Worm Food | Afterlife (I have to choose)

It’s actually very simple, and it comes down to one thing: YOUR EGO.
If you die and your ego still clings to this life on earth, you stay until you decide it’s time to move on. But it is a lonely existence. You cannot really communicate too well with the living, so it all will seem like a purgatory. Some will try and try and be noticed, but conversations in this state will be quite useless. You always have a choice. God never takes that away. Even in death. And for some, it may be that a few days or months is what they need to experience before they realize they are free.

Now the person who has ‘control’ of their ego but still abides by it will die and instantly want to ‘know’ everything, experience it all… Fly to ends of the universe, go right through a black hole, sit on God’s shoulder while he creates a new planet or life form that is millions of light years away and so different we would need six senses to describe. He or she will ride spaceships (unseen), fly to earth and catch up on how old their surviving friends look. They will see as many movies as they want, and lounge on the beaches of the planet of their choice… Like Mercury or Saturn. They will grow in size and see the earth as a pebble in the abyss, or be a particle and be everywhere at once… Time travel… And then…

Some will become bored.

So the fun part is then to erase all of one’s ego and come back, to experience creation again. Maybe here on earth, maybe elsewhere. If you were a man, you might want to try being a woman. If you were blond and blue-eyed, you might want to come back Asian. And you will do this because you will understand that time is infinite, so you give up nothing more than a hundred years or less of that infinity…

My father was not a creative person. He did not understand the arts, so we could not relate to each other. He was a normal practical man. No religion, no nonsense. We never saw eye to eye on anything. Then he died. A few days later I awoke to see his face hovering a few feet above my bed. I thought I was dreaming.. Just then he said, “This is so strange, but very cool. You will really love this and appreciate it! This is so you…” and he was off. I had never seen him that happy. Maybe it was my imagination. Nah. I saw him all right. Goodnight all!

Or you are just worm food. Even simpler, but not as much fun. Now I have to choose. No worm food.

Technorati Tags: afterlife,anythingbox.com,endpop.com,anything box,A-box,Claude S.,vida surrealista

New Studio for new album..?

Because of the season, it has been a bit difficult to finish the studio, but it is almost ready. I began a rig, tore it down, and started again in an effort to make the studio a good place to work.

I hate the fact that everything seems to take longer than it needs to, and all I can say is… ARRRRRRRRRR.

Today I worked on the microphone I will be recording my vocals with. Oh, I didn’t tell you? I’m going to sing the next album live in the studio. The idea is to avoid the vocal booth and sing as though it were live, with the speakers blaring. This is also part of my new methods of recording.

I tried about 25 different mics for this approach, and so far the one that won my heart was the ElectroVoice 767A. I have gutted it and will be wiring the capsule within the body of a steel 1950’s EV radio microphone that I’ll be using. This way, it will look pretty in videos… Silly I know. But it is fun and the vibe is good for me…

I finished a new theremin, and I am on the hunt for a few tidbits, then I will reveal the next laboratory in pictures and video. Speaking of pictures and video, we are taking some new bands shots this Sunday. It looks like it will be lots of fun.

Circuit bending a shortwave radio is next…

 

Technorati Tags: Anything Box,Abox,Claude S.,music,new music,new wave,studio

Dan Rather | American Hero

When I say this little video, I was quite moved, and it gave me a little push that says what I’m about to do here is a good thing. He deserves your attention, and please note… If you don’t know who he is… Well, let’s just say nothing more than the greatest reporter alive today.

Understand that what he’s saying, conspiracy theorists have been saying for years. But who knew? Who paid attention? This is a fine example of an American who sees something wrong, and implores his countrymen to do something about it.

This is my last political post on this blog. From now on…

http://theclawspiracy.blogspot.com/

Make note, please.

 

Technorati Tags: self-made culture,Real News,Independent News,Dan Rather,NWO,Clawspiracy,Factualist,USA,elections,Freedom of the Press,Constitution

Friday Clawspiracy | MTV Ads

So watch this and tell me why they’ve made a bunch of them, out of the blue, just now…

What do they know that you don’t? MTV should be thanked for attempting to step up and make a statement, even if it may seem rather vague. I posit that things are indeed heating up in the world, and we must do what we can. This is, to me, an example of what can be done in such a simple way.

Comment, please…

Multiverses | A Dream | The Blahs

So I was in a bit of a state today. I got my new Laptop, and it was dead within the hour. That was a real drag, I’ll tell you. I’ve been waiting for a while now, and this last week I was dreaming of how cool it was going to be… And now… Gone. I sent it back of course, and I’ll be getting a new one. It’s a different brand, as now I’m spooked. But that just isn’t the worst of it… Really, it’s just a material object after all. This actually drives a point I made while at my sister’s house ring even more with truth: Materialism is useless.

So I began reading a book today, called The God Theory. It is a theory based on how God actually exists as an expression of creativity, and it unifies String Theory, Science, and Theological themes all into one. Seems highly interesting. I came across the word Multiverse, and of course remembered the song, Negaverse by yours truly. As I read further, I began to fall asleep. Not out of boredom, but simply my body giving me a gentle suggestion that a nap was in order. So I slept. And I dreamed.

I propose a question. When we sleep, are we truly simply regenerating the body? Giving it rest? Or is the process part of a deeper thing? Perhaps when we dream, we let our consciousness roam awake in another part of this existence. At least, this is what happened in my dreams. They were induced by the word Multiverse, no doubt, but the effect was still profound, and the effects of this are what has motivated me to write the most. Or maybe it was just the 60’s French Pop. I saw the Golden Compass the other night, too. Who knows. Right?

I dreamed that I was alone, without ever having raised a family, and yet my dog was with me. And we lived in a world that was eternal night. The warmth of survival was supplied by some unseen force or machine that ran and hummed. The streets were dangerous. It was a dismal world, but in the dream it was as real as this is to me now. And so I awoke in fear of the dark. It was just past two in the afternoon. I dozed off again, and once again I was in an alternate world. This time, I was the last of my siblings alive. I was wanting to speak with my brother, but he had died a few weeks earlier. It was so real that when I awoke I was shivering. Of course, he is quite alive and well, but in an alternate universe that exists parallel to this one he is not, and I felt truly sorry for that other self of mine. Such pain.

And this is why we must be cut off from seeing into these alternate worlds. Coping with this life is already a task within itself. How would it be to really experience the others as well. One could argue that there is no such thing of course. Nothing is proven. But the emotion that the dreams left me with are very real.

So it goes.

Claude 

Why Loneliness sucks.

I was prepping the show stuff last night and getting my gear list together. I realized I was going to have to wait for the computer to finish doing some digital transfers. Two hours. It was midnight. Sigh. What to do in the meantime? Read something.

I picked up this book, ‘Women Of The Surrealist Movement’ and was rewarded by tales of displaced dreams and talents. The whole thing made me nostalgic and quite melancholy, which is the perfect recipe for a meltdown. When you decide to pick up an old diary or scrapbook that is better left un-opened, the whole thing becomes a lesson onto itself. And of course, that’s exactly what I did. Should have left it on the shelf. The feelings it produced were about the same as the ones you would get from watching someone sticking needles in a voodoo doll across the room from you. And the whole thing turns out to be real. That bad.

I cringed as I read terrible poetry which basically held a candle up to sadness and semi-formed delusions. I began wondering at how I could have transformed a perfectly good book into such a disaster. I considered ripping the pages out and making an example of them, but instead I went with it. What I found became a bit interesting after a while. I could see how my thoughts began to change over time, and the poetry gave way to a simple understanding. But it still had an effect very similar to the one you get when you realize something awful has happened and you have to react, but somehow you are unsure as to how that is to happen. I was numb.

And thus my conclusion is that this language that I have cultivated for myself in the form of art is such a lonely weight. While I endeavor to translate it and teach others the use of it, I am confounded by the way reality changes all around me. So in the end, alone again. And this piece of glass is no help at all. I mean, how can I hope to get some meaning out of this when it seems I am typing into a void. Or worse, a myriad of glass boxes which serve as mirrors of the cold stark reality that is life in 2008. Boxes. Not people. No parties.

This is why it was worse when the CD I was transferring failed. I had to wait all over again. What to do? Hey, what’s that? Oh, I remember that journal… Let’s see now… So it goes.

– Claude 

The War is not a movie. Let’s stop being entertained.

I have written this post as a not-so-gentle reminder to myself and others that the War we are fighting in Iraq is NOT entertainment. Nor should it be seen merely as fodder for right wing or left wing commentary on YouTube or Myspace or even here. The war is not a movie.

It isn’t a Fox show. It isn’t going to win a Grammy, or an Oscar for best portrayal of a marine killing innocent people in the streets of Baghdad.

The war will be an ugly mar on the face of an already scarred nation. Sometimes I find myself glued to these films because in all of my time on this earth, I have never witnessed anything so utterly visceral and real. And yet, I read comments from people who see these horrible images as a form of entertainment! It isn’t. War is a crime of humanity. A shameful thing.

These are real people dying. These are real people killing other people.
Have you learned to see this difference? Has it sunk in fully yet?

We live in a bubble, sitting here in front of a screen. We can change it when we please, pimp it up with happy colors and bands we like, make all the lists about what was the best or the worst… And post videos for and against the war and think we are doing our part. We’re not. Stopping this is doing our part.

The intent to find new solutions to this challenge is a start. But action must surely be taken to help, no? Simply staring at our screens won’t do. The screens replay what has already happened. There is much happening as we watch, as we read, as we post.

The biggest lie ever told to us was that of separation. We are not separate. We are all connected. And every time someone is killed violently, cruelly and tortured… That horror filters itself down to us…

The soul of the world must surely be crying… This is not why we are here.

– Claude

Life in the suburbs… Random Thoughts…

The rain outside is beating against my window panes, and somehow it has become a catalyst to sit and write. I wasn’t going to. I have been up all day. I’m tired. There is nothing musically happening tonight, and the work needing to be done wasn’t an inspiration. Just the rain. Falling. It made me feel special.

So with a cup of hot chocolate that my wife was kind enough to make, I will sit for a bit and enjoy these stray thoughts. I don’t want you to think I’m slipping. Although I am. I am slipping into my self.

The work continues to renew myself, my art, and my creative pursuits. There are times when I feel that life is unfair, only to realize that things happen to make me stronger. And if this is the case, I must be superman by now… But no… No X-Ray vision yet. All I have is Anything Box. Which is more than fine for me at this moment. I love it. It’s just that looking back on this year has made me realize that we did fewer shows, and that is a drag. Would have been nice to go back to Ecuador, Peru, visit Alaska, New Zealand… Somewhere. And we didn’t. I feel helpless about it.

Sometimes I feel rather alone in wanting this, which is a bit of a downer. I am at odds with myself over this all the time. And yet I remain myself. That is the little miracle of life that I must hold onto. To another person, this is nothing. To sit near a window and write is nothing. To hear the rain is nothing. To be alone within creativity is nothing. But it is. It is something.

Creativity is what made all of this planet happen, what the oceans and the fauna surrounding them express every day. Creativity is the beauty of the universe as she smiles down on me and sparkles with the life of other worlds. Whether imagined or real is irrelevant to me. What matters is the feeling it produces within me. To create is a gift I was given, and damn if I will ever let anything stop it from flowing out of me. Not going to happen.

Life in the suburbs is ok on some level. Random thoughts on a rainy night. I am going to dream about the creation of universes tonight. At least, it is a dream I did have once, and I would very much like to see this again.

– Claude

Lost Angeles Burning…

The fires continue to rage, and it all seems so far away to me because of my lack of TV watching. Ever since I got rid of cable, I have missed out on the news of the world. Sometimes I wonder if I am missing something more. I could always log on to CNN…

The ashes and the temperature are reminders though, and as I cleaned out the studio on Sunday and we drove to Irvine, the winds out of control! They were so fierce that twice I almost hit a few trees on the road, and barely swerved out of the way as the wind pushed me onto another lane on the freeway. Pretty scary stuff. Mother nature is getting pissed off at us. I’m sorry, Gaia.

– Claude

Computer Love | Technology Haters Beware

I have begun to collect new sounds. Mostly what I like to do before every album is delete all my sounds from the previous, cry about it, restore a few of them and off I go. I love making art with my computer. I feel it is a friendship based on hate. Why hate?  I defend the computer as a tool for the creation of music and finding new sounds because it always evokes the Kraftwerk phrase, “I program my own computer, beam myself into the future…” And to me, nothing does that more than creating art on the computer.

For some, the computer typifies all that is wrong with electronic music or art. Well, we don’t agree. I feel that the computer found new avenues for exploration of the future of art in of itself. To me it cannot become Future Pop without it. I love analog synthesis, don’t get me wrong. I love the physical aspect of the creation of sounds, but digital manipulation of reality is lots of fun too. I love creating sounds out of simple everyday objects. They give up their secrets of sound under the mouse. And it allows me to leave the confines of the studio to get them. Records, CDs, FM Radio, drum machines, my little Casio and my home built theremins all get played, tagged, sampled, manipulated and retooled into new forms. This is musical surrealism. No this is not a pipe. It was a pipe. It is now a woosh!

I just finished building my new computer. It is modest, but will do very nicely. It’s a 3 gig  P4 with 3 gigs of ram, 4 HDs, and bunch of other cool goodies. I got my new 22″ LCD, which I have been wanting for quite a while now. This is how I love to create. I know Macs are cool and all that, but there is something about building this thing, this totally frankenstein computer that appeals to my creative side. It shouldn’t. I agree. In fact, why I enjoy the configuration of these things is beyond the scope of this post, but I love doing it in some sick sort of way. So it is done… What a speed demon!

So now I have to clear out the junk from the studio before we head out to South America again. I left quite a mess in there. I am refining the process, because I think it’s time to record again. Life is pushing me to it, and that’s all right by me. By the way, as of this writing, the old studio computer has become this one. So my internet access just got a little better. Not a crash since. This baby is pretty good, has been for years. I’m happy with my compoopers.

Coolio.