An interview with Pleasant Gehman: writer, vocalist, promoter, and actress from the first wave of Los Angeles punk. This interview took place in Winter of 2011. One night a friend laughingly joked with me that no matter how hard you try to fight or deny it, habits tend to eventually come back full circle, sometimes startling you when you unexpectedly catch a glimpse of your past re-emerging in the present. Before the internet, the history of punk's early days -barring the hazy memories of those who were at the shows and the parties- was available either through mainstream media that, by nature and almost witho ...
an interview with Godfrey Reggio - director of the film, Koyaanisqatsi spring 2011 --- [ introduction ] On a visit to Las Vegas, Nevada, one evening I was lead into the desert. After the sun went down, we left the parked car beside the highway and set off in the direction of the river, the direction of the darkened night sky. Through washes that wound into deeper and narrower canyons, until we emerged onto the open banks of the river. We helped each other over rocks, up inclines, across sloped smoothed banks that had the moonlight glow in its orange sandy surface, and up the path of a stre ...
Susan Vaslev - theme park soundscape composer winter 2015/2016 --- [ introduction ] "Idiot Hill" was the name given to a small forested plot of land in a rural area bordering Oregon's capital city of Salem in the mid 1960's when Roger Tofte, an Oregon Department of Highways worker with no experience in running an amusement park, would spend his free time pouring and shaping bags of cement following an idea to construct just that - an amusement park that could become a haven for his and other local children living in the quiet area. Built in his hours after work and on weekends, while taking on ...
Mack Evasion - author of the book, Evasion winter 2010/2011 --- [ introduction ] { Outside the snow fell. It was nearly 5am. We had just finished the interview. Standing up, he said, 'I think I know this place in this building...' } The late 90's and early 2000's diy punk scene seemed to exist on scams and secrets passed between forever-young kids with dirty clothes and squeaky bikes. Amongst my friends, there was an unspoken determination that adventure took precedent over jobs, and in hindsight, the afternoons spent on the river in hand-built rafts and the photocopied zines carried on cross-cou ...
Neil Robinson - punk vocalist, squatter and food grower autumn 2011 --- [ introduction ] I've heard it said that one of the hardest distances to bridge is that of the distrust between two strangers. As the afternoon sun began to settle, we had finally weeded the last of the kale beds, pulled some of the last of the season's beets, and cleared what we could of the overgrown tomato plants inside the sweltering greenhouse. We had awoken at some ungodly early hour to get here to help out for a day. The tinny music of a simple crank radio wafted through the air, provided it was positioned just right an ...