Best of 2011 by Veronica Ortuño

1. Dreams realized:
The opening of Las Cruxes' storefront....pouring my heart and sweat.
Support with Cease to Exist! and the amazing artists/musicians I get to study. — Special thanks to M'ladys Records for hosting it for me.

2. Records + such:
Sonskull - Wiped Clean EP
Rene Hell - Terminal Symphony
Factory Floor 12"; Hysterics 7"
Total Abuse - Prison Sweat
Earn - A Following Shadow
Broken Water - Peripheral Star EP
Demos: Livid + Nose Dive

3. Revisited:
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Nick Garrie - The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas
Leonard Cohen; Grace Slick & The Great Society; Robbie Basho
Martin Dupont - Just Because LP + Sleep Is A Luxury LP
Master's Apprentices - Hands of Time
The Index - LP

4. Shows (Music):
Weird TV at Club 1808
Fielded at Trailer Space
Rene Hell, Earn, & Pedestrian Deposit at Dem Passwords
Cold Girls; OBN III's
Everyone who helped make Night of Rage III possible

5. Shows (Art):
Alexander McQueen retrospective at the MoMA in New York
Dream House in Tribeca
A Hung Garden by Mikaylah Bowman at Youth Group Gallery

6. Books:
Sobrero Fallout + In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan
Christiane F. by Christiane F.
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi
Stranger Music by Leonard Cohen

7. Zines:
NUTS! fanzine by Ben Trogdon
I Strangled Mine by Rusty Kelley
Shotgun Seamstress by Osa Atoe
Making Waves by Mary Jane Regalado and Camille Lan

8. Honorable mention:
Labels: M'lady's Records; Fast Weapons; Perennial Records
Podcasts: Gunilla Mixtapes + TV Dinner
Movies: Depeche Mode: 101; Drive; Interiors; The Double Life of Véronique

9. Others:
Versus coming to fruition
Nights of solitude with a Micro Korg + a drum machine
Meditation and Chinese cupping therapy
Life-altering card readings from Kate Curtis and Sarah Adams
My sabbatical to the Pacific Northwest and California
Mini Chateau Marmont vacation with good friends
Rose Garden on N. Albina in Portland

10. PASSION….KEEP ON PUSHING.

Cease To Exist by Veronica Ortuño

Finally Punk member Veronica Ortuño is hosting Cease To Exist, her own radio show (as a podcast) over at M'Lady'S Records.


here's the tracklist for the 2nd episode:

1. Glenn Branca - Structure
2. Sonic Youth - Brave Men Run (In My Family)
3. Hans-A-Plast - Reicher Vati
4. Irma Thomas - Good To Me
5. Nico - I'm Not Saying
6. The Luv'd Ones - Yeah I'm Feelin' Fine
7. The Ronettes - He Did It
8. Patsy Cline - Strange
9. The Tammys - Egyptian Shumba
10. Neo Boys - Never Comes Down
11. K.U.K.L. - Assassin
12. Arvid Tuba - The Seasons are Sitting on Chairs
13. The Chills - Pink Frost
14. Gun Outfit - Troubles Like Mine
15. Ut - Evangelist
16. Suburban Lawns - Janitor
17. Guided by Voices - Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
18. Nina Simone - Be My Husband
19. The Sticks - Land Game
20. Buzzcocks - What Ever Happened

Best of 2008 by Veronica Ortuño

-Personal achievement of the year: Making straight A's in school and mastering my drum skills

-Finally Punk winter tour in its entirety (GOD DAMN WE'RE BAD)

-the four closest friends in my life (you know who you are I hope)--you are my back bone and I love you with all I am and more. Honorable mention: Alex Carroccio and the Labiarynth homies, Ryan Carlile, Trish Sullivan (m'doggs).




-Musics of the year: The Chills; ironically enough, listening to Minor Threat after a night's binge drinking; Vivian Girls-s/t LP; Glenn Branca-The Ascension; Red Cross-s/t; Guided by Voices mixes; Malaria!; Swans; U.S. Girls-Introducing; Kate Bush-demos (most amazing shit...recorded when she was 15 years old?); Middle Class-Out of Vogue EP; Ludus; Chris Isaak; Girls At Our Best; Los Dug Dug's-Lost In My World; Cry Blood Apache-"Master of the Quarantine" and Northern Travelers EP; Sex Vid-Communal Living and Drugging 7"; Flux of Pink Indians-Neu Smell 7"; Earcom 3 7"; Gun Outfit-Demo; Nina Simone; Total Abuse (new songs that aren't recorded yet(??) blew my mind); Look Blue Go Purple; Robert Wyatt-At Last I am Free/Strange Fruit 7"; Grass Widow-demo tape

-Best show(s): The Fucked Up show at Beerland during SXSW where I forgot all words to "Year of the Pig", headbanged for 5 minutes instead and subsequently passed out ((standing up)) on stage the remaining 10 minutes because I took too many xanax/vicodin (actually, that's probably the worst show); punk shows in PDX; Sex Vid shows at Old School; Vivian Girls at the Backspace; Sex Vid/Finally Punk/Nodzzz/Brilliant Colors and Grass Widow (serious best SF girl bands) NYE show; Explode Into Colors at the Dekum Manor; U.S. Girls in Chicago; The Carrots in Oly/Seattle/New York/Austin; Cry Blood Apache playing with an aluminum trash can at the Whisky; The Sword at the Crystal Ballroom--chilling in the tour bus listening to Phil Anselmo talk rubbish. Big ups to B.Richie, hadn't seen my homie in FOUR YEARS!!!; Toody and Fred of Dead Moon getting interviewed for Soft Focus; the show I threw at the 501 Theater during SXSW marks pretty rad times too.



-Best movies/videos: MANSON documentary; The works of Kenneth Anger; Fire Walk With Me; Planet Earth; Flipper live target vid; Back to the Future; The Departed; Mask; revisiting "Summer Camp Nightmare" (omg); Harry Pussy "Live 1993-1997"; Mondo Vision (rad SF underground punk videozine); early Nirvana footage; Kraut Nacht compilation; The Smiths-Two Light Ales Please; Les Rallizes Denudes live in '77; Ladies and Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains; Bad Brains-Live at CBGB 1978; Suburban Lawns live at Chica-Go-Go

-Good reads: The Ripper zine---Lanie Fletcher is my favorite writer of the times; Layla Gibbon-Chimps/whatwewantisfree; Raymond Pettibon zine for Ooga Booga; Lexicon Devil; Sylvia Plath; Kurt Vonnegut

-Real time Scrabble/Online Scrabble; Dirty Harry pinball at Old School Pizzeria

-Portland related: Weekly karaoke at the Alibi; Goth night; Soul night; moss; Framboise Lamic / Franziskaner / a bottle of red wine; all of Portland's bridges and the "Made in Oregon" sign at night; skating to-and-from class / downside to skating anywhere---not having a partner EVER; moving into a beautiful house with rad roommates; chilling with my friends who came to town on tour etc.


-AUSTIN during Christmas Break; San Francisco YOU BLOW MY MIND

-Art related: Robert Longo's "Men in the Cities" series (1979); Linder!!!; Gerhard Richter; Peter Saville; Matt Lyons; Mikaylah Bowman; Lauren O'Connor and Jean Nagai

-Prudest year of the new millenium.


-Most hated thing of 2008: hippies. petiole.


-- 2009 -- YEAR -- OF -- THE -- OX -- will prevail