270. Internationally Reknowned Sprocket Scientist
- Silver Eye Gallery, Pittsburgh, us@
- Saturday, May 8, 1999, 8:30-11PM
- I advertised this by putting up ads around town with paper cilia on one edge designed to attract attention. The ads were placed in such a way so that from some directions only the cilia were visible. The heading of the ads read "ATTENTION! ALL CONCERNED CITIZENS!" as if it were some sort of political notice. They also included the following program & descriptions:
00. Pictogrameting against the Sharks
(a protest in favor of holus-bolus)
I began the night by pacing back & forth in front of the gallery with my Pictogrameting sign (see 203 for a precursor). Anyone who asked me about what it meant received the program/ad (without the cilia). People entering the space heard 2 of my Usic - -1 loops playing.
01. S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Speech
(a crucial issue addressed 1st & foremost) [see the prototypical speech in 253]
02. Explanation of "Play Out Regress" with dop e Slides
(look at how precocious I used to be) [see 257]
03. "Background Movies for Home Music: [Perpetual (E)Motion] Home"
04. "Background Movies for Home Music: Light Motion" [should be Hurry]
05. "Background Movies for Home Music:
[Toasting Emotions in Freudian] Western"
(how to make generic home movies)
06. "How Orgone Cinema Treats Its Visiting Filmmakers"
(Pittsburgh's very own cultural rethink-tank in action)
In the optical print made from Orgone's master of this, the top of the image is cropped - making the frame size have an unusually skinny height. This enabled a dual projection of the 16mm overtop the vaudeo on the same screen. The 16mm was projected via an analysis projector wch was manipulated by Michael Johnsen to run at various speeds in relation to the already extremely slow speed of the original as witnessed in the vaudeo.
07. "Sound Thinking: Phase III: Mimesis"
(stamping a part of the mind rarely addressed & mailing it) [see 217]
08. "Satanic Liposuction, Neoism!, & YOU!!"
(you've been hearing about it subliminally since birth now find out what it's all about!)
This was screened in a 5 projection version. The 5 images were side-by-side spread over 3 screens. On either side of the "vaudience" there were 2 turntables/radios/tape-players connected to 2 speakers. Rita Rodentia & I were each manipulating LPs (Rita had a RRR 500 Lock Grooves record & I had my Usic - -1 record) & tapes (Rita had Amen's "Weapons for Children" & I had a Gen Ken tape that had been provided as soundtrack material especially for "Satanic..") & the radios. On the main 2-speaker mono P.A. "Satanic.." soundtrack material provided by John Berndt was playing & each of the projectors had occasional spurts of sound. As such, there were 11 speaker sound sources!
09. "Frothing Catatonic Siamese Twins Volunteers Collective XXVII
d composing Mozart Release Party"
(the only safe place to be at this date & time will be the Silver Eye Gallery
be there or take your life into your own hands)
The vaudience was warned that all of Pittsburgh was plagued by "Frothing Catatonic Siamese Twins". During the projection, 3 pairs of these staggered in from the rear & proceeded to knock over the chairs & drool. See 205, 211, & 248. These pairs were made up of Ron Douglas & Rachel; Ailecia Ruscin (see 247 & 251) & Tim Dog; & Jon Skuldt (see 251, 257, & 267) & a friend. 2 tapes of Monty Cantsin's
"d composing Mozart" were playing on the side speakers.
10. "In Perplexing Pursuit of the Prodigy Paleontologist" (version 2)
(a mobius comic strip)
The posters also promised "Foiled Again!" (serious concerns about Mind Control disguised as 'lunatic fringe' wear) & "The Department of Maybe Presents: Problem Solving Demonstration" (your chance to wax philosophical) but neither of these were presented due to technical problems & forgetfulness. etta cetera / Rita Rodentia did make foil hats for people as a prologue to "Foiled Again!" - with me warning them that they MUST have foil hats if they wanted to be protected against the thought police (or some such).
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
271. The Street Rat Liberation Front on "No Censorship Radio"
- WMBR, 88.1FM (Massachussetts Institute of Technology's radio station)
- Cambridge/Boston, us@
- Friday, June 18, 1999 - early evening
- Having driven to Boston to attend the version there of the international June 18th Day of Resistance Against Capitalism (in this case, the "Carnival Against Capital"), we (the Street Rat Liberation Front: Rita Rodentia, Will Rat for Iraq, & RATical) met Dan the Bagel-Man while protesting in the financial district. He hooked us up with Chuck U. & Linda P. of "No Censorship Radio" & they invited us to be guests on their show. We spontaneously spouted tales, jokes, & propaganda - emphasizing the eviction of the ruling class from our mental real-estate. Our proposal to prevent future Pentagon-instigated wars was to back up their sewage system so that they'd go into a feeding frenzy on the backed-up poop & be distracted for awhile.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
272. Anti-Death-Penalty Demonstration
- Downtown Pittsburgh in front of the Pittsburgh State Office Building, us@
- Monday, June 21, 1999, 5:15PM
- This was presented in conjunction with the Western Pennsylvania Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal & a coalition of other groups against the death-penalty. At a meeting of the Committee, it was proposed that a replica of an electric-chair be made as a prop in this proposed demonstration. When informed of that idea, Tim Dog & etta cetera (see most of the recent entries - starting at 212 with etta cetera mention) & others expanded that idea to include a giant puppet of the Grim Reaper holding a scythe with "Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" written on it trying to execute the Statue of Liberty. I built the electric chair prop & etta built the Grim Reaper. We were helped in this building by Gabrielle Gottlieb, Tom the Thought Activist, Will Rat for Iraq, Tim Dog, & others.
On the day of the protest, etta wrapped a flowery-patterned sheet around her with "Give me Liberty or Give me Liberty" written on the back & adorned herself with other painted cardboard Statue of Liberty props & screamed "Give me Liberty or Give me Liberty" & other such things while I (still dressed in my clothes from my construction job) tried to strap her in to the chair. This was followed by multiple speakers talking against the death-penalty. The police were present, & this was done without a permit, but we weren't stopped.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
273. Pittsburgh Pirates' Walkie-Talkie, etc..
- Burning Man, Black Rock City, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, us@
- Friday, September 3 - Sunday, September 5, 1999
- Rita Rodentia (a.k.a. etta cetera - see most of the recent entries - starting at 212 with etta cetera mention) & I participated in Burning Man with variations on a number of basic elements. We were there partially as representatives of a fledgling Pittsburgh-based pirate radio station group called the Pittsburgh Pirates - facetiously named after the city's baseball team. We set up a radio transmitter to broadcast over 97.9FM. For short periods we broadcast a tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE "Triple-S Variety Show" CD; the Volunteers Collective's "A Year of Sundays" computer edit CD; Monty Cantsin?'s "Noise Bible" CD; &, most importantly, a CD made especially for this purpose called the "Burning Man Walkie-Talkie". This latter was divided up into 12 tracks:
01. "Whoop-Up @ the Funny Farm"
02. "Generic Tour & One-Sided Conversation"
03. "B/S/B/F/C/X"
04. "Generic Tour #1"
05. "Lafterlife"
06. "S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Speech"
07. "Navigating the Obstacle Course of Usic minus the Square Root of Negative 1
with tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE"
08. "Two-Sided Conversation"
09. "Opustulent"
10. "One-Sided Conversation"
11. "Volunteers Collective at the Anonymous Family Reunion"
& 12. "Generic Tour #2"
The odd-numbered tracks were usic meant to provide 'breathing room' between the spoken word even-numbered tracks which had been created with the "Burning Man Walkie-Talkie" in mind. etta & I walked around in various states of partial dress wearing various things such as the S.P.C.S.M.E.F. whale outfit (see entry 253) & a new S.P.C.S.M.E.F. outfit made from a stuffed shark toy. Sometimes I carried the Pictogramet (see entry 203).
Sometimes I wore my extremely tattered Leper-Skin Suit. Sometimes I wore a beach novelty hat with "Damn Seagulls" written on it & fake bird-shit (ironic, considering the birdless sky & waterless environment of the desert we were in) & sometimes a "thinking cap" with a picture of a brain on it & the word "think" multiply reproduced under its brim. Sometimes I wore my entire button collection - adorning myself with over 100 images & such texts as: "ground zero club", "is science fair?", "Pee-Dog by the Shit Generation", "SMILE", "No Added Color", "Terrorist", "Fatuous Team of Cultural Players", "Association of Autonomous Astronauts", "12 Apples ÷ 4 People = 3 Apples-People", "Vermin Supreme is Your Mayor", "Danger! Infectious Habititis", etc, etc.. Often, we were mostly naked.
We wore our player-belts (see entry 212, etc..) & tuned their radios to our station. While it played we went to various places to broadcast our material - favoring the Port-A-Pot lines since people were usually bored there. We'd sidle up to the waiting people & parade back & forth broadcasting. The texts were divided into several types: Generic Tour, One-Sided Conversation, S.P.C.S.M.E.F. Speech (see entry 253), & Two-Sided Conversation. The basic idea of the Generic Tour was that it be more or less applicable to any environment. Below's a sample:
"So, back to the tour. You'll notice that this area has color. Sometimes it's more subtle than others. One of the many remarkable things about this particular area is the way in which everything is moving even though to superficial appearances most of it may seem to be still. This phenomenon has been studied for many thousands of years - if not longer. Not surprisingly, no satisfactory conclusions have been reached yet but the stimulation derived from the research is seemingly unending. That's one of the many, many reasons why this area has been chosen for our tour. Please keep that in mind as we progress further."
The One-Sided Conversation was meant to be banter that could be projected to passers-by as if to start a conversation:
"Do you have a sister named Rose who is a drifter that rides through towns on tumbleweeds smoking grass and playing the butt-flute?
Hey! Did you hear how they captured that woman from the S.L.A. something like 23 years after her involvement when she was leading a very normal life and a member of her community...I guess putting her in prison would be the best way to reform her.........ain't that some shit yo."
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
274. Lecture
- Neoist Festival, Artcite, Windsor, Ontario, CacaNada
- Thursday, November 25, 1999, 7:45-10:15PM
- I projected 80 slides relevant to my activities from 1969 to 1999 & told anecdotes related to them. Near the end of the slides I projected 2 relevant vaudeos: "Air Drops (version 2)" & "Foiled Again!". During this time I was wearing (amongst other things) a "rat tail" made by Rita Rodentia (a.k.a. etta cetera - see most of the recent entries - starting at 212) - as a Street Rat Liberation Front symbol & a rubber replica of what might be a Balinese dancer's hat. In the 2nd part, a 45 minute vaudeo with the Bogus Piano Concerto (see entry 199) as its soundtrack played on 2 TVs flanking a silent 16mm projection of my film "Bob Cobbing" while I read my "Low Classical Usic" essay. The final part was the premier of my "Shuffle Mode" slide show.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
275. Collaboration with Monty Cantsin/Istvan Kantor/Amen!
- Neoist Festival, the Dairy, Windsor, Ontario, CacaNada
- Saturday, November 27, 1999
- This began with Bernie Helling playing software 'random' generation of various samples. I entered with synthesizer/sampler/sequencer/CD playing - using for the 1st time publically my digital horn + CDs made especially for performative purposes. Then Bernie's computer sounds were faded out. Monty Cantsin (see entries 48, 49, 52, 56, 57, 61, 121, 168, 216, 218, 224, 227, 228, 230, 233, 236, 238, & 271, etc..) joined me & began hitting a small metal file cabinet with a contact mike attached to it fed into an f/x device for looping the results. He proceeded to trash & quasi-fuck the file cabinets, a wooden chair, & a couch & to draw his blood & throw it around while I continued to mix my sounds with his extremely loud loops.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
276. Generic Tour & "Where We're" Premier
- Neoist Festival, from the Milk Coffee Bar thru the streets & into the HQ of the Whitechapel Fishmonger Faction, Windsor, Ontario, CacaNada
- Sunday, November 28, 1999, 1:20-3:50PM
- Unannounced, I led a few people on a Generic Tour using language similar to that described in entry 273. When we reached the HQ of the Whitechapel Fishmonger Faction (the apartment of festival organizer Chris Mangin) there was supposed to be playing on tvs thruout the apartment a vaudeo transfer of my 2:03:30 filmstrip "Where We're" that has as its soundtrack an edit of the same materials used for 273 + footage from the same & many other things. Unfortunately, the equipment wasn't there yet so the vaudeo didn't start until about 10 minutes after our arrival. Having memorized the soundtrack somewhat I would occasionally say something anticipatory of what was to come in it. Unexciting as this description may seem, I put an enormous amount of work into preparing for this. Footage was shot of the Tour by Monty Cantsin which will be edited into another version of "Where We're".
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
277. Arts Focus Radio Show
- Post-Neoist Festival, CJAM Radio Station, Windsor, Ontario, CacaNada
- Monday, November 29, 1999
- This was actually recorded on the previous Friday But since it didn't air 'til this day I place it here. I played 2 improvisations using the synthesizer, sampler, sequencer, Cds, & digital horn mentioned in 273. Interspersed with those were excerpts from my "Low Classical Usic" & "RATical RATio - pRAT 1" CDs + Owen O'Toole's "What Balcony" CD. I also made a plug supporting the Maki family who are political refugees from the US in CacaNada who are facing expulsion.
- recollections from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
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