No Fun Fest
     @
     The Hook,
     Brooklyn, New York
     03.17-19.06


     Crash Festival
     @
     ICA,
     London, England
     03.24.06


     Show
     @
     Tilt,
     Athens, Greece
     03.27.06





sadly the only time i get to really watch tv is when i'm
traveling. on the plane to ny i caught an original episode of
the incredible hulk. it was staring a young and suicidal
mackenzie phillips (wow) whose character had a psychedelic hard
rock band called "lisa swan and the shock". they played arenas
and their hit song was about nightmares, the devil, and taking
you to hell. their band created such a frenzy that there was a
riot at their show and girl got paralyzed for life. bill bixby
saved mackensie phillips's life before her car exploded and then
he started working for her, helping her out in the studio while
she recorded her new album. a jealous coworker spikes his orange
juice with lsd and bixby starts hallucinating that the hulk is
in front of him and trying to kill him. he freaks out and turns
into the hulk. then, as the hulk, he starts hallucinating that
bixby is in front of him and he wants to kill him. he trashes
everything and i begin praying to god for tv to return to this
style.

i met up with my sister at zen palate in manhattan and it was
really good. the next day i hung out with my nephew and before
we new it had to head to brooklyn to make the first night of no
fun. on the way we got into an accident on the highway and got
some whiplash. the guy that hit us was freaked out and very nice
and the guy we hit was insane and screaming in my face (i wasn't
even driving and he seemed totally unconcerned with the baby in
our back seat). he seemed to get frustrated with my lack of
interest in his "sixty thousand dollar car!!" (nothing was even
damaged) but things really broke when he stuck his finger in my
face and screamed "i could fucking bury you!" at which point i
turned totally new york. for the few moments i really thought we
were going to fight on the side of the highway but instead he
abruptly jumps in his car and takes off without even taking down
our info.

every set i caught at no fun was pretty spot-on. i have really
never cared much for macronympha, but i have to say i was really
amazed by their set. it was a total spectacle but also sounded
incredible and i have to say that i found it very moving.

ended up staying at chris wolf and brigitte's apartment the
whole time in ny which was a real treat. three tunkanese cats =
cute times.

after no fun dilloway and i bummed around ny and then flew to
london for the crash festival at the ica.

the real mayhem started the day after though when we took the
train to chislehurst caves for a 45 minute lantern-lit tour. we
were pretty psyched heading out, but when we saw the road sign
with a skull and lantern it was totally on. as we walked up we
noticed a handful of larp's and a goth girl. we raided the gift
shop and cafe and then took the tour. i guess the caves were
made by druids a very long time ago and have been used for all
sorts of things over the years. toward the beginning there was a
stage where bands like the rolling stones played in 1966 and
later pink floyd and even siouxsie and the banshees. we stood on
a druid alter of sacrifice where captured children's throats
were slit and their blood was drained into cups. (if anyone can
set up a show for me and dilloway on either the stage or the
alter of sacrifice, please get in touch, we will say yes.) there
were pentagrams on some of the doors and the overall vibe was
dark chilly doom. the tour guide told some stories about people
who were found dead in there in the last few decades. i made
lots of recording.

when everything was over and we were about to leave we
discovered a whole other part right next to the main entrance
which was set up for live action roll playing games (d&d, lord
of the rings). gobs of kids after kids in plastic armor, swords,
black and red painted faces, etc were coming in and out. it
looks insane because the atmosphere was not as safe and plastic
like a normal amusement park. it was totally gritty old caves
that were real and wet and cold with nerds battling in costume
inside. it must be the fantasy come true for thousands of kids
around there. we wandered in and around as far as we could until
someone stopped us in fear we would get hurt by a players sword.

after the caves were exhausted, we headed back to london to pick
up drumm and catch a vemon show. i brought 3 glow sticks (yes,
three) discarded from the d&d dudes to the gig. i used my better
judgement to keep them in my pocket than share with the 600 or so
satanic black metal fans. anyway, vemon were pretty rad and we
hooked up with lee dorian afterwards to some secret bar.

my plan was to go to greece after london, but since the promoter
seemed to drop the ball and i hadn't heard from him in almost
two weeks, i had little expectations. i had a valid ticket that
he sent me, so my thought was to just go to athens, find a
hotel, walk around for two days and go home. at the end of the
night of the london show (we were literally hailing a taxi) a
guy comes up to me and asks if i'm going to athens. i tell him
what happened and he asks for my email, saying he'll set
everything up and arrange a place for me to stay, a tour guide
and someone to pick me up from the airport. and sure enough the
next day i check my email and there's four phone numbers and
info. when i arrive in greece, nicolas (of absurd) picks me up
and takes me to a house where i stayed for two nights. the
evening of my arrival he took me all around downtown athens. it
has a very exotic vibe to it so it was really cool and felt
different than other european countries i've been to. the next
day i got up and was denied at the gates of the acropolis (ie,
they were closed) so i just roamed all over the mountain and
forest area around the acropolis and the neighborhoods and
commercial district. it was really amazing and beautiful. i
stumbled onto a vegetarian restaurant and ate. it is a little
surreal or at least a strange feeling to be so far from
home in such an amazing place in such weird circumstances (to
play a show in athens, wtf ?) and be totally by yourself. i
thought about it a bit as i waited for a train back to the house
and the metro musak started pumping out a weird flute version of
the twin peaks theme. how harsh is that. throughout the day i
got recordings of trains, forests around the acropolis, a street
game of three card monte with heavy greek yelling, tai kwon do
practice and some other stuff i'm forgetting.

while i was gone they organized a small outdoor show in a
beautiful garden. by one afternoon's word of mouth about 30
people showed up and i was absolutely shocked by how much they
knew about my work and about totally obscure music in general.
i guess the internet is a really powerful thing.

i was plagued by total insomnia both nights in athens, so by the
time i left i was pretty exhausted. it took about 24 hours to go
from athens to london to chicago to los angeles. i arrived at
about 2:30 am la time and totally hit the sack.