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The Alchemy of Things Unknown: Occult Art at Khastoo Gallery in Los Angeles
06.18.2010
12:05 am
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Jason Gelt posts at Brand X:

“The Alchemy of Things Unknown” exhibit intends examines individual works of art in relation to theosophy, sacred traditions and devotional practice. From William Blake’s illuminated works of divine imagination to Carl Gustav Young’s drawings of collective symbolic unconscious, the artists in this exhibition sought after or seek spiritual truths through art making.

Artists include Paul Laffoley, Harry Smith, Marjorie Cameron, Willian Blake, Austin Ossman Spare, Scoli Acosta, Kenneth Anger, Aleister Crowley, Zach Harris, Susan Hiller, Alfred Jenson, Angus MacLise, JFC Fuller, and Marilyn Manson.

Khastoo Gallery, 7556 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles; 323-472-6498

Image: “Kwaw”: an undated self-portrait by English occultist Aleister Crowley done in the 1920s, part of the exhibit at Khastoo Gallery through July 31. Courtesy William Breeze.

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.18.2010
12:05 am
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Lou Reed brews some fine noise (for Kenneth Anger)
05.24.2010
06:30 pm
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Last week’s Anthology Film Archives 40th Anniversary Blowout, Return to the Pleasure Dome, honored, naturally, the works of filmmaker Kenneth AngerTechnicolor Skull—Anger on theremin (!), Dangerous Minds pal, Brian Butler, on guitar—performed that night (see below), as did Sonic Youth and Lou Reed.  Vice is carrying a stream of Reed’s 13-minute noodling performance.  Fans of Metal Machine Music Lou can check it out here.

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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05.24.2010
06:30 pm
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Hell’s Bells!  A Christian take on Anger, Jagger, Leary and The Beatles
05.21.2010
06:40 pm
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What follows below are a pair of newly uploaded Rock Music Exposed clips from YouTube channeler, Triplexity, and were apparently culled from the two-part ‘89 documentary, Hell’s Bells (which, to my knowledge, remains in VHS-only exile).

The intro, clip 1 of 36 (!) and found here, lays out the Hell’s Bells agenda, “to help people understand the big picture, peel back the veneer of pop culture, and gaze into the bedrock of truth that lies beneath.”

Since it also hopes to serve as, “a wake-up call, an alarm warning of the fire raging just down the hall,” you can bet your salvation its earnest-but-porny-looking narrator means a “Christian truth.”  I know, sounds like a snooze.  We’ve seen—and smirked—at this kind of crap on numerous occasions. 

But readers of Dangers Minds might find far more compelling the below clips, 12 and 13.  In them, Hell’s Bells puts under the Christian magnifying glass Kenneth Anger, Mick Jagger, Timothy Leary and The Beatles.

 

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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05.21.2010
06:40 pm
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Kenneth Anger: Infiltrating the Pentagon
05.20.2010
04:12 pm
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The current Arthur‘s running a lengthy piece entitled, “Out! Demons Out!: An Oral History of the 1967 Exorcism of the Pentagon and the Birth of Yippie!”  Dangerous Minds hero Kenneth Anger is just one of the many voices chiming in (Allen Ginsberg, Paul Krassner, and Ed Sanders are others), but, judging from the snips below, the filmmaker’s bluntly amusing jabs might be hard to top.  Here’s his take on what it was like infiltrating the Pentagon:

There were a bunch of idiots there.  I didn’t consider myself an idiot, but maybe other people would. [laughs] There were these hothead lefties, who, their idea was they would take over and kill the capitalists.  Well, that’s not very practical.  Then there were Hare Krishnas, peacenik idiots, saying peace peace, or something like that.  I didn’t go for anything like that.  It was so annoying.

I just walked right in.  I had studied how the Pentagon staff were dressed, and I was just like them.  I wore a dark blue conservative suit.  I even had a small American flag on my lapel.  I was attacking Mars, the god of War.  He’s still our ruling god.  If you think Mars is an extinct thing from the antique past that we can just laugh at now, forget it.  Mars is still here.

I had a map of the Pentagon.  I went into every single men’s room and left—in a place where it was bound to be discovered, usually on the seat where anyone using that stall would have to see it, not on the floor, of course! —a talisman which was written on parchment paper, drawn in india ink.  Each one was drawn individually using one of Crowley’s talismans as my guide.  I’m sure no one in the Pentagon could figure out what this thing meant.  There was nothing like “War is bad” on it.  There weren’t even English words.  They probably could figure out it was something occult.  They know about those things, and they have a reference library.

I went from one men’s room to the next.  I didn’t stop until I had scattered all 93 of my talismans—because 93 is a sacred number for Crowley.  Then I walked out, it was all very inconspicuous.  The security guard looked at me and gave me a nice look, like we’re all looking after each other.  If I’d been stopped and put in handcuffs that would’ve been unpleasant.  That isn’t the way I want to spend my time in Washington—I had a ticket to the opera for later that week.

Won’t you now take some time out for a Puce Moment?

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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05.20.2010
04:12 pm
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Return to the Pleasure Dome benefit concert for Anthology Film Archives with Kenneth Anger, Lou Reed
05.02.2010
06:09 pm
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Attention New Yorkers, don’t miss Return to the Pleasure Dome, a benefit concert event for Anthology Film Archives with a Life Achievement Honor for Kenneth Anger.

Featuring Technicolor Skull (Kenneth Anger and Brian Butler), Lou Reed, Sonic Youth, The Virgins, Moby & other special guests.

Wednesday, May 19, 8:30p.m at the Hiro Ballroom, New York City, $99 via Ticketweb
 


Video: Kenneth Anger’s 42-second long film, Death. Part of the OneDreamRush project.

Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.02.2010
06:09 pm
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Brian Butler’s “Night of Pan” With Kenneth Anger and Vincent Gallo
01.07.2010
10:15 pm
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Dangerous Minds pal Brian Butler has a new short film that’s part of a film festival coming up in Los Angeles soon. Brian was a producer on the Disinformation series with me a while back, helming two of the show’s more memorable segments: the feuding Satanists and Rocketboy, the real life superhero/half cat. He also introduced me to Uncle Goddamn. Brian also contributed the great essay on Marjorie Cameron, Cameron: The Wormwood Star to my Book of Lies anthology. For these reasons and more, I shall be forever grateful. The video clip below is a shorter version of Night of Pan that was made for a Beijing arts festival, the full version will be shown at the Projections festival. It’s pretty striking, I think you’ll agree!

From the press release:

Brian Butler’s Night of Pan Premiers in LA at Projections Festival, January 16 at Roberts & Tilton

Los Angeles, CA: Noted filmmaker, artist and musician Brian Butler (www.brianbutler.com) will premier his short film, “Night of Pan” in Los Angeles on January 16 at 7:30pm at the opening of Projections, a festival of rare and hard to see films including other directors such as Spike Jonze, Harmony Korine, Jean-Luc Goddard, and Miranda July . Projections was curated by Aaron Rose an artist, film director, writer, musician, and independent curator most noted as the co-curator of the successful museum exhibition and book Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art & Street Culture which toured the world through 2008.

Projections takes place at the Roberts & Tilton Gallery, 5801 Washington Boulevard, between La Cienega Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, in Culver City, California from January 16 to February 20, 2010. In addition to screening on January 16, “Night of Pan” will also be screened in a loop at the gallery on February 18, 2010.

“Night of Pan” is a seven and a half minute film featuring film auteur Kenneth Anger and actor Vincent Gallo. The film has been screened in various versions internationally in Beijing, Lisbon, Cannes, Athens, Rome, Berlin and elsewhere, but never in Butler’s base, Los Angeles.

In the film, Anger, Gallo, and Butler depict an occult ritual that symbolizes the stage of ego death in the process of spiritual attainment.

Brian Butler is a multidisciplinary artist who creates works around dark magical themes. He had worked extensively as a producer on director Kenneth Anger’s recent work. Additionally he has written for Dazed & Confused and performs along with Anger in the band Technicolor Skull.

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.07.2010
10:15 pm
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New 42-Second Shorts By David Lynch, Kenneth Anger
10.19.2009
12:40 pm
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Vodka brand 42 Below is the creative sponsor behind One Dream Rush, a Beijing-based film festival of incredibly short films.  42 filmmakers from around the world were given 42 seconds.  The results from David Lynch, Dream #7, and Kenneth Anger, Death, follow below:

 

 
More on OneDreamRush

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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10.19.2009
12:40 pm
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A Raincoat’s “It Came In The Night,” Kenneth Anger’s “Rabbit’s Moon”
10.13.2009
04:09 pm
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WARNING: what follows is a video for possibly one of the most insanely catchy songs of all time.  It Came In The Night, recorded by in ‘76 by Andy Arthur under his band name “A Raincoat,” ultimately came to serve as the soundtrack to the abridged version of Kenneth Anger‘s Rabbit’s Moon.

 
You can read more about the elusive Mr. Arthur here, but the shorthand goes like this:

Mystery man ?

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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10.13.2009
04:09 pm
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Their Satanic Majesties Request: Little Known Rolling Stones Video
09.05.2009
12:34 am
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Call me disputatious—or not, it’s entirely up to you—my favorite Stones album is Their Satanic Majesties Request. It’s the only one I play all the way through anymore. It sounds great as one great big, trippy chunk. It’s a great headphones album, too. Most Stones fans hate it and see it as a weak attempt to out weird the Beatles after they’d unleashed Sgt Pepper on the world, but to me, it’s just a thing of beauty, with the normal Blues-based Stones sound thrown out the door, and replaced with a colorful sonic palette the likes of which they would never return to. I’m not saying that it IS the best Stones album, I’m just saying it’s MY favorite. (My favorite Stones song, is Monkey Man, followed by Stray Cat Blues, then (Doo Doo Doo Doo) Heartbreaker, dark horses, all, I grant you. I’m also partial to Don’t Know Why I Love You, but the Glimmer Twins didn’t write that one, so it doesn’t count).

If you ask me, the Stones “demonic” phase, inaugurated, if you will, by their association with the Magus of Cinema, Kenneth Anger, was when the Stones were truly on fire. Mick was still quite into his Satan/Lucifer thing well into the Let It Bleed/Gimme Shelter era, but after Altamont, Jagger was often seen wearing a crucifix around his neck, perhaps seeking to put down all the hoodoo Age of Horus energy he’d raised? Have sympathy for the poor devil. Jagger had a current running through his body during the Sixties that killed quite a few of his contemporaries. Today, like a rock and roll Dorian Gray, he hardly looks any worse for the wear.

Here is a seldom seen pop video for 2000 Light Years From Home. It seems so heavily influenced by Kenneth Anger that I always assumed that he’d directed it, but it seems more likely to be the work of photographer Michael Cooper, who not only shot the cover for the Satanic Majesties album jacket (which was originally issued with a fantastic 3-D lenticular cover (I have one!), but Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising film as well. I had a copy of this on a Japanese laser disc, comically followed by a clip of Pete Townsend in full Mod drag sternly criticizing the Stones for their then recent marijuana busts. (It’s always the bluenoses who have the really outrageous vices, isn’ it?). Other than that, I’d never seen it anywhere, but here in the YouTube era (we’re living in the YouTube era, didn’t anyone tell you this?) some kind soul has liberated it for our viewing pleasure. Take a look, it’s great:

 

The Rolling Stones and Satanism

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.05.2009
12:34 am
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ANGER AT THE HAMMER
07.21.2009
02:54 pm
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Alongside my Dangerous Minds colleagues, I had the pleasure of attending last spring’s Kenneth Anger lecture at L.A.‘s Hammer museum.  Although he was reluctant to take questions from the audience, the night certainly found Ken in good spirits and receptive company.  Subjects touched upon?  Well, everything from Aleister Crowley, to, why not, Agnes. B.  KA was there per the request of artist Francesca Gabbiani, who, at the time, was curating her sorcery-themed Hammer exhibit, Houseguest.

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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07.21.2009
02:54 pm
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The Films of Kenneth Anger at Hollywood Forever Cemetery; Kenneth Anger in Person
07.16.2009
01:53 pm
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Beautiful, erotic, phantasmagoric, the films of Kenneth Anger are a national treasure. Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Marianne Faithfull, Anton LaVey, and a parade of other 60s luminaries collaborate on this selection of short films. They range from rich mystical imagery and visual essays of psychedelic color to insider documentary footage of bikers and a glittering love letter to early black and white film. Bring blankets, picnic dinner and drinks for the lawn. Please join us under the stars for this very special screening with one of our most legendary filmmakers.

Sunday, July 19th
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
6000 Santa Monica Blvd (at Gower)
Gates 7:30 pm movie 9:00 pm
$10 donation tickets available at gate
Parking available inside

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.16.2009
01:53 pm
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