memory

memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain and recall information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing the memory. The late nineteenth and early twentieth century put memory within the paradigms of cognitive psychology. In recent decades, it has become one of the principal pillars of a branch of science called cognitive neuroscience, an interdisciplinary link between cognitive psychology and neuroscience. (wiki)

been thinking about memory quite a lot lately... specifically about how malleable it is. how different individuals recall the same situations in completely different ways. memory is a reconstructive process, so when you recall something you are essentially taking some scattered associations and using them to make up a story.
in thinking about this i remembered this photographer jennifer had told me about who had a show at the sf camerawork gallery...
liz steketee.
"i alter, chop, merge, and recompose photographic elements. this process allows me to represent a moment, a memory of life's reality as i see it. i disrupt linear structures and confuse elements of time to convey my notions of how life truly exists; a combination of independent moments that converge to leave us with a unique experience."
i am particularly drawn to a series she did called "reconstructed memories" where she took her old family photographs and rearranged various elements and subjects in them to suit her own recollection and whim. putting together people who may not have known eachother or even been alive at the same time... the result is a little bit creepy and a lotta bit beautiful.






haven't really been into cat power/chan marshall for some time... but this bare bones cover kinda kills it... in a good way.
cat power-remember me (otis redding cover)mp3

bohemian babe

mina loy was a poet, playwright, novelist, artist, actress, and designer. she was beloved by gertrude stein, t.s. eliot, and ezra pound, to name but a few. it's not hard to see why...





this is one of my all-time favorite poems, courtesy of ms. mina loy:

There is no Life or Death
Only activity
And in the absolute
Is no declivity.
There is no Love or Lust
Only propensity
Who would possess
Is a nonentity.
There is no First or Last
Only equality
And who would rule
Joins the majority.
There is no Space or Time
Only intensity,
And tame things
Have no immensity.

click on this handwritten poem to see it bigger:



a drawing and a gouache painting:





and of course, the obligatory man ray portrait:



get to know her... i highly recommend the lost lunar baedeker. and while you're at it... get to know zola jesus as well.

zola jesus-clay bodies mp3

the caretaker.

i've been watching a lot of twin peaks lately.
and jennifer was playing the caretaker all morning... and somehow the two make a lot of sense together.
the caretaker-cloudy since you went away mp3
the caretaker-it's all forgotten now mp3
he takes old ballroom 78's and slows 'em down, adds a bunch of reverb, some field recordings... and generally makes them super creepy in every possible way... the result is amazing... absolutely amazing.
there is a fabulous interview with/article about him in cyclic defrost magazine... an australian publication that apparently focuses on "interesting music".
speaking of twin peaks/interesting music... have you listened to the twin peaks/black metal inspired, love song to the wind that is the new mount eerie album winds poem?
seriously, listen to this song (and yes that is a sample from laura's theme).
mount eerie-between two mysteries mp3

witchcraft.

here, download and listen to this right now.
witchcraft-her sisters they were weak mp3

for some reason or other recently i've become re-infatuated with the occult... (as a kid i had fancied myself a witch... performing half assed spells with candles and a little bloodletting... even carved the rune of protection into my hand deep enough that the scar still persists in bringing a smile to my face from time to time.) now as goth as all this might sound, it was really just some typical 'misunderstood' middle school kid bullshit... one part new age hippie town, one part broken home, one part 'the craft'...
it's just lame i didn't spend enough time studying wicca, paganism and the church of satan a bit more closely so as to have walked away with a broader understanding of the diverse concepts of spirituality and the universe the various sects had to offer...particularly with regard to style.

stevie nicks-rhiannon (piano demo) mp3
strangely, i'm not usually a big fleetwood mac fan... but these demos of stevie solo on the piano (and copious amounts of pills, cocaine, and booze) are absolutely amazing.

stevie nicks-sisters of the moon (piano demo) mp3

stevie nicks-planets of the universe (piano demo) mp3
there is definitely some amazing magical component to her awesomeness with regard to these demos... witchy woman.
i'm thinking about going to witchfest international in november... but it's in london so i would have to crash with friends...

on a vaguely related note, suspiria, a club night in san francisco based entirely on the perfect style and cold atmospheric music of the dario argento film suspiria, is having it's last hoorah this wednesday eve... and i very much think all should attend.

for good measure, here's a copy of the insanely amazing title track to suspiria's soundtrack by goblin.
goblin-susperia mp3

books.

yesterday was my anniversary... and my wifey, being the amazingly perfect and intuitive person she is, realized (subconsciously, without looking it up) that the traditional gift one gives on their one year anniversary is something made of paper (the modern gift being something having to do with clocks, but who has any interest in modernity these days?)... so i, in turn, received a book, and a fabulous one at that.

seriously... a whole damned book filled with surrealist parlor games and examples from a myriad of artists showing what said games produce... fan-fucking-tastic! if for some reason you need to acquire a copy of this book for yourself (and i promise you, you do), here you go... i just made it that much easier.
now, since, for this moment anyway, we're talking about books... and randomly so... i will direct your attention to a few other key areas...
first, your daily awesome (rip) brought some amazing images to my attention some time back.



they are brain maps from the book of life by dr. alesha sivartha... yda got them from here... and that guy got them from here... and now you got them from me... awesome, right? i'll be doing a more detailed post about the book of life sometime in the near future after i let it digest a bit more...
...so books with awesome imagery... my friend audrey just blogged about another blog which focuses on this very topic... scans of super amazing old book covers... like for reals... check it.




okay... so i'm gonna stop soon, i swear... but there are just two more things i need to spit out before this caffeine wears off. owl cave books put a link to this blog up on facebook today, and it is absolutely amazing...

awful library books... about as perfectly nerdy as you could get.
incidentally, owl cave is also the best place to pick up perfect and random books you didn't even know you were looking for.

p.s. librarians are hot.
p.p.s. girls on the cover of the fader? word.

daydream.

hate your parents, love your friends...warm days that taste like nicotine, sweet-tarts and sex... smoking, drinking, fucking, fighting, dancing. innocence and debauch. no one understands you, every song is about you.
it's come time for some kind of teenage riot.
...and i thank girls for bringing us one.
this is the video for the song lust for life (mp3 link borrowed from cobain in a coma, an amazing blog if for some reason you don't already read it)... off the absurdly perfect 7" of the same name. limited and long since sold out, the fucking thing came with a corsage. perfect.
and so is this.

for those (likely most of you) who missed yer chance to grab said single... you get one more... girls full length album is (finally) to be released on september 22nd of this year on true panther sounds, and if you pre-order it through insound you get a free copy of lust for life with a new b-side: "life in san francisco". precious.