UPDATE 2019: with new remastered version courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute.
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“Pablo Picasso” by Burning Sensations (1984)
Frank O’Hara reading from Lunch Poems
“He reads them exactly the way you imagine them, or even read them aloud yourself: conversational, matter-of-fact, and incidentally just touched with Boston. He’s who you’d cast to play him.”
reblogging parisreview
Crash
“We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind—mass merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the instant translation of science and technology into popular imagery, the increasing blurring and intermingling of identities within the realm of consumer goods, the preempting of any free or original imaginative response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel. For the writer in particular it is less and less necessary for him to invent the fictional content of his novel. The fiction is already there. The writer’s task is to invent the reality.”
RIP Brett Ewins
reblogging 2000adonline:
“We are very saddened to hear of the death of artist Brett Ewins.
“Throughout his years of working for 2000 AD, Brett was responsible for some truly unmissable art – from Judge Dredd and Anderson Psi Division to Rogue Trooper and his incredible work on Bad Company with Peter Milligan and Jim McCarthy.
“He was also a hugely influential figure in British comics thanks to his founding of Deadline with Steve Dillon in 1988, something that changed the face of the industry forever.
“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with Brett’s family and friends.”
Brett’s work had a huge influence on me in the way I saw comic story telling. I actually wrote an essay on this very issue containing ‘The Haunting of Sector House 9’ when I was studying.
Slaughterhouse Five
“There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.”
‘Soubour’ by Songhoy Blues (2013)
Top ten tracks from 2014
http://instagram.com/p/pKWpmYny13
This is what I listened to most last year according to LastFM, to which I collect/pump/scrobble most of what I listen to on various platforms, except the CD player in the car. But I only had a CD player in the car for the last two months of last year and then I mostly listen to books anyway.
I use Soundcloud, Youtube, Google Play, Whyd and Spotify. Stuff I purchase goes on Google Play.
Some of these are surprising to me, some of them I probably wouldn’t bother telling anyone they should listen to. But this is what the numbers say so I’m going with that.
There’s an honourable mention at sime point for “Blood in Gutters” by Brody Dalle, which I did drove around the North Somerset countryside howling to a lot, especially during difficult times later on.
Here is a link to a Whyd playlist with all these in, and a Spotify one too.
10. John Grant – GMF
So beautiful, and captures a certain point in one’s life so very precisely.
“You think I hate myself, but it’s you I hate
Because you have the nerve to make me feel.”
9. Dungen – Skit I Allt
Not sure where this came from (apart from Sweden of course). Something uplifting to start the day with? Who knows. It apparently translates as “Screw it All”.
8. Honeyblood – Choker
I’ve written about this one before, it really grabs you by the throat. Building up a list of two pieces that do not sound like two pieces.
7. WhoMadeWho – Space for Rent
Like a mild QOTSA (who are notably absent this year). I think I heard this on a radio show hosted by Josh Homme, so there you are. It’s also nice because the bass (which I play) is prominent.
6. Royal Blood – Little Monster
Royal Blood gets played in the office quite a lot these days, so it’s understandable this would end up on here. Also on the two piece list.
5. John Wizards – Muizenburg
A South African band (not person) formed in 2010. Falls into the category of Falling Down The Stairs Music. Very pleasant.
4. Ninian Hawick – Scottish Temple Stomp
Just the kind of all encompassing madness I favour in the middle of the afternoon. Lo-fi power pop band from the nineties, from the four track EP Steep Steps.
3. John Grant – Blackbelt
More John Grant being amazing. This would be my room song if I ever did X-factor.
“You are at the height of your game, aren’t you?
Would you not say that you agree, baby?
You got your grift all fine tuned and sparkling.
Yeah, you got your bored look all worked out.”
Special Mention: Brody Dalle – Blood in Gutters
See above. It’s telling of the kind of the year I have had that the two top tunes are super calming, but then there’s this.
2. Mulatu Astatke – Tezeta
Brings peace to the soul. The father of Ethio-Jazz. Especially good for driving in the city at night to. I challenge you to listen to and remain angry/sad for very long.
1. The Breeders – Off You
A remarkable song form a remarkable lady. Again heavy on the bass. It doesn’t get much better than this.
“I am the autumn in the scarlet, I am the make-up on your eyes”
Paul Thek: Notebooks
“Thek [was] an avid keeper of journals, producing over a hundred between 1969 and 1980. Complex and varied, the journals form an intimate and often intense portrait of an energetic mind. Most are written in ordinary school notebooks, with routine accounts of Thek’s days punctuated by emotionally raw passages of self-reflection, analysis of his closest (and, at times, most troubled) personal relationships, and as time progressed, evidence of a growing paranoia. In perfect script, he copied page after page of writings that he admired by Saint Augustine, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, William Blake, and others. Copying was clearly a meditation for him, a spiritual exercise and, as such, an antidote to anxiety and to what he knew was his own pettiness and anger. But the journals are full of moments of joyful exuberance and artistic bravura as well: celebrations of sex, silly word games, and a range of visual expression, from simple marks and comic sketches to intimate, exquisite watercolors of the sea.”
Paul Greer 