My friend Mer @ Coilhouse sends word of a neat interview with Alan Moore, author of Watchmen.  He always has rather fucking interesting things to say about art and culture, and fucking with mediums and discussing how we tend to interpret work:

I find film in its modern form to be quite bullying… It spoon-feeds us, which has the effect of watering down our collective cultural imagination. It is as if we are freshly hatched birds looking up with our mouths open waiting for Hollywood to feed us more regurgitated worms. The Watchmen film sounds like more regurgitated worms. I for one am sick of worms. Can’t we get something else? Perhaps some takeout? Even Chinese worms would be a nice change.

Mer writes in response:

We’ve entered an era ruled by scavengers. We are starving for substance. Obviously, we can’t look to Hollywood schlockbusters to nourish us. Still, the platform of narrative movie making has its own profound and distinctive magic. Here’s hoping that somehow, thanks to the increasing accessibility of equipment and relative price decrease in digital film and editing software, more and more storytellers standing beyond the gates of the sausage factory will be goaded, either by hunger or the pure urgency of inspiration, into making their own moving pictures.

Let’s hope, indeed!  In fact, I’m not even sure we have to hope, I think it’s kind of inevitable.

On a related note, I recently finished Warren Ellis’ Crooked Little Vein, and one passage that has struck my brain with his cane is this:

“Now holllld on.  A seventy-year-old serial killer is gonna lecture me on the intynets.”

“Seventy-one.  And I think it’s important you learn this for the future of your enterprise.  We agree that if something is available on television and in bookstores and the papers and all, it’s mainstream, yes?”

“Sure.”

“Well, then, how can something on the world’s electronic mass-communication net not also be mainstream?  It’s easily found.  You told me your friend there saw acquaintances of the gentlemen from Ohio on the Web.”

“Did I?  Okay.  I’m a little drunk.”

“There you are, you see?  It’s not that strange a world, when you can see images of men with testes full of saline just as easily as you can visit the wonderful world of Disney online.  That’s not underground.  It’s mainstream.  Just like me.”

That is a striking idea.  As an artist, if you put your work online (your music, for example), and you are now certifiably Main Stream™.  Huh.

Just like every force must have an opposite and equal reaction, I wonder if the reaction to this mainstream-i-ness, if the opposite of the democratization and ease of access to tools that Meredith is talking about, is the willful abdication of communication?

Can you keep something off the internet?

Can you really have an underground art project or band now?

I’m actually thinking about trying.

Next on the reading list: A Picture of Dorian Gray. 

We’re playing a fund-raising event this Saturday the 20th of September at Kilkenny Ale House in Newark, NJ.  It’s going to be quite a party, DJ’d by Stephen Dressler in between sets by yours truly and the disco-mad Frozen Gentlemen.  In short, the purpose of this fundraiser is to help fund Colleen Gutwein’s photo-documentary project on the effects of the Khmer Rouge on contemporary Cambodian art.  

So come out and get down with us, it’s a cheap, $8

and everybody you know will be there ;-)

Saturday Sept 20th
The Meltdowns, Frozen Gentlemen, DJ Stephen Dressler
Kilkenny Ale House, 27 Central Ave, Newark, NJ
8pm, $8, Meltdowns at 11.

This is unfortunately a 21+ kinda night

The estimable Ed Brubaker has a new comic book out, and it looks amazing.  

When I was a file clerk temp in a summer job once, I, too, had thoughts of burning Burning BURNING

LOTS OF BURNING

A really intriguing article over at Coilhouse tells of a city now gone, a pirate’s haven, an anarchist state and describes how it came to be.

I think any lessons the place offers defy easy categories. But because it’s closer in history, it should be a reminder, whenever any of us looks back on the aforementioned pirate utopias, or the romanticized depictions of Tortuga or the Wild West, that those no-rules fantasy lands were real places with all the attendant blood and stink.

Yes, the anarchistic types out there are correct when they say that the Walled City is evidence that humans can co-exist, and even thrive, without laws constantly piled on them. But it’s not that simple. After all, without massive police raids (government incarnate), the place would have probably become a mob-run tyranny. Its residents had a degree of freedom that anyone who comes home to piles of bills or endless forms can’t help but envy. They also had darkness, a lower life expectancy, filthy living conditions and huge numbers of drug addicts.

But if the Walled City is a reminder that lawlessness isn’t quite as cleanly romantic as some might think, it also reminds us that a staggering number of societies are possible — and that every one of them has a price.

I listen to this all the time, figured I’d share.  Our friend Carson Kopp (aka C Minus), who did the engineering on most of the our two EPs, drops a mean beat.  This is his song “Pacman.”

I’m with Warren on this, I think about this a lot, esp post-RubyFringe:

And while there are elements of the project  that
only someone of Joss’ position could pull off –
the money, the cast,  the values, etc etc etc –
I think there are still lessons to be taken from  it
that apply broadly.  Not least of which are, Be
Short, Be Bold,  and Get It Done.

I can’t tell you how many new hopeful  comics
writers I meet who have never finished anything
in their lives  because their intended first project
is a hundred-episode epic that creates a  whole
new universe or three.  And I tell them all the
same thing:  you’re screwed.  No-one will want it.
Not until you’ve written something  short, capable
of being produced on a budget, and finished.
Your epic may  be worldchanging, but no-one will
ever know because no publisher will gamble  that
kind of money on an unknown.  And that’s before
you get to the  vagaries of the attention economy.

Production values are nice, but not  necessary to
producing compelling work.  People gave Dr
Horrible 15  mins because it’s Joss, but five minutes
is a great length for net  video.  500 words, 5
pages, whatever.  Be short.  Be  great.

And if you can get an evil horse in there, that’d
be good,  too.

(this is an excerpt from an e-mail he sent today to his Bad Signal mailing list)

Written earlier today in the aeroport.

I am in YYZ waiting for the next flight back to LaGuardia from Toronto.  I’ve spent the weekend at Ruby Fringe, hosted by Unspace, a “deep nerd tech with punk rock spirit” conference for Ruby developers and anybody else so inclined to attend.  There were so many musicians, so many great talks about passion, and life, and work, and music, in addition to some serious tech talks on Ruby.  A lot of the talks revolved around being brave enough to fail, brave enough to pursue your goals.  So many great people looking to make new friends and show each other what they’ve got to offer them.  I made a lot of new friends.

It was very much like a 3-day DIY punk rock weekend at a bunch of house shows, except it was for developers instead of bands, and no one had to sleep in a dank basement (I hope).  Everybody traded information and they’ll be staying in touch for the next time the show goes on the road.  Truly amazing.  I’m at a bit of a loss for words, but since some of those folks will likely be stopping by here, Hi Y’all!  Thanks for making it so great.

I mention it here because the kinds of attitudes we were all working with and talking about are so crucial for artists and musicians, and programmers are definitely artists, so I suppose it’s no big surprise (buttsecks!).  Ah, well, time to board the airplane! Maybe I’ll have something a bit more coherent to offer later, but for now I need to decompress and get to rehearsal back home.

Blogging will likely slow down a bit; Lloyd is now 21!!!  This means we can play all those fantastic venues that used to make Lloyd stand outside before and after the gig - oh no actually they can still get bent xD.  So while I’m in Toronto all weekend for work, the other Meltdowns will be going on a 4 day drinking bender. Hopefully pictures will show up documenting their success in this endeavor.

“I can’t get no satisfaction / but I try, and I try, and I try, and I try”

Waiting to go to the airport, sitting in a cafe listening to Otis scream his fucking head off, it’s time to relax a bit.

I’ll leave you with this piece by Jim DeRogatis on why he totally hated the movie Juno (aside from it’s premise): because it hates on rock music.  \m/

BATMAN™ comes out today.  OFMG BATMAN™

Last night we had a rather excellent gig opening for Vanities and The Sex Zombies in Red Bank, NJ.  There’s a really great scene of people around those bands, a crowd of folks orbiting them.  They go to every show, they know all the words, they jump up on stage and sing along and cover their friends in beer, and it’s just a great time.  The Zombies’ set ended abruptly when someone from the audience took a flying leap into Dan’s drum kit.  It was so rock and roll!  I’m looking forward to playing with these folks again.  All of them awesome bands, and very very different from each other.

Vanities are a monstrous band.  Stomping, dark, riffing, shredding, screaming, they are tight and bitchin.  It almost sounded like someone took the hotter licks from …And Justice For All and used them as riffs for crazy rock songs.

The Sex Zombies are up there in the very short list of bands that don’t give a fuck at all and put on an amazing show as a result.  The antics are endless, the songs are filthy raucous punk sing-alongs, and their stage presence is top notch.  Their bassist Jamie is a tall blonde bomb-shell with a ton of attitude and swagger, their drummer Dan must have grown up watching Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, and guitarist Pat appears the frontman at first but is probably the most chaotic on stage, setting off fireworks between and during songs.  Last night he spent a good portion of the set with his pants around his ankles.

Finally made it back to Brooklyn.  I smell like sweat from the show and the dancing and all the beer that poured off the top of Gerry’s amp and onto me when I went to move it this morning.

The show at The Parlor was really great last night.  The Sex Zombies are a really awesome garage band.  We will apparently be covering one of their songs next week at Chubby’s!  You should go see the Sex Zombies, they are totally fucking tits.

The Invincible Gods put on what I think is the best set I’ve seen by them, and that’s saying a lot.  Candace is turning into the ultimate stage performer, on top of the band getting really tight with their already strong material.  It was so great having so many folks their who knew the words and were shouting along.

There’s something about playing in a basement like that for a bunch of people like you who love music and want to rock out.  I’m looking for a better phrase or verb than “rock out,” but I guess when you get down to it, that’s what it is.  Dancing, singing, being together!  Anyway, the scene just seemed to do something to us last night, we put on the best set we’ve played in a while, and it was only six songs long!  I gave every last drop of sweat and energy I had, and I was basically dead inside for a good 10 minutes after words.

The Imperialists absolutely killed.  They’ve been getting better and better, and their new songs are just nuts.  Especially “Salt,” which has become my new favorite song.  If I had an iPod, I would walk around singing to along with it “I’m gonna play my guitar, while Babylon burns, I’m gonna play my guitar and say good bye to everyone!  FIIIIIIIYUUUUUUH!!!!!”  Christ.  Amazing.

Later there were fireworks and a bee-bee gun.  I am apparently not a bad shot, even with a couple of beers in me.  No animals were harmed (I think).

Nick, thanks for having us.