A little something I wrote got turned into a radio drama

I mean, the title kinda says it all. I wrote up a piece of flash fiction for a contest that the Wisconsin Public Radio radio show To The Best of Our Knowledge threw earlier this year. I didn't win. Then, outta the blue, they contacted me and said they're turning my piece ("Reset") into a radio drama. So, I guess I did win something. Anyhow, here's the link to just my piece: [link]. I'm pumped to hear this in the context of the whole show. That is all.

This Is Beautiful Forever: Scene 27, Our Robocop Remake

For Your Friday: Allie - Mimi King

This:

Sounds: Eff Yeah! Tears For Fears covers Animal Collective - My Girls

Today just got gooder:

I did this:

45 mile adventure: 35 mile bike ride, 5 mile hike in, 5 mile hike out. Over Mt. Tamalpais. Starting elevation 195 feet, max elevation 1578 feet, total gain 2221 feet. 

We got a late start, Angel, Aaron and I. Ate a delicious if huge kale and mushroom omelette. We wanted to leave around 10 but didn't get going until 11:30 in the A. Aaron took us to a coffee shop and we stopped for lunch in Mill Valley before he turned back (not cause he's a wimp. He's not. He's Broyalty! But, broyalists have have dainty ankles, not really built for riding over mountains). Made a few water stops. Okay, I made a bunch of water stops, but Angel powered on, like "whatev". Coming down the coast-side of Mt. Tam into Stinson Beach: totally awesome. The last bit over the rolling hills of Bolinas, that was painful. So ready to be done. But we finished the ride and then donned our packs and hiked into Wildcat Campground by 7:45 in the P. In the dark. Total badasses.

Then it was food, whiskey, and sleep under the stars. Well, fog, really.

What can I say? It was totally awesome.

map.

Sounds: Capricorn One - Scare Tactics. Simplicity Through Fear

Simplicity Through Fear. That's how the writer/musician/soundsist behind Capricorn One, Chrs Ovr, described this piece. Totally awesome. Get your scares on:

Space Burgers Will Be Printed

NASA's looking to print food. Yup. Print:

The 3D printing component will deliver macronutrients (starch, protein, and fat), structure, and texture while the ink jet will deliver micronutrients, flavor, and smell.

Yum. Nothing says 'delish' like ink-jet delivered flavor and smell.

Still, I'd eat NASA excreted burger-paste to explore the stars. Sign me up!

Prophecy! In the future, ketchup will be excreted!

3D Printing: Food in Space

Music Video: Snake Plissken - Face Tat, Dungeon Mistress

Just a lil' something I cooked up for our track "Snake Plissken," off of Dungeon Mistress. Enjoy. Or don't. I don't really care.

I'm lying. I really do care.

Talented Cat Singing Banana Phone

Did I stutter?

The New Samsung Apex Wearable Computer

"For my career I do need internet and TV and my dick sucked all the time." -Andy Hold, Brooklyn, NY.

Pretty Much Exactly How It Went Down

Once again, Life imitates Taiwanese Television News Anime: Wendy Davis' Texas Filibuster

"...And it was free."

Sounds: V/VM - Lady in Red (Chris De Burgh)

Warning: This Video Contains Flashing Lights - Dance Floor Dale

Jack Vance - Interview

Jack Vance died recently. Obit. Interview (1 of 12):

This Rules: How To Dance

Right?

Behold: Face Tat - Face Tat, Dungeon Mistress

Here's a little video I rustled up for my latest musical project: Face Tat. It's a remix of the Public Domain film Gamera vs. Viras (US - Destroy All Planets). Enjoy:

London. 1927. Color.

London in 1927 from Tim Sparke on Vimeo.

Interview With An Artist: Revo

Revo Dubois is one of the most talented Bay Area artists that you've yet to hear about. Yet to, cause while he's just getting going he's young, hungry, and about to make some waves during his upcoming residency at New York's School of Visual Arts. And this isn't just some residency, this is some fancy shit. Prestigious one might say. That one being me. And he's got some ambitious plans to get there. During his month long residency  this summer he's going to paint 100 pieces and put together a book to raise funds for his tuition. His campaign is here. 

I sat down with him (read: emailed him some questions) for a little interview to try and get the word out about him, his art, his residency, and his campaign. Here we go. 

Five words or less: describe yourself, as artist or otherwise:

Colorful, coded, narrative, language, pluralist

Tell us about your latest project, this residency. Where is it, when is it, how are you getting there, and how big of an opportunity is this for you?

This current project is called "Beyond the Void". The goal is to make 100 pieces in a month. The ending result will be a book documenting the process, and explaining the works. It takes place at The School of Visual Arts in New York. The Kickstarter funds the materials, and a few other expenses. This is one of the biggest opportunities I have gotten in awhile. This allows me, as a West Coast artist, to experience what is going on the other side of the country. Also allows me to network with other artist from around the world. 

You say that your work is infused with a mythos, an autobiographical mythos that's really a language made up from symbols and references from your life and popular culture. You even say that "deeply personal messages" are on display. Do think that makes your work cryptic and/or challenging for viewers to engage with?

To a degree I think it does make it cryptic and challenging, but I feel like people aren't challenged any more. They just want the bright package, the blockbuster movie, the Superbowl commercial. I think that if you treat people like idiots they eventually become that way. They fall into that persona, but if you challenge them to think about what is going on, to think about the meaning of things, and their relationship to the world, then they blossom. They bloom into people looking for more... more reasons, more answers... the subtext to the meaning of life.

What do you wish you knew about art/painting/creating before you got started?

How much networking and being out there is important, but I think it's all a combination of luck and being a part of the art world. Also to remember that everything is subjective. Art and music are realms where people get pick and choose. Not everyone is going to enjoy what I do, or what some other artist does. 

How does your latest work match up with your earlier work? More specifically, how has your work changed and how have you evolved as an artist through your career, and is there a strong through-line  stylistically or contextually, in your work?

It syncs up well with a lot of my older work. I have those moments when I look at an old piece and see that I was trying to convey the same message even back then just less sophisticated. There was always this astral plane, and these figures roaming within them. The only series that I feel have their own vein are the ones I call "Splatter Paintings". They stand on their own in the most basic fashion, but even those are based around important people in my life. My series "The Bright Grime" was where I began to create messages in my work. This would lead to "Cognition". 

That series came about through analyzing a lot of writing I did. The themes were mainly Art, Sex, and Death. At the time I would always paint this girl with red hair. I knew that she was Death always trying to steal my heart, so I decided how would I personify these other themes in my life. It grew from there.

Favorite movie?

Pulp Fiction, I like the idea of telling a story in broken parts. It forces the viewer to pay attention and look for clues on how each event occurred. Plus it is also full of symbolism.

A runaway trolley is hurtling down the tracks toward five people who will be killed if it proceeds on its present course. You can save these five people by diverting the trolley onto a different set of tracks, one that has only one person on it, but if you do this that person will be killed. Is it morally permissible to turn the trolley and thus prevent five deaths at the cost of one?

Wow. Where did that come from... I'd rather switch with that one person. 

Anything else you want to say?

This is a scary moment for me. I was never big on change, but I hope to get all the funding needed for this venture. I have 2 days left. I don't know what I'm going to do if I don't make it. I guess we'll see. I'm just thankful for people out there who care.

-----------------

Check the vid:

Sounds: Broken Social Scene - Sweetest Kill

This song sounds good.



End of line.

A Bat Drinking In Slow Motion

Bats have very hairy, very long tongues. For drinking nectar in midflight, of course. Observe:

Sounds: Modern Skirts - Under Bridges and Overpasses

I like this song. Modern Skirts:

Steven Soderbergh Talks at the SFIFF56

...and we listen:

We Are But Blades Of Grass Tossed Into An Uncaring Wind

"We are but blades of grass tossed into an uncaring wind. All effort is vain, all order an illusion." -- Coach Jack Del Rio, 2008, then head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Wringing Out A Washcloth In Zero-G

Just what I said:

Sounds: Goat - Goatman

This was too easy, cause this song is just too good:

Non-Linear Storytelling: A Sweet Infographic

Just what I said. Cool visual breakdown of Non-Linear Storytelling. Did I Stutter?

Mars Rover "Accidentally" Draws Penis

That's right, we've finally left our mark and have show the universe that we plan on fucking over the Red Planet next: Curiosity "Accidentally" Draws Penis on Surface of Another Planet.

Three Years of the Sun in Three Minutes

Three years of video, taken every 12 seconds, condensed into three minutes. From NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory in three minutes. What more do you need to know? Watch!

William Gibson speaks at NYPL

...and we listen:

Where the hell is the famous 'No Rules Burger'!?

Sounds: Lower Dens - Nova Anthem

This is a good song:

True Fact: This is dumb: Pee Pants

Modern technology now allows you to piss yourself:

No more having to take off those pesky pants!

http://mypeepants.com/

MC Pee Pants: Please sue.

New Song:

I wrote this for a friend who just moved and I think I tapped into a little emotional reservoir, a cistern of happy/sadness, a (let's see how long we can keep this up) amphora of clashing forces, a septic tank of hope. That was a bit much. Didn't mean for this piece to be so somber, but really, I've had three of my best, closest friends, friends who make San Francisco home for me, move away in the past two years. What's this whole growing up, moving on bullshit? At the same time, pretty crazy stoked for all of them: starting new adventures, lives, living in new cities/countries. It's a mixed emotional bag: love that they are expanding their lives, sucks they they are leaving. The only constant is change. And thus:

The Robots Have Risen, And They Are Here To Rock

Four-armed robotic drummer and robo-guitarist cover AC/DC. Nothing more need be said:

Cookies All The Way

As a fellow creme hater, I'm 100% behind David Neevel's latest invention: an OSM. Oreo Separator Machine. It's an acronym. This dude spent 0.04 years on this amazing invention. He also had to keep his neck warm. It was a slog, but well worth it. Cookie technology has been pushed into the 21st century. Finally:

Also, his website is dickbird.org. Lovin' it.

Worst Fleshlight Ever

Wish I'd said that. Got that from a redditor, who was talking about this:

Jiminy Christmas! Some dude caught that bowfishing! I guess that goes without saying. How else could you catch that thing? Oh, right. Harpoon. My friend, Mikey G, said that "fish" was rather phallic looking (but he says that about everything). Said it was a dick with teeth. Which is now the name of my latest screamo band: Dick With Teeth.

via Reddit.

Sweet Review of "Guppies"

I mean, the headline says it all: got a sweet review of my short story "Guppies" in Dark Dimensions No. 12, which is up over at Wattpad. My story and the magazine.

Here's the beef:

And thanks KimFry.

M. Night Shyamalan's Real Genius

Coming in August of '85, M. Night's latest twisty thriller, Real Genius, directed by Martha Coolidge and remixed by dondrapersayswhat.

Zoochosis: Case 5 - Fate

I like the original title better: Mousocracy. But Patrick Scott ended up using rats. Rats! I'd like to take more credit for co-writing this, but in truth Patrick came up with most of this on his own. And even more in post production. The whole Mouse Kingdom? That was Patrick. Bomber that turns into a croissant (favorite part!). Patrick. In fact, the only thing I wrote that ended up in the final cut was the scientists taking notes. I wrote that. And I'll gladly take an oscar for that, thankyouverymuch.

Check out the rest of his crazy work here.

For $360 People of Color Can Learn About White Privilege

I'm not making this up. It's the White Privilege Conference, as presented, if the photo on the front page is representative, by white people. Specifically, Quakers:

Don't get me wrong, totally acknowledge white privilege. In fact, who better to discuss it than white people? And what better way to show it than throwing a conference and charging everyone, including people of color, $360 to attend, but only charging predominantly white Quakers $160 to attend? And why should people of color come to the White Privilege Conference?

People of color learn from this conference that White supremacy, White privilege, racism and other forms of oppression are designed to destroy you. 

Saw this on Nick Mamatas' Livejournal.

National Crystal Meth Hallucination League

From the Comedy Central and the Onion.

Langer: 562  Snakes: 1



Totally awesome.

That's Nature: Ever Seen An Actual Meteor Strike?

Me neither. But here's a comp of the meteor that struck Russia. This is totally amazing/scary/beautiful:



Not to make light, mind you. More than a 1000 people were injured from the impact. More here.

Woman Has Orgasm In Restaurant For No Reason

You may remember the befuddling little film I mentioned previously, called UFO: Target Earth (1974). Well, what I didn't mention then was that about half-way through the film this scene happens:

Now, what first got me was the music. Right off the bat, that tune, "Country Love" caught my ear. Probably because I can't believe anyone would let themselves be recorded singing like that. Second, the lyrics. Let's review:

I wish I had a hundred dollar bill
Just one for ever'day
I would spend them all aw'my true love
But their not send her away
Cause it's that Country Love
Country Love, get while you can
It's only Saturday Night in the country, boy
And it's Christmas everyday for the city man.

Those people pretending to act are yapping over this classic song, so that's as close as I can get the lyrics. There's something in there like "Whatchu going do when the well runs dry?" But that's enough for our discussion, which is: This Fucking Song Rules.

A hundred dollar bill. Really? Just a hundred dollar bill? That's all you wish for? I know, it's 1974. That's a lot of money back then. My little online inflation calculator says that $100 is about equal to $488 in 1974. But, still, not a $1K? Or a $1M? And I have no idea what "But their not send her away means." I mean, I might have heard it wrong, but take a listen, you tell me.

And why exactly is it Christmas everyday for the city man? Cause, as a city man lemme tell you: it's not Christmas everyday.

Now, after all that, this woman has an orgasm, which three onlooking dudes apparently can sense a mile away. They're just gawking at her! And let me state: I didn't edit this in the least. The music, the dudes gawking, the painful acting, the inexplicable orgasm, the little boy crying out for no reason, it's all just as it was presented in the film. I even kept the cut to the next scene in there just so y'all could see the craziness. 

Anyhow, enjoy. 

True Fact: Facts

Objective facts... are debatable.

True Fact: Clams

Despite the easy laughs and quick jokes, we have no statistical or demonstrable evidence that clams are happy. End of discussion.

True Fact: Sharting

It's a life choice. People chose to shart.

Blade Runner Convention Reel: Drool.

Wow, this footage makes the movie look even older. It also makes it feel more gritty and real. For Blade-heads:

Sounds: Film School - He's a Deep, Deep Lake

First time I saw Film School was when they opened for Cat Power at Bimbo's for Noise Pop. I want to say that was in 2003, and if it was, then I've been listening to these dudes for ten years. Jesus. Makes me feel old. Well, actually, the graying hair is wakes me feel old. And all these kids on my lawn. 

Still, Film School rocks it:

'The Directors' - Conversations from a Boy-Hole

Curious that The Hollywood Reporter's round-table interview with 'The Directors' includes not a single woman. Mimi Leder? Kathryn Bigelow? Jane Campion? Sofia Coppola? Julie Taymor? A single A-List female director would have been nice. I don't know how much contrast that would have produced, but at times this conversation feels like a good ol' boys club, like bunch of dudes hanging out in a man-cave Boy-Hole. Sexist much Hollywood? Shocking! And all white dudes, but for Ang Lee. 

That being said, much of the conversation about work and art and time and motivation are pretty universal concepts, and pretty interesting to listen to/watch. And, of course, Tarantino steals the show by shouting, "I have to keep their dick hard!"

Check it:

Ps- note to Affleck, cause I know you're reading: tuning forks don't go out of tune. I know that wasn't your analogy, but I just want to point out to you that it's flawed and that you might not want to be associated with such fallacious ideas. Tuning forks don't go out of tune. That's the whole point of the tuning fork. That's why people use them. They stay in tune. They do, however, fade away...

Bad Writing

Here's what it is: A documentary by Vernon Lott on Bad Writing featuring interviews from: David Sedaris, Margaret Atwood, George Saunders, Nick Flynn, Steve Almond, Yusef Kumonyakaa, Lee Gutkind, D.A. Powell, Kim Barnes, Robert Wrigley, Claire Davis, Daniel Waters, Lynn Emanuel, Daniel Orozco, Mark McGurl, David Nadelberg, Josh Olson, Brenda Shaughnessy, Alex Steele, Michael Wiegers, Miles Corwin,  Sally Wofford-Girand, Jenni Ferrari-Adler, Jillian Weise, and Scott Rice… just to name a few, hmm, yes?

I think it's only streaming for free for a few more days. Check it out or check out the website here.

"Unidentifying Object" Sigur Ros / UFO Target Earth Mash-Up

For this other project I'm working on I did this little mash up of Sigur Rós's "Refur" (B-side of "Sæglópur") with footage and voices from this incomprehensible 1974 movie called UFO: Target Earth. It's a pretty amazing piece of cinema, as the movie lacks all plot, character development, comprehension, and sense. That being said, these people, their voices so flat and non-actory, I think they sound beautiful. I've already used these people speaking in another piece, but right here was the first. Be sure to turn it up and Check It Out:

And if you really want to see the movie it's available from the Internet Archive right here.

Sounds: Beach House - Troublemaker

This is a sad Beach House song. (Shocking.)

Zoochosis: Case 1 - Aliens

My main damie, Patrick Scott, got his latest Zoochosis web-series picked up by Machinima Prime. Equal parts funny, sad, gross, and provocative. Check it out:

If'un you wanna check out more of his work, click'em right here.

Karl Schroeder: Emotions

"There are no distinct emotions. You have learned that in the human heart, love resides within such and such a circle, hate there in another, and between are pride, jealousy, all the royal and plebeian emotions. We say instead emotion is one unbounded field. Our way of life causes us to cross this field, now in one direction, now another, again and again on our way to the goals to which or world has constrained us. The paths crisscross, and eventually, the field has well-travelled intersections, and blank areas where we have never walked. 

We name the intersections just as we do towns but not the empty fields between them. We name these oft-crossed places  love, hate, jealously, pride. But our destinations were made by the conditions of our lives, they are not eternal or inevitable.  

We know that the answer to human suffering lies in changing the ratio of emotions so grief and sorrow lie neglected, even nameless, in an untravelled wild." 

-Karl Schroeder, Ventus.

High on Fire w/ Goatwhore @ Slim's

Went for another round of metal with my main damie Mike G! This time we went down to Slim's to see High on Fire. And who opened? Goatwhore. GOAT. WHORE. I really just wish I could have been there when they had the band name discussion:

Dude who made up Goatwhore: Yo, dudes. Thanks for all coming down--

Other Bandmember: Dude, you called a band meeting, course we came down.

Dude who made up Goatwhore: Yeah, well, thanks. I just want to go ahead and thank you all again. I know how difficult it can be to juggle jobs, life, kids, and still be totally committed to this righteous project that we have embarked upon, but have yet to name. 

[Nods and affirmations around the room]

Dude who made up Goatwhore: Which brings me to the next point of order. Now, before you all respond, I just want you to take a minute and let this name work its way through your mind. Let it trickle down. Just think about it, is all I'm saying. Goat... whore. Goatwhore. One word.

[Chins are rubbed. Long hair is flicked back over shoulders. Ponderous looks and a few 'hmms' bounce around the room.]

Some other guy (probably the bassist): Well, like, I don't dislike the name or nothing, but I mean, we're probably going to have to drop most of the free jazz improvisational shit we were doing.

Some other, other guy: Yeah, and all that adult contemporary stuff we were working on, that's just out the window.

Dude who made up Goatwhore: Listen, guys, this is an opportunity for us to focus and hone our sound. I mean: Goatwhore. The name says it all. Who seconds the motion?

And well you can see where it went from there, cause right after that meeting the lead singer went out and bought these bad-ass bracers:

Goatwhore: Bracers, bro!

Also, I love how their Wikipedia entry describes them as a "blackened" death-metal band. Like they was just left in the pan longer than normal metal, what with some black-pepper and spices. Which is apt, cause these dudes are spicy!

Dark Goatwhore

They also had an amp that said "God Has Twelve Dicks", which I didn't know was common knowledge until that show:

You heard it right, God has twelve dicks.

After that, High on Fire graced the stage. They rocked, of course, but the greatest lesson I took away from the High on Fire show was that that this guy showed me that no one should ever feel shy about going around shirtless:

Embarrassment is for mortals. I earned this physique! 

High on Fire @ Slim's

High on Fire: Wailin'!

High on Fire bassplayer is PISSED!

...and evil.

And finally, guitarist Matt Pike showed his Shoggoth nature while executing an epic solo:

A Shoggoth, mid-solo.

Sounds: Liars - The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack

Last song/video I post for 2012. And it's a goodie. A slow builder, for sure, but well worth it. Check out Liars' The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack:

Sounds: Twin Shadow - Castles In The Snow

I like this song.


Artist: Twin Shadow.

Sounds: The Horrors - Sea Within a Sea

I like this song. Especially when the synth comes in. Dude's accent sounds local band fake.

I need a stagecoach - Hipster Thanksgiving

This... is hilarious. And I've been to this Hipster Thanksgiving. Spot. On.



And now I'm off to delete my Facebook account.

Zoochosis' New Series

Man, this looks slick. This is the trailer/teaser for Patrick Scott's new Zoochosis series coming out on Machinima Prime. Drool:

Mist Giant, False Rival - The Interview

It's the end of 2012 and the entire world, so we of Mist Giant thought we'd round out the year by releasing our third album, False Rival. It's up and free over at Bandcamp. Well, it's name-your-own-price, so if you just can't bring yourself to take it for free you can alleviate your conscience with PayPal or a major credit card.

To give a little taste of what's in store for listeners I went ahead and did a little interview with the album. Check it:

Mark Pantoja: Tell me a little about yourself.

False Rival: First, thanks for having me. Often people only talk to band members about albums and their music, completely ignoring us, the actual works of art, so, just, yeah, thanks for having me here.

MP: No problem.

FR: And a personal thanks, too, you know, for taking part in my creation.

MP: It was my pleasure.

FR: Right on. Okay, so yeah, I'm a eight track album, more of a EP really, but I think there's plenty of meat in me for people to really get into. I was recorded and mixed of at Studio SQ this summer and mastered by Bruce Leighton at Datastream. (Thanks guys, for helping to make me the album I am today!)

MP: Tell us about the recording process. Did you come into focus before recording, as a concept, or are you more a document of an organic studio process?

FR: Shit man, getting all wordy on me. Hell, I don't know, man, I'm just an album. You tell me. 

MP: Well, most of the material we had written and performed live for the last year, part of a third or fourth wave of live songs we put together. The first lead track, track two, Catch & Release, was written early summer, so it's actually the newest song on the album and kinda represents a new direction of open/organic song writing. That song more or less coalesced during the studio process.

FR: So, didn't have a concept for this album? For me?

MP: No, nothing as formal as that, other than our releases have tended to be the strongest songs we have at the time of recording, so they're, more or less, a snapshot of our musical maturity at that moment. So, what I'm saying is that you are so 2012. 

FR: Cool.

MP: Yeah. Okay, well, thanks for coming down.

FR: Thanks for having me.

Waylines Magazine: Going (Semi-)Pro

Listen, we're all getting pretty saturated with the online tipjar that is Kickstarter. But that doesn't mean that there aren't good projects out there nor does it mean that you shouldn't check out some of the better ones.

One of the things I took away from my Kickstarter campaign was a sense of community. Not only was Kickstarter a project in a global marketplace (I had support from all over the US, Singapore, Canada, and Australia), where family members and random strangers could throw me their support because, but it was also an opportunity for me and project campaigners to give back to our backers and the greater community. I released my project as a copyleft Creative Commons for anyone to download, distribute, and remix/mess-with (as is this entire blog). And so I tend to be drawn to projects that try to instill a sense of community and openess in their final product. Which is why I'm a backer of Waylines Magazine's Kickstarter Campaign.

Waylines Magazine is a new magazine from a good friend of mine and fellow Clarion West 2011 and editor over at Ideomancer David Rees-Thomas and some dude I've never met but seems like a very talented filmmaker and graphic designer (he did the Waylines Layout) Darryl Knickrehm. Besides being an online magazine, they're going to pay to put out videos and short films as well. And the best part of their Kickstarter is that the more they raise the more they give back. Many Kickstarter campaigns just pocket anything extra they make, which is fine if that's how you run your campaign and get people to support. But the great thing about Waylines is that for each tiered goal they make they are going to reward authors, filmmakers, and Waylines contributors. They've already reached the goal of going from token payment to semi-pro and now with 52 hours left at the time of this post, they are trying to raise another $500 to go pro, paying all contributors pro rates! 

Hey, even if you don't want to support at least swing by their campaign or website to check what they're all about. Here's their campaign video:

Sounds: Zach Hill - Memo to the Man

This song is quirky, but cool. Zach Hill (Legs on Earth, Hella, Death Grips). Listen:

In Norway Kids Are Freezing

Interesting take on international aid from the prospective of those who feel exploited by images of starving children. From their website:

Imagine if every person in Africa saw the “Africa for Norway”-video, and this was the only information they ever got about Norway. What would they think about Norway?

So they made a parody video:



Best comment on YouTube from fellaciousderp:

the radiators will just be stolen and fuel their viking tribal warfare.  They'll have a population explosion and then they'll just need more radiators. By interfering, you're just going to increase the misery. Let them freeze, that's their way of life.

You Are Warrior Dreams. Wait, That Doesn't Make Any Sense

This is just kinda AWESOME.

"A Darker Cycle" in Nihilist Sci Fi, Issue 1

Hey! Sold my Week 5 Clarion West short story to the lovely folk(s?) over at Nihilist Sci Fi in their first issue, for five dollars used American currency!

I'm just happy it's found a home, cause this has been one of my most problematic stories. (When I saw the market, Nihilist Sci Fi, come up, I immediately thought of this story. This story is nihilist as shit!) Two professional novelists have torn it asunder. And yet, it's still one of my favorites. It's from an old conversation I had with a friend, oh, say, 7 years ago. Would a peaceful society make war on itself in order to test whether or not peace is superior to war?

My background is in anthropology, the Franz De Waal branch, which recognizes peacemaking and reconciliation are more common than aggression, and that cooperative peaceful societies (species) tend to out-produce war-like ones (mind you, this doesn't mean the war-like ones won't destroy the peaceful ones, thus in the end out-producing the otherwise more productive society). But what if we did have total war? Always? What if that was our laudable goal? What if we were Klingons? Personally, I don't think Klingons would make it into space. And yes, we are really having a Star Trek conversation right now. 

Civilization is, at least in part, built on cooperation, with slavery being forced 'cooperation'. We might be able to slave ourselves into space, but could we war ourselves into space? If you had paradise and perhaps even a means to rebuild your civilization if it turns out that war leads to ultimate destruction (because you're in a posthuman post-scarcity god-like civilization) might you be seduced into war just to make sure peace was the right choice all along? Add to that a bit of historical amnesia and a dash of boredom, and voila!

Originally, this story was of two posthumans in a trench, reciting poems to each other, who the capture an enemy they don't really know what to do with. Halfway through I remembered just how bad I am at poetry.

I workshopped this with Charles Stross. Charlie is a bit of an idol of mine, I'm not ashamed to say. I loved Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise and was blown away by his short story collection Wireless. He ripped my story a new one. Everything he said was absolutely on point. What remained after his public flogging I swept up and pieced together. Later, I workshopped this with another group and got accused of being a closet torturer. That also wasn't the most pleasant experience. "A Darker Cycle" has an opening that makes people bounce. But if you write provocative things you best be prepared for what you provoke.

Neurosis w/ Voivod @ The Fox

Metal!

Went with Mike G. to see Neurosis rock the Fox. They were good. And there was a lot of black clothing present. Surprising, right? Taking pics was hard, though. Live shows aren't usually well lit, but this was ridiculous. It was like taking pics inside a movie theater, which is why they're so blurry/low quality. The light show was a dark as their souls, man! Still, it was a good show: 

Neurosis - Creepy!

Neurosis - Scary!

Actually, the film show was pretty good. Lot's of explosions and cow skulls. What more could you want?

Oh, and Voivod opened. 

Voivod!

Voivod! 

Their best song was a cover of Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine".

Metal Forever! (This guy had his hand up the entire show.)

Birds from Tree of Life

You seen the Tree of Life? It was good. Very good. Though the last twenty minutes kinda blew. Sean Penn walks through the set of what looks like an 80's music video. Doesn't ruin the film, but sorta drops the ball, because before that point, galaxies, fatherhood, dinosaurs, water effects, the birth of the universe (man that sequence was beautiful/amazing), it was pretty awesome. One thing I really liked is that for all the grandeur the movie is really made up of  small, quiet (sometimes loud), intimate moments. Like this sequence of birds flying.

The Tree of Life - Birds Sequence from Hugo Hollmann 

My favorite moment is when they're mostly obscured behind the building, and yet, I can still feel them moving, flowing. If this is special effects then it's brilliant. If it's real and just a moment captured on film, it's magnificent. 

Jack's Record Cellar

Ever seen that double door little shop right at the corner of Page and Scott?

The one that says "Records" over the entrance, but never seems to be open?

Open!

Well, my main damie Mike G. has been living around the corner from this place for over a year now and never seen it open. Not until this last past Saturday. Jack's Record Cellar. It's actually not in a cellar, so I guess you could say they are effing liars. Originally located over on Haight Street, they've been in operation since 1951. Some dude named Jack started it, but his buddy, a longshoreman, bought him out for a buck. Both of those guys are gone and this place is currently run by Wade, a generally friendly dude who doesn't feel the need to post hours or abide by any kind of schedule. ("Generally open on Saturdays for a few hours between two and seven," he told me.)

Records. Many, many, many records. Too many? Don't be stupid.

They got a metric shit-ton of records and memorabilia, including a holographic poodle mounted above the register area that stares at you wherever you go. They had some Edison Disc/Diamond Discs, but I really don't know rare those are, so perhaps that's not worth mentioning. 

The aisles are exactly one record wide.

From their stock it looks like they stopped buying records in the late 70's, but they have a knockout selection of local San Francisco based Jazz music. Something of a specialty, it appeared.

Mikey G. browsing through the Sleazy Listening section.

Anyhow, this place has loads of character and if you've even been keen to see what's up inside then free up some time between two and seven on a Saturday. They might be open. 

Sounds: Gayngs - The Gaudy Side of Town

I'm not one to usually to go for music that is so derivative, that's so just riffing on a single musical time/era. If I wanted to hear music from that time/era, why wouldn't I just go and listen to it direct? That being said, these guys just fucking kill it. Gayngs.

When All Is Said And Done, It Makes Good Toast

Hrm. Perhaps this sheds some light on why Florida is so fucked up. Satanic Toast.



Satan Lives!

Thanks to Gen for bringing this into my life.

Sounds: British Sea Power - A Trip Out

Rock n' Roll!

Sounds: Tristeza - Golden Hill

What's to say? One of the local post-rock bands I listened to while in high-school and college, along with Tarentel and From Monument to Masses, that left a lasting impression on me and my music. (What happened to the Bay Area post-rock scene?) They toured hard for years, incessantly, up and down the coast and around the world. I never got over you guys!

Trizteza.

But The Lemonade Means Sex, Mostly

Picked up from GhettoGenius.com

Sounds: Royksopp - So Easy

I actually love this song solely for the ending. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the rest of the song, but it trods along pretty harmlessly, a pretty forgettable if groovy track. Until the end exchange:

"Four-hundred."

"Four-hundred?"

"Yeah."

"I'm coming over."

"Do that."

It's like it own little mini-story.

What You Should Do This Saturday

I don't know what you're doing this Saturday, October 13th, but there is some shit going down:

First, you should come watch me read as part of Lit Crawl. Owl Magazine and Lit Crawl: MUSIC+BEATS. It's all writers who are musicians reading from their works. It'll be short, I promise. I'm ready for less than 8 minutes. And I'm reading with Blag Dahlia/Ripper/Jesus of the Dwarves.

It's at some place call Creativity Explored which I've never heard of, but is apparently up the street from 16th and Mission:

For the line up and more info check here.

For the FB event, if that's how you roll, check here.

The location is pretty convenient because right after that you can pop over a few blocks and see my band, Al Lover & The Haters, play the Moon Block Party show at the Brick & Mortar.

Set it going to be killer. Come and check it out!

And, as if that wasn't enough, if you can't make either one of those this Saturday, I also did sound design and collage for the talented Jessica Noodle/Rabbit for her immersive/interactive theater performance piece over at the Isle of the Noises.

I did some Metaphonic recordings. It's pretty dope. Come out and see her performance and listen to my sound design! There will be corsets involved! Corsets! As in more than one! Tickets here.

HOLY SHIT!!! I know, that's a lot of stuff. You best show your face at one of these events. There's no reason you can't make it out to one of these. You can even be home before 9 in the p and still have seen me.

Book Report: Near+Far by Cat Rambo (Part II): Far

Part I is here.

Part II is here:

Whoa. This collection, Far, brings the guns just like Near did. This time around, though, we are in the future. And if anything, things seem to have gotten worse, even if they are brighter and better lit by to the overhead halogen lights of your cubicle-home.

Cat Rambo's exploration of advertising, products, commercialism, and consumerism are only exacerbated in stories like "Surrogates", "Seeking Nothing", "Amid the Words of War", and "Zeppelin Follies", the last of which Rambo claims was her attempt at slapstick comedy. It's not that it wasn't funny, it's just that standing back, looking at the world of commercialism she created, where writers write by managing software that spits out endless variations of the same story for every conceivable market niche and everyone wears malleable Bodies that keep the actual world at arms length, well, it's pretty frightening from my standpoint because it's a dystopia where the depicted society isn't all that unhappy, like in Brave New World. Often cited as the model dystopia, Brave New World is really a social satire or even utopian satire (Huxley called it a "negative utopia": the drugged out disconnected world is, by and large, "happy"). It is implied in "Surrogates" and "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain" that the rich are happy because they've built a world of consumerism based on picking the fruits of lower caste's labors, which implies that the rest of the world could indeed be a dystopia. How is this different from our current world? Blood diamonds and oil shales anyone? In Rambo's "Zeppelin Follies" everyone seems pretty content with their hyperconsumerism, which to me is just an extrapolation of where we are headed. Both "Surrogates" and "Zeppelin Follies" reminded me of David Mitchell's Nea So Corpocracy in the "An Orison of Sonmi~451" chapter of Cloud Atlas, a fantastic book.

If the last collection touched from time to time on the themes of relationships and intimacy, then this collection   is the inverse. We're still talking about relationships, but Far is about the inability to find connections and how far we will go to connect. I mean, the protag of "Angry Rose's Lament", a drug addict trying to find some kind of connection to replace his drug craving, contemplates letting an intelligent wasp eat his brain so he can join an immortal group-mind. Yeah, that's what it's about.

After that we have "Seeking Nothing" which is a fucking HAUNTING tale about a young man who is desperate to connect with anyone, absolutely anyone. He's a social outcast managing clones working on a distant planet, who cannot seem to connect with the few non-clone coworkers or his past. It is a frightening tale of utter loneliness. This was by far one of my favorite stories in this collection. The protag's loneliness still lingers in my mind.

"A Querulous Flute of Bone" was also about seeking out a relationship: romantic love. I could see the plot coming a mile away, which was fine, because the story was really an exercise in beautiful world-building. What I loved so much from the first story in the Near collection, "Mermaids Singing Each to Each", and about the near-future exploration of commercialism of "RealFur", "Vocobox(TM)", and "Therapy Buddha", was the effortless world-building Cat dropped into those stories. And here we see even more of that. "A Querulous Flute of Bone" is like world-building idea after another, though never overwhelming. It left me hungry for more. In the afternotes, Cat says that this story is part of a shared world project started by Philip Athans, so perhaps there's more.

"Surrogates" seemed a bit like the Far version of "Not Waving, but Drowning", 'cept in a far future society. The protag has an Insanity Chip in her head, which allows her to edit the world she senses. It's a touch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but from a great angle. And her descriptions of the edits the protag sees are immersive.

I'd say that, for me, hands down, the best story in both collections was "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain". Most stories about falling in love turn me off immediately. It's been done so much. But this story was intimate, beautiful, tragic, and told as smoothly as the character's porcelain skin. I'm pretty shocked it was original to this collection. Original stories tend to be stinkers or just perfectly fine stories, never having gone through the vetting processes of editor crits (I'm sure Hydra House had the story edited, but I mean in the marketplace). Whatever the case, this is my favorite story of the collection. 

There are afternotes for the stories in both collections, which is one of my favorite parts to read. It's like the context of the context.

On its own, Far is a strong collection of stories. Together in one book, both collections, Near+Far, represent a selection of Cat Rambo's work over the last five years and show that she is a writer able to capture the human perspective on life and relationships in the most imaginative environments.

Sounds: Tarentel - For Carl Sagan

This song is a fucking dream. A long dream, but a gorgeous one. I grew up watching these guys around the Bay Area and this place isn't the same without them. They've gone on to do some pretty awesome stuff (Root Strata, Grouper), but now I just want them to come back. Come back, Tarentel!

Hyperlapse

Though I think the term is a bit off, the technique is not. Hyperlapse basically is moving the camera while taking hi-definition stills at regular intervals, what we call normals call "timelapse". Not sure where the hyper- comes in, as not all of these shots done by video artist Ben Wiggins involve movement and not all of them are of large intervals either. In some hours go by in two seconds (the sunsets), while in others only scores of seconds go by in seconds (people walking on the street; might actually be minutes, but to me it looks like ~30 seconds). None of this detracts from the fact that this piece is hyper-fucking-good. And the music by DeVotchKa doesn't hurt.

Watch:

Very Little Stars from Timelapse, Inc. on Vimeo.

Originally spotted over at the Atlantic.