the girl on the hill

Its already warming up out there. To the ones i think about every day- the ones who are filled with a bright light in their eyes. I wish things weren't so crowded here. I live in more of a a warehouse than a room at the moment-- at least that's what it feels like. I've got to run off now, walking to my next destination. The struggle for pleasure continues.


***************
Also of note:

I'll talk more about these soon-- as I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment;

ARBOL "You travelled my heart inside out" (lejos discos)

and this just in:

JULY SKIES - "The Weather Clock" along with "The Weather Clock (EP)" both on (Make Mine Music)

keeping up

i'm looking at a set of books, some i've purchased recently some that have been here for a while. i'm working my way through them one (sometimes two) by one. lately, i've been keeping myself informed on more topical things before delving into the specific. I heard the Berlin Film Festival wasn't all that hot. I've made a note about Suzie Templeton's animated version of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" appearing on PBS. I suppose I've been content to watch various world cinema at home and read. Its not that the cold has been excessively prohibitive, its more that I have been less motivated to go out and see people (with a few special exceptions). What does the future hold? More travel probably, less clutter, more open space.

(this is the best i can do without a good cup of strong coffee)

the music of Karheinz Stockhausen this Friday Night on WZBC from 6-10pm

This Friday night I am not doing my radio show.

That said, my friend, John Straub, is using this opportunity to provide you with
FOUR HOURS OF KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN

From John's e-mail:

Howdy,

I will be programming a 4-hour radio special on the music of Karlheinz
Stockhausen.

I can't really see very many people wanting to listen to this many
different Stockhausen pieces in a row for 4 straight hours. I am
sending this program so people can "pick their battles" if interested.

I'm concentrating on his recordings from the 1960's, with just a
couple earlier pieces from the '50's and one later piece from the
1990's.

6:00: I'm going to start with a 23-minute excerpt from Kurzwellen,
recorded in 1969. This is a personal favorite. Stockhausen's own
liner notes for the recording also put the piece into context by
looking back at a few of his earlier pieces that I'll also be
featuring, so I thought I'd read some of those notes as an
introduction.

~6:30: Gesang der Junglinge (1956) An early classic mixing synthetic
sounds with the recording of a boy's voice singing a Biblical passage,
"Chant of the Adolescents in the Fiery Furnace"

~6:45: Kontakte (1958-1960) - piano & percussion playing along with
pre-recorded sounds on tape. I'll play the 1st 12 minutes.

~7:00: Momente (1962-1964) Side 1 of the mid-60's vinyl release on
Nonesuch. A cantata for soprano, choir, brass, percussion and
electric organs. A lot of commentators emphasize how this piece was
about "existence in the moment and ignoring the past," which is seen
as a hallmark of Stockhausen's most famous work.

~7:30: Mixture (1964): Electronics with Orchestra. I'll play the 2nd
half of this piece which is a mirror image of itself.

Stockhausen spent a lot of time in Japan in 1966, which had a big
influence on his late '60's work. The next few things tend to be less
complex and seem to be striving towards some kind of electronic world
music.

~8:00: Telemusik (1966)

~8:20: Hymnen (1966-1967) - Electronic stew of various national anthems.

~8:30: Holger Czukay's "Boat Woman Song". This was my introduction to
Stockhausen. Czukay was a student of Stockhausen's in the early 60's
before he co-founded Can in 1968. This early solo recording from 1968
mixes shortwave radio signals from all over the world and recordings
of traditional Vietnamese and Cambodian singing. Obviously influenced
by Stockhausen's "electronic world music" especially Kurzwellen (Short
Waves). My interest in Can led me to this beautiful solo recording,
which led me to Stockhausen's Kurzwellen.

~8:40 Kurzwellen (1968) Here I'm going to play an excerpt from the 2nd
half of a 1968 recording. I will open the show at 6:00 with the first
half of a 1969 recording of the same piece. Performance of the piece
involves musicians responding to random short wave radio broadcasts.
The same timpani motif (a BBC station ID) happened to come over the
shortwaves during these two different performances. The different
reactions by the musicians to that identical stimulus is something
that intrigued Stockhausen about these two recordings of Kurzwellen.

~9:05: Helicopter String Quartet (1995) - Beginning in 1977,
Stockhausen spent most the rest of his life working on a 7-part
operatic opus called Licht. The 7 parts corresponded to the 7 days of
the week. Wednesday was one of the last pieces he completed in the
mid-1990's. His Helicopter String Quartet is part of that piece of
Licht. The Helicopter String Quartet involves each member of a string
quartet playing in a different helicopter with independent flight
paths. The musicians stay synchronized by wearing headphones in which
they all hear the same click track. The 1995 premier was performed by
the Arditti String Quartet. Here's a YouTube clip of a 2003
performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th_FUqsbaxo

~9:35: Talk about Stockhausen's controversial quote on September 16,
2001. The excerpt from the quote that stirred up the controversy was
that the 9/11 attacks were, "... the greatest work of art that exists
for the whole Cosmos."

I will read the full quote and discuss the context.

~9:45: I will sign off and play an excerpt of the new recording of
Stimung (1968).

Paul Hockenos on Joschka Fischer at CES Tonight - 5pm

Tonight at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

5:00 PM - 6:45 PM, Guido Goldman Room

"Back to the Barricades: Germany's Raging Debate About 1968"

Paul Hockenos, Political Analyst and Author of "Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic: An Alternative History of Postwar Germany" (recently published by Oxford University Press) (reviewed by Anson Rabinbach in the Nation here.)
Paul Hockenos' piece: "Left Behind: Romanticizing Germany's urban guerillas" in November/December 2007 issue of Boston Review here.

CES Special Event, co-sponsored by the American Council on Germany


Reception to follow.

Contact: Jason Beerman
Email: beerman@fas.harvard.edu

Berlinale 2008 - February 7-17, 2008

The Berlin International Forum of New Cinema just kicked off yesterday. Ekkehard Knörer recently published a good review of what is on the menu this year. A couple of films of note are Erick Zonca's "Julia" (director of "the Dreamlife of Angels", his new film stars Tilda Swinton), and Mike Leigh's new film "Happy-Go-Lucky".
Also of note is Isabella Rossellini's Green Pornos, exposing her fascination with entomology.

NOTE: Der Spiegel has an excellent section on the Festival.

NOTE: Good video on some of the smaller films on the IHT site.
Plus this roundup by Dennis Lim can be found there as well.


(to be updated)

NCP I from February 1, 2008 WZBC - playlist

"off the cuff" (NCP) with George 02.01.2008 07:00PM to 10:00PM

07:09PM Colleen "blue sands" from "les ondes silencieuses" (CD) on Leaf
07:14PM Tara Jane O'Neil "The Winds You Came Here On" from "In the Sun Lines" (CD) on Quarterstick
07:20PM The Durutti Column "Messidor" from "Live in Bruxelles 13 August 1981" on LTM
07:22PM Tuxedomoon "III (April in Afghanistan) prototype of Crash 78" from "LOST CORDS" on Cramboy
07:30PM Felt "Evergreen Dazed" from "Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty" (LP) on Cherry Red
07:36PM Arbol "you travelled my heart inside out" from "you travelled my heart inside out" on Lejos Discos
07:42PM Arbol "nomi" from "you travelled my heart inside out" on Lejos Discos
07:46PM Arbol "avio" from "you travelled my heart inside out" on Lejos Discos
07:52PM Arbol "01_29" from "you travelled my heart inside out" on Lejos Discos
07:54PM July Skies "Garden Constellations" from "Dreaming of Spires" (CD) on Rocket Girl
07:59PM Gnac "The Arrival of the Fog" from "The Arrival of the Fog" on LTM
08:08PM Robert Wyatt "Stay Tuned" from "Comicopera" (CD) on Domino
08:08PM Gudrun Gut "Pleasuretrain" from "I Put A Record On" (CD) on Monika Enterprise
08:14PM Food "red algae" from "Molecular Gastronomy" (CD) on Rune Grammofon
08:19PM Band Apart "O My Beautiful Song" from "EP" (LP) on Crammed Discs
08:24PM Nine Horses "birds sing for their lives" from "Money For All" on samadhisound
08:34PM Martial Canterel "Foreign Birthplace" from "Refuge Underneath" on Wierd Records
08:37PM The Honeymoon Killers "histoire a suivre" from "Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel" (CD) on Crammed Discs
08:41PM Martial Canterel "Ascent" from "confusing outsides" (LP) on genetic music
08:44PM Martial Canterel "Hausmann" from "Refuge Underneath" on Wierd Records
08:49PM Prothese "Tumeurs" from "B9 BIS (Belgian Cold Wave 1979-1983)" on LTM
08:54PM Martial Canterel "Vichy Girls" from "Views Beyond The City Walls" on Tarantulla
09:00PM Fennesz Sakamoto "trace" from "Cendre" (CD) on touch music
09:05PM Fripp & Eno "Ringing Beat" from "Beyond Even (1992-2006)" on Opal Ltd
09:13PM Steven Brown "This Land" from "Decade" on LTM
09:14PM Seefeel "charlotte's mouth (avant garde mix)" from "quique (redux)" (CD) on Too Pure
09:16PM Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie "Snowfall" from "Music from the Film Mysterious Skin"
09:23PM The Vertical Smile) "a return to satisfy (opium tears mix)" from "Tell Tale Signs of Earworm" on Earworm
09:29PM The Sound "Winter" from "shock of daylight" (CD) on renascent
09:34PM Richard Pinhas "Iceland" from "So Young But So Cold" (CD) on Tigersushi
09:45PM Gavin Bryars, Alter Ego, & Philip Jeck "The Sinking of the Titanic (excerpt)" from "The Sinking Of The Titanic" on Touch

Haven't we been dreaming long enough?

Tonight from 19:00-22:00 EST -- I'll be on the air at WZBC 90.3fm - wzbc.org for listening details.

I've got the new Arbol disc "You traveled my heart inside out" and some of Martial Canterel's backcatalogue among other items.

like that Band Apart song...

Stay tuned.