Part two of the three part series Fear and Loathing on the Internet: Redux (Part one here) GPod Radio host Joseph Matheny moderates a roundtable discussion on the subject of Myth on the Modern World, with guests: Wes Unruh, James Curcio, John Harrigan, Lucy Allin, P. Emerson Williams and Anna Young. (Note: When I recorded the intros to part one and two, I forgot to mention Wes as a participant in the roundtable. He is however introduced in the actual roundtable piece and is a major contributor to the conversation. My omission was simply due to being overworked with too little time. Hopefully he will not hate me for this oversight. ) Also, the first installment of In Your Ear, some tidbits about the Y project and some ranting and raging in response to the mailbag. In part three we will introduce another regular segment to the GSpot, A Concise Guide To Setting Yourself On Fire with Kara Rae Garland. Part Three coming in about 2 weeks. 

Enjoy!

The G-Spot 50

In this episode of the G-Spot, we bring you some Sleepchamber phone hijinx, an interview with Psuke about an upcoming podcasts of hers, some bedtime stories with the antichrist, and ranting dialogues with a group of criminals and scholars, including the always untoxicated Dr. Adventure. Enjoy!

Direct link to the audio

Inside Scoop On The Outside Culture

Last year, I and the editorial team ran over 500 articles on Alterati on topics as far reaching as sexuality and culture, underground art, event reports, black metal, ... teletubbies. A year of digging off the beaten path, and I must say, the best job I've had to date. 

I just wanted to highlight some of the ones I wrote that I thought might be most entertaining, since it is quite likely you missed at least some of them. (Unless, of course, if you're one of the people who signed up to the RSS feed and read religiously.) 

Sex/Culture/Etc.

A Crime Against Self: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=495 

Excuse Me, Who Are You? Perfect Blue Review: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=1489 

Deep Puddle Dynamics: Alex Grey's CoSM: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=118 

Redefining The Real: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=1206 

Hacking At The Roots: (tales from the forest) http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=830 

Wake Up Neo: There Is No Counterculture, You Twit: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=25

The Dark Side Of A Culture: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=1761 

Why I Pay For Showtime: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=1550

Interviews:

Drawing Outside The Lines: Interview With David Mack: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=1295 

Alchemical Wedding: Interview with David Aronson: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=803 

Keys To Success: Interview with Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=1629 

Broken Saint: Interview with Brooke Burgess of Broken Saints: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=99 

Sex & Fashion: Interview with Jeff Cohn: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=81 

First Fridays (art scene):

First Fridays: Phoenix: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=226 

First Fridays: The Ghosts of the Ellen Powell Tiberino Museum: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=438 

First Fridays: Say Something: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=1330 

Post-Genre Blues (music):

Post-Genre Blues: Back To The Folk http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=1338 

Post-Genre Blues: The Death Of A Scene: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=957 

Post-Genre Blues: The Fragile Army: http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=799 

Post-Genre Blues: Fusion http://www.alterati.com/blog/?p=603 

Because the video linking process changed, unfortunately many of the old embedded videos no longer work (you have to hunt through altertube for them.) 

I'd like to fix that at some point, updating the code in the articles, but I seriously doubt I'll have the time... I still occasionally run articles on Alterati but I've kind of moved on, at least for the time being, to other endeavors when it comes to the bulk of my time and energy. Wes has taken the helm. Nevertheless, there is a lot of content hiding in Alterati from the past year. 

Assistant Editor

I'll go looking outside "the bubble" shortly, but I wanted to let you guys know first: in June we're going to be looking for an assistant editor for Alterati.com (this comes along with an upcoming, substantial re-design and step up across the site.) This person should be under the age of 25- college students are ideal. At first it will be an internship, with the potential to become a salaried position. You will be keeping tabs on emerging trends in media & culture both online and off, and assisting us with other editorial tasks. Knowledge of HTML, design, video editing etc. is helpful but not requisite. Being very familiar with the internet, social media, web 2.0 etc. is necessary, as is being literate and most important of all: reliable. Don't bother contacting us if you're going to be excited for a month and then drop off the planet. (Past experience with this sort of thing is part of why this position only becomes paid when the individual demonstrates results.)

You can be from anywhere so long as you have consistent high speed internet & phone, though it's an extra bonus if you're in the philadelphia PA or troy NY areas, as you'll then be able to occasionally meet in person with the editors.

Contact me at jamescurcio AT gmail DOT com and we can talk a bit about it.

Torrent Talk Wrap Up:

"You know, we have entered a brave new world. Chilling Effect doesn’t even begin to describe it. We are in a virtual Ice Age. Trackers, search engines (well, not the big ones) are being sued, not for any money they may have (they don’t) but rather to set precedents and make examples.

I would normally write several paragraphs of flippant commentary peppered with links that punctuate my points through association. Not today. Today I have decided to utilize a method known as The Wall of Shame. Shame to the entertainment industry for being (once again) so myopic, reactionary and greedy in the short term at the expense of the long run. But also, shame upon us for laying back and letting it happen. It’s like the artificial shortages and inflation of costs for energy, food, water, et. al. We just keep paying. That’s a form of support you know. No protest equals permission.

I see the same things happening with the torrent/intellectual property communities at large. Sure, there’s the rebellious organization or person to stand up (and to sometimes take one for the “team”) but by and large, I see and experience first hand a lot passive leecher behavior and not a lot of active participant (seeder) behavior. Shouldn’t we be lined up in front of Shell Oil and Warner Brothers, throwing rotten tomatoes and declaring, “I’m not buying your shit anymore until you wise up!” Shouldn’t we support our right to information? Shouldn’t we do everything we can to set up guerrila operations, that move swiftly and silently in the night, swapping IPs, locating to new countries at a whim, and multiplying in numbers so large that the idiots finally give up through the sheer force of attrition?

Yeah, right."

(See the Wall of Shame.)

Want to share your psychosis & have thousands see your work?

Want to share your psychosis & have thousands see your work?


We are excited to announce that we just completed two audio trailers for the Fallen Nation: Babylon Burning project: one 30 second and one 60 second. Originally we intended to produce a video ourselves before running it all over the net, but we thought it might be more exciting (and surprising) to offer it up to the public for you budding videographers, film students, drug fiends, cut-up artists, etc. If you win you will be included in an ongoing viral campaign, you will receive a signed 1st and 2nd edition of the book, and we will line up an interview with you about your work to run in the G-Spot. Your work can be animation, video, or any mixture of the two, and may be produced using whatever software / hardware you choose.

Within the contest media packet (.RAR - right click and save as or it will crash Firefox) you will find full details for this contest. Your submissions must be in by March 31, 2008.

(DETAILS & FILES).

Gspot 23 - We All Burn Together

Yet again, the Gspot crew drop a steaming hot pile of podcast in your lap.

James Curcio "breaks it down" and plays a track from Immortal Technique's Revolutionary Vol 2.

Wes Unruh interviews the apocalyptic duo of Dead Unicorn, talking about their album Yellowstone Super Volcano, their color coded system, their album series, and plot for world domination... hurry while supplies last.

Listen to previous episodes of the G-Spot.

The Drek Wars

I wanted to briefly rant about a serious crisis in the media world: an unconsidered result of the proliferation of DIY drek. Podcasts! Videocasts! Video comments! Independent, low budget digital movies! Band self-produced albums! All of these are potentially good things: I heralded them as much as anyone else, and am in fact a product of the media production boom that began in the late 90s with the availability of consumer applications such as Photoshop and Premiere, and hardware such as DV cameras, dedicated digital recording hard drives, and the like. Suddenly you didn’t need a $100,000 budget to record an album. However, I didn’t initially see the danger in all of these things: the tools do not, in themselves, provide the capability.

The well-intentioned beginners can be forgiven, they should in fact probably be condoned for their bravery. Experimenting in a new medium is scary. You face the expectation of greatness, when really you should just be tinkering and tossing your results in the closet for the first five to ten years. The Internet has become that closet however, and we are beset on all sides by so much crap that it can be hard to find the good stuff. (Also, we all have to start out here. Those who stick it out for long enough, with enough determination, ultimately get somewhere.)

But even that isn’t my actual gripe, the railroad spike in my side, the ipecac in my stomach. I don’t need to wade through mountains of user created crap on YouTube because I don’t go wading in the morass to begin with. This explosion pushed everything a step further: clients and employers think that - rather than hire a professional designer, or sound producer - just have one of your employees do it. It’s easy, right? Just a couple clicks in Photoshop. Podcast? Just plug in a mic and hit record. Why take on all that excess cost? The fact is: there are probably only six or seven ingredients in that dinner you had at that expensive 3 star restaurant. Put those ingredients in the wrong hands, and you get inedible mush. Have the crack addicted hobo on the corner wire your house, and expect a house fire.

Yet everywhere I turn I see clients and employers cutting corners by either overloading a single professional with the tasks of three people- it doesn’t matter if the person has the skills to do all those tasks, they simply don’t have the focus to pull them all off well- or worse, pawning off the work of media professionals on already overburdened employees who don’t have the background. I nearly got myself out of the freelance design industry a couple years ago for this reason, along with the fact that design clients have notoriously bad taste. (My all time favorite remains the mattress company that wanted me to develop a series of animations of flames dancing on top of images of their mattresses because their prices were “ON FIRE.” I tried to explain to them that juxtaposing the images of fire and mattresses was an abysmal idea, not to mention the fact that animated fire GIFs almost destroyed teh Internets in the 90s. I firmly believe that some sliver of the $50/hour rate that goes along with design services is a buffer against the potential of gastrointestinal damage that results from simply gritting your teeth, saying “at least he’s paying me,” and turning your carefully considered color scheme into taupe, orange, and pink.)





Having mentioned this, I’m not entirely certain there is a simple solution. We’re on a river that only flows one way, (DMT visions notwithstanding), and in many cases the immediate bottom line matters a lot more to a business than the long term gains, especially if they are qualitative rather than quantitative. Quality? This is America. Who cares about quality, I want it cheap and I want it now!

This is likely one of those instances where a cliche serves best: you get what you pay for.

(From Alterati.com.)

The G-Spot 20

James Curcio interviews Sean Marsden about his electronic music ventures, topics include genre bending crunk, electro, and psytrance, Kenny G, opening up for Front242, hands-on audio production, and a whole lot more.

Jason Lubyk gives us a listen to his answering machine.

Wes Unruh plays Capital G (Unrest Remix) he mixed that remix.nin.com rejected, explains why it wasn't accepted, and breaks down the offending (and possibly offensive) samples.

Music in this episode includes:

The Elektrowerx tracks Gentle and Tracer.

233project's Anunaki, a song about the lizard astronaut men coming back down to reinslave us all.

Listen Now.

The Gspot Episode 18

G-Spot Episode 18

James Curcio
gives us another podcast episode of
Postgenre Blues, this time talking about inadequate copyright laws, the media war, remixes and a Microsoft takedown notice sent to the Alterati.net crew.

Wes Unruh gives us a talking to about DIY television, the struggle against media monopoly, and converses on the subject with Freeman.

Joseph Matheny brings us another mini episode of the resurrected Gpod, digging in the archives with the Chicago
Underground Industrial Tape Scene.

And Jason Lubyk reads, channels aliens and fucks with your mind.

(Listen.)

-------------

Also On Alterati:
Blog:

A Conversation With Adam Gorightly - Jason Lubyk

In the first of this two part conversation with writer Adam Gorightly - author of The Prankster and the Conspiracy and Death Cults among other books - Jason talks with Adam about his trip to Conspiracy Convention 7, potential government infiltration of
conspiracy and paranormal groups and the curious life and origins of James Shelby Downard.

Unquiet Mind - Wes Unruh.

This is a continuation of a series he started three years ago.

The Reruns of Brisco County, jr. - Wes Unruh.

Gunslinger television show starring Bruce Campbell involving science fiction themes. With ongoing plot lines like a time-traveling madman bent on world domination and a mysterious orb that bestows superhuman powers, this show was much more than a flashy update of the Wild Wild West.

Ripple #6 - Ray Carney.

Ray Carney and Ari interview Alexis Marshall of Daughters about their album Hell Songs and touring across fucking Europe.

Altertube:

William S. Burroughs Nike Commercial.

The Three Trials.

Problems with Professor 105.

Torrents:

Richard M. Stallman gives a speech about copyright issues.

The Free Voice of Labour: The Jewish Anarchists.

2012 Timewave zero software - Terrence Mckenna and Peter Meyer.

Hunter S Thompson - Audio Books and Lectures.

Xenakis, Iannis (1922-2001)

Me I'm Not

Just finished a remix of the NIN song Me, I'm Not (NIN) with Nate Sampsel. This "remix" is about half new parts or seriously tweaked out synths. It'll be running in the upcoming Ripple Saul Williams interview, running on Alterati.com December 1st. Worth listening to, Saul had some really interesting things to say.

(Listen.)

The Other World

We are told that documentaries should be produced objectively, never-mind that the camera itself merely provides a proxy of subjective experience, and can lie through omission just as easily as our eyes can. Apparently Jan Kounen didn’t come in to school that day, and for that we can be happy.

Though The Other World provides some interesting and rather traditional “talking head” interviews with the likes of Alex Grey, Moebius, Jeremy Narby (the author of The Cosmic Serpent), and many others, the most unique aspect of this documentary is that it attempts to provide a first person perspective of a very subjective experience. That is, the use of psychedelics in shamanism, and the function of the shaman as a guide through exploration of our oft-forgotten interior world. This is not common territory for a documentary, and some stylistic fumbling is to be expected as a result.

(Alterati.com article, includes movie.)

Follow the Not Free

OK imagine all the copyfight battles are over. And the outcome isn’t some corporate legal Satan-tech locked down media delivery system. Or some kind of shrug-inspiring compromise like micropayments or flat-rate schemes. Imagine that information has become truly free. Technology advanced to such a point where downloads happen as fast as changing a channel and is so easy to use that your cyborg grandma can operate it with her new vat grown arms. Large media corporations slowly crawl to a halt, drained and exhausted by irrelevance, futile hands outstretched trying to stop the tsunami of data. A thousand, than a million, than a billion file sharing sites bloom … so impossible to keep up.

Jason Lubyk's put together what I think is the good beginning for a conversation on the subject of the future of music.

Mankind Is Obsolete: Fresh Out Of The Studio

I just received Trapped Inside premasters from Scott Landes, a past musical collaborator and bandmate. He’s been in the studio this summer with Mankind Is Obsolete in Weed, California (I kid you not), working under the guiding hand of Sylvia Massy. (You may recognize her the producer of TOOL’s seminal albums, Opiate and Undertow, though that’s far from her only work). I’m more than happy to be able to share some of this music with you, hot off the presses, before they hit the road for a massive twelve month tour. I also managed to put some questions to the band about where they’ve been, and where they’re going.

(Part 1, on Alterati.com - intro & track "Trapped Inside.")

(Part 2, on Alterati.com - interview transcript & track "Passing Through.")

Ripple debut

Ari, Nate, and Ray Carney interview Trey Spruance of Secret Chiefs 3, Mr Bungle, and Mimicry Records. This is part one of a two part interview. (For part two, check back tomorrow.)

Listen now.

(If you're wondering, I'm producer & co-editor of the show.)

Drunk For Your Amusement

Freedom.

For years now, I've wondered who the next Bill Hicks was going to be. As things grew more and more grim - I mean seriously, I think we've surpassed the Reagan era now on the cosmic WTF! scale - I wondered if maybe we would have no more ranting, fool messiahs because the meter was just fucking broke and we've all become too whitebread and insecure to recognize the rallying call if it comes. "COMEDY IS DEAD, GO HOME, GAME OVER."

There are times when being proven wrong is the best thing in the world. The other night I was stopped dead in my tracks by this man. He made me want to pick up three of the bad habits I'd managed to kick, and start up about twenty new ones. Most importantly, he made me laugh. A lot.

Full article.

Chins and Beards (part 1)

Rudy Rauben has lived and died a few lives, from the sound of it. In a previous incarnation he once served as art director, graphic designer or illustrator for a variety of magazines, including Dragon, Amazing Stories, and Reality Hackers. You may have seen some his of illustrations in collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering or the H.P. Lovercraft inspired Mythos.

This time around Rudy is back with a new graphic novel called The Medicine Show, and another one in the works.

He first contacted me out of interest for Mythos Media, we got to talking, and quickly realized we actually had quite a lot to discuss. I’m going to be sharing some of those conversations with you, wherein we touch on everything from the I Ching, internal Kung fu and the artistic process to bizarre times at Reality Hackers and experiences working for TSR and Wizards of the Coast.

Alterati.com article.

An Interview with Camella Grace

Ray Carney recently contacted the band Butcher and conducted an extensive interview with lead singer Camella Grace. There’s more coming up after this half hour audio as after discussing the Butcher album Auricle, Ray went on to discuss the photography work Camella has done with Robyn Breen as Spiraleyes. Transcript of that part of the discussion follows after the jump, but first, here’s the audio portion of the interview:

Alterati.com article.

(Just saw this got linked on Tool's frantpage.)

No Write Way #3

No Write Way 1.

No Write Way 2.





So you've put easily a year or more of work into putting together a solid rough draft of your novel. Many people consider this to be the hard part, but really, it's as good as it gets. Next comes the tooth pulling, and then the tooth gnashing.

Why did you get into writing fiction again? It wasn't the fame, it certainly wasn't the fortune, and it most likely wasn't the women either (notice the slow backward shuffle, the wide, terrified eyes, as you try to explain your novel about alienation and despair.)





Chances are, if you got to this point, you're in for the long haul. You realize that even the majority of the "greats" rotted in asylums, died cold and hungry on the side of the road, or went out of this world liver first, and chances are, you're not quite so great. You realize that the availability of self publishing tools also means that the marketplace will be crowded with even more products, many of them half-assed, all wailing and moaning for attention. You realize all of that, but you simply don't care. Welcome to being an author. See, many people the common thread between authors is intelligence. I don't think it is. It's stubbornness. You've seen the lonely darkness at the end of the tunnel, and you simply don't give a fuck.

(Alterati.com article.)

Hacking At The Roots

I’ve come back out of the woods, and I’m not entirely sure I’m happy about it. Once again I’ve replaced cathode rays for sunlight, and instant messages and teleconferences for conversations. Plugged into The Internets I’m in a thousand places at once, but not here. Never here.

I went to the Gaian Mind Summer Festival for a variety of reasons: for the experience, of course, to bring back some media from Daniel Pinchbeck’s discussion session, to rub shoulders with an assortment of talented artists, scientists, and complete lunatics, to hear an assortment of trance music, from intricately layered, ethnic-tinged chill out to mind-shredding full on. There were yoga, drumming, and partner massage workshops, (which I missed by five minutes, damn!), sustainable community discussions, in other words, a hell of a lot more than anyone could probably fit into four nights and three days. Well, I got what I came for, but I also got something else. What exactly?

I’m not sure I’m any longer qualified to say.

Read the Alterati.com article.