Built to...smash !!!
Wednesday, June 27 2001
Posted by brockp

I went out to Richard's on Richards tonight after work to see if I could meet up with a friend who was in the opening band, on tour with Built to Spill. Unfortunately I missed their set driving around looking for parking and then trying to find an ATM that worked.

I came in just as BTS was getting going - maybe their first or second song. I think the sound was about as good as I've experienced there and so I enjoyed myself for a good while and then hunger set in (no food since about 3 pm this afternoon) and my ears started to hurt. I've got a bit of tinnitus, and am one of those dweebs you see at shows with a finger in one ear. I sometimes remember to bring ear plugs and I've got to wonder at you guys who can stand in the front of the stage and get pounded by, say, someone like J Mascis's searing Marshalls. So after 40 minutes of alternately plugging one ear then the other, both ears were thoroughly tired. The protective reflex that kicks in to save your hearing from sudden noise only lasts about 20 minutes or so before it doesn't work anymore.

So combine that effect with my increasing hunger and a few too long improvs by the boys on stage and Brock starts to get a bit irritable. I was all for the band announcing before their last song that it was their encore. It's a bit humdrum to me that the encore is such an expected thing now in a live show. I think its great for a performer to say, "Hey, I'm done" and then be done. Instead most of the time you get the band saving some extra special something in anticipation of the encore and because they've prepared it they almost always play it.

Anyway. Tonight I thought I was going to be happily surprised when amps were turned off and the house music came on and the drummer put on his shirt and zipped up his coat before leaving the stage. Unfortunately for my ears I had to endure a few too many drunken whoops (don't you hate it when people yell in your ear ?) as I went down to the ground level to search for a merch table where Denise might be hanging out. As a matter of fact, the crowd made such a fuss that the band did eventually come back and play a song, but not before I was almost brained by a beer bottle falling from the balcony. OK you guys, I know you're having a good old time and all but come on and save me from the broken glass and bleeding skull, ok ? The ritual was repeated once more and the band obliged with such a long tired improv that I think the crowd finally was ready to go home. I actually was wondering if they were intentionally playing some very monotonous jam ending to their song in order to make the fans give it up and head for the door.

It reminds me of a story Bill Rieflin told once about a show he saw at the Crocodile wherein Jeff Buckley had given just an exhilerating show but had spoiled it for Bill by not knowing when to stop.

The Dart
Saturday, June 23 2001
Posted by brockp

The following is a translation from the Pali Canon by the ven. H. Saddhatissa excerpted (without permission) from the version of the Sutta-Nipata published by Curzon Press. The original text was spoken by Siddhattha Gotama (the historical Buddha) and dates from around 500 B.C. I am motivated to quote it here by the recent death of a friend. May he reach the other shore.

Salla Sutta

The Dart

A recollection on Death

Life is unpredictable and uncertain in this world. Life here is difficult, short and bound up with suffering.

A being, once born, is going to die, and there is no way out of this. When old age arrives, or some other cause, then there is death. This is the way it is with living beings.

When fruits become ripe, they may fall in early morning. In just the same way a being, once born, may die at any moment.

Just as the clay pots made by the potter tend to end up being shattered, so is it with the life of mortals.

Both the young and the old, whether they are foolish or wise, are going to be trapped by death. All beings move towards death.

They are overcome by death. They go to the other world. And then not even a father can save his son, or a family, their relatives.

Look: while relatives are watching, tearful and groaning, men are carried off one by one, like cattle being led to the slaughter.

So death and ageing are endemic to the world. Therefor the wise do not grieve seeing the nature of the world.

You cannot know his path as to where he has come from, or where he is going to. So it makes no sense to grieve for him.

The man who grieves gains nothing. he is doing no more than a foolish man who is trying to hurt himself. if a wise man does it, it is the same for him.

Peace of mind cannot come from weeping and wailing. On the contrary, it will lead to more suffering and greater pain.

The mourner will become pale and thin. he is doing violence to himself, and still he cannot keep the dead alive; his mourning is pointless.

The man who cannot leave his sorrow behind him only travels further into pain. His mourning makes him a slave to sorrow.

Look at beings who are facing death, who are living out the results of their previous deeds; people are terrified when they see that they are trapped by death.

What people expect to happen is always different from what actually happens. From this comes great disappointment; this is the way the world works.

A man may live a hundred years, or even more, but in the end he is separated from his relatives, and he too leaves life in this world.

So we can listen and learn from the noble man as he gives up his grief. When he sees that someone has passed away and lived out their life, he says, "he will not be seen by me again".

When a house is burning, the fire is put out by water. In the same way the wise man. skilful, learned and self-reliant, extinguoshes his sorrow as soon as it tries to arise in him. It is like the wind blowing away a tuft of cotton.

The person who is searching for his own happiness should pull out the dart that he has stuck in himself, the arrow-head of grieving, of desiring, of despair.

The man who has taken out the dart, who has no clinging, who has obtained peace of mind, passed beyond all grief, this man, free from grief, is still.

©1985 Ven. H. Saddhatissa

Left Fielders
Thursday, June 7 2001
Posted by brockp

The Seattle Mariners baseball club used to have a revolving door in left field, so many people used to play there. Things seem to have finally stabilised this year with Stan Javier and the play-me-anywhere-and-I'll-kick-ass Mark McLemore platooning.

Similarly, the revolving door of musicians contributing to the Brock Pytel Band has settled down with the appearance of multiman bass guy Jeff Gantner. Jeff's claim to rock fame is a stint with Calgary's Spicoli's, plenty of high school concert bands, and his solo project Godfried and Soy. He also comes from Saskatoon and lived in the Yukon so ya gotta love that. Thanks to all of you who auditioned or inquired.

We are relearning the set with some new things thrown in (yes, Simon played ska last night) and will get back out there soonish.