2002
December 2002
As Christmas approaches and we search the high street for a Cleveland Wrecking Yard (Richard Brautigan’s one-stop-shop from which we may purchase all our gifts, including trout streams), I feel I may have discovered one in China. Back in the early 70s there was a Cleveland Wrecking Yard in Newcastle Street, Burslem but, as happens in Stoke, the point was somehow lost and it sold nothing. Now it seems that the traditional products of the city are all made in the Far East. The china has returned from whence it came. Perhaps the same applies to everything. I received the following email from China. I am considering the purchase of a submarine:
THE GATOSON (HOLDINGS) LIMITED
E-mail : csszcodx@public.wh.hb.cn
Our Ref.: 12 main items (CCC-2)
18th Oct. 2002
Dear Sir,
We can get the follow good quality products which made in China at the SPECIAL LOWEST PRICES.
If you are interested them, kindly contact us by return e-mail, we will inform you our WEBSITE for them by e-mail immed., you can visit our website and let us your instructions.ANY OTHER INQUIRIES ARE WELCOME.
Thanks again for your kindly assistance and waiting for your instructions.
Best Regards
THE GATOSON (HOLDINGS) LTD.
Alex Cheng
General Manager
A wearing and accouterment
A01 man garment
A02 lady garment
A03 children garment
A04 silk dress
A05 leather/fur dress
A06 knitting dress
A07 full dress
A08 sportswear and leisurewear
A09 uniform
A10 underwear and nightwear
A11 accouterment and accessories
A12 shoes
A13 others
B electricity & electronic product
B01 electronic appliance for kitchen
B02 telephone
B03 computer
B04 television set
B05 air conditioning
B06 audio and video facility
B07 sanitary products
B08 washing machine
B09 water fountain
B10 VCD/DVD player
B11 refrigerator
B12 water heater
B13 mobile phone
B14 digital products
B15 others
C machinery and equipment
C01 food, beverage & tobacco machine
C02 foodstuff machine
C03 dyeing machine for textile
C04 sewing machine for dress
C05 leather/shoes machine
C06 paper machine
C07 paper products machine
C08 press machine/equipment
C09 Medical equipments
C10 envir.pro.machinery/equipment
C11 chemical machinery/equipment
C12 construction machinery/equipment
C13 engineering machinery
C14 electronic/electrical machinery
C15 others
D vehicle
D01 sanitation truck series
D02 traveling bus
D03 passenger car
D04 agricultural vehicles
D05 carring truck
D06 saloon car
D07 mini bus
D08 bus
D09 motorcycle
D10 bicycle
D11 fire truck series
D12 cement tanker
D13 concrete mixing truck
D14 drumper
D15 others
E ship and spare parts
E01 yacht and speed boat
E02 oil tanker
E03 cargo vessel
E04 submarine vessel
E05 passenger vessel
E06 battery boat
E07 rowing boat
E08 treading boat
E09 fishing boat
E10 special vessel
E11 others
F sports products
F01 ball
F02 ski and skate shoes
F03 gymnastic equipment
F04 model
F05 traveling products
F06 swimming outfit
F07 others
G office equipment & stationery
G01 office furniture
G02 office stationery
G03 office equipment
G04 copier
G05 fax machine
G06 scraping machine
G07 scanner
G08 printer
G09 blueprint machine
G10 others
H daily commodity
H01 dishware and kitchenware
H02 furniture
H03 decoration
H04 clock and watch
H05 cleaning article
H06 domestic textile
H07 clothes rack and clothes pin
H08 lighter and smoking set
H09 knife and scissors
H10 umbrella and raincoat
H11 glasses
H12 others
J industrial control/automatization
J01 automatic apparatus parts
J02 robot and mechanical hands)
J03 automatic system
J04 automatic instrument
J05 others
K paper products
K01 toilet paper
K02 paper package
K03 others
L Oilfield equipments
L01 Welhead equipment & X-mas tree blowout preventers
L02 Drill-Stem testing tools new series perforating guns
L03 Pumping units
L04 F-series triplex mud pumps
L05 Drilling & producting accessories
L06 Drilling rigs
L07 Others
M aerospace products & aircrafts
M01 Aircrafts
M02 Aerospace equipment
M03 Others
*
Merry Christmas and Happy Transformationalistic New Year!
***
November 2002
Like a young shepherd who’s got something in his field that troubles him I felt I could not let the case of Mike Batt versus John Cage pass without comment. It seems odd that Mike Batt’s name should occur on a Transformationalist website for the man is in no way transformationalistic; although during his career he has transformed himself from children’s entertainer (musical womble) to spawn of Satan (composer of Tory Party anthems). Mike Batt inserted a track of silence into his latest CD and as a merry jape credited it to Batt/Cage. John Cage’s famous silent piece, 4’33” has been the butt (or batt) of many jokes over the years, so nothing new here, but the John Cage estate objected and decided to sue Mike Batt for breach of copyright. The case was settled out of court and money changed hands, so that’s all fine and dandy and they can shovel it into John Cage’s grave if he ever stops spinning, but is that really all that 4’33” has become now - just a piddling piece of music?
***
October 2002
Whilst engaged in this year’s annual Transformationalistic Silent Reading In A Corner Of A Library Event (unannounced) I happened across a CD entitled ‘The Voice in the Garden: Spanish Songs and Motets 1480-1550’ in the sale. I purchased same (£1) and was delighted to find it contained the following highly transformationalist piece by Francisco De Penalosa (c. 1470-1528):
POR LAS SIERRAS DE MADRID
Through the mountains of Madrid
I have to go,
and I have a terrible fear of dying,
for I am tiny and of dark complexion.
I’m no friend of that gentleman, mother,
I’m certainly no friend of his.
That young shepherd, mother,
who never comes,
he’s got something in his field
that troubles him.
Yours are my eyes, Isabel,
yours are my eyes,
and my heart too.
They tell out in many languages the mighty deeds of God.
***
September 2002
***
August 2002
I thought long and hard about this one. I received it a while ago and have no memory of ever subscribing, but here it is - make of it what you will:
“this email is only meant for those that have subscribed. If you are receiving it without your consent please notify us immediatly.reply with remove as the subject and you will never again hear from us, or related projects.
Below is a Review of the Eugenics Council /Rosemary Malign video. A few copies are still available for purchase. The video is packaged in red vinyl plastic bags, accompanied with Flyers, live photo's(over 20 pages worth), a promo cdr featuring new unreleased E.C. material, plus other various E.C. concert souvenirs. Each order will also receive a cdr containing previously released, and new never heard material. Paypal, along with credit card orders are accepted. $16 u.s. $18 world The video is approximately 2hrs 40 min. recorded in sp mode.
Some cities featured on the videoSt.louis Mo - private raver/punk party (booked as a digital hardcore band, performed in a locked basement using a full size jackhammer, grinders, mig welder, drills, korg ms 10, signal gen, scrap metal, contact mics, tear gas and the rest of the usual E.C. gear. Virginia - Due to violence inflicted on Sharon from other band members, during the show it was decided that she would no longer be involved with E.C. The ceiling is blown out, along with the windows, due to the pressure caused by the explosives. Denver Co - Electronics only set,,in. OH (Rosemary fires a pistol into the audience loaded with tear gas blanks, minimal pa. focus on power tools, and vocals),Washington D.C. - Mig welder grounded to an analogue synth.....Washington D.C. Collab with Praying for Oblivion,Columbia Mo,Chicago IL,Kent Oh,Akron Oh,Nashville Tn,Kent Oh - "Punk Rawkers": try to start a fight, skinhead steals our amp, threats are made with a police taser resulting in the return of the amp.
send money order, cash or check topo 30051columbia mo65205order with a credit card at http://cdstreet.com (do an artist search for eugenics council)
Reviewed by http://Industrial.org (photos are available on the website)Of all the live footage I have seen through the years, two gigs definitely stand out further than a corpse's erection. There's this Anal Cunt show from Poland that gets me grinning wider than the crack of my ass, the crowd surfing guitarist ripping off insanely manic solos with one hand while he punches various crowd members in the face with the other. The other standout is the final GG Allin gig in New York where a crazed GG acts like scat covered pied piper leading a parade of unwanted sleazy hangers on through the streets desperately trying to evade the coppers and get his fix. Now thanks to this Eugenics Council video, the number of vids sharing that same exclusive rack space is up to three. I lost count after the first hour and a half or so but this vid includes a mind numbing amount of footage, close to three hours worth. Having so many gigs crammed together in fact makes this seem just a little like a TV serial redux, the best moments of a gajillion episodes crammed into one three hour whiz bang of nightmare special. You got the intra-member violence, you got the explosions, you got the molten metal, you got pure SKREEEEEEE! I have honestly never watched a live gig that I was less disappointed by - i.e. this is the real deal folks. Anyone can pick up some powertools in the safety of a huge warehouse art space (and you will see some of that here) but it takes a special kinda artistic dementia cum fearlessness to move the body shop into some unwary kids basement rec room. We are talking real fucking commitment here, not just common and pedestrian externally directed hatred and distaste but an equal helping of no fear death wish that will knock the clove cigarettes and poetry books out of the hands of every faux intellectual within several city blocks upon airing. I used to think I was kinda tough for a faked castration stunt I used to pull in an earlier band of mine but fake blood washes off and these folks will be pulling shards of aluminum out of their hides well into the environmentally induced Alzheimers that they are no doubt now looking forward to. The quality of the footage varies pretty wildly, a lot of X-Files dark scenes suddenly lit by the spray of sparks from a mig welder but still, quite a number of the shows (the best ones in fact) are totally acceptable. Sound is pretty lo-fi but still intense and generated the most satisfying third party facial expression I have seen in ages when a not so noise copasetic associate happened to be over during the initial viewing. Screeching vocal feedback, resonant oscillators into tight digital delay, caustic scraping metal and the smash crash boom of a self-deconstructing car compactor. Relentless, unforgiving and the absolute butt ugliest of ugly American misanthropy. The instrumentation these folks use is definitely worth mention. Besides the various drills and grinders which had my labourer roommate clutching his digits against his chest in phantom pain, you get the odd quarter stick of dynamite made into a make shift cannon by being tossed into an open oil drum, tear gas, you know, the usual boring stuff (yeah right). My personal fave however is the mig welder. In case you don't know what that is, a mig welder works by creating a high current electrical short, something you normally desperately avoid happening. They use a similar principle to melt aluminum - think really high current and molten metal hot. Put your wet little dinky into the 220V dryer power outlet for 3 months and you will kinda get the idea. I honestly kept expecting riot cops to come running in, guns ablaze for every one of these gigs, they get that crazy at times. The first gig on the tape is definitely the standout though. Again, fearless inappropriateness makes its debut in some judgement challenged roommates second floor apartment parlour room. You can smell the nervous anxiety dripping off the walls as the chaos and vitriol starts ramping up and away out of control. Rosemary Malign wanders aimlessly about screeching incoherently about some Whitehouseesque bedtime story while the Eugenics Council gang go all Ranxerox on each other with spark shooting grinders, then the crowd, then each other again until a few well timed explosives blow out the windows and send everyone running away in search of unpolluted oxygen. Getting shit kicked by the band members is the very least of your worries, you are lucky not to end up needing eye surgery and a blood transfusion after one of these gigs. Even SRL is safer since at least you are off in the bleachers and they certainly don't want to lose their corporate sponsorship. It is 100% totally fucking nuts. And about the purest form of the industrial genre you are likely to ever lose your hearing to. You and I will just have to get over it that we'll never be this fucking cool or honest.”
***
July 2002
George Heath, the Moorland Poet.
***
June 2002
Check out the intergalactic sounds of Blind Willie Johnson:
And click here to find out what other cool tunes the aliens are bopping to tonight.
***
May 2002
This turned up the other day. I came across it in a local paper years ago, cut it out, put it somewhere safe, and lost it. Perhaps that’s the way it happens. Maybe it will disappear again from this site and one day there will just be a blank space below. We will see. I believe it proves the transformationalist belief in the existence of parallel worlds. Matthew Darlington’s theory of slippage (inspiration for the Stoke Musicians Collective’s record label), that the barriers between dimensions occasionally break down and allow free passage between different realms of existence, is clearly shown to be true. Here is the evidence:
***
April 2002
In this sad time of national grief and mourning, and in the spirit of the original Transformationalists’ response to the death of Queen Victoria, I respectfully offer the following:
***
March 2002
***
February 2002
I've been getting a number of emails declaring that as a veteran of the U.S. military then I am entitled to certain educational benefits. I am not and never have been a member of the armed forces of the United States of America and so I must assume that these emails are akin to those I receive from China advertising padlocks and flour mills. It is odd the rubbish that finds its way into my mind. I can no longer enjoy watching a film of an afternoon on the television for fear that it will be interrupted by various thespians, down on their luck, intimating that I am of an age where my only prospect is death and thus my one priority should be making suitable financial arrangements for my funeral.
Albert Ayler's funeral was paid for by the U.S. army. He had joined up in the 1950s and played in the army band, serving for a time in Europe. He left the army in 1961, pursued his musical career, became one of the greatest exponents of 'free jazz', and killed himself in 1970. The story goes that two weeks before his body was discovered floating in New York's East River, Albert had smashed his television set and stormed out of his apartment. He was not seen alive again. After his death there were rumours that he had been shot, that his body had been tied to a jukebox, that both the F.B.I., the Black Panthers and the Mafia were behind his demise. The one rumour that has never surfaced and which I will instigate now, is that the U.S. military were somehow involved. As an ex-serviceman, Albert Ayler was entitled to a free burial, no mystery there. But the gravestone of Albert Ayler bears the word, Vietnam. In that missing fortnight of Albert's life, I like to think that he was recruited by the U.S. army for a special operation behind enemy lines. That he wandered through the jungles of Vietnam playing his saxophone. What the army's intention was I'm not sure. Whether they were of the cloth-eared brigade who can only discern chaotic noise within Albert's music and thus wanted to torture the Vietcong into submission, or whether they were of the more enlightened platoon who can hear the beauty in his music, the sounds of joy and freedom and the truth that he so plainly believed was marching in, I cannot discern. All I know is that Albert Ayler disappeared for two weeks and the U.S. army believed that he died in Vietnam.
Whole religions have been formulated on less hard evidence than this. Books have been written to explain the assassination of President Kennedy, the true position of the lost city of Atlantis, the influence of extraterrestrials on human development, the connection between the Knights Templar and the Masons, without one solid fact upon which to base the conjecture. And yet no one has suggested that Albert Ayler died in Vietnam, except for the U.S. military. It is strange, n'est pas (pardon my French)? And now I receive emails informing me that I too am a veteran of the U.S. army and I wonder what they have in store for me. I have been informed that my one priority is to prepare to die, to make suitable arrangements for my funeral and the financial wellbeing of my dependants. My saxophone is in the loft. I await the call. I am ready.
***
January 2002
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