Media

Art, public dissent, and technology with Graffiti Research Lab founder James Powderly

Graffiti Research Lab is a revolutionary group founded by James Powderly and Evan Roth. Through special events, workshops, a public blog, and field research with graffiti artists they have created new and innovative technologies, all of which they make available to the public. Two of these innovations include the LED throwy, a magnetic device that can be used to attach lights to metal surfaces, and the laser trolley, a machine that can be pulled behind a bike and used to project art and political statements on any surface. In town this week to chat on electronic art and technology, James Powderly took a moment to discuss GRL with City Pages.

City Pages: When I think of art and political activism, I don’t necessarily think of technological advances. How did you and Evan come up with the idea to integrate all three of these things?

James Powderly: Well, we were technologists in various industries. I worked in an aerospace robotics guild and Evan was an architect. We didn’t necessary take straight paths, but eventually we found our way into these sort of techy mainstream jobs, and then for various reasons we became disillusioned. Mine reasons were related to the machine of war that turned my NASA job into a military gig, and with Evan, he was frustrated with communities overrun with a style of architecture that didn’t seem to humanize that community; really quite the opposite. When we quit those jobs, I literally felt I had a grudge to bear against dominant culture.

CP: Has your mission statement changed over the years?

JP: Yeah, absolutely. Evan had a specific interest in graffiti because he had moved to NYC, and was a photographer of it. I had a similar experience. A lot of it for me was this idea that my colleagues believed that technology was neutral; that we were just coming up with generalist solutions to these tech problems that could be implemented for good or bad later down the road, but we had very little say in it. Graffiti technology is not neutral. People are either for or against it. Eventually, I could finally convince my friends that technology isn’t neutral. Finding a way to record painting a wall with a fire extinguisher, that’s not neutral: To the City of New York that’s bad, and for graffiti artists that’s good. I was really into that; that moment when my colleagues realized it’s not neutral, technology has a lot to do with the client it’s being made for. Over time I have grown to love graffiti art more, and I see graffiti artists and writers as hackers of the city. They’re so clever and self-practitioners. We’ve been able to help out with the graffiti community, and technology does have a place in the community. There are pros to laser graffiti: you’re in a legal grey area, you could make a more publicly outrageous statement, you didn’t have to hide behind a bandanna.

CP: Have you had problems creating art legally in public spaces? I know in the past taggers like Mike Baca have faced serious jail time for tagging. Is it risky when much of your work is documented and blogged?

JP: We’re in a fortunate position in an unfortunate reality of society: we’re graffiti artists of a certain age that are white. We really don’t even call ourselves graffiti artists, we think of ourselves as graffiti engineers or research scientists. Around the world, were they do get busted fined, but here in NYC the lines are very racially divided. We have the opportunity, to do this as an art practice and walk away from it in most cases. As we’ve gotten larger, we do get fined for various things, politicians speak out against us, saying the city should boycott the universities we teach at. Our graffiti artist friends will come out for a New York Times photo shoot, and they’re artists, even minor celebrities. But then the next day they’re arrested by the NYPD. We spend a lot of time in courts for our friends trying to figure out how the system works. A lot of our efforts have gone towards fundraising for them. Some are facing serious jail sentences. Our friend Mike got out after three months. He had to stand trial for 42 counts indictment. It could have been 7 years in jail. Now he gets to clean things up at a reduced cost to his life, and the tax payer. So, we’re not taking the same risk-level as our peers, but they respect us for our devotion and fandom of what they do.

CP: Tell me a little bit about the LED throwies.

JP: We had all these parts on a table, and we started conjecturing on what would be a good way to get things up quickly in the city, like an electrograph. With magnets, we could do something. It really was about the magnet as an attachment element. It could have been silly, like: Finally, art that makes the city look better. Instead, we used LED and threw them up. The obvious next step was to make a lot of them and put them up on a building. The end result was socially interesting. It’s not permanent, so people weren’t afraid to get involved because it’s not creating permanent damage. It’s the idea that if you give people a tool that removes some of the stigma of modifying their own environment, they participate and are involved. It’s just the stigma of graffiti that prevents people from wanting to reclaim their local environment in that way.

CP: How about the laser trolley? That contraption just seems made for something like Critical Mass.

JP: We were lucky enough to live in NY and watch what happened around the RNC, and both Evan and I are bike riders. The bike is sometimes interpreted as a tool of mischief and mayhem, Critical Mass being an example. It is an empowering tool. Technology is also empowering. Bikes organize mobility through the city. We thought that if we set the laser tag up on a bike, we could provide it to people in general. It’s sort of like how libraries provide books: You come in, you get tutored on how to use the system, go out with the interns, then use it for your own reason, be it political or artistic. We have loaned it out to 20-25 different organizations from pro-Palestine protest activists (Electronic Palestine), fringe group 9-11 Truth, and student artists that don’t usually have access to technology that use it for things like whimsical games in public spaces, to protest related activities, like projecting the line to which the sea level will rise by 2010 in NYC. These people have had relatively peaceful experiences with the technology.

CP: Obviously, you put your technology out there for the general public, but do you ever worry about certain aspects of your work being co-opted by marketing and advertising companies?

JP: Any artist practicing something—especially with street culture—they just have to deal with the fact that it is going to be stolen. They have to decide how they are going to spend their time. We’re lucky that we never really had to make that decision. We started Graffiti Research Lab at a place called the EyeBeam OpenLab (the group is currently housed at FATLAB), which is a non-profit that required all our work be public domain. So, when we got this fellowship we signed contracts that said we wouldn’t use proprietary license on any technology, and it would be available to the public. We wanted to work in the public domain, it’s an unrestricted way of distributing your information. Anyone can use our technology, even for commercial purposes. We took that stance because don’t want to spend out time in courts battling for or against our work, we don’t want to restrict access because we want to create. It wouldn’t make sense to create these things and not have it available for free, because then we’d just be a business. We also wanted to introduce graffiti to the public in a way they could get involved. So, we offer it to people, and corporations get access to it as well.

CP: What new and exciting things are GRL up to nowadays?

JP: We’ve been doing a lot of events recently. We had an opening at the MoMA, and used to laser tag inside. We realized during our friend Mike’s trial that to be able to say you had esthetic intent when you made something is a difference between a misdemeanor and a felony in NY. Basically, a judge gets to decide that. So, we figured if we had as many people from the graffiti community as possible come and use the system in the MoMA, they would be able to show that they in fact are considered artists by a mainstream art establishment. Now our crew and friends have documented photography if they should ever get in trouble.

CP: Tell me a little bit about the bike ride and any plans you have here for the Twin Cities.

JP: Ali Momeni has procured through the university a grant big enough to make three mobile broadcast units. He’s interested in having these platforms that are basically a mobile cinema, just point it at a wall and use it. With the RNC coming, he saw an opportunity to use it not only for students, but it has practical potential during the RNC. So he’s building these bikes that we’ll use for laser tag during our time here.

Come hang with Jim Powderly and others from Graffiti Research Lab at the Spark Festival. He’s giving a free lecture 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 27 at the Regis Center for the Art (405 21st Ave. S., Minneapolis), followed by a bike tour at 5 p.m. later that day. For a complete schedule of Spark Festival events, click http://spark.cla.umn.edu. Graffiti Research Lab’s blog is located here.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at February 26, 2008 3:50 PM | Comments (1)

 

Pity Cages

Filed under: Media

Those kids at the Wake have given us such a skewering! It's true, though, that we really do all live inside cages of our own pity. (I know you are thinking I'm wearing one of those humorous prop nose-and-glasses ensembles, but no--it's all me, baby.)

Posted by Sarah Askari at January 7, 2008 2:51 PM | Comments (3)

 

Vita.mn: Check out this awesome (if nonexistent) band!

Filed under: Media

Recently, the Strib's weekly freebie, vita.mn, came out with its highly anticipated "list of lists" issue. Getting input from an "army of opinionated web users," that "contributed thousands of items," vita.mn ranked, among other things, the top 10 "must-see local bands."

Number 10 on the list was the Hockey Night, indisputably one of the best bands to come out of Minnesota in the last long while. "It's quite an honor," said Alex Achen, one of the band's two drummers. Just one problem, as Achen was quick to point out: The band hasn't played a show in more than five months, because that's when they broke up.

Next year, be sure to vote for Hüsker Dü.

Posted by Jonathan Kaminsky at July 30, 2007 9:14 AM | Comments (1)

 

Par Ridder for Kevin McHale?

Filed under: Media

Is there a local organization more dysfunctional than our professional men's basketball team? Well, yes, at the moment, that would be the Newspaper of the Twin Cities.

One perk of Pi Press-turned-Strib-publisher Par Ridder's follies is the blog Par Excellence, dryly written in the voice of a pseudo-Par.

Aside from updates on the latest Stribulations, useful Excel tips (har-har) and an imagined ongoing feud with local media scribe Brian Lambert, Par Excellence has offered one striking coincidence: The boy-wonder newspaper scion looks a bit like that old Iron Range rim-rattler Kevin McHale.

Well, close enough for us to make this suggestion, anyway: Why not a straight up trade, McHale for Ridder? The Timberwolves, burdened by a number of fat contracts orchestrated by McHale as the team's GM, would certainly be a leaner machine with Ridder's bosses at Avista dishing buyouts like so many no-look assists. And given McHale's penchant for big-time deal making, he might just trade the entire newsroom for the staff at the Boston Globe. (Eddie Griffin as managing editor, anyone?)

All in all, it seems like a risk worth taking—shrinking attendance figures verses shrinking circulation figures. Really, what's the difference? It might inspire the troops on both sinking ships. The only wrench in the whole deal: Who has to take T-Hud?

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at July 23, 2007 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

 

Diablo Cody in the August issue of Playboy

Filed under: Media

That got your attention didn't it? Alas, the author/screenwriter/Pussy Rancher was interviewed about the fall release of Juno, directed by Jason Reitman from her screenplay, and is not the Playmate of the Month. "I wanted to be naked, but for some reason they weren't interested in that. Maybe they were worried about my penis," she tells City Pages. Diablo isn't even quoted in the piece, rather Reitman is given space to sing the praises of our Best Local Girl Made Good: "When you read a screenplay where every time the writer has to make a decision, the decision is unexpected, that's special." Diablo is developing another movie script for Warner Bros. and a half-hour sitcom for Showtime based on a concept from Steven Spielberg. The August issue of Playboy is on newsstands now.

Posted by Corey Anderson at July 12, 2007 6:37 PM | Comments (0)

 

Mayor Rybak declares "Uncle Al Day" in Minneapolis

Filed under: Media

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak has declared today, April 9, 2007, "Uncle Al Day" to honor 38-year Strib veteran Al Sicherman. Sicherman, who would refer to himself as "Uncle Al," wrote the "Tidbits" column, dispensing commentary on processed food packaging and marketing.

"Al combined his gifts for arcane computer knowledge, brilliant command of the language, kitchen expertise, and—as Uncle Al, the weekly columnist—self-deprecating humor to enrich readers beyond what most of us realize," Mayor Rybak's proclamation said.

Kudos to Uncle Al.

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 9, 2007 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

 

The Spark Festival is underway

Filed under: Media

The Spark Festival, the U of M's celebration and exploration of the history, future, and current culture of electronic art, plays host to electronic composer and synthesizer designer Morton Subotnick tonight at the Whole Music Club. He will be joined by local musician J.G. Everest for another installment of Everest's regular "Making Music" interview series. Subotnick is famous for co-inventing the Buchla Synthesizer, pre-dating the more-famous Moog by a year. He later used the Buchla to compose one of the world's first commissioned electronic compositions, The Silver Apples of the Moon, in 1968 (the same year as Wendy Carlos's seminal Switched-On Bach).

The festival continues through the weekend, with tons of lectures, concerts, and art installations scattered throughout the city. Featured events also include a performance by Warp Records artist Richard Devine (remixer of Aphex Twin and Mike Patton), a "Headphone Festival," circuit-bending workshops by locals Beatrix*Jar, and several other appearances and performances by Subotnick. Check out the Spark website for full details.

Posted by Chuck Terhark at February 21, 2007 8:17 PM | Comments (0)

 

Gordon Parks, 1912-2006

Filed under: Film , Film , Film , Film , Film , Film , Film , Film

Gordon Parks "once took a ride tailed by the cops with some young L.A. [Black] Panthers with guns in their laps," writes Greg Tate in today's Village Voice obituary. "One asked him if he would still choose the camera over the gun, as he'd declared in his 1967 memoir, A Choice of Weapons. Parks reiterated his belief. Two weeks later the Panther was dead." Parks, who was the first black staff photographer at Life in the '50s and the first ever to direct a studio film (The Learning Tree, in 1969), lived life alongside his subjects, from blacks in the Twin Cities to Malcolm X. Born in Kansas in 1912, the future writer, jazz musician, poet, painter, choreographer, and composer moved to St. Paul as a stunned teenager after the death of his mother, according to his autobiography Voices in the Mirror, and was promptly thrown out into the subzero weather by his brother-in-law. He spent a week homeless, "bouncing between Jim Williams's pool hall during the day and the trolley cars at night," writes Michael Tortorello in a 1998 City Pages appreciation. "One morning, hungry and broke, Parks drew a knife on one of the conductors, and then, in shame, offered to sell it to him in exchange for breakfast"...

Parks played piano in a local brothel, bused tables at the Minneapolis Club, and reluctantly dropped out of St. Paul Central High School before moving to Chicago, New York, and back again. He was working as a porter on the North Coast Limited in the '30s when he became inspired by the great Depression-era documentary photographers, whose pictures he found in train magazines. Parks invested in a used camera, what he would call "his weapon against poverty and racism," and began taking photographs for the Minneapolis Spokesman/St. Paul Recorder. 50 years of work in a half-dozen mediums followed, though he's still best known for directing Shaft--he once told City Pages it was "nowhere near blaxploitation." (Parks's film biographer, Craig Rice, says he applied to film school the day after seeing the movie.)

"I don't make my poetry or my music just for people in Harlem or Kansas or any one place in between," Parks told Rob Nelson in a 1996 City Pages interview. "I think it's about reaching as many kinds of people as you can." He stayed prolific to the end, publishing two books on Atria in 2005: A Hungry Heart : A Memoir and Eyes with Winged Thoughts: Poems and Photographs. He died last Tuesday at age 93 in New York. (Read the New York Times obituary and the one in the Kansas City Star.)

In an interview with the Spokesman-Recorder last year, Parks said: "I let my heart persuade me toward whatever I needed at the moment; that's where I went. That's why I was successful, or why I failed."

(View a video at MNStories.com, a discussion at MNSpeak.com, and more Parks photography here, here, and here.)

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at March 13, 2006 5:35 PM | Comments (1)

 

Old computers replacing TiVo, but not for long

Filed under: Media

Wired has news about the new trend in video recording: revamping old computers to replace TiVo and its subscription fee. For about $200, an out-of-date PC can be turned into a state-of-the-art digital recorder that will also turn any television into a media center with music, video, and games. The unfunny punchline to the piece: the record and movie industries are pushing hard to have the cables used in home installations changed so that the signal can only be recorded by TiVo. (In other digital news of the day, an anime site is reporting that Sony's Blu-Ray hi-def video discs will be region-coded like DVDs, preventing cheaper discs from Asia from being sold elsewhere.)

Posted by Steve Monaco at March 9, 2006 4:04 PM | Comments (0)

 

City Pages cover trivia

Filed under: Media

This week's women-in-MN-music cover and the June 8, 2005 summer issue share cover model April Lindner, of the rock band Bounce...

The May 26, 2004 abortion issue and the Dec. 17, 2003 "Year in Music" issue share cover model (and City Pages associate art director) Jane Sherman.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at March 9, 2006 1:30 AM | Comments (0)

 

Rev. Charlie Jackson, R.I.P.

Filed under: Obituary , Obituary , Obituary

"In the middle of the ocean/In the middle of the night/We'll keep on fighting/Until we bring daylight," sang gospel electric guitarist Charlie Jackson on his old '70s Booker single "Something to Think About" (audio here), a lonely call for solidarity in the violent wilderness of the American South--and one of the best songs ever recorded about the Civil Rights Movement (others here). Jackson died on Monday in Baker, Louisiana (here's today's obituary in the Advocate); he was 73. The above song and others were collected three years ago on a wonderful CaseQuarter Records CD titled God's Got It (scroll down), a well-reviewed document that made many Top Tens and still astounds on 50th listen. (Buy it here, here, or here.) What follows is an open email from Kevin Nutt at CaseQuarter...

It is with great sadness that we here at CaseQuarter Records must convey the news that Bishop Charlie Jackson of Baker, Louisiana has passed away. Bishop Jackson, known to many blues, gospel and music lovers in the wider world as the Reverend Charlie Jackson, died in his sleep at a local Baker, Louisiana nursing home early Monday morning Febuary 13th. Reverend Jackson had been confined to the 24 hour care facility since the spring of 2005 after suffering the latest in a series of lifelong strokes. His wife, Laura Davis Jackson, said that Reverend Jackson had been unable to recognize anyone since his admittance and his health had steadily declined.

For anyone reading this, Reverend Jackson's music needs no introduction or reminders. Along with Elder Utah Smith, Jackson was one of few of the widespread guitar slinging gospel preachers to actually record commercial records and it is such a treasure, especially now, that we have his unique testaments. I still savor the moment when I first heard Chris Smith's and Lynn Abbott's cassette of Reverend Jackson's music. It's a cliche but nonetheless too true: it literally changed my life.

Not suprisingly, Reverend Jackson in person was even more impressive than his music. On the occasions that I visited him I was
overwhelmed with his perpetual warm heartedness and enthusisam. It was such a delight to be with him and his wife Laura.

There are many poignant and moving moments in Reverend Jackson's music but the one I've been returning to these past couple of days is "The Testimony of Reverend Charlie Jackson." "When I couldn't speak nothing, I let the guitar do it," he says in the song. And then he plays the old hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" on his guitar:

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer

There will be a visitation and service on Friday February 17th at the Hall Celebration Center in Baton Rouge from 5- 7PM for the visitation and 7-9PM for the service. Funeral sevices will be at Jackson's home church, Brown Chapel Baptist Church, in McComb, Mississippi on Saturday February 18th at 2PM. Flowers can be sent to the Hall Celebration Center through Heroman's Florist. www.heromans.com As of this writing there is no information on donations. Please email me if you need further information on this as it becomes available.

Kevin Nutt
CaseQuarter Records

More reactions here.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at February 16, 2006 4:48 PM | Comments (0)

 

Jordis blogs, doesn't play Ascot Room

Filed under: Local Music , Local Music , Local Music , Local Music , Local Music , Local Music , Local Music , Local Music , Local Music

This post was revised on November 29 (see above); the following represents the corrected version: Some news about Jordis (alternate site here), the Rock Star INXS breakout from St. Paul: She has a new blog (here's her old one), and she has left Liars Club (formerly Fighting Tongs), who have changed their name to the Payback, and play a show on New Year's Eve in Minneapolis. (Catch up on the entire Jordis saga via MNSpeak.) The breakup news arrives via a correction from Gingerjake's Ian Severson to this post, which previously (and erroneously) reported that Jordis would be performing with Liars Club on New Year's Eve. She will not. Instead, she's pursuing a solo career, with a Sony debut due in early 2006. (Jordis doesn't post many details about performing on November 20 at the opening celebration for the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, but turns up in photos with Bill Clinton, Jim Carrey, and Ali himself.) As for New Year's, it's only one show, not two, as previously published, in the Quest Ascot Room, with Gingerjake (more here), Crashing By Design, and the Lid: Doors at 5:00 p.m., and it's over before 10:00 p.m., so you can still make that New Year's Party. $8 under 21; $20 for 21+, which includes "2 top-shelf drink tickets at $14 value." Call 612.338.3383 for advance tickets or keep checking www.thequestclub.com (currently down).

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at November 22, 2005 8:48 PM | Comments (0)

 

The day the music spied

Filed under: Media

For the past eight months, Sony BMG Music Entertainment has been adding spyware to its CDs. A computer security expert named Mark Russinovich discovered that playing his Van Zant CD on his computer had installed a secret program deep into its system, the kind of "rootkit" used by virus writers. And spyware, like the Sony program, which the company claims was designed to prevent the CD's owner from making more than three copies of it. The online press is outraged, as much over Sony's attitude as the real threat of hacking that the program (in theory) provides. John Stith sums it up: "All this is in the name of Digital Rights Management." Funny, less than a month ago Sony was one of the record labels telling consumers how to bypass the copy-protection so they could upload to their iPods.

Posted by Steve Monaco at November 3, 2005 5:03 PM | Comments (0)

 

Spin and Vibe for sale

Filed under: Media

"Music mags Spin and Vibe have been quietly put on the market, giving leading suitor Quincy Jones some unwelcome competition," reported Radar Magazine last week. "There are a number of parties with strong interest in the properties," one source is quoted as saying. "I think both magazines will have a nice life after this." Besides writing for both glossies on occasion, and having friends at Spin (including former City Pages music editors Jon Dolan, Melissa Maerz, and Will Hermes), this critic has had an emotional attachment to both of these publications for as long as they've existed (as well as some complaints along the way). They've both changed the culture for the better, I think. So an open question to readers: How could these mags improve? How can they keep an identity under new ownership, as the competition with Blender, Rolling Stone, and online sources heats up? Do they matter any more? And if not, how can they?

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at November 1, 2005 8:56 PM | Comments (0)

 

"The death of 'alternative media' part two"

Filed under: Media

The day after news came of the New Times/Village Voice Media merger, an email from Punk Planet was forwarded by Melissa Maerz (with the above tag), headlined "Punk Planet's distro woes." It reads as follows: "Hey there, Last Thursday we received some distressing news--the kind of news that made our very bones ache when we heard it; the kind of news that felt so significant we simply couldn't function after it sank in. With a few days time and the ability to process it, we decided it's news worth sharing: It was a letter from the president of the Independent Press Association, the not-for-profit organization that owns the company that distributes the majority of Punk Planet's copies, BigTop Newsstand Services. The letter acknowledged the truth of a rumor that had been running through indie publishing circles for months now: the distributor was having cash flow problems..."

Here's the rest of the email:

Payments to publishers for magazines already distributed had been and would continue to be effected for an unknown amount of time. In case you don't operate a magazine, the money coming in from newsstand sales is vital to publishers' bottom line. For a magazine like Punk Planet, where our ad rates remain very low to cater to independent businesses, those distributor payments are even more critical.

This news leaves us in a tight spot: BigTop is the last distributor in the country that specializes in distributing independent press magazines like Punk Planet. When we started 12 years ago, there were close to a half dozen such distributors; each one that has gone belly up dragged a few magazines with it. Because BigTop is owned by the IPA, an organization whose mission is to "amplify" the voice of the independent press, we don't expect that they will go out of business; but we also don't know when we will see the money we are owed.

What does this mean for the future of Punk Planet? The truth is we don't yet know.

But we do know there are things you can do that will help us in both the short term and the long term.

1. Please consider subscribing (or resubscribing) and purchasing some
merchandise from our webstore today. If you have a product, idea, or event to advertise, purchase an ad.

An immediate influx of cash will allow us to pay off back debts--to contributors, printers, web hosts, etc--and better enable us to weather any coming storm caused by nonpayment from our distributor.
Our annual end-of year subscription sale is just starting now—get a
whole year for only $18, or really help us out and buy a couple of them!

2. Please forward this information--or this whole email--on to your lists and friends, and specifically ask them to subscribe or buy merchandise from us.

In addition to a two-year subscription for only $30, you can pick up
any of our amazing books—Joe Meno's HAIRSTYLES OF THE DAMNED, Bee Lavender's LESSONS IN TAXIDERMY, Mark Anderson's ALL THE POWER, or Jay Ryan's brand-new 100 POSTERS 134 SQUIRRELS now available for pre-order! We've also got Punk Planet T-shirts, underpants, and the awesomely cool PPAP: Punk Planet Artists' Prints wearable art series.

3. Consider donating to the Community Supported Journalism Fund. It's
a small-fund donations program, made up almost exclusively of donations of less than $20, but it's already allowed us to bring you
the amazing END OF RADIO cover story of PP69: four full articles on
different aspects of radio creation and tons of teeny interviews with
audio experts. It wouldn't have been possible without your support!

4. Please continue to support independent print media. The payment issues effecting us are not singular--there are others in the same
predicament that need your support as well.

Thanks so much,

Dan Sinker

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at October 27, 2005 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

 

Kenyan hip hop and Afrofuturism, plus a rap battle

Filed under: Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music

For a $25 entry fee, you can compete tonight in Freestyle Fridays at Digital City Music in North Minneapolis, where a grand prize of $1500 awaits the winner (if I have the rules straight). The rap battle is cheap to watch, in any case ($3), and I'll be there with a camera covering it for City Pages. 905 West Broadway, Minneapolis, MN 55411-2615, 612.588.2000. Registration is at 5:00 p.m., showtime 7:00 p.m. Click photo for more weekend hip hop as part of Saturday's local celebration of Kenyan independence (including a new Kenyan hip-hop documentary and a night of music at the Blue Nile). Also read more on Saturday's finale of the Soap Factory's essential Afrofuturism event, which kind of ties it all together.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at October 21, 2005 3:06 PM | Comments (0)

 

"Do they Know It's Halloween?"

Filed under: Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music

Watch the video for "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" and consider plunking down dough for the charity single, now in stores. Performed by "the North American Halloween Prevention Initiative," the parody track benefits UNICEF (as in "trick or treat for...") and features Beck, Sum 41, Les Savy Fav, the Arcade Fire, Sonic Youth, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Joey Waronker, Sloan, Peaches, Feist, Devendra Banhart (who performs Tuesday at the Fine Line, and is reviewed by Andy Beta in this week's City Pages), Wolf Parade, Postal Service, Buck 65, Elvira, Malcolm McLaren, Gino Washington (for more on him, see "Gino vs. Geno" at Complicatedfun.com), Roky Erickson, Rilo Kiley, Sparks, Tagaq, and producer Steven McDonald of Redd Kross, though I have to admit, the only voice talent I recognized on first listen was David Cross. (By the way, did you read his parody of Pitchfork reviews?) Here are the lyrics. Listen while you carve your own virtual jackolantern.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at October 19, 2005 8:07 PM | Comments (4)

 

Rob likes 'North Country,' Charlize Theron talks

Filed under: Film , Film , Film , Film , Film , Film , Film , Film , Film

Forget praise from the film's subject herself. My fears about North Country, opening Friday, were put to rest by Minnesota cinema connoisseur Rob Nelson in today's City Pages: "Minnesota-movie vets, including Chris Mulkey (Patti Rocks) and Frances McDormand (you betcha), were offered supporting roles as part of what could easily be seen as a show of respect for our cinematic tradition," writes Nelson. "(Boy-from-the-north-country Bob Dylan was tapped to supply a half-dozen vintage tunes.) And, consciously or not, [director Niki] Caro seems to be channeling the independent spirit of Wildrose (1984), John Hanson and Sandra Schulberg's little-seen classic about the struggles of an Eveleth divorcee (Lisa Eichhorn) working among sexist men at the Iron Range's Mesabi Mine." Read Rob's appreciation of The Heartbreak Kid for background (cover image here), and check out this social action organization spawned by North Country and Good Night, and Good Luck, with accompanying group blog. (See also: a hi-def North Country trailer, Ranger reactions, a real Ranger's preview, and other items in MNSpeak's search engine.) Theron and Caro will participate in a video-conference Q&A after a 7:00 p.m. screening tonight (Wednesday) at the Regal Eagan Cinema 16. A screening at Lagoon Cinema on Saturday at 1:30 p.m., sponsored by and benefiting Minnesota Women in Film and Television, will be followed by a panel discussion of sexual harassment in the workplace.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at October 19, 2005 5:50 PM | Comments (0)

 

9:30 Club: The First Avenue of D.C.

Filed under: Film Review , Film Review , Film Review , Film Review , Film Review , Film Review

For the rat stories, the stink stories, the great footage of Scream, Rites of Spring, Embrace, Fugazi, and others, tonight's screening of 2005's 930 F Streeet (9:30 p.m. at Bryant-Lake Bowl) is essential punk rock viewing. (Here's Lindsey's review.) Listen to the audio archive of this week's Radio Riot on KFAI as prep: "Dance of Death: Radio Riot D.C. Hardcore Special," co-hosted by former Washington, D.C. resident Felix Havoc, who plays the first Bad Brains demo and other goodies (full archive here). The film itself (like the Minutemen movie, and the opening work-in-progress on Mission of Burma, Inexplicable--click for trailer) rocks enough to make up for being way talky. Only other complaint: For me, the club was a D.C. First Avenue circa 1988-1990, and I wish the film had broached the crucial topic of non-rock/non-live music. The 9:30 DJs, along with their counterparts at First Ave in Minneapolis and (so I gather) at Danceteria in New York (check the old flyers), pretty much created cosmopolitan alt-club culture as we knew it in the '90s, which also happens to be the way most people now listen to music at home--mixing hip hop and punk and ska and goth all on one dance floor...

The sound fit with my idea of punk rock as it had been shaped in Madison, Wisconsin, and dovetailed with me really getting into the Clash's Sandinista for the first time. I still remember nights in '88 or so where you'd hear "Talkin' All That Jazz" and "Waiting Room" and "Hustle to the Music" and "Punk Rock Girl" and "D.C. Don't Stand For Dodge City" in one set. In fact, I completely missed the post-hardcore scene in my many memorable nights at the old 9:30--I didn't see Fugazi until they came to Madison in 1990 (the last great show I saw at Turner Hall, before it was torn down). Another thing worth mentioning: The club paved the way for mixing all-ages and ID crowds in one place, an arrangement that remains illegal here in Minnesota, right? Fondest 9:30 memory not having to do with girls wearing black: I went up to a Trent Reznor-looking DJ one night and yelled, "Can I ask you what song this is you're playing?" He barely glanced up, kept working the controls, and said: "No." Here's a Washington Post piece on the club, the full schedule of Sound Unseen movies and music through Sunday, Oct. 16, and a selective guide at Complicatedfun.com.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at October 13, 2005 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

 

There's a place in France, etc.

Filed under: Local Music , Local Music , Local Music , Local Music , Local Music , Local Music , Local Music

King of France singer Steve Salett can be seen in promo spots for MTV's The Real World: Austin playing much the same role as Jonathan Richman did in There's Something About Mary--he has the same utter empathy bordering on goofiness. He also has Frank Black's range, but an octave lower and without the screams, and makes jumpy indie-jazz-country-rock with his old Deformo keyboard collaborator Tom Siler (of Tulip Sweet and Her Trail of Tears) and drummer Michael Azerrad (the noted American punk historian). Tonight's homecoming of sorts at the Quest Ascot Room, opening for Robbers on High Street, celebrates the Echo Records release of The King of France, which you should own (and which I should review!). Buy the old one first if you don't believe me. With headliners Robbers on High Street and openers the Mercy Kiss. All ages. $10. 6:30 p.m. The Quest Ascot Room, 110 Fifth St. N., Minneapolis; 612.338.3383. (P.S. Jonathan Richman is coming soon, too.)

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at October 11, 2005 4:04 PM | Comments (0)

 

DJ Spooky remixes 'The Birth of a Nation' tonight

Filed under: Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music

I found out something disturbing earlier this year, while combing through hundreds of local newspapers from 1915-1916 to research the history of the Varsity Theater--tonight's venue for DJ Spooky's "remix" of D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (which also opened in 1915). Turns out Griffith's racist totem was hugely popular in Minneapolis, as it was across the U.S., enjoying a long downtown run with prominent advertisements in daily papers. A founding work of cinema, The Birth of a Nation was also an influential piece of white supremacist propaganda, based on the book The Clansman by Thomas F. Dixon, Jr., which heroized the Ku Klux Klan for protecting white women from black men. The ranks of the KKK swelled as a result of the film's success, as did the popularity of "movies" (then still taking quotes). By 1923, the Pioneer Press was reporting the presence of a KKK unit in St. Paul, and a University of Minnesota's homecoming parade had included a KKK float (read more here). Tonight's belated "response" of sorts features the great illbient turntablist Spooky orchestrating a live, three-screen, multimedia re-imagining of Griffith's silent "classic." By now filmmaker's primary claim on history is seen mainly by film students (MN Film Arts' Search and Rescue project recently unearthed a print at the U of M) and others curious about the work's anti-inspiration for Spike Lee, so this event (featuring new imagery and music) might actually be a good way to see the picture for the first time. Showtime at 7:30 p.m. at the Varsity Theater in Dinkytown, with an after-party at the same club featuring Spooky, DJ Nikoless, and Dessa's duo with Jessy Greene, Urban Ivy. See Complicatedfun.com for a complete Sound Unseen festival roundup, and the official festival site for a full schedule.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at October 10, 2005 3:02 PM | Comments (0)

 

Sound Unseen 2005: What shouldn't you miss?

Filed under: Pop Culture , Pop Culture , Pop Culture , Pop Culture , Pop Culture , Pop Culture , Pop Culture

Besides the film reviews in City Pages, Terri Sutton's essay on rock docs about dead dudes, and the festival's own full schedule of movies and music between Oct. 7 and Oct. 16, Complicatedfun.com has a recommended list of essentials from this year's Sound Unseen program, which kicks off Friday. Among them, Shawn Hewitt at the Entry on Saturday, DJ Spooky's live "remix" of The Birth of a Nation at the Varsity on Monday, and Scene Minneapolis, 1977-1984 at the Oak Street on Thursday, Oct. 13. Expect more on that bizarre DJ Spooky/D.W. Griffith mashup soon...

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at October 6, 2005 6:14 PM | Comments (0)

 

The Loop: "This Minnesotan Life"?

Filed under: Media

The most hilarious couple minutes of radio this week features elementary-school kids on the joys of riding the bus, from the alternative transportation-themed second episode of The Loop, MPR's experimental new radio show. Post your own ideas for future program themes here. (Thanks, MNSpeak.)

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at October 4, 2005 9:27 PM | Comments (0)

 

TV viewing up, movie attendance down, Hell quite warm

Filed under: Media

According to the newest Nielsen ratings, the average American watches 4 hours and 32 minutes of TV a day, and by the end of that day, the sets in that average household had been looked at for a total of 8 hours and 11 minutes. Both numbers are all-time highs, and it has TV execs so giddy that they're saying Orwellian things like "The pervasiveness of the medium is not being eroded." One reason given for the record numbers is the never-ending bottom that Hollywood keeps scraping, and even a few of the execs now admit that movies suck these days. (And in the case of the few that don't, it's not from lack of trying on the part of the studios.)

Posted by Steve Monaco at October 1, 2005 4:35 AM | Comments (0)

 

"The only animal that needs controlling"

Filed under: Media

Jamie Hook's account of three days with Minneapolis animal control officers in the new Rake makes a nice companion piece to the latest (and greatest) novel by D.C. journalist (and writer on HBO's The Wire) George P. Pelecanos, Drama City, about a former gangster-turned-dogcatcher who thinks that some people, like some dogs, are beyond saving. (He hopes he's not one of those people.) It's only natural for the comparison between real humans and real animals to generate parallels and metaphors, just as the literature of Animal Farm and Watership Down makes you take a second look at livestock and rabbits (both horses and bunnies can be seen in downtown Minneapolis). I've mentioned before that Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees remains the best film in years about war. But now the Humane Society and its "non-lethal" counterparts have descended on a region where many hurricane evacuees have said (again and again) that the authorities "treated us like animals." People also became animals, some say. Others found or lost actual animals they loved, while dogs were used to attack the living and sniff out the dead...

Hook mentions, with some irony, "the superiority of our species." My only problem with his piece (and with a lot of the evocative language around animals) is that it blows straight through the double-meaning of "superior." You'll have to read further to find serious questions about what we owe these beings at our feet, in Matthew Scully's Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy, and further still for a serious consideration of whether they have rights. In the meantime, my favorite line from the way-underrated popcorn movie of the summer, The Island: "Just because people eat the burger doesn't mean they want to meet the cow."

Update Oct. 5: See also this July piece in Slate, "What's the deal with cat ladies?"

Photo: A yellow lab named Sweetie found by her family after being homeless in New Orleans for several days, photographed by Jennifer Zdon/Times Picayune (Sept. 8).

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at September 30, 2005 12:56 AM | Comments (1)

 

Strib: Protest doc "tainted" by lack of conservative voices

Filed under: Media

TiVo the premiere of "Veronica Mars" tonight and tune into PBS (TPT 2) at 8 p.m. for "Get Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and Protest," hosted by Chuck D. The NYT is calling the PBS documentary one of the most daring programs in the channel's recent history. Chronicling protest music and voices of dissent from Leadbelly to Vietnam folk songs to Chumbawamba's supposed-rally cry "Tubthumping" and everything in between, the doc sheds a spotlight on music's historical impact and influence on the international battle for peace and equality. The Strib, meanwhile, sniffs and says the "project is tainted by the lack of conservative representation." Which, really, is like complaining that there are too few men in the National Organization for Women.

Posted by at September 28, 2005 5:42 PM | Comments (0)

 

All Cooped up

Filed under: Media

Can the Flood Stud rescue nightly news?

Remember during the Gulf War in 1991 when everyone's mom seemed to have their Lycra leggings in a bunch over Bette Midler's "The Wind Beneath My Wings" and NBC's coiffed and copper-toned correspondent Arthur Kent, aka "The Scud Stud"? While gazing into the camera while bombs lit up his Italian safari jacket, one could imagine the Scud Stud had been unceremoniously plucked from an imaginary soap opera city and dropped among fiery scud missiles, all for the ladies to long for as they gorged on microwave popcorn and the first-ever televised war.

But that was a different disaster, a different era. America needs, needs a new father figure/sex symbol/empathetic figure to buoy our hearts. Enter Anderson Cooper. The Scud Stud's appeal has been easily outdone and usurped by CNN's Cooper, aka "The Coop," aka "The Flood Stud" (or so we like to call him), who offered compelling coverage of Katrina and the news-hyped Rita. Ah, the Flood Stud: He of prematurely gun-metal gray hair, a childhood of privilege and pain, the now famous never-ending piercing blue eyes of a Malamute, designer suits that cling to him like America's love, on-air emotional breakdowns that remind a reeling nation of the compassionate television news journalists of yesteryear. It seems everyone and their brother is obsessed with The Flood Stud.

So while CBS is asking its interns what to do about its near-dead Nightly News, the news media is calling Cooper's response to Katrina a breakthrough for journalism and fans of Coop are saying he's a shoo-in for either of the vacant anchor spots on CBS or ABC. You might not be a CBS intern, but what do you think CBS/ABC should do with their evening news?

Posted by at September 26, 2005 2:32 PM | Comments (1)

 

Keillor suppresses "Prairie Ho Companion" T-shirts

Filed under: Media

Attorneys for Garrison Keillor have sent a cease and desist letter to the local blog MNSpeak.com: "It has come to our attention that you are marketing T-shirts bearing the words, 'A Prairie Ho Companion,'" the letter says. "We believe that your use of these words creates a likelihood that the public will be confused as to the sponsorship of the T-shirt and our client's services and products." Frankly, we didn't even remember the stupid shirts--now a rare and hot commodity--until MNSpeak's Rex Sorgatz told us about the August 29 communication (off the record) and recounted his responding phone call to Keillor's legal team, which MNSpeak now makes public: "This is going to make your client look extremely out of touch," Sorgatz says he told Keillor's lawyer. "I'll even write the headline for you: 'Liberal Comedian Sues Blogger.'" Can you say "ho ho ho" all the way to national media exposure? UPDATE: This is not a Prairie Home Companion T-shirt

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at September 13, 2005 1:39 AM | Comments (28)

 

New York Times Magazine brings on the funny

Filed under: Media

Beginning Sunday, September 18, the New York Times Magazine will launch a section called "The Funny Pages," which will include a six-month-long serial comic by the extremely talented graphic novelist Chris Ware, as well as a humor column and serial piece of fiction. In a press release, NYTMag editor Gerald Marzorati gushes, "We wanted a place in our pages for genre fiction -- mysteries, detective stories, and the like -- which is having a particularly vibrant moment in popular culture just now... Most of all we wanted to give our readers some new things that would bring a smile to their faces each Sunday morning, and our youngest readers a go-to destination when the paper arrives." All sections will be reproduced at NYTimes.com as well.

Posted by Corey Anderson at September 7, 2005 5:17 PM | Comments (0)

 

New Times to take over City Pages?

Filed under: Media

According to new documents obtained by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, "The nation's two largest alternative newspaper publishers have been in intense negotiations over a merger that would create an 18-paper chain controlled to a significant extent by venture capitalists." Click above for the article, and here for more background. UPDATE 9/7/05: NY Press is all for the takeover.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at August 29, 2005 1:17 PM | Comments (0)

 

Why City Pages could really suck soon

Filed under: Media

On Tuesday the San Francisco Bay Guardian posted a thorough editorial on the rumors (more here) of a possible imminent merger between the Phoenix-based New Times alternative weekly newspaper chain and Village Voice Media, which owns City Pages: "If there's a grain of truth here, and VVM and New Times are in any sort of talks, the implications for the alternative press and for readers, advertisers, and employees in 18 cities are too serious for federal regulators to ignore." A spokeswoman