Watts

I'll update this thing I swear on my mother's grave. It will be deluge of golden moments.

Goldenboy Jay Watts wrote some very nice words about me on his blog.

Come see Voltage at Zoobizarre next Tuesday. There! just like a real blog.

Fuck.

New Foundlands

The new issue of Cabinet is out presenting a survey of micro-nations. Micro-nations are difficult to define in the sense that they challenge the notions of territory and identity. Hence, each new micro-nation tends to only broaden the scope of what is possible.Essentially a micronation is anything claimed to be a nation out side of worldly recognition. Many are conceptual in nature others are actual and sufficient communities. None the less their citizens and instigators are involved in an interesting practice of mixing life and art with a health does of utopist tendencies.

While this issue does contribute to Cabinet’s already outstanding out-put, I’m surprised myself that they overlooked Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen , Summit of the Micronations, which took place in Helsinki in 2003. As curators of the Amorph! Performance festival, Kalleinen and Kochta-Kalleinen co-ordinated an actual sumit, where members of select micronations would meet to workshop and discuse their personal and shared issues. The participants; Principality of Sealand, NSK-State in Time, Kingdoms of Elgaland & Vargaland, Remony of Ladonia , Transnational Republic, State of Sabotage, presented themselves in Finlandia Hall offering a glimpse towards their respective ideologies along with performances of each national anthem. Harakka Island in turn played host to each micronation’s embassy, where visitors could pick up literature, stamps, currency or apply for citizenship from those who opened their doors to strangers.

NSK State in Time is headed up by Laibach, a seminal industrial group from Slovenia. The Summit was marked by a rare and intense performance by these northern provokers. As a collective they have been performing since 1980. In 1984 they joined up with theater group, Scipion Nasice Sisters forming a new organization known as Neue Slowenische Kunst. This new conglomerate moved on to present ever more challenging performances with NSK contributing to Laibach’s concerts and the band in turn composing music for theatrical presentations.

Liabach’s has freely consumed pop culture, boiling it down with their Wagnerian military marches. Following are two Beatles covers:

Get Back

For you Blue

I can't stand it

While the Venice biennale reports are on please approach WPS1 with caution. WPS1 the online radio presence of PS1; Queens’ contemporary art centre and MOMA sibling, has descended into flippant interviews, worst-of-show-lists and empty roundtable discussions with easily excited faghag’s over mimosas.

Since you already have your 10-foot-pool out, I also suggest screen all the music content carefully as well. You may fall into a pit of sonic horrors (or worse…acid jazz).

This being said, the archive does offer up some a little more sustenance.



My own personal recommendation is John Duncan’s Cross Radio . Where he presents audio works from around the world, culling through basic conceptualism and presenting those artists who touch down on greater themes beyond just formalist waxings.



John Duncan was also recently in Montreal, as part of the ambitious Le Placard project presented at MUTEK. Duncan performed on the second day. Duncan's and all the other performances can be heard here.

Each performer was given free reign for half an hour on a closed sound system, the out put of which could only be heard over the provided headphones scattered about the space.

While you’re perusing the archives, check out some other performances by local montrealers : Joda Clement, Jacob Chelkowski , Le Black Noise, Tim Hecker, Christof Migone, Ste-Sophie, moreceaux_de_machines and others.

black confetti

So, Ubuweb is off-line all summer meaning I can no longer lazily use it as a launch pad for upcoming posts. Time for some discipline.

German singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann is considered by a few as Germany’s answer to Bob Dylan, which is ridiculous (and I’m certainly not going to address such sentiments).

Son of a Jewish German Communist, he lost his father to the Nazi’s during World War II.

The 60’s saw Biermann’s introduction into the East German cultural milieu by composer Hanns Eisler, who served as his mentor and protector. After Eisler’s death in 1962 Biermann became to investigate theater and music. His nonconformist politics enticed the Socilalist Unity Party of Germany to publicly denounce him as a “class traitor”, further stunting the artist by forbidding any public publication or performance of his music.

1976 Biermann was striped of his citizenship and exiled by the Socialist Party. He moved to West Germany with his partner, East German actress Eva-Maria Hagen, and her daughter Catherina aka Nina Hagen.

Biermann’s composition’s are scathing and acidic, real theater, you don’t necessarily need to understand German to find the source of his efforts.

listen

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follow this up with W.G Sebald's last interview before his unfortunate death.

Lively conflict

I've finally stumbled across the UBUWEB project only to discover that after almost a decade of compiling and disseminating media pertaining to everything and anything good in the past hundred years of art, the project is now terminated. It has been archived and is now hosted by the WFMU. The recently posted material on the opening page is enough to keep any one busy until the next ice age.

I’m not going to play favorites here. I’ll start with some recent points of interest and follow through with what ever nodes they present.
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Ergo Phizmiz and his orchastra – White Light, White Heat

Ergo Phizmiz hails from Ventnor, a strange seaside town on the Isle of Wight, where he acts under a number of titles from designer to film-maker to radio artist. Units of labour aside, he’s a man of sound. This track is from an MP3 only release which reworks the Velvet Underground, presenting compositions of banjoes, kazoos, accordions, toy instruments, mechanical music and junk percussion. The entire album can be downloaded at : http://www.ergophizmiz.com



(The Eunoia graphic above, is a show case of a font designed by Nick Shinn in collaboration with Christian Bök. It can be purchased from ShinnType Foundry)

Some people win awards of excellence, because well…they’re excellent in every sense of the word . Christian Bök (real name Book, changed for the sake of ease) is one of those types of people. His Eunoia is a literary exercise in the vein of Perec, with the ink-swilling spirit of Alfred Jarry. A narrative prose, in which each chapter employs but one of the 6 vowles. Extending the story of Jarry’s Pere Ubu as well as Bök’s crystalline tendancies, Eunoia has set a new benchmark for writing that stand long to be overthrown.

Chapter A

The entire set of recordings and more

On another note, Bök’s reading was recorded by the multi-faceted Steve Venright, proprietor of the fantastic. His 'Torpor Vigil Enterprises' publishing house is home to Samuel Andreyev.

Sam’s life is (or was) as follows :

Samuel Andreyev, at age twenty-one, has recorded eight albums of original music -- five independently produced cassettes and two CDs (one a double-album) on my new Torpor Vigil Industries label. As well as being a composer and musician (harpsichord, oboe & theremin) he has published many of Toronto's most remarkable experimental poets through his EXPERT PRESS. With his unusual modern chamber group The Trosper Ensemble, Samuel has performed at various venues around Toronto, including the Music Gallery, Top o’ the Senator, the Orbit Room and the Cameron House. He is the son of author Lynda Curnoe and the nephew of artist Greg Curnoe. Among other uncanny abilities, he can speak backwards and is sometimes able to generate palindromes on short notice.

Exciting! Here are two songs from Regions Reach, which you should buy direct from Torpor Vigil

The Final Days
Phantom Bays


up next the Wolf Biermann.


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do this later

the artist as a sensitive membrane

Great Polish/French pianist/composer, Frédéric Chopin was an extremely sensitive boy and rarely performed his works for the general public. Performances that did occur took play in the drawing rooms of wealthy patrons or sophisticated illuminati. With pale, porcelain skin ,a graceful, effeminate figure, and the most delicate bearing. With immense refinement and astute knowledge of many of the higher pursuits; his every mannerism and the way he spoke were redolent with aesthetic virtue and high culture. He was the epitome of “the artist as a sensitive membrane”.

George Sand, noted cross-dresser and writer, held a tempestuous affair with our slight composer. A short lived affair of just under a decade, Chopin was diagnosed with consumption, and passed at the age of 39. Sand’s free attitudes also took their toll on Chopin, driving him at one point to dress as a woman him self, hide two pistols in his garter and attempt to kill on of Sand’s lovers. He was ultimately caught by a border guard and promptly sent home.

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Antony


Sweet, sweet Antony.
Any one who's seen Sebastien Lifshitz's Wild Side may have noticed Antony singing this song to a crowd of empathetic Parisian transsexuals.

"I Fell in Love to a Dead Boy"

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buy I am a Bird Now
buy Chopin

Clearly

The Armory report has been abandoned, based on one clear fact:

The collective sales of this years fair amounted to around $48 million over just four days.

Clear and simple capital and investment in contemporary art. Hopefully canadian rich folk will begin to realize that this is a valid form of exchange, which in turn has been proven to be more dependable than the stock market.

Welcome to the Moss Mansion

David Armstrong Six
TOO MUCH TIME
2004
GAUCHE AND PENCIL ON PAPER
14 X 18 INCHES
www.greenerpasturesgallery.com

Upcoming posts -

Finally, an Armory+Scope report.

plus -

Chopin's cross dressing revenge and sensitive nature get the best of him (mp3 Antony and the Johnsons)

very soon. thanks.
very well. thanks.