chicks with dicks night 2008

the next generation better walk a little straighter

around that peak oil time (2005-2007), our society was built primarily to suck up as much oil as possible. this naturally lead to "advances" in technology for fuel-consuming applications that were substantially less efficient than the "obsolete" older models. most evident in the personal vehicles market, this tendency had started to play out in the realm of appliances and other durable goods, and in some cases i believe the industry might be caught with it's pants down.

case in point is the Tankless Water Heater. since it's introduction to the US market this replacement for the traditional tank-style water heater has been heralded as the future of domestic water heating. it's conveniently small, wall-mountable casing was considered an aesthetic advantage in the crowded mechanical rooms of businesses and homes. but the eco-friendly and penny-saving aspects of this delivery system were based largely on faulty science, or a lack of understanding of the variables of water heating. in my opinion, this design might be the Hummer of home appliances, due to it's high cost and gas-guzzling appetite.

the tankless heater purported to save energy because it only heated water at the moment of use. since there was no tank requiring constant heat to maintain desired water temperature, operating costs for infrequent use go down. what's not mentioned is that in order to instantaneously heat incoming cold water to the desired 120 F, an exceptionally large shotgun-blast of gas-powered is required, and for normal household rates of use gas bills are substantially higher. in short, as a device to reduce energy demand, this technology only works for vacation homes and other infrequently occupied areas as a cost-saving measure.

and how many people are going to have a primary home, not to mention a "summer home?"

Wal-Mart what the fuck moment

right now, at the end of the cheap oil era, we are watching the commercial glass enclusure of land-usury capitalism fracture and crack apart, revealing the Real world we've been trying to ignore. here is an example of the strangeness i won't miss:

there is a radio ad making the rounds today, hawking the recent chinese manufacturing brought to you by the fabulous folks over at the People's Republic. apparently Robitussin is on sale, specifically the "drowsy" kind. "drowsy" is the corporate code word for dextromethorphan, one of those insane poisons that we lovingly add to our "medicine." what's curious about all this is that the advertisement calls the product "Robitussin DXM." DXM is actually a slang version of this drug's name; the bottle itself is labeled "Robitussin DM." also curious is that only the DXM version is mentioned, even though Robitussin is produced in non-DM varieties. could it be that Wal-Mart is subtly complicit in peddling dangerous hallucinogens to thrill-seeking kids?

oky, i don't believe that, but this instance is illustrative of the snake-oil peddling mentality that has consumed our pharmaceutical industry.

pennies from heaven

i suppose i've neglected this space recently. don't blame me, i've been busy preparing for marriage. shannon and i will be married on october 31 at noon, and already the world has changed, to a degree that is so drastic that many aspects of our daily lives seem trivial. so i'm commandeering the music portion of this site and using it to hopefully connect with a few understanding people. maybe, with whatever time we have, we will find some way to stay safe through this difficult time.

prospects are dim for the american working man, especially in his capacity to provide for his family on what have lapsed into depressed wages. but the new challenge for an adult is to find a way to assimilate his recently acquired skills, gained through whatever form of innoculation (university, unions), and retool this knowledge the dismantling of american capitalism.




if we're smart, and history proves we're not, we'll use the dimming of the american bulb as a sort of "quiet time" to gather the lost knowledge we will need to survive in a world without fuels. mechanics, construction workers, engineers, etc may even experience a temporary construction boom, as shopping malls are turned into schools, subdivisions into urban rowhomes, schools into hospitals, and whatever other retooling is necessary to accomodate the swelling mass of "economic refugees" we will encounter in this century.

futurists of the past have always come up with zany ideas of what the next three decades will hold technologically, from the Jetson's flying-saucer utopia to images of firemen flying on batwings to deliver hosewater to burning skyscrapers. as recently as last year, one could be forgiven for believing the future holds such marvels as quantum computing, or genetic therapies. in light of recent events, the voice of the capitalist seer is conspicuously absent. the average american seems to believe that the day-to-day shift of rather arbitrary number games as the DOW to be the best barometer for the entirety of our economy, and still has a tendency to think the economy is "stable" today if the index went up that day. a landfill's worth of lies festers deep under some of the basic elements of american lifestyle, and now the future looks as though we may have to live without our precious gadgets, and grow the fuck up.

i think any forward-thinking american should start to really ponder his/her personal energy diet, and figure out how he/she will find the resources required for a life without fuel. our journey into the tomorrowless era has only begun.

before the butt, there was...

This is from the Shannon collection. Better known as the dc go-go group behind "The Butt," Experience Unlimited were a ten-piece soul outfit in the mid 70's. some of it veers into hyper-repetitive hippie jams and whatnot, but tracks like "people" and "peace gone away" are on par with Mandrill or Earth, Wind & Fire for musicality.

enjoy

farts from hell, lighting the place up

this is a transfer from the white vinyl version.

Thralldom were a side project of ryan from unearthly trance, a new york blackened doom band. the simple description is that Thralldom dispenses with the doom and goes for straight black metal in an early darkthrone or hellhammer/celtic frost vein, but that hardly does it justice. you get the same hateful vocals and visceral guitar sound UT is known for, throw in noise elements and so-crazy-it-works early bathory style guitar solos, and finally add a frenetic pace that never seems to relent, even when hitting a more mid-paced stride. definitely worthy BM from a sadly defunct band, though ryan has a newer project called the Howling Wind that treads similar territory with equal panache.

here

you might have wanted me to take you to dinner first.

well, here's a couple of solid rockers.

this here artifact has been out of print for a few years now i believe, so i'm sure nobody is going to bitch about me posting it. it sure does harbor a lot of nostalgic feelings for me. Carrion was my first band to stabilize and take steps creatively, after many attempts and misfires. my first tour (a gigantic failure but a hell of a time) was in support of this release. as a matter of fact, this was the first thing i was involved in to be "released" by anyone (thanks, josh). Nate Simms, who would stay thru all of Carrion and continue with Nick Skrobisz in The Wayward to the present day, made his debut as drummer here.

this stuff was the first batch in a series of songs employing a more byzantine songwriting technique, culminating in our final, unreleased (but soon to be blogged) 6-song demo, which were a practically riffless uber-composed orchestration. at this early stage we still let things calm down with Sabbath-style riffs occasionally. many parts are variations on themes stated earlier, but stop-start rhythms betray where we were headed.

get it here