kilometer zero running eye blog

Sampling old musical passages to create new music is a rich and widely discussed practice. But sampling old music to make new photography?

My work with the °CLAIR Gallery introduced me to the photographer Petr Lovigin and his remarkable ‘Black Dwarf’ video. Simply put, it is the most beautiful piece of art I saw in all of 2014. It has everything I love: oddity and splendor and, perhaps most importantly, a nice little intellectual kick; thanks to Lovigin, I discovered that Alexander Vertinsky was the baddest Russian composer and artist I’d never heard of.

I sent Petr an email in Bangladesh where he is in the midst of a multi-month project. He answered three questions for me:

1. Why Vertinsky? Is he beloved in modern Russia?

I think that no. Already one century past his maximal activity. But for me that time (Silver Age of Russian Art, October Revolution 1917, Civil War 1918-1920) is very interesting… I know all the songs of Vertinsky but his romance ‘’Black Dwarf’’, the story behind it – it’s like it is about me.
Continue reading →

I went to Barclays bank today and asked them what their ethical policy was. The lady looked blank. Then a light dawned and she asked did I mean stocks and shares? Her brighter colleague came to her rescue saying that not only was no one in the branch qualified to answer that question but it was unlikely that I would even be any the wiser for looking on the internet. If I could wait for five minutes she would come out of the booth and I could write a letter to the manager in head office to see what they had to say about it and by the way No One had Ever asked about this before.

I found this hard to believe. It seemed like a fairly simple question. I have had an account with you for 20 years. I put my money in and then the bank presumably invests it. Would it be possible to know what they invest it in? Continue reading →

après moi le déluge
et le déluge tombe
dans le sink
à Paris

Saturday 8th Nov, 5pm :: Tumbleweed Music
sink play Shakespeare & Co., 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, 5e

later on Saturday 8th Nov, 7.30pm :: Sink the Jazzbar w/Kate Stables
sink and Kate play Le Petit Joseph Dijon, 3 Rue Joseph Dijon, 18e

Sunday 9th Nov, 5pm :: Concert Secret de Sink et Kate Stables
avec le short film Moko and Loupe accompagner d’un soundtrack live
208 Rue St. Maur, 10e

sink is the acoustic übertrio of Tim Vincent-Smith, Daniil Dumnov & Leon Wright

Mike Dineen in Earth

Mike Dineen passed away last Thursday. In productions I was involved in, Mike played the judge in Earth in Paris and Amsterdam, and 3 in the Châteaudun performance of Part 2 of Three Parts — the first public performance of a piece I’d written.

Mike you were sharp and funny and with a touch for the beautiful. You understood how to move people. Thank you for having moved me, and been a part of my life.

— Adrian

Reading over China-related notes (poking at As Big As The Sky), some interesting connections suggested themselves among the papers paving my study floor.

1. In Ming dynasty China, a bill proclaiming legally stipulated punishments:

• 80 blows for striking another so as to cause internal bleeding
• 80 blows for throwing dung at the head of another
• 100 blows for stuffing dung into the nose or mouth of another

2. Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, during the Cultural Revolution:

In schools and some workplaces people were required to eat yì kŭ fàn 億苦飯 (recalling bitterness meal), made of tree leaves or chaffs mixed with horse dung or dirt, as part of the ritualistic practice of remembering the past. Not surprising, the meal had a terrible taste Continue reading →