Untitled - ArKtype

JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW

F
PROVIDED ON SITE BY VENUE:
C.1
C.2
F
G
5000K PROJECTOR QTY 2
2.0-2.6:1 Zoom Lens
Composite BNC input
No hanging is required
12000K PROJECTOR
Lens wide enough to fill screen.
DVI / VGA Input
LED Color blast
for back of RP screen DMX
control from main lighting board
RP projection screen hung from
truss above.
NOT SHOWN:
Assorted folding tables / risers
Worklights
Plugging strips
Power transformers
Power distribution for
100 Amp 3 phase 120 volt
Garbage cans
Rolling ergonomic stools (qty 4)
Wireless headsets (qty 8)
JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE:
SHEET 1: PLAN OF LIGHT SHOW SET UP
PLAN NOT TO SCALE
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011
C.2
E
This piece of equipment is one of the light show’s signature
analog ideas. We refer to it as Metal Man.
A
B
C.1
D
C
E
C
H
D
C.1 C.1
D
This JLS signature analog device is called a Joy Stick. It is
a combination of mirrors and light.
C
C
F
C
This is a light show artist performance area. A number of
reflective elements are used in combination with video C.2
STAGE AREA FOR
LIVE MUSICIANS
G
B
This is a full scale, authentic liquid projector
A
This is a diifferent full scale projector that uses realtime
liquid slides to create stunning visual effects.
THIS SHOW WILL BE A SEAMLESS MIXTURE OF CLASSIC ANALOG TECHNIQUES DEVELOPED DURING JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW’S TENURE AT FILLMORE EAST DURING
THE LATE 60s AND CONTEMPORARY DIGITAL PROJECTION TECHNIQUES

C.1
C.2
F
G
12000K PROJECTOR
Lens wide enough to fill screen.
DVI / VGA Input
LED Color blast
for back of RP screen DMX
control from main lighting board
RP projection screen hung from
truss above.
NOT SHOWN:
Assorted folding tables / risers
Worklights
Plugging strips
Power transformers
Power distribution for
100 Amp 3 phase 120 volt
Garbage cans
Rolling ergonomic stools (qty 4)
Wireless headsets (qty 8)
JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE:
SHEET 2: SECTION OF LIGHT SHOW SET UP
PLAN NOT TO SCALE
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011
Example of Rear Projection JLS performance
20’ MINIMUM CLEARANCE FROM
BACK STAGE WALL TO RP
SCREEN
LD to be on headset at all times.Lighting to be minimal. No
moving heads, simple color wash on performers
PROVIDED ON SITE BY VENUE:
C.2
12000K PROJECTOR
Lens wide enough to fill screen.
DVI / VGA Input
SITTING ON STAND
5000K PROJECTOR QTY 2
2.0-2.6:1 Zoom Lens
Composite BNC input
No hanging is required
A
B E D C C
C.1
F
G

Example of back stage full JLS show
JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE:
SHEET 3: SKETCH VERSUS COMPLETION
LH IMAGE: JOSH WHITE SKETCH
RH IMAGE: REALIZATIONS
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011

JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE:
SHEET 4: JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW LIQUID LIGHT
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011
Example of back stage full JLS show

JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE:
SHEET 5: CASE INVENTORY
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011
(8) INDIVIDUAL CASES TOTAL CONSISTING OF:
(1) ROLLING CASE
42”W X 24”D X 60”H WEIGHT: 400 LBS
(106 CM X 60 CM X 152 CM WEIGHT 181 KG)
Value $5000.00
(2) ROLLING CASES
48”W X 24”D X 48”H WEIGHT: 250 LBS EACH
(121 CM X 60 CM X 121 CM WEIGHT: 113 KG EACH)
Value $3000.00 x 2
(1) ROLLING CASE
24” X 24” X 30”H WEIGHT: 100 LBS
(60 CM X 60 CM X 76 CM WEIGHT 45 KG)
Value $3000.00
(4) ROLLING CASES
72”W X 30”D X 30” H WEIGHT: 800 LBS EACH
(180CM X 76 CM WEIGHT: 360 KG EACH)
Value $5000.00 x 4
PICK UP:
JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW STUDIO
NO LOADING DOCK- NON COMMERCIAL ADDRESS
GROUND FLOOR ACCESS
928 BUSHWICK AVE. BROOKLYN, NY. 11221 USA
GOOGLE MAPS LOCATION (LINK)
EXAMPLE OF
CASE TYPE
CARNET MANIFEST AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.

JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE: AMNH HAYDEN PLANETARIUM 2011
SHEET 1: SHOW DESCRIPTION
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011
The American Museum of Natural History Presents:
The Joshua Light Show: FULL DOME
Hayden Planetarium Space Theater
Fulldome Musical Score:
Created and recorded by Nick Hallett and Jeff Cook
featuring original contributions from Seth Kirby, Ana
Matronic, Laraaji, Oneida and Z’EV
Friday, June 3 - Sunday, June 5, 2007
Discover how the brain interpets light and sound with an after-hours visit to
Brain: The Inside Story. Then, put your brain to the test in a multi-sensory
experience in the Hayden Planetarium. For three nights only, New York’s
legendary Joshua Light Show presents Fulldome, an eye popping,
360-degree work of light and sound that explores the neurological
phenomenon synesthesia, or the blending of sensory experiences. Led my
multimedia artist Joshua White, Joshua Light Show is noted for creating the
hallucinatory visuals behind the psychedelic rock bands of the late 1960sincluding
The Who and The Grateful Dead- at the Filmore East. This new
performance combines the show’s classic analog effects- including the ‘liquid
light’ for which it is best known- with contemporary digital approaches to
tease the limits of our sensing brains. Joshua Light Show will push the limits
of the Hayden Planetarium dome to immerse the audience ina an
incomparable, extra-sensory experience.
Rob DeSalle, curator of Brain: The Inside Story, will introduce Fulldome,
Which will be performed live by Joshua White and his current team of artists,
including Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters, Alyson Denny, Seth Kirby,
Brock Monroe, Doug Pope, Bec Stupak, and noted illustrator Gary Panter. An
original soundtrack features contributions from percussion artists Laraaji and
Z’EV mixed with cosmic electronics by music director Nick Hallett and sound
designer Jeff Cook, in addition to the neo-psychedelic rock of Oneida.

JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE: AMNH HAYDEN PLANETARIUM 2011
SHEET 2: PLAN
PLAN NOT TO SCALE
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011

JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE: AMNH HAYDEN PLANETARIUM 2011
SHEET 3: JOSH WHITE SKETCH
PLAN NOT TO SCALE
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011

JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE: AMNH HAYDEN PLANETARIUM 2011
SHEET 4: IMAGE TESTS IN PLANETARIUM
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011

JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE: AMNH HAYDEN PLANETARIUM 2011
SHEET 5: PERFORMANCE IMAGES
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011

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Montreal trio Land of Talk, which is fronted by two giants are still at the top of their game, and their to be a balance of orchestral detail and
the vocalist Elizabeth Powell, traffics in jagged, occasionally
dreamy rock.
Studio tra holds Craft sway Movement.” on Mondays. Through Sep
intimate interaction is always a joy to hear. Burton.” evanescent Through atmosphere. April The 29. Vanguard “One Jao
Madison Ave. at 76th St. (212-744-1600)—April Circuit: Video and New Media at t
4140 Broadway, at 175th St. (212-207-7171)— 3-28: Keely Smith. The wild man Louis Prima’s onetime
sidekick ensconced in the tony Café Carlyle is to say, very late in the game. A min
tan.” The Met began collecting video i
April 9: A good three decades after they fell apart
in a haze of drug-fuelled chaos, the Stooges—the Not to worry: Smith, the eye within the Prima
cornerstone upon which the church of punk rock gang’s storm, mixes her swinging mirth with expressive
ballads that point to where her artistic Bacher, Omer Fast, Ann Hamilton,
holdings features eight artists—Darren
was built—defied all expectations and re-formed
in 2003. The iconic front man Iggy Pop reunited heart lies.
mons, Maria Marshall, Jim Campb
with the brothers Ron and Scott Asheton of the
gang Fifth Staehle. Ave. at 82nd A meditative St. (212-535-7710)—“ paradi
original lineup and recruited the ex-Minutemen Broadway at 60th St. (212-258-9595)—April 3-8: whether Islamic in Staehle’s World, 828-1797.” fixed-camera Through vie
bassist, Mike Watt, to fill in for the late Dave Alexander.
Four years after their humble return (in dards and Latin material through a contemporary
The Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña refracts stan-
“Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudí to Dalí
Hudson
June 3.
River
“Louis
School
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vista;
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stark contrast to the high-profile fanfare of, say, prism.
months An Artist’s of Country footage Estate.” shot in Through 1997 May an
Pat covering Hearn Tutankhamun: gallery, as the The beloved Photograph de
dying Burton.” of cancer, Through went April about 29. her “One busine of a
mons’s Studio darkly Craft Movement.” comic “Phat Through Free,” Sept. in 3
ist Circuit: kicks the Video bucket—literally, and New Media at along the
tan.” The Met began collecting video in 2
street. is to Through say, very late April in the 29. game. (Open A mini-su Tue
Sundays, holdings 9:30 features to 5:30, eight artists—Darren and Friday and Alm
nings Bacher, until Omer 9.) Fast, Ann Hamilton, Da
mons, Maria Marshall, Jim Campbell,
11 gang W. 53rd Staehle. St. (212-708-9400)—“Arm
A meditative paradigm
whether in Staehle’s fixed-camera view o
is a
Hudson
beguiling
River
retrospective
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or in
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Bach
hardly months known of footage in North shot America, in 1997 and who 1
at the Pat Hearn age of gallery, sixty-five. as the Through beloved dealer Apr
tic dying Collaborations: of cancer, went Fifty about Years her business; at Un
Art mons’s Editions.” darkly Tatyana comic “Phat Grosman Free,” found in whi
workshop,
ist kicks the
on Long
bucket—literally,
Island, in 1957;
along
in
a
street. Through April 29. (Open Tuesda
hundreds Sundays, of 9:30 artists—among to 5:30, and Friday them and Susa Sa
Jasper nings Johns, until 9.) Barnett Newman, Kiki Sm
ard Tuttle—have made prints with the
men 11 there. W. 53rd Through St. (212-708-9400)—“Armand
May 21. “Live
mance is a beguiling Into Drawing.” retrospective Through of a Venezue May 2
hardly known in North America, who die
a mid-career at the age of survey sixty-five. of Through the Canadian April 16
work. tic Collaborations: Through May Fifty 14. Years “Comic at Univers Abs
Making, Art Editions.” Image Tatyana Breaking.” Grosman Through founded th J
Wednesdays workshop, on through Long Island, Mondays, in 1957; in 10:3 the
Friday hundreds evenings of artists—among until 8.) them Susan R
Jasper Johns, Barnett Newman, Kiki Smith
ard Tuttle—have made prints with the ma
Fifth men Ave. there. at 89th Through St. (212-423-3500)—
May 21. “Live/Wo
connection mance Into with Drawing.” cinema Through runs May deep: 21.
to a two mid-career former survey production of the Canadian heads pho of
ing work. Studios. Through The May work 14. “Comic that earned Abstrac
The Joshua Light Show, an improvisational multimedia performance, at the Kitchen. Hugo Making, Boss Image Prize Breaking.” takes film Through in a dire June
Wednesdays through Mondays, 10:30 to
from Friday that evenings of narrative until 8.) or feature fil
the Police reunion), the Stooges have recorded their
ploring concerns like light, and the
first album since they broke up, “The Weirdness,” 1650 Broadway, at 51st St. (212-582-2121)—April vance Fifth of Ave. celluloid at 89th St. in (212-423-3500)—Ta
the digital era.
picking up right where their classic third album, 5-8: The jazz master Pat Martino personifies an tures connection a French with film cinema factory runs on deep: the she ve
“Raw Power,” from 1973, left off.
era when guitar stylists found inspiration in the and to “Noir two former et Blanc” production is made heads with of Br th
ing Studios. The work that earned her
The Joshua Light Show, an improvisational soulful elegance multimedia of Wes performance, Montgomery at as the well Kitchen. as 16-mm. film that Dean was able to
Hugo Boss Prize takes film in a directio
125 E. 11th St. (212-353-1600)—April 6: The ghostly the modal excursions of John Coltrane and Miles that from manufacturer. that of narrative Photographic or feature filmm film
Duluth trio Low drops the Police by with reunion), songs the from Stooges its have latest
dyspeptic album, first “Drums album since and they Guns.” broke April up, “The 7: Weirdness,” ploratory impulses, 1650 Broadway, but Martino at 51st St. remains (212-582-2121)—April a crafty in vance which of details celluloid surrounding the digital era. a tre “K
recorded Davis. their Time may have taken the edge off his ex-
most ploring like concerns painting like in “Majesty light, and the (Port pa
The Norwegian singer picking Sondre up right Lerche where is young—he their classic third classicist. album, Mondays 5-8: The jazz belong master to the Pat electric-guitar Martino personifies innovator
Les era 512 Paul. when W. The 19th guitar Mingus St. (212-255-5793, stylists Big found Band inspiration ext. takes 11)—April over in the 4: found reer. and That “Noir in the record et sprockets Blanc” was full is made of sparkling a with machine the pop l
an out, in tures this while a country)—but French “Found film factory he’s Obsolescence,”
already on the had verge a v
released his major-label “Raw début, Power,” “Faces from Down,” 1973, left from off.
soulful The Joshua elegance Light of Show. Wes Montgomery In the sixties, as the well multimedia
modal artist excursions Joshua White of John created Coltrane psychedelic and Miles light factory, collection that manufacturer. serves of acoustic as a Photographic kind jazz songs. of eulogy His film lates fo fu
as tions. 16-mm. Last film year’s that album, Dean “The was Duper able to Sessi pro
2002, before he reached 125 E. legal 11th St. drinking (212-353-1600)—April age (at least 6: The on ghostly Tuesdays. the
Duluth trio Low drops by with songs from its latest
dyspeptic album, “Drums and Guns.” April 7: ploratory Jimi Hendrix, impulses, Janis but Joplin, Martino the Grateful remains Dead, a crafty and rock in which usually details associated surrounding with someone a tree his ar
Davis. shows Time for performances may have taken at the the Fillmore edge off East his ex-
by “Phantom most like Punch,” painting moves in “Majesty back toward (Portrait the
The Norwegian singer Sondre Lerche is young—he classicist. other icons Mondays of rock belong and roll. to the Since electric-guitar those heady innovator
days, White Les Paul. has worked The Mingus television, Big Band directed takes Lau-
over found in the sprockets of a machine in
out, while “Found Obsolescence,” a b
released his major-label début, “Faces Down,” from
2002, before he reached legal drinking age (at least on rie Tuesdays. Anderson’s video “O Superman,” and gone on factory, serves as a
kind of eulogy for th
to create a new light show with the artist Gary
Panter. Here, he leads a team of video artists in an
improvisatory visual performance, accompanied by
the music of Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom,
a pair of fine artists who also build their own analog
synthesizers.
217 E. Houston St. (212-260-4700)—April 5: The
Montreal trio Land of Talk, which is fronted by
the vocalist Elizabeth Powell, traffics in jagged, occasionally
dreamy rock. THE KITCHEN 2007
JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE:
SHEET 1: SHOW DESCRIPTION
4140 Broadway, at 175th St. (212-207-7171)—
April 9: A good three decades after they fell apart
in a haze of drug-fuelled chaos, the Stooges—the
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011
cornerstone upon which the church of punk rock
was built—defied all expectations and re-formed
in 2003. The iconic front man Iggy Pop reunited
with the brothers Ron and Scott Asheton of the
original lineup and recruited the ex-Minutemen
bassist, Mike Watt, to fill in for the late Dave Alexander.
Four years after their humble return (in
stark contrast to the high-profile fanfare of, say,
1
1
131 W. 3rd St., near Sixth Ave. (212-475
April 3-8: Jim Hall and Ron Carter. Any su
that jazz was stagnating in the seventies a
rest by “Alone Together,” the 1972 live du
with the guitarist Hall and the bassist Ca
two giants are still at the top of their game,
intimate interaction is always a joy to hea
Madison Ave. at 76th St. (212-744-1600
3-28: Keely Smith. The wild man Louis Prim
time sidekick ensconced in the tony Café
Not to worry: Smith, the eye within th
gang’s storm, mixes her swinging mirth
pressive ballads that point to where he
heart lies.
Broadway at 60th St. (212-258-9595)—A
The Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña refra
dards and Latin material through a conte
prism.

April 9: A goo
in a haze of d
cornerstone up
was built—defi
in 2003. The i
with the broth
original lineup
bassist, Mike W
exander. Four
stark contrast
The Kitchen presents
The Joshua Light Show
with music by Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom
Wednesday, April 4, 2007 at 8pm
The Kitchen is pleased to present a rare appearance by mixed-media artist
Joshua White and his legendary Joshua Light Show, in collaboration with music
and visual art duo Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom. Including selections from
their debut album, The Days of Mars (DFA), Russom and Gonzalez perform
meditative electronic compositions on analog synthesizers in a distinct style referencing
the minimalist traditions of both experimental and disco genres. Simultaneously,
White leads a team of video artists, including Bec Stupak (Honeygun
Labs) to improvise live synesthetic visuals behind a giant rear projection screen,
involving the “liquid light” techniques he developed at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East
during the late 1960s.
The performance, which is curated by Nick Hallett, will take place at The Kitchen
(512 West 19th Street) on Wednesday, April 4 at 8pm. Tickets are $10.
MUSIC
Delia Gonzalez (b. 1972, Miami) and Gavin Russom (b. 1974, Providence, R.I.)
and video since the mid-1990s. They began building analog synthesizers in
2000, both for their original music compositions and to implement sonic components
into their mixed-media sculptures. In 2004, New York-based record label
DFA released a 12” of their song, “El Monte.” A full-length album, The Days of
gallery. They have had solo exhibitions at Peres Projects in Los Angeles, Galleria
Fonti in Naples, Italy and at Daniel Reich Gallery, New York. Their sculpture
and video work was featured in the Music is a Better Noise show at P.S.1
Contemporary Art Center last year. www.deliaandgavin.com.
Funding Credits
Music programs at The Kitchen are made possible with generous support from
the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The
New York State Music Fund, and with public funds from the New York State
Council on the Arts, a state agency.
ABOUT THE KITCHEN
tion
spaces, showing experimental work by innovative artists, both emerging and
established. Programs range from dance, music, and theatrical performances to
talks. Since its inception in 1971, The Kitchen has been a powerful force in shaping
the cultural landscape of this country and has helped launch the careers of
many artists who have gone on to worldwide prominence.
The Joshua Light Show, an
the Police reunion), the Stooges h
first album since they broke up,
picking up right where their cla
“Raw Power,” from 1973, left o
The Joshua L
125 E. 11th St. (212-353-1600)—A
Duluth trio Low drops the Police by with reuni
est dyspeptic album, first “Drums album sin an
The Norwegian singer picking Sondre up rig Le
released his major-label “Raw début, Power,” “F
2002, before he reached 125 E. legal 11th St. dri(
Duluth trio Lo
est dyspeptic a
The Norwegian
released his ma
2002, before he

es. Led my
creating the
ate 1960s-
. This new
ing the ‘liquid
aches to
ush the limits
an
ulldome,
am of artists,
th Kirby,
ary Panter. An
ts Laraaji and
ett and sound
neida.
!
JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW PERFORMANCE: AMNH HAYDEN PLANETARIUM 2011
SHEET 1: SHOW DESCRIPTION
The American Museum of Natural History Presents:
The Joshua Light Show: FULL DOME
Hayden Planetarium Space Theater
Fulldome Musical Score:
Created and recorded by Nick Hallett and Jeff Cook
featuring original contributions from Seth Kirby, Ana
Matronic, Laraaji, Oneida and Z’EV
Friday, June 3 - Sunday, June 5, 2007
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011
Discover how the brain interpets light and sound with an after-hours visit to
Brain: The Inside Story. Then, put your brain to the test in a multi-sensory
experience in the Hayden Planetarium. For three nights only, New York’s
legendary Joshua Light Show presents Fulldome, an eye popping,
360-degree work of light and sound that explores the neurological
phenomenon synesthesia, or the blending of sensory experiences. Led my
multimedia artist Joshua White, Joshua Light Show is noted for creating the
hallucinatory visuals behind the psychedelic rock bands of the late 1960sincluding
The Who and The Grateful Dead- at the Filmore East. This new
performance combines the show’s classic analog effects- including the ‘liquid
light’ for which it is best known- with contemporary digital approaches to
tease the limits of our sensing brains. Joshua Light Show will push the limits
of the Hayden Planetarium dome to immerse the audience ina an
incomparable, extra-sensory experience.
Rob DeSalle, curator of Brain: The Inside Story, will introduce Fulldome,
Which will be performed live by Joshua White and his current team of artists,
including Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters, Alyson Denny, Seth Kirby,
Brock Monroe, Doug Pope, Bec Stupak, and noted illustrator Gary Panter. An
original soundtrack features contributions from percussion artists Laraaji and
Z’EV mixed with cosmic electronics by music director Nick Hallett and sound
designer Jeff Cook, in addition to the neo-psychedelic rock of Oneida.
!

THE GIMLET EYE
A Family Gathering, but Not for Long
By Guy Trebay
Published April 21, 2010
“IT was never about the money,” Joshua White said. “It was about ‘Can we make a happening
Can we make a scene’ ”
Say you were born after the earth cooled or else Woodstock. (Pop quiz: which came first) Then
you will not have heard of Mr. White. And thus you are unlikely to know that he is the creator of
the Joshua Light Show, a fabled “liquid light” show that provided the visuals for an awful lot of
important rock performances of the 1960s and for the acid trips that transformed those shows into
totally awesome landmarks in the addled memories of hippie holdouts featured in VH1
documentaries.

On a warm day last week, Mr. White was standing at the rear of a vast loft space in TriBeCa,
home for a month to a contemporary happening called ThirtyDaysNY — part pop-up store, part
gallery, part performance space where a full roster of readings, discussions and parties that have
already threatened to turn into raves will go on through early May. Thrown together in the sort of
D.I.Y. style Mr. White pioneered in the 1960s, ThirtyDaysNY was staged by two recent visitors
who run Family, a cult indie bookstore in Los Angeles.
Computers were still a futuristic concept when Mr. White first set up shop at the Fillmore East,
conjuring a Flintstones version of the stage effects now achieved with digital software. Back then
his wizardry was produced using an overhead projector, a curved face stolen from a clock,
colored cellophane, oil and water. Now he works with computers, as everyone does, but he dusted
off the old equipment — overhead projector, colored cellophane, squirt containers of oil and
water, a suspended tangle of gaudy Christmas bulbs — for ThirtyDaysNY.
If Jane Jacobs was right that old buildings benefit from new uses, so do old technology and such
venerable concepts as a mom-and-pop (or pop-and-pop) bookstore named for that most central of
human relationships. Parting a blackout curtain hung from a doorway cut in a scrim — created by
Gary Panter, another creator whose name evokes earlier days (Los Angeles, 1980s, “Pee-wee’s
Playhouse,” Raw magazine) — Mr. White crept inside and made an observation that could serve
as Family’s mission statement: “It’s not about the materials. It’s about who is using them.”
Family opened three years ago on North Fairfax Avenue with inventory acquired on credit and a
$25,000 loan. Its business model, if the term is not too formal for something hatched on a whim,
is that most traditional of enterprises, the independent bookstore, the kind that popped up and
stayed up. Remember them
“We were definitely not trying to appeal to a specific audience,” in opening Family, said David
Kramer, 29, who formed a partnership with his friend the graphic comics artist Sammy Harkham,
to create a brick-and-mortar space where they could migrate their web of Web connections into
real time and link their social networking links to their actual flesh and blood friends. “We never
wanted Family to feel like a quote-unquote alternative bookstore, with books on piercing, hot
rods, tattoos and graffiti,” Mr. Kramer said as workers unhurriedly installed pictures by some of
the Southern California artists whose work has lately made Los Angeles seem more than ever like
a phantom borough of New York.

“We wanted an actual physical space,” he added. “We could never have done Family without the
Internet, but on the Internet you never get that powerful feeling of people coming together in a
space.”
What people increasingly want from a bookstore, Mr. Kramer suggested, and possibly also from
all sorts of retailing experiences, is “the feeling there’s a human being behind what’s being
offered to them.” It is not about the materials, in other words, but who is using them.
And that is seemingly why what one writer there neatly characterized as a “bookstore that takes
everything fun and nice you could ever imagine about Los Angeles, detaches it from the
contiguous horde of leather-faced ego-monsters and focuses it all in a space of several hundred
square feet” became a must-see cultural destination in 36 months.
And that may also be why, out of nowhere and with no formal training or industry contacts or
particular preconceptions about bookselling, the men behind the Family managed to attract the
attention first of Spike Jonze, the movie director, and through him the advertising wizards at
TBWA/Chiat/Day and through them the money people at Absolut vodka, who fronted Family a
sum roughly equivalent to the price of a Manhattan studio to set up the shop in New York for a
month.
“If you go to Borders, it feels cold and isolating and not only because the layout looks like an
airport toilet,” Mr. Kramer said.
Family, by contrast, feels cool and inviting, partly because the space evokes the kind of
wonderful artist-run dumps that were plentiful in TriBeCa before developers hijacked the area
and transformed it into a residential Gold Coast for hedge fund millionaires.
At mainstream stores, Mr. Kramer said, “You’re aware all the time that you’re being marketed at,
rather than being shown the stuff that the people who run it love.”
And what do the folks at Family love at this particular nanosecond They love the influential and
semi-obscure crime writer Charles Willeford. They love the skateboarder artist Ed Templeton.
They love Sergio Aragones, the artist who drew marginalia for Mad Magazine; and also the
photographer and blogger Cali Dewitt and his wife, the punk rock vocalist Jenna Thornhill; and
the filmmaker Albert Maysles; and reissued classics from the New York Review of Books; and
noise music made by a 17-year-old musician in his Los Angeles bedroom; and the Zurich-based
art zine publisher Nieves; and photo books from the shape-shifting Kansas City artist Jaimie

Warren; and unnerving ambient music created by the artist and keyboardist (Gang Gang Dance)
and sometime D.J. Brian DeGraw, who was mooching around the gallery the other day, checking
out the turntables by the Gary Panter scrim with the aperture through which the Joshua Light
Show would project trippy amoebas later that night.
Family, Mr. Kramer said, has its roots in the D.I.Y. movement. “Me and Sammy had no
experience as businessmen. I didn’t go to business school,” he said. When the American
Booksellers Association sent a pamphlet on how to open a bookstore, Mr. Kramer concluded that
“everything they gave as a reason why you should not open a bookshop was us.”
Even the name they selected ran counter to standard marketing wisdom. “We didn’t want a clever
or an inverted-commas name,” he said. “We wanted something generic.” A best seller Mr.
Kramer fell across that laid out the “22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” made it clear that naming
a business with a generic noun, a word resistant to easy Google search, spelled commercial doom.
“But I really like the way ‘Family’ sounds, and typographically, it looks really good, the way the
letters relate to each other,” he said. The word was evocative and reassuring, read one way, and
also potentially “Manson family creepy and weird.”
Anyhow, he said, “this was never about having a community building agenda.” People drawn to
the Family in Los Angeles and, so far, the temporary one in downtown Manhattan, tend to blur
any preconceived notions of what makes up a target market. “We kind of get everything,” Mr.
Kramer said, “from kids on skateboards to 75-year-old guys who used to write for ‘Star Trek’.”
And that, he added, “is all we ever really wanted from this, to fill a space with cool stuff and see
who comes.”

MUSIC REVIEW
A Concert Made More for Eyes Than Ears
By Nate Chinen
Published May 14, 2010
The big reveal came at the last possible moment on Thursday night at the Abrons Arts Center on
the Lower East Side. A backdrop lifted, and behind it, still hovering over their work stations,
were members of the Joshua Light Show, which had created the shape-and-color-morphing
visuals in a psychedelic concert experience. This moment of demystification was both welcome
and warranted, after the hazy exertions of the two bands on the bill, Woods and MV & EE. There
was a man behind the curtain, after all.
His name is Joshua White, founder of the Joshua Light Show, and a prominent survivor of the
hippie era, with stories to tell about Woodstock and the Fillmore East. Along with his current
team of artists, he was partway through a four-night residency at the Abrons, collaborating with
different bands every night. (The final show in the series, on Saturday, will feature the eclectic
British artist Sonic Boom with his group, Spectrum, and the American indie-pop duo Dean &
Britta.)
MV & EE, from Brattleboro, Vt., was up first on Thursday, with a long and fumbling set. The
initials stand for Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, who share vocal duties and play an assortment
of stringed instruments, seeking common ground between rural American folk music and the
meditative drone of North Indian ragas. They worked with a bassist and a drummer, rambling
slowly through a handful of songs, some of them stretched out to accommodate shrieks of guitar
feedback or intervals of shaggy pentatonic jamming.

The visuals in their set were far more engaging than the music, which suffered from basic
deficiencies of competence. Ms. Elder sang in a flat-featured moan, and Mr. Valentine in a
tuneless mumble; when they vocalized together, the effect was slovenly. Their cover of Bob
Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street” collapsed in the middle, a transparent failure. The only satisfying
moments came on “Easy Livin’,” a ballad indebted to Neil Young’s Laurel Canyon period, and
“Get Right Church,” a shambling faux-soul tune.
Woods fared infinitely better, alternating between concise songs and formless but purposeful
bouts of noise. The band has an intense but unostentatious singer and guitarist in Jeremy Earl, and
an inscrutable linchpin in G. Lucas Crane,
who spent the entire show on the floor,
kneeling over a mess of equipment,
engaged in his usual practice of analog
tape manipulation and effects-treated
background vocals. Filling out the group
were Kevin Morby on bass and guitar and
Jarvis Taveniere on drums, both working
with rugged precision.
Much of the pleasure in Woods’s set
involved tunes from a likable new album,
“At Echo Lake” (Woodsist). “Blood Dries
Darker,” a peppy folk-rock number,
arrived early; “Suffering Season,” blithely
redolent of sunshine pop, turned up in the
middle. But even some of the looser
gestures were arresting, as in a final
stretch, which had Mr. Crane blaring on a
trumpet while everyone else bashed at a
steady crescendo. Trancelike but full of abstract incident, it suited what was unfolding on screen.

THE WIRE/ OCTOBER 2008
AN ADVENTURE IN MUSIC
Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival
August 15, 2008
800 Years of Minimalism: The Spiritual Transcendent
Presented by Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Wordless Music
Beata Viscera: The Music of Pérotin
Rhys Chatham: A Crimson Grail, for 200 Electric Guitars
(Outdoor Version) (World Premiere)
Manuel Göttsching: E2-E4 (U.S. Premiere)
With the Joshua Light Show (World Premiere collaboration)
The Joshua Light Show, known by many a New Yorker for creating the
iconic psychedelic imagery that set the stage for musicans such as
Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Grateful Dead, The Doors and
Frank Zappa at Bill Graham’s legendary lower-east-side rock palace,
the Fillmore East, performs this summer at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch
Park alongside German electronic musician Manuel Göttsching for the
American concert premiere of seminal minimalist compostion, E2-E4.
Led by multimedia artist and television director Joshua White, a team
rosch
Park with an eye-popping display of kinetic effects and colorful
abstractions. Improvised in real time using a variety of classic techniques—including
the signature oil-and-water “wet show”—and mixed
with video, the Joshua Light Show stands out in contrast to much of the
pre-programmed, computer-based animation commonplace in contemporary
video design. The Joshua Light Show will feature the contributions
of White’s senior collaborator, Bec Stupak, in addition to the artists
Alyson Denny, Seth Kirby, and Brock Monroe.
of a concert entitled “800 Years of Minimalism - The Spiritual Transcendent,”
co-presented by Lincoln Center Out Of Doors and Wordless
Music, which features the music of Pérotin performed by newly-formed
vocal ensemble Beata Viscera and the outdoor premiere of a new work
for JOSHUA 200 electric LIGHT guitars SHOW by Rhys PERFORMANCE: Chatham. The concert LINCOLN will take place CENTER at 2008
7pm on Friday, August 15, at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch SHEET Park, 1: best SHOW accessed
from 62nd street between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues.
DESCRIPTION
The entire event is free-of-charge and open to the public.
©JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW 2011