West Oakland

“Homes were razed and families displaced to make way for a postal distribution center. Freeways that promised connection to San Francisco instead surrounded the neighborhood, in effect isolating it. The depot at the western terminus of the First Transcontinental Railroad, which had brought a steady flow of cash-flush black porters to West Oakland and sent them back to the South with fresh-cut records, was shuttered.

In the late 1960s, construction of the Bay Area Rapid Transit’s above-ground commuter track drove in a final, deafening nail, sending screeching trains along 7th Street from dawn to midnight.”

— LA Times

Joe Rogan Experience #478 - Eddie Bravo

Lower Haight

Photo by Jay Unidos

Mark Gonzales Cooking To Little Richard

UGZ Speed Trials 2005

UGZ Speed Trials 2005, originally uploaded by JayUnidos.

Getting the club ready for the 2005 UGZ Speed Trials.

Mass Destruction Tokyo

This rare film by Cheryl Dunn shows Barry McGee Josh Lozcano Ed Templeton, and Chris Johanson at a demolition derby in Shibuya, Tokyo in 2001. Shot in 16 mm this special cut of the cars being painted and the derby footage has never before been available online.

AJ Fosik

"Lamplighter to the Promise Land" by AJ Fosik

The show (by the same name) runs through December 8th, 2012 at the Guerrero Gallery. I attended the opening last Saturday and wasn't prepared for the level of detail that goes into these pieces. They have to be seen in person to fully appreciate the scale and three dimensionality of Fosik's work.

Richmond Annex

For today's Throwback Thursday post I have a photo I snapped of Q on a rooftop in the Richmond Annex. He's standing next to one of the characters from a short film we were working on back in the day. Q's holding a Super 8 camera, but we also shot with a 16mm Bolex and a SVHS camera that we borrowed from an art school in San Francisco.

I'm working on a new zine that will feature more photos from that shoot, in addition to some behind the scenes notes and stories about the kind of madness that we sometimes found ourselves having to deal with while trying to complete that film and another over the course of a summer.

Special Delivery

SWAMPY piece at Endless Canvas' Special Delivery exhibit last September.  Check out the video below to see how it all came together.

Reflecting

5/3/12: Thursday morning, and the sky is grey like ashes on the banks of the Ganges.

Fishbone | Thrasher

I spent the better part of yesterday going through boxes of old photos, post cards, stickers, and Thrasher magazines.  Most of those old Thrashers are from the eighties, and I've used for them for reference, especially graphics and design, man times over the years, but more recently they've been hidden away in boxes.  While flipping through a copy of the 1989's San Francisco issue, I stopped at this FISHBONE ad offering an "Ultra Killer Deal" for a yearly subscription to the mag, and decided to scan it.

Maneki Neko

My first post of 2012!  

Soft Serve, Stencil Art, Graffitti Cocktail Shaker, Mexican Chocolate, Maneki Neko, and a Milk Bar Cookie. 

You can now find me on Instagram @jayunidos

Tales Of Dr. Funkenstein

It's good to see Shock G (Digital Underground) and Ricky Vincent (Uhuru Maggot) doing in this documentary from 2006 what they used to do on Vincent's college radio show back when I was kid, and that's discussing the funk, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Parliament, Funkadelic, James Brown, and all things in between. Ricky Vincent's show was called "The Uhuru Maggot's Wild World Of Funk", and the first time I ever heard "Underwater Rimes" was when Digital Underground were his in studio guests. That also happened to be the night that some friends and I dabbled in psychedelics at my pad in El Cerrito. While we waited for the drugs to kick in we cranked up my boom box and crossed our fingers that we hadn't been bunked by the dreadlocked hippy we scored from.

"The Uhuru Maggot's Wild World Of Funk" broadcasted out of KALX's studios in Berkeley, CA, and years later when I signed up to intern at KALX, Ricky Vincent was still there and in charge of the department I was interning for, but being the impatient person I was then, I bailed as soon as I found out I wouldn't be getting my own show any time soon.

Years later I was in Cody's on Telegraph Avenue, close to both the old and new KALX studios, when I saw Ricky Vincent's book "Funk" sitting on a shelf, and it hit me that his radio show had influenced me quite a bit, increasing my knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the funk.

Hubble

Columbus - Hubble from The Crystal Beach on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday Siouxsie Sioux!

The History Of The Boombox

THE TRANSFORMATION OF GENESIS P-ORRIDGE

Suicide

Throbbing Gristle 1980

Throbbing Gristle, Live at The Rafters Club in Manchester 1980

Drug Dealer

img185, originally uploaded by dj bart simpson back tattoo 2.

Death Grips

Death Grips - Full Moon (Death Classic)

This City Will Eat Me Alive

KID ZOOM - This City Will Eat Me Alive from kidzoom.

Kodachrome Revisited

Kodachrome Revisted from Jon Behrens.

KODACHROME REVISITED (1987): "I made this film by shooting around 180 rolls of 35mm slide film. I then hand processed the film in a very sloppy manner. I never mounted the film into slides I simply took the 35mm strips of film and spliced them together. Some of the rolls used in this film were shot by random people I sent a roll of film to, that they shot and sent back to me. The Throbbing Gristle provided the films soundtrack."

Matta - Release The Freq

Matta - Release The Freq from Kim Holm on Vimeo.

Throbbing Gristle at Kezar Pavilion

Throbbing Gristle at Kezar Pavilion, 29 May 1981, San Francisco, originally uploaded by p0ps Harlow.

Lustmord



Lustmord NY 2011 Teaser

Paul Morrisey

Paul Morrisey, Nico, Andy Warhol, Gerard Malanga

originally uploaded by rising70.

Bob And The Monster

Bob and the Monster Trailer - Bob Forrest Documentary from Shaker Films

Video Violence

Trash Humpers Poster

Trash Humpers posters #Harmone Korine movie! fuck yeah!, originally uploaded by ellenkanamori.

Grimes

Transmission (Stop Motion)

Super 8: Golden Gate Park

Filmed on an iPhone 4, using Super 8 app, January 2011

2400 Fulton Street

2400 Fulton Street, originally uploaded by zbindch.

RETNA: Hallelujah World Tour

PIL - Careering

Jackson Pollock 51

The Vinyl Experience

The Vinyl Experience from deafstar.org on Vimeo.

Nina Hagen and Lene Lovich

Blast from the Past, originally uploaded by pietroizzo.

I Know

Happy Birthday David Lynch!

A Digital Intermission

Schizopolis

Fletcher: Generic greeting.
Wife: Generic greeting returned.
Fletcher: Imminent sustenance.
Wife: Overly dramatic statement regarding upcoming meal.
Fletcher: Oooh, false reaction indicating hunger and excitement!

Black Swan Makeup Tutorial

Lung Leg

Lung Leg reading poetry at a festival in Sweden (1987).

144,000

144,000?

The Return Of The Thin White Duke

The return of the Thin White Duke, Throwing darts in lovers' eyes

Harmful Korine

Harmony Korine was born on January 4, 1973

Eva Herzigova

Eva Herzigova (Gaspar Noe) from rogulin on Vimeo.

Winged Men

Wingsuit Basejumping - The Need 4 Speed: The Art of Flight from Phoenix Fly on Vimeo.

Please Say Something



Please Say Something from David OReilly on Vimeo.

Variations On PI

Variations on Pi - making-of from Nils Völker on Vimeo.

Check out the official Nils Voelker website.

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.

Freak

The Med 1975

The Med 1975, originally uploaded by rchrd.

Barrington Hall

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

Eyes Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut, originally uploaded by IntelOutside.

Lovely Bloodflow

Baths - Lovely Bloodflow

Arthur Lee And The Fuzztones

Lou Reed Gives Good Press

Mr. Blow Up

Želimir Žilnik

An excerpt from "Marble Ass" by Želimir Žilnik

December 8, 1966

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

-Sinead O’Connor

Family

FAMILY by Keren Cytter

Fritz Lang's Classic "M" Here, Now

Mike Giant

Neighbors: Mike Giant (Trailer) from Agency Charlie on Vimeo.

R.I.P. Melanie Chavarria

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

Japan’s 3D Hologram Rock Star Hatsune Miku!

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

Blue Monday

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

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.

The Business International

Suntory!

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.

須藤元気（Genki Sudo)

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

Zombie Babies

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

Spinning Our Wheels

Question Time

Banksy

It's Real

Little Big Berlin

Little Big Berlin from pilpop on Vimeo.

Eat Real In Oakland

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

Spiders That Attack In Packs

Trash Humpers

Book it, buy it, TRASH HUMPERS!

Food Truck Blog

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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.

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

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.

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!

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!

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...

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...

Gym Bunny

Funky Monks

Blog Mashup 6.28.10

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

Zolar X

Strange Fascination, Fascinating Me

Cubist Kitty

BP Spills Coffee

Siouxsie Sioux: London Fashion Week 2010

Pam Hogg Catwalk Show from On|Off TV on Vimeo.