Syd Mead  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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"out today! - the eagerly awaited new issue of the deviant culture handbook: “timeless”[1] - the infamous Nana Rape Blossom painted by Loulou Picasso gracing the cover - i’m not actually sure if i’m included myself in this volume - but, besides the 300 regular edition copies, there is a special boxset limited edition of 50 with signed prints by me alongside Syd Mead, Sleazy and Slocombe, plus “a special gift”" - Trevor Brown (capitalized some by me)

More artists in this volume:

Romain Slocombe, Trevor Brown, Keit Ota, Tampopo, Motomichi, Seven Bastards, Daisuke Ichiba, Beatrice Cussol, Mijn Schatje, Elles Sont de Sortie, Kiki Picasso, Loulou Picasso, T5dur, Pyon, Stu Mead, Cameron Jamie, Blanquet, Gilles Berquet, Mirka Lugosi, Antoine Bernhart, Guy Lemaire, Julien Carreyn, Jonathan Canady, Jonas, Jankowsky, Fredox, Jean Pierre Le Boul'ch, Gea, Otto, Pakito Bolino, Tisbor (Splinter vs Stalin), Keith Brewer (Taint), Michael Williams (Eyehategod), Intrinsic Action, Philip Best (Whitehouse/Consumer Electonics), Bruce Benderson, Peter Christopherson (Soisong/PTV/Coil/Throbbing Gristle), Jordi Valls (Vagina Dentata Organ), Gaspar Noe, Elzo, Angelo aka Joseph Farrel, Martin of Holland.

Stanley Kubrick at 80.

I've previously mentioned[2] my disenchantment with Kubrick and "modernist film" in general (an exception needs to be made for its deviant siblings). His work is of course incontournable, as the French say, but 2001 is one of the most boring films I've ever seen and only comes close in tediousness to Citizen Kane.

Nevertheless, as all flawed products, 2001 has one or two redeeming elements:

• Olivier Mourgue Djinn chairs [3]
• Its soundtrack

2001's soundtrack did much to introduce the modern classical composer György Ligeti to a wider public, using extracts from his Requiem (the Kyrie), Atmosphères, Lux Aeterna and (in an altered form) Aventures (though without his permission).

• The dark tower monolith scene, again scored by Ligeti [4]

To conclude: a good YouTumentary the significance of 2001[5] by Collective Learning by Rob Ager.

Internet nostalgia.

Around 2002 I discovered Tom Ewing's I Love Music (ILM). The forum featured posts by bloggers and writers such as Simon Reynolds, Philip Sherburne, Mark Fisher, Scott Plagenhoef, Momus, Stevie Nixed and Sasha Frere-Jones. ILM represented the first batch of serious music writing in the blogosphere, and was notable because of its non-rockist approach.

I stayed around for a year or two, lurked more than I contributed and moved on, starting my own domain in that same year.

The reason I go back to these days is a blog I found by Tom Ewing on popular music[6] over at Freaky Trigger, a site/blog he has as a follow-up to NYLPM [7]. Tom means popular music in the literal sense, reviewing every UK number one single since 1952[8]. As of now, he has arrived in 1978.

The reviews are funny and well-informed. Consider this recent entry on Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights[9]:

"I’ve never read Wuthering Heights, though I like to imagine its heroine does a pushy-arm dance at some point. Looking it up on Wikipedia, however, I was shocked to realise that Kate Bush is singing this song as a ghost, but really that’s just another oddness on a teetering pile of them: in a really excellent article on Bush for the late Stylus magazine[10], Marcello Carlin (hi dere!) points out that she is “the last musician to be allowed to do what she likes, as and when she likes”, and the precocious, precious “Wuthering Heights” is both evidence and justification for this indulgence." --Tom Ewing at Freaky Trigger[11]

After viewing the list of 1977 number one hits one must come to the conclusion that a lot of interesting things can be said about what I like to call guilty pleasures[12], and secondly, that one can't argue with popular.

"The Erasmus House in Brussels, Belgium is staging an amazing looking exhibition called "Anatomie des Vanités" that will be on view until September 16th. The exhibition celebrates the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Erasmus Museum and is organized around a 17th century anatomical Eve (see top photo above), belonging to an unspecified private collection. Modern artists such as Jan Fabre, Marie-Jo Lafontaine and Aïda Kazarian also take part in this project." --Morbid Anatomy

"Last month Paul Miller—the avant-garde DJ, musician and theorist who always appends his name with “aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid”—finally released a collection of essays..."--Erik Davis

Esotika on Lucifer Rising.

"As both an exercise to get myself back into film writing/watching, as well as a way to make myself come to terms with the way I think about cinema, I'm going to start a series of reviews of 'ESOTIKA CLASSICKS.' Which, instead of writing about the obscure or esoteric films that usually decorate my blog, I will be revisiting more common films that exemplify the Esotika spirit and are a core part of the Esotika canon." --Esotika