After a twenty-hour drive in a cramped VW Golf, a three-hour nap (disrupted every five minutes by dubstep pulsing from our neighbor Joel’s minivan), and a full day of concert-going, the Oregon Voice Coachella Committee wandered as close as we could to the main stage where Friday’s headliner, Jay-Z, was scheduled to perform. Despite our aching ankles and heavy eyelids, we were determined to give the “greatest rapper alive” (but what rapper isn’t) our fullest attention. With the help of his hypeman and longtime friend Memphis Bleek, Jay-Z fired off hit after hit: “H.O.V.A.,” “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” “Beware of the Boys,” “Big Pimpin’,” “Hard Knock Life.” It was the creme of his crop, a retelling of his prolific career.  As he bounced around the stage engaging his ocean of adorers, his energy never waned, although at the two-hour mark his voice took on a worn, hoarse texture. Behind him, towering three-dimensional JumboTron structures displayed hypnotizing imagery. When the time came for Jay-Z to play his recent hit, “Empire State of Mind,” the screens conveyed helicopter footage of New York’s glimmering skyline. At this point, Jigga had fulfilled all his requirements. He could have retired for the night, and everyone would have been satisfied. But he proceeded to ice Coachella’s cake. He invited out “somebody super duper special”: arguably the world’s flyest diva, his lover, Beyoncé Knowles. The two of them performed a rendition of “Young Forever” as fireworks erupted from the stage. I walked away with a reaffirmed conviction that Jay-Z is a gangster.

On day two my Coachella high intensified when I witnessed Major Lazer, a Dancehall crew comprised of two American DJs (Diplo and Switch) and a Jamaican psychopath with an affinity for partying (Skerrit Bwoy). They gained Youtube notoriety with their freaky deaky videos, creations of Adult Swim’s Tim and Eric. In the video for “Pon De Floor,” Skerrit Bwoy and the track’s two guest artists bump their pelvises against the booties of their female counterparts. This creative sort of dry-humping, known to Dancehall enthusiasts as ‘daggering,’ featured prominently in Major Lazer’s Coachella performance. Instead of playing the individual tracks from their lauded album, Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do, Diplo and Switch kept bassy beats playing continuously, interwoven with samples from the album and punctuated by sound effects (blow horns, zapping laser guns, and the words “Major Lazer” pronounced in a Jamaican accent). But regardless of a DJ’s skill, watching DJs spin is never much of a spectacle. That’s where Skerrit Bwoy comes in. Throughout the party, he and a wedding-dressed dancer paraded around the stage vigorously daggering one another. Into his wireless microphone, Skerrit Bwoy yelled a few phrases repeatedly: “We party every day!” “Major Lazer in the club. We crazy in the club!” and “We are the solution!” The party culminated when Skerrit Bwoy set up a ladder in the middle of the stage, mounted it, dropped his jeans to his ankles, jumped onto the bride’s upturned butt, and daggered away.

After she repeated in kind, descending several feet onto Skerrit Bwoy crotch, she approached the table where Diplo and Switch were spinning, balanced firmly on her head, and shook her ass in ways that I, sadly, will never be able to. What was possibly the sweatiest, craziest, crackingest party I’ve ever attended, was just another night’s work for Major Lazer.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

“Nancy! Come quick. There’s trouble on the University of Oregon campus!” Noah exclaimed. His brow was furrowed, he looked concerned.

“Oh my goodness!” Nancy yelped.

“I biked all the way back to the Campbell Club after leaving the Dance-Off just to tell you about it, since you’re such a super mystery-solver,” added Scot, Editor-in-Chief of the Oregon Voice. He was exasperated.

Nancy Drew’s blue eyes twinkled. “Tell me the details!” she urged them.

The two boys explained to Nancy that there had been a Dance-Off between the Oregon Voice and Ethos Magazine that night. On his way home after celebrating a glorious victory, Noah had come to find that the Voice distribution box near the library had been broken.

“It was fully intact when I left work at the library this afternoon,” Scot related.

“Let’s not be hasty,” Nancy insisted. “After all, while it seems we have an idea of exactly the kind of person who would do such a thing, we can never be sure.”

The boys agreed. Alas, Nancy had another case to solve, and she would not rest until she brought the culprits to justice.

Until the next chapter… I leave you all with this image of a very sad Noah the next morning when we scoped the scene in the daylight…

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I arrived out the WOW Hall and the band Good Friday was playing and praising Jesus while playing acoustic guitars. Their music was decent, but I was not expecting to hear Christian camp songs so I ran outside and waited for the next band.

The next band, the Horribalistics, true to their name, certainly didn’t put on a great show. They’re another generic punk band. They played loud, fast and simple, but lacked the raw energy and anger that style of music requires to create a great show. They were unable to draw in the crowd, but they were following a Christian band. Any fans of the previous band were probably now offended and left.

The bands that stood out were Drebin and Tullis. Tullis put on a great show except that they sound too much like Floater without enough variation to create their own style. Unlike putting a punk band after a Christian band, Tullis was a good way to get the crowd ready for the next band: Drebin.

Drebin also sounds similar to Floater, but Drebin distances themselves from a Floater clone because their sound is  funkier because of their loud, funky and aggressive slap bass style thanks to the bass playing of Derik Sibert although they are a bass-driven band like Floater.  Matching the bass styling is the drummer, Ian Samhammer, with his excellently timed, loud and aggressive style of drumming. Samhammer’s creative drumming is the best part of Drebin.

Samhammer met Drebin through mutual friends when they had a different drummer before Samhammer joined the band. They have been playing for a few years together. Each song of Drebin’s, while they are similar in style, does not fall into the trap that so many bands do: not all of their songs sound exactly alike.

“The band is fun and interesting and not all the songs sound the same,” said Samhammer.

Sibert led Drebin and the crowd confidently onstage with their bass-driven sound that nicely complements his low-pitched vocal stylings. The only weakness of Drebin is the the guitarist, Kurt Schreiner, seems to get lost in what to play onstage and lacks the confidence of his counterparts, which hurts his playing. It is hard to play guitar well in a highly bass-driven band, but strong guitar playing is what lacks in Drebin. Also, Schreiner lacks the chemistry that Samhammer and Sibert have onstage together.

Drebin, unfortunately, were not given their fair share of their time slot and they had the audience at their fingertips when the plug was literally pulled out of their amp forcing them to stop playing. Because Drebin was sharing their equipment with Tullis, they were not given any set up time even though it took them ten minutes to tune their instruments and they were only given a 20 minute set that should have been 30 minutes. The crowd was cheering loudly for them when their set was stopped abruptly.

The WOW hall was rented out by the promotion company Nemesis Entertainment and they could not have ran the show any worse. The band that clearly had the most fans had the shortest time slot. As A Vision in Gray, after Drebin, started playing the audience diminished and they played for twice as long as Drebin.

A Vision in Gray was a mix of Emo and Metal and they just couldn’t pull of the mix of styles all that well. Not that I am really a fan of Emo anyway. There was a keyboard in their band that was out of place.

I am glad I live in Eugene where I can always catch a show of local talent, but I hope that I never have to suffer through Nemesis Entertainment organizing a show again.

Related posts:

1. Mr. Deacon Comes to Eugene. Dan deacon gave the kids of Eugene a taste...
2. Phantograms Never Die Phantogram’s haunting, post-electronic dream pop oozes a certain amount...
3. ‘Spoon’ing tonight at McDonald Theater Tonight, the McDonald Theater welcomes Austin, Texas based band...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We’re filing for compensation currently. Have it be known that we originally called it “Rent-A-Puppy” but expanded to “Pooch” because we believe old dogs can do new tricks and deserve the chance to help with dating.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Please refrain from laughing (too hard) at our interview shyness.

Related posts:

1. Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head: “Oregon Voice > Oregon Trail” Prior to their free concert hosted by the University of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Now that the Summer sun has burned many of our ears, necks and backs, we write to you with an update – a progress report of sorts.  As noted in our last post, we have a plethora of projects that we’re trying to accomplish before Fall rolls around and here’s where we stand thus far:

Revamp website
Acquire new distribution boxes
Paint new distribution boxes
Replace broken Plexiglas in boxes around campus (About 1/3 fixed.)
Scan and archive Volume 14 and others not on website
Create master distribution list, distribute to more places (It’s still growing, but we have a good start.)
Clean/Reorganize office (It’s reorganized but not clean.  Does it need to be?)
Plan Rent-a-Pooch IV (Set for October 21st.)
Organize U of O Student Media Summit
Bind and archive volumes not already in library
Blog, blog, blog
Build roller-coaster (It’s very rickety.)
Drink beer (Can we ever really cross this one out?)

While there are some items that have been taken care of, there is much more to accomplish.  If you’d like to get involved and help us help you and the entire student body, give us a shout via the contact form.

Related posts:

1. As A Reminder! Tickets to the Pixies’ upcoming Doolittle 20th-Anniversary tour went on...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If you’ve left for summer vacation and want us to mail you a print copy, let us know via the contact form and we’ll gladly accommodate you.

Special thanks to all the past contributers who found time in their busy schedules to send us a remembrance and for allowing us to reprint their words. Hopefully you enjoy the issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

While this was our last issue of the school year, don’t think we’re going to be simply taking it easy until school starts up again in the fall. Here’s a list of the projects we have in store for the summer months:

Revamp website
Acquire new distribution boxes
Paint new distribution boxes
Replace broken Plexiglas in boxes around campus
Scan and archive Volume 14 and others not on website
Create master distribution list, distribute to more places
Clean/Reorganize office
Plan Rent-a-Pooch IV
Organize U of O Student Media Summit
Bind and archive volumes not already in library
Blog, blog, blog
Build roller-coaster
Drink beer

If you want to give us a hand and hang out with cool people, get at us.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

[i] Historic Bailout Bill Passes Congress, Bush Signs, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Associated Press , 10/3/2008, <http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/financial_meltdown>  Notable in that Obama, Bush, & McCain all supported this measure. 

[ii] The Iraq War Will Cost Us 3 Trillion, And Much More, Linda J Biljmes and Joseph E. Steiglitz, for the Washington Post, 3/9/2008, page B01. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846.html>  The total tab for the Federal government is roughly 1.5 trillion, the other 1.5 trillion is in other assorted costs to society (for instance, the lost labor of disabled persons or those family that now must care for them).

[iii] All of these issues deserve a much more thorough accounting, for now a few footnotes citing broad overviews will have to suffice.  Fun documentaries have been given precedence.  Because lord knows we have enough to read already.

[iv] VIDEO: Conversations with History: Chalmers Johnson, moderated by Harry Kreisler, Executive Director of Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley, interview with Chalmers Johnson,  President of the Japan Policy Research Institute.  Recorded 1/29/2004  <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQi4-97GXrI>

[v] VIDEO: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Understanding the Media, directed by Mark Achbar, a documentary based on book of same title by Noam Chomsky/Edward Herman published in 1988.   <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5631882395226827730&hl=en>  Explores the propaganda model of understanding the media.  Long, but gripping.

VIDEO: You Can’t Print That! Conversations with George Seldes, documentary outline of book of same title, concerning censored and rewritten events from 1918-1928, written by George Seldes in 1929.    <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2831405867075843529>  Another fine example of how censorship that doesn’t rely on overt methods is that much more effective in masquerading as truth.  Also lots of fun stuff tactfully omitted in textbooks. 

[vi] VIDEO: Corporations in the Classroom, directed by Jill Sharpe for Global Currents, “Character-driven Stories about socially relevant issues of importance to all Canadians.” 4/7/2007 <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6389522346340441292>  Includes a section on Eugene, Oregon towards the end.  This type of behavior is completely illegal in the civilized world, read: Europe.

[vii] National Debt Clock <http://zfacts.com/p/461.html> The most oft cited figure is 9.6 trillion, but this refers only to the general fund, and does not include the various trust funds running surpluses.  Though that money is already needed to for its stated purposes, it is misleading to ignore the other sectors of government finance when speaking of a “national debt”

[ix] Union Members Summary, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1/25/2008 <http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm> “Union members accounted for 12.1 percent of employed wage and salary workers, essentially unchanged from 12.0 percent in 2006.  In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent.”  And this is down still from the post WWII period, when union membership was held by roughly a third of workers.

[ix] The War on Properly Sourcing strikes again, no footnote for you!

[x] US Prison Population Dwarfs That of Other Nations, Adam Liptak, International Herald Tribune, 4/8/2008.  <http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/23/america/23prison.php>  The US incarceration rate is 751 prisoners per 100,000 population, trailed by Russia at 627, and Cuba at 531.     

[xi] Homelessness in the Almanac of Policy Issues, 2000.  <http://www.policyalmanac.org/social_welfare/homeless.shtml>  This source is kinda vague and slightly dubious.  If they have an ulterior agenda its hidden behind some poor graphic design.  Deal with it.

[xii] I’d recommend <blacklistednews.com> for all the best freaky libertarian NWO martial law conspiracy stuff, and <counterpunch.org> for  the best progressive analysis I have yet found on the interweb.

[xiii] Video: Robert Reich: How Unequal Can America Get? Robert Reich is the former U.S. Secretary of Labor and visiting professor at the Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.  Lecture delivered May 2005.  <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4623998755332523513>  Some very interesting conjecture about possible outcomes, in his view inequality is a rubber band, which will either snap at some extreme or gradually loosen through implementation of progressive policies..

[xiv] Kids these days and their youtubes, honestly.  <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5WiE6MnmCM>  I was tempted to rick roll you, but decided better of it, you’re welcome.

[xv] Witness the recent bailout bill, but this is such a pervasive phenomenon in our society that Congress can only shoulder some small fraction of the blame.

[xvi] Currently in places like Colombia, Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, England, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc., historically in China, Russia, Nicaragua, Panama, Phillipines, Chile, South Africa, Cuba, Haiti, Vietnam, seriously, I could keep going.

[xvii] The Vietnam War (or the “American War” as it is referred to there) alone accounts for 2 million dead in a completely futile and antidemocratic endeavor, that continues to take lives to this day in the form of unexploded ordinance and  mutations caused by deforestation chemicals.  (Chomsky makes an excellent point that cognitively, the US still believes that it was defending South Vietnam, when in fact US soldiers were invading it, killing mostly South Vietnamese partisans, and using a puppet regime for civil administration and the eventual failed “Vietnamization.”)  No doubt a similar situation will pervade Iraq and Afghanistan for the next few decades due to the use of depleted uranium ammunition and extensive air strikes.  Tally the deaths in America’s numerous other wars, various economic sanctions, the genocide of Native Americans, and the funding of militarists and authoritarians in the aforementioned countries, and lord only knows if we break positive in comparison to the amount of lives saved through the results of our few “good” wars and scattered economic aid.  My biased guess is no, but really, no one will ever know, and its near useless to even try, as I just have.

[xix] Millionaires Fill US Congress Halls, Agence France Press, 6/30/2004. <http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0630-05.htm>

[xx] 638 Ways to Kill Castro directed by Dollan Cannell for Channel 4.  2007.  <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2695497521595164067>  This charming documentary chronicles the adroitness of the CIA at fucking up assassination attempts (which are HELLAZ illegal by any and all standards).

[xxi] Barack Obama’s Top Contributers, Center for Responsive Politics 2008.   Accessed 10/4/08 <http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638>

[xxii] VIDEO: Stealing a Nation: Special Report by John Pilger on Diego Garcia, Granada Television, 2004. <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3667764379758632511> Diego Garcians are better referred to as Chaggosians, but if I wrote, “Chaggosians, fuck off and die already”, even I wouldn’t have caught the reference.

[xxiii] Congressional District Analysis and Insight.  Proximity, (who the fuck is that?), 10/4/2008.  <http://proximityone.com/cd.htm>  The largest states, incidentally, also have some of the largest multicultural populations – NY, CA, TX. 

[xxiv] Private Property and the Limits of American Constitutionalism. by Jennifer Nedelsky, University of Chicago Press 1994.  James Madison quoted therein “The Senate ought to come from and represent the wealth of the nation.” p.56.

[xxv] Reelection Rates Over the Years.  Center for Responsive Politics, 2008. <http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php?cycle=2006>  For Representatives the reelection rate is consistently around 90-95%, 98% in 3 of the last 5 elections.  Senatorial races are more volatile, owing to higher stakes and more well-financed oppositions, but still get reelected on average about 80-85% of the time, at least in the last 26 years following the tumultuous “Reagan revolution.”  Senator’s terms are also thrice as long, making their temporal staying power longer in relation to the representatives than the stats would suggest.

[xxvi] VIDEO: Conversations with History: John Pomfret, moderated by Harry Kreisler, Executive Director of Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley.  Recorded 1/29/2004  <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO5KJxTAIjQ>  What’s even more frightening is the the persistence of “deep government,” the bureaucracies that can successfully resist control by any elected authority or their appointees at that top of such organizations.

[xxvii] VIDEO: Conversations with History: Ronald Dellums, moderated by Harry Kreisler, Executive Director of Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley, Interview with Ronald Dellums, former member of U.S. House of Representatives.  Recorded 2/10/2000  <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4067131032689627583>  One of the few good apples from the House, representing Oakland, was Ronald Dellums.  Here is an interview that shows what we should be expecting from our representatives.  None of this “Jobs. Roads. Less Crime.” bullshit.

[xxvi] National Debt Clock <http://zfacts.com/p/461.html> This figure is derived from taking the net national debt (5,790,720,000,000$ as of 9/24/2008) and dividing it by the population of the US, a.303 million.  See note vii.  Honestly there are a bajillion ways to calculate the “national debt.”  This is partly due to the intentionally confusing and misleading way the government accounting system works. 

Taxpayers on the Hook for 59 Trillion. Dennis Cauchon, USA Today 5/29/2007. <http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-28-federal-budget_N.htm?csp=34>  This article makes the claim that the debt could be much higher, if calculated using corporate standards, accommodating commitments already made for future payments.  I’m trying not to be an ‘alarmist,’ any more so than I already have, and have used the lowball figure.

[xxvii] Joke stolen from a Mr. Fish cartoon titled “Obama’s New Direction.”

      <http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/20070212_mr_fish_obamas_new_direction>

[xxviii] Are we Politicians or are we Citizens?  Howard Zinn, The Progressive, May 2007.  <www.progressive.org/mag_zinn0507> 

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.