with jaded eyes and features... you think they really care?

anybody who's anybody is a busybody everybody. as evidenced in the plethora of mediums Maximilla Lukacs' work shows up in. good stuff all around, but i'm particularly taken by these two videos at present... the first because it reminds me of the intro to the wonder years via my childhood (read as: small town punk rocker with nothing to do)... the second (done for her boyfriend Guy Blakesle's Entrance Band) because it feels like a psyched out Maya Daren treatment of sorts...

most of what she does are shot for shot remakes of well known experimental awesomeness... but she grabs from good places, and if Tarentino can make a career of it, why not someone more attractive?
pajo-where eagles dare mp3
the entrance band-grim reaper blues mp3

wisconsin death trip has a flikr.

seriously amazing.




Wisconsin Death Trip is a non-fiction book by Michael Lesy, first published in 1973. It has been adapted into a film.
The book is based on a collection of late 19th century photographs by Jackson County, Wisconsin photographer Charles Van Schaick, mostly in the city of Black River Falls, and local news reports from the same period. It emphasizes the harsh aspects of Midwestern rural life under the pressures of crime, disease, mental illness, and urbanization.

the film is currently available streaming on netflix... so you might want to get on that...

and here are some reading's from Lesy's book... this was put out on CDR some years back... (link to mp3's)

"Hillbilly noir from Butchertown Allstars; i.e. - 10 musicians reincarnate Wisconsin Death Trip. 46 tracks range from 20 to 90 seconds, comprised of male and female spoken stories accompanied by sounds spliced of vast scope ranging from old-timey dust bowl blues to free jazz to alien forcep electronics (all performed by the Butchertown Allstars). The result is timeless, sounding as if it was recorded anytime over the last 100 years. Highly reccomended for suicidial introverts! Based on Michael Lesy's classic book "Wisconsin Death Trip", an intimate, shocking and sometimes hilarious account of the disasters that befell one small town in Wisconsin during the final decade of the 19th century. Lesy discovered a striking archive of black and white photographs in the town of Black River Falls dating from the 1890's and married a selection of these images to extracts from the town's newspaper from the same decade. It is from these extracts that Butchertown Allstars bring back to life the tropes of hidden lives, suicide, familial disaster, cross-dressing, acute paranoia, drug addiction, schizophrenia, 'crazy socialists' and myriad tales of ordinary madness."

side b... still have a fever. thought i'd try DayQuil.

side b... still feverish... dayquil, so a bit less of a mess. (mp3)

air:suicides underground.
acid mothers temple:universe of romance.
tamaryn:mild confusion.
suede: asphalt world.
john cage:radio music (edit).
goblin:suspiria.
bauhaus:the three shadows part 2.
silver mt. zion:13 angels standing guard 'round the side of your bed.
allen ginsberg:america.
cranes:in the night.
mum:the land between solar systems.
low:words.
caretaker:reflection

like i said... it's on a cassette... so if you want it... you got it.

i have the flu.

sippin' on sizzurp: NyQuil mix side a (mp3)

coil:original chaostrophy.
butchertown allstars:9 (readings from wisconsin death trip).
zola jesus:sinfonia and the shrew.
songs of green pheasant:fires P.G.R.
transient waves:paradise.
animal collective/beachboys: i'm waiting for my banshee.
animal collective:loch raven.
death in vegas:girls.
coil-light shining darkly.
the caretaker:it's all forgotten now.
daniel knox:ghostsong.
paavoharju:ikuisuuden maailma.
fever ray:stranger than kindness.
black dice:roll up.
death in june:fields of rape.
the caretaker:cloudy, since you went away.
stevie nicks:rhiannon (piano demo).
salem:frost.
coldcave:our tears help the flowers grow.

too much cough medicine does some fucked up shit... as in way too much... i could barely stand by the end.
...and it shows.

(if you want a copy of this on cassette, just send me your address)

life in san francisco

sorry it's been a busy couple weeks... here's an i-phone photo update.
(...and of course the b-side for lust for life single, life in san francisco. for those of you that live outside of san francisco, 'album' comes out tomorrow.)


















girls- life in san francisco mp3

CLEAR DARK

clear dark is a perfect li'l image based zine featuring the work of daniel hipolito... and it feels like trying to remember dreams.
you should contact him and order one.


amber asylum- garden of love mp3


xasthur- a walk beyond utter blackness mp3


april march and los cincos- theme for the lime cafe mp3


townes van zandt- our mother the mountain mp3


"I began Clear Dark in 1995. Originally it was a freeform, non-linear, semi-autobiographical, narrative, noir, comic book-style zine. I always intended to suggest things as a story and not tell events directly.

As time went on I began to increase the production value, to draw without dialog, and with less and less panels per page, until ending up with something more abstract yet photorealistic, and psychedelic yet less delirious. The last issue, number 8, took many hours over many years to complete. As with many artists, I imagine my work to be a distillation of what I am and what I've seen. I suppose there's been a lot happening."

the above is the statement daniel gave in explanation of clear dark... i also asked him for a few songs to sketch out a soundtrack. spending time with these images and sounds stimulates some very strange and particular feelings... as though these are my panels of moments having happened in my life... or, again, in some sort of dream i've had... incidentally, here are the songs i was listening to before daniel sent me his list.
silver mount zion- 13 angels standing guard 'round the side of your bed mp3
jimmy scott- sycamore trees mp3
elvis presley- blue moon (sun records)mp3
daniel knox- ghostsong (johnsdemo)mp3

memory

memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain and recall information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing the memory. The late nineteenth and early twentieth century put memory within the paradigms of cognitive psychology. In recent decades, it has become one of the principal pillars of a branch of science called cognitive neuroscience, an interdisciplinary link between cognitive psychology and neuroscience. (wiki)

been thinking about memory quite a lot lately... specifically about how malleable it is. how different individuals recall the same situations in completely different ways. memory is a reconstructive process, so when you recall something you are essentially taking some scattered associations and using them to make up a story.
in thinking about this i remembered this photographer jennifer had told me about who had a show at the sf camerawork gallery...
liz steketee.
"i alter, chop, merge, and recompose photographic elements. this process allows me to represent a moment, a memory of life's reality as i see it. i disrupt linear structures and confuse elements of time to convey my notions of how life truly exists; a combination of independent moments that converge to leave us with a unique experience."
i am particularly drawn to a series she did called "reconstructed memories" where she took her old family photographs and rearranged various elements and subjects in them to suit her own recollection and whim. putting together people who may not have known eachother or even been alive at the same time... the result is a little bit creepy and a lotta bit beautiful.






haven't really been into cat power/chan marshall for some time... but this bare bones cover kinda kills it... in a good way.
cat power-remember me (otis redding cover)mp3

bohemian babe

mina loy was a poet, playwright, novelist, artist, actress, and designer. she was beloved by gertrude stein, t.s. eliot, and ezra pound, to name but a few. it's not hard to see why...





this is one of my all-time favorite poems, courtesy of ms. mina loy:

There is no Life or Death
Only activity
And in the absolute
Is no declivity.
There is no Love or Lust
Only propensity
Who would possess
Is a nonentity.
There is no First or Last
Only equality
And who would rule
Joins the majority.
There is no Space or Time
Only intensity,
And tame things
Have no immensity.

click on this handwritten poem to see it bigger:



a drawing and a gouache painting:





and of course, the obligatory man ray portrait:



get to know her... i highly recommend the lost lunar baedeker. and while you're at it... get to know zola jesus as well.

zola jesus-clay bodies mp3

the caretaker.

i've been watching a lot of twin peaks lately.
and jennifer was playing the caretaker all morning... and somehow the two make a lot of sense together.
the caretaker-cloudy since you went away mp3
the caretaker-it's all forgotten now mp3
he takes old ballroom 78's and slows 'em down, adds a bunch of reverb, some field recordings... and generally makes them super creepy in every possible way... the result is amazing... absolutely amazing.
there is a fabulous interview with/article about him in cyclic defrost magazine... an australian publication that apparently focuses on "interesting music".
speaking of twin peaks/interesting music... have you listened to the twin peaks/black metal inspired, love song to the wind that is the new mount eerie album winds poem?
seriously, listen to this song (and yes that is a sample from laura's theme).
mount eerie-between two mysteries mp3

witchcraft.

here, download and listen to this right now.
witchcraft-her sisters they were weak mp3

for some reason or other recently i've become re-infatuated with the occult... (as a kid i had fancied myself a witch... performing half assed spells with candles and a little bloodletting... even carved the rune of protection into my hand deep enough that the scar still persists in bringing a smile to my face from time to time.) now as goth as all this might sound, it was really just some typical 'misunderstood' middle school kid bullshit... one part new age hippie town, one part broken home, one part 'the craft'...
it's just lame i didn't spend enough time studying wicca, paganism and the church of satan a bit more closely so as to have walked away with a broader understanding of the diverse concepts of spirituality and the universe the various sects had to offer...particularly with regard to style.

stevie nicks-rhiannon (piano demo) mp3
strangely, i'm not usually a big fleetwood mac fan... but these demos of stevie solo on the piano (and copious amounts of pills, cocaine, and booze) are absolutely amazing.

stevie nicks-sisters of the moon (piano demo) mp3

stevie nicks-planets of the universe (piano demo) mp3
there is definitely some amazing magical component to her awesomeness with regard to these demos... witchy woman.
i'm thinking about going to witchfest international in november... but it's in london so i would have to crash with friends...

on a vaguely related note, suspiria, a club night in san francisco based entirely on the perfect style and cold atmospheric music of the dario argento film suspiria, is having it's last hoorah this wednesday eve... and i very much think all should attend.

for good measure, here's a copy of the insanely amazing title track to suspiria's soundtrack by goblin.
goblin-susperia mp3