Rag Jog

Sunday lunch with this, this, and this.

Valie Export / Space Seeing Space Hearing (1974)

Veruschka poesia di una donna

Veruschka: poesia di una donna (1971). What a beautiful movie. A collaboration between top model Veruschka (Blow-Up, etc.) and fashion photographer Franco Rubartelli. This is in many ways a continuation of the Vogue photoshoots they did in the late 1960s. Very melancholy and surreal, a bit like Le Orme. Some great body-painting sequences, pastoral flashbacks, calisthenics in architectural ruins, etc. (favorite scene 1:01:00). And I don't even need to say it but the soundtrack by the maestro is breathtaking.

Toastrack

Heads-up on a great new blog about the forgotten history of Manchester Metropolitan University's Hollings Campus. Nicholas James is on a creative residency there for the year, collecting archival material about the campus building popularly known as Toastrack, designed by LC Howitt. Visit the blog here for some amazing photos, including the 1977 faculty prospectus above. Some of this material will be presented to commemorate the 52nd and final year the University will be using the facility. Nice one Nicholas!

Art Afternoons

My poor neglected blog. Hope everyone's having a good weekend. Here's a mix of things I've been watching and listening to whilst I've been away. Started out as an homage to women artists with long straight black hair (Leslie Thornton, Maggi Payne, Laurie Spiegel), but then went down the Channel 4 rabbit hole... Back soon -- lots of stuff to catch up on.

 Jennifer, Where Are You? - Leslie Thornton
Therinos Nyktos - Arleta
Woe-man - Current Obsessions
Walla Mashallah - Xhol Caravan
December Winter - Schibbinz
Glass Chaim (live) - Inoyamaland
Handsworth Songs (clip) - Trevor Mathison
The Gardener - Tim Hart and Maddie Prior
Up in my Mind - Idy Lynn
Air de plage - Olivier Gallois et Son Septuor
Devtero Kalokairi - Arleta
Genuine England - Sam Smith
Back to Forth - Maggi Payne
Cold Nose Part 3, 4th Movement - Sensations' Fix
Infinite Lucifer - Aaron Dilloway
The Garden - Laurie Spiegel
Commitment to the Band - Howard Eynon
Contrapunto - Los Que Vivimos
Handsworth Songs (end titles) - Trevor Mathison

Hi everybody! Sorry to be away for so long. Things have been busy at the office. Really miss this place, but it's going to be a while before I'll have time for new posts. A new mix and lots of other stuff awaits... Bye for now and see you in late November. (pic from Jean Ray Laury, Creative Body Coverings)

Meet Me, Jesus (1966)

Another underground film from Walter Ungerer. The psychedelic sound collage is crazy, almost sounds like James Ferraro.