Crashpop is an intersection of contemporary art, music, photography, robots, YouTube, graffiti, technology and net.art with politics, psychology, journalism and the can-do spirit of the DIY spiderweb.
While doing some research for a project I am doing on 78 rpm and Wax Cylinder recordings, I came across this Slovak gem from 1929: "Our Cat Wants to Get Married."
Lyrics:
Our cat wants to get married Yesterday she promised it to her boyfriend Hey cat, don't do it! Who will catch our mice?
Be careful little cat When you get married you will be stupid because your boyfriend doesn't want to work and you will become a beggar
Hey tomcat, you've got sharp claws Don't walk around our walls You never do anything Except date our white cat
Edible Wires: In order for a fruit to conduct enough electricity to carry a sound wave, the wires should be constructed of a fruit with a high water yield, such as a grape or apple slices.
Ear piece for Two: Should be constructed of an inexpensive silver material such as aluminum. In order to limit the listeners to two, should be one part with two speakers, encouraging head-to-head shared listening.
Additional Construction Notes: The radio fuselage must be sealed in a small glass container with the tuning mechanism operated by a series of pulleys and weights.
Listening Instructions: Upon completion, the radio is stored in a locked box until nightfall. Any station broadcasting to this device must operate exclusively at night and must contain musical numbers and fictional radio programs hosted by Anne Frank. Since no recorded material exists, re-enactments from her diary are permissible, so long as they are read by a girl of the same age as Frank, who can never be otherwise identified.
"Four years ago Time photographer Callie Shell met Barack Obama backstage when she was covering presidential candidate John Kerry. She sent her editor more photographs of Obama than Kerry. When asked why, she said, "I do not know. I just have a feeling about him. I think he will be important down the road." Her first photo essay on Obama was two and half years ago. She has stuck with him ever since." - digitaljournalist.org
The caption on the above photo: Two staffers had just passed this site and done two pull-ups. Not to be outdone, Obama did three with ease, dropped and walked out to make a speech. Missoula, Mont., 4/5/2008.
This is a conversation with Bill Morrison about "Decasia," which I'm watching for a class right now. It's really moving and creepy and beautiful all at once: Old, moldy, decaying films, taken and re-edited (no other treatment is used, even the seemingly computer-generated halos). Here's another clip.
Part of it is the film's uncanny ability to make you aware of death; the film is old and deteriorating and the people and images behind it are emerging in a supernatural way, from beyond their respective graves, a haunting by way of media.
The images in and of themselves, I am sure, would be fine. Seen through the natural decay of the film, a new layer of media emerges: it's not even self-aware. It's dead.
If you forgive some melodrama, it creates the distinct sense of looking beyond death, as if these are films from beyond the grave. For this reason, the film can be horrifying at times, and the music doesn't help. Neither does the rather exotic and obscure subject matter of these films: dancing men in traditional middle eastern costumes, Japanese Geishas, re-enactments (we hope) of military battles.
I can't imagine many people have the patience to watch this film; but I found it surprisingly hypnotic.
I tend to be very reluctant about landscape photography. In fact, if I think about it, the subjects of photography are always bland in concept: "Portraits." "Landscapes." "Flowers." "Nudes." Whatever.
So it goes, of course, that the real challenge is making a subject interesting using the camera alone. Michael Kenna does this with landscapes, and it's even more amazing because he does it with black and white landscapes.
Kenna returns to similar motiffs over a span of decades, saying he likes that work he made in 1975 can sit next to work he made in 2005. He also keeps them at a size of 8" by 8", small enough to stay small.
Fans of "This American Life" familiar with the story "Hands on a Hard Body" (It was re-aired this week) may be happy to know that the feature-length documentary is available online, for free, over at Google video.
For those who don't know, the film follows an event in which a Texan car dealership gives away a truck to the contestant who can keep their hand on it the longest. They stopped doing it in 2005, after someone committed suicide. They presumably lost.
