Underwater Times is just what it says! thanks as always to the mighty Metafilter

body in my neighbourhood goes undiscovered for 3 years: "Gyger had watched since the spring of 2001 as the high plywood fence around Ekonomides' bramble-covered land weathered and greyed. He'd noticed the gate never opened any more, and that the Ford pickup truck and Lincoln Continental inside the compound were caked with mould."

Lost Brooklyn

Al Qaeda bombed Madrid trains, claims email

Terry Southern reports from the 1968 Democratic Convention (thanks ::: wood s lot ::: )

"I wonder what can be in the mind of a politician," someone mused. Seaver translated it for Genet, but he was not intrigued. "I wonder," he said, staring at the dashboard of the Ford car we were in, "what can be in the mind of someone who names an automobile Galaxie?"

Scores die in Madrid bomb carnage:
"The Basque regional president, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, stressed that Eta does not represent the Basque people.
'When Eta attacks, the Basque heart breaks into a thousand pieces,' he said. "

Film Comment: Joseph Losey

blissbog hits a nerve on "record collection aesthetics":

"Sonically, it's a movement that isn't really moving: people scrabble around to shuffle together some fresh-seeming (meaning slightly-less-stale) combination of established elements from the last 20 years of electronic dance music's rich history(probably the most disheartening dance experience last year for me was watching Luke Vibert live dusting off the 303 again--acieeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzz). With all the period sounds being juggled and obscure archival sources coming in and out of favour, it's at the point of there being a 'record collection dance' just like there's been 'record collection rock' since the Jesus & Mary Chain. Retro-Dance to match Matt's Retro-Rock TM. (For what it's worth, I think electronic non-dance is probably in even less impressive shape--when was the last really head-rearranging new sound to come out of IDM?). "

Sub-Masters at the Anthology "Trippy fact-fiction remixes, Baldwin's movies play with history by plundering the celluloid dumpsters of decades past, and embracing seemingly outre frameworks for understanding existence and power: Spectres of the Spectrum (1999) grooves on fringe science; Sonic Outlaws (1995) documents copyright fighters Negativland via Baldwin's own poaching from The Wizard of Oz; and Tribulation 99 (1992) links alien invasion to American meddling in Latin America. Each took years to make; Baldwin begins from massive accumulations of ideas and footage around a central topic, then whittles down his materials into episodic collages of sound and image. 'My movies are very much like pulp serials,' Baldwin notes, 'because there's cheap special effects, starts and stops, graphic interludes, and no pretense to realism.' "

for the Vinegar Hill demographic, The Note's take on what Kerry can learn and not learn from Dean

"Unknown Soldier" Speaks Out To Bring Troops Home :

"What did you think about President Bush's Thanksgiving visit to Iraq?

--I was there when President Bush came to the [Baghdad] airport. The day before, you had to fill out a questionnaire and answer questions, that would determine whether they would allow you in the room with the President.

What was on the questionnaire?

--"Do you support the president?"

Really!

--Yes.

Members of the military were asked whether they support the president politically?

--Yes. And if the answer was not a gung-ho, A-1, 100 percent yes, then you were not allowed into the cafeteria. You were not allowed to eat the Thanksgiving meal that day. You had an MRE."

More on Arthur Russell

"It sounds balmy but provisional, with its cheap synths and half-swallowed guide vocals. Russell's singing always seemed to be mostly for his own enjoyment (when it creeps into 'Is It All Over My Face,' late in the song, the effect is like Glenn Gould humming along with The Goldberg Variations), but hearing it here almost feels like eavesdropping. 'Wild Combination' and 'Arm Around You' could have been demos for much-better singers' pop-soul hits around 1985--but we don't have those hits; we only have these sketches, thin with erasures and additions and re-erasures. Sometimes there's nothing more to them than a pitter-patter drum machine, a fluttering keyboard, Russell's tentative murmur. It's imperfect. Live with it. "

Russell is a terrific singer though--his "half-swallowed guide vocals" closer to John Martyn than Glenn Gould.

Not Coming To a Theatre Near You terrific movie site (via Metafilter)

more Julianne Swartz, w/ more little Quicktime movies

excellent site (with movies!) of NYC artist Julianne Swartz --I was luckily able to live among her work for a week while staying with Lee Ann in Williamsburg a couple of years ago.

Happy birthday Ornette! (flash)

sad to hear about the passing of Paul Winfield but good to see a recognition of his moving and memorable performance in the underrated Mike's Murder

lovely images of The Art of Reading, including the Virgin Mary reading to the toddler Jesus. Made me think of Mina, who's been photographing & painting everyone reading her worn-out & yellow post-it buntinged Penguin "Capital".

no looking at this until you try the quiz below--

Peter Quartermain posts some Basque Zukofsky on the Poetics list--

"Zatoz itzal, zatoz, eta jaso itzal hau gora,
Zatoz itzal itzal, zatoz eta jaso hau gora,
Zatoz, itzal, zatoz, eta jaso itzal hau gora,
Zatoz, zatoz itzal, eta jaso itzal hau gora,
Zatoz, zatoz eta itzal, jaso itzal hau gora,
Zatoz, gora, zatoz itzal eta jaso itzal hau,
Eta gora, zatoz, jaso itzal, zatoz itzal hau,
Eta gora, zatoz, zatoz itzal, jaso itzal hau,
Eta zatoz itzal, zatoz gora, jaso itzal hau,
Zatoz gora, zatoz hau itzal, eta jaso itzal,
Gora, hau itzal, zatoz eta jaso itzal, zatoz
Hau itzal, jaso eta zatoz gora itzal, zatoz
Jaso eta zatoz, itzal, zatoz gora, hau itzal,
Gora, zatoz eta jaso itzal, zatoz itzal hau,
Zatoz gora, jaso itzal, eta zatoz itzal hau,
Zatoz eta jaso itzal, zatoz itzal hau gora,
Itzal, itzal zatoz, zatoz eta jaso hau gora,
Zatoz, itzal, jaso, eta zatoz itzal hau, gora,
Zatoz itzal, zatoz, eta jaso itzal hau gora,
Zatoz, itzal, zatoz, eta jaso itzal hau gora."