this blog is a visual notebook of inspirations for a group of bandit bloggers. we post things we see and like. our lives don’t revolve around singular topics and neither does our blog. sorry! nothing is in-or-out of context here. enjoy xx
yeah sure it’s a bit mean, but not unlike the rolling stones “play with fire” it works somehow. especially if you’ve been in such a relationship, ever. i envision the recipient of such lyrics to be a lohan type! here you go:
The trouble with your brother, he’s always sleeping with your mother And I know that your sister missed her time again this month Am I talking too fast or are you just playing dumb? If you want I can write it down It should matter to you but aren’t you the one with your razzmatazz and the nights on the town? Oh you knew it and you blew it didn’t you babe? I was lying when I asked you to stay now no-one’s gonna care If you don’t call them when you said And he’s not coming round tonight to try and talk you into bed And all those stupid little things they ain’t working No they aren’t working anymore You started getting fatter three weeks after I left you Now you’re going with some kid looks like some bad comedian Are you gonna go out, are you sitting at home eating boxes of Milk Tray? Watch TV on your own, aren’t you the one with your razzmatazz and your nights on the town? And your father wants to help you doesn’t he babe? But your mother wants to put you away Now no-one’s gonna care if you don’t call them when you said And he’s not coming round tonight to try and talk you into bed And all those stupid little things they ain’t working Oh they aren’t working anymore Oh well I saw you at the doctor’s waiting for a test You tried to look like some kind of heiress but your face is such a mess And now you’re going to a party and you’re leaving on your own Oh I’m sorry but didn’t you say that things go better with a little bit of razzamatazz?by dd
a friend of mine told me this story over the week-end about jarvis cocker whom she has known for a long time. i’ll try to tell the story as she told me: she used to see jarvis in various parties and such, and at all times jarvis was handling a bottle of krug champagne and a carrot. so at some point my friend asked about the carrot, and jarvis told her that before his claim to fame, he had never had any champagne, deep in england where he comes from beer was the only choice. the first time he had champagne, he though that it was ok but it left him with a rather foul breath, so he went back to drinking beer. then it turned out, that one day he discovered krug, which he liked very much. so the story goes, he decided that he would carry a carrot in his pocket whenever he went out and after every sip of champagne, to balance the acidity, he would take a bite off the carrot to keep his fresh breath! hope my friend’s story is accurate, i love it too much to be disappointed. by pp’
due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current market conditions, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off. we apologize for the inconvenience. by dd
(text via art newspaper) Lawyers for Richard Prince and his dealer Larry Gagosian have responded to a copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by French photographer Patrick Cariou, vigorously arguing that Prince’s appropriation of Cariou’s photographs of Rastafarians for a recent series of paintings is protected under the US doctrine of “fair use”. The suit, filed in New York after Gagosian displayed the paintings in a show titled “Canal Zone” (8 November-20 December 2008), alleges that the defendants made unauthorised use of images from Cariou’s 2000 book Yes Rasta, an ethnographic survey of Rastafarian culture that the photographer assembled during a decade of research in the mountains of Jamaica. The Rizzoli publishing house, which co-produced the “Canal Zone” catalogue and was also named in the suit, filed a response denying that it distributes the book and claiming indemnity.
reworked image from the richard prince show
Cariou’s lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages as well as the “impounding, destruction, or other disposition” of all 22 paintings in the series—which combines the Rastafarian images with pornography and expressionistic brushwork—as well as all unsold catalogues and preparatory materials. In their answer to Cariou’s suit, Gagosian’s lawyers assert that Prince’s incorporation of the photographs is allowable under fair use, which permits the limited reproduction of copyright material for creative purposes. “Cariou’s copyrighted works,” the response states, “are factually based in that they are real-life photographs of Rastafarians as they appear in their native environments, whereas the works of art by Prince utilise small portions of the photographs, together with other images and media, to create a new and unique work which comments upon certain aspects of culture.” Gagosian’s filing further claims that “the creation and exhibition of Prince’s works was not commercially exploitative, was justified with a genuine creative rationale, and was done without bad faith”.
cariou’s vs. prince’s
In his response, Prince, a renowned appropriation artist who frequently uses others’ imagery in his work, argued that the photographs in Yes Rasta are not “‘strikingly original’ or ‘distinctive’ in nature”, and that his “transformative” uses of the photographs were “done in good faith and reflect established artistic practices”. Prince’s answer furthermore stated that his appropriation, which he claims is sanctioned under fair use, “poses no harm to the value of such photographs and any market value relating to the photographs has… been enhanced rather than decreased”. Lawyers for Prince and Rizzoli declined to comment, and Gagosian’s representation did not return phone calls. Prince was sued in the 1980s for copyright infringement related to another photographer’s work; the lawsuit, lodged by Garry Gross, was reportedly settled out of court.
In a telephone conversation, Cariou, who is based in Paris, bridled at the claim that Prince only used a small portion of his Yes Rasta photographs. “In my lawyer’s opinion and others’ opinion, this case goes way beyond fair use,” he said. “They used 30 pictures of mine. If you’ve seen the ‘Canal Zone’ book, it starts with Rasta, it ends with Rasta—it is the centrality of it, there is no question.” According to Cariou, the suit has now advanced to the discovery phase, during which his lawyer will try to ascertain how much money the defendants earned from the paintings, among other matters. Gagosian’s filing states that eight paintings from the series were sold, and Cariou says they were priced between $1.5m and $3m each. To Cariou, the defendants’ response has been “extremely arrogant”, particularly the claim that his work is not distinctive or original.
“I laughed,” he said. “I could be a really bad photographer, but in that case why did you use 30 of my pictures?” Cariou says that he has already received a “settlement proposal” that he would consider for a “just” amount. “But it’s a big number we’re talking about,” he says.
what do you guys think? as far as myself, i’m already set. by pp’
1.
I don’t believe in playing around much with suit cuts. I like a fairly classic shape that gives a man strong shoulders, a fitted waist, and long legs. Classic simplicity always works.2.
Someone who is secure enough to be very present when relating to another person is sexy. In other words, a good listener always lands who he wants.3.
When mixing patterns, don’t think about it too much—just throw it together.
4.
I hate the trend of short suit jackets. When a man’s butt is showing below the bottom of his jacket, I think it makes him look like a female flight attendant from the back—not my idea of sexy.
5.
With jewelry, I actually like bracelets more than anything else, but they have to be small and simple. Cary Grant always wore a simple gold bracelet with his watch, and I think that was very chic.
6.
If you’re careful not to overuse Botox, then yes, why shouldn’t you use it? A little bit of it between the brows can make you look less stern and more approachable. Who needs to frown, anyway?
7.
Just like girls need to learn to be comfortable in heels before they go out in them for the first time, a man should try wearing a suit throughout a normal day. I do most things in a suit—and sometimes even in a tuxedo—and so I’m really comfortable in one.
8.
When it comes to grooming, keep earwax out of the ears and keep stray hairs and flakes of skin in check and you should be good to go. In the morning, I put ice cubes on my eyes and use lots of Visine.
9.
Time and silence are the most luxurious things today.
10.
There’s one indulgence every man should try in his lifetime: If you’re straight, sleep with a man at least once, and if you’re gay, don’t go through life without sleeping with a woman. either way, you might be surprised at how natural it will feel if you can get past the mind-fuck of stereotypes. in the end, it’s just another person that you are relating to in a physical way.
even if borrowed from “style.com”, looks better out of it’s context. by pp
Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant forthis world. A plague on both your houses! What? A dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat to scratcha man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a villain that fights by the book of arithmetic!Shakespeare (Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet)
TOBY DAMMITFellini’s Toby Dammit, a forty minute film made in 1968, is one of three short filmsadapted from stories by Edgar Allan Poe that were distributed together in Italy as TrePassi Nel Delirio, in France as Histories Extraordinaires, and in England and the U.S. asSpirits of the Dead. The other two short films are William Wilson and Metzengersteinadapted by Louis Malle and Roger Vadim respectively. Fellini’s film is an adaptation setin contemporary Rome of Poe’s Never Bet the Devil Your Head published in 1841. Poe’swork is a brief comic satire of the transcendentalist movements that were then popular inEurope and America. Fellini’s work takes two elements from Poe’s story: First the plotof a drunk who confronts a mysterious stranger on a bridge and bets him his head; theman fails to see that the stranger is the devil who subsequently wins the bet. SecondFellini takes the name Toby Dammit, Toby being an English slang term for ass in Poe’stime.1 In short Toby Dammit is a dammed ass.The film begins with a sudden shift from day to night. The opening hand held shot isof a romantic late afternoon sky that then abruptly cuts to a static night shot of the interiorof a jet’s cockpit. The only color in the following shot, and almost all subsequent shotsfor the next six minutes, will be monochrome, using red, yellow, blue and orange filters.On the soundtrack the sound of a jet is too prominent for an interior shot. In the plane’scockpit we see the landing lights of an airport at night directly behind the windshield as in a flight simulator. We hear the voice of Toby Dammit, a British actor played byTerence Stamp before we see him – his voice is decadent, laconic, resigned, exhausted:– The plane grew closer and closer to Rome. I knew she would be there waiting for mewith her white ball.The landing lights of the airport recede mechanically into blackness. We sense the forcedsimulation of motion that these devices are meant to convey rather than any sense ofactual speed. There is a sudden cut to a series of shots, some documentary and somecreated in the studio, that show the interior of an airport.
Each is shot using differentcolor filters and different camera movements that in the editing do not match – and it isclear that this is done intentionally – but to what end? We seem to have only fragmentsof scenes – nothing is complete. There are abrupt shifts in visual syntax using a varietyof cinematic techniques that refuse to cohere, that in fact contradict each other, as ifincompleteness itself were the key factor in organizing the film’s narration. For examplea brief shot of a black woman who acknowledges the camera as it moves past her seemsto be filmed using a conventional documentary form. That is, she is forced to step back tolet the camera past her, the background action is a real airport, and it is shot at eye level.But rather than the familiar hand held motions that would typically accompany such ashot Fellini uses a smooth dolly on tracks, which glides through the space, throwing intodoubt the sense that it is a documentary shot. Throughout the film one cinematicconvention cancels the effects of another by making the illusion it seeks to create null andvoid. In Toby Dammit the encyclopedic technical devices, the rapid shifts in cinematicconvention and the self consciously awkward camerawork and editing suggest that thereare a multiplicity of realities in unresolved conflict. The density of information eachshort scene contains makes it difficult to see where the scene will go from second tosecond. There seems to be a resistance on the part of this opening sequence to narrationitself. Fellini seems to have sought every possible stylistic convention available to him,yet meaning always seems consciously mediated by a cinematic technique that isinappropriate to the content. His deployment of oblique framings, complex intersectingplanes and ambiguous reflections reinforce and make very clear that we are seeing ahighly conscious visual strategy. Every time a scene is on the verge of clarification, or aresolving moment seems about to occur it is frustrated by a cut.At Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci Airport the full color spectrum returns as TobyDammit stumbles onto a bunch of flowers, suggesting both a wreath and a bouquet.Toby’s face is ashen, his matted hair is bleached blonde and he walks forward uncertainlyas if afraid to fall.
Strobe lights flash from paparazzi as they run for Toby who escapes tothe top a nearby escalator – strangely the paparazzi do not follow. Toby steps off into amezzanine alone where he mimes the gesture of taking someone by the hand. He askswith gravity to no one:-Why did you come here?In conventional Hollywood films such as The Cell the multiplicity of contradictorystyles, the purposely exotic imagery and the manic shifts in tone are meant to beinterpreted as mimicking a mind in the process of disintegration – that is – one that is nolonger able to distinguish between perception, memory and imagination. The collageeffects aesthetically represent the essence of this confusion and allow us to understand itscause if we examine the meaning (usually Freudian) of the images. In a more complexwork such as Bergman’s Persona the same is true but the relation of “normal” to “sick” isconsciously thrown into doubt because Bergman asks questions regarding the nature ofidentity rather than illustrating “madness”. In conventional Hollywood films the pastdetermines the present and the future in a systematic way. That is something that isforeign to Fellini; his sense of delight in the chaos of the present moment allows at leastfor the possibility of something new and unforeseen to occur that is not historicallydetermined. For Fellini collage effects do not mimic the mind only, but rather the frictionbetween the mind and a physical reality that resists summarizing truths. Within a singleimage we find essentialist metaphors (such as a flock of sheep in a cul-de-sac)whichdirect our attention to symbolic motifs, yet these elements constitute only part of thecontent of the image. These metaphors are forced to exist in a reality that is overfull ofvisual information, interruptions, delays; a world of complexity and randomness thatremains unresolved and without essential meaning.
These fragmented partial viewsconsist of unfinished actions and uncertain conclusions. The narrative that they embodyis episodic, not as in Bergman, tragic. In Fellini we experience a world of faces, voicesgestures, all moving in and out of the frame, all with their own unique characteristics.There seems to be no place in such a world for essences but only for the temporalconfusion and the spatial mess of provisional truths. The confusion and the mess are infact what the film is partially about. From realist filmmakers such as Roberto Rosselliniand Victoria DeSica Fellini learned what Martin Scorcesse insightfully refers to as a“Franciscan” respect for the world of physical reality. Realists as different intemperament as Jean Renoir and John Cassavetes have tremendous respect, first, for theworld of the senses, of the body, of expression, of action; and secondly, for the socialcontext that a particular individual is in. But Fellini is not a realist – rather he delays ouressentialist reading of his work by using realism and he does the same to a realist readingby using luscious symbolic references and theatrically comic digressions often within thesame frame. In short what we have here is a cinema of paradoxIn an alcoholic stupor Toby Dammit rides in a limousine taking him from the airportto Rome; he sits between a priest, who is the producer of the film Toby will make and awoman who is his translator and explains the film he is to make in a humorouslymonotone voice:-This is to be the first Catholic Western. Man is given another chance at redemption asChrist comes back to earth as a cowboy. It will be done with the minimum of sets andshot like Pasolini…Toby lurches toward the producer not having heard a word and asks:-Where’s the Ferrari the production office promised me?Toby’s role as Christ in this intended Catholic Western (where Pasolini will be reduced toa style in the manner of advertising) is playfully subverted by having Toby’s only interestin the proceedings be a car. The central motifs of the Western: violence, men andlandscapes; the struggle of man against nature, of good against evil, of civilizationagainst anarchy, all play themselves out in the film we see but not as it was conceived bythe priest/producer. This is an inspired doubling of roles for he is both the intermediarybetween man, God and the financing of the film. His power is tangible – he rides inlimousines – yet Fellini goes to great lengths to show us this man as a modern buffoon, aswell fed and self obsessed as any rock star. His enthusiastic gestures as he pontificatesabout the film, the sweat running down his chubby face, his arrogant earthy laughter, allcomically undermine any possibility for transcendence which is presumably the point ofhis profession, and the theme of the Catholic Western they are to make. As in so much ofFellini’s work the face is more eloquent than the words that come from it, betraying thedelusions of the speaker by allowing us to see what lies underneath the effects and thefacade.
For example Zampano’s macho posing as a self-contained and freedom lovinggypsy in La Strada is betrayed by a face that is uncertain, hurt and lost. Gelsomina, hispartner, enjoys posing as a worldly artiste to small town workers, but unlike Zampano shedoes not take the posing seriously. Fellini superbly conveys this delicate balancebetween shifting identities, between interior and exterior, often to create an extraordinarysense of the comic and the tragic simultaneously.Another abrupt cut takes us to the interior of a television studio where the cannedreactions of a simulated audience are controlled by a television director. Toby sitsuneasily between a massive black and white photographic collage of himself that servesas a backdrop and the television camera, which hydraulically glides around the room witha comically sovereign power. The pixie announcer crawls along the floor on all fours, byToby’s feet, out of camera range. Arriving at her proper place she begins to contort herface wildly in order to exercise her facial muscles before going on camera. On cue (anapplause track) she announces Toby to the simulated audience as a great Shakespeareanactor. She asks him:-Do you believe in God?-No.-And in the devil?-In the devil yes.-Can you tell us what he looks like?We cut to a simultaneous track and zoom, which occur at different rhythms creating avery awkward movement, of a little girl holding a white ball. The soundtrack is turnedoff, isolating this image from the rest of the film. Her face is theatrically painted withwhite make-up and there is a very bright spotlight that shines directly on her eyes makingthem appear bloodshot. She wears lipstick and her face suggests an adult sense ofcorruption. Her meticulous Victorian clothes come from Poe’s time and suggest theduality of innocence and madness that is found in the Gothic sensibility of that time. Hermake-up and the malevolent expression on her face come from the iconography ofRomantic painting depicting evil incarnate in human form: Fuseli, Bocklin and Goya allhave done versions of malevolence and death personified by a specter. Because of theintense light and the seamless background it is clear that she is in a studio interior, yet inthe following medium shot we see that she is standing in the lobby of the airport we sawearlier- now strangely deserted. The white ball bounces the wrong way on the escalatorin slow motion. At the top of the escalator, as in the beginning of the film, is Toby shotfrom below through an orange filter. We see him bowing to her in acknowledgment, thebow of a Restoration dandy -it is a formal gesture of greeting a familiar nemesis.-To me she looks like a little girl.There is simulated laughter and applause. Toby turns his back to the television cameraand the photographic collage of him has been removed to reveal the stage for acommercial. It is the set of a modern kitchen where there is a model wearing an apronand holding a mop as if to clean a perfectly polished floor. Nino Rota brilliantly mimicsthe banal happy music of a commercial as she turns her head mechanically towards Tobywho whispers to her:-Will you marry me?There is a reaction close-up of the model who is now a mannequin that begins to rotate inplace anticipating the doll in Casanova. The sexualized doll was first seen as a subject offiction in The Sandman written by Poe’s contemporary E.T.A. Hoffman.
This short storyfeatures a female automaton that sometime later became Freud’s first example of “theuncanny”, which he defined as “the name for everything that ought to have remainedsecret and hidden but has come to light”. In the 1920’s The Sandman inspired variousfilmmakers, writers and artists to deal with that aspect of the story that centers on themechanized sexuality of the automaton. This was a way to articulate the dysfunctionalsexuality that seemed contiguous to the speed and corruption of contemporarymetropolitan life. Among the most brilliant examples are Fritz Lang’s Metropolis andGeorge Grosz’s drawings of prostitutes as mechanized dolls. Surrealist artists and writerswere also influenced in the 1930’s, when the mannequin (suggestively dressed and posedto presumably shock the middle classes) became a required motif in Surrealistexpositions. Of more lasting interest are Andre Breton’s Nadja, and Hans Bellmer’stinted black and white photographs of doll parts in various poses suggesting a macabresexuality.“I want to make order – I want to clean. ” says Claudia in 8 1/2. In Toby Dammit, sixyears after that film, this domestic sensibility has a different meaning. It is as if Felliniwished to perform a taxidermy on the previous character and place it in a televisionstudio to sell soap, to show this image debased and corrupt, but with its archetypal powerstill mysterious and intact. So much so that Toby asks the mannequin to marry him. Hisironic smile tells us that Toby is fully aware of his absurdly rhetorical question. It is atthat point that he turns away from both women, the television announcer in front of himand the mannequin behind him, and whispers the most significant lines in the film tohimself:-What a waste!The awards’ ceremony that follows is held in an artificial cavern that seems to serve asa night- club, a fashion runway, and a theater. Toby is led to a waiting area and made tosit; when he asks for a drink he is told “no” with a disapproving parental shrug. Toby istreated as if he were a child throughout the film because despite Toby’s associations withdrinking, speed and abandon he is essentially a passive character. He slouches like abored adolescent in the limousine while the realities of the city pass before him; he sits inthe television station answering questions like a spoiled child, at one point sticking histongue out at his interviewer; he passes the award’s ceremony in an alcoholic haze,sleeping in his chair. Toby Dammit’s character is further revealed in T.S. Eliot’s study ofPoe that defines him as “irresponsible and immature…with the intellect of a highly giftedyoung person before puberty.
All of his ideas seem to be entertained rather thanbelieved.”2 As Ray Charles’ Ruby plays on the soundtrack a beautiful woman comes andsits at Toby’s side whispering:-I am the one you have always been waiting for…we shall have a perfect lifetogether…you will never be alone again.The band strikes up an uplifting introduction number as a harsh white spotlight findsToby slumped sleeping in his chair, suggesting that the woman was a dream. He gets upand forces a grotesque smile to the cameras and the fans as he stumbles to the stage. Anannouncer announces:-Toby Dammit! Not only a great star but a great actor!Everyone kisses him to bits. From loud applause there is absolute silence suggesting theaudience is simulated, yet we see them, silhouetted figures in the midst of smoke thatseems to hang in the air. Toby recites from McBeth:-A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. Itis a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury…He begins to babble clutching the microphone stand for support, significantly forgettingthe end of the line: “signifying nothing.” Toby runs from the smoky award ceremony tothe foggy street as a mysterious figure appears with the keys to a gold Ferrari. Tobyjumps into the topless car and drives off madly into the night. The streets of Romebecome a labyrinth – one of Dante’s rings – blurred by speed and Toby, exhilarated by it,comes to resemble the middle aged Poe. As the lights reflected on the narrow windshieldspin by the car bounces in place like a toy, and Toby’s flying hair and furious shiftingbecome a comedy of simulated forward movement. There is a similar shot in StanleyKubrick’s A Clockwork Orange where the point of view shot from the car turns the frameinto a tunnel, into which one point perspective seems to recede endlessly into a Futuristdream of speed, power and freedom. But unlike Kubrick’s film – which openly delightsin the fantasy – this dream is shown to be a simulacrum. The shots of the car areobviously stationary because, despite the wind effects and the street-lights flashing by onthe windshield, the overall lighting remains static and consistent.
Another way that wenotice that the car is not moving is that the relationship of the camera and the car ishighly elaborate and precise: The camera delicately pans the metallic surface of theFerrari, gliding over its small curved windshield. It is as if one machine (the camera)were lovingly playing with another (the car) in a macabre dance. Once again Fellinievokes a cinematic convention (the freedom of speed and the open road) and proceeds tonegate it at the same time.As Toby drives around a fountain in the middle of a square the car’s headlightsilluminate a cardboard dog. Fellini shows much of the “reality” which Toby encounters,including people, to be props. Near a restaurant a waiter stands as if paralyzed with fearon the edge of the sidewalk. In a long shot we then see the Ferrari hit a mannequindressed as the waiter and speed off. Like the actress in the cleaning commercialtransformed into a mannequin the waiter becomes a life size cut-out. The fact that Tobywants to “marry” the first and that he “kills” the second is significant. Unlike Toby, whois privileged, both the housewife and the waiter are subservient figures and Toby isshown in close-up looking at them before their transformation. These close-ups stronglysuggest that the metamorphosis from human to mannequins and cardboard cut-out thatpeople and animals undergo is a product of Toby’s imagination. Through Toby’s pointof view we repeatedly see adults as grotesque caricatures driven by vanity, stupidity andgreed. We are made to feel that these point of view shots are an honest assessment of thecontemporary world, not despite the theatrical distortions, but because of them, for it isonly then that we are able to see what lies underneath the surface of reality. Fellini in asense has it both ways. Toby’s erratic point-of-view is treated as both an alcoholicwithdrawal from a reality that is out of control, and as a justified indictment of a societythat is spectacularly ridiculous when we see what it prizes. Fellini started his career as acaricaturist and he uses that talent with a scathing directness that can be seen as a comicmoral critique along the lines of Petronius, Rabelais and Cervantes.The crash comes against a barricade of oil drums and construction equipment. Thereis a shot of a tire spinning that is self consciously awkward, accomplished as before, byzooming and tracking at different rhythms. Toby gets out of the car and starts to walkdown a modern highway in the middle of a deserted landscape as Nino Rota’s musicabruptly stops. There is a fog and behind the fog there are only trees and mountains. Tobykicks an empty oil drum that rolls into the chasm. After a few seconds we hear a verydistant crash at which point there is a close-up of Toby smiling. He looks up and sees thecollapsed bridge between layers of fog, and on the other side of the abyss he sees the littlegirl dancing with her white ball. He shouts:-I’m going to get across!Toby backs the car up to build up speed and with a mad laugh he screams off. We loosethe car in the fog but there is no sound of a crash. As the camera glides to the other sideof the chasm a white ball bounces in slow motion into the frame.
The little girl catchesthe ball and picks up Toby’s decapitated head from the ground. She smiles into thecamera as Nino Rota’s music returns to the soundtrack. We see the highway and thecollapsed bridge at dawn as the street-lights that recede into the horizon are turned off (aninversion of Antonioni’s The Eclipse).Toby Dammit reverses the Christ story by having Toby visited by the devil whobeckons him, literally from across a divide, into entering a space that is prohibited tomen. What is this space? He drives his Ferrari headlong into an abyss, yet the depth ofthis abyss is an imaginary space since we never actually see it. It remains shrouded indarkness and fog, a space without boundaries; its incommensurability expressing theimpossibility of apprehending all with the eye or of controlling all with the intellect. This“fall” is a version, at once Christian and Modern, of the mystery of original sin. Thevertigo this space creates is not caused by a fear of falling to a finite point that is fatal, butrather of falling interminably into an endless void. That is why, despite the fact that wehear the oil drum crash after a few seconds, we never hear the sound of the car crashing;it never finishes falling because the cosmic and the psychic collapse into this void, an“event horizon”. This abyss disappears literally into Nature; a Nature that remainsenigmatic, dangerous and ultimately unknowable. Hitchcock understood this impasseand linked it to memory and desire in Vertigo.
now that’s adorable! a pussy cat! and what’s that? a native american dream catcher? how thoughtful
and she smokes too? oh my? what a rebel…
ok, we can agree with this one, we approve of underarm hair for men and women.
sorry not that hot. you should see my butt…
oh look a black dong… now “that’s so awesome!“
well, well, well… well done guys! you know what, we don’t really have any problems with subversive imagery. as a matter of fact we generally like ’em. the problem arises when the work is created as a means-to-an-end. when the piece itself is meant to be shocking for no other reason that to say “looky here… i’m so shocking!!!”. and frankly miley cyrus, her music, her life, her appearance, her philosophy (not that she has one) is anything but shocking. she’s your average talent less ding-dong teenager who is desperate for fame and fortune, but with very little to offer or be noticed for (kim kardashian, lady gaga, and the rest of em fit right in line here). what’s disturbing with her (aside from the fact that cyrus is not really that hot) is that, she and say britney spears, had built a following of young girls in their days at disney, and whether they like it or not, they knowingly or unknowingly, are dragging these young directionless girls into this world and anesthetizing them the point were wearing black dong or shoving a baton in your mouth seems just “awesome” and nothing more than that, when in fact they are. i think sinead o’connor, miley’s ex-hero (?), would be quite proud. by xy