Winsor McCay-John Canemaker book reissued

The cover of Winsor McCay : His Life and Art (Hardcover)

Today I flipped through the revised edition of Winsor McCay : His Life and Art, by John Canemaker. Overall it seems well put together, but pretty similar to the 1987 edition. Considering all the work that went into creating the new Little Nemo in Slumberland Splendid Sundays 1905-1910 book by Sunday Press, I'm not impressed. At the least it seems that the artwork newly restored by Sunday Press could have been used in the new "Life and Art" book.
I think I'm a bit more sensitive to this because I recently was reading the slim Mary Blair book that Canemaker also authored, and there seems to be a trend of disappointingly thin content married to high prices (the new McCay book sells for $45, and the Blair book, which clocks in at a mere 128 pages, lists for $40) This doesn't make sense, as Canemaker is the dean of American animation, and as such should have no problem asking collectors and museums to open their vaults for his source material. One last thing: what the hell's up with that cover? The title font screams 1992 computer font, a wholly inappropriate choice for a book about an early 20th century artist. I also think the tilted panels on the cover could have been handled in a more interesting way. I used to work with John in NYU's Animation department, and I do stress that these are all great books--it's just that some of them could have been much better.
Anyway, I did order the Spledid Sundays book at $120 and I can't wait to get it!

Listen to Audiosports - Champagne Jam mp3s!

Above: Champagne Jam by Audiosports

Champagne Jam (2004)

1. Champagne Jam
(27.2 MB MP3)
2. Sweet Honey Sucking Bees
(5.3 MB MP3)
3. Attaché
(2.3 MB MP3)
4. No Question
Beat 2
Lovely and Charming (Live)
(31.3 MB MP3)

(click track names for mp3's)

Champagne Jam is my first album. It shows the range of music I've been making, from Mash ups to abstract improvisations. The first track is a 23 minute mega mash up with a steady beat and some obscure samples. When I played this set live, I was happy to see people breakin' to it. Cool!

The second track, "Sweet Honey Sucking Bees" is an older track I made that combines a Redd Foxx routine, a Japanese Shakuhachi, and a nice beat. Oh, and a spoken word recording of the John Donne poem "Sweet Honey Sucking Bees".

"Attaché" is a little noir piece that I made.

The last track is from a live performance at the Whitebox in San Francisco. These songs are also moody a la DJ Shadow, and also include live noise improvisation.

Andrew Loomis - Save the Books!

Andrew Loomis - Save the Books!:

Fun With a Pencil

Great site that contains several pdfs of hard to come by art instruction books by Andrew Loomis. Loomis was a mid 20th-century American Illustrator whose out of print books fetch high prices, but mysteriously haven't been reprinted (Paging Fantagraphics and Chronicle Books!) You may want to brush up on your Figure Drawing, Creative Illustration techniques, or Drawing the Head and Hands.

eye - Rapid progress - 06.03.04 Guy Leshinski

Above: beautiful rapidographs

eye - Rapid progress - 06.03.04:

"Rock guitarists have their Les Paul; cartoonists, their rapidograph.
The pen is a rite of passage, an instrument that lends their line instant
character and plugs their work into comics' striated heritage, which
trails back to the days when illustrators dipped before they drew."

Great short article on the use of the Rapidograph technical pen by cartoonists, including Tony Millionaire of Maakies, Robert Crumb, and even Matt Groening of the pre-Simpsons Life in Hell series. I prefer the Koh-i-noor Rapidograph, but any rapidograph is a sweet drawing machine.

Apparently this column by Guy Leshinski has ended, but there is an archive you can browse through.

Realtime Fourier synthesis: Using Excel as a synthesizer

Realtime Fourier synthesis

On the heels of this week's mello man, the mellotron made of walkmen, comes another impractical but lovely music machine: an excel spreadsheet! Apparently you drag sliders to vary the sound it generates. I haven't tried it yet as I'm on a mac, but this sounds like just the thing to liven up a boring budget meeting!

Secos e Molhados: lyrics

Above: Secos e Molhados mysterious floating heads


I used babelfish and my limited knowledge of Portuguese to translate the Secos e Molhados lyrics. If anyone out there can improve my translation, please do so.

Sangue Latino (Portuguese)


Jurei mentiras e sigo sozinho, assumo os pecados
Os ventos do norte não movem moinhos
E o que me resta é só um gemido
Minha vida, meus mortos, meus caminhos tortos,
Meu sangue latino, minha alma cativa
Rompi trata dos, traí os ri tos
Quebrei a lança, lancei no espaço
Um grito, um desabafo
E o que me impo rta é não estar venc id o
Minha vida, meus mortos, meus caminhos tortos


Latin Blood

I swore lies and I follow alone,
I assume the sins
The winds of the North do not move the windmills
and all that remains is a moan

My life, my deaths, my twisting (?) roads

My Latin blood, my captive soul
I breached deals, tried (?) the rituals
I broke the spear, I launched it into space
A shout, a relief
What matters to me is never to be looser

My life, my deaths, my twisting (?) roads


O Vira (Portuguese)

O GATO PRETO CRUZOU A ESTRADA
PASSOU POR DEBAIXO DA ESCADA
E LÁ NO FUNDO AZUL
NA NOITE DA FLORESTA
A LUA ILUMINOU A DANÇA, A RODA, A FESTA

VIRA, VIRA, VIRA
VIRA, VIRA HOMEM,
VIRA, VIRA,
VIRA, VIRA, LOBISOMEM

BAILAM CORUJAS E PIRILAMPOS
ENTRE OS SACIS E AS FADAS
E LÁ NO FUNDO AZUL
NA NOITE DA FLORESTA
A LUA ILUMINOU A DANÇA, A RODA, A FESTA

It Turns

The black cat crossed the road
Passed underneath the stairs
And back in deep blue
In the forest night
The moon illuminated the dance, the wheel, the party

It turns, it turns, it turns
It turns, it turns men
It turns, it turns,
It turns, it turns, werewolves

Owls and Pirilampos dance
between the Sacis and the Fairies
And back in deep blue
In the forest night
The moon illuminated the dance, the wheel, the party



Rosa de Hiroshima (Portuguese)


Pense nas crianças mudas,
telepáticas
Pense nas meninas cegas
inexatas
Pense nas mulheres, rotas
alteradas
Pense nas feridas como rosas
cálida
Mas! Não se esqueça da
rosa, da rosa
Da rosa de Hiroshima, a rosa
hereditária
A rosa radioativa, estúpida
inválida
A rosa com cirrose a anti-rosa
atômica
Sem cor, sem perfume, sem


Hiroshima Rose

He thinks about the mute children
the telepathic ones
He thinks about the blind girls
the unsure ones
He thinks about the women, changed paths
He thinks about the hot rose wounds

But! If he does not forget the rose
the rose
The rose of Hiroshima,
the inherited rose,
The radioactive rose
The stupid lame rose with cirrhosis,
the atomic anti-rose
Without color, without perfume,
without


Amor (Portuguese)


leve como leve pluma
muito leve leve pousa
na simples e suave coisa
suave coisa nenhuma

sombra silêncio ou espuma
nuvem azul que arrejece

simples e suave coisa
suave coisa nenhuma
que em mim amadurece

Love

it has led like a light feather
more than led it makes light
in the simple and soft soft nothing
shadowy silence or foam blue cloud that arrejece (?)

simple and soft soft nothing
that in me ripens

Flores Astrais

Um grito de estrelas vem do infinito
E um bando de luz repete o grito
Todas as cores e outras mais
Procriam flores astrais
O verme passeia na lua cheia

Astral Flowers

A shout from the stars comes from infinity
and a ray of light repeats the shout
All the colors and even more
Astral flowers reproduce
A worm takes a walk under the full moon

Secos e Molhados: TV appearances 1973-4 mp3s

Above: Ney Matogrosso rockin the house on TV Tupi, 1973

Soon after pinaxos uploaded the Os Mutantes video that you all are diggin, he uploaded an even more obscure gem: a video of tv appearances by the Brasilian band Secos e Molhados (Dry and Wet). I had never heard of the group. When I first watched the video I was stunned. Standing on a red carpet with a blue curtain backdrop, three men stood. The singer's face is painted with a white and black tribal pattern. He's wearing bird feathers, no shirt, a star on his arm, and elaborate looking pants. Behind him two men strum guitars. Both are wearing satin suits, have full beards, and have half of their faces painted white. They look corpse-like. This charismatic singer struts around and begins to sing in a soprano voice. It is 1973 and Secos e Molhados are performing "Sangue Latino" (Latin Blood). The singer, Ney Matogrosso, is a fascinating mix of Perry Farrell, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, a shaman, and a cabaret singer. He also sticks his tongue out in a grimace at the end of some songs. Before you say that they ripped off Kiss--apparently it's the other way around. Secos e Molhados had the elaborate stage makeup long before the boys from the Bronx.

The video includes several versions of 5 songs, from a tv studio to color and b&w footage. The music is glam and soul through a Brasilian lens. The song "Flores Astrais" (Astral Flowers) sounds like an Eno track. Anyway, listen for yourself:

TV appearances/Aparências da tevê (1973-1974)

01_Sangue_Latino_orig_on_TV_Tupi_Sempre_aos_domingos_1973.mp3
02_Vira_orig_on_TV_Tupi_Sempre_aos_domingos_1973.mp3
03_Vira_orig_on_TV_Tupi_1974_talkover.mp3
04_Flores_Astrais_orig_on_TV_Tupi_1974_announcer.mp3
05_vira_ed_orig_on_TV_1974_talkover.mp3
06_Rosa_de_Hiroshima_Sangue_Latino_Maracanazinho_talkover.mp3
07_Amor_orig_on_TV_Tupi_Programa_Hebe_1974.mp3
08_Rosa_de_Hiroshima_Maracanazinho.mp3
09_Sangue_Latino_Maracanazinho_announcer.mp3
10_Vira_Maracanazinho_announcer.mp3

The audio quality of these tracks is pretty good. Some tracks have announcers speaking over the music, so if anyone can translate what the announcers are saying, I'd be grateful. I'd also like to hear what you think of them. Enjoy! Boa Noite!

The video is on dime a dozen torrents-you need to be a member to download

Buy Secos e Molhados cds
History and Discography (Portuguese) Secos e Molhados
Ney Matogrosso Bio and Discography (Portuguese)
More on Dusty Groove

The Evanion Victorian Ephemera Catalogue at the British Library

above: Royal Aquarium, Westminster. Poster for Chang the Chinese Giant, c.1880.

"With some hesitancy of speech but the loving touch of a collector he opened his parcel. "I have brought you, sir, only a few of my treasures, sir, but if you will call - "

I heard no more. I remember only raising my hands before my eyes, as if I had been dazzled by a sudden shower of diamonds. In his trembling hands lay priceless treasures for which I had sought in vain … In the presence of his collection I lost all track of time.'

- Evanion’s collection as described by Harry Houdini in his book The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, London, 1909

Just when you think you've seen all the amazing Victorian Ephemera there is, along comes another site. The British Library has posted images from the Evanion Catalogue of 19th Century Ephemera collected by a conjurer and Ventriloquist named Henry Evans. There's a lot of amazing stuff in here!

New Wave Single Sleeve Gallery

Above: The single sleeve for the B-52's "Rock Lobster/52 Girls"

Good lord. It's 1979 again. I'm sitting here in my gray raincoat listening to a pile of singles on my portable turntable. I'm cutting up typewritten notes with an exacto and pasting them up for my mimeographed proto-zine "Audium". Wait it was just a dream!

Tony Maygarden rules for posting this great gallery of original New Wave 45 sleeves.

Check this link for a live mp3 recording of "52-Girls" from 1978, from an earlier posting

Gottfried Pott – A Look into the World of Calligraphy

Nice discussion by Gottfried Pott about calligraphy on the excellent Linotype Font website.
Pott discussed traditional tools and methods of calligraphy, such as reed pens and ink, as well as contemporary ones, like experimenting with plastic straws as pens. Also includes a pdf file of the presentation

Even more Os Mutantes: Flickr screengrabs

Os Mutantes pix on Flickr

Restoring Slumberland - New York Times Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland

Wonderful new book out that faithfully reproduces Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland Newspaper comics. Surreal stories, great draughtsmanship and wonderful colors.


Restoring Slumberland - New York Times

Os Mutantes lyrics

I posted mp3s of these two songs earlier. The lyrics are great.

Panis et Circenses
(Caetano Veloso/ Gilberto Gil)

Eu quis cantar
Minha canção iluminada de sol
Soltei os panos sobre os mastros no ar
Soltei os tigres e os leões nos quintais
Mas as pessoas na sala de jantar
São ocupadas em nascer e morrer
Mandei fazer de puro aço luminoso um punhal
Para matar o meu amor e matei
Às cinco horas na avenida central
Mas as pessoas na sala de jantar
São ocupadas em nascer e morrer
Mandei plantar
Folhas de sonho no jardim do solar
As folhas sabem procurar pelo sol
E as raízes procurar, procurar
Mas as pessoas na sala de jantar
Essas pessoas na sala de jantar
São ocupadas em nascer e morrer
Essas pessoas na sala de jantar
Essas pessoas na sala de jantar
Essas pessoas na sala de jantar
Essas pessoas


Panis et Circenses
(Bread and Circuses)

I wanted to sing
My sunlit song
I raised the sails to the wind
I set free the tigers and lions in the yard
But the people in the dining room
Are occupied with being born and with dying
I demanded that a dagger of pure shining steel be made
To kill my love, and I did it
At five o’clock on Central Avenue
But the people in the dining room
Are occupied with being born and with dying
I demanded that leaves
Of dreams be planted in the sunlit garden
The leaves know how to seek the sun
And the roots seek and seek
But the people in the dining room
These people in the dining room
Are the people in the dining room
But the people in the dining room
Are occupied with being born and with dying
These people in the dining room
The people

Fuga No. II
(Arnaldo Baptista/ Rita Lee/ Sérgio Dias)

Hoje eu vou fugir de casa
Vou levar a mala cheia de ilusão
Vou deixar alguma coisa velha
Esparramada toda pelo chão
Vou correr no automóvel enorme e forte
A sorte a morte a esperar
Vultos altos e baixos
Que me assustavam só em olhar

Pra onde eu vou, ah
Pra onde eu vou, venha também
Pra onde eu vou, venha também
Pra onde eu vou

Faróis altos e baixos que me fotografam
A me procurar
Dois olhos de mercúrio iluminam meus passos
A me espionar
O sinal está vermelho e os carros vão passando
E eu ando, ando, ando...
Minha roupa atravessa e me leva pela mão
Do chão, do chão, do chão


Fuga No. II
(Fugue No. II)

Today I’m running away from home
I’m taking a bag full of dreams
I’m leaving something old
Strewn about, on the floor
I’m going to ride in a big, fast car
Luck and death are just around the corner
Faces here and there
That frightened me with just a glance

Where am I going, ah
Wherever I go, you come along too
Wherever I go, you come along too
Wherever I go.

High and low beams snap my picture
They search for me
Two mercuric eyes light my steps,
Spying on me
And I walk, walk, walk
My clothes cross the street
And then take me by the hand and lift me off
The ground, the ground, the ground

Os Mutantes Live on TV mp3 set

Above: Os Mutantes performing at Som Pop - TV Cultura
(originally recorded at TV TUPI, 1969).

Today I have a nice slice of Brasilian Psychedelic pop rock--Os Mutantes!
I grabbed all the audio from the aforementioned video (see below) and
cleaned up the sound. The sound is pretty good considering the recording is 36 years old and from (black and white) tv. The performances are great.This should get your week started on the right foot.

Os Mutantes　　Live On TV 1969/Viva na Tevê 1969

1. TV Intro (Shell commercial?)
2. Panis et Circensis
3. Fuga No. 2
4. Quem Tem Medo de Brincar de Amor
5. Preciso Urgentemente Encontrar Um Amigo
6. Domingo no Parque (w/Gilberto Gil)
7. Dois Mil e Um

Illustration Friday 5: "Cold"

Above: my 5th entry for Illustration Friday. The topic is "Cold".

Love Illustration Friday! keeps me busy working on new stuff every week. They're looking to update their interface (add thumbnails for instance) and are looking for any donations. They've grown to the point where over 400 people participate each week, which is amazing, considering each person has to spend a certain amount of time and energy on their submission.

My Cold illustration is based on an old stereoscopic card from the 18oos which depicts a New England ship stuck in a field of ice. I've redrawn and painted it by hand, making some changes.

Illustration Friday

Donate to Illustration Friday

Stereoscopic Cards

Stereoscope cards and viewer

Mary Blair et Yoshitomo Nara

Above: image from "The Art and Flair of Mary Blair" by John Canemaker

Looking through this book about Disney artist Mary Blair, I saw this image, which reminded me a lot of Yoshitomo Nara's angry little girls. After looking at Nara's work online, I saw that his girls differ in various ways, but I still think he knows who Blair was.

The Art and Flair of Mary Blair at amazon

Os Mutantes on Brasilian tv video

Above: Os Mutantes live on Brasilian tv show Som Pop - TV Cultura (originally recorded at TV TUPI, 1969)

Sérgio Dias Baptista, gt
Arnaldo Dias Baptista, b & kbd
Rita Lee Jones, voice

(Note to MeFites: I've posted all the songs from this video today as mp3 files, see above. Also, see the following link for the video for "Domingo no Parque" with Gilberto Gil. I regret the trouble you guys are having accessing the video. I am unable to post the .torrent file for the video as it would violate my dimeadozen membership. However, you may be able to join the dimeadozen by checking the sign up page regularly--see this page Apparently there were 111 new members admitted in the last 24 hours. Also, if you like this video, joining dimeadozen will give you free access to it and many other cool things)

General tracker statistics:

Registered users: 100,000
New within 24 hrs.: 111
Unconfirmed: 28

http://bedazzled.blogs.com/bedazzled/2005/10/gilberto_gil_os.html

My man pinaxos at dimeadozen.org recently uploaded some videos of the legendary 1960s Brasilian Os Mutantes (The Mutants) Os Mutantes played a mix of 60s candy pop mixed with Brasilian pop music and a healthy dose of experimentation. I remember first hearing of them in 1997 at the NY music shop "Other Music" which was heavily promoting reissuses of Mutantes albums. These clips are quite good quality for their age, and the band seems quite contemporary and casual. I had never seen any video clips of them, nor thought I would. This was a shame because from the few photos I had seen of them, they seemed to be lively performers with a sense of absurdist humor. Anyway, now I have seen the video, and you can too!

Os Mutantes video torrent link

Os Mutantes info

Illustration Friday 4 : Lost

Illustration Friday

Atencion, Atencion! The Mysterious World of Numbers Stations

above: a collage I created inspired by the numbers stations.

About 20 years ago, I came across an interesting book in my local library ("Big Secrets", by William Poundstone). The book described a secret network of radio stations around the world that would broadcast simple melodies, electonic tones, and anonymous people reading long lists of numbers. There were no station identifications on these broadcasts, and the stations would appear and disappear unpredictably. Poundstone's theory,which has been backed up by further research, was that the stations were secret espionage stations set up by different governments to transmit information to their spies in the field. I imagined a romantic scene of a spy checking into a dingy hotel in La Paz, Dar-es-Salaam, or Tangiers, smoking cigarettes and waiting till the middle of the night when he'd turn on a portable radio and hear the 2 minute radio program made just for him-and decipherable only to him. The next morning, he'd be off on a reconaissance mission, industrial espionage, or an assassination. The whole network seemed like a global subsconscious, dreaming in atonal blasts and ghostly voices, mirroring the conscious world of radio with the world of secret numberical code nonsense. I used my dad's old shortwave radio to search for the number stations, but I never found one. I never thought that I would hear a numbers station--but then the people at Irdial records put together the Conet Project, which is 4 cds worth of recordings of numbers stations, along with detailed liner notes.

Counting control (mp3)

from the Internet Archive description:

The Conet Project - Recordings of Shortwave Numers Stations [ird059]

0000

For more than 30 years the Shortwave radio spectrum has been used by the worlds intelligence agencies to transmit secret messages. These messages are transmitted by hundreds of "Numbers Stations".

Shortwave Numbers Stations are a perfect method of anonymous, one way communication. Spies located anywhere in the world can be communicated to by their masters via small, locally available, and unmodified Shortwave receivers. The encryption system used by Numbers Stations, known as a "one time pad" is unbreakable. Combine this with the fact that it is almost impossible to track down the message recipients once they are inserted into the enemy country, it becomes clear just how powerful the Numbers Station system is.

These stations use very rigid schedules, and transmit in many different languages, employing male and female voices repeating strings of numbers or phonetic letters day and night, all year round.

The voices are of varying pitches and intonation; there is even a German station (The Swedish Rhapsody) that transmits a female child's voice!

One might think that these espionage activities should have wound down considerably since the official "end of the cold war", but nothing could be further from the truth. Numbers Stations (and by inference, spies) are as busy as ever, with many new and bizarre stations appearing since the fall of the Berlin wall.

Why is it that in over 30 years, the phenomenon of Numbers Stations has gone almost totally unreported? What are the agencies behind the Numbers Stations, and why are the eastern European stations still on the air? Why does the Czech republic operate a Numbers Station 24 hours a day? How is it that Numbers Stations are allowed to interfere with essential radio services like air traffic control and shipping without having to answer to anybody? Why does the "Swedish Rhapsody" Numbers Station use a small girls voice?

These are just some of the questions that remain unanswered.

Now you will be able to hear this unique and extraordinary phenomenon for yourself, as Irdial-Discs releases THE CONET PROJECT: the first comprehensive collection of Numbers Stations recordings released to the public.

This Quadruple CD is an important historical reference work for research into this hitherto unreported and unknown field of espionage. The CDs contain 150 recordings spanning the last twenty years; taken from the private archives of dedicated shortwave radio listeners from around the world.

There's more information in the included PDF booklet and via the official site for this 4xCD collection.

Download the Conet 4 CD set of numbers station recordings

My man MaX in Buenos Aires (no joke) created a Flickr group devoted to the estaciones numericales

Illustration Friday #3: Floating

My third Illustration Friday entry, for the topic "Floating".

Illustration Friday

Jamie Lidell Rocks!

Went to see Four Tet tonight in SF. Jamie Lidell opened, and my god, he was amazing. One of the best http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifperformances I have ever seen. One minute he's a soulful balladeer in a raincoat, the next, he's constructing entire songs by looping his own voice. Very funky, a great performer who really loves what he's doing. Go see him!

Ten on the Turntable

Yoo Doo Right (3P Mix) - CAN - Sacrilege
Herbaliser MX - East Flatbush Project - Tried by 12 Remixes
Trapazoid MX - East Flatbush Project - Tried by 12 Remixes
The Mad Scientist - The Large Professor
Walking Eagle - Anubian Lights - Dimension Mix
Soul Transportation - DJ Me DJ You - Dimension Mix
Lust in the Movies - The Long Blondes
Drill Sargent - J.Rawls
Deaf Mick's Throwdown - Clockwork Voodoo Freaks
Antonin Artaud - Bauhaus

The 8-Bit Construction Set

The 8-Bit Construction set is a great record that came out a few years ago. It's a collection of vintage Atari and C64 sounds, beats created using those machines, and even software--on vinyl! If you remember playing a software cassette in your tape deck and hearing an ungodly whirring and high pitched whine, yes, this is what they've included. You can actually record this sound and load it into your vintage machine as software! And to make things a bit easier on the ears, the software is only in one channel, with kitschy organ music playing in the other.

Here's a bunch of the Atari samples

8-Bit Construction

Illustration Friday #2: Fresh

My second entry for Illustration Friday. Topic: "Fresh"

Illustration Friday

Library Thang

Above: Webster Free Circulating Library staff, overlooking collection of music and arts, late 19th-early 20th century, from NYPL Digital Gallery

I've been using Library thing recently to catalog my piles of books, as well as cds and dvds. It's got an easy interface to add book info using the Library of Congress or Amazon servers, you can tag your items like flickr or delicious, and you can browse other users' libraries. You can see who else has your books, and which books are the most popular among users. It's great!


Library Thing

My Library

LSD animation

Back in the 50s, the government was testing LSD's effects on people. This animation is made of nine drawings that an artist made while being administered LSD.

More info about LSD drawings

Illustration Friday: Escape

Here's my first Illustration Friday entry, on the topic "Escape".

Join the fun!

Illustration Friday

David Bowie feat. Dana Gillespie "Andy Warhol" mp3 Be a standing cinema

(Dana Gillespie and David Bowie)

Just when I thought I had all the great Ziggy era recordings from David Bowie (and many mediocre ones), along comes this rocking version of "Andy Warhol" from a BBC recording, with British singer Dana Gillespie on vocals. Just great!

Andy Warhol feat. Dana Gillespie
John Peel In Concert Session, BBC Paris Studio (05 June 1971).
This concert by Bowie and friends was aired on 20-06-71.

This comes from a torrent at dime a dozen.org, and you can download it.

The Remains of the Rise of Ziggy Stardust

enjoy!

Rappcats, Pt. 3 - a photoset on Flickr

I collected stills from the Quasimoto video "Rappcats, Pt. 3", which is his great history of hip hop.

Rappcats Pt.3 photo set

S Stands for Slavery on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Boing Boing, my favorite blog, posted about a photo album I put together on Flickr of an abolitionist primer..This is one image for it. I got several thousand hits in the past day..amazing what pulling power those Boingers have!

Slavery Primer Flickr Set

News Nishikie

Interesting gallery of "News Nishikie", 19th century color illustrated newspapers, which have quite a few gory stories in them, like this one:

Osaka Nichinichi Shinbun
Meiji 8-nen [unnumbered]
Sashimi Murder-Suicide

"A husband should not allow his affections to stray to other women. A certain couple in Tatsuno, Banshu (present-day Hyogo prefecture) employed a female servant named Take. The husband fell in love with her and went to sleep with her every night. The wife was moved by deep jealousy and she spent her nights alone in tears. On April 15, while the husband was away, the wife summoned Take and stabbed her to death. She then gouged out the dead woman's genitals, sliced them and placed them on a platter. When the husband returned, she served it to her husband as hors d'ourvres. When he asked where the dish had come from, the wife replied, 'It was a gift from someone.' After he had finished the snack, he looked at his wife and saw her covered with blood and dead. While he had been eating, she had killed herself." (MS)



News Nishikie

All on the outside

This is my second collaborative image for the All on the outside tribe

http://allontheoutside.tribe.net

Canadian True Crime Mags of the 40s and 50s

Great gallery of Canadian pulp covers. Femme fatales galore. This one reminds me of Bjork.


Canadian pulp covers

Viva live music torrents!

orb_cyberworld_frontsm on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Sharing the Groove became EZ Torrents, and when EZ was shut down, Dime a dozen sprouted up.
Thousands of amazing live and rare recordings for all genres. Above is a cover I designed for an orb bootleg.

www.dimeadozen.org

Enjoy!

A

Film Stills group on Flickr





Still from "La Voie Lactee (The Milky Way)", Luis Buñuel.

I've started a Film Stills group on Flickr. Some great images posted so far.
Check it out!


Film Stills Flickr Group

Audiosports May 30, Red Devil Lounge, San Francisco

Audiosports is back, baby!
Come see us!

Hello all,

Memorial Day is upon us and LLSD will once again be operating on the Red Devil Lounge stage.

We would love to have you there, Monday May 30th, to enjoy the weeping lows and sweeping highs of LLSD's musical program.

This month LLSD will be joined by Audiosports (Alberto Forero), who plays a steadily progressive mix of downhouse club noodling and indie anthem reworkings, and experimental hip hop.

Tell your friends about your experience with SF's greatest progressive rock band, and one man sound machine, and support SF's non-cover band community!

Doors open at 8.
Audiosports at 9
LLSD at 10

http://www.reddevillounge.com/mainpage.htm

Audiosports mp3s for all:

http://www.albertoforero.com/mr_1.htm

See you there!

Alberto


audiosports_may_30 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Dirkon - The Paper Camera [pinhole.cz]

Fantastic write up about the Dirkon camera, a working camera that you can cut out of stiff paper and assemble. It even looks like a classic SLR, much snazzier than your average pinhole camera. The Dirkon will give you gorgeous, strange, distorted shots, like a lomo or Holga-but the Dirkon is free. Download the pdf and get snappin!


Dirkon - The Paper Camera [pinhole.cz]

廃墟デフレスパイラル 〜ぼくたちの秘密の場所〜 Abandoned Japanese Buildings

Nice photos of abandoned buildings, the first ones I've seen from Japan. I had suspected that there would be few in Japan due to the limited amount of land, but apparently decay is busy everywhere. Site in Japanese, but if you click on the third button at the bottom of the page you seem to move forward throught the albums. I wish there was an organization that would hand over such abandoned buildings to music and arts organizations, who would be able to gradually repair them and turn them into galleries, studios or performance venues. Anyone?


廃墟デフレスパイラル　〜ぼくたちの秘密の場所〜

San Francisco is...Type!

Finished my entry for the Aiga's Definition: San Francisco invitational. Composed completely of photos of type I found around San Francisco.


Aiga Definition: SF info

soul sides: ALL ROADS LEAD TO APACHE

Nice write up on the strange 40+ year history of the "Apache" break-from Burt Lancaster to The Incredible Bongo Band, to B-boys, to Nas. If you've never heard the most famous version, by the Incredible Bongo Band, you need to "Jump on it!". The drums are just unbelieveable! Article has links to several mp3 versions of Apache.

soul sides: ALL ROADS LEAD TO APACHE

Crime Maps

(above: the house where John List murdered his mother, three children and his wife and then disappeared.)

I've created a flickr group called crime maps.

I created this group because I have been interested for a long time in the mostly unrecognized violent history of our neighborhoods, towns, and cities. Imagine if you could see a map with icons representing every crime that had been committed in the past century on any given block in New York City. First off, I'm sure such a diagram would be almost unreadable due to all the information.
Real estate agents would be hard pressed to sell that apartment which had been a crime scene. And a person might begin to feel unsafe anywhere with such knowledge of past criminal activities. But what a deeper understanding one would have of the best and worst parts of a place, the tragedies, the broken dreams, the anger and hopelessness. The courage and determination of investigators, or good samaritans. A deeper appreciation of the random odds of being in the wrong place at the worst possible time.

This group will probably not be able to compile such a map, but I hope that by sharing aerial views of various notorious places, we might realize the everyday settings of these acts, their unpredictable appearances, and how life goes on in such places. Our public places are littered with monuments to many forgotten heroes of the past; let us not forget those people who have tragically suffered, or the places we live where they were done wrong.

crime maps

San Francisco History

This week I found myself in the Civic Center, which I usually avoid, as it is filthy. I went to the Main library and found the San Francisco History Center. I'd been meaning to research the history of my building for some time: when was it built, who lived there, what was there before, etc.

They gave me a checklist of resources. One of the most interesting is the Sanborn Fire Insurance map. There are several map books laid out on bookshelves. Each one measures about 2' X 4'. They are beautifully detailed records of a city's architectural history. Each building is carefully drawn, with numerous notes and symbols denoting things of interesting to an insurance company, such as building material, number of fire escapes, how many units, what type of commercial use, etc. The pages are thick and covered with corrections, notes, and worn with age. Of course, these are gold mines for the historian, because they provide the most detailed visual record of a city at a given time. These maps were compiled for major American cities, so if you are interested, I advise you to search out the map for your city.

Looking through the 1905-1913 Sanborn books (and microfilms) was like time-traveling. On a given block, you might find stables, 'french laundries', 'chinese laundries' (the difference not explained) vaudeville & motion picture theaters, and my favorite, 'candy factories'. I spent most of my time looking at the maps of the upper fillmore and pacific heights neighborhoods where I live. As you might expect, some things had changed drastically, and others (mainly the private dwellings) had not. My building was an empty lot in 1905, but appeared in the 1913 survey as "The Grenoble Apartments". Apparently there was a wire glass skylight in the building, but it seems long gone. However, the number of units on the map was 26, which is the same as today. I had wondered whether the apartments had been chopped up into smaller rooms.

Looking around the neighborhood, I saw that the building next to Eliza's Chinese restaurant on California St. had been a Chinese laundry in 1905. A church once stood where the Mollie Stone's supermarket parking lot exists today. At Steiner near Sutter was the wonderfully named "Dreamland Rink". Sadly, I saw how busy Japantown was at the turn of the century-many stores marked "Jap.", and other community sites like schools and churches. 30 years after these maps were made, some of these residents-Japanese-Americans-were being hauled off to concentration camps. Once the war was over, the community seems to have waned, despite 60s era attempts at revitalization (and business investment). Today the Japan center is a worn but popular mini mall of various Japanese stores and restaurants.



How to research your San Francisco building:

Sanborn fire maps history:

Sanborn fire maps sample:

Government Center

Hi all,

Posts have been few lately due to my week of government stuff. First I did my taxes, then I had Jury Duty! bleah. Anyway, I'm back.

622 Music Videos: From A Perfect Circle to Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs

Above: New Order + Arthur Baker + The Fun House = Confusion video, 1982

oh baby, hundreds of cool vids for the viewing. Enjoy!


GRAN FARO: --622 Music Video's - Various--, --From A Perfect Circle to Yeah, Yeah-

You are the big tree, but we are the little axe.

Don't let these people choose your music.

Damn.

Easytree.org, the best torrent trading site for unreleased, unofficial, and live recordings has been shut down by lawyers. Let me tell you about Easytree: It was not a place where people shared cracked software, porn, or even official music releases. In fact, if a post contained a song or two that had been released commercially somewhere, the community was very careful to remove it. So, what did the people on EZT trade? let's see...would you like to hear Iggy Pop give a lecture at a university? How about a 20 minute b&w video taped off French tv in 1972 of the Velvet Underground in concert? Maybe you'd like to hear recordings of Brian Eno sound installations from several years ago, in some gallery in Europe. You would have also found obscure Miles Davis and John Coltrane tv performances, interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their "Bed-In", or "HWY" the rarely seen film starring Jim Morrison of the Doors. As far as I know, the 'rights' to these various audio and video recordings do not belong to anyone–rather, they belong to everyone. To have corporations and their lawyers lay claim to a fuzzy recording of Janis Joplin singing in a coffeehouse over 40 years ago is absurd. Well, some may argue, there's money to be made in these recordings-perhaps the EZT people were making money from them, taking our profits away? No. There's a reason why it's called 'file-sharing' and not 'file-selling'. File-selling, incidentally, is what more and more corporations are engaging in. Well, ok, but if these people are freely sharing these files, well, then who's going to want to buy them if we officially release them? The simple answer is that the vast majority of these little cultural gems are sought out, or even known by, a very small part of the public. The people trading them, like myself, are the hardest of the hardcore fans. The musicians. The students of pop culture. And yet, to this small group of people, they are invaluable.

So,

A) If, say, Megacorp was to release this so-so quality compilation of demos by The Smiths, the number of people who would buy it would most likely not recoup even the costs of rereleasing it.

B) If there was any real profit to be made from these pop culture orphans, I am sure that they would have been strip-mined long ago. And finally, a tip for the lawyers: follow your teenager downtown to any decent sized city and you will find bootleg recordings being sold-often for exorbitant prices. Someone in Italy burns a copy of a Nirvana show, slaps a cover on it, and it ends up somewhere in Massachusetts selling for $30. That I disagree with. But don't go after these rival (and more tuned into what the niche markets want) file-sellers; No, go after the file-sharers, the real fans, some of your best customers.

So, why would megacorp want to shut down EZT? Well, the usual reasons that corporations, or the government, make mistakes: Greed. Ignorance. A confused sense of ownership.

Over a year ago, there was a great site called Sharing The Groove. They had the same amazing stuff, the same smart and helpful community. Then they were shut down by lawyers. This sucked. But I was happy when a few months later, Easytree.org appeared. There had been a migration from STG to EZT. And I guarantee you, soon there will be a new site, with people exposing each other to amazing, rare and strange music and musical videos. So, barristers, hum along to your Ashley Spears and Jessica Simpletons while you choose what finish to get for your new H2, but remember, we'll be back!

Downhill Battle, file sharing activists

www.easytree.org :: EzTorrent v0.3.2

Coco Curry Eating Challenge! - a photoset on Flickr

Coco Curry Eating Challenge! - a photoset on Flickr

Bootleg Video Review: Jimi Hendrix Experience, Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, NY, August 23, 1968

Nice video on easytree.org. The JHE performing live in my own neighborhood!
I have spent a lot of time in Flushing Meadows park , which is a decaying, at times futuristic, remnant of 2 world's fairs. But I never knew that The JHE (as well as the Doors, and the Who) had performed there. Note: they also do "The Star Spangled Banner". Here's the rest of the description from easytree:

JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE

"THE NEW-YORK ROCK FESTIVAL"
SINGER BOWL, FLUSHING MEADOWS PARK, QUEENS, NEW-YORK, USA

Lineage: 16mm FILM > ??? > VHS > MPEG

Video Size: 352x240 (1638kbps)
Length: 0:23:16

This originaly silent colour 16mm footage has had a soundtrack added from the audience recording of the concert. Unfortunately the footage is not complete for each song so there are sections where the screen 'blacks out' while the soundtrack continues. During "Are You Experienced" Jimi breaks a string and, unable to re-tune his guitar, he places it on the floor and plays it with his foot while he straps on another before swapping the instrument lead!!! The recorder is front of the stage and at least on stage, incredible that he wasn't stopped by the JHE crew!!! Quality is great for that kind of document through bit grainy ,and shaky at some point. Definitely historical stuff!!!

* JIMI'S ARRIVAL ON STAGE (from a different source, probably same recorder)
* ARE YOU EXPERIENCED
* FIRE
* HEY JOE
* WILD THING

Loco For Gocco, Pt. 1

This past weekend, I took a class in Gocco Printing at my local Paper Source store. For those who don't know, Gocco is a small, easy to use screenprinting kit that is a lot of fun. As you can see from the picture above, it is about the size of a VCR tape rewinder. It's wonderfully efficient: you use the same mechanism to expose your screens and print with them. To expose, you insert 2 one shot bulbs and your xeroxed image, then press down on the machine. The bulbs flash and burn out, and your screen is exposed. Then, you simply paint with ink onto your screen (unlike normal silkscreening, you can paint with as many colors as you want on one screen, and keep them separate. This is because no squeegee is involved, just a pressing down motion that does not blend the ink.) The quality is nice and also has a lo-fi charm. Having taken a frustrating silkscreening class where getting from image to print could take hours, Gocco is a revelation. I will be posting some of the images I printed tomorrow, but for now, here are some Gocco links.


Gocco

Paper Source

ten on the turntable: experimental album edition

"BBC Sessions +" - Faust
"Microtonal Works 2" - The New Band
"Sonic Encounters" - Margaret Leng Tan
"Electronic Works, Vol. 2" - Morton Subotnick
"Ensemble Music 1" - Iannis Xenakis
"The Inspirational Sounds Of" - Jah Works
"Dubliftment" - Vibronics
"Faust" - Faust
"Thahandclaspinduction" - Rummage
"Return of the DJ Vol. 5" - Various Artists

Video bootleg review: Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico Live at The Bataclan, Paris 29 Jan 1972

Great video over at EZ Torrents (Easytree.org). 18 Minutes of most of the Velvets doing their thing in Paris, from a 1972 tv program. Lou sings "Berlin" and smokes a cigarette with Gallic indifference. He also does "Waiting for the man" and "Heroin". Nico does "Femme Fatale". Seeing this rare footage makes me love the internet just a little more.

Video quality: Good
Performace quality: Very Good

EZ Torrents

Book Corner: Mexicana!

Another great Taschen book, this time focusing on Mexican ephemera. Durable, affordable, nicely printed, Taschen books are hard to resist.

Taschen Books

ten on the turntable - album edition

Swell Maps "A Trip To Marineville"
Swell Maps "Jane From Occupied Europe"
Dr. Doom "First Come, First Served"
Conlon Nancarrow "Lost Works, Last Works"
Cornelius Cardew "We Sing For The Future"
Luiz Bonfa "Solo In Rio 1959"
Tod Dockstader & James Reichert "Omniphony 1"
Fanatik "Bas 1 Instrumentals"
Faust "The Faust Tapes"
Chris Cutler/Lutz Glandien "Domestic Stories"