Category Archives: life

It must be spent, willingly or not, gloriously or catastrophically

Furthering my research on Georges Bataille‘s general economy[1], helped by Valter‘s kind comment, it occured to me that the Marxian notion of surplus product is very similar to Bataille’s excess. The two notions and can only lead to wasteful spending such as luxury or war.

Thus, we read on page 21 of volume 1 of The Accursed Share:

“The living organism, in a situation determined by the play of energy on the surface of the globe, ordinarily receives more energy than is necessary for maintaining life; the excess energy (wealth) can be used for the growth of a system (e.g., an organism); if the system can no longer grow, or if the excess cannot be completely absorbed in its growth, it must necessarily be lost without profit; it must be spent, willingly or not, gloriously or catastrophically” (v. 1 p. 21).

If the “excess energy” or “surplus product” is spent “gloriously”, we call it luxury, if spent “catastrophically”, it is war. Notions that connect are pure war by French philosopher Paul Virilio and the military-industrial complex.

While researching The Accursed Share, I also happened on the blog with the same name[3] by Nick Srnicek and Kieran Aarons, which features two astounding photos, a shot of Cairo with the Pyramids as backdrop [4] by unknown (credits anyone?) and a photo[5] by German-born photographer Michael Wolf belonging to his “densities” project.

Happy b’day, Steve Albini

Don’t Call Me a Producer (posted to YouTube by TheShippingYard

Steve Albini  (°1962) turns 46 today. In my book he is best-known as the producer and member of Big Black. He is also the writer of a hilarious pamphlet on the music industry: “The problem with music”.

Above is an excellent documentary by The Shipping Yard, a pseudonym of Travis Campbell.

Everything feels fucked up. The environment, the economy, war, terrorism, …

It is time for WMC #54

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDCm5A5FTe0]

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want“by Soulwax

I may have dismissed Philip Sherburne‘s piece on the current state of beats too quickly in my recent comment.[1]

The piece came my way via Simon Reynolds[2] a couple of days back:

“Philip Sherburne addresses the malaise in electronic dance culture (i didn’t know the economic side of it had gotten that parlous) and convenes a kind of brain trust to come up with remedies.” —Simon Reynolds

And thus starts Sherburne’s piece:

“Everything feels fucked up. The environment, the economy, war, terrorism, …” —Philip Sherburne [3]

Regarding the economic side Sherburne says:

“Still, dance music is suffering from some very real maladies, many of them economic. Record sales are declining– labels that once could confidently move 1,000 copies of a 12″ single now struggle to sell 250– and legal downloads, while presumably growing, aren’t taking up the slack.”

As I said in my comment I find it hard to imagine that beats are going out of fashion.

Witness these beats set to The Stones‘s “You Can’t Always Get What You Want“[4] remix[5] by Belgian dance-punkers Soulwax. Listen for the choral arrangements by Jack Nitzsche.

Regarding beats going out of fashion from a theoretical point of view.

The beat is a celebration of dance, dance is a celebration of hedonism. Hedonism flourishes in economic booms. Today is an era of poverty. Beats do not fit in poverty. Perhaps. But. Counter example one: the beats of Lindy Hop during Depression America. So evidence inconclusive, but if I had to investigate I would follow the economic boom/malaise route.

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” in its original Stones version is WMC #54

Simon Vinkenoog @80, and, looking for equivalents

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqHsLlmUEeA]
Save the mushrooms (2007) Simon Vinkenoog

Dutch poet Simon Vinkenoog turns 80 today.

Simon can safely be regarded as the Dutch equivalent to Timothy Leary.

I wrote on equivalents here [1]. The concept is simple. Every country has its Woody Allen.

Does your country have an equivalent to Timothy Leary? Please let me known in my comment box.

Cult fiction item #7

Bjorn_Berg_Emil

Björn Berg‘s illustration for one of Astrid Lindgren‘s Emil books.

Swedish graphic artist Björn Berg‘s (1923 – 2008, best-known internationally as the illustrator of Astrid Lindgren‘s Emil books) recent death allows me to introduce Astrid Lindgren‘s short story My Nightingale Is Singing, read it and weep.  Other tales in this collection are equally strong, the whole collection of bleaker short stories by Lindgren is one of the best items of cult fiction of the 20th century. My Nightingale Is Singing is cult fiction item #7.

Back from Nocito

I just got back from Nocito, Spain in the Sierra de Guara where we were stayed for 10 days. The village is a very deserted one [1] which I had visited before. It’s one of the loveliest places on earth. I was quite sad that Senor Thomas had died, he was the one who explained me and my brother how many times to cross the river in order to climb the Tozal de Guara[2] about 10 years ago. The area is sign-posted now, but still is the embodiment of the “end of the world” with its beautiful mix of nature and culture (the dry stone architecture[3]).

Our next door neighbors at the apartment we rented were two children who had the Down syndrome. Which provides me with the sad occasion of announcing the death of beat-era American artist Bruce Conner (1933 – 2008).

BRUCE CONNER MOCKING ROLLS HOOD ORNAMENT
image sourced here.

Despite active removals by YouTube staff, here[4] is Conner’s video for Devo‘s unforgettable post-punk classic “Mongoloid“.

On a much brighter note, I’ve been enchanted with N. E. R. D.‘s “All the Girls Standing in Line for the Bathroom” [5], officially known as “Everybody Nose”, with its catchy beat and social critical lyrics.

This morning, I took my daughters to the Eiffel Tower in Paris because my youngest had never seen it. Apparently, the American dancer Dipset had been there only recently, I see on this marvelous video clip on music by The Tonettes, [6] filmed under the iron icon of French modernism.

Still in Paris, at the Centre Pompidou, I found out that Jean-Michel Ribes published a wonderful book, Le Rire de résistance, in 2007. It is the history of subversive laughter from Diogenes to Charlie Hebdo. Ribes was an accomplice of canonical Roland Topor, an image of whom is lovingly placed on the book’s cover[7]. The book is wonderful, and if you would happen to be new to this blog as well as Francophone, you’d be well out to check this volume.

We drove about 3,000 kilometers and our cd-player’s favorite was Nova Classic 01. Of addictive attraction were Bob Andy‘s “Life”[8], the Joe Cuba Sextet cut “Do You Feel It?” (yes I feel it, but I feel it in an other way”); for an equally enjoyable Joe Cuba track see [9]; and “”Baby, Baby I’ll get down on my knees for you, if you….” ” by American white rapper Necro [10] (and then we found out it was a dirty song, still, I’d be grateful if anyone can point me to the source of the “knees” sample). It provides the main attraction of the song, one can’t argue with Necro’s ability to dig the crates.

Lastly, musically, France’s Fun Radio was plugging an impressive (for its sheer bombast) Rod Stewart “Do You Think I’m Sexy” remix (I have been unable to identify it) and last summer classic; Shanna’s “Il est formellement interdit” [11]. Basic but effective, the French have a pretty solid dance music culture. One of my favorites “Street Dance” [12] is one of the best sold tracks in France.

I have missed you fellow psychonauts and am particularly pleased with Evie Byrne ‘s reaction [13] to my flawed post[14] (thanks Tristan Forward) on Boucher‘s painting of Marie-Louise O’Murphy.

Oh yes. I read four books: Cities of the Red Night by Burroughs (wonderful bits on addiction and piratry, uses the word surmise a lot), the non-fiction book Sexuality in Western Art (by Edward Lucie-Smith), Erica Jong‘s How to Save Your Own Life (the perfect airport novel but 90 degrees less perfect than the zipless fuck) and the cult fiction classic Breakfast of Champions (Vonnegut’s depiction is so mundane and surreal at the same time, a true classic, comparable in some ways the The Dice Man).

Anecdotal nightlife histories and erotic dictionaries

Histoire anecdotique des Cafés & Cabarets de Paris (1862) Alfred Delvau

Histoire anecdotique des Cafés & Cabarets de Paris is a book on Parisian cafés by Alfred Delvau with illustrations by Gustave Courbet, Félicien Rops and Léopold Flameng.

Delvau also wrote Dictionnaire érotique moderne (1864):

This edition printed by Gay et Doucé in 1876 for the members of the “Biblio-Aphrodiphile Société” with an engraved frontispiece by Chauvet after Félicien Rops. With a “Glossaire érotique” by Louis de Landers (= August Scheler). The volume was also published by Editions 10/18.

Solstice and WMC #50

Solstice

Round about this time tomorrow, I mean somewhere around an hour and a half before midnight tomorrow, or 23 hours from now, it will be solstice, the longest day of the year.

Aristotle quotes the solstice as a moment of self-reflection:

For all men begin, as we said, by wondering that things are as they are, as they do about self-moving marionettes, or about the solstices or the incommensurability of the diagonal of a square with the side. —Aristotle

The music I will be remembering this solstice is American jazz singer Andy Bey‘s “Round Midnight”[1], which some of you may know in Amy Winehouse‘s version [2]. The song, in Bey’s version is WMC #50. “River Man” of my previous post reminded me of Andy Bey, who did his own interpretation of “River Man,”

video

Andy Bey‘s “Round Midnight”[1]

video
Amy Winehouse‘s version [2]
But it really gets bad,
’round midnight.

Incidentally, here is Bey’s version of “River Man” mentioned in my previous post.

Jello Biafra @50

Happy birthday Jello Biafra, former lead singer of the Dead Kennedys. In the late 1980s, the band was embroiled in an obscenity trial in the US over the 1985 Frankenchrist album, which included a “biomannerist” poster with art that depicted penises, “Penis Landscape“[1] by H. R. Giger, a work in the same vein as jahsonic fave Yoshifumi Hayashi.

Interviewed by Jools Holland:

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVrTW7AUkoM]

Every woman adores a fascist

Or, in praise of difficult women

In my never relenting quest for the stereotypes of modern culture, I’ve mentioned the “difficult man”[1] and the “sexually frustrated woman”[2]. Today, let’s have a look at another archetype: the “difficult woman.” But before we go on I would like mention that I want to include in my definition of “difficult” the connotation “complicated.” Many difficult people are difficult because they are complex personalities, often torn apart by conflicting inner desires.

The archetypical difficult women in world literature are Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, who both had a quixotic lust for fiction and who both committed suicide. Many difficult women are also strong women and that is why we men love them and at the same time have a complicated relationship with them. We love them and hate them.

Many “difficult” people lead unhappy lives, and many commit suicide. Easy-going people don’t.

To say that Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) was a difficult rather than an easy-going woman is a platitude, she is only one of the talented but tortured people who left our planet voluntarily prematurely. She famously said that “Every woman adores a fascist,” in a poem dedicated to the memory of her father. I would like to add to her words that “every man adores a femme fatale, bad girl or difficult woman,” and would like to conclude with Sylvia Plath reading from her own poem “Daddy“. If you want to head straight to the “fascist” quote, scrub to 2:14.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hHjctqSBwM&]