Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Mutants



Leinad Nitapol xoneohtrix@gmail.com

7:42 PM (3 hours ago)
to me
Hello my friend
I am ready to kill myself and eat my dog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be67Sb4S-ec
Anything less would be uncivilized. Look at the site and call (917)565-3894. They have me hooked up to some kind of "machine" that canread my mind.
My manager has purchased a weapon. I told thesewersystem to delete"that thing" that we buried.
Save Yourself
OPN

Saturday, August 15, 2015

OPN INTERVIEW

Rain drizzled into the gape on my face as I made my way over to Oneohtrix Point Never's studio. I went to the front desk but nobody seemed to know anything about the interview. Finally at a quarter to twelve (fifteen minutes before the interview was supposed to start) a woman from the label appeared. We then waited together in the foyer, what we were waiting for I don't know. The process was delayed because of some misunderstanding between management about schedules. I was going to be the first of two journalists. The other two, who were also in the foyer I think were twins, maybe nine years old so they were counted as one journalist. At half past twelve I see Bendrix, Lopatin's guru who I recognized from a party at Flow's condo museum. He arrived with a bucket of lubricant which was cool and he's a nice guy in general. He asked me for my name and took me down to an oubliette. I had been there a few times to hang out already but I didn't remember the dungeon entrance being yellow. He lead me to the back of a cage where there was a murphy door. On the other side of the door were a series of hallways. Eventually we boarded an elevator. We spent some time riding the elevator, switching elevators multiple times. It felt like maybe we were no longer underneath the studio. Bendrix kept talking about the architecture but I wasn't sure if he was joking or not. We reach the room and the door is opened by Lopatin. After complimenting him on his Gigeresque hat (the guru not Lopatin, he had no ponytail, no hat, only short hair on his head, no signs of hair loss), we sat down in a small cold room (I should have brought a jacket) and started the interview. First I mentioned to him that the questions were put together by some 20 some odd OPN fans from around the world via e-mail. This got no obvious reaction from Lopatin, so I just started asking the questions.

Daniel: I'm sorry that I'm late. I had to do some shopping. I'm trying to catch up on shopping. I've been staying here late.

E: I know, I saw you leave the studio last night.

D: Really?

E: Yeah I watching you from behind some trash cans.

D. Oh. The Video Impact trash cans?

E: Yeah. I rented Get A Life. It was good to hear from you, I was surprised...

D: My publicist was surprised.

E: I have a bunch of questions for you and I want to focus on the new record. Did you lay down all the parts?

D: Yeah.

E: Were you using the Andromeda a lot?

D: Sometimes but mostly Zebra.

E: Glass (Bendrix) told me you really cranked it up at the listening party... did you break any eardrums?

D: Well, those guys all came by the studio one night after they finished work and I was mixing. I played it for them. I cranked it. It was way too loud. It wasn't even enjoyable to listen to but we were kind of psyched on it.

E: I hear a lot of influences, Kaoss Edge, even some early Karnivore... dare I say my new stuff?

D: Yeah that's all true.


E: Did you play my demos for Steven Hill?


D: Yeah.


E: Okay so what was your inspiration for Sticky Drama? It's a very dark, gloomy story. What is that based on?

D: Watching a lot of Vevo... and standing in my bathroom with the lights off.


E: What do you do once the lights are off?


D: Basically I'm just seeing how long I can stand in the bathroom with the lights off before I freak out.

E: I Bite Through It has a similar vibe. Was that one also inspired by a bathroom scenario?



Bathroom Scenario
D: I Bite Through It is more about the physicality of biting through something, like what it actually feels like.

E: Did you bite anything when you wrote it?

D: Yeah probably.


E: Interesting. Dominic Fernow's vocals on Sticky Drama are really good, please comment on that...

D: That's not actually Dominic. It's just inspired by Dominic. He was shocked when I showed him the multitrack and there was a section named after him.

E: Yeah, well, what can you do...

D: (Laughing)

E: Yeah, it's amusing!

D: It's nice to see you. You look great. Your face really cleared up.

E: You're cruel towards me.

D: Yeah, I MEANT it...!

E: I think my favorite track besides Sticky Drama is Ezra, named after me I presume?


D: Yeah.



E: A troll move?

D: You're a real life troll so I don't view it as inflammatory.


E: We have some history though. So I kind of suspected that it might have been.


D: I actually like you a lot. I thought your R Plus Seven review was intriguing. Plus a 3.5/5 is respectable.


E: Maybe by EDM standards but in school that's like a C-.


D: Oh yeah.


E: Another track I liked was the depressing ballad Animals. Any cool backstory to that?

D: It was last minute. I wanted to write a medieval cyberballad. Like the musical equivalent of Black Knight.

E: It's going to get a lot of airplay, or so I've heard...

D: Yeah.


E: This record is going to be your Play is what we're saying at Kaossed. What were Nate and Rafman's reaction to hearing the record?


D: Very positive. You know we talked a little bit about it. They gave me a pat on the back and said "well done." But we've moved on to the current project, which is a short film for Sticky Drama, and figuring out how to play these songs live.

E: Sounds stressful (laughing).

D: (Laughing) By the way I didn't feel any dissatisfaction with what you and I accomplished last winter. I think it was an opportunity for us to do something cool and set a goal and a challenge ourselves to see it through.

E: We would have accomplished more together if it were not for my skin condition. Once I left, you had more time to focus, which is great...

D: I had the time and that is important but I also missed you and enjoyed what we did together.

E: My present to you, reversing your infection. Which is also selfish because I got to visit Sardinia. Did you use my files?



D: Yeah, I'm hosting your deformed eggs. 

E: If you finished the record and Warp said to you "this is bad" and it wasn't going to get released, would it have bothered you? 


D: I would have put it out on Tidal.

E: That wouldn't have changed anything. But they like it, so they are giving you a million dollars?


D: (Laughing) Yeah. How was Sardinia?


E: It was okay. There are a lot of horses there. 
Did you purposely intend to make each song different?


D: As in... ?

E: I mean why not just choose one song, and have it play twelve times?

D: It's my choice, as an artist to put twelve different songs next to eachother I guess.

E. I don't know. How was it working with Les Claypool?

D: I didn't work with Les Claypool.

E: So what is all the bass made of?

D: Software.

E: Okay, I won't pursue that. Can we expect the next OPN album to carry over some of this more aggressive energy? The last time I was here you stated that's been kind of what you've been wanting to do and you keep on taking it further and further. Do you anticipate it going even further? Moving the primalcy to the forefront?

D: Well yeah.

E: Okay basically what I want to do now is ask you questions that your fans emailed me. We're in the temporary autonomous zone now. I don't know how you'll feel about these Qs. How will you feel? Because me personally I'm not going to ask you questions about hypergrunge...

D: Yeah, I don't mind the idea of it. I don't want to say that I'm too busy to do something like that.

E: Because obviously you're not...

D: (Laughing) Okay?

E: I'm predicting that your next album is going to be this explosion type of thing...

D: Wow (Laughter). Is that a question? Like the next one after this?

E: I'm really looking forward to that one. Tour is eminent, is it not?
Guitars

D: Yeah, we just haven't talked about how we want to do it, or when.

E: Were you pleased with the way the R Plus Seven tour schedule was segmented?

D: It was segmented well. Nothings written in stone regaring tour. There's just a tentative plan. We need to work out the special effects.

E: Would there be a tour video in store possibly? Featuring special effects? It would be nice for people to see it in the privacy of their homes.
D: Maybe. Unless I become very famous, then I will want to just dissapear and not put out any tour videos.

E: Yes we heard all about Tupac. It was a big, publicized thing.

D: I shouldn't have said that cause then I'll start hearing it all over the place. When are you dissapearing? Are you dissapearing soon? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

E: On the R Plus Seven shows you were so active on stage, bobbing your head up and down.



Tour

D: Thanks.


The next question is "why and how was it decided to do a new record? Did you decide yourself? What reasons did you have? Do the long periods of absence make a difference?"

D: I decided myself. 
Punitively but yeah.


E: Who actually controls your destiny? Your manager or the label?


D: I would say manager. He's scary.


E: He is? My manager only speaks Yautja. More backstory now?


Manager

D: Well I went on USA tour with Nine Inch Nails and Soungarden and spent long car rides thinking about how I got from puberty to now. That's how it started.


E: "Don't you get tired/bored with touring?"


D: No I like it.



Tupperware
E: "What is the timetable for the rest of the year as far as vacations, writing new material and recording is concerned? When can we expect a new album? Does it begin with the letter R?" 

D: The record is finished. I've spent most of the summer thinking about how I want to present it. I started writing in January, and wrapped up in July. It'll be out in November. It's called
Garden of Delete or G.O.D. for short. The R thing is over. 


E: (Laughing). This one is personal - what ethos does Flow's music and the Kaoss Edge community represent to you?

D: It's nihilist/formalist. Kaoss/Edge.

E: Would you describe the new record as cybermetal? Hypergrunge? 


D: It's somewhat influenced by cybernetic rock. I'm aware of the hypergrunge movement. When I went on tour with NIN, Reznor gave me the green light to attempt cyberdrone for Soundgarden audiences in broad daylight. By the time Soundgarden hit the stage their fans were exausted, often irritated. So that was interesting, however the whole thing had me questioning the effectiveness of cyberdrone beyond the Live Nation context.



Kornos
Tour ended and I spent time in Japan working on Manabu Namiki remixes and new songs by Anohni. When I got back home I decided to get a Kronos and I would just write using that a lot. I also got a deck of T2 trading cards which I was using as a sort of tarot.

E: Yeah I could hear the influence of Terminator on this album a lot more than your previous albums. Especially on the track Lift, which reminds me of a Cyndi Lauper track if Brad Fidel was involved.


D: Yeah that one for me is like a very tragic mid-tempo ballad in the spirit of Janie's Got A Gun, but I see your point about Cyndi Lauper.


E: Well she has the best hooks. What are the lyrics about?


D: It was based on a series of texts I sent from a party. Basically its about texting and codependency. I got the title from the chair in the my studio.

STUDIO CHAIR

E: And this is not the same "Lift" as Radiohead recently announced, in the press? 


D: It's different.


E: In what sense is it different? Skip that. "In your earlier music there are some very obvious literary influences, Emil Cioran being the most concrete example of this. Lately it seems that you are either using them less, or making them more obscure. Is this a conscious effort?"


D: Julia Kristeva.


E: She wrote Puss's Infinitude?

D: Your biography. Personally I would rather be an immortal pussing teenage troll from another planet being pulled forwards and backwards at the same time than be human. I know you see it differently.


E: I love my body, it's just that all the code is in the puss, and since I'm always excreting, I can't fix the code. 


D: The only reason you think you're deformed is because other people look at you like you are. To quote Neil Peart, "Each another's audience Outside the gilded cage."


E: That reminds me of something Drew Masters said in M.E.A.T Magazine once their underrated album Counterparts. He described the term "counterparts" as both duplicate and opposite. Neil Peart said that "contraries are reflections of eachother and not contradictions." Perhaps you could mention some specific readings now - books that have influenced you.


D: Daddy's Boy by Chris Elliot.


E: Someone asks, "what was your inspiration to be a musician or producer?"

D: Allan Holdsworth, Roddy Bottum, The Dust Brothers, Rupert Hine, Matt Wallace, Stevie Wonder, Peter Collins, Bob Rock, Geddy Lee, Daft Punk.




E: "What keyboard players influenced you most as a teenager? Did you attempt to emulate them?"

D: Jens Johansson, Geddy Lee, Roddy Bottum, McCoy Tyner, Jan Hammer, Lothar Krell, Harold Faltermeyer Mike Rutherford, Chris Squire, Ray Manzarek, I like bass players who play lead keybs.


E: "What one bit of advice would you give to a young keyboard player who's just getting started?"


D: Get in the habit of watching instructional vids. Try to do it every day. After a while your skill level will increase. 


Epilogue

At this point my scalp starting itching and I felt like I was gonna pass out. I tried to hug Oneohtrix but he refused, siting last month's "infection" as the reason (even though I gave him serum).  



Credits
Thanks to Pamala from RVD, Klit and Morpho for the free drinks. Thanks Bass Player magazine for their 1992 interview with Geddy Lee. Thanks to Steve Streeter for his Alex Lifeson Interview in A Show of Fans #13, Winter 1996. Thanks to PWRWINDOWS for their transcripts. Thanks to to all the people who mailed me questions:

Idavd S. Schmitd, Ibrna Daenils, Honj Q. Uiclpb, Rkam Tpseh, Scott Aidvd Dlay, Eric W. Aernsdon, Steve E. Odgsolel, Raibn Locyb, Mttaehw Oohlicl, Scott Oujaiqm, Hicr "Rbs3516@Atvrxi.bitnet", Nke F. "Exslrt", T J Omore-Daer, "Cmcevy@Ylovax.iebntt", Ron Weisnma, Grgeg Ajegre, Wnaey Butlest, Adve Agzse, Etro "You'll egt oyur opsctard!" Avlonken, Hjno Michale Nastreo, Htsoma Beoadiun, Evkain Kalihchi, Idadv Sandergb, Dwae Wlimslia, Tom Ohmlaitn, Othr "Ecarnc" Oievrns, Tucner Vgeun, Alrry Aslomno, Npnuiaa "odubel-hand ovrscsoer" Kkaaa, Naldlra Astrk, Eptre "Iu1T@Undiak2.bneitt", Odug White, Avde "Tdg@Vnwvms.tbneti" 

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Bioconfused

It's been 5 years the release of Kaoss Edge's swan song Bioconfused; an album that was both a final chapter and a new beginning for the hypergrunge sound of today. The record, which would be the band's last, was notoriously released 7 hours after Kranium's suicide, and sent a ripple effect through the industry and fanbase alike. Today, established acts find it difficult to draw the type of sales or airplay Kaoss Edge has enjoyed since Flow went into cryo. They were 28-year vets getting ready to release their 14th (and final) studio album when Kranium's body washed ashore near his Winthrop waterfront condo. Kranium, a misanthropic poet must have felt uneasy about the musical landscape going into 1998, one that had changed a great deal since the avant garde heyday of Troll The Ruins, which they scored a major hit with 4 years earlier. If anyone at the label was worried that the band had gone too far center with the highly commercial vibe of posthumously released Bioconfused, their fears quickly vanished in a wave of sales receipts. Not only was the record a hit, it set a new chart peak for the band in the U.S., debuting at No. 2. In fact, it only missed the top spot because it happened to come out the same week as what might have been the most highly anticipated rock record of the year, Staininger‘s Sloppy. Far from being regarded as relics at mainstream cybermetal radio, the band ended up scoring a slew of hits from Bioconfused — including their fifth No. 1 hit with the leadoff single ‘Looking Glass’.



Part of the record’s success was due to the band’s well-timed shift back to the more aggressive sounds of their earlier efforts. After dabbling in glossier production, they stripped things back during the Bioconfused sessions, which found them reuniting with producer Jeff 2X Tank. “We’ve kinda shifted the interest back to the plasmaxe,” admitted Tank in a studio interview. “We’ve been talking about moving in that direction for quite a while, but certainly with this one we made a concerted effort to do that. The keyboards are much deeper in the mix. It was to sort of capture an abject primalcy.”

Although Flow was quick to point out that the band’s new songs weren’t any less complex than their more recent stuff, he did concede that Bioconfused was something of a back-to-basics record in terms of their sonic approach. “Troll The Ruins sounded so much tougher live than in the studio, which is what we really wanted to capture with these songs on this record — to make sure it had that kind of impact,” he explained. “Just by the nature of the way we recorded it, using an engineer (Jeff Joke) whose particular style is very raw — I mean, he just stuck the mics right up there and hit the red button in a very straight forward approach in terms of signal path — that really helped us to capture that size and style.” 

Manager Dee Brawley also used Troll The Ruins as a point of reference and praised Jeff, saying "There were a couple of tracks on that record that we felt when we recorded it, we thought we had a more aggressive sound going down to tape. When we got the final mixes, and we were listening to a couple of the tracks, we felt, ‘You know, you know… we thought we had more here than we really have.’ That kinda started the wheels turning as to, ‘Maybe we’re going about recording in



way

that 

needs 

to

change
.


That change extended to the songwriting sessions for ‘Bioconfused.’ “I guess what they'd been going through over the last few years was a period of extreme involvement with high-tech equipment — writing on computers and so-forth,” Brawley recalled. “When Flow started writing this record, he was kind of looking at these mountains of synthesizers that were being brought into the writing room, and we kinda had this reaction; it was almost like an allergic reaction: he told me ‘I think it’s time maybe we stepped back from this stuff.’ So, I think he went back to a more simpler, basic way of writing, which was just… plasmaxe, plucks, languages, and macrodrum. A lot of the material was written in that way, so in that sense it was kind of a purer sound.”

That “purer sound” ushered in the first wave of a new era of success and mainstream acceptance for Kaoss Edge that’s still going on today (and may have culminated with Flow's long-overdue Hyperhall enshrinement where he is currently in cryo). And while they’ve never really been a trend-conscious band, a few moments from their catalog sound like products of their time. Bioconfused on the other hand, said fuck it all and morphed into a style that Kranium himself couldn't have predicted. It doesn't get much more cyber than that.

Thursday, November 30, 2000

Questions



1. Write a poem:

SCALING OOZING DERMIS
MISSHAPEN BRAIN OF KRONOS
MOUTH IS SHAPED LIKE ANUS
SKIN IS SLIMY ONYX
ABJECTION? EUPHORIC
ERA OF WORTHLESS SONG
ALSO
ITS DYSMORPHIC
LIFESTYLE IS A BONG
CHANGE? THE ONLY CONSTANT
FUTURE FILLED WITH BILE
GOD IS RUST INSIDE US
MUTANT STANDARD STYLE

2. Last phone call:
I called home before leaving my friend's house to tell my parents that I'm on my way

3. Last album you listened to:
Kaoss Edge - ­ 'Bioconfused' Special Suicide Edition 4xCD

4. Are you a virgin?
I'm horny

5. Have you lost someone special:
I was sad when Flow the lead singer of Kaoss Edge went into cryo

6. What are your three favorite colors:
Milky White, Morpho Blue, Cobalt Blue, and Emergency Yellow

7. Met someone who changed you in the past month:
"Change is the only konstant" ­Flow

8. Do you have any pets:
Dog named Void

9. What did you do for your last birthday:
Study, eat, sleep, practiced drums and drank litre of Krisis (expired)

10. Name something you CANNOT wait for:
Drum lesson

11. Most visited webpage:
my blog Kaossed

12. Tattoos:
my skin is constantly melting off so not worth it


ANSWER TRUTHFULLY

15. How do you want to die?
Become devoid (but feel powerful doing it)

16. What makes you happy?
listening to Kaoss Edge

17. Best Friend?

Alll my friends are dead because being around me makes them sick so its just me and Void from here on out 

<E>



Saturday, July 25, 1998

Konflikt / R.I.P. FLOW KRANIUM



Yesterday was bad...I had a konflikt with Pamala over a Deep Dark Secret that I didn't think was any big deal. I told her that my morality isn't the same as hers (or saccharine sex&violence puritanical mainstream America's) and that there'd probably be other things she wouldn't like about me (for one I am not human) and that if she was going to ditch me I'd rather she'd do it sooner than later.


I left to go buy a Z1 at Skuzzy Music and then spent much of the evening trying to MIDI sync it in Qtractor, experiencing frustration after frustration. When I found a working combination, my attitude improved enormously... until teary eyed Pamala came to the attic to deliver the news of Flow's death. 
I am 17, I have a tech support job and an internet connection, but the music feels like its starting to fade away. 









Tuesday, April 21, 1998

MorphoFest Pt. II


Well, I was fixing my muffler, while everybody was standing aroud. (Which is hard to do while it's still hot) gave up, looked up, and all my friends had ditched me, and I had to hang around with Audrey's friends who I didn't know.. but half of them turned out to be the little brothers of my friends, who I went to see Karnivore with.) I watched the Entrail Girls.. who seemed pretty cool... then we wandered, and I was jumped by some crazy asshole who turned out to be Boner.. who was damn glad I was me and not some guy that would want to kill someone who jumped on them. Mike showed me where he was sitting.. I sat and talked to him for a while.. and I heard people shouting my name.. he was about 6 feet from about 20 people from my school (including Wonko The Sane, but only people on my board know of him) Well, I was due to meet Pamala at the trashcan so I left my 
friends who were sitting by the way-cool tree. 
Pamala decided we'd sit WAY in back so people wouldn't see us smoke anything illegal.. I then wandered.. my only goal to find my true friends.. especially
Tyrone.. who was who I wanted to hang with most.. I wandered and bumped into someone who had hair just like mine.. we stared at each other for about 5 minutes.. when finally he said "FREAK!" and walked off...  I wandered once more.. I bumped into Dork, who came with the 20 people from my school, and was sitting with them, so I siad i'd stop by later and chat with him.. I then bumped into some freaky person with a cute butt... he turned out to be Morgue.. we were both very happy at this point, and started walking and hanging out..
we had our arms on each others shoulders which is compleatly normal..  he then took me to where everyone else was.. he gave me a hug.. which surprised me, because I've always thought she hated me,
and I was nothing more than a mere <jerk> to her... Dork
 made me go in the pit. I think it was during Flow's solo set.. some guy landed on me, and somehow kicked me in the balls real hard.. it hurt, and I wanted out.. BLECH! 



I decided to go chech out Skorn.. and maybe 

bump into Tyrone again... Instead I bumped into my dog.. and then proceeded to be an asshole for about 2 hours... once every ten minutes or so. I lost my dog and ended up in the pit.. I was about 1 foot and a half (third person) from the stage when Kaoss Edge. started.. I had already bumped into everyone I ever met before in my life.. and I bumped into Dork many many many times.. In the pit, I also bumped into the guy with hair like me who called me a freak.. we laughed..There was some loud noise.. and they started taking the set down.. this made me mad.. I started yelling vulgaritys.. to calm down the people, they started hosing us down.. the security guard hosing us down was none other than Pamala's Uncle.. I started yelling his name, Krustin, and he saw me.. I got a whole bunch of people to yell 'give Krustin a raise, give thom a raise'... They took the their Gear that was hanging down. they accomplished this by dropping it on us.. it hurt a lot.. but they warned us to cover our heads.. I caught a peice of it, and stuffed it in my pocket.. a souvenir which now hangs above my bed... Kaoss killed it... but then Thrage came on.. I proceed to be smooshed next to some girl with 
large breast.. although I didn't mind.. she did, and so did her boyfriend.. who punched me and I started to bleed from the nose ... Iyelled 'help' but no one cared... I was not up to moshing to Thrage.. so I made my way outward.. I wandered and saw 
someone I knew... she said my nose was bloody, and I said 'at least I saw Edge in the flesh'... her boyfriend then noticed that my shorts were bloody too.. this frightened me.. because my assholeness made me forget my pain.. so Iforgot abot the  punctured leg.. which is a dumb thing to do, especially if it's still in the wound.. she made me take my shorts off.. I think I made some sexual comments.. but then I don't remember.. I woke up.. she was gone, and my souvenir was in my hand.. and my face was no longer on my body. I
was relieved when I found my shorts.. I stumbled up.. and wandered around in the dark.. I bumped into a naked female, who I wish I knew,but I didn't.. so then I went to go see Krang.. I got bored.. so I got a shirt and left to go find my car..
oh yeah.. sometime during this I saw Fishhead.. but I decided to be an asshold 

before they were done. (sorry lurch <E>) 





Towns


In the morning Pamala and I woke up on the back porch of Josh the Guitarist. It wasn't really his home, it was his parents'. Judging from the decorations, furniture and such, Josh's parents are the liberal-minded, tolerant, eccentric. Their house is a split level which Josh and the father of her child have divided into influence zones. He lives upstairs, where he is free to work on his computer diversions. Josh lives downstairs, with her internet equipped computer and other tools. The walls of her bedroom (where she often entertains groups of visitors) are covered with layers and layers of magazine clippings, much of it fairly tasteful erotic images of animals. Josh plays her stereo extremely quietly, perhaps tonight this was a defensive thing; she says her musical interests are very different from mine. But we cleared up one thing: I actually do like 311, a band she erroneously recalled me dissing. She on the other hand has no interest in Kaoss Edge. Other people showed up: Jargus, a big funny extroverted guy, and then Hardris and her father returned, but the father stayed upstairs watching TV while the rest of us (especially Hardris) continued socializing downstairs. She talks continuously, and when she's not talking, she's making animal noises. She demands center stage, and this makes things a little difficult for us. But there's a consistency to it all. Elof had a counterfeit Rolex watch his grandfather stole for him. It was a real piece of metallic crap, but there was the logo and the statement of authenticity.




As we milled around preparing to leave, Hardris did a remarkable spontaneous pro-social thing: she filled little paper cups with LSD and handed them to everyone present. The demographics were a mix of white trash, punks, racist-looking whites, goth kids, generic college kids, youthful affluent couples and some aliens. As we walked up and down the street looking for an appropriate restaurant, the proximity to so much seemingly violent masculine force on the verge of explosive expression had the effect of raising my adrenaline level. Several times Pamala and I thought we heard people (punks or skinheads) shout insults at us. It was actually kind of scary. Pamala was amazed; she'd been on this same street in the middle of a weekday and found the place very mellow.