the hood gang

local rock hoodlums, the hood gang, have a new song and video out. well done folks! i'm a tad late on posting it, but it was in honor of the year anniversary of the king of pop's death...



they're a real blast... definitely one of the highest energy shows you will ever attend. Sneaky Mike, their front-man is a party animal and spiritual force. also, my buddy miguel plays sick aux. latin percussion with them. he has a few projects of his own that are worth hearing too... anyway, the hood gang gets mad props from this (usually) non pop/rock fan...

remember, everyone's in the hood gang!

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awesome bark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_deglupta
looks like acrylic worked with a palette knife if you ask me... gorgeous... imagine growing this into a living space, like espalier but more three dimensional... even as an outdoor space it could be beautiful, especially closed off in portions with passion fruit vines or some such... but alas, the rainbow eucalyptus doesn't grow in pittsburgh due to the freeze, but it could work indoors...

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stay strong.

things are awesome.
i've got a new daughter, violet ember gyre.
two of my all-time favorite deejays are coming into town soon...
i 'm fixing up a 95 year old house on an acre of woods within pittsburgh city limits.
replaced nearly all the utilities, removed lead & asbestos hazards
can now cook, clean, wash & sleep there...
play with the children.

also dojo. carpe noctem. u know who u r.

i'm going to try to use the internet less so i can blog more,
so look for more action soon at the event blog & here...
i owe the back catalogue of that veiled gazelle retagging...
i have tons of mp3s to post, and the sister mix to d.d.d.
.pdfs, book reviews, recipes, photos of the house, theory....

in the meantime you can join me on facebook.
note: my facebook links feed in here up top...

MORE MUSIC! MORE ART! MORE LOVE!










stay strong.

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quick personal update... UPDATED!

so a quick head's up on where i'm at...

i'm currently remodeling a kitchen for my friends @ premodern, cause they're having a youngin' mid-june. that's a 5-days-a-week construction job... busy, busy. but i get to pick my crew, there is some fine carpentry involved, and it's good pay which will help us have some free time to travel/do art/party in the summer... so that's that. on top of that, i'm deejaying around 1 gig a week, training to take on some extra gigs from my pal jeremy, a talented wedding deejay in town, helping my friend brad design frisbees for his company (none of the really cool ones are printed yet), and making time for family and personal work.... on the family tip, my son river (pictured above) is doing really well, healing fast from his early lead poisoning, learning tons of words and still enjoying music, dancing, bicycles, animals and playgrounds. my wife laura is enjoying getting to spend all day with river (which i'm a bit jealous of) but also keeping up on quite a few projects of her own, including the (just-started!) site rewitching.com. summer is in full swing in pittsburgh, so we've had some fun going to book 'em brunch, various shows & just wandering around allegheny cemetary (which is two blocks away). on the personal project tip, i continue to do work on "tower of babel", my epic 80-track, 80-minute bass mix, while recording side mixes to remember what using turntables is like. i'm also working on a few paintings to get ready for participating in the visionary arts festival (which a 22+ piece ensemble i play with, HI-TEC is also participating in...). one of my paintings is a take off on persian miniatures, another a black & white abstraction and i'm also working on a painting i've worked on since 2003. In other arts news, i have a commission for keeb$ of stackinpaper and some young rappers i know want me to work on a mixtape for this summer.

busy, busy...

BUILDING UPDATE: also, the building we own is getting full. the greater pittsburgh anarchist collective is using the first floor. despite some speedbumps and bad communication, it's mostly been going really well with them... the back house is filled by zach, who has expressed interest in helping renovate the basement space for a music studio. he's also floated the idea of a record store, which our neighborhood could really use. the second floor has been shown some interest from a local experimental spiritual collective. they want the space to host meetings, do divination readings, have events and teach classes. they're also amenable to our involvement, which is wonderful... it will be good vibes to have a floor below us. we're planning on helping them start renovations in mid-june.

BLOG UPDATE: i already have the material for the next digest post, so it will come. also i always have new dubstep jams (dz's "the fireman" anyone?!?!). eleven8 asked me to review his forthcoming e.p., so i will. (sneak preview... it's good!) i've been planning a photo tour of pittsburgh (hopefully with ryan) for those who have no idea about what's up with the city, and i still owe my palestine-israel analysis. as i approach the 400th post, i'm going to re-organize the tags and make a reader's poll to get your feedback. so more is to come from that veiled gazelle, so bear with me!

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that veiled gazette #349

editor's note: sorry for the delay getting out this issue. i've been super busy, so blogging has been hard to get to, but admittedly i've also been a little geeked out on using facebook for the first time. finding old friends, writing letters, posting little things for them, becoming a "fan" of hummus, etc... for real though, it has been fascinating watching people from completely different periods of my life talking with each other. not that that doesn't ever happen here, but, well, it's a different audience. i love you both, and that veiled gazelle isn't going anywhere...

painter in bangladesh, via wall street journal's picture of the day

ART: the delicate special works of rachel sumpter. the composite (time not space!) photography of peter funch. the (street art blog) wooster collective truly continues to put out great stuff. check out sally's blue wall or this colorful wheatpaste. my old friend fran (thank you, facebook) documented a cool piece that involves ink drawing on walls and an air compressor. design is fun, but "hyperbolic bronnerism" is even more fun. it's a little hard to navigate, but the site neocha is a collection of independent chinese culture. also, check the vibrant, subtley pagan, mucha-like (mostly) nudes of svetlana valueva. also, while he's a bit miffed about watchmen (his work, originally...) that's o.k., because alan moore is a super-genius. witness video (direct link here):

MUSIC: wizards are better posts some good bassline & dubstep stuff (and some hipster crap). are you annoyed that pirating music takes so much time? take the wait out with skipscreen. blackdown makes a mind map on the origin of scenes. promotion services for world musicians. frieze article by dj rupture on the "decline" of digging. also, i hadn't heard about soul singer phyllis hyman, but she's got a nice voice (video) (and is from pittsburgh!) three more youtube music links here: kinsmen (indian jazz ensemble), carl craig classical remix, and some ethiopian heat. anyway, i've been posting A LOT of DUBSTEP. so here are seven songs that aren't:

(mp3) atom™ - "wellen und felder II" - bizarre, yet entrancing ambience from uwe!

(mp3) dinosaur l -"go bang" (walter gibbons mix) - classic arthur russell material

(mp3) amon tobin - "twelvses" - throwback gorgeousness, not two fingers style

(mp3) morteza - "morteza"? - weird iranian pop i was given for my nouruz gig

(mp3) isoleé - "a nightingale" (original mix) - abstract & beautiful tech-house

(mp3) hermutt lobby - "play" - twisted, wonky, slow glitch-hop type shiznit

(mp3) jakes - "swerve" - fun drum n bass track... with an mc! ~1996 style?

your's truly spinning at global beats march 2009. photo by carla.

TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE, DIY: great rhyme writing resource in writerhymes. inflatable hood for sleepy travelers. do dumb shit to photographs with pikipimp. laura's always been a proponent for local currency... learn about algebra (i forgot all mine in art school...) create large wall posters with little printers. nice home-made picture frames out of jars. and for the record, artificial life could be created within 5 years, whatever that means...

ECO: meditate on the size of the earth and how lucky we are. 25 reasons why you should consider earth-sheltered technology. paris is grey, and sarkozy has a plan. another weird plan on the table for global warming issues. or is global warming all a hoax? i dunno, i'm not a scientist... something tells me that it's not a bad idea to act like it's real, if only because we might help with the bio-diversity problem. good soy milk recipe. candle-powered heat? i don't live in these cities, but: space in detroit. space in baltimore. i found some nice eco stuff on chelsea green, including this article on the case for "small" hydro-electric power.

british kid in thailand, via wall street journal's picture of the day

BABYLON, SCANDAL, POLITICS: you know about Carnivore and ECHELON, right? their giant spy networks that troll everyone's communications for these words, among others... well there is at least one more ghost-net recently discovered, this time in china. here's what you might look like to your government. there are some sneaky shenanigans in the obama copyright treaty... france is ready for rebirth of the "violent left"... that's a hilarious article, but to be fair, they have had some history of awesome riots (which in turn left us a lot of slogans.) there's been a tiny crack made in the travel restrictions to cuba, but then there's the wholeembargo thing. why? chomsky has some ideas on that... also an OLD scandal may be getting some light shed on it.

SUFI, WEIRD: perfect memory, anyone? bahauddin's book sounds pretty great. my friend found one of the (super rare) copies ofthis book in a junk shop... still haven't seen it yet. for free, an archive of female sacred poets. amazing horse dancing in pakistan (video... jump ahead for the fast parts.) the thousands of inscriptions are getting translated, finally. i'm starting to think i ought to learn a bit more about ramon llull. creationist science fairs... first prize in the high school division actually sounds pretty interesting... top ten secret scientologists. get your daily weird at the daily grail. finally, the sisters of perpetual indulgence celebrate 30 years.

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global beats & gypsy social

buddha beats night for spring global beats!
i'll be spinning dubstep, bhangra & other global beats.
carla will spin her usual mix of brazilian, colombian & dancehall
$5 10pm-2am saturday march 28th @ ava lounge 124 s. highland avenue

global beats on facebook


i'll preview my new mix "tower of babel" at the gypsy social after vibe
late saturday night (sunday morning!) april 4th 1am-5am
$12 gets you in and all you can drink... food is extra
i'm playing the realest of the real bass action!

gypsy social on facebook

come out and play, pittsburghers!

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another awesome pittsburgher...

we just had dinner with the wonderful richard woodbury pell (and his talented partner melissa st. pierre. an album of hers is here on boomkat. i don't know her as well so this post will be about rich's work...)


rich is a founding member of the institute for applied autonomy and the creator of some of my favorite artworks, like the graffiti robot(pictured above) and isee. they are purveyors of "contestational robotics" and "electronic civil disobedience". charming folks, overall. rich also plays a mean bowed guitar and runs a small record label (link pending).

the history as far as i am aware is that these folks were working shitty jobs for various DARPA funded projects at CMU and decided they could use their badass technological skills to pull off way better shit. that might be a myth, but it's the origin story i know.


the graffiti writer is amazing. it writes dot-matrix graffiti on the ground (click for large size above) at 15 miles per hour. they once wrote "voting is futile" across the u.s. senate steps and even though the police noticed them, they got away with it, because they assumed that because they had a robot, they had permission (!) video of the little guy in action is here in this short video (.mov 28mb)

rich also made a moving video about a crazy (?) guy in pittsburgh called "don't call me crazy on the 4th of july". it's about mind control, true history, crazy people and real whistle-blowers... watch it (a gripping ~30 min.)...



also, DO NOT MISS the video they made "little brother get's busted". it played in the netherlands at a show we did together in 2001 in between sets of bizarre feedback music my pal jim and i made (wayback machine, thank you!).

no, seriously... don't miss little brother gets busted...it's an "educational film" made for the dutch tourist to america and is HILARIOUS:

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phat mandee got robbed

by this douchebag. he took her "Saturn SL1 2002 lisence plate FRP3900 , the Macbook Pro, the harddrive, a Canon A 530 camera, our ipod and trust" his name was given as Jorge (or George) DeCastro Garcia, and he was a pilot with IFL. he said he wanted to go to burning man this year. she doesn't think he is dangerous, by the way, just a creep. mandee will be fine, she's insured. she mostly misses her photos. if you have any, send them to me or her.

phat mandee is the immensely talented songstress involved with pittsburgh's vocal jazz, vaudeville, bellydance and burner scenes, and a real (huge!) gem.

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bad news for pennsylvania's state forests...

i've been waiting on posting this because it made me so angry. the irony and despicableness of this makes me unable to even post an image with this... a first for this blog. just read it, especially if you live in pennsylvania under ed "lets still kill mumia" rendell.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/2/143110/5215/207/488988

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pitsburghers - dance your ass off for a good cause!

dana lee dolney has breast cancer. she is holding a benefit at remedy friday april 25th (tomorrow!). the family friendly entertainment (with phat man dee and jay shields) is 7-9, then the DJs are 10-2.

i'm spinning 11PM - 1AM. i'm gonna play an international heavy bass casserole of jamaican, african, balkan, middle eastern, spanish and latin tunes mashed up with emcees. garunteed to be delicious and floor-filling!

i've been pre-turntabling some mashups for maximum action... this way i can have time to drink some water, pre load the next two tracks, or even layer up to four tracks at once. should be ridiculous... here is an example: goran bregovich's "underground" into kraftwerk's "music non stop":

(mp3) james gyre - "underground non stop"

see you at the party.

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i'm not a pessimist, but... this is ridiculous

clear-cutting hidden from the road. we aren't permitted to see the devastation we do. reminds me of the $15,000 matching grant the (inaccurately named) "friendship development association will give in my neighborhood of pittsburgh. they only award it for facade work! not for greening your building, not for repairing necessary utilities, just for making the neighborhood more inviting to corporations or white, upper-class "artists". anyway, here is an appropriately titled (and beautiful, but appropriately somber) philip glass tune:

(mp3) philip glass - "facades" from "glassworks"

btw, for those that know me, this would be obvious, but... i'm almost impenetrably optimistic. i'm having a great time while writing this, oddly enough. but the picture did piss me off.

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how we fight for...

i remembered recently that at the people's strike back on september 27th, 2002, laura and i took part in some actions with POG and ended up as part of the 631 arrests (including tourists, office workers and legal observers... whoops!) at pershing park near freedom plaza in d.c. the photo above is from right before they swept in, whaled on us with batons and arrested us. it only shows one edge of the corral. the red arrow points to my peace sign (it was way back when i was a baldhead), the orange arrow points to laura's head. we also happen to be featured (cheek to cheek!) on the official site for the still-pending class action suit. each stage has been won by the people, so we might see some dough from this eventually.

it makes me wonder sometimes if street action is still where it's at. if you don't use rights, you lose them. not that anyone really has the authority to declare "rights" anyway, but that's a more complicated discussion.

this all came up in my subconscious because of this post on laura's blog about this post on patrice's, both about how we are five years into the re-escalation of the iraq war.

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pittsburghers - fermented foods visionary visits!

the one and only sandor ellix katz.

live at the east end food co-op sunday march 30, 6-8pm

this guys fermentation recipes have kept his AIDS at bay, and he is a one-of-a-kind fermentation feteshist. we have his book, wild fermentation - a d.i.y. guide to cultural manipulation, which is awesome, and sports the finest double-entendre in a sub-title ever (on the old version.)

we made the mead from it... yum. we made the kim-chee from it... yum. we tried the sourdough... yum. you get the idea.

can't wait to hear his anecdotes. call ahead for reservations. $5-$20 suggested sliding scale, but no one turned away for lack of bread!

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arthur c clarke... dies tommorow

it's funny. for about two weeks now i've been running into (and said) "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," a famous quote from arthur c. clarke and part of clarke's three laws of prediction (a must-click).


he dies at age 90 tommorow. seriously, because it's the 19th in sri lanka, where he is/was. he wrote "2001 : a space odyssey", which we will rip off for our new building, calling it "5001 : an odd space" (it's 5001 penn avenue.)

he also said "religion is a brain disease"... which can be true, but isn't always, so it seems less rigorous than some of his other ideas... anyway aethiests have long been viewed to be just as unquestioning in their beliefs (or "faithful") as believers. both kind of creep me out unless they can consider the alternative, or at least laugh about it. the absence of humor terrifies me most when combined with any strong opinion.

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