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. Although more than event promoters. The bill is so broadly written that Music Defense Education Fund) at http://www.emdef.org/ the sum of its parts, the parts themselves are impressive individuals could potentially face 20-year sentences for newsletter.html. enough: stickers, oversized cardboard “trading cards,” a using drugs at home. Anyone who used drugs in their own comic book detailing the collaboration between superhero home or threw an event (such as a party or barbecue) art director Chip Kidd and the perpetually underground in which one or more of their guests used drugs could Food Porn hearthrob, Jon Spencer, a handsome, surprisingly well- potentially face a $500,000 fine and up to twenty years written soft-cover book/zine and, true to its title, a stick of infederal prison. If the offense occurred in a hotel room or On a purely anecdotal level, it seems that superstar gum. on a cruise ship,the owner of the property could also be English DJs, among others, are far more likely to have potentially liable. the collected works of Jamie Oliver on their bookshelves Gum’s inception, it details, came out of the rubble of 9/11, as they are the likes of William Shakespeare or Charles as the two friends wondered how we could salvage the Why should you care? If you’re an American, the answer Dickens. best of popular culture, i.e. its optimism and vibrancy. is obvious. If you are not, law enforcement agencies in “There are vast reserves of joy and intelligence, humor and many, if not most, industrial countries are If, as a recent magazine headline suggests, the kitchen beauty out there to be engaged, in spite of the forbidding closely monitoring the bill’s progress. Already approved by is the new garage (as in rock, not carport), it is in no small tenor.” Then, without forgetting that tenor or lacing their the appropriate committees in the Senate, it is scheduled part due to Oliver, who’s made cooking cool for hordes optimism with a healthy dose of skate cynicism, they serve for a vote on the Senate floor in September. If it is of otherwise non-nesting men, largely by inhabiting a up ample helpings of cracklin’ ideas that prove their point. defeated, though, it can -- and probably will -- be rock-star lifestyle. While serious chefs, especially of his Gum is, as these efforts tend to be still, a labor of love. So reintroduced next year. generation, may mumble that he’s far more Celine Dion help them out by hitting www.gumweb.com and buying a than David Bowie, he has, at the very least, brought a Periscope. 2.

SARS, a bad virtual trip is better than no trip at all. So I decided to bag Off the road again Chatwin in favor of Paul Theroux, a legendary grouch who had just written a new one, called Dark Star Safari., Some reviews had savaged the book These days, what with the economy, war and SARS, it seems easier to as an argument why you should never go home again. In this instance, stay put and specialize in armchair travel of the virtual kind. “home” was Africa, where Theroux had spent some pivotal years as a Peace Core volunteer. This time, the reviews suggest, he tramps up As you might have noticed, journals, like fountain pens, are things people and down the continent complaining about, if not terrorizing, the entire either obsess on or don’t think about at all. The truth is, I like fountain pens continent. better than journals, but unless you are a collector with money to spend or flakey enough to lose your favorite $200 perfectly broken in Mont Blanc, I was in no mood for someone else’s mid-life crisis so I picked up an you go through journals a lot faster than you go through pens. earlier, more obscure book of his called The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific. In this one, he decided to heal his wounds over his In the past few years, most of my journals were either relatively expensive then recent divorce by paddling all the islands of the Pacific. And, over the Carta blank books from Italy or really cheap childrens’ tablets. But when course of 500 or so pages (and either several years or several months -- it living in Mexico City last year, I could find neither. Reduced to using a is never made clear exactly how long the journey took -- you run into some reporter’s notebook, when an English friend pulled out his black Moleskine interesting coincidences). journal, it was all I could do not to rip it out of his hands. Unexpectedly, for instance, you bump into Bruce Chatwin, then at the tail More frighteningly, I wouldn’t even have felt bad about it. The Moleskine is end of a bad case of writer’s block. And, as all today’s media are focused journal nirvana. Its sturdy covers, seductive paper stock and inside back on this year’s Gulf War, you marvel at Theroux and his merry bands of cover pouch reek of romance. The journal of everyone from Van Gough to natives hunkering around ancient radio sets to catch the news of the 1991 Hemingway, it is said (in the promotional advertisement for the journal, in Gulf War, then very much in play. Less convincingly, every 30 pages or fact) that Bruce Chatwin was so distraught by the company’s decision to so, Theroux runs into strangers who inevitably turn out to be huge fans of stop printing them that he bought hundreds of them in desparation. is. No matter how liliterate or backwater the population is, someone in the group is certain to be a big fan of Paul’s. None of them are fat, because Fortuantely, they are being remade now. And, as you carry one around he equates being fat with being immoral and frequently treats them with from place to place, you really can’t help feeling that you are channeling ridicule and repulsion. Or carnivores, who he takes to task with all the Chatwin’s ghost. Which is probably why I decided I had to try to read his fervor of a newly holier-than-though vegetarian (who eats meat from time books (again). to time, with no visible sense of irony or remorse).

Remembering that I had tried to read Songlines unsuccessfully, I went He is as talented as he is unlikeable, however, so you get lost in his straight for the biggie, In Patagonia. After reading it, I have to think journey, which is a striking reminder of how much the world has changed Chatwin’s real attraction was his look, that semi-wasted, ethereal school- in the ten years since he pulled his paddle out of the water. At one point in boy vulnerability. It couldn’t be his book, which was a meandering bore the book, an official tells him that the advent of the video machine (which that made the 200 pages seem three times as long. island dwellers hook up to generators) had changed the context of life in these islands more in five years than the colonialists had in three centuries. But, in these days of a sinking economy, escalating violence and, now, One can only imagine the effects of the Web. Periscope. 2.

FOOTNOTE: For those people who think they are going to read an extreme know where else to put it.’” sports story, be forewarned he’s not so much paddling between islands but around them. He often takes planes to and from the islands or, when Actually, jazz is quite useful as an analogy in this context. Jass as jazz -- it seems to dangerous to paddle, hangs around in shops or luxury hotel jazzy jazz -- is pretty well finished. The interesting stuff is all happening on costing over $2500 a night. He complains about how much he hates the the fringes of the form, where there are elements of jazz and elements glitz and pampering, but he stays there for weeks on end. of all sorts of other things as well. Jazz is a trace but it’s not a defining trace. I think something similar is happening in writing. Although great Interestingly, fudging isn’t a new tack for Theroux. In his second travel novels -- novel novels -- are still being written, a lot of the most interesting book, The Old Patagonia Express, he decided to get on the commuter train things are happening on the fringes of several forms. in his suburban Massachusetts home and follow the tracks to the end, in Patagonia. It too is an interesting book and, almost 30 years old, like “I say this but on reflection I realize that such book (sic) have been around watching The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, it seems that long ago. But, for a long time. Take, for example, my favorite book of the 20th century, as he hedges throughout the book, he cheats more than once by taking Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. What kind of book is that? a bus, a car or whatever other mode of transportation is necessary. It If I had to sum it up I’d say it was a very long book about Yugoslavia but doesn’t change the magnitude of the road trip, but definitely sours the pure that wouldn’t quite do it justice. So this non-category category is quite well romance of it all.) established.”

Saving the best stop for the last one, Theroux led straight to Geoff Dyer. “As for the new book of mine, well, I don’t know. Travel? A rather Dyer, who looks like Chatwin’s stoney twin, had written an amazing book, lowly genre for the most part. [Which reminds me -- the best part of Out of Sheer Rage, which was about his inability to write a biography of Paul Theorux’s Pacific opus is when he runs into another travel writer - D.H. Lawrence (and, effortlessly, predates Charlie Kauffman’s overpraised - ironically one of the few people in the book who don’t seem to know all mining of similar waters, by several years). This one, titled Yoga for People that much about Theroux -- sending Theroux into a hissy fit about travel Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It, promised more of the same. writers]. Comedy? An interesting category in that most of the stuff you find in it is so resolutely unfunny. Self-help? Maybe a sub-set of that. How Although disjointed, it jets Dyer to all sorts of places, incluidng New to survive while going completely to pieces...I should also add that the Orleans, full moon parties and Burning Man. Not all the chapters, which issue of what kind of book it is also applies, hopefully, at the level of the read more like occasionally connected essays, work. Some, though, are individual pieces. Are they stories? Well, sort of, but they are not like any brutally honest and laugh-out-loud funny riffs that make you think travel stories I know of. Some of them are essays with lots of dialogue.” Now, writing is just another word for autobiography, even if some of it is made aren’t you glad you asked? up.

Dyer is seems pretty equally confused by the distinction. When asked to give booksellers some help in their confusion about where to stock this book, he says,”The most satisfying experience of this I’ve had was when I was in London when I saw my jazz book in the best-sellers section. I asked the manager if it was true. ‘Of course not,’ he said. ‘But we didn’t D.B.Weiss, Pac-Man and the tunnels through time.

NEIL FEINEMAN

Given the sad state of contemporary fiction in the States, videogamer book groups out there. Most probably, it will Lucky Wander Boy, a new novel about video-gamers, be an uphill cultural battle until the movie and, if there’s jumps off the shelf with its iconic, somewhat plaintive a logic to the convergence theory of media, a videogame Boy, set against a striking yellow background. Could this, get made, thrusting the book directly into their faces. In at last, be the novel that gives a generation its moment the meantime, Weiss seems happy just to have actually in the literary sun? Written by a first-timer named D.B. written and gotten the damn thing published in the first Weiss, it opens with a revelatory essay from his main place. Given the realities of today’s culture, novels character’s lifework, The Catalogue of Obsolete Objects themselves are consigned to the list of obsolete objects on, of all things, Pac-Man. In it, the narrator suggests by many. that Pac-Man is the first metaphysical video game because the tunnels Pac-Man escapes to - which are the “There is a sense of belatedness [to writing a novel, equivalent of six dots or half a second - place the little rather than a script, now],” he admits. “But I have always gobbler in a world we cannot know and that, were it not loved the idea of making shit up and getting paid for for the pursuing ghosts, he could remain forever. it. I don’t think fiction will go away, but I do know that [literature] has been subsumed by the film industry. Still, This observation sets off a story whose plot and prose the film industry doesn’t have the stories.” style recall Murikami and whose structure increasingly resembles Run Lola Run, with a dash of No Exit thrown Like everyone else in Los Angeles, he is writing in for good measure. Original, provocative and, at some screenplays (unlike most in L.A.; he’s actually getting basic level, autobiographical, it begged for an interview some produced). But “novels,” he continues, “were where with Mr. Weiss. I started. When I was 17, I thought that a novel meant typing pages. By the end, I had a thick stack of paper, The meeting was all the things it should be - fascinating, but I wasn’t saying much. This time, he vowed to keep personable, entertaining, full of shared moments and things smaller and under more control.” mutual enthusiasms. “Lucky Wander Boy,” he begins, was an anomaly from the start. The publishing world was And while certain similarities exist between Weiss and largely unaware of videogame culture so the book fell Adam, the character’s relationship with video games is into, if there is such a thing, “an empty niche“. more troubled than Weiss’s. “I played the games when I was younger but I wasn’t really a part of that world,” he Despite the fact that the average gamer is in his mid-20s says. “I quit in high school, and came back to it once the and that the market is aging up, the publishing world next gen consoles came out.” worked under the assumption that people who were into videogames were jabbering, violence-crazed illiterates Although videogames don’t rule his life, he still plays who would never even want to read a book.” them and he still responds to the “naïve optimism inherent in it. Videogames are a different medium. There That worked for and against Weiss. “Since there was is still room to develop something significant; you can nothing like it, the publishers didn’t know about marketing move through something new and tell a story. Games channels.” To compensate, Weiss and the publisher like Grant Theft Auto record what the future will be, if brought in a publicist who worked with the videogame that makes any sense. Interactivity lets you explore a industry and got the book on some websites. Fortunately, game and make things happen when you want to. Like the website people “dug the book,” and began to beat the architecture, a video game gives you that freedom.” - drum. It is still unclear if Lucky Wander Boy will become - even if that freedom consigns you to wandering in a a generational manifesto - while most videogamers are limbo suspended somewhere “beneath the glass [in a neither illiterate nor violence-crazed, there are not many world] you can never really know. Duncan J. Watts But the song connects the dots: remains the same. The Wanderer by Neil Feineman

Duncan J. Watt seems like he’s got the life. He came to I felt like I was in school (in a good way) when I was the States from Australia for grad school to get a Ph.D. going through it, but was very disappointed when an in something called theoretical and applied mechanics. experiment of my own failed. He became a star of a new multi-disciplinary field called While reading it, I realized that he had gone to Cornell network theory (bastardized popularly as six degrees and was a rock climber roughly at the same time a friend of separation), and has institutions like Columbia and of mine, Jamie Murray, now of MTV’ Real World fame, the Santa Fe Institute (the scientist as rock star) on his was. Thinking it would quickly prove the separation resume. He’s even written a book, called Six Degrees, concept and be a damn fine coincidence, I e-mailed which details -- sometimes in textbook depth -- the Duncan to ask if he knew him. He didn’t. science behind networks: how they form, grow and affect collective behavior. That gave me pause because by then the muddle of physics, statistics and jargon (percolation, scale free Although only intermittently light reading, it’s pretty networks, and vectors and graphs and lattices) was, interesting stuff that links natural phenomenon like AIDS frankly, rendering me clueless as to what to actually to technological events such as power outages and the interview Duncan about. I thought and thought and then, Internet to social phenomenons like, well, Kevin Bacon. without making any real headway, got in the car to drive Duncan J. Watts But the story connects the dots: remains the same.

the 120 miles to the Coachella Music Festival. Black Eyed Peas (an agreed upon meeting first group of friends (still at their hotel partying), second space for the Kinky LA group) to the DJ tent group (still at restaurant partying) and third group (still sleeping off the night before’s partying). I do, however, meet The two-day pop festival in the desert is now frequently and back again. three of the four people in group of friends #4. referred to, in Los Angeles’ habitually self-inflated 5:15 Now have lost group four (but with a time and place to way, as the most important alternative music event in But, while the strategy had worked meet up 30 minutes later. Run into group five, and follow the States. If it is, all I can say is that we’re in trouble effortlessly until then, it fell apart as soon as them to VIP area (1000 people or so, but higher odds of because even though the promoters proudly decline I started to apply the principles. In fact, the knowing them since it’s a less random group). offers of sponsorship (besides their own logo), it is a only person I remember talking to after the 5:20: Run into someone from group one, who has also lost bland, corporate affair. fact was a woman with chipped teeth and a her group. She goes to drink a beer. I head to VIP area hillbilly demeanor who was standing behind looking for but not finding group five. I do, however, make The fun of Coachella relies less on the music, which me in the line to the porta potty. She was three new friends. Being Australian, they are very drunk, most of the bands and DJs privately admit is generally also the best friend of Mixmaster very friendly and very funny. mediocre, and more about running into friends throughout Mike who, with the Beastie 5:25: Go back to main stage for Blur and the checkpoint for the day. Every year I have the same experience: I Boys, was headlining the day’s group four. Meet the missing member of group four, but no go, have a great time until dusk falls, can’t find any of festivities. She confirmed one else. my friends, get lonely, leave early and, after minimal (offered, actually) that they 5:30: Realize the day is like a Duncan J. agonizing, decide not to go to day #2. had no new material and had Watts’ case study and, thinking I will go only performed once in years, where I have the most common interest, head This year, I promised myself it would be different. I had the night before, in Vegas. That for the DJ tent. four different sets of friends, each of whom would split seemed to me reason enough to 6:00: Despite feeling like I have come home to my people, I run into no one. Still, I feel off into mini-sets from set to set and there are five stages leave the grounds immediately... no need, surrounded by like-minded souls plus one backstage area at the festival so I thought it digging Darren Emerson’s amazing set (I do On a side note to this endlessly would be simple to run into everyone, especially during think for a moment how sad it is that he no the day. Then, just as the sun fell, I would go to the self-indulgent case study, I longer spins with Underworld, if only for the agreed meeting spots and not leave them until the last must say that by the time I music that could have been). strains of the closing set were done. got home, some three hours 8:00: Run into the Australians, who are later, all my friends had all looking for Groove Armada. Despite the annual two-hour crawl through four miles of called me. But unlike me, who was looking 8:20: Look for group four at Black-Eyed surface streets to the parking lot, I got there just in time at being asleep by 1 A.M., they were all Peas. Can’t get near the meeting point due to to see my first formal “appointment” and connect with at afterparties, hanging out with Darren swelling crowds. my first group of friends, in from Mexico to see Kinky, the Emerson, shaking hands with 8:25: Sweep the VIP area for friends. Nada. Mexican rock band. The band had just the Beastie Boys and busily Meet Ms. Mixmaster’s friend. found out David Byrne would be producing plotting how they would meet 8:30: Head back to the DJ tent, looking for their second album. Understandably, they the White Stripes the next friends. Double nada. were happy... I was too, even though I day. So much for the network 8:35: Run into another of group one. He tells didn’t see anyone from group one theory, I thought, brushing me most of group one is up in front, by the but I did run into one of my favorite my teeth and getting into stage which is now packed. couples from the city. bed. 9:00: Wander aimlessly around the venue one last time, wondering if it’s my fault or Duncan’s science of network that is to blame for the lack This kept happening for several of predictable random encounters. hours. Somewhere in the middle TO GO SOMEWHERE AT THE END OF 10:00: Feeling unpopular (and secretly bored), THE STORY of the sequence annoyingly I leave the venue. detailed below, I started thinking, 10:15: I decide it’s Duncan’s fault after all. improbably, about how Duncan To help convince Duncan to study me, I am offering this breakdown of events -- raw should be following me around, TRIVIAL PURSUITS asking me questions -- it would data, certainly, for a network breakdown in progress: The Kevin Bacon game was invented by a group of make for an interesting case study, I fraternity brothers at William and Mary College in Virginia was certain. The Day at Coachella -- Summary of Events who had a collective epiphany that Kevin Bacon was the center of the movie universe and that every actor in So, ignoring the fact that all the 12 noon: Leave L.A. with legions of cell feature film history (approximately one-half million) could material in Six Degrees seemed phone numbers and affirmation that I will be be connected in terms of films they had appeared in. If better at describing what had already sociable and have fun running into numerous you had actually been in a film with Kevin Bacon, you happened than what was going to groups of friends (Estimated number of had a K.B. number of one (approximately 1,500 actors to happen, I became an electrified people in my network: 120. Estimated date. The game involved seeing how many steps it would molecule, careening from the VIP number of people there: approx. 30,000). take to connect an actor with our man. The theory was area to the main stage to the 4:30 Arrive at Festival. Race to Kinky. Miss that it would never take more than six degrees. Using more rigorous scientific principles and more expensive The strange birth of Joe Camel, american icon.

The Wanderer By Neil Feineman

Whether you agree with the anti-smoking stance Back in 1983, when the Marlboro cowboy was the increasing numbers of cities and people are taking or strongest icon in the smoke house, McCann Erickson not, few would argue with the argument that the tobacco approached Salisbury to revamp Camel’s campaign. industry which peddles death, deception and addiction. Camel had been using a curly-haired blonde guy, but And although no one has convincingly proven that the ads weren’t working. Salisbury had been doing cigarette advertising has caused people to smoke – peer movie posters which conveyed a sense of adventure and pressure, the prescence of cigarettes in music videos and sophistication, and the agency thought they could adopt movies, following your family’s example, do far better that look for Camel. jobs of that --. designers who chose to work with tobacco money have shaken hands with the devil. Remembering that Camels had been used as props in old movies, he started to play around with World War Few have come closer to that than the legendary West II figures like Sam Spade and Terry and the Pirates, Coast art director, Mike Salisbury. This material is taken placing them against fancifal backdrops, which were from a conversation in 1995 that was published in a actually hand-painted to lend an air of authenticity. He different format in Speak Magazine: He was approached spent the better part of a year developing the mock-ups, to do Joe Camel, which was to become one of the most but they tested very poorly. Everyone from Salisbury to recognizable icons in history, in the early1980s. Although Camel was stunned by the consumer cold-shoulder, until a non-smoker himself, he agreed to take the job. they found out that smokers have absolutely no sense of nostalgia. In retrospect, to Sailsbury, the most interesting thing about Joe Camel was the total lack of any pre-conceived In the meantime, Salisbury stumbled on a German strategy to it. “We were working under incredibly cigarette box which had a camel on it. He liked the tight tactical restrictions, such as a horizontal format, image, cut out the camel and stuck it against the painted the ability to use only the upper body and a target backdrops. He was just playing, but thought it was funny audience that was specifically over 21, and equally enough to take seriously. It didn’t test well either, but the tight deadlines“. If Joe Camel proves anything, it’s that agency, taking an uncharacteristic risk, decided to get accidents can happen. behind it. The strange The strange birth of birth of Joe Camel, Joe Camel, american icon. american icon.

So despite the bad test, the team began to develop it The first of the new ads capitalized on Don Johnson That was all that was needed to kick-start ole’ Joe. And none is more cogent than an article in New Times that further. “But when you looked at [the image] seriously, and Miami Vice -- then the most popular show on TV although sales went from 27 million dollars to something points out, tellingly, that one of the sad side effects of this there were a lot of problems, primarily because there among young adults. They put Crockett’s Ray Bans like 200 million and Joe became one of the two most story is that Salisbury, who gave much of modern surfing were a lot of elements, including the camel, a pack of and wardrobe on the camel but, mindful of being sued, recognizable cartoon icons by children all over the world, and the California lifestyle its look, is now recognized cigarettes, the copy and the woman.” switched the locale from Miami to the Hollywood sign. Salisbury doesn’t believe that it was the ad campaign that not for those accomplishments, but for the person By then, he remembers, the deadline was looming. convinced new smokers -- and kids -- to start smoking. behind one of the most infamous campaigns in modern The concerns surrounding cigarette advertising even advertising history. then were complicated. “In what may have cost them The painter he hired for the ad gave him something far Instead, he blames Ghostbusters, which came out in the account later on, the agency didn’t want to put hands more stylized than he hoped for, but there was no time 1984 and featured Dan Ackroyd smoking for reasons that Finally, the last word on Joe Camel being nothing more on the figure. They thought the hands would make it to change anything so he submitted the ad, figuring he had nothing to do with plot development, and Madonna, than a penis in disguise. “I never thought about it being a cartoon character. They weren’t willing to cross that could tweak it after they saw it. But they loved it. At the then in her vamp period, smoking at the MTV Awards, for a penis,” he swears. “Then I went to a pop culture particular line because they thought it would make the time, he didn’t realize they were under so much pressure glamorizing smoking. “Until then, James Dean was the convention. A lecturer analyzed Shirley Temple’s appeal character appealing to children, which in turn would bring to turn something out that they would have loved great smoker,” he says. into two components. The first was the lovable child who the government in.” anything. brought out the paternal element in all of us. The second, In addition, teen-age rebellion was at work. “In addition she said as if it were totally obvious, was her sexual (As an aside, they were very careful in regards to that When the agency started asking for the illustrator’s to the role models who smoke, kids are smoking again nature. issue. No one under 21 was allowed to even work on name, Salisbury started thinking they might cut him because it’s the one thing their parents won’t do. They’ll the campaign in any way; everyone who worked with out of the picture. The illustrator had split to Thailand coopt every other look and style from their kids but they “’Wait a minute,’ I thought. ‘Shirley Temple being Salisbury had to legally document their adult status. anyway, but Salisbury, whose radar was up, decided to are not going to start smoking. That, I believe, is why sexual?’ It’s the same with the nose. When people Perhaps because they were dealing with adults, not use a different illustrator for each of the elements. “That smoking is so popular again. started to bring it u p, I could see it but it wasn’t children, a problem Salisbury anticipated -- the sexual way they might be able to figure out the parts, but would intentional at all. Of course, the more you protest...” implications of linking a camel with a woman -- never at least have to piece the puzzle together by themselves. “Having said that, I have to admit that I’m not sure how came up.) To which I would have said, ‘good luck.’”. Because I feel about what I’ve done. On the one hand, we didn’t the “over-21” issue had flared up with Don Johnson, see the job as a big moral issue. On the other hand, even Knowing that they were after “a younger adult with no Salisbury shifted his iconic inspiration to James Bond, though I can’t really believe an animal with a cigarette sense of history”, they dumped the trench coat and who was more adult, equally dashing and, at that time, in his mouth would convince someone to smoke, I kinda painted backdrops in favor of a more contemporary feel. an avid smoker. While the campaign was successful in do think they influence people. And really, how are you “The audience we were after were the first TV generation. terms of getting existing smokers to switch to Camel, supposed to think about that?” As a result, they didn’t understand color nuances. The it wasn’t attracting new smokers. So Camel fired the only colors that registered with them were distinct, bright agency and hired one of their own in North Carolina, Indeed. In the years since this conversation, others have and confined by the object.” who told Salilsbury to put hands on Joe Camel. written extensively about Joe Camel. Of those articles, GEEKCHIC TIMELINE PART II: TEXT GEEKCHIC TIMELINE PART II: IMAGES

1937-42: Electronic Digital Computer

ABC, the first electronic digital computer, is developed at the University of Iowa by John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry. The computer, which weighs 700 pounds, uses binary functions and has separate memory and computing capacities, among other key features. Based on the ABC prototype, Presper Eckert and John Mauchly go on to create the ENIAC between 1943 and 1946, based on the early work on the ABC, and try to pass off their work as purely original. Is it the precursor to the Microsoft/ ABComputer.GIF Apple debate, or a minor geek clash? Either way, a patent infringement suit solves the case, and the ABC is dubbed the first. 1938: Ballpoint Pen

Ladislo Biro, a Hungarian journalist, invents the ballpoint pen, which gives the pocket protector a new lease on life.

1939: Superman / Code breaking Computer nlc002250-v6.jpg turing.gif duct_tape.gif DC Comics publishes the first story of “Superman,” a superhero who transforms from geek to dude via telephone box. Now we use cell phones, and Superman has been upstaged in the ratings by Clark Kent from the WB TV hit, “Smallville.”

Alan Turing, working at the Government Code and Cypher School, Bletchley Park, plays a crucial role in the development of code breaking computers and cracks Germany’s Enigma cipher, used for communication between U-Boats. Geeks change the course of WWII.

Fresh out of Stanford University, William Hewlett and David Packard create Hewlett-Packard with a $538 investment. Each purchaser of HPs will some day individually spend nearly double that amount to own their own computer. Not only do the two make the best investment decision of all time, they quickly pay off their college loans.

1942: Duct tape

Johnson & Johnson invents duct tape. Its original purpose is to keep moisture out of ammunition cases used during World War II. Eventually a better use is found: eyeglass adhesive.

1945: Computer Bug

Grace Murray Hopper, one of the first “computer programmers” and the inventor of the compiler, is working on the Harvard Mark II computer when she finds a moth beaten to death in the jaws of one of its relays; this becomes the first computer bug. Thereafter when the machine stops, they joke that they are “debugging” the bug1.gif GEEKCHIC TIMELINE PART II: TEXT GEEKCHIC TIMELINE PART II: IMAGES

computer. The moth still exists in the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution. 1946: Computer Network / Mountain Dew

Named after the backwoods slang for moonshine, Mountain Dew is first bottled in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1965, the potent, citrus-flavored, day-glow green soda is sold to Pepsi and distributed to the masses. Thanks to its 37mg of caffeine per 8-ounce serving (about the same as tea), Mountain Dew becomes the energizing elixir for young geeks, enabling them to solve algorithms at the speed of mtdew.gif light.

1947: LSD / Transistor

Dr Albert Hofmann synthesizes LSD, changes the world (at least through the eyes of those who took it), and creates what will become the catalyst of the counter-culture. He uses himself as a test subject and has a dangerous cycle bug1.gifride home as a result.

Two scientists working for William Shockley at the Bell Telephone Laboratories make observations that lead to the discovery of the solid-state transistor, which supersedes the hot, unreliable, bulky vacuum tube in computers and other electronic devices. By 1955, kids all over the world are hiding under their covers, tuning their cool little portable transistor radios into stations hundreds hofmann.gif Transistor.GIF of miles away and getting a primitive taste of the virtual village.

1948: Soft plastic lenses

Kevin Tuohy invents the soft plastic lens and contact lenses become possible. Geeks can look cool out of the lab, but most resist, citing loyalty to glasses and duct tape.

1950: Nerd

Dr. Seuss writes “If I Ran the Zoo” and publishes the first use of the word nerd: “And then, just to show them, I’ll sail to Ka-Too And Bring Back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, a Nerckle a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too!”

1951: The Pill / Drive Thru Restaurant / Disc Jockey

Vienna-born chemist Carl Djerassi invents the Pill big0394800818.jpg jimmy_saville.jpg in Mexico City. Technology liberates sex, undermines conventional morality, and makes everyone but condom manufacturers and the clergy happy.

Forget drive-ins! Jack In the Box, a San Diego-based hamburger chain, introduces the first drive-thru. Drive- “thru,” “lite” mayo, and late-“nite” become senseless abbreviations, and restaurant dining becomes more mechanized, standardized, and impersonal. Yum. 1951: Jimmy Saville is playing records in a Leeds,

60s_jack.jpg GEEKCHIC TIMELINE PART II: TEXT GEEKCHIC TIMELINE PART II: IMAGES

England, dancehall when he comes up with the idea of using two turntables and fading between them to create a continuous performance. He builds the equipment into a huge, heavy box that he lugs to the venue and becomes the first ever disk jockey (DJ). Surprisingly, he sustains no injuries in his exertions and it is not until 2002 that Judge Jules becomes the first major DJ to complain of back problems.

1952: T-Shirt

The American-style T-shirt is created, modeled, and named after the simple design worn by European troops in World War I. In 1955, James Dean glamorizes it as more than an undergarment in “Rebel Without a Cause.” Geeks would later adopt it less for fashion than out of laziness. Face it: T-shirts are cheap, don’t have to be ironed, and can fit over thin and fat alike.

1957: Black Eyeglasses / Casio 14-A / Sputnik

Buddy Holly gives government-issued black eyeglasses their first taste of street cred with his band’s debut album, “The Chirping Crickets,” which features the songs “That’ll Be the Day” and “Not Fade Away.” 1957: After opening a metals shop and spending over a decade working on solenoid calculators, brothers Tadao, Kasuo, and Yukio Kashio form Casio Computer Company and dean.jpg buddy_holly_01.jpg release its first creation, the Casio 14-A. Kids bored with their algebra lessons eventually discover that typing 07734 and 58008, then turning the calculator upside down, spells “HELLO” and “BOOBS,” respectively.

In October, the Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. America begins to fear Russia’s nuclear prowess. Sputnik II follows in November, complete with a larger cargo capacity and onboard geek canine, “Laika.” America begins revamping its own satellite plans and launches Explorer I in 1958. The space race is on, and geeks like ex-Nazi SS major Werner sputnik.jpg Von Braun become famous, powerful and, by extension, attractive. 1958: Laser

Invention of the laser. Holography is born, and rays of blue and red consume operating rooms.

1959: Integrated Circuit

A massive year for inventions. Jack Kilby at Texas casio.jpg Instruments makes the first Integrated Circuit (IC) using germanium transistors. The same year, Robert Noyce, one bond_connery.jpg of eight technicians who left Shockley’s company in 1957 to found Fairchild Semiconductor, makes the first silicon IC. 1962: Dr.No / LED / The Jetsons pix_Laser.1387.gif 505_firsic.jpg GEEKCHIC TIMELINE PART II: TEXT GEEKCHIC TIMELINE PART II: IMAGES

The first James Bond film, “Dr. No,” is released, starting one of the most successful movie series ever — celebrating souped-up vehicles, geeky gadgetry, and suggestively named female characters — all based on the books by rakish ex- spy and journalist Ian Fleming. 007 proves that wit and charm are only enhanced by a grab bag of boy toys.

Invention of the light emitting diode (LED), used originally in scientific instruments, watches, calculators, and still used for bright information displays in supermarkets, streets, and sports stadiums. The 8-segment LED and its eerie red glow become a design classic.

Pre-Apollo America glimpses Hanna-Barbera’s 21st century vision with the animated comedy “The Jetsons.” George, Jane, Judy, and Elroy Jetson (and their robot housekeeper, title2.gif Rosie) engage in space-age hi-jinx, proving that modern comforts (including George’s computer RUDI, or referential universal digital indexer) are neither modern nor comforts. Nevertheless, it’s the inspiration, clearly, for the trendsetting Los Angeles “hip hotel,” the Standard. Mercifully, “The Jetsons” is one of the few TV shows not to make its way onto the giant screen.

1963: Skateboard

In search of the next hula hoop, Santa Monica lifeguard Larry Stevenson manufactures the first commercial skateboard, which beach kids in Venice and Santa Monica had been hand-making from surplus roller skate wheels. He makes a fortune but then loses it in a decades-long court battle with the rest of the skateboard industry over the basic design of the skateboard (the kicktail, to be exact). The court agrees that he invented it but then said oldled4.jpg he had to give it away. We’d like to say the judge ended 001-1.jpg up siring Shawn Fanning, but we won’t. 1964: LCD

More power-efficient than the LED, the liquid crystal display (LCD) is invented and is still used today in mobile phones, calculators, watches, and pocket games consoles. However, the LED looks much cooler in the dark, and retro LED watches make a comeback 30 years later.

1965: Moog

Inspired by his use of the first electronic-sound instrument, the theremin (he once wrote a book about how to use the device, primarily used in early alien flicks), Robert Moog builds the Moog analogue synthesizer. The man who was regularly beat up as a kid for being the class brain popularizes the synthesizer as an instrument primarily used and developed for music playing, and electronic beats are unleashed upon the world. The first hit to use a Moog comes in 1969 with “Switched On Bach” by Walter (now Wendy) Carlos, who also made the soundtrack to sci-fi thriller “A Clockwork Orange.” From class brain to disco icon, whether that’s a step up is a matter of opinion. moog1.jpg par REVENGE OF THE NERDS In the grand scheme of things, we owe a debt to Hollywood for being so quick to recognize the potential for geek chic. Let’s face it, where else but in the movies would Anthony Michael Hall or Steve Guttenberg end up with the (real) girl?

Weird Science, 1985 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

The only thing better than having a hot babe is having a hot, smart Whereas many sci-fi movies that followed were more concerned with big babe. At least, that’s how Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) sees it. With bangs, “2001” found real adventure in space exploration, science, the help of his buddy — and no thanks to pesky jock Chet (Bill Paxton) and theology. Based on Arthur C. Clarke’s novel, Stanley Kubrick’s — Gary uses networked computers to create the perfect woman. A modern- film turned a computer, the malfunctioning “HAL 9000,” into a lead day Frankenstein, saucy Kelly LeBrock has the brain of Albert Einstein character, built space vehicles from NASA designs, threw in a few and the body of a Barbie Doll. In typical John Hughes fashion, the psychedelic scenes of Jupiter, and gave serious film-goers one of their geeks win. first and most uncanny glimpses into our technological future.

Soylent Green, 1973 Pi, 1998

In a twisted view of the future, director Edward G. Robinson depicts If geeks don’t love science, technology, and computers, they surely 2022 New York City as a virtually post-apocalyptic wasteland where love math. And if they’re anything like Max Cohen, the biographical hungry, unemployed masses rely on government handouts — in this case, character in Darren Aronofsky’s chilling brainteaser, they probably a foodstuff called Soylent Green — to survive. A video game makes a believe that mathematics is the universal language in these and all cameo (Nolan Bushnell’s “Computer Space”), Charlton Heston gives his other facets of life. In “Pi,” a twisted mediation on the line between typically Shakespearean performance (“It’s made out of people!”), and genius and insanity, Cohen slowly drives himself insane trying to prove sci-fi reminds us how scary things can get when the world grows out of that order exists in chaos — in this case, the New York Stock Exchange. control. REVENGE OF THE NERDS

Demon Seed, 1977

After “Performance,” Donald Cammell gives us the luckiest supercomputer of all, Proteus IV, if only because Proteus gets to impregnate the luminous Julie Christie. Granted, it is obsessed with her and finally ends up raping her. The movie just begs for a sequel, but Cammell had the misfortune to commit suicide, taking all hopes of for the sequel with him.

Zelig, 1983

Until they find their niche, many social outcasts will do whatever it takes to fit in. That’s how it is for Leonard Zelig, played by Woody Allen in the movie he also directed. With 1920s documentary footage and a pre-Gump insertion of a character into historical footage, “Zelig” broke cinematic ground. But it’s also the message, about an outcast who thrusts himself into a variety of personas until he find his own, that resonates.

Metropolis, 1926

There have been numerous attempts to improve upon it but perhaps no one has done the post-modern technopolis as well as Fritz Lang. In his vision, society is run by people turning underground machines that keep the above-ground mechanized metropolis alive. This film is filled with hallucination scenes, class struggles, and Lang’s own bleak belief that in the end, the machines are really the ones running the show. Giorgio Moroder and Detroit techno innovator Jeff Mills each created full- length soundtracks in homage to this classic.

Short Circuit, 1986

Okay, it isn’t the most serious movie ever made, but kids love “Short Circuit”’s lead character, the robot Number 5, who gets struck by lightening, goes haywire, gets a mind of its own, and escapes its lab, run by its maker, Steve Guttenberg. No. 5 makes its way to the doorstep of Ally Sheedy, who takes it in just as she has stray animals. Eventually Sheedy and Guttenberg fall in love, giving No. 5 the home he has always wanted. (No, we are not making this up!)

Mars Attacks, 1996

Tim Burton’s comedy may not be his best film, but his campy throwback to 1950s Martian movies is a hilarious, cameo-filled adventure where Earthlings win — not because of our cunning, but because of our excruciatingly bad taste. “Mars Attacks” re-ignites the old Luddite adage: One bad country-western singer is worth more than a warehouse of computers and hi-tech weaponry.

Fantastic Voyage, 1966

Isaac Asimov’s novel comes to life thanks to Richard Fleischer (“20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”). Better known for putting its lead, Raquel Welch, in a wet suit than for its take on nanotechnology- sized computers, the movie begins with a miniaturized Welch and fellow explorer Stephen Boyd aboard a miniature submarine. They are injected into a scientist’s blood stream in a race against time to find the blood clot that ails him. Desirables Collect them all! Geekchic is proud to present the Desirables, a new series on cool collectors and their hang-ups. First up is sneakerfreak DENNIS TOKAYA

FEMKE DEKKER

back in the box and that’s how it got So what’s your favorite sneaker then? started. When I had about ten pairs “My all time favorite is the Air 180 it struck me that this went beyond from 1991 but they’re so expensive buying a pair of shoes just because you just have to keep them in the I needed something to walk on. From box. then on I decided I wanted to have those Air Max in every available What more could you want? color.” “Well, the one thing still missing in my collection is a pair of Nike Expensive little hobby you got there.. Air 180 from the first series in a “I probably own about fifty to sixty size nine. That was the first 180 to pairs of regular Nike’s and about come out. It’s white with pink and thirty pairs of Nike’s Air Max and blue. Preferably in a box, with a my collection grows on a daily bases. certificate and even better: never I’m always out there, looking for worn. That’s my Holy Grail” the perfect fit, new or vintage. Sometimes you get lucky and score a pair for only a hundredandfifty or You’ll be dancing in the streets if you find twohundred bucks. But yeah, I’ll pay those... five or sixhundred dollars if they’re “Are you kidding me? No way! They’d worth it. Especially for a vintage go straight from the box into my pair from ‘88 that are out of stock.” display cabinet, where I keep all my sneakers.” Air Max, huh? Any other sneakers that wet your appetite? “I do own some Adidas sneakers as Now you’re kidding me right? Don’t tell me you’re never tempted well, but my shoe-collection mainly to try them on and be the talk of consists of Air Max, specifically the town? Sure I’ll try them on once the ‘87 series like I’m wearing now. in a while. So at home I’m tha man, I have them in all kind of wacky yeah! As long as the floor has been prints like fake snakeskin or thoroughly vacuumed...” camouflage. Some of those designs So where does the story of sneakerfreak or anything like you see today. When are just way over the top but I’ve Visit Dennis’ Fabulous Selection at begin? I was in my last year of elementary got to have them anyway. It’s really www.shoepirates.com “I must have been six or seven years school my parents got me my first hard to get these in Europe so I old when I got my first pair. They pair of Nike Air Max. I had to move usually get them from Japan or The were Nike basketball-sneakers heaven and earth to get those shoes. States. There’s this whole network and you could only buy them in Especially because my feet were of sneakerfreaks like me out here, specialized sport-stores. There still growing so one pair would who know what I’m looking for. So I wasn’t really much choice back then; only last me a couple of months and mainly rely on the word to mouth they were plain red and white or they were really expensive. I used thing tot do its job.” blue and white, no fancy air-soles to put the pairs that I’d outgrown