publications, sound files, video, articles, reviews
PINK STEEL The somewhat official Pink Steel website resides herein. You are one-click away from text, sound, and ephemera collected from the band’s life cycle 1978-1982.
Pink Steel reissue via Supreme Echo is available now.
https://supremeecho.bandcamp.com/album/pink-steel
here’s a review. and another. and an interview with the Alienated In Vancouver blog.
The music scene in Victoria from the Pink Steel era is documented in the terrific book ALL YOUR EARS CAN HEAR: UNDERGROUND MUSIC IN VICTORIA, B.C. 1978-1984. This book features profiles of just about every original band from that time and includes two CDs of great music. Pink Steel gets a page along with many other equally obscure outfits, but the collection is highlighted by The Infamous Scientists, The Neos, and NoMeansNo.
Obtain the book. Listen to a few tracks.
Another fine volume is Sam Sutherland’s PERFECT YOUTH: THE BIRTH OF CANADIAN PUNK, which features chapters on most of the local “scenes” across the country, including Victoria. This is a great read. Check it out here.
The music video page has related items of interest.
Former Pink Steel member Pete Campbell continues to blaze his own trail. Ocular Tip produced a promotional video to highlight one of his many endeavours.
Brief Encounters 17 was held at Performance Works in Vancouver August 31-September 2, 2011. I was paired with visual artist Meghan Currie, and we produced an ode to Alan Watts, ninjas, forests and bicycles.
A review of the show is available online.
Or see the performance for yourself -
OCCUPY LSX
Images from London, England in October 2011, during the first week of the Occupy encampment at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Damp: Contemporary Vancouver Media Art - edited by Oliver Hockenhull and Alex MacKenzie - Anvil Press 2008. An essay contributed to this volume, describing a twenty-year process of documenting the city of Vancouver, was titled "Future City” (aka "Back to the Future”).
An essay written for PopMatters' 35th anniversary reconsideration of Bob Dylan’s 1975 album Blood On The Tracks. A miasma of obsessive detail chronicles the shifting arrangements and lyric revision heard in live performances from the album.
Additional book and film reviews have appeared on the PopMatters website.
From late 2012 through 2013, Ocular Tip teamed with Black Op Radio host Len Osanic to produce a weekly web series 50 Reasons for 50 Years. This compendium features one the most informed panels of researchers, authors, and journalists ever assembled on the topic. A sequel to the 50 Reasons series - Postscript 1968 - examines the context and consequence of further disruptions to the American political scene in the crucial decade of the 1960s.
Research for these programs led to a series of essays and reviews for Jim DiEugenio’s Kennedys and King website.