[Landline] No tricks, all treats
Bootsy, DJ Lux Interior, Leif Goldberg, '80s BMX, Arthur Magazine is 20 years old, more
Landline No. 0042
Friday, Oct. 28, 2022
Many music picks: bandcamp
Folks,
It’s getting darker fast out there, especially here in Arizona, so this Landline is going to try and keep on the positive side, for at least a few minutes…
1. SHOW THIS TO A KID AND YOU’VE GOT A MUSICIAN FOR LIFE
Bootsy’s birthday was this past Wednesday, his 71st. To celebrate, funk scholar Rickey Vincent will be doing the 37th Annual ALL BOOTSY SHOW tonight on his “History of Funk” KPFA radio show. Rickey says: “Always the funkayest show of the year!”—which is saying something. Friday Oct. 28, 10pm Pacific Time. Tune in here: www.kpfa.org
2. RESPECT THE FROGS
Longtime Landline favorite Radio Is A Foreign Country (RIAFC) — they’re mentioned in practically every edition — remember their sensational “Amphibian Love Songs and Soundscapes” mix? — have a new fundraiser going, and yes, it features frogs. Throw 50 bones RIAFC’s way and you get many goodies including this snappy shirt incorporating “Zen Picture” (Zenga) by Matsumoto Hoji, circa 1785:
3. DIRECT FROM LUX ANGELES, HOPE YOU ENJOY THE RID((((E))))
I know exactly nothing about the making of this Lux Interior-hosted radio show, which apparently was produced and broadcast in the g(l)ory year of 1984, but I sure am grateful to Aquarium Drunkard for posting it every year ahead of Halloween for all of us to enjoy. AD writes:
As master of ceremonies, Lux runs through his personal archives spinning the weird ranging from rockabilly and garage to early punk, campy novelty and exotica. His bag of tricks was the best. So go ahead, “get out your magic decoder rings, boys and girls…” Trick or treat.
Listen here, you creeps!: Aquarium Drunkard
4. DO YOUR HOLIDAY SHOPPING FOR YOURSELF NOW BEFORE YOU RUN OUT OF MONEY
Now now NOW is the time to get on it and subscribe to cartoonist Leif Goldberg’s National Waste monthly mailed-to-you calendar program for 2023. Leif’s been doing this for 20 years. Here’s a typical one from 2022, hanging on my bulletin board…
You’ve probably seen them on the fridge at a party and the host has been too incapacitated to explain to you how to obtain them. Well, puzzle no more, pilgrim. Here is the announcement:
Go here to sign up before it’s too late! Your fridge will thank you: National Waste Comics
5. NO IDEA HOW THIS HAPPENED BUT IT’S BEEN 20 YEARS
Arthur Magazine debuted 20 years ago this month. This was the cover…
Cover photo by Spike Jonze. Design by W.T. Nelson. Gratitude to: Mark Lewman. Arthur was co-owned at this point by me and Laris Kreslins: I had editor duties, Laris had publisher chores. Nine zillion people contributed and distributed. We did our best, we had a blast, there it is.
I don’t have any more copies to sell, and there’s no PDF til 2024 — unless somebody can scan this extra-sized monster before then (email me!). In the meantime, almost all of Arthur No. 1 (Oct. 2002) is available in text form now at arthurmag.com
6. FOUR POUNDS OF ‘80s FREESTYLE
My first venture into underground-ish publishing was a newspaper (really a xeroxed four-pager) I published and covertly distributed during my senior year at Upland High School. My partner on art director duties in that slightly weird endeavor was Bill Batchelor, a year younger than me but about 200 years ahead of me in taste, experience and know-how. Bill had started self-publishing a well-regarded BMX freestyle zine TRICKS ‘N MORE in 1984, when he was 13, taking tremendous, historically significant scene and action photographs. Upland, the ozone-smog capital of California, was home of the legendary skate/BMX Pipeline park during this period, and stuff was going off across the state…
By 1987-8 when Bill and I were working together on Vision (sorry), Bill had left BMX stuff behind and was mostly onto other fantastic things… and he kept on being into other things until Covid, when he opened up the old crate and started going through the negatives and posting them online.
Now Bill has compiled the best stuff into a self-published hardcover book. Here’s what Bill says about it:
424 pages from my lost archive of BMX freestyle photos spanning 1984-1985. Take a nostalgic trip back to the mid-80's, when we were young and BMX was life.
Includes coverage of some of the earliest AFA freestyle and King of the Skateparks contests, rad Pipeline sessions, and a behind the scenes perspective on the sponsored pros you haven’t seen before. Bonus section from 1988 delivers more AFA action and the infamous Meet the Street freestyle street contest which changed BMX forever.
More than a photobook, CONCRETE AND SMOG tells my story of catapulting from young BMX fanatic (and middle school dork) to one of only a half-dozen photographers behind the skatepark fence, working alongside BMX photo legends Bob Osborn and John Ker. Designed with the analog aesthetic of my original fanzines, the book weaves unseen photos with contemporary writings and vintage content into a four pound book of 1980s BMX freestyle history.
The photos stand up. Bill had an eye already at age 13 and he had put himself in the right place, with the right equipment, with the right attitude, at the right time. Incredible and inspiring. Go here to have a look — the collector’s set is sold out, but the book is still available: billbatchelorbmx.com
Stay as rad as you can,
Jay Babcock
Tucson, Arizona
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