This sort of falls under the "guess you had to be there" category. So here's a set of phonecam flicks to help illustrate. I'm not purporting to be an art critic by any means, but I really enjoyed the evening of absurd, interactive performance art and breezy beats at Michael Portnoy's Milk the Weasel, Pull the Rug and Summer Session 2008 at the SculptureCenter in Long Island City last night. Thanks to Jeremy for the heads up and to him and Matthew for the jams. I woke up this morning with Eye in the Sky still playing in my head.
Read on for my attempt at putting this into words.
Looks like all the World Science Festival events that really interested me are sold out. Actually, that's not entirely true, but I'll be in the Poconos this weekend so will have to miss out on, say, Saturday's What It Means to Be Human moderated by Charlie Rose, with a panel that includes Jonathan Harris among philosophers, geneticists and neuroscientists. Get tix, go, and I'll borrow your notes when I get back.
If you can't make it out to these talks either, keep reading for a round-up of science and science-y links that I've been bookmarking (wikis, articles, vids, etc), so you can school yourself without leaving your desk/couch/hammock. With science-y musics, of course.
I've had this one saved to drafts for a while now, so when I read that The Depreciation Guild were influenced by Dario Argento films, I figured now was as a good a time as any to dust it off.
It took my roommate and I four months after Netflix sent it before we sat down to watch Phenomena. (Our catch-up-on-Lost marathons were seriously getting in the way.) But once I got over my aversion to horror movies, I really enjoyed it. Argento's 1985 classic has it all: blood, beauty, new wave fashion, a preposterous premise and, perhaps most important, a kick-ass soundtrack. As for most of Argento's films, Claudio Simonetti's prog-rocking Goblin does the title theme and mood music, and on this one Iron Maiden, Motörhead and Andi Sex Gang rip through the chase scenes.
° Goblin - Phenomamp3
(make sure you get past the intro to a minute:30)
There was a lot of great work at the NY Photo Festival—really inspiring stuff. But to celebrate the sunny weekend ahead of us, here are a couple phonecam shots of Penelope Umbrico's wall of sunburst photos, Suns From Flickr, printed out on glossy 4x6's. I especially like that when you get close you can see the jpeg artifacts from the lo-res images. Similarly, I like how details of printed rosetta moirés appear in the enlarged "candy-colored horizons" culled from honeymoon resort brochures in her Honeymoon Suites. Check out the other work, from collections of TV screens and pillows to "ends of things" on her site.
Between ICFF and the NY Photo Fest there's plenty to do this weekend, but I'd like to direct your attention to one event in particular. If you've not yet visited the SoHo concept store Kiosk, their first Mini-Exhibition opening this Saturday is for a show by collaborative group Rich, Brilliant, Willing and will be the perfect opportunity. Continue reading for more about RBW (their "Candle Party" pictured below) and the story behind Kiosk's Hong Kong neon.
° Siouxsie and the Banshees - Hong Kong Gardensmp3
Apologies if the Flash embed breaks your internet—first time trying out this plug-in. (Words by Devo, from Explosions)
Lots of extreme electric/kinetic stimuli this weekend. Including 3rd Ward's Devo-inspired show, which prompted me to do this contrived (fun) thing where I post a bunch of Devo songs corresponding to the different goings on.
The band behind unofficial talkwasadream theme song I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night are playing tonight in New York. I think it's funny that I just found out about this sort of obscure 60s psych/garage rock band that I didn't even know was still around and now they're playing a show here. Clearly, all paths lead to The Electric Prunes show tonight and if you don't go you'll never get off the island.
In celebration of Cinco de Mayo, I was going to post details from this set of five cards I designed, and talk about how I want to print them with one of these Gocco kits. But instead, I started playing with the image above, and I think it fits these sounds better. (I mention the gocco cards thing hoping that if I talk about it enough, I might actually do it.)
Meanwhile... musics!
°Instituto Mexicano Del Sonido - Bienvenidos a mi Discomp3
