As co-founders and persons of color with a disability, both Moore and Berne are quick to make the analogy between people with disabilities and other ethnic minorities and members of the LGBT community. They note that all share that sense of exclusion and misunderstanding from an often well-meaning but generally ill informed mainstream who lack true insight into this "other" world which is "alien" to them -- hence the title of this weekend's Sins Invalid Artists In Residence Show: Resident Alien. "The idea of 'alien' came up a number of times. Lateef McLeod wrote a poem called "Not of This World" that explores that kind of othering, talking about the perception of disabled people as kind of monstrous or alien," said Nomy Lamm, the Artist In Residents' director. "Then, there are two artists, Fayza Bundalli and Redwolf Painter, who are culling a family history around colonization and the impact of colonization on their bodies, which led to their disabilities. The show is about the ways that so many of us in this culture are treated as aliens and not given the same kinds of rights. And yet, it is not about being victims; it's about how we come into our power in that context."

Mochipet, the always innovative San Francisco electronic music artist and head of prolific Bay Area indie label Daly City Records, came up with a novel idea for getting the cover art for his next single "Whompa-Saurus-Sex." He is holding a Have Mochipet Make you Dinner! contest in which whomever makes the artwork chosen for the new single (listen to it here) can either have the artist come over and cook them dinner or lunch, or have Mochipet go to their house and DJ their party, or else have the artist send them a purple custom made dino suit (his trademark outfit to perform in) so that they can make their own Mochi themed Dino Party!

Earlier this week I caught up with Mochipet, who was interviewed on the Amoeblog a few years ago, to ask him about this contest, which he just launched in conjunction with the small netlabel Peppermill.  "I've always wanted to do a cover contest but never really knew how until I came up with this concept," he told me. "I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something fun. And I wanted to do something personal. And what's more personal than cooking for someone? Right? I honestly love to cook but never get a chance to so this is a good chance for me to get out the utensils and go to town!"

"If the winner chooses to have me DJ their house party I will not take requests. If what they want are requests then I will happily hand them an iPod and tell em to go to town. They don't need me for that," he said with a laugh. Note that the DJing and dinner making part of the contest are only available if Mochipet comes to the winner's town on tour or is based in the Bay Area. Listen to the song that the cover art will be for here. For complete contest details click here and then you can click here to get officially registered via Peppermill.

Today, local SF label Secret Seven Records releases Tiny Tim: Lost and Found, a collection of rarities! To celebrate, we've got an interview with one of the country's foremost experts on Mr. Tiny Tim, Justin Martell, who is in the process of writing an authorized biography of the musician, which will hopefully be out by Christmas, 2011. He has also been a consultant on and contributed liner notes to two posthumous Tiny Tim releases, I've Never Seen a Straight Banana (Collector's Choice Records, 2009) and this latest release to be discussed in the interview below. Basically, when it comes to Tiny Tim, he's the man.

Read on to learn much more about Tiny Tim's life and career, as well as the special stuff on Tiny Tim: Lost and Found!

Also, you can hear "If I Had a Talking Picture of You" from the new release right here!

How did Lost & Found come about?

Gary Weis' 1979 film 80 Blocks From Tiffany's, which was just released on DVD, offers a rare and intimate glimpse into a gritty bygone era in New York City's history. This was a time when street gangs (or "clubs," as their members called them) like the notorious Savage Skulls and the Savage Nomads ruled the tough South Bronx section of NYC. 

The engaging documentary may only date back 32 years but, in terms of cultural differences, it seems like an eternity ago -- back when the Bronx was, as Weis told me in a recent telephone interview, "A whole different time and place. It was kind of like Dresden when I filmed there."

Indeed, the South Bronx captured in 80 Blocks is the rubble-strewn, bombed out looking, New York City that ranked as one of the poorest areas in the nation back in '79. In fact, it was such a rundown, destitute place that both Presidents Carter and Reagan traveled there for photo ops to exemplify the most striking symbol they could find of urban decay in America. It was also the time and place when the subways were covered in graffiti and when a new music and culture called hip-hop was taking root in the "Boogie Down" Bronx, with hip-hop offering an alternative to gang culture to many in those formative years of the culture.

And it is this aspect of the film that has attracted so many to 80 Blocks From Tiffany's, since the film contains rare footage that has been reused in countless other films about that same period in NYC history such as Shan Nicholson's Rubble Kings and Travis Senger's White Lines and The Fever: The Death of DJ Junebug. "80 Blocks is the best documentation of the Bronx during the late 70's right before the gang culture started to fade away," Senger told me via email. He says the film acted as both an influence and a key source of content for his own film about the early days of a Bronx hip-hop club.