the totally tremendous video for my favorite track off This Is Happening

there's no act in music that strikes me as especially similar to Ratatat

they say a lot to me about living when+where i do

their style seems simple, but somehow it is not very easy to imitate

autoportrait by Austin

he's about my age, has an awesome name, and has done so much cool shit it overwhelms me. i just discovered his short film Study After Cruel Intentions which i guess feels something like a skyscraper-sized dead dove looped around the recent Simian Mobile Disco track Cruel Intentions. the 'music video' for Cruel Intentions is made out of parts of the film and is kinda cool but has nothing really on the original work, which is an insanely powerful interpretation of a song i would call just 'ok' if this film didn't exist to expand it.

Saam brought the same kind of gravity to the playful tune Hustler by SMD- an intense sense of place and time, capital-S Sexuality, a queering of everything in the truest sense. Study After Cruel Intentions is extremely similar to Hustler, as both evoke a secret energy between women that is recognisable+real. in Hustler, it is colorful / youthful / jokey, but it is also ominous. in Study After Cruel Intentions, it has grown up / grey / into horror.

dude has also made a bunch of videos for Klaxons and one for Janet Jackson and even does commercials. i think he has also won some awards and stuff. however he does not have a wikipedia page.

watch Study After Cruel Intentions [enable fullscreen]

to the sidebar as soon as i get round to fixing the formatting-
saam.tv

James Lyons, filmed by Todd Haynes

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he died on Thursday; he was 46. he was in Poison, Swoon, Safe, and even that daft film of Frisk. he cut Velvet Goldmine. he was hot and smart. listen to his commentary [with Haynes] on the Poison dvd if you haven't heard it yet.

things James Lyons and i had in common: admirers of Todd Haynes, riders of the Brooklyn F train, members of ACT UP

well obviously the moment was captured, so in that sense, yeah, his beauty is eternal. but i look at Bjørn Andresen aged 15 and i just feel time passing so rapidly, with the intensity of a physical sensation. was he 15? i think he may have actually been 14 in these stills.

Death in Venice [hail Visconti] is one of my all-time favorite movies and all-time favorite pieces of art in any media. it's better, even, than the Mann book. shit you not.

These are 4 stills from my favorite film, Blow Job by Andy Warhol, which I have cropped into squares.

and

all other entries are in the directory. some questions are answered at return the ring.