Nim busks Chicago

Wile Tiffany was at work, I finaly got up th nerv to hit th streets of Chicago to perform som tunes and make som cash. To som extent, it was a sucess.

Museum Campus Tunl

Ther's this neat area wher trafic from thre big cool touristy bildngs al meet up, a litl tunl undr wich many many peple travl evry day. So I playd ther today, for just undr a haf our, and I made $5. Here's th set:

.. lov song 5
.. cal it Home
.. vejtbls u'v nevr herd of
.. 5 songs of fish
.. 25% mor monstr
.. 2G's > Deenmark

It was intrestng. Jenrly, peple seemd to enjoy it. Nobody actuly stopd to lisn, altho som peple did drop dolrs off in my mando case, then continud on their way. I was suprised nobody stuk around. If I had just donated my dolr to a steet musician, I'd like to se wat he's got. Anyway, it was fun, and I felt apreciated.

And I did som math. haf an our : $5 :: one our : $10, ryt? $10 an our. That's good wajes! I think this pich ("pitch" = location) may hav ben especialy good, so $10 an our myt be about th maxmm I cud expect to make doing this. Not bad, tho. Two ours wud get me $20, wich is mor than I'm making at home playng two our gigs at cofee houses, most of th time!

outside th Daly Center

This pich was not very good, so I did't play long. I was near auto trafic, and ther wern't a lot of peple going by. Those that wer probly wantd to just get th hek home so they cud figur out wat they'r doing tonyt. Erly Friday evnng in th Loop, no so good. I only playd a few songs for Tiff (she wasn't around befor), then we continud walkng.

.. sience
.. lov song 6
.. stelr nursery
.. brown dwarf

=

In case u'r wondrng, I havn't made it to an opn mic yet, but we'r planng on it for tomoro nyt. We tryd to go to one yestrday, but th place had closed down. We'l cal first tomoro.

=

O, so here's my goal, by th way. Tiffany's workng again tomoro, so wile she's doing that, I'm going to do my darndest to make $20 playng on th street. I'm going to plan out a rout tonyt. It'l probly take me bak to that tunl, but I'd like to try lots of new places as wel. I think it myt be nice to play near th Museum of Contemporary Art, for exampl. If a pich is good, I'l stik around longr. If it suks, I'l mov on. I'l giv a ful report tomoro nyt (or somtime soon, anyway).

the bulbs (and their raspberry sonnets)

a dangled androgynous it with pin-shoes
     and coal finger-cape
a box for going
a tribe of wee thinkers with feathered
     catching-spears

these things we eyelessly see
we bulbous black bulbs that
     compose the sky
who write raspberry sonnets for forgetting

the it eyebrows for us a simple song
the box warps and suggests its door
the wee tribe shuffles left, then somewhat right
the feathers ruffle against our filmy skin

we bulbs do not commit to motion
in an eye-seeing sort of way
we sonnet serenely against a liquid scene
as pulsating exobiology does all the doings
     and makes all the makings of the day

how fine

how fine
a lemon-egg of man-thoughts
preserved, prepared, and preset for my arrival
it is a white heat and my fingers are parched
how fine

manner of doing

I give you disease in black heels
in the following pre-paid manner

  first, I spot you at
         the supermarket taking
         a leak
         with my one good squinty eye

 second, I shuffle bow-leggedly into
         your field of vision

  third, I confuse you with my
         assymetrical hair and
         oven mit

 fourth, I whisper filthy truths wetly into
         your red left ear

  fifth, I permit my mit to brush
         your beefy three exposed back hairs
         (you emit unconscious peeps)

  sixth, I slide my crafty black hook-hand
         daintily into
         your nethers

seventh, as you stiffly sink to the tiles in
         slow inebriated monkey-thought, I
         begin to shrink and disappear, as
         all sights and sounds shrink and disappear, as
         all memory and action and bloated pig-time shrinks
         and disappears in a flush of dry water

mouth o

a pink tropical juice fruit
a bowl with one of those in't

let's look in
  at the mountainous crab claws
let's look out
  at the dinsintegrating man-balls

let's look back
  to the first constitution
let's look forward
  to the age of delusion

   through the congenial mouth of the dead

eye-games

 the eye the eye
 the ball the ball
 the hole the hole
 the knife the knife

spots into chambers into nothing
surface into lashes into claws
clipping into clopping into chopping
seeing into death into nothing

 bleeding irrational lead eye-games

hatchings

bugs
hatched from the faces of other bugs
 learn the means of
                    operating weapons
to use
       against one another
 to bring about further
                        hatchings

I think about the numbers
   on the faces of clocks
hatching new numbers
 these
       black temperal clusterbugs

hatch and rehatch
hatch and rehatch
chop and rechop
chop and rechop

 forever

essence of gelfling

she
and her bits
and her young milk-whale
and her changing shelf
and her wisdom ball-lashings
and her fine spiral, coyly-particled . . .

gives
her soft cloud juice
her white memory coils
her forever essence of gelfling
her stew


to


me . . .

o show feet

o dance, horse-faced bird-headed bird
o dance

o show feet, nose-wayed chest-tongue tonguer
o show feet

o invoke tears, needle-tailed quadruple-podded art goblin
o invoke tears

o do doings, snob-friending corset mother sea-mother pappy
o do doings

o make makings, puppet-propelled cut-thinking glad sad porpoise
o make makings

galactic gothic glam

a galactic gothic glam band
goes camping on a white dwarf star
instead of mallows to roast
(trite manner of fun-having!)
they set fire to bits of selves
charred chicken-man takes a sleep
(glares obtusely at brethren)
and unfortunate aardvark Missus
puts pins aplenty into and through
(she tips in sincere discomfort)
it is for ghost-hero and Sally dog-thing
that fires flame most fiercely
and from many millions away
we offer obligatory condolences

Richard Bean, Dino, and Duck

Richard Bean
on rubbery bends, his hands he wiggles
he jitters a jig
for fun

  his fez-hatted roo-dog
  a dino in mini
  clucks angry tin giggles
  at Duck

Duck eyes both beings
and sadly he sighs
he rolls his old eyes
at them

    "Alas and alack
     this cult is awhack
     those wiggly hands
     this dino and man
     I must go awalking
     be free from this squawking
     I'll alight on a wing
     for my own songs to sing."

Androse newly-done done things

Hi there people of the world.

I am Nodal Nim a.k.a. Andrew a.k.a. Androse, as in "Ya'androse!" Originally Lojbanic, but now mostly just silly, be Androse, the numen. I am in Chicago on a visit. Much of yesterday was spent hanging 'round in the Albany airport. I "volunteered" to give up my place on my airplane twice, which granted me two vouchers, good for one round-trip journey each (within the quite contiguous 48 states).

So I spent many hours entertaining myself in the terminal. In addition to such activities as eating (ziti and bad egg sandwiches), drinking (a white chocolate mocha, a rum&coke, and my own Lapsang Souchong), peeing (self-explanatory, I hope), and watching wacky airport people, I also did a bit of writing.

Threshold of Pain is working on a project that one might conceptualize as a complex and surreal game of telephone. We (Amy, Lucretia, and I) began by listening to music and producing a pictoral for each song. If we listened to 30 songs, we produced 90 pictorals, although nobody is keeping count. The next step was to divide up the resultant pictorals to be pondered over and written about by other members of our strange little group (which then included Ian P). We started together, and have now diverged; we took our pile of pictorals home to work on. Usually, I'm rather opposed to homework, but I had the time and the inspiration (thank you, rum&coke), so I finished my batch with nine new poems.

(I tell you this because I feel like typing these poems out and putting them up here for all to see.)

I should mention the next step that we've got planned: the new batch of poems, now independent of the pictures, will be used in song, as Threshold of Pain records a new album.

So the posts above this one will show the poems I scribbled in the bus terminal yesterday afternoon. They were inspired by pictorals by Amy and Beth. I will not describe the pictorals, as each new step is supposed to be free to stand alone. I'll let you develop your own internal pictoral, which of course, will create a new branch in our surreal game of artistic telephone.

But before I do that, I should mention on a personal note that it's really awesome to be in Chicago! In a few months, it is my intention to move here (with the lovely George), so I'm working on figuring some things out while I'm here. Tiffany is well; she slipped out this morning to practise bassoon, so I'm taking advantage of the moment to type this up. Her hair is longer, she's a little skinnier, and she has a black kitty named Vega prowling around. (Very cute, both.)

Grind OM 36

I manajd to fit in a cupl songs, despite th fact that I was on duty:

.. levl 1
.. hulo, wil u be my Sheep?

Lark OM 1

I and six of my frends venturd into Albany last nyt to play at th Lark Tavern opn mic. It was great fun; I did a cupl difrent sets:

Nathan & Nim_
.. Space Oddity [David Bowie]
.. Cartoon Medley

Eric, Andrew, & Terry of Guiltless Cult_
.. People Are Strange [th Doors]
.. Alabama Song [populrized by th Doors, but ritn by Kurt Weill]

Grind OM 35

I seem to hav forgotn to mention that last thursday, Nathan & Nim playd th foloing:

.. Io [Nathan Stodola] [premere as duo]
.. So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

w.s.

Wallace Stevens is prety exlnt; a quote:

"After one has abandoned a belief in God, poetry is that essence which takes its place as life’s redemption."

Muddy Cup OM 2

Nathan and Nim playd togethr last Monday at th Muddy Cup in Albany:

.. No One Lives Forever [Oingo Boingo]
.. Space Oddity [David Bowie]

-

Nimland.net is curntly down. I was ovrdu on paymnts to th web hosts, but gave mony yestrday, so hopefuly th site wil be bak soon. If not, I wil at least stil rite in this blog and send mas emails wen things ar comng up.

good things

Audiri
Climparks
th 47 Society
th Invisible Pink Unicorn (mhhhnbs)

Bindlestiff

These folks hav about th coolest jobs evr. I went with frends to se th Bindlestiff Family Cirkus last thursday at Red Square in Albany, and they were quite a bit of fun to behold. Their act included juglng, dancng, singng, sord and fire swaloing, acrobatics, clownng, and so on and so forth. It was rely a blast. I envid most th music-man, "Skip", who provided live acompanymnt to evrything on keybords, harmonica (amplifid by megafone), and tampon (quite a spectacl). His job I surely covet.

Nodal Nim's Travelng Teahouse

Picture this:

'Tis a plesnt suny sunday aftrnoon in Chicago, and parkd in a litl downtown lot u com acros a colorfl boxy curiosity -- a larj frendly veicl -- with bryt paintd letrs spelng out: "Nodal Nim's Travelng Teahouse!" Strains of quirky mandolin liks emnate from within, and wen u aproach, u discovr quite a selection of inspiring, marvlus, powrfl teas for sale by th cup or th ketl. U go for somthing spicy and red, purchase it from th nice men and ladys garbd mostly in blak, and hav a seat at one of th wee tabls nearby. Nodal Nim hapyly entrtains u with his mandolinish pop. Th next day -- monday -- in an entirely difrnt location, u spot th Travlng Teahouse, grab a wite tea, and wach with aw as kindly odd folks perform short plays. Tusday is hot, so wen u locate th Teahouse, u hav an iced green tea, then sit and lisn to poetry. Wensday brings sord swaloers (Oolong tea), thursday brings electronica (iced rasbery), and satrday, u find yrself at a larjr venu cald th "Tea Room" for an ecstatic performance by th astonishng band Threshold of Pain. This nyt, u drink a dark and smoky Lapsang Souchong.

ges th beard

Ges wich beard Nodal Nim curntly sports! Be sure to look at both pajes. If u alredy no, do not giv it away. This is a fun game for evryone!

n+n @ Moon & River

Nathan and I playd our forth evr non-opn-mic gig togethr last nyt at a vegetarian restrant in Schenectady, NY. Our first set was prety kikn', but because we wer misng an importnt componnt, we cudn't get th theremin workng for th secnd. Ah wel.

I took note of Nathan's sets so I cud giv a mor complete acount of th sho:

N+N_
.. No One Lives Forever [Oingo Boingo]
Nathan_
.. Turkish Rondo [Mozart]
.. Thus Spake Zarathustra [Strauss]
.. Star Wars medley [John Williams]
.. Io [Nathan Stodola]
Nim_
.. stelr nursery
.. red dwarf
.. this ladybug
.. chupacabra
.. Deenmark
N+N_
.. Lullaby [th Cure]
.. Particle Man [TMBG]
.. 25% mor monstr
.. Magic Dance [David Bowie]
.. cartoon theme song medley

intrmision

Nathan_
.. Korobushka [Russian folk song]
.. Super Mario Bros. medley [K. Kondo]
.. James Bond [Monty Norman]
.. All Go Together [Tom Lehrer]
.. The Elements [Tom Lehrer]
Nim_
.. 5 songs of fish
N+N_
.. Carrot Juice is Murder [Arrogant Worms]
.. Space Oddity
.. So Long and Thanks for All the Fish [from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] [premere]

sho tomoro!

Yo!

Com to th Moon & River Cafe tomoro nyt to se Nathan & Nim rok th pants off of that sily Schenectady place! Just tonyt, we lernd a kikn' new covr song that u won't want to mis.

FYI: My website had previusly claimd that th sho starts at 7, but in fact it is 8. Don't be late!

NATHAN & NIM

@ MOON & RIVER
100 MILTON AVE.
SCHENECTADY, NY

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7
8:00 PM

!!!



P.S. Frends who ar afraid of getng lost in Schenectady can hich a ride and/or folo us out of Troy. We'r probly going to leve around 7. Get in touch if intrestd.

Muddy Cup OM 1

Opn mic at th Muddy Cup cafe last nyt was just too fun. A rathr larj cofee hous was quite plesntly stufd with peple. I playd 19th: 5 songs of fish. Many frends old and new performd wel and haply for an enthusiastic crowd of folks from al ovr. It was quite an exlnt time, and not to be misd in th futur.

U can befrend th Muddy Cup opn mic on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/muddycupopenmicnight or th fine hosts: http://www.myspace.com/12stepdown.

n+n @ th Beat Shop

We playd a triumfnt set in th cornr, rokng out & keepng dry on this rainy aftrnoon.

N+N_
.. Carrot Juice is Murder
.. Magic Dance
.. Particle Man
.. 25% mor monstr
.. Lullaby
.. No One Lives Forever
.. Space Oddity
.. Bike
.. hulo, wil u be my Sheep?
.. Cartoon Theme Medley [TMNT, Cpt. Planet, & th Flintstones]

n+n @ Mudhouse

Nathan & I playd a 3-ish our gig at Slow Jed's Mudhouse last nyt. We took both solo and togethr sets.

N+N_
.. Carrot Juice is Murder [Arrogant Worms]
Nim_
.. lov song 5
.. Alan th Duk
.. lov song 1
.. th posm
Nathan_
.. 4 movi themes playd on acordian
N+N_
.. Magic Dance
.. Particle Man
Nim_
.. sience
.. 2G's
.. Pablo
.. stelr nursery > brown dwarf [premere]
Nathan_
.. solo songs & video game themes
N+N_
.. 25% mor monstr
.. Lullaby
.. Cartoon Theme Medley

intrmision

Nim_
.. superjiant > nutron star
.. I am systms
.. great Pan is ded
.. 5 songs of fish
.. e blu apratus
.. vejtbls u'v nevr herd of
Nathan_
.. many great clasicl peces, movi & video game themes, songs, etc.
N+N_
.. Space Oddity
.. Bike
.. hulo, wil u be my Sheep?
.. No One Lives Forever

Grind OM 34

Nathan & Nim:

.. Lullaby [The Cure] [premere]
.. cartoon theme song medley
.. Particle Man [They Might Be Giants]

Lapsang souchong

...is a delicius te that tastes like chard oak tres. I drank my first cup yestrday, and was greatly inspired.

From Wikipedia:

Lapsang souchong is a tea which has been withered over pine or cedar fires, pan-fried, rolled and oxidized before being fully dried in bamboo baskets over burning pine. The result is a flavor usually described as "smoky".

Th wethr has ben rathr quite very excruciatngly hot of late, but I wantd te anyway. I drank my first cup of lapsang souchong in a cool bath yestrday wile lisnng to Indonesian gamelan music. It was divine.

And speakng of divine, I'v ben readng a lot about atheism lately, wich I find myself prety wel alynd with. I tend to considr myself 'agnostic,' but by many definitions, I am atheist. I like it. It makes mor sens than most things, with th posbl exeptions of Taoism and Buddhism, wich som myt describe as atheist relijns anyway. Here ar a few artcls.

Durng this past weekend and th one prior, I helpd with musicls at th R.P.I. Young Actor's Guild, first playng bas, then runng th sound bord. Both experiences wer good, altho they resultd in les mandolinng. I'l be making up for that this weekend with Nathan. I am glad to be don with work until sunday.

I hav not much mor to say. It's good and ok to be sad somtimes. It is wat we ar. I mis my girlfrend Tiffany and probly a bunch of othr things. I feel like I'm getng old and ther's no going bak. Am I wher I want to be ryt now? Wy is my life like this?

It's good to wondr these things somtimes.

Thank u, frends, for stikng by me. I lov u.

-A

Mudhouse OM 7

O, I do enjoy th Mudhouse. Nathan and I playd to promote our upcomng sho (this Friday, June 2, startng promptly at 7:00!).

.. No One Lives Forever [Oingo Boingo]
.. Bike [Pink Floyd]
.. hulo, wil u be my Sheep?
.. Space Oddity [David Bowie]
.. Magic Dance [David Bowie] [encore!]

We'r lookng much forward to it!



These ar th upcomng shos, by th way:

FRIDAY, JUNE 2 @ 7:00 PM @ SLOW JED'S MUDHOUSE
(3028 rt. 43, Averill Park, NY)

SATURDAY, JUNE 3 @ 2:00 PM @ THE BEAT SHOP
(197 River st., Troy, NY)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 @ 7:00 PM @ MOON & RIVER CAFE
(115 S. Ferry st., Schenectady, NY)