May 27, 2012
Fette, Le pedalo, Lindow, 2011.

Fette, Le pedalo, Lindow, 2011.

Nitzer Ebb, live at Technoclub, Frankfurt, 1989. The concert in its glorious one hour entirety.

Berghain Berlin 2012 was definitely not Technoclub Frankfurt 1989. Alas. McCarthy’s grunts are still phenomenally perverse.

May 26, 2012
Found re-shots of Larry Clark, Pregnant Woman Shooting Up, 1971. Printed 1979 Original silver gelatin print, 12 5/8 x 8 3/8 inches.
One of the most haunting photographs of his I saw today at C/O Berlin. Like a degenerated Vermeer, if the man would have had a camera. The exhibition is on view until August 12th.
—
I wasn’t in love with her. And she didn’t love me. For me the question of love was irrelevant. What I sought was the sense of being tossed about by some raging, savage force, in the midst of which lay something absolutely crucial. I had no idea what that was. But I wanted to thrust my hand right inside her body and touch it, whatever it was.
Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun, 1992. Via.

Found re-shots of Larry Clark, Pregnant Woman Shooting Up1971. Printed 1979 Original silver gelatin print, 12 5/8 x 8 3/8 inches.

One of the most haunting photographs of his I saw today at C/O Berlin. Like a degenerated Vermeer, if the man would have had a camera. The exhibition is on view until August 12th.

I wasn’t in love with her. And she didn’t love me. For me the question of love was irrelevant. What I sought was the sense of being tossed about by some raging, savage force, in the midst of which lay something absolutely crucial. I had no idea what that was. But I wanted to thrust my hand right inside her body and touch it, whatever it was.

Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun, 1992. Via.

May 25, 2012

A Place to Bury Strangers, You are the one, 2012, directed by Matt Moroz and Tracy Maurice. Via.

May 23, 2012
Huguette Caland, Self Portrait I, 1973, Oil on canvas. Via.
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(…) when writers attempt to describe sex accurately, the scenes all tend to sound the same, no matter what the writers’ individual styles may be. I think most writers just want their sex scenes to be realistically sexy. My goal is to try to articulate what my characters wish to express during sex but can’t and to depict the way language is compromised by sex, as realistically as I can. The truth I’m talking about is the stuff that gets distorted and compromised every time you write something down or open your mouth to speak, ­because your priority when communicating isn’t to represent your thoughts or feelings exactly but to make sense, to appear sane and comprehensible and ­appealing. I like working within that impossibility.
(…)
I think it’s important to reiterate that my novels aren’t realist. They’re not selective transcriptions of the real world. They’re highly organized missives from my imagination. When there’s a real-world resemblance, it’s there to create an atmosphere of familiarity that’s helpful as a comfort zone in which I can introduce things that are difficult and unsuspected. The characters are the main entrance into the work because they’re shaped like humans and they’re lit more brightly than their surroundings. But they’re not real—they don’t feel or think or want anything. Everything in the books is half mine and half the reader’s, and the characters are just enunciations of my ideas. All of that is in the work, and I realize it’s very difficult to get people not to think of characters in novels as their text-based friends, but a lot of misunderstanding is eliminated if they don’t.
Dennis Cooper, interviewed by Ira Silverberg for Paris Review, Fall 2011.

Huguette Caland, Self Portrait I, 1973, Oil on canvas. Via.

(…) when writers attempt to describe sex accurately, the scenes all tend to sound the same, no matter what the writers’ individual styles may be. I think most writers just want their sex scenes to be realistically sexy. My goal is to try to articulate what my characters wish to express during sex but can’t and to depict the way language is compromised by sex, as realistically as I can. The truth I’m talking about is the stuff that gets distorted and compromised every time you write something down or open your mouth to speak, ­because your priority when communicating isn’t to represent your thoughts or feelings exactly but to make sense, to appear sane and comprehensible and ­appealing. I like working within that impossibility.

(…)

I think it’s important to reiterate that my novels aren’t realist. They’re not selective transcriptions of the real world. They’re highly organized missives from my imagination. When there’s a real-world resemblance, it’s there to create an atmosphere of familiarity that’s helpful as a comfort zone in which I can introduce things that are difficult and unsuspected. The characters are the main entrance into the work because they’re shaped like humans and they’re lit more brightly than their surroundings. But they’re not real—they don’t feel or think or want anything. Everything in the books is half mine and half the reader’s, and the characters are just enunciations of my ideas. All of that is in the work, and I realize it’s very difficult to get people not to think of characters in novels as their text-based friends, but a lot of misunderstanding is eliminated if they don’t.

Dennis Cooper, interviewed by Ira Silverberg for Paris Review, Fall 2011.

Top, photograph via AFP/Getty, An employee holds a photograph entitled ‘Bee’ by US photographer Irving Penn taken in 1995, which is expected to reach £15,000-20,000 in auction at Christie’s in London, 2010. Via. See also, Irving Penn, Bee. Bottom, uncredited snap of the cover of Interview Magazine, Issue 2 with Lana Del Rey, photographed by Sean and Seng, 2012. Via. See also, Lynch x S&S.
See also, The Beauty Investigator.
—
The greatness of Warhol’s work was that he offered an astute response to contemporary culture at the same time that he forever changed its future course. His fetishization of fame and celebrity called out something that was already in the zeitgeist, and made it his bitch. In [Alex] Israel’s funny, harmless videos, you kind of get the feeling that the artist is the bitch; he’s made these awkward little Valentines to celebrity but their biggest draw is still, well, the celebrities.
Carol Cheh, James Franco and Alex Israel: Why Their Obsession With Celebrity Doesn’t Pay Off, for The LA Weekly, May 2012.

Top, photograph via AFP/Getty, An employee holds a photograph entitled ‘Bee’ by US photographer Irving Penn taken in 1995, which is expected to reach £15,000-20,000 in auction at Christie’s in London, 2010. Via. See also, Irving Penn, Bee. Bottom, uncredited snap of the cover of Interview Magazine, Issue 2 with Lana Del Rey, photographed by Sean and Seng, 2012. Via. See also, Lynch x S&S.

See also, The Beauty Investigator.

The greatness of Warhol’s work was that he offered an astute response to contemporary culture at the same time that he forever changed its future course. His fetishization of fame and celebrity called out something that was already in the zeitgeist, and made it his bitch. In [Alex] Israel’s funny, harmless videos, you kind of get the feeling that the artist is the bitch; he’s made these awkward little Valentines to celebrity but their biggest draw is still, well, the celebrities.

Carol Cheh, James Franco and Alex Israel: Why Their Obsession With Celebrity Doesn’t Pay Off, for The LA Weekly, May 2012.

What photographer wouldn't be delighted to get such a widespread audience for his work? Well, perhaps the one who didn't get much credit for it. Noah Kalina, the Brooklyn-based photographer who took the shot, tweeted out his own credit, but the photo on Zuckerberg's timeline — the one that went viral — didn't have his name anywhere on it. (A subsequent post crediting Kalina has only six likes). The introduction of photo-sharing was a crucial part of Facebook's financial success — all those amateur uploads helped make Zuckerberg a very wealthy man — and so it seems oddly fitting that Zuckerberg reflexively treated the professional photo, snapped by someone who originally made his fame through social sharing, like one of those amateur shots.

Noreen Malone, Meet Noah Kalina, the Zuckerberg Wedding Photographer and Former Viral-Video Sensation, for The New York Magazine, May 2012.

See also, I just took this photo. I’ll tell you about it later., and Priscilla and Mark - 20120519.

May 22, 2012
Left, photograph by Mustafa Sabbagh. Via. And more via his Tumblr. Right, photograph by Nobuyoshi Araki. Via.
More TV screens.
See also, Mustafa Sabbagh x Leonora Carrington.
—
Sous ce masque un autre masque. Je n’en finirai pas de soulever tous ces visages.
Claude Cahun. Via.

Left, photograph by Mustafa SabbaghVia. And more via his Tumblr. Right, photograph by Nobuyoshi Araki. Via.

More TV screens.

See also, Mustafa Sabbagh x Leonora Carrington.

Sous ce masque un autre masque. Je n’en finirai pas de soulever tous ces visages.

Claude Cahun. Via.

Just Friends (Nicolas Jaar & Sasha Spielberg), Avalanche, 2012.

This track appeared on the uneven but at times pretty fabulous (like this excerpt where Angelo Badalamenti talks about Twin Peaks) BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix from last week. From the forthcoming album but not really The Prism, 2012. Via.

Gray-haired, executive-type men in well-starched suits wander through, surveying the exhibition like they’re kicking the tires on a brand new Mercedes. Clichés manifest, clutter, recede, repeat; tautology rules. “That’s a motorcycle in a pool,” proclaims one exec, pointing to a motorcycle in a pool. (…) “Oh yeah. I like him . . . ” Franco begins, but their interview is interrupted by a blonde starlet with unlatched eyes and an available smile.

Andrew Berardini, Los Angeles Plays Itself, for Art Forum, May 2012.

May 19, 2012
Left, photograph by Brea Souders, Mille-Fleurs, from the series Counterforms. Via. Bottom, photograph by Nico Krijno, Honey, 2012. Via.

Left, photograph by Brea Souders, Mille-Fleurs, from the series Counterforms. Via. Bottom, photograph by Nico Krijno, Honey, 2012. Via.

Left, photograph by Emma Arvida Bystrom, from the series There Will Be Blood, for Vice Magazine, May 2012. Via. Right, scan of a page from the book Kodachrome, by Luigi Ghirri,  published by Punto e Virgola, 1978. Via. More spreads here.
—
In Arab popular traditions, there’s a belief that if a manuscript were to be submerged in water and its ink were to dissolve, drinking the water would transform the knowledge contained in that manuscript into the body of the drinker and become part of the body’s system.
Anton Shammas, The Drowned Library. Via.

Left, photograph by Emma Arvida Bystrom, from the series There Will Be Blood, for Vice Magazine, May 2012. Via. Right, scan of a page from the book Kodachrome, by Luigi Ghirri,  published by Punto e Virgola, 1978. Via. More spreads here.

In Arab popular traditions, there’s a belief that if a manuscript were to be submerged in water and its ink were to dissolve, drinking the water would transform the knowledge contained in that manuscript into the body of the drinker and become part of the body’s system.

Anton Shammas, The Drowned Library. Via.

Music video for Namosh, Cold Cream, 2005, directed by Daniel Steiner & Nic Romm.

Summer now.