Excerpts from Electric Degeneration, Degenerate Press' semi-weekly e-zine, free and ad-free. A full episode contains sections for music reviews, upcoming events, blasphemy, classifieds, and anything else we feel like saying. If you'd like to subscribe just contact us.
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7/4/1999
EAR UNPLUGGED
The Point is no more. Rumor has it they called their staff and told ‘em
they weren’t going to renew their liquor license, called The Earl (a new
joint opening “soon” in East Atlanta) and tried to sell their equipment,
and closed their doors Saturday. Theories abound as to why - recent increases
in the liquor license fees, competition on the high end by Echo Lounge and the
low end at 9 Lives, back taxes, etc. but nobody is answering their phone and
I can’t find anybody in the know. So if you have any info, or just memories
of the joint you’d like to share, send ‘em ASAP ‘cause I’m
supposed to have an article in to Atlanta Press post haste.
As a result, we’ll have to get out and about and check out some of the
new venues too, so if you got a favorite spot for live music let us know!
EAR PLUGS:
A response to degenerate DC's column last episode:
"Even though 99.9% of people have no idea how or when to use a
semicolon, I think this guy went WAY over the line in his attempt to
throw in every semi-colon not used by the illiterate public. Hey,
semi-colon boy, eaaasy now, it's called a period. It's a sweet way to
end a sentence.
Sorry DC, but we must smack our own."
Degenerate Tristram
THE EMPIRE KICKS BACK
It’s been a while since we went to Drag On Con. After the whole “jesters
on 5, jesters on 5” incident some years back the con just left me with
a bad my mouth. Then they scattered the thing from the Inforum to the Civic
Center and finding your favorite game or event was a game in itself.
So when some old con friends badgered me to go I said “I’m never paying
for that fuckin’ con again.” But then it hit me - I might not have
to pay! I put out a few feelers and sure enough a pair of shiny press passes
were reserved for me and degenerate DN, care of Atlanta Press (thanks!)
I headed down Thursday to get the badges and scope out the scene. Almost everything
was actually in the Hyatt instead of all over town so things were easy to find.
I cruised the massive dealers’ room but there wasn’t a damn thing
worth looking at - all mainstream big name mediocre crap, with a sprinkling
of fake boobs promoting random efforts, and an occasional author or film star
selling anything they can autograph.
Back at the hotel I ran into members of Grand Moff Tarkin and their entorage.
Like everyone, they were making a quick buck selling their wares, every piece
of Star Wars paraphenalia they could get their hands on.
I skipped out for a bite and hurried back to catch GMT’s show, only to
find that everything was running behind, as usual. About an hour late they opened
the doors and I snuck backstage to watch them perform to their biggest crowd
ever, some 2000 folks. By the end they were all chanting “Grand Moff Tarkin”
for an encore. They came out and took off their helmets and got all the dancers
on stage for a big last number. Boba Fett kicked his keyboard over and everyone
came off stage shouting “GREAT SHOW!” and jumping around like a bunch
of game show winners.
At their party later things got a little more crazy as the liquor flowed, the
women jumped about, and tempers flared over who broke what but by the end of
the weekend everyone was still smiling and their fan base had grown.
Friday the quest for a party began in earnest. Eventually we gave up and snuck
into the guest hospitality suite for free drinks and food. We shmoozed a few
folks we knew, ignored all the big name guests as always, and slipped out in
search of a party. We stumbled into our friends from Fantasm (www.fantasm.org)
promoting their con next year. They mentioned a little bash in the room of one
of the many cam girls there, Amy, known online as mystrys. A few drinks and
chinese finger foods later we’re on cam making fools of ourselves to anyone
on earth foolish enough to watch.
Eventually we were back in “the green room” since there wasn’t
much else to do. The people watching was not bad but a little redundant - goth,
goth, goth, stormtrooper, stormtrooper, stormtrooper, fat geek, fat geek, fat
geek... There wasn’t a show or panel worth our attention and we wouldn’t
pay for gaming so we found ourselves back at the green room every few hours,
until they figured out we weren’t guests and booted us out.
Saturday we headed in early and wandered the dealers’ room and people watched
until we were bored, finally setting up a Misinformation Booth, charging a quarter
to “answer any question, guaranteed to steer you wrong.” We also created
and sold Stickman comics, a Degenerate Press tradition and between bad directions
and stick man comics about asshole con security we made about $4 in an hour
and amused many bored fans.
We snuck back into the green room and sucked down more of their liquor, chatted
with guests and old acquaintances and relaxed, hoping the parties would get
going. Everyone had said their party would start after the GWAR show so we checked
on the show - running an hour behind, as expected. Then two hours. Then they
opened the doors and let the opening act, Godhead, make some goth metal racket.
We fled to the only real party, thrown by our friends of Fantasm, and lurked
around hoping for something fun. It was a good people watching spot until the
security would come around and make sure nobody was blocking any stairwell or
passage or having any real fun. We hit the green room from time to time and
looked for other parties but by 2 it was obvious nothing was going to be degenerate
enough for us and GWAR was nowhere near going on so we beat a retreat.
Oh yeah, happy birthday U.S. of A. And go US Women’s World Cup Team!!
INFRASTRUCTURE
The Big News we’ve mentioned in the last couple episodes can finally be
announced officially - your editor has a new job! After 6 years of semi-retirement
and another degree, he’s headed back to a 40 hour work week. You will notice
no lack of degeneration! In fact, we can afford to get new toys, see more stuff,
go more places, we can make him faster, stronger... No, he’s no 6 million
dollar man, but the income is a significant increase (probably double take-home
pay or so.) I’d like to thank those that helped in the search and if anyone
needs a big list of technical recruiters let me know.
Invites for our big July 17 bash are printing at this very moment. If you’d
like to attend you WILL need an invite. No, not because it’s an invite
only kinda thing, but because it’s in the boonies and you’ll need
the handy dandy map on the back! So send us your snail mail address and we’ll
ship it to you ASAP.
By the way, any donations toward this effort would be GREATLY appreciated. Our
editor doesn’t start the new job until after the bas so the paychecks won’t
be rolling in in time to help with the beer, a PA, a pig, etc
The unsubscribe command for this broadcast is “Jar Jar” and will continue
to be until the hype dies down, somewhere around 2010 we figure.
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