believe it or not new england, it’s finally spring. the past few weeks we’ve had (as noted) pockets of wonderful melty niceness– walking around in a sweatshirt, getting crushes on people, rolling down hills. of course soon after that a bitter wind blows in again and the ground’s all hard again and everything’s snow dusted and looking like a fried dough. well, officially anyway, spring is here, and with it as always, a modicum of rebirth.
to that end, a few words, and if we’re lucky, a song, from the aztec god of spring, “the red smoking mirror”, “the night drinker”: xipe totec, “the flayed one”. he appears here in his traditional aspect– skinless but wrapped in the hides of others. please remember that though sacrifices were definitely made to this princely fellow, it’s not entirely fair to say that he “demanded” sacrifice. although at the same time, not to be a creep, but if, sometime between now and 20 days hence, if you were to get into a mindless scuffle or scrape, if blood were to be drawn or a bruise formed, and you opened the bruise up to let some of the bruise blood come out to show them, as maize seeds lose their outer layer before germination and snakes shed their skin, that would be, uh, honorable.
here’s a little inspiration for your february wednesday 2009:
lots is said about “indie rock”, but now that the majors are all shitting their respective beds (and now that hip hop is the dominant force in music and is more experimental and inclusive than any popular music-thread in history (which is a subject for a different day)), is this even a viable mark anymore? as far as i’m concerned, the important thing right now is “indo rock”, aka rockabilly music of the 1950s and 60s made in the netherlands by people with indonesian roots (though not neccessarily of indonesian descent).
wikipedia:
Indorock is a musical genre, originating in the 1950s in the Netherlands and Europe. It is a fusion of Indonesian and Western music, and has roots in Kroncong (Traditional Indonesian Music).
After Indonesian independence on August 17, 1945, many Indo (Dutch-Indonesian) musicians repatriated to the Netherlands. One of the effects of this cultural process was that, in the mid-1950s, an instrumental music genre called Indorock became popular.
The guitar was imported to the Indian archipelago by Portuguese explorers in the 14th century. The traditional Portuguese song styles, saudade and fado, played with guitar accompaniment, later became krontjong music. Krontjong is characterized by guitars which seem to be “talking” to each other.
massive colonial weirdness at play here, but for me the indorock lesson is: take what you want, or think you want, and approach it through what you know. balls→walls, with soft-soled shoes, circumnavigate the instrument, backwards, and you’re in!
YESSSSSSSS. Joe DeGeorge, wizard-rock superstar of the band “harry and the potters“, made us this awesome video ad!!!!!!!!!! featuring turtle, boy, the duck, pizza wizard, puc man, and the puffy paint nirvana shirt that marge madigan made! KILLIN IT!!!!!!
HBML sells new and old artifacts including but not limited to t-shirts, noise tapes, punk records, etc.. we also have our own line of products, including toys, clothing, perfume, electronic musical instruments, and mirrors with mustaches already drawn on them. there is also gallery space, a planetarium, and many other exhibits. we are on vacation for three months, until april 1st, so plan accordingly!
in the mean time you can still send love letters, bars of chocolate, and fairly flat packages to our regular street address (click for street view):
