Friday Photo

Jonny, Ireland 2009

Turner time again

Yes it's time for the annual rant against modern art that has become known as the Turner prize. This little video taster from The Guardian isn't the same as popping down to Tate Britain and seeing it for your self but for us non London based art lovers it will have to do until we can experience it ourselves!

'Tom' Travel

The first 100 people to donate $200 will receive a 78rpm turntable with their vinyl

The vinyl

I'm probably stating the obvious here but there is no one like Tom Waits. His on stage persona of a down at heel barfly, spilling stories and singing sorrows through a fog of cigarette smoke and sour beer to anyone who will listen is one of the best ever created. Continuing in that 'old style' vein is his next release which will be a 78rpm record! Now apart from wax cylinders that is about as retro as you can get and if your worrying about how to listen to it Old Tom has thought of that too, 100 copies of the record will be accompanied by a 78rpm turn table. That beats the likes of U2, Madonna etc releasing their albums on an ipod.

The release will feature just two tracks recorded with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and proceeds will benefit the Preservation Hall Junior Jazz & Heritage Brass Band.

As it says on Tom's site;

The two tracks will be packaged in a special limited edition 78 rpm format record, each signed and numbered by Preservation Hall Creative Director Ben Jaffe. The first one hundred records will be accompanied by a custom-made Preservation Hall 78rpm record player as part of a Deluxe Donation package ($200). The remaining four hundred and four will be available as a standalone record for the Basic Donation package ($50).

Both will be available for in-person purchase at Preservation Hall in New Orleans on November 19, 2010 at 10:00am Central and available for purchase online November 20th here.  

So if your near New Orleans on the 20 November pick me up a copy!

Goodbye Norman

I just heard the sad news that a childhood hero of mine Norman Wisdom died today. I have fond memories of growing up with Norman's films. I remember when  ever I fell sick and missed school, my mother would make a bed for me on the sofa in the sitting room and turn on the TV.  Propped up on feather pillows and tucked in tight to wool blankets I would lie down and watch the 'Monday Matinee' (if I was lucky enough to be off on a Monday) on ITV. Sometimes the matinee would be John Mills fighting Germans or Stanley Holloway in an Ealing comedy and sometimes it was little Norman sticking it to the man and getting the girl as Pitkin.

I still take the same childhood comfort when I stumble across one of his films on telly now. I am filled with an innocent warmth and am transported back to that sofa, tucked in by my mum with the smell of buttered toast filling my senses and Norman clowning around on the telly.















Thank you Norman for making me smile and don't forget the 'comedy trip' as you pass through the Pearly Gates.

The Age of Adz

I have just been listening to the new album from Sufjan Stevens. You all know of him already from his mesmerizing musical journeys through his prevoius two albums "Michigan" and "Come on feel the Illinoise", if you haven't where have you been?!

If you have then you are familiar with his soft sing song melodies, story telling lyrics all hung on a landscape of college band brass and gently plucked banjo. But 'The Age of Adz' isn't at all like this (apart from the first track which is familiar territory that lulls you into a false sense of security before the blippy synth wash of 'Too Much' and that is just a bit of a softener for the title track 'The age of Adz', anyway this is turning into a review I'll let you judge for yourself, the album is streaming in it's entirety here, put your headphones on and give it a listen!

Murakami meets the Sun King

Photos : Gilles Truyens © EPV

The Chateau at Versailles has continued it's venture to make it not just touristic destination but a cultural one as well. After the exhibition by Jeff Koons last year they have invited Takashi Murakami to interact with the not so subtle surrounds of the Chateau and it seems more people object to him than to Mr Koons!

For some people it is just a step to far to turn a national monument into an exhibition space for Modern Art, the cheek of it, imagine what the king would say! It would be straight to La Bastille but now we are in the 21st century and being sent to Bastille isn't such a bad thing.

The Chateau of Versailles is by no means a subtle building, (infact as I type they are guilding the roof with real gold) and it is this factor that makes it a difficult space to exhibit art as there is so much more battling for your attention. With the Koons exhibition last year I came away with not so much a greater appreciation of his work but with a greater appreciation of the art of the curator. All the pieces sat perfectly in their environment, playfully interacting with the 'historical' artifacts that each room contained and judging from the images of the Murakami exhibition it looks like this has happened again and is a great factor for going to see the his work exhibited in Versailles. As he says himself about his exhibition;

"With a broad smile I invite you all to discover the wonderland of Versailles. I am the Cheshire cat that welcomes Alice in Wonderland with its diabolic smile, and chatters away as she wanders around the Château."

Here are a few pictures of what the exhibition looks like but I think it needs to be seen in person. 

Photos : Gilles Truyens © EPV

Foundation HCB

Bresson's first Leica camera

One of my favourite galleries in Paris is the Henry Cartier Bresson Foundation in the 14eme. I suspect that everyone knows or has heard of Bresson, if not by name then by his photography. Anyway tucked down a little Parisian side street is the Foundation HCB. There they hold regular exhibitions of photography that possesses the same spirit as Bresson's work, usually street photography in black and white.

They also hold conversations on the first Wednesday of each month on various topics on and around photography and are free. The next is to be held on Wednesday, October 13th, from 6.30 PM to 8 PM and it is on the subject of New places for photography: Le Bal (Paris) and Le Point du Jour (Cherbourg-Octeville). If your free pop down, I  can't recommend them strongly enough, as much for the audiences questions afterward as for the talks themselves. For more info click here.

 I was fortunate enough to meet him by chance at the National Portrait Gallery in London when I was working there. He was pretty frail (I think it was around 2001) and was supported on either side by a couple of his entourage who seemed in need of support themselves. Anyway I built up enough courage to say hello to him in bad French, while he politely replied I remember looking at his eyes and  wondered about all the things those eyes had seen.

Trout Mask Original

The House where Captain Beefheart lived and rehearsed the legendary album 'Trout Mask Replica' is up for sale! Set in the San Fernando Valley, its owner is asking for $325,000, reduced from $849,900 when it was last sold 4 years ago.

If you are a Beefheart Fan then you have heard numerous tales of the rehearsals for this album about how the band live in isolation eating nothing but beans under the obsessive and sometimes tyrannical gaze of Beefheart.  If not here is a snippet of what it was like according to wikipedia;

The group rehearsed Van Vliet's difficult compositions for eight months, living communally in a small rented house in the Woodland Hills suburb of Los Angeles. Van Vliet implemented his vision by asserting complete artistic and emotional domination of his musicians. At various times one or another of the group members was put "in the barrel," with Van Vliet berating him continually, sometimes for days, until the musician collapsed in tears or in total submission to Van Vliet. According to John French and Bill Harkleroad these sessions often included physical violence. French described the situation as "cultlike" and a visiting friend said "the environment in that house was positively Manson-esque."welfare and contributions from relatives, the group survived on a bare subsistence diet. French recounted living on no more than a small cup of soybeans a day for a month and at one point band members were arrested for shoplifting food (with Zappa bailing them out). A visitor described their appearance as "cadaverous" and said that "they all looked in poor health." Band members were restricted from leaving the house and practiced for 14 or more hours a day.

If that has whet your appetite you can take a virtual tour of the place here or you can watch a bit of Anton Corbjin's (yes he who takes photos) film on the Captain.

In the meantime I'm off to check behind the sofa for spare change and then to see what the going price for vital organs are on ebay.

Interruptions

Ahh August in France, when the large part of the country go and live elsewhere for a month. I too have been away from my solid regular internet connection and have been in the UK, Ireland (North and South!) and The West coast of France. Between 3G dongles, remote locations and slow wi-fi spots I haven't been updating this blog as regularly as I would have liked ( I will never take constant reliable wi-fi for granted ever again, promise), so apologies for the irregularity of it all, normal service will resume with the Friday Photo…

Arcade Fire

This new Arcade fire album is released this week with, wait for it 8 different versions of the cover artwork. The sleeve design was created by Canadian illustrator and designer Caroline Roberts who also did the artwork for the bands  live DVD 'Mirror Noir'. For the new album she has also produced a great screen printed linen bag (with a great lozenge logo) which would be perfect for carrying your vinyl version of 'The Suburbs' about in.

I have been lucky enough to catch the group live on a number of occasions, the last time was in London on the Neon Bible tour. Here are a few picture I took on the night. If you get the chance to go and see them don't hesitate!

© Damian O'Hara

© Damian O'Hara

© Damian O'Hara

© Damian O'Hara

Legen-Derry!

I was in Derry last week when the news came through that it had been selected as the UKs first city of culture. The atmosphere was electric to say the least and if you have never been to this neck of the woods I can't recommend it here enough (as long as you don't mind a bit of rain!).
For a small city it has quite a lot of talent that has passed through its gates, I'm really looking forward to seeing how it grows and develops over the next couple of years and what sort of events, exhibitions and gigs will be on the cards, a specially commisioned poem from 'Famous Seamus' and who knows maybe an Undertones reunion!?Maybe it's just my wishful thinking...