(Editor's Note: This is the original 'geek page' written by MBone which went up on our original website. Prob'ly written in April of 1995. It's completely obsolete now, of course. But it is a good snapshot of where we were when we got started on the web.)


Technical Shit
For Geeks Only
by MBONE

For those of you who must know the details of how this page is put together, here it is.

The ROX Quarry is produced on a 33 MHz 486 PC compatible running Linux. The current server machine is a Pentium P-90 machine, also running Linux and NCSA httpd v1.3.

All HTML code is written by hand because I haven't seen any editors that seem worth my while, yet. Most of the images were created by B with a Video Toaster equipped Amiga. Once I get the images on my Linux machine, some further processing is necessary. I use the pbmplus package to convert the frame grabs from the rgb format to ppm format. I then use xv to do some resizing, color quantization, and conversion to gif format. I use giftrans to create transparent areas on the images and giftool to make them interlaced.

The video is digitized on a Macintosh Quadra 840AV where some minor editing is done using Adobe Premiere 4.0. The quicktime files are compressed using the Cinepak format and flattened using MovieShop 2.0. Our original intention was to provide the video in both quicktime and mpeg formats, however, converting to mpeg proved to be a problem. The only conversion program I could find (for free) was for the Macintosh, and it turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. If you know how this can be done, preferably on a Unix machine, please contact me.

More time has been spent on trying to solve file transfer problems than actually writing HTML. It seems our video digitizing machines were on a broken network. We couldn't transfer 1 minute of video and we had 30 minutes total. So we had to find a tar program for the Mac to write DAT tapes that we could read on the Linux server. After some trial and error with the block size, we managed to make all the video available on the net.

— by MBone | link

These two guys have a show on the public access cable TV channel here in town. They believe their program has deep merit and virtue and educates all who view it. Or they believe they uncover new and undisclosed injustices within society and expose them in an entertaining fashion. Or they believe they're fun and entertaining, smiting us with their sharp, sophisticated wit and sarcasm. Or they just want to jerk off as they watch themselves on the screen thinking, "I can't believe people go for this shit."

Whatever their desire, one thing is for certain: the fuel that drives the show is alcohol. Ethyl alcohol. Ethanol, next to coffee and TV the most abused drug on the planet.

It's called "Rox," as in "on the Rox," as in 'gimme a shot of "Jack" on the "Rox" or "I'll have J&B on the Rox." It's ice. They're cool. They're dripping wet. They're basically transparent. Yep. Ice.

This guy called "B" says he edits the show. After three years he's only gotten better and so has the pace and entertainment value of the show. "J" mixes drinks and stutters about why they're doing what they're doing. A whole host of other slacker types with deeply troubled visions and other dysfunctional traits cavort throughout an episode at "B's" whim and their own insistence on being videotaped.

Sound like fun? It is.

I've been there. I've seen it all; pre-production meetings, script editing, casting, makeup, dress rehearsal, opening night, tears etching rivers in the pancake as they read the night's reviews.

Time after time, they come up empty-handed. Why? As I said, the show can't go on without alcohol. Alcohol. Alcohol. Look at it. You can't spell it without a "ho." What is the "ho" on "Rox"? Sadly, it's the bartender, "J." Oh, sure, good banter, comedic grin, charming presence, jutting, shining forehead — but is this guy a bartender? Hey J! Ya gotta get the nozzle in the tank! Is an ounce a cup or a pint? Is vodka a good substitute for gin? Who the hell has ever mixed a drink with ginger liqueur? Do you make drinks you like? Ever? How come your viewers consistently make better drinks than you? Is Dextromethorphan a legitimate mixer? Define "mixture," "compound," "emulsion." Draw vinyl chloride. Do you give a damn at all!?

OK, sorry. I'm ranting a bit. But I have a right. As a college graduate with a telecommunications degree and an eye for production, I have no idea what "good" is. But as a professional brewer of beer with deep physiological needs I can say that "J" satisfies like no other bartender can — like, not at all.

J, you use the worst alcohol money can buy; and when you do use something worthwhile (who do you get to buy you the good stuff?) you either mix it in such disastrous proportions that the drink tastes like razors, or you combine it with totally unsuitable mixers. You regularly use the wrong style glass for the drink you're making. Often it's a dirty glass as well. Or maybe it's a trash can. Yes, dear Reader, place your eyeballs back in your head. I have actually seen J mix a drink in a 40 gallon trash can partially filled with fly maggots. I know for a fact that he only pretended to drink a sample from the can. Hey J! What do you think your viewers are — fools!?

Haven't we had enough shoddy journalism for one century? Don't we have enough to question in this world without having to doubt our seemingly trustworthy bartender? Doesn't this just smack of the Real Downfall of Society?

Again, I digress. My only friend, Little Timmy Flebeezy, ("The Boy with Half a Brain," starring Timmy Flebeezy, 1967) says maybe J is a buffoon on purpose, simply for the entertainment value. Histrionics and alcoholism? Hardly. It is obvious that J wishes to subvert his viewers. A simple mind is one thing but a simple mind drunk on bad booze mixed in the wrong proportions is directly controllable via phosphorescent media. Videodrome. Yea, sure, yuk it up as you plunge down your throat vile concoctions of J's insidious design. Will you remember what you did that night? Will you laugh at the tragedies of the morning news? Is it all the other guy's fault? Well, maybe it is, but where was he last night? Partying? Watching TV? Drinking alone? Drinking noxious brain- controlling swill through an electronic screen?

Just look out for this "J" guy, okay? You think he's sweet and goofy and cute and just a dope but when you wake in a pool of someone else's blood with static on channel three and a really dirty , sticky glass in your hand, don't say I didn't try to warn you.

Of course, maybe that's a good start for your own TV show...

— by Russ | link

This is a genuine academic paper submitted for class credit at Indiana University circa 1994.

Hangin' with 13ers

by Allan Murphy

I elected to study a group of Bloomington people in their early to mid twenties. My principal informant was Bart Everson, who, along with friend Joe Nickell, produces a weekly counterculture television program which airs on the local community- access station.

"ROX" is a comedic, stream-of-consciousness look at slacker life as lived by Joe and Bart (J & B) and their creative circle of friends. Between them, Joe and Bart write, tape, edit, and are the principal actors in the program. I felt that, given their creative bent and their ability to observe and comment on the lifestyle in which they are immersed, they might provide a rich perspective on their generation...or at least the subset to which they belong.

I was not disappointed. I began by shadowing Bart at his "day job", telemarketing for DialAmerica. With computer assistance, Bart called and pitched prospects to buy Time-Life educational books for children. Although a repetitive, tedious job, Bart did it well and made several sales while I observed him. When questioned, he said he "didn't mind" the nature of the work, but allowed that he skips work occasionally "when I just can't get out of bed." The job is a necessary source of income, as the television show produces no revenue. Bart's wife is a graduate student with sporadic employment, so they live on a marginal income, as do many in their group of friends.

I later observed Bart on two occasions as he edited tape for the television show. Although tape editing is in many ways as tedious and repetitious as telemarketing — as Bart admits — his demeanor is entirely different. This product is his, and he becomes very absorbed in finding just the right place to cut from one shot to the next, in coming up with the funniest, most appropriate subtitle for the scene. He loves this work and has a lot of ego and pride bound up in the final result, like most videomakers. It's what he wants to do for a living.

This is in counterpoint to Howe/Strauss' observations about 13er attitudes toward work: that 13ers do not exhibit commitment or loyalty to an occupation, that they see it merely as a means to money, that their only work imperative is "just do it." (When asked about that axiom, Bart dismissed it as "a Nike advertising slogan.") True, Bart's current job is telemarketing, to which he has no emotional attachment, but his profession is videomaking, to which his emotional commitment is quite high. Of course, not every 13er will get the chance to watch the creative fruits of their labor every Tuesday night at 11p.m. in the company of their friends, either.

The centerpiece of my fieldwork was a day-long outing with Bart, Joe, and their friends to Lake Monroe to tape much of the content of what proved to be the most controversial episode of "ROX" yet aired. Joe and Bart had decided to center an episode on marijuana, its place in their lives, and the rationality of laws against it. So, a total of nine or ten of us went for an afternoon hike in the woods near the lake with beer, joints and camera in tow.

Joe videotaped as we walked, and continued taping when we stopped to take breaks. Members of the group would alternately talk, seriously or humorously, about their feelings about pot and pot laws, or would suddenly go into a "character" (redneck, policeman) and do a vignette on the societally approved view of marijuana ("Wull, ah think it's just turrible, all them freaks a- smokin' that demon weed an' jumpin' out the windows of Ballantine...").

One of the group invented a character named "Kernie" — a local outdoorsman/good-ole-boy, with a funny delivery reminiscent of Jim Varney's "Ernest P. Worrall" character: "Nature is our friend. And, as you know, marijuana is part of nature. So marijuana is our friend...and remember, you heard it on "ROX!" Others in the group would then play to the Kernie character, asking him questions or responding to his remarks...as the camera rolled.

Much of the performance was "close to home" — members of the group tended to play themselves, and they slipped in and out of character easily...with no distinct line between their own personality and the characters they assumed. If not for the camera, they would simply have been a group of (rather creative) friends out for a hike. In keeping with the episode's theme, members would interrupt their soliloquies from time to time to take a long toke on-camera.

Although much of this was played for laughs, a social and political point of view clearly emerged: marijuana is recreational, non addictive, non lethal, and should be non-criminal. In later conversations with members of the group, I discovered a strong political commitment to this issue, and a desire to do something about it. The finished tape of the program interwove these "toking through the woods" scenes with an interview with the chief of police, a scene of J and B smoking a joint in front of the Justice Building, and anti-drug-law commentary.

I also spent time with Bart and friends at Cultureshock, an annual music- and-arts fair in Dunn Meadow. I observed their verbal by-play with a steady stream of acquaintances who came by the "ROX" booth/table in the Meadow. Terry, one of the group, was approached by a woman acquaintance he hadn't seen for some time. She launched into a litany of recent psychodramas ( drug bust, romantic difficulties) while Terry listened sympathetically. Like his friends, Terry is not judgmental about individuals; he has great empathy. He may hate society's injustices and inconsistencies, but he genuinely likes people. He is an innocent abroad, and naturally plays that role in many a "ROX" episode. In one show he is seen getting his nose pierced and marveling at the experience.

My final get-together with the group was for supper and talk at Bart and Joe's on the evening of the last "ROX" episode of the season. Things were a bit electric, due to the huge amount of publicity the marijuana episode ("J & B Get Baked") had generated the preceding week. Indiana news media had played the story big, resulting in the N.Y. — based Howard Stern radio show airing a sound loop from the program that very morning. MTV was said to be interested, as well.

Bart discussed plans to prepare a demotape from the just-concluded season. The timing was perfect, he felt, to try to parlay the show and its newfound notoriety into a commercial opportunity, perhaps with one of the dozens of new special-interest cable networks on the horizon. And he had the time to think about that now, since the evening was also to celebrate the end of a season's worth of programs. Whether "ROX" would return in the fall for a third season was also a topic of conversation...and may be contingent on those commercial opportunities being explored.

We grilled hamburgers and talked. As we did so, more members of the group arrived, and people updated one another on Howard Stern, MTV, et al. There was a sense of excitement, and accomplishment ("It's a season wrap!") but also a feeling of unsureness about what would come next. The question then asked of me: What have I concluded about the group, as a result of my field study?

I replied that I couldn't generalize, but I saw some real differences between Howe/Strauss' observation, and my own. 13th Gen seems to cast 13ers as apolitical, marginally educated, antipathetic to work and fixated on money and junk culture. "Hell, Bart doesn't even watch television, except for his own show!" I said. And I said I saw the group as politically aware, and intent on creating its own culture, rather than accepting one that has been manufactured for them.

If they appear to question all social and political structures (and they do), it seems to be due to a feeling that it's their turn to improve and redefine those structures. I told them that my generation (the Boomers) went through a similar passage in the Sixties, and that it made me feel good to know that the fight goes on...that the fight itself apparently is cyclical, perhaps eternal.

And I realized that I had come to admire and like them. For maybe the first time in the process, I had none of the moments of discomfort that being "the older generation" can bring. That was certainly due in part to their gracious efforts to make an aging Sixties radical feel right at home.

But, when it came time to sit down communally to watch the final episode of "ROX", I said my farewells. I would have again been an outsider, because it is their show, their experiences; they deserved to watch it together, without the distraction of an "observer." But I was torn. It would have been great fun to watch them watch themselves.

I did race home to watch the show on my own television. And every time I laughed, I knew that the gang at J & B's was laughing along with me.

— by B | link

After years of delays and difficulties and distractions, ROX #96, “Life & Death on the ROX,” is complete.

As the title suggests, there is a double dynamic at work here, which is very much a part of the reason this episode took so long.

Just as we were putting the finishing touches on our previous episode, ROX #95, we got word that our friend and collaborator Helen Hill had been murdered in her home.

The reverberations of that tragedy were many and profound. We knew that our next episode would have to account for Helen's death in some way.

And so the delays began. Personally, I didn't feel up to the task. If this was to be a tribute to Helen, it would have to be actually good, dammit. Too much pressure. I focused my energies elsewhere.

But there is no stasis. Things continued to develop, as things will. Time went by, and soon there were other deaths, but also new lives. Eventually it became clear that our next show would have to take on a broader scope.

So, in March of 2008, we concluded principle videography.

Then we ran into technical problems, not just one but a series of them. Also, some of those new developments in my life also carried new, time-consuming responsibilities. Watch the show and you'll see what I mean. And so five years has slipped away.

The program is probably too long, but I couldn't bring myself to cut it any shorter. However, we divided it into three segments for online viewing, so perhaps that will help.

I have to wonder: Is this our final episode? That's not the plan. In fact I have the next three shows mapped out in my mind already. But if making ROX #96 has taught me anything, it's not to take anything for granted. There are any number of reasons why this might in fact be the terminal point. If so, it would not be a bad way to end.

— by B | link

I’m not quite in my right mind today, thanks to some cold medicine I took this morning. So this might be the perfect time to revisit The Good News Bible Hour #14.

The always-amazing Eric Spears (nee White) just excavated this video from his personal collection a few days ago, digitized it and posted it online. I believe this was produced in 1993, and I probably haven’t seen it for at least fifteen years.

Got a few minutes? Let’s watch this together.

I suppose it pretty much speaks for itself, but I can’t resist adding a few editorial comments.

The video consists entirely of an improvised performance by yours truly. However, Eric ran the camera and edited the program; he can also be heard lending a voice off-camera. Xy makes a brief appearance here in her “Mary Perkins” character.

Perceptive viewers will note that I borrow a few lines from Flip Wilson via Uptown Saturday Night.

The program aired on CATS (nee BCAT) and supposedly has garnered more complaints than any other video. I suspect that’s because people might think it’s a real televangelist sermon at first, though after watching for a few seconds it’s rapidly apparent that this is satire. That might make a viewer angry enough to call the station.

Of course, it’s also possible that some viewers simply couldn’t view this satire as anything other than an attack on Christianity itself. I can’t speculate on my frame of mind 18 years ago, but as I view this now I see it as a mockery of fundamentalism, which of course is a tendency that can emerge in any religion. I don’t see it as a mockery of Christianity or even religion in general.

Your mileage may vary.

By the way, you should definitely check out Eric’s Daisybrain blog.

— by B | link

September 14th, 2010, Editor B writes: "Dressed In Meat.
Have you caught the recent furor over Lady Gaga's meat dress? ROX fans know that Heather Weathers did it first. You can see a few clips of her meat bikini routine in the Paper Dolls video."
I had the same idea--ROX is the first place I'd seen the meat dress/meat bikini!
“Meet my meat,” as the saying goes.
(Ed the Meat Poet has done donned meat, too, but Gaga should be agog at the heavy Weathers.)

— by Ed | link

Have you caught the recent furor over Lady Gaga's meat dress? ROX fans know that Heather Weathers did it first. You can see a few clips of her meat bikini routine in the Paper Dolls video.

— by B | link