District 9

I know this was technically Blomkamp's film, but it was hard to watch the splattery bits and not think, "Ah, classic Peter Jackson." I do wonder how this film will play in Nigeria... will they overdub to reclassify the gangsters as Sierra Leonans?

Testing... again

Just checking to make sure this thing still exists. Lots going on mentally and socially, but with no real connection between the two. Gaming ideas and getting ready to move aren't really compatible passtimes.

Duman: Just as I Expected

This review will be brief, and more than a little tardy, but Duman delivered at their 9:30 show. Highlight? During an extended jam in the middle of "Herseyi Yak," the song morphed into Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2." Hearing Kaan Tangoze sing, "Hey, teachers!" is going to stay with me for a long time.

Duman in DC

Turkish rock band Duman will be playing at the 9:30 Club on April 24th. This is very, very awesome. At the very least, I now know that Kaan Tangoze is still alive (I was starting to worry; he's such a skinny lad). I know every Turk within 50 miles and under 40 years old will probably be there, but who among my friends can I drag to the show with me? Who among them will get riled up by "Yalnızlık Paylaşılmaz" like I do?

Another Reed in the Wall

Earlier this week I became obsessed with figuring out key passages from Pink Floyd's The Wall on my clarinet. It's an old plastic Bundy B-flat clarinet, had it since middle school; not a great sound, but I'm fairly comfortable with it after nearly twenty years (man, wish I'd spent more of that practicing), which is why I'd rather use it for this purpose instead of my bass. I picked out the vocals and signature riffs for "The Thin Ice" and "Another Brick in the Wall" easily enough, but the anthemic guitar part on "In the Flesh" proved more troublesome than expected. The album as a whole has me working with all flats, which I can get used to, but "In the Flesh" tosses in just enough accidentals to throw me off my stride. And that's just in the chalumeau register-- I was really hoping to wing that high solo for "In the Flesh" in the clarion, but my embouchure just ain't up to it yet.

Guess it's time to go back and practice with Mistle Thrush's Agus Amarach album; all those tracks are really clarinet-friendly.

Still, I was close enough with the Pink Floyd to wish that I had a microphone and some distortion software to add a little "crunch" to the clarinet. That got me to thinking about analog MIDI controls, which led me to the Yamaha WX5. I'd heard about "wind synths" many moons ago, but never actually looked one up until now. I'm a little bummed that it appears to rely on sax fingerings instead of clarinet, but that's an easy transition to make... if I decide to get it. I do have an actual saxophone sitting in my closet that hasn't seen light or air for over a year, and it's hard to justify getting a virtual instrument when I'm overstocked on real ones. Oooh, but I want to do power cords on the clarinet! Naftule Brandwein, guide me!

Hailing Frequencies Open

Between my spot on Vox, my pbwiki, and my personal website, do I actually need another blog outlet? Highly unlikely. However, it does relocate yet another egg into my Goggle basket, so it can't hurt. Unless, of course, Google up and disappears, or decides to sell all my personal data to unscrupulous oligarchs.

I should explain for those stumbling across this for the first time that the title "Clashingblack" refers to a phrase among the DC goths that I ran with back in the mid-to-late 90s. Upon dressing up in black jeans, a black t-shirt, black boots, and a black trenchcoat, it was not uncommon to discover that all those materials had faded at different rates, resulting not in a flawless monochrome, but rather a mis-matched assembly of varyious smudgy near-colors. "I'm dressed all in black, and yet I clash!" Hence, clashing black.