i stare at old pictures
wondering what they are saying
when all meaning has faded to blank.
all they ever do is want
not give
their ventriloquism
breaks my heart
12/8/09
12/3/09
quick recipe with a twist
here a really quick and suprisingly simple recipe with a little twist to it. tried it the other day, and even though it's not my habitual convoluted, progressive style of cooking, everyone loved it.
preparation time: 30 min.
ingredients for 4:
100g bacon
400g minced meat
(if you can find a really friendly butcher, ask him to mince the bacon and the meat together, as this will save you some work later)
1 large onion, diced
3-4 tablespoons paprika (ground dried bell peppers)
2 tablespoons cream
3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
salt
pepper
oil
2-3 tablespoons honey
2-3 tablespoons fennel seed
1 large can of diced tomatoes
500g orecchiette, or similar pasta
chopped parsley
1. If you haven't found a friendly butcher, mince the bacon in a machine or dice it finely with a knife. Mix with minced meat, chopped onion, paprika, cream, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Shape mix into little meatballs.
2. Fry meatballs in oil. When ready, add honey and fennel seeds.
3. Add tomatoes, bring to the boil, season with salt and pepper, then cover with a lid and simmer for 12 minutes.
4. Prepare and drain orecchiette, add to meatballs and sauce, add parsley, and serve.
preparation time: 30 min.
ingredients for 4:
100g bacon
400g minced meat
(if you can find a really friendly butcher, ask him to mince the bacon and the meat together, as this will save you some work later)
1 large onion, diced
3-4 tablespoons paprika (ground dried bell peppers)
2 tablespoons cream
3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
salt
pepper
oil
2-3 tablespoons honey
2-3 tablespoons fennel seed
1 large can of diced tomatoes
500g orecchiette, or similar pasta
chopped parsley
1. If you haven't found a friendly butcher, mince the bacon in a machine or dice it finely with a knife. Mix with minced meat, chopped onion, paprika, cream, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Shape mix into little meatballs.
2. Fry meatballs in oil. When ready, add honey and fennel seeds.
3. Add tomatoes, bring to the boil, season with salt and pepper, then cover with a lid and simmer for 12 minutes.
4. Prepare and drain orecchiette, add to meatballs and sauce, add parsley, and serve.
11/26/09
your fever
soft pre-dawn sadness
when rain drips like black petrol
from the lemon tree in drab stillness
outside the slate-skied bedroom window,
as I try to ease the uneasy breath
of your deep dreams
with my chest against your back.
in vain, alas.
my eyes dripping the drab petrol of
sleeplessness
when rain drips like black petrol
from the lemon tree in drab stillness
outside the slate-skied bedroom window,
as I try to ease the uneasy breath
of your deep dreams
with my chest against your back.
in vain, alas.
my eyes dripping the drab petrol of
sleeplessness
10/19/09
fred in the early 80s
alice, who now lives across the pond, found these old-timers:
you guessed it - i'm the long-haired fellow
10/14/09
Daymoon pictures from GoProg festival
http://www.progrockfoto.de/index.php?id=30&album=0924.GoProgFest 09 - Gouveia-Portugal/1.Daymoon/
10/13/09
a horror story for all debut musicians
OK, so last Saturday was our second gig, and after an absolutely perfect debut show the weekend before, this one was a disaster. And of course it had to happen at a reasonable renowned prog festival. So, all of you debut giggers out there, heed my story...
First of all, we only got 8 minutes of sound-check. And we didn't complain - we're such naïve idiots! Well, inexperienced as I am, I walked on the stage and started playing without checking my tuning yet again, assuming that having tuned it 4 minutes earlier would be enough. But no - halfway through the second song it turns out my strat is mysteriously and utterly out of tune. While I'm beginning to panic, our lead guitarist notices that there are no drums at all in his stage monitor. Anyways, here comes the crucial point in the third song, where the whole band depends on the weird riff I play on my strat. Which is so out of tune that the band has no idea what I am (and they are) doing. And now utter inexperience comes in again: the bassist and the drummer simply don't continue, while the guitarist does. The bassist starts, the guitarist stops, the drummer goes into a state of mental blankness, and everything collapses into the most embarrassing loop in the world. The bassist stops again, and gives everyone that 'what the fuck?!' look. This goes on for a minute or so, and only then things go back to some sort of normalcy, but at this point the whole band has lost most of its confidence. The keyboarder plunges into the worst possible fit of stage fright and plays blindly whatever keys appear under his fingers. Now, he's sitting next to the lead guitar, so his stage monitor pumps gibberish into the poor guitarist's ears, who in his turn has no drums to go by.
Luckily, our little volunteer roadie jumped on the stage during the acoustic set in the middle of the show and fixed my strat, so we made it through the rest of the set with perhaps only 5 or so minor glitches.
All this while the audience sound engineer (the whole stage and sound crew was hired by the festival organisers) messes up our audience sound to the point where my voice is barely audible, and does the same with the keyboards and my electric guitar. Judging from the recording we took directly from the mixing desk, the guy most have been doped out of his tiny little avian mind. For instance, at one point in a song, where it's basically only my voice and my acoustic guitar carrying the song for half a minute, the stage sound guy completely kills my guitar in the stage monitor, and the audience guy pumps it up to the max outside the stage, so that all I can hear of myself playing is a huge delay coming from the back of the room.
In the end I felt so dead and weary I just wanted to sleep. The funny thing is, that except for the hardcore prog nerds, the audience at least liked us, and we got a standing ovation. Just goes to show. (How not to do it).
Of course, only after the show did I remember that I could simply have used my acoustic guitar to play the disastrous electric guitar riff. Oh well, too much adrenaline...
First of all, we only got 8 minutes of sound-check. And we didn't complain - we're such naïve idiots! Well, inexperienced as I am, I walked on the stage and started playing without checking my tuning yet again, assuming that having tuned it 4 minutes earlier would be enough. But no - halfway through the second song it turns out my strat is mysteriously and utterly out of tune. While I'm beginning to panic, our lead guitarist notices that there are no drums at all in his stage monitor. Anyways, here comes the crucial point in the third song, where the whole band depends on the weird riff I play on my strat. Which is so out of tune that the band has no idea what I am (and they are) doing. And now utter inexperience comes in again: the bassist and the drummer simply don't continue, while the guitarist does. The bassist starts, the guitarist stops, the drummer goes into a state of mental blankness, and everything collapses into the most embarrassing loop in the world. The bassist stops again, and gives everyone that 'what the fuck?!' look. This goes on for a minute or so, and only then things go back to some sort of normalcy, but at this point the whole band has lost most of its confidence. The keyboarder plunges into the worst possible fit of stage fright and plays blindly whatever keys appear under his fingers. Now, he's sitting next to the lead guitar, so his stage monitor pumps gibberish into the poor guitarist's ears, who in his turn has no drums to go by.
Luckily, our little volunteer roadie jumped on the stage during the acoustic set in the middle of the show and fixed my strat, so we made it through the rest of the set with perhaps only 5 or so minor glitches.
All this while the audience sound engineer (the whole stage and sound crew was hired by the festival organisers) messes up our audience sound to the point where my voice is barely audible, and does the same with the keyboards and my electric guitar. Judging from the recording we took directly from the mixing desk, the guy most have been doped out of his tiny little avian mind. For instance, at one point in a song, where it's basically only my voice and my acoustic guitar carrying the song for half a minute, the stage sound guy completely kills my guitar in the stage monitor, and the audience guy pumps it up to the max outside the stage, so that all I can hear of myself playing is a huge delay coming from the back of the room.
In the end I felt so dead and weary I just wanted to sleep. The funny thing is, that except for the hardcore prog nerds, the audience at least liked us, and we got a standing ovation. Just goes to show. (How not to do it).
Of course, only after the show did I remember that I could simply have used my acoustic guitar to play the disastrous electric guitar riff. Oh well, too much adrenaline...
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