Soft Focus With Ian Svenonius

Wow, this is pretty good. Ian Svenonius, formerly of The Nation of Ulysses and currently of The Weird War, does a sort-of talk show with punk, hardcore and avant-pop musicians. His interview style is a performance to behold in itself, coming off as a sort of pretentious punk intelectual, a Dick Cavett for the hipster/hardcore set. But as the interview with Ian MacKaye (The Evens, Fugazi, Embrace, Minor Threat) shows he knows how to get a good conversation going, despite the schtick. The clip above is only one part of four, so go here to watch the rest of them. More interviews with Henry Rollins, Chan Marshall, and Genesis P. Orridge. Both MacKaye and Rollins are heroes of mine, so I love this kind of thing.

The Hardcore Show #11

Back to hardcore now, here's the Hardcore Show #11. Find the track list below.

Click to listen.

Anthemic Pop Wonder - How Great Was Husker Du
Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized
T.S.O.L. - Code Blue
Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia
M.D.C. - John Wayne Was a Nazi
7 Seconds - Walk Together Rock Together
Circle Jerks - Red Tape
Circle Jerks - Back Against the Wall
D.R.I. - Who Am I?
Big Black - Power of Independent Trucking
Butthole Surfers - Human Canonball

Who Watches the Watchmen?

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I walk around with this camera everyday and shoot a little video. If you live in the New York area, or have visited the city in the last few months, you could be digitally recorded on one of my hard drives.

Killer of Sheep

This weekend we saw the fantastic Charles Burnett movie Killer of Sheep, the long-neglected masterpiece about the life of a poverty-stricken family in 1970s Watts, told through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive man deadened by the hard work and psychic impact of working at a slaughterhouse. It's a hard movie to pin down, so honest and real I left the theater drained, unable to talk about the story on the subway ride home.

Nonetheless, the film's scenes and characters worked on me for over the weekend, and will probably remain, playing over and over in my head for a long time. Made in 1977, the film was Burnett's answer to the blacksploitation movies of the time, a filmic statement that made no false assertions about its characters. At turns bleak, joyous and ennobling, the movie is a true work of art, and deserves to be seen by a larger audience.

See it when it comes to your town.

The Hardcore Show #10

Well, here it is, for the non-existant crowd that has not been waitng for it. It's the Hardcore Show #10, jumping over number 9 because who cares about that boring number. The number 10 is so much more round, more firm, more fully packed.

Here's the track list:

Anthemic Pop Wonder – How Great Was Husker Du
Jimmy Good – Watch Dog
Waco Brothers – Bad Times (Are Comin’ Round Again)
Black Sabbath – Rat Salad
Marc Ribot – Como Se Goza En El Barrio
T-Bone Walker – Glamour Girl
Billie Holiday – These Foolish Things
Tin Hat Trio with Tom Waits – Helium Reprise
Naked City – Sicilian Clan
Nicoletta – Le grand amour
Ciccone Youth – Burnin’ Up

Click Here to Listen

Duplicity Comics #2

So I've got a bug? Here's the second episode of Duplicity Comics, and without a copyright yet? Click the image for a full sized view!

Duplicity Comics #1

Here's the first episode of Duplicity Comics, a new series from Brooklyn Kitchen. Click the image to enlarge.

So It Goes...

We can't say it wasn't expected. In his latter years Vonnegut himself expressed shock (and often what can be called dismay) that he was still alive. But it's over now. Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions has passed into the great beyond. It would be out of place to write a lament, to write mournful eulogy for someone who could find humor even in the blackest situations, so let's just say that Kurt Vonnegut has died and that's a fact. We are left, waiting our turn. So it goes...

Portrait

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In this clip, I get all arty on you. It's a handful of clips I've distorted, cropped and juxtaposed. Is there any underlying meaning? Profound insight? Beauty? Truth? Is it a deliberate attempt to be vague? I don't know the answers to these questions myself, which is why I'm calling it art. Enjoy.

The soundtrack for this clip is a collage of sounds that I similarly distorted, slowed down, reversed and slapped together.

tHINK

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Here's an experimental video piece using about 30 pictures that I've taken of the course of the past few months. This is just the first piece of a longer projecy. The soundtrack here is a piece of "Rondo Allegro Rondo" from Ensemble Ordinature, downloaded from ubu.com.

Are You Ready?

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This is my second installment in the 'Stories from a Fundamentalist Christian Childhood.' The first being last week's 'Hell Awaits.'

The soundtrack for this episode uses excepts from Metallica's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.'