“In the most remarkable development of his long and protean artistic career, he took a job basically parodying himself in a series of commercials for a German hardware-store chain. These ads, for Hornbach, a building-supply store not unlike Home Depot, are amazing: They feature Bargeld sitting at a desk in odd locations (often wearing a white straw hat similar to the one that the dying Von Aschenbach wears in the Visconti film of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice), and reading, as angry declamation, technical descriptions of items such as power drills from the Hornbach catalogue. He makes them sound like furious poetry. This collaboration was not merely sarcastic, either: It was considered both advertising and a serious artistic project for Bargeld, who said that he wanted to explore the confrontation of the commercial and the underground.”
- from Einsturzende Neubauten: Germany’s masters of musical mayhem – The Globe and Mail

I’m seeing Einstuerzende Neubauten on the 14th and 15th. The first night is an evening of film, reading and solo performances by the members of the band. The second is a proper concert.

Erwin Olaf Interview from Katharina on Vimeo.

I don’t have a lot of Dutch heroes. The two that I have are both photographers. Erwin Olaf is one of them. VPRO television aired a marathon interview with this 51 year old photographer this evening, in which he talked about his work and various tv, film and documentary fragments that meant something to him. He came intelligent, humble, inspired and passionate. Feedback on Twitter re: the show and Erwin was extremely positive (#1 trending topic) all evening and went into overdrive during his fiery rant near the end of the show, in which he called for people to unite, be brave and strike back at the growing intolerance and violence against gay men and women in our nation’s capital in particular.

Recent work by Erwin Olaf

Hugh Laurie, that’s House MD to you, has the hell airbrushed out of him for this poster for the new season of House which starts September 20.

Via Ausiello

Drifting and Tilting – The Songs of Scott Walker
Barbican Theatre, November 13, 14, 15

review to follow

This Volkswagen commercial combines ‘Lost in Translation’-type images with Richard Burton’s evocative reading of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. Gorgeous. (via Vanderzande.com).

I’m not that keen on motorcars in general, but I do keep telling people that driving through cities at night and London in particular is one of my favourite things in the whole wide world.

See also www.night-driving.com.

Puppetmaker and musician Erik Sanko (Lounge Lizzards, Tom Waits, Lou Reed.) has created a puppet show called The Fortune Teller. He made the puppets and wrote the music with Danny Elfman. Pre-recorded narration courtesy of the great Gavin Friday.

The show opens at the HERE Theatre in New York on October 19th and will play through the 31st.

‘The Fortune Teller reveals a world of curiosities as seven unusual characters are invited to the estate of a late millionaire industrialist and informed they’ve been included in his will,’

The Fortune Teller
Created and Directed by Erik Sanko
Original Music composed by Danny Elfman and Erik Sanko
October 19-31, 2006 | Tickets ($20.00)

This is what I’ve been immersed in for the last two months (regular readers will perhaps have picked up on the Germanic flavour of certain items and links here), basically doing research and lending a hand wherever I can. Nothing major, mind. It isn’t a ‘job’, it’s sort of a string of small favours. What I get in return is the joy of being part of the process, which is just endlessly fascinating.

My trip to Dublin has been booked for a while now, eventhough the contracts hadn’t even been signed. I had faith.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a summer break in Ireland, as far as I remember. I’m going over for a week, arriving a few days before the shows to do what I can during the last two production days. I can’t wait to see it and find out which of my tiny contributions survive and come alive on stage.

I know it’s going to be brilliant.

Ich bin 6 m gross und alles ist wichtig
Ich bin 9 m gross und alles ist mehr als wichtig
Ich bin 12 m gross und alles ist unvorstellbar

Watching Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 4 and 5 at the Filmmuseum on Tuesday, we kept thinking ‘I get it now’, and ‘Oh, that’s symbolic for…’, and ‘Surely that must mean…’, “OMG, beyond Freudian…’, but mostly, ‘Um… maybe not.’

I kept looking for clues, for… story, rather than meaning, in these dialogue-free films, but the images and sound, though mostly compelling, made the kind of sense that’s, well, not. A tap dancing satyr, a diva, Houdini, a hero, motor cyclists, the Isle of Man, water, Ursula Andress singing in Hungarian, a horned ram, goo, Budapest, doves and wandering gonads…

Did you know ‘Cremaster’ is the name of a muscle? To be precise, it’s the muscle that raises and lowers the scrotum.

Barney, according to the booklet we picked up from the theater, is obsessed with the human body and the cycle of life. That much was clear. We came away from the films impressed and bewildered, but convinced that perhaps there was no story to either film, and that the imagery was just what it was.

How wrong we were. The synopses on the Cremaster cycle website reveal the elaborate truth, the complex mix of myth and biology. It’s all bollocks, ‘course but isn’t that art? Beautiful bollocks? I buy it.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to catch part 1 and 2 (though there’s a remedy), which are only on in the daytime, but I’ve booked to see part 3 next Sunday. Did you know Barney is Mr Björk? ‘Course you did.