kerplink, kerplank, kerplunk

NY Times Fall Arts Round-Up
I'm getting around to this late in the game, I know. It's mid-Fall already, and half of what's previewed here has premiered, opened, or been released by now. Still, this is a fun kind of thing to leaf through of a Sunday evening when you're avoiding homework. Not that I would know anything about that. You'll need nytimes online membership to read these articles (my favourites are pointed out below), but this is free, and as everyone who reads girlhero knows, free=sexxxxy.
Sunday, October 22, 2000 07:29 p.m.

Pierre et Gilles
I love these guys. I wish this article had more images of their work - it's so beautiful, straddling and blurring the lines between photography and painting, eroticism and naivete, sacred and profane, ugly and beautiful.
Sunday, October 22, 2000 07:28 p.m.

Ben Affleck: Affected Git or Witty, Self-Effacing Charmer?
You decide. Polls close at 5:00 PM EST Wednesday, October 25. Vote early & often.

Affected Git Quote: "Tabloid stories are what I imagine patients' diaries are like in lunatic asylums," says Mr. Affleck. "They're always about storming out of rooms and falling in love with 17 different people." He inhales deeply, crushes out his cigarette, shreds a paper napkin. Well aware that being too famous is not the sort of personal problem that elicits much sympathy, Mr. Affleck shrugs: "Those of us who have agreed to this Faustian bargain deserve our drubbings at the hands of the Fourth Estate. We entered into the agreement willingly."

Witty, Self-Effacing Charmer Quote: On his & Matt Damon's HBO adaptation of Howard Zinn's contrarian book "A People's History of the United States.": "We don't plan to act in it," Mr. Affleck says. "Our role is producorial."
Producorial?
"It's like professorial except it requires no accreditation, no intelligence and no actual expertise, which is why we qualify."
Sunday, October 22, 2000 07:27 p.m.

I Love You, Cameron Crowe
Did you know that he cut a version of Almost Famous that's 45 minutes longer than the theatrical release? And that it's called Untitled? And that he's going to release it on DVD with Almost Famous next year? And that I'm going to buy it as soon as he does so?
Sunday, October 22, 2000 07:22 p.m.

New OutKast Tracks
Well, snippets, anyway. Requires RealPlayer.
Sunday, October 22, 2000 07:21 p.m.

What does Moby think of Music?
The answers to this, and more! Mos Def can't wait to hear the new OutKast album. Elliott Smith (shockingly) has an indie rock release to recommend. Ben Harper loves Radiohead. Check it out.
Sunday, October 22, 2000 07:20 p.m.

Why I Don't Miss My Radio
What's to miss, when Ally provides me with such funny, bitchy, spot-on descriptions of what's out there? I can just Napsterize what I want (Nelly Furtado, Jay-Z) and avoid the rest like the plague. So, so true: "No wonder they can only score Jessica Simpson as a date: a truly good boy band gets Britney Spears." -- Ally, on 98 Degrees, also-rans of the boy band world.
Friday, October 20, 2000 09:54 a.m.

Interview with Suzanne Vega
JT LeRoy, young up-and-coming writer extraordinaire (he's 20, he's just published a novel that looks incredibly intense, he receives fan mail from Michael Chabon. He is clearly this year's Dave Eggers, but without the raising of a younger sibling stuff.) has done quite a bit in his 20 years. So much so that it makes me wonder how I've been wasting my time for the last 25. Of course, he had a horrifying childhood marked by severe abuse, and with the exception of being told never to watch Solid Gold or The Brady Bunch, mine was a blissful idyll (thanks, Mom & Dad!). So maybe there are some trade-offs there, and I'm just oversimplifying because I'm envious that young LeRoy's got a book deal and I haven't. Not that I'd know what to do with a book deal even if one bit me on the tush. Where was I?

Oh yes. Ahem. Putting aside my professional jealousy for the moment, let's move on to some of LeRoy's other writings. He's done some great interviews, among them this little gem of a discussion with the amazing Suzanne Vega, done at the time The Passionate Eye, a book of Vega's writings, was published.

He asks interesting, non-run-of-the-mill questions and really puts himself into the interview, which is an unusual approach. He must have been 18 when he spoke with Suzanne. Wow.

Thanks to Gael for the original JT LeRoy link!
Friday, October 20, 2000 08:01 a.m.

Interview with an Ex-Lover
Another JT Leroy interview. This one is with Douglas A. Martin, author of a "a fictionalized memoir, or maybe it’s memoiristic fiction, Outline of My Lover (Soft Skull, 165 pages, $12), that is purportedly based on his true experiences as the lover of a hugely famous singer of a certain Athens, GA, band. The big-time rock star is unnamed." Hmm. I wonder who that could be?
Friday, October 20, 2000 07:54 a.m.

Hey, What's Peter Buck Reading This Week?
Well, folks, thanks to the nice people at Murmurs.com, you too can read what Peter reads and listen to what Peter likes. Hey, he digs the new Michael "Fan of JT LeRoy" Chabon novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, drooled over in this very hyperspace just a few weeks ago! Cool. Thanks to alert reader (& friend of kerplink) Marcus for the link!
Friday, October 20, 2000 07:49 a.m.

Not Gwen Verdon, Too!
This is a dark day for glamour. I have got to stop reading the obituaries. It makes me too sad.
Thursday, October 19, 2000 03:11 p.m.

Mogwai Thoughts
I haven't listened to enough Mogwai (and I know some would argue that it's impossible to listen to enough Mogwai) to have a fully thought-out response to Josh's thoughts on the no pleasure-no pain thing. My first reaction is a yeah, right-on one, though. When I listen to them, I feel like my ears are holding their breath. I'm not really happy, I'm not really sad, I'm kind of suspended between the two states. It's a little disturbing, and yet I go back for more.
Thursday, October 19, 2000 09:53 a.m.

Julie London, RIP
Today is a day of mourning. If you're new here and haven't read my recent exclamations of joy about the fabulousness & artistry that was Julie London, go here.
Thursday, October 19, 2000 09:47 a.m.

Hype Williams: Vivrant Thing

You may not know Hype Williams, but believe you me, you know Hype Williams. Think back to 1995 or so. Hip-hop & R&B videos were stale. They were tired. They were boring. You flipped over to VH-1 when they came on. We all did.

But you started noticing a change, somewhere around Winter 1996. You didn't know what the difference was, but you sure liked it. The difference was Hype. Hype, with his fisheye lens work, his oversaturated colours, his puffy jackets and kick-ass choreography, re-invented the genre, one gorgeous video at a time. He started out slow, doing cute & bouncy work for Brandy's "Baby" (check out the pink puffy jacket and matching background!) and something a little sexier for LL Cool J's "Hey Lover." Still, his work had this high-gloss sheen to it that was fresher, faster, and more fun, than most of the crap out there.

Things got interesting when teamed up with Busta Rhymes for some of the greatest videos ever, "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See", "Dangerous", and "Gimme Some More". His work with Missy Elliot, especially the videos for the anime-inspired "Sock it To Me" and the, uh, fly-inspired "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" are nearly three years old, and are still considered masterpieces of the form.

Even when he's boring, as in the case of Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" or any of his innumerable Puff Daddy videos (which I'm not linking to, just on general principles), he's still ten times more exciting, and more rip-off-able than any other director out there. Let's put it this way: there would be no McG without Hype Williams. (Side note: does this mean that Hype is partially responsible for the otherwise inexplicable success of Sugar Ray? How about Smashmouth? Discuss.)

I'm willing to put up with the "Mo Money, Mo Problems"-type videos, because I know that for every one of them, there's a "Caught Out There" (sorry, this clip doesn't do it justice) or a "Got Your Money" (nor does this). The man created a new visual vocabulary for rap and R&B video. He's a genius. Have I mentioned lately that I love him? All praise to & links stolen from the magnificent Unofficial Hype Williams & Paul Hunter page. I like Paul Hunter, too, but I'll save that set of hosannas for another day.
Wednesday, October 18, 2000 10:06 p.m.

Ad*Access
It is so easy to get sucked into this archive of advertising & marketing design. Hellsbelle & Matt, this thing has your names written all over it. Via gmtPlus9.

I've de-drooled my keyboard so that I can now bring you my favourites from this morning's browsings:

I just love this font. The line drawing is good, too, but that photo hasn't aged well at all.

Another font I want: Bond Street!

I love how Bourjois takes this lovely Raoul Dufy-ish painting of a Parisian Carnival and superimpose tawdry & cheap-looking perfumes over it. I've nothing against tawdry and cheap, mind you, but the juxtaposition with "high culture" doesn't quite work here.

New Worlds of Beauty! Who knew that space travel and cosmetic advances went hand in hand?! Get me on that Space Shuttle! Did World of Beauty Lotion actually come in a little globe container like the one featured in the ad? If so, this is a one-ad explantion of why I love packaging so darned much.
Wednesday, October 18, 2000 09:50 a.m.

All Hopped Up on Echinacea

Who says you can't have fun while you've got a cold? You get to say yes! yes! oh, hell, yes! to drugs. You can shuffle around the apartment in your rattiest pajamas and snuffle incoherently about where you left your thermometer and ponder your next dosage of daytime/nighttime sniffling sneezing aching fever too many damn symptoms to count medicine. And there are naps. How I love naps. And now I don't need to feel like a preschooler for taking one every afternoon. You also get lovely & solicitous emails from your readers & friends saying, "I hope you feel better soon", and you smile benevolently in the knowledge that you are really, really, drugged up but good.
Tuesday, October 17, 2000 11:13 p.m.

Tribute to Benjamin Orr
This is a really nice piece on the late Cars' singer. There are fun facts galore (did you know that Jonathan Richman named one of Orr & Ric Ocasek's first bands?) and some slightly bizarre, overdone assertions (According to the author, "Orr was the natural rock star who gave the band its sexiness." Uh, not to me. I always dug Ric. But I digress.) but it's really sweet and worth a read. A moment of silence for Mr. Orr, please. No, those aren't tears I'm wiping away, but thanks for asking. From Alt-log.
Tuesday, October 17, 2000 11:11 p.m.

Ellen's new Girlfriend Exposed!
You know, I thought this was going to be some kind of great celebrity outing shocker, but I've never even heard of "fledgling actress" Alexandra Hedison. It's about as exciting as popping a halfway deflated balloon. I mean, I wish them well, but I was expecting to be like, "No way! Whoa!" at the news. Instead, I'm more like, "Oh. Okay, then."

Far more titillating are the rumours that Anne is pregnant with the lovechild of her new beau, whose surname is (I kid you not) Lafooon! Oh, law.
Tuesday, October 17, 2000 11:08 p.m.

Random Goth Cat Name Generator
You all know I'm a big old sucker for these random generator thingies, right? So I don't have to apologize for being a hopelessly outre, right? C'mon, you know you love 'em, too. Alexa, we should've named Oliver Astrakhan and Gracie would have made a great Parvenu, don't you think? Via pearls.
Tuesday, October 17, 2000 10:10 p.m.

Things That Make You Go Blech

You remember how I was feeling like the glamazon ass-kicker of the universe last night? It all came crashing down around me shortly after I posted. I now feel like death on toast. I keep telling myself that I'm not getting sick, but my entire upper respiratory tract just isn't having it. So, maybe not so many updates this week, folks. In the meantime, I'm leaving you with this little list of things that are making me say "meh" to the world this afternoon.

1. Hacking cough.
2. Sore throat.
3. Vile beef & vegetable soup that you thought would be yummy yummy in your tummy, but in fact was yuck yuck tastes like muck. For those of you who know how I love soup, you have an idea of how much it pains me to speak ill of any Campbell's creation.
4. First non-caffeine deprivation headache in months.
5. Not being one of Tom's top referrers. I hate being merely adequate. [note at 4:03 pm: I also hate typing in URLs incorrectly. The link should work now.]

That's it. I'm going to the pharmacy. I need to stock up on nasty cold remedies. And get a nap. God, I'm such a baby when I'm sick.
Tuesday, October 17, 2000 11:53 a.m.

The Glama's Back!
I am in such a good mood this evening - apparently, 2 hour midafternoon naps will do that for you. I feel as good as Rosalind Russell looks in this amazing poster for Auntie Mame. Looking that good, however, is based on sleeping til noon and subsisting on a diet of martinis and cigarettes smoked from long-stemmed ebony holders. Neither of which I have too much of an appetite for. Well, ok, maybe a small appetite.
Monday, October 16, 2000 08:51 p.m.

Sir Charles Grandiose
I love advice columns. I regularly read The Vine, Savage Love, Miss Manners, and Mr. Blue. I have this thing about how writers develop personas for their advice-giving alter egos, I guess. Now, I'm adding Sir Charles Grandiose to my weekly rounds. I love that he refers to himself in the third person, (but in a completely different style from his arch-rival, Miss Manners, who always identifies herself by name) and that he never breaks character. Via Xeney, who also has mad Buffy spoilers up a day earlier than usual.
Monday, October 16, 2000 01:07 p.m.

Liza Lou
Liza Lou has a thing about beads. She affixes beautiful, glittery beads of all shades to pretty much anything she can get her hands on. It makes for gorgeous, colour-saturated visions of domesticity. The above link features a detail from her Back Yard installation. This will show you the world's most sparkly toilet plunger. From Lou's Kitchen installation, we've got some fun details right here. I love the kitchen sink & the 6-pack of Bud. Her life-sized installations tweak & poke fun at our notions of perfect, 50s-style, overdone domesticity, but they pay some respect, too. You can't be too ironic about a well-stocked kitchen when you spend your life recreating one that would make June Cleaver glittery green with envy.
Monday, October 16, 2000 12:58 p.m.