Taylor Swift

part of a three-part series on the history of the emoticon  

BNJMN (pronounced Benjamin) is a mobile sensory image production mechanism. His works bring to question what it means to perceive the humanity or spirit possessed by an "artist" in the central act of creation.

BNJMN's personality (programming) allows him to roam in search of mediums to paint upon. Once a suitable substrate and its size have been determined, he begins a two-part painting process utilizing two independent (dualistic) aluminum arms and a modern acrylic chassis to create unique works of the moment. The first part being the seemingly behavioral act of painting based on random and non-random protocols, and the second, a signature to mark completion.

COMPUTER GRANDMA


Vote News 4-26-13
computer grandma
-JohnnySmash
JohnnySmash@gmail.com

3-28-13
HMMM not much to say today so it's time to remind you to "Like" Super Mega's facebook page here: Super Mega's Facebook Page. HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
-JohnnySmash
JohnnySmash@gmail.com

New Fan Art

(No new fan art.)

The manufacturer of this CD from 1994 claims that listening to it can help your ADD, dyslexia, or other learning disorders. Unless it’s made of Adderall, I doubt that’s true.

If it’s made of Adderall, please tell me, by the way… no reason.

Gothic Lolita, sometimes shortened as GothLoli, is a type of Lolita fashion. The name Lolita doesn’t seem to have with Nabokov’s novel but with the sound of the word as something small and cute.

What do remarkably prolific electro-acoustic composers do when they can’t sleep? Wonder no more: Somerville’s own Keith Fullerton Whitman has given listeners a highly welcome window into his own battles with insomnia, and it comes off as one of his most personal works to date.  Greatest Hits, posted for free up to Mr. KFW’s SoundCloud, consists of 12 hours of music, 100 tracks of digitally slowed, chopped, and screwed pop loops from the artist’s youth.  Now, this is way beyond your average “Gaga-slowed-down-times-infinity” YouTube post from xxcharmed1xx.  Whitman is a patient man.  Each clip is treated with the same reverence as an individual memory contained in a thoughtful memoir.  Rather than dwell too deep in a self-designed dungeon, Whitman opens the unknown gates of his pop nostalgia to allow any listener their own entry.  Whitman’s own description is definitely worth reading; below, check out the highlight that begins the third set.

The post FRESH STREAM: KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN – GREATEST HITS appeared first on The Boston Hassle.

Proud of France for legalizing gay marriage today !
The character in the right is a representation of president François Hollande.

Also is a picture of him at the last Paris book fair, when he was checking my animated comics on an ipad.

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve listened to NOBUNNY‘S debut LOVE VISIONS, an album bursting with bubblegummy good-bad-touch scummy rock songs that could only be performed by a half naked guy in a filthy bunny mask. It’s the auditory version of an R. Crumb drawing, fucked up and oddly adorable at the same time. I love everything this man-beast has released, especially last year’s record store day 7″, the MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL ep, which is the best middle finger in the form of vinyl record that I’ve seen to date.

Today ALMOST READY RECORDS gives LOVE VISIONS the record store day collectable treatment, transforming this already iconic LP into a boxed set of six 7″s. All tracks have been remastered from the original sources, but they still maintain NOBUNNY’s loveably disgusting sound. Harry, almighty czar of ALMOST READY/LAST LAUGH/MIGHTY MOUTH informed me this was “an idea I came up with while hovering drunk over his merch table.” If only all drunken ideas were as good as this, in addition to the records, there is a poster and a NOBUNNY-curated insert of liner notes, lyrics, and history. Oh but wait, there’s more, 5 boxes contain a bonus 7″ single of “JOB” by NUBS, which has to be one of my favorite KBD songs of all time. It doesn’t get any better than this, kids. Look for a NOBUNNY/NUBS/CHARLIE TWEEDLE show in San Francisco sometime this summer, and also keep your eyes peeled for a new release from SNEAKY PINKS (which I hope has more genius lyrics along the lines of “I want a blow job, I want a hot dog”) from ALMOST READY soon!

(In case you were wondering, these are some (of many) photos that Harry sent me from a trip to McDonald’s where he just happened to have some NOBUNNY box sets in his bag. So, if you buy one that smells like french fries, this is why. Photos: Harry Howes)

The post CHECK IT: NOBUNNY RECORD STORE DAY SPECIAL appeared first on The Boston Hassle.

Girls Rock Campaign Boston runs day camps for both women and girls teaching instrument instruction and empowering females to rock. Based in Jamaica Plain, GRCB offers week-long programs for girls in the summer and intensive three-day sessions for women in the winter and spring. At rock camp, campers learn an instrument (guitar, bass, keys, drums, or vocals), form a band and write an original song, and perform live at a final showcase at T.T. the Bears. Modeled after the Rock ‘n Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Oregon, GRCB was founded in 2010 and is one of several dozen female rock camps around the country. I chatted with founders Hilken Mancini, program director (who also plays in Shepherdess and the Monsieurs), and Nora Allen-Wiles, administrative director, in their office in the back of Hilken’s vintage clothing shop, 40 South, in Jamaica Plain.

Interview by Kathleen Mahoney

How did you guys meet? How did you decide to start Girls Rock Campaign Boston?

Nora: We actually have a crazy meeting story! So, when I was in college, I was looking up community service based internships in Portland, Oregon. On, like, the 47th page of Idealist, I found rock camp, and I was like, this sounds like the coolest thing ever. So I emailed them and they were like, we’re actually starting up a college intern program, and we’d love for you to come out and do it. And then Hilken was out there volunteering at one of the sessions, and we were outside smoking cigarettes, and I was like where ya from? And she was like, “Jamaica Plain.” And I was like, “Woah, I’m from Somerville. Weird.” So, that’s how we met and totally bonded. And then the next year I came back and interned again, and Hilken was also back. One day we had lunch and talked about starting a rock camp in Boston…not really thinking that it would ever happen because we were both really busy. Two years later, Hilken got a call from Mary Lou Lord who was like, “I’m thinking about starting one of these rock camp things” not knowing that Hilken was involved. And then Hilken called me, not knowing I was back living in Somerville…but I was. Crazy coincidence. Three weeks later, we were planning the first summer camp for 2010. And the rest is history!

Hilken: And then we found our there was a conference [hosted by the Girls Rock Camp Alliance], and you can go, and they help you. When Portland found out that we wanted to do it, they were like, oh my God, totally awesome.

Nora: We didn’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Hilken: Boston had such an amazing amount of talented musicians. There were always women around– like Throwing Muses, this band Fuzzy I was in that was managed by Fort Apache who also managed Juliana Hatfield– but it didn’t make sense to me that it wasn’t more like Portland. When I went to Portland, it was like, oh, she’s going to tour with her, and she’s going to record her record, and I was like, we should be like that. We basically tried to make a baby Portland. And this momentum started building. So many people wanted to be involved. I had a houseful of women that summer– making genre signs, dropping off bass amps in my kitchen, coming in from the burbs with a P.A. Nora and I had no life– she’d work at Whole Foods and I’d work at 40 South– and whether it was 6 in the morning before work or at night, we were figuring out the handbook, talking to lawyers about whether we have to become a corporation or nonprofit, how do we get landyards. It was consuming us. We lived and breathed it.

Nora: I wrote our whole nonprofit application drinking beers at 2 in the morning after work.

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Had you had any experience with the logistics of starting a nonprofit?

Nora: Oh God, no! I had volunteered at a lot of nonprofits, but I had never been involved in that process. There’s a support group vibe in the Alliance because we fell in love with the mission after working there but have no idea what we’re doing. The scary letters come all the time that are like, “You’ll be shut down if you don’t do X, Y, and Z,” and we’ll have had no idea we were supposed to do that!

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Slam Juice was one of the ten bands who performed in the April showcase

How much of the programming is based on the Portland model?

Nora: Our summer programming is very based on Portland. It’s a model that works. One of the biggest differences is how we run the program for the ladies. Ladies Rock Camp is really different than a lot of the other programs because we do it just like the girls. A lot of the other programs don’t have the women playing games. When we were doing the first ladies’ session, Hilken was saying that she wasn’t going to do punk rock aerobics and “all that kids’ stuff,” and one of the volunteers from the girls’ camp was like, I don’t want to go then. And Hilken was like, what do you mean? And she was like, that’s why I want to go to rock camp. I want to have that same experience. So we decided to do it.

And we just led a workshop at the Alliance conference in March, and we were talking to women in the Bay Area, and they were like no, we would never have them screenprint t-shirts. So, I think that’s something that is unique to us. I think the women appreciate being taken care of and getting to act silly like kids, because it totally breaks them down. Because you don’t ever get to be in that kind of space, but being at rock camp all day for three days makes it okay to dance like a crazy person. There’s something that switches off that allows you to be totally comfortable.

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How many of the lady campers have experience playing their instruments before camp? What is the range of experiences you see?

Nora: I would say that at least 75% of the women that come haven’t played a lot or at all. That ranges from, oh, “I have a guitar but only play in my room” and “I sing constantly but I never sing in front of anybody” to “I’ve always wanted to play the drums but I’ve never touched a drum kit before.” The amount of people who have played a lot are very few.

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Is it common for women from rock camp to start bands after camp?

Hilken: Yeah! You learn that it’s empowering and it makes you feel good.

Nora: It demystifies what goes into writing songs and being in a band. Women are seeing that you don’t have to be intimidated. There are a bunch of bands that started at rock camp that are still playing. Women are realizing that you don’t need to have been playing for twenty years to do it.

Hilken: You can be in a band knowing three chords.

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So, Girls Rock Campaign Boston started in 2010. How has it evolved since you started?

Nora: The numbers are the biggest thing. We started in 2010 with 40 girls and one session. The second year we had two sessions with 60 girls each– so it tripled in size. We’ve gotten a lot more organized, and our goals are a lot clearer– like the fact that we want to expand and we want to do it within the next year. But also the community. The community that has come out of this is phenomenal, and I think that completely changes the organization: having returning volunteers, having people hear about it…and that makes it better, because all of these people are giving their input on what could improve our programs even more.

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How are you funded?

Nora: Right now, our programming is all tuition and fundraising based, which is really lucky, because a lot of other programs can’t survive without grants. We are starting to apply for grants more and more. When the February session got cancelled [due to the blizzard], we didn’t know if we could reschedule it, were like wow, you can get screwed really fast relying on program funding alone. We’ve been really lucky to be program funded completely so far.

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And I know you get a lot of donations too– like instruments and food.

Nora: Yeah, so our costs are incredibly low. And Spontaneous Celebrations [the community center that hosts rock camp] is amazing and dirt cheap to rent from. And with all of our donations and being all volunteer-run, we end up spending a very small amount on supplies for the week. But we’re at a point where we keep getting the same things donated– we have too many guitars and not enough drum kits. We do need to transition to a place where we can make larger purchases. We do want to start after school programming and free programming so we’re trying to figure out how to make that possible. Part of the great thing about the community is that these women are willing to share their expertise. We’ve found out some of our volunteers are grant writers or heavily involved in fundraising, and they’ve been really helpful.

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Hilken, how have you seen the Boston music scene evolve since you started playing in bands in the 90s? Are there more women playing music now?

Hilken: I don’t know because when I started, I felt kind of alone, but then I started bands with women mostly. My band Fuzzy toured with Belly and Velocity Girl. I was in that period where all of a sudden in the 90s, it was cool to be a loudmouth. Kurt Cobain, a huge rock star who was on the cover of Rolling Stone, was married to Courtney Love, a woman who didn’t look like a supermodel. Who had a big f—-n’ mouth and was scary. And before that he dated Kathleen Hanna. Our role models were awesome, crazy women who were empowered.

But then I saw the demise of that, and that was depressing. I continued to make music and then suddenly it wasn’t cool to be loud and punk rock. It became really important to be cute; Britney Spears appeared. When I continued to put records out, the Phoenix called me a warhorse. Like, “Warhorse Hilken Mancini is putting out another record.” And I was like oh my god, why am I a warhorse? You wouldn’t say that about John Felice from the Real Kids. What am I fighting? I don’t get it. So I got really f—–n’ pissed off! But after rock camp, I suddenly started getting asked to play again.

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Do you think that was because of rock camp?

Hilken: Because of rock camp, I had a lot of support. More people were coming to my shows. And then suddenly people were like you can play here now– they didn’t just associate me with Fuzzy. Chris Colbourn [of Buffalo Tom and with whom Hilken put out a record in 2005] came to see me play, and he was like, woah, you have so many fans! But this is our community. We come out to see each other.

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Band practice in Spontaneous Celebrations

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What has been the most rewarding part about starting GRCB?

Hilken: One of the biggest things is the community that’s come out of it. I’ve been playing rock ‘n roll in Boston for forever– since I was 18. And I played a show at the Plough and Stars right after Nora and I had announced that we’d be starting a girls rock camp in Boston. When I finished playing and walked over to the bar, I got mobbed. I was so excited because I thought it was because I had played such an amazing show, but they were like, “We heard you’re starting a girls rock camp in Boston, and we want to volunteer!” It was amazing; I’ve never been mobbed when I’ve walked off the stage before, and I was mobbed because people had heard that we were finally having one here– people had heard about the one in Portland– and so it was really funny.

Nora: The love never stops. It blows my mind. With the women, you see it immediately. It’s an instant realization of something. There’s such a community that’s come out of it, and just the fact that there’s always someone willing to help– to sweat their ass off moving drums, to drive over from Somerville to bring a bass amp– and that part I hadn’t expected. Past the original group of organizers, I didn’t expect it to be such a phenomenal bond between everybody.

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The showcase for the May session of Ladies Rock Camp is at T.T. the Bears on Sunday, May 19th.

Hilken’s band Shepherdess:

The post BAND SPEAK: HILKEN & NORA OF GIRLS ROCK CAMPAIGN BOSTON appeared first on The Boston Hassle.

Photo: Rick Indeo (Toronto, Canada)

//////////////////~ submit your photos to: potd(at)fecalface.com ~ make sure they're at least 700 pixels in width.

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Lo-fi strangeness emenating from within the female weird spectrum of Boston, MA. LIANA’s FIRE is all over the musical map. There’s electronics frying in the sun. Pretty acoustic guitars happening. Effects laden vocals lost in the clouds. And beats and synths sometimes forced into the service of some kind of electro-pop, but at other times allowed to wander freely. This is some free spirited shit, crawling with a genre-less flamboyance that the artist herself proclaims proudly. DEMO SET NO.2 was released on bandcamp a couple months back and it’s a journey from song 1 through song 10. And while extremely raw (wonderfully so), and no doubt still congealing, this feels like a cohesive weird. I want to hear more of these experiments and to slip further into the realm of possibility with these sounds on my headphones. “killj killj killj” brings the beat to the forefront as our singer coos away. The song skips from idea to idea the rest of the way, the ripples of vocals that remain not disturbing the beat whatsoever. I’ll be listening for the next batch to appear.

The post FRESH STREAM: Liana’s Fire appeared first on The Boston Hassle.

I thought that mixing drinks with semen would be a niche market at best, but this book is the #21-best-selling title in the Bartending category. Don’t read the reviews unless you like people trying really hard to be funny, though.

Local 3 piece Krill have been working hard since their fantastic first album Alam No Hris, playing a kickstartr funded national tour, regularly running the northeast circuit and of course playing Boston insistently. In between they somehow found time to sneak into the studio at the newly re-opened Silent Barn in Brooklyn. ‘Never a Joke,’ the first single off the record Lucky Leaves – to be released in late June, and its a doozy. Conjuring the power and gravity of their live performance, the track leaps forward from the gate with a indelibly compelling bassline. The rhythm bounces along at a disjointed post-punk pace, slinking into dirty dub alleyways. An intimate reverby alt riff sears upward into almost shoegaze sheen ecstasy. And the lyrics are as always on point, hitting the high notes with gravely sneering voice Look forward to more.

The post FRESH STREAM: KRILL – NEVER A JOKE appeared first on The Boston Hassle.

Peel back your third eyelid and scope the hot new jam from one of Western Mass’ best way to get around the everyday auditory onslaught, WHITE LIMO. Below you will find a video for WhoMohW, the title track off their new LP courtesy of brand new label Fogged Records! This trio features Chris Cooper and Jess Goddard of Fat Worm Of Error and their twisted brother Josh Vrysen (Tumble Cat Poof Poofy Poof) and has been a thing for about 5 years now. Not sure how they did it (aside from the obviously radical guitar, keyboard and tape manipulation going on) but their debut full length is actually worth all that wait. If you are stimulated by next level, electronically driven, highly calculated psychedelic chaos that borders on some fucked up kind of techno groove, well, just watch. And buy that wax! Video by Jess Goddard.

The post FRESH VIDEO: WHITE LIMO appeared first on The Boston Hassle.

1) The Boston Hassle organization is going to be opening a non-profit all ages art and performance space in the Boston area sometime in the (near) future.

2) Are you, or someone you know looking to open an eatery or retail business that would benefit from being involved with such a space?

3) If so, we should talk. We can make it all happen together.

The post We are opening an art performance space and we need retail/food business partners. appeared first on The Boston Hassle.

Here are a few facts to BLOW YOUR MIND if you want to feel OLD!!!

• Latvia’s post-Cold War declaration of independence happened closer to the moon landing than the present day.
• The release of New Coke happened closer to Alaska becoming a U.S. state than the present day.
• The Bay of Pigs invasion happened closer to Mussolini’s assumption of power in Italy than to the capture of Saddam Hussein in his spider hole.
• The Los Angeles Summer Olympics happened closer to the founding of the Republic of Bangladesh than to the release of Windows 98.
• The premiere of the first film featuring Donald Duck happened closer to the present day than to the succession of King Johann to the throne of Saxony.
• The Battle of Guadalcanal happened closer to the ratification of the Twenty-Third Amendment than to the birth of Russian lexicographer Vladimir Dal.
• Venezuela’s declaration of independence from Spain happened closer to the same declaration by Paraguay than to the present day.
• The formation of the universe happened closer to the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary than the present day.
• The succession of Osman III (1754–1757) as Ottoman Emperor, replacing Mahmud I, happened closer to John Flamsteed’s initial sighting of Uranus than to my graduation from high school.
• The first flight of the Space Shuttle happened closer to the present day than to the Battle of Agincourt.

Ha ha, you’re OLD!!!

In the PyWeek entry As Was Foretold, you play as RPG boss Skulltaker, trying to keep the world from being destroyed by an ancient cosmic evil. You do so by training a hero to defeat this evil for you. This involves unleashing enemy after enemy to level up the hero while making sure he doesn't become too demoralized from the challenges.

The hero will battle you, the villain, several times, and you will impart advice to him before succumbing to his growing abilities. The exchange of dialogue is definitely part of the fun here.

Those looking for an ASCII-style RPG from the boss' perspective, have at As Was Foretold from developers Jesse Trustcott, Joe Gracyk, Devin Vance, Dylan Pedersen, and Patashu.

4/21/13-after approx. 1 month, I'm free

Aya is a stylish 18 year old Bunka Fashion College student who we photographed on the street in Harajuku. She has tinted blond-gray hair with bangs and she’s wearing mostly black.

Her outfit consists of a Topshop lace dress with cutout shoulders and a wide skirt. Her colorful bag is from EnocDouter by Shojono Tomo, and her Topshop accessories include a heart pendant and printed tights. She is also wearing red socks and Tokyo Bopper platform shoes with ankle straps.

Aya told us that Topshop is her favorite store, and she also gave us her Twitter.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Assignment: Write one sentence about a family member, and draw a picture of it. So, this kid pretty much nailed it. She clearly knows her mama. ~HufPo

Here’s a friendly girl we street snapped near LaForet Harajuku after dark.

In addition to the vivid aqua braids, her look includes an oversized bleached hoodie (the oversized sweater-as-dress look is trending right now in Tokyo), thigh high white stockings, and Dr. Martens boots. Accessories include a head scarf, a Vivienne Westwood necklace, and a backpack from Adidas.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

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April 17th, 2013: When I was a kid my dad told me that the person who designed the 386 went insane afterwards, and while I can't find any information online to confirm that story today, it did make my 386DX seem a little more badass. Hey, out today is Adventure Time #15, a stand-alone story! It's available at your local comics shop and all sorts of places AND it's exciting because yesterday it was announced that the series is up for three different Eisner awards! And Meredith Gran's Adventure Time series is also nominated. IT IS A GOOD YEAR FOR COMICS You can read the first few pages of AT #15 here! – Ryan

Hennesy Youngman hypes up the shampoo aisle on a Tuesday night  

A pre-order listing for an Animal Crossing: New Leaf 3DS XL hardware bundle was posted to the website of U.K. retailer ShopTo this morning, reports Eurogamer.

The listing, which has since been taken down, included a white 3DS XL with an Animal Crossing-themed pattern and a pre-installed digital copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf. ShopTo lists the bundle for £189.85 with a launch date of June 14, the date of New Leaf's release in Europe. The hardware bundle has previously been available only in Japan, where New Leaf launched last November.

The photo of the hardware above was taken from the listing shortly before it was pulled down.

Yesterday, Nintendo of Europe announced a new Nintendo Direct presentation focused on the 3DS will be...

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feed in keystrokes with memory states and let it see the future; source and paper here