Back in 1994, while on zine tour for Andy’s Chair #3, I crashed on John Porcellino’s couch when he was living in Denver, Colorado. Shortly after that, while still on the road, I did this strip, in a crude imitation of the King Cat style. It was printed in my tour zine puppydoglove.

Anyway, the real reason I’m dredging up this bit of history is to let you know that – after a 13 year gap – Wow Cool is once again offering King Cat Comics and Stories to the world. All currently in-print issues of King Cat that do not have their contents collected (or are about to be) will be available from Wow Cool. So, that means we have issues 69-71 in stock. John will be putting out King Cat #72 very soon. That, and the previously published King Cat collections will be available from Wow Cool very soon. The book he illustrated for the National Film Board of Canada about skipping out on suicide – The Next Day – is also available right now.

John is currently on tour. Go see him if you can:

October 4-7
IOWA CITY, IA
Comics, Creativity and Culture:
Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives

With Phoebe Gloeckner, Jessica Abel, The Hernandez Brothers, James Sturm, and Joe Sacco, plus a host of comics scholars and educators!
Saturday Oct. 8 – Sunday Oct. 9
PITTSBURGH, PA
Pittsburgh Indie Expo

Saturday Oct. 22
MADISON, WI
Madison Zinefest‘

King Cat Home | John’s Blog: Maybe Blogging Will Help

Click to make a little more bigger.

I was looking for something else and found this. Since I and many other of the 90s Berkeley zine and mini-comics scene have been deep in the nostalgia zone for not the best reasons lately, this seemed a little more interesting than the last five times I found it instead of what I was looking for. These were quarter-size letter (mini-comic) sized flyers that were left on the back counter at Berkeley’s Comic Relief when I was the zine buyer, sometime around 1994-1995. As far as I know, that post was originated by Josh Petrin and was also held by Dylan Williams and Janelle Hessig in the mid-90s.

From 1993. Never before seen! Punk zine goes video with live performances by Doc Hopper, Nuisance, Drop Dead, Slave State and Lumpen Proletariat (Ottawa)!

Pay a visit to Reconstruction Records with Peter Ventantonio of Sticks & Stones! Tour Albany, New York’s Tulip Fest with Andy, Paul and Jason! See the members of Huasipungo scowling in back of ABC No Rio! Special appearances by Sam Henderson and Human Lard Dog!

Sadly this version is not the best quality. The raw footage was shot on VHSC… I want to go back and capture from that or the VHS dump of it. I did this edit on a crappy system at the old Schenectady public access. It chewed up the video and jumped at every edit. grrr. I was so disappointed that I never released it, and it was only shown a couple times. The encoding to get it on the web didn’t do it any favors either.

Additional camera by Darryl Kahan. Believe it!

Andy’s Chair was a punk and comics and such zine created by Marc Arsenault. There were three regular print issues and a tour zine half issue called puppydoglove released between 1991-1995. The second issue included the Sounds of Suburban Dance compilation tape.

Poster for the Nuisance & Doc Hopper show that was taped for the episode.

I started writing Doris zine in 1994, giving it mostly to strangers on buses. I wanted to break down barriers and break open secrets – the serious secrets and the simple ones. I have published the zine once or twice a year now, and it is distributed internationally. The Doris Encyclopedia is a book of the past 9 years of Doris, plus plus stories and articles that appeared in Maximum Rock and Roll, Slug and Lettuce, and other zines, including top secret zines I put out under a pseudonym. Subjects include: boating down the mississippi, coming out, farming, punk, girl gangs, overcoming shyness, survival, love, history, family, travel, ecological politics, building things, creating things, and way, way more.

Printing costs for the book are 14,000. I have 6,000 saved up, and have borrowed 4,000. I’m hoping I can raise the rest here on Kickstarter. The book is scheduled to be printed in the end of July!

Found randomly while repacking for Wow Cool’s move to new offices in San Jose. I have no recollection of drawing this. Readers of Maximum RockNRoll over a certain age (before internet comment troll-ness) will possibly find this pretty funny.

Anyway… San Jose is the 10th largest city in the US of A, and despite the sad fact that you are never far from some warped American version of Ska here, the place is still pretty damned punk (as in rock). I’m going to attempt to pry open that neglected world with my camera and typewriter (oh, sorry, computer). You got something punk-ass awesome going on in the south bay? Please let me know. I will also be getting in some bits on DIY punk music practical goodness (like, is it really worth it to boil your bass strings?), real-life urban homesteading experiences, and maybe some digging into punk/hardcore history that I’ve been fortunate to have been a part of in various parts of the country over the last quarter century.

Previously I’d been filing these sort of posts under the category “Andy’s Chair” on this blog. A sort of continuation of my 1990s print and video zine of the same name.

Above all, I want to try to (re-?)discover what the hell is punk all these years on.

Party with me punker?

The multi-talented Mark Sunshine (singer of Monster Magnet splinter faction Riot God and an artist most awesome) has updated his site again. Minimal, bold, and links to greatness.

Sam McPheeters of Vermiform/Born Against/etc. fame has released a collection of his early 1990s Hardcore Punk Zine Dear Jesus, as a velo-bound collection. Wow Cool still has a few copies of the first of his Shooting Space zine available.

Dear Jesus was a hardcore punk fanzine I produced between 1989 and 1992. There were four full issues, and a mini-issue I made 50 copies of and sold at one show in 1990. Everything is included in this collection. The anthology totals 140 pages, with a new intro, color cover, and sturdy velo binding. More work by Sam is available on BuyOlympia.com.

These five issues include interviews with Jello Biafra, Richie Birkenhead (of Underdog & Youth Of Today), Doc Dart (this is the piece that led, 17 years later, to my Vice Magazine profile “The Troublemaker”), Econochrist, Lifesblood, CBGB owner Hilly Kristal, Ian MacKaye, Maximumrocknroll, Mike BS (of ABC No Rio), Mykel Board (of MRR), Nation Of Ulysses (pictorial), Nausea, Neanderthal, No For An Answer, Revelation Records, Rorschach, Soulside, Supertouch, artist Seth Tobocman, Swiz, and Tit Wrench. This collection also includes articles on the first Gulf War, punk in Latin America, an extensive Born Against tour diary, and many, many painfully opinionated reviews. Dear Jesus was one of the most consistent hardcore punk zines to document the early 1990′s ABC No Rio scene in New York. If this is a historical period that interests you, then this is perhaps something you will want to own.

Last, and far from least. Today’s absolute must-read is this post from Adam Curtis on his blog at the BBC – “RUPERT MURDOCH – A PORTRAIT OF SATAN“
Related Reading: Charlie Brooker’s “Q: When does a tabloid become crude propaganda? A: When it starts printing it” in the Guardian.

Enjoy

Do you have what it takes, punk? Get all the details here.

It’s not a big secret that I am a huge fan of Nuisance. I booked them twice for shows in Western Massachusetts. Once at a spectacularly disastrous warehouse show in Florence (at the Arts & Industry building, now home to Ecstatic Peace/Father Yod, then the home to Wow Cool, Al Columbia and Sebadoh); and again at the Majestic Theater in Easthampton. The Majestic apparently burned down in 2007. The Arts & Industry show had a small getting busted by the cops problem which eventually cost me 50 bucks. I have several blurry black and white photos of the warehouse show and full video of Nuisance’s set at the Majestic (as well as some of Doc Hopper and Beef, who opened). I wrote about these shows a bit in Andy’s Chair printed zines numbers 2 and 3. Those photos and video are very likely to show up online sometime next year. In the meanwhile, today’s gem showed up online… coming to me somehow or other through the facebook. It’s a demo tape from 1987(?) with 5 songs. They are: Your House, Brighter Flower, Censorship Song, Waiting Room, and Days Of Sun.

Nuisance’s albums on Lookout are available on iTunes: Confusion Hill | Sunny Side Down or as CDs on Amazon: Confusion Hill | Sunny Side Down

So… you’ve read Rip It Up and Start Again, and Simon Reynolds follow-up Totally Wired, and are ass-deep in post-punk lore and legend and spend your days wandering the record stalls humming “She Is Beyond Good and Evil” by the Pop Group. And you start to wonder… “Can I plunge any teh further down thee rabbit hole” Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You really can. Somewhere while digging up some background for my few bits on the late Peter Christopherson the other day (see previous post), I stumbled across the impossible time-sink of a music blog Kill Your Pet Puppy. I was looking for a copy of the fanzine by CRASS, Toxic Grafity, and discovered KYPP. Strangely, or not so much, the worlds of CRASS and other anarcho-punk goings on, were not so far separate from the industrial goings-on by G. P’Orridge and crew. The signs are clearly visible in street art of that era and later. Further digging led me to find that M’Colleague at Maximum RockNRoll, Paul, had flagged it for blog of the week a few weeks back. It’s hard to encapsulate the wonders to be found within KYPP… You just need to dive in.

In the meanwhile, speaking of the Pop Group… I would love to see this full documentary – “Mark Stewart – ON/OFF – Pop Group to Maffia”. I contacted Monitorpop to try to find out what had become of this film, but have heard nothing back yet.

UPDATE: I somehow failed to mention that The Pop Group have reformed, and are playing two shows on the last two days of 2010, with Sonic Youth in Manchester and London. More info, photos, video and a history of the band are on the Pop Group’s site.

Alternative Meat - a section in the frozen foods aisle at Whole Foods

Chinese Spaghetti Sauce

Lucky Swallow

Ethnic Hair Care - at Target. I think they mean Black

Mountain Dew Throwback - Made with real sugar

RAPE - Someone spelled out RAPE with the animal print letters at the fabric store - click to enlarge.

And, yes, Alternative Meat is a great punk rock band name. Go run with it. I don’t need it.

One of the very few films that somewhat understood punk and that awkward time of someone being pretty sure they want to be punk, but not doing so hot at it. That part may be a little to familiar for many. The rest of it, hopefully less so. Genuinely disturbing.

Nice writeup at Blastitude.

Out of the Blue is available on DVD from Anchor Bay.

Record Store Day is this Saturday. 3,000 Indie record stores have closed in the US in the last decade. “I Need That Record! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store” by guerrilla filmmaker Brendan Toller features interviews with Thurston Moore, Ian MacKaye, Noam Chomksy, Mike Watt, Lenny Kaye and others. The film will be offered be offered exclusively via indie record stores for 90 days starting on Independent Record Store Day, this Saturday April 17th.

“An elegy for a vanishing subculture …a lively, bittersweet film that examines – with caustic humor, brutal candor, and, ultimately, great affection – why roughly 3,000 indie record stores have closed across the nation over the past decade…” – Johnathan Perry, Boston Globe

Keep in touch with America’s premier punk rock record store Trash American Style (in exile) at their MySpaceship.

Sorry it’s been slow blog lately. A casual look around reveals that most others are even lazier. Anyway. Been very busy getting a record out to press, a 2011 calendar started and getting a front yard garden put in. More on all that in the coming weeks and months.

In the meanwhile here’s the things I’ve found super interesting and want to share.

Many years ago, Alex Jordan Jr., in an inspired case of Frank Lloyd Wright envy, created the astounding mid-west tourist attraction, the House on the Rock. A few years later, acclaimed comic book writer Neil Gaiman created the astounding, and much recommended novel American Gods, which features a pivotal scene in the House on The Rock. On October 29th and 30th, you can join Neil Gaiman and other American Gods fans for literary panels, talks, presentations, a limited number of chances to ride the World’s Largest Carousel, and a costume party focused on all things American Gods. If you can’t make that, but love the book and own a camera, you can join my flickr group, American Gods House. The group description is highly entertaining.

I don’t know how I missed this for so long, but John Bergin has taken his classic self-published From Inside to the screen. Very much worth a look.

150 years ago – April 9, 1860: Phonoautogram made the oldest known human sound recording “Au Clair de la Lune.”

After a year of silence, Schenectady media icon Ed Dague is back in the blogsphere. Oh yeah, baby!

Paul Rapp calmly and sanely defuses the hysteria over the FCC/Comcast ruling.

Help save BBC 6Music! Go get “Joy Division Oven Gloves” by Half Man Half Biscuit.

DJ Shadow launches Shadow Radio: Tune In NOW!!

DJShadow.com is up for a Webby Award for Best Celebrity/Fan website for 2010. Go vote now. See Wow Cool’s feature on the website.

Salvador Dali designed the Chupa Chups logo? Who knew? Steven Heller says it, it must be true.

This comic strip about Tesla by Kate Beaton is wonderful.

About the most insane musical moment on Saturday Night Live ever. This may top the Beastie Boys and Elvis Costello doing “Radio, Radio” or Natalie Portman’s rap. Punk.

I was sent a link to iO9′s write-up of Alex Cox’s recent Non-Sequel to his classic Repo Man film today by my nickname: Rebel cohort Michael Keegan. It was too early in the day to absorb. This was the first I had heard of any such sort of venture. I sort of peeked at it a couple of times. I sent it to someone else. Her response was “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” Which seems to be the general reaction. I’m gonna say that’s a good thing. I want to see this movie.

Here’s the trailer:

Alex Cox has a blog. He talks a bit about the development and making of Repo Chick, as well as his repo turf war with Universal.

American TV and movies have pretty much always sucked at getting punk right. This and an episode of Quincy tend be remembered as classic quotable examples of this from a certain era. As a side note, my brother had the nickname “After School Special” in high school. He wasn’t particularly punk. Now you can watch the whole thing online. (found a version with somewhat better sound) Share and enjoy.

After School Special page on Wikipedia

Thanks to C. Adam O’Toole for pointing this one out.

Slightly more mystifying is this t-shirt that is part of Shaun White’s (Olympic gold medalist snowboarder, sponsored by Target since 2002) fashion line. It sparked a small argument when I wondered why a Mat Brinkman T-Shirt was on sale at Target; which was quickly countered by ‘who the hell is that?, it’s Shaun White’. To which I replied ‘who the hell is that’. So there you go. It might be slightly more interesting if Shaun White did art like this than if it was Mat Brinkman, some other Fort Thunder related person, or someone unknown doing that style.

And now the punchline

While trying to find a usable photo of the Pink Punk Cosmo for this post I discovered that TGI Friday’s have been using the song Hayseed Rock by Tight Bro’s From Way Back When off their 2001 Kill Rock Stars LP Runnin’ Thru My Bones as their website theme-song since at least May, 2009. It’s still up there. Apparently the song also featured in a TGIF TV commercial that I’ve been unable to find a copy of on the interwebs. I’ve put the word out on the tweetsphere and friendspace and expect to provide some background on this amazing collision in the future.

By far the worst offender in this later category is the Noah’s/Einstein chain with 600 bagelries in 36 states. It was at one of their Noah’s located in San Jose California that I found myself staring at their dodgy subway platform decor and began to wonder about these things. I then made another discovery. The framed posters of New York City that hang on their walls were riddled with blatant inaccuracies. Wrong Dates, wrong places, wrong cities… How could this be? Thousands of these posters must have been sold all over the world! Most to dubious bagel shops and pizzerias no doubt.

It all starts with a cuckoo clock. It’s a fitting tribute to the director of F for Fake, master liar Orson Welles, who famously remarked in the film The 3rd Man, “in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” It’s a small lie apparently handed down from Mark Twain, and it has no real bearing on his central argument. Anyway, the Third Man was released in the US in early 1950, debuting in New York on the eve of my father’s 14th birthday on February 2. So, we have a very popular, somewhat muddy image, depicting Times Square on a cold and wet day in early 1950, forever marked as being 1942-either days or months after the US had entered the war-but clearly showing a sign for a film made seven years later that depicts the events of post-World War Two Vienna. And it hangs in eateries, homes, dorms and undoubtedly countless net cafes around the world. Is there no justice? No Peace? No truth? What does this all mean? Why the fuck do I even care? How could something so wrong continue unchallenged? Call your Senator, call Amway for Christ sakes, something must be done!

I found out I was not alone in my discovery, a couple of other blogger types noticed it too… but the funny part was, all dated the photo to the year of the Third Man’s initial release in 1949, even though it had not been shown in the US yet. Eat it nerd! I have outdone thee! Proudly representing from the über geeky South Bay, this is Marc A signing off (and I could give a crap about Noah’s crap-ass decor, WTF with this whipped cream cheese?).

Other poster call outs: The Spirit of Radio | Movie Poop Shoot | Laredo Morning Times (PDF)

Buy the damn poster

The Third Man on the IMDB

My mother, Roberta Juracka, one of the longest working women in American television, drawn by a young me. Found in a bizarre Catholic baby book at my late grandmother’s house. No clear indication on my final status as a soldier of christ. (picture after the jump!)

I Got Soul, But I’m Not A Soldier

Proof for any non-believers that need it that Christianity is (A) Science Fiction and (B) Child Abuse. But, a lovely drawing anyway. In my declining years when I succumb to a belief in such nonsense, I can pretty much guarantee it’ll be an afterlife containing Daleks, Rose Tyler and a cackling John Simm.

This is, of course, also true for artists, makers, crafters, and all other manner of geek, electronic whiz, computer genius, hacker, basement and garage tinkerer and eccentric; but, I’ve found that it is the music connection that really resonates (sorry, pun) with people, and has brought in the most luscious booty. Most recent example – pictured above – my aunt-in-law Joan had accumulated a whole bag of wall warts that did not match anything she actually uses. So they were donated to me. When I saw the wealth of 9-volt adapters and the venerable Archer universal, I nearly wept with joy (if you are a musician, especially a guitarist, this makes perfect sense to you and you share in my joy as part of that universal brotherhood. Let no more be spoken).

My favorite example of this was when I was at a friend of a friend’s farm in upstate New York a few years ago, and he was giving us the grand tour… we stop in a corner of his garage and he hands me a Garden Weasel. “You’re a musician, right? This has got a real cool sound, I’m sure you can use it” No joke, that thing sounds awesome. Fly the freak flag.

Check out the coolest broadsheet in the northeast! Phantom Brain Exchange Paper Program – Free! Online! Features a couple illustrations by teh yrs truly. To get a physical copy, you need to make your way up to Turners Falls, MA. The next one is March 25, 2009. Montague Phantom Brain Exchange main page.

Bow Wow Wow | C30 C60 C90 Go! | EMI 1980

This is the first in a series of what will hopefully be regular Friday posts of possibly forgotten items from the past that had a huge influence on the rise of punk/DIY culture, Wow Cool and me personally. This started out from noticing I was getting re-turned on to books, music, etc. that were very important at one point in life, but had become forgotten. In the future, the items will be run without additional commentary. Thanks to Erik from Xeroid Records for turning me on to this video. Share and Enjoy!

Andrew Gerhan is front and center in Time Out New York’s ‘I, New York’ feature in this week’s issue. Andrew twiddled knobs, arranged mics, rode the faders like Hopalong Cassidy, and even played a few odd parts for nickname: Rebel a few months back in sessions for the nearly completed New Rock Church of Fire LP. Now it seems he is flying the freak flag high and brandishing his sizzling whiskers in the little known neighborhood of Park Slope, Brooklyn as a “freelance music engineer”. Andy discusses Thomas Pynchon, particle physics, coffee and more with the popular entertainment weekly. We wish Andrew well in this new dangerous land, but hope he returns one day to visit us in the Bay Area.

Found this strange pair taking root in my front yard. What the hell are they?

Romanesco… I’m far from the first to come across this crazy broccoli meets Benoit Mandelbrot thing, but I could not resist its charms–especially for 90 cents at the local farmers’ market. I’ll try not to let it sit for too long before I steam it up with some garlic. But… Wow. Just wow.

Sticker pack for the Stick Me Hard Show at Musma Gallery in Brussels. Hopefully it will make it there in time and not get stuck in customs forever for smelling like paint…

I’ve been drawing this bunny character for like 20 years and he rarely looks the same way twice…

Stick Me Hard! is an upcoming International Exhibition of handmade stickers, posters and stencyls at Musma Gallery in Belgium. Local sticker legend Mr. The Gritboy has pulled the stencils out of storage to make a go at contributing. This is just a small gallery of artifacts from one nights work. Pretty ghastly stuff. See some examples of the vastly superior work by the other contributors on Musma’s flickr page.

Grit Boy is back (up against the wall, you know, so to speak), and he prefers Session Beer.

Awesome garage sale score. 5 Bux. Just in time for the halloween light show! Sadly, I didn’t end up with a whole planetarium like I hoped.

Just the thing to celebrate making it through cold and flu season! 3 parts lemonade (homemade or Simply Lemonade brand) 2 parts elderberry tea, 1 or 2 parts vodka, lots of ice in a big glass, stir. Looks very pretty with the lemonade and the tea separated before you mix it. Looks like a watermellony gray color once you mix it and tastes a bit like it too. Goes great with chicken soup!

Up on flickr now, 55 shots of classic pinball machines and their insane graphics. Check it out!

I should mention, Frank is a man with a mission. All money received goes directly to disaster relief efforts. More info on the Bountiful Garden site.

So, yeah, two days later (and still photographing things like t-shirts and swords in the garage, so, therefore still all set up with the lights) I started washing and plucking and slicing and dicing and mixing and making all kinds of a mess. Unlike the peanuts from the other day, these taste as good as they look.

The raw ingredients

plucked and washed

Pico de Gallo

Guacamole

Hot out of the oven. Conveniently, I was already set up with the lights and everything to make it look so pretty.

As mentioned here recently, I have deep-sixed internal combustion and gone back to self-powered 2-wheel goodness. Here’s the hot ride in late night glory, purchased at an awesome bike swap held by the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. Behind it is a Chariot (half-price, same swap!) to drive my littlest to and from pre-school. Been getting busy tricking it out. The rear-view mirror, bottle holder and U-Lock went on today. Still trying to find a compatible rack for the back.

It would be nice to have more things like the bike swap for independent comic artists and publishers around here… instead so much energy gets directed at things like APE…

First time out with the new manual mower. Will pay for itself in about 6 weeks. We don’t really have much grass. There will be less soon. Food Not Lawns!

I figured I had to make a roast at least once. There are just certain things I’m not a fan of doing to foods. Slow Cooked Beef Brisket is probably one of those. It came out pretty good. Plenty of left overs, which was the whole goal of the project.

The kitchen compost bin, with detailed instructions. This gets transfered to a big Dalek-like thing in the back yard twice a week, with some leaves and grass clippings and such. Looking forward to having some actual compost in… uh, the Spring.

Projects waiting in the wings… sandbox, kombucha, recessed lights in the living room, accessorize mad pimp out the bicycle, um, I forgot what else…

In Denver now… Day three of the move. Be in Utah soon. Abandoned hangars… Bison… Antelope Island…

Finally got everything loaded and got on the road at 6pm today. In Paducah, Kentucky now… be in Kansas tomorrow night.

Yes, after 10 years of painful internal combustion agony that followed 5 years of bicycle bliss, I am finally declaring ‘one less car’ again and it feels so damn good.

Share the road, fucker!