THE_ULTIMATE_GUIDE_TO_GEEKCHIC Credits Contents Editor Neil Feineman 4. Periscope 1: What else is new and why should i care? 5. Periscope 2: Off the Road again. Publisher Femke Wolting 7. DB Weiss, Pac-Man and the tunnels through time. Bruno Felix 8. Duncan Watts connects the dots Production 10. The strange birth of Joe Camel, American icon. Femke Dekker 12. Geekchic Timeline Part II. Art Direction Coup 16. Geekchic Special: Revenge of the Nerds. 18. Desirables. Contributing Editors Femke Dekker Chelsea Kalberloh Rob Davis A Submarinechannel Production Amsterdam, 2003 I I NE L FE NEMAN One of the real joys of living in Los Angeles, another “event” page to entice advertisers into where people spend several hours a day in “premium position,” it tends to be the least read the car just doing errands, is KXLU radio. One page in the magazine. If you read it, the theory of the most prestigious independent/college goes, you have to be either very bored or are radio stations in the world, it is as likely to play “in the biz.” Waylon Jennings or Bob Dylan’s Another Side of Bob Dylan (in its entirety) as Fisherspooner, While in theory the pages of a PDF file Chicks on Speed or the Postal Service, magazine are merely paperless cyber versions interspersed 30 minute sets with idiosyncratic, of the page of the magazine, the experience often cranky and consistently compelling DJ of doing Submarine’s PDF file magazine has tangents. (Even when they are bad, they’re proven that this is not the case at all: PDF file good. As I write this, they are playing -- publications come with some built-in strengths inexplicably -- Adam Ant’s “Stand and Deliver.” and weaknesses that are going to take some Even more inexplicably, it sorta sounds good.) adjustment. One of them is the need for this column. These days, anyone can listen to KXLU on the web, at www.kxlu.com, which is a good thing. So for now, let’s leave it with the invitation for It is not, however, the same thing -- for some you to comment on what is happening on these reason, the experience of listening to KXLU pages. And of one great piece of advice I was on a radio inLos Angelesis more immediate, reminded of at a barbecue this weekend. To more textured and ultimately more “real” than really enjoy summer, my friend told me, make listening to it from a laptop wherever you may sure you salt and then squeeze a fresh lime be.I mention this because writing the editor’s over your corn on the cob. notes for Submarine feels a lot more like listening to KXLU on the web. While the editor’s note makes sense in a traditional magazine - - primarily, if truth be told, as a way of creating THE_ULTIMATE_GUIDE_TO_GEEKCHIC THE R.A.V.E. ACT --DISPATCHES FROM THE WAR Here’s one we didn’t think you would see. When PROTECTING AMERICANS AGAINST preparing the first edition, THEMSELVES! we canned this piece on the U.S. Rave Act. Then it passed. So let’s flashback Periscope. to the beginning:. 1. For more information, sample letters of protest and beautiful design sensibility to his cookbooks. copy. (It’s only about $20 US.) Unlike the food it’s named What else is new and information about the senators who are voting, check out He and his metaphorical queen, Nigella Lawson, (not after, you’ll want to put this on top of, not under, the table. http://www.emdef.org/s2633/. A link to the petition, the to mention his photographer, David Loftus and his why should i care? Drug Policy Alliance’s analysis of the bill along with the full ingregiously poorly credited designer, Johnny Boy text of the bill and the introductory statements for the bill Hamilton) have helped ushered in an era of cookbooks Anyone who reads the electronic music magazines has from the Congressional Record are also available at that that my friend calls Food Porn. She’s right -- my friend Porkland probably heard about the U.S. government’s attempt two link. -- because the food is ravishing but too rich, complicated Sometimes you’ve got $20 to spend and sometimes you years ago to invoke an obscure crack house law to indict or fatty to actually eat.\Now, if Oliver is cooking’s Mick only have five. If you’re in the single digit bracket these three New Orleans promoters. Their crime? Promoting an Jagger, Alton Brown may be its B-52. His show on days, you can still indulge yourself event where people took drugs. the Food Netowrk, Good Eats, and his book, I’m Only It’s not new anymore with a bender. These Benders are a series of movable wire Here For the Food, are like the sketchings of some figurines that have magnets on their hands and/or feet, so Although the government eventually lost the case, the In the months since then, there has been much discussion suburban 1950s mad scientiest. A self-described culinary they can stand or hang on refrigerators, targeting of Ecstasy as a rave drug has led to a more (and little action) about the repressive nature and secrete cartographer, he organizes his cookbook around methods metal shelves or on their own cool tins. Developed by a concerted effort: bill number S.2633, the so-called agendas of the Bush administration. And, certainly, there of cooking, which are all explained in terms of scientific now wealthy bartender called Steve Waltershied, over R.A.V.E. Act, currently making its way through Congress. have been more pressing problems than the victimization properties, rather than software (his name for ingredients). 1,200,000 of the figures, wre sold in 2002. (R.A.V.E., by the way, stands for Reducing Americans’ of the American club-goer. So, in retrospect, it is probably He’s right to do so because these explanations, not the Vulnerability to Ecstasy.) not so surprising that the R.A.V.E. Act was signed into recipes, are the real heart to the book. And, for the most Despite these numbers, the product remains fiercely legislation this spring. part, they are fascinating. After a lengthy discussion of independent -- not one, Hog Wild, the Portland, Oregon Under this law, the owner of any facility -- not just a rave how microwaves work, he shows how you how to make company that manufactures them, proclaims, was sold but a club, a bar, a sporting event or even a private home The dance community, in its own apathetic way, has been your own microwave popcorn with inexpensive kernels, at a K-Mart, a Wal-Mart or a Toys R Us. -- is responsible for people who slow to react. Benefits are being organized here and some good oil and a paper bag closed with two (no more) In addition to the Benders, which come in “people,” take drugs on the premises -- even if the owner is not there but so far, the DJ community has been perplexingly staples. He goes off on historical digressions, like the one “monkey” and “robot” forms, with varying degrees of there. And it’s not just drugs that are targeted. Under the silent.When coupled with the collapse of many of the on black pepper which, it turns out, is actually a berry and success, the Hog Wild catalogue includes new law, water bottles, glowsticks and chill-out rooms smaller electronic music labels and alternative music was used as currency in the Middle Ages, and throws out other sublimely silly products including the ultimate Geek could be classified as “drug promotion.” magazines, the generally sorry state of the economy and more bad puns (“A View to a Grill,” “King Sear,” “Roast bar accessories: motorized swizzle sticks topped with a the continued lack of radio play of electronic or dance Story,” to pick three at random) than you can catch. cartoonish animal head. Now why didn’t you The bill is even more sweeping than that. Under it, the music not just in the States but in North America, electronic For more, including exclusive recipes and some geek think of that? authorities do not have to specifically be looking for drugs. music is now seen the soundtrack for TV commercials and entertainment, go to his website, www.altonbrown.com. If they come to a party for a simple noise complaint and B-movies. And the R.A.V.E. Act is seen as just one more And take him at his word -- he’s not kidding when he says For a taste of the possibilities, stroll on down to see or smell some weed or some drug paraphrenalia, they nail in the coffin of a generation’s right to use music as a they won’t answer you back. can search the place, seize whatever they can find and subversive social force. www.hogwildtoys.com then arrest the owner. There is an option, at least for those interested in fighting Something to chew on Nor are they limiting themselves to raves. It would allow Stateside. To send a message to the always frightening federal prosecutors to target rock or hip-hop concerts, Mr. Ashcroft (no, not of the Verve fame), go to http://actionc Although Alton Brown doesn’t have much to say about country music events, and world music festivals. It could enter.drugpolicy.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=1581. gum (perhaps because no one asked him), gummeisters apply to hotel and motel owners, cruise ship operators, For a report on the latest developments of this otherwise Colin Metcalf and Kevin Grady, the editors of a new project stadium owners, landlords, real estate managers, and sorry situation, sign up for the emdef newsletter (Electronic called Gum, more than make up for it.