Rubber Ring

A few months ago i saw the Phil Collins 'World Won't Listen' installation (in which he filmed young kids in Turkey, Colombia and Indonesia doing karaoke of Smiths songs) in the Dallas Museum of Art and their was this one woman doing 'Rubber Ring' that nearly moved me to tears...the up close shot of her face, her desperation, the intimacy (of the song and the closeup) and her rubbing her hand down her forehead was all it took to shake me for months...I found a clip of her on youtube, here it is (the sound is kinda bad but just focus on her intent and the intimacy).

Beyond the valley of the walls

Recently i was in Berlin and my friend Jeppe took us out to his boyfriends art gallery, Peres Projects, and showed me the '5 Steps' video by Agathe Snow and it was absolutely hysterical. It was a fake workout video dealing with subjects like 'how to survive a time travel back to nazi Germany' and 'how to deal with getting a speeding ticket in 5 steps'. If you are ever in Berlin i highly recommend stopping by there and pick up a free copy of Daddy, it rules...Also for shopping in Berlin i loved:

- Apartment
- Wood Wood
- Star Styling

Tonight we played with Primal Scream in a fortress in Serbia, it is amazing here. The fortess = beyond the valley of the walls! Everyone here was super cool + the show was radical. The festival we played has no corporate sponsorships and is truly working it's way up to be the most popular festival in all of Europe. I want to come here in the future and lie amongst the ruins. We got here really late so i didn't get to see as much of the city as i wanted too. The buildings here take my breath away. It's bizarre to eat food in a restaurant that is older than America. Fuck America right now, i'm so bored with USA.

Wynne Greenwood (ex-Traci + The Plastics) recently played my club night and blew everyone away. Her new songs are so killer, i can't wait for her new record. No video but better songs! Sarah Adams plays guitar and drums with her (good luck on Project Runway, Sarah!) now too. Below is the video for 'Big Candy', i can't get this song outta my head. I always have to hold my breath and lean against a wall when she belts out "there is an older looking face in the mirror"...

Clara Rockmore

Clara Rockmore is all that i listened to for about three months straight. My obsession faded when i discovered my new favorite theremin player, see below...



Here is Clara Rockmore doing Hebrew Melody...

The beautiful + strange world of Mudcole

Recently my friend ---- and i stumbled upon an amazing world of fetish videos on Youtube. This guy named 'Mudcole' (maybe the greatest Italian director since Antonio?) puts up videos of women walking through mud in high heels and utterly destroying them! This is deep + brutal art. The videos are done with what seems to be a fairly cheap camera and with no soundtrack, just the sound of heels being destroyed and the gravel they walk on. The way he portrays the heels, it's almost as if they are beyond the pyramids, a gift given to him by the gods! In some shots you see the woman ever so delicately opening the box of heels before sending them to their demise. The greatest mystery: who are these women and do they enjoy destroying the heels or are they mere actors? Is it the same woman? We never see her above the knees, furthering the already enigmatic world of Mudcole. What happens when Mudcole goes into a store that sells heels? Does he start drooling? Does he slowly walk next to the heels and gently caress them? I'm gonna say that 'Italian Mud' is the best title for a film EVER. Check this out.

7/10/08

Tonight we are in Greece. Staying in a hotel right next to the mediterranean sea. I sat on the beach for quite some time tonight thinking of ------ and listening to Gurdjieff de Hartmann. I can not say enough about the music of Gurdjieff. Tonight i nearly vomited tears when Sayyid no.10 came on in my headphones. His piano playing is like tamed violence. There is a deep rumble in there...It is both romantic + violent at the same time. The crescendos and the silence run hand in hand. It's a bit like being ripped to shreds by a lion, but your lover is there with you in the den. These recording are beyond fantastic...Slightly lo-fi piano...I die for the moment you can hear his stool scoot closer to the piano. That is REAL MUSIC!

We are playing with Siouxsie Sioux tonight. I can wait to see her! She is amazing. My favorite Siouxsie Sioux song HAS to be 'Red Light'. Watch this beautiful video for the song. This song's composition is amazing + such a classy use of echo!



I will let you know how the show went..."toooo much expooosure"....

Greece is weird, it is mostly lonely old people, pebbles and stray animals...

It is 3:04 AM and i am sitting in the hotel lobby drinking wine and typing, i should go to bed maybe?

Current listening:
HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR 'Athene'
DRINKING ELECTRICITY 'Shake Some Action'
GREEK ELDERLY PEOPLE 'The Sound of their lonely tears falling onto the rock beach while stray cats and dogs lick them up like bowls of milk'

xxx