Salt City Sinner

posted on 10/22/2012 by the Salt City Sinner I like to while away the lonely hours of my days by occasionally (read: obsessively) listening to WNYC's wonderful program RadioLab ( here ). RadioLab featured a podcast in April called "The Loudest Miniature Fuzz" ( link ) about the music of Buke and Gase ( link ). Buke and Gass are Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez. Hailing from Brooklyn, the duo (who actually used to be a couple but are now strictly musical partners and friends) are notable for a few things. First off, the instruments they play. The name "Buke and Gase" comes from the two primary instruments they use: a modified six-string baritone ukulele (a "buke") and a guitar-bass hybrid (a "gase"). In addition, Sanchez stomps on a kick drum with an attached cymbal and Dyer shakes an anklet of bells in time to their music. This is pretty impressive considering the idiosyncratic time signatures they prefer, and the rapid changes in ...

Posted 4/10/2012, by the Salt City Sinner Of the qualities that I like least about myself, the primary one is arrogance. That may come as a surprise to friends or even the most casual acquaintances of mine, who probably see me as  a proudly arrogant son of a gun. I'm working on it, the way a person works on a diet, or a fancy new yoga routine. Speaking of said yoga routine, one of the most arrogant beliefs that I held for the longest time was my hard-core, take-no-prisoners, avast-ye-mateys atheism. Over the last year or so I have undergone a transformation (largely due to the writings of the unquestionably brilliant and arguably insane Grant Morrison ) from atheism to a sort of polytheism/pantheism that has also involved a fascination with, and an ongoing but thorough investigation of, the occult. Don't judge. me after reading Grant Morrison me before reading Grant Morrison There are many types of divination available to the dedicated magician and the skeptic ...

I'm a battering ram, coming through to you In every alleyway, in every avenue       - Rancid, "Avenues and Alleyways" This time of year, with 'popcorn popping on the apricot tree,' my city is gorgeous and resplendent, dropping flower confetti in the streets and charming every pedestrian or resident with warm, fragrant breezes. Our new IRC office, which is *gorgeous* Blossoming trees are everywhere in Salt City right now. Winds carry the scent of blooms and deposit tiny petals like celebratory confetti into inconvenient locales. I had friends and co-workers helpfully pluck blossoms from my unkempt hair for the last week or two until I finally shaved my Samson off (don't worry, I plan on knitting my discarded hair into a creepy but practical wig/beanie with which I can complete my transition into Moe from the Three Stooges). But there is always another side to beauty, isn't there? To call it 'ugliness' is to misunderstand aesthetics,...

Things Man Hath In Common With The Lofty Squid #39b In A Continuing Series "No foreplay, no tender caresses, no fond farewells until the next union, just a desperate drive to reproduce followed by a glancing quickie and an early death. "And that's when things go well." (Thank you, Raw Story , for today's edifying entry.)