Autumn.
My skin falls and yours is not there.
I turn to the canvas, but its not color I want to smear your whiteness with. I face the white screen, but its not light that I seek.
I confront the blank page, but words will not bring solace.
Then my skin falls on the piano ivory.
Fingers sliding down each key.
Caresses that the air won`t keep.
The music was already playing in my head.
On Thursday I was invited to the New Musuem for the screening of “Graffiti – PostGraffiti” documentary and panel discussion.
Your usual suspects were there. Besides the panelist (Pattie Astor, Fab Five Freddy, Lady Pink, and Lee Quinones), there were many old glories and a couple of aspiring bomber kids in the audience that I am sure were tagging walls late that night.
What started as a celebration, a remembrance, and a comunion, as the liturgy advanced ended up becoming a hurtful vindication and even a flat out purist attack.
Lying on the carpet, poetry book and pencil in hand, U2 in the background.
October
October
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care
October
And kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on…and on…
So many literal meanings: the fear of wearing-out (The Edge was considering leaving the band like his brother did before they were even called U2), the false sense of security arising from self-defeat (“What do I care”), moving on after a loss (both Bono and Larry had just lost their mothers), the high hopes and expectations arising from new democracies in Eastern Europe only to become despair and dissapointment, and eventually resilience, surviving, going on…
Last Sunday I went to see Searching for Sugar Man bio/docu/pic at Lincoln Plaza Theaters.
Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock ‘n` roller, Rodriguez.
While the movie is a very good one, and the story quite powerful (not only a human story about an incredible musician called Rodriguez, better than Bob Dylan if you allow me the heresy), there are two aspects that go well beyond the typical in this kind of documentary:
The first one was the archiving and preservation of film. While an interesting debate by itself, it is not as important as it seemed to them, since, as I see it, technology will catch up and surpass the needs and expectations in a matter of very few years. Although a lot could be said about culture, preservation, archiving, formats, etc. Which leads us to… The second one: it was a very brief moment, when upon the comment “somebody has to be the taste maker” by one of the producers being interviewed, Keanu, as interviewer said “wow”.
Hugo sends me this amazing song/video made in Minecraft. Of course, that leads to 10 more, 14 more… there are so many!
When you make the tools available to the people, and allow them to create (in this case under the safe harbor of “parody”) wonderful things happen. Its NOT all about the money, profit, control... Its about imagination, art, creativity, culture. Thats how it happens: copying, re-using, mixing, adjusting, modifying.
For a few years I have accumulated art projects and pictures, in that oh-so-common delusion “one day I will start working on this and…”
Well, reality, resource constraints, day-to-day life… are all excuses not to take ones passion and live it. So I am going to live it. How? I dont know. But the first step is to share, and to make accessible, my plans, ideas, and projects.
So HERE ARE MY ART PROJECTS (tumblr), and HERE ARE MY PHOTOGRAPHS (500px).
