so -- date #2 with the artist girl was fun! she is very bubbly and smart. we were late to the "mighty wind" screening and it was already full, so we ate quick/ cheap/ good chinese food and headed over to the littlest movie theatre in town, the little theatre, to see this really rad showing of three films by '60s avant garde musician and filmmaker tony conrad.
i hadn't seen two of the three films before so that was a treat -- these are really intense films, i am still essentially high from them. the last film, "the flicker" from 1965 is among the most notorious movies ever -- all it is, is light. seriously! just pure plain film interspersed with leader -- but it's timed like a strobe and it gets faster and faster and the soundtrack gets pretty loud too (the sound of a projector feeding back on itself, basically.)
the amazing thing about this film is all the colors and images it forces you to see, when all it is is light itself -- it's this crazy physiological trip, creating a feedback loop between you and it, and sort of sending you into a dream machine style trance of alpha wave craziness too -- people have seriously lost their shit at this thing! and not just epileptics whoa re given the seizure warning before it starts... anyway, she dug it, which just says tons about her, and she got it too, and had interesting things to say about like the way it relates to early computer theory and etc. -- over my head, but was cool to hear her talk about it.
i have been having VERY strange date movies, lately. anyway, we both will hang out soon so that is nice. the rude on tues. record store girl called while i was on this date, so we'll see what she has to say for herself... i'll check in with her tomorrow, i guess.
speaking of tomorrow, gotta wake up early to see some rock critics read things they have to say about music! yipppeee! i am SUCH a dork that i'm all excited about this conference thingie!
i will finally send out yetis to you all who asked for them a month ago (!) tomorrow. i am soo sorry i have been so lax about it!
--------------------------------------------------
not-so-hidden bonus track -- from an interview i did with conrad 5 years ago, about his loud droney screechy kickass music:
"When I first began to play a very long note very close to my head 'cause the violin is very close to your headit's like you're standing in front of a speaker. And it's LOUD up there, it is. Violinists are deaf in their left ear, yeah, it's true. So anyway, I would be playing one tone for a long time. And then I would go out in the city, you know like in New York, and I would hear the whole city vibrating to this tone. And hear it in my head, and hear things with it and against it, because it would stay there for an hour or so, sort of as a kind of a tinnitus. It's really there. Aside from that there's this other aspect of it, the power transaction. Music that's overwhelming and huge has this energy that allows music to organize people's bodies. Like loud dance music you GO! But loud sounds can fill you and excite you and take over your BODY! This is like, passion, I'm talking about you know, like the way orgasm fills your body and your head, and takes over? Yeah, I mean music can do that too. Loud sounds! Whoaahh, forget it! With loud sound, there's a power that's different from the power of the word, or the power of the law. ...I love audiences where there's a third of the people who really like it, a third of the people think it's really horrible, and a third of the people are just mystified. (laughs) That's my favorite situation."
i hadn't seen two of the three films before so that was a treat -- these are really intense films, i am still essentially high from them. the last film, "the flicker" from 1965 is among the most notorious movies ever -- all it is, is light. seriously! just pure plain film interspersed with leader -- but it's timed like a strobe and it gets faster and faster and the soundtrack gets pretty loud too (the sound of a projector feeding back on itself, basically.)
the amazing thing about this film is all the colors and images it forces you to see, when all it is is light itself -- it's this crazy physiological trip, creating a feedback loop between you and it, and sort of sending you into a dream machine style trance of alpha wave craziness too -- people have seriously lost their shit at this thing! and not just epileptics whoa re given the seizure warning before it starts... anyway, she dug it, which just says tons about her, and she got it too, and had interesting things to say about like the way it relates to early computer theory and etc. -- over my head, but was cool to hear her talk about it.
i have been having VERY strange date movies, lately. anyway, we both will hang out soon so that is nice. the rude on tues. record store girl called while i was on this date, so we'll see what she has to say for herself... i'll check in with her tomorrow, i guess.
speaking of tomorrow, gotta wake up early to see some rock critics read things they have to say about music! yipppeee! i am SUCH a dork that i'm all excited about this conference thingie!
i will finally send out yetis to you all who asked for them a month ago (!) tomorrow. i am soo sorry i have been so lax about it!
--------------------------------------------------
not-so-hidden bonus track -- from an interview i did with conrad 5 years ago, about his loud droney screechy kickass music:
"When I first began to play a very long note very close to my head 'cause the violin is very close to your headit's like you're standing in front of a speaker. And it's LOUD up there, it is. Violinists are deaf in their left ear, yeah, it's true. So anyway, I would be playing one tone for a long time. And then I would go out in the city, you know like in New York, and I would hear the whole city vibrating to this tone. And hear it in my head, and hear things with it and against it, because it would stay there for an hour or so, sort of as a kind of a tinnitus. It's really there. Aside from that there's this other aspect of it, the power transaction. Music that's overwhelming and huge has this energy that allows music to organize people's bodies. Like loud dance music you GO! But loud sounds can fill you and excite you and take over your BODY! This is like, passion, I'm talking about you know, like the way orgasm fills your body and your head, and takes over? Yeah, I mean music can do that too. Loud sounds! Whoaahh, forget it! With loud sound, there's a power that's different from the power of the word, or the power of the law. ...I love audiences where there's a third of the people who really like it, a third of the people think it's really horrible, and a third of the people are just mystified. (laughs) That's my favorite situation."
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
What did the critics say?????