remembering the present

I was doing some research into the culture of Luxembourg, i'm planning on applying for an art residency there, god knows if i'll get it. but i came across this website - http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1538&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html - Memory of the World... kind of sounds like it's already gone. "To guard against collective amnesia"...

"..to guard against collective amnesia calling upon the preservation of the valuable archive holdings and library collections all over the world ensuring their wide dissemination."

it's interesting to see what has been included so far, it's relatively new only being established in 1992, so not as many things as you would expect are included yet. I went straight searching through for films, these are the ones i found -

Metropolis
The Wizard of Oz
Los Olvidados
Neighbours by Malcolm McClaren
Lumiere Brothers
Ingmar Bergman archives
The Battle of the Somme, a documentary record

palestine refugee woman cut off from her home by the "green line"

There are 3 bullet points under objectives -

• To facilitate preservation, by the most appropriate techniques, of the world's documentary heritage. 
• To assist universal access to documentary heritage.
• To increase awareness worldwide of the existence and significance of documentary heritage. 

Now, i have to go get ready, picking up mihaela from heathrow at 5:)

clearing snow

there's a view from outside my window, i've not noticed it for a while. Jules and Crispin is halfway finished, and the book should be finished soon. i've started wrapping presents, and will have to visit people too. the dvd's are carrying on burning, the post is still not here. i have to go to the job centre on christmas eve,and pray the snow is more manageable by monday. i have to put £25 in to the bank, before i get charged for an overdraught. have cleared the snow off the drives, so the car doesn't slide as you try to get in. I owe £320 for my dog's teeth, she had 7 or 8 out. everytime i start firefox, 'learn indesign' starts unnanounced. my brother and his girlfriend are coming for a visit overnight. i might be working in the new year, clearing out old unwanted junk. i was going to go to the pub today, but i don't have the money to go. but it's better than being a greedy swine, although there's no guarantee i ain't. gonna finish reading adrian mole, and restart linda nochlin. must go and do something productive. must start painting again soon.

no more ankles

it almost sound like it's cut out and formed from Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. The video does go well with the song.. but i can think of other images that could go with it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr0KkzbbqPI. Quickly edited together images of death and bombs and murder is kind of an obvious solution, placed alongside this almost fairytale like song about orphans running through bloody snow. It's not very subtle or useful, and seems to just respond to the almost mindless punching of the guitar, but there's more to the song than that, how bout those words for a start - "Little Orphans running thru the Bloody Snow, Little Orphans running thru the Bloody Snow, Little Orphans running thru the Blood thru the Blood thru the blood. No more ankles and no more Clothes, Little Orphans running thru the Snow, Little orphans in the Blood in the Blood in the Blood."



and there's more, more to discover both here - http://www.lydia-lunch.org/ - and here

love of painting

I love painting, i love drawing, most of the time i'm not satisfied unless i'm working on something, only when i'm with m. But i can never finish anything, that was always my problem, you have a great idea that you're all worked up about and then it just fizzes away, you move on to something else, it's difficult to gauge what's worthwhile and what isn't, especially before you do it. It's hard to know whether you're turning your back on something for the right reason, or whether you just can't sit still.

In a few weeks i'm going to put an ebook on my website, it's not gonna cost very much, and you can download it instantly, leave comments etc, it'll be my first, hopefully of many, so i'd appreciate it if you reading this, you who stays quiet and hidden, would respond, comment, buy the book. After the ebook i'll release it as a proper, paper, hold-it-in-your-hands-and-smell-it book. And hopefully will be able to feel like i've done something that people will own, i'll have sat still for a little while and finished something.

My website is - www.wastelandnumberseven.com

ill and weird

i think i've caught something, i don't know how but i feel kinda cold even though i'm sweating, beginnings of a sore throat, slight headache.. great.

(maybe its punishment for the last blog post, which was, if you didn't notice, an advert.. god, i disgust myself sometimes)

it's getting cold

apparently it's gonna snow the weekend, and i have this drama group i'm a member of, not much of a member at the moment, i don't participate that much, but i'm gonna be doing this thing at the Black Country museum, which is in Dudley, an old victorian era museum, and we all dress up in costume and sing carols. Only trouble is it's so damn cold, it's right next to a canal which doesnt help. Back in bucharest it's warmer, it was before i left anyway, now it's snowy. There are a couple of places i've been looking for warm clothes, there were these three i saw - 'machine jeans': http://clothing-and-accessories.become.com/machine-jeans-co 'jimmy jean clothing': http://clothing-and-accessories.become.com/avirex-jimmy-jean and 'bikers denim vest with patches prices': http://www.become.com/denim-vest

anyone has any ideas which they think is best, or what they'd choose please let me know.. I'm leaning towards the jeans on this page, look kinda sturdy - http://clothing-and-accessories.become.com/machine-jeans-co  - but then there's this - http://clothing-and-accessories.become.com/machine-jeans-co - which has a lot of good prices too - and i really like the cowboy looking denim waistcoat on this too - http://www.become.com/denim-vest - kind of reminds me of back to the future 3...

now i'm tired, really must go to bed, more work tomorrow! less internet.

thanks..

illegally downloading long ignored art

While i was in Romania i did a lot of downloading, mostly on films that are unavailable, like Angelopoulos films, here's a list -

the travelling players; suspended step of the stork; voyage to cythera; landscape in the mist; the hunters; dust of time; en rachachant; films of jiri trnka; mr klein; blood of the beasts; las hurdes; lola (both fassbinder and demy); bay of angels; fear eats the soul; the outlaw and his wife; peter and the wolf; the unknown; waxworks; cria cuervos; the celebration; jigokumon; tale of tales; hedgehog in the fog; kriemhilds revenge; chimes at midnight; night and fog; la regle du jeu; the southerner; five women around utamaro; sisters of the gion; ugetsu monogatari; the phantom carriage; from the life of the marionettes; day of wrath; gertrud; the bigamist; van gogh; the man from london; bonjour tristesse; dinner at eight; partie de campagne; violette noziere; raise the red lantern; shanghai triad; the story of qiu ju; fires on the plain; hotel terminus; the tough; mortal storm; il grido; wr mysteries of the organism; the switchboard operator; man is not a bird; innocence unprotected; fists in the pocket; the big clock; criss cross; chats perches; le tombeau d'alexandre; the bitter tears of petra von kant; l'amour l'apres midi; floating clouds; a time to live and a time to die; la religieuse; lonesome cowboys; la notte; marriage of maria braun; the mother and the whore; truly madly deeply; wit; late spring; floating weeds; buster keaton shorts; masters of russian animation; a century of animated shorts 1, 2 and 3.

and i think that was about it. The majority of which are brilliant films, and are unavailable so far. Last time i checked, the only angelopoulos you could buy were the beekeeper and weeping meadow, the only sjostrom was.. well, nothing. Same with makavejev, and yuri norstein, and jiri trnka..... and the list goes on. I fail to see why sharing such things (as great art) should be frowned upon.