easy target

(from todays times, ” ‘Mountains’ and Messiaen in a Music Project’s Gift”)

i know, its just too easy to pick on bernard holland these days, but it just bugs me so much that critics still write like this, so romantic….

heres the worst part:

After intermission it was Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,” in the face of which attempts at music criticism simply break down. No one else ever wrote a piece of music like this, and any description of its transfixed, out-of-body quality will end in contradiction. Like the title, these eight movements for violin, cello, clarinet and piano are neither old nor new. Familiar consonances appear but are transferred to wholly original contexts. The music exists outside, far beyond the politics of 20th-century composing. Any idea of avant-garde or reaction is rendered meaningless

catching up

not many interesting things this time, i suppose the next post will be about something artistic that has really impressed me. For now though i’ll simply update for those who are interested in my day-to-day.

Had a performance of “inferno” by ens itineraire last saturday, and it went very well. Maybe when i get the file i’ll post it in case anyones curious as to how varied the results are depending on each ensembles interpretation. There are certain sections that are rather flexible, purposefully vague, or overly espressive in nature, resulting in some unique results each time around.

I’m making headway w/my second project for ircam. In fact, it will be part of a jacques villegle exposition at the pompidou center. There will be a concert w/Pierre Henry (present), as well as Schaeffer, both of whom collaborated w/Villegle. Lots to do, but the performances aren’t til october.

Things are wrapping up at ircam now, and i’ll be in new jersey and chicago over the holidays.

video posted, “position, influence”

heres the link

to watch it full-screen try downloading it- vlc player works well..

also, a good stereo system w/a lot of bass will definitely help, especially for the end point w/just the light on her face- sorry for the low quality..

position, influence

Although i have so far tried to keep my posts from being self-promotional, i feel an excuse is in order for my 2-month hiatus in blogging- i’ve been working awfully hard for my piece for voice and electronics these past months, titled “position, influence” -and it’ll be performed saturday october 6th, at IRCAM. I hope to post a video as well as a recording soon after so that any of you that are interested might take a look.

And for any of you that happen to be in Paris, do consider coming to the concert, it looks like it’ll be rather good.

bergman kick

after news of bergman’s recent death i realized that i really ought to see some of these films. I started off w/the seventh seal, being arguably his most famous. To be honest, i don’t really see what all the fuss is about..

It was the film “persona” of 1968 that really blew me away. I highly recommend this film, its so perfectly done.
Last night i watched “the passion of anna”. These two last films and, i imagine “silence” which i’ll see soon, all rest under his psychological cinema term, which he apparently invented. Though i don’t know the exact influence, its clear that this has been incredibly influential on contemporary filmakers.

Some of the aspects i really appreciate are how he continues to work w/the same actors, people he clearly has made a real connection with, and they believe in what he is doing, creating a space for creating art divorced of commercial interests- or at least not of primary importance. He’s also incredibly gifted at timing, thats just clear- its such a joy to feel in sync with the pacing of a film.

I think his films are going to give me a way into some other films that i’ve had more trouble with, such as antonioni’s avventura.

by the way, does anybody know which greek/roman goddess it is that keep appearing as mainly a statue in his films?

crafts weekend

realizing that i’ve had bare white walls for too long, and that theres no chance of affording a video projector in the near future, i decided to make this weekend crafts weekend. What kind of decorations could i do that were non-permanent and yet not too cheap looking. After seeing a handful of murals put up around paris with some type of sticker-like material- after a while they’d just start peeling off- i thought that electrical tape could be a good medium to work with. Though not nearly as interesting as a big mural of michael landon (there was one above “cafe cherie”, just down the block from me), i thought i’d start w/some simple idea of bands of tape on one side turning into more unique x’acto’d slivers of tape on the other.

If anyone might know of an artist that has done similar types of paintings, let me know. I searched but couldn’t find any…as for what kind of representations it evokes, any other ideas besides vines or a tree? not sure if you can find it, but theres one little spot that looks like a face of a guy wearing shades…

stay tuned for the next project for my other big wall- involving metal wire and paper mache.

brakhage, thoughts

After viewing the criterion collection’s stan brakhage dvd again, i confirmed the most obvious things while other questions/personal reflections flooded in. I suppose right now, as i’m really immersed in one piece, i haven’t been reflecting as much, so when i get the chance to, it really floods out.
So the clear thing is this: for me its to be viewed like abstract expressionist art, especially his studies, which are my favorite, and almost systematically appear in his longer more well known “dog star man”. But beyond these quick moving films there are also these studies in light.
Whats interesting is how he begins combining these two very different elements later on.
One very unavoidable feature of his films are the quick motion or the complete lack of motion, as if its either one or the other. Of course there is so much variation to find in the details, but i can’t help but be overwhelmed by the larger scale consistencies. I wonder why he was against less abrupt transitions- with all the time he took, he could’ve done these rather uniquely. Theres a lot more to say, and i should remember the films…i’ll post on this again. Wikipedia link

playful torture, revisited…

Went and saw the messager annette exhibit again, and i have to say that, with all of its shock appeal gone, it wasn’t nearly as nice an experience as the last time. Not to say there isn’t a value for art whose initial experience can never be topped, but personally i prefer the following experiences to allow other ways in, with things i hadn’t noticed the first time.
Maybe this happened a bit. There was one room that struck me even further- thats the photo above…

getaway, arras, france

Simply needing to get out of paris and not having much money, i found myself heading to arras, fr, on a 10 euro ticket.
There’s a lot to say about just going to a random place. Among the highlights was a giant labyrinth/maze out in the countryside in a cornfield as well as the strange nightlife- though very small.
From a cultural point of view you have a rather interesting mix of dutch, british and french. I suppose this is to be expected based on the geography. Its particularly apparent with the history of the architecture. Some streets look very dutch, with thin brick buildings, while others are typically parisian.
There was a battle of Arras not only for the first world war but also the second. You can still see massive bullet/shell holes on some churches. One particular church was almost completely destroyed and they’re still rebuilding the surrounding structures. The photo above is of the memorial of the battle where some 30,000 soldiers died. Its quite moving, though it led me to wonder: years after a battle, where all reconciliation between the nations has passed and proceeding generations have mended the battle wounds of these particular towns, shouldn’t there be some memorializing of the soldiers who lost the war? One of the strongest symbols is of the “unknown soldier”, but yet its commonplace to forget the many equally yet opposing soldiers who just happened to lose.
With this train of thought, the main obstacle to overcome, i suppose, is time- as this blurs the purpose of a memorial- whose main purpose is in the years immediately following the event. While one main objective is so that one “never forgets” it seems that this is rather pointless unless one remembers both sides of the story.

In any case, it was nice to get out of paris. Heres the wikipedia link

playful torture

quickly moving on, this weekend i saw the annette messager exhibit at the pompidou center. While this blogs title doesn’t cover all of the feelings you experience with her installations its certainly a unique combination outside of the typical horror film experience- which she manages to easily steer clear of. Here are some youtube links