ph: Enrique Badulescu
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Indeterminacy 179
While we were
sitting on top of
Slide Mountain
looking out
towards Cornell and
Wittenberg
and the Ashokan
Reservoir beyond,
Guy Nearing said
he had
known two women
who
were bitten by
copperheads.
“They were just
the same after
as before,”
he said,
“except
they were a
little more cranky.”
- John Cage
White Heat (1949)
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist.
A masterpiece of the gangster genre with everybody doing a perfect job, fast, relentless and over-the-top. Cagney adds yet another new dimension to the criminal persona.
Hak se wui (2005)
aka Election
The Wo Sing Society is in the process of electing a new leader, and both candidates fight to get the position.
Excellent sophisticated gangster drama, supposedly with not much action, but you won't be disappointed.
The Wo Sing Society is in the process of electing a new leader, and both candidates fight to get the position.
Excellent sophisticated gangster drama, supposedly with not much action, but you won't be disappointed.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Indeterminacy 107
(ph: James Burke)
The day after I
finally won the Italian
TV quiz on
mushrooms,
I received
anonymously in the mail
Volume II
of a French book
on mushrooms
that had been
published in Germany.
I was studying
it in a crowded
streetcar
going to downtown Milan.
The lady
next to me said,
“What are you
reading that for?
That’s finished.”
- John Cage
The Creeping Terror (1964)
A newlywed sheriff tries to stop a shambling monster that has emerged from a spaceship to eat people.
This is truly a baddie, and it includes one of the most ridiculous monsters in cinema history: basically a large long carpet, the front part stand fairly upright, has penis-like tentacles up on top and a vulva-shaped mouth at the bottom. Must be seen to believed.
You'll find a cool article and frame-to-frame analysis here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Narrator: He slowly asked Bradford what was in store for humanity. Bradford was pessimistic, but implied that maybe all was not lost. After all, he told him, the vastness of the universe was incredible. If these monsters had come from its outer limits, their home might even no longer exist. Or if they do come again, perhaps Man will have advanced enough to cope with them, and those that made them. Only God knows for sure, were Bradford's last words to anyone on this Earth.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Merce Cunningham R.I.P.
US choreographer Merce Cunningham, widely recognised for revolutionising modern dance, has died "of natural causes" at the age of 90.
In a statement, the Cunningham Dance Foundation, which he founded in 1953, said that he "revolutionised the visual and performing arts, not for the sake of iconoclasm, but for the beauty and wonder that lay in exploring new possibilities".
You'll find a biography here.
In a statement, the Cunningham Dance Foundation, which he founded in 1953, said that he "revolutionised the visual and performing arts, not for the sake of iconoclasm, but for the beauty and wonder that lay in exploring new possibilities".
You'll find a biography here.
George Russell R.I.P.
Jazz giant George Russell, 86, died July 27 in Boston. He had Alzheimer's disease.
You'll find an eulogy here.
You'll find an eulogy here.
Indeterminacy 165
When I came to New York to study with Adolph Weiss
and Henry Cowell, I took a job in the Brooklyn
YWCA washing walls. There was one other
wall-washer. He was more experienced than I.
He told me how many walls to wash per day.
In this way he checked my original
enthusiasm, with the result that I spent a great
deal of time simply reading the old newspapers
which I used to protect the floors. Thus I
had always to be, so to speak, on my toes,
ready to resume scrubbing the moment I heard
the housekeeper approaching. One room
finished, I was to go to the next, but
before entering any room I was to look in the
keyhole to see whether the occupant’s key was in it
on the inside. If I saw no key, I was
to assume the room empty, go in, and set
to work. One morning, called to the
office, I was told I had been accused of
peeking through the keyholes. I no sooner
began to defend myself than I was interrupted.
The housekeeper said that each year the
wall-washer, no matter who he was, was
so accused, always by the same lady.
- John Cage
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
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