Hand Made In Canada By Robots

You may remember my friend Matt Jelly and his adventures in Mexico. He's just finished running for Mayor in Hamilton, Ontario and is presently living in "Atlantic Canada" taking a vacation from politics after receiving threats from other Candidates.

He's one of the more inspirational people I know, I give you jellicatessen.

Questions! Answers! Excitement!

kmon has asked some super-way-ultra flattering questions that I have answered in the most pretentious aire I can possibly put on. Hope you enjoy, otherwise throw rotten tomatos in the comments. I'm gonna neuter this meme only because I have to pack tomorrow and I'm going to be in Amsterdam and taking pictures of interesting fences and gates with my fellow aesthete gusmacroy.

1. Tell us about your past with the viola. When did you start? What was your first viola solo? Why did you chose the viola? You could have hidden behind your cello or been a spotlight stealer on your violin, or chosen something easier, like anything not a stringed instrument.
   
   I started playing the Violin in the 5th Grade but quickly switched to the Viola after a specifically inspiring music class at school where the entire string family of instruments in the orchestra was introduced to us. It may have been the language my teacher had used but I was immediately attracted to the uniqueness of the viola. I've always seen the instrument as confident and masculine and even at that early an age I think I was aware of wanting to embody these traits. The day after that lesson at school I asked my teacher to swtich to the viola. She was thrilled.
   
   My first solo was soon after as I was one of those kids that really took to the instrument. Also young viola players get lots of exposure due to the often low numbers of kids willing to stick out. I played "The Happy Farmer" or perhaps it was "The Jolly Farmer". I remember being really obsessed with the bold-yet-mellow tone I could produce and absolutely nailed it, if I remember correctly.
   
   
2. Tell us about your future with the viola. You are creating some cutting edge music... is there a place for the viola in that? Will you bring viola music to some new place, like viola hero John Cale? Or do you prefer to allow your viola playing to revel in proven arenas like classical music, and let the new instruments break their fangs on the new frontier.
   
   There's always the desire not to create something really esoteric with the instrument I know best. More than anything I want to start making some really sweet melodies and arrangements to put against the quirkier IDM side of things. I don't think I'm really good enough to innovate on the technical side of things with the viola, that is one damn saturated market. I think more than anything I really just want to go to school more and get myself real learned good.
   
   
3. Since I mentioned the artsy nature of some of your icons in one of my interview answers, I'm going to inquire about it. Your current "This is the story of a man called Brodie" icon reminds me a bit of Andy Warhol (see the cover for John Cale's Academy in Peril), while some of your past NFOTXN shapes have reminded me of Mark Rothko. Are there any artists that you find particularly influential? Tell us what you appreciate, with illustrations if possible...
   
   Definitely a fan of Rothko however I wasn't consciously thinking of the way he divides up the canvas when I made them. I know it's like WAY pretentious to think of user icons as art but more than anything I'm trying to utilize the tinytinytiny space in useful ways to create a feeling. User icons are totally important and, unfortunately, have a lot to do with weather or not people read your entries. A harsh reality unfortunately. So there's only so much you can do with subject matter without going on to a tangent and just turning it into a tiny picture rather than a representation of yourself. The NFOTXN shapes were an attempt to create an eastern character out of a modern western typeface (which is Ultraworld).
   
   
4. What are you trying to achieve with your webcast shows?
   
   A lot of what I write about in my journal focuses on how I feel. A lot of how I feel is through the music I listen to. So the webcasts, more recently, are about capturing how I'm feeling at the time in the form of a mix. Kinda like a musical audioblog of sorts. A lot of the time it's just fashion and excitement, which is like way fun and stuff, but I'm defintely trying to make a record of how I feel too. Hence the bigger focus on artwork and finesse of the mixes as time goes on.
   
   
5. Are you more experienced now that you have lived in a different country? Have you learned anything about yourself that you didn't already know? If not, tell us something new you learned about the Scots.
   
   I definitely think so. I've learned a lot about my identity as a Canadian, how much we're generally liked abroad which is a super nice feeling. At this point it's the similarities that are most striking. Lately I can't help but think about how insular Britain is. I've never lived in a nation large and isolated enough to really be totally absorbed in itself most of the time. A lifetime being just north of America and yet mostly undetected by American media makes for an odd sort of perception of the world where you feel like an observer most of the time rather than a participant... if you follow.
   
   I'm actually amazed at my ability to totally adapt at this point. I didn't think I could do it. But I'm totally looking right before crossing roads, thinking in terms of pounds not dollars and even perhaps starting to have a mild interest in football.
   
   Scottish men are a lot less hairy than you'd think they'd be. At least on their bodies. Not that I've done much (as in ANY) intimate investigation just yet.
   
   
6. A priest, a rabbi, and a shaman walk into a gay bar. What happens next?
   
   The shaman hits the dancefloor, the rabbi has an awsome conversation about morality at the bar and the priest gets a blowjob in the backroom. I hit on the rabbi because I have this like uncanny magnetic attraction to brainy spirtual jewish guys with beards.

(no subject)

Odd, I just saw Weebl and Bob on commercials for butter here in the UK.

NatWest: The Bank that Steals Your Money

Wonderful. I decided to withdraw £300 from the ATM for my vacation tomorrow. I know, a bit of a dumb idea but I figured it was within my limits and it is nearly 2004 after all. These sorts of conveniences should be available to me, no? The machine whirrs about, I remove my card... and no cash is dispensed. Frantically I check my balance and £300 has indeed been deducted from my balance. So now I have to finish packing, wake up early and head to the bank, dispute the transaction and hope that they can give me the money right there before heading to Aberdeen to pick up Fergus for 4:30PM and catching a train to Edinburgh.

I'm pretty sure it's not a BIG deal when ATMs screw up. Just a matter of going through the motions. But I'm going on vacation tomorrow, I mean talk about wonderful timing.