Good news hip-hoppers. Coffee Break for Heroes & Villains is back on the air waves (and across the internet universe) of WFMU. Reignite your summer fling with Noah starting Thursday, June 25th from 11pm-2am on WFMU radio (91.1fm in NYC/Jersey City area, 90.1fm across the Hudson Valley) or you can stream online at wfmu.org. Podcasts/downloads are also available. Check out the rest of WFMU’s summer program schedule here.
Around this time last year I reported that Coffee Break…had met its end. I’m happy to have the show back—if only for the summer. Check it out people. This shit is important. Support community radio, support your local DJs, and support real, live human beings who take time out of their day to make your life more interesting. No amount of ipods, myspaces, facebooks, or commercial radio stations will ever replace the preceptors of good taste.
Sooooo until yesterday I had pretty much decided that (while nifty) GPS was yet another tool contributing to the dumbing down of the human race. There are exceptions to my theory of course–it’s great for constant travelers and delivery folk, cops, okay—lots of people. But it’s like every yahoo and his cousin has a GPS now just for occasional use to get around town. If you can’t figure out how to get around your hometown on your own (or by looking at a map!) then you’re kind of lazy and possibly an idiot. Again, they are neat. Probably a modern marvel. But so is Dubai.
BUT THEN…I met this crazy fast-talkin’ mother at Cave Hill yesterday asking if I had any extra batteries on me. My friends and I politely declined then got back to checking out the dead when she asked if we were at the cemetary ‘caching.’ She said, “There’s five of them here, you know. I was just wondering if you were looking for them.” Initially I was kind of surprised to learn that so many of Johnny Cash’s relatives were buried here (seriously, that’s how stupid I am.) Turns out she was talking about ‘geocaching,’ which is just about the most exciting thing I have heard about in a long time.
“Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seakers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online…”
So as I understand it (she was talking really really fast, and complaining about her itchy scalp [new hairspray] the whole time) people literally bury boxes in the ground and geocachers locate them through clues and GPS then sign them, return them to whence they came, then log in on the website where they can earn points for each discovery. They can be located anywhere—under a tree, by a lampost, in your neighbors sock drawer…and it’s up to you to find them. I dunno. I think it’s really cool. Something different. Beats watching television.
“Papergirl is an art project…Papergirl is distributed like a newspaper, but not edited or printed like it. It consists of art pieces which are rolled up together. Contributions are handed in by mail or personally and are later included in the art rolls…Each roll contains 10-15 different works, meaning that each one holds a unique combination of works.”
The “art rolls” are then distributed spontaneously to people on the street by bicycle. The Papergirl Project is taking public art to a new level in a world where sometimes it seems like everything is bought & sold.
Okay so apparently the nerdiest thing on the internet* was discovered today and you’ll never guess who is supposed to appreciate it the most. Yeah me. First thing in the door, “Hey _________, the nerdiest thing on the internet has been discovered. You’ll love it.”
Just yesterday I spent the entire lunch hour fending off Star Trek jokes and inquiries into my preference of Ewan McGregor films (Star Wars, of course! uh nope). Just because I agree with Joseph Campbell about Star Wars (classic tale of good vs. evil) it does not make me a fanatic. And yeah, so I like outerspace and may have spent last night reading about Ernst Mach. Whatev. It’s just called being informed muther-fucker! I’m not interested in made up dimensions. Look around you. Real life is bananas.
*In all honesty I’m pretty sure this video of a cat high-fiving may be the nerdiest and/or MOST AWESOME thing on the internet. But you know. Nerd (and I suppose awesome) is subjective. Like I’ve always said, whatever floats your Corellian YT-1300 space freighter, dudes!
I dreamt of three things connected by love last night. This documentary was one of them. It occured to me today that I never posted about it. A bit delayed. But I haven’t spoken of documentaries much lately…or of love.
In the Realms of the Unreal is about the life work of Henry Darger. The story of Darger alone is fascinating; committed to an asylum in his youth then orphaned, Darger later supported himself as a janitor by day, sustained in faith by his devotion to Catholicism. But at night, alone in his tiny Chicago apartment, he escaped into his own creation–unknown to anyone other than himself and only to be discovered upon his death.
The film itself is stunningly beautiful and manages to bring his art to life–no matter how cliche that sounds. At film’s end I was left feeling alone, sad, inspired, stunned, and yet somehow connected to all the undiscovered beauty hiding in the world around us.
As for the other two things I dreamt of last night…One of them strangely involved The Who and the other a more or less cloudy figment of my imagination.
I did a post about this, but I deleted it because technology is my enemy. Dave Pajo joins the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. You remember Dave Pajo, yes? The question is…do you still care about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Answer. Yes. You do now and/or more than ever.
There are few musicians I respect (and really just like as a human being) more in this town than Jason Noble. As such, I will vouch for / buy / attend / spread the word about any and all of his creative doings. Also I really like Shipping News. And they will be playing at Skull Alley on June 19th.
I talked/blogged/mumbled something to myself about this Gold Jacket Club show last July, but just found the Jason Noble (wink wink) produced film today. Click link here if you want to have a sense of what it was like to be there—–to be surrounded by sound.
For those of you in the Baltimore (that means you Arlington & DC!) area, the final film in the “Lovers and Liars: Contemporary Films from Korea” series is this Thursday, April 9th at 7:15pm.
