The Null Device
2002/10/2
ziboy.com, a photographic blog from Beijing, showing (often technically excellent and sometimes dramatic) snapshots of contemporary life in the Chinese capital, from red flags to mobile phone ads, smiling couples to mass trials to rock concerts, uniformed police to leather-clad mohician punks. (via Robot Wisdom)
This week's street press has some interesting articles; InPress has interviews with members of Saint Etienne (who say their new album Finisterre is a concept album about London, and that they have a set of short films that goes with it), Mogwai (who once printed T-shirts reading "BLUR ARE SHITE", and then found out that Japanese and US fans tend to be people who are into all British indie/alternative music as a genre), and Ninetynine, talking about the odd varieties of bands they've been booked to play with on their various tours (i.e., in Europe they have played with hardcore/metal bands a lot, not because they're metal as fuck but because of the pop bands all being signed to labels and them being independent). And there's another Ninetynine interview in Beat as well, which makes a Krautrock comparison; hmmm...
(I've noticed the Mogwai thing, about non-British UK-indie fans clustering into "Anglophile" subcultures, as well. Take for example Steve Wide's show on 3RRR, which plays everything from Oasis/Radiohead-wannabe bands to pill-popping dance grooves to French/Icelandic bands liked by UK-pop fans; or a UK-indie list I lurked on once which was mostly wannabe-Mods exchanging trainspotter-like lists of classic swingin'-60s movies and talking about their scooters. Or cliques of US-based "Anglophile" kids exchanging in-jokes on band-related mailing lists.)
The Between The Spires art opening went quite well.
There were some 63 works by 37 artists, presented in a large and quite
pleasant gallery.
Most of the works were pictures (photographs, prints, paintings, etchings, Photoshop work, &c), though there were a few mixed-media sculptures (notably Bruce McLaverty's glasses full of drugs, cigarette butts, silk ties and Italian banknotes), and one neon sign reading "HISTORICALLY INSIGNIFICANT LOCATION" (or something to that effect); nobody submitted any video installations or iMacs running Flash animations or anything like that. Though one work did include a tower of matches, which was demolished by an enthusiastic toddler an hour into the exhibition.
The works were all Fitzroy-related, though the connection was somewhat tenuous
in some cases; though there were quite a few photographs, streetscapes and renderings of landmarks, not to mention one embroidered street map, and a piece titled "www.urbanjoke,cheese grater,young st.", which seemed to be about a controversial luxury apartment building plan opposed by residents.
My two pieces (which were the only ones of the Punters Club in the entire show)
were on the wall in the corner; they attracted some attention, and a few
compliments (some even from people I didn't know personally).
(I didn't win any of the prizes, in case you're wondering.)
Incidentally, when asked if I wanted to sell them, I put them up for $50 each.
Whether anybody actually decides to part with $50 for one of them is an entirely
different question.
All in all, it was a good event; I'm now even more tempted to print out more of my digital images and have an exhibition somewhere; probably late this year or early next.
It seems that local web-order CD supermarket chaosmusic.com are selling a number of worthy titles, including New Order's Power, Corruption and Lies, Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, and pretty much all of the Smiths back-catalogue (except for some of the numerous best-of compilations), for $10 each. If you're lacking any of these, this could be a good chance to fill in the gaps.