September 2009 – Page 2 – Graphic Art, Tortillas, Comics, and Troublemaking

Automaton love, your caress is pneumatic

September 9, 2009September 9, 2009 yanez

Alright, time to score some nerd points on this throwback!

After writing recently about Emerald Transmission’s Witness I began to think about other obscure 90’s songs that I adore. One of my guiltiest pleasures was Extremis by Hal featuring Gillian Anderson. That’s right, Agent Scully cut a breathy electronica track in the mid-90’s. I was totally oblivious to this song when it first came out in ’96 because no local radio stations played it and I didn’t have cable (and thusly couldn’t watch when the video played for about a week on MTV). Word quickly spread through my high school’s nerd population about the Erotic-era Madonna inspired video that featured Gillian Anderson voyeuristically watching two gold-plated robots put the mack hand down. Being totally obsessed with the X-Files and its minutiae, not to mention totally enamored of Scully, I had to see it.

I went to the now extinct Tower Records in the Castro and bought the “limited edition” package that included the CD single and a VHS tape of the music video. Even after purging my VHS collection a couple of years ago I still couldn’t bring myself to toss my Extremis tape. It’s an old sentimental favorite that I keep on my shelf of remaining VHS cassettes.

Without further ado here is the dated, sexy, and occasionally ridiculous video of Extremis.

The Truth is Out There,

Rio

Reporting from the front lines of the Mission District

September 6, 2009 yanez

This is Rio Yañez reporting from the front lines of the Mission District with some photos and chisme straight from the street!

There’s a new comic shop/gallery in the Mission and it just opened last week! Mission Comics and Art is located at 3520 20th street off Mission. The owner Leef was really friendly and we quickly struck up a conversation. It’s inventory is mostly graphic novels as opposed to individual issues, this is a smart business model to me and seems to be the way of the future for comics.

The gallery of Mission Comics and art featured about four different artists. I would love to show some work on these walls.

Somebody is appropriating Annie Sprinkle’s image for street art around the Mission. I found this one on 24th street near Bartlett. Sprinkle is a Bay Area icon and fucking with her is playing with fire if you ask me. I’m curious to see how this story develops. Can anyone confirm if the text says pobresita or pobresito?

Fuck that grizzly bear! The real state icon that deserves to be on the California flag is a pair of Chuck Taylors! I spotted this shirt hung outside one of the many Asian export shops that line 20th and Mission. Whoever designed it is a genius in my opinion. As Cindy Mosqueda mused about Chicanos: We love Chuck Taylor’s. Oh, simple, canvas tenís. Such a timeless sole. The element I identified with the most is the fact that the Chucks are hanging from the heart as if they were flung over a phone wire. Back in the day the phone lines on my block (and blocks throughout the Mission) had dozens of old pairs of shoes hanging from them at any given time. One of the surest signs of gentrification in the Mission during the late 90’s was that there were no more neighborhood kids flinging their old shoes for shits and giggles anymore.

After watching the San Francisco episode of No Reservations I have been very tempted to eat an infamous Cuban Torta from That’s It Market on 23rd and Mission. I used to buy lucha libre magazines from this place and had never thought of actually eating here but now my curiosity has been piqued. Has anyone out there actually eaten a Cuban from That’s It?

I spotted this shirt on 25th and Mission. There are a lot of Nicaraguan festivals coming up all around the Bay Area and the Mission District seems to have caught the fever. For those of you that don’t know, Nacatamales are Nicaraguan tamales with slightly different ingredients. Don’t tell anyone but I like them better than Mexican tamales, shhhhhhh!

And finally, I want to share this video of one of my favorite Mission-based artists Mona Caron. In a moment of hybridity Mona was featured on a recent newscast of VOAchina. I’m excited to see that her work is getting the recognition it deserves. You can see the mural she painted of 24th street that I appear in at 3:36.

That’s it for now. Tune in next time for more news and chisme from around the Mission District!

Peace,

Rio

Feel Good Inc.

September 6, 2009 yanez

Things are going right all around me. I feel that my job at SOMArts is starting to take shape once again. For the first time in a long time our team is lean, mean, and exciting.

This past week we welcomed our newest employee Ed Varga. Ed is the primary producer of the Homo A Go Go festival and I have him to thank for bringing Girl in a Coma to my place of employment (and for namechecking SOMArts in Butt Magazine, holla!). Ed and his co-producer/partner Corrie put on the most well organized and ass kicking event I’ve ever experienced at SOMArts. The funny thing is that before he was hired, there was a lot of internal discussion at work about what went so right with Homo A Go Go and how we could replicate that with other large-scale events.

I’m really looking forward to working with Ed and hope this all means that Homo A Go Go (and its great crew) will be coming back to SOMArts next year. Welcome to the fam Ed!

Elsewhere, another SOMArts co-worker of mine Dion Decibels was recently photographed by the brilliant Amanda Lopez. Dion is a DJ and audio producer extraordinaire and Lopez is one of my favorite photographers out there. It was great to see the two intersect.

Lastly, I want to give a shout to Jiz Lee. She is a former employee of one of SOMArts’ resident virtual cultural centers and is currently blowing up in the independent porn scene. The following links are for the grown and sexy only, so be warned. I just discovered her blog and news that she’s collaborating with my homegirl (and art subject) April Flores.

I still run into Jiz at SOMArts and events around the city and I’m thrilled at her success. Big ups Ms. Lee!

Peace,

Rio

Emerald Transmission – Witness

September 4, 2009 yanez

Have you ever loved a song that was so obscure that you though you were the only one who has ever heard it and appreciated it?

The hidden gem that I’ve been passionate about since I first listened to it is Witness by Emerald Transmission. For more than a decade I thought I was the only person on the planet to have an appreciation for this song. That illusion was thankfully shattered when I came across this posting on The Color Awesome about Witness.

Emerald Transmission was a Berkeley group that consisted of producer Derek Gee and singer Dora Nicopoulos. They put out two albums although only the second one has Nicopoulos (who sang Witness). Their CDs are pretty rare, it took years of used music store and ebay scouring to get both albums.

I first heard Witness as a track on Live 105’s second Noisy Neighbors Compilation of local bands (this was 1995, circa pre-Clear Channel Live 105 and they were a lot more locally oriented). I instantly loved it. I was 15 at the time and it just seemed so epic and perfectly tuned to my sentimental state of mind. I had a nightly ritual before sleep where I would listen to albums on my Discman (remember those?) as I lied in bed & read comics and the song was often placed on infinite loop.

I put the song on every high school mixtape I made and carried the Noisy Neighbors CD with me anytime I went out with my Discman. It wasn’t until my first year of college that I actually found a used copy of Emerald Transmission’s 1994 album Neptune (used at the now vanished Warehouse on Van Ness). I really liked the whole album but Witness was still my favorite. When Mariela and I first started dating I bought another copy of Neptune and gave it to her as a gift. Even though it wasn’t her musical taste she always humored me whenever I wanted to put it on. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I scored their first album on ebay. I was disappointed with the production and the fact that it featured another singer that wasn’t as good.

I’m in disbelief that this song is over 15 years old. Was 1994 really that long ago? Fuuuuuuuck! I still love Witness with every bone in my body to this very day. If I could ever attribute its influence on another song I would definitely say Swimming Pool by Freezepop. I have no idea where Emerald Transmission, Derek Gee, and Dora Nicopoulos or what they are up to these days but they’ll always have a kid in the Mission District keeping the flame alive.

Here is the song, courtesy of The Color Awesome.