posted
  • place: Colorado

an aside and the Colorado Groundwater Atlas

[Ed: As the coauthor who developed the structure and presentation of this first-ever fully online publication at the CGS—the Colorado Groundwater Atlas—I wanted to help draw attention to the issue of groundwater generally. This is an edited version of the initial RockTalk blog post when the Atlas was first published in 2020. Written for both the general public (Sections 1-8 and 13) and a technical audience (Sections 9-12), the Atlas is an excellent primer on this critical and rapidly diminishing resource.]

An aside

My neighbor, Christie, directed my attention the The Last Word On Nothing (LWON) blog—she writes for it—and I’ve been reading it regularly over the past couple years. That led to my belated discovery of the work of Colorado-based  author Craig Childs who also writes for LWON. He’s “an anecdotal science writer, citizen naturalist, an eye in wild places.” I’m currently absorbing and enjoying his first book of essays, “The Secret Knowledge of Water,” published in 2000, a series of intimate takes on this elemental feature of western landscapes. (Well, technically, “Stone Desert Journal,” published in 1999, and republished in 2022, was his first book.)

Water in the US West is a big deal … I should probably assemble a bibliography of essential readings on the topic! Maybe someday. Meanwhile, I’ve got to go water some of the few native trees on my property with captured rainwater that came last night, it’s been a pretty dry year again, so far.

 

The mighty Colorado River starts out as a seep from a wetland at its headwaters, La Poudre Pass, Rocky Mountain National Park. Wetlands are important carriers of near-surface groundwater. Photo credit: David Noe for the CGS.
The mighty Colorado River starts out as a seep from a wetland at its headwaters, La Poudre Pass, Rocky Mountain National Park. Wetlands are important carriers of near-surface groundwater. Photo credit: David Noe.
Groundwater

Everyone knows that water, wherever it might be found—at the surface or underground—is essential for life. However, few people are aware that groundwater is everywhere beneath their feet. It fills the pore spaces between grains of soil, sand, and gravel as well as the fractures and voids in hard bedrock (Figure 02-01 – pdf download). It may be just below the surface—accessible by digging with simple garden tools, or it may be hundreds of feet down in hard rock—requiring expensive drilling with specialized equipment.

more “an aside and the Colorado Groundwater Atlas”
posted
  • place: Cedaredge. Colorado

note to self

I’m no photographer. I take pictures, mostly rather banal pictures: re-creations, re-presentations, documentations of reality. When asked, I tell people that I photograph who I am with, what I am doing, and where I am. Suitably self-centric for the pseudo-artist.

Yes, I show up, with camera. And back when there was a physical craft involved, I excelled in the production of fine archival prints, and I was called a Master Printer. Over the years I taught many courses on the craft: master printing, photographic history, and photography. I have thousands of vintage silver, silver/sepia, and silver/selenium prints that have sat in boxes for the decades since I was last in a wet darkroom, plying that craft.

I still hold onto a selection of superb enlarger lenses, though the last enlarger I had access to—in the darkroom that I built for my father—I gave to the local college back in 2002. Their once-vibrant photography program collapsed a few years later. So much for craft, gotta sell those lenses.

oceanic detritus, Dritvík, Iceland, May ©2024 hopkins/neoscenes.
oceanic detritus, Dritvík, Iceland, May ©2024 hopkins/neoscenes. [Ed: and, no, that’s not a Lego, it’s 2-meters (7 ft) tall.]
However, in terms of an evolution of seeing, the eye, not much has changed: perhaps nothing. While specific subjects change, the overarching captures are repetitive and … banal … both in formal compositional metrics as well as the ways that the subjects are engaged. No evolution at all.

Not only that, I still can’t get a true horizontal horizon line! Dammit! Simple composition, strictures I never liked, were not transcended to a level where they could intentionally be disposed of entirely.

After five years of not carrying an analog 35mm camera, shooting only miniDV video from 2000 through 2006, I picked up a DSLR with a lens that gradually reduced itself over more than a decade’s use to a piece of garbage. And forget a clean CCD sensor. It’s worse than in the ‘old times’ with spurts of Dust-Off and manually spotting (or ‘re-touching’) negatives and prints with Spotone and tiny paint brushes. CCDs manifest every dust speck as large dark circles on the screen (and in print). Got a clear sky? Guaranteed to be covered in more-or-less distinct circular blobs. I finally upgraded to a true professional-grade DSLR a few years back—as usual, behind the current mirror-less technology—always several steps behind any state-of-the-art. The only time I was near that was when I was shooting with the two Nikon F2a bodies and a selection of decent lenses that my father generously handed down to me back in the late 1970s.

The successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013 to acquire a high-end large-format printer ended during Covid when—after seven years of pointless printing—one nozzle got clogged and I didn’t immediately address the issue to fix it. The printer is now a 250-pound paperweight. I could perhaps revive it, but that would require buying a full set of inks, a $2500 investment that might not pay off in the end. I only sold a handful of prints total, and gave away many more than that, by far.

At this point, my images are hardly ‘collectible’ and so the only photographic medium I am using currently is this travelog. That will not change for the duration—despite this virtual world already jam-packed with trillions of images—until the energy winds down, and all archives become cold stardust fodder.

posted
  • place: Prescott, Peter's Valley, Bedford, Reykjavík, Selatangar
  • enclosure: https://neoscenes.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2000/06/200006-09-008/200006-09-008-desktop.m4v 1584579065 video/mp4

Tape 008

Between 1999 and 2005 I had a relatively decent Sony miniDVcam* that I carried on the road in after the final rolls of 35mm film shot on one of my Nikon F2a systems in 2000 and before getting a mediocre Nikon D200 DSLR in 2006. The resulting tapes are a complex mix of places, people, events, and encounters. Much of this footage has not been seen aside from fragments that I would occasionally use in my live improv VJ remix work. Rather than it all staying buried in the archive, now that I have the server capacity, I’ll be uploading some of the couple hundred digitized tapes in their unedited entirety.

*which, of course, looks like crap compared to even the worst phone video these days … … the general plight of the media artist: an ever-technically-irrelevant archive.

This digitized tape #008 was shot from August through September 2000, with approximate and general timecodes:

00:20 Prescott, AZ: Loki’s US family birthday party; 01:30 Peters Valley, NJ: diner, waterfall, river, cave; Bedford, NY: trampoline; 15:00 Reykjavík, IS: Sara’s shop; harbor; art opening/party; performance; 25:00 Loki’s Icelandic kids birthday party; 36:00 Selatangar, IS: hiking with Loki; 43:00 circuit; Reykjavík, IS: Hafnarhús: Magnus Palsson‘s performance; 54:00 Loki’s Icelandic family birthday party; 58:00 cafe9.net workshop.

Folks appearing: Loki (with friends and family), Lexie, Trey, Andrea, Bill, Zander, Simon, Maxie, Sara, the cafe9.net hosting crew, and many other Icelandic artists and their enthusiastic public … of special historical note, documentation of a couple of Magnus Palsson‘s scripted sonic performance pieces starting ~46:10 …

posted

excerpt, from M. Le Clézio

The infinitely flat earth, lake of mud, river,
waveless sea, sky, sky of earth, blazing grasslands,
road, grey asphalt road for cars to drive along.
Rooted.
Immovable.
There is just a single cry.
What does it say?
It says
I AM ALIVE
I AM
That’s what it says. Faced with the immensity of time, with lake of
mud, river, sky, road, always the same cry
and it is not easy to hear what it is saying:
And it is not TO LIVE! TO LIVE! but perhaps
TO LOVE! or TO DIE!
From deep in the throat.

Faced with indifference, pool of dead water amid
impassive vegetation, cold body between the sheets
refusing with closed mouth and eyes
It hurls itself forward
Smashing its way
It is yet another cry
It says:
Slut! Filth! Trash!
Disgrace!

In the stifling black night, forests of sounds, vain
dreams, world turned upside down preposterous
shadow of the intelligible, mane growing inwards,
hairs that have already invaded throat and belly,
There is a light
the tip of a cigarette
the reflection from a storm-lantern
the eye of a cat

Straight rigid cry, hit, cat’s eye, gleam, droplet,
point, hole, tower, stone, word, noise, taste, skin,
being, being,
tigers, tigers,
ticks that I let loose upon you
demons that are my sentence of extermination
for me, for you, for all,
to burst through the sky, the skin, indifference.
Ho! Ho! Houa! Houa!

Le Clézio, Jean-Marie Gustave. War. Translated by Simon Watson Taylor. New York, NY: Atheneum, 1973.

I first stumbled on the work of future Nobel Literature Prize winner, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, way back in 1986 or so, whilst cruising the voluminous stacks at CU’s Norlin Library, back when there were stacks, and back when I was moderately well-read in French literature—Duras, Mauriac, Malraux, Sartre, Barthes, Ellul, Weil, Breton, Baudelaire, along with the Situationists, etc., mostly in translation. Despite my familiarity with French literary landscapes and my extended experiences traversing France, Le Clézio’s language style posed a challenge to my modest proficiency level. Aside from Le Procès-Verbal (The Interrogation) for which he was awarded the Prix Renaudot, the CU library fortuitously had copies of all his early works in translation including Le Déluge (1966) – The Flood, trans. Peter Green (1967); Terra Amata (1967) – Terra Amata, trans. Barbara Bray (1967); Le Livre des fuites (1969) – The Book of Flights (1971); La Guerre (1970) – War (1973); Les Géants (1973) – The Giants, all trans. Simon Watson-Taylor (1975); Voyages de l’autre côté (1975); and Désert (1980). The impact of Le Clézio’s narratives, reminiscent of my earlier literary revelation with Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, was profound. Through immersive storytelling, he masterfully captures intricate and hallucinogenic details of diverse settings, unfolding psychospiritual voyages through the perspectives of rootless characters perpetually grasping at ever elusive meaning. Regardless of the particular protagonist, all Le Clézio’s works offer a highly recommended exploration of the human experience.

After meeting my future ex-wife for the first time in Köln, Germany in June of 1988, I somewhat reluctantly headed to Arles to attend the Rencontres internationales de la photographie. But first, I spent some days in Paris at pre-arranged meetings with folks at the [now defunct] Centre national de la photographie, the Bibliothèque nationale, and several other rendez-vous. While in Paris, still deeply ensorceled by Le Clézio’s work, I went to his publisher, Gallimard‘s office/bookstore where I bought a couple of his books. They had a binder of press clippings and critical reviews of his work that I mulled over for a time. After some mental practice runs, in my terrible French, I ventured to explain to a couple of the salesladies how much I appreciated his writing, and politely inquired if they could give me his postal address. L’un d’eux a passé quelques appels téléphoniques, faisant descendre une jeune femme extrêmement jolie des bureaux du dessus. Cela a fait tomber mon français primitif dans les toilettes. She said they couldn’t share the address (Je comprends, bien sûr!), but she did make a gracious show of taking the letter I had brought with me and said she absolument would forward it to him. Who knows. That era in Paris, no one willingly spoke English which was quite okay, but I was at more than one embarrassing disadvantage because my lousy French was spoken in a decidedly parler lyonnais, from the hinterlands, down south, mixed with a shifty accent américain: folks were at first confused, then clearly amusé at my miserable diction!

On the Métro, Paris, France, June ©1988 hopkins/neoscenes.
On the Métro, Paris, France, June ©1988 hopkins/neoscenes.

That accent was imprinted on my primitive linguistic neurons back in the third grade in rural Maryland, following the lead of Madame Moon, who taught French to a small group of us after school a couple days a week. A petite and severe silver-coiffed native of Lyon, Mme. Moon held us in a régime ancien of holy terror: if any of us got just a bit obstreperous, she would threaten to come over and sit on us! This provoked an existential fear that I never fully recovered from. We followed every lesson closely, not realizing our French discourse would be marked forevermore: indicated most overtly by our learning the Lyonnaise oui (pronounced as a slack and breathy “whey”) rather than the ‘proper’ Parisienne oui (pronounced as a clipped “we”). C’est comme ça!

Quand même, back to M. Le Clézio, I highly recommend any of his work that is now, since the Nobel in 2008, all in fresh English translation. Better still if you can manage en français, although again, his vocabulary and usage makes for a challenging stretch.

Around when M. Le Clézio received his Nobel, and I was about to undertake my PhD in Australia, I discovered that he had been teaching one semester a year at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Sadly, it never worked out for me to get through there after I returned to the US from Oz. And now, as he’s quite elderly, he’s no longer doing those gigs.

Je lève mon verre pour porter un toast à l’un de mes écrivains préférés!

Otherwise, thank god for those library stacks—a place for enLightened literary (and sometimes other!) encounters that has unfortunately met the same end as telephone books, logarithm tables, paper maps, and French teachers who were at liberty to punish children by sitting on them!

posted
  • place: Árnessýsla, Iceland

blue drain

  • blue drain, Kodachrome sketches, March 1995, Iceland. ©2021 hopkins/neoscenes.
  • blue drain, Kodachrome sketches, March 1995, Iceland. ©2021 hopkins/neoscenes.
  • blue drain, Kodachrome sketches, March 1995, Iceland. ©2021 hopkins/neoscenes.
  • blue drain, Kodachrome sketches, March 1995, Iceland. ©2021 hopkins/neoscenes.
    blue drain, Kodachrome sketches, March 1995, Iceland. ©2021 hopkins/neoscenes.
blue drain, Kodachrome sketches, March 1995, Iceland. ©2021 hopkins/neoscenes
posted

neoscenes, or neoçenes

neoscenes is 35 years old. how did that happen. From Ocean Park, south Santa Monica, guard station 13, suicidal tendencies, locals only, to the Mount of Zion in a golden land. A holy trip, a pilgrimage. made on the knees, in full submission to the (a) reality that I am embedded within. Not that it is continuous, this pilgrimage or this reality, but it has no boundaries.

notebook, Santa Monica, California, November 1983

This, the notebook page from November 1983. Sure, no font designer, no plain-old designer either. Just trying to figure out what to do with life. The very next day, presenting a workshop “Gravity” at the Unocal’s Corporate Research Lab, in Brea, California to a slew of my superiors. What to do with Life.?

posted
  • place: Bundoora, NSW, Australia

A passing FYI: un-embargoed dissertation

I get an email awhile back:

Dear Dr Hopkins

Congratulations, your thesis record is now available via La Trobe University’s Research Online.

Access to the full text is embargoed/restricted until April 2016. [ed: that’s three years since official matriculation}

The permanent handle/URL to your thesis record in the repository is https://hdl.handle.net/1959.9/323047

Regards
Rozana

Rozana Kekovska
Research Content Officer
Research Team | Library | La Trobe University | Victoria | 3086 | Australia
T: +61 3 9479 2291 | E: R.Kekovska@latrobe.edu.au | W: latrobe.edu.au

CRICOS Provider 00115M

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Please kindly consider your environment before printing this e-mail

Warning to recipients:
This email and any attachments are confidential and subject to copyright. If you are not the intended recipient any use, disclosure or copying is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error please advise us immediately by reply email and delete all copies. It is your responsibility to examine this email and any attachments for viruses. Any personal information in this email must be handled in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic).

posted
  • place: on the road

HD size list:

Size matters…

1.3 Tb marfa
1.3 Tb myrtle
1.3 Tb molar
1.3 Tb maximum

930 moog
930 maltese
930 maddog
930 malraux
930 matanuska
930 mandalay

700 mambo
700 methuselah
700 modesty
700 mockery
700 mercy
700 moral
700 marxist

466 maniac
466 muftie
466 marble
466 morpheus
466 mortal G4 Tower

466 mutant G4 Tower

297 maxwell G4 Tower

279 mixture

233 neoscenes_6 K
233 neoscenes_5 K
233 neoscene4_4 K

152 neoscenes_3 fucked K
152 neoscenes_2 fucked K

114 neoscenes_1 K

80 marvin G4 PB
80 marvin49 G4 Pb
20 TiBook PB

posted
  • place: Clear Creek Canyon, Colorado

Case Study: Clear Creek Canyon rockslide

Rockfalls and rock slides are common along transportation corridors in the Rocky Mountains. Clear Creek Canyon just west of Golden is one of the most active rockfall areas in Colorado. The canyon has been cut into Precambrian schists and gneisses by Clear Creek, one of the primary drainages in the Denver area. Rockfalls occur every year in the canyon in response to freezing and thawing, snowmelt, and intense or prolonged rainfall. Historical rockfalls have ranged in size from small (less than an inch (several cm) in diameter) individual rocks to large boulders up to 10-13 ft (3-4 m) in diameter.

A high-profile rockslide event occurred on June 21, 2005 along U.S. Highway 6 in Clear Creek Canyon, approximately 10 miles (16 km) west of Golden, CO. Around 11 AM, 2,000 cubic yards (1500 m3) of rock slid from a pre-existing road cut on the north side of the road and completely covered the road. Two tractor-trailers were caught in the rockslide and were pushed off the road by the debris. The tractor-trailers were themselves totaled but the drivers sustained only minor injuries.

One of two semi trucks caught in the catastrophic rockfall in Clear Creek Canyon, about 10 miles west of Golden, Colorado. Photo credit: Colorado Geological Survey.
One of two semi trucks caught in the catastrophic rockfall in Clear Creek Canyon, about 10 miles west of Golden, Colorado. Photo credit: Colorado Geological Survey.

The geology at this location consists of Precambrian metamorphic schist and gneiss, which has been subsequently intruded (cut through by molten rock) with granitic pegmatite dikes. Unfortunately, one of these thin pegmatite dikes that had intruded into the metamorphic rocks was steeply inclined toward the roadway. When the magma intruded the metamorphic rocks and solidified into the granitic pegmatite, the contact between the two rock types became “baked” and the mineralogy and texture of the rock was changed. This “baked” contact zone weathered to produce a transition of clay-rich material. The clayey zone was structurally weak, providing a plane for the rocks above to detach from the underlying rocks and produce this large rock slide.

Jon White, Senior Engineering Geologist, examines the failure zone between the granitic pegmatite and the surrounding metamorphics. Photo credit: Colorado Geological Survey.
Jon White, Senior Engineering Geologist, examines the failure zone between the granitic pegmatite and the surrounding metamorphics. Photo credit: Colorado Geological Survey.
View of the general plane of the slip surface (that is, the surface of the pegmatite intrusion). The wire mesh was in place prior to the June 2005 rock fall to control the inevitable shedding of smaller rocks. Photo credit: Colorado Geological Survey.
View of the slip surface looking north (i.e., the surface of a pegmatite intrusion). The wire mesh was in place prior to the June 2005 rock fall to control the inevitable shedding of smaller rocks. Photo credit: Colorado Geological Survey.
more “Case Study: Clear Creek Canyon rockslide”
posted
  • place: online, Boulder, Colorado & Riga, Latvia
  • enclosure: https://neoscenes.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2002/11/20021120-castle_of_Light/20021120-castle_of_Light-desktop.m4v 382273457 video/mp4

gaismaspils / castle of Light / telejam 04

screenshot: live neoscenes stream using VDMX, online, Boulder, Colorado & Riga, Latvia, 20 November ©2002 hopkins/neoscenes.
screenshot: live neoscenes stream using VDMX, online, Boulder, Colorado & Riga, Latvia, 20 November ©2002 hopkins/neoscenes.

A long ago and far away project at the cutting edge of collaborative international streaming between Boulder, CO, and Riga, Latvia, and points in between.

18-24 November 2002, Arhivs Gallery, Riga, Latvia

A real-time video-installation followed by series of live audiovisual data exchange performances in search of access to the repository of higher knowledge.

Video/sound artists and broadcasters (streaming media/icecast) are invited to salvage the Light from obscurity and participate in search process by joining telejamming sessions during the exhibition.

To participate and find out more, please contact voldemars@pxxxks.lv for any questions.

The installation concept is built around an ancient myth found in Latvian pagan culture, but its symbolic meaning can be found in many other cultures—be it the Golden Age, The Lost World, the Garden of Eden in ancient times and Christian belief, or The Lost Tree of Knowledge in Eastern Cultures.

In the Latvian mythology there is a widely known story about the Palace of Light — a repository of higher knowledge and wisdom, freedom and power of spirit and mind, which was drowned by darkness in depths of the Lake Burtnieki a long time ago.

By transforming the pagan mythology and industrial societies notion of the Palace of Light into the images of information society we arrive at the symbol which finds similarities with twenty-first century cultural icons like cyberspace, hyperspace, unlimited information space, dimension of thought, ideas, and information reality.

In the Latvian folklore we can find precise information about the way the drowned palace can be accessed: its name (or call it password) needs to be guessed, identified and separated from the rest of the information. Basically if we don’t question the convictions of Hellenistic thinkers about reality as the imperfect projection of the Idea, where new phenomenon and conceptions appear only when they are thought of (identified), it is necessary to find/capture this idea of the Palace of Light, which will serve as a universal key to the gate of the world of idea.

Today the information technologies have developed to such a level that it should be possible to find the ‘word’ (access code) of the Palace of Light. Even more, the search can be conducted in three basic levels of information: visual, sound, and text. In this case the access code search software will work like information processing virtuoso hackers, finding the right code from the hundreds of possible combinations.

About Telejam

A real-time audiovisual data performance (concert), simultaneously in real and virtual space. Many audio/visual streams are created and transmitted simultaneously by the artists in different geographical locations, and presented live via mix aesthetics. Since the summer of 2001 AmbienTV.net (London) and RIGASOUND (Riga) has conducted a series of real and virtual space situations within the Telejam lab. Telejam is real-time data sculpture in the information space.

Technically: in the exchange of data the internet and streaming media software (Realmedia, Icecast) are used as well as huge arsenal of digital, virtual, and analogue sound and video signal equipment, video/ audio mixers, effect processors, image processing software, etc.

The format of the situation and its experimental aesthetics allow artists to use and experiment with the net effects and techniques such as delay, loop, feedback, lo-rez, and signal distortion to create reflexive and summarizing audio-visual loop infinities.

links:

https://www.ambienttv.net/telejam/
https://rigasound.org
https://www.castleoflight.lv

[November 2002]

Damn Voldemars — I just sent this to the lev list, sorry — I hate when that happens! ;-)

I would love to join you folks with a video/audio live jam streamed from here in Colorado — what do I need to know? I have a phat Real Server to use for my stream, so I need no technical support. I can do a stream live mixed from VDMX VJ software with a separate audio stream…

Cheers,
John

posted
  • place: Helsinki, Finland

net2art

(ED: Review of the net-to-art exhibition written for (the now defunct) Norwegian web-culture site http://kunst.no/ at the millennial change)

What our age needs is communicative intellect. For intellect to be communicative, it must be active, practical, engaged. In a culture of the simulacrum, the site of communicative engagement is electronic media. In the mediatrix, praxis precedes theory, which always arrives too late. The communicative intellect forgets the theory of communicative praxis in order to create a practice of communication. — Taylor and Saarinen, from “Imagologies: Media Philosophy”

Imagine.

Enter a plain white room with an Other. Take a facing seat one meter apart in not-too-comfortable chairs and follow these instructions: “You have three hours, create a dialogue with each Other.” There is no piped-in music, no magazines on coffee tables, no televisions, no mobile phones, no windows. No implements, tools, ethernet connections, or whining hard-drives. And, as this is not an experiment, there is no one watching from behind mirrored glass or by video surveillance.

Start the dialogue.

Imagine, what are the possibilities?

Now, increase the separation to ten meters between you and the Other. Repeat the instructions. What now? Add the mediation of a heavy glass window between; add a microphone and speakers on each side. What happens? Abstractly paint over the glass with opaque pigments. Take away the microphones and speakers, each of you has a pencil and paper to write messages which will then be carried by robotic assistants from one half of the room to the other via a long hallway.

Imagine designing the rooms.

Add the fact that neither of you speaks a common mother tongue, but instead, you must use a third or even fourth language, sometimes relying on a book to supply the proper words.

Imagine building the rooms.

Split the room in half, place the two halves at least 1000 kilometers apart, replace the hallway with a slender wire of glass, you are given the means to throw words, encoded with several layers of machine translation, through the glass wire. Provide keyboards for each to touch, exchange the glass window with a monitor that displays the color, form, sign and symbol of your decoded dialogue.

Imagine several hundred million rooms, a person in each.
more “net2art”

posted
  • place: Helsinki, Finland

neoscenes occupation: an international network-building project

[ED: written and published as part of the acoustic.space initiative established by friends Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits at the re-lab in Riga, Latvia net audio issue 1999 ISSN 1407-2858.]

acoustic.space #2 (1999 ISSN 1407-2858), Riga, Latvia, September 1999

In September of 1998, neoscenes occupation (nso) was formally launched as a networking project in the second Open-X venue at the 1998 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria.

The basic concept for the project is rooted in several facets of my former and current involvement as a networker, and my broad experience in arts and design education in Europe and North America during the last fifteen years.

Having taught or lectured in, and visited many tens of art and design institutions, and engaged in wide-ranging discussions with many educators, I had gradually come to the conclusion that much of the (formal) educational process in the developed world is irrelevant, dead, or dying. I viewed neoscenes occupation as a vehicle for the re-creation and renewal of the learning process—applying a series of conditions to make it an “omni-directional flow of energies with a force multiplied far beyond the meat count and with a reach that is far ahead of the game.”

Rhetoric aside, the project has several interlinked concepts and goals relating to creating a viable independent social network of people who share creative aspirations.

Dialogue is at the core of the whole nso idea — dialogue as the bi-directional movement of energies between any two people who engage each other in honest and open exchange. Dialogue that moves in opposition to the oppression of monologue and centralized patriarchal infotainment; that stands as two quiet voices versus the blasting inferno of social emission. Dialogue, as pure expression of heart and soul, is the core of all meaningful activism. more “neoscenes occupation: an international network-building project”

posted
  • place: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

next five minutes 3 review

© Steve Cisler 1999. Non-profit servers and archives may distribute this document, as long as it is not on the same page as annoying banner ads or animated gif files. Others may contact the author. [Ed: sadly, networker and friend Steve passed away in 2008, as this text doesn’t seem to be floating around anywhere else, I decided to extract and revive it from my archive!]

“Tactical media” refers to the use of old and new media to achieve non commercial goals and to emphasize “a plethora of potentially subversive political issues.”

In spite of all the electronic connectivity, there is still a hunger to meet in one place. The more we communicate online, the greater the number of real world conferences and meetings. People realize they still need to get together, no matter how smoothly a video conference or email exchange may be. In March 1999, I took part in a multi-ring circus of activities called Next Five Minutes 3 (N5M3) in Amsterdam. It followed several years of my online participation.

Background

In April of 1996, Bruce Sterling started a discussion topic in the Wired magazine conference on The WELL, an online site where I had been hanging out since it started. The topic was entitled “Goofy leftists sniping at Wired [magazine]” and included a lot of posts from the nettime mailing list that Sterling found amusing or outrageous. I joined nettime (www.nettime.org) the source of most of the pieces and found it was quite a bit more varied and interesting than the wired conference had been. It’s hard to typify the kind of messages you see on nettime, but it includes criticism of the current trends in Internet growth, reports from hot spots in Eastern Europe, innovative art exhibits and experiments, meeting reports, and controversies ranging from the provocative use of new media to the role of George Soros and his Open Society Institute. There are also text experiments and word plays plus weekly calendars and announcements for obscure journals, literary web sites, and new media experiments. The strength of it, the lure of it for me is that many worlds intersect, and through the distributed moderation by people in North America and Europe, just about the right mix of messages reaches the readers who number less than 1000. Originally, many were from Holland, Germany, and eastern Europe. Now, people from Asia, North America, Africa, and Australia take part. more “next five minutes 3 review”

posted

re-lab call from Riga

................ ..............
: : : :
_____ : _______ ____ :
________\___ \___________\___ \ \ \___ :
| __ \ _ _| \/ __/ : .................
| |/ \\ \ \| / /______ : :
| ______/____\\ \________ / / : phatletter#1 :
|____| . \_____\ \__________/. : :... .
: _____ . ____ ____ :
: \ \ _______ \ \___ \ \___ _______ ______________
. .....: / / / \ / __/ / __/ / \| __ \
/ /___/ /\_ \/ /______/ /___/ /\_ |/ _/
/ / /__/ / / /__/ |\ \
t01 \_________ ______/\__________/\_________ ______/|____| \______\
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hey ho dear mates & welcome to the first phatletter ever! containing everything you wanted to know but were too stoned to ask...

I - timetable
II - traveling details
III - visitors
IV - compos & attractions
V - djs/vjs/live acts
VI - merchandise, prizes & money issues
VII - valuable contact information
VIII - the end

I :: TIMETABLE
---------------------------------------------
it's still mostly unknown, lists with timetable will be handed out right at the party. at the moment, it is just known that compos will take part on second and third days, on first day we just get together and set everything up and booze.

II :: TRAVELING DETAILS
---------------------------------------------
Suomi knows all about ferries, better than me for sure!

this is one URL, bus from Tallinn to Riga: https://www.eurolines.ee/lines/tallinn_parnu_ainazi_riia_en.html

buses from other european cities can be found there: https://www.ecolines.lv

about ferries, look there: https://www.ferryguide.nu/

something about planes: https://www.airbaltic.com https://www.lufthansa.lv

if you need some help with traveling, let us know and we will see what can we do.

III :: VISITORS
---------------------------------------------
just a list, the same one as on homepage (btw it got so big that even distorted out nice design haha

only death will prevent coming of these brave young heroes:

raver/phantasy/dualcrew-shining (latvia) :: 187/phantasy (latvia) :: relict/phantasy/k3l corp (latvia) :: d-tech/phantasy (latvia) :: fee.nix-z/phantasy (latvia) :: melnizz/phantasy (latvia) :: ninjah/dab (latvia) :: kumaree/ex-phantasy (latvia) :: lynx/romov.net (latvia) :: vanniken/phantasy (latvia) :: kuce/killaz kru (latvia) :: bou (latvia) :: prox/ex-phantasy (latvia) :: ix/no rest (latvia) :: panks/ui putra! (latvia) :: kanibaals/ui putra! (latvia) :: ngc-5128/fabrique/808.lv (latvia) :: romantix (latvia) :: depredator/phantasy (usa) :: escape/rave.lv (latvia) :: dzdz (latvia) :: buzzers (latvia) :: shuumahers (latvia) :: red electronica (latvia) :: shplint (latvia) :: darkmood (latvia)

these people will work hard to be there:

pol/phantasy (slovakia) :: point777/phantasy (ukraine) :: zool00k/phantasy (estonia) :: jaan/phantasy (estonia) :: the hooligan/dualcrew-shining/skid row (finland) :: melwyn/haujobb/hirmu! (finland) :: bedazzle (estonia) :: mat!/ozone (spain) :: brite-lite/dekadence/phantasy/rave network overscan (finland) :: dynamite/crushers (latvia) :: nosfe/mfx/pwp/vlp/tzygae (finland) :: groenteboer/phantasy (holland) :: kiste/airbag/team scene.ee (estonia) :: terminus/team scene.ee (estonia) :: romans/void.lv (latvia) :: b/dualcrew-shining/quartex (finland) :: kure/rave network overscan (finland) :: shape/dualcrew-shining (finland) :: thundrah/rave network overscan (finland) :: saint/ss (latvia) :: ieris/kyo (latvia) :: lemming/orange/hirmu! (finland) :: eidis/killer toad/dab (latvia) :: bakmaita/killer toad (latvia) :: use101/kyo (latvia) :: meat/mfx (finland) :: hunter (australia) :: q/funkyware (finland)

and these people want to come, but are not sure yet:

alive/scoopex/talent (uk) :: phoenix/papaya dezign/sunbeam/raww arse (portugal) :: hsc (estonia) :: h7/trsi/hirmu! (finland) :: distance/tpolm/mono211 (finland) :: noko/phantasy (holland) :: goto8o/hack'n'trade (sweden) :: skope/up rough & divine stylers (sweden) :: xenon/park/freestyle (germany) :: uncle-X/mfx (finland) :: adam/dualcrew-shining (finland) :: rawhed/faktory/moojuice productions (south africa) :: cru/100%/toxxin/superior art creations (germany) :: sixpack/haujobb/slengpung.com (norway) :: droid/haujobb (finland) :: setok/aggression (finland) :: kbs/phantasy/laxity (denmark) :: wvl/xenon (holland) :: don kamillo/phantasy/100% (germany) :: fierman/ex-hotline (holland) :: amj/side b/byterapers (finland) :: dmg (sweden) :: dr doom/paranoids (finland) :: bhead/t-rex (russia) :: ralph 124C41+/castor cracking group/powerdrive (sweden) :: 216/mfx (finland) :: eggbrid/green (holland) :: synteesi/mfx (finland) :: substance/voodoo/madwizards (finland) :: deeq/rave network overscan (finland) :: nexa (latvia) :: lutka/kinky/zymosis/dualcrew-shining (finland) :: biotek/damage/zymosis (finland) :: ddt/accession (finland)

they might show up but not likely:

goblin/genesis*project (france) :: aktion (ukraine) :: t3tsuo/airbag (portugal) :: mitchell/hardwave crew (russia) :: rainbow (slovakia) :: galen/maxter (bulgaria) :: ravel (finland) :: dely/FRL (poland)

and some more who didnt care to sign up on homepage and more latvians ofcourse

IV :: COMPOS
---------------------------------------------
what compos will we have there...

at first, some compos just like any normal party:

- pixel graphics :: logo (should say: PHAT, but... maybe something else will do too ;) :: ascii (should say PHAT again..) :: chipmusic :: digital music (no MPEG3, tracked music - be it MOD, DBM, XM, IT, ST or BMX) :: 1kb intro :: demo :: wild demo

any else compos we will have entries for.

what machines we will have there:

sinclair zx spectrum 48 :: atari 2600 :: atari 130xe :: commodore 64 + 1541 :: zs scorpion 256 :: alice :: amiga 1200 + 030/50 + 8 megs :: apple ][ :: snes :: nes :: sega megadrive

uff, thats basically it, we will mostly have several of machines listed, in various configurations plus ofcourse some PCs, older and newer. if you have some contribution ready, please contact us and tell what configuration machine you will need.

please note that you can also take part in these compos even if you are not present at the party. splitting into more categories (like seperate c64 and speccy chipmusic etc) will be decided discussing with contributors and depending on the number of entries (we already have quite some sent in).

special pr0n-demo-compo - C64 VS SPECTRUM!

deadline: 22nd september, or lets see for those present at party.

then, we planned a lot of nice entertainment, but we won't manage to hold everything we wanted to, like car race is postponed till next party due to financial troubles. for sure we will have some open-air games (like, there are some teams, each got a map(s) with checkpoints where they get 5.25" disk, who collect all the disks first, upload ware to BBS and win). also, our magnificient Vinyx promised to take care of cannabis milk drinking compo, so hopefully this one will take part as well.

planned is also photo compo, both realtime (at the party) and one where you just bring your photos to take part.

also these are possible: scene quiz, micro-movie-script-writing+shooting compo. guessing the melody, graffiti spraying (bring your cans!) etc.

V :: DJS, VJS & LIVE ACTS
---------------------------------------------
following DJs, VJs and live acts are gonna play at PHAT1 somewhere during these three days and nights:

NOSFE [MFX] - Finland - a.k.a. Nosfe/MFX Nosfe will perform with one of his live projects

SKOPE [Up Rough Soundsystem] - Sweden - a.k.a. Skope/Up Rough & Divine Stylers -- dub and dancehall expected from our swedish guest (if he manages to come...)

MARIS G [Juicebox/Ritmika] - Latvia - a.k.a. Vanniken/Phantasy -- Maris mostly spins deep house and techno and ofcourse chippy electro breaks

NGC-5128 [Fabrique] - Latvia -- this man is one of the rising latvian techno heroes and he will show both his DJ skills and his own tracks too

ROMANTIX - Latvia -- previously known as hard techno DJ, he lately changed to more calm and spacey beats

NIKOTIINS - Latvia -- boom, boom, boom - here comes hard, monotone, percussive techno!

MILK - Latvia -- unlike his other mates from Aizkraukle, Milk don't perform as often, yet he always manage to surprise with his great sets

IX [No Rest] - Latvia -- Ix comes from one of the best known techno parties promoters group in Latvia and techno & electro he spins

RED ELECTRONICA - Latvia -- new and upcoming drum'n'bass talent

FEE.NIX-Z [Bio.Codes/Jah Cru] - Latvia - a.k.a. Fee.nix-z/Phantasy -- atmospheric and not only side of Bio.Codes, one of the two leading drum'n'bass crews in Latvia

MELNIZZ [Bio.Codes/Jah Cru/Illegal] - Latvia - a.k.a. Melnizz/Phantasy -- former techno DJ and it shows in his wicked drum'n'bass sets

BRAIN [Bio.Codes/P-R-O-C-E-E-D/Soya] - Latvia - a.k.a. 187/Phantasy -- this dude is wizard of audials and visuals

NEON BAZOOKA [Jaffa Riga/Sirke] - Latvia -- funk is his thing and you can find it within any style

D-TECH [D.R.E.A.M.] - Latvia - a.k.a. D-Tech/Phantasy -- will mix some console & computer visuals

PANKS & KANIBAALS [Ui Putra!] - Latvia -- old latvian pop-songs & add some noise!

Z99 [Illegal/Ritmika/Jah Cru] - Latvia - a.k.a. Raver/Phantasy/DualCrew-Shining -- will play some music when noone will be around to take care of it

more to come...

VI :: MERCHANDISE, PRIZES & MONEY ISSUES
---------------------------------------------
as the party is free party, it rocks of course but that also means we got very limited budget - or rather to say not at all.

that leads to some problems, in this case we are still trying to get cheaper place... at least we got almost all the technical gear needed for free (like technics sl1200 + mixer, speakers and amplifier and perhaps projector too).

we will see what we will be able to manage once again - and there will be donations-box at the party, so you will be able to donate as much as you can and wish.

prizes - no big bucks definitely, but of course diploma and we will try to design some cups too.

finally, t-shirts will be available, so if you wish to have one, let us know (cause we need to know how many of these should be made). the price could be somewhere around $10, maximum $15 but more likely not more than $10 (depends on number as well).

and, stickers, i hope.

VI :: VALUABLE CONTACT INFORMATION
---------------------------------------------

everything concerning party to this email: egons@re-lab.lv

phones to call (also hot phones during party time):

raver: 6778851 -- fee.nix-z: 9114788 -- lynx: 9503914 -- d-tech: 6539901 -- escape: 9101849 -- ngc-5128: 6599339

these are all cell phones, so you can get a hold of organizers anytime. note, when calling from outside Latvia, use country code 371 (and numbers for an international calls before).

VII :: THIS IS THE END BEAUTIFUL FRIEND
---------------------------------------------
if you have any questions etc, mail mail mail us.

also, more news coming up, especially next week, so check yor emails too!

finally... didn't you know:

https://phat1.slengpung.com

and channels #phat1 and #phatsuomi on ircnet

/rava

posted
  • place: Reykjavík, Iceland
  • enclosure: https://neoscenes.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/1991/04/19910401-xerox_book_side_a.mp3 111059268 audio/mpeg, https://neoscenes.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/1991/04/19910401-xerox_book_side_z.mp3 110094827 audio/mpeg

word-dialogue-Light-revolution-action

A limited 55-exemplar edition 300-page photocopy book+cassette — word-dialogue-Light-revolution-action — was produced from visual and sonic work sent in from around 80 artists and others from 30 countries in response to this invitation (pdf). The introductory essay below describes the intent. The Museum of Modern Art in NYC just happens to groove on this kind of stuff in their Library collection, so they just acquired a copy for that very musty purpose of Archiving-the-Objects that are spawned from life/art. An earlier form of the essay grew out of a performance I did way back in 1989 entitled Antithesis/Dialogue. Included with the book is a 90-minute audio cassette of sonic material.

front cover, Xerox Book II, Reykjavík, Iceland, April 1991

One might have put the words in a circle. That is, they form a cycle of active life: the active evolutionary life of the individual as a member of the human collective. As this is the title appearing on the invitations for this project, the assumption is that the works contained arise from the vital operation of this cycle. This book and cassette is about all five of these words — as they relate to carnate be-ing and do-ing and to spiritual development. Your reading of these Words constitutes a definite Action stimulated by Light, leading, perhaps, first to Dialogue, then on to Revolution!

Cassette Side A

(00:46:16, stereo audio, 110.1 mb)

Cassette Side Z

(00:45:52, stereo audio, 111.1 mb)
more “word-dialogue-Light-revolution-action”

posted
  • place: Mt. Katahdin, Maine

Mt. Katahdin trip, July 1936

From the archive: First Mt. Katahdin trip, July 18-24, 1936, by Alfred MacKenzie (neoscenes’ maternal uncle)

Don Dolan, Dick Eaton, Alfred MacKenzie, Old Orchard, Maine, July 1936.
Don Dolan, Dick Eaton, Alfred MacKenzie, Old Orchard, Maine, July 1936.

View from road beyond Searsport, Maine, July 1936.
View from road beyond Searsport, Maine, July 1936.

Ed on Index Rock, Pamola Peak, Maine, July 1936, by Alfred MacKenzie.
Ed on Index Rock, Pamola Peak, Maine, July 1936, by Alfred MacKenzie.

Baxter Peak, Vic, Don, Dave, Chissam, and Ed, elevation, 5267 ft, July 1936.
Baxter Peak, Vic, Don, Dave, Chissam, and Ed, elevation, 5267 ft, July 1936.

posted
  • place: near Paz de Ariporo, Casanare Dept., Colombia

field work

field work (as part of the Imperialist Vanguard), near Paz de Ariporo, Casanare Dept., Colombia, January ©1984, hopkins/neoscenes.
field work (as part of the Imperialist Vanguard), near Paz de Ariporo, Casanare Dept., Colombia, January ©1984, hopkins/neoscenes.

posted
  • place: Golden, Colorado

Review: MLT Performance Stumbles

Mines Little Theater, backstage preparation, Michelle Leonard, Golden, Colorado, November 1980

ED: This Review appeared in the “Oredigger” student newspaper at the Colorado School of Mines, 12 November 1980.

Mines Little Theater production: Catch Me If You Can by Gilbert and Weinstock.

Director Mike Sides; Assistant Director: Eleanor Burton; Technical Director: Daniel Rich

GOLDEN — Last week’s MLT production of the Broadway mystery/comedy, Catch Me If You Can, marks a certain celebration point for the MLT company here at the “World’s Foremost.” Ten years from its humble beginnings, MLT has become a mature, experienced organization that has delivered some stunning theater performances not only by Mines cultural measures, but by real-world standards. Among many other past and present members of the company, Mike Sides, director of Catch Me and Dan Rich, technical director, both have impressive real-world theater credits.

This final coming of age for the MLT also marks a special point for this reviewing critic. Is MLT ready to have a real-world critique? (I must note that I am an avid supporter of MLT in spirit if nothing else; my friend and long-time fellow Mines inmate, MLT’er Dan Rich asked me specifically to review last week’s performance for the Oredigger.)

Opening night seemed fairly relaxed as I prowled around shooting photos for an upcoming Mines Magazine article on the MLT. Too relaxed, it seemed to me. None of the usual opening night insanity and jitters; maybe that should have cued me in for the upcoming show. I must agree that opening night is a fair excuse for some floundering. but Thursday’s opening seemed to be replete with some serious problems that dress rehearsal should have ironed out. Past performances were seldom so rough, although I did miss the previous week’s performances and cannot compare them to Catch Me.

The technical problems were most distressing after being accustomed to smooth working stage and lighting sets in the past. However, even more awkward were the queuing bluffs — something that should be cleared up before, not during opening night.

As far as the acting, I will have to be kinder. Outstanding player praise must go to Bob Fisk as the hysterically funny Jewish deli owner, Sidney, whose purported last words were “Who’s minding the store?” As a veteran MLT actor, Bob pumped maximum energy and personality into his supporting role. Close behind was Michelle Leonard as the surrogate Mrs. Corban. She seemed to slide into the part of a coy, svelte, and scheming female with unquestionable realism. Jon Bush kept things rolling with his boffo, one-liner delivery as the supposedly simple country cop, Inspector Levine. The leading part of David Corban was not played to its fullest, however, even though B. J. Truskowski seemed to overwork the part. Catch Me admittedly, in this critic’s opinion, was not the strongest vehicle for the MLT to work with, although it did have a fair share of good one-liners, faux pas, and a real surprising twist at the end. If fell short on complete entertainment value when compared to last year’s fast-paced Feiffer’s People and Play It Again, Sam.

Overall, no kudos this time, although I will grant the MLT another mild success. Future productions will have to concentrate on the technical problems as well as actor preparedness. I am not so sure that MLT is ready for the rumored musical production scheduled for next spring, but if past performances are any indication, I hope they will at least give it a try — the Mines community at large and MLT have nothing to lose.

posted
  • place: Golden, Colorado

Op-Ed: Presidential Debates a Joke?

ED: This Op-Ed appeared in the “Oredigger” student newspaper at the Colorado School of Mines, 1 October 1980.

To the Editor:

Letters from Kameroun. –

I swallowed the first of a hoped-for series of American Presidential Debates last Sunday—actually two Sundays, by the time this makes it to the paper, maybe 37—with a liberal nightcap of ouzo and a handful of New York-manufactured Quaaludes. Couldn’t tell which affected me most.

The acerbity of the underdawg, the white-knighted JA (John Anderson) seemed almost overbearing (I was told by reliable sources that he uses coke on his hair); if only he wasn’t telling the truth about old Silk-Ties himself, the Right Reverend Reagan. The bumbling around on the issues was the only debacle that exceeded the inanity that the rag-tag questioning panel exhibited. I kept hoping that someone (Barry Commoner?) had slipped acid into the movie star’s glass of water so he would break into a tremulous soprano rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at the conclusion of his tear jerking (what else?) 3-minute wrap-up that literally shoved a Bud and an American flag into the hand of every blue collar worker over 40 while it took away the life-insulating dope from those under. Judging from the frequent driving references to the Military School for Boys in Texas, it was evident that Reagan’s 43-Anacin-a-day wife was pressuring him to tell all about his pederastical conniving with John Connally.

You know, I find it a shame that prime-time TV—that nipple of half-truths that suckles the Publis Americanus—has the gall to preempt Walt Disney to provide such a spectacle. It’s incredible! Oh my God, I can’t even escape into literary S&M butchery to help myself, or the world, either. However, I still am thankful that I was able to build a satellite dish out of dead cow bones here in the Peoples Republic of Kameroun to receive such gems of American Parody. If only I could transmit. Actually, if Jimmy permanently-on-the-rag-and-sulking Carter (The present US President) had appeared, I may not have had the stomach to tune back into “10” on HBO.

Well, I’ve got to run now—I’m expecting an urgent visit from Richard Wirthlin and Pat Caddell to discuss the Polish vote—think I’ll have to set a few more places at the mirror.

Respectfully submitted, Vecomo de Legato

P.S. I really got tired of shooting up in the backwoods of Mexico — it’s such a drag to continually find boxes of Post Toasties with coupons for “The Complete Jean-Paul Sartre” hardback edition littering the veranda. Africa is the place to be…

posted
  • place: Golden, Colorado

Obscure Alternatives: Meat On Platter Is Tasty Morsel

[ED: This regular column appeared in the “Oredigger” student newspaper at the Colorado School of Mines, 30 October 1979. neoscenes started a music review column “Obscure Alternatives” (borrowing the title of British new wave band Japan‘s second album).]

Last week the Ramones, New York's most prestigious punk band, taught the Rainbow attendees a lesson on high-energy, high-decibel punk rock. Here lead singer, Joey Ramone, gives the high sign as the band runs through
Last week the Ramones, New York’s most prestigious punk band, taught the Rainbow attendees a lesson on high-energy, high-decibel punk rock. Here lead singer, Joey Ramone, gives the high sign as the band runs through “Rock and Roll High School,” the title song from their latest movie/album. Denver, Colorado, October ©1979 hopkins/neoscenes.

GOLDEN — Talking Heads Fear Of Music (Sire Records); Robert Palmer Secrets (Island/Warner Bros.)

Fortunately for Obscure Alternatives, being a lazy columnist, the Talking Heads new album, Fear of Music, and Robert Palmer’s release, Secrets, cover the complete spectrum of today’s New Wave crazed world: and so it goes. Claiming to be beyond the CBGB’s-Mudd-Club-hype syndrome, the Heads have embarked on another vapid meander into the noumenal world. Songs with titles such as “Air,” “Heaven,” and “Drugs” deceive one into thinking this is just another Heads wave at society through a frosted window pane.

Light as this album may seem upon casual tracking, there is meat on the musical platter for those willing to look and listen. Recorded under the auspices of electronic wizard Brian Eno, with a Record Plant Remote Truck at Heads’ Chris and Tina’s loft in Long Island City, N.Y., the album is without a doubt, a tasty morsel. There is the feeling of stopping, looking, and absorbing lyrically a most detailed photograph of the dirty side of every life around. In a fascinating song, “Life During Wartime,” the Heads cry out that “This ain’t no party. This ain’t no disco. This ain’t no fooling around.”, recognizing the less observed side of music production — the slogging, the grit and the grind. On one cut. “I Zimbawa,” Robert Fripp cameos with some interesting guitar work. With lyrics that echo and laugh at the void of New York’s chic society, there is a terminal aura of world-weariness that pervades both the vocals and the instrumentals. All considered, the album is a modern version of “The Wasteland.” by T.S. Eliot; both musically and lyrically a vivid, detailed personal glimpse of the world-that-is.

Displaying the recently developed New York/Los Angeles music schism, the step from the Heads to Palmer is unsettling. Coming from an optimized transformation of thought to music, and going to a minimized transmutation of feeling to commerciality can leave one, yes, feeling heady and nauseous. Palmer’s work is merely a warmup for the coming generation of pop-rock debutantes. Despite a tight, hard-working backup band, Palmer never comes up with anything better than the average 3.2 bar band. Musically the most attractive song on the album is the aptly chosen single. “Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor).” Replete with Top-40 love hooks, the release, Palmer’s first with Island, has one interesting song, “Jealous,” a very simple, but catchy tune wrapped around equally simple lyrics. Obscure Alternatives hopes that this album does not reflect the minds of the music consumer—fun to be around, but no substance—else the Rock of the 80s could be a real letdown. Albums courtesy Independent Records, Washington Avenue in downtown Golden.