MISSION IS TERMINATED.

The total lack of activity on this "web log" has led to a state of irredeemable decay. I'm terminating the mission. But Intangible Arts never dies.

This "web log" began in the summer of 2005 as simply a reason to take more photographs, and as a place to report on the DC underground arts and music scene. But eventually, the neighborhood reportage bug led me (and this site) down a wretched nasty rabbit-hole, and it wasn't much about "intangible arts" anymore. But it introduced me to numerous charming persons local and otherwise, and led to a very fruitful partnership with his Royal highness Prince of Petworth.

So what's next?

The idea is to re-launch the Intangible Arts web presence as a single portfolio site with organized space for all my schizophrenic brain fragments, from music to photography, graphic design, and what passes for writing.

This means after about 17 years of designing for print and refusing to consider web, I finally drag my cynical ass kicking and screaming into the brave new world of SITE DESIGN. Tattoo a barcode on my forehead. I give up. I'm one of maybe three print designers still employed in this country, and I'm beginning to feel like the last polar bear left standing on a tiny wafer of ice. Surrounded by friggin' web people, and the looming threat of "web publishing." It seems like an utterly joyless usurper into my chosen career.

And so it'll be me in the basement during precious off-hours, locking brains with a copy of whatever Adobe site-building app came with CS2. Working it out. Learning on the fly. Life is a work in progress, no? With luck, the new site will be launched sometime before we're all dead.

In the meantime, watch for Blue Sausage Infant gigs if you dig a bit of sonic psychedelic noise drone paranoia (tomorrow/wednesday 23sept at the Velvet Lounge, part of the Sonic Circuits festival, 9pm!). And I'll continue to guest post at all my usual digital hangouts, if they'll still have me.

If you're so inclined, contact me via the "complete profile" link at top of this page. Otherwise, we'll meet again under the Intangible Arts freak tent eventually, Incha'a Allah.

Destroyness!

Well, there wasn't an earth-shattering kaboom, but it's something.

So here's a quick glimpse of the Bruce Monroe school from the Irving Street side: It's finally showing signs of destroyness, after weeks of the demolition contractor pissing around with much less exciting forms of destroyness. So far it looks like just the thorax was taken out, leaving a disconnected head and abdomen.

Now we can make funny faces at the houses on Columbia Road from Irving, and we will, simply because we couldn't do that before. And now we can. And so we will.


But our appetite for destruction isn't quite satiated. So c'mon folks, swing the big ball, let's see some real destruction. I want to see wilted blossoms of rebar gesturing to the skies like the fingerbones of a helpless mute behemoth... boom! BOOM, dammit, BOOM!

ALERT: SONIC CIRCUITS 2009

Now that we're physically, mentally, and spiritually within the month of September (or will be in a few hours...close enough...summer can't die fast enough), it's time to raise the freak flag on this thing:

Your good friends at DC Sonic Circuits have been hard at work on this month's week-long festival of experimental music, and this year (the ninth) promises to be the strongest one yet. Advance tickets can be purchased online (as early as right-the-hell-now), at the festival site's schedule page [here], and festival passes are available as well, for a mere $50.

The lineup contains a very thorough cross-section of the global experimental music scene, encompassing everything from improv to new composition, free jazz, ambient soundscapes, electronics, organic/acoustics, microsound, harsh noise, avant-rock, neoclassic/chamber, psychedelia, theatrical hooliganism, and god knows what else.

Headlining the festival over the course of a few shows are krautrock godfathers FAUST, the enigmatic JANDEK, and noise-rock kings HEALTH, along with free-jazz icons Evan Parker and Ned Rothenberg, Ukranian noise chemist Kotra, New York avant guitarrorist Elliott Sharp, etc etc...

For now, a condensed schedule to tickle you where it counts:

Tuesday Sept 22
Elliott Sharp
Annea Lockwood & Tom Buckner
Never Work
BLK w/BEAR & VJ Poppins
--at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of MD / 7pm / FREE ADMISSION

Wednesday Sept 23
Nine Strings + Pilesar
Twenty-first Century Chamber Ensemble
Mind Over Matter Music Over Mind
--at Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage / 6pm / FREE ADMISSION

Wednesday Sept 23
Fern Knight
Luigi Archetti
Odal
Blue Sausage Infant
Twilight Memories of the Three Suns
--at the Velvet Lounge / 9pm / $10

Thursday Sept 24
Bernd Schurer
Martin Neukom
Thomas Peter
Jan Schacher
Marcus Maeder
--at the Embassy of Switzerland / 7pm / $10

Friday Sept 25
Evan Parker & Ned Rothenberg duo
David Daniell
Bicameral Mind
Janel & Anthony
--at the Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring MD / 7:30pm / $15

Saturday Sept 26
Jandek
Kotra
Northern Machine
Qfwfq Duo
ayyoko confidential
ige*timer
Jeff Carey
Tim Hecker
Gunter Hampel European Trio w/ Elliott Levin
Blevin Blectum
Fckn Bstrds
Soft Pieces
Pilesar
Ergo
Second Land
Sean Peoples
--at the Velvet Lounge / starts 2pm / $20

Sunday Sept 27
Faust
Rat Bastard+Chris Grier+Ulrich Krieger
HEALTH
Pekka Airaksinen
Alexei Borisov & Anton Nikkilä
--at the Black Cat / 8pm / $15

For many more details and links to the artists, see dc-soniccircuits.org/ ... Flyer by Intangible Arts. Click it for much larger version. Please download, print, distribute, email, embed, link, etc.

I'll tell you when to sing...

And so with two great events, the Corn Weenie circle of life is fulfilled.

1. Finally got my copy of the Corn Weenie compilation CD, which was WFMU station manager Ken's marathon premium for the 2009 fundraising campaign. For the unschooled, see [here]. Intangible Arts' own Blue Sausage Infant contributed a remix which seemed to cross over into a weird mangle of Egyptian-flavored folk and drug-soaked kraturock trance, complete with vocal contributions from several allies and their kids. All great fun. Cover design above: For once, a CD design on the site not of my own making; this one is the work of designer Tim Lacy.

2. Finally found a vinyl copy of the album that started the whole thing, Port Said by Mohammed El-Bakkar & His Oriental Ensemble, at the great Som Records shop on 14th Street. It's one of those classic late-50s albums that came out during the flood of exotica/bellydance/polynesian records... so I've seen Port Said a million times until of course I had a reason to find it.

And now, finally, I can move on. Blue Sausage Infant has much to do. The great 2009 Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music [link] is coming soon. Watch this space for updates within the next day or two. Fans of noise, free jazz, krautrock, glitch, and experimental electronics will have much to celebrate in about three weeks...

Your procedure is immanent.

A team of local specialists has scheduled your procedure for tomorrow night.

Lovers of fine noise, unexplainable music, and bizarre tonalities, behold!

Gate 54 and host DJ Mark Williams will be presenting, for this month's PROCEDURE night, an evening of DJ sets by DC Sonic Circuits folks. It's our little way of impregnating the universe with excitement before this year's huge 2009 DC Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music.

It all begins at 10pm and will feature the sonic spinnage of your humble narrator (Blue Sausage Infant), Jeff Surak (Violet), Cory O'Brien (Myo), and Dani Seiss & Curt Seiss (Second Land).

I'll be throwing down (or up) a mix of eccentric noise from artists scheduled to play the fest this year, as well as some ultimate whatnot from far out... For the truly masochistic, some new/unreleased BSI will certainly creep into the mix.

So, c'mon down. Have a strong beverage. Freak out a little.

Wednesday / 19aug09
Gate 54 (downstairs @ Cafe St.Ex)
1847 14th Street NW: U Street Metro
10pm until close

Wrecker's cramp?

And now, a brief follow-up to a recent post on some planned destruction in the neighborhood:

Behold! It's been a month since the Bruce Monroe Elementary school (Irving St/Georgia Ave) was cleared for demolition, and they've finally begun the job. Kinda.

This was the scene yesterday morning (12th Aug) and it hasn't visibly changed since. It looks like the mighty beast took one bite and then had to go sit down for a while. Too bitter, maybe? Need a chewable antacid?

Or is the plan to destroy the building a dozen bricks at a time? I realize I'm speaking from ignorance; I'm just a neighborhood schmuck with no inside knowledge, but c'mon folks, give us a little horrific destruction! Where's the KABOOM?!?! There was supposed to be an earth-shattering KABOOM!

I suppose I should make a really clever and bitterly cynical anti-union joke here, but I haven't finished my coffee yet. The acid tongue is still asleep, but fear not. If this is the pace of progress, said joke will be coming soon.

Ah, but for what it's worth, they're finally knocking the thing down. Kinda. And true to my obsessive nature, I'll be covering the demise of this building down to the last spec of drywall dust. You betcha.