“So she’s not coming in today either. She called in sick yesterday then went shopping and broke her leg falling out of a taxi.”
Filed under: London, Stupidity by Ben.H
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The mummified corpse of Jeremy Bentham reads inter-office emails.
Tuesday 5 February 2008
Filed under: Stupidity by Ben.H
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Please Mister Please
Sunday 3 February 2008
Severed Heads, “Guests” (1984).
(5’29”, 4.71 MB, mp3)
Filed under: Please Mister Please by Ben.H
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Filler By Proxy LIX: Pli Selon Pli
Saturday 2 February 2008
Boulez, according to all known biographies, did not have a childhood. Not in the Michael Jackson sense of “He never got a chance to play with little boys because he was recording ‘Ben'”, but quite literally: Boulez actually materialized one day in Messiaen’s class at the Paris Conservatoire. Some say that he walked out of a forest in the Rhône one day wearing white dress shirt and black tie. (I believe Peyser’s book adds that he was trailed by a pack of wolves over whom he had a sort of psychic power.) …Needless to say, he was already balding.
For peace of mind, I will assume that I’m not alone in being willing to overlook the most egregious failings in my heroes. Let’s see, there’s Ezra Pound’s anti-semitism, John Cage’s flirtation with Maoism, Cornelius Cardew’s wholehearted embrace of same, William Burroughs shooting his wife in the head (accidentally! so that’s not so bad, is it?). And then, of course, there’s Pierre Boulez’s combover, which I like to pretend simply isn’t there whenever I see a photograph of him. I wonder how easy it is to ignore if you meet him in person?
Tears of a Clownsilly has shaken up my consciousness by offering a history thus far of the great conductor and composer’s relationship with his fast-receding hair, how it has influenced his music, and the strain it has placed on his dealings with fellow musicians.
Filed under: Filler By Proxy, Music, Stupidity by Ben.H
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British, up-and-coming
Tuesday 29 January 2008
So I saw something about a call for live electronic music for a gig opening for Christian Marclay and Elliott Sharp this Thursday; so I quickly sent off a piece; so they say no thanks to the gig offer, but would I like something of mine on a compilation CD they’re handing out on the night, “showcasing up-and-coming British artists”? Yes! I said. I’m British! I’m up-and-coming! I’m an artist (Macquarie University once said so)!
It says on the website they’re giving the CDs to punters at the end of the night. Is that to incentivate the punters to hang around to the end, or to prevent the punters from frisbeeing them at the talent?
Note to self: name on the door? or risk getting turfed out into the cold streets of Kilburn?
Filed under: Music by Ben.H
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Dear University of Wales Press,
Monday 28 January 2008
If you really want my permission to use a photo of a statue of Jeremy Bentham in one of your books, don’t ask me to reply to a nonexistent email address. Also, if you really want me to find out what said book is about, don’t direct me to a placeholder web page written in Welsh. Yrs, etc.
Filed under: Art, Stupidity, Writing by Ben.H
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The Magic Listener Advisory Board Top and Bottom 5 for 2007, as voted for by people like you. Well, me really.
Sunday 27 January 2008
If you’re on the New Magic Listener Advisory Board, you’ll have had the chance to rate over 300 easy-listening, MOR, AOR, mouldy oldie, and long-forgotten novelty hits. As suggested before, Magic listeners have excellent taste in judging what people really want to hear, not what dickhead hipster ironists think people want to hear.
The Top 5:
1. “Runaway”, Del Shannon
2. “Then He Kissed Me”, The Crystals
3. “Ramblin’ Rose”, Nat King Cole
4. “Spicks & Specks”, The Bee Gees
5. “El Paso”, Marty Robbins
2. “Then He Kissed Me”, The Crystals
3. “Ramblin’ Rose”, Nat King Cole
4. “Spicks & Specks”, The Bee Gees
5. “El Paso”, Marty Robbins
Anyone who would not be stoked to hear any of these five songs on the radio is an enemy of music. Bonus points are in order for bigging up a Bee Gees single the rest of the world would find hopelessly obscure.
The Bottom 5:
1. “Since I Fell For You”, Kate Ceberano
2. “Jolene”, Olivia Newton-John
3. “Ben”, Michael Jackson
4. “Please Don’t Ask Me”, Johnny Farnham
5. “Route 66”, Natalie Cole
2. “Jolene”, Olivia Newton-John
3. “Ben”, Michael Jackson
4. “Please Don’t Ask Me”, Johnny Farnham
5. “Route 66”, Natalie Cole
It’s not explained whether this list is counting up or down, but still a clear picture emerges of what your average Magic listener does not like: ageing pop stars trying for second careers as lounge singers, off-brand cover versions, or pedophiles singing about rats. Take that, ironists.
In these troubled times, at least one corner of the world is in safe, sensible hands.
Filed under: Music by Ben.H
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Please Mister Please
Saturday 26 January 2008
Conlon Nancarrow, “Study for Player Piano No.36 (Canon 17/18/19/20)” (1965?-77?).
(3’49”, 3.29 MB, mp3)
Filed under: Please Mister Please by Ben.H
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Brockley Nocturne with Effect of Dormobile
Saturday 26 January 2008
Filed under: London by Ben.H
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“The Age Demanded” (forgotten post from December)
Monday 21 January 2008
Difference between London graduate art show and Melbourne graduate art show, 2007. Neither were hugely interesting, but for different reasons. The art presented by Melbourne students was sketchy, unfinished: they were still working through concepts rather than making fully-developed work. The British students were showing artworks which were complete, finished objects, but which functioned mostly as decoration or superficially imitated other artists’ ideas.
Nowadays peripheral countries like Australia are artistically affected less by the isolation from the circulation of cultural ideas, than they are by the isolation from the circulation of money.
Filed under: Art by Ben.H
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The mummified corpse of Jeremy Bentham reads inter-office emails.
Monday 21 January 2008
Filed under: Stupidity by Ben.H
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Please Mister Please
Saturday 19 January 2008
Telly Savalas, “If” (1974).
(3’12”, 3.07 MB, mp3)
Filed under: Please Mister Please by Ben.H
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Filler By Proxy LVIII: Bobby Fischer for the last time
Saturday 19 January 2008
This blog has a small, unfortunate reputation for giving anti-semitic nutbags an easy ride, so I should mention the death of Bobby Fischer, who was the subject of the first ever Filler by Proxy way back when I was desperately scratching around for subject matter.
There are plenty of detailed obituaries to choose from. Andy McSmith in The Independent manages a concise survey of his madness and his brilliance:
It looked like a petulant blunder by the challenger, who had become more fussy and prone to complain about the conditions under which he was forced to play chess which each passing year. He had repeatedly accused the Russians of cheating, and lying. Now he had thrown a match.In retrospect, it looks much more like a clever ploy in a psychological war against Spassky and the Soviet apparatus. From then on, Spassky never knew what Fischer would do next, but he hung on gamely as the American repeatedly beat him.
Filed under: Filler By Proxy, Journalism by Ben.H
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“You’ve been in the house too long,” she said.
Wednesday 16 January 2008
Filed under: Art, The Bunker by Ben.H
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What’s on top of the pile?
Monday 14 January 2008
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Your Funeral… My Trial
I know it’s wrong to say this, but listening back now he sounds a little bit retarded on those earlier records. Was it just the drugs, or that the Eighties are now a foreign country?
A bunch of “The Wire Tapper” sampler CDs
Along with a magazine subscription as a birthday present. Thanks babe!
