All forms of positive expression; music, dance, visual art, experimental electronic art, sculpture, painting, photography, endless hours of tinkering with electronic gatgets and knobs searching for "the" elusive sound, technology and it's potential applications to social justice and expression, activism, thinking, asking questions, searching for answers, reading, skiing, golfing, wakeboarding, wine tasting and consumption and anything else that has the potential to be fun or cause inebriation, choas, riots, looting or erosion of the power structure we currently find ourselves bound by.
Music
All audio has its place somewhere with me depending on my mood (progressive, experimental, house, trance, punk, rock, blunted beats, ambient, funk, trip hop, hip hop, Reggae, folk, noise, Jazz, chaos, fusion, breaks, beats n treats for da feets, and of course...who doesn't feel like a little power ballad every now and then?)
A broad sample of people and groups that have influenced me historically and right up to shit that is doing it for me today (some of the old shit is still in the later category) in (roughly) alphabetical order, since I just wouldn't feel right using some form of ranking or hierarchy:
2Pac, 4Hero, Aesop Rock, Air, Anthony Pappa, Aphex Twin (a bit), Atjazz, Autechre, Avatar (LA MC), Bad Religion, Beastie Boys, Beatles, Beck, Ben Harper, Beta Band, Benny Carter, Bjork, Frank Black, Blackalicious, Boards of Cnada, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Brett Dennen, Brotha Lynch (in a strange gangsta way), BT, Buddy Rich, Burning Spear, Cannonball Adderley, The Cars, Cat Stevens, Chab, Charlie Parker, Chicago…OLD Chicago, Chicane, Christian Marclay (Check him out!!!), Chris & Kai, Christopher O’Riley, The Clash, Creedence, Cut Chemist, Daft Punk, Damian Marley, Dave Seaman, David Bowie, Deep Dish, Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Digweed, DELTA, Deltron 3030, Dennis Brown, Desmond Dekker, Dizzie Gillespie, DJ Babu, DJ Brian (moontribe), DJ Food, DJ Krush, DJ QBert, DJ Shadow, DJ Spooky, DJs Of Mass Destruction, The Doors, Down By Law, Dre (come on, the Chronic was tha shizzle when it dropped!), Earth Wind and Fire, Easy Star All-Stars, Easy-E, Erlend Oye, Face to Face, Fila Brazillia, Gene Krupa, George Harrison, Gift of Gab, Gorillaz, Groove Armada, H-Foundation, Halo Varga, Herbie Hancock, Hybrid, Ice Cube, Imogen Heap, Iron and Wine, Isreal Vibration, James Brown, Jamiroquai, Janis Joplin, Jazzanova, Jhno, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Cliff, Jimmy Page, Jimmy Van M, Joe Cocker, John Coltrane, John Lennon, Johnny Cash,Junky XL, Kid Koala, King Tubby, Kings of Convenience, Kinobe, Koop, Kraftwerk, Kronos Quartet, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Lagwagon, Lake Trout, Led Zeppelin, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Lemon Jelly, Less Than Jake, Madlib, Mad Professor, The Mars Volta, Massive Attack, Mates of State, Matisyahu, Max Roach, MMW, MF Doom, Michael Franti, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Miles Davis, Millencolin, Mix Master Mike, Mocean Worker, Modest Mouse, Mogwai, moody Blues, Morcheeba, Morrissey, Nada Surf, Nick Drake, Nirvana, NoFX, ODB, Operation Ivy, Paul Simon, Peace Division, Peter Tosh, Pig & Dan, Pink Floyd, Pixies, Plastikman, Portishead, The Postal Service, Primus, Propagandhi, Public Enemy, Pulley, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Rancid, Reel Big Fish, Richie Hawtin, RJD2, Rob Swift, The rolling Stones, Royksopp, Ruts DC, Sasha, Saunder Klienenberg, Santana, Saul Williams, Seb Fontaine, Shape Shifters, Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra, Shpongle, Simon & Garfunkel, Sly 7 Robbie, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Smiths, Snuff, The Soggy Bottom Boys, Soma, Steel Pulse, Steely Dan, Stereolab, Strung Out, Superblender (Superblender.net), Talking Heads, Taylor, Thelonious Monk, Thievery Corp., Tim “Love” Lee, Timo Maas,Toots & the Maytals, Tosca, Underworld, The Velvet Underground, Victor Wooten, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Weezer, The White Stripes, The Who, X-Dream, Z-Trip, Zen, Zero 7, Ziggy Marley
...and more...especially DJs and electro producers I am not showing enough love to...but that’s probably enough for now.
Movies
Lebowski, dreams, 2001, wall street, caddyshack, waking life, dazed/confused, super troopers, fletch, baraka, best in show, mighty wind, clerks, reservoir dogs, three amigos, Blow Up, Naturtal Born Killers, Anything Kubrick, Pulp Fiction, Anchorman...really it goes on and on and on and on...if you have ever had the pleasure...ahem...the painful experience?...of experiencing one of my movie quote marathons you know what obscure films I am capable of quoting from. No, I am not proud of allowing so much media to occupy valuable space in my head but as long as it is in there, I intend to use it to save the world...one random quote at a time.
Television
FUCK television...except for Comedy Central, Family Guy, Discovery, Travel, Food Networks, and possibly a few others. I have not had cable TV in my home for four years and I am quote happy to no longer have my precious mental space violated and beat into submission by advertisers, smut peddlers, and propaganda news networks and the information control infotainment they spew upon the mental landscape. May corporate TV die of herpes and rot in a shallow grave.
Books
Culture Jam, The Art of Hapiness, A Theory of Everything, George W. Bushisms, Natural Capitalism, Master & Margarita, Nada Bhrahma, ParEcon, Tobin Sprirt Guide, etc.
I love the senses and our human perceptual ability to be excited and even overwhelmed by a variety of stimuli. I am not convinced that we are yet aware of all the stimuli we can truly perceive.
I think it may be my mission here on this planet to stimulate the senses of anyone willing to listen to/look at/experience freaky shit, pushing perception to and beyond the known limits through audio/visual/multisensory bombardment in order to explore new mental frontiers and expression in general as humans...and I would love to meet anyone who wants to do the same.
I want to create things that have never been heard/seen/experienced before. I would like to someday be credited with creating a new musical genre, or creating something in any medium that requires a new classification...yeah...that would be pretty cool. Say what you will about categorization/classification/isolation, and I am not really down with it either, but at least that would mean I did something fresh in my lifetime and someone noticed.
I love sentences that start and end with I.
In general, I want to experiment with audio and visual technologies and textures to try and tickle people's senses, freak them out a bit, change the current global political paradigm, or at very least get them to say hmmm...I never thought of that before, or, oh...that was cool...what was that?
It is also my sincere hope that while exploring human perception and indeed, the human condition, I can find a way to use my creative outlets to make the world more tolerant and cooperative and less inhumane, unjust, and indifferent. Ambitious? Yes. Subjective? Yes. But it helps me to get out of bed every day to have an ambitious goal for my life...and I am just getting started.
I have been pursuing visual expression in the forms of photography and painting for some time and would like to branch into some audio/video installations in the near future. For now, however, I am concentrating on trying to get the audio end locked down as I recently completed an amazing nine month audio engineering and production course at Alchemea College of Audio Engineering in London. As soon as I get a little home project studio setup I look forward to producing dance/experimental tracks to share with the world.
I have DJed and been a music lover for a long time but I have also been yearning to build up some production/recording/editing/modification/programming skills in order to be able to get the ideas in my head out into the world for people to enjoy. And so, after a year of slutting myself out to the man in order to save the tuition money, my wife Brianne and I made the Alchemea course happen, got to travel around Europe a bit, and we are now getting settled in Portland and looking forward to being a part of the dance/electronica scene here.
Please check out my productions so far under the moniker wovoka, as well as a few DJ mixes I put together at this link: myspace.com/wovokaspace
I would like to turn Perceptioncollective.org into a vehicle for our group of artist friends to collaborate on producing new works and events across medium boundaries. I also envision it as a promotion tool as our network grows over time. Stay tuned as the vision takes shape over the next few years...
For now the Perception Collective site is not very interesting nor representative of my long-term vision, but it does have some info on an event we produced in 2004 called Situational Awareness. Brianne and I (and some great friends and volunteers) put it on as a benefit for the Adbusters Media Foundation (Adbusters.org) and the Moveon (Moveon.org)PAC in the run-up to the 2004 US presidential election. We raised awareness and some money to fight the right-wingers but they still managed to scare the American public into submission. Fucking Republicans.
Feel free to contact me if you want to get weird!
Who I'd like to meet: Everyone and anyone out there on Earth who is ready to reshape our collective society and life as we currently know it and move off the grid, out of debt, out of global conflict and into a life of organic, sustainable, self-sufficient living. It is possible, but we must all pull together and rise above the corporate and political pyramid scheme that is modern capitalism before the already over-taxed savings account of our planets natural resources runs dry.
I'm getting the feeling that Russ has hacked into your account and you have no idea that the online world thinks you smoke poll now. I'll see you in a week on the East Coast, and we'll really see if you're into the dudes now.
hey bro i know this is probably a weird time for you, but i just want to remind you: just because you get a blowjob from a guy in a dress doesn't mean you're gay... it just means you got tricked.
I just sent you a drink with 
..
