Archive for October, 2013

Phantom of India – Chemical Halloween 2013

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013
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    Inspired by Heisenberg (Digital image by Fung Lin Hall)

    Green hirstutism – according to Lilyaradiaohead.

    What quantum physics tells us about Walter White’s alter ego.

  • Happy Halloween

  • Wellfleet. Massachussetts
    Patrick Morell –Golden Rabbit films LLC

    Patrick’s #1 inspiration was Louis Malle’s most personal film, Phantom of India (Oct 30 was Louis Mall’s birthday).

    See an inspirtional dance video from Phantom of India directed by Louis Malle.

    Uummannaq. Western Greenland. (click to see large)
    Photo by Patrick Morell

  • Angel Island Speed shows by Jurgen Trautwein
    (Click to see large)
    Traces of Times Past:
    Temporary space occupations @ Angel Island’s Fort McDowell’s East Garrison,
    South–East shore, 37.86˚N 122.43˚W

  • News from the world –

    List of Weird philosophers

    Mark Young (poet) – something strange from Australia

    Winterson on Oscar Wilde

    Raising Cockroaches in China.

    Dreams from Vertical Ray of Sun & Delmore Schwartz

    Monday, October 28th, 2013

    Tran Anh Hung directed Vertical Ray of Sunshine
    Dream 2 <> Dream 3

    Thanks to Jeff O”Connell for the above clips.

    I’m probably going to do about 1,435 Lou Reed posts in the upcoming week, but I just remembered….he made great “waking-up” music. – Jeff O’Connell

  • In Dreams begins responsiblities -( Lou Reed reading)

    Schwartz’s short story, “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities,” was a shaping force in Reed’s simple, colloquial approach to language. Such classics as “Heroin” and “Waiting for the Man,” both penned by Reed while at SU, are prime examples. Some say Schwartz thoroughly infiltrated Reed’s creative sensibility, forging an aesthetic complement and counterweight to Andy Warhol, who later produced the Velvets. (via)

    Lou Reed’s Rabbi

    The rock star’s new tribute to his teacher, the writer Delmore Schwartz, illuminates their common genius

    O Delmore How I miss you.

    O Delmore how I miss you. You inspired me to write. You were the greatest man I ever met. You could capture the deepest emotions in the simplest language. Your titles were more than enough to raise the muse of fire on my neck. You were a genius. Doomed. (read morevia )

  • Lou Reed and Vaclav Havel – impromptu conversation.

    (Vaclav Havel previous post)

  • Lou with John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass (youtube)

  • Berlin after the wall (youtube)

    Wim Wenders Far Away So Close

    Walk On the Wild Side

    Reed says that it was Nelson Algren’s 1956 novel, A Walk on the Wild Side, that was the launching point for the song, even though, as it grew, the song became inhabited by characters from his own life. As with several other Reed songs from the 1970s, the title may also be an allusion to an earlier song, in this case Mack David and Elmer Bernstein’s song of the same name, the Academy Award-nominated title song of the 1962 film based on Algren’s novel.[citation needed] During his performance of the song on his 1978 Live: Take No Prisoners album, Reed humorously explains the song’s development from a request that he wrote the music for the never completed musical version of Algren’s novel.

  • Farewell to Lou – Laurie Anderson (Rolling Stone) (How they met, dated and got married).

    Laurie Anderson’s obit.

    Lou was a tai chi master and spent his last days here being happy and dazzled by the beauty and power and softness of nature. He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air.
    Lou was a prince and a fighter and I know his songs of the pain and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life. Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us.
    — Laurie Anderson
    his loving wife and eternal friend (excerpt)

    Laurie and Lou Reed on Charlie Rose

    Lou died on Oct 27, a day after Julian Schnabel’s birthday .. Schnabel made the above documentary.

    Zig Zag with New Wave Muse Bernadette Lafont

    Monday, October 28th, 2013
  • Bernadette Lafont
    (Gerard Blain on the right)

    Bernadette Lafont – (28 October 1938 – 25 July 2013)

    NY times obit

    In 1986 Ms. Lafont won a César, the French equivalent of the Oscar, as best supporting actress for her role as a housekeeper in “L’Effrontée” (“The Impudent Girl”), starring Charlotte Gainsbourg. She received an honorary César, for lifetime achievement, in 2003.

    “L’Effrontée” was directed by Claude Miller

  • Les Miston (see youtube)

    Truffaut simply called it “my first real film”.Moreover it was Bernadette Lafont’s film debut. She was at that time Gérard Blain’s wife. It was shot at her hometown Nîmes.

  • A Gorgeous Girl Like Me (Youtube)

  • Zig Zig (Catherine Deneuve project)

    Le Beau Serge (With her husband Gerard Blain and Jean Claude Brialy and first film by Chabrol).

    The Mother and the Whore was directed by Jean Eustache. . she played the mother.

    (J.Pierre Leaud, Jeanne Moreau, Bernadette Lafont, and Jean Eustache at Cannes 1973)

  • The End of Arthur Danto

    Saturday, October 26th, 2013
  • Arthur Danto
    Photo by Steve Pyke, collage by Fung Lin Hall

    R.I.P Arthur Danto – January 1, 1924 – October 25, 2013)
    He answered the question “what is art” but also declared its end

  • Arthur Danto and Anthony Caro joined the list of the pair disappearing act.

    R.I.P Anthony Caro – Sculpture is My Life

    Thursday, October 24th, 2013

    Anthony Caro dies at 89.

    Sir Anthony Caro, a pre-eminent artist of the postwar era who created a new language for abstract sculpture in the 1960s with brightly colored, horizontal assemblages of welded steel that seemed choreographed as much as constructed, died on Wednesday in London. He was 89.

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  • Table Piece

    ArtCritical see more images and read here.

  • Update: Remembering Sir Anthony Caro by Kyle Gallup..

    What he offered to all those who came in contact with him was a way to think about art, and the process of creating, as something personal yet large and deeply connected to the world. Art for him was something indelible, permanent, and real. I believe this gracious view grew from his generous spirit and desire to make a contribution.
    Tony had a clear and concise way of thinking about process, and one’s connection to art of the past in all its variety and its visual, expressive possibilities. He mined all kinds of art and culture, calling forth universal themes, reworking them and making them new.

    The Right Stuff – Philip Kaufman & Ang Lee

    Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

    Happy birthday Philip Kaufman born on Oct 23 1936 – (He now resides in San Francisco)..

    Writer-director Philip Kaufman (American, b. 1936) creates provocative, often experimental films that convey a deep reverence for filmmaking as an art form.

    MoMa showcased Kaufman’s films

  • Click to see large

    Sven Nykvist and Philip Kaufman
    (Kaufman cast young Daniel Day Lewis, Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin for the film Unbearable Lightness of Being. Kaufman also had Sven as the cinematographer.. two from Bergman family).

  • Henry and June (Full film on youtube) Fred Ward was amazing as Henry Miller. (Miller’s Crossing – previous post)

    Philip Kaufman fights grief to make Hemingway film. (Nicole Kidman played Gellhorn and Clive Owen played Heminway. )

  • Happy birthday Ang Lee – Oct 23, 1954 Taiwan


    image via

    On Ingmar Bergman

    Bergman said, “You have to love your actors.” He was a very warm, lovely person. Because of The Virgin Spring, it felt like thirty-some years ago the man took my innocence. And then years later, he gave me a very motherly hug. It’s a strange, miraculous, magic power. I never think the way I make movies has any relation to his; he’s like God to me. I will take inspiration. I won’t dare to imitate. But a hug is a hug, filmmaker to filmmaker.

    Seeing Virgin Spring by Bergman changed his life.

  • Pushing Hands Full film on youtube .(this is his first film.. about a Chinese father living in USA.. his son married an American.)

  • Wedding Banquet. (his first gay film that won int’l film awards)

    Tony Leong on Ang Lee (this is a good interview)

    Civil war film. Ride with the Devil

    Two festivalsrevisits Ang Lee.

    Spheres, Cubes by Sambre & Jackie Winsor

    Sunday, October 20th, 2013

    Sambre installation at Les Bains Douches
    (clicke to see large)

    Sambre is one of the many Parisian artists who work in abandoned buildings placing murals, and installations left to be found or destroyed. It is in this spirit that Les bains was able to capture one of these moments. Although breathtaking and something you might witness at a museum, the installation will be destroyed with the rest of the Art in Les bains.

    (See video from the link – Les Bains Douches )
    Thanks Marlene Saroff for the introduction via FB.

  • Burnt Sphere

  • Speaking about Burnt Piece

    J.W installatin at Paula Cooper Gallery

    Jaonna Mattera looking at Jackie Winsor and Tara Donovan..

    Bombsite interview

  • Happy birthday Jackie Winsor! Oct 20, 1941

    In 1979, a retrospective of her work opened at the MoMA; this was the first time the MoMA had presented a retrospective of work by a woman artist since 1946

  • Bonus links…

    The Cubes – Retrospective.. (more than 65 images of Cube art)

    Congrats to Pistoletto..and Anthony Gormley for the recognition from Japan.

    City for Lovers and Friends – Lewis Mumford – Banksy in Studio

    Saturday, October 19th, 2013

    Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for lovers and friends.

    Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer.

  • Edward Burtynsky – Navajo reservation adjacent to a Phoenix suburb.


  • via Robin Gunningham/Mr Banksy… or Banksy in Studio
    Banksy homepage here.

  • Why Scandinavian Prisons are Superior.

    It’s a postcard-perfect day on Suomenlinna Island, in Helsinki’s South Harbor. Warm for the first week of June, day trippers mix with Russian, Dutch, and Chinese tourists sporting sun shades and carrying cones of pink ice cream.

    “Is this the prison?” asks a 40-something American woman wearing cargo pants and a floral sleeveless blouse.

    Ada Lovelace Day 2013

    Tuesday, October 15th, 2013

    Ada Lovelace
    Ada Lovelace – pioneer high tech woman.. daughter of Lord Byron. Today is Ada Lovelace day. (Oct 15)

    Women in science: a difficult history

    Today, as you’ll probably see from many tweets and blog posts, is Ada Lovelace Day. As the Finding Ada website explains, this….
    …. aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire.

    Nerd Cabaret to womenifying Wikipedia

    “No More Lawyers Day” more commonly known as “Ada Lovelace Day” is today 15th October 2013

    Helen is a Geek Songstress

    Finding Ada

    Me too

    image via

    Cocteau & Piaf Died on the Same Day + The List of Pair Disappearing Act

    Friday, October 11th, 2013
  • Jean Cocteau & Edith Piaf
    Died on the same date..

    Edith Piaf and Jean Cocteau died on the same day. Cocteau, chivalrous at the last, obeyed the rule of ladies first. “Ah, la Piaf est morte,” he said on the morning of October 11 1963. “Je peux mourir aussi.” [Ah, Piaf’s dead. I can die too.”] And then he promptly died of a heart attack. Or so legend has it.
    It was Piaf’s funeral not Cocteau’s that brought Paris to gridlock.

    Not from bad real estate foto

    The List of pair disappearing act

    Shakepeare and Cervantes died (On the same day)
    John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died (On the same day)
    Simone Beauvoir and Jean Genet died (1 day apart)
    C.S Lewis and Aldous Huxley died (On the same day)
    Jean Cocteau and Edith Piaf died (1 day apart).
    Charlie Chaplin and Howard Hawks died (1 day apart)
    James Stewart and Robert Mitchum died (1 day apart).
    Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni (On the same day)
    Dave Brubeck and Oscar Niemeyer died (On the same day)
    Princess Diana and Mother Theresa died (6 days apart).
    Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake committed suicide (One week apart)
    Anthony Caro and Anthur Danto died (2 days apart)
    Jeanne Moreau and Sam Shepard died (On the same day)
    Nicolas Roeg and Bernardo Bertolucci (3 days apart)
    Marlon Brando and Carl Malden died on July 1. (Karl Malden died years later on 2009)

    Marlon sitting. on Karl’s lap. (Click to enlarge)

    10 Mar 1961, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA — “Climb upon my knee, sonny boy” might be actor Karl Malden’s theme song as he holds actor-director Marlon Brando on his lap. Brando, always the realist as actor or director, was showing Malden how he wanted him to play a love scene in . The Paramount Film, a Western starring Brando, is the actor’s first directorial assignment. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

    Karl & Marlon and Mona Lisa

    Alice Munro Won Nobel + See Julie Christie as Fiona

    Friday, October 11th, 2013

    Congratulations

    John Updike on Alice Munro..
    Munro’s stories are characterized by ambition: a well-meditated complexity and multiplicity of plot, an intense clarity of phrase and image, an exceptional psychological searchingness and honesty.

    Writers on Alice Munro

    Many many links from Ron Silliman

    Away from her
    1aaSarahChristie

    Sarah Polley directed Julie Christie in Away from her.


    Away from Her was based on The Bear Came Over the Mountain
    (New Yorker)
    – read it here.

    Paris Review interview: Art of Fiction

    The Atlantic..

  • Gravel a story by Alice Munro

  • Read 12 stories by Alice Munro online (open culture)

  • Kristen Wiig in the Alice Munro adaptation “Hateship Loveship..”

    R.I.P Patrice Chéreau+ Filming Intimacy by Hanif Kureishi

    Wednesday, October 9th, 2013

    Patrice Chéreau, a director whose iconoclastic theater, opera and film productions sometimes offered broad social critiques that made them both provocative and influential, died on Monday in Paris. He was 68. (NYtimes)

    R.I.P Patrice Chéreau Queen Margot & Intimacy.

    Der Ring des Nibelungen (DVD): Patrice Chéreau, Pierre Boulez


    Pascal Greggory and Patrice Chéreau (Pascal G is Chéreau’s real life companion)

    Gabrielle trailer

    Jean Hugues Anglade is in three films directed by Chéreau and he also did the voice for Intimacy French version .

  • Filming Intimacy by Hanif Kureishi

    Patrice is, I suppose, ten years older than me and about the same size, with similar back problems. He is gentle, unpretentious and willing to be amused. He is modest but not unaware of his own ability. He is certainly less impatient and bad-tempered than me. He goes out more than I do. He is more decisive. I noticed that we tended to dislike the same things, which is always a comforting complicity.

    In the end, I am not sure what it is that my imagination likes to do with him, but just looking at Patrice, or hearing his voice on the phone, cheers me up; he makes me want to try to be a better artist.

    Intimacy trailer

    Mark Rylance

    Intimacy win in Berlin

    “It is the saddest night, for I am leaving and not coming back.”

    Sandra G. & Orquidea C.

  • Kureishi on Tanizaki – Debt of Pleasure

  • Kureishi new film