On HU
Cough Syrup wonders if we need comics.
Nadim Damluji discusses Mickey Mouse in Egypt.
I talk about fathers and vultures in Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library #10.
Richard Cook discusses the limitations of editorial cartoons about the revolution in Egypt.
Vom Marlowe reviews Sakuya Sakura’s yaoi manga Endless Comfort.
I review Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit #2.
And I talk about Sid and Marty Krofft’s children’s shows.
Utilitarians Everywhere
At Splice Today I review a new DVD of classic nudie films.
So, could that be? Could someone get off by watching this thing?
Anything’s possible, of course. People are turned on by plush toys. People are turned on by Jennifer Aniston. Somewhere out there, there’s probably someone turned on by Jennifer Aniston plush toys. God help them.
Also at Splice, I discuss being underwhelmed by David Wojnarowicz’s Fire In My Belly
The big screen turns out to have been an important part of the experience. When I came out, the gallery attendant commented that I looked shocked. I smiled queasily. “No,” I said. “It’s just the hand-held camera. It makes me nauseous.” And other than that, I was mostly indifferent. The 13-minute version in particular was underwhelming. No ant-covered crucifixes here: instead, this was simply a collage of more-or-less interesting scenes from Wojnarowicz’s trip to Mexico. A boy in the street blowing fire, some circus performers, sugar skulls, Aztec carvings, a cock fight inevitably juxtaposed with a wrestling match. Or, in other words —look! Exotic Mexicans! They are colorful and alien, entertaining and slightly ominous! Also (the wall text helpfully informed me) they are spiritual.
And at Splice I reviewed the new, and sadly kind of crappy Wanda Jackson album.
Other Links
I missed this post mortem on Culture 11, where I was a writer for a while.
The Factual Opinion has been quiet for the last month or so, so I was pleased to see them back up with Nina’s very funny takedown of Memoir and Tucker’s very funny takedown of everything else.
Matthias Wivel has been writing up a storm over at tcj.com, including reports from Angouleme and an interview with Chris Ware.
And your Panelists link of the week: Charles Hatfield on teaching superheroes (including Wonder Woman.)”
Hi Noah: I read your piece about the version of David Wojnarowicz’s film at MOMA—I can’t dispute your opinion. David was not a natural artist, he loved to make things but painting for instance, was not easy for him. He was a great artist but not necessarily the best technician. He learned from the people around him and developed his ideas. He got better bt didn’t get much of a chance to develop. Still, he must be judged by his finished work…which was often roughly made. It’s the heart and the worldview in it that counts. But note that the version you saw is not a finished piece of work. It is a raw edit of the footage David shot in Mexico with no soundtrack. It was sold to MOMA by Fales Library, and is no closer to the first version that David showed me than the version that Fales allowed the Smithsonian’s curators to put together.
Neither of these versions approach the intensity of what what I saw—and MOMA’s version is considerably weaker. The fragment that was on Youtube with Diamanda Galas’ music as a soundtrack until it was removed, was more true to the spirit of what I recall.
Some claim that there was no soundtrack, and so the version preserved for posterity at MOMA is a raw, silent travelogue. It is not the dense film with a loud and disturbing soundtrack that I and a few others remember.
The other problem, reflected in your observations, is that that MOMA’s weak version misrepresents David with unfinished work that, shorn of his intent and the overwhelming nature of his edit and soundtrack, now is presented by MOMA as “Art” that certainly looks like “ethnic appropriation” and ends up as a negative form of exoticism.
Hey James. As I tried to say in the review, I’m pretty ambivalent about the piece. There were definitely bits I liked, and then there were bits I didn’t…and I ended up overall not liking it, but not entirely sure about that reaction. And as you say, too, it’s really hard to judge when it’s not clear what the finished form is supposed to be.
Whoops; you’re second comment got in before mine.
And yeah — I’m totally willing to accept your take that the ethnic appropriation is something that MOMA more or less added — or at least that they ended up emphasizing that.
The Fales Library did not sell a copy of A Fire in My Belly to MoMA. PPOW Gallery sold a digibeta copy of the film in it’s various versions.