(no subject)
Let's see everything that has happened in the past month.
This is not in chronological order, FYI.
-Marco died, more or less for good. I have my dad's car now.
-Saw Behemoth, which was a really amazing show. Better than Cannibal Corpse, but not quite as good as Eluveitie/Belphegor. Better than Vader by years (although that was not Vader's fault). Should have taken my stuffed cat Nergal, but I didn't think of it until I was there. That cat has been places no cat needs to go, so I think he could have survived the concert. :P
-Day after Behemoth saw a really awesome documentary based loosely around the Norwegian church burnings circa 1992. A local Pittsburgh black metal band (complete with corpsepaint) played as sort of an opener to the movie. They acted as a soundtrack to another sort of collage of movies/clips consisting of the single most bizarre combination of things I have ever seen in my life. From Un Chien Andalou (which was the most normal of the five [which is saying something]) to a home-movie looking 10-minute clip of what looks like a very macabre carnival show with rotting animals hooked up to machines that roll around, twitch, and light things on fire. (James: if you know of anything that sounds similar to that last one, let me know please! While it was one of the grossest things I've ever seen, it was also wildly interesting and something I would like to investigate a little further. Could be a really interesting source of inspiration for costumes. I believe it took place in California, and you could see a crowd of people standing around observing. It took place outside in what looked like a parking lot, at night. Most of the clip focused on this decaying dog who was mounted on the front of a remote-controlled platform. The head had been removed and was reattached to the dog so that it could spin 360. There were also three rabbits that had been tied together with rope that made them "jump" every few seconds that had the attention of several frames. There was no discernable plot, no dialogue and I presume no music as the band was playing.) Also clips from what I believe was a documentary on José Mojica Marins' Awakening of the Beast (with emphasis on the "on" because I believe Awakening was supposed to be a pseudo-documentary itself, if I remember correctly from the Films class forever and a day ago). It had both clips from the film itself and newspaper articles about it. I might be mistaken about it being that particular film, but I know it was one of his "Coffin Joe" works and definitely not one of his newer few films.
I was too busy "what-the-fucking" with the rest of the audience to pay a ton of attention to the music, but from what I remember they were surprisingly good. They certainly created a very interesting and appropriate atmosphere.
The documentary itself, titled Until the Light Takes Us, was very sad in a way. I wouldn't say that it was necessarily about the church burnings, but it used them as sort of a glue for the interviews which took up the bulk of the film. It spent most of the time interviewing Varg, and Fenriz from Darkthrone, but had a lot of other musicians as well, like Frost from Satyricon. It was almost a combination of a character study into those individual artists within the movement, and a character study of the early black metal movement itself. Incredibly amazing from a historian's standpoint. Like, really, really. Headbanger's Journey was good, too, but not like this. The stuff with Varg was interesting, hearing his point of view on the genre and its affect on people and what had been "their" intended affect, etc. But Fenriz's stuff that, in my opinion, made the documentary. Plus, notgonnalie, his phone interview with the woman was fucking hilarious (and really quite sad). The part where he goes to the gallery and says, "This is where Helvete was," was amazingly heart-breaking. And just the entire thing with the artist, and Frost's suicide performance, and the church burnings itself. Very, very good documentary. I really think, if more documentaries like this (not just on metal, but anything, musically-related or not) existed there would be many, many more people going into fields like history, anthropology, sociology. Or even if the works that do exist were promoted in an academic light rather than as entertainment for niche audiences. It's sad how much history historians and students will never see simply because of the labels things get. That's part of my problem with American education and Vikings, but that's a rant for another time.
-Managed to luck my way through the first round of big assignments due. Have no idea how, but four out of five assignments I have just side-fucked my way through and miraculously came out better than okay. As in... bull-shitting my way through answers to terms I've never heard of before and some how getting them correct.
-Beginning to build my show. Damn is it going to look strange. Dancing lettuce. I really wish I had something better to be my first -real- experience as a designer.
-Norway in T-46 days. Final line-up was announced a few weeks ago, and I'm very happy with it. Granted, I do not know the majority of the 45-or-so bands that are playing, but there's Belphegor (again! yay!), Finntroll, Marduk, Svarttjern, IHSAHN (yaaaaay), Mayhem, and Deströyer 666, all of whom I really like. And some other bands who I dig. Only two bands that I know I, for certain, do not like. I had a miniature flip out when I saw that Shining was on the schedule, because while he's fine musically I don't think I could stomach his stage show, but it is in fact the Norwegian Shining, who I don't have to be afraid of, haha. The really intensely self-mutilating one is apparently Swedish, and was supposed to play at the Behemoth show I saw. I think he had problems getting into the country, haha, so he didn't perform needless to say.
-Was blizzarded-in this last weekend. Fuck snow, man. I would be completely fine with winter if West Virginia would only pick a damned climate and stick with it instead of flopping back and forth between 20 and 50 degrees weekly. Snow is peachy, as long as it is at least a fairly constant occurence.
Cannot think of anything else of importance.
This is not in chronological order, FYI.
-Marco died, more or less for good. I have my dad's car now.
-Saw Behemoth, which was a really amazing show. Better than Cannibal Corpse, but not quite as good as Eluveitie/Belphegor. Better than Vader by years (although that was not Vader's fault). Should have taken my stuffed cat Nergal, but I didn't think of it until I was there. That cat has been places no cat needs to go, so I think he could have survived the concert. :P
-Day after Behemoth saw a really awesome documentary based loosely around the Norwegian church burnings circa 1992. A local Pittsburgh black metal band (complete with corpsepaint) played as sort of an opener to the movie. They acted as a soundtrack to another sort of collage of movies/clips consisting of the single most bizarre combination of things I have ever seen in my life. From Un Chien Andalou (which was the most normal of the five [which is saying something]) to a home-movie looking 10-minute clip of what looks like a very macabre carnival show with rotting animals hooked up to machines that roll around, twitch, and light things on fire. (James: if you know of anything that sounds similar to that last one, let me know please! While it was one of the grossest things I've ever seen, it was also wildly interesting and something I would like to investigate a little further. Could be a really interesting source of inspiration for costumes. I believe it took place in California, and you could see a crowd of people standing around observing. It took place outside in what looked like a parking lot, at night. Most of the clip focused on this decaying dog who was mounted on the front of a remote-controlled platform. The head had been removed and was reattached to the dog so that it could spin 360. There were also three rabbits that had been tied together with rope that made them "jump" every few seconds that had the attention of several frames. There was no discernable plot, no dialogue and I presume no music as the band was playing.) Also clips from what I believe was a documentary on José Mojica Marins' Awakening of the Beast (with emphasis on the "on" because I believe Awakening was supposed to be a pseudo-documentary itself, if I remember correctly from the Films class forever and a day ago). It had both clips from the film itself and newspaper articles about it. I might be mistaken about it being that particular film, but I know it was one of his "Coffin Joe" works and definitely not one of his newer few films.
I was too busy "what-the-fucking" with the rest of the audience to pay a ton of attention to the music, but from what I remember they were surprisingly good. They certainly created a very interesting and appropriate atmosphere.
The documentary itself, titled Until the Light Takes Us, was very sad in a way. I wouldn't say that it was necessarily about the church burnings, but it used them as sort of a glue for the interviews which took up the bulk of the film. It spent most of the time interviewing Varg, and Fenriz from Darkthrone, but had a lot of other musicians as well, like Frost from Satyricon. It was almost a combination of a character study into those individual artists within the movement, and a character study of the early black metal movement itself. Incredibly amazing from a historian's standpoint. Like, really, really. Headbanger's Journey was good, too, but not like this. The stuff with Varg was interesting, hearing his point of view on the genre and its affect on people and what had been "their" intended affect, etc. But Fenriz's stuff that, in my opinion, made the documentary. Plus, notgonnalie, his phone interview with the woman was fucking hilarious (and really quite sad). The part where he goes to the gallery and says, "This is where Helvete was," was amazingly heart-breaking. And just the entire thing with the artist, and Frost's suicide performance, and the church burnings itself. Very, very good documentary. I really think, if more documentaries like this (not just on metal, but anything, musically-related or not) existed there would be many, many more people going into fields like history, anthropology, sociology. Or even if the works that do exist were promoted in an academic light rather than as entertainment for niche audiences. It's sad how much history historians and students will never see simply because of the labels things get. That's part of my problem with American education and Vikings, but that's a rant for another time.
-Managed to luck my way through the first round of big assignments due. Have no idea how, but four out of five assignments I have just side-fucked my way through and miraculously came out better than okay. As in... bull-shitting my way through answers to terms I've never heard of before and some how getting them correct.
-Beginning to build my show. Damn is it going to look strange. Dancing lettuce. I really wish I had something better to be my first -real- experience as a designer.
-Norway in T-46 days. Final line-up was announced a few weeks ago, and I'm very happy with it. Granted, I do not know the majority of the 45-or-so bands that are playing, but there's Belphegor (again! yay!), Finntroll, Marduk, Svarttjern, IHSAHN (yaaaaay), Mayhem, and Deströyer 666, all of whom I really like. And some other bands who I dig. Only two bands that I know I, for certain, do not like. I had a miniature flip out when I saw that Shining was on the schedule, because while he's fine musically I don't think I could stomach his stage show, but it is in fact the Norwegian Shining, who I don't have to be afraid of, haha. The really intensely self-mutilating one is apparently Swedish, and was supposed to play at the Behemoth show I saw. I think he had problems getting into the country, haha, so he didn't perform needless to say.
-Was blizzarded-in this last weekend. Fuck snow, man. I would be completely fine with winter if West Virginia would only pick a damned climate and stick with it instead of flopping back and forth between 20 and 50 degrees weekly. Snow is peachy, as long as it is at least a fairly constant occurence.
Cannot think of anything else of importance.