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"Method of this work:
literary montage.
I have nothing to say only to show."
(Passagenwerk (1927 - 1940) - Walter Benjamin)


2005, May 16; 00:03 ::: Danae

Danae (1907-08) - Gustav Klimt

In Greek mythology, Danae (Greek: "parched") was a daughter of King Acrisius of Argos and Eurydice (no relation to Orpheus' Eurydice). She was the mother of Perseus by Zeus. She was sometimes credited with founding the city of Ardea in Latium. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danae [May 2005]

Zeus
Zeus came to her in the form of rain or a shower of gold, and impregnated her. Soon after, their child Perseus was born. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danae [May 2005]


2005, May 15; 23:42 ::: Perseus Frees Andromeda (c. 1515) - Piero di Cosimo (1462 - 1521)

Perseus Frees Andromeda (c. 1515) - Piero di Cosimo (1462 - 1521)

Perseus
Perseus, was the son of Danae, the only child of Acrisius king of Argos. Disappointed by his lack of male heirs, he asked an oracle if this would change. The oracle told him that one day he would be killed by his daughter's child. She was childless and, meaning to keep her so, he shut her up in a brazen chamber. But Zeus came to her in the form of rain, and impregnated her. Soon after, their child Perseus was born. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus_%28mythology%29 [May 2005]

Perseus and Andromeda
Perseus, returning from having slain the Gorgon, found Andromeda, slew the monster, set her free, and married her in spite of Phineus, to whom she had before been promised. At the wedding a quarrel took place between the rivals, and Phineus was turned to stone by the sight of the Gorgon's head (Ovid, Metamorphoses v. 1).

Andromeda followed her husband to Tiryns in Argos, and became the ancestress of the family of the Perseidae through Perseus' and Andromeda's son, Perses. Perseus and Andromeda had six sons (Perseides): Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus, and Electryon, and one daughter, Gorgophone. Their descendants ruled Mycenae from Electryon down to Eurystheus, after whom Atreus got the kingdom, and include the great hero Heracles.

After her death she was placed by Athena amongst the constellations in the northern sky, near Perseus and Cassiopeia. Sophocles and Euripides (and in more modern times Corneille) made the story the subject of tragedies, and its incidents were represented in numerous ancient works of art. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_%28mythology%29 [May 2005]

Piero di Cosimo
Piero di Cosimo (also known as Piero di Lorenzo) (1462–1521) was an Italian painter. The son of a Florentine goldsmith, he apprenticed under Cosimo Rosseli, whom he assisted in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel. He was noted for his rather eccentric personality and unorthodox interpretations of mythological subjects. He also wrote a relatively famous treatise on geometry. Piero's students included Andrea del Sarto. He was found dead at the foot of a flight of stairs. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_di_Cosimo [May 2005]


2005, May 15; 23:06 ::: Medusa

Medusa (1598-99) - Caravaggio

Medusa (1617-1618) - Rubens

At the same time, the severed female head invokes what the feminist film critic Barbara Creed calls the monstrous feminine, that Gorgonian archetype whose stony glare and grinning gape mock the almighty phallus into shriveled impotence. The ur-text on this subject is of course Freud's over-the-top essay, "Medusa's Head" (1922), in which he asserts, "To decapitate = to castrate. The terror of Medusa is thus the terror of castration that is linked to the sight of something."16 For a young boy, that something is that unforgettable first glimpse of the awesome female pubes, most likely his mother's, with their snaky tangle of hair. To Freud's terrified little boy, mom's you-know-what is at once a fearful wound where the penis used to be and a shaggy maw, waiting to gobble up his organ as well. Medusa's serpentine locks are the severed members of her Bobbit-ized victims.

16 — Sigmund Freud. "Medusa's Head" [1922], in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. & trans. James Strachey, vol. XVIII (London: The Hogarth Press, 1955), p. 273. --http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/10/severed_head.php [May 2005]

On horror's head horrors accumulate." Othello (III,iii)

I. The Medusa's Head and the Castration Complex

Freud first wrote about the motif of the decapitated Medusa's head in a brief set of notes dated May 14, 1922. According to the editors of the Internationale Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalyse und Imago who published the manuscript posthumously in 1940 as an essay under the title "Das Medusenhaupt". --Thomas Albrecht, 1999 via http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3598/is_199912/ai_n8542501 [May 2005]

Medusa, the female demon, is also evoked in vagina mythology, leading Orlan to display images of her vagina "[alongside Sigmund] Freud's text on the head of Medusa [which] read: 'At the sight of the vulva the devil himself flees[']" (1995). Barbara Creed's book The Monstrous-Feminine includes a chapter titled Medusa's Head: The Vagina Dentata & Freudian Theory (which itself features a section called The Castrating Female Genitals). Elaine Showalter also cites Freud's equation of Medusa with a deadly vagina: "According to Freud, the decapitated head of Medusa with its snaky locks is a "genitalized head," an upward displacement of the sexual organs, so that the mouth stands for the vagina dentata, and the snakes for pubic hair. For men to unveil the Medusa is to confront the dread of looking at the female sexual organs" (1992). Freud's equation of Medusa with the vagina is significant as it presents the vagina as an organ capable of castrating the male penis: "in its horrifying aspect [Medusa] would resemble [...] the castrating genitals, the terrifying vagina dentata" (Barbara Creed, 1993).

Thus, the "fearsome female genitals" (Penelope Shuttle and Peter Redgrove, 1978) are repeatedly associated with diseases and foul smells, regarded as abject, disgusting organs, stinking and pox-ridden. Furthermore, they are also equated with demonic and satanic figures such as Medusa and the devil.

These misguided male associations perpetuate male anxiety about women's genitals, and thus also perpetuate the avoidance of them in male-dominated language and culture: "Men desire access to the vagina, but also fear it and are disgusted by it. They see it as a gaping maw, at times toothed, frighteningly insatiable. [...] It is when vaginas are accessible that they evoke disgust and horror in their own right. It is then that male fears make them monstrous, hellish, and vile, disgust-evoking places" (William Ian Miller, 1997). -- Matthew Hunt via http://www.matthewhunt.com/cunt.html [May 2005]


2005, May 15; 13:59 ::: Richard Corben

Richard Corben
image sourced here.

Richard Corben (born November 1, 1940) is an American comic book artist best known for his illustrated fantasy stories in Heavy Metal magazine. He was born on a farm in Anderson, Missouri. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, graduating in 1965.

His best known property is Den, a fantasy series about the adventures of a young underweight nerd who travels to the other world of Neverwhere, a fantasy universe taking inspirational nods from Robert E. Howard's Cimmeria and H.P. Lovecraft's horror dimensions. There, the boy becomes a naked muscleman who has erotic adventures in a world of outrageous dangers, hideous monsters and buxom naked women who lustfully throw themselves at him. This story was adapted in a highly abbreviated form in the animated film, Heavy Metal. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Corben [May 2005]

see also: heavy metal - fantasy - comics - American comics


2005, May 15; 13:17 ::: Andromeda

Paul Gustave Doré (1832-1883) painted Andromeda exposed to the sea-monster. (1869?)

Andromeda (1988) - Boris Vallejo

In Greek mythology, Andromeda ("ruler of men") was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of the Ethiopians.

Cassiopeia, having boasted herself equal in beauty to the Nereids, drew down the vengeance of Poseidon, who sent an inundation on the land and a sea-monster, which destroyed man and beast. The oracle of Ammon having announced that no relief would be found until the king exposed his daughter Andromeda to the monster, she was fastened to a rock on the shore.

Perseus, returning from having slain the Gorgon, found Andromeda, slew the monster, set her free, and married her in spite of Phineus, to whom she had before been promised. At the wedding a quarrel took place between the rivals, and Phineus was turned to stone by the sight of the Gorgon's head (Ovid, Metamorphoses v. 1).

Andromeda followed her husband to Tiryns in Argos, and became the ancestress of the family of the Perseidae through Perseus' and Andromeda's son, Perses. Perseus and Andromeda had six sons (Perseides): Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus, and Electryon, and one daughter, Gorgophone. Their descendants ruled Mycenae from Electryon down to Eurystheus, after whom Atreus got the kingdom, and include the great hero Heracles.

After her death she was placed by Athena amongst the constellations in the northern sky, near Perseus and Cassiopeia. Sophocles and Euripides (and in more modern times Corneille) made the story the subject of tragedies, and its incidents were represented in numerous ancient works of art. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_%28mythology%29 [May 2005]

see also: http://www.abaxjp.com/andrmd/andrmd.html - damsel in distress


2005, May 14; 18:49 ::: Saint George

Saint George on horseback rides alongside a wounded dragon being led by a princess, late 19th century engraving.

Saint George versus the dragon, Gustave Moreau, c. 1880. This small one has the look of a griffin or a wyvern.

Saint George
Saint George (c. 275/280–April 23, 303) was a soldier of the Roman Empire and later Christian martyr.

The tale of George and the Dragon is widely considered among secular historians to share a common theme with the ancient Greek myth of Ethiopian princess Andromeda and her saviour and later husband Perseus, slayer of the gorgon Medusa. According to this myth, Perseus beheaded Medusa and George his Dragon in a shared theme of decapitation. Perseus' meeting with Andromeda was placed in her native Ethiopia. In several versions, George meets his Dragon in Libya (North Africa west of Egypt). Both locales can be interpreted to represent distant chthonic kingdoms of magic. The saving of the king's daughter is another shared theme as is the reward-bargain exacted by the respective hero of the stories: Possession of the princess for Perseus and the mass baptism of the king's subjects for George.--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George [May 2005]

European dragon
Other European legends about dragons include "Saint George and the Dragon", in which a brave knight defeats a dragon holding a princess captive. This legend may be a Christianized version of the myth of Perseus, or of the mounted Phrygian god Sabazios vanquishing the chthonic serpent, but its origins are obscure. Saint George is the Patron Saint of England. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_dragon [May 2005]

Saint George and the Dragon
According to the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, the story of Saint George and the Dragon took place in a place he called "Silene," in Libya. There was no such place, the name being perhaps a corruption of Cyrene. The Golden Legend is the first to place this tale in Libya, as a sufficiently exotic locale, where a dragon might be imagined. A translation of the original text of Jacobus de Voragine is linked below.

This town had a pond large as a lake where a plague-bearing dragon dwelled. To appease the dragon, the people of Silene used to feed it a sheep and a virgin every day, the virgin chosen by lottery. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_and_the_Dragon [May 2005]

see also: damsel in distress


2005, May 14; 18:40 ::: A Damsel in Distress (1919) - P. G. Wodehouse

A Damsel in Distress (1919) - P. G. Wodehouse [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

From AudioFile
Good gad! Belpher Castle is a-dither with romance and intrigue. Wodehouse's usual twits are in full cry as they leap about the manicured landscape. And hovering close in the background are the ever-vigilant, poisonous aunts who spend their entire lives being aghast. There's plenty to be aghast about when the lord of the manor falls madly in love with an actress (huge intake of breath) named (another huge intake) Billie. Reader Frederick Davidson portrays each character perfectlyÐsorting them out for the listener. His portrayal of Reggie, the wealthy and earnest American composer, is wonderful, and the womenÐingenues and auntsÐare very sweet or dragonish, depending. Along the way, listeners learn never to throw rice at weddingsÐit's worse than shrapnel. Quite. B.V. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition. --via Amazon.com

Book Description
A full cast of Wodehouse creations--including tyrannical relatives, beastly acquaintances, demon children, and literary fatheads--return for further near catastrophes and sparkling comedy Overlook is proud to present four more antic selections from comic genius, P.G. Wodehouse. A Damsel in Distress is an early novel about Belpher Castle, the idyllic home of the aristocratic Marshmoreton family and a precursor to the Blandings series. Leave it to Psmith is a comedy adventure involving crime and gunplay, all set into motion by an umbrella in the Drones Club and Mulliner Nights is a series of stories about the inimitable Mr. Mulliner, his extraordinary relations, and the tipsy bishops, angry baronets, lady novelists, and haughty dowagers who frequent the bar-parlor of the Angler's Rest. Meanwhile, Lord ‘Chuffy' Chuffnell borrows the services of Jeeves in Thank You, Jeeves, while pursuing the love of his life, but when he finds out that Jeeves's employer, Bertie Wooster, was once engaged to Pauline himself, fearsome complications develop. --via Amazon.com

see also: damsel in distress - 1919


2005, May 14; 11:39 ::: Introducing the gallery

I recently added a link to the homepage which has proved to be very popular.

A gallery.

It is based on this Google code: site:jahsonic.com --> images.

It works on any site that has its own URL.

This is the code: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=site%3Ajahsonic.com&btnG=Search

Try it here [jahsonic.com]

and this is an example from the Playboy site.


2005, May 14; 10:43 ::: Postmodern philosophy

Time magazine cover, April 8, 1966

Postmodern philosophy is an eclectic and elusive movement characterized by the postmodern criticism and analysis of Western philosophy. Beginning as a critique of Continental philosophy, it was heavily influenced by phenomenology, structuralism and existentialism, and by the philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. It was also influenced to some degree by Ludwig Wittgenstein's later criticisms of analytic philosophy. Within postmodern philosophy, there are numerous interrelated fields, including deconstruction and several fields beginning with the prefix "post-", such as post-structuralism, post-Marxism, and post-feminism. In particular postmodern philosophy has spawned a huge literature of critical theory.

Postmodern philosophy is generally characterized by a skepticism toward the simple binary oppositions predominant in Western metaphysics and humanism, such as the expectation that the philosopher may cleanly isolate knowledge from ignorance, social progress from reversion, dominance from submission, or presence from absence. This is anti-foundationalism. To some critics, this skepticism appears similar to relativism or even nihilism. Defenders of post-modernism would argue that there is a distinct difference, however: while relativism and nihilism are generally viewed as an abandonment of meaning and authority, postmodern philosophy is generally viewed as an openness to meaning and authority from unexpected places, and that the ultimate source of authority is the "play" of the discourse itself. In addition, many view postmodern philosophy not as a purely abstract or logical argument, but as a historical occurrence. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_philosophy [May 2005]

see also: postmodernism - philosophy - postmodern philosophy


2005, May 14; 00:09 ::: Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (1980) - Gregory Bateson

Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (1980) - Gregory Bateson [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Gregory Bateson (1904–1980) was an anthropologist, social scientist, linguist and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. Some of his most noted writings are to be found in his books, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, 1972, and Mind and Nature, 1980. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Bateson [May 2005]

see also: mind - nature

inspired by Gilles Deleuze en Félix Guattari


2005, May 13; 23:17 ::: Each morning we would wake up, ...

Gilles Deleuze

We are writing this book as a rhizome. It is composed of plateaus. We have given it a circular form, but only for laughs. Each morning we would wake up, and each of us would ask himself what plateau he was going to tackle, writing five lines here, ten there. We had hallucinatory experiences, we watched lines leave one plateau and proceed to another like columns of tiny ants. (Deleuze and Guattari 1988, 22)

Plateau
They word "plateau" comes from an essay by Gregory Bateson on Balinese culture, in which he found a libidinal economy quite different from the West's orgasmic orientations. (Deleuze and Guattari 1988, xiv)

Physicists say holes are not the absence of particles but particles traveling faster than the speed of light. Flying anuses, speeding vaginas, there is no castration. (Deleuze and Guattari 1988, 32)

see also: Deleuze - Félix Guattari


2005, May 13; 21:58 ::: Chesty Morgan

Chesty Morgan, photo unidentified

Chesty Morgan (born Lillian Wilczkowsky in 1928 in Poland) is best known for her extremely large breasts and her appearances in the exploitation films of director Doris Wishman. Celebrity Sleuth magazine estimated her measurements as 73FF-32-36. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesty_Morgan [May 2005]


2005, May 13; 15:11 ::: Las Vegas in the late 1950s

see also: http://www.earlyvegas.com/ [May 2005]


2005, May 13; 14:07 ::: The Grand Guignol: Theatre of Fear and Terror (1997) - Mel Gordon

The Grand Guignol: Theatre of Fear and Terror (1997) - Mel Gordon [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

From Library Journal
From 1897 to 1962 the Grand Guignol Theatre in Paris attracted a fervent following of assorted spectators who either exorcized unspeakable impulses or exulted in the unspeakable crimes. Gordon has preserved this institution, which influenced both vanguard and boulevard drama, for theater history. He situates the phenomenon in turn-of-the-century naturalism and carefully records its dramatis personae and policies. He includes summaries of 100 plots, and with the help of Jeff Casper has translated three plays by the "Prince of Terror," Andre de Lorde. The book is also a treasury of stills, posters, and other theater memorabilia. Indispensable for theater history collections. Marilyn Gaddis Rose, SUNY at Binghamton Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mel Gordon is the author of Stanislavsky Technique: Russia (1987); Lazzi: The Comic Routines of the Commedia Dell’Arte (1983); The Grand Guignol: Theatre of Fear and Terror (1988); Expressionist Texts (1986); and Dada Performance (1987); as well as over sixty articles on American, French, Russian, German, Italian, and Yiddish theater, He has also published a book on the erotic world of Weimar Berlin.

Mel Gordon has directed over twenty productions in Frankfurt, Houston, New York, Paris, and Zurich. He is the Former Associate Editor of "The Drama Review." He has taught at the Lee Strasberg Institute, Michael Chekhov Studio, New York University, and Yale University. He received his Ph.D. from New York University.

see also: Grand Guignol


2005, May 13; 14:07 ::: Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger (1964) by David Bailey © Camera Eye Ltd.
image sourced here.


2005, May 13; 13:51 ::: Sixties advertising

1975 B VILLEMOT
image sourced here.

1960 ?
image sourced here.


2005, May 13; 13:31 ::: Sixties comics

1966 : Jodelle de Peellaert, à l'image de Sylvie Vartan
image sourced here.


2005, May 13; 13:27 ::: Sixties fashion

Yves St Laurent 1965
image sourced here.

Pierre Cardin 1967
image sourced here.

Paco Rabanne 1967
image sourced here.

see also: sixties - fashion - Paco Rabanne - André Courrèges - Pierre Cardin


2005, May 13; 12:46 ::: Near sacrifice of Isaac

Abraham and Isaac (ca. 1634-1635) - Rembrandt

The near-sacrifice of Isaac, in Genesis 22, is a story from the Hebrew Bible in which God asks Abraham to present his son Isaac as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. To many readers the tale is one of the most challenging, complex, mystifying, and perhaps ethically troublesome episodes in the entire Bible. The story is referred to as the Akedah or Akedat Yitschak in Hebrew -- "the binding of Isaac".

Abraham agrees to God's command without argument, even though God gives him no reason for the sacrifice (called an Olah in Hebrew -- for the significance of sacrifices, especially in Biblical times, see the korbanot). The text of the story says that God wishes to test Abraham, which indicates that He does not intend for Abraham to actually sacrifice his son. Indeed, the story ends with an angel stopping Abraham at the last minute, at which point Abraham discovers a ram caught in some nearby bushes that he can present as an offering instead of Isaac. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_sacrifice_of_Isaac [May 2005]


2005, May 13; 12:06 ::: Paulette (1971 - 1984)

Scénario: Wolinski Georges
Dessin: Pichard Georges

Paulette (1971) - Pichard and Wolinski
image sourced here. [May 2005]

Paulette (1972) - Pichard and Wolinski
image sourced here. [May 2005]

Paulette (1974) - Pichard and Wolinski
image sourced here. [May 2005]

Paulette (1975) - Pichard and Wolinski
image sourced here. [May 2005]

Paulette (1975) - Pichard and Wolinski
image sourced here. [May 2005]

Paulette (1977) - Pichard and Wolinski
image sourced here. [May 2005]

Paulette (1984) - Pichard and Wolinski
image sourced here. [May 2005]


2005, May 13; 12:06 ::: Georges Pichard cover for Charlie

Georges Pichard cover for Charlie Numéro 15 (1970)
image sourced here. [May 2005]


2005, May 13; 11:53 ::: Georges Pichard cover for L'Echo des Savanes

Georges Pichard cover for L'Echo des Savanes Numéro 21 (01/06/1976)
image sourced here. [May 2005]

see also: L'Echo des Savanes - Georges Pichard


2005, May 13; 11:53 ::: Professeur Choron and Hara Kiri

Professeur Choron sticker


2005, May 13; 11:44 ::: Histoire De Melody Nelson (1971) - Serge Gainsbourg

Histoire De Melody Nelson - Serge Gainsbourg [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

see also: Serge Gainsbourg - 1971


2005, May 13; 11:24 ::: Liaisons Dangereuses (1981) - Liaisons Dangereuses

Liaisons Dangereuses (1981) - Liaisons Dangereuses [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Tracklisting:

1. Mystere Dans le Brouillard
2. Les Niños Del Parque
3. Etre assis ou danser
4. Aperitif de la mort
5. Kess kill fe show
6. Peut etre... pas
7. Avant apres Mars
8. Ce macho y la nena
9. Dupont
10. Liaisons Dangereuses

Formed in 1981, the group was composed of Beate Bartel, later a member of DAF, and Chris Haas with vocalist Krishna Goineau and recorded their music in the studio of famed Kraut-rock producer Conrad Plank. These references- EBM, DAF, and Krautrock- only begin to tell the tale of exactly where this group was coming from. Tape manipulations, no wave, post-punk, all of these terms apply to a certain extent, as well. But taxonomy isn’t the point here- this group was a one-of-a-kind entity and their reputation doesn’t rely on their obscurity, but rather the quality of the music. --Todd Burns, http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=600

Konrad 'Conny' Plank
Konrad 'Conny' Plank (frequently spelled Planck) (d. December 1987) was one of the most important record producers of the late 20th century. His creativity as a sound engineer and producer helped to shape some of the most important and innovative recordings of postwar European popular music, covering a wide range of genres including progressive, electronic and avant-garde music. Plank was as much responsible as anyone else for defining the broad genre now known as Krautrock and is arguably the unifying link between most of its disparate productions. His work has also greatly influenced studio production and engineering techniques worldwide. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conny_Plank [May 2005]

see also: 1981


2005, May 13; 11:08 ::: Soundscape

Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978) - Brian Eno [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

A soundscape is an acoustic environment or an enviroment created by sound.

As such, it refers in the first place to the natural acoustic environment, consisting of the sounds of the forces of nature and animals, including humans. This is the domain of acoustic design (Raymond Murray Schafer).

Next to such "found" soundscape, there is also the soundscape deliberately created by people: think of the sound of gongs, bells, sirens and mist horns, which constitute a kind of primitive aural architecture or acoustic design.

Finally, there is the imaginary, "evocative" soundscape which evokes the presence of things or beings in space. In the cinema, such soundscapes are combined with the image on the screen, but there are also purely aural soundscapes (Bill Fontana, electronic music with loudspeakers disposed around the public).

Soundscapes are often combined with the performance of music.

A soundscape composition is an electroacoustic musical composition creating a sound portrait of a sound environment. Composers who use soundscapes include real-time granular synthesis pioneer Barry Truax and Luc Ferrari, whose Presque rien, numéro 1 (1970) is an early soundscape composition. (Roads 2001, p.312) --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundscape [May 2005]

see also: ambient


2005, May 13; 11:00 ::: E2 E4 (1981-1984) - Manuel Göttsching

E2 E4 (1981-1984) - Manuel Göttsching [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

see also: E2-E4


2005, May 13; 10:52 ::: Dance-punk

Dance-punk is a musical genre that combines the sounds of danceable electronic music with punk rock aesthetics. Examples of bands in this genre are !!! and The Rapture.

Many times these bands will contain rock and roll aesthetics with bass-heavy synthesizers, such as The Faint or Head Automatica. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance-punk [May 2005]

see also: dance - music - punk


2005, May 13; 10:35 ::: Tim Sweeney and beatsinspace.net

RVNG PRSNTS MX3: Tim Sweeney - Tim Sweeney
image sourced here.

Tracklisting:
1 Intro 2 Manuel Gottsching E2-E4 7:20 3 Can Vitamin C (Unkle Remix) 4:21 4 Throbbing Gristle Hot On The Heels of Love 3:00 5 Aphex Twin bbydhyonchord 1:53 6 Tones On Tail Performance 2:46 7 Radiohead Kid A 3:17 8 Cybotron Techno City 3:09 9 Kraftwerk Numbers 1:55 10 LFO Nurture 2:59 11 Scrappy Freeze 2:26 12 Fingers Inc A Path 2:58 13 Psychonauts Magnetic 3:18 14 Bauhaus Kick In The Eye 2:36 15 Was Not Was Wheel Me Out 3:50 16 Grace Jones Walking In The Rain 3:01 17 Yoko Ono Walking On Thin Ice 2:55 18 Mu Let's Get Sick 3:55 19 Zongamin Painless 2:23 20 Carl Craig Climax 9:23 21 Cat Power Free 3:15

As more blogs flux pop and more asshole promoters threaten station kids into samey CMJ playlists, college radio continues to lose what little tastemaking power it had in the first place. At this point the scene's an academic discipline, excitement hardly ever reaching outside the station's DJ community. Which is a shame, because I bet there are tons of shows around as fun as Tim Sweeney's "Beats In Space" on WNYU 89.1.

Almost every Thursday for the past three years, the NYU student-turned-grad has run down the city's most consistently exciting mixed radio sets. Sweeney breaks lots of new wax, but he's insanely generous too, sneaking in the hits when they fit. While a dancekid at heart, Sweeney plays an expert dilettante, reaching deep into the bowels of hip-hop and stalwart indie alike, then ripping a sparse Playhouse twelve on his way out. After an internship at the DFA, Sweeney's reputation has grown substantially. He has mixing credits on that killer third disc of DFA Compilation #2, co-spins with Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy around New York, and works regularly at APT, arguably the city's last great venue for dance music.

Sweeney's shows are archived and downloadable as MP3, but Rvng Prsnts Mx3 is his first official CD release. The mix doesn't pack the surprises of Sweeney's radio sets, and the tracklisting's not nearly as risky, but Sweeney compromises with more delicate beat- and mood-matching. While other dilettante acts like 2 Many DJs and Optimo sell themselves with abrupt genre jumps and cheeky mash-ups, Sweeney is far more selfless, keeping the tracks in the limelight with thoughtful sequences. Manuel Göttsching's E2-E4 begins the first half of Mx3, then is put under the scalpel. Dropping Aphex Twin ("bbydhyonchord"), UNKLE (a remix of Can's "Vitamin C"), and Radiohead ("Kid A") after it, Sweeney examines the monumental 1984 recording's influences, nodding at the same time to some of E2-E4's own touchstones: Kraftwerk ("Numbers") and synth-pop (Tones On Tail's "Performance").

By now Sweeney's impressed us; midway through, he just wants us to dance-- though not without a brilliant conceit. Mutant disco (Was Not Was' "Wheel Me Out", Yoko Ono's "Walking On Thin Ice") butts heads with techno legend Carl Craig ("Climax"), whose rubberfunk is chaser for Mu's sewer slime ("Let's Get Sick"), but in the end they're all servile to Sweeney's elaborate song title wordplay: "Kick in the eye. Wheel me out. Walking in the rain. Walking on thin ice. Let's get sick. Painless. Climax. Free." The joke nails Sweeney better than I can.

-Nick Sylvester, January 21, 2005 via http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/s/sweeney_tim/rvng-prsnts-mx3.shtml [May 2005]

Listen online to Tim Sweeney's shows at http://www.beatsinspace.net

see also: dance - music - electro


2005, May 13; 09:34 ::: Étienne-Louis Boullée (1728 - 1799)

Drawing by Étienne-Louis Boullée
image sourced here.

Étienne-Louis Boullée (February 12, 1728 - February 6, 1799) was a French neoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced contemporary architects and is still influential today. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C9tienne-Louis_Boull%E9e [May 2005]

The Belly of an Architect
The Belly of an Architect is a 1987 movie directed by Peter Greenaway.

Original music by Glenn Branca and Wim Mertens.

The movie contains numerous references to the work of the 18th century French architect Étienne-Louis Boullée. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belly_of_an_Architect [May 2005]

see also: Peter Greenaway - arctitecture


2005, May 12; 22:59 ::: Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528)

Pond in the Woods c. 1496 Watercolor and gouache on paper
image sourced here.

Durer, Albrecht Christ as the Man of Sorrows c. 1493
image sourced here.

Albrecht Durer: "Rinoceros", 1515.

Albrecht Dürer, Selbstportät mit Blume, 1493


2005, May 12; 22:59 ::: A Severed Head (1961) Iris Murdoch

A Severed Head (1961) - Iris Murdoch [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

A Severed Head (1961) is a satirical, in places almost farcical novel by Iris Murdoch about marriage, adultery and incest amongst a group of civilized and educated people who, the author implies, really should know better. Set in and around London, it depicts a power struggle between grown-up middle-class people who are lucky to be free of real problems. More than 40 years after its first publication, A Severed Head seems like a harbinger of the Sexual Revolution which was to hit Britain in the 1960s and 70s.

Despite these serious overtones, A Severed Head is regarded by many readers as the most entertaining of Murdoch's novels. As British novelist William Sutcliffe put it, "Of all the lots-of-people-screwing-lots-of-other-people novels this is probably the best, and certainly the weirdest. With less philosophising and more shagging than Murdoch's other books, it is a joy to see this wonderful writer let her hair (and her knickers) down."--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Severed_Head [May 2005]

see also: Acéphale

dedicated to Stevienixed


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