me and YOU

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Citizen Fish Inc.

       In 1996 the "ska" band from Britain known as Citizen Fish came to Las Vegas, Nevada and played a show out in the desert.  I had a Hi8 camcorder at the time and I was more than happy to record portions of the event for posterity.  They played with a shitload of great bands including the Lizards, the Automatics, Tedio Boys, and the Independents.  I shared these video as a free download on this blog.  

          Last month I got an email from someone who claims to represent Citizen Fish.  They claimed that they were the creators of said video and since it was their property it was my responsibility to cease and desist the sharing of their property.    

         Look, I got no qualms with people trying to make a living doing what they love.  But this is pure comedy.  I created this video and none of the other bands videotaped on that night have had their lawyers get in touch with me for allowing people to download the clips free of charge.  I won't talk shit about Citizen Fish.  Their mediocre music says more about who they are as opposed to any opinion I might have against the limey bastards.  

       I filed a counter complaint with Mediafire but since I don't have the time or inclination to fight Citizen Fish Inc. I will no longer be providing the clip of this band playing live in the deserts of Las Vegas to their adoring "fans."  

         Personally I never cared for Citizen Fish.  I thought it was cute that they would jump on the "Ska" or at the very least "Ska-inflected" band wagon back in the 90's.  More than anything they added to the shame of the 3rd wave of Ska revivalists which watered down ska to the point where you couldn't even hear the Jamaican roots anymore.  Just a bunch of white boys yanking their wanking.  

        I won't be posting this video clip to download ever again.  So don't ask.  For whatever reason they didn't ask me to take down the short interview I did with their singer Dick Cheese.  Or whatever the chaps name is.  Pip, pip spot of tea and all that sort of duff.  Although I will add that they didn't seem to fight youtube about the clip.  If you are interested in viewing these shit heels go check it out here.  Otherwise please spit on these douche bags if they come through your town to pick up a paycheck.  Punk fuckos.  

        If you see this clip released by Citizen Fish in a future DVD please note that you will not see my name in the credits as the cameraman for this clip.  I guess I'm the idiot for sharing this video for free to anyone interested in these goons.  I could have copyrighted the material to protect myself but why would I spend the money to copyright a video from a band I could care less about.  Perhaps more of my video content provided here will be pilfered and sold to unsuspecting music lovers?  Let's hope the other band videos seen here will not be marketed to you dear reader in the near future.  I highly doubt the other bands are of this ilk, you would think no one could be that stupid but just in case perhaps you should download as much as you can before anymore of these videos goes away?

        Here's a copy of the email sent to me:

Dear MediaFire User: 

MediaFire has received notification under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") that your usage of a file is allegedly infringing on the file creator's copyright protection.

The file named Citizen Fish live Las Vegas,NV 1997 PART 1.mov is identified by the key (j0wydj3tntv).

As a result of this notice, pursuant to Section 512(c)(1)(C) of the DMCA, we have suspended access to the file.

The reason for suspension was:

I have a good faith belief that the items or materials listed below are not authorized by the above IP Owners, their agents, or the law and therefore infringe the IP Owner's rights.

Information about the party that filed the report:

Company Name: Remove Your Media LLC
Contact Address: 4760 Preston Rd Ste 244-227 Frisco, TX 75034
Contact Name: Eric Green
Contact Phone: 8665415173
Contact Email: infringement@removeyourmedia.com

Copyright infringement violates MediaFire's Terms of Service. MediaFire accounts that experience multiple incidents of alleged copyright infringement without viable counterclaims may be terminated.

If you feel this suspension was in error, please submit a counterclaim by following the process below.

        

DON'T STOP

          I’ve been sitting on this video for a few months but I haven’t been motivated to put it out until now.  I decided to post it tonight as a tribute to Jeff Hanneman the guitarist for Slayer who passed away yesterday.  He would have hated this and probably would have called it "gay" but who gives  shit?  Since his most important contribution to society (Reign) came out of Def Jam records this is somewhat fitting. 

            I will always have love for the heavymetalvomit party but my true love is hip hop.  I keep coming back to it It always seems to be coming back to me.  I’ve given up on several times.  Long stretches.  But I always return.  It’s like that, I’m like that, leave me the hell alone if you don’t think I’m a brother then check my chromosomes. 

            I was dating this black girl years ago and she made the observation that all her white boyfriends would recite rap lyrics like they were singing but her black boyfriends would never do that kind of corny shit.  She was probably right.      

            I’ll tell you a secret.  Listening to hip hop sometimes makes me feel like being violent.  In exactly the same way hardcore used to make me feel violent.  Instead of acting on that impulse I usually channel it into dancing.  Or smoking weed.  Just like I did with hardcore. I have to admit that violent paranoid feeling degrades over time.  When I first hear music of that nature it becomes a primal influence.  But once I’ve heard that same song time and time again that rush seems to fade.  I still believe that hiphop can bring about that feeling.  And I’ll admit hardcore still has that ability.  Thank god Slayer put out one more solid album before it ended.  I still wish they had put out one more.      

            Yeah I still got love for the hardcore, grindsnore, thrash blast bullshit, but I’m just sick of listening to white people so much.  I digress. 

            Anyway this whole mixed metaphor/build up leads to the reason for this post.  I made this one minute video as my first and possibly last homage to the style I love so much.  Hip hop!  Don’t worry I’m not kicking off my new career as a hip hop producer.  But I did all the beats, words, and vandalism.  Although the "animated" sequences were photographed on the streets of Athens, Greece when I traveled there last year.  Since this video contains material that is legally questionable I will not be uploading this shit to fucking youtube.  I don’t need videos of me perpetrating out there circulating.  It's only available here as a download but don't shit yourself with cyber worry it's only 60 megabites and it runs just over one minute.  Maybe I’ll post it on youtube eventually.  I mean you can’t prove shit right?

             After the old man/nostalgia/memory lane video I presented in the last post I like to think of this video as more in touch with the moment being lived today.  Perfectly representing where I stand as a 41 year old man.   

Jeff Hanneman RIP.  

The name of the short is DON'T STOP.  Download it below:

DON'T STOP!

Vegas that don't change

            I’ve long wanted to take an art shit with the Vegas I remember as the centerpiece.  I’ve had an impulse to go back on one of my visits and take pictures of all the nothing places I remember.  The real home I had in there.  In all the years I lived in Las Vegas it never seemed like I lived in LAS VEGAS.  LAS VEGAS was a million miles away from my life pretty much the whole time I lived there.

            There are still a few places in that town which haven’t changed at all over the years and chances are good they’ll never change at this point, except maybe in degradation as the sands eventually envelop the town.  You know the spots I mean if you live there.  It’s a filthy city.  The daylight has always been the enemy of that town in more ways than one.  It’s a tribute to the graveyard shift lifestyle since no one has to see the shit because everyone gets up at noon anyways.  At least I did.  When I look back on my time there it seems like I cut mornings out of my schedule for over a decade once high school was done.  Another tradition that my Vegas citizenship gave me.  My inability to sleep before 2am. 

            That place is becoming more and more a distant memory that I’ve really started to cherish in a masochistic way.  Mornings in Las Vegas.  The shivering winter mornings, and the blistering Summer ones.  Dusty, barely holding on grass in the bone dry schoolyard.  Playing football in 110˚ sunshine.  All day.  The chicken wire and stucco houses, the roach infested apartment buildings, the parking garages which reappeared in my dreams for years.  Piles of huge rocks.  The broken glass and gun shells everywhere.   Apocalyptic playgrounds.  We’d burn the shit to ground.  That’s what the environment is for in Vegas.  There’s just so much of it.  Or at least there was.  Now I’m a little hard pressed to find the vacant lots or long expanses of desert within the valley.  I found out if you go to the east side there’s still a few pockets here and there.

  

            I lived in Vegas for over 20 years so it’ll always be under my skin.  I’ll never be able to wash that dirt off.  Visits to the city have been infrequent and mixed over the years but every time I return I feel like I never even lived there at all.  Which doesn’t surprise me.  When I lived there I wasn’t really there.  Shit I’m barely here right now.      

            But I consider myself lucky for experiencing all the shit I did while living there.  I got away with a lot and somehow managed to survive relatively intact.  It feels like no one should be able to escape that place alive but I’m just feeding into Vegas own myth saying shit like that.  Or maybe it’s just that I’m still wondering why I’ve lived so long myself.  Tearing yourself to pieces was always the favorite pastime of the Vegas people and it’s a tradition I’m still trying to crawl out from under.    

            The things I’m most obsessed with are things that don’t exist anymore in that town and in the world at large.  That’s probably why history has become such an obsession of late.  And maybe these are the things that don’t exist in myself anymore?  Innocence.  Youth.  Destruction for destructions sake at a moments notice.  Easy answers.  Deep shit.  The small time hustle.  Ok maybe I still got the connection to the small time hustle.

    

            Anyway, I was in Vegas in January and I wanted to make some progress on an art idea with what little time I had, which ended up being a few hours.  I hoped to find those things in my mind which were still out there in the real world to photograph and remember.  It was a chance to photograph my memories of the places that are still around.  The real places I touched one time, the places which used to brush up against me.  I went out knowing I would never have the time or patience to find Old Ladies Cave, Hell Town, Mr. Wuji’s house, the fucked up ditches we vandalized, or the dozens of other rat’s nests that filled my brain, I decided to just fucking drive and stop to take photos at whatever was fucking cool.  Go art!

            I’ve always been straight up east side.  So I gravitated East of Eastern stopping here and there.  After a while it got to be too much trouble so I opted to videotape my ride.  These short videos are the result.  There’s not much effort that went into filming this but there was some time taken in the editing process.  Maybe this is just an exercise to keep my mind occupied.  I don’t know.  I think it’s cool so fuck you.

      

            I’m not trying to impose glamour on a subject that’s obviously lacking, nor am I trying to be ironic.  This was an active attempt to make memories “real” if capturing images digitally from a moving vehicle can make things any more “real.”  Twenty years from now maybe these vids will be memories for some but I wonder if much can change in these neighborhoods which haven’t changed much in thirty years time or more.    

            It’s not my intention to make some social/economic/political statement here.  It’s too easy read this as such and so to me that’s boring.  It’s impossible not to divorce those thoughts from your head if you contrast this with the usual images that come to mind when we collectively envision LAS VEGAS.  Instead I hope that I’m helping to open up a world that has been tucked away even though it’s in plain sight.  I hope this video will help to reintroduce viewers and creators to the beauty of the ordinary.  How’s that for being fucking profound.         

            The editing isn’t too complicated but some will find it annoying.  Jump cuts abound, as well as manipulation of the time and space.  I’m going for a combination of reality and trickery that plays into the unreliable nature of memories.  It’s also an homage to the hundreds of films shot in Las Vegas where the geography is completely out of whack.  

            I’m sure a lot of people come to this blog with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and I’ve certainly played into that.  This is probably the most blatant wax of nostalgia I’ve done so far here on the blog but there’s still time for me to do more cliché observations and inane arts fuckoffs.   Instead I’ll rationalize that I see this as an exercise in making a history where there isn’t one.   Another cute tradition of Vegas that makes me laugh to keep from puking. 

       There’s no final destination in these videos so for me the road going nowhere is dripping with anxiety.  It would be easy to say there’s nowhere to go in the middle of nowhere.  But if you’ve spent anytime in Vegas you’ll believe you been somewhere special.  And you’re right.  There’s no pace like it in the whole fucking world.  There’s no place like Tokyo either.  No place like Tecumseh, Missouri.  No place like Kabul.  Or y’know shit like that.  I know it’s hard not to but don’t get a swelled head Vegas.

     

            Since I’ve spent a little bit of time on this short project I can make the observation that this video was maybe an attempt to follow the long bus route we took going from Quanna Mcall 6^th grade center back to the far east side.  Now I wish I’d continued going down Carey Avenue to see that school as it is today.  Also City View park.  Damn!  I wonder if that Star Trek spaceship is still there.  Jesus fuck that park was ghetto.    

            A soundtrack would be distracting and pointless.  Yay for fucking art.  Feel free to download this art below.

Download All six files below:

Vegas that don't change •1•

Vegas that don't change •2•

Vegas that don't change •3•

Vegas that don't change •4•

Vegas that don't change •5•

Vegas that don't change •6•