collisionwork | Entries tagged with quotes

J.G. Ballard, from an interview conducted 10/29/82 with Andrea Juno and V. Vale for RE/SEARCH issue #8/9, published 1984:

So where will the next breakthrough come? It’s impossible to say – there may not be another one! . . .

That’s my big fear, actually. I was talking to my kids and some of their friends, all of whom are in their early 20s, and I was saying that if, as a science fiction writer, you ask me to make a prediction about the future, I would sum up my fear about the future in one word:

boring. And that’s my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again . . . the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul . . . nothing new will happen, no breakouts will take place. It could happen – that’s what my fear is. I don’t know what one does about that – opens a vein or something – I mean in the sense of suicide . . .

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: videotape - Crash by David Cronenberg

In thinking about what I do. In doing what I do. The words sometimes come. My own or others.

When I did Ten Nights in a Bar-Room - Romero zombies in Temperance-landscape, a Punk friend said with complement that it was "Punk Rock Theatre."

This is the ideal.

To do in these works (my theatre, what I do, the Gemini CollisionWorks) what I find in the best Punk, the best Garage. What David Thomas of Pere Ubu calls the "Avant-Garage." Burn it all down. Smash what's still standing. Pick up the pieces. Look at them. See how you can put them together in different ways that make you understand better what they were in the first place. Start again. Do better. Destroy things better. Fail better. Rip it up and start again. Be angry. Be joyful. Always be angry with joy.

The thought been done occurring to me that the best rock 'n' roll - the perfecting of it - came in the hands of those American garage rockers of the 60s. That this was what RNR was supposed to be - the line that starts with "Good Rocking Tonight" and "Gee" and "Rocket 88" and "That's Alright Mama" down to a bunch of kids creating greatness in limitations and ignorance. Good rock been done made since then, but not actual rock 'n' roll. Not quite part of the original line. Like film noir - REAL film noir - only existed in USA filmmaking from 1941 to 1958 . . . everything else in the noir "manner" is a conscious imitation of a natural national style that unconsciously just HAPPENED. Maybe that's it then, real RNR only existed in the USA from 1951 to 1968.

The punks came in and reconstituted it, the garage ideal, the RNR ideal, but from an intellectual point-of-view - most of them were college educated or dropouts, or could have gone that path and chose not. Smart people trying to lose their smartness in energy and non-reason and volume. Closer to something basically human underneath. But always aware somewhere that this was indeed Art. Nuggets and The Stooges were the key, the hinge on which it all turned. What was it, transforming Outsider Art into Modernism? Not quite - you can't call something as consciously planned and created as Ike Turner's "Rocket 88" an Outsider work, no - but something like that . . .

This is a point of view, not a prescription for the Work. This does not mean violent and loud and messy always in action. Precise, clean works can be done from this mindset. Even "pretty" ones.

(when I directed my first play, several people described it to me as "exquisite," with one even saying it was like a "perfect little jewel box" - and it didn't entirely sound like praise to me - I was [relatively] young; I overreacted; I made my second production as loud and chaotic and confrontational as I could - it was appropriate for the show, but I know better now - sometimes the Work is just supposed to be a jewel box)

It is all about the place of the individual Work in the context of the larger Scene. It is about Reconstruction, not Deconstruction.

It is a mindset. It is important for all the collaborators to be on the same page. It is about a kind of energy, a kind of awareness. It is about operating the tools we've been given with care and respect and precision in a manner that will destroy those tools. We are using these old forms and filling them with a real human energy while we take them apart.

(I often use the example of Penn & Teller doing the classic Cups and Balls routine, where they do it "properly" and then do it again . . . with clear plastic cups so you can see - supposedly - how the illusion is done - and they do it so skillfully that while you can actually see the trickery, it's more impressive and amazing and moving than seeing it done "right" - THIS is what to aim for)

It can be Matt and Bryan's Penny Dreadful, or Jeff's Babylon Babylon, or Nosedive's The Master of Horror, or Robert & Moira's Lord Oxford, or Michael's Notes from Underground, or Bouffon Glass Menajorie or whatever show I'm trying to do this week - and not all of these were entirely successful, maybe, sure - but they all have that quality of self-awareness, that ability to share with the audience the smile and laugh about how dead these forms we're using are (aren't they? I mean, aren't they?), and then stun them with how real and sad and painful and human we can be in these forms.

This is what we're doing at our best in Indie Theatre, Off-Off-Broadway, whatever you call it. I just call it Theatre, the rest is just a marketing label.

(which is not unimportant - and the Punks were brilliant in their marketing using limitations as strengths - something to look at and think about and write upon in future . . . we now have to try to convince the audience that's out there and only thinks of what we do as a dead museum that it is being reinhabited with new energy and life . . .)

In other words, we're not playing around.

Inspirational Text for the Day #1.

Iggy Pop to Peter Gzowski, CBC, March 11, 1977:

I'll tell you about punk rock: punk rock is a word used by dilettantes and, uh... and, uh... heartless manipulators, about music... that takes up the energies, and the bodies, and the hearts and the souls and the time and the minds, of young men, who give what they have to it, and give everything they have to it. And it's a... it's a term that's based on contempt; it's a term that's based on fashion, style, elitism, satanism, and, everything that's rotten about rock 'n' roll. I don't know Johnny Rotten... but I'm sure, I'm sure he puts as much blood and sweat into what he does as Sigmund Freud did.

You see, what, what sounds to you like a big load of trashy old noise... is in fact... the brilliant music of a genius... myself. And that music is so powerful, that it's quite beyond my control. And, ah... when I'm in the grips of it, I don't feel pleasure and I don't feel pain, either physically or emotionally. Do you understand what I'm talking about? Have you ever, have you ever felt like that? When you just, when you just, you couldn't feel anything, and you didn't want to either. You know, like that? Do you understand what I'm saying, sir?

Do you understand what I'm saying, sir?

Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: Gravesend
Current Music: David Bowie - "Dead Against It - The Buddha of Suburbia

Today, a couple of funny ways to look at some very unfunny things and a whole bunch of enjoyable videos to try and get over those unfunny things. I'm pretty much just dropping in two large quotes from other peoples' blogs here, but I wanted to pass these on to people who might miss them otherwise . . .

I read a piece in the Hollywood Reporter recently about Conservatives in Hollywood, and how they feel so outnumbered and put-upon and rejected by the majority of people in their business, so they have to hide their beliefs.

Screenwriter John Rogers, at his blog Kung Fu Monkey, quotes some of the original article in his recent post, and makes a point I had been considering, but with more pith and verve than I'd had in my head . . .

from the Hollywood Reporter:

One "Big Hollywood" blogger is Andrew Klavan, an accomplished novelist-screenwriter who made a splash with a Wall Street Journal article comparing Batman and the The Dark Knight to President Bush and the war on terror.

"It's not easy being different," he said. "The liberals aren't all that liberal. We think they're wrong, but they think we're evil, and they behave like it."

Klavan said a producer, worried that Klavan's political reputation had become common knowledge, asked recently whether he could pitch something Klavan wrote but under an assumed name. Klavan declined.

"I don't want to be the Dalton Trumbo of the right," he said.

John Rogers' comment:
Quick history lesson for you kids fresh off the film school boat -- back in the late 40's the United States Congress hauled screenwriters in front of nationally broadcast hearings where they were essentially accused of treason. There, in front of flashing cameras and some very angry Congressmen, you were given a choice: finger a Commie to prove you weren't a Commie, or ... well, that was pretty much it. Some of the people who refused to rat out friends as members of the non-existent Hollywood Communist Conspiracy, like Dalton Trumbo, served time in federal penitentiaries. Over 300 were blacklisted by studios eager to kiss a little government ass. Their reputations, lives, and careers were publicly and permanently destroyed. Trumbo wound up writing under a pseudonym, and some fifteen odd years later found himself one of the few to be rehabilitated, primarily because he was a helluva writer.

Let me reiterate the bullet points:
-- Nationally broadcast interrogation in front of the House of Representatives.
-- Implied treason.
-- Federal prison time.
-- Career and reputation permanently and utterly destroyed.

You know, folks, maybe your Hollywood friends seem to treat you a bit rudely not because they're illiberal, narrow-minded and judgmental, but perhaps -- just perhaps -- because you are such a
self-pitying self-indulgent narcissist with your head so far up your ass that you equate "occasional discomfort during cocktail party conversations" with "BEING ON THE FUCKING BLACKLIST".

There. Glad to clear that up.

Thank you, Mr. Rogers.

And over at Shakesville, William K. Wolfrum seems to have received an email message that he wants to share with us, so I'll take his suggestion and pass it on to all of you:

Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday.

The reason? American Republicans who support John McCain's crappy treatment of U.S. Veterans used to be called the "silent majority." No longer silent, American Republicans are voicing their love for God, country and total support of John McCain's crappy treatment of U.S. Veterans in record-breaking numbers.

They are not organized, boisterous or overbearing. Many American Republicans simply want to show they support John McCain voting against $430 million for the Department of Veteran Affairs for Medical Services for outpatient care and treatment for veterans. American Republicans must wear Red to show they support John McCain not even bothering to vote on the 21st Century G.I. Bill and that they agree with McCain that U.S. Veterans don't deserve dignity and respect.

Starting this Friday -- and continuing each and every Friday until the VA Medical System is privatized once and for all -- every red-blooded American Republican that supports John McCain's Crappy Treatment of U.S. Veterans will wear something Red on Fridays and try and privatize all VA Hospitals like they privatized Walter Reed.

By word of mouth, press, TV -- American Republicans must make the United States on every Friday a sea of Red to show their support for how John McCain voted against increasing Veterans medical services funding by $1.5 billion in 2007 by closing corporate tax loopholes.

If every American Republican who supports John McCain's decision to vote against creating a reserve fund to allow for an increase in Veterans' medical care by $1.8 billion by eliminating abusive tax loopholes will share this with acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and family, it will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let Veterans know the once "silent majority" is not on their side more than ever, certainly less than the media lets on. The first thing a Veteran says when they are asked "How Can John McCain do less for you?" is ... "Is that even possible?" So American Republicans can show their support for John McCain's Crappy Treatment of U.S. Veterans by wearing something Red every Friday.

IF YOU SUPPORT JOHN McCAIN'S CRAPPY TREATMENT OF VETERANS -- THEN SEND THIS ON.

IF YOU COULD CARE LESS -- THEN LET YOUR CONSCIENCE BE YOUR GUIDE.

IT IS YOUR CHOICE.

LEST WE NEVER FORGET, WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE.

SO AMERICAN REPUBLICANS, WEAR RED THIS FRIDAY TO SHOW THAT YOU ARE ON JOHN McCAIN'S SIDE AND BELIEVE AMERICAN VETERANS SHOULD BE TREATED LIKE CRAP!

And thank you, Mr. Wolfrum.

For more on John McCain's Crappy Treatment of American Veterans, please visit VoteVets and their blog, VetVoice.

So . . . when all this evil piles up, where to go for relief?

For me, in the joys of beautiful pure pop.

Here's Mina Mazzini (known in Italy as just "Mina"), on the Italian variety show Studio Uno in 1966 (returning to TV after having been banned from it in that country in 1963 for her supposed immorality). The song is by Ennio Morricone, in a form combining 60s California-Wrecking Crew-pop with serialism. Just let it build . . .

( Se telefonando )

And here's a fine fine superfine mashup featuring The Soggy Bottom Boys and Gwen Stefani. God I love American Music. It's all One Big Thing.

( Hollaback Girl of Constant Sorrow )

Well, this is all cheering me up . . . how about some more European pop from 1966? This one's from Finland - Danny performing an American song that may sound familiar . . .

( Kesäkatu )

Waitaminit - I was watching these to cheer up! How did a video with this woman get in here?

( Sarah Palin sings! to Katie Couric )

Okay, THAT'S IT! To recover from Palin, I must play two stupid and charming videos to get over it. Here's some cats flushing toilets . . .

( He's a Cat, Flushing the Toilet )

And here's a Boxer dog on a trampoline . . .

( A Boxer on a Trampoline )

And, finally, here's Screaming Jay Hawkins - he is COOL he is my MAIN MAN - live on NBC's late great & lamented Sunday Night aka Michelob presents Night Music show - doing his Big Hit and his, um, idiosyncratic version of a great American Standard:

( I Put a Spell on You/Old Man River )

Enjoy alla this stuff.

Meanwhile, back in the world of Theatre -- I'm sitting back today until it's time to go see the final dress/tech of Lord Oxford presents The Second American Revolution, LIVE! tonight at The Brick. This looks to be quite a production. Opens Thursday. See it.

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Location: Gravesend