Aug. 14, 2008: 8 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Issue Project Room at the (oa) can factory

232 Third Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Admission: $15

Evidence (Stephan Moore and Scott Smallwood) celebrate the release of their new CD “Receiver” (free103point9 Audio Dispatch 035), created through a residency at Wave Farm, with a re-imagined performance of the original installation. (See Evidence - Airtime performance under related events.) Bring a radio with batteries! A limited number will be provided. Evidence will be joined by the modern dance company The Extra-Sensory Pedestrians, performing a new work, “Boxed Dances.”

For more information see: http://www.free103point9.org/events/1957/

Go to my site and check out photos, info, specs and ordering info right on the splash page.

Oh…and…if your around NYC on Aug 22….I’ll be showing with Leigh Barbier and Homer Flynn at THE SHOWROOM NYC on 2nd ave in the East Village.

and…I’ll be signing figures and prints in Detroit and Chicago in the same month (I’ll get back to all of you about the exact dates)

Best, Steven Cerio

Montague Phantom Brain Exchange #7
Wednesday, July 30th, 9pm (sharp!) Five Bucks
at the Rendezvous
78 3rd St
Turners Falls, MA 01376

Argumentix
Extreme Animals
Jason Martin
BudweiserSprite
Fortress of Amplitude

DJ Jazzy Jexx
lecture by Dr. Veronica Lopez on Microbiology

read on:

This month’s Phantom Brain Exchange is a very special pre - Wickermania Festival show.   The weekend following our event will be stuffed silly with shows, parties, & picnics under the name Wickermania!  Planned by a loose conglomerate of adventurous western mass promoters/afficianadoes of weirdo culture such as Autonomous Battleship Collective (orange!), Shineola (goshen!), Mystery Train (amherst!),  Ecstatic Yod (florence!), and more.  Consider that a heads up, now let’s examine this evening’s details before we talk anymore of this Wickerdoodle.  

Argumentix is the ongoing solo project of Mr. James Squeaky, Portland, Oregon’s preeminent connoisseur of provocative culture and cuddly felines.  He’s shrieked for the spastic hardcore band Alarmist!, puked forth a million oddball recordings and side projects, and also edited the fine fanzine and webzine Below PDX.  In Argumentix, he swoons with faggy goth swagger fumbling over tape & feedback loops leaving behind a rag-carpet of sound for us to marvel at.  
http://www.belowpdx.com/argumentix/

Extreme Animals are the official Paperrad thump factory.  For years, Jacod & David have been pushing the midi envelope filter with their neon brand blacklight strobe budget rave blasts all over sweaty house parties, decrepit art lofts, and fancy danceclubs all over the world.  Just prep yourself for booty-collapse, as the jams will be too infectious for your ass to handle.  i’ve seen it happen.  
http://www.paperrad.org/extreme/

Jason Martin might be more widely known for his work with Evolution Revolution (a furries rock band) or maybe even is rippin’ bass playinng in the infamous BunnyBrains, but i always like to remind people of his solo work and stuff he did throughout the 90’s with Schenectady’s expansive cable-access tele-audio-visual collective Brown Cuts Neighbors. For this evening’s Phantom Brain Exchange, he’s getting back to basics with his reel to reel & multiple instruments, plopping out beefheart-esque rumpled popsongs.  A release on Yeay! tapes is in the works.  
http://www.myspace.com/evolutionrevolution

…from what i know, BudweiserSprite is a foul westcoast drink poured out on a four track.  A one-man beer-soda can who eats tapes for breakfast.  
http://cassettegods.blogspot.com/2008/02/budweiser-sprite-mouthbreather.html

Fortress of Amplitude music, an ancient druidic guitar sorcery from suburban depths, has been popping up at satanic rituals & LARP events throughout Texas.
http://www.rf-da.com/fortress.html

Mudboy & Bug Sized Mind Collaboration!  Two Providence heavyweights will battle via retooled mechanical organs and synthesizers hogtied with patch cables and effects pedals.  Flowers bloom.  
http://www.mudboymusic.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6QaR0tX09Y

Radical Paperrad deejay DJ Jazzy Jexx will be setting the ambiance with crooked bumpin farts and the freshest in future bass.  She scratches CDRs with brute force.  
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=85834915

Our favorite local Neuroendocrinolgist & Flywheel member, Dr. Veronica Lopez, will be presenting a brief lecture reintroducing us to Mircobiology and making sure we won’t fail next month’s popquiz.  

See Consumers for Dental Choice and The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology for all the information and updates.

Please read everything carefully before contributing. For anyone who may have questions or concerns about fillings they have, the IAOMT and Consumers for Dental Choice sites are great resources.

The initial letter from Consumers for Dental Choice and some additional background information is below.

Some mainstream media coverage:
Washington Post
Newsweek
Philladelphia Inquirer

For those who do not know, I had a very bad experience with a dentist in Seattle many years ago with some dental work that went very wrong and I got very sick for several weeks from mercury poisoning. I’ve since had all of my amalgam fillings removed and feel great.

Thanks for reading,

Marc Arsenault
Wow Cool

———–

AFTER A 32 YEAR DELAY – FDA MUST CLASSIFY DENTAL AMALGAM!!

YOUR COMMENTS ARE A MUST!

After a 32 year delay to classify pre-encapsulated mercury amalgam dental fillings, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has been mandated by U.S. District Court to classify the components of dental amalgam by July, 2009.

Prior to classification, FDA has reopened the public comment period concerning the risks of dental amalgam with a deadline for submissions of July 28, 2008.

If you have commented previously, it is still crucial that you submit again, as only these comments will be considered for this Docket period.

Docket ID: FDA-2008-N-0163
Docket Title: Dental Devices: Classification of Encapsulated Amalgam Alloy and Dental Mercury and Reclassification of Dental Mercury; Issuance of Special Controls for Amalgam Alloy; Reopening of Comment Period to July 28, 2008.

To file an electronic comment: Click here »
Go to the bottom of the page with heading “Submitter Information”. Fill out the form, enter your comments, and click the “Next Step” button. Then you will be able to cancel, edit your comments, or submit them using the buttons on the bottom of the page.

To fax a written comment: Fax: 301.827.6870

To mail a comment:
Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305)
FDA
5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061
Rockville, MD 20852

Please consider sending a copy of your submission to: info@toxicteeth.org so that Consumers for Dental Choice has a record of all comments. Please use subject line: “My comment to FDA”.

To view comments: 1) Go to http://www.regulations.gov 2) In the search box enter FDA-2008-N-0163. We have been informed that private citizen comments will not be posted on the website, however they will be reviewed.

Suggestion : If you are an injured consumer: Submit your first and last name with subject: “ I am a victim of mercury poisoning from my amalgam dental fillings and I want the use of mercury in dentistry banned”.

Let the FDA know that it is time to protect the public not the dental industry.

BAN DENTAL AMALGAM FILLINGS NOW!

Points to consider in your submission:

Dental amalgam must be classified as Class III, not Class II so that manufacturers have to prove the safety of amalgam. Class II does not require this regulation.
Amalgam manufacturers should be mandated to provide an environmental impact statement to prove amalgams are environmentally safe. Mercury from dental offices contributes at least 40% of the mercury to wastewater, as well as contributing to air pollution from crematoriums.
Include your personal stories including: dental revisions and additional dental costs due to corrosion and break down of amalgam fillings and health related illnesses and medical costs due to mercury toxicity. (Please do not include personal information such as social security numbers).
This Spring we won a lawsuit against the FDA for not classifying dental amalgam after a 32 year stand off. As a result, FDA had to revise the information on their website related to the risks of dental amalgam, now admitting that amalgam fillings are a potential risk to pregnant women, children and a sensitive sub-population. See: FDA’s website: http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/amalgams.html.

DEMAND THAT CHILDREN BE PROTECTED BY BANNING THE USE OF DENTAL AMALGAM NOW!!

Thank you.
Consumers for Dental Choice

———–

Background:

Many people do not realize the “silver” amalgam fillings are 50% mercury. A large filling may contain as much mercury as a thermometer. Mercury vaporizes easily at room temperature, and in this state, is odorless, colorless and tasteless. Inhaled mercury vapor is readily absorbed into the bloodstream. The World Health Organization has concluded that dental fillings contribute more mercury to a person’s body than all other sources of mercury combined. Mercury is a powerful poison. Published research demonstrates that mercury is more toxic than lead, cadmium or arsenic. No amount of exposure to mercury vapor can be considered harmless. Especially considering its cumulative effect.

Mercury is the most toxic, non-radioactive element on the earth. Most medical and scientific researchers have called for a ban on the use of mercury in all products. However, the potential harmful effects of mercury fillings have been ignored by the U.S. Government. Due to its poisonous nature, mercury can adversely affect the immune, urinary, cardiac, respiratory and digestive systems. Under laboratory conditions, mercury has produced brain cell deterioration identical to that seen in victims of Alzheimer’s disease.

Consumers for Dental Choice (CDC) was established in 1996 by consumer advocates, mercury poisoning victims, scientists and mercury-free dentists, and soon thereafter became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Our purpose is to educate the public about the health and environmental dangers of mercury fillings, and to ensure more effective government oversight on amalgam. Since the organization began, the number of amalgams placed have declined dramatically, from two-thirds of all fillings placed to one-third, and the number of mercury-free dentists has grown dramatically. But we will not be satisfied until mercury is no longer used in dentistry.
As part of its educational work, Consumers for Dental Choice wants the full flow of non-deceptive information between dentists and patients. As such, we work to end the American Dental Association’s notorious “gag rule” which tries to silence mercury-free dentists, and the ADA’s promoting mercury amalgam under the deceptive term “silver.” We favor full disclosure of the risks of mercury fillings.

It is important that research relied upon by federal agencies be based on science, so Consumers works to counter studies by non-independent or unqualified researchers that urge continuation of amalgam for spurious reasons such as “it’s good because we’ve used it for 150 years,” or a mixture of amalgam is like sodium and chloride is like table salt. Scientific research makes clear that mercury does not belong in dentistry.

The environmental dangers of mercury fillings – from dental offices, from human waste, and from cremation – is alarming, and reason enough to end the use of amalgam. Consumers works to educate the public about the contribution of dentistry of toxic mercury to both human beings and the environment.

The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology

In 1984, thirteen dentists were discussing a seminar they had just attended on the dangers of mercury from dental amalgam fillings. They agreed that the subject was alarming. They also agreed that the seminar, though long on fireworks, was short on science, and if there really was a problem with dental mercury, the evidence ought to be in the scientific literature. So, like thirteen musketeers vowing “all for one and one for all,” they set out to find the evidence, or failing that, to sponsor new research that would provide the answers they sought.

Over two decades later, the IAOMT has grown to over 500 active members in North America, with affiliated chapters in fourteen other countries. The years have been very fruitful, as the Academy and its members have chronicled and promoted the research that has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that dental amalgam is a source of significant mercury exposure, and a hazard to health. It has taken the lead in educating dentists and allied professionals in the methods of safely dealing with amalgam fillings, and safely disposing the waste. It has also led the way in developing more biocompatible approaches in other areas of dentistry, including endodontics, periodontics, and disease prevention. All this while maintaining the motto, “Show me the science!”

A more biocompatible approach is the hallmark of “biological dentistry.” In using that term, we are not attempting to stake out a new specialty for dentistry, but to describe an attitude that can apply to all facets of dental practice, and to health care in general: to always seek the least toxic way to accomplish the mission of treatment, to do it while treading as softly as possible on the patient’s biological terrain.

Listen and Enjoy: “The Truth About Charlotte”

Recorded in the Charlotte, NC Hilton this June.

OK, T-shirts. Each is available in sizes S, M, L, XL. They are on super high-quality 100% cotton shirts. They will be very reasonably priced. First up, brand new from Vertigo’s Vinyl Underground artist Simon Gane, is this super-stylish 2-sided promotional shirt for his book with Ian Lynam and Kim Fern: Sap.

And, even more confusing is this also stylish number from Marc Arsenault made especially for this event. Let them know you’ll never be retconned again!

And there will be much, much more at the show, free stickers, garage sale specials, costumed surprises, tigers, Brown Cuts Neighbors, The Doris book, a big box of “last copies” going back years… See you there!

Thank you everyone,
–Marc Arsenault

ps. I am actively seeking an intern. Other employment opportunities may follow.

We just received a big box of Ian Lynam’s amazing Parallel Strokes book and will have those at the show. I’m frantically working on getting a Brown Cuts Neighbors sampler DVD and my new comic collection “Adventures In Excitement” ready. As before. Wish me luck! More updates coming soon, and hopefully more blogging here, been too busy just fixing bits of the thing that went wobbly after an upgrade.

I am completely not kidding. You must get The Near Complete Essential Hembeck Archives Omnibus right now! I seriously woke up one day last year with the realization that this book must happen! I wrote Fred, and he told me it was going to happen. I was sworn to secrecy for many months. Then the official announcement was made. Now it exists!

Find out more about this awesome book and learn how to get a hyper-customized edition direct from Fred Hembeck here.

THIS SUNDAY JUNE 8
FROM 2 - 4PM SHARP
@ 51 3RD STREET TROY NY 12180
+ SOME KIND OF MUSICAL PERFORMANCE at 4pm! Show up and buy your way into an improvised band.

So heres the stuff:
* electronics of various kinds in various states of working (some working, some need a little work, and others are best used for parts)
* a few pieces of furniture
* some instruments

I do not have detailed list of what is available. Can’t respond to individual requests about gear. Come to the sale.

Over n out
Jason

All June nickname: Rebel will be on the awesome Mark Whitby show - listen online to Dandelion Radio.

In the meanwhile Marc Arsenault and Joshua Baker will be carrying some portable recording equipment to the Charlotte Hilton in two weeks to try to record some sort of source material for the new proper nickname: Rebel record. You can find us at the bar or at Heroes Con.

Wish us luck!

nickname: Rebel on Last.fm

Visit nickname: Rebel’s MySpaceship

((im playing “function generator bass and samples” in BUNNYBRAINS tomorrow, friday))

This is part of a festival that starts tonight I’ve forwarded part of the email about it below, but even if u cant catch us, theres plenty of stuff going down so go to free103’s website to get all the dates n acts n stuff.
Cheers,
Jason

NOISE! 2008
May 8, 2008: 10 p.m. – May 11, 2008: 1 a.m. at Ontological Theater, St. Mark’s Church, 131 E. 10th St., Manhattan, NY $10 admission; free video and audio online.

Noise! is a sound performance festival started in 2005. free103point9 curates for the second year. Each year the “Incubator” program at Ontological Theater hosts a Noise! festival, a three-night multi-arts event designed to promote interest in new forms of sound art.
The festival will feature short compositions and performances by established and emerging artists.
Each evening opens with a Radio 4×4 as the audience enters the theater.
Radio 4×4 is a free103point9 collaborative radio transmission performance. Four simultaneous audio performances are separately sent through FM transmitters to radios positioned throughout a performance space. Each radio receives only one of the signals, so that the audience becomes an active collaborator in the performance, “mixing” the audio feeds by moving about the space among the four signals. Other artists will perform each evening. Tianna Kennedy, Tom Roe, and Damian Catera will curate each evening. Streamed live on free103point9 Online Radio.

Thursday, May 8
Curated by Tianna Kennedy
Opens with Radio 4×4 with Tianna Kennedy + Mark Anderson + Jordi Wheeler + Tyler Nolan
Lith (Jordi Wheeler)
Diamond Terrifier (featuring Sam Hillmer from the Zs)
Dome Theater (Forrest Gillespie directing “Fucked for Real”)

Friday, May 9
Curated by Tom Roe
Opens with Radio 4×4 with Giancarlo Bracchi + Tom Roe + Slink Moss + Michael Garafalo.
Bunnybrains
Michael Garafalo (Latitude/Longitude)
Giancarlo Bracchi
Tom Roe

Saturday, May 10
Curated by Damian Catera
Opens with Radio 4×4 with Damian Catera + () + Tom Roe + John Baird
Skyline
Damian Catera
Andrea Parkins

More information

Go watch it now!

Hudson Mohawk Indymedia has produced a definitive account of the whirlwind of events surrounding Wafaa Bilal’s controversial art exhibit, “Virtual Jihadi.”

“Art (does not equal) Terrorism” goes beyond the sound bites to find out what happened when an Iraqi artist came to Troy, NY only to be censored–not once, but twice.

First, Wafaa Bilal was chased off campus after his artwork was mis-characterized as terrorist propaganda by undergraduate bloggers.

When the exhibition was given refuge by The Sanctuary for Independent Media, the city government responded by shutting down the space.

Finally got it together to put the Rebel sound up on Last.fm. There is the mini 5-song version of the R is For Riot EP available as free downloads. You can get the whole 10 song thing for free, of course, as one big 30MB download. The MySpaceship has 3 more tunes. The n:R cover of a Sexual Milkshake song is still available as part of a Teen Beat Records tribute called Relax Brother, Relax up on the Internet Archive. Two more cover tunes are on the old DeptEx Sounds page, for you completists. There, that’s it, that’s all of them. Now you know. Now you know… there is a hell.

Visit nickname: Rebel’s MySpaceship

–Marc Arsenault

In other news, nickname: Rebel and Wow Cool main guy Marc Arsenault (me) is laying down the guitar as part of Thee Froggss for a benefit for the Pilot Light in Knoxville, Tennessee. Also appearing, the mighty GUNN CLUUB and the GERRMMS - April, 1 2008 at The Pilot Light 106 E Jackson Ave, Knoxville, 37915 Cost : $5.00

If you were planning on checking out the new 23 minute documentary by Hudson Mohawk Indymedia about the recent events surrounding Wafaa Bilal’s controversial art exhibit, “Virtual Jihadi”, be advised that the venue has changed…. the screening will now be at: The Daily Grind, 46 3rd St. in Troy. The times will remain 7 and 8 pm.

“Art Not Terrorism” goes beyond the sound bites to find out what happened when an Iraqi artist came to Troy, NY only to be censored–not once, but twice. First, Wafaa Bilal was chased off campus after his artwork was mis-characterized as terrorist propaganda by undergraduate bloggers. When the exhibition was given refuge by The Sanctuary for Independent Media, the city government responded by shutting down the space.

This short documentary by the award-winning producers of “Independent Media in a Time of War” asks: what was so troubling about this artist’s message that University and City officials decided that we would all be better off not hearing it?

View the trailer.
Overview of the situation from earlier in the engineroom

Bonus goodness - the film has some music by nickname: Rebel and My Survival Kit in it!

We are seeking submissions from a diverse group of parents raising special needs kids who feel marginalized by their subculture status (economics, lifestyle, orientation, religion/atheism) and underrepresented in print.

Got tips on how to stay sane during the IEP process when you don’t believe in the system to begin with? Felt you had to hide you radical political books while the Early Intervention Folks come over? Found yourself stuck a mainstream world of special needs parenting that you don’t fit into?

Submit your stories to a upcoming anthology that features writing from parents in the know about what it’s like to raise “special needs” kids — with no sugar coating or the ‘you will dream new dreams’ kind of crap we’re subjected to by mainstream media. Unfortunately we can’t pay, but all contributors will receive two copies of the book.

Topics we would like to see covered include (but are not limited to):
Experiences with helpful or clueless doctors
· How not to leave your politics at the door and still work the system
· Care providers and how they help us (when they show up)
Community support or lack thereof
· The asinine things people say you
· Challenging people’s assumptions
Keeping yourself sane while caring for your kid’s needs
· The politics of inclusion
· Fighting city hall/demanding more access & services
· Kids with special needs growing older
Alternatives to group homes and institutions
· Politics behind professional care-giving
Alterative treatments: the good, the bad, or the rip-off

*Also, we’re seeking suggestions for good resources/services state-by-state or on the national level. Please send those to the email listed below.

Send 2,000 to 5,000 word submissions by May 15th 2008 or questions to: shortbusbook@yahoo.com Essays must be typed, double-spaced, and paginated. Please include your address, phone number, email address, and a short bio on the last page.

Editors: Yantra Bertelli, Jennifer Silverman and Sarah Talbot, who are parents of “special needs” kids.

www.shortbusbook.blogspot.com

Wow Cool will be at the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 20-22, 2008. There will be a few new debuts, lots of stuff by Simon Gane, Steve Cerio and myself, music, comics, shirts, etc. I’m hoping to spend most of my time drawing sketches of 70s Marvel monsters for the kids (or, failing that, for Frank Santoro). Updates to come in this space. You can look for the new shop and some other fun web stuff to go up well before then (hey, the Interweb is hard). Thanks.
–Marc Arsenault

George Tabb Benefit, Thursday March 13 at 10pm with Mike Watt + the Missingmen at Safari Sam’s, 5214 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA, (323) 666-7267. Visit MySpace.com/HelpGeorgeTabb.

I have to admit to being way clueless. My apartment in Brooklyn is a scant 4 3/4 miles away from the World Trade Center, in a neighborhood heavily populated by firefighters, and apart from some vague sense that, ‘yeah, the air after 911 was probably pretty bad and I’m sure some people are a little sick’, I haven’t given it a whole lot of thought (given that I only live there part time and moved in over a year and a half after 911, I’d probably miss a little, but c’mon!). Randomly today I see a bulletin from Mike Watt in my rarely visited MySpaceship about the benefit show, and first I’m thinkin’, ‘I didn’t know George was sick’, I read a little and it’s ‘I didn’t know George lived in New York’ (somewhere in there is, ‘we both worked at MaximumRockNRoll and even though we met once or twice I dodn’t really know George’), and then I’m sucked into a new scary world.

Simple version: George lived downtown during 911 and shortly after that he got sick… and then he got very sick, and found out that not only was there not much help available for anything beyond a runny nose, but the possibility that a causal link existed was denied in the interest of homeland security. Read his whole story at MySpace.com/HelpGeorgeTabb. As always George dishes things up in a clear, direct and honest human voice. For more on the human wreckage caused by the attacks in the years since, see these pieces in CBS News, The Village Voice, and Discover Magazine.

Back in the nonreal world, you should also give a visit to George’s YouTube channel, which contains many fine installments from his punk TV joint Destroy Television.

Be seeing you.

Parallel Strokes is a collection of interviews with twenty-plus contemporary typeface designers, graffiti writers, and lettering artists around the world. The book is introduced with a comprehensive essay charting the history of graffiti, its relation to type design, and how the two practices relate in the wider context of lettering.

Include conversations with pan-European type design collective Underware, Japanese type designer Akira Kobayashi, American graffiti writer and fine artist Barry McGee/Twist, German graffiti writers Daim and Seak, American lettering artist, graphic designer and design educator Ed Fella, among others. Parallel Strokes is an enquiry into the history, context, and development of lettering today, both culturally approved and illicit.

The result of six years of research in the combined arts of lettering, graffiti, and typeface design, Parallel Strokes is a collection of interviews some of the best letterform creators in the world today.

Chaz Bojorquez talks about the origins of barrio graffiti in Los Angeles and the evolution of the craft. Fellow Angeleno, vernacular graphic designer Ed Fella, speaks about his history in lettering and how he earned the title “The King of Zing” in Detroit design and illustration circles. Famed Japanese type designer Akira Kobayashi discusses Roman and Japanese letterforms while showcasing a lifetime of type design work. European graffiti writers Daim, Seak, and Delta share their thoughts on dimensional graffiti lettering while American graffiti writer Mike Giant talks about vernacular lettering, typeface design, and the evolution of graffiti handstyles.

Parallel Strokes is richly illustrated throughout, featuring copious previously unpublished work by the interviewed artists, as well as supplementary illustrations and photographs detailing contemporary and historical trends in graffiti and type design.

The first 100 orders come with a two color 17″ x 20″ Parallel Strokes poster printed using recycled paper and soy inks at Portland, Oregon’s Pinball Publishing. Parallel Strokes is 244 pages thick and available for $25 with free shipping worldwide.

Also be sure to read Ian’s articles for PingMag.

Karen Ulrich, originally uploaded by Marc Arsenault - Wow Cool.

It’s starting to look like the more exciting Coney Island exhibit that the Brooklyn Museum is hosting right now is the one in the blog by curator Patrick Amsellem. And I’m not just saying that because they picked one of my photos to run in it. Yes, I am beyond flattered, but I’ve long made seasonal treks down to the boardwalk and am worried to see how they might be changing it. I just hope we’re left with more than a bunch of photos and our own Coney Islands of the mind.

See all my Brooklyn photos on flickr here, which are pretty heavy on the Coney action. I have a great roll or two somewhere of the summer that C.I. stayed open extra long because all the schools were closed for asbestos abatement. Gotta find those.

OK. I just spent the month of February taking the RPM Challenge-record an album of at least 10 songs or 35 minutes in 29 days. Easy, right? Except I’m down in Knoxville and the band (Brown Cuts Neighbors, nickname: Rebel, anyone!) is now scattered to the four corners. I was talked into this mad venture by the Rev. Joshua Baker (God Hates Computers, Chased and Smashed, childhood friend) who is in a similar boat up in Maine. We’re both also trying to figure out how new digital audio deals work on our respective underpowered laptops. The very last tune I finished was the one we had worked on together, and probably the most successful - check out Ouroboos (4MB MP3). If this sounds at all like something you want to hear, you can have the whole thing for free (30MB zipped MP3 files and cover in PDF). It’s called R is for Riot and is by nickname: Rebel. There are just 10 songs. It’s 21 minutes. A few songs have words, they concern micronations with solar powered submarines, lab accidents, Ernest O. Lawrence, and tactful ways to tell someone they’re being cheated on. I got done just in the proverbial nick… getting it in the mail 9 minutes before deadline. nickname: Rebel RPM Page | Josh’s Not Square with Zero RPM Page

What I learned

• Get a taller drum throne. I cannot believe how much my legs hurt.
• That old saying, never mix the same day… oh yeah. These actually sound ok a day or 2 later.
• I’m not loosing my mind now that there are just a few days left… that already happened yesterday.
• Always record every take, even the practice warm up one. Some things are hard to nail. Had two perfect solo runs lost to time. All the ones I got down… eh.
• I have recorded none of the songs I wrote or planned in the first week.

Thanks,

Marc Arsenault
http://wowcool.com/engine

Obscure Functions of the RPM Challenge
I pretty quickly realized that this would be where I finally cut my teeth on Logic Studio 8. I know fuck-all about it now, but expect to be an expert in four weeks time. Another thing I’ve discovered is that this was the perfect excuse to finally dig through and try out all those free apps, plug-ins and samples I’d been downloading for months. A kind of constructive procrastination. After all, I am making some sounds! Only a few seconds may make it into the final piece, but the extra spice will add some serious flavor.

That’s why I have all those outputs
Found a good use for all those output channels on my MOTU Ultralite… wishing I had another set of monitor speakers to plug into them. One set to monitor what I’ve played and one set to listen to what I’m doing. All of it through one set just really doesn’t give me the separation I want. Oh, sure, I could go to headphones or play through an amp… but, you know…

Learning all sorts of fun things from Logic. The tuner is super useful. Imagine! plodding on…

Two sets: one set electric guitar freakout improv, and the other solo acoustic guitar and voice (that means singing a bunch of new songs and re-worked covers such as my hybrid deer/human dylan song)

Total run time: 8pm to 930ish. Short intermission in there somewhere. Gonna flip a coin right before show to decide which set goes first.

Details:
Thursday, February 28, 2008
POINT 5 (also occasinally referred to as CDFI)
383.5 Madison Ave
Albany, NY 12202
- just a little ways down from Lark street going in the direction of Albanys old red light district, now the Empire State Plaza. Thats what theyre callin it these days.

Cheers,
Jason

Johnny Flatline returns, in a typical adventure… all fantasies, lies, imagination, backstory and wasted rationalizations. Realized here in an adult form not seen before. He returns in 2009 in Quarter a tale of Pinball, deceit and Lust. This was drawn tonight for Jeremy Adolphson’s 4×6-Art project, where he gets artists to create original works on 4×6 note cards. He has well over 500 now… I promised to do one about 18 months ago… not too bad.

In freakout post punk party mode in my identity as the voice and melody of nickname: Rebel I have taken the challenge, as has Wow Cool recording artist Rev. Joshua Baker (Chased and Smashed, God Hates, Computers, Kilauea, etc.)… hopefully more will jump on board and pump out the hits. Stay tuned for updates from the studio.

Do you want to play?

Go read the interview

Visit the Simon Gane shop on Wow Cool

FRIDAY DEC. 21ST at 51 3rd st. TROY, NEW YORK

SCIENTIFIC MAPS
ROSS GOLDSTEIN
JASON MARTIN
With special guest: DJ JESSE STILES

9pm b.y.o.b.

December 21st, 2007 marks the beginning of the 5 year countdown to a 2012 Armageddon, long ago foretold by Mayan soothsayers as “the end of man”. The forces of fate will converge this Friday in the city of Troy, NY at 51 3rd street as musicians, artists, and heathens make merry to mark the beginning of the end.

SCIENTIFIC MAPS