Peace not War(2007, 33.8MB, 1:06 min.)
Will this action/piece by the Glass Bead Collective hasten the
end of any war? Dunno – nice to think so, but I’m sceptical.
What it certainly does, though, is to add considerably to the
store of human wonder.
When we stop our lords & masters spending money on invasions,
& we’ve fed & housed everyone, then we should definitely
spend some of what’s left on high-powered projectors.
Readings from ‘Health Proxy’ (2007, 32.7MB, 8:19 min.)
So..declaration of interest..Robert Roth is a friend of mine & I get mentioned in the book.
Nonetheless, if he was my worst enemy, I’d still say watch this, then .
Health Proxy is pretty much sui generis..the only comparisons I can think of being those fragmentary, diaristic things in the Japanese tradition:The Pillow Book or Essays in Idleness.
Of course Kenko & Sei Shonagon never wrote about baseball or AIDS,
nor were they animated by the massively warm oppositional & radical spirit we find here.
The video is a nice job too – not only is it elegantly made, but Langager and Smolarski
pass the documentary acid test of honouring their subject matter whilst still creating
something with a palpable sense of their authorship.
‘I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby’ (197?, 42 MB, 4:57 min.)
I’m as astonished & excited today when I listen to the music of Captain Beefheart
as I was in 1970, when someone loaned me a copy of ‘Strictly Personal’ &
shivers ran up & down my 13 year old spine.
He was, & is, one of a kind & today music’s loss is visual art’s gain.
World Hug Day (Gao Brothers) (2007, 10.7MB, 4:48)
The latest in a series of mass hugging performances
(assuming an embrace is ever performative) from the
Gao Brothers. Berlin, Germany; September 11, 2007.
Can’t Tell Me Nothing (2007, 23.9MB, 5:00 min)
How good is this?
Alternative vid for Kanye West’s ‘Can’t Tell me Nothing’ with
comedian Zack Galifianakis & the wonderful Will Oldham. Exhilarating!
Found here.
Antinormalizer (2007, 83.9MB, 9:58 min)
This has quite a complex history, which is explained
better in the video than I could do here.
My nose twitched when I saw it posted on the
Rhizome list by Brett Stalbaum.
Anything associated with him is worth checking out
as witness the various excellent things he’s made with
a hiking theme ( & hiking theme so fails to do justice to the peculiarity
& wonder of them).
Anyway this one is a big team thing, students and staff from
two courses at Unviersity of California San Diego &
it’s entertaining & thought provoking & it feels like
a 2007, modern tech twist on 1968’s
‘Sous les pavés, la plage!’.
The Shins – Gone For Good/Turn On Me (2007, 50.5MB, 9:36)
The Liars – Freak Out (2007, 17.5MB, 2:59)
From Vincent Moon’s ongoing collection of Take Away Shows,
two examples of impromptu concerts in public spaces or back rooms,
both hipster American bands but unique and fantastic with their own
pop-folk and frenetic, avant garde styles.
Mark E Smith Reads the Football Results (2005, 12.7MB, 7:14 min.)
God-like genius & professional curmudgeon Mark E Smith
of The Fall reads the football (OK – soccer to
about two thirds of you) results on the BBC in 2005.
The full glory of this possibly only totally comprehensible to
Brits of a certain age but stay with it – the last third is
a hoot.
‘Perseverance (fragment)’ (2006, 35 MB, 3:05 min.)
The Rhizome mailing list became a more predictable & somehow
less exciting place when wit, polymath & provocateur Max Herman
hung up his mouse for a while. He’s back there now & he’s here too,
with some ice hockey action for your delectation, being a section
from a longer work entitled Perseverance.
Says Max, “If I can choose keywords, can they be ‘hockey, millennium,
glasperlenspiel, perseverance, history?’ ”
Of course they can, Max, of course.
(PS Watch the movie, it’s quite lovely)
fakeshop_art (2007, 42MB, 1:45 min.)
Installation/performance at 798 Art Festival, Beijing, China
by Jeff Gompertz aka ‘fakeshop’, aka ‘polystar’. May 12, 2007