Friday 27 February 2009

MEMO FROM THE QUARTZ DESK II: IS IT SUMMER YET?



Occasionally, on that rare weekend when I have a few contemplative moments to spare, I'll cut short my usual marathon meditation session a few minutes and pop into this dusty office to crank out a post such as this. I'll really only do so if I feel I have something very important to share.... and if these damn tremors in my hands have subsided enough for pecking away at the old teevee typewriter, as it were....



Jake Five, whom The Sybil brought to me in one of her rather disturbing and ill-timed astral projections, has been quietly invading Dirt City with his own brand of surreal synthesis and subconscious sci-fi sounds. When he's not busy creating sonic holographic landscapes of a near-future that only could have happened in the past, he is, quite generously, providing electronic epicureans, such as yours truly, with soundtracks to long-lost eras we all wish we could have been a part of.... or, as in this case, to the good times we all hope to see again:



Jake Five - Is It Summer Yet? Mixtape

I absolutely promise that you will be hearing more from this Jake Five character in the future.... and, after this rambling mess - less from me! Oh, by the way, here's one more treat you can thank Mr. Five for, that, incidentally, is the opening track from the mixtape:



Bill Nelson - Do You Dream In Colour?

Ciao!

Monday 23 February 2009

THE POLISHED STYLE, THE FREER SPIRIT

For images of obscured future, it is necessary often the study in depth in the past to understand cyclical natures of development and creative expressions. A world turning and events take place that shape ways humans will communicate.



Fashionista young Jane* arrives to translate symbols and abstract, even subliminal no voice codes in forms of dress and alignment. With new her crystal visions powerful, show illumination the modes the most immediate visual language.

Jane* can be found also here and here.






The Contrast: The polished style/the freer spirit
Shot by Helmut Newton & Hans Freurer
US Vogue 1983
(scans by MMA)







THE SERVANT

The Servant is a 1963 British film, directed by Joseph Losey of stars Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig, and James Fox. The film was adapted for the screen by Harold Pinter (the first of three collaborations with Losey) from the novel by Robin Maugham. It is a well woven psychological drama that focuses on the relationship between the four central characters. The intricacies of the class, bondage, boredom and Pyrrhic Victory are examined and exploded.



Tony (James Fox), a wealthy young Londoner, urges Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) as his valet. Initially, Barrett seems easily to his new job and he and Tony make a link while calm, however, and maintain their social roles. They begin to change the relationship, and they change with the introduction of Susan (Wendy Craig), Tony's emotionally compelled friend who seems loathing to Barrett and hating everything he represents. Adding to problems is Vera (Sarah Miles), the supposed sister of Barrett, taking the household as a servant. In fact, the Vera is his lover.



Nothing is what it seems, people around the yard until the roles reverse and Tony emerges as a very different person. This is a scenario where the main characters seem bored to play their roles of hierarchies.

Thursday 19 February 2009

NYC, McQ, V-DAY

Former international model couture, Cheree Cheree, was famous for never revealing her face or true identity in the world obsessed with image. She traveled the globe as an esthete adventurer in search of unusual and all things exciting. But the life is often too banal, and Cheree is not afraid to whip the crowd. This is her first newspaper of the City of New York, her current station:



Suicide - Cheree

Target is once again attempting to bring high design to the others - by inviting Alexander McQueen to produce a line for its stores. The promise of such an awkward pairing brought me to the two-day pop up store along the West side highway, possibly one of the few reasons to venture that close to Jersey. What I found was that Target made a cute transformation of the space into a warehouse, which conveniently it already was. This is to say they slicked up cinderblock walls with the requisite shade of red, added clunky meat locker plastic panels at the entryway (complete with Target logo), and enclosed the large space with chain link fencing and particle board plastered with hip/urban images. All this to add a street vibe to further emphasize that you're getting high design clothing at bottomed out prices.



Displayed on dozens of institutional metal racks, the clothing was...easy to access. That may have been the highlight. Patterns (harsh) and cuts (boring) were repeated throughout and unfortunately were not very innovative in the first place. I must admit that it is just not the kind of quality and couture that I'm used to, which undoubtedly colors my opionion. In realizing this, perhaps I shouldn't be so quick to negatively judge Target for what is ultimately a respectable attempt to include the public in high fashion, a realm largely unknown to them. But still, this is Alexander McQueen. Whatever, trust me when I say that you should shop for your outerwear in the pajama section of Target like I do.

The clothing was one thing. And then there was the art. Target apparently commissioned artists to create artwork just for this two day event. All the artists shared two important characteristics - a little free time on their hands and a greater need to please a corporation that got them some sort of exposure than to protect whatever meek integrity they once believed their art to possess. The art was centered on fashion. The art integrated the rough and sexy materials of urban life and, oddly, commercial warehouse work life. In one corner, there was a Macbook propped on a stack wooden pallets with a projector throwing images on a wall. Nearby a competing video projected onto MDF jutting about in every direction. There were also artist-made photographs hidden among the aforementioned hip/urban poster images. Really? What crap. Are these displays meant to showcase the visual artists or the clothing designer? Because basically they do neither. The art was so uneventful that I don't remember the images being projected. Well, save for the one with the map of the United States because honestly, after a life of traveling, I just enjoy maps.



So we have fashion, we have artwork, and we have allusions to hot and anxious street life. The only thing left to add to our all encompassing Target mix is music. Ill suited to the large space and the design elements of Alexander McQueen were Phenomenal Handclap Band. That being said, PHB were the only people that truly knew what they were doing and looked at home doing it. The kids were enthusiastic and made a promising, lighthearted sound rooted in the 70s. A band with two keyboardists is usually a good thing. Unfortunately two of the members appeared as though 10 Urban Outfitters catalogs molested them, but given the other circumstances of the evening I will let that slide.

Oh, overall it was boring. Most fortunately my Valentines Day picked up speed after meeting up with friends and having a round at EAR, a few rounds at K&M in Williamsburg and then on to meet up with some lovely Swedish filmmakers at Union Pool. Names names names.

I do so look forward to assisting The Sibyl with these New York transmissions, but honestly it is going to be difficult to find the time to write between all the events and all of these damn drinks.

Monday 16 February 2009

BLOOD-DRAINED AND REARRANGED



Across the plains of synthesis, the Faux Fox is still hunted by the dead of night, although the predators are not the sporting dogs, but elegant beings of glittering life nocturnal, Diamond Vampires, continuing endless from onyx steed. O, the ecstatic pleasure of the soft and fragile, as the beast feels starlight glinted fangs as deep wells through the fur, flesh, and ivory bone....



Faux Fox - Secret Stallion (Diamond Vampires Version)

.... while elsewhere, on another existence plane and harassed the miserable creature, wet with the cocktail of salty tears, blood, sweat and semen, scratches its way to the end of a road of yellow brick. It finally draws the curtain to reveal its kaleidoscopic master, Geeky C, who will transform small dogs in the land of seduction of the beautiful mink worn around the smooth, soft neck of the world elite harlots as they giggle together in an eternal orgy beyond the time....



Faux Fox - Class Ring (Geeky C Make-Out Party Mix)

Monday 9 February 2009

JAKE FIVE IS ALIVE



During the night, as the ghostly steam hovering over the cold, damp air, Jake Five rods on the street under the glowing, pulsing grids neon rainbow of colors. It is not clear that this enigmatic figure of the console is human or android or wraith or hologram. It is clear that his 1982 Jaguar has literally become its name, a sexy predator stalking the streets in search of a silken, though Faux Fox. During this it tears in big claws its prey, the rearranging is strange, dark, and beautiful.



Faux Fox - Nothing Gold (Jake Five Version)

Now please follow Jake Five, no return, but in Europe:

Jake Five - Europe 1982 Mixtape

Tracklisting:
'Nights of Arabia' - Miro Miroe
'Person to Person' - The (Hypothetical) Prophets
'Jupp Putta' - Bottroper Hammerchor
'Cold as Ever' - A Blaze Colour
'Das Ende Vom Traum' - Silvia
'Closer' - Codek
'Monsteribaari'- Belaboris
'New Statue(Morning Song)' - Solid Space
'Abzaehlreim' - Synthenphall
'God's Kitchen' - Blancmange
'Madman' - Snowy Red
'Cocaina Vitamina' - ADN Ckrystall
'Armour' - The Passage

THE THIRD MAN



The Third Man(1949) is a British film noir directed by Carol Reed, with Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard and Orson Welles. The script was written by novelist Graham Greene. Greene new of the same name, written in preparation for writing the screenplay, was published in 1950.

Monday 2 February 2009

NIGHTS OF CABIRIA

'Nights of Cabiria' (Italian: 'Le notti di Cabiria') (1957) is an Italian film directed by Federico Fellini.



Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, plays Cabiria Ceccarelli, a feisty but naive prostitute in Ostia, a meager Rome. Cabiria, the name, is borrowed from the Italian film 'Cabiria' of 1914, while the character of Cabiria is herself taken from a brief scene in Fellini's earlier film 'The White Sheik'.



The film follows Cabiria as she looks for love but encounters frequent heartbreak. Abused and exploited by almost everyone she meets, Cabiria eventually meets a man who promises a respectable future and falls lightning with him. What follows is a series of humiliating episodes, in which the positive challenge Cabiria is hurt, but never broken.