so immature to think he could replace the missing elements in me — how extremely lazy of me.” 

Kinda appropriate that a break-up record got me over mine, no? Apparently, Björk made the album after breaking up with drum’n'bass musician Goldie while they were working on their own project. Hence lines like “So you left me on my own to complete the mission, but now I’m leaving it all behind.” But it pretty much hit all the right notes of melancholy, indignation, rage, and feisty recovery for me. I’m a quarter Norwegian on my mother’s side, so even the line ”I thought I could organize freedom — how Scandinavian of me” in “Hunter” applied.

Attention must be paid to the album’s sound and how it marked a musical departure for Björk. Post was an eclectic mix that boasted songs like “Army of Me,” “Enjoy,” and “Headphones,” that opened up her sound to include state-of-the-art aggressive digital distortion and serene electronic minimalism.

While this was evident in the production work Tricky and 808 State’s Graham Massey did on Post, it wasn’t the focus. It would come to define the artistic work she began doing with producers like Mark Bell on Homogenic and would continue to do with Matmos on Vespertine. But I’d hedge that most casual listeners just remember Post’s ”It’s Oh So Quiet,” which was produced by Björk’s then-mainstay, Nellee Hooper, the man responsible for all the production on her breakthrough Debut. He was also responsible for “Hyperballad,” which I’d argue suggests the artist’s shift, which is fully evident on her next album.

Man, I wish I could post the music video, but WMG has apparently disabled the audio. All the more reason to check out Michel Gondry’s Directors Label DVD, or any of the other myriad DVD titles that have documented her videography.

So Homogenic marks a transition from being a pop star to an artist who challenges her listeners’ ears and expectations with each release. By 1997, we also heard alternative pop stars like Beck and Radiohead establish themselves similarly with Odelay and OK Computer. We would hear Radiohead do it again in 2000 with the mind-blowing Kid A, where they really demonstrated their love for electronic instrumentation and experimental production techniques.

Björk was already on this path in 1997, but while Radiohead looked outward toward the fallabilities of modern life, Björk looked inward at the seductive pleasures and wobbly peculiarities of domestic life and partnership on her next record, rapturing at her voice’s clicks and finding percussive possibilities out of shuffled decks of cards. I don’t think these innovations went unnoticed when Radiohead went to work on In Rainbows. To me, Vespertine’s influence is all over a song like “Nude,” which was originally an outtake from OK Computer. This is further confirmed by the band’s rendition of Homogenic’s ”Unravel” as a tip of the hat. As if lead singer Thom Yorke’s backing vocals on “Náttúra” aren’t enough.

Hmmm. Maybe at some point, I’ll consider Yorke’s duets with Björk and PJ Harvey. Yorke is one of my favorite vocalists, a fact confirmed by a recent revisit of Hail to the Thief. If one of my friends ran a blog on male masculinity and music culture, I’d pen a guest entry in a second.

But I was afflicted with a troubled mind when Vespertine first came out. In addition to boy heartache, I was going through some considerable familial strife. I was also starting my first semester of college, so a tackier person might blame 9/11.

After seeing the music video for “Hidden Place,” I dutifully bought the album, along with My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, another at-the-time inscrutable release, at the Tower Records by campus. I listened to the album a few times, but my head was not in the right place for it. It was too contented and quiet. I couldn’t hear it. And then for a little while all I could hear was Homogenic at full volume.

Stills from the video that convinced me to buy "Vespertine"; image courtesy of unit.bjork.com

To be blunt, Vespertine didn’t really make sense to me until I started having sex. Critics like Ryan Dombal would seem to concur. I remember seeing her performance of ”Cocoon” on Jay Leno and thinking that it was really quiet, but totally not getting how micro-embodied intimacy is the song’s entire purpose. While I had a good understanding of mechanics and had engaged in related activities before going into my first listen, I don’t think a song like “Cocoon” makes sense to a person unless they’ve experienced it, to speak euphemistically, in a corporeal sense.

BTW, yes that is Bill O’Reilly adjusting his tie. If he was actually listening to the song, I’m sure he’d be appalled by how delightfully, defiantly sexual this song is and that it was performed uncensored on network television. Watching it now, I can’t believe I wasn’t really listening. Maybe I should have been leaning into the television.  

Again, the particulars here aren’t really important. I was a week or so into being 20 and, frankly,  didn’t want to be a virgin anymore. The guy was someone willing, it was fun, and didn’t last very long.

In short, the romanticism and emotional connectedness that is often built into such an experience was not there, nor do I regret that it wasn’t. I would find that later, which would make my understanding of those aspects of Vespertine more profound and further develop my feminist principles.

I bring sex into the discussion because I, to borrow briefly from Arrested Development’s George Michael Bluth, find Vespertine’s complex eroticism one of its most key contributions to what made me a feminist. Though perhaps a stretch and certainly not without its own distinctions, I tend to think of this album in accord with Audre Lorde’s wonderful essay “Uses of the erotic: the erotic as power.”

And while I don’t know if this entry’s subject has read the essay, something tells me that the same woman who identifies as bisexual and recognizes the erotic potential in mundane activities would concur with much of the theorist’s thesis.

Of course, feminists must also have the wherewithal to recognize that eroticism, even ephemeral evidence like orgasms, are luxuries to some women and girls. Not everyone is given a space, a country, or a political system that allows them the safety and freedom to enjoy and explore these possibilities.

But eroticism isn’t about cataloging who did what to whom for Björk. As David Fricke gestured toward in his review of the album for Rolling Stone, it might be everywhere, at once tangible and theoretical.

This is where I think it’s important to consider the album’s production sensibilities and Björk’s particular uses of her voice. In addition to non-conventional practices like sampling and turning seemingly non-musical domestic items into instruments, the singer’s voice is the album’s real focus. Because of how closely she’s miked, you can hear every tic, breath, whispered turn of phrase, and any other sound coming out of her mouth. As a result, her voice becomes a varied and vital instrument, an idea she has continued to develop and that has continued to stay with me.

Decided to not use my huge gloves today, to see what it would be like. Got stung as the Bee’s seem very aggressive today for some reason. Maybe it was the windy weather, it was bright and sunny but quite windy. But calm down by the hives.

Checked the new Brood Box and it was completely empty, bees but no wax. So I think my placement of putting at the bottom was a mistake. So I have switched them around, empty brood now on top.

The main Brood is almost full of wax, saw Queenie and evidence of lava and still haven’t seen any eggs yet. We didn’t inspect the last four frames as the Bee’s were getting annoyed and the smoker had gone out. Plus my hand was hurting because of the sting, I know but dear reader it hurt.

So put the Real Estate sign installation on the top between the hive mat and the tin roof, there was less condensation that the last time. So I think the hole in the hive mat is a good idea.

M also checked Honey 1, we will we await her blog for that visit.

Next Inspection 5 Dec 2009

Lately I’ve been having to give my little bunny Priti her antibiotic medicine. It’s pink liquid. I can tell she’s feeling better too. She’s not so grouchy and even seems more active. To give it to her, I bring her in the kitchen and place a small towel on the counter top. And then I hold her in an upright position, holding her around her little body and next to me. And then I place the plastic thing on her mouth and squirt it a tiny bit. She swallows it. I think it’s helping her. I haven’t found any blood in her newspapers in her cage. I also crush her vitamin C tablets and pour them into her water. I see her drinking that too.

In the picture is my bunny Priti, my little alpha bunny. She’s quite a bit fatter now. This picture was taken only a couple of months after I found her on my patio. She’s still tiny, but chubbier. She has a little white cowlick on her forehead, It looks the way that cow’s foreheads look, with white fur and the way it grows in all different directions. Sometimes I call her “little cowlick.” Tomorrow I’m buying another camera and take shots of Goldie. I’ll be posting them here.

This morning I slept until 7:30. And after I got ready I went out to Target and bought some alfalfa and cat food, both on sale. I’ve given them both their hay and they eat it. But they don’t eat it as quickly as they eat the apples, carrots and lettuce. They really love their veggies.

Right now little Priti is hopping around the living room. She loves to get up onto the couch now, and lay down on her tummy. Little Goldie’s in Priti’s cage. But only because I have to separate them. They’ll fight, and they did for a second before I grabbed Goldie and put her into the cage. Priti’s quite a character. It’s her cute way of just plopping down anywhere she feels like it to rest. And she splays her hind legs out in back too. I walk around and pick up the little poops they make every half hour or so. Rabbit poop smells very…….vegetable-like. Not at all like cat poop.

Last night while on the imac at school, I placed an ad on Craig’s List for a rabbit cage wanted. By the time I arrived home, someone had seen the ad and called me as I walked in the door. It was a little after 10 p.m. So I may go and get it Friday if I haven’t found another for free. The guy wants $40 for it.

As I was leaving school last night, my car wouldn’t start. I called the AAA road service. And then I tried and it started. So they didn’t need to come out. This morning it started right up. I think it’s not used to being out in the cold weather at night. Since I park it inside my garage these days.

I also made it over to the sew and vac store and bought some vacuum bags. This allowed me to vacuum my bedroom, including under the bed and in the closet. The man at the store, who I’m sure is the owner, wanted to sell me a vacuum for $49. And when I inquired about the price for tuning up my Singer sewing machine that was also $49. And he had a $10 limit on using my ATM card there to buy the bags. I almost left, but then he let me buy the bags. I told him I’d bring my sewing machine back. But I may just check with the fabric store to see how much they’d charge to adjust my tension and oil it. He also tried to talk me into charging the vacuum, telling me that the charge wouldn’t show up on my bill for a month. My VISA isn’t like that. I couldn’t get it through his head, explaining that it’s subtracted from my account immediately, and it is. He tried giving me a lecture on credit cards. Not a good way to generate business. He’s Indian. Not the native American kind.

I seriously thought that I’d have enough energy to go to the gym tonight. But I felt so tired at 4 that I laid on the couch and fell asleep, until the phone rang. It was sister Judith calling me to tell me about the mechanic down the street that charges only $9 for an oil and filter change. I’ll have to call Sherif and tell him about that. I’ll say “Sherif, the nuns found me a cheaper mechanic.”

I love being in my home here at night, watching t.v. and hanging out with me animals, my furry friends. Nala sleeps in the bedroom with me at night. She’s so big now, my big kitty. She’s gotten so big, especially around her tummy. I’m so tired, I stayed up late last night watching t.v. after school.

Recuerdo que a finales de los 90 se puso muy de moda por aquí el drum & bass y nosotros íbamos a fiestas dedicadas a él y todo, en el Apolo creo, y al final tuvimos que dejar de ir porqué si lo bailabas toda la noche al día siguiente tenías agujetas en piernas y espalda por culpa de su ritmo tan cortante; así de petardos éramos. También recuerdo que Goldie era como un artista ya medio consolidado, que parecía que se comería el mundo. Ahora tanto el drum & bass como Goldie, están un poco out de toda la movida electrónica, y la verdad es que ni me acordaba de ellos, hasta que he visto que son los protas de la mezcla que le ha hecho él mismo a Calvin Harris para su tema “Flashback”. Aunque parece que a Goldie se le ha ido la mano con el pitch de la mesa de mezclas no, es que le ha querido dar un toque jungle al tema, y lo ha acelerado de tal manera que  pobre del que se lo encuentre en un algún club…. mientras, Calvin se cuela en un plató del “X Factor” inglés con una piña en la cabeza….

Calvin Harris – Flashback (Goldie Remix)

Last night I was watching California’s Gold with Huell Howser on the PBS channel. I can’t stand his Arkansas hick accent. It was like watching more of the “good-ole-boys club”. He was at the Hearst Castle, taking a tour. It’s an 80,000 acre ranch. Okay, I just want to say that yes, it’s very impressive. But hey look, there were buildings and houses and living quarters that didn’t even have anyone living in them. And guess what I began to think? It went something like this……Why don’t those rich people give some of that space to homeless people? I bet they could even use it as a tax write-off. Maybe I should write the Hearst family a scathing letter about it. These days, it’s not even normal (to me) to be so ostentatiously wealthy, and not give to charities. Who knows, maybe they do give to homeless organizations. But they don’t allow any people to live in those buildings do they?

I’m up kinda early, doing a load of laundry.

Later today I’m going over to the WISE Place. I think I want to use their computers to send some resumes out. And I just like being there. And of course go into the closet where they have lots of clothes for free to look in. Last night I went over to the graduation at their home. There were 4 women, who I didn’t really know, graduating that program. Again, I am surprised by all of the “12 steppers”, addicts. There weren’t any women there who were living at WISE Place when I was there. Nobody of the “old crowd”. Not that I’m old, it’s just been a while since I’ve moved from there. And I still like going back and seeing the staff. It’s nice, makes me feel good, and gives me hope like nothing else, that there are caring and supportive women in my life. It’s something I’ve never had before, ever.

Nala slept in my bedroom with me again last night. I’m wondering if she is fed up with the bunnies and how much attention I give them. The attention that she used to get. I try to hug her as much as I can. I was thinking now, that maybe I shouldn’t have bought that second bunny. But it’s too late, I love her now. And soon she’ll have her own cage to live in. Last night she was having fun running all around the living room. I gave them both lots of carrots, lettuce and apples. Goldie ate everything and then some. She’s sleeping under the couch now. The last thing I remember as I was falling asleep last night was seeing her laying on her side in back of the couch, and then hearing her scratching at my bedroom door. I got up for a second and then she ran back into the living room. So cute.

I took my little bunny Priti to the vet for her re-check. She’ such a cutie. The vet technician was a nice woman about my age. She weighed Priti. She weighs 3 pounds. She said that she’s beautiful and she’d never seen a bunny this color. And that she’s an “alpha” female. I asked how could she tell this. She says it’s because of her attitude. She showed me where I’m supposed to clean her around her little butt. I didn’t know this. And she also said to buy hay for her to eat. I told her Priti’s story of how she followed my cat home. She said I’ve done really well with her. She’s doing well she said. So I’m happy that she’s such a healthy bunny. I asked her what breed she is, she’s a dwarf.

I just went out to the post office. I noticed what an absolutely beautiful day it is today. This weather is perfect, not hot, not cold. I love days like this one. Today I’m going to the WISE Place house for a graduation at 3. And of course lunch too.

While I’m here at home today I’m doing a load of laundry. I’m washing the huge quilt I had on my couch. The one that Priti peed on. And I have another load to do also.

Last night I went over to Bethany for dinner and visiting. Sylvia made enchiladas and rice and tacos. Her cooking is so good. The dining room filled up with smoke and the super loud fire alarm went off. We evacuated the place. I like Sylvia. And she saved some food for me and some lettuce for my bunnies. But then I had to give back the enchiladas because one of the residents (who’s unemployed) needed to eat and we’d eaten all of the dinner. So I gave it back. That was tacky of Bernie to do that, making me give back food. I’m getting less and less fond of her and that place. And of course the usual women showed up. For some reason, Marisela didn’t get on my nerves like she usually does. But then again, I didn’t sit too near her or spend too much time in the area where she’d sit. But I did have to sit at the dinner table with her. I just did that until I was finished eating. And then I went into the computer room and logged onto Facebook and harvested my crops. I noticed that when I arrived home I felt a bit depressed after the visit there.

Today I noticed a lot of posters taped all over the complex for a little black lost kitten. So I called the number and asked the woman if she’d gone to the animal shelter, she hadn’t. And then she told me the story of how the kitten got out. Apparently they heard the kitten crying that night at their door. But they never got up to let it in. I’m thinking that maybe they don’t deserve to have a pet, since they can’t care for it. I hope the precious little kitty found a good mommy.

My Nala is out on the back patio where she likes to lay and be the master of her domain. She likes to run up on me when she sees me walking back from the laundry room. She’ so funny too. Priti came out of the bedroom this morning and found that Goldie was in her cage. And she began teasing and trying to bite her through the cage. So I took Goldie out and let Priti get back into her cage. Goldie is under the couch now. I so hope that I get that cage for her this week.

I’ve been noticing how happy and content I feel lately. Sometimes I get that “when will things get bad again?” feeling. It’s like I never expect to be happy for too long, as eventually something happens that creates another setback for me. I was thinking this morning, as I was drying my hair after taking a bubble bath, that I’ve been here for almost 2 years. So I’m getting stabilized again. The longest I remember living anywhere is that little studio apartment. I lived there for 5 years. That’s because they never raised the rent and we had free cable and didn’t have to pay for water or gas. I’m hoping that I may stay here for a few years longer, at least until I get my housing.

I called my brother and we are trying to plan in driving up north to Kirkwood next year, to visit Larry. I want to see how it is up there. Because eventually I’ll move out of this county. It’s too crowded here, and I don’t like the criminal gang element that’s around me all of the time. If I don’t move there I’ll move somewhere else. I mean, that’s what I want to do. But it really depends on work and where the jobs are at that time.

This morning I made new job searches on the 2 job sites I use a lot. And I made my graphic design resume public. That would be great if I could get some interviews at least.

Here I am at school in the lab, looking for some inspiration for my next project. This is going to be a short post.

By the time I got to work I wasn’t in a very good mood. Not a bad mood, just not a good mood. Those guys there really notice too, when I’m not myself. I find that interesting. So by the end of the day I was making raspberries into the radios. If anybody doesn’t know what raspberries are, they’re fart noises. All of the mechanics, the lane leaders, our supervisor, and a few others all carry the handheld radios. Clarence said that he heard the noise thinking “somebody’s farting.” It was funny, one has to be there to understand. We were having fun too, laughing.

It’s getting cool out at night. I sleep with the heater on, and have my kitty inside with me, to make us cozy. Today I came home from work and let Priti out of her cage. She went under the couch and she and Goldie fought. They were really tearing it up under neath there. Then little Goldie came out looking all disheveled. So I picked her up and kissed her and put her into the bathroom with her food until I caught Priti. And I had to give her the antibiotics that she doesn’t like.
Lately my cat Nala has been cuddling on the couch with me. She loves to climb up and lay right down on me….purring. When I leave I tell her that she’s going to “bunny-sit.” She has to watch the bunnies for me.

Well it’s almost Friday. Tomorrow I get to go to Surfside at 2 or after, for my client Amber. And then I’ll have some cash.

I don’t know much about art, but I know what I hate. I also don’t know an awful lot about graffiti either – my tagging career stalled through cowardice, a piss-poor handstyle and leaking marker pens annhilating my Karl Kanis. You see, I knew when to stop. Some people just don’t. Perhaps I’m in the minority, but while I’m a hip-hop fanboy, I quickly tired of talk of graffiti as a hip-hop ‘element.’ That’s constrictive bullshit. I prefer my writers to listen to Slayer or Grand Funk Railroad, rather than body-popping to the local legal wall and cloning DOZE characters. That said, I loathe…LOATHE, the new breed of ’street art’ and those inspired to paint weak political statements on walls constructed from GCSE sociology and punchlines from last week’s ‘Have I Got News For You.’ Wheatposting your character in London’s hipster hotspots in the dead-of-night? Getthefuckouttahere. Grow the balls to do a throw-up you fucking coward.

Pochoir, this Cartrain kid …total trash. Kids are out there (misguidedly) risking their lives to make a name for themselves, and the industry shines a light on these jokers? Seriously, put the fucking stencils down. Some loser calls himself ‘The Decapitator,’ chopping the head off ads and he gets shine? Something’s gone terribly, terribly wrong. This clown doesn’t even have to watch for the third rail – all he has to risk is a papercut. But look? Do you see what he did to Shakira, he cut her head off, see? Beyond the physical attributes, Shakira is twenty times the maverick that this Decapitator clown is. Please people. Stop covering this bullshit. My associate Mr. Charlie Morgan hates it more than I do, but his reaction to the current explosion of drivel is unprintable on pixel or paper.

Galleries shouldn’t be the last refuge of failed writers. And to the people that went over Banksy’s ‘DIY Punk’ piece in Sutton, I salute you. That smug creation; tinpot satire mocking tinpot anarchists, needed some damage.

Great stuff.

When it comes to graffiti’s ” real deal,” the likes of Futura earnt their current position through graft, innate skill, practise and good timing. Plus some serious wilderness years. Too many Futura disciples miss the point. Lenny is a great guy and an undisputed legend who deserves his king status, but his approach gets bitten. The copyists and sychophants leeching off his output should follow his mantra, the one that took distinctive imagery and letters to their current point, which isn’t imitation or dickriding, but artistic progression, and one old-school rule that should never have been relegated, quaint as it seems nowadays; no biting.

Those covering Futura’s work would benefit from highlighting the new breed of bombers alongside it, rather than generic muppets who want gallery space from the get-go. Everyone wants to be an art critic, but who’s got enough knowledge to actually criticise anything? I’d sooner see two extremes – prolific destruction or painstaking feats of fine art. I’m not interested in a middleground any more.

But I believe in e-karma. For every hateful outpouring, you’ve got to find something positive to wax lyrical about. This week I finally got round to picking up Tom J. Newell’s ‘Pictoral Showboat.’ That was actually the purpose of this blog entry. I got carried away. After seeing a little preview of Tom’s comic strip work, my interest was piqued by a sly little piece called ‘The Urban Arts Boom’ where he made his point intelligently without resorting to even a third of the above vitriol levels. A UK-based artist and presumed pop culture junkie, Tom’s a decent writer too. Most comic ‘zines fall apart on half arsed jokes, but Tom finds the balance.

Artistically, a spot of Charles Burns and the Hernandez Brothers is visible in the black and white penmanship…it’s like a Fantagraphics release with a British skate mentality – Santa Cruz, Captain Beefheart, DJ Premier, CAP, Mad Magazine and Crosby, Stills & Nash which could easily be the chorus of my very own ‘My Favourite Things’) are all in the mix. Plus there’s a rendering of Inspectah Deck as a duck. Check out Tom’s site here. I’m assuming issue one also acts as a C.V. of sorts, and I hope I see more of his work and a second issue in 2010.

On topic, you’ve gotta love YouTube. Goldie in full swagger mid ’80s mode, talking about his NYC visit and the then-status of some legends, “…but DEZ is thinking of coming back to do something, knowwhatImean?”

In 1989 there was a particularly acceptable use of street art – the World Street Art championships held in beautiful Bridlington. There’s plenty of phenomenal pieces of promo-only ‘Zulu Dawn’ documentary footage online, but these six parts are a great standalone. There’s Troop on the feet, Slick, Risk, lots of pale, windswept b-boys, Normski and people pompously trying to differentiate tagging and “aerosol art.” Fantastic.

Watching Sabrina with Joia.  She loves this show.  I’m taking her to school this morning so we’re embarking on our morning ritual.  I don’t even think I loved the show as much as she loves it when I was younger.  She likes the talking cat.

I had an extremely productive day yesterday.  It felt good.  I will keep this up.

Tunes:
Smooth – Jealous Eyes (Utah Jazz Remix)

Bal – Les Levres En Feu (track is in player)
Loves it!  I am quite the Bal fan.

Today’s Oldie:
Goldie & Rob Playford feat. Diane Charlemagne – Inner City Life – FFRR 1994
I woke up with this track on my mind.  It basically speaks for itself. <3

ASC – Fabric Promo Mix

Tracklist

1. dBridge – City Of Lonely Runaways [EXIT]
2. ASC – Porcelain [NON PLUS+]
3. Instra:Mental – No Future (ASC Remix) [NON PLUS+]
4. Plus Ultra – ? [NON PLUS+/EXIT]
5. Consequence – Rollin Supreme [N/A]
6. Consequence & Instra:Mental – Reflex Reaction [EXIT]
7. ASC?
8. Resound – ?
9. ASC?
10. ASC – ? [NON PLUS+]
11. Black Pocket – U’re A Star (dBridge Remix) [EXIT]
12. ?
13. Consequence – Fog [EXIT]
14. ?

I got out of bed super early today. And I spent all morning in the city traffic court. It was a lesson in the bureaucracy of the city governments and how they allow certain people to drive without licenses, and why. As I was sitting in the “audience”, I noticed that there were quite a lot of people (who weren’t citizens), who were there because they’d been ticketed for driving without a license. As I waited my turn to stand up in front of the judge, I thought that this was why this city allows so many illegal aliens to be here. The city and State is making a lot of money for fines on ticketing them for not having licenses. The fines ranged from $600 to $1200. And the people weren’t even able to speak English, they had to use the Spanish translator. I write that in case there are any far leftists reading this who would say “oh how do you know they were Mexicans?” They quite possibly weren’t Mexicans, they may have been south Americans.

I was there for my “fixit” ticket, not having my tags current. And for “failing to make a left turn.” The judge offered to lower the ticket amount to $129 if I plead guilty, and of course I did. He asked if I had the amount today, and I didn’t. So I was then sent down to the “collections” room. Where they then gave me an extension of a month. I guess that $129 is better than the $227 that was originally on the ticket. So all in all, I was relieved to get that out of the way. And I didn’t even have to pay for parking. I parked my car at WISE Place and walked the several blocks through the Hispanic area of this city.

When I arrived back at my car I decided to go and say hello to Gloria the cook at WISE Place. She told me more information about Susie, living over at Bethany on weekends. Again, I was shocked. I thought, so that’s what she was doing there last Tuesday morning. The things that sister Louise allows to go on there is just so out of what I thought was normal, that it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around. The last time I saw Susie was less than a week ago, as she was leaving Bethany in the morning. She was such a smart-ass to me, that I really don’t want anything to do with her. As she thinks that she’s special. She must feel that way if she is allowed to live at Bethany again. When nobody has been allowed to do that, ever! Nuns know nothing about the term “enabling.” There’s an element of enabling that goes on there that isn’t at WISE Place. And that’s one of the reasons I like WISE Place, and why I am more “loyal” to them. This was what I was accused of by Sharon, the bulldog “case manager” at Bethany. If being loyal to a healthy environment is all that she can find wrong with me, then that’s fine with me. At least I don’t suffer from whatever disorder she has.

I’m now back in my little menagerie apartment with my bunnies and kitty. Nala had eaten all of her food and I fed her more. And I had to chase Priti back into her cage and take Goldie out again. So Priti’s inside and Goldie’s running around again. I now know for sure that Priti is having a period. There are little bloody trails all over the floor and the blanket that was on the couch last night, along with her little tiny poops. I’m thinking about buying little diapers for her furry butt. Yea I know, I need to get another cage.

Last night I put Goldie into the bed with me. She likes to get under the covers and sleep with me. She lays on her tummy. And when I either roll over and turn my back to her, or just doze off, she nips me. Actually, it’s a bite sometimes. She bit me several times before I finally got up and put her in the cage, letting Priti out. And then somehow Priti ended up under my bed.

Poor Nala has to put up with a lot too. But she knows that I love her too. I just saw her out front with a lizard. She loves her lizard hunting. Sometimes I see other apartment complexes with no kind of trees or grass or landscape inside and I think that I couldn’t live there, because Nala wouldn’t like it.

I was going to go out to the other courthouse and do my probate listings. But I’ve had enough with courts today. And Keith in Connecticut sent me some invoicing to do. Oh and I was going to Sherif’s today too, to get my car an oil and filter change. But since I didn’t get to go and work for Amber Friday, I need to postpone that trip. But maybe I’ll make it to the gym today. And I guess I could do some vacuuming. The babies have torn apart another one of my crochet pillows.

I hope that Oprah has a good show on today, oh and I have my other DVD to watch.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I’ve been reading up on bunnies. The books say that in order to not let your bunny get lonely, to go and get another bunny to keep her company. So I did that yesterday. I drove to the animal shelter and looked over all of the cute bunnies. There were so many that I had some trouble and guilt choosing one. The one I bought is a female one-year old, cream colored bunny. She was acting so cute every time I’d put my fingers up to her nose in the cage. She just had a cuteness about her that said “pick me, I’m a good girl.” The note on the cage said she’d been a stray, so I chose her. She costed $35. And it’s been worth the time and money I spent yesterday. She’s so affectionate and cuddly. I named her Goldie. She has pink eyes and ears and a brown light smudge of color on her nose. It’s precious. I didn’t have any idea that bunnies were so cuddly. She lays next to me on the couch and just cuddles. And there’s a noise that bunnies make when they are content. They grind their teeth really fast. It makes a kind of almost purring sound.

I got her to keep Priti company. But they immediately fought. There was fur flying everywhere, literally. Little Priti was not happy about another bunny being here. She was tearing chunks of fur out of the new bunny. So I separated them while they were fighting, literally with my hands. And Goldie bit me real hard and drew blood. So I put Goldie into Priti’s cage for a while. After Priti did a little harassing of her while she was sitting in her cage. I took her back out and just cuddled her on the couch. And then later on I took her into the bed with me. She’s a super good cuddler. She made her teeth grinding noise too. It’s now apparent to me, that Priti was wild when she came here to me in July. She’s still got her wild ways. Comparing to the new bunny especially. And I think Priti is just a runt or a mini bunny. She’s smaller than the Goldie. I’ll have to get another cage. Because there is no way that they would share a cage. Priti is upset about the new bunny being in her cage. They bite at each other through the cage. That’s what they are doing now. And I have to admit that it’s cute to watch Priti, she sticks her tail straight out when she’s mad.

It’s really cute how Priti plops down onto her tummy here on the carpeting. She seems pretty confident about laying around the place now. And Nala has already found out that the new bunny bites and chases her.

So today they’re both tired of apples. Yesterday they both ate lots of apples between them both. And Priti has a little diarrhea. But she’s fine otherwise and she’s still being her usual bunny self and eating her pellets and some baby carrots and drinking water. So that tells me that she’s okay. She’s refusing apples now. They both are refusing to eat apples. I went to Trader Joes and bought more apples and some carrots for them. Along with $90 of groceries. Now I have some food here.

There were 2 or 3 other bunnies I also wanted. There was a tiny male gray fuzzy lop-eared bunny. And a black and while male bunny too, he was fixed. I wanted him a lot. I emailed Niya to tell her about the lop-eared bunny, she said she was thinking about getting one. I’d love to have the other 2 bunnies. But 2 is almost too many.

I looked over my finances for the next month, as far as income. And I’ll be okay if I just only pay bills. I have 2 more paychecks and two more unemployment checks coming before rent is due for December. (see I am already worried about rent for the next month).

I’m confused about the holiday. School is closed tomorrow because they said it’s a holiday. But it’s Veteran’s day Wednesday. I’m thinking that tomorrow I should go and appear in court for my traffic ticket. But I am not even sure if it’s open tomorrow.

Yesterday I went over to a video or DVD rental store and rented both Slumdog Millionaire and another one called The Duchess. Slumdog Millionaire was long and really sad. The way that children are abused in other countries is just unbelievable. Not that it doesn’t go on here in the U.S.

New image in the fish drawing contest

All ps, grid, pen tablet and lots of reworks, lol …
Goldie drawing picture

New image in the fish drawing contest

All ps, grid, pen tablet and lots of reworks, lol …
Goldie drawing picture

After yesterday BeeKeeper club meeting, I asked a couple of people how to stop condensation in the hive.

Goldie seems to have a big problem with water build up in the roof, most people agreed that cutting a hole in the Bee Matt which is actually the layer below the tin roof. May help this issue, as it causes the heat from the hive to rise up through the hole and push the water down the walls.

So we did this to our new hive matt and added it to Goldie today, we also added a second brood box at the lower level. This is to make the Bee’s fill it up quicker. We have been told…

The hive inspection went well, with signs of new bees and lots of new brood and capped food. Did see the queen near the middle, but then lost her in a crowd of bees.

Also removed all the door blockers as the hive is very strong now, hopefully it can fend off any attack from other bees or wasps (not strong this time of year)

Honey1 is also back up and running with a NUC placed in it today, M will tell you more in her blog post.

Hive looks good, will do another inspection in two weeks 22 Nov 2009.

See ya…G

Well, found this cool Goldie remix of Calvin Harris (see below) and it inspired me to put it up along with some other tracks that had caught my ear in the past in the genre which i admittedly know little of im afraid. Lets R(^_^)LL>>>

Goldie has done a wicked remix of “Flashback” the new track being released by Calvin Harris. Have not heard very much at all from Goldie lately, so this remix is very refreshing. I like it alot, I’m sure real D&B heads will call this remix very commercial but its cool, good beats, good bass. This was one of my favourite tracks off the album and I think the remix still has all the elements I liked in the original.

Calvin Harris – Flashback (Goldie Remix)

Also got a Matrix remix of the Mistibishi track “From Memory”. Its got quite an anthemic build up at about two minutes long. But when it drops I really like it, the vocals through out the track work really well and that fast beat really gets you going. I can’t really do this track justice, I would listen to it and make your own mind up.

Mistibishi – From Memory (Matrix Remix)

This my favourite D&B track at the moment, its “Still Waters” by Dave Owen. The reason I love I think because its that chilled liquid drum and bass beat, that I can’t get enough of. Don’t know much about the guy apart from he’s a US based producer. I would just say that you download this one because, I’m sure you love it and have played on repeat.

Dave Owen – Still Waters

Influensaen herjer! Her i huset ligger fruen strak og jeg gjør mitt beste for å unngå at jeg og guttungen blir smittet også. Så mens landet er i kriseberedskap, og Helsetilsynet dikterer hva leger får lov til å si, så synes jeg det var på sin plass å reflektere litt over hva som inspirerer meg, i tilfeldig rekkefølge.

Guttungen verdens beste gutt!

Min kone sier seg jo selv! Kjempeflott jente, i tillegg så er måten hun kjemper seg opp på etter den dramatiske ryggepisoden noe alle kan lære av…

Chrissie Wellington Verdens beste kvinnelig langdistansetriathlet. Verdensmester tre år på rad, samt raskeste tid gjennom tidene sier jo egentlig sitt. I tillegg så viser hun en evne til å glede seg over andres prestasjoner som er verdt å nevne, bla ved å dele ut finisher-medaljer til age groupers i Roth etter selv å ha satt verdensrekord.

Erik “Goldie” Guldhav perfeksjonist og petimeter av rang. En av Norges beste på Ironman-distanse. Når det gjelder planlegging, må han være ett forbilde.

220 triathlon er et engelsk tri blad jeg har lest siste året. Masse gode tips, tester historier og ikke minst informasjon som jeg som newbie har slukt med enorm apetit.

Fine høstdager høsten preges jo vanligvis av regn og vind, men i år har det faktisk vært en del fine dager. Det er utrolig godt å komme på jobb etter en frisk morgensykkeltur i fantastisk høstvær.

Turer med familien gir masse energi. Desverre så er ikke guttungen like giret, han er tross alt stort sett på fire turer i uken i barnehagen, og en god del av de er ganske så lange!

Planlegging: Planlegge for fremtiden, for så å se resultater av det er utrolig inspirerende. I år så planla jeg for å fullføre Ironman. Dette klarte jeg! Til neste år så har jeg to hovedmål: Kalmar på 13 timer og en vektreduskjon på 10 kg. Videre så har jeg delmål som å lære meg crawl, bedre grunnform etc.

Kunne sikkert ramset opp en hel del flere punkter her. Det viktige nå blir å klare å overføre inspirasjonen til faktisk handling!

Balloon week. yay!

My little sister Goldie that is in love with the color pink and of course balloons!

Check out the rest of the balloon photos… you won’t be disappointed.

Hi All,

Well with the weather being amazing in the hills today, we thought would inspect Goldie to see how she was going.  Its been a couple of weeks, since we have checked out the Goldie Girls.

Well, findings were that that there was a lot of condensation under the lid of the hive so we left the lid off to dry while the weather is sunny.

The Hive has ten full size frames, and seven out of ten have been drawn out with wax.  Great to see the frames that we built are being used by the Girl’s.

Very exciting ! …we were able to identify the Queen in the one of the middle frames.

We also spotted some new young Bee’s.  Spotted capped brood and capped food we think….still learning!  Also spotted a strange creation of wax that doesn’t look like a queen birthing area, maybe it was new drones ? …we’ll keep you posted.

Overall - OK : )  …. forgot to look for eggs in all the excitement, but evidence of new bees so looking good.

Off to buy some new hives …planning inspection of Honey 1 ….

Next Inspection 7 Nov 2009

See ya…G & M from Kiwimana

This pencil which is arrested between my index finger and thumb, twitches nervously when my thoughts are idle. It is most restless when I fidget, deep in the mental process of writing, as I am wont to do.  A tap-tap-taping of its pink rubber head becomes involuntary, yet the writing implement seems pleased enough with this deliberation of ideas. Tapping, it tries in its own way to revive the muse lying in wait somewhere beyond the surface of the bare world. When Goldie finally makes an appearance, the pencil raises its head triumphantly. Once again I become eloquent and my loyal pencil, in a sudden burst of energy only matched by my own creativity, does its share in removing the starkness from the world.