LOW ARCHITECTURE 10: YAMAHA BX-5

The above bass is,  I believe,  Yamaha's only headless design for the Eighties,  and certainly a brazen attempt to capture a bit of the Steinberger mojo of the time.  The 4-string version is probably the better bet,  as its humbucking pickups seem more suited to faithfully producing the tonality of fewer strings.  Nonetheless the BX-5  is a wonderfully compact instrument with its unique hard-edged geometric body shape and neck-thru design.  I found it easier to play than most 5-string basses,  whose necks generally are too wide for my playing style.

GOIKE CASE UPDATE

Matthew Goike tells me that my case is essentially finished and ready to ship,  except for one small matter,  the power.   It seems that TipTop is moving very very slowly. Matthew has been great about this,  but I'm sure many customers are growing impatient with TipTop.

VOCE

I WAS AN "INDUSTRIAL" ARTIST #11

These are three of the paintings I produced for Skin Chamber's second release called TRIAL (1993),  though only two of them were used in the final product.  They are quite textural to eye and  hand,  as I further explored the use of a palm sander on wood panel (7" x 7"). They are mixed-media works utilizing photo-collage,  acrylic paints and medium,  modeling paste, fire,  scrap paper,  drill as drawing device,  and pieces of metal.  The record label Roadrunner was dissatisfied with the pinkish hue of the front cover artwork,  so they cropped the edges considerably.  In keeping with the rather cliched imagery of "industrial" music where extreme ugliness and/or brutality equals profundity,  I basically tore the face apart,  distressed it,  then roughly reassembled it,  and further altered it with various tools and processes. With time and distance assisting my present opinion,  all I can come up with is a resounding yawn.  As painterly surfaces I very much like them.

LOW ARCHITECTURE 9: HONDO "FLASH" BASS

This quirky headless and nearly bodiless bass was originally designed by Harry Fleishman  in the late seventies and was called the "Bassic IV". It was one of the first headless and non-winged basses,  and as such,  was ultra lightweight (about four pounds) and quite long in scale (three octaves). It's "open backstock" at the end of the body visually reinforced those qualities and made space for right-handed tuning. This design was later sold to Hondo during the eighties and was dubbed the "Flash" bass. A single Jazz Bass pickup was joined by a Piezo on the "Bassic IV" version,  but was left off of the Hondo.  Those with a taste for minimal design,  non-existent back back problems,  extreme reach,  and good playability loved both incarnations.

I WAS AN "INDUSTRIAL" ARTIST #10

The above images were produced as I was doing the artwork/design for Controlled Bleeding's DUB SONGS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE (1995),  and while  only the bottom painting was used for production,  they were all plainly related in content/approach. I guess it was my way of not only accenting the artist's touch/gesture (using drill and power sander to manipulate the painted image),   but also a way of giving organic form greater immediacy. This technique was used to even greater effect later on as we shall see.

OPTIK: DAYS OF HEAVEN

Strangely enough,  the only other Terrence Malik film I have ever seen is BADLANDS (1973),  and it somehow barely left an impression forty years later.  Memory and nostalgia have taken turns to little effect,  sadly.  I recently experienced Criterion's Blu-ray edition of DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978),  and I must say that its visual poetry and embrace of nature (environmental and personal,  both ineffable) blew me away. While there is emotional drama here,  the personal is swept away by the elemental (fire) and even the Biblical  (a swarm of locusts).  It seems to be a film about the beauty,  banality,  power  and profundity of that outer nature,  qualities that also materialize in the wonderful voiceover by Linda Manz (whose apparently improvised lines were later edited into its present form).  Her strangely twisted voice (a bizarre NYC accent) pokes unexpectedly in and out of a soundtrack containing scant dialogue,  balancing between sense and nonsense,  while also hinting at troubling truths and insights.


“I met this guy named Ding-Dong.
He tell me the whole earth is going up in flames.
Flames will come out of here and there, and it’ll just rise up.
The mountains are going to go up in big flames.
The water’s going to rise in flames.
There’s going to be creatures running every which way, some of them burnt, half their wings burnin.
People are going to be screaming and howling for help.
They—The people that’s been good, they’re going to go to heaven and escape all that fire.
But if you’ve been bad, God don’t even hear you. He don’t even hear you"


Linda's narration is the human factor in a film that is nearly overwhelmed by Nature.  The other star here is light itself,  tamed and made all the more tactile by cinematographer Nestor Almendros.  Suggestions of Vermeer and Andrew Wyeth abound,  and help us connect with the landscapes and the few interior shots. I won't even go into the plot here,  as the film's visuals are far more important then the dialogue between actors.  DAYS OF HEAVEN initially puzzled audiences expecting Hollywood,  but now seems like the first breath of a new kind of visual storytelling.

ORGANIZATION: The CONTROL Cable Holder

Thirty three slots of organizational wonder from those modular kids in Brooklyn. A much needed device for people with piles of bananas or 8th inch cables.  Thanks Jonas and Daren!

I WAS AN "INDUSTRIAL" ARTIST #9

TEXT ONE from Banned Production (run by composer AMK) was released in 1989 as a cassette showcase for artists whose primary concern was language (found,  self-produced,  manipulated, edited,  collaged,  etc.).  Gregory Whitehead and blackhumour provided audio and texts,  while I designed the package and created the illustration.  All work here may seem primitive by today's dazzling technical standards,  but its rawness and immediacy make it all the more interesting.  In a world filled with the banality of Facebook and Twitter,  this seems like the "real" thing.  Long live cassettes and xerox!

OPTIK: VANISHING POINT

This film from 1970 continues the genre of "existential road movie"  that sprung up at around the same time and included such films as TWO-LANE BLACKTOP and EASY RIDER.  Generally,  they depict an individual or individuals who seem to have freed themselves  from societal constraints and pay a high personal sum for their "otherness".  Unlike EASY RIDER (1969),  VANISHING POINT has hardly aged at all,  as Kowalski (Barry Newman) isn't mired in any sort of counter-cultural concern.  His history is seen in a series of flashbacks that help us understand his present actions,  yet we still question his motivation as the film progresses. The basic premise here is a bet he makes with a friend (a drug dealer)  that he can deliver a muscle car (a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum) to California from Colorado in a weekend,  and in doing so satisfy some ambiguous personal need. Cleavon Little as "Super Soul",  a blind Black DJ follows his journey and speaks directly to him  via the car radio as a sort of combination greek chorus and cheer leader.  The people (hippies,  a snake handler,  some gay men,  racists,  a nude female motorcyclist) Kowalski encounters on his odyssey help illuminate his character and his need for freedom.  While some may consider Kowalski's undoing at the film's end a "downer",  one could also interpret his charge toward light and eternity in terms of both hope and redemption,  something that was about to change drastically as the Seventies limped along.  

CIBO: SPAGHETTI FRESCA

On days like these (meaning snowed-in and plenty of free time) there are always creative options available to us.  In this case,  pasta-making continues unabated and deliciously so. 

THIS IS HOW WE DEFORM: Blue Lantern Modulation Center

A message from the folks at Blue Lantern:

No manual yet, but the only thing that requires some knowledge or advice is the gate/trig section. Have the switch on 'lag' to use the trigger input. Have the switch on 'gate' to use the gate input. When you use gate mode you have to activate a gate to initiate the effect. Use the 'vib' out to hear the effect I am taking about.

On back, the top most trimmers on the right are the octave track adjusters. The 100k trimmer way at the bottom right is to adjust the sync threshold.

I WAS AN "INDUSTRIAL" ARTIST #8

This is one of the illustrations that was used for FRAGMENT 3 (1991),  featuring soundworks from Vidna Obmana and PBK. Interviews with the two artists  and another manifesto from Hater G.X. Jupitter-Larsen were again part of the cassette package.  My works (six acrylic paintings on illustration board,  seven and three quarters by four inches) were cropped and reassembled into three complete illustrations. They had a kind of Di Chirico-esque feel to them,  with simple geometric shapes,  amorphic natural elements,  a suggestion of puzzle pieces,  and dark indefinite spaces.

NEW GOIKE CASE

I received an update from Matthew Goike today concerning my biggest and certainly most beautiful Eurorack case,  one that with five levels (104 HP) should once and for all contain the bulk of my two TipTop cases and Happy Ending case.  "Should" is the operative word here.

CIBO: Homemade Pasta

After so many years and so many visits to Rome,  we've finally gotten around to making our own  fresh pasta. Cousin Maria from the Ostiense section of the Eternal City often demonstrated her considerable cooking skills for us,  and they formed an invaluable educational tool that is equal parts hunger and nostalgia.  Our fettuccine or "little ribbons"  came out remarkably well,  as did the malfatti (badly made)  pasta that came entirely from scraps of the earlier procedure.

THE DREAMER HAS AWAKENED: ED KOCH (1924-2013)

I was saddened to hear of the death of Ed Koch this past week,  as he seemed to epitomize the rough and tumble character of NYC during my early "adult"  years when I had been roaming the downtown streets both scared and seduced by the mayhem I witnessed.  That he was liberal,  approachable, and non-dogmatic made him more a character than a politician,  although he certainly helped rescue a city on the brink of both economic and social crisis.  He was never afraid to speak his mind.  I remember sitting in front of 420 West Broadway on a rather warm spring day, quite near to a guy who was openly smoking weed.  As luck would have it,  Mr. Koch and his small entourage turned on to West Broadway from Prince,  and as he neared us the pot smoker loudly asked "How'm I Doin'?".  Unflustered,  Mr. Koch answered "Great!" beaming a wonderful smile as continued walking.  He clearly didn't seem to mind anyone stealing his best lines.

I WAS AN "INDUSTRIAL " ARTIST #7

This artwork from 1994 was part of Controlled Bleedings's SONGS FROM THE DRAIN CD released by Dossier in Germany.  The medium here is xerox collage,  acrylic varnish and paint.  Yes,  those are my hands that were xeroxed,  painted,  and sanded to a degree of distress.  It may have been my first foray into trompe l'oeil,  a technique that slowly became an important part of my work after this piece. I'm only now seeing an element of trickery in this that I find somewhat dissatisfying artistically.