Geek Weekly #8

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creative improvised music

e.c.f.a. carl smith tenor saxophone james alexander viola matt armistead drums http://www.europeanechoes.homestead.com

The meta-musicican is like a naked man standing on a street corner in a snow storm. His blue skin and shivering body calling attention to his obvious, if neglected, humanity. But the passers-by would rather see more comforting images, with 'universally approved' stamped upon carefully marketted posteriors. Success in the market place confers the ultimate accolade upon the producer/consumer. the rewards are an extra turn in the reinforcement of the commmodity ethos. Those who set out stalls in the market place with nothing on them are treated with contempt or as amusing eccentricts. Some such vendors are then forced to sell themselves - their antics become a spectacular commodity.

The choice for the artist is either to freeze to death or to jump through burning hoops. Human beings are resourceful, even musicians. Some may run a line on the edge of both situations, trying to maintain their integrity as artists while giving as little as possible of themselves to the market madness. But why do such individuals resist the comforts of conformity and consumerism? They need food and warmth like any other human being. Such discontents have drunk deeply of market capitalism - even if only in their abstractions - and found the nourishment wanting. they look for different recipes, different cooks and a different diet.

A meta-musician must work beyond the cultural cipher of 'musician'. The traditional, educational and general cultural perception of a musician are all obstructions to the meta-musician's work. Unwittingly many artists become trapped by expectations of their work. Th - naturally reinforces the belief that their music is of value - of a value, that is, as a commodity (a large part of the general popular conception of the musician i- as purveyor of the musical commodity). If, on the other hand, the musician is really seeking the expression of ideas and emotions which transcend the momentary desires of the current music economy, then the only recourse is to renounce music for meta-music. This is no real dilemma for the artist because art as commodity is no art at all. The real problem comes in comprehending the situation, although even overt rejection of marketable forms does not automatically free the musician from its subjugation. For even the most difficult of musics may be subject to a more exclusive sector of the market.

A musician trying to free himself from the market mentality must also free himself from all negative elements of competitiveness. This is not som crude levelling process which diminishes all creative effort, but rather a freeing from the need to destroy or denigrate similar, potentially competitive forms. In itself this artistic hegemony is as monopolistic as the mass music commodities. The dilemma for an improvising musician who is perceived as relatively successful in this nether world is the conflict between a natural desire for a fulfilled musical life and the development of a wider musical and ideological base. In order to obtain a modicum of material comfort and a larger share of the available musical life, being a large fish in a small pond may seem preferable to the unknown resources that might be available in a much larger pond.

Edwin Prevose, No Sound Is Innocent: AMM and the Prctice of Self-Invention. Copula: 1995

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Dallas! Stars! a Hoceky Primer

Ladies love hockey and I am no exception. LaSuprema has her Spurs and basketball, but give me the greatest sport ever played on ice (the article on curling, the national sport of Canada, will be in GW #9). Nine times out of ten a hockey game is going to beat your average rock show in terms of entertainment and excitement, not to mention that there are no penalties for illegal behaviors in music (can't you imagine? Two minutes in the box for an "Are you ready to rock?"; a game misconduct for frivolous vocorder use). Never in my life will I be tempted to shell out as much money to see a band as I spent on a ticket to watch the Dallas Stars play in the Stanley Cup finals. Of course, I probably won't have to, but that's beside the point. Reunion Arena has got to be one of the most ghetto arenas a national champion team has ever set foot in. The place should be cursed simply because it's the home of the inept Dallas Mavericks, who are the only team in professional sports history that had the luck to see their ownership situation worsen when they were sold by Ross Perof. It's a pit. Of course, it's kind of nice that Dallas had it in the first place so they could snag the Minnesota North Stars. Half the crowd consists of improbably attractive Dallas women - it could be a hockey wives' convention for all the black-clad blondes in attendance. being Dallas, many are of course accompanied by their older, overpaid sugar dad - someone tagged as "the cocaine-and-boob-job crowd". Ahh, speaking of that - Dallas metal band Pantera recorded a team song for the Dallas Stars - it's the band's typical stoner metal, punctuated by shouts of "Dallas!" "Stars!" and as such a completely hockey-appropriate tune. Contrast this to the weakass song some chick sang for the Buffalo Sabres during their illfated run for the Cup last year - a pansy-ass piece of Andrews Sisters pop with lyrics like, "We're gonna win that cup - hey!" How the fuck could that make a team with a player named Satan feel? No wonder they've been so sickly this season. They get a team song my grandmother would get diabetes from and Dallas gets on written by a band that also - hey! - owns one of the best strip clubs in the state. This probably came to your

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attention when the Stanley Cup was dented "during the celebratory parade" this summer, but Pantera member Vinni Paul is one of the owners of The Clubhouse, a beautiful nude club on the outskirts of the city. I've been on the receiving end of a couple or ten table dances there and the women, though pretty much all enhanced, are prettier than a new set of snow tires. And the waitresses were wearing plaid skirts, thigh-high white stockings and cropped white sweaters! So this is the preferred hangout of the Stars when they're looking to unwind. one of my friends was working at the Clubhouse when the Stars won the Cup and relayed to me the story of how, at a celebration at Paul's, the cup was lobbed poolward from the balcony, and I guess it must have gotten dented when it landed on someone's tit.

Which gets us to my two theories on why women enjoy the sport and its players so much. Personally, my preferences (the scarcity of Jewish hockey players notwithstanding) dovetail nicely with the characteristics of many of our finer Czech and Russian players. You can have your Modanos - give me a Satan anytime. Check out that monobrow! But the fundamental appeal of the hockey player goes far deeper than physical appearance. Hockey players utilize an implement, a stick, to manipulate an object, a puck, for the desired result, a goal. This demonstrates a male animal more highly evolved than those simply playing with a ball or trying to hit one with a bat. Said male animal is therefore more desirable as a source of raw genetic material to females of childbearing age.

Now, as to why women enjoy the game itself, I have a more titillating example without the disturbing reproductive aspects. Goals are much like the elusive femal orgasm - you work carefully hard to get them and when they come there's a really loud noise. Sometimes you think that the setup's perfect, it's gotta come now, and then you're denied! Other times you aren't even expecting it and boom! there it is! Don't think the women watching a game don't feel like an actual physical rush immediately after their team has scored. They know what it's like to get that payoff. And it's always a goal, never a field goal or a free throw instead, it's a goddamned goal and it's worth one point every time you score.

- Susan LaInferioria 31

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Go Spurs go: a Basketball Primer

Don't be afraid of sports just because you like to think. Basketball is a lovely, relatively non-violent game which matches up some of the most graceful men in the world. You intellecturals out there can also take comfort in the fact that the San Antonio Spurs are probably the best-educated team in the NBA. (Those ads which feature David Robinson promoting reading just make me tingl.) The bios on these guys are great, too. It's too bad that only the big stars get their stories published (see accompanying bibliography), but just look in your local newspaper's sportspages, or invest in a copy of The Sporting News or Sports Illustrated. This time of eyar is the best to get into basketball. The league is gearing up for the playoffs and, with football out of the piture, NBC is running between two and five NBA games per weekend. (Course that's nothin' if you have cable.) Austinites can also get many of the Spurs games on KNVA54, and WOAI 1200 AM ("The South Texas Blowtorch") carries most games too. The Spurs announcer, Jay Howard, is the shit. Although the advertising world has sunken into a deep, unshakable depression over the financial blow aused by the loss of Michael Jordan, for us fans this means that the game is no longer dominated by one player, one team. This makes the race for the championship that much more exciting.

Opposite, please find a handy bibliography, especially useful to the novice fan who wants answers to questions such as, "What did David Robinson major in when he was at the Naval Academy?" "Why do some fouls result in two free throws, some in only one, and some in none at all?" and "What unique qualities have black men brought to the game of basketball?" All these books can be found at your local library along with the aforementioned periodicals. They are organized by which section of the library they would likely be found in. Be careful to distinguish between the book entitled "Loose Balls" and is about the history of the ABA, and the soon-to-be-published book of the same name by Jason "White Chocolate" Williams of the Sacramento Kings. jason is the Kid Rock of basketball and his book should be quite amusing, though not as much as his wacky ball0handling. Just ask at the desk if you need any help. Librarians love to serve.

-Jennifer LaSuprema 32

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Intro to B-Ball Bibliography

Juvenile Non-Fiction Aaseng, Nathan. Sports Great, David Robinson. Enslow: 1992. Allen, James. Basketball: Play Like a Pro. Troll Associates: 1990. Bock, Hal. David Robinson. Chelsea House: 1997. Brenner, Richard J. Basketball: a Slammin' Jammin' Guide to Super Hoops!: Little, Brown: 1990. Green, Carl R. David Robinson. Crestwood House: 1994. Gutman, Bill. The Kids' World Almanac of Basketball. World Almanac Books: 1995. Joseph, Paul. San Antonio Spurs. Abdo & Daughters: 1997. Layden, Joseph. NBA Game Day. Scholastic: 1997. Macnow, Glen. David Robinson: Star Center. Enslow: 1994. Miller, Dawn M. David Robinson: Backboard Admiral. Lerner: 1991. Morris, Greggory W. Basketball Basics. Prentice-Hall: 1976. Rambeck, Richard. San Antonio Spurs. Creative Education: 1993. Ownes, Tom.David Robinson: All-Star Center. Powerkids: 1997. Rogers, Glenn. The San Antonio Spurs Basketball Team. Enslow: 1997. Rolfe, John. David Robinson. Little, Brown: 1991.

Adult Non-Fiction Chamb erlain, Wilt and David Shaw. Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door. Macmillan: 1973. Gandolfi, Giorgio. Hoops!: the Official National Basketball Players Association Guide to Playing Basketball. McGraw-Hill 1987. George, Nelson. Elevating the Game: Black Men and Basketball. HarperCollins: 1992. Pluto, Terry. Loose Balls: the Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association. Simon and Schuster: 1990. Sachare, Alex, ed. The Official NBA Basketball Encyclopedia. Villard: 1994. Savage, Jim. The Force: David Robinson, the NBA's Newest Sky-High Sensation. Dell: 1992. Vancil, mark, ed. The NBA at Fifty. Park Lane Press: 1996.

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