An Exercise in Happenstancery

I'm back! Go to my Flickr page to view images of my daily commute. Sounds boring, but it aint! Honest!

I like to wax poetic sometimes about my commute to work by bike...that rather than subjecting myself to the hellish underworld of the subway where one gets to know other New Yorkers in a really up-close-and rarely personal way, I'm experiencing "The City" in a real way, that I'm interacting with it in a way that for me is more physical than abstract, more active than passive, that I'm giving my brain the kind of exercise it does not get when I'm sitting still, because I'm still quite a bit when I'm at work or at home. And, of course, I like to say that I see a lot of cool things.

A few weeks ago, I was coming down the Manhattan side of the Manhattan Bridge, the sky was a perfect blue screen. The outlines of the Chinatown buildings were clear and sharp. It was just a beautiful day. As I descended into the buildings of Chinatown, I glanced to my right (the north) and the image of both the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building...framed in perspective on either side by rows of tenament buidlings dwindling into the distance...flickered into my line of vision for a second and then was gone. The moment was so brief but so vivid, I started thinking how it's a shame a lot of what I see doesn't really translate when I try to talk about it. So, I started investigating camera mounts for bicycles. After a lot of searching I finally went to Campmor and found this. I should have just gone there first.

Anyway, I've been taking photos every day since. Pretty much everything that comes out is the result off dumb luck. I don't have the luxury to point and shoot, I just hope the camera takes the photo in time and I don't wobble too much as I'm using one hand to steer and the other to push the button. I've created a flickr account just to upload the many many pictures I've taken over the last month. The photos seem to fall in 4 or 5 categories. Portraits of other cyclists, Portraits of Pedestrians at sidewalks, Bridge photos, abstract night photos, and traffic images. The one I'm showing here, is by far my favorite. You Go Girl!

Indeed.

I'd love to hear what people have to say to go check 'em out.

Peelander Z

Medium Rare is how I like my steak too.

King Missile - My Heart Is A Flower

"Bicyclist" a show in celebration of Bicycle Month IN RED HOOK

"Bicyclist", a show in celebration of Bicycle Month. Art about bikes by people who ride 'em will be on display at the Gallery from Thursday May 22nd thru June 1. A reception for the artists will be held on Thursday May 22nd, 5-8 PM.

Featured Artists:

Blaise Larmee, Jason Workman, Anne Beck, Jerry Dellaratta, Paul Calver, Pasqualina Azzarello, Maria Wallace and others

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Brooklyn Greenway Initiative.

Gallery Hours for "Bicyclist": 1-6 Saturday and Sunday. Other days, by chance and by appointment

By car Brooklyn Bridge to Atlantic Ave toward waterfront, after BQE overpass, make left onto Columbia St(at light), right on Degraw St.(at light), left onto Van Brunt,16 blocks to Wolcott St. (just past PS 15 school yard) > Park on Van Brunt, Walk 1 block east on Wolcott to Richards St.

Dog riding bike

oh no.

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 14

Harry Revel, Music Out of the Moon

The moon is a very groovy place. A very very groovy place…with Theremins and stuff.

Here are the track listings from Music on the Moon. Need. Copy. Now.

Lunar Rhapsody
Moon Moods
Lunette
Celestial Nocturne
Mist O' The Moon
Radar Blues

I wonder if Stephen Merritt owns this album.

The Best Sci Fi Album Covers, Part 13

Bongwater, The Power of Pussy—1990

Anybody paying homage to Raquel Welch’s stinker 1 Million Years B.C. is okay in my book. Though it may not be strictly sci-fi. The movie has dinosaurs in it…and Ms. Welch in animal furs. The Power of Pussy is probably in my 10 top favorite albums to listen to of all time. Band member Ann Magnuson was my fantasy girlfriend for a while there. She stars opposite John Malkovich in the b-movie android flick Making Mr. Right.

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 12

Vangelis, Hypothesis—1978

I don't know a whole lot about Vangelis, except Chariots of Fire and, of course Blade Runner, but I did figure I'd score an excellent album cover if I did some digging in the New Age section. And I did. Boy Howdy. I am totally craving jello now.

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 11

Parliament, Mothership Connection—1976

Put your sunglasses on! This is probably my second favorite sci-fi album cover in this list. George Clinton said about the album, "We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in, like the White House. I figured another place you wouldn't think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac..." Brilliant.

Coming to you directly from the mothership, here is your P-funk if you want it. It’ll improve your interplanetary funksmanship. It really will.

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 10

The Misfits, Walk Among Us—1982

Yeah, I know. The Misfits are "Horror Punk." Doesn’t that disqualify them here? See: saucers in the back ground. See: Astro Zombies. See: Glenn Danzig. You wanna tell him he can’t be on my list?

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 9

Megadeth, Rust in Peace—1990

Rust in Peace came out after my relationship with MTV and Headbangers Ball had ended. Sure, we would hook up like exes sometimes do for a nostalgic rendezvous every now and then, but I’d always feel guilty and not a little dirty afterward. The video for the signature song on Rust in Peace is a little ditty about our favorite town in New Mexico. The song is called “Hangar 18” and boy, does it tell a story. Basically, it looks as though the government (led by Mr. Grinning Skull Guy) are harvesting alien organs. From like, 50 different species of aliens! The members of Megadeth are mad as hell about it. Why? Well why not watch it and see? Look for the mini Sleestak at around 5:13.

Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 8

ZZ Top, Afterburner—1985

Afterburner (1985) is a terrible ZZ Top album. It is sittin’-on-the-tailgate-of-your-F150-drinking-Bartyles-and-James-and-smoking-clove-cigarettes-up-the-holler-round-at-midnight bad. But the album cover? It’s nearly perfect. Who doesn’t remember the bad ass “Eliminator” hot rod in multiple ZZ Top videos? It’s the car that empties scantily clad women ala a Ringling Brothers clown car. ZZ Top…they’re about fast cars, fast women, and fast music. What exemplifies speed more than a pimped out 1933 model Ford? Why, a space shuttle/Eliminator mash up, that's what? That thing is beautiful. And it’s moving so fast that it appears to be bending space!

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 7

Beck, Mellow Gold—1994

I'm not including this album cover because I think it is one of the best. I want to prove a point.

See Ecclesiastes 1:9—The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Now see “Turbo Lover,” by Judas Priest. Sorry Beck.

Also, Beck has a thing for Xenu.

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 6

ELO, Out of the Blue—1977

If any of you every played with Milton Bradley’s Simon when you were kid, you might be having an unpleasant big brother or big sister flashback as you look at this album cover. What we have here, of course, is another “Spaceship” themed cover.The cover depicts what I’m guessing is ELO’s private yacht docking with a ship that’s roughly the size of the Louisiana Superdome (a size necessary to accommodate Jeff Lyne's enormous afro). Here’s a clip from an ELO “Best Of” album commercial that prominently features the ELO ship. Apparently, the ship is also some sort of transformer as well.

Holy Crap! Here’s a side note. The ELO song “All Over The World” is featured in the 1980 movie Xanadu. I’ve never seen the movie, but now it’s just jumped up to the top of my queue. Oliva Newton John, Gene Kelly, and Michael Beck (Swan, from The Warriors)? Words fail, but at 1:50 into the clip, I was convinced. Completely.

The ship depicted on the cover of Out of the Blue is only one of a few iterations of ELO UFOs. A website called Halfpixel has a hilarious comparison between the Boston Guitar Ship and the ELO fleet. Journey makes an appearance too. Though valid points are made on the ELO side, the guitarship is still the best rock and roll space ship ever.

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 5

Boston Boston—1976

Continuing the theme of planetary destruction…I love this album cover. I love it. You love it. How could anyone not love this album cover. Here are some interesting questions the cover present. First of all: how AWESOME are the guitar shaped starships? Look at them closely. Forget the fact that they're shaped like guitars. Each ship carries an entire city beneath some sort of transparent bio domes. These things are enormous. I'd like to see one of them on that Starship Dimensions web site. In fact, I wrote the folks at Starship Dimensions to see if I could get some measurements. I haven't heard back from them yet. The flame-like material emanating from the guitarship's soundhole is, I think, a corporeal manifestation of ROCK exhaust. And there's a whole frickin' fleet of them (on the best image I could find I counted 10)…leaving a planet that is doing a fair impersonation of Krypton. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that this is not the planet of origin for Boston. Seriously. If you were fleeing a doomed planet, you probably wouldn't have the time to build such classy city arks like these masterpieces No. I think Boston came to this planet and ROCKED it into tiny little pieces before moving on. Depending on your perspective then, Boston is not a particularly benevolent force in the galaxy.

Update: Here's some computer animation of the Boston Guitarship in action. I think it is pretty cool but don't think the scale is quite correct.

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 4

Yes, Fragile—1971

Progressive Rock and Roll very nearly owns the sci-fi album art category. This whole list could be made up of album cover art by just Yes and Asia. I’ve decided to narrow my choices to just one album by each band. The cover art for Yes' Fragile is just stunning. What an idyllic planet we’re looking at here. A simple white road traverses two "continents." Huge trees rear up from the surface along with monolithic rock formations (or maybe handmade towers?) The scale sort of reminds me of the planet from The Little Prince. There’s no greater or fragile spaceship than the planet you are on. That seems to be the message here. On the albums front cover, we have a top-down perspective. In the aether above the planet, some sort of crazy wooden ship orbits.

The back cover art shows presumably the same planet in the process of breaking apart. This apocalyptic turn of events underscores the idea of fragility, but also forces us to consider the purpose of the spaceship, which we can see now is fish shaped. What is its purpose. Is it here to rescue the inhabitants of this world or did it come here to destroy the planet This might be my favorite album cover of all time. Roger Dean is the artist responsible for this and many other Yes album covers. He also painted covers for Asia, Uriah Heap, and many others.

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 3

The Jacksons, Victory—1984

1984 was a mixed bag for Michael Jackson and his family. Off the incredible success of Thriller, Michael and his brothers recorded Victory. The album supporting "Victory Tour" was (at the time) the highest grossing concert tour ever. Albums were flying off the shelf and concert venues were sold out months in advance. Michael also had entered into a lucrative endorsement deal with Pepsi but we all know how that ended. The only thing I vaguely remember from this album is the song Michael sings with Mick Jagger called “State of Shock,” but I fully remember the album cover though. Who could forget it, depicting, as it does, the Jacksons on their home planet immediately before taking the great desert highway in the sky to Earth? Lest we forget, “Can You Feel It?” is a truly frightening video. Different album…but c’mon! The beginning is narrated by legendary word jazz guy Ken Nordine.

MacFarlene Toys? Listen up. We need a Victory line of Jackson action figures. Like…yesterday. Okay?

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 2

Autograph, That's The Stuff—1985

I’m really very sorry for all of The Sarah Conner Chronicles' Cameron fans. I’m doubly sorry for all of you BSG Caprica fans, but the bot pictured in this 1985 album cover for Autograph’s That’s The Stuff is the second most sexy ROBOT ever. The first of course is the robot from Metropolis (also best mad scientist ever). The only reason this robot is being marginally modest with the t-shirt is to get a mid-80s Tipper Gore off of the bands back. We didn't see much of this lovely lady after That's the Stuff. Heck, we didn't see much more of Autograph after that. It does look like she was whored out re-purposed 18 years later to Aerosmith. She still looks pretty good on the cover of Just Press Play. But the cheesy Monroe nod? So lame. And the high polish etchttoo? So trendy. I guess that is one advantage of being a robot. If you don't like your etchtoo, you can get that thing sandblasted right off.

Autograph has at least one semi listenable song in their oeuvre. "Turn Up The Radio" was a staple on the radio when I was in the 9th grade. With lyrics like

I'm working hard.
you're working too.
We do it every day.
For every minute I have to work.
I need a minute of play.
Day in day out, all week long
things go better with rock...

Wow. Lyric gold. You really can't go wrong with this song.

I didn't remember the video, but after watching it, I have to say it is worth watching. Of special note is the mechanical pencil they use to "sign in." It's the same mechanical pencil I used in my 9th grade algebra class. The band appears to employ robotic roadies or something that appear to be the same model line as the robot above. Check it out.

The Best Sci-Fi Album Covers, Part 1

Lately and for no reason at all, I’ve become obsessed with album covers that exhibit definite sci-fi tendencies. Actually, I think I’m interested in why a certain population of purveyors of popular music are so damned interested…at least visually…in the speculative, the futuristic, and the fantastic. So I’ve done a bit of research and want to present my favorite “sci-fi” album covers. I’ve disqualified patent supernatural images of demons or dragons else the list would be far too long. So sorry Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, and Dio. The band Hawkwind deserves it’s own individual attention so I’m not including them here. So, in no particular order…

Judas Priest, Screaming for Vengeance—1982Sneaky, snarky, and one of the few transformers to actually sound like a robot, Soundwave was my favorite old school Decepticon. One of Soundwave’s coolest features were the tricked out audio cassettes living in it’s chest which would transform into a mélange of animal transformers. The coolest of these was Lazerbeak, which brings us to Judas Priest. This cover is sci-fierce! This mechanical bird of prey reminds me of Lazerbeak, but in a head to head battle between the two, I’d have to choose this guy. It was tough to choose between this Judas Priest album cover and Defenders of the Faith, which features an awesome Voltron-esque tank thing. But SfV has the track "You've Got Another Thing Coming," which beats the hell out of anything on DotF. For fun…check out Judas Priest video for “Turbo Lover.” It is one of the best videos EVER made…kind of a cross between T2/Mad Max…Ah hell, this video is in a league of its own. Rob Halford is no joke.

Stay tuned tomorrow for some human robot action.

Rocketship

The second song on K. McCarty's 1992 album "Dead Dog's Eyeball." McCarty's covers were my introduction to Daniel Johnston way back in 1993. My ex wife had a friend who worked for Bar/None and we'd periodically get a box full of complementary CDs...usually jazz and usually John Coltrane (my beagle's namesake). This CD, with it's strange cover art was an enigma to me. I'd never heard of K. McCarty, Glass Eye, or Daniel Johnston. Honestly, I think the CD stayed in it's cellophane wrapper for about a year before I actually listened to it. When I did, I fell in love. When the ex and I split, she took the jazz, but I kept K. McCarty AND the beagle. I think I got the better end of the deal