Wallfl wer.
Wallfl wer.
A letter from the Editors... We would like to acknowledge and thank the following people-
Layla Rio Esquivel, who is no longer on our magazine team but helped to inspire and create this magazine. She is missed dearly.
Ms. K. Young, whose guidance and support helped to get us where we are today. Her passion towards teaching, writing, and designing is always appreciated and respected. If the Wallflower crew were presidents we would give her a humongous raise. David Garza, for sharing with us his knowledge and experience in the music world, Alex Franco, who took his time to give us an interview about his work at the radio station 94.7. Will Van O, who told us the secrets of Dana Samoza and Austin’s punk scene, Travis Bedard, for giving us information about Austin’s theater community and the challenges of theater art. Russell Toynes, who helped us, encouraged us, and supported us throughout our entire project. His enthusiasm and helpful tips are greatly appreciated,
And finally, you guys.
We want to sincerely thank you for picking this mag up and actually taking the time to read it. We know how it is: You pick up a magazine, look at the cover, maybe flip through it, and then either decide to put it down or decide to actually read it. Maybe you’ll think our magazine just sucks, or maybe you’ll really like it. So cheers to the readers, and cheers to you.
Photo by Anne Hornyak
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION - 4 BIOGRAPHIES - 6 THE ARCTIC - 8 DANA IS A PUNK ROCKER - 10 CAMBIARE PRODUCTIONS - 14 TURN THE BEAT AROUND - 16 TOYS GALORE - 18 AUSTIN’S ARCHITECTURE - 20 MUSIC AND ME - 24 THE JUNGLE - 28 THE STREET ART DILEMMA - 30 10 QUESTIONS WITH JB & SANDY - 34
~Wallflower 5~
Jordan is a fan of drawing on shoes with brightly colored sharpies, the movie Due Date, snare
drums, and writing poems about birds, wet t-shirts, and her childhood memories. “I think biogoraphies are interesting.” she says. “I particularly don’t like to talk about myself, though. I don’t know what to say.” Sydney says she doesn’t know what she thinks of when she thinks of Jordan. “Blonde, actually.” she says. “She’s nice. She’s got a really nice personality. She’s a hard person to argue with.” Marissa thinks of the color blue when she thinks Jordan. “Yeah. It’s her eye color. Jordan has really pretty blue eyes,” she said. “Clear ocean water kind of blue.” “Well, I kind of think of my name...” says Jordan. “To tell you the truth I think of an annoying boy named Jordan. And he talks a lot and he’s in my Spanish class... Are you getting all of this? He’s kind of a creeper.” Overall, Jordan would like you to know that she hopes you enjoy the magazine. Jordan could never live without sweets, music, art, and friends. “What do you live for when you don’t have sweets?”
Marissa is a fan of Juxtapoz, drawings girls with curly hair, giving her friends sharpie tattoos, and girl bands. “Biographies are kind of dumb,” she said. “But they’re fun to do, anyways.”
Marissa thinks of a drawing that her friend GG did of her last year when she hears her name. “It was pretty cute, actually. She even drew my blonde streak on the right side.” Jordan thinks of Marissa making her signature funny pose when she hears the name Marissa. “I picture her doing her ‘Ahhh!’ face, where her hands go like this,” she says, making jazz hands. The name Marissa makes Sydney think of Marissa herself, when Marissa is happy. “I feel like I never really see her in a bad mood, which is good.” Marissa thinks you should know that she hates avocados a lot. “But if we’re all doing life lessons for the kids then I think the readers should know that they should never change themselves for others.” She says, laughing. “That’s too cliche, huh?” Marissa could never live without drawing. “I love drawing, as silly as it sounds. I draw to express myself and let out all of my thoughts. Oh, and labbits. Don’t forget about the labbits.”
Biographies
Sydney is a fan of cheesecake, dragons, New Orleans, apple pie, Bartok, and correcting others. “I haven’t been a fan of cats since they started pooping in our sink.” she said. “But I don’t really want to talk about that right now.”
“When I think of Sydney, no offence to her, I think of a very critiquing but creative person.” says Jordan. “I think of a very perfect person. But she’s crazy.” “Well, I know that my name means ‘wide meadow’ because of a journalism project in 6th grade.” Sydney says. “That’s what I think of!” Marissa thinks of pretty green glass eyes and whales. Why whales? “Sydney is pretty like a whale song.” she said. “Aren’t whale songs pretty? She’s also good at singing.” Sydney wants to tell you that you shouldn’t believe anything that was just said. “[The readers] shouldn’t believe everything they hear.” she says. Sydney could never live without stories. “Because they’re stories, that’s why. Stories make up everything.”
o fl l l
a W
~Wallflower 7~
r e w
The
Arctic
and the poem within
Limitless white Longing to be no longer lonely A blank page Waiting to be drawn on
Longing to be no longer lonely The sky and horizon are one Waiting to be drawn on Blinding colorless The sky and horizon are one I can’t find a way out Blinding colorless
Trapped I can’t find a way out There is no end
Trapped Blasting cold There is no end A blank page Blasting cold
Limitless white ~Wallflower 9~
DANA is a punk rocker! A
fairytale about austin’s punk scene
By Marissa
bands when he had free time outside of university.
1979 was the year the local Austin punk band The Huns started a riot at one of their concerts and had to be contained by local police when the band refused to be arrested. The concert was filled with sweat, spit, and the heat of teenage kids packed together at the small UT punk club Raul’s. When police officers attempted to stop the concert and tell the lead singer Phil Tolstead to turn down the music, Tolstead greeted them with open mouthed kisses and curses. Nonetheless, 1979 was a year of rebellion, inspiration, and punk attitude. Inspired by the punk scene and the people around her, Dana Samoza began her art career that year by posting color and blackand-white copy posters of fake bands on telephone poles all over Austin.
In 1979, Van Overbeek met Dana Samoza at the same punk club The Huns had their first concert in, Raul’s, and became her agent shortly after their first encounter.“Dana never showed up to any of her gallery premiers,” he said. “We were friends by that time and I started going as her agent to her galleries and people would contact her through me.”
Today, Dana has faded completely from the public eye. What has remained of her decades old poster work now lies with her agent and local Austin-resident Will Van Overbeek. I interviewed Van Overbeek to learn more about Dana, poster art, and Austin’s punk scene. “In 1979 it was the peak of Austin’s punk era with punk bands, like The Veracious Tarts and The Huns, and punk band art posters.” Van Overbeek explained. The Veracious Tarts were not a real band, however, but were used as fake subjects in artistic mock-band posters.
Similar to today, underground and lesser known bands would advertise their upcoming shows and promote themselves by hanging posters on telephone poles and various other places. Poster art became a huge part of punk culture and became a fad among aspiring rebel artists. “1979 was a punk era,” said Van Overbeek. “People started putting up posters on telephone poles of bands that didn’t exist, which was very artistic. Dana took it one step further and put it in xerox art and turned it into an art form.” A xerox machine is a photocopier; it makes copies of documents and graphic images. Xerox art is made with a xerox machine. “Dana did all of her work with xerox and copying machines,” explained Van Overbeek. “‘The silver print’ made a
“highbrow” expectations of silver print. Color copies, which were new at the time, began to gain popularity throughout the art community. “At the time, color art was a blossoming art form,” said Van Overbeek. Dana began creating color copies through the xerox machine. The subjects and ideas that Dana printed onto her posters were greatly influenced by the time period and environment she lived in. “Dana got her ideas from the punk bands that were playing at the time, straight scenes, stuff like that. Oh, and portraits.” Van Overbeek showed me one of Dana’s first color art pieces, which is simply entitled “Copier art”. The very first thing that caught my eyes were the clashing of bright, bold colors on the black background. Metallic mesh is spread on the page, creating a border for the the two photographs near the bottom of the piece. One of the photographs captures two girls smiling and laughing on what looks like a sort of carnival ride or vehicle, the other is of a graduating student with a sly and mischevious smile. Scattered across the page are mini United States flags with each staff adorned with “Hong Kong” in small print. Every bit of detail in the poster demands attention and is packed with energy and pride. Dana’s piece reflects upon the conflicting feelings of teenager angst, the struggle for freedom and individuality, and the intense desire to live life and have fun. Through speaking with Will Van Overbeek one can sense the strong sense of respect he holds for both Dana Samoza and poster art in general. “There was something liberating about Dana’s work that was unconstrained... It followed the punk aesthetic,” explained Van Overbeek, his voice quickening with excitement. “It was about the fun of making pictures.” But even to this day, Dana Samoza remains a secret that even those who know her best will not reveal-- Mr. Van Overbeek wouldn’t tell me anything more than Dana Samoza’s name, her working method, and the history of how they met. “[Dana] was born with a tail, I’m her agent, and she is German” he told me, laughing. “But Dana Samoza herself is a secret. So ‘ssssh’, don’t tell .”
“I got swept up in all of it.”
Van Overbeek, who has been a professional photographer for thirty one years, was a film student at UT at the time in 1979 and got a degree in film and television. He primarily studied in photography and explored his passion whenever he got the chance to. “I got involved with the punk scene because I had punk friends who wanted me to take photographs [of their bands] and put them in their magazines and stuff. A friend of mine was a drummer in The Huns and he told me to take photos. They had a punk mag called Slogo. I got swept up in all of it.”
big deal about fine photographic print and craftsmanship and all that, so Dana took it into her hands to make cheap prints with xerox machines.” [The xerox machine] is dynamically processed to produce unique works of art using a color copy. But [color copies] aren’t just copies,” Van Overbeek said sternly. “No two are a like.”
Once involved, Van Overbeek began to hang out with his punk friends and their
Using and making cheap prints was Dana’s way of rebelling against the ~Wallflower 11~
Photo by Dana Samoza
“The fun of ma
Photo by Dana Samoza
aking pictures.�
~Wallflower 13~
A
fter the audience files in, the lights dim. Everywhere in the building is a sense of anticipation. The onlookers fidget with their programs, while the performers rush around backstage, finishing up last minute details in makeup and costumes. They have put in months of effort: writing the script, working through the play and hashing out the final details. It’s time for the show to begin. Welcome to a production by Cambiare, a local theater company that puts on small, low cost productions which are creative and innovative, from trying new things for audiences to writing their own scripts.
verify that she was real and not a mirage we offered her pie (pumpkin or pecan) and set to beginning rehearsal.” Bedard, Gass and Snider split with Gobotrick in 2008, and started doing separate productions. The first production they did under Cambiare’s name was Transformations. Half of this was funded by a grant from the City of Austin Auxiliary, and the rest came from Bedard’s own pocket.
a new theater piece with people you know and trust,” Bedard said. At the Cambiare performances, there are about thirty-five people in the audience on average. On the last weekend of the Nina Variations, they had a larger turnout, due to good reviews, but in general the numbers haven’t changed since the company started production. Most people find out about the productions through print reviews or the Internet.
Money is always an issue in theater. Cambiare gets some grants from the Cultural Arts Division in Austin, which is funded by the Hotel Occupancy Tax. But Cambiare competes with many companies representing all types of art, like fine arts, dance, film and music, which makes it harder to get funding. The pool of money also has fallen recently because of slower tourism rates.
“The biggest problem for theater is that people don’t know it’s going on, not that they don’t like it,” Bedard said. He doesn’t really see a solution to this. Even though they livestream the performances on the Internet if copyright allows, the Internet only provides a certain amount of room for innovation. Information about theater in Austin only comes up if one searches for theater in Austin, and advertising is expensive.
offices next to each other and we talked a lot about theater, and the type of theater we liked to make,” Bedard said. Bedard and Snider both had similar ideas, especially about simplicity of plays, and were both interested in classical Greek texts changed modern day times. They also liked to change the experience for the audience by say, shifting their seating arrangement or using audience involvement.
It costs a lot for a small company to put on a show. Cambiare needs at least $3,000 to rent a place to perform the shows, depending on the quality of the theater they rent. This doesn’t include sets, costumes or paying actors. Because of the expenses, the company has to limit the number of practices they do on stage. This can hurt the performers, who need as much stage time as is available.
After the festival ended Bedard and Snider stayed in contact. Snider was already the director at Gobotrick Theatre Company and Bedard eventually joined. The two made a few shows together from 2006 to 2008 which they count as Cambiare shows, even though they were produced under another flag.
“We’ve been lucky to work with great performers, they can handle it, but it’s asking a lot to open a show on one tech and one dress,” Bedard said. “You want to sand down those rough edges as much as you can by being on stage as much as possible.”
Cambiare does have a website, a blog which Bedard manages, a Twitter and a Facebook page. “What social media does is when you search theater in Austin you connect with a person,” said Bedard. When someone finds their Twitter page, they can actually communicate with Bedard. If Cambiare doesn’t have an upcoming production, he could still recommend one by another company to them. “It’s not about selling just my show, its about selling all theater in Austin,” said Bedard.
Travis Bedard started the company in 2006 with his business partner Will Hollis Snider. The two first met at the 2006 ArtSpark Festival, where they were on different teams creating different productions for the contest that took place there. “[We] had
In 2007, Bedard and Snider started looking for a stage manager. Amanda Gass, whom they hired, was the third person interviewed. “We had done one show together without a stage manager and we weren’t doing that again,” said Bedard. “She arrived for rehearsal and after poking her to
Most of their performers do not get paid more than a little stipend, if anything at all. How the actors are found depends on the type of performance they do. When Cambiare performs a published play, open auditions are held . If Cambiare writes the script or it is written as the show progresses, the company handpicks from the acting community. “It’s more comfortable creating
Theater in Austin is primarily focused on new work, as opposed to other cities. Scripts are often written or modified for a production, such as Orestes, or have only been performed a few times before. “Audiences are used to trying new things. You can take more chances,” Bedard said. Cambiare does a mix of performing published plays but also writes their own scripts. “We intend for it to be a company that tries new things,” Bedard said.
By Sydney
CAMBIARE PRODUCTIONS
~Wallflower 15~
TURN
THE
BEAT AROUND
by Jordan
A
Harum from the 60’s decade, and the “Low” by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain from today’s decade. In “A Whiter Shade Of Pale”, Procol Harum mostly uses the drums and synthesizers. In “Low” Flo Rida only uses electronic sounds. This simply shows that both artists wanted to use the newest of technology. In “My Generation” by The Who, they use guitars, bass, and drums. In “How You Remind Me” by Nickleback, they use guitars, bass, and drums. In this comparison, these songs aren’t that different, both use the classic music makers. By looking at both comparisons, they both were very similar, as in the first pair wanted to use the newest music machines, while the other two wanted to stick with the classic guitar, bass, drum combo. The real key point on what instruments are used in a song is the type of music the song is.
kid is walks down the street; his pants hang, big shirt, ipod earphones are in his ears. He’s listening to music that he wants to listen to. He’s listening to his favorite rapper tell him a story. The kid smiles. Maybe his life isn’t so bad. Music, they say, has gone downhill, but let us take another look. Music, in my opinion, is never really bad; it’s just every song and every artisist is different, especially with the different times. The lyrics are some of the most important things about a song, it’s the story or what your trying to say and put out there. For most of the 60’s songs they talked about love with some exceptions. “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes was the number one song in the 60’s decade, 50 years later, Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together” is number one of the decade. They both sing about wanting someone to be with them, because they love them. I always think love will be a topic in music because it’s something we all go through at some point, and nobody understands it. So 50 years later, we still don’t understand love. “Respect” by Aretha Franklin and “Yeah” by Usher featuring Lil John and Ludacris. These songs are very different. Aretha asks for loving and respect from her man, and Usher sings about a girl he’s dancing with in a club and describes how she danced. The topics of these songs just show how life’s changed. Women wanted more respect back than, and today people go clubbing a lot more than back in the old days. So they are still just singing about what they know or feel or are experiencing, the topics are just different since life has changed since the 60’s. So far, I don’t think music quality has gone down hill, it’s just changed with the different way of living.
The genres are very important, they’re what group the music into different groups, since all music isn’t the same. The main music genres include; Alternative, Indie, Punk, Blues, Jazz, R& B/Soul, Classical, Latin, Reggae, Country, Lounge/Easy Listening, Rock, Dance, Metal, Roots, Electronica, New Age, Soundtracks, Folk, Oldies, Trad. Pop, Hip-Hop/Rap, Pop, World. Each genre has a different thing they sing about, in a different way, with different music. Genre is what ties lyrics and music together, and gives the reason for why they’re tied together. The reason music is different at all is because of the all different genres. Has music quality changed? No. Oh, but you still think the Rolling Stones were so much better than Usher? Well, you’re comparing artists that make music from two completely different genres, so you can’t even start saying one’s better than the other, they’re supposed to be different. Now if you want to compare two things from the same genre, that’s understandable, you can say one is better than the other, because that’s your opinion. The opinion of music quality is your own, but the facts I have shown you, so make your own opinion about music.
The music is like the icing on the song cake, you could just have the person singing or rapping, but it would sound better with music. Let’s take the song “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” by Procol ~Wallflower 17~
! E R O L
A G S Y Oarissa T By M
What are vinyl toys?
Vinyl toys could be described by one as “designer” created toys made out of vinyl material. They are different from the regular toys you may pick up at Target or Toys R Us and are a lot harder to find. Vinyl toys are made out of quality materials, are designer made, and have more “status” within the art world. Vinyls aren’t made for an audience or an age group like most toys are, they’re made to exhibit a though or idea. In that sense, many consider vinyl toys as miniature pieces of art. I’ve been collecting vinyl toys for several years now. Today I have over twenty-five toys sitting on my bookshelf which have cost me a total of over two-hundred
dollars alltogether. While some vinyls have costed me a few dollars each, others have had price tags well over fifty. Vinyl toy prices really depend on the designers, rarity, size, and quality of the individual toy. My favorite vinyl toys are Labbits (by Frank Kozik), Dunnys (designer created with various artists), the Tokidoki Moofia Line (by Italian artist Simone Legno), and the popular Gloomy bear (created by Mori Chack). I bought the Mozzarella Tokidoki figure a few years ago for twenty dollars and she was (and still is) in great condition. The wonderful thing about vinyl toys is that no matter what figure you buy they always come in excellent condition. Frank Kozik’s adorable non-”smorking” labbit comes with multiple toys and accesories to put
in its mouth such as bananas, noses, mouths, and moustaches. Gloomy bear, which was only recently introduced into American culture a couple years ago, has already swarmed vinyl and pop culture with keychains, figures, stuffed animals, and stationary. If you’re interested in purchasing some vinyl toys I suggest you go to the store Monkey See Monkey Do on South Congress. They have a large array of vinyl toys, vinyl artist books, and plastic figures. Waterloo Records and Book People, located on Lamar, also have collectible vinyl toys and carry other cool and interesting plastic toys. Kidrobot. com is also a great place to buy vinyl toys as they have a large selection of toys and are one of the biggest vinyl manufacturers out there.
On this page-Labbit by Frank Kozik
On this page-Top middle; Gloomy Bear by Mori Chack Bottom Left; Dunny by Tara McPherson Bottom Right; Mozzarella by Tokidoki ~Wallflower 19~
Austin’s Architecture & the Case for its change
by Sydney I remember when I found out that a local trailer park, along with many old oaks and pecan trees, was going to be taken out to be replaced with condos. I was, of course, very disappointed, thinking it was another loss of part of the Austin culture to be turned into something that could be found anywhere in any big city of the world. As it happened, it was just another generic condo building. Austin needs new vigor and governing in it’s architecture to make it a better city. Austin used to have original, independent architecture. The Driskill, for example, when it was first built was called the finest hotel west and south of St Louis. The Capitol in Texas is taller than the one in Washington. In this both of the these seemed to strive to be better, than other hotels, in the first example, and then better than the Capital building in Washington. Even other buildings showed similar progress, although on a much smaller scale. The Scarborough was the first steel and concrete building in Austin. It is still important and a landmark of Austin today. This is because it was the first, the original and helped Austin get where it is today architecturally. It was trying to improve on the other architecture in Austin. However, Austin’s newer architecture shows none of that. Austin has been growing like crazy recently, with new buildings popping up all over the place. In fact, according to KXAN, Austin has the third highest growing rate in the nation. The condo market in particular is growing very fast. According to AustinTowers, an Austin organization about condos, there are seventeen current projects, three being built, and ten pending projects. This is a lot of condos. None of them are eyesores. They have great loca-
tions downtown or close to the river for the most part. Most have neat vintage clothing boutiques, salons, cafes, and stores, all local of course. The problem is that they are all very similar. They have similar designs, shops, and locations. It’s almost hard
the condos try to be the best, most creative condo buildings on the market? They might, but I don’t see much of evidence of this. They all look similar. There are good buildings in Austin though, built
to tell them apart. The condo that won the Austin Chronicle award for the Best New Condominium in 2010, was the Spring Condominium Tower. It is a “point tower,” meaning that it goes shooting straight up into the sky. Is this really the most creative and original new condo building Austin has to offer? This is why I think Austin needs more competition in it’s architecture. Chicago’s architecture is wildly successful, because of their spirit of competition. Chicago’s buildings keep getting taller and taller, and more and more creative. Think of their parks and other buildings. It is this competition that keeps Chicago ahead as an architectural city. True, it is a much bigger city than Austin. But that doesn’t mean that Austin can’t still be creative with what it builds. Austin currently has a program in place to try to reform it’s architecture, called the Downtown Austin Plan. They want to create more affordable housings, convert Austin into more distinct architectural districts, and make transportation easier and more accessible. These are all good ideas for downtown, and will improve the architectural framework. But the buildings themselves? Do each of
in recent years. The Frost Bank is one of those. It won the Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design Inc. the 2004 IALD Award of Merit after it was built, and the Texas Construction Award of Merit, and awards from the Austin Chronicle in 2004, and 2006 through 2008 for its design. When it was built, it was the tallest building in Austin, the first taller than the Capital. In order for Austin to have better architecture like that, it needs to have more competition in it’s architecture. I wish that I could go back to when they took out that trailer park, and say, “Wow, I’m really glad that they took out this trailer park, and replaced it with something that is unique and represents Austin itself.” Hopefully, one day Austin’s architecture will make me say this.
~Wallflower 21~
The Capitol Building
This building is the Capitol of Texas. It recently has been going renovations, as anyone who drives around downtown can tell. It was completed in 1888, and was the winning design in a national competetion.
The Frost Bank
This building was completed in 2004, and won several awards after it was built. It was the first building in Austin to be taller than the Capitol Building.
Austonian penthouse
When this building was finished in 2010, it was taller than the Frost Bank. However, I find it rather plain, and it reminds me more of a USB key than an architectural masterpiece.
Spring Condominium
The Spring Condominium was Austin’s only point tower when it was completed in 2008.
~Wallflower 23~
Music
&
Me
by Jordan
T
he melody plays through your head and takes over you completely. You dance around letting your body flow with the beat. The drums become your heart, the guitar your voice. You have become apart of the music, just like Davíd Garza. Davíd Garza is a local musician who grew up in the Dallas area and went to UT, then dropping out and become fully engulfed in his music career; making the band Twang Twang Shock-A-Boom, touring with Matchbox Twenty, Sugar Ray, Smashing Pumpkins, Ben Harper, and Fiona Apple. Now he recounts the countless memories with us, and lets us see into the music that makes his heart beat. Garza grew up in the small town that Irving, Texas used to be. All Irving had was the Cowboys and the Stadium, but if it wasn’t football season, there was nobody there. Now Irving’s filled with so much stuff to do and so much going on, it’s just not how it used to be when he was growing up there. “It’s good to be in a place where there’s nothing going on, like your imagination is your most important tool. And so when there’s nothing else to distract you it’s a blank page, blank canvas, you know?” He started playing at the young age of five, in which he was inspired by the guys who played guitar at his church. “Even though I didn’t have a guitar, I just thought that would be cool.” He started out on the piano, because that was the only thing that he could take lessons for, because no one knew how to play piano in his family. “I took piano lessons from when I was like six years old till maybe eleven, and then I stopped playing piano because I wanted to play guitar. he said. “Then my brother taught me how to play. I played three or four chords and then I just watched MTV and learned how to do the rest.”
Though he learned piano and guitar so early on, he wasn’t done with the learning new things. He joined the marching band in high school, and since he couldn’t play guitar on the field, he decided to pick up the saxophone. Later he moved on to trombone because it’s better heard than the sax during the football games. “But then the other instruments, bass and drums, I started learning because I just saw how much fun everybody was having playing it. I was always singing in the front, and I always saw how much fun the bass player and drummer were having. Like Ringo was the funniest in the band, and Flea is the coolest in the band and I always thought, ‘Wow, why do these bass players and drummers have so much fun,’ and it’s because they just get to do the deep deep part with the groove and I really discovered that was important.” The real reasons behind Garza’s musical pursuit lied in his musical heroes. Though he his number one, was close to home. “Out of all my musical heroes,” he said, “my first musical hero was my mom because she was the first person that I ever saw sing.” He admitted that he was surprised to see this mom sing so beautifully, he didn’t realize there were people out there with amazing talent, but no publicity. This relationship he shared with his hero, his mother, was the best thing he could of asked for. “It’s good when your heroes are people you know.” But other than that, he looks up to Bob Dylan and the beautiful songs he writes,John Lennon and the truth in his words and how he says them. Kurt Cobain is a hero because he also took the Beatles and combined it with punk. He had a lot imagination, which Garza greatly admired. Garza has now been in the music business for more than 20 years, so he has been a lot of places, seen a lot of people, and done a lot of things. The first major tour he ever went on was with Matchbox Twenty, the time the band was very popular. He also toured in the ~Wallflower 25~
company of Sugar Ray, and most recently, Fiona Apple. But not every show was as glamorous. On one New Year’s Eve in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Garza had a gig in a bar that was falling apart with him in it. Every where he’d step, the floor would make a hole, not to mention the falling debris; it was the scariest gig he’s ever played. The weirdest gig took place in Seattle, Washington, at a place called the Gorge, where Garza played with Ben Harper and the Smashing Pumpkins during the Hoard Tour. “It’s like the grand canyon, and you look out and you hit a note and you can like almost see the note hit the mountain and come back.” he strummed a little guitar to imitate what he was explaining. “It’s super long echo, so we had to play really really slow cause all these echoes were coming back.” he laughed. But that’s not the only thing that comes back. Doubts of staying a musician go through his head constantly. “Every single day a thought goes through my mind like, ‘Wow maybe I could be, maybe I should be doing something else. There’s so many things I haven’t, that I can’t figure out, you know? I’m spending all this time writing these songs and playing these gigs and maybe there’s something else that I should be doing. That’s the sort of imagination that comes in again and you know it, you just have to figure out new ways to make six strings sound cool, or eighty-eight keys sound cool, or five drums, you know? It just takes a lot of work, a lot of work.” he explained. Creativity is 90% perspiration, 10% inspiration, so don’t wait around to get inspired, or your going to get let down. The art of writing songs doesn’t just come out of nowhere, it’s a lot of work; one of the reasons why doubt of staying a musician stays in Garza’s mind. In his opinion, to write a song, you don’t
become inspired, you just work until something comes out of it. But he is inspired by great cinema, movies, and soundtracks. “ Lord of the Rings is inspiring because it’s so long and it unfolds and take nine hours; the Beatles anthologies. I like long things, you know, long movies. I like going to movies that are like Inception, they’re always saying, ‘ah its too long!’ I love long movies because it just kind gets you getting in that mood to get the groove going. But ya film, books, and people that you love.” Just normal things people see everyday are inspiring, you just have to take them like they are special. Special moments out of his carrier are small road trip things he enjoyed. “ ...just
those days when you wake up and you know you got a gig that night somewhere you in a town you don’t even know where you are, or you got to drive 400 miles to get there. You’re there with your friends and you pile them all in the van, and wake everybody up, just those little, silly things; fighting over what CD your going to listen to while you’re driving,where we’re gonna eat, who has to go to the bathroom, just road trip stuff. Those are some of my favorite memories.” The small, normal, day-to-day things he noticed and made special are his favorites. So the thoughts of these make all the thoughts of doubt, disintegrate away, he just needs to keep going to keep having those moments; never quit.”
“And you break a string, you drop your pick, break your stick, and you just go ‘well what is it a sign that someone must be telling me something,’ someone’s telling me to try harder. That’s what I’ve had to learn. And I’m glad I’ve never quit. I’m glad I still do it. I can’t do anything else anyway, I don’t know what I’m talking about.” ~Wallflower 27~
It was a bright jungle. It was GREEN, and seemed venomously so, as if the jungle was trying to poison the other colors out of the land. There were, of course, flashes of other colors, like vibrant BLUE creeping vines, YELLOW palm leaves hanging over the water, and RED droplets of blood. The animals too were colorful, standing out amidst the sea of GREEN. ORANGE frogs leaped from branch to branch. The deep PURPLE tigers prowled along the floor of thick GREEN ferns, searching for their next meal. Yet, even with these extreme spots of color, the powerful feeling the forest gave was that of a deep GREEN, a choking, overwhelming GREEN. Then an ORANGE fire sprang up, hiding along the GREEN branches, until it was pulled into the air by the wind. The wind cajoled it, pushing it along from branch to branch. Soon, the whole forest danced with flames, YELLOW and RED. Embers fell to the floor, turning from ORANGE into a WHITE as the glow was slowly bleached out of them. As the fire died, having nothing left to burn, a trail of WHITE ash stayed behind. It coated everything, the dead trees crumbled on the floor of the jungle and the parched WHITE bones of the animals. Nothing moved but the ash, drifting to the ground at a leisurely pace. Finally, there was only WHITE left in the still world. It was a sinister, dominating WHITE. A tendril of wind curled up, guiltily, for it knew what it had done, and gently shifted the ash aside. Underneath that WHITE clump of ash was a waxy leaf. It was GREEN.
~Wallflower 29~
THE STREET ART DILEMmA BY MARISSA HANSEN
~Wallflower 31~
O
n the wall directly to the right of Home Slice Pizza lies a mini gallery of street art in cement block frames. Colors clash and seep into outlined letters, ripped and tattered posters serve as wallpaper for the bare cement walls, quickly scribbled tags are the only form of artist identification, and monochrome eyes stare down the pedestrians who happen to meet their gaze. It is in this spot in which stencils, posters, and graffiti art come together to form a perfectly blended example of Austin street art culture. Without the consent of Home Slice Pizza, however, this art would be torn down and painted over within a week.
with or without permission, I believe that the government needs to soften its restrictive laws on street art and allow artists more legal opportunities to do their work. No matter how beautiful it may be, however, street art is still illegal without the permission of the property owners. The government technically views street art as “art” when it is done with the permission of whoever owns the property. Many officials argue that street art downplays the living conditions and atmosphere of neighborhoods and communities. Street art sometimes involves explicit language, suggestive content, and nudity; however, this is not to say all street art contains inappropriate content.
To many, street art is a personal form of expression, art, creativity, and thought. It’s a way for artists to express their feelings and thoughts with the world and their community through public displays of art. For others, art is a type of therapy and a way to convey their life story to the public. Street art is used by some artists to reach and connect with public audiences, speak out and gain attention, obtain fame and street credibility, or communicate with others around the city. A lot of people like street art and connect to it in different ways, such as local Austin resident Elizabeth Kirkindal, who told News 8 Austin reporters that she is “cheered up” by the Austin “Hi how are you?” frog mural by Guadalupe Street. Artists use street art to connect to the city, such as the American YouthWorks group who did a contemporary graffiti mural to raise awareness about underage drinking. For art and political aficionados like illustrator and street artist Shepard Fairey, street art is a political statement and a form of free speech. He argues that by tearing down street art and incriminating street artists the government is restricting the first amendment and abusing the citizen’s personal rights. Whether it is done
The reality is that without permission or consent of the property owners the government will rid the streets of street art and pursue street artists with criminal charges. In October of 2008, a married couple living in Brooklyn were told to remove the “graffiti” on the sidewalk or suffer a three hundred dollar fine. The supposed “graffiti” was actually just a chalk drawing done on the cement sidewalk by the couple’s six year old daughter. Kairo Creme (also known as Kairos), a German graffiti artist, stated in an interview done by Graffiti.org that “the limited numbers of legal walls [in the United States] has led to writers constantly having to go over one another for space. [The lack of legal walls] drives the better writers away because they do not want to see their time-consuming works trashed in only a matter of days.” When asked if graffiti writers would continue to do art if special walls were created for them to spray on, Kairos stated that “most of the serious writers would love for graffiti to be legalized... there are a fair number of legal walls and they are used to death, so it is quite clear that legalizing graffiti will not change much.” When asked the same question another artist, Schmoo, said that “Legal yards are often the most
active yards in cities. Many of the more serious writers end up taking all of their writing to the legal yards and walls.” I believe that there needs to be more “free walls” where graffiti writers can do their art legally. If cities with thick graffiti culture can create and really encourage the use of “legal” walls I think that there will be a decrease in the amount of vandalism and illegal graffiti writing. I think that younger toys and taggers will also start producing their work legally rather than illegally when more serious and respected graffiti writers started promoting the use of legal walls or canvas. There are many other complications in legalizing street art, one of the biggest being the issue of defining “vandalism” and editing the law. When you allow street art to become “legal” the line of what is art and what is not becomes fuzzy and unclear. There It’s my opinion that art is in the “eye of the beholder”, whether you choose to call the graffiti on the wall “art” or “vandalism” is your own personal opinion. Back in the 1800’s, Van Gogh was the center of society’s critique. Society called his work useless, trashy, and nothing short of ugly. Today, however, we marvel at his ingenious paintings and astonishing works of art. One can only wonder as to what society will think of artists like Banksy, who has had his moments of being the scum of the art world, two hundred years from now in the future.
“WE THE PEOPLE, AFFECT THE MAKING AND QUALITY OF MOST OF OUR CULTURE, BUT NOT OUR ART.” --BANKSY
10 Questions with
Q: A:
What made you want to be on the radio?
JB: I took a random internship in Dallas while in school & ended up falling in love with radio. Sandy: I couldn’t do anything else, I’m lucky to fall into this business!
Q: A:
JB & Sandy
Were you familiar with 94.7 prior to your job there?
JB & Sandy: YES & 94.7 was HORRIBLE before it went to the Mix 94.7! It was Froggy 94.7, Bearcat Country 94.7 & Party 94.7.
Q: How early do you have to get up to talk on the morning show? JB: I haven’t had a good night’s rest in 20 years so it doesn’t matter anymore!
A: Sandy: 4:09 am every morning
Q: What are some of your favorite moments working there? JB & Sandy: Starting Bikes For Kids 14 years ago and raising well over $1 million with all proceeds A:going toward buying brand new bikes for kids in & around Austin that are deserving of having a new bike
for Christmas
Q:
Who was your worst interview?
JB: Mark Wahlberg, seriously! He sounded like he had no interest in doing radio interviews… A: like he was in bed with a splitting headache.
Sandy: Bill Cosby, seriously! He rambled about nothing for 19 minutes.
Q: Who was the most outrageous interview? JB: Gary Busey…he showed up to the station high as a kite and in pajamas, I had to ask him to A:leave!
Sandy: T-Pain…we were auto-tuned and he wasn’t…he didn’t think it was too funny.
Q: What music do you like? JB: 99.9% of the time the ACL lineup is right in my wheelhouse except for Dave Matthews Band. A: Sandy: COUNTRY…old school…like George Jones, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, etc.
Q: Out of all the different activities you do on the morning show, which is your favorite? JB: Wakeboarding, stand up paddle boarding, cycling, classic cars, running Lady Bird Lake with the A: dog & hanging with the family all around Austin.
Sandy: Wakesurfing, golfing, hunting & hanging with my wife and our 18 month old little girl.
Q:
What are some of your favorite local places you like to go to?
JB: Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que on Barton Springs, Spider House, Dirty Bills on West 6th Street ASandy: Flores Mexican, Bone Daddy’s, Sambits & Ego’s :
Q: Who’s your favorite local artist? A:
JB: Alpha Rev Sandy: Autumn
~Wallflower 35~
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Modern Rhythm ~Wallflower 37~
The
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