Thursday, June 28, 2012

Mindwrecker TV in the Bay Guardian's 'Best of the Bay 2003' (I think) issue

here's the text of the Bay Guardian squib for the "Best Public-Access TV Program" category for, I believe, Summer 2003, written by none other than the multi-talented writer / editor and banjo-player Josh Wilson:

BEST PUBLIC-ACCESS TV

Yeah, a lot of San Francisco's public-access fare is really bad. But at least it's honestly bad, as opposed to the deep-fried, sugar-rolled dollops of cat turd the networks deliver nightly. And when it works, it's pure heaven. Which brings us to Mindwrecker TV, a shining beacon of hope in the dark night of American television. The brainchild of Drew Dobbs, a.k.a. Robo, a prime mover behind the Big City Orchestra Beatlerape CD and a member of amorphous, plunder-iffic audio bricolage collective the Neighborhood Bass Coalition, the half-hour show is often devoid of unifying vocal narrative. Instead it offers stories and critiques through a collage of snippets and samples from our audiovisual environment. Immersive and dreamlike, Mindwrecker TV can turn a weekend bicycle camping trip on Angel Island into a haunting, wordless voyage through architectural ruins and disassociated landscapes.    Michael Jackson's recent tell-all interview series, on the other hand, was mercilessly chopped into "Jacked!", a hysterically funny open-source expropriation of the worst instincts of a predatory media culture.  Mindwrecker TV - killing your television Fridays at 8 p.m. Channel 29, S.F.