“Magic in Manhattan or Witchcraft Around Us”
Abracadabra Department comes from a film from ’58, set in the Village about beatnik witchcraft, so it feels odd not to be updating about the magic I’ve been dealing with while I’m back in New York awhile. All that will come. Words, photos, smiles, you betcha I won’t fuhgeddaboudit. But for now: SHOUTS OUTS to [...]
The World Backwards
Stealing a minute at home before heading out again yesterday afternoon, I was listening to Tender Buttons. As Corporeal came on, I glanced to my left and saw the above on my wall. Light reflecting through a palm tree and old glass, hovering above my bed like a curious crystal. The news of Trish Keenan’s [...]
“C’mon Jill, be a lady”
I was sad to come across the obituary for Jill Johnston in the NY Times today. Had never even heard of D.A. Pennebaker’s Town Bloody Hall ’79 documentary (how had I not?) that was mentioned in it, footage of a debate on the subject of women’s lib in ’71 in New York, chaired by Norman [...]
Merci
Above: from the set of Les Bonnes Femmes “Certainly I’m happy right now making these films about murder. My interest isn’t in solving puzzles, but in studying human behavior. Nothing else interests me so much. I’m not a chansonnier, a man obsessed with the events of the day. I am a Communist, certainly, but that [...]
The planets align so rare
Thirty yesterday! Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s (below) Oval Composition with Abstract Motifs (1919) and Sonia Delaunay Dubonnet’s Prose du transsiberien et la petite (1915-16), a walk through the Botanic Gardens, highland scotch with rad girls at the club bar with a crackling fireplace and a unicorn atop the mantle, Mikie’s latest mix on repeat, holding a hand [...]
I know you are but what am I
THIS is what friends are for. Pee-wee is clearly both for good times and bad times and this vest will be on my sides forevermore. When I get calls from Samuel telling me he just found something for me and I’ll “die,” I know he’s right. Particularly if he found it in the gutter or [...]
Special delivery
Oh that Carl Williamson and his many, many skills. I felt lucky to receive one of his ceramic pieces in the mail yesterday, so heavy those pigeons must have huffed and puffed all the way. Described as a “vessel” for customs, it has a lid that can be sat innie or outtie. The latter resembles [...]
ist still rad
The last time I saw Pavement (’95), I’d never heard of the internet. Imagine that. When it arrived in my family home one of the first things I looked up was a Pavement website. It had an IRC section — as was hot at the time — and it was both goofy and cruel. You [...]
Masculine arrogance blows
An ode to Jonathan Richman’s views on masculine arrogance and aggression, and how he will always be a heavyweight to me. Also an ode to curious misspellings of his name. “I have nothing against aggression, it’s just that it’s not my line of work” (from an appearance on French TV show Houba-Houba, 1982) UPDATE: Jonathan [...]
We’ve all been to see McQueen
Of all the prominent fashion designers, McQueen was easily the most imbued with a sense of heavy, heavy magic. The whole Fall ’07 collection remains one of the best selections of fanciful notions I’ve ever seen. Oh for that gold Amazonian armour!