i've been informed that i'm funnier and easier going today than on most days - it could have something to do with three hours of sleep. i'd like to think i've stumbled upon something, but i'm going to crash hard soon. until then, i'll continue giggling.
i saw the trailer for the remake of george a. romero's classic dawn of the dead. while the habit of remaking classics used to focus on films that were fifty years old, we are now cannibalizing (pun intended) films from the seventies. first it was the texas chainsaw massacre, now it's this. i don't know if i can bring myself to watch either of these. it's like going to a favourite holiday destination twice. the second time ruins the magic.
it's been a very long time since i've seen the original dawn of the dead, but remember it well. i got hooked on romero's zombie trilogy at a time when i was going through my first existential crisis. at the time, though, i didn't know that there were whole ideological systems that could help me cope with my philosophical crisis. instead, i watched zombie movies. and felt strangely better.
nothing comments on the wonderful bleakness of existence and struggle of humanity like zombies.
sadly, guido molinari has died.
many of his paintings are delicious.
you can get a taste at art[image].
i'm particularly a fan of his modernist works. while tiny pictures in art books do little to give you the full force of these paintings, standing in front of one of his large works absolutely captivated me. the painting was highly emotionally charged, or, rather, i was upon sharing a space with it.
quebec has produced some great painters - claude tousignant has also produced some equally wonderful work. i wonder where one goes to see a whole bunch of these paintings? somewhere in quebec might be a good start, i reckon. probably a place like museé d'art contemporain. i'll make it there eventually.
the first time i heard throbbing gristle they were still somehow aurally shocking, although this would have already been in the early 90s - over a decade after the group disbanded. the intensity and sincerity of their recordings is impressive, even in the age of merzbow.
simon ford's wreckers of civilisation: the story of coum transmissions & throbbing gristle brings us back to the late 60s and begins unraveling the chronology of performance art and industrial music history.
some years ago i did a presentation on art deviance for a sociology class. some of the examples included the vienna aktionists, works like fetus earrings (can't recall the artist, though i see someone has parodied this idea), and coum. even all these years later this kind of work still has the incredible power to disturb and shock. it confirmed that many people have been exposed to extremes of violence and sex in film but in a typically non-confrontational context. car crashes, gunfights, torture, rape - all hollywoodised.
coum constructed their own contexts and the audience witnessed transgressive acts that worked to the edges of, for them, non-existent boundaries. ford's book documents this process and the personal transformation that genesis p-orridge and cosey fanni tutti went through in the process.
about half the book is dedicated to coum's history and the second half focuses on the work of throbbing gristle and the birth of the industrial records scene.
wreckers does an excellent post-mortem on gristle's output, and documents the birth, growth, and death of the now legendary group. while p-orridge plays off the end of gristle as an inevitability because of their non-music industry mandate, chris carter and cosey suggest it was bound to happen because of unresolved interpersonal matters.
regardless of the termination of their mission, there is still nothing like throbbing gristle. their albums are some of the most uneasy and paranoid visions of a post-1984 world.
reading this book, it seems strange that it ends in 1981. each member has had an interesting career after gristle. particularly, some of psychic tv's work and the peculiar world of coil.
more recently, cbc's brave new waves did an interview with coil's peter christopherson (58 min, 16/05/03), in which he comes across as a perfectly respectable lad who is fairly shy and very courteous. worth a listen for discussion of his work with coil and artistic ideas in general.
while reading wreckers i remembered contacting genesis some years ago, asking him for his mailing address to send him some mail art. he was most obliging and personable, and it is this sincerity that i most respect. his life of and through art is not a put-on. while he understands how to exploit the masses, he works towards his own ends. you get the sense that for him it is art or death.
when genesis used to occasionally co-host the "infinity factory" with disinfo's richard metzger he sometimes came off as a bit flakey or spaced out, but he always tried to earnestly engage the guests and contribute to the dialogue. then again, this may have been his playing on the notion of being a talk show host.
gristle is doing a reunion event this summer in england, 14th -16th May 2004. sadly, i won't be there until later in the summer and will miss it. it's a multi-day event with the likes of richard h. kirk, merzbow, jim o'rourke, lydia lunch, and rare derek jarman films. this would be three mind-shifting days i'm sad i'll miss. alas, there's always the recordings.
warp records has done its artists and listeners a real service with bleep.
you can, as far as i see, listen to their entire catalogue online as well as buy tracks/albums. i've enjoyed checking out albums that i've missed in the past or wondered about picking up.
in order to deal with piracy each song fades out after thirty seconds, although all you have to do is press play again restart the track at that point. it's perfect for people wanting to sit down and dedicate some time to listening to these songs (you can't just turn it on and do the dishes).
i wonder if this kind of proactive effort will help stem the bleeding from piracy? it has nudged me into considering picking up a few releases i may have otherwise skipped, which i suppose is the point of the site. all around, nicely done.
there's an electronic music night at atlantis here in vancouver on wednesdays, called void.
last week i went to support subtractiveLAD. mostly because i get too much sleep most nights and needed to feel absolutely off-kilter for a few days. his stuff was great, a mix of old school, glitch, and a bit of ambient. someone else provided trippy visuals. big video projections of train yards and electric substations.
go out and support this stuff before it disappears.
einstürzende neubauten are coming to vancouver in a few months. could i be any more excited? they're one of the few bands i've always wanted to see play live.
the range of their work is impressive, and their latest album, perpetuum mobile sounds beautiful. they've mellowed sonically over the years, but this has only led to more subtle textures and moods.
ende neu is a great album for someone giving them a first listen, as is tabula rasa. the earlier stuff is much heavier, and albums like halber mensch, fuenf auf der nach oben offenen richterskala (five on the open ended richter scale), and o.t.will knock you over with their ferocity. and then there is strange stuff like die hamletmaschine (von heiner müller), which is a peculiar dramatic take on the play, with frontman blixa bargeld as hamlet.
they've shifted directions somewhat with silence is sexy, and perpetuum mobile is a definite continuation of that sound. perhaps their warmest effort to date.
blixa has had a curious career, spending a good many years as the guitarist for nick cave and the bad seeds. if i recall correctly he also did a book of photographs of bathrooms in hotels he's stayed in while on tour (this sticks in my mind because i was wanting to do a series of bathroom photographs until i heard about this).
the only time i've seen blixa was when nick cave played in vancouver years ago as part of lolapalooza. some idiots threw packs of cigarettes at nick and he got pissed off and called the show off (after several warnings). the few songs they played were wicked - from the great let love in album.
check out the e.n. website for archived live stuff and heaps of info.
again, could i be any more excited? probably not.
