Astonishing Viola

If you're in Portland between now and May 16, hie thee to Portland Art Museum's Disquieted exhibition and watch Bill Viola's breathtaking Quintet of the Astonished (2000). Shot on high-speed film, this ~15-min piece is a moving painting (in both senses) after Hieronymus Bosch’s depiction of a quartet of executioners surrounding Christ. We got lucky, walking in a few seconds before the loop restarted. Try to catch it start-to-finish.

Dropping in on a whim, and captivated by the Astonished,  we didn't have time see the rest of the exhibition, except for the couple of typically unnerving/amusing Charles Rays up front and a nice, larger-than-life Barbara Kruger. The Viola was more than enough.

Incidentally, nice stuff up at this month at PDX, Pulliam, and Elizabeth Leach galleries.

The Blum Blum Shub Show

Thanks to Ron Blessinger of Third Angle for shooting and posting excerpts from our Metaphysics of Notation performance last Friday. His Third Angle blog and InstantEncore posts go like this:

Antiphonal Applebaum*
Third Angle Notes, Excerpts
Thank you to the Blum Blum Shub trio (Leo Daedalus, David Abel, mARK oWEns), for a very entertaining interpretation of Mark's piece on Friday. Metaphysics of Notation is a fascinating invitation to the performers, in this case giving literal 'voice' to the piece via improvisational poetry.
I loved how their take on it was sometimes literal (the glyphs as actual notation), or honestly confused ("I don't know what THAT is"), or even like a Rorshach test, bypassing their front brains to evoke whatever is lurking underneath.
Check out these video excerpts from their performance.
*Thanks to Brett Campbell, uttered while under the influence of decongestants

A Plan for Metaphysics

I've been hard at work developing my approach for the Blum Blum Shub "Metaphysics of Notation" performance this Friday.

"The Metaphysics of Notation" score comprises three sets of graphic expression:

1) structural marks,

2) marks that are proxies for other marks,

3) indecisive marks.

Applying to those sets the methodologies advanced in E. S. Segrob's Handbook of Unforeseen Categories (El manual de las categorías imprevistas, Naguara, 1936) I will construct a vocal body of filler concepts (see Wirklichstein, Der Füllselbegriff) in blind concordance with the blackbox predicates (Bazzutti, Gli sguardi incombenti; Jäänenä, Miksi kuka?) of my colleagues, Messrs. Abel, Owens, and Nenhum (in absentia).

> See also Tim DuRoche's Portland Center Stage post and the Third Angle blog post re same.

The Metaphysics of Notation

This month the Armory Café at Portland Center Stage teams up with Third Angle new music ensemble to present four different interpretations of Mark Applebaum’s beautiful graphic score “The Metaphysics of Notation” — every Friday noon in February.

Today it was Catlin Gabel's 8th Grade Drama Students in a display of spirited, precocious avant-gardery.

Next week, Feb. 12 at noon, it's Blum Blum Shub Sound Poetry Coincidence. That's us: David Abel, Marko Whens, and yours truly, in our never-the-same-name-twice guerrilla dada fluxus sound poetry mobile unit. Come on down — it's free, it's easy — and see what happens. Afterwards, you can explain it to us.

Then, come again on the 19th for the Quadraphonnes Saxophone Quartet, and on the 26th for our friend Linda Austin.

A big absurdist's thank-you (dadanke) to Tim DuRoche for inviting us to participate!

Read all about it on Third Angle's site and on the Armory site (which link looks to be impermanent...).

Vrouw zit 2,5 jaar dood op de bank

Only in Finland — from nu.nl:

HELSINKI - Een bejaarde vrouw heeft tweeënhalf jaar dood op de bank van haar appartement in de Finse hoofdstad Helsinki gezeten.

Medewerkers van een renovatiebedrijf vonden haar, toen ze de raamkozijnen onder handen wilden nemen. Dat meldden Finse media woensdag.

De vrouw, van wie de exacte leeftijd niet bekend is gemaakt, was niet getrouwd en had geen kinderen.

Haar rekeningen werden met automatische incasso betaald. Hulpdiensten stelden het tijdstip van overlijden vast aan de hand van de voorraad in de koelkast en de data op de medicijnen van de vrouw. Vermoedelijk is de vrouw een natuurlijke dood gestorven.

© ANP

(Dank u, Koen Dijkman.)

Ursonate Distilled, Pictured

Karl Lind of In the Can posted his great pics of Marko & me doing the Ursonate on January 9 at Distilled. More pix here.

Le plum-pudding de Monsieur de Fontgibu

Emile Deschamps, auteur du livret "Les Huguenots", a raconté dans ses mémoires une étrange histoire qui lui est arrivée. Emile Deschamps, author of the book "Les Huguenots," recounted in his memoirs the story of a strange experience he had had. Lorsqu'il était enfant, en pension à Orléans, il fut invité avec des camarades chez Monsieur de Fontgibu où il dégusta un délicieux plum-pudding. When he was a kid at boarding school in Orléans, he and some friends were invited to a Monsieur de Fontgibu's place, where he ate a delicious plum pudding.

Dix ans plus tard, à Paris, dans un restaurant du quartier de l'Opéra, où il déjeunait, il remarqua un magnifique plum-pudding, ce qui lui rappela des souvenirs. Ten years later in Paris, in a restaurant in the quartier de l'Opéra where he was dining, he notices a magnificent plum pudding which brought back memories. Au dessert, il demanda une part de gâteau, mais on luirépondit que celui-ci était retenu par un client. For dessert he ordered a slice of the pudding but was told that it was reserved by another customer. Il reconnut alors avec surprise Monsieur de Fontgibu. Ce dernier accepta de lui laisser une part. He was then surprised to recognize Monsieur de Fontgibu, who consented to give him a slice.

De nombreuses années passèrent à nouveau, puis un jour, Emile Deschamps est invité à dîner par une dame de ses relations, laquelle lui précise qu'il y aura du plum-pudding au menu. Many more years went by, and one day Emile Deschamps is invited to dinner by a relative, who specifically tells him that there will be plum pudding on the menu.

Au moment du repas, le domestique annonce Monsieur de Fontgibu. At dinner, the servant announces Monsieur de Fontgibu. Emile Deschamps croit à une plaisanterie de ses amis, mais il voit entrer un très vieil homme, marchant difficilement, qu'il reconnaît avec stupéfaction. Emile Deschamps takes it to be a practical joke of his friends, but then he sees a very elderly man enter, walking with difficulty, whom he recognizes with amazement. Monsieur de Fontgibu invité par une autre personne habitant l'immeuble, s'était trompé d'étage. Monsieur de Fontgibu, having been invited by someone else in the building, had come to the wrong floor.

> Coïncidences curieuses

Incidentally, much, much later, a Dutch guy made a film about it.