G O D C L U B

FROM MY FIRST CHRISTMAS IN 1988:



I am in the background, just look really hard, I am a baby it's great.

PLEASE join us for our anti-holiday edition of CLUB GOD tonight at the Old Miami in Detroit.

It's the last one until February!

Obama's neoliberal cabinet is an obvious representation of how his campaign of change is a blatant lie. I hope that people within the U.S. who are interested in human liberation and actual progressive change will be just as critical of Obama's actions as they have been of Bush's. However, this will probably not happen. Where is the large critique of the left now, the one which attacked Bush's war in Afghanistan, since Obama has continuously said over the past few months that he plans on increasing the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan? People have criticized Obama's plan but will there be as large amount of protest as there was for Bush's initial invasion? I guess we will see once he actually takes office.

Also, Arundhati Roy has a great article called "9 is not 11 (And November isn't September)" which criticizes the U.S. media's comparison of 9-11 to the attacks in Mumbai and offers a critical analysis of both (one which uses monster theory, a lil pocopomo, a lil reminiscent of the cyborg.)

Oh what a wonderful milestone in mainstream (homonormative) gay cinema with the release of the movie "Milk" based on the life and death of San Fran gay supervisor on the board of supervisors, Harvey Milk. Before I continue with my sarcasm, let me say this first: I HATE HARVEY MILK. I DON'T CARE.

A Re-Cap of our holiday celebrations with videography by me and my mom.




We aren't totally invested in celebrating America's colonial history, but we are DEFINITELY into eating lots and lots of food.

Von Sudenfed's 2007 single, "Fledermaus Can't Get It," featuring talents of the Pet Shop Bears.

Okay, so I've been waiting on publishing this article to confirm the validity of some rather interesting statements, but it seems the most evil man alive has done it for me on his own.

Sorry ladies, but fucking GAAHL IS GAY!

Gaahl (Christened, of all names, Kristian Espedal), current frontman of unarguably the most evil band alive, Gorgoroth, has confirmed his homosexuality with Germany's Rock Hard magazine, via an article in their November 2008 issue.

This isn't news. It's especially not new news (the gossip has been flying since articles/blogs were posted around June). I'm posting this for two reasons. I find it relevant because, A: it's great to see an artist leading a completely radical, media-encrusted/infatuated, anti-established moral/religious lifestyle (there's no way I could say I agree with, well, most of the things this man has said or done, but his individualism, elegance, and creativity are definitely admirable); and, B: It's also completely fucking great to see the diaspora of comments relating to this in the "blogosphere (I can't believe I just typed that word...)."

Hardcore fansites like Blabbermouth and MetalSucks have things like this to say:

Good for him Says:
Good for him! And good for the metal community!

I am confident that the metal community will be the pioneering comunity with concern to leaving all ignorance-based prejudice behind (sic).

alerxtinwonderland Says:
Being openly gay is probably the most black metal you can possibly be. I love how die-hard Gorgoroth fans are so upset by this news. Apparently the[y] believe in Satan and hate Christianity yet they support the Christian concept of the traditional family unit.

Totally fun reading!

Gay marriage does not matter. I have no interest in being accepted or tolerated by heterosexuals. I have no interest in partaking in a tradition that upholds a patriarchal institution that has worked to oppress queer people for as long as it has been in existence. There is nothing subversive about gay marriage, it is a waste of time and energy for the thousands of gay activists fighting for its protection. The U.S. is closer than ever before to having a national health care system that would effect not only those fortunate enough to get hitched and share benefit packages, but all the single sluts, trannies, and genderfucking deviants that have no interest in assimilating into any normative familial framework any time soon.

Please get over Proposition Eight and use the time to construct a new discourse that isn't as fucking exclusionary and ridiculously boring.

Thanks.

I'M SITTING HERE listening to hundreds of car horns, "fireworks (meaning gunshots, well also a couple real ones) ," hoots, hollers, and radios blaring (not to mention my own housecleaning soundtrack of strange analog electronic postpunk craziness (Wierd Records, anyone?). It's exciting. I'm typically apolitical (or a bit more anarchic than political, maybe just a bit more punk in my outlook), but I am excited.

It is quite profoundly more important, exciting, and endearing to set the precedent of somebody in our nation's highest office of another race (mixed even!) than it would have been to have a female exist as rightwing cohort second-in-command fallto diplomatic eyecandy.

Maybe now we can enact some of this change that's been battered into our psyche -- maybe, just maybe, we can take some steps toward a little bit more forward thought and ingenuity.

I think the first step is to completely forget Sarah Palin even happened. The idiocy, the sensationalism, the spending of public funds, donations even, on a designer wardrobe, the out-and-outspoken fear and hatred of things "other" to her (foreigners, deviants, basically everything I love). Who would have been able to stand another Dan Quayle anyway (I know, I know, I am from Indiana, but that man had NO grounds for vice-presidency, right?)?

LET'S ALL JUST have a mental margarita and take a breath, thanking the majority for not being able to stomach another vehemently hermetic and fundamentalist regime-type democracy.

IT'S HAPPENED AGAIN, so here I am, sitting at home watching Seinfeld on a Saturday night, minding my own business and all of sudden, wait, what's that I hear? Oh, I know that song--yeah, I do, I LOVE that song, thats "A Minha Menina" by Os Mutantes, but wait--what is this commercial for?? I see kids playing soccer. What do Os Mutantes and soccer have to do with each other? Then some kid takes a bite out of a hamburger and it all becomes painfully clear as to what this is: it's a fucking Micky Deeze commercial.

I know why this is happening, its because our generation is getting out of school, getting well-paying jobs at advertising agencies and suggesting good music that is generally below the commercial radar and raping it with a commercial for some shit like gross hamburgers (ok, so I do eat there like once a week--if I'm really broke, but I don't enjoy it and I feel dirty when I do).

That sucks though, and I can only anticipate it happening more and more, but it's not just the dork that got that slimy job's fault, it's also the fault of whomever owns the rights to these songs. Have a little fucking integrity for fuck's sake. I'm not saying that it's all bad, like when the Clone Defects were in some car commercial and used all the money they made for fun stuff, I'm ok with that, but not fucking McDonald's-ok, fuck. Seriously.

Stolen from ubu.com:

David Wojnarowicz + Tommy Turner's

WHERE EVIL DWELLS

So I've been thinking a lot lately about the death of Riot Grrrl and all the female punk bands I love and how sad it is. And, how nowadays everything is post-feminism and terrible.

David G. and I are still working on our zine.

Whatever forever, these videos are sweet.

The Raincoats - "Fairytale in the Supermarket"



The Slits - "Typical Girls"



That hat!

And "Women of the Early 80's Postpunk," featuring a soundtrack of "Eisiger Wind" by LiLiPUT (thanks, funknroll!)

SOME highlights: Squirting blood-filled fake penis squirt guns right into camera lenses of front-row spectators, hearing Plastikman's, "Spastic" at a purely punishing volume, eating Quaaludes with Marilyn Monroe's dead body, catfighting over JFK, etc. etc. etc.

Here is some footage from the show on Friday along with some shots of the three photographs that are STILL on display for a few more weeks at the Hangar which is located within the Cranbrook Academy of Art's photo department. It's a great new space so please go check it out sometime soon...I think the last day the show will be up is November 14th, but I could be wrong.

I have three photographs in this show and will be performing LIVE for the first time in over a year. I will have new video, new costume, and one new song. DJ sounds before/after the performance provided by HAUTE TO DEATH.

THE LOCATION IS KIND OF TRICKY, you have to get to Cranbrook from the Woodward entrance, tell the gatekeeper that you are going to the ART ACADEMY and then drive ALLLLL the way down that long and winding road, hang a right, and then park near the museum and follow the map above to the spot that the HANGAR is in. The opening is from 6 - 10 pm. I am going to perform LATER in the evening, depending on attendance, BUT NOT LAST SO GET THERE NO LATER THAN 8.30, PLEASE!!!

Sorry the image is kind of shitty, but I can't ever figure out how to work scanners.

Wall of Sound is a British record label that specializes in releasing work from established artists as well as re-releasing unestablished artists' work to gain a broader distribution.

I've been happy to find through them the return of the Queen, Ms. Grace Jones. Her new release, Corporate Cannibal, from her forthcoming album, Hurricane, will be available this month.

In other news: I apologize for the scarcity of posts this week. I'm currently working on a few interviews to be posted within the next few months. You will enjoy.

THIS past Saturday, Isaac Royale and I sat in for a live broadcast interview and deejay session with evil-audio-assault-cum-performance-art duo, Dethab. We were asked to be a part of Radio Caroline, Gregory Green's pirate radio art installation here in Detroit. We'd like to present you with the download for the first of quite a few podcasts of the program (our segment is forthcoming). This is an interview with Veronica Vasicka, founder of East Village Radio and Minimal Wave (thanks, Burnlab!).

Things that matter:


Things that don't matter:

Girls getting mad for wearing the same Target leggings as me.

Also, Target is becoming American Apparel and it's funny.

IF you happen to be in the university/cultural center/midtown area of downtown Detroit tomorrow during the hours of 11AM to 5PM, tune your radio dial to 104.9FM to catch Isaac Royale, possibly a couple other REPORT contributors, and myself on "Radio Caroline"--at least Detroit's Dadaist satellite counterpart.

DETHLAB will be hosting, interviewing, and deejaying the program, and they've come up with a truly riveting, thought-provoking and most importantly, entertaining itenerary. To quote 1/2 of Dethlab, Burnlab editor, designer, blogger, and friend Mike Doyle:

"The main theme of Saturday's program is DIY culture. The social, political and especially business models of the 20th century are literally collapsing before our eyes. Forward thinking artists and entrepreneurs are defining a new glocal economy and innovating creative and aggressive re-use of existing infrastructures. This is a topic near and dear to our hearts, and we cherish the opportunity to present it in the context of an art installation cum pirate radio broadcast."

HERE'S a lineup:

(All times subject to change.)

11AM - 12PM: Dethlab morning deejay set
12PM - 1PM: Interview with Bruce Sterling
1PM - 1:45PM: Interview with Rob Walker
1:45PM - 2:30PM: Interview with Veronica Vasicka
2:30PM - 3:15PM: Interview and deejay set with Detroit Techno Militia
3:15PM - 4PM: Interview and deejay set with GOD CLUB
4PM - 5PM: Dethlab evening deejay set

If you happen to know where we're broadcasting from (it's a public venue), feel free to come by!

...It's good enough for you.

This is the best spring collection that I have seen in a long time. The Chalayan swirl/oil spill dip dye print is used by another house, but I couldn't remember which it was or if it was also in Paris...I know Alexander McQueen is doing crazy shit with patterning but I don't think the swirl is exact...ANYWAY it's totally good gross and I love it.

I am glad the visual palette of this whole "freedom" centered nostalgia for the 1960's counterculture happening in the YOUTH MARKET has trickled up to something more PSYCHIC than psychedelic (SEE GARETH PUGH, BALENCIAGA, COMME DES GARCONS and VIVIENNE WESTWOOD!!!).

If these are the clothes for the next summer of love, '69 to '09, it looks like the backdrop will be condensed into an EXTREMELY cathartic overdose, and I can't wait!!!

Christian fundamentalism makes gay children. Thanks, mom.

Well, my grandma made me gay too with her obsession with Jean Claude van Damme. I will, in turn, have a sick obsession for the rest of my life.

What's up with this current electroclash hangover happening in the top 40 pop charts? The market is totally FILLED with the remains of the fad (or subgenre at its rare best) pumped up with some even cheesier angst-infused vocals, which had to be really hard to produce because I honestly didn't think it could get any worse than this:



But it totally did and turned into this:



And this:



And this:



And this:



Isn't this funny?

This viral marketing / "smart" advertising business has to fucking go. I was getting creeped out enough by ads pandering to my die-hard lust for "Punk Goth Singles" and "Unreleased Dance Music." But "New Wave Rugs?" Just how, HOW did the Internet figure out that I desire nothing more than this printed onto a "persian-style throw rug?"

Now that it's cold, it's weed hat season again.

This past Sunday, a few of us attended Guillermo Gomez-Pena’s “Mapa Corpo: Interactive Rituals for the New Millenium” at the DIA. The performance was a collaboration between Gomez-Pena and a few other performance based artists, one of which being Violeta Luna. Taking place in the DIA’s Rivera Court, Colonial and Neo-Colonial representations of ethnic and gendered Others were displayed on four screens while three stages displayed the physical performances of Gomez-Pena and his collaborators. The three stages were dedicated to demanding the consumption of imagery based on fetishized, ethnic Others while at the same time flipping these images onto their heads by making the audience witness the ways in which western colonialism—specifically U.S. cultural/political/physical-geographical imperialism constructs notions of the Other. At the same time, these performances based themselves on the ways that gender and sexuality (sexuality in the sexualized-bodies/owning one’s own sexual autonomy sense--not homo/hetero expected trash here; something more theoretical, structural) are intertwined within both the construction of the Other and the lived experiences these constructions create.

Tonight, and every Sunday at the Detroit Eagle (1501 Holden at Trumbull, Detroit, MI 48208), DISCO / SECRET presents a fabulous mixture of all things elegant enough to make you yearn for the glorious-yet-gone good old days of Italian discotheques and Eurotrash danceterias, even if you're too young to have experienced them.

Couple-dollar cocktails, a multi-level bar/nightclub jam-packed with homoerotic ephemera (picture a masculine, rustic queer Applebee's on ketamine with a poppers bottle in hand), a jumbled mix of pre-digital electronic gems and noveau anthems, a steady cast of attractive resident deejays, a Bose soundsystem (who would've thought? Oh, Detroit and your hidden marvels...), and more, topped with free entry.

Need I say more? Oh, okay.



[Thanks, Mr. Justin Ruppel, aka vipfake on youtube, for sharing.]

Links:

DISCO / SECRET (secret mixes to download and a flyer gallery)
DISCO / SECRET's myspace (much more)

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As an aside: Please login to myspace and send a literary turd to good old Tom, regarding the recent unfounded and abrupt removal of DISCO / SECRET's original myspace account, for simply uploading a tasteful butt shot.

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And another: That video really makes me miss GOD CLUB's good friend, Sam Consiglio. Here's a full perfomance video of this troupe, PERFECT WEINERS AND BUTTS.

STEVIE has been perplexing midwestern audiences for going on five years with his weirdo-audio-visual-electronic-punk-barrage stageshow, which consists of self-centric, erotically charged, improvised video projections, live singing and beat manipulation, thrashing, and clothes taking off, along with many more constantly changing elements. He's released tracks on two cult label comps, a fistful of promos, and most predominantly, in uncharted novel arenas, such as one-time-only releases crafted for specific gallery shows and internet spamming. Today, for your pleasure, we'd like to offer you a demo, entitled "LETDOWN."

I THOUGHT I'D take the opportunity to formally start off this open-ended editorial which we'd like to call the GOD CLUB DAILY REPORT. My name's David Blunk, II. I'm a twentysomething, gangly, odd-haired, unabashed electronic punk multimedia artist living in Detroit, USA. My co-conspirators and I, collectively known as GOD CLUB, after more than a year of planning and production, have decided to start presenting you with items, artists, ideas, sounds, videos, etc. that we find relevant for quite a few reasons. Here's a list of the most important ones:

• (SUB) CULTURAL VALUE: We tend to dig deep to find the degenerate, hyper-productive, scarily in-your-face fringe of renegade creative output, and want nothing more than to help those that create said output gain a wider exposure and access to critique and discussion.
• WAYWARD IDEOLOGICAL/POLITICAL/APOLITICAL STANCE: We passionately desire to highlight and exhibit, along with the output of, the stories behind individuals we encounter who are doing, living, breathing, and ACTING OUT outside of normativity.
• TACT & HUMOR: Much like ourselves, we wish to give you access to others who make quite a serious and valid statement with what they do all while maintaining a thought-out balance of earnestness, lowbrow/bathroom humor, well-kept, classy tact (heretofore referred to as CLACT), and openness.

WE AIM TO expose you to something new (or at least new to you) at the very least, daily. We have an intital loose deadline of one of our contributors posting to the REPORT by each day's evening. Keep in mind, we are virgins to "web-logging (heretofore referred to as blogging)," and this loose deadline could, in fact, be highly conceptual. This should have no reflection on our true, ever present desire, need even, to keep this REPORT relevant, even avante.

WE'LL ACCOMPLISH THIS in a multitude of ways (we have a lot of tricks up our glittery, flouncy, well-tailored sleeves...). We'll be highlighting individuals, labels, collectives, movements, darlings and dandies. We'll be interviewing movers and shakers, rabble-rousers, juvenile delinquents, slutty debutantes, writers, accordionists, and the occasional pet cat. We'll be uploading radio shows, songs, and deejay mixes by ourselves, our friends, and our idols. We'll be pointing you to videos, other blogs, interactive art, and galleries that provoke, entertain, chide, disdain, and illuminate. And, finally, we'll be showcasing our own individual projects, events, happenings, accolades, and epiphanies when they...well, happen.

ALL OF THIS, to initiate and introduce you to one of our main slogans, FOR YOUR PLEASURE. As your moderator, please consider this: If you're so inclined, always feel free to send your thoughts and comments to me via commenting on an individual post, clicking my name in the "CONTRIBUTORS" sidebar and shooting off an email, or prodding me for a personal postal address. This is an ever-standing offer. I, and we, are here for YOU. If you'd like to know more about the theology and reasons behind what we're doing beside those that I've outlined here, please follow the link in the sidebar to godclub.org.

I look forward to what's to come.

With love,

David S. Blunk, II

INFORMATION FROM THE RUSSELL INDUSTRIAL CENTER PEOPLE'S ART FESTIVAL VIA VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION: