need to relate to a higher power?
welcome to the church of FUN.
chances are that if you ride a bike,
you’re already a member.
if you refuse to take life so seriously,
you’re already a member.
introducing THE GOSPEL OF THE CHURCH OF FUN.
gathered by Jack Rabbi,
featuring the holy works of many midnight/LA ridazz.
if you’ve got some wisdom to spout or some art you want out email : gospel.of.fun@gmail.com
BIKE TUBE BOUND editions are also available for sale, for what better way to spread a religion than to sell it?
if you see me on rides, i’ll also be carrying free xeroxed material
for its better you have the power of the VERB in your pocket
than it is for I to have $5 in mine.
but if you’re a charitable disciple, email the aforementioned address to inquire about a finely crafted copy.
Creating a visual component that accurately captures the interior vistas that the Inner Islands crew summon is a magical feat and Lawrence Martinez succeeds effortlessly. Martinez compiled
the film All Fire // Alight Light from a mixture of animation, expired film, and even super 8 shots from Kyle Wyss (Blind Man’s Colour, Chromatic Flights).
Evocative images serve as guided meditation to the blissful mix of ever evolving acoustic drone music that defines the Inner Islands label. Stag Hare, Gkfoes Vjgoaf, and Wyld Wyzrdz all make music that compel the listener to drift into relaxed states of introspection and All Fire // All Light
conjures these ephemeral states exceedingly well. Be on the look out for more work from Martinez and be sure to check out the new Inner Islands jams. The new Ashan and Wyld Wyzrdz have
provided a lot harmonic healing in my direction.
Midnight Ridazz founder Roadblock has started writing very informative and somewhat cheeky articles for KCET’s online blog. He recently posted this one to help cyclist and motorist understand how eachother work and can co-exist more safely.
Los Angeles is a bike town in waiting. All the elements are there: year-round fair weather, relative flatness, big wide streets, insane traffic delays, the need for exercise in a city that lacks public parks and spaces.
Studies show that 50% of trips made by car are less than a very bike-able 3 miles in distance. We know that not all of those short car trips are to carry lumber and tons of groceries. They’re mostly trips to the movies, to get coffee, dinner, the book store, school, concerts – how about a bike date with peanut butter n’ jelly sandwiches in the park?
So what gives, L.A.? Why won’t you come out and play-ay?
The reason is pretty obvious. Fear. Not many people feel safe mixing it up with the L.A. traffic. I don’t blame them. Our streets seem to encourage a kind of bipolar disorder – motorists slowing and speeding only to stop at traffic jams and red lights. Hitting the gas, then hitting the brakes then hitting the gas.
From a cyclist’s perspective it just seems silly. If you consider the time a driver spends getting from A to B in Los Angeles, the speed averages out to about 20 mph. If drivers were to slow down a bit and time the lights, there would be less stress and death on the streets, not to mention the savings in gas and vehicle maintenance.
So how do we make it safer to ride in L.A.? More bike lanes? Driver education? Cyclist education? The answer is all of the above, plus better care and enforcement from the police and judicial system. There is a lot of work to do and the issues are complicated.
Drivers and Cyclists both need education
Lines of paint on the streets are the most fundamental form of driver education. In L.A., since there are relatively few bike lanes and facilities, cyclists are forced to ride in a vehicular fashion – ride in the lane as a motor vehicle would. But not every driver understands that cyclists have a right to be in the roadway, let alone expects them to be in the roadway. Likewise, not every cyclist knows how to ride in the roadway either.
It’s obvious that more is better than less in some cases. Sometimes all it takes is one person or entity to make something amazing and it always makes me ecstatic to just talk about out of “the norm” ideas. My friend Geoff Morgan used to fling his paint brush at a blank piece of sheet music and speckle the thing with water color. He would then proceed to write that music into an electronic music program on his computer as if he were that up and comer shredder Jason Becker, who lost feeling in his lower limbs only to lose all ability to play his guitar and friends had to create elaborate eye systems for which Jason could still construct his music. In Geoff’s case he had written a piece of music that merely had the DNA of what a wrist flinging paint sounds like, or what a good blood spatter detective might recover if he ran the information he’d gathered through a music making program in the future. Then there’s always word play and how it takes you down a loophole and back. You lose your mind for a second in the silliness of our language and find an unexplained meaning in the game. I have many a friend who are endowed with this through older generations of friends long gone and so on. Silliness needs a history. The idea to get 100 people together to create a large ambient “G” hum is on the same level as making an iPhone app that lets you discover hidden treasure buried by complete strangers in your local area or cutting vinyl records in half and gluing them back together to hear what they sound like [coughcough]. The idea is almost as elusive when thought up as when it’s finally undertaken. The “G” Hum parade went off without a hitch. I remember initially walking out of Bows & Arrows thinking, “This is too small…” and then two trumpets fired off triumphantly only to be followed by 5 little melodicas and the faint sound of little battery operated keyboards. We had created a Tibetan Buddhist buzz. All this said, people need to engage silly ideas more often. Make some history out of those ideas. If the guys at NASA knew it was this easy to reach outer space they wouldn’t have spent those billions of dollars, they would have accessed the moon via different crafts.
We claim the right to exist, and we will defend it. We do not seek to overthrow anything. We do not seek to control anything. We merely wish to be left alone.
All we ever wanted was to live in peace with our friends and neighbors. For a long, long time we bore insults to our liberty; we took blows, we did what we could to avoid injury and we worked through the system to get the offenses to stop. That has now changed. We no longer see any benefit in working through the world’s systems. At some point, working within a system becomes cowardly and immoral; for us, that point has arrived. Regardless of the parties in power, their governments have continued to restrict, restrain and punish us. We hereby reject them all. We hereby withdraw from them all. We hold the ruling states of this world and all that appertains to them to be self-serving and opposed to humanity.
We now withdraw our obedience and reclaim the right to strike back when struck. We will not initiate force, but we do reserve the right to answer it. We did not choose this—it was forced upon us.
You are building cages for all that is human. In the name of protection, you have intruded into all areas of human life, far exceeding the reach of any Caesar. You claim ultimate control of our property and our decisions, of our travels and even our identities. You claim ownership of humanity far beyond the dreams of any Emperor of any previous era. Understand clearly: We reject your authority and we reject your legitimacy. We do not believe that you have any right to do the things you do. You have massive power, but no right to impose it upon us and no legitimacy. We have forsaken you. We are no longer your citizens or your subjects.
Your systems are inherently anti-human, even if all their operators are not. We are not merely angry young people. We are fathers and mothers; aunts, uncles and grandparents; we are business owners and trusted employees; we are mechanics and engineers and farmers. We are nurses and accountants and students and executives. We are on every continent.
This is not a burst of outrage; this is a sober declaration that we no longer accept unearned suffering as our role in life.
For long decades we sat quietly, hoping that things would turn around. We took no actions; we suffered along with everyone else. But after having our limits pushed back again and again, we have given up on your systems.
If our fellow inhabitants of this planet wish to accept your rule, they are free to do so. We will not try to stop them. We, however, will no longer accept your constraints upon us. From now on, when you hurt us, we will bite back. If you leave us alone we will leave you alone and you can continue to rule your subjects. We are happy to live quietly. But if you come after us, there will be consequences.
You caused this because of your fetish for control and power. The chief men and women among you are pathologically driven to control everyone and everything that moves upon this planet. You have made yourselves the judge of every human activity. No god-king of the ancient world ever had the power that your systems do.
You have created a world where only the neutered are safe and where only outlaws are free.
We seek nothing from you. We do not want to rule you and we do not want to control you. All we wish is to live on earth in peace. As always, we will be helpful neighbors and generous acquaintances. We will remain honest business partners and trustworthy employees. We will continue to be loving parents and respectful children.
We will not, however, be sacrificial animals. We reject the idea that others have a right to our lives and our property. We will not demand anything from you, and we will no longer acquiesce to any demands upon us. We have left that game. We reject all obligations to any person or organization beyond honesty, fair dealing and a respect for human life. We will shortly explain what we believe, but we are not demanding that you agree with us. All we ask is that you do not try to stop us. Continue to play the game if you wish; we will not try to disrupt it. We have merely walked away from it.
We welcome and seek the verdict of a just God, before whom we are willing to expose our innermost thoughts. Are you similarly willing?
We would stand openly before all mankind if it were not suicidal. Perhaps some day we will have to accept slaughter for our crime of independence, but not yet.
Your criticism and your malice are much deeper than mere disagreements of strategy or philosophy. You do not oppose our philosophy, you oppose our existence. Our presence in the world means that your precious ideals are false. Some of you would rather kill us than face the loss of your ideologies, just as those like you have either hated or killed every sufficiently independent human.
You present yourselves to the world as compassionate, tolerant and enlightened, but we know that your smooth words are costumes. Oh yes, we know you, servant of the state; don’t forget, we were raised with you. We played with you in the schoolyard, we sat next to you in the classroom. Some of us studied at the same elite universities. We watched as you had your first tastes of power. We were the boys and girls standing next to you. Some of us were your first victims. We are not fooled by your carefully crafted public image.
#1: Many humans resent the responsibilities that are implied by consciousness. We accept those responsibilities and we embrace consciousness. Rather than letting things happen to us (avoiding consciousness), we accept consciousness and choose to act in our own interest. We do not seek the refuge of blaming others, neither do we take refuge in crowds. We are willing to act on our personal judgment, and we are willing to accept the consequences thereof.
#2: We believe in negative rights for all: That all humans should be free to do whatever they wish, as long as they do not intrude upon others; that no man has a right to the life, liberty or property of another; that we oppose aggression, fraud and coercion.
#3: We do not believe that our way of life, or any other, will make life perfect or trouble-free. We expect crime and disagreements and ugliness, and we are prepared to deal with them. We do not seek a strongman to step in and solve problems for us. We agree to see to them ourselves.
#4: We believe in free and unhindered commerce. So long as exchanges are voluntary and honest, no other party has a right to intervene—before, during or after.
#5: We believe that all individuals should keep their agreements.
#6: We believe that honestly obtained property is fully legitimate and absolute.
#7: We believe that some humans are evil and that they must be faced and dealt with. We accept the fact that this is a difficult area of life.
#8: We believe that humans can self-organize effectively. We expect them to cooperate. We reject impositions of hierarchy and organization.
#9: We believe that all humans are to be held as equals in all matters regarding justice.
#10: We believe that the more a man or woman cares about right and wrong, the more of a threat he or she is perceived to be by governments.
#11: We believe that there are only two true classes of human beings: Those who wish to exercise power upon others—either directly or through intermediaries—and those who have no such desires.
#12: Large organizations and centralization are inherently anti-human. They must rely upon rules rather than principles, treating humans within the organization as obedient tools.
We are building our own society. We will supplement traditional tools with networking, cryptography, sound money, digital currency and anonymous messaging.
Our society will not be centrally controlled. It will rely solely on voluntary arrangements. We welcome others to join us. We are looking for people who are independent creators of value, people who act more than talk, and people who do the right thing because it is the right thing.
We will develop our own methods of dealing with injustice, built on the principles of negative rights, restitution, integrity and equal justice. We do not forbid anyone from having one foot in each realm—ours and the old realm—although we demand that they do no damage to our realm. We are fully opposed to any use of our realm to facilitate crime in the old realm, such as the hiding of criminal proceeds.
We expect to be loudly condemned, libeled and slandered by the authorities of the old regime. We expect them to defend their power and their image of legitimacy with all means available to them. We expect that many gullible and servile people will believe these lies, at least at first.
We will consider traps laid for us to be criminal offenses. Any who wish to join us are encouraged to distribute this declaration, to act in furtherance of our new society, to voluntarily excel in virtues and to communicate and cooperate with other members of the new society.
Composed by impulse and the stream of consciousness, seven juxtaposed artists came in union to create a collective vision; distinct and furthermore one. Seven of the Absent Fever artists collaborated to create one seven minute song. Each was given only the previous artist’s one minute to base their one minute off of, and was told to compose from solely initial creative reaction. In result is a seven minute long guide through the soundscape of Absent Fever. Videographer Library Voices then interpreted the entire stream of consciousness into a visual depiction of the landscapes visited. It sounds almost like an afterthought of a global-travel, and looks like it too. As if the sounds are soaring between the ivory coasts of the equator, wrapping their presence around the sphere. The travelers collected grains of sand and salt, blizzard and air-currents from each dwelling passed. Country, to corner, city, to village, without realizing, they’d had pieces of everything. And somehow, the diversity compiled itself into something more together than they could anticipate. Each had a map of their travels ingrained in the palms of their hands and the wiring of their subconscious; when each sat to make song, the song was together. There were seven travelers, and their retelling of their voyage was one.
order of appearance:
0:00) KYNAN 1:00) Gracie 2:00) Birkwin Jersey 3:00) Wonder Bear 4:00) Ra Cailum 5:00) Galapagos 6:00) Guerre
This is a note to talented touring friends. I live in a city called Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It is on the way from Chicago (or Madison/Milwaukee) to Minneapolis, right off highway 94. I am looking to bring the FMLY dinner & a show to the Midwest. It’s pretty straightforward, but here’s the deal: Homecooked meal and intimate gathering at my house. We’ll charge about ten bucks per plate and the money (after groceries are paid for) will go to you. This is for bands needing gas money, a comfy place to rest their heads, and a mellow audience on a weird day of the week. For those in LA, there’s still some spots open for an event like this on Friday with Orchard Theif; RSVP here. To NYC FMLY, there’s one tomorrow night with Cloud Nothings. Some videos of what this kind of happening looks like are attached. Write me, yohuna [at] gmail [dot] com.
in an attempt to “dream fundraise” for this year’s fmly fest we thought that we would post an online donation portal to our site and see what would happen if we politely asked for a few dollars. our hearts are throbbing over the support and kindness you’ve shared with us so far. however, as we’re in the last few days of our campaign we thought we’d pass around the hat one last time for those who thought to come back to it later.
we’d like to stress that our indiegogo for fmly fest is not for fun stuff like tarps, paint, gas, or point break live, this particular fundraiser goes entirely to the travel costs of our friends abroad. this year we’ll be hosting buds from all across the united states, and potentially as far as lima, peru with your help. our goal for this year’s festivities is to not only present the sounds of an emerging idealism, but to also share a wealth and diversity of ideas from unfamiliar cultures. it’s a bit frustrating, you know. we have the energy, we have the ideas, but due to our own lack of finance we are usually encouraged to create change by alternative means. this time, unfortunately, we’re short on buds that can both operate an aircraft and siphon fuel.
if you have the means to give, we’ll tell you that we’d rather call it borrowing. after all, everything we do is for one another. and if you have the means to share our cause with your friends, we just ask that you do what you can to help spread the word. we only have until the 7th!
thanks. we love you.
<3
ps. click here to donate and help our hearts grow larger. we have some waaaay sweet goodies for ya!
Yoni Wolf is a teacher, unafraid to choke our hearts with both hands until new sounds are purged from experience. His consistency in reevaluating his own sound and adapting to further sonic frontiers is something we are each incredibly appreciative of, and lends towards every one of Yoni’s albums becoming novels in their own right. True to album idealism his reflections read out time and events which then unfold concepts and perception exposing the vulnerabilities of a man we can grow to admire and respect. As part of cLOUDDEAD, Hymie’s Basement, and the heart of Why? [never too much anticon. appreciation] we swoon hard for this man, and luckily our bud Ryan Soloman of the San Diego band DUDES was able to keep the grin off of his face long enough to have a conversation.
[A quick heads up: this conversation was just before Why? left for their tour, they would have currently been on, but as you may have heard was cancelled partway through due to an injury.]
FMLY: So this tour… what influenced the decision to play smaller and more intimate venues?
Yoni: We want to get out there and give people a first chance to hear the songs that are going on the new record. The production on the album is in the final stages, so we want to share a taste of what the new album is like.
FMLY: The album isn’t due for release until Spring of 2012. How complete are the songs you’re going to be playing? Are you using the tour as a way to test the songs out, or will the songs be presented more or less how they’ll be on the album?
Yoni: Yeah, the songs are definitely done. The writing is complete, people will hear them how they’re going to be on the album.
Our friends the Good Makers recently left for Kenya. Yesterday they sent this report over.
Everything here in Nairobi, Kenya, is brilliantly alive, the air is thick, the soil is rich, the flowers are stunning, and the people are exquisite. The Kibera slum, the largest slum in Africa, is built partly on hills, with a sewer system running down its core, in which the children seem to step in, trip over, and splash constantly. The ground is made from piles of trash and feces, with goats, chickens, and dogs roaming freely. Within that there are markets, fresh chapati, businesses, shacks selling clothing, and many more nook-and-cranny stored filled with vibrant Kenyans. The smell didn’t bother me one bit.
They are going through a HUGE famine at the moment, because of a horrible drought. However, farmers are raising enough good crops on their own, but their government is not paying the farmers enough for the crops that they can sustain the harvest, so they cannot sell them and help their hungry country, and food is rotting, and people are dying of starvation. Its solvable, its just imbalanced. This sounds exactly like another place I know…
There is a MASSIVE FOOD DISTRIBUTION problem going on on two polar opposite continents, America and Africa (not to mention the others, but I’m emphasizing these two for the moment). Each is, I must say, silly in it’s existence; both are highly solvable, but while the government hides information from it’s people, it’s people become stubborn, and, in their forgivable ignorance, seem insane and idiotic, and are draining the world of its resources, and slowly killing us. Continue reading ‘we. can. end. hunger. now.’
Foot Village have explored making music with only drums and their voices for nearly the past decade. Over the course of three full length albums and countless tours, they’ve proven that music’s possibilities are limitless for those with a passion to create. This July, Foot Village return to the UK and Europe for their third time, including an appearance at the Portishead curated ATP near London.
Take one 20 year old African American male named Tyler; a college student and Chicago resident. Place Tyler with a 16 year old Caucasian female named Eloise; a high-school student and Los Angeles resident. Integrate the two into a community of like minded people, all who are in this community solely because of a common creative interest. Allow them to recognize that this isn’t some strange social experiment or even strange at all, it’s merely the product of their generation, it’s the internet. And thus, Absent Fever is born. Absent Fever is a digital label/music collective run by Tyler and I (Eloise) that was built off of a friendship formed in admiration of each others blogs. I run a music blog called verb/re/verb, as Tyler runs a music blog called Flashlight Tag. Absent Fever in essence is a space that Tyler and I use simply to highlight the artists that we love while incorporating other mediums of art into our releases and all projects that we undertake. We observe what artistic voices we believe should be better heard. We then find ways to let them be heard through collaborations with others. Though many mediums of art that we place together may not always seem interconnected on the surface, they are, as all creative formats in some way contribute to every artistic movement to ever exist. Absent Fever is a product of a time in music and art culture when geographic location comes secondary, and communities are built through open forums where ideas can flourish. It’s not dependent on distance or upbringing, it’s open and inviting, and truthfully quite surreal. Since Absent Fever began in February, we’ve released 8 pieces of music as well as 1 collaborative project, with many more of each to come. Tyler, myself, and the Absent Fever artists put together a compilation of exclusive and previously unreleased music available for free download here.
RT @derek_charm: For those who missed it, there's a new Trip Fantastic zine out now that u can buy at Desert Island in Bk, or here; http ... 20 hours ago
