Blogumentary [chuck olsen]

SOUND OF CHUCK

I've been avoiding the blogging lately, choosing instead a place called Editing Hell. But how could I not be inspired by Jonathan's "My Life in Music"? Here's a stab:

CHILDHOOD ("The 70's")
My earliest music memory: My mom and future stepdad rolling me back and forth between them on rollerskates, to the tune of Minnie Ripperton's Loving You.

My favorite song: John Denver's Thank God I'm A Country Boy

My mom ironing, letting me have a sip of her Pabst. The Carpenters on the radio. Neil Diamond, Simon & Garfunkel, Elton John, all that wistful soft rock stuff. Hot Butter Popcorn. Plenty of soon-to-be-classic rock and disco, like my brother's KISS and Bee Gees albums.

At the grocery store with my grandma, I wandered off and starting singing Nazareth's Hair of the Dog - "Now you're messin' with a... a son of a bi-iitch!" I felt super badass, but I sang quietly because I didn't want to get caught swearing. My grandma used to let me stay home from school sick and let me drink cans of pop in the store without paying for it. She used to let me look at grandpa's Playboys, too. Come to think of it, she swore a lot and probably wouldn't have cared if I was swearing. Was my grandma fucking cool or what?

Sitting in my brother's Nova listening to Van Halen I with his stoner friend. Bored out of my mind shopping with my mom, until The Knack's My Sharona came on and I totally rocked out. In 4th grade at lunch, some 6th graders suddenly cranked Pink Floyd: "We don't need no education / We don't need no thought control." That was so in-your-face I couldn't believe it.

COMING INTO MY OWN: 1980
I was totally badass in my later grade school years. I saved up money to buy 8-tracks at Target: Lipps, Inc. Mouth to Mouth - Billy Joel Glass Houses - Queen The Game - The Who Who Are You - The Cars The Cars. I also really really loved Upside Down by Diana Ross.

THE 80's
Okay, do we even need to go here? "Whatever was on the radio" sums it up.

The first album I owned was K-Tel's Blast Off. I'm slightly ashamed to say the main reason I wanted this album was You Should Hear How She Talks About You by Melissa Manchester.

God, I can't even fathom 1983-1984. All these strange feelings and hormones fueled by Michael Jackson, Flashdance, Culture Club, The Police, Duran Duran, Prince and budding preteen breasts everywhere - how did I survive? I remember sleeping over at my friend Chad's house in the basement, where his little sister's room was. We used to hangout in her room and endlessly obsess over Thriller. After I went to bed, his sister and her friend were giggling in her room, then they snuck out and got into bed with me. They were on each side, asking me questions and lightly stroking my arms. I swear my heart was going to explode it was beating so fast. What the fuck is going on????? Their flirt experiment was over in a few short minutes, and they disappeared behind the Michael Jackson poster door. My pajamas felt "funny."

I was saturated with Prince and MTV. And yet, I couldn't get enough. This hesher guy Shane used to play Darling Nikki in the back of the bus. He smoked and had lots of "girlfriends." Somehow he made that song even naughtier.

1984 - Driving around in L.A. in my bodybuilder brother's Trans Am. He pops in Eurythmics Sweet Dreams. I saw Frankie (Goes to Hollywood) coming out of a tank in a Hollywood record store parking lot. I will never be cooler than this moment.

I was insanely, insanely into Dire Strait's Money for Nothing. By this time I had a stereo that could do some serious damage, some big-ass cheap speakers, and when that guitar part kicks in? Crank it up and air guitar the living shit out of that bad boy! Today, those levels of testosterone and adrenaline would make me a terrorist.

Madonna? Check. Chaka Khan, Rockit, breakdancing? Yep. Miami Vice, Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters? They defined me. Friday night videos! Safety Dance! Men At Work!

First CD's: Genesis Invisible Touch, Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy and IV, Huey Lewis Sports. I wang chunged, I walked like an Egyptian, I was livin' on a prayer. I veered dangerously close to drama geek territory with U2. Until...

LATE 80's: BRING THE METAL
It started innocently enough, with Def Leppard and Motley Crue. Gateway metal. Whitesnake. Scorpions. The descent can't be stopped. Guns-n-Roses. They....they swore! We started wearing jean jackets and playing guitar in the basement. Geeks with mullets. I was afraid of Metallica. Ride the Lightning? Master of Puppets? It was too heavy, too dark. They didn't play it on the radio. It was possibly evil. ...And Justice for All. My eyes rolled back in my head. One. My skull filled with worms. The descent was complete. I was a Full Metalhead.

EARLY 90's: AM I ALTERNATIVE YET?
Red Hot Chili Peppers + Ministry + Faith No More = gateway alt-metal.
My first First Avenue show: Voivod with Soundgarden and Faith No More. BRING THE GRUNGE... Subpop all the way. Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Nirvana, L7. All my t-shirts and flannel smelled like sweat, beer and cigs. Eww.

I'm in college now! I'm, I'm... changing. Thanks to the Columbia House Alternative CD club, I got The Cure Disintegratiom and B-52s Love Shack. KJJO 104 in the Twin Cities played this "Modern Rock", as did Cities 97. Am I becoming, like, more arty or sensitive?

No, I'm becoming more BLACK! Public Enemy and N.W.A. booiiieeeee. I remember walking to softball practice (softball practice?) cranking the P.E. from my ghetto blaster. I think I also bought a 4-track and recorded some rap songs.

DEFINING MOMENT
1991 - The Persian Gulf War looms large. The Minnesota Daily finals issue has a mock draft letter on the front page and is chock-full of scathing lefty diatribe. I listened to Fugazi's 13 songs over and over. I painted a red, white and blue peace symbol on the back of my shitty black vinyl jacket. I listened to the lyrics of "Waiting Room." I grew angrier and angrier. Something snapped in me that day. I was fed up with all the shit. I decided to protest. (Followed by an interest in anarchy, punk rock, and switching my major to Political Science.)

I've written previously about my love affair with the local rock scene.

RECENT ERA
Of course all roads lead to indie-rock. Superchunk, GBV, Built to Spill. Somewhere along the way, with Cosmic Slop and my homies Mitch and Carl and Jonathan, I got way into pop and 60's stuff. Beach Boys, The Kinks, The Move... up tp XTC, Jellyfish, Papas Fritas - oh how I love the pop musics!

Somewhere along the way I got more into electronic music. I recreationally dabbled in techno in the 90's, but probably got more into it since meeting Lori and going to Burning Man and experiencing all this crazy trance. I dig the fusion of electronic gadgetry with the indie rock - like Askeleton.

I've had lovely bursts into jazz and classical. I do enjoy the latin jazz stylings.

But mostly, I just like to rock.

HOLY CUTE SANDWICH

Preparing to tape the Fourth Annual Weblog Awards

From Nikolai Nolan's SXSW picture roundup. (Click the orange arrow on the right to see the pics.)

Chuck films kickass sci-fi author and mega-Bloggie-winner Cory Doctorow

Chuck attempts to drink while filming Leonard and Min Jung Kim at Bruce Sterling's party.

JOHN EDWARDS FOR (VICE) PRESIDENT

Lorika and I continued on the Road to Democracy this weekend at the Minnesota DFL convention. Saturday proved a very exciting day: Lori was upgraded from an alternate to a full delegate (in action below), I managed to get myself a press pass (I AM THE MEDIA!), and the pinnacle - Sen. John Edwards. So inspiring, so charismatic, so wishing I could push a button and make him President of the United States.

Edwards on Abu Ghraib: Accountability lies with Bush (Quicktime, 1.5 MB)
Edwards ends speech with message of hope, diversity (Quicktime, 5 MB)

Senate district leader Noah explains what's going on to Lori.

Senator Mark Dayton introduces Senator John Edwards: "John Edwards is always standing up for the little fellers against the Rockefellers. Paul [Wellstone] taxed the Rockefellers, John sued them, and I married them."

Later, Mark Dayton gave a fiery, impassioned speech. I've never seen him so pumped up. He usually seems nervous and uncomfortable in his own skin, but these days he's got fire in his belly.

Edwards as Citizen Kane

What they say is true - when Edwards speaks, he owns the room. If only his theme song wasn't John Cougar Mellencamp's "Smalltown."

Edwards signs his last of many autographs before disappearing into the secured area.

The first of two gatekeepers checks my badge: "Yup you're press, okay..."

And I'm in! Woohoo!

My weapons of choice: This blog and a video camera. And a poison dart gun - shhhhh.

Just one of the camera guys. Sort of.

Edwards makes fleeting eye contact with me and thanks me before walking out the door.

It was exciting getting into the Edwards press conference. A blogger in the inner sanctum. Unfortunately I didn't make good use of the opportunity. I was going to ask him about blogs, but real journalists were asking somewhat important questions (about being Kerry's VP - no comment, about the current political tone, and so on) so I waited. Suddenly it was one more question, quickly seized by Eric Eskola, then some rushed photo-ops and he was out the door.

Mostly, it was nice having the press pass because it allowed me onto the main floor.When Lori was upgraded to a delegate, I filmed a lot of our Senate district leader Noah explaining things to her. Some people thought I was making a documentary on the convention process, which I really should do because maybe then I'd understand what the hell was going on. Lori and I were both confused much of the time, and I think they could benefit from a "Delegate Guide for Newbies." Oh, with an accompanying video, which they'd pay me to make. Anybody? Bueller?

Saturday night we went to Mark Dayton's hoopla party at The Depot and hung out with a great group of fellow lefties, among them Minneapolis documentarian Michael Sutz. You might recognize him as the campaign manager in one of my favorite documentaries, Run Some Idiot.

That's all for now... I'm sure Lori will post more about it. We had delicious wild rice veggie burgers + beer at Fitgers with Starfire + Nick + Barrett + Ca-Chee and met their unbelievably adorable puppy, who tried to crawl into my hoodie. Probably because it was 40 degrees and super fricking windy - Brrrr! (Want the cute puppy?)

And now, I must trick convince the Jerome Foundation to give me some money. If not for Blogumentary, at least to fix their terrible web site.

HAPHAZARD BLOGUMENTARY OUTLINE

Guaranteed to change, and hopefully coalesce.

INTRO
Voxpops -- fake news story about blogs?
My own geek background.... dataman, computers, BBS's.. gopher, web, blogs
I post all kinds of things on my blog.. ice castle pics/video.. bbq... funny movies...politics... I Am the Media

WHAT ARE BLOGS?
Blogs 101
Geek roots of blogs... tools... Rebecca blood
Bloggies/Nikolai Nolan?

9/11 - WAR BLOGS Jarvis, Dash

Power of Blogs came to prominence with Trent Lott [Footage... Joshua Marshall...]

BLOGS = JOURNALISM? (Blood, Jarvis, Iraq, BBC guy, Salam Pax)
** NEW: Blog creds at DNC

Blogging of the President...Christopher Lydon intro

HOWARD DEAN campaign... first campaign to have a blog.
- Riding high in late '03 when i visited. Intercut Mathew Gross and Trippi...
- Trippi's Red Bat/blog comment story, intercut with Dean footage
- Cameron Barrett on Clark Blog
- Then... DEAN SCREAM!

LOCAL ACTION
Lori starts a blog revolution...
** VISUAL: Broadcast towers, different sizes, freedom of speech quantity. Microbroadcasting!
Lori and I got more involved.. became delegates... DFL State Convention
Blogged Kucinich - video. Blogged convention - posted video, Ryback speech about bus strike
BLOG ACTION ALERT - success! Intercut with footage of buses

LOVE IN THE BLOGOSPHERE
Meg + Kottke
Heather + Derek

DANAH PURSE INCIDENT: Overdocument our lives, photos, Networked crime solving, Diversity? Race?

BLOGS SAVE LIVES - Crystal

Blogs are about CONNECTIONS!
MOM -- I LEARNED ABOUT HER CANCER TREATMENT FROM BLOG.
My friends... in MN and world

INTERNATIONAL - Carmela, Matt...

OH SHIT, I DELETED MY BLOG
... memory... blog is extension of myself...
Swarming... Technorati....interconnectedness.....SWAMI? unprecedented global conversation... V'ger
Chuck is a blogbaby in the universe....

JUST BEAUTIFUL

Robyn Ochs and Margaret Preble wed in Brookline, Mass. [via Brian Flemming]

Beautiful in a different way: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is releasing weekly "webisodes." See Hetfield and Lars have a pissy-fit!

SUPER SIZE ME (DEBUNKED)

Damn you Morgan Spurlock! Replace "America's fast-food obsession" with "blogs", and replace "you" with "me," and you pretty much have Blogumentary. At least, the Blogumentary in my head. You're funny, informative, and even intimately revealing. Hell, your blonde vegan girlfriend even looks like my sweetie. Let the record show I'm not ripping you off. Rather, let's say "great minds think alike" and leave it at that.

I watched Super Size Me with a critical eye, partly colored by Rob Nelson's pointed review. Rob's point is a good one though - we don't hear much from the poor obese blurred-face people who keep McD's in business.

Morgan is not without harsher detractors:

Byron Crawford

I don't know what this Spurlock fellow's issue was, but I think it probably comes down to him being a pussy. He strikes me as the kind of cracka-ass cracka who, before he started this little experiment, subsisted on a diet of leaves and seeds.

Since he decided to attack McDonalds, a staple in the African American community (face it, niggas need McDonalds like McDonalds needs niggas), people act like he's some kind of maverick left wing genius. [...] Rather than, say make a film where he hunts and kills John Ashcroft, he makes a film that attacks McDonalds, which is mostly consumed by poor people and, most importantly, tastes fantastic.

Filmmaker Soso Whaley is setting out to "Debunk the Junk". She also ate exclusively at McDonalds for 30 days, but unlike Spurlock, she counted calories and exercised. The result? 5 pounds thinner. There's plenty more debunking to be had at The Super Size Con.

Sure, nobody's sticking a gun to your head and saying "Super Size it!" We have to take responsibility for our own actions. The thing is, McDonald's is cramming their shit in your face everywhere you look and claiming it's healthy! Super Size Me may never be seen by the people who most need to see it. But I left this thoroughly entertaining film thinking "Hmm, maybe I should eat better."

And that's a good thing.

I wish those fries weren't so damn tasty.

CAMERA/IRAQ

Ratchet Up has spawned a new Special Project blog, Camera/Iraq to research uses of the photographic image in events surrounding the war in Iraq.

CONTEMPL8 T-SHIRTS

We met this cool guy at Art-a-Whirl selling sweet leftie t-shirts... check out Contempl8.

As long as we're on an anti-Bush roll, Chuck T is going strong at I'm Through With You.

Anybody else going to the State DFL convention in Duluth this weekend?

MMM, SOUL PUDDING

I was gonna watch Startup.com tonight, but decided to watch The Journey again. Yes, it's my soul pudding. It's about stuff like making a documentary, dealing with crap, figuring out what to do with your life, reconciling with your family, and not giving up. It helps to hear things like "Focus on what you set out to do, not on the ever-occuring excuses on why it can't be done" and "I am addicted to finishing what I started."

Eric Saperston had 500 hours of footage to make sense of, after running around in a VW van for years interviewing people. Whew. More to say, but gotta go to bed.

My goals this month, probably shared by more than a few other Minneapolis filmmakers: IFP Market, Central Standard Filmfest, and Jerome Foundation grant.

LINK SALAD

You know They Might Be Giants' song, "Why Does The Sun Shine"? Well, here's the original. What a treasure, these singing science songs.

Are you ready to poop yourself laughing? Put on your "funny diapers" — Jonathan posted the funniest asshole celebrity audio clips ever.

David Lynch gets trippy: "We are spun out of unbounded, infinite, eternal consciousness." Sweet.

Why don't we just cut to the chase and say the first side to rape a thousand retarded donkeys is the winner?

Daily Reason to Dispatch Bush

May 19, 2004 at 02:59 AM in Link Farm | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack