A Letter From Nepal

A translation of a letter written by Baburam Bhattarai, the leader of the Nepal Communist Party (Maoists) about the death of Nepal's royal family.

More props for Kate

Ok, so Kate gets more props. The sudden appearance of Radford got me thinking about some of the old jamband stuff I was listening to back then. So, I pulled out some CDs and started ripping them so I could put them on the old iPod. At this moment I'm grooving in my seat to the seductive sounds of The Beatroots. These guys were so damn much fun. African beats, mixed with Western European/Middle Eastern melodies. Can you create music that's more fun?

In the mid-90's, at the hieght of the "jamgrass" scene. I used to get really bothered over the fact that everyone seemed to be so caught up in bluegrass. I mean, I don't mind a little pick now and then. But, most of that stuff wasn't even new grass, much less bluegrass. And it's all anybody could seem to wrap their heads around. And there was me. Digging on the Beatroots and Baaba Seth. And listening to European groups like Afro Celt Sound System (now known simply as Afrocelts) and American groups like Material. Not to mention digging guys like Baba Maal and Alpha Blondie. And then don't get me started on Irish bands like Planxty, The Dubliners, Altan, The Wolf Tones, and Bothy Band, just to name a few. Or hell, even the fucking Pogues!

Anyways, my point is that there was all this great music. And all this great music to really dance to. I don't mean things you can sway to, or you can turn into dance music if you want to. I mean stuff you've gotta dance to. I mean stuff where it starts playing and you start moving, before you even know what's happening. But could these people get what I was getting at? Nope, they just looked at me with blank stares.

That was pretty much the point where I lost interest in the jamband scene. Just kind of realized that it wasn't my bag anymore. Somewhere along the line I'd gotten off that bus, and started hitch hiking. I get nostalgic now and then, but I don't regret the move. What's the chance that I would have gotten back into indie and punk if I'd stayed there? Hell, where would I have found the joyous sounds of Japanese Noise bands surrounded by a bunch of hippies?!?!?!

I'm starting to reapproach the scene these days. A little now and then. I'd be really surprised if I ever get back into the scene. But, I'm making peace with it. There was a lot of fun had by me back then. I wouldn't trade it for the world. But I'm to eclectic for that scene. The few people I've stayed in contact with don't get half the stuff I listen to. That's not their fault, of course, that's a better ratio then the one for normal people.

But, don't get me started on normal people. They're just to damn weird for me to understand. Why anyone would choose sanity as their life's path is just way beyond me.

afterword (or what ever the word I want is)

Baba Seth broke up after their sax player, Hope, joined Deep Banana Blackout, a jamband funk outift that are fun, so I won't begrudge her choice. But, it is to bad that it had to lead to the end of a really fun band.

The Beatroots apparently broke up as well. At least all signs of them on the web seemed to have vanished. Doesn't surprise me. They never really toured much outside of Maine. And the two vocalists had a kid to watch over. Guess they just decided to focus on other projects. I still remember the festival they put on in Maine though. Such a beautiful fun weekend.

The jamband scene flirted with getting into music from outside of the US. Homegrown carried a Material album, which I think Lee was very smart for doing. And Dr. Didj was getting big as I was stepping out. But, even he seemed to be approached as almost a novelty act. Any conversation about him quickly made mention of the didgeridoo (sp?) and never seemed to go past that. Who knows though, may be they got it. May be there's a band mixing African beats with melodies that spin Celtic and Middle Eastern melodies together, just like I always wanted. May be...

Random Links to Random Things

I guess we'll start with the newest finds and work back, figuring in threads of thought as I go along.

I acctually was in the process of getting some work done today, at work no less, when the president of the company and our HR person stopped by. Thier in town for some big gala thing. And since I've never met either, I figured I'd talk to them. Nice women, and I don't regret the conversation, but little work got done when they left. Instead, I started wondering around web sites. In the process I came across an interesting little comic called, Business As Usual. It's fun, you should go read it. There isn't much, but may be there'll be more.
Something about the comic reminds me of Ein Stuck Natur. And that's another comic you should read.
Back to BAU though, Kate also gets props for attending Radford Univ. Which was the first college I went to. I only lasted three semesters and only got 15 credits out of it, but oh well. I was still there.

On the tech front, Lisa Rein has video footage of Alan Kay's presentation at the Emerging Tech Conference a few weeks ago. His presentation was broken up into three areas:

1) Pointing out how little has changed in software over the last 40 years. This was depressing. Basically, we still don't have access to software that the people at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center invented back in the 60's. People just forgot about all the cool things that PARC invented and decided it wasn't important. Well, damn them!

2) A demo of kids (around 10-11 years old) working with Small Talk. Building little systems and playing with them. The point was to teach these kids about science in a way that wasn't just memorizing facts. This was cool as hell, and instilled in me, being a systems geek, a need to get a copy of Small Talk, or Squeak, the updated version of Small Talk, running on a machine. I need to investigate that.

3) A demo of Croquet, which is Alan's new product. This looks cool as hell. And it's funny that I see this now, as I'm in the middle of reading Neuromancer. I'm not sure what this could be used for though. Not that that's a bad thing. I'm a believer in the old ethos of "invent it, then figure out what to do with it." It's just not high on my priorities of download right now. Maybe once it's in beta stage.

A few days ago I was poking around some news sites, and came across the The Religious Movements Homepage @ The Univeristy of Virginia. I really need to play around with this more, but they list Discordianism, so they get props.

And speaking of religious links, I rediscovered The Gnosis Archive after the post around the Wandering Bishops, and what a fine archive it is.

OK, that's enough for tonight.

Correcting a misconception

So, Joey makes a pretty common mistake in this post. Where he says this,

"Going south of the Mason-Dixon line is sometimes like going back in time a hundred years."

Now, as someone who was born and raised in Maryland, I must take some exception to the phrase. See, what Joey really meant to say was the Potomac River, not the Mason-Dixon line.

The Mason-Dixon line seperates Maryland from Pennsylvania, the Potomac river seperates Maryland from Virginia. DC, btw, is on the northern side of the Potomac. The Potomac was the dividing line during the Civil War, and while Maryland is technically below the Mason, it's not really part of the South.

A few facts to prove my point:

1) Untill this last election, Maryland has had a Democrat as govenor since Agnew left the office. Hell, our last Lt. Govenor was a Kennedy for christ's sake!

2) DC was one of the first cities in the country to elect an African-American mayor.

3) DC is also the place where gogo was born. And is home to the legendary DC punk scene. Including such bands as Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Fugazi, The Make Up, Jawbox, The Dismembermant Plan, and a whole slew of other great bands (it also must be noted that Black Flag didn't really hit it's stride untill they hired DC native, Henry Rollins for vocals. I blame the rest of Rollins' carrear on living in LA) Not to mention Dischord Records

4) The first time I ever saw, future mayor of Baltimore, Martin O'Malley, his band, O'Malley's March, was opening up for Shane MacGowan, of The Pogues fame. So, OK, his band is a bit light for my tastes, and they ALWAYS open for Shane when he plays Baltimore (it's getting old) but name me another mayor who can boast opening for the legendary Shane? (And for Joey, O'Malley's March does indeed include an accordion player.)

Of course, even Marylander's are not immune to this mistake. Years ago the Baltimore band, Lake Trout used to play an instrumental called Mason Dixon. When a friend and I asked about the song title, their drummer told us that they named it that because people below the Mason Dixon didn't seem to like it. He felt kind of dumb when informed that we were in fact below the Mason Dixon. :)

And of course, this is all in good fun. Hell, I even find myself currently living on the bad side of the Potomac (Northern Virginia). Course I'm moving back to Maryland as soon as I can. It's kind of like a NY/NJ kind of relationship. :)