(no subject)
ONE TWO THREE
I didn't like the Watchmen movie. I do like other things. Here are three things that I've been digging on lately.
1. The photography of John Deakin
I know little about John Deakin expect that he hung out in Francis Bacon's circle (from which he drew most of his subjects) and that he was a terrible alcoholic. I stumbled across his work while doing some research for another project, and was instantly in love. Deakin's pictures are utterly haunted. To me, these photos seem to capture incursions of growth and ruin; these are forces that are strange and otherworldly and they get to work on familiar things and defamiliarize them and create textures and moods that are glimpses into dimensions unknown and they open up mysteries in your mind. I'm dying to pick up the collection of his work A Maverick Eye, but I only have $29 in my wallet and maybe another $15 or $20 in my bank account. Maybe when payday rolls around.
2. Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain.
I really only know two Miles Davis records very well-- Kind of Blue, of course, and On the Corner, which was playing constantly for a week or two back when I lived at the Me Kong Delta. I got Sketches of Spain from the public library. This is a totally sublime album, guys. I listened to it like three times already today and I'm already looking forward to listening to it some more tomorrow. It's got a lot of the epic sweep and high drama flair that Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western stuff has going on, but there's also this weird Miles Davis birth of the cool thing happening too. Serve with Mingus' The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, stirred not shaken.
3. Fishing With John
This is a totally excellent discovery but it's pretty hard to describe. Fishing With John was a short lived television show whose premise was basically that each episode John Lurie would go out to an exotic locale with one of his friends and they would basically go fishing and hang out, and then add these strange surreal narrative track over it. I know that sounds pretty lame, but this is totally great.
The friends in question are Tom Waits, Jim Jarmusch, Dennis Hopper, Willem Dafoe, and Matt Dillon, and its really a pleasure to watch them hang around with the ever likable John Lurie. The personalities really come out; there are a lot of strange stories and jokes exchanged, as well as a fair amount of the players needling on another. It's all set in these beautiful locales and a lot of time is taken just to observe the atmosphere and capture the sense of place. The whole series is on YouTube. I haven't watched it all yet, but I'm really savoring it. It's quiet and it's smart and it's humble and gives a good treatment to a subject which almost always comes out trite or condescending when its taken on in art, which is just how terrific it is to be alive.
I didn't like the Watchmen movie. I do like other things. Here are three things that I've been digging on lately.
1. The photography of John Deakin
I know little about John Deakin expect that he hung out in Francis Bacon's circle (from which he drew most of his subjects) and that he was a terrible alcoholic. I stumbled across his work while doing some research for another project, and was instantly in love. Deakin's pictures are utterly haunted. To me, these photos seem to capture incursions of growth and ruin; these are forces that are strange and otherworldly and they get to work on familiar things and defamiliarize them and create textures and moods that are glimpses into dimensions unknown and they open up mysteries in your mind. I'm dying to pick up the collection of his work A Maverick Eye, but I only have $29 in my wallet and maybe another $15 or $20 in my bank account. Maybe when payday rolls around.
2. Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain.
I really only know two Miles Davis records very well-- Kind of Blue, of course, and On the Corner, which was playing constantly for a week or two back when I lived at the Me Kong Delta. I got Sketches of Spain from the public library. This is a totally sublime album, guys. I listened to it like three times already today and I'm already looking forward to listening to it some more tomorrow. It's got a lot of the epic sweep and high drama flair that Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western stuff has going on, but there's also this weird Miles Davis birth of the cool thing happening too. Serve with Mingus' The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, stirred not shaken.
Click to view3. Fishing With John
This is a totally excellent discovery but it's pretty hard to describe. Fishing With John was a short lived television show whose premise was basically that each episode John Lurie would go out to an exotic locale with one of his friends and they would basically go fishing and hang out, and then add these strange surreal narrative track over it. I know that sounds pretty lame, but this is totally great.
The friends in question are Tom Waits, Jim Jarmusch, Dennis Hopper, Willem Dafoe, and Matt Dillon, and its really a pleasure to watch them hang around with the ever likable John Lurie. The personalities really come out; there are a lot of strange stories and jokes exchanged, as well as a fair amount of the players needling on another. It's all set in these beautiful locales and a lot of time is taken just to observe the atmosphere and capture the sense of place. The whole series is on YouTube. I haven't watched it all yet, but I'm really savoring it. It's quiet and it's smart and it's humble and gives a good treatment to a subject which almost always comes out trite or condescending when its taken on in art, which is just how terrific it is to be alive.