Michael Nesmith was an American musician, best known as the songwriter of “Mary, Mary”.
That song made into a hit by Run-DMC in 1988.
It was also sampled by De La Soul in 1989 on their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising.
Monthly Archives: December 2021
RIP Anne Rice (1941 – 2021)
Anne Rice was an American writer known for her gothic fiction and erotic literature.
Vampirism as a metaphor for sex
I only read one of her books, her debut Interview with a Vampire (1976), probably when I traveled Indonesia or when I lived in China, I cannot remember.
It was the first vampire story that I read. Later I became interested in lesbian vampires. When I researched exploitation films I came to realize that female vampires preying on other vampires is a metaphor for lesbianism. Five minutes later I came to realize that that vampirism is a metaphor for sex tout court.
The road to sadomasochism …
And then obviously, the road from vampirism and sex to sadomasochism is short.
And by googling Anne Rice + sadomasochism, I stumbled upon the book Anne Rice Reader in which the interviewer asks:
In your novel Exit to Eden you talk about there being a racial memory of …
And her answer is:
“If we look for a cause, we would have to think about something like racial memory – something encoded in the genes, some way in which after thousands of years, we’ve turned experiences of violence and violation into something erotic.”
And then, googling again for Anne Rice and “racial memory” I land on my own site where I’ve started to wikify the book The Biology of Horror.
Racial memory is a sort of vestigial memory a cell memory that contains all of the experiences of our species.
Lateral connections
In that same book The Biology of Horror there are (and I will not pursue the racial memory strain) some beautiful quotations by Rice:
A person unwilling to die is described as “the vampire of time which has sucked on it for years on end”.
And the book also mentions Anne Rice’s appreciation for a line of poetry by Yeats. She cites “I must lie down where all ladders start, / In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart” from “The Circus Animals Desertion”.
She seemed very intelligent and reminds me in some ways of Stephen King.
RIP Lina Wertmüller (1928 – 2021)
Lina Wertmüller was an Italian film director best known as the auteur of The Seduction of Mimi (1972), Love and Anarchy (1973), Swept Away (1974), and Seven Beauties (1975).
Since I had not seen any of Lina Wertmüller’s movies yet, I watched all four of these over the weekend. One dubbed in English with Spanish subtitles, two in Italian with Portuguese subtitles, one in Italian with no subtitles.
A Belgian film critic
There was a Belgian film critic on Facebook who said that he’d never liked Wertmüller’s films, Patrick Duynslaegher is his name. He called the performances in her films exaggerated and he wondered how she could have merited the success she had once had.
One person commented on the good man’s post that his disapproval probably meant that these films were good films. Ever since the days, she said, when he still wrote for Knack, when he panned a film, she had gathered it was probably a masterpiece, and it usually was. He replied graciously to her comment that he was glad that he had been able to guide her through the film landscape in this special way.
Four of her films
I watched the four films and as could be expected I felt different about these films than Duynslaegher. I was amused, I laughed, I thought they were very witty films, I didn’t find them pretentious anywhere.
The scene in Seven Beauties where the picaro in a concentration camp seduces the ugly, obese camp commander is masterful.
The flirtation scene in The Seduction of Mim‘ is, if anything, even more masterful.
The f***ing scene in Mimi with the obese ‘mama’ is hilarious.
Giancarlo Giannini is excellent in each of those films, he reminds me very much of Patrick Dewaere.
I don’t really understand your problem with her films, I said to Patrick. Surely Fellini is just as grotesque and unrealistic?
Sex
I found the rape scene in Swept Away hot and it reminded me of the extended scene in Irréversible, which was repulsive.
The sadomasochism in the seduction of the female prison guard in Seven Beauties is not the only bout of sadomasochism, because before the rape scene he had forced her to kiss his hand and after the rape scene the woman becomes as docile as ever and even kisses his feet.
Opening montage of Seven Beauties
And then there is the opening montage of Seven Beauties, where we see historical footage from WWII, with a song by Enzo Jannacci superimposed. In that song, titled “Quelli che” (English “those who”), Enzo sings cynical commentary phrases in parlando style. And after every sentence he says “oh yeah”, in a crooner-like way.
RIP Steve Bronski (1960 – 2021)
Steve Bronski was a Scottish composer and keyboardist known for the project Bronski Beat.
I remember buying The Age of Consent (1984) at Free Record Shop on De Wapper.
There was something in the gay anthem “Smalltown Boy” that resonated with me. Today, I find it very hard to listen to that record.
I do not feel the same about “Don’t Leave Me This Way”, the 1986 cover of the philly hit by Jimmy Sommerville, after he’d left Bronski to form The Communards.
RIP Robbie Shakespeare (1953 – 2021)
Robbie Shakespeare was a bass player who, with his partner Sly Dunbar, formed the most influential reggae rhythm section between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s.
I found out about Robbie’s death in De Standaard in which Karel Michiels wrote a knowledgeable obituary. Michiels had struck me before when writing about the death of Bunny Wailer. When I came home I googled him. I found out he is a reggae musician in his own right and performs under the name Jah Shakespeare.
What is my history with Sly and Robbie?
I think a friend of mine had a tape of Taxi Gang (a Sly and Robbie moniker) with her when I traveled to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in the early 1990s.
When I collected records during the late 1990s and early 2000s, I found a copy of “Don’t Stop the Music”, a track which they recorded under the moniker Bits & Pieces, a cover of the disco song.
And then there is “Boops (Here To Go)” (1987) produced by Bill Laswell. This I first heard in Tom Tom Club in Antwerp. When I tried to find it in the internet era, it took me some time, thinking the lyrics were, “civil check, arms open wide” in stead of “Si boops deh. With arms open wide”.
Compass Point houseband
Besides all this, the duo are central to what is perhaps my favorite recording studio. I am referring to Compass Point, where Sly and Robbie were central to the house band Compass Point All Stars. Everybody played there, perhaps most central to my universe, Serge Gainsbourg.
The Padlock EP
And, to conclude: Robbie also did the bass line on that unforgettable record Padlock EP (1983) by Gwen Guthrie, produced by Larry Levan.
RIP Wah Wah Watson (1950 – 2018)
This happened in 2018, but I only found out today.
Wah Wah Watson was an American guitarist who was a member of The Funk Brothers, the studio band for Motown Records.
This track from Elementary (1976), his only solo album, reminds me somehow of “Rapper Dapper Snapper” (1980) by Edwin Birdsong.
RIP Greg Tate (1957 – 2021)
Greg Tate was was an American writer, musician, and producer.
A long-time critic for The Village Voice, Tate focused particularly on African-American music and culture.
Also a musician himself, he was a founding member of the Black Rock Coalition and the leader of Burnt Sugar.
He is known for such pieces as “Yo! Hermeneutics!” (1985) and was interviewed by Mark Dery in “Black to the Future” (1994), making Tate a key figure in the protohistory of black science fiction.
Some have called a rogue scholar and when one reads “Yo! Hermeneutics!”, one does get the feeling of having landed in an African-American version of the Sokal affair.
RIP John Miles (1949 – 2021)
John Miles was a British composer and musician best known for his composition “Music” (1976).
“Music” is a camp monstrosity in the category “foute muziek”.
The second movement of “Music”, which is uptempo, reminds me of “The Mexican” (1972) by Babe Ruth.
“The Mexican” shares some of “Music’s” campy qualities, but it is altogether a more satisfying song.
RIP Lawrence Weiner (1942 – 2021)
Lawrence Weiner is an American artist who made visual poetry and who wrote the art manifesto “Declaration of Intent” (1968).
He designed the Quando Quango and Section 25 poster for Factory Records in 1985.
With Ned Sublette, he released the albums Ships At Sea, Sailors & Shoes (1993) and Monsters from the Deep (1997).
In Antwerp, his poem “Iron and gold in the air, dust and smoke on the ground” is on permanent display at the Middelheim Open Air Sculpture Museum.
RIP Alvin Lucier (1931 – 2021)
Alvin Lucier was an American composer, perhaps best-known for his piece I Am Sitting in a Room (1969). That piece is a reflection on resonance and generation loss.