safmod

SAFMOD stands for Sub-Atomic Frequency Modulation Overdose. A description of SAFMOD from their site:

SAFMOD is a multi-media performance ensemble that combines music, movement and visual artistry.

SAFMOD was founded in 1991 by dancer Young Park and percussionist Neil Chastain as a collaborative experimental fusion of music and dance. Based in Cleveland since 1993, the multicultural performance ensemble still strives to push the boundries of dance music and visual art.

SAFMOD’s multi-media approach has included the use of digital animation, aerosol art instilations, stilt dancing, modern dance, butoh (japanese style of dance), break dancing, spoken word poetry, juggling, fire dancing, capoeira (afro brazilian martial art), aerial (trapeze, fabric, harness, rope and apparatus work), elabrorate costumes, sculptural instilations and original music (live and pre-recorded).

SAFMOD performs in traditional theater and site-specific settings, street performances, festivals and parades.

infinite number of sounds

Today's site of the day belongs to Infinite Number of Sounds. Cool Cleveland described them best in a nutshell: "Cleveland's never seen anything like them: half rock thrashers, half experimental video artists, half hip-hop break beatsters, half tripped out studio wizards - it all adds up to something sweet, sharp and sincerely new." I've had the pleasure of catching them live twice and they rocked my eyes and ears both times. They're intelligent, funny, and classically trained musicians who know how to rock out. Check out their downloads section on their site to hear some of their tunes.

mark strauss

Today's site of the day belongs to a friend who is a talented musician and DJ here in Cleveland. His name is Mark Strauss (that's Mark and his wife Anna Katrin in the photo) and his website is under construction, just like most of our highways here in the Cleveland area, but I think you'll enjoy the goodies he's providing for your ears. There's links to his live mix from the Beatmatrix show as well as his Ableton set recorded live at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Mark is affiliated with Plate Tectonics, a collective of skilled minimal-techno-house DJs including Damon Havill, Candice Radin, and Jamie Tyler. Mark is also one of the administrators of the website Clevelandnightlife.net.

grand poo-bas

Today's site of the day is Grand Poo-bas Record Shoppe in Lakewood, Ohio. The owner, Doug Burkhart has been referred to in the past as the "glue that keeps the electronic music scene in Cleveland together," and I have to agree. Besides being one of our most respected DJs, he's a great guy, too! Vinyl record stores have been hit hard with many DJs transferring over to CDs and computer-driven deejaying, so I thought it was important to remind everyone that you can still buy records and they sound way better than CDs and a million zillion times better than mp3s. My record collection is my prized possession. It's an extension of who I am, and is strongly connected to countless memories. Plus, the album art is so much better at twelve inches by twelve inches. Poo-bas also sells CDs, so even if you're not a DJ, you can still shop in the store or order online if you don't live in the Cleveland area. Save the vinyl! Doug is also the founder and head administrator of the website Clevelandnightlife.net. Stop by the site and find out what's going on in and around Northeast Ohio. There's always some kind of shenanigans going on.

t a p e

Today's blog of the day is T A P E. It's a blog mostly about minimal techno, but other electronic genres are represented as well. You can download songs and dj mixes, and read about musicians you might not be familiar with, like Sleeparchive, Daniel Wang, My My, Microfunk, and plenty more.

you want fries with that?

Okay, so I lied. Here's a random off-topic post. I feel a little better since I rested last night. Found this today and I thought it was rather amusing:

http://triggur.org/communion/

The Eucharist Wafer Topping Taste Test. Being an ex-altar boy, I must confess that me and the other altar boys used to sneak the unblessed wafers out of church and snack on them. Mmmmmm... yeah, not so tasty; I don't know what we were thinking. What would Sister Mary Martha think?

top ten reasons not to date someone

I surveyed a few friends at Touch Supper Club last night about this topic. So I can't take credit for all of 'em.

10. If the person cramps your style.
9. If they mention their: wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, "baby's momma," or "baby's daddy."
8. If they talk about marriage in the sentence before asking you out on a date.
7. If their email address or screenname contains any vulgarities or references to genital or breast size. And it's likely not true anyhow. Duh.
6. If they smell.
5. If you meet them in line at the STD testing clinic.
4. If their choice of jewelry is a psychiatric hospital wristband.
3. If he or she sleeps in their car, under a bridge, at a shelter, or in a refridgerator box.
2. If they happen to mention that their ex is still "missing," and you notice blood on their clothes.
1. If you recently saw them on "To Catch a Predator," "America's Most Wanted," or "Cops."

mmm... morgen's movie meme

A new movie meme. Created by Morgen. I've been blog-tagged along with
Lizza, Ian, Brad, and Matt-man to answer the questions.

1. The last movie you saw in a theatre, and current-release movie you still want to see.

A sneak preview of Mission Impossible: 3. I get sneak preview passes every other week in the mail from a friend of my film teacher Cindy Penter at CSU who works for movie promotions.

I'm not sure if it's still in the theaters, but I really wanted to see A Scanner Darkly, the newest digitally-rotoscope-animated film by Richard Linklater.


2. The last movie you rented/purchased for home viewing.

I ordered Munich from Pay Per View. We'll get back to this one in a minute.

3. A movie that made you laugh out loud.

Mean Girls. Tina Fey rules. I cannot fathom SNL this year without her. Why, Tina? Why? I've heard that 30 Rock isn't so good. Ugh.

4. A movie that made you cry.

Munich and Brokeback Mountain are the only ones this year that had my tear ducts going.

5. A movie that was a darling of the critics, but you didn't think lived up to the hype.

I don't normally read critiques before I see a film. I despise Jerry Maguire, though. Was that well received by critics? "Show me the money?" No, show me the exit to the theater.

6. A movie that you thought was better than the critics.

2001: A Space Odyssey (which upon it's original release left the critics disgusted, bored, and clueless). One of the headiest, most original, and ingenius films ever made. And more recently Munich. How did this not win the Best Picture award? My favorite Speilberg film. This is not a movie; This is a film. Completely underrated.

7. Favorite animated movie.

I have two. Waking Life (2001) and Fantastic Planet or in it's original French title, La Planète Sauvage (1973).


8. Favorite Disney Villian.

Walt Disney, Michael Eisner, or whoever made all the stupid rules for Disney employees. I worked at the Disney Store for a week or two in 1992 or 1993. Disney = Nazi. Worst employers ever. You must smile at all times when you work there. You must use Disneyspeak when you are "on stage" (on the selling floor) and especially when "guests" (customers) ask you questions and heaven forbid if you have to ask another "character" (co-workers) for the answer.

9. Favorite movie musical.

Singing in the Rain (1952), any Busby Berkeley film, and Les Parapluies de Cherbourg or The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Add Singing in the Rain to another film that made me cry, only these were tears of joy. I was seriously so moved by the beauty of the dancing and songs in that film. I've never cried happy tears before. It was a strange phenomenon to experience. I am getting goosebumps just thinking about it. Unbelievable film. Oh, and I'll have to add Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978). I still have the LP. How can you beat Aerosmith, The Bee-Gees, Steve Martin, Billy Preston, Alice Cooper, and Earth, Wind, and Fire doing Beatles songs?!?! Brilliant casting. I'd love to own this on DVD.

10. Favorite movies of all-time (up to five).

5. Following
(1998) [d. Christopher Nolan]
4. L' Année dernière à Marienbad
(1961) [d. Alain Resnais]
3. The Night of the Hunter
(1955) [d. Charles Laughton]
2. Paths of Glory
(1957) [d. Stanley Kubrick]
1. Cléo de 5 à 7
(1961) [d. Agnes Varda]

camp brainwash

This is the most frightening thing I've seen in a while: Jesus Camp. Thanks to Chris Eberhart for the link. Warning, this video may cause sweating, chills, vomiting, nasea, and utter disbelief. It's totally work safe; I'm just being over-dramatic.

"I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the Gospel as they are, uh, over in, in Pakistan, in in Israel, in Palestine and all those different places."

an important psa: stopping email hoaxes

I forgot something for my top ten pet peeves post. I really hate these email forwards and myspace bulletin chain-letter-type things that are completely made up. The crazy thing is people fall for them time and again, so I have a solution. The next time you get one of these annoyances, Google the subject matter or better yet, search on snopes.com, which is a hoax-debunking site. When you find the real story, copy the link and send it to the person who forwarded the hoax email or myspace bulletin to you and let them kindly know about Snopes and the power of Google. Ask them to verify the authenticity of any email chain letters before the next time they hit send. And then ask them to send the debunked hoax back to the person who sent it to them. Hopefully the people sending these stupid things will be so embarassed and feel so dumb that they'll do the right thing the next time they receive one.

fi5e ni9e

The blog of the day is an amazing collection of articles and thoughts by a futuristic-minded brilliant graffiti artist from NYC. Who knows what his real name is, but his tag is fi5e (see the picture at top left) and his site is ni9e. His blog is filled with interesting graffiti stuff. I feel I have an extra-special cosmic connection to him, since my birthday is on five nine. The projects he has done are absolutely amazing. Definitely click on the drop down box full of goodies! You will be amazed. I especially enjoy the All City Council project and the Postal Labels Against Bush project. It's graffiti as political message, so if you used to think graffiti was a sign of urban decay, think again. It can be a sign of political decay as well, and a quite poignant, powerful, hilarious, and visible political tool at that! And when your attention span has expired, go visit the Graffiti Research Lab and see how they are taking graffiti to the next level in a similar manner. I'm all about the LED Throwies (and also here) on that site. You can learn how to make your own LED Throwies from pieces-parts that you may have around the house here.

my top ten favorite snl characters ever

10. Landshark (Chevy Chase)
9. Nathan Thurm (Martin Short)
8. Tommy the Liar (Jon Lovitz)
7. Rosanne Rosanadana (Gilda Radner)
6. Debbie Downer (Rachel Dratch)
5. Kaitlin (Amy Poehler)
4. Jeannie Darcy (Molly Shannon)
3. Ed Grimley (Martin Short)
2. Pat Stevens (Nora Dunn)
1. Donatella Versace (Maya Rudolph)

my top ten albums of all time

Based on the number of good songs on the album, how often I play them, and simply how innovative or timeless they are:

10. Digable Planets - Blowout Comb (1994)
9. Ben Harper - Fight for Your Mind (1995)
8. Meat Beat Manifesto - Satyricon (1992)
7. Deee-lite - Dewdrops in the Garden (1994)
6. New Order - Substance (1987)
5. The Pixies - Doolittle (1989)
4. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (1989)
3. Sam Cooke - The Best of Sam Cooke (1962)
2. The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)
1. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life (1976)

turn your radio dial way to the left

Today's sites of the day are devoted to Beat Matrix and The Raver's Edge, my two favorite shows among Cleveland's college radio offerings. Both shows air on WRUW 91.1 FM, but don't worry if you live outside the 216 area code you can listen to the live audio stream at wruw.org. Beat Matrix touches down from outer space each and every Monday night from 9:30 PM until 11:30 PM EST or listen to the live stream on the internet at http://www.beatmatrix.net. Your hosts StoutXTC and his new apprentice Graph offer up some of their picks of what's hot in the realm of electonic music and then they turn the show over to a guest DJ each week who mixes live for an hour. They often have ticket givaways, interviews, and keep their listeners up to date on the week's upcoming events. Then each and every Saturday from 5:30 PM until 8 PM, hosts Vitruvius and Sam bring you a similar formula for The Raver's Edge. Each week they play their selections and also invite a guest DJ to play a live one-hour set. You can check their guest DJ schedules for upcoming shows here: Beat Matrix and The Raver's Edge.

touch supper club: let them wear cake!

Touch Supper Club's 1 Year Anniversary party was last night. DJs Jugoe and mrbradleyp who recently changed his moniker to Jim Beam... best tag team set I've ever heard. They were all over the spectrum of this thing we call music. Most diverse set ever and it was pure perfection from Bugz in the Attic to funk to Matthew Dear to oldschool hip hop and soul and R&B and punk and reggae to Nu Shooz "I Can't Wait"! Holy fuckoli is all I have to say. Holy fuckoli, indeed. Thank you, guys. Thank you for one unbelievable night of music. Check out the free original music and mixed set downloads on Jugoe's site. Updated:
photos are up! I guess I forgot to mention the cake fight.

top ten pet peeves

I'm hungover and crabby. So here's a bitter, evil top ten for today. Oh, CH₃CH₂OH, how I do hate thee in large quantities.

10. Poor grammar and spelling. Especially the bastardazation of the English language due to the internet. The dumbing down of America, indeed.
9. When people put a roll of toilet paper on the wrong way. The new sheets should go over the top towards you, not from underneath where they might touch the wall.
8. Unshelled peanuts. Who has time for all that work for nothing? They have machines or migrant workers that do that for us in third world countries. Why do they still sell these?
7. Bill collectors.
6. Itchy tags sewn into the inside of clothing. Don't big clothing manufacturers have a testing department?
5. SPAM, please leave my inbox. You are not welcome here.
4. Socks who get divorced from their significant other somewhere between the hamper and the dryer. My drawer is starting to look like a singles bar for socks.
3. When people stop over without calling first.
2. When people abuse their cellphones...by using them in the car or in public or in the company of others.
1. When people don't wash their hands after they use the restroom.

mitch hedberg quotes

I guess Mitch Hedberg was a comedian who passed away in March of 2005 at the age of 37. I came across this page of his quotes a few weeks ago and they all are clever and witty.

"I think foosball is a combination of soccer and shishkabobs."

top ten urinals

To coincide with the crapaganda of dlisted (the blog of the day, scroll down) I thought I'd post a link to the Top Ten Urinals that I found tonight. The ones from San Fran are absolutely gorgeous, and I love the minimalism of the urinals from the Felix in Hong Kong. Read the description of what the previous urinal was at the Felix... sounds rather interesting and ubermodern.

top ten things i should throw away but haven't yet

10. Free promotional waterproof cigarette pack case

I used to smoke Parliament Menthol Lights. I haven't smoked that brand in years, but they want me back as a consumer, so the company sends me unusual promotional items often. This one was sent a few years ago and I have yet to use it. I rarely go to the beach because honestly if I wanted to catch a disease, Lake Erie isn't the entity that I want to catch one from. I really have no use for this thing. And even if I lived along an ocean somewhere, I probably would forget that I had this useless item. And with my luck, I'd drop my pack in the water anyhow. I usually find things like this in the middle of the Winter.

9. Namebadge from an old job

I don't know why I keep this in my drawer. I haven't worked there in five years and I have no intention of ever going back. Maybe somewhere in my subconscious I'm thinking it may be useful for a future Halloween costume or for some sort of fictional grand heist (the hotel is right next to and connected to a very large bank downtown). Yeah, probably neither. Maybe I keep it around as some sort of reminder that I used to work an actual bona fide j-o-b, instead of all these crazy occasional one-off odd jobs.

8. Old Farmer's Almanac from the year 2000

I guess I should save this just for the whole Y2K/Millenium thing, but I haven't read it, never looked through it, and honestly I didn't even realize it was on my shelf until I was looking around today for items for this post. I think most of its usefulness wore off somewhere between December 31st, 2000 and January 1st, 2001. Now that I've actually flipped through it, I guess it does have some great gardening tips. I am such a pack rat, it's not even funny. Or maybe I'm just conscious of the environment and don't want to contribute to the growing landfills. Yeah, that's it.

7. The Remote Control to nothing

I found this remote control. I have a bunch of these that I have absolutely no idea what appliances they control. A television that doesn't work anymore? A radio that I lost? A VCR that I gave away? I dunno, but I can't throw it away. What if I find the appliance and then realize in horror that I got rid of this remote control? I must keep it... with all the other remote controls to all the other nothings. With my luck if I got rid of this and then found the matching appliance, I'd find out that they discontinued this model of remote control and then I'd actually have to get up and manually adjust whatever it belongs with. Me=lazy. That's not gonna happen.

6. 8-track cassette tapes that are broken

Okay, even if the actual magnetic tapes weren't broken, I still couldn't listen to any of these gems. I haven't owned an 8-track cassette player since the early 80s when we all replaced them with the more standard cassette tapes which we've recently replaced with compact discs and now mp3 players and ipods. But I can't throw these jewels of nostalgia away. The album covers look a lot more interesting on these stickers than on the smaller cassette tapes, although not as awesome as actual vinyl record LPs, of which I have thousands. Yeah, I'm gonna hold onto these.

5. Las Vegas casino jackpot cardboard promo

Okay, so when I was in Las Vegas this past May, I was really drunk and I maybe sort of klepto-ed this stupid piece of cardboard off a slot machine. I think half of me just wanted to test the casino security in my drunken haze. I expected a bunch of burly guys with dark shades and those curly radio earpiece thingies like the Secret Service wears or like the bad guys in the Matrix movies to jump out of nowhere and arrest me, but in correllation to my overall Vegas experience: no such luck. Maybe I can use it as a coaster if I ever get a really big mug. Actually, they're tearing down the current Stardust Casino soon to make way for a bigger, better, newer version in typical neo-Vegas-casino style... so maybe I can sell it on eBay as a nostalgia item 40 years from now. Yeah, I better keep it.

4. Some sort of art thing my friend made out of paper

I have lots of paper and many scissors randomly scattered throughout my house. You always want to have scissors handy. I don't know why, but you just should have them handy. My friend Tony was over a few months ago and I guess he was bored and feeling creative, so he cut out some sort of snowflake thingy and folded it and cut it some more and taped it together and now it exists as that thing in the picture. I'd throw it away but I think it may be some sort of voodoo thing and so I'm just gonna leave it alone so that the voodoo paper dieties don't punish me and unleash their voodoo paper wrath on me while I sleep. Who wants to wake up with papercuts? They hurt really bad.

3. Poster of Benji from the 70s

I buy a lot of vinyl records. I buy new ones and old ones. Sometimes I buy a bunch of those really cheap ones at thrift stores. Sometimes people give me their old ones. And rarely I find a crate or two in someone's garbage. Well, when I lived in Chicago, I came across two crates of old LPs that someone had abandoned in the alley near my apartment. While going through them I found this folded up poster of Benji from the 1970s stuck between the protective sleeve and the record jacket. I'd throw it away, but dammitall if Benji isn't just the cutest pooch! And as a bonus on the back of the poster, some 70s gal wrote this lovely and heartwarming inscription in cursive:
"I Kelly here by grant thy Jackie to finger her self." You silly 70s highschool girls, you! Uh, huh... how classic is that?! So even though either Kelly or Jackie cut the corners of this poster (when it was folded... who does that?) that was obviously a free insert to Tiger Beat or Teen Beat or whatever, I think I better save it... you know, for anthropological reasons.


2. Foam cushion thingy from broken headphones

I've been DJing for almost a decade and a half, and in that time I've gone through lots of expensive headphones. I'm a little clumsy to put it bluntly and I've never had much luck with any sort of mechanical or electronic devices. Headphones are no exception. I'm not sure why I have this, but I save it. Who knows... maybe I'll wake up in the middle of the night sometime and invent something and to make that something I'll need a squishy, slightly curved, black piece of foam. It could happen. Or maybe a future set of headphones will break and I'll lose the foam part and I can replace the missing item with this. Yeah, I better save this.

1. Corrective tape dispenser

Ah, the typewriter. Who can forget the blisters on each index finger from tapping away at the big clunky hard-to-press keys, and that great sound when you push that thingy after each line was typed...ending in a little bell sound? Those were the days that I never want to go back to. After the agony of typing a ten page term paper with an oldschool typewriter, I say, "long live the word processor!" So why do I have a dispenser of typewriter correction tape? I guess it would have come in handy had I found a mistake on a school assignment on the way to class and running to the nearest computer lab before the start of class was not a possibility. Maybe it will be a collector's item someday and I can sell it on eBay. Yeah, I better save it.

diva delight

Today's blog/site of the day is Diva Delight. The home of Carmen Mitchell a/k/a Princess TamTam. "Princess TamTam merely strives to be a writer and documentarian on house music and culture through the tool of 'Diva Delight.' ... ...[House] becomes the people, her interaction with them, the vibe of the club, dancefloor chatter, attire, the dj, the divas, the dancers, and more. If readers will have her, Princess TamTam hopes to present to you a chance to experience it through her words and lens. Carmen ...has a Master's in African American Studies with a concentration in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Mitchell's graduate thesis discussed the globalization of Black female performance and gay male club cultures by focusing on the popular dance music texts of Disco and House.
...With an additional master's degree in Television and Radio from the City University of New York at Brooklyn College, Mitchell also worked for Pacifica Radio's syndicated news program 'Democracy Now!' in New York City.

Carmen is originally from Lorain, Ohio and completed her undergraduate studies at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. As an African American Studies major at Oberlin, she was awarded a Ford Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship which enabled her to pursue independent research on Black queer independent films. She also received a Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship and investigated Black women's blues music and the articulation of diverse sexualities during the Harlem Renaissance.

Mitchell currently lives and works in Japan as a multimedia English teacher. She looks forward to returning to graduate school for doctoral studies in an interdisciplinary field in the near future."