Hearts and Minds « Wow Cool

BBC 6Music Saved From The Ax

Sadly, The Asian Music network not so lucky. BBC Trust says that ‘the case has not been made’ for digital station’s closure. Read the full story on the Guardian’s site. This is the best news ever this year for independent music. 6Music has been very nice to Wow Cool’s artist’s and we have written about the campaign to keep them flowing here and here. Yay! More Stuart Maconie’s Freakzone! More of the excellent Tom Ravenscroft! More and More and More of original and classic indie music!

Sesame Street’s Big Bird Found Floating Dead in the Gulf

May I Use Your Phone? E.T. Meets the Inspector

From The Guidepost English Reader 2A. ET, The Extraterrestrial Meets the Inspector and asks to use his phone; and is given the tourist treatment. Garfield looks on approvingly. The book also features Popeye, Minnie and Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Little Duck, The Pink Panther, Little Bee and a girl named Angel. The Penguin baby promised on the back cover never appears. Printed in Taiwan?

After The Warming - Climate Change perspective from 20 Years Ago

Hosted by the great James Burke of Connections fame.

Self-Adjusting Table Cloth Clamps

I could stare at this package all day. From a long gone golden age of design. So much more inspiring than what the same product gets today. Purchased for 50 cents at a local yard sale.

Burning Up: Tom Otterness Art Installation in San Jose

Tom Otterness’s ‘Another World’ Installation’ of bronze figures was written about here previously. The work has taken on a new incarnation as it seems the cast bronze figures are now too hot to handle from sitting in the sun and are now mostly surrounded by plastic white picket fences with taped on warning notices that you should “Please Use Caution. Artwork May Be Hot”. Surely, after so many public installations, the artist would have known better. I have to wonder… what is the true purpose of this work and how is it intended to involve the audience? How best to engage with this thermal disaster of public art?

Continue reading Burning Up: Tom Otterness Art Installation in San Jose

Kitchen Mittens and Skull Measurements

I have certain fascinations, passions, interests and obsessions. Always having a camera in my pocket means I now take thousands of photos related to them. Sometimes the meaning can only be demonstrated in sequence or juxtaposition. Most of the time they just sit undisturbed on a flash card or hard drive. Lately my love of language and advertising has been getting pretty aggressively scratched at random by things around me. Sometimes you need to look closely, at other times they are screaming so loud in your face that you are likely to ignore them. Draw your own conclusions.

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

Continue reading Kitchen Mittens and Skull Measurements

Dennis Hopper on David Letterman talking Blue Velvet and River's Edge

Sadly this clip does not include the anecdote about the night Natalie Wood took a Champagne bath that Hopper related during the interview.

The time I played slide guitar on a performance of Roy Orbison’s ‘In Dreams‘ with Brown Cuts Neighbors may be one of the dodgiest bit of playing I’ve ever done live, but it seemed to work. The true surprise for many was when Valentine’s sound guy Tim redeemed himself by grabbing the bass and saving the song.

Remembering Dennis Hopper Part 1

The above is from Hermann Vaske’s excellent The Fine Art of Separating People From Their Money. I used to make everyone in my art department and all the sales reps who used our materials watch this movie.

The work and life of Dennis Hopper has meant more to me than I can begin to express. I have every single one of the movies he directed on VHS. I attended all but a couple of the screenings of his films at the massive retrospective the Film Forum in New York ran in the 1980s (including one memorable one where Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo of Sonic Youth were seated right behind me). I could go on and on. Dennis Hopper was the best living example I can think of why it is of value in life to engage with art. I suppose that’s a statement that needs some explaining. I’ll be thinking about it. I’ll be dragging out many more of the lesser known works involving Dennis Hopper over the next few days.

Obituary from the Los Angeles Times

Dennis Hopper: A Life in Pictures at the Guardian

The Aesthetic of Our Anger

$3.99 gets you two Toy Story army men with parachutes or an entire 40 piece army force. Which side are you on?

Please go read: 1-2-3-4 What are we Fighting For by Adam Curtis

Stephen Fry on Language

While assembling the accounts and inventories of the past year that the IRS wants for some reason or other, I have spent an excessive amount of that time with a TV on. I have gone through an incredible number of season box sets and the like. After finishing Season Two of House M.D. I thought it would be interesting to break things up with A Bit of Fry and Laurie. It was somewhere in season one that the above gem appears. Watch it twice. It’s brilliant. I’ll wait.

When Stephen Fry got to the part about language being his whore and his mistress, I suddenly remembered a similar (and more scholarly, and not) speech he gave as a ‘podgram‘ a little over a year ago. It’s a bit longer, perhaps not as funny, and is essential listening if you are a nutter like me who likes to read Kenneth Grahame or Evelyn Waugh aloud because the words are just put together so damn good. He even references this sketch with Hugh Laurie in it.

Here’s the super-awesome bit written down for you:

Language is my mother, my father, my husband, my brother, my sister, my whore, my mistress, my check-out girl… language is a complimentary moist lemon-scented cleansing square or handy freshen-up wipette. Language is the breath of God. Language is the dew on a fresh apple, it’s the soft rain of dust that falls into a shaft of morning light as you pluck from a old bookshelf a half-forgotten book of erotic memoirs. Language is the creak on a stair, it’s a spluttering match held to a frosted pane, it’s a half-remembered childhood birthday party, it’s the warm, wet, trusting touch of a leaking nappy, the hulk of a charred Panzer, the underside of a granite boulder, the first downy growth on the upper lip of a Mediterranean girl. It’s cobwebs long since overrun by an old Wellington boot.

Here is the full transcript.

You can get the whole episode on iTunes (Series One, Episode two)

Happy Hollow 2010 - Another World by Tom Otterness

HappyHollow20101, originally uploaded by Marc Arsenault – Wow Cool.

Today (Sunday March 14, 2010), San Jose’s beloved childrens’ playground and zoo, Happy Hollow reopened after a nearly two year renovation and closure. Clearly the star of the show was the installation in the entry courtyard of sculptures by Tom Otterness. “Another World”, a series of over a dozen cast sculptures installed in the entryway to Happy Hollow comes with a special coloring book. You can color it and relate your story and send it back to Tom in Brooklyn and receive a plaster sculpture back (Tom’s studio copies your book and the returns it to you). The offer is open to any age.

See my photos of the installation on flickr.

I first encountered Tom Otterness’s work in the 1983 show and catalog at Tony Shafrazi Gallery “Champions” which also featured Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ronnie Cutrone, Keith Haring, Futura 2000, Kenny Scharf and others. It was an attempt to unite this set of mid-80s New York artists, and even then, Tom Otterness was a clear outsider. (an odd aside, an instructor of mine at SVA once told me that I reminded her of Tom). This is one of Otternesses largest collections of public art (probably the largest on the West Coat), and well worth a visit. It stands as a fair substitute for the old playground fairytale exhibits at Happy Hollow (See my photos of the old Happy Hollow on flickr)

I have to admit to not being the biggest fan of the new Happy Hollow, and was quite fond of the many dilapidated playsets of the HH of old that have been retired. I think the could have managed to go more the route of Oakland’s Fairyland in keeping the old, but moving forward.

Some tips when visiting Happy Hollow.
Bring your own food. The stuff they sell is crap.
Expect the usual idiocy of any parking experience in San Jose.
There is a big area between the playground and Hallow Zoo that contains the old Crooked Man slide. Avoid this, as the house is now boarded up. No sliding will occur.
It’s not there for you, it’s there for your kids. Let them dictate how much fun it is.

UPDATE: There is a long article about the renovation in the Silicon Valley Mercury News. They also have a preview map with 360º views of the park and a collection of vintage photos and visitor memories.

Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien talks 6Music

I wasn’t quite sure what to say about 6Music, other than “they’re really cool, and I’m psyched that they have played my music, so speak up and save this awesome station”. It also seems weird to be a non-license-paying foreigner trying to muck about in another nation’s culture. But, since Rupert Murdoch and the US and UK governments have no such qualms… anyway. Ed from Radiohead said everything I wanted to say over on Dead Air Space. Read on:

I am writing regarding the news today that 6 Music is going to be closed, in the hope that you reconsider this decision. To be honest I, along with a vast number of other musicians, music industry types and real music fans, are completely shocked and baffled by this news. I wonder if those who made this decision are actually aware of the hugely important role that 6 music plays in fostering and promoting new bands, as well as still playing the likes of the band that I am in. It literally is the radio lifeblood for music outside of the mainstream. Not to denigrate Radio’s 1 and 2, but it really is the only station that puts music first, and that’s from a punters point of view and not some bloke in a band. Nowhere else can you hear an archived session track from T Rex juxtaposed next to Midlake’s latest release. As David Bowie, put it … it keeps the spirit of John Peel alive.

Please realise the impact and severity of closing this station down. It will be a huge blow for new bands and their labels. It’s not enough to ‘refocus’ Radio’s 1 and 2 as 6 music does a very specific thing. What you have with 6 Music is a gem of a radio station, it is doing what no other station in the world does or can possibly do. Remember it is also still relatively young, give it time. You also finally have a fantastic and seemingly settled line up of DJ’s. Please get behind it and from what I can gather about its annual budget of £6m, it surely punches way above its weight in terms of cultural relevance and importance.

Save BBC 6Music & BBC Asian Network

Save 6Music Facebook Group | Love6Music.com | If you won’t listen to me you might listen to Lily Allen

Stellar Content-Based Advertising FAIL On BBC News

On February 20, 2010, the BBC posted “Dutch cabinet collapses in dispute over Afghanistan” as the top story on their News homepage. The complicated mechanisms of content-based advertising placement brilliantly selected to display a box for the current Netherlands tourism campaign “Just Be… in Holland“. Ouch.

For some more insight on the background of the Afghan boondoggle, I highly recommend the series by Adam Curtis… also hosted by the Beeb (scroll down a bit if need be).

Sorry, I’m a couple days late on this.

UPDATE: Today’s massive Olympic fuckup involving Sven Kramer cements 2010 as a rough year for the Dutch.

This Time (I'm Gonna Try it My Way) - Behind the scenes at DJShadow.com

DJ Shadow live in Chile 2006. photo by Leo Prieto. Licensed under Creative Commons

In 2006 DJ Shadow dropped his most recent solo album, The Outsider, and set in motion the process of creating one of the most fully-realized and successful artist sites on the web. The latest incarnation of DJShadow.com was built by Derick Daily and his team at the prestigious marketing firm Euro RSCG and DJ Shadow’s team, managed by Michael Fiebach, all under the careful control of Joshua Davis (DJ Shadow). The three-year project completed it’s final development phase and was relaunched in August 2009. As someone who is developing a label site (that would be WowCool.com, folks), that features a full online shop and artist pages, I look at DJShadow.com as an example of what can be done.

Apart from the site’s innovations as a presence for a musician online, it represents not just DJ Shadow, but also works with, and by, his collaborators from Solesides/Quannum, Cut Chemist and Cali-Tex, DJ Shadow’s personal label for funk and soul re-issues, which includes the School House Funk compilations, and the recent ‘great lost Chicago funk’ album Pieces of Peace. It’s no secret that DJ Shadow is a major record hound, and his site represents that. This is clearly the work of someone who truly loves records and wants to share that with others who appreciate that.

DJShadow.com has a clean and elegant layout. No confusion about what stuff is and where to find it. It just works. And it is deep. The archives and discography are presented in a straightforward, unpretentious style.

The signature single from The Outsider ‘This Time (I’m Gonna Try It My Way)’ can be read as a statement of the need for an artist to control how his image is presented and his work is distributed; whether you are a DIY bedroom producer or in a ‘best of both worlds’ situation like DJ Shadow, who is both a major label artist and a successful indy label owner. At least that’s how I took it when it came out. Along with the Bloc Party’s ‘The Prayer’, ‘This Time’ served as a major inspiration for me when I started to plan the relaunch of Wow Cool.

OK, enough about me.

Holding down the day-to-day at DJShadow.com is Michael Fiebach. He handles the site management; marketing, project, and distribution management and sales for independent DJ Shadow releases; merchandise management for the entire DJ Shadow product line for tour and online sales and E-Commerce management for the online store. I met Michael at the last two SF MusicTech summits. He is direct, honest and knowledgeable about the music business. We spoke in depth about the site and the DJ Shadow Handmade label for this article on December 22, 2009 and followed up by email during January, 2010. This is the first of two in-depth follow up articles with people I met at the SF MusicTech Summit.

I’m guessing the average person would have a hard time getting exactly why it’s an unique deal, the arrangement with Universal, to license back the albums for digital sale and how that works.

Yeah, I think that you put it exactly right. The common music fan has no idea…doesn’t get it… ‘oh, you’re selling downloads… well, there have been downloads for 10 years on the Internet…’ who cares? You know?

The unique thing about it, really, is that we’re the only artist site that I’ve seen, that is legitimately licensing music back from the label and selling it directly to the fan through downloads. We are licensing the music as an E-Store, just as iTunes and other major E-tailers do. I haven’t seen any independently operated artist sites that combine the downloads with physical merchandise for the entire store. We do t-shirt and download bundles and buy a CD and get the download for free; and, there are sites that do that, but not independent artist stores, and combining the merchandise with the digital downloads was something that was really hard, actually, to get done and it’s not something you see that often. We do all the fulfillment out of here ourselves. We ship all it from out of here, worldwide.

Do you know the percentage that you’re moving of digital vs. physical sales?

As far as digital compared to physical, digital is a nice piece of the pie, and it is growing…For most people, CDs are kind of tough these days…as I’m sure you know, in general, but we still do… People still want DJ Shadow limited exclusive merchandise and CDs and we just came up with some creative ways to make it available… and there, we still have plenty of interest in CDs. Overall, vinyl is still moving very well from a direct to fan perspective, and the interest in Digital is large and continually growing. When we bundle digital and physical together… that is when the real interest is sparked. From a mass distribution perspective, CDs are still the bread and butter.

Read the rest of the interview

Support Disaster Relief in Haiti

U.S. President Obama signed a bill into law today that allows American taxpayers to deduct contributions made to relief in Haiti before March 1, 2010 on their 2009 tax return. So, you really have no excuse not to help out now. Wow Cool endorses Oxfam America as our charity of choice. Oxfam is already in Haiti delivering supplies to those who need it. Oxfam is also holding some interesting benefit auctions. In the US there is one where you can win hanging out with Scarlett Johansson. Or if you are in the UK you can bid on a chance to hang out with Andy Gill and hear the new Gang of Four Record, win a DJ Shadow Endtroducing era Technics 1200 turntable or have a personal song written for you by Damon Albarn. Get helpin’!

Two other stories of interest you may have missed:
Luxury cruise ships are still docking at their private beaches in Haiti
Doctors Without Borders Plane with Lifesaving Medical Supplies Diverted multiple times from Landing in Haiti

Gumby Discovers that the Blockheads never read Silent Spring

This is the video I was looking for a few days ago. A lesson for me in not relying on YouTube. Gumby puts the kibosh on the blockheads latest evil scheme, a pesticide protection racket, that has the worms up in arms and gasmasks, even. Available on the DVD of Gumby: the Movie. There must be something about the process of doing stop-motion animation that breeds a deeper social consciousness. (See earlier post about Oliver Postgate). Sorry if you have to endure any commercials to get to the cartoon.

Happy 69th Birthday to Don Van Vliet!!!

Yes, Captain Beefheart himself is 69 today. It’s no secret that he’s popular in the house of Wow Cool. Just released from Proper Records is the long-awaited biography by long-time Magic Band member and arranger John (Drumbo) French, Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic. It appears that the book is currently only available in the UK and Europe, and, as of this writing, it is not yet in stock from Amazon, but is available through other sellers from Amazon.co.uk. For readers of the excellent, and up-until-now definitive Beefheart Bio by Mike Barnes, it’s been a long wait for this book, as French heavily teased that he was working on his own book back then and revealed relatively little of that mystical hermetic life as a member of the Magic Band. Proper also released French’s latest album Drumbo: City of Refuge last year, and it is solidly in the Magic Band tradition and well worth getting.

John French’s MySpaceship
Interview on Perfect Sound Forever

Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear

This is the one book about sound you must read this year. I’ve been waiting for something like this for years and for this book since July. Steve Goodman, better known to the world as Kode9 of Hyperdub Records, delves into how sound has been used by government and industry to manipulate and control people.

Description from Amazon

Sound can be deployed to produce discomfort, express a threat, or create an ambience of fear or dread—to produce a bad vibe. Sonic weapons of this sort include the “psychoacoustic correction” aimed at Panama strongman Manuel Noriega by the U.S. Army and at the Branch Davidians in Waco by the FBI, sonic booms (or “sound bombs”) over the Gaza Strip, and high-frequency rat repellants used against teenagers in malls. At the same time, artists and musicians generate intense frequencies in the search for new aesthetic experiences and new ways of mobilizing bodies in rhythm. In Sonic Warfare, Steve Goodman explores these uses of acoustic force and how they affect populations.

Most theoretical discussions of sound and music cultures in relationship to power, Goodman argues, have a missing dimension: the politics of frequency. Goodman supplies this by drawing a speculative diagram of sonic forces, investigating the deployment of sound systems in the modulation of affect. Traversing philosophy, science, fiction, aesthetics, and popular culture, he maps a (dis)continuum of vibrational force, encompassing police and military research into acoustic means of crowd control, the corporate deployment of sonic branding, and the intense sonic encounters of sound art and music culture.

Goodman concludes with speculations on the not yet heard—the concept of unsound, which relates to both the peripheries of auditory perception and the unactualized nexus of rhythms and frequencies within audible bandwidths.

Order from Amazon: Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear (Technologies of Lived Abstraction)

Video from XLR8R where he talks about the book

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