retinal

Not so much to report on today, just working and whiling away the odd stolen hour reading Tess in Starbucks.

So why not add another link to Dennis Cooper's excellent blog, for a post about Bridget Riley, one of my very favourite painters.

LITTLE OTIK

Listing for Thursday's Cine Salon:



A weekly display of hidden or neglected facets of the magic lantern. The finest wines and cheeses shall be served.
Don't miss!

3 Springfield, Dundee.
Thursday 31st January, 9pm

COMING SOON!

LITTLE OTIK
(2000, Dir. Jan Svankmajer)

Wikipedia.org:
Otesánek, also known as Little Otik or Greedy Guts, is a 2000 absurdist film by Czech couple Jan Švankmajer and Eva Švankmajerová. The movie is a surreal-comedic live action, stop motion-animated feature film set mainly in a poor apartment building in the Czech Republic.

Allmovie.com plot synopsis:
Acclaimed animator Jan Svankmajer combines cartoon and live-action imagery to bring to life a bizarre story based on an old Czech folk tale. Karel (Jan Hartl) and Bozena (Veronika Zilkova) are a married couple who desperately want a child, but have been unable to conceive; Alzbetka (Kristina Adamcova), an only child who lives next door, has long wanted a friend to play with and feels for the couple's sad dilemma. One day, Karel is digging up an old tree stump when it occurs to him that the roots look a bit like a baby; Karel brings the stump home and carves it into the image of a child, and Bozena expresses so much love for the wooden infant that it comes to life. Karel and Bozena name their new child Otik, but their joy is short-lived when they discover the infant has a bottomless appetite -- so much so that Otik begins eating stray animals and even people in an effort to satisfy its hunger. Karel and Bozena hide Otik in their basement to keep it from harming others, but Alzbetka feels sorry for the strange child and begins bringing Otik scraps of food. It soon becomes obvious that this isn't enough to keep Otik satisfied, so Alzbetka starts luring people from the neighborhood into the basement -- letting Otik do the rest. Otesanek was screened in competition at the 2000 Venice Film Festival.

reborn

I've posted this before, but in keeping with recent blogs, artworks and Salon screenings there's a welcome repeat on TV just now for My Fake Baby. This truly is one of the most intriguing things to be screened in recent times.

Dolls Realm

An interesting blog here for those with a liking for latex, mannequins and plastic.

Bride

Ben Robinson, Bride (2008, collage)

More documentation of the night's events can be found here.

on

Lots happening this evening. Caught a quick glance of a show at the college, Generator members' show to come, party at the flat to follow and some sort of after-event on at the Function Suite to finish things off. Some it will be documented, and relevant photos posted tomorrow.

The Beasthouse

Lately I've been greatly enjoying this amusing new blog, "A Personal Journal, by the Son of One of the Nineteenth Century's Leading Master-Criminals".

NEKROMANTIK

Listing for Thursday's Cine Salon:



A weekly display of hidden or neglected facets of the magic lantern. The finest wines and cheeses shall be served.
Don't miss!

3 Springfield, Dundee.
Thursday 24th January, 9pm

COMING SOON!

NEKROMANTIK
(1987, Dir. Jörg Buttgereit)

Wikipedia.org:
Nekromantik is a 1987 German horror film directed by Jörg Buttgereit. This frequently controversial movie, including bans in a number of countries, has become a cult film over the years due to its transgressive subject matter (necrophilia) and audacious imagery.

IMDB comments:
Obviously filmed on super8-format Jörg Buttgereit´s masterpiece "Nekromantik" looks much more professional and expensive than it actually is! Being banned in many countries most people only see a depraved and disgusting horror movie in it, but to me it is a disturbing, but simultaneously beautiful film about a weird fetish! The whole film is surrounded by an almost apocalyptic poetry and the wonderful piano score emphasises the sinister death-is-everywhere atmosphere perfectly! Some may be offended by gross scenes like the suicide masturbation, the autopsy, the rabbit dissection, the beheading of an old cemetery gardener or the climax when Robert and Betty have sex with the corpse (A very esthetical scene by the way...), but that’s exactly the stuff which makes this movie so unique: the surreal combination of bizarre symbolic, gore and dream like mood! Watch it whenever wherever you can!

finery

A great interview here in the Sunday papers with Raf Simons, the undisputed world champion menswear designer. Reading the print edition I was most gratified to see he's got the same haircut as myself too.

return

Very pleased today having handed in a piece of artwork (my first since this time last year) for the annual Generator members’ show. I’ll post a photo next week, but for now I’m keeping busy by writing another revised artist’s statement.

There is no overriding subject for the work, although the icons of adolescence (lingerie models, heavy metal and science fiction) loom large. I am interested in the occult, and I use that word in keeping with its original meaning: the hidden. This involves tracing the correspondences between various archetypes, symbolic or otherwise, and pointing out these connections using irony and paradox. I would define this not as a question of faith, but as a process to be judged by evident facts. Just as a joke is either funny or not, so the art will be judged on whether or not it works effectively. For this strategy to be a successful one, I prefer to work with the simplest of means, or to use a set of ‘givens’ that will dictate the form of each individual piece. There won’t be any illusions, and no smoke-and-mirror tricks to the presentation. If there is to be any magic, the magic will be elsewhere, not residing in the object itself. Each decision is suggested by previous moves on the way to the pure articulation of an idea.

tyranny

So that's why you can't list your political views as anarchist or socialist on Facebook. And MySpace is owned by Rupert Murdoch, you know.

private

It's not much and I'm a bit overqualified for it, but the council are after a 'Museum Documentation Assistant' at the McManus galleries. I'm minded to apply. It is a gallery of sorts, and at least it's not the bank. Anyway I'll have a proper crack at getting the CV together later in the week.

Meanwhile there's a full day's shift to get through tomorrow before some light relief by way of the Salon.

Some nice photos here of a place called The Saint, a 'private men’s dance club' in New York City, evocative of a lost era and an impressive spectacle it is too. There's plenty of evidence here of what it all sounded like.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Listing for Thursday's Cine Salon:



A weekly display of hidden or neglected facets of the magic lantern. The finest wines and cheeses shall be served.
Don't miss!

3 Springfield, Dundee.
Thursday 17th January, 9pm

COMING SOON!

ALICE IN WONDERLAND
(1966, dir. Jonathan Miller)

BPI synopsis:
Broadcast in the centenary year of the publication of Lewis Carroll's novel, Jonathan Miller's television adaptation is both a completely logical translation of the book, and a radical departure from convention. Almost all other versions of Alice in Wonderland are aimed squarely at children, but Miller's intended audience was not only adults but those so familiar with the book that they would still be able to recognise what was going on even when his film was at its most elliptical. To emphasise this, it was screened after 9pm, well after most children's bedtime.

Amazon review:
At last this CLASSIC BBC TV-film from 1966 is available to a wider audience. SUPERBLY Directed by Jonathan Miller, giving it a "Pre-'67 Psych" feel, when looking on it now, and with an armada of SUBLIME Brit actors, i.e. Sir John Gielgud, Leo McKern, Peter Sellers etc etc AND Peter Cook as the Mad Hatter is nothing short of BRILLIANT! + Anne-Marie Mallik is superb as Alice. Jonathan M. version captures the dreamlike feel of Lewis Carroll's fantasy, with his MAGIC WAND, which makes it a movie experience, extraordinare. Ravi Shankar's(!) specially composed music is highly original and fits perfectly!

redemption

I may well devote a huge amount of blog space moaning about my humdrum job, but on occasion the grind does show a brighter side. I've just picked up £750 worth of high street shopping vouchers, most of which will be redeemed at Marks & Spencer to keep me in good food. Rest assured that the Cine Salon will continue to serve the finest wines and cheeses for a good long time to come.

opportunities

Another day done at the bank, living life on the lowest rung of the career ladder.

A call centre job really is bottom of the league for any sense of fulfillment, pride or prestige. Only the cleaner or perhaps the 'refuse collector' rival it for stigma. There's still more overtime to be endured this week, though I've Wednesday off to draft a CV and start applying for things. My high-flier younger brother's offered to lend a hand with it too, so there can be no excuses.

Red Riding

I've greatly enjoyed everything I've read so far by the 'crime writer' David Peace, though this narrow definition does his work an injustice. He gives an account of his influences, methods and motives here.

"You write books because you have truths to tell; you work in a bank or play the ponies because you want a fast car and a big house."

ghosts

Extract from David Peace - Nineteen Eighty:

Leeds -
Wakefield deserted and barren, Leeds twice that hell and more -
A collision of the worst of times, the worst of hells -
The Medieval, the Victorian, and the Concrete:
The dark arches, black mists and broken windows of industrial decay, industrial murder, industrial hell -
Dead city abandoned to the crows, the rain, and the Ripper.
And today, this day:
Friday 12 December 1980 -
It looks no different than we remember, than we feared -
Dead spectre from a woken nightmare -
A past trapped in a future, here and now:
Friday 12 December 1980 -
Screaming in the wind -
A bloody castle rising out of the bleeding rain, a tear in the
landscape -
Leeds, the grim and concrete medieval:
Dead city -
The crows, the rain and the Ripper -
The Ripper, King -
The King of Leeds.

aviant

What degree of human potential might be explored using the internet, beyond posting amusing videos and typing in LOL, ROFL, !!!1! and other such banalities? Well, I ask you?

So in that spirit, please allow me to introduce you to the delightful DJ Scotch Egg, who's due to play at Leeds' Brudenell Social Club in February.

Break-core is just so 2006 I know, but this is still very funny.

964 PINOCCHIO

Listing for Thursday's Cine Salon:



A weekly display of hidden or neglected facets of the magic lantern. The finest wines and cheeses shall be served.
Don't miss!

3 Springfield, Dundee.
Thursday 10th January, 9pm

COMING SOON!

964 PINOCCHIO
(1991, dir. Shozin Fukui)

Wikipedia.org:
Released in 1991, this Japanese cyberpunk film is filmmaker Shozin Fukui's big cyberpunk anthem. It deals with the theme of sex androids as well as mental breakdowns in a hallucinogenic thrill ride.

IMDB plot summary:
Pinocchio 964, lobotomised cyborg sex slave, is thrown out onto the street by his owners because of his inability to maintain an erection. He is befriended by a criminally insane, memory-wiped, homeless girl. Meanwhile, the corporate entity who manufactured and sold him plots to kill him because of his malfunction.

IMDB message boards:
This is my favorite movie. When I was watching this, I felt like I was becoming as insane as the characters. I was smashing my face against my wall, throwing DVDs out the window just to see the look on Mr. Whitman's face, slicing my cleft node in two with a filing cabinet, it wasn't even mine! -- it was that good! Reminded me of Andrzej Zulawski's POSSESSION but more insane.

assist

A glowing testimonial for my employers, courtesy of Charlie Brooker.

"I call the bank again simply to vent some frustration, and end up being horrible to the man on the other end, who's only doing his job. This makes me feel so low that I call back a few minutes later to try to apologise"

Would that others might show such consideration.

Meanwhile I'm at home drawing up a CV, about to begin angling for some alternatives.

addendum 2

Now I don't watch a right lot of telly, but some things are admittedly worth an occasional look. Following on from yesterday's post about Japanese fetish culture, this fascinating program was shown earlier in the week, all about ultra-realistic baby dolls.

Japanese miscellany

Worth posting another link to Dennis Cooper's blog, where today there's a lot of interesting material about Japanese fetish and assorted ephemera.

to do

Another list:

Too many books piling up in the 'to read' pile once I've finished Wuthering Heights.

David Peace - Nineteen Eighty
Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Jean Rhys - Good Morning, Midnight
Raymond Roussell - Selections From Certain of His Books
Peter Sotos - Proxy
Jean Baudrillard - Seduction

I've not taken any more overtime for the rest of the week, as there's too much to get through. Also, I'll go insane if I don't have a few days off.

miscellany

Reading over this 'review of the noughties' in today's paper, what's striking is how little good there is to say about most aspects of the world that it describes.

Music? Shite. TV? Shite. Celebrity? Don't care. Only the internet seems to have anything genuinely new and exciting to offer, from the evidence of this article anyway. It's the internet that provides all the news, information and opinion that's needed in the course of everyday life, and really the print edition is just there to read over breakfast and to prevent me from spilling coffee on my laptop.

I've had something of a spree on buying records over the past few days, in anticipation of a return to DJing duties shortly. There's also the recognition that (however temporarily) I'm a bit bored of disco, and feeling more inclined towards something a bit more abrasive and more, well, ACID.

New purchases:
Traxx - Mysterio / Juz Jak (feat James Cotton) (Nation of Jak)
Hadamard - A Prelude To Destruction (Bunker)
Sneak-Thief - G-String Orchestra (Klakson)
Marcus Mixx - Without Makeup (Let's Pet Puppies)
Kenny Dope - Jam The Mace (Tu Chicks)
Kenny 'Jammin' Jason & Fast Eddie Smith - Can U Dance

SUN RA - SPACE IS THE PLACE

Listing for Thursday's Cine Salon:

A weekly display of hidden or neglected facets of the magic lantern. The finest wines and cheeses shall be served.
Don't miss!

3 Springfield, Dundee.
Thursday 3rd January, 9pm

COMING SOON!
SUN RA – SPACE IS THE PLACE (1972, dir. John Coney)

IMDB plot summary:
Sun Ra--space-age prophet, Pharaonic jester, shaman-philosopher and avant-jazz keyboardist/bandleader--lands his spaceship in Oakland, having been presumed lost in space for a few years. With Black Power on the rise, Ra disembarks and proclaims himself "the alter-destiny." He holds a myth-vs reality rap session with black inner-city youth at a rec center, threatening "to chain you up and take you with me, like they did you in Africa" if they resist his plea to go to outer space. He duels at cards with The Overseer, a satanic overlord, with the fate of the black race at stake. Ra wins the right to a world concert, which features great performance footage of the Arkestra. Agents sent by the Overseer attempt to assassinate Ra, but he vanishes, rescues his people, and departs in his spaceship from the exploding planet Earth.

Wikipedia.org:
Like Ra himself, Space is the Place is one of a kind: part Blaxploitation film, and all polemic parable — a mythopoetic manifesto, made by people who believed in Ra's mystical message as much as they appreciated his Afro-psychedelica.