NMScene

Preface

I feel like I must write this edition of From the Front Lines in a slightly different fashion. The direction I’d like to take this writing is in the form of a letter to my younger sister, Candace. Although we are separated by only two years of experience in life, those experiences are quite a bit different. It’s often been hard for me to describe to my family the honest details about my trips to Burning Man, not only because of the adult nature of a lot of what I’ve experienced, but because of the extreme crapyness of the way we were brought up to communicate with each other. This brings a bit of irony due to the fact that I love to write so much.

My sister called me up the other day and asked me, meekly, about my vacation, and how it was, and what did I do. I was somewhat at a loss for words when describing any of my experiences at Burning Man to anyone, let alone to a family member whose life revolves around finishing her masters’ degree in abstract math. Add together her learning disability and my extreme lack of eloquence when it comes to spoken communication and all she knows right now is how I went camping in the desert with some friends.

So here, without much ado, is my heartfelt explanation of what I’ve been up to for the last two weeks and what I’ve sort of done three times prior.

From the Front Lines: Burning Man 2009

Dear Candace,

You called me up yesterday trying to pry some golden bit of information from me in order to see how my vacation went for these last two weeks. Well first and foremost I want you to know that I had, perhaps, one of the best trips I’ve ever had, and I’m someone who has gone on too many trips to count. You once told me that it was sad that the best thing that I’ve ever participated in was my trips to the black rock desert, I hope that this writing will change your mind, as I wasn’t exactly clear on what I experienced.

When people ask me what Burning Man is, I always find myself at a loss for words to explain it properly, because it is so many damn things all at once. I’ve told mom that I was simply going to an art and culture festival out in the desert. This is like saying math consists of counting and numbers. We both know that this is such a broad statement that it is almost false.

To be precise, burning man is what ends a week long experiment in so many different things. An entire city is built and exists, in the Nevada desert, for a week every labor day. This city is affectionately called Black Rock City, after a mountain range near by that is volcanic, and black, in appearance. It’s held at the bottom of a dry lake bed which had, since the last ice age, evaporated, and left an alkaline flat that is the largest, flattest place on the planet, some thirty miles long and at its widest up to ten miles wide. It’s an amazing backdrop to what has become a city I’ve come to call my second home. It is, during this week, the third largest city in Nevada.

The city itself is something of a marvel of what an efficient planed community can become. I’m sure you’ve seen the poster in my apartment that I got in 2007 of the city, a circle ¾’s full. The city holds, at its current size, around 50,000 residents, which fluctuates every year but has floated around there for a while. Burning man, as an event, itself is over twenty years old, moving to the black rock desert, and has been growing every year since.

The burning of the man, which is a 40ish foot structure, is just one event at the end of the week of thousands that occur over the course of the week. The events that do occur are made by the people who come to live in black rock city. This brings me to one of the key, central ideas that burning man has instilled in me and the others who attend; Participation.

Participation, as opposed to spectation, is probably the most central theme to this event. I didn’t really understand this going to the event, the first or second times, but by the third and definitely after this trip, it’s like all the little pieces make sense to me now. It’s hard to translate the concept clearly for someone who hasn’t participated before, but I’ll do my best.

Many people will go to Burning Man a few times, hit the parties that go on there and get bored of it and never return. I feel supremely bad for those that go there, get so fucking close to “IT,” and leave never getting “IT.” Most of the people who are like this are what are lovingly called tourists. They come to see the spectacle of it all, tour the sights, but, like a good, preprogrammed little drone of society, they don’t get it.

When you participate, when you build something with your own two hands, regardless of what it is, you do what few others in this life ever do. You lead. You tell people, hey, I have this zany idea, come check it out. Play with it. Maybe my crazy idea can inspire your crazy ideas and something really good can come out of it.

The first part of participation in Burning Man is survival. As easy as it is for most people to just buy their way into survival, its much less easy for others. There are a lot of people who go to burning man in a large, luxury RV, with satellite TV’s and tons of stupid amenities. While these things are nice, and I’ll probably roll up one day in one myself, those who haven’t gone their first time with nothing but a tent, a cooler, and some instructions on how to survive in the desert have really done themselves a massive disservice. Understanding how difficult it is to survive on your own with a minimum of things put into context how insanely good we have it as Americans. Things like indoor plumbing and refrigeration, not to mention the easy accessibility to goods take on a almost sacred meaning when you’ve been deprived of them for only a week. Its only when scarcity is in abundance that abundance is truly valued.

Radical self reliance, then, is a second key topic when it comes to what Burning Man is. By radically self reliant, its ment that you understand *exactly* what it is and means to rely on yourself for your own survival, and, not only survive, but thrive decently in one of the harshest environments on the planet. The playa, which the desert is called due to its beach like atmosphere, is a bed of highly alkaline dirt left over from the previous lake that used to be there. Nothing can grow in the soil, and there are high winds which gust upwards of 60 on a bad day, dust storms (remember when we went to go see the shuttle land at white sands, and all there was what dirt in the air? It’s like that) which can last all day, and temperatures which I’ve experienced peaking out at 115 degrees. Surviving in this climate takes extra precautions, like learning to keep your camp together when extreme winds hit, how to keep cool, and how to keep our skin from turning to the consistency of paper.

Being radically self reliant isn’t enough, however. Bringing excess, i.e., more than you would need is also a crucial idea when it comes to the event. Being able to provide for your camp isn’t enough; one also needs to be able to help his neighbor in both terms of stupid crap like alcohol, but also in terms of ability. This leads us to another idea which was introduced to both of us at a young age going to catholic school and later to church, that being of giving.

The economy of burning man is a Gifting economy. This is another crucial idea which I didn’t really give a shit about until I came to black rock city. Being able to give to your neighbors *without* the expectation of return, is a key concept that is completely lost in our modern world. We all are told there is no free lunch. I disagree with this. There sometimes is, but we can not expect it, and further, we should be the one’s giving it if its there. Giving with out the expectation of return is a funky idea. It often falls flat on its face; the recipient of the gift will usually not value it, or even worse, take it for granted.

There is a unique synergy that occurs, however, when you combine the scarcity of resources that living in black rock city creates and the idea of a gifting economy. The value of anything given in such a situation increases exponentially to the gift. Simply sharing a drink or a sticker suddenly becomes a very unique experience. I think this is a hard concept for Americans, in particular, to grasp, as we have relatively instant access to most things that we need. Our society is unbelievably wasteful which we just don’t see.

Alright, so, there, we have some core concepts. But just how was my experience? WTF did I do? Well, it’s like this. This has been not just a hard year, but, one of those years in which I’ve personally grown unlike any other in my life. It began with a broken heart and a bit of a crisis inside myself. This took the better part of the year for me to deal with and sort out. You and your husband and mom have been riding my ass about getting back into school, but unfortunately, this last year made me stop and re evaluate where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing. Thank god, I came out on top, stronger than ever. Like, unbelievably solid, better than I’ve ever been in my life. Just as that ended, the situation with mom loosing her house hit, and again, like you, my life was put on hold as I dealt with another crisis.

I mention this on purpose, because Burning Man, and my participation in Black Rock City, is a year long event. My experience with the prior three burns gave me the ability to organize and lead and take care of two people who’ve never been and include two extra camp mates at the last minute. We built a dome (a 20 foot shade structure) in my friend Cetta’s back yard, and I got together my equipment and loaded up the trailer and headed out. Of the three prior burns I’ve gone to, this was decisively my best, funest, and most eye opening. Like every burn, there were the usual indulgences and craziness. There were naked people (gasp) people on drugs, people sober, artists, tourists, first timers who didn’t know what the fuck was up, cranky fucks who complain about the whole thing, art, and, unbelievable moments that really cant even been described.

I have to be honest, however, I wasn’t feeling like going this year but knew once I got out there I’d have a blast. I really only had one thing that I felt like I had to do, and that was to put a picture of me and a certain someone inside the Temple. The temple isn’t a temple, say, to god, or to man, or to some kind of pagan beast. It’s just…a temple. A sacred space. It’s a place that most people end up putting something of significance into because at the end of the week, much like the man, it is burned, and the fire takes away whatever you choose to put into it. This was my favorite temple that I’ve experienced and the hardest for me to deal with.

The temple was built by a group of artists from Austin, Texas this year and was amazing to be inside. People brought art, pictures, and stories of people they loved and lost and needed to let go. I used it for this purpose. I took me four trips to the temple (it was about a mile and a half walk one way to get to it) before I was able to put to rest what I needed to.

After I did so, I felt a strange kind of release. It’s amazing how we hold on to the hard things in life, so often, and allow it to define us, often in the most negative of ways. I feel intensely sad for anyone who can’t let go, and allow a small fire to simmer inside them their entire lives.

Of course, there were a great many things to do out there. So many, in fact, that it would be impossible if I went on ten trips to the same event to experience all of them. There are the more urban things, like bars which will fill your cup for free, to go to, or the stupid things, like the flaming enema (gives you a little flame thrower action when you sit down on a special chair.) there were art installations like “soma” by the flaming lotus girls, a group of women who are welders and sculptors from the bay area. There are the art cars, which are vehicles that have been changed in some way that become a sort of traveling party.

There are tons of workshops out there, on anything from learning to hug yourself better, to adult themed, to how to generate green electricity, to cooking. It’s like finding some of the coolest, most interesting things out there and bringing all the nutty, productive, creative people into a pietre dish and seeing what happens.

I think one of the unexpected and best parts of my experience with the burn is bringing people who wouldn’t have, otherwise, been able to go, out there. This is for two reasons. The first is because I get the opportunity to teach and lead and organize people in a way that I would never get to. It’s kind of selfish but it hass really taught me how to, in a sense, herd cats. I find it to be one of the most important skills I’ve ever been able to develop. I’ve learned more about teamwork and getting things done that I ever could have in some kind of corporate job where people are being paid to do as I say. Getting them to do as I say with out them *having* to do it is something you can never learn in a corporate environment.

Secondly, and most importantly, its opened up these people to something new that I don’t think they would have imagined had they not gone. They get to participate in something that is mind opening and pretty fucking cool at the same time. By mind opening, they get to see what others are capable of doing, and in a sense get to measure themselves against a pretty high bar in some cases that I don’t think they would have known was out there. I know that in my case it has made me want to aim way higher than I thought was possible before. This is very much true for the year ahead of me, as I’ve set some bars that I didn’t think I could hit, but, now I’ve got the gumption to try.

I hope this has given you a taste of my experience this year in black rock city and at burning man. There are a lot of experiences that I had that are too abstract to talk about, like, a conversation I had with the clouds, getting on my knees for a shot at kitty camp, watching a father beat on his daughters boyfriend with a whip, drinking a bit much, the “love seat” which shocks you when you sit on it, and scores of other experiences like cleaning up the moop left behind by camps that were near us. These are secondary to the above things which I think I came to realize solidly this year.

I don’t expect you to ever go, but I hope one day you’ll be open enough to let me take you and your husband there, and experience the unbelievably amazing things I have in the black rock desert.

Your loving brother,

-L.

Oscillation 2008 came to a close this weekend, and left me with the usual feeling of some postpartum depression that usually comes with doing something huge and then seeing it finish up. While this was the most challenging Oscillation in years, it was also my favorite, I’d have to say.

I arrived at the Cell Theatre around 1 on friday, along with Markus, our sound master. I had already been to two Walmarts earlier, and been loading gear out into my car for the whole morning. Upon getting into the Cell, I found that we had a stage, but it was too long and shallow to accommodate what we do - so I had to bug the Cell’s stage man, Jared, to add another riser on. Then it was onto the sound load-in, which was not as magnanimous this year as it was last, but still a lot of gear. We were finally throwing speakers and cable up around 3pm or so, and then dealing with the usual, “Where is that AC hum coming from?” and “Is this cable broken?” issues that always happen when you’re busy like this.

Sound got set up nicely, our plasma screens went up for visuals, Basement Films set up shop to broadcast propaganda, and we were rolling. The night opened with Chem.Star, whose set I actually missed entirely, because I was dealing with many other things (as is par for the course with this production). As the night went on, things went well, but I’ve never seen so many tech issues back to back to back - sound issues, cables lost or forgotten, mics that wouldn’t work, all manner of things - and we ended up about 20 minutes behind schedule. Luckily things got back to where they should later in the night, and the Diverje set went well. The Echoing Green closed the night with a PHENOMENAL set, it is a real pleasure to have them out playing.

After friday’s end, Kenny and I went to the Agency to check out the DJ sets going down, and even at 1:45am, were pleased to find a HUGE crowd at the Agency. Things were going off, people were having fun, and it was going quite well. I spent some time there, and didn’t get into bed until around 4am - so, I slept about three hours.

Woke up saturday morning and had to go to three Radio Shacks and one Walmart to pick up the gear needed for our circuit bending and contact mic workshops, as well as a charger for my phone, as I couldn’t find mine, and my phone was dead. Not good when you’re the Director of a festival, and likely to get calls all day.

I finally got to the Agency at about 11:30, meeting Kenny and Jim of 512 software, and began the setup of tables, sound, projector and etc. for the workshops. The workshops were great, lightly attended, but seriously awesome. A group of people got to make their own Contact Mic instruments with Raven Chacon, and then got a look at Circuit Bending (which was great, nothing like glitching out a speak n’ spell), and finally everyone got a look at Numerology by 512.

I was near to passing out by the end of these workshops, so I was forced to get something to eat and sit down for a few at The Cell. Luckily, everything was already set up from the previous night.

Saturday started off much better, with an awesome set by Mala In Se - it sounded so good I thought a CD was playing at first - a testament to Markus and this awesome band. Geoff’s guitar added some wonderful range to Mala’s sound, and with some Drums and Steve’s Keyboards, this was one of my favorite acts of the night. Things progressed well, and on time, from there. I didn’t get to see everyone, but I did catch Tripping Dogs, Kenny’s Industrial act from over 15 years ago - this was the most amazing set of the night. True, old-school industrial sound, Guitars, noise, and a drum machine, and two guys dressed up in military Regalia and masks kicking ass. I cannot tell you how great this was.

The night closed up with Vertigo Venus (and one of our best sets yet), and the venerable Industrial powerhouse The Strand from Arizona - closing things off right. The house was packed, the room was hot as hell from everyone, and the energy was great. I could not have asked for more.

We loaded out sound and everything else, and finished around 3:30am. Not too bad, for a giant production such as this.

Inbetween sets, Keif from Basement Films dropped some knowledge on the crowd with obscure film on 16mm and educational bits on music. It was wonderful. Truly something I liked adding to the festival.

Dr. Thunder (Trace) dropped awesome visuals all night, with some lovely content he worked up for the bands. He has a very good future in visuals for himself, I have to say.

DJs Verablue and Xibabalola dropped old and new school industrial inbetween, keeping the heads interested.

Nancy of Burlesque Noir and Krissy kicked ass stage managing, keeping things on time. Thank you!

Kentifyr MC’d the whole event and actually got to see bands, for once. You my friend are a lovely person - thank you for your Kind words to Kenny and Myself, and for doing all you do.

Bethany watched merch, and kicked ass on that. We had a lot of volunteers who ruled their jobs as well, especially my lovely GF Molly on door and the lovely Rachill, without whom our door would not have been as solid as it was.

Thank you to Adam of Spork Films, Adric for taking pictures and promoting, Betty for promoting like crazy, Sparky, Jess, Sara, Geoff, Jason (Alphawolf), Jason Wolf, all the bands, DJS, all the volunteers, and anyone I am forgetting. Without you, we could not have made this happen.

I’m probably still forgetting a lot, but I have to say; this Oscillation was the best yet. It had the most challenges, whether is was dealing with drama due to our website, or losing people scheduled to do things, etc. - but it came together and went off. We made it happen no matter what, and it was due to the fact that so many people helped make it happen. The Agency, The Cell, and all our friends, thank you! We got out nearly 5,000 flyers in less than a month, and the promotion went off - we didn’t even have a very big spread in the Alibi, or any other publication, this time - but it proved that you just have to be persistent and say, “This is going to go off, dammit”.

There’s a lot of photos, video, and such out there, so we’re not done yet. I think I want to take some of Oscillation (with the blessing of those involved) in the direction of being slightly more educational - the Workshops showed me that there are people interested in learning what this music is, and how it actually has shaped much of the world they see. I think that I could do some great things with more workshops inbetween, and work that into Oscillation over the years.

Wow, I just said years. Well, what can I say? We have a hard time giving up on anything… it’s why, no matter what, I still love so much of what I have here in New Mexico.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 12, 2008
THE OSCILLATION ELECTRONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL ENTERS ITS EIGHTH YEAR!
(ALBUQUERQUE, NM) Fwank!Productions, Ohmni, Dark Beat Productions, www.Burque.info, Grandma’s Music, Music   Go Round, Five12 software, Basement Films, The Agency, The Cell Theatre and DSBP Records are pleased to announce the eighth annual Oscillation Electronic Music Festival.  The Festival will take place over three days, October 10-12th, at two Albuquerque Venues; The Cell Theatre (700 1st st. NW), and The Agency (111 4th st. SW).  Oscillation is the longest running festival of it’s kind in New Mexico.

Showcasing virtually every genre and sub-genre of electronic music and the bands and musicians who make it, this year’s Oscillation is sure to be the best yet, with a diverse Talent lineup of live music at The Cell Theatre October 10th and 11th, featuring:

The Strand (Industrial music from Chandler, AZ), The Echoing Green (the very popular nationally known Synthpop act who calls Albuquerque home), Leiahdorus, The Booty Green, Raine Vivian, Vertigo Venus, Diverje, Audiobuddha, Luperci, The Late Severa Wires, Mala in Se, The Nanoelement, Amplab, Noir Effect, brian botkiller, Tripping Dogs, Black Guys and Chemstar, as well as DJs Verablue and Xibalbalola.

In addition to the live music, DJs will be hosted at The Agency following the live music on October 10th and 11th, and 12th. Some of New Mexico’s most talented DJs will be bringing their unique styles for listeners to groove to, including IllKid, Justin O’Brien, Justin George, LevelHeded, Adem Joel and others.

This year’s Oscillation also introduces a new, exciting ingredient - workshops!  Three electronic music workshops will be held at The Agency beginning at noon on Saturday October 11th:

-    Circuit Bending with Ehren: exploring the world of Circuit Bent instruments and sounds, participants are invited to bring a battery operated sound maker of some kind for a chance to learn how to make sounds with a little soldering.  Or just come watch and listen!  Circuit bending is the practice of taking items such as Speak N’ Spells and turning them into tools of sonic creation.
-    Contact Mics with Raven Chacon: Raven Chacon is a multi-talented experimental musician and sound designer, and will be discussing the creation of instruments utilizing contact microphones.
-    Experimental music composition with Numerology Software by Five12, Inc.: Local software company Five12 will be showing off Numerology, their groundbreaking music creation software set to change how music is composed.

Ticket pricing for the festival and its events will be as follows:

-    $25 Full Festival Pass: Admission to Oscillation events at the Cell and The Agency.  By far the best value, this all-inclusive pass gives the festivalgoer the full experience Oscillation has to offer!
-    $15 night pass: $15 passes are good for admission to one night of entertainment at the Cell Theatre.
-    All other events are $5 (Workshops/DJ events at The Agency).

Presale full festival passes will be available online at www.oscillation.info.

All ages are welcome at Oscillation events.  Oscillation is a %100 drug and alcohol free, safe and positive event.

Dr. Thunder and Basement Films will provide visuals both nights at The Cell.  The event will be videotaped by Spork Films, and will broadcast on the Internet at www.oscillation.info via streaming audio and video.  DJ Kentifyr, voted Albuquerque’s best DJ for two years in a row, will host the event.

In addition to the live music and action, Grandma’s Music, Music Go Round and local record label DSBP records will be giving away software, music, and more over the course of both nights.

Because lineups are subject to change, the Promoters encourage those interested to visit www.oscillation.info for full and up to date information.  We look forward to seeing you for our eighth year of Sonic Independence!

###

Hey everyone,

Spark_gap, the live IDM A/V jam, is moving to a new venue as of July 19th. We will now call The Agency, at 111 4th st. SW in Downtown, our new home.

Spark_gap still invites electronic musicians and visualists of all walks to come showcase their work in an open-jam, improv atmosphere with other like-minded folks. We provide the PA and Projector - you bring the beats, noise, video, laptops, drum machines or whatever else you got, and plug in. Keep an open mind and jam with others, find new music and have fun.

Spark_gap will take place on July 19th at The Agency. Doors are at 8:30pm. Players wishing to perform should plan on showing up at 8pm for load in/etc.

The event is all ages, and is $5. Various beverages (non-alcoholic) will be available.

I ask you sincerely to support this event and the music it promotes. Thank you!

Tickets and info at http://the-agency.org/

What is a SIMULVISION?

Resident house band, Agency E, will be performing the two hour rock opera style show titled “The Governors of War” both Friday May 23rd and Saturday May 24th. Incorporating video projections, computer generated audio, and live musical instruments, “The Governors of War” pushes the boundaries of underground entertainment and culture.
Those attending the highly creative yet unpredictable show should expect the intensity of a rock and roll show along with the experience of watching a movie, well, actually watching two movies played simultaneously.
“A Simulvision gets the viewers thinking about the coincidences in the videos, asking themselves if it was planned or not”, says Jason Wolf of The Agency. “The planned cues and improvisational music passages played by the band synchronize with the projections in exciting ways, giving the show an edgy feel of unpredictability. We are all looking forward to the debut show next weekend at The Agency and invite everyone to join us and check it out.”
History of the Simulvision
The first Simulvision was performed at in San Francisco by an psychedelic/acid rock band, Spork, in late 1998. The Simulvision was an idea pollinated by the like minds of Spork and Jacque of The Werepad, where the Simulvisions were hosted. The popularity of the Simulvisions grew over time, eventually selling out seats and having high profile guests attend such as Chet Helms, father of San Francisco’s “1967 Summer of Love” and founder / manager of Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Simulvision Shows were the place to go to get “underground” style entertainment with a touch of class and sophistication. There were nine Simulvision shows in total before the last performance in 1999.
Future of the Simulvision
Now, almost 10 years later, Agency E (resident house band for The Agency) are bringing the psychedelic happenings of the Simulvision to Albuquerque. This is the first of many SIMULVISION shows The Agency plans on hosting throughout the summer and fall. Calling on friends and guest musicians, Agency E plans on inviting guest musicians to sit in on new shows, adding yet another dynamic of mystery and excitement to each event.

I gotta say, The Stove continually puts it down properly when it does shows here in ABQ. Saturday may 3rd’s show was no exception. The night was the CD release for local ambient/noise master Alan George Ledergerber, and it went off. I arrived a bit late, missing one band, and stepping in in the middle of Alchemical Burn’s set, the one man wall of noise known as Ken Cornell. Ken dropped a unique mix of ambience and heavy noise and percussion that dragged you back and forth between the calm and the storm. Raven Chacon ripped ears off with his barely audible to BLASTING in your face power noise backed up with strobe lights linked to the outcoming sounds, even running into the audience at one point to hand an amplifier to one bewildered attendee. Good times.

I unfortunately don’t know who the next band was - all I do know is they were awesome, comprised of a female organist and two guys on guitar and backing her up on organ, with a drum machine providing rhythms. The whole set had that sort of epic, half saddening, half incredibly energizing sound. They blasted their sounds thru a stack of Peavey amplifiers, building from one rhythm to ten, with organ, two guitars and drums blasting out in harmony. Truly enjoyable.

Finally, AGL took the stage. Alan is known for being a bit raucous on stage; throwing his shoes into the crowd, breaking things; but as he goes along, his sound is always growing, and he’s not just the crazy guy with a broken guitar and some noise. This was Alan’s best set I’ve ever seen; he looped an electric guitar thru a multitude of feedback looped guitar effect pedals, playing notes here and there and then setting the guitar down to tweak knobs - and making sounds you never thought could happen with all of this. Everything from bells reminiscent of Pink Floyd intros to pounding bass drums were coming out of one guitar and it’s stomp-box friends. I am always blown away at what Alan does with such minimal gear - and this wasn’t just noise. There was a certain calm here, blown into smithereens every once in awhile by a pop of noise or Alan ripping a pedal out of the signal chain and tossing it down on the floor. By the end he was down to only a few, and in the middle of an ambient interlude, simply yanked a cable and was done. All we could do was clap - there’s nothing more you can do when you hear something this phenomenal.

As always, the Stove was packed to the gills, with people of all walks of life straining to see what was going on in the many corners of this awesome art space cum music venue. Be on the lookout for music from all of these acts, and for the Stove. This is the music you need to hear, especially if you’re tired of the same old same old that’s infiltrating our ears every day.