An Important Interview with XTX

(I’m a journalist, I swear. This interview with xtX is important cause it deals with the issues of today)

Bicyclemark: Im gonna ask you earth shattering questions… ready?
XTx: oh crap
Bicyclemark: First Question —
Bicyclemark: What does your IPOD smell like… honestly?
XTx: hold on…let me check
XTx: it’s funny…. the back of it doesn’t smell like anything…. but the front of it smells like wintergreen (yes, i really smelled it)
Bicyclemark: wow. thats good! lickable even
XTx: i could try that if you want to hold on? doesn’t taste so wintergreeney the touch wheel is actually kinda bitter

Bicyclemark: Q2: You’re an artist… what was your inspiration that led to your latest exhibition of “The Cheese People”
XTx: Well, my inspiration was really the boredom of the meeting i was in.
XTx: i was handling the wax and it got soft and warm, and i began to make little shapes, and…the shapes became little cheese things- it was fun!

Bicyclemark: It looks fun… followup Q: After all the hoopla about the GATES.. do you have anything similar planned for any city in the world?
XTx: i haven’t thought about that. but now that you mention it, perhaps a teeny tiny version of The Gates, but based on my cheesewax creations.
XTx: i could decorate an entire Bratz townhome
XTx: or…i might just crazy glue them all onto my car and drive around creating a spectacle

Bicyclemark: that is brilliant! smelly perhaps.. but brilliant…. ok …When you Open Up Your Mat? Caf? called ?I say Tamato you Say Tomat??- Where do you think will be the best location?
XTx: I think i’d have to say Universal City Walk, it’s outside of Universal Studios
XTx: lots of shops, kinda Vegas-y
XTx: I would put a giant Mate cup outside of it, made of lights, that would flash
XTx: nonstop
Bicyclemark: wow.. flashing is key.
XTx: and have all the hired help wear skirts
XTx: even if they are men
Bicyclemark: Aren?t they kilts then?
XTx: no plaid
XTx: they will be leather skirts
Bicyclemark: H-O-T
XTx: so hawt
Bicyclemark: OK now… name one thing.. or two.. you still havent done in vegas, but would like to do
XTx: well, the first thing i haven’t done and would like to do is to win a huge million dollar jackpot
XTx: and the second thing is to have sex in the champagne room
Bicyclemark: (sidenote: i saw showgirls last night for the first time… stunning piece of cinema)
XTx: oh my god it was laughable, but lots of nice boobies
Bicyclemark: I felt liz berkley’s pain
XTx: where is she now? maybe i can hire her for my mate shop
XTx: i’ll have a pole in the corner…for re-enactments
Bicyclemark: good thinking.
XTx: entertainment AND mate
Bicyclemark: Well T… thanks for this interview
XTx: you are welcome, i hope i answered them all correctly
Bicyclemark: Im gonna stop cause I have to Pee
XTx: me too!!!!!!!!!!!! my legs are crossed
Bicyclemark: lets go pee…
XTx: yay!

Today’s Sounds: Carribean Free Radio – Podcast #9

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A Dam Fire

Sometimes, when I realize it has been awhile since I spent quality time with my love, I ride around town and take random pictures of her. Amsterdam doesn’t change all that much over time, canals, 15th century houses, bicycles, boats… repeat. Randomly insert ugly and occasionally interestingly designed buildings. But for me, 3 years into it, she never gets old. I could take that same picture of the keizersgracht, with its bridges lit up at night, over and over. And that’s exactly what I was doing after drinks and mexican with RocknRoll Amy, the bicycle repairess, and friends…. riding home.. stopping every few meters to “make photos“.

And as usual, something happened. I noticed in the darkening sky that the night had not completely fallen, but I was indeed witnessing and smelling a huge fire. It was the nightclubby area known as Rembrantplein, and the nosey journalist in me decided to ride over the bridge and get a closer look. And sure enough, this is Amsterdam, there were tons of bikes stopped and onlookers were taking part in the international tradition known as rubbernecking. For those who don’t know the term, it’s when you just HAVE TO stare at an accident and wait as if something it going to happen which you need to see.

And indeed things happened. I was enjoying the lady next to me who decided I would know everything about that building and why it was on fire. I played along, trying not to say too much to give away my accent. Told her it was the ABN building and the fire seemed concentrated on the ground floor. She trusted in me as a local, I could feel it! Then came the other middle aged male experts in business suits, yapping about what the firefighters will have to do. Just in front of the police baricade, an angry local wants to get by to get into his house or his favorite nightclub I guess. As he’s getting angrier, one of the horsey cops charges his horse into the poor guy. I was paralyzed… wanted to say “HEY WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?” but then I pictured the horse charging into me, and I didn’t want to smell like horse, or be trampled, so I just shut up and watched with frustration.

Me and local dutch woman hung out a bit more, she with her camera phone, I with my digi, we snapped shots as if we both had photoblogs in need of material. Hmm.. maybe we both did? Anywho, just as the orange flames began bursting towards the emergency crews a cop told us in both Dutch and English, in case we’re tourists, that the air quality was unsafe and that we stayed there at our own risk. I love this city… you could die standing there, but its your choice sir…. oh and I like your podcast 😉

Anyway that was that. Life in the big small capital city. Time to do some podcasting from my local jazzclub.

Oh and if you want to learn more about Dutch life in english, listen to the latest Yeasty Sloerie Source. It’s an education and a half.

Today’s Sounds: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – Tyranny of Distance (don’t I know it!)

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Rise Up Zimbabwe

(a none rhyming poem)

Zimbabwe re-elected the president – again.

mr. president says he wants to stay in power til he’s a hundred.

powerful countries say they will fight tyranny around the world.

zimbabwe doesn’t have any oil or strategic location in southern africa.

hypocrisy? irony? stupidity? Inconsistency?

people are hungry. newspapers are closed. voices are murdered, arrested, silenced.

it’s time for an uprising, and not the kind with the guns or the invasions.

it’s time for scared people to get brave, and march into the presidential palace.

tear down the fences, open the gates, expose the emperor and the clothes he isn’t wearing.

do it now, do it without made in europe/us/russia guns. do it with made in zimbabwe strength.

that type of power and spirit cannot be imported, nor can it be quelled for long.

remember steve biko? remember patrice lumumba? remember ken sarowiwa? heros. then and now.

that’s my wish, as an outsider and cultural admirer, for you.

Today’s Sounds: Yeast Radio – Madge in Miami

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AudioCommuniqu?#24 – PodLoneliness

This podcast features a new coined term in the realm of pod-theory. It’s called podloneliness: when all the podcasters are busy with life, and you kinda miss them. I also talk about future generations that will study my podcast to understand what humans were doing back in 2005. Mindblowing – I know.

AudioCommuniqu? #24(mp3)

19min43sec, 64kbps, 9.2Mb+

Featuring:

stars
Podcast Archeology
B&S
Frisell rocks
Caribbean Free Radio Podcast
Americunt.com
Talib

Podtags:,,,,

Throw Up

Sometimes on saturday I like blogging a family story. Tell you bout my parents and life in Newark when I was a kid. Or maybe bout a journey I took in Portugal, Spain, or whatever. I’ve got lots of those. I know not everyone gets that chance, I know I’m lucky. But actually I lost the train of thought, for one reason tonight:

I’m watching this We Were Soldiers movie. Did you see it? Maybe not. It’s got me close to throwing up. The part where a bunch of the soldiers are caught in the bombing line and they’re all charred and burning alive, and then the journalist tries to lift one of them by his legs. The guys legs are all black, like bar-B-Q, and when he goes to grip the tar colored ankles, the flesh falls right off. You see the muscle tissue and the bone, and the journalist has fists full of flesh… I’m on the couch clutching my stomach, and you tell me what the fuck was it for? War is the stupidest ritual the earth has ever known. Maybe dumber then all the mass murders, rapes, environmental dumpings, political scandals, money laundering, child abusing…

I don’t know if you can make a scale like that, but if you could, war would be on top. The worst of the worst. The most inhuman and pointless. TAKE THAT HILL. CONTROL THAT RIDGE. FLANK THAT FLANK THIS. WIN THE BATTLE. DIE FOR YOUR COUNTRY. What the fuck for?

I got an idea. Don’t do it. When you get the order. don’t. If you’re the “enemy” disobey. If you care about FREEDOM or SAFETY… Walk away. Go to jail. Suffer the punishment. Cause there cannot be anything worse then killing or being killed on the so-called battlefield.

The pope is dead. Whooptey do. They pray in Saint Peters and everwhere. The cameras are there. Yet all over the world there are wars… little.. big.. war. Skip the praying… everybody go there and stand in the fucking way! Hold hands like its a hippy event and stand there unarmed.

Stupid idea? Well… can’t be any dumber then the idea that carrying weapons and shooting other humans is important for your future. If that’s the future, count me out. I’ll go hang with the Pope and Joe Strummer, cause you know those two are gonna hang.

Today’s Sounds: Faudel – Sumra

VBlogging Friends

I’m doing my tribute to video blogging today. But it’s hard to talk visuals when i have some kind of eye problem right now. In high school we used to call this pink eye or something, but I refuse to admit I could have such a thing. So I call mine, an eye irritation. But nevermind that, let’s talk about vblogging.

Don’t get scared, it’s not far off at all. Matter of fact, it’s already here. You know blogs (I hope), cause you’re reading one. And while the world may still send mixed signals in public, you also know about podcasting; sort of an audioblogging. So vbloging is the next step of course. In the natural progression, dating back to the typewriter, radio and television. People will (and are) record snippets of their daily lives, or a personal message, and publish it to their blog-style site. Direct, personal- media.

I know.. I know.. video bm? But think deeper, there are so many people in this world of internets. Obviously most of us can sneak a peek during work and read blogs. MAybe slightly less of us can pop on headphones or just load podcasts onto our mp3 players and listen to shows. So probably even less of us can sit and watch video blogs on our computers throughout the day. Even if those little handheld video players are getting more popular. But still… there are so many of you out there… some prefer text, others sound, and plenty — video. So, vblogging is definitely here to stay. Just ask the duke of the vblog… Anti. I think my favorite part of anti’s films are when he puts the caption under them with the title. It always has the little tag “a film”. Thats the part I love…. like “How to Brush your Teetha Film

I playing with the Vblog system he recommends, but its far from perfect. Wanted to throw on a vb of my own here, but no dice. So instead I refer you to his work, as well as that of Madge Weinstein’s Insane Films, and the wide world of Vblogging. Look out world, it’s already here!

Today’s Sounds: Desperate Housewives is on lazy friday night Belgian TV