Hey hey, it’s that time of year when I remind all of those Louisvillians that read this blog to go and find out where to vote if you don’t already know. It’s too late to remind you to register to vote if you haven’t already (October 4, 2004 being the deadline). So, go and check it out, and make sure to get out the vote on November 2nd. That is all.

Maybe the greatest “indie” band to rise out of the Derby City, Slint were hailed as pioneers in their day. They released two albums, Tweez and Spiderland, and in one way or another influenced a great number of bands here in Louisville, and helped to spark a great revival of Louisville’s indie scene.

I think my first experience with Slint came from the soundtrack of Kids (1995), the marvelous and chilling tale of a group of Kids in New York. The Slint track on the album was what many would consider their signature track – “Good Morning, Captain”. Trying to explain Slint is like trying to explain why I like looking at the sky at night. You really just have to do it to appreciate it. Go and find some Slint (at least “Spiderland”) through whatever channels you deem ethical.

So, anyway, back to the headline of this post — Slint is re-forming, starting at the first “All Tomorrow’s Parties” festival in England next year. I’m certain they’ll make it to Louisville some time and I hope I’m in the room when they play…

For more Slint-info, check out this site.

The Courier-Journal has a 2003 Election Guide, with plenty of information and articles.

Don’t know where your voting location is? Never fear, citizen — check out the LOJIC’s Voter Connection.

Polls are open from 6AM to 6PM, and anyone in-line at 6PM will get a chance to vote.

2003.09.19 – kentucky

oddly misty dark and dreary out here in eastern kentucky. following in the wake of a wake, really, what with Isabel having moved on through.

I was looking through the road atlas, and as i was trying to make a decision to either stop in Huntington or Charleston, West Virginia, i noticed that West Virginia has a wonderful array of odd town names. There is Left Hand, War, Coco, Enon, Bim, and Hix. I know a lot of immigrants moved into West Virginia in the late 1900s, and I can only assume that Russian immigrants founded the town of Czar, which lies quite close to Volga. (Czar being the name for a class of Russian rulers, and Volga being the river in Moscow). Now that I say this, I remember that ole’ Matty Rasnake (ne’ Rashnik) and his kin hailed from West Virginia by some way. Hmm. On a similar note, and one that should make Matt smile, there is in fact a town called “Pie”. just “Pie”. I would like to get some pie in “Pie”.

I’ve travelled this way quite a few times in my past — many times during my youth, and each time I remember thinking about the gap between Kentucky and Virginia the Appalachians. That was the boundary of these United States for so long, something imposed by King Chauncy of England (oh, like you know). Now we stretch from east coast to west, north and south, and now even upwards into space. Is that for the good? It’s hard to say sometimes. We, as human beings, can now experience so much that often we end up experiencing less in the way of minutia.

You can fly over these mountains in less time than it takes to cook a frozen pizza — a journey that once took us weeks to cross. Yes, I realize that driving at 70 miles per hour doesn’t exactly afford you the luxury of smelling the roadside roses, but I’d like to think that we are experiencing this country in a more natural fashion. Seeing the change in foliage, the changes in scenery — thats what makes it for me.

more later…

Jackson, Kelly and I went to the fair yesterday! Bunnies and rednecks and chickens, OH MY! Note well our “weak shouldered” bunny friend over to the right there… We also encountered rockabilly ducks and some odd memorials to Bob Hope and Desert Storm II in aquarium format! The bunnies were extra cute this year.

Check theKentucky State Fair 2003 gallery!

Rineyville, Kentucky is a town with a lot of problems. If it isn’t the dangeous intersections, it’s the tornados (but you do get some Lotto-Cash from FEMA!). If the murderers don’t stuff you into a suitcase and then drop you in Rough River, then I guess you could always be cited with a DUI on your deathbead.

When someone tells you “Hey man, Louisville is boring and sucks,” you can promptly direct that guy to the URL for the 2nd Annual Lebowski What-Have-You festival right here in Louisville. I don’t know if it’s the only Lebowski What-Have-You Festival in the nation, but I do know this — the man who was the inspiration for “The Dude” will be there, drinking white russians and bowling. Yeah.

i saw an article in today’s Courier-Journal about an interesting project at the University of Kentucky College of Engineering called BIG BLUE (Baseline Inflatable Glider Balloon Launched Unmanned Experiment). Essentially, it’s a balloon-launched glider designed for atmospheres like Mars. Mars has an atmosphere that is 1% as dense as the Earth, so flying is MUCH harder. The cool thing about this plane is that the wings are deployed at an altitude of 100,000 feet. And they are just unfolded — they are inflated! But you can’t fly with non-rigid wings, right? Right. Well, those crafty sons-of-guns came up with the idea for a ultraviolet-hardening epoxy to harden the wings at altitude! Crazy stuff.

Anyway, NASA is partially funding this project, and they have an article about it’s test flight.

The official site (fairly crude) is linked above, but if you want to see some cool wind-tunnel footage of these wings, you can go here and some documentary footage of the launch can be viewed here.

Anyone who knows anything about me knows my love of the art of breakdancing. It’s a talent that I’ve never attempted to hone, and frankly it looks difficult. Oh, and I have NO rhythm. Let’s not forget that.

But you say “Hey Ben, I’m a B-Boy poseur, too, and I wanna ‘bust a move’”. Well, Junior, now you can with the Flash Breakdancing Tutorial. It’s a step-by-step Flash Tutorial on breakdancing! How great is that. You can view the move in motion, or step through it frame-by-frame! Text descriptions help a lot, too.

And if that hadn’t whetted your appetite for 80′s kitsch, enjoy this.

Just got back from Cincinatti, where Ben Folds played at Bogarts. We got there about 45 minutes late, and sur-prize sur-prize, Mapquest got us a little lost. And, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Cinci, but the “cool” part of town is really just a gentrified black neighborhood (aren’t all “cool” parts of town?), so we stopped at the local Kroger’s to ask for directions, and the people there were very congenial — apparently there were plenty of lost white kids that night looking for Bogarts.

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I hate feeling afraid to be in a “part” of town. I feel stupid, ashamed, even. These are just people.

So, the frickin’ show was sold out. Luckily, scalping is apparently legal in Ohio, and we managed to still get tickets. Sure, they were about twice face value (which was only $18), but dammit, I had driven there with Kelly, and we were going to see the piano-mosh stylings of Ben Folds. We got in after they’d played about 2 songs, and the place was packed.

Most of the songs during the hour and a half set were from the new album, with an interlude of 2 covers, a punky “Mommy Make Me” and “Sweet Home Alabama”! Now, I know Holly would have hated it. I was a little torn, myself. Believe me, they rocked it out, for sure, though thinking about that song, and the whole Neil Young/Skynyrd argument. “Sweet Home” is a rebuttal to Neil Young’s “Alabama” — an indictment of that state’s history of racial inequality, and being in a town that has a certain level of racial tension, and in a room full of white college students, and a band singing “you don’t know what it’s like to be male, middle class and white”, it was all a little strange at the time.

I saw Luke Padgett while we were down there, much to our surprise, and he mentioned that he wasn’t sure if he was going to come up from Lexington to see it, due to the acquittal yesterday. It was a thought in the back of my mind as well, but I think that that fear is only felt outside of Cinci. There was no tension in that crowd, no violence, everyone in the crowd knew the lyrics, and because there was no overdub, they would fill in the background vocals. It was nice, and they rocked it hard. I think that’s what made me feel good about the state of the city, and the people within it. “You don’t know what it’s like, being male, middle-class and white” — and do I, a white middle class male know what it’s like to be hispanic, elderly and poor? Black young and rich? No, and race, creed, and status don’t matter — I know I don’t hate those people, and I know that most of them don’t hate me.

We also happened to see Art while we were down there as well, again, much to our surprise. What is this? We go to another city, much larger than our own, and we see people we haven’t seen in years? Never under-estimate the drawing power of white-boy piano mosh rock.

It was good to see Arthur. I miss Art. A lot. I think he and I shared a lot of similarities, and quirks. We are both too emotionally sheltered and too easy to “give up” on a relationship. And never let ourselves down for it. It was good to see him. We all appreciate good Art. (tee-hee).

Well, so anyway, BACK TO THE SHOW. It rocked. HARD. The new backing band (now with guitar!) is awesome, and the encore was a lot of Ben Folds Five stuff, including a 10 minute version of “Song for the Dumped”. I felt real good after leaving, and I still do. It was okay to just do the white-boy shuffle, hear a song that made me sullen, and then turn around and rock out hard, to a guy playing a piano…