TeamFILO

2011-05-30T16:16:00.001-07:00

SAD STONEWASH DVD REISSUED

Luke Wyatt's "Sad Stonewash" DVD, originally released by Italy's AAVV, is now for sale HERE

2011-03-12T12:56:00.000-08:00

SAD STONEWASH is screening at the Festival Nrmal in Mexico

Go here to learn more

2011-03-11T11:15:00.000-08:00

I gave birth to a chicken cutlet hero last night; kind of like how we all give birth to a broken, compromising cyborg parody of ourselves every time we use an exfoliant (those little plastic beads clog up shrimp's life tubes etc). "Dolphins" rightly implies universal complicity in environmental take-down.

Mi Ami - Dolphins from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

2011-02-25T15:05:00.000-08:00

Big Gold Belt "Ice Cream" from alice cohen on Vimeo.

2011-02-11T13:20:00.000-08:00

SAD STONEWASH DVD AVAILABLE NOW

BUY IT HERE

2010-05-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

PPU VIDEO PARTY DVD FOR SALE BUY ONE NOW

HERE or HERE

2010-05-31T22:16:00.000-07:00

HERE HERE HERE HERE HERE HERE HERE HERE HERE HERE

2010-05-31T22:13:00.001-07:00

2010-04-20T17:51:00.000-07:00

THISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHISTHIS

2010-02-20T12:41:00.000-08:00

MATRIX METALS TANNING SALON PART 2

2010-02-14T12:01:00.000-08:00

TAMPA

2010-02-13T10:29:00.000-08:00

A ZANKO SCROTUM

Fogelberg and Slippy almost become pals after Slippy tells the wild tale of Zanko Corp golf ball genital implants. Dan's chin is all mayo-ed up as he languidly nurses a High Life can.

2010-02-12T22:19:00.000-08:00

TEAL MOCK-T!

The Fogelberg/Slippy Jim duel continues. Slippy gets points on the board with a mayo strike, and lets Dan in on a little secret regarding Zanko Corp gender modeling (or maybe that happens in Part 3 of episode 7. Here, at least, the whole tone musical scale is related to a multi-nodal world view).

"Teal Mock-T!"

2010-02-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

DEFUNCT CANDY FACTORY

"He's looking like some kind of funky care bear gladiator. I can see this is going to be harder than I thought."

2010-02-10T21:53:00.000-08:00

LONNIE ANDERSON GORDON JUMP

2010-01-20T15:29:00.000-08:00

NEW WEAVE

2010-01-05T13:16:00.000-08:00

PORN WITHOUT PORN

2010-01-04T22:04:00.000-08:00

BEAUTIFUL

This

2009-12-21T10:48:00.000-08:00

PPU VIDEO PARTY DVD

2009-11-20T02:40:00.000-08:00

JANET MASLIN IS NOT SMART

I always thought this, was reminded while reading an archived review of Batman and Robin. She said nice things about it!

This slate lady hits it head on.

2009-11-18T20:00:00.000-08:00

PLASHSPLASHSPLASHSPLASHSPLASHSPLASHSPLASHS

2009-11-11T06:44:00.000-08:00

SLEEPY

2009-11-10T11:00:00.000-08:00

STEVE SUMMERS- "LANDS OF THE MIND"

2009-11-06T01:19:00.001-08:00

During the public fracas, Frank Sinatra allegedly contacted Farrow with an offer to have Allen's legs broken

2009-10-26T16:54:00.000-07:00

FALCONCREST

2009-09-23T07:38:00.000-07:00

MUFFIN FALL

2009-07-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

THIS

2009-06-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

"Note the Seahawks cap on Skipjack's pal"- J. Brophy

2009-06-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

MORE GIGER GOODIES

2009-06-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

TOTAL RECALL

2009-06-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

HEARTBREAK

2009-06-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

DON'T PROTECT YOURSELF (because it's on the edge of mom cheese), RECEIVE THIS

2009-05-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

COLORADO (not Pete Coors)

2009-05-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

MACARTHUR IN JAPAN

2009-05-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

BRONSON PINCHOT ON ARSENIO: ONE OF OUR WEENUS DEITIES PUTS IN A CLASSIC PERFORMANCE

2009-05-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

SERENADE YOU

2009-05-24T18:59:00.001-07:00

THE GLOVE

2009-05-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

THE BONER OF VAN DAMME

2009-05-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

ELEGANTLY DINGY, BROWN, AND MAJESTICALLY STRANGE. CONCISE - PERFECT LENGTH TO INJECT IN DREAMS

2009-05-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

WEENUS TRAINING LOOP PART 7

2009-05-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

COZY/SCARY

2009-05-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

THIS GUY IS HAVING A BLAST

2009-05-24T18:28:00.000-07:00

POSSIBLY THE BEST EVER

2009-05-24T18:27:00.001-07:00

KEYED-OUT SUIT

2009-05-24T18:25:00.000-07:00

JUNKY BEAUTIFUL

2009-05-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

KNOXVILLE?

2009-05-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

WAVELENGTH- "FUNK DREAMS"

GO TO PEOPLESPOTENTIAL.COM FOR MORE

2009-05-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

FAT CAT DEMO ARCHIVE

I recently went to label Fat Cat's site. I forgot that they had started curating demos they received and putting them online for play and download, with artist info and links. I had seen this feature a long time ago, but hadn't really explored. There is a lot of stuff. There are some cheesy things and some good things.

Here

2009-03-20T13:56:00.000-07:00

A FACE THAT LOOKS LIKE IT HAS JUST CRAWLED FROM UNDER A STONE

Walken Talks

2009-03-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

DID THIS TO BILL'S BOOK a long time ago

Thought reading this would be a cozy experience, and it was for a bit- then the binding fell apart and the writing started to bug me. It's not well written at all! The word on the street with the mom's (used to be anyway) is that Bill is smart, but I think he may just be Oprah smart- the generic platitudes in this book etc. Best part was his college budget lunch- a selection of Hostess pastries and big soda (correct me) "I budgeted just enough money to get a couple of cherry pies and a big root beer". Something like that.

Anyway, My Fife

(combining all your bathroom duties into one time clump gives you more time with to play fife)

2009-02-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

MICHAEL MADSEN, SIRE

"I don't like hospitals. I don't like hospitals unless my sons are being born."

Michael Madsen, on the commentary track from Species

2009-02-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

GREIL MARCUS ON IRONY

"Irony is just a form of self-protection. It's a way of pretending you didn't mean what you said. It's a back door. And it's not in the art that I respond to."

This was on the WFMU program the Speakeasy from Oct 9 2006. I'm sure he's said this elsewhere, in a book or whatever, as it sounded deeply felt and thought out.

I do feel I abused by irony these days; I am also a perpetrator, need to quit it. Sometimes I just mean what I say and don't need to undercut i twith ironic winking just so I don't get accused of soft-rock sincerity.

2009-01-31T17:14:00.001-08:00

THX 1138 BEAUTIFUL BUT INACCURATE AS FUTURE LOOK TEMPLATE

This article produced a William Gibson great image suggestion

(A scene from one book: cardboard and duct tape shelters on the Golden Gate Bridge).

This feeling/image familiar from my high school lunch-time sulking in the hallway, ostentatiously alone, reading Neuromancer and the like.

We live in all ages at once- Iron and Bronze and Silicon(e).

There are no streamlined clean THX futures.

2009-01-29T12:17:00.000-08:00

MORMONS LAUNCH CASTLE INTO SKY

Imagine if the reason the mormon temple seen here reminds me of the rocket ship castle from Robotech cartoon is that mormons secretly have really good, irony informed taste that takes in Slavic sci-fi, Eno and Cluster... They are a religion of good taste, train people in it. Syd Mead murals on acid-washed denim instead of the social realist/soft porn jacked muscle farmers murals they have now...This is an idea worth fleshing out, forgive the clumsy beginnings here.

2009-01-23T12:32:00.000-08:00

Wonkette

Here are some photos from Big Gold Belt's performance at what became Wonkette inaugural party. We made things look good, couldn't make things sound too good because of cement. Did these Wonkette people I've never seen in my life but somehow live among us respond? I'm not sure. (Not saying they aren't nice people or anything). But the look of the thing was good like I said. For a redo come see us at Velvet Lounge on Feb 3 or black cat on Feb 12.

2009-01-15T17:47:00.000-08:00

NU SHOOZ

Sounds about right.

2009-01-14T21:28:00.000-08:00

BGB/BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS/PPU EVENT UPGRADED TO INAUGURAL STATUS

Wonkette is calling it their "inaugural ball." I hope they bring beer.

This Friday January 16th.

2009-01-10T10:27:00.000-08:00

2009-01-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

BIG GOLD BELT EVENT

Friday January 16th starting at 10pm, (going to who knows how late) at Bikram Yoga Capitol Hill

Video/Light overstimulus, general bacchanalia (party)

Featuring:

The visionary seductive sleaze assault of dance/video/guitar/vox duo:

BIG GOLD BELT

(Christina and Luke)

And spinning record webs of dream-beach robots making out (the soundtrack of hip cyborg coitus), DJs:

Andrew Morgan Ari G Maxmillion Dunbar

BYOB if you want

5 buck suggested donation

Bikram Yoga Capitol Hill is located at 410 H Street N.E. Washington, DC 20002 (go here for map)

Check out these links for a taste of what the night could sound like:
Futuretimes (M. Dunbar etc)
Big Gold Belt here and here

2008-12-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

BIG GOLD BELT

The Belt (Christina E , Luke) played their first show at the Black Cat in DC on Dec 3rd w/ Edie Sedgwick. (Christina also did a phenomenal job on back-up vox for that band). Thanks to Justin Moyer for the invite.

Here are a few modest pages where people can keep up with BGB

myspace (listen to tunes here)

TeamFILO.org

2008-12-13T17:58:00.000-08:00

KENNETH ANGER ON COPPOLA'S DECLINE

Anger says- "You know Francis Ford Coppola is bipolar, and so am I. I refused to take lithium. He took lithium and I said, 'Well, look what it's turned you into Francis. It's turned you into a fucking wine grower!'"

From here.

2008-12-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

DAVID GREGORY LOOKS LIKE GERALDO WITH A NAKED UPPER LIP

Does anybody know what the space where a moustache goes is called? It is not an upper lip. Brokaw has very thin lips, but a large moustache pad (a chimp attribute, like Dave Greg the chimp. This is the real reason DG got the job- big moustache pad chimp loyalty. Tom couldn't find another newsman with the same big moustache pad).

I call the pad an upper lip in this clip anyway.

(In this clip) I am critical of Tom Brokaw as of the soft-ball tossing fluff peddler. But now that his temporary post at has lapsed and Russert's permanent replacement has been announced I am nostalgic for him.

David Gregory?
Notice I reference David Gregory in a neutral fashion and disparage Brokaw as emblematic of the soft approach of mainstream news. I now regret this, as I will miss the relative gravity Tom's deep voice brought to the program in the wake of Russert's death, forget what he was actually saying. Now we've got to deal with Gregory, who sounds like a high school suck-up doing earnest announcements over the PA. Yeah, his White House press room confrontations were refreshingly combative. But in a show-off way. And maybe Brokaw is a softball tosser. But he has some soulful oats in his stuffing. Not like Gregory, whose Richie Cunningham exoskeleton is filled with something which, whatever it is, adds up to a much less cozy, reassuring presentation than Brokaw or someone of equal gravity, regardless of content. More cozy Cronkite please.

Give me Brokaw back. At least when you hear him talk you he sounds serious and not like you're hearing announcements over the PA in high school by some earnest suck-up.
Can;t the younger generation produce somebody with the reassuring gravity and cozy deep voice of a Brokaw?

2008-12-06T14:16:00.000-08:00

SLIM CASTLE NAME CHANGED TO FRAMED MISTAKE

I have changed the name of the umbrella under which I produce music to Framed Mistake. No longer the Slim Castle. The myspace page is no longer Slim Castle. It is this.

2008-12-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

FREE TRASH

Am taking out the trash in my house. In addition to this, as already noted, in the DC area you may spot a compact disc labeled Sounds Like Sideways Light:

Sounds Like Sideways Light is an attempt by a young Weenus initiate at Krispis specific expression. It was his final project for a Weenus after-school program. As such it’s a bit underdeveloped, but still charming if you forgive its adolescent lugubriousness.

What is Weenus and Krispis? Krispis is one of four quadrants in the Weenus system. The Weenus system is a taxonomy for ordering everything. The Weenus Chart has four quadrants, Krispis, Creemus, Bronson , and Buntas. Akin to the old system of humors, each quadrant has exclusive qualities.

The Krispis quadrant contains things sharp and bright, sublime sad hooks, Graham Greene’s tight poignant endings. Wasabi and club soda with melon, wearing cableknit sweaters as you crackle dry leaves on your Maine autumn walk.
SL2 qualifies as Kripsis because there are no laughs and it’s kind of elegiac. In fact, in grading this Dr. Dan Ochoa had some red-pen-remarks about it being a little too elegiac at times to register totally Krispis. Portions were almost weepy, cheesily melodic, which would put the thing towards Creemus. Krispis stuff is supposed to be restrained and tasteful in expressions of emotion, not ever getting close to the soundtrack of Patch Adams.

2008-09-23T06:19:00.000-07:00

WEENUS TRAINING LOOP ON YOUTUBE

I am posting the full loop on YouTube in 10 minute slices as I compress it. The loop was on view as part of a video installation at Civilian Art Projects of Washington DC in January '08. It features the talents of James Brophy, Breck Brunson, Graham Caldwell, John Hutchison, Ryan Strohmeier, Scott Taylor, and Allison Wolfe . An explication of the Weenus system can be found elsewhere on this blog.

2008-09-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

ALEX ROSS OF THE NEW YORKER WINS A MACARTHUR GENIUS GRANT

Alex Ross? A music critic wins a MacArthur? I always resent somebody winning one of these who writes about people who make stuff instead of making stuff, unless the writing so originally frames the making that our understanding is radically refreshed. But Ross is not a critic of striking originality. He bemoans the false imposed boundaries of genres, particularly between classical and popular music. That is not new, right? The guy is good at framing Radiohead for the aspiring haute bourgeois liberal conformists who take the New Yorker as gospel. His reinforcement of Radiohead as the one "smart" band, because they listen to Messiaen, is annoying. Isn't there room for more than one "smart" rock band? One that hasn't been designated as such by every other critic and lagging underexposed hipster? One that isn't as self-consciously "smart," maybe has a sense of humor? Middlebrow avant garde.

2008-04-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

DEBRA SEEKS RESTRAINING ORDER

We have exclusive video shot by restrainee.

also

also

2008-04-12T02:11:00.000-07:00

DON'T

I don't know that I like seeing the photos, the visages, of folks whose ideas I like.

2008-03-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

URGE YOUR MEN TO GET EXAMINED

After his diagnosis, Fogelberg posted a message on his site urging all
men older than 50 to have an annual prostate exam.
"I promise you, you don't want to go through what I'm going through if
you can avoid it," he wrote.
I made my annual appointment this week. Make sure the men in your life
do so soon. Perhaps that message can be Fogelberg's living legacy.
For more than 30 years, Dan Fogelberg played the soundtrack to my life.
He's gone now ---- way too soon ---- leaving his many fans "sitting
among souvenirs."
Contact columnist John Hunneman at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2603, or
hunneman@californian.com.

2008-03-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

WHAT THE HELL

Is this?

2008-03-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

THE CHEERFULLY MISCHIEVOUS IMPROVISATION OF THE BANANA IN THE TAILPIPE MOVE FROM BEVERLY HILLS COP EASILY LINKS TO THE CHUMMY HORSEPLAY AND PRANK HAZE OF THE 1986 METS' CLUBHOUSE

2008-02-25T12:38:00.001-08:00

The following is a Weenus primer for those who skipped/missed recent Weenus video installation at Civilian Art Projects:

What is Weenus?

The Weenus system is a four-part taxonomy for ordering everything. It can be depicted as a circle with four quadrants. Akin to the old system of humors, each quadrant has exclusive qualities.

Krispis: The centering effect of an ice-berg lettuce helmet.
Negative Krispis: The ethnic homogeneity of Norway.
Buntas : Lovably dorky. Gary Carter with irrepressible curly mop pressed under batting helmet, bunting.
Creemus: Negatively, the Crisco massage of unearned sentiment in Patch Adams. Positively, the warm togetherness of eggnog with family at Christmas.
Bronson: A Miners’ Union pancake breakfast, all buckwheat flapjacks, laconic greetings.
Negative Bronson: Keeping your feelings under wraps to an unhealthy degree. The parable of the Spartan boy with a wolf under his tunic who wouldn’t express that he was getting chewed up for fear of seeming weak.

Why is the Weenus system necessary ?

For art, being cognizant of the quadrants reminds a person of their creative biases, enabling indulgence to make narrow and concentrated works. To create neutral works, they can correct an imbalance (known as a Weenus dyscrasia), by immersion in things associated with the quadrant opposite to their native tendencies. For someone who is too Bronson, bubble-letter penmanship drills may be prescribed
Weenus also helps with a major FILO imperative: healing the gap between funny(hot) and beautiful(cold) expression. FILO believes that Sly and the Family Stone and Graham Greene do not represent antagonistic aesthetic values.
Combining hot and cold brings art closer to real life than monotone examples such as The Hours, that clumsily ape Greene tone and buttress it with blustery Philip Glass.
Busy sad scores are typical of a brow-lift offensive, trying to push weak narrow works from middle to highbrow. A Weenus novice might conclude, (with the music working it’s pounding mood-magic), that The Hours was a “Serious” movie because it sounded such and there weren’t any jokes in it.-
For someone with a Weenus-trained ear, however, the constant elegiac climaxing would have a flatline, numbing effect. When the Glass-gusts settled they would see an empty, expensive Oprah windsock.
A movie needing so many aural reminders of its intentions is not serious real life. An analog for life has mess and heat and laughter.

2008-02-25T12:22:00.001-08:00

FALLING DOWN

Computer died post Civilian Art Projects show, so I haven't been posting. Weenus show went well though, expect web versions of video once I get a new old computer. That's it.

2007-11-21T17:29:00.000-08:00

THE APES: BEAT OF THE DOUBLE

2007-11-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

TANGERINE DREAM BETWEEN 1882 AND 1983

I discovered this unfinished drunk rebuttal to some dorkblog insults about my music.

I left the drunk mistakes. I think it's an endearing and pretty accurate staking-out of ground, for how brief it is.

“I like som simple preset sounds I try to evoke the lousy overlooked sound of Tangerine Dream between 1882 and 1983
with If you don’t get it you have no humor. I don’t like un controlled sludge fests without structure or rigor that persist with a straight face and no selfconsciousnes. have improv pararmeters. I tr y to write pieces, but leave room to scrawl within.
I know I’m not on the same page with the noise gnomes or whatever. For sensibility clues

Watch Manhunter

I would like to bring in more mud, but retain the slick “

2007-11-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

PAT BUCHANAN HANGS WITH JAMES EDWARDS

I found something of interest during a toilet perusal of the Southern Poverty Law Center's "Intelligence Report." I was at my Mom's house; she must give money to the SPLC or she wouldn't receive such a nice glossy rundown of the season's (in this case Fall 2007) white fringe threats.

An article covering the rise of white-supremacist Tennessee radio host James Edwards and his program "Political Cesspool" cites Pat Buchanan as a pivotal influence:

"[early in Edwards' development] he began reading the works of white nationalist politician and commentator Pat Buchanan, who appeared on 'Cesspool' last year... 'Buchanan was one of the first commentators that I noticed who really seemed to be speaking my language," Edwards told the Mid-South Patriot, a monthly Memphis newspaper, in a February interview. 'I felt as though he was articulating a message that resonated within me.' "

Edwards later worked on Buchanan's campaign for president in 2000.

Most Sunday's I watch the McLaughlin group, featuring Buchanan, for no good reason except to delay that day's workout. I even half-like a fraction of things he has to say about non-social issues (opposition to Iraq invasion, globalization, deficit). Pat does stuff for MSNBC. He comes across as not stupid, though torn up and confused about sex, religion and race in old, tiresome ways. Of course I was aware of his part in kicking off the "culture war" at the the 1992 Republican Convention, and his consistent broadcast of extreme social views. But this had been tempered for me by his acceptance into mainstream media programs where his wackiness was in the background. And of course he was embedded in the Republican mainstream with his work for the Nixon and Reagan administrations. So I was surprised to see that he would take the step of making appearances on this Edwards show, Political Cesspool. The program follows Edwards' strategy of slickifying hateful dogma for mainstream digestion (don't throw swastikas around, don't say the word nigger). The SPLC article points out how David Duke attempted this strategy but was dogged by photos of a swastika-wrapped youth.

Of course a quick Buchanan google reveals that I'm just uninformed. He does belong on this awful program. For the past 40 years he has been mainstreaming hate.

PS:
From Wiki, a bizarre irony- Alexander Haig approved Pat Buchanan's appointment as ambassador to South Africa, but Gerald Ford said no (hopefully "no fucking way").

2007-11-01T04:48:00.000-07:00

OLD BARBIE VIDEO WORD MULCH

A mediocre bit of nostalgia I include as a thematic bridge to our current thoughts on the link

between "conservatives" and child abuse

A More Succinct (than this) Explication of our linking Right-wing politicos with Child Abusers (diddleshitters):

These guys are messing with your children in the present because they're fucking their future

(corny-catchy phrase but true)

Here's how:

(Cue tired whiny litany)

nature down the tubes/a nuke arms race restart, now with a lot more players / the careful perfect nurturing of a hatred of America that's going to payoff with a bang/sowing the courts with the seeds of rights reversal, privacy into the potty/etc

2007-10-31T11:26:00.000-07:00

AN EXAMPLE OF SENSIBLE PAT BUCHANAN

(an excerpt from this):

"Already, Bush is ranting about Syria being behind the Hezbollah capture of the Israeli soldiers. But where is the proof?

Who is whispering in his ear? The same people who told him Iraq was maybe months away from an atom bomb, that an invasion would be a "cakewalk," that he would be Churchill, that U.S. troops would be greeted with candy and flowers, that democracy would break out across the region, that Palestinians and Israelis would then sit down and make peace?

How much must America pay for the education of this man?"

2007-10-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

Oh no.

2007-09-12T22:06:00.001-07:00

NEW LIFE PARADIGM

2007-09-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

SLIM CASTLE

View new small videos now. Just a taste.

2007-09-12T08:49:00.000-07:00

NECKWEAR REVIEW

How you tie a tie is important. Sloppy John ties it high and tight and chubby to keep his quips close to his brain,

2007-09-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

CHURCHILL VS. BUSH

In this piece Winston is compared to George in light of their different drinking.

Funny comparison, flawed, (maybe a little) apt. Churchill appeared "smarter" than Bush because he had language. But he made giant mistakes in a similarly hubristic manner (Gallipoli), albeit wrapped in better language. But Churchill was drinking heavily in office. Would this help Bush? The key medication that would sharpen him up enough to get some insight flashes would be cocaine.
Anybody who works out a lot knows it can make you kind of laid back and complacent, in a nice way. I'll often go running myself, escaping a messy apartment. Before I set out for the run the apartment mess will be driving me crazy, and I'll feel determined to clean it up when I return. But when I get back, all my irritability has been wrung out, and I'm content to plop down amidst the mess. The endorphin therapy of exercise eases clean-up compulsivity and brings a calm self-confidence.
George Bush certainly projects this jocky self-confidence. But what is he confident about? Exercise benefits are brain sculpting patterns that have to start with decent clay to bring good to man. Serial killers who go running will become more calmly confident about their evil ways. Dumb presidents who work out will become more confident about their disastrous policies.

2007-08-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

Saw a record sleeve photo of Vangelis; he was wearing a special scarf. It looked like one of many charged scarves he might own to protect his smaltz magic (his magic is housed in his Adam's apple, just like George Lucas has talent stored in his jowels. In the Lucas case, however, the talent and taste is trapped. To flay open his fat face and free the imprisoned ambergris would be a gift to humanity- he'd make actual movies again. But you'd have to feed him his own face fat, or neck fat, or whatever jowels qualify as. I actually feel bad for the guy and his beard- mostly his beard, it's got such a job to do.

2007-08-21T15:11:00.001-07:00

GO HERE TO CHECK NOW FINISHED SITE

The reconstruction is (basically) done. Look it.

2007-07-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

JULY 19

Thanks to Scott for assembling a memorable night. Things happened that don't usually go on in this bad-khakis swamp.

BoyZone made gymnastic racket, shaking ribbon of sheet metal for dinky thunder, cutting themselves with it sometimes. Members happily hijacked other sets later on. Breaking down audience barriers, offending, loosening up.

Eagle Ager created simple elegant tableaux with their cardboard prop hoard. I doubt most people would describe them as elegant- but they struck me as that when they held still, girl perched on boy with wings, horsehead character standing behind them in corner.They were remarkably focused considering how wacked they could be. When they all ended up under a pile of their stuff at the end, and a single hand reached out into the light to shut off the boombox, it was a moment.

Slim Castle was good except my video didn't work.

Rebecca's Chic Nerve ended stuff in a classy red way with Ginger body help Everybody felt balloons finally.

2007-07-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

A SECRET

Good cooking involves talent.

That talent is called butter.

2007-07-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

MORE NEWS ABOUT DUMPER:

Dumper rhymes with Thumper, an old favorite character from Bambi whom I now find annoying.

Bambi reminds me of this skit that will never get made: it's called Vegan Hunter. It's about a morally progressive guy who gets teased into hunting deer by his redneck father-in-law. He rationalizes his capitulation to the slaughter-life by pointing out that he hunts with a bow, which works out his back muscles. "I needed do some work on those anyway," he says. Bow hunting is also more difficult and "honorable" than using a gun. He further ameliorates the process by invoking some imagined Native American empathy methods: being real sweet to the thing after the kill, giving it a grateful smooch, mourning it as a unique being, etc. Also, (and I agree with this)- Big deal if you kill an animal that's running around wild, and then eat it. This is how it's supposed to go. You have to deal with the blood and skin and reality of it. You pay the spiritual entrance fee. The experience teaches you a lot more about the wheel of life than picking up some ambiguous cube of flesh in cellophane at Food Lion, pretending it's a savory slab of ruby Jello (Dinner Flavor), that never hung on bones and filled out skin.

Food Lion is the saddest store. I was forced to go there during a "getaway weekend" in rural Virginia. They had the biggest selection of white bread ( the kind you can squeeze into a tiny bleached starch ball, then paste on the wall) I've ever seen. This stuff is not bread.
Somebody said: "A country without bread has no soul." In a related synapse event, I just remembered one of Bunuel's early movies was called "Land without Bread." It was about a backwards place in Spain where they hadn't figured out bread making- yet they had corny pictures of dinosaurs on classroom walls. The movie struck me as a semi-fictionalized black comedy, though dopes on the internet (if you look it up) describe it as a "searing indictment" of this or that in relation to poverty.

Oh Luis Bunuel, your films seem more prescient than ever! You foresaw my visit to Food Lion. They were selling creepy dinosaur Trapper keepers in the aisle next to the bleach-paste.

2007-07-06T16:16:00.001-07:00

MICK JAGGER/NETHERLANDS SHELTER

He should be giving his library of same-sounding gritty hits away, making sure music is taught in schools (a disc if his included in textbook). Instead he has jets.

He hides his money in the wooden shoe so he can have more jets. How goddamn boring.

2007-06-22T00:07:00.000-07:00

PAUL Mccarthy

Jesus. Mc Carthy runs with that insane space some of us get when we haven't slept a lot and are sorta bipolar. that space where you do wacky scat (vocal randomness) and burden people with your nonsense. I don't like to indulge this because it makes me closer to the edge of "uncontrol".

I think he is an enemy.

2007-06-21T23:36:00.000-07:00

DETRITUS

(I) Require an intern to decipher and transpose (is that the right word?) to digital tomes the nickel notebook mess that is my scrawl life. While this person is figuring out my hand writing I'll be bench pressing or eating fruit salad. The intern can feel free to come down and ask me stuff like: "What is this f-ing letter? This jumbly Gehry ink tumble?"

2007-06-13T01:16:00.000-07:00

IMAGINARY WEDDING TOAST

(To two 22 year old dumbasses)

"We're gathered here today to celebrate God, magic force, whatever, bad teen lust spilt, reaping this union of two disparate kids who now think they are heaven-matched ( especially now, with wine in them and the warm confirming pressures of an event). So comfortable are they in their fate that they have presumed to give me advice ('When are you going to grow up, find somebody?'). When am I going to find my prison, you mean?

I bless you for your floundering self-serious mistake. You're happy because you're weak."

At this point the guy giving the toast is pelted with 3rd-rate risotto by one of the Salvadoran caterers manning the starch station. A table of 16 year-olds applauds this. All the adult guests are still too floored by the toast to react.

The risotto man thought it was the right thing to do. He'll subsequently lose his job, however, as the toaster nurses 3rd degree burns (from 3rd rate risotto). Risotto man argues in his simple way that he was acting to rescue the sanctity of the event, and should be given credit for his intent. He has the gumption to contact the bride's family for backup ("I was trying to unspoil your little girl's big day!"), but they are a family of jerks and don't make the required phone calls.

2007-06-11T14:20:00.000-07:00

THE POOR UIGHUR GUYS

If I was one of the umpteen filthy billionaires in this world I would pay (pay off whoever it took) for these guys to come to my "refugee compound": a Disneyland-by-Dieter-Roth/ParqueGuell type place where they could work on sculpting the grounds and executing my campus plans. Watts Tower type stuff. They would be free to pursue their own designs if they felt like it, bring their visual spirit to the place.

They would be of use in building this place, and it wouldn't significantly dent my wallet because I'm a damn billionaire.

Why don't the big $ people do this type of stuff? It's holy, essential stuff, while still serving their vanity (the building of a theme park to their taste, the building of a reputation as a revolutionary philanthropist).

2007-05-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

SLIM MISTAKE
(this may surface on your sidewalk)

2007-05-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

WALKEN/BRAINSTORM

At one point in this movie he puts on a baseball cap with an uncreased dorky flat brim, and the (hat) somehow reminds me of Bill Clinton (in The War Room, maybe?). He is slim as hell, the beautiful, tragic, soon to be over-worked and cliched face; once he was strolling about a cedar house set in my favorite mold: Northern California- ruby- plexiglass-sandstone-Sagan-stucco.

2007-05-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

BOWIE

Why didn't disappointing Peter Jackson cast David Bowie as Elrond in the Rings films?

Why didn't he have Warszawa, from Low, featured as the High Elf Anthem? Listen to it, Bowie's singing elf. It's melancholy in a weird way that could pass for elf-sad. We (humans) wouldn't quite get elf-sad; who does alien emotions better than Bowie?

Out of reverence Jackson took no risks and made boring movies (except for the Shire parts during the first one, that worked).

Also, Zeppelin's In My Time of Dying should've been used during battle scenes.

That meaty grandiose rock song would've added a little humor, deflation, but also a very direct fist-pumping charge that would work instead of Jerry Goldsmith or whoever did the same old tired orchestral b-crap.

Zeppelin referenced the books heavily, Bowie has talked about creating a new language in Warszawa. There were great artists out there with ready-made stuff you could have plugged in to the project; instead watching Rings I got that tired feeling of witnessing imaginative poverty

Could've been a cathartic connecting (kung-fu flying, literally: the action should have been more kinetic, informed by Woo; and figuratively- the ideas should've been bouncing off of
all the right influences)

Expand it into the goosebump arena of the dreams I had while reading the book, soaring associations with any other piece of art I'd absorbed that linked well with Rings.

2007-01-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

FILO ON YOU TUBE

Team FILO is into healing the divide between the hot and cold poles of expression. (Hot=Sly Stone, caddyshack; Cold=Philip Glass, Graham Greene). FILO is also into weening people off the rhythms of the accepted economics. Members should try to live an example life of playtime and healthy regression, serioused-up with cold art intake and book reading. If members just eat oatmeal and rice and beans, and not spend money on sailor suits (or other things they covet), constant work for dollars won't be necessary and they'll have lots of time to perform what should be our highest duty: making imaginative contributions to the world-wide goosebump factory that would evolve if everybody had tons of leisure time.

Imagine the disappearance of war, hunger, religion, pro sports (sounds a little earnest-dorm-room, I know). Soldiers are not honored but seen as what they've always been- brave, mixed-up guys dependent on conflict and misunderstanding for glory and meaning. The top laurels of this world would go to the art makers who promote long attention spans and a more nuanced appreciation of starlight.

2006-12-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

WolfWOLF
(was) bounty hunter, secret agent, and scuba diving instructor

2006-12-29T11:05:00.000-08:00

2006-12-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

MOMS/MONOLITHS

In this video when the cherubic (faced) guy with glasses says "it's just a stereo" he's talking about:

We came into Madison, Wisconsin in the early afternoon the night after losing our car's huge rooftop travel bag. Everybody had been suspicious of it when we put it together, gave our silver Mitsubishi Gallant a black canvas bladder on top. "This really just clips in here and then is held when you shut the door? No recommended top speed before it flies off?" That happened. We went fast at 2 am on a dramatically misty highway filled with us and Mack trucks. Air got under the bag and took it flying back a couple hundred feet, smack into the grill of a speeding Mack. It explodes its guts of framepacks and baked beans, others stuff, everywhere. When it's safe we run up and down a grass median looking for things, mostly a bottle of Serzone pills some people were taking (recreationally)(if by recreationally we mean in an unprescribed manner to make quips happen, sustain verbal sharpness while drinking)(YOU CAN ABUSE Serzone! it's not like prozac where it takes 4 weeks for an effect, you can give it to a friend and it happens two hours later. Don't do it, it messed up lives for awhile, made me want to outline everything). Miraculously this was intact.

So we roll into Madison after spending night in Wal Mart, into the middle of some summer festival. As we approached the city square or whatever, the capitol I guess, we heard classical music. "Oh, I could be into that, some lousy middlebrow orchestral music played by a live orchestra to moms; I'll put down my towel, eat some cheese, get myself together." When we got there we saw the sounds were just coming out of what looked like huge home speakers, wood grain and all. All around these speakers sat moms on towels. moms/monoliths