Archive for March, 2009

Peter Saville

Beverly Hills, specifically. On April 1 at the Paley Center for Media (465 N. Beverly Drive), legendary graphic designer Peter Saville will be making a rare U.S. appearance as he participates in a Q&A session with art expert Christopher Mount. The intimate forum affords guests an opportunity to interact with Saville, who was responsible for some of the most iconic album covers in modern rock, including Joy Division’s Closer and New Order’s Power, Corruption and Lies.

In recent years, Saville has worked in fashion and cultural advertising and branding, and is currently the creative director for the city of Manchester, the breeding ground for the bands and musical artists that would form the basis of the popular “Madchester” scene (somewhat summed up in the film 24 Hour Party People).

This should be a very cool event. Charlatans UK singer Tim Burgess is DJing the cocktail reception and limited-edition T-shirt and posters designed by Saville and L.A.-based artist Ramses will be available, based on Saville’s “Use Hearing Protection” designs. A number of prominent musicians and artists are planning to be at the event, and I’m lucky enough to be on the list for the Q&A, reception and after-party. So expect some post-event photos and words, though surely I’ll be Twittering the hell out of this thing.

If you’re in the L.A. area and are interested in attending, you can attempt to RSVP at the Use Hearing Protection website. And if you are going, be sure to look me up.

Last time around, we explored the dark and serious world of the Jason Only Project, as well as my many years of musical non-training leading up to that collaboration. In this latest entry following the colorful journey that has been my music “career,” we take a somewhat more … retarded turn.

Ryan Baug - man or myth?

On the last day of high school, after the final bell rang, I headed over to my friend Ryan Couevas’ house, along with Jason Feinberg and Ryan’s friend Adam Cone. (It may not have been the last day of school, actually, but my memory being what it is, we’ll leave it as is for dramatic effect.) It was there, in Ryan’s bedroom, that the greatest cover band to never step foot on a stage not located in a garage was born.

We were all messing around with various instruments, mostly Ryan’s Casio keyboard, recording what dumbassedry would follow on a cassette boombox. There were sad attempts at reggae toasting over preset rhythm patterns. There were likely other funny things that now I can’t remember. But, most importantly, there was the conceptualizing of a band whose sole purpose was to enjoy the splendor of tapioca pudding and make full use of every handicapped parking spot in the city. Ryan kept a guitar chord chart in his bedroom. And upon that chart, the name of our unstoppable, mentally challenged musical crew was discovered: BAUG.

(For the non-musicially inclined among you, there is a chord called “B augmented,” which is abbreviated … yeah, you get it.)

Baug was less a band than a way of life. Or an excuse for us to chant “Baug!” as we bowled and terrorized those around us. We adopted the iconography associated with the disabled — notably the international handicapped logo oft found on signs above those parking spots you’ll get fined for occupying. We dreamed up album titles such as “Stank Ice.” Did I mention we bowled? But the one thing we didn’t do was practice playing music, because, well …

Aside from Jason, none of us really played music.

Oh, sure, the Ramones got their start the same way, allegedly. Feh. We didn’t even have instruments. Adam allegedly played drums at some point in his young life, and Jason owned a rudimentary drum machine with four playable pads, so there was our rhythm section. Ryan and I … well, we didn’t do much else than joke around and trade Glenn Danzig impressions. Jason, of course, was the guitar virtuoso, so he pretty much showed up and legitimized the whole thing. So, of course, the most logical thing was to invite all of our friends to my garage for an end-of-school party to drink wine coolers, eat pizza and watch Baug fuck shit up.

I’m going to eschew describing to you the process that went into organizing and preparing for the first — and last — public appearance of Baug. I won’t tell you about the computer monitor I burned out by using it as a colored strobe light thanks to a BASIC program I created. I won’t tell you about the pylons and other objects stolen from road construction sites we vandalized and tagged with the iconic Baug logo. And I certainly won’t explain why a) I dressed like the Crow, b) Couev wore a robe or c) we all donned satin Harrah’s jackets. Instead, I’ll let the most god-damned awful video you’ve ever seen do the talking:

Next time, we’ll (for real) dish on the secrets behind Rahne’s semi-success. Stay tuned.

Just a reminder: I’m writing regularly about Las Vegas fine arts over at Examiner.com. That includes visual art as well as theater, poetry and anything else that comes along under the vast topic of “fine arts.” Recent stories you may have missed:

• Smith Center gets $170 million boost from Las Vegas City Council
• Celebrated poet Mani Rao hits the Coffee Bean for ‘Word Up!’
• The Yellow Brick Road leads to Winchester Cultural Center this March

One thing I am trying to do — something it appears is relatively unprecendented at Examiner.com — is incorporate original video reports. I did regular video blogs at VEGASinsight, but that was more me doing a talking head thing than actual broadcast journalism. So expect to see more nifty pieces such as this one I threw together about Jennifer Maupin’s photo exhibit at Henri & Odette:

So if you live in Las Vegas and want to keep somewhat informed on the fine arts scene here, feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed for my Examiner articles. And if you’re using Vimeo, please add me as a contact, as I’ll be posting my new video material there. If you’re already subscribing to my YouTube videos, don’t worry: I’ll be adding stuff there as well, just slightly delayed.

Just. Wow.

On the plus side, it looks like a beautiful Las Vegas sunset!

Just. Wow.

On the plus side, it looks like a beautiful Las Vegas sunset!

Happy feet

I think I got my first pair of Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star sneakers when I was 9 or 10. Actually, it was two pairs, each a different color (don’t ask me what colors; that was a LONG time ago). I rediscovered them in high school and a few years ago pretty much made Chucks the shoe of choice for 90 percent of my footwear needs. It occurred to me today that if I continue to replace a pair of kicks with the exact same pair every year (standard black canvas/white cap model), then I must really love these things. Here are five reasons why I do:

1. All-Stars are timeless. Since their creation in 1917 (well, more like after their later endorsement by basketball great Chuck Taylor),  they have never gone out of style. No other type of footwear can claim this. Oh, sure, trendy items come back in cycles all the time, but the All-Star has not, for the most part, changed in nearly 100 years and transcends social-cultural barriers, as equally favored by indie rock kids as metal heads as hip-hop fiends.
2. They’re light. This is important, as I am a DANCING MACHINE and other shoes are heavy and weigh down my FANCY FOOTWORK.
3. They’re vegetarian- and vegan-friendly. As someone who stopped wearing/buying leather products years ago, it’s hard to find good man-made shoes. Even stores such as Payless, who used to carry a lot of leather knock-offs, are now going for the cowhide. Plus, the canvas-and-rubber Chucks breathe well, whereas vinyl shoes make my feet less than tasty after a long day of FANCY FOOTWORK.
4. They’re quiet. And as I am a NINJA, it is important that you do not hear me coming. What’s that sound? Not the sound of QUICK DEATH approaching!
5. They go with just about everything. You can dress ‘em up with a suit or dress ‘em down with some ratty jeans. They’re acceptable in nightclubs and dive bars alike. And as someone who never tucks in his shirt and easily goes from the top floor of a hotel to the dark booth of a punk bar in the same hour, I can always rely on my trusty Chuck Taylors to get the job done.

The bug giving some Bleeding Neon followers using Internet Explorer problems the last few days (as mentioned in detail yesterday) has been isolated: It was, indeed, the RSS feed of Examiner.com stories I added to the right sidebar last week.

Problem is, it only appears to affect certain people, and not all users of IE 6 or 7. (Warning: Mild geek speak ahead.) When I tried the site on IE 6 running on Windows XP Pro yesterday, I got the error message. But when my friend Mike tried on IE 6 on XP, he had no problems. And when I tried it in IE 7 on the same build of XP in Parallels on my iMac, it was fine as well.

So I removed the widget and tested the site on IE 6 on XP Pro again, and sure enough, it’s working fine now. My dilemma now is this: Do I cater to the maybe five percent of users out there who may experience issues accessing Bleeding Neon, or do I re-add the widget displaying my latest Examiner.com stories to drive traffic to that site from the other 95 percent of visitors?

Or do I just say “F it” and put up an animated gif of a dancing baby? DECISIONS.