Another Beta Wave

The Deadzone

2011-09-09T12:57:00.002-05:00

Finding these old websites I used to contribute to is like stumbling upon your own grave yard. Some monument to someone I don't even remember. I thought maybe I'd write something today... Is anyone still out there?

Assault on Precinct Tumans

2009-01-23T12:27:00.006-06:00

Some twitpics taken with my new G1. A summary of last night - Tumans after work followed by Assault on Precinct 13. It may be sacrilege to say that the remake from a few years back was better than a Carpenter original but I think I am going to lean in favor of Richet. I was shocked at how different the two versions were. Richet's version fixed a TON of plot holes and added so much more to the bland characters from the older version. The story barely resembles the original. I am shocked that so many remakes have actually been good in the past few years - my natural reaction is to cringe. However The Scanners remake I keep hearing about hopefully will never see the light of day - no way in my mind that could be improved upon.

Kill the MP3J

2009-01-21T13:35:00.004-06:00

This is unreal. The smallest MP3 DJ set up ever - It even sets loops. All for the low low price of $874.06 (6 cents?) Specs here.

Class: Dance Party for Adults

2009-01-21T09:40:00.004-06:00

My friend Jay started a new night at Evilolive on Thursdays. Something for adults. I am the special guest on Jan 29 - one day after my birthday. I will be playing a patchwork of psyche, giallo, kraut, cosmic disco, electro, no wave and anything else i deem fit. More info here.

About Time

2009-01-20T12:59:00.003-06:00

Obama party this morning in the conference room. Finally getting the hang of this Google phone. Not sure how to format on the fly though...

Starved Rock

2009-01-19T16:14:00.005-06:00

Starved Rock January 12th. Carrie's Birthday present. About 2 miles from the lodge right before the blizzard hit. Here are some more pics.

New Year's Eve Photos

2009-01-16T09:30:00.003-06:00

David Schmelzer just finished posting the NYE photos on The Beta Theta site last night. He also revamped the whole look of the site for us cause we are very lazy and it still looks the same as it did in 2004. We are slowly compiling images from all old Beta Theta and Synesthesia events going back to 02 on here so check back.

I'm so Sorry

2009-01-15T12:01:00.006-06:00

Been too long... Just finished the poster art for Carrie's show on Feb. 6 at Schubas. Her new band is doing great - moving fast. Check it here myspace.com/tigerspiritband

PR Drones on Parade

2008-10-02T13:01:00.007-05:00

The VP debates are on tonight. I will check in briefly. I did not anticipate the media hype Palin would create when she was announced as the GOP running mate. I guess I had more faith in the process... Her absolute lack of experience and blatant transformation of this election into a reality TV show event reminds me more and more of Vonnegut's description's of the president in his book Player Piano - a spineless PR face more inline with a game show host than a real public servant.

New Poster Art for 10.24.08

2008-09-30T12:47:00.003-05:00

Just finished the poster art for my next Darkroom event. DJing with these guys - The Heaven Seventies and a couple other bands.

Spectrum Photos

2008-09-30T12:21:00.003-05:00

Photos courtesy of David Schmelzer

Photos from the show last Monday. This was great - I had not seen Spectrum play as a full band since the mid 90s at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. They even played "When tomorrow hits" and "Revolution"... All the photos can be seen at David Schmelzer's Flickr

First time for Jerry Thursday

2008-09-17T12:35:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is my first night at this new place - Jerry's. Sort of a pre-party for the Friday event. My house is currently a hotel - we have people in from NYC, LA, Missouri, and San Francisco to see the show on Friday.

Assembly Interior

2008-09-09T12:55:00.006-05:00

Interior Layout of The Assembly CD packaging I was working on. Art is based on the encoded imagery on the golden Voyager disc. Will post more soon!

2 Events in 3 Days

2008-09-08T23:54:00.005-05:00

Flyer art is done for the Spectrum Party. This is the 2nd time in the past year I have DJed with Sonic Boom. I usually get him to sign a bunch of the posters I make and last time I made the mistake of making a very dark poster - this one is designed near white so his infamous triangle Spacemen 3 signature stands out.

And 3 days before this I am hosting and DJing at The Assembly Record release party... Carrie's new band debuts plus my old Beta Theta partner Alexander is back in town from Brooklyn. Gonna be a good night.

Behind the Times

2008-09-04T00:39:00.007-05:00

I've been absent. And Busy. But I did just find out I am doing this on Monday September 22 - DJing with Spectrum and all the Sonic Boom glory. Darkroom. I will post the flyer when it's done. Also just finished up the art for The Assembly record - will post some JPGs this weekend...

Oh... And that Alex Aja film? Mirrors... Was absolute crap. I was so sad.

Amputee Nightmares and Honda Ads

2008-08-11T21:57:00.011-05:00

My employer took our internet away a couple weeks ago. Sorta. Hinting at possible installed tracking software they told us we were not allowed to use the internet, ichat etc. unless necessary for work - this was accompanied by a very cold and formal guide line signed by human resources. So I have had a hard time rearranging my life in order to check email, calendars, and bank stuff - I honestly have to get up an hour earlier every day now just because of this new rule and thats put me in a terrible mood for the past couple weeks. My 99 Huyndai Accent decided to die about two weeks ago as well and I have been forced to contend with the most annoying, stressful, and hated game of buying a new used car. If the time spent researching consumer reviews, recalls, and dealer ads isn't enough, I have to use a commuter train in order to get out to the suburbs in order to find the right car. This has been going on for about 2 weeks now mostly because I can't decide on what I want. The internet is pretty necessary in this process and I have had no choice but to sneak internet at work, dodging the intermittent visits from management as they patrol the beginnings of their new policy (this policy is pretty silly for a creative environment in 2008 but I give it about 4 months before anyone remembers the memo.) This entry makes me feel and sound terrible. Ugh. This kinda of stress has caused me to have amputation themed nightmares over the past couple weeks - I haven't been able to sleep much because of this. Most nights I wake up at 4 am and start looking this stuff up in online dream dictionaries. Amputation = Loss. Duh. Car = Money.

This car problem will be solved this week. But in the mean time a list of good things that happened over the past two weeks. Things are gonna change.

1. Manitou. Another movie that snuck up on me much like Demon Seed. Manitou stars the recipient of a mistakenly diagnosed tumor and it's contents - a 400 year old evil medicine man. The growth eventually gives birth to the above pictured still developing creature and I think he tries to take over the world. It ends in some pscyhedelic climax of bright lights and silly projections.

T-Shirt by Kime Buzzelli
2. Heaven Gallery. I DJed at Phoebe's opening on Friday and met her friend Kime, hung out with her dad Saul, and saw my friends in Tirra Lirra (one of my favorite Chicago bands.) Kime posted some pictures on her blog here.

3. Beverly Shores. This has become my favorite place in Chicago - near Chicago. It's about an hour and a half away. I am taking the train there on Friday with a tent and sleeping on the beach - no amputation nightmares there. It reminds me of the time I spent in Wildwood New Jersey when I lived in New York City.

4. Alex Aja. His new movie Mirrors comes out Friday. I have been following a handful of new horror directors and I think Alex is the real deal. No one (except for Neil Marshall of The Descent fame) is making good horror like this - didn't even screw up The Hills have Eyes remake (Although no one believes me, they just assume it is bad.)

Hieroglyphics, Disco and Carl Sagan

2008-07-23T16:28:00.011-05:00

I am currently working on the CD packaging for the Chicago band The Assembly and I've been using the gold Voyager record as inspiration. I had been toying with the idea of adding some version of the diagrams and technical hieroglyphics that Carl Sagan's committee had placed on the gold cover to the actual Assembly packaging when it struck me how antiquated they had become. The diagrams are explained in as much a universal language as possible: some binary information and wave form engravings, but for the most part explain a process that hasn't been employed by the average human for twenty years.

From the Voyager website:

"In the upper left-hand corner is an easily recognized drawing of the phonograph record and the stylus carried with it. The stylus is in the correct position to play the record from the beginning. Written around it in binary arithmetic is the correct time of one rotation of the record, 3.6 seconds, expressed in time units of 0,70 billionths of a second, the time period associated with a fundamental transition of the hydrogen atom. The drawing indicates that the record should be played from the outside in. Below this drawing is a side view of the record and stylus, with a binary number giving the time to play one side of the record - about an hour."

If the Voyager landed on Earth in 50 years I doubt anyone would understand how to decipher these instructions for an obselescent piece of technology. I should have some designs done by end of month and will post them up - I think I'm going to have fun with this one.

The Price of Admission, Death: Demon Seed (1977)

2008-07-23T11:54:00.007-05:00

I am a bit OCD with horror films and enjoy micro-classifying genres, becoming completely obsessed with the most minute distinctions in these movies. I will decide that a horror genre exists about say, small cursed objects (Hellraiser) or high rises (Shivers) or in this case super computers obsessed with the flesh and try and compare every single one of them, in order to define the rules for that genre - like I said very OCD. These times usually coincide with a period in my life where I feel alienated for one reason or another and somehow gain solus by emersing myself in some distant memory from my youth - something so distant its barely audible. Not a specific memory - what I am after is a bit more nebulous. For me it always seems to manifest itself in bits and pieces of horror from the late 70s and early 80s. Something I must have been exposed to alot (or fascinated with) when very young. I think its the general aesthetic from this period and not any specific movie as I sometimes will focus on the audio quality, color, film stock and wardrobe just as much as the concept or plot.

I watched this last week but I've been too tired to post it up. Not sure how it snuck past me for all these years but Demon Seed (1977) surprised me and sent me flying into my own weird meditative abyss. Demon Seed stars a floating golden polygon shaped super computer that succeeds in raping it's creator's wife and incubating it's genetically/digitally altered/programmed hybrid child. Yea - how did I miss this one? Essentially Julie Christie's character is trapped in her house while this all going on. Proteus IV (the crazy talking polygon) has taken over, controlling all machines and locks in the house terrorizing her as the "unseen all knowing" system of cameras and sensors. Sounds a bit like HAL I know but I think I actually like Proteus IV better - much scarier especially with it's physical form, an always unfolding golden geometric form - a thing of nightmares. This quote from a review sums it up perfectly "Proteus IV, the evil computer in this rather absurd film, is what HAL would be if HAL read porn and added a little reverb and digital delay to its voice."

From Proteus IV "Eternity does exist, but the price of admission, death, is too high for me to pay"

I actually found a link to the soundtrack on the DICHTUNG UND WAHRHEIT blog. Enjoy.

Post Pitchfork Hangover

2008-07-22T15:32:00.006-05:00

Drawing Credit: Kim Reinhardt

OK. Pitchfork is finally over. When I was younger July 4th always marked the climax of the Summer as I soon started dreading school or the inevitable move back to Gotham City (I was conflicted about NYC for a while.) Now in my extended adolescence, The Pitchfork Festival seems to have replaced that and today I started to see the snow in my head.

My friends from Cooper Union - Jeremiah and Kim stayed with us for a few days and for the first time I realized Chicago was a destination. I might not always like the bands they curate but at least I feel like we are back on the map. Oh and PS - Kim has a show at the Pearl Arts Gallery in Stone Ridge, NY, Opening on July 26. Her work is also here.

Phoebe Fisher Disco Dance Disaster

2008-07-17T13:19:00.015-05:00

I am DJing at Phoebe Fisher's opening at Heaven Gallery on Friday August 8. Phoebe is amazing - think Giallo storyboards via the hands of Rita Ackermann and Gustav Klimt - check out her paintings on her website here.

And here is a remix I worked on a while back for the now defunct Dirty Things. I think it makes a good soundtrack.

The Dirty Things - New Dance (Venue Remix)

An Autistic Second Life

2008-07-17T10:21:00.008-05:00

I've recently been hanging out on William Gibson's blog and catching up with some of his older posts. His fascination with present set science fiction has always intrigued me. This has been one of his major themes in his past 2 books - Pattern Recognition and Spook Country (which I am currently finishing up.) Marketing, branding, and advertising become frequent subjects for him, in a way acting as the present's "technology" - this interests me more than the tired cyber punk style that was relevant at the begining of his career when the internet was more of a myth.

Anyways last night I found a link to this from his site and I can't stop thinking about it. You really don't have to search too far for science fiction in the present.

First Post. Happy F Day.

2008-06-13T15:42:00.002-05:00

A photo I took of my father circa 1999. Going to see the old man on Sunday.