elliot winard

I returned the experimental Japanese two-piece jazz CD that I bought on Wednesday and picked up Ted Leo & the Pharmcists‘ latest album – Hearts of Oak.

My path to Ted Leo goes like this -
1. I know Danny Leo from Providence, RI., probably around 1991 or 1992. In 1994 or so I sold Danny an organ for some small amount of money. I didn’t sell him my liver or anything like that. It was a dual-keyboard piano-style organ, with an octive on the floor and a cool built-in drum machine.
2. Ted Leo is Danny’s brother.
3. I saw Ted Leo play in Providence with Chisel before I realized he was Danny’s brother.
4. I went to see Ted Leo play at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco because I knew he was Danny’s brother.
5. Ted sang a song that I think is about my friend Timory Hyde. I am frozen when I hear the song Timerous Me.
6. I don’t know what else to say.

i’ve been away for a while – hawaii.

it was magical.

it’s nice to get away for a few days, and return to a two day work-week.

and now…
back to the music.

I started wasting a small bit of time looking at friendster.

I’m going to add blogs about strange social dynamics and odd communications that arise as I see them.

a little bit on the geek side – i’ve been learning perl to help me produce test programs at work.

making programs that make programs! it’s beautiful.

I don’t know if it gets any better than this – cool jazz, math rock, and fascinatingly mellow jazz combos -

Miles Davis – On The Corner
Don Cabellero – American Don
John Coltrane – Coltrane

boards of canada is wonderfully minimal – scottish electro.

again, in the vein of oval, seefeel.

Great music today – seefeel (quique), boyracer (In Full Colour).

Boyracer – In Full Colour – Terrific album. Get it. It’s poppy and exciting.
I correctly recognize, one of the songs was written on a Nintendo console.

seefeel – quique – atmospheric, ambient, enveloping. If you like Opal, you’ll love seefeel. I’ll talk about Opal later.

Tonight i saw Les Sans Coulettes play with Loquat. Both bands were quite good.

I really enjoyed picking on the French in the past. Perhaps it was their snotty accents or their saucy foods. Perhaps it was their silly postmodernist philosophy. I’m warming up to them, especially if they’re really from Brooklyn.

Today started out as a minor threat day.

Then it turned into a much more rewarding Fugazi day.

Tonight I was over at a friend’s house and he was smoking Natural American Spirit cigarettes. The packaging included some copy that explained “Many of the flavorings in cigarettes manufactured by the major tabacco companies are used to mask the poor taste profile of reconstituted sheet tobacco – we use only whole leaf, additive-free natural tobacco.” (my emphasis added.)

My friend Peter then told me that he American Spirit is now owned by RJ Reynolds – the “second-largest tobacco company in the United States, manufacturing about one of every four cigarettes sold in the United States.” (rjrt.com 11may2003) Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, makers of Natural American Spirit cigarettes confirm that they are owned by the second largest cigarette company.

It’s interesting how companies enter markets and create propaganda that endorses some of their products by smashing other products.