Tag Archives: 1940

RIP Gianni Cavina (1940 – 2022)

Two actors died. Both played a role in paracinema.

Exploding head scene in Scanners

The first is the Canadian actor Lawrence Dane (1937-2022) who is best-known for his part in Scanners (1981), the Cronenberg film forever famous for its exploding head scene.

The House with Laughing Windows


The second is the Italian actor Gianni Cavina best-known for his parts in The House with Laughing Windows (1976) and Traffic Jam (1979).

Traffic Jam

Traffic Jam is reminiscent of the eight minute traffic jam scene in Weekend by Truffaut which is based on the infinitely more interesting short story “La autopista del sur” by Julio Cortázar.


RIP Jimmie Durham (1940 – 2021)

Tim Cone on Still Life With Spirit and Xitle (2007)

Jimmie Durham was an American sculptor and pretendian.

He is known for such works as Still Life With Spirit and Xitle (2007).

It features a 1992 Chrysler Spirit smashed by a 9-ton boulder of red basalt from the Mexican volcano Xitle.

Durham gave the stone a cartoon-like face afterwards. As of 2021, it was located at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

RIP Jean-Luc Nancy (1940 – 2021)

Jean-Luc Nancy, le corps du philosophe (2003) by Marc Grün

Jean-Luc Nancy (1940 – 2021) was a French philosopher known for such works as The Inoperative Community (1982) which starts like this:

“The gravest and most painful testimony of the modern world, the one that possibly involves all other testimonies to which this epoch must answer (by virtue of some unknown decree or necessity, for we bear witness also to the exhaustion of thinking through History), is the testimony of the dissolution, the dislocation, or the conflagration of community.


RIP John Margolies (1940 – 2016)

This will have happened five years in two days, but I only found out today.

The End of the Road: Vanishing Highway Architecture in America (1981)

John Margolies was an American architectural critic and photographer.

I just spent (while researching the fantastic Jacques Moeschal) two hours intermittently trying to find the title of the book on roadside architecture I sold five years ago and then I found out that it is the one above: The End of the Road: Vanishing Highway Architecture in America (1981).

The link with Moeschal being that with lots of irreverence (I love the word, as well as the practice of irreverence) you can call the ‘signs’ of Moeschal ‘roadside attractions’.

RIP Jon Gibson (1940 – 2020)

RIP Jon Gibson was an American musician and visual artist.

Gibson’s death happened in 2020 but I forgot to give it attention.

Two Solo Pieces (1977)

Maybe I did not find the right record to play with it.

Today, via The Saturn Archives, a recently discovered high quality music channel on YouTube, I give you Two Solo Pieces (1977).

The beginning is a highly accomplished drone piece. The end is a piece with gamelan echoes.

RIP Johnny Nash (1940 – 2020)

Johnny Nash  was an African-American singer-songwriter, best known for his 1972 hit “I Can See Clearly Now“.

On the Belgian popcorn scene, popular recordings of Nash included “Some of Your Lovin'”, “Old Man River”, “Moment of Weakness”, “Kisses”, “I’m Leaving”, “I’m Counting On You” and “Don’t Take Away Your Love”.

RIP Tony ‘afrobeat’ Allen (1940 – 2020)

Tony Allen (1940 – 2020) was a Nigerian musician and drummer.

The importance of Allen? You simply cannot imagine Fela Kuti nor afrobeat without the drumming of Tony Allen during the period 1968 to 1979.

After parting with Fela Kuti it would take time for Allen to find his own sound.

This happened with the sublime EP Never Expect Power Always (1984), one of my favorite afrobeat compositions.

Other solo work of note includes Black Voices (1999), Tomorrow Comes The Harvest (2018, with Jeff Mills) and Sounding Lines (2018, with Moritz von Oswald).

To the international hipster crowd, Allen is probably best-known for playing drums on “La Ritournelle” (2003) by Sébastien Tellier, an iconic track for the contemporary cosmopolitan class.

The drumming on that track sounds like a “Funky Drummer” sample but it is in reality the live drumming of Tony Allen.

I’d say, if you are new to all this, start by listening to “Shakara (Oloje)” (1972) by Fela Kuti, then switch to Never Expect Power Always (1984) and end with Sounding Lines (2018).