Tag Archives: Nth in a series

Things I need more of, in no particular order. (first in a series)

– science-fiction
– coffee
– Super Paper Mario
– Eric B & Rakim
– weird sex
– sun
– N2O
– time
– Amsterdam
– robots
– teeth
– teeth made from robots with smaller teeth inside them so that they chew my food for me when my mouth is closed
– lucid dreaming
– Strongbow
– the responsible abuse of pleasure

THINGS I HAVE BEEN ENJOYING LATELY, FIRST IN A SERIES

Now that Hell Month is over (and I have been VINDICATED) at work, I can get back to my regularly scheduled LJ slack-breaks.

THINGS I HAVE BEEN ENJOYING LATELY, FIRST IN A SERIES:

Specimen – Electric Ballroom
Specimen is one of the most important bands in goth and deathrock music. They were the band that founded the Batcave in the early 80s, asking the regulars (Robert Smith, Nik Fiend, Marc Almond, Nick Cave, etc.), “Are you man enough to wear makeup?”

They released a handful of singles and an EP, and then broke up sometime in the mid 80s, with the members joining Siouxsie & the Banshees, The KLF, Sinéad O’Connor, and eventually opening the NagNagNag club — but never again working together as Specimen.

DUN DUN DUNNN…

UNTIL NOW

Now, when a band that defined a genre comes back to write a full length album (in this case, their first full length album) after 20 years of inactivity, you might not have high hopes. Instead, you may have low hopes. You may, in fact, criticize their poor decision making skills and/or cocaine habits that drove them to this. You may also vow to never listen to the product, so that your precious memory of the band is not forever sullied. This is because the album will cost you $25 and 42 minutes of your life that you can never get back. It is always a bad idea, and it is always a terrible album.

THAT IS…

UNTIL NOW

This album reminds me a lot of Tones on Tail, and the good parts off Mechanical Animals and Peepshow. There isn’t a bad track on it, and the two bonus songs are solid dancefloor EBM and Psytrance tracks. Who knew they had it in them?

You should buy it. It is awesome.

Play some Skynyrd: Second in a series.

A note to all my friends and foes,

Tomorrow night I will be performing live at Zaphod Beeblebrox, with the good folk from PIN, Place, and Foil Conduit. This is my second ever live show, and while I wasn’t happy with how the first one went, I believe that anything worth trying is worth trying twice.

So, this makes twice.

Although the idea of standing on stage and playing is terrifying enough without having to see too many familiar faces in the audience, I can’t guarantee that you’ll have another chance to see/hear me play. So if you’re into that kind of thing, I suggest you come out tomorrow.

Wish me luck, and a BSOD-free hour.

Mt. St. Helens, Hewlett-Packard, Heroin Moral Panic, Richard Pryor On Fire!

In an attempt to try to clear my head from this pounding nightmare of a skull, I bring you part 2 of the JAIRUS’ MOVIE DEALIE PROJECT, wherein I list 5 the “best” films of each year I have been alive.

Today’s installment: 1980!

1: Raging Bull: This is, in my humble opinion, one of the best films ever made. It hurts me to watch, because I know neither De Niro or Scorsese will ever come close to this level of work again. The cinematography is incredible, the acting is un-fucking-believable, and the editing is brilliant beyond the limits of the english language. I cannot say enough good things about this movie. If you haven’t seen it, rent it tonight.

2: The Empire Strikes Back: The best of the Star Wars series, and not surprisingly, the movie that George “The Jerk” Lucas had the least to do with. Character development, action, humor-that-doesn’t-suck. Perhaps the best sequel ever made.

3: Airplane!: I could watch this movie a million times, and still laugh. This movie is made even more hilarious by the fact that it was Leslie Nielsen’s first foray into comedy. Before this movie came out, he was well known for his serious roles, alongside actors like Robert Mitchum and Gene Hackman.

5: Friday the 13th: This movie set the bar for slasher films. Alongside Halloween, this film changed the way horror was directed. No longer were horror movies a study in someone else’s misery — this film’s atmosphere manages to put the viewer in the shoes of the victims. It sounds obvious in the post-Scream horror movie scene, but this is where it all started.

4: The Blues Brothers: I think this movie busted up more stuff than any movie before it. Also, the stuff busted better. A smash-em-up buddy movie that doesn’t insult my intelligence? PERHAPS SO, MY FRIENDS! (Check this movie’s trivia page on IMDB for all kinds of useless information.)

Honourable Mentions: Kagemusha and Dario Argento’s Inferno. The Shining isn’t on the list because I seriously can’t stay awake to finish it. That movie has put me to sleep every single time I’ve tried to watch it.

Disco, The Walkman, “My Sharona”, Jairus “Close The Decade Early” Khan

I hereby announce the JAIRUS’ MOVIE DEALIE PROJECT, wherein I will be listing 5 the “best” films of each year I have been alive.

Today’s installment: 1979!

1: Alien: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Simply the best sci-fi horror ever made. Ridley Scott nears perfection (which he will achieve three years later) with his Skeletor-like control over every aspect of this movie’s production. This film is a study in minimalist terror, and is made more incredible by the fact that it was Scott’s second film. Ridley, sci-fi needs you. Come home, all is forgiven.

2: Apocalypse Now: It is immediately obvious upon watching this film why it was responsible for the physical and mental breakdown of so many of its cast. Francis Ford Coppola didn’t make a movie about war, he made a war and then brought cameras along.

3: Mad Max: Not the first Australian film of note, but certainly the first to kick so much fucking ass. Although he may have left us for Jesus, Mel Gibson was the best post-apocalyptic badass of the 70s.

4: The Tempest: A post-punk Shakespeare, as directed by Derek Jarman. I shouldn’t need to say anything more to convince you to see it.

5: Life of Brian: The second-best Python film, if you’re a fan of absurdist humor. The best Python film, if you prefer lucid wit. ROMANI ITE DOMUM!

Honourable Mentions: Zombi 2, The Muppet Movie.

Life and Death on the Streets – Third in a Series.

I remember.

…

When I was sixteen or so, and my police file listed my residence as “NFA: NO FIXED ADDRESS”, I spent a lot of time at The Square. All of us. It was where we spent our time.

There were maybe two dozen of us there when this kid grabbed my collar, his face caked in blood.

“You gotta help me, man. Some big jock just fuckin’ decked me and took my bag. I was holding for someone else, I don’t even know who this guy is. I gotta get it back.”

That was all we needed to hear. Very few of us agreed on anything at all, and most of us had been in scraps with at least half the people there. We only knew solidarity when someone from the outside fucked with us.

There were dozens of us at the square, and then just like that, there were none.

We followed buddy (who’s name I don’t remember, if I ever knew it) down the back streets, until we found the jock. He was drunk, or high, or both. Big motherfucker, too. Bigger than any of us, at least. Nice jacket, nice shoes. He mumbled something under his breath, held buddy’s denim backpack close to him, and we circled around him.

…

The details are fuzzy, and largely irrelevant. I remember one of the squeegee kids broke his squeegee handle over the guys head, and someone else kicked him into a car so hard he went through the window, and the alarm went off. At no point did he fall down, he just staggered and kept swinging at us. Probably less than half of us did anymore more than watch, but it didn’t matter who did what. We were all complicit.

Ten minutes later, we’re out of the alleys and on the main street. Traffic is heavy, and he’s bleeding bad. Someone picks up an iron garbage can from the street corner and throws it at him, in the middle of the road. I don’t remember if it hit him or not.

We all know this can’t go on much longer. It’s broad daylight, and someone’s almost certainly called the cops by now.

He jumps in the back of a moving pickup truck, and then he’s gone. The backpack is in the middle of the road, and the kid with the bloody face grabs it, and takes off. The rest of us follow his example, and find other places to be for the rest of the day.

…

Someone went down to a few hospitals the next day, pretending to be a concerned bystander. This wasn’t uncommon when situations like this happened — it was always better to know than to not know.

He had come in for stitches, and then gone into a coma. He died due to a ‘closed head injury’. That’s what they call it when you get hit in the head hard enough to kill you, but not hard enough to actually crack your skull open.

All of this is true. This really happened.

…

No one needed to speak aloud what we all knew:

We are all complicit; we are all murderers here.

American War Crimes, first in a series.

Think of the children: “I think they thought we wouldn’t shoot kids. But we showed them we don’t care.”

Cluster bombing for fun and profit: “Described as “a horror,” two nights of U.S. bombing produced babies cut in half, dozens of severed bodies, and scattered limbs. The victims were farmers and their families. There were no Iraqi artillery, Republican guard troops or military installations within miles.”

Translating dreams into words, first in a series.

It was simple, really, what I had to do.

The only way to get out of the game was to bring others into it. I lied with a smile as I described what would be happening, and coaxed her into it with saccharine sweetness. I had no choice, I kept reminding myself. It was either this, or a lifetime of pain beyond anything I had ever known.

And when she realized what was happening, I did not flinch at her screams.

…

Scars.

I looked upon my collapsed chest with something akin to sadness, although I cannot say exactly what it was. The rings of scars that circled my torso were made insignificant by the bloodless gouges under my nipples.

This was only the beginning, I reminded myself. I had my whole life ahead of me.