When I got the idea to explore the topic of Porch Rats, there seemed a few ways to go about that. Driving or walking around photographing people on their porches could've been a good idea, but it didn't net much. For instance, in the photo above, I'm sure Dano and Tina are Porch Rats, but I don't want to meet them, really, or bore you with their personal whatever. Some Porch Rats just read the paper or a book, or doink away at their phones or laptops, or just sit. I was looking for a more active version of the animal.
For me, Porch Rats are the people who enjoy the Summer weather and go outside and play music. Whether you have a real porch, a balcony, a slab of concrete, a patio, or just a lawn you can sit on and blare music to, done deal. Lots of us like to go outside, with or without tools (your smokes if you smoke; your pot if you pot; your beverage of choice, from tea to serious Long Time Dumb shit), and blast tunes that we like. Usually, Porch Rats don't mean to entertain the listening-distance of the neighborhood. We just do. As the Summer goes on, the neighbors get inured to your questionable tastes. Most tend to like it, and share their tools.
My grandparents and parents were Porch Rats (some sort of god should forgive my father for doing his Carmena Burana bit every fucking sunday). I'm a Porch Rat. Most of my friends are, too. My friend Aaron used the term a few years ago in reference to himself and me, and brought it back to life 'cuz I hadn't heard it for some time.
This is just like putting a CD changer on shuffle, or yer iPod thing, or going inside and putting the needle down on a different piece of vinyl every change of song.
So, I attempt that shuffle with You Tube. You are not going to like it all, but Porch Rats could give a shit. That's not true. We tend to think music is universal. We also tend to think we have really good, or at least really interesting tastes. We'll play anything from noisy stuff to ballads. Most of it has a quality that isn't exactly populist or anthem-like, but some unnameable thing where everyone can hear something cool in the music. Porch Rats can at times be regarded as a delusional and narcissistic and arrogant bunch.
We still hope we're all having a good time. The usual medical fook-all my body likes to spring on me in Summer aside, I had a great Summer. I hope you all did as well. This is pretty close to what my balcony sounded like this past Summer. Then, a little walk around my 'hood. Obviously Porch Rats are self-indulgent to the max.
Although the focus here is just on tunes, some of the videos, especially the live ones recorded by some person standing in a club with a camera, are cool. Some comments accompany those where a comment is due.
The Dexateens, That Dollar (How fucking high is the bassist? I want those anti-depressants. That's what this band is for...):
The Dexateens, Missionary Blues:
American Mars, Marionette:
American Mars, Better Angels (Maybe my favorite vid ever...):
Lucinda Williams, Essence (The few times this sentiment has been expressed to me, fuck, went right with it...):
The Jam, Eton Rifles (I very much want to play nasty doctor with young Paul Weller...):
The Jam, Carnation:
Elvis Costello, Rocking Horse Road / Kinder Murder (EC has written about loss, it's trajectory, and rape and hate so many times; these cinch it...):
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, There She Goes, My Beautiful World:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, More News From Nowhere:
RE-UP, Still (These guys played a tiny bar for free; phenomenal; the lead, Spliff, reminds me of my friend Aaron; and although I'd bet Spliff was straight, I still want to do dirty things with him and Paul Weller - and that does NOT mean I want to have a go at Aaron...):
RE-UP, Nikes:
RE-UP, Bad Motherfucker:
The Olivia Tremor Control, Love Athena:
The Olivia Tremor Control, Marking Time:
The Olivia Tremor Control, California Demise:
Avi Buffalo, What's It In For? (I'm a sucker for this stuff...):
Finch, What It Is To Burn (Fave emboymetal band, ever...):
Finch, Without You Here:
Red Baraat, Martyrs:
Red Baraat, Title Unknown:
Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, Streets of Baltimore:
Gram Parsons, How Much I've Lied:
The Flying Burrito Brothers, You Win Again:
The Byrds with Gram Parsons, Hickory Wind:
Blur, On Your Own:
Blur, Country House:
Battlehooch, Looks You Can't See:
Battlehooch, Only Baby Sharks:
Battlehooch, Only Baby Sharks (very different, live version; neither sound like the song on the record) :
PORCH RAT IN MOTION
Porch Rats do get some exercise, weather-permitting. Some of us like to walk. There's no specific data on this (I called Porch Rat HQ and got Aaron, and he didn't know, so...), but my guess would be that for 87% of us, there're no aerobics, jogging, pilates, or sit ups or anything of that sort. We walk around and look at stuff and talk to people. Some of us stay plugged into a walkman of some sort; some of us like to give it a break. When phones that take pix showed up, we loved it. It's very much like a Porch Rat to want to record every little passing thing.
In that spirit, here are some crappy phone pix I took of stuff around my neighborhood on my usual 1-2 hour almost-daily walks. Mostly this is graffiti that I wanted to record before it was white-washed, or in some cases before the building was torn down, or the piece of pavement was resurfaced. [Last year, someone was going around painting the words El Fucko on stuff. It was lovely. I wish I still had pix of that, but they perished in a previous phone.]
I don't know what this building is or was. It has been there a long time, and it doesn't seem targeted for white-washing or immediate razing. It's on Second by Selden, which some would consider the start of the dodgy part of the neighborhood.
In a little park at Davenport and MLK, there's this thing. I have no idea what it is or represents or who did it. It's on public property, so it makes me wonder why it's not de-rusted every few years, unless that's the point. And given the suggestion of a circle with the placement of stones at the base, who does what with it and when? Do people, like, chant? Does it get lit up on Halloween or some weird holiday? Dyin' to know.
On Woodward, W side, by Alexandrine.
The great old Forest Arms Apartments burned to a weirdly-standing shell. The fire started on the fourth floor with a toaster oven. My sunglass clip-ons have a way of totally obscuring depth, which is already almost totally obscured for me to begin with. The first time I walked by the sign below, I thought, 'I don't see any nooses, WTF?' A couple of walks later, I crossed the street and got the point.
An urban garden on Willis (my street) and Second, SW corner (some of the output goes to the little mkt. around the corner on Willis).
Lunch.
Woodward and Warren, SW corner.
Warren and Woodward, SW corner:
There was some 7 year old kid outside the organic market with a lizard. I forget the lizard's name. I asked the kid if he thought the lizard would outlive him. He looked at me and, completely deadpan, said, 'I dont know, but she's gonna outlive you. I know you're gonna put this on Facebook. Everyone does.' I thought I'd do him one better and post it here.
Electric meter box, Woodward and Ferry, SE corner.
The N side of the building in the first photo of this section. The graffiti artists' gentle suggestion to lay off the meth is charming.
On the pavement on John R. behind the Detroit Institute of Arts.
On a concrete bench on Cass behind the Detroit Public Library.
This is on a piece of pavement leading up to my building. I love it because the figure looks sort of like Patti Smith.
Home.
Lobby.
Enter.
J-j-j-jamB-b-b-boxx ON.
One of several views from my balcony. I guess the no smoking / no drinking sign is particularly appropriate since the ladder gets nowhere near the ground, and cuts about a foot short of the roof. The sign cannot possibly be talking to me, of all people.
A better view from the balcony. Porch Rat Repeat (Aaron, me, my balcony, 9/12/2010).
Happy Fall, y'all. Njr.
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p.s. Hey. Huge thanks to Statictick for giving the blog this weekend-long total feast of the mutual and the personal. It needs no guidance from me, so just enjoy everything and kindly speak to your guest host between now and Monday. Thanks, everyone, and I bow before you, Mr. S. Now, if I may have your attention, I hereby announce our almost annual October SPD: Self-Portrait Day: My Halloween Costume. For those who are newish around here, I'm asking everyone who either fills this blog's comments arena or reads the blog in silence to send me an entry for this SPD that depicts the costume you will be wearing to our virtual Halloween party. By costume, I mean almost anything in the world from an actual costume to any video or image or piece of text you like, anyone or anything, from a tiny dot to an abstract concept. You name it. At our Halloween party, you can transform and disguise yourself as magically or as impossibly as you want. Send images, video imbeds, texts, links, etc. to dcooperweb @gmail.com. If you choose more than one 'costume', please try to keep yourself to five at the most. Images should be sent as attachments or, if they're online and grabbable, as links. Texts can be sent as Word or Text Edit doc attachments or in the body of the email. The deadline for your entries is your bedtime in your time zone on next Friday, October 8th. Please take a minute between now and then to devise a costume and send it to me. I'll be hugely grateful, and you'll be very glad you did once the SPD appears, trust me. I'll be posting this info, rules, deadline at the top of the blog's right hand column beginning on Monday. Thanks! ** FreeFox, Hey, welcome, thanks, and all of that good stuff! What a fantastic read on the post. It's stuff like yours that makes the hours I spend making those things feel unwasted. There are those who say the LeFevrier story is untrue, but their proof is meh, so I choose to ignore it. Nice angel quote. Was that you? Actually, I think d.l. Changeling lacks any fondness whatsoever for dolphins, if I'm remembering. You guys should talk. As for your new blog, could it be any more promising? I don't think so. I'll be all over it. Hold on. Everyone, FreeFox arrived here for the first time yesterday, and he has the beginnings of a possible blog for the ages, so do yourself a favor and welcome him by checking it out please. You can do that here. Anyway, it's pleasure to have you. Obviously, do hang out here and join in as frequently as you like. Take care. ** Bollo, Hey, B. Yeah, I thought the skull looked a bit photoshoppy too, but several sources credited it with realness, so I decided to run with it. Yeah, totally, about Failing Lights. I'm glad you agree. I don't think I know the Helloween Holocausts stuff, so thanks, and I'll be getting into that when I get out of here. Finest of weekends to you, J. ** David Ehrenstein, Hey. I don't know who shot the Pierre Clementi grave stuff. I found it on youtube when I was putting together an imminent PC post. I'm actually looking around for a Parisian with a car who'd be willing to make a pilgrimage with me. It's not far from Paris, but it's far away from any train station. Oh, no, I'm very glad it's you who has a copy of 'Antoine Monnier', and of course I consider your bookshelf to be the perfect vault. ** Paul Curran, Hey, Paul. I definitely know what you mean about where you are with your novel. I've hit a rough, slow part that I'm trying to force my way through with not nearly enough luck so far. I've been hoping to have the novel in a next to last draft by the time I go to New York. I'm not sure if I'll make it unless I can pick up my speed in the next day or two. If I can, I should have the novel finished by the end of the year at the very latest. I'm in this phase of thinking that people are not to get or like (or both) this novel very much at all, and that's worrying me and slowing me down. I think I'm probably right that this novel will be badly received, but I need to not care, and I've been struggling not to care about that lately, and I need a burst of blind energy from somewhere. Very best of luck on your end. Let's try to psyche each other and ourselves forwards, yeah? ** Allesfliesst, I don't think Mikkee left any room for improvement. If I put together a book of the slave profiles (sans photos) as I'm planning to do, it'll reign there, I think. Thanks for the Munich guide. Sounds fine. I'm only going to be there a little more than 24 hours, so I'll probably just wander a bit. Complicated with your friend. Obviously, I hope the breather stabilizes her feelings for you. I think pragmatism ends up sneaking in and lowering emotion's temperature in that kind of situation more often than not. In my and in friends' experiences. So, vanity academic press means it's just a matter of paying their fee? Hope the girlfriend reunion was a beauty. I can only imagine. ** Pilgarlic, So, how was Deerhunter, you lucky dog, and did you manage to exit the venue without handcuffs or a black eye, ha ha? ** Stephen, Hey! You're here! And just in time for some very shitty weather, sorry. Okay, I'll email you so we can arrange a meet. You have my email, right? If not, it's up near the top of the p.s. No, I've never heard of that kind of anti-American stuff ever happening in Paris before. Weird fluke, I think. Cool about the good response to the gayromeo ad. No, I don't anything about this underground coalition thing re: escorts' prices. Sounds like a fantasy? I mean, Paris escorts' prices are all over the place, but they're never low. I've seen 350 euro an hour quite a lot. You going to Nuit Blanche? I am, even if it rains, I guess, although, shit, it'll be awful if it rains. I think I'm going to concentrate on the Nuit Blanche festivities around the St. Michel to Chatelet section if you're out and about. ** Sypha, Hey. I began as a computer game only guy, but, after I got my first N64, I don't think I ever played another computer game apart from maybe one of the later Myst games. I haven't cracked 'IB' in a week or so. Trying to write and not read at the moment. I'll get back to it soon. ** Scunnard, Hey! I never saw you while you were here, fuck. I'm sure it was 90% plus my fault. I'm very zoned from too much novel work, and the real world has been confusing me. I hope you had a really great time though. ** Plexus, Did Blogger betray your good intentions again? Fucking hell. I think I saw there was an email from you this morning. I'll open it and see you over there where Blogger can't interfere, although I'm sure it will try its best. Love from me. ** Eli Jürgen, The library does a content scan? I guess that makes sense, but it's kind of, I don't know. Is it possible to content scan a person? That would be bad. Nice going on getting that creep off your chest. Cool, enjoy that victoire and your weekend too, I hope. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Hey. Awesome ELP remembrance and riff. Vincent Crane! Atomic Rooster! I should listen to them again. Sinfield's lyrics were the pits. I forget who wrote the early King Crimson lyrics, but there were really unfortunate too. I was trying to re-listen to early KC the other week, and the wordage was so much more of a problem than I remember it being. That guy who wrote for Procol Harum wasn't so bad, I guess. Peter Brown's Cream stuff is still fun. 'Pictures at an Exhibition' was the ELP album that turned me against them back then. It just sort of seemed to explain everything. Wow, Add N to (X). Are they still around? I was sort of friendly with one of them for a while. Can't remember his name. Published a book with Serpents Tail, I think. I should listen to Focus again too. Not the same thing, but I was astonished recently to see that not only was Hocus Pocus playing a huge venue here, but the show was sold out. Weird. ** Shannon, Half a dozen really is the perfect number of slaves one would want around. Nice call. Listen, no, thank you, Shannon. Lots of love from me. ** Will Decker, Hi, Will. Gosh, thank you for that, but I think it's you guys who work the magic around here, and that I just respond in kind. Excellent weekend to you. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. No, I've never been to Japan. Going to Japan is at the very top of the list of my biggest dreams. I hope Kiddiepunk's not sick too 'cos we're supposed to go tramping around at Nuit Blanche tonight until the pre-wee hours. That almost poison ivy incident sounds most taxing. There was some nice physical comedy in your report though, so that part was nice for your readers. Everything I've read about 'Let Me In' is going to keep me far away from it. How predictable. My day yesterday sucked, so I apologize in advance. Novel work went terribly. I felt defeated. I still do. And Word kept freezing and crashing every three minutes, which didn't help at all. I eventually gave up. I also got a stressed out, passive aggressive email from my sister, and that screwed up my mood too, although that part got sorted out by bedtime. It rained for most of the day in a not pleasant way. I slogged out into it to buy cigarettes and some food. I started mapping out a Nuit Blanche route for tonight, but now I'm worried it's going to rain, which will take about 80% of the pleasure out of the festivities. Fingers crossed that the clouds start holding back come nightfall. My great uncle who I mentioned was dying a week or so ago finally died yesterday. That fucked me up too. It was one of those non-stop awful days, really. Today's starting out poorly too so far. But I've got a weekend to turn myself around, and that's the plan. Yeah, sorry about that. I hope to be flying high and spilling magic beans by Monday. In the meantime, how were your Saturday and Sunday? ** Bill, Hey. After Gisele saw me in 'Homme au Bain', she said, hm, you should be our pieces, and I don't want to, but I guess doing that would get me to Japan, for instance, so maybe a cameo. I hope you get to rest up in whatever way you see fit this weekend. ** Alan, Hey. No, I didn't think 'EtB' was too straightforward in the slightest. You're talking about the linear through-line? If so, no, I thought the way it organized and energized and de-energized the film at large and the way it was direct/ narrative/ narrative-based and yet dissolved was kind of wondrous, actually. Hope you're feeling at least a little better, man. Lots of love to you and yours this weekend. ** Jeff, Hey, Jeff! Great to see you, of course. I don't know Quentin S. Crisp at all. I can't believe there are two Quentin Crisps. I'll read the interview and find out about him. Thanks a lot, man. ** Misanthrope, Shit, your computer, fuck. Gave me chills. Get an Apple, for Christ's sake, Or, well, next time. Three hours drive for a birthday party is a lot. You gonna crash on their couch? Bel Ami was always a little too clean and cinematically lit for my taste, but, yeah, their casts definitely had their moments. ** Nick Hudson, Well, hey, Nick! A rare treat. Uh, I'm in a bad mood and my novel is going badly. Could change, though. Very glad to hear you're giving some of your giant talent over to pen and ink or their electronic equivalents. On a boat on the Thames? Nice. Video it, por favor. In Paris for NYE? Sounds good. I'll do my best to stick around if so. Dude, a two way conversation/ interview between me and Mr. Stewart would be a dream and an honor, of course. Thanks for the great, sweet idea no matter what. New listenable music by you, very cool. I'll do that, you bet. Everyone, the massively talented rising star that is Nick Hudson has some new music up and available to your ears for absolutely free over on his Soundcloud home, which happens to be right here. Make haste! Thanks a lot, Nick. Hope the gig goes magnificently, and love to you. ** The weekend begins, and it's between you and Statictick, and I predict a lot of happy coupledom. Please start thinking up your SPD Halloween costumes, if you don't mind. I'm off now. Literally and figuratively. See you on Monday.
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