Sunday Off w/ Family

Tried to only pick out only a few good ones. I guess lots of them were good. More in the Flickr.  Maybe I should have called this post something like “Jayla, in pictures with other people.”

Things Begun…

Not quite either of these, thank you very much.  But yes, if you have a Tumblr, follow me. 

Unfamiliar? Quick snippets of stuff. Random songs I like. Things to short to do a blog post about.

Like this?

Yes.

New Camera Times

Library Book Vending Machine

The Toronto Public Library is looking at setting up a vending machine for library books.  The plan is for the kiosk to be set up at Union Station.

A lot of comments on the news site basically said “why bother? Everyone uses digital media readers anyway.”

Well, you can already get digital media online.  From A) everywhere, and B) the library.  A kiosk to hook up you I-Pad to download a book, uses the same technology you used in 1990 when you asked you mom to get off the phone so you could get online.

To me, libraries have always been about breaking economic barriers between people.  Focusing on readers who don’t have a Kindle sounds like a great idea.

Although – where would we put one of these in Jacksonville? We have so many branches as it is…

Current Playlist – Music I Got Online Edition

Awesome Tapes From Africa Blog

Yes! Bare witness to the  Awesome Tapes From Africa Blog!!  Before our missionaries visited and hit hard the message that homosexuals are bad. And before the local governments proposed a bill imposing the death sentence of homosexuals… they made love music, not war.

And really good music. The tape hiss is the real deal, and the cover art can’t be beat.  Most of the tapes posted are from current groups / groups from around the last ten years.

This tape pictured though? Woubeshet Feseha, 1976.

Black Moth Super Rainbow.

What a horrible band name.  It may be increasing apparent to some that I don’t get out quite as much these days as I used too.  So forgive me if this is some lame hipster shit. It sounds like it could be, but it also sounds interesting.  My references for this kind of stuff are all older – something akin to psychedelic folk pop between Strawberry Fields and a Boards of Canada / Beck collaboration. I looked up some pictures of them and got to see some of the covers of the records, and now I’m regretting even posting that I like this record.  It looks like they are trying too hard to be eccentric assholes. The kind I’d talk to once and promptly spend the rest of my days trying to evade.  Dandelion Gum is the only one I downloaded, though you can presumably get them all here.  They have a Myspace, and you can just listen to them there.  Sun Lips is a good song.  Thank you, Pittsburgh.

Woven Bones

Dear Andy, you used to live in Jacksonville.  You had some ups and downs but it’s all good and now you moved.  We mostly only hear about you through this band.  Which I’m liking.  No one really mentions Providence Union much anymore.   It reminds of me being in Andy’s room and him talking on and on about the Rolling Stones.  I’m thinking that reference won’t help you understand the music much.  You can listen on Myspace. Psych-punk revival maybe?  I like it.  Let’s hope the wash of guitars doesn’t turn to a wail.

Warm Hands

Warm Hands

I saw this band for the first time recently at a house show in Avondale (fancy right?).  It’s member’s draw a striking resemblance to Starring Daggers and Gypsy Spit, insofar as it’s mostly the same people.  Past accolades for due time in these acts or individual members other bands, such as Casey Jones or Skatekorpse, aside, these four gentlemen are forging ahead with something interesting.  It’s definitely chaotic hardcore. I like how the guitar isn’t over the top distorted.  But the overall sound of the band is tough, for lack of a better word.

They recently recorded a demo that you can listen to in it’s entirety here.  I haven’t messed around too much with this Bandcamp website stuff, but I like it so far.  It hosts your music for you – it won’t even let you upload MP3’s since the quality of that format is so bad. And you can set it up to charge people for the downloads etc.

The above picture is from Clay Doran’s Flickr page.  See more of those here.

New stuff!

So, fairly simultaneously, I finished painting and installing the cabinets for the laundry room of our house and got a new camera.

The cabinets are from my parents house.  I wrote about that a while back.  The countertop is by a guy I met at the Riverside Arts Markets. He has a commercial woodshop that I went to see on my lunch break one day. It was awesome. And after pricing countertops at Lowes, or even pricing a sheet of formica laminate, I realized it’s be cheaper to have this guy do it.   Especially because I wasn’t to savvy on inviting me messing up a perfectly good $150 piece of formica, only to spend another $150 to try again.

We still haven’t installed the sink. We’re getting a different one with one large tub, instead of two separate ones.

Anyway, the picture above is with the old camera.  Here is one with the new camera. Ironically, it may actually look a little grainy since I had it set to take huge pictures.

Although the real difference is fairly obvious. Well, one of two things are happening.  My new camera turns dogs into bones –  or turns dogs into cats.

Here is the other new cabinet. I still haven’t built a permanent top for it.

And the new cabinet with the new camera…

Again, I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but the lack of dog is pervasive.  It should be noted that I haven’t seen Hannah since the taking of this picture.

I recently read about the first digital camera ever developed.  December of 1975.  And here I thought when I got a Commodore 64 I was this advanced computing prodigious child.

The camera stored the images on a cassette tape! The fact that I “store” LPs on cassette tapes to listen to in my car is archaic to most.  I don’t know what’s more neo-luddistic – having a bunch of records, or having a tape deck in your vehicle.

Infrastructure collapse?

Not really.   But to think, the fuss over all of this oil spill, whether or not to start drilling again, green technology supporting our unsustainable, current, way of transportation.  And why bother? (please respect that sarcasm) The country with the most people can’t use it anyway, since this traffic jam has lasted over nine days.

Vehicles on the Beijing-Tibet expressway slowed to a crawl on August 14 and haven’t speeded up since. Nearby residents are profiting on the latest traffic snarl by overcharging drivers for food.

Some people have been sitting in the traffic for 3 days!  Here’s a recent picture from the scene. 

Killer Weekends!

Tourist Trap

So this band once existed for about a year in Jacksonville, Florida called Tourist Trap.  Forgive the slight bias I have as a guitarist in the band, but we were really good.  It’s funny how bands can exist as a flash in the pan, or inversely, something akin to institution – sometimes faltering, but always there.  Unending.  As a band, we all got more or less busy with other things or uninterested.  Or maybe just the  subconscious burning out vs fading away on our heels got the best of us.  Maybe that’s saying too much, being too serious, for what is essentially just another hardcore punk band.  Although, Jacksonville doesn’t have many of those – so our time in the (Florida) sun was enjoyed.

This video’s introduction with the Reax logo is all too fitting.  Remember when Tom from Jaxscene worked there? For like 4 months?  That’s just it. Stuff just doesn’t last, eh?

Equally befitting is this flyer from the first show. The one we didn’t play because a picnic table full of people collapsed on Christiana’s (singer) leg.  The night was spent in two different hospitals instead of a show.   I think Shanty Town has gotten new tables since then.

So yes, ending won over unending, and that’s that.

Regardless, we recorded some songs with Tom Essex of Skinny Records fame.  Here they are, in – actually – a particular order.  More or less the order we wrote them.  Enjoy.

http://joshjubinsky.com/mp3/TouristTrapWoods.mp3

http://joshjubinsky.com/mp3/TouristTrapRevenge.mp3

http://joshjubinsky.com/mp3/TouristTrapPositive.mp3

http://joshjubinsky.com/mp3/TouristTrapExtinction.mp3

http://joshjubinsky.com/mp3/TouristTrapHabitKeepers.mp3

http://joshjubinsky.com/mp3/TouristTrap13Stitches.mp3

http://joshjubinsky.com/mp3/TouristTrapIntotheSand.mp3

http://joshjubinsky.com/mp3/TouristTrapLegalDrugs.mp3

The last song, Legal Drugs, was one we never played out. Erik is singing.

You can also check out the band webpage here. Some more videos, pictures, and some one microphone recordings.