WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Summer Reading: Picture Books

Since I gave up buying books, it seems like I have more books than ever. For years, my little hoarding problem expressed itself as a compulsion to collect all kinds of paper: books, magazines (remember those?), clippings from newspapers (ditto), random health pamphlets from the dermatologist’s office, Jack Chick comics, 10-year-old bank statements…  . And by “collect,” I mean stuff into boxes and bags and make a big pile in every room in the house. But when I saw a documentary about the people who are paid to go in and clean out hoarders’ homes, I got scared straight and I have been slowly dealing with the mess.

Although I’ve stopped buying books (sort of), I haven’t stopped reading. I do go to the library, which not only is free but they make me give the books back after a few weeks, so I figure it doesn’t do any harm. A senior boss at my dayjob gave me her old Kindle, which had about a hundred books on it (many of which I deleted because I really do not need to read dozens of novels about the modern-day grandchildren of World War II survivors); I really like the Kindle, because it takes up a lot less space than seven boxes of books in the middle of the dining room. But there are still a lot of actual, physical books coming into the house, because my good friend A. sends me boxes of discarded review copies from her job.

Friend A. has a good idea of my taste in reading material, so she sends me lots of nonfiction science-y books, and books about food and cooking, and photo and art books. It’s fun to open the packages from her, because I never know what’s going to be inside and sometimes there’s something pretty amazing. The last box was the most amazing of all, because it contained both Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits, by Matthew Rolston, and Dulce Pinzon’s The Real Story of The Superheroes.

 

Dr. Reginald D. MacNitt Brings You 'Psycholaxation' - Side One

"Now, let's check your breathing..."     Today I have a lovely little bit of self-help that should be useful to one and all;  step one of learning 'Psycholaxation', which is all the rage these days. You didn't know that you could learn something about it for free from WFMU, did you? Well, worry no more. Relaxation can be yours.  

  Some time ago, rummaging through some dusty old cassette tapes that my mother owned but hadn't played in years and years I came across one entitled "Dr. MacNitt - Psycholaxation", hand-written in someone else's hand, most likely given to my mom as a helpful tool of some sort.  It was clearly copied from a vinyl record, which I've been unable to locate a picture of, or any detailed info about. Upon playing it for the first time, I fell in love with the fellow's voice - he sounds almost like a cartoon character. No insult to the guy - even compared to lots of hypnosis and sleep-training records that I've heard over the years, his pipes and his delivery are priceless!  I think you'll hear what I mean. A more marble-mouthed and nebbish-ey spoken style I can barely accomplish myself - but he's a fun model to imitate.

     Here's some things that I did manage to find out about this technique: The good doctor apparently published a lot of small-press self-help books and articles, including this one attributed to his wife, Mildred L. MacNitt - "Psycholaxation: A New Dimension for Living", as told to Mildred L. MacNitt, 93 pages, published by the Living Arts Foundation in December, 1955. On the record he mentions the book "Three Steps to Better Living", and he also worked up a "Personality and Vocational Guidance Test" course in 1943, which fits him.  

I think you'll find his dialog and vocal style as charming as I did, despite the low-grade old cassette and the scratchy record it was sourced from. Settle back -don't cross your legs or arms - and enjoy the flow of the wonderful Doctor MacNutt. Ooops - I mean MacNitt.                              PSYCHOLAXATION - side one

Walter Brennan Reads Mark Twain - Redux

frog          general: 1. being amphibious, its meaning also is often ambivalent;  2. its natural enemy is the serpent: e.g. Dante (Inf. C. 9, 76f.);

               special meanings: 1. frogs are often found on sign-boards and on stone tablets of facades; most probably they symbolize fertility and evolution;  2. D. Thomas: embryo: swimming in the uterus, 'spinning' his body ("a grief ago");

              folklore:  A. curative: esp. against diseases for which witches may be responsible; B. magic: 1. frogs can be used as effigies to work the harm on meant for a human being;  2. frog-bones (or a portion of them) of a slowly killed frog, have great magical power; 3. a frog's toe is a talisman against disease and evil;  4. frog-skin is a protective charm because of its slipperiness; cf. the "rabbit-foot" for speed; C. a frog coming into the house is a bad omen; D. frog-stones (cf. toad-stones): yellowish stones having the shape of a frog, found near lakes: lucky;   E. proverbs: a. "the frog cannot out of her bog";  b. "the frog said to the harrow: Cursed be so many lords";

             vinyl albums:  recording of famous Mark Twain short story as read by Oscar-winning thespian Walter Brennan during the glow of his long run on the Emmy Award-winning TV program 'The Real McCoys'.  Presented here in MP3 format for your edification.

The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

 

 

How Not to Die in the Woods

Yesterday I got back from Squad School; today I’m a lot cleaner and covered in calamine lotion. Tomorrow I go back to work. I think Squad School was transformative, but I haven’t quite figured out how. I just know that I see things differently now.

I thought a lot about death while I was out in the woods last week, but then I always think a lot about death. (I wrote a book about it, so …) Of course, the human body is what it is, so the underlying causes of death are the same wherever you are, in the city or in the middle of the woods in a lightning storm huddling under a pile of sticks with a couple of strangers. Some of the main things that can kill you are trauma, wounds, heat, cold, dehydration, starvation, or disease, and those are basically the same wherever you are. But when you’re out in the woods, there’s another possible cause of your death, and that’s bewilderment.

 Bewilder, meaning to wilder; wilder, an old word meaning to take someone out in the woods and get them thoroughly lost. Why? Because when you’re lost, and the world is strange, and it stops coinciding with the world you know and the reality you’ve constructed in your head to get through your day-to-day existence, then you see things differently. Literally. Being wildered can cause hallucinations, to the point where some cultures use it ceremonially: You’re taken out of your reality, and you come back different, you’re reborn.

MP3 - A Crash Course, guest post by Jonathan Sterne

Today, there are more mp3s in circulation than all other recording formats combined. This alone would be cause to write a book about them, but I became fascinated with mp3s because of how they are made. An mp3 encoder uses a mathematical model of the gaps and absences in human hearing to remove some of the data in an audio file, in order to make it smaller. If the encoder “thinks” you won’t hear part of a sound recording, it yanks it out on the encoding end, so that the resulting mp3 file is smaller, and therefore easier to transmit over data lines or to stockpile on hard drives and flash memories.

I wanted to know where this model of human hearing came from and what it could tell us about our contemporary sonic culture. The result is my new book, MP3:The Meaning of a Format.

The technology behind the mp3 is called “perceptual coding,” and I quickly discovered it has deep connections to the development of hearing science and telecommunications over the last hundred years. Everything we think we know about hearing in the state of nature is a result of the interactions between ears and media in the 20th century.

MP3s also point to the importance of compression in the development of communication technologies. Each generation of new media is usually sold to consumers as being of higher definition and greater verisimilitude than its predecessor (think of how DVDs and Blu-Ray have been marketed, for instance). But developments in compression and lower-definition transmission are equally important for everything from telegraphs, to telephones, to color television, to satellite transmission to the internet. This other history is less apparent because it is manifest inside our hard drives, and inside the massive infrastructures that allow us to move data around. It is not as shiny or sexy as the latest consumer gadget, but it could well be more important for everything from aesthetics to policy.

Print Isn't Dead!

In connection with my little hoarding problem, I also have a bookstore problem. My New Year’s Resolution this year was to stay out of bookstores, and I have done so, unless you count Posman Books in Grand Central Terminal that I have pretty much stayed out of, except for drifting in … oh, not very many times at all. Hardly ever! And also, I haven’t bought any books there, except for a couple. But not really! Mostly, I just go in to look at the latest issue of The Believer to see whether there are any more articles by WFMU DJ Dave Mandl about WFMU DJ Kenny G., and so far there have not been. 

Posman Books does not have a terribly large selection of magazines anyway, not as large as any of the actual newsstands in Grand Central, so I’ve sort of lost track of What’s Going On In Magazines Today. Having been a magazine editor for a number of years, I still have a sad, schadenfreudish interest in the genre. So that’s why, when I got caught in the rain last Thursday down by Battery Park, I felt that it was all right for me to go into the big Barnes & Noble there to, you know, get a cup of coffee and look at some magazines; it was purely for research purposes, it wasn’t about buying books. Not at all.

Once inside, I got the very worst iced caffe latte I’ve ever had anywhere and began my investigation. Barnes & Noble has several shelves of magazines: How can there still be so many titles? Niche marketing, apparently. For instance, Glutes. Yes, Glutes, a “women’s fitness magazine” about making your butt look good. It turns out it’s not even a new magazine; Glutes has been around for years, apparently with the same headline on every cover, just changing the punctuation: “Your Best Butt Ever!” vs. “Your Best Butt … Ever.” Your best butt? Whatever. Check out Pole2Pole.

 

Okay, a magazine called Pole2Pole is about, what? Amundson, Scott, Shackleton …? No, it is a magazine about “the sport of pole fitness.” Pole fitness. Back in my day, it was just a sleazy way to supplement my college scholarship, but now it’s a sport. In fact, it is so very sportsy that there are several other magazines also devoted to pole fitness, such as Pole Spin and—my favorite—Vertical. And those are just the actual print periodicals; there are several other titles online.

A few years ago, I got a promotional copy of Garden and Gun, which I thought was pretty awesome: It’s like Martha Stewart with a Mossberg. It’s won a number of magazine-industry awards, and sells tons of advertising, but now I realize it is just the older, more aspirational cousin of Gun Girl and a slew of magazines featuring photos of women in bikinis holding assault rifles.

So the good news is, Print isn’t dead! It’s just turning into a Hooters franchise.

Minicomics vs. Rob Liefeld

Comics are the greatest story-telling medium ever, combining words and art to build a narrative. But minicomics are like haiku: They set a mood, make a point, surprise the reader— communicate—in a spare, evocative way. Being small makes them seem more intimate; the fact that they are often produced by hand by the artist/writer makes them very personal. Minicomics may be twee, but they are rarely pretentious.

I have a small (obviously) collection, tiny booklets I’ve picked up here and there. One of my favorites is “Things I Saw and Did, Pt. 1” by dom the deer, who made a little pamphlet of her 2010 vacation in Paris and London, not because she had some heavy realization to impart but just because she had an impulse to share the fun. It’s very sweet.

Meanwhile, in Europe, where comix art is more generally appreciated, the folks at B.ü.L.B. in Geneva had the idea of issuing minis in box sets. They’ve been publishing sequential art since 1997, and apparently making a living at it—something that is unlikely ever to happen here in the US. I assumed their government was supporting them, because that’s the sort of thing governments do over there, but they claim to be unsubsidized, and their “manifesto” gives a shout-out to the D.I.Y. ethos of mid-80s hardcore, especially straightedge. (I’m reading a Google translation from French, though, so who knows?) In the past, I’ve picked up a couple of B.ü.L.B boxes at MoCCA and enjoyed them very much.

Each boxed set has five 1¼” x 2¾” 22-page accordions “bound” with a rubber band, each by a different artist, some well-known here (Chris Ware, Jad Fair, Ivan Brunetti), others not so much. Recently, B.ü.L.B sent me a copy of Box 2W Set Y (Charles Burns, etc.), which is how I discovered the work of the Swiss/German collaborative duo It’s Raining Elephants. Their mini, “Sunrise,” was my favorite of the set.

Thanks to the Interwebs, you can find and buy minicomics without having to hang around the fringes of some distressing comic convention. If you want to buy American mass-market comics, though—well, actually, why would you want to? I’ve found that most people have a dim idea that there’s still a spinner rack full of Richie-Rich and Superman and Caspar and Fantastic Four … somewhere … maybe at the grocery store? Isn’t that where they used to have them? If the latest news coverage of a superhero who’s “died” or come out as gay or whatever does cause you to want to go buy a comic, you pretty much have to call a special phone number to locate a comic-book retailer, and then drive to a special store in a sad little strip mall, and then deal with the pimply-faced 17-year-old loser who, no matter how many Eisner awards you have, will call you “Ma’am” as if it were an insult. Well, maybe not that last part, that might just be me, but the rest of it, absolutely. And then, when you actually find a comic book, you see: Rob Liefeld.

Bill Hanstock and Brandon Stroud have written a couple of brilliant articles reviewing the worst of Rob Liefeld’s "art," which must have been extremely difficult since it’s all so horrendous, plus they actually had to look at so much of it that it’s a wonder they haven’t both gone blind in self-defense. Here’s Part I, and here’s Part II. In Part II they say, “In the years between 1986 and 2011, not once did an editor crack open a FedEx package containing Liefeld's art, slide out the inked pages, and say, "What the shit am I looking at?" For 25 years, just "Beautiful! Send this to the letterer! Wouldn't change a thing!" So I guess what I'm saying is ... maybe Rob Liefeld isn't history's greatest monster?”

That is correct. Yes, that’s exactly what happens. Mainstream comic book editors are wonderful examples of what Erroll Morris refers to as the Anosognosic’s Dilemma: They don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know that they don’t know anything about art, because they don’t know that there’s anything to know. Same with writing. Same with editing. Same with any kind of business management. To know these things is not a requirement for the job. What comic book editors know is, for example, who inked issue 28 of Secret Origins in 1988.

It was Bob Lewis, inking over Rob Liefeld.

 

Books on Record: Carl Sandburg's "Rootabaga Stories" LP

This one's especially weighty for me, since I hail from Sandburg's birthplace of Galesburg, IL.  Not much I can say about Sandburg himself: he's ingrained in my mind as a legend, due in no small part to Galesburg's constant celebration of his talent.  But on Caedmon's 1961 issue of Rootabaga Stories as Told by Carl Sandburg, the bygone poesy's rich voice and lofty cadence bring new life to some of these stories, and they go great with a few highballs and an open window during these wondrous spring months.  From the aforementioned recording, enjoy "How Six Pigeons Came Back to Hatrack the Horse After Many Accidents and Six Telegrams," below.

Books on Record: Vonnegut Reads "Breakfast of Champions"

Real quick: Somewhat relative to my post on Henry Miller from a couple weeks back, here's an excerpt of Vonnegut reading his Breakfast Champions.  This originally appeared on the appropriately-titled Kurt Vonnegut Reads Breakfast of Champions (Caedmon, 1979), which presented an abridged version of the novel itself, as brought to life by the author's stringy Hoosier twang.  The whole LP's interesting, of course -- to me, anyway -- but the introduction here is at least amusing.  Also noteworthy: His readings of Cat's Cradle and Welcome to the Monkey House, released on LP in '73 and '74, respectively. 

 

 

SEE YOU IN HEALTH: The Thunk Tank guide to the 5 most likely things that will kill you to death

Half of Thunk Tank almost died last week, which made us realize that we owe it to you, the WFMU Listener, to alert you to the Five Most Likely Things That Will Kill You (this week). Consider it a public service. (You’re welcome.)

1. All-Drug-Resistant TB. Okay, it’s not bad enough that you keep taking antibiotics for your headcold (Das viral!) and using antibiotic soap to wash your crusty dishes, which caused multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis even in a young female ginger who is also a lawyer and lives in London (much to the surprise of the BBC). No, now your stupid antibiotic lip gloss has caused ALL-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis, which is just in India now, but will be killing you sometime next month.

Seize the Time: Pat Thomas, Black Power, and Listen, Whitey!

As author Pat Thomas puts it, “Every revolution needs a soundtrack!” And in the late-'60s/early-'70s, the soundtrack and the revolution were often one in the same. In hs new book, Listen, Whitey!: The Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 (Fantagraphics), and companion CD/double-LP of the same name (Light in the Attic), Thomas examines the Black Power movement of the 1960s and ‘70s, the explosion of creativity happening across the musical spectrum at the time, and the now-obscure Black power protest anthems that resulted from the two movements intertwining.

A writer, producer, and musician, Thomas has also worked at Water and 4 Men With Beards, where he began his research for the Listen, Whitey! project. Surely the crate-digging chops he honed while at those labels came in handy when tracking down some of the impossibly deep musical relics from the heyday of the would-be black revolution (most notably Black Panther house band The Lumpen).

It’s almost shocking that no one has explored this topic in depth until now, given the longevity of the Black Power aesthetic and our continued obsession with "The '60s." When taking into account the rocky state of our nation  (politically, socially, and culturally) and the fledgling Occupy movement creeping into the mainstream, it seems not only timely but essential. (Although one shudders to think what a consensus-driven Occupy soundtrack might sound like.) 

From SCREW to Screamin' Jay and Beyond: The Comic Art of Avi Spivak

"That's probably the hardest I've worked on any project," says Avi Spivak, the illustrator behind Norton Records' recent issue of Kicksville Confidential.  And if you've seen Kicksville, released this past October, you'll understand what he means by "hard work" -- the Brooklyn-based artist's painstaking renderings of Norton stars are as detailed as they are funny, and they're clearly the toil of someone with a deep interest in u-ground comics and gutsy r'n'r alike.  In Spivak's enthusiastic scrawl -- part Kaz, part MAD, part G. Panter, part urban daydrunk stupor -- some of the Norton stable's more colorful tales come to life, and we see, for example, Hannibal's fabled ride through Midtown Manhattan on an elephant, a Screamin' Jay Hawkins/Esquerita street-level fistfight and Hasil Adkins's rural shootout.

Spivak's resume prior to Kicksville is no less impressive.  In addition to commercial art and various other projects, like the mural he painted outside of the now-defunct Mars Bar, he's contributed to Maximum RocknRoll, The Scientist, Vice -- and Al Goldstein's SCREW, for which he illustrated a cover in 2006.

Glenn Beck / The Invisible Committee

Oldie but Goodie

Collaboration between Glenn Beck and The Invisible Committee

- - -

Glenn Beck lives and works in Dallas, TX

You can purchase The Coming Insurrection here

The Curse of Brando Island

The ghastly Spectres which were doomed at last
To tell as true a tale of dangers past, 
As ever the dark annals of the deep
Disclosed for man to dread or woman weep. 

-- The Island, Lord Byron

In 1960, while on a scouting journey for locations for Mutiny On The Bounty, Marlon Brando visits the atoll Tetiaroa and falls in love with the former home of Tahitian royalty. Two years later, Brando marries his second Mutiny co-star, Tarita Teriipia, who played his Polynesian wife in the film and purchases Tetiaroa for $200,000 with the intention of making it his home. Little did Brando know what his island paradise would bring he and his visitors, for in acting, one not only brings himself to a role, but the role can transform the actor's real personality, permenantly -- a most dangerous game for friends and family of the 'Godfather' and 'Colonel Kurtz'.

File Under: Boo, Hooray, Boo-Hooray, Art, Not Art, Books

Next Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., the Boo-Hooray Gallery will open its latest/greatest exhibition, Artists' Book Not Artists' Book, an oddball showcase of books artistic, non- and all manner in-between.

For the unfamiliar, Boo-Hooray is the brainchild of kingpin rec collector and art aficionado Johan Kugelberg; he and cohort Jeremy Sanders (of 6 Decades Books) have co-curated the exhibit.  Artists' Book Not Artists' Book promises an array of curious tomes by the likes of Richard Meltzer, William Gibson, Richard Hell and Ed Ruscha, to name but a sampling, and judging from the gallery's previous shows -- displays of Ed Wood's paperback smut, photos and art relative to the Velvet Underground, Crass-related fanzines, etc. -- this one will be another doozy, even (or especially!) if you can't read.

All and sundry are welcome to stop by the gallery's space in Manhattan, 265 Canal Street (6th floor), where the show will run from Jan. 18 to Feb. 12, much to the delight and confusion of artists and philistines alike.  Those wishing to RSVP for the opening should do so here. 

There's A Super Genius In All Of Us

In February of 1990, I xeroxed 2 pages of the New Yorker magazine, to hold onto what I considered one of the funniest pieces of writing ever. It was titled Coyote V. Acme and was penned by regular New Yorker writer and NJ resident, Ian Frazier. In a nutshell, and I'll post part of it after the jump, Wile E. Coyote, plaintiff sues the Acme Company for product liability and the injuries he sustained over his career at Warner Brothers Entertainment. It's written in legalese and describes so well some of the cartoons and shenanigans involved, that you'll be able to be there with Mr. Coyote when he endures a violent feet-first collision with a boulder. Frazier published a book bearing the same name in 1996; a collection of his short humorous pieces, and has other books to his name, some humor collections like Coyote V. Acme, others full length adventures. I was reminded of the original piece the other day and wanted to share some of it, since it's been sitting xeroxed in my file cabinet in the FUN folder for decades. Ian's books are available through several online retailers. This time of year can be one of reflection and I'd like to look at the attempts of Mr. Coyote to capture his prey over the years, and the purity of his actions. Wile E. Coyote; Genius, and at some point in the Roadrunner cartoons, upgraded to Super Genius, was dedicated and single minded. He'd have made a great employee at the time of his upswing into the public eye. He was inventive beyond belief, and even when the same item would malfunction three radically different ways, he would remain a loyal customer of the Acme Company. Brick and mortars would die for a shopper like him! He is a reminder to all of us that perseverance and hard work pays off, or at least keeps you gainfully employed, and that there's a super genius lying in wait inside all of us. Perhaps it just takes an anvil to the head!  There was a response to the article published in 1995, I'm not certain of the source, which more or less takes the stand that since our beloved Mr. Coyote quite often looked directly at the camera before sustaining injuries that the Acme Company's products caused, that he was faking the extent of his physical damage. Imagine that!

A Germs Whisky Christmas: Cruising For Oki-Dogs

December 23, 1979, Germs play the Masque Christmas Ball at Whisky-Au-Go-Go, performing what would be dubbed on-stage "art" by singer Darby Crash, self-proclaimed "Manimal" and possessor of "television and supervision," who read "every Bible story," and was educated in mind-control by public school Scientologists, an A+ hustler whose world-famous catchphrase was "buy me a beer" and whose demands for "beer and damage" do not go unheeded this night. Watch as Darby, spolight directly in his eyes, eats a lit book of matches, transforms into a panther, demands each audience member "hit the person next to you," sets fire to his (A+) lyrics (balls-on-fire-great teenage Blake) all before guitarist Pat Smear kicks a bouncer in the head (several times+) for crossing number one invisible line in rock n roll: the artists own the stage.

Boris Karloff and Aesopus

Today some more of Karloff's Caedmon Records oeuvre with a visit to Aesop, "...who created an independent class of stories about animals, so that in a few generations his name and person had become typical of that entire class of literature. In course of time, thanks to his plain, popular manner, the story of his own life was enveloped in an almost inextricable tissue of tales and traditions, which represented him as an ugly hunchback and a buffoon. In the Middle Ages these were woven together into a kind of romance."

Out West with Burgess Meredith / part three

  It's sing-along / recite-along time again here in the mountains as I offer up a few more tracks of that delightful lp, so worthy of re-release, Songs and Stories of the Gold Rush (1960), with our hero, Oliver Burgess Meredith. This record takes itself just seriously enough, and goes to some trouble to create the appropriate atmosphere for the fun songs and delirious poetry. Join us for some vintage Burgess after the jump!

Excavated Shellac: Guest DJ Set & "Africa at 78 RPM" Box

Now available as a podcast: Jonathan Ward of of Excavated Shellac swung by Talk's Cheap / WFMU to share gems from his personal collection of international 78 RPM records.

The 90-min guest DJ set features tracks that have never been posted online, and also debuts selections from Opika Pende: Africa at 78 RPM. Compiled and edited by Jonathan Ward, the 4-disc set of 100+ previously unissued recordings also includes a 112-page softcover book.

Opika Pende will be released next week by Dust-to-Digital, just in time to stock the label's booth at WFMU's Record Fair, Oct 28th-30th.

WFMU's Free Music Archive presents Grey Area with Jason Sigal from 10/17/2011

>> playlist / mp3 / iTunes / xml/rss

originally aired on Talk's Cheap // Support Talk's Cheap on WFMU!!