after a whole lot of staying up late and moving stuff around, my scheme worked and I am the proud owner of a brand new weather rock! mouwahaha. what a trinket of true delight and practicality.

Posted by davin at 7:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

my heart for now is a private road
no thoroughfare
no heavy load
no slow traffic, no graphic details
of colder collisons
no more stories to make me end

snow falls in silence and covers the green
still you can see where the birds have been
hungry
but alive and free
waiting
waiting...

words: bent - private road

Posted by davin at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

i can't stop coughing. i am awake.

i went shooting with jay last night. it was cool to go some different places and i look forward to our next photo session. some of these shots are from the weekend as well. clicky on last one fer a bigger version.

music: girl nobody - smile and beware (stef & 16 bit lolitas remix)

Posted by davin at 4:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

was it loneliness that brought you here
broken and weak
was it tiredness that made you sleep
have you lost your will to speak

was it emptiness that made you weep
no more secrets to keep
was it bitterness that gave you time
to forgive your sins
was the earth spinning round
were you falling through the ground
as the world came tumbling down
you prayed to God what have we done

free me from these chains
i need to change my way
heal these broken wings
i need to fly far away
free me from these thoughts
long forgotten down below
take these angel's words
give them life to carry on,
carry on, carry on

free me from these chains...

words: zero 7 - spinning

Posted by davin at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

woe.

woe is you, and
woe is me, so
woe, i say, now
we are the woe.

written by da.

woe.

just say no, no to woe
and frolic like children, to and fro
for a poem like this, to hell i go
to join the darkling lonely crow.

written by tim emit.

woe.

unlocked heart
a longing to hold
take the path

written by mike ph0ng.

woe.

escaping from woe,
i dared to go,
far away into myself to grow.
but just like woe,
what a cunning foe,
he found me again to make me low!

written by jen felicity.

woe.

i wish it wasn’t so
but I am the woe
uncertainties and fears
are the sources of my tears
i don’t know where to go
i am the woe
wise, without fear
you made it all clear
i don’t have to go
we are the woe

written by amalia.

woe.

uncertainty will follow you
but it will not lead the way
take a minute to feel the path
and know what you want today

it is clear to all, now see
who lurketh in our long shadows,
patience can't be sweet therapy
will we ever escape our woes?

written by davin.

all written today except the first, which was written yesterday.

woe.

Posted by davin at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

chris from hybrid puts some sorta wig on me whilst i attempt to spin at hush. photo by braeden.

i was just busy having a cobra rave in my office and someone from next door comes over and complained! that's so cool. i am used to people not having the guts to say what their concerns are. isn't that awful?!

Posted by davin at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

my pal amalia came over to visit for the weekend. there is a flower in this post. this is especially for my friends out in toronto and further out east. look, we gots flowers already, and it's only january 24th. haa haa haa!

clicky on that one above for a larger version.

Posted by davin at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Posted by davin at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

oooooh I am excited for this show.

reasons why I think JunkieXL is worth checking out:

• Remixed Dave Gahan (from Depeche Mode)'s "Dirty Sticky Floors" and it roxx
• Remixed Sarah McLachlan's "World On Fire" and it roxx
• Remixed Infusion's "Legacy" and it's stupid good.
• Co-produced Sasha's superb "Airdrawndagger" album
• Co-produced Conjure 1 (Delerium offshoot)'s debut album
• Produced Bon Voyage, Zerotonine, Beauty Never Fades, Breezer, and the rather huge double CD RadioJXL.

well that's all i could come up with a minute ago but it's plenty of reason to go. if you don't know the music that well, he's doing a live pa show so it'll be plenty more interesting than your regular dj show and he makes really fun dance music. whirred.

the irony of me writing about 'techno' whilst listing to a mixed list of janis joplin, norah jones and ella fitzgerrald .. makes me laugh. variety, i say .. helps me appreciate everything more. :)

happy friday everybody!

Posted by davin at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[censored]

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Posted by davin at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

charles had a really cool idea on saturday night. a cross-interview between the two of us. this is especially cool for me because i love asking the tough questions, and one of the things i miss about radio is being able to do that. this is an interview with charles paul, also known as the man behind Chompers dubs and the Obakeh project. i asked him ten questions; he gave me ten answers:

1. what was your biggest accomplishment of 2004?
   Hmm, that's a tough one. So many things happened in the last year. *pauses* I would have to say that there wasn't one thing in particular that I'd claim as my biggest accomplishment, but rather a series of many accomplishments that amount to one big one. I mean, for starters, I have been able to find a voice through my music. Stylistically, the music I've made in the last 4 months or so has really started to become stylistically cohesive. Other accomplishments that I feel compelled to mention are; the decision to go back to school and continue with my studies; holding down two jobs, which was something I'd never done before. Actually, to be quite honest my biggest accomplishment of 2004 has been surviving what has been a very difficult year.
2. where do you see yourself in 2.37 years?
   Realistically, I'll still be in school and in Victoria at that time. Hopefully I'll have a vinyl release or two by then. Alternatively I may find myself in a larger city, but hopefully still working towards my degree.
3. where do you get the ideas for the little people that you draw?
   Where? Ummm, I dunno really. Sometimes I just put pen to paper and that's what comes out. Other times, I look at something and try to imagine what it would look like through my eyes. And even further, sometimes I am merely copying something that I saw somewhere.
4. what is your ambition, and how do you plan on getting there?
   Oof. I wasn't ready for that one. My ambition is a multi-headed goddess-beast. "She gives with one hand and then she takes with the other"[/kids_in_the_hall] I guess I have many ambitions. Most of them are to be proficient at expressing myself in a myriad of mediums such as; music, text, art, visual etc. I'd really like to be in a position to use those mediums to earn a living. I honestly couldn't stick to one thing, I would start to feel limited by what I could say. Hardwork, discipline and dedication are the only things that I can use to get there. Unless there is some sort of secret udnerground rail-road I am not aware of?
5. have you forgotten anybody?
   Yes? I don't know...
6. who was your first best friend, what was that persons name, and what earned them the title?
   Some kid named 'Martin' from California. When my mom brought down there, We stayed at my Uncle Michael's. I must have been maybe four or five? Anyway, this kid's parents came over and they brought him and we went to disneyland together. In all that excitement we became best friends. I've never seen or heard from/about him since. That was about 1983 I believe..
7. if you could be somewhere else right now, where would it be, regardless of time and space?
   Ooooh! Good one. So many possibilities! I'd like to witness Ney York in the 60's, Edo period Japan( perfereably in a non christian denominitive faction) Can I choose to look different? Because that would make the Japan thing a bit easier. Even though it's not too far off, I'd like to have witnessed first hand the rise of Electronic music in the Uk in the early 90's. Geez, there are so many times and events I'd love to have seen first hand...
8. What is it about Japan/Asia that fascinates you?
   Ok, fair enough.
   Initially I was drawn to more contemporary aspects of Japanese media, mostly in the form of music and animation or movies, but deciding to invest more time in researching a culture on a less superficial context, I found a richness that I was immediately drawn to. I feel like I can kind of identify with the notions of tradition and routine. Asia in general is such an ancient civilisation, I think it's among the first civilisations really, (i'm not sure of the dates to be honest) and because of that it's developed such an intensely rich and colourful history. I am also quite drawn to much of the mythologies of asia, Ancient civilisations develop extremely rich histories and mythologies, the root of which forms much of the cultural norms today that I find so fascinating. *phew* Another richly rewarding facet of this interest is learning language. I am absolutley amazed by language. Japanese is my second language so far, demo mata, watashi no nihongo ga jouzu ja arimasen.
9. whats the stupidest thing you've ever done?
   Yeah... WE could go over that, Or, I can just say this; I don't really believe that I've done incredibly stupid things, only things to learn from and to try not repeat. Most of my recent stupidisms fall under the 'love' category though. I'm kind of learning all of that stuff all over again.
10. whats the smartest thing you've ever done?
    Excercise a great deal of patience.

check out

• www.chompers-dubs.com
• Chompers artist page on the Pacific Front Recordings website

Charles is one of Pacific Front Recordings mainstays and an all-around good guy. part of the reason you see the degree of honesty that you see on my website is due in part to my own reading of his website and how clearly he writes there, not really too concerned with who is reading what, but rather more interested in getting it out of the head and written out somewhere. You'll see Charles' story of how he met me at the radio station when I was ego tripping at my prime time Saturday night radio show. My first impression of Charles was that he had incredibly good taste in music and that I wanted him to come back to the show many times to share his selections with us. I knew, right away, that this guy had something special going on in the music department -- and that sentiment becomes truer and truer as time goes by.

Posted by davin at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

note: this is .. i don't know 7 years old? the picture is from my going away party a few months ago. steve is one of my very best friends -- he's seen me at some of my most rough times and some of my very best times. he's a talented newsman on cfax 1070, is an entertaining hockey player, can dance all night, play bass, and is our group of friends "Designated Asshole," a distinction he carries with pride. Although sometimes he abbreviates it to "DA," you know, just so certain people are not offended by the designation. Perhaps they might get jealous if they were to learn the truth.

I met Steve back in the day off of the Victoria Freenet, now known as the Victoria Telecommunity Network. They set up an IRC server so a few of us night owls could chat -- they restricted the hours on the server from 10 PM - 8 AM (or something) and we'd eagerly wait to login and start yapping when we were 17 or 18. 8 or 9 years ago. Matt, Me, Steve, (Travelling) Pete, Kristen, Stephanie would hang out in a channel named #zero and shoot the shit until the wee hours of the morning. Honourable mentions go to Jennifer Lucy (Spider) and Cecelia (kitten / coffee) for the random drop in. I miss those times -- occassionally we'd be up til 7 AM if the conversation was good; it happened many times. We'd decide at 2 AM to meet up at Alzu's and it was the coolest thing ever; we could operate in stealth, no phone ringing up the parents or anything! *sneak*

Steve's name online was "Iowa" and I thought it would be funny to mock him by calling myself "ariz0na". As luck would have it, I had IRC set up to remember which nickname I used last and so ariz0na stuck, and people started calling me ariz0na. I kept it, it sounded cool. That's about the entirety of my connection to The State of Arizona. That and I have a cool friend named Christine from Arizona, but she's moving to Boston (?!) next week or soon, so that'll be that. And that has little to do with .. anything. Thank you for reading.

i thought it'd be funny to take Steve's webpage and make it into a blog entry so you can get to know the steve that many of my closest friends know. the link to my site doesn't work because somebody vindictive (cough, netpig johnny, cough) at the victoria telecommunity network nuked my account for no good reason, even though i contributed decent monitary donations several times to their pithy little non-for-profit organization. not that i am bitter; i found the website archived on my own server; indeed i have outsmarted even myself. cunning!

That is all.

Posted by davin at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

mmmmm .. photography, earl grey tea and coldplay.

A warning sign
I missed the good part then I realized
I started looking and the bubble burst
I started looking for excuses

A warning sign
You came back to haunt me and I realized
That you were an island and I passed you by
And you were an island to discover

Come on in
I’ve gotta tell you what a state I’m in
I’ve gotta tell you in my loudest tones
That I started looking for a warning sign

When the truth is, I miss you
Yeah the truth is, that I miss you so
And I’m tired I should not have let you go

Ooooooooooooooooo

So I crawl back into your open arms

words: coldplay - 'warning sign' (came on randomly..)

Posted by davin at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Posted by davin at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

hello sunday,

here's two things for me: a haircut and lipbalm.

i'm doing much better today. that person from yesterday has died and a new person has woken up. i've learned in the last 24 hours to stop blaming myself when things go wrong, and to just acknowledge that -- hey, not everything goes the way you want it to. and that just sucks -- it's a more passive attitude, which I guess makes me less involved, but it's a healthier angle than automatically blaming yourself for things that are clearly out of your control, or anyone's control really.

that's just the way it goes.

a third: almost done planning a new mix. i put a quota on myself of two mixes -maximum- per year because putting them together is quite a demanding process. well it's 2005 and, as the boss of this apartment, i say that the turntables need to start earning their rent.

stats junk: just over one third of 2004 saw approximately 66 gigs in downloads of my mixes from crashed.net -- this doesn't include the mixes hosted on ravevictoria.com -- for an an approximate total of 830 mix cd downloads. i wonder with who and where they ended up, but there's no way of knowing really. the most popular mix continues to be 'the rush' which has pulled 25 gigs of bandwidth on its own on 283 downloads. it's also the newest.

so i'm putting together a new unnamed mix that will be up on the website upon completion, and also a demo for club promoters in Vancouver. dj ariz0na needs to get booked, and that is that. a few years ago in victoria and vancouver i had the luxury of being able to get booked based on reputation (not a bad thing) and the radio power, but times are different. so, lets get to it!

a fourth: leah gave me a really nice picture frame that holds three pictures seperately from a bar. imma choose three photos and put it up today. i got measuring tape and everything, i'm not eyeballing it like i did the two giants above the turntables. yessah.

a fifth: i have fucking great friends.

thank you, that is all.

music: 21st Century Fux - Sunspirit

Posted by davin at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

hiya. here are some pix from last night at sonar, where LTJ Bukem & MC Conrad played.

Posted by davin at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Posted by davin at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

last summer at the sooke potholes .. mmm, potholes .. slice o' heaven.

today goodtimes 101 is eating soup for the first time in years with a goatee. oh the dexterity. what calamity! (© girlrepair™)

Posted by davin at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I couldn't sleep.. so I went out walking
Thinking about you.. and hearing us talking
And all the things I should have said
Echo now, inside my head

I feel something falling from the sky
I'm so sad I made the angels cry

It just ain't fair this thing called loving
When one's still there and the other feels nothing
I would have done anything for you
I still love you, baby I adore you

All day I keep from falling apart
But at night when the sky gets dark

Stop, stop haunting me
It should be easy
As easy as when you stopped wanting me

Tears from the moon
Fall down like rain
I reach for you
I reach in vain

Tears from the moon
Fall down like rain
but tears from the moon
can't wash away the pain

music: Conjure 1 featuring Sinead O'Connor - Tears From The Moon (Hybrid's Twisted on the Terrace dub)

Posted by davin at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

i need to listen to some music that is a little less neurotic .. all these lyrics floating in my head now .. looping and .. looping and .. looping and .. looping and ..

Posted by davin at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

here is some of the junk i bought after work today:

• new screwdriver
  
• cheese
  
• whisk
  
• saucepan
  
• mixing flour
  
• shotglasses
  
• coke-a-cola to replace the old bottle
  
• measuring cup

yeah it looks nasty out there. it started snowing on the north shore again this afternoon and the cars on the main roads were pounding it into a fine slush. it will freeze tonight when the traffic dies down and there will be hella accidents tomorrow; i will be working from home as it will be heinous out. i postponed all my plans tonight so i can relax, be creative, and have a good day tomorrow. plus it would not be a good idea to be out in this miserable weather. i am close to being 100% again.. not time to jinx it.

Posted by davin at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

today i have a few moments before i must go catch the bus.

did you know it was -11 last night when i was walking home to/from public transit? it's hard to tell .. i just kept marvelling at how there's still snow. i am so used to it melting after a day that it's really making me double take whenever i see the stuff. everywhere.

my brain is slow ..

i am really tired today for some reason .. later this evening, after work, i am going to go hang out in the commercial drive area .. it'll be cool to do some exploring and see what all the fuss is about. 'the drive' this, 'the drive' that, i keep on hearing. i have a few friends that live in the area.

cool :)!

i saw spanglish last night. it was really good .. not what i expected, even though i read a preview online it still unfolded in interesting ways. this isn't your average adam sandler flick -- it isn't even an adam sandler flick really, he plays a supporting role.

tea with cayenne in it does wonders for the throat. mmmm. and maple syrup. that is good stuff.

i think i have to go now. bye!

Posted by davin at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

i fluked out yesterday and ran into christine on the skytrain yesterday and ended up going for brunch with her and pete as well as their two friends adam and kyla. we went to the elbow room cafe where i recognized the waitress -- an older lady, perhaps 50? she used to work at john's place in victoria, an old haunt of all of ours. she recognized the lot of us. funny lady, funnier place. kyla was getting up to grab some coffee when the waitress said "no! what do you think you are doing. don't get up to get more. let him do it!" so adam was volunteered to go get more coffee .. ha ha ha! thank you waitress. anyhow it was a good time and the food was excellent.

it was a good way to start what turned out to be a very interesting sunday for me. got the usual apartment dwelling errands done .. but i *made* something yesterday. actually i made two things! secret things. secret personal cool little things.

pete is looking to move into the same area that i am looking to move into -- robson and denman area. for me it would reduce my commute time to work as well as my social commute time. sounds like a no-brainer, and when you consider it's less expensive as well, well, it's a less than no brainer. which makes it .. The Right Thing To Do. my lease is up at the end of march ..

the signs are showing up .. it's time to eliminate some more stress from my life .. ohh that sounds really bad, but it's not. it's good; it is good for me. you'll -- no, we shall see.

the g2 is acting up. . not charging batteries properly. the display isn't flipping the image when the flip-out screen is rotated 180 degrees. the LCD turns off when it should not. it's still only half way through its warranty though, so it'll be fixed. just gotta decide when the next time is that i want to go for a month without my camera. ack.

everyone at the building i am in is double-taking at me this morning. haha, i know why, but i still think it's funny.

please wish good luck to emily, who, after staying a few months in victoria from her world travel, is off to toronto to persue her writing career. go emily! next to go .. ria. to india! for four months. wow, that's great.

speaking of writing, i read voltaire's "candide" and i quite liked it. it wasn't boring, things happen rapidly in his (or the) older style of writing. less time agonizing over details, which i think means less time painting pictures .. but if you have an incredible story, the reader gets to flex the imagination .. if you describe every last thing .. that leaves little room to fill in blanks .. that's what i find anyways. so i did like it, and i would say that now that i've thought about it for a day, the book is about the zen experience -- though it never comes close to mentioning it, neither in the story nor the supplementary texts.

one thing that i didn't mention about saturday night .. was that i watched SNL For the first time in a long time. i am not a TV watcher; i do not even own a TV and cable is for internet in my books. but U2 was on SNL and they lended the show some serious and much needed performance cred. they did their new single (vertigo) and another tune from the new album which blew me away. must go get their new album. they're proving once again again that they're the real deal. at the end of the show they came out to do a third song, one of their classics "i will follow." nice one! and they did a FOURTH song after that .. but the show ran out of time. the studio got a nice performance, i am sure. a bit of a concert even; bono was doing his usual camera antics and it looked like a lot of fun. oh yeah, this is why they're my favorite band. they completely pwned that show. i don't even know who their 'celebrity actor' was. totally eclipsed.

happy monday paracetamol everyone!

Posted by davin at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

that's a shot i took of sasha at the red light in april 2004; the dodgiest part of manchester. tonight i am in surrey at kristen and ren's place for sam's b-day party; the dodgiest part of vancouver. really it is not. i suppose the east end is, but surrey has the reputation in vancouver like nowhere else. if you are a victoria reader, then surrey is equitable to vancouver as langford is equitable to victoria. and vice versa. it really isn't that bad here, though i am still struggling to figure out how come the last skytrain downtown is at 11:30 PM on a saturday night. it is almost as if translink is encouraging drunk driving. not that i drive here; but if i did, i wouldn't .. either. so what i am saying is that there is no real reason for the skytrain to stop running at 11:30 PM on a saturday night. i mean, it's a freakin' robot!

i got new shoes today and..

a microphone.

dun dun dun. really, this is a big thing.

oh and don't forget emerald green. thanks pfaf.

i am feeling better than i have in a while.. oh! and i have new slippers. thank you may. so nice!

Posted by davin at 2:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

www.thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout.com

ROFFLEMAYO!

PS: it's snowing!

music: frou frou - only got one

Posted by davin at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

i don't mean to sound really negative, but it's going to come out that way anyways. please, i don't want a whole year of anything. certainly i don't want a full year of trance, a full year of drum and bass, a full year of minimal tech, a full year of progressive breaks, a full year of funky tribal banjo intelligent disco garage, or a full year of banging techno, a full year of nuskool breaks. this bores me to tears. please give it up! lets hear it for variety. stop predicting and start participating.

sheeeeeeeeeeeesh.

Posted by davin at 6:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

one month at a time, starting with january:

a lone palm tree leaf survives the weight of the snow in victoria. january.

maria/freya, yoseff, ariz0na/me, and nigel after we finished playing a spectacular valentines day party in victoria. february.

it's funny to think that these things that we love to swing on and feel free are dependent on things like chains. gorge park, victoria. march.

a rainbow streaks the sky, painting it brightly to contrast the granite grey town of aberdeen, scotland. april.

i met this swan on my lunch time walks in victoria. she had a bunch of eggs underneath her but didn't mind my company much. i caught her looking at me from only a couple feet away and we traded this glance. may.

not far from the swan there were some flowers. it being june, the sun was in a good place to cast interesting shadows..

at christies pub with adrian and neil, and i think we got bored of waiting for the food, so we started experimenting with some simple time lapse in the dim light that the pub provided. a slow turn of the head. july.

the brilliant leonids were not so brilliant this year .. i didn't catch any of them from the malahat lookout. that's jim in the shadows who actually did capture some of them. august.

brent carmichael's wake in victoria at the one lounge. drag queen performance .. was really moving indeed .. if you were there you know what i mean. it was intense. september.

at the end of september, it was time for me to leave victoria. i took my toys and went away. october.

i went away to vancouver, which is where one of my best friends devon lives. here she shows off her wedding ring, which drew (on the right) gave her. they are to marry in the summer. november.

not only do i have an eye on vancouver from where i am -- the company i work for does as well. so does dj ariz0na.. december.

Posted by davin at 8:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

sometimes i love not knowing what it is going to be like.

Posted by davin at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)