Neural Operations 2017 Update (stuff and things)

      This update was started some time ago, I think maybe around the beginning of January or so, maybe it could have been the middle or later in the month. It got put on hold as well as pretty much every thing else. On February 9th my brother passed away at the age of 45.
       The choice and decision to share this information publicly, especially here on this mailing list was a difficult one. I am still not sure. Perhaps because he had helped with a few Death Squad shows and i do consider him to be a contributor and a member of that project. He also helped in some of the early films as well as helping with The Pain Factory public access show. He worked the main broadcast board doing the video switching. He also helped in so many other ways with those shows, even at times giving me advice to and helping me to calm down, as i was a tremendous abusive spastic asshole back then, when it came to the TV show. Maybe this is what brothers do. He wasn’t a huge fan of noise or industrial or whatever you call it, but he was always supportive and helped whenever he could. We had even actually spoken a few times about collaborating.
       His true passion for a long time was his band. Kind of a rock alternative group called Living Space. They played a ton of shows locally. Put out a few CDs and had a dedicated following. He was a self taught guitarist, drummer and vocalist. I would come to his shows when he played. In San Francisco , Hayward, Concord, Berkeley etc. Always enjoying myself and feeling very proud that he was my brother. Also jealous that he had the patience and dedication to learn a real instrument.
      He taught himself the ins and outs of mixing and mastering, doing all the research needed to do home recording with his band in the early to mid 90's. Computer software for this was still in its infancy, so it was all done with a an old 8 track digital to zip disc and external hard drive. I was re reminded of this from his band mate and good friend Ronnie. As we sorted through the his accumulated musical gear after he died.
     It has been difficult as one would suspect when a sibling passes away. Especially when you have been fairly close to them for the duration of your life. There are truly no real or appropriate words to describe this sense of loss, it seems to be a continuous state of being for now.
    Me sharing this is in now way looking for any type of condolences or sympathy, it is just therapy for myself. I know hundreds if not thousands of people die in horrific unfair ways across the globe on a daily basis. And so many more suffer from their own loss of loved ones. Nothing is really truly fair for anyone. My heart has always gone out to everyone i know when it comes to these types of things and yes, it has its ultimate impact when it happens to you.
    Maybe i have become more accustomed to it over the years, having lost some amazing people and other family members in my life. But the now has more power i think than the past or is that just short sighted for me.
   My brother was a realist and he understood the basic nature of life and death. How there is a balance, without it there would just be a mass of chaos. That our time and lives here in this place is very short even with a full long life. I know it sounds cliche, but in the timeline of the universe our significance is very small, if even that. To eachother and people that we know, that can be a very different thing. Without the enormity of everything. So here is thinking of you Trevor, i hope we cross paths again in some altered state and sense of the cosmic existence.

forever
your brother

This is a Facebook thank you post, but it can apply here as well.

I know the tour ended on the 23^rd of December 2016, so apologies for the lateness of this. MK9 and Rusalka want to send out a huge thanks to everyone that helped with the tour and more specifically:

Leeds - Mike, Liz and Gaz
Manchester – Mike, Dave and Gareth
Munster / Duisburg – Ross, Corina, Roland, Sascha, Uwe, Jenny and Lutz
Brussels – Nicolas
Ljubljana – Neven
Zurich – Dave
Dresden – Ullrich, Birgit, Eric and Eric
Prague – Aleche, Felix and Jan
Poznan – Krystian
Lodz – Kuba, Wiktor and Dawid
Warsaw – Pawel, Sebastian and Dawid
Turku / Oulu / Helsinki – Pentti, Jaakko, Mika and Ville
Stockholm - Henrik, Martin, Tommy and Per

Many many thanks to all the people that performed with us as well, it was an honor and pleasure to meet and share the stage with you all:

Ashtray Navigations, Hedge Maze, Smell & Quim, Iron Drugs, UVB-76,
Moloch & E.H.E, Huxdexaa, Slow Slow Loris, Opening Performance Orchestra, Black Highway, Sweeps 04, Dren, Seismic Wave Factory, Magadan, Purgist, Iron Lung, Wiktor Skok, IXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIX, Kazehito Seki, HĀKKi, Laslo Jamf and Pelle.

Of course thanks also to everyone who came out to the shows.

And also to all the people at the venues, clubs, cafes, bars and spaces for their help.

Special thanks to Dawid for the Poland bookings and performances. More and extra thanks to Mike, Pentti, Roland, Corina and Ville for giving us a place to crash and their unending hospitality and generosity.

Here are the pictures.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/-mk9/collections/72157675034408044/
And a Split CDr we did for the tour, titled “separate anxieties”
http://www.mk9.org

If we forgot to thank anyone, you are officially thanked here.
Without the support, interest and help of all of you, none of this would have happened, so thank you and everyone for everything.

MK9 and Rusalka (Michael and Kate)

The tour went great, everyone was awesome. Though because of my own mistake, i mean a big one. Perhaps lack of sleep, focus, energy or just not doing that all important dummy check. We ended up missing a flight by about 10 minutes. I have played the scenario / situation over and over again in my head and i have learned that things just happen. No real excuse it was just a fuck up.

But maybe due to the amount of connections and travelling schedule something like this was bound to happen. Honestly I havent seen so many delayed trains and flights in a long time. I think it is also because of the season. As Christmas is probably not the greatest time of year to be on overcrowded commuter / shopper trains. Just more experiences and information to file and store away.

Overall it was a great and amzing journey and we are extremely grateful for the chance to travel and perform.

Thanks for your interest and support as well as taking the time to look at this.
michael nine

Many things.