nevermind the bricolage

meshell's weather report

"The only constants in the 20-plus-year career of Meshell Ndegeocello are brilliance and an output that dependably moves back and forth between experimental, critically acclaimed projects and more accessible, widely embraced work. For every movie soundtrack contribution, funk/soul track that manages to break through to radio, and performance with the Rolling Stones, there is a more challenging undertaking, such as 2007’s excellent but nearly impenetrable “The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams” or 2005’s “Dance of the Infidel,” a collaborative instrumental jazz album.

Whether the variety is carefully planned or the natural cycle of a complex artist determined to explore every creative urge is hard to say. But it makes perfect sense that Ndegeocello would follow 2009’s “Devil’s Halo,” the most broadly appealing album she has recorded in years, and her recent Gett Off: Meshell Ndegeocello Covers Prince tour, with “Weather,” an album that finds the songwriter/singer/bass god playing with a palette of small, delicate sounds but using them to powerful effect..." so writes Sarah Godfrey is her review of Meshell Ndegeocello's latest mucial release, Weather. I couldn't agree more.

I met Ocello once, in a shop on La Brea, we both reached for the same pair of shoes, and her tattoed arms made for a conversation starter----we talked for a few minutes about shoes, then music, then god--she was insightful and had a sense of deep connection to ideas of the sacred--it tends to come out in her music--that along with some seriousness erotic sensuality and deadly funkiness.

Devil's Halo, her last release was polar opposite to this Joe Henry produced effort. The songs here are lighter, more accessible, more pop if you will, but underlaid with texture and groove that you get few other places--she is another of those oft overlooked artists for my money--she requires listening--there is a lot going on always--musically, lyrically, sonically--she mines many musical coalfaces and harvests pearls from them all (how's that for a blend of analogies?!!!). Chicago Hotel is an immediate fave, but I am not one of those people who singles out one song--it was just the first to show it's melodic head to me---I'm in with her for the long haul--have all her stuff, would put them up against pretty much anything else---she is also a bad-arse funk bass player--D'Angelo and Prince, she gives them both runs for their money in the live department. Weather--it's good.

 

tribe

 

Piers Facini---bit of African influence here--cool video

gurafiku

This and other quite beautiful works are catalogued on the gurafiku site--devoted to Japanese graphic design through the ages--well worth a lengthy amount of online exploration. This poster is for internal poison cleansing pills apparently--I could use some of those this morning.

my enemy

My Enemy SS 2012 by CHRISHABANA from jesu.viccete on Vimeo.

 Jewelry designer Chris Habana has released this mind-messing film, titled My Enemy, to accompany the release of their latest jewelry line. (from this always interesting site)

Bonfire

Remember, remember the 5th of November--
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot

Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent to blow up King and Parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below to prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s mercy he was catch’d with a dark lantern and lighted match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip hoorah!

henderson skull

Stephanie Henderson.

steve bell

The Guardian's Steve Bell.

Paul Smith Skull-Bank

Monsters

"There are monsters on the prowl whose form change with the history of knowledge." Michel Foucault.

In honour of Halloween we explored monsters in media yesterday. Zombies, vampires, aliens invaders--the monstrous makes it appearance in our world in any number of ways. What does our fascination with these creatures mean? Why do we enjoy being scared out of our wits? These and other questions were part of our class exploration. It's been said that monsters have their 'tentacles wrapped around the foundations of history', every age and culture seems to have them--the Middle Ages was fascinated with bestial humans, the Renaissance era with wolf-people and conjoined humans, the early modern world with Frankenstein and Dracula, on and on throughout our histories, these monsters and strangers appear again and again.

There are Biblical monsters and biblical roots for our western monsters--Leviathan and Behemoth--the Great Dragon--the Devil--an amalgam of any number of biblical images coalesced into that figure which is at the root of much of our monstrous imagination.

I talked a bit from Richard Kearney's remarkable book, Strangers, Gods and Monsters. He argues that these three figures are the backbone of our self-narration. Strangers operate as a limit experience for us as we try and identify ourselves over and against others--Greeks and their Barbarians, the Europeans their 'savages' etc. Gods are those figures whose power and mystery exceeds our grasp and monsters signal borderline experiences reminding us that we are never wholly sovereign. All of these ideas play out in our cultural imagination and story-telling. These creatures defy the accepted norms of identification and invite us to consider again and again what it means to be human. They are the expression of our fears and concerns, as well as our hopes and aspirations--they say the unsayable, says Kearney.

I quoted John Sallis--What if the truth were monstrous? But nobody really bit on that one, so I didn't explore it too far. I really like the Foucault quote--that the monsters change with the history of knowledge--you can trace their expansion and multiplicity as our world becomes more and more inter-connected and over-loaded---monsters and strangers multiply in our story-telling---a tale of Vampires coming out (True Blood) becomes a pluralized world of vampires, witches, shape-shifters, fairies, more and more strange creatures echoing and voicing our fears and challenges in the 21st century. As our understanding of the universe expands it is no longer just the Martians attacking, it is alien civilizations of all kinds (District 9, Alien etc, etc.) and even technology and technological aberrations (Bladerunner, I Robot etc) become part of our monstrous exploration of human self-understanding.