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Wade Marynowsky Black Casino (2013)
‘Black Casino involves five flying V guitars mounted atop a rotating spin wheel as used in popular game shows such as ‘The Wheel of Fortune’. The guitars form a five-pointed star – a pentagram, which conjures certain magical associations and is used today as a symbol of faith by many Wiccans and Neo-pagans. This pentagram, however, depicts Diabolus in musica: the ‘tri-tone’ musical interval that has been used since the sixtenth century as the signature of the Devil – an association exploited by many heavy metal bands.’
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Torbjorn Rodland Infernus (2001)
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Alexander Binder Traum (2017)
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Jan Hakon Erichsen Obvious Art Work nr.12, Black Metal Art (2010)
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Bjarne Melgaard Kill Me Before I Do It Myself (2001)
‘For the uninitiated, Frost engages in a performance piece composed with Bjarne Melgaard that they call, “Kill Me Before I Do it Myself.” In a profoundly angry display, Frost, mere inches from the audience, engages in aggressive torching of the set, destructive stabbing of furniture and outright overt blasphemy. As viewers watch burning embers rapidly descend from the exhibit’s structure and experience Frost destroying a multitude of items, they have only seconds to prepare to watch as Frost uses a menacingly long knife to slit his arm vertically from wrist to elbow. He then follows suit on his neck. The audience, clearly in shock, is not entirely sure if they are witnessing an actual suicide and they stand in silence as Frost reclines down, eyes open, with blood oozing out of multiple sites in his body.’
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Harmony Korine The Sigil of the Cloven Hoof Marks Thy Path (2000)
‘Harmony did a show where he photocopied a bunch of pictures from Lords of Chaos, and blew up pictures of Fenriz and hung them on a wall in a gallery! He put a picture of Varg up there too, and this is in some bullshit gallery in Santa Monica, what do others think about him? Is he ripping off BM culture, does anyone care? I don’t but this show is funny, a bunch of pictures of Fenriz and some national socialist looking runic art, stuff that has been on Black Metal album covers for ages, put up in a gallery under his name.’
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Mickaël Sellam Black Metal Forever (2010)
‘Equipped with sound sensors that amplify the noises it makes while moving, the machine becomes a massive and worrying musical instrument that plays in a dramatic atmosphere. From the top of the picker, the operator directs and synchronizes the movements of the machine so as to produce a spectacular and wild soundscape, a mechanical black mass.’
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Joachim Hamou J’ai Froid (2014)
‘Tapping into the unrest and general neoliberalisation of the Scandinavian welfare-states, a new generation of artists’ interest in anarchistic expressionism and Black Metal has emerged. Their interest in this subculture lies perhaps in the promise of an oppositional position and the potential for expressing angst, distress and feelings of being overwhelmed.’
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Nader Sadek Re:Mechanic (2014)
‘Since 2009, conceptual artist Nader Sadek has been directing and producing an epic undertaking. The first phase of this project was the album In the Flesh released in 2011 (the band, a Death Metal supergroup brought together by Nader), the second phase involves videos based on the album’s tracks, and the final phase is a type of Metal opera—a magnum opus, if you will—which promises to be a spectacular fusion of art and music including sculptures, installations, and performances. Born in Cairo, Nader draws upon his direct experience with the use of Metal and art as a form of political protest, which he has written about here. He is currently based in New York City and has established an international reputation in the Metal community for his artistic collaborations with Attila Csihar, which have produced costumes and stage designs.’
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Juan Pablo Macías BSR Complete Stock #1 (Ratas – Zona roja) (2017)
‘Juan Pablo Macías devotes part of his work to the restoration of the Biblioteca Social Reconstruir (BSR), a libertarian and anarchist library founded in 1978 in Mexico City and now dismantled. For the sound installation BSR Complete Stock #1 (Ratas – Zona roja), shown in the exhibition Altars of Madness, he invited Mexican metal bands to record their music.’
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Nancy Pagan Animation Sons of Northern Darkness, Ep. 1 (2015)
‘In the fall of 1995, Black Metal band, ‘Immortal’, set out to make a string of music videos for their upcoming album. With little to no-budget, they walked into the woods outside their hometown of Bergen, Norway, never to be seen again. This is their story. Featuring King Diamond!’
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Vincent Como Paradise Lost 001 – 004 (2011)
Oil on Linen with Wood, Wax, and Fire
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Terence Hannum Further Desecrations (2017)
‘I think a lot of my friends and the initial people who turned me on to death metal were incredibly intelligent people who a lot of society had really written off. They had intelligence about books or electronics, or records, just this depth that I didn’t know. I know I am romanticizing it a bit, but I pulled a lot from my friends who I grew up with who were super smart but somehow got written off in school or by their families.’ — TH
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Per-Oskar Leu Vox Clamantis in Deserto (2010)
‘Vox Clamantis in Deserto (“The voice of one crying in the wilderness”) shows Per-Oskar Leu performing the aria Vesti la Giubba (“put on the costume”) from the opera Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo, 1892) in Black Metal attire.’
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Banks Violette Various (2008)
‘Death metal, ritual murder, and teenage suicide are mere starting points for Banks Violette; his gothic installations construct operatic analyses of the dark side of American culture. In works such as Black Hole, Violette aptly portrays this phenomenon of excess. Heavy-metal aesthetics become a mirror of youth culture anxiety, an adopted language compensating and empowering sensations of immense sorrow and despair. Citing examples where musical lyrics become instigating factors to real-life violence, Violette refers to an over-identification with fiction where artistic expression exceeds critical confinement, and fantasy and reality are blurred.’
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Tereza Zelenkova Various (2016 – 2019)
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João Onofre Box sized DIE featuring Sacred Sin (2007-2008)
‘Box sized Die featuring No Return, 2007-2011 is both a sculpture and a performance. It consists of a black metal cube with sides measuring 183 cm. Making a direct reference to the minimal sculpture work by Tony Smith, and in particular his piece Die, João Onofre explores the potential of this black box by getting a Death Metal band to play inside it. Activated, the work offers an invisible show contained in a closed space. Only the residues of the sound vibrations attest to the inner power. The length of the performance is variable since the musicians are putting their physical limits to the test in experiencing imprisonment and asphyxia.’
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Erik Smith Perfect is My Death Word (2007)
‘Perfect is My Death Word is a recreation of the James Lee Byars sound work of the same name. The original work was produced by Byars and the Neues Museum Weserberg Bremen in 1995 and exists as an edition on CD of twenty minutes of silence followed by Byars saying the sentence “Perfect is my death word.” Smith asked Dutch Black Metal band Sammath to recreate the sound work by adhering to the twenty minutes of “silence” format before launching into one of their original songs with Byars’ sentence as chorus. Sammath performed Perfect is My Death Word at the De Appel Contemporary Art Centre in Amsterdam on February 16, 2007 for the opening of Smith’s exhibition The Ghost of James Lee Byars Calling.’
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Seldon Hunt Various (2014 – 2019)
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Gast Bouschet & Nadine Hilbert
‘Over the past few years, Luxembourg duet Nadine Hilbert and Gast Bouschet have developed a multifaceted body of work at the crossroads of several media (video, photography, sound, etc.) and disciplines (visual arts, music, dance). In Metamorphic Earth, immense video projection and complex sound constructions plunge the spectator in a bewitching universe where he loses his physical marks and where fascination clashes with anxiety.’
Toward the Event Horizon (2011)
Tempestarii Video (2016)
Metamorphic Earth (2017)
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Analogue Black Terror (2019)
‘Between the late ’80s and 2000, a fringe of the extreme heavy metal youth culture decided to secede from the contemporary scenes to express their deep disgust and hostility towards organized religions, democracies, human rights, the modern world, and humankind in general. Driven by hatred, misanthropy, and Satanism, fueled by juvenile passion, and with very limited means, they produced myriads of homemade black metal recordings which left no room whatsoever for tolerance, mercy, or any kind of positive energy. Some were spoiled brats in search of a reason to rebel; some were convicted murderers, arsonists, grave desecrators, or rapist;, others were merely incredibly talented artists with a sincere will to put their work into the service of a greater evil.
‘Little consideration was given to sophisticated production, and given how much money was available in the scene, fancy options were not on the table anyway. Home-xeroxed duplicated tapes were spread hand-to-hand within local scenes, or worldwide, via snail mail, among a network of individuals all gathered around one idea: to remain an elite that stood alone against the modern world and prayed for its annihilation. A lot of them disappeared, a chosen few became legends… The author has an opinion of what happened to these bands since 2000, stating: “…before falling into disgrace to represent the embarrassing circus that black metal mostly stands for a quarter of century later.” Take that for what you will, there are definitely “cvlt” fans that want to return to the unrefined, raw sounds of the past, while others enjoy the progression. Either way, this book looks to be an incredible visual guide to history that is black metal.’
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Pavel Lyakhov
‘My favorite art subject: Sadness; latest autumn, winter, etc.; depressive music; ruins; abandoned places, etc. – such things inspire me to create my art. I get inspiration in my expeditions to Russian North, where I see snow-capped mountain sceneries. Survival in severe weather conditions gives me Inspiration for my art. My artwork is my world – it is frozen, cold world. And I feel comfortable in it.’ — PL
Живопись. Художник Павел Ляхов. Работа в мастерской
🎨🎨🎨 Shadows of the Past. Vol-V. BlackMetal version
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Death Orgone Various (2017)
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Konrad Smolenski One Mind in a Million Heads (2015)
‘Konrad Smoleński describes his work as a mix of “spectacular pyrotechnic effects” and “minimal punk aesthetic.” Smoleński’s works frequently have an audio component, which might take the form of noise, music, or noise music. Speakers and microphones are also frequent motifs in his installations, appearing in overwhelming configurations and quantities, often alongside combustible materials and flames. The artist has an openly anarchic disposition, which manifests in the works as a sense of anxiety, disorientation, and awe.’
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Grace Ahlbom Various (2018)
‘I don’t really listen to black metal, but I don’t think that’s the point. It’s more just about the fan culture and the overall––the props, the makeup, the whole theatrical performance behind it is what I’m interested in.’
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Aaron Metté On the Black Universe in the Human Foundations of Color (2017)
Text: François Laruelle
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Peter Beste True Norwegian Black Metal (2007)
‘In 2002, New York-based photographer Peter Beste packed up a bag of belongings and a camera and flew out to Norway with the idea of documenting the country’s most notorious export, Black Metal. Six years and seven trips later, his resulting film and book, True Norwegian Black Metal, hits the airwaves and shelves. While some of Beste’s photos take the classically ’grimm’ route, others gently pry behind the mask, capturing the likes of Gorgoroth, Carpathian Forest, and Darkthrone in more natural surroundings. Intimate, almost conspiratorial, they give the impression of being welcomed into a lair.’
Book version
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Grant Willing Svart Metall (2008 – 2011)
‘Grant Willing’s ongoing photographic series Svart Metall is a meditation on the ineffable qualities of an unsubtle musical subculture, Black Metal. Though its sonic qualities are challenging even for some metalheads, its Nordic atmospherics and paganistic themes are arguably evocative for a diverse range of artists. The photographs are allusive of the themes black metal culture treats, and presented in a surprisingly informal way—printed on bleached newsprint stock. On this ephemeral paper, the photographs retain a stately quality but gain a more disorienting sense.’
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Ben Lee Ritchie Handler & Mike Z Morrell Crystalnacht Watersports Grimoire (2016)
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Russell Nachman Various (2012 – 2917)
‘I like having big ideas and weird mysterious stuff in the universe. This is kind of a longing for that. Like maybe in a post-religious society after everything has collapsed, these drunken idiots just pick up all sorts of detritus from Western civilization and remake it in their own image. So I never think of this, even though theyʼre black metal guys with tattoos of upside-down crosses and all that, itʼs never anti-Christian for me. Itʼs kind of like a post-Christian homage.’ — RN
*
p.s. Hey. ** jay, Hi. Oh, that does sound amazing. I’m almost solvent again, so I think that’ll be my way back into my recently dormant gaming habit. Something else to live for. Thanks, pal. ** _Black_Acrylic, His stuff is mostly quite entertaining and very German. ** kenley, Yeah, I know, sorry for the to-do pile up, but I’m similarly beset over here if that helps. Skipping a party to watch Rohmer! You are my soul mate. Not to mention the sushi. One of the few drawbacks to Paris life is that it’s almost impossible to find good vegan sushi. No, haha, Diller and Pryor were separate events. Hm, pleasurable lately, almost anything that doesn’t have to do with my visa shit and my financial precariousness shit. Which doesn’t leave a lot. I think my pleasure is mostly anticipatory. There’s a Leonora Carrington retrospective and a big Georges Perec exhibition and even a possibly fun looking new haunted house attraction, so I think I’ll be okay. I like ‘Chilly Scenes of Winter’ for sure, but I don’t think that I’ve been as high on the other Ann Beattie I’ve read. Recommendation? Cool that you’re writing. Song lyric <-> novel. ** Steeqhen, I loved ‘Resident Evil 8’. The future always finds a way to slip through the obstacle course. At least during my lengthy-ish stint on earth. ** Carsten, I’ll start with the Southern curve, which makes sense. Thanks for the review of the Jarmusch. You’re the first flesh and blood person I know who’s seen it. I guess I won’t rush, but I’ll get to it. I actually liked ‘Broken Flowers’, but I really like Bill Murray when he’s committed to a role. ** Steve, Thanks for the Nirvanna’ fill in. Now I understand. Matt Johnson, right. Sounds maybe kind of missable, but that’s not my thing. But still. Of course I don’t know if the bug chasers are real. Some of them certainly seem to be. You can go check out one of the big sites where the poz guys hangout and pontificate and hook up and where Prep is treated like the enemy if you like — breedingzone — and see what you think. Everyone, Steve’s ‘overview of “Rendezvous with French Cinema,” covering four films, is out now.’ I don’t know the answer to your question, but … Everyone, one more thing, a question from Steve to any of you: ‘Every version of Anna’s Archive I know about is down right now. Does anyone know a link which still works?’ ** Charalampos, Glad the blog’s zeitgeist colluded with yours. I don’t know where David’s title originated. In the US when you’re going to see a film or any show later in the evening you say, ‘I’m going to the late show’, so I guess I assumed it came from that? Hi from P. ** HaRpEr //, Same here. To me Sunday’s just the day when a lot of stores and tabacs are closed. Nice about the ‘Castration Movie’ premiere. None of the ‘CM’s have played here yet, I don’t know why. I hope you can shake the doldrums off this week and hopefully early into it. Did I see ‘The Dirties’? I saw something of his whose title escapes me. ** darbbzz⋆｡°⋆❅*𖢔𐂂☃︎꙳, Nice audio visual combo. I was awake at 6:30 am, and I don’t think the moon was red, so maybe Paris got shut out. I’m obviously glad that the explosion has passed. Prosaic thoughts can be such a bitch. ** ANGUSRAZE, Hi! Sure, yes, great. Just hit me up when the time is right. I haven’t seen that video yet cos I’ve been in a life mess moment, but I’ll try to catch up with it today. Love from moi. ** Thom, Yay about the gig. Being a lofi guy, sloppy just sounds like an interesting texture. Major luck gathering everything you want and even need. Enjoyable day back to you. ** Nicholas., War will definitely do that. Or this one at least. When I imagine the world ending, I just imagine no more internet or cell phone signal. That’s as far as I can perceive. Which is plenty harsh enough. You certainly can still write. Put that worry to bed. Excellent ghosting there, whew. ** nat, As someone who forces a solid text blog on my blog readers every day, I should be able to handle it as a reader. I buy stuff from Asterism all the time, and I haven’t noticed an uptick in my toxic spam yet. I’m awfully glad you feel better! ** Okay. I seem to have decided on a whim to turn my previous Black Metals post into a franchise. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
(to Steve) – https://annas-archive.gl/ is up, https://fmhy.net/reading is usually good on keeping track.
Great post. To me, it’s wild to see all of this spun out of the original extreme claustrophobia of the early days. In particular I dig BM’s aggressive hybridization (if that’s a word, hehe), there’s millions of mind blowing permitations to cripple your ears with; like where a BM steel pole is broken over the knees of shoegaze / post-rock. Couple of recent examples :
Tjolgtjar | Thomas
“Recorded in tribute to my brother Thomas R.I.P. 2000-2024”
https://illinoisanthunder.bandcamp.com/album/tjolgtjar-thomas
Lover’s Leap
“Only Listen At Night”
https://loversleap33.bandcamp.com/
Oh! Not a take on The Anchor Song that I’d ever imagined.
Ah in common with much of the art world, I had a short-lived BM fascination back at the turn of the Millennium. Loved Lords of Chaos and the HK show blew my mind via its media coverage also. Thats scene definitely inspired a lot of artwork in Glasgow, with the sculptures of Eva Rothschild being a particular highlight.
Black Metal seems like such a commitment to humorlessness—don’t they get exhausted?
Don’t get me wrong, I like mellow Jarmusch too, just less than punky Jarmusch. I agree about Murray, & him carrying “Broken Flowers” is what makes that movie so charming. And I mean “Paterson” is an ode to poetry—how could I possibly not love that? And who but Jarmusch would even make a film about a bus-driving poet? So yeah, he’s a bit of a golden boy in my world, but that doesn’t mean I love everything he does equally. “The Limits of Control” was such a ballsy, experimental work, but I guess its critical & commercial failure made further experimentation along those lines difficult. Or maybe he did everything he wanted with that one & then moved onto new territory. Either way, my lukewarm reaction to the new one stems from being a fan, & like I said, I’d still recommend it over most of the films I see.
Not even 48 hours of being back in this old house & already there’s another problem. Another clogged drain. We dealt with this two months ago, when the plumbers explained to me how the piping in this building is basically a maze constructed by a drunken maniac. Insufficient incline, sharp corners etc. No proper run-off possible. Help won’t come until tomorrow & that bathroom is unusable till then. Luckily it’s not the only one.
So yeah, much as I love this region, the house is a pain I can’t wait to leave behind.
Saw you mention a Leonora Carrington retro to someone else. Are you going to that? I hope so, but I think she’s terrific.
hi Dennis!
man Death Metal is such a massive thing. many massive things really. remember when emo-deathcore was suddenly like immense for a long minute? i totally appreciate melodic death metal bc i’m such a girl ^_^
but honestly my thing is i’m never too sure how serious a point Death Metal is trying to make… like if they’re v earnest they def don’t see the dark side or whatever as i see it. uh if you ask me, the tritone of real life is some rando making coffee in his pajamas w ugly electric light overhead and a face that gives away nothing while he thinks ‘well i’m 45 already, means i’m halfway done i hope’. p much all satanic-esque music is baseline celebratory to me in comparison.
also, the actual tritone lol… the tritone works best imo when it’s sort of out of character. like a locrian tritone is totally ‘well duh’, but a lydian tritone, now we’re talking… uh the lydian mode is super tritonic actually, but the event falls on such a diff place on the narrative (a raised 4th and a flattened 5th really aren’t the same thing) it takes you straight from fantasy to, like, hell lol.
anyway, really loved Grant Willing’s thing here! cool variations on a theme and somewhere between liminal and evil too, but, like, emotional? ty for sharing! ^_^
think i’d like being friends w Richard Hell lol, you make him sound p unmissable tbh =D
anyway, glad to hear the dough situation is resolving! here’s to abundance and not scarcity or whatever some new age nutter would say, but fr you deserve the boujee conforts lol. Baudelaire famously agrees.
i’m so sad you won’t look into my Heated Rivalry new favs! =D was just reading an interview w Storrie here and i paraphrase: ‘many of the films i love don’t aim for emotion, they are simply strange and different, with an effect of aha, i didn’t know a film could look like this’. also he’s into the ‘darker, brutal, somber, (…) absurd sensations (…) but also relationships between people.’ and he potentially doesn’t mind not getting paid and falling flat on his face. cmon lol. it’s not his fault he’s v pretty. call his guy or smth… and if i ever flip you on this one you can make me man on bus for my trouble or whatever. i’d kill that ^_^
oh! i wrote lyrics last night for a song which had been waiting for lyrics for like literally three years lol. worth the wait, i think, so i just had to share. idk why i couldn’t say this stuff before, or why it didn’t occur to me that i should. weird. anyway, today i went back to the book and was really struggling w this paragraph until it dawned on me how all my difficulties stemmed from one character a) not talking dirty enough and b) failing to apologise about smth which would do a bunch, like, structurally. so i fixed those things and now i’m enjoying myself more again. should have sent the stuff your way ages ago like godspeed motherfucker but then you were poorly and then i was writing again and then you were v busy and i felt bad =)
i’ve got a birthday coming right up and i used to get as chuffed as a little kid but this year is like … ? … hopefully i look more snatched than i feel lol
(still vibing w yr poetry a lot btw, best thing i’ve scored in a while)
much love! <3
@Carsten lol Jarmusch— Paterson is one of my favs ever, like bruh is a poet but does he write better than his girlfriend sleeps and wakes up (i feel this total lifestyle affinity w that girl too, and she’s my namesake and she’s Golshifteh Farahani so the whole thing was almost fanservice)
It always felt to me like old Jim wrote himself the dream girl there—beautiful, endlessly supportive etc. Seemed a little fairy tale-y to me, but maybe I’m jaded, haha. But seriously, Golshifteh Farahani dispels that fairy dust just by virtue of having serious goddess aura.
like serious! but tbh i didn’t get ‘cool girl’ vibes from her on that one, like ‘pay attention, female fans’ lol. basically he’s constantly fighting over her w a dog, whenever he wants her to wake up she sleeps… and everything that is hard for him is ‘oh that, whatever’ to her, then she sleeps some more. i think he wrote her to be basically more talented at life? or to diminish his own art by comparison? smth like that lol
Sorry sorry, doing a test post to see if it comes through.
Laura just posted a BIG comment, and often it gets refused by GoDaddy’s firewall, but this time it just went straight back to the comment section… without her comment.
Could it be stuck in the cache somewhere, Dennis? Can you have a peek? She’d be so bummed if it got lost.
Okkk whew, it suddenly decided to show up after some 15 minutes.
Nvm and carry on!
this blog, man! like i wasn’t going to write all that again =p
Fortunately it was just stuck between Schroedinger states for a little while….
bb! you’re super sweet omg
Hope you get the financial stuff sorted out soon.
Like Grace Ahlbom, I don’t listen to much Black Metal/Death Metal. But that shirtless fan can hang upside down in my house anytime.
That Terence Hannum video is a nice translation of his drawing style to the format!
Around the original appearance of your Schroeter post, Pacific Film Archives had a big retrospective of his movies. I’d never heard of him before, but quickly became a fan. Saw Der Rosenkonig and Flocons d’Or in the same month. (And amazingly enough, according to my notes, also Haneke’s Amour, and Shane Carruth’s Primer and Upstream Color. Whoa.)
Bill
Hey Dennis,
Finished work and despite being stressed and anxiety peeking through the benzo, it was good to be back. I’m too aware that becoming a hermit will not help me, so I have to get back to regular life, despite my desires to stay put. I started RE7 last night and it’s fun, although the first person POV has thrown me off, and made it more of a struggle with the usual Resident Evil puzzles. Definitely made it scarier though. It’s certainly a good game, though I’m excited to get to 8 and then go back and experience the controversial 5 and 6th entries…
Yeah, things do eventually work out. Though it’s hard to see that in the eye of the storm, where every day it seems to be a mixture of WW3, AI-fueled feudalism, and nuclear holocaust. I feel very lost as I don’t want to stay put here in Ireland, but everywhere else seems to be getting bad too; the whole surveillance state shit that the UK is getting deep into is scary and making me question if I should or could move there…
Thought I left this comment hours ago and only saw it was still not up haha. Feeling a bit more at ease, hopeful… kind of? Still very unsure about where I could even live anymore or what I could possibly do to survive with how jobs are going nowadays. :/
lololol, black metal! i have a tempered love for the stuff. when its good, its good. when its not, its not my problem. but speaking of black metal (or…at least black-ish stuff), i’m SUPER stoked about the new bosse-de-nage record out on friday! and i get to see oranssi pazuzu in june! and conifère (best black metal band in canada!!!!!) is playing toronto in a few weeks! yay!
its so funny to see all the iconography and the theatricality and the borderline hagiography, even the kinda sorta-black metal bands (alcest, deafheaven, liturgy, agriculture, etc) that have broken containment, and how mad trve kvlt and dsbm purists get about them on the internet. the neo-nazi side of it isn’t funny, but…its odd. and then, like, every black metal show i’ve ever been to is a bunch of mid-30s dorks with beards and bedtimes standing around drinking ipas
no vegan sushi? not even, like, yam rolls? ugh…brutalllll.
fun! please do let us know everything about the haunted house! and the perec exhibition…i regret not writing this entire comment without the letter e, lol. i hope they provide much pleasure amid the precarity!
i literally found out who ann beattie was two weeks ago (again, i am uncultured!), so i’m feeling her out. and hrmm…i think there might already be some bleed over, at least with imagery and such. i’ll have to do a side-by-side, see what i can glean from that
Hello friend, nice post. Right now I’m scrambling to use black fabric ink because I spilled it, so im using old stencils, practicing my line work and testing these Twin Peaks stencils I just made. They look kinda shit, gotta work on my line work, or maybe I just need better stencil tools.
Oh good news about yesterday, one of the things that stressed me was the fact that Dominos never got back to me. It seemed very likely they were going to hire me, they said so. But I called and the guy hung up the phone halfway through as I was talking. Well anyways, silver lining, I went into Little Cesears, and the hiring manager essentially briefly interviewed me on the spot. This felt so cool, because it was unconventional to, like, let’s say, retail. I felt like I was in a classic movie or the old times where the aged and calloused boss hires the man with 0$ in his pocket the same day he arrives in a new city, saying “You show up, you dont call out? Great. you’re hired.” It was very refreshing. Maybe it was because I had piercings, and the hiring manager looked pretty chill. He had piercings and a spider tattoo on his neck. Maybe im crazy, but he looked a little like Tim Buckley, my weakness yes I’ll admit it. I wouldn’t mind working and escaping by pretending my boss is Tim Buckley
Gosh, I wish so much there was a viewing in NC! I wish to support you and your future projects financially. Do you make money/collect royalties(?) when people buy your books on, lets say, Thriftbooks>
Im working on a post for my site about body modifications and how they trace back to alot of tribes and ancient societies. The Mexica’s were very stylish with their spiritual practices, things like tongue rings which were used along bloodletting as a ceremony, and labrets …of course before colonization and uninspired dicks ruined it for them by taking their gold and jewels. They also essentially eradicated the Taino people. *columbus* Cough*
I still get that weird feeling on Sundays even if I’m under no obligation to be anywhere. ‘The sunday scaries’. I hate it, I think it’s some sort of capitalist mind control.
Metalheads I’ve known have always been extremely normal, almost normal to the point of compensation. I’ll always respect those who have such a deep commitment to the perfectionist expression of their obsessions and feelings through style and appearance and so on.
Since everything is sort of atomized now, people can join subcultures that have been around for years rather than get dragged into whatever is currently happening. There’s definitely some more modern subcultures in existence, drillers are an example, but that’s almost ten years old by this point. A lot of people I know just vaguely describe themselves as ‘alt’ which to me is incredibly embarrassing. And ugh, you meet people who describe their interests as ‘niche’ and just watch Tarantino movies or whatever.
Maybe more people feel freer to express themselves individualistically now. I know I’ve always been like that. I’ve never related to how someone can just commit to being a goth or a metalhead and nothing else. I guess I sometimes describe myself as a ‘decadent punk’, but my motto is always the Wilde quote that ‘to define is to limit’. I don’t know what I am and I like it that way.
@Nat–Thanks. I found that annas-archive.vg is still working.
Coincidentally, I’m listening to Koopsta Knicca’s DA DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND as I write this. No metal, but true and kvlt in its own way, with very rough, lo-fi production and lyrics about Satan and murder.
Russell Nachman’s jesters are very cute, as are the floating pyramids. Have other metal genres inspired much art? Death metal doesn’t have the same mystique – the bands usually look like ordinary guys.
Hey, Dennis, Ha-ha: black metal. I don’t listen to much of the stuff, but I do have some affection. You? It’s such overdramatic music and the t-shirts and fonts with the chaotic thorns and melting letters are pretty hilarious, which isn’t their point, probably. But that’s just me! I do like listening to Saint Vitus sometimes, but is that considered death or black? I don’t know. Some people take the imagery and music so seriously. When I was much, much younger, I certainly did, and I usually crossed the street when I saw the black metalhead coming. Ha. I watched the Bill Bartell doc and I really liked it. Is Buzz Osborne in every single documentary about those bands/that era? I think his hair demands it! Anyway, I love stories about people you’ve (I’ve) never heard of who were at the center of things, and “connectors.” A really good subject for a documentary. Take care, Don