Best Audio and Visual Collagist

Rob Cole

San Francisco has one of the highest DJ-per-square-inch ratios in the country: We're famous for it. Many DJs are insincere victims of a trend (we may be famous for this as well). But Rob Cole, aka KROB, is a man following his vision so tenaciously that San Francisco ought to be famous for housing him. In fact, it may not be accurate to call him a DJ; he runs two, sometimes three radio shows and provides mixed sounds for a variety of events (the best known is the Odeon's weekly "Ask Dr. Hal" show). His talent even extends to video manipulation and other entertainments. Cole himself uses purposely vague language to describe his work: "I'm doing a multithingy after the St. Stupid's Day Parade," he'll say, or, "I'm going to play noise and shit in a band and do video DJing, too." Then there's his video work with Loop! Station, a tech-heavy act fronted by Robin Coomer, aka Ruby Iron. Cole's making videos and working on a DVD for the duo, and sometimes does projections during performances. Heavily influenced by the oddball pseudo-religion the Church of the SubGenius, Cole reflects, through his incessant antics, the group's love of free-form creativity; as for the sacred imperative to "slack," however, he's not exactly with the program. He's too busy.