My Mini Art Blog, October thru December 2005
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12/29/05 Announcing: Three great shows coming up in San Francisco.
The modern troubador, Richard Buckner, "...full of wanderlust, doubt, hope, redemption and grace..." is playing with David Dondero at the Swedish American Hall, above Cafe du Nord. Unfortunately, I'll be in Paris that night. Darn! Poor me!
Artist: Richard Buckner
Date: Friday, January 6th
Venue: Swedish American Hall
Doors: 7:00 pm
Show: 8:00 pm
Door: $12.00
Ages: All
Dents and Shells, The Hill, and his Self Titled release, Richard Buckner, are three of my favorite albums of all time.
Kristen Hersh, one of my personal heroes, ~A kick ass mom who rocks~!, will be playing songs of the Throwing Muses at the Swedish American Hall, above Cafe du Nord. I saw her at South by Southwest in Austin a few years ago. After the show she signed my daughters red cowboy boots, while her kids played under the Oak Trees. Not only is she an virtuoso musician and smashing vocalist, but she's also a really nice person with her feet on the ground. I've enjoyed her solo releases over the years, but would love to hear the Muses songs again. Also, I've been meaning to get a copy of Misery and Goodnight, which seems to be currently unavailable, a collection of lullabies and Appalachian folk songs, which was released only as a Throwing Music exclusive.
Artist: Kristen Hersh
Date: Saturday, January 14th
Venue: Swedish American Hall
Doors: 7:00 pm
Show: 8:00 pm
Door: $15.00
Ages: All
Isobel Campbell, former cellist and part time vocalist for Belle and Sebastian, is performing at Cafe du Nord in March. From All Music Guide, "...a plethora of nods to the softer strains of 1960s pop, while retaining a diffuse and ethereal haze..."
Her new release, recorded with former Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age singer Mark Lanegan, coming out at the end of January on V2 records.
Artist:Isobel Campbell
Date: Wednesday, March 8th
Venue: Cafe du Nord
Show: 9:30 pm
Doors: 8:30 pm
Door: $12.00
Ages: 21+
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12/19/05 Friday night Scott Amendola played the Starry Plough, with a surprise guest, Carla Kihlstedt, for his second set, who, despite having an injured arm, stole the show. Carla, attentively hearing bar stools and chairs squeaking up the damp floor during a quiet portion of her performance, encouraged the audience to improv by playing the furniture. Her invitation, "Feel free to join in with your chairs." was not lost on the audience of mostly male music geeks antsy to vent their pent-up holiday fervor after the feedback heavy opening act left our late-night ears still ringing. Finally, the Plough lived up to its revolutionary heritage, where on the wall of the (formerly collectively owned) bar is a muralized tribute quote about the vital role of poetry w/r/t revolutionary movements. Carla's performance was spectacular, the highlight of this Winter's live music listening.
(Permalink to Carla Kihlstedt at the Starry Plough)
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12/19/05 McSweeney's is hosting a sestina fest. Joshua Clover, professor of English at UC Davis, submitted his Pillowbook, a poem with the added benefit of being an instruction manual on how to carefully title your anthologies for optimum shelfing, if you anticipate that they'll one day be translated into German. Clover was the recipient of the Walt Whitman Award for First Book of Poetry in 1996.
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12/16/05 from the
Court and Spark
"Greetings friends...
This is just a reminder to let one and all know that Saturday, December 17th will find The Court & Spark playing at the Great American Music Hall with our good friends The Mother Hips. We expect to play around 10:15 PM or so.
It is suggested that you purchase tickets early, as this show will sell out.
This brisk San Francisco winter has found The Court & Spark very busy, despite the dearth of live performances. Besides concocting the perfect homemade chicken soup, devouring the entire catalog of Philip K. Dick (again), and trying to decipher what exactly The Beach Boys think is so funny on "Little Pad," we found time to master our new record with Doug Sax, who is responsible for mastering the bulk of Pink Floyd's catalog, including C&S faves "Obscured By Clouds" and "Dark Side Of The Moon." The record, now called "Hearts," will be released by Absolutely Kosher Records in April of 2006. More details to come.
And remember that dub/ambient record that we keep mentioning? Well, we're still working on it. It's looking like there will be some songs by John Fahey and Scott Walker sent though the C&S tripper mill for inclusion on this record, alongside some dubs of "Witch Season" cuts and newly recorded mind explorations. You'll love it.
Our version of Will Oldham's "The Sun Highlights The Lack In Each" will be available on Tract Records' compilation "I Am Cold Rock, I Am Dull Grass" alongside Iron & Wine, Jolie Holland, Calexico, and others, on January 31st.
You can preorder it now from the Tract Records website.
May you be well.
Captain Cat, San Francisco, CA
Family time: Michael Talbott & The Wolfkings' magnificent album "Freeze-Die-Come To Life," produced by The C&S's M.C. Taylor and Scott Hirsch, will be released in February on Berkeley's Antenna Farm Records. C&S steel player and multi-instrumentalist Tom Heyman's incredible new record "Deliver Me" will also be released in February on San Francisco's Jackpine Social Club label. We heartily endorse both of these records!"
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12/16/05 My friend Dawn is dancing in her ballet studio's Nutcracker Suite production this Saturday and Sunday, 17 and 18 Dec, at Bishop O'Dowd's pretty damn fabu theater, right off of 580 at the Golf Links Rd exit. The address of the school is 9500 Stearns Ave, Oakland, CA. For info, call 510-568-7728. Tickets are $12.50 in advance and $15.00 at the door.
Sat 2pm matinee -- Sugar Plum Fairy -- yup, a purple tutu. And a tiara. |
(Permalink to Dawn in the Nutcracker)
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12/16/05 We've just had a minor earthquake here, not on the San Andreas Fault, and not on the Hayward fault, near Hercules. Hmmm, is there another fault lurking underground? Not much shaking, but one darn loud sudden jolt.
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12/12/05 Here are some of my favorite books of all time --
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First, Vollman's Europe Central is my favorite book of 2005. I'm still reading it, page 583 and counting... |
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Independent People by Laxness. This was my favorite book of 2004
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Pale Fire by Nabokov. This has been my favorite book for about 10 years.
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Sentimental Education by Flaubert. I just read this and loved every sentence, the details, the humor. |
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Woman of Rome by Moravia. I read this earlier this year and will now read more Moravia.
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Fortress of Solitude by Lethem. This would be my second fave from last year.
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The Bridge by Iain Banks. This is the only science fiction I've read that felt just as compelling as what we call literature.
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The Woman in the Dunes by Abe. This will probably always be among my top five favorite titles ever.
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Tender Buttons by Stein. This is my favorite collection of poetry.
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Opened Ground by Heaney. This is my second favorite collection by a single poet.
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Pretty Young Thing: Poems by Pafunda. This is my favorite new poet.
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| I've posted a link to my rotating bookshelf at Powell's containing more of my favorites. | |
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12/9/05 Help out a starving artist. If you are planning to purchase your holiday books from Powell's, buy them through the Powell's banner above and I'll earn a small commission on your purchases. Thank you!
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12/6/05 Guest dispatch on "Why New Orleans Matters" by Tom Piazza on Maud Newton's blog. Thanks to Edward Champion.
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12/5/05 My work is being published in an online literary journal, The Quarterly Conversation -- in the Table of Contents, accompanying Creative Oppositions: The Poetry of Frank Bidart, and a review of Boredom, by Alberto Moravia.
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An interesting piece by Wei Dong.
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12/1/05 N+1 on the aesthetics of pro-wrestling.
quote: "In this way, the expectations of fans, especially in a crowd as well versed as the one in this ballroom, have changed substantially from the sort that Roland Barthes explicated in Mythologies. A punch isn’t merely a punch—it refers back to punches past, other matches and wrestlers and situations, forming part of a complicated net of allusions and histories."
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12/1/05 n+1 on Ed Ruscha
12/1/05 Three lit bloggers, Scott Esposito, of Conversational Reading, Edward Champion, of Return of the Reluctant, and Tito Perez of Black Market Kidneys report back from a reading I attended with them, as part of the City Arts and Lectures Program, featuring Rick Moody and David Foster Wallace. I won't write up my own report here, since I've read about 20 pages of "The Broom of the System," and nothing by Moody. Although I did enjoy the film adaptation of his story "The Ice Storm". I will agree that the statement flatly delivered at the beginning of the spectacle (that the writers were going to attempt to "interview each other") was entirely bunk. I'd like to add that I loved DFW's pregnant pauses, sighs and snorts. I'm very sorry that there wasn't more of an even exchange between the two writers. At one point I thought DFW was going to humiliate Moody so severely that he would be forced to plug his pie-hole by cramming that apple prop on the center table between his canines.
DFW was artful in balancing his humility, self-deprecation, despair, and snide snootiness. Moody tried to give us a sense of perspective, but came across like an overpaid focus-puller, or a froggy-eyed camera operator. I'm sure this see could have sawed with a competent moderator at the helm.
quote from Edward Champion's write-up:
"...But the evening was badly in need of a moderator. When two highly introspective writers attempt to interview each other on stage, inevitably you have lengthy periods of silence, mumbling and assorted confusion. The two men frequently asked the audience if they were indeed talking sensibly and articulately, and seemed genuinely mystified about why they were there.
I was also highly perturbed by the wireless mike setup, which severely afflicted Wallace. The mike had been placed catastrophically close to Wallace’s nose, resulting in the man coming across as a Midwestern Darth Vader."
and from Scott, quote: "I'm bitter that DFW (who was far better prepared than Moody (actually I'm not sure if Moody even prepared at all)) ended up asking all the questions while Moody came off as a slightly laconic grad student in for the oral reaming of his life."
another quote from Conversational Reading, re)DFW: "...He seemed to be backing off the tone of the essay, and was even a little downbeat about the potential for fiction to get past irony. (The essay contends that irony, introduced in the '60s as a sort of literary/cultural weapon of thermonuclear potential, has now been thoroughly coopted by the mainstream and rendered impotent, for all avant-garde, revolutionary purposes; it ends by pondering where literature goes from here.)"
(Permalink to Rick Moody and David Foster Wallace at City Arts and Lectures)
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11/30/05
Meena is here!
My friends are publishing out of New Orleans, despite being severely set back by the losses resulting from Hurricane Katrina. Meena is a bilingual Arabic/English art and literary magazine based in New Orleans and Alexandria, Egypt.
from Andy Young
quote: "...I am the co-editor, along with Khaled Hegazzi. I am very excited about our first issue, which features fabulous writers from both cities, as well as national luminaries such as Yusef Komunyakaa, Naomi Shihab Nye and Rikki Ducornet. The magazine has had an incredible journey to finally arrive here in the city. As you'll see, its publication date was August 2005. Need I say more?
I am writing to ask you to help us get the word out, and to order a copy (or copies) if you are so inclined. Check out our website www.meenamag.com (still in progress) or write to me here to order. While we originally asked for $10 per issue (plus shipping), we are hoping that folks who are able might consider giving on a sliding scale of $10-$20 because of the extra difficulties we are facing in keeping the project alive post-Hurricane Katrina. (All donations, of course, will be accepted).
For those of you in town, we'll be having a reading/party at the Gold Mine (701 Dauphine Street) on December 15th, or you can pick up a copy at The Pharaoh's Cave, 1241 Royal Street, or directly from me (I'd love to see your face). For those of you from out of town, thanks for your friendship and support during this tough time.
Fondest wishes, Andy Young"
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11/30/05
Opening Friday, Dec 2nd
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Hysterical Paroxysm
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"This multimedia installation explores portrayals of hysterical women from film and television history. A broad range of source materials will craft the perfect chamber of suffering that will strike a dark familiarity with anyone who has grown up with these images from the American media."
Artists: CCA A/V CLUB Art Collective comprised of: Keturah Cummings, Skye Thorstenson, Lee Pembleton, Marcella Faustini, and Alex Lucas
Where: CCA Graduate Gallery, San Francisco campus
1111 Eighth St.
When: 6-9pm
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11/30/05 At the Saatchi Gallery site, you can see more work by Marlene Dumas.
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11/29/05 I continue to be amazed by Marlene Dumas and Mugi Takei. Marlene is unafraid. Marlene Dumas spans time, gender, life-forces, archings, comings, and dualities, smacking both irony and sincerity with kali and parvati hands dipped in pigments, uncooked. Mugi's latest work bleeds off the paper. She betters Guston's Musa's eyelashes, watery anemones blinking close by.
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11/29/05 Buyers and art lovers -- if you've purchased paintings or drawings from me, please send me your mailing address. I'd like to add you to my mailing list for openings, and add you to my list of people who own my work. I've lost touch with a couple of you mysterious patrons, especially the buyers of Wish Weller, Swimmer, and the anonymous person who bought my drawing from Women and Their Work Gallery and the other anonymous buyer from the Texas Fine Arts Association's 5 X 5 show. I hope you're all doing well and enjoying your paintings.
Also, we are searching for owners of Chief Terry Saul's paintings and murals. We know some of the murals were destroyed. We've recovered sketches and drawings for murals and large panels. The Saul family would like to document the murals and the locations of all of his surviving art. We'd also like to compare the drawings with the paintings, and perhaps reunite the owners with the original sketches. If you own work by Chief or know about where his murals are located, please contact me. If anyone has information about grants for the restoration of Native American art, or items of historical interest to the Choctaw Nation, we'd like to hear from you. Some of the drawings illustrate Peyote ceremonies, the separation of the Choctaw tribe and the Chickasaw tribe, spirit animals, Native American Headdresses and their meanings, Madonnas and children, and other Christian and tribal religious icons. They are executed in a flat, bold, and graceful linear style on vellum and parchment. Many of them are reminiscent of sketches for WPA murals, or the frescoes of Diego Rivera.
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11/22/05 I'm off to L.A. for Thanksgiving, the fabulous home of the literary fabulists. In honor of heading South I'll tip my Thanksgiving cartoon-corn-cob-coffee-cup once again towards Scott Esposito's Literature Blog. He posted a cool article on L.A. lit.
quote from
Writing in the Dust,
L.A. Times Magazine, November 13, 2005,
By Alan Rifkin
"There were rumors, of course, that madness wasn't really sane at all. But you weren't sure of this yet in Los Angeles.
We were going to be ageless, find the Garden, reinvent brotherhood (or show where it had been lost).
At the same time we knew, like Waugh, that we were dreaming. And this reality disorder has been the starting point, the given, for an entire generation of local novelists—"In Los Angeles, it is always the first generation," Kate Braverman once said—a group too quiet, too neglected, to consider itself a literary movement, except maybe in its secret fantasies. But that is where some neglect can begin to pay off.
For decades, L.A. has been pulling a certain type of writer away from realistic fiction toward something no one ever bothered to name, something that has slipped right through the genres of the outside world. Anyone can recite a short list of variously hallucinatory L.A. visions from the 20th century, by Nathanael West and John Fante and Joan Didion and Carolyn See. They were a recurring dream that shook the bed once or twice each generation, like little earthquakes. But the last several years have seen dozens—heralding either a crescendo or a death throe, or maybe The Big One.
Not that the writers themselves get too animated about all this, except in private. It can just seem so personal. The gorgeous estrangement. The flakiness, the longing. The possibly delusional belief that the conflicts most central to the human condition—truth and illusion, spirit and flesh, heaven and earth, race and community—are reaching endgame mainly here."
another quote,
"...you've got to wonder if Armageddon is really passé or just on hold. In either case, it has lost a lot of its bang.
What's unique here is as near as Salvador Plascencia's mythic curanderos and lettuce pickers in El Monte, and Norman Klein's "erasures" of neighborhoods that may or may not have been, and Ry Cooder's aural ghosts of Chavez Ravine. The civic foreground crumbles. The dirt lots bloom. Playwright Jose Rivera, in "Cloud Tectonics," posited a Mexican hitchhiker who's been pregnant for two years. "The Anglo mind," says Rafael Luévano, who teaches religion at Chapman University in Orange, "might be giving way to the Latino influence of magic, myth and symbol."
"The stories my grandparents told me," explains Plascencia, "were like Steinbeck, but with magic and witches."
Whether Latino or not, our literary visions are sometimes incestuously provincial—a pidgin of images that couldn't have been composed anyplace else."
one last quote,
"Every Los Angeles writer at the outskirts of vision feels a connection to "Ask the Dust," the 1939 novel that, more than any other, seems to weep over this city's corpse in the ecstasy of possessing it. ("Los Angeles, give me some of you! Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town.") Claremont McKenna professor Jay Martin has pointed out that what W.H. Auden called "West's Disease"—an L.A. collision of foolishness, desire and illusion named after Nathanael West—could just as well have been named after Fante. In any case, we all are sufferers. We're not sure, exactly, how the intimacy of our suffering will survive the novel's journey to the screen, to the masses, to the world. But for a while longer, it's strictly ours."
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11/11/05 Happy eleven eleven. This guy wins my biennial award for the **Best Band Name Ever**, Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat! Listen to Stef Heeren's music here. He's Belgian, maybe that explains everything. Kiss The Anus of a Black Cat uses the tampura and the sruthibox. You can purchase his "folk" music here.
This here is something pasty -- Ljudbilden & Piloten, Douglas och Iris Piers. Listen to Martin, gracia por la Guitarra
One more.
This ghee, Tom Bugs, has been reincarnated as
Lambchop's weary barmaid, wearing a hearing aid meant for innocuous blowfish with spinal reflex defects. He's based in Bristol.
All of these and more are playing today in Malmo, for
Full Pull 05,
at the
Rooseum
Gasverksgatan 22
20312 Malmö
Sweden
"Whenever I'm in Malmo, I always visit the Rooseum..."
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11/9/05 Leftsetz writes a live music newsletter.
He doesn't seem to have a website, so I've tagged and posted the letter.
I encourage you to subscribe via the link at the end of this post.
He's a terrific analyst of the music industry, and a ranting freak when it comes to his passion for live music, which I appreciate wholeheartedly, even though I don't always share his tastes.
quote: From the Leftsetz newsletter
"Subject:Concert Grosses
Friday, November 4th, 2005
U2/KEANE
Date: Fri 10/07/2005 thru Fri 10/14/2005
Venue: Madison Square Garden - New York, NY
Promoter: The Next Adventure/Ron Delsener Presents
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 5/5
Gross: $9,658,009
Sold/Capacity: 93,275 / 93,275
% Sold: 100%
Ticket Price(s): $165.00, $49.50
Why is it in 1988, upon release of "Rattle and Hum", U2's fans cried UNCLE! Were worn out with Bono's God act. And now, there's no BACKLASH?
Because now you don't have to pay attention. U2 can play a week at Madison Square Garden and it can completely evade your radar screen. That's 2005, when there's so much input that everything pales in comparison. It takes something on the level of Katrina to get us to all pay attention, and then for only a little while.
Meanwhile, U2 continues to play by eighties rules. Needing to demonstrate again and again that they're the biggest band in the world. Why don't these guys just book Madison Square Garden for a MONTH? Or maybe the entire year. Turn it into Vegas. Fuck with Celine Dion.
Oops! Nobody cares about Celine Dion anymore other than the people who are going to see her. And they forget about her soon after the show.
So on one hand, who gives a fuck.
On the other, could Bono just COOL IT? Does he have to meet with Bush, does he have to save all of us? Can't he cease being such a celebrity and concentrate on playing music? Can't he follow his guru Bob Dylan into the edges, turning out what's not expected of him, rearranging his songs, trying to push the edge of the envelope? OF COURSE NOT!
And that's my problem with U2.
I'll let you in on a secret. I'm sure I'D have a great time at a U2 show. I love so many of those songs. But the band doesn't represent what it once did. It used to stand for adventure, now it stands for complacency. Where was the band challenging the norms with "Unforgettable Fire". Turning its back on its hit formula from "War" and doing something different? Where is the band that stunned us by releasing the at first impenetrable "Achtung Baby" after the negative reaction to "Rattle & Hum"? Where is the band that is taking CHANCES instead of fighting like a two bit Hollywood celebrity player for ink?
Just call me Jim Carroll. I'm just a constant warning to take the other direction. (And if you don't know this line, from the impeccable "City Drops Into The Night", download it NOW!)
PAUL McCARTNEY
Date: Fri 10/14/2005 thru Sat 10/15/2005
Venue: Palace of Auburn Hills - Auburn Hills, MI
Promoter: The Cellar Door Companies/Palace Sports & Entertainment
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 2/2
Gross: $4,733,526
Sold/Capacity: 33,511 / 33,511
% Sold: 100%
Ticket Price(s): $252.50, $127.50, $92.00, $52.50
What if a Beatle put out a new album and nobody cared?
There's more anticipation, more interest in Neil Diamond's newest than Paul McCartney's "Chaos And Creation In The Backyard". Oh, I read all the hype about him working with Nigel Godrich, but did you listen to "Jenny Wren"? CREEPY!
U2 and Paul are on the same page. Enamored of their fame.
If you're not willing to risk it all, you're not an artist. Go see your Beatle show. I'd rather not have someone fuck with my memories.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Date: Sun 10/09/2005
Venue: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum - Uniondale, NY
Promoter: Ron Delsener Presents
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $783,325
Sold/Capacity: 8,570 / 10,052
% Sold: 85.3%
Ticket Price(s): $85.00, $55.00
He can't even sell out in his own backyard... In a scaled-down arena to boot.
Do you really think fiftysomethings want to pay a hundred bucks to sit this far away? Oh, they'll pay that number, just let them sit close, where they don't need binoculars.
I applaud Bruce for trying. I didn't love his new album, but unlike U2's, it was different. But it appears his audience really only wants to see him with the E Street Band.
Funny, isn't it. How dumb your audience can be. You think you're the star, and you are, but they want the brand name. Just check Trey Anastasio's numbers without Phish.
Then again, I'd rather listen to Bruce explore his sensitive acoustic side than have him make more tripe like "The Rising". Play that one recently? I didn't think so...
FOO FIGHTERS, WEEZER, HOT HOT HEAT
Date: Fri 10/14/2005
Venue: Continental Airlines Arena - East Rutherford, NJ
Promoter: Ron Delsener Presents
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 1 / 1
Gross: $579,220
Sold/Capacity: 15,862 / 15,862
% Sold: 100%
Ticket Price(s): $42.50, $30.50
I think Dave Grohl is a great guitarist for a drummer. But he's not a major talent. But, the audience seems to think so, and I don't care, since none of his music is memorable and I never have to hear it anyway.
Many people believe Weezer's Rivers Cuomo is a major talent, but his last album disappointed these people.
But make no mistake, this isn't about the package. This show would have sold out if it was the Foo Fighters alone.
One thing in its favor? THE TICKET PRICE!
Grohl knows his fans. He knows you can't be PERCEIVED to be ripping them off. (McCartney doesn't care, people will pay anything to see him before he di es. U2 and Madonna...attendees just want to say they were THERE!) Meanwhile, do you really think you can go to the show for this price?
From: gl3br@______.com
Date: November 3, 2005 1:00:19 PM PST
To: bob@lefsetz.com
"Hi Bob
im fairly new to this country and love many aspects of it, one thing
that
pisses me off though is the institution known as Ticketmaster.
I know its a whory old issue, but seriously where do they get off ?
i just bought a ticket to see My Morning Jacket at the Henry Fonda in
LA next
week, the ticket price was a more than reasonable $20.50, cool well
worth it,
but then after purchasing it through the only legal route
(Ticketmaster)
after all their monopolising and dubious fees i end up paying $36.50
!
now i still bought it because i know itll be a great gig, but as i
enjoy Jim
James and his crew i know at the back of my mind i ll be really
fucking
annoyed at the fact that Ticketbastard will be earning almost as much
from me to do
fuck all, as the band i paid to entertain me."
THE KILLERS, ARCADE FIRE, MODEST MOUSE, DOVES, BRITISH SEA POWER
Date: Sat 10/08/2005
Venue: Shoreline Amphitheatre - Mountain View, CA
Promoter: Bill Graham Presents
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $475,647
Sold/Capacity: 16,453 / 22,000
% Sold: 74.8%
Ticket Price(s): $45.50, $25.50
Who the fuck put THIS bill together? Aren't the bands supposed to share the same audience?
I don't want to hear from the pros how this is a good number, to evaluate the lack of a sellout in light of the fact that the extra capacity was the lawn, these are HOT ACTS! Then again, not hot enough to sell out a venue like this alone.
Acts like this should be playing indoors. They lose all their charisma outside. You want to feel the presence of your brethren, you want the sweat, you want the darkness.
Oh yeah, Clear Channel owns all these amphitheatres...
NINE INCH NAILS, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, AUTOLUX
Date: Sat 10/08/2005
Venue: Joe Louis Arena - Detroit, MI
Promoter: The Cellar Door Companies
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $468,897
Sold/Capacity: 9,986 / 14,754
% Sold: 67.7%
Ticket Price(s): $49.50, $39.50
Nine Inch Nails is an oldies act and Queens Of The Stone Age released a second-rate record and lost a ton of momentum.
You don't stay on top forever. Nine Inch Nails peaked back at Woodstock, another century ago. Their fans have graduated from college and started careers. The music wasn't radio-friendly to begin with, now callout flummoxes those hearing the snippets. A credible band, that did not make a terrible record, but it can't sell out arenas anymore.
Time marches on. If you want to stay on top you've got to release records more frequently.
Then again, do you need to stay on top?
SYSTEM OF A DOWN/MARS VOLTA
Date: Sat 10/08/2005
Venue: Oakland Arena - Oakland, CA
Promoter: Bill Graham Presents
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $433,858
Sold/Capacity: 9,798 / 14,107
% Sold: 69.5%
Ticket Price(s): $45.00, $32.50
Although in THEORY these two bands share a similar audience, they don't.
Mars Volta fans are like Dead fans. They believe in this band and this band only. They don't want to endure another act's music and don't want to be exposed to another act's fans. They want MORE Mars Volta music, and LESS of anything else.
Packages appeal to oldsters. Who are interested in value. Youngsters are rabid. They truly BELIEVE! They could give a shit about the opening act, they just want more of the HEADLINER!
AUDIOSLAVE, SEETHER, 30 SECONDS TO MARS
Date: Fri 10/07/2005
Venue: Air Canada Centre - Toronto
Promoter: House of Blues Canada
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 1 / 1
Gross: $380,801
Sold/Capacity: 8,910 / 8,910
% Sold: 100%
Ticket Price(s): $41.89
Date: Wed 10/12/2005
Venue: Veterans Memorial Auditorium - Columbus, OH
Promoter: Belkin Productions
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $102,716
Sold/Capacity: 2,754 / 3,844
% Sold: 71.6%
Ticket Price(s): $46.00, $40.50
Canada and the U.S. are two different markets. And don't ever forget it.
JETHRO TULL
Date: Sat 10/08/2005 thru Sun 10/09/2005
Venue: Carnegie Hall - New York, NY
Promoter: Ron Delsener Presents
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 2 / 2
Gross: $370,320
Sold/Capacity: 5,576 / 5,576
% Sold: 100%
Ticket Price(s): $80.00, $40.00
Don't think this is about New York City, the cachet of Carnegie Hall. Tull sold out in Toronto. And in Lowell, Mass (well, 4 tickets shy of a sell-out). Sure, Ian and the boys only did 71.7% in Dallas, but tickets there were a ridiculous $99.00 BEFORE service charges.
I heard "Skating Away" on XM yesterday and it was so fresh it made me a believer all over again.
Furthermore, on the way down to Newport last Sunday my 22 year old nephew told me he was going to see Atmosphere at the Wiltern, but that the hightlight of his year had been Jethro Tull. This came up when the Scotsman's band came over the classic rock radio station and Andrew had to TURN IT UP!
Make no mistake. People know what's real. And good. Classic rock rules. Catalog is where it's at.
3 DOORS DOWN, SHINEDOWN, ALTER BRIDGE
Date: Fri 10/14/2005
Venue: Cricket Pavilion - Phoenix, AZ
Promoter: Evening Star Productions
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $125,917
Sold/Capacity: 4,769 / 8,232
% Sold: 57.9%
Ticket Price(s): $46.00, $22.50
I'm using the Phoenix number instead of the marginally better Las Vegas number since Las Vegas is known as a shitty rock town. But, by doing this I risk the wrath of Danny Zelisko. Danny, get your fingers typing, I KNOW you've got something to complain about here!
Could it be over? Could the age of the faceless meat and potatoes band be HISTORY?
I certainly fucking hope so.
Then again, 3 Doors Down is far better than Ashlee Simpson and the other crap being purveyed today. It's just that 3 Doors Down is just not that special. I mean where's their "Gimme Back My Bullets", never mind "Sweet Home Alabama".
As for Alter Bridge... Isn't this like the Doors without Jim Morrison?
JUDAS PRIEST, ANTHRAX
Date: Sat 10/01/2005
Venue: U.S. Cellular Arena - Milwaukee, WI
Promoter: Elevated Concerts
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $92,896
Sold/Capacity: 3,698 / 8,605
% Sold: 43%
Ticket Price(s): $47.50, $12.48
Date: Fri 10/07/2005
Venue: Paul E. Tsongas Arena - Lowell, MA
Promoter: Tea Party Concerts
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $57,866
Sold/Capacity: 1,716 / 6,800
% Sold: 25.2%
Ticket Price(s): $38.50
What if a classic metal band reunited with its lead singer and went on the road. Wouldn't everybody care?
Maybe Judas Priest just isn't that classic. Or maybe the band's fans just got too old.
And, is Anthrax touring with its real lead singer again? Who knows, after all these years of changes.
It appears that that the only hard rocker who never dies is Ozzy. I'm sure Iron Maiden would do better business than this, but not a hell of a lot better. And with Ozzy no longer on Ozzfest (then again, can one trust Sharon, especially if the initial ticket counts or guarantees are slim?), one wouldn't expect THAT tour to do so well. Then again, people have to take off their shirts, dribble beer on their chests and bang their heads SOMEWHERE.
JASON MRAZ
Date: Sat 10/01/2005
Venue: Congress Theatre - Chicago, IL
Promoter: House of Blues
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 1 / 1
Gross: $86,700
Sold/Capacity: 2,890 / 2,890
% Sold: 100%
Ticket Price(s): $30.00
Elektra Records built something. Well, Jason built it himself and Elektra capitalized on it. A great story, act and band working hand in hand. THEN, the suits come in, eliminate Elektra under the rubric of merging it with Atlantic and Jason gets caught in the shuffle.
Have you SEEN this guy? The little girls eat him up. He's cute. And talented. Sure, the Matrix helped him write his hit, but there's SOMETHING there. Which the rap-centric Atlantic Records fails to notice. I mean how is it that Atlantic is now run by the same people who ran Island/Def Jam into the ground? How is it that a rock-oriented label with a few black hits has become a totally unsuccessful black label? I guess I've lived long enough to realize nobody really cares about this movie. Money changes hands, assets are sold, it's all forgotten. Doug Morris did a great job of ramping up a house that Ahmet built. Then Doug built Universal. I don't think Doug is Mo, but compared to the other slackers in the business today, he's a god.
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE/YOUTH GROUP
Date: Sat 10/08/2005
Venue: The Fillmore - Denver, CO
Promoter: Chuck Morris Presents
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 1 / 1
Gross: $72,000
Sold/Capacity: 3,600 / 3,600
% Sold: 100%
Ticket Price(s): $20.00
Okay, here's where I contradict myself. This act IS ON Atlantic Records.
But there were four records before. And the act was quite big before Atlantic picked it up. And the pick-up made insiders notice, but it's not like airplay is selling this record/act. Rather, it's PURE WORD OF MOUTH!
Well, based on great music.
THIS is the buzz band. I know, because I hear it buzzed about.
I mean I'm sitting around the table at Halloween, and the famous southern actor is waxing rhapsodic about country music and then he says, HAVE YOU HEARD DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE?
How great is this. Small venue. Cheap price. Good music. This is the way it's supposed to be.
BRIGHT EYES, NEVA DINOVA, JESSE SYKES
Date: Sat 02/05/2005
Venue: La Zona Rosa - Austin, TX
Promoter: Charles Attal Presents, Direct Events
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 1 / 1
Gross: $27,200
Sold/Capacity: 1,206 / 1,206
% Sold: 100%
Ticket Price(s): $25.00, $22.50
Conor Oberst is the overhype of the century.
But I applaud this show.
Instead of booking himself into larger venues, commensurate with the press, Conor is playing small venues where his tribe of believers can see him up close and personal. He should continue to fly under the radar. Because hype turns the core off.
LOS LONELY BOYS, LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES
Date: Fri 09/30/2005
Venue: Avalon Ballroom - Boston, MA
Promoter: Tea Party Concerts
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $24,315
Sold/Capacity: 740 / 1,850
% Sold: 40%
Ticket Price(s): $32.50
A turntable hit or was this gig too far north of the Mason-Dixon line?
You decide.
YELLOWCARD, ACCEPTANCE, PINK SPIDERS
Date: Fri 09/30/2005
Venue: Littlejohn Coliseum - Clemson, SC
Promoter: Littlejohn Coliseum
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $20,917
Sold/Capacity: 1,620 / 5,000
% Sold: 32.4%
Ticket Price(s): $20.00, $17.00
The major label model is bankrupt. They can build acts that can get on the radio, but not acts that anybody wants to see live.
It appears that the only people eager for the new Yellowcard record are radio programmers, and the media whores who need a heavily-hyped act to make their magazines/TV shows appear to have the patina of hipness.
But there's more hipness in the back row of a Widespread Panic show than any of the acts these fucks are promoting.
BOB MOULD, SHINY TOY GUNS
Date: Fri 10/14/2005
Venue: The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA
Promoter: Bill Graham Presents
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $12,200
Sold/Capacity: 544 / 1,150
% Sold: 47.3%
Ticket Price(s): $25.00
It appears his decision to retire and write for the WWF was a good one.
NADA SURF, SAY HI TO YOUR MOM, ARMY OF ME
Date: Wed 10/05/2005
Venue: Theatre of Living Arts - Philadelphia, PA
Promoter: Electric Factory Concerts
#Sold Out/# of Shows: 0 / 1
Gross: $5,978
Sold/Capacity: 477 / 810
% Sold: 58.9%
Ticket Price(s): $14.00
Don't call it a comeback.
____________________________________________
As for all those acts in the Top Ten of the sales chart...
They're nowhere to be found.
You see those acts don't play live, they play on the radio, on TV. No one cares if they lip-sync, because nobody believes they're real musicians.
The real musicians are in their basements right now. Or their garages. They're cooking up a brew closer to Mars Volta than Ashlee Simpson. Expect them to build on the Web and then tour the underground. Starting not even at the bottom of this chart. In coffee houses, in places that don't report to statisticians.
Then, suddenly, these unknown acts will show up on this chart and you'll have no idea what's going on, because they didn't do it the traditional way, the OLD-FASHIONED way, from the top down.
No, it's back to the old days. It's DIY. From the bottom up.
It's just that with all the technology, the sound of the bottom ain't that different from the sound of the top. Everybody can afford the tools, the means of production.
The concert business we've now got was built on an old paradigm. It grew out of the rock explosion of the late sixties and early seventies. Hell, look at the names of the Clear Channel promoters...Bill Graham, Belkin, Electric Factory. These were all entrepreneurs who rode the crest of a wave. And they're run by people who've seen the past more than the future. Yet there are good young people involved, more than at record labels. And this, along with their near-monopoly on real estate, will allow these enterprises to flourish in the future.
But, are you gonna want to hear the new bands at the shed?
No.
Not even in the arena.
You're gonna want to see them in theatres, in clubs. Where you're close enough to bond with the act, where you can marinate in the music."
(Statistics from celebrityaccess.com)
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11/9/05 This is hilarious. Thank you Conversational Reading.
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11/9/05 This NYT article alerts my amygdala, woos my Wernicke's area, and hones my hippocampus.
quotes:
“Even more interesting, brain scanning might one day help to explain the act of reading itself. "Reading is a funny kind of brain state," says Norman Holland, a professor who teaches a course on brain science and literature at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "If you're engrossed in a story, you're no longer aware of your body; you're no longer aware of your environment. You feel real emotions toward the characters." What is going on in our heads? Are we in a dream? A heightened reality? A trance?”
“Literary Darwinists use this "deep history" to explain the power of books and poems that might otherwise confuse us, thus hoping to add satisfaction to our reading of them. Take for instance "Hamlet." Through the Literary Darwinist lens, Shakespeare's play becomes the story of a young man's dilemma choosing between his personal self-interest (taking over the kingdom by killing his uncle, his mother's new husband) and his genetic self-interest (if his mother has children with his uncle, he may get new siblings who carry three-eighths of his genes). No wonder the prince of Denmark cannot make up his mind.
Or look at Jonathan Gottschall's study of the "Iliad," which emphasizes how the fighting over women in the epic is not the substitute for the fight over territory, as commentators usually assume, but the central subject of the poem, occasioned by an ancient sex-ratio imbalance, a fact he unearthed in part from studies of the archaeological records of contemporary grave sites.
One of the central beliefs of evolutionary psychology is that pleasure is adaptive, so it is meaningful that Literary Darwinism is enjoyable to practice. But while its observations on individual books can be fun and memorable, they also feel flimsy. As David Sloan Wilson, an editor of " The Literary Animal" and a professor of biology and anthropology at SUNY-Binghamton, puts it, "Tasty slice, but where's the rest of the pie?"
And Literary Darwinism is not equally good at explaining everything. It is best on big social novels, on people behaving in groups. As the British novelist Ian McEwan notes in his contribution to "The Literary Animal," "If one reads accounts of . . . troops of bonobo . . . one sees rehearsed all the major themes of the English 19th-century novel." But I don't think even by stretching one's imagination primates evoke "The Waste Land" or "Finnegans Wake." Tone, point of view, reliability of the narrator - these are literary tropes that often elude Literary Darwinists, an interpretive limitation that can be traced to Darwin himself; his son once complained that "it often astonished us what trash he would tolerate in the way of novels. The chief requisites were a pretty girl and a good ending." Darwin was drawn to books that were Darwinian. Similarly, Literary Darwinists are better on Émile Zola and John Steinbeck than, say, Henry James or Gustave Flaubert. I would read their take on Shakespeare's histories before the tragedies and the tragedies before the comedies, and in "The Tempest" I'd be curious about their observations on the Prospero, Miranda and Fernando triad but not on Caliban or Ariel. I don't care if there are selection pressures on mooncalfs and sprites.”
Scott, of Conversational Reading, commented on the article, saying, "that's interesting, to a certain extent. of course you can point to certain social factors that influenced, or may have even entirely created, a story's plot. but it's an immense disservice to the genius of writers like Shakespeare, James, etc, to imply that their rich characters can be reduced to, for example, a sex-ratio imbalance."
11/8/05 The first 3 minutes 19 seconds of The Bat Segundo Show #12, are cringe worthy, but the interview starting at 3 minutes and 20 seconds with Lydia Millet is worthy of a listen.
quote directly from the Bat Segundo website -- "Subjects Discussed: Beer at 11:30 AM, Richard Rhodes, Wold Newton, American Prometheus, getting biographical details wrong, the influence of fiction vs. nonfiction, the displacement of major historical figures, narrative juggling acts, freakishness in literature, Lynda Barry, obstacles in being a woman writing dark humor, the gender divide in the publishing industry, outlining novels, finding humor in Hiroshima, humorless book reviewers, lip service in government, ignorance, literature which reassures, fiction that reaches a mass audience, Richard Nash as publisher, the I Am Charlotte Simmons paperback, Richard Nash as editor, how characters are named, meterologists, cigarettes, Lydia Millet's father, the various pronunciations of "missile," Leo Szilard, Eminem, blindness, compassionate satire, John P. Marquand, Kirby Gann's Our Napoleon in Rags, Ignatius Reilly, porn culture, working at Hustler, Jonathan Ames, imaginary figures in literature, on whether Dave Eggers deserves to be punched, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, substance in fiction, authenticity, the endless McSweeney's lists, irony and cynicism."
(Permalink to Bat Segundo Show #12)
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11/08/05 A couple of refugees from NOLA need furniture and help.
"A good friend of Catherine's when she lived in New Orleans, Dawn, was flooded out by Katrina and is moving to Berkeley this month. (She lived in SF for years before moving to NOLA 15 years ago, so she's 'coming home'.) A friend of hers put together this great website with photos of their place in NO - then and now - and backstory, if you want to get one family's story.
Also… for those of you in Berkeley… Dawn and her girlfriend are having a "Home Furnishings Event" on November 19th at their new 'place' on The Alameda, near Solano, if anyone's interested in helping a NO refugee directly. Basically, anything extra you've got laying around the house - pots, chairs, office equipment, film editing gear… - anything but clothes - bring it on over, because they are starting from scratch. There is more info on the website, but it's a great opportunity to give what might have ended up at Goodwill anyway to someone who needs it Today.
Dawn is a filmmaker and was working on a documentary film about a NO neighborhood near the French Quarter, the Faubourg Treme, when Katrina hit, so there's information and links to that, too, on the website. Good stuff. Check it out, and if you can make the event, say hello for us! Pass it on…"
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StudioZ. - 314 11th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Tuesday, November 8th, 8PM
**Japan Girls NIte US/West Coast tour 2005 ****
TsuShiMaMiRe/ AMPPEZ/ Red Bacteria Vacuum
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11/3/05 Richard Buckner and Sufjan Stevens are in heavy rotation.
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11/3/05
Sean Hayes is playing at Cafe du Nord
tonight. quote from the Du Nord website (it's true) "Sean Hayes is the real thing. A songwriter and performer that penetrates your brain and body so deeply that you quickly forget who you are and what you're doing. His songs are beautiful worlds unto themselves. Sean's performances are full sensory experiences. Sensual, elastic and thick with rich colors. A gorgeous place to live."
Doors at 8pm.
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| 11/02/05 Listen to the Finnish Screaming Men's Choir singing the Star Spangled Banner |
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| painting by Anj Smith |
11/2/05 There's a new art prize for women in the U.K. that, like the Orange Prize for literature, has sparked a discussion of gender issues and prizes in the arts.
These are the women up for the MaxMara art prize:
from the Guardian U.K.
"Five contenders for the first women's art prize
Rachel Kneebone
Age: 32.
Born: Oxfordshire.
Lives: London.
Studied: Royal College of Art.
Influences: Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Work: Cythera and other white porcelain sculptures.
Career so far: Commissioned to do a wall sculpture at Kensington Palace by Mario Testino. Forthcoming show at the Egg gallery, 36 Kinnerton Street London W1.
Donna Huddleston
Age: 35.
Born: Australia.
Lives: London.
Studied: National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney.
Influences: Art Deco.
Work: Watercolours and drawings, including Ladyfriends.
Career so far: Initially worked in film in productions including Moulin Rouge, The Matrix and The Mikado. Currently exhibiting with the artist Frank Hannon at
Greengrassi 39c Fitzroy Street, London W1.
Anne Hardy
Age: 35.
Born: St Albans.
Lives: London.
Studied: Royal College of Art.
Influences: Objects from jumble sales and urban skips.
Work: Photographs of environments - such as Drift, below - constructed in her studio.
Career so far: Won residency at Artsway and was granted a solo exhibition in 2004. Exhibiting at the Maureen Paley gallery, 21 Herald Street, London E2, in January.
Margaret Salmon
Age: 30.
Born: Suffern, New York State.
Lives: London.
Studied: School of Visual Arts, New York.
Influences: John Ford to Luchino Visconti.
Work: Films such as PS , drawing on practices pioneered by cinematic movements including New Wave, Neorealism and Cinema Vérité.
Career so far: Second in the Beck's Futures Student Film and Video Award in 2002.
Anj Smith
Age: 26.
Born: Kent.
Lives: London.
Studied: Slade, and then an MA at Goldsmiths.
Influences: 17th-century Vanitas paintings.
Work: Appurtenancia and other minutely detailed paintings, which engage with contemporary cultural obsessions.
Career so far: Named as one of the 25 artists of the year by Art Review last year. Has held solo exhibitions in London and Lithuania and is taking part in the forthcoming show 'London in Zurich', curated by Gregor Muir."
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11/02/05 Another interesting artist,
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| painting by Vicky Wright |
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11/2/05 There's no longer a page for poetry. In order to maintain a primary focus on the paintings, poetry about painting, and poetry being used as a method for recording ideas for paintings, or for expounding on titles from paintings will be posted occasionally. These poems are merely sketches from the studio touching on the murky dreams of the artist and her inchoate muses. I'm going to call them sketches, so don't get hung up on the idea of poetry.
Sketch of the day 11/2
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Longshore 2
His breath fogged up her horn-rims |
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10/29/05
Damp Places of Civic Pride
,
Mere Papers of Themselves
, and
Fat Head Mirrors at Marlin
, are all new, up on the
paintings page.
10/28/05 Thanks
Scott for
pointing to this article,
Aesthetics of Walter Murch Yes, it's relevant to writing.
It's also relevant to art making.
I saw Murch speak about this Ondaatje book last year,
The Conversations : Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, which is getting the thumbs up from Scott.
Murch is brilliant, and the book looks really interesting.
Scott also notes this article
Walter Murch in Conversation with Joy Katz from Parnassus.
Here's his quote from the article
He cites Robert Bresson:
“Your film: three lives and two deaths. It is born in your head, it dies on paper; it is brought to life again during shooting, where it is killed on film; and then resurrected in the editing, where it opens up like flowers in water.”
Murch adds to this:
I think what he meant by “kill” is not so much destroy but rather trap, although as every writer knows, a certain amount of destruction occurs in getting something from your head to the page; the idea must first undergo an imprisonment in words on paper if it is to have a separate existence in the reader’s imagination. The text is then interpreted and brought to life by the actors; the camera, in turn, “shoots” it, trapping it onto film. Then, in the editing room, the footage is dismembered, carefully rearranged, and transubstantiated into a third life. This astonishing, sequential death and resurrection must happen for the film to be truly alive; if you think you can get from the original concept to the finished film without destroying something, you’re mistaken. But there’s hopefully a value gained at each stage that more than compensates for the losses. Finally, I would add a fourth “life” to Bresson’s list: The film is resurrected again when shown to audiences. They frequently bring things to the film-emotions, reactions, experience, insights - which the filmmakers would never have expected, and the film itself changes as a result.
(Permalink to Walter Murch)
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10/28/05 Good live coverage of the PATRICK FITZGERALD PRESS CONFERENCE LIVE on the daily kos.
10/28/05 This is a meaty, hour long podcast of Laila Lalami (who blogs as "Moorish Girl") in a discussion with some of my literary blogging friends, Scott Esposito, Tito Perez, and a reader of the book, Beth Wadell, called The Bat Segundo Show #11. If you get past the brief odd introduction by Ed, then you will certainly enjoy the discusssion.
By the way, you don't need podcasting software to listen to a podcast. Simply click on the Bat with the number 11 and listen to it on your favorite media player locally.
quote directly from the Bat Segundo newsletter -- "Subjects Discussed: Laila's poverty fiction essay, her book list for Large Hearted Boy, chance vs. choice, John Steinbeck, reference points for North American audiences, writing in English, fiction which operates beyond culture, When Men Cry, the immigration situation in Morocco, Dirty Pretty Things, how to make cultural fiction to the publishing industry salable, subcultures neglected by the publishing industry, sympathizing with characters, cultural perceptions, how men hug, narrative perspective, taboos, a mysterious friend, Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, sasquatch, litblogging, unexpectedly meeting people, the current state of book review coverage, how much people read, the LBC, William T. Vollmann, being inundated by galleys, guilt, "unfair advantages," the influence of Moorish Girl upon awareness of Hope, the origins of Laila's blog, politics, the influence of litblogs, literature as one big party, a brash and quite silly claim involving a superhero, restoring literature's place in American culture, Pablo Neruda, city-based book programs, the Oprah Book Club, advertising, Gus Lee, a brief but more sustained Q&A about sasquatch, what Laila's working on now, and what it's like to be an author on tour."
(Permalink to Bat Segundo Show #11)
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10/26/05
The Artist is Comforted by His Therapist,
Bicycle Race,
Weeping Trees of Laxness,
Trouble, and
No String Quartet, No Tentatives are all new.
Mugi in the Bath is being sold. There are also new and newly photographed
drawings up for your viewing pleasure.
More to come next week.
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10/26/05 More on what is no longer Henri Langlois' Cinémathèque Française, in
its new location, a revamped Gehry building
in the Bercy District. The investors wonder if it will draw the Left Bank cinéphiles to it's remote Eastern location.
10/24/05 I found a used copy of Bloodshot Records, For a Decade of Sin, 11 Years of Bloodshot Records. It's very good. Here's the playlist --
disk one
- Scott H. Biram, Blood Sweat and Murder
- Sixteen Horsepower, De-Railed
- Paul Burch and Ralph Stanley, Little Glass of Wine
- Cordero, Close Your House Down
- Bobby Bare Jr., Ocean Size
- My Morning Jacket, Behind that Locked Door
- Matt Mays and el Torpedo, The Plan
- The Meat Purveyors, Little White Pills
- The Bottle Rockets, A Living Hell
- Richard Buckner, Do You Want to Go Somewhere?
- Carla Bozulich, Lonesome Roads
- Minus 5, Sputnik 57
- Nine Pound Hammer, I’m Yer Huckleberry
- Graham Lindsey, No Way Out But Down
- Sally Timms, Tumbling Tumbleweeds
- Graham Parker and The Figgs, Harridan of Yore
- Deadstring Brothers, Where Are All My Friends?
- Kelly Hogan and the Wooden Leg, Chicken Road
- Andre Williams and the Sadies, Shake a Tail Feather
- 99 Tales, Tearin’ My Hair Out
- The Yayhoos, Love Train
disk two
- Nora O’Conner, Two Way Action
- Crooked Fingers, Ship to Spain
- Old 97’s, Id Be Lonesome
- Split Lip Rayfield, How Many Biscuits Can You Eat?
- Dollar Store, I want to Destroy You
- Mary Lou Lord, Cold Company
- Milton Mapes, Now I Know
- Jon Rauhouse, Magnificent Seven
- John Doe w Jim and Jennie and the Pinetops, Call of the Wreckin’ Ball
- Devil in a Woodpile, Got Just What I Want
- Puerto Muerto, Josephine
- Wayne Hancock and Hank Williams III, Juke Joint Jumping
- Blanche, Red Head
- The Handsome Family, The Lost Soul
- Catfish Haven, Tell Me
- Porter Hall TN, People Who Died
- The Court and Spark, Berliners
- Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys, How Long (Have You Been Gone)?
- Petty Booka w. The Meat Purveyors, How Can I Be So Thirsty Today?
- The Starkweathers, Burn the Flag
- Waco Brothers, I Fought the Law
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10/21/05 The poetry page has been deleted. I'm going to focus on painting instead.
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10/20/05
Zazu,
Stravinsky, and
Myth Theology have all sold.
Stand Back Sibley,
Mugi in the Bath, and
Mugi with a Flower are all new.
I'll be posting three newer paintings this weekend.
A set of Native American Bicyclists will be posted in three weeks.
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10/20/05
Akino Kondoh , likes my drawing,
Fever Bed.
Some of her recent work features women with red ladybugs swarming between their legs,
red swarms of birds coming out from white dresses,
and other implications of blossoming and bleeding.
I'm now inspired to make a large scale version of Fever Bed, and to revisit the fever bed series of drawings, which were lost in a move.
10/20/05
Henri Langlois was responsible for the rescue of
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and for hiding thousands of films from the Nazis
by strolling them around in baby carriages.
|
He founded the Cinémathèque Française, which has just been revamped and relocated amidst much controversy.
There's a film about him showing tonight at the Roxie in S.F.
(Permalink to Henri Langlois)
10/20/05 There will be a Memorial for Paul Pena,aka "Earthquake," the soulful songwriter, blind adventure traveler, international inspiration, and fearless musician who was featured in the film, Genghis Blues.
|
He passed away in his San Francisco apartment on October 1st.
The memorial is on
October 23rd, 2005 3pm - 5pm
at: Swedish American Hall
2147 Market Street (above Cafe du Nord)
San Francisco, CA
Appearances by:
Chirgilchin (Tuvan Throatsinging Champions),
Tyva Kyza (Women Throatsingers of Tuva),
Big Bones, Stephen Kent,
Members of Zulu Spear,
Clara Hsu (poet), Seth Augustus,
Arjuna, creators of
“Genghis Blues”, and others...
Tickets*: $15 - $25, sliding scale
Call: Clarion Music Center 415-391-1317
or purchase online through Ticketweb.com (enter keyword: Clarion )
also available at Street Light Records
415-282-3550 • 3979 24th St. at Noe.
* NOTE: All proceeds from this event will go toward
paying off Paul's outstanding medical expenses.
(Permalink to Paul Pena Memorial)
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10/20/05 This is a good documentary about the film industry in L.A.,
Los Angeles Plays Itself
,
by Cal Arts' Thom Andersen.
10/19/05 There's an
art show at the dump in San Francisco from the artist's in residence progam there.
Take your arty farty ass over to the waste pile: 503 Tunnel Ave., San Francisco, CA 94134
from the website:
Our next reception will be a double show for Nomi Talisman and Sirron Norris
on Friday, October 21, from five to nine p.m.
and Saturday October 22, from one to five p.m.
Trash to Treasures
The Artist-in-Residence Program at SF Recycling & Disposal, Inc. is an innovative program that inspires and educates people about recycling and resource conservation by providing local artists with access to materials, a work space, and other resources at our Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Center.
Since 1990, artists have worked in a large, well-equipped studio next to our Transfer Station west of Highway 101 near 3-COM Park in San Francisco. The Transfer Station is located within a 44 acre property that includes several recycling facilities and the Public Disposal Area (also known as "the dump").
Art is created from what would have been sent with the rest of San Francisco's trash to landfills across the Bay or recycling plants across the nation.
(Permalink to Art Show at the S.F. Dump)
10/18/05 More wrestling inspired artwork by Michelle Handelman
She's performing at Jack the Pelican Presents for Performa 05 New York and at RX Gallery here in SF
(Permalink to Michelle Handelman)
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10/18/05 Thanks to Scott Esposito's Literature Blog for pointing to this Ishiguro interiview.
Ishiguro on thinking about being translated,
"SPIEGEL ONLINE: What does it mean to be an international writer?
Ishiguro: Well, one important aspect is that if I spend time here in Germany or somewhere else explaining why I've written certain passages, when I go home and try to write my next book, somewhere in the back of my mind I have this idea that I'm going to be translated. Something that looks great in English may not work in other languages because it relies too much on puns, brand names, cultural references. And I feel a pressure to remove these things from my writing. This can be very dangerous..."
10/18/05 Listen to tracks from the New Son Volt.