It Can Even Snow In Los Angeles

Music. Not Words.

I wrote a story a couple weeks ago called "Difference."

While I was sort of bashing people from my hometown for being a number of things, I also want to say I still have much love for those people and that place.

The scene there is what helped raise me, and it's always great to hear something new come out of it.

So I'm just going to share some tracks from my friends' relatively new band, Aequorea.

http://aequorea.bandcamp.com/

Enjoy.

Cross-Promotion

So this week I wrote a story. But I don't think I'm going to post it.

There's some info about people I still hang out with. Those people probably wouldn't appreciate me airing their shit on the web. Besides, it's not that amazing of a story. Just kind of funny to me. Sort of a butterfly effect of how something I said went on to do more damage than I intended (which was "no damage").

Anyways, I'm working on something new.

In the meantime, here's an essay written five years ago for a Latin American Gender Studies class at UC Santa Cruz:

Thanks to Ed O'Neill for turning me on to Bruce LaBruce.

my god

"Norwegian black metal is completely unbalanced – that is why it is so compelling and powerful. It is the sound of utter torment, believing to one’s core that that winter will never end, that spring will never come. It is really music that can only be made by bitter and rage-filled teenagers. It is powerful and important to have these kinds of feelings of deep misanthropy and misery while one comes of age, because our age is sick. I don’t think, for instance, that a 35-year old man could make a record as great and pure as Filosofem. BM is about destruction, destroying your belief system – it is a cleansing fire that opens up new possibilities for thought and feeling. In many ways, it is a first step, not the alpha and omega."

I pulled this off a livejournal post I made about a year ago.

The quote is from the guitarist/vocalist of Olympia, Washington-based black metal band, Wolves in the Throne Room. But I don't remember where I originally found it.

It's just that I attended a friend's show last night. His band is called blackleg.

They're pretty fun to watch, and have a brutal heavy sound given the fact that there are only three people in the band, none of which play bass. I was just a little bummed because:

1. They only played two songs. My friend, Ssippi, broke strings on both his guitars.

2. Other than blackleg, it wasn't a metal show.

Not that I need to listen to that shit all the time, but I was in the mood to reinvigorate myself with some of that energy. Because I'm afraid I'm just becoming that old.

Maybe it was a lack of the appropriate audience. Not enough people who get it, or used to get it. There were some people from the side of Alt-porn i never fell in with. Some people from porn. And some people from the warehouse crowd.

I feel like I don't have access to this anymore:

Difference

It has nothing to do with porn.

This started out as a writing exercise based on a short trip I took early this summer to visit my hometown. Everyone mentioned is based off a real person. And most of the dialog comes from actual events. But I need to make it clear that this story has become fiction. I've manipulated time and conversation like a collage, so that people may come across worse, or at least different, than they actually are.

To my friends: I love you. But we're all a little bit crazy, lost, fucked up, and full of shit. And different. :)

The New Crossover