THE GEROGERIGEGEGE

"Fuck composition, fuck melody, dedicated to no one, thanks to no one, ART IS OVER".
-Juntaro Yamanouchi, The Gerogerigegege

So I haven't posted in a while...hmm. Some interesting stuff I'm into right now:

1. Poet and all-around-New-England-Superstar Richard Wilbur (http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/202). Professor Wilbur (with Professor David Sofield) is teaching a class at Amherst this semester I'm enrolled in - "Writing Poetry 1." Slam dunk, right? I know.

The Writer
by Richard Wilbur

In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking,
And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor
Of strokes, and again is silent.

I remember the dazed starling
Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
How we stole in, lifted a sash

And retreated, not to affright it;
And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,
We watched the sleek, wild, dark

And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
To the hard floor, or the desk-top,

And wait then, humped and bloody,
For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
Rose when, suddenly sure,

It lifted off from a chair-back,
Beating a smooth course for the right window
And clearing the sill of the world.

It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten.  I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.

2. Tortoise - TNT
This albums is fucking awesome. Recommended for anybody who likes things that are awesome.




That's all for now...gotta learn how to play my computer.

Max

Popular blogger and author Christian Lander will discuss his book, Stuff White People Like, on Monday, January 26 at 4:00 p.m. at the University of Minnesota Bookstore in Coffman Memorial Union.

Lander decided early on that he did not like white people who did not watch the TV show “The Wire.” His thoughts soon focused on what white people were doing instead of watching the show and thus his widely popular and provocative blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com was born. Now after nearly 30 million visitors, Lander has compiled some of his best thoughts and stories from the blog into his story behind the blog—Stuff White People Like.

Lander will sign copies of his book following the discussion.

Jenny Holzer

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, CHICAGO
CHICAGO
Through February 1
Curated by Elizabeth Smith

In dealing with the edgy overlap between art and language, Jenny Holzer's work connects with the Conceptual art of the 1960s and '70s, but its quality of social engagement is more explicit—it started out, in fact, as street art, a kind of enigmatic agitprop. Fairly early on, too, it moved into sculpture, installation, and elaborate experiments with computerized lighting and signage. The early '90s, according to MCA chief curator Elizabeth Smith, marked "a turning point where [Holzer] began to work more directly with issues of violence and trauma," and this exhibition surveys the years since then—a period in which the country again went to war. Holzer's will be an important voice on that subject. The catalogue features contributions by Smith, Whitney curator-at-large Joan Simon, and an interview of the artist conducted by art historian Benjamin H. D. Buchloh.

— David Frankel

ARTFORUM

Hot, Flat and Crowded

This is a passage from the first chapter of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's most recent book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. The book examines (what Friedman sees as the) three major crises at the moment: global warming; the growth of the middle class; and the population boom.

(Some background: during his presidency, Jimmy Carter raised standards for automobile fuel efficiency to 27.5 mpg - but during Reagan's first term, he ordered it lowered to 26. Bush I re-raised in in '89 to 27.5, but it stayed there until 2007, when Bush II raised it to 35. By contrast, the Pew Foundation reported that in America "the average car and truck sold at the end of the 90s went about a mile less on each gallon of gas than it did in years earlier.")

"According to Amory Lovins, the experimental physicist who heads the Rocky Mountain Institute, if the United States had continued into the 1990s to conserve oil at the rate it did in the period from 1976 to 1985, thanks in large part to the improved mileage standards, it would no longer have needed Persian Gulf oil after 1985. 'When Reaged rolled back CAFE standards,' said Lovins, 'it was the equivalent of "un-discovering" one Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's worth of oil. It wasted as much oil as is believed to exist under the refuge."


THANKS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS!!

"Some stupid guy had thrown peanut shells all over the stairs,

and I damn near broke my crazy neck."

Dalek - Gutter Tactics

Today, I (Max) received in the mail my FIRST CD AS OFFICIAL "SCENE" REVIEWER!!!



I can smell your virtual excitement calling my name to the winds of victory as we speak!

Anyway, I haven't gotten a chance to listen to it all the way yet, but I'll post my comments (maaayybe) after I get all the way through it. For now, here's the note "John" (read: the record label) enclosed with the disc:


The enigmatic singer songwriter JOHN FRUSCIANTE, best known as the guitarist for The Red Hot Chili Peppers, delivers his 11th solo album, THE EMPYREAN on January 20th.

Friends and Fans,

The Empyrean is my new record that will be released worldwide via Record Collection on January 20th, 20009. It was recorded on and off between December 2006 and March 2008. It is a concept record that tells a single story both musically and lyrically. The story takes place within one person, and there are two characters. It contains a version of Tim Buckley's "Song To The Siren," and the rest of the songs are written by me. My friend Josh plays on it, as does Flea. It features Sonus Quartet, Johnny Marr and The New Dimension Singers. I'm really happy with it and I've listened to it a lot for the psychedelic experience it provides. It should be played as loud as possible and it is suited to dark living rooms late at night.

- John Frusciante, November 3rd, 2008

---

The Empyrean Track listing:
1. Before The Beginning
2. Song To The Siren
3. Unreachable
4. God
5. Dark/Light
6. Heaven
7. Enough Of Me
8. Central
9. One More Of Me
10. After The Ending