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).