Remembrances of Skylab Gallery, Columbus, Ohio

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https://columbusfreepress.com/article/bus-skylab-au-revior

Skylab’s last party wasn’t a reunion of the history of DIY @ 57 E. Gay Street.

Last Skylab Party: Friday November 22, 2024

The current Skylab community danced with a reunion of late 90’s techno, Friday November 22, 2024. I ain’t saying 90s Techno wasn’t artistic or involved with Columbus culture.

A Brief Personal SKYLAB Description

Skylab became a cultural epicenter after the BLD closed in the oughts. BLD was a warehouse which large DIY events were attended. Someone involved with Anti-Racist Action lived in some tower near the BLD. We would paint peaces, and watch Teeth of the Hydra, Wolf Eyes, and local noise bands.

Sword Heaven and 16 Bitch Pile-up utilized performance with installations in the BLD which worked with establishing Skylab as the new avant-garde cultural epicenter.

Skylab’s noise scene was extraordinary until later mediocre noise was abandoned for late 90s techno. I wasn’t angry @ techno. I’d rather Titonton than mediocre noise groups.

Which Movement/My Movement

I tried figuring out which era of Skylab would I consider my Skylab era.

I organized a voting event for a NYC Political Action Committee called Downtown4Demoracy in 2004. John Kerry lost. My job: Make voting relevant in counterculture.

I remembered an art show where Mike Carney submitted a ceramic cat as a readymade. Mike wasn’t planning anything. I received a request for Mike for an art show. Mike handed me something from Mike’s living room. My next call: Sleazy. Kayo BSA submitted a canvas which said, “All You Bitches Are The Finest” in cursive with a kitschy housewife background for the same event.

Obama won four months later, in 2008. We bumped “My President’s Black.”

Friday night, I didn’t text Deathly Fighter and request opinions.

I thought about later watching Vile Gash, and Deathly Fighter redefine proto-hardcore, and proto minimal electronic performance and sound.

Vile Gash once played a show in a room with a basketball hoop. I remember dribbling around the band, and then making lay-ups. Playing basketball was inappropriate behavior for a hardcore show except I drove towards the hoop perfectly on beat. I can’t usually dribble between my legs but I became the Harlem Globetrotters for the 10 minute Hardcore set. I’m friends with Vile Gash so they were amused. I received a ride home from a woman artist who found me amusing. I don’t know why I didn’t attend SXSW that year.

In 2012, we celebrated Barack’s second victory at dance party/installation with James Payne, Online Ceramic’s Elijah Funk, Martin Weiland, and a room full of people.

In 2024, Elijah Funk’s Online Ceramics designed shirts for Andre 3000’s New Blue Sun album. I feel Andre’s 3000’s New Blue Sun in the lane of design and experimental Skylab culture Elijah Funk, and Mike Carney were involved with. Creative energy is constant, contagious and seems effortless.

Obama won Ohio twice. It felt like two Obama’s victories were the pay-off for our initiating cultural engineering in 2004.

Punk kids from small towns respect word of mouth dope which I think nurtures counterculture in rural areas everyone. Skylab was filed with kids who moved from rural Ohio and outstanding record collections during the Obama era. Those kids still visited their hometowns and were considered cool. Refined, educated Punk kids in small towns don’t vote Republican.

The second Obama term was interesting at Skylab. Ian Svenious of the Make-Up and Lo-fi pioneer Calvin Johnson were always appearing. Svenious wears suits. Pat Carney of the Black Keys later collaborated with Calvin Johnson in 2018. I think that’s why Calvin Johnson kept appearing. Svenious was once in a group called Nation of Ulysses. Calvin and Ian know each other from inventing American Punk rock music.

I would drink and discuss the Nation of Islam with Ian from a fashion standpoint. Ian liked the extended compliment. Are mobs of stupid looking people really angry at leaders….dressed immaculately with fades because of skin color?

I don’t think Ian expected an explanation that Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, the FOI and Farrakhan made devils look unsightly. I feel Andre’s 3000’s New Blue Sun in the lane of design and experimental Skylab culture Elijah Funk and Mike Carney were involved with.

During a performance by feminist group Slave Labia... a drunk man irritated Slave Labia. We were in a DIY venue. People made him leave. Slave Labia were playing with K-Records punk pioneer Calvin Johnson. K-Records pioneered the Olympia, Washington scene which birthed Riot GRRL’s and were punk roots of everything from Nirvana into indie rock. K-Records released music by Kathleen Hanna, Miranda July, Karp, Beck, Built 2 Spill, Modest Mouse, Make-up and many others.

I asked K-Records’ Calvin Johnson for suggestions in dealing with idiots at DIY events while Slave Labia chastised a drunk fool.

Calvin said the man was drunk. Calvin recommended: “You should speak plain, and polite. If you calm the drunk man, the situation, you diffuse the conflict.” I felt Calvin was wise.

I set my PBR on Calvin Johnson’s merch booth while we were talking. Calvin looked disappointed in me. I didn’t think about the fact that beer didn’t belong near rare Dub Narcotics cassettes. I don’t think Calvin was against booze. If I spilled beer on Calvin’s tapes then hours spent dubbing would’ve been squandered.

I picked my beer up and apologized. Calvin continued speaking with me with kindness. Nuances and courtesy in DIY keep DIY functioning.

James Payne facilitated the Calvin Johnson/Slave Labia event. Jimi also organized poetry events with included Jordan Castro, Ryan J Eilbeck, Mallory Whitten, and other Monster House Press poets who were regulars at Skylab during that era.

Friday night, I texted James Payne in NYC. We discussed DIY culture and Skylab. Jimi requested I retrieve something that he forgot in the bathroom.

I texted Sinkane. I asked Sinkane the name of his group which performed at Skylab. I found out Sinkane performed at Skylab. Sinkane’s released music from DFA and City Slang. Sinkane is from Columbus via Sudan.

Underground Explosions

In 2014, I was up late writing in my office. I drove my Ford Escape to Little Palace. I wanted a pineapple Ciroc. I drank a Ciroc. I jumped in my vehicle. I turned up East Lynn near North 4th Street.

An explosion occurred. Then another explosion. I was surrounded by fires out of the street’s manholes. A cop pulled up. The cop said: “This isn’t safe. Jump in the back of the police car.”

I jumped out my Ford and intro the back of the cop car.

The cop looked exactly liked Obama. We parked at a distance while my vehicle was surrounded by towering fires. The cop said: “You could’ve been killed by exploding manholes.” I started laughing.

A cop who looked like Obama had said, “you could’ve been killed by exploding manholes.”

The cop was surprised that I laughed.

Other cops pulled up. I listened while cops on radios discussed a downtown disaster of exploding manholes. I heard the word manhole in every other word while watching my car surround by fires from the ground. I kept laughing.

The cop repeated: “You were almost killed.” I sat there and attempted to act like “exploding manhole” in the midst of watching a downtown street with flames wasn’t absurd.

All kinds of cSUV surrounded my car and the exploding manholes. Firetrucks pulled up.

City workers. AEP trucks. City workers.

Insulation material failed because of salt, water, and other factors. Once they extinguished the fire and determined a reason, the cop dropped me off at my car. Power was out the next day.

It took $30 million for repairing vaults which were responsible for the explosions. I’d experienced so much crazy stuff from 2016-2024 that I’d forgotten this occurred until I looked for Skylab pictures in my cloud. I don’t drive for a reason.

Performances + Installation I’ve seen at Skylab:

Wolf Eyes, 16 Bitch Pile Up, Sword Heaven, Dead Sea, Grant Lavalley, Doug Johnson,Teeth of the Hydra, Daymon Dodson aka Racist Joe aka So What, DJ Przm, Three Cee Booty Shoppe, Franz Lyons of Turnstile, Sinkane, Weedsteeler, Killed In Action, Vile Gash, Scott Neimet, Lamb’s Bread, Deathly Fighter, Hugs N Kisses, DJ Detox, Envelope, El Jesus De Magico, Illogic, Various Stilts, Eva Ball, Brainbow, Anna Ranger, James Payne, RIP Aarfee, Bushman, Unholy Two, Necropolis, Gil Manterra’s Party Dream, Columbus Sucks Because You Suck, Calvin Johnson, Ian Svenious

I’ve received phone calls about Defiance, Ohio @ Skylab. I don’t think I attended.

I regret I didn’t see Cameron Granger’s videos at Skylab for the sake of Skylab’s continuity. I’m sure I will see them later. If I didn’t mention you, I’m sorry….this isn’t my final statement.