ISSUE no. 23 [2014] / ANTAGONIST PIECE no. 366 / DEAD TECH
STATEMENT of PURPOSE
Dear Reader, Reader,
THE ANTAGONIST MOVEMENT
Dead Technologies Technologies.. If you
encourages new works works of art and challenges the art world to do something different. We are not based on any any one style or form form of art, but believe that the piece should provoke. To this end, the Movement hosts the following events. PSYCHO MOTO ZINE - is a branch branch of the Antagonist Antagonist Art Movement’s Movement’s press and has been in existence since 1988 under the original title East Coast Exchange. It acts as a venue for our writers, artists and editors. In an attempt to create new forms for ms of art and writing, writing, we highlight the obscure and unknown artists, draw focus to subjects passed over by by the mainstream media. This is a not-for-profit not-for-profit publication. Artists/writers donate their time to create this. The content is a mixture mixture of fiction fiction and nonfiction. nonfiction. We also cover news of the art world, from street to gallery. Back issues can be found at “Psycho Moto Zine archives” archives” at Antagovision.com To learn more about the Antagonist Movement, look us up on Wikipedia.
are reading this fanzine in the paper form then you are taking part in a dead, forgotten format: PRINT. We as a culture discard technologies as if they were toilet paper smeared with our feces. In this issue we are going low tech and bringing back a few memories of things we once loved loved but only when they were new. - Ethan Minsker
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
EDITORS
Ethan Minsker Marissa Bea & Kristin Brzoznowski
LAYOUT & ART DIRECTOR
Eric Wallin
COVER ART
Sylvia Ortiz
So, if you enjoy what what you have have read, please take a moment and look up our films and books. Find our catalog catalog listed at the end of this issue. There are digital copies of each for $1.99 on Amazon. We 1
believe the price shouldn’t shouldn’t hinder you, so we do our best to have have a cheap alternative to the hard copies. We are passionate about each project, mixing love and attention to detail to create a unique work of art. Our goal is to make something the large entertainment companies fail to do, which is create inspired works that cater to like-minded individuals. All the money we generate goes back to creating new art projects and supports a large large community of struggling artists.
http://www.tumblr.com/blog/ antagonistmovement https://vimeo.com/ethanminsker
We CURRENT PROJECTS - We are currently editing our new film Self Medicated Medicated. Some copies of this fanzine will come with test copies on DVD. The Antagonist - A novel about all of our projects for the last last ten years and more. more. There is a backstory to everything we do, including this fanzine. Want to know how we operate? This is the book for you. Release date - 2014? FAHRENHEIT - Open mic the first Sunday of every month, month, features new writers. writers. Sign-up starts at 8pm and the readings start at 9pm at Black & White 86 East 10th Street between 3rd and 4th Ave. Five minutes to tell your best story. Comics and abstract comedy welcome. welcome. Must be 21 years years of age. PUBLIC ACCESS SHOW MNN channel 67, Tuesday nights at 11 p.m. “Antagovision.” This 30-minute show covers events, artists’ studio tours and more. With With over 70 episodes, you can see what we have been up to for the past ten years. years.
Questions? Comments? Stories? Suggestions? Contact us at Antagovision.com, email us at
[email protected] or follow/message us at facebook.com/pages/PsychoMoto-Zine Facebook fan page! We put out this fanzine and have no clue who you are. are. We want to know know you. you. Take Take a photo of you and our fanzine and post it to our wall. Let us know where you are in this world.
Whatever your favorite flavor is, we got you covered. Follow and see lots of photos photos of Ethan and and his little little girl girl doing stupid shit you don't care about.
To find out about film screenings and art shows visit us at Antagovision.com
https://twitter.com/antagonistart http://instagram.com/ antagonistmovement https://vine.co/u/953510822485852160
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Punker
Richard Allen
WRITER OF THE ISSUE
Long before I spent all of
my money money feeding two hungry arms and getting high on my own priorities, priorities, so to speak, I spent it on records. This was in the age of analog, before computers, before the Internet and before everything was just a click away, just a click away. It was the late ’70s, a time in which all boys¬—and girls for that matter—should have lived through. A tribal time when there were many camps and finding music was a gamble. The Sex Pistols had broken up, and many worlds and styles of music would soon converge. Finding records by punk bands was not easy. Mostly because record stores didn’t stock this “New Wave of English aggression that had found our shores.”
Living in the developmental swamp that that was Florida F lorida back then had only one advantage: advantage: the New York York pipeline. pipeline. That being the steady st eady flow of tourists that came down in the winter. They brought their records and mix tapes and t-shirts and other attire, and we waited for them like cultural muggers. I even heard Joy Division (not long before Ian Curtis found a neck tie he couldn’t couldn’t get out of) and Iggy Pop’s New Values in the same sitting thanks to a kid from Queens named Marc. The rest of the year, year, however however,, consisted of a crapshoot on which record to choose with my limited funds. funds. Some local record stores, stores, at the insistence of my friends and myself, would stock imports with the JEM label. These were from England and, for the most part, what we were looking for. The rest were a real hunt and a gamble gamble.. If the title of the album or the band band name or photo didn’t give it away, there were a few clues to look for. Song titles with overly safety pinned sentiments, or the number number of songs on one one side of the album—any album—anything thing over eight or ten meant they were fast songs and so on. I discovered several bands like Wire and the Buzzcocks this way.
E ventually ventually things began to gel. Packs Packs of punks found found other packs and word spread. Marketing, Marketing, of course, reared reared its ugly, profitable head and soon there was a label for you 3
while you were at the mall. “Punker” first came with a question mark. “Are you a punker?” Then it just came with a fist. But for a brief shining moment you you stood alone on the cusp of something brilliant, brilliant, wanting to find kids like yourself. yourself. By the dawn of the ’80s, and the advent advent of music television, television, personally speaking, I ran...I ran so far away. away.
BetaMax 1984
Anonymous
I had spent that summer working for my mother painting the outside and inside of our house. The work work paid for what was cutting edge technology technology at the time, a BetaMax player player and camera. The BMC-100 was the first combined camera and recorder to go on sale, in 1983. Rectangular recorder, with a camera bolted on one end, and a handle at the bottom. Small for its age—the recorder unit is about 15cm square, barely wider than the standard Betamax cassette which goes inside. I had been making films since I was seven years old when my grandfather had given me his old super 8. Watching the first images I shot flicker across the screen in black and white gave me a thrill that I would chase the rest of my life. life. My parents had been divorced since I was 7 years years old. Half the week Sister and I were shuttled Sylvia Ortiz between Father’s and Mother’s houses. It was a Saturday and we were back at my mother’s house. My room was packed with friends as we were about to preview something we had filmed the week before. My mother suddenly came into the room, awkwardly stepping over the young boys. We were all about thirteen years old. “I just have to retrieve a movie Tom and I watched over the weekend,” she said. I hated Tom, her boyfriend. At the VCR mother kneeled and attempted to eject the tape. What she didn’t know was that the eject button button had fallen off weeks before. before. If you wanted wanted to eject at tape you had to make contact with the tip of the butterfly knife by prodding prodding inside where the eject button used to be. I had left the knife next to the VCR for that purpose. Mother fumbled and hit PLAY. On the screen flashed the image of my mother spread spread eagle on her bed naked. naked. Then Tom Tom hopped in front front of 4
the lens with a boner that bounced just below his fat gut. Everything Everything was a sickly white pink with sparse clusters of pubic hair. hair. Hearing Tom’s voice, Mother’s eyes flipped to the screen, and she lurched forward blocking the view with her body from the audience. The room was silent. Without word I took the butterfly knife and ejected the tape, handing it to her, my head bowed. No eye contact. She said nothing as she left the room. My friends never brought it up to me. It was on such a bad level that everyone everyone wanted to forget it. Of course, during brutal fights with my mother I might say, “At least I don’t make pornos with my son’s firepower one can only use a camera then show all his friends!” But that is firepower few times before it loses its bite. We don’t ever talk about it today. After that experience handling my camera was never the same. I couldn't help being reminded that it had been abused by my own mother.
Dead Technology
Ethan Minsker Rich Boy Cries For Momma and Barstool Prophets
author of
New technology has ruined a lot of
fun things for me. Ther Theree was a time when I could prank call people and there was no way they could find out who I was. That was a time when rotary phones existed. For For those of you who don’t don’t know what those are, they were the big clunky landline phones in every home. Your finger turned the wheel and clicks on the wire found your numbers. Then they upgraded the phone to number pads that made a tone sound when pushed. pushed. If wanted, you could simply punch *69 in the keypad and you would be calling back the last number that called you. Then they came up with caller ID and then everyone everyone knew who you were. were. That killed the art of the prank call for me. No longer would I breath heavily on the line to a girl I had a crush on. Next was the beeper, or pager as it was later called. Drug dealers made them cool and everyone had to have one. There was a time before texts and cell phones when the only way to find people when they were out and about was to page them. That also meant stopping to find a phone to call back the t he person who paged you. You didn’t didn’t spend your your time looking looking at your your phone and ignoring the world world around you. you. I sometimes paged myself just for fun. Then the cell phones came around and I refused refused to get one for a very long time. Burning the lining of my 5
brain didn't appeal to me. But then long distance on a cell was cheaper. Walking around New York York City I want to bat the pedestrians out of my way as they head straight for me, looking down at the screen. They glance up at the last moment, avoiding av oiding me. How many many of you idiots get run over reading reading some useless crap on your smartphone? smartphone? I go to a show and see a sea of hands raised up, up, videoing the band. I am sure all those videos of the same thing are terrible. terrible. Are you really really going to watch it again? You think your friends will want to watch a show you went to? I want to watch the band live! Do you know what that is? Instead, I get a wall of tiny screens screens and faces looking at at them instead of what is right right there in front of them. There is no anonymity anonymity anymore anymore.. If I punched you you in the face there would no doubt be dozens dozens of videos pointing right back at at me. Google maps even had a photo of my mother's ass as she bent over to help get my kid kid in the stroller. stroller. I know she wanted to punch the driver of the Google mapper when she saw that. Sometimes I wish I had an EMP bomb so I could send you all back to the Stone Age. But then again, I use technology all the time; after all, I make films along with my books. Maybe I just don’t want you to have it.
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Tape Recorder
Brother Mike Cohen
In the mid 1970s I would listen to the WKBW-AM (the Top 40 station in my hometown of Buffalo, N.Y.) N.Y.) on my early 1960s clock radio ra dio which was a handme-down from my parents. I had to tune the dial JUST RIGHT RIGHT to get the station perfectly perfectl y.
Back in the 1970s the Top 40 stations would play rock ‘n’ roll, as well as pop and soul hits, so I got into Kiss, Stevie Wonder, Shaun Cassidy, The Commodores, and The Sweet all at the same time, from the same great g reat AM radio station.
In 1976 my sister gave me her Toshiba portable cassette recorder with an external microphone. I was so excited. I could now tape my favorite songs on the radio and not have to go to the record store and spend one dollar on the 7-inch 45. (Of (Of course the fidelity was horrible, but I was 11 years old and happy to have a song for free.)
I made a list list of
songs “to tape”, songs to “maybe tape”, and songs (Tape Elton Elt on John “not to tape”. (Tape and Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breakin’ My Heart"/ DO NOT tape Hall + Oates "Sara Smile." )
M y Toshiba Toshiba tape recorder recorder was was ALWAYS set up and ready to tape when a song I wanted to own came on the radio. One night in 1977 (at (at the age of 12), while dining with my family, I was misbehaving at the dinner table and my parents sent me up to my bedroom to think about my actions (and not have any dessert). I was on the far side of my bed on my knees next to my clock radio and tape recorder. recorder. My Dad (who could not see me from the neck down) came into my bedroom and continued to yell at me for misbehaving at dinner. I pushed the red button 7
and turned the little switch to play play and began to tape the end of my Dad's rant: rant: "AND IF YOU DO IT ANY MORE YOU ARE GONNA BE TAKEN OUT AS SOON AS YOU DO IT...AND IT...AND CLEAN UP U P YOUR ROOM, LEARN HOW TO START PUTTIN' YOUR STUFF AWAY...YOU'LL GROW UP TO BE A 20-YEAR-OLD DUMB BELL AND WON'T KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING!!!!!"
I continued to secretly tape my Dad yelling at me for the next 16 years on a Helix boom box with built in condenser mics and a Panasonic hand held tape recorder, also with a built in mic.
A Bangin Mixtape
Timothy Danger
The following is a verbal account of myself introducing a punk rock version of an 80's song my band is about to play in my hometown. (4.25.14 DTBG Victoria, Texas)
A llll right kids, it's story time...When I was seventeen years old in high school I was in love with a girl named Tracy. She was the cutest thing I had ever seen, with long blonde hair that flowed past her shoulders like shimmering silk. Every day after second period I used to time my approach approach to the stairs of Victoria Victoria High School so I could catch her walking down them; the light from the windows would would catch her hair reflecting a glow like a halo as she would descend down the steps to us normal nor mal mortals.
A fter fter about six weeks I decided I was going to do something about it. That's right kids, I was going to make a mix tape! The first song on that tape is the song I am going to play right now...and it has never, and I mean never failed me.
I say that for two reasons. First...I'm going to play this awesome song but really for the second reason. And And that is if any of you guys guys here are eighteen to twenty-one, and your mom's name is Tracy and she went to Victoria High School...I probably banged her. Begins to hit the A string...
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RiP: A Remix Manifesto Director: Brett Gaylor Documentary Documenta ry,, 2009 2 009 86 min. Canada http://vimeo.com/8040182 http://ripremix.com/ Review By: Gabriel Roldos
Remixers! Culture jammers! Open source coders, mashup artists, VJ's, DJ's, VDJ's, programmers, contemporary artists from around the world! Understand the common grounds g rounds that unlock endless creativity hosted in the public domain. Like music to the ears, creative commons concepts build a foundation for counterculture based on the copyleft GNU General Public License. It’s social disobedience in the battlegrounds battlegrounds of intellectual property property taken on by artists such as Girl Talk and the Mouse Liberation Front. This is a "...probing investigation investigation into how culture builds upon culture in the information infor mation age." THIS is a documentary YOU must see.
Forget VHS, The Video Store Is The Dead Technology
Nicholas Katzban
How do I feel about Kim’s Video closing their final location? Good riddance to bad trash. Never mind that I worked for the man, the myth, the legend, Youngman Kim for two thankless years without a raise, or so much as a handshake for being the only employeeout of everyone everyone I started with—who with—who went down with the ship, straight until their final week at 6 St. Marks Pl. in January January of 2009, dumping their museum-worth museum-worthyy collection of banned, out-of-print, and awe-inspiring-bysheer-numbers sheer-numbers collection of home videos on a phony tourist trap in Sicily, and leaving as its sole progenitor a sell-through-only music and video store whose whose most tenuous link to the days of yore yore is a rather paltry paltry collection of foreign region Blu-Rays, otherwise not available in the US… (yet). Sylvia Ortiz 9
There was a time and a
Adrian Alexis
the 80s—when simply The Passenger meant But in 1984 a brand new company company entered the still video, and and even even more laserdisc, by rereleasing Collection’ Collecti on’ss debut was as debut title was not. laserdiscs are now Digital Video Discs (or Criterion had amassed a titles.
place—some called it having seen Antonioni’s Antonioni ’s you were a true cineaste. video distribution nascent world world of home nascent media of the Citizen Kane. Criterion Criteri on inauspicious inauspicio us as their Flash-forward 20 years, years, smaller. smaller. We called them DVDs for short) and catalog breaking 200
W hen hen I started working
at Mondo Kim’s Video at 6 St. Mark’s Mark’s Place in May of 2007 I was in a tough spot, ideologically ideologic ally speaking. Kim’s had two reputations, reputations, that of our massive collection of 50,000 VHS and DVDs DVDs (some of which were were the only known copies in the t he world) world) and that that of our staff (who were were supposed to be the brain trust of said treasure). “Oh, go to Kim’s,” they’d say. “Walk in asking for a Kevin Smith film, endure a little verbal abuse, and you’ll walk out with something sure to blow your mind.” Yet, by the time I entered the picture, this was a tough torch to take up. People came up to my dust covered early 90’s PC running a DOS POS with the expectation I could turn them on to something they’d never heard of. I started my first day knowing I had a lot to prove, and wasn’t quite sure how to do this. There were maybe four or five films I felt I knew were still hard to come by, one being a then long-forgotten Jerry Schatzenberg film from 1971 in which pre-Godfather Al Pacino plays a floundering heroin addict with big dreams called Panic Panic In Needle Park. Park. Within Within 8 months of working there, all had been newly restored and released on DVD. I was stripped of my swords, swords, with dwindling options. I could always always suggest people rent our 80’s porn VHS Hannah Does Her Sisters. Criterion hadn’t quite got around to that one yet.
In an era when 8 dollars a month buys you unlimited streaming streaming access to Criterion and Janus films’ entire collection, with new titles being dumped like the cherished objects object s of Charles Foster Foster Kane being shoveled into an incinerator, incinerator, concurrent proliferation/monopoliza proliferation/monopolization tion of repress-only record record labels, and rare BBC appearances of The Television Television Personalities Personalitie s available on Youtube Youtube for any sixteen-year-old sixteen-year-old to find in a few taps and one click, what what really is the purpose of the last remaining Kim’s Kim’s Video? Is this the end of an era? I think we’re all 10
clawing each each others’ eyes out to be the first to write the obituary of a friend who’s been dead for decades.
In 1971, remembering remembering the name of
the band who released released the 1965 one hit wonder, “Liar, impressive bit of rock knowledge. knowledge. The next “Liar, Liar” Liar ” was a fairly impressive year a guitar player player from from Central Jersey Jersey by by the name of Lenny Kaye Kaye released released a two LP set on Elektra records he called “Nuggets.” Today, hearing The Castaways Castaways spinning on Serato from any number of East Village Village bars on a Friday night will hardly turn heads. We live in a repress culture, in which what was once the province province of a handful of social mal-adjusts mal-adjusts who continued continued to live in their parents’ basements well into their 30’s because the only jobs they could stand to keep were dishing out rarities and new pathways pathways to the un-inducted at local brick & mortar video and record stores for $5.50 an hour, is now common knowledge. knowledge. When there’s an endless supply of these things, who demands them? What is the worth of a Kim’s Kim’s Video, Video, that sells little more than the same videos and LPs I can buy at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square? What does it mean when discovering Michael Mann’s first film, Thief, without technology is now outdated technology?
Discovering Pinball
Anna Newman
Matt Walsh and I bonded over junking. He understood my story about finding seven pairs of vintage red line Levis jeans at the dollar-a-bag Rotary Rotary rummage sale. I could see in his eyes he got a small contact high just from hearing about my epic score. Matt hunted even bigger game. He rescued, restored, and sold old pinball machines.
Before arcade games and consoles, there was pinball. Pinball ruled. In pre-WWII days, pinball raked in more profit for its operators than movies made. Early Pinball was controversial, associated with illicit gambling. Raids happened. Confiscated machines machines were smashed and burned in dramatic vice roundups complete with police, politicians, and news photographers. Original pinball artwork artwork frequently featured themes of gaming, gaming, betting, racing, racing, and saloon girls. "To "To this day, day, pinball has a bit of o f a bad rep," Matt told me. I was intrigued. Driving around San Francisco with laundromats on my mind, I spotted what I thought might be a pinball game. Cruising laundromats laundromats was a frequent pastime then. I was in search of the perfect location for a short film I was making called
11
"Anna in Laundryland." (It features singing sock puppets, but that's a story for another day.) I pulled into a parking space and entered the rundown "Wash n Dry."
There was a pinball game. Three, in fact: Addams Family, Funhouse, and something I didn't recognize. Addams Family was in a sorry state, but Funhouse was playable and I quickly spent all my parking change trying to figure out how it worked, how to get "Rudy" the doll head to talk to me. I returned later with Matt, who gave me tips I struggled to follow, like "Don't use both flippers together." I took photos. I dragged people from work to play during lunch. I was hooked.
Anna Newman
I never mastered mastered Funhouse, but but those first photos were the beginning of
an obsession with pinball art. I attended pinball shows like California Extreme and the Pacific Pinball Expo and moved slowly from game to game, enthralled by the detailed line art and the rich glowing colors. Hours would pass unnoticed as I immersed myself. Little details, like colorful Bakelite plastics, awoke memories of ancient Christmas lights my my mom patiently maintained maintained (one light goes out, they all go out).
I got so into it I made a film called Pinball Donut Girl based on a story Matt told me about his college days in upstate New York. Then I made a pinball documentary about Wade Krause, a screen print artist who makes custom art 12
pinball games. I traveled across the country and went to a tournament at the Professional and Amateur Pinball Association Associatio n (PAP (PAPA) A) in Pittsburgh, PA. I met artists and players and collectors and their families. People invited me to see their basements, garages and specially constructed buildings buildings housing game after beautiful game. Everyone in the pinball community, community, without exception, was kind and friendly fri endly.. They were often engineers and artists, vocal in in their appreciation appreciation of the mechanics mechanics and the art of the games.
Sylvia Ortiz
Back when I discovered the laundromat Funhouse, I had to seek out pinball enthusiasts through Matt. 5 years later, pinball is making a big comeback. Mainstream publications publications write routinely about the latest urban "Bar-cade," and just this month Forbes Lifestyle Magazine had a 3 page spread about the pinball collection of Seagate's CEO, CEO, Steve Luczo. Luczo. I don't know if my films and photos had anything to do with the pinball reboot, but I'm glad it's happening, and I hope more people will get involved and discover (or re-discover) pinball like I did.
Interviews
Ethan Minsker
Alexis "Lex" Bhagat is a writer writer and curator living living in Albany, Albany, NY. NY. In 2012 he and Abby Echiverri initiated "Source of Uncertainty"—a celebration of the Buchla 200e and a gathering for the analog synthesizer community. community. In 2013 he was Alan Moore's right hand man on the XFR STN exhibition at the New Museum, Museum, a public-access open-door open-door media preservation center. center. He collects audiocassettes and DVDs by sound artists and still has a VHS player in his library. library.
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Q: What is the importance of maintaining and using using forgotten technologies? technologies? A: We have forgotten the technology that built Stonehenge or Pumapunku, which is why why they are mysterious. We We run the risk (I hope that we will!) of forgetting how to build a nuclear reactor, which is why Obama and Cameron want to build new ones while the experienced engineers are still alive. We have NOT forgotten about old media. We still have the machines. We still have the parts. We still have the manuals. We still have the tapes. Old media are not forgotten; they are simply "unsupported." Sony, RCA, Philips and Panasonic just don't make the parts anymore. And many warehoused parts were destroyed in the 2004 and 2011 Asian tsunamis. The playback machines are doomed.
Yet, so much remains on old media! The situation is truly urgent and artists need to know that whatever isn't converted in the next few years will will be lost, probab probably ly irreversibly irreversibly.. I trust that artists know, or have friends and supporters who know, about important tapes that are out there in their studios and closets. I believe believe in creating opportunities for those important tapes to be saved, and seen, to find a new audience, audience, and to take their place in art history. Q: Where can we find out more?
Archive. A: Everything transferred at the XFR STN went up onto The Internet Archive. It's there as its own collection. https://archive.org/details/xfrstn
A nd nd some of
the technicians who worked worked on XFR STN have have started their own group called the XFR Collective. http://cargocollective.com/xfrcollective/About-XFR-Collective-1 They are working working now with a small group of artists and arts organizations to preserve their tape collections. I am on their advisory board, and my mission is to find partners for future instances of public access "transfer "transfer stations." I'd love love to hear from any readers who might have tips about possible partners. Folks can find me on twitter, @nadalex. 14
Boris Castro & Ale Dumbsky are the publishers and Editors-in-Chief of the free German-based newspaper READ which has a circulation of 15K. Though based out of Hamburg, it can be picked up in various cities in Germany and Austria, mostly in Hamburg and Berlin, where they have about 600 outlets. The paper is mainly in German, but articles from English authors will be kept in the original language. language. Full disclaimer here, I also sometimes write for them. You can find reviews in past PMZ issues. There is no online version of this paper. Where most print is moving to digital form, Boris stated to me (off the record) that READ will not be available on the web. Today we hope to get him on the record. (Clearly I have no clue what off the record means, since I printed that. Sorry…)
Q: Why not go online? A: Originally we started as an independent film festival, where we screened movies and encouraged people to watch as an audience, audience, instead of home alone online. We enjoyed working on the program, featuring featuring hundreds of films from all across the world. In 2010 we decided that we need to cover more topics and more often than just once a year. We were Inspired by a story on the New York Times, which was trying to win back print readers by buying out the Queens Chronicle, which had been rejecting Rupert Murdoch’s offer for years. We wanted to fill an analog niche over here for READers who are sick of copy-pasted copy-pasted articles. We We try to stay as exclusive exclusive as possible and when people ask where they can get it, we simply tell them to search in the streets. It’s about rituals, rituals, where you are waiting days days for the latest release of your favorite comic book or fanzine. And it is not coming at you, easily accessible by a click. Q: Do you think printed news is a dying technology? A: Printed news is a dead technology, but we cover stories, not news. You can even READ old issues and I am sure you will find many stories that are new to you. Q: How can we get our hands on a copy?
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A: If you are are outside of Germany or Austria, Austria, you can send send us an envelope envelope with either 10 Euros or 15 dollars and we will post 6 issues to your home wherever you are are on this planet. planet. You You can also email email us at
[email protected] for wire instructions, but an envelope is cheaper and you will not make your bank richer. Mailing address: READ Gruener Jager 3 20359 Hamburg Germany Jake is an artist I met a few years ago in Victoria, Texas. Texas. He works in long exposure film—painting with light. Yes. Film. And without Photoshop. His work has been featured in publications around the world. He is currently working on a coffee table book about ghosts of South Texas, but I will let Jake tell you more about that.
Tell us about your work. Why Q: Tell do you choose to not alter the images digitally? A: I am a Light Painter and Light Painting can be easily viewed as digital manipulation manipulation because because of the complexity and and vibrancy vibrancy of the actual photo. When I’m Light Painting it’s done in complete darkness and each photo takes from 2 to 30 minutes to create. I have to do a lot of scouting for locations, locations, calculating what light pollution will be present and adapting my light painting tools and camera settings to compensate for all of those variables. variables. I may may only take take a few minutes to create the photo but prep time is much longer. I do not Jake Ramirez Ramirez alter my photos because of the preparations that are made for each photo. I want to use the camera and proper preparation to achieve the levels, contrast, cropping and other properties that are usually corrected so that the image is as raw and organic as possible, possible, so there is no confusion of manipulation manipulation in my photos. photos. 16
Q: I know you you have have had a lot of people who question your work’s authenticity, could you tell us some short anecdotes? A: When I first started Light Painting I decided to sell some prints at a local Austin art market. I noticed a lot of people would would glance at my photos and walk by, a few people would stop and ask what they were looking at and when I would explain they weren’t photoshopped or digitally manipulated I would get questioned because the photos appear to be Jake Ramirez Ramirez digitally manipulated manipulated to most people. people. I decided to start shooting 35mm film to be able to show people negatives negatives of the photo they were buying to prove prove it was authentic. Q: Plug your new book project here and let us know where we can find out more. Use this as an advertisement. Why in the hell should we buy it? (Please note reader, I have already pre-ordered one.) A: The book is in the final stages of its production and it’s it’s called Beneath Texas. Texas. It is a collaborative art project that th at will be a re-telling of Texas’s myths and ghost stories that have have been handed down through through word of mouth for generations. I am taking the photos and it will be written by Timothy Danger. Our crowd-funding page has ended but you can keep up to date by following the Facebook page. I am currently in Marfa, Texas—which is famous for the Marfa Lights—where Lights—where I will be searching searching for the Lights to take some photos to finish up the book. If you want to pre-order pre-order the book, send us a message on FB and we will get you a copy before it’s done. Q: Do you think film is a dead technology? Defend your position! A: Film is alive and will never die!! Camera technology has become very good over over the last few years but all of the new cameras are trying to emulate emulate the dynamic range that film has to offer so we can never say film is dead when the digital world world is still trying to fight its way to the quality of image film produces. produces. Q: Where can we find out more about you and your work? 17
A: I have a new website, www.sumerianlights.com where you can find out more about my work and I will have a full on store coming soon to buy prints, pre-order books, and possibly t-shirts and other goodies. You can also follow me on Instagram @sumerianlights. I was first introduced to the guys of 30 Minutes of Madness through their fanzine Hoofsip back in the ’90s. We traded VHS VH S tapes of the projects we were working on back then. then. They were still still in high school and I was at art school. Their work blew my mind. 20 years later, it still does. Interview with Jerry White Jr., director and producer of 30 Minutes of Madness.
Q: Tell Tell us about 30 minutes of Madness. A: Public-access TV came into being in the late ’70s or early ’80s as an agreement between cities and incoming cable television. My understanding is that it was a tradeoff—yes, you can set up shop here, but you gotta give us something in return. That something was channels dedicated to local programming: municipal, education and public-access television. The latter was a free forum for people in the community to have access to TV equipment and training so they could have their own shows, about pretty much anything. 30MOM was the show I started with my friend Joe Hornacek after getting certified for PA PATV in 1992. It's a kind of half-hour comedy/variety comedy/variety mixtape mixtape of skits and random weirdness—interesting/funny/bizarre vids we made ourselves with friends and other Metro Detroiters as the target audience. audience. As the show and our skills progressed we made our own music for it as well and continually expanded the cast and crew.
you film on back then? Q: What type of camera did you A: We We shot on a variety of formats. Primarily Primarily VHS—I had a Quasar camcorder, either the VM-735 or something that looked just like it. At the studio the format was 3/4" U-matic and the cameras were made by Sony and were state of the art, but from from the 80s. Later on we we shot a lot of Hi-8 with a pro pro
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camera checked out from the studio, no idea what the model was, and finally on SVHS with a Panasonic AG-455 (which I still have). Q: Can you share any funny stories about doing the show and people watching in your hometown? A: Here are a few things that come to mind. We shot a skit once in downtown Rochester where my friend Phil Holt got buck-naked buck-naked and played a primitive chanting on a fallen tree—anyone passing by caught more than an eyeful. We got into trouble once filming at the studio when my friend (also Phil) brought a squirrel inside he'd caught in the parking lot. We didn't even shoot anything with it—the coordinator had access to the camera feed and kicked us out for the day. We didn't hurt it and he let it go…is that funny? Another time Joe was out picking some people up to shoot and set the (very expensive) expensive) Hi-8 camera on the top of his car, car, then drove drove off forgetting it was up there. It fell off and busted the lens, which which Joe Joe had to pay about $400 to fix and he was banned from from the studio for about a month. I think my my favorite favorite reaction to people watching the show was was when I'd get a call from the head of programming asking me to tone down the language and subject matter because the station was receiving a lot of complaints. complaints. Thing is, 1st amendment and all, he couldn't straight up forbid the stuff we were doing since it wasn't illegal—he illegal—he just put the show on later and later time slots. I was just happy to know that people other than us were watching. There was one time I was at a bowling alley in Rochester (long ago since turned into a Barnes & Noble) and a woman came up to me and asked "Are you Jerry White Jr. Jr. from 30 Minutes of Madness?" She'd watched the show and wasn't connected to anyone in our group so that was my first taste of minor local celebrity. celebrity. I tried not to let it go to my head. Q: Tell us about the new film coming out. A: In 2012, to celebrate the 20-year 20-year anniversary of the show, show, I went back to Michigan and got the old gang back together to film a new episode. A 19
documentary crew followed us making 20 Years Years of Madness, a film directed by Jeremy Jeremy Royce oyce that tells the the story of the reunion and and shows the struggles we faced getting back together together as well as delving delving into the stories of the main characters and the different paths paths our lives have have taken. The film uses a lot of our analog footage from the ’90s to really underline the ways in which we've changed while also showing how we're still the same in some fundamental ways. It's ultimately a story about friendship and dreams dreams and the importance of a creative creative community as a uniting force that transcends the hardships of a fractured group group of dreamers. Q: Where can we find out more about the film and 30 Minutes of Madness? A: Links! The show website is www.30mom.com. The doc website is www.20yearsofmadness.com. We've also got the requisite Facebook pages and what not, but I'll let the folks Google to find those. Interview with Jessen Jurado, head coordinator at I/O Chip Music NYC. I/O is a monthly chip music and visual show in Brooklyn, free to play and free or low cost to attend, with the aim of providing exposure for new and established chip musicians, visualists, and mixed media artists. The Antagonist Movement used to host a live music venue on Monday nights at Niagara Niagara Bar, Bar, in NYC. Some of our our busiest nights were were 8-Bit events where musicians played original music using modified Game Boys. Alongside the techno sound of beeps and bloops was video pixel art projected onto onto the walls. Visiting Visiting artists from around around the world would show up and lead a packed bar in a sweaty dance party.
Q: What is 8-bit music? How is it made, and why? A: It’s called chip music, (or chiptune, 8-bit music) because the sounds are made by a computer chip. A musician composes by programm programming ing a set of instructions—similar instructions—similar to sheet music—for the chip to play in real time, almost like a music box or Marjorie Becker player piano. As for why, some musicians grew up listening to chip, or are young enough so it sounds new and interesting to them. Others enjoy the challenge challenge of creating highly highly complex works using simple tools and showcasing their work live at a venue before an audience. 20
Q: Tell us why 8-Bit is centered on Game Boys and other old gaming systems.
Marjorie Becker
A: Chip musicians actually use a large variety of classic computers computers and game systems to get the chip sounds sounds they want. want. Like vintage beat beat machines and keyboards, these devices are still used for making music, easily available, and have have decades of information about their capabilities available online. Game Boys are especially popular with chip musicians because there is great software support for them and the hardware is tough and portable. Even with the availability availability of today’s today’s handheld devices and dozens of mobile apps, apps, for less than $100 the Game Boy is still a solid dedicated solution
for composing music on the go. Q: Tell us about how far this underground scene has spread. I know it is big in other cities too. A: Since the early 2000s chip music has been gaining worldwide renown, due in part to the popularity of monthly live shows and the (now-defunct) (now-defunct) Blip Festivals Festivals in New York, Europe and Tokyo. I could oversimplify and say the music originated in Japan, enjoyed steady popularity in Europe and spread throughout the US via the East Coast, but that would undermine how much the current wave wave of chip music music grew up alongside alongside the rise of the Internet. It is modern music created created using vintage tools informed by the decades of music, and distributed instantly throughout a global network: you can’t tie its influences to any particular place or time. Q: Where do you see 8-Bit going in the future? Will other old gaming systems be hacked to make music? A: Chip music has plenty of influence on mainstream pop, hip-hop, hip-hop, and dance music today, today, even if it isn’t always strictly made on video game systems. syst ems. The sounds are ubiquitous enough that most people will hear it and recognize it as “Nintendo” or “retro” “ret ro” even if they don’t know what what it is or how it’s made. made. There are plenty of bands and producers producers today today incorporating the sounds of chip into their songs. Chip music, music, as a matter of course, is a bit more pure. pure.
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Q: Where can we learn more about 8-Bit? A: For a good introduction to chip music I recommend going to a live show. http://www.iochipmusic.com/about https://www.facebook.com/iochipmusic/info In a time before CD cassette tapes ruled, I remember making mix tapes for my friends of my favorite favorite punk rock bands bands and mailing them all all over the country, or handing them off to my pals. I would spend hours copying the names and songs on to a handmade cover with artwork. This was a time before the Internet and discovering new bands meant you had to seek them out. It let me act act as the distributor and and tastemaker that helped form my friends’ choices. I recently came across Angel Nikola's Facebook Facebook page and noticed noticed that she listed Stink Rat Rat cassettes & records in her About section. It was through her I found out that there is still a thriving underground that trades and collects cassette tapes. I asked her to recommend someone for an interview who is a tape distributor and artist, and we found Jude Noel. Interview by Angel Nikola and Ethan Minsker
Q: How did you get into this?
I’ve always been a fan of obscure music, music, especially that which has a Jude Noel: I’ve fuzzy, fuzzy, home-recorded texture. texture. The best place to find this sort of music, in my opinion, is Bandcamp, a website which allows any member to stream and sell their music, and it’s all free! One day, while browsing the site’s “experimental” tag, I came across this great single by a solo project called Abuela. It was an entrancing effort, minimal and mumbly folk, accented by the singer’s gravelly falsetto. Looking around around on that particular Bandcamp page led me to find out that the single was released on cassette. That came as a major surprise to me, as the last cassette I could remember being in contact with was a Simon and Garfunkle tape I listened to on the way to elementary school. Tapes were already old news by the time I was born! But I couldn’t help but love this tape. It was housed in a beautifully beautifu lly collaged cover, cover, and was a nice shade of navy blue. blue. I soon realized that the Abuela tape was just one release on the Swan City Sounds cassette label and that SWS was just one label in a community community of cassette distributors. distributors. It was a sort of circle of friends that I wanted wanted to be a part of. From that day on, I began to review cassettes for my music blog, Half-Gifts, and started collecting tapes tapes of my own.
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Q: What is the benefit benefit of cassettes? Jude Noel: Tapes Tapes have the high level of collectability and customization, customization, which I crave crave.. They remind me of the baseball cards I stockpiled when I was younger younger. They each each were the same size and and shape and had a similar similar concept, but the manufacturers they came from, (Fleer, Topps, etc), each had a slightly different vibe. Plus, some cards were more coveted coveted than others due to their rarity. There are definitely some legendary tapes out there that I’d I’d like to have. have. And, of course, they were just plain fun to read and to look at. For me, it’s not so much the nostalgia of the format itself. I’m too young to have experienced tapes in their heyday. heyday. It’s the nostalgia of collecting things and obsessing over them that gets me. Q: Do you believe cassette tapes have ever been a dead technology? Jude Noel: Hmm, I’m not really sure. I feel like they’re inferior in sound quality to CDs and vinyl, but I actually prefer that fuzzy warble over an overly-slick sound myself. But from my limited knowledge knowledge,, tape culture kind of hit a dry period around the late ’90s and early 2000s. But then again, so did just about all culture. Q: Where can we find out more? Jude Noel: I’ll shamelessly plug my blog here: half-gifts.blogspot.com. I review a lot of tapes there. Also, Also, I’d check out other blogs like Cassette Gods, Weed Weed Temple and Tape Famous. Make sure to visit the subreddit /r/cassetteculture as well!
Think Tank Interview
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us a statement of purpose for Q: Give us Think Tank? . Any bands you want to name drop do it here. A: The Tank was built to provide a creative environment for artists to experiment with ideas using various vintage instruments, amps, recording devices, effects, and consoles. I have partnered with members of Sonic Youth, Youth, Don Fleming F leming,, and local artists from Hoboken, NYC, and Brooklyn to accumulate an eclectic collection of gear. gear. Q: Could you tell me about Think Tank and about some of your best/oddest recording recording equipment, especially the stuff no one uses anymore? A: Think Tank Studio was built in 1996 as a total DIY project—by the artists, for artists. The studio features a Neve 5116 analog console, Studer A800 – 16 track 2” tape machine ma chine and an Ampeg ATR-102 ½ “ – 2 track. We We also have a classic EMT 140 stereo tube plate reverb. These control room gems are complemented by by an extensive microphone microphone collection as well as a collection of 2 dozen vintage Fender, Ampeg, and Vox amps. We also have 2 Pro Tools rigs for digital multi-tracking and mixing. Q: How does this affect the quality of recorded sound? A: All of the vintage gear gear gives an array of options allowing allowing artists to go from totally gritty, overdriven analog tube distortion to pristine digital 24bit/192kbps resolution and everything in between. Recording is widely enhanced by having options for manipulating sound Q: Tell us about the events you do there.
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A: We have a running SOUNDcheck series where artists such as Mike Doughty, Jesse Jesse Malin, Jim Jim Boggia, and and Ari Hest perform perform live for a small audience audience (25-30 people) which we record multi-track and video for use by the artist and access through our website. Q: Website or where people can find out more: A: Check out http://www.thinktankstudio.org for for a complete gear list, plus a listing of artists who have have recorded and performed in the Tank. Feel Feel free to contact us for sessions and/or general inquiries. Rock On! –Matty and the Tank team. Interview with Hit and Run Cinema From Berlin, Germany Interviewer’s Interviewer’s Note: Because of the nature of their work, we are leaving out names. I will say there are hints of who they might be laced into our films, but I wouldn’t tell you you which films so it’s more more of an egg hunt. hunt. We have worked with some of their members for years.
Q: Not sure I have the name right, but can you give us the statement statement of purpose purpose of the Outlaw Cinema? A: The Outlaw Cinema or as we usually call it, “Hit and Run Cinema,” has the concept to show films at special locations. These locations are often abandoned buildings, but sometimes we use also abandoned underground passages. It is like a pop-up cinema at a location nobody is expecting a cinema. Normally we have a location and the film is chosen in order to interact and to establish a connection with the location. Q: Where are some of the strange locations you you have have shown in and what happens when the cops show up? A: We have shown movies in different locations like old hospitals, supermarkets, factories, garden plots, abandoned clubs, schools, liquor factories, and so on. It’s very uncommon uncommon that cops show show up during during the screening screening.. We We sometimes have have a situation where they were looking for us but they couldn’t find us because we set 25
up the cinema in a part of the building building that was away from from the street, and the police stood outside, waiting for somebody to leave the building. In this case, we tell people not to go outside for the next e.g. e.g. half an hour after the film and normally the police aren’t waiting any longer. However, it happens sometimes that the police find the Hit and Run Cinema. Normally we have to quit the film and everybody has to leave the building. Q: What type of films do you show? A: We show films which refer to the building the Hit and Run cinema takes place in. When we had the cinema in the old liquor factory we showed Special Treat, a Yugoslavian movie from the early ’80s about a specialist who is treating alcoholics in a hospital. In general, we show the original version with English subtitles. We are trying to find films which are unknown by a broad audience. Q: Can people submit work to be screened by you? A: No, normally not.
Why use 16mm and Q: Tell us about some of the film equipment you bought? Why Super 8 and not video? A: I’ve I’ve used Super 8 since I was 13. At the same time I started to gain some experience with photography photography and so it was consequential to use also Super 8. Furthermore, at this time Kodak was still producing the Kodachrome film, which offered fantastic colors, much better than the standard video equipment like VHS-C. Some years later the Internet and Ebay started getting more important and I was able to buy a lot of Super 8 equipment and films for little money. For a time we shot a lot on Super 8, films with goats and films without goats. But Super 8 is very small and difficult to handle. A few years ago I found out that 16mm is available for nearly the same price and at first I started to collect some movies on 16mm. Sometimes it happens that the perforation or some some parts of the film are damaged and I was looking for a small 16mm editing table. I found one 400 miles away from Berlin. Berlin. Rolf Rolf was 26
selling an editing table he had used to produce produce German Ger man television, until the year 2000, but he no longer needed it. He liked the idea that somebody was still interested in 16mm and he offered me all the 16mm equipment he had. A few other things like the Nagra or some features for the camera I found at the Internet. But I’m surprised sur prised how many people are still maintaining maintaining all this old analog equipment. Q: Where can we see more? Website? Contact for the group? A: We have no contact or website for the Hit and Run Cinema, we only have a newsletter. newsletter. Normally you can be part of the newsletter if you sign sign in during one of the screenings. screenings. At the moment we have around around 15,000 email addresses in the newsletter. We don't advertise because it is all illegal.
Reviews
Ethan Minsker
Movies Blak Mama (2009) 95 min-DVD Directors: Miguel Alvear, Patricio Andrade Quito, Ecuador http://www.ochoymedio.net/productora-8/ http://www.behance.net/gallery/BLAK-MAMA-(2009)/8732213 Visual poetry. poetry. If you are an artist traveling to Ecuador this is a film I suggest you watch. Ecuador has a rich and varied history that is intertwined with the Incas, The Spanish, a dictator, and the Catholic Church. Church. The storyline follows three crossed crossed lovers on a journey of discovery discovery and self-awakening that leaps through time and space. Blak Mama illustrates the emotional subtext subtext of a culture and its people. Recommended.
Books A Million Little Pieces By James Frey April 15, 2003 (John Murray) ISBN 0-385-50775-5 “It tells the story of a 23-year-old 23-year-old alcoholic and drug abuser and how he copes with rehabilitation in a twelve steps-oriented treatment center. center. While initially promoted as a memoir, memoir, it was later discovered that many of of the events described in the book never happened. “ (Wikipedia) 27
This was a book left by my roommates after they moved out. I was told to read it, but after it was discovered discovered that Frey Frey had lied about most of it and pissed off Oprah Winfrey Winfrey I thought twice about investing investing the time. 10 years later I picked picked it up off the shelf and decided to try it out. What popped out first was his style of writing. writing. FAST FAST.. As if his flow of consciousness didn’t have time to format into a conventional style. It was hard to get used to for the first 30 pages or so, but once I did I appreciated it. That alone makes it worth reading. However, it is clear that a lot of the story is made up. This This is especially true when it comes to the gangster/criminal element that that seems as if he took it right from a bad TV show. I don’t use drugs but those parts and the self-hatred—the Fury, as he calls it—seem right on. The big problem is the main character’s name is James Frey so whenever I read a corny part (like any part where he delves into the subject of Love) Love) I couldn’t help but but turn the book over and look at his photo and shake my head. It is one thing to crank out a book, and another to purposefully not limit the corniness and crap that just pulls you out out of the story. story. But nonetheless I did did enjoy the the book and wasn’t wasn’t bored, for the most part (except when when he repeated himself a little too much). much). I would still recommend this book as a fine example of style and how personal style can make the difference.
Fanzines Razorcake (Non-profit punk rock) $4 8 ½ X 11” black and white white newsprint 112 pages razorcake.org Like Maximum Rock And Roll but younger, faster, and I might add, cooler. I have been sending my books, fanzines, and films for review to Razorcake and even though sometimes they may sting a little I trust them to be fair and honest. And that that is valuable feedback if you want to improve your art. The focus is on punk rock music and politics, interviews, cartoons and everything you want for a good read. Recommended.
Le Sparragusanada-$3 7” X 7” Full color printed Pages 50 Quito, Ecuador lesparragusanada.ec Cartoons from Mexico, Argentina, and Ecuador. All in Spanish. I have no clue what they are saying but that doesn’t really matter. The artwork is fantastic. This should be huge! From the images I can tell it covers sex and 28
violence, comedy, comedy, teen angst, and interviews. interviews. I was a fan fan of Heavy Metal Magazine as a teenager and even though this is not so much centered on Sci-Fi, I still see connections. connections. Maybe that is just me.
Strapped-mini zine Color printed on glossy paper Digest size 12 pages For copies contact Dori Cameron at
[email protected] Art, poems, short stories, rants. My two favorite things about Strapped? 1.) The artwork. 2.) Life Lessons with Jay and McCool. These are probably probably the guys I would hang out with. Making fun of mustaches and E-Cigs? Hell yes.
Basura Yellow cover with black and white guts Digest size 22 pages I met Elijah Arrington ( http://no-future82.tumblr.com or http://no-future82.tumblr.com or @no_future82 on @no_future82 on Instagram) in Victoria, Victoria, Texas Texas during an artist salon we held there during the VXTIFF. He stands at about 6’7” and towers over me with a Mohawk and dresses way more punk than I ever did. He handed me a copy and I must say, say, I love this zine. Filled with artwork that reminds me of the old Pushead art on flyers and record covers. I could see the artwork ending up on shirts and tattoos. So very punk rock. I love it!
Music All vinyl, never downloaded, downloaded, never streamed, never from from CD. CD. Our record player has one mono speaker with no thrills—the way you should be listening to records. records. We We love dead technologies, technologies, if that isn't clear yet. How do we find records? records? When we travel we we find the local record record shop and ask the clerk clerk to select the best of what is local, generally punk and rock. rock. This issue we cover: Austin, Texas; Providence, RI; and France.
Album: 7” Damnit Pomegranate/Can’t Complain Band: A Giant Dog $5.40 Where I picked this up: Austin, TX Website or contact: www.tictactotally.com Star Stars: s: **** ** ** Fast rock reminds reminds me of the best party punk bands of the 80’s. 80’s. Oingo Boingo comes to mind though I am sure the band would hate that connection. 29
Album: 7” Les Silences/Terre Damnee Band: La Fraction Where I picked this up: France Website or contact: lafraction.org Star Stars: s: *** ** * * For the true music lover La Fraction is good for your diet. I eat you! In the style of 70’s 70’s punk. I have no clue what they are saying since it is in French French but whatever it is she isn’t joking. The singer belts it out with pure emotion. Good if you are in an angry mood.
Album: 7” Look Back and Laugh clear blue vinyl, great packaging Band: Dropdead Where I picked this up: Providence, RI Website or contact: www.armageddonshop.com Stars: Stars: * * * My daughter of three years old said, “Icky.” “Icky.” My wife said, “Turn “Turn it off it hurts my brain!” But I doubt either grasps the complexity of hardcore. hardcore. My daughter might learn, my wife never will. I enjoyed this. My vote is the only one that counts.
Album: 7” Love On You/Dragstrip Band: Homer Henderson: One Man Band Where I picked this up: Austin, TX Website or contact: P.O. Box 141199-672 Dallas, TX 75214 https://myspace.com/homerhenderson Star Stars: s: ** ** * (My favorite favorite of of this batch of reviews) Rockabilly with echo on the vocals, honky-tonk blues—perfect for a road trip. This record was recorded live at the Party Lab 6.23.94 Well done good sir.
Album: 7” Sweat Lodge Band: Sweat Lodge $6 Where I picked this up: Austin, TX Website or contact: americaniconrecords.bigcartel.com Star Stars: s: **** ** **
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Even at 33 rpm it still sounds fast. Vocals like Vice Squad (old 80’s English punk from UK fronted by a woman) fused with Led Zeppelin meets Judas Priest all in a switch blade fight.
Album: 7” Black Triangle Band: The Best $5 Where I picked this up: Austin, TX Website or contact: twistworthy.com Star Stars: s: *** ** * * There is genus in the name of this band. “Who is playing playing tonight?” Answer. “The Best.” How could you go wrong with a name like that? Also you better better not suck. They They don’t. don’t. Quite good in fact. I like. like. Dirty down rock and roll.
Album: 7” Very Negative Great packaging, black insert, black label with no text, the record has a nice weight to it Band: F/I $5 Where I picked this up: Providence, RI Website or contact: atomicactionrecords.bigcartel.com Stars: Stars: * * * Comes with a download. Trash metal. I can imagine a mini mosh pit like a spinning hurricane. This will not be the average average cup of tea for the easy listener. listener. This is for those with a strong constitution. Makes me wish I had long hair, hell makes me wish I had any hair at all. I just wish I had hair.
Citizens For The Arts
citizensforthearts.com facebook.com/pages/Citizens-For-The-Arts
Citizens for The Arts, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) New York State licensed, federally tax-exempt charitable organization. Donations are tax deductible to the extent ext ent allowable a llowable by law. law.
Citizens for the Arts is inspired 31
by the foundations created by The Antagonist Art Movement.
Located in New York City’s East Village, and a community staple since 2000, the Antagonists consist of a network of artists, musicians, musicians, and writers that come together to celebrate one another’s talents and provoke each other’s creative potential. Since its inception the group has grown exponentially. As such, CFA has adapted these foundations, foundations, adding initiatives initiatives to foster domestic and internainter national cultural exchange. The primary focus is to provide projects that enable learning opportunities, job opportunities, teaching and leadership skills, and growth and support in other artistic ventures in each member’s respective community. Please make a donation and help.
ISSUE ARTISTS
Jake Ramirez Instagram@sumerianlights
Sylvia Ortiz http://thebeautifully grotesque.blogspot.com
Marjorie Becker www.chiptography.com
Adrian Alexis adrianalexis.com
All interview photographs are courtesy of the interviewee. interviewee. Unless otherwise posted.
NEXT ISSUE He Said, She Said
Misunderstandings, overheard conversations. I was at work when a woman said
to me, “How’s it hanging?” Most guys will tell you that when you are asked, “How’s it hanging?” that it refers to your dick. The correct response is to the left or right or low. But since I was at work I said, “It is hanging approprididn’t think anything anything of it and as we made it to an intersection intersection of ately.” She didn’t the hallway hallway she cut to the left and I walked on straight to one of the offices to ask what a few friends would have thought it meant. The consensus was all the men thought it was about the dick and all the women thought it meant “How are things?” But I still don’t see how they translate that from “it hanging.” It is a dick. A DICK! So your task has been set. As I look at my watch and mark the date and time I lift my arm in the air with a starters pistol. BANG! BANG! Start writing. That means you! Write or send us your artwork on this theme! Deadline October 1st 2014. Guidelines: 500 words words or less (less is better); Art 300 DPI .tif or .jpg.
Send submissions to our Facebook page or
[email protected].
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•ANTAGONIST FILM CATALOG• CATALOG• The Dolls Dolls Of Lisbon Lisbon - A movie about struggling artists making work on the other side of the world. A DIY eyeball-busting bonanza. Available on Amazon, iTunes and on DVD. Also available at St. Marks Book Shop on 9th St & 3rd Ave. Money goes to making new overseas art projects.
This is Berlin, Not New York - See what trouble the Antagonists can get into when you make art in abandoned buildings in Berlin. Available on DVD and Amazon instant download.
Anything Boys Can Do - Female musicians are all too often regarded as novelty acts, regularly shrugged off as militant feminist or cutely entertaining. taining. Overwhelmed by by the numbers of male bands, female bands of of the scene are lumped together in one category, category, "girl group", regardless of their vastly different styles. Available on DVD and Amazon instant download.
Lower East The Soft Hustle - The story of a Lower Side lowlife who makes a bet for $1,000, which he promptly loses. loses. After getting kicked out of the apartment by his girlfriend, he finds himself having sex with cheap barflies, barf lies, robbing East Village stores, and pathetically pretending he is gay g ay just to have a place to sleep. Available on Amazon instant download.
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•ANTAGONIST BOOK BOOK CATALOG• Rich Boy Cries For Momma - A first-hand account of Washington, ashington , D.C.’s D.C.’s punk rock rock scene in the ‘80s and ‘90s as told by a dyslexic punk. Available anywhere e-books and paperbacks are sold. Also available available at St. Marks Book Shop on 9th St & 3rd Ave. and Generation Records at 210 Thompson St. between w. 3rd and Bleecker St. Money goes to publishing new books. Barstool Prophets - A book about the dirty secrets every bartender in the Lower East Side knows. Before you date a bartender, read this book. Available anywhere e-books and paperbacks are sold. Also available available at St. Marks Book Shop on 9th St & 3rd Ave. Money goes to publishing new books.
•ANTAGONIST MERCHANDISE• MERCHANDISE• Where can you get an Antagonist Antagonist shirt, shir t, button or a buncha buncha other other stuff ?
Head on over to antagovision.com and visit our Store
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Sylvia Ortiz
ARTIST OF THE ISSUE
Award winning artist Sylvia O. and The Beautifully Grotesque, a life long thesis, where she pushes and pulls the boundaries boundaries of what is considered considered “Ethereal” and “Abhorrent”. Constantly dissecting the definitions, boundaries, standards, and expectations of these two anomalies. anomalies. In an attempt to lure lure and seduce the viewer into delving deeper into their own identity and perception perception of what separates separates the beautiful from the grotesque by using the human form as an “object” as opposed to the “subject”. Her ultimate goal is to convince the viewer that there is no line between the beautiful or the grotesque, but instead they exists as one entity.
In 2010 Sylvia O. had to put her career aside to battle Breast Cancer; which is ironic because because of her signature signature floating “Boobles™”. An iconic iconic symbol of femininity, femininity, strength, sustenance and vitality in her work. Often using vibrant colors that allure but but also marring them with dark splotches splotches of black and fine line work. In hopes hopes to enlighten and pave pave a road of consciousness for women to follow as she prepares for her artistic comeback.
Her works have been published in pop culture magazines such as Juxtapoz, the Schiffer book called The New Brow: 50 contemporary artist which was released in 2012; Her work has traveled around the world and has exhibited in renowned shows like NYC’s Red Dot Fair, Kris Kuksi’s “Beauty… isn’t exhibition, DC’s DC’s Art Whino G40, Fountain Fountain Fair Fair,, Art basel and and pretty” juried exhibition, many others.
A Note From the Editor S ylvia is in in her 4th year year (4th recurrence) recurrence) of aggressive cancer cancer.. This is no joke. joke. She needs your help. help. That means we need your help. Please give give if you can and pass this on. Please! Sylvia has been a part of the Antagonist Movement Movement from the start. She has created designs for our clothing, illustrated for our zine, curated shows and been an organizer for events. Not only is she a great artist, but also a close friend and a little sister sist er.. We need her here with us. http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/fight-like-a-girl-/199879
