Dr Frank Weakly Reader for 4.05.2019
Mtx forever sequencing edition
That’s right, it’s time once again for the Dr Frank Weakly Reader, where I produce an annotated index of my “content,” just so there’s a record of it somewhere in case I or anyone else might like to find it. This is the Mtx forever Sequencing Edition because that’s what’s on the front burner this week.
Last week was, to be honest a bit of a blur, from the Octopus show on, and I’m still just getting my wits about me. But the show must go on, and on it went, and a lot of stuff did wind up happening in my little Dr Frank world.
More below on the Mtx forever sequencing project (where we’ve asked people to share proposed album sequence playlists on Spotify.) I hope you’re having fun with it. We’ve already got a few interesting and useful entries. I know there’s a lot of tl;dr in there, but if you can bear reading the sequencing post and the original announcement all the way through and trying to work within the parameters therein, the results will possibly be more helpful than otherwise. Or just do what you feel. It’s all about fun anyway, and I’m glad anyone’s interested at all.
And now on to the meat of the matter.
FIRST AGAINST THE WALL
— Mtx forever, the Sequencing: here’s my Medium essay about the rock album aesthetic and the vagaries of sequencing, which was also by way of an announcement of a kind of “phase 2” of Mtx forever fan input. Basically, we’re asking people do share their 24 track “best of” MTX double LP sequence in Spotify playlist form. It’s hard, especially if you follow all the restrictions and criteria outlined in the sequencing post and the original announcement. Here’s an explainer link from Sounds Rad.
So far we’ve had:
— this one, from mynameisblue_x;
— this one from none other than the Sounds Rad Ministry of Playlists (that, hilariously enough, doesn’t follow the parameters — you feel what you feel, gentlemen);
— this (on Apple Music because her Spotify was hacked) from Lauren Banjo, which does follow them;
— and here’s one from Big Tweed. Nice to see some love for “The Boyfriend Box,” that doesn’t happen too often.
— and (late breaking) another pretty darn good one from Tito’s girlfriend (I think I’m reading that right.) This includes a couple of Shards duplicate-excluded songs, but manages to do better with the chronological approach than I’d figured was possible. Still not comfortable with the idea of starting this off with something as, well, not quite “A-list” I guess you’d say, as “One Big Lie,” but it’s a good stab it.
Keep it up, folks, this is fun. Here’s that Sounds Rad “how to” page again.
RADIO FREE MTX
— The Mr T Experience — “A Mind Is a Terrible Thing”, live at Gilman Street, Berkeley, May 2, 1987. Video on YouTube. Outside of a couple of clips from 1986, this is the earliest video of MTX that I’ve ever seen.
“Minor secrets” may be found here. And here’s the flier for the show. And here’s a flier for the previous show we’d played with NoMeansNo, back in ’86, the noted Own’s Pizza show.
— Lookout ad from 1989, for MTX, Green Day, Samiam, Neurosis records, seen on twitter and reposted by me. The MTX 7" in question was “So Long, Sucker” / “Zero” our first single on Lookout and first release since the implosion of Rough Trade US. There was a record release show at Gilman featuring all four bands, and Aaron dug up the flier.
— And here, also via Aaron, is an MTX interview in Fiz magazine from 1992.
— Company girl: it’s all in the hat.
— Brian’s Shards tattoo: lookin’ good.
— Cydne found Love is Dead graffiti in a Seattle bar. Chvrches reference or…
— and your Friday morning “…and I Will Be with You,” from our pals the Queers, at the Bottom of the Hill in SF, ca. 2008. …and on the covers playlist it goes.
THE MANY MOODS OF DR FRANK
— The show at the Octopus (me, Kepi, Kevin Seconds, Dan Janisch) happened, and I wrote a post-mortem, if post-mortem is the word I want. I like that line-up obviously, and I like the place: I’d like to do both again sometime. They put an exclamation point by my name on the line-up whiteboard, which made me feel rather special.
I mentioned the girls singing “God Bless America”. It’s a little hazy but it looked kind of like the pic at left.
Nick tweeted this, from afar:
Cheers, Nick — late stage works for me.
— Dept. of bon mots
an oldie but still a validie:
Okay NPR, here’s what I don’t get. You have your announcers do these Frito Bandito type accents when they pronounce Spanish language words and names and so forth. Fair enough. But how come you don’t do accents for words and place names of other nationalities like Japanese or German or Russian or Irish, or even, like, people from New Jersey? I for one would enjoy your broadcasts a whole lot more if you did.
— Antonio Salmeron: he is a heraldic artist doing some really cool things. Met him on minds.com. I’ve always wanted a coat of arms, maybe I should get one because you can do stuff like that in this day and age where if you say you’re a doctor you pretty much actually are one.
— Blurry, blurry me. I sometimes lose focus.
OTHER PEOPLE’S MUSIC
— Good morning, world: Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq. — “I’ve No More Fucks to Give”; Heart — “Magic Man”.
— Harv Was There. And now he’s not.
— I don’t like Genesis, or dancing, or much of anything really, but somehow I kinda liked this:
First time I have ever knowingly broken the Phil Collins Rule. I’ve been told that that foot stuff they are doing is French and is known as “smurfing.” The more you know…
PICTURE BOOK
— See It Now: the work I love: beheading; St. Osburga; just a little tremble; Leon Kroll’s Summer — New York; Laetare Jerusalem; I have come for your soul; this is from an ad… for what I have no idea; in all her finery; Our Wife; to do: art; St. Francisco of Paola 'nzuddha; from Eliran Kantor — must be Hannibal; here’s Groucho…
…and finally: just a pretty girl resting her head on some pancakes.
IN THE NEWS
— Apparently some politician said something about James Joyce, which made twitter go into its usual idiotic herd politics pile-on. I clicked on the “trending” link to see if I could figure out what it was about, but several layers of meta-irony without referent rendered all the “sick burns” mostly incomprehensible. A lot of people seem to be pretending to be mad at Joyce, or Ulysses, or at people who like Joyce, or Ulysses, or something. He needs to be “cancelled” evidently. Did we run out of comedians, or, you know, living humans to try to destroy on the internet? Actually, I’m good with applying the human being lawnmower that is twitter to dead people rather than living ones, but I’d prefer it even more if everyone just cut it out completely.
— Thought for the day, from a larger bit of text on the Age of Aquarius and the counterculture, seen on minds:
The great American social pathology, the urge to conform, can take on a variety of different guises, misleading foreign observers into imagining that significant changes have occurred when in fact there has only been a change of wardrobe.
Nihil sub sole novum.
— The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch: found.
— Uri Geller Is Organizing Mass Telepathy Against Brexit. This seems to be sourced on the same material I posted before but I’m doing it again. This story has it all.
— Mick Jagger: the Rolling Stones US tour had to be postponed because of a medical emergency for Mick Jagger, which turned out to be require heart surgery. Get well soon, Mick. It’s hard to imagine the world without you. Here he is in his natural habitat.
