Saturday, December 17, 2005

St. Byron Werner Art Website!

SubGenius Saint Byron Werner has been making unusual original art since the early
70s. He is currently working in a style that is uniquely his own. Using
gift wrapping paper and various hole punches and scissors he creates a
psychedelic folk art paper mosaic, blazing with bright contrasting
colors and jumbled textures. His surfaces are alive, kinetic and
interactive with reflective elements and curious details. Photography
sometimes does not do them full justice. Computers are not used. This
is strictly a folk art, hands on approach. The meticulous detail gives
evidence to the long hours of careful assembly.

Commissions are welcome. Please contact the artist for details.

Artwork by Byron Werner web pages:
http://www.rockseye.com/werner/

Contact Byron Werner:
col.bleep@netzero.com

Friday, December 16, 2005

Ultimate Xistlessnessmas Holiday Rerun Hour of Slack

Hour of Slack 1026: Ultimate Xistlessnessmas Mix

Rerun of #867 (& 921), which was itself a condensation of the previous year's 3-show "Best of Xmas Sickness" compilation, which were themselves the concentrated best-of from 15 years' worth of previous Xmas SubGenius and other Xmas weirdo collections.

MP3: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=15584

Stereo Ogg and mono mp3: http://subgenius.com/ts/hos.html

For folks with old timey modems, that mono mp3 is quite a small file, only 10 mb.

Also just put online is the latest of the SubG-OverTheEdge-Puzzling Evidence Thanksgiving Executive Banquet III and JFK Assassination Investigation, Hour of Slack #1025:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=15580 for the stereo mp3.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Zillions of free SubGenius Videos

Over twenty are already posted, and more coming!

Just about ANYBODY can now view the main SubGenius videos (including excerpts from the newly revamped ARISE!). Over twenty are already posted, and more coming!

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=SubGenius

NOTE: Two of the videos, "Public Service Announcement" and "Dobbs DeMeditator," were not posted by me. These may be the first two that appear on the screen; don't let them deter you. There are two pages listing a dozen videos each. The best one to start with would be "SubGenius Commercial," if you have't seen it, or the ARISE clip called "Life of "Bob"."

This Video Google thing can be pretty habit-forming. The oddest things come up when you use its search engine. I typed in "nudity" for the search, and on the first page I got (among other things with little or no actual nudity) the SubVids BUG PORN and X-DAY'S A-COMIN'.

Seeing "BUG PORN $1" on that screen in exactly that way completes a
circle -- years ago, I had a dream of seeing bug close-ups with the
blinking bold red phrase "BUG PORN $1" on an internet movie, and that's
what prompted me to start actually putting together that movie. Which
may be one reason the narrative of the movie actually makes no kind of
sense at all.

I need to go back in and add keywords to most of the movies'
descriptions. I'll put them in a secret place where the video uploader
put the transcript, if there is one -- which nobody else sees yet. The
search engine looks for those words, though. That's why if you use
"triceratops" for the search it'll pull up a dumb Japanese rock band
and Day of the SubGenius -- which is based on Brag of the SubGenius,
which text is what I pasted in for the transcript.

OTHER VIDEO NEWS: iPod, phone versions of ARISE!, other SubGenius shorts
posted


iPOD-ready versions of several shorts -- and THE WHOLE ARISE! --- are
on a.b.m.s. Yes, ALL OF ARISE! in iPod-ready m4v format (mpeg4 with a
twist of lemon). Only 400 mb! (posted in easy-to-assemble RAR parts
with special PARS in case any of the RARs are missing)

Also posted are teeny-tiny versions of ARISE! (the whole movie, in
sizes from 25 mb to 70 mb) ready for various types of mobile phones --
3GP format and AMC -- and a WMV version that's the teeniest yet, just
for the hell of it.

I also put some of these onto the Usenet groups alt.binaries.ipod.videos and alt.binaries.warez.pocketpc.movies

If any of you all-net-capable kids wanted to put these smallish files into circulation
some other way besides Usenet, that'd be great. I don't even know what
the other parts of the Internet are CALLED. All your peer to peer
stuff. Where you let your computers directly sniff each others' butts.
Let me know, is all I ask, so I can put a link to them on SubSITE.


A.b.m.s. also sports the full-res DivX avi of ARISE (from last week)
and an mpeg4 hi-res version, posted a month ago.

This is the REVISED ARISE!, with a lot of fixes and new footage. The ARISE! DVD in our catalog likewise is the new version. It has 45 minutes of Extra Features, too, that the old DVD didn't have: the Censored Scenes, 6X-Day, Bug Porn, 2 X-Day music videos ("X-Day's A-Comin'" and "Planet X or Bust"), Sosodada's Dobbstown travel ad, Onan's Confession, and Cobblestone's "Mapped Out 2".

I recut ARISE! video like a house-afire. I started out
intending merely to change some addresses and prices in the old
version, and pack some extras into the DVD (like the out-takes), but I
got to picking my way through the entire thing, replacing shots here
and fixing little niggling errors there. I must've made 300 changes.
It's REALLY different... much better looking.

Where there used to be shitty shots of great artwork, now it's great
shots of great artwork. Where there used to be crappy silent movie
footage in some places, now there's full-scale CGI. Like for instance,
Dobbstown used to be represented by some ripped-off shot from a silent
Atlantis movie or whatnot. Now it's REALLY DOBBSTOWN in full glorious
CGI. The Wings of Slack rise over cities as sunset-lit clouds stream
overhead. Melty psychedelic Dobbsheads that were impressive in 1986
have been replaced by melty psychedelic Dobbsheads that were impressive
in 2006.

Sequences that were once one dull shot of an old graphic are now
BARRAGES of DOZENS of new graphics. Or oldishly-new graphics (mostly
Nenslo, me and LeMur). I even added updated end-credits so that
Nenslo's name is spelled right. His was the last name listed on the old
credits roll and it was spelled "Orton Neslo."

There are excellent mpeg4 and divX avi copies on alt.binaries.multimedia.slack for
those who can't wait for the revised DVD, will never pay for it, and
who know what an mp4 is and how to download a 686 mb file from a
binaries Usenet group, which I figure narrows it down to about 5
people.

The mpeg4 plays on video iPods. Some DVD players will
play mpeg4 or avi, some won't.

Old ARISE! watchers will not be able to detect anything MISSING, but
you'll see a lot of NEW stuff. The old version of ARISE was finished in
1991... but this new version has glimpses and even whole added clips of
(relatively) newer SubGenii like Rev. Susie the Floozie, Rev. Nickie
Deathchick, Rev. Carter LeBlanc, The Amino Acids, Lonesome Cowboy Dave
etc.

OK OK SLACK SLACK

Here's a fun "Bob" sound game to do and play

http://www.leanbackproductions.com/streams/slack/

The fine folks at Leanback Productions (or so they say) have completed
this hypnotic interactive noisemaker. You access this ongoing stream of
audio loops from the site, then click on a colorful Dobbshead -- each
click causes the configuration of random audio loops to change. Some of
the loops are musical and some are from the SubSITE Sound Holes, so
what come up are randomly-grabbed combos of music and old-timey
SubGenius ranting. If you like a loop, you click in the red areas near
the Pipe, and if you don't like something, you click in the blue upper
hairdo areas of the Dobbshead. This "ranks" the loop, and changes the
stream to another randomly-selected one.

So far, only the maker and I have diddled with it, but in theory, as
more people monkey with it, it becomes more complex.

As I understand it, which may not be saying much, there is some math
behind this that's new, which may be of interest to programmers.

My only problem with it is that it takes like 8 seconds for the change
to occur after my clicks, which I think is because the signal has to go
to London and back for the change to register.

I had extra fun with it, because it forced me to install the free Mac
audio prog "WHAMB," which streams OGG files that iTunes won't stream,
and I'm always glad when I'm forced to install a superior free program