Yeah, whoops.. sorry about that. I've not been paying much attention to the blog for a few days; been spending a lot of mental energy on getting working on a new series of paintings.

To that end I've begun to finish-off a painting (left) which is a gift for a friend. The photo is a but washed-out and blurry sorry -- that's down to the poor light*. Also, don't worry -- I haven't gone mental. All that scratchy-scrawly stuff around the cactus is just under-painting. More on this one soon, I feel.

So to get underway on the new series I gotta clear the decks a bit. In addition to finishing this painting, I gotta:

• Find my bloody gun stapler. I'm stumped by the disappearance of this -- I have all the staples, just not the stapler.
  
• Remember who I lent my DVD of My Best Fiend to and get it back off them and watch it again to remind myself of some of the visual themes I wanted to develop but never went anywhere with or even jotted down or sketched last time I watched it.
  

*Note: I support the environmentally-concious rationale behind stopping the sale of incandescent bulbs, but it's going to suck for painting at night. Really, really suck.

Philip Guston Bad Habits, 1970 (via National Gallery of Australia)

Philip Guston Painting, Smoking, Eating, 1973 (via Arthistoryarchive.com)

Philip Guston Pantheon, 1973 (via Arthistoryarchive.com)

Philip Guston Head and Bottle, 1975 (via Arthistoryarchive.com)

Philip Guston Story, 1978 (via Artnet.com)

All images are sourced from other sites; please click on the links to further investigate these valuable online resources.

Fuck he's good, aye?

Here's my contribution fwiw:

Stephen Clover Are You Digital?, 2003

Labels: art, blog

I was fairly chuffed to discover, via a search from Poland, that Drinks-After-Work is the third-ranked Google result for "music martinis misanthropy download blog".

My suspicion however is that the searcher was looking for a download for the 2001 album Music, Martinis And Misanthropy by American musician and possibly all-round dodgy-bastard Boyd Rice (right).

Oh well.

Labels: blog

I wrote a guest post on The Aucklandista about my trip to the Sylvia Park Mall:

At Sylvia Park Mall, you don’t get anything even remotely as much fun:

No bizarre floaty vortex-place for you, matey. No coffee mugs, even. (Probably.) Nope, at Sylvia Park Mall you got you your Bed and your Bath, and your and er.. Table. Woot.

read more...

Labels: blog

Cool. This morning at some point I've limped past 40,000 visits, so let's have a song to celebrate:

Orange Goblin - Hand of Doom (6.25 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Yep, it's a cover of the Black Sabbath tune.

Labels: blog, music

It's been an interesting month here at Drinks-After-Work. There hasn't been much blogging goin' on, that's fer sure. I've been on holiday for about a month and there's been no damn time, you know? There's been a hell of a lot going on which I'll cover off in another post, shortly, if I can find a dignified way of doing so. But suffice it to say that I've spent most of that time getting drunk, and the rest of the time sleeping.

Otherwise I've spent a lot of time looking at pictures of Brutalist architecture, inspired in part by Robyn (also see pic here).



...

I thought we'd better have a song, so here's one* from Chris Whitley:

Chris Whitley - New Machine (3.80 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

It's off Din of Ecstasy from 1995, and his most-hated album/least well-regarded on Allmusic.com out of about a dozen efforts. For example, here's the Allmusic review:

On his second album, Whitley abandons the atmospheric acoustic blues-rock of his debut for a hard-hitting, grungy guitar attack. Appropriately, the songs are all about losers and hard times -- it's a dark, bleak album, twisting through its songs with a grim determination. The problem is, it doesn't always work. Whitley's lyrics are still rooted in the folk-blues storytelling tradition, while his music follows the rules of contemporary hard rock, complete with start-stop dynamics and thick layers of distortion. However, he can't write riffs that equal the best of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, nor does he have melodies to rival theirs. His music works best a lyrical level and the musical approach on Din of Ecstasy obscures his lyrics, making the record a muddled affair.

See, aside from the first two sentences which are correct, that's complete and utter bullshit. It's a sensationally, exceedingly-cool record, and at some point I'm going to write about it a bit more.



And why does Allmusic.com have such trouble with awesome albums about being/getting fucked up?


* Anyone get the connection?

...

There's also probably gonna be a few minor changes to DAW, too. In my 4th year, at well over 500 posts now, I'm approaching 40,000 reads and I decided to have a wee overhaul, both to the layout and to the content. Some of the changes are immediate -- for example the "tag-cloud" in the left side-bar (I can't have a real tag cloud because *cough* Blogger is a *cough* ass), and the broken archives navigation (sorry about that) -- and others will be coming as I find time to get them sorted out.

Labels: blog, debauchery, music

I'm pleased but somewhat shy and embarrassed to note that a guy called Jamie wrote a kinda-career overview-slash-review of my seht solo-project. It's on a blog which he contributes to called Duck and Cover.

It's a pretty good music blog, too, although he likes Battles and I don't. You should check it out.

(PS: my other site is here, including a discography. Thx.)

Labels: blog, seht

Shirley The Great: Shirley Shirley bo Burley, Banana Fana mo Murley, Fee fi fo Furley, Shirrrleeeee!!

Two sample posts:

Chillax
Oh sweet baby Jesus, I think my cafeteria cooks with laxatives... (ouch)

Fork You
omg, I'm so hungover that I almost started eating my lunch with a pen.


I bleeve my work here is done.

Labels: blog, favourite new blog

Robyn lives in Auckland at the base of a volcano:


(that's not a volcano per se, just some lovely swirly lanterns.)

"Sometimes I talk about internetty and pop culturey and writerly things, like at the National Young Writers Festival, The Great Blend and Radio NZ National.

You can see my photos at Flickr, and I even have an IMDB profile."

Robyn's stuff is fast and streetwise and funny, and if you have the chance I recommend you browse the archives -- just be careful you don't lose an afternoon in there.

...

Robyn has graciously accepted my invitation to join my Drinking Buddies over there on the right.

Labels: blog, drinking buddies, favourite new blog

College Dating Diary:

"I am writing this blog not only to drain some of the sexual aggression I'm building up from all these sucky dates, but to amuse whoever happens upon this. My dating history is varied and those boys who've been the braves souls to take me on have ended up anywhere from jail to rehab to gay bars to fatherhood.

After a particularly brutal blow from a guy I really liked, I can't stand to keep it all in anymore. Welcome to the circus that is my dating life!"

It's hilarious and quite often, NSFW.

It was very quiet for quite awhile, but suddenly there's life again!

Labels: blog, favourite new blog

Eavesdroppers is not fiction. These are real snippets of conversations heard by this blog's contributors. We do not use names of those quoted to protect their privacy. If you see something you said and feel that you need to receive credit for it, feel free to claim it. We know who you are. However, we're not trying to offend anyone, just to quote those things that brighten our days...

Their favorite posts:
• Cue Nirvana.

• Four days, definitely.

• Frankly, it stinks. [Pun intended.]

• He's taught you so much, though!

• I met them in Philadelphia.

• Off to write my obituary...

• Wrong Answer.

• Yes, we sell stuff for that.

Labels: blog, favourite new blog

Labels: blog, miscellany

George Lunt's Corporate-Alien Blog:

Favourite two recent posts:

• Conflict of Interest between Drug Companies and Doctors

Malevolent extra-terrestrials and alien corporations are trying to poison us through substandard pharmeceuticals.

• The "Click It Or Ticket" Road to Fascism

Emotional propaganda used to encourage people to observe seatbelt laws is analogous to campaigns used by Hitler to "get his people to let him make important decisions for them".

The blog actually just seems to be a wrapper/index for the Corporate/Aliens site.

Blog author George Lunt also writes Lunt's World.

Labels: aliens are in our midst, blog, favourite new blog, miscellany

Things I Find... is a blog about finding stuff (mostly writing, and pictures, on bits of paper):

Yeah, I do realise that this is not an earth-shatteringly original concept (Found magazine; Dirty Found magazine.)

Blog author James Aaron Lindsey also writes OCD-MAN.

Labels: blog, favourite new blog

100 word blog: "with the short of attention in mind" -- great concept, posts of no more than 100 words. For example, where he kinda pwns Che's toasted-sandwich post.

Good stuff.

Labels: blog, favourite new blog

Hee hee.. (former-)New Zealand National Front dude Kyle Chapman (wikipedia; scoop).

(thanks, 100word blog).

Didya notice how the first two photos of last politicle [sic] campaign look like before & after examples of one of those creepy Stalin-era "erasing history" photo alterations?

Kyle is currently campaigning to become mayor of Christchurch.
(updated 2007-09-14)

Labels: blog, favourite new blog