3:10 AM. I can’t sleep, even though I’ve put in over 60 hours at work this week, on top of school, band practice, and the usual day-to-day. I’ve barely looked at my email for the past week, which is sort of a relief.

Running sound for Jandek in about 10 hours. Yes, I’m nervous. Very exciting, too. Will Johnson and Ryan Williams are playing with him, so it should be a hoot.

Tre Orsi 1/2″ tapes are on their way to Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. The lacquers should be at United on July 24th. Hopefully we’ll have 7″s by the end of August.

I spent most of the Christmas break in my pajamas, watching a lot of TV. I’m still having a hard time getting into the swing of things here at work.

Spent this past weekend working with Shearwater in the studio on five new tracks. They turned out pretty great, considering the dearth of time we actually spent on them. Unfortunately, I had to postpone a session w/ the band We’ll Kill You in order to get this done in time. Hopefully I’ll get to record them soon.

Tre Orsi is playing three shows: the 27th at Secret Headquarters with the band Handbrake (Ethan and JP from Tank Tank, Ryan from the Baptist Generals, and Frankie from Failure Plus), then the 1st and 3rd with the pAper chAse at Emo’s and Rubber Gloves. These are shows number 2, 3, and 4! WTF! We’re up to 6 songs now, at least.

Been listening to the new Pere Ubu record today, which I downloaded from eMusic a few weeks ago. Standout track is “Caroleen”, a vicious rocker.

I’ve never been much of a reader. Typically, I take in magazines, non-fiction, and a whole bunch of blogs. Rarely, if ever, do I sit down with fiction, but this year (thanks to a fall that is keeping me off of my bike for another three weeks) I actually managed to finish Faulkner’s Light in August. Yeah, it took, oh, maybe 18 months (I don’t even remember when I started it), but it’s inspired me to stick to a more regular reading schedule. Over Thanksgiving, I tore through Moneyball and The Areas of My Expertise.

Right now, in the “To-read” pile, Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the new Creationism is at the top. I picked this up at the MIT bookstore in September, and while it’s a pretty dry read (it is mostly an academic philosophy book), it explains a lot about the current war being raged against reality by Creationists/Intelligent Design proponents.

Strawberry Fields, Denton’s “media store”

After a discussion on the dRc board, I realized I still hadn’t made it over to Strawberry Fields (terrible name! The 4th “Strawberry Fields” shop in Denton in the last 40 years, according to Martin Iles), a relatively new “media” store at the corner of Oak and Bonnie Brae (former site of el Pariente). So, I walked down there last night to have a visit and walked about with about $70 worth of stuff.

The book selection is pretty small; there are a lot of Loompanics and drug-related books there, with a smattering of underground and “alternative” fiction and some political stuff. I picked up The Zapatista Reader, a reprint of an old Smith College text called Native American Anarchism, and The Diary of a Teenage Girl.

If the book selection was small, the music selection was teeny-tiny (maybe 50 titles or so), though it was mostly good-quality stuff. I picked up Danielson’s Ships, which I should have snaked in Hasselt, but there ya go.

The DVD rental selection is, again, small but pretty good, and their rental plans ($25/mo for unlimited rentals, or $2/vid for days) are definitely reasonable. Anyone who hasn’t seen the Cane Toads documentary would be well advised to drop by.

My friend Mike Donofrio has given his 2006 year-end wrap-up to False 45th:

As the bass player for The New Year, Mike Donofrio was the only Vermont musican this year to play both the Touch & Go 25th Anniversary Festival in Chicago and Wall of Sound Festival in Dallas. Plus, the guy hasn’t been working since August…by choice. And he welcomed his second daughter into the world in November.

Hi friends of J. Robbins, Janet Morgan and Cal Robbins:

J. and Janet’s baby boy Cal was born with a serious genetic condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Though there is no cure for this condition, there are lots of treatments that promise to give Cal the the best possible quality of life. Unfortunately, many of these, especially the alternative treatments, are not covered by health insurance.

J. and Janet have given so much over the years to the music community we’re all a part of, so Bill and I are hoping you can see in your hearts to help them out now.

We’ve set up a website with more information and a place to make a donation. All of the money will go straight to J. and Janet to help defray their growing medical bills.

http://www.desotorecords.com/cal/index.shtml

Thanks for your support and feel free to send this email on to folks who might likewise be interested in helping.

Take care—
Kim Coletta and Bill Barbot

Uncommon Ground (via Central Denton Preservation):

Last night we noticed someone had lit some candles and put up some signs at Mr. Chopsticks and Uncommon Grounds. Apparently Buster Freedman’s window for the pending demolition permit was running out. It’s a good thing they didn’t wait much longer… today the bulldozers showed up.

“Beer Is A Bi-Partisan Issue”, via Capitol Annex:

“In the last session of the Texas Legislature, the Lege took a step toward revising Texas’ Prohibition Era liqour laws and passed Senate Bill 877, which Governor Perry signed into law.
That bill expanded the rights of Texas wineries to be able to ship directly to consumers in wet or dry areas without going through a ‘package store,’ ie a liqour store.

And, in recent years there have also been other changes related to the wine industry.

But, none to that have helped independent microbreweries.

Saint Arnolds, a microbrewery in Houston, is setting out to change that and has started a blog to help educate and inform Texans about the issue called St. Arnold Goes To Austin.

Why is this important? There are actually a lot of reasons. For one thing, it is about a level playing field.

Fourteen out of the 19 microbreweries started in Texas have failed. That’s an astounding rate for any industry. Microbreweries flourish in other states because those states have laws more favorable to microbreweries, notes Evan of Perry vs. World, who is one of two bloggers (the other is Charles Kuffner) helping with the St. Arnold’s project.

The long and short of it is that microbreweries only want laws similar to those that now govern wineries. And, that’s only fair.”

Smog-conscious can now report offending vehicles (via Denton Record Chronicle):

Residents in North Texas now have a way to help stop air pollution by reporting cars that gush black smoke from their tailpipes.

Drivers can report vehicles with visible exhaust to the North Central Texas Council of Governments by dialing the toll-free number #SMOKE (#76653) on their cellphones, said Michael Morris, the director of transportation at the agency.

No big rigs in the fast lane? (via Fort Worth Star-Telegram):

“A temporary ban on trucks in the left lane on Interstates 30 and 20 through the Metroplex was ‘an enormous success’ and could be extended to other freeways and other counties.”

Is there anything more delightfully high-lar-i-ooos than Orweillian delusion? God Bless You, “Accuracy” In Media:

A third of self-professed liberals listen to conservative talk radio. Why? Because we offer hope.

Next week is finals week at UNT, and we’re expecting quite a rush of traffic on our WebCT Vista system. This entire week is being spent preparing for large spikes in DB usage and user traffic, though I’m managing to get in a bit of Sakai and Tre Orsi work while waiting for various processes to complete.

Thanksgiving in Mexico was great, though we left a day late because Katey was feeling really ill. Michael and his family moved to a house in town, across the street from the Governor’s Palace, near the Presa de la Olla. It’s quite a climb up to his place (he does live on the side of a mountain), but the proximity to the center of the city is great. I managed to eat a great torta at a shop up the street, had some churros in the Centro near the Mercado, and I fell down the stairs once. Also, I actually read two books, “Moneyball” and “The Areas of My Expertise”.

Getting in that much reading has inspired me to read more, and since my fall has prevented me from biking for a few weeks, I’m taking the bus and using the time to finish “Light In August”. Next up will probably be “Don Quixote”.

Tre Orsi has 3 shows booked now, all within a week of each other at the end of January/beginning of Feb. We recorded our finished songs right before I left for Mexico, and we’ve started working on a few new songs at our new practice room at Rubber Gloves. I’m not sure that we’ll stay there past this month; we’re all pretty used to playing at Bryan’s house.

Finishing up the Hogpig record this weekend. Still need to schedule time to finish Jasper Stone’s. Going to be recording the Daily Beat in Feb, looks like.

Other stuff

Got a few records from Aquarius:

• Achim Reichel & Machines Die Grune Reise (The Green Journey) / Erholung
• Congotronics 2: Buzz ‘N’ Rumble From The Urb ‘N’ Jungle
• My Dad Is Dead A Divided House