zotz | Entries tagged with art

Almost everything you ever needed to know about My Bloody Valentine:

The flute is not an instrument one usually associates with extreme noise terror, but, when My Bloody Valentine unleashed the show's crescendo, a track called 'You Made Me Realise', the instrument added an almost unbearable shrillness to what was already a blizzard of sustained sonic overload. As the tour progressed, the song became a thing of ever more terrifying beauty due to an extended white noise section that could last up to 10 minutes and was built around the repetition of a single chord played by Shields and his then girlfriend, second guitarist, Bilinda Butcher. Both had already suffered for their art, Butcher with a perforated eardrum, and Shields with the onset of tinnitus. Now, it was the audience's turn.

A Place To Bury Strangers are in Glasgow tomorrow. I have to buy earplugs. Anyone else fancy?

Also from the Absurder, "Since Dr No was released in 1962, James Bond has killed more than 150 men and slept with 44 women, three quarters of whom have tried to kill him."

That certainly puts my problems in perspective.

Yesterday's start-of-summer drink was cold and overcast, but it's good today and the ash trees at the bottom of the road are starting to come into leaf. I notice Luke Mitchell's appeal failed, too, which didn't really surprise me. There wasn't any good lab evidence, but that in itself isn't fatal - courts worked for centuries without it, and the jury didn't take long to convict. I hope they got it right, though. I'm glad it wasn't a decision I had to help with. William Beggs had an appeal mounted too, but I haven't heard what happened there.

Londoners may be pleased to know that the ongoing Telectroscope project is nearing readiness: "If you should happen to be in the vicinity of City Hall in London or the Fulton Ferry Landing in New York next Tuesday or Wednesday, you may see something strange going on. And on Thursday, 22 May, a Telectroscope will be installed at each end of the tunnel, and will open to the public for the first time." More information here.

And there's a new ballboy album soon too. Life is good.

Current Location: the boxroom

Richard Serra has a piece on display in Paris. If you follow the Monumenta link at the bottom, their "Pictures du Montage" is well worth a look. Gives it a sense of scale.

Also on the subject of Large Art, Monsieur L'Artiste has a fresh proposal for Ebbsfleet.

Current Mood: impressed and amused
Current Location: the boxroom

I saw an article today concerning controversy over this sculpture. If they don't want it over there, I think we should have it here.

Leila was round yesterday picking up some Beltane-related stuff, and via conversational peregrinations I ended up finding her those pictures of a Fishing Cat being kept in a Russian flat. One of the pictures isn't worksafe, for most values of, but not actually wildly offensive. In an event obviously totally unrelated to that URL, apparently a plan to make a sequel to The Wicker Man has just fallen through. I'm generally against sequels, but this one sounds potentially interesting. Hopefully they'll get their funding sorted. Shall we not mention the musical, please?

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: the boxroom
Current Music: hold muzak

Well, I have a working 64-bit installation here, and yes it's fast. 2000*1500 onscreen also makes things look very very small indeed, but I like it. I don't know if I'll run it this hard all the time, but it's certainly nice to have the option.

I'm busily reading Capital of the Mind at the moment, which I heartily recommend - it's about Edinburgh and the Scottish Enlightenment. I haven't reached the bit about Hutton yet, but Hume, Adam, and various others feature very heavily. As you'd expect.

Kate and Tony were up over the weekend, and it was lovely to see then - after far too long a gap. Loads of other people came out of the woodwork to see them, so I had a great time talking to people like Richard Walsh, who I haven't seen in years. Fantastic stuff. I particularly enjoyed explaining The Broons to Kate, but it was all good. They've almost promised to come back to Edinburgh soon, which is almost good enough. Incidentally, I believe I have mentioned that you're all encouraged to come visit, but I'd rather like to emphasise that:

Come visit..

Thank you. This has been a public information announcement.

( Further ramblings )

Current Location: the boxroom

Beltane Vidos( Read more... )

Dreams. ( Read more... )

Gigantor! Yes, we're having a Gigantor on Friday. ( Read more... )

The Crimea have a new album out, and it's available to download for free in its entirety ( Read more... )

Shellac are playing London next week. ( Read more... )

There was a program on last night about Gilbert and George, and I enjoyed it hugely. ( Read more... )

Anyway, if you'd like to download a Gilbert and George piece to print out, it's here, but only for the next day or so.

My work this week has involved looking at a couple of upcoming bills - the Human Tissues and Embryos Bill and the Climate Change Bill, as you ask. There are a couple of consultations relevant to them still ongoing, if any of you are interested. ( Read more... )

I can also recommend the new Screaming Banshee Aircrew album. I've listened to it a few times since the weekend and it's very good.

Current Mood: Alert
Current Location: deepest darkest Ayrshire
Current Music: The Crimea

> How was your Easter, then?

Okay. Busy. Bluearsed fly territory for much of it. ( Read more... )

Current Location: deepest darkest Ayrshire

It's amazing the phrases serious science throws up.

If a female chooses to mate with a male, she releases an egg and puts it in her mouth. The male puts his sperm in her mouth and she carries away the fertilised egg.

They're fish, incidentally.

Female chickens with the largest fleshy crests on their heads receive the most sperm from the dominant cock

That's from the New Scientist.

http://alasdairgray.blogspot.com/2006/11/oran-mor-glasgow.html is a description of the murals in the Oran Mor, Glasgow, by the artist.

NB : - Alasdair Gray has a small show on at the moment in Edinburgh, in a small gallery on East Crosscauseway. It's free, and you're strongly advised to drop in if you have a few minutes. It's split with Staurt Murray, who has contributed an array of graphic and text sketches of people he met. His contribution, too, is well worth a look.

Also of note, personally, is the existence of

whatnextclub and (for the benefit of those of you with Flyspeck pages) http://www.myspace.com/whatnextclub. We have webbage, the deposit's down on the venue and we've started doling out flyers and posters . . . I guess it's definitely happening, then.

Current Location: the boxroom
Current Music: Something coming through the ceiling. Recent Chilli Peppers?

I went to an old friend's wedding reception last night, and very fine it was too. Jane looked great, and seemed very happy. It was lovely to see other people too, particularly those up from Doon Sooth - Tony and Kate, and Simon T (who seemed well and cheery considering). Hopfully I'll see all three of them again before too long.

I loitered for several hours over a couple of nice malts, chatting and admiring the ceiling. I can't overemphasise the ceiling. Jane had apparently chosen on the venue - ÒranMór, a converted church on the corner of Byres Road and Great Western Road, and she has excellent taste. If you haven't been upstairs there, then I suggest you make it one of your life goals. It's absolutely wonderful. And why? Well, if you go to the website, you'll see a brief mention of "Alasdair Gray's ceiling mural" with only a couple of tiny pictures. This is absolutely worthless - for a better impression, try here. Allegedly Scotland's biggest piece of public art, it is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.

We were discussing the least appropriate songs for a wedding, after the intro to Take Me Out left me wondering if anyone ever plays Love Will Tear Us Apart at these things. Tony told us of a wedding disco that started with Only The Lonely and continued with Where Did Our Love Go . . . and a bit later The One I Love actually was played. I considered asking for It's Your Money I'm After Baby, but bottled out despite much encouragement.

What do you lot think? Any more good/bad wedding songs? And it's a lovely ceiling, isn't it? Unsurprisingly, yes Gray is a big fan of Blake.

Current Mood: still pleased
Current Music: My Bloody Valentie - To here knows when