Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Censorship In L.A.



Artwork Painted Over Day Before Media Preview of New Show
by Ryan Vaillancourt, Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, December 9, 2010 2:22 PM PST

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES -- It seemed a novel idea: In advance of its recently announced April 2011 show on street art, the Museum of Contemporary Art offered one of its walls to a prominent street artist.

The artist, an Italian who goes by the name Blu, finished the work. This morning, the museum painted over it.

The paint was hardly dry on the mural, which covered the entire north-facing wall of MOCA's Geffen Contemporary with depictions of wooden caskets draped in dollar bills, when the museum literally whitewashed the piece.

A MOCA spokeswoman would not comment on the whitewashing, but the piece may have struck a delicate nerve center that sits just steps from the wall. The piece faces the Veterans Administration healthcare building on Temple Street. The dollar bills draped on Blu's caskets seem to be an overt replacement of the customary American flags that cover the coffins of soldiers killed in wartime.

A representative for the Veterans Administration said that management at the facility was aware of the mural, but did not complain to MOCA. The mural is also just steps from the Go For Broke Monument, a memorial to Japanese Americans who fought in World War II. A spokeswoman for the National Go For Broke Education Center said that some of the veterans found the mural "in bad taste," but the organization did not complain to MOCA either.

The artist, who did not immediately respond to an email, was on the scene as a crew began to paint over the work, and he was not pleased, said Daniel Lahoda, a street art advocate who curates the L.A. Freewalls Project and was in Little Tokyo to document the whitewashing.

"He was here this morning, taking pictures," Lahoda said. "He was [angry]."

It came as little surprise to the Los Angeles art world when new MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch, a longtime street art champion, announced in September that the museum would present a major show exploring the movement. His former New York gallery, Deitch Projects, displayed the work of California street art icon Barry McGee and L.A. transplant Shepard Fairey.

The whitewashing of the mural at the Geffen Contemporary came a day before the museum is due to host a media preview for Suprasensorial, a show highlighting Latin American artists working with light and space. MOCA previews generally attract scores of cameras and reporters.

Lahoda, whose LA Freewalls connects artists with building owners who offer their walls for murals, welcomed Deitch's embrace of street art. But he said the mural snafu is emblematic of a critique that often follows street art when it leaves the public realm and goes up on the walls of mainstream art institutions.

Looking at street art in a museum, or in this case on a museum's wall, he said, is sort of like "looking at wild animals in the zoo."

The move may remind Downtowners of the 2006 whitewashing of Kent Twitchell's "Ed Ruscha Monument." The destruction of the massive work on the side of a building at 1051 S. Hill St. prompted nearly two years of legal battles that culminated when the artist was awarded $1.1 million.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Med 1975


The Med 1975, originally uploaded by rchrd.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Barrington Hall



"Welcome to Barrington, kids! Please keep your hands and arms inside the ride at all times."

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Eyes Wide Shut


Eyes Wide Shut, originally uploaded by IntelOutside.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Lovely Bloodflow



Baths - Lovely Bloodflow

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Želimir Žilnik



An excerpt from "Marble Ass" by Želimir Žilnik

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

December 8, 1966



“To say what you feel is to dig your own grave.”

-Sinead O’Connor

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Family



FAMILY by Keren Cytter

Monday, November 22, 2010

R.I.P. Melanie Chavarria





R.I.P. Melanie Chavarria, singer for EXITWOUND & INSIDIOUS

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Japan’s 3D Hologram Rock Star Hatsune Miku!



To read more about Hatsune Miku and the technology behind this character, check out Crypton Media.

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Blue Monday











Expanded from a comparison made by dangerousminds.net to the GERRY & THE HOLOGRAMS record.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Enter The Void



You should try to see this film on a big screen, if you can find it playing at a theatre near you. THE VOID.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

SWANN DANGER





SWANN DANGER has a record release show this Saturday in Oakland, CA at the Terminal with MAGICK DAGGERS!

Check out SWANN DANGER on Facebook, and for order info check MESS ME UP RECORDS on Facebook.

Monday, October 04, 2010

須藤元気(Genki Sudo)



WORLD ORDER - "Mind Shift", Music & Words by Genki Sudo /Takashi Watanabe、Movie by Genki Sudo

Monday, September 27, 2010

Friday, September 17, 2010

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Monday, August 23, 2010

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

BIRD



BIRD



GODSTOMPER



WEEKEND NACHOS



LOW THREAT PROFILE

Here are some awesome photos from what turned out to be the last official UGZ Presents show at 924 Gilman in Berkeley, CA. This show was stacked with both locals and touring bands, like IN DISGUST, LOW THREAT PROFILE, WEEKEND NACHOS, GONER, GODSTOMPER, and BIRD. All killer, no filler. If you want to see the rest of this gallery, including photos of all the bands that played that night, then you should check out the official Murray Bowles website.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

INTERPOL - "Lights" directed by Charlie White

Speisekammer



Breakfast at a German restaurant in Alameda, CA, but we still went with the Belgium ale. Yes, beer with breakfast.

Subscribe for more video blogs at http://www.youtube.com/user/JayUnidos

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Punk Movie Night


The first UGZ Presents "Punk Movie Night" took place on September 15, 2001 at 924 Gilman in Berkeley, CA, four days after 9/11. This was years before I (Jay Unidos) was an official Gilman booker, and so for this show I had to work with Jake (who was an official Gilman booker at that time) to hold the date, and that was how we were able to book our two "Punk Movie Night" events at Gilman. UGZ booked and promoted the entire bill, and even paid for our own flyers. Jake was helpful in the sense that he liked what I was doing with my "Punk Movie Night" column at MaximumRocknRoll, and he could understand the concept of making that column come to life in the form of a live event every month or two or three. I don't know that we pulled that off exactly, but the first show had a huge turnout, thanks in large part to TRAGEDY driving down from Portland to headline the show. Martin Sorrondeguy from LIMPWRIST/LOS CRUDOS also drove up from Santa Ana to show his film "Beyond The Screams: A U.S. Latino Hardcore Punk Documentary", and there was even a Japanese jump on band.

The show is remembered for a lot of things, but one of the most sensational incidents to take place had to be the fire breathing drum circle performance that went up in flames - literally. At least the leader of the Troupe, Ben "The Crimson Baboon" De La Torre, did when a patron exited through the side door causing a draft to blow in, redirecting one of Ben's fireballs to change direction and reverse back down him and his very hairy face. It looked horrific, and it definitely sent a chill down my spine as I stood in the sound loft looking out at what had to be the worst case scenario for that kind of performance, and the show itself. Time stood still, and then someone grabbed Ben and pulled him down to the ground, extinguishing the flames so quickly that hardly anybody knew exactly what had taken place. Moments later I walked over to the Gilman office where Ben was seated, looking like someone had just bikini waxed his face. Of course everyone was uriging him to go to the emergency room, but he wasn't budging. As they say, the show must go on, and it did, barely even falling behind schedule.

Here are some videos from that night, but unfortunately or maybe fortunately there isn't any video online of the fire incident. What you do get are three of the bands that played our first "Punk Movie Night" at Gilman: TRAGEDY, FUNERAL, and the Japanese jump on band ENDZWECK. Remember when watching the TRAGEDY clip that this was four days after 9/11. Thanks to KILLTHATCAT for uploading these videos.





Saturday, July 31, 2010

UGZ Magazine on Facebook



I just started a Facebook page for UGZ Magazine, so if you're on Facebook, and we both know that you are, then stop on over and check us out. If you have any UGZ related photos, videos, memories, flyer art, etc, then your contributions are more than welcome. Click the UGZ logo above, or click here!

Friday, July 30, 2010

The Ranch



The hamburger tour continues with a lunch at Hayward's Ranch, which has to be experienced at least once. Order a Bloody Mary to go with your steak and potatoes, or in my case a hamburger and fries because either way the decor alone will make your visit worthwhile.

Subscribe to my Youtube channel for more blogs!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Solitary Confinement

Jaguar DMT Trip

UGZ Presents Has Left The Building



My four year run as a booker at 924 Gilman came to an end recently, and while I think my decision surprised some of the club's staff of volunteers, most of my inner circle were well aware that I had reached the end of my rope. In four years, three and half spent serving as the club's head booker, I transformed Gilman's booking department into an entirely different monster than the one that existed for the previous twenty years. There were changes that had to be made at first, and then it was a question of how much we could accomplish before hitting the wall. In the process I helped to elevate the head booker position to something akin to what the head coordinator position was in the nineties. I had a lot of influence, which now that I'm leaving I'll readily admit to, but I put in the work necessary and the time needed to maintain that influence for the entire time that I was active at Gilman. What really set me a part from others during those four years was that I always had a vision when it came to the booking department. I updated my approach from year to year, but I envisioned certain details from day one, and then I methodically set about making those a reality. Since every other department at the club remained stagnant for the last four years, changes in booking took on more prominence and came to be seen as signs that I was drastically altering the course of the club. If that's true, then it really just means that the booking department is, as I've always argued, at the top of the Gilman food chain and so every decision made by booking has a ripple effect on the entire club. This was a hard pill to swallow for many long time volunteers, and even for some of our newer, more idealistic volunteers, who got involved with Gilman believing that it was a non-profit community space where the rent was cheap and the shows were secondary to activism and sewing circles. At the end of the day, those persons who didn't agree with my vision of the club, which really just meant that they didn't agree with my idea that booking drives the club, were never willing to put in the same amount of time and work needed to make their own visions a reality at Gilman.

We had a chance to revisit the first half of 2010 at a recent membership meeting via a financial statement drawn up by the club's treasurer. Heading into July of this year, the club appears to be thriving financially in it's 24th year of existence. The numbers show a gain (profit) of $7605.10 after the first six months of 2010. Those numbers are based on deposits made by club coordinators at the end of shows, and do not include any profits from the Gilman stoar. The stoar (that is how we spell it) is set to post record profits in 2010 since t-shirt and tote bag sales have been through the roof.

So with a gain of $7605.10, and with another $15,326.72 having come in via the donate button on the Gilman website (run entirely by booking and the head of sound until July of 2010), Gilman is cruising into the second half of 2010 with roughly a $22,931.82 cushion.

It seems very unlikely that the volunteers currently running the club could blow through that much money in the next six months, and so you should expect to see a significant gain for 2010, even with the current rent increase. Without any noticeable attempts at fundraising by anyone outside of booking thus far, and with the club no closer to becoming a non-profit corporation than it was six months ago, one can only hope that those numbers, as impressive as they are, won't lull the club's staff into a false sense of security. It will be interesting to watch as the would be new leaders at the club, folks like Karen O'Brien, take the reigns finally. Can a booker driven club transition to a board of directors driven venue, while continuing to make similar financial gains, as well as needed changes to the corporate structure? Only time will tell.

If you want to learn more about my time at Gilman, then click here...

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

CORRUPTED 2008



UGZ Presents CORRUPTED (Osaka, Japan) live at Gilman in 2008, with ASUNDER, AMBER ASYLUM, and STORMCROW. This was one my favorite UGZ Presents shows while I was a booker at 924 Gilman. It was a pleasure to flyer it like a madman, which I definitely did, as well as working the front door with Ariel Awesome for ASUNDER and the first hour of CORRUPTED's set. Both ASUNDER and CORRUPTED played their sets with the house lights turned way down, to complete darkness in the case of ASUNDER. I always tried to go the extra miles for special shows like this one, whether it was food or posters (there were two designs for this show), and in this case I even went to far as to hire Sonny from SAVIOURS & WATCH THEM DIE to do sound. Epic night.

To download the entire set, go here...

Monday, July 05, 2010

Friday, July 02, 2010

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Monday, May 24, 2010

Lost In Translation

Oaktown Sushi



May 22, 2010 - Sushi courtesy of Carlos from weneedmerch.com

Subscribe for more video blogs at http://www.youtube.com/user/JayUnidos

-Jay Unidos

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Monday, May 17, 2010

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Journey Across India



Journey Across India, edited down to a three minute film.

-Jay Unidos

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Multimedia Disorder, Episode 23





1. OM - Gerbel Barkal
2. VELVET UNDERGROUND - The Gift
3. FLIPPER - Brainwash
4. M.I.A. - Born Free
5. SLAYER - War Ensemble
6. HELLSHOCK - Reaper In The Wind
7. EFFIGY - The Day The Devil Reigned
8. PHANTOM LIMBS - Castanets Cookies
9. SWANN DANGER - Stripper
10. NINJA ACADEMY - Gummy Socks Bandit
11. FEVER RAY - Seven (remix)
12. DIE ANTWOORD - Fish Paste



Multimedia Disorder, Episode 23 (download)

-Jay Unidos

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Monday, May 03, 2010

Orgin



Via dvdp

Friday, April 30, 2010

Fever Ray

FEVER RAY - If I Had A Heart



-Jay Unidos

Motor City 5

Wayne Kramer was born on April 30, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan. Kramer came to prominence as a teenager in 1967 as cofounder of the Detroit rock group MC5 (Motor City 5).



-Jay Unidos

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Daniel Day Lewis

"I suppose I have a highly developed capacity for self-delusion, so it's no problem for me to believe that I'm somebody else." - Daniel Day Lewis



-Jay Unidos

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

A Monkey, A Tightrope Walking Goat, & A Cup



-Jay Unidos

Death Valley 69

Kim Gordon, born April 28, 1953, is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She sings and plays bass and guitar in Sonic Youth.



-Jay Unidos

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Christian Bale Remix



Thanks James St. James for finding this one.

-Jay Unidos

Sunday, April 25, 2010

N.Y.C. Eagle vs L.A. Eagle

EAGLE - New York City



EAGLE - Los Angeles



Courtesy of VBS.TV and WOW

-Jay Unidos

Friday, April 23, 2010

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Jalapeno Ice Cream


"We know it sounds crazy, but this ice cream mix actually makes an unusual tangy treat the whole gang will enjoy. Put some in your mouth and you'll feel the cool and creamy ice cream. Take a second taste and the mild, spicy flavor of the jalapeno pepper comes through. It's perfect for those chili heads or share it with family or friends when you prepare your favorite Mexican meal at home. Package includes one bag of Ice Cream Mix (TABASCO® Green Pepper Sauce Sold Separately) Preparation: 5 minutes, plus 30-35 minutes chilling time. Makes eight 1/2 cup servings. 1 bag TABASCO® brand Ice Cream Mix 2 cups heavy whipping cream, well chilled 1 cup whole milk, well chilled 1 tablespoon of TABASCO® brand Green Pepper Sauce (add according to your preference of heat/flavor) *Remove the ice cream mix from container. *Clean the container thoroughly for later use. *In a bowl, use a whisk or hand mixer to combine the whole milk, heavy whipping cream and Ice Cream Mix until the mix is dissolved, about 2 minutes. *Stir in TABASCO® Green Pepper Sauce and mix for another minute. *Pour the mixture into a homemade ice cream machine and mix until thick, about 30-35 minutes. *Use a spatula to scoop the ice cream into the ice cream container and put into freezer until ready to serve."

From the TABASCO web site

-Jay Unidos

CROW (Japan) only all ages Bay Area show

Posters And Punk - April 24th!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Civilization, A Video Mural



Civilization by Marco Brambilla

Civilization, a video mural created for the new Standard hotel in New York City, depicts a journey from hell to heaven interpreted through modern film language using computer-enhanced found footage. This epic video mural contains over 300 individual channels of looped video blended into a multi-layered seamless tableau of interconnecting images that illustrate a contemporary, satirical take on the concepts of Heaven and Hell.

-Jay Unidos

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Multimedia Disorder, Episode 22





1. NEUROSIS - From Where It's Roots Run
2. NIGHT AFTER NIGHT - Love Commander
3. NIRVANA - Milk It
4. BIRD - Time To Rebuild
5. LOOK BACK AND LAUGH - The Cost We Absorb
6. HIGH ON FIRE - 10,000 Years
7. BUZZOV~EN - Grit
8. ANGRY SAMOANS - Steak Knife
9. BLACK FORK - Don't Talk To Me
10. CHOLITA! - Chinga Tu Madre
11. SCHLONG - Rats
12. MINUTEMEN - The Anchor
13. DAVID BOWIE - Panic In Detroit

Multimedia Disorder, Episode 22 (download)

-Jay Unidos

UGZ Speed Trials 2010: GONER

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Losers Club





-Jay Unidos

Sadobabies

Here is a great 8mm film made in the late 1980s about punks living on the streets of San Francisco,CA. I also included the follow up "The Losers Club" in a follow up post, which checks back in with some of the kids five years later. One of them being Marian Anderson of the INSAINTS, who was living in Oakland,CA at the time.







-Jay Unidos

Thursday, January 14, 2010

UGZ Speed Trials 2010



Check out these videos from past UGZ Speed Trials Shows!



and



-Jay Unidos