A journal by artist and designer John Coulthart.
Photography
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
Anyone who’s seen Werner Herzog’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) will recognise vistas of Bagan, Burma with their apparently endless plain of Buddhist temples and stupas. These appear near the end of the film in a startling moment when Herzog’s doomed protagonist is given a final vision on his deathbed, another instance of Herzog’s fantastic realism like the valley filled with thousands of windmills in Signs of Life. It’s dismaying to read that this region has been denied World Heritage status as a consequence of unsympathetic restoration work carried out by the wretches currently governing the place. It’s even more dismaying to read about that most useless of human creations, a golf course, being built in the area. May the storms of Burma be lightning-rich and eager for men waving metal poles.
There are plenty of photos of Bagan at Flickr, of course. This set showing departing balloons is particularly good.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Aguirre by Popol Vuh
• Temples for Future Religions by François Garas
• The temples of Angkor
A couple of panoramic views from the celebrated Sedlec Ossuary in the Cemetery Church of All Saints at Sedlec, Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. The quality of these isn’t as good as some of the panoramas I’ve linked to in the past but they help give an idea of the crypt which is now a World Heritage site. Jan Švankmajer enthusiasts should be familiar with the bone sculptures from his 1970 film, The Ossuary, which can be found on the BFI’s Svankmajer DVD set.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The panoramas archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Karel Plicka’s views of Prague
Jean Genet is never far away, this photo being from a Querelle-themed feature for Schön magazine. The model is Sebastian Sauve, the photographer is Dimitris Theocharis, and it’s no surprise that all the clothes are by Jean Paul Gaultier. Homotography has the rest of the series while the photographer has plenty of other fine work on his website, including this striking picture of Luke Worrall.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Saint Genet
• Emil Cadoo
• Sailors
• Mikel Marton
• Exterface
• Penguin Labyrinths and the Thief’s Journal
• Un Chant D’Amour by Jean Genet
Ancient Egyptian capitals from The Grammar of Ornament (1856) by Owen Jones at Egyptian Revival.
• Golden Age Comic Book Stories has been pulling out all the stops recently with entries for Will Bradley, Alphonse Mucha’s Documents Decoratifs (a companion volume to Combinaisons Ornementales), and pages from My Name is Paris (1987) illustrated by Michael Kaluta, an Art Nouveau-styled confection which features scenes from the Exposition Universelle of 1900. Related: Alphonse Mucha in high-resolution at Flickr.
• The Sinking Of The Titanic by Gavin Bryars at Ubuweb, the first release on Brian Eno’s Obscure label in 1975. Bryars’ Titanic is an open composition which has subsequently been reworked and re-recorded as more information about the disaster has come to light. The accompanying piece on that album, Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, is the only version you need unless you want Tom Waits ruining the whole thing in the later recording.
• Hayley Campbell claims to have the worst CV in the world but she has a better way with words than most people with bad CVs. She’ll be giving a talk with Tim Pilcher entitled Sex, Death, Hell & Superheroes at The Last Tuesday Society, 11 Mare Street, Bethnal Green, London, on April 8th. Just don’t shout “Xena!” if you attend.
• Monolake live at the Dis-Patch Festival Belgrade, Serbia, 2007; 75 minutes of thumping grooves. Related: A video by Richard De Suza using Monolake’s Watching Clouds as the soundtrack.
• “I preached against homosexuality, but I was wrong.” Related: Gay Cliques, a chart, and Sashay shantay épée at Strange Flowers, the last (?) duel with swords fought in France.
• Mixtapes of the week: Electronica from John Foxx and Benge at The Quietus, and Ben Frost mashing up early Metallica, Krzysztof Penderecki, and late Talk Talk for FACT.
• A 40 gigpixel panorama of the Strahov Philosophical Library, Prague, described by 360 Cities as the world’s largest indoor photo.
• How Hollywood Butchered Its Best Movie Posters; Steven Heller on Saul Bass.
• Back issues of Coilhouse magazine are now available to buy in PDF form.
• Absinthe minded: The ruin of bohemians is back in all the best bars.
• Fade Into You (1993) by Mazzy Star.