Stephan Moore & Scott Smallwood present Final Goodship Tuesday. Out Now from Wow Cool.
About Us
Wow Cool is a studio and label based in Cupertino, California. Artists include: Marc Arsenault, Brown Cuts Neighbors, Steven Cerio, evidence, Simon Gane, God Hates Computers, nickname: Rebel, and Offset Needle Radius.
Newave! is a 892 page monster collection of 80's minicomix. Art by Marc Arsenault, Sam Henderson, Ion, Wayno and scores of others. Available Right Now!
“Christiane Kubrick had 42 wonderful years with her husband. But in the decade since his death, she has been beset by tragedy. For the first time, she talks about losing one daughter to cancer, another to Scientology”, and much more. This is a must read article in the Guardian, from Wednesday, by Jon Ronson. Ronson, the author of The Men Who Stare at Goats, which was made into the film of the same name, has long been a maker of self-hosted documentary films as well as authoring frequently related books. These films are, sadly, largely unavailable on DVD and must be found somewhere on the interwebs. His film, “Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes”, which details his many years of digging through the archives of the great film director (as referenced in this weeks Guardian article), is viewable on YouTube. More is written about it by the Mystery Man on Film.
The Stanley Kubrick Archive, comprising over 1000 boxes, including scripts, props, costumes, photography, correspondence, equipment and research is housed at the University of the Arts London.
And I couldn’t come up with much. I never knew or worked with the man. We had never met. But I know his art, and have saved a great deal of his comics. I still have a great admiration for his refined, yet fluid craft. One of the best lines ever put to paper. Superhuman mark making ability. I wanted to dig up some of the more obscure items from his publishing history that I have stored away here… but they are stored away pretty deeply and I have much work to do right now. And, frankly, scanning other people’s old comic work is an act that just depresses me.
Al Williamson was one of the great comics artists of the 20th century. The youngest of the EC Comics stable of greats, the definitive modern artist on Star Wars and Alex Raymond’s creations Flash Gordon and Secret Agent Corrigan (X-9). All my attempts to find something to say usually ended in memories of my mentor at the School of Visual Arts, fellow EC great, and editor of Al on several classic short stories for DC Comics, Joe Orlando, who has also long-since left us.
Rick Veitch, however, had the direct experience with the man and has had much to share about it over the last couple of weeks. Rick has always been one of my favorite people in comics, and I am very grateful that he has published a strip of mine in the past and put up with my young foolish noodling on some of his books co-published with Tundra during my time with them. Thank you for these memories Mr. Veitch.
When I first saw a tweet of the news that Frank Sidebottom had left us today, I was pretty sure it could not mean that Chris Sievey, the man behind the enormous head, was actually dead. Maybe just taking a break or retiring the character he’d played for over a quarter century. But, no, very sadly, Chris Sievey, who had been fighting a cancer that he seemed very likely to win, died suddenly on the morning of June 21, 2010.
One of the most memorable scenes in all of cinema for me is that in Joseph Strick’s version of James Joyce’s Ulysses of the tower and the famous breakfast scene. This maverick of independent cinema has left us aged 86.
One of the true greats has left us. Sigmar Polke, known here – at least in the 80’s – as one of the ‘new German painters’ – has died at 69. A serious inspiration to myself. I love his circles and colors and will be sad that there are to be no more of them.
My awesome wife Jennifer Oh has finally launched her own web site – JenOhSays.com. If you’ve ever wondered about the inner working of the Oh/Arsenault household then here’s your chance. Jen chronicles our long, strange journey into healthier and more natural living, something that was mainly prompted by trying to raise our two kids as healthy as we can. A range of topics are and will be covered, including: organic gardening, disaster preparedness, detoxifying your home, eating good on a budget, making your own cheese, bread, yogurt and more, and finding the perfect tool for the job. A great example of that last one was learning that a little phallic ten dollar device called the Clog Buster, that you can get at your local Ace hardware, will save you from ever buying or making drain cleaner again.
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.
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.
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.
The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E. Smith is a marvelous BBC documentary from a few years back that I was pointed to by Richard Metzger. It is available to see on YouTube in nine parts. The first part is above.
Around when nickname: Rebel started up, me and Mike used to joke that we should follow the Fall on tour and when Mark E. Smith sacked the entire band one night, we would step in and become the Fall and finish the tour. We did not make it to one show. I was mad jealous when Jason Martin played (as part of Bunnybrains) a CMJ showcase a few years back with Guitar Wolf and The Fall. I remember he told me that Mark E. asked him where he could find a good bar in that part of New York. Watching this documentary, some musical moments still give me the chills. Cruisers Creek? So good.
The Fall’s latest LP (the 29th or something) was released Tuesday. It’s Your Future Our Clutter and you can get it as a CD or download.
I’ve watched this documentary on EMS (Electronic Music Studios) every few months since I first discovered it. MAKE magazine blogged it a few days ago. I recently saw this awesome ad for the EMS VCS3 (below) at the excellent Issues Newsstand in Oakland, CA. Watch all three parts.
Comprised of pioneering electronic musicians Peter Zinovieff and Tristram Cary (famed for his work on the Dr Who series) and genius engineer David Cockerell, EMS’s studio was one of the most advanced computer-music facilities in the world. EMS’s great legacy is the VCS3, Britain’s first synthesizer and rival of the American Moog. The VCS3 changed the sounds of some of the most popular artists of this period including Brian Eno, Hawkwind and Pink Floyd.
Brooklyn’s Bucolic Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY played host to a bizarre spectacle on Sunday, as a dramatically under-attended Dow-sponsored “Run for Water” was infiltrated and turned upside down by hundreds of furious activists, including a hundred dressed as Dow spokespeople.
After race cancellations in London, Milan, Berlin, and Sweden, on-site Dow brand managers were in damage-control mode. But their job was made harder by the hundred fake “Dow” spokespeople who loudly but clumsily proclaimed Dow’s position (“Our race! Our earth!” and “Run for water! Run for your life!”), spoke with many runners, screamed at the other protesters, passed out beautifully-produced literature, and all in all looked a whole lot better than the real Dow reps, who seemed eager to make themselves scarce.
“I don’t know what’s going on here,” said Tracey Von Sloop, a Queens woman who attended the race. “All I know is these people are both crazy, and Dow is f*ing sick. I’m outta here.”
The event was the latest blow to Dow’s greenwashing efforts, the most visible element of which is the “Human Element” multi-media advertising campaign, one of the most expensive, and successful, marketing efforts in recent history. It even won an “Effie Award” for the most effective corporate advertising campaign in North America.
Somewhere in the world, Record Store Day has already begun as I write this. I’ve still got about a dozen hours until it gets going here. Pitchfork has a very fine guide to the event(s).
Bob Gamber of Monterey’s Vinyl Revolution, A Truly Unique Record Store Providing The Monterey Bay Area with High Quality Collectible Vinyl Since 1994. (Big Thanks to David D’Andrea for pointing me to this). UPDATE: The Vimeo video has been replaced with one from YouTube as it was made private.
Our weird idea of a way to celebrate at Wow Cool is to Alpha test the long in development Wow Cool Shop portion of the website. Nothing yet looks how I’d like it to, individual product pages don’t work – you just get everything, most of the stock isn’t on there yet, but it should otherwise work perfectly. Currently, all shipping is by USPS Priority Mail. If you have any problems, then I invite you to also use the new Contact Page.
Things will continue to shift and flow around here for a few more months, but will hopefully be stable and most awesome by the time of our official re-launch later this year. Thank you for checking us out in the meanwhile.
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
During at least the last two February’s, Ranjit Bhatnagar has built and blogged an instrument a day for the whole month. Ranjit works with interactive and sound installations, with scanner photography, and with internet-based collaborative art; and, he has been maintaining his personal web site moonmilk.com in one form or another since 1993.
The moonmilk homemade instrument series was one inspiration to finally start documenting some of the more out-there gear in the nickname: Rebel arsenal. The idea to do a gear blog had been kicking around for awhile but was not getting done. The other inspiration was the RPM Challenge, which invites musicians to write and record a whole album of music, 10 songs or 35 minutes, during the month of February. I created ‘R is for Riot‘ for the challenge in 2008 at the urging of Joshua Baker of Offset Needle Radius.
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.
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