Anodyne
Friday, November 29, 2013
 

Soundtrack for my next exhibition, the best new song I've heard all this long hard year.  CBC Radio 2 at the side of Highway 17 near dusk just north of the new Fraser Perimeter Road, the big trucks from Duke Point spinning past, the wind of their passage rocking the parked Subaru from side to side in the half light. 

Lyrics altered from various internet versions to accurately represent what I hear when I listen.

The Desert Babbler
Lyrics & music by Samuel Ervin Beam

It's New Year's Eve
California's gonna kill you soon
The Barstow boys
Buckeyes in the shadow of the moon
 
Black houses in the hills and roadside haunts
Dying for a place to fall apart
Who knew what you could learn to live without
Mother Mary's lying in your mouth
 
Now back home the kitchen's warm with Christmas wine
And every girl has got an axe to grind
You live to look for hell, man
But you're far from the hard light tonight
 
So, quietly, we've lost another year
The desert put a babbler in your ear
He will find a way to not miss you again 
Barstow boys all spit into the wind
 
Now back home the hammer always has to fall
Cross is barely hanging on the wall
Some day I know you'll never leave me
But we're far from the hard light tonight.
- posted by cjb @ 10:15 PM
 

- posted by cjb @ 12:05 AM
 

- posted by cjb @ 12:04 AM
Thursday, November 28, 2013
 

Mechanics' coveralls, c. 1978

(Compare w/ #5)
- posted by cjb @ 11:03 PM
 

Maurice & Robin still alive in this new theremin-inflected LA song's beautiful chorus. 
- posted by cjb @ 10:54 PM
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
 
Halloween (1978) Blu-Ray Movie Screenshots

#8, #21, #32
- posted by cjb @ 11:42 PM
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
 

An evening with Joe Sacco, interviewed by Charlie Smith & yours truly.
- posted by cjb @ 7:42 PM
Monday, November 25, 2013
 

Test footage, 1978
- posted by cjb @ 9:16 PM
Saturday, November 23, 2013
 
Kindred spirit Mr. Hervé Attia, whose motivations and process, at least as described here, share many parallels with mine.

"The exciting part of the ordeal is not only to visit the location, but it’s the communication as well. You meet people."
- posted by cjb @ 8:46 AM
Friday, November 22, 2013
 
The past is gone but something might be found to take its place.
- posted by cjb @ 11:13 PM
 

"Up for sale is one of the most amazing masks I have ever seen or owned. This is a Nightowl productions Shat mask converted by THE one and only Mike All Hallows Ghost (AHG)!!!! This was bought as a blank from Justin Mabry and shipped to Mike AHG. This is THE #1 Nightowl/AHG Shat myers mask copy!!!!!!! Considered by many to be the best copy of the Nightowl converted Shat. AHG personally felt this was one of his best and all time favorite conversions. I am ONLY selling this mask and a few other of my high end ticketed myers mask [sic] to fund other important projects and picked a few that would move faster. I DO NOT HAVE TO SELL THIS so it will not sell cheap. First few pics courtesy of AHG and the rest were mine. Paypal only and will only ship to the 48 continental states in the USA. Will ship usps priority with signature confirmation and fully insured. All sales final. You do not want miss buying this Nightowl/AHG Shat #1!!!!!! 9/7/13 BIG PRICE DROP!!!! GET IT FAST!!!!"
- posted by cjb @ 8:38 AM
 

- posted by cjb @ 12:26 AM
 

Rodney Graham, various stills from Aberdeen, 2000
- posted by cjb @ 12:17 AM
 

- posted by cjb @ 12:12 AM
Thursday, November 21, 2013
 
Someone writes from overseas to ask, in lightly broken English, if my practice is modelled on Rodney Graham's, or Tim Lee's.

I like most of Rodney's work, but wouldn't know how to begin modelling it.  His early textual extensions and low-tech slide dissolve, Aberdeen, were & remain important to me.

Tim Lee?  Jiminy Cricket's advice, as always, pertains.
- posted by cjb @ 7:47 PM
 
"I’m a 42-year-old man, but if I see a stuffed animal lying on its face, I will still move it into a seated position so it can see."  (@sween)
- posted by cjb @ 7:17 PM
Monday, November 18, 2013
 
Lynda strolls up to her house. Annie and Laurie start down the street.
CAMERA MOVES IN to a CLOSE SHOT of Laurie's face. She stares ahead
along the sidewalk.

56 LAURIE'S POV - MOVING SHOT - BUSHES

Up the sidewalk is a series of bushes lining the street. There,
partially hidden in the shadows of a bush, IS THE SHAPE OF A MAN,
watching them. He is barely visible, almost blending in with the dark
foliage.

57 ANGLE ON LAURIE - ANNIE

  LAURIE
 Look.

  ANNIE
 Look where?

  LAURIE
 Behind that bush there.

Annie looks

58 POV - MOVING SHOT - BUSHES

The shape is gone. Just bushes.

- posted by cjb @ 7:54 PM
Sunday, November 17, 2013
 

Work Wear Corporation Blue HBT Coveralls, c. 1978
- posted by cjb @ 12:36 PM
 

Study for Haddonfield, 2012-4
- posted by cjb @ 10:51 AM
 

- posted by cjb @ 8:55 AM
Saturday, November 16, 2013
 
"[The film's] primary concern will be with the way in which we see ourselves and others and the consequences that often attend our usual manner of perception."
- posted by cjb @ 1:46 PM
 
Spirit Animal

Standing outside PFB in pouring rain under the big awning by the bargain books with a friend.  Tap, tap on my foot.  Look down & there's a pigeon squab, draggled grey adolescent feathers half-moulted.  Tap, tap again.

-Richard, what do you see?

-That little bird?  It's pretty brave.

Hallucination ruled out, our man kneels down on the wet pavement. 

-Hey there.  Are you OK?

The squab cocks its head.  Poops.  Struts off under the bargain-book table.

Thirty seconds' conversation.  When we next look down the squab is gone.

-Did you see...?

-It was there just a second ago!

Into PFB to see if the squab slipped in the out door.

-Did you see a little bird come in just now?  A squab?  It's moulting.

-GREAT!  That means it can't fly.  We can eat it! 

Then, upon seeing my face:

-Sorry CJB.

Squab, in Phil Collins' words, "vanished into air."

[EDIT, Saturday AM: Squab hanging around the front door c. 7am.  Strutted up to me without any sign of anxiety, pecked my foot again, then flew up into the little tree opposite the front door. Definitely not the same animal as the last two, but I think the species remembers].
- posted by cjb @ 9:18 AM
 

To a local venue with a friend to cheer on Ms. Anita Getaway & the rest of the Screaming Chickens.  But, this life being what it is, also an opportunity for further research into one of my five ongoing topics of conversation.

Q:  Hey, why did CJB wander away from the table?

A: Angles.

The light strings in the ceiling, the ancient chandeliers, and the repeating geometric wallpaper pattern along the upper balcony are great gifts to photographers everywhere.
- posted by cjb @ 8:54 AM
Friday, November 15, 2013
 

Anyone else catch the James Ensor portrait on Laurie's bedroom wall?
- posted by cjb @ 5:16 PM
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
 
Book Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. - 160 pages, hundreds of photographs, many in the vernacular style, street scenes, strikers, landfill, garbage, garages, industrial landscapes, etc.
- posted by cjb @ 4:14 PM
Sunday, November 10, 2013
 

- posted by cjb @ 10:48 PM
 

Trail maintenance, en route to Statlu Lake.
- posted by cjb @ 6:33 PM
Wednesday, November 06, 2013
 

- posted by cjb @ 4:42 AM
Tuesday, November 05, 2013
 

- posted by cjb @ 9:58 PM
 

Sylvia Grace Borda, October 2013, 2013

Portrait of an old friend & a familiar motif.
- posted by cjb @ 9:48 PM
 

"Not all artists are noted for their humor, lightness, gaiety and wit. In all the years I knew Jeff Wall I only heard him crack one joke, but it was a pretty good one. I came late to the Bodega, where we used to drink, and he was with Rodney and a couple of other people having a great time making up their own epitaphs. Jeff’s was 'His First Sculpture.'"
- posted by cjb @ 8:32 PM
Sunday, November 03, 2013
 

- posted by cjb @ 10:36 AM
Saturday, November 02, 2013
 

Disarming Corruptor

"In a time of prolific online espionage, crackdowns on file-sharing, and a growing concern for the 3D printing of illegal items and copyright protected artefacts, DC is a free software application that helps people to circumvent these issues. Inspired by encryption rotor machines such as the infamous Enigma Machine, the application runs an algorithm that is used to both corrupt STL files into a visually-illegible state by glitching and rotating the 3D mesh, and to allow a recipient to reverse the effect to restore it back to its original form."
- posted by cjb @ 11:52 AM
 
"A very long time ago I discovered that although hypothetically [wasps] have an annual lifecycle with all the wasps except the new queens dying off in the fall, in a mild coastal climate if a 7 year old finds a big nest in February and brings it to show and tell, once the nest warms up there may be a few live wasps left inside."

(Words of wisdom from clubtread.com's alexcanuck)
- posted by cjb @ 10:19 AM

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