little surfer

Band names not only make for a (sometimes) cursed interview question. They are a playground. Sometimes wild and sometimes straight forward. I don't remember how I found Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her, maybe lurking in sharethreads on /mu/ maybe through Youtube. Whatever it may be their groove is unmatched.

They started way back in 1992 and are seemingly still around. I need to take a look at that album from 2015. When the band was not around guitarist and singer Aiha Higurashi sang in a band called THE GIRL and that's just what the shuffle served me a little bit ago.

Aiha Higurashi seems pretty prolific. There is some cute art. And new music last year?

The music reminds me of The Coathangers and that is where I realize that I do not have the genre knowledge to properly sort them. But I really like her lethargic way of singing, the guitar that pops and as I said the groove that comes through. They are so flipping cool!

Reptile Youth was a electronic (punk) band featuring Esben Valløe and Mads Damsgaard Kristiansen. I remember the band for their excellent record Rivers that run for a sea that is gone, for sitting on a hotel bed doing an interview with both of them and for Mads jumping into the crowd like a mad man at SPOT Festival.

One or two years later I would interview Esben Valløe after Reptile Youth was disbanded. Once in a while my shuffle will hand me a song from Rivers that run by the sea... and I will remember the halls of SPOT Festival, that jump and that time of 2014. Some bands fly real high and just leave after. No crash.

Gladie have a new record out and I am excited to dive in. Will put it on as I write. It is goood.

The cruelest thing the tech industry ever did was to tell you that they cared about you. They built you nice campuses, they called you family, they gave you clothes with their name on it. They fed you, they washed your clothes, they got you to ride in their Pride floats. They made you feel like you had not just a job, but a community. And yes, they paid you well. The stupidest thing we ever did—and I say this with nothing but love for you in my heart—but the stupidest thing we ever did was to believe it. IT was neither true, nor never-ending.

The same industry that once called you family is now using the fruits of your labor to commit war crimes. The same industry whose leaders once posted front-page missives to their sites about doing a better job in terms of diversity and inclusion are now selling their technology to fascists who use it to bomb schools.

Mike Monteiro wrote about doing the work. Echoing a bunch of what I read in Cory Doctorow's Enshittification about a shift of power in tech from workers to companies.

This is what Julien Baker sounds like to me. This and Rejoice. Funny how they are maybe going circular. From this to the solo stuff that is so much more subdued to playing with a band again. Goodness I love that record American Blues from beginning to end. But I think you don't get Sprained Ankle and any of the other music if they didn't cut their teeth on this before.

It is funny going to Julien Baker shows and longing for The Star Killers. But damn. Ent is such a good song.

I don't quite remember how I found this band. I never dug deeper and this song persist (ha!) in jumping into my playlists when I shuffle it all up. Upon checking their bandcamp I found a metric ton of other records. This particular song is 15 years old now, so no wonder.

15 years ago? I was just done with high school I think. A blast from the past.

Look at that cool shirt.

Here’s the ten records I would immediately need to replace if I suddenly found myself living safely outside America, in a small apartment containing a really nice turntable, but no records.

Now take away the turntable, because I don't think I'd take one, even if I had to move. But the core thought, ten records that are very important, resonated. And I wonder about more than just records. About books, comics and my newfound appreciation for ttrpg books. I have to seperate the practical from the feeling. Could I even name ten records that have that importance for me?

I've thought about this recently. Assume your home is lost. The necessary paperwork survives, you are still able to work and a citizen and whatnot. That part of your identity is intact. What things would I actually miss? What would my life be like with bare walls and no books in sight? Which books would I want to own again?

I feel tiny things when I look at my shelves. I see the Bug Boys and I feel a warmth. There are volumes of Dorohedoro and I think of dumplings and immense drawings. I get some sort of sad when I see This One Summer by the Tamakis. Motherlover makes me smile, both for the story and for buying the comic from the artist at the dyke march in Vancouver last year. Those memories would be gone and I don't know if I would miss them if I do not see them. I forget books I've read on the eReader and those on my shelves are remembered. Maybe that is why I still buy books and comics.

The quote on top is from Mike Monteiro. It leads into the description of ten records that makes me jealous. It shows that I never developed such a deep emotional appreciation for a thing as he seemingly has and that is a weird feeling. Either he is different because he can feel like that about something or I am because I can't. Or because I have a hard time articulating those feelings into any shape.

So here are some things that I looked at, had some feelings and would take with me in case of emergency.

There is my copy of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. This is a book I can probably read any day of the week. It is comfortable, exciting and reminds me of the way people can be decent and good to each other.

Then I think of volume 1 of Bug Boys by Laura Knetzger. Stag-B and Rhino-B are best friends and these comics are as much about friendship as they are about big feelings and dreams. I love them to bits.

I want to say Dreams Underfoot by Charles De Lint. Whenever I see that book, it is in the front row of my shelf, it takes me back to my exchange year in the US. I don't quite know how I came upon the author, but I ordered the book online and read it on the porch. I remember sun, warmth, lemonade and just feeling really good while also a little bit lonely in that far away country. and this book of strange stories was with me.

Blood Pact by Dan Abnett is my favorite of the Gaunt's Ghosts novels. The way it splits up the characters, how it is a slow burn and how Abnett plays to the strengths of his characters is fun every time I take the book into my hands. This one and Only in Death are peak Tanith for me. So which one do I take?

I have a signed first edition copy of The Name of the Wind and while the story inside the book has lost some of its magic in the past few years the thing stayed important. There is a distinct memory of me picking it up at a library sale in Reno, NV. And then me handing it to Rothfuss to sign and him holding it up, showing it around and saying: “Look at that!” (Nobody did.) Anyhow all of that makes it quite a special book for me.

I was reading Hallie Bateman and remembered what Lynda Barries Syllabus did to me and my art making. What a wonderful set of books. Together with Making Comics you have two essential books for any creative pursuit. And I have drawn so much from them, excercises for classes, my own use of those kinds of notebooks, thoughts about “ugly drawings” and the will to continue even when things don't quite look how they may be supposed to.

Maybe I'll stop here. This has got me thinking. I used to say that book shelves are like a wine cellar. You don't drink every wine in your cellar do you? You save some until the right moment comes. But I also think a “library” needs to be curated. And sometimes it is quite alright to let go of items that don't fit anymore. Or quite simply items that are never going to fit.

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images from Tokyo these Days Vol. 1 & Vol. 3 by Taiyo Matsumoto (VIZ Media)

Wax Heads is a game by Patattie Games about selling and recommending records. Around that core loop you have a host of interesting and compelling characters. And of course there is a larger story full of music, commentary on the actual music industry and lots of rad art.

Once upon a time there was a famous band. The band disbanded in bad blood and one of the band members now has a record store called Repeater. You are the new kid at the store and learning the ropes. Surrounded by the typical record store oddballs you recommend vinyl to all kinds of people. Some want the newest record by some jazz band others something for their dad. Or they want to impress the women in line after them and only have a T-Shirt to go on. Typical situations that call for good recommendations. You find the records around the store. They have some simple info attached to them.

For example one customer wants a record for her dad. She knows he likes the stuff a certain critic recommends. So you look at the local music blog to find the critic and then at the available records to find a pull quote. The puzzles are engaging and simple enough, although possibly tiresome if the amount of information you have to retain grows too much. For me it brought back pleasant feelings of working in a bookshop, remembering random but helpful information about just the right book.

Add to that the amazing artwork, the cool music and the way all of this game just oozes cool and you are in for a good time. I am not good at keeping up with games, but I might just take another look when the game is released on the 5th of May.

Tonight I have watched the original Running Man and it was bad. Now I am watching Nobody and it is great. What I like most is two people who see the main guy and just say: “I am out, see ya.” One sees his tattoo and nopes out. The other is a hacker who sees his dossier and calls it a day. Smart goons are rare.

I also don't have subtitles. And some of it is in Russian. Gives the whole movie a different feeling.

EDIT: Nobody ended up being a solid and fun movie. Short, sweet and with all the extras cut. The kind of action movie I like a lot.

Once upon a time I got a request if I wanted to interview a band. It was quite short notice, right before their show in Berlin. It must have been around 2013/2014. I remember the guy at the promotion firm fondly. However I said yes and went out to “Wild at Heart” an excellent venue in Berlin. Here I interviewed two members of Larry and his Flask in the room next to the stairs, while all the other members were at a radio station. I don't know if I still have that interview lying around somewhere. I should check.

Anyhow their 2013 record By the Lamplight starts with a a song called Pandemonium. It always strikes me as funny to think of songs that get stuck and songs that leave the head after a while. I could probably sing along to a lot of By the Lamplight. But Pandemonium? That first line comes to me often in my work as a teacher.

I have seen them twice. Once at “Wild at Heart” and once years later at Cassiopeia. Both shows were sweaty affairs, fun and energizing. An amazing band.

I'll never forget how they offered me a joint in that room next to the stairs during the interview. Oh to be a rock star.