Hey my show went great! There were lots of people there and the geeky part of the evening I hoped would take place, did!

To my delight and surprise, John Perry Barlow, John Gilmore, Annie Harrison and Brian Zisk all stopped by.

There were EFF and Internet Archive folks there too! And lots of other cool friends I'll get around to talking about later.

Anyway huge success.

Next shows at the same place (Ireland's 32, SF) will be:

1) November 11 - my birthday party (b-day the 10th) 9pm - midnight+

2) November 30 - Friday night 7-9 (woot!)

I'll have video going up soon too!

Thanks again to Ron Taylor and my sister for making it all possible.

(I was off playing hookey at the Singularity Summit hanging out with Jamais Cascio during most of what was supposed to be our practice time on Saturday!) (Soooo much more on all that later!)

Upcoming Page!

Date: Sunday, September 9th

Time: 6:30 pm till when people leave (no later than 1am)

Where: Ireland's 32
                3920 Geary Blvd at 3rd Ave in SF's Richmond District

Phone: 415-386-6173

MAP/GET DIRECTIONS

I'm having a big party to reconnect with old friends, meet online friends in meatspace, and meet new friends altogether.

More info here.

My friend critter made me this great new flyer for my party! (Thanks Critter!)

Upcoming Page!

Date: Sunday, September 9th

Time: 6:30 pm till when people leave (no later than 1am)

Where: Ireland's 32
                3920 Geary Blvd at 3rd Ave in SF's Richmond District

Phone: 415-386-6173

MAP/GET DIRECTIONS

I'm having a big party to reconnect with old friends, meet online friends in meatspace, and meet new friends altogether.

I'll be playing all my new songs, along with many of my songs from the last fifteen years or so, in little sets off and on all night long, starting around 6:45, and going till probably around midnight.

I've got a video projector and various footage I've been putting together that will be going in-between and during the live stuff. Update: will also be showing scenes from Monsturd and its upcoming sequel, InfectDEAD! (Zombies!)

I'm flying in my old guitar player from Idaho, Ron Taylor. He and I co-wrote many of the songs on the lisarein.com website.

I'm also flying my sister up from LA to sing harmonies with me on a couple songs.

It's pretty sweet of this pub to let me take over the place for the night. It's actually been a little dream of mine to have enough stage time to be able to go through all of my favorites from the last 15 years -- and in a fun filled environment where I can have as many people there as I want.

Ireland's 32 also has these *really* great home made beef or chicken pot pies, so if you need to come by early (it is a Sunday, after all), come by around 6:30 and make a dinner show of it. (Actually, you and a friend can probably split one easily, they're HUGE.)

They have a great pool table upstairs too! It's just an all around great party locale!

They're letting me use the bar for the night in the hopes I can bring in a crowd to buy drinks. So drink up. (It makes the music sound better anyway :-)

And if I'm lucky enough that you actually have old favorites that you want to make sure I perform, by all means, let me know! lisa@lisarein.com

In between some of my sets, my good friend
Tim Perkis will be performing a little set with his daughter around 7:30.

You may have seen Tim's cool new movie about improvisational music, Noisy People, around recently. Tim's also a fellow Dabble co-founder. (And a fellow ex-Dabbler/co-founder*.)

The Breezy Days Band will also be squeezing in a little set prolly around 9:30 or so.

Okay I'll be talking about this a lot over the next week, but I wanted to at least get all the basic information up.

Thanks! And I hope to see you there.

_______________________
*That's right folks! Contrary to the mythical folklore you may have heard, there were 6 of us total...SIX!! But that's another story... :)

More info here.

There's an interesting collection of old friends (and one new one) at this event Tuesday night, so I'm gonna try to make it.

I've known RU for years before we ever started working together (via Ron Turner at Last Gasp, who published the graphic novel I edited for Timothy Leary -- Link to phone message from him about the book that I love to link to :)

Recently, I co-hosted an RU Sirius show last October with guest Dan the Automator w/RU and Jeff Diehl -- and also produced the Songs From the Commons Podcasts from 2006 for RU's Mondoglobo.net.

Meanwhile, I just reconnected with Howard Rheingold last week, after about 4 years (!) and took a nice walk out on Mt. Tamalpias, and talked about Second Life, Twitter and Facebook for two hours (and inspired Howard to increase his twittering i think :-)

BoingBoing's David Pescovitz I know well from the old days with Cory when he lived here in San Francisco, and thus I have not seen David for years - so I can't wait to...and...

Jamais Cascio has been a great twitter friend for a few weeks now that I look forward to finally meeting in person...

Let's see if I can make it out of my cave Tuesday night!

See you there!

Hey if you're in San Francisco, there's a
Nerd Salon going on this Tuesday night from 6-9:30 pm at 111 Minna.

The events have been arranged by Jennifer Granick (www.granick.com) and Annalee Newitz (www.annaleenewitz.com)
-- two of my favorite nerds!

This week's guest is "The circuit board stylings of Matt Ettus (www.ettus.com), who will be doing a live demo of GNU Radio, the open source software-defined radio project (www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio)."

Description from upcoming website: "Come out and have a drink with people who won't make fun of you for hacking, hating on DRM, copyfighting, discursing on public policy, building nuclear reactors in your garage, reading science fiction, working in a bookstore, arguing about open source software, collecting Buffy dolls, dancing with robots, blogging and/or podcasting, lusting after the iPhone, or getting excited about the new Hulk comic book."

K cya there prolly!

So I've got about 6 or 7 songs I'm really happy with in this new set, but I have up to an hour if I want it to play with Emy Tseng on our sunday night show.

So I decided to bring out the big guns and fly my great original guitar player - the one I wrote most of the stuff on lisarein.com with, out here from his farm in Idaho, where he now lives.

BTW - If anyone would like a CD of my songs to pop in your car or whatever before the show, just send me an email. (I'm making some of them this week anyway.)

So Ron and I are meeting in the airport Sunday morning, as I am flying back from the Pixelodeon Conference going on that weekend in LA, and he'll be flying in from Boise, ID.

The we get a whole day to get back in our groove for the show. I don't think it'll be that hard. We've been playing together for like 13 years now. It's incredible. These are all our oldies and goodies mostly...unless we end up writing a new song real quick once we get together, which sometimes happens...

So now you get BOTH the set of my new acoustic stuff AND a whole other set of acoustic versions of all of our old great stuff :-)

Many of you have expressed to me over the years that I basically needed to keep Ron in the picture -- that he added a lot to the style and the songs. So I'm listening to your suggestions, thanks!

I do hope that you will be pleasantly surprised with my new solo acoustic stuff though.
(I know I have been.)

I'll have a zip file of all my music here soon. Man there's a lot of it now, hadn't realized.

ok talk soon!

Tomorrow I'm performing with my sister at the Farmers Market in Kensington from 10-2.

from Bart, take the 7 bus from berkeley bart. tell the driver you're going to "Kensington Stores"

Just drive up to where the stores are on the Arlington

take 580 north Berkeley, Buchanan street exit. Go right.
Buchanan turns into "Marin" keep going until you get to a roundabout from hell and try to pick the left turn with the least hills (Arlington). Then stay on that road till you get to stores where there once was only houses.

303 Arlington, 94707 if you're mapquesting.

I wrote a couple songs this last week just for the occasion for us to sing together.

My sister's what I call "me +" when it comes to singing -- we both lucked out in that we've never had to try hard to sing well. Our voices have just always been there for us.

But she's actually been working hard at having incredible pipes for years. She has this crazy amazing range that she uses when she does comedic opera and such in LA. (That clip is from Mulholland Christmas Carol.)

Anyhoo, I'm really excited that I finally started putting her to good use in my music.

So maybe I'll see ya Sunday. If not, no biggie. I've got a show on June 10 in SF and I'm going to be playing all over the place, so I'll cyou whenever it's more convenient...

It just feels so good to be playing for people now instead of my cat. (He just threw me a look! How do they KNOW?)

And now, when I write a new song, like i just did over the last few days, I get to play it for people.

Tomorrow.

That's just the best :-)

Updated June 5, 2007 - Be on time - 8pm!
I'm flying Ron out and we've got a lot of material to cover :-)
3920 Geary Blvd at 3rd Ave in SF's Richmond District.
For directions, call (415)386-6173

Updated April 27th - hey if you haven't heard my music a lot of it is here:
lisarein.com

and more is here:

http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/my_music/

Hey I'm opening for Emy Tseng on Sunday night, June 10th, at Ireland's 32 in San Francisco. The address is: 3920 Geary Blvd at 3rd Ave in SF's Richmond District. (415)386-6173.

I get from 8-9pm to do my thing. (I'll probably start right on time, since it's a Sunday night.)

I've been practicing guitar pretty intensely for the last few years waiting for both this latest set of new songs, and some older songs I've been playing for 10 years, to feel "good enough" to play for you.

Finally, I think I'm there :-)

I wasn't sure if I'd have to do the open mic circuit again or what, which I of course, was not looking forward to doing...

Then, of all the crazy things, I went to a Kareoke party that Emy threw last Friday night. Maybe I was all mentally warmed up for it already, since I had just seen the Cowboy Junkies live at the Great American Music Hall about an hour earlier, but before I knew it, I was singing Sneaker Pimps and Linda Ronstandt covers, and Emy was asking me to open for her in June.

Since I actually have a full hour to play, I might just keep going (after I'm done with my regular set)...and meander a little and play some experimental stuff and other new stuff that's neat, but maybe not finished yet...

And there could be some other surprises, but that would only be if a couple things fall into place just perfectly between now and then...

But things have kind of been falling into place lately. So anything's possible :-)

Anyway, it should be a good show. Hope to see you there.

I'm looking forward to this Saturday night's Writers with Drinks.

At The Make-Out Room 3225 22nd. St., San Francisco CA, from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM, doors open at 7 PM.

The last two events have been awesome!

Here's a little clip of Charlie Anders' opener from last month.
(Available as a Quicktime movie - or an MP3.)

The event combines comedy with great new progressive literature...perfect to accompany a few glasses of vino.

See you there!

A friend has recently inspired me to begin riding a bike again. I think I'm hooked.

Tonight will be my first Critical Mass.

6pm, Justin Herman Plaza, San Francisco.

See you there!

I'll be a tonight's Writers with Drinks in the SF Mission tonight.

I'll be taping it and putting it up soon too - but cha really gotta be there in person :-)

See you there!

lisa

I'll be on a panel October 17th at the Digimart Conference going on in Montreal October 16-18.

The panel I'm on is called
Your Space On My Tube - How to Engage with the Online World and Make Money, hosted by Scott Kirsner of the Cinematech Blog.

Scott's really bringing together a neat group of people, including the Eepybird guys, who did the Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments.

I'm really looking forward to it.

It will be great to be in Montreal again. I used to go to Montreal every year for the small, uber-geeky XML conference that used to go on there every year. I haven't gone to that conference since 2000 or so, and I had really missed Montreal.

Getting ready for the conference also forced me to write up an updated bio.

A couple of you have bugged me about this over the years, and I just didn't have time to think about it until recently. Sorry!

I'm finally going to go back and bring it all up to date. There's a lot going on, and I want you to know about it, so you can help me do better at everything. (Like always :-)

Photo by Mike Kash

Dorothy Fadiman has produced a new documentary, called Stealing America, that is based largely on a lot of the information that I put together in the Electon 2004 Aftermath category category of my blog.

I'll send you a copy of the DVD if you like, just send me an email with your mailing address.
Update and clarification 10/20/06 - I'm not dubbing copies of Dorothy's movie and giving them away. I earned 100 copies as payment for some archiving I did for the film. Part of our agreement was that I could have 100 copies. I'm choosing to send you one of these 100 copies if you "act now" :-)

I'll also be breaking it up into smaller clips and making it available online later this week.

If anyone can help me make it available in other formats, when I make it available soon, please let me know. It would be very much appreciated.

There's a showing at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, CA this Wednesday, October 4th, featuring Marc Crispin Miller, at 7pm.

There are a couple of other screenings scheduled in Northern California in October, but you can get a copy of the DVD and have a screening or throw a screening party in your town.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the upcoming election and how it seems like the repubs could just use the electronic voting machines and other tactics, like not putting enough machines in democratic precincts, to take over the election again.

To my knowledge, all of the systems that were in place in 2004 remain in place now.

Perhaps if films like Stealing America are seen by voters before this year's election, they will know to report it to the proper authorities if they notice any funny business going on this time.

WHAT: 9/11 Conspiracy Theory Debate
WHO: The RU Sirius Show
WHERE: Off-Market Theater, 965 Mission Street (at 5th), San Francisco
WHEN: Sunday, September 10, 2PM
COST: FREE

http://laughingsquid.com/2006/09/05/ru-sirius-show-live/

Over the last year, RU Sirius and Jeff Diehl have been hosting the amazing RU Sirius Show, a weekly podcast that launched in June 2005 as part of The MondoGlobo Network. It’s featured a stunning line-up of guests, discussing intriguing topics and cultural phenomenon.

This Sunday, September 10th, they will be producing their first ever live show, in the form of a public debate: “9/11: Considering All the Claims”. The show starts at 2PM and takes place at the Off-Market Theater in San Francisco. Admission is free.
9/11: Considering All the Claims

The producers of The RU Sirius Show bring you 9/11: Considering All the Claims. During this rare, FREE public presentation, you will be able to examine all the issues at one event on Sunday, September 10th, 2006.

The backers of the “shadow government” camp have many issues that they believe were not addressed by the authorities in investigating the attacks; the backers of the “Bin Laden-did-it” camp have questions of their own. Both sides have accused the other of perpetrating wild conspiracy theories and hoaxes upon the public, so we thought we’d provide an open examination and critique of the major points, especially given recent polls that show 42% of Americans suspect the government had a hand in causing the destruction of the Twin Towers.

Joel Schalit, a Managing Editor for Tikkun Magazine, will be representing those who are skeptical about the “conspiracy theories.” Fred Burks, who served as a foreign language interpreter for top officials in many countries, including Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, will be representing the “pro-conspiracy” view.

RU Sirius will host the panel along with RU Sirius Show co-host Jeff Diehl.

Posted by Lisa at 12:46 PM

I know this is short notice, but it looks like there's a cool panel tonight on community wireless with Lawrence Lessig and other goodies.

http://www.media-alliance.org/calendar_event.php?eid=20050929140103620

Monday, October 10 2005 @ 07:00 PM PDT - 10:00PM
Where: 111 Minna Gallery
111 Minna Street
between 2nd and New Montgomery
San Francisco
Description:

Join Media Alliance for this dynamic panel discussion on
creating universal, affordable Internet access through municipal
broadband utilities. Featuring a presentation by Professor Lawrence
Lessig and a panel of local community Internet experts, the evening
will include Q&A with the audience.

After years of avdocacy by MA and other groups, Mayor Newsom announced
earlier this year his goal of free wireless Internet access for all San
Franciscans. Cities across the country are implementing municipal
projects, though with varying degrees of commitment to bridging the
digital divide.

This evening will explore the significant opportunities for city-run
projects to expand Internet access and usage by under-served
communities, and improve cost, service and consumer choice for
everyone.

The talk will be followed at 9pm by music from DJ's Kid Kameleon and
Ripley.

Cost: $5, Free for Media Alliance and EFF members

7-9 pm Discussion: Lessig, Panel, Q&A
9-10pm DJ's Kid Kameleon and Ripley

Remember to come as my guest -- and bring friends.

It'll be quite a show. More info here.

Opening at 9:30pm Each the Beat Boxer performing with DJ Quest

Then from 10-12:30:
Variable Unit w/Special Guest Hosts:
Zealous and Prophet

Felonius: One Love Hip Hop
(Soulati, Infinite, A kid named Keith and D. Wolf)

Ho Flow and Mic Blake and their whole vocal crew from Bop City Pacific
(Caitlin Cornwell, Dawn "Dee Dee" Hilgesen, Christi "KiKi" Hilgesen)

Mark Stretch
(Foreign Legion)

El-Rock

Phame

Joe Con

Won Way

V.E.R.A. Clique
(Anderson Ray & Macsen Apollo)

Marquand (beatboxer)

From the Delinquent Monestary Crew:
Complexity, Lush One, and Ajaxx
Audio Tracks -
Video Tracks

Davu (Poetry Slam Champion)

Shania D.

Nameliss

Hilary Star

Plus More Guests TBA

So it was another fantastic show -- albeit another poorly attended one -- at SCOUT wednesday night.

We're beginning to think of these more as live recording sessions:)

It would be nice to have a larger than 75 person audience there, because I think it helps the performers out, but this isn't a "live" album, where we need to hear the crowd and such.

We've been very pleased with the music that's been coming out of these. We're not at all sure yet how all the tracks are even going to be used. (There are more than 25 hours of shows recorded already.)

Anyway, this last show rocked with a really neat group of people. I'm getting the pictures and video together now, and I will get at least some of it up today, along with some more general information about this great family of artists that Variable Unit had the pleasure of collaborating with Wednesday night.

It was really neat having like 8 different mcs and singers each perform leads and switch to back ups for each others performances all night. They were all obviously good friends that had known each other forever. Gennessee hooked me up by arranging for all of them to come by for SCOUT. I was interviewing one of the other performers out front when they each descended and assembled promptly at 9:30 in front of the Red Devil Lounge.
They all looked happy and ready for action. (They already had the right vibe, and they hadn't even entered the club yet.)

Here are the performers of which I speak: Gennessee, Cait Le Dee, Genevieve, L*Roneous, Dogwood Speaks, Bazooka Joe Gotti, Prozack Turner and Marc Stretch...hope I'm not leaving anyone out.

There were other great performers that night, such as JBo and his friend Chris Lee (who was just in from Norway visiting this week), Kero One, and Jesse Seaver the Beatboxer. Plus Each the Beatboxer guest hosted.

Anyway, it was a good time.

Hey - if the $7 entry fee is what's stopping you from coming by, tell the door man you're there as my guest. And don't be afraid to bring friends. The more the merrier. (Do buy drinks if you can :-)

Okay...back in a minute...I'm trying to get as much up as I can today...

Kero One is another artist performing at

tonight's SCOUT, and he's definitely a star on the rise.

You can hear tracks
here.

From the California bay area, Kero One is an artist who had been emceeing, producing beats, writing graff, deejaying/scratching and collecting records since the early 90's [more]. In the summer of 2003, Kero One released his first 12" record entitled “Check the Blueprints”, based on jazzy funk beats and metaphor heavy lyrics. Within just a month of its release, positive reviews and recognition poured in from record stores, dj's, to record labels everywhere. In addition, “Check The Blueprints” reached top 5 spots on radio and deejay playlists worldwide from Dj's such as J-boogie (OM records), Jon Kennedy (Tru-thoughts UK), and Alexander Poulikakos in Sweden. The 12” release included instrumentals for all songs, an exclusive remix for vinyl collectors, as well as an acapella for remix deejays and producers. Several months later, Kero One was recognized by Japanese labels and promoters (Jazzysport.com) and invited to tour Japan in January of 2004, headlining shows with renowned deejays and producers such as Dj Mitsu the beats , Gagle, and dancers whom all had deep passion for music, art and hiphop culture.

Aside from his first 12” single release, Kero One is currently working on his full lenth solo LP coming out in 2005 and various other projects such as production work on a full length LP for emcee Niamaj and orchestrating a live latin/jazz group.

Here's an interesting article about one of tomorrow night's headliners:

Prozack Turner's Sound Click page.

There are some samples too from his record there.

According to this article, Foreign Legion has parted ways. I didn't know that -- I know both Prozack Turner and Marc Stretch are performing at
tomorrow night's SCOUT!

Taxation Without Representation: When DreamWorks' music division was cannibalized, Prozack Turner had a record but no label. So he released it himself...

THE DOMINANT image on the cover of Prozack Turner's solo debut, Death, Taxes & Prozack, is a baseball cap emblazoned with a San Jose logo. Flip the CD over and scan the production credits: Pete Rock, Alchemist, Supa Dave West, Organized Noize, Jake One, Madlib, DJ Design, Jay Dilla. In the corner, a tiny, out-of-focus insignia that resembles the DreamWorks logo teases the eye.

From the packaging, one can infer that Prozack Turner is a San Jose emcee who recorded an album with DreamWorks and hooked up with hotshot producers. That's half the story. The reality? Zack "Prozack" Turner is from San Jose. He was in the local hip-hop group Foreign Legion (with DJ Design and Marc Stretch) that released the excellent Kidnapper Van and Play Tight full-lengths. Prozack was courted by Virgin and Grand Royal but signed to DreamWorks for a four-record deal.

In 2003, he assembled his dream production unit and recorded Death, Taxes & Prozack, with a $450,000 budget. In October of 2003, UMG bought out DreamWorks' music division. Turner's record, due to drop five months ago, was shelved. He got out of his contract, bootlegged Death, Taxes & Prozack and is selling it independently. If you look closer at the DreamWorks logo on the CD, it's jacked up to say, "Out of Work."

"It's totally illegal the way I'm putting it out," Turner admits. "They're like, 'We own this album.' But I created this! It came out of my brain. Technically, on paper, they own the rights, but I held up my end of the bargain. I recorded the record thinking they were going to put it out."

Here's the full text of the entire article in case the link goes bad:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/5/idcprozackturner.htm

PROZACK TURNER "DEATH, TAXES & PROZACK"
IDC cat# 0010 / DTPO1

Taxation Without Representation: When DreamWorks' music division was cannibalized, Prozack Turner had a record but no label. So he released it himself.

Flow Pro

San Jose rapper Prozack Turner contemplates the music business, his next move and why eating cats isn't racist

By Todd Inoue

THE DOMINANT image on the cover of Prozack Turner's solo debut, Death, Taxes & Prozack, is a baseball cap emblazoned with a San Jose logo. Flip the CD over and scan the production credits: Pete Rock, Alchemist, Supa Dave West, Organized Noize, Jake One, Madlib, DJ Design, Jay Dilla. In the corner, a tiny, out-of-focus insignia that resembles the DreamWorks logo teases the eye.

From the packaging, one can infer that Prozack Turner is a San Jose emcee who recorded an album with DreamWorks and hooked up with hotshot producers. That's half the story. The reality? Zack "Prozack" Turner is from San Jose. He was in the local hip-hop group Foreign Legion (with DJ Design and Marc Stretch) that released the excellent Kidnapper Van and Play Tight full-lengths. Prozack was courted by Virgin and Grand Royal but signed to DreamWorks for a four-record deal.

In 2003, he assembled his dream production unit and recorded Death, Taxes & Prozack, with a $450,000 budget. In October of 2003, UMG bought out DreamWorks' music division. Turner's record, due to drop five months ago, was shelved. He got out of his contract, bootlegged Death, Taxes & Prozack and is selling it independently. If you look closer at the DreamWorks logo on the CD, it's jacked up to say, "Out of Work."

"It's totally illegal the way I'm putting it out," Turner admits. "They're like, 'We own this album.' But I created this! It came out of my brain. Technically, on paper, they own the rights, but I held up my end of the bargain. I recorded the record thinking they were going to put it out."

The major-label experience, piled onto many others, soured him on the music industry. To say that Prozack is going through a transition is an understatement.

"Every independent label [Foreign Legion] ever messed with has stole from us," he says. "Every person who had been my manager has fucked me over. I got sued for 10 grand by some manager. It's such a dirty business. I'm a real honest guy. It's a hard, hard business to be in, especially when you get so close to succeeding. I'm having meetings talking about Spike Jonze directing my music video. Six months later, I'm looking for a bartending job.

"I feel a little jaded. Even on my album, I put all my homies on, breaded everybody up. People got paid more than they ever did in their career. Man, I don't know if I want to be around this any more. It's destroying relationships, too. It's like the music business is a girlfriend I'm in love with, but I know we're not right for each other, and it doesn't work out, and we're fighting and treating each other awful."

It's a shame because Death, Taxes & Prozack is one of the tightest-sounding rap albums ever to emerge from the 408. His flair for bragging and his metaphors ("Wonderful Life," "Feelin My Steelo") have all the subtlety of a steel-toed boot. It's a supremely entertaining record with Prozack using skills, not anger, as his prime motivational tool. And with producer royalty like Pete Rock, Organized Noize and the Alchemist, Turner is sitting on a potential gold mine.

"I'm in New York, standing in the glass booth, and Pete Rock is on the other side about to record me," he remembers. "Even if the album never comes out, I made it. All the people who told me not to do it--'You're not going to make it; you're white; you're from San Jose, the suburbs'--here I am with one of the illest cats. That was an emotional moment in my career."

Along with the label and legal drama, he and Foreign Legion recently parted ways. Just last week, Turner contemplated quitting music altogether and getting a straight job to pay his bills. Then he got a check from one of his Death, Taxes & Prozack distributors for a thousand bucks. And then he got an order from Japan for 400 CDs--an extra 3 grand. The record is also selling in Germany and Australia. This boost, plus working with San Jose production team the Buckle Brothers on new tracks, improved morale and given him incentive to make music.

"I don't know if I'd do another major-label deal again, because I'm pretty bitter," he says. "Things get shelved all the time: Rass Kass, Planet Asia. The music business is in disarray. I'm not mad because they were trying to market me to alternative radio. I know they wouldn't have done that if I were black. I didn't do a rock rap album. It wasn't an angry album. I don't know what they were looking for. But a lot had to do with race."

Race is something Prozack's been examining within the past two weeks, he says. Prozack, who is white, feels labels have a set feeling about him before hearing him rap. "I've been oblivious to [race issues] my whole life. I'm good enough; I'm cool; I do my thing. Every now and then, you get people who hate. I never got that much of it. I listen to my album--it's good. I think if I weren't white, people would take it more seriously. I honestly do. People automatically compare it to Eminem because I'm white, and I don't think it sounds anything like it."

While on the topic of race, I bring up a line in "My Favorite Song": "I'm not Vietnamese, but dog, I be eating cats." When I mention that it might offend people, he says he understands that people might get mad, but he defends his right to mix metaphors.

"It's a play on words," he says. "'I battled this cat.' What culture eats cats? Vietnam eats cats. There's nothing negative about what I said. It's a complete play on words. I have another line where I say, 'I get more pussy than a cat box,' too. But it's a play on words; I don't get any pussy--I got a girlfriend."

He laughs hard at the line. Don't dismiss the fight in this dog, even if he's eating cats.

"I believe in good, and I believe I deserve to win," he says. "If they shut the door, I'm going in the window. If they shut the window, I'll go in the basement. I'm getting in. I'm not going to stop. I'm just as good as a lot of cats."

I know I have a lot of readers in Germany, so I wanted to let you guys know about this rare chance to get a slice of the city by the bay.

As I might have mentioned earlier, Felonius is going to play SCOUT again on the last show June 29th. (Here's video and an mp3 of a track from its May 11 appearance, to give you a taste of these guys.)

In the meantime, Felonius is in Hamburg, Germany, this week, playing a show and performing "Stateless," a hip hop play starring Felonius' Dan Klein. Battle flutist Tim Barsky is with them. His Bright River hip hop play is also performing in Hamburg this week. (Soulati and Infinite from Felonius are also in Bright River.)

I haven't seen "Stateless" yet, but I've seen Felonius and Bright River in action, and I'm sure it's great.

Any of these shows will give you a chance to hear some of the best San Francisco Bay Area beatboxing, mc-ing, and hip hop theatr-ing going on right now.

Sidenote: Bright River is simply a great play, by any theatre-lover's standards. (Like a "go to Jekyll and Hyde with grandma one night, go to Bright River with grandma the next night" great play. Like, "there's no way this thing isn't making it to Broadway" kind of great.)

Here are the details:

Felonius is playing Friday June 10th at the Fabrik
show starts early at 7pm

Stateless (w/Dan Klein) is playing Saturday June 11th at 8pm
and Sunday June 12th at 10pm at the
Monsun Theater (www.monsuntheater.de)

Bright River (Tim Barsky and Carlos and Tommy) plays Saturday June 11th at 10pm at the same place (The Monsun Theater.

I was emailed an invite to this today. I can't make it, but it looked really neat, so I thought I'd let you know about it.
***
Scion Installation art tour this Friday, 6/10/05 Scion presents...

Installation Art Tour

Featuring 35 works by:
David Choe, Crash, Daze, Dr. Revolt, Mear, Fuse Green, Andy Howell, Freddi C, Blaine Fontana, Chase, Stay High 149, Kofie, Saber, Sever, Eklips, Justin Hampton, Swank, Tim McCormick and many more!

Opening reception
Friday, June 10, 2005 6pm-10pm

Live art by Sam Flores
DJ sets by Sake 1 and Hakobo
Artists in attendance: Chase, Fuse Green, Stay High 149 and more

On Six Gallery
60 6th St.
San Francisco, CA
94103

Variable Unit just got a great review in the San Francisco Bay Guardian for Mayhemystics OutBreaks.

See Variable Unit for yourself at tonight's show!

Featured MCs include: Wonway, Conceit & Top.r (Strangeface)(Hardly Celebs), Wordsmith, Boac (Earthlings), Rush, M.C. Mars, the Supah Intergalatic Street Poet, Amuzition, Hall of Fame
(Eboo, Exec D, Da Kid St. Nick, M.O.B.) and Ryan Greene.

See you there!

These last 4 shows are looking good -- and they're filling up fast -- we only have a few slots left on June 22nd and 29th. (Which is great for me, because it will give me more time to promote the participating artists if I know who they are weeks in advance.)

MCs for this Wednesday, June 8, 10 pm

Red Devil Lounge, 1695 Polk Street, San Francisco

DJ Mars - Opening from 9-10pm

Guest MCs:
Wonway

Conceit & Top.r (Strangeface)(Hardly Celebs)

Boac (Earthlings)

Rush

M.C. Mars, the Supah Intergalatic Street Poet

Amuzition

Hall of Fame
Eboo, Exec D, Da Kid St. Nick, M.O.B.

Ryan Greene

MCs Announced for SCOUT Next Wednesday, June 15, 10 pm

2 Fresh - Opening from 9-10pm Guest MCs:

Noble House Records recording artists:

Foreign Legion
(Zach Turner, Marc Stretch)

Gennessee

Cait La Dee

L*Roneous

Dogwood Speaks

Also appearing:
kero one

Jesse Seaver (a beatboxing comedian)

This whole next month of
SCOUT shows is gonna be sw-eet.

First of all, due to popular demand, Variable Unit will be jamming a lot more on its own.

Another change: We're having a different DJ every week now for the opener.

This week, DJ Quest. Next week, DJ Marz (another of the Space Travelers). The week after that, we don't know yet...

Here's the line up for tomorrow night's show. (Wed June 1, 2005)

DJ Quest - Opening from 9-10pm

Guest MCs:

MC Link-Letterz
(Ctrl Z)

Paulie Rhyme
(Finless Brown)

JBo
(Nightcrawlers)

Zealous

Special Guests TBA

Ctrl Z's MC Link-Letterz is performing at this week's SCOUT.

Ctrl Z = MC Link-Letterz + Moped (Beats)

Here's a nice track from the Ctrl Z music page:

Hone Your Craft (MP3)

We could use some more people at these shows! Please come by.

Mention the blog and get free CDs :-)

This Wednesday At Wide Hive's SCOUT

WIDE HIVE RECORDS PRESENTS SCOUT

A LIVE PERFORMANCE SERIES FEATURING VARIABLE UNIT + SPECIAL GUEST MCs

This Wednesday, May 25th, 10 pm
The Red Devil Lounge
1695 Polk Street, San Francisco

Cubik and Origami Opening from 9-10pm Special guest
Each the Beatboxer:

Video and MP3 of Variable Unit and Felonius from May 11 Show
Variable Unit
w/Guest MCs:

reMo'Conscious
“Brace yourself” – URB Magazine (May 2005)

bace135

Dan Millar

Jesse Seaver

Sam Haves (w/emcee nicky P)

Randy White

Special Guests TBA

S C O U T

W h e n: Every Wednesday in May and June, 2005

W h e r e: Red Devil Lounge, 1695 Polk Street, San Francisco

T i m e: 9-10 pm Cubik and Origami -- Catch them for their last week opening! This week Each the Beatboxer will be performing on and off with them during their set.

10-12 pm SCOUT - Variable Unit w/ D.U.S.T. and this week's guest MCs.

The SCOUT May 18, 2005 Show featured: Enzyme, Goodword, n8tivesun, tha archivez, Retainer, The Astral Force, and Each the Beatboxer. See photos from the show at: http://www.widehive.com/scout-may18.html

The SCOUt May 11, 2005 Show featured: Celcius 7, Mic Blake, HoFlow, D. Wolf, Soulati, A kid named Keith, Infinite, Julian Martinez, Cold Showda, Oposit, The Genie - scratch guitar, and Proficy.
See photos from the show at http://www.widehive.com/scout-may11.html

The SCOUT May 4, 2005 Show Featured: D.U.S.T., Kiwi, Baba Israel, Each, The Nucc, Jaw Prophetic, Shania D., and Phoenix Normand. See photos from the show at http://www.widehive.com/scout-may4.html

See you there!

Come by and say hi -- tell 'em you saw the show on my blog and I'll give you a free
Mayhemystics OutBreaks CD.

Enzyme

n8tive Sun
Goodword

Goodword's MySpace Page

Retainer

tha archivez (formely kene-j)

Each

Adam Schraft (The Astral Force)

Soulati (Felonius), Oposit and Cold Showda (The Greans)

I've uploaded photos and a video/mp3 of Variable Unit w/Felonius from the May 11 SCOUT show.

If you're in San Francisco this week, come by and say hi.

Felonius: D. Wolf, A Kid Called Keith, Soulati, Infinite.