I am joining DJ Jeffro for a little night of music at Staple's this Saturday night in historic Allentown (across from Nietzsche's). Come on down folks! Funk, funk, funk and (mostly) all vinyl, baby.
Doing It To Death
Featuring DJ Jeffro with guest DJ Dr. Wisz of Deja Blu
According to the creator of this funky night, DJ Jeffro:
What is Doing It To Death? Nothing crazy, just a laid back night of hard hitting horns, snares that are mighty tight and alright, and ridiculously raw grooves that are pure dynamite. Aided and abetted by The Funkmaster Generals.... Otis, Stevie, James, Sly, Curtis, Zig, Booker, Maceo and Arlester.
Grooves that are so ON the money that you'll be amazed you got in for NO money.
4+ hours of classic soul & funk music from the 60's, 70's and early 80's. Stax, Motown, Curtom, King, Tamla, Desco, Hi, Daptone, and more.
Saturday, July 26, 2010
11pm- close
100% free, 200% funky
keep on keepin' on.
Looking back on an era of acid jazz and the posters that set the scene.
Things have been rather hectic around the OW headquarters and I haven't had much time to sit back and contemplate or even muster enough energy to write about something. So the blog has suffered as you can see...sorry. It has been a busy year. I thought I would spend some time looking back (while cleaning the flat files looking for something) and post some old graphic design work, some rock posters, some DJ flyers and some of the fun things I have completed over the years.
Going back to 1997, when the DJ scene in Buffalo had worn out it's post-rave vibe, all seemed lost on the club scene. Rock & hip-hop ruled the bars and 
DJs were regulated to the typical Friday and Saturday night slots. A friend of mine opened the Kingsnake Lounge at 112 Chippewa street and a new groove was born for the end of the '90s. DJ Scotty and I took our love of electronic music, early drum and bass, abstrakt hip hop, and a new groove called acid jazz, and created what we called 'deja blu.' We spun records (yes kids, vinyl records...) at the end of the bar on a Tuesday night and created a scene for the chilled out, imported beer and martini drinking set.
The posters and flyers I did for our nights were always changing in order to keep it fresh. Born of the distressed, grunge of the era (late '90s), the posters were often built directly in Photoshop to take advantage of the layers, filters and accidents that made cool & unplanned things happen. A signature look was born to promote a signature DJ night than moved from the weekday stint to the monthly, full house Saturday nights. Often with images of sax players and manipulated jazz icons, I borrowed strongly from the 
Blue Note graphics of the 1950s and turned it on it's head. Printed after hours at my job at the time, I was limited to one-color on white stock. When my day job bought a color printer, I still worked in a limited color range to keep it simple and stark.
The official deja blu logo is probably the only logo that I have ever designed that doesn't exist in vector format. A layered Photoshop file, the DB logo was a misaligned ghost of an identity, a vibrating, floating logomark that represents the music, the scene and the blurry consumption of too much alcohol. With unnecessary accent marks on the logo, I always wanted us to appear strange and foreign.
Here we have three examples of deja blu flyers, typical of the era. The first one was a 1/2 page, black and white and may have been one of the 1st flyer to promote the deja blu Tuesdays. The official 'deja blu' logo had not been created yet, but the visual aesthetics can be seen in it's infancy.
The other two are from specific Saturday nights at the Kingsnake Lounge and represent the deja blu look at it's top form. The first one from November 28, 1998 includes fuzzy typefaces, fake halftone dots, and a limited color palette (always in blue). The second poster is from a night in 1998 (2-days before x-mas), and it broke away from the norm with a much more balanced, less grunge look. Printed again in a limited palette but on blue paper stock, the yellow glowing deja blu logo hangs on the half-toned, manipulated clip art building like a flag. Other deja blu posters often included Europeans enjoying cigarettes and cocktails or urban landscapes, as with this one. This was a memorable night on 
the Buffalo club scene with duel slide shows, flashing lights, over-capacity crowds (screw the fire marshall) and people dancing their asses off and flipping up the walls, drinking like it was the end of the world, all over a pumping, jazzy groove that was acid jazz in it's prime. Great flyer, great night!
There will be more to follow, including some early '90s rave/party flyers and some ICON concert posters (where I was the official poster designer in it's heyday). I have to organize them and scan them, so pencil that in as 'coming soon.'
CREDITS: (1) original deja blu logo, (2) deja blu 'The Original" flyer from 1997, (3) "November Twenty Eight Saturday" poster for Kingsnake gig 11/98, and (4) "Sound of the City" poster for Kingsnake gig on Dec. 26th 1998. All designed by Mark Wisz, Wizard Graphics.
This saturday (26th)- the day after Xmas, I will DJing the annual Joe Strummer tribute show at the Mohawk Place entitled The Harder They Come. This is a great gig organized by Mr. Wolf Tickets, Chris Malachowski that includes a several bands playing Clash and Joe Strummer songs (mostly Clash songs). The headliner being a conglomeration of some of Buffalo's best musicians going under the name Rebel Waltz Orchestra and last year they had some Great Train Robbery horns to really flavor it up.
This gig was a packed house last year- some come early. Doors open at 8:00 PM and I will spinning the tunes between sets and prior to the 1st band. My set list includes a lot of dub, reggae, punk rock and various other grooves inspired by the late great Joe Strummer. Joe had a great liking for a variety of musical styles which his bands, The Clash and The Mescaleros incorporated in their groove.
A portion of the proceeds do go to Strummerville- the Joe Strummer Foundation For New Music (info here).
This year's poster (above) tries to pull the flavor of the title of the event (the Jimmy Cliff classic) and The Clash's love for NYC street music of the 80s- rap, dub and reggae with the boom box and the mohawked Strummer images. Always a sure bet with red, this years poster looks a bit minimal as compared to the past event posters. The fonts include the new P22 font, LTC Winchell and hand-cut looking face, and the chunky Poplar- one of my fav rock poster fonts.
POSTER GALLERY- You can see the full gallery of JS Tribute posters here I have created over the past 8 years by click here.
Hope to see you kids on the 26th, shaking off those Christmas day cobwebs.
ART + MUSIC = LOVE
I am DJing for a silent auction at the CEPA photography gallery tonight (Sat. April 25, 2009). déjà blü has been the CEPA DJs for ages now spinning tunes once a year for various fundrasiers. It is all always a good time, good people, good art and a good vibe all together. Come on out, you don't have to bid on the art, you can just l0ok, have a few drinks, talk and listen to the smoove grooves. Assisting me will by DJ Jill, my awesome wife and collegue. Come on by and wish her a happy anniversary today (#12).... Yeah.
CEPA Gallery Visions of Greater Buffalo 2009 Tonight, Saturday April 25th, 7:00 PM
>> Click here for the online catalog of images
"The Visions of Greater Buffalo benefit event is scheduled for Saturday, April 25 at the historic Market Arcade Building in downtown Buffalo’s Theatre District. An audience of over 200 guests will be present at the event, including the VIPs and other influential business leaders, community members, arts supporters and many others from the Greater Buffalo region.The images are taken by local 'celebrities' who are not necessarily artists.... well some of them are. Heck, we are all artists, aren't we? The image above is by my friend, font-maestro (artist) Rich Kegler. View others here.
Admission to the event is $10 per person and includes complimentary hors d’oeuvres catered by Amy McCarthy and Fredi and music by déjà blü; cash bar. The reception begins at 7:00 pm in the Market Arcade; the silent auction takes place from 7:30 to 9:00 pm."
Special DJ Alert!
Spain's POETS IN PROCESS
Should be a blast, it's only $5, and it's an early night... you could be home by 11:00-12:00 or so.... you should all come on out!Spain’s Poet in Process, virtually unknown on this side of the Atlantic, are, in the words of their publicist, by way of their translator, a gem to discover, a truthful "nugget". Their compositions, attitude and presence on stage make of them the future of the pop rock scene. The combination of shrilled and ripped guitars with the delicacy and softness of the melodies, invites the voice to create captivating and violent melodies surrounded by a tender and whispering cadence.
After five years working and performing in a great number of venues and festivals, they have had the opportunity to support bands such as Stereophonics, OK GO, Albert Hammond Jr., Muse and Take That. The song “Why”, from their first LP Free Way has been included in the Guillermo del Toro's film Hellboy II, and several of their songs were featured in the soundtrack of the Spanish soap opera Cuestion de sexo. Four of their songs have been chosen to be playing on the website of the famous Spanish Chef Sergi Arola (www.sergiarola.es ).
Between appearances at Canadian Music Week and SXSW, the band is stopping off in Buffalo, with assistance from P22 fontmeister and The Western New York Book Arts's Rich Kegler.
The Magnificent Seven! 7th Annual Tribute to Joe Strummer and The Clash! Friday, December 26th!
Ring! ring! its 7:00 a.m.!
Move yself to go again
Cold water in the face
Brings you back to this awful place.
-- The Clash
Come on out the day after Christmas for some post holiday cheer and rock!
This friday I will be DJ'ing before, between and after rock band sets during the 7th annual Clash tribute night at the Mohawk place. Join us as we pay tribute to the late, great Joe Strummer.
I love this gig because I get to play really loud punk rock, reggae and dub music... just like Joe would have liked! This is always one of my favorite gigs, especially for the fact that I LOVE spinning discs at the Mohawk Place. For you name droppers, I will be playing tunes by the likes of: The Selector, X-Ray Specs, Special AKA. Stiff Little Finger, Stooges, Mickey Dread, Desmond Dekker, the Exploited, Sex Pistols, Bad Manners, the Damned and more! I better start sifting through the CD collection and get prepared, sort of...
The bands (Rebel Waltz & more) consists of various Buffalo musical greats doing sets of Clash sounds which are usually great! Lotsa fun! Hope to see you there. Drink a Pabst! Musicians include John Lombardo, Chris Malachowski and Jimy Chambers to name a few.
>> The proceeds benefit STRUMMERVILLE- The Joe Strummer Foundation For New Music
>> This is my 7th poster in a row for this event, click here to see them all.
What do we have for entertainment?
Cops kickin' gypsies on the pavement!
-- The Clash
Action-packed weekend-- no time for reading. Though I did read an Elmore Leonard (detective writer, Get Shorty, etc.) western story last night from a volume of short stories. It was pretty good, but it was only one story from a book of like 40-50 stories... I am not sure if this could be a new direction in reading (western fiction) for me or not. We'll see.
Anyway, there is a rock show Friday night,at Mohawk Place that I did the poster for affectionately titled "Punk Rock Reggae Clash!" featuring Chosen Ones, Neville Francis & the Riddim Posse and Wolf Tickets, host by Uni aka DJ Universal. I am not sure how the punk rock is going to come into it, but Chris Malichowski's band Wolf Tickets has a strong Clash bent to it. Should be a good gig, though I am not DJing and I really like DJing at The 'Hawk, especially punk rock music!! ...
See the poster art below featuring an oldie, but a goodie P22 font- click for larger view. Above is a version of the flyer on one the band's MySpace page... "You know you've made it when....."
Saturday, my friend and client Joe Gambacorta is going to be displaying some of his memorabilia from the Buffalo Hockey Experience + Museum at the Convention Center for the Farewell, Old Friend Memorial Aud Live Aid event. Should be a good time, the French Connection will be there and Dr. Joe has the most amazing collection of Sabres and Aud stuff. We did the logo, website, blog and swag for the BHEM. The event includes the limited Aud Edition of the BHEM hats that New Era donated (+ OW designed) for the upcoming Museum. Very cool. See hat on post below.
So may be I'll see some of you kids this weekend. I know a lot of people read this and think I never leave the house... but I do, in fact, I was at The Place twice yesterday.
Event posters and rock posters are some of my favorite things to design. Now I don't get to create and print cool silk screen posters (which is awfully popular these 
days), but I have spend over 20 years designing posters for various fund raising events, to raise awareness for causes and to advertise rock shows, CD release events and DJ nights. These of course are for little, and often no money at all, which lends a sort of creative freedom to the designer.
When you are not getting paid, this means you can often do what ever the heck you want. Dealing with bands is often the 'battle of the egos' though, musicians and graphic folks are both artists- often head strong, knowing what they want. Many bands will give some direction and let you go nuts, some will pick and pick and make you redesign and redesign which can suck. I try to put forth the proposition (little Doors for ya there) that, "Hey, if I am not getting paid, you are going to get something cool that I like." Works every time. Well, mostly.....
When dealing with a not-for-profit, like Literacy Volunteers, they just love whatever we do for them unconditionally. We have created the poster and accompanying graphics for the last seven Coffee and Chocolate fund raising events for LV and they let us do what we want and they like it... they truly like it! Now if only I could get paid for working like this, eh?
There are a few design companies (i.e. Modern Dog in Seattle) who do just that- they do whatever they want, sometimes crazy ass projects and the client knows what they are getting, they take the chance and they love it. Mostly. That would be Paradise City, baby! It seems they can actually make money doing this? Have I not been taking enough chances in my designs? I don't know.... maybe I have to work harder...
I took some photos of our new hallway poster gallery that includes the first 7 Coffee and Chocolate posters, some Variety Rocks event posters from the nineties and 3 Americanarama posters which have been great to do for local alt-country rockers the Steam Donkeys.
It is cool to see all these posters on permanent display.
hang 'em if you got 'em!
In an effort to tidy up the stacks and piles of graphic melee in my office, I decided to throw a few posters up over my desk area. Off the pile, on the wall... spruce up my corner a bit.
So first I put up some of the Strummerville posters... well, then I had to make sure they were all up there. Then I had an Americanarama poster, the horizontal flag one, so I put that up. Well then, I thought, maybe the rest of the Americanarama posters had to go up as well-- except the 1st one, not so hot... and I never really cared too much for the last one, the brown horizontal one with the Wright Brothers Kitty Hawk Flight on it. It was some Wilbur and Orville anniversary year, don't ask me.... toss in a few Deja Blu posters and we got something here.
They look better on the wall than in the pile.
Overall poster thoughts....
Buffalo Spree Magazine is having a party and you kids are invited!
Best of WNY Party is next Thursday, 8/21.
DJs deja blu bring the groovy lounge tunes for you to chill by!
Celebrate the Best of WNY in style at Spree's third annual BEST OF WNY PARTY on Thursday, August 21 at Shea's Performing Arts Center (646 Main St.) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Help the Spree gang raise money for Mercy Flight of WNY.
Join us as we reveal Buffalo Spree's Best of WNY 2008 winners and enjoy fabulous food and desserts from over 20 of the area's best restaurants, wine tasting, silent auction and live entertainment from the Real Dream Cabaret and deja blu - all for only $30 ($40 at the door).
Don't miss the best party of the summer with your favorite DJs, Buffalo food and beverages!!
Fabulous food from:
Alternative Brews · Anderson's · The Eagle House Restaurant · Edible Arrangements – Williamsville · Falafel Bar · Fiamma Steak · The Glen Park Tavern · Harry's Harbour Place Grille · Kabab & Curry · The Melting Pot · Mulberry Italian Ristorante · My Tomato Pie · Nick Charlap's Ice Cream · The Other Woman, Caterer · Salvatore's Italian Gardens · Sample · Snooty Fox Lounge · So's Integrity Catering · SPoT Coffee · Tandoori · Verbena Restaurant
For more info visit: www.buffalospree.com
He likes to sleep for hundreds of years, eats junk food (buildings, other monsters, etc.) and he is usually minding his own business 'til humans piss him off....
GODZILLA: KING OF THE SLACKERS
Slack issue #7- SLACK Goes to the Movies Issue
March 1994 (published 02.28.94)
We got caught in the rain during the free Bidwell concert tonight, but it didn't matter, it was hot as hell today. The rain didn't cool anything down, it is still extra steamy on a Tuesday night... it would be the perfect night to sit in an air-conditioned movie house. But I cannot, I am in the office listening to my CDs purchased at the Central Library for only one dollar each and working. For the score keepers- they are Underworld's Pearl Girl single CD (w/ bonus trax), Primal Scream's Kowalski single CD (w/ bonus trax), Smith and Mighty's Bass is Material and Cowboys to Girls- The Hits of The Intruders (Philly R & B).
I give you issue number 7, the Slack Goes To The Movies Issue, which is not a superb issue by any means. I know I have been behind in my Slack postings (sorry it's been a month, people), but it's Summer for cripes sake.
This issue is significant in that it contains the very 1st Bitter Boy article. Following an angry letter in issue number 6 from BB, he said he could write and he did! I received a floppy disk in the mail for the next 13 issues and he didn't miss a single deadline. Ranting about his observations of the world and his bad attitude in regards to these things, I followed the the next articles by BB with a disclaimer that the opinions expressed "were entirely his own and not of he 
editors of Slack." Now a lot of scandalous, malicious and down right nasty- not to mention copyright infringing-- things have been written in the 20 issues of Slack but no-one deserved a disclaimer like Bitter Boy.
Highlights & Lowlights of Slack 7:
HIGH: a praising letter from James Gillian, Creative Director at Paragon (in fact I think he still is there). He had Dre and I appear on an episode of Off Beat Cinema following this issue, which was fun.
LOW: really bad printing with a few pages having no black, washed in grays. I remember being mad about how crappy the cover looked.
HIGH: Dre interview Rochester techno artist Mark Gage about his Vapour Space. He was touring with Aphex Twin, Moby and Orbital.
LOW: Page 2. I scanned actual popcorn for the background and it makes the text hard to read... but I did scan actual popcorn on the flatbed scanner, which is cool in itself.
HIGH: Godzilla: King of the Slackers.
LOW: Laid by James was on my DJ list and a CD review. I remember how I learned to loath the title track when I DJ'ed at the Concrete and used to lie to girls who requested it, telling them I didn't have it or I accidentally left it at home (remember those days, Doug)....
Download PDF here: Slack Magazine n. 7, Slack Goes to The Movies Issue (4.7 mg)
Don't forget these issues already up:
Slack Magazine n. 18, The Two-Year Anniversary! issue
Slack Magazine n. 11, The True Crime Issue
Slack Magazine n. 9, The Dead Rock Stars Issue
Slack Magazine n. 8, The Beer Issue
Slack Magazine n. 6, The Buffalo Issue
Slack Magazine n.5, The Slack TV Issue
Slack Magazine n. 4, SEX in the '90s Issue
Slack Magazine n. 3, The Politico Issue
Slack Magazine n. 2, The Travel Issue
Slack Magazine n. 1, The Debut Issue
BONUS BEATS: a collection of Godzilla sound effects and roars online >>Listen now!
Highway to the Sun aka
Lessons Learned From Rocky 1-3
As the fam' and I prepare to hit the road for a weekend in our state's capitol, I had to repack the CD sleeve for the road. It has been raining everyday since last Sunday, and after playing ambassador to the Queen City all last week, it will be good to get the F out of dodge for a few days.
For anyone that is interested, and I know someone out there in internet land is, these are the CDs I just packed into the sleeve for the car ride.... a little sumptin' for everyone!
Shut Up and Eat Your Helvetica!
Typecon Day 3-5-- Wrap Up!
The OW team had a whirlwind Typecon experience. There has not been a lot of time to post but I am trying to catch up.
Following the Sagmeister talk with the weird story about the Manatee, we moved up to UB Thursday night to see a presentation from Dutch design team NLXL. They mixed some examples of their work with things that inspired them. Following the presentation they played some techno and dance MP3s and NLXL's Oscar mixed some video clips. Pretty cool.
After a full day of presentations highlighted by Doyald Young discussing his book Dangerous Curves and Dard Hunter III discussing the family legacy, the evening at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery starred Erik Spiekermann. Eric, who earlier in the day had patted me on the chest as he flipped my name tag around for me, was funny, foul and took quite a few swipes at Helvetica's bastard child, Arial! Very entertaining. The late night Friday night moved to the 'Hawk with some punk rock DJed by Mixwell Einstein and myself, Odiorne (they rocked Morning Star) and a weird band from Toronto, the Serrifics. Big Black, Primal Scream, Iggy-- we had it all for the people.
Saturday featured another full day of speakers starting with Ken Barber from the famous House Industries and old timer Mike Parker who remarked that he "has probably forgotten more about Times Roman that most people in the room know..." I am not so sure about that, there were some serious type-geeks in the audience. J. and I took some new friends to a great lunch at Betty's and then more speakers. There was alos a great type-themed poster show put together by You Work For Them (see some poster photos on Julian Montague's blog).
Saturday night was the grand ball where I basically DJ'ed cool wedding music. Now I never play songs I don't like, but I play all the alt. 80s' songs and 70's funk, disco songs I had. I had a little fun playing some Underworld, Chemical Brothers, and Daft Punk, but I expected more from a crowd of creatives. I had a whole bin full of house, groove and really great music I never touched. Kinda of disappointing.
All in all, the Typecon was a bit too much type, even for me. Because of the event I met a lot of great new friends and met a lot of cool people. But 7 days of type-themed events have burned me out. I haven't gone this long without a good night sleep in quite a while. And while I was at 
the Allen Street Hardware at 3:15 AM, I know I had had enough.
j. and spend Sunday wrapping things up, picking up the DJ gear and leftover W2R apparel from the Hyatt and sneaking out to see the new Batman movie (and it is really good!). I got a lot of stickers and buttons, a cool shirt screened from my new buddy from Colorado and some inspiration to be more creative in general, but I am typed-out for a while.
Having this international conference in town was super. I did hear some German designers complaining about the desolate downtown, but a lot of other out-of-town folks enjoyed our architecture, our food, the hospitality of the warm buffalonians, great music and nightlife and lot of type-geek camaraderie. Next year, Typecon will be in Atlanta- ho hum.
To help with your Typecon planning, I have chose to highlight a few choice events that are must sees... there a lot other workshops, events and presentation, but I picked out a few of my favorites that I am looking forward too. Here ya go...
Be sure to check out the onsite Typecon store (at the Hyatt) with Where to Roam Tees for sale and free stickers!
TypeCon2008 Schedule Highlight
Tuesday, July 15
8:00 pm: Type-themed Pecha Kucha Night
An Evening of Mini Presentations From Design Legends
and Rising Stars at the Hallwalls Cinema (at Babeville)
OtherWisz will be presenting... I am not sure if we are the "design legends" or the "rising stars" or the guys in the middle!
Wednesday, July 16
9:00 pm: An Evening with
Stefan Sagmeister: Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far
Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, North Hall
Stefan is very entertaining if you saw the Helvetica movie
Thursday, July 17
8:00 pm: Opening Night Extravaganza @ University at Buffalo
featuring Dutch Design Innovators NLXL
These guys are very cool, check out their work here.
The only thing that sucks is that it is out in Amherst, ugh.
Friday, July 18
10:00 am (Hyatt) : Doyald Young - Dangerous Curves
Another awesome designer, in his 80's
3:15 pm: Indie Font Marketing Panel (Hyatt)
John Collins (MyFonts), Patrick Griffin (Canada Type), Stephen Coles (FontShop/Typographica), Mike Cina (YouWorkForThem), Alejandro Paul (Sudtipos), and Jan Middendorp (moderator)
5:15 pm: Kim Elam (Ringling College of Art and Design)
Typographic Systems, Beyond the Grid (Hyatt)
But I love the grid....
8:00 pm: Erik Spiekermann at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Another awesome designer (again, see Helvetica, the movie...)
10:00 P22 presents Type:Con 2008 (Mohawk Place)
featuring Odiorne, Etaoin Shrdlu, The Sarrifics, and Deja Blu
Dr Wisz (me!) and special guest Mixwell Einstein- DJing classic alt. rock and weird rock, kraut rock and space rock!
Saturday, July 19
9:15 am: Ken Barber (House Industries)
Learning from Lettering
Another really cool company
10:00 am: Jakob Trollbäck (Trollbäck + Company)
Choreography for Type
8:30 pm: Alpha Crazy, a Celebration (Hyatt Ballroom)
buffet dinner, drinks, Type Quiz, music, dancing, and surprises
DJs deja blu spin house, neo-soul, funk, nu-jazz, old school hip hop, retro grooves and 'sounds of fonts'
Sunday, July 20
5:30 pm: Jan Middendorp - Type as Image, Image as Type
6:45 pm: Closing Night Gathering at the Roycroft
Hope to see you around next week during the festival...
"Straighten me out Bert, I musta got some bad liquor."
Dave Koch's Top Ten Quotes From It's a Wonderful Life (#4)
Slack issue #5- The SLACK TV Issue
Holidays 93/94 (published 12.12.93)
I turn on the television and my kids stop and stare-- they literally become zombies! It is amazing the effect it has on them. They don't watch a lot of TV at all. I read in the newspaper last week the national averages of 2-3 years old kids that have TVs in their rooms-- and it makes me nuts-- why should a 3 year old child have a TV in their room!! My kids don't have a TV in their room. They maybe watch 2-3 hours of TV a week! A week!... some kids younger that 3 watch that much a day- it is crazy!
Now when I was a kid I did watch a lot of TV. I watched it in the morning before school, after school and in the evening. Some Saturdays I literally watched TV from 6:00 AM (the Canadian station had the original Spiderman cartoon on, the one with the catchy theme song) until noon. I somehow managed to turn out all right... if you disregard my short attention span, irritability issues, wild mood swings and an inability to concentrate.
This fifth issue of Slack- the SLACK TV ISSUE is when the magazine really hit it's stride and got going. Sixteen pages chock full of musings on TV including the marketing of It's a Wonderful Life, TV as a drug, the heroes of Beverly Hills 90210, and an article about how TV isn't to blame for all the violence in the world (in 1993).
This issue features a great interview with Mr. Lance Diamond, one of our first angry letters from a reader (a Miss Holly Sinnott), a thorough list of Batman TV villains, Top Ten Xmas Gifts From the Dollar Store (how slack can you get), 14 DJ lists, and a compiled list of the best Xmas rock songs.
Some Notes about this issue:
> Charlie Quill, I borrowed your Reverend Horton Heat CD cover to scan to include with your review in this issue- I still have it, if you want it back. Your CD may be lonely without the liner notes.
> A great Lance Diamond quote:
"A busload of Nardin Academy girls passed me the other day and they hollered, 'Lance Diamond... we saw you on MTV... you were awesome." You know... I felt good about that."> The photo (to the right) of me with my face pressed against the inside of a TV screen was achieved by scanning my face on the flatbed scanner- with my eyes open... I am still seeing spots 15 years later...
> The space issue (or lack of) is really apparent in this issue- I think the Horrorscope is probably 3 pt. type. Again, get me the magnifying glass.I like almost all types of music. As a DJ, the eclectic mix of different things has always appealed to me. That is why, when I first started playing music in bars & clubs 
back in the late '80s- early 90s, I loved being able to play a mix of rock, alternative, hip hop, funk and soul. The 3rd Room, the Concrete and the Old Pink were places you could play that sort of variety and get away with it.
When Scott and I started deja blu, over 10 years ago, we played a groovy mix of what was then called electronica- which was basically all music that was electronic based, and was later further classified into, nu-jazz, neo-soul, alternative hip-hop, space age bachelor pad music, smooth groove and more.... Besides the deja blu era, I have never tried to play only one type of music at a time. Ask anyone who has been to a party here, or hung out in the OtherWisz lounge while I spin tunes- I like to play it all and mix it up good, really good.
The opening spot DJ last night at the Pearl Street (during Sunset Sundays) played a whole set of songs that were very similar. It was good, very precise technically, but it was really a bit boring. It all fit into a housey-techno vein- which is always better in small doses. I think more DJs playing different types of music would work better... I'll check it out again and we'll see. There are different DJs every Sunday.
My recent online CD purchase sums up my musical taste pretty good.
I just bought (and they came today):
The Media vs. the Juice
Slack no. 11, The True Crime Issue
July-August 1994 (published 7-14-94)
The Phat Summer Reader
The blood dripped from where the knife sliced in and pooled around the edges of the wood. Earlier the rain came so I had to abandon my grill plans (you know us charcoal guys, we need that 20 minutes to get it going at least, maybe a half hour). I was stuck broiling and I couldn't seem to get this piece of meat cooked.
I was thinking of OJ, who was a star player in the issue of Slack I just scanned last night, the True Crime issue. Issue no. 11 went to print in the middle of July 1994 and it was two weeks prior that the Juice went on his slow Bronco run. I remember the night vividly as confusion filled the Third Room on Chippewa as all action was suspended. The crowd stared at the slow moving chase on the bar TV. This city, the world was mesmerized. I was DJing that Friday night, but had to wait until OJ 
surrendered several hours later. Weird and surreal, to say the least.
The trial was still far off and everyone was talking about OJ around here a lot. Buffalo played a big part in OJ's life and I remembered seeing him at Mulligan's on Hertel Avenue in the '80s one night latched onto 2 blond women- I always thought one of them could have been the late Nicole Brown Simpson, before she became late. Time has not been kind to OJ as we have seen the media splash his name in front of us anytime anything happened involving the Juice-- and things happened often including violent outbursts involving golf clubs and memorabilia stick-ups and what not.
The Slack True Crime issue features some great text about Buffalo in 1994 including several OJ pieces, Slack writer Gary Marzloff's story about spending a night in the holding center, a list of the best crime movies, and a detailed timeline titled The History of Sensational Crime- us Slackers were awesome researchers (and without using that Goolge or Wikipedia you kids like to click on)! This issue includes some great local music stuff including: a set of musings about Buffalonian's lack of dancing ability in Dre's After Dark column, an interview with Moe (a young then 3 year old band) talking about gigs at the Essex Street Pub! and some local record reviews including the Steam Donkey's Cosmic Americana and Them Jazzbeard's Highballs, Lowbrows and Presbyterians CD. Great!
Notes on Slack number eleven:
> It's highlighted on the cover "More words per square inch than any issue of Slack so far!" and there is some really small 7 or 8 point type in this issue... I expected people to read this?
> Hollywood's Best True Crime Portrayals list includes the movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band.
> Some great old Buffalo ads including Das Boot, The Remix Shop and The Otherside- which was DJ Scotty's radio program he did on WJJL AM 1440 on Saturday evenings. This was when I first met Mr. Scott who went on to become the other half of deja blu (10 years strong! Peace!).
> A Pisces Horroscope that concludes:
" Mr. Big wants to see you in his office right away. Stop coloring outside of the lines. A positive approach leaves you dawdling. You feel expressive. Avoid all summer blockbusters. They will cause neuralgia. You should enjoy the weather and get in touch with friends. Tempers flare and so do nostrils. Your are sleepy. You can relate. You feel love. You peel potatoes. You reach new heights. You are alive. That is all."Download it here: Slack n. 11, The True Crime Issue (3.5 Mg)
Typecon coming to Buffalo this July!
Type Geeks of the World Unite!
Last night I attended the second local planning/info meeting for punkt: Typecon 2008 that is being help in Buffalo on July 15-20th. The meeting was at the magnificent Karpeles Manuscript Library in Allentown and it was infectious. The level of energy among the SOTA folks involved with this event is wonderful.
The meeting:
The couple dozen folks in attendance seemed dulled by the echoes of the Karlpeles church hall (I thought I should have genuflected upon entering) and a few questions couldn't even be heard (Good luck to the AV person the night Sagmeister is speaking!). But upon adjourning to the front room everyone had a chance to speak to either Tammy (SOTA), Brian (from TO and a SOTA board member), Jim from Typeco (who has been to EVERY Typecon!) and Rich and Carima from local foundry P22- they are the local Typecon liasons. Well worth attending...
The event:
This 5 day event is bringing some the major rock and roll stars of graphic design and typography to Buffalo from all over the world and should be a smashing success. Currently they are looking to build the volunteer staff to help with the nuts and bolts of running the event. Anyone who volunteers gets free admission to that days events. For example, you might work in the morning volunteering and spend the afternoon able to go to workshops or to see a speaker.
Many of the events will also be free to the general public including the amazing Stefan Sagmeister at Karpeles and the one-of-akind Erik Spiekermann an the Albright Knox (do not miss this design fans). Other highlights will include Dutch design wonderkinds NLXL at UB, various type gallery events and shows, workshops with the likes of Matthew Carter, Akira Kobayashi, Jakob Trollback, Rich from P22 and one of my favorites, House Industries. Your favorite DJs to the stars, deja blu will also be groovin' at the Gala Party at the Hyatt on Saturday (19th). Come see if Erik Spiekermann will dance to Kraftwerk, eh? Or is that too cliche for a German designer?
Why you:
This a must for all graphic artists and lovers of the 'sport of design'. RoamBuffalo will be in full attendance and reporting along the way, so stay tuned! I am telling you, you are going to want to be there, really.
If you are interested in volunteering, contact Tammy at SOTA- here.
Info on the event will be posted here (TYPECON site).
Get your responses in for our name the blog post titles/song titles!
Deadline is today (Thursday, May 1),
and I will be announcing the winner tonight!!
I will also post the complete list of answers as well- so look for it.
Hurry, hurry, hurry!!!
Contest details >> here.
