h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What sorts of visually striking-ness are you looking for? Lots of things are striking to me, in different ways for different reasons. I'd hate to rattle off a ton of names that won't work for you.

Well, they're going to be used to do visuals for some of my musical activities, I was going to get a juxtaposition thing going on with brightly coloured geometric shapes, but anything really. I'd picked those three at first for different reasons for each. The fields and the mask in Oni Baba, the weird faces in M and the odd geometry and shadows in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. I always want to call that Calimari.

Man Bites Dog, might be some good bits in that.

Salo sounds pretty grimy.

Sorry it's taking me so long to reply. I'm at work and James Bond fever is griping the nation, although people have seemed to have slowly switched from blind desperation to slack jawed ambivalence over the past few days.

Me: Good evening, ********* cinemas, how can I help?
Eejit: Erm?
Me: Which cinema are you calling about?
Eejit: Erm?
Me: Erm ain't no cinema I ever heard of! They speak English in Erm?
Eejit: Erm?
Me: ENGLISH, MOTHERF**KER! DO-YOU-SPEAK-IT?
Eejit: Crawley!
Me: Then you know what I'm saying!
Eejit: Yes!
Me: Which film are you calling about?
Eejit: Erm?
Me: Say Erm again. SAY ERM AGAIN. I dare you, I double dare you, motherf**ker. Say Erm one more goddamn time.
Eejit: Quantum of Solace
Me: Go on.
Eejit: Tommorow
Me: How many tickets would you like?
Eejit: Erm?

At this point I actually would shoot the person.

Sorry I haven't gotten back here sooner, but I'd been thinking.

So, visuals for musical activities, eh? Do you do a lot of electronic stuff?

Obviously silent films work well, since they didn't have dialog and so are visually striking by nature. I've got a couple of box sets at home with various Avant-Garde shorts, and two volumes of Kenneth Anger works. Sometime this weekend (I'm supposed to go to a shindig tonight and may not have time before then) I'll post back here with some suggestions. I'll include the director's name as well as the name of the work.

Then there are B&W films with bits that might work for you. What about "Dementia 13", "Carnival of Souls", "Spider Baby", "The Loved One" or "Dr Strangelove"? (I own all of the above if that helps )

Oh, brill, thanks PC, of those I've seen Carnival of Souls and Dr Strangelove. There's definitely good bits in both. I didn't want to use anything too iconic, so no Frankenstein etc, but the redneck pilot on the bomb in Dr strangelove would be too good to miss. I'll check the others out. Dementia 13 sounds interesting

La Haine. There's a one.

Yeah, I do a lot of electronic stuff. Mostly music but I sort of studied Art at college. I'm predicting a "creative differences" type of affair at some point down the line with the guys I work with so I'm trying to get all my bases covered now *before* I end up on my lonesome.

Do you like electronic music?

Speaking of electronic stuff, I made an Arcade machine.
A full size replica with a steel control panel, a PC inside and all the joysticks and buttons (glowing) from Japan. Also, I made my own vinyl decals.

I'm not normally a fan of what most people classify as "electronic music", but I'd be keen to check out some of yours sometimes.

Here are some selected avant-garde shorts from my DVD set (* are my favorites):

Traité de bave et D'Éternité- Jean Isidore Isou
The Mechanics of Love- Willard Maas & Ben Moore
Anémic Cinéma- Marcel Duchamp *
Ballet Mécanique- Fernand Léger *
Lot in Sodom- James Sibley Watson & Melville Webber
Le Retour À La Raison- Man Ray *
Votmittagsspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast)- Hans Richter
Symphone Diagonale- Viking Eggeling

Favorite Kenneth Anger shorts include Scorpio Rising, Rabbit's Moon, Puce Moment and Eaux d'artifice.

I can help you "find" any of these that sound like they might work for you.





I can also highly recommend anything by Stan Brakhage or Maya Deren. I have a couple DVDs each of their shorts, too.

Thanks PC. Those Kenneth Anger titles seem very interesting. I particularly like the sound of Rabbit's Moon and Eaux d'artifice. I read a description of Eaux d'artifice, which reminded me slightly of a long sequence of barely submerged kipple (...favourite word, from Philip K Dick, means bamf, detritus, pointless quasi-rubbish) from Stalker. The beginning of Stalker is in B/W!

Gay Nazi bikers might be pushing the threshold of what the average clubber expects but the more I think about it the more tempted I am to *really seriously wig some people out.

I like the sound (I can only read about them at the moment) of the other shorts as well. What is the box-set called? I like the sound of Ballet Mécanique and Symphone Diagonale.

I would love some help "finding" some of these, you're really going to have get your thinking cap on about stuff you'd like from the UK though. Or you're going to be up to your eyes with massive crates of veggie/vegan stock cubes

That wasn't a threat.

Maybe some lime, chilli and tomato chutney? Although I'm not sure about the legality of trans-continental chutney shipping. Especially really tasty chutney you can only get in the UK, could be psychological warfare.


Even Dwarfs Start Small.

I loved Even Dwarfs Started Small- that's a great one.

The DVD box sets are called "Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 30s", by Kino Video. There are two volumes, on in a black box and a second in pink. My better half takes them with him frequently when he deejays at the bar- short, visually striking stuff like this works well in the background, as do anime, silent and subtitled films.

Offhand, there isn't really anything I "need" from the UK other than a couple upcoming TV programs I've already asked Chris to record for me.

Chutneys are always lovely but I'm not sure about shipping perishable items. I've sent dry spices, and have received tons of chocolate, but I've never tried with anything in a jar. Not that I mean to imply that I offered to help you find these with an expectation of anything in return.

I'll shoot you an email later to sort out the finer details.

And I'll see if I think of any other useful titles in addition to these.

Psychocandy: Dadaist Movie Detective, will work for chutney.

Cheers. You are legend

Even Dwarfs *Started Small. That is an odd one. I kind of didn't believe what I was seeing for most of that film. Not like I failed to suspend my disbelief but more that my whole brain went into denial.

What sort of bar does K play at? What kind of music is it?

His friend owns it, it's just a neighborhood place, nothing fancy. They usually spin punk, new wave, glam and power pop, that sort of thing. Presumably there's some rockabilly played at some times, but I'm not aware of any in K's repertoire.

I'll shoot you an email to sort the finer details as to how we get these shorts to you...

I got the e-mail and have reply-ed. Sorry it took me a while.

I saw the first few minutes of something called Renaisance. Which was a kind of noir comic book esq animation. Then I fell asleep. Have you seen it?

It's always nice to know someone with a bar. I get to just walk behind the bar and serve myself at a few places

What is rockabilly?

Hey- sorry I didn't get back to this last week. I cleaned up my convo list and inadvertently deleted more than one active conversation.

Rockabilly- it was big in the '60s but made a comeback of sorts in the late '70s and early '80s. It's basically a blend of rock and country. Not that pop-country garbage, though. A good example of the first wave would probably be Carl Perkins. Some of Elvis's stuff is a good example, too. Approaching the '80s- and getting to the stuff I was thinking of in terms of what lots of bar DJs offer- you have the Blasters, the Stray Cats, Lone Justice and Dave Edmunds/ Nick Lowe's band Rockpile.

More to my taste is a strain of rockabilly called "psychobilly", which includes the Cramps and the Reverend Horton Heat.

A lot of young hipsters like to do the "rockabilly" look, with white t-shirts, rolled up jeans with white socks and wing-tips, etc.

But I digress. How quickly do you need these shorts?

For the time being, I'm going to get you the four you mentioned you found most intriguing- "Ballet Mécanique", "Symphone Diagonale", "Rabbit's Moon" and "Eux D'Artifice". I can always get DVDs together for you and mail them over later, if you like.

I'm in no rush. My next gig isn't until January and I'm doing some sprite ripping and getting to know a piece of live visuals software in the mean time. Hmmm, 'scalled resolume, it's very easy to use. Something K might be interested in?

Ah, I think I know what rockabilly is. I'll have a listen. I've been making music with parrots and car horns in.

I've got a house invasion of Welsh electricians that are friends of Soph at the moment, who keep getting me drunk and hogging my laptop.

I peeked at Resolume. Doesn't sound like anything K would use, but I'll ask him. He just spins at a punk club with movies playing up on the overhead TV screens, no fancy visualizations or lazer light shows or anything.

Over the weekend I got some of those shorts together in one place, but I may just wing a few DVDs your way.

That'd be great.

I've not really a big fan of punk, I like some digital-harcore/punk crossover type stuff from a US label called tigerbeat6 and Atari teenage riot and a couple of local punk bands, (Santa's Bugger Boyz, great name) I always feel it needs to be live though. I hijacked the DJ booth at my local punk/goth club on new years eve 1999 and held the cage shut with my feet and put one select techno track on then relinquished my control. Banned for life apparently, but I've been back there plenty of times since. One of my friends climbed on the roof and threw snowballs at, and then and wee'd on, the bouncers. He really was banned for life.

Weeing on the bouncers is probably guaranteed to get one banned for life.

Techno ain't really my thang. But I had a feeling that was the effect you were going for, so I think the shorts you mentioned, being more "mechanical" like, will suit your purposes.

Still trying to figure out why I spelled laser with a "z"...

Zeds are science fictiony, like... I want to do it now, like lazers.

I'm not really a massive fan of where techno is now either, it's lost the funk. Early Detroit stuff was really amazing, Juan Atkins/cybertron is a big favourite. It's just that there isn't really a genre name for the music I like unless it's something like...

Ambient-breakcore-glitchcore-hardcore-grime-techno-dubstep-techstep-jungle-experimental-electro-acid-rave

Some people call it IDM, which stands for intelligent dance music. These people should be ostracized.

Is that a z...

I'll let you get away with it because that's how we spell it here.

Science fictiony stuff is right up my alley- which is why I'm surprised I don't like some of the ambient type techno stuff. Like robot music or something.

I should be able to get a little parcel to you by January. I have something else to post overseas anyway.

Oh, I found a program that allows large files to bypass email size limits. Apparently it hosts the files online and your email would receive a download link. The program's called Pando. The free version came with some silly shareware program that I immediately uninstalled, but it sounds like it might work? I could get the files to you more quickly and we could both bypass the post.