American Juggalo

American Juggalo

Earlier this week, Brooklyn-based filmmaker Sean Dunne released American Juggalo, a documentary that examines the subculture surrounding Detroit horrorcore rappers Insane Clown Posse and the group’s Psychopathic Records roster. As Dunne explains in his synopsis for the film: “American Juggalo is a look at the often mocked and misunderstood subculture of Juggalos, hardcore Insane Clown Posse fans who meet once a year for four days at The Gathering of the Juggalos.”
The subject matter Dunne set out to document is by no means new ground. Many journalists and filmmakers before him have been equally curious about the world of Juggalos (for better or worse). So curious, in fact, that fascination with ICP’s clown-faced minions has spurred what seems to be a new beat: Juggalo journalism.

Last year, for example, Village Voice staff writer Camille Dodero wrote an in-depth piece titled “Live from the Insane Clown Posse’s Gathering of the Juggalos,” in which she shelved the snark normally associated with any talk of Juggalos and provided a sober (and at times frightening) report on the subculture and “The Gathering”:

For 96 hours in mid-August, Psychopathic Records transforms HogRock Campgrounds into a shantytown psycho-porn amusement park. The privately owned property spreads across 115 acres of Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, an Ohio River–traced village that “has a history of violence as long as your tattooed arm!” and a tradition of sheltering “river pirates, smugglers, counterfeiters, ghosts, and some of the nation’s first serial killers!” (Both are blurbs, now deleted, from the “Site Attractions” page of the official Gathering website.)

Forbes Magazine
 

Aphex Twin Full 90's MTV Interview

Lost of tunes too.....

Guy Debord calls the Apple Store

 

"The satisfaction that the commodity in its abundance can no longer supply by virtue of  its use value is now sought in an acknowledgment of its value qua commodity. A use of   the commodity arises that is sufficient unto itself; what this means for the consumer is an outpouring of religious zeal in honor of   the commodity's sovereign freedom. Waves   of enthusiasm for particular   products, fueled and boosted by the   communications media, are propagated with lightning speed. A film sparks   a fashion craze, or a magazine launches a chain of clubs that in turn spins off a line of products. The sheer fad item perfectly expresses the fact that, as the mass of commodities becomes more an more absurd, absurdity becomes a commodity in its own right." 

- Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle

Audio comes from Audio Anarchy

Man Ray - Emak-Bakia (1926)

In Emak Bakia, the mischievous dadaist and surrealist Man Ray pioneered the technique of cameraless filmmaking, exposing lengths of film to light after sprinkling them with pins, grains of salt and other common objects. In its playful use of disparate materials -- animation, non-objective shapes, rayograms, unfocused and optically fragmented images -- Emak Bakia remains fresh and inspiring nearly 80 years after it was made. Man Ray said he made this one in strict conformity with Surrealist principles. It opens with a series of apparently unrelated shots: grain on film; flowers moving; drawing pins in negative: points of light - out of focus -which order themselves into lines; a signwriter spelling out incomplete sentences; a prism. reflecting bars of light, rotating at different speeds; car headlights, with a huge single eye superimposed over the radiator between them; it blinks; and so on. As the film progresses the car theme becomes dominant: the driver wearing goggles (which mimic the car's headlights). There follow a series of conventional shots of the car driving down an avenue, intercut with close-ups of sheep (in complete tonal contrast). The car stops -a woman's legs are seen getting out -the shot is repeated three times, the fourth time it fades and is replaced by a stepped superimposition of all four shots, one following closely on the other. Individual images are striking for their humour and originality, but Ray still apparently felt it necessary to impose a conventionally readable theme -the car ride -to hold the film together.

Rebellion in Tottenham 2011

The police murder an innocent man, then let Tottenham burn. The real story, told by local people who were there.

Can Documentary (Deutsch)

Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music. Can constructed their music largely through collective spontaneous composition –– which the band differentiated from improvisation in the jazz sense –– sampling themselves in the studio and editing down the results; bassist/chief engineer Holger Czukay referred to Can's live and studio performances as "instant compositions". They had occasional commercial success, with singles such as "Spoon" and "I Want More" reaching national singles charts. Through albums such as Monster Movie (1969), Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972) and Future Days (1973), the band exerted a considerable influence on avant-garde, experimental, underground, ambient, punk, post-punk, new wave and electronic music.

Sita Sings the Blues

"Sita Sings the Blues" is based on the Hindu epic "The Ramayana". Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina Paley is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Ramayana. Set to the 1920's jazz vocals of torch singer Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as "the Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told." It is written, directed, produced and animated by American artist Nina Paley. "Sita Sings the Blues" was released in 2008 only after long negotiations with the copyright holders of the 80-year-old songs recorded by Annette Hanshaw. Following the experience of almost having her film blocked from distribution, Nina Paley released it freely under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, and now devotes a significant portion of her time to free culture activism. She is Artist in Residence at the non-profit QuestionCopyright.org. If you'd like to help pay off the $50,000.00 loan she took out to pay the music monopoly fee, you can donate to the Sita Distribution Project (tax-deductible in the US) at http://questioncopyright.org/sita_distribution#donate . Donations to that project go exclusively to that purpose and other expenses Nina incurred in releasing the film. You can also purchase DVDs, prints, shirts, and other Sita-related merchandise at http://questioncopyright.com/sita.html ; revenue is shared with Nina Paley. For more about the film and about Nina Paley's other work, see http://sitasingstheblues.com .

THUG

This is Thug, Black Eye record launch, Piccadilly Hotel, Kings Cross, Sydney, June 2nd 1987. Thug consisted of Tex (Greg) Perkins (Beasts of Bourbon) Lachlan McLeod (Salamander Jim) & Peter Read (Leather Moustache). Prior to becoming a live act, THUG were initially a home recording project using electronic gear gleaned from Peter Read’s flat mate (who had amassed a collection of gismos). Thug was also a dramatic career change for Perkins who had previously been known as the front man for grunge pioneers The Beasts of Bourbon & swamp-tinged Salamander Jim. In comparison, Thug was confrontational, experimental, electronically-charged; whose live act upon being translated to the stage could be easily deemed pre-multimedia with an assortment of theatrics, improvisation, dancers and super 8/video loops. The finale of these shows resembled a contact sport involving all participants mock brawling and piling on top of each other. I was a fan but never saw them play, being 18 and living in Queensland at the time. Thug put the art into pub rock in Australia.

Other times the audience would get involved or get some special attention themselves. Like the gig when THUG showered an entire audience in flour when the act played a Goth club (a venue Thug were never booked at again). Thug’s debut was the ‘Dad / Thug’ 7” (also referred to as ‘Fuck Your Dad’ BLACK4) which would go onto cement Black Eye as the most demented Australian label, period. It also featured a gimmicky campaign reminiscent of Stiff Records.

Fighting was Thug's bag, the obligatory end-of-show rumble becoming the spirited finale of every performance in the band's short life between 1986-88. On one occasion at The Site in Victoria Street, Kings Cross, Tex Perkins (for the singer was he) announced that he and Thug were getting tired of the barney at the end of every show and demanded that “you kids down the front” take over the duty and “fight amongst yourselves this time”. Which they did, even Tex watching on in astonishment at the low-level bloodbath he'd so easily orchestrated. And it was the toe-tapping Sneaky Leather Man that invariably saw some strange fellow in leather take the stage for no responsible reason, leaving at song's end having achieved very little.

"..I ran into (Tex) Perkins just on the street one day. We hadn’t seen each other for like six or eight months, and in that time he had relocated to the Gunnery. Well, he said he was involved in doing this thing; he was at a loss to describe it. He was referring to THUG amongst other things so I rolled long to the Piccadilly Hotel with a couple of friends and, nothing could prepare us for what we saw. I think THUG was on stage and off in about eighteen minutes it was just like amazing. Only visual footage and some strong photographs can really totally capture what THUG were about. And also on the same night I think it might have been Lubricated Goat and might’ve been No More Bandicoots or something like that too. But it was quite clear this was something different and it wasn’t called Black Eye at that point, I don’t know when we decided to call it Black Eye; we knew that somehow it has to be documented and well, vinyl records were the medium of the day. Rather than video footage. yep we started a label, it was the basket case son of Red Eye…” - JOHN FOY (Founder of Redeye Records 2003

For more on an amazing time for music in Sydney here (includes 18 tracks of crackling madness for download and lots of links)

Animals and Humanity

The video shows a group of 38 chimps that had spent 30 years inside testing facilities in Austria being released into a safari park. After spending decades undergoing medical tests, including being injected with HIV and hepatitis, their amazement at finally being free is clear. The footage shows two adult chimps gazing out of their enclosure at the outside world. After taking a few steps, one chimp turns back, hugging another chimp and squealing with excitement. Clearly overjoyed, the animals almost appear to laugh.

"I refuse to eat animals because I cannot nourish myself by the sufferings and by the death of other creatures. I refuse to do so, because I suffered so painfully myself that I can feel the pains of others by recalling my own sufferings.I feel happy, nobody persecutes me; why should I persecute other beings or cause them to be persecuted? I feel happy, I am no prisoner, I am free; why should I cause other creatures to be made prisoners and thrown into jail? I feel happy, nobody harms me; why should I harm other creatures or have them harmed? I feel happy, nobody wounds me; nobody kills me; why should I wound or kill other creatures or cause them to be wounded or killed for my pleasure and convenience?(...) I think that men will be killed and tortured as long as animals are killed and tortured. So long there will be wars too. Because killing must be trained and perfected on smaller objects, morally and technically." Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz Animals, My Brethren (written in the Concentration Camp Dachau, in the midst of all kinds of cruelties)

Wholly Communion (1965)

Peter Whitehead's first independently produced film, won the Gold Medal at the prestigious Mannheim Documentary Film Festival 1966, and was shown at Film Festivals round the world. It was England's first cinema-verite documentary film - filmed with a silent Eclair camera - 'one of the audience' - at the legendary, spontaneous International Poetry Incarnation at the Albert Hall, London, 11th June 1965 - 7000 people unexpectedly filled the hall to listen to Beat poets from America - making the event into the first major "Happening" , putting the underground and counter-culture firmly into the public eye - not letting it blink too often since. Allen Ginsberg, travelling pal of Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, this time fresh back from Prague where he had been crowned "King of the May", started the proceedings by singing a Hindu mantra, accompanying himself with finger cymbals. Lawrence Ferlinghetti launched into a poem - "To Fuck is to Love Again" - and the evening - and England - was never the same again. Alexander Trocchi kept the police at bay and the events rolling. Gregory Corso read his poem "Mutation of the Spirit". Ernst Jandl read Sound Poems in German. English poets Michael Horovitz and Christopher Logue read calmly, but Harry Fainlight, reading a poem written on LSD, "The Spider" was interrupted by Dutch poet Simon Vinkenoog, high on mescalin, shouting out "Come man come" and Harry's attempts to carry on and read more and more poems are some of the highlights of the film. Not so much about poetry - but poets exposing themselves, reading to a public which can be sometimes hostile. Adrian Mitchell's poem "To Whom it May Concern" - a savage diatribe about the Vietnam War - brought the house down. Allen Ginsberg read a poem written by the Russian poet Andrei Vosnesensky - "New York Bird" - he was present but not allowed to read by his Embassy. Allen brought the evening to a close with a reading of two long poems - "The Change" and "Who be Kind To" - in which he wrote "Tonite let's all make love in London". While he was reading, a young girl danced - in a haze of pot smoke - oblivious of time and space and people - following the rhythm of the poetry as if it was music.

The Beat Hotel

Documentary made by Richard Cremon on the residence of the mythical "Beat Generation" (Burroughs, Corso, Ginsberg, Orloswky) in Paris at 9 rue Git-le-Coeur-the "Beat Hotel", narrated by Bryon Gtsin, British director that all 'inside of the "Beat" carried out the experimental film "The Ups Cuts", was the' last tenant to leave the squalid hovel.

Inside Lou Reed's Amp 1969

The Velvet Underground played Boston on March, 15 1969 at famed music venue The Boston Tea Party. Someone put a microphone inside Lou Reed’s amplifier and the result is pretty magnificent. Bootlegged as The Legendary Guitar Amp Tapes (Free Download), the recordings are formidable in their unadulterated rock and roll fire and fury and a revelation for anyone who hasn’t paid close attention to Reed’s dynamic guitar playing.

"But The Legendary Guitar Amp Tapes makes little justice to the Velvet as a group, it was made by putting a recording device inside Lou´s amp, so what we got basically here is the sound of Lou´s incendiary leads, accompanied backed very far by the rest of the group, don´t dismay, as the songs sound just as you know them, except vocals and certain details are left behind (you can use it as the VU´s karaoke-tape), here you have the unique chance to listen to a guitar player who stood ahead of his time, who applied free jazz improvisational techniques on a rock format, a player who wasn’t afraid of going all the way and applied Ornette Coleman harmolodics to his guitar technique." Julian Cope

Let the Be Light by John Huston (1946)

Let There Be Light is a 1946 American documentary film directed by John Huston. The film, commissioned by the United States Army Signal Corps, was the final entry in a John Huston trilogy of films produced at the request of the U.S. Government. This documentary film follows 75 U.S. soldiers who have sustained debilitating emotional trauma and depression. A series of scenes chronicle their entry into a psychiatric hospital, their treatment and eventual recovery. Some of the treatments involved then-new drugs and hypnosis, and the impression was given of miraculous cures, though the narration says that there will be continuing psychiatric care. Much of the filming was done at Edgewood State Hospital, Deer Park, Long Island, New York which between 1944 and 1946 was part of Mason General Hospital, a psychiatric hospital run by the United States War Department named for an Army doctor and general, . The film was controversial in its portrayal of shell-shocked soldiers from the war. "Twenty percent of our army casualties", the narrator says, "suffered psychoneurotic symptoms: a sense of impending disaster, hopelessness, fear, and isolation." Apparently due to the potentially demoralizing effects the film might have on recruitment, it was subsequently banned by the Army after its production, although some pirated copies had been made. Military police once confiscated a print Huston was about to show friends at the Museum of Modern Art. The Army claimed it invaded the privacy of the soldiers involved, and the releases Huston had obtained were lost; the War Department refused to get new ones. The release in the 1980s by Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander, Jr. was attributed to his friend Jack Valenti who worked to get the ban lifted. The United States Archives now sells and rents copies of the film, and as a government work it is freely copied. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. In 2010, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"

The Clash: Westway to the World

This documentary combines recent interviews and old footage to provide a comprehensive view of The Clash, one of the world's most influential rock bands. Footage from old club shows and stadium concerts is intercut with interviews with band members Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon, and Joe Strummer. The Clash began as rebellious punks eager to combine their influences: Simonon leaned towards reggae, and Jones leaned toward harder-edged British rock, while Strummer favored American R&B. Despite various fights and conflicts, The Clash emerged as "the only band that mattered," a punk rock band which ventured beyond punk to create a unique and unforgettable sound. WESTWAY TO THE WORLD documents their beginnings, their rise to stardom, and their collapse.

Satsang

Jai Jai Guruji