I loved and was inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's novels in my youth, and I know many of you have tripped out to Stanley Kubrik's adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
This is Clarke's message to the world on his 90th birthday. He died last week.
For those of you keeping tabs on the world of WRS, you may have noticed a distinct lack of input from me and even Isaac the last couple of weeks.
That's because Isaac and I just moved into our new home, WRS Headquarters, in East Austin, and our online time has been curtailed a bit during the packing, hauling, and arranging portions of our weeks.
The first night I was there, I came home to Isaac and Jonny jamming in the living room. It was an incredible homecoming. I felt so good to know I finally live somewhere we can do what we love without disturbing anyone.
Just under a week later, we had our first full-band rehearsal in our dining area. The large, linoleum-floored space filled up with Bruce's drums, Isaac and Jonny's amps and guitars, the monitor, and of course my single mic stand. We had a full-on, fun and fruitful rehearsal until late in the night. Isaac and I taught the band a couple of new tunes to get ready for our Opal Divine's shows, we worked on "World Revolves" until everyone was happy with the arrangement, and we let loose and jammed for a while, creating the seeds of two new songs in the process.
As Isaac repeated, it was exactly what we wanted our home and our rehearsals to be: Fun, productive, relaxed, and a place to create new material.
Thanks for being patient during our transition. I promise lots more good stuff now that we're reassembling our flow.
later,
reed
Wow, what a night!
It's just short of 3AM, and I am so totally pleased.
First, Jonny Dub performed an awesome solo set (he'll have his band along for April 3rd). Then, WRS rocked the house fully with nothing held back. If you haven't seen us with our full membership: Isaac, Bruce, Jonny, and Reed, you haven't fully experienced the Squad.
It was our third time out with the 3-part harmonies working, and they paid off. We must get Jonny into the studio with his magnificent 3rd voice on "Out of the Fire."
Finally, Legs Against Arms (aka Mexican Stars) played a sweet acoustic set. I missed the hard rockin' of their drummer-assisted set terribly, but their songs are so good, no missing drummer could slow down the greatness of what those boys put together.
A huge thank you to everyone who came tonight! Birthday love and band love combined is a heady combination, and don't think I'm not drunk on the nectar.
Isaac, perennial sound-woman Megan, and I headed to Barfly's after Moy regretfully closed the Carousel down, and we had an excellent time with my old cronies from the film days, Dirk Higdon and PK Munson. Excellent times, even if I had to make Isaac drive.
See you in April, if not before!
love,
reed
From Geekologie:
Joe Falciatano III (of the Falciatano dynasty) is 12-years old and has broken 12 computers in his school's computer lab. They thought it had something to do with magnetism, but it's now believed to be a static issue related to his over-insulated shoes.
One thing we found at the SXSW trade show this week was a company called Myxer that lets you make your own ringtones, so we made a ringtone for "Panic"!
Now your phone can alert you to a "panic in the streets" whenever anyone calls you! It's free to download and use.
More from World Racketeering Squad at Myxer
What other songs should we make as ringtones?
Dave Stevens died yesterday. He was one of the greats of pinup art and comics, and his sexy linework was a particular favorite of mine when I was in art school.
I hadn't followed him lately so I was sad to learn about his battle with leukemia after the fact. He was a very cool guy.
Isaac
Human Giant is an excellent sketch comedy show on MTV. Its first season is out (I believe) on DVD and the second season is getting ready to start. It stars Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer and Aziz Ansari, all veterans of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in NYC.
They're featured in Random Rules in this week's Onion AV Club:
"Bawitdaba," Kid Rock (Huebel's iPod)
AA: You have "Bawitdaba" on your iPod still?
RH: Dude, here's the reason: We used to do a wrestling show at the Upright Citizens Brigade [theater]. Paul, you were in that sometimes. It was like a fake wrestling show, and this was the opening song that I would come out to. I was supposed to be the Vince McMahon-type. I owned the league. So I would come out at the beginning to this song. Somehow, this is still in my iPod. But that fucking show was the most unsafe. One time I had my wrists slit open by a tuna can. One of the comedians was doing this bit with a tuna can. She threw tuna all over the stage. So I went up to attack this girl and fake-fight her, and I got flipped. My wrists were slit wide open on stage, and I had to go to the emergency room.
PS: My character on the show was Huebel's archrival. In the final mêlée, I'm beating up Huebel, but his hand is cut open, and I'm hitting him over the back with a Nerf baseball bat repeatedly. He's just bleeding out in the worst way.
RH: That was shitty. I had no insurance and I went to the hospital. It was Friday night in St. Vincent's hospital—really down low on the totem pole. Unless you go in there with a gunshot blast to the face, you're going to be sitting around for a while. I remember hanging out in the emergency room for like three hours, just bleeding. It was crazy.
AVC: Did that ruin Kid Rock for you?
RH: No, Kid Rock ruined Kid Rock for me.
The wrestling show he talks about was called Piledriver. When I lived in New York I used to do sound for Piledriver every week, so it was my job to start the show with "Bawitdaba", which does indeed rock most righteously.
Huebel's character Dick Duffy was always hilarious, but the real star of the show was director Billy Merritt, whose wrestling legend "The American Dream" made a belated "surprise" entrance three-quarters through every show to the sounds of Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue" and gave a monologue which somehow always ended up on the subject of Applebee's and their delicious riblets.
Those were good times.
The creator of Dungeons and Dragons failed his saving throw this morning.
Rest in peace, Gary. Rest in peace.
