SOUNDTRACK: A HOUSE-“More Endless Art” (1991).
Lar, my encyclopedia of music, pointed me to this second version of “Endless Art” by A House. The original was all male artists. This follow-up is all female artists.
I enjoyed this version very much, and it made me realize that I was tired of the original song because of the lyrics, not the music (listening to spoken word bits over and over can be exhausting). So, now I get a new version of the song with brand new lyrics to think about.
The video doesn’t go anywhere near the conceptual peak that the first one achieved, I’m not even sure who made it.
Watch it below, or look for the “Endless Art” single.
[READ: August 21,. 2010] “A Brush”
I read John Berger’s Ways of Seeing back in graduate school. It’s a group of essays about perception and art. I had no idea that he wrote anything else, and promptly forgot about him. So, imagine my surprise to see this piece of fiction written by John Berger (and a little research indicating that it is the same guy). I liked Ways of Seeing but it didn’t impact my life in any major way, this was all just an interesting (to me) coincidence.
I wasn’t really sure what to think of this story as it opened. It talks of a paint brush. And the wording of it was a bit odd, I felt:
I want to tell you the story of how I gave away this Sho Japanese brush.
But it’s the description of the brush that I found so compelling:
I drew often with it. It was made of the hairs of horse and sheep. These hairs once grew out of a skin. Maybe this is why when gathered together into a brush with a bamboo handle they transmit sensations so vividly. When I drew with it I had the impression that it and my fingers loosely holding it were touching not paper but a skin.
I kept reading and found myself totally wrapped up in this fascinating story of a former artist, crippled by polyarthritis who spends much of her time in the same swimming pool as the narrator.
They develop a friendship and he feels that this beautiful brush (which I can’t imagine painting with, it seems so delicate) would be the ideal gift for her.
It is a simple, almost subtle story, very quiet in tone (as befits a brush which creates such delicacy). And while I was a little confused about the ending (I feel like something was lost on me), I still enjoyed it from start to finish. The tone was quite enchanting.
A new version of Endless Art, this time to look at the pension arrangements for the nineteen Fianna Fail members of the Irish parliament who are quitting politics this week before they get shitcanned in the upcoming election. There is a video of it but as it was just on television five minutes ago you’ll have to wait another three before I get it from Youtube. In the medium here’s the audio. It’s from a morning radio show called Gift Grub, famous for its impersonation of popular Irish figures. Want more? todayfm.com/giftgrub.
Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yvFV0dk_DA
Who is responsible for it?