Conferences and Community X

Thanks to an angel -- and barring unforeseen mishaps -- I'm going to BlogOn 2005! Look for more quality confblogging... and news from my current secret project.

From the Reading Pile: Prescription for a Post-Season Media Diet

Back in April, I penned a short essay about the loss of America's pastime -- and where I turned for my baseball fix: sports magazines. That piece has now been published in the new issue of Zisk, "the baseball magazine for people who hate baseball magazines."

Especially because we're nearing the end of the baseball season this year, it's well worth a read. The editors have printed it with care, even keeping my typos true. (That's one risk of "free"-lancing: If you're unpaid, you're edited less stringently. Harf!) The first person to email me and identify the unintential misprint will receive a surprise. Send $3 to 801 Eagles Ridge Road, Brewster, NY 10509 for Zisk #11, the fall 2005 issue.

One magazine I didn't include, lamentably, in the Media Diet survey is Baseball America, which I discovered too late. That major supporter of the minor and lesser leagues, a tabloid, might also be worth delving into during the off season.

Swing, batter, swing!

Podcast of Thousands

Writer supreme Glenn Gaslin is producing a podcast for E! starring the "hilarious and knowledgeable" Leslie Gornstein. Gornstein is funny and near all-knowing. 'Struth. Make with the clicky.

From the In Box: It's an Ad, Ad, Ad, Ad World XXXI

Your comments aren't working on Media Diet! Wasn't CIV made up of old Gorilla Biscuits players? I didn't realize that they sold their song for a car commercial. How do you feel about this? I know that I wouldn't like it if it was a GB song, because I kinda lost touch with the scene around the time they broke up. Heck, I don't even like that they use a Clash riff in a car commercial or a Stooges tune for luxury cruises. It kinda ruins the song for me, I end up associating it with the advertising imagery -- which is what it's supposed to do -- but I loved the music before that. Besides, isn't it weird for a song about drug addiction to be used to sell high-end goods and services? Let me know what you think. -- Jeff Buddle

Good memory! Civ, nee Anthony Civocelli, was in the Gorilla Biscuits, one of the first NYHC bands I got into when I started tape trading in the late '80s. Civ went onto his own project later on, recording several albums for Revelation Records. "Can't Wait One Minute More" comes from "Set Your Goals," Civ's first LP. I can't find the entire lyrics -- although they have been derided as repetitive -- so I can't confirm the drug addiction reference. The video got a lot of airplay on MTV, so surely lyrics live somewhere.

How do I feel about a hardcore band's song being used in a car commercial? I'd feel differently if it were the Biscuits and not Civ, as I see the two as being relatively far removed, and Civ as being rather mersh. That said, I think it's a net positive. One, it inspired me to dig back into my HC tape trading milk crates to find some Biscuits records. Two, it could introduce a whole new crowd to the music. And three, people who don't make a lot of money making a lot of money for a lot of years benefit from the royalty stream.

What's the down side? They didn't make the song for the advert, so the creative motivation can't be second guessed as strongly as it might be otherwise.

It's an Ad, Ad, Ad, Ad World XXXI

A recent Nissan television ad features the Civ song "Can't Wait One Minute More." If any Media Dieticians have that song in MP3, please email it to me. I need it. And someone making car adverts has a punk-rock past!

Music to My Ears LXXI

With the cool crispness of fall hanging cleanly in the air and the approach of Halloween, it's time to gather appropriately seasonal -- and spooky -- music to match the mood of slowing decay that accompanies autumn and heralds the sleep of winter. One musical genre that might easily get overlooked is that of Christian rock. But it shouldn't be, because its spiritual foundation rests firmly on the ultimate undead.

Enter the Deadlines, a one-time Oregon-based quintet that released "The Death & Life of..." on Tooth & Nail Records in 2000. Largely inspired by the horror punk of Glenn Danzig's bands the Misfits and Samhain, the garage rockers sport a sound less cartoony than Lookout Records' Groovie Ghoulies and a wonderfully atmospheric Farfisa organ played by a fellow called the Creature.

The music is pretty straightforward and in the vein of Scared of Chaka, but the lyrics are an interesting study of horror punk cliche and occasional religious allusions. The eighth song on "The Death & Life of...," "Vegecide," is the first song that really breaks out. And oddly, the goofy rant against veganism -- "I'm having a vegan nightmare. The world is turning green." (The Misfits' "Green Hell," perhaps?) -- offsets the concern with killing animals for food with the phrase, "Don't you know that Jesus died for you." The other Christian references are almost as awkward. "Zombies, zombies coming for you. Pray to God they don't kill you, too." Without reading the lyrics, a listener could easily miss the Christian undercurrents.

I suppose that's the point of Christian rock. Copy the basics of a genre or subgenre and incorporate just enough allusions that the case can be made by people who limit their record purchases to "inspirational music" that you fit the Christian bill. Not surprisingly, the Deadlines' 2001 followup, "Fashion over Function" shed their horrorpunk beginnings and aped the slightly more palatable glam rock. Just as the dead can rise -- and Christ can live -- again, Christian punk bands can shed their skins and adopt a new mantle to appeal to the masses. I hope their faith is more steadfast.

Products I Love XVI

I'm spending a lot more time at my laptop lately, and even though I wear glasses -- I wore contacts until I began writing full time -- my eyes have been getting dry. Solution du jour: Innozen's Optizen lubricant eye drops. Fingers crossed. First use: some burn and blur, though short term, and we'll see if it solves my "problem." I see eye drops as aspirin: largely unnecessary and palliative.

The Movie I Watched Last Night XCII

I just started a Yahoo group to support a New York-based movie-watching "club." I watch plenty of movies via Netflix, but I haven't gone to a theater for a new release in, gosh, I don't know how long. If you're in the area and want to be involved, please sign up and get involved. You like action movies; I like romantic comedies.

See You in the Funny Pages XIV

Shelf-Publishing IV

I almost forgot to tell you. I helped contribute to a new book that just came out, The Big Moo: Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable. Edited by Seth Godin, the book puts me in some pretty amazing company: Mark Cuban, Malcolm Gladwell, Guy Kawasaki, Tom Kelley, Tom Peters, Randall Rothenberg... and me! You can read it all in a row, you can dive in here and there, you can put it down and pick it up again months later -- it's a nifty little package chock full of ideas and insights, and all proceeds go to charity. Check it out!

Music to My Ears LXX

Song of the day: "String Theory" by Mina K. Reminds me of how I felt listening to K records in the late '80s.

Trylons, Assemble! II

Not only are the Trylons part of the Chrysler building, it's the name of an endangered movie theater in Queens:

• Group Tries to Save What's Left of the Trylon Theater
  
• Trylon Theater Endangered!
  
• Blvd. of Death: Queens Boulevard Part I
  
• Echoes of the Silver Screen: Curtains for Queens' Theaters