toys and techniques

2012-02-03T09:44:00.003-05:00

*Quick announcement* This Tuesday (Feb. 7) I will be returning to WFMU as a guest on This is the Modern World with Trouble. The show is from 9-12AM New York time and will be archived thereafter. Will be playing some pretty crazy stuff so make sure to tune in! Can't wait to see you again, Trouble!

The Unique Sound of the Psaltery

2012-02-02T15:53:00.005-05:00

Fascinating. The modern and medieval joust across the centuries as one of the most ancient musical instruments known is paired with a synthesizer. Bob Stewart is a self-taught musician, composer and writer of over forty books on the olde magick. On this album he plays the psaltery, a 73-stringed instrument played on a table, an instrument so old even King David is supposed to have played one.

It's an interesting experience listening to this. One moment you are at the summer fete, twirling in a barley field with your sword and sandals. Then, miraculously, the heavens open up and a space ship bearing a synthesizer appears. Trippy. I would like to learn more about Bob Stewart. He seems to have other recordings available on his website. The one I'd like to hear is a recording of a ceremony involving W.G. Gray and a "team of ritualists" conducted at the Rollright Stones in the early 70s (photo above).

Rays From the Capstone: The Story of the Psychotronic Generator of the Pi-ray and the Incredible Coffer

2012-01-27T13:01:00.011-05:00

Vanity press parapsychology published by the "University of the Trees." The psychotronic generator appears to be a humidifier of some sort.

Mathoms

2012-01-26T13:32:00.001-05:00

Leptirica

2012-01-21T19:48:00.008-05:00

Nice snowy weekend here. Catching up on a few scary movies, including Đorđe Kadijević's Leptirica ("The Moth"), which might appeal to Valerieholics. Leptirica is a Serbian made-for-TV horror movie from 1973, loosely adapted from Milovan Glišić's 1880 novel. One of those magical soft focus vampire films with a sylvan setting and flaxen-haired beauty, all resting on an ancient bed of Slavic folklore. Kinda silly film, but there's a great plot twist involving a butterfly and some memorable Valerie-esque details; I love the owls who "speak" to the main character through the trees... Watch here.

Play Orbit

2012-01-13T14:47:00.017-05:00

Jasia Reichardt, Play Orbit (1969). I've taken this one out of general circulation and added it to my box of shiny things. Sponsored by the Welsh Arts Council and the ICA, Play Orbit was an "exhibition of toys, games and playables by people who are not professionally involved with the design of playthings, but who work in the field of visual arts." There are some very unusual contributions, including teddy bears with John Betjeman masks??!! If you look at the text accompanying the images, each artist also seems to attempt a definition of the "toy."

Nuestra Música

2012-01-12T10:28:00.005-05:00

From the lost-and-found file: some really nice Wendy & Bonnie moves on this song from Spanish group Nuestra Música. Loving these band photos.

2012-01-10T16:38:00.003-05:00

Uploaded with love.

Also see * and # for more British TV.

Public Collectors

2012-01-07T16:23:00.010-05:00

In Chicago I picked up Self-Reliance Library, a booklet put out by the Temporary Services collective. It's a great resource that assembles both older and more recent reference materials for creative living, including a lot of instructional manuals for Ant Farm-style environmental sculptures. I was curious and did a little sleuthing, which led me to the related site Public Collectors. WOW. Make sure to take a look at the amazing PDF catalog for cover-to-cover scans of many of the publications mentioned in the booklet. Here are a few samples drawn from a book called Working Big and a dymaxion how-to pamphlet called Domebook (all images from Public Collectors).

The Brotherhood of Satan

2012-01-03T19:47:00.002-05:00

Happy new year everybody. Chicagoans, I had a good time in your fair city and ate many of your tacos and pancakes. Such a great place to visit.

While I was away I watched The Brotherhood of Satan from 1971, which doesn't sound like uplifting Christmas viewing but actually is. If you like covens and vengeful dolls possessed by spirits and psychedelic dream sequences then this one is for you. Really beautiful film, and beautiful music by Jaime Mendoza-Nava.

2011-12-21T18:17:00.003-05:00

Here's wishing everybody a relaxing and well-earned holiday! Thank you so much for tuning into Toys & Techniques over the past year. It means a lot to me to know there are folks out there with a similar spectrum of interests. Signing off for the year with the random image above and warm wishes for a fantastic 2012!

Dispokino

2011-12-20T19:44:00.013-05:00

I received the sweetest care package from Raffael of Dispokino a few weeks ago. Dispokino is one of my favorite blogs, and so I knew I was in for a treat as I opened this mysterious package with a Swiss return address and a certain telltale heft. Surprise packages full of completely ungoogleable Swiss records are always a good thing! Two of them were tobacco themed, including this Marlboro giveaway produced by Stephen Sulke of L'oeil bleu fame (recently reissued). Such a great song for dancing around to. Come to flavor with Marlboro!

The other records included another cigarette promo (the sleeveless one below) which can be sampled here, a charity record recorded by blind students hoping to fund a summer camp, and another Swiss children's record with A+ graphic design and, erm... B+ music. I could be wrong but I believe Raffael found these all on the same day trolling through the mountains in Switzerland casually looking for records. Thank you!

Sonorop

2011-12-18T10:57:00.003-05:00

Stumbled upon this the other day whilst Christmas shopping. Film/TV music for driving around France with a very long scarf trailing behind, on your way to your next jewelry heist. Followed by two delicate folksy guitar numbers. Music by Pier Cadet et al. Oh the power of the blank stock record sleeve!

I've had to start a new Soundcloud account because there's just no room in the old one, and hasn't been for some time (sorry for having to erase so many songs...) Have a good weekend!

Scottish Screen Archive

2011-12-17T13:07:00.008-05:00

Some amazing videos over at the Scottish Screen Archive. Loads of educational/public information films to browse through -- my favorites all seem to be about the textile industry. Don't miss Teenage Money, Cashmere is Scottish, The Climbers, and Beautiful Drima, which is about a new kind of sewing thread (and has great music). There are a lot of "new town" documentaries as well; Cumbernauld, Town for Tomorrow looks like a nice place to settle down.

The Meaning of Time

2011-12-08T12:11:00.001-05:00

The Eclectic Curriculum

2011-12-07T13:45:00.006-05:00

Beth Landis and Polly Carder, The Eclectic Curriculum in American Music Education: Contributions of Dalcroze, Kodaly, and Orff. I can't remember what the family tree of footwear is meant to illustrate. "The Eclectic Curriculum" is a good name for a b-sides comp.

Lindsay Blue

2011-12-06T20:46:00.003-05:00

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! posted here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Teeme Muusikat

2011-12-05T14:16:00.027-05:00

Here is some more Estonian folk music from the Teeme Muusikat (Let's Make Music) series, which I posted about earlier. I love love love these records. For me they are an outline and manifesto for the kind of pop music that needs to be made today: haunting, melancholy choral folk with twinkly percussion and woodwinds -- like the soundtrack to a lost TV broadcast of an Eastern European fairy tale. Since I don't speak Estonian the singers give the sense of casting spells or reciting ritual incantations. And in some songs there is a fairly lively "beat" percussion that wouldn't be too out of place on a garage or psych 45 (the yelping on one of the R. Kangro tracks sounds a bit like a parallel universe Lizzy Mercier Descloux.)

Above is the third record in the series, arranged by Heino Jurisalu. I believe the songs are mostly trad., but they are occasionally credited to individual songwriters. Beautiful, plaintive pastoral tunes. I love the typesetting and photos, including the portrait of Jurisalu on the back. He might have been the head music teacher in the project, as he wrote the back cover blurbs for many of the albums. If anybody could translate I'd be much obliged. The practical academic function of these records -- they were clearly meant for classroom activities -- is part of what I like about them, so it would be good to know what sort of instructions they have in mind.

This one is, I believe, the fourth record in the series. The color palette all matches up, from Kangro's tie to the armchair to the girl's dress. We actually have a table cloth like that, too. Some of these tunes remind me of the drool-worthy Finders Keepers release of the Malá Morská Víla OST, which was the center of gravity for my musical world this past year. The sleeve may seem a bit twee and goodie two shoes, but it's amazing how edgy and punk some of side 2 sounds if you listen with your third ear. Below is a taste of my favorite track. Enjoy and play for your friends!

Atmospheres

2011-12-03T14:58:00.017-05:00

A while ago my wife and I rented Polanski's "The Tenant." It seemed a clear enough proposition to just sit down and watch it, but it had one of those complicated DVD menus where you're never quite sure what you're clicking. I pressed play and we proceeded to spend the next two hours in a state of total confusion. "This movie isn't all it's cracked up to be," I loudly asserted. "Everyone talks so weird -- it sounds horrible." It wasn't until the next day that we discovered I had accidentally clicked the dubbed English audio option.

This album reminds me of that experience. But in a good way. It's hard to pin down stylistically but I think that's the point -- a bit avant-garde, a bit gauloise-smoking session drummer, a bit Polanski. I like it. See what you think.

My fellow weird-music enthusiast Tom says that one of the tracks, "Afro-theme" (also known as "Centre national de documentation pédagogique") was the theme song for a children's TV show in France in the late-70s. By the way, Tom is the creator of probably my favorite mix-tape of the year, which can be downloaded here. You should all listen to it.

The New Ice Age

2011-12-01T14:47:00.006-05:00

I now have a youtube channel! Not very well stocked though. This is a clip from Johan van der Keuken's The New Ice Age, a documentary partially about a group of ice cream factory workers in northern Holland. I love the hug sequence and bed linens. For some reason the subtitles didn't go through, but basically the woman's letter goes something like "Dear Johan... It's good to hear from you... How are you doing? I like your cat... Your cat is nice...I will see you in two weeks..." over and over again.

Ruusujen aika

2011-11-30T21:04:00.012-05:00

"A Time of Roses." Awesome, weird Finnish sci fi from 1969. Takes place in a fantasy 2012 that looks exactly like 1969. A beautiful woman appears -- the spitting image of a nude model who passed away in 1976. Or is she? Bloops and bleeps by Erkki Kurenniemi, and a lovely flutey soft psych number during a love scene. Also, a look into the future of dodge ball.

mix

2011-11-29T19:19:00.019-05:00

A few things I've been listening to lately. I hope everyone's doing well!

Cap Canaveral Sun - Gérard Doulssane
Optical Sound - Human Expression
Pacification - La nouvelle frontière
The Doting King - The Dream
Of Soul and Deed - Mike Tingley
Die Screaming, Marianne - Kathe Green
Laul juurviljadest - R. Kangro
Viaggio nel tempo - Umberto di Grazia
Creed - Frances Hunter Gordon
Orjakivi - H. Jurisalu
Path Through the Forest - Cliff Ward
Bir Masal Türküsü - Esin Afsar
Scene Through the Eye of a Lens - Family
Continuation - Waterproof Tinker Toy
Jennifer Lee - The Folklords
Agnus Dei - Frances Hunter Gordon
Afro-theme - Gérard Doulssane
Come to flavor - Marlboro
In My Mind - Roek's Family

here
or
here

giochi d'acqua / giochi di terra

2011-11-20T20:52:00.013-05:00

I received the nicest email from Linda of Le rêve de la poupée yesterday. She sent me photos of two books from her collection: Giovanni Belgrano's Giochi d'acqua and Giochi di terra, both from 1977. What beautiful books -- thanks Linda!!

Aleatoric music

2011-11-18T08:29:00.004-05:00

from Marylee McMurray Lament, Music in Elementary Education: Enjoy, Experience and Learn.

Kodama

2011-11-17T12:31:00.007-05:00

Some nice surprises at the library book sale the other day. They must have been pruning their music section -- I came away with a nice stack of music education and electronic music books from the 70s. I also found this mysterious Japanese children's book with blue flexi-discs. The only characters I can make out are 'Kodama,' which I think is the name of the press. I love the little tabs attaching the flexi-disc to the book. Good system.

Antigone

2011-11-11T15:29:00.011-05:00

This is so good. A 1972 TV broadcast of a play - Jean Anouilh's retelling of Antigone. I can imagine seeing this and totally not understanding it as a kid, only to commit certain key details to the subconscious: Stacy Keach as the urbane sexually ambiguous chorus, outdoor scenes filmed in the glass and concrete new atlantis of Lincoln Center, the lovely Geneviève Bujold getting arrested on a hillside by gestapo motorcyclists?!? I love that this is on Netflix.

Figure Geometriche

2011-11-10T15:08:00.002-05:00

Children, Clay and Sculpture

2011-11-09T19:44:00.009-05:00

by Cathy Weisman Topal. Church sale last weekend.

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

2011-11-03T14:51:00.014-04:00

1969 edition of Selma Lagerlöf's The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. Photo montage by Hans Malmberg. This is a traditional Swedish children's story about a boy who in his mischief is shrunken to the size of an elf, and how he befriends a tame goose who wants to be a wild goose. They fly all over Sweden, conveniently passing through every province, so that the story doubles as a kind of tourist brochure. "Oh look, we are flying over Skåne, which boasts many amazing vistas as well as a thriving economy and many amenities for people who live there..."

Un p'tit fond de rouge

2011-11-02T14:15:00.002-04:00

I've been slowly accumulating birdy num nums for this album, and while I still don't have them all, much less own the vinyl, I thought I would "drop" the seven songs I have so far as I haven't seen the album posted elsewhere. If you haven't heard this one, it's worth a listen. Un p'tit fond de rouge is a privately-released French folk record from 1978 recorded by glowing forest spirits. It sounds a bit like Book of AM or Brigitte Fontaine, or maybe Jeff's Rue du moulin rompu. Reader, please put out your feelers and see if you can find the missing tracks!

2011-11-01T10:46:00.006-04:00

My better half found this tea towel the other day.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T14:37:00.011-04:00

Tonight's after s'ghoul special: Watcher in the Woods. Happy Halloween!

Ed Emshwiller

2011-10-27T10:05:00.005-04:00

Just start watching these and see where they take you. Ed Emshwiller - new favorite filmmaker?

Colour Piping (1969)

2011-10-26T16:09:00.001-04:00

Revealed - the secret to playing the recorder: use colors! Midweek inspiration from the books of Candida Tobin, a music teacher who used colors to help kids remember their notes.

Techbuilt

2011-10-22T20:54:00.011-04:00

I thought I would take a break from the usual to share some things about our home. This summer my wife and I bought our first house! It's a quirky modern house halfway into the woods, a short walk to the college. We both loved it immediately. It has these great big floor-to-ceiling windows that look out at birch trees and fields beyond. But we were also intrigued by the house's slightly mysterious history. The previous owner was the eccentric widow of the chair of the art department. When we first saw the place it was full of art -- African masks and statues, Japanese paintings, Eames and Noguchi furniture, crazy optic wallpaper, etc. I remember saying to each other that it looked like the home of some crazy 1970s art teacher lady. We were sold!

Friends of the previous owners told us the house was a prefab built by grad students from either Harvard or MIT. We did a little research but couldn't find anything. Then last week a friend found a photo on a blog of a house that looked exactly like ours. A few clicks of the mouse later and we discovered that our house is a Techbuilt prefab designed by an architect named Carl Koch. Apparently Techbuilts were among the most popular of early prefabs on the east coast in the 50s and 60s. Koch's idea was to cut costs by building homes out of exchangeable 4 X 8 panels factory made and shipped to the building site, where they could be erected in a few days. The panels could be arranged in a number of configurations, but all Techbuilt houses have the same pitched roofs, exposed beams, split-level construction, large overhangs, etc. There's actually another house just down the street from us that we suspect is another Techbuilt.

Koch was an interesting figure from what we can gather. We checked out one of his books, At Home With Tomorrow, where he makes some slightly ponderous claims about what women want in life and in houses. Some of these photos are from that book, or from promo materials for Techbuilt. I love the one of the wall being assembled below. It looks just like our house! Koch seems to have been a shrewd marketer as well as an architect. The way many east coasters found out about Techbuilt was through a 1954 Ford Foundation-sponsored TV program called "Excursion," which did a lengthy feature on Techbuilt narrated by Burgess Meredith. I would love to see that show.

Anyway here are some views of our house, taken in August before we moved in. I can post more if anybody's interested. Photos of my records?

Roberts Robots

2011-10-16T13:56:00.001-04:00

Welsh records

2011-10-14T09:31:00.008-04:00

Some beautiful Welsh records on this Flickr.

Also, I did a guest post over at Teenage blog recently. Thanks Kelly! And thanks to the anonymous reader who told me about those Thamesmead photos (you know who you are).

Margaret Tait

2011-10-13T09:33:00.012-04:00

Why did the pan drop?
You don't know?
I'd butter not tell you.
It's her grandchildren who call her Ga.
And I suppose I called her mother Ga.
But I only dimly remember that grandmother, my mother's mother.
An old lady, quietly dressed in black.

Tooth for a Tooth

2011-10-09T17:11:00.008-04:00

The leaves are turning and we've been seeing roadside signs for haunted hayrides and corn mazes. It might just be time for some spooky music. This record is a bit of a dark horse as I had never heard of it until recently. But it's a gorgeous little album of how should I say... noir exotica? There are hypnotic organs and flutes, chiming mallet instruments and a particular electric bass guitar sound that I like to call "punchy." This music is way, way ahead of its time, as if it were meant to have been buried and re-discovered somewhere in Bristol or Birmingham in the mid-1990s.

DireTube mix

2011-10-05T15:07:00.004-04:00

A mix of my favorite songs from DireTube videos. VHS wobble!

*****

Evariste

2011-10-03T15:17:00.003-04:00

Marinetti

2011-09-30T09:43:00.009-04:00

Good morning. It looks like Albie Thoms's film Marinetti, which has great music, is now streaming on Ubu. Psychedelic Australia.

Sounds of Today and Tomorrow

2011-09-29T09:45:00.007-04:00

That rare thing, an interesting American/Canadian (?) sound effects record. Bugged-out microtronics mixed with field recordings, and an audiomontage composed entirely of clock sounds. I was going to just post the electronic cues, but as I listened to this the other day I thought how much it sounded like a mix-tape from the future. Nice record to cue up and then wander into the other room, make some tea, finish the chapter you're reading, etc.

2011-09-28T13:55:00.003-04:00

Happy birthday Trish!

GLAQJO XAACSSO

2011-09-27T17:31:00.002-04:00

New patten album. Video by Jane Eastlight.

Paper Faces

2011-09-27T11:05:00.007-04:00

Michael Grater, Paper Faces (1968)

Blood and Roses

2011-09-24T17:01:00.033-04:00

Watched Blood and Roses the other night for the first time. Beautiful, beautiful vampire flick. Best WTF dream sequence ever. If you are in the states you can stream it on Netflix. Otherwise a copy is available here. (Also, Jon Brooks: there is a Dieter Rams record player at 9:40 in pt. 1)

Reynold Weidenaar

2011-09-22T14:54:00.001-04:00

Squiggly technicolor links and bridges for advertising, à la Eric Siday or Raymond Scott. You have to dig a little, but there is weirdness to be found here, oh yes. More info about Weidenaar here (scroll down to "commercial spots" on the left).

listen

Music in Practice

2011-09-21T14:58:00.007-04:00

Paul Farmer, Music in Practice (Oxford UP, 1984).

Pop Montreal

2011-09-20T11:57:00.003-04:00

So the Pop Montreal festival starts tomorrow. I looked at the schedule -- there are about a million bands playing and I have only heard of maybe two or three of them. Montreal folks, are there any local bands I should check out?

Stigma

2011-09-19T21:44:00.007-04:00

This is lovely and creepy. With thanks to Unmann-Wittering for introducing me to it.

Masks

2011-09-17T12:06:00.002-04:00

Chester Jay Alkema, Masks (1971).

Persephone

2011-09-16T10:03:00.004-04:00

A music and movement record for the classroom. I had forgotten how good the story of Persephone is. How she was kidnapped by Hades and dragged down to the underworld. How her mom Demeter holds the Olympic Games to find the fastest runner to save her. How the rescue is going well until Persephone eats three seeds of the pomegranate, so that she has to return to the underworld three months a year (I'm probably getting some of this wrong). That's a whole spectrum of emotions for me kids to process.

Sun: Creativity and Environment

2011-09-15T10:38:00.011-04:00

Music education forever! On we go with Trevor Wishart's book/broadsheet Sun, which presents instructions for guerilla music projects meant to bring art-making out of the classroom and museum and into actual communities and lived environments. These games sound really fun. Some favorites: emerge from the city in all directions and dismount your bicycle at an agreed meeting place. Invert your bicycle, sit down behind the back-wheel and play delicate harp music on the spokes. Then remount your bicycle and dissolve into the city in different directions. Or: meet in a wood or thick undergrowth after dark. Decide on a number of small and fairly quiet noise-makers, each of characteristic timbre -- e.g. metal snappers, small brass bells, penny whistles, etc. Give each participant one instrument (wrapped, so that they don't know what it is) and make sure there are at least two of each type of instrument. Disperse into the farthest corners of the wood and hide yourself. Play your object intermittently and NOT LOUDLY. By listening to the sounds in the wood, search out the other person playing the same object as yourself. On finding your partner, reveal yourself and begin to play a duet. Outstanding!

diretube

2011-09-12T21:47:00.012-04:00

Simon Reynolds's recent piece on Ariel Pink has sent me in search of 80s and 90s Ethiopian pop videos, one of the many pieces in the Ariel Pink sonic puzzle. Totally fascinating article, which directed me among other places to DireTube, Ethiopia's version of Youtube. Treat yourself and spend some time perusing the "Ethiopian Oldies" section. Pretty much every video is great, but here are some of my faves.

Speaking of Ariel Pink: I was thinking that Requiem-era Arthur Brown and basically everything on Martin Newell's Songs for a Fallow Land would round out an Ariel Pink pre-history mixtape really well. Brown's "Falling Up" sounds like it is straight out of Before Today. Sleazy and poppy!

The Retreat Singers in Stereo

2011-09-09T13:20:00.006-04:00

Reet

2011-09-08T15:20:00.012-04:00

Rustic Estonian work songs and lullabies as imagined by a 1960s teenager with a guitar. I love this album. It's certainly sad enough. Each little wooden box of a song opens to reveal the story of a rural life lived rightly but tragically -- the lovelorn shepherd, the hayfield laborer under the heel of her feudal master, etc. The song lyrics read like scripts for miniature black & white allegorical films in the vein of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, films where restless teenagers buck against village customs and start toying around with modern ideas and music they hear on the radio... Reet Hendrikson has a lovely voice and is a damn fine guitar player. There is something about the Estonian way with rhythm and melody that keeps you off balance in the nicest way. Whatever it is it works well with these little nuggets of sorrow Hendrikson throws at us. Anyway enjoy. This has been my album of the summer but now that there's a chill in the air it seems to be even more relevant.

Electronic Music for Schools

2011-09-03T14:32:00.006-04:00

Richard Orton, Electronic Music For Schools. 1981. Free-thinking British music pedagogy out of York. Top photo shows Hugh Davies wearing cool sweater, playing the Springboard Mk III. It has magnetic pick-ups like a guitar. In the 2nd photo we have Linda playing a composition called "Creepy dance music" on the banjophone, intended for herself to dance to.

Dubravka

2011-09-02T09:38:00.001-04:00

Late-summer Crimean coming-of-age from 1967.

Spinning & Dyeing the Natural Way

2011-08-30T09:53:00.005-04:00

Ruth Castino, Spinning & Dyeing the Natural Way (Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1974). So awesome!

2011-08-29T15:29:00.005-04:00

Cleaning my office today. Admiring baggu postcards on my corkboard while listening to this. Brain-addled on Fantastik fumes. Everything is coming together.

The Elf

2011-08-24T11:08:00.005-04:00

Tape-slides from "The Elf," an audio-visual work created by a group of 5th form students at Madeley Court School, Telford, Shropshire, in the early 1970s. Here is John Paynter's description:

'The Elf' began as a classroom assignment in creative experiment. The boys in the group (playing trumpet, clarinet, guitar, percussion and saxophone) started with a rudimentary 'story line' about a group of elves living in an idyllic forest setting with little to do other than happily making music together. This tranquil life was to be disturbed by the coming of 'men'... When the music was finished the group took photographs in the locality -- pictures which not only 'illustrated' the ideas in the music but which also could be organised to complement the movement of the music... The boys themselves appeared in the first section as the happy band living a life of art and music in a woodland setting devoid of any reference to the progress of civilisation. By contrast the central section, suggesting the destruction of the idyllic life, has no human figures in any of its pictures. Instead we see only machines and buildings... All in all, 'The Elf' turns out to be not simply a piece of music which by chance had some photographs attached to it but a vivid and compelling 'essay' on the development of new towns. (from Music in the Secondary School Curriculum)

Here's another photo from the Paynter book:

A Week in Daniel's World

2011-08-23T16:17:00.008-04:00

I think I am the only person who browses the free books table at our local library. This book popped up recently -- A Week in Daniel's World by Sabine and Hugh Weiss. It's from a series exploring how children live in various parts of the world. Today I learned that French children occasionally have a drop of coffee in their milk and that on special occasions they are allowed a half-glass of wine. Sabine Weiss also did the photos for one of these books. Daniel's sister is named Christine.

Mix

2011-08-12T00:34:00.006-04:00

Ať Žijí Duchové - Jaroslav Uhlíř
Karjase pühapäev - Reet Hendrikson
Electro Gavotte - Adrian Wagner
L'hiver - Catherine Lara
Smiling - Darling
Fruit of Paradise - Zdenek Liska
Secrets of the Deep - P. Reno
Frogman - Reynold Weidenaar
The Guna Song - Ann Ree Colton
Mr. Fox - Mr. Fox
Kui mina alles noor veel olin - Reet Hendrikson
Μάγισσες - Lena Platonos
Longue Naissance - Claude Yvans
Rain - Eighth Penny Matter
La longue route - Claude Yvans
Maybe one day (version 1) - Band of Holy Joy
Interplanetary Broadcast - Reynold Weidenaar
Haunted Harpsichord - Reynold Weidenaar
Not Another Night - Sapphire Thinkers
Sound Images 15 - Wendy Cook and Alan Coggins

her what would sing to me

Pacific Film Archive

2011-08-10T11:56:00.010-04:00

Well I'm back after a quick but super fun trip to the west coast. The weather, food and company in LA were almost comically good, and San Francisco, despite being cold and gray as ever, yielded many new discoveries. So great to see family and friends old and new. Really lovely in fact. There is much to tell, most of it food-related (Korean tacos really are as good as they say, whereas Mission Chinese is not). But more à propos to this blog was a trip I took last week to visit Jon Shibata of the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Jon had very kindly set aside some rare short-films from the museum's holdings, and last Thursday he and his wife and I settled into the research screening room for an hour and a half or so of educational programming. A completely amazing experience!

I had never heard of any of the films Jon selected even though all of them were firmly in the Toys & Techniques wheelhouse. They included experimental Kodachrome commercials for coffee and M&Ms directed by Jordan Belson, and Pieter Van Deusen's amazing "Percussion Sounds," a fading educational film from 1969 in which children make DIY percussion instruments out of found objects (wood planks, metal things found in the garage, etc.) and then explore a room full of Javanese instruments. I wish I had been able to tape-record the music! I believe that's Emil Richards with the mustache, and apparently the instruments being played were constructed by Harry Partch. Another favorite was a 1971 film about jumping rope produced by the Computer Image Corporation. Totally mindbending slo-mo images to the tune of woozy proto-Belbury Poly electronic music.

I had never heard of Carroll Ballard before, even though I had seen and enjoyed many of his later films. Jon cued up an early Ballard film from 1974 which uses photomicroscopy and polarized light to capture liquids transforming into colorful crystal sculptures and back again. Do I even need to say that the music was good? Jon's wife told me to look out for another Ballard film called "The Perils of Priscilla." It is about a cat.

Saving the best for last. Jon took us out with "Children Who Draw," a strange and beautiful portrait of a 1950s Japanese art classroom by Susumu Hani, also the director of this. It nearly brought a tear to my eye, as I started thinking about my own time teaching English in rural Japan, and about my mother, who grew up in Japan and would have been almost exactly the same age as the children on screen. What Susumu does here is frankly astonishing, pairing images of student work with vignettes of the kids' family lives and dealings with other students (often unhappy). One child, over a period of several weeks, draws simple single-family houses to the exclusion of all other subject matter. It is later revealed that his family occupies a single room in something of a flop house. Another girl, ostracized by the other children, initially draws lone flowers which eventually emerge into human forms, first solitary and then -- by some sort of imaginative wish fulfillment -- grouped in clusters. Life lessons for us all! And such haunting images. Thanks again, Jon!

2011-08-07T12:24:00.002-04:00

In transit between San Francisco and Los Angeles. I love this unintentionally profound airport shop. Seeing so many cool things -- will debrief once I'm back home!

Le Compte du Temps

2011-07-28T11:03:00.003-04:00

Great another weird record with no singing. Ha ha, this one is probably of interest to nerds only. Another one of those little Auvidis records for industry use in TV, film, etc. The concept is "time" and "clocks," which gets translated into a weird melange of after-school-special soft rock and field recordings of church bell changes, metronomes, water drops, cuckoo clocks, etc. An interesting companion piece for this. I would like to know what the other records are in the "serie vie des hommes."

Also... a cell-phone photo sent from my friend Ian in San Francisco where I will be for the next little while. Can't wait to see you!

Leo es pardo

2011-07-27T10:50:00.002-04:00

Metal Machine Music + Marvin Gaye = phwoar!

Thamesmead: 21st Century Town

2011-07-22T17:41:00.014-04:00

Quick hello to share this clip of a recent documentary about the embattled Thamesmead housing development in London. Internet, why didn't you tell me about this earlier? Some amazing footage culled from lost public information films intended to spread the gospel about Thamesmead and the like. I've mentioned one of these films earlier, but I didn't know it starred Veruca Salt from the Gene Wilder version of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, as well as the redheaded Spencer Banks of Timeslip and Penda's Fen! Total celluloid bliss. And from the looks of the archive, it seems like there's loads more where that comes from.

2011-07-21T09:51:00.002-04:00

Kristove roky

2011-07-18T13:47:00.009-04:00

Aquasun

2011-07-13T14:39:00.007-04:00

The sleeve art/music synergy is strong with this one. In a weird way the music actually sounds like a sun-drenched, motionless boat on a shimmering sea. This album and an assortment of fruit-flavored Polar seltzer beverages have been helping me survive the insane heat and humidity lately. It's very pretty music, perhaps best experienced on a hot summer night after the sun has gone down. Among the flute and effects is some sort of hammered string instrument that suggests eastern lands on the horizon... Here's the main suite from side 2. Music by P. Lemel and E. Marving.

Λένα Πλάτωνος

2011-07-12T09:46:00.005-04:00

This is the best thing I have seen/heard in a long time. Found at new fave Pattern & Shape/Vampire Island.

Velnio nuotaka

2011-07-09T18:21:00.002-04:00

The Black Cat

2011-06-30T15:34:00.004-04:00

The acting is horrifying in more than one sense. Just, wow.

"What's a nice owl...?" E. Baird (1968)

2011-06-29T17:32:00.008-04:00

Today is my birthday. Joyce got me this amazing print. I love it!

Le Orme

2011-06-26T09:42:00.001-04:00

Watched this last night. Amazing melancholic sci-fi giallo!?

Guitares naïves

2011-06-24T23:59:00.002-04:00

Earth Religion News

2011-06-21T10:12:00.007-04:00

Blessed be! Cool witch print culture here and here. Check the Pentagram Newsletter for reports on the Rollright Stones (not the Rolling Stones), reflecting witch balls, cat's cradle and other string figures, tree spells, mazing and ground-glyphs.

Vibration

2011-06-15T15:58:00.000-04:00

Mary Beth Edelson

2011-06-14T11:15:00.007-04:00

via

Tomorrow's World

2011-06-10T17:48:00.003-04:00

Themes and moods for documentary, scientific and industrial subjects. Boop beep.

Swimmy

2011-06-06T13:37:00.004-04:00

Big thanks to Michael from Stopping Off Place for sending me this yesterday. A 1973 short film based on Leo Lionni's Swimmy. Casually amazing in the same way everything on Stopping Off Place always is. Go visit it right now! Don't get eaten by evil tuna.

Molecular Biology

2011-06-05T09:53:00.002-04:00

eBay poetry

2011-06-04T09:50:00.000-04:00

BEGINS

A naked woman wakes up in the woods.

A shapely lass, body shape exemplary of her (much healthier) time.

She’s a bit dopy, as if bemused as to her whereabouts.

Totters barefoot across fallen trees.

Of into the forest.

Stands with arms aloft with a leafy twif in hand.

Salutes the sky. Saluting nature? All very ‘Triumph Of The Will’ but
with no clothes.

She moves atround and does this salute again and again.

Totters along another tree trunk.

Lies down for a rest.

ENDS.

Jim Burrill

2011-06-03T10:21:00.007-04:00

Private renfaire psych from northern California. This sounds a bit like a lost Mayo Thompson album. There are many lovable things about it: a song about Dr. Who, a band member named Joseph Sun-Bear, covers of English ballads of female highwaymen, and mostly the fact that Jim Burrill holds the guitar the wrong way. Also, the song "Lynn's Dream" is about Lynn Blessing from the band The Advancement. One gets the sense that Burrill knows a thing or two about Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. Strangely listenable and likable.

Secret Ceremony

2011-06-02T08:55:00.006-04:00

Watched this last night. Elizabeth Taylor and Mia Farrow playing cat and mouse in a crazy Kensington art nouveau mansion. Great movie full of uncanny echoes and doublings from beyond the grave (Leonora resembles Cenci's deceased mother, Cenci Leonora's drowned daughter...) Plus I just love the name "Cenci." That long black wig!

Learning to See/1

2011-05-31T10:03:00.012-04:00

Kurt Rowland, Learning to See 1 (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1968).

Lindsay Blue - Love All Life

2011-05-30T17:36:00.003-04:00

Migrating Forms

2011-05-29T10:33:00.005-04:00

Tube Time was so much fun! It was super nice meeting Mary, Kelly and Matt and hanging out IRL. I had such a great time -- let's do it again! The youtubes were amazing and it was so nice to see them on the big screen in front of a vocal audience. Highlights for me included awkward teen dance footage, hobos new and old, Ian Mackaye throwing faces at a lame interviewer, and "Coney" by Frank and Caroline Mouris (nice one Mary). The one that I keep thinking about though is another one of Mary's picks, a homemade music video by a band covering the Smiths. The end of the clip is oddly moving.

Here's one of the clips that I showed.

Me a few hours before the show.

Ram Dass

2011-05-24T15:35:00.012-04:00

Working on my dharma lately, listening to these LPs. It's 1973 and Baba Ram Dass is sitting in on four consecutive all-night radio call-in shows on WBAI in New York. Pull up a chair. (Photos from the included booklet.)

2011-05-23T15:31:00.005-04:00

Tube time

2011-05-18T19:50:00.010-04:00

I'll be in New York screening found footage with friends Teenage and Unchanging Window for Migrating Forms film fest, Friday, May 27th at 9:30 at Anthology Film Archives. Come on out for an evening of young adult film/TV show-and-tell. Any requests? Info here.

Winter of the Witch

2011-05-18T19:48:00.003-04:00

Magical blueberry pancakes!

The Lo Yo Yo

2011-05-11T20:24:00.001-04:00

The school's-out party album of the week. Sounds a bit like the Slits but more dubby. Good for dancing around. Finally it feels like Spring around here!

Sister Corita

2011-05-10T15:50:00.015-04:00

we are back to seeing ordinary people and things
which is to discover that they are no longer ordinary
so we go where the ordinary words are
and play with them with ordinary people

Curious Alice

2011-04-22T23:00:00.013-04:00

'Curious Alice' is an animated fantasy involving various dangerous drugs based on the characters in Alice in Wonderland. Alice is seen touring a strange land where everyone has chosen drugs: the Madhatter uses LSD; the Dormouse uses sleeping pills; and the King of Hearts represents heroin.

Advertisement above from a state pamphlet called "Drug Abuse Prevention Materials for Schools," from the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention. The film came out in 1971 or thereabouts. Never has anti-drug propaganda been so drugged out! I think this might be my new favorite Alice movie.

Edit: apparently this isn't viewable on Youtube in the UK. What a shame! Here are some screen grabs. Cool Raymond Scott-style electronic score too.

Sanne Sannes

2011-04-19T13:23:00.002-04:00

Stills from Dirty Girl, a 1966 stag film by Dutch photographer Sanne Sannes. Forest nymphs/nymphos, bare tree branches, Angel wings, fake blood, etc.

Michelangelo

2011-04-17T12:18:00.006-04:00

Southern MQ/LP 46 Folk, Pastoral, Small Group (Recorder).

A group mysteriously named Michelangelo gets credit in the liner notes, but don't let that fool you; this record is British through and through. Listening to these shiny plastic tunes you are whisked away to the pedestrian walkways and municipal fountains of some imaginary New Town circa 1971. You are peering into the crystal ball of a window-dressed display of new modern products designed to improve your life. Or you are an extra in the background of a karaoke video, cooing words nobody will ever hear into the ear of the actress hired to play your girlfriend. These are neutral incidentals for light activity. Twinkly, saccharine, prefab mood music for some concrete city in the sky. But like the similar-ish music at the beginning of The Stepford Wives there is something very dark lurking beneath the surface, as if the new leisure centre were built on a Romano-British burial ground. I love this record and its twinkly celeste and harp, its mournful woodwinds and proto-Stereolab suburban funkiness. Enjoy. And while I'm on the subject I wanted to mention Jonny Trunk's fantastic Radio 4 piece about library music. If you have been wondering just what all these austere, generic record sleeves that I post are all about, download here and listen to somebody who really knows what he's talking about (mp3 courtesy of some nice person on the Broadcast bbs). Composer Barbara Moore starts free-associating about the Amazon and it's pure poetry.

Vista Volunteer

2011-04-15T14:36:00.005-04:00

from Vista Volunteer, published by the Office of Economic Opportunity