Yay team! Yesterday protesters crashed a fundraising event for the Wisconsin Republican Party in Washington D.C. A Salon videographer was there:
If you happen to have a spare 3000 clams laying about you can potentially own the legendary German über-producer Conny Plank’s rack mounted digital delay unit ! There are other, less exciting items from the great man’s studio also for sale, but this particular unit was well used in the early 80’s and probably never more effectively than on this stellar 1981 12” single duet with Holger Czukay under the name Les Vampyrettes. One of my absolute favorite records of all time.
Les Vampyrettes - Biomutanten
Les Vampyrettes - Menetekel
Conny Plank Studio on Ebay
With thanks to Brian Turner via Geeta Dayal !
Amazing but true: Upstate New York asshat Jack Davis, once a Democrat asshat (he’s run for Congress three times as a Democrat and lost each time), is now taking his unique brand of idiocy to what you might expect would be the warm embrace of the GOP/Tea partiers, but that’s not been the case. Apparently Davis, who is running in the special election to replace scandalized Republican Craigslist tranny-chaser, Chris Lee, is too much of an asshole even for the folks who gave us Carl Paladino!
According to the Buffalo News:
Congressional candidate Jack Davis shocked local Republican leaders in a recent interview when he suggested that Latino farmworkers be deported—and that African-Americans from the inner city be bused to farm country to pick the crops.
Several sources who were in the Feb. 20 endorsement interview with Davis confirmed his comments, which echo those he made to the Tonawanda News in 2008, when he said: “We have a huge unemployment problem with black youth in our cities. Put them on buses, take them out there [to the farms] and pay them a decent wage; they will work.”
When Davis repeated those sentiments in the recent interview, the Republican leaders—who later delivered the party endorsement for the vacant seat in the 26th Congressional District to Assemblywoman Jane L. Corwin of Clarence—said they couldn’t believe what they were hearing.
“I was thunderstruck,” said Amherst GOP Chairman Marshall Wood. “Maybe in 1860 that might have been seen by some as an appropriate comment, but not now.”
When asked his controversial comments prior to a campaign event Davis replied: “It’s politics.” Rim-shot please!
Obviously, Davis has an ice cube’s chance in Hell of winning the seat. One of his challengers, Assemblywoman Jane Corwin has been given the endorsement of the state GOP, the Conservative Party and the Independence Party, and so will have three spots on the ballet.
(And speaking of idiocy, the GOP doesn’t have the market cornered: two prominent Democrats in Michigan, Michael McGuinness, former chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party, and Jason Bauer, former operations director for the Oakland County Democratic Party have been indicted on felony charges for their amateur hour “creation” of two fake Tea party candidates. They forged signatures and everything! One of the pair falsely notarized petitions for a dozen statewide candidates! HOW in the world did these morons expect this would go unnoticed? The county prosecutor is a Democrat, so this ain’t a partisan hit job. These two need a long spell in the pokey to reflect on what they did to themselves, their political party and to their families’ future. I shook my head in disbelief when I read about this. It’s far worse than anything James O’Keefe has done, if you ask me.)
Underground film-maker Larry Wessel is back with a four-hour documentary about the life, career and personal obsessions of the notorious Boyd Rice. Wessel calls Iconoclast, which was six years in the making, “a rollercoaster ride through the fevered mindscape of one of the most controversial and unique artists of the modern age.”
Boyd Rice may well be the only person alive who’s been on a first name basis with both Charlie Manson and Marilyn Manson. His career has spanned more than three decades, during which time he has remained at the epicenter of underground culture and controversy. Rice first came to prominence in the 70’s as one of the founders of the genre known as Industrial Music, and soon gained a reputation for live shows that were deemed the most abrasive, minimalist and loudest concerts ever staged (his shows regularly clocked in at 130 decibels, whereas a jet plane taking off was a mere 113 decibels). As early as 1980, he was already hailed as The Godfather of Noise Music. Since then, Rice has extended his creative pursuits to numerous fields, even lecturing at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, despite being a high-school dropout.
“My life”, says Rice, “is a testament to the idea that you can achieve whatever the hell you want if you possess a modicum of creativity, and a certain amount of naïveté concerning what is and isn’t possible in this world. I’ve had one-man shows of my paintings in New York, but I’m not a painter. I’ve authored several books, but I’m not a writer. I’ve made a living as a recording artist for the last 30 years, but I can’t read a note of music or play any instrument. I’ve somehow managed to make a career out of doing a great number of things I’m in no way qualified to do”.
Along the way, Rice worked as a celebrity bodyguard (protecting the likes of Julie Newmar and Maureen McCormack), owned a Tiki Bar (Tiki Boyd’s), starred in an exploitation movie (Pearls Before Swine), co-edited an influential book on low budget cult films (Incredibly Strange Films), and forged close personal friendships with such diverse Pop Icons as Tiny Tim and Anton LaVey.
Order the 3-disc set of Iconoclast at www.iconoclastmovie.com
A collection of Boyd Rice’s essays: Standing In Two Circles: The Collected Works of Boyd Rice, edited by Brian M. Clark is available at Amazon
Here’s an odd image circulating the Internet. Does anyone know where this is from?
Update: It’s a still from Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest. Thanks for the comments! BTW, I found this painting below while searching the image.
Keith Mayerson, The Abduction of Ganyemede (Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest), 2006
Clearly a labor of love, Joey Tosi’s Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World is a cool documentary about a subject dear to the hearts of guitar players everywhere, the wah wah pedal. I remember my first, it was made by Vox and I slowly stomped it to death over the course of several years while playing in garage bands in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World tells the story of the wah wah effect pedal, from its invention in 1966 to the present day. Musicians, engineers, and historians discuss the impact of the pedal on popular music and demonstrate the various ways it has been used, as well as how its evolution has improved the ability of artists to express themselves musically. The film features interviews with Brad Plunkett, the inventor of the pedal, plus many other musical luminaries such as Ben Fong-Torres, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Buddy Guy, Art Thompson, Eddie Kramer, Kirk Hammett, Dweezil Zappa, and Jim Dunlop. These professionals explain how a musical novelty transcended convention and has become timelessly woven into the fabric of modern pop-culture.”
Here’s Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World in its entirety. Thanks Joey.
Thanks Ed!
“I am the operator with my… iPhone?”
I suppose that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, should it? It’s actually kinda perfect coming from Kraftwerk.
At first glance I thought that this was maybe just some random/semi-random “remix” algorithm tied to a GPS (which it seems to be) but it sounds like once they work out the kinks, that they’ll be adding new functionality.
“It’s a novel system that creates music and sound based on realtime data depending on your location that are continuously feeded into the app, meaning the KLING KLANG MACHINE No1 can’t be compared with other generative music apps which mostly utilize pre-programmed algorithms. There are some nice ways to manipulate sound and store personal preferences. For now the functionality is still kind of basic but the original concept will be more and more implemented in future updates and releases.”
Then again, this is Kraftwerk isn’t it? Hopefully there’ll be updates more frequently than once a decade…
Kenneth Anger gives a wonderfully loose and informative talk on Aleister Crowley. From his birth in 1875 to his death in a boarding house in 1947 (not 1974 as said here), Anger gives snapshots of Crowley’s life through commentary on his painting, his use of writing paper, his mountaineering expeditions, his potboiler Diary of a Drug Fiend, Cefalu, the Blitz, to his involvement with the Occult and why the “Most Wickedest Man in the World”:
Crowley was not afraid of devils, in fact, they were part of his family. He was never afraid of anything on the other side - angel, devil, these are names you put on entities - but he said, ‘Welcome friend.’”
Anger also sketches in his own life and interests, and explains why he was officially declared a fire hazard.
Umshini Wam directed by Harmony Korine and starring Die Antwoord had its SXSW premier yesterday before an enthusiastic crowd. I’m unimpressed. Korine seems stuck in perpetual Gummo-land, but there are some brilliant bits sprinkled here and there. I dig the holographic hubcaps. Yo-Landi displays some real acting chops and I’m looking forward to seeing where she takes it in the future.
Korine’s sixteen-minute short brings the audience to the fringes of society where Ninja and Yo Landi of Die Antwoord star as wheelchair-bound gangsters. Residing in the outskirts of civilization, Ninja and Yo Landi play trigger-happy, gun-toting misfits who bond throughout the film by sharing cartoonishly huge joints, sticking-up business owners, and seeking refuge and shelter in the woods. It is a tale of love and the struggle for survival.”
Umshini Wam is Zulu for “bring me my machine gun” and the title of a popular South African anti-apartheid song. Die Antwoord gives the phrase a different spin entirely by using it in the context of a gangsta satire and I’m not sure what the reason for that is. I’m not from South Africa so maybe I’m missing something. Zef?
