Printed Matter!

The tape wall at Printed Matter.

Pretty awesome. I went in to Printed Matter doing research on artists books, but have been meaning to go in there ever since I heard about it. They put on the NY Art Book Fair last month. It is a fantastic place. It reminded me of Olympia in some ways, but also made me feel grateful for all that the city has to offer. They primarily stock artists books, and additionally have gallery space running the length of the space for older/ rarer works. (Fluxus texts, etc) They also stock zines, cassettes, seven inches, pins, stickers, and any other matter of printed work. This is the first place in the city that I've found an abundance of tapes. Their zine selection was somewhat limited, so I will keep on seeking. I also walked around the corner and found the end of Manhattan:

flanked of course by large commercial piers on either side.

mix a lot

I made this mix for my friend Sandra, I imagined her riding her bicycle around Portland while listening to it. It is called Mixed Metaphors in Mixed Company.

Lucky Dragons - Mercy
Explode Into Colors - Sharpen the Knife
Les Georges Leningrad - Wunderkind
Sonic Youth - Bone
The Blow - Jet Ski Accidents
Yes, Please - Clouds of Mystery
Yes, Please - Yes for Now
Polka Dot Dot Dot - Vertigo
Robbie Francis (feat. Greta Jane/ Ruby Valentine) - Privot Rose
Woelv - Au Viol!
Pocahaunted - Ghetto Ballet
Kria Brekkan - track 5 from Apotropaiosong Armour
Farah - Dancing Girls
High Places - Gold Coin
Rings - Mom Dance
The Raincoats - No Looking

And Joel sent me an awesome mix tape in the mail!! It is called Wave Interference.

Amyl Nitrate / Jubilee

I just watched Derek Jarman's Jubilee at BAM's punk'n'pie film series. While the film itself is marvelously prophetic, I really fell for the character of Amyl Nitrate. In the beginning of the film, one of her gang girls brings in a pack of street kids (The Slits, I think) and introduces them to their heroine, Amyl, who reads to them from the book she is writing: "...In those days, desires weren't allowed to become reality. So fantasy was substituted for them - films, books, pictures. They called it 'art'. But when your desires become reality, you don't need fantasy any longer, or art." Her favorite song being from Rocky Horror "don't dream it, be it" (Jubilee stars Richard O'Brian and Little Nell as well) and her role model is Myra Hindley (very friendly / so much to answer for). She wears a pink sweater set with pearls, and elaborate future/tribal punk makeup with her hair standing on end. Later on, when her flat mates are engaging in orgies she is set up in her library, conducting research, and working on her book of historical theory. "When I'm not busy making history I'm writing it." Her gang is called The Daughters of God, and they go around killing the male lead singers of punk bands that have sold out to "Borgia" yet they ultimately will sell out as well in the end. The film is from 1977, but I was struck by the timeless (or perhaps, still very relevant) punk values present through the film. Even much of the fashion could easily pass today. And so how much has advanced since then? I suppose nowadays the punks and the hippies are fusing.

toy piano project

Currently Reading

After Dark - Haruki Murakami (fiction) : I don't really know what to say about this book, in some ways it feels like it missed the point. Murakami seems to be playing with the American outsider teenage love story as represented by the cinema - I was reminded of the film Before Sunrise. There were metaphysical elements, as I think he is known for, but they felt too deliberate. While I did appreciate the contagious narrative layers, I did not so the unexplained, or unresolved violence. It was good subway reading though. (Now I am inspired to locate my After Dark Cd comp.)

The Importance of Music to Girls - Lavinia Greenlaw (memoir) : I love the thoroughly obvious title. Having begun to write my own personal history as influenced by the records I was listening to at the time, this is then a stellar example, but some fifteen years earlier. The author has written opera libretti, which I find fascinating, and entirely unknown. She was in England at the onset of punk, and dove in headfirst from disco. While I have read some (female) punk biographies, they have all been pretty tragic - so I appreciate this confident and judicious journey though teenage musical evolution.

The Geography of Bliss - Eric Weiner (non-fiction) : I am actually still in Bhutan, partway through this book, but it is moving rather quickly and enjoyably. The book was published in January of this year, missing the statistics released over the summer of Denmark as being the number one happiest country (I love Denmark) and unfortunately so, it is not visited. It begins in Rotterdam, home of the Happiness Database - a marvelous information resource I think. Learning how this is a developing industry is compelling for the researchers of the world it seems. This is wonderful subway reading, and full of blissful tidbits that encourage me more so to reach out to my fellow New Yorkers with kindness.

soft focus television

Ian Svenonius has a television program on vice magazine's internet television station. (Thanks Vanessa and Brian for telling me about this.) I just watched two episodes, one interview with Genesis P. Orridge, and one with Calvin Johnson (thanks K site). The parallels between the two are interesting, perhaps they are themes recurrent through Svenonius's choice of interview questions, but they are of immediate interest to me. While Genesis gets more esoteric with the approach, Calvin is more pragmatic while they both discuss the tangibility of artistic experience, namely music consumption. What is the cultural significance of holding a seven inch record in your hands vs downloading it off the internet. While the advancement has proven unavoidable, the collective memory is what is now in danger of disappearing. In my library school, we often discuss staying ahead of the technological curve, so as to cater to and appeal to the younger, advancing masses. Must remain relevant. It is acting in fear however, of one day becoming obsolete - though no one says such. We are the facilitators of the experience of interacting with a physical data instrument. "Take responsibility for your own evolution" says P-Orridge.

Six Saturdays with Messiaen

I went to the sixth Saturday, yesterday at the Saint Thomas church on 53rd. I know very little about composer Olivier Messiaen's work, but the performance was exciting on account of the venue alone. There was a lovely display of the elderly in attendance, and Messiaen's complex harmonies did not seem lost on them. Some portions felt very dissonant, and at one point a young boy several pews up banged his hands on his ears repeatedly. The cathedral was massive, as was the organ, and despite the length of the performance I felt filled the entire time. How will this compare with recordings I wonder?

A trip to P.S.1

Inside of Leandro Erlich's Swimming Pool

In the NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith show :

-A swell of piano keys like plucked teeth growing out from a goddess figure in the corner with a black ship at its peak

-funeral barges (complete with caped taxidermy, and tiny boats for stacks of cigarettes) pulling away from a pair of shadows on the wall

-a circle like that of candles, except with fluorescent coils

-A room, I smelled it first: lavender, of "Curandera's Botanica" with tables and shelves of bottles and jars, and the floor swept with lavender and glitter into the corners. And incredibly cold. The guard, oddly repeating in a reedy voice to the spectators "very cold in there" I see the red beads of a rosary peeking out of his black security t-shirt. Is this offensive to the religious? Can religious practice stand alone as art? Maybe not.

Finally, on the third floor, Stealth Distortion (...must have seen it in some teenage wet dream). The last room I visit has a sign posted as it being potentially offensive. There are bright rows of LED lights that you must walk around to get into the first chamber. It is dark, and behind are a row of television tubes without box frames displaying a variety of startup/waiting animations from computer programs, the wall behind a three-dimensional pattern that led me to say to myself, "okay, I understand, I am reduced to bits and bytes." All this with a droning and grinding soundtrack. A smaller room to the left with rows of yellowed fluorescent bulbs and a wall tiled in black mirror. I look close and can not see my own reflection. The bulbs are giving off heat. A guard walks through a doorway on the opposite corner that I don't think I had even noticed despite it being a very small room. It has that clear vinyl stripping like from coolers hanging down. I feel separate from myself and this space. I walk through, into a large room, with high ceilings, and feels like a laboratory. I gasp - There is a giant reclining taxidermied unicorn in a large display box. Holy of holies! But if you walk in front of it the glass at the center the frosting renders it invisible. All the rooms are one work, one installation piece by a Norwegian artist, Borre Saethre, exhibiting in the US for the first time.

telepathe @ mercury lounge

Telepathe is one of my favorite groups, and finally I saw them in the city. I got lost in alphabet city on the way, (which is appropriate, as I was reading After Dark, more on that later.) Telepathe was awesome and nice. They played five songs, the first four I'd never heard (new album on the way?) and the last was off their new 12". It was pretty mellow, and I talked to a classmate there later who was wishing there had been more to dance to. I always find their music very uplifting, dancing or not.

Two of the opener bands, Zaza, and Picture Picture, were weird! Zaza was this goth/synth/punk trio with a standup drummer, the standout. Picture Picture are these two lost backstreet-boys types. Singing and dancing to slow jams backup track. Complete with developed characters - I don't know if I would see them again. The headliner, Violens, was terrible. I read them described as "crass meets violent femmes" and I walked out midway through the first song.

Currently Listening

I just picked up these albums today..

Pocahaunted - Island Diamonds on Not Not Fun Records. This is really good! I just started it over again after it played once through already. My friend Ben told me about them forever ago, but I did not actually hear them until last week on Pseu Braun's show on WFMU. It is pretty spaced-out; two girls with chanting and effects. I am into it, it is trance-inducing. They are maybe treading some thin pc ice, but too I heard recently about this German art collective that gathers annually to have a big pow-wow in full regalia. two thumbs up anyhow.

Beach House - Devotion on Carpark Records. Also a bit spaced-out, and very sweet. I think they call this sort of music "dream-pop". It reminds me of old Mazzy Star records, and something else too. I really like it. The opening riff on "Gila" evokes so much that I can not explain. Somehow I missed seeing them at the Baltimore Round Robin show last month. The title is very much the theme of the record, performed by a pair that I can only assume are a couple in life.

Kria Brekkan - Apotropaiosong Armour CDR exclusive to Other Music. The disc was wrapped in a paper photograph of Kria Brekkan, glued actually so that I was unsure if I was to break the seal. Inside the disc is blank and there is no text to speak of. It compiles some recent work - I am so into her work, and up until now the only proper release I have is a seven inch but no turntable. (But see the first post in this blog for more.) The tracks here feel small, and quiet in some ways, but I must be used to listening to her live songs. The samples are more apparent though and despite that it is likely only her, the work is not lonely. Eerie, echoed and beautiful.

Oly Film Fest review - link

I miss the Olympia Film Festival - the annual fest at my former place of employment. I came upon a review of the 3x3: New Work by West Coast Women Artists showcase of films by Vanessa O'Neill, Amber Smith, and Wynne Greenwood, here. I am curious still about the "You Have a Body" show, which I know had fashions by my friend Anna Kinderman.

Avant Composers

Something about being in New York has me listening to and seeking more of the avant-garde composers. I went to a free concert last night of compositions by Arvo Part and Morton Feldman. Feldman's "Rothko Chapel" being the climax of the show. It was in a giant glass atrium full of palm trees: The Winter Garden. (Appropriate as it is now 27 degrees here.) "Rothko Chapel" was written to coincide with the opening of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, TX. Rothko, however, killed himself before it was opened. So the work has a lot of melancholy. It is arguably the first ambient work as well. (Eno's "Music for Airports" arriving several years later.) The performers felt slightly awkward with their "zen" delivery; I enjoyed the Part compositions more. Part is an Estonian composer known for "sacred minimalism". Part also created the Tintinnabulation style of very bell-like compositions. My mother has explained to me that music was the only method of preserving language and culture during the occupation in Estonia by foreign powers. She was there once during a huge fest when people came from all over the world to sing together. It must have been fantastic. Now I await my Massiaen discs from the library.

Treehouses in mid-town

"Tree Huts" Installation in Madison Square -
Tadashi Kawamata, artist

This was rather thrilling to come upon, the presence of treehouses in mid-town Manhattan being very unusual. Had the homeless people found alternative solutions? I recalled the book Missing Angel Juan by Francesca Lia Block where the young Juan lives in the trees of Central Park. I sat on a bench for a time, observing interactions with the work. There are about eight huts in all, indeed out of human reach, but likely not for the squirrels and birds.

"Seed Stage" at the Whitney.

This was a pleasant surprise. I was attending for the Calder exhibit, and came upon this installation/ performance piece on the first floor. The stapled brochure has photos of the artist, Corin Hewitt, foraging for squash and building structures, mixed with patterns and prints of various paper widths. Inside I first noticed flies, and a white wall directly in front of me as though I am heading the wrong direction. There are four walls in this lobby gallery containing the work, with gaps at each corner about the width of your eyes. Presented on the outer walls are photographs. I walk all around; at one corner compost collecting (hence the flies) and a shelf displaying canned vegetables. The next corner allows a view into the full space, where the artist can be seen. He briefly makes eye contact, and then continues working. At the third corner, the full front of the room is seen, a true stage. Hewitt has plates of food set up under cameras, with large color printers and a ledge that has other goods on display. Eye contact again, and this time the feel of a caged animal. At the fourth corner, all that can be seen are the technological devices being utilized. I ask the guard how often he is here, and he says only three days a week of the five that the museum is open. "That would be too much otherwise." he says, and we laugh. The show runs from October 3, 2008 through January 4, 2009.

Currently Reading

The Other - David Guterson : I read this book out of longing for the Pacific Northwest region, most specifically the Olympic rainforest, where a good portion of this story is set. That delivers, but the plot not so much. I was left feeling like it never quite tackled the kernel of the matter, a hermit living and dying alone in the forest. But I suppose then the lack of understanding as to why someone would forsake civilization is then present.

Here They Come - Yannick Murphy : This is not a book I would normally read, I can not exactly say why, but regardless, I am glad I did. Perhaps because of its resonance in the region I am currently in. A young, crass girl living with her poor family on the lower east side of past, and all the ensuing hi jinx. There is a beautiful twist of language at the end and some magical realism throughout. I read this taking the F train back and forth on a rainy day.

"The Leopard" - Wells Tower : The story from this week's New Yorker is good and weird. Set from the point of view of a vexed and blemished eleven year old boy, it is a style of voice I had not yet seen represented by the periodical. He has a collection coming out in Spring. Link to the story here.

Insel - Mina Loy : I found this whilst browsing the "L"'s to my delight. The novel is set amidst a collection of Surreal painters in this semi-autobiography. Loy was a painter and more throughout several art movements in the early and mid-century. Printed too some thirty years after it was written. I am only partway through, but am enjoying its elaborate and layered language.

Artist - Amy Cutler

I first connected Amy Cutler's name with her work at the American Folk Art Museum's "DARGERism: Contemporary Artists and Henry Darger" show last month. Her large and detailed paintings of women, often with long braids and dresses, in large like clusters stood out among the many Alice-inspired works. (I was reminded frequently of the photographer Anna Gaskill throughout the show.) I just checked out a book from the library, Ms. Hempel Chronicles - by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, probably only because a Cutler painting was on the cover. And today, the new issue of Cabinet arrives in the mail "Shame" with a spread of Amy Cutler works. Her work is so appealing as it chronicles female experience with fairytale themes and exquisite precision. Cutler live in Brooklyn.

Update - Ms. Hempel Chronicles is a very good book, I read it in one evening. It is a collection of corresponding short stories, one called "Yurt" that I actually read in the New Yorker a while back.

New arrivals - music

Woelv - gris - yes, I like it very much, it came in the mail today from P.W. Elverum & Sun (Source of Wind). "Edition Japonais"/ four tracks. A little bit haunted, but I would be surprised if it weren't, coming from her. I came upon her website recently, where I signed up for a mailing list to receive actual/physical mail. There are some of her drawings in the liner notes and a little string cluster pattern tucked in the jewel back as well. all thumbs up.

Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna - I picked this up on trade at Other Music. A little too clubby (persistent electronic beats) for me, but I will come back and listen to it some more for certain. Some standout tracks, one of which I had already downloaded free from OM : "Desert Storm". I haven't seen them yet in the city, so I'll likely go to their upcoming show at Santos w/ Marnie Stern. Dymphna of course being the saint of mental illness.
Update: This album is really good and has totally grown on me

Meredith Monk - Atlas - Just downloaded this from iTunes, my second time with this service. I had heard this on the radio very late one evening and was pleasantly surprised to enjoy one of her later (1993) works so much. She continues making music, but my favorite by her came out the year before I was born. I thought the whole album might be wordless, but then a few recognizable bits emerge, followed by the rare dialogue of "Choosing Companions". I am happy to have a work by her of greater length, and general consistency.

Growing - Color Wheel - I love this album. I only had it on vinyl with no turntable to speak, so I picked this up on disc at OM today as well. I am not so into their newest album, All the Way, but I have not given it a thorough chance yet. I keep missing their shows in the city, and only wish I had ever seen them back in Olympia. No words at all on this album, and any Growing works ever?