Neo-Nazi Fashion Runway

This from WWD yesterday:

While on duty, Berlin’s police officers are now banned from wearing 10 labels deemed to be popular among neo-Nazis. The brands Fred Perry, Ben Sherman, ACAB, Alpha Industries, Consdaple, Lonsdale, Pit Bull, Outlaw, Troublemaker and Thor Steinar have all been put on a black list. According to police authorities, the labels are seen as a sign of right-wing extremist views and it would be damaging for officers to be associated with such ideologies.

Is Germany overly cautious about their Nazi past? Banning labels seems like a slightly ridiculous step to distant their police force from growing Neo-Nazism within the country. It can readily be assumed that most German citizens know that their government is no where near the extremism of a fascist dictatorship. What is the intent here? To distance the aesthetic look of their police force from the fashion stylings of the radically far-right?

Conversely, if a German civilian is wearing Fred Perry, should they be considered a neo-Nazi? I hope that the ban on labels doesn't result in some strange fashion-profiling to identify civilians involved with this small extremist movement.

Three Stooges Remake

So here is a little Hollywood gossip that is WTF-worthy enough for a posting:

Sean Penn, Jim Carrey, and possibly Benecio Del Toro are being casts in a Three Stooges film that will NOT be a biopic but a comedy revolving around the characters created by the original actors (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Jerome "Curly" Howard). Apparently, an attempt at a Three Stooges remake has been in the works for over a decade.

Uh, sure? I dunno. This is all just a little too bizarre to imagine. Sorry for getting all Perez on everyone for a hot second.

For more on this check out Variety.

God, I hope they perform this number from the Three Stooges:

Wait...for real?

We should have known that the next wave of hip-hop would be meshed with suburban screamo and feature not short, dreaded well-tattooed rappers from NOLA but rather come from effeminate white kids with 80 dollar haircuts. Eat your heart out Fred Durst … its BrokNCYDE!



Okay, so these kids have to be aware that they are parodying the club culture of mainstream hip hop. On the other hand, they are still taking that whole parody rather seriously. So at what point does the parody simply become a parody of themselves--suburban white kids trying to get crunk'd? Damn...these guys tapped into something.

Thanks to SUMMER BLEEDING for bringing this.

Dead People Twitter?

Here is a short list of those twittering from the grave:

Ernest Hemingway
Thomas Hobbes
Friedrich Nietzsche (in German!)
Jacques Lacan ( in French!)
Albert Einstein
Julia Child

For a more extensive list, check out Soulellis Studio HERE

Radio Muezzin

One of the most vivid memories of my visit to Cairo were the constant prayer chants echoing throughout the city at all times of day. There seemed to be no consistency to the chants between different mosques. This further confused a friend that I was traveling with who had visited Morocco and informed the rest of us that unlike Cairo, the mosques in Casablanca and the other Moroccan cities conducted prayer chants all at the same times during the day.

As it turns out, the inconsistency of the prayers in Cairo is seen as a public nuisance by the local government. According to a recent New York Times article, the local Cairo government has decided that it will select roughly 30 muezzins (individuals who carry out the actual prayer call) to give the daily prayer and restrict all others. This will lessen the supposed annoyance of constant and inconsistent prayer calls each day in Cairo. The decision is suppose to be fully implemented by next year.

In reaction, to the governments decision, a play has been created called Radio Muezzin which features real Cairian muezzins talking about their duties, lives and experiences in Cairo. The political touchiness of the play only allowed one showing in Cairo. The play has since moved the notably liberal city of Berlin.

Interestingly, outside prayer calls from mosques within Germany are not allowed. Therefore, while the featured muezzins of the play are allowed to carry out their calls within the confines of the theater, muezzins within Germany are silenced publicly and restricted to carrying out calls only within the confines of their mosque.

The overwhelming intensity of these prayer calls makes the German government's decision to restrict them understandable. Talk about religion all up in your face. The play being put on in Berlin, which is also being funded straight out of the pocket of Berlin's city government, is a notable attempt at increasing cultural understanding and tolerance between the West and the Arab World. Yet, it is still slightly amusing and highly ironic that a city would fund and put forth the effort expose the slightly unfortunate situation in Cairo for these muezzins while essentially carrying out the very same policy within their own state.

For more on the play check out the NY Times article.

Here is a very poor quality video taken while I was in Cairo of the extent at which the prayers seem to engulf the entire city.

Gomorra

It is without a doubt that the film Gomorra- based on the novel by Roberto Saviano (who, due to the books controversy now travels with a permanent police escort) is a new kind of film about organized crime. Aesthetically, it is more like a reenactment for a documentary sans the narration than the highly-romanticized Godfather-mafia films or the highly-celebrated and more recent HBO series, The Sopranos. This fresh attempt at telling an often-told story makes Gomorra intriguing enough and nothing like what we have come to expect from such films. The characters are completely unlikable and if they look more like poor products of cheap cocaine and bad Italian techno then its because they are. The film is also completely without a soundtrack and no one eats a large dinner cooked by "Mama."

Instead, the camera stumbles along (I think that director Matteo Garrone forgot his tripod for this film) while taking in all the unglamorous details of the hard and dangerous life of different characters who are loosely related and tied to the criminal activities which plagues greater Naples. This no-frills portrayal creates a hyper-reality that at moments effectively pays off but unfortunately not enough. The problem in Gomorra is that the film comes with an agenda but is too committed to maintaining the realistic nature of the story to fully explore what it has come to convey. The end result is that Gomorra is actually quit boring. After all, people being shot in the head isn't enough to get an audience engaged anymore. And while were being honest, we've all seen those mafia films so we already know how this ends: tragically.

However, it's not how it ends but how we get there, right? Yet, the problem still remains because Gomorra doesn't invest the time into its characters to make the viewers really care what happens to them-- or rather, how it happens. Sure, this actually might be the point of the film's treatment of its characters. In war, whether on the streets of Naples or in the deserts of the Middle East, people lose their identity and become disposable. The film, more or less, treats its characters the same way. Furthermore, we do become aware that in the view of those who run the criminal activities in the film, money and power is more valuable than human life—a major theme fueling the tragic nature of the events that unfold. However, Gomorra wants to go further and show the full extent that this culture of crime has caused and its widespread effect on almost all aspects of the city while maintaining its realistic, documentary-like quality. It is for the most part successful in this attempt but ultimately the film falters in the indifference of how, purposeful or unintentional, it handles its characters. Gomorra has a lot to offer but its potential is realized only in brief moments throughout. While still worth a watch, the film comes across as being too caught up in its methods and approach that it often forgets that it is actually telling a story and not just documenting events taking place.

Army Navy

There isn't a whole lot on what exactly Justin Kennedy did in the ten-year interim between his former band Pinwheel (with Death Cab for Cutie front-man Ben Gibbard) and his new outfit Army Navy other than there was a move to Los Angeles. However, judging from the first full-length from the L.A. based foursome, that move seemed to have worked out well. As it turns the debut self-titled record quietly released on The Fever Zone, is a early 2009 gem of well-constructed catchy pop songs that avoids overproduction and from becoming overbearingly cliché. While nothing on their debut is necessarily new to the ears, Army Navy has rehashed well-knit, catchy rock n roll that is surprisingly refreshing.

"Unresponsive Ears" and "Golden Pony" are two mid-tempo tracks that gradually work into fist pumping power pop ballads of unrequited love. Yet, despite their undeniable catchiness, there is an underlying sincere melancholy mood to such songs that quietly underlines them while never demanding too much attention. It's in these easy, guitar-driven melodies that Army Navy proves to be most effective. However, that is not to say that nervy pop tracks like "Snakes in Hawaii"—with sing along "oooohs" -- or opening track "Dark as Days" are not as undeniably fun and will likely inspire you to roll down the window and break speed limits with the radio volume knob all the way up. What ultimately makes Army Navy's blend of power pop so good is that they never try to do too much. With the radio shoving perfect-pitch, programmed pop music down our ears, it's a pleasure to hear catchy music that is raw and ready to go as is.

Admittedly, these guys are products of the 90's. If you grew up listening to indie rock bands of the early 2k's I warn you: this might make you think of high-school. Nevertheless, even at points where it seems Kennedy is about the let his feelings ruin the pop, he returns with such easy, unaffected lyrics as "Maybe there's no snakes in Hawaii/ Maybe that’s where you belong". Fun, easy, and impersonal-- pop at it's best.

Army Navy ultimately succeeds in pulling from the past and actually not attempting to update it. They wear their influences on their sleeves but mesh them well enough to create and maintain a sound that is mostly their own. Pop music can't really be re-invented but only tinkered with anyways. Army Navy kicks it around pretty good.

Snakes of Hawaii - Army Navy

End of Vacation with Weezy and Busta

The hiatus is over. I was relocating across the country. Stop overs in Houston, El Paso, Tuscon, and every city imaginable in the state of California exposed me to various radio entertainment and a plethora of cable television thanks to cheap hotels and friends who spent paychecks on widescreen televisions and 400 channels. In the end, I took away two blog worthy notes:

1. Lil Wayne is human. His new single "Prom Queen" is horrible. Imitating the teenage angst of third-wave goth bands like Good Charlotte was not the right move. Although, the video is slightly amusing.


2. Busta Rhymes was once cool. And dare I say, weirder than Andre 3000 and Weezy have ever been. Don't believe me? Well, see for yourself.

Busta Rhymes - Gimme Some More

Spill is back.

Tehching Hsieh Gets His Due

Something of an "urban legend" is how a recent New York Times article described Taiwanese-born artist Tehching Hsieh and his work. It might be a perfect description. After all, Hsieh hasn't been associated or involved with any art scene for over twenty-years and no longer considers himself an artist. His work has received very little recognition and limited documentation despite the distressingly intense nature of his pieces. However, with a recent MoMA exhibit in New York City and the up-coming release of a retrospective book of his work, Hseih may no longer be just a revered, cult-like legend.

Hsieh's work is intriguingly pure and both psychologically and physically overwhelming. In 1978, Hsieh's first stateside piece involved locking himself in a cage located in a unfinished Manhattan loft furnished with nothing but a cot, sink and a bucket. He shaved his head, put on a uniform and isolated himself from the rest of the world for a year. Funded by his mother, Hsieh vowed to "NOT read, write or converse, listen to the radio or watch television" for the entire 365 days spent in the cage. His only contact was a friend who would give him food, take out his waste and the few visitors he allowed a couple times a week. "Cage Piece" was followed by a year spent punching a time clock every hour while Hsieh's third piece involved spending a year on the streets of New York City, vowing to never enter "a building, subway, train, car, airplane, ship, cave or tent." In 1983, after these highly isolating performances, Hsieh decided to explore human interaction. To do this, Hsieh strung himself to an 8-foot rope attached to feminist artist Linda Montano for a full-year. They were not allowed to touch and slept in separate beds. Through this piece, the art world began to recognize Hsieh. However, at the conclusion of this one-year project, Hsieh decided to embark on a 13-year piece that would involve not speaking, seeing or talking about art and ultimately be his own eccentric exit from life as an artist.

Hseih's pieces are so captivating because they are able to subtly explore their themes of human isolation, erasure of identity and the immigrant experience without heavy-handed intellectuality. There is a humble quality to his work that contains no indication or signals differentiating between art and life. Resultantly, this allows them effectively act as a marking of time that confronts and almost demands us to become self-aware of how we let our hours pass and the space to which we confine and conform ourselves. I am glad to see him finally get the recognition he deserves.

For more on Hseih, I highly recommended the recent New York Times article by Deborah Sontag that interviews him and goes more into his work and life.

Check it out HERE.