neonresolutions
30/11/2009
@DougCoupland has been on a roll this weekend, linking to a cool video by Pascual Sisto (who also did the above piece) and a surprisingly touching video reconstruction of an EverQuest forum flamewar by Eddo Stern.
Photo posted at 10:52
29/11/2009
In 1999, Nick Cave lectured in Vienna on the nature of the love song: “The love song is never truly happy. It must first embrace the potential for pain. Those songs that speak of love without having within in their lines an ache or a sigh are not love songs at all but rather Hate Songs disguised as love songs, and are not to be trusted. These songs deny us our humanness and our God-given right to be sad and the air-waves are littered with them. The love song must resonate with the susurration of sorrow, the tintinnabulation of grief.”
After singing the praises of the Song of Solomon and Psalm 137 (“By the rivers of Babylon..”), Cave singles out a surprising example:
“Within the world of modern pop music, a world that deals ostensibly with the Love Song, but in actuality does little more that hurl dollops of warm, custard-coloured baby-vomit down the air waves, true sorrow is not welcome. But occasionally a song comes along that hides behind its disposable, plastic beat a love lyric of truly devastating proportions.
“Better The Devil You Know” written by hitmakers Stock, Aitkin and Waterman and sung by the Australian pop sensation Kylie Minogue is such a song. The disguising of the terror of Love in a piece of mindless, innocuous pop music is an intriguing concept. “Better The Devil You Know” is one of pop music’s most violent and distressing love lyrics.
Say you won’t leave me no more
I’ll take you back again
No more excuses, no no
Cause I’ve heard them all before
A hundred times or more
I’ll forgive and forget
If you say you’ll never go
Cause it’s true what they say
Better the devil you know
I know, I think I know the score
You say you love me, O boy
I can’t ask for more
I’ll come if you should call
When Kylie Minogue sings these words there is an innocence to her voice that makes the horror of this chilling lyric all the more compelling. The idea presented within this song, dark and sinister and sad – that all love relationships are by nature abusive and that his abuse, be it physical or psychological, is welcomed and encouraged, shows how even the most innocuous of love songs has the potential to hide terrible human truths.
Like Prometheus chained to his rock, so that the eagle can eat his liver each night, Kylie becomes love’s sacrificial lamb bleating an earnest invitation to the drooling, ravenous wolf that he may devour her time and time again, all to a groovy technobeat. “I’ll take you back. I’ll take you back again”. Indeed. Here the Love Songs becomes a vehicle for a harrowing portrait of humanity not dissimilar to that of the Old Testament Psalms. Both are messages to God that cry out into the yawning void, in anguish and self-loathing, for deliverance.”
Video posted at 22:51
Los Angeles’ Cinefile videostore sells these amazing heavy metal/director t-shirts (ironically this Lars one is only available in women’s sizes), also check their Black Flag/Bela Tarr and Metallica/Fassbinder mashups. Totally on my Christmas list.
Photo posted at 10:26
27/11/2009
Let’s have a Translation Party with Christina Aguilera.
Photo posted at 20:39
Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck, Heaven Can Wait (directed by Keith Schofield)
Video posted at 19:42
Jessica Suarez made a compilation of her favorite Bella quotes from the first Twilight movie. As she says, this is “presented with (implicit) critique.”
Video posted at 16:16
12/11/2009
I’m already excited for The Addam Family: The Movie: The Musical: The Movie, surely hitting screens in 2011. (via vanityfair.com)
Photo posted at 08:40
09/11/2009
The Los Angeles Times uses this sultry image of Mr. Capote to illustrate a story on Dwight Garner’s new book on book advertising, Read Me, a collection of print ads which also boasts a firmly oldschool Dave “heartbreaking genius” Eggers introduction (readable in full at the HarperCollins website).
Photo posted at 23:14
I would betray the name of this blog if I wouldn’t also note Patterson’s Cozy Corner Lights (2004) from his Sound Affects series. (other images at BOOOOOOOM!)
Photo posted at 11:14
08/11/2009
Like clouds or tea leaves, oil spills have an alluringly narrative quality to the human eye, in the case of this photograph by Christian Patterson suggesting anything from thermal imaging to early 1980s video art.
Photo posted at 23:14
