Internet friendships are upside down. The first things you know about me are my most vulnerable feelings, but it’s a huge step to show you my face or my name
I saw someone listened to one of my older albums, Seram Island Mystery Carcass part two: FADE INTO THE DIRT. It got me to revisit that and part one, starting just as a "oh yeah, this thing" bit of personal nostalgia.
But when I recorded part one, my grandmother asked me to make her a copy, just knowing that I'd been working on something--no idea what, really. And yet listening back now, it's astonishing that she had this weird thing on repeat in her car for weeks. https://traiken.bandcamp.com/album/seram-island-mystery-carcass-part-one-cyst
She had some health issues and I became her chauffeur in that weird pocket of early 2020, just before the pandemic. So since this was the burnt CD she had in her car, it's just what we put on instead of her usual conservative talk radio, which I couldn't stand. So listening back to it now transports me to that time, but I also see it now after losing her, after the world changing for the worse, after everything being so terribly different.
What's also sadly poignant now is that two of the tracks, Left-Handed Wind Shifter and Bucket of Blue Steam, were named after absurd impossible items from a story my dad would tell about how kids in the boy scouts would mess with the younger kids by telling them to fetch these things on camping trips. So there's two very strong associations with the half of my family that I lost last year, not that I ever have to go far to still think and miss them.
The 40th Bandcamp Friday is on May the 3rd. Lets do a Bandcamp/Faircamp thread. I will spend about 50 on music, show me what you got. If I like it I might buy it or wishlist it, I will listen to everything posted to me in this thread in the next week and comment a bunch. Feel free to post a friends stuff, I don't care about genre, not the biggest fan of some but whatever. Also, post even if you've sent me your stuff before!
@limneticvillains My Jamuary album is vast, varied, and very very good. The album before that, Broken Angels, is a far more digestible 12 tracks, but took way longer than the 31 of Jamuary, and is also very good. Broken Angels is a more focused sound, instrumental industrial metal; Jamuary spans the venn diagram of electronic and rock. https://traiken.bandcamp.com
I wondered what wah pedal Aaron North used on the 2006 Nine Inch Nails tour, and then I did a search and found a website dedicated to listing all the gear he used.
This is what the internet is for--not this petty arguing, doomscrolling, algorithmically-induced rage and depression.
So naturally I started looking up how much those wahs go for, and video reviews of it to get a better sense of the sound. The pedal is like a self-parody of dumb guitar gear naming conventions, full of douchebag puns and macho horseshit; there is literally a switch between "estrogen" and "testosterone," and you can tell this didn't come from a playful enlightened viewpoint on gender dynamics.
But in one video, the guy says the estrogen mode is "more expressive," and testosterone "gives you more punch, but the punch masks the expressiveness." And I'm almost certain he says these words with zero irony or self-awareness. Cracked me the fuck up, though.
My mom had surgery today to try to rescue one of her eyes from a cataract. (The other eye is a lost cause after a different surgeon absolutely beefed a different surgery and called it a fluke. Don’t worry, I have cursed that doctor with my mind) So far we can’t tell if it worked, because her vision will be blurry for a little while. J-M has been on edge about it all day because he is the sweetest man alive 🥰 my mom is in good spirits so far. I daren’t discuss the other lurking threat from availing oneself of health care services in 2024 because it is too fucking upsetting to contemplate
@elana I'm hoping whatever the complications are get dealt with swiftly and completely. Having access to medical care in a closed hospital seems ideal, though, in an entirely opposite-of-ideal situation, in a no-way-ideal world.
@elana I'm giving you full permission to be angry at anything that reminds of you stuff you desperately do not want to think about; it doesn't make you a bad person and is fully understandable. I certainly am understanding it all too well.
@hilljam "Jazz" and "rules" seem like odd bedfellows, and I think there's a larger categorization to music that could be applied: whether the emphasis is on structure or on expression. It reminds me of something Trent Reznor said about being inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, on what "rock" even is and that the Hall of Fame can recognize "synth" bands: "It's the spirit of expression and, to me, freedom and no limits to expression. That's my version of what rock means."
with my dad catching two "mysterious illnesses" this month, my mom has really been going through her bottle of adorable froggy drops (our name for the CPC mouthwash she has from Japan; I talked about it a bit here, as part of my second megathread about travelling to Japan during this pandemic: https://mastodon.social/@elana/111901721087575561 ) I stockpiled a big bottle of the 'mild' variety and a travel bottle of the regular kind, but she's already sniffing around, and I think I need to be able to source more for her peace of mind 😆 I'm sure any type of CPC mouthwash is fine, but these are cute and have froggies on them!!! Anyone have any recommendations for Canadian CPC mouthwash that they trust, before I start pulling shenanigans with a Japanese shipping service 😆
@elana I’ve been using the Crest Pro-Health for years, long before the pandemic (not to sound like a healthcare hipster). It’s fairly standard minty stuff, not overly intense until about the time to spit it out, so I can vouch for it on those terms
I'm very anxious, on top of a ton of dreadful feelings: some of my father's ashes are being buried tomorrow. I'd just like to hear from other covid cautious people that it's reasonable to leave the house in an N95. I know people do it, but the last time I went ANYWHERE was last year, for my dad's Celebration of Life and my grandmother's funeral. That's it. I don't go anywhere, and I'm full of fear.
So I just need to hear that people do it and are okay.