sorry people. bad weather, we had to cancel yesterday's show. we are now in montana and it is icy and snowy. everyone is sleeping but it is time to do a photo update that i've been lagging on. i am curating an art show about 'boredom.' i am having jamie curate a collaboration of sound-artists/musicians in this show too. more info later. we stopped at little big horn today.










i want to go outside a make a polaroid of the snow.

 

Fargo, ND.

Jamie: "ummm, wow, how about this, try and spell this, ready, ewwwwww woooooh lovvvvvvvvvvv oohhhhge miiii"

 

does honey production kill bees like meat production kills cows?
did Poison ever worry about honey production/bee death? does coke production kill plants?

 

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on the theme of going to art-galleries, go see my friend krysten's show opening this saturday at rental gallery in chinatown (in LOS ANGELES).

RENTAL GALLERY - 936 MEI LING WAY - CHINATOWN, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

i guess there should be a contest here too. if you find her, take a picture with her, and you will get a special xiu prize at the ECHO show.

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we went and got massages today. i am not used to getting massages so i don't know if it was good or not. it felt good, i guess. i told her i had a sore muscle in my lower back, and she found the tense spot with her finger and said, "yep, you have a sore muscle - you should do stretches." i thought she was going to rub it or something, but i guess not. she did something funny with my feet which was weird, so i guess the whole thing was worth it because of that. after, i felt practically the same except i was a little more relaxed and a little oily. i remember i did get a massage a long time ago and the person said, "jeaze, you have no stress at all." maybe that's it. since i don't get stressed, because getting stressed is not worth it and in the end you have total control over whether you get stressed or not, then i can't really feel better - just good at the moment. (but what about my sore lower left back muscle?) but what i really wanted to write was that when she was massaging me i started to think of a story my friend had told me when he went to a certain kind of "massage parlor" to get a certain kind of "massage." he said the lady didn't straight off offer any sexual services because that is illegal, so he had to make the suggestion, but he didn't know, so they just kind of waited and awkwardly looked at each other for a long time trying to figure out what to do. she finally ripped his towel off, and he was feeling really awkward so he wasn't even erect, and she looked down at his penis and said, "pathetic little thing, get out." when i started thinking about this i wanted to start laughing hysterically. i wanted to laugh so hard it was almost impossible to resist. i thought it must be pretty taboo to just start laughing while getting a massage, like laughing at a funeral or when you are having sex. so what i did was i tried to imagine the must depressing situation possible to get me down instead of staying on the verge of laughing. i thought of my dad. i thought of him homeless on skid-row, totally crazy, disheveled, talking to himself or to people not listening, wanting to die (he is not like this, i don't think, though he could very well be). i thought of my friends and the people who i care about, i thought about them dead, or about them on the verge of death - all so i wouldn't start laughing. this was a really absurd moment. i once had this strange realization that all the people you know, all the people you care about, one day it will either be you or them that will look at the other as just a body -- as something lifeless - as something that once looked back at you. this isn't necessarily a negative thought, it's just life i guess. sometimes at the place in-between sleeping and waking consciousness, when you are in the floating state with your mind drifting around the room, i think about death. i think about how it is nothing - not even nothing - just complete absence (nihil?). but not even absence, only absence for others, but for you it is non-existent. i think about how strange it is, and how strange it is to be alive, thoughts that i don't think about in waking life because the world is too busy spinning around with its inconsequentiality's and nonsense. it doesn't make me more happy that i'm alive, it just seems to make things a little more 'magical.' and i guess you can draw on the word 'absurd' here. so it's just, look around, strange. strange. strange. - sigh. what do you want out of life? i want to put my feet in the stars and my head on the top of a tree, i want to be upside down and i want to swallow the ocean, and if you are lost at sea i just ate you. you can be lost inside me and when i spit out the ocean you can be lost outside of me again because you are in the world not in me now. i forgot that girl's name. the one in the hotel room in that book. that book is old and you are not young like you were, you are older, you are still the same but you are more sophisticated - does that mean sadness and joy and a boredom with the world (flaneur?) also becomes sophisticated with you? is your boredom more sophisticated than when you were younger, or are you just more conscious of its presence? when i spit you out are you on a ship or are you sleeping?

we are in the car, we just crossed the river into kentucky. i want to be at the river in paris. the seine.

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yesterday i ate a seasoned pumpkind flower taco in kentucky.

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romania: http://www.cmc.ro/florean_museum/film.php?y=2006&id=309

 

have you ever been me???? no no nono.
HAVE YOU EVER HEARD NONO?!!!!!
charlie looker of dirty projectors and his excellent band Zs have heard that. not like you could tell, he just told me that backstage in DETROIT,


newy m in MO city.




beach vollyball brodown sweetness,
cs cs cs...
! ! !

 

check out polaroids: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/39258/Photos_Scandalous_Xiu_Xiu_Tour_Polaroids

last night i made my shakuhachi debut on the encore during fabulous muscles.



turn on ohio radio now.

 

Sound people vary night to night. We're sorry if you show up to a gig where the sound person hates us. We wish we were a Christian Rock band, too. Its not our fault. I guess the Christian Rock Sound Man has no choice but to Forgive us.
God Bless you!!!

 

holy fuck, we are actually going to post some real update to the minute news info on this blog.

according to caralee, who just informed me on this, the dirty projectors didn't make it across the candian border. WHAT?????

?????????

I think they were trying to sneak George W. in their bass drum and they got busted.


what's going on?


(i am in the basement waiting to find true love)

 

when i'm wasted and busted i say 'i'm a conceptual artist' to get ouf of things. i tried to steal a boat painting from the hotel and got busted but when they walked in i quickly put it on the ground and photographed and said, 'i'm a conceptual artist im making a photograph, i usually do things when people aren't looking so i don't think it matters that i'm moving this painting b/c i'd just put it back right away and no one would know." i wasn't really going to steal it, i just liked the idea of stealing a boat.

i once said 'i'm a conceptual artist' in the jury box and the offense lawyer whatever you call him quickly removed me from the jury. in like 30 seconds. jamie just says he does social work and they never give him jury duty.

cellphone photographs while i'm driving and carlee is sleeping (sorry caralee):

 

yeeeeaaaaahhhhhhahahahaha ah ah ah ah....
none of us getting any.

(probably for the best).

 

 

i'm waiting.

oops, in the pizza place there was salt in the cheese shaker. i put salt all over my pizza and ate it anyway. now i feel sickly.

 

why does david want me to blog so much? whomever can answer this question wins a congs for brums t shirt.
i am booking a short west coast january tour with good for cows (my other band), and mary halvorson/jessica pavone. can anyone recommend any towns to play (small or little-known would be great)? all ages. the music has improvisation in it. you can email me at ches@chessmith.com ... or a message at myspace.com/chessmith ... thanks!!!
okay, enough of this crap, now back to xiu xiu: jamie stewart is the REAL psychedelic sexfunk from heaven.
love,
ches

 

i first had pernod in the chelsea hotel with uta. we came to new york to see brandon's opening at leo koenig. today i had pernod with jamie in brooklyn. pernod is good b/c if the bartender doesn't know how to serve it they give you too much. feels like paris and you are baudelaire. jamie is blogging next to me in the secret closet.

 

HOT BOYZ MAKIN HOT WEBSITEZZZZZ

 

Video Kingpin and general maniac, Corey Smith has put up a portfolio of his work - stuffed to the brim with Xiu Xiu Videos.

Check it out

 

jamies a blog hog.

 

i am playing a new congs for brums set tonight. i am scared. i have no idea why--everyone knows no one would know the difference if i played a completely different set every night.
i am not scared anymore.
the vibe is the jazz house.
oakland.

 

i wish i could wear fake nails. not in an ironic way. i really like them. and i have since i was a little girl . i actually like a lot of "girly" things. i want to wear them and stare at them. i want to be that motel 6 receptionist who can barely type in my name and address into the computer but wow those hands look great. i need them. well i dont . i couldnt play keyboard or guitar. i couldnt make a fist if i had to punch somebody. i couldnt touch my own eyeball if i needed to. i also couldnt comfortably pick my nose which i like to do regularly. maybe when im like 1000000 years old i will get them. i hope i still like them then.

 

Today I asked for fruit with a bagel I ordered. We were in Florida, so all they had to offer was rotting oranges. I said maybe I would have chips instead. The woman yelled back: "Ches wants Chips!" and proceeded to laugh hysterically for two minutes. This is just after she screamed at Brendan for ordering food from her and not the person in the back. All this excitement made Brendan drop a full large cup of scalding hot water all over the floor. He made us leave the premises. We stopped at a Citrus Stand later to successfully purchase and consume the hot water.
Now, that place was really fucked.
You asked.