The weekend was been quite fun–is it over already? We got an early start on Thursday with the Bruce Conner films at SFMoMA. Bruce was there, introducing 14 shorts from the past 40 or so years. I had seen or slept through most of them in art school, and it was thrilling to see them again, and while awake, and with him there. The first film was the most memorable, editing like fireworks, images flashing quickly by to the sound of Ray Charles singing “What I Say,” live in concert. My other fave was a film set to the tune of Devo’s “Mongoloid,” with all found imagery from strange science and health films, or people engaged in meaningless and unexplained exertion–a very clever wedding of sound and imagery. How wonderful to have an icon of 20th Century postwar art still here in our town. Big Chrissy and I then had dinner at Zuni with our bridge partner, Sarah, and her friend, Ruth, who is a very interesting and engaging filmmaker. I told her about the bear show, and she has an interesting idea for a film that she’d like to include in the show, so I’ll be meeting with her in a few weeks to see if it would work out to include her. I think we’re going to call the show “Hairy Bodies.” How does that grab you?
Friday Reese performed in his drama workshop’s summer show. The kids wrote and performed a piece called “Kid’s News.” One piece of news concerned the disappearance of George Bush, with Condoleeza Rice, “head of security,” reporting in a very deadpan voice, “The president has been missing for three days, and no one seems to know where he is,” and another about the retirement of the Ice Cream Man, with several kids screaming hysterically about the different flavors that they were going to miss, and the news announcer declaring, “Well, folks, you heard it here, they all scream for ice cream.” My favorite commercial was for Old Old Navy, with the kids dressed up like old people, “I got my Hip new Hip at Old Old Navy!” I joined up with the boys later on at Jack and Steve’s for the opening ceremony of the Olympics. I almost cried, I’m such a sucker for pomp. And man, Greece really pulled it off, with the fabulous centaur, the monolithic cycladic sculpture breaking down into other sculptures, and Bjork’s dress smothering all the athletes. I want a dress like that!
Saturday morning I saw Open Water with Dean, and loved it, especially the creepy scene in the pitch black storm, our doomed divers and the sharks swimming around them illuminated only by the lighting! Aaaaaaaah! What’s that bumping against my leg?!!!!! Later that night BC and I saw a hypnotic butoh performance by InkBoat, called “Ame to Ame,” which means “Candy and Rain” in Japanese, two words sounding the same but having different meaning. It was the most romantic butoh I’ve ever seen, “romantic” not being a term I’ve ever thought of in relation to butoh. Two dancers, one male and one female, alternately mirrored and repelled each other’s actions, a meditation on desire and illusion. Among the words that appeared in the music that sound the same in Japanese but have different meanings were “river” & “skin,” “flower” & “nose,” “belly” & “field,” and my favorite, “hair” & “god.” Hey, it’s the same in my language, too!
Today I shot a few more rolls of D, this time with a red backdrop. I’ll be winding up the photography on this project this week, and hope to finish it before the end of September. In addition to my composite Red, Blue, and Green pieces, I’ll be making a central piece consisting of images from all of the pieces, bringing them all together into some wild new 3-colored form. Yeah baby!
It is just an amazingly beautiful day today! I love living here! I love you! And I’ve finally figured out which chairs to buy for my kitchen! Yes, the main obstacle between me and my divorce party–3 aluminum “1006” chairs made by Emeco! Unfortunately they are $330 each, but I’m hoping to find some vintage ones for considerably less, like $30 each, okay, $75 if you insist. They were designed for the Navy just after WWII, and the design hasn’t changed at all in all those years. They were made to withstand torpedo blasts, so I’m sure that there are some out there somewhere in good shape.
Find this chair for me:
