japanese post-rock divination...

I have been meaning to catch MONO for years now...  their music is a la Godspeed and Mogwai, quiet/loud, soft/hard, epic sadness that builds slowly but powerfully into varied emotional crescendos.  Having seen these other two bands years ago, I was more than ready to finally catch this Japanese quartet's version of this specific brand of instrumental music.  

Aaaand?  Impressed is not the word - full-on enveloping - the audience bathed in an almost spiritual sadness.  Melancholy, as the old worlds' know it, in its utmost purity and, again, near-sacredness.  Their stage presence was also very dynamic, but I wasn't getting too much into that aspect of the show.  I was too busy, eyes wide shut, opening myself up and up and upward... A very sublime performance.  Well worth the underpriced $13 admission cost...

"Seasonal Inspirations"

So, having mentioned the change of season - warmer weather, frivolity, et al. - I've got to mention, in the same breath, some recent shows that have truly inspired.  Surprise these were - didn't really give them much thought.  But, now, I realize that they beckon in, as per usual, a summer of new sweaty sound-sensing.  Live music never "gets old," as old as I get.  It elicits states of mind that still bewilder and states of mind that still seem as fresh as they did 10 or 15 years ago...  NICE NICE (Portland, OR), Holy Fuck, and the Sun Ra Arkestra - lead by the sage-seer, 86 year old Marshall Allen

I am pleasantly awed to have been so wowed by electronic-based music via these first two bands mentioned (shit, Holy Fuck, you made me sorry to have not brought my glow sticks).  I was caught by surprise... as I was by the Arkestra.  Those old dudes played for 3-4 hours and r n' b wrecked the place, turning it - and us all - into some firey, freaky, funky... outer space.

It has been awhile...

After taking a trip to Texas and getting back to Philly, I seemed almost drowned in the flow of daily life.  The weather's finally warmer, which means more outdoor frivolity & less indoor industriousness... which, therefore, meant much less blogging...

... but - before I resume, I just want to post some pics of Texas - mostly western Texas, where the sky reads endless and the austerity of the landscape force - even if only the slightest - existential reckoning at each and every turn of the road... I am in love with this landscape and hope to never have it leave the solitary corners of my mind.

ERIC EATON - The Land of Love And No Fear

Today marks the closing of my friend Eric's first solo show.  I should have posted something of it earlier, but photos which could truly represent the epic, so strongly-thematic, and powerful force of this exhibition were naught to initially be found.  The photos below will hopefully give the show full justice - or at least a halfway justice of some sort.  These new works are best seen in person, since it was planned & executed as a gallery installation.  And, although it saddens me to know it is leaving its home at Pure Gold Gallery in Philly today, I do have full hope that it will travel somewhere else soon enough... and reveal to many more a person its awareness of the light and of love within us all,

 even as surrounded and complicated by the doom and humorous tragedy of our existence here on earth ...  

(ack!  i am currently having trouble uploading more pics from this wonderful exhibit (not to mention the layout sucks) - my apologies:  justice has NOT been done...)

Remedios Varo, Spanish-American Surrealist, 1908-1963

I recall seeing an exhibit of Remedios Varo's work in Chicago years ago - probably upwards of 7 or so (yes, I am that old).  At the time, I had never seen a surrealism quite like hers, and...so much of it!  so much work and so many pieces!!  This still holds true today, as does her function as a continual inspiration and exasperating example of cryptic, magical aesthetic combination...

Remedios Varo, Spanish-American Surrealist, 1908-1963

... not to mention, as an example of an incredible understanding and manipulation of the mysteries of interior vs. exterior - and the delicate, danceful intertwining of the two.  and this is meant in all ways: metaphorically and literally, psychic interior and psychic exterior, spacial "inside" and spacial "outside"