Chazzbot II

Apr
26th

Fri

I don’t remember many of the details now. But that can happen to any memory, toxic or not. If you can remember anything, it’s already wrong. The image or event has changed, just as you have—minutely, chemically, through the passage of time between then and now. Something happens to you, and then it’s gone. It becomes a memory that becomes shrapnel. Shards of experience still hot with life singe the brain wherever they happen to get embedded. Sometimes I swear I can feel the precise location of my memories like warm, tingling splinters under my scalp. Pictures with no sound, feelings with no pictures, the lost and found, mostly lost.

— Domenica Ruta, With or Without You.

Apr
5th

Fri

Couple at Monument Valley, UT 1980
Roger Minick

Apr
3rd

Wed

[Elvis] was the only male performer I have ever seen to whom I responded sexually; it wasn’t real arousal, rather an erection of the heart. When I looked at him I went mad with desire and envy and worship and self-projection. I mean, Mick Jagger, whom I saw as far back as 1964 and twice in ‘65, never even came close.

— Lester Bangs, “Where Were You When Elvis Died?”, The Village Voice, 29 August 1977.

The history professor looked at his watch. Another minute had passed into his domain.

— John Sladek, Roderick, or The Education of a Young Machine

Mar
9th

Sat

Highlights from the December 1990 issue of Spin Magazine

“A five-hour drive north of San Francisco, among the California redwoods, is the coastal town of Eureka, the David Lynch-ville that Mike Patton calls home… ‘In Eureka,’ says Patton, ‘we drink a lot of coffee if we think there’s anything worth staying up for.’ Reading pornography is a major pastime, as is playing at the local water-treatment plant, jumping freight trains, and riding around town waving baseball bats at hippies.”

—Frank Owen, “Artists of the Year: Faith No More”

“Because I sit watching MTV practically every day, and I can see things like that Warrant video for ‘Cherry Pie.’ What an offensive video that is—a woman being hosed down, you know? And when the guy looks through the binoculars you can see her tits and her ass, you know? That’s quite offensive. Billy Idol, that ‘Rock the Cradle’ song, is really offensive. That Heart song [‘All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You’] is potentially a dangerous song, in that it could encourage young girls to go out hitchhiking and picking up strange men.”

—Sinead O’Connor

Ten Things That Made Lauren Spencer Happy in 1990, in No Particular Order

#5 Mother Love Bone. Sadly, much attention has been given to the band only since the death of lead singer Andrew Woods, but this Seattle band really were a motherlode of sound and fury. Here’s hoping the remaining members will carry on the tradition in form.

#6 Learning how to program a CD player. What can I say? I took my time on this one.

“The ephemeral nature of celebrity dictates a probable short shelf life for New Kids on the Block. Which is a shame, because it means we’ll have to deal soon with the inevitable splinter group/solo act phenomenon, whereby the aging Kids try to cash in on and remove the stigma of having been teen idols. I’m not sure the world is ready for Messrs. Knight, Wahlberg & Co. to try to prove they’ve been around the block.”

—Jim Greer, “Artists of the Year: New Kids on the Block”

(Also cited as Artists of the Year: Aerosmith, Digital Underground, M.C. Hammer)

Mar
4th

Mon

“Holding a printed catalogue, Luba Luft, wearing shiny tapered pants and an illuminated gold vestlike top, stood absorbed in the picture before her: a drawing of a young girl, hands clasped together, seated on the edge of a bed, an expression of bewildered wonder and new, groping awe imprinted on her face.

“‘Want me to buy it for you?’ Rick said to Luba Luft.”

—Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Feb
27th

Wed

Movies I Will Watch Anytime

A student asked me to list my favorite movies of all time. I ended up making a list of movies I will watch anytime and a list of movies I think everyone should see in their lifetime. Here is the first list, in no particular order (an asterisk indicates a movie that invariably evokes tears):

Close Encounters of the Third Kind*
The Empire Strikes Back
The Darjeeling Limited*
Henry V (Kenneth Branagh version)*
Chinatown
Apollo 13*
The Right Stuff*
2001: A Space Odyssey*

There are probably others, but these are the first that came to mind.

Feb
21st

Thu

American history reveals that periods of fundamental reform are typically triggered by one or more of the following: a major war; a large-scale shift from one industrial era to another; extreme levels of economic inequality; a dramatic change in the composition of the political parties. On the rare occasions when these forces coincide, they fundamentally transform society. That is what happened when Reconstruction coincided with the dawn of the first industrial revolution; it is also what happened when the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression coincided with the beginning of the second industrial revolution. All the requisite ingredients for change are now coming together again, at the onset of the post-industrial age. If patterns hold, our nation’s next major reinvention cannot be far away.

— Ted Halstead, “The American Paradox,” The Atlantic, Jan/Feb 2003.

Feb
10th

Sun

“With all she showed of herself, naked but for a cigarette, a black pocketbook, and high-heeled shoes as she was photographed hitchhiking on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, or displaying herself in all her black-leather predilections — which the home folks in Detroit, Brooklyn, Oakland, South Boston, South Philly, Pittsburgh, Omaha, and Butte were going to call dirty — still, with all we are offered of her fantasies, one basic fantasy is never expressed: There has not been a single photograph ever published of Madonna with her legs spread.

“Ah! She draws the line. We may have to redefine our media universe. Is this the last barricade left in our leached-out TV society? Can celebrities get away with everything except giving the public a look at their genitals? Yes, is the answer: Gods always keep one last refuge.”

Norman Mailer, “Like a Lady,” Esquire, August 1994.

Feb
8th

Fri

Edith, Hellrider, and Dadmonster pose for a photograph. In Botswana, heavy metal music has landed. Metal groups are now performing in nightclubs, concerts, festivals. The ranks of their fans have expanded dramatically. These fans wear black leather pants and jackets, studded belts, boots and cowboy hats. On their t-shirts stand out skulls, obscenities, historical covers of hard-rock groups popular in the seventies and eighties, such as Iron Maiden, Metallica, and AC/DC. They have created their own style, inspired by classic metal symbolism, but also borrowing heavily from the iconography of western films and the traditional rural world of Botswana. Their nicknames, Gunsmoke, Rockfather, Carrott Warmachine, Hellrider, Hardcore, Dignified Queen, may appear subversive and disturbing as their clothing, but they are peaceful and gentle. “We like to get dressed„ drink meet friends and feel free , this music is so powerful . We are lucky to live in a country tolerant and open” argues one of the leaders. A precious rarity for Africa. (© Daniele Tamagni, Italy, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)