May 31, 2001

johnston_m

I Ate Acid With Caroline.

Back a long time ago, before the internet and before stuff like MP3’s, or before most people even knew what a floppy disc really was, people exchanged information via word of mouth and mailbox. Ten years ago I was introduced to the musician Daniel Johnston via this method and I have always wanted to see him perform. Last night, a mere decade later, I finally got a chance, witnessing not only a performance but an art show to boot. Now he has a web site and many people have paid homage to him and his art, but I got the feeling he was taking it all in stride.

My personal favorite was the album he made with Jad Fair, check this out for a quick listen.

 

May 26, 2001

MNudeInWoods

Dumb Things I Gotta Do Today

Pressing things I was planning on getting done this weekend before you know,it’s gone.Where to start?
1.Where to start…purchase tickets.
2.Learn to knit.
3.Never mind,I keep saying that. Needlepoint is better.
4.Catch up on TV viewing.
5.Practice.
6.Go food shopping.
7.Oh yah, and that stinking laundry. Clean sock drawer
8.Make new friends, use party as a verb.
9.Call to apologize for stupid Memorial Day Weekend   filler then offer up a tale of humiliation.

 

May 25, 2001

A salute to American originals- George and Mike Kuchar

kuchar_sins

Sins of the Fleshapoids?
(user comments: All time worst,worse that Plan 9 from Outer Spacesic)

What,you ask(?)Who are these twin brothers,filmmakers, that are so independent you can’t even find their stuff on video? So influential they foreshadowed an army of underground filmmakers including John Waters, Andy Warhol and David Lynch? How is it so with films from the 60’s titled:The Mammal Palace, I Was a Teenage Rumpot,Hold Me While I’m Naked and Color Me Shameless that they are still virtually unknown? It seems a veritable outrage that the general public can not taste the beauty of their cinematic visions.

(Bring back the Kuchars!)

Lucky enough, I had the chance to catch some of their films at a marathon screening some years ago at the American Museum of the Moving Image. I was blown away by their outrageousness (as good as any John Waters offering!),and bizarre resourcefulness considering most of their earlier films were shot in 8mm and 16 mm on the roofs and streets of the Bronx. Casting themselves and fellow acquaintances as stars, they have left behind a still growing legacy of experimental and avant films. My favorite fact is they are totally into cost effectiveness. Still.

*            *           *

Read an insightful interview featuring both Kuchar’s…on their techniques,their philosophies and musings about their stars.
(From: Essential Cinema:Journal of Independent Film)

(a quick excerpt below,here’s the full entertainment)

George: People are desperate to show their pictures. And there ain’t that many showcases anymore. They don’t know what to do. Horrible.

Mike: What about festivals?

George: You have to pay to get your film rejected.

Mike: I could never understand paying sixteen or twenty dollars to get rejected, can you?

George: It’s humiliating.

Mike: I never ever did that. I know some people who pay to enter their film and they say, ‘Sorry, we don’t want it.’.

Marc: Have you ever taken a film class?

Mike: No.

George: No, you buy those little books.

Marc: You teach film class.

George: Oh yeah, I’ve been teaching twenty-one years. I’m teaching film class with a video camera now. [laughter].

Marc: Is that ethical?

George: You know what it is, it’s like the name of the class now is, AC/DC Psychotronic Teleplays and we use anything that moves. We grab all the cameras they have. Still cameras are welcome, even if students bring in Polaroid’s.

An extensive history: The Day The Bronx Invaded Earth.
(From:Bright Lights Film Journal)

*            *           *

A peep from the underground- John Waters’ introduction to their book:REFLECTIONS FROM A CINEMATIC CESSPOOL

May 23, 2001

Tony Pierce has saved the world a lot.

mp_abba

 

The Time Has Come The Walrus Said to Talk…

Heh-Heh. The Village Voice this week clarifies things on that new music mag we were speaking of last week. Blender gets a once over with a fine tooth. See what we mean….(scroll down to second story “Blender or Pulp Mill?”

I know, why do I even give a shit? I really don’t know.

I was going to mention one small tidbit almost retraction worthy that I had found amongst the snappy pages of Blender,a web site tip off, but the irony is the suggested content from Berlin based Flip Flop Flyin’ site has already seen its grave:”23 Apr 01: Minipops is dead“.

What began as a dumb thing to amuse myself became more popular than I could ever have envisaged. Now is the time for me to put Minipops to sleep.” -Craig

Minipops is where you were supposed to “Go sweat the small stuff” according to Blender. It’s okay,there are still some very entertaining graphic based ideas to peruse here,including an entire history of the site as it celebrates its two year Geburtstag.
(Hey-I’m partial to Coffee Boy!)

May 21, 2001

starsbar5

Naked-Eye Astronomy For The Rest of Us

A guy in a Members Only (TM) jacket ambles down a starry path towards you to the soothing sounds of synthesizer music like you’ve just gone back to some teenage episode at the Laserium. You could swear he is standing on the Milky Way. Is it a bad acid trip flashback?

No, it’s Jack Horkheimer’s: Star Gazer! The worlds first and only weekly TV series on Naked Eye Astronomy. In each 5 minute episode (check your PBSlistings)Jack gives you a visual update of what is going on in that sky up there, “Last Chance to See Jupiter; Mercury Meets The Moon; and: The Hidden Splendor of Gemini!” was last weeks update. All presented with his mission in mind, to bring astronomy to the likes of you and me.

If you are feeling left out, you can see an episode of Star Gazer, right on your own computer, right now!

***Something to look forward to, know that the Star Gazer Episode June 18- June 24, 2001 will show case
The Fabulous Summer Solstice of 2001! Mars At Its Closest in 13 Years! And The First Total Eclipse Of The Sun Of The Millennium!

“Keep Looking Up!”

blob (1)

And to further accommodate you budding Astronomers

I feel a little sheepish in admitting I have the gizmo to run this program, but if you have a gizmo that runs Palm OS, check out this fantastic program called Planetarium (it’s amazing).

Don’t mind me,I’m still working on that Big and Little Dipper.

May 20, 2001

prado01_body

We can accept the unintelligibility of the world, because in the end it is good. It’s good to be alive. The world is happy. We can open the refrigerator and drink a whole liter of orange juice right out of the carton. How delicious is that!
-Adélia Prado

Awhile back (I think more than a year ago)Bomb Magazine published an interview with Brazilian writer ADÉLIA PRADO, which has haunted me for some time now. Recently I have been frantically looking all over my apartment for this said back issue, and I can’t locate it anywhere.

All is fine though,unbeknownst to myself Bomb has kept its magazine on-line and the archives are plentiful.
I do not know much about Adélia outside what I had read in this article,but her approach to her writing is so lacking in pretense,strangely optimistic and full of humility I have been dying for English translations of her work to surface.

I did find Portuguese sites that contain tributes to her writing. Unfortunately, while it’s truly lucky for all of us now that search engines will run translations for you, I’m afraid as they say, a lot gets lost…. I am wary any eloquentness that might be emptied out of the writing. Fortunately Ellen Watson who sought Adélia out for this article has become the English translator of some her poetry. A book titled:The Alphabet In the Park has been published(edit:which I will undoubtedly be seeking out).

At any rate, this is a wonderful interview between two writers. One reason I felt compelled to seek Adélia Prado out again was by the concise tone she speaks in:

“My concern, my obligation is to reproduce the emotion as faithfully as possible. So I write a poem, and then I read it and say, No,that’s wrong, and then I cut it.

A word of caution for your patience. The Bombsite,bless them,loads rather slowly sometimes, but I recommend sticking with it because I think this is one of those gems.


A little FYI, Bomb’s current issue is up now too and there is a great interview with Wong Kar-wai, whose movie In the Mood For Love, was one of the lovelier cinematic experiences I have had this year.

PS Bomb is also responsible for the discovery of another one of my favorite authors, Jenny Diski, but I will save that for another time.

May 19, 2001

rocker1_2_m

Hey, sloughing around the house today? Maybe cleaning out your sock drawer or something? Fire up and tune into Vitamin J’s web show over at JunoBeach.com
-he’s promising a hectic set list plus a lot of imbibing about Iggy Pop who was just in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Yow!

Iggy was just in Minneapolis.

Jeff is in Minneapolis.
I was going to try to pass this off as Vit J’s home page, I mean this one, I mean this…uh one.

(edit- what do you mean “sound of one hand clapping?”)

May 18, 2001

hightech

Shut the window,it’s the disgusting world of flies

It’s Friday and maybe you’re only in the mood for something Totally Stupid. Well guess what, you’re in for a treat, it’s Totally Stupid’s everything you didn’t want to know about about everything insecty– how about some Face Fly Biology and Management tips! Download a virtual fly quick time movie, “Voted stupidest quicktime movie involving a fly by our panel of experts.” Also Mutant Fruit Flies, Aughhh!!!

Endless loads of “information” to be had at this site.
If that’s not enough for you, check out their Stupid Links, “Others Claim to Have Stupid Links. We Actually Have Them.See.

(-Thanks Mr. Spotts for this one)

Time Blurp
This whole web thing is extra weird when you come across someone you haven’t seen for a very long time and kind of catch up on what they’ve been doing with out ever exchanging pleasantries. Richard Denner used to own a really cool bookstore and was the boheme about town in a very (repeat:very, to the second power) small Eastern Washington town,who maybe some of you (edit-gratuitous Dangerous Monkey link) might remember.
Looks like he’s been busy. I located him in the liner notes of the new Steve Fisk album (999 Levels of Undo) (he’s on track 8). As a naive college kid his stories of New York City and various travels stuck in my head, made me want to get some of my own.
Well, what do you know. Thank you and good night.

May 17, 2001

portrait_

“Oh thank God this is here now. Let this never go away.”

Does the world really need a new music magazine?

(edit- Does the world really need to read a gripe about a new music magazine- you see where this is going).

Boy oh boy does it ever!
I browsed up the “premiere” copy of Blender Magazine at work this week, just for kicks, and the sneaking suspicion I had about it was just confirmed when I looked at their web site and saw in the itty bitty tiny corner down at the bottom of the page the Dennis masthead signaling the world, danger, danger this is a product along the same lines as Maxim.

Uh, I know no one made me read it, and it was a little strange to see stuffed in between the likes of Janet Jackson and Destiny’s Child and Tim McGraw (a triple header!) a few interesting things, like the whole reason I picked up the magazine because there was an interview with Radiohead, but then I became extremely sad because I realized I have been in total denial that Radiohead is indeed corporate rock, but it doesn’t have to be that way does it? And then Thom Yorke’s plug, in said article, for the new Low album which of course completely blows another little fuse of melancholia in my brain because I kind of like having them quiet and all to myself.

But back to Maxim. I really don’t need to diverge on some stupid tangent about the special qualities of Maxim, Stuff, More Stuff, Stuff that Gets You More Stuff. But I do remember reading this article last fall that the New York Press ran concerning big gun Felix Dennis and his publishing empire which made me think, hmmm, they’re up to it again. Actually it’s a really funny article:

KB: The fact of the matter is, there seems to be the impression that Maxim is somehow lowbrow because it appeals to things that are basic and common in men. It’s the same argument that bands get when they become successful. Everybody says, “Oh, now they’ve sold out.”

RS: I don’t think that’s true. I mean, if Maxim was [only] 100,000 circulation, I would still find nothing to read in it, as well as now that it’s two million.

DI: So you personally find nothing to read in it?

RS: No. It’s a horrible magazine. So I find its success…

DI: Troubling.

RS: No, no. As I’ve said, I admire your owner… I think you guys have a tremendous base to work with. Eventually you’ll be able to sneak some good editorial in.

DI: I wouldn’t hold your breath for the editorial to change much. You may be under the impression that people are only buying it for the titillation and sort of accepting the editorial–

RS: Look, models are models… I particularly had trouble with [pieces like the one about] “I’ve always had trouble peeing in public. What can I do to get things flowing?” What’s new about that? That’s only been done for the last 30 years.

DI: When I was at Details we did a much longer piece, more sensational piece about that–

RS: Some guys are pee shy.

MAKE MAXIM MY HOMEPAGE

* * *

edit- I swear I have nothing to do with the XFL going under.

May 4, 2001

The Beauty Bar is one of those places that used to be a frequent haunt, but time has slid by and I hadn’t been there for awhile.

En route for Guided By Voices we stopped in for a few.

Beauty Bar /Irving Plaza /CBGB’s

More Susan, more Brad and more Guided. We’re not starting any photography revolutions here,but it was entertaining.