February 08, 2005
Outsider Art
Please peruse Into the Realms of Henry Darger, a great metafilter. entry. Darger is the quintessential "Outsider" artist, having completed a 15,000+ page book with over 300 illustrations without ever sharing it with anyone. Upon his removal to a nursing home, his work was found. It's subject matter (decidely NSFW), the fantastical resistance of the "Vivian Girls" to the "Glandelinians," strikes many as the obsession of a potential serial killer and pedophile (there's no physical evidence he was either). Upon being told of the discovery of his work, Darger's response was "it's too late now." As evidenced by the metafilter thread, though Darger attempted to remove himself from the rest of the art world, since its discovery, Darger's work has influenced a lot of other artists.
I've recently checked out from the library a book length poem by John Ashbury titled, "Girls on the Run." This poem is very loosely based on Darger's work.
I also recently found John MacGregor's Henry Darger: Into the Realms of the Unreal. I've checked it out and loaned it to Pil. MacGregor is a psychologist who has spent the last decade researching the art of the insane. More reviews of MacGregor's work.
Recently, Jessica Yu has prepared a documentary on Henry Darger, which is currently screening around the country. In the Boston area, this movie is playing Thursday , February 10, at 5:00 p.m. at the MFA, or at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum on Saturday, March 19, at 6:30 p.m.. Anyone interested in 81 minutes of film on a 15,000+ page book with over 300 illustrations?
February 03, 2005
Ma Ya Hi
It's O-Zone! (My google fu failed me in trying to find the band's website. Actually, I only made a half-hearted effort.)
I really wanted to post this, like, three weeks ago, but was too busy (read lazy). Now that Chhavi's beat me to it, I've got to bring it on and like, make sure she get's served.
Nothing could possibly beat the Kung Fu Crew's performane in downtown Brooklyn on New Year's Eve. But, as I (thankfully) don't have the video of that seminal event I can't share it. So instead, perhaps an afternoon's amusement to entice the current holders of said video to make it available to an appreciative audience?
The Skinny:
Here's the video that started it all.
Go read this post at Metafilter.
And of course there must be imitators:
This guy scares me (and I think I like it)
We could NOT have taken TRAVIS!!! Not without a lot more work and extra effort! I want to see all of you at all the extra pracitces after classes!!! I mean, we've gotta put in the time if we want to take STATE!!!
And just for kicks: wax on, wax off (and obligatory mefi ref)
And yes, I did go straight to the Itunes music store and buy the single of Ma Ya Hi, so we can all get right to work in Romainian, Italian and English! (There's even a dub version) We're gonna rock a routine to this that's so tight it won't let go of ya!!!