ROBBIE CONAL

right about now, funk soul brother: robbie conal's street smart resistance

• Saturday, FAC 21 (on UT campus), 1:00-2:00PM

Robbie Conal's late night guerrilla postering runs are the stuff of Los Angeles street legend. Since the mid-80s, nasty black and white images of ugly old white men in suits and ties have been popping up all over LA like toxic toadstools. One day nothing but the usual blizzard of advertising bullshit, the next day, "MEN WITH NO LIPS" -- everywhere! What the fuck is that? Remember Reaganomics, the "trickle down" theory? Well, this was the beginning of Robbie's shit to shiznit version of "trickle up yours" culture wars. Reagan and his posse -- Donald Regan, Caspar Weinberger, James Baker III -- splattered all over the city...and then they'd show up in DC, NYC, Chicago, the Bay Area. By the time he got around to Oliver North with his puppy hang dog face, mouth firmly shut, and the single word "SPEAK" underneath it, the guerrilla posse had even invaded Austin and Houston. Kathy Whitmire, ex-dominatrix mayor of Houston, just about had a stroke trying to get Robbie out of Dodge.

Flash forward 16 glue spattering years to right about now, funk soul brother: King George II is engaged in "Bombing the Shit Out of Iraq II." His Attorney General, John Ashcroft, is swapping surveillance for civil liberties, conflating the 1st and 2nd Amendments -- while Dubya is channeling J. Edgar Hoover (dig the chops on Tom Ridge), praying for the return of the good old bad old 50s* -- and Robbie's guerrilla production team comes up with "Tower of Babble," vomiting back all the Homeland Security fast food nation propaganda being forced down our gullible gullets. ORANGE ALERT, baby! Quickly followed by Dr. Evil and Mini-Me -- Rummy and Cheney -- doing their bling-bling thing in "Secretary of Offense." This is a bad time in America. We're into World Domination. That's a synonym for bad karma-just ask the Dalai Lama.

So, we still need the old dude - Robbie that is. Yeah, he's way old, but he's way funny. He once told an audience of school teachers that, "Colloquial street English is the most subversive form of communication on the planet. Like the word 'dope.' You could say, 'Robbie's a dope,' and you wouldn't be wrong about that. You could say the posters are 'dope.' That would be a compliment. Or you could be really nice and invite me out back to smoke some 'dope,'" I was there. They didn't know what to think. And that's the problem. We need more street. Street smarts schooling street action. "Take back the streets," is an oldie but goodie, just like our man Robbie. You have to catch his act at Canter's Deli, the 24/7 classic Jewish delicatessen on Fairfax (major screenplays have been written there) -- if LA ever had a center, Canter's is it -- where he assembles the most motley gang of irregular guerrillas (over 100 strong) to crank up on matzo ball soup and dig his "Guerrilla Etiquette" rap. In the spirit of punk rock, his only real charm is in the ritual of completely giving himself to his peeps. He yells himself hoarse, screaming over the local band dropping bombs in "The Kibitz Room" in the section of Canter's next to his own "Hole." When he's getting up, the old dude has his own section in Canter's! The scene is pure call and response: he insults the crowd; they yell back. It's love.

-- Yiftebah Fneah Fneah writes occasional rants under various pseudonyms for several alternative publications including Beautiful/Decay. He's been on way too many postering runs with Robbie Conal's guerillas.

* Taken from Robbie Conal's forthcoming book, ARTBURN. RDV Books (www.akashicbooks.com)