Great Song & Video

I Am a Bank.

I have so much money,
I am a bank.
I am a bank.
I am a bank.
I am a bank.
I am a bank.
I am a bank.
I am a bank.
I am a bank.
I am a bank.

THURSDAY

CSBYS FEBRUARY ISSUE

It was 2007 and everything was new.

Aarthi and I were once going to make a zine about the South Campus Gateway which, at the time, had just opened. This is a version of that text, unedited for non-clarity and replete with a sort of half-baked political rumormongering. But our naysaying has been thoroughly vindicated through the years. Today, the Gateway is a mess that is currently relying on "The Arts" to bail it out and keep it populated. The movie theater has changed hands annually, people have been killed their annually, and businesses seemingly close monthly. Their current roster of business can be summed up as tanning salons and bars for the people who love them. Some of the storefronts - smartly - never even opened. And, yes, the houses directly across from it on 9th still lay vacant. Without further ado:

IN WITH THE NEW, OUT WITH THE NEW:

THE FIVE THEMES OF

THE SOUTH CAMPUS GATEWAY:

James y Lux

Introduction:

In 1995, The Ohio State University and the city of Columbus created Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment to “revitalize” the southern section of High Street in the University District between 9^th Avenue and Chittenden.  (///) The South Campus Gateway was set into motion—a supposed safe-haven for the college market directly adjacent to the area. The existing bars that lined High Street were to be replaced by “student-friendly” drinking spots, along with other various businesses that would draw a more acceptable clientele. The bar district and residents that once inhabited the unattractive Southside of Columbus’ University District were made to disperse, their premises vacated and gutted, and construction began in 2004. The South Campus Gateway was opened for business in the fall of 2005, and immediately became an all-inclusive entity: where one could eat, live, and play—and never have to leave.

PARTY PICS

JANUARY "RIOT ISSUE" OF CSBYS ALT MONTHLY

The fourth and best issue of Columbus Sucks Because You Suck monthly is out. Its theme is the history of riots in Columbus, which is a surprisingly fertile topic. Contents include Brian Deller's recount of streetcar labor riots in the early 20th century, Wes Flexner giving a slice of riotous memoir (written on a phone!), Martin Weedsteeler's avant-garde poetry, Miles dishing on media, a new Constance Taylor comic, illustrations from Troy and Ana, a poster by Ryan Eilbeck, a firsthand account of the 2002 Michigan game riots by Bret, a how-to on mastering recordings by Adam from Columbus Discount, some unfortunate, xenophobic rumours about Ali Baba and a recount of the 1970 OSU riots I posted here a few months ago, now complete with photos.

Whole issue after "the jump."

Party Pics

OCT. 31, 1978

I was forced to enroll in an internet class to keep my financial aid while I work an internship in Chicago that is the last requirement of my degree. The class has ridiculous assignments. This one was to write a story or narrative about a piece of artwork we had previously described. Here is what I rattled off,  A DEAR DIARY from On Kawara on OCT.31,1978. Why am I still in school? It is after "the jump" but I wouldn't bother if I were you.

Party Pics

A Poem for Travellers

Oh, O'Hare

Oh late thirties, early forties, smartly adorned couple, encumbered
with shopping bags, with child, the luggage, with waiting,
with your conversation that fills the moment, sipping
a bon mot or two to pass the time, at the airport, always
at the airport, in one line or another. You met during undergrad,
coastal. Honeymoon, holidays, in-laws, full partners, heli-drops, contented sighs,
fertility drugs for the little one, though you really tried.
She with the red American Girl Place shopping bag, he
with the scarf, the coat, the watch, the shirt, the shoes -
how the wait can get to you. The line being simply unending,
ten minutes in all, the worker telling the six check-ins, three carry-ons,
the tennis racquet backpack, to move along, what gall!
No, that is too much, far too much, no that won’t stand.
With quick retort, a remark of genius was at hand:
“Ma’am you know what would really get this line moving is if
you had a few more workers to help the check-in man.”
Ah. Voila.
The clarity. The mental acuity. The trenchant analysis that had
eluded the ma’am in her duty. After all, it had only been
three and a half months since her role precipitously soared,
“You need to do more, our profits are dropping through the floor,
you’ll cover the let go – we need to stay competitive, it’s a marketplace you know.”
It being just three and a half, perhaps maybe four,
your incisive commentary must have opened new doors, new avenues
on the theory and origin of long lines, while your blithe conflation,
blithest of all time, in the responsibility of the organization of the line,
of the working and the ownership class and their difference in kind,
belied your none too opaque,
fixations on faraway fly-fishing, derivatives, choking
an escort in a Holiday Inn on a business trip to Duluth.
And this conflation, begging a response, a rapt clip to the midsection, perhaps,
was filed away, moved along, into the long line that fills the day,
drinks the night, keeps rent a further month out of sight.
For you are the consumer, you are the customer,
and my sir and my dear lovely lady, how you are always right.

An MP3 of me reading this poem.

_

Party Pics

Top 5 of 2000s: Bitter Homes & Gardens

"Perhaps human beings weren't made to be happy and free all the time, we're always trying to enslave ourselves one way or another, if it's not through a career it's through a relationship or it's through kids. It just doesn't seem to be the natural human state. We go through a good phase then we regress. I'm really glad you're happy just be prepared because tomorrow you might be thrown on the scrapheap." - Richard Linklater's Slacker.

Bitter Homes and Gardens' single album is dark gray. A dark gray manifesto in favor of admitting reality during the mid 2000s reign of unreal happy punks. It's music for those that refused to drink the Kool-Aid of folk-punk and bike rides and holding hands. The sound is bass heavy and shitty. The lyrics are saturated in self-loathing; personal excoriation permeates each and every song - a total rejection of the affirmative utopia that Bloomington signified on message boards across America. The first song on the album is actually called "Bloomington," an appropriate opener as the rest of the album can be thought of as the answer to one of its first lines:

"Do you think a person could just disappear on the walk from Seventh Street down to Town Square?"

Health Care?

On the eve of the U.S Senate passing health care "reform" I thought I would look back on the 6 month-plus odyssey through the muck of legislative capitulation that led to this bill. THEN I got depressed. You know, when I graduate college in three months, four out of five members of my family will officially be sans health care. So, therapeutically, I thought I would post some better visions that were sadly left out to pasture - to be all optimistic-like.
This bill, by the way, is shit. A mandate without a control or substantial competition. No reimportation, no anti-trust, no public option, no single payer obv, no medicare extension, it goes on. In a related note, Obama's presidency will be short and poorly remembered unless he develops both principles (besides the principle that multi-faceted, elaborate speeches are ersatz cure-alls) and the ability to fight for them.

High School Bedroom!

Monster House 12/18/09

Recorded sets from 12/18/09

Girlfriends

Thread and Butter

Laura Stevenson and the Cans

Spooktober

Party Pics

200fine

2009 In premature media remembrance.

Before the perfunctory lists - I don't know what I was doing in 2009 but apparently reading, watching and listening wasn't part of it. My film watching in particular dropped off compared to 2006-2008 while my reading migrated to blogs (not working at a bookstore anymore didn't help). Music, on the other hand, "left me." It has become a black hole. We live in the most slashed-and-burnt musical landscape of the last 50 years (excising the late 90s). If you do not agree, if you think the Democratic Party that is indie music is captivating, please write an argument about what you think vital, intriguing music is and compare that to the forthcoming end of year lists. I think the discrepancy will be apparent. Perhaps I am just bitter about the impotent husk my generation is leaving - one split down the middle between soundtracks for camera parties of the self absorbed and soundtracks for romantic comedies aimed at high school art students. Any idea that any of the indie bands on any type of "national" stage are anything other than the Stone Temple Pilots / Franz Ferdinand ethos updated for 2009-10 is misguided at best.  Also, DIY is stale and is in need of a paradigm shift - most, if not all, of the political planks in DIY during the Bush era have been mainstreamed and both the content and presentation lack real oppositional meaning. There is an absent center in music. I'm rather annoyed at my place in time. How else can I say this - music is boring.

The five books I most enjoyed reading in 2009.

1. John Porcellino - Thoreau at Walden
Found a copy of this in Shakespeare's on a particularly self-hating day of wandering and anonymity - made me happy.
2. Phil Baines - Penguin by Design: A Cover Story
This is such a pleasurable book. It makes you entertain the idea that perhaps you could be satisfied with doing design - like maybe learning how to use a computer would be worth it. It's so good it made me forget what InDesign or whatever is actually like. Also, I love the socialistic broad based education/high-design/cheapness political programme evident in the publisher. Ah, Britain in the 30s.
3. Rose Marie Hagen - 15th Century Paintings
Brenda stole this for me from a hostel in Portugal. It's one of those cheap Taschen books written for a popular audience. Weird stories about degenerate royal families, oranges as signs of wealth, etc. Finished it on a pier that smelled of pee. Saw about half the paintings the next week in London.
4. Simon Blackburn - Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy
I took Philosophy 101 in response to uncomfortable conversations I had no basis for. This book is incredibly entertaining, pithy, concise, lucid, etc. Other plaudits.
5. Joe Brainard - I Remember
This is a 150 or so page book where every sentence begins with "I Remember." A lot like mainlining 40s and 50s American pop culture through the eyes of Joe Brainard. I'm sure a lot of people wrote their own, shitty version of this.

 The five films I most enjoyed watching in 2009.

1. Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Leonard Cohen
I don't even particularly care about Leonard Cohen - like at all. And this pre-dates his singing career. Just a young poet in Quebec in 1965, surrounded by well dressed people. Genius. I don't understand how this isn't in the documentary film canon, or maybe it is and I somehow just never saw it. Totally surprised me.
2. Great Dictator - Charlie Chaplin
I sought out a lot of classic things I should have already seen or read in 2009 (Odyssey/Moby Dick/Blowup) and forced myself through them. This was like that but way more enjoyable. Sort of amazing. Ballsy.
3. So Is This - Michael Snow
Safe to say the funniest text-based, Canadian experimental film I saw this year.
4. Grey Gardens - The Maysles
Again, something I had always heard about and put off. Holy shit. Blew my mind.
5. Media Spin - Brian Springer
I already made this a post on this blog, which should tell you something because I don't usually include any non-navel gazing.

The five performances I most enjoyed seeing in 2009.

                                                 Photo by Jimmy Buttons.


1. Cult Ritual - Monster House
Scathing. Totally exciting, a collapse of life into hardcore.
2. Aaron Hibbs - Hula Hoop Record
Historic.
3. Batrider - Monster House
Batrider really got to the visceral self-loathing that grunge should be and did it in a noisy, painful way.
4. Rage Against the Cage - In the Alley
5. bell hooks at OSU
hooks likes younger men. I like hooks.

The complete lists of books I read and films I saw this year after "the jump."

Michael D. Hall's New Book on Emerson Burkhart

Michael D. Hall's new monograph published by Scala.

My last story for the Lantern is a preview of a book presentation by Michael D. Hall, the  Columbus Museum of Art's adjunct curator of folk art. Hall has spent the last ten years developing a book on Emerson Burkhart, an odd local/regional figure who didn't "fit" into the larger themes of the art world of his time. By all accounts he was flagrantly egotistical, arrogant, stubborn, etc. Also, a 20 year-old prostitute was the last person to talk to him before he fell into a coma and died in 1969. So, apparently, he was a smarmy type. This info is a little annoying to know - I used to revel in Burkhart's paintings while in high school. He painted T H I C K - something I was obsessed with at the time. His palette centered on hyper pastels, another tic I cultivated. I stopped searching his work out when I stopped painting in oils but a recent visit to the Convention Center renewed my interest. His mural there, "Music," is really beautiful - though Hall and a few other commentators online seem to dismiss it as derivative - which it is - but so is his whole oeuvre. After all, he was a Columbus artist.

"Music" at the Convention Center. History of the piece here.

An MP3 of my interview with Hall here.
My story plus more of Burkhart's paintings after "the jump."

CSBYS Alt Monthly - December

Yes, that is the cover.

This issue has a printed version of my interview with Jay Ryan. Also included: Martin talking about Anne Elizabeth Moore, Constance muckracking subliminal sexual cancer marketing and Bret regaling us with tales of "the one."

Rest of the issue after "the jump."

Wexner Center Media Arts Seminar Blog

A Cassavetes film Green's students wrote about for their class blog.

I recently wrote this story - my second to last for the Lantern - about Ron Green's partnership with the Wexner Center to develop a public blogging mechanism for his seminar class devoted to the Wexner's Media Arts programming. Set ups like this are sort of a no-brainer to me yet they seem to not be a widespread practice at OSU. Of course, that's OSU. So kudos to Green and the Wexner for attempting something out of the norm.

An interview with Chris Stults, the Wexner Center's assistant curator of film/video - here.
An interview with Dan Guarnieri, a student in the class - here.

The story is after "the jump." So is my interview with Green.

Ohio State University Press

                                   Two new books out on the Ohio State University Press.

I recently wrote a profile of the Ohio State university press for the Lantern. It's located somewhere out in the Siberia of west campus and diligently and unassumedly goes about its business of publishing fine fare for the literary critics of the world. The books above are departures for the lit-based press: "The Freshwater Mussels of Ohio" and a book of William S. Burroughs' unpublished papers straight out of OSU's special collections. My sister used to work at the press about a decade ago and from all accounts enjoyed it. I found the staff to be insightful, gregarious, hilarious, etc. The MP3 of our conversation is here. I speak with Malcolm Litchfield - the Director, Jennifer Forsythe - the Production Manager, Jason Gray - the Journals Manager, and Laurie Avery the Marketing Director.

The story is after "the jump." It begins with a "Hey, doesn't reading suck?" lead to properly connect with the OSU community.

Amelia - Complete Discography

                                                  Photo by Dana Curran

Amelia was a band I played bass in from the time I came back from Paris in the beginning of April until the middle of September when we broke up. We released a tape split with Pheramones, went on a short tour with Delay and played Berea Fest in Berea, D.I.T Fest in Kent, and (sort of) Southwest Folk Fest in Chicago. We had plans to release a seven-inch of some sort with rerecorded versions of some of the following songs. It should be noted: we had one more whole song, never recorded, and two more songs in the works, also not recorded. Ryan is now playing in Slugging Percentage and something with Austin Eilbeck, I occasionally sing for Lose The Tude and Maryn still plays solo.

Maryn's original recording of "Shapes."

1. Shapes

Ryan and Maryn's original demo:

1. Little Flower
2. We'll Land

Amelia's practice demo (recorded on my digital voice recorder):

1.  Little Flower
2.  I Just Can't
3.  "The Fast One"
4.  Bridges
5.  Heart of Mine
6.  We'll Land

Kari's recording (our side of the tape split with Pheramones).

1. Little Flower
2. I Just Can't
3. Heart of Mine
4. We'll Land
5. Bridges
6. Shapes

After "the jump" a list of all the shows we played:

20 Years of ROY G BIV

From Mark Van Fleet's 2008 show at ROY.

ROY G BIV recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, staying alive through a period of time which saw the Short North go from child prostitution central to "used to be cool five years ago" affluence. ROY saw it all and showed everyone in the process. It remains exciting and incredibly valuable to Columbus due to its actual openness to showing actually new artists. The next season's lineup - top secret of course - piqued my interest. Surprises abound. And Cassie has a show there in February with Daniel Hoffman. Here is what my show there looked like in July.

Interview MP3 with Daniel Work, a founding member of ROY and former director, here.
Interview MP3 with Justin Luna, the current director of ROY here.

I wrote the story below for The Lantern (Lantern version here. Somehow gentrification becomes "Arts District" - just like the real world!) It's after "the jump."

Two New Columbus Zines.

Two new zines are out in Columbus - "Black Cloud" and "Candygram." Full blogger disclosure: I am indirectly involved with both. Bret's "The Black Cloud #3" is a community affair that has a pretty classic Brian Deller story, a State of the Neighborhood address from present and future politico Miles Curtiss and contributions from Nick Crane and Meg O'Malley. Ana from Painkiller provides a sweet illustration reproduced below. There is also a reprint of my "When the Students Are Away..." poster.

More on Candygram, buttons, a bad story and something about editions after "the Jump."

A.A. Bondy Story

I was assigned a story about A.A. Bondy. This entailed talking to a real live music publicist who told me my admittedly long email address "wasn't making it easy for anyone." I'm lucky in the sense that Bondy isn't Red Wanting Blue or any of the more typical OSU bar bands the Lantern seems to cover. On the other hand, why I am writing public relations material for someone I really couldn't care less about? The whole practice of writing stories based on press releases and publicity contacts seems like a rather evil collusion for news organizations, even for the quasi legitimate stories of an "Arts Reporter." Bondy used to be in a pretty trite grunge "alt" band in the 90's called Verbena - here is the video for their big play into the mainstream.

I normally love (<3) nineties alternative music. But Verbena strikes me as hack work. Much the same can be said for Bondy's newer direction, that Dylan pose punk rockers often strike as they turn 30. There are some songs on his new album that I felt were good-ish... but it seems, like Pitchfork basically says, a soulless recapitulation of a genre's motifs. When that genre is punk, okay maybe, when it is "roots, blues, country influenced, Americana, singer-songwriter folk," no. Definitely not. I haven't retired to the land of NPR and concerts for the DNC quite yet.

I do manage to mention Merge Records and Thomas Function as well as make an allusion to This Bike is a Pipe Bomb.

After "the jump" is the story I turned in.
And the Lantern version.

Image Party

"Shoot" "Dang"

A disjointed, incoherent essay about Chris Burden's "Shoot" for my History of Art course. Comes with extra confusion from an elementary understanding of "Understanding Media." Apologies to my professors forever.




Here is a section I left out of the essay:

In the background of one post-shooting photo a woman smiles, talking with an out of frame audience member. Her face is behind and to the left of Burden’s frenzied one. She could be in any gallery opening "Who's who" slide show or tagged on Facebook in one of her friend’s party pics. The installation of actual violence inside a gallery did not structurally change the dimension of spectatorship. “Shoot” did not necessitate a new viewership, one with moral obligations to the proceedings. This should not be a surprise – how many Communications studies' cases demonstrate the point that the disinterested public rarely reacts to violence in the public sphere? Compound that with art world traditions of not touching, and the posture of ironic removal endemic in art types. Extrapolating this to international relations of violence and we see the lack of international recourse to the “pre-emptive” invasion of Iraq as unsurprising. But it is too much for individuals to stop another individual’s artwork (or another nation's war). This is something Burden obviously thought about and fit into a career of similar actions. It would be absurd to ask otherwise of a select group of intimates and acquaintances privy to Burden’s modus operandi.

So, in some sense because of audience size and make up, “Shoot” is a
failure. What does it mean to not have someone intercede when there is
no likelihood they would do so anyway? To properly make this point
“Shoot” would have had to have been a more public affair, with the
artist’s intentions broadcast widely and clearly. If still no one had
interceded that would have meaning. Depressing meaning.

Essay after "The Jump."

Artists Insurance Program

Here is a problem:

Artists are congenitally poor or so the expression "starving artist" would have us believe. Art is undervalued (or valued correctly and just not that important) and being just an artist while living is hard to do. Yet there are successful artists and their art ends up having value, often expressed monetarily - sometimes quite exorbitantly. However, the number of artists or creators who get to this level is quite small and sometimes even they are not the direct recipient of their work's worth.

Here is a possible solution:

Artists often know many other artists through schooling or group shows, collaborative projects and bad parties.

It is known that a percentage of these artists will be successful.

When an artist is successful their artwork, including and perhaps especially their early artwork, often becomes valuable.

So as a means of insurance does it not make sense for a community of artists to make and exchange artwork among themselves in a systematic way?

Method:

If you are an artist pick thirty of your artist friends.
Inform them of this idea.
Take one month of your life.
Make one piece of work each day.
Exchange that work.
Wait 20 years.
Google your former friends.
If one of the thirty friends becomes famous you have at least paid for your work during the month, if not become independently wealthy.

1 of 30 is perhaps too optimistic of odds. Of course you would pick your artist friends who you felt were most likely to succeed. Still, it may make more sense to do this for two or three months. I think 1 of 100 is approaching reasonable if selected for quality. I would encourage trading with those living in large urban centers, particularly New York. Based on history, to increase your odds I would pick white, upper-class males, preferably those educated at schools whose names you recognize on the coast (Or alternatively, SAIC, MICA, RISD, UCLA, and Savannah). Research their backgrounds - are their parents involved in the arts? Do they already know some wealthy patrons? Magazine editors? Curators?


I am available for public policy think tanks.

New Buttons

 

From a German design magazine from the 70s called M D.

Jay Ryan and Paul Hornschemeier at Wholly Craft. 11/13/09

Jay Ryan's "Animals and objects in and out of water."      Paul Hornschemeier's "All and Sundry."

Chicagoans Jay Ryan and (former Columbusite) Paul Hornschemeier recently stopped by Wholly Craft to sign, sell and talk about their work. Ryan silkscreens posters for bands like The Decemberists, The Melvins and Fugazi. Hornschemeier makes comics, writes short stories and also does freelance illustration for major media outlets. Some of his more recent comics he shared take on an illustrated prose form instead of comics.

                    I get this because I am taking Philo 101. From Hornschemeier's "three paradoxes."

Here is a MP3 of Hornschemeier reading from his book.
Here are two (1, 2) MP3s of Ryan presenting his work.

After "The Jump" is a transcript of an interview (MP3) with Ryan that touches of digital aesthetics, hand painted signs, business models of posters, design vs. art, etc. Also below is a copy of their tour itinerary.

Politics & Punk Houses

                                                Cassie.

Yesterday, during a show at the Monster House, my roommate Cassie Troyan interviewed me about my views on the political ramifications of punk houses. I take on a desultory, jaded tone about it. I believe she is using this interview as the basis of a story for The Journal of Radical Shimming.

                                       MP3 of interview here.

Some topics covered: Paris in 68, Jehovah's Witnesses, Grunge, Dutch Pillarisation, OSU riots in 1970, Punk House as Frat House, CSBYS history, Cat and Girl, Clinton-era political correctness, psychology of solidarity, Luc Tuymans, fetishization of radicalism, Kevin Tavin, social networking, Against me!, upward mobility, Barack Obama, Ivy League vs. State Universities, mediation.

During our talk these bands played:

Warm Hands

Ginger Fetus

Ginger Fetus + Toby

LUC TUYMANS / T.J. CLARK

MP3 of the talk here.

Around 1:23:00 I ask Tuymans the following:

"Most of the work in this show deals with pernicious policies enacted by ruling classes, for instance Belgium's colonialism or, in America, the policies of the Bush administration. But because of the way your work circulates in the world, the people who benefit from these policies are the only ones who can own your work. Is this bothersome for you or do you view it as poetic justice?"

A review I wrote of the Tuymans show at the Wexner here.

A review I wrote for class of the talk after "the jump."

SPACEBOY

     Mike Olenick and Nanette Hayakawa in Spaceboy.

Mike Olenick's SPACEBOY is a glammed up rendition of a 1970s short by Renate Druks. It's a kaleidoscopic fantasia on an outer space siren and the boystronaut who falls for her. It's good!

I wrote a story about it for The Lantern below. It's not too great - my interview with Olenick was accidentally erased before I could write it.

Here is Melissa Starker's better written story for the Alive.

The Lantern version.

New Buttons.

13 E. Tulane

Story below on 13 E.Tulane / itlookslikeitsopen project space/place. Sandy Plank and Jessica Alcalde have a show there December 5th that everyone should be sparkling about.

Lantern version here: (note - they are not current students.)

Andy tells me:

"I think I'm hanging some recent photos actually. And some paper things. All of it will be highly questionable of course.

ON MY HISTORY OF ART TEST...

Two essays I wrote during a test for Kris Paulsen's class + other stuff:

These two paintings are of symbols of America - so consequentally - of pluralism and capitalism. Each presents a commodity, an everyday object that is recontextualized as an art object. Both become something new through representation: John's becomes a flag, Warhol's an advertisement. And both garner meaning from their means of production.

IMAGE PART-T-TY

Dale Chihuly - "Chihuly Illuminated."

Below is a very sedate and non-controversial review of the Dale Chihuly show at the CMA. I wrote it for the Lantern. Here are some insights I left out of it:

1. Sponsoring "Chihuly in Columbus" is a who's who of Columbus' large corporations - Huntington Bank, Nationwide Insurance, American Electric Power, The Columbus Dispatch, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, and others. Over five major exhibitions of his work have been held in Columbus since 1988. The Conservatory even bought a large part of his 2003 show to be a part of its permanent collection. The Conservatory, CMA and Hawk Galleries are all showing his studio's work right now. So much love because...

2. It is about nothing. Not in the Seinfeld way. It is empty aesthetics. It is ripe for corporate and institutional support because it says nothing. It is artwork for grandparents. His work is set outside of any contemporary art world considerations. It is nice looking, ornate glass. Sometimes it is neon. Sometimes his painting/sketches refer to Jackson Pollock, sometimes they refer to painting flowers. In the show his work is directly compared to Native American objects and designs. This is the rich, white, liberal, multi-cultural " I appreciate their artwork/culture/food" contempt/pillaging/appropriation/commodification/misuse of constructed authenticity, portion of the show. These white-bred conservative corporations (Dispatch: McCain in 08!) sponsoring the "remember before the genocide - their stuff looked nice" bullshit. The equation of nature in the tree with Native American life is unneeded + regressive + cynical.

Pandering to the idea of nature as inspiring. Quasi religious.

3. He has artist image branding a la Warhol + Beuys. Wacky hats and pants. Huge frizzy fro. It's just like an artist to be so unique in their personal style isn't it? That is something normals want/expect. Adds to stupid conceptions of creativity/"creatives."

4. One of the rooms shows work already shown  one mile away at the Conservatory. What?

5. Exhibition ends with a sign telling you to walk back through the exhibit to go to the lobby???

6. Dan Flavin's piece at end of show: hilarious.

7. By the way, let me emphasize that his signature on his painting/sketches takes up 1/6 to 1/4 of the picture plane and is centrally located in the bottom third of each panel. Not the lower right. It is as much of a design element as anything in any of the works - probably thee design element.

The Lantern Version.

My pre-editor review for the Lantern after "the jump."

Stacie Sells is a Film Festival Juror - Story About.

I wrote a story for the Lantern about Stacie being a Juror for the Columbus International Film and Video Festival. Exhilarating. It's after "the jump."

Recent Interviews

Ryan Agnew, Jamie Boyle, Herb Vincent Peterson, and Aimee Sones on their project space "13 E.Tulane."

Lindsey Gibson on the feminist activist group Women and Allies Rising in Resistance, or WARR.

Former OSU student on the 2002 Chittenden riots after the Michigan Game.

Lisa Dent, contemporary curator at CMA, on the Dale Chihuly show.

Tim Cummiskey, a jazz guitarist, in the worst interview I've ever conducted.

The Lantern story about Tim Cummiskey.

November CSBYS Monthly

This is the second month of editor Deller's adventure into the world of alt-mags. Among its contents you will find can collecting stories, comics, "Kristina's sister," and plenty of leftist chit-chat.

Notes on Selling Out, Part One.

I don’t believe that people should make the good the enemy of the perfect. At the same time, that is the kind of bullshit that keeps Joe Lieberman in the Democratic caucus. So it needs to be evaluated.

Media Spin

This is so good.

Rough Draft of OSU RIOTS

Story after "the jump."

MONSTER HOUSE 10/26/09

Delay
Batrider
The Pharmacy
Rage Against The Cage

IMAGE PARTIES

DRAKKE

TWINS show. Monster House 10/23/09

Imperial Can - Chris Clavin's new band.

Sidekicks - Stevie Baby.

Lessners talk Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace

Thom Lessner talks childhood nostalgia, gallery vs. decoration, and his upcoming show at the Mahan Gallery.       

Thom Lessner Interview MP3.

Lantern version of the story.

Email interview with Elizabeth Lessner, the owner of Dirty Frank's, after the jump.

Skylab Show October 26th

I'm booking this show at Skylab (57 E. Gay St.) for October 26th at 9pm. Batrider is a grunge band from New Zealand. Delay is a grunge band from Columbus. The Pharmacy is a grunge band from Seattle. Rage Against The Cage is a grunge band from the barbershop. This is during Aaron Hibbs' historic hula hoop run.

Monster House 10/17

Some recorded sets.

Slugging Percentage

Tacocat

IMAGE PARTY

Candygram

Candygram is a new literary journal in Columbus. Here is an mp3 of my interview with the editor, Shannon Byers, and below is a news story I wrote about it for The Lantern.

SWORD HEAVEN, DRUMS LIKE MACHINE GUNS 10/15

I recorded two sets.

Sword Heaven

Drums Like Machine Guns

DIZZY HIPS

MP3 of my interview with Aaron Hibbs.

Pre-edit Lantern Story after "the jump."

And the Lantern version.

Guillaume

I made 100 of these for the Wexner Store. I guess Chris Marker is going to get some.

Short Interview with John Porcellino

You started out self publishing comic zines, what has the transition to working with publishers and in the book form been like?

Well, it has taken some adjustment on my part, mainly from having done all the work, both creatively and business-wise, on King-Cat for so long.  But, you know, I love books--  that's what got me started in zines in the first place, my desire to make books of some sort, so I'm very happy that this material is available in that form.  And working with a publisher like D+Q--  it's a good fit--  they understand where I'm coming from.

I think one of the distinctive things in your work is the line quality, the sparseness of it as well as the playfulness. Is it a conscious style decision or something that developed organically? What does it help you achieve in terms of content? Whose work do you look at in terms of that?

Mostly I think it was just an organic, natural evolution.  It was kind of a continuation of the way I drew comics as a kid.  Of course it's a lot more refined than what I drew as a kid, but I do see it as a progression that's been going on for most of my life.

This was never really a conscious intention on my part, but I think the sparseness of the comics lends a kind of universality to them, as well as putting people at ease when they encounter them.  Which are both objectives of mine.

As far as what work I look at, I read all kinds of comics and look at all kinds of art.  I can appreciate it all.  I wouldn't want to limit myself to only being exposed to certain types of work.  It all comes together in my head, and I draw inspiration from a lot of disparate sources.

Do you enjoy book tours? How does it relate or contrast compared to touring with a band?

The tours are great--  it's cool seeing new cities, and traveling, meeting new people and seeing friends I haven't seen in a long time.  It can be a little grueling, but that's a small price to pay for all the awesomeness...  Books tours are very similar to band tours, at least the way I do them, except that with book tours I'm usually on my own, or with a different artist.  I loved playing in bands because of the interaction between the members of the group, but at the same time I appreciate the "solo gig" kind of mentality of comics--  it's just me up there sinking or swimming.

Thoreau at Walden has been very well received - how has that changed your practice? Do you plan on doing more adaptations or sticking to your own material?

I don't know that it's changed what I do at all...  but it was a great experience.  The only similar thing I have in my head at this point is to do a comics biography of the Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa.  That's a story that I'd love to tackle some day.

Map of my Heart is a new collection featuring work in your zine from 96-02. Was it strange getting reacquainted with your work from that time in your life? What are some of the themes you see? How does it fit in with your body of work? Etc?

It wasn't "strange" looking back at it--  but it was interesting, and it helps me learn a bit about myself to look back on the old work occasionally.  Thematically, what I see in Map of My Heart is a question about where the line between dream and reality lies.  Maybe also the nature of suffering, and how to live with it, and appreciate it.

If there's been one continuous thread throughout my adult life, it's been King-Cat.  So I see this work as a constantly evolving expression, where all the parts fit in where they belong naturally.  That said, the work in this book is kind of of a piece--  it was a time when things were shifting for me, and my approach changed a little--  the poetry and comics really merged for me at this point, and the book documents that shift.  Plus the return to Nature, my growing interest in Zen Buddhism, etc.

Tangential question: How do you view the relation of comics to punk rock/DIY?

Well, for me, they're part and parcel, at least in my approach to them.  When I was coming up in punk, and the truly independent music scene of the 1980's, self-publishing was just a natural extension of the music, and the scene.  It was the same thing as being in a band.  My immersion in punk/DIY was completely life-changing, and I've viewed everything since then through that lens.  It's a way of life.

Time Magazine on John
John's Website



This is the shitty story I turned the interview into:

John Porcellino makes comic books that Time Magazine has called some of the most thoughtful, intelligent, sympathetic, and beautiful in America. This Monday his cross-country book tour makes a stop at the do-it-yourself boutique Wholly Craft in Clintonville.

Porcellino will be signing books as well as reading from his latest, “Map of my Heart,” which he says is about “the nature of suffering and how to live with it and appreciate it.”

Its publication on Drawn and Quarterly marks the Twentieth anniversary of Porcellino’s independently published zine, “King-Cat Comics and Stories.” “Map of my Heart” collects material originally seen in King-Cat from 1996 to 2002.

It was an important period for Porcellino; “It was a time when things were shifting for me, and my approach changed a little. The poetry and comics really merged for me at this point.”

It was also a personally challenging time for Porcellino as he dealt with the pain of divorce and depression that is at the heart of this autobiographical book.

It is not all melancholy though.

There is the soothing sense of poetry in his work, through either his subtle, paced narration or minimal line drawing. His stories often leave the reader thinking by acting more like an epigram or a koan than the stereotypical comic book.

Porcellino believes “the sparseness of the comics lends a kind of universality to them” that helps in “putting people at ease when they encounter them.”

This is especially evident in last year’s “Thoreau at Walden” where Porcellino’s calm, expansive style found its perfect match in Henry David Thoreau’s transcendentalist philosophy.

His books before “Thoreau” include “Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man,” which won Porcellino an Ignatz award in 2005 for Outstanding Collection, and “Perfect Example,” a dreamy coming of age story crisscrossed by skateboarding and mental illness.

His initial zines concerned subjects like playing in punk bands and the special bond people have with pets. He often included satirical stories about pop-culture targets like Madonna or the comic strip “Mark Trail.”

In recent years he has incorporated into his work ideas from Zen philosophy and a pronounced reverence for nature.

Porcellino’s books and zines have been translated in over six languages and included in dozens of anthologies since he first began to publish King-Cat in 1989.

Joining Porcellino on his book tour is a musician from Portland, Oregon named Patrick Porter. Porter will play songs from his new album, “A Swan at Smiley’s.” His low-key experimental folk songs are well suited to both the tone of Porcellino’s comics and Wholly Craft’s intimate setting.

The event will start at 7pm at Wholly Craft on Monday, October 12^th. Wholly Craft is located at 3169 N.High Street. Admission is free.

CSBYS NEW ALT MONTHLY

Columbus Sucks Because You Suck now comes with a legitimate alternative monthly, filling the void in our city for writing that doesn't make you regret living here. Brian Deller heads up the publication as he has the flyer. All the usual suspects have pieces in this: Martin of Weedsteeler, Bret from Black Cloud, Max of Biff Boff Barf, and some sundry other individuals. I have a piece in it about ways people come up with names for Punk houses and what naming those houses mean. I posted it on this blog here.

Here is the scanned in, out of order, magazine. Cover first then more after 'the jump.'

LU C TU Y MANS

PRE-EDITOR EDISH:

Major museum retrospectives usually occur in the last years of an artist’s life or the first years there after. To be the subject of one as a “mid-career” artist is a rare, honorable distinction. But for Luc Tuymans, it seems overdue.

Tuymans, born in 1958 in Belgium, is a pre-eminent European painter informed by post-war politics, the language of cinema and the photo-paintings of Gerhard Richter. His work demands high prices on the international art market and high regard in critical journals.

Over 70 works of his are on display, filling up each gallery of the Wexner Center for the Arts on campus.

In a reductive sense, Tuymans’ work drives to undercut the authority of the image. His paintings aim to make clear the tangle of ideology underneath the innocent façade of a skier or a rabbit, a wax seal or an empty room.

But once one realizes the empty room is a gas chamber or that the blank skier is the Third Reich’s favorite architect, the inner logic of the show is unlocked and each subsequent piece becomes less surprising. Around the third gallery listless apprehension sets in; no longer can you comfortably rest in the nook of an intriguing color scheme or contemplate a minimal composition. These paintings become impossible to process aesthetically since the question of what they actually represent is continually brought to the surface.

This discomfort is due to Tuymans' success in raising difficult questions about how we negotiate the meaning of Western civilization’s baggage. What isn’t questioned is the life of these paintings outside of his concept and aesthetic: Is producing a representation of an atrocity to sell for millions of dollars ethical? Is it still ethical if one’s buying audience is of the same ruling classes that initiated the colonial and genocidal policies he seems to condemn?

These objects, if they are regarded with the skeptical eye Tuymans asks us to put to his blank rooms and skiers, become like trading cards or postage stamps of humanity’s worst moments made to be exchanged among the affluent.

Artistically, Tuymans only runs into problems when his references are too obvious. His portrait of Condoleezza Rice is too direct to lead the American viewer into a dialogue. Likewise, when he introduces collage or text to his muted oils an element of mystery is lost, it becomes too clearly connected to the outside world.

He is at his best in a series concerning the colonial past of the Belgian Congo. Dueling portraits of rival leaders, one ruling on behalf of Belgian interests and the other a symbol of anti-colonial independence, set off a room of incendiary associations that plays like the visceral imagery of a film trailer.

Following soon after crowd pleasing exhibitions of Andy Warhol’s Marilyns and William Wegman’s Weimaraners might lead to a perception of this show as being inaccessible or severe. But with a little patience, a little context and some discussion, the rewards of Tuymans are likely to be more nourishing.

Co-curated by Madeleine Grynsztejn and Helen Molesworth, the Wexner Center’s former chief curator of exhibitions, the show will travel to San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, and Brussels, Belgium at the end of its run here January 3^rd.

The review at the Lantern.

Born Again Revisited Visited Again

This is the pre-editor seeing it edition of my review of Times New Viking's 4th lp, "Born Again Revisited."

On the back cover of their new album for Matador Records, Times New Viking provides us with a chart that claims their physical state has consistently deteriorated since their first album while their spiritual state has consistently been elevated.

While the entirety of the record seems to belie that sentiment, that overtone of career summation fills this album, fittingly titled “Born Again Revisited.” The title is a mix of oblique references to Charles Colson’s memoir “Born Again,” Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited,” and, possibly, the “B.A.R” on North Campus that has been at the center of their evolution, Café Bourbon Street.

The record design also revisits the past: there is the horse from their first seven-inch for Columbus Discount Records as well as the cursive font and the “Don’t Look Back” Dylan from “Dig Yourself.” The childlike peace signs on last year’s “Rip It Off” reappear on a burning flag from Woodstock 1999. These icons return Xeroxed out of recognition, darkened, sullied, or as photo negatives. They are no longer pure and fresh, they are revisited, recapitulated, and looked back at from an older age.

TNV has a history of playing with the motifs of the hippie counterculture through song titles like “Let Your Hair Grow Long” or drummer Adam Elliott’s insistent peace sign he waves to the audience while playing. Their co-optation of these signifiers has never been without a certain detachment – the knowledge that the optimism and political convictions of that time are nowhere to be found in today’s hip youth who seem content with commodified indie culture and establishment politics.

The generational difference between these two youth cultures, and the current impossibility and displacement of those past ideas is the metaphor the album is based on. This is made explicit in “2/11 Don’t Forget” where Elliott and singer Beth Murphy lethargically intone, “It’s not that I don’t like what you do, it’s just been done through and through.”

Born Again Revisited’s single is the mournful “Move to California,” a song whose half hearted chorus, “move to California, hear you’ll have a better time,” is the world weary opposite of other “California” songs like “California Dreaming” by The Mamas and Papas, “California Girls” by The Beach Boys, or more current fare by Phantom Planet. For TNV, the California that usually stands for optimism and possibility is both Haight-Ashbury and Altamont, both Mario Savio and Sirhan Sirhan.

Musically, TNV is still a noisy Beat Happening with all that entails: boy/girl vocals, pop melodies, and short songs that are deceptively simple. And yes, the production is still their fourth member. They wisely dodged the overwhelming sentiment that they should record cleaner by delivering the master recording for the album to their label on a videotape. As a joke or not, TNV claims the record to have 25% more fidelity. But with the double meaning of fidelity this could either mean they have 25% cleaner production or that they held onto their original concept even tighter.

Why tape fuzz has been the overriding preoccupation in their critical reception is mystifying but it underscores how adrift sites like Pitchfork are from independent recording and the context of do-it-yourself punk rock. Unfortunately for Times New Viking, their interjection of blown out recording into the mainstream indie rock world has launched a parade of disciples from California's Wavves to New York’s Vivian Girls, which has made TNV’s tape hiss ubiquitous.

This trend has put TNV in an impossible situation: keep making records in the same style of the crowd or drastically change by cleaning up their recordings and be berated for bowing to critical pressure. This is why the theme of “Born Again Revisited” is so strange, since it is a summation of a career too young to sum up. It leads one to wonder if they are saying this is their last album in this style or if they will, as they say in “High Hopes,” do it again.

TALKIN 2 ALMA

This post is of a Facebook Chat conversation I had in February with my friend Alma Vescovi about artist statements - sort of as a literary form. It's after "the jump."

BUTTONS

I made some new ones, including a series of famous dicks.

I have a predicament with these buttons. I want to start selling them at more venues besides the Wexner Center Store and the Columbus Museum of Art. To do that though, I need some sort of name to call them, a "brand." And unlike my really good band names (I Wish I Was Dead) I can't think of anything to call it. I used to call them "Jimi Baby Buttons" as a pun on Jimmy Buttons proper but that would be unseemly and overly confusing if I started selling them in a variety of places. This is especially important since literally anyone can do what I do - all you need is a button maker and some spare time. The difference, I guess, comes from the type of references you highlight - most of mine are a lot like my "artwork," lots of politics, art history references, recontextualization of visual ephemera, etc. But if you put those in a bowl next to some others, it's admittedly hard to tell the difference. My plan is to get little circle stickers with the name of the "company" and attach them to the pin backs. It makes sense too since each of these pins are one of a kind to attach them to a bigger concept. IDEAS? Also, if you want some of these, let me know. You can see more on the Deviant Art page I actually have.

AUSSI:
Amelia gets two show reviews; second 'seems' written by "Hipster Runoff," I feel. : One.  Two.
I've made it into Quimby's!
Stealth advertising campaign for "THE ROAD" on Weedsteeler.
The Lantern stole Vitamin Water's "look."
Sort of content with our Senator?

NAMES

SO YOU WANT TO NAME YOUR PUNK HOUSE…

      Well consider this: Given the demographic factors related to who frequents punk shows as well as the diverse selection of people one encounters at such shows, it is likely that at least one set of parents will have to, one day in the far off future, relate to their child the story of their meeting at your house. For that child’s sake, keep your puns fresh. But there is more than just an unborn child to consider, you will have to bear the burden of the chosen handle that represents your abode: it will have a spatial influence on flyers, a recall quotient for perspective show goers as well as the bands that play there, and, finally, the most important aspect; you not having to be embarrassed to tell strangers that, yes, you do live in “that house that does shows.”

sCOOLiosis

I wrote this a few years back as a storyboard for an autobiographical comic I was planning on making. Because of this it has a "young adult" fiction vibe. After two pages of realizing I can't draw, I shelved it - which was a great idea. The last thing people need is another shoddy autobiographical comic. But here it is, it's all about how I have scoliosis. Exciting! It is after "the jump."

PORTRAITS

Justin Luna, who is the guy who does things at ROY, took some shots of me during my show there. I am a model. They are transparencies so it scans a little like this.











































AUSSI:
Gigantotomy.
Execution Broadsides.

CATSz & Thing

ROY G BIV Artist Talk / Amelia

HERE is the link to a mp3 of my artist talk from earlier this summer. It is an (muffled, tangential, incomplete) explanation of a show that was at the ROY G BIV gallery during July of 2009.

This is the link to photos of the show.

And this is this (FROM):

 

We're (Amelia) playing D.I.T. Fest in Kent, Ohio on September 12th. Here is the lineup:


Friday Sept 11th, 2009 @ 6PM
@ the Vineyard (154 N. Depeyster, Kent, OH 44240)
6:00-6:20 – Zax Kelly
6:25-6:40 – Gabz Ciofani*
6:45-7:05 – Adam Klopp
7:10-7:30 – Ancestors
7:35-7:50- Ben Ryant*
7:55-8:15- Gabe Wolf
8:20-8:35 – Jordan Castro*
8:40-9:00 -General Ledger
9:05-9:25 – Toby Foster
9:30-9:50 – Nicholas Megalis
9:55-10:10 – Ryan Eilbeck*
10:15-10:30- Richard Wehrenberg Jr*
10:35-10:55- Letters to the Moon
11:00-11:15 – Matt Whispers*
11:20-11:40 – American War
*denotes poet
@ the Kent Stage Alleyway @ 11:45PM (175 E.Main St, Kent, OH, 44240)
11:45-12:05 – Bobby Stevens
12:10-12:30 – Andy Cook and the Wanderloons
12:35-12:55 – Pheramones
1:00-1:20 Annabel
Saturday September 12th
@ the Vineyard 1PM (154 N. Depeyster, Kent, OH, 44240)
1:00-1:20 – the Ghost of Asa Phelps
1:30-1:50 – Ashley Brooke Toussant
2:00-2:20 – Two Hand Fools
2:30-2:50 – Playoff Beard
3:00-3:20 – Signals Midwest
3:30-3:50 – Destroy Nate Allen
4:00-4:20 – Higher Fives
4:30-4:50 – Positive
5:00-5:20 – Dustin and the Furniture
5:30-5:50 – Saintseneca
6:00-6:20 – Busman’s Holiday
6:30-6:50 – Reverse the Curse
7:00-7:20 – Asinine
7:30-7:50 – Bethesda
8:00-8:20 – These Aren’t Candles
8:30-8:50 – the Menzingers
9:00-9:20 – the Sidekicks
9:30-9:50 – Underdogs of Nipomo
10:00-10:20 – Amelia
10:30-10:50 – Endless Mike and the Beagle Club
11:00-11:20 – Delay
11:30-11:50 – No Target Audience

OSHA

MUSICK

Stacie petting my cats during "Cool Tricks!" at Chop-Chop gallery.

UPCOMING SHOWS AT MONSTER HOUSE (115 W.10th Ave.):

All of the Monster House shows start at 9 pm, are all ages, are donation based, and allow drinking.

September 4th - Amelia (Ryan, Maryn, Jimi) / Lemming (promo masters) / Cars Can Be Blue (Athens, Ga Twee) / Lovely Eggs (U.K Garage) / Fellow Project (Folk... Punk? Oh no.)

September 9th - Jason / Fischer / New Creases (New crevices dental dams) / Delay (Eilbecks + Wither)

September 26th - Liturgy (Bklyn Black metal) / You'll Get Yours (Cincinnati Punk) / Warm Hands (Conrad of The Fugue/Funerals)

October 1st - Jail (Sounds like Thomas Function)/ Joe Camerlengo (of This is my Suitcase) / Wheels On Fire (Athens, Oh garage rock) / Daycreeper (might play maybe)

October 17th - Tacocat (is really, really good) / Amelia (Plays again) / Slingshot Dakota (Yep) / Pheramones (Pat + Steve Keyboard)

October 23rd - TWINS BIRTHDAY PARTY ( 25 years, 25 years, 25 years)

October 26th - Batrider (N.Z) / Delay / The Pharmacy / Rage Against The Cage / Amelia (every show)


LOSE THE TUDE AT THE 15th HOUSE:



AUSSI:
Best metaphor?
Plastic art knows when its time is through.

IMAGE DUMPs

"THERE IS NO FUCKING DRINKING AT THE LEGION!!!!"

We made a "Before you play...." note for the Monster House in the style of the early 2000's Legion note. A bit less hilarious than that one.


"BEFORE PLAYING THE MONSTER HOUSE, READ THIS….

ABOUT US: The Monster House hosts shows in our home to give national, international, and local independent acts an autonomous, politically aware place to play in Columbus, OH. We strive to be a welcoming environment for anyone who wishes to come. Help us keep our house completely free of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, and mindless disrespect. We believe shows in alternative spaces can lead to a more direct, personal and positive connection with music and with the other folks in attendance. Our house is not a launch pad to fame and fortune - it is part of a growing community intentionally challenging the popular definition of success. We know that the art and music we make can be shared on our own terms. Music is the reason for the gathering – it is not a house party, it is a show.

THE DOUGH: Donations of $5 are strongly encouraged at each show to support touring bands. Please make this apparent when advertising the show. The money is to support them, not the house. Locals play as support to the touring bands and will not normally be paid. Usually, locals get some food, have fun, play to an audience of music enthusiasts, and make a connection with an out of town band.

ARRIVE: Come by 8:00 pm for food, load-in, and line up arrangements. Normally, out of town bands will be welcomed to spend the night at our house.

BE A GOOD GUEST: Be courteous and clean up after yourself. While we allow drinking at our house please do not take this as an invitation to get inebriated to the point of 1. insulting others or 2. not being able to control yourself, mentally or physically.

THANKS ♥ MONSTERS"

R.I.P THIS IS A......

ASHES TO ASHES:

MUSIC DUMPZ

Here are pictures of some recent shows bands I am in played: (Btw: I never explained this but this blog is just to keep track of things I'm doing.... Its utility to the public is most likely nil.)

Amelia @ Bernie's August 19th, photographs courtesy of Dana Curran:






































Lose The Tude @ The 15th House August 22nd, photographs courtesy of Bret:


























Lose The Tude, younger with more pajamas:




Other joke hardcore band I was in, Dorm Life Sucks.... playing in the basement of the OSU dorms:


Bands I'm not in that I like right now:






And this Kanye Video.

AUSSI:
This god awful article about Envelope.

CANDLEPIN

Whilst on tour in Portland, Maine I finally was able to cross off one of my life goals: play candlepin. It's a distinctly New England dialect of bowling with a small ball that fits in your palm, straight up and down candlestickesque pins, and 3 rolls for each frame. I think my affinity for it was originally tied up in my usual taste for local variants, strange traditions - etc, but after playing a game I left with much more substanial reasons for liking it.

1. Erractic indeterminacy. The ball is so tiny that it often veers even when thrown straight. Couple this with the fact that gutter balls are often violently spit out back into the lane and that fallen pins stay in the field of play ("roadblocks") and you have a recipe for unpredicatable play.

2. Abysmal futility. You would think with an extra throw each frame that Candlepin would be a breeze compared to our 10 pin, while actually it is considerably more difficult. Strikes and spares are rare events. In competition between "professionals" scores of 130 are common. The best game ever, according to the dude that worked at the bowling alley, was 245. No one, ever, has had a perfect game (300). It's an unreachable zenith, one which the dude that worked at the bowling alley said would never be surmounted.

3. Luddite central. It might have just been the alley we went to but you had to keep score yourself as well as hit the button to rerack the pins after each roll. And tons of really old New Englanders are into it as evidenced by the background crowds in these videos. And people in New England have the best accents in America. RIP DON GILLIS

Dave Filipi's Essay for This Is A Comic Book

On the Wall
By David Filipi

Why hang cartoon art on a gallery wall?

For some, the gesture might be rather presumptuous if they have not been moved from a rather narrow definition of “art” by the work of Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi, the Hernandez brothers, Alison Bechdel, Hergé and thousands of others around the world and over the past century. But if you’re reading this, I assume we at least share the common ground that cartoons-comic books-graphic narratives are art, and one can find examples of dreadful and sublime artists and work in abundance equal to any of the more traditional disciplines.

Anne Elizabeth Moore's essay for This Is A Comic Book.

This is another essay for the catalog pictured above (still available at the Mahan Gallery for $5.00 (US)) in which Anne Elizabeth Moore considers the ongoing academic institutionalization of comic making and some of the consequences of it.


"THE PROBLEM OF PROFESSIONALIZING

Just a few short years ago, young adults with the gumption to really stick it to their parents could handily do so by announcing at the dinner table that they wanted to grow up and become comic-book artists. For decades, jaws of fathers the world over would slacken in disbelief, slowly hardening again into expressions of pure fury before sparks flew. Mothers, wanting always to be supportive, dear, but still, perhaps, wondering if that’s quite the best thing for you, considering, you know, the danger, would press their lips together tightly and wait for this rebellious phase to pass. The more traditional housewives were pummeled with visions of endless days at home with little to fret about but daughters trapped in the drawing mills of one, or the other, major comics publisher, or sons toiling away behind tables in convention halls, hassled endlessly by older men in science fiction outfits, giant animal costumes. It is lucky they did not know the truth: that their children would more likely simply not have jobs. Younger siblings would secretly, silently rejoice. More than one premeditated crime spree has been hatched during such conversations. Families rarely recover from such moments. It is no coincidence that underground cartooning and divorce both achieved their heights of popularity at roughly the same time period.

Chop-Chip

J. Caleb Mozzocco's essay "IN CONTEXT"

This essay is part of this ZINE available at the Mahan Gallery & Wexner Center Store.



















"In Context" by J.Caleb Mozzocco of everydayislikewednesday

Comic books have no place in an art gallery. That’s not a reflection of their worth compared to more gallery-ready media like painting or sculpture, but a simple statement of fact—there’s no place to put a comic book in an art gallery.

Oh, you can tear out a page, frame it and hang it on a well lit wall next to a little placard detailing who made it and when and out of what, but then it’s not a comic book anymore, it’s a piece of found visual art. That page you tore out is, after all, just a small part of a comic book, divorced from its context, removed from the way it’s meant to be experienced, and forced to become something one contemplates in a vacuum. Hanging it on a gallery wall is an alchemical process, and whether you’re turning the low
medium of comics’ lead into high art gold, or vice versa, you’re transforming it from a comic book to a piece of a comic book.

I suppose it’s a little like the difference between a stuffed deer head trophy hanging on the wall of a hunter’s den, and a real, live, whole deer. Technically the former is part of the latter, but there’s an awfully big gap between the two all the same.

As a medium, comics are pretty much gallery-proof. The ideal way to “display” a comic book in a gallery would probably be to set one on an end table next to a comfortable chair for a patron to read at their leisure. But even then, they’d be reading it in a gallery, which is a pretty different experience from reading it in the comfort of their own home. Or park or coffee shop or train or library or bookstore or wherever they read comics, or would read a comic if they did read comics.

The gulf between seeing a deer in a zoo and seeing it in the wild isn’t as wide as that between the trophy and the live deer, but it’s still a gulf.

We’re getting into territory that art people talk about at parties, near the beginning of the evening when it’s all polite shop and small talk, before the wine starts to take effect. You know, Ceci n'est pas une pipe, quantum physics and the idea that the act of observation alters reality, tree-falling-in-the-woods territory.

It’s a concern for all media I guess. Are paintings painted to hang on the walls of people’s homes, or in museums, or galleries, or the cover of The New Yorker or a greeting card? Can individual paintings move between those contexts without altering their meanings or effects on the viewer?

But I think the fine art world’s ever-increasing interest in comic books, now a serious, non-ironic interest as opposed to that shown by Andy Warhol/Roy Lichtenstein/Pop Art, only
underscores the peculiarity of the comics medium, the thing that separates it from other fine arts and other pop or commercial arts.

It’s a little of this, little of that - a composite sort of medium, something of a duck-billed platypus compared to the more thoroughbred media one usually associates with the art gallery.

The medium of Comics-with-a-capital-C, by whatever you want to call it, consists of works that are each whole, atomic units. A comic book isn’t a page or two, it’s all the pages, and if it’s a series, maybe it’s all the issues in that series. And it’s not even just what’s on those pages, but what happens in the reader’s mind while turning those pages, and between the panels as their eyes cross the borders of white space between them.

Looking at a page of comics art in a gallery then can be a little like looking at a still from a movie. It may look nice, but it wasn’t created to be looked at like that.

But then, galleries don’t even always just show the pages, but the art went into the creation of those final pages, making what can be hung on the wall a component of a component.

This isn’t intended to be an argument against curators and gallery owners in the fine arts world who wish to keep trying to display comics and comics art. I certainly don’t mean people shouldn’t put comics up on a metaphorical pedestal, even if they don’t fit on a literal pedestal as easily as a sculpture might.

Rather, this is just a reminder that there’s only one way to really experience a comic book as a comic book. When you go to a gallery to see an exhibit of comics art, you’re seeing some of the art that goes into a comic, you’re seeing a drawing that will eventually be an element in a comic, but you’re not experiencing comics.

These are pieces, blue prints and rough drafts for the actual finished product, each being displayed as found objects and/or recontextualized as fine art drawings. And that’s often something to see, as the pieces blue prints and rough drafts can be works of beauty.

Much is made of the words by which we talk about this medium, perhaps in large part due to its relative youth, the fact that it was quite accidentally created in the mid 1930s by a couple of shady businessmen
who were trying to figure out how to make a buck off the popularity of newspaper comic strips, and that it wasn’t until after the last third of the 20th century that anyone really started talking and writing about it as a distinct art form.

The biggest difficulty in talking about comics is by what name should we call the things we’re talking about—Comics? Comix? Graphic novels? Graphic books? Picture novels? Sequential art?

None seem quite right, despite the fact that the book-publishing industry, which has in the last decade glommed onto long-comics-with-spines as a hot new genre, seems to have settled on “graphic novels.”

The problems with the term “comic books” center on that first word, “comic,” a word which implies something that is humorous and/or ends happily. As inappropriate as that may seem when applied to many works, the “book” half of the term works surprisingly well in a lot of contexts. Because comics, like books, are something you have to read to really appreciate.

CURE-TOR NO-TE

For this recently put together publication:



















Which the gallery is selling for $5.00. I plan to release all of its written content in the following weeks on this blog. First, the curator's note I wrote:

"THIS IS A COMIC BOOK CURATOR'S NOTE

Rene Magritte’s “This Is Not a Pipe” tells us we are wrong about something we know we are inherently right about. This is a Comic Book does the opposite. It tells us we are right about something we inherently know is not true.

Representations (like a page unstuck from a comic book) activate all conceptions one has about the “real” object (and its platonic form). But amputation, decontextualization, and museumification serve to separate us from objects even as they allow us to physically be close to them. In the case of comics, the platonic form is the comic book: 32 pages, glossy cover, stapled, newsprint, and if possible, with slight yellowing. But that’s not what we get at exhibitions about comics. That would be too simple. In this paradox is a metaphor for the shedding of meaning that occurs to objects that have been ripped out of their historical, cultural, and physical roles and inserted into any one of the hundred of thousands of white-walled rooms across the world (some of which are inside buildings that used to serve an idiosyncratic, functional purpose in their society. Now: gallery).

Viewed as if it was not the product of an unreliable narrator, This is a Comic Book amply presents examples of several divergent paths comics have followed since the boom in independent, individual viewpoints (as opposed to collaborative creations from large companies) occurred in the late 60s(and mid 80s (and late 90s))). This includes work in abstraction, “art-school” comics, autobiography, genre re-imagining, mini-comics published independently, and web comics – as well as work that negates any discernable classification by entirely challenging what we think makes up a comic book.

But that is not “A Comic Book.” Or even representative of the majority of the comics industry; it’s barely representative of the “Indie” and “Arty” comics that typically interest the New Yorker/Book Forum stereotype. It is instead a selection that touches the lines, jumps the gutters, and succeeds in contradicting itself over and over again. We see things as new which are deeply ingrained in tradition (Dorothy Gambrell, Phonzie Davis) and things as old which break new ground at each successive turn (Chris Day, Conor Stechschulte). We see the mastery of “technique” in Nate Powell’s work but also the mastery of “technique” in Anders Nilsen’s. We are challenged by initially inscrutable narratives but also enveloped inside worlds that seem so much like our own. In other words, the selection is scattershot: just like the meaning and practice of comics.

Like independent music in the mid to late 80s, comics are in the midst of a creative revolution. And when the major labels came calling for that music, typified by bands like The Butthole Surfers, The Replacements, and Sonic Youth, they morphed it into a stultifying something else altogether, “Indie.” That co-optation by the major tastemakers denuded what was interesting about independent rock – namely its independence. Like punk rock, which loses all meaning when it is shrink-wrapped and footnoted, the immediacy of these comic visions is obscured against the white walls of the gallery. But this work, like the independent bands on SST and Subpop in the 80s, is undeniable. It calls out for public scrutiny and art world acknowledgment, not despite its “low” art pedigree but because of it. That relationship, the tenuous line between acceptance and co-optation, is at the heart of this exhibit and its accompanying catalog. We hope you enjoy it.

Jimi Payne & Colleen Grennan"

TURIN'

The band I'm in, Amelia, is going on tour with baby Ryan and baby Austin's band, Delay (I think someone else is in it too?). This is important because I finally get to go to both Maine (where I will live someday, collecting lighthouses - wearing heavy sweaters with shorts) AND Brooklyn. Also I will eat a hot dog in Allston + Candace will be present. In Akron we will visit my boyhood home at the Akron Aeros' stade. Here are the dates:

August 6th - New Brunswick, NJ 7pm @ Meat Town USA
August 7th – Allston , MA 8pm @ House Show
August 8th – Brookyn, NY 8pm @ The Fort 1414 Lincoln Place W/ Landlord, Bad Blood, Witches
August 9th – Worcester, MA 8pm @ 11 Forbes St.
August 10th – Portland, ME 8pm @ 176 Coyle street w/ Dylan Bredeau
August 11th – NH @ TBA
August 12th – Syracuse, NY 8pm @ Castle Rockmore, 113 West Borden Ave. W/No Connection
August 13th – TBA
August 14th – Akron, OH @ TBA
August 15th, – SOUTHWEST FOLK FEST! http://www.myspace.com/southwestfolkfest 2 day fest! Aug. 14th and 15th, $7 each show @ Church of Rock 4300 Howard Ave.,
August 16th - Chicago, Il @ The Fun House w/ Arkansas? (Their last show EVER.)
August 18th - Columbus, Ohio @ The Monster House w/ The Winslows, State Lottery
August 19th - Columbus, Ohio @ Bernie's Distillery (dreams do come true) w/ The Winslows, Tin Armour, New Creases, Papermoons
September 4th - Columbus, Ohio @ Monster House w/ Cars Can Be Blue, Lemming, Lovely Eggs

THIS IS OUR ROADIE:














This is what we looked like playing Berea Fest:














AUSSI:
Mark Bouchet's "Watershed" at the Venice Biennale. Genius.

ARTIST TALK

Tomorrow (Saturday) at 2:30 I'm giving an "artist talk" at Roy G Biv gallery for my show. I think maybe 5 people will be there. I'm planning to thrill those 5 people with stories about how my main influences are Wizard of Oz, the 60s, and thinking about drugs. And talking about the socioeconomic implications of the Xerox print. I'll be wearing non-prescription frames.

Maybe someone will film it and I'll put it here. It will be really embarrassing though because I'm trying not to be ironic or coy. Saying what you actually think about something is always a bad idea.

IT APPROACHES

Web Blurbs:
See My Brother Dance
Wex Blog
My Little Corner of the World
Comics Journal Message Board
Comics Alliance
Varoom! Magazine
Ferret Press
Electric Ant Zine Blog

IMAGES, moving and otherwise.

Some things I've been looking at. The Cult Ritual photos were taken by Jimmy Buttons of Lentil Nightmare. The mosh paintings are by Dan Witz, I like just about everything he's done - his current body of work is unsettling to say the least. I was going to make an 8 by 8 foot blow up of a picture of a mosh pit and hand color it for Marina's "Biggie Smalls" show until I saw Witz's paintings and gave up the idea. And there are some Dash Snow *(who is pretty dead now I guess) polaroids thrown in for everyone who loves VICE circa 2002-2006.
And this makes me laugh - the paper with the superheroes is actually DC Comics letterhead for rejection notices.

I really admire the internet for being a landscape of full blown visuality and for allowing such easy replication of its imagery. I'm just really thankful for it. It's hard to remember when I saved these photos or where they are from but there is a pretty constant party of them on my desktop. It makes my life a lot better. I just really like visual things. Sounds stupid but it would be more stupid to try and explain why.

Something troubling: I keep getting the feeling like I'm going to cave and just start making imagery of women smoking and holding guns. I've tried to not have women be an explicit part of anything I make because it's so fucking tiring. But when your work is driven by aesthetic and not concept and your natural conception of beauty is tied to sexual attraction it's difficult to abstain. For whatever reason (whatever joke you have related to my sublimated desires) lately I've been really drawn to 50's and 60's imagery of women smoking as showcased by both the banner of this website and my profile icon. I could easily make a show on just that topic that I would feel happy about. It's real annoying. Obvious oral connotations, fetishizing of beauty + bygone time period + bygone aesthetics of said time period, subtle or overt sexism depending on your viewpoint, male gaze, etc. Still, it's nagging at me.

*Weedsteeler: The Blog had an entry about the Deitch Projects having what sounds like an open call of work to commemorate Snow's death. That's actually sort of amazing? The show would be up in August. So if you want to say you've shown there... I guess now is your chance?

Also, the end of this first video is really stupid.

SEVERAL REVIEWS MY ZINE HAS RECEIVED

Though my zine, PUNK ZINE, came out a year ago I just received two new reviews of it. The sentiments which seem to unite the reviews include, A: My Zine is big. B: There is a "cut and paste" aesthetic. C: The name of it "is already taken." D: It is hard to read.

I say bullocks.

NERVHOUS RECORDS from Malaysia SAYS:

Punk Zine –the Art/History issue (A3/English/copied)
This is my first experience having and reading an A3 size zine, it feels like reading a tabloid but the font size is humongous. So, the first page is where the editor James Payne tell us about why he do an art/history issue and why he named his zine ‘punk zine’ and why he choose to focus on his town, Columbus. He made great interviews with Phonzie Davis (zine and comic artist), Johnny Rattail (punk artist-mostly flyer art/design) –cool art!, Andy Hinton (another active flyer designer), Geoff Hing (one of the key members of Defiance, Ohio) one of my favorite folk punk band, Jason of The Neil House (a house hosting many-many punk shows) and Matt Reber (New Bomb Turks). Most part of the interviews is about the good old days, history, punk before internet existed, and Columbus scene. A review of The Evens’ show at Chop Chop gallery, some more writings and some reviews on comics and records complete the zine. This zine is rad, and punk! Dig this if you’re into folk punk, poppunk, bike punk and punk art. James Payne 115 W.10th Ave (The Monster House), Columbus, Ohio 43201 USA or aj_payton@hotmail.com or myspace.com/totallysweet


GIVE ME BACK SAYS:

PUNK ZINE - The Art History Issue - 11 x 17 - 48pgs - Free

This is huge! It has a good and sloppy cut & paste style that works on this scale - occasionally I was like "ok, this maybe doesn't have to be this big" because it was like pixilated or something, but who cares? Overall it looks awesome. I can't believe it's free. I think it was like a college art project, like with funding or something. Anyway, I enjoyed the narrow, local focus - all the interviews and features seem to all be connected with their native Columbus, OH. There are interviews with flyer makers, historic punk house dwellers, and band members. The editor admits in one interview to it being their first time, but if that has any impact on these interviews, it's not a hinderance. I especially appreciate the scope of the interview subjects, not being limited to bands or celebrities, yet narrowed by local revelance. You might guess from the name, that there is a certain amount of arrogance to this project. There's a little of that, but I like it when young punks decide that it's time to reinvent shit. This scene gets stale fast and can always use some shaking up, you know. In the intro, they criticize the review sections of zines like ours, basically saying that in trying to review so much, we over simplify descriptions and force things into boxes. I agree with that, and I hope their zine inspires more local punk zines. I look forward to an issue two. Highly recomended. FIL.


RAZORCAKE SAYS:

PUNK ZINE
three stamps and mailer, 17” x 11”, copied, 46 pgs.

By Keith Rosson
Thursday, August 21 @ 00:00:00 CDT

Man. So obviously a labor of love and so totally unreadable. Turns out that having twenty-some individual 11” x 17” pages stapled on the edges—again, there’s no spine here, we’re talking a stack of pages stapled together—makes this fucker nearly impossible to open, much less read. Still, it’s got a nice cut and paste aesthetic, gloriously sullied halftones and a lot of passion. Focusing almost entirely on the Ohio scene, this one’s subtitled the “art/history” issue, which is apt. There are interviews with various Ohio institutions of yesteryear (tenants of seminal punk houses, dudes from bands like New Bomb Turks, etc.) and kids actively doing stuff today (dude from Defiance, Ohio, punk artist John Rattai,), tons of old scene reports, newspaper articles, etc. All in all, it’s a terrific homage to a scene and locale, and again, the love is apparent. Still, I’d definitely suggest halving the page size, having a spine to staple, and actually making the goddamn thing, you know, functional. Also, call me crazy, but I think Punk’s already been taken as far as fanzine monikers go. –Keith Rosson (James Payne, 115 W. 10^th Ave., Columbus, OH43201)

BLACKCLOUD SAYS:

When I first heard Jimi was making a punk-themed zine, I was worried. It’s difficult to write about an abstract topic you’re apart of and it tends to turn out … well, cheesy.

Fortunately Punk Zine is more of a recent history, some of the last 10 years, of Columbus punk and not a this-is-why-punk-saved-my-life type of tribute. Thank god.

The history is not definitive, but appealing because the events discussed are still relevant, but beginning to yellow with age, unknown to most of the younger crowd. Does your typical youngster know the Legion of Doom stopped a war? That Defiance, Ohio once lived in Ohio?

The zine’s greatest strengths are its diversity in subjects and the balance between the history of Columbus punk and Jimi’s own personal history. The latter I enjoyed more because Jimi has been someone on my get-to-know-better list for a while now (yes, I really do have mental lists like that.)

Through question-and-answer interviews, he focuses on everything from local comic book writers and artists, to punk-house leaders and old-time rockers from a different era.

Some interviews drag on, but his humble style creates a depth that makes it worth wading through the murk to see what’s discussed later.

Reviews, which make a small portion of the zine, are the weakest link. For the most part, Jimi chooses media he likes and patronizes it. Much of the writing is academic sounding which is too bad because he has an engaging and personable voice when interviewing.

One review where he is objective is The Evens show at the Chop Chop Gallery in 2006, and he talks about Ian Mackaye signing autographs.

“I would equate (Ian Mackaye signing autographs) to walking in on your parents having sex,” Jimi writes. “As the product of their sex you know they must have previously had sex and probably still do just as you realize someone at some point has asked for Mackaye’s autograph.”

Not only does Jimi take on a punk icon (rightly so), we also learn about Jimi being a “product” of Mackaye’s music.

The style is very zine-like – cut-and-paste, flyers, photo copier art, ect. – yet still original. The layout is clear and easy to navigate. While that sounds like a backhanded compliment, it’s sincere because too many zines read like choose your own adventure books.

One judgment issue I have is the size of the zine. It’s fucking huge at 11” x 17”! While the size makes the zine stand out (more like dominate any helpless normal-sized zine that happens to also sit on top of your toilet), it’s cumbersome to read, kinda like a newspaper.

Getting your hands on a copy might be difficult. Jimi said he’s only printing 200 copies and I’m sure most, if not all, have been distributed. Not sure why he’s setting a limit. The diversity of subjects will create a demand and get his work in the hands of more people than your typical zine.

Looking forward to the next issue, but don’t skimp out on copies of this one: it’s a keeper, one of the best of the year … if you’re from Columbus.

You can order it from Microcosm. If you feel so inclined after all this. I think I am making a new one in the fall.

AMELIA / PHERAMONES SPLIT TAPE

Ask me for one in person or send for one in the mail.
115 W.10th Ave. Columbus, Ohio 43201. The tape is 2 to 3 dollars - whatever piques your fancy.

In the Pocket Tapes, Austin's tape company that he runs out of 115 1/2 W.10th Ave. made the tapes. I recommend their services for all your out-moded audiophile needs.

Listen to the Pheramones side here.

ALSO: Side note about the artwork. This is designed by Maryn Jones with some color choices and lettering by Pat Crann. For those of us who have some knowledge or experience with or about Jehovah's Witnesses you will recognize the purple triangle as the symbol the Nazis branded witnesses with in concentration camps. More than a thousand witnesses were killed by the National Socialists along with jews, gays, leftists, gypsies and anyone else who could be othered in Germany at the time. Growing up as a Jehovah's Witness I always had that sort of nagging feeling that it would only take a mere spark to inflame opinion against myself and my family in a similar way. As I grew up I realized that though I was now an atheist and unaffliated spiritually, I could still be sent away by the hypothetical nazis for any number of things: leftism, degenerate art or antagonistic journalism. ANYWAY, long story short - it's interesting that this symbol, the purple triangle, is on this release since Maryn has no knowledge of this at all. It's very "full circle" for me since those feelings of being othered at an early age and being in opposition against the state since birth are what I feel led me to eventually be interested in punk in the first place. What strikes me even further about it is the 1940's style of dress of the women, chronologically appropriate for the chilling connotations the design brings to my mind.

More info on Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany during the war years.

BIG ASS KNIFE

Troy & Bobby of fav Columbus bands Heath Deadger and New Creases (New Creases Dental Dams, what's up David Leighty!) have a newish venture that was sorely needed. Much like Eric Metronome and his repeatedly mentioned house show recordings from the Neil House, BIG ASS KNIFE is keeping aural track of our bullshit. Maybe they will catch a future Oscar nominee in action and end up a footnote in some trash printed (posted) under the (digital) fold. Maybe I'll be negative even about things I'm posting that I like!

Anyway, Troy is recording these shows on something I swear looks like a taser/cow prod. He's talked about making bootleg CDRS and desperately needs someone to show him how to properly post the MP3S. It's already a pretty sweet collection of bands.* Right now AMELIA's 2nd show is on BIG ASS KNIFE'S myspace which I think Troy told me he didn't really want people to know about. Also Troy is now Stymie's roadie.

My recollection of this show includes imbibing because I was depressed, asking Austin if I could still use his bass even if I was inebriated, and then trying very intently to not mess up just to prove I could still play bass drunk. Joke's on me because I can't even play bass sober. Somehow I didn't do too poorly. Trivia: the last time I drank before playing music I was in Hot Date.

2nd BIG NEWS STORY: This one is reverberating around the Monster household, riding a wave of delight following the COKE BUST** show at the Legion of Doom. It has to do with one, Tall Rob, and one, annoying mosh bro. Tall Rob did a head palm, knocking the kid's Boston Red Sox hat three rows back to where Christian and I were standing, and then gave mosh dude a large middle finger while mosh dude stood and gazed, caught in a sublime awe, rendered inert by Tall Rob's benevolent mosh pit patrol. Thank yous abound.

*penis geyser
lotus fucker
nukehammer
painkiller
heath deadger
revolta
kurt russell
maryn jones
the boy who could fly
toby foster
amelia
ryan starinsky
delay
heathers

** Unlike VILE GASH you could have arguably called Coke Bust "Vice Core" on the CSBYS flyer.

It's all coming back to me now.

This band, Batrider, just asked me for a show in October:
Batrider - 'Legs'


They're from New Zealand and provide more proof for the imminent grunge renaissance. If all goes well and it actually happens, I think Rage Against the Cage would be the perfect complement.



And this picture of Kurt Cobain:

















Also bringing back that early nineties malaise is one, Barack Obama! He seems to be on a vision quest to completely reiterate the early Clinton administration by rote. "Change"* not repeal on Don't Ask, Don't Tell and a shambling, dissapointing walk through the health care corridor of horror. Backpedaling on a public option, evading gay civil rights... it's enough to make you wear flannel. And listen to Hole.

*Change you can believe in!

THE IV

Berea Fest Trailer from Jamtron on Vimeo.

My roomies put on this little DIY music fete once a year in Berea, Ohio called....Berea Fest. I think because they get a package deal on Browns training camp tix or something. It's happening on the 17th & 18th of July this year, the fourth year of its existence... a picture of me at the first:















Notice braces, stupid hair cuts - it was the summer of 06.

The haircuts are maybe better now. Here is the lineup for this year:

Friday - 6PM

6:30-6:50 Letters to the Moon (Columbus, OH) 6:55-7:15 Positive (Solon, OH) 7:20-7:40 Le Vansona (Zanesville, Columbus, OH) 7:45-8:05 No Target Audience (Kent, OH) 8:10-8:30 Pheramones (Columbus, OH) 8:35-8:55 The Read (Cincinnati, OH) 9:00-9:20 Pink Houses (Bloomington, IN) 9:25-9:45 Asinine (Lakewood, OH) 9:50-10:10 Cheap Girls (Lansing, MI) 10:15-10:35 Annabel (Kent, OH) 10:40-11:00 Underdogs of Nipomo (Olmsted Falls, OH) 11:05-11:25 Super Bobby (Boston, MA) 11:30-11:50 Lemuria (Buffalo, NY) Saturday - 12:30 12:30-12:50 Reverse the Curse (Hiram, OH) 12:55-1:15 Ghost Town Trio (Oberlin, OH) 1:20-1:40 Saint Seneca (Columbus, OH) 1:45-2:05 Tin Armor (Columbus, OH) 2:10-2:30 Submarine Spaceship (Athens, OH) 2:35-2:55 Sack Lunch (St. Louis, MO) 3:00-3:20 Seizure Fist (Columbus, OH) 3:25-3:45 Two Hand Fools (Cleveland, OH) 3:50-4:10 Ghost Mice (Bloomington, IN, Gainesville, FL) 4:15-4:35 Thousandaires (New York, NY) 4:40-5:00 The Max Levine Ensemble (Washington DC) 5:05-5:25 Slingshot Dakota (BrooklynNY, BethlehemPA) 5:30-5:50 Mountain Asleep (Louisville, KY) 5:55-6:15 New Creases (Columbus, OH) 6:20-6:40 Halo Fauna (Brooklyn, NY, Bloomington, IN) 6:45-7:05 The Dopamines (Cincinnati, OH) 7:10-7:30 Spooktober (Athens, OH) 7:35-7:55 Amelia (Columbus, OH) 8:00-8:20 The Sidekicks (Lakewood, Columbus, OH) 8:25-8:45 Goodluck (Bloomington, IN) 8:50-9:10 Delay (Columbus, OH) Be apprised that Amelia is playing. That's great. However, the whole thing is hosted at a church due to a lack of accommodating spaces in Berea so I'm going to have a lot of Grove City street punk flashbacks and nervous sweats that I'd rather leave in a deep recess of my unconscious. Other anxieties: having to play out of a bass amp and being surrounded by people I know without really wanting to talk to any of them. It should be fun though. And our tape split with Pheramones is coming out then too. Notice also that Max Levine Ensemble is playing. Could we see a rehash of this insubordination hot mess????? AUSSI: There is a blurb on this blog about my show at ROY. It's the only thing I've seen where someone has written something other than promo material for it. "High Street Art Blog." Choice snippet: "He displayed posters and flyers for local punk bands that played in various private house parties. It takes a real scenester to know any of these bands..." Me, a real grownup scenester... I feel accomplished. THIS JUST IN: Libby Zay blogs on Bust.com about Berea Fest. And don't forget. July 12th = 15 Bands at the 15th House.

THERE IT IS

Pictures by Sara Drakes: