tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44881029320659421552024-03-04T21:45:42.069-08:00Grok Rok, Eating Thoughts and Spitting Out WordsEspo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-44559645172013146092013-05-22T10:13:00.001-07:002013-05-22T10:13:57.610-07:00Profile Draft #3: Louie's <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s 8:24 p.m. at Louie’s Trophy House on North Street and
the north side of Kalamazoo, and I’m waiting for Arrington De Dionyso, and his
band Malaikat dan Singa, amidst the stuffed Bison battling plasticized wolves
that give the bar its name. Taxidermied animals roam in wild, immobile packs
amidst local art on sale that have quasi-philosophical titles like “Letting Go”
($100) and “Where or When” ($100) which vary from blue black plaid paint blocks
to chicken-scratch on a barely brushed with pink canvas. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The playbill and the Facebook event advertised the show
starting at 8:30 p.m., but the factory-style and studio strip lighting illuminates
an empty laminate dance floor and opening band still in the process of warming
up. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“<i>Generals gathered in their masses!”</i> Ike Turner spits
out from behind his trap kit. Turner is getting to become a fogey in the music
scene; his bandmates are also Kalamazoo forevers. He’s a drummer that’s been
around for almost two decades in the Kalamazoo area, playing for local
punk-legends Minutes. He has a wee, golden haired daughter who usually
accompanies him to shows but she isn’t here tonight.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“But in live versions he changes it,” he announces to his
the rest of his current band, Brown Company, who are warming up their noise
jams by tweaking with theremins and their guitars’ distortion pedals.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Like, he says, witches and their asses or something like that,”
he continues. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bo Tyler boogies the sound-board operator dance back and
forth from the stage and his booth, gliding across the stage and spinning
around drum kits or keyboards to lay XLR cables or microphones. His real name
is Daniel, but everyone calls him Bo because phone calls coming for his father
got confusing. His new-haircut that looks like curly bird wings extending from
his horned rimmed, tortoise shell glasses bounces along as he zooms about. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I’m so fucking excited,” a tall black guy says as he
emerges from the kitchen. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I’m trying to get whatever energy I have left and I am
putting it into this,” Bo responds, pausing one moment from his dervish. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While Bo is ecstatic, I’m worried Malaikat Dan Singa, or
more specifically Arrington, isn’t going to show. I was supposed to meet De
Dionyso for an hour before the gig, something we had set-up almost on the first
fever night of spring, April 30th, though that was difficult on its own. It was
late, 11 p.m. and he was in Kansas City. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Getting ahold of Arrington is difficult. We had to prepare
everything via email beforehand because he was halfway through his tour from
Olympia, Washington which had started April 4th, and his phone didn’t have any
minutes, so I had to text him he could call me through a Google number which he
eventually emailed me the info for anyway. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I’m not sure I understand the question,” was repeated a few
times in response to yawns. I had no questions prepared and this was their only
break before heading to their next show early in the morning, so I recycled the
typical musician type things to say. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Um, what’s it like being on tour?”<br />
<br />
“It feels great, I love making music, love being on tour, love making art, with
anyone interested.” <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And stuff like that. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He tells me about the unusual places he’s played either with
his old band on K Records that brought him to notoriety, Old Time Relijun, or
his current project Malaikat dan Singa. Arrington has played anywhere from
concert halls, to living rooms, to castles, to boxing rings. One time he played
an 11 minute song in a train tunnel for French independent filmmaker Vincent
Moon’s series <i>Take Away Sessions. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
I was dozing off. Arrington’s voice is passive, calm, and pensive--Egyptian
cotton soaked in warm water, from all the matte tea he drinks. When not on
stage or in the recording booth, Arrington has a black, palm sized earthenware
bowl with a flat, metal straw that he carries around with him so he can rest
his voice. Indonesian throat singing requires a singer to oil up their throat
whenever it isn’t in use. He was wide awake, and his voice was putting me to
sleep. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I asked him about why he is so serious about his recording
process and the upcoming show in Kalamazoo.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Well, in recording you are capturing a single moment in
time. You are also creating something that can be listened to over and over
again--recording is an art form, performing is an art form, they are similar in
many regards, you know.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I perked up, adjusted the cell-phone and peeled it from my
hairy cheek, sweaty from the late night humidity and overused LCD screen. He
goes on and on, digressing about the nature, the philosophy of his performance.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Performance is about channeling spirit that is going into
filling up the space in the moment, hoping to reach the people in the audience:
dancing, moving, what have you. With the recording you want to create something
you are going to listen to over and over again.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I hear these things in my head, and maybe different things
I have heard over the year, reformulated in a different context. There is an
underlying communication that goes behind that sound.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
De Dionyso spoke kind of like—or at least I imagine like--his
parents, two urban ministers who were active in Spokane, Washington, “the
place that the David Lynch movie <i>Blue Velvet</i> is supposed to be about” he
mentioned. His words linger with authority and intelligence—with pensive pondering.
His parents “had lots of books at their house--on politics and religion
and art” His mother worked in the Peace Core in El Salvador, which the sort of
spacey staring at the clouds kind of character Arrington inhabits now seems to
have been birthed from. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Off stage he is more like a theologian though, stuck with
indifference and references cultural or philosophical meanderings--Carl Jung
and Walt Whitman casually popping in conversation as references to his music or
lifestyle. He went on. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Spokane tended to be monocultural, boring people who
weren’t really like pursuing things with their minds. It’d be weird if you ran
into anyone that knew who Jean Jacques Rousseau was, they’d be like ‘Jean
Jacques Rousseau was, that’s like communist stuff, right?’” Spoken is where
Arrington is from. It’s like Spokane packed up the little boy Arrington into
too small a box, and once someone cranks him up for conversation this musician,
artists, throat singer, intellectual pops out forever, and goes on and on and
on...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“It’s this sort of like, this, uncontrollable joy of being
alive, being a spirit that lives inside a body and celebrating that,
that...immense joy and terror that is all wrapped up into that thing we call
life. And singing about that can be fun. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I like it to be as fun to watch as it is to listen to, but
if it is too bright people feel too self-conscious.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Anytime is a good time to dance.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I dunno.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Our conversation fizzles out as it approaches midnight and we make plans to go
out for beers and a tour of Kalamazoo's foodstuffs before his show next Sunday,
May 5th.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I actually listen to some of his music--and that video by
Vincent Moon he mentioned. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ever heard a frog mixed with a jaguar? I haven’t. I mean,
that’s the closest comparison to anything I’ve heard. That isn’t meaning to
exoticize the Indonesian language, but this impossible noise emanating in equal
portions from this vibrating section of his neck and his fiercely white hot
boiling eyeballs that glow and stare out forever like a pin light through a
cave. His robes and scarves of varying hues of beige, gold, red accentuate his
jerky motions--but never distract from the eyes. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Five days later, back at the show, I now understand Bo's
enthusiasm, but it only causes me to twitch as the clock keeps ticking away and
the floor remains empty save for two middle aged flies who buzzed in from the
bar with their drinks to walk out to the smoking porch beyond the stage.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I check my phone: it’s closer to 9 p.m., and my only
company is the cheetah print, the dead wolves, and Bo. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sean Hartman, a blonde-headed, grizzly bear sort of bearded
guy with the demeanor of the stuffed animal walks in. Sean is in the second
opening band for the night—still managing to play with Forget the Times even
with his newborn’s birth---Eloise Coltrane Hartman---just over a month ago. He
ushers in a man with patterned robes and two grunge punks that look like they
came straight out of a wet Seattle basement from the 90’s. Arrington is here
with his back-up band and the story—and the show---can start. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Arrington, when he isn’t playing, spends most of his time
outside. He is skipping out on the openers and the patio of smokers in favor of
a log in the parking lot under the orange streetlight that gives him feral
stripes that run shadows through his beard and down his cream, gold, and red
combination of suit jacket, hoodie, and tumbles of clothe that comprise his
outfit. Arrington mumbles words at the still setting sun—late summer skies full
of miasmatic purples and toxic blues. Silver rimmed glasses sharpen clouded
eyes slanted slightly shut from staring at yellow lines repeating on a black
road for the two-hundred or so miles between Kalamazoo and Chicago. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We talk, and then go inside for the end of Sean’s set. <br />
<br />
“Get ready for Maalikat Dan Singa, because they are way better than us,” Sean
says. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The jaguar dances on the stage—that big cat prowling as it
snarls in some distant space case baritone. Arms become limbs that flail
listeners into mirroring his movements, devouring them with those king kat
eyes, yellow under the stage lights. The set ends somewhere at midnight and
everyone leaves. </div>
Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-56391151831780217222013-05-14T17:20:00.000-07:002013-05-14T17:20:46.077-07:00Profile Draft #2<b id="docs-internal-guid-530b2a76-a58d-619f-c559-4db66b77ee22" style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-530b2a76-a58d-619f-c559-4db66b77ee22" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s 8:24 p.m. at Louie’s Trophy House on North Street and the north side of Kalamazoo, and I’m waiting for Arrington De Dionyso, and his band Malaikat dan Singa, amidst the stuffed Bison battling plasticized wolves that give the bar its name. Taxidermied animals roam in wild, immobile packs amidst local art on sale that have quasi-philosophical titles like “Letting Go” ($100) and “Where or When” ($100) which vary from blue black plaid paint blocks to chicken-scratch on a barely brushed with pink canvas. </span></b></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-530b2a76-a58d-619f-c559-4db66b77ee22" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The playbill and the Facebook event advertised the show starting at 8:30 p.m., but the factory-style and studio strip lighting illuminates an empty laminate dance floor and opening band still in the process of warming up. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Generals gathered in their masses!”</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Ike Turner spits out from behind his trap kit. Turner is getting to become a fogey in the music scene; his bandmates are also Kalamazoo forevers. He’s a drummer that’s been around for almost two decades in the Kalamazoo area, playing for local punk-legends Minutes. He has a wee, golden haired daughter who usually accompanies him to shows but she isn’t here tonight.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But in live versions he changes it,” he announces to his the rest of his current band, Brown Company, who are warming up their noise jams by tweaking with theremins and their guitars’ distortion pedals.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Like, he says, witches and their asses or something like that,” he continues. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bo Tyler boogies the sound-board operator dance back and forth from the stage and his booth, gliding across the stage and spinning around drum kits or keyboards to lay XLR cables or microphones. His real name is Daniel, but everyone calls him Bo because phone calls coming for his father got confusing. His new-haircut that looks like curly bird wings extending from his horned rimmed, tortoise shell glasses bounces along as he zooms about. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m so fucking excited,” a tall black guy says as he emerges from the kitchen. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m trying to get whatever energy I have left and I am putting it into this,” Bo responds, pausing one moment from his dervish. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While Bo is ecstatic, I’m worried Malaikat Dan Singa, or more specifically Arrington, isn’t going to show. I was supposed to meet De Dionyso for an hour before the gig, something we had set-up almost on the first fever night of spring, May 30th, though that was difficult on its own. It was late, 11 p.m. and he was in Kansas City. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting ahold of Arrington is difficult. We had to prepare everything via email beforehand because he was halfway through his tour from Olympia, Washington which had started April 4th, and his phone didn’t have any minutes, so I had to text him he could call me through a Google number which he eventually emailed me the info for anyway. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m not sure I understand the question,” was repeated a few times in response to yawns. I had no questions prepared and this was their only break before heading to their next show early in the morning, so I recycled the typical musician type things to say. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Um, what’s it like being on tour?”<br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" />“It feels great, I love making music, love being on tour, love making art, with anyone interested.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And stuff like that. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He tells me about the unusual places he’s played either with his old band on K Records that brought him to notoriety, Old Time Relijun, or his current project Malaikat dan Singa. Arrington has played anywhere from concert halls, to living rooms, to castles, to boxing rings. One time he played an 11 minute song in a train tunnel for French independent filmmaker Vincent Moon’s series </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take Away Sessions. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" />I was dozing off. Arrington’s voice is passive, calm, and pensive--Egyptian cotton soaked in warm water, from all the matte tea he drinks. When not on stage or in the recording booth, Arrington has a black, palm sized earthenware bowl with a flat, metal straw that he carries around with him so he can rest his voice. Indonesian throat singing requires a singer to oil up their throat whenever it isn’t in use. He was wide awake, and his voice was putting me to sleep. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I asked him about why he is so serious about his recording process and the upcoming show in Kalamazoo.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well, in recording you are capturing a single moment in time. You are also creating something that can be listened to over and over again--recording is an art form, performing is an art form, they are similar in many regards, you know.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I perked up, adjusted the cell-phone and peeled it from my hairy cheek, sweaty from the late night humidity and overused LCD screen. He goes on and on, digressing about the nature, the philosophy of his performance.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Performance is about channeling spirit that is going into filling up the space in the moment, hoping to reach the people in the audience: dancing, moving, what have you. With the recording you want to create something you are going to listen to over and over again.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I hear these things in my head, and maybe different things I have heard over the year, reformulated in a different context. There is an underlying communication that goes behind that sound.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">De Dionyso spoke kind of like his parents, two urban ministers who were active in Spokane, Washington, “the place that the David Lynch movie </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blue Velvet</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is supposed to be about” he mentioned. His parents “had lots of books at their house--on politics and religion and art” His mother worked in the Peace Core in El Salvador, which the sort of spacey staring at the clouds kind of character Arrington inhabits now seems to have been birthed from. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Off stage he is more like a theologian though, pondering with indifference and references cultural or philosophical meanderings--Carl Jung and Walt Whitman casually popping in conversation as references to his music or lifestyle. He went on. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Spokane tended to be monocultural, boring people who weren’t really like pursuing things with their minds. It’d be weird if you ran into anyone that knew who Jean Jacques Rousseau was, they’d be like ‘Jean Jacques Rousseau was, that’s like communist stuff, right?’” Spoken is where Arrington is from. It’s like Spokane packed up the little boy Arrington into too small a box, and once someone cranks him up for conversation this musician, artists, throat singer, intellectual pops out forever, and goes on and on and on...</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9px; vertical-align: sub; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It’s this sort of like, this, uncontrollable joy of being alive, being a spirit that lives inside a body and celebrating that, that...immense joy and terror that is all wrapped up into that thing we call life. And singing about that can be fun. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I like it to be as fun to watch as it is to listen to, but if it is too bright people feel too self-conscious.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Anytime is a good time to dance.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I dunno.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" />Our conversation fizzles out as it approaches midnight and we make plans to go out for beers and a tour of Kalamazoo's foodstuffs before his show next Sunday, May 5th.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I actually listen to some of his music--and that video by Vincent Moon he mentioned. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ever heard a frog mixed with a jaguar? I haven’t. I mean, that’s the closest comparison to anything I’ve heard. That isn’t meaning to exoticize the Indonesian language, but this impossible noise emanating in equal portions from this vibrating section of his neck and his fiercely white hot boiling eyeballs that glow and stare out forever like a pin light through a cave. His robes and scarves of varying hues of beige, gold, red accentuate his jerky motions--but never distract from the eyes. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Five days later, back at the show, I now understand Bo's enthusiasm, but it only causes me to twitch as the clock keeps ticking away and the floor remains empty save for two middle aged flies who buzzed in from the bar with their drinks to walk out to the smoking porch beyond the stage.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I check my phone: it’s closer to 9 p.m., and my only company is the cheetah print, the dead wolves, and Bo. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
</b>Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-26053096501680660942013-05-06T14:22:00.000-07:002013-05-06T14:22:03.139-07:00Arrington de Dionyso Narrative Draft (Incomplete)<b id="docs-internal-guid-2c86b340-7bb1-36dd-04a7-1d12893e8b2a" style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-2c86b340-7bb1-36dd-04a7-1d12893e8b2a" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s 8:24 p.m. at Louie’s Trophy House on North Street and the north side of Kalamazoo, and I’m waiting for Arrington De Dionyso, and his band Malaikat dan Singa, amidst the stuffed Bison battling plasticized wolves that give the bar its name. Taxidermied animals roam in wild, immobile packs amidst local art on sale that have quasi-philosophical titles like “Letting Go” ($100) and “Where or When” ($100) which vary from blue black plaid paint blocks to chicken-scratch on a barely brushed with pink canvas. </span></b></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-2c86b340-7bb1-36dd-04a7-1d12893e8b2a" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The playbill and the Facebook event advertised the show starting at 8:30 p.m., but the factory-style and studio strip lighting illuminates an empty laminate dance floor and opening band still in the process of warming up. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Generals gathered in their masses!”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Ike Turner spits out from behind his trap kit. Turner is getting to become a fogey in the music scene; his bandmates are also Kalamazoo forevers. He’s a drummer that’s been around for almost two decades in the Kalamazoo area, playing for local punk-legends Minutes. He has a wee, golden haired daughter who usually accompanies him to shows but she isn’t here tonight.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But in live versions he changes it,” he announces to his the rest of his current band, Brown Company, who are warming up their noise jams by tweaking with theremins and their guitars’ distortion pedals.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Like, he says, witches and their asses or something like that,” he continues. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bo Tyler boogies the sound-board operator dance back and forth from the stage and his booth, gliding across the stage and spinning around drum kits or keyboards to lay XLR cables or microphones. His real name is Daniel, but everyone calls him Bo because phone calls coming for his father got confusing. His new-haircut that looks like curly bird wings extending from his horned rimmed, tortoise shell glasses bounces along as he zooms about. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m so fucking excited,” a tall black guy says as he emerges from the kitchen. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m trying to get whatever energy I have left and I am putting it into this,” Bo responds, pausing one moment from his dervish. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While Bo is ecstatic, I’m worried he isn’t going to show. I was supposed to meet De Dionyso for an hour before the gig, something we had set-up almost on the first fever night of spring, May 30th, though that was difficult on its own. It was late, 11 p.m. and he was in Kansas City. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting ahold of Arrington is difficult. We had to prepare everything via email beforehand because he was halfway through his tour from Olympia, Washington which had started April 4th, and his phone didn’t have any minutes, so I had to text him he could call me through a Google number which he eventually emailed me the info for anyway. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m not sure I understand the question,” was repeated a few times in response to yawns. I had no questions prepared and this was their only break before heading to their next show early in the morning, so I recycled the typical musician type things to say. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Um, what’s it like being on tour?”<br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" />“It feels great, I love making music, love being on tour, love making art, with anyone interested.” </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And stuff like that. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He tells me about the unusual places he’s played either with his old band on K Records that brought him to notoriety, Old Time Relijun, or his current project Malaikat dan Singa. Arrington has played anywhere from concert halls, to living rooms, to castles, to boxing rings. One time he played an 11 minute song in a train tunnel for French independent filmmaker Vincent Moon’s series </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take Away Sessions. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" />I was dozing off. Arrington’s voice is passive, calm, and pensive--Egyptian cotton soaked in warm water, from all the matte tea he drinks. When not on stage or in the recording booth, Arrington has a black, palm sized earthenware bowl with a flat, metal straw that he carries around with him so he can rest his voice. Indonesian throat singing requires a singer to oil up their throat whenever it isn’t in use. He was wide awake, and his voice was putting me to sleep. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I asked him about why he is so serious about his recording process and the upcoming show in Kalamazoo.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well, in recording you are capturing a single moment in time. You are also creating something that can be listened to over and over again--recording is an art form, performing is an art form, they are similar in many regards, you know.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I perked up, adjusted the cell-phone and peeled it from my hairy cheek, sweaty from the late night humidity and overused LCD screen. He goes on and on, digressing about the nature, the philosophy of his performance.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Performance is about channeling spirit that is going into filling up the space in the moment, hoping to reach the people in the audience: dancing, moving, what have you. With the recording you want to create something you are going to listen to over and over again.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I hear these things in my head, and maybe different things I have heard over the year, reformulated in a different context. There is an underlying communication that goes behind that sound.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It’s this sort of like, this, uncontrollable joy of being alive, being a spirit that lives inside a body and celebrating that, that...immense joy and terror that is all wrapped up into that thing we call life. And singing about that can be fun. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I like it to be as fun to watch as it is to listen to, but if it is too bright people feel too self-conscious.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Anytime is a good time to dance.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I dunno.”</span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our conversation fizzles out as it approaches midnight and we make plans to go out for beers and a tour of Kalamazoo's food stuffs before his show next Sunday, May 5th. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Five days later, back at the show, I understand Bo's enthusiasm, but it only causes me to twitch as the clock keeps ticking away and the floor remains empty save for two middle aged flies who buzzed in from the bar with their drinks to walk out to the smoking porch beyond the stage. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">*Note* The second half of this piece is not yet complete, as most everything happened last night. No spoilers allowed, but there will be more--I promise. My intended place of publication is Kalamazoolocalmusic.com. This is a sandpaper low grain draft. Please forgive me. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-56839715344085408762013-04-24T14:23:00.001-07:002013-04-24T14:23:37.248-07:00Complication: Zac Probes Non-fictionCall me unoriginal, but I hate being called unoriginal. Bending words on a computer screen to alleviate the experimental lusting within my strange and lewd cranial-scape is just too much fun. Necessary, would even be appropriate. Coloring pictures used to be all about staying within the lines, but all I want to do is see how fuzzy I can make them.<br /><br />Reading "Writing for Story," by Jon Franklin, topples over writer's blocks, kicks our motors into fifth-gear, all with that Dad voice full of salt-pepper and knowing. He's reassuring but is careful to not prop writer's up on watery legs. His building blocks are solid, clear, and defined. Note-cards, structure, laptop--go out, write, keep your nose to the ground.<br /><br />About half-way through the book, where he starts going on about stories involving Heroes, Dragons, and how sub focuses cannot occluded, my own focus waned. A little tick in the corner of my eye, twitching, twitching, nudged its way into the heart of the irreverent rebel--the royal ass-hole of experimentation--and would not shut itself up until I acknowledged the form Franklin was smoothly, casually introducing was too damn velvety, clean, bleached.<br /><br />Franklin isn't a bad guy, nor is the book bad either. But it doesn't resolve my desire to experiment. You have to know the rules to break them--yeah, I have heard it before (any bad writer has)--but I don't know if I want the Secret to be hard work.<br />
<br />Is that pessimistic of me? Or just lazy?<br /><br />*lights a cigarette, sips some coffee*<br /><br />Ugh.<br /><br /><br /><br />Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-7855145742928773042013-04-21T19:53:00.000-07:002013-04-21T19:53:01.204-07:00Canned Meat: So Does that Make Process Writing Silly Putty? Like those pieces of newspaper clips rubbed off onto gelatinous impermanence of warm-flesh like stretched rubber that smells of dust and tile shavings.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">"The
trial and mild inconvenience of being a privileged white male. The
first in a series. I am experiencing homelessness. "</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">I keep saying these words. Even as their impetus comes closer to a close, script keeps blossoming out its rusted soil. During a group discussion involving the paper, I realized how uncomfortable that statement (and others in my narrative post below) made readers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Instead of acquiescing those uncomfortable moments and themes, however, I wanted them bolstered. Enforced with more disgust and buttressed with distrust. I know someone, somewhere, said that is a bad idea. Maybe it is. I'll admit that I made the narrator less relatable, and perhaps that makes the piece harder to enter. Better yet, maybe it makes it easier to reject. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Rejection of a narrator would have been a great objective, though I am not sure if that is what I intended. Deliberate confusion of the reader, and provocation of their sensibilities intrigues the writer in me as much as it challenges the creator outside of me. The only thing connecting the words sometimes is the thread of incoherence, self-doubt, and slathered opacity which viciously defends the body from outside contaminants. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">See Sophism. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Um--does it re-create a stable, healthy, stale environment with a unstable, sickened, interesting environment? No, not necessarily. But I'd like to think that it challenges readers to combat truths they want to believe in others with the reality they face, and the ideas that nest themselves in the memetic gestures as familiar as a middle finger. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Meanwhile:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://marcusrubio.bandcamp.com/album/h-h">http://marcusrubio.bandcamp.com/album/h-h</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img alt="2011258602-1.jpg" src="webkit-fake-url://19EA783B-4E92-4DEC-9617-4D83F3BA4346/2011258602-1.jpg" /></span></div>
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Oh yeah, definitely the artsy type. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-65983837920005441602013-04-17T13:55:00.002-07:002013-04-17T13:55:30.408-07:00Second Verse, Same As The First. Final Draft On "Dependent On Independence" (Working Title)---Intended Publication: Modern Love<br />
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> The
trial and mild inconvenience of being a privileged white male. The
first in a series. I am experiencing homelessness.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> Heading
West on I-94, towards Chicago on a bus—not a Greyhound bus, so
excuse the apoetic tones—brings me back home. Closer to home,
anyway. My parent's home. One of the places I grew up, that sort f
thing. Rainbows on the ceiling of the college-brand bus stamp outward
in a swooped chevron gradient that reminisces with kitsch mariachi
gas-station portraits of the Virgin Guadalupe. The felt is very
dazzling. Damn pattern stares at back from the seat in front of me
like someone slapped a Lite-Brite onto Guillermo Gomez Pena's
mustache. I'd like to think he'd like that. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> Avoidance
forces eye-balls to dim and brains to start along that line of musty
dusty memories that shouldn't be that dank or undisturbed, hence the
whole avoidance thing. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> So
I'm avoiding the obvious question: Why are you without house and
home, but still able to type up, post, and edit these texts about
your homelessness? It doesn't seem authentically homeless. Perhaps
it's disrespecting the status, not giving the term its due. Although
there is probably someone on a pigeon-cluttered corner who could take
a dollar in their plastic, clinking McDonald's cup as a fine for the
artistic liberty. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> A
thousand dollars, that's how much it cost. Probably. The ASUS
Ultrabook with a thirtysecondstartup from slick slice of aluminum to
solid-state running machine was a gift from your father who is
currently spending his springs in a Dutch resort drinking mango
smoothies on the flour-textured beaches of Aruba. With his younger
girlfriend. Did I say your? </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Let's
get rid of introductions. <span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">It
starts with Abby, my girlfriend. No she didn’t kick me out. In fact
she and I will be coming on a year of consistent tolerance of each
other’s pizza toppings come April 28th, meaning that dating her for
a year has made me vegetarian and I can no longer enjoy pepperoni.
I’m assured that there is a meatless alternative. </span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> April
28</span></span><span style="color: black;"><sup><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">th</span></sup></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">
was incorrect, it was yesterday, April 16</span></span><span style="color: black;"><sup><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">th</span></sup></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">.
Still managed to find a gift though: some pink tailors measuring tape
from Meijer's. Over avocado sushi and moonstone razberry sake that
tasted like NyQuil, I told her to wrap it around her neck and measure
out the distance with two fingers for comfort. </span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> It's
cute 'cause it's for a necklace I plan on getting her. Handmade.
Really tight fitting. We're into that sort of thing. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> Abby
is a about year older than me with a few months in my favor. She is a
senior, which has allowed her to enjoy off-campus living from the
wee, prestigious liberal arts college we both attend. Typically you
aren’t allowed to leave until your senior year, as underclassman
are encouraged to focus on college community, which tacitly allows
upperclassman to follow the higher pursuits of illicit substance
abuse and undisturbed sexual activity. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> With
such benefits, we started living together almost a month into our
relationship. Not much discussion was needed. Quickly my dorm-room
was abandoned to the roommate who gave his grumbled consent to the
new living arrangement with something like a “I’ll be sure to
have sex with my girlfriend with this gift you have given me.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> Access
to the piles of stale, smoky clothing; moldy library of paperback
Hermann Hesse novels; and iron, Finnish steamer trunks that comprised
my material possessions, remained within my meager college dormroom
holdings. Moving out is really easy when you can leave all your crap
where you left it. But, due to student conduct laws and housing
bullshit, I was required to continue paying the Department of Student
Living three to four thousand dollars for what was effectively my
now-ex roommates single room “masturbatorium.” That's what he
called it, I promise. I wasn’t there so the accumulation of tissues
and ransacking of thirty dollar Target bowl chairs didn't irk me that
much. I got to live with my girlfriend while having a safe back-up
plan that only needed a bit of bleach to be as good as new. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> Until
a few weeks ago. Though this ASUS laptop is a mighty gift indeed,
luxury doesn’t come naturally to my divorced parents. With my
mother and stepfather working to pay off my (twin) step-sister’s
college bills, and a father prone to gallivanting across floral
Caribbean beaches with his girlfriend, myself developing a sense of
fiscal responsibility doesn’t seem too obtuse. Well, for me anyway.
His girlfriend is, like, ten-years younger than him too. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> It’s
not pleasant. Thinking about money doesn’t produce hives but I’d
like to think it agitates my self-diagnosed psoriasis. Or I hope that
is psoriasis. Either way it creates the nervous gut-busting grumble
of anxiousness and dependence on others when I realize I owe them. </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> So
when thinking about my tuition bill, and pondering on why six to
eight thousand dollars added to my student loans were being poured
into someone </span></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">else’s
</span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">sex
cave, it dawned on me like a TLC special that an easy way to save
money would be to just move stuff out of the dorm space. </span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> When
the official opportunity came to uncheck student living from my
tuition box, I took it. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> Whoa
there Zachary, that's a little abrupt. You moved out once, without
all your stuff, then at an undisclosed time presumably close to a
year later you did so again with your stuff. Moving in with your
girlfriend isn't homelessness. You had a dorm room, you chose to give
it up because of money. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> But
being a full time student, even with two part-time jobs, finding the
money and time to apartment hunt was difficult, and the soonest one I
could find was ready for move-in April 28th. That left me with a
month of homelessness. That's what happens on April 28</span></span><span style="color: black;"><sup><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">th</span></sup></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">,
every now and then I need a reminder. </span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> Here
is this petite, auburn-haired stage director and blacksmith with the
tendency to squeak like a woodland creature when tickled telling me
that she wants me to live with her. Really live with her this time—no
back-up plan, unmarried, and barely able to help out with utilities.
No questions asked. Any conversation went mostly like: “Are you
sure?” (because she knew what I was asking about), then “yes,”
then “Are you </span></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">sure?”
</span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">(read
those italics), then </span></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“yes.”
</span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Basically
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">paying
for my housing. Cook my meals. Comfort makes me uncomfortable. I owe
her.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> Admittedly
staying with Abby is nice, but acquiescing living space to her other
five housemates can be taxing. Not to say that they don’t deserve
the space, they pay rent and all, but they bump into my vintage ‘80’d
speakers and scoff at my collection of Beach Boys vinyl. One of them
talks to their television all day with the volume maxed out, like has
a conversation with the characters on screen, her inside voice just
as declarative. You can hear her and Shaggy talking about Scooby
snacks through the nimbus tones of Brian Wilson's “God Only Knows.”
My stuff shouldn’t be there, in </span></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">their
</span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">home.
I owe them. </span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> No,
I’m not technically homeless. I have loving, amiable, welcoming
girlfriend and friends, too, who are allowing me in their home with
no real escape plan. I’m stuck there. They know that and I know
that, and it doesn’t seem to cause them to break out in various
skin diseases but my fingers are itchy. Though Scooby-girl did yell
at me for being disrespectful and “inconsiderate of others sounds
and space” the other night. “Fuck you.” is what I want to say.
My gums are bleeding, even though I bought that gingivitis fighting
CrestMint to “help combat tartar build-up.” Ever notice that
logos, catch phrases, all these products, their names are always
forced together to make them sound more catchy? CrestMint, Mike&IKe.
Monstrous. I am burden, and it doesn’t matter if I am light or
heavy or catchy or easy or hard. I'm verbiage; dense, confusing, and
without a point. I'm pretty sure that makes me heavy, but Abby's
scale says I've been losing a pound or so a week. Better start with
the protein shakes come the new apartment—my new-roommate has a
hook-up with some calamine that he says will “make my boobs bigger
in no time.” </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> If
I want that independence: from finance, parents, school, people;
albeit for only two weeks, I have to depend on her. I hope she moves
in with me afterward—I can't cook and I don't have a bed-frame. She
hasn’t kicked me out, and I haven’t snuck any pork-roast into her
curries so hopefully that means we’re in the green in terms of
relationship status, but I’m in her hands for another two weeks.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> Next
time I'll fly, and maybe an A-listers' hirsute style will be baring
down on me from the in-flight commercials. Maybe that will make for a
better story. </span><br /><br />
</div>
<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-45685222461570060972013-04-15T18:55:00.004-07:002013-04-15T18:55:40.880-07:00Because I Am Silly...<span id="internal-source-marker_0.6670164596289396"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sometimes I forg</span>et to read the titles of articles, books, and short stories. It’s actually kind of weird for me because they are the most enjoyable part of any story to write: anything from obscure Stanley Kubrick references to multiple sentence long abstractions on the feeling of 95% cotton on a bearded face have all made it into my obnoxious headlines. </span></span><br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" /><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where am I getting with this? This is a necessary self-reminder, not a literary device--I ramble sometimes. I recently became engrossed in this article by Susan Orlean from a collection of literary journalism. She was writing about this wee 10-year old boy-- which was originally supposed to be this story about MaCaulay Culkin but she was super-sassy so that </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15.454545021057129px; line-height: 15.454545021057129px; white-space: pre-wrap;">doesn't</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> matter--generally covering the life of cooties and cartridge-based video games. </span></span><br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" /><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stirring me out of my general nostalgia was this quote: </span></span><br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" /><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">“..the collision in his mind of what he understands, what he hears, what he figures out, what popular culture pours into him, what he knows, what he pretends to know, and what he imagines, makes an interesting mess.”</span></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The agelessness of her analysis struck me as revelatory of what narrative journalism should aspire to become. It seemed so out of the blue, in the midst of Streetfighter II ramblings and elementary school drama, but still wildly appropriate for any age at any time--this young boy just happened to be more impressionable due to his place in time. So natural! So unique! So contemplative!</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then the natural progression of my pause brought my eyes to the tip-top of the page where the title poked itself into my cornea: “The American Man at Age Ten.” Oh, well duh. It is supposed to be removed from time. It is supposed to be about his natural progression. It is supposed to be a contemplation of the beginnings of the male psyche during one such specimen’s formative years. <br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" />Now that doesn’t devalue the quote, or the gentle progression towards the general critique that Orlean jumps from the many spring-boarding ‘whats’--it just felt intriguing to have the story told without the obligatory spoiler at the beginning. It isn’t a big spoiler, but just enough to take away my ignorant a-ha moment. Oh well. </span></div>
<div style="font-weight: bold;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-64022386902192202662013-04-10T14:05:00.001-07:002013-04-10T14:05:22.783-07:00Writing Process Stuff That I Should Have Done Earlier It is no secret to most that I am uncomfortable writing about myself. Or speaking about myself. In general. It makes me quick, irritable, and overall ornery. But mostly it just makes me rambly and boring. For this story, I made the conscious choice to turn myself into a character--or at least my narration of myself. It is also difficult creating dialogue, or "remembering" dialogue, when you don't know if their is any. My desire to entertain comes in direct conflict with my desire to be as accurate as possible. While I am sure there are ways around it, i.e. with the use of current discussions and anochronisms in the realm of the story, it was still one of my greater obstacles for writing the piece as a whole.<br /><br />Finding the right amount of personal information to give, when you know you are talking about someone that is at times lounging on the same Pikachu blanket as your are while writing on that laptop, was another struggle. This is also known as "I don't want to piss you off honey, because I generally enjoy our relationship and curry Thursdays." It's interesting how invasive we can be as journalists in other people's lives, but when it came to write about myself, I became much more conservative: hidden behind a character and delicately positioning my words as to not offend anyone but an grumbling Zac Clark Sr.Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-35658632316585067562013-04-08T14:22:00.002-07:002013-04-08T14:22:56.071-07:00Homeless In Kazoo: Dependently Independent <br />
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.03090703720226884" style="font-weight: normal;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The trial and mild inconvenience of being a privileged white male. The first in a series. I am experiencing homelessness. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Statements like that might lead to some rather inquisitive questions, like:</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, Zac, if you are homeless, how the hell are you accessing the interwebs to make such a statement?</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To which I’d gladly respond:</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why, I am using my ASUS Ultrabook with a touch-screen and SATA drive that allowed me to create the post from boot-up to word-processing program in less than 30 seconds. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alright, so the question is being slightly avoided with the shifting of shoulders and waving hand gesticulations, but it is a flushingly embarrassing question: Why are you without house and home yet provided with a $1000 dollar laptop by your father who is currently spending his springs in a Dutch resort drinking mango smoothies on the flour-textured beaches of Aruba?</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's explained by Abby, my girlfriend. No she didn’t kick me out--in fact she and I will be coming on a year of consistent tolerance of each other’s pizza toppings come April 28th, meaning that dating her for a year has made me vegetarian and I can no longer enjoy pepperoni. I’m assured that there is a meatless alternative.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She is a year older than me, and her being a senior and me being a junior, has allowed her to enjoy off-campus living from the wee, prestigious liberal arts college we both attend. Typically you aren’t allowed to leave until your senior year, as underclassman are encouraged to focus on college community, tacitly allowing upperclassman to follow the higher pursuits of illicit substance abuse and undisturbed sexual activity. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With such benefits, we started living together almost a month into our relationship. Quickly my dorm-room was abandoned to the roommate who gave his grumbled consent to the new living arrangement with something like a “I’ll be sure to have sex with my girlfriend with this gift you have given me.”</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But access to the piles of stale, smoky clothing; musty library of paperback Hermann Hesse novels; and iron, Finnish steamer trunks that comprised my material possessions, remained within my meagre college student powers. Due to student conduct laws and housing bullshit, I was required to continue paying the Department of Student Living $3000-$4000 dollars a quarter for a glorified storage space. My now-ex roommate referred his new single room as his “masturbatorium.” I wasn’t there so the accumulation of tissues and ransacking of $30 dollar Target bowl chairs didn't irk me that much. I got to live with my girlfriend while having a safe back-up plan that only needed a bit of bleach to be as good as new. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Until a few weeks ago. Thought this ASUS laptop is a mighty gift indeed, luxury doesn’t come naturally to my divorced parents. With my mother and stepfather working to pay off my step-sister’s college bills off, and a father prone to galavanting across floral Caribbean beaches with his girlfriend, myself developing a sense of fiscal responsibility doesn’t seem too obtuse. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s not pleasant. Thinking about money doesn’t produce hives but I’d like to think it agitates my self-diagnosed psoriasis. Or I hope that is psoriasis. Either way it creates the nervous gut-busting grumble of anxiousness and dependence on others when I realize I owe them. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So when thinking about my tuition bill, and how those tens of thousands of dollars added to my student loans are being poured into someone </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">else’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sex cave, it dawned on me like a TLC special that an easy way to save money would be to just move stuff out of the dorm space that was currently converted into my slap shack</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So when the official opportunity came to uncheck student living from my tuition box, I took it. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But being a full time student, even with two part-time jobs, finding the money and time to apartment search was difficult, and the soonest one I could find was ready for move-in April 28th. That left me with a month of homelessness.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So here is this petite, auburn-haired stage director and blacksmith with the tendency to squeak like a woodland creature when tickled telling me that she wants me to live with her. Really live with her this time--unmarried and barely able to help out with utilities. Basically paying for my housing. Cook me meals. Comfort makes me uncomfortable. I owe her.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Admittedly staying with Abby is nice, but acquiescing living space to her other five housemates can be taxing. Not to say that they don’t deserve the space, they pay rent and all, but they bump into my vintage ‘80’d speakers and scoff at my collection of Beach Boys vinyl. Though my stuff shouldn’t be there, in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">their </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">home. I owe them. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So no, I’m not technically homeless. I have loving, amiable, welcoming girlfriend and friends, too, who are allowing me in their home with no real escape plan. I’m stuck there. They know that and I know that, and it doesn’t seem to cause them to break out in various skin diseases but my fingers are itchy. Welcoming dependence, and realizing I don’t have a choice, changes the dynamic of Abby and I’s relationship. I am burden, and it doesn’t matter if I am light or heavy, </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She hasn’t kicked me out, and I haven’t snuck any pork-roast into her curries so hopefully that means we’re in the green in terms of relationship status, but I’m in her hands for another two weeks. But, if I want independence: from finance, parents, school; albeit for only two weeks, I have to depend on her. </span></b></div>
Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-25606554611482658392013-03-13T10:14:00.005-07:002013-03-13T10:14:59.656-07:00So Maybe I Need to Calm Down...<br />
<img alt="cut cable" src="http://icdn3.digitaltrends.com/image/coax_cable-500x292-c.jpg" /><br />
(courtesy digital trends)<br />
<br />
<br />
Having slowly--very slowly--narrowed down my topic, along with writing up a rather antogonistic rough draft, I looked around for something that fit the idea of cutting out cable and watching internet television. I also tried to talk about class, but felt that it needed a bit more of an accurate critical edge.<br /><br />http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/how-to-cancel-cable-and-get-tv-on-your-pc/<br />
<br />
The above article seemed to sum up my financial assertions with a touch more of forgiveness, and helped me realize I need some more nuance, and acceptence in my own writing or risk alienating more individuals rather than convincing them.<br />
<br />
Such is what I thought.Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-86295681765857478202013-03-01T12:57:00.001-08:002013-03-01T12:57:39.833-08:00One More Time: AbstractSo, trying it out, this abstract thing...yeah. <div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
#4 Join the Cult: Binge Watching vs. the Uplugged Premiere</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
House of Cards premiered last month, specifically, February 1st on Netflix. I didn't care. That isn't to say I had been looking forward to the show--in fact I have been looking for an excuse to watch the show for weeks now. But, I didn't really care about <i>when </i>it was coming out. I'd like to focus on the new trend of binge watching shows and why it is ultimately the way we as media consumers are all going to go.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To do this, I'd "binge-watch" House of Cards by watching at least three episodes a day to finish the 13 episode season. This would generally define what binge-watching and hopefully allow for a clear mind on what that experience is like for those unfamiliar---then I would be arguing as to why this is ultimately the most personal and customizable way to consume media while simultaneously being the most addictive. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Who: Er, House of Cards?</div>
<div>
What: Binge Watching on Digital Mediums (Netflix, Hulu, Tivo?)</div>
<div>
When: Now</div>
<div>
Where: My laptop</div>
<div>
Why: To Show the Effects of Binge Watching and Why It is Done</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-4511299046165928762013-02-27T13:04:00.002-08:002013-02-27T13:04:21.640-08:00Abstract(s)I have been struggling with identifying a topic that has a fresh impact on media that most people consume today. As a result, I have three luke-warm proposals I'd like to pose for peer pondering:<br />
<br />
#1 If You Can't Beat Them, Be Them:<br />
<br />
Network programming has traditionally carried the banner of decency for television watcherss around the U.S. Recently, violence, sex, and profanity---traditionally seen in cable television---have been showing-up with higher frequency in prime-time programming. These provocative shifts are paired with more subtle changes like shorter season length and longer running time, for network shows that mimic--or are increasingly similar to--cable television shows. Is there a demand for violence, sex, etc. on network television? Is it attempt to cash in on the "Golden Age" of cable television? Or is it just a ploy to draw an increasingly unplugged audience away from Netflix, Hulu, etc.?<br />
<br />
#2 Big Reach, Little Town:<br />
<br />
Digital music is accepted amongst the media moguls. It has even start turning a profit rather than costing execs. the millions they spend in piracy settlements. But while the industry becomes enamored with internet-savvy consumers, how do the up-and-comers, the not-yet-famous bands, utilize digital media kick music out of the garage and into customers/listeners buds? Has it been beneficial? Have they abandoned physical media altogether? Specifically, how have Kalamazoo bands--and other Michigan-based acts--utilized technology in the post-CD era?<br />
<br />
#3 That One Guy, Made-it-Big:<br />
<br />
Nathan K. is a name known well enough around the Kalamazoo bar scene--but his band Stepdad is know better around the U.S. than anywhere around here. How has this Michigan-born artist gone from the basement scene of Kalamazoo to national touring act, and what does it mean for other artists in an area qualified as one of the most musically metropolitan in Michigan?<br />
<br />
I'd love comments, critique, etc. on the ideas above. I have more contacts for the ones below, but there seems to be more promise and nuance in the top proposal. That being said, they may very-well all need a thorough run through the garbage disposal to find some nutritional substance among them. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-32282607577219232482013-02-26T13:25:00.001-08:002013-02-26T13:25:37.033-08:00Mr. McFarlane Goes To Washington, Brings Back First Lady, Oscars Get Dirty<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">
<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The goal of the 2013 Oscars seemed more shock than awe, and they didn’t come from the awards themselves. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alumni of the Golden-Statue Club were the predictable winners: Christoph Waltz won his second, Daniel Day Lewis his third, Ang Lee his second. Jennifer Lawrence won her first, and a bunch of technical awards went to <i>Life of Pi</i>. Anne Hathaway had a darling acceptance speech.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The only striking award was given to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Argo</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for best picture, but considering the Golden Globe hype and critical brouhaha after director Affleck’s Oscar-snub, it still didn’t warrant a spit-take. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead, host Seth McFarlane, Family Guy and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ted </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">creator, provided most of the eye-openers for the night.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the opening ceremony, Denzel Washington’s character from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Flight</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> made a guest appearance as a sock-puppet doing cocaine, which McFarlane assured viewers was okay because “Denzel was in all those Nutty Professor movies.”</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">William Shatner had to chide the television veteran, “you’re a white man in 2013; you can’t do black hand!”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No that’s not as bad as it gets,” McFarlane assured after a John Wilkes Booth joke.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The official theme of the night’s Oscars was “Music and FIlm,” celebrating the nostalgia of movie-musicals and film-scores, but McFarlane’s own theme prevailed: Oscar self-acknowledgment and derision. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Traditional, Oscar-typical musical performances of a (flat) Shirley Bassey performance of “Goldfinger” in celebration of James Bond turning 50 and a full-cast stage performance of “One Day More” from the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Les Miserables </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ran second banana to McFarlane’s two originals, “We Saw Your Boobs” and “Bless All The Losers” that remained the glaring highlights of the night. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jack Nicholson (accidently?) revealed why in his co-presentation with the awkwardly-telecasted First Lady about why they don’t have someone up front “messing around; making comments about rouge, chiffon, sequins and ringlets,” because that’s whole point--the Oscars escape reality, they don’t critique it. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But McFarlane’s commentary focused on the divide between the people that actually watch movies; audiences that laugh at the homophobic-racist-classist jokes be made throughout the evening, and the uplifting quality of films that Mrs. Obama claims “help us celebrate, broaden our minds, lift our spirits....no matter who we are, where we’re from, or who we love...” </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It seemed inappropriate fiction compared to the glamour and gold and whiteness of the celebration that included jokes about how you can only be Jewish in Hollywood and if musicals were gay enough, it was hard to see how accurate her words were. </span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">
<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">
<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">
<img alt="oscars 2013 seth macfarlane jennifer lawrence boobs 222" src="http://i.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tumblr_mir8huzrow1qhlcl5o1_500.gif" /></div>
Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-17481176522972056612013-02-23T17:02:00.003-08:002013-02-23T17:02:33.661-08:00Allen is Wilde-Man, B is for Bob<b id="internal-source-marker_0.1374327396042645" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Play, Maybe</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Allen stares at a brick wall. Maybe he is introspective--maybe he lost a job, a boyfriend, a scholarship, but none of that matters. Probably an art student, given his dress.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A: What are you really?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(He could be distraught. Maybe looking at a shard of mirror on the ground)</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A: I’ll ask again, who are you really?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B: That wasn’t what you asked--oh, there it is.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A: There what is?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B: My existence. Your examination of the vacuum has brought about a significant amount of presence onto my very being. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A: That is preposterous. Existence isn’t qualified by words on a page. If thoughts were to remain inside one's head it does not result in creative preponderance of material. Breathless, overwrought, pensive self-deliberation doesn’t lead one out of the darkness of zero. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B. Neither does fanciful prose or self-indulgent argumentative musings. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A: Are you challenging my intellectual---?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B: No, in fact I am not pointedly trying to be led on down a debate specifically structured to point out my fallacies and ineptitude for high-brow though, but rather a tilling of the low earth. Too often is the “high-tower of thought” been brought about as an erected monument for justification of creative thinking. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A: But this level of thinking, critical thinking, is far and beyond superior to any other method in its ability to provide analysis and further critique on works of art, literature, performance--even thought itself. Do you deny such basic presumptions? Human ability to defy and conflict is what makes discussion and progress possible? We are the fissures in the tectonic plates, bottomless gaps of knowledge possible only because of titanic, contrary forces. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B: No, to deny this would be silly. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A: For our discussion it’s important for you to disagree with me on principle, or submit to my valid thesis. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B: No, to accept that would be silly. And before you go on, I’ll tell you the reasoning for this paradox. I can create in-the-between. Those gaps are bottomless. But without conflict the cracks would still be there. It is the very notion that once there is thought there must be conflict that creates conflict. Contemporary is a term often used in tandem with competitor, but they mean very different things. Conflict can inspire, there is no argument against that, but haven’t we moved beyond the alchemic notion that every actions creates an opposite and equal reaction? The critic pulls, and according to you, the artist must be pulled with him--the artist, the creator. A blank canvas is nothing without the paint. Yet you created me--the entire notion was altogether in your head. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A: Some sort of impetus was required. Some sort of skill involved.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B: Ah, but was there? Or does that fact that it is difficult to form my words somehow lead you to believe that there is some great resource bundled away in your head? The resource is your head. The thought and senses that provide thought are enough to form something--even an argument--though no conflict is necessary. Difficulty and skill have nothing to do with an end result. Even a critic would say that the creator ‘knows neither the origin of his deeds nor their result,’ but it does not make them sad or dull, it merely speaks to their ability to create. The ability to critique is optional, not greater. Just because we have the ability to observe and become critical doesn’t always mean those observations are applicable.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A: That’s preposterous that you would invalidate my opinion on this matter--a figment cannot battle with it’s creator. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B: That’s true, it does seem presumptuous of me to know your intentions, and then try to convey them to some fictitious audience. Our even your emotions. Because it isn’t a conveyance, it is an expression of your impression, correct? But then where does the critic leave? The critic denies the reality of events, what an object really is, for their own vanity and consumption. Anything will serve the critic’s purpose. Then why use art? Why use anything? This implies that the critic’s feeling need no material. Then that leads to a disconnection between the critic and the medium they are observing that cannot be linked because of the isolated profundity. They exist on the same plane, but one necessary for the other or else like the chicken and the egg neither would begin. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A: I disagree wholeheartedly. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B: And yet we both exist. </span></b>Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-70245187318640780052013-02-20T08:16:00.000-08:002013-02-20T08:16:45.760-08:00For Frees? <b id="internal-source-marker_0.0381084643304348" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Frees?</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So a quick perusal of yesterday’s New York Times Arts Section will lead a few careful readers to the latest article on the <a href="http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/theater/upright-citizens-brigade-grows-by-not-paying-performers.html?_r=0" target="_blank">Upright Citizens Brigade</a>, a newish juggernaut in the comedy industry. Performers here have gone on, according to one commenter, to write or contribute to:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fallon (4 writers)</span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SNL (3 or 4 writers, 2 cast members [Kate and Bobby])</span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Colbert Report (2 writers)</span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parks and Rec (Aubrey Plaza, Amy Poehler)</span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Key and Peele (2 or 3 Writers)</span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every time you see a shot of the writer's room on 30 Rock- those are almost all UCB people.</span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BFF, Jeselnik Offensive, Brickleberry, The Daily Show.</span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rob Riggle, Donald Glover, Ben Schwartz, Ed Helms.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These people owe most of their success to UCB, or at least so says Illisdub from NYC. The reason for this rather detailed internet description, was because while at UCB, none of them got payed. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a growing era of intern exportation of labor, it becomes little irksome for a great deal of artistic comedic, performers, both doing stand-up and improv, to be treated like, well, as one hyperbolic commenter from California put it “slaves.” </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now glancing past the problematic discussions that arise from that sort of statement, it does seem that more often than not students are okay with the term. Instead of worrying, many laugh it off as just another stepping stone to real professional development. However, the performers at UCB individuals aren’t students like your college buddy stepping up for open mic night. Many of them are performers that are trying to make this their living. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But the UCB says it’s okay because “they don’t pay their performers in money.” More or less meaning they pay them in exposure and a decent probability for some high-totin’ position that will pay. Though until then, the thought is, well, you [artists] aren’t valuable enough to pay and not essential enough in society to get in a hub-ub about. If you like art, sucks to your asmar. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seems like a big difference from the age of guilds and whatnot where people were taken in and taken care of, all while learning a craft. Now it seems like we pay more--either in time or money--for exposure and education, than at any previous time I can recollect. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sure you can love it, but it feels kind of slimy to know that someone else is making a living off of you trying to make it to making a living. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Or maybe that’s just the English major in me. </span></b>Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-5155319313612582082013-02-19T21:22:00.003-08:002013-02-19T21:22:36.231-08:00What Did She Do? Pauline Kael, Annie Oakley, or really just someone who had an opinion<b id="internal-source-marker_0.8645621482282877" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pauline Kael chewed bubble-gum while giving lectures. Sass with authority.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is her confidence, her intellectual defiance that perplexes and invites pleasured readings. She is the Caesar to the intellectual majority, enticing and challenging. The review of “Hiroshima Mon Amour,” is superscripted and whipped-lashed back to what could be considered her peers “Excerpt From Fantasies Of The Arthouse Audience.” She becomes a plebeian philosopher who aims to defend the ‘hum-drum,’ ‘the pretty,’ and the ‘seductive.’ </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kael writes with the authority of someone who has been denied voice in the Curia for too long--the geek picked on in school all grown up and running the local bank. She quickly parcels out opinion in a clear fashion--an assertive fashion, and dares readers either to enjoy or deny her presumptions. And if that isn’t believable, by golly she’d say otherwise, and that’s that. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But her language and focus are out on the basketball court with the popular kids--prettiness and sex hold priority over everything else. Body parts are given precedence over all other on-screen entities in her film reviews akin to Ben Brantley’s lewd theatr quips. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She develops a sensuality that is unseen in normal reviews. Limbs are some fresco cobbled together to represent a sheen of sex present in all films--almost forcibly found. “Top Gun,” is a “homoerotic commercial” with fighter pilots with towels “hanging precariously from their waists.” “My Left Foot” is features a Christy Brown, or a Daniel Day-Lewis, whose “sexual seductiveness” is paired with “lolling head and slitted eyes.” Sexuality seems to be synonymous with engaging in Kael’s lexicon. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s reassuring about this is the fact that Kael’s seem to spend more time on the screen than on her notebook below, taking in and regurgitating scenes in a manner that feels like a completely autonomous story is being re-written for the reader. Kael is a storyteller rather than an accountant doling out advice on where best to spend one’s dollar. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Her own words and perplexities fill pages of her lengthy inner dialogue--only referencing characters in grand schemes of the movie as a whole, or going about comparing actors and pondering roles that could have been.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She is as much outside of the film as she is in. Quotes and scripts are often-times entirely ignored in favor of scene summary. Senses for Kael are not so much tools for detail but receptors for waves of pleasure and inundation. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-42375555956877635912013-02-13T08:10:00.004-08:002013-02-13T08:10:59.083-08:00So,I Dig It, But What Am I Supposed to Do With This?Many an individual will label me a hipster. Most of the time it is to my chagrine--recieiving snips due to my love for poofy, cotton Huxtable-sweaters or snorts at the dinky, thick framed Ray-Bans that crookedly adorn my face. I have to see and I have to stay warm.<br />
<br />
On the other-hand, when the title becomes a beautiful badge, is when comes to mean escape from identifiable labels: "What ARE you listening to?" friends will ask at the garbled noise-rock or other such internet music-oddity that comes oozing out of my speakers--most recently this happened with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7bKe_Zgk4o" target="_blank">Boards of Canada</a> videos that were playing on repeat while writing some mid-terms.<br />
<br />
I find a sense of pride in being able to expose myself--and others--to new or odd types of music that is simply difficult to find. But sometimes it becomes difficult to listen to, literally. Like when they come on cassette.<br />
<br />
Sean Hartman, a friend of mine, who was recently reviewed and interviewed in Kalamazoo College's Naked Music and Culture Magazine started his own record-and-tape label three years back with his fellow musician Joshua Tabbia. Yes, you read that right, <i>tape. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Sean and Josh also pride themselves on finding artists that simply don't recieve the same amount of attention as for-pay distribution companies (comapanies that make money off their distribution sales; Sean and Josh give all proceeds to the bands). They feature noise-artists, experimental drone groups from Europe, cool-dudes from California, and nifty poetry-electronica from New York. But Sean and Josh are just two buddies living in apartments in Chicago and Kalamazoo, they don't have the cash to go about making CD covers and professional-level labels.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="AD064_02" height="425" src="http://alreadydeadtapes.com/adt/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/AD064_02.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So instead they make these. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><div>
So they buy tapes wholesale off the internet, mostly from people selling them in bulk on ebay with Josh designing most of the labels himself--and by all means, they look great. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<img alt="AD045_02" height="424" src="http://alreadydeadtapes.com/adt/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/AD045_02.jpg" width="640" /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But hey, am I just supposed to <i>look </i>at these things? I still collect vinyl because I find them to be a reliable, sturdy medium of listening to music, and I enjoy the hiss crackle that comes along to sitting down and listening to an album. But much of that is old music, Fats Domino records and Maynard Ferguson collectors pieces. It's all stuff that is hard to find elsewhere, or simply sounds <i>too </i>different on CD or MP3, like it loses a bit of its soul if played by anything other than a tiny needle placed precariously on a sheet of plastic.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
However, I am guilty of nabbing a new vinyl now and then. But, I usually want a download code to justify being able to listen to these newer, easier to find albums in places other than my listening station at home. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To be fair, Already Dead Tapes and Records has just started providing download codes that come attached with their product--but only with the last two releases of 64. And they have always allowed consumers to listen to the MP3s of the albums via their <a href="http://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">bandcamp</a>, but they aren't for purchase or download. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So I absolutely dig being able to find these under-represented artists, that deserve exposure to out-of-niche music listeners, but I am not about to buy a tape rig or some car from the 1990s just so I can go listen to these $5 tapes. I love the art and absolutely adore the design mindset from Tabbia that seems fresh and slightly edgier than glossy, mainstream photoshopped nonsense, that also compliments and utilizes the format of the tapes to their fullest, but I have hard time justifying hanging vinyl on the wall when it is first and foremost supposed to be listened to let alone put some cassettes in a shadow box to frame for my friends. (Even though that sounds kinda cool.)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Maybe I am just a grumpy consumer, but hey, I want to buy these things, share 'em, spread 'em further than a lick of butter on toast--am I really just supposed to listen to the music on tape?<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="AD056_02" height="424" src="http://alreadydeadtapes.com/adt/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/AD056_02.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AD056---Waiting To Be Spoken To, by The Next Commuter. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="AD035_02" height="424" src="http://alreadydeadtapes.com/adt/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/AD035_02.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AD035---Macronesia, by King Necro.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /><br /></div>
Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-81271702051964480582013-02-11T10:53:00.001-08:002013-02-11T10:53:47.842-08:00Not Quite Stoked, But Mighty Pleasant<b id="internal-source-marker_0.7198201371356845" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Presented in the sunny, front-room of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, the “Stoked: Five Artists of Fire and Clay” pottery exhibition inhabits an emotive realm outside of its punny title of excitement and energy; instead settling somewhere outside the kiln into a calming array of jar, bowls and sculpture. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Educated at the Saint John’s University in Minnesota in 1976, and director of the school of pottery since 1980, Robert Bresnahan is mentor of the four former apprentices that comprise the other four “Stoked” artists. Himself having studied in Japan during his senior year, and three years after that, under the 13th generation scion of pottery-making Nakazato Takashi, Bresnahan’s work and teachings have “absorbed [the] Japanese culture’s emphasis on community and reliance on sustainable and renewable materials.” </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When provided with these broad criterion, the four former apprentices took such inspiration in forms of wildly amorphous shape and subject that range from simple pottery to symbolic sculpture. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Comprising the former, Samuel Johnson’s contributions to the exhibit are plain--everyday earthenware pots and bowls with imperfect, wobbly bodies coated in a smattered, almost sloppy, white slip glaze. He cultivates an appreciation of textures in minute shades of absent color, though superior strength in attention to the surface and exploration of patterns might go to his co-apprentice Kevin Flicker. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Flicker’s works also sit within the realm of simple--almost ancient, in the shape of the classic pottery that seems appropriate for the age of antiquity. Raised sections of delicate patterns--concentric circles and scale-like planes--- are scratched onto the body of pots, asking to be appraised by fingertips.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Works that play with the guidelines of Bresnahan’s axioms, however, are by apprentices Anne Meyer and Steven Earp, with Bresnahan’s work itself providing the rule. Bresnahan’s clay is shaped into tea-pots and serving bowls of Japanese influence, smooth bodies of red and brown adorned with hand-woven reed handles that create a root-like feel to his work--a tea set for the forest. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, Earp and Meyer explore these themes of “community” and “sustainability.” With intricate latticework mimicking the veins of plants, or his “Large Presentation Jar” (2009) adorned with introspective couplets “Of earth I am it is most true/ Disdain me not for so are you.” Meyer, the most diversified of the five, uses human figurines to display communal female emotion, such as “Lion” (2009), a nude, encroaching, enraged woman with arms outstretched and eyes focused on some individual about to strangle the viewer. </span></b>Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-73421950804237706482013-02-06T08:49:00.002-08:002013-02-06T08:49:57.771-08:00Sherlocked (Har Har Har)<b id="internal-source-marker_0.9807269428856671" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So the nut to crack is why this Sherlock and not any other? Or why </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">this Sherlock and every other (or a particular favorite). <br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" />Escaping the reality of Arthur Conan Doyle’s prolific nature is nigh impossible; from novel to graphic novel to stage to film to kid’s show (anyone remember “Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century?”), poor Sherlock, and buddy Watson, have been tossed around the realms of fiction more times than I care to count--or can count, for that matter. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where does this fit in with a review of “Sherlock Holmes: The Last Adventure”? Whether or not to compare the play to modern television adaptations of the detective, such as “Sherlock” or “Elementary,” I think is easier than saying whether or not it should be compared to television. While many comment that the stage’s proximity to television is only a “leap away,” usually a negative step--which way depends on the critic--a distinction needs to be made between Sherlock in New York or Watson in 21st century London. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Last Adventure simply doesn’t occur in either of those places. It is a classic representation, or traditional, much more in line with the old PBS Masterpiece Theatre pieces--”Hound of The Baskervilles” and the like--than anything else that comes to my memory. So keep Benedict Cumberbatch and Lucy Liu in your Netflix queue and out of the review. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This leads to required research to find out other stage productions Sherlock and his cast of witty characters have been written into, as those would be more apt comparisons. Or find television productions that took the old tale and transposed it. Preferably though, I’d want to stick to stage (unless there was absolutely nothing else available), as a rapid drop into a film vs. theatre debate could develop about a character who didn’t originate in either. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That being said, comfort can be found comparing it to the original textual stories it is based on--which can be assumed are “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “Reichenbach Falls.” The dry wit and humor of the books are more in line with the atmosphere of “The Final Adventure,” along with being a “fair” reference point for what the play was invoking. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With all that nastiness out of the way, the ability to start taking the play apart as a performance in its own right: at the Civic, for a Mid-West audience, professional standards as opposed to amateur (community) theatre, the blocking, the acting, the sometimes gorgeous lighting design with sometimes lackluster stage design, etc.More specifically: a critique is formed around whether or not the Sherlock of this production was re imagining the old tales or rehashing them. Was Lady Aderlee an accessory, love interest, or a strong female lead? Did her position on stage reinforce stereotypes, serve to separate her from the cast, or generally make here similar to the one other female character in primarily male-oriented show? How did the lighting, the letter-reading, serve to add or distract from the mystery? Hell, did the ensemble even sound British? </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These are the sort of questions I’d ask--after escaping the adaptation dilemma. </span></b>Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-64694484777048031132013-02-04T11:30:00.003-08:002013-02-04T11:30:44.299-08:00Something For Funsies--A Student Showcase<b id="internal-source-marker_0.1317429938353598" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Age doesn’t always translate to wisdom, prowess, or ability, and Saturday night’s Student Showcase, co-hosted by Naked Music Magazine, followed that ponderance strictly. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Start off with this modern addagge: a PA system, does not a venue make. Held in Kalamazoo College’s Hicks Banquet Hall, someone decided that stuffing five or so speakers in the back of the long, narrow room in front of a half-foot stage for oral presentation made for great acoustics.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve visited stuffy bars in my time, but at least I could hear most of the bands over the chit-chat of bar flies.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That venomously declared, the bands themselves were less poisonous--though of the five acts, most audience-members tributed their attention to the taco bar and the button-making table.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crammed on to the miniscule stage, a rocking-brass group opened the night to some 100 K -students, pulling off one of the more complex sets of the night. It was refreshing to see something different than the one-man, singer-songwriter or 4 piece garage rock performances that typically adorn open-mic-like events. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So hey, why not follow it up with a one-man, singer-songwriter thing.. .David Daily crooned his way through covers of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and other 60’s sweet-things that swooned some away from the snacks and crafts. Disappointing, however, was Daily’s aversion to crossing lines that caused intrigue. He was followed by a 5-piece rock set that “had a really Minnesota feel,” according to one other showgoer, but didn’t distinguish itself by doing much more than sit down occasionally to let their female vocalist sing with their lead guitar player. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thankfully, Andres Villafone and buddy Ken, played a duo-acoustic set that provided needed respite. The played a set of backgrounded, Spanish-inspired guitar ramblings and other twitching twiddles that kept many quiet with eyes glazed at the stage. Void of vocals, the two demonstrated talent without the apparently needed leap from someone-elses work. Basically it was pleasant to not hear a cover. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kingmedian (4-piece rock) closed. Declaring, which I say instead of ‘covering’ because their vocals followed an a-tonal trend, Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times,” “Weezer’s “El Scorcho” and other covers. While it was getting late into the 2-hour show, numbers dwindled and jaws remained clenched until the band navigated safely into their space-fuzz original songs “Hey Brother” and “Wear Another Skin.” </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Otherwise I agreed when host and band-member Colin Smith pleaded for someone to get lead singer Camden “off the mic.”</span></b>Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-7182825948613949742013-01-29T18:31:00.000-08:002013-01-29T18:38:23.159-08:00The Immaculate Imperfection of Mr. J.J. Abrams; or, Zac's Big Star Wars Post<b id="internal-source-marker_0.7580700321123004" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resist, I could not. Upon reading the recent hoopla regarding J.J. Abrams’ appointment to the directorial throne of Star Wars and noticing the (blasphemous) lack of related posts amongst my peers, I decided to bite. <br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" />So here is why J.J. Abrams might well be the best thing for the Star Wars franchise we all know and love.....And it’s those same things that make him the worst person for the Star Wars franchise we all know and love. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0xr8alP0Y1qcxtm5o1_500.gif" /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s make things clear: when the term “Star Wars we all know and love” pops up, it strikes the heartstrings of many different groups of audiences.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are those that have only seen the original three (Episodes IV, V, and VI); the new trilogy (Episodes I, II, and II); all six; and others who have seen none, instead growing up on the new series of television shows produced on cable television (Star Wars: The Clone Wars). And all have opinions about which iterations are acceptable, which adhere to the legacy, and what combination of the whole slew qualifies as“Star Wars.” </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That is an exasperating list of individuals who claim the title “Star Wars Fan,” to all of whom it means radically different things. And that isn’t even including the consumer that is inundated with the dozens, if not hundreds, of Star Wars related video games or other visceral, graphic media with the Lucas seal of approval.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then who exactly is J.J. Abrams talking about when he says “</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I want to do the fans proud” ?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The above J.J. quote was snatched from AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire, who humbly titled her article “</span><a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ABRAMS_STAR_WARS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">J.J. Abrams good fit for ‘Star Wars.’</span></a><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” Her rhetoric, summed up quickly, is that Abrams’ </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“sci-fi bona fides were already beyond reproach, and he solidified them with his reimagining of the 'Star Trek' franchise in 2009.” She also references</span><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> his indulgent homage to Steven Spielberg “Super 8,” as “full of childhood innocence and excitement of storytelling.” </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What worked for Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ was its nod to the older series while intentionally (forcingly, really) altering the timeline in order for the series to start-up again. It satisfied audiences that were familiar to the series, without creating a new television show, and introduced the series to a new audience. Kirk was young, lively, and sexually charged (played by the hot-it thing Chris Pine, in the midst of building a big-name reputation). Abram’s almost infamous lens flare worked as a harkening to the space opera epics the original franchise had both spawned and spawned out of. The reverence paid to the old-school vibe was returned two-fold by viewers.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But then it was the same thing that kept it from being a great movie. In trying to become its own film, ST, made a valiant effort of sheddings the reigns of the past with a fresh new cast, iconic in their own right (‘Heroes’’ Zachary Quinto, ‘Avatar’’s Zoe Saldana, ‘Shawn of the Dead’’s Simon Pegg, and John Cho of ‘Harold and Kumar’ fame) but floundered by plopping Leonard Nimoy in half-way through for a wonky-time-space plot shift that allowed everything to be back to abnormal. Not that Mr. Nimoy is a bad actor, and acknowledging the fact that the multiplicitous focus of the film is about Kirk “living up to his father’s legacy,” but it seemed like the cast was robbed of their independence in favor of recognizing die-hards and satisfying commercial ties.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back to Star Wars. Imagine if Abrams dragged some old footage of Alec Guinness to create a hologram showed up halfway through Episode VII, after a whole new set of characters needs to be established to found a new trilogy, and gives Luke’s son (or whoever has been effectively built up in their own right) a big ole plot device that more or less says “hey, you can never live up to me.”</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/e5e271c11b00cb6ed05d2312ba01ab8e/tumblr_mgdaecfcLF1qbymseo1_250.gif" /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Right? </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While that is probably taking a step too far, it would be absurd if the films were chained to their predecessors. It ends up in the same trap that what made I, II, and III hollow (to make my opinion’s clear) the fact that they were destined to end with IV. There was limited space to create a new trilogy with a legacy looming </span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in front of it</span><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This isn’t even acknowledging the problem with the conglomerate fanbase. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Or more importantly, the demographic of that fan-base.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars has evolved passed the heyday of Spielberg and Lucas’ classic films. It isn’t a commercial cow to be milked up to fill the bucket up with cash, if I may be so bold to say, but a full-blown media hub in its own right. It reaches out to groups besides old-school purists and children eager to gobble up space toys. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mary Hamilton’s well-thought article “</span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2013/jan/25/star-wars-old-republic-gay-planet"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars: The Old Republic, the gay planet and the problem of the straight male gaze”</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> posted in The Guardian focuses on a the issue of how same-sex relationships were ‘tacked-on’ in a high-profile, Star Wars Massively Multiplayer Game (MMO). In the most basic of descriptions, it describes how the developers of the game assumed the sexual orientation of their audience, assumed the anything of their audience, and tried to fix it later in the game by providing premium content for pay-to-play gamers. Some said that it was treating gays with irrelevance. Other gamers even went so far as to say the developers had “ruined Star Wars” by adding the same-sex content.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What all this exposition is trying to achieve is that the times have changed since the 70’s and 80’s when Lucas peered back to a galaxy far, far, away and provided a generation with a host of new imaginative inspirations, technologically and culturally. One of the earliest things that comes back to mind in ‘Star Trek’ is how Kirk bombastically flirts with every women he sees, be they alien or whathaveyou. He ogles them, be they green, black, or white. Abrams’ “Super 8” plodded along traditional lines by having the boys fight over the affection of one girl, who ended up pairing up with one of them.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This isn’t to say Abrams is ignorant to the times, or these demographics ,but he certainly isn’t paying much screen time to them. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars is a cultural phenomena that has reached multiple generation of people. Of races. Of sexualaties. And while Abrams can bring the ‘Old-School,’ or ‘Golden-Age’ sci-fi feel back into our hearts--bring back the Star Wars as we know and love-- he hasn’t shown much ability, or desire rather, to do much more than that. <br class="kix-line-break" /><br class="kix-line-break" />Abrams doesn’t look like the guy who is going to bring Star Wars--the mythos, the culture, the possibility-- to the 21st century.
<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6z1p2ECEU1qcqqcoo5_250.gif" /></span></b>Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-21403698776817035592013-01-27T18:10:00.002-08:002013-01-27T18:10:30.521-08:00Almost Like A Riches to Rags Story--Almost; ‘Queen of Versailles’ tells Two Tales<b id="internal-source-marker_0.4813580240588635" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Why are you in a bad mood?” Jackie Siegel, mother of seven, the titular subject of Lauren Greenfield’s 2011 film “Queen Of Versailles,” asks her husband David. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We peek through a crack in the door, every word quiet, yet altogether the only thing heard. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Maybe this month I won’t pay the electricity bill,” David Siegel, 74, quietly contemplates. He is unmoving on his throne of leather and paper bills. Jackie is hidden behind the door frame. “When they shut off the lights you’ll appreciate the electricity,” he growls. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Loud and audacious, but frighteningly calm, Greenfield’s documentary focuses on the family that built--or almost built--the largest house in the United States, the 90,00 square foot “Versailles” in Orlando, Florida. A film that inadvertently turned introspective on the immense financial collapse of Westgate Resorts owner and billionaire, “Kingmaker” David Siegel. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moments like the ones above are where “Queen” becomes frightening, but endearing. I remember when my grandfather would roar through my dad for leaving the lights on--something childishly frivolous to me at the time. While Jackie doesn’t react the same way, the weight of financial security weighs heavy on this once-opulent family. It's Greenfield portraying a family losing its glue. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s something that throbs the heart and sticks in the head regardless of the Siegel's financial fortune.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But while that remains quietly unnerving, the bombastic nature of the “Queen,” and her family, reign in tandem with their financial woes. “Queen” is loud because even though the film is set before and during the 2007--2011 financial crisis--a startling, upsetting time for many--Greenfield follows the Siegals from pinnacle to crash in the way a reality television show producer would: close-ups of gold-framed, personalized family portraits featuring David as a French king in his own imagined Versaille; interviews with the nannies separated from children for over 17 years and forced to don Rudolph costumes during a Christmas party. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bouncing from one Siegal to the next, another dramatic scene to another, filming feels like a cinematic episode of “The Real Housewives of Orlando.” Greenfield films plain faced, not obscuring with lense flares or rack focuses, choosing not to overlay a narration that would combat with the eccentricity of the Siegels’ own voices. So much so, that when David Siegal says the family has “hit a rough patch” that only the wow-factor of the Siegel-family lifestyle,</span></b><b id="internal-source-marker_0.4813580240588635" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> both before and after their crash,</span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> can speak on his behalf. </span></b><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b>
<img src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSImyR5htwS9COSLum__lSBr5Y-VDLb7nfQFzWSgpbj-BHDQoyolg" />Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-77612037480580512062013-01-20T22:26:00.001-08:002013-01-20T22:26:41.148-08:00What Are You Looking At? "Zero Dark Thirty" Strips the Viewer Bare<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b>
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.30659579345956445" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A gloss over of Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark-Thirty” resembles war movies of past, but underneath it is a well-constructed, re-education of the American Action Flick viewer. Such as near the climax, where silhouettes of Pakistani citizens encroach on two Navy S.E.A.L.’s. One orders the second to “tell them to get back,” while the other, notably ‘not-white’ S.E.A.L. translates through a megaphone. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Tell them to get back--or I’ll handle it,” the first repeats. The camera pans across the numerous, darkened crowds of Pakistanis, who could be wielding anything from pipes to 2x4s. A shaky, amateur-esque close-up of the second S.E.A.L.’s darting eyes and sweated brows. The early hours of the morning yield no light until we gaze through the night-vision of the first SEAL, assessing the “unknowns” gathering around the complex they themselves had just infiltrated.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, dropping the megaphone, the second soldier shouts, in English “go back, or they will kill you.” </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The crowds stop. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No swarms of Pakistanis like Somalis rush downed helicopter pilots, with stones and sticks. Instead, they are citizens gathered, concerned about the gunshots heard in their neighborhood. No gunning down of barbarous brown people by a single righteous white soldier. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mark Boal’s screenplay is full of moments like these, deftly defying traditional action axioms at the moment we expect things to play out differently. Controversially so, remaining neutral on the topic of torture. When a detained Ammar (Reda Kateb), shoulders spread, arms tied to the ceiling, forced to expose himself in front of newly introduced, up-and-coming intelligence agent, Maya (Jessica Chastain), begs for help, she responds with “only you can help yourself by telling the truth” and a stare. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Boal and Bigelow both torture an audience in a manner not far from the dog-collaring, waterboarding, noise bombardment, and shaming inflicted upon Ammar by Dan (Jason Clark) </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and Maya for the first 20 minutes of the film. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There isn’t an honorific nature to Maya, the female lead played calmly by Chastain who avoids becoming the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strong Female Lead. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a male-dominated cast, Chastain stands out as the “motherfucker that found him” and the one “left alive for a purpose” without being preachy, but dedicated; not anxious, but addicted to the hunt she started “right out of high school.” </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And Maya never quits the habit, instead asking if the viewer can in this invasive, cinematic lesson any film-goer should be shamed into seeing. </span></b><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></b><img height="403" src="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/zero-dark-thirty-2012-02-e1345055712771.jpg" width="640" /><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b>Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-34882305417592445412013-01-20T09:56:00.000-08:002013-01-20T09:57:52.715-08:00Anyone Up For Some Nonsense #1: Video Games As ArtI often make it known that Roger Ebert been a huge influence upon me and my writing. Before writing a review of film, or even if I want to get some semblance of a notion of a movie, I often try to seek out the words of wisdom of this Chicago-based critic. When my father decided he wanted to go see a movie he insisted, from my drooling childhood to my bearded semi-adulthood, that we never hear a word from critics or a gather a glimpse of a preview. Except when it came to the words of Roger Ebert.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So when Mr. Ebert posted his now infamous article "<a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/video_games_can_never_be_art.html" target="_blank">Video Game Can Never Be Art</a>" back in 2010, I was more than a little confused, mixed-up, amd didn't know what to think of this intellectual idol of mine. Even after Roger was inundated with responses of my fellow gamers (as that the contigent I identified with) and posted follow up apology/exasperation "<a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/07/okay_kids_play_on_my_lawn.html" target="_blank">Alright, Kids, Play On My Lawn</a>," I wasn't quite satisfied by the results. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Scrapping much of the argument posted by Ebert it aims at the most basic question of review and respect: is it art or entertainment? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That also leads into the problem of qualifying when something that entertains participators "transcends" or "evolves" into being art.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Can a medium be both? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The New York Times includes video-games in its prestigous "The Arts" section, as shown by Seth Schiesel's review of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/arts/28auto.html" target="_blank">Grand Theft Auto IV</a> here in full, but the BBC divides its coverage into "Entertainment and Arts," leaving ponderers in a bit of a confuzzled state. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Then again, there are writer's on the website Kotaku, dedicated to the video-game industry, who are criticized for being too academic or lofty for their reviews of the medium, like Patricia Hernandez's article on <a href="http://kotaku.com/5959849/call-of-duty-black-ops-ii-the-kotaku-review" target="_blank">Call of Duty: Black Ops II</a>, where commentors railed the article for "waxing lyrical on war in the modern age" and being "a bunch of brainy college nonsense garbage about war." Should we leave the medium alone in our methods of review? Should a game review be assessed first and foremost by it's technical components: graphics, controls, sound quality, etc.? Does that then reflect upon how other pieces of art are reviewed?<br />
<br />
To avoid being wishy-washy, I generally claim the stance of "games as art" and I also am guilty of filling up my articles with "college nonsense," or at least when I try to write I believe that every piece of media goes beyond its technical components, leading to an effect on our culture.<br />
<br />
I'd love the ability to mimic, or at least assess, writing on video-games the way that Ebert spoke about film throughout my life--but there is more pushback by the consumer and by the intellectual community than it seems helping the industry along for legitimization. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Gamer_49a3cc_287855.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And internet cats. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4488102932065942155.post-4072198282185876462013-01-14T16:13:00.000-08:002013-01-15T15:31:18.031-08:00An Irrelevant Look to the Golden Globes<br />
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.500212146434933" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Welcome to the Golden Globes, where everything is made-up and the awards don't matter.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4FhXxDftO83Cg6nfY2oePkmsS8DmDTi2W73e7hlEbK-55iM4YCyJSgugZfnWgp0apY7xHANWji1SdNp3qZAu2NTTzlDbb6YUK9wc7gcF1TAm7TFnZU8njOr6LnanQaNc-uomL-6mhxC0Z/s1600/quentin-tarantino-golden-globes-2013.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4FhXxDftO83Cg6nfY2oePkmsS8DmDTi2W73e7hlEbK-55iM4YCyJSgugZfnWgp0apY7xHANWji1SdNp3qZAu2NTTzlDbb6YUK9wc7gcF1TAm7TFnZU8njOr6LnanQaNc-uomL-6mhxC0Z/s320/quentin-tarantino-golden-globes-2013.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ha! You thought we were going to talk about the Golden Globe? <br />
No one cares about the Golden Globes. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Onto our real article. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ben Brantley’s <a href="http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/theater/reviews/picnic-at-american-airlines-theater.html?_r=0" target="_blank">theatre review</a> of “Picnic” by William Inge oozes style and panache.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But that’s really all that he oozes. Giving the reader a five-paragraph long description of a walking, hairless torso, perfectly chiseled as if it were a mobile “marble statue” is sure to tickle jollies, though we wanted something more than just the waist up. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr. Brantley wrote his biography backwards, if that says anything. Oh, and he is also <a href="http://theater.nytimes.com/ref/theater/BRANTLEY-BIO.html" target="_blank">single</a>. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brantley admits that “objectification is a major theme of ‘Picnic,’” which excuses his own ogling (he also pays dues to lead actress Maggie Grace’s “exquisitely shaped pair of legs” and her “not-so-bad face” if we are to be fair), however his analysis is only skin-deep.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Though dropping to slightly more serious tone to address the sexual themes of the play in the latter half of the article, highlighting “the role of prettiness as both a burden and an aspiration” as a major undertone to the play, it seems that his own ‘but’ only addresses the chemistry of the actors in the play. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Who is just ogling now, Brantley? </span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.500212146434933" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.500212146434933" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Co-written by Jon Husar and Zac Clark</i></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.500212146434933" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.500212146434933" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent;">
</div>
Espo Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08650297284581144462noreply@blogger.com2