Issue #5 Letter
FROM THE EDITOR:
WE DON’T SLEEP ANYMORE. WE HUSTLE, HUSTLE, HUSTLE, GRIND, GRIND, GRIND. EACH MONTH WE DO IT FOR THE LOVE. We are a crew of friends that love music, art and culture. We are hitting up shows and interesting people all over the map so LA can have a taste of what’s going on in the country at large. Relentlessly we pursue bringing you the most interesting people, with the most provocative conversations.
Last month we went to Rothbury Music Festival in Michigan. Juliet had a chance to speak with Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls and the rest of us got lost in the Sherwood Forrest. That festival is a trip. People had “the handshake under” their tongues. Emilee headed to Detroit and produced a wonderful preview for this year’s Warped Tour which comes to the Home Depot Center on the 17th.
I went to Chicago to visit our super star photographer and writer Damien Thompson for the piece we did on Rock the Bells. What a great experience. We spoke with some exceptional people that day, and if you love hip hop, you won’t want to miss the show on August 9th. It’s the most glorious collection of the BEST in hip hop. Come on! Tribe Call Quest and The Pharcyde are back together and sharing the bill — now that is serious!
All the Best,
Editor-in-Chief
Benjamin Hunter
Reader: Jon
FROM A READER:
The Wide-Eyed Team,
What’s up? My name is Jon Berrien, I am an executive producer and host for Groundsounds.com. Groundsounds.com is a new web-based music television show that features up and coming musicians and bands in the Los Angeles area. We just launched in June and have already amassed 30,000+ hits. I came across your wonderful magazine while in the Amoeba music store on Sunset. I really enjoy it and just wanted to reach out and let you guys at Wide-Eyed know that Groundsounds.com exists, since we are covering similar aspects of music and culture.
Thanks again,
Jon Berrien
— Thanks for the love, we dig what you cats are doing over at Groundsounds. I look forward to collaborating in the future with you and your peeps. Keep up the good work. Your content is fresh and your site looks great.
Best,
Benjamin
Reader: Saneyuki
FROM A READER:
Wide-Eyed,
Hello! Kudos to the new mag! I love it!
I first found WIDE-EYED on my local afternoon coffee spot at the corner of La Brea & Wilshire (…um yeah… it’s a Starbucks). My neighborhood is quaint. It definitely bubbles in the afternoon. Usually, I am left with picking up a magazine at the newsstand on Wilshire and Detroit (90036).
BUT!
…As I smoked my cigarette and sipped my double espresso - I saw a captivating image in one of the *free newspaper stalls. It had that distinctive image and fabulous font! I was thrilled to take a look.
…And, I was pleasantly surprised by your MAG! I just loved everything about it!!!!!
Thanks guys!
Saneyuki
— Saneyuki, thanks for the words of kindness. I really appreciate the rest of the letter where you gave us some much needed constructive criticism on our web presence. We’re working that out, and would love to get together with you to discuss your thoughts on keeping the wideeyednation.com people in the know.
Thanks again!
Best,
Benjamin
Issue #4 Letter
FROM THE EDITOR:
THIS IS A BIG SUMMER FOR THE D.I.Y. MOVEMENT, AND THIS MONTH’S ISSUE IS CRAM-PACKED WITH DELICIOUS, subterranean, buzzed-out, shaolin-style, wolf love magic. That was a mouthful, but seriously, some really rockin’ shit is going down this summer and it all revolves around people that hang it out on a limb to bring creative masterpieces to our culture.
Independent hip hop label Delicious Vinyl is celebrating its 20th anniversary with the new release RMXXOLOGY. RZA’s new album is fresh off the press, and the Wu is going to be in full effect at Rock the Bells in August. The Wu Dynasty lives on! Up in Seattle, Sub Pop will celebrate its 20-year anniversary with a bill to die for. If you can get up north, the magic happens July 12 and 13.
Last month we went a bit cerebral on you, but chewing the glory of knowledge is a definite ingredient for the Wide-Eyed Nation. We can’t apologize. This month we bring you some interesting insight into some very provocative pillars of the creative community. William has an interesting three-way conversation with RZA and his alter-ego Bobby Digital. King Buzzo of the Melvins tells Ben Klebba his feelings on the “horse shit” commodities of Hot Topic rock. That’s just the surface.
We definitely show the love for our Japanese brothers and sisters over at POPKILLER on Sunset. This month we have feature interviews from Osaka artist Rockin’ JellyBean, and the glorious rock of Japan’s monster trio Boris. Send this to your friends and family back home, I’m sure they’ll dig.
Thanks for all the support, we’ll keep our wide-eye open.
All the Best,
Editor-in-Chief
Benjamin Hunter
Reader: Alfie
FROM A READER:
Benjamin,
I have been meaning to extend a message of great gratitude. Thank you thank you thank you for printing up the ad for the art show. You don’t know how much that means to me and the people that I am working for and with. You folks truly have the backs of all things underground and grassroots. Thank you very much.
I was able to pass it out during this open mic showcase in Little Tokyo. It was very well-received and people can’t wait to hear more from your publication.
I just told Will about a few spots that I am going to be featured at and have ordered a few more stacks. Great article on Marcus Grey by the way. The whole magazine is strong, cover to cover. Thanks for challenging the readers and not dumbing down the content for the sake of readership. We need to be challenged! ha!
Respectfully yours,
Alfie
Can’t wait to meet you at the show! I am sure you will enjoy the hard work the folks have put together!
—Thanks Alphie for the kind words. We are happy to be part of your community and will continue to provide a voice for you and all of the stellar creative happenings in Los Angeles. Keep your wide-eye open and keep up the good work.
Cheers!
Benjamin
Reader: Louis Jacinto
FROM A READER:
Photo Feedback by Louis Jacinto / www.louisjacinto.com
— Louis, we appreciate your holistic critic of the American political landscape. I invite you to read Valerie V. Peterson’s piece on page 22. She addresses several issues concerning sex, gender and politics. From my interpretation of your photograph, I have a feeling that you will find the read compelling. I have investigated your work, and I reach out and welcome you to join us in contribution at your leisure. I wish you all the best.
Sincerely,
Benjamin
Issue #3 Letter
FROM THE EDITOR:
We as a culture have a tendency to look at globalization through the lens of economics and trade. While watching M.I.A. perform at Coachella, globalization took on a whole new meaning. The medium was the message. For those moments in the Sahara tent, globalization signified creative synergy. The video screens amplified a world movement of song and dance. The speakers projected a kaleidoscope of globally infused rhythms and melodies. Through technology and art, the kids in the Sahara tent became one with the world. In the prophetic words of Marshall McLuhan, we were re-tribalized.
Media are powerful tools of education, socialization, and indoctrination that influence our understanding of the world and the way the world functions. It affects how we perceive ourselves and others. Media technology is rapidly accelerating how we function as a global community. It permeates all aspects of our daily lives. The constructs of time and space contract and expand with the tools we have created for ourselves to stay connected.
Aside from our monthly dedication of bringing you the best in music and art, this month Wide-Eyed brings you a fascinating look into the world of Media Ecology. Formed by the brightest minds in the interdisciplinary world of communication, The Media Ecology Association will gather for its 9th annual convention at Santa Clara University from June 19th to 22nd. This preview is but a taste of a vast world of dialog that is taking place in our homes, businesses, and halls of academia. Take a moment to engage in this dialog; participation is always welcome.
All the Best,
Editor-in-Chief
Benjamin Hunter
Reader: Mark Spearin
FROM A READER:
I rarely have seen a piece of commentary so poorly thought out as “Drinking the Digital.” Mr. Anton appears to have everything entirely backward.
Far from his contention that raw video--and this also extends to the blogs, but let’s stay with video right now--is “uncondensed pap”, ready for easy drinking, the truth is that raw video is very difficult to digest by its very nature. That is its essence. Even his metaphor for ruminate falls flat--because that which is raw must be chewed over in order to get it down. That cud chewing process, for video, is editing. The end result can range from the 1:10 news package to the full-length motion picture.
What has been processed for easy digestion, the edited piece, fits Mr. Anton’s desciption of what we readily drink in, not raw video. It is the finished product that goes down easily. It has been chewed over for the consumer and that’s why it’s so easy to digest. All the extraneous bits, the pointless red herrings and the half-finished attempts to, say, deepen a charachter or poeticize a situation, have been removed to make the story more accesible, believable, and obvious to the viewer. All the mistakes are strained out. Now you have your pap, and now it’s truly uncondensed, unencumbered by all those annoying bits that get in the way of pure consumablity. No knotty problems to consider. No extra viewpoints. No wasted seconds that allow you to think. No need to ruminate as you endlessly consume.
That’s the outcome of editing. Edting is not putting in more density, more meaning, more difficulty for the viewer to decipher and wade through. It’s straining out everything that doesn’t fit. What’s left is truly uncondensed, thinner, more easily accessible to a larger number of viewers. Isn’t that the unthinking attitude against which “Drinking the Digital” seems to be railing?
Mr. Anton should take a look at Brian DePalma’s interesting recent failure, “Redacted.” It’s a Rashomon-style look at the current war through the eyes of several competing documentors. This multiplicity of opinion does not lead to a coherent arc for any player or viewpoint. And if box office is any determinant of consumability, it does not make a compelling case for the masses being able to chew through this stuff easily and find it enjoyable.
Mr. Anton writes well enough. Next time he might get together with William Case, wikipedia, YouTube, and a copy of Language, Truth and Logic and see if they might find a consensus of opinion, at least in your Santa Monica office. I like a screed as well as the next guy--usually even more, actually--but it appears that this argument on the value of the multiplicity of viewpoints is a little adrift. Maybe Mr. Hunter or Mr. Dodde might like to find a consistent tone for your new publication?
All the best,
Mark Spearin
Editor: Benjamin Hunter
FROM THE EDITOR:
Mark,
Perhaps you should just read the article again. Corey discussed the nature of film and editing and how it is DIFFERENT than the instantaneous plug-and-play creative drivel of online video content. Perhaps you should read the piece again before you expose your inadequacies as a reader; wasn’t that the point of Corey’s argument. Ironically you are the subject of his piece; learn to chew. In regard to our multiplicity of viewpoints, we printed yours didn’t we?
Love,
Benjamin
Reader: Erich Smith
FROM A READER:
Mr. Hunter,
I picked up your 2nd issue at a smoke shop on melrose today. I needed a new piece and I tend to snatch up free rags with dope covers. When I grabbed the face of Saul Williams and flipped it over, I saw the picture of Obama with progress underneath it and said to myself “Nice… this one I may read”
So I get home, and when the opportunity arouse I sat back and opened your paper, and low and behold the Editor in Chief is from Michigan, where I grew up, and is working in the media being proactive, like I am, and speaking of a real change being in the air, unlike all the other times before us, with a feeling that this may be our last chance to make the big difference.
At this point I realized that I spent an 1hr on the phone with my farther, on the way to, and at the smoke shop, before leaving with your paper. During that conversation, we touched upon several of the same themes, you mentioned in your letter from the editor. It is refreshing to see there are others who know, and are getting the message out there, without destroying the dream in the process, well done.
BTW
If you ever have a moment I am working on a few things and I would enjoy picking your brain.
Best Regards,
Erich Smith
— Thanks Eric, It’s great to hear from another cat from America’s high-five! Let’s keep the dialog rolling. We appreciate you reaching out.
Writer: Corey Anton
- Correction to Questioning “Mr. Deity”
The text should have read, “the molecules have a tetrahedral arrangement to each other, and during the phase change, ice molecules form symmetrical hexagonal rings.”
Issue #2 Letter
FROM THE EDITOR:
We are completely ecstatic to bring you issue #2. Last month we peppered Los Angeles with 20,000 copiesof our premier issue. From the surf communities of Hermosa and Venice, up into the hills and over to Silver Lake, and Echo Park, Wide-Eyed brought you our finest delivery of music, art, and thought.
Issue #2 channels the theme of love. In this vast universe of creativity, there is love. From the passion of Saul Williams’ inspiring words, to the enduring propagation of just causes through the works of Shepard Fairey, and the gift of Bradley Nowell’s legacy of timeless heartfelt jams, issue #2 is the issue of love.
This summer marks the 41st anniversary of the “Summer of Love.” Growing up in Michigan, my Pa always told me stories about the summer of love and the “Love-In” which took place on Belle Isle in the Detroit River. There was a spirit of change in the air in the summer of ‘67. The Vietnam War was dragging on, the economy was uncertain, racial tension filled urban centers of America, yet youth had courage. They wanted to change. From Detroit to Chicago, and from San Francisco to LA, there was a movement of art, music, and love.
Those cities eventually erupted into violence and later that summer Detroit was on fire… it has never fully recovered. There are too many variables to suggest that one thing or event lead to love’s entropy. There was a backlash from the establishment, there were dress-up hippies that didn’t follow through with the love, there was a general, cognitive dissonance in the approach towards change. On one hand people wanted to come together, but the other hand was a clenched fist ready to destroy.
Change isn’t easy, it creates a sense of chaos and all too often people embrace the status quo. But, there is no denying change is in the air, and this time perhaps we the creative culture, can lean on each other and uplift one another. It may very well be our last chance, so don’t hold a fist with your other hand, extend that hand to your fellow brother or sister, because we need love.
All the Best,
Benjamin Hunter
Editor-in-Chief
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