R.I.P. Amy Winehouse

True London icon, dead way beyond her time.

I was hoping she'd 'do a Keith Richards', live a wild lifestyle and survive. What a disappointment.

Retro

Refreshing retro mix from Gil Tonic at Soundcloud.

Malibu by GilTonic

First image is from the film 'Slaves Of New York'(1989). You can see more images here. Remember seeing this when I was trying to see all the films Steve Buscemi ever made (an impossible task, of course)
The next is a Keith Haringesque still from the excellent video for the excellent Rudeboy by Rihanna.
Last image is a collage representing the output of Death By Zero. I have one of their T shirts which I love like it was my flesh and blood. I kind of wish I was joking but I find age (and lack of money and job prospects) is making me shallower and shallower! ;) Their tumblr is here.

Hanif Kureshi On Thatcherism

'I never understood the elevation of greed as a political credo. Why would anyone want to base a political programme on bottomless dissatisfaction and the impossibility of happiness? Perhaps that was its appeal - the promise of luxury that in fact promoted endless work'

From P.70 of Kureshi's flawless, amoral novella 'Intimacy' (Faber & Faber)

Image is by Junku Nishimura at Anteportas

Elodie Lauten - Sunrise by FIRE RECORDS

Chris Fortier

Been aware of Chris Fortier for a while. Deep, minimal, progressive and no nonsense.
Image is from a Georgian photographer called David Mekshi at Lens Culture

Chris Fortier DJ Sets (various gigs) by Chris Fortier

True

Yimmy Yayo

Recced

Standard Planets mix at Allez Allez (May 5th 2011)

connan mockasin - forever dolphin love
ersen - garip gonlum
serge gainsbourg - l'homme à tête de chou
broadcast - pendulum
standard planets - electromagnetic
thee more shallows - white mask
zu - obsidean
and you will know us by the trail of dead - a perfect teenhood
harmonia - watussi
deux - game and performance
stars of the lid - another ballad for heavy lids



Chill Turkish style at the slightly inactive Babe(b)logue




One of the best music blogs I've seen for a while is Ghost Capital posting genuinely obscure vinyl. Real world music, no tofu, no wheatgrass. Here is a Soundcloud sample of a great post of L’Orchestre Nationale de Mauritanie.

01 Kamlat by Nickel B



Some 'music brut' from the man called Dubuffet at the incredible Ubu Can't download it but worth a listen if you like random cacophony. I am playing it at the same time as some trendy Hoxtonite lo fi and it works an absolute treat.

Image is of his sculpture 'Group Of Four Trees' which is in New York.



And more commendably obscure randomness at The More You Think About It . This is described as 'an avant-garde drum suite'.

Nomad yeahmad.

Wow And Yes

Things I Save

Macaroni

Here's a weird and brilliant 'jazz stand-up' thing I somehow found on Soundcloud. The images are Max Fleischer stuff. Check out some of his masterpieces in my earlier post.


a man walks into a night club w/ a tattoo of a girl eating elbow macaroni by Manfred Steiner

Angeles - Elliott Smith

Pepper

Love Art Pepper, here's a bit of Soundcloud magic (with typo) to sample the man's beauty.

Image from Vivian Maier.


Besame Mocho - Art Pepper by chyowon

The Deep

Went to the Royal Academy Of Arts on the weekend and enjoyed this refreshing collage from David Mach.

Donato Dozzy - In Bed - clip by Absurd

Girls

This irresistible picture is from Vice

Dum Dum Girls Music by subpop

Black Totems

Saw a good documentary on BBC4 a while back on Herb Alpert and discovered he was a far more interesting character than I'd first thought. Really like these sexy fluid / solid sculptures of his called 'Black Totems'.

Aladdin - The Sun Is On Fire by gilbr

It's Just Around Twilight...

Watching the Wim Wenders / Peter Falk clip the other day reminded me of another true artist of the cinema - Bela Tarr and this clip from his masterpiece Kárhozat from 1988. This is music to drink vodka and sway lazily with your lover to in a village dance - it has lament and joy in its sound.

Jourdan Dunn

The fact that women like Jourdan Dunn exist should be enough for any man to get out of bed in the morning. Cheers God!!!

Peter Falk

What a wonderful actor! Rest in peace, Peter...

Paranoid Park

Was blown away by this film this weekend. Visual and aural poetry from the always boundary-pushing Gus Van Sant.

The skater element is fairly incidental. This is a film about being young and floating disengaged through life.

Subtle, masterful, beautiful and powerful.

Mix mix mix

Maxim Lany by 10 Days Off

Deep mix at Soundcloud from 10 Days Off named after fellow Belgian the wicked Maxim Lany.
Image of NYC from the soopoib Only This Nothing More

Celebrity

So I watched this Woody Allen film for the second time. Loved it even more the second time. Amazed it only got 6.2 on imdb cos for me it's a full 10. Allow me to be a Londonish Truffaut and give you reasons why.

1. The art not the man.

Nobody with any sense can forgive the real Woody for having sex with his adopted daughter (ok, he married her and stuff but it's still a moral crime for most people). However, Woody is a great film maker being unswervingly honest about his beliefs, his passions and therefore his self.

Is the self a false construct of memories and fantasies? Sure, but we need it if we are to live with ourselves in this post-capitalist capitalist universe.

2. Choosing Ken

Ken Branagh, thin-lipped, tousle-haired Englishman, obsessed with Shakespeare and as English as Hamlet himself. An excellent choice to play the 'Woody' character. He does well, being from the Olivier school, though he may have picked up a few tricks from the Cassavetes / Strasberg / Stanislavsky school.

An aside - real acting is not pretending it is feeling. For example, Tom Cruise is usually crap and Steve Buscemi (in reality he was a fireman in 9/11, in medialand he was Mr Pink and Buddy Holly in Tarantinoland, he was Tony's cousin in that great postmodern gangster epic The Sopranos and his first role a musician dying of AIDS - clearly a bit of a top man) is always great.

Another aside - what rescues Enter The Void from being slightly unsatisfying is the performance of Cyril Roy. Noe, clearly a nutter like Kubrick is an excellent film maker but has no time for morality. So he hired a genuinely hip, cool bloke to be the friend of Oscar. When Cyril / Alex walks down the street (such a great scene - we are there) with Oscar and cries and fucks in the film, he is not acting, just being himself. Just my opinion, don't sue.

Also, regarding Ken's Englishness, I notice Woody tips his hat to the political stand the aesthetes make over here by calling movies films. Everyone in this film says film not movie. Just as Godard pointed out in Elogie d'Amor that in English there is no word for what Spanish speakers call Estadounidense. Thus when we say American we kind of insult Brazilians, Mexicans, Canadians, Jamaicans, Columbians...

3. It's a story about the breakdown of a marriage, but there is (refreshingly) no moral message.

When Ken meets Winona, (Leaving Famke, his new bit) the soaring old-school strings can be read by the Right as ironic and by the Left as post-ironic. Something for everyone.

4. It's a story about how religion can get in the way of sexuality.

Woody is Semitic rather than Jewish (I think). I don't know how much he knows about the 'old religion' but we all know he's been in therapy for ages. Whether it's Freudian, Jungian or Californian we don't need to know.

5. It's a story about a 'mid-life crisis'

Symbolised excellently when Ken gets Charlize in his car and then drives (absurdly) straight into a shop window with a big expensive clock in it.

6. There's a Felliniesque element to it

There are moments when the simple beauty of the images and hum of the conversation remind me of 8 1/2. For example, at the house of Joe the family man who seduces Ken's ex.

7. There's a theory that all art is a projection of the self.

Ken faints when a critic critises his work. I would analyse this as Woody saying his work is his life, his gift to the world. Also, more significantly it's the 'in therapy Woody' saying 'don't worry what other people think, do your thing'

8. Woody still does comedy but the US is divided into Right and Left.

A good right-wing joke (laughing at sexual prowess) is the pro choking on the banana.

A good left-wing joke (controversial, absurd) is in the Springeresque green room the Rabbi saying 'did the skinheads eat all the bagels?'

9. Nice circular format.

HELP. Great.

10. Leo.

Leo di Caprio, a girlboy who Scorsese has unconvincingly casted has a hard man here parodies himself, smashing up hotel rooms, having orgies. It's the only way he can show Gretchen he loves her whilst also enjoying his bromances and other lady love.

Yeah, a masterpiece it is. Fuck the movies.

Image And Word Stuff

Jahsonic's always worth a look. It informs us the work of Nathanael West is now in the public domain. I remember reading his books when I was digging alternative American literature a lot. It's ok stuff.

My lady’s eyes appear to be

Like brimming pools of ecstasy,

Deep wells, from which the twinkles flow

Unceasingly as on they go

To charm me with their witchery;

Mayhap an easy prey they see,

Enmeshed by their dexterity;

I can’t protest; they thrill me so—

My lady’s eyes.

Although they gaze alluringly,

Appealing with such potentcy,

Oft times in them I see a glow

Which warns me that I should go slow,

For then, you know, I really see

My lady lies!

—Rondeau by Nathanael West

I have subversively coupled this with another image which I found at I Love Graffiti. Sleep tight.