KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ Radio Event: No. 2: No Soap, Radio, 2 of 2

Analog Audio

Event Type

Intermedia and Visual Arts

Origin

KPFA

Identifier

RE.1969.10.31.B

Program Series

Radio Event

Program Length

62 min

Part

2 of 2

Dates

1969-10-31 | broadcast
| 1969-10-31 | created

Description

This is the second in a series of groundbreaking, participatory, radio programs produced by KPFA. In this program, recorded on October 31, 1969, Berkeley, California sculptor, Peter Veres, invited listeners to take part in a do-it-yourself Halloween Brindle Party, a self-proclaimed Witches’ Sabbath, all through the magic of the radio air waves. (What’s a Brindle you ask, why it's the opposite of a Mugwamp of course.) Prior to the actual event, subscribers to the KPFA program guide were encouraged to send in to the station strange box-tops along with $2, in order to receive a special, limited edition, “No Soap Kit” which were to contain at least 18 items such as scores, instruments, images, masks, ritual foods, potions, and other sundry materials. Then during the actual broadcast on Halloween night, listeners were first asked to call in with their introductory toasts, with many responding with everything from wishes for world peace, to questions as to whether melba or rye was best. Later the audience was instructed on how best to create a thicket, cave, watery passage, tunnel, and mountain in their own homes; make costumes; turn into animals; drink potions of their own devising; and other equally bizarre activities and ceremonies. At the end of the program Veres fields some phone calls from the audience, some of whom seemed quite taken with the playful theme of the program, and others who seemed more genuinely mystified as to what the heck they were hearing on their radios. Even forty years later, one can still get a sense of what it must have been like for those lucky enough to have been part of this one time only, community wide, Brindle Party.

Genres

Interactive Art

Musical Selections

[a mix of classical music and Beatles songs, all talked over]

Subjects

Interactive art
Participatory art
Audience participation radio programs

Acknowledgment

Funding for the preservation of this program made possible through a grant by the GRAMMY Foundation.

Related places

Berkeley (Calif.) (was recorded at)
Berkeley (Calif.) (was broadcast at)

Related Entities

Beatles
Veres, Peter, 1938-