ten good things
well, it's been a while since i've done one of these. but here we go...
ten good things, 2006 style
10. french/netherlandish tapestries at the metropolitan museum of art
The Unicorn in Captivity, 1495-1505
South Netherlandish
Wool warp, wool, silk, silver, and gilt wefts; 12 ft. 1 in. x 8 ft. 3 in. (368 x 251.5 cm)
... the last time i was at the MET, we pretty much said the hell with obligatory modern art, and instead spent a great deal of time in the medieval, persian and chinese sections. the older i get, the less urgency i feel when i go into a museum. i don't immediately rush off to something specific anymore; i sort of let things come to me. it's a great feeling, actually.
and the european tapestries of the medieval/renaissance period (of all things) have this great combo of dimensional and decorative space that i can apply to my own work. i love it when something i'm struggling with comes to resolution at random-- when i stumble into things that fit into my own little project, i guess.
9. reading henri bergson in the tub. i'm about fifty pages into the creative mind, and i'm finding it much more enjoyable than i expected. first and foremost, there's little of the dry negativity i've come to asscociate with philosophy. it's not that bergson is necessarily an optimist, but his project doesn't seem defined by skepticism. instead of simply reckoning with the ill-formed ideas of the past, you get the sense that he is celebrating his ideas in the present.
which makes for great tub reading, though i must admit that the logistics of maintaining dry hands and a wet body are occasionally difficult to maintain. my copy ends up a bit soggy.
8.
i've been listening to a lot of pharoah sanders lately, especially his fantastic wisdom through music (i couldn't find a decent pic of the cover; the one above is from black unity, i think). it's a pretty atypical sanders album. the songs are fairly short. the soloing is kept to a minimum. it's not really even a jazz record, per se-- it's more like, uh, psychedelic multiculturalism. a weird mix of indian, african and cuban influences, with hippie-ish avant-garde overtones, combining into something surprisingly accomodating and listenable. even the chanting that appears on many sanders records from this time is lighter and less new-age-y. it's a remarkably joyous little record, free of a lot of the things that turns people off to experimental jazz in the first place (abrasive noisiness, technical wankery, and so forth).
7. walking to the gas station in the snowstorm last night at 1:30 in the morning to buy a tube of pringles. the sky was pink. unfortunately, i then proceeded to eat the whole tube when i got back home. that's the kind of awesome shit i do when i'm not on the internet...
6. WFMU'S beware of the blog is absolutely, totally, completely amazing. there's so much to consider: an endless array of strange mp3's... great music clips (sun ra on SNL, amon duul II live, prince on american bandstand, every single thing ever shot pertaining to the fall)... not so great music clips (search "cheesy euro-disco" and you'll see what i mean)... amusing and insightful political posts... the presence of the always interesting irwin chusid (that's the dude we have to thank for the langley schools music project)... and, most importantly, the greatest concert footage of all time.
5. a film you might want to check out this year with yer valentine (if you can find it, which is tough) is max ophuls' wonderful la ronde. remarkably indulgent for a film made in 1950, it basically follows the path of sexual attraction from one character to the next with little time for protagonists and antagonists, or conflicts that aren't explicitly (for 1950, at any rate) erotic. the look of it is great, too. the camera almost never stops moving, whether it's following the carousel its willy-wonka-esque narrator rides throughout the film, or coasting through the wooded path where couples go to make out. there's a scene involving simone simon (of cat people fame) as a naughty housemaid that has to be seen to be believed. it's like watching softcore porn through the lens of josef von sternberg. but there's nothing sleazy about it, either. it's just warm and randy and defiantly permissive. and i loved every minute of it.
4. cooking shows on tv when i have a hangover. i don't know why, but they're just what the doctor ordered.
and i'll watch anything.
how cotton candy is made at the state fair in st. louis missouri? i'm there. cajun jambalaya + the on-screen smugness of bobby flay? fine with me. the weird, peg-bundy-esque vegan cook on pbs who's mean to people for no reason? you got it. if there's enough cheap red wine workin it's way through my bloodstream, i will watch emeril lagasse shove a roasted quail up the ass of a turducken if i have to...
3. admitting i'm a hipster. now, don't get me wrong... i have neither the sex life nor the busy social calendar of a major hipster. but as i prattle on about foreign films and pre-fusion jazz and rare footage of the fall, i might as well admit to fitting the bill a little. a few weeks ago, my sister (who for years had me labeled as "emo"-- a tag i still contend is inaccurate) decided to confront me about my hipsterdom (she's in NYC now, so it's all become a lot clearer to her), and i just owed up to it. it felt pretty good. better to admit i'm a hipster than to, like, develop some novelty interest in sports or something. i hate it when my artsy fartsy friends feel obligated to "make up" for their lack of normality. not being able to admit you're a hipster is what ruined the new cat power record (which i'm very upset about).
2. i saw derek bailey live about four years ago when i lived in NYC. i almost didn't go, cause i couldn't find anyone to tag along with me. but i showed up anyway, and i'm glad i did. he played with suzie ibarra, and they complemented each other nicely. their kinetic, idiosyncratic approaches to their instruments (ibarra on drums, bailey on electric guitar) complemented each other nicely, and it became clear that there weren't many people like either of them out there, frankly. and i was glad that i got to see one of the real "legends" of improvisational music in person, corny as it sounds.
anyway, i just found out that bailey died about a month and a half ago, and it got little press coverage. a lot of cool people have passed on in recent weeks (coretta scott king, shelley winters, nam june paik, eugene mc carthy, richard pryor, etc.), and we should all be a little more awesome to restore the balance of awesome-ness to the cosmos. it has taken a beating.
1. and finally, a sillier lament... on friday, the last four episodes of arrested development aired on FOX. now it's up to the cable networks or ron howard (who hinted at a movie in the final episode) or fanboys like me to see if it can be resurrected. but it should be mentioned that the ferocity with which they packed in a half million plot tie-in's during the final episode was an admirable way to make its exit. a friend of mine said she felt like she needed to take notes by the end of it. when do you ever get to say that about television?
*** ok that's it... but before i go, i must ask you all for a round of applause for whoever wrote up the wikipedia entry for "turducken" (see above link)***
oh internet, how i love you!
ten good things, 2006 style
10. french/netherlandish tapestries at the metropolitan museum of art
The Unicorn in Captivity, 1495-1505
South Netherlandish
Wool warp, wool, silk, silver, and gilt wefts; 12 ft. 1 in. x 8 ft. 3 in. (368 x 251.5 cm)
... the last time i was at the MET, we pretty much said the hell with obligatory modern art, and instead spent a great deal of time in the medieval, persian and chinese sections. the older i get, the less urgency i feel when i go into a museum. i don't immediately rush off to something specific anymore; i sort of let things come to me. it's a great feeling, actually.
and the european tapestries of the medieval/renaissance period (of all things) have this great combo of dimensional and decorative space that i can apply to my own work. i love it when something i'm struggling with comes to resolution at random-- when i stumble into things that fit into my own little project, i guess.
9. reading henri bergson in the tub. i'm about fifty pages into the creative mind, and i'm finding it much more enjoyable than i expected. first and foremost, there's little of the dry negativity i've come to asscociate with philosophy. it's not that bergson is necessarily an optimist, but his project doesn't seem defined by skepticism. instead of simply reckoning with the ill-formed ideas of the past, you get the sense that he is celebrating his ideas in the present.
which makes for great tub reading, though i must admit that the logistics of maintaining dry hands and a wet body are occasionally difficult to maintain. my copy ends up a bit soggy.
8.
i've been listening to a lot of pharoah sanders lately, especially his fantastic wisdom through music (i couldn't find a decent pic of the cover; the one above is from black unity, i think). it's a pretty atypical sanders album. the songs are fairly short. the soloing is kept to a minimum. it's not really even a jazz record, per se-- it's more like, uh, psychedelic multiculturalism. a weird mix of indian, african and cuban influences, with hippie-ish avant-garde overtones, combining into something surprisingly accomodating and listenable. even the chanting that appears on many sanders records from this time is lighter and less new-age-y. it's a remarkably joyous little record, free of a lot of the things that turns people off to experimental jazz in the first place (abrasive noisiness, technical wankery, and so forth).
7. walking to the gas station in the snowstorm last night at 1:30 in the morning to buy a tube of pringles. the sky was pink. unfortunately, i then proceeded to eat the whole tube when i got back home. that's the kind of awesome shit i do when i'm not on the internet...
6. WFMU'S beware of the blog is absolutely, totally, completely amazing. there's so much to consider: an endless array of strange mp3's... great music clips (sun ra on SNL, amon duul II live, prince on american bandstand, every single thing ever shot pertaining to the fall)... not so great music clips (search "cheesy euro-disco" and you'll see what i mean)... amusing and insightful political posts... the presence of the always interesting irwin chusid (that's the dude we have to thank for the langley schools music project)... and, most importantly, the greatest concert footage of all time.
5. a film you might want to check out this year with yer valentine (if you can find it, which is tough) is max ophuls' wonderful la ronde. remarkably indulgent for a film made in 1950, it basically follows the path of sexual attraction from one character to the next with little time for protagonists and antagonists, or conflicts that aren't explicitly (for 1950, at any rate) erotic. the look of it is great, too. the camera almost never stops moving, whether it's following the carousel its willy-wonka-esque narrator rides throughout the film, or coasting through the wooded path where couples go to make out. there's a scene involving simone simon (of cat people fame) as a naughty housemaid that has to be seen to be believed. it's like watching softcore porn through the lens of josef von sternberg. but there's nothing sleazy about it, either. it's just warm and randy and defiantly permissive. and i loved every minute of it.
4. cooking shows on tv when i have a hangover. i don't know why, but they're just what the doctor ordered.
and i'll watch anything.
how cotton candy is made at the state fair in st. louis missouri? i'm there. cajun jambalaya + the on-screen smugness of bobby flay? fine with me. the weird, peg-bundy-esque vegan cook on pbs who's mean to people for no reason? you got it. if there's enough cheap red wine workin it's way through my bloodstream, i will watch emeril lagasse shove a roasted quail up the ass of a turducken if i have to...
3. admitting i'm a hipster. now, don't get me wrong... i have neither the sex life nor the busy social calendar of a major hipster. but as i prattle on about foreign films and pre-fusion jazz and rare footage of the fall, i might as well admit to fitting the bill a little. a few weeks ago, my sister (who for years had me labeled as "emo"-- a tag i still contend is inaccurate) decided to confront me about my hipsterdom (she's in NYC now, so it's all become a lot clearer to her), and i just owed up to it. it felt pretty good. better to admit i'm a hipster than to, like, develop some novelty interest in sports or something. i hate it when my artsy fartsy friends feel obligated to "make up" for their lack of normality. not being able to admit you're a hipster is what ruined the new cat power record (which i'm very upset about).
2. i saw derek bailey live about four years ago when i lived in NYC. i almost didn't go, cause i couldn't find anyone to tag along with me. but i showed up anyway, and i'm glad i did. he played with suzie ibarra, and they complemented each other nicely. their kinetic, idiosyncratic approaches to their instruments (ibarra on drums, bailey on electric guitar) complemented each other nicely, and it became clear that there weren't many people like either of them out there, frankly. and i was glad that i got to see one of the real "legends" of improvisational music in person, corny as it sounds.
anyway, i just found out that bailey died about a month and a half ago, and it got little press coverage. a lot of cool people have passed on in recent weeks (coretta scott king, shelley winters, nam june paik, eugene mc carthy, richard pryor, etc.), and we should all be a little more awesome to restore the balance of awesome-ness to the cosmos. it has taken a beating.
1. and finally, a sillier lament... on friday, the last four episodes of arrested development aired on FOX. now it's up to the cable networks or ron howard (who hinted at a movie in the final episode) or fanboys like me to see if it can be resurrected. but it should be mentioned that the ferocity with which they packed in a half million plot tie-in's during the final episode was an admirable way to make its exit. a friend of mine said she felt like she needed to take notes by the end of it. when do you ever get to say that about television?
*** ok that's it... but before i go, i must ask you all for a round of applause for whoever wrote up the wikipedia entry for "turducken" (see above link)***
oh internet, how i love you!