WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Shop WFMU this Holiday Season

WFMU has just added a glut of goodies to our online store, giving you even more reasons to sit on your ass and CONSUME.

New crapola includes:

- WFMU Fly Bumper Sticker (by Travis Pitts)

- 50th Anniversary T-shirt (right, by J.D. King)

- Where's the Beat? Live at WFMU, double CD

- Golden Airwaves: 50 Years of Freeform, gold vinyl LP

And be sure to browse our other amazing t-shirts, stickers, CDs, tapes, temporary tattoos, night lights, messenger bags, books, posters, DVDs, and other fabulous items that are sure to delight that special weirdo in your life.

If tchotchkes aren't enough, perhaps a frameable gift of fine art is the ticket. Look no further than WFMU's art site. We're offering lovely prints by the likes of Eine, James Siena, Chris Johansen, Alexander Ross (left), Nicole Eisenman, and Jim Torok, as well as an adapted Jim Flora piece.

All art and crapola orders received by Thurs Dec 17th at noon (EST) will be delivered in time for x-mas.

Print is Not Dead, It’s Just a Decaying Zombie Staggering Toward Your Mailbox

WFMU DJs are putting together their end-of-year Top 10 lists, and I’m working on my list of top 10 magazines that went out of business this year. It’s hard to pick just 10; it seems like another one goes under every week. Except! Here comes the offer in the mail for “MaryJanes Farm,” a magazine I’ve never heard of, and they want to send me a Free Sample Issue. Somehow they have targeted me as the sort of person who responds to this:

“It’s the early morning walk to the chicken coop when the eggs are still warm and your mind is calm and clear. It’s the sourdough you’re kneading on the kitchen butcher block while loaves of crusty sourdough French bread rise all around you. It’s the bed quilt you’ve stitched yourself … the antique hutch you’ve re-stained yourself … the deep long-lasting friendships you’ve made yourself.”

They are wrong. Or at least, I don’t think my response is the one they intended.

This is a project with the stank of Marie Antoinette’s Hameau in the Petit Trianon, a bunch of rich, middle-aged  ladies playing “farmgirl.” Plus, they get to play “magazine editor” at the same time! I’ve been a magazine editor, and I’ve lived in the country, and a letter that begins “Dear Friend, Let’s face it. No matter whether you’re raising horses on your ranch in Montana, or growing tomatoes on your terrace in New York City … there’s a farmgirl in all of us” makes me want to sharpen the guillotine.

 But MaryJane has more going on than just a magazine, she’s got an online store to sell those special farmgirl products. She also has jobs! So if you are an “experienced crafter/seamstress” [sic. gender specific] and live in Moscow, Idaho, and can work a minimum of 30 hours a week, she will pay you $8 an hour to sew up the charming “Raising Jane” Knickers she sells for $37.50 plus tax, shipping, and handling. And “MaryJane encourages her employees to take walks on their breaks along the country lane that leads to the farm. Her employees also have access to her packaged mixes and the garden-fresh produce that she grows.” And “having access” means they can buy this stuff at the company store, right?

 Let me know when they launch “MaryJanes MethLab.”

WFMU's 24-Hour Marathon in progress!

WFMU's 24-Hour Marathon began last night at 7pm and runs until 7pm tonight!

We've set aside our pride to interrupt programming this Fall for our first, and hopefully last, 24-hour Marathon. Our coffers are empty thanks to the combined evil forces of the recession and WFMU falling short of our March Marathon goal. Help us raise enough money in 24 hours to stay on the air through the winter months!

Today's festivities will be action-packed, including co-host madness, on-air prize drawings, and all of the fun-loving insanity and surprises you've come to expect from WFMU Marathons. Check out our new Radio Bear t-shirt, as well as a fresh batch of DJ Premiums by Tom Scharpling, Terre T, Evan "Funk" Davies, Marty McSorley, Ken, Maria Levitsky, and Seven Second Delay that are up for the taking. Visit our pledge page for details.

We hope you can help us out with a year-end donation! Pledge online or by calling 800-989-9368. Thanks to everyone who has pledged their support thus far!

Other ways to help WFMU this Fall:

Spread the word about our 24-Hour Marathon!

• Facebook: add our "Support WFMU" app to your profile
• Blogs / Tumblr / Other Sites: add our banner to your blog or site (grab code: orange version | black version)
• Twitter: post a link to WFMU's pledge page (use this short URL http://bit.ly/DpOvl and our pledge line, 800-989-9368), add #wfmuthon to any posts about our Marathon
• Donate your used car: If you can't make a cash donation, you can always donate your car. Call 877-411-3662 to arrange for vehicle pick-up.
• Tell your friends about WFMU's iPhone app!

WFMU holds a 24-Hour Marathon, Nov 17th-18th

WFMU prides itself on holding only one on-air fundraiser per year: our annual Marathon, which is a 2-week-long frenzy of great prize giveaways, hilarious co-host banter, surprise guests, and more caffeine than a case of Sparks (RIP). The listener support we bring in during the Marathon is normally enough to fuel our fire for a full year. While WFMU came very close to making our goal during the Marathon this March, we still fell short (I smell recession).

Because it's tough to operate with an empty bank account and there's an entire winter to get through until our next Marathon, WFMU needs to break with tradition by holding a brief on-air fundraiser next week.

This will be our first and hopefully last ever 24-Hour Marathon, and we will do our best to make sure it is chock-full of fun-loving antics and amazing giveaways. We hope you can help us out with a year-end donation, and be sure to tune in next Tues-Wed! The deets:

WFMU's 24-Hour Marathon
Tuesday November 17th, 7pm - Wednesday November 18th, 7pm

Donate Now
Swag
Co-Host Schedule
Marathon Info

We've got a new t-shirt up for grabs (pictured above), as well as a fresh batch of DJ Premiums by Tom Scharpling, Terre T, Evan "Funk" Davies, Marty McSorley, Ken, Maria Levitsky, and Seven Second Delay. Check out our pledge page for details.

WFMU's Record Fair - this weekend!

Get your game face on and your vinyl flipping fingers warmed up: WFMU's annual Record Fair hits the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan this weekend! Besides 10,000 square feet of amazing CDs, LPs, DVDs and artworks, there will be live broadcasts all weekend long, and live music from the Trashmen, People Like Us, Kevin Blechdom, Heavy Trash (w/ Jon Spencer) and more (full schedule here). Check out movies in the A/V Lounge or deface your favorite record sleeve at the LP Modification Booth!

Location:
Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th Street, NYC

Hours and Admission:
Friday, October 23rd, 7-10pm, $7
Saturday, October 24th, 10am-7pm, $7
Sunday, October 25th, 10am-7pm, $7
Early Admission: Friday, October 23rd from 4-7pm, $25 (includes re-admission all weekend)

Download this flyer (PDF), print it, and present at the ticket booth to receive $2 off admission.


Live Bands and Guest DJ sets

Saturday 10/24

• Chip Taylor (11:30am), wrote "Wild Thing," "Angel Of The Morning;" live acoustic set.
• The Trashmen (2pm), best known for their smash hit "Surfin' Bird."
• Heavy Trash (4pm), rockabilly love child of NYC rockers Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray.
• New York Night Train DJ set (6pm), with Jonathan Toubin spinning rock and soul.

Sunday 10/25

• Electric Chaircuts w/ Nelson Loskamp (noon), electrosonic haircuts.
  
• Kevin Blechdom + BARNWAVE + special guests (1pm, A/V Lounge).
• People Like Us (2pm, A/V Lounge), audio/visual collage... avant retard!
  
• Chris Brokaw (3pm), of Codeine & The New Year; 12 string guitar trio.
• Damu the Fudgemonk (3pm, A/V Lounge), an Akai MPC 2000 and turntables.
  
• La Cumbiamba eNeYé (4pm), European, African, and Colombian sounds.

(photo by the junes, CC by)

RIP Elizabeth Clare Prophet (MP3s)

This Thursday Elizabeth Clare Prophet (aka Guru Ma), the former leader of the bizarre new age doomsday cult Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) aka The Summit Lighthouse, died at the age of 70 in a nursing home in Bozeman, Montana, after suffering from Alzheimer's disease since 1998. The Summit Lighthouse was started in 1958 by Mark Prophet in Washington, D.C. He later married Elizabeth, they moved it to Colorado, and she took over the leadership after Mark's death in 1973. Under the name Church Universal and Triumphant they eventually moved to California in 1976, and finally to Montana in 1986, where they bought a 12,000-acre ranch just north of Yellowstone Park. Being convinced that the end of the world was near, they built a 756-person underground bomb shelter in a pristine alpine meadow and stocked up on firearms. When everyone assembled in the bomb shelters on the date of the predicted apocalypse on March 15, 1990, nothing happened, and eventually CUT members started to lose faith in the prophetic abilities of Elizabeth Prophet, and left the church in droves.

Scent Notes for the Downtrodden

It seems like every publication out there has a perfume review column now—The NY Times, The Topeka Booger, numberless zines—that it's about time WFMU had one. And if it already does, it could stand another. So I, Ed Shepp, senior perfumer for the Swedish American Futurimagineering Institut, am stepping up to provide one. And probably just ONE, since I'm very busy with my bringing lazy back and all you know. Anyway, let's get started, and as a once-in-a-lifetime gesture of kindness, I'll be uncharacteristically brief.

Let's review some stanky stuff.

Pentecostal ZZ Top Impersonators (video)

Here is a very catchy song by WinterBand about the modern scourge of women talking in Church. The self-description reads "WinterBand is a father and son Christian rock/blues/metal band. We are Apostolic Pentecostal Acts 2:38 Christians." Take that, ZZ Top!

And if you wonder who the other two guys playing with Father and Son Winter are, here is another quote from their YouTube description: "Special thanks to Bobo on bass, Hayseed on guitar and especially the Dept of Corrections for allowing them to do this as part of work release."

The Cookie Monster and 9/11

Just after the 8th anniversary of the WTC attacks, I discovered this shocking cover of a 1976 Sesame Street special "Monsters on the Loose!" on David Icke's official forum. Click the link to read more about this story the government doesn't want you to know.

Celebrity Anti-Drug PSA's, Part Three

Pull up a tattered divan, load another noggin of taduki into the hookah and listen to the reasoning of these wise sages, seven in number. This batch of psa's is a particular treat, taken alone, they would ably represent the fun and goofiness of the entire series of "Get Off" radio records.
But first, an obligatory quote:

Resemblances exist between snowflakes and leaves. Seeing it snow, we think we can see tiny flowers falling from the sky. Why are the leaves that fade in autumn goldenly beautiful, and why do we think the spring flowers have tongues, comprise a sort of conversation? At the sight of leaves we think of hands fingered as if with buds. The feathers of the birds, the leaves on the trees, the delicate, feathery, fingery snowing in winter are related, we think ourselves entitled to say. The wind seems a thoughtless creature, not to be trusted; the windless calm, sensible of its own beauty, is as sweet as obedience that blissfully flows about within itself. Does the wind sense its own windiness? Does the leaf know how beautiful it is? Do snowflakes smile and flowers bewitch themselves, and do curls have some idea of their curliness? A river resembles a supple, rushing wanderer in its flowing, and water in its tranquility is like a beautiful woman with white gloves and blue eyes. Thick foliage cloaks the delightful delicacy of the twigs. That lovely things exist is a lovely thought. Waves and branches have snakelike shapes, and there come moments when we know we are no more and no less than waves and snowflakes, or than that which surely feels, now and then, from its so wonderfully charming confinement, the pull of longing: the leaf.

Robert Walser / Prose Piece

Join us for the IBJ Schmooze Cruise, Oct 11th!

WFMU's Glen Jones and X. Ray Burns celebrate their recent 2009 Marathon victory with the first-ever IBJ Schmooze Cruise and live broadcast around Manhattan on Sunday, October 11th.

You can be a part of this incredible nautical disaster!

The IBJ vessel departs at noon, and the cruise will last until approximately 4pm. It's time to rock the boat! For more info or to purchase tickets, click here.

SFL Mid-Season Review

The Summer Fun List is one of DJ Kelly’s more genius ideas: Sometime in late spring you make a list of all the fun things you want to do during the upcoming summer, so that the whole season doesn’t fly past without your having done anything fun at all. (This is especially useful for former Midwestern Protestants such as myself, who tend to forget that “fun” is not the same thing as “evil.” Or maybe it is, and that’s why it feels so jolly. But I don’t wanna get all philosophical about it now.) A few weeks ago I was feeling pretty unhappy about something and I drew a big X across the Summer Fun List page and wrote “KILL MYSELF” instead, but I’m sort of over that now, so I figured I’d take another look. Plus, it finally got sunny for three days in a row, and it’s starting to feel a little bit like summer at last. Here’s what’s on my SFL this year:

UConn Puppet Museum
Rosendale (more bees?)
Fireworks
Yankees game
Bruno
Musical Saw Festival
Book Arts Lounge and/or Class
Bacon Retrospective (& other art)

So far, this has not been a particularly successful SFL season. I used to try to go to one Yankees game a year, but now that tickets cost more than I make in a month, I won’t be doing that. And because of Global Economic Change, there weren’t any 4th of July fireworks anywhere near where I live: All the usual displays were canceled. So Sluggo and I went up on a hill near our house and looked down the Hudson toward New York City and saw just the tippy-top of the Macy’s fireworks—we wouldn’t see anything for two or three minutes, and then there’d be a little puff of red light, and then nothing for another couple of minutes, and then some silvery sparkles. Even though I tried as hard as I could, I wasn’t able to convince myself that it was actually “fun.” And I have been SO looking forward to this year’s Musical Saw Festival on Saturday, July 18. I went last year, and it was truly fantastic. I heard Satie’s “Gymnopedie” performed by a musical saw and the Trinity handbell choir, and I am not kidding when I say that it was life-changing. Seriously. It was great, and weird, and great-and-weird, and I have been looking forward to going again for a whole year—and I have an unavoidable conflict that day and can’t go. But you should. It’s in Astoria, it costs only $10, and this year they’re going to try to break the Guinness World Record for “largest musical saw ensemble.” This is a musical event I sincerely recommend for any WFMU Listener, so add it to your Summer Fun List and go.

That’s the disappointments so far, but there’s been some surprise fun, too. Sluggo and I got invited to cocktails at the penthouse residence of an ambassador to the U.N., which was clearly some kind of mistake but we went anyway and had a very nice time. We also went to the “Agitprop!” Book Arts Lounge at the Center for Book Arts, where we talked about Russian constructivist advertising art with polymath poet Mr. Jeremy James Thompson and letterpressed some little flyers that say “Money is No Object.” I got to take the “Brown Bag Bindery” class, too, and built my own piercing cradle, sewing frame, and finishing press. Sylvia Alotta, the teacher, used to be an industrial designer for GM, and has come up with the most beautiful, functional, simple designs for binding equipment. She is my new hero, and almost makes me want to move to Chicago just so I could study with her there. (*Almost.*) Now I’m looking forward to the “Embroidered Bindings” Book Arts Lounge on August 14. Maybe I’ll see you there.

My friend Miss Manytitles has arranged for me to attend a free screening of Bruno with her this week, but the movie I’m really looking forward to seeing is ROBOGEISHA. Here's the trailer, so you will want to see it too. OMG, I have to see it! My Grammy Carlton used to say, “The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings,” and when there are movies like Robogeisha in the world, I think she was right.

Thanks for reading my blogpost this time, and may God bless.

The Fairbanks, Morse Song (MP3)

 Here's a little red 45 which I've always gotten a kick out of, not only because, like so many other bits of advertising, it uses America as a way to sell the company name - in this case, Fairbanks Morse Engine, which is still in business today - but also because of the focus on the phrase "free enterprise" which is a particularly unmusical phrase to use in a song.

Bob

Jerry Coyle and the Nelsonics - America...Land of Free Enterprise - The Fairbanks, Morse Song (MP3)

45 Label (JPG)

Mourning the Death of President Bongo

Lately I have been pretty upset about my gullibility problem, which is second only to my little hoarding problem in the list of My Upsetting Oddities. (Not being able to touch doorknobs is third and, rather surprisingly, being unable to recognize human faces has recently fallen to fourth.) But then I was looking at the news today, and saw that some camera crew found a middle-aged Korean man wandering around Macao  and decided he was Kim Jong Nam (“the Small General”), eldest son of Kim Jong Il. So maybe I’m not the only one.

The Local (“Sweden’s News in English,” which for some reason I cannot stop calling “The State”) had an entertaining story today, too. Supporters of those Pirate Bay file-sharing guys who were convicted of copyright violations in Sweden last month have won election to a seat in the European Parliament. Candidates of the Pirate Party campaigned on the issue of reforming copyright and patent law, and won 7.1% of the vote in Sweden, putting them into the EU government.
Huzzah! I mean, Arrrrrh!

Onward, Christian Soldiers (video)

Manfred Mann vocalist Paul Jones covers the hymn Onward, Christian Soldiers. This clip is taken from the 1967 film Privilege by Peter Watkins, a pseudo-documentary set in near-future (i.e., the 70s) Britain, about a pop star whose career is controlled and manipulated by Church and State.

Sharon Tate, Commie Cheesecake

This Sharon Tate pictorial, shot by photographer William Helburn, appeared in the December 1967 issue of Esquire.  Is this the birth of the appalling communist chic movement?  Probably not, but I really don't know.

Unenlightened rube that I am, I've never been able to grasp the kitschy appeal of the symbols of a brutally repressive totalitarian movement.

        

More semi-risque photos after the jump.....

Megapolis Audio Festival, Boston : April 24 - 26

Heads-up Bostonites, a cool DIY audio arts festival is headed your way: Megapolis, April 24-26.

"Artists, documentarians, musicians, and fans come together to share secrets on producing and presenting challenging audio works online, on-air, and on the stage."

Tons of cool sessions are planned: learn about field recording, circuit bending, illegal art, activist films, sound art and collage, audio production, radio wizardry, electro-acoustic instrument building, and more! Folks from the Third Coast Audio Festival, free103point9, WZBC, WYPR, WNYC, Mecca Normal, MIT, and tons of other groups and working artists will be representing.

On top of all this wonderment, Jason Sigal and I will make a mind-blowing presentation about the Free Music Archive on Sat Apr 25, 11:30am-1pm (@ Public Radio Exchange, 3rd Floor, 50 Church St., Cambridge UPDATE: venue change.... Nelson Mandela room at the Democracy Center, 45 Mt. Auburn St).

Hope to see you there!

Megapolis Schedule | Ticket Info | Blargh

New Podcast: Bitslap with KBC

Those of you who have been loitering in our hallways for a decade or so might remember an ex-WFMU DJ with a penchant for x-mas mixtapes who went by the name KBC. More recent FMU fans who frequent our record fair may have come into contact with this jolly creature generously foisting x-mas CDs upon the masses. Some of you blog folks may recall the fine day we offered up 101 versions of "Stairway to Heaven" (partial responsibility can be pegged upon KBC).

WFMU is happy to announce the return of KBC with a new podcast called Bitslap!

Subscribe via iTunes  |  Archives  |  Other subscription options

Bitslap features "old crazy music," silly comedy bits, lobsters, antiques, and probably some x-mas faves. Get up on it, and be sure to check out WFMU's full selection o' great podcasts on this page.

"Still Worse Than Missing A Meal": More From The St. Louis Metro Evening Whirl

Right about this same time last year (it's 70th anniversary) I found an incredible paragon of throw-down urban journalism resting on the counter of my local 7/11 store.  To say The St. Louis Metro Evening Whirl is unlike any newspaper printed and distributed in the United States would be giving it so little credit it's not even funny.

 

Headline templates and the stories to which they belong in the Sun-Times', Journal-Stars and Plain-Dealers are so prosaic and unimaginative it makes you wonder why there aren't more print machine operators filing workers comp claims over their hands just getting hacked off because they fell asleep reading the template cuts.  The Whirl busts out headlines--and lead paragraphs--fully intended to cause anyone within ten feet of you to shield their faces because you're getting ready to puke all over them from laughing.

iTunes Store Love

WFMU Podcasts: right up there with fantasy baseball and Adam Carolla! Check out our page in the iTunes Store.