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
Bogus Slogan Poster #83 - Inside View
Getting kids to the desert of New Mexico requires investing in the strange. Not a freak show, that has too much realism. An extravaganza which will allow the unpredictable to happen, involuntarily.
Management wants a controlled show. "Thanks everybody for coming, great time. Gotta go. Thaaaannks!" Bogus Slogan wants the unpredictable. Why not. Nothing better could happen in any show.
The band also knows their limits. Payrolls and families and friendships. Lawsuits cost money, so when the group makes a contract they will be there for the fans, the music and their own paycheck. Not for the promoters nor for the sponsors. They are on their own. They're big boys and girls. So if the unpredictable comes along, surfs up.
The extravaganza for Kandy's Hideaway in White Sands, NM was a re-enactment, full scale, of the Alien landing in Roswell, NM in 1947. Scholars were consulted. So much prep time was needed and the crowd of believers grew so large that the summer date had to be reset in October. It didn't delay until Halloween because every one wanted to be home in time for Trick O' Treat. It wasn't in Roswell because there were not enough motel rooms.
What set the stage, from before the first note was played, was the necessity of alternate endings. Conspiracy was never more well defined than by the opponents to your belief. To get the concert, both sides had to allow the other to re-enact their version. To take the place of the "weather balloon," that side's organizers bought old hot air balloons. Two, both painted white. For one balloon they removed as much metal as possible and filled its basket with as much fireworks as possible. No need to describe the elaborate wireless detonator, fuse delay, stacking protocol...
The first balloon had been "destroyed" in the pre concert re-enactment. The second stood fixed on the ground, near the stage, as a prop to support the group's theory. An hour into the Bogus Slogan set, the second lifted off. Whether the detonation was accidently tripped, or deliberately and with malice set off, is a new eternal mystery. But the effect was several levels above reality.
The basket had barely risen 60 feet, but every one saw it moving. Even the band, mid-song, began repeating the chorus of "1000 Suns Known", saw the ripping explosion... The fireball that curved into gravity... Felt the physical blow of the explosion's sound wave. The rather large fireball hit the sponsor's vip tent at the exact corner where the post concert liquor had been stored.
The secondary explosion vaporized every molecule of alcohol. The crowd cheered and began to chant "Balloon go boom!" The band spontaneously wrote and played their next hit single, "Fireball of Love (...and the balloon go boom)." Every body had a good time.
Abstracts: DiscoMania (2d) (2004)
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Sullen set, broken dress code,
Let's party all night.
Bogus Slogan Poster #82 - Inside View
People who come across Bogus Slogan Poster #82 always ask about our lovely ladies in attendance. It's a candid from an LA underground party posted on the internet in the artist's photo sharing website.
Captured in their prime and expressive to a fault. Out and about for an evening's entertainment. Find Mr. Right (Ms. Right?) A few laughs. Female bonding. Get a Bogus Slogan all access pass...
They sure would have liked to have been backstage at Tucson's Pedrini's Music House. Hanger-ons, groupies & those dedicated wannabes who want to share in the Rock n' Roll life usually show up early for the band's sound check. Using a variety of substances and services to bribe security to gain access, it can get a little testy if one person gets more favoritism than another.
Gunplay is a bit excessive, but beer bottles, handbags and shoes are well known weapons of choice in the short time needed to go from civil to violent. Once backstage, another favorite weapon when disrespected is the catered food platter. It is such a waste, but the results are spectacular.
The victim, who had inserted herself into every conversation, wore the little black dress with extra cleavage. Her shoes were stilleto pumps with a demure gold heel cap. A matching black & gold handbag with a gorgeous Colibri Mystique Lighter. When she extinguished her cigarette in drummer's Benjamin Owen's active drink, all Hell broke loose.
Ccompletely covered with food, including a beautiful Black Forest Chocolate Rum Cake (sigh). she nevertheless took this as a badge of honor and stayed for the show. Those BS all access passes are hard to come by.
Bogus Slogan Album Release
Earlier this month, the members of Bogus Slogan met up in Houston, Texas for a Record Release Party for their new album of music, "More of the Future Now!" Playing a rough final mix for the BS fan club at Big Love Bar-B-Que Supper Club, the enthusiastic response was gratefully received.
Record Company management was certainly relieved as they had unfailingly tried to alter the course of the recordings. Seems that they wanted a "duplicate" of last year's mega hit "A Little Heart." So, why don't they just re-release "A Little Heart" in a different key; make their millions; say "I told you so!" and sell out their next artist? Because they know Bogus Slogan Fans want "More of the Future Now!" Not some past now.
You can prove that record companies execs should avoid being in the music business by getting your copy of "More of the Future Now!" when it becomes available on May 22nd. Make them retreat to their wood panelled corner offices over-looking Hollywood Boulevard in shame. Don't worry, they'll still get their year end bonuses.
Bogus Slogan Poster #81 - Inside View
In the 1960's, "Feed Your Head" was a mantra for Youth to travel beyond their limits. Drugs, Sex, Rock n' Roll. Got your passport? Got your connection? Ride, Captain ride. Most came for the cheap thrills, but a minority began a search for their souls.
Ground Zero for the apex of this story arc was San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury District. Soon overrunned by opportunists and tourists, the golden age faded within a summer. Yet the ripples of this cultural shaking moved through out the world.
Hence, when Bogus Slogan play White River, Arkansas, they were hardly prepared for a Southern parade of hippiedom. Those good times were nearly a decade past. But, long hair, paisley clothing and personal freak flags filled Pales • House of Sound & Vision. Opening act, the Scripted Fade were cheered for their Seeds/Standells style garage rock. However, second bill Brain Inside Girlfriend, a blues/boogie band, were almost booed off the stage.
In a slight panic, the band ditched their current playlist of surrealist progressive rock. Returning to the music from the 60's, playing Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, Jefferson Airplane... Bogus Slogan restored White River to its proper place as the center of the universe.
In eulogy, the band's last encore was an extended jam of Neil Young's (Buffalo Springfield) "Expecting to Fly." After the final chorus & fade, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. All things must past.
LinearStyle
Music You Might Have Missed™
A little reminder... at ZenithPointStudio's sister blog, Linear Style, you can get your 30 minute music fix. If you have not yet compartmentalized your life into 30 minute segments, let the LinearStyle MiXmp3s do the hard work.
Know when to shift into a new groove. Don't make the mistake of hanging on.
Don't be a rookie.
Bogus Slogan Poster #80 - Inside View
"RENO The biggest little city in the world." Isn't that a great catch phrase. Of course a couple hundred years ago it was a meadow, wild with flowers, occasionaly flooded by the Truckee River. Only then, it was a river with no name. A meadow with no name. And you could probably smell the flowers.
So when the Political Chanting Society of the Reno Floodplain organized, their mission goal was to restore the greater Reno area back to a more pastoral environment. Removing all human habitation south of downtown and turning nearby Sparks, Nevada into a nature preserve. Their focus was legislation to limit city population to pre World War II levels.
Acting during an economic downturn, as casinos fell into bankruptcy, the PCS / RF rented out Luck'y Ballroom in the nearly defunct Pearly Gates Casino. Trying to raise money anyway they could, they hired Bogus Slogan for a fund raiser concert. Problems began when the band's contract rider was returned with huge red "X"s through most of the cushy provisions. It seems the Political Chanting Society was a bunch of cheap ascetics.
BS management immediately cancelled, then re-opened negotiations at a higher performance price. Since the Society had made dozens of committments, which failing to meet would damage their viability, they agreed to the increase.
The party was on. Bogus Slogan brought their own.
Photos: Flowers (2007)
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Here are a couple of examples of the close up lens/filter. On the web, at 72dpi, you get a good representation of the photograph. A little sharpening from a Photoshop software filter is the only necessary adjustment. A 16" x 20" would not be stretching the capacities of the Canon 250D.
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Using a smaller F-Stop adds more flowers from the "background." The close up lens allows the first blossom to stay in focus. Pack the tripod and if you have a remote trigger for the camera's shutter, all the better. What could be nicer than taking pictures of your world.
SysOps Notice 2007.05.01
Was that lonely woman really me?
When I go out to photograph the world, I take as little as possible - taking pictures mostly of vintage signs, abandoned structures and trains. Photographing trains can mean taking a long hike to find the right location. You don't want to return to the car to get another lens. I use two zoom lenses, 28mm to 70mm and 70mm to 200mm. They cover nearly every situation. I have used specialty lenses, but the added weight and bulk mean they were rarely used. Tripods are a necessity. Only in bright sunlight will shakey hand held shots work because a fast shutter speed stops the motion. Holding the bigger 70/200 lens is not easy. The tripod is a little awkward to transport. It does add weight and bulk, but that stability is welcomed because you do get the shot.
Attached to the top of the tripod is a head. It allow the camera to be rotated and tilted. For years I used an inexpensive top. With knobs that refused to turn smoothly, I routinely cursed my desire to save money. I also used an inexpensive "quick release" plate system that did not always lock the camera in place. Trying to make a change as the train came closer was a ballet in tension. Many times the train passed missing its closeup.
Enter Photoshop TV and Scott Kelby. pTV is a free weekly video download that gives tips on using PS. Also Kelby and his co-horts recommend products and seminars to enhance your photography experience.
Two products that Scott recommended have removed a constant frustation and enlarged the scope of photography I shoot. The expensive is ReallyRightStuff's tripod ballhead. It just works. No extraneous thoughts. Their quick release plates change from vertical to horizontal on "top" of the ball head. You do not need to move the tripod to recompose the new shot. When I shoot sunsets, I go back and forth many times. Before RRS, I would have to move the tripod to "line up" the sun. No more...
Inexpensive compared to a true macro lens, Canon 250D Close-up Lens (comes in many mm sizes) attaches to the front of your favorite lens. Now get up close, focus, shoot. Finished with the macro shot. Unscrew the filter/lens, put it back in its plastic case, slip it in your pocket. Yes, in your pocket.I now have an enlarged palette (a good thing). Flowers, textures and patterns. Thanks Scott. I owe you a beer or two.
PopWorks & Commercialization 14
Bogus Slogan Poster #79 - Inside View
In the early 1990's, when some English guys combined Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound' feel with the drone style of India's Raga and mixed in some German Sturm und Drang; Bogus Slogan was very impressed. Jumping on the bandwagon, the band embraced the Shoegazing music scene as if a beautful woman had found a credit card on a public sidewalk.
Over on the North shore of Kauai, Hawaii, someone built Kotton Kandys. It should have been built near the docks of Hoboken, NJ. The walls were painted flat black and glossy silver. On the ceiling was this weird wispy fuzz (surely a fire hazard) spray painted pink. Patrons sustained an overwhelming sense of the surreal upon entry. Underneath this frizz coiffure, Bogus Slogan plugged in, stomped on their pedals and flooded the club with a dreamy opalescent atmosphere of etherealness. Kind of matched the decor.
There is talk of a return of this genre, "nu-gaze." Will Bogus Slogan step on the bandwagon again? Maybe. Performing on stage you can wear your favorite fashions and not have to change for the after party.
Girls, be sure to use that card at WickedWeasel.com. Wearing little to nothing is always a blessing.