The Lost Art of Surf Movie Tickets

from Dangerous Minds:

 

Movie tickets are not something to which we give a lot of thought from an aesthetic point of view, and really why should we?  They exist to be torn in half within minutes of purchase. The generic, bluish, thermally printed and perfectly utilitarian stubs we’re used to today were preceded in my youth by the classic red “ADMIT ONE” tabs that did the job just fine in the days when most cinemas had only one or two theaters.

So it was a truly pleasant surprise to find The Gallery of Surf Classics’ trove of 1960s surf movie ticket stubs. Many are very plain, but some of the graphic tickets are marvelous. Now, apart from breakouts like Bruce Brown’s classic The Endless Summer, surf movies weren’t nearly as mainstream as the Frankie & Annette beach party movies that simplified the culture for America’s landlocked. (As a Cleveland kid and a great indoorsman who doesn’t doesn’t tend to much get hung up on the whole So-Cal vibe, movies formed the basis of my knowledge of surf culture, to which I’m a consummate outsider.) These were essentially niche sports documentaries that screened in high school auditoria and civic rec centers, so I find it pretty amazing that anyone would have taken the time and expense to craft such elaborate tickets for these films.

 



The Endless Summer, 1964

 



Walt Phillips’ Once Upon a Wave, 1963

 



Grant Rohloff’s Too Hot To Handle, 1963

 



Peter Clifton/DES Films’ A Fluid Journey, 1969

MacGillivray Freeman Films moved on from surfer flicks in the ‘60s and ‘70s to retool as an IMax production company, whose body of work includes the massive success Everest, but their Five Summer Stories is a surf genre classic.

 



Five Summer Stories, 1972

 



Free and Easy, 1967

 



The Sunshine Sea, 1970

 



A Cool Wave of Color, 1964

The following stubs are quite special—they’re designed by director/artist/surfer John Severson. Severson began filming surf documentaries in 1957, founded Surfer magazine in 1959, and remains to this day a gifted graphic artist celebrating surf. His block prints are especially awesome, but all his artwork is worth a peek.

 



Surf Fever, 1960

 



Big Wednesday, 1961, related only by title to the 1978 Jan-Michael Vincent/Gary Busey surf film.

 



Going My Wave, 1962

 



The Angry Sea, 1963

I could hardly show you surf movie ticket art without showing you a surf movie, right? Here’s a fantastic looking and sounding upload of the Citizen Kane of surf movies, The Endless Summer. The premise is tantalizingly wishful—if one had the time and resources, one could continually travel the globe so as to always be in a part of the world where it’s summertime, and thus live a life of neverending surfing. It’s all at once a helpful primer about surf culture basics (as of 1964), a fantastic travelogue, and a collection of beautiful footage.

 

BAD BRAINS - Black Dots 1978 [FULL ALBUM]

why not?




fucking incredible.

The best (serious) April Fools' Day video (seriously!)

from our friend Richard Metzger over at Dangerous Minds:

“Introducing Anti-Unional, a new, long-lasting anti-worker suppository…”

The anti-union push by the wealthy elites, the corporations and the reichwing politicians who do the bidding of the highest bidders is shameful. As someone raised in a union household, what went down in Tennessee recently made me feel heartsick. Mike Elk’s epic article “The Battle for Chattanooga: Southern Masculinity and the Anti-Union Campaign at Volkswagen” is a must-read if you want to understand the depths these middle-management class-traitor assholes will sink to and the psychological warfare they engaged in vs. the workers. One word for it: Shameful. (This is an important piece of journalism, absolutely worth your time.)

Why not ask the Germans how they feel about union membership? They have a strong economy. They have LOTS of union members. Their unions prevent them from getting screwed over by the oligarchs. They have good wages and can raise their families without struggling. They even get a month or more of vacation. Coincidence? I should think not.

Can’t have that here, now, can we? The wealthy might not like it. Look at this chart, it tells the story of what’s happened in America rather succinctly and as the saying goes, numbers don’t lie.

 



 

Utterly brilliant work, this video speaks for itself, so I’m just going to get out of its way:

Ten out of ten CEOs recommend Anti-Unional to their workers!

Time-released effects ensure that the 1% continue to take in a greater share of the nation’s wealth!

Fast-acting formula decimates wages and benefits and a secure retirement!

Certified and approved by Koch Brothers Laboratories.

If you approve of this satire, SHARE IT. So far they’ve only had a handful of views, this needs to go viral stat.

 

 

Via AFSCME

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BANKY's SIMPSONS Intro still incredible!

Eyes on the Prize The Promised Land 1967-1968

Episode 10

In the final year of Martin Luther King's life, the movement turned its attention to the economic issues confronting the nation and the rumblings of a far off war in Vietnam. Moved by the increasing level of poverty, Dr. King and his staff searched for a strategy, in effect, an economic redistribution of wealth. They began to organize a Poor People's Campaign, a march of the poor to Washington, D.C., where they would erect Resurrection City to embarrass and motivate a reluctant government. In the midst of organizing the campaign, Dr. King was called away to help black sanitation workers on strike in Memphis. On April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Martin Luther Jr. was assassinated. Though devastated by the loss of their leader, King's staff struggled to continue the campaign. Soon after its construction, Resurrection City was shut down, marking the end of a chapter of the civil rights movement.

Very Short films about imaginary tiny trash disposal operations

Spring Cleaning Who Has Access to Your Data

from the New York Times by Nick Bolton:

It’s almost that time of year again. Wash off the car. Take the cover off the grill. And figure out who has access to your social accounts.

Whether you realize it or not, dozens — if not hundreds — of apps and services have access to your social accounts and can see everything you’re doing online. Tweets, Likes, your location, are all there for the taking. What’s worse, there’s a pretty good chance you unwittingly gave them permission.

On Thursday, this happened to me. I looked at Twitter and noticed that a start-up was tweeting from my account. I immediately deleted the Twitter message and revoked access to the service. But in doing so I noticed that hundreds of old apps have access to my Twitter, Facebook, Google and LinkedIn accounts.

It was time to do a little cleanup.

Just like the spring cleaning rule that says, “If you haven’t worn it in six months, throw it out,” you should use the same edict with your online data: “If you haven’t logged in to an app or site in six months, revoke its access.”

Here are some tips to clean up who has access to all your personal data:

Twitter

If you venture over to Twitter’s “Applications” page you will be able to see a long list of all the apps and services that currently have access to your Twitter profile. If you’re like me, you’ve probably forgotten about many of these apps — or, as I discovered, some of these companies have since been acquired by other companies. While many of these services use this access only to know who you are on another site, many are also collecting data about you.

To be safe hit the “Revoke Access” button for any apps that you haven’t visited in the last few months. Or any that look a little sketchy.

You will want to be especially careful of applications that have the ability to tweet on your behalf. These apps will have a line of text below their logo that say “Permissions: read and write.” My advice: Limit these to only sites you absolutely trust.

Facebook

When I opened up my Facebook account to look at the apps I’ve given permission to, I thought there was a typo on the page because the number was so high. I’ve given 148 apps access to my Facebook profile, which is a whole lot of information about me floating around on the Internet. It’s clearly time for me to do some cleaning here.

To fix who has access to your Facebook profile you will want to log into your account and then click here. The page you will land on is a list of apps that you have used with Facebook before, but this isn’t the full list. To see all of the apps and services, click the link at the bottom that says “Show all apps.”

Now it’s time to start deleting.

This might take a while, but go through and hit the “x” button at the far right next to every single app or service you no longer use. After you click the “x,” a popup will ask if you’re sure you want to remove the app and then it will give you the option to delete any posts by this service that have appeared in your news feed. If you want to remove this data or content, select the check mark and then click the blue “Remove” button. Voila, you’re done.

Now go through those steps again and again until you’ve removed all your unwanted services.

Google

Your list of apps using Google is most likely pretty small, but just to be safe you should take a look at which services are getting access to your data. To see this list, go to Google’s Account Permission page under its security settings.

If you want to remove access to a service, click on the name of the company and then click the “Revoke Access,” button.

LinkedIn

Just like Google, you probably haven’t granted access to too many apps from LinkedIn, but you should still take the time to investigate.

LinkedIn doesn’t make it easy to find this privacy section. You have to start on the website by clicking on your own personal avatar in the top right corner. Then select “Privacy and Settings.” Once on this page, click on the tab at the bottom of the page that says “Groups, Companies and Applications.” (Hang in there, you’re almost done.) Finally, you will want to click “View your applications.”

Deleting an app is easier than finding this section. To do this, you simply check the box next to the app you want to delete and then select the blue “Remove” button at the bottom of the page.

And that’s it. Spring cleaning of your social sites is complete. That is, until next spring.

from the New York Times by Nick Bolton

Edward Snowden: Here's how we take back the Internet

cool Hip-Hop documentary from 1994

at the end of each segment you can click on a button in the window that brings you to the next segment.

Nothing: Seinfeld supercut with no people

via Boing Boing:

Nothing is a supercut of scenes from Seinfeld in which no humans appear, creating a show that's not only about nothing, but also about no one.

BTW, I just checked and the Seinfeld box-set is still $65 on Amazon -- all 33 discs' worth.

This is some daredevil shit Bob Burnquist's "Dreamland"

In his first full part since 2010, Burnquist unleashes a slew of never been done tricks (many of which include a flying helicopter). Bob Burnquist is one of the most innovative and influential skateboarders of all time. He has pioneered new obstacles, like the full loop and the corkscrew jump, many of which he has built at his home in California. Burnquist also constructed a MegaRamp on the property, and in the new video for his "Dreamland" series, Burnquist puts the ramp to previously unthought-of uses. Like a massive hip that sends Burnquist across a 15-foot gap. And a helicopter transfer that you have to see (over and over and over again) to believe.

Eyes on the Prize Power! 1967-1968

Episode 9

Out of the ashes of the urban rebellions, blacks looked for new ways to take control of their communities; the ballot box, the street and the schools became the dominant platforms. In Cleveland, the black community, together with a segment of white voters, achieved an historic victory: the election of Carl Stokes as the first African American mayor of a major city. In Oakland, young black men and women attempted to confront continuing police harassment by forming the Black Panther Party. In Brooklyn, New York, black and Hispanic parents struggled to improve their children's education through community control of schools. While these efforts had varying degrees of success, they nevertheless resulted in greater empowerment for their communities.

Why is All Sand the Same?

Nuclear crisis at Fukushima continues to unfold: a trilogy of reports by PBS NewsHour's Miles O'Brien (video)

from our friend Xeni at Boing Boing:

Miles O'Brien, science correspondent for PBS NewsHour, has produced a series of three must-see investigative reports revisiting the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan. His stories explore how the radiation leaks triggered by the earthquake and tsunami are continuing to affect life there, and beyond.

First, above, "Fukushima nuclear crisis continues to unfold."

The site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan remains a post-apocalyptic landscape of abandoned towns, frozen in time. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien got a rare tour inside the plant, where three nuclear reactors melted down after the earthquake and tsunami in 2011, to learn more about the long-term solutions for stemming the radioactive contamination.

Next, "Fishing for data in the radioactive waters off Fukushima."

With help from fisherman and citizen scientists, researchers in Japan and the U.S. are tracking the nucleotides in the ocean creatures who swim in the plume of water tainted with radiation from Fukushima. Their research is part of a long-term effort to figure out when — if ever — certain fish will be safe to eat.

And finally, "Japan considers energy future after Fukushima."

A disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011, has greatly affected how Japanese citizens feel about that energy source. Polls suggest that 80 percent of voters now oppose nuclear power in Japan. But walking away from nuclear power is a tricky proposition for a country that has not invested much in renewable alternatives.

These stories were among the last he reported and shot before an accident on assignment in Philippines led to the loss of his left arm. He is recovering well. Among the risks of solo backpack journalism: what he suffered.

(Disclosure: Miles is my partner, and I love him very much and am very proud of this important work.)

Skateboarding Hall Of Fame 2014 Inductee's Announced

Some of my best brothers in the line up, Huge congratulations!

1960s - Gregg Carroll

1970s Era One - Jim Muir

1970s Era Two - Steve Olson

1980s Era One - Lance Mountain

1980s Era Two - Natas Kaupas

1960s Women - Laurie Turner

1970s Women - Ellen Oneal

________________________

Jim "Red Dog" Muir


Steve Olson


Lance Mountain


The Skateboarding Hall Of Fame on FaceBook

The Skateboarding Hall of Fame on Line

Visit the temporary home of the ISHOF at Skatelab in Simi Valley, California.

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PUNK: Attitude (documentary)

pretty cool documentary from Don Letts on punks' origins and the attitude. some great early footage, some good history, good lessons ... not 100% accurate in my opinion, but pretty cool and well worth the time to watch.

Here's the YouTube description:

This documentary is filled with footage of great bands and interviews with some key players in what has probably been the largest music revolution ever. Punk rock shattered the challenged the status quo and continued to impact all generations of youth and culture. Redefining popular music and fashion, it threatened the establishment and legitimized an independent, do-it-yourself attitude. Punk inspired an entire generation of filmmakers, poets, photographers, fashion designers and graphic artists. This film traces punk from its beginnings in the mid-1970s (and earlier) up to its effect on modern rock music and other genres. Yes, it's incomplete but it does provide a worthwhile oral history of punk. Directed by Don Letts, a legendary DJ and central figure on the London punk scene. This movie was an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival in 2005.

Some of the featured bands: The Velvet Underground, MC5, Iggy Pop & the Stooges, New York Dolls, Ramones, The Dictators, Suicide, Sex Pistols, The Clash, X-Ray Spex, The Damned, Buzzcocks, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Slits, The Pretenders, Magazine, The Contortions, Sonic Youth, Dead Kennedys, Agnostic Front, The Bags, The Screamers, Minor Theat, Fugazi Black Flag, Bad Brains, Nirvana.

‘INSIDE OUT’: OL’ DIRTY BASTARD’S WILDLY ENTERTAINING LIFE ON PAROLE

from Dangerous Minds

It’s safe to say that for virtually every moment from the time that Wu-Tang Clan became prominent around 1993 until his sad death in 2004, Ol’ Dirty Bastard—“Russell Jones” to the law enforcement community—was in some kind of legal trouble. He was convicted of second degree assault in 1993 and was arrested for failure to pay child support in 1997. A year later, he pleaded guilty to attempted assault on his wife and was also arrested for shoplifting. It goes on from there. In 2000 he was assigned to a court-mandated drug treatment facility but escaped—as a fugitive he met up with RZA and spent some time in the studio. In Philadelphia he was eventually captured. (DM previously reported on his endlessly interesting FBI file, released in 2012.)

After spending the next two and a half years in prison in New York, he was released on parole on May 1, 2003. Sensing an opportunity, ODB’s manager, Jarred Weisfeld, arranged for VH1 to have a crew follow ODB around for his release and the first few weeks out of jail. The end result was “Inside Out,” which can be viewed below. Actually, it’s a little unclear what this video is—IMDb.com lists the running time as 60 minutes over two episodes. This video isn’t that long, however. What I think this is is episode 1 of “Inside Out”—not sure there was an episode 2—followed by a brief remembrance section that likely doesn’t have anything to do with VH1. In any case, it’s wildly entertaining.

 



 

The life of a mentally troubled rap star is as crazy as anything you’re likely to find. A stretch limo filled with family, friends, and business associates (of course these lines overlap) is there to meet him upon his release. He is immediately presented with a gift of 500 condoms. As the father of 13 children by multiple women, ODB sniffs out the subtext: “They don’t want me makin’ no more babies!” At his press conference the same day as his release, who shows up to take part? Of course, Mariah Carey.

Eventually ODB’s interest in the ladies alienates his sort-of ladyfriend Raquel, who promptly flees back to LA. Within days he’s photographing a silicone-enhanced Playboy model and hitting on women in the street. Meanwhile his new relationship with Roc-A-Fella records is proceeding with the usual complications. We see a few cordial encounters with RZA as well.

The special presents a glimpse of actual parole life that’s not often available on TV. We see ODB successfully pass a drug test and we’re told that, as messy as his life was, he was able to adhere to the 9pm curfew imposed on him. When he signs the paperwork before his release, he’s told that he’s agreeing that parole officers can visit his home more or less anytime, and sure enough, we get to see such a visit. All goes well, except for ODB’s lingering paranoia after the fact.

ODB never really got the psychological help he needed, but nobody could say that he lived an unfulfilled life. “Inside Out” is excellent evidence of both parts of that equation.

 

MY RULES - The Book Is being delivered done to the publisher today

My new book has an official release of Sept 16th, 2014



here's the page on the publisher's website RIZZOLI, they just posted recently.

Eyes on the Prize Two Societies, 1965-1968

Episode 8

Against the backdrop of the long hot summers of the mid-1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference went to Chicago in an attempt to apply southern movement tactics to the urban north. Their strategies were tested as they came up against the powerful political machinery of Mayor Richard Daley. A year later, in Detroit, frustration and anger built to urban violence as blacks and law officers clashed on city streets and America appeared to be a nation out of control.

Coming to Coney Island this summer The Thunderbolt at Luna Park

125 feet tall, more than 2,000 feet in length and speeds over 65 miles per hour! The first custom made roller coaster in Coney Island since the Coney Island Cyclone Roller Coaster in 1927!



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Floating skate ramp on the crystal blue waters of Lake Tahoe

from our friends at Dangerous Minds

This looks fun as shit! The ramp is beautifully constructed, too. My only complaint is you’d have to have a lot of back-up boards handy as losing them in the water would be a bitch to retrieve every damned time.

As others point out in the YouTube comments, this isn’t the first floating ramp. Volcom made a floating mini-ramp three years ago and put in the ocean.

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(Stupid) THINGS PEOPLE SAY WHEN YOU TELL THEM YOU'RE A VEGETARIAN/VEGAN

from Thrillist.com

Editor's note: since the team here at Thrillist mostly subsists on In-N-Out, fried chicken, and other foods that will make the future heart surgeons of America very wealthy, we asked comedian and vegan Myq Kaplan (he even has comedy albums named Vegan Mind Meld and Meat Robot!) to talk about the stupid things people say when you tell them you're vegan (or even vegetarian), and what he says in response:

Do you mind if people eat meat in front of you?
"I don't! I mind factory farming, but if you're eating a meat sandwich (it's been a while, that's what carnivores eat, right? Meat sandwiches?), whether you're doing it across from me, in my peripheral vision, or sneakily behind my back, it's having the same effect on the world, so where you're eating it doesn't affect me. Unless you're trying to make me feel bad specifically by eating meat at me, if that's a thing, in which case I would mind that you're a jerk."

So, you'll eat at a non-vegetarian restaurant?
"Sure! These days, more and more restaurants have vegetarian options, and I like to support them and order those things, because I feel as though my adding to the demand for those items might lead to there being even more of them, especially in aggregate with the demand for those items by other like-minded people. This one's not a joke! Just a real thought. Sometimes that's what life's about. Having real thoughts and sharing them. Ahh. Feels good."

I could never give up cheese.
"No one's asking you to! I mean, a lot of times in life, we humans strive to better ourselves by rising up to face challenges, stretching ourselves to the limits of our comfort zones, and becoming the best that we can be. So, it sounds like a pretty pessimistic attitude to just start off assuming that you are too weak to defeat a desire for cheese. I believe in you more than that! Or maybe I'm just more strong-willed than you AND more strong-willed than cheese. Maybe it's the cheese that's MAKING you weak. It's a vicious circle. You're trapped in the Cheese Matrix."

It must be hard limiting your diet.
"I actually eat way more adventurously than I did growing up, when I mostly just had hot dogs, pizza, pasta, and peanut butter and jelly. Then, when I became a vegetarian in college, I learned about Indian food, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Cambodian, and tons of other things I'd never heard of or considered when I was growing up. Maybe I'm lucky that I grew up so gastronomically limited. But no one can eat everything all of the time anyway (though many are trying, I know, and others are filming it), so in a way, everyone's options are limited. As long as humans are mortal, we can only eat so much in our lifetimes."

You don't know what you're missing!
"I actually do! I ate meat for more than half my life, and then made a choice to stop. So if either of us doesn't know what we're missing, it's you! I'm having the fullest experience possible! Part of life full of meat, and part of life full of non-meat! You're only having one of the two experiences. You're living a half-full life, with respect to this issue, in the way that I framed it to trick and trap you. (The less fun Halloween: 'Trick or Trap?')"

But seriously, you must miss bacon.
"I didn't actually eat a ton of bacon. I was more of a sausage guy. IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. (I mean that I preferred sausage to bacon when I was a meat-eater.) But of course, there were things that I used to eat that I no longer enjoy, but I still eat things that I enjoy. From reading studies about the science of happiness, I understand that most people have something like a maximum that can't be exceeded. Like, parents with one child aren't half as happy as they would be with two children. So, me enjoying food the way I do now makes me just as happy as enjoying food I used to enjoy, if not more. But if you want to think that I'm less happy eating the way I do, you're welcome to do that. I hope it helps you reach the top of your happiness range."

What DO you eat? I mean, how do you stay alive? Like, how do you get your protein?
"I'm actually more interested in how you stay alive. There's a lot of food out there, and I would say most of it isn't meat. Lists of superfoods and other real nutritional powerhouses always include quinoa, hummus, kale, other green things, lots of berries, etc. So I feel like if you don't have access to this information, the real question is 'how do you get your everything-that's-not-protein?'"

Hey, you don't have to be mean about it. Why are vegetarians always such jerks about it?
"They're not! I was only being a jerk here for fun. I thought we were having fun together! What, you got your feelings hurt? What are you, a vegan? With feelings? (Full disclosure: the author is a vegan with feelings.)"

Why do vegans always have to tell people they're vegan?
"Good question! This is the subject of lots of jokes (or at least one joke that people tell a lot) and, more to the point, faulty logic. Why do vegans always tell people they're vegan? Well, you're looking at a skewed sample, because obviously the ones that are telling you are, but you're assuming that everyone who doesn't tell you they're vegan necessarily isn't a vegan. And that's not true. There are plenty of vegans and vegetarians out there who are just going about their business and not getting in people's faces about what they're eating and why -- they're just living their lives. In fact, you could be surrounded by calm, stealth vegans right now. And don't worry! They're not going to kill and eat you like ninja carnivores would."

Myq Kaplan has a new comedy special that's not named after vegetables or meat. It's called Small, Dork, and Handsome and will be available for streaming on Netflix on May 15th.

How do Trees Survive Winter?

Humans can go inside or put on clothes, but trees spend winter naked in the cold. Why don't they all die?

Crazy love/hate car porn from the UKfun viewing

The Starling That Dared To Be Different

A video from Rhode Island School of Design professor/artist Dennis Hlynsky. He goes around Rhode Island making films of large groups of birds resting and flying, and, with help from After Effects (and other software), he's able to trace a bird's movements through time.

Thanks, Presurfer

Eyes on the Prize The Time Has Come, 1964-1965

Episode 7

During the decade of civil rights protest in the south, a sense of urgency and anger emerged from the black communities in the north. This urgency was best articulated by Malcolm X, then National Minister of the Nation of Islam. Viewers follow the trajectory of Malcolm X's influence, both within the movement and outside. The program shows the influence of his philosophy on the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) as they organized the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama and as they issued the call for "Black Power" during the 1966 Meredith March Against Fear in Mississippi.

Pete Shelley, Howard Devoto, Buzzcocks and Magazine in vintage punk doc ‘B’dum B’dum’ from 1978

The Buzzcocks are one of my all time favorite bands... this is a weird bit of history here... But, not a Magazine fan at all...

from Dangerous Minds:

Punk history on the installment plan…part one

The Buzzcocks had to be quick because they didn’t know how long they would last. That’s what Pete Shelley told Tony Wilson over tea and cigarettes in this documentary B’dum B’dum from 1978.

Made as part of Granada TV’s What’s On series, B’dum B’dum follows the tale of the band Buzzcocks from formation to first split and the creation of splinter group Howard Devoto’s Magazine.

Shelley met Devoto at Bolton Institute of Technology in 1975. Shelley responded to an ad Devoto had placed on the student notice board looking for musicians to form a band. The pair clicked and started writing songs together. Then they wanted to perform their songs, so they sought out other musicians to play them (Steve Diggle, bass, and John Maher, drums), and hey presto, Buzzcocks.

 

Part two…

The influence had been punk and The Sex Pistols, but Devoto found punk “very limiting” as “in terms of music there was a whole gamut of other stuff”:

“...Leonard Cohen, Dylan, David Bowie. With the Pistols and Iggy Pop, it was the anger and poetry which hooked me in really…

“I think that punk rock was a new version of trouble-shooting modern forms of unhappiness, and I think that a lot of our cultural activity is concerned with the process, particularly in our more privileged world, with time on our hands—in a world, most probably after religion.

“My life changed at the point I saw the Sex Pistols, and became involved in trying to set up those concerts for them. Suddenly I was drawn into something which really engaged me. Punk was nihilistic anger, not overtly political anger. Political anger could have been the radical Sixties.”

The Buzzcocks recorded and released the “massively influential” Spiral Scratch a four track EP, which contained the Shelley/Devoto songs “Breakdown,” “Time’s Up,” “Boredom,” and “Friends of Mine.”

 

Part three…

Devoto quit the Buzzcocks after the release of Spiral Scratch. In a statement issued in February 1977 he wrote:

“I don’t like most of this new wave music. I don’t like music. I don’t like movements.

“Despite all that, things have to be said.

“But I am not confident of Buzzcocks’ intention to get to the dry land of new waveness to a place from which these things could be said. What was once unhealthily fresh is now a clean old hat.”

Pete Shelley became the lead singer and songwriter with the Buzzcocks. The band signed to United Artists and under Shelley’s guidance they released a series of perfect post-punk pop hits: “What Do I Get?” “Love You More” “Ever Fallen In Love With (Someone You Shouldn’t've)” “Promises” “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays”.



Part four…

Devoto was dissatisfied with music. His disaffection caused him to question the very passions that had inspired his music. Punk had fallen into parody, and the alternatives to it looked empty. A new direction had to be taken.

Devoto formed Magazine with Barry Adamson, John McGeoch, Martin Jackson and Dave Formula.

“Magazine was its own particular blend of trying to contain a certain sort of intelligence in that sort of music.”

 

 

Part five…

Devoto was a strange mix of pride and insecurity that made him question and analyze everything far too much. After early success with Magazine, Devoto also quit that band and moved on. He eventually “retired” from music in 1990.

Shelley continued with The Buzzcocks. He developed as a talented songwriter and musician, and produced a clutch of solo albums. 

If Devoto was the “Orson Welles of Punk,” then Shelley was Punk’s Michael Powell, writing quirky, luscious, original, passionate, and often unforgettable songs.

 

 

Buzzcocks in concert 1981.

word.

Pelican Learns To Fly Again

I'm not sure if this is torturous for the pelican or not, thinking' probably not, but it's pretty fucking incredible to watch...

Abandoned by his flock, Bigbird the pelican stumbled ashore after a storm and was taken in by the staff of Greystoke Mahale in Tanzania. The bird had forgotten how to fly. The staff strapped a GoPro camera to his giant beak and watched as he learned to fly again.

How the Dutch got their Bicycle paths

The Netherlands is well known for its excellent cycling infrastructure. How did the Dutch get this network of bicycle paths?
Read more: http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com

thanks, Presurfer

More than ever, American cities are casting their gazes across the Atlantic for fresh ideas and inspiration when it comes to making bicycling safer, more convenient and more practical for everyday short trips. No place in the world has more experience with bicycle transportation than the Netherlands, where more than a quarter of every trip made is on two wheels. But bicycling isn't ingrained in Dutch DNA. The Netherlands became a global leader because of very deliberate choices made by city leaders and traffic planners that made bicycle transportation a real priority, backed up with supportive policy, funding and state-of-the-art design. A delegation of city officials from Chicago, Washington DC and Miami visited Holland in search of great ideas to bring home.

Slot Car Racing? check it out!

I took my son to Buzz's place out in Brooklyn this past weekend after finding out on line, there was only one Slot Car track left in the 5-Boroughs - "Buzz-A-Rama" - He's been there almost 50 years! We, as well as all the kids in the packed house, had a blast!

I did this stuff before Skateboarding, and before BMX, this shit is real Old School ...









here's how it was done in '66 in the UK



and here's a peek at the freak shit these old racers are doing now
(watch full screen to get full effect):



BUZZ-A-RAMA

Made it through another year!

yeah, today is my birthday!

don't hate, celebrate!

Next book coming September 1st

Eyes on the Prize Bridge to Freedom,1965

Episode 6

In Bridge to Freedom, the lessons of a decade are brought to bear in the climactic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, when thousands joined together to march fifty miles for freedom. During the drive to make voting rights a national issue, strategic and ideological differences began to surface between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s SCLC and the younger activists on SNCC. As white "blacklash" and segregationist resistance intensified, President Lyndon B. Johnson promised to further the movement's legislative goals. Then, as the movement began to splinter into factions, the Voting Rights Act became federal law.

Saturday Inspiration

Well, when you put it THAT way: Capitalism in a nutshell!

Good question.

Although this has a few too many words to qualify as a Hemingway-esque six-word short story, this sign still gets its point across louder than dozens of articles on the American economy do each week…

And while we’re on the topic, you might enjoy this: Why you’re wrong about communism: 7 huge misconceptions about it (and capitalism)

And this, Five Economic Reforms Millennials Should Be Fighting For: Guaranteed jobs, universal basic incomes, public finance and more.

And this, I’m a Member of the American ‘Used-to-Haves’.

Thank You, from our friend Richard Metzger at Dangerous Minds

hot outa the 80's you never heard Z-3 MC's - Triple Threat - Beat Box Convention

This shit was deep kids...





BONUS:

Word of Mouth and DJ Cheese big track was "King Kut" which is part of the long history of basing songs around how great your deejay is.

The song features several recognizable samples and DJ Cheese definitely takes over the track. He won the World Mixing Championships in 1986. "Coast to Coast" was also a well known single.DJ Cheese was originally from West Virginia, but moved to Plainfield, New Jersey to perfect his deejay skills. He debuted on the Z-3 MC's only recording in 1985, produced by Duke Bootee.The Word of Mouth MC's were also from Elizabeth, New Jersey.They were produced by Duke Bootee of Sugarhill fame.DJ Cheese (born Plainfield, New Jersey) was the first DJ(USA) to win DMC mixing championship DJs and appeared in the UK tour with Run-DMC.

The Birth of Youth Culture uncovered in a new doc TEENAGE

I was invited to a preview of the new "Documentary" TEENAGE. Here's a couple of things about the film that I didn't know, when it began, as I ate my popcorn, in the private screening room. First of all it's an incredibly enlightening, interesting and good looking film, based on a few of the narratives in Jon Savage's TEENAGE: The creation of Youth Culture. While I find the tagline "Rebellion Never Gets Old" a bit disingenuous, It uses excellent and authentic archival footage from the beginning of the twentieth century, up to the end of World War II in 1945. Then in it's conclusion, where they show a few fleeting seconds of a few highlights of the decades to follow, that's it. So don't get your hopes up waiting for something you are familiar with, because it's likely you won't know anything of the history that is presented so well in the film.

Other than that, the main drawback, confusion, or illusion that disturbed me was the liberties the director took with "re-creation and dramatizing" the narrative stories told by some of Savage's actual interviewees. While indeed compelling, the re-enactments, as good as they were, and as close as you can get to making them match film quality, were obviously shot recently. The hair styles, mannerisms, and camera work made this "new" footage both apparent and bothersome, as if it were an 'Instagram' effect. It was annoying to several of us in the theater, and we brought it up to the director in the Q&A afterword. He rationalized that it was his story to tell in his film and that's just how he does it. He had no qualms at all in mixing all that incredible archival footage with his re-enactments, in my opinion this detracted from the overall credibility of the film. But honestly, now that i've told you that there is some "fake" footage in the movie, knowing in advance, it shouldn't bother you too much. But not knowing as i watched distracted me over and over. It's has both good stories and good history and it's good looking, and it's beyond anything you've seen from this time in the history of youth culture. So now that you know some of the vignettes are re-enactments, you won't have to second guess if the director is trying to get over on you, you should enjoy this film even more than i did. Very worth checking out when it opens March 14th in New York, and moves around the country after that. Go here for the full schedule of theaters and screenings internationally.

The history of America spying on Black civil rights leaders

from our friend Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing:

"February is Black History Month and that history is intimately linked with surveillance by the federal government in the name of 'national security," writes Nadya Kayyali at an Electronic Frontier Foundation blog post today.
"Indeed, the history of surveillance in the African-American community plays an important role in the debate around spying today and in the calls for a congressional investigation into that surveillance. Days after the first NSA leaks emerged last June, EFF called for a new Church Committee. We mentioned that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of the targets of the very surveillance that eventually led to the formation of the first Church Committee." "This Black History Month, we should remember the many African-American activists who were targeted by intelligence agencies. Their stories serve as cautionary tales for the expanding surveillance state.

Read: The History of Surveillance and the Black Community. [EFF.org]

Let's start the week with "The Damed" playing NEW ROSE, as Lego's

I was inspired to post this not only because this is one of the greatest punk songs of all time, but I also took my son to see the Lego movie which was really enjoyable, nice moral tale with unexpected twists, not just a commercial for the toy, really more of a vehicle for a creative director and story teller. (Theater was practically full and 98% adults at 5pm on a sunday afternoon.)


OK, OK, you hate lego and animation, so here's the classic real deal, back in '76




And the entire debut album from THE DAMNED, for the uninitiated :



FUCK YEAH, AWESOME MOTHERFUCKERS!

EYES ON THE PRIZE Mississippi, Is This America, 1962-1964

episode 5

Focuses on the extraordinary personal risks faced by ordinary citizens as they assumed responsibility for social change, particularly during the 1962-64 voting rights campaign in Mississippi. The state became a testing ground of constitutional principles as civil rights activists concentrated their energies on the right to vote. White resistance to the sharing of political power clashed with the strong determination of movement leaders to bring Mississippi blacks to the ballot box. In Freedom Summer 1964, tension between white resistance and movement activists climaxed in the tragic murder of three young civil rights workers.

What about the JUNKYARD BAND ?

Cameo of the band from Run-DMC's Tougher Than Leather







from Wikipedia:

The band was formed in 1980 by children, ranging in age from 8 to 13, living in the Barry Farm government housing project in Washington, D.C.. They were inspired to play after witnessing the performances of local go-go bands in their neighborhood. Not having resources to purchase traditional instruments, the children instead scoured their neighborhood in search of objects that could emulate the sound of real instruments: hubcaps, plastic buckets, crates, cans, and discarded pots and pans. After a few informal performances in Barry Farm, the group was dubbed the "Junk Yard Band" by locals. This is perhaps a reference to the animated television program, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, whose band "The Junk Yard Gang" also performed on improvised instruments.

With go-go music gaining in popularity, and the band gaining local notoriety, the band began booking performances at schools, recreation centers, fundraisers, and government agencies. The band was often seen performing for tourists on the streets of Washington, D.C. This popularity led to appearances in a 1984 Cavalier Men's Store television advertisement, the 1983 film D.C. Cab and the 1988 film Tougher Than Leather with Run-D.M.C. It was this interaction with Run-D.M.C.'s DJ Run that led to an eventual recording contract with older brother Russell Simmons' Def Jam Recordings.

DefJam released the band's song "Sardines" as a single in 1986. The song received considerable airplay, and the band embarked on a tour of the United States as an opening act for acts such as Guy, Salt-n-Pepa, Tupac Shakur, The Roots, and labelmates Beastie Boys and Slayer. No longer viewed simply as a novelty act, the group performed at such prestigious venues as the Kennedy Center and the Apollo Theater.
The group signed with Street Records, a Motown Records subsidiary, in 1992.

Astor Place Reconstruction is coming . . .

Just in case you were as freaked out as I was that they cut down the trees by the uptown Astor Place subway entrance, that I saw grow up from saplings to be nice size trees over the last 20 years, I did some research, made some calls, and this is what I found out:

(click to enlarge on each, the architectural "proposed design" images from Astor Place down to the bottom of Cooper Square)



the 6 trees will be replaced with somewhere around sixty! OK, i can live with that I guess . . .
More space for people and less space for cars, YEA!

This never fails to calm me down

Thanks Luke!

Michael Moore Read HERE COMES TROUBLE if you like the man or not.

In my opinion Michael Moore is a great American hero, without any doubt to me. Wether you like him or not this book and his story is incredible, A MUST READ! I bought it back when St. Marks Books was doing a fund raiser and Michael came down to this OG East Village outpost, and offered to sign books to bring attention to their plight. I bought a few copies and had a few words with the man, but never got to finish the book 'til yesterday, it's great and I highly recommend it to you to read.



try and buy it here at St Marks.

at your local book store

or at Amazon if you must.

This World Map Shows Where Press Freedom Is Strongest And Weakest

from Business Insider

Reporters Without Borders has published its 2014 World Press Freedom Index, which measures the freedom of information and journalists in 160 countries around the world.

Finland tops the index for the fourth year running, followed by Netherlands and Norway. The United States fell 13 places to 46th for various reasons (Here's a interactive list of the rankings).

The organization describes countries at the bottom of the list — Turkmenistan, North Korea, and Eritrea — as "news and information black holes and living hells for the journalists who inhabit them."

An interesting note: Edward Snowden told The Washington Post in May that he wanted to apply for asylum in Iceland or some other country “with strong Internet and press freedoms.”

The 2013 map of the global freedom of Internet is quite similar to the one for press.

(CLICK on image to ENLARGE)

via Presurfer

Jerry Seinfeld on Skateboarding

EYES ON THE PRIZE No Easy Walk 1962-1966

episode 4

No Easy Walk explores a crucial phase in the civil rights movement—the emergence of mass demonstrations and marches as a powerful protest vehicle. In Albany, Georgia, police chief Laurie Pritchett challenged Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s tactics of nonviolent mass demonstration. In Birmingham, Alabama, school children steadfastly marched against the violent spray of fire hoses and were jailed as a result. The triumphant 1963 March on Washington, D.C. captured worldwide attention and garnered broad national support, helping to shift federal policy.

Reggie Watts doing his thing

Answers for Creationists

from Slate.com

After writing yesterday about the now-famous/infamous debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, I don’t want to make this blog all creationism all the time, but indulge me this one more time, if you will. On BuzzFeed, there is a clever listicle that is a collection of 22 photos showing creationists holding up questions they have for people who “believe” in evolution.

Because of this, it’s worth exploring and answering the questions presented. Some could be simply answered yes or no, but I’m all about going a bit deeper. With 22 questions I won’t go too deep, but if you have these questions yourself, or have been asked them, I hope this helps.

1) “Bill Nye, are you influencing the minds of children in a positive way?”

I’m not Bill, but I’d say yes, he is. More than just giving them facts to memorize, he is showing them how science works. Not only that, his clear love and enthusiasm for science is infectious, and that to me is his greatest gift.

2) “Are you scared of a Divine Creator?”

No. In fact, if there is a Judeo-Christian god, that would have fascinating implications for much of what we scientists study, and would be a rich vein to mine. Perhaps a more pertinent question is, “Are you scared there might not be a Divine Creator?” There is more room for a god in science than there is for no god in religious faith.

3) “Is it completely illogical that the Earth was created mature? i.e. trees created with rings … Adam created as an adult ....”

It might be internally consistent, even logical, but a bit of a stretch. After all, we can posit that God created the Universe last Thursday, looking exactly as it is, with all evidence pointing to it being old and your memories implanted such that you think you’re older than a mere few days. Consistent, sure, but plausible? Not really.

4) “Does not the second law of thermodynamics disprove evolution?”

No. The creationist argument assumes the Earth is a closed system, such that energy cannot escape or enter. But the Sun is the main source of energy for the Earth. This allows more order to be created, and for entropy to be locally lowered in some cases.

5) “How do you explain a sunset if their [sic] is no God?”

Angular momentum. OK, kidding aside, if you mean the beauty of a sunset, well, we have evolved to appreciate colors, shapes, and metaphors. And in my opinion understanding the science behind events like sunsets adds to their beauty.

Incidentally, some creationists are geocentrists.

6) “If the Big Bang Theory is true and taught as science along with evolution, why do the laws of thermodynamics debunk said theories?”

See No. 4. Also, as far as the Big Bang goes, we don’t know how or why the Universe came into being (though there are some interesting ideas). But “I don’t know” is an acceptable answer in science. It leads to asking more questions, which leads to more exploration, which leads to more understanding. Just being given an answer is like using the answer key to fill in a crossword puzzle. It’s no fun.




7) “What about noetics?”

Well, that depends on what you mean. There is a branch of philosophy called noetics, which deals with understanding the mind. That is also a scientific endeavor, since we know the mind is an effect of the brain—as many say, the mind is what the brain does. Scientists are studying that now, so I don’t think you can dismiss science out of hand and replace it with religion in that instance.

There is also a more New Age-y field called noetics, which posits that the mind can have an effect on matter (though there is more to it than that). I’m not sure what that had to do with God, except the idea that God gave humans mind. But for that claim to sway me I want evidence, not just a proclamation that it is so.

8) “Where do you derive objective meaning in life?”

We have evolved over millions of years to be social animals, tribal, supportive of others and willing to reach a common goal. This could explain much of the morality and meaning we see in life, without the need for it to be revealed by a divine presence. In fact, I object to the idea that humans need a supernatural parent figure to give us morals; I don’t need religion to know that murder is wrong. Note that there were laws against murder long, long before the Bible was around. I would also mention that the Bible has very conflicting morality, saying for example that it’s OK to stone people to death for all manners of minor infractions. I have no problem with the idea that people seek moral guidance or meaning in the Bible, but I do object when they ignore the parts that are clearly immoral.

Meaning in life is what you make of it. For me that’s love, beauty, art, science, and learning. For others it may be different, but those are what call to me.

9) “If God did not create everything, how did the first single-celled organism originate? By chance?”

This is an excellent question. It was partly by chance, but it wasn’t random. Chemistry shows us that atoms and molecules are like puzzle pieces, fitting together a certain way. This means some molecules can have astonishing complexity, including the ability to replicate. It’s not like taking all the pieces of a clock, throwing them in a box, shaking it, and getting a working timepiece. The pieces themselves built up over time, attaining more complexity.

And I might turn the question around. Who created God? If you say He has always been, then why not say the same about the Universe (or more properly, the multiverse)?

10) “I believe in the Big Bang Theory … God said it and BANG it happened.”

That’s fine by me. I might disagree with your explanation of the origin, but if from there you allow that the laws of the Universe are as we see them today, then it sounds to me like you are arguing more for science than creationism. I suggest reading about theistic evolution, which is a fascinating area of philosophical argument.

11) “Why do evolutionists/secularists/humanists/non-God believing people reject the idea of their [sic] being a Creator God but embrace the concept of intelligent design from aliens or other extra-terrestrial sources?”

We don’t.

Seriously, this is a profound misunderstanding of the secular stance. I'm open to any provable claim, as long as the evidence supports it. We know of no aliens, so how can we say they made us? However, I'll note that the evidence that aliens may exist gets stronger every day; we see planets everywhere we look, and many may be Earth-like. That's a big jump from extraterrestrial intelligent design, though!

And mind you, this question confuses evolution with atheism. Those are two very different things.

12) “There is no in between … the only one found has been Lucy and there are only a few pieces of the hundreds necessary for an 'official proof’.”

This is incorrect on many levels; we have many bones from different individuals of Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy’s species), and we have lots of bones from other ancient humans and their predecessors, including branches of hominids that did not lead to us. We also see huge numbers of transition fossils from various species, implying we too evolved from earlier species. And there aren’t hundreds needed; it’s not hard to draw conclusions from fewer samples. You might as well ask for every single bone from every single individual who ever lived, going back millions of years. It’s not needed.

13) “Does metamorphosis help support evolution?”

Let me say it this way: It doesn’t disprove evolution. While we don’t understand how it began, that leads to asking more questions and learning more about it. And we do have some understanding of it.

14) “If Evolution is a theory (like creationism or the Bible) why then is Evolution taught as a fact.”

>First, creationism and the Bible aren’t theories. Second, evolution is a fact and a theory. If this question is an argument to allow creationism to be taught in schools, that’s a violation of the First Amendment anyway.



15) “Because science is 'theory'–not testable, observable, nor repeatable, why do you object to creationism or intelligent design being taught in school?”

Actually, science is testable, observable, and repeatable! That’s the very definition of what science is! And if you actually mean evolution, that fits the criteria as well. There are countless examples. Here’s one.

Also, again, teaching religion in schools as being real is a violation of the First Amendment.

16) “What mechanism has science discovered that evidences an increase of genetic information seen in any genetic mutation or evolutionary process?”

Again, here you go.

17) “What purpose do you think you are here for if you don’t believe in salvation?”

That’s an interesting question, but why not ask it of people who are of a different religion? I expect a devout Jew might have a more interesting answer than I would.

I also don’t think there is a purpose granted from an outside agency. We are what we are, and create our own purpose. We should make the best of it.

18) “Why have we found only 1 ‘Lucy,’ when we have found more than 1 of everything else?”

Again, we have many bones from different individuals of Australopithecus afarensis.

19) “Can you believe in ‘the big bang’ without 'faith'”?

Yes. We have tons of evidence for it.

20) “How can you look at the world and not believe someone created/thought of it? It’s amazing!!!”

I agree; it is amazing! I’ve written about this many times. But we know that complexity can arise naturally through the laws of physics. It doesn’t take very complex rules to create huge diversity. Look at poker; a simple set of rules creates a game that has so many combinations it’s essentially infinite to human experience. We can figure out the rules of nature by studying the way processes follow them, and deduce what’s going on behind the scenes. And whenever we do, we see science.

21) “Relating to the big bang theory … Where did the exploding star come from?”

A quibble: It wasn’t an exploding star, but an explosion of space and time. But as I said for No. 6, we don’t know, but that’s OK, because we learn more about it every day. Someday we will know, but until then, using a supernatural explanation without explaining why doesn’t give you any true understanding of it. That only leads to the stopping of learning, not the growth of it.

22) “If we came from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?”

Let me ask you this: If you came from parents, why are there still parents?



Top Comment

If evidence is found for a creator entity, that, ironically, would be much more threatening for RELIGION than for science.  More...

The answer is that evolution is not a line from one species to the next. Different species branch off from earlier ones, they don’t replace them. You can imagine a pair of primates (not monkeys; those are different from apes) had two children, one the same as the parents, and one slightly different. They both breed, passing down their genes. Sometimes mutations happen, sometimes they don’t. Over time, you can get two different species: One close to the original, and another distinct, both living at the same time. That’s a gross simplification, but this might help.

I’ll note that these are a small sample of the questions asked by creationists. But again, the vast majority of them are due to a misunderstanding of how evolution works rather than being pointed barbs striking at the heart of science. I suggest reading more about the truth of evolution, and investigating the FAQs from creationists (especially the one from talk.origins). My most fervent hope is that this will lead to further understanding of science.

And one final note: At the very top of this article, I put the word believe in quotation marks when it was used in relation to evolution. Why? Because science isn't a belief system. Scientists don't believe in evolution; we trust that it's the best way to describe how we came to be. And we do that because it's earned that trust.