Undulating Ungulate

Gig was… odd. Very low key, which was very much what I was after, as I wasn´t feeling entirely ready for it, but had agreed to the gig as a spur to force readiness of some sort. A couple of acts didn´t show up, so I ended up playing some extra songs that I hadn´t practiced, which was interesting. It is really nice singing through a PA with just guitar accompaniment. For the first time I can use my actual singing voice, my high range, my quiet range. From the recording it holds up. So that is reassuring, as getting better on guitar seems easier in principle than getting better at singing.

In other news of total randomness, one of the handful of people who´ve actually read my first novel has decided to start a cult based on it. Well, kind of. That´s a pretty good hit rate in warping minds and inspiring people, anyway.

Ubuntu is really sweet so far.

Having a breadmaker is awesome. I should learn to make bread without the breadmaker, but so far, this is ace.

Filed by billy at 11:37 am under the world
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Just quietly, my solo project, tinekaamos, is making its debut tonight at Bodega. At this stage the live incarnation is just me and a guitar. (The recorded versions will probably be a bit more elaborate.) The night is a bunch of singer-songwriters, though, so, yeah. It will probably kick off around 9pm.

There is additional potential for hilarity as I have bypassed the nervous critical filter of playing to friends or flatmates first to make sure the songs are fit for public consumption. Ha ha. 🙂

Filed by billy at 1:11 pm under the moose
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That was a looong weekend. Quite randomly ended up at Sandwiches on Friday where there was local drum’n’bass in one room and weird-ass dirty electro mashup stuff from Fabric in the other room. D’n’B was a bit of a flashback and rediscovery – it is about the easiest stuff in the world to dance to, and lots of fun. The electro mashup was interesting to listen to but not always good to dance to. Home late.

Saturday ended up performing/dancing in a music video in a shoot that unexpectedly went most of the day and late into the evening. Many costume changes and one of the silliest funnest days in ages with a bunch of complete loons. Magic.

Somewhat dazed on Saturday night, I went out dressed up in something that made no sense but was huge, red, furry and puppety, for a costume party. It turned out to glow under black lights as I discovered at the psy-trance rave at Curve, where I left close to dawn.

So yeah. The sleeping/dancing ratio since Friday has been… steep. Made for the best weekend in awhile, though.

Filed by billy at 10:33 pm under the moose
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The moose has a new laptop, courtesy of a wonderful benefactor, who may, in the circumstances, prefer to remain anonymous. 😉 Yay.

Naturally it is smaller, faster, with more memory, than any previous computer I´ve owned. Go Mooreś law. Partitioned between XP and Ubuntu, which is quite pretty.

The universe, it is wonderful and mysterious, and I am most grateful.

Now if I could just figure out how to get the wireless going…

But in any case, this means I should now get busy on stuff and things that have had a technological excuse for procrastrination.

\m/

Filed by billy at 3:56 pm under technology,the moose
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This seems to have gone without much comment. Of course, I’m not reading anywhere that would comment, so maybe it has. Anyhow.

The World section of yesterday’s Dominion Post has an article saying outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that for any chance at peace Israel needs to pull back to the pre-1967 war boundaries – basically ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

This is basically what left critiques have said for the past several decades.

Now, Olmert is outgoing as PM and has little power to do anything about it, but the fact that he is even putting it in public discourse seems like a massive victory for the Palestinians.

Of course the devil will be in the details – 93% of West Bank territory returned? Gee, will that 7% retained have all the water resources? – with desert territory to be given in recompense.

So yeah. In basically an intractable conflict, this is the first sign of hope I’ve seen in ages. Israel blinked. The Palestinian resistance, in some sense, will eventually win. Given that they have been in a fight to the death with no possible retreat, this is the only outcome other than extermination.

But hey, maybe Israel will just elect another far right wing nutjob… But as things devolve elsewhere, lets take a ray of light where it comes.

Filed by billy at 2:04 pm under politics,the world,utopia
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