Favorite Places: Badlander

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was blessed with the gift of prophecy and cursed to be ignored by all, as her warnings went unheeded, and disaster followed. In the zoo city, Cassandra is the newest member of Knot Knocked Up, a noise band of vigor and energy. They opened the Wednesday action at the Badlander, providing a mid-week wake up call, heard by even this old fart.





Thank these folks for this excellent venue.

Those in the know will recognize the singular guitar of Dave, from Bridgebuilder. Isn't that a great name for a band? They aren't building a bridge to nowhere, as some would like, but bridges between musical genres, bridges to the future and bridges to...







Bridgebuilder was a special treat, as they substituted for Aunt Dracula, on short notice. Another band was to follow, but the Kitchenpoet had seen what he came to see, and headed out the door.

Yes, Again...iNHUMANS, part deux

I was surprised to learn some regular readers did not know how to reach the flickr archive. There's a link to the right, first item under Photographers and Photography. One goal in my photography is to capture that you-are-there feeling. The best way to do that here is go to the flickr archive and hit the slideshow button. Go to flickr.




Note: Flickr always presents uploaded images in reverse order. Kyle being carried around the room was near last song time.

Note: Navigate down the right-hand column of sets on flickr, until you find a favorite band and slide show that set. For example, this post is matched to the set titled "Yes! They Are...iNHUMANS." 70 more photos of this performance are there.

Question: Can anyone tell me how to establish a link on flickr to bring viewers to the blog?

Yes!

There you are hot off the processor. iNHUMANS played for hours to jubilant fans, who packed the dance floor. There will be much more of this event here soon.

I got blasted for bitching about feeling old. It does make me feel better to get out to the scene, listen to the music and soak up some youthful energy. In addition, having photos online within two hours proves I'm not all that slow. Listening to the iNHUMANS makes butts bouncy. It's the real deal, zoo town.

Turn off the television, get out of the nest and fly to the nearest live music.

Democrats Demand...?!

I just saw a headline about the Democrats demanding the Big 3 automakers come up with another plan by December 2. Boy, aren't they being tough. NO! They're being wimps again! They should show their leadership now and present a plan. The best one I've heard was given by an economist on Thom Hartmann's show. He said the government should buy controlling interest in GM's worthless stock and give it to the employees. There's a plan, one I would vote for.

Dammit, are Pelosi and Reid going to continue controlling things? I don't like either one of them. If we are going to have a new administration, the legislature needs new leadership, too.

I'm not giddy about Obama, as some are, but I am relieved. However, now that Washington is preparing for the second coming of the Clinton Doctrine, I'm already getting worried, as well. When Clinton was elected, we partied as the Obama people are partying now.

Our chosen savior continued the policies begun under Reagan and carried on by George I. After pointing out in the Presidential debates that Reagan and George I gave tax breaks and subsidies to companies who closed domestic plants to open new factories overseas, Bill did little to change the flow of jobs to other countries. He didn't make ridiculous proclamations such as announcing ketchup packets to be servings of vegetables, but then big Willy let his little willy lead him around and was embarrassing, in his own inimitable fashion.

When the GOP said they were going to shrink government, they were referring only to the departments which did the planet and people good. When the reduce welfare movement started, corporations were already getting more hand outs than citizens were, but that didn't stop them from crowing about putting single mothers back to work. This was another GOP tradition continued by our hero, Bill Clinton, whose victory we had cheered enthusiastically.

Anyone who remembers Janet Reno and Madeline Albright, knows it wasn't all sweetness and light under Clinton. Albright now admits her wording was clumsy when stating the deaths of half a million Iraqi children was a price worth paying to achieve their goals in the oil lands. Her wording was clumsy? The embargo they enforced left innocent civilians without proper medical equipment and medicines. It kept people from having clean water, and rebuilding the damage from the first Gulf War. George II and his neocon cronies have now killed more in Iraq than Clinton did, more than Clinton did there and in Yugoslavia combined. That's a hell of a stat to be comparing.

The people who ordered the bombing of civilian targets (i.e. "propaganda outlets" such as television and radio stations), during Clinton's time are lining up for positions in Obama's term. Even Albright is on the list. Others include hawks that supported every lie told to get the Iraq war rolling. I can neither pronounce nor spell the name of the secretary under Carter, who bragged that the U.S. had tricked Russia into invading Afghanistan, which would be THEIR Vietnam. He's another good Democrat from yester year.

There's always hope, and I have some. I'm just not overflowing with it, because it seems I remember seeing this movie before. If there is to be change, we are going to have to fight for it every step of the way. The rich and powerful do not wish to share their wealth and power. They will continue to pay any price, including human lives, to increase their status. Believe it or not, they exert their influence on Democrats as well as Republicans.

If domestic programs continue to be cut, while our bloated military continues to spend more than the rest of the world's military combined, you will know the sell out has begun. If an acceptable universal health care program is initiated, while the pentagon gets a budget cut, change will have actually begun. Justice for all must become a reality. Without it, there can be no peace, snd peace is what I hope for.

Kitchenpoet to Prowl Again Soon

Maybe after another nap...
An angel protects Mikey, who is a member of the noise band Knot Knocked Up. Sooner or later, there will be photos of that group in action, right here on the stove.
One of the world's most beautiful women was bedazzling on this particular night.
A favorite thing is to photograph other photographers.
Often, people ask to be photographed. Some demand to be photographed. It puzzles me how many ask to be photographed, but never mention seeing the result. It is enough to be photographed. Some ask to be photographed and then strike a dramatic pose.
Kitchenpoet recently had another birthday. It was enough to make the old fart feel even older than usual. He groaned and complained about being old and in the way. Then, the glitches attacked, and he felt everything he touched turned to shit and vowed not to hug anyone he liked. He spent some time looking for assholes to shake hands with. That phase seems to be ending, and kitchenpoet will be hitting the streets again, soon, because he is craving new sights and sounds.

Technical Difficulties & Longing for Analog

It's a lazy Sunday. I slept in a little, which is hard for me, because I am still on Daylight Savings Time, having trouble sleeping past 5 am, and ready for bed by 9:30 pm. For brunch, I baked a sweet potato, the way Uncle Bill told me to and cooked one of his Jamaican Jerk sausages. Bill makes some of the best sausage I have ever tasted. I bought these at the final Saturday market.

Kitchenpoet has been battling technical difficulties all week, the biggest being the crash of the desktop computer. I preferred working on it, rather than my laptop, for many reasons, starting with still liking XP over Vista and its having twice as many USB ports to allow everything to be connected. Down it went, taking my current work with it, declaring the system32 folder missing or corrupted, and instructing me how to repair it using the original set-up cd-rom. Said cd is in storage, in Arkansas, and there's no way I can get there before spring.

All the online experts I consulted agreed the original disk was necessary, and I responded accordingly. The first step was to rearrange computers, putting the laptop in the center of the connections for printer, portable HD, external HD, and card reader with a wireless mouse taking one of the three ports. Like I said, the other computer had enough ports to have everything hooked up. Then I began sorting, deleting, because the laptop HD had less than 2GB available. One card full of photos would overflow it. So far, I've opened up another 10GB, and the other drives have been carefully rid of debris and duplication. The palm-sized drive has 140+ available, and that will be my main working area for a while.

My laptop was a first edition Vista, and has been a pain in the ass from the beginning. I went to the stores looking for XP, but they had all been updated. Some smart sellers, in other places than Arkansas, kept some XP machines and sold all they had immediately. A cottage industry sprang up among hackers of restoring Vista machined to XP. My laptop has a little hiccup, when it loses contact with the USB ports. My warning is a bubble onscreen, which says the built-in thumb-reader, which I've never used, is disconnected and must be plugged into a USB port.

I long ago learned the simple procedure of going to the most recent restore point, and was ready, when it burped that bubble in the lower left corner. I checked my ports and found them dead as doornails. Wireless mouse won't work, along with all peripherals. Did I mention before how much I hate this little pressure pad, too? Now, all is restored, and I can get back to business.

Thinking about the cd-rom in storage, made me remember with longing my books stashed in a climate-controlled space, also in Arkansas. Those are the pictures I just found. Did I mention I've been a bookworm most of my life? I wish I could curl up next to my wood stove with some of those books, now.

Badlander Hosts Another Benefit

Thomas Pendarvis brought his new band, March of the Black Queen, to the Badlander to open the Saturday night benefit concert. I had seen a couple of practice sessions, at Dauphine's and knew Thomas was a tough taskmaster in rehearsal. Thomas' intensity paid off handsomely, as the band hit its mark and did its best to blow the roof off. This is not Good Neighbor Policy renamed, although GNP was a great band, and some members are also in this group. There is also a veteran of Arrows to the Sun. If I remember correctly, that band gave its farewell concert at the Bike Doctor's place on Toole. GNP said its good-byes on this same stage, and I covered that in a previous post.



Rooster Sauce was up next. The count was looking debonair and his partner was looking pugnacious. I praised this group highly for their covers of Ween material for Halloween (see earlier post), when they appeared in the Palace.

Are iNHUMANS Missoula's Hottest Band?

Kyle had the look, as the iNHUMANS played a benefit, for a cancer victim, at the Badlander.
The back-up singers, Heavy Flow, have been reduced to two, by Ruthie's departure. Margy and Robin continue to swing with plenty of pizzazz and style. Spellcheck doesn't like pizzazz, but I do, and these women have it.
Dylan mans the turntables.


It seems as if the crowds at the Badlander are larger and more energized, every time this group performs there. I remember the first time the club hit capacity, with them on stage, a few months back. It was a viral event, with fans on their cell phones telling their friends they had to get down to the Badlander and get in on the happening. Now, when the word gets out, everyone shows up, creating the type of scene once reserved only for Reverend Slanky.

Steamroller Prints Highlight Day of the Dead Parade

First, a tribute to one who passed on.

Then a series of excellent prints.










Three large, gaunt creatures came shambling along the avenue.

The Day of the Dead, as celebrated in the Zoo City, is quite an event. Intermittent drizzles of rain didn't stop hundreds of folks from gathering near the XXXs and moving down Higgins to Carus Park. I decided to give it more coverage. An artist friend recently taught me when the frame contains little color it might as well be black and white.