Easy Otis + Third Coast Digest @ Bonnaroo 2009!

TCD @ BONNAROO! Manchester TN, June 11-14

Third Coast Digest @ Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
Manchester, TN
June 11-14
Live Blogs, Pics, Vids, Twittering-ing

Easy Otis & ThirdCoast Digest are going gonzo style deep into Bonnaroo, posting Twitter and blog updates 24/7 from June 10-15. Who know’s who we’ll meet: artists and filmmakers from the Third Coast? Lifer waitresses at road side diners? Scary people at 3am? I can’t wait either. It’s all going down, live and direct. Set the guns to stun.

Link Up:

Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival

Easy Otis on Twitter

ThirdCoast Digest

REEL MILWAUKEE

Third Coast Digest on Twitter

Easy Otis Interview #4: LAURA STUART from The TOOL SHED

WE ARE BACK! Easy Otis Interview #4, live and direct. We are talking with none other than the amazing LAURA STUART, owner of THE TOOL SHED and writer for the weekly column SEXPRESS in Milwaukee's Village Voice, The Shepherd Express.

Just in time for Earth Month, The Tool Shed is hosting Greening Your Sex Life Saturday, April 11, 2 pm workshop!

How cool is that! Green On and Read On friends!! Not only with you have what-to-do for Earth Month and this weekend, but check out what Laura declares for May......read read read.....

OTIS: Aside from the Tool Shed, what (and where) are your favorite erotique boutiques?

LAURA: My three favorite erotic boutiques are the Smitten Kitten in Minneapolis, Early To Bed in Chicago, and Self Serve in Albuquerque. Like the Tool Shed, they are all owned by one or two women entrepreneurs who wanted to provide a sex-positive, feminist space to both shop for toys and learn about sexuality. We also all offer non-toxic, high quality products. The ladies who own these stores are the ones that I call if I'm thinking about carrying something new, or if I have a practical question about the business side of things, and they were incredibly helpful to me when I was just starting to manage the Tool Shed. They're my peeps!

OTIS: Is Milwaukee sexy?

LAURA: I think so. I've had nothing but positive responses to my SEXpress column in the Shepherd Express (www.expressmilwaukee.com/sexpress) and to the new, larger Tool Shed location on the East Side. Milwaukee people seem thrilled that there are new venues to discuss sex openly. I think some cities, like New York, that people often think are sexy can be kind of jaded or have a "seen-it-all" attitude. Milwaukeeans are still excited about stuff, and to me being enthusiastic and unpretentious is sexy.

OTIS: You know we always have a hair questions so.....drawing from your vast knowledge of the inner and outer workings of sexual behavior and psychology, is there a hair fetish? That seems like it could be a bit messy…..

LAURA: There's a fetish for everything and anything that you can think of. This question totally makes me think of the "Freaky Fred" episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog -- in my opinion Fred clearly had a hair fetish! You and Carly have to see this episode if you haven't already -- freaky barbers with hair fetishes. Lots of people eroticize hair, especially long hair, which many cultures associate with sexual power or sexual availability -- think of the whole Samson and Delilah ordeal, or the fact that some Orthodox Jewish or Muslim women cover their hair or shave their heads because this is considered in their religious traditions to demonstrate modesty or humility. People also often have really pronounced preferences for how they like their pubic hair or their partner's to look -- totally bare v. Brazilian v. full bush. Of course, you can get groomed however you like at the Establishment.

OTIS: More and more, we are finding AWARNESS days for anything and everything but from a strictly celebratory standpoint, Is there some National or World Sex Holiday that we should all know about? Valentines Day is just too cliché and PG-13 for us.

LAURA: Yes. May is National Masturbation Month, which started in 1995 after Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders was fired for suggesting that masturbation might actually be healthy for people. Lots of sexy stores and organizations around the country celebrate National Masturbation Month, and some people even have masturbate-a-thons and collect pledges for each hour that they spend masturbating! The Tool Shed will be doing something special, so join our mailing list (www.toolshedtoys.com) or our Facebook group (search for "The Tool Shed: An Erotic Boutique") and stay tuned.

Easy Otis Interview #2: Brian Ritchie, Violent Femmes

Milwaukee native Brian Ritchie is the bassist for the folk/punk/rock band Violent Femmes. Ever since their billion times platinum debut album burst into dorm rooms around the world, Ritchie has been widely regarded as one of the best bass players in alternative music. (Eat it D'Arcy!) Easy Otis reached out into the great beyond to find Mr. Ritchie and this is what came back over the wire:

OTIS: The streets of Milwaukee seem a bit safer theses days.....Where the hell are you?

BRIAN RITCHIE: I have become a permanent resident of Australia. I live in Hobart, Tasmania. Here I am Artistic Director of MONA FOMA (Museum of Old and New Art, Festival of Music and Art) This is an incredibly fun, challenging and creative job, and I get to bring my favorite artists and musicians to Australia. Besides that I am also extremely active as a musician, playing everything ranging from jazz, Japanese classical music, blues and rock of course.

OTIS: early 80s VF: you have long hair that covered your face during Kiss Off freak outs.....there are later photos that show shorter hair....tell us the story of when you cut the locks.....

BR: For a long time I was on a pendulum between long hair and shaving my head. I like the feeling of a freshly shaven skull. However due to requests from the female portion of my family I've had long hair exclusively for about the last ten years. It's also satisfying because most of the other musicians my age are losing their hair and resorting to absurd hats, the comb-over etc. and I can just luxuriate in my profuse locks.

OTIS: VF rumors have been flying around. If you could sum up the future of VF into 3 words, what would it be?

BR: Music is important.

OTIS: Who are a few bass players / bands to watch?

BR: Go to www.mofo.net.au previous festival section and you can see exactly what I am into nowadays musically.

There are a lot of really fine bassists happening nowadays. In Milwaukee I love Dave Gelting (from the Danglers and others). Another bassist I really enjoy is Bryan J. Howard from Athens Georgia.


SAID "KISS OFF" FREAK OUT HAIR

Easy Otis Interview #1: Josh Modell of The Onion AV Club

Hey - welcome to the first of a semi-regular, fully awesome NEW feature on Easy Otis: THE EASY OTIS INTERVIEW. We'll be posting updates from our favorite rabble rousers, musicians, newsmakers, jailbreakers, filmmakers, writers, and sinners both local and not-so-local so stay tuned, spread the word and next time you see Otis, high five him!

Our cherry popper (ewwww) is none other than Shorewood native JOSH MODELL. Modell survived growing up and hustlin on the mean streets of the North Shore and has been holding it down at The Onion, managing their edits as Managing Editor.

EASY OTIS INTERVIEW w/ Josh Modell, Managing Editor @ The Onion AV Club, Contributing Writer @ SPIN Magazine

OTIS: Where are you right now / whats going on?
JOSH: I'm in bed in a hotel in L.A. I'm on vacation and just woke up. My wife is off having breakfast with a friend of hers, so I just watched the classic episode of Saved By The Bell (the last 10 minutes, anyway) in which Lisa and Zack decide they like each other, and Screech gets so mad he decides he wants to have a fist-fight with Zack. After Screech does some silly karate moves, he tears the top few buttons off of Zack's shirt, exposing his hairless, gleaming chest. The studio audience oohed. (Don't worry, they're friends by the end of the episode.)

OTIS: Ever do an interview where your subjects hair was memorable in any
way? (ie: Bizarre, distracting, you thinking "what the fuck is up with this
girl/guy?)
JOSH: The only one that might qualify, coincidentally, is when I interviewed Screech (a.k.a. Dustin Diamond) in person back in 2002. I think his hair was probably calmer than I thought it would be, all things considered. But still, he's got the kind of hair that, even when it's short, you know it's threatening to jump out at you. The interview took place upstairs at the Miramar Theater/Walls Have Ears Studio, your sorta-neighbor on Oakland Avenue. (Here's a link: http://www.avclub.com/articles/dustin-diamond,13750/) It's not the most exciting interview, but I'm proud to point out that Chuck Klosterman quoted it in a piece in Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs.

OTIS: What are you working on outside of The Onion / journalism world?
JOSH: I wish I had something grand to say, but my time is pretty much consumed by work, but that's okay, because I like my work and it interests me. If I didn't have the job I have, I'd still be listening to music and watching movies in my free time. The A.V. Club just finished (or is in the process of finishing) a book that will be out in October, so that's eaten up any free time I might've had over the last year. That said, I'm on vacation right now, so there will be some fine dining and sun-basking in the next couple of days.

OTIS: Who will have a better season: Brewers or Cubs? (ed. note: Josh is Milw native now based in Chi)
JOSH: I wish I could answer this question, but I am woefully (and yet willfully) ignorant of most professional sports. I like to watch poker on TV, but only John Hodgman considers that an actual sport. If this were the early 80s and I was still attending Lake Bluff School, I would definitely say the Brewers. I got Don Money's autograph on my glove in 1982 or 1983, at the grand opening of North Shore Bank, just down the street from The Establishment! I have lots of old-school Oakland Avenue memories...

NEXT EASY OTIS INTERVIEW: a tale of two Brians: Brian Ritchie, Violent Femmes and rock photographer / Milwaukee filmmaker Brian Dell. Stay Tuned!