“The perversity of woman!”

Danielle Darrieux is Mme de Rênal

I’m slowly and carefully moving towards the middle of The Red and the Black and am stricken by quotes on “female perversions” (there is no such thing, or is there?) and instances of “happiness in crime”:

“Their joy was thenceforward of a far higher nature, the flame that devoured them was more intense. They underwent transports of utter madness. Their happiness would have seemed great in the eyes of other people. But they never recaptured the delicious serenity, the unclouded happiness, the spontaneous joy of the first days of their love, when Madame de Renal’s one fear was that of not being loved enough by Julien. Their happiness assumed at times the aspect of crime. ” –Chapter 19 in The Red and the Black

“The perversity of woman!” thought Julien. “What pleasure, what instinct leads them to betray us?” –Chapter 21 in The Red and the Black

Introducing Harry/i Peccinotti

Penguin Modern Poets 25 also features a photograph of female lips smoking a cigarette, one of his trademark image tropes.

Alberto Moravia‘s 1976 Penguin edition of The Woman of Rome

I haven’t properly introduced Harri Peccinotti, the man celebrated in the previous post on Nova magazine.

Harry Peccinotti (born 1938, London, UK) is a photographer and art director. He was Nova magazine‘s first art director and regular photographer throughout. He also did the Pirelli Calendars of 1968 and 1969, with designer Derek Birdsall.

He also provided the cover photograph for Alberto Moravia‘s 1976 Penguin edition of The Woman of Rome and contributed photographs to The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics.

Penguin Modern Poets 25 also features a photograph of female lips smoking a cigarette, one of his trademark image tropes.

He has designed record sleeves for Esquire Records.

He is still working with fashion stylists such as Charlotte Stockdale and Antje Winter.

What’s up with YouTube’s “This video is not available in your country”?

What’s up with YouTube “This video is not available in your country.”? I thought this was the World Wide Web?

One can’t begin to imagine the amount of scheming by Google/YouTube with The Big Four while the independents will never see a nickel of revenue made on their backs[1].

Nova magazine 1965 – 1975

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Check these prices! Cheapest at €250, most expensive at €800. More on expensive books over at Bookride.

I found out about Nova magazine when researching Harri Peccinotti

Pirelli 1969 – Harri Peccinotti

Nova magazine was a monthly British style magazine of the “Swinging London” era published from March 1965 until October 1975. It foreshadows publications such as The Face and i-D. Molly Parkin was the founder and first fashion editor at Nova, she was succeeded in 1967 by Caroline Baker who collaborated with the likes of Helmut Newton, Harri Peccinotti and Hans Feurer, Byron Newman and Armet Francis.

The book Nova 1965-1975, compiled by David Hillman and Harri Peccinotti, and edited by David Gibbs, was published by Pavilion Books in 1993.

P.S. I’m looking for a scan of Up Tight by Parkin with Harry Peccinotti’s cover shot of a French model wearing see-through knickers. Anyone?

Galmbal in Belgium

This is an advertisement for the art music crowd: On 18/10/2008 Belgian artist Dennis Tyfus organizes the ‘Galmbal‘, a festival featuring artists such as Eric Thielemans, Han Bennink, Maja Ratkje and Paul Panhuysen.

I Am a Madman and WCC #66

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

“I Am a Madman” by Lee Perry in a dub version remixed by Mad Professor, YouTube bricolage by cinemakramp. The regular version of this song can be found on Perry’s album The Battle of Armagideon.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip23Z0zKrP0]

The film used in the Perry clip is Fists of the Double K by John Woo 1973, his first feature film.

What makes Cinekramp’s choice of footage particularly appropriate is Lee Perry’s fascination with spaghetti westerns.

Speaking of martial arts film, Can dialectics break bricks? is WCC #66

P.S. I’ve recently been celebrating my lifelong love affair with Lee Perry’s work. On a general note on his work, it does not take much imagination to view his work as a strain of black surrealism or even surrealism tout court.

Is self-loathing the key to understanding Julien Sorel?

Gérard Philipe is Julien Sorel in the film adaptation by Claude Autant-Lara

Is self-loathing the key to understanding Julien Sorel, the anti-hero of Stendhal’s The Red and the Black?[1], is the question I asked myself last night.

The American literary critic Hayden Carruth (R.I.P. 10 days ago) seems to confirm my suspicion by comparing him to Antoine Roquentin of Sartre’s Nausea . He wrote in 1959 of the way that “Roquentin has become a familiar of our world, one of those men who, like Hamlet or Julien Sorel, live outside the pages of the books in which they assumed their characters. . . . It is scarcely possible to read seriously in contemporary literature, philosophy, or psychology without encountering references to Roquentin’s confrontation with the chestnut tree, for example, which is one of the sharpest pictures ever drawn of self-doubt and metaphysical anguish.”

“Certainly, Nausea gives us a few of the clearest and hence most useful images of man in our time that we possess; and this, as Allen Tate has said, is the supreme function of art.” –Hayden Carruth

Introducing Undead Film Critic

Introducing Undead Film Critic.

What is Country Doc?

From its first post[1] to its latest[2], exploitation film posters, big breasts and low culture mouthwatering visuals galore. Similar blogs include Hugo Strikes Back, PCL Linkdump, Groovy Age of Horror and Bxzzines.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjhTM5zxlsM]

“C’est Beau la Bourgeoisie”

And while we’re at it, Georgy sent us this guiltiest of pleasure: Discobitch‘s “C’est Beau la Bourgeoisie” [3]. C’est pour la petty bourgeoisie.

The song is in the vein of “Perfect” by Princess Superstar and “Yeah Yeah” by Bodyrox (who started the “rockist” use of synths in dance tracks).

Reggae mythology

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeYfF9EuFOo&]

“Prophecy” by Fabian

Today is an important day in reggae mythology. Haile Selassie was crowned today 80 years ago. Unlike P-Funk mythology, reggae mythology does not have a Wikipedia page. Its nearest equivalent page is Rastafari movement.

As a term, reggae mythology has the advantage of being a subcategory of black science fiction (mainly because of the Lee Perry link). The introduction of the concept will also allow easier understanding of terms such as 400 Years.

Speaking of Perry, I found compositions off “Revolution Dub” at YouTube, notably Woman’s Dub [1] and the original of “Doctor on the Go” by Junior Byles [2].

“Doctor on the Go” and “Woman’s Dub” are WMCs, I’ve added the 174th entry for what will become a 1001-piece series.