Hot on the heels of a feisty Green Day post about Arena rock, what exactly constitutes "Punk" Rock, why GG Allin felt he had to poop so much on stage, and being passionate about music in general, I read an article about a music critic who sees large arena shows for what they really are...

Well Choreographed. (via mefi)

(as a side note, commentor 2Drunk, I've got the perfect desktop for you.)

I got to see Green Day in concert last night, kings of Hot Topic Punk Rock.
Don't laugh, it was good. They put on a very good show.
Besides, Greenday is the new Weezer.
Yeah, I said it...

I'm one of those guys who vowed never to go to another stadium show to see a band. I once went to see Pearl Jam at an amphitheater in Baltimore. It was ridiculous. A tiny Eddie Vedder sang with what looked to be matchstick men playing balsawood instruments. In fact, I cannot be sure it even WAS Eddie Vedder, it could have been anyone in a flannel shirt.

This concert was at the Phillips Arena, where the Hawks play Mr. Basket's Ball. But my special lady friend works for a beer and wine distributor, and they have a "suite." I watched a punk rock show like a grown up, with a free drink in my hand surrounded by shrimp cocktails. Yeah, I felt like a hypocrite.

At one point during the concert, the members of the band asked if anyone in the audience could play drums... They went on to recruit a drummer, a bass player, and a 13 year old guitarist from the audience for an entire song. When the kids got done playing, they gave them their instruments...

that's rad. and pretty punk after all.

When I was getting ready to go to Art School Green Day released what would become an important album well suited for an important time in me and my friend's life. Green Day's newest album is no different. They've made a great album for this time, right now. It's also a punk rock opera, following the story of a character they call the "Jesus of Suburbia." If you ever liked Green Day, buy it. just don't let your hipster friends catch you listening to it, unless they're super-hip, in which case they'll already own it. :)

I know she's already made the rounds on the internet (internetS, blogsphere, catchphrase) and that means our hipster rating drops considerably, but we don't care because we seriously love Noli Novak.

She not only draws those painfully detailed stipple portraits for the Wall Street Journal, but also makes collages from ripped magazines that look like watercolor paintings, has her own band, and she's pretty hot.

We found this little guy outside our office today in sunny east Atlanta.

I have an irrational fear of bugs. I say "bugs" because my irrational fear is not only limited to insects, but also overlaps into spiders, as well as all things creepy and crawly, sticky and spiney.

My irrational fear is so strong that I KNOW that when a bug sees me, it has only one plan in it's little bug brain. It intends to jump directly into my eyes, where it can then eat and chew it's way into my brain. Once setting up residence in the brain, the bug will drive me around like a giant SUV.

If you choose the door on the left, go to page 23.

If you choose the door on the right, go to page 105.

We're jerks.

We (The 70-30 Productions crew) have an article coming out in a local magazine here in Atlanta about the new cartoon we're making. The article's author, Justin, hung out with us while we moved into our new office. We got to know him pretty good, he's a good guy.

Well for the article they asked us to create a graphic for a "full page spread." I thought that was normally taken care of by the Magazine's art department. But since it's for our article, about our show, we were excited to work on it.

In the cartoon, the main character sends out a postcard to promote his plan for world domination/destruction. A "direct mailer" as they call it in the business.

We decided it would be a great idea to have the promotional postcard as our spread. This is what it looks like (complete with intentional grammatical errors):

(grab the 1600px wide desktop version)

Anyway for various reasons, it was rejected. Maybe they didn't get it, or thought the grammatical errors were real errors. Or maybe the Chairman Mao joke bothered them... whatever. In it's place they suggested having the main character's "Head floating over a colored background." Hmm. sounds lame.

Here is what my boss had me send them. Heh, I love my job...
also did I mention that we're jerks?

The Beach Boy's Pet Sounds mashed up with Kanye West.

Kanye West Sounds

Now that's exciting, seriously. It showcases the skill of Kanye West's lyrics. The orchestral samples from Pet Sounds demands it. Two Words is especially well matched and charming. You can even download the well designed CD jewel case inserts to print out for your CD collection. (thanks mack! <- boingboing style)

The Goodbye ED Party Countdown:

T-Minus .0 hours to Party Launch.

PARTY IS A GO!

check back here all day and all night for "frequent" party updates:

--brrrz--

UH Oh, getting shakey!

In the thick of it.

Party Launch!!

Ed drinks his 4:15 beer!

Rocket Sauze is prepared

Casey.Happy.Keg

3:30 the Kegs arrive.

1:15, Ed drinks his second beer.

Our new office pet, Otis. He never has to pee.

Ed Shall drink beer 15 minutes after the hour, on every hour.
SO IT IS WRITTEN, SO IT SHALL COME TO PASS!!

Prepping the Backyard

Ed cleaning for his OWN PARTY!?!

This friday we're having an office party. Our favorite co-worker named Ed is moving to New York City. Among other pre-party chores we've been doing this week, the office bathtub (so what?) was filled with all the Sealab toys we had in the office.

Partygoers will each receive a Sealab 2021 toy... while supplies last.

I was thinking about why that photo from yesterday was so inspiring. And why, despite my unending respect for him, I could never get on the boat with Carl Sagan about unmanned space exploration.

Carl Sagan was big on having robots be our eyes and ears in space. I think this is because Sagan was a scientist. He was looking to explore space from a scientific standpoint. This makes sense. If you are going to spend millions building a robot, putting it on top of a couple hundred thousand pounds of explosive force, and launch it into space... You want it to be there for a profitable reason. And not just monetary profit, scientific profit. You want results.

But a robot could never have taken the same self portrait that astronaut Steve Robinson took. Only a human could. THAT is why having humans in space is appealing to me. Because along with all that scientific data and useful discoveries that humans bring back, they also bring with them their humanity. A humanity that has been touched by the wonders of space travel.

Carl Sagan wasn't blind to this. In his one and only work of fiction, the novel Contact, the character Eli says something profound at the end of the book. When she sees things that no other human has ever seen, in a far off galaxy, millions of light years from Earth... she says:

"They should have sent a poet."
They didn't have to send a poet, only a human.

Welcome home to the crew of Discovery

On August 3rd astronaut Steve Robinson was repairing the bottom of the Discovery Space Shuttle. He turned the camera on himself and took this photo with his space-protected Kodak DCS 760.

(the amazing high-resolution version)

NASA has been really careful with the aging shuttles, and for good reason. The shuttles are so old that there have been rumors of NASA engineers buying spare parts for them on ebay! Seriously. I remember when the shuttles were a thing of wonder and mystery. Now they are literally falling apart.

Carl Sagan said that the solution was more unmanned robotic space flights like Voyager and the successful Mars rovers. As sexy as manned flight into space can seem, we just don't have the money to protect our explorers. Which in of itself is very sad indeed.

On a more planetary note, this friday The Kaleidoscope Crew went out to support two local artists. Prolific graffiti artist Hense had a show at Octane coffee bar and our buddy DJ Dookie Platters was spinning records along with the whole Noot d'noot gang.

The art was tight, and the music seemed like it was lifted right out of my own playlists. (Lyrics Born followed by Bloc Party? okay!) All in all it was downright inspiring. My friend Silas has an art show coming up in September that I need to submit pieces for. And everyone agreed that we need to get the Oakhurst gang backtogether for another one of our own shows in November.

Apparently being naked in a park is art. That's fair. If you say it's art, then I'm not going to argue with you, but it certainly doesn't make it good art.

I'm talking about Naked Freedom "An annual exhibition of improvisational naked frolicking and freedom."

whoa... wait, what? Improvisational?

Every year they gather about 11 naked people (read: artists) and frolic in a park, usually around a tree or a sculpture or possibly a large rock. My favorite Atlanta based podcast My Lanta sent an old timey news reporter to cover the event...
or should I say, the tragedy.

It's for real. Just ask my friend, and collaborator C. A. who could be telling you about his new daughter. Who was born tonight.

Mr. Totem.com

I got this email from my buddy DJ Dookie Platters:

I wanted to let you know that Dookie Platters and the Noot d'Noot crew are surfacing from the storm drains and play structures of zone 6 to play some records at an opening I think you would like. Hense and Shie will have works at Octane (1009-b marietta street) this friday, august the 5th.

I met the Noot d'Noot crew a few months ago. When DJ Dookie Platters spun records at our favorite crappy neighborhood bar Mulligan's. He plays a mixture of old school and contemporary Hip-Hop, Reggae, and Punk Rock. It's never boring, he even played some Blackstar.

Every month Octane coffee bar showcases a new artist. This month they're featuring one of my favorite local graffiti artists. If you live in Atlanta, you've probably seen Hense's work, it's up everywhere.

Show starts at 7...
I'll be going, perhaps you will also?

In the spirit of my previous post...

My new Favorite band is called:
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

They remind me of the Talking Heads, that's called synchronicity. They also don't have a record contract yet.

I remember the first record I loved.

I used to play it on a Fisher Price record player. I told my parents I loved rap music, which meant I loved Run-DMC, but they brought me home this weird disco/rap album. I didn't know what to make of it. What I didn't realize was that this album had one of, if not THE very first rap songs on it, Rapper's Delight. (the B-side was Apache)

How did my parents know to buy me this seminal rap album?
The story I've often told myself in my own head goes like this:

My parents went into a record store and told the clerk that their son was a fan of rap music. They wanted to buy him (me) a rap album, and which album dear Record Store Clerk should they buy for him? This unknown Record Store Clerk had the foresight to hand them a rap album that actually meant something. The rap album that, for all intents and purposes, started rap.

The Sugar Hill Gang.

I had never heard any of these rap songs on any radio stations (later Run-DMC would cover Rapper's Delight), it was like nothing I had ever heard before. It was one of those discoveries that made me love music. I had found this band all on my own, with some help from my parents, and a knowledgeable record store clerk.

I've been reading about the Sony Music settlement. (bugmenot login) Apparently Sony used money and expensive gifts to bribe disc jockey's to play more of Sony's artist's music. While I can't say this is a huge surprise, it does make me feel gross and dirty. It also shows that the Record Companies are getting more desperate. You know why we found out about these bribes? Because a competing Record Company ratted out Sony.

David Byrne has some interesting things to say about radio station payola:
(Mr. Byrne, get a proper journal please, with tagged entries by date)

In case some of you think this only applies to rap or mainstream pop or dance music or whatever you and your friends don’t listen to, think again. Alt rock, the symbol of “integrity” and “authenticity”, along with hip hop, is just as guilty of payola and promotion as the songs of Madonna and J.Lo. There’s a reason you think so-and-so is cool, and the reason has nothing to do with how good it actually is. There’s a reason writers write about certain artists, etc. etc.

The advent of high capacity mp3 players is like a breath of fresh air for music lovers. I can program my own radio station now, with music that I find motivating and exciting, not just what is EXPECTED to sell more records. Rapper's Delight will be at the top of my newest playlist.