Kitten Soup

Holy Hail

2008-05-10T01:18:00.001-04:00

Pictures of hail that fell on friday night in Carrboro

Xmas show video

2008-01-04T19:12:00.000-05:00

I played The Trekky Christmas show with the band "I Was Totally Destroying It" Here is a video.. Thanks to Trianglerock for taking the video!

Caution!! Massive Biofuel use = more CO2

2007-12-02T14:50:00.000-05:00

Hurray!! congress might raise the fuel efficiencies standards for vehicles..with this new energy bill well great and all that.. we really need to do a lot more on fuel efficiency. What is really concerning about the energy bill is the massive mandated use of Biofuels that is also in it.. the long lasting effect of this is dangerous and could potentially make global CO2 emissions worse. Here is a link to a report that outlines my fears. Basically the problems are these:

Whenever an acre of farmland is converted from food production to fuel production, we can either forgo the food that used to be produced there (leading to higher food prices and food shortages) or we can make up the difference by cultivating previously unfarmed land somewhere else. The choice is clear, but all too often the new farmland is carved from forests, wetlands, and grasslands that are doing much more in their natural state to reduce greenhouse gas levels than policy to increase biofuels.
When we increase our land-use for bio-fuels (either using corn or soybean) we increase the price of crops such as soybean worldwide (bec farmers will grow corn instead of soy for ethanol). The US and Brazil are the top soybean exporters in the world. As the world-wide price of soybean goes up, soybeans grown in Brazil are displacing conventional food crops from the most arable regions of the country. The food farmers, in turn, are displacing ranchers, who are creating new grazing lands by slashing-and-burning large sections of the Amazon. The enormous climate benefit that the forest provided by absorbing and storing atmospheric carbon is forfeited. Read that again... if we burn biofuels than we may encourage cutting down tropical rainforests that will release much more CO2..!!
Likewise, the demand for bio-oils created by the European Union's biofuel policy is contributing to the wholesale conversion of Indonesian and Malaysian forests into palm oil plantations. So much carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when these forests are cleared that Indonesia recently jumped from 21st to third on the list of countries with the highest national greenhouse gas emissions. Because the destruction of Indonesian forests and the resulting emissions are due in part to Europe's biofuel policy, analysts have calculated that the biodiesel sold in Europe is as much as eight times worse than petroleum-based fuels when it comes to net greenhouse gas emissions.
There are other arguments to be made about the problems with increased corn ethanol in the US.. like the increased use of fertilizer (run-off), more water use, etc

There is some more info on biofuels limitation in this interview from npr with plant scientist Dave Tilman. Here is another story on how the soybean trade effects Brazil's tropical rainforests. I'm not completely against all biofuels but this massive mandate is very dangerous...!

Time is tight

2007-11-18T09:16:00.000-05:00

Hey Kids the UN Climate Change Panel is really trying to tell us something and its pretty important. More important than any issue you can think of.. because if we don't get it right, none of the other issues matter.

See here for some of the message.
Here is a rosy perspective from the Guy who brought you Gaia.

Stuff you could do:

I've been thinking about energy (and water) conservation a lot lately. I've just been trying shut stuff off. Anyway, I came across this website it seemed pretty interesting: http://www.builditsolar.com/index.htm It seems like a pretty good resource. I haven't looked through it all and can't vouch for all the ideas..
I looked though the half-plan section and it seems pretty sensible: http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Half/Half.htm
Like its probably a good idea to turn off all the Computer stuff that seems to be on all the time: http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Half/ProjectsConservation.htm#PC
Even when you turn stuff off it seems to use energy: http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Half/ProjectsConservation.htm#Phantom

Anyway.. I just thought I'd pass the info along. What we really need is large scale, effective, well thought-out government and global action. We all could to let our leaders we need a plan. There are a few Bills in congress.. keep an eye on them... I'll try to pass along info.. Maybe we could avoid at least another coal fired power plant. http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/777434.html

Time is Tight

Daytime music this Sat, Durham

2007-11-15T15:28:00.000-05:00

I've been blabbing alot about this soul band I'm in (soul in the Memphis/stax tradition). We are going to play 12PM this Sat. at Alivias in Durham. Also the SOC rovers (crazy marching band I'm in) will play on Foster St. 2:30 to 3:30PM. All during the day! This is all part of a Durham Artwalk event. Bunch of other events & bands all day: http://www.durhamartwalk.com TO RECAP: Minnie Skirt and the Bootlegs (yes, thats the name) 12ish to ~1:30PM Alivias, Durham (across from Brightleaf Square) http://www.aliviasdurhambistro.com/ I believe we'll be playing outside on the patio Scene of the Crime Rovers Durham's Independent Rag-Tag Marching Band 2:30pm at The Scrap Exchange, then processing to the BBC Plaza at 3:00! www.myspace.com/sceneofthecrimerovers Also of note.. Triangle Soundpainting orchestra is playing at the CCB plaza (where the new Bull is) at 12PM too.. I'm so sad to miss seeing them.. www.myspace.com/trianglesoundpaintingorchestra I won't be offended if you see them instead.. Stay the entire day and check out lots of great art, music and local culture during Art Walk, presented by the Durham Arts Council and The City of Durham!

Non-Cannon video

2007-08-24T12:18:00.000-04:00

My friend rob is in this band.. This is a live video.. It rocks and they ROCK!

Horns at Cat's Cradle Sat night (8/25/07)

2007-08-24T11:54:00.000-04:00

Its been my dream for a while to get a working horn section to play with local bands etc.. On Saturday night we're gonna give it a go at the Cradle opening for the Schooner CD release party. The Hercules Europe Brass (Hank, David & I) will play with North Elementary and Erie Choir. It should be a lot of fun. BTW, the Hercules Europe Brass name comes from The Wusses (another project I'm in.. http://thewusses.com/ .. thanks David Nahm for the name!) ************************************************************ The FACTS:

WHAT: Schooner CD release Party!
WHERE: Cat's Cradle http://catscradle.com/
WHEN: Sat. Aug 25, Show starts at 8:30
HOW MUCH?: Free!! (yes!,, and smoke free)
When will the horns play?: 9:15-10 w/NE, 10:45-11:30 w/EC

[note: times are approximate :] ************************************************************************* The Line-up:

Doors at 8
Wes Phillips at 8:30 [http://www.myspace.com/wesleydongeroga]
North Elementary at 9:15 w/horns [ http://www.myspace.com/northelemetary]
The Strugglers 10 [http://www.myspace.com/thestrugglers ]
Erie Choir 10:45 w/horns [http://www.myspace.com/eriechoir]
Schooner 11:30 w/theramin [ http://www.myspace.com/schooner]

All these bands are pretty great... I think its gonna be an awesome show with a few other surprises! Did I mention it is free?

Scene of the Crime Rovers!

2006-08-17T10:29:00.000-04:00

Hey! I started playing with this Roving marching band. We debuted in downtown Durham at the Culture crawl. What fun! Visit our myspace and see a video here.

youTube?

2006-05-28T13:31:00.000-04:00

So I Finally discovered the power of youtube! People post things that I thought I remembered from the distant past and there they are! Anyway I found some cool stuff my 1st time.

Polvo video!? I didn't know Polvo made a video!

Devo on Square Pegs with Sara Jessica Parker in 1982

Stop the madness!

featuring new edition, herb alpert, latoya jackson, whitney houston & Arnold!

Don't forget the Its Carrboro video

Kaiser Cartel

2006-02-26T20:08:00.000-05:00

Saw the Kaiser Cartel with Regina Hexaphone at the Open Eye Cafe in Carrboro. They are from Brooklyn and they are really swell. We picked up their EP thing. Have it pretty much on repeat at the Carrboro Sugar Shack. The female vocals remind of the former triangle resident Tami Hart and Mazzy Star.. but probably more tami.. Damn I really liked Tami's music.. I wonder what she is up to now. I think she is in South Carolina now.. PS Regina Hexaphone rocked it too.. but you knew that..

HOW DICK COULD JUST KILL A MAN

2006-02-26T20:00:00.000-05:00

Ha! This made me laugh.. Local legend Ricky Dollars put up a new song on his myspace account. Some of you might recognize the background track.

Wusses Rock NYE

2006-01-03T14:50:00.000-05:00

Alicia took some great photos of The Wusses at the Local 506 on NYE. Go here. I would put one here but I can't seem to figure it out..

My playlists

2005-11-24T10:56:00.000-05:00

Hey all.. you can see the recent playlists from my radio show on WXDU here. My show is every other friday 4-6PM EDT. Hopefully soon you can podcast my show. Let me know if you want an mp3 of a show and I'll try to get you one..

Fluff Chick

2005-08-23T22:40:00.000-04:00

So I have a band/duo called Fluff Chick w/ my friend Anne. I thought I'd tell you about it since we are playing a show on Thurs Aug 25th @ Joe and Jo's in downtown Durham as part of the the Troika Music Festival. The Troika Music fest. runs all this week and features bands playing throughout the Triangle (Durham/CH/ Raleigh). Our particular set starts at 8:50PM SHARP! In the process I discovered how fun it could be to waste away an evening making a myspace account for the band. Now you can hear random songs we record in the Bedroom here... if you want.

Nutstock

2005-08-14T16:39:00.000-04:00

So the Wusses (soft rock cover band I play in) played this crazy party in Faifax. Even more crazy the washington post had an article about in the Metro section. Crazy

Playlist From 7/29/05

2005-07-31T15:42:00.000-04:00

Artist	Song	Album
Ornette Coleman	The artist in America	Skies of America
Wolf Parade	You are a runner	Shine A Light EP
Xiu Xiu	Bog People	La Foret
MIA	13?	Piracy Funds Terrorism
Run DMC	Illin	Comp
?	Rock Steady	100% Dynamite
Stevie Wonder	Boogie Woogie Reggae Woman	Musiquarium
Konono No1	Musikula	Coogotronics
Jason Forrest	The work ahead of us	Lady Fantasy EP
Ed Shepp	Ed Shepp Exposes Mellisa perkins 1.0	5
bunch brazillans	Hino Do Senhor Do Bonfin	Tropicalia Box set
Kinks	Victoria	Kinks Kronikles
Teenage Fanclub	Time Stops	Man-Made
Dirtbombs	My love for you	If you don't already have a look
ESG	Tiny sticks	South Bronx Story
Aalon Butler & The new Breed	Gettin soul	Keb Darges Legendary deep Funk Vol 2 V/A
Curtis Mayfield	We people who are darker	Peace
Graham Collier	Work Points: Pt 1	Work Points
David Karsten Daniels	note to sell	Angles
Speaking in tones	Subaro	Subaro
Zappa	Montana	Strictly Commercial
Certain Ratio	The Fox	Live America 1985
Chantana	Changwah Disco	Thai Beat A Go Go
Daedelus	Welcome Home	Esquisite Corpse
James Cotton	No cuttin loose	High Compression
Cool & the Gang	Jungle Boogie	VA

The Sames, (Another Local Band I Like)

2005-07-03T12:17:00.000-04:00

I meant this Blog to post about bands I've been listening to. Well I've been pretty slack since Work and life is busy. If you're not too busy. Check out The Sames The live right here in Durham and they make their own records at the lead singers home studio and put it out on their own label, Pox World Empire. On top of that they are swell people. All that really wouldn't matter to you if they sucked. They don't and are actually quite good. They write good melodic "rock" songs that have just the right amount of blips and noises to make it interesting, but not annoying. Zeno (lead singer, Producer?) does a great job on capturing the sound and that is not an easy thing to do in the home studio (or any studio). Check out this song from their 1st EP for starters. The have a new album out "You are the Sames" which has been getting attention outside of NC. Even got reviewed in the Onion.

Free Music!!? (from Chamber Corps)

2005-03-26T08:44:00.000-05:00

Been a while for updates.. I'll be posting the next few times about some local artists in NC. My friends Chris and James have recorded an album in Chris's home studio. Also known as Spacelab studio. They call themselves Chamber Corps and you can download the album at their site. Both James (bass) and Chris (guit) play with me in a soft rawk cover-band called The Wusses (that is another story). James also plays drums in Sorry about Dresden. The Chamber Corps album is quite good and is mostly all instrumental with some vocals. I like it for sitting and working at my desk, but it does sound better on a nicer stereo system. They say they would like to score a film. So give 'em an email if need some music for your film.

Hello MIA

2005-02-20T11:58:00.000-05:00

You can't argue with exciting music. I spent part of last night listening to the MIA/Diplo collaboration called Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol. 1. I know everyone from the New Yorker to the Bloggers (including me) have been writing about this. So just use google and you'll find more info than you'll ever want. Short version: (cribbed form an xdu and other sources) MIA (AKA Maya Arulpragasm) Daughter of a Sri Lankan political refugee, M.I.A. bounced from Sri Lanka to India to New York as a teenager, before ending up in London.. the politics are related to the Tamil Tigers.. Anyway, she gave her entire unreleased album "Arular" to Diplo (a philly DJ) and he mixed it with everything (prince, eurythmics, missy, sanford and son).. I think of it as sort of copying the marketing success of last years Grey Album. I can't imagine the "real" album is this good, but I am part of the demographic that Vh-1 targets. hear some! Fire bam Pop

LCD playing at my house

2005-02-12T18:13:00.000-05:00

Well it may be old news to some people... But I have fallen in love all over again with LCD soundsystem after"Losing my edge" single captured me a few years ago (shout out to viva for helping me have some edge). On this website they'll give you a taste and show you the ropes for the new album (out Feb 15th). Disco infiltrator in is the only complete song I found online to listen to. They bring the dance party disco and James Murphy's vocals sound like Mark E. Smith with a cold. They know their way around a beat. If you read more about them you'll hear all about their influences (Can, The Fall etc). I try not to read too much about them because it just ruins it. Last night I played "Daft punk is playing at my house" at the xdu/xyc prom and it was a winner.. So what more do you need?

OK some music

2005-02-05T12:37:00.000-05:00

Erie Chior is Eric, one of the guitar players from Sorry About Dresden. The one that raps in the Hacky Sac Crew and that isn't Connor Oberst's brother (hee hee, is this thing on google?) Eric is my soccer team. I hope he doesn't mind I posted this. I'll take it down if he does. Oh yea I really like Erie Choir and there are times I where I can't take the 2 EP's out of my CD player. Ballad of Erie Choir

Music Blog created!

2005-02-05T11:59:00.000-05:00

Its appropriate to start off my "blog" with new trax from Negativeland original kings of Cut Up Audio. They were doing this shit with tape before there was computers to make it easy. No Business .. commentary on "borrowing" in music. Its a little long.. Downloading. .. I like this one better..

I wonder

2004-12-30T17:57:00.000-05:00

I have a specific purpose in mind, I wonder if I can pull it off here.