April 2011 – Page 3 – { feuilleton }

Robert Anning Bell’s Herodias

Artist Robert Anning Bell (1863–1933) chooses to depict Salomé’s mother rather than the more usual daughter in a slightly Pre-Raphaelite take on the familiar theme. This print appears in volumes 8–10 of Studio International, and seeems to have been a one-off although I’ll be happy to be hear of any other depictions of the story by Mr Bell.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The illustrators archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Tempest illustrated
• Book-plates of To-day
• Robert Anning Bell’s Tempest

Dreamweapon: The Art and Life of Angus MacLise, 1938–1979

Artist, poet, percussionist and composer Angus MacLise receives the first proper overview of his work in a series of events presented in New York City throughout May. MacLise has too often been mentioned merely as the original drummer for The Velvet Underground—he famously quit when informed that being in a rock band meant you had to stop playing—but anyone familiar with the history of American underground culture will know that there was a lot more to his life than this. Johan Kugelberg and Will Swofford Cameron are the curators of Dreamweapon: The Art and Life of Angus MacLise, and this page has more detail about the events.

For those unable to get to NYC (that would be most of us) there’s always the indispensable Ubuweb where one may find a page of MacLise recordings, and also issue 9 of the amazing Aspen magazine, “the psychedelic issue”, edited by Angus MacLise and Hetty MacLise in 1971.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda

The recurrent pose 42

Thanks to Radugo for drawing my attention to this piece of street art in Melbourne, Australia. This Facebook page identifies the location as Drewery Place, off Drewery Lane. The photo below is a vague equivalent of the Flandrin pose spotted at Chateau Thombeau. I can’t find a credit for this so if anyone knows who the photographer is, please leave a comment.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The recurrent pose archive

Weekend links 55

From the Ornamental Age series (2009) by Seher Shah.

Seher Shah has recently updated her website giving us a better view of her extraordinary art.

• The Demon Regent Asmodeus, my short film of Alan Moore’s reading from the first Moon & Serpent CD, has been posted to YouTube. In other self-promotion news, Mahakala, a drawing of mine from 1984, finds an audience on Tumblr.

• Yet more Moore: Alan Moore & Iain Sinclair “explore psychogeography” at the Cheltenham Festival in June. Alan will also be discussing science and fiction with Robin Ince. Then in July he’s performing with fine fellow Stephen O’Malley at Alexandra Palace as part of Portishead’s I’ll Be Your Mirror festival. They’ll be providing text and music for Harry Smith’s Heaven and Earth Magic.

In most countries, parents can tell their kids that if they work hard and do everything right, they could grow up to be the head of state and symbol of their nation. Not us. Our head of state is decided by one factor, and one factor alone: did he pass through the womb of one aristocratic Windsor woman living in a golden palace? The US head of state grew up with a mother on food stamps. The British head of state grew up with a mother on postage stamps. Is that a contrast that fills you with pride? (…) Earlier this month, David Cameron lamented that too many people in Britain get ahead because of who their parents are. A few minutes later, without missing a beat, he praised the monarchy as the best of British. Nobody laughed.

Johann Hari kicks the royals.

• Related to the above: Lydia Leith’s royal wedding sick bag.

• Beautiful Century relates a dispiriting (and very common) encounter with Google’s blog prudery. The new Beautiful Century is now at Tumblr.

• In the future, everything will be on Tumblr for fifteen minutes. Among this week’s discoveries there’s Writers and Kitties, attractive men and vintage photos at Stuff Doer, and all manner of things at Maggs Counterculture including a picture by Jim Leon I hadn’t seen before.

From the Ornamental Age series (2009) by Seher Shah.

“Sidewalk cafés, free from conservative business attire…” Film of groovy Greenwich Village in the late 1960s. Related: groovier fashions in Art Nouveau Barcelona.

• Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009, a book from MIT Press.

• The Delian Mode, a film about electronic musician Delia Derbyshire by Kara Blake.

• Austin Osman Spare, a biography of the artist and occultist by Phil Baker.

• Lando Jones is giving away three limited edition prints of his artwork.

• Plano Creativo, a blog (in Spanish) by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

• B Magazine is a new publication for gay Americans.

• Diaghilev gets his due at Coilhouse.

• Baby’s On Fire (1973) by Brian Eno | Baby’s On Fire (1976) by 801 | Baby’s On Fire (from Velvet Goldmine) (1998) by The Venus In Furs.

Turntablism

“What you got back home, little sister, to play your fuzzy warbles on? I bet you’ve got little save pitiful portable picnic players…”

Core77 posts some examples of portable music players from the 1920s and 1930s just in time for Record Store Day today. The Mikiphone above is a Swiss “pocket phonograph” from 1924. There’s a follow-up post with examples from later decades including a rather dubious (and not very successful) “Highway hi-fi phonograph” from Chrysler. For more recent novelties, try Kelli Anderson’s paper record player.

Back at Record Store Day, The Guardian sent two men in search of British record shops and included Manchester on their list of stops. Kudos for finding Beatin’ Rhythm, a great place for psychedelic albums, but I’d have headed to King Bee instead of Sifters. Some more links:

• Independent record stores increase for the first time in a generation
• The Wire‘s Record Store Day Roundup
• Win Mute’s Record Store Day vinyl