Photos from a fabulous food truck extravaganza (last week in Silver Lake)
Archive for the ‘Silverlake’ Category
Silver Lake Jubilee
Saturday, May 29th, 2010
My Heart Belongs To: (#1) Chocolate
Monday, February 15th, 2010
Redheads: Part 1 (Two Trios, Three Duos, Two Twins)
Saturday, August 18th, 2007“While the rest of the species is descended from apes, redheads are descended from cats.” Mark Twain
So, I’m kinda down on Sunset Junction now. I think it should be free for Silverlake residents (because it totally is inconvenient for us)…and I think that it should be set up as a donation (like it used to be) rather than a flat admission basis (which sucks).The lineup coulda been a lot better, that said, it’s not exactly bad or anything (it’s just the closing acts both nights are nothing more than a whole bunch of suck.
I only have a few photos of Autolux and Blonde Redhead. I was almost in the photo pit for Autolux but the security jerks pushed me out for BR and it’s just as well as my batteries died and I was getting tired of hanging out with the kiddies. You can see a few more photos of them on the Silverlake Flickr group which I recently joined.
Blonde Redhead have both fraternal relations and marital relations (Simone and Amedeo Pace are identical twins and Kazu and Amedeo are married), so one big happy international family.
I used to think of them as a second-rate Sonic Youth ripoff band for years, but with their last two releases began a transition and with the new one (“23“), they have fully remade themselves into something new…but not entirely. They are an amalgamation of all they were but now with this overt pop/shoegaze density on top. The old fans tend to dislike it, but I think it’s their most fully realized creation yet. You can watch a video here and hear a song here.
Live, they were even better, playing with more energy than I would have imagined for such languid music. I took some pictures of both bands. Click the photo below for more.
Just got done the Quay Brothers (Stephen and Timothy, identical) double disc. Since I’m so familiar with their work as well as their literary, musical and artistic influences, I wasn’t expecting any new revelations yet I was wrong. On the extras disc, I was turned on to the composer Olga Neuwirth (who I feel in retrospect I should frickin have known about by now) as well as the British theatrical duo Ralf Ralf (Barnaby and Jonathan Stone, half-brothers) who are simply amazing.
Next up are the works of the video artist Bill Viola. When he was making his videos in a world of filmmakers, he was seen as marginal. Now most the world shoots in DV, talk about being “ahead of the curve” (by decades). They are quite beautiful and contemplative (at times). I don’t know what it is about slowness (whether practiced by him or Bela Tarr, Tarkovsky, Sokurov, Tsai Ming-Liang, Angelopolous, Antonioni, etc…that often brings up notions of “the spiritual”. I know Viola uses a lot of “nature” in his imagery so maybe that can’t help but bring it to mind.
Peter Greenaway has some thoughts on Bill Viola and you can watch a camcorder recording of an installation he did for this year’s Venice Biennale here (but read the description first).
This got me thinking about other video artists like the cute, quirky Pipilotti Rist who you can watch right here.
And less “cute” artists like Tony Oursler. (See what I mean here! Seriously, check it.) Whatever happened to him?
Of Germans, Gurus And Elves
Saturday, August 4th, 2007“I took my script first to the British, then to the Americans and finally to the French. Nobody wanted the material. Peter van Eyck was the Cultural Officer for the Americans and he gave me to understand, in broken German ‘that we Germans could forget about films for the next twenty years‘â€.
Wolfgang Staudte [director of Die Mörder Sind Unter Uns]
I finally saw “The Murderers Are Among Us” (1946) today. The first “rubble film” as well as the first German movie to deal with the guilt weighing down on the conscience of Germany for National Socialism/Hitler.Filmed in the bombed-out buildings of Germany it’s a neorealist film that is too little seen. It’s not as if there was nothing created in Germany between the early sound period (Lang, Pabst) and the New German Cinema of the late 60′s/early 70′s (Herzog, Kluge, Schlondorff, Wenders, Fassbinder, etc…)…but that’s the way film critics tend to speak of the period.
At times, the film is a bit heavy-handed (not surprising for a DEFA flick I suppose) but it’s all about guilt, complicity, revenge and lots of broken Germans. The photography is quite good too.
I saw this great Butoh artist Shinichi Iova-Koga on Friday with Lynn (or…I mean Yolanda, well I’ll just call her Yo). She usually is a glutton for all kinds of aesthetic punishment but she can’t get on board the “butoh train”. However, I was riding first-class.
As founder for the collaborative company inkBoat, based in San Francisco and Berlin, Iova-Koga has forged new territory in the world of post-butoh performance. For this new solo he combines Eastern European theater traditions with the impulses of butoh and exquisite stagecraft to create an exploration of birth and its attendant periods of isolation, incubation and longing. “Shinichi Iova-Koga is a third-generation butoh artist whose psychological insights reach right into the deepest, scariest parts of your brain.” San Francisco Chronicle
“each of its simple elements is deeply thoughtful and apt, from Sheila Antonia Bosco’s spine-tingling soundscape to Allen Willner’s fog-drenched lighting to Cassie Terman’s poetic fragments… the real intrigue of “Milk Traces” is in the tiny, ever-so-intentional gestures, and in Iova-Koga’s astonishing acts of self-puppetry. At one point, with Iova-Koga somehow contorted into a ball, his arms move with such deliberate individuality that they look like worms sprouting from an eerily headless torso. Later, when he slips inside a coat hanging from another rope (a body for this soul-in-waiting to inhabit?), his physical sleight of hand really does make it appear that the coat is a ghost about to possess him.” San Francisco Chronicle
I totally dug him, where as Yoli was like drifting off into slumber. Yet…when it came to Hans Fjellestad, she never wanted it to end whereas I was kinda looking at my watch (when I wasn’t annoyed by the boring visuals). I liked it though. That isn’t in dispute. I dig musical improvisation (especially on archaic equipment). But, I’m a visual person. I want better visuals. The fucking guys a filmmaker too. There’s no excuse!
“Performing on a custom array of analog synthesizers and vacuum-tube processors, Fjellestad generates a dark, lush sonic environment of improvised music that is both firmly ensconced in L.A.’s noise scene, yet veers toward 1970s Krautrock, Japanoise assaults, Sun Ra synth bursts and Heavy Metal flourishes. “A truly daring and sonically dangerous artiste.” International DJ Magazine 
“Los Angeles musician and filmmaker Hans Fjellestad tours and records extensively as a solo artist and in collaboration with numerous players on the experimental music scene in well over a dozen countries. His music has been described as “unbridled sonic freedom… raw, almost shamanic energy that embodies the true essence of unrestricted music” (XLR8R) and a “spicy concoction… refusing to behave itself, it screams, throws things and makes a mess” (The Wire). A classically trained pianist, these days Hans concocts most of his unbridled sound messes with analog synths and vacuum tubes”
His “old-school” analogue take on electronic music immediately reminded me of some of the stuff that is on that triple cd “OHM: the early gurus of electronic music 1948-1980” which is pretty great (and a great place to start to gain a historical insight).
Clara Rockmore “Tchaikovsky: Valse Sentimentaleâ€
Olivier Messiaen “Oraisonâ€
Pierre Schaeffer “Etude aux Chemins de Ferâ€
John Cage “Williams Mixâ€
Herbert Eimert / Robert Beyer “Klangstudie IIâ€
Otto Luening “Low Speedâ€
Hugh Le Caine “Dripsodyâ€
Louis and Bebe Barron “Main Title from Forbidden Planetâ€
Oskar Sala “Concertando Rubatoâ€
Edgard Varèse “Poem Électroniqueâ€
Richard Maxfield “Sine Musicâ€
Tod Dockstader “Apocalypse Part IIâ€
Karlheinz Stockhausen “Kontakteâ€
Vladimir Ussachevsky “Wireless Fantasyâ€
Milton Babbitt “Philomelâ€
MEV “Spacecraftâ€
Raymond Scott “Cindy Electroniumâ€
Steve Reich “Pendulum Music
Pauline Oliveros “Bye Bye Butterflyâ€
Joji Yuasa “Projection Esemplastic for White Noiseâ€
Morton Subotnick “Silver Apples of the Moonâ€
David Tudor “Rainforest Version Iâ€
Terry Riley “Poppy Nogoodâ€
Holger Czukay “Boat-Woman-Songâ€
Luc Ferrari “Music Promenadeâ€
Francois Bayle “Rosace 3″
Jean-Claude Risset “Mutationsâ€
Iannis Xenakis “Hibiki-Hana-Maâ€
La Monte Young “Drift Study 31 I 69 12:17:30-12:49:58 PM NYCâ€
Charles Dodge “He Destroyed Her Imageâ€
Paul Lansky “Her Songâ€
Laurie Spiegel “Appalachian Grove 1″
Bernard Parmegiani “En Phase / Hors Phaseâ€
David Behrman “On the Other Oceanâ€
John Chowning “Striaâ€
Maryanne Amacher “Living Sound Patent Pendingâ€
Robert Ashley “Automatic Writingâ€
Alvin Curran “Canti Illuminatiâ€
Alvin Lucier “Music On A Long Thin Wireâ€
Klaus Schulze “Melangeâ€
Jon Hassell “Before And After Charm (La Notte)â€
Brian Eno “Unfamiliar Winds (Leeks Hills)”
So, she’ll be happy to know I’ve burned all three for her (in part, to thank her for loaning me her treasured “Santa Sangre“) .
I took another girl this week to a cute little place in Echo Park that does Mediterranean food (which I could care less about) but the place makes girls look at me all dreamy and I don’t even need to make ostentatious displays of how I’m smarter than everyone else. It’s called the Elf Cafe and only opened 4 hours a day.I’m also looking forward to the bevy of cool coffee houses that are moving to Silverlake (well maybe not a bevy) but at least 2 good ones Intelligentsia and LAMill. I have long been perplexed as how Silverlake simply doesn’t have ANY recommendable coffee houses. Intelligentsia is gonna be right down the street from me (opening tentatively, in two weeks).
Yay for caffeine!
I think I am gonna see Times New Viking at Pehrspace this Friday with some friends. It’s the night before Home Movie Day so…I’m not exactly sure who’s goin’ with me.
On a totally trivial note…I’ve been listening to Pissed Jeans a lot recently. This band from Pennsylvania makes me nostalgic for the days of Flipper and Scratch Acid. They kinda sound like they look. Sludgy and brutal. There’s even a bit of “Bleach”-era Nirvana in their sound.
Pissed Jeans I’ve Still Got You (Ice Cream) [from Hope For Men]
Pissed Jeans Love Clown [b-side of "Dont Need Smoke To Make Myself Disappear"]
And clearly on the opposite end of the alt-music spectrum, I totally LOVE the new Go! Team record as well. (I’ve never really been very good at maintaining a “purist’s” musical taste. I like to color outside the lines too much). This has proven to be a virtue over time though.
The Go! Team Fake ID [from Proof Of Youth]
The Go! Team I Never Needed It Now So Much [from Proof Of Youth]
As I wrap up, I only now learned that Sea Level Records in Echo Park closed it’s doors in mid-June. I loved that store. It was my favorite in LA.
R.I.P.-Sea Level
I was gonna do a post on the writers I’m seeing over the next couple of months around town, but that is going to have to wait.
Movies, Theatre, Music, Girls (and More Girls)
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007“I like making films because I like to go into another world.
I like to get lost into another world.” David Lynch
“It’s an experience.
Either you give yourself over to it or you don’t“. J. Hoberman (on “Inland Empire”)
So it’s Wednesday night and I’m blowing off a screening of David Lynch’s incomprehensible “Inland Empire” at the Hammer Museum. Lynch was gonna be on hand there to do Q & A but I already met him last year with his cow!
You can read about it here.
In other film stuff, a very good friend of mine (Melanie) made a short experimental film called "Underpass" that can be streamed on a CBC website called here.
My friend Yolanda and I are gonna see some craziness at the Red Cat this Friday. You can read about the performers here.
I've become kind of a date-aholic as of late (and addiction has never felt so good). The one I'm most psyched about is on Thursday evening. All I'll say for now is her name is Bridget and if we hit off tomorrow night. I'm gonna be one very happy blogger (and then some).
Tiki Freak-Out vs. Folk Agit-Prop
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007What to do, what to do?
Two different friends are having events at the same time on the same day. Both are potentially fun in different ways. But in essence, it is a battle between Kitsch & Reality.
There’s the Tiki party with Jen
And then a performance where a friend is playing called “PROVING GROUND” at Little Joy (which you can read about HERE).
I think I’m committed to the Tiki, but wish I could do both.
Taking A Sonic Trip
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Lots of live shows this week. Been listening to some newish things as of late. The new Boris record (a collaboration with Ghost guitarist Michio Hurihara). I was probably one of the few people that refused to jump on the PINK bandwagon. I never liked it. I still don’t (though I DO love that 18 minute song on it).
I actually preferred the Sunn 0))) collaboration “Alter” and now, this new one “Rainbow”.
Boris + Michio Kurihara-Sweet No.1
(from Rainbow)
Another good record is the new Deerhunter disc “Cryptograms” on Kranky. Part of it sounds kinda like The Fall and part of it sounds “shoegazey”. They are touring with the Ponys in the spring on the West Coast.
Deerhunter-Spring Hall Convert
(from Cryptograms)
Another band I am psyched to see next month is the latest from Justin Broadrick (of Godflesh/Painkiller/Head Of David/Napalm Death fame) and Ted Parsons (of Swans/Prong fame) named Jesu.
This time out though they make a fuzzed-out heavyness that is pretty rather than angry. While not particularly unique, I still like it a lot. I think it reminds me of the defunct New Zealand/N.Y.C. band Bailter Space.
Jesu-Transfigure
(from Conqueror)
Also below (if you click the picture) are some photos I took of The Broken West playing on the day their debut was released. You can listen to one of their songs while you peruse.
The Broken West-Brass Ring
(from I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On)
