"The megatechnic bribe dazzles people by muddling the distinction between, to use a comparison Mumford was fond of, 'the goods life' and 'the good life.' But megatechnic blackmail threatens those who grow skeptical of this patina of  'the good life' that they can either settle for 'the goods life' or they can look forward to an invisible life on the margins. Those who can’t be bribed are blackmailed. Thus it is no longer just that the myth of the machine is based on the idea that the megamachine is 'absolutely irresistible' and 'ultimately beneficial' but that it now includes the idea that to push back is 'unforgivably detrimental.'"
- posted by cjb @ 2:39 PM

 

Unceded Territory

We've seen it hard, we've seen it kind of rough  (Funkadelic)
- posted by cjb @ 9:14 AM

 

They don't know what they have here, 2018

Performance. Vancouver Art Gallery, mid-September.
- posted by cjb @ 8:09 PM

 

"Four descending organ notes open the song in a pattern that repeats, unchanged, for the length of the song, joined in time by a hypnotic five-beat drum pattern, then by seemingly random guitar notes that slowly coalesce into an actual riff as the drum pattern breaks down into a more standard (though still tricky) rock beat. Hollow, ringing sounds that could be a gamelan, a prepared piano, or a really large set of wind chimes ricochet around as the guitar, organ, drums, and an almost subliminal one-note bass line gather themselves into a throbbing wall of sound that sounds like an American indie guitar rock version of Can's hyperkinetic Krautrock grooves. Around four and a half minutes in, drummer Georgia Hubley begins singing, in an endearingly offhand manner, vague lyrics that are deliberately mixed well below the rest of the track; in two lengthy verses, the only phrase that even comes close to being decipherable is something that sounds like 'I know you will, I know you will.' Between the two verses, Kaplan unleashes one of his most utterly unhinged guitar solos ever, abusing the instrument in such a fashion that at times it sounds like he's actually yanking the strings off one by one. Hubley guilelessly coos her way into the final verse but finally seems to give up on extracting meaning from the lyrics; as the song starts hurtling toward its climax, Hubley simply starts singing a 'ba-ba-ba-ba' singsong, adding yet another pattern to the mix. The trio developed this song on-stage for over a year before finally recording it -- it was the group's live closer for ages, sometimes lasting over 20 minutes -- and it has a certain epic summing-up quality--"
- posted by cjb @ 9:52 AM

 
"I remember coming into Martine's office and sitting by you.  I remember thinking I'm sitting by a raven.  I know you weren't scaring away ghosts."  (Peter Morin, letter to Beau Dick)
- posted by cjb @ 7:26 PM

 
@A_Daneshzadeh: "One thing my mother taught me, the more amazing someone's garden is, the more struggle they've had to process through. It's like a landscape of feelings that have been harvested with toil and reflection."
- posted by cjb @ 12:17 PM

 

My photographs are included in an exhibition opening next week, alongside Marian Penner Bancroft, Rodney Graham, Lyse Lemieux, Kathy Slade, Ian Wallace, Neil Wedman, David Wisdom, Bernadette Phan, & others.
- posted by cjb @ 10:34 PM

 

- posted by cjb @ 10:30 PM