Bogus Slogan Poster #87's backdrop is a collage made from vidcaps from a documentary on organized Labor's growth in the United States of America. The poster combines political cartoons from the turn of the 20th Century.
Details shows a reveler's face in close up. He has a mug of beer, filled to the brim with a large head of foam. He is ecstatic. Behind him, crouching, is the mad bomber, anarchist. A primed ball of dynamite cradled softly in his arms. At the top of the collage, is the educator, unhappy with what he sees of this world, desiring to impose his thinking on the masses.
The Bogus Slogan, "Pick your Poison" is some poor attempt to say these are not good ways to live. In fact the message on the herald (join the Revolution Sociale) is a 4th choice that, like the others, probably ends in violence - blood and death.
Or you could go to the Bogus Slogan concert with The Shrinking Arch Fiends and The Crushed Teenagers. "Hey! 'The Crushed Teenagers!!!' I wanna hear them. I just love their feel for distortion. I wanna see if they can play their songs live..."
That fifth choice that might not be such a bad way to go. No blood and death -- Just a place to hang out and listen to some music for a couple of hours. Missed the Show? Ready to pick your poison? I hope you would have, like myself, chosen the reveler. Look at that grin.
Bogus Slogan Poster #87 - Inside View
Abstracts: Four Bears (Detail) (2004)
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Bright patriotic trees sway
Observe. Four bears dance.
Bogus Slogan Poster #86 - Inside View
In last week's poster (#85) we see a superb photo of T.S. Monk, his piano's keyboard reflecting in his sunglasses. Very symbolic of the complexity of his music.
Bogus Slogan Poster #86 shows Free Jazz pianist, Cecil Taylor, blazing in action. Sweat soaked stress lines across his shirt's back... Blurred hands spread to the ends of his instrument... A temporary instant of silence before his hands will reconnect.
Getting the concepts of Free Jazz into the rock idiom is quite a challenge. It is pretty easy to bang and make noise. Any one picking up an instrument for the first time qualifies. Getting a group of musicians outside their comfort zone and into new music worlds, well... Bringing an audience along, well...
But that is what Bogus Slogan and friends did over a long weekend in September at New York's Five Spot Jazz club.
Only took ...a lot of coffee and a lot of sweat.
Expressions: Classical Toy Mob (2004)
So which memories will you keep. Most drift away from neglect.
Many of your childhood thoughts will vaporize. Replaced by the importance of money, fame, career, love. Whatever.
If you need more room... If the new memories are piling up on the doorstep... Don't look at me, I don't remember talking to you.
Bogus Slogan Poster #85 - Inside View
Back a few years ago... the members of Bogus Slogan were running through a Jazz vein. From this urge a call was made to the Vertex World Crime League office, requesting them to promote a month long series of concerts in and around New York City.
Getting into the Jazz clubs of old on short notice was not easy. BS Poster #86 (coming next week) was for the first attempt - a 'long weekend' of 5 shows at the famed Five Spot Jazz Club. Poster #85 promoted Bogus Slogan's appearance, two years later, again at the Five Spot. A part of several concerts in the New York area in appreciation of Thelonious Monk.
Bogus Slogan played many of their favorites Monk compositions. They even took BS band songs and played them a la Monk. These concerts, while a sincere effort, are difficult to acknowledge. The supporting T.S. Monk cover bands tended to outplay the headliners. In fact, the recording tapes from this week were destroyed on unanimous demand by the band. Bootlegs from two of the shows circulate at a very high price.
Monk is one of those pioneers, originals in music. His recordings are not background sound. If you have the shallowness of wood veneer, then stick with your current fad band. Monk will ask too much from you.
ZenithPointStudio Photo • Club
The photograph industry sells millions and millions of cameras. Disposable, point & show, single lens reflex and numerous special purpose cameras provide people with uncountable opportunities to amass negative, slides and digital files that may forever reside in storage.
This is unacceptable to Zenith Point Studios. Every one can take a picture. And you do have to take a lot of pictures to get one or two great shots. And every one has a few great shots.
If a great shot is going to lie in obscurity, then surely the internet is the best place to collect the dust. Even better is the ZenithPointStudio Photo • Club where the greatest shots can be stored in your email inbox.
In current distribution is the Rediscover American National Landmarks Series from ZenithPointStudio. 
Bogus Slogan Poster #84 - Inside View
When Bogus Slogan tours internationally, they will try to use local bands to open the show. But once in a while the band will do a 'package' tour (like the original rock n/ rollers) and take a full slate of non-native bands into the rock concert halls of the world. Good experience for both fans and bands.
So one winter day, Bogus Slogan and friends, headed for the warm Southern Hemisphere. The mid tour break was scheduled after the Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro play dates. Bands and crew were going to fly into Martinque for a week's vacation.
Though the support card had bands with Spanish names (el Ondas Cortas / The Support Drops) (Los Apoyo Gotas / The Short Waves) (Las Chicas Azul / The Blue Chicks), all of them were United States bands. El Cortas were from a truly lost block in La Salle, Illinois. With a latino population of 148, this small town band had recorded and toured their way into a regional supergroup. Los Gotas were a SoCal band who were voted by the BS fan club to be a part of the tour. The Blue Chicks had great musical credentials. They were the top selling independent recording artists in Texas. They all did dress in blue, but it was not played as a gimmick.
At the Extravaganza Ballroom in Sao Paulo, locals hi-jacked Las Chicas Azul's last number by making a conga line which ultimately consumed the group themselves. Out the loading dock they went. Past the equipment trucks. Show went on.
Consistent rumors gave some relief that they were alive somewhere in the Amazon River System. Were they slave or masters. No authority, federal or local, could find them. The Rio concert came and went. The vacation came and went.
They finally returned to the tour at Montevideo with big grins on their faces and no explanations. No one could get them to talk. Everyone else burned with envy, thinking, they went to the wrong place for vacation.
SysOps Notice 2007.06.01
I stopped by to pick up a reason.
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Waking up to a beautiful clear sunny day in Raton, New Mexico, I was soon packed and on the road to get to Golden, Colorado for a 12:10pm tee time at Fossil Creek Golf Course. I was visiting a friend who I had not seen in about 5 years and we were using a golf game as a way to share time. The tee time was reserved on my credit card. Using the interstate, I estimated that I had an extra hour to explore and photograph the cities of Pueblo and Colorado Springs for old style motel signs.
To the West are the Rockies, still snow-capped. Also to the West of the interstate were the tracks of the BNSF La Junta subdivision. Since I also photograph trains, I started looking for a photo-op to combine both. As I passed a Union Pacific freight, I saw La Junta was the next exit. Go time.
Driving with reasonable care, I found a location where I had the mountains behind where the front engine would pass. Past experience told me a "nose" shot would require that the camera's aperature would have to be smaller than F/8 to avoid the headlight lens flare. Which meant putting the camera/lens on a tripod to avoid camera shake. In a previous post, I spoke of a new quick release plate and ball head recently purchased.
I set up everything. Leveled the camera frame. Heard the horn of the UP as it approached the city. Waited for the train to pass. Waited. Then I saw the UP stop at a signal light about a 1/4 mile away. Nooo! (Union Pacific has trackage rights over the BNSF - not ownership) This UP mixed freight train was not a priority. Waiting.
I kept calculating how much free time I had left and still make the tee time some 190 miles away. As you can see from the picture above, time ran out. Here comes the expensive part. As I opened the new to me quick release clamp, the weight of the lens caused the camera to fall forward. I forced my hand to move only to barely tip the camera body. I had the pleasure to watch several thousand dollars fall to the ground.
As worse as the money, was that I was 3 days into a 19 day photograph roadtrip with no backup camera (I'm not made of gold). In two days I was going to photograph friends' alpaca herd in Nebraska (the main reason for the road trip). Looking down at the camera, I was thinking how to combine B & H Photo in New York with FedEX or a Denver camera store; and of the time I had a slow roll over car accident in which a prior camera and lenes, though packed in a padded case, did not survive.
Picking up the camera, I noticed that it had fallen on the camera base - the quick release plate was scratched. I pressed the shutter half way - the lens auto focused. Enthused, I pressed the shutter completely. Click. I looked with compassion at the LCD screen - up came a picture. I looked from the top of the tripod to the ground - almost five feet. I tooked my great fortune and ran with it.
The camera lasted nine more days. By then I had photographed the alpaca herd and many other great spots. To finish the trip I bought a $300 (6 megapixel / 12x optical zoom) point and shoot. It's almost as good. Sheeesh.
But now I look like a complete tourist.
PopWorks & Commercialization 15
