Robbers, Vegan Goodies, Housemate Call-Out, and Evil Twin Booking Agency update

Tonight/Tomorrow:

Halloween Critical Mass in NYC, Rubulad... tomorrow we'll go to a cool art exhibit and the anti-war march. I believe our new friend Lara will be joining Liz and I on our adventure. Sunday night we're going to see our Seripop friends Chloe and yannick's band AIDS WOLF and Old Time Relijun

Lost Film Fest update.

I just had some awesome shows opening for Gogol Bordello. What a dream!! I think the only thing that could top that would be opening for Manu Chao...Maybe some day. I've never presented LFF in front of such a large crowd of people but the shows went over well, and I made some new friends. I'll be doing Lost Film Fest again in the near future at this awesome club in Baltimore called Sonar. I'm definitely going to start to have to use a mic at large concerts like that... John Macavoy, boy genius and arch archivist has started to work on documenting the history of the Lost Film Fest and Evil Twin Booking Agency. I can't believe all this stuff I'm doing with film is almost 10 years old. holy moly! The other day, I had an awesome show in Blacksburg, VA at Virginia Tech. Sallie, Anthony, Dan, and Devin pulled the show together without a hitch. Old friends Sascha and Madigan were on tour with the Icarus Project and happened to be in town. It was great to have them there.

I have 3 LFF shows coming up close by Nov 5-7. I'm pretty excited because a documentary film crew (jaded multimedia) will be following Liz and I around trying to gain some insight into what the hell we're doing (do we even know?) Hopefully they will figure it out. Here are the dates/locations. Please spread the word. Bring friends!

Nov 5 Mon
Philadelphia, PA @ Bubblehouse. | 3404 Sansom St. | 9pm | admission by donation | all ages

Nov 6 Tue
Brooklyn, NY @ The Change You Want To See | 84 Havemeyer St. | 7:30pm | dontation $5-10 sliding scale | http://notanalternative.net/wordpress/

Nov 7 Wed
Doylestown, PA @ Siren Records | 22 s. Main St. | doors 6pm | $6 | http://www.sirenrecords.com/

I'll post the European tourdates as they become clear. There's also a chance I'll be doing 2 midwest dates at Loyola and Oberlin after the west coast tour if all goes according to plan. If not I'll go there in the spring. The next couple of months is going to be pretty crazy: Green Fest in San Francisco, traveling down the west coast doing Lost Film Fest and spreading Raw Revolution bars around, Doing Lost Film Fest shows in the midwest, Thanksgiving with my family, Touring Europe with lost Film Fest doing stuff with IDFA, the EU cultural capital, and activist spaces. I'm dying to do the film fest at Mariatchi (Manu Chao's neighborhood bar) in Barcelona.. I can only dream.. I'll be coming back to the trial as well as the perils and travails of living in wild west Philadelphia...

Robbers and such

We have a trial in late December with the guy who robbed us at gunpoint. The guy is still in jail. His bail was set at $150,000 so he's not getting out anytime soon. I'm having so many conflicting emotions about the whole thing, and honestly I'm feeling a bit of sympathy for the guy who robbed us, though I have to remind myself that he used a gun on us, and really clocked Liz hard on the back of the head and me in the face. He also totally fucked up that weekend I'd been preparing for the past 4-6 months. So what that he go my wallet... The gun could have gone off when he pistol whipped us... He could have just used a shoe, or a zucchini covered in shoe polish, or something to keep it non-lethal. The gun will get him 5 years for each instance he used it. I feel strange contributing to the prison industrial complex, which in my view is tantamount to modern slavery. I'm still trying to sort out my feelings over this. It doesn't help that the robbers friends have still been harassing Liz and I on the street, so we're keeping a low profile until the case is tried and over with. What's next? Oy vey! Any decision we would have made with how to deal with the situation would have sucked.

veggiemobile back in Action

Later today we're stopping off at the HQ of one of my clients so I can discuss our plans for Sundance (I'm going to be running their marketing campaign at the film festival again this year). Were also going over all my expenses from the last several months. I'm also pretty excited to take the new Veggiemobile up to NYC (I finally got this thing back after almost a month of being jerked around. My new friend Tracy, referree extraordinaire of the Charm City Rollergirls risked life and limb to get that thing back to Philly (THANK YOU!!!). It's really anticlimactic that I have it now, but C'est la Vie..eh?"

Greenwashing and Film Fests

So, there are all these "green lounges" popping up at the Sundance Film Festival. All these marketing agencies are trying to hock environmental products and turn them into chic totems for wealthy jet setters. It's pretty awful to me that one would try to ruin something cool and good like organic, fair trade, and natural products by laying the veil of "hip" over them, essentially turning it into a shallow fly by night trend. Organic, fair trade, and vegan were cool all along without the help of some of these clowns who are interested in nothing other than making celebrity gift bags. It really detracts from the state of permanence that these types of terms need in the cultural zeitgeist. It also blatantly ignores the point that good food should be for everyone, not just the rich. Last year I was going to do a green lounge, but decided not to after realizing that it would have been like flushing time and money in the toilet, and also, a lot more could be done to get the word out by interacting with my fellow proles, rather than being sequestered to an exclusive venue. the story is that after Lost Film Fest was sponsored for years by an organic beverage company, the owner decide to hire me to do grassroots publicity and marketing to launch one of their beverages at Sundance, then they hired me to manage all their cultural events and such, sponsorships of bands, films, activist and art projects, tech projects, etc. Over the past year I've been doing similar outreach for TV B Gone, and nowadays Raw Revolution. It feels good to get this stuff out into the world to people who will appreciate companies with an ethical approach to doing it's thing.

Housemate-Age

FYI. I'm still looking for another suitable housemate (vegan, nonsmoker, pet free). If any of my friends know someone suitable please feel free to get them in touch. I'm being super picky, but I'd love to find an interesting person.

Evil Twin Booking Stuff

For 2008 we're adding a ton of awesome stuff to our Evil Twin Booking Agency roster:

We do need some help with layout, so if you're an indesign whiz, and close to Philly, please get in touch.

Okay, that's it for an update. When the hell am I ever going to get any sleep around here?

yours in vegan goodness
lovest Scott

Kaiju Big Battel in new Bloc Party video

Back in 1996 I went to Cambridge, MA for a protest to save central square from gentrification, Starbucks, and all that stuff. Back then the Lucy Parson Center Bookstore and an Ethiopian restaurant claimed the square as a home. Today, it's just another example of stucco'd suburban hell creeping into the urban landscape.

I thought that the whole protest was actually kind of silly because of the inevitability of development in that area..right on the peripherie of Harvard University campus. So, to celebrate the silliness, my friend Phil and i dressed to the nines in outlandish outfits, and annoyed both protesters and developers. I wore a giant fake fur coat with a tall box on my head that said "Sir Jackass, knight of shoplifting". Phil wore a kimono and an afro wig. At this protest I would also meet my future bandmate and friend, Morgan.

Anyhow... The big highlight of the protest was the presence of KAIJU BIG BATTEL, an awesome project organized by a bunch of Mass Art students. They created a pantheon of Japanese style live action monsters with amazing hilarity. Check out their website for a rogues gallery of some of the characters. At the protest, Dr. Cube, Midori No Kaiju and a few others came to knock down some cardboard buildings. It was totally brilliant! over the years I would come to include kaiju Big Battel videos in the Lost Film Fest, and introduced them to my friend Derek who would become their publicist inevitably.

Kaiju has come a super long way since these humble beginnings. Here's a new video for BLOC PARTY featuring some of the Kaiju characters. Enjoy!

Robbery Solved...

Well, Here's an addendum to the story of when Liz and I were held up and robbed.

A few days after we got back we kept on seeing the guy who mugged us walking up and down the street. He kept staring at my house, and even once threw a basketball into the side of my van. I think they call that 'stalking'. We kept calling the cops who took forever to show up, and by that time the guy disappeared.

A few days later Liz was looking out the front window and talking on the phone. The guy was walking down the street. We called the police who actually picked us up. When we got to 44th street the guy was sitting on a stoop. The police arrested him and found some crack in his pants.

We went to the station and found out the guys name and that he lives around the corner.. he also has 5 prior minor drug charges. In Philly, the manditory minimum for armed robbery is 5 years...

It's a sad story. The guy is 22 years old, and has a crack problem. When he held us up and stole my wallet he was probably so high he didn't know what was what... and now he's going to prison..

For some reason though, knowing things go the way they go, I'm sure this isn't the end of the story.

The good news is that the yellow jacketed university city district security guys on bikes are cruising around our part of the neighborhood now. It's a welcome change after we were largely ignored forever...

Lost Film Fest shows coming up: 1 in da Bronx + 2 with GOGOL BORDELLO!

Hey all.. Please come and see the shows if'n you're on the east coast. I'd be honored to see you there.

more info: www.lostfilmfest.org

Oct 12 fri Bronx, NY @ Fordham University | Rosedale Campus - OKeefe Commons 441 E. Fordham Rd. | 7 pm | Free (sponsored by FTP) [mass transit - metro north to Fordham Stop, or take the 4 or D and take the BX12 bus - get off fordham plaza])

Oct 15 Mon Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony (with Gogol Bordello!!! + Dub Trio) 913 Ocean Ave | 732.502.0600 | 7:30pm | www.stoneponyonline.com

Oct 16 Tue Baltimore, MD @ Sonar (with Gogol Bordello!!! + Dub Trio) 407 E. Saratoga St | 410.327.8333 | 8pm | www.sonarbaltimore.com/

xo Scotty

I'm speechless

Vic and Bob show - Masterchef

Sooo...hilarious. I don't know what to say.



Getting Ready for Halloween!

FBI's Lolita Fingers Eric McDavid.

The past few weeks have found me deluged by emails, IMs and phone calls about the incredibly bizarre mention of Lost Film Fest during the trial of environmental activist Eric McDavid.

Here's a bit of background for those of you who haven't gotten the lowdown on the "green scare", and the case of Eric McDavid's entrapment by the FBI's secret agent Lolita. I have been paying close attention to the case (originally called the Auburn 3 case - now it's one plus 2 snitches) for the past year or so, and of course followed the trial from when it began.

So: The US government has been trying for years to spread fear about the environmental movement by labeling environmental activists as terrorists. Eric McDavid's case is part of this federal offensive, and it reeks of entrapment.

A few years ago the FBI, apparently inspired by the fine American cinema masterpieces "Spy Kids" and "Red Dawn", recruited a 15 year old top spy named "Anna" straight out of junior college civics class. "Anna" was a high school student at the time. They gave Anna their blessing to play hookey for the next two years and charged her with the mission of finding terrorists within the radical environmental movement. Failing that, she had to scrounge up the next best thing...

Anna, armed with an expense account to buy garlic, grungy thrift store clothes and supplied for concocting dud bombs, set out to infiltrate the environmental activist movement and encourage criminal mischief. According to the trial transcripts, "Anna" attended a bunch of protests and posed as a street medic. (Having zero medical training, she brushed off injured people who came to her for help.) She befriended three young activists, including McDavid, and spent the next bit of time traveling with them.

Anna brought the group to a wiretapped cabin in California owned by the FBI, where she used her Lolita skills to woo McDavid into helping her assemble sabotage devices. The devices were built to fail, taken from tried and true FBI dud recipies. McDavid and crew were arrested by the cabin and charged with “conspiracy to destroy property by means of fire or explosives”, even though their collective organizing skills were probably best suited to planning vegan potlucks.

While Lost Film Fest is mentioned tangentially in the prosecution's outlandish rant, the prosecution's statement regarding Lost Film Fest is consistent with the sort of scare tactics, flimsy rhetoric and blatant lies our government uses to justify harsher penalties and broader definitions in the crackdown on people who speak out about injustice.

Here is the quote in question, in reference to events at the 2005 Philadelphia Bio conference. We apologize for the transcriber's poor phrasing.

"He [the prosecutor] also talked about the cop that died of a heart attack and said he died because he was 'wrestling' with protesters. He said that some people felt sad about it and wanted to have a vigil and the people that were glad that the cop died went to the 'Lost Film Festival' where they were showing films on how to make molotov cocktails. [McDavid's lawyer] objected to that comment and the judge ordered the jurors to strike it from their memory."

Was the prosecution saying that independent film festivals are "danger zones" where people learn how to make molotov cocktails? Is he saying that public art events are breeding grounds for terrorism? This reminds me of John Ashcroft's post 9-11 freakout over nude statues on Capitol Hill while the anthrax scares raged.

Whew, I'm glad the judge had the good sense to "strike" that from the jurors' memory. Did he use a Vulcan neck pinch to do that? Hypnotism?

Anyhow, the sad ending to the whole thing is that McDavid was convicted of conspiring to blow up government and other facilities as part of an eco-terror plot, due to technicalities, and now awaits sentencing in December. This conviction carries up to 20 years in prison. I'm not sure how the guilty verdict was reached, since the jury came out of the trial calling "Anna" and the FBI liars, and saying that they should be ashamed of themselves. Eric's lawyer is currently working on an appeal. Any contribution you can make to this case will help. Please visit www.SupportEric.org for more information on how you can help.

The Indypendent's coverage sums up McDavid's case well (http://www.indypendent.org/2007/09/15/the-net-widens/) and includes other articles on the "Green Scare" documenting the federal government's aggressive actions against protesters.

(C)harmed Life?

Normally I feel like I live a completely charmed life. Sure I have some hiccups and bumps on the road, but nothing really could have prepared me for that last week that was so completely disastrous, that its' awfulness could only be measured in degrees of schadenfreude style comic relief.

This was supposed to be the most important weekend for Liz and I. Expo East, the natural foods convention in Baltimore was happening, as well as Gadgetoff which we managed to get ourselves into despite the exclusivity of the whole engagement. We planned to go back and forth between Philly, Baltimore, Liberty State Park, and Baltimore again to make this a weekend that would forever propel us into the next level of our lives. It sure did point us in new directions, but not in ways we expected.

It all started last week when I went to pick up the new Steaz veggie van from Allentown PA. My friend Dave who did the conversion drove it all the way out here from Pittsburgh, and the plan was to clean it up and have a collaborative painting party with Callie and a bunch of her compatriots (Chris, Zoe, and Kevin) who'd recently re-located to Philadelphia from Providence. The next few days consisted of some of the kids coming out to design the look of the van, and me running around picking up supplies.. everything from spraypaint to rustoleum. It all got off to a slow start, but after a day or so the whole thing was rocking. We painted the vehicle down the street from me right in front of the gym and abandoned house. Day and night.. neighbors walking by checking it out, paint all over the place, tape up, tape down.. permutations. in the end it was an amazing sight to behold.

That's when it all turned.. Usually I'm not down at that part of the block, especially at 2am. What a dumb move. Five minutes after our friends drove away screaming hurrahs into the air, Liz and I sat in front of the vehicle, picking up the last scraps of debris that we'd left, and beholding the amazing freshly painted shuttlevan that was like a punk rock version of It's a small world with a sustainability theme.

This guy with a brown hooded sweatshirt appeared from out of nowhere. We'd seen him around the neighborhood for a long time. Earlier in the day he'd been walking up and down the block, so I thought nothing of it. I reached out to shake his hand, and out came a pistol, He hit the gun in my face, and I went down. When Liz turned around, he said "get down bitch" and hit her on the back of the head with his gun, she cried out in pain, and I went to stand between Liz and the guy. I started to panic. I thought that he was going to shoot us, so I yelled "Don't hurt her! Help! Help". He put the gun to my forehead and told me to shut the fuck up and give him my money. I reached in my pocket, and he grabbed my wallet... walking backwards holding the gun towards us. "If you get up I'm going to fucking shoot you."

As he turned down 44th street I dialed the police. They all came screaming around the corners minutes later. Liz went into my house to tend to her head, and I went off in the back of a policecar looking for the guy who did it. After driving around for awhile, we never found him.

We ended up at the 18th precinct, feeling really grateful to be alive, Liz and I held each other.

The van was still open and unlocked, so we gave my keys to our new pal Al, a UCD police officer and former detective at the 18th district. He and his partner were nice enough to go over and lock the van.

We were totally exhausted and got a ride home, rather than going to mercy hospital. If we went there we anticipated being there the whole night in the emergency room, so we went home for a couple of hours to rest, and clean ourselves up. I made sure that Liz didn't go to sleep, fearing a concussion due to the HUGE lump on the back of her head.

When we arrived back, we noticed that between the time Al and his partner closed the window, and when we got home, someone broke the passenger side window and stole my drill. What the fuck>??

Simply exhausted, we lay in bed, holding each other, staring up at the ceiling, feeling really freaked out. I kept Liz up for 5 or so hours, until I felt comfortable that she didn't have a concussion. Finally we were able to fall asleep for a couple of hours.

When we woke up, I brought Liz to the hospital, and went to get my license and bank cards replaced. Thankfully Liz was okay and wasn't bleeding internally, though the lump was huge, and she had a splitting headache and pain. This guy Robert at the bank was really helpful in pulling things together and gave me some great advice on life.

After getting my license renewed, Liz and I met back at my house. We decided that in order to 'normalize' that we would just go down to Baltimore to meet with the Steaz crew like we'd originally planned to. So, we were on our way south, and nothing would stop us. We knew the Steaz Utopian Veggiemobile would blow everyones minds.

We got down to Baltimore, and went to dinner with the Steaz crew who were all beaming. Success! Everyone was happy! Yay!

After dinner, and dropping everyone off at the hotel, Liz and I decided to head North to catch the Gadgetoff. We took a little nap and headed up 95 North.

The next day....

At around 7am, heading North we started to feel a lurch, and pops. The van was losing steam... something was happening.. what .. the.. hell? The tank of gas was at around 1/4ish or maybe less...

We called Dave R. who did the conversion to the vehicle, who let us know that the gas gauge was inaccurate....great...Now you tell us..

After 3 hours on the side of the road, and denied by the local redneck AAA to do a tow (though they did come out to charge us $5 a gallon for a few gallons of diesel fuel), we found a tow company who charged us $200 to bring the vehicle to a shop.

At the shop we discovered that the fuel pump was having 'issues'. Apparently it had been burned out by my repeatedly trying to start the van with the tank empty, and kept on burning out fuses. Eventually, with Dave on the phone, they figured out how it could be bypassed... and we were on the road again!! yahoo!! yay!! On our way to catch the rest of the Gadgetoff!!

BUT WAIT.... NOOOOOOO.. It was not to be...

We drove out of the driveway, and about 100 feet up the hill the van sputtered and stopped. It was the same problem all over again. We walked back to the garage, but everyone went on lunch break. Eventually, a couple of hours later, the mechanics came across the street to look at the vehicle, and let us know that they weren't going to work on it any longer. Great, another $200+ down the toilet.

At this point Liz and I were freaking out. It was sweltering outside. We were totally hungry, completely dehydrated, sleep deprived, not to mention that asshole who stole my wallet also took my credit cards, so we weren't able to rent a car. What else could happen to us?

Eventually after a zillion calls, dying phone and laptop batteries, we found a ford dealership that would take the van.

After waiting several more hours, this guy in a towtruck came to get us finally as it was getting dark, and brought us to the dealership in the middle of rural Maryland. After dropping it off, and thinking it would fall into a ravine (which it almost did), we went over to the tow truck hq. The manager was nice enough to give us a ride to the Baltimore Travel Plaza, and we were to go on the Expo East natural foods cruise put on by Steaz and company.

Liz was n the verge of tears, as was I. Everything was so normal, happy...but we were kind of in limbo and hell...

The cruise was great. I made a ton of new contacts and wrote them in my book that I cart around with me. The folks I met discussed all kinds of great things, and it looked like things were turning for the better.

After the cruise we went with my old friend Rob-R-Rock back to his hotel at the Marriot, and konked out immediately when we hit the floor rather than going to see Diplo.

In the morning I reached for my book with all my contacts, and realized in my exhaustion, hunger and dehydration... I LEFT IT IN THE FUCKING CAB!!!!! What the Hell????

After calling every cab company, I realized that it was fruitless... And trudged out to EXPO EAST to do promo for Steaz and meet new contacts. We met the people who run SoyaToo (which we fell in love with while touring Germany). We hung out with Seth Tibbott from Tofurky, met the main people behind BIONADE (another european favorite), and even tried some new amazing vegan cheeses.

Though, the best thing to happen the whole time was meeting the people who run Raw Revolution (www.rawindulgence.com). Alice and David from the company really connected well with Liz and I. I totally love their bars, and was really thrilled that such cool people run the company. Thus a friendship was born!

After the whole event was over we went and harvested loads of promotional goodies and snacks...We called Dorit from the Gadgetoff and heard amazing tales from the weekend with JetBike, and all the other great things.

Finally we headed home to Philly... We took a cab home, and went straight to sleep... Finally it was all over... Good Fucking Night...

The universe owes us some serious good Karma...