Alak Tubafree's Annonoblog

Fri, 14 May 2004 05:36:21 GMT

My father is an artist... my father created me... the best works of art have flaws, which is what makes them so human. My father is nearing the end of his days, yet we have never really talked about how he is feeling about nearing the end of his journey. I know how I feel about my own son, so I think I know how my father feels about me. I love my father intensely. I love my son intensely. We are all following each other off the conveyor belt eventually, so we should be able to talk frankly about this most tabood subject, death. Death is so normal, the one thing that makes us all the same no matter how high or how low we fly on this journey. Yet we think we can avoid it... which causes us to waste our life in fear.

Thu, 13 May 2004 03:35:09 GMT

I'm trying to reconcile my musical pursuits. I started this great band that's evolved into something very cool, and it's called the _____ _____ Band. Where "____ ____" is my actual name. Now, you would think it's pretty cool to have a band with your name on it. It's OK. But I've never felt that comfortable with it. It just kind of evolved out out of my acoustic act, which I was comfortable having my name on. Now all of the musicians in the band are pretty high level, and I just write songs, sing lead, play rhythm guitar, book gigs, set up the f#cking PA system and try to accomplish all of the other thankless cat-herding type activities a band entails. While we do have better songs than your average "jam-band", which is the category most convenient for us, my musical interests are all over the board. I sometimes think I'd be better served by saving my name for pure solo pursuits, and name "the band" something a bit more exciting and possibly genre referencing, something that will attract more interest than merely "the blah blahley band."

There are two schools of thought-

1. The music makes the name, not the other way around. Exactly. Particularly on the bigger level. Dave Matthews Band, Toad the Wet Sprocket, plenty of bizarre or seemingly uninteresting names that mean something because the band succeeded due to immense talent, almost in spite of the name. Also- a thriving nurturing setting for that talent helps as well. The first time I heard that a serious artist was emerging on the scene and he was calling himself simply the Dave Matthews Band, I almost laughed. What- did this guy start out as a wedding band? That of course was before I heard him. In retrospect, the name "Dave Matthews Band" cut through the clutter, and was totally different, on a national level, in it's simplicity.

2. The other school of thought maintains that you should have a name that at least somewhat describes your "product" and helps you, or at least doesn't hinder you, from entering into the consciousness of your intended audience. For a new band ham & egging it in some schleprock town where it's like pulling teeth to find an audience, it is probably helpful to have a name that somewhat sounds like what you're about. Deep Bannana Blackout, Day by the River, New Monsoon, Rainbow Trout. I think that people could read these names for the first time, be at least slightly intrigued if they are in the target demographic, and possibly recognize that these are probably "hippie" type bands, for example.

In my situation, we are playing some incredible stuff which can loosely be associated to the jam scene, but we cannot buy a break as far as getting people to our shows, getting festival promotors to consider us, etc. Part of me thinks it's because of our name. "The Blah Blahley Band" (not actual name) could be anything. It could mean jazz, it could mean country, it could mean singer songwriter stuff. I just don't know if it's good marketing. I also wonder whether taking my name off the marquis would free me up to be more creative as a songwriter/performer. Annonimity can be empowering. Thus my "annonoblog." Maybe some of the other band members would shoulder more of the "band crap" that needs to be done.

I talk about this all the time with the other band members. It's certainly not an ego thing. They are all for keeping the current name rather than switching horses in mid-stream, and nobody has thought of anything better that describes the indescribable. So I guess we're left struggling to let the music define the name, not the name describe the music.

One thing I know for certain. If I spent as much time writing songs as I do thinking about crap like this, I'd be on a much higher plane artistically than I am right now.

Thu, 13 May 2004 02:41:22 GMT

Re: The Other Photos
and: Tom DeLay = Cockroach

"I don't know how the hell these people got into our army," said Colorado Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell after viewing what he called a fraction of the images.

"I saw cruel, sadistic torture," said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who said some of the images were of male prisoners masturbating. She said she saw a man hitting himself against a wall as though to knock himself unconscious.

Others said they saw images of corpses, military dogs snarling at cowering prisoners, women commanded to expose their breasts and sex acts, including forced homosexual sex.

"There were people who were forced to have sex with each other," said Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y.

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said, "There were some pictures where it looked like a prisoner was sodomizing himself" with an object. He said blood was visible in the photograph.

Not everyone reacted the same way to the additional photos.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said he thought "some people are overreacting."

"The people who are against the war are using this to their political ends," he said.

Wed, 12 May 2004 05:09:50 GMT

Real blues is real. Real anything is real. I don't know how to define it, but I know it when I see it. Why were Jimmy Thibodeax & his band so real, while the old man playing mock-blues for tourists a few doors down not real?