This week PingMag was looking at Czech film posters. This one by Bedrich Dlouhy is for the belated 1970 release of Kurosawa’s Rashomon.
• In October Alison Goldfrapp curates an exhibition for The Lowry, Salford, featuring her favourite art. Examples will include work by Leonora Carrington, Lotte Reiniger and Henry Darger so I’ll definitely be seeing this one. The new Goldfrapp album, Tales of Us, is released this week. Alison Goldfrapp & Lisa Gunning’s film for Annabel is here.
• Michael Glover profiles artist Tom Phillips who has a new show of his paintings at the Flowers Gallery, London. The indefatigable Phillips also talked to Tracy McVeigh about his design for the new 50 pence coin which celebrates the centenary of Benjamin Britten.
• Get Carter director Mike Hodges remembers re-teaming with Michael Caine for the island-set crime thriller Pulp, and shares a letter that JG Ballard wrote to him in admiration of the film.
Dismantling the surveillance state won’t be easy. Has any country that engaged in mass surveillance of its own citizens voluntarily given up that capability? Has any mass surveillance country avoided becoming totalitarian? Whatever happens, we’re going to be breaking new ground.
Bruce Schneier on how to deal with the total surveillance state.
• Babel/Salvage presents The Midnight Channel, the newest montage of poetry by Evan J. Peterson, inspired by cinema of the horrific, fantastic and bizarre.
• Mixes of the week are from composer Amanda Feery at The Outer Church, and Pinkcourtesyphone (Richard Chartier) at Secret Thirteen.
• At Dangerous Minds: Kimberly J. Bright on the psychedelic poster art of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat. Related: LSD may not be bad for you, says study.
• Queer Zines: a 400-page study edited by AA Bronson & Philip Aarons.
• Justin Abraham Linds on The Walt Whitman of gay porn.
• Designs for theatre and print by Oskar Schlemmer.
• Beautiful Mars: a Tumblr.
• Goldfrapp: Lovely Head (2000) | Strict Machine (2003) | Caravan Girl (2008)
Thanks so much, John! We met the Kickstarter goal, and we’re still taking pre-orders through the KS for the next 24 hours.
I adore Goldfrapp. Their last album was a bit too self-consciously pastiche for me, but several of the tracks (“Alive” and “Rocket” in particular) are well loved. I’m looking forward to the new record, which sounds extraordinarily subtle from what I’ve sampled so far.
You’re welcome, that’s great that you’ve hit your funding target.
I’ve got all the Goldfrapp albums apart from the last. Definitely looking forward to the new one, and I’m thrilled that Alison’s art exhibition will be just a tram-ride away.
Have you heard the track she made with Scissor Sisters, “Sex Exciter?”
Ridiculous, albeit in an intriguing way, not an asinine one, how unfamiliar something can look from distance, particularly should that distance be measurable in terms of altitude. Most of the pictures on that Mars tumblr I recognized immediately, the types of landforms mind you, obviously not the specific locales themselves. Occasionally with high-altitude shots though, the images of what are actually vast stretches of terrain strikingly resemble something taken with a hi-res microscope. Their first one in particular.
Evan: No, I didn’t know about that one, thanks. She was a session singer for a few years before Goldfrapp formed. I’ve got several of those recordings, and they’re all improved by her vocals.
Wiley: Yes, Mars isn’t so different from the Earth yet many photos look very different. It’s a good reminder that the reality of outer space exceeds the often unimaginative representations of popular science fiction.
I am loving the new Goldfrapp album. It’s mellow, moody, ethereal, and quite lovely. The landscape photos they’ve been posting on their Facebook page are gorgeous.
About their previous album: I was a bit disappointed by it initially, now I love it as much as anything they’ve done. “Dreaming” and “Hunt” are outstanding and not to be missed by any Goldfrapp fan.