Last Night A DJ Saved My Life

Monday, February 29, 2016

art pop.

In Los Angeles opening acts at concerts often operate as performance art pieces as well. #PARQUETCOURTS
— turbo grafx. (@OneTokenBlack) February 29, 2016

Can I take a minute to talk about the end of the opening act's set at the Parquet Courts show I attended last night?

Okay?

Cool.

So, this dude came on the stage and performed for about 20, 30 minutes.

A one man animal collective channeling Kid A in a white tee and jeans. Very nondescript. So much so that when he walked onstage to set up and begin his set it took a good minute or two before many of us realized he was the opening act and not a member of the stage crew.

So anyway, decent set. Good rhythms. And then right before the last "song" he lets a drone sound echo and reverberate throughout the concert hall.

Then he grabbed a giant white bucket.

His set piece was a mic and a single drum kit that he beat with one hand while singing his set.

At some point in the noise he removed the drum set's top. I missed this. Could not and did not miss the glitter paint like goo he began to pour into the now open drum kit.

Then he climbed the baby ladder that had been ignored the entire set until now.

Drone noise still going. No vocals. No speaking.

And then, from the ladder's mountain top he began dropping drumsticks (SO MANY DRUMSTICKS! WHERE DID THEY ALL COME FROM ALL OF A SUDDEN?!).

Yes, he began dropping drumsticks into an open drum kit filled with glitter goo from the top of a baby ladder. In silence. As drone noise played. He dropped like 10 to 15 sticks into this kit.

And then the noise stopped and he came down and waved.

It. Was,

...Something.

During the set I got my bond on with a black male photographer/concert blogger around my age. We both turned to each other, exchanged "what the fuck was that?" looks, and agreed that we definitely needed another drink after that.

Good times, Highland Park.

Good times.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

ebony & ivory.

a moment of clarity.

juicy fruit.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

mood.

Friday, February 26, 2016

stone cold.

a video.

starring demi lovato.

been to the moon.

a video.

starring corinne bailey rae.

superheroes.

a video.

starring chief keef & a$ap rocky.

sunday.

starring iggy pop & josh homme.

ROLLING STONE: Hear Iggy Pop and Josh Homme's Winding, Scorching 'Sunday'

black on both sides.

FILE UNDER: a moment of clarity.

THE WASHINGTON POST: America has locked up so many black people it has warped our sense of reality

Thursday, February 25, 2016

a moment of clarity.

words.

"Let’s be clear: Trump is no fluke. Nor is he hijacking the Republican Party or the conservative movement, if there is such a thing. He is, rather, the party’s creation, its Frankenstein monster, brought to life by the party, fed by the party and now made strong enough to destroy its maker. Was it not the party’s wild obstructionism — the repeated threats to shut down the government over policy and legislative disagreements; the persistent call for nullification of Supreme Court decisions; the insistence that compromise was betrayal; the internal coups against party leaders who refused to join the general demolition — that taught Republican voters that government, institutions, political traditions, party leadership and even parties themselves were things to be overthrown, evaded, ignored, insulted, laughed at? Was it not Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), among many others, who set this tone and thereby cleared the way for someone even more irreverent, so that now, in a most unenjoyable irony, Cruz, along with the rest of the party, must fall to the purer version of himself, a less ideologically encumbered anarcho-revolutionary?

...Then there was the party’s accommodation to and exploitation of the bigotry in its ranks. No, the majority of Republicans are not bigots. But they have certainly been enablers. Who began the attack on immigrants — legal and illegal — long before Trump arrived on the scene and made it his premier issue? Who was it who frightened Mitt Romney into selling his soul in 2012, talking of “self-deportation” to get himself right with the party’s anti-immigrant forces? Who was it who opposed any plausible means of dealing with the genuine problem of illegal immigration, forcing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to cower, abandon his principles — and his own immigration legislation — lest he be driven from the presidential race before it had even begun? It was not Trump. It was not even party yahoos. It was Republican Party pundits and intellectuals, trying to harness populist passions and perhaps deal a blow to any legislation for which President Obama might possibly claim even partial credit. What did Trump do but pick up where they left off, tapping the well-primed gusher of popular anger, xenophobia and, yes, bigotry that the party had already unleashed?..."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Trump is the GOP’s Frankenstein monster. Now he’s strong enough to destroy the party.