In 1974 heavy duty German classical label Deutsche Grammophon issued a 3LP over-view of European improvised music (pictured above) featuring a full two sides each from a French combo (New Phonic Art), A British trio (Iskra 1903 led by guitar titan Derek Bailey) and the focus of this blog posting, the German ad hoc ensemble known simply as Wired. The truly notable thing about Wired is that it featured super-producer Conny Plank conducting the entire very delicate and minimal affair from his mixing desk. The other players here are Harry Partch disciple Mike Ranta on percussion, guitarist Karl-Heinz Böttner on stringed instruments and Mike Lewis on Hammond organ. Have a leisurely listen to the entire thing, it’s quite a lovely and slowly unfolding bit of primitive soundscaping :
Wired Side One
Wired Side Two
The reason I sought out the above rarity is that the above rather handsome box-set has just been released. Recorded a mere month after recording the Wired LP by the same group (minus Böttner) but previously unreleased, this sounds pretty wonderful. Then again nearly everything Conny Plank had a hand in is worthy of celebration.
Composer Milton Babbitt died yesterday at the ripe old age of 94. I have always adored his piece Ensembles For Synthesizer, composed from 1962-64 on the guargantuan RCA Mark II synthesizer for which he was an official composer/consultant. I include that piece here from the 1967 album New Electronic Music from Leaders of the Avant-Garde which is a toweringly great slab of classic experimental music. Seek it out !
Part One
Part Two
And because it’s so totally great, here is the John Cage piece from the same LP: Variations 2 as performed with brutal precision on amplified piano by the great David Tudor.
This is the sign that more or less got me pushed out of Wholefoods. I apparently offended a lot of people with it. One older white lady didn’t like the angry black man yelling at her. And a Vegan didn’t like that Mr. T. pitied her because she wouldn’t eat meat.
Still, it was a blessing in disguise for Paul Maybury, who has moved on to far greener pastures than an over-priced yuppie grocery chain as an award-winning artist and writer for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Heavy Metal, Ubisoft, Metro, Image, Criterion and Mirage Studios. WTF was Whole Foods thinking firing a talent like this? This guy rocks!
See more of Paul’s awesome Whole Food signs after the jump…
When my friend and label-mate Michael Kentoff of the fine D.C. area band, The Caribbean posted some clips of local public-access phenomenon T.V. John Langworthy to his FB wall I wasn’t quite sure what to make of them. I liked that the line between knowingly funny and genuinely disturbed was truly blurry. So I asked Michael to try to provide some regional context and personal testimony about this hitherto unknown (to me and probably anyone else not living in the greater D.C. area) outsider artiste.
Well, you asked for it.
To the long-time local, there’s something very suburban DC about TV John Langworthy: proudly small-town yahoo just miles from the power center of the universe. It’s difficult to explain, but there he is: TV John (who is a twin!) flaunting his big-headed goofiness involuntarily and in defiance. Suburban DC or not, his similarity to other people ends there. In truth, he’s from a suburban DC on another planet. Television host, songwriter, open mic night organizer, singer, and whatever he does for a living, TV John is both obscure and conspicuous in any place at any time because he is completely and functionally in his own world – and we’re all invited!
Like his legion of fans (the number is anywhere from 17 to 17,000, I’d imagine), I stumbled across the TV John Show, which played to countless carpet-scraping jaws in the early 1990s, on local cable access. His show immediately followed The Music Shoppe, a survey of local music that was morbidly fascinating on a whole different level. Over the course of 30 cable minutes, the TV John Show usually featured two here-today-gone-later-today local performers and, the real pay-off, two lip-synced originals by the towering, flailing, smiling, gyrating host himself. He called them and still calls them “dream songs,” which, he reports, literally wake him up at night and demand to be captured on the nearest magnetic tape tout suite. Sort of like McCartney with “Yesterday” if McCartney woke up restrained by straps and safety pins to a hospital bed. Or if he awoke in a ranch-style house in Montgomery County, Maryland.
I taped a few TV John Shows and would subject unprepared friends to the late-80s video graphics, the parade of oddly matched bands, and, most importantly, to TV John himself – the dream songs and, if we were lucky, a solo comedy sketch that could only be funny somewhere deep inside the cedar closet of John’s brain. Some friendships ended – as if we were laughing at a disturbed asylum escapee, but most people cringed with delight. I, for one, always figured John was in on the joke. He both meant it for real and meant it as a gag. That was his genre (my theory).
Years later, Dave Jones and I went to see him perform with his band at the venerable Galaxy Hut in Arlington. At first sight, John was just a big, dorky guy in his 50s, smiling, chatting, drinking a beer. The most conspicuous thing about him was his giant overly-colorful silk shirt that looked like something a clown might pull endlessly from his left sleeve. Then the music started and TV John emerged – hurling around and singing in poses that almost seemed right out of pro wrestling. The normal big dork did not appear the rest of the night – TV John held sway. It was pretty magical. Definitely entertaining to the extreme. Dave and I chatted him up and showed him some video Dave shot of his set. The three of us laughed. Dave said, “Hilarious, man!” TV John, enormous face, raised two large craggly eyebrows over a giant, toothy smile and nodded, “Sure is!” Knew it.
Many more inscrutable TV John clips after the jump…
A colorful assortment of antique cute postcards in Japan from the book Antique Cute Postcards in Japan (Nippon no kawaii ehagaki) by Hiroki Hayashi. The ones with Betty Boop are my favorite.
Flame-haired “It Girl” of Los Angeles and nationally celebrated art curator, Lenora Claire, along with her partner, Phyliss Navidad (“one of the 25 most inspiring people in Los Angeles”—Frontiers magazine) are opening the new Pop tART Gallery in Koreatown this weekend.
The inaugural event features famed photographer Austin Young—I think his work is brilliant—who’ll be setting up his portrait studio in the gallery:
YOUR FACE HERE is a solo exhibition by artist Austin Young that challenges the normative conditions in which portraits are produced and exhibited. Young, for over 25 years, has been a celebrated portrait photographer and artist, whose works blurs the lines, and transcends the distinctions, between fashion, portraiture, and gender. This exhibition marks a rare and glamorous moment when Young will generously open his lens onto the public.
For the duration of the exhibition, Young will establish his art studio for a 5 week residency at Pop tART Gallery. The artist will be present during gallery hours for portrait sittings, which will eventually fill the walls of the gallery. The public is invited to participate as the subject of the exhibition through the purchase of the pop cultural real estate of the gallery walls. Participation extends beyond simply sitting for a portrait - it will be a collaborative process where the participants determine the portrait’s size and placement. Following the legacy of Warhol’s Factory, Young will transform each participant into an art celebrity. Or, just impress your high school chums by having the man who just broke attendance records at LACMA with his co-collaborator’s of Fallen Fruit take your Facebook profile pic. Bring your face! The closing reception will be your reception! Come see you face in lights.
Celebrity make-up artists will be on site for beautification.
YOUR FACE HERE by Austin Young, January 29th - March 5th, 2011. Opening reception: January 29th, 7-10pm/closing reception: March 5th.
Pop tART Gallery, 3023 W. 6th St. Los Angeles, CA 90020
Living legend, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, will be delivering a lecture in the “Artists on Art” series at the Rubin Museum of Art, 150 W. 17th St. (near 7th Ave) in New York City this Friday at 6:15 p.m.
What’s the last thing you saw on Broadway? Fosse, which was stunning!
Do you give money to panhandlers? Sometimes. If they look old enough for homelessness to be a semi-permanent state, women with kids. Once in a while I give $20 just so there’s a chance it’s useful.
What’s your drink? Mimosa with a good quality Rose Champagne.
How often do you prepare your own meals? 97 percent of the time as I live alone.
What’s your favorite medication? A deep undisturbed night’s sleep.
What’s hanging above your sofa? Nothing; I don’t have a sofa.
How much is too much to spend on a haircut? Haircuts are luxuries and as such should be as expensive as you can possibly afford. I get mine at Seagull in Greenwich Village or recently by Ashlee of Hair Metal at my apartment. Celebrity haircuts are one of the great perks of even a little media profile.
Read more: Genesis P-Orridge Would Like to Hitch a Horse to the New York Post (NY Mag)
Below, a late 2009 interview with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
The Museum of Anti-Alcohol Posters showcases an array of posters from the Soviet-era. From a design standpoint, these illustrations are really cool, but I wonder if they were truly effective with getting their message across to Friends of Bill???
Dada artist and filmmaker, Hans Richter made Ghosts Before Breakfast (AKA Vormittagsspuk) in 1927. In it, inanimate objects come to life and rebel against their normal routines. Extremely clever use of stop-motion animation, it’s as if the art form is practically being invented before your eyes… because it kinda was.
A version of Ghosts Before Breakfast with a soundtrack was destroyed in the Nazi purge of “degenerate art.” The music here is by Nikolai von Sallwitz. His modern score is pretty effective.
