APRIL 24, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Mangum, Oklahoma: Rattlesnake Day
*Alton, Illinois: Native Son Day
ALSO ON APRIL 24 IN HISTORY…
1731 — British writer Daniel Defoe dies, London, England, hiding from creditors.
1897 — Cultural anthropologist Benjamin Whorf born, Winthrop, Massachusetts.
1947 — American prarie novelist Willa Cather dies, New York City.
1990 — Hubble Space Telescope launched from Space Shuttle Discovery
2006 — Nasreen Pervin Huq, feminist activist, dies, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Iraqi Jawza player Salih Shemayyil at the First Cairo Congress of Arab Music (1932)
When London-based Honest Jon’s Records compilation Give Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted – Baghdad, 1925-29 appeared last year, it was a ear-opening and mind-expanding glimpse into a world few of us in the U.S. had even imagined – the glorious music of Iraq as it was recorded generations ago by musicians long since gone. For many, it and the Choubi Choubi comp on Sublime Frequencies may have provided a first look at Iraqi musical culture, since so little else (Munir Bashir and Rahim AlHaj excluded) has ever been available in the West.
But just in the past few week and seemingly out of the clear, blue sky comes the staggering Iraqi Maqam blog and its accompanying YouTube channel which focus exclusively on the uniquely Iraqi take on maqam, the umbrella of elevated Arab classical musics. Drawing mainly from exceedingly scarce recordings of the 1920s-30s, already Iraqi Maqam has provided a dizzying wealth of musicological, biographical and anecdotal information in both Arabic and English to hours and hours worth of virtuosic and deeply moving recordings (including truly precious translations of the poems sung), profusely illustrated with period photographs. That such a monumental, thoroughly-researched and thoughtfully-presented body of work even exists, not to mention that it is appearantly a free gift to mankind, is fortifying and exciting stuff in a hard, old world.
A message from the good people of Thanky, a temporary arts space in Richmond, Virginia devoted to bringing positive vibes and quality visuals to the community over the space of one year (September 2008 – August 2009):
“Thanky is proud to present “The Cartoon Utopia”, a show of new work by Ron Regé, Jr., a cartoonist and musician from Plymouth, Massachusetts. Ron Regé, Jr. began publishing his own minicomics while attending Massachusetts College of Art in 1988 and has since been published by Kramer’s Ergot, Buenaventura Press, Drawn & Quarterly, Highwater Books, Fantagraphics, and McSweeney’s. His illustrations have appeared regularly in The New York Times and Canada’s National Post. Ron Regé, Jr. currently lives in Los Angeles where he plays drums in the band Lavender Diamond. Regé possesses a big heart and a steady hand, creating intricate lines and patterns, cute cartoon people and creatures that inhabit a fantastic universe with stories that dive into the deepest or darkest notions of our experience. His perception of human nature is always keen and precise and his work vibrates with a joyful energy. He has exhibited at The Hope Gallery in LA and at the Librarie Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal. As a performance art act, Regé performs solo as the Discombobulated Ventriloquist.”
A description of “The Cartoon Utopia” in the artist’s own words:
“At the beginning of 2008 – I started to create a series of numbered 4×6” drawings as an exercise – to start to flesh out ideas for a kind of “science fiction universe” that I’ve been slowly imagining over the last few years – the idea of a “Cartoon Utopia.” So many imagined futuristic “fantasy worlds” seem to be “dystopian” in nature –dark and pessimistic. I thought it would be nice to imagine a “futuristic” fantasy where humanity had progressed in a more positive way.”
Ron Regé, Jr, “The Cartoon Utopia”, Opening Reception Friday, May 1, 6pm-9pm Featuring performances by Discombobulated Ventriloquist and Dearraindrop 407 Brook Road, Richmond, Virginia 23220 (off W. Broad Street) Complimentary cupcakes will be on hand
Video of White Rainbow, ARP and Lichens’ improvisational accompaniment to Doug Aitken’s “Migration” Installation.
Adam Forkner, the guy behind maximum bliss-out drone project White Rainbow, has six different outlets by which enthusiasts of his inner space sounds can follow his activities. For those fans — such as your contributing editor — who were mostly oblivious to this WR media empire, Forkner has provided a digest update of his most recent activities on his old fashioned blog, or “Life Log.” Of particular interest:
• Upcoming shows with drone-happy lovebirds Windy & Carl take White Rainbow up and down the West Coast in late May 2009, with stops in Seattle, his home base of Portland, Big Sur and two shows here in Los Angeles. The Arthur Atwater office is raising its STOKED level to Red.
• Tracks for the next White Rainbow full length, New Clouds, have been delivered to the mastering dude, with a tentative September 2009 release date on Kranky.
• A WR collaborative EP with Stag Hare is due out “as soon as humanly possible” on Marriage Records.
• Stag Hare you ask? Stag Hare is a crunchy fellow from Utah, and his self-released album Black Medicine Music was the best ambient trail mix of 2008. Thanks to Forest Gospel for being the first to hip us to these nuts and berries desert ragas. Don’t sleep. Though its rustling drum pattering and Juniper-scented driftscapes may have pleasantly soporific effects.
• And new White Rainbow music is available RIGHT NOW and FOR FREE by way of audioblog Raven Sings The Blues, which posted its first compilation, RSTB Presents Vol. 1, back in mid-March. The comp also has top ranking earth psych and noisenik sounds from Wet Hair, Plastic Crimewave Sound, Sic Alps and more. Go get it here.
• Forkner is considering “qutting pizza” for his health. We feel you bro.
And that’s just the White Rainbow stuff. Click here to check out the full post with info on all of his doings.
We’ve been hungry for new White Rainbow jams for awhile now, so here’s a few other Forkner curated emanations that we discovered deep in the Gooogles …
Q: Where does the Border Patrol’s “drug blimp” go at night? A: It sleeps in a field outside of Marfa, Texas.
The Marfa aerostat, aloft in daylight
The so-called “drug blimp” is actually a tethered aerostat — a white helium balloon as big or larger than the portly tire-company-maintained dirigibles that flock to parades and sporting events — operated by the U.S. Air Force, which makes the data it collects available to NORAD and the U.S. Border Patrol. It is by far the most tangible of the lazy clouds floating through the skies of the southern region of Far West Texas, its onboard radar system keeping an eye out for drug smugglers flying or driving loads of cocaine and or marijuana over from the deserts of Northern Mexico. It’s unmanned and controlled from the ground, attached via a tether cable to some kind of rail system. Similar aerostat sites can be found in the Bahamas, Arizona, and broadcasting decadent episodes of “Nanny 911” or whatever via TV Marti into Communist Cuba from Cudjoe Key, Florida. Or at least that’s what the Air Force has to say about it.
The Marfa aerostat, grounded at 2:45am
I came across it moored, at about 3am, in a blazing circle of orange halide security lamps on my way from Los Angeles to visit friends in Marfa and Terlingua. I stopped and started snapping away with my camera, but kept getting that “willies” feeling that goes along with standing on a windy, deserted Texas road in the middle of the night, taking pictures of a government surveillance aircraft that chases narcotraficantes around.
Pinto Canyon Road, West Texas, by moonlight
The Marfa aerostat is part of Far West Texas’ complex system of border monitoring technology that includes triggers on rural routes that insure government agents will be checking up on late night back road cruisers. Or so I was warned by two local joint-passing bros when I inquired as to where my friend Sasha and I might catch a glimpse of the Marfa Lights, or at least document the West Texas hills in the light of the full moon. They pointed us down Pinto Canyon Road, but told us to expect company. No Border Patrol 4x4s were waiting for us though (nor were the mysterious Marfa Lights); there were only a few wary horses on hand to monitor our activity.
April 23 — Cesar Chavez
Hispanic American migrant farm worker organizer.
APRIL 23, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Old Swabia: St. George’s Day. Church bells ring all day long to ward off vampires.
*Corinth: “Green George,” man in a cage of branches, dumped into a stream to ensure good pasturage.
*Bulgaria: Ewes Day Milking is done through a round cake with a hole in the center.
*Turkey: Children’s Day: nationally elected students take over all levels of government.
ALSO ON APRIL 23 IN HISTORY…
1564 — Playwright William Shakespeare born, Stratford-on Avon, England.
1616 — Playwright William Shakespeare dies, Stratford-on Avon, England.
1616 — Novelist Miguel de Cervantes dies, Madrid, Spain.
1850 — Brit Romantic poet William Wordsworth dies, Lake District, England.
1892 — Dada poet Richard Huelsenbeck born, Frenkenau, Germany.
1899 — Vladimir Nabokov born, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1992 — Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker dies, Calcutta, India.
1993 — Hispanic American labor leader Cesar Chavez dies, San Luis, Arizona
“I’m giving a little slide talk about the Mirror Horror section in MYTHTYM. Horror films, sexy ladies, mirrors in myth. Should go about 30 minutes, then a cup of wine and hello. Wine-soaked signing to follow event.”
MYTHTYM is a collection of zines that Trinie has produced through the years:
“…I deliberately include not only established artists and writers but also young people who are relatively unknown in their field. The idea of introducing and contextualizing artists by hanging their art on the same wall is a fundamental one in the art world. To me, my zines are literary/art/music history anthologies, following the group-show or salon style. They’re like parties on paper, and I want to be an exquisite host.”
Admission: Free.
When: Saturday, April 25th, 7pm
Where: Observatory (same building as Proteus Gowanus, Cabinet Magazine, &
Morbid Anatomy Library). 543 Union Street (at Nevins), Brooklyn, NY 11215
Just a few years ago, it seemed like the only work by filmmaker, photographer and installation artist Chris Marker you could lay your hands on were VHS tapes of his seminal film La Jetee and, if you were lucky, his equally awesome film essay San Soleil and maybe his film-letter to the late Russian filmmaker Alexander Medvedkin, The Last Bolshevik. The two former films were issued a year or two ago by Criterion as single disc, and then, suddenly, a flood of Marker’s work was become available just as he approaches his 88th birthday. Just in the past few months, the Wexner Center has issued (if I’m counting right) five more DVDs of Marker’s films as well as a several books and a couple of T-shirts (check out the pro-Obama shirt) and a gaggle of other stuff. His CD-ROM for MacIntosh computers, Immemory, has recently been reissued by Exact Change for more recent operating systems. And then, there’s his YouTube channel, demonstrating precisely how economical and direct his work can be. It’s overwhelming. Mercifully, there is a blog dedicated to all things Marker to help you keep tabs on the onslaught of material available by one of the sharpest minds in modern imagery, including the news that on Saturday May 16th, Marker (who does not grant interviews and does not disseminate photographs of him self) will give a live tour via his avatar of his gallery on Second Life and answer questions from two curators from the Harvard Film Archive.
Here’s part 2 of Pete Toms‘ new comic for Arthur Magazine, “PINK TOMBS.”
it’s a comic based on the idea that the fictions we experience (books/movies/songs) and the ones we create are just as ‘real’ to us as our ‘real life’ experiences, especially when dealing with memory. it’s something i’ve thought a lot about since i watched masters of the universe on dvd a couple of years ago and realized that much of my remembered childhood was actually he-man’s life. though i did have a cat that let me ride it around my neighborhood and i was surrounded by muscular, gay men throughout my younger years, there’s not much he-man and i have in common. identity is interesting to me especially with how it’s built by memory and how much that is tied up in the things we experience in our imagination as much as the things we experience physically. and i think it’s even kind of weirder now, as opposed to my eternia years, as everyone blogs about their lives. we’re all building a sort of public internet persona as well as our ‘real’ one. i’m rambling. which is why a drew a story about it, i guess. – Pete Toms
Pittsburgh artist Rich Pell has recently launch a site for his long-running research on genetically-modified cultural organism-material under the banner heading of the Center for PostNatural History. The salmon pictured is typical of an little-known story embedded in our daily lives, a sterile genetic mutant farmed and industrially raised and eaten by many of us. Pell’s site explores the many ways genetic fuckery is scattered around and within us. Eye-popping and antena-stiffening stuff.
It’s well worth mentioning in this context that Pell is also the CEO of Specific Records, a vinyl-only label which has thus far produced exactly three utterly gorgeous object-documents of brainy musical underbelly-popcraft in editions of between 99 and 500 copies only that come highly recommended.
Arthur Magazine 