Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Frédéric Chaubin's subversive Soviet superstructures
In his book Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed,
Frédéric Chaubin documents 90 buildings in 14 former-USSR republics
belonging to what he calls the 'fourth age' of Soviet architecture.
They
reveal an unexpected rebirth of imagination, a burgeoning that took
place from 1970 until 1990 and in which, contrary to the 20s and 30s, no
'school' or main trend emerges.
These buildings represent a
chaotic impulse brought about by a decaying system. Their diversity
announces the end of the Soviet Union...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Watch Now: Velvet Underground, a Documentary
While it was originally broadcast back in 1986 for England’s The South Bank Show,
copies of this 52-minute Velvet Underground documentary have been hard
to come by, until now. Directed by Kim Evans and Mary Harron and
containing rare footage from avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas, this
mini-doc is a great way to kill an hour, even if you consider yourself
an expert on the Velvet Underground...
Sir George Shearing - Telegraph
George Albert Shearing was born on August 13 1919, the youngest among nine
children of a Battersea coalman. An inveterate punster, he sometimes
referred to his father as "Not the Cole Porter, but a coal
porter." His mother looked after her brood during the day and worked
cleaning trains at night...
Monday, February 14, 2011
5.
Class fenced but from the
upside only
not a compound but
an hedgerow Maginot
a pinball's tilted
bumpers to keep the lawn
from sliding downhill
to the holler's more collar-
based trenches & redoubts, big dogs
& smaller sightlines
curved streams
with salmon-bearing couches
thickets with frogs & birds &
valentine skunk cabbages,
clotheslined yard beasts wired tight
behind a grow so obvious--
perennial mossy boat & car
plastic-sheeted dowling pyramid
the frig-o-seal
pie container lids tied with
orange ribbon
that everyone uses
to mark off
the marked off,
tidelines of floods
both frequent &
unseasonal--
that it must be a decorator choice
like lighting the torches
for the return of the DC-3's
laden with Spam & medicine
years after the storm of the century
had swept through the valley.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
4.Tough to do
the working class
in wide screen:
the interiors
don't quite add up,
tables bump lumpy chairs bump
bumpy walls & let's face it
this potato-textured
distressed distress
is something you
don't want to see
in letterbox HD--
not meth-breather tubing
with a regional twang,
expository dentistry
soaked in tang--
all except maybe
the pearl of the litter
the squirrel-skinner
with secret pluck
& historical luck.
Tough to look though Joni
from both sides now
the imprinting's all frayed
the head's dragged up & round about
like busted bell bottoms in
a cube of splayed &
pawsmeared plastic
heavy on the shoulders
a cellular habit
lens chipped & bouldered
fingers still working
qwerty under the awning
speech replacing gum
chewing television for the eyes
metamorphic sum
to watch paint dry
or foggy molecules bead
& dance in the light
from my hat as she
shakes her head
on the tracks.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Friday, February 04, 2011
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Bruce Conkle: Who the Hell is Piet Mondrian?
Friday, February 4th. The Gallery will exhibit Conkle's past and recent
illustrations and installations, including his gilded tree burls from
the October 2010 show at WorkSound, viewed together for the first time.
Bio: Bruce's work often deals with escapism, artificial worlds, and
man's place within nature, and frequently examines what he calls the
"misfit quotient" at the crossroads. Whimsical, absurdist, and deeply
symbolic, his work often uses art and humor to address contemporary
attitudes toward nature and environmental concerns. His work has shown
all over the world, including Reykjavik, Rio De Janeiro, New York,
Miami, and Portland. Recent projects include public art commissions for
TriMet/ MAX Light Rail and PSU's Smith Memorial Student Union Public Art
+ Residency. In 2010 Bruce received an Oregon Arts Commission Artist
Fellowship and a project grant from the Regional Arts and Culture
Council. http://www.bruceconke.com info@bruceconkle.com
WHAT: Project Grow presents Bruce Conkle: Who the Hell is Piet
Mondrian? WHEN: Opening reception Friday, February 4th from 7 to 10 pm.
Gallery hours Mon-Fri 9am- 5pm and by appointment 503.236.9515 x116.
Continues through Feb 28. WHERE: The Gallery at Port City: 2156 N
Williams Ave. Portland 97227
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
3.
It's never quite clear
what they're up to
the men who live
on wires & shelves.
A shitstorm of data
a shark that walks on land
the amount of snow won't matter
to the phone in your hand.
Mahler's 1st
Jimmy Caan crosses Roebling's bridge
in a Cadillac to deliver
leaves to the Harlem River.
Bird shadow in the big holly
lost in the dust on the shade
forced air feathered melancholy
fluffs the scratch the branch made.
The men who live on wires & shelves
are mute even to themselves.
Monday, January 31, 2011
The H.D. Book
The dominant rhythm is recurrence, with the writing (and rewriting) forming a palimpsest that diagrams movements of soul as well as patterns of literary process. Chapter 8, dated "March 21, Tuesday, 1961," begins with an early-morning fragment of dream that Duncan then tracks through a labyrinth that include Baudelaire, the game of charades, Jehovah's backside, the alchemy of Freudian analysis, shit and cunts, the play of verse/versus/version/aversion, and the marginalia of Jack Spicer...
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