Entry Eighteen.
Sunday 2003.09.14 7:18 PM CST.
Have you seen me lately?  My life has changed a bit.

My, it has been a while since I've posted here, hasn't it?  I mean, I just posted Entry 17 a few minutes ago, and now I have even more to tell you.  Lots more.

Obscure trip-hop phenomenon Rose Smith probably put it best when she sang, "Life changes happen everyday."  You've probably never even heard of Rose Smith, but if you pick up (that is, BUY, not STEAL from online) her "Dawnraiding" CD, you are in for a major treat.

Anyway, I've been through a lot over the past five months, and I need to give you a few details so that you, my fans and/or stalkers, can have a tad more of my personal life to worry about.

Clinical Depression.
I feel the need to come out and tell everyone that I've been taking medication for clinical depression.  Over the course of the summer, I have tried three brands of medication:  Lexapro, Effexor, and Wellbutrin.  The first two had some pretty lousy side effects, but so far the Wellbutrin has been really good to me and it's helped to "stabilize" my moods a bit.  Although depression can certainly provide fuel for creative processes, it is no way to go through life all the time.  I want to be able to enjoy life as much as other people do.  The medications, especially the Wellbutrin, have certainly seemed to help.

A New Girlfriend.
Okay, here's some major news:  I now have a new girlfriend.  Her name is Heather, although her nickname (especially in our circle of friends at the Gypsy, see below) is "Jiffy Pop."  She's 23 and lives in the Tulsa area.  Our first date was on July 19th, and so far the relationship has gone wonderfully for the most part.  Here's a picture of her:

Yeah, she rocks.

The Gypsy.
If any of you are following my life obsessively, then you'll probably remember me chatting about a place called the Gypsy.  Well, I started going there again quite a while back, and developed a lot more friendships there.  I introduced Jiffy to a lot of the local denizens, and a great deal of them know us by nickname now.  I have started reading some poetry and other amusing pieces (mainly disgusting comedy pieces) there, and I'm currently working along with Captain Chambers, a brilliant local filmmaker, on an upcoming film festival project set to be held this November at the Gypsy.  I'm planning on doing the sound work for the film festival, and also perform DJ duties for the "afterparties" which will run after each night of films.

The Party.
The 15-year-in-the-DJ-industry party is still planned, and now I'm aiming at late November/early December.  I have two places that I am considering having it, and basically I'll have more news soon.

EKG:  Mark my words, it will survive.
It was very weird to write that last update, knowing that it basically would sound like I was out of the DJ business entirely.  That's not true at all.  I'm very proud to say that I'm still a DJ, no matter what, and even if something were to go horribly awry and EKG "died" during its revision, I would continue on doing DJ gigs on my own, just as "DJ Badger" and no longer as EKG Pro Mobile Music.  I have faith in some sort of DJ future for EKG and for myself.  I still buy music all the time, and I'm even just about to invest in some great new light equipment.

I say that EKG is "suspended" because I'm basically freezing it to thaw out later, when we are technically up to speed and whenever I feel ready to carry EKG - both mentally and physically - again.  Maybe I'm just getting bitter in my old age (I'm 31), but I think that the current "pop" music climate is absolutely pathetic, and there really isn't much mindblowing stuff that has come along to shake up the music scene in a while.  Plus, today's crowds don't really appreciate "dance" music like they used to.  I think it's safe to say that most "kids" (and by "kids" I mean high schoolers and below) would rather just bob their head up and down to an 86 BPM rap track than actually try to MOVE to a 125 or 135 BPM dance track.  Just typing that out makes me angrier and sadder, so I'm going to go ahead and skip to the next subject...

Dave Gahan and Kenna.
As many of you know, I'm a Depeche Mode nut.  Earlier this summer, I took Jiffy to see Dave Gahan, the lead singer of dM, on his solo tour.  The show took place at Nextstage in Grand Prairie, a suburb of Dallas, Texas.  The concert was fantastic - much better than I had been expecting after reading some of the European reviews - although I really would have preferred that Gahan sing the choruses of a lot of the songs instead of taking the lazy way out and letting the audience do it.  Hey, Dave, whenever I pay over $100 for two tickets to see someone in concert, I want to hear HIM sing them, not a few hundred fans who also paid to see him...  *Insert heavy sigh here.*  Overall, though, a great show.

One of the best parts of the concert, though, had nothing to do with Gahan - the opening act, a newcomer named Kenna.  WOW.  It sounded like a funkier, somewhat harder, more "raw" version of Camouflage or Cause + Effect, coming from a tall, bald, lanky dude who lurched, leaped, and wiggled all over the stage, even climbing up on to some of the speakers and dancing on them.  Spectacular stuff.  His backup band was a standard 3-person set, but two of them had the classic "keyboard-like-a-guitar so I can hold it around my neck" thingies, and that was quite impressive in a very swank retro way.  This was actual dance music - brilliant synth-driven dance music with thought-provoking lyrics - so the odds are that Kenna will get zero airplay in Tulsa's radio market, which, in case I've never mentioned it, truly SUCKS.  The songs were fantastic and the entire experience was phenomenal.  I bought the last two CDs that the souvenir guy there had, and while the CD just doesn't compare to watching him live, it is still an album I would recommend.  If you'd like to give him a try, check out the "NewSacredCow" CD.  As with the Dawn Smith CD I mentioned earlier, BUY it.  Do not STEAL it from online.  If you need to hear samples of his work before buying it, go to Amazon or somewhere like that, but don't steal his album.  Thank you.

New news about "The Other Side of the Fence."
I have chosen to release a CD-single of "The Other Side of the Fence" at the end of October, and I am going to try to have the full DJ Badger debut album available around the end of November or early December - in time for the 15-year party.  The single will feature the original version of "Other Side," plus two remixes and at one B-side.  I won't give away much more than that, other than one of the remix names, which is called "The Other Side of the Fence" (On the Side of the Many).

And, though there has been no paperwork signed or anything like that, Captain Chambers has informally agreed to direct the video to "The Other Side of the Fence!"  This is major news, my friends.  If we have it done on time, I might stick it on the album, but I'm not sure.  Needless to say, I am thrilled about this prospect and I'm really hoping for the best.

So long, Wesley Willis.
I don't know if any of the rest of you are fans of schizophrenic Chicago musician Wesley Willis, but I have dire news.  Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to see him live in concert in a TINY venue in Norman, Oklahoma, but at the time I had nobody to take to the show.  I knew that he'd be around again, so I just passed up the chance this time around.

Wesley won't be around again.  Last month, apparently due to complications from leukemia, Wesley died, at the age of 42.  Yes, I was saddened by the passing of Johnny Cash last week, and I was absolutely stunned by the death of John Ritter, but Wesley...  Well, Wesley's death hit hard.  Like, "moved me to tears" hard.  Although he didn't have much musical talent and couldn't sing well, I felt a close familiarity to him.  He had mental problems and heard voices, and he used his songs to scream back at the voices, as well as for positive reasons like praising his favourite bands or just telling particular people how nice they were.  He released over fifty albums, but most people will never have the chance, nor the desire, to hear them.

So, Wesley, hopefully you're up there in Heaven, rockin' like a magikist and making the crowds roar like a lion.

With that, I need to end this update.  I have a lot of stuff to do before I actually go to bed, and I took too much time juggling this update around with other important things, like phone calls and doing a SmartAbs workout to Rammstein videos.  Thanks again for checking back here, and I'll try to have another "big" update very soon.

Badger.