Ian Nagoski on American labels and blogs who are finding and sharing good music from all over the world (Arthur, 2008)

PEARL DIVING
Notes on a Few Americans Finding Musical Jewels in International Waters
by Ian Nagoski
from Arthur Magazine No. 32 (Dec 2008)

Record players are altars. The listener first goes through a repertoire of ritual gestures, removing the black spiral-inscribed disc from the sleeve, holding it by the edge and label and placing its center through the spindle before lifting the tone arm and placing it at the edge of the spinning disc. The air in the room begins to move, and the memory held by the disc of a performance by some living, breathing person is reiterated, separated from its image and corporeality in an angelically invisible space. Some part of the listener enters into that space and goes into communion with the unseen force of the sound.

It is magical and mysterious stuff, this impulse for sound-play that is universal among human beings through all times and places on earth.

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“SLOW DOWN”: Erik Davis’s “The Analog Life” column (Arthur, 2008)

Originally published in Arthur Magazine No. 32 (Dec 2008)

“The Analog Life”
by Erik Davis

Illustration by P.D. Hidalgo

SLOW DOWN


Is it really so horrible to imagine the planet down-shifting for once?

You can hardly blame anyone for feeling the fear and panic that helped drive October’s near financial meltdown. Scanning the headlines or the newsfeeds, our eyes greeted a steady pulse of bummer lingo. “Global Recession.” “Great Depression.” “Financial Collapse.” Serious words for serious times. But there was another phrase I kept stumbling across, less apocalyptic certainly but still delivered with a grim fatalism, that struck me differently. The economy, we were warned, was showing signs of a significant slowdown.

Slowdown? I don’t know about you, but I could use a bit of a slowdown right about now. Take things easy, not run around so much, maybe poke around the garden and restring that guitar. Hold a neighborhood potluck, learn emergency response, can some tomatoes. I haven’t finished rebuilding the office, and haven’t even cracked The Man Without Qualities.

OK, I am being a little facetious. After all, “slowdown” describes the debilitating stuttering of capitalism’s endless Big Bang-like expansion, an enormously powerful wave of transformation that in some manner or another floats almost all of our boats. If this immense flow of nested feedback loops, production networks, and capital flows starts to slow, then things don’t just mellow out. They start to fall apart, like a Chinese acrobat—scratch that, American acrobat—whose spinning plates lose their momentum and inevitably fall to the floor even as the poor fellow keeps his balance. That means families get pushed into poverty, small businesses close, poor folks grow desperate and rich folks even more selfish and mean.

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Byron Coley and Thurston Moore's "Bull Tongue" column from Arthur No. 32 (Dec 08)

BULL TONGUE
by Byron Coley and Thurston Moore
from Arthur No. 32 (Dec 2008)

Of all the fucked up, nasty ass, deliriously damaged rock bands in the recent history of the American underground wonderland (particularly Texas), none come close to the squirm and hellacious sqwunk of Rusted Shut. From the incinerated skum of Houston weirdness improv outfit Grinding Teeth arose Rusted Shut in 1986. Their shows were a notorious mess, drunken and fueled by cheap-jack acid. After years of slovenly survival they’ve been somewhat rescued from universal distaste by the current noise legions. The Emperor Jones label released the Rehab CD in 2003 and AA Records did a sick lathe (“Bring Out Your Dead”) last year and their notorious “Fuckin’” track off the 2006 End Times Festival live comp is still the only loop that matters (check their myspace page for that one). It was with some apprehension of being held up by knife point that we unzipped their new Hot Sex EP (Dull Knife). But goddamn if this is not a great goddamned beast of a record. The core duo of Don Walsh and Sybil Chance (the original still alive members of Grinding Teeth) and Domokos (on drums and ‘earthscreamer’) just lay it out in an unctious smear of rawk n roll decimating any obvious pretence of hardcore, black metal, death metal, sludge, punk, avant improv goop etc.—shit is the REAL amerika full on. Salute and die.

Nigel Cross’s British label, Shagrat, only releases extraordinary material. He doesn’t bother with anything else. That means it’s always a label to watch and their newsy release, the Mariachi Riff Live and Free Music LP by Formerly Fat Harry, is a case in point. FFH were an ostensible Country Joe offshoot band, based in England, who recorded a lone laid-back, country-fried album for UK Harvest. It never struck us as wildly interesting, but Brits who saw the band live were always blowing spit-bubbles about how psychedelic they were. Some of that material finally surfaced on the Hux CD, Goodbye for Good, but this LP has the essential jewel—a 25-minute West Coast jam pinnacle that can match any ballroom band for sheer acid flash. An amazing record! The flip has two free-form pieces the band recorded earlier and they too are mind-blowers. If this material had surfaced while the band was still extant, they’d be legendary. As it was, they were so arcane only a few true believers like Pete Frame, Colin Hill (who wrote the fantastic liner notes) and Nigel had any idea that there even was a grail to seek. Easily the best archival find of the year, and an incredible record by any standard.

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ARTHUR 32 IS ONLINE-ONLY

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Hey gang,

Well, the economic contraction has now officially claimed Arthur No. 32. The best we can do right now is make the entire magazine available online, for free, to everyone, in various formats. Digital is never a substitute for the real thing, but in this case, it’s better than nothing. We hope.

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“Real Eyes”: Greg Shewchuk’s “Advanced Standing” column for Arthur (2008)

This is the text of the “Advanced Standing” column for Arthur No. 32 (2008, online-only):

Real Eyes: What Are We Skating Towards?
by Gregory Shewchuk

Illustration by Joseph Remnant

“To know the truth of one’s Self as the sole Reality, and to merge and become one with it, is the only true Realization.” – Ramana Maharshi

One indication that I am not quite an enlightened being is my temper—I can get very angry and lose touch with my higher purpose. As much as I enjoy skateboarding, when things are not going well I occasionally lose my shit: throw my board, punch myself, scream at the heavens, and curse myself for even trying to ride the thing. It’s not always fun and games. In addition to the physical challenge, skateboarding can be highly emotional and often takes me to the edge of some very unpleasant feelings: doubt, frustration, depression, seething anger. Yet I keep coming back to my board, to roll around and delve deeper into the process. After 20 years of sidewalk surfing, I’ve started to understand what I am looking for.

I received my first skateboard—a Sims Kamikaze—in third grade in the rapidly developing suburb of Columbia, Maryland. I was a child with a toy. I played on my skateboard, hung out with friends, rode bikes and built ramps and listened to music and played video games. As I entered middle and high school and became more independent and physically capable, skateboarding became more of a lifestyle.

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How to help Machine (L.A.) survive financial crisis

Mark Allen, who runs Machine, the best artspace I know of in North America, sent the following emergency email yesterday to supporters. Arthur folks may recall that White Rainbow’s all-day “vibrational healing chamber” was situated at Machine during the ArthurBall festival in early 2006. Arthur regulars like Nance Klehm, Molly Frances and the Center for Tactical Magic–and others I’m forgetting at the moment–have been involved in workshops or programs at Machine.

Here’s the letter:

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TONIGHT (Tues): PETER LAMBORN WILSON in NYC

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We heard about this:

The Libertarian Book Club/Anarchist Forum presents…

Tuesday, December 16, at 7:00pm

PETER LAMBORN WILSON’s CHAOS DAY of 2008
THE MAGIC OF MONEY AND THE FUTURE OF CAPITALISM

“The History of Money since Sumeria to its Apotheosis as Pure Imagination in the 21st Century”

Peter Lamborn Wilson on finance as a form of gnosticism, a long historical view of the current crisis, and the prospects for resistance and revolution in the 21st century.

The event will take place at The Living Theatre, 21 Clinton Street, Manhattan (just south of Houston St) (212-792-8050). Coming from uptown, take the F or V train to “2nd Avenue” (exit front of train on 1st Ave, walk east along Houston and turn right on Clinton) or coming from downtown, take the F, V, M or Z train to “Delancey – Essex” and walk east on Delancey three blocks and turn left on Clinton for 2 and a half blocks.

Everybody is welcome and invited to come and to have their say.

There is no set fee for the presentation, but a contribution to aid the LBC is suggested.

If you have questions, contact the Libertarian Book Club/Anarchist Forum, 212-475-7180 or e-mail: roberterler (at) erols.com

Peter Lamborn Wilson is an American political writer, essayist, and poet, known for first proposing the concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ), based on a historical review of pirate utopias. He sometimes writes under the name Hakim Bey.

Texts by Peter Lamborn Wilson published in Arthur:

Freedom Now Maybe: The New Secessionism (Arthur No. 16, May 2005)

The Endarkenment Manifesto (Arthur No. 29, May 2008)
Wilson’s half-serious proposal for a political movement to uphold and propagate the ideals of Green Hermeticism–the “coherent spiritual movement that constitutes the only imaginable alternative to unending degradation of Earth and humanity.”

A poem for Leonora Carrington (Arthur No. 31, September 2008)

A 2008 top ten list you may have overlooked

Fruit Bat Crosses The Line!

Just in time for the holidays*, it’s the International Institute for Species Exploration’s 2008 “Top Ten New Species” list. So how did the the Arizona State Universty-based Institute come up with this year’s list, including the understandably vexed-looking Mindoro stripe-faced fruit bat pictured above?

An international committee of experts, chaired by Dr. Janine Caira of the University of Connecticut selected the Top 10 New Species. These species were selected from the thousands of species described in calendar year 2007. Nominations were invited through the IISE Web site and generated by IISE staff and committee members themselves. The Caira Committee had complete freedom in making its choices and developing its own criteria from unique attributes of or surprising facts about the species to peculiar names.

Check the IISE’s site for full profiles of this year’s list. They’re also taking nominations for 2009, so let ’em know if you’ve seen heretofore unseen fauna creeping in your yard or undiscovered fungi flowering in your garden. We’re only half kidding about this. Number 7 on this year’s list, a mushroom we now know as Xerocomus silwoodensis, was discovered popping up on the lawn outside a British biology classroom:

Fun Guy on Campus

This new mushroom species was discovered on Silwood Campus, a campus of Imperial College, London, although it is also found elsewhere (two additional sites in England and one each in Spain and Italy). The discovery of a new species in one of the most intensely studied floras in the world and on the campus of a leading education center for biologists illustrates how poorly species are known.

*IISE actually announced the list back in May, but what the hey. Tis the season for top tens. (via Discover)