WFMU's Beware of the Blog

From the WFMU News Vault: The Reincarnation of WFMU Poster

In the great tradition of WFMU-related art, here is a poster heralding "the Reincarnation of WFMU", created by an unknown artist sometime in the very-early 1970's.

As seen earlier on this blog, in the Summer of 1969, the WFMU staff walked out in protest in part due to pressure from Upsala College over their "far-out" (free-form) programming.  WFMU was off the air for about 10 months until Upsala hired a new Station Manager who would run the station with "a more professional effort"

At left (click to enlarge) is a copy of this poster which a listener donated to the station.  We estimate that it dates back to the time around when the station went back on the air in 1970.  It is a seriously groovy flyer for the night-time slots, and promises "good karma" and that "a splendid time is guaranteed for all".

The Power of the Floor Compels You

College students at MIT finally got it together and constructed a modern-day version of the disco dancefloor from Saturday Night Fever.

Space out to the bright lights and flashing colors. (avi, 5MB)

Geek out to the construction design and planning schematics.

Check out the followers.

via Pixelsumo

Z Channel's Freeform Movie Mayhem

Seeing Xan Cassavettes' recent documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession I became somewhat jealous that I didn't grow up in LA and have the access to this amazing independent pay-TV service that programmed the most eclectic films imaginable. Z Channel, started in 1974, was freeform defined, broadcasting everything from never-seen-on-TV foreign films to celebrated Golden Turkeys to kitschy softcore, often showcasing single directors or actors for a given week. They were unafraid to air the epic 15 hour Berlin Alexanderplatz. Ratings were not an issue, quality was. And it worked; Z Channel reigned supreme (kicking both HBO and Cinemax's collective asses in the LA area), influencing many minds and breathing life into many overlooked films that the promo machine just didn't work correctly the first time around.

Got to investigate Silophones

That picture on Bryce's recent post reminded me of the Silophone, an audio art experiment that answers the question, "Just what does audio sound like if you pump it through an abandoned 10-story-tall grain storage building in Montreal?"

The building, originally known as Silo #5, was turned into the Silophone by the Montreal artists collectively known as [The User], and has been accessible to interested parties in Montreal's Old Town neighborhood through a cool-looking installation nearby the building. You can also upload audio through the Silophone Website, or phone it in live by calling (514) 844-5555. The Website provides a live audio stream so you can hear other people's contributions or, more often than not, the quiet white noise of a completely silent abandoned building.

More Silophone info available in this NPR story from 2001 about the installation. [The User] played the Silophone on their 2003 CD Abandon (RealAudio sample from the WFMU archives). As far as I know, no WFMU DJ has used the Silophone to augment their on-air talking, but really, it's only a matter of time.

Violence Real and Imagined: Which One Gets Banned?

Here's a recent TV commercial that Microsoft commissioned for it's new Xbox 360 and then banned, ostensibly because the non-existent violence portrayed in it was deemed to be too.. violent: streaming video via youtube. (This seems to be a pattern with Microsoft - here's a link to their last banned ad for the xbox 360.)

And here's the "trophy video" which alleges to show (possibly Irish or Scottish) security contractors in Baghdad randomly shooting at motorists on the infamous highway linking Baghdad to the airport: downloadable quicktime video. Although the incident is being investigated, since the shooters in this case were private employees (of  Aegis Defense, Ltd, a firm hired by the US), they're not in any legal danger, even if the people they shot were innocent civilians. The Elvis song "Mystery Train" was added later by the Aegis employees who shot the footage. The video first appeared on this Aegis employee's site, but the files have since been removed. Here's a Telegraph UK article about it.

The Lost Art of Jim Flora

Purveyors of fine vinyl have no doubt come across the amazing LP designs of Jim Flora, whose illustrations graced the covers of albums by artists like Sauter-Finegan, Gene Krupa, Sidney Bechet and dozens of other jazz LPs from the 40's and 50's. WFMU's own Irwin Chusid was so enamored of Flora's art that he authored a book about him, The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora. Flora's art has also been used on various WFMU T-shirts and bumper stickers, and his style has influenced dozens of current artists such as Tim Biskup and Gary Baseman to name but two.

Recently, Irwin discovered a previously unknown cache of unpublished Flora artwork which showed a new, more demented side of the artist. From an interview with the AIGA Journal of Design, Irwin described the untombed cache of Flora art:

"A lot of his work is cartoonish. It's fun to look at, evocative of childhood nostalgia and dereliction of adult responsibility. There are clowns and kitty cats, grinning faces and beaming suns. But despite his later reputation for G-rated kid-lit, Flora, in many of these works, did not restrain himself from expressing darker impulses. There's no shortage of guns and knives and fang-baring snakes. Muggers run amok, demons frolic with rouged harlots and Flora's characters suffer from severe disfigurement. These elements - the banal and the violent - often co-exist within inches of each other on the canvas."

Here is the full interview with Irwin about his efforts to preserve and publish Flora's discovered works, and here's the great Jim Flora site.

 

Long Live Lassiter

While it wouldn’t be accurate to call Bob Lassiter the best talk radio host of all time, it would be fair to say that he’s probably the least famous great one. In the metro areas where he took calls on the radio (Miami, Tampa and Chicago) he’s still loved and loathed by those who remember his work, but everywhere else he’s mostly known by those who collect and trade tapes of arcane and unusual radio. That is, except for some lucky WFMU listeners who have heard us rebroadcast some of Bob’s radio shenanigans (and yes, there are archives).

So, why am I writing about a local Florida talk host who hasn’t been on the air for six years? And what would make recordings of a talk show collectable in the first place? And more significantly, why in the world would we play portions of his show on WFMU? Simple. When Lassiter was good, he was REALLY good. He could make your jaw drop, make you curse the radio, or maybe just pee your pants.

Unlike other talk hosts who hope to change the world (assert an agenda) or want to be liked, Lassiter's was always driven to simply grab and hold the listener's attention. And he would do whatever he could get away with (or whatever amused HIM at the time) to shock or awe listeners into becoming addicted to his program.

A key element to what made Lassiter’s radio work mind-blowing was how he consistently generated confrontational calls and turned them into compelling radio theater.  Every other talk host I’ve ever heard usually gets off on like-minded callers, but not Bob. In fact, he was often quite impatient with callers who agreed with him. As a master contrarian, phone-in fans and callers on his side merely bored him. They were just getting in the way of the pissed off listeners who were steaming on hold, waiting for their chance to take on “The Mad Dog.”

Dancin' Fonts

Just wanted to see if it would work. So sue me.

Videos: Barney vs Tupac, Cheney vs Scarface, Spike Jonze vs Esquivel and Mixel Pixel

All those years of Barney bashing come full circle in this video mashup of the big purple dinosaur channeling Tupac Shakur. This is nine years old, but I missed it. Soundtrack's not safe for work, so put on the headphones. Streaming video from Google, via Daddydesign.

If Barney seems to fit right into Tupac, check out how well Al Pacino's Scarface sounds coming out of Dick Cheney's head: downloadable windowsmedia video. via del.icio.us

Here's a short film from Spike Jonze called "How'd They Get There," which uses Esquivel's version of Sentimental Journey (featuring the great zoo-zoo singers) as the soundtrack. It still doesn't address the mystery of sneakers hanging from telephone wires. downloadable quicktime video.

In order to make my monthly quota of cartoon sexuality, here's a cool animated video by Devin Clark of the song Body Automatic by Mixel Pixel. downloadable m4v video file, which will play with Quicktime. nsfw due to the cartoon cunnilingus. via antville, screenhead

New York Noise Features WFMU This Week

New York City's Channel 25 TV spotlights WFMU this week on it's great music video program New York Noise, giving an insider glance at the Record Fair that went down earlier this month at the Metropolitan Pavilion. Music and Program Director Brian Turner, most likely picked for his uncanny similarity in appearance to Adam Curry,  hosts some video clips from his own collection (including Afrirampo, Lightning Bolt, Devo, Captain Beefheart (!), Deerhoof and Serge Gainsbourg), plus there are cameos from WFMU DJ's Trouble, OCDJ, Mac, and Small Change. Tune in if you're in the New York area, the show is on both broadcast and cable TV, and the episode runs Tuesday, November 29th at 10PM, Friday December 2nd at 9PM, and Sunday December 4th at 10 PM.

¡Sho' Nuff Beeyotch! (WFMU record fair crack Part 1 of 69)

'Sho' Nuff' by the group Sly, Slick and Wicked.  Nice little super duper sweet soul rarity on JB's People label.  Not to be confused with the excellent track called The Sly, the Slick, The Wicked by the Lost Generation on Brunswick.  Copped from dealer/collector/DJ Jordan, whose doubles put my shit to shame.  Man is no joke.  Thanks cousin!  Czeck it here... (MP3)

Pop music covers on an 8-bit Nintendo synthesizer

Radiohead, Queen, Survivor, Led Zeppelin, R.E.M., Slayer, and more, rocked out in NES 8-bit glory.

Download the whole NESCover collection here (68mb, at SomethingAwful.com, and requires a RAR extractor).

If you can't manage that, here's Survivor - Eye of the Tiger (MP3), as arranged by kalocin.

MP3 of Singing Iceberg

Here's an MP3 of the sounds made by Iceberg B-09A in Antarctica. It was recorded by scientists from Germany's Alfred Wegener institute for polar and marine research, as they recorded seismic signals to measure earthquakes and tectonic movements on the Ekstroem ice shelf on Antarctica's South Atlantic coast.

From the Wegener Institute press release:

Tracking the signal, the scientists found a 50 by 20 kilometer iceberg that had collided with an underwater peninsula and was slowly scraping around it.

"Once the iceberg stuck fast on the seabed it was like a rock in a river," said scientist Vera Schlindwein. "The water pushes through its crevasses and tunnels at high pressure and the iceberg starts singing.

The iceberg sounds were originally recorded at 0.5 hertz, far below the range of human hearing. The MP3 here is speeded up many times to bring the sounds into the audible range. The full Wegener Institute press release is here. Thanks Monica!

If you enjoyed hearing an iceberg sing, here's Pseu's post on the sounds of Saturn, complete with MP3s.

Cleaning Out My Inbox, Covered Face Edition

Did you know that it's a bad idea to give powerful hallucinogens to soldiers? Who woulda thunk it?  But here's a British newsreel film that proves it (downloadable mpg video). via undercurrents from a UK newsreel about British Army drug experiments.

How not to display rare records (downloadable wmv video). Maybe he can replace that cylinder here. Thanks, Listener Tom via Nata2

Touchradio has created the longest language removal exercise yet, of our own Vicki Bennet, from her program Do or D.I.Y. You can download all of Vicki's tongue flaps, uhms and ah's here.

Another creepy classic from Mr. and Mrs. Wheatley: Horrorclown (streaming Quicktime video, nsfw)

Feeling too productive at work? The bouncing girl will change all that.

A truly creepy tale of serial rape by telephone, reminiscent of the famous Milgram obediance experiment. Thanks? Listener Mike

The great Bush-Blair swear-off and Anti-drug Russian waxworks, via b3ta

Six Degrees of Smoking.

Heidi Barack's musical portraits.

incriminating photos via Happy Palace and the LA Public Library:

Jesus Christ Superstar in Japanese (MP3s)

What better way to kick off Christ's month-long birthday bash than with the Japanese version of Jesus Christ Superstar? Here it is in its entirety, featuring a great Judas, a lame Pilate (a shame, since Pilate has many of the best songs), the needless knockoff song Can't We Start Again Please, inappropriate livestock sound effects and inexpicable excursions back into English.

Overture  |  Heaven On Their Minds  |  What's The Buzz  |  Everything's Alright  |  This Jesus Must Die  |  Hosanna  |  Simon Zealots - Poor Jerusalem  |  Pilate's Dream  |  The Temple  |  Everything's Alright - I Dont Know How To Love Him  |  Damned For All Time - Blood Money  |  The Last Supper  |  Gethsemane - I Only Want To Say  |  The Arrest  |  Peter's Denial  |  Pilate and Christ  |  King Herod's Song  |  Could We Start Again Please  |  Judas' Death  |  Trial Before Pilate  |  Superstar  |  Crucifixion  |  John Nineteen Forty One

If you enjoyed these, don't forget The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack in Norwegian. Lots of other MP3 posts from Beware of the Blog here.

A Diagram of the Home

(hommage mineur à Bil Keane)

Mother(s) Rage

Jesus, what's up Internet?  I know you go through your phases, but what's with this white-ladies-of-the-American-south-flipping-their-lids kick you've been on lately?  What?  You've always been obsessed by them?!  Hmmm... so you have.  And it's not just you?  I guess you're right.  Well, TV may have started it, but you've gotta admit you're sort of harvesting them.

Exhibits:

Margaret Perrin She's the one that seems to have started all this. Click to view a gag-reel of her show-saving turn on Fox's "Trading Spouses".  (Oh please, no booing, you're better than that!) Margaret is what you might call a "Good Christian Woman from Louisiana".  You are what Margaret would call a "Gargoyle from the dark side". 

Parking Lot Pariah (NSFW): And over here we've got the potty-mouthed secular (also southern) version of Mrs. Perrin.  (both of these vids via break.com)

"You should've asked me nicely, Mom" (link to clean Realaudio version, or download the totally choad-licking obscene mp3).  This is some unhinged Mom (from the south) and her dickwad 16-yr old kid, which I found on The Internet someplace.  She started screaming at him to let her use his car, so he turned on his webcam.  You only need to hear the audio.  I hear some of our DJs have tried this tactic, only to fail when the parental ass-whupping commenced.

Speaking of parental ass-whuppings, here's a thing someone wrote back in 1998, and it's all about being a mom and raging at your kid - way back in 1998!  What's more, she says all mothers got rage -- so this kinda thing's been going on since 1998, and The Internet is just now catching on? Shame on you Internet!  Tho I grant, it's not really your territory until it becomes porn -- hey, what's that?! A site that fetishizes that movie "Locked Up: A Mothers Rage" starring Cheryl Ladd as a raging mom who smokes cigarettes!!  (For what it's worth, here's Realaudio of my kid Lila flipping the tables and raging at her mother, accompanied by Nurse With Wound.)

Of course, one need not be an actual mother to be in possession of Mother Rage; no, mother rage makes plenty of allowance for human complexity.  We celebrate (flip) now with two versions of the "Dyketactic" classic from Kathy Fire, "Mother Rage".

From the WFMU News Vault: The Man Comes to WFMU

According to the Freeform Timeline,  "April 24, 1958 - WFMU's first ever broadcast. Nothing is known about it. For its first ten years, WFMU serves Upsala College students, broadcasting lectures, Lutheran services, classical music, jazz and international music."  On November 4 of 1967, WFMU's first-ever freeform show, Vin Scelsa's The Closet debuted in the midnight to 6am slot, and as seen earlier on this blog, by 1969, WFMU was getting more and more national media exposure for it's "far-out" free-form programming, and the station staff was getting more and more heat from the college administration for it, as well.    On August 31st, 1969, the staff walked out in disgust and Upsala College shuttered WFMU for 10 months. But what happened at the end of those 10 months?  According to these undated clippings (93k Jpeg) (supposedly from The New York Times), a new station manager was brought aboard by Upsala to "teach students the proper guidelines for radio"...

A Thanksgiving Prayer from William S. Burroughs

Straight from Blame-America-First World Headquarters to your hard drive, here's a Thanksgiving Day prayer from William S. Burroughs, from a video directed by Gus Van Sant (mpg video for download). In this 1986 poem, Burroughs salutes our nation of finks "where nobody is allowed to mind his own business." And he throws in a few bad words for the KKK, Prohibition and "Kill a Queer for Christ" bumper stickers for good measure.

Back & To The Left

You all know what happened 42 years ago today in Dallas...