Info - Idiot Flesh - Richard B Jr.

[richardbjr]

While I was researching youth arts and culture my son suggested that I listen to this art rock/performance art band. My analysis is forthcoming. The band was called Idiot Flesh. The song, with special guest appearance by Geraldo Rivera, had one of the longest song titles I've seen: "Teen Devil Worshipper Jonathan Cantero's List of Activities for the 12th of October". They disbanded in 1998. Two members went on to form Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.

I listened and looked for more.

The band was a band formed in 1985 at Barrington Hall, a student co-op at the University of California at Berkeley.

It's no wonder I missed Idiot Flesh, in 1985 I was exploring with advanced composites in the astro-communications outer space industry, while they were exploring experimental sound with non-traditional instruments, inner space, industrializing strange, "rock against rock" attitude and funny costumes. I wore a tie most days and sensible shoes.

"The band was known to tour the US in a converted city bus with Rathbun [band member] as the driver/mechanic, with the windshield destination banner set for HELL." I drove a Mercedes and a VF750F Interceptor on weekends. "Their work was characterized by its 'rock against rock' attitude and defied classification with marching band routines, puppet shows, and the playing of household items as tuned instruments." I got into a Motown thing in the mid-80s. "A rumor following the group alleged that when the band was offered a record contract from a label, that it would disband before selling out." Their first album was released in 1995. "Their final show was held on a Friday the 13th." I got all that from Wiki.

It's no wonder I missed Idiot Flesh. But times have changed. I dress differently now, any way I want to and I even have pants with holes in them. My son calls me an idiot sometimes. I am expanding my horizons. I am experiencing the wonders of all I may have missed when I was what I was. The analysis is forthcoming, maybe.

Idiot Flesh often performed live with a group of additional stage performers who called themselves the Filthy Rotten Excuse Chickens. They were "a motley bunch," wrote Andrew Lentz in Metroactive Music, "that enhances the Idiot Flesh experience with a variety of acrobatics, dancing and pantomime." Members of Filthy Rotten Excuse Chickens went by the names:

* The Minotaurs of Baal
* Beefra The Cook
* Helpy The Hamburger Bee
* Mr. Punch
* Hatcha & Datcha The Siamese Twins
* Ming Tsao: Professor of Black Math
* Uro Butoh
* El Evil
* Ward C. Picnic
* The Queen of Oakland
* Mumble

Enjoy! more... Idiot Flesh and I get it now. There's something, a message in the names perhaps. And here I've been worrying about things like terrorism, the failing economy, shrinking bank accounts and expanding waistline, and what kind of sneakers I should wear. I think I get it now, there's no point to analyze since it's all there, whatever it is it's all there, in her wagon.

Idiot Song

Comments

Re: I am old

[mrnihil]

well, blaming the lax laws is a lot like blaming the girl in the skimpy clothes for her rape. but of course, it's the risk you run when you have a free society. from an outside perspective, though, we can say something like "no, the pedophile should actually implode and cease to exist, then things would be a little better off." humans colonizing other planets can be seen from this same outside perspective. if you saw a colony of, say, bacteria invading ecosystems and killing them off, maybe you'd want to wipe the bacteria out, or at least keep from them spreading.

as far as taking care of out shit, now compared to other times, the answer is probably only yes because we weren't able to fuck our shit up then the way we can now. at some points, in some cultures, there's been more respect for said shit, to various degrees, but over all, exploitation is how things work, and that's only amplified when you find out you can print your own money. all i know about agenda 21 is that it's, what, designed to clean up the world? but that it doesn't seem to have done much.

Re: I am old

[richardbjr]

blaming the lax laws is like... not really, because if the pedophile is allowed to move to the lax laws place the pedophile is not violating anything. Now if the girl in the skimpy clothes was wined and dined, taken to a movie, maybe a long walk under the moonlight, a couple dates let's say and then she's violated, would be better analogy. Personally, I like the imploding pedophile option the best.

As far as human evolution is concerned I am an optimist. Having no advanced degrees may have something to do with my optimism. I think we are, as a race, getting better all the time. Personally, I've been told that as I've aged I not only get better looking, but smarter too.

Re: I am old

[richardbjr]

Agenda 21 is not what you think.

Re: I am old

[mrnihil]

lax laws aren't the same as no laws, though- perhaps the pedophile doesn't have to let everyone in the neighbourhood he's a pedophile, or maybe he can live close to a school. his actions (raping lost boys) are still illegal. as is raping someone, generally, skimpy clothes or not.


i'm both, optimistic and pessimistic. or maybe i'm neither, i forget the difference just now. i see moments of greatness, and i see the opposite. my verdict isn't in yet.

Re: I am old

[richardbjr]

I'm going to the beach. It's a beautiful day, the sunrise was magnificent and the nearest I've been to outside is smoking on my balcony, probably sailing tomorrow, so I'm going to the beach and look for that girl in skimpy clothes which won't be hard to find because they're everywhere around here... "and in my net, during the night, I woke up naked, the only thing caught, a fish trapped inside the wind." I'm going beach.

Re: I am old

[mrnihil]

well then.

i'm going to go enjoy the blistering cold of snow and death, in a land where the sun never rises.

(ps im not really going to enjoy it all that much. have fun on the beach, you beach having jerk :P)