









	Autumn Fair

How to Destroy the Universe Festival

Free Audio Histories:

Links
old web site

dadaclub.com

How to Destroy the Universe
Extreme Art, Music, Bands and Performance Festival Series

PRESS from the Event

"We intend to Destroy all dogmatic verbal systems..."

--William S. Burroughs RE/Search interview

MENU:

QUESTIONS? Email "destroy2info 'at' Mobilization.com for a prompt response

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http://kumr.lns.com/mailman/listinfo/mobilization
(This is a completely private list, and you can remove yourself at any time.)

Kiki's assessment

F-Space was putting together a show called "How To Destroy The Universe,
part 2" for Hiroshima Day -- the first being held on Pearl Harbor Day last
year -- and since the Shipyard had already committed to "entirely
rebuilding the Universe from scratch" as a long-term but central goal, the
show seemed altogether too perfect to host at the Shipyard.

The Shipyard is the brainchild of Jim Mason -- a lot with a small warehouse
on it, surrounded by metal trans-pacific shipping containers -- each one a
workshop for a Bay Area metal artist. These shops are small and cheap, but
have access to a shared outdoor work yard -- perfect for cash-strapped
large-scale artists would could never afford such a resource
individually. Also, an amazing community of top-notch artists, intelligent
and wise in the fire arts. We help eachother, and share knowledge and
resources. Together we know the correct orifice size for a given flame
thrower size, the proper mix of gas and diesel for a good liquid fuel flame
effect, how to keep your propane tanks from freezing, where to get
stainless steel wool to keep your pilot light from blowing out in the
desert winds, and so on...

We had committed to running Egeria -- our 3-tier, 12' tall water fountain
on fire. Ryon committed to retrieving his giant Eye sculpture that sits a
top 30' tall legs. [He had moved it to another warehouse for a party
there, and needed to bring it back anyway.] Barbara, of Therm fame, also
committed to finish her Harpie sculpture for the show -- two-headed fire
breathing bird made of stainless steel, run with propane, that pops,
billows, spikes, sparkles, and many other effects.

Jim Mason [a bit burned out from 3 years of managing the Shipyard itself]
also talked about doing another Ice sculpture -- a frozen body of ice with
gears and bolts and bits of metal frozen inside so that as it melts, the
bits fall onto noise-making pieces of metal, and adding throughout the
night to the general sound and chaos of the "music" being made by the bands
playing.

Jim built a 14' diameter Ice Ball at Burning Man in 1997 -- so he is well
known for his ice. He also bought 2 refrigerated ["reefer"] containers
among the 27 shipping containers that make up the artist studios at the
Shipyard, for the purpose of being able to make more ice sculptures in the
future. This, he hoped, was to be one of those times.

Egeria: http://burningideas.com/firefall/egeria
The Eye: http://burningideas.com/fuckmachine
Barbara's sculptures: http://www.therm.biz/babz.html
The Ice Ball: http://whatiamupto.com/TemporalDecomposition/index.html
The show itself: http://mobilization.com/destroy.html

The line up of bands and artwork grew and expanded. Newspapers advertised,
and some claimed it as "pick of the week". Radio stations advertised
incessantly. Barbara's harpie swelled into "Barbara Kruse's three headed
dragon" in one writeup. This was going to be BIG. This was to be the
biggest show the Shipyard had done since Berkeley tried to shut us down and
took our electrical meter. We now have a Use Permit. We're legal. We
bought the permits for the show. It was Time.

The show was packed with some of the best fire art in the Bay Area, and
some of the loudest and bizarre acts across California. It was to be
loud. It was to induce trance. It was meant to disturb.

And even before the first show began, some cracks in the Universe began to
appear...

It began with Ryon starting a betting pool that Jim -- notorious for not
quite finishing projects on time -- would or would not get his Ice project
done in time for the show. The bet was whether he would be done by
midnight saturday night -- by the end of the last of the two shows.

This all because Jim had begun to waver, even though he had some volunteers
wanting to see it get done.

The bets came in. Insults started to fly. The stakes started to rise.

Ryon's Eye appeared sometime sunday, I think, but remained loaded on the
flatbed until around wednesday -- two days before the first show. On
thursday, Ryon started cutting some pieces off and rewelding them back
on. He had some "minor" changes he wanted to make. I thought this was
ridiculous -- "just put it up!" But Ryon is the true artist. And true
Shipyard artist -- not content with an easy install...

Jim took a look at the reefer, I think, tuesday. It was low on
refrigerant, and not getting cold enough. Since I had fixed one of my
vending machines [with direction and lots of help from Peef], Jim asked me
to help. Well, a reefer is a bit bigger than a vendo, and I had my own
projects going on, so I couldn't help. It wasn't looking good for getting
ice frozen.

About this time, Chicken John put $200 riding for anyone who could make Jim
cry.

Jim called a service man, and the reefer got serviced on wednesday
morning. Bets increased for Jim succeeding. Jim put out a "cry for
help..." in Ryon's name, because the Eye was still laying on the ground.

Charlie rearranged all the stuff in the yard, cleaning it up for the
show. He and Jim decided to put in Jim's military DUKW to use for the
stage. [This is actually a much longer story, but I'm trying to stick to
the point here.] The DUKW looked *awesome*!! The show was being published
everywhere. The tension in the air that this was going to be an AMAZING
show was starting to build!!

...and the reefer was actually running and getting cold.

Note, that since Berkeley took our electrical meter, the Shipyard has been
off the grid. We run on a giant 35kw generator, and have recently created
a battery bank and inverter system so huge that we can actually
weld. Shipyardians built the system practically from scratch from mostly
salvage parts, hacking the inverters -- built originally to handle a backup
system -- to run 24/7 for a group of 25 metal artists. It is an amazing
and powerful system. But it has its issues. The genny overheats when the
hot tub is on. There are brownouts when the 3-phase, 15 horse lathe starts
up. It is *NOT* the grid.

On friday, around 6pm -- note the doors open at 8 -- Ryon gets his Eye in
the air. It towers magnificently over the DUKW stage, while F-Space does
their sound-check. The pounding of their instrument named "Thor"
reverberates around the hard metal shipping container bunker, and outward
into the sky.

Jim has the fiberglass body opened up and ready to receive the ice. He
brings in 2 trashcans of ice from the Odeon Bar [owned by Chicken John],
and takes them into the reefer.

The first show starts.

Scott and I were busy getting Egeria ready and running, so I don't remember
much of what happened at the show. Though I do remember Black Ice, because
I really liked what they played -- they're a lot like F-Space in their
intense percussiveness, and depth of sounds. Also, it was just simply an
*amazing* show, well attended for a friday night, and much the kind of
shows I hope to see at the Shipyard more often! I was dancing so hard to
F-Space I kept falling over. I got lost in my own head. It was awesome!

Once the show was over, Ryon pulls out the Shipyard fire barrel. We load
it up with wood and sit around peacefully, basking in the glow of a show
pulled off well, discussing the show to follow. Ryon works the crowd for
their bets. "C'mon, Scott! Put your money down, man! C'mon! Whatcha
got??" Ryon had to accost Ethan Port [F-Space memeber] three separate
times to get money out of him. His bet: "finished but lame." The Vendo
[my little vending service] bet a $10 roll of quarters: "Jim won't get it
done in time for the show, but *will* get it done in time for SIGgraph,
which starts on monday." [This was an inside joke -- his "G7 Stock
Puppets" were not finished at all for Burning Man, or even for the Burning
Man "Decompression" party, but he did get them installed and working the
following year for SIGgraph.]

Jim slinks out around 4am with two more empty trashcans. This is about
when we left for home.

Ryon reports that he returned around 5:30am or so with ice that he probably
got from every gas station he could find ice at. Barbara was also working
all night on her Harpie flaming bird heads. Jim asks her to wake
him. She's been thinking about that $200 bet, tempted not to wake him...

Saturday dawns, bright and sunny. The partial mess of the night before has
already been cleaned up by the time we arrive at the Shipyard, but there's
a big puddle in front of the front gate. Jim posted to the list, typed
with his claw-like frozen fingers [here's an excerpt]:

>last night the bands sounded great, or at least what i could hear of them
>from inside the refer container. jesus christ it is cold in those things.
>i can barely type at this pont from the frostbite. but the BODY OF BOLTS is
>solid as a rock as of 1pm. now i just have to figure out how to get the
>thing17' in the air, plumb it for gasoline, and build some interesting heap
>of metal scrap below it for all the stuff frozen inside to fall on as it
>melts. help on these minor details this afternoon and early (or potentially
>late) evening would be much appreciated.
>
>shit, the generator just shut off. i need to go.
>
>J

When we walk in, the generator sound-door is wide open and a giant fan is
leaning up against it. I'm laughing my ass off. The generator overheated,
and Peef put the garden hose on it to cool it. The puddle in front of the
gate now makes sense.

By the late afternoon, Jim is getting smug. The betting pool is nearing
$200 -- with still some pledges not yet handed in. This is looking to be a
serious thing. Another excerpt from Ryon:

> The odds so far: Pretty close, with those who bet for him pulling it off
> doing better should he succeed. 5:7, roughly. Jim's percentage is yet to
> be determined, but he put $40 on himself. Among those who bet, YOU THERE
> had better do something extreme in some direction soon, meaning make
> something dramatic happen immediately to alter the course of our futures
> here, or be forced to sit and suck on it...Your monetary fattening depends
> upon winning a meaningless made up art contest, so GET OVER HERE AND
> HARASS OR HELP JIM! NOW! We're down to 10 hours and 29 minutes...

The show starts with Ryon's band -- my first time seeing them! They are
loud and punk and ridiculous. Ryon is wearing some giant 70's sunglasses,
and a fez with a HUGE eyeball on it. He forces me and Scott into a mosh
pit -- my second ever. [I'm no punk rocker...] Binky, I believe, was next
-- an all-girl punk band that was actually really great! They wore white
and pink, and the lead singer could scream like a man. It was great.

Sometime around then, Jim drives the forklift through the crowd. [Note,
this ain't no trivial forklift -- it's a 12,000 pound, 33', two-stage
forklift we bought salvage from the Mare Island Navel Shipyard
auction.] He drives it into the skinny allyway next to Barry's 40'
container -- it barely fits. The body is on the ground, and volunteers are
gathered around.

F-Space is playing. It's after 11, and things are getting tense. Betters
Against are stealing tools from Jim and volunteers. Someone keeps turning
the forklift off. Someone stole the forklift key at one point. Jim
hotwires it. They steal the battery. Twice. F-Space music is pounding,
building... I shimmy by in the narrow space and climb up on the forklift
to get a better look. With the sawsall stolen -- and Scott refusing to
loan his to the cause, his 1 penny bet burning hot -- volunteers are
removing the fiberglass mold with hacksaws. Jim crawls out from under the
forklift after hotwiring it yet again, with Max hovering over. I didn't
see what Max was up to, but Jim starts wielding a heavy chain, whipping Max
with it ferociously. At this point, I was getting a bit scared. Jim does
not look sane. I quickly climb back down and get out of there.

F-Space blares, fire spewing out of their instruments, we're getting ready
to run Egeria once their set is over, so I keep having to turn away from
the ensuing mayhem happening in the ally beside Barry's container.

We hook up the fuel, get the igniter ready, then head back over to watch.

By this time, someone is squirting water on Jim as he's driving. Jim guns
the engine, fogging those watching with billows of diesel exhaust. It
doesn't help. Insults are shouted. It's 15 minutes to midnight, Jim rages
outwards, swinging the chain around his head at the crowd -- innocent and
guilty alike. The fear is real and I run...

F-Space finishes and we have to run our artpiece. But we hear second-hand
the outcome: Jim made it, with 2 minutes to spare.

When we're done, we head back over to see what's going on. Jim has a water
fire extinguisher filled with diesel, and he's flame-throwing the contents
on the ice sculpture. The Body Of Bolts melts and giant chunks slowly peel
off and crash satisfyingly loudly on metal sheets below, and it
reverberates with the sounds in the rest of the yard.

Whole portions of the audience have no clue of the significance of what
just happened.

Ryon walks by, shouting, "I'd like to thank you all for attending my
interactive artpiece of Jim Mason I created through words and email. Thank
you all very much for being a part of it."

Jim pulls the forklift back out for the next act -- the Aesthetic Meat
Front. I've seen them before. They're too intense for my delicate
nature. The forklift is for hanging one of the members from hooks in his
back. Egads. Yeah, I leave. I hear later that Jim had a bowl of blood --
typical with their performance -- and was anointing the audience with it
himself. He and Ryon apparently battled with some of the skinned cow legs
that are a part of their "decorations". I couldn't stomach that, but I'm
sure it was as apocalyptic as the rest...

Ryon's summary of the event:

>"HOLY FUCKING FUCK!!!
>I MEAN, FUCK!
>WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?!!
>LIKE, HOLY SHIT!!! WOW!!!
>GODDAMN!!!"

I agree.

I love it here!!!!!!

Kiki -- where else in the entire world can you watch the Universe come to a
chaotic and spectacular end as that?!?!?!?!?! GodDAMN that was amazing!!!

From: Barnaby Thieme <bathieme@yahoo.com>
Date: August 9, 2004 12:45:22 PM PDT
To: Scot Jenerik <jenerik@23five.org>
Subject: Re: shipyard

Thanks - it was great to see you too. That's probably
the sixth or seventh show I've seen you guys do in
your latest incarnation, and I'd have to say you
sounded especially good.

You seemed very tight as a group, and the sound
balance was excellent. To my ears, the drums often
compete pretty aggressively with Volatile, but on
Saturday the levels were right on. I really got the
interaction between you two ass-kicking ADD
pyro-monkeys.

I also liked your vocal presentation in "The Gathering
Pools", which felt more confident and rhythmically
interesting to me. I could hear the careful phrasing
of what you were saying working against the beats
Aleph was laying down - a very cool and interesting
effect. I don't know that I've ever heard anything
quite like that before.

Love to Team Jenerik,
B

ALL AGES! Free Ear Plugs provided by HearNet.com

San Francisco Bay Guardian - 8 Days a Week:

EXTREME TIMES WARRANT extreme measures. At least that seems to be the philosophy behind 'How to Destroy the Universe: Part 2,' product of the evil-genius ruminations of Mobilization.com's seminal, deliciously idiosyncratic Ethan Port and Scot Jenerik. If you're looking for a medium for the collective release of fury and psychosis, and want to have a kick-ass good time while you're at it, then head to the Shipyard in Berkeley for this two-day festival of extreme art and music – slated, appropriately enough, to coincide with Hiroshima Day. Imagine an industrial version of Burning Man sans the yuppies and dippy rave music. This time around, subject yourself to F-Space's homicidal trance-inducing wall of pyro-post punk noise, heightened by a Butoh-influenced collaborative performance by Collapsing Silence's Indra Lowenstein (Fri/6 only). Suffer the wrath of Black Ice, the Sixteens, and Binky – broads who'd just as soon spit on you as look at you (no cutesy bullshit here, thanks be). Take a moment to ponder the absurdist performance art of Berlin's Indra and Deedee Lux. Feast your eyes and ears on Kiki's three-story fountain of weeping fire Egeria, Shipyard manager Jim Mason's two-ton, sonic ice sculpture, and explosive fire art by Charlie Gadeken. Surrender to the Aesthetic Meat Front's corporate deprogramming ritual. And regale in the visual stimulations of extreme video and the aural pleasures of independent DJs. Proceeds go to keeping extreme art and music alive; but if you're really broke, just e-mail imbroke@mobilization.com and see what you can work out. Fri/6-Sat/7, 8 p.m.-1 a.m., Shipyard, 1010 Murray, Berk. www.mobilization.com. $10-$20 sliding scale. (Camille T. Taiara)

Destroy2 Press Release

EAST BAY EXPRESS

AUG 4, 2004

Fire, Noise, & Blood

Bringing the noise to Berkeley

Ever wonder how to destroy the universe? Think you could do it from Berkeley? Now, now, don't get all upset -- we're not suggesting a hostile takeover of the Nuclear-Free Zone. Rather, we'd advise using what the Bay Area has plenty of, namely, art: performance art, artfully deafening music, and fire arts. That's what Ethan Port (who used to be in the band Savage Republic, and therefore knows a little bit about fucking things up) and his bandmate in fiery (literally) punk outfit F-Space, Scot Jenerik, did late in 2003, with their How to Destroy the Universe concert at StudioZ.tv. This weekend, the East Bay can see how it's done when How to Destroy the Universe II rolls into the Shipyard (1010 Murray St., Berkeley) between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. Friday (Hiroshima Day, baby) and Saturday. The second incarnation is focusing on all manner of bands featuring brazen women, such as Sixteens, Black Ice, the carnie death metal of BINKY, and others. There will also be the burningest art this side of the playa, including Ryon Gesink's F*ck Machine and, to cool things down, a John Cage-inspired, two-ton sonic ice sculpture by Jim Mason.

Looking for something more animate? Saturday night, Los Angeles' Aesthetic Meat Front performs "Blood Sun Rising," a public deprogramming ritual. How about performances by the Indra and DeeDee Lux, video by the Kipper Kids, and DJ duties handled by Otto Von Stroheim (TikiNews.com), Rick A Mortis (Post-Punk.com) and Tracey (Pyro Kitten)? Tickets cost $10-$20 (sliding scale) and are extremely limited, so visit Mobilization.com/destroy.html for yours. E-mail ImBroke@mobilization.com for a sponsored ticket. -- Stefanie Kalem

DESTROY PART 2 Promotions and Reviews

JIM MASON from the Shipyard announced:

Aug 6, 2004:
quick reminder that there is a big huge show here friday and saturday night at the shipyard. the show is about destroying the universe or something. not sure if we are going to be rebuliding afterwards, or just leaving it in shambles. some of the details have yet to be worked out.

anyways, it's a big conceptual thing. it's loud. there's the obligatory fire and mayhem. the performer list is longer than. . .well. . .choose your metaphor at will. and all your friends will be here. it's all the best stuff these parts have to offer- all the acts that refuse to play in that shit hole odeon place that never pays its performers and won't even keep the band in drinks while they're on stage. so they all wanted to play here, and i said "ok". but i'm not organizing or curating this thing, mind you, so it will probably go off pretty much exactly as scheduled. everything that is, except for the "artwork" i'm still considering building, which has now attracted a small betting pool as to whether i'll actually get it done (or even started really)

so come on over. we'll be here both nights (barring intervention from the Man, which would argue for your considering attending friday night, but then you would miss the potential ice thingie on saturday night, which if we get shut down i don't actually have to finish, so not sure exactly what to suggest, so i'll leave it to you.)

the details are here:

http://www.mobilization.com/destroy.html#destroy2

jim

ps: directions to the shipyard are here: www.theshipyard.org

AUG 7, 2004:
though the task was well started last night, much work remains to be done before our task is complete at the How to Detstroy the Universe Festival, Part 2.

tonight we (or rather scot and ethan), bring out the big particle accelerator and cosmically gigantic all matter anniliator to finish off the job and then put it all back together again with the galatically huge fusion machne pump. all of this, and more, is otherwise known as the AESTHETIC MEAT FRONT. there is a bunch of other bands on the line up tonight, all of them great, including even our very own ryon and his band THE TURKS, and F-SPACE of course, and others to be found at http://www.mobilization.com/destroy.html, but the real show tonight is, if i may be an inappropriate venue operator and suggest as much, the AESTHETIC MEAT FRONT.

AEF has been banned from all proper venues, bman included (but who hasn't at this point), because there are just too damn good and nearly always too damn disturbing. they call their show a "public deprogramming ritual". now i won't try to unpack what that might mean or unmean, but let's just say i have never seen a performer put him/herself though the ordeal that louis does in the midst of these things.

louis believes in spiritual transformation the old school way- through heavy body and mind wrenching ordeal, with pain, blood, audio assualt, i'm sure digestibles of some type and who knows what else. his purpose is to thoroughly and excessively break himself, rendering his multidimensional being into little other than a mass of quivering flesh, like the mounds of flesh and blood that are usually on stage with him during the process. and in this state of indefensibility, a state of full openess cause there is nothing left with which to defend and keep out keep out the rawness of the world, he hopes that something new and curious might appear. and as in all non-bureaucratic and non-scripted experiential tours, what might appear is rather unknown.

but anyway, here in the otherwise comforting confines of the shipyard, louis invites you and and anyone else willing to "particiipate" to come along for the ride. many will find it disgusting and walk out. many will stay and find themselves in tears by the end. either way, bring your favorite chill space sage burning spiritualist and let them witness how its really done and maybe even learn some more effective methods to take back to the "electronic dance music communities". if they start hanging themselves from the rafters with meat hooks and covering the audience in cow blood and raw meat, i might even start going to the raves.

anyway, there's a whole buch of other stuff besides AEF. but i'm not fully clear on it. take a look at the schedule at the link.

last night the bands sounded great, or at least what i could hear of them from inside the refer container. jesus christ it is cold in those things. i can barely type at this pont from the frostbite. but the BODY OF BOLTS is solid as a rock as of 1pm. now i just have to figure out how to get the thing17' in the air, plumb it for gasoline, and build some interesting heap of metal scrap below it for all the stuff frozen inside to fall on as it melts. help on these minor details this afternoon and early (or potentially late) evening would be much appreciated.

shit, the generator just shut off. i need to go.

_______________________________________________

http://spaceship.com/mailman/listinfo/icp

PS- AEF is looking for a place to crash tonight. if anyone has a couple of plastic covered couches, they would love to follow you home after the show, umm, i mean "ritual".

more info at:
http://www.mobilization.com/destroy.html

louis would like new guinea.

PAST:

How to Destroy the Universe - Part 1 Sunday Dec 7, 2003 at Studioz

Photos from How to Destroy the Universe - Part 1 at Studioz, SUNDAY DEC 7, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN - 8 Days a Week Mention:

Dec. 7

Sunday

Destroy! It's no accident that Mobilization Recordings, Laughing Squid, and KFJC, 89.7 FM, chose Pearl Harbor Day to launch 'How to Destroy the Universe Festival – Part I.' By creating mass fear, the attack on Pearl Harbor not only pulled the United States into war but also ushered in a backlash against civil liberties facilitated by an oversimplified – and misguided – concept of security. What better way to raze today's false safety net than with fire, steel, and sound manipulated by veteran masters of extreme music and art? Dr. Howland Owll of the Church of the SubGenius MCs the event, which features psycho-surf-core by the Mermen, pyro-industrial post-punk mantras by F-Space (including Scot Jenerik and former members of Savage Republic and Chrome), gothic cabaret by Neither Neither World, psychotic episodes by the Serotonins, and classical covers of '80s hardcore hits by the Punk Rock Orchestra. Burning Man artist Charles Gadeken and We're Desperate early L.A.-S.F. punk-scene photographer Jim Jocoy provide added visual stimulation, and DJs Fernando (Thunderdrome, DeathGuild, Assimilate) and KFJC's MC Christ confer their special sonic touches. 5 p.m., StudioZ.tv, 314 11th St., S.F. $10. (415) 252-7666. (Camille T. Taiara)

BANDS (first to last):
Neither Neither World - dark pop cabaret
Punk Rock Orchestra - 40 piece orchestra perform Punk classics
F-SPACE- Industrial pyro post-punk mantras (members of Savage Republic, Chrome, and Scot Jenerik)
The Mermen - Psychadelic surf
The Serotonins - Wacky performance-art Rock

Guest Master of Ceremonies: Dr. Howland Owll (Church of the SubGenius)

DJs:
Fernando - Thunderdome/DeathGuild/Assimilate
M.C. Christ- KFJC

ARTISTS:
Charlie Gadeken - BurningArt.com artist
Jim Jocoy - "We're Desperate" Early LA/SF Punk Photography slide show

Pot-Luck Dinner

Advanced tickets available from
http://www.mobilization.com/destroy.html

or http://www.ticketweb.com

Posters and recordings from the bands are available at:

The complete Mobilization Catalog
and Online Store:

Local Li

'How to Destroy the Universe Festival, Part I'
StudioZ.tv, Dec. 7
MORE THAN 20 years ago – well before Burning Man's first death by fire on Baker Beach – rumor spread of a Los Angeles-based experimental band that would fill an old school bus with generators, a P.A. system, and a load of friends and head out to the middle of the Mojave Desert to play with fire and make some serious noise. Their instruments: pipes, chains, an empty petroleum barrel, a drum set, and close to half a dozen guitars. Their name was Savage Republic, and they fused our most primal instincts, punk rock's appetite for destruction, and the urban sounds of industry.

I instantly became a fan.

So when I heard that Savage Republic member Ethan Port (now living in the Bay Area) had gotten together with local pyro-noise artist Scot Jenerik and Chrome drummer Aleph Kali to form F-Space, I knew I had to check them out.

I got my chance at the "How to Destroy the Universe Festival, Part I," an eight-hour affair that, as it turned out, was the brainchild of lifelong DIYers Port and Jenerik themselves. The bill included multiple 16mm projections, slides by We're Desperate photographer Jim Jocoy, a few DJs, and live music by Neither Neither World, the Punk Rock Orchestra, the Mermen, and the Serotonins (the latter from L.A.).

The crowd was a blend of aging – though still disaffected – Reagan youth, artsy brainiacs, and thirtysomething occultish types.

We arrived in time to catch the Punk Rock Orchestra, a 20-plus-member ensemble of mostly female classical musicians that covers old favorites by the Avengers, Joy Division, and others. The PRO was led by a tyrannical, Mohawked conductor in black coattails who, given a different look, could easily double as a World Wrestling Entertainment referee. And they did a decent cover of Dead Kennedys' "California über Alles" – even adapting some of the lyrics in honor of Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the end, though, the act boiled down to a kind of theatrical "name that '80s cover" trivia game that could get a bit tedious after a few numbers.

Next, a corpulent, middle-aged white guy took the stage donning a red velvet Masonic hat emblazoned with a single, blue eye: not a particularly reassuring image. MC Howland Owll soon won us over, though, with a masterfully executed, deadpan soliloquy on the causal relationship between Annie Oakley, World War II, and the advent of punk rock.

On his heels, DJ MC Christ set himself to spinning 45s of obscure indie music from the Devo years. Collaborators threw up as many as six projections at a time onto StudioZ's walls: Jocoy's portraits of early-'80s punks in San Francisco and LA, '60s car crash test footage, a nature film on carnivorous frogs.

Then came the moment I'd been waiting for. F-Space battered the unsuspecting audience with a wall of noise. Port's instrumentation on an electric 12-string maintained the breakneck speed and ominous tones of early Savage Republic. He'd loop a string of notes into a mixer, then switch guitars, or forsake them for a homemade instrument created out of two thick metal springs stretched along the length of a four-foot-long segment of pipe, which he alternately beat on and picked up and let drop to the floor.

Jenerik used drumsticks and even a violin bow to elicit the most raw and, at times, excruciating sounds from a similar instrument propped on a metal sawhorse. Kali added the energy of a runaway locomotive on drums.

The result was apocalyptic: the music summoned a feral, destructive trance state that implied a catastrophic act of nature, a march through the desert on the path to war, or the offender's mental state during a crime of passion.

The Mermen followed with a set of hypnotic soundscapes rounded out with a honky-tonk surf song – all deftly crafted but a bit too low-key after F-Space's ferocity.

The last band, the Serotonins – albeit possessing a great name – came off a bit like an inside joke that, well, just wasn't all that original. We called it a night after two songs.

Altogether, though, the evening was a promising start for what Port and Jenerik hope to build into an ongoing noncommercial, multidisciplinary series, with shows every other month or so at random nontraditional spaces.

The Reagan years that inspired the heyday of California's original punk counterculture certainly have a lot in common with today's political environment. With the neocons back in power and well on their way in their project to overtake the world, something like "How to Destroy" is more necessary than ever. For information on "How to Destroy the Universe," go to www.mobilization.com.

(Camille T. Taiara)

Press Release
****************************************************************************
*****************************FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***********************
HOW TO DESTROY THE UNIVERSE - PART 2 OF RARE EXTREME MUSIC/ART/PERFORMANCE
FESTIVAL
TO TAKE PLACE IN SAN FRANCISCO ON HIROSHIMA DAY!

(PLEASE Pass this onto any relevant sites, email lists, tribes, etc. )

JULY 8, 2004

Contact: Lisette Sutherland - Lighthouse Promotions
destroy2 "at" mobilization.com
http://www.mobilization.com/destroy.html
(650) 619-3695

MOBILIZATION.com is quite happy to announce the second festival in the
series:
How to Destroy the Universe - Part 2
An ongoing currated festival series dedicated to promoting and supporting
fiercely independent "extreme" artists.

*************************************************************************
*****BASIC FACTS********************************************************
*************************************************************************
How to Destroy the Universe - Part 2
Extreme Music/Performance/Art Festival
Co-Presented by: KFJC 89.7 fm, LaughingSquid.com

Friday Aug 6, and Saturday Aug 7, 2004 - Berkeley (San Francisco)
At the Shipyard, 1010 Murray Street, in Berkeley, California.
All Ages. 8pm - 1am. Benefit for the artists and the Shipyard
Directions
Part 2 highlights several bands with non-cutesy over-the-top rockin' women,
and other transgressive
performers and video artists that break fundamental rules of humanity and
the universe.

*Note: no one turned away due to lack of funds. Please email us in advance
if you require a sponsored admission, or if you'd like to volunteer for the
event. Email: "imbroke [at] mobilization.com"

A weekend festival targeting the best in Extreme art, music, performance and
culture.

*************************************************************************
*****WHAT IS THE FESTIVAL ABOUT?**************************************
*************************************************************************
MOBILIZATION is honored to bring the festival to this location: friendly,
casual, intelligent, open minded and Flame Resistant!
How to Destroy the Universe is a curatted extreme music/art/performance
festival series dedicated to presenting fiercely individual and independent
artists to the community. The festival is roughly grounded in the "post
punk" tradition, but is open to any new and innovative ideas. The festivals
are inherently community based, focused on promoting and supporting a cruelly
alternative arts culture both locally and globally.

Destroy-Part 2 takes place on Hiroshima day, book-ending the first festival
last DEC 7, 2004 (Pearl Harbor Day) at Studioz in San Francisco. Inspired by
the historic date, the performers and artists have been picked with perhaps a
darker or more somber slant, while all still being quite explosive and
transgressive in their own individual way. The festival is organized by
members of the bay area pyro post-punk group "F-SPACE" (members of Savage
Republic and Chrome, and noise artist Scot Jenerik), who combine homemade
incendiary percussion instruments with hypnotic alternately tuned guitars
and runaway locomotive drums. F-SPACE takes their name from the art space
Los Angeles artist Chris Burden and friends used to present their extreme
physical artwork that was banned at any other galleries, and it is this
tradition that inspires the How to Destroy the Universe Festival.

The Shipyard's outdoor location for this festival is compatible with large
scale fire art and sculptures. Bay area artist Kiki will bring her 3 story
water fountain "Egeria" to the space, configuring it to weep tears of fire
during the F-SPACE performance. Indra Lowenstein from "Collapsing Silence"
will be accompanying F-SPACE on Friday at this performance with a special
Butoh style dance dedicated to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Jim Mason (manager of
the shipyard and known at Burningman for his fire canons that spew 100+ foot
columns of burning diesel fule) has volunteered to create "The Body of Bolts -
A chaotic sound generator of human devolution". This fire/ice/sound installation
involvinga super-human-size body of ice held in aerial suspended animation about
20 feet above a lattice of steel pipes, pans, plates and other acoustically interesting industrial
discards. Frozen inside the ice body will be an assortment of nuts,
bolts, pulleys, gears, chains and other mechanical devices- debris which
with randomly cascade down through the steel lattice as the body melts
over the duration of the show. The result will be a cacophonous and
chaotic sound generation machine driven by the slow devolution of human
body to water and industrial bones. The ice body will be porous so flammables
can pass through and around it, internally illuminating the ice, as well as speeding the melting
process. An array of buttons and knobs will allow for audience control
of the propagation of flammables through the body and the resulting fire
fall through the steel lattice to the hydraulic oil soaked asphalt
below.

This event also highlights many bands and artists with women in
nontraditional roles, such as bands like "Black Ice", "The Sixteens" and
"BINKY" with women taking dominant and aggressive roles that are
traditionally identified in a more masculine way. We also feature extreme
video artists who transgress traditional societal views of gender and
orientation, such as Ron Athey, Shaye Saint John. Performance artists "The
Indra and DeeDee lux" use subtle sarcasm and extreme elaborate costumes to
emphasize and critique female roles and sexual assumptions. The Aesthetic
Meat Front close out the festival with a bang through their public
"Deprogramming ritual" aimed at transforming themselves and the audience to
an alternate state of reality beyond our commercially controlled corporate
universe.

*************************************************************************
*****DETAILS ABOUT THE UPCOMING FESTIVAL****************************
*************************************************************************
FRIDAY August SIXth (Hiroshima Day)
ALL AGES! Free Ear Plugs.
LIMITED SPACE. $10-$20 sliding scale.
Advance Tickets available here

No one turned away due to lack of funds. Email "Imbroke 'at'
mobilization.com" if you require sponsored admission and/or you would like
to volunteer.

Live Stimulation
Bands, Performances, Burning Art
**F-SPACE - Frenetic Pyro Post Punk - with Full Flame Effects
**Egeria- Kiki's weeping waterfall of fire
**Black Ice - Haunting vocals with a wide range of conventional and
unconventional instruments

**The SIXteens - Infectious synth post-punk. Alice falling out of Wonderland
and into the world of Liquid Sky
**The Indra and DeeDee lux - Ubsurd Dadaist Performance Art straight from
the bunkers of Berlin.
Featuring Helga and Zelda of Double Process!
**Charlie Gadekan - Fire art BurningArt.com
**Jim Mason - "The Body of Bolts" A chaotic sound generator of human decay. A massive super-human John Cage inspired flamible ice sculpture.

Virtual Stimulation
Video Projections and Presentations:

**John Law- Bridges Slide Show (allocate urban infrastructure documentation
obtained at death defying heights)
**Ron Athey- Grown-up Videos and Naughty Bits
**CIAbnormalArts.com & ShayeSaintJohn.com - Ultra Creepy "Triggers" and
Oddities

Mixed Stimulation
Tiki and Post-Punk Throbbing DJs
**TikiNews.com- Otto Von Stroheim
**Post-Punk.com - Rick A Mortis
**KFJC DJs

-------------------------------------

SATURDAY August 7th
ALL AGES! Free Ear Plugs.
LIMITED SPACE. $10-$20 sliding scale.
Advance Tickets available here

No one turned away due to lack of funds. Email "Imbroke 'at'
mobilization.com" if you require sponsored admission and/or you would like
to volunteer.

Live Stimulation
Bands, Performances, Burning and Melting Art
**Aesthetic Meat Front - "Blood Sun Rising - A Public Deprogramming Ritual"
Ritual against disintegration of mind. (Los Angleles/Long Beach)
**F-SPACE - Frenetic Pyro Post Punk - with Full Flame Effects
**Egeria- Kiki's weeping waterfall of fire
**BINKY- carnival death-metal by females (members of Typhoon)
**Jim Mason - "The Body of Bolts" A chaotic sound generator of human decay. 2 ton John Cage inspired flamible ice sculpture
**Charlie Gadekan - Fire art BurningArt.com

Virtual Stimulation
Video Projections and Presentations:

**Ron Athey- Grown-up Videos and Naughty Bits
**John Law- Bridges Slide Show (allocate urban infrastructure documentation
obtained at death defying heights)
**CIAbnormalArts.com & ShayeSaintJohn.com - Ultra Creepy "Triggers" and
Oddities

Mixed Stimulation
Tiki and Post-Punk Throbbing DJs
**TikiNews.com- Otto Von Stroheim
**Post-Punk.com - Rick A Mortis
**KFJC DJs

ALL AGES! Free Ear Plugs.
LIMITED SPACE. $10-$20 sliding scale.
Advance Tickets available here

No one turned away due to lack of funds. Email "Imbroke 'at'
mobilization.com" if you require sponsored admission and/or you would like
to volunteer.

No one turned away due to lack of funds. Email "Imbroke 'at'
mobilization.com" with your excuse for sponsored admission.

*************************************************************************
*****REVIEWS OF THE LAST FESTIVAL****************************************
*************************************************************************
SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN - 8 Days a Week Mention:
Dec. 7, 2003

Destroy! It's no accident that Mobilization Recordings, Laughing Squid, and
KFJC, 89.7 FM, chose Pearl Harbor Day to launch 'How to Destroy the Universe
Festival – Part I.' By creating mass fear, the attack on Pearl Harbor not
only pulled the United States into war but also ushered in a backlash
against civil liberties facilitated by an oversimplified – and misguided –
concept of security. What better way to raze today's false safety net than
with fire, steel, and sound manipulated by veteran masters of extreme music
and art? Dr. Howland Owll of the Church of the SubGenius MCs the event,
which features psycho-surf-core by the Mermen, pyro-industrial post-punk
mantras by F-Space (including Scot Jenerik and former members of Savage
Republic and Chrome), gothic cabaret by Neither Neither World, psychotic
episodes by the Serotonins, and classical covers of '80s hardcore hits by
the Punk Rock Orchestra. Burning Man artist Charles Gadeken and We're
Desperate early L.A.-S.F. Punk-scene photographer Jim Jocoy provide added
visual stimulation, and DJs Fernando (Thunderdrome, DeathGuild, Assimilate)
and KFJC's MC Christ confer their special sonic touches. . (Camille T.
Taiara)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN - Local Live

'How to Destroy the Universe Festival, Part I'
StudioZ.tv, Dec. 7
MORE THAN 20 years ago – well before Burning Man's first death by fire on
Baker Beach – rumor spread of a Los Angeles-based experimental band that
would fill an old school bus with generators, a P.A. system, and a load of
friends and head out to the middle of the Mojave Desert to play with fire
and make some serious noise. Their instruments: pipes, chains, an empty
petroleum barrel, a drum set, and close to half a dozen guitars. Their name
was Savage Republic, and they fused our most primal instincts, punk rock's
appetite for destruction, and the urban sounds of industry.

I instantly became a fan.

So when I heard that Savage Republic member Ethan Port (now living in the
Bay Area) had gotten together with local pyro-noise artist Scot Jenerik and
Chrome drummer Aleph Kali to form F-Space, I knew I had to check them out.

I got my chance at the "How to Destroy the Universe Festival, Part I," an
eight-hour affair that, as it turned out, was the brainchild of lifelong
DIYers Port and Jenerik themselves. The bill included multiple 16mm
projections, slides by We're Desperate photographer Jim Jocoy, a few DJs,
and live music by Neither Neither World, the Punk Rock Orchestra, the
Mermen, and the Serotonins (the latter from LA).

The crowd was a blend of aging – though still disaffected – Reagan youth,
artsy brainiacs, and thirtysomething occultish types.

We arrived in time to catch the Punk Rock Orchestra, a 20-plus-member
ensemble of mostly female classical musicians that covers old favorites by
the Avengers, Joy Division, and others. The PRO was led by a tyrannical,
Mohawked conductor in black coattails who, given a different look, could
easily double as a World Wrestling Entertainment referee. And they did a
decent cover of Dead Kennedys' "California über Alles" – even adapting some
of the lyrics in honor of Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the end, though, the act
boiled down to a kind of theatrical "name that '80s cover" trivia game that
could get a bit tedious after a few numbers.

Next, a corpulent, middle-aged white guy took the stage donning a red velvet
Masonic hat emblazoned with a single, blue eye: not a particularly
reassuring image. MC Howland Owll soon won us over, though, with a
masterfully executed, deadpan soliloquy on the causal relationship between
Annie Oakley, World War II, and the advent of punk rock.

On his heels, DJ MC Christ set himself to spinning 45s of obscure indie
music from the Devo years. Collaborators threw up as many as six projections
at a time onto StudioZ's walls: Jocoy's portraits of early-'80s punks in San
Francisco and LA, '60s car crash test footage, a nature film on
carnivorous frogs.

Then came the moment I'd been waiting for. F-Space battered the unsuspecting
audience with a wall of noise. Port's instrumentation on an electric
12-string maintained the breakneck speed and ominous tones of early Savage
Republic. He'd loop a string of notes into a mixer, then switch guitars, or
forsake them for a homemade instrument created out of two thick metal
springs stretched along the length of a four-foot-long segment of pipe,
which he alternately beat on and picked up and let drop to the floor.

Jenerik used drumsticks and even a violin bow to elicit the most raw and, at
times, excruciating sounds from a similar instrument propped on a metal
sawhorse. Kali added the energy of a runaway locomotive on drums.

The result was apocalyptic: the music summoned a feral, destructive trance
state that implied a catastrophic act of nature, a march through the desert
on the path to war, or the offender's mental state during a crime of
passion.

The Mermen followed with a set of hypnotic soundscapes rounded out with a
honky-tonk surf song – all deftly crafted but a bit too low-key after
F-Space's ferocity.

The last band, the Serotonins – albeit possessing a great name – came off a
bit like an inside joke that, well, just wasn't all that original. We called
it a night after two songs.

Altogether, though, the evening was a promising start for what Port and
Jenerik hope to build into an ongoing noncommercial, multidisciplinary
series, with shows every other month or so at random nontraditional spaces.

The Reagan years that inspired the heyday of California's original punk
counterculture certainly have a lot in common with today's political
environment. With the neocons back in power and well on their way in their
project to overtake the world, something like "How to Destroy" is more
necessary than ever. For information on "How to Destroy the Universe," go to
www.mobilization.com.

(Camille T. Taiara)

*************************************************************************
*****ARTIST STATEMENTS*************************************************
*************************************************************************

Aesthetic Meat Front (http://www.a-m-f.org)
"Blood Sun Rising - A Public Deprogramming Ritual"
Ritual against disintegration of mind. (Los Angleles/Long Beach) Performers:

Members:
Louis Fleischauer - Ritual Design, Body-Sonics, Voices

JayJ - Drums
Bonny - Hooked Angel
Serina Lilith - Glass, Audience assault
Tiffany Trenda - Fire, Audience assault
Slave Dave - Additional Body Mods, Audience assault

The focus of this ritual is to traumatize the participants (performers and
audience alike) into a state of rapture and use this energy as a catalyst
for deprogramming from a consumer friendly reality, spiked with fears and
anxieties. By invoking the primal instinct we are releasing our inner
powers, thus reaching a state of true Self-awareness. These moments are the
keys to realize that there is more to life than what we have been programmed
to believe.

F-SPACE
F-SPACE (Scot Jenerik, Aleph Kali, Ethan Port)
An extreme experimental pyro-industrial art-punk rock-band project by
Mobilization.com founders Scot Jenerik (23five.org) and Ethan Port
(Savage Republic), with Aleph Kali (Chrome) drumming with the ferocity
of a runaway locomotive. The result conjures an apocalyptic, feral,
destructive trance state implying a catastrophic act of nature, a march
through the desert on the path to war, or an offender's mental state
during a crime of passion. Scot Jenerik adds insult to injury by pummeling
on "Volatile", a self made instrument of steel, springs and piano strings that belts
out 15 foot fireballs like an angry dragon setting the record straight.

The Indra and DeeDee lux (Double Process)
http://www.theindra.com, http://www.deedeelux.com, http://doubleprocess.com
Ubsurd Dadaist Performance Art straight from the bunkers of Berlin.
Featuring Helga and Zelda of Double Process.
Performers:

The Indra: Chanteuse. Clown. Chanteuse.

Double Process: The communist manifesto with tits. Sort of.

Singing Cabaret songs originally sung by Marlene Dietrich, Josephine Baker,
and Edith Piaff with nutty stage action and drastic mood swings, The Indra,
does bizarre erotic song and dance numbers with a comedic twist. For more
information please go to: http://www.theindra.com

Double Process: The Indra and DeeDee Lux partner in the newly formed
dynamic duo, “Double Process”. Acting as incredibly misguided but sincere
German performance artists, Helga and Zelda, the act can best be described
as Lucille Ball and Phyllis Diller meet Marlene Dietrich in a suitcase full
of monkeys and laughing gas and the sobering effects of politics.
Irreverent, irritating, sexy and occasionally socially relevant the two
actor, dancer, performance artists pose as performance artist mental
patients from Germany on tour in the US... Indefinitely...

BINKY
http://www.BINKY.tv

Members:
Klara Lux
Erin Luther
Tijanna Eaton
Windy Wild

BINKY is an organized sound pandemonium manifesting as a sort of
punk/speedmetal-art/thrash act, with both coldly clinical & compassionately
fascistic esthetic overtones. Everyone in this unit vocalizes (drummer does
most lead), there's the first ever heavy metal trumpet played by Erin
Luther, scathing punk/thrash guitar of Klara Lux. Drummer Windy Wild could
eat Slayer's Dave Lombardo for breakfast (while singing) and an awesome
tight-clean bass guitar comes from "screaming" Tijanna Eaton. The whole band
dresses in post nuclear white vinyl uniforms. Banners & standards are
displayed. Police strobes & security staff have been spotted on stage during
shows. Several audience members have been observed to be crying.

Press Release:
http://www.sonicbids.com/BINKY

ARTIST Descriptions and Statements:

http://www.F-SPACE.com/artists/fspace

Aesthetic Meat Front
"Blood Sun Rising - A Public Deprogramming Ritual"

Ignorance is Strength!
Disobedience is Terrorism!
Freedom is Slavery!

Featuring:

New sound devises that are connected to the flesh via
hooks, needles and rings, thus transforming the agony
and euphoria experienced on stage into sonique energy.
Live Body Modification + Audience Participation + Fire
+ Bio Hazards

We live in bad dream written by George Orwell. The
book of prophecy is called 1984. Newspeak slowly
becomes the dominant language. The reality of war has
been reduced to the sterility of a PG 13 video game.
It is now, more than ever, crucial to not resign or
dwell in apathy. The army of hopelessness has no pity
for its soldiers. The time has come to wake up. Keep
passion alive!

The focus of this ritual is to traumatize the
participants (performers and audience alike) into a
state of rapture and use this energy as a catalyst for
deprogramming from a consumer friendly reality,
spiked with fears and anxieties. By invoking the
primal instinct we are releasing our inner powers,
thus reaching a state of true Self-awareness. These
moments are the keys to realize that there is more to
life than what we have been programmed to believe.

Can you feel your deep desire burning,
Are you afraid of your temple of flesh,
Are you afraid to lose your mind in the abyss of
ecstasy,
Look around you, are you fulfilled living in this
reality,
Is you PC flesh satisfied,
Does your media brain need an upgrade,
Thank you for being a valuable part of the economic
food chain,
Every human is a potential threat to our security,
Consume terrorists everywhere,
Sleeper cells that will never awaken, for they've died
long ago,
Feed your innermost flame,
Cut open your flesh, inflame your mind, reopen your
wounds,
This moment only is true,
Spirit cleansed in pain, burned in pleasure and reborn
in blood,

Temple of Flesh set my soul on fire!

- Louis Fleischauer

=====
-Louis Fleischauer

http://a-m-f.org

new release:
Psychonaut 75/Aesthetic Meat Front
Split CD on Old Europa Cafe

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
More information on the
How to Destroy the Universe Festival,
and application for submitting artists into the festival
http://www.mobilization.com/destroy.html

SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN - 8 Days a Week Mention of last festival
Dec. 7, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN - Local Live Review

I instantly became a fan.

The crowd was a blend of aging – though still disaffected – Reagan youth, artsy brainiacs, and thirtysomething occultish types.

. (Camille T. Taiara)

[Home] [Store] [About] [Artists] [Email]

How to Destroy the Universe Extreme Art, Music, Bands and Performance Festival Series

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How to Destroy the Universe
Extreme Art, Music, Bands and Performance Festival Series