square white world

Yes, think of the long history of the attempt to build an instrument to synthesise the human voice.

Now, let the machines do the talking.

The Act of Killing

explain

Ghost Wave supporting, I couldn’t like, didn’t in fact abide. Left. Drank vodka watching the predominance of beardy males – about two to one / m/f – entering the venue and the smokers going out.

Back inside the room filling – a drink-heavy crowd.

The awful discovery that moshing is now ironic. There was ‘moshing.’ But we danced around it, picking up off the floor the occasional fallen blonde. Watching out for nose-bone injury from the backs of ‘moshers” heads. Keeping at arm’s length the truly smelly ones and avoiding the fat drunk bastards. And that guy who kept having to go back for drinks and would then muscle his way through to the front making a point of looking dangerous. Surely the bearded man-boy with the aquiline nose in the short-sleeve white thermal was gay. Who was the mysterious woman who did the special wrists-crossed-above-my-head-to-show-off-my-lovely-arm-tats dance? Was it her who left alone in the faux fur?

Another thing I want to say is the fact that gttnieg hold of duplicates of your credit rating in order to scrutinize accuracy of each detail will be the first measures you have to perform in credit restoration. You are looking to cleanse your credit report from harmful details mistakes that damage your credit score.

…

1. There’s money to be made in any economy.
Tony Soprano, complaining that his captains aren’t bringing in more money: “Sil, break it down for them. What two businesses have traditionally been recession-proof since time immemorial?”

Silvio Dante: “Certain aspects of show business . . . and our thing.”

Tony: “Now, that’s it. That’s all I’ve gotta say. Frankly, I’m depressed and ashamed.”

2. Invest in land.
Tony talking to his son: “Buy land, A.J., ’cause God ain’t making any more of it.”

3. Being the boss is lonely.
Tony: “All due respect, you got no (expletive) idea what it’s like to be No. 1. Every decision you make affects every facet of every other (expletive) thing. It’s too much to deal with almost. And in the end you’re completely alone with it all.”

4. Make up your mind and stick with it.
Tony: “A wrong decision is better than indecision.”

5. Delegate.
Tony to one of his men: “It’s your job to make my job easier.”

6. Pick up the tab and smile.
Tony to Christopher Moltisanti: “You know how many tabs, how many dinners, I’ve picked up over the years? . . . It’s a sign of respect. Why don’t you cheer up? One day some kid will be paying for your dinners.”

– from here

Hugo Shrimpton-Smith’s latest photo book, Shot By Shrimpton-Smith, is a gem on several levels.  The book is packed with full-page shots showing that Shrimpton-Smith, still true to his roots as a pioneer of transgressive cinema, has developed well beyond them.  The images work technically as photos, physically as soft-core eroticism, critically as comments on how that success is determined, with a well-honed sophistication that is at once sensual and cold.  The pages of quotes that open each sequence make clear that Shrimpton-Smith is acutely observant of each model’s quirks and foibles, ready to accept them in ways that put the model at ease or, in the case of the toilet shoots, allow her to be self-conscious and nervous, as well as to understand them as curious clues that reveal a larger social context, also pointed out in Mavis Cocklebury’s interview.  Yet again, Ellbogen’s Sexy Book Editor Ute Hammerstein has done an excellent job.

A crucial element that sets this book apart is what’s revealed in the DVD, with soundtracks by Maurice Throb, included inside the back cover. Shrimpton-Smith’s warm rapport with the models is striking.  Far from the grueling slogs that photo shoots are often known to be, Shrimpton-Smith makes them fun. The DVD is full of shots of models giggling, laughing, chastising mosquitoes, openly enjoying the moment as Shrimpton-Smith, an equally active participant, captures it.  Splendidly.

“What the comedy is now – it’s not like the 80s – what it is now, it’s a load of people and they all hate their electrical appliances.”

– Stewart Lee

The 55th Universal Display has arrived, and with it brings a new state of trends which are pontificated around, with a chuckle, a sense of forced opportunity and the shrugged sigh of ‘well, everyone’s doing this now apparently.’ Outsider artworks (echoing Du Plat and Feeley) are aesthetically valuable, precisely insofar as they haven’t been created for the sole purpose of critique, nor for being deliberately market-friendly (the last point is quite contentious). They are what they are. Or at least, ‘what they are’ is grouped around a deviation from the mainstream ‘norm’.

Matt Kransky, is currently studying an MPhil/PhD at Cymru University. His thesis focuses on Algorithmic Artworks, Art Formalism and Speculative Realist Ontologies, looking at digital artworks which operate as configurable units rather than networked systems, and attain independent autonomy themselves which are capable of aesthetics, rather than any supposed primary function as communicative, rational tools. The working title is Algorithm, Contingency and The Non-Human: The Aesthetics of Undecidability in Computational Art.