Teriblog

Hey, Richmond!

Alazka — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 17:20:59 GMT

The Artist Formerly Known As Alazka will be performing Saturday night at Cafe Gutenberg http://www.cafegutenberg.com/ as part of the Ten Folkin' Years of the Floating Folk Festival Anniversary festivities. http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-07-12-0007.html I remember having my cd release parties for In This Room and later Feela at this joint when they used to be the Main Street Grill, and a picture of their portabello burger is in the liner notes of my Like Fries Love Ketchup cd. Plus of course we had the cd release party for the Floating Folk Festival compilation cd there. So I suppose it's a suitable place for an evening of retrospective. Then I'll be back in town in August to rock out with the Floating Rock Band at Nacho Mama's for the Watermelon Festival, and it's possible we might also be opening for the Yardbirds. We'll see. So hey, if you're not too busy and you can find a place to park, come on out, why not. Buncha old singer-songwriters like me banging guitars and pianos and dusting off songs we wrote when we had more time, dreams and hair . (Except Pam McCarthy; I can't believe she ever could've had more hair than she has now.)

Alazka, adios

Alazka — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 22:55:49 GMT

Hey, all - Due to some troublesome cybersnoops with no respect for my privacy, it looks like I'll have to abandon this screenname and pretty much everything that goes with it, which over the past ten years adds up to a lot. So I'll probably wind up contacting a lot of y'all under a new alias to rebuild my Friends List and my online life in general. This experience has taught me much about the risks of being honest in public. It was nice while it lasted. back into my closet, me

incoming!

Alazka — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:40:52 GMT

I guess if firedancing isn't already The New Bellydancing trendwise, this would be the warning shot... http://health.yahoo.com/topic/fitness/inspirational-stories/article/capessa/76_sonyab;_ylt=Ah1i5uYzU79xu.mtqcxzM9aytcUF

kinda like an event posting, but I'm not in very many tribes these days

Alazka — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 14:26:40 GMT

You’re invited to attend the “Music & Wellness Experience” Weekend hosted by the National Music Center Please join us at 801 K Street, NW on Saturday, January 13th and Sunday, January 14th from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM. The National Music Center’s “Music and Wellness Experience” is to enhance quality of life and build healthier communities through recreational music making. What will be happening in this historic building? ü 64 person drum circle with Remo’s Health Rhythms ü Learn to enjoy and play the piano in just minutes at the Clavinova Connection ü Paolo Mattioli’s FitRhythms ü CityDance Ensemble ü David Keller, owner of Fitness for Life will review posture during musical chairs ü MIE, Yamaha’s Music In Education Program The National Music Center will also preview to the public programs and possibilities slated for 2007. This includes: DJ Classes, Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, 1000 person Drum Circle on April 22nd, Guitar Classes, Music Experience Labs, Recording Studios, Piano Classes, and more… Artists are invited and encouraged to join us to learn about resources available to our City’s Musicians. Join the “Sonic Workout” open to anyone interested in “jamming out.” While in the neighborhood take advantage of the close proximity (directly across the street) to the NBC 4 Health and Fitness Expo at the DC Convention Center. For questions or more information please contact us at 202 383 1836 or email us at info@nationalmusiccenter.org National Music Center Historic Carnegie Library, 801 K Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 www.nationalmusiccenter.org

2006 recap by someone who's been listening to Treasure Island on mp3 from Librivox

Alazka — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 13:07:15 GMT

It was a bad year. An awful year. One of the worst I've known, and I've seen a good sight more than most of ye, I 'ave. Aye. Good riddance to a bad 'un, says I. An' may we ne'er see its like again. The best of the bad: some good parties. The love of a good woman. The burnin' of The Man, and the burnin' of the Waffle. Watchin' some fine young'uns make their way toward bein' proper little menaces to proper society, guitar-slingers and truthspeakers and all. The worst and most memorable bits of the year would hardly be fit for the tender blogreadin' eyes of such as ye, and ye'd thank me not to mention 'em, and so that's all I'll be sayin' about that. I know now a good sight more'n I did when the year was new about Las Vegas, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Black Rock City, Greenville, Kosmos, hospitals, Kaihea, and her kin. And I may be so bold as to say they know a bit more of m'self than they did, and not all of it bad, and along the way I've had the honor to make the acquaintance of some right true men & women. Mayhaps the year to come will feature better days, smoother cruises and the like with many of 'em; I daresay I'd be a grateful soul if'n they did. But it was a bad year, devil take it, it's left some of us scarred and depleted, and may we ne'er see its like again, says I.

Greenville, SC

Alazka — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 05:06:49 GMT

...is not bad at all. And an hour from Asheville, two hours from Atlanta; that's not bad either. And only a few hours from the Triangle, too. And of course it's dirt cheap. Now I shall see what it's like to lose consciousness in Greenville, SC.

Workshop in March

Alazka — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 13:48:48 GMT

It's kinda scary sometimes when you meet someone who seems to have spent a lifetime on nearly the same road as yours, or someone whose path diverged from yours yet still wound up at a lot of the same destinations...Laura Shannon was a friend of mine from third grade through high school, to make a very long story short, and now she tours the world teaching world fusion dance workshops, just the kinda thing most of my tribe.net pals live on, and in March she's coming back to NoVa (from her home in Scotland) for a few days to teach. http://www.laurashannon.net/workshops.html

Choice banner ad du jour

Alazka — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 04:02:06 GMT

This just came up for me: Looking for "[Error generating content]"? Find "[Error generating content]" on Tribe.net! Why yes, I could go for some of that about now...if only it wasn't a school night. And tomorrow there will be kids' parents hanging around my class most of the day, and the kids will be inSANE, and we'll have to walk to the retirement home in the rain to perform and then come back past Dairy Queen, and I won't get even a five minute break between 8 AM and 4, just nonstop silly festivities with an audience and a crew of lunatics. So no, it's a bit late for me to go to Shisha tonight and still be fully functional and in top form all tomorrow. Ah well.

"Ramontana" by Ecstatic Sunshine

Alazka — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 00:35:48 GMT

Some bellydancey person/peeps who like it fast and quirky should totally dance to this track. Not partially. TOTALLY. Oh, wait, they're from Baltimore. Let's just invite 'em over to jam or something.

In Praise of Internet Scam Artists

Alazka — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 23:41:45 GMT

Dear Scammers: I want to thank y'all for being the breath of fresh air in my otherwise stressful perennial quests for housemates. With most of these folks I have to worry a lot about what they'll think of me and my house, but in swapping emails with obvious scam artists I find I can truly relax and take the process less seriously, since even if I told you the house was on fire you'd still tell me you and your employers were completely convinced it would be the perfect place for you for the next three months which you'd like to pay in advance, and that you see no need to meet me in person, you'll just send me several thousand dollars in forged money orders, like the ones I've been collecting and using for bookmarks for the past several years. Lagos is in Da House! Love, azk

Monday morning, restate my assumptions

Alazka — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 23:52:35 GMT

My essential functions (defined as those functions I most reliably choose to prioritize) include, in no particular order: (a) making mortgage payments and paying other bills; (b) educating and subverting ten year-olds of exceptional promise and potential; (c) caring for and appreciating one coder/bellydancer and to lesser extents some other people I love; (d) maintaining my body; (e) building, curating and occasionally appreciating my arsenal of cds and mp3s. If these functions are extrapolated into linear time, my financial well-being will continue to grow, as will my relationship with said coder/dancer and my collection of mp3s. The number of young subversives bearing my memes will likewise grow, and based on recent patterns it appears the numbers of local parents who are fans of my work will as well. As function (d) is not presently being adequately served, there's no reason to extrapolate it, but if it were to be adequately served, the linear time available for extrapolation would be extended, as would a variety of other options. My financial well-being is not especially important nor interesting to me, but, like my physical health, it helps to maximize my overall efficiency and options. Mainly it prevents a lot of even more annoying and less interesting shituations from arising. Certain other functions appear integral but not essential, such as producing music, learning music, performing, lust, politics, art and foreign films, dancing, occasional drug and/or alcohol consumption, reading good books, writing, petting cats, Africa, zen, yoga, computer games, learning languages, feminist activism, travel in general, etc. The demands of the essential functions (mostly a through c, but especially b) have all but eliminated these integral nonessential components of late. Luckily b, c, d and e each offer moments of solace that help me fend off the depression I've been fighting for the past three months (and thirty years). I had a really great weekend of c in particular. And now I find that I am, yet again, way behind on b and d. It's the chronic inability to successfully balance all of these that drives me to despair, and makes me think the solution might be found in declaring a few more functions nonessential. Making and studying music, for example, is part of my essence, and yet it's not a practical or affordable one, so there are often long stretches of my life when there's just no time for it, and of course that's no way to grow and develop as an artist. And yet for all the times I've severed some piece of me in hope of making what remains more streamlined and effective, there can never be a replacement for an integral function. Plus they always grow back again.

There's never a pompous brainless British music journalist around when you really need one.

Alazka — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 15:04:00 GMT

I can't decide whether I think this music should be referred to as: World Tribal Fusion World Techno Fusion or World Trip Fusion. Regardless, I think calling it WTF music will be just fine.

Yo, Bordellophiles

Alazka — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 23:36:25 GMT

Here's another fine link to some Gogol Bordello action. Sounds like we here on the beast coast are missing one hell of a party in Portland. http://www.myspace.com/balkano_paranormale

Arrrgh.

Alazka — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 22:27:17 GMT

I've been lazy this weekend, which has been wonderful after working way too much the past few weeks. And one thing that comes out of relative torpor is moments of clarity when I can hear myself think for a change. What I think is: I still want to find a set of John Zorn's COBRA rules for improvisation and find a crew of musicians interested in trying 'em on for size, within some kinda bellydance-friendly musical idiom as opposed to Zorn's avant-jazz. Ever since I encountered the bellydance scene around here, I thought I wanted to try to produce live music akin to what they were choosing to dance to on lame sterile dead not even reliable cds, and I knew I could, sorta...then at Friday night's show it occurred to me that maybe emulating ATS's improvisational structure would be the way to go. And of course Zorn already wrote the book on that years ago. Plus all the musicians I know around DC are recovering gamers, so Cobra sounds like a perfect match for them. Alas, even in this day and age, even Google cannot find me a set of Cobra rules. There are tons of articles vaguely describing Cobra performances and the Cobra recordings (which everyone agrees don't begin to capture the experience), but nobody's laying out the rules in any more detail than this: http://www.sonic.net/~goblin/8zorn.html So I've emailed some enchanting lunatic in Toronto who's been doing "renegade cobra" shows, hoping he'll share his ruleset and experience.

Be still, my beating heart

Alazka — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 16:20:55 GMT

Only nine days before Pynchon's new novel's sposta come out. Thanksgiving may be a happy occasion in my life for a change.

120 Days

Alazka — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 01:09:02 GMT

These guys are my new favorite Norwegian band. http://www.myspace.com/120days

Self-Injury Bill of Rights

Alazka — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 11:00:06 GMT

Ally in South Africa posted this. Me, I quit SI in 2002, but it's still a part of who I am, and I think this little manifesto has some great points about how SI folks should and should not be treated. And believe me, it's necessary; medical professionals too often treat SI with open revulsion they would never express toward any other condition or trait. The Bill of Rights for Those who Self-Harm The right to caring, humane medical treatment. Self-injurers should receive the same level and quality of care that a person presenting with an identical but accidental injury would receive. Procedures should be done as gently as they would be for others. If stitches are required, local anesthesia should be used. Treatment of accidental injury and self-inflicted injury should be identical. The right to participate fully in decisions about emergency psychiatric treatment (so long as no one's life is in immediate danger). When a person presents at the emergency room with a self-inflicted injury, his or her opinion about the need for a psychological assessment should be considered. If the person is not in obvious distress and is not suicidal, he or she should not be subjected to an arduous psych evaluation. Doctors should be trained to assess suicidality/homicidality and should realize that although referral for outpatient follow-up may be advisable, hospitalization for self-injurious behavior alone is rarely warranted. The right to body privacy. Visual examinations to determine the extent and frequency of self-inflicted injury should be performed only when absolutely necessary and done in a way that maintains the patient's dignity. Many who SI have been abused; the humiliation of a strip-search is likely to increase the amount and intensity of future self-injury while making the person subject to the searches look for better ways to hide the marks. The right to have the feelings behind the SI validated. Self-injury doesn't occur in a vacuum. The person who self-injures usually does so in response to distressing feelings, and those feelings should be recognized and validated. Although the care provider might not understand why a particular situation is extremely upsetting, she or he can at least understand that it is distressing and respect the self-injurer's right to be upset about it. The right to disclose to whom they choose only what they choose. No care provider should disclose to others that injuries are self-inflicted without obtaining the permission of the person involved. Exceptions can be made in the case of team-based hospital treatment or other medical care providers when the information that the injuries were self-inflicted is essential knowledge for proper medical care. Patients should be notified when others are told about their SI and as always, gossiping about any patient is unprofessional. The right to choose what coping mechanisms they will use. No person should be forced to choose between self-injury and treatment. Outpatient therapists should never demand that clients sign a no-harm contract; instead, client and provider should develop a plan for dealing with self-injurious impulses and acts during the treatment. No client should feel they must lie about SI or be kicked out of outpatient therapy. Exceptions to this may be made in hospital or ER treatment, when a contract may be required by hospital legal policies. The right to have care providers who do not allow their feelings about SI to distort the therapy. Those who work with clients who self-injure should keep their own fear, revulsion, anger, and anxiety out of the therapeutic setting. This is crucial for basic medical care of self-inflicted wounds but holds for therapists as well. A person who is struggling with self-injury has enough baggage without taking on the prejudices and biases of their care providers. The right to have the role SI has played as a coping mechanism validated. No one should be shamed, admonished, or chastised for having self-injured. Self-injury works as a coping mechanism, sometimes for people who have no other way to cope. They may use SI as a last-ditch effort to avoid suicide. The self-injurer should be taught to honor the positive things that self-injury has done for him/her as well as to recognize that the negatives of SI far outweigh those positives and that it is possible to learn methods of coping that aren't as destructive and life-interfering. The right not to be automatically considered a dangerous person simply because of self-inflicted injury. No one should be put in restraints or locked in a treatment room in an emergency room solely because his or her injuries are self-inflicted. No one should ever be involuntarily committed simply because of SI; physicians should make the decision to commit based on the presence of psychosis, suicidality, or homicidality. The right to have self-injury regarded as an attempt to communicate, not manipulate. Most people who hurt themselves are trying to express things they can say in no other way. Although sometimes these attempts to communicate seem manipulative, treating them as manipulation only makes the situation worse. Providers should respect the communicative function of SI and assume it is not manipulative behavior until there is clear evidence to the contrary.

Hey, Friends - cat in distress

Alazka — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 23:12:24 GMT

A cat I used to live with is gonna need a home soon, possibly for up to 7 weeks. Anyone have any ideas?

This made me laugh a bunch.

Alazka — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 21:48:13 GMT

Fifty worst videogame titles of all time. http://www.gamerevolution.com/feature/worst_names

A Great Day In Belly History

Alazka — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:25:04 GMT

On this day in 1892, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' first visit to the Americas, the World's Columbian Exposition was decreed, and after over a year of planning (trying to find a venue for the show and hafla, panicking over logistics and finances, scrounging up really really big trays of sushi, cheese and cheese-flavored crackers, etc), in mid-1893 the Expo went on, including the first known bellydance performances in North America. Other fine things most visitors had never seen before they saw them at the Expo included ice cream cones, electric lights, zippers, Cracker Jacks, postcards, spray paint, and the Ferris wheel, all of which I like a lot. (The Pledge of Allegiance was also introduced there, although "under God" was only added in 1954.) 27 million visits were recorded during the six months of the Expo, at a time when the nation's population was only about 50 million.

Hey Richmond! Funnelcake time!

Alazka — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 18:27:40 GMT

I'll be, um, rawking out at the State Fair in Richmond for pretty much all of Sunday afternoon. At 1:00 I take the stage with a Neil Young tribute band I've never met called Broken Arrow. We shall, as befits the combo and occasion, play a buncha Neil Young songs in a Neil Young manner. Then from 2-3 I'll be backing the myriad bards of the Floating Folk Festival Ensemble, no doubt including Wendy Pace, Pam McCarthy, Meade Skelton, Brooke Saunders, and Harry Gore, each doing a few of his or her most popular originals. And from 3-4 we'll morph into the Floating Rock Band, which is basically a buncha middle-aged guys playing dumb covers with gusto and zeal. No set list, no rehearsal, half the time I don't even know the drummer's name because there's no fixed lineup, but it's always a fun time. So there ya have it, about three straight hours of Alazka on bass in a tent by the amphitheatre at the State Fair. And then I think some guy from American Idol's gonna perform. But no, there isn't enough funnelcake on the east coast to make me play bass for him too, so there's no point in him asking me. Got that?

Dead Dog Island

Alazka — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 23:03:37 GMT

Okay, I was never in a band that needed a rider in their contract, but I was in a lot of bands that opened for bands that had riders, and interviewed and/or hung out with many others...THIS gave me the good laugh I'd been craving all day/month/week, as well as giving me pause to miss The Biz for the first time in ages: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1004061iggypop1.html It's the 18-page rider from the Iggy and the Stooges reunion tour a few years ago. And yes, this rider is to show biz contracts what Iggy and the Stooges are to show biz in general.

Uncle Bob needs us.

Alazka — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 02:52:14 GMT

Robert Anton Wilson is nearing the clearing at the end of the trail, but until he gets there he needs money for rent, medical care, etc. If you've read his books, you're probably reaching for your paypal account right now. His is: olgaceline@gmail.com. Or you can send checks. There is no organization, no middle man, just an aging rebel visionary writer dying in poverty. I'm sending everything I was saving for a flamenco guitar, and next month I'll do it again until he no longer needs money. I can't imagine who I'd be without Wilson's books. www.they-live.com/images/raw_button.gif Post this at your website if it's important to you, and link it to the Rushkoff page below, I guess. Details: http://www.rushkoff.com/2006/10/robert-anton-wilson-needs-our-help.php

Yadda.

Alazka — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 19:11:37 GMT

Blah.

I really like the new Banco de Gaia.

Alazka — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:28:31 GMT