If you’re looking for something unusual to see in Los Angeles—and let’s face it: who isn’t?—you could do no better (in the unusual stakes, that is) than grabbing a front-row berth for Wednesday night’s set by the “King of Apartment Wrestling Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Reverend Beat-man.

Formerly known as Lightning Beat-man, the good Reverend found the Lord (or something) and he will bring his berserk gospel/rockabilly swamp juice stew—heavily influenced by Hasil Adkins, Jack Starr and Mexican wrestling—to the Redwood Bar and Grill, 316 W. 2nd St.
 

 
Thank you Julien Nitzberg!

 
One of the true tests of innovative sequential/evolving visual art is whether it hits you as a fantastic story that a little kid could describe…”Then the van had eyes and then it ate the worm…” This thing does it.

Although the anonymous, hyper-proficient Bologna-based artist Blu has nothing near the global profile of Banksy, s/he’s shown and worked in as many regions, including the wall at the West Bank. S/he’s also been able to work stop-motion animation into his/her ouvre, and the ten-minute video below is the latest fruit.

It seems absolutely relentless and almost epic in its scope. Enjoy.
 

BIG BAG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

 
via Reckon

 
Musician Roberto Carlos Lange of Helado Negro and Savath and Savalas and visual artist David Ellis have been collaborating on these ingenious pieces for the past couple of years. They explain what they’re up to in the clip below but in a nutshell, they embed midi-controlled solenoids within everyday objects, thus turning the detritus of the modern world into remotely controlled funky drum sets. Thought provoking and fun stuff !

 
A bunch more examples after the jump…

Photo by Gage Skidmore.

It is often said that a liberal arts degree only prepares the holder of said degree for a life of waiting tables, but just how valuable would a, well, conservative arts degree be in today’s jobs market? Especially one from Glenn Beck University?

This July, while others are relaxing poolside, head back to the classroom - from the comfort of your own home. That may sound like an oxymoron but Glenn’s new academic program is only available online.

Offered exclusively to Insider Extreme subscribers, Beck University is a unique academic experience bringing together experts in the fields of religion, American history and economics. Through captivating lectures and interactive online discussions, these experts will explore the concepts of Faith, Hope and Charity and show you how they influence America’s past, her present and most importantly her future.

Mother Jones had some possible (probable?) course listings for BU.

Theories of Self and Other in the Autobiography of Ronald Reagan
Mythology 101: Fossils
Presidential History From Harding to Coolidge
Fundamentals of Spelling and Grammar CANCELED
Great Military Heroes: John Wayne
Intro to Theology: Ayn Rand
Advanced Marketing Seminar: Rare Gold Coins
Psych 301: Paranoia as Therapeutic Alternative
Wilde, Proust, and Other Homosexual Europeans
Middle Eastern and Arab Cultures: What’s Up With That?
Studies in Moral Courage: Joe McCarthy
Hermeneutics and Homosociality in The Overton Window
Political Science 300: Reverse Racism and the Modern Presidency
Colloquium on Great Filmmakers: Mel Gibson
Gym Crow
Underwater Conspiracy Weaving

If some good ones occur to you,  #BeckUCourses is a trending hashtag on Twitter. Here in an un-embedable video clip (with the comments wisely disabled) is Beck himself telling his er, flock, why everything they know is wrong.

 
It’s always heartening to see electronic music veterans ably take on new genres and make them sing. One case in point is the UK duo Africa Hitech comprises producer Mark Pritchard and producer/vocalist Steve White (a.k.a. Steve Spacek). Pritchard helped shape the sound of British techno in the early ‘90s in his groups Global Communications and Jedi Knights, while White made waves in the early ‘00s with his avant-soulful warbling and knob-twiddling for the glitchy trio Spacek.

Both have been busy with lots of projects, but Africa Hitech bears special attention. The pair’s just-released debut EP Hitecherous weaves between lurching lovers dub, whomping dubstep, whizzing dancehall, and neurotic garage—all stripped down to their powerful rhythmic essences. Recommended new sounds.
 

 
Get: Africa Hitech - Hitecherous [CD-EP]

 
Oh well, the weekend’s over and now it’s back to work (for some of us lucky ones, I suppose). If your holiday weekend wasn’t all you could have hoped for, chin up, at least you didn’t spend it like The Stranger’s Lindy West did, in Bremerton, Washington, amongst washed-up, tricycle-riding, watermelon-smashing 80s “comedian” Galllagher—now a rightwing Tea partier—- and his, er, fans:

Gallagher is upset about a lot of things. Young people with their sagging pants (in faintly coded racist terms, he explains that this is why the jails are overcrowded—because “their” baggy pants make it too hard for “them” to run from the cops). Tattoos: “That ink goes through to your soul—if you read your Bible, your body is a sacred temple, YOU DIPSHIT.” People naming their girl-children Sam and Toni instead of acceptable names like Evelyn and Betty: “Just give her some little lesbian tendencies!” Guantánamo Bay: “We weren’t even allowed to torture all the way. We had to half-torture—that’s nothin’ compared to what Saddam and his two sons OOFAY and GOOFAY did.” Lesbians: “There’s two types—the ugly ones and the pretty ones.” (Um, like all people?) Obama again: “If Obama was really black, he’d act like a black guy and get a white wife.” Michael Vick: “Poor Michael Vick.” Women’s lib: “These women told you they wanna be equal—they DON’T.” Trans people: “People like Cher’s daughter—figure that out. She wants a penis, but she has a big belly. If you can’t see your dick, you don’t get one.” The Rice Krispies elves: “All three of those guys are gay. Look at ‘em!” The Mexicans: “Look around—see any Mexicans? Nope. They’ll be here later for the cleanup.” The French: “They ruin our language with their faggy words.”

Above all, everything is gay, gay, gay to Gallagher. He leans into it with the borderline- nonsensical, icked-out, ignorant glee of a boy—or the protest-too-much vigor of a GOP senator. Gallagher delivers your Bible verse for the day: “Without God, we are nothing but dust. What is butt dust? Is that what you get if your homosexual isn’t properly lubricated?” He relates a story about spilling mouthwash onto his crotch during a show: “Lucky for me, there was no homosexuals in the area—‘cause my balls was minty fresh.” At other points during the show, Gallagher says, “Men and women can’t live in the same house” and “There’s no way men and women can have a relationship.” He says he can’t remember why he used to feel pleasure in looking at a woman. And, “There’s only one kind of homosexual guy, and that’s the pretty ones—why do homosexual men have to be so good-looking?” Gallagher. Listen. Is there something you want to share with us?

And guess what? The train-wreck just goes downhill from there!

Gallagher Is a Paranoid, Right-Wing, Watermelon-Smashing Maniac: The Decline and Fall of a Comedy Legend (The Stranger)

Thank you Rudy Coby!

 
After a couple of drug-bust-heavy years off the road, the Rolling Stones were at a few turning points as of July 5, 1969. Their back-to-basics Beggars Banquet album signaled the end of the rainbow dream of Their Satanic Majesties Request, and a return to a therapeutic blues mode that would last them long into the ‘70s. Most importantly, guitarist Mick Taylor of John Mayall’s Blues Breakers had replaced a drug-soaked Brian Jones, and Jones had been found drowned in the pool of his Sussex home two days before their previously booked free performance in Hyde Park. The Stones decide to go on with the show. As shown below, Britain’s leading independent Granada Television was there.

Granada put the biggest rock concert in England’s history to that point (250,000 people, with Woodstock planned for a month later) into context by chatting with the band, the fans and members of the amazingly efficient Kent chapter of the Hells Angels. Unfortunately, the Stones’ next huge concert would demonstrate that the Kent Angels neglected to exchange notes with their West Coast brothers about how to best secure a large crowd…
 
Please note: Live Video seemed to be the only free video site that’s hosting the full documentary. Unfortunately, the user experience after the jump is less than optimal—the video just starts and buffers a lot. It seems best to just pause the screen and let it load before playing. Please remember that it’s free, and that for best results you can buy the DVD by clicking the link below.
 
Get: The Stones in the Park [DVD]

A 36-second wax cylinder recording of what is thought to be Walt Whitman’s voice reading four lines from the poem “America.” [MP3]

As the sky lights up over Hometown U.S.A. tonight, let’s remember that today’s also the anniversary of two literary masterpieces of proto-freak culture. In 1855, Walt Whitman had 800 copies of his Leaves of Grass pressed by the Scottish-born Rome brothers at their Fulton St. shop in Brooklyn.

The Wikipedia oracle notes that Walt was definitely considered an original dangerous mind:

When the book was first published, Whitman was fired from his job at the Department of the Interior after Secretary of the Interior James Harlan read it and said he found it very offensive. Poet John Greenleaf Whittier was said to have thrown his 1855 edition into the fire. Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote, “It is no discredit to Walt Whitman that he wrote ‘Leaves of Grass,’ only that he did not burn it afterwards.” Critic Rufus Wilmot Griswold reviewed Leaves of Grass in the November 10, 1855, issue of The Criterion, calling it “a mass of stupid filth” and categorized its author as a filthy free lover. Griswold also suggested, in Latin, that Whitman was guilty of “that horrible sin not to be mentioned among Christians”, one of the earliest public accusations of Whitman’s homosexuality. Griswold’s intensely negative review almost caused the publication of the second edition to be suspended.  Whitman included the full review, including the innuendo, in a later edition of Leaves of Grass.

Seven years later to the day, math teacher Charles Dodgson and a friend took the three young daughters of Henry Liddell (the Dean of the Christ Church College where Dodgson taught math) on a short rowboat trip. Dodgson published the surrealist story he aimed at Liddell’s middle daughter Alice as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland under the name Lewis Carroll on July 4 1865.

Without forgetting Robert Cauble’s fantastic depiction of Alice’s search for Guy Debord, below are some amazing film interpretations of Alice:

 
Do you smell something burning ?
 
thx Buh Zing !

 
My college friend Alex Marshall surfaced this excellent montage (done apparently by a filmmaker named Azure Pepe Valencia) of Ginsberg’s classic 1956 poem to the country, the ideal, the situation. Hurrah for independence!
 

 
Media assassin Harry Allen has Twittered attention to the observations of Harlem-based Peruvian-American activist-rapper Immortal Technique upon his return from his recent visit to Haiti on the indomitable Davy D’s Hip Hop Corner.

I may not agree with all of Tech’s positions in general, but I do admire him as one of the few politically minded rappers who walks the walk. Dude built a damn orphanage in Afghanistan with no external or corporate funding, so he gets my salute.

Here are a few excerpts from his compelling Haiti look…

 
I’m a long time fan of the work of multi-media artist Ryoji Ikeda. His work has a harsh, ascetic quality that is also rhythmically quite savvy. His source material seems to be strictly the most minute particles of ultra-magnified digital detritus which become, in his hands, something grand, even monolithic at times. Here’s a random introduction by way of some things I’ve recently found:

A short piece from the 2005 Formula DVD/Book

 
An excerpt from a…
 

 
Truly impressive: A fellow in the Bahamas by the name of “Emperor Duke” limbos under a stick perched just eight inches off the ground! Crazy!

 
I’m amazed to find this morning that one of the finest LPs ever recorded, XTC’s Skylarking has never been heard properly. Evidently during the process of re-mastering it was discovered that every version that went out to the public was out of phase ! I can tell you from personal experience that this can really take the life out of a recording. I can’t wait to hear the corrected version ! From Andy Partridge himself:

The band themselves always had a nagging doubt that the album sounded a little too thin and bass light, not like they remembered it sounding from the recording process. Well, what John has identified is that the previous vinyl and CD’s {including the flashy US Fidelity version unfortunately} have been manufactured with their sound polarity reversed. In laymans terms this mix up means that sound waves that should be pushing out from your speakers are actually pulling them back and projecting from the rear. Something as simple as a wrongly wired XLR plug in Todds studio or the Master room would have resulted in this sound mishap. Making the record sound distant and thinner. He has identified that the original tapes appear in very good condition and with this problem now rectified APE will be able to present to you shortly a splendid double deep vinyl cut of this classic XTC album as it was intended to sound, but never has done due to human error.

In the meantime, enjoy the best song The Beatles never wrote from Skylarking :
 

 
And here are the…