WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Meat Beat Manifested

Everyone has seen a live visual presentation (i.e. Shakespeare in the Park), and everyone has heard a live audio presentation (i.e. WFMU).  And most people have seen a TV show or a movie (i.e. Beavis and Butt-Head, Baby Mama).  Some people have even been told they're being treated to an audiovisual presentation (i.e. Dark Side of the Moon Laser Light Shows). Until last week, I didn't think anyone had made an live audiovisual presentation that really truly was aural and visual at the same time, together.  Then I saw Meat Beat Manifesto on Saturday at the Highline Ballroom.

Zillion-dollar budgets can give electronic music performers like Daft Punk and Kraftwerk an edge in creating visceral visual thrills at their concerts - you can't really do much more for a techno fan than have real robots playing a concert.  But Meat Beat Manifesto has taken a well-worn and considerably less expensive approach - collaging video behind the performers onstage - and taken it to a new zenith of accomplishment in that medium.

Meat Beat mastermind Jack Dangers and Mark Pistel from the political hardcore band Consolidated stood onstage controlling the otherworldly jungle-dubstep-trance beats and squiggles, and at the far right live drummer Lynn Farmer kept incredible pace throughout the entire performance.  On the far left stood Ben Stokes, the visual programmer for the show, who's worked with everyone from Ministry to Public Enemy to Levi's.  He grabbed video samples of Captain Beefheart, old BBC Radiophonic Workshop-esque explanations of sonic technology, Dali's eye-cutting nightmare, The Invaders, Sammy Davis Jr., Harrison Ford as President James Marshall in Air Force One, Star Trek, Billie Holiday, and even Animal, playing in tandem with a live feed of the drummer.

Unlike so many other video shows, clips didn't just sit lay flat and stuttery in the background.  They were accompanied by audio, and were layered over existing beats, scratched, stretched, and re-sampled in a way that fit in with the theme of the song - video of nuclear bomb blasts dropped to the beat, sounds and videos of Rastas burning weed edged their way into a drugs song (well, at least the one that referenced them the most overtly).  Dangers and Stokes were always working together in the audiovisual realm, as well - you could almost imagine the behind-the-scenes dialogue:  "Jack, I've found about 15 clips of people falling from the tops of buildings, can we work the sound of them screaming into the set?" or "Ben, could you work on finding a video of James Brown playing this one sample I use in this song?" Magic like that doesn't just pop out of a video mixer, or an audio mixer for that matter.

The most impressive part about the whole thing was Meat Beat's mastery in weaving overt political commentary into the show. 

Tenori-on: The New Instrument Marketing

At the risk of sounding like a salesman, I want to tell you about a promotional event that happened Wednesday night at Southpaw in Brooklyn, not because I'm particularly enchanted by what was being sold - I'm more in awe of the way the event was put together.  Yamaha hired a bunch of excellent experimental electronic musicians to sell its blinky handheld version of the future, the Tenori-on.  Robert Lippok of To Rococo Rot, Pole, I Am Robot and Proud, Sutekh, Safety Scissors and Nathan Michel were given one of the instruments a few weeks before the mini tour (NYC and San Francisco) began, and each created a set that was based on Tenori-on to some degree.  Here's what it looks like:

Robert Lippok, Sutekh, and Nathan Michel used the small but functionally expansive unit to create almost every aspect of their performances; the lights glow on both sides of the instrument, so while they programmed beats, melodies, and soundscapes on the fly the audience was able to see from the other side exactly which buttons were being pressed.

I Am Robot and Proud and Safety Scissors used the device sporadically throughout their performances, and Pole, who put on the most entrancing performance of the night, only seemed to be using Tenori-on a little bit, mostly to trigger the internal synthesizer sounds - they sounded kind of limp on top of the rest of his throbbing basslines and expansive reverb.

The middle of the set, though, was the real-deal pitch of the night: the creator, Toshio Iwai, took the stage for about an hour to describe in vivid detail how the Tenori-on evolved from concept to completion.  And it was a pitch straight from the heart, unlike anything I've ever witnessed.

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Previously on This Week On Foxton Realtors®

Waiting for the O-Ring Install on the PYT Log Flume

Haunting photos of Neverland via Cynical C-Blog. More images on Flickr here.

Uncle Dirty

Mike Belleme's photo essay on his "Uncle Dirty" is a fascinating portrait of an old man that lives by his own rules and refuses to age. An ex-bodybuilder, Uncle Dirty is obsessed with pasting enormous cut-out penises on pictures of muscle men and wearing enormous stuffed thongs.

Asinine Graffiti - Unicorns and Kid Touching

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[left] Crack made unicorns extinct. Photo by Scott Emmer

[right] Al is a gay homo who like kid touching. Photo by Andy Steinitz

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Fancy Old Ladies on Foto Decadent

This glamorous photo-spread by Matt Erwin is featured in the January 2008 edition of British style magazine Dazed & Confused.  The avant-fashion blog Foto Decadent has posted large versions of these magnificent ladies here.

The Awakening

The Awakening is a huge, multi-part sculpture that was installed in Washington DC's East Potomac Park by artist J. Seward Johnson in 1980. No doubt, it was one of the most ambitious works featured in that years' International Sculpture Conference Exhibition. Observed from a modest distance, it creates the visual impression of a partially buried giant, struggling to free itself from the Earth. I took this photo (left) of the giant's face during a 1993 roadtrip to our nation's capital and have had it stuck to my refrigerator with a magnet for many of the ensuing years.

You need to see the piece's other components in order to get the proper perspective, but since all of my other pictures taken on that day include me with the dreaded "90s hair", other people's shots on Flickr will have to suffice. And there are a lot to choose from. The Awakening's entry on Wikipedia has more info, including the amusing fact that the sculpture "proved so popular... that 27 years after the event, it still remains, even though the National Park Service admits that the "temporary permit" has long since expired".

Sadly, it seems that the work's long and glorious run at Hains Point is coming to a close: The Park Service recently announced that the immense statue is being relocated to Prince George's County (Maryland), beginning tomorrow, February 20th. No word on whether or not there will be a candlelight vigil this evening, but if you happen to be in DC today, be sure to seize upon your last chance to see this truly arresting work as the artist intended.

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Weird World, Pt. 2

The Club makes you Tan.  Or does the Tan make you Club?

Via Barstool Sports.  More club shots available at a lot of places.  Thanks again, Mike.

Riverboat Jazz

An important component of early jazz in New Orleans was the plentiful work for musicians on riverboats, as seen in a remarkable online exhibit from Tulane University's Hogan Jazz Archive.  Great photos of and information about some of the best and most important early jazz bands, under direction of bandleaders like Fate Marable, whose career was almost entirely riverboat-related (he made just one fantastic record for Okeh in 1924), and Oscar ‘Papa’ Celestin, whose Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra ran in some form from 1910 to the early ‘30s.  Many of the important early jazz figures passed through the ranks of one or both of these bands: King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Ladnier, Baby Dodds, Johnny Dodds, Red Allen, Pops Foster, Johnny St. Cyr, Zutty Singleton, etc.  More info and Real Audio samples can be found at the Red Hot Jazz Archive.

The above photo of Papa Celestin’s band was taken not long before the Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra made the bulk of its recordings for Okeh in 1927, and many of the musicians pictured are the ones who appear in the recordings. (That's Papa third from left.)

Oscar Celestin's Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra - "Papa's Got the Jim-Jams"
Oscar Celestin's Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra - “As You Like It”

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Viewers Digest

Incredibly, everything you see in this image can be found in the kitchen. Photographer Carl Warner has painstakingly incorporated all kinds of food into a series of still lifes.

 

 

 

 

He says his 'Foodscapes' were partly inspired by healthy eating campaigns. But they have not persuaded his own children to step up to the recommended five-a-day allowance.

The Forest of Dean or the Forest of Greens? The road is paved with cumin, bread mountain off in the distance, peas hang from broccoli trees and cauliflower clouds adorn the heavens.

I Want Ron Paul to Bear Our Children

Darren Garnick lives in New Hampshire with a camera and a baby. He’s had some attention lately for his little project in which he attempted to take a picture of his baby with every New Hampshire presidential primary candidate. That’s what he said the project was, anyway. And he proudly announced on Slate
“As of the day before Tuesday’s primary, I’ve photographed Dahlia [the baby] with every candidate except Fred Thompson.”

Except he hadn’t.

He photographed Dahlia with Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack Obama (twice). He did not even try to take a picture of the baby with Mike Gravel, because he thinks Mike Gravel is “creepy.” Garnick doesn’t say what that means, but maybe he should have said his project was to photograph Dahlia with every non-creepy New Hampshire presidential candidate.

Garnick said he didn’t photograph the baby with Fred Thompson, because Fred Thompson wasn’t in New Hampshire very much. So maybe he should have said his project was to photograph his baby with every non-creepy New Hampshire presidential candidate who spent a considerable amount of time in the state.

The Republican candidates with whom Garnick did photograph his baby were Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee—AND Chuck Norris. So perhaps the project would be better described as “Darren Garnick attempts to photograph his baby with every non-creepy New Hampshire presidential candidate who spent a considerable amount of time in the state, and with at least one amusing celebrity sidekick.” But NOWHERE does Darren Garnick even mention Ron Paul. No one ever does. It reminds me of the old B-52’s song that goes, “Why won’t you dance with me? I’m not no limberger!” Garnick didn’t mention John Cox, Duncan Hunter, or Alan Keyes either, but they didn’t beat Giuliani in Iowa.

So in the end the project probably should have been called “Darren Garnick attempts to photograph his baby with every non-creepy New Hampshire presidential candidate who spent a considerable amount of time in the state, and with at least one amusing celebrity sidekick, but not with the Republican candidate who came in fourth in the Iowa caucuses.” But if he called it that, it probably wouldn’t have got so much press coverage.

Cheap Art: Jen Bekman's 20x200

Did you know you can get yourself some namebrand gallery art for $20? Plus shipping and handling, which makes it more like $30.18, but still.

Bowery gallery girl Jen Bekman is now practically a factory girl, churning out two new works a week from her artsy stable for mass consumption. Every week there's a photo and a work on paper in editions of 200, which is why the project is called 20x200.

This week the photo is by Noah Kalina, whom 8 million people know from the video  everyday, in which he took a picture of himself each day for 6 years (I like to call it the 2356 Days Project). The photo is creepy and depressing, and I couldn't decide if I wanted it or not, but I bought it because hey, what's 20 bucks? I can always give it to someone creepy and depressing.

Death Valley's Amargosa Opera House & Hotel: I Spent My Wedding Night in a Haunted Hotel

One year ago this week, my girlfriend and I became My Wife And I.  After hitching up at the drive-thru, we grabbed some quick coffee and bolted outta Vegas.  Newly de-bastardized baby in tow, we headed west: Death Valley.  We didn't have a plan, but we had a reservation: one night, and one night only, at the Amargosa Opera House & Hotel.  (Our room, #22: the *Red Skelton Room, is pictured here)

Some background:  the Amargosa Opera House & Hotel is owned and overseen by a one-time Broadway actress / dancer / ballerina named Marta Becket.  Marta and her then-husband were on vacation in 1967 when they got a flat tire in Death Valley Jct, Ca.  While hubby went to fix the flat, Marta explored the old hotel that once housed all the Borax factory workers back in the long gone boom days.  Perpendicular to this long adobe building was a theatre, which, Marta claimed, "seemed to be saying..... Take me.....do something with me.....I offer you life".  Marta took the building up on its offer, moved in, and soon began dancing in it, 3 nights a week.  Given the sparse population density of her adopted desert home, she didn't always have an audience - and thus, the epiphany to paint a trompe-l'œil audience on the walls and ceiling of the theatre. 

With no one to see and nothing to do, by the mid-1970s Marta had fully populated her world with her colorful creations.  Her painting style was cheerful and bright, and certainly amateurish, but she had a perceptive eye - and an unfailing sense of the perverse.  Here's a series of portraits that adorn the lone hallway of her hotel:

Following charming portraits of Robin Williams, Bob Odenkirk and Joanna Newsom, she paints a blank portrait?  This was the first of many things to haunt me during our wedding night spent at the Amargosa Opera House & Hotel.

Cleaning Out My Gifbox, New Years 2008 Edition

Having gone through a New Year's Day cleaning of my gifbox, here is my biggest, most mind-blowing collection of animated gifs ever. Beware! By clicking on the jump link, you'll be downloading 11 megs of ram-sucking giffy goodness. Computers without much memory may fall over and die.

Coming soon at a WFMU Gifbox near you:

The Animated Recursion Film Festival, and (if I dare):

The Disturbing Cleavage Animation Film Festival.

That said, let the frames begin...

Name That Photo

Not to rip off Liz B's awesome caption contests, but this was just too amazing not to share.

See the actual title of the photo after the jump.   

Tunes on Toxic Terrain

I was just up on WFMU's roof. Don't ask what I was doing up there, just check out this cellphone-snapped picture of the toxic Jersey City sunset.

OK, so I messed with the contrast. A little.

Related listening:
Sigh - A Sunset Song [MP3]
though if you're from around here, you'd probably thinking more along the lines of
Lynyrd Skynyrd - That Smell [Real Audio]

Create Your Own Caption

Cleaning Out My Gifbox

Another twelve CPU-starving, bandwidth-sucking, mind-altering animations beyond the jump...

Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams

 

Glasgow Senior Citizens Reenact Iconic Moments of the 20th Century

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Henry VIII's Wives, via Brian and Can't Stop the Bleeding.

Alan Vega Meets Oneida Rockers Downtown

WFMU's Free Music Series took a turn for the legendary during the climax of Alan Vega's solo set this past Saturday night. After stunning the packed house with the kind of wild rants heard on his new album "Station", Vega was joined on stage by headliners Oneida, and together they destroyed the whole room with a rendition of the Suicide classic "Rocket USA". After the set, the musicians retired to Southpaw's backstage area where this photo (right) of all involved parties was snapped by Leah Moskowitz.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the show, especially the performers, volunteers, and the Southpaw staff. We'll be back at ya soon with yet more in the way of free shows, so don't dance too far from your radios.

In the meantime, here's Suicide performing the original version of "Rocket USA". [Real Audio]