...so 'Happy Birthday' to us!
Big thanx to all the contributors, to all the readers (especially the ones who leave a comment!) and here's to the next one...
Cheers/
*hic*
*hic*
Friday, 30 September 2011
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Dylan Paintings Draw Scrutiny
When the gallery announced the exhibition, called “The Asia Series,” this month, it said the collection of paintings and other artwork would provide “a visual journal” of Mr. Dylan’s travels “in Japan, China, Vietnam and Korea,” with “firsthand depictions of people, street scenes, architecture and landscape.”
But since the exhibition opened on Sept. 20, some fans and Dylanologists have raised questions about whether some of these paintings are based on Mr. Dylan’s own experiences and observations, or on photographs that are widely available and that he did not take.
A wide-ranging discussion at the Bob Dylan fan Web site Expecting Rain has pointed out similarities between several works in “The Asia Series” and existing or even well-known photographs — for example, between a painting by Mr. Dylan depicting two men and a Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph of two men, one a eunuch who served in the court of the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi.
Observers have pointed out that a painting by Mr. Dylan called “Opium,” which is used to illustrate a Web page for the “Asia Series” exhibition on the Gagosian site, appears to be closely modeled on a picture by Léon Busy, an early-20th-century photographer.
Separately, Michael Gray, in a post on his blog, Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, points out that a painting by Mr. Dylan depicting three young men playing a sidewalk board game is nearly identical to a photograph taken by Dmitri Kessel.
Mr. Gray, an author who has written extensively about Mr. Dylan’s work and its artistic influences, writes on his blog:
“The most striking thing is that Dylan has not merely used a photograph to inspire a painting: he has taken the photographer’s shot composition and copied it exactly. He hasn’t painted the group from any kind of different angle, or changed what he puts along the top edge, or either side edge, or the bottom edge of the picture. He’s replicated everything as closely as possible. That may be a (very self-enriching) game he’s playing with his followers, but it’s not a very imaginative approach to painting. It may not be plagiarism but it’s surely copying rather a lot.”
Others commenting at Expecting Rain were less concerned, like one using the screen name restless, who wrote: “ ‘quotation’ and ‘borrowing’ are as old as the hills in poetry, traditional songs, and visual art.”
“There’s no need to be an apologist for that,” the post continued. “It’s often a part of making art, that’s all. Good grief, y’all.”
On Monday a press representative for the Gagosian Gallery said in a statement: “While the composition of some of Bob Dylan’s paintings is based on a variety of sources, including archival, historic images, the paintings’ vibrancy and freshness come from the colors and textures found in everyday scenes he observed during his travels.”
The gallery also pointed to an interview with Mr. Dylan in its exhibition catalog, in which he is asked whether he paints from sketches or photographs. He responds:
“I paint mostly from real life. It has to start with that. Real people, real street scenes, behind the curtain scenes, live models, paintings, photographs, staged setups, architecture, grids, graphic design. Whatever it takes to make it work. What I’m trying to bring out in complex scenes, landscapes, or personality clashes, I do it in a lot of different ways. I have the cause and effect in mind from the beginning to the end. But it has to start with something tangible.”
Mr. Dylan has previously proved elusive to critics and observers who have tried to pin him down on source material. In 2006 it was shown that lyrics on Mr. Dylan’s No. 1 album “Modern Times” bore a strong resemblance to the poems of Henry Timrod, who composed verses about the Civil War and died in 1867. Lyrics from a previous album, “Love and Theft,” were similar to passages from the gangster novel “Confessions of a Yakuza,” by the Japanese writer Junichi Saga.
In a 2008 essay for The New Haven Review, Scott Warmuth, a radio disc jockey and music director who has closely studied Mr. Dylan’s work, said that Mr. Dylan’s 2004 memoir, “Chronicles: Volume One,” had adapted many phrases and sentences from works by other writers, including the novelist Jack London, the poet Archibald MacLeish and the author Robert Greene.
Mr. Dylan did not comment on those similarities then, and a representative for him declined to comment on the Gagosian exhibition.
Dave Itzkoff @'NY Times'
David Simon on the End of the American Empire (2007)
Speaking at Loyola College, David Simon, an author and creator of the acclaimed HBO program, "The Wire," shares his views on the end of the American Empire in three video segments. He says we're headed for separate Americas of "haves and have-nots." Simon faults "unencumbered Capitalism" for making our country care less about the most vulnerable of our citizens. Unless we change, he predicts "we are doomed."
(Thanx HerrB!)
Panorama: Syria Inside the Secret Revolution-BBC/26-09-11
The town of Deraa in southern Syria is where the people's revolution began in March - sparked by the arrest and torture of a group of schoolchildren for scribbling graffiti critical of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Pink Floyd - First performance of 'Dark Side Of The Moon' (Brighton 20/01/1972)
PINK FLOYD
Here They Come [Little Pieces Production, 2CD]
Live at Brighton Dome, Brighton, UK, January 20, 1972. Excellent stereo audience recording.
Lineup:
David Gilmour - guitars, vocals
Nick Mason - percussion, vocals
Roger Waters - bass, vocals
Richard Wright - keyboards, vocals
Setlist:
Disc 1
Track 101. Speak To Me
Track 102. Breathe
Track 103. Travel Sequence
Track 104. Time
Track 105. Breathe reprise
Track 106. Mortality Sequence
Track 107. Money
Track 108. Atom Heart Mother
Disc 2
Track 201. Careful With That Axe Eugene
Track 202. One Of These Days
Track 203. Echoes
Track 204. A Saucerful Of Secrets
This is the first time Pink Floyd attempted a public performance of Dark Side Of The Moon, months before recording started in May in the studio. They played as much of the new album as they could, stopping after Money.
Apparently the tapes and sound effects had come unstuck and the band are forced to return to their previous repertoire for the rest of the show.
What was played are tentative versions of Speak To Me, Breathe and Time. Money is just an instrumental with a strong melody and no lyrics. Travel Sequence is an early version of On The Run. While Mortality Sequence, a jumble of keyboard riffs and spoken word, would evolve to The Great Gig In The Sky. Neither Us And Them nor Brain Damage made it to the starting line tonight.
When they revert to their older songs, it sticks out how bluesy pre-Dark Side material is. Whereas the themes of Dark Side are of how life in a modern, urban society tends to grind down your mental health to put you on the edge of insanity. Hence the tape loops of incessant chatter. Pink Floyd had finally moved from Syd Barrettâs pixieish fantasy to social commentary. In a sense, this was modern blues with the help of electronica.
Dark Side Of The Moon was finally completed and released in March 1973. We are grateful some lone taper was stalking the Floyd on January 20, 1972.
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Via
The Great Gig In The Sky
Wembley 1974
Good gawd - I turned 12 on the day of this gig!!!
スカル・ムラティ／Gang of Four - Not Great Men cover
The cover of Gang of Four 'Not Great Men' by Javanese gamelan ensemble "Sekar-Melatt"
(Thanx Fritz!)
(Thanx Fritz!)
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
♪♫ ECC - Rebel Without A Pause
Video for the very first mashup: The Evolution Control Committee's Whipped Cream Mixes. First released on ECC's "Gunderphonic" album (1994) and later on a 7" single from Eerie Materials. Curiously, YouTube has a copyright bee in their bonnet -- but why? Read more on our song:
http://xrl.us/whippedcreammixes
Video by our elite German unit: Simone Verena Kunz, Tim Frank Schmitt, Stefanie Elisabeth Spieler, Johannes Maximilian Spitzer, and Daniela Wagner, starring Maria Philomena Stephan. Danke Shoen!
HA!
timwattsau timwattsau
Other than suing Bob Ellis for defamation RT: @David_Speers Abbott on Bolt verdict: we should never do anything which restricts free speech.
XLR8R Podcast 217: Pezzner's Decibel Mix
01 Tim Hecker "Analog Paralysis" (Kranky)
02 Mount Kimbie "Flux" (Hotflush)
03 FaltyDL "Eight Eighteen Ten" (Planet Mu)
04 Addison Groove "Minutes of Funk" (3024)
05 Martyn "Masks" (Brainfeeder)
06 No Regular Play "Owe Me (Deniz Kurtel Mix)" (Wolf + Lamb)
07 Vincenzo "Seduction (Jimpster Remix)" (Dessous)
08 dOP "L'Hopital, La Rue, La Prison (DJ Koze Remix)" (Circus Company)
09 Evan Marc feat. Steve Hillage "Alpha Phase (Kate Simko High
Tide Remix)" (Thoughtless)
10 Martin Buttrich "Roads" (Desolat)
11 Gold Panda "MPB"
12 Deniz Kurtel "Makyaj (Feat. Queenie)" (Crosstown Rebels)
13 Motor City Drum Ensemble "L.O.V.E." (!K7)
14 Tiger & Woods "Love In Cambodia" (Running Back)
15 I:Cube "Falling" (Versatile)
16 Moby "Go" (Outer Rhythm)
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How Wilco's Jeff Tweedy became a great American songwriter
But Tweedy's devotion to his craft was such that after four Uncle Tupelo albums and two Wilco discs -- despite crippling migraines and an addiction to pain pills -- he had a mid-career blossoming unlike any other in American popular music. Go ahead, try and name another songwriter who started getting better with his seventh album.
Wilco's latest, "The Whole Love," is out today. It's the band's eighth proper album, and the first to be self-released on Wilco's new dBpm label. And while Tweedy took exception to this characterization in our discussion last week, it's the band's most challenging and thrilling effort since "A Ghost Is Born," an arty and accessible album at once familiar yet full of new ground and fascinating left turns.
Interview
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