Saturday, August 18, 2018

Wonder What A 1977 New York City Park Jam Sounded Like? Press Play… (Mix)

from Ambrosia For Heads:
Bringing the earliest days of Hip-Hop to the digital age is a challenge. While DJ Kool Herc, DJ Red Alert, and Grandmaster Melle Mel (among many others) are highly active in telling the story, and presenting the culture they helped create, other things are harder to find.

Pioneering DJs like Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, The Disco Twins, Pete “DJ” Jones and others can tell you about their playlists. These icons can recall which 12″ singles (some of which had covered-up labels at the time) really opened up the party. These mixmasters can debate who played which breaks first, and who freaked these musical moments better. But how often can Heads in the 2010s really hear it as it was?

This weekend, cultural purveyor Hass718 shared a 40-minute segment from Elmhurst, Queens believed to be in the iconic 1977 year. The same calendar that brought the Blackout, Reggie Jackson’s “Mr. October” New York Yankees slug-fest, and the Son Of Sam’s arrest, delivered this party-in-audio. Recorded at P.S 127, Heads can hear the slang, catch the amazing rarities spun, and even get a taste of the Colt 45 beers for sale for 60¢ a pop—with some crazy on-the-mic advertising. This is just one party among many that era (and one that’s short on much info), but to the folks behind the wheels of steel, it rocks in ’15 just like it sounds like it did in ’77!

Friday, August 17, 2018

Why were people thinner in the 1970s?

from Boing Boing:
On July 26, Guardian columnist George Monbiot tweeted a photo of people on Brighton Beach in 1976, with the comment:
In this photo, from 1976, almost everyone is what we would now call slim. So what has happened? A sudden loss of willpower, as some rightwing journos claim? No. An obesogenic environment created by junk food manufacturers and their advertisers.

As you can see, lively Twitter discussion ensued. Monbiot did some research into people's dietary and exercise habits, then and now. He found that people actually ate more in the 1970s than they do now. Manual laborers are heavier today than they were in the 1970s. Kids move around as much today as they did 50 years ago.

"So what has happened?" asks Monbiot? His answer: lots more sugar.

The light begins to dawn when you look at the nutrition figures in more detail. Yes, we ate more in 1976, but differently. Today, we buy half as much fresh milk per person, but five times more yoghurt, three times more ice cream and – wait for it – 39 times as many dairy desserts. We buy half as many eggs as in 1976, but a third more breakfast cereals and twice the cereal snacks; half the total potatoes, but three times the crisps. While our direct purchases of sugar have sharply declined, the sugar we consume in drinks and confectionery is likely to have rocketed (there are purchase numbers only from 1992, at which point they were rising rapidly. Perhaps, as we consumed just 9kcal a day in the form of drinks in 1976, no one thought the numbers were worth collecting.) In other words, the opportunities to load our food with sugar have boomed. As some experts have long proposed, this seems to be the issue.

The shift has not happened by accident. As Jacques Peretti argued in his film The Men Who Made Us Fat, food companies have invested heavily in designing products that use sugar to bypass our natural appetite control mechanisms, and in packaging and promoting these products to break down what remains of our defences, including through the use of subliminal scents. They employ an army of food scientists and psychologists to trick us into eating more than we need, while their advertisers use the latest findings in neuroscience to overcome our resistance.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Original Aerosmith tour van found in Massachusetts woods

from Boing Boing:

A piece of American rock 'n' roll history was discovered in western Massachusetts: the original Aerosmith tour van.

Boston.com:
In a recently aired episode of the hit History Channel show, “American Pickers,” hosts and antique scavengers Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz tracked down the band’s original tour van in Chesterfield that the group used to schlep to gigs around New England in the early 1970s.

Not much was initially known about the rusted, 1964 International Harvester Metro van, buried in the woods, said the property’s owner, identified only as Phil, who told Wolfe and Fritz the vehicle was there when he bought the land.
Founding Aerosmith member and guitarist Ray Tabano confirmed the find, calling it the band's "rolling hotel." Wolfe and Fritz purchased the historic van for $25,000.

Monday, August 13, 2018

School of Life Monday:
The Problem of Shame

Underlying so many of our emotional problems lies one phenomenon above any other; shame. Feeling misguidedly and disproportionately ashamed of who we are is at the root of an extraordinary amount of disturbance, rendering us harmful to ourselves and to the world.

Saturday, August 11, 2018

West Hollywood unanimously approves permanent removal of Trump's Walk of Fame star

from Boing Boing:

Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has become a honeypot for vandals, MAGA-hat cretins, and all sorts of shenanigans, so the West Hollywood City Council unanimously voted to remove it permanently.

Via Los Angeles Times:
The resolution, put forth by West Hollywood Mayor Pro Tem John D'Amico and Councilwoman Lindsey Horvath, urges the city of Los Angeles -- where the star is located -- and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to remove the marker “due to [Trump’s] disturbing treatment of women and other actions.”
That's going to cause quite a stir.

West Hollywood wants to remove Trump star from Walk of Fame (Los Angeles Times)

Monday, August 6, 2018

School of Life Monday:
A Country We Could Be Proud Of?

We're sometimes taught that feeling proud of one's country is always suspect; but actually, it's very important to be able to have and express pride in collective life. The trick is to ensure that we have countries that deserve our pride. In this film, we design the ideal country to be proud of.

Saturday, August 4, 2018

Jay Adams ramp skating 1977
from my IG


The Original One and Only JAY ADAMS on a somewhat primitive but well built back yard ramp circa 1977. This was just a one hit ramp, at the end of an L shaped drive way, you had maybe 60feet to push with a little down slope half way through then had to veer right hard and you had maybe 10 feet before you'd hit the ramp, it was awkward but it was rare and relatively smooth transition, the first ramp many of us had ever seen with a perfectly round cut transition in the base support structure, no one even built half pipes yet, and here's fuckin Jay Boy flying off the top! No, honestly, he's not making this, he's totally going off in more ways than one, just going for it, because that's just what he did. The ramp belonged to a friend of mine from school, Brett Adams (no relation to Jay). The ramp was up in Brentwood, just in between Paul Revere and Kenter. As you can see from this picture the ramp is actually leaning up against the roof of the house (note broomstick coping and no deck on top, oldschool kids!), a few weeks later they built its own free standing support and put the ramp at the straight end of the driveway, i made a bunch of great photos there with Alva, in particular, and several others, including one of Brett that made it into my Fuck You Too book and MY RULES the book. The frontside airs of Alva are classics, a backside tail-tap of T.A. ( @thetonyalva1957 ) made it onto the contents page in SkateBoarder Magazine. This photo appears in my co-authored (w/Stecyk) "DogTown - The Legend of The Z-Boys" still available at your local bookstore or Amazon... #jayadams #jayboy #jayboyadams #ZBOYS #Zflex #TrackerTrucks #backyardramp #1977 #DogTown #WLA #quarterpipe #inspiration #integrity #BadAss #Venice #OG #100% #100percentskateboarder #innovator #skateboarding #skating #knowYourHistory #rampskating #quarterpipe #getRadical #GNARLY #RAD #politicallyIncorrect #MyRules #surfculture #GetTheNewBook

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Thursday, August 2, 2018

Black Flag playing a garage party
On my IG


BLACK FLAG (spring 1983) This rare photograph was never seen until the MY RULES book. Black Flag playing a garage party on a Saturday afternoon in West Los Angeles at my request, in order to get as many SUICIDALs together at one time, admission was you needed to be wearing your ST hand drawn shirt to get in the back yard (unless you came w/BLACK FLAG) all so i could photograph as many of their shirts as possible for the forthcoming debut SUICIDAL TENDENCIES album cover. I produced the album, shot all the photos, designed the whole shit and even managed the band for a while, til i quit... This was an incredible gig, BLACK FLAG were incredible, and in fact it was Dezo's last time playing in the original band. There's some video you can find on line if you don't believe me, shot by Al Flipside. #DOPE #punkrock #HeavyBeyondWords and I can't front, when the Suicidal's played after Black Flag, they couldn't even get through a full song before shit was knocked down, and had to keep starting over and over, it was wild... #garageband #garageparty @SuicidalTendencies #HenryRollins #DezCadena #ChuckDukowski #GregGinn #billstevenson - And contrary to popular belief, this was not Mike Muir's garage, but in fact it was the garage of the grandmother of one of ST's roadies Albert. #DIY #KeepItReal #OldSchool #Westside #PUNK Did i forget to mention this photo appears as a full 13" wide page in the MY RULES book? #MyRules #GetTheNewBook P.S. I was using my trusty PENTAX with the 17mm fisheye and the double flash bracket contraption i built to make this photograph.

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Monday, July 30, 2018

School of Life Monday:
The Children of Snobs


It can be deeply painful to be the child of snobs. That is, to be someone who received a kind of love in our formative years that was heavily dependent on our performance, not on our essence. It can be enough to make a mess of our lives, unless we realise - and get on top of - the dynamics.

FURTHER READING “Given how pejorative the term is, we’re understandably keen to locate snobs somewhere far from us. They are the people in the newspaper, or the ones who live in the other part of town or went to the school we didn’t go to – but it’s nice not to imagine them too near to home. Yet that’s to deny an obvious eventuality: snobs may lie closer to us. Snobs form couples; they have children. And we might be among them. However painful the unvarnished thought, we might be the children of snobs. It’s a situation it can be therapeutic to face up to and to try to make sense of…” You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://goo.gl/cgQRoM

Sunday, July 29, 2018

1981 Photo of Me Skating by C.R.Stecyk III
from my IG act.


Yes that's me, glen, bank skating in 1981. This photograph was made by my good friend, and mentor of sorts, Craig Stecyk @crstecykiii at some remote schoolyard he took me to that i had never seen before. I needed a photo of myself for some book that asked me for a portrait. So i called Craig and asked the favor if he would honor me. CRS just asked me to bring a roll of film, after we finished the roll he popped it out of his camera, put it in its little black and gray plastic canister and just tossed it to me. He didn't need nor care, I don't think to see them. i asked him for a photo and i guess he knew he got it and just gave it to me to process, print and do as i needed. Simple. I know no one like him. If I could ever consider anyone a mentor it'd be him. The Godfather of skateboarding culture, period. Six months later he called and asked if I'd send one of my favorites up to Thrasher, he wrote an article he wanted me to be a part of, "Really? A photo of me IN one of your skate articles? Really?" I was fucking stoked! #pure #inspiration #artist #photographyAsArt #respect #SkateBoarderMagazine #theBible #punk #attitude #integrity #DIY #MyRules #FuckYouHeroes #blackANDwhite #BadAss #BankSkating #Bertleman #Bert #style #DoWhatYouLove #KeepItReal #thrashermagazine #photographersthatskate

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Thursday, July 26, 2018

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Fugazi in Washington DC 30 years ago
on my instagram


Shout out to WASHINGTON DC in the snow! FUGAZI posing for a shot they really did not want to do. circa 1989 ... By this time i was all about FUGAZI they were becoming an all time favorite. So we did this session walking around town and made a great bunch of photographs this day which you can see in several of my books. This one appears up front in my book "KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN - The Fugazi photographs of glen E. Friedman" with an essay by Ian F Svenonious - From their first year, to the last show played on US soil with all different types of photography experiments of light, texture, film stocks, techniques, clearly one of my favorites and best. Shooting good friends for no outlet to share in mind, just for the sake of capturing and portraying something that i knew was special, fantastic, groundbreaking and inspiring. There are some great FUGAZI photographs in MY RULES , but the reason there are not a ton more is becuase of this entire book devoted only to them. If you are a Fugazi fan there is no reason you shouldn't have or Love it. "Maybe the best visual of a single band ever" someone said. #FUGAZI #brendancanty #joelally #guypicciotto #ianMackaye @dischordrecords #integrity #idealism #inspiration #punk #WashingtonDC #photography #ianFsvenonius #GetTheNewBook @chainandthegang

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Monday, July 23, 2018

School of Life Monday:
One Reason Homes Cost So Much

Very high house prices aren’t an act of God or a fact of nature. They’re the result of all sorts of policy and design mistakes – which we should try to understand and correct.


Saturday, July 21, 2018

Fat Boys are Back
on my Instagram


The FAT BOYS circa 1985, somewhere in Hollywood on the set of a morning show of some kind. After shooting Beastie Boys, then UTFO, I think the Fat Boys were the next group i had an opportunity to make photos with. Sure they were a bit of a gimmick, but these guys were actually really talented. I saw them get on a shitty mic at a Roller Rink in South Central L.A. one evening, a mic that was so bad it could barely amplify a voice it was so whack and crackly (worse than a distorted style Beastie Boys mic from CYH) that when they were rapping not half the words could be made out. BUT when "Buffy", aka "Buff Love", aka "The Human Beat Box", "Kool Rock-Ski", and "Prince Markie Dee" started beat boxing and passing the one mike around or huddled all together around the one mic, it gave new meaning to "rockin' the house" , it was one of the top ten hip hop moments I ever witnessed, being my first time to a south central roller rink and literally being the only white person there while this whole place (over a thousand kids) started rockin' in unison was a mind blowing cultural experience that i'd never forget. I had my camera, but i believe it was so dark in there i couldn't even see well enough through the camera's view finder to focus and take a photo, so i just laid in the cut and observed the proceedings, it was a great and exciting time, by the time we left (i did come with them i believe) everyone was worn out and sweaty... Probably made this photo with them the next morning, they were in L.A. For a few days and i travelled with them for most of it, i got some other images if i find i will post over time. #hiphop #culture #hiphopbeginnings #southcentral #LA #FatBoys #HumanBeatBox #NewYorkCulture #RapMusic #theDisco3 #FatBoysAreBack #

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Monday, July 16, 2018

School of Life Monday:
The Problem of Fame

It sounds so nice to be famous - from afar. But from closer up, there might be a range of problems that make anonymity preferable. This is a film for recovering fame addicts (there are quite a few of us out there...).

Monday, July 9, 2018

School of Life Monday:
Why You Can Change The World

Though it looks like the world is set in its ways, it is in fact eminently open to change by those who dare to swim into the stream of history.

Thursday, July 5, 2018

We Are In Trouble




Flying an American flag upside down is not necessarily meant as political protest. The practice has its origin in a distress signal; displaying a flag in this manner is "a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property"; It can also be viewed as an act of desecration.