Syracuse Ska Forum

Check out the MySpace account this grrl "SkaJenny" has for this (that's her above on the right) It's very, very clever stuff. I had to laugh when I checked the FCC database and realized they're only 1 watt in NJ, but hey, that beat's the hell out of our station, so I can't laugh too long.

But seriously, short of getting SkaJenny to do stuff for Syracuse, do we have anyone in our area with the same skills and cleverness?

Oh yeah, she's really tight with Too Short Notice too. Sweet!

hahaha, so, um, how did you find that? i quasi-know jenny. she's a cool girl.

Johanna can insult people with the best of them. I'm sure she'll let you quote her a bit so you can put it on your next flyer.

as long as you can bitch about how no show is good enough for you to grace us with your presence

I have not said that.






PS:

See what I mean? She's a pro!

I don't see the "clever". She and her crew obviously bust their butts to maintain a web presence with a fun, punky tone, but I'll hazard a guess that there's no secret formula they're following; they just love the music and they're doing what feels right. You can't manufacture that kind of fanaticism. Either the right people are out there and will find you, or they're not there.

On a related tangent, I feel incredibly lucky that people have sought me out and stoked the engine of the ROC ska-train. I can't thank Preacher Mike, Smo, Aaron, the bands, their friends and family and everyone else enough for their efforts.

Interesting you call SkaJenny's approach "punky", since to me its very obviously a ska tone and not a punk one. It's very playful and stylish at the same time, quite obviously flirting with mod elements. I look at so much photography online used for all sorts of music, including ska, and most of it just isn't that playful and stylish at the same time. SkaJenny has a good eye for composition. It reminds me heavily of stuff I've seen generated out of the mod-ska scene in San Francisco for years. I usually only see work that good with commercial output.

I agree you can't manufacture that level of enthusiasm. But it often passes us by when we're not actively looking for it. Consider me a ska talent scout hot on the trail.


I feel likewise. We have a great group of people in the Syracuse ska scene and they've made it all worthwhile through the years.

Hunting for skilled graphic designers and photographers, gotcha. 'cause there are tons of clever and talented people out there; it pays to specify the talent and cleverness you're looking for.



Let's see.

1.Picture of a girl shouting, "It's 4:00 on a Sunday, wake the f*ck up and listen to our show, b!tches!"

2.



3. Girl with heavy eyeliner, ball-bearing necklace and camo tank top throwing the \m/

I stand by my assertion.

Show most of her photos to a guy on the street, and he'll think, "ooh, hot punk chick." (or, in the case of her main profile photo, "ooh, hot '50s chick") If you're lucky, he might know who the Toasters are.

There are ska/mod elements in her profile, but only if you know what you're looking for. When choosing iconography, what you associate with the image is not as important as what others think when they see it.

A lot of the general public don't even associate suits and trilby hats or checkers with ska, and those symbols border on cliché. For the Syracuse Ska icon, I imagine plenty of people wonder, "why did they dress Bert and Ernie up like the Blues Brothers?"

Which brings up an important question. Ska's identity and iconography is entangled with punk. How can we assert ska's positive, friendly attitude over the aggressive and sometimes violent tendencies of punk? Can it be done without shunning or snubbing punk? Ideally, we'd like people to think of Ska as Punk's friendlier, mellower cousin (and Reggae's wackier, manic brother. )

That's one of the talents I've been looking for for awhile now. But there are plenty of others. Find me dedicated people with talent of any sort and I can probably use them to help promote ska ...


Funny you mention this, since that's been an obsession of mine for quite awhile now. Get ahold of me off this board and I'll explain what I have in mind to deal with that issue. I've given it a lot of thought, plus Mike Park and I had a discussion about it as well.

I've seen her myspace page and her radio show is great. This girl has smarts and talent....I really wish she had her own cable show or website.....she could be the next Howard Stern of Ska...lol.

But really, she needs to promote herself, if I were her and looked like she did, I'd have all the boys checking my show out. and anyone who hasn't heard the show, should check it out.....its a lot of fun.

Completely off topic, I know, but Danny and Twitch, I randomly seem to have lost (yes, lost, god dammit) the originals of that stuff I was working on for you. I think this weekend I'm just going to print out what I had done on the computer and just start over. I mean, the stuff for Twitch will be easy, it's the editing stuff for Danny that'll take time.

There should be 28 hours in a day and 8 days a week.