Close Contender

I’m not sure what it meant when this album cover referred to Giza (where the ‘rids perch nobly), but, slightly modified, it serves as a nice graphic for the popular expression “Stay Out of the Territories”

Let’s listen to a song

Let’s listen to a song together. For pleasant times.

Unrelated p.s.: did you hear that Ariel Pink pinched Tanky’s stile to make an lengthy Christmas Song? He’s no Westttberg, but me swear I heard Timmy’s voice at 1:15, 2:38, etc!

Who’s gouty now?

‘avin’ a roit propa riot then aren’t they!

Catch Phrase of the Day

Again, from the NYRB. From a review of several new publications concerning Abigail & John Adams.

As it happened, the twenty-seven Creek chiefs who gathered in New York in 1790 to negotiate the model treaty designed to avoid Indian removal were lodged next to the Adams residence at Richmond Hill… Abigail was fascinated by what she described as “my Neighbours the Creek Savages who visit us daily.” It was quite a scene. “Last night they had a great Bond fire dancing round it like so many spirits hooping, singing, yelling, and expressing their pleasure and Satisfaction in true Savage Stile. these are the first savages I ever saw.”

All hail true Savage Stile!

Leaks in the Void (Calvin Pissing on a Collapsed Star)

From Wikileaks in the Moral Void by Christian Caryl, from NYRB:

The Internet has brought countless benefits to mankind, but, as we see now, it also creates incalculable potential for mischief: it amplifies the threats of schoolyard bullies, empowers terrorists and fringe groups, and opens up huge new spaces to technologically savvy criminals. Now that data can be shared, linked, and exploited with near-instantaneous ease, the risks entailed by the publication of information mushroom out of all recognition; there is simply no way that any editor, however well-meaning, can make an informed judgment about the potential repercussions entailed by the release of vast amounts of confidential data of this sort. But this is where we are, and I wonder whether preaching restraint can have much effect. The technology has outpaced the ethics, and I wonder whether the ethics can ever catch up again.

Maybe we should have thought about this before inventing the internet and uploading all of reality on top of itself.

IT FELT LIKE A KISS

Newer Adam Curtis (“The Century of the Self”, etc) piece, which Wikipedia tells me was originally exhibited as part of a larger theater/performance jam about the CIA mindphreakin’ ya, or something!

Less a tightly argued essay like his other films (or Debord’s film version of “Society of the Spectacle”, which it superficially resembles) than… something else. No narration, little text, lots of pop music. Indulge me as I say that in this way the film explores some of the same psychic terrain as “classic” Kenneth Anger: pop music as an expression of the inchoate nightmares of the American zeitgeist. I don’t think Anger would ever characterize his work in those terms, but aren’t subjective interpretations of art what unread blogs are for?

It’s on some weird site hosting a Russian YouTube of the thing; don’t know how long it will be up before disappearing into the aether again.