MungBeing: The Outsider Art and Stuckism Issue

MungBeing: The Outsider Art and Stuckism Issue the second issue of the only 'hot potato' magazine on the internet http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html Copyright © 2005-2006, Pencil Tenet, Inc. in association with Eschaton Media. Wed, 1 Jun 2005 03:21:33 -0700 Wed, 06 Dec 2006 02:38:23 -0800 Forward http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=78 Forward -- Stuck Outside There's this great scene in Martin Scorsese's film Goodfellas. (I'm going from memory here, so I may not be one hundred percent accurate in my recollection, but I think my years of imitating Joe Pesci will get us close enough.) Our triumvirate of mob protagonists, played by Pesci, Robert DeNiro and Ray Liotta, arrive at Pesci's mother's house in the middle of the night, fresh after killing a hated Mafioso rival. They start looking around for a sharp butcher knife so they can cut him up into little pieces before burying him. Ma is awakened so she makes them a big Italian feast. At some point Ma pulls out a painting she did to show her criminal houseguests. It's a simple figurative piece, I seem to remember it's of a duck hunter in a boat with two dogs. These guys aren't art critics, or hell, they probably aren't even art lovers, but they know what they like. (Joe Pesci voice, paraphrased): "See, I like this picture. One dog pointing one way, the other dog pointing the other way." While admiring it the boys realize the figure in the painting bears an uncanny resemblance to the guy they just whacked. The art is resonant and they have an emotional reaction: they laugh their asses off.

The painter is an elderly Italian suburban gramma who presumably paints for the sheer joy of it. Hanging in a gallery she might be dubbed an Outsider. The composition of the painting is a simple and direct slice of human life, painted as she sees it. Hanging in a gallery she might be dubbed a Stuckist.

2.
Outside. I feel like I've been on the Outside my entire life. I know it, I feel it to the core of my soul. The world is a club that denies my membership, society is a party to which I'm never invited. Always locked out, no matter how close I get.

Somebody suggested once that I was an Outsider Artist. No, I replied, I know what Outsider Art is, and because I know what it is I can't be an Outsider Artist, even though I'm so obviously what I call an "Outsider Human Being." Yeah, you can run down the Outsider checklist and find that I had no formal training in most media I've used, that I'm mentally ill, that I was born and grew up in rural trailer parks, that the work I produce is "offbeat" and not understood by those in the "mainstream." I just figure I've been hanging out with hipsters far too long to qualify for the title. I was schooled in their cynicism (and I'm a depressive, sure, but at heart I'm a wide-eyed optimist, and I think that's how I should be). And I'm too damned impressionable: I soak up everything around me like a sponge. Isolationism seems to be a malady suffered by most so-called Outsider Artists (until they're famous, of course.)

I founded the Outsider Music community on Livejournal. I wanted to keep the parameters of discussion narrowly focused. Couldn't do it. As a term Outsider is far too elastic; one person's Outsider is another person's... well, something else. Is it useful to debate the validity of the claim that Joe Meek is an Outsider? Methinks no. Because there really is no right or wrong answer. Outsider Art will never be properly canonized because when it comes down to it "you know it when you see it." But not everyone sees it.

3.
Stuck. I've been stuck a lot in my life. We all have. In many ways I have overly strong experiential neophiliac tendencies, I'm always seeking out the novel. When I'm stuck it can be as frustrating as the seven layers of heck. I found myself stuck a lot during a recent four year depression. Stuck in bed. Stuck in deep dark wells of cosmological pondering. Stuck eating food out of cans. Stuck stuck stuck.

When I was seventeen I got my parents' station wagon stuck in the mud outside a bingo hall on an Indian reservation. I spun my wheels for a long time. A shaman with a winch pulled me out of the muck. He smiled. "Being stuck isn't so bad," he assured me. It wasn't so bad. Fifteen years later I still have a story to tell of that experience. My Dad likes telling this tale about how we went fishing way up in the hills and got stuck in the mud on a logging road. While he tried to get us out I apparently stuck my fishing line out the window and tried to catch imaginary fish from the brown creek waters running all around us.

When you're stuck and your wheels are spinning it doesn't change the fact that you can see the world around you. It just gives you a different perspective because you stay anchored in one spot. Your engine is actually running hotter, you're using more energy.

4.
I like conjuring up crackpot paranoid conspiracy theories. I have one about Outsiders. It goes kinda like this:

See, there are only three types of people in this world: Insiders, Outsiders and Everybody Else. The Insiders are the power-mongers of human culture, they are the big bankers and billionaires and their political allies. They've structured the world for their benefit, the rest of us are just pawns in their big game. Evil Insider cabals conspire in secret mystical lodges. They play God because they try to know all and see all. They keep UFOs under lock and key, they put fluoride in our drinking water, they have secret Nazi zombie armies waiting in the wings to slaughter us all on Judgement Day. Or something like that.

The Outsiders are the little guys on the margins. What makes them special is that, by birth or circumstance, they become the visionary inverse of the Insider. Many have access to the same kind of hidden knowledge that the Insiders do, but they don't have the resources or organization to bring their visions to High Power. You can observe the Outsider in his myriad forms: the mentally ill, the crazy street philosopher, the bomb-throwing anarchist, the mad scientist, the weird artist nobody pays attention to, the shaman, the escaped slave, the heretic burned at the stake. The Outsider plays an important function in society as the counterweight to the Insider. Oftentimes the visions of the Outsider wield great influence on culture, sometimes going so far as to spark social or political revolutions. Maybe Timothy Leary was an Outsider. John Brown was definitely an Outsider. No question the guy down on your corner with the The End Is Near signboard is an Outsider. More often than not the Outsider languishes in obscurity.

Everybody Else is everybody else, probably ninety plus percent of the world's population. They may be used by Insiders or influenced by Outsiders, but they'll never become one or the other because we are born into these roles. The Insider wannabe might chase the American Dream, the Outsider wannabe may "drop out" (until such a lifestyle is no longer acceptable). Sometimes Everybody Else will get inflamed by Outsiders and take to the streets like the students and workers did in Paris 68, but most often they just live life as the Insiders want them to, doing their jobs and buying their toys. In the rich countries, most Everybody Else is content with their lot, they're not hungry enough to follow one pole or the other.

I'm not sure I believe any of this but I do know the vision of the True Outsider is often so powerful and resonant that it can transform many lives.

5.
For the longest time I had a real problem with the word artist. Not that I didn't like the word, in fact I loved it and used it often and quite liberally. Any work that moves me I consider art, and anyone creating such a work I have no problem calling an artist.

A lot of people have trouble using that word. Scratch that; I mean, a lot of artists I know have trouble using that word. I've spent years around artists who would never call themselves artists. Other creative types embrace it. I had a fear of using the word artist to describe myself despite all the things I was doing. Mostly it was a self-confidence problem. I create art, I should be able to call myself an artist without shame. Eight years ago I started introducing myself as a filmmaker when people asked what I did. I admit, it felt weird, but it ended up being an important kind of self-hypnosis for me. If I say it enough I have to live it or I'm living a lie to myself and others.

Does it feel odd for people in other professions to state what they are? When I was an organic gardener I was pretty proud of that fact. Wait... I'm not a big fan of the verb "to be." It's much more comfortable to say "I work as an artist" instead of "I am an artist."

6.
There are some artists out there who cling to Modernist aesthetics. Comic artists Robert Crumb and Seth pop into my mind. Their work stands out partially due to the fact they romanticize the twenties and thirties, the last days of High Modernism. They cop the style, the look, the attitudes; they admire the art, they adopt Modernist thinking. But this isn't some kind of laboured neo-traditionalism. Their works are filled with id and love and sincerity. For some reason, art imbued with these traits really stands out in the Postmodern Age. It shouldn't. All art should be like that. The Stuckists exist to remind us of that.

Stuckists sometimes call themselves Remodernists. It doesn't mean they're a bunch of cookie-cutter Edvard Munchs. Sure, many of them paint in the same style, use similar techniques, as figurative painters from that era. What the best of them are able to capture is the spirit of Modernism. Both Charles Thomson and Billy Childish use the word authenticity to describe their method. They seek truth in expression. Our cover artist Kim Richardson calls herself an intuitive artist. I know this to be a truism because when I behold her paintings I can feel her inside them.

7.
Some years ago I picked up this "unauthorized biography," a drugstore paperback about the Rolling Stones. I don't remember too much about it, but my mind makes this leap always. There was some little passage about their earlier days, how they all lived in a hovel with rats scuttling across the floor. Of course, within a few months of that they were rich and famous. It strikes me that art is the only profession that breeds this wild type of socio-economic swing. The artist toils in obscurity until "discovered." The apex of discovery is fame and fortune through the mass marketing of the product of the artist. Reproductions of Pablo Picasso's Guernica can be found in every library, every art print shop, every poster store. We still call it art, but it's no longer about the horrors of human cruelty and suffering, it's just a funky greeting card.

Art is a tough racket. Nobody wins. The principled artist might starve, the compromising artist may become corrupted, derailed, the quest for inner truths abandoned. It's easy to stick to some kind of principles when you're living in a basement eating Spaghetti-O's, when everybody is ignoring you. It's quite another thing to stay "pure" when the whole world wants a piece of you. O, how my heart weeps for celebrity artists!

Artists are sensitive; they have to be in order to create, in order to turn themselves inside out, in order to digest the world and produce meaningful reflections of all that surrounds us. Some people might think Outsider Art and Stuckism an odd thematic pairing, as on the surface they seem to have little in common. When I breathe in a Kim Richardson or a Billy Childish or a Daniel Johnston or a Naomi Hall I can really feel their common essence: they're all unpretentious, completely genuine, living their truths through art in love and pain. If you can succeed in connecting with someone on that level through the work you're doing, in my books you are the embodiment of art, you are an artist.
]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=78&subID=75rss_feed@mungbeing.com (jody franklin) -- Pithy Fluff
Like the Gus Fink conversation that I was lucky enough to overhear (I present it to you here.) I mean, how serendipitous was that? We were preparing for an issue on Outsiderism and I was fortunate enough to get THIS? I love shit like that.

There's an odd story in there about David Lynch and an autographed poster that Cash Nexus can tell you sometime. And, of course, Comfort Stand Records (Otis rocks!) mentions a touch of star-alignmenting as well. All is as it should be, I guess, out here in the field.

Outsider this-and-that has been a hot topic around these parts for a bit now. The rise in popularity of Pop Surrealism and the higher profile of lowbrow art has caused the undercurrent to come a-bubblin' up, frothy and clean. Hopefully this "Flare Gun of Explosive Creativity" signals a renaissance in 21st Century Art that will continue to glow brighter and brighter as the century progresses. I think we're standing on the threshold of something wonderful that might just take over the world and set our art freeeeee!

So what we've got is a GREAT cross section of Outsider Art with some remarkable visual artists, musicians, poets, and essayists from around the globe. Truly a high powered issue. Of course, that doesn't mean everything is peachy keen across the board. The debate over whether an artist can create "Outsider Art" intentionally is addressed in "Observational Analysis and Artistic Intent". Hopefully that will open up some lively discussion on the discussion board. We can only hope!

One of the funny things about putting together this particular issue was a discussion that jody and I had regarding creating a theme around Outsider Art and Stuckism. We talked about the fact that most of the artists in MungBeing are Outsiders anyway (whether they know it or not) and the others are Stuckists so doing an issue about them would be rather solipsistic, wouldn't it? In the end we decided that presenting the work in a larger context, the work of the Outsider Artists and the work of the Stuckists, would form a nice contextual base from which to build. And I think you'll agree.

We've got twice the material this issue. That says something. Specifically it says that we have TWO TIMES what was published last time. That's an increase of, like, .200% or something. Maybe it's like we talked about, what with half the folks being outsiders and the other 50% being Stuckists. I don't know. All I know is that we're pulling from a WELL STOCKED BeingPool here! I am proud and honored to be able to present this material.

And it's just going to get better.

If you have any questions that remain unanswered at the end of your experience here with MungBeing Magazine, please feel free to drop us a line and we'll do our darnedest to find you some answers.
]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=202&subID=74rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Mark Givens) -- Site Assistance

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You can buy the NEW merschwag over at CafePress. I just bought a MungBaby Onesie and I tell ya...

]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=202&subID=141rss_feed@mungbeing.com (The Editors) Woman with Snakes and Cockroaches http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=137rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Liz Parkinson) Son of Man http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=77rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Gus Fink) Observational Analysis and Artistic Intent
The term "observer" for the purposes of this article includes anyone who views an artwork -- art critics, casual viewers, and other artists.

The Classification of Art

The classification of art is an evolving process. As time passes and important events unfold, society looks back at what has happened and finds connections to contemporaneous movements. These connections coalesce and form patterns that, when examined and retraced, "make sense" and weave a linear progression called Art History.

Modern Art, for example, continues to incorporate developments that are deemed important only in retrospect as the passage of time reveals similarities and commonalities in the pieces and as the artistic influences exerted on future generations are noticed. Mid-Century Modern is currently the encompassing general term applied to art and architecture from the mid-20th century, incorporating and redefining aspects of art variously described as "Googie" and "Populuxe". Similarly, Op, elements of Pop, Minimalism, Color Field, and certain aspects of Postmodernism can loosely be classified retrospectively by their stylistic similarities, and in larger categories when the influences are noted in the artwork that followed and when the different art movements are revisited later.

The specific categories of art classification are not the focus of this paper but we will establish a basic framework for clarity. Beginning with the most general categories and moving toward the more narrowly defined, art may be categorized thusly:
1. Art defined by time-period (19th Century, Medieval) or relative time-period (pre-Raphaelite, post-Punk, old school)
2. Art classified by material (fabric, wood, music, etc) or method (painting, sculpture, spoken word, etc)
3. Art grouped by ideology (Futurism, Stuckism, Internationalism)
4. Art grouped by style (Abstract, Impressionism, New Wave)

It is the last category, art grouped by style, that is the most malleable, though all categories are susceptible to flexibility and redefinition. Pre-Raphaelite, for example, requires first that Raphael be recognized as an important turning point in art history. Only then, and only in retrospect, can the relative time-period "Pre-Raphael" be established. The terms used to describe the different styles or stylistic categories are likely to change as events unfold in history and through reexamination with the search for more precise or more descriptive terms.

Once a term has been used to describe a specific category of art, the original meaning is abandoned and the term is redefined to describe a specific type of art. For example, when "Alternative Music" became a category at the Grammy Awards, the meaning of "alternative", in this case an "alternative to mainstream music", became redefined as a particular type of music, i.e. not "an alternative" but rather "Alternative", a subgenre of mainstream music itself. It is interesting to note that this process occurs in all forms of art, with the undercurrents rising to the surface to become the new mainstream. Through this process of evolution, the different styles, the disparate schools of thought, the individual movements, are either abandoned or assimilated into the larger category.

It seems quite natural now to associate Cubism with Futurism, or Constructivism with Dada, but when these movements were conceived they were very different. Futurism was, in fact, partly a reaction to Cubism's perceived "static qualities". And several Futurists "defected" to the Dada camp (Marcel Duchamp being the most obvious) so the connections that we make today have only been applied well after the fact and predominately due to stylistic similarities and general time-frame, not ideologies. These specific categories, the labels that are attached to movements within Art History, particularly the terms used to describe artistic styles, are determined by the society that observes the art.

Artistic Intent

The greatest amount of confusion is introduced into the process of defining, analyzing and categorizing art when the observer makes assumptions about the artist's intent. Only the artist can ever know what the intent of the artwork, or the intent of the process of the creation of the artwork, truly is.

Artists create artwork for a variety of reasons. The intent, the motivation to create art, and the purpose of the art to the artist are all very personal things that may or may not be revealed by the artist. As such, these personal creative factors do not affect the evaluation of the art or the movement that society associates with the artwork, but rather provide an insight into WHY the art is created. Again, only the artist can ever know for sure what the intent is. Often the artists themselves are unsure what the intent is or what might be the motivation. Society therefore cannot rely on the artist or any implied artistic intent to determine how the artwork will be classified.

An artist may issue an "Artist's Statement" but this should be considered as much a part of the presentation as the canvas upon which the artwork is stretched. While it may appear to be a statement of intent, and in many cases actually strives to serve that purpose, the Artist's Statement is a written piece that allows the artist another avenue for expression, like the title of the piece, and nothing else. Occasionally these statements try to establish connections between art movements, to schools of thought, or provide insights into the "motivation" of the artist during the creation of the art.

And therein lies the central paradox: As soon as an artist tries to explain the artwork by issuing a written statement, the observer's experience with the artwork is altered. The addition of the extraneous material changes the presentation of the artwork in the same way that framing the piece, or giving the piece a title, or adding a price tag would change the presentation. Additionally the Artist's Statement, being another avenue for artists to express themselves, may not be telling the truth or may be intentionally misleading the observer. For these reasons, the information contained within an Artist's Statement should be considered part of the presentation and not necessarily an insight into the artist's intent. Other outside influences that affect the observer's interaction with the artwork will be examined later.

An Artist's Statement is not the same as a self-defined artistic movement. An art movement can be created and named, given a set of directives, a manifesto, and other stylistic or ideological guidelines intentionally and deliberately. The Futurist Manifesto, for example, written by Filippo Marinetti in 1909, spelled out the ideological directives of the Futurists and made it clear what the Futurists stood for. It was then up to the individual artists to interpret and apply the directives to their own execution of the art that would make up Futurism. The same is true for the artists who make up the Stuckists. The success or failure of an ideologically created movement or school depends a great deal on the specificity of the ideology and the ability of the artists to adhere to and express those ideas, particularly stylistically. In the end, if the movement has made sufficient progress in expressing and demonstrating its directives and has succeeded in developing an observably distinct style, the name of the movement has a good chance of working its way into the lexicon of historical categories and descriptors, as was the case of Futurists, or will be superseded by a more general term, as happened to Productivism and Suprematism by Constructivism or to Neo-Plasticism by De Stijl.

A self-defined art movement is more than simply an artist's statement. It is an ideological guideline for artists to utilize during the creation of artwork, a shared directive to tie pieces together.

Most categories and classifications are determined by the society that observes the art. These terms are commonly derived from pre-existing terms or from dominant categories popularly accepted. To explore further a previous example, before the term was defined as such, "alternative" music could be described using a variety of terms - "college rock", "indie rock" etc - each subcategory possessing slightly different stylistic and/or ideological qualities. But once the category "Alternative Music" was established, artists were able to intentionally create "Alternative" music, bypassing the subgenres and utilizing the conventions of the larger popularly-accepted term. Artists were still able to produce music in one of the numerous subgenres but society, at that point, would categorize the music as such - a subcategory of "Alternative" music.
Similarly, the terms "expressionism" and "impressionism" originally described an artistic "expression of" or an "impression of" something. Only later did the terms take on their modern general classification meanings. And after the stylistic similarities were noted and grouped into the larger categories "Expressionism" and "Impressionism", artists were able to create art that fell into the newly accepted categories without necessarily being an "expression of" anything in particular.
Finally, the term "Outsider Art" has undergone a similar metamorphosis, progressing from art that was previously described as "outsider", "fringe", "marginal", and occasionally "folk art" into a larger heterogeneous category. An argument can also be made that the current classification of "Outsider Art" is simply the natural progression of a previous movement called "Raw Art" or "Art Brut". It is apparent in any case that an artist can intentionally create "Outsider Art" because the classification "Outsider" has been defined by society to signify a particular category of art. What is NOT possible to determine, because it requires knowledge of artistic intent and, perhaps, knowledge of the artist, is whether the art is "naive" or "intuitive" or "untrained" or "troubled" etc.

As with every paradigm shift, the purists will insist that the terms are being misappropriated and misapplied. While that discussion is the topic for another paper, and while there may be a model that accommodates extraneous factors in the classification of art, the analysis of artwork based on implied or assumed factors is, in the end, more than simply the analysis of the artwork and is therefore problematic.

To illustrate this last point further, the fiber sculptures of Judith Scott present a unique problem to the process of categorization and criticism. Judith Scott was a profoundly deaf woman with Down's syndrome who was unable to speak (she died earlier this year). Judith Scott also created fiber art sculptures. Her works consist primarily of "found" objects wrapped in bits of fiber (yarn, twine, paper..). These pieces have received critical acclaim and are on display in a number of different galleries. The literature accompanying her work describe it variously as "intuitive" and "mysterious" and talk about the interesting, tragic, and ultimately uplifting story of Judith Scott's life.

It is at that point where these observations cross from analysis of the artwork to analysis of the artist and a perceived intent. Because Judith Scott was unable to speak or express her motivations or intentions, her work has been interpreted by observers and, as such, has had different meanings and intentions imposed on her art. The analysis of the artist gets wrapped up with the analysis of the art, like one of Scott's own pieces. This situation is different than, say, interpreting the intent of a sculpture produced by mechanical means in that "she MUST be making the fiber sculptures for a REASON". And, as she is unable to provide an answer, one is supplied for her.

The interesting thing is that the artwork is not altered by the mental or emotional state of the artist; the artwork will be observed and categorized regardless of the intriguing story attached to it. If the additional information, the backstory, is a required piece of the work then it is not the sculpture that is being analyzed but rather the combination of the art and the artist and "Judith Scott" passes from the realm of "fiber artist" to something different and her "sculptures" become merely a component of "Judith Scott". In the end, it is not the work itself that is being observed and analyzed, it is something else. When the sculptures alone are analyzed and categorized later, if they are to be placed in historical context as fiber art sculptures, the artwork will be evaluated on its own merits.

Observational Analysis

The processes used by an individual member of society to evaluate art are also based solely on the observation of the artwork itself. An individual uses Observational Analysis to evaluate and categorize artwork. However, as mentioned previously, several outside factors (the Artist's Statement notwithstanding) may influence how an observer experiences the artwork and makes decisions. These factors include the location and presentation of the artwork, a perceived (stated or implied) monetary value attached to the artwork, and comments and criticisms from other observers about the artwork.

An important element that will not be discussed here is the effect of cultural events and societal influences at the time of the creation of the artwork and the observer's subsequent awareness of these influences. These factors, while instrumental to the motivation of the artist and influential to the eventual evaluation by an observer, are outside the scope of this paper. We will assume that these factors do have an influence and should be considered important to formulating an artist's intention and to the pressures exerted on the evaluation process of the observer. For the purposes of this article we will only be discussing the observable factors that influence an observer's interaction with a piece of art.

The first of these observable influences is the location of the artwork. A piece hanging in a gallery is given more credence than a piece hanging in a garage, for example. In part this attitude is derived from the assumption that the piece must have value and must deserve to be hung in a gallery. Secondly, if there is a price tag attached to the piece, there is an established baseline by which to measure the "worth" of a piece of art. The particular monetary value has been attached for a reason, the observer assumes, and therefore the work must have "value". And finally, other observer's comments, in a gallery setting or in a written critique, will affect how the artwork is experienced by an individual who observers the artwork.

Consider this scenario: large abstract paintings are beautifully framed, hung in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and listed with very high prices. What initial conditions exist and what analytical criteria are utilized by an observer of this artwork in this case? What does it mean that the paintings are hung in this gallery? What assumptions are made by an observer because the paintings are framed? Are priced high?
The patrons of the museum seem interested in these works and discuss the "power of the line", the "use of color", and the "interesting composition". What conclusions can be drawn if the artwork is attributed to a well-known German Expressionist? What if a chimp or a child, in fact, created the artwork? How is this case altered if the art was created by a robot? Is the experience changed if the art is labeled as such? Do the outside influences alter the perceived value of the artwork? Do they change the artwork?

In another case, several small needlework pieces are discovered at a flea market. They appear to be examples of early "Folk Art" and are priced reasonably. What initial assumptions are made by the observer in this case? Is there an implied time-period for this type of Folk Art? Is there an implied value? Upon further inquiry, it is revealed that the pieces were created by the shopkeeper and were modeled after pieces she had seen in an antique store. How does this new information affect the observer's interaction with these pieces? Does the artwork change upon this revelation? Are the pieces imitations of Folk Art or examples of Folk Art? Was there any deception on the shopkeeper's part? What changes if it is revealed that the shopkeeper is a trained artist?

In the end, it is the artwork itself and not the extraneous material or implied artistic intent that will be categorized by society. Observational Analysis provides an observer with the tools necessary to evaluate and classify artwork in a rational and constructive manner.
]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=91rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Mark Givens) The Outsider linkbut no seriously when I run I get deep down into it, mind-wise, I sink all the way down, bottom floor, monthly parking only, all the shit that goes on, watermain, janitor's quarters . . . I can't afford a shrink, you know? So my runs are my psycho-analytic sessions, just me and my legs, chugging along, running and thinking, musing and jogging, brilliant ideas, petty feuds, anxiety, guilt, the occasional pause to assist a lost driver. I'm good at that, people nail me from a mile away, it has to be "if he walks that weird he must know where he's going," hell it worked at Sharkey Park, it's gonna work in town, and it's true, I'm almost 100% accurate -- I love doing it, I love to point people in the right direction, hell one time I even stopped to help push a car that had stalled out in the middle of a four-way, the guy declined help at first, he was embarrassed but maybe he didn't think his car was going to spuzz out in the intersection at the exact time the WEIRD GUY in the running shorts, the guy you've driven by a million times and gone "what the fuck is up with that?", that guy is the one there to help, perfect timing, you say you have a tow truck coming but secretly you're glad it happened, one quick push and you're out of harms way and I'm glad too, I love to be of assistance, ask me anything, I'll give it my best shot, the whole fucking Pat Benatar bit! It's the least I can do because I feel so guilty for the rest of it, my whole miserable half-baked life, that sometimes I can barely put one foot in front of the other, feel bad, feel sick, keep going, push, push, feel guilty, feel paranoid, quick flash, what was that? Huh? Idea. Laugh sort of idea. What? Yes! Idea! Idea! Good idea! Great idea! No! It's crap! No it's good! What? Huh? Wait a minute! Shit! Car! STOP! FUCKER! FUCKING CARS! FUCKING CELL PHONES! FUCKING EVERYONE WHO'S DICKED ME! In this . . . hey, I know that dude! Whoa! Fuck . . . yeah, we're going to be awesome, when I win the Oscar I'm going to be up there, I'm going to cry, no I'm not going to cry, I'm going to host the Oscars, they need me! The Oscars suck, I should host the Oscars, I should, push, push, push, one leg in front of the other, almost done, what's this? KIDS! KIDS! Kids everywhere! I'm done now, I'm finished, suddenly in mid-rant I'm walking, I'm winding down, I'm thirsty, and there are KIDS all over the place, all over the park, always with the kids, who are not psycho-analyzing, who are not running away from problems, who are not using a simple physical activity to make up for the black hole in their life, a crutch to absolve the guilt of being unable to anything except RUN, because as long as you are running, as long as your mind stays sharp and focused you can achieve anything, but it will all end, you cannot "run away" from the fact that it all has to come to an end, a stopping point, one that preferably has grass and trees and benches and water fountains and a peaceful euphoric atmosphere, a place to relax, to savor, to bask, to urinate, to look perhaps from certain angles not as a "freak" who hangs for too long outside the restrooms, nearest the little ones roaming free, rolling around in the dirt, throwing balls, chasing tails, up and down the monkey bars, yelling, screaming, moms and dads in strollers, the American life, the American way, shelter the kids from evil, shut their eyes to controversy, cover their ears from blasphemy, arrange for marketers to dissect their eager lipsticked brains, Spahn and Sain and pray for rain . . . "Just don't go near the man in the multicolored shorts! He's an artist! Stay away! I tell you, STAY AWAY!"

And I wish they would. The parks are wasted on the kids. Leave them to us, the outsiders, the ones not of this society. We need them to sort through our neuroses, to help build, erect, forge and consummate our broken pathetic dreams, to send our images into the cultural cosmos so that sometime, somewhere, at the dinner table, at the mall, on the boob tube, in a magazine, on a billboard, on a vacation, while putting on the condom, while reaching for the double-ply, that image will trickle into their heads and strike them dumb, imbue them with a feeling so radical and ticklish that they can no longer think or write or feel or eat, and they won't know where it came from or where they can get a download, but it will stay with them, through romance, through passion, through bowel movements, through bankruptcy, through media lobotomy. An image. A simple image. The power of that image to bend, to fold, to mutilate, to be placed in a frame, to be tossed in the trash. Where? Where does it come from?

Sometimes it's the guy in the multi-colored shorts. So just stay the hell out my way, okay?]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=96rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Kevin Ausmus) Paleolithique Moderne -- Mapping The Elephant Man http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=83&subID=98rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Ian Pyper) -- Flag Waver http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=152&subID=89rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Ian Pyper) -- The Call http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=152&subID=99rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Ian Pyper) -- Green Head http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=157&subID=115rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Ian Pyper) Experimental Cinema my roommate and his friend
talk about
experimental cinema,
how it's ruining
the world.

I sit on the toilet
thinking that I am
experimental cinema,
all pretentious camera angles
and post-modern
dialogue.
]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=65rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Jeb Ebben) There's Something About Naomi Hall got to listen to this right now!" We sat and listened to Naomi's masterpiece "There's Something About Ishka" five times in a row. I can't remember the last time I'd done that upon hearing a new song. It was fresh and charming in an odd sort of way. The lyrics were very direct; a simple ode to a puppy.

I'm a melody man, I like Paul McCartney. But I always had a problem with Badfinger, his poppy spawn. See, I'd get sucked into a Badfinger song, these cats wrote good hooks. But they so often defeated their own melodic sensibilities by crapping out on the chorus, their melodies never seemed to have organic conclusions. They'd bring you up only to let you down. It's why I can only listen to a song like "Day After Day" when I'm in a masochistic mood.
Naomi brought me higher and higher in her song about Ishka Bibbles. When the chorus reaches its fever pitch my tummy starts to twinge in that same way it does when I listen to Badfinger. For a millisecond I'm stranded in the air off the precipice, Wile E. Coyote looking deep into the gorge below. Instead of plummeting I just float across the air. I feel funny about it, this isn't supposed to be happening, but, wow, here I am. That's a Naomi Hall song for me. They're dangerous in that I never know what to expect. They're glorious in that they pleasantly surprise me every time. I always fear I'll crash and burn but never do.
So it took about three minutes for her to hook me as a fan. Since then, I've been fortunate enough to strike up an online friendship with her. Just like her songs, she seems shy and private, deceptively so. She always disarms me, however, with her directness, her worldview, the stories of her life. For some reason it always shocks me when she says words like tits or talks about blow jobs in her songs. Is she supposed to? I can only liken it to my class clown theory. I got a lot of laughs in class when I was a kid. I don't know if it was because what I was saying was funny or I was the right person in the right place at the right time. The dark, quiet little kid sitting at the back of the class, keeping to himself a lot of the time, nose always in the books, how does he come up with this stuff that tickles the funny bone of every pupil and makes the teacher go all red?

See, I think we just want to think of Naomi as the nice girl next door. She is, of course, but she's oh so much more, as well.

jody
Who are you?

Naomi
I am Naomi Hall, someone who enjoys composing music (and yes, that is what I call it) for a living.

jody
No, really, who are you?

Naomi
I am an alien from the same planet as John Tesh, just a different era and sector.

jody
What music projects are you currently working on?

Naomi
I'm currently working on a song that's a bit different from my other songs in that it's a bit more punk and actually has some rock guitar in it, something I haven't done before. I am also in the works of performing live and opening for bands such as Dave Matthews. However, I am leaning more toward playing for local clubs and bars in the meantime.

jody
Have you played many live shows?

Naomi
Besides having sung country in public venues many times when I was 8, 9, and 10 years old... only 2 this past year -- and if I may add, the performances went over extremely well.

jody
Do you always perform as a "one-woman band?"

Naomi
Actually, I've had the fortunate chance of playing my music for an attorney I work with and he ended up knowing a band that needed music and a lead singer... so, it is by chance that I am now a "one woman plus four males band."

jody
Is this group performing your songs? Are you staying electro-ish, or is this straight-up rock?

Naomi
Yes. We do a few mainstream covers as well -- just to, you know, hold over the audience. For performance purposes, it's become a bit more straight-up rock.

jody
Mainstream. Nice segue into the next few questions. You have been labelled an "outsider musician." Who first called you this, when did you first learn of the term?

Naomi
I think Irwin Chusid or Jeff Grimshaw first called me an outsider musician. I really believe it was Irwin Chusid, however, and it was the first time I had ever heard the term.

jody
Can you elaborate a bit? When did the public discover your "outsiderness?" On the radio?

link

Naomi
Well, I was "revealed" to the public majorly through the Incorrect Music Hour on WFMU. Irwin Chusid wasn't the one who found me, however. It was actually Jeff Grimshaw, a writer for the New York Quarterly who submitted my music (which was currently being hosted by MP3.com) to Irwin Chusid. Somehow, this led to my music getting played on other radio stations across the US and then in Brazil and Australia. Before MP3.com sold out, it was actually great exposure. Also, I had been writing parodies and when someone found out I wrote my own music, they were thrilled and ended up playing that on a radio station in Wyoming.

I think the one recording that really pushes me outside any mainstream category is "Something About Ishka," which was played on the radio by Irwin Chusid on the Incorrect Music Hour back in January 2001. Afterward, I received many "fan letters" saying that my "outside sound" was great.

jody
Why did you record "In Canada?" Was this someone's idea of having one outsider cover the work of another?

Naomi
I was asked to cover BJ Snowden's "In Canada" and evidently, my interpretation of the song was a bit....different. The cover also ended up on the radio and the public pretty much picked up the fact I was an outsider and from the letters I received, they either loved my "outsiderness" or hated it, calling it ridiculous to even be categorized at all.
This was actually a request made by Irwin Chusid. I believe it was his idea of having one outsider cover the work of another. And to be honest, "In Canada" sounds the way it does now all because my boyfriend told me, "Yes, it's someone else's song -- it's your interpretation. It isn't just you karaokeing the original." Great advice, I'd say. I am so glad that I was able to cover that song. BJ Snowden is marvelous.

jody
What is an outsider?

Naomi
From what I understand, an outsider is someone who composes a song and think it's good enough for almost everyone to love, but actually, the song is too obscure and only a handful of people can truly understand and appreciate the work and thought that went into the music -- and the composer just doesn't understand why or doesn't care. Basically, I suppose that an outsider is a musician who doesn't let the categorization of their music influence their sound or creativity.

jody
How do you feel about being called an outsider?

Naomi
At first, I was offended and didn't understand how my music could be played alongside some of the other songs. Given, I was only 16 or so and hadn't heard anything besides country, rock, and pop. Then I listened to Leonard Nimoy's "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" and William Shatner's "Tambourine Man." ...Then I finally understood. And I smiled. Now I happily accept.

jody
It seems great artists, if they're not obsessive, are always open to new ideas, and tend to embrace diversity quite easily. Have you learned anything new in music since you accepted this outsider status?

Naomi
I've learned that an artist can be hurt by attempting to limit one's self to what others want or expect to hear. It's really important to just stay with what you're doing, stay with whatever inspires you. Otherwise, you won't be able to write music for very long. After a while, I finally learned the difference between marketable and not marketable.

jody
What's the difference?

Naomi
I'll do my best here: marketable is a pre-constructed package put together, a mix of everything that has sold millions before. Non-marketable is something that's definitely real -- with talent -- but is a risk to record companies and distributors since it's so different and new than everything before it. Not many will invest in something that hasn't been done before.

jody
Okay, let's talk about your actual music now. What does it sound like, and why does it sound that way?

Naomi
A lady e-mailed me once and said, "Stop making music. You're causing the whales to beach."

To me and some others, my music sounds quirky yet catchy. To the rest, it's obnoxious and painful. I think it sounds the way it does because one of the things that really motivated me into making music was because I had so many great ideas in my head of what music should be like. To me, music should sound the way my songs do. I think my music just generates different reactions because, at least to me, it's obvious that I really enjoy composing it and some are just perplexed by that fact.

The next day, the same lady e-mailed me again and said, "I'm sorry. Actually, I listened to your music again and I felt guilty all day -- your songs wouldn't leave my head. I'm sorry about what I said. You're good but different."

jody
I had a similar reaction when I first heard your friend Sky. It took a few listens to get into it, I wasn't hearing beyond the surface.

Naomi
Yes, Sky definitely has talent for lyrics and music composition. He has yet to find the perfect microphone.

jody
How do you compose your songs?

Naomi
In my bedroom on the computer with a $30 mic from Best Buy and a few audio applications such as Cool Edit, Sonic Foundry Acid and Fruityloops. Often, I incorporate keyboard and bass. Sometimes, I don't. That's about it.

jody
Err... where do your songs come from? What are they about?

Naomi
A lot of my music comes from my life experience. Mrs. Ishka Bibbles was my boyfriend's family dog. Ishka was the rudest Pomeranian ever. "Open My Eyes" was written while I was dating this guy who made the most insane, humorous analogies and it inspired me to write the song. A lot of my music comes from specific instances in my life that have struck me in some incredible way -- let it be in eternal love, utter hatred, or undying annoyance.

jody
You've produced and engineered your own albums and songs in your bedroom since you were sixteen, yes? I don't imagine this is common among teenage girls.

Naomi
Probably not. Then again, between the ages of 10 to 15, I ended up writing 27 hundred paged plus novels, making music videos to Sheryl Crow songs and filming my own versions of Star Trek movies because I... well... was a normal uncommon girl, just being as creative as possible.

jody
Has your scholastic life slowed down your artistic productivity?

Naomi
Definitely. It hinders me from doing more public performances and recording my music -- but never slows down my creativeness. Once I graduate this December, expect to see and hear a lot more from me.

jody
You currently produce and distribute your own CDs. Have you been in contact with any record labels?

Naomi
Actually, by the end of this month, about 20 demo packages will be sent to A and Rs around the United States and parts of Europe. This is finally happening thanks to the attorney I played my CD for, an attorney who has agreed to be my music contact and representative for free. I am very grateful to have found him.

jody
Have you enjoyed thus far being the one solely responsible for creating, producing, marketing and distributing your music?

Naomi
Absolutely. It's a great feeling.

jody
Who listens to Naomi Hall? Like, what kind of listeners do you attract, do they like certain music, are they weirdoes, etc.?

Naomi
Surprisingly enough, some of the people who have actually e-mailed me and whom I've replied to, 90% of the time, we share the same humor or appreciation for certain things. Like we will both have this strange obsession with cheese or some other random thing like eyebrows. I do believe that listeners of Naomi Hall happen to be those who are on the same wavelength with some similar unique quality of their own. Also, I've noticed that there are more males with their own band or music whatnot than there are females who seem to be inclined to listening to my music. I don't know why that is, but it just is.

jody
Scenario: "Naomi, here's a truckload of cash. We're gonna make you a big star." They stick you with a producer and try to alter your sound to make you more marketable to the masses. "Let's massage those lyrics a little." "Naomi, this session guy is gonna play the keyboards instead of you. He'll get the sound I'm looking for."

Naomi
Well, it really depends on whether or not I like what's being recommended. Sometimes, I'll write a song and before releasing it publicly, I'll accept lyric change recommendations and other sound recommendations. However, some ideas I simply won't implement because it'll be changing the feel or purpose of the song. Basically, in a scenario like this, even if it may be a more marketable sound, if I like the suggestions, sure, I'll take them into consideration -- regardless of the money. If I don't like the suggestions, then I will look elsewhere for a record deal. Besides, I like to think that I am the one who will make me a big star -- not a record company.

jody
Good attitude, it spells s-u-c-c-e-s-s. Ain't nobody gonna bring you down.

Naomi
They can try, but they won't get far.

jody
Okay, sometimes I can't make out the words to parts of your songs. I strain desperately to hear them, because I know there's some good stuff in there.

I'm listening to "In That Moment" right now, your most recent hit, a real sexy little number. Great lyrical turn here, with "your lips and your kiss and your grip on my tits." Is this an indication of things to come? Are you going to be a sex symbol for your generation (whatever the hell that means)?

link

Naomi
Honestly, I feel that I am too cute to ever be considered a sex symbol -- and I've been told so a few times. Really, the lyrics in my last song, well, just happened to rhyme so well... you know? In other words, I won't really tell you what those lyrics indicate but I will tell you what they don't... I hope that doesn't sound too pushy, ha.

jody
I'm thinking more in the trajectory of the music. There are some artists out there whose music is way sexier than that of these mass-marketed "sex symbols."

Naomi
Ah... I see. Perhaps. Depends where life takes me, I suppose, and since I will be turning 21 in December, who knows.

jody
Crazy. I knew that, but I somehow always think of you as older. So... will success spoil Naomi Hall?

Naomi
Yes, it will probably spoil me in that I'll be able to eat at that fancy restaurant a lot more often, but music-wise, I plan to keep my roots.

Postscript
A few months after this interview was conducted, Naomi relocated to Seattle, leaving suburban Florida to gators and memory.

jody
Why did you move to Seattle?

Naomi
Mostly for the music, but also because my fiancee got a job with Microsoft.

jody
What are you hoping in for, in terms of your music career?

Naomi
We just got up here less than three months ago. I'm hoping to put a band together and start playing live. I'm planning to play bass, my fiancee's going to play guitar and we're gonna look for a keyboardist and drummer. That's what we're gonna be on the lookout for for the next couple of months.

I'm a lot more confident with my voice now, I've been taking lessons from a professional. My voice is pretty much geared for concerts now, so I can actually sing for thirty minutes with not too many breaks.

Download: link]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=101rss_feed@mungbeing.com (jody franklin) Stuckism http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=189rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Ella Guru) Stuckism -- Saturday Night at the Windmill, Brixton http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=189&subID=156rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Ella Guru) -- Fan Dance http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=192&subID=157rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Ella Guru) Seven Trees on Seven Hills Looking out to sea.
Give me a coat of sea grass
To keep the rain away.
A young couple walk passed, hand in hand.
How the heart hurts to see such a thing.
Outsider.

Take me to a fun fair
All lights and noise.
Give me a coat of hot food
To keep the hunger away.
I only see thieves, drug users and perverts.
How the heart hurts to see such a thing.
outsider.

Take me to a public bar
In the city square.
Give me a coat of cold beer
To keep the strangers away.
See the people play the stupid mating game.
How the heart hurts to see such a thing.
outsider.

Take me to a place of work
In a large factory.
Give me a coat of indifference
To keep the pain away.
I only see those on the promotional ladder.
How the heart hurts to see such a thing.
outsider.

How did it get to this? Where did I go wrong?
The whole pathetic world.
The endless longing to be normal
One of the billion and not one of the million.
There's no turning back now
All that has gone has gone.
If only, if only, if only.
Seven trees on seven hills separated for life.]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=66rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Rik Albatros) Works -- hey there little buddy ]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=103&subID=152rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Mark DeLong) -- yellow mouth http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=184&subID=150rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Mark DeLong) -- pink mouth http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=187&subID=155rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Mark DeLong) -- white mouth http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=197&subID=167rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Mark DeLong) -- sneaky devil http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=185&subID=151rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Mark DeLong) Recipes -- LGBT Casserole Description
This gay little casserole combines the elegance of fancy green beans (baines du verde) with the simplicity of the BLT. A key factor in its preparation is the use of many of the juices (rendered bacon fat, mushroom water) in the final product. The end result is a light and airy green bean dish with a lot of flavor and a great outlook on life.
You will love the ease with which this dish comes together. It is versatile and almost BEGS for experimentation. Try adding garlic or toasted almonds. Perhaps Balsamic vinegar would spice it up a bit. Maybe use onions instead of leeks, spinach instead of green beans, or portabello mushrooms instead of tomatoes. Of course, you'll have to rename it if you don't use Leeks, Green Beans, Bacon, and Tomatoes (or, for our "vegetarian" friends, Leeks, Green Beans, and Tomatoes) but that really is the beauty of this casserole.

Ingredients

4 tomatoes, wedged (seeds removed if you like that sort of thing)
6-8 mushrooms, quartered
6 slices of bacon
1 leek, sliced
1 lb. green beans
1 teaspoons pepper

3 tablespoons liquid (stock, water, wine...)
2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon butter

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
In a large frying pan, cook the 6 strips of bacon.
While the bacon is cooking, place the tomato wedges in the bottom of a casserole dish. Space them evenly or your guests will be mad.
When the bacon is crisp, remove it from the pan and place it on a paper towel to drain. Remove most of the bacon fat and save it for later.
In the remaining fat (about a tablespoon), cook the leeks and mushrooms.
(There are some really nice dried wild mushrooms on the market nowadays. If you really want to highlight the mushroomness of this casserole, reserve the liquid that you use to rehydrate the dried mushrooms and use it in the sauce for the casserole.)
When the leeks and mushrooms are just soft, add the pound of green beans.
Prepare the cornstarch (or thickening agent of your liking). Cornstarch always mixes into liquids easier if you dissolve it in a little water first. Just put the cornstarch in a small bowl and add a few drops of water, mixing it with a fork. The cornstarch will dissolve pretty quickly and then you won't have to worry about lumps. (This trick works especially well for fast stovetop gravies!).
Move the solid ingredients off to the sides of the pan so that the liquids gather into the middle. Now mix in the additional 3 tablespoons of liquid (water, white wine, mushroom juice, etc) and simmer for a minute. Add the thickening agent and stir.
Fold the solids back into the sauce, coating all ingredients evenly.
Pour this mixture over the evenly-spaced tomato wedges in the casserole dish.
In a small bowl, toss the breadcrumbs with either 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat or 1 tablespoon of butter. You can use olive oil if you want to but it really doesn't present in the final dish so the delicate flavor is lost and your money is wasted. But, I suppose, it might be nice to say "toss it in olive oil".
Sprinkle the breadcrumbs lightly over the top of the casserole and cover it with foil.
Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes to cook the breadcrumbs a bit. If you put it under a broiler, keep an eye on it because the beans can dry up pretty fast.

And that's it! Serves 4 and tastes delicious with some crusty bread and some cheese. But then, what doesn't really?
]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=159&subID=119rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Mark Givens) Recipes -- Enchilada Sauce 2 T flour
2 T chili powder
1/2 t cumin
1/4 t garlic powder
8 oz. tomato sauce
2 cups water

In a small saucepan, add oil. Mix in flour, stir until it dissolves.
Add the spices and mix them in.
Add the tomato sauce and the water.
Mix together.
Simmer for 15 minutes.

Store in a glass jar or use right away. Can be stored for several weeks.]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=159&subID=154rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Dexter Persimmon) Let's Actually Say What Things Really Are
I started buying up every slab of Childish vinyl I could lay my hands upon, and I hunted down samples of all of his projects: Thee Headcoats, Thee Milkshakes, Pop Rivets and more. But the man didn't stop with music. A true living artist, Childish also wrote poetry. "Playing Pool with a Salish Indian Drug Dealer in the Dodson Bar in Downtown Vancouver," from his album of songs and spoken word pieces dedicated to indigenous peoples of the world, was a piece that hit close to home in many ways, as I grew up living amongst First Nations peoples in small Western Canadian towns. It was kind of surprising to me when I learned he wasn't from here, and when I learned he wasn't a Native, because I felt that he really understood the Indian experience. He has a unique way of expressing himself in verbal and written form, as his language is perhaps flavoured partially by his dyslexia. Idea fragments join together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. It was this album that also introduced me to Childish the visual artist. The cover painting "Tasuki Witko" shows a (seemingly) emotionless Amerindian staring right through you with hollow eyes. Chilling.
link
When I first Googled Billy a couple of years ago I discovered this curious thing called Stuckism. It seems he and some of his fellow rebels and malcontents decided to stomp on the high heels of the British Art establishment by taking the piss out of the vastly over-hyped, and at the time super trendy, conceptual Brit Art movement, and by advocating a return to a more "authentic" form of figurative visual art. Billy, painter Charles Thomson and some of their friends and colleagues engaged in a campaign of creative criticism and debate that was only answered with angry dismissal by the Art Establishment. The best art is personal, and the Stuckist uprising was partially fuelled by a creative divergence between Childish and his ex-girlfriend, the famous conceptual artist Tracey Emin. When you read of the personal side of the Stuckist story there is as much passion and significance there as there is in their strong opinions about art. Billy and his pals happily stayed stuck in their remodernist world, whereas Emin abandoned them and moved on to a whole new paradigm of art and lifestyle. Though his art has not undergone a radical transformation a la Emin, Childish has also quit his former pals. These days he paints and does woodcuts under no label other than his own name.

In so many ways Childish is the epitome of what an artist should be: productive and true to his vision. A prolific recording artist, Childish banged out song after song in his kitchen, recording and releasing what is now estimated to be over 600 pieces of original music over two decades. He's also created thousands of paintings and woodcuts, and released several books of poetry and fiction. Most of this work has been self-released, perhaps so he is able to stay true to his vision, or perhaps because he remains so true to his vision that no money people would ever take a risk on his creations. He seems to have a natural aversion to authority and tends to piss off art and music industry big shots. You can see a twinkle in his eye when he does it.

jody
Do you release everything that you produce, all your writings, all your songs, all your paintings?

Billy
No, I've got thousands of paintings and a lot of them haven't been seen. We've got quite a lot of recordings that don't come out and I've got two novels... one's going to come out, one I haven't dealt with. Piles of stuff.

jody
Let's talk about what you've done recently. You just did this show in London, an homage to Vincent Van Gogh, a series of paintings, interpretations of, or inspired by, Van Gogh. What inspired you to do this?

Billy
Well, I wrote some pieces on the site, don't know if you saw them, some manifestos. Van Gogh was a lot of inspiration to me when I was a kid, I did my first sort of version of his paintings when I was about eleven or twelve. It seems people don't do homages or anything like that, you don't... people are only sarcastic about what they like these days. A hand-loaded revolver to the enemy and there's something for which I mark my ground, where I come from, what I believe in. Belief isn't really considered smart in the cool world.

jody
But your beliefs, you're not just talking about ideology, you're talking about a personal connection to the work.

Billy
Yeah, and the belief that ... well, in previous, in the exhibition I did, interpretations of Delacroix and Rembrandt, which Van Gogh did as well. In previous times it was considered completely essential to look at other peoples' work and in a non-sarcastic way. In England they call it irony, but really it's not actually as good as irony, I call it more like sarcasm...

jody
Or cynicism.

Billy
Yeah, if you're cynical about something that proves you're smart. Whereas if you say this is what you like... When I went to Medway (Art College) in 1978 and they only did abstract expressionist paintings at that time, and I said I like Van Gogh, they saw me as a silly grandmother for that reason, even though I was a punk rock grandmother.

jody
It seems in a lot of the art world, music included, cleverness is thought to be more important than sincerity.

Billy
Then again it's only pseudo-cleverness, 'cause it's not actually clever at all, it's sort of that adolescent covering your tracks. Because it's neurotic, really, it's not genuinely clever, it's trying to be clever, trying to be an adult by being sarcastic. It doesn't have any affiliation with real cleverness, that is sort of the feeling you get, that they want to appear smart. But it's pseudo, a lot of these things are not what they appear to be. People don't call things by their proper names. They're always trying to outwit their critics. You know, like, by any sort of adolescent manoeuvre they can come up with. My claim to originality is [that] authenticity is far more important. Most people seem to think originality would have something to do with authenticity but not when it's... most originality is pseudo-originality. The only way to become authentic, in other words, to have any original ideas at all is to be an authentic first. Because if you're authentic you're true to your calling, to your heart. Follow your star, the thing that leads you and inspires you, and that means that something else might come through which comes close to the notion of originality. To strive for originality in itself is a pointless adolescent preoccupation.

jody
One of the lines in the manifesto for your show was "art must help us become adults and not remain teenagers." That one really kinda hit me.

Billy
I was trying to work out those things, because I do feel that one of the most important things in our society is to be teenage. Judging by our prime minister and our televisions and our drinking habits and our humour and it seems to me that's the most valid thing there is. Which I think is very clear that's why the world is like it is if you understand what's going on. Because teenagers are like instant gratification continually, so no like working out that some things might be a bad idea. I think our prime minister is a good example of that, I don't know your prime minister at all, and the American prime minister as well would be a good example of the teenage mentality.

jody
Do you think your artwork went through an extended teenage period as well?

Billy
I think it still does touch upon that sort of thing. When I was drinking my work was more controlled and darker. I think that most males remain teenagers up until their early thirties, and often up until when they die. I sort of like think we can put up with people being teenagers 'til their thirties but when it starts getting into their forties then it's a bit of a problem so I think the teen age does get very extended because there are very few decent role models as adults. There aren't many adults among us, the population. Adult things aren't valued. So that means because there's very few role models, so little actual genuine adult behaviour, we are doomed to remain teenagers for most of our twenties, a lot of our thirties. And if we're lucky we might be capable of some sort of maturity. The worst thing that can go on is not seeing what is truly in front of you and what you are doing. Delusion is the worst thing, like if you believe you're really a mature adult and actually you're a big crying baby, you're using this to cover your tracks. With myself I noticed when I stopped drinking and tried to do things differently and take a little more responsibility in my life... that's the mark of not being a teenager, I suppose. I'm closer to feeling like I'm a pre-teenager. I get on well with children a little bit more easily. That manifesto, there's another point after that one. Art must help us become adults and not remain teenagers. Something about it should help us become children and not adults. There are some really important things in childhood that get left behind and get picked up to be seen through the filter of a more mature view. One of the first things of adulthood is realizing you are an adult. You see most of these teenage people, these never-aging teenagers who are in their sixties and fifties, our prime ministers and bankers and leaders and these people, they feel they're incredibly adult, but this is the main problem they don't realize they won't have a chance of actually becoming adult.

jody
I'm 32 and I can feel there's some sort of passage going on in my life right now. I've had in the last couple of years this real kind of "things have got to change, I've got to grow up and get my shit together" sort of thing. Is this something that a lot of people actually don't end up doing?

Billy
It would seem so, yeah. My father is about age 14. Your thirties, it's a time to get a hold of things, take responsibility and realize where you are. Maybe a lot of the things we think are good fun are actually sad and desperate.

jody
Yeah, exactly.

Billy
Leaving some of that behind and getting on with things, following your true heart. In painting the first thing I managed to do was paint pictures without bothering to impress anybody else, and I've been real lucky because I've never thought about impressing anybody else. So that's the first achievement. The next achievement is to try and paint pictures that don't impress yourself.

jody
Just kind of let it come out.

Billy
Sometimes I let go of all notion of style, I really do like Vincent's theory that you have to become a master of style to the extent that people would swear by all that's holy you have none. I don't bother showing off my ability very much, I suppose the Van Gogh show I show off a little bit of my ability. I don't bother painting like Van Gogh at all. Only one painting did I paint like Van Gogh because I couldn't work out how to do it any other way than he'd done it, the crows in the cornfield, but all the rest of it I didn't bother painting like Van Gogh does at all because I find it slightly makes my teeth itch because it's a very constrained style, you know it's a very introverted style he has, how he applies paint, you can tell it's neurotic. If you see things for what they are rather than just believe what you read about things, to actually experience things and see what the person's doing and what they're really up against.

jody
I think when you look at any type of art, say some of the stuff you're doing or whatever, when you produce profoundly personal art you tend to connect with people on that very same level, they relate at the same place. The people you connect with might have a more intimate relationship with your music than they would with whoever's on the top of the charts...

Billy
Oh yeah, definitely, absolutely. The other thing again is far more fantasy level, the top of the charts, there's a lot of projection of fantasy going on about and the person is doing it because they want to be there. As opposed to just liking it, because they wouldn't mind being there with them. There's not much reality involved in it.

jody
In the Stuckist Manifesto that you and Charles Thomson put together, one of the lines in it is "artists who don't paint aren't artists." That's a pretty provocative phrase, I think it really stands out for people. What exactly does that mean?

Billy
I had a dummy manifesto, and I had written manifestos for this group Hangman before, and they started off very aggressive and very pointed, very uncompromising. We liked stirring people up a bit.

jody
I kinda took that line to mean that know matter what your art, no matter what you're doing, just do it, follow your intuition. I don't read it strictly literally.

Billy
Not at all. People don't get the amount of humour in it because it's a funny thing to say. And they don't realize you can have a sense of humour and be completely serious as well. People think you're either joking or you're serious, they don't understand that the most serious thing, some of the biggest jokes going on are serious. I've done this other thing where I'm calling things by their proper names, which I'm really interested in. I understand a lot of photographers exhibit their stuff as art rather than photographers.

jody
They call it art instead of photography.

Billy
Yeah. You get bad filmmaking and it's called art a lot of the time. People like the idea of being an artist because they think it gives them special privilege over the morons, they're first on the list of awards with God or the angels. A lot of the artists in our country, the pop artists, artists who are like pop stars, they consider everything they do is art, because they do it and they are artists. They do this because they enjoy privileges above the ordinary people, the little people. It does show their madness as well because you can't be what you do. So the idea of that is if you can't... you don't need to be famous, you don't need to be a celebrity, what you need is to find something you enjoy doing and do it well. Wouldn't that be enough? See, photography, why would a photographer need to be an artist? Sure there's art in some things, but you know it's like musicians who aren't musicians; they don't write songs, they're actually really great poets as well, their lyric writing is really poetry because they feel a whole lot better about themselves if they're some sort of sensitive poet, as well. It's like somebody at the dinner table who rushes lunch and dinner and keeps all the gravy to himself, someone at the dinner table and they're grabbing all this food and piling it on their plate because they feel they deserve all of this so than everyone else can go hungry. Why can't the photographer just be a really good photographer? I think we can even get rid of the word artist. People paint pictures, when you're painting a picture maybe you're an artist and when you're not you're somebody who's having a cup of tea. Photographers who don't take photographs are not photographers. Sculptors who don't sculpt aren't sculptors.

jody
It seems in today's world living in a consumer society it might be a lot more difficult than it was a hundred years ago, to just be, to just do this stuff. All sorts of influences can come in and corrupt someone who could potentially be a good or sincere artist. Someone dangles some money in front of their noses, or they're impressionable so they get caught up in what everyone else in the scene is doing or something...

Billy
That definitely happens, especially in art school. I personally think it's a great time to live because it's clearer now than ever what's what. If you look... and at that time you had to look as well because otherwise you'd end up painting pictures for the Victorian salons and the people who are painting the pictures in Victorian salons now are the Art Elite. They think they're the dangerous rebels when actually they're your stodgy type artist. The person who's scrabbling to be in the big white wall gallery with all the dealers is actually, that's the equivalent of Victorian salon. Chocolate box Victorian art without the talent. That's the equivalent of what that is, that's the truth! Because they're pitching their stuff in the marketplace, flogging meat on a butcher's block. That's all the scene is, the money decides what's going on. I've often said Damien Hirst wouldn't do his work for twenty years in the bottom of his garden shed because he believed in it. The only thing that attracts his work is somebody in the gallery will sell for him. If he doesn't believe in it why should I believe in it? Of course I've heard people say Damien Hirst is an excellent artist because they show the state of how we are now, the state of the nation, the state of the consciousness, this current consciousness. Well, this current consciousness is already evident, so we don't need to be shown that, we need to be shown we can become what our potential is, not how stupid we are. Nobody notices how stupid they are because they buy it. It's car crash art, people stop to look at the blood and guts.

jody
You seem to be an anomaly in the art world in that...

Billy
Don't think that because I'm not in the art world. I've been reviewed by one critic in a dismissive way in one book once. My last exhibition was reviewed by The Guardian in England on the music page. The art establishment would not review anything I did because I... they've become so fragile with what they do they don't allow any dissent whatsoever. And also realize that they don't want to divide it at all because that might give it some credence as well.

jody
A couple of things that really stand out about you is the fact that you're extremely productive and you seem to have always been very uncompromising, and like really able to cut through the bullshit of things.

Billy
Well thank you. (laughs)

jody
That's what I always thought... I'm mostly familiar with your music...

Billy
In art, I mean I was friends with Tracey Emin, when she was a famous Brit Art artist, and she entered that world completely. But I knew Tracey when she was a fashion student, became a painter in the early eighties. She gave up painting in the late eighties because there wasn't enough money to be made in it. Some of the Brit Art people. And we did remain friends until 1999 when the Stuckists were formed. At the time Tracey, and Sarah Lucas, a famous Brit Art, wanted to get me an exhibition, wanted to show my work and what I'd done across all the different media as a writer painter musician. But because of forming the Stuckists Tracey eventually severed all ties with me. When she became famous it wasn't possible to have a friend who disagreed with her principles though I hadn't disagreed with her very vocally through the whole period that she was involved in that art for the previous seven years. And then of course I left the Stuckists very shortly after that as well because I didn't like being in the Stuckists very much.

jody
Why's that?

Billy
I don't like Charles' style, and I don't like a lot of the work in the Stuckists. And I don't like Charles' public persona, his way of trying to sell the stuff. I don't think the work represents what we said, I said, in the manifesto me and Charles were putting together. I don't have any interest in a lot of that. Not only did I possibly snuff my career back then with the Brit Art people, I'm also conspicuously not in the Stuckists' (August) show, either. In this country it's widely reported that I founded the Stuckist movement and that I have a campaign against Tracey and I am still a member of the Stuckists. And no one will report, none of the people who say that, who know totally differently, will actually admit I'm not in the Stuckists, didn't really found the Stuckists and I've never had a campaign against anybody. Tracey campaigns. All I just do is say what's true to me. These people have a vested interest pretending I'm in the Stuckists. Tracey does interviews and she says I'm still in the Stuckists and it's very cruel and mean. She knows very well that I'm not but she gets more press if she says that I am. Because it makes people feel sorry for her, there's this terrible, evil man who formed this group to victimize her. It suits her image of herself as a victim, because these people require sympathy because it keeps them where they want to be, which is everyone paying attention to them and stroking their brows for them.

jody
There was a label put on this, there was some kind of movement that coalesced around this... but did it just become a method of marketing?

Billy
My job was writing the manifesto. So I said what I needed to say and then my job's done and they can get on with whatever they like. Same as Tracey, actually, I think Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, people like that, they're entertainers. Not particularly good ones, you know, but it's nothing to do with art. It's got to do with gossip. It's interesting, it's almost like a reality TV type thing, which luckily I don't know too much about, the TV, but I hear about it. Again it's car crash. It's gossip. It's bilge, and people like bilge and I think there's a place for bilge in the world. it doesn't bother me. I just don't think we should call bilge art, call it bilge. Let's actually say what things really are.

jody
Then I guess it sorta goes back to the pseudo-cleverness you were talking about, this is the entertainment for the pseudo-clever people.

Billy
It's like your thinking man's popstars, your Elvis Costellos, these vaguely clever writers that anyone with any integrity wouldn't use in a song, anyway, because they wouldn't need to feel pleased with themselves. There's obviously something very missing in the person to sort of need to feel so desperately clever. There's a profound lack of belief and integrity. Which is quite honestly shared by many of us at different stages and times. I don't mean to say these people are poor assholes but I just don't think you should be applauded. I think if I'm an asshole, then I shouldn't be applauded for being an asshole. You know, I've been an asshole plenty of times. What you want to do is achieve more. The idea being born as a human being is a wonderful opportunity to grow and become better and to sort of... life is actually a spiritual journey, not just a quick wank, really.

jody
You quit drinking a few years ago so I imagine your lifestyle has changed quite a bit.

Billy
Well, everything changes. I first quit drinking when I was fourteen, I drank quite a bit before I was fourteen. I started again when I was sixteen. I drank very heavy 'til I was thirty three and then I stopped again and felt like I did before I was fourteen. Drinking is great, it saved me from killing myself. But then it was killing me so you stop doing it. It's all very simple stuff, you know. You do things, then you don't need them anymore. Just like writing the Stuckist Manifesto. You did what you need to do then you get on with what's next. I have no interest in... the reason I'm uncompromising... I'm actually very compromising when I speak to people about most things. It's just that certain things I don't see any point in compromising. I'd be compromising to get something I don't need. I'm not crying about blowing my chances left, right and center. I do it on purpose. I do it because I don't need it. I know what I need and I know it's not that. One of the reasons, possibly one of the reasons my vision's greater than the average person, the average popstar, is I'm more ambitious, not less. So for me the thing's they're ambitious for getting I'm not worth bothering with.

jody
In some ways you do a lot more work than someone... you know, if they hook onto the big machine, they can just ride it the rest of their lives. Get lazy.

Billy
Oh yes, yeah, that's right, you can... the important thing is to wake up. A lot of people are asleep.

jody
Trying to stay awake all the time.

Billy
Yes, but not in a matchsticks propped under the eyes way, but awake as sort of like, someone's home, you're not acting out somebody else's game. You're not trying to achieve the things your parents wanted you to achieve because they've got some strange notion that that's what would make them happy. Also maybe not trying to achieve what other pop groups are trying to achieve because they've got a notion of that which will make them happy. Someone asked me why we weren't famous like the White Stripes. I said, I don't know, maybe it's I don't like drinking champagne with Richard Branson.

jody
I had a seven inch record of yours called "We Fucking Hate The NME."

Billy
Yeah, I remember that, that was a nice little jaunt.

jody
Obviously putting out something like that you're probably not endearing yourself to these people who take themselves so seriously, anyway.

Billy
No, it did cause them a few tears. Some grown up people who worked at the NME put it on their answer machine, some of the children... they've always got someone there with a serious sack of problems. It's just about fun. The NME isn't really much, anyway, it's just a bad comic. Sometimes those things can be useful in that they can write something but they rarely do. People at the NME say, "sorry, I write for the NME, you probably hate me." Why give a shit what you do? It's what you think about what you do. I mean, I hate pop music and I hate artists and I hate poetry but it doesn't stop me being or doing or being part of that. It's just an observation. A lot of people hate the NME, I'm one of them. The fucking NME. They're such a bunch of twats. It's not a judgement from heaven, it's a silly bit of fun rock and roll. There may be some truth in it...

jody
What popped into my mind earlier, what might be related, when we were talking about the Stuckists and you were saying about leaving the Stuckists. It seems a lot of people, and you find this especially in the academic world, they find a place or thing, they just get so attached to it, they get so attached to it that they can't move on.

Billy
They get stuck.

jody
Exactly, they get stuck. But you didn't get stuck in the Stuckists. You did your thing, you moved on to the next thing.

Billy
You know the Stuckists were named after a poem I wrote in which Tracey was complaining to me that I was stuck and my music was stuck and everything about me was stuck. She was very angry because I wouldn't go to a party to which a friend of hers was taking cocaine, in the early nineties. Really this was a hissy fit because I wouldn't go along with the idea that this type of art was something at all. I said to her I just spent fifteen years avoiding tossers like that in the music business, I'm not gonna go look in the art. So she got all angry and had this little fit. Charles years later picked it as a title for this little group he wanted to do. Tracey's the sort of person... she's screaming so hard, the only person she's talking about is herself.

jody
And this goes back to you guys in the eighties where she...

Billy
See, the main thing with Tracey is people say to me, oh, she's really terrible, she must've become a really hideous person doing all this art. I say, no, that's not the problem, she's not become anything, she's entirely the same person, it's just she's got a lot more money and doesn't have to put up with people who didn't agree. She's too charming and charming enough right now that... and much the same person. It doesn't fit as well when you're forty, you've got to become older so you can become younger. You've got to get below thirteen. Get more sense in your head. Most four year olds, five year olds, pretty much sort of know, they can follow their heart, they know what they're thinking, if it's okay or not. My son is four and a half and he looks at a painting and says "it's not very good, is it?"

jody
Right. They don't have the inhibitions, they don't have the baggage, they can just say what they want, they know what they want.

Billy
We went to a local exhibition and there's this picture, somebody who wanted to be an artist who didn't want to risk anything by drawing anything, he showed no sort of typical ability at all, so he did this sort of abstract splurge. My son does a lot of sort of pictures that are near abstract splurges but of course they're of things. He looks at it and says "it's not very good, is it?" I said "why is it not good?" He said "it's not of anything!"

jody
There you go, he just spoke it, he just said it.

Billy
I don't go around lecturing and teaching him how to look at art. I mean, we don't discuss it much, I just ask him how he feels about things. Most of the time I don't give him information, I don't prime him how to feel about art. We did see some other thing with some rotting apples and some straw and a bucket and I asked him if he liked that one at all and he said he didn't like it. Especially since he wasn't allowed to stand on it. This useless affectation you're not even allowed to stand on so that didn't really win any points, either. This is when he was two. If a two year old can't be taken in by any of this stuff... The only person who can be is a scared teenager wondering what his friends might think. And not wanting to get it wrong. They're the only people who can be taken in by this sort of stuff.

]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=88rss_feed@mungbeing.com (jody franklin) illustration from Owen Plummer Montreal 1976 http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=71rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Jason McLean | Mark Connery) Paintings -- Shadows in the garden http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=179&subID=146rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Godfrey Blow) -- Over the ocean http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=180&subID=147rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Godfrey Blow) -- Fallen http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=181&subID=148rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Godfrey Blow) -- Portrait of the artist as an Ent Warrior http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=182&subID=149rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Godfrey Blow) Hello Outsider Music! a corporation singing out about their new sensational product line, song-poems recorded in split seconds, or, and my favorite, a vanity label recording of someone putting their all into a batch of songs... and usually only pressing up a few hundred copies, if that. My brain hurts trying to think about all the vanity pressings out there, the records you find where some guy named Mervin with a Guitar (and a voice to call the crows home) is singing about his travels in Europe and how to Polka and how Jesus is #1. There are tons of these type of records, everywhere. Thankfully, one person's treasure is another's trash.

Outsider Music. I won't go too deep in trying to describe this genre when there are countless observations and explanations out there. Wikipedia writes, "Outsider music is music performed either by social outsiders, who have no or few associates in the mainstream music business, or by musicians who choose to live and work in seclusion, often due to compromising behavioral or psychological conditions." Irwin Chusid (who is noted for coining the term Outsider Music and has published a book on the subject) writes, "Outsider musicians are often termed 'bad' or 'inept' by listeners who judge them by the standards of mainstream popular music. Yet despite dodgy rhythms and a lack of conventional tunefulness, these often self-taught artists radiate an abundance of earnestness and passion." An easy to read interpretation of what the genre is not and what it is (or can be) can be found at the Outsider Music Mailing List website.
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Personal tastes and observations from the listening audience come into play considerably, as with any genre. If all you listen to are Clear Channel broadcasts and mundane MTV style networks you will most likely look at someone like Daniel Johnston or The Space Lady and think, they can't sing or play and have a laugh. On the other hand if you are the type of person to flip over to the B-Side of a 7" Single first, Outsider Music might be for you. Regardless, either you get it or you don't. We live in a world filled to the brim with people who want to live in a comfort zone where music does not have to be difficult and can be recognizable, like an old shoe. Personally I got bored with the commercial radio airwaves and repetitious selling models by the major labels years ago. I'm not saying I'm living in a cave listening strictly to Noise and Phonography (two genres I happen to love)... I'm a sucker for a well crafted pop tune, a timeless melody and 4/4 on the floor. Obviously I don't want to sell anyone on listening to this music or write long boring paragraphs on what this music is, so for more information check out the Outsider Music Mailing List, the Audio Anomalies LiveJournal community and the Songs in the Key of Z website.

When Mungbeing premiered with the first issue I read it through and thought that it would be fun to ultimately ask to write something in time and then, lo and behold, they wrote us at Comfort Stand Recordings and proposed an article on Outsider Music featuring sounds from the Net Label. So enough of my blather about my past and definitions of what this music is.

Here is a collection of mp3s chosen especially for MungBeing Magazine. I give you...
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MungBeing Magazine presents... The music of Comfort Stand Records"

Party Fun With Recorders Volume One (csr004)
Justin - Rock 'N' Roll Boy
The Cheese Band - I Like Cheese
Grandpa Norm - For Aidan

The Space Lady - Street-level Superstar (Owed to Boston) (csr018)
The Space Lady aka Suzy Soundz - Street-level Superstar
The Space Lady aka Suzy Soundz - In Your Dreams

R. Stevie Moore - Tra La La La Phooey! (csr008)
R. Stevie Moore - Technical Difficulty
R. Stevie Moore - Records

Joe Meek (csr037)
Joe Meek - On The Bridge of Avignon/There Must Be
Joe Meek - The First Day I Met You (with Geoff Goddard)

Mar-Tie - The Avant-Garde Grandpa (csr026)
Mar-Tie - Navajo Lady
Mar-Tie - Mea Deserets: Side B, Track 5 (Navajo Lady)
Mar-Tie - Tribute to Betoven: Side B, Track 4

There are so many sources to download the magic that is Outsider Music, and while not all of these websites cater strictly to the genre, they all are fun to visit regularly and fill your hard drive with love: WFMU, Weirdomusic, Splusp, PCL Linkdump, Pastor McPurvis' Weekly mp3 Talent Show, Oddio Overplay, Basic Hip, 365 Days and many others.
And, to find other diamonds in the rough, check out the highly recommended (spyware free) file sharing application Soulseek (available for Windows, Linux and Mac).

Ready to plunk down some cash on some CDs? Check out this article posted on Amazon.com and get ready to delve into the amazing world of Outsider Music

Recommended reading would include both RE/Search Incredibly Strange Music books, Cool and Strange Music Magazine's Back Issues and the book, Songs In The Key of Z.

Thanks for reading and downloading. Please go out and get dirty digging for old tapes and records. A great adventure is in store.
]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=75rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Otis Fodder) Notes For a Film About Joe Meek I Hear a New World, an album composed and performed in collaboration with our new found friends on the moon.

On the day it was released, everything that people remember him for with fondness began to die.

In 1958 during a tarot card reading, Joe's Arab friend Faud predicted the exact date of Buddy Holly's death one year later. A big Buddy Holly fan, Joe was horrified, and inwardly began to mourn.

Thirty eight years after his death, Joe regained consciousness inside a large aluminum can, floating in space, blind and half-buried in unspooled reels of 4-track recording tape and huge inductance coils.

He was born inside a house, far outside London, where he would later live, and far beneath the moon, which he spent a considerable amount of time musing over.

Six months before the release of I Hear a New World, a Soviet satellite drifted over Joe's flat. It was 2:14 in the afternoon, and he couldn't see it. Neither could it see him. It could, however, see the backside of the moon.

Joe recorded dozens of hit songs, including several that reached number 1. He did this without working for the major recording labels of that time, which he abhorred, and which did not share his interests in looping, reverb, and the clavioline.

Joe wrote in his liner notes that the Sarooes are a "rather sad people cut off from the rest of the moon. They live in a valley which has some vegetation, but it is a hard struggle for them to live and they have a form of rationing which is a strain and they seem always to be sad." The Globbots, on the other hand, "are happy, jolly little beings [with] cheeky blue-coloured faces."

Years later he would laugh and laugh at how wrong he was.

What happens if someone propels himself so hard into the very center of something that the center shifts, leaving that person outside once again?

Joe thought his major label competitors were spying on him. Bugging his phones. Watching him through binoculars and telescopes.

When speaking to his Globbot wife Shnaraa, Joe refers to EMI as "the rottenest pigs this side of Vaklodoo."

As his recording techniques evolved, he thought the center would move with him. It didn't. Instead, it moved with a competitor named George Martin, himself a marginal character who would soon play a central role in slightly marginalizing the bluesy sound of the Rolling Stones, a band that formed the same month Joe recorded "Don't You Think It's Time" backed with "Loneliness" by Mike Berry and the Outlaws.

Today there are reverb devices and synthesizing programs that bear Joe's name.

Though it was well-reviewed outside our solar system, it is estimated that I Hear a New World sold 99 copies on Earth.

At one in the morning on July 11, 1962, Joe sat watching television as a live image was transmitted for the first time via satellite. The blurry image showed a man in a suit, sitting at a desk. Joe found the man handsome, if a bit stand-offish.

As Joe discovered, much to his shock and amusement, this man was Shnaraa's brother.

Joe did not intend to murder his landlady, though for the brief moment he lived after she hit the floor, he didn't exactly regret it. Instead, he marveled at the explosive power and sharply gated resonance of the shotgun chamber, and the numbness it produced in his hand. His last thought was "Rocket --"

Joe died eight years to the day after Buddy Holly.

When he awoke after 38 years of silence, the word still echoed, just beyond the reach of his tongue.]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=84rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Dave Carpenter) In memory of Hasil Adkins Spunt.
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I sold at least 40 paintings of Hasil during this time, and am unsure about most of their whereabouts. If you own one of my Hasil paintings, please get in touch with me.

Generally my paintings portrayed Hasil as a combined version of his older and younger selves, giving him the energy and physique of his youth but with the hat, mustache, and cheap sunglasses that were so often trademarks of his during the last 15 years.

Some of the situations were based on well-known Hasil anecdotes like unwittingly eating Miriam Linna's souvenir can of Andy Warhol soup, or answering "meat" when the waitress asks for his order. ("what kind of meat, hon?" "meat.") Others were rural gags like being caught without any liquor on Sunday in the South, and fishing from a bucket (one of my favorite old Pogo Possum routines). Peanut Butter and "Commodity Meat", both essential elements of Hasil's iconography, often made appearances as well.

I was thrilled to finally have the opportunity to meet Hasil when I booked him for his first-ever Lexington, KY appearance, at a now-defunct bar called Yat's in the also-now-defunct South Hill Station, which later turned out to have been built over a desecrated cemetery. I maintained contact with Hasil over time, and recorded an album with him called Night Life that still lies in the can unreleased. Perhaps it will see the light of day soon.
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The importance of Hasil to Rockabilly and country music was, and shall ever be, massive. His death brings closure to Rockabilly itself, in fact: like bookends, Rockabilly began with Elvis' first record and ended with Hasil's last. Everything else, all those years of everything-else-ishness, from Sonny Burgess to the Meteors, is just the filler in between.

What I will remember most about Hasil is that despite his advancing age and imposing countenance, he really was still just a big kid. A big kid that never stopped wanting to stay up all night, drinking beer and watching Herschell Gordon Lewis movies, playing Jerry Lee Lewis records, chasing skirts, and frightening squares by being equal parts scary and silly. Hasil died much too soon by an ordinary man's reckoning, but the truth is he'd lived enough already for three men. Not only by his powers of creation (writing 7,000 songs), but by the man's powers of consumption.
If I were to consume as much alcohol, cholesterol and women as Hasil Adkins, death at 67 seems like a fair price.

]]> http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=195rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Jeffrey Scott Holland) Raw Art -- Joker's Wild http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=85&subID=125rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Kelly Moore) -- Puppets http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=166&subID=126rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Kelly Moore) -- Underdog http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_2.html?articleID=167&subID=127rss_feed@mungbeing.com (Kelly Moore) A Conversation with Gus Fink He approached a middle-aged man in a suit who was sitting in the booth behind me. Gus greeted the man with a broad smile and a hearty handshake and announced in a powerful voice, "Howdy. I'm Gus Fink." I whipped my head around to see who was talking and there he was! After I pushed my eyeballs back into my head, I pressed myself back into the booth and listened closely. I could hear them perfectly so I hunkered down and did the best nonchalant eavesdropping I could muster, alternately flicking my pen, sipping my coffee, and staring out the window - thoroughly engaged in what I was hearing.

The man in the suit must have been a journalist or an art historian, I thought, because he launched into a diatribe about Art Brut (which he pronounced "Are Breoo") and Contemporary Art and relevance and blah blah blah. I could almost hear Gus's eyes roll in tandem with my own. Or at least that's what I imagined.
Finally the interviewer said something about his grand kids and asked, "How should I tell THEM about the psychosexual tension present in your work?"
Gus, evidently a much more gracious man than I would have been, just chuckled a little and said, "Oh, I wouldn't bring that up to your grand kids. I'd just explain the lighter issues to them. Or," he paused, "maybe you should tell them about ALL the psychosexual tension - I'm a man, man is a beast-like animal, and it's obvious that one like me needs to act on my inner instincts... or get it out through my art."
The interviewer started in again about Are Breoo and Naive Art but Gus interrupted him by saying, "It's all the same crap. But if it can help you get the attention you deserve, why not slap some of those terms on it? It's just like being in a band that plays good, heavy, violent, creative music. People always want to know what kind of music it is. If you just say brutal, violent, creative music then people won't get it or know what you mean. So you say, 'It's grindcore metal with some sludge and breakdowns and our bassist is into punk music' and suddenly it might stir some interest."
This made sense to me but the interviewer (he sounded like this guy I know named Jason, so I'll call him Jason) paused and said "ummhmm... ummhmm..." a couple of times. Maybe he was just soaking it all in. Gus continued, "But, see, I'm bad with these things - putting a label on it. I never think of an artist as 'contemporary' or 'modern' or whatever they wanna call it. But I know you gotta say something like that or else everyone will be like, 'What the fuck is going on, asshole?' And I don't enjoy that situation!"

Jason laughed. Kind of a nervous laugh but I got the sense that he was starting to loosen up a bit. I mean, who could blame him for being nervous?
He said, "So, are you a part