From Boing: Emily the Strange is a rip off of a 1978 book character</h1> <article> <h1>From Boing: Emily the Strange is a rip off of a 1978 book character</h1> <p>ickybob — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:42:53 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/e0ad11ea-c212-4ccb-bc0d-63e5e4dddb96"> </a> <div>From BB http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/03/emily-the-strange-is.html The page on the left is from a 1978 book called Nate the Great Goes Undercover, by Marc Simont. The poster of Emily the Strange on the right is from 1991. From "We Thought You Wouldn't Notice," a blog that points out art swipes: If you’ve ever walked into a Hot Topic, you are somewhat familiar with Emily, but on the off-chance that you haven’t, you can get aquainted with her at her big fat website. She was designed in 1991, according to creator Rob Reger, as an image for use on skateboarding merchandise. Since then, she has morphed into a kind of goth pop icon. At first she was just a mouthpiece for typical Hot Topic tee slogans (”I WANT YOU to go away,” “Problem Child,” etc. etc.) but since has moved to full-fledged characterdom, with her own comic book series and a film slated for 2010. Google searching for any information on this rip has yielded a tiny handful of bemused observers (this one offering the most analysis), but as far as I can tell no real action has been taken. I doubt that neither Marjorie Weinman Sharmat nor Marc Simont (the author and illustrator of the Nate the Great books, respectively) is aware of the appropriation of their character. I plan to send a letter to each c/o of their publishers as soon as possible. I really do think something should be done. This stolen character has already made millions for its “creator” and the fact that she will have her own film is clear testament of how big she’s gotten. </div> </article> <article> <h1>"Art of Democracy: War and Empire" September 4 - November 4, 2008</h1> <p>ickybob — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:33:28 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/8a6def08-d876-448d-a55f-06dbd05cf026"> </a> <div> EXHIBITION Art of Democracy: War and Empire Meridian Gallery 535 Powell Street San Francisco Ca. Curated by Anne Trueblood Brodzky, DeWitt Cheng and Art Hazelwood With special consultation by Peter Selz Opening Reception: Thursday September 4th, 6-9 PM Closing party on election night: Tuesday November 4, 6 PM - midnight The Art of Democracy: War and Empire will feature work by some 40 artists filling Meridian's three-story, turn-of-the-century Beaux-Arts gem near Union Square. More information here: http://www.meridiangallery.org/MGCurrntX.htm</div> </article> <article> <h1>Burning man energy drink!</h1> <p>ickybob — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:51:54 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/9ffb928c-07c5-493c-a70e-c4abeacd350e"> </a> <div>Laughingsquid just put up this funny post about a Burning man energy drink. http://laughingsquid.com/after-burner-playa-fuel-aura-elixir-a-burning-man-energy-drink/ "After Burner is a new energy drink for people who go to Burning Man. Talk about niche market. It's described as "Playa Fuel" and "Aura Elixir" with the tagline: "The Fuel You Need To Radically Express Yourself on The Playa" </div> </article> <article> <h1>Interview with Greg Sage</h1> <p>ickybob — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:09:05 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/19d559bb-1f96-4dc5-8a04-73ebed16d96a"> </a> <div> http://www.smokebox.net/archives/interviews/sage801.html interview with greg sage the history of portland punk story and interview by marc covert "And that, to me, seemed like the heart and soul of what music is all about anyway: how can you get people to actually really put themselves inside of what you’re doing? You have to create that mystique about it, and that was my original plan in the beginning, but it was just never allowed to happen. I mean, even on the independent basis, where you’re working on your own label, if you want to get any kind of distribution, you have to make nothing but compromises with people..." Judged by the standards of a grasping, money-driven corporate culture, Greg Sage is a fuck-up; a perennial loser who doesn't have the good sense to reach out and grab whatever he can; a cantankerous, stubborn, uncooperative man who has pissed away countless opportunities to cash in on his talents. He's been laughed at on his way up and simply ripped off when record companies have not been able to cajole him into complying with their demands on how to make his art. His unwillingness to buy into a businesslike means of marketing his work would have been his undoing if not for the fact that Greg Sage simply does not give up in the face of greedy hucksterism. He learned early on to just say "no." Judged by the standards of music lovers who are willing to put in a little effort, however, Sage is a legendary figure, an enigmatic artist who defies categorization. When the Wipers first began storming through Portland, Oregon nightclubs like the Long Goodbye, the Earth Tavern, and the Euphoria in 1976, nobody quite knew what to think of them, much less what to call them; Sage himself was always unwilling to play into labeling himself. Within a year the first rumblings of Portland’s punk scene began, and after the 1977 appearance of the Ramones at the Paramount Theater, it broke wide open. The Wipers were soon considered punks; by the time they released their first LP, 1979’s "Is This Real?," the Wipers had no equal in the intensity or vitality their live performances, and Sage was already demonstrating his incredible talents for creating and capturing his signature sound on vinyl. Now considered a punk classic, "Is This Real?" was not exactly greeted with unbridled enthusiasm by the punk rock scene or any other; it was and remains a fiercely original work of art. Often lauded for its songs of alienation, loneliness, or rejection, "Is This Real?" is a sonic assault of epiphanies; stark realizations of crossroads; seeing life all too clearly and screaming in anguish when you can’t block it out. There is a world of difference between Sage’s "Potential Suicide" and lazy hack work like Ozzy’s "Suicide Solution" (italics mine). Sage should not be judged solely by his music or his onstage persona. When you meet him in person or get him talking about his art, Sage is a personable, engaging man, full of dark humor, especially when recounting his treatment at the hands of the music industry and scene he so despises. He will regale you with stories of the many times he has seen his music and his money flying into the ether on little cartoon wings, the record company employees who laughed in his face and hung up on him, or his refusal of Kurt Cobain's entreaty to tour as an opening act for Nirvana. Cobain could have learned a lot from Sage; perhaps his tragic end was inevitable, but Sage has harsh words for the way Cobain was treated by the rock world. Sage's refusal to play a part on any terms other than his own probably made the difference between Cobain dying at the end of a shotgun held in his own hands and Sage quietly plugging away at Zeno studios, a long way from rich, probably a lot closer to poor, but alive and doing what he loves. Sage squirms at the thought of being considered a living legend, won’t be nailed down on plans for live performances, and sees little in the way of creative output from the youth of today, most of them much too young to have seen him in his touring days. Greg Sage lives today in Phoenix, Arizona, where he spends his time ensconced at his studio, Zeno Records, (www.zenorecords.com) where he produces bands, remasters tapes for CD format, and has released sporadic CDs of new material by the Wipers and as a solo artist. His latest effort is "The History of Portland Punk, Vol. I," a collection of singles from his old label, Trap Records, as well as the legendary "Death to Disco" punk show from 1979. He took time in mid-April to sit down and talk about the history of punk, the Wipers, and today’s creative environment, among other topics. Smokebox: You’ve always been pretty steadfast in wanting to look to the future, and to concentrate on what you’re doing now, so it seems The History of Portland Punk is a departure from what you ordinarily do. Why did you decide to start a series of "History of Portland Punk" collections? Sage: Well, primarily, it was all stuff I’d produced for a label I had 20 years ago, Trap Records, that I started with the first Wipers release. There’s a lot of bootlegs and a lot of those records floating around, and people have asked, "Why don’t you put out the real masters, if you still have them?" So I said, "yeah, that’s a good idea," and, you know, there wasn’t anything out there that really had all of our 7-inch stuff, all in one place. And it also seems that people are looking backwards instead of forward in the late nineties and this century. Smokebox: It still amazes me to see these punks, in their teens, walking down the street with the rooster haircuts, the spikes, that whole punk look; it really isn’t anything new. Sage: There isn’t any pioneering any more. It’s almost not even accepted to be pioneering; for some reason that seems to be the attitude now. I’d say ’93 to ’95 was kind of the curvature towards things slowly reversing. It’s to the point where music is just definitely a rehash of the past, and I guess, maybe people don’t sense that there’s a future ahead of them, so subconsciously they look backward. Smokebox: You mentioned ’93 or so, and that was when the whole grunge thing was starting; would you consider that a part of that tendency to look back, to rehash what has been done before? Sage: Well, I wouldn’t think that about grunge, but from my memory, it was a period of time, the last period of time that I remember hearing some really unique, different, innovative styles out there. People were out there pioneering new things, and then pretty much after ‘93-’94, that was about it. Smokebox: Who were some of those bands? Sage: Towards the end of it, I would say, Codeine struck me as doing something completely new and different; a band called Slint, you know, thousands of bands basically copied their style after that. That was the last really unique, pioneering trend, I thought, that I really noticed or that really stuck out to me, and then after that, there was not a lot. Smokebox: What was going through your mind when you dusted off some of these old tapes, these old masters you had? Sage: Oh, just a lot of memories, from a different period of time, where young kids were doing something, you know, expressing themselves. It definitely brought back a lot of different points of view as far as peoples’ outlooks, twenty or seventeen or whatever years ago. Smokebox: I went to a lot of those shows, and maybe it was naïve of me, but I just assumed that every city had a punk scene, and that really wasn’t the case. Sage: Well, I think a lot did; Portland was always strictly overlooked, I mean, even when we were putting out records back then, we had to move to New York to actually distribute the stuff that was already done. The history of a lot of those bands out of Portland is, all the main distributors were in New York, and they’d tell you, "yeah, I’ve heard of this band, I’ve heard of that band, where’s your label out of?" And I’d say, "Portland, Oregon," and they’d laugh and hang up. So we actually went to New York and distributed out of there for about a year, a little over a year, and they thought we were a New York label, so it went fine. You know, I think it was about ’83 or so, ’82, maybe, where you could be a band from Athens, Georgia and be accepted. The whole attitude changed. In the beginning, it was, you know, if you weren’t L.A., New York, London, you were not really considered punk; it was locale, it was locale and costume in the beginning, I think, you know, that really affected the trend. And then after a few years it kind of shed that wall around it, and it became more concentrated on music. So, punk Portland was always considered a logger’s town, the most uncool place. I mean, we had people who did interviews just beg us to say we were from some other city, other than Portland; "Yeah, no one’s gonna pay attention to you otherwise…" Smokebox: Was a lot of that attitude industry-driven? Sage: No. It was just an attitude in the beginning. Usually when something new starts off, it is quite elitist, you know, to the point of being prejudiced. But, within a year or two, that’s when it changed. Smokebox: There were some reunion shows here recently, with Lo-Tek, and the Styphnoids, and Sado Nation; I was wondering if you’d heard about that and had any thoughts on getting the bands back together again? Sage: Oh yeah, a lot of them thought it was funny, because no one paid attention to them fifteen years ago, and now all of a sudden crowds are coming to see them. Smokebox: Kind of like your own experience; you’ve said in interviews before that it takes about six years for people to appreciate your records, and by then they hate your new one. Sage: That’s because they just want something that sounds exactly like the last one, and reminds them of the last one. But I think it’s healthy to go in different directions. Smokebox: This latest CD is called The History of Portland Punk, and you’ve always resisted the idea of being considered strictly a punk artist; I was wondering if you’ve just learned to accept that over the years and just let your music speak for itself? Sage: Well, now that punk is twenty years old—we definitely weren’t under the pretense of being punk, we didn’t wear black leather coats with chains and "The Clash" spray painted on the back during that time—that’s what being punk was at the beginning, it was definitely a statement, at least in my opinion. It evolved to a more musical pretense by 1982-83. I just never liked being labeled anything. But now, twenty years later—punk was more of a period of time than an actual sound, I mean, how do you classify jazz, how do you classify classical? It goes into so many thousands and thousands of different categories. Smokebox: Sure, then you hear about "post-punk"… Sage: But punk to me was a period of time, and that’s what that History Of, Volume I is. It was a specific period of time which, looking back now, was how it would be labeled, it was definitely punk. Smokebox: You left Portland at least ten years ago, you said that the scene was changing, did you just get fed up at that point? Sage: Not fed up, it was definitely changing, though, and being very co-opted; to being very self-minded, in a sense, where many bands were competing with others for who had the largest draw, which seemed kind of pointless to me. Heroin was basically flushing down too many of my friends, and it wasn’t inspiring to me. I was always really fond of the desert, myself; it was 180 degrees different from the northwest, so I just sort of ended up here. Smokebox: You mention the heroin problem; what do you suppose is the draw of heroin? The problem hasn’t gone away around here, believe me. Sage: I don’t know…I know, from what I always felt, Portland always seemed like a very powerful vortex, a really powerful, creative vortex…oh, I don’t know, I couldn’t even judge at the time, but definitely, in the eighties, it wasn’t just music, it was the attitude; it was the actual power force that was there, that made you, whether you were a musician or an artist, very creative. It was a very creative and unique place at the time and then one day it just changed. It wasn’t anything that I could put my finger on, but one day it just, I could sense that the vortex had just shifted. Immediately after that it seemed, to me at least, that it had a major effect on a lot of people. The creativity level changed, and I just took off from there, and I ended up here, from out of the blue, because it felt powerful here like it used to in Portland. I go back there from time to time, and it definitely isn’t how I remember it feeling. Vortexes or power points are never strictly territorial; I think they shift, and I probably went with it. Smokebox: I’ve lived in Portland my whole life, and it’s hard to put a finger on it, what’s happening now; downtown twenty years ago used to be deserted at night, except for maybe the few clubs that these bands played in, and now you can’t even park at night, and it’s very trendy… Sage: That’s how it is anywhere, I mean, even Phoenix has quadrupled in growth since I’ve been here. I don’t know where all the people come from, outer space or somewhere, but I think it’s like that everywhere. Smokebox: All these places have bands playing, and not necessarily that good, but it seems that if every single place has live music, it could go either way—it could cheapen the currency, or it could lead to some creative things happening again, maybe getting that power back? Sage: Well, I think too, it’s just the lack of youth involvement. The way I always remember it, looking through music history, is that being 14 through 18, there’s normally this power curve, that you normally wanted to rebel against something. At those ages you open your eyes up to the world and you realize it’s not the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, like you’ve been told. It gives you a sense of pushing away from your adolescent beliefs, I think, and music—it always seemed like that was the outlet for people of that age group, whether is was the forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties—and the thing I’ve noticed a lot is that you don’t see that any more, that sense of rebellion in youth. That almost seems unnatural to me, and I think that trickles down to music or art too, since that’s the age and that’s the aggression that usually draws them to music or art, which is a really powerful force at that period in time, and that seems to be what I’ve noticed is over the last seven or eight years, is the decline of youth involvement. Smokebox: Well, I’m naturally prejudiced toward what I like, but it just seems the music today just doesn’t have the same power, and punch, and color that— Sage: It doesn’t have the same truth, or honesty either. Communication has changed drastically; people don’t communicate to each other the way they used to. Now, it’s not uncommon to see people sitting at a table talking to each other through their cell phones, three feet away from each other; that really strikes me as odd. It’s just like people used to be able to communicate through instruments, and now they communicate almost the same way through a cell phone. It’s some type of shield, I guess, like the Internet, where you have some type of shield to communicate to somebody else. I think those items are easier to learn and to craft than musical instruments. When you go into a music store, you look at musical instruments, and what’s made these days is basically garbage, and I wonder how a kid would get a stick of wood like that, or a box with a…well, I guess there are speakers in it…and get anything musical out of it? It’s almost like the whole system has gone non-musical, you know, not just from the individual aspect, but from the whole mechanical aspect of it. The heart and soul of it is in orbit somewhere else, and for some reason I don’t see that orbit coming back to earth any time soon. It’ll evolve to something else. Smokebox: Do you think digitalization had anything to do with that? Sage: No, I don’t think there’s anything to really point the finger at, I think it’s a combination of many things, just like how evolution changes things. It might be, possibly, an evolutionary change; I also think, well, it’s a crazy theory of mine, but that everybody is subconsciously clairvoyant, and that maybe since your subconscious has no communication with your conscious, that maybe people foresee the future being so different that they remove themselves from it, consciously, but without being aware of it. I think that would make a little more sense than pointing the finger at any one particular thing, whether it be computers, or video games, or cell phones. Smokebox: You’ve mentioned Kurt Cobain in some of your past interviews, and he produced the "14 Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers" CD; things didn’t end up too pleasantly for him, either. It seems that the big industry push in the nineties that had Nirvana as the next big thing, it seems that was just too much for him to handle. You knew him personally, didn’t you? Sage: Yeah. Smokebox: Do you think that was a big part of it, that the industry tried to make a big money machine out of his band? Sage: Well, I can’t really speculate other than what he said to me, which was, he wasn’t at all happy about it, success to him seemed like, I think, a brick wall. There was nowhere else to go but down, it was too artificial for him, and he wasn’t an artificial person at all. He was actually, two weeks after he died, he was supposed to come here and he wanted to record a bunch of Leadbelly covers. It was kind of in secret, because, I mean, people would definitely not allow him to do that. You also have to wonder, he was a billion-dollar industry at the time, and if the industry had any idea at all of him wishing or wanting to get out, they couldn’t have allowed that, you know, in life, because if he was just to get out of the scene, he’d be totally forgotten, but if he was to die, he’d be immortalized. Smokebox: That’s quite a statement. Sage: Don’t get me wrong on that subject, I’m not trying to state that I thought that he was murdered due to his wish to get out of the Nevermind hit record mindset. It was just an odd set of circumstances up to that point. So, I always kind of wonder about that end of the business, because when you’re a billion-dollar industry, you’re not a free artist at all, you’re just under a state of Mafia control. I mean, I even had my life threatened, basically twice, from that end of that establishment, because of some people wanting to put out movies with, including some songs that I wrote. I was basically told, for my own good, to say no, and I would say to them, "well, so okay, I wrote a song, and if someone wanted to pay me a million dollars to use it, I should say no?" And they said, "Correct." And they’d just say, "it’s in your best interests." So, I can’t say my life was threatened, but the tone of it was very, very uh… Smokebox: …Ominous? Sage:…very, very ominous! And then when I’d say, "Well, are you guys planning on paying us royalties for the stuff of mine that they’ve covered, that you’ve released?" and they would hang up. So, you can formulate your own opinion off that, I’m not going to say, but that end of the business is really, as you said, ominous. Smokebox: I couldn’t help but notice the similarities, I mean, I guess a lot of people will never understand why you never decided to cash in; it’s almost like these bands think that’s the end-all and be-all of what they’re doing, and here Greg Sage is saying over and over again, "screw you, I’m not interested." Maybe things could have been different for Cobain if he had just said no, but it doesn’t sound like he ever got that chance. Sage: Well, yeah, I mean, if I…I just realized a long long time ago what the business is, I mean, most people just see the glamorous end of it, and that’s all they see, they think, "I want to be a rock star." From the beginning, my whole goal was to do something completely different in music. My goal was, originally, to do fifteen albums in ten years, never do interviews, never release photographs, have absolutely no information about us at all, and never tour. And the reason behind that, it would have been something completely different, and maybe after five or six records, there would be so much curiosity of who these people are, what are they doing, since there is nothing out there about them, it would make them listen deeper into what we were doing. And that, to me, seemed like the heart and soul of what music is all about anyway: how can you get people to actually really put themselves inside of what your’re doing? You have to create that mystique about it, and that was my original plan in the beginning, but it was just never allowed to happen. I mean, even on the independent basis, where you’re working on your own label, if you want to get any kind of distribution, you have to make nothing but compromises with people. Where I did draw the line was, we never did a video. I think doing a video would have put us in a completely different league, it would have been a good business decision, it would have helped pay the bills, but it would have also changed the whole ideal of what I wanted to do, because people see a video, and you create an image in their mind of what you’re trying to do, and the whole thing about music, the magic of music, is that it’s a real individualist thing. When somebody listens to something, they conjure up in their mind, in their imagination, their own image of it, whatever it might be, whether it’s the color, flavor, or whatever. That’s their own personal creation that they create off of somebody else’s creation. Once you do a video, you plant in their mind your image, so it totally removes the participation of the actual listener. So I totally flatly stayed away from making videos, even though as a business decision it was the worst thing I could have possibly done. Smokebox: Are there any bootleg videos out there that you know of? Sage: Videos? Well, I was talking music videos…I don’t know, I’m sure there are, there’s always been people like, sneaking cameras and such in. Smokebox: Another thing that I wanted to ask about was, this week, Joey Ramone died, and one little bit of Wipers lore that I remember from years ago, was that you went to see them at a Catch a Rising Star show at the Paramount [here in Portland] in 1977. Did you go to that show? Sage: Umm-hmm. Smokebox: I was there too, and I was thinking that was really a seminal event for the Portland punk scene; I can remember Paul Heim and Chuck Arjavac going to that show, dressed up punk style as a joke, and next thing I knew they were putting together bands like Hari Kari and Sado Nation, and they were taking it very seriously… Sage: Wasn’t that with Elvis Costello and AC/DC? Smokebox: No, I think it was the Lewd, and maybe Elvis Costello, I’m not sure, but the Ramones were headlining and it was like a dollar to get in. Sage: Yeah, it was a dollar at the Paramount…it was AC/DC, I think, and Elvis Costello. Smokebox: So the story has it that that was one of the things that caused you to realize that the time was right to get out there with the Wipers and start playing. Sage: No, I was already doing the Wipers for about a year. There was no avenue for it; one day I heard about this show on the car stereo, I’d never heard of Ramones, never heard of Elvis Costello, but when I heard, "Ramones," it just sounded like such a, just the name itself, it just sounded cool. But yeah, that was kind of a pinnacle, because then I thought, "Wow! We’re doing stuff like that," I didn’t think anybody was. I never listened to music, I mean, I never listened to other peoples’ music, I just never did, because I’d be too busy writing, and I didn’t want to be influenced by anyone. I was never in the loop or in any scene at all. I just remember, hearing the name, "Ramones," and that just sounded so unique to me. Smokebox: What did you think of the show? Sage: Well, the Ramones, that was the first time I’d heard something different, and I was doing something different, so I just thought, "oh man," you know? Smokebox: I have a classic old poster somewhere, a real treasure; I took it off of a telephone pole in the late 70s or early 80s, it doesn’t have a date on it. It’s for a Ramones show at the Earth Tavern, and at the bottom it says, "with special guests The Wipers, with a photo of you singing. Do you remember that show? Did you meet the Ramones, or get a chance to talk to Joey in particular? Sage: I got to know the Ramones better while we were living in New York City in ’81. Joey, of course, was the coolest and most friendly. I would run into him at least once a week and he always had something interesting to say. We never had the chance to do a show together again, but it was always talked about. Real sad about his death, he never changed his attitude in the past 20 years. Smokebox: I saw that you sold your old Gibson SG to the EMP [Experience Music Project]; was that the same one you used for all those years? Sage: Umm-hmm. Yeah, I finished the last Wipers record I was going to do, and it just seemed sort of fitting to retire it. I have another one. Smokebox: Do you have any plans to tour again, in Europe at least? Sage: Oh yeah, it’s possible, I’m going to be working on something different here pretty soon. Smokebox: Another Wipers project? Sage: No, I don’t think it’ll be Wipers this time. The last thing wasn’t going to be, but it ended up sounding that way, so I thought, "well, at least we can finish it up the way we started it." Smokebox: Now, was "The Power of One" the one you put on the back burner at the time you recorded "Silver Sail?" Sage: No, none of that I ever recorded…well, I did start to record it, but then you know, it became the flavor of the month, I think, to cover Wipers songs, and I just got cold feet. So I wrote "Silver Sail" because it wasn’t like anything people would expect. Another bad business decision. Smokebox: Well, maybe bad business, but good art. Any chance of touring America again, or Portland? Sage: Hopefully. Yeah, sure. I don’t know what I’ll be doing, but sure. Smokebox: Any idea when that might be? Sage: No, I’m just working on another recording, and then who knows? Smokebox: Could you talk a little bit about what you’re working on now? Sage: Not really, it’s just something I’ve been planning on doing, a little different. "Youth of America" by The Wipers, cover by the melvins. (neat stuff) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-zF2yWOhSA </div> </article> <article> <h1>REAL MONSTERS!</h1> <p>ickybob — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:55:41 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/ffa7b42a-7c75-4f8a-8c60-74115e182dd5"> </a> <div> http://youtube.com/watch?v=elAKGVVORpQ&feature=related http://youtube.com/watch?v=qrk99HSdxPY http://youtube.com/watch?v=cGguxqfZXWg&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih-O3KC6hzs Info on the picture: http://www.indyeastend.com/picpaperissues/2008-07-23/110.lg.jpg</div> </article> <article> <h1>NUDE WITH BOOTS!</h1> <p>ickybob — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:37:55 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/b4292d9a-b0ba-44b7-90b9-601d8ff63b55"> </a> <div> Out today. I will be at the show. The Smiling Cobra http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ScR0HiQ5Zg&feature=related The Kicking Machine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68XOzQLXE8E Billy Fish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BreiiWmrRQs&feature=related My 20+ year long love of this band continues. </div> </article> <article> <h1>Carol Channing transforms into the "Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young"</h1> <p>ickybob — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:03:43 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/6c0b0a3f-7f04-46bb-8f95-78153c12ec8c"> </a> <div>This is spooky. Carol channels an elderly African American man, Reagan from “The Exorcist” then turns into a goat. What the fuck? I want to watch this film stoned… watch the clip. all of it. if you have it, smoke it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrjIVhIeGnw&eurl=http://jezebel.com/index.php?refId=5021386 "Carol Channing gives the greatest acting performance of all time in this scene from the 1985 TV movie of "Alice in Wonderland". </div> </article> <article> <h1>John Law's comment on the Addis Sentencing & the ginormous Squid thread</h1> <p>ickybob — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:16:25 GMT</p> <div>I'm following dangerangel's lead & posting this thing... The thread on Laughingsquid: http://laughingsquid.com/paul-addis-pleads-guilty-to-burning-man-2007-arson-charges/ comment by John Law on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 4:00 am "Paul Addis’ early burning of the corporate logo of the Burning Man event last year was the single most pure act of “radical self expression” to occur at this massive hipster tail-gate party in over a decade. The extraordinary publicity that this singular act focused on the event had to be good for, at a bare minimum, 1-2 hundred last minute ticket sales at the highest rate of (correct me if I’m wrong) maybe $280.00 or $300.00 a pop. That would work out to a bare minimum of $30,000.00. Not to mention the residual benefit over the course of succeeding years that that type of high profile exposure provides for the bottom line of a corporation engaged in the pursuit of long term branding opportunities and ticket sales. $30,000.00 is the amount of receipts that Will Rodgers, as representative of Black Rock City LLC presented to the Federal Court as total damages incurred by Addis’ action. I’d say that, on the balance, the BMorg benefited financially from Addis’ action as opposed to being financially damaged. The irony of Will Rogers being the corporate officer (one of six that own the event) that was saddled with the onerous task of administering the wrath of BMorg onto the hapless prankster Addis is deep and cutting indeed to anyone who is familiar with Rogers history and disposition in dealing with his duties as operations manager for the event for over a decade now. Addis is in jail, Rogers is not. It’s a strange world, indeed. Paul Addis’ prank, when symbolically infused into the collective self image of the BM “community” is as mythic an action and as profound an image (relative to persons who might care) as Stephen Colbert’s roasting of George Bush at the White House Correspondents Dinner some time back. Colbert’s incredibly ballsy action will be lauded for decades to come. He directly challenged and (with humor) berated the most powerful man in the world (sic.) No one in the Bush White House had him arrested or assassinated even though his verbal attacks could be interpreted as extremely insulting even slanderous. Similarly, as long as there is a spark of originality, passion and true creativity in Burning Man, those who adhere to these precepts - precepts that originally fueled the event, these people will discuss and ponder the import of the epic action that Paul’s inner voices compelled him to make. Nonetheless, Paul, unlike Colbert will be serving hard time for making fun of a powerful image. BMorg faced a profound choice when dealing with the fall out of Addis’ seemingly deranged action. They could have understood and capitalized on the PR value by simply, graciously accepting what happened and then making the best of it. They could have been (or claimed to be) compassionate. It might have looked something like this: send Harley or M2, (not the compromised Rogers) to court with receipts for less than $5000.00 and a request for community service for the offender Addis. He was (and is after all) one of the events children. The Feds would have prosecuted and convicted Addis of a MISDEMEANOR arson charge (under 5K is not a felony.) Paul would have been punished appropriately for his transgression - time served, probably and his friends would have thrown a fund raiser to pay it off; future potential transgressors would have been dissuaded from similar high jinx and all would be well in the kingdom. As you all know, this is NOT what happened. Pity. An essentially decent (tho’ undeniably off balance) young man’s life and his potential career have been crushed to pay the debt of anger and retribution of a vengeful corporation. He was made an example of in order to insure that NO ONE would ever challenge or desecrate the empty symbol (Oh….. excuse me, the brand trademark) of a corporation that could have been so much more. Some have brought up the point that the decision whether or not to prosecute an arson case lies with the DA (or in this case the Federal Prosecutor.) Just to be crystal clear here - this is technically correct. However any prosecutor who does not have the tacit support of the aggrieved party in such a case (vandalism, property damage, etc.) will think very hard before dedicating his/her offices limited resources to a case that very likely will not culminate in a conviction. Make no mistake - Black Rock City LLC knew very well that if they declared their financial loss for the early immolation of their corporate logo to be less than $5000.00, the best conviction the prosecutor could have hoped for would have been a misdemeanor rap culminating in a much more appropriate finale for all parties. Any decent group of people that were part of a “community” would have acted with circumspection and compassion in this case. Now, I would like to commend Chicken John for his passionate arguments regarding this issue and address some misapprehensions and misinterpretations put forward by various individuals in the responses posted on this blog. I’ve heard so many people who became involved in BM in it’s later years excoriate Chicken and other “old timers” for sour grapes or living in the past, or simply being stick in the mud types unable or unwilling to allow the newcomers their right to simply enjoy their participation in the event without a lecture about how cool it used to be and how watered down it is now. I believe that any misunderstanding here is simply one of definition. So, let’s define what Burning Man is and what it was. Also, let’s put the event into the larger context of the “arts” and culture scene of the Bay Area and beyond. Now, Burning Man (legally speaking, Black Rock City LLC) is a for profit corporation controlled by six people (Marian Goodell, Harley Bierman, Michael Mikel, Larry Harvey, Will Roger Peterson and Crimsom Rose) that generates in excess of 12 million dollars annually for producing a one week event. Much of the labor to produce this event is volunteer or compensated at well below market value for comparable work on comparable events (Oregon County Faire, Coachella, etc.) Burning Man (like Montsanto, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Intel Corp) has embraced “Green” themes to validate it’s corporate mission statement and counter balance it’s corporate “footprint” on the environment as well as to assuage the conscience and expectations of it’s target market (you.) Burning Man (like Starbucks, Apple Computer and Nike) provides a superior product that generates intense consumer adherence and loyalty. Burning Man (like The Body Shop, Esprit and Ben & Jerry’s) derives a great deal of it’s consumer adherence from it’s very successful PR campaign equating the corporation and it’s goals with specific ideals. Powerful ideological constructs that connect the consumers with an idealized vision of what the brand can mean as it exerts it’s sway on the larger world is also crucial to the corporations marketing campaign. People go to the playa. They spend whatever it takes to be prepared for their individualized experience. They proselytize their friends and acquaintances to join them in their odyssey. They return again and again, adhering to the social order and cultural precepts that preconceived notions of the event and group peer conceptualization demand. If they’re lucky, they are part of a crew primarily driven by the collective desire and motivation to create singular “art” or experience at the event - either underwritten by the BMorg (with not that much more butt kissing than might be expected from the average arts funding council) or self-financed. All in all the, consumer experience is a very good one and more than worth the cost of admission to a majority of the consumers. So, as you see, you get what you pay for. In my mind, with the current BM set-up, you probably get your moneys worth. What BM was: A radically inspired and thoroughly experimental event created and organized by a loose cabal of nearly penniless artists and pranksters. During the early years of the event in the Black Rock Desert anyone could do anything they wished. The cops came and left soon thereafter because the “event” was not interfering with the property rights of powerful interests. In case you didn’t know, the primary job of law enforcement in the USofA is to protect property. That’s much of the reason that I have never had a problem with cops: they’re merely working class guys with a good job. They didn’t fuck with us because we chose to put the event as far away from civilization and commerce as humanly possible. Later as the event grew in commercial stature and the various governmental entities saw it for what it was becoming - a cash cow (BM provides most of the operating budget for the Winnemucca office of the BLM and buys various law enforcement agencies a lotta cool toys - helicopters, RV’ command centers, etc.) It was a trade off that organizations greater and lesser have made as well over the years. Had BM stuck to its original heart and inspiration it would probably have been snuffed out long ago. So it became something that could survive and thrive: a corporation that sells a lifestyle to a target market based on an original theme and spirit that resonates to this day with a tiny portion of the initial essence that drove the bus and forged the myth. What many newcomers don’t realize is that BM isn’t a “movement” in and of itself; it is merely the most visible and commercial exponent of an actual movement that is much more amorphous and indefinable than a business that sells a lifestyle. BM grew out of a vibrant and completely anarchic underground scene in San Francisco (and other cities across the continent) that has continued to mutate and grow to this day. Artists and pranksters that meet and collaborate through BM move on to form alliances that are of value in order to experiment and create long after their last trip to the Playa. This is the same as it was when I showed up in Frisco at age 17 in 1976 and was immediately sucked into the swirling vortex that was to be my home for the next 32 years. Chicken John and other concerned parties are simply lamenting the fact that an event of such power and purity has inevitably devolved into a commercial endeavor that packages and sells (very nicely and effectively, I must say) a replication of that original spirit of such undeniable value. The heart and soul that birthed BM exists now apart from this commercial entity as they always have. The simple fact that that BM has chosen, essentially to sacrifice one of it’s own members in order to retain some semblance of owning and controlling that singular spirit is a sure bet that the magic is gone, replaced by a commercial simulacrum of that spirit. Weighing all accounts of the early burn event that Paul enacted and, delving into my own not small experience (professional rigger, former operations manager for BM) as well as my personal knowledge of Paul Addis as a troubled but pure and sincere soul, I have come to the inevitable conclusion that no one was physically threatened by his masterful prank. Consequently, I am forced to conclude that BRCLLC/BM acted egregiously and erroneously by not interceding with the authorities in order to mitigate Paul’s punishment for what was in effect a gift to them and their event. Paul Addis is paying the price for speaking truth to power." </div> </article> <article> <h1>NATURE WILL FUCK YOU UP!</h1> <p>ickybob — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:26:24 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/7c45206a-17e4-4aa1-9087-6297331694f4"> </a> <div>now that George Carlin has joined Bill Hicks as worm food, who will tell it like it is? yea, another George Carlin bye blog. I saw him in the mid 80s, right after a heart attack. It was a great show. anyway, here is one of many wonderful rants. George Carlin-Natural Disasters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pe4XVVUbiA&feature=related </div> </article> <article> <h1>“The largest living organism to visit the desert in 10,000 years never made it off the truck bed”</h1> <p>ickybob — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:32:55 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/1c18d2a9-2935-48e5-a378-634f515814b7"> </a> <div>Sierra Club article: Burned Out on Burning Man http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200807/burningman.asp Burned Out on Burning Man Can the artistic free-for-all go green? By Matthew Taylor July/August 2008 "POWERED BY 2,000 GALLONS OF PROPANE and 900 gallons of jet fuel, the mushroom cloud thundered across Nevada's Black Rock Desert, incinerating a 99-foot-tall wooden oil derrick and deluging thousands of art- and party-loving spectators with a 2.4-gigawatt blast of heat and light. Loudspeakers blared a dark, off-key rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Eight towering, humanlike metal sculptures representing the world's religions bowed in worship before the flaming spectacle, said to symbolize the impending crash of our fossil-fuel-addicted civilization." </div> </article> <article> <h1>Triclops! Love Song For The Botfly</h1> <p>ickybob — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:25:11 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/82b74b3f-6c01-4489-a992-64a1a4f77955"> </a> <div>This is the video for the TRICLOPS! song "Lovesong For The Botfly" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE6-VNS4Ie8</div> </article> <article> <h1>BABIES!!!</h1> <p>ickybob — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:43:36 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/6c2353ae-c575-4c34-80a4-9c162427e470"> </a> <div>Vicious Kind just sent me this link of neat photos of animal babies preserved in Formalin. go look. http://www.hemmy.net/2007/09/27/animals-in-formalin-preservation/</div> </article> <article> <h1>Diarrhea Cha Cha Cha!</h1> <p>ickybob — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:09:41 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/f5b2c14a-59ba-42f7-ab06-d194964b000a"> </a> <div> This is some absolutely brilliant home theater performed by 2 delightful children. Take note of the interpretive break-dance little brother is doing to his sister's wonderful version of the "Diarrhea Cha Cha Cha!" song... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzbVxNajkWw I want kids like this.</div> </article> <article> <h1>Nuked Soap</h1> <p>ickybob — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:51:24 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/d64500e1-4127-4946-9d55-ddeb4344d3a1"> </a> <div>Oldie but a goodie. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/243771/nuked_soap/ go buy some ivory soap (hasta be ivory, whipped with air) and put it in your microwave oven. messy fun! enjoy! </div> </article> <article> <h1>RIP Rory Root 1958-2008, Owner of Comic Relief in Berkeley</h1> <p>ickybob — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:14:04 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/c4f06941-6b4f-46c4-bf12-fc057431d1d6"> </a> <div>This is sad. I just saw him recently at the shop. We were having a discussion about Basil Wolverton & Wally Wood “Plop” comic covers. I’ve been patronizing Comic Relief since 1987 (or 85) & always enjoyed our conversations about various artists… From Squid http://laughingsquid.com/rory-root-1958-2008-owner-of-comic-relief-in-berkeley/#comment-526583 Rory Root, a pioneering comic book seller and owner of Berkeley’s Comic Relief, has passed away at age 50 from complications related to surgery for a ruptured hernia. Photo by Scott Beale</div> </article> <article> <h1>Hell of Sand!</h1> <p>ickybob — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:02:35 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/abd6c3fe-e3d2-4d43-aa44-5691ac196d4d"> </a> <div> This is fun. really fun. try it! http://andyslife.org/games/sand.php</div> </article> <article> <h1>Bill O'Reilly in German!</h1> <p>ickybob — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:59:53 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/a723d8b4-444d-4356-9da8-e844a562daf8"> </a> <div> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvyD2fo99Mg</div> </article> <article> <h1>Varnish Fine Art 5 Year Anniversary Show (This saturday! )</h1> <p>ickybob — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:40:04 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/44f6ad01-930d-4028-a6a7-b453c10a47bc"> </a> <div>Hi! I'm in a group show at Varnish fine art (This Saturday) if you have time and are in town, drop by. Opening Reception Saturday April 19, 7-10pm Varnish Fine Art 5 Year Anniversary Show April 14 – May 31, 2008 Opening Reception Saturday April 19, 7-10pm The 5 Year Anniversary Show celebrates 5 years of contemporary fine art at Varnish Fine Art with new works by over 40 returning artists. Combined opening reception and anniversary party takes place Saturday April 19 from 7pm to 10pm. From artist debuts to a literary hoax enacted and revealed and from half-ton bronze sculpture to miniature scenes, Varnish Fine Art has enjoyed the whirlwind of San Francisco art, community and politics for the past 5 years. The artists whom owners/directors Kerri Stephens and Jennifer Rogers have had the pleasure to show, continue to impress while newer blood reveals itself. The 5 Year Anniversary Show is a group exhibit of new work by over 40 selected artists who have shown at Varnish since the Grand Opening Group Show April 19, 2003, including bronze sculpture, mixed media sculpture, paintings in oil, and photographic works. 77 Natoma St. San Francisco, CA 94105 http://laughingsquid.com/varnish-fine-art-5th-anniversary-group-show/ http://varnishfineart.com/ www.kevinevans.com </div> </article> <article> <h1>Countering the FUD about the "Orphan Works" copyright bill</h1> <p>ickybob — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:46:34 GMT</p> <div>Via boingboing http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/12/countering-the-fud-a.html http://maradydd.livejournal.com/374886.html </div> </article> <article> <h1>You Will Lose All The Rights to Your Own Art</h1> <p>ickybob — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:53:39 GMT</p> <div> if this legislation passes, artists will lose all rights to any work created. http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=3605</div> </article> <article> <h1>Doggie Diner movie at Roxie Cinema!</h1> <p>ickybob — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:49:48 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/596bda41-160a-4c98-bb40-45177fc328b9"> </a> <div> http://www.doggiediner.com/pages/Doggies_Movie_roxie.html Photo: Scott Beale Doggie Diner movie at Roxie Cinema! Thursday April 3rd / 7PM SHOW HEAD TRIP (85 minutes) Theatrical Premiere A documentary film by John Law and Flecher Fleudujon. Produced by Central Services and Truth Serum Productions In affiliation with Laughing Squid www.laughingsquid.com Filmmakers, John Law & Flecher Fleudujon "LIVE" INTERVIEW / Q&A by V. Vale John Law: is an original member of the Suicide Club, charter member of the Cacophony Society and co-founder of thes Burning Man festival Flecher Fleudujon: is a film professional and co-founder of the The Yard Dogs Road Show & Review. Contact: john@laughingsquid.com 510-543-5054 FULL RE/Search Press Release: RE/Search Publications, 20 Romolo #B, San Francisco CA 94133. tel 415 362 1465. email: info@researchpubs.com www.researchpubs.com Subject: PRANKS FILM FESTIVAL w/Live Interviews/Q&As FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / Friday March 14th RE/Search Publications PRESENTS: The First Annual Pranks Film Festival April 1, 2, 3 at The Roxie Cinema 3117 16th Street by Valencia, San Francisco CA 94133 Tickets $10 per day for all shows. Ticket and other information: www.pranksfilmfestival.com Benefit for RE/Search Publications and Todd Blair of SRL. For interviews or more information please contact RE/Search Publications TEL (415) 362-1465 EMAIL: info@researchpubs.com TUES, APRIL 1, 2008: 5PM SHOW PRANKS SHORT FILMS: (100 min.) "Best of Faux" selected shorts for Pranks Film Festival Introduced by Faux Film Festival Director, Mike Shkolnik, Portland, OR Titles of films: 12 Hot Women, Jimmy's House of Hugs, Superciliary Exercise Program, !The Inedible Bulk, Truth In Advertising, The Strange Case of Ray Milland, Zombie Vegetarians, New Testament, Reemco Atomic Broom, Zombie-American, Torsten Kretchzmar - Entschlossenheit ------------------------------ 7PM SHOW MAL SHARPE PRESENTS: COYLE & SHARPE PILOT (20 min.)The Impostors TV Pilot 1965 with host George Fenneman (Groucho Marx's sidekick on YOU BET YOUR LIFE.) Coyle and Sharpe were the early masters of street pranks and puts-ons. Using hidden microphones, they clandestinely recorded their bizarre encounters with unsuspecting citizens on the streets of San Francisco in the 1960's. LIVE INTERVIEW / Q&A w/ MAL SHARPE by V. Vale (20 min.) ------------------------------ 8PM SHOW ABEL RAISES CAIN: a documentary by Jenny Abel and Jeff Hockett (82 min.) Long before the deluge of reality TV dolts who drum up media attentionwith acts of idiocy, there was Alan Abel, a culture-jamming comic wit a conscience. The director of the 1970s cult films IS THERE SEX AFTER DEATH? and THE FAKING OF THE PRESIDENT, Abel has made a name for himself several times over with media stunts that are just ridiculous enough to be believable – especially to a media that feeds on salacious, far-fetched stories. Abel's mock-moral crusade "Citizens Against Breastfeeding" stirred controversy in the late 1990s, just as his "Society for Indecency to Naked Animals" had in the 1960s. Both groups made asinine calls for morality in America, and while both were complete jokes, for long stretches the only one in on the jokes was Abel himself and whomever he had brought along for the ride. From time to time, that "whomever" was his daughter, Jenny Abel. ABEL RAISES CAIN is Jenny's film, and it is as much a biography of her father as it is an exploration of her family life. What was it like to be raised by a man who always had a trick up his sleeve, and whose tricks always brought the media vultures swirling? Jenny was ostensibly in on the jokes, but, as we see in this oddly poignant film, it was never easy being raised by the one throwing the punch lines. (Patton Dodd, IFFB) ------------------------------ 9:30PM SHOW PRANKS SHORTS From Faux Film Festival (REPEAT of 5 PM show - see above) --------------------------------------------------------------- WED April 2, 2008: 5PM SHOW: The Yes Men documentary (90 min) The story follows Andy and Mike from their beginnings with GWBush.com, and on to their tasteless parody of the WTO's website. Some visitors don't notice the siteis a fake, and send speaking invitations meant for thereal WTO. Mike and Andy play along with the ruse andsoon find themselves attending important functions as WTO representatives. Delighted to speak for the organization they oppose, Andy and Mike don thrift-store suits and set out to shock their unwitting audiences with darkly comic satires on global free trade. Weirdly, the expertsdon't notice the joke and seem to agree with everyterrible idea the two can come up with. Exhausted by their failed attempts to shock, Mike andAndy take a whole new approach for one final lecture. The Yes Men is directed by Dan Olman, Sarah Price, andChris Smith, whose previous credits include the 1999Sundance Winner "American Movie." It was released byUnited Artists. Shorts ahead of feature: San Francisco experimental films: "Nectar of the Cyclops" by Rock Ross, and "Hot Leatherette" by Robert Nelson (total time 10 min.) --------------------------- 7PM SHOW: BILLBOARD LIBERATION FRONT / CULTURE JAM segment CULTURE JAM: Hijacking Commercial Culture (50 min.) CultureJam: Hijacking Commercial Culture" delivers a fascinating rap on the 20th centurymovement called "Culture Jamming". Won the AudienceChoice Awards at both the Vancouver and AucklandInternational Film Festivals and was selected for over35 international festival screens. Nominated for theprestigious Donald Brittain Award for Best SocialIssue Documentary, it went on to win the Leo Award forBest Social Issue Documentary & Best Editing. Aired on CBC Newsworld and Vision TV, Canada and TRIO networking United States. Directed by Jill Sharpe. BLF Guests: Blank De Coverly (CIO for BLF), and Milton Rand Kalman (chief scientist for BLF) Live Interview/Q&A by V. Vale Will be followed by: PROGRAM OF SHORTS "Art of Bleeding" by REVEREND AL (L.A. Cacophony Society) (3 min.) "STINK" by DEAN SNIDER (5 min.) "Army Girls Gone Wild" by Jihad Jerry of DEVO (4 min.) PRANKS VIDEO from RE/Search: excerpt of Joe Coleman segment (8 min.) Plus additional local experimental shorts (total time: approx. 25 min.) -------------------- 9PM SHOW: CHURCH OF STOP SHOPPING Feature Documentary by REVEREND BILLY (85 min.) Produced by Morgan Spurlock and directed by Rob VanAlkemade, this docu-comedy follows our trials and triumphs across the country as The Reverend Billy and his choir preach and sing to help holiday-abused Americans find a new Christmas without products. The film has played throughout the US, bringing Fair Trade activists and Evangelical Christians together in darkened movie theaters, emerging with new tools to BUY LESS and GIVE MORE! Preceded by these short films: - Taking the Night by FRANK DISCUSSION (3 min.) - PRANKS VIDEO from RE/Search: excerpt of Frank Discussion segment (8 min.) --------------------------------------------------------------- THUR APRIL 3, 2008: 5PM SHOW: ST STUPIDS DAY PARADE shot by Marian Wallace (20 min) Joey Skaggs video collection from his press pranks (15 min) The Not-Yet-Ascended Master of media manipulation, who recently appeared on prime-time television for his invention: "The Bullsh*t Detector." Harmon Leon Show (25 min) Harmon Leon will appear in person presenting a representation of his media pranks. Harmon Leon is one of America's top infiltrators and media pranksters. His films have appeared at festivals all around the world. He is also the author of six books, including the upcoming Brother's Rjukerooka (RE/Search Books), and The American Dream Santa Rampage 95 (10 min) by CHUCK CIRINO A hilarious doc of the 2nd annual Santarchy event in SF. See the notorious event that launched a million Santa’s. See Santa drink, see Santa sing, see Santa cavort. See Santa arrested! CAR HUNT by CHUCK CIRINO (10 min.) Car Hunt is the now legendary event organized in 1995 where a group of friends took an Oldsmobile station wagon and added steel re-enforcements, setup a system where they could drive it via remote control and then "hunted" it down in a Nevada desert using an assortment of guns while riding in chase vehicles. PRANKS VIDEO from RE/Search, Karen Finley segment (8 min.) Plus MORE!! PRANKS! on SCREEN!! ------------------------------ 7PM SHOW: HEAD TRIP (85 minutes) Theatrical Premiere A documentary film by John Law and Flecher Fleudujon. Produced by Central Services and Truth Serum Productions In affiliation with Laughing Squid www.laughingsquid.com Filmmakers, John Law & Flecher Fleudujon "LIVE" INTERVIEW / Q&A by V. Vale John Law is an original Suicide Club member, charter member of the Cacophony Society and co-founder of Burning Man festival Flecher Fleudujon is a film professional and co-founder of the Yard Dogs Roadshow & Revue ------------------- 9PM SRL PROGRAM: **Todd Blair Benefit** MAKER FAIRE, 2007, SRL machine demonstration video (10 min.) SRL at LAB, 2003, SRL machine demonstration video (3 min.) PRANKS VIDEO from RE/Search, Mark Pauline segment (8 min.) -------- LIVE INTERVIEW / Q&A with MARK PAULINE or other SRL crew member TBA -------- UC Berkeley Art Museum, 2007, DUAL SCREEN video of machine demonstration (22 min.) ------------------------- CLOSING PRANKS / SRL PARTY Location TBA </div> </article> <article> <h1>Plainfield</h1> <p>ickybob — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:02:25 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/f247e2b5-71fb-46b3-a2b8-292b6c35ebc7"> </a> <div>From Pete: "I could have a real good time if I had a gun" here ya go. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=52614690 Plainfield. </div> </article> <article> <h1>Sister Double Happiness Smorgasbord</h1> <p>ickybob — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:06:04 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/15030fc2-d523-476b-ac53-b2b95147ea80"> </a> <div>Continuing on in the theme of bay area nostalgia, I present this humongiod pile of Sister Double Happiness. A wonderful band that grew out of the ashes of “The Dicks”. I had the opportunity to see 'em countless times & one of the many local bands I loved. Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDY0CQBVFcM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbVUmiq86FY http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Sister+double+happiness%22&search_type= Myspace: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=102624661 History: Sister Double Happiness formed in San Francisco in 1986 and immediately became the city's favorite concert draw before even releasing their first album of over-the-top, white blues-rock. Gary Floyd and Lynn Perko, who'd played together in the punk group the Dicks, joined with Ben Cohen (from Pop-o-Pies and Polkacide) and Mikey Donaldson on bass. The foursome recorded a self-titled album of hard-driving songs for SST in 1988, the bulk penned by Floyd and Cohen. Owing much to Floyd's Texas roots as a blues/punk belter, the band played a fiery mix of blues-inflected hard rock and punk, the likes of which were incomparable. Subject matter was primarily confined to the human condition and spirituality in the face of AIDS and urban decay. The band's promise earned them a contract with Reprise in 1991 for Heart and Mind, but failed to find them a wider audience. That same year the band won a Bammie (Bay Area Music Award) for Outstanding Club Band, and Jeff Palmer replaced Donaldson on bass. A Sub Pop single and two albums for the label's German arm, 1993's Uncut and 1994's Horsey Water, followed. Danny Roman was added as a guitarist, and Miles Montalbano replaced Palmer on bass.The video release, Greetings from Zurich, is a lasting testament to their live prowess.The band also contributed to a number of tribute albums that were popular in the early '90s paying homage to artists diverse as Roky Erickson, Dead Kennedys and Frank Sinatra. The band broke up in 1995 -- none of their recorded work ever quite captured the heat they were capable of live. Floyd immediately formed the Gary Floyd Band and records and tours, mostly in Europe. Perko is in Imperial Teen with Faith No More's Roddy Bottum, and Cohen works as a guitarist, currently with El Destroyo. The posthumous Stone's Throw from Love: Live and Acoustic at the Great American Music Hall appeared in 1999. ~ Denise Sullivan, All Music Guide Amazoon: http://www.amazon.com/Sister-Double-Happiness/dp/B000008KQU/ref=pd_sim_m_title_3 </div> </article> <article> <h1>I stole this from Taramonster's blog.</h1> <p>ickybob — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:13:31 GMT</p> <div>it is good. -IB "Conflict, drama et al" And now I feel the need to step up on a soapbox and do a little self righteous rant because something has been bugging me a lot lately... For many reasons this has been rolling thorugh my head over the last few days. Maybe it is all of the unfortunate loss (deaths, end of relationships, end of friendships, etc, etc) that have been going on lately that reminds me that life is just too short and too precious to waste on bs and drama and conflict... This thought has been rolling through my head as I watch (mostly read) about all sorts of drama's and conflicts that people have with one another or create for themselves with the way they chose to handle issues and/or the way people react to them, etc, etc. So much drama and conflict is unnecesary and a waste of time and energy, life is too short my friends to worry about being guarded, who can trust who, I can't be open because 'x' may use it against me... its all bs, its all a waste of time, seriously. A person can only have power over you if you give that power to them, let me say that again... A PERSON CAN ONLY HAVE POWER OVER YOU IF YOU GIVE THAT POWER TO THEM. It really is that simple. By saying things like I am guarded because of 'x' is just giving them power over your life, what you do, what you say, who you are. It is honestly one of the main reasons I am so open about my life, I have nothing to hide, I refuse to give anyone that kind of power over me. I am not saying that people do not do wrong or that there is not cause behind feeling whatever you may feel about a person, but if someone is causing you or has caused you harm in some way, then cut them out of your life and move on. Please do not give them power over who you are and what you do and what you say, that just drags out whatever bs/ drama/ conflict and keeps it going, and keeps you and whomever you are having the issue with locked in a perpetual conflict with each other. Unfortunately, it seems to me that that is what people want, to drag out whatever it is, to keep constantly reminding others that you are scarred and wounded and that someone did you wrong and because of that you are now forever broken in some way... Trust me, I know big damage and big hurt, I have my own wounds and scars, but I refuse to let them hold me back or to wear them like badges that say 'look at me I am a wounded victim that has been through so much damage'. Fuck that, I would much rather say, yeah, this shit happened to me and it sucked but I did not let it stop me or hold me back, I have thrived despite this opposition, after all, living your life well, being successful and happy is the best revenge as far as I am concerned. Nothing pisses off a person that doesn't like you more than you being genuinely happy in your life. To be clear, yes I know that not everything is black and white and not everything is as easy as I said above, some situations have very real complications that make it a lot harder to just cut a person out of your life, some situations are very serious and dangerous as well, I do get that and that is not the situations I am talking about right now. I am talking about the perpetuated social dramas, they are driving me nuts! Rise above it people! Let it go and move on! Things happen, people can disapoint you, nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes, we all have our low points, we do not all get along, it is ok if you never trust person 'x' again, but for chrissake make that decision and then let it go, if not then it is just self perpetuated drama, which leads me to my next point... I am so done with self perpetuated drama! People who create and perpetuate drama constantly in there lives... really, it is a waste of time and energy, not everything has to be a struggle or conflict or drama it is that way because you create it that way, because you crave drama, because you perpetuate it and it gets seriously tiresome after a while. Life is what you make of it, happiness is a choice, so is drama, it is your choice. CHOICE! I am not saying that I am free of drama or that I am perfect, I know I am not and if you think this is about you, it might be, but please let me reassure you that there are many situations, people and things going on right now that have brought about this rant, no one person or situation, but several, some very, very close to me, and others that I am just exposed to for one reason or another. I am not saying not to rant or talk or share if something is going on in your world, shit happens, by all means get it out, work it out, do what you need, but really, after it is done, let it go and move forward, perpetuating drama just takes valiable time away from better things in your life that you could be giving your time and energy to. Ok, that is all I wanted to say. For the record I think each of you are amazing and it just hurts my heart and head to see any of you wasting your precious time and energy on creating or perpetuating dramas, I really believe that each of you is better than that and worthy of more than you are allowing yourselves when you perpetuate dramas, hurt and conflict. Trust me, there is plenty of injustice out there in the world to be upset about, let the personal stuff go, learn what you need from it and then move forward, it really is not worth perpetuating, really... (From Taramonster's blog) </div> </article> <article> <h1>Buck Naked in the Berkeley Square kitchen ~1989</h1> <p>ickybob — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:19:39 GMT</p> <a href="http://people.tribe.net/ickybob/blog/9e97547b-ea77-413e-a7f8-a5d6f15acb0e"> </a> <div>From the link: "~ 60 seconds of Buck/Philip Bury (from Buck Naked and the Bare Bottom Boys) in the Berkeley Square kitchen - I was taping the band Christmas (which became Combustible Edison) and after the show drunkenly staggered into the kitchen and filmed about 60 seconds of Buck chatting with friends, Game Theory drummer Gil Ray, and brother Hector retrieving his drink" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9EZKJEzxvA</div> </article> </main></body></html>