Monday, November 24, 2025

more secrets and revelations

     So there’s another Secret Cinema screening, right before our big harvest holiday - Wednesday, Nov. 26, 7pm in the CSPS Hall (1103 3rd St. SE) Black Box Theatre on the ground floor. Admittance is FREE, and there will be some drinks and snacks for sale at our popup bar. This mystery movie is a meandering, late-90s indie gem set in (and based on writings about) an early-70's Iowa slacker/drug scene. By turns gut-wrenching and absurd, it transcends the "junkie drama" genre by being an ultimately life-affirming character study and featuring an incredible, star-studded cast and cameos. A true cult classic, not to be missed! The next Sneaky Cinema screening, and the last one of this year, will be on Wednesday, Dec. 17, same time, place, and transdimensional coordinates.
     Things are turning colder and grey-er here now, the job hunt isn’t getting any simpler, and the realities of aging and absent parents are compounded by realizations that I’m not far behind on that same degenerative timeline. I may be starting to feel the Stranded in Iowa vibe a bit more in earnest, and without much irony. I’m in it for the long haul though, and I’m sure as hell not going anywhere. So here’s to every scrap of joy and human connection to be found in the world. I still need to get some pirate radio configuration going again. Speaking of which...
     While I’m ruminating about my theme songs, I should probably revisit a much earlier post about the source of this blog's name, a reference to “Travels in Nihilon” - a song by art pop band XTC, about, as founding member Andy Partridge put it, “that enormous con of Pop Culture and the con of religion”. It was also the title of a sci-fi novel by Alan Sillitoe (The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner), which influenced XTC. Enjoy the brooding cynicism! I certainly do.
You've learnt no lessons
All that time so cheaply spent
There's no youth culture
Only masks they let you rent

Travels, travels in Nihilon
We've seen, no Jesus come and gone

Fashion, their vampire
Drapes itself across your back
As you fall from style
It waits rebirth on its rack

Travels, travels in Nihilon
We've seen, no Jesus come and gone

Building your whimsy
Hypnotising you to need
Dance goes full circle
One step ahead of your greed

You've learnt no lessons
All those years to get it right
Flashes of promise
Burn out faster than strobe light
Seeya somewhere soon!
Support Love & Good People; practice self-expression. 
Plant the seeds and they will grow.
- Charlie Delta
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Tuesday, November 11, 2025

latest

I got to do an event at Tree of Liminality recently, similar to the old LowLife Vids'n'Vinyl nights back in the day. This one was outdoors with up to 4 projectors throwing stuff on the wall of the building next door while I spun fall-vibe records. It was probably the last tolerably warm night to hang outside in Cedar Rapids (Fri. Oct. 24), and the setting was perfect. We had a great time.

A few days later I curated 2 nights of Halloween-themed movies and short films at CSPS Hall for Midweek Movie Club. Tuesday, Oct. 28, we watched Witching & Bitching (Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi, dir. Alex de la Iglesia, 2013, Spain).

Wednesday, Oct. 29 I played a bunch of experimental and other short films, starting with the Terror! megamix by Ben Rivers, followed by Damon Packard’s The Early 70’s Horror Trailer, Peter Tscherkassky’s Outer Space, an excerpt from The Mascot by Ladislaw Starewicz, Kostnice (Ossuary) by Jan Švankmajer, The Wheel of Torment by Henry-Garon-Ascher collective, a couple of Everything is Terrible! 3min movies, Paul McCarthy's WGG Test, and The Virgin Sacrifice by J.X. Williams. I think I may also be forgetting one. Oh, and I played Clive Barker’s student film, Salome, as walk-in ambience while people were still getting seated. A lot of the shorts came from compilations released by Other Cinema DVD and the "Experiments in Terror" series.

upcoming:

TOMORROW NIGHT: The CSPS Midweek Movie Club gathers again next week,  Wednesday, Nov. 12, 7pm at the CSPS Hall (1103 3rd St. SE) Black Box Theatre on the ground floor. Free admittance, and there will be some drinks and snacks for sale at the popup bar.

Deviating (again!) from previous movie night programming, this evening's offering is a documentary, an art film, and social commentary rolled into one. 
A group of women gather at a healing cabin in the Northern European wilderness, where secrets and communion unfold. Real women, real bodies, real talk. CW: non-sexualized nudity, potentially triggering but universally common subjects such as body dysmorphia, cancer and sexual assault. English subtitled.

Friday, Nov. 14, Tree of Liminality are ALSO screening a documentary about poet Andrea Gibson for their Artists in Film series, and I may include some short pieces beforehand. Starts 7pm at Tree of Liminality, 1301 3rd St. SE.
Seeya somewhere soon!
Support Love & Good People; practice self-expression.
Plant the seeds and they grow.
- Charlie Delta

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Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Mayday this is Echo Hotel


I guess I should add some updates for anyone who still reads this, or might come to it independently. It’s been over a year since we moved back to Iowa, though I haven’t actually been physically here for a full year. So the Iowa fall/winter period is still an unknown factor for me, or at least a distant memory. A distant memory that soon becomes an unavoidable reality, like “mowing the lawn” did for me this summer, after at least 3 decades of never having to think of such indignity. I guess “clearing the sidewalk” is next.
     Another memory from back then was of hearing this one song on the radio, A LOT. I assumed it was just part of the eternal classic rock heavy rotation everywhere, like Golden Earring’s Twilight Zone, with which it shares a similarly eerie, melodramatic vibe.
As it turns out, the song probably only got played a lot in Iowa (for reasons to become obvious), and maybe only during a short time period. My wife, who also grew up here, doesn’t remember hearing it at all. It’s by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band - yes that band, the one responsible for “revved up like a douchin’ of a rubber in the night” and some other airplay cringers, like For You, which is off the same album as this one song, this suppressed childhood radio memory that started boring into my brain like the Wrath of Khan earworm once I realized I was going to be living in Iowa again: “Stranded”.

It’s got some neat effects and that great recording of a British broadcaster reciting weather info, which totally undercuts the notion of being in Iowa. But hey, it sounds cool and spooky, like coming across a shortwave numbers station. The original version of Stranded is a very different-sounding song by Mike Heron of Incredible String Band, which I guess he wrote while stranded in Iowa, if you can believe that.
     Anyway, I want the MMEB version of Stranded to be my new theme music. I mean, don’t ya think this whole internet space is sorta like, oh I dunno, an "Echo Hotel” of sorts? Don’tcha though? Yeah.  And I think I’m gonna start signing off as "Charlie Delta" from now on. 
Fuck, I miss doing pirate radio.
     The truth is, though, I don’t feel very stranded here - at least not yet. I never felt that whole “Land of Entrapment” thing in New Mexico either. I simply adjust - for better or worse, just like that frog in the pot of water, snark snark. 
     Cynicism aside, my adjustments to Iowa have been pretty agreeable so far. I keep coming across people and places that welcome what I’ve got to offer. Early on, I got a few opportunities to spin records and even do some projections at the Ideal Theater, jumping on a record night there hosted by DJ Mike of Mt. Vernon’s Hilltop Plants & Records. I met some good people there, such as sound man about town Tyson, Ideal owner Kenyon, and consummate pro DJ Commando.
     I also came across a thing called Iowa City Video Zine. I went down a few times and met some of the folks involved, and we got on great. 
A couple of my video clips were included in their season finale episode, and I later got to take over Public Space One’s Close House with projectors and monitors, playing my video mixes for ICVZ’s all-day Open Source exhibit.
It was really fun, and such a joy to see so many creative weirdos still active in the town where I started to spread my wings back in the '90s. I got to interact with some other folks such as DJs driftloess, pronoia, and the Miss Video 4U crew from NY. MV4U are carrying on the work started by Miranda July with the Big Miss Moviola/ Joanie4Jackie project, only using flash drives instead of VHS tapes.
     Things really picked up when I started a weekly DJ residency for almost 4 months at CSPS Hall, during their summer Sunday Social. I spun vinyl for up to 4 hour sets, and really got to sprawl out musically. My occasional DJ partner Unhinged even joined me once while he was out on tour. There were often musical guests, and I particularly enjoyed meeting the guys from SunPot (hardest working jam band in town) and Haakon (IL free range electronica). There are some great folks on the CSPS staff, and I also met a number of fascinating local scenesters doing rad things in various circles, including (but not limited to) Mel Andringa and Nate Eduskate.
     During this residency I also started collecting contacts for a number of locals interested in regular underground film nights at CSPS, and we’ve been hosting a Midweek Film Club every 2-3 weeks for a few months now. Definitely inspired by the weekly WTF Mystery Movie Night in ABQ, I’m trying to program as wide a range of eye-catching and mind-opening videos as I can manage. I’m still using the "mystery movie” format, only providing a few clues prior to each event.
Here’s the list so far, of our Cedar Rapids Secret Cinema Speakeasy screenings:
     I had a pretty cool temp job at Half Price Books during this time too, just wading through the endless river of media that flows through there daily. I managed to snag some great stuff too, many thanks to employee discount:
...and several more that I’m forgetting. I wish I could’ve stayed on, but the summer rush was all they needed me for. Now I’m trying to get a job at the Cedar Rapids library.
     I’d be remiss if I forgot to mention the Analog Vault, another great source for my vinyl addiction. I’ve gotten too many great records from there to even list right now. They’re in the same building as CSPS, and again, Good People.
     We also gradually got to know these very positive, gentle folks who operate an artist space called Tree of Liminality. Astrid & I both put artwork in re:imagine, their recent group show focused on “influence, imitation, and artistic lineage” - or, in my case, collage work. I then got to set up a screening at T. of L. for a documentary about legendary collage artist Lance Letscher (and another artist short to start off), as the first of hopefully many more Art Film Nights there.

     It’s been a pretty good first 8 months, settling into a whole new life back in the midwest. This post just covers a fraction of it, but that’s enough for now.
I’m still not sure how I’m gonna use this blog from here on out, but I guess I’ll at least post about upcoming events. Hope you enjoy it; reach out if you feel called to.
Seeya somewhere soon!
Support Love & Good People; practice self-expression.
Plant the seeds and they grow.
- Charlie Delta

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