fak3r

Posted April 16, 2007 by phil & filed under music, rip.

UPDATE 10/31/2007: “Jeanette Sliwinski of Morton Grove was found guilty of three counts of reckless homicide with mental illness, as a grueling two-week trial concluded in the Skokie courthouse. Her sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 26, where she could receive up to 10 years in custody, prosecutors said.” Full coverage

Also, a fellow poster on digg.com shared a link to a memorial site for the victims here: http://www.dougjohnmichael.com/

NOTE: I originally posted this to my old blog, July 19th, 2005, but have reposted it here after receiving an email about a Silkworm documentary in the works, with an accompanying trailer that gave me goose bumps. It reminds me of just how much their music meant to me, and how glorious they were live. I’ll post more on them in a bit, first I need to re listen and take them in again (you should too). Now playing, Silkworm “It’ll Be Cool”.

I’d seen the band Silkworm (from Missoula, MT, then Seattle and later Chicago) since 1993, and anytime a drummer strips down to his shorts and then puts on oven mitts before playing…well, you know something good is going to happen. This was my introduction to the artful sounds of Silkworm, combining rock with an experimentation that I haven’t heard before or since. I stayed up with them, buying their cds as they were released and going to see them when they were around. I remember seeing them play Cicero’s in St. Louis in 1994, in a room with a capacity of 250, Andy’s guitar stack was taller than he was, and he is tall! Two friends I was with left the room and went upstairs to escape the volume, but my girlfriend (now wife) Mary and I stood our ground at the front and center table, drinking our Old Style, totally enthralled by the band, and Michael’s crazy, powerful drumming. I remember seeing them play Liberty Lunch during Sxsw 1997, and instead of playing all of their ‘hits’, they just played all the songs from their (then new) cd, “Developer” in it’s entirety, a bold, ballsy move I thought, and one I appreciated. It’s how they created and shared their art; they always did it their way. The last show I saw was at Sxsw 2004 with a friend who had never heard them before, and they were as great (and loud) as always. I always love sharing bands with others, but here was this established band of over 13 years with a history few bands can brag about, doing what they’d always done, playing their new songs. I have plenty of ‘favorite’ bands, but this was a really great one. The news of how he died makes this even more senseless. Here, reprinted from Punknews, is a complete writeup of the tragedy. “Yesterday, Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist was killed in an auto accident The kiss in Skokie, Illinois. Dahlquist and two companions — John Glick, guitarist of the Returnables and Doug Meis, drummer of Exo and the Dials — were stopped at a traffic light and were intentionally struck from behind by a 23-year-old woman in a failed suicide attempt. Dahlquist, Glick and Meis were all killed in the crash; they were 39, 35 and 29, respectively. The woman was not seriously injured. Silkworm bassist/vocalist Tim Midgett confirmed Michael’s passing on the band’s earlier today. There is also a thread mourning the loss on the Electrical Audio message board, where Dahlquist was a contributor. Silkworm’s last release was 2004′s Touch And Go-released It’ll Be Cool. Their last show was April 30 in Coumbia, Missouri. Midgett has since told the Chicago Tribune that the band is officially over. To those unfamiliar with the group’s music, you can stream a song off their MySpace page, and find three MP3s at their Touch And Go page under the “Featured Clips” tab. Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of Mr Dahlquist, Mr. Glick and Mr. Meis. A more detailed story has been posted online by the Chicago Tribune. You can view it here. ” Wtf, how sad and senseless.

Posted by phil & filed under music.

Longtime (since ~1988) fav band, The Wedding Present, are set to recreate their classic CD from 1987, George Best live this fall. “To mark the 20th anniversary of its George Best (Reception Records), the band will hit the road in a special tour where it’ll play the 1987 album in its entirety. Not content to stop there, the act’s tour will stop off in the same towns that the band originally visited when promoting the album.” While that doesn’t sound like they’ll make it over here, it’s still pretty damn cool to hear about them doing that. I’ve had the good fortune to see them 5 times, David Gedge always amazes me, and I’ve spoken to him before/after sets a few times now. If you don’t have any Weddos CDs, start with the very accessible Bizzaro, or the Steve Ablini recorded (chosen because David loved how the early Pixies releases sounded) masterpiece of Sea Monsters.

Posted April 13, 2007 by phil & filed under commerce, geek, linux, rant.

Microsoft is set to phase out Windows XP by the end of this year, even though the majority of businesses have no reason or desire to update to Vista, since most of those updates would require new hardware. It’s just another example of Microsoft not listening to their customers, just to their shareholders. “Computer makers have been told they’ll no longer be able to get Windows XP OEM by the end of this year, despite consumer resistance to Vista and its compatibility problems. By early 2008, Microsoft’s contracts with computer makers will require companies to only sell Vista-loaded machines. “The OEM version of XP Professional goes next January,” said Frank Luburic, senior ThinkPad product manager for Lenovo. “At that point, they’ll have no choice.” Sure, I can throw in my “let’s hope for a major Linux migration”, but I won’t. It won’t happen on the scale it should, but still, some companies are going to start waking up; it has to happen. Hell, if I have to get a job at some small company where I’m tasked with supporting a network of Linux workstations and servers, I’ll do it. It can be done, companies will save money; it’s just a matter of hiring a competent employee that really knows his stuff. (paper MCSE admins, I’m looking at you)

Posted April 12, 2007 by phil & filed under General.

2600 joystick Like a walk down memory lane, you’ll never forget your first…video game controller that is. That’s mine on the right, yeah, she got around a bit, but hey. So anyway, here’s a great site with an overview of the evolution of the video game controller, all the way back to the Magnavox Odyssey. Wow, I’ve owned 8 of those systems! Atari 2600, Colecovision, NES, Sega Genesis, SNES, Sony Playstation, Gamecube and now the Wii. Yeah, the only Nintendo I didn’t own was the N64, which supposedly rocked. Then if you really want to get into it, there’s a fantastic ‘family tree’ version with even more (all?) of the controllers; Sock Master’s Game Console Controller Family Tree! Much more in depth, with details once you click on them. Far out, fun to see how Nintendo lead so much of the way, but also to see how the Xbox followed Saturn’s lead. Damn, and I played the Atari Jaguar at a party (“avoid the ground!”) and that controller bit, hard. But check out ‘The Nintendo Game & Watch’, a Donkey Kong game from 1982; the case is a dead ringer for the Nintendo DS! Damn, this is fun stuff.

Posted by phil & filed under rip.

Writer Kurt Vonnegut has died at age 84. “Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island. His death was reported by Morgan Entrekin, a longtime family friend, who said Mr. Vonnegut suffered brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago. Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But it was his novels that became classics of the American counterculture, making him a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and ’70s. Dog-eared paperback copies of his books could be found in the back pockets of blue jeans and in dorm rooms on campuses throughout the United States. Like Mark Twain, Mr. Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence: Why are we in this world? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this, a god who in the end, despite making people suffer, wishes them well? He also shared with Twain a profound pessimism. “Mark Twain,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote in his 1991 book, “Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage,” “finally stopped laughing at his own agony and that of those around him. He denounced life on this planet as a crock. He died.” Not all Mr. Vonnegut’s themes were metaphysical. With a blend of vernacular writing, science fiction, jokes and philosophy, he also wrote about the banalities of consumer culture, for example, or the destruction of the environment.” Viewed as a whole, his writings are timeless.