Jacko

June 29, 2009

We have all read and heard so many things in the few days since Jackson’s death. All of them have kind of missed the mark for me, until I read this comment left at the bottom of a piece in the Guardian by Charlie Brooker (which was pretty good too).

It has the right mix of humour, feeling and sincerity which I think Michael Jackson deserves. Enjoy the peace, MJ.

From DeanW:

I was watching Glastonbury on the TV and simultaneously on Twitter, demanding proof. Read the TMZ website. Didn’t seem credible, even though the BBC said it was. I screen grabbed the LA Times report he was in a coma, then 2 mins later an update saying he was dead. I made a couple of smart zombie comments, then remembered that he had kids and decided to wait for better jokes. Then I played some Joe Jackson, just to spread the Jackson vibe sideways.

Then I saw Jermain do the press conference which I found genuinely moving.

Then I read about the physical pain and the drugs, so I played some music, but not MJ, instead the Carpenters “Say Goodbye to Love” thinking that here was another beautiful sad person who didn’t eat enough and died of a heart attack, consumed by internal demons. Then I remembered “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” and thought MJ would probably enjoy that, so I played it twice.

Those Monks Could Draw

June 19, 2009

From the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/06/19/arts/20090619-DRAW_index.html

My latest shit

June 15, 2009

Bookmark 09

My submission for the Bookmarks project, now in its 7th year. Last years is somewhere on this blog too. This one came from a conversation Ollie and I had about Damien Hirst and the current economic mess and via a bottle of aspirins. Oh, also a Michael Hurley song. It is titled One of the Devils Daughters. It is a digital print.

Barberian

June 9, 2009

A dedication to Nick Barbery who sent me 6 DVDs worth of aural pleasure a couple of weeks back. I am putting a running compilation together of some of my favourite cuts, plus others I have plundered myself. The very beginnings are below:

  • Ain’t Worth the Time, Shep and Me (Not from Nick, but from PieLab)
  • Northern Lights, Bowerbirds
  • Close my Eyes, Arthur Russell
  • Red Ravagers Reel, Michael Hurley & Pals
  • Thermal Treasure, Polvo
  • Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground, Blind Willie Johnson
  • I’ll Write Your Name through the Fire, Shocking Blue
  • Slowness, Calexico
  • My Lonely Days, Monty Morris
  • Amazon One, Sun City Girls
  • Long Riders, Ry Cooder

Godliness

May 14, 2009

Stephen Shore Billboard

Above South of Klamath Falls, Oregon, from Uncommon Places, Stephen Shore

“Much of the old brutal ignorance that had in it also a kind of beautiful childlike innocence is gone forever.”

Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio