Hello, how have you been lately?
Man… I’m beat. I did nothing this month – nothing relevant to my hobbies, at least. Had a lot of overtime at my job, so once I got home, I couldn’t do much. My plans were entirely derailed. That’s life.
Will say though; laying down on a mattress, staring at the ceiling in total silence… what a delicacy. The mind feeds on nothing, too. Not ‘nothing’ as in, nothing, but the real deal nothing. The space between your eyes and what’s in front of you. The time spent doing nothing, for me, feels like time in its most natural state. When nothing is messing with your perception, a weight emerges; seconds start to weigh like stainless steel coins. That’s definitely life.
It’s a Sunday morning, at the time of me writing this. The weather is so nice. I woke up a few hours ago, but I’ve been feeling tired lately. Tired of living so foolishly… I come to this realization often, usually when hammering nails on the beach, but this time it seems like it will go somewhere.
Things improve slowly, almost imperceptibly, but life goes by so quickly. Something about this contradiction is unsettling to me: how has 1/3 of the year passed already?! That much time could weigh like a mountain.
David Thomas & Pere Ubu • listen to “(Pa) Ubu Dance Party”
R.I.P. David Thomas! It’s so difficult to express how much I’ve gotten out of his work. One of my favorite vocalists ever. An incredible lyricist, songwriter, musician, artist; the solo records, Rocket from the Tombs, and of course, Pere Ubu…
I was listening to Ubu during my morning commute, like I always do, when I read the news – “All The Dogs Are Barking” was playing. It was really shocking.
My first contact with Ubu was with the “The Modern Dance“ record in my late teens. Once the ear-piercing screeching began, it was one of the most electric moments of my life, I just knew someone got it! The musicianship in the band still amazes me. Allen Ravenstine might be the only person that has ever played a synthesizer right. It isn’t mimicking other instruments, it disregards theory, it has a mind of its own – it’s the machine speaking on record. We never needed first contact or translators, after all.
Last month’s blogpost was named after Pere Ubu’s song “(Pa) Ubu Dance Party” (the “Party Kei” part, obviously, just a cheeky annex). “The Tenement Year” is why the Gorp-ic Lolita had a broken bicycle pinned to her hair. It has seeped into so much of what I do; you haven’t even heard the songs I’ve been making since my last record!!
I always pick blogpost names by gut feeling. I pick a lot of names in my daily life, actually. The only thing I’m mindful of is that they don’t repeat. This blogpost title is from a while back – I found it in my notes – and I had chosen it before David Thomas passed away. However, I’ve been re-reading his interviews, and I feel like, somewhere in the back of my mind, when I wrote that note – probably while absentmindedly working – I remembered this quote from him:
No. I never had any such realization or intention or desire. Pere Ubu was meant to be the end. I scoured used record bins at the Salvation Army. I loved to find forgotten self-produced singles of local bands which I then researched – artifacts of lost culture, unknown folk art history. My ambition for Pere Ubu was to be discovered in a used record bin in 30 years.
https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2021/09/pere-ubu-david-thomas-interview.html
It’s impossible to understand my ramblings unless you sit down and listen to the music. I could write endlessly about it, but one million paragraphs would not sum to one second of actually being in it. Give it a chance (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I’m writing this part on the 30th, straight into the editor. I just got off of work, so I have no idea what I’m doing or going to talk about.
I think I should’ve made a bigger deal out of changing the website’s layout, because that was actually pretty nice. It’s a bit confusing on mobile, and some parts are still rough around the (border-radius) edges, but there’s tons of potential. It’s a bummer I couldn’t tweak it this month, but I’ll get to it (´• _ •`)
Tomorrow is a holiday in Brazil. I might spend the day doing a health check on my dear old desktop. The way I treat my computer, compared to the way my friends treat their cars, tells me they’re somewhat analogous. Except for the fact that one is a lot more useful, more valuable, has clear benefits to both friends and family, can aid during emergencies etc… I guess. But mine has wheels too.
I hope you have a nice day～
Signed, with love,
noo.dll__〆(￣ー￣ )
see ya!
