Exploits of the Frictionless Man as it wanders around the world like some kind of slippery hydra. Music, words and pictures a speciality.

Monday, August 08, 2005

An ever vanishing crotch

I've been thinking about motivations for making pieces of art, the elements that are necessary for the creation of an exceptional piece of art, the necessity for there to be an outside motive force for even the most individual acts of creation. But after making several false starts I was seized by self-consciouness and started to ponder whether anyone would give a toss.

I would be quite interested to read about it, but as I was the one doing the writing it did not seem all that thrilling a prospect to go through the process of typing out a piece, sifting the logic the statements, forming coherent arguments and trying to anticipate possible objections only to read it myself. It floats close to onanism when I think about it.

So, having dismissed it as a pointless endevour I decided I'd write about the process of coming up with an idea, disguarding it and then evaluating the process that led to the formation of the idea, appraising this process, the first steps of organising the resultant data , the formation of cogent and saliant points, the clear and precise exposition of the same points and the final act of concluding the piece with solid, perhaps even brilliant, but at the least adequate, pronouncements on the meaning of the data that had been scutuinised.

But I tired of that after realising that I would probably only suceed in creating overwrought and opaque prose festooned with commas and requiring far too much effort to read. Instead I decided that I would reveal how easily I am deflected from my chosen course and how acutely aware of the inadequacies of my own work I am. But, realising that this would be a flawed piece of even more dubious interest than the two pieces I had already contrived to write and then disposed of, I consigned it to evaporate back into the little grey cells.

As a last resort I thought I would simplify and stick to whatever facts I could be sure of, bereft of personal oppinion or interpretation; I would stick to what I knew to be true and just report to the reader information, without making any judgements as to its value or desirabilty. I would just set down fact.

I like soup.

We have a gig on the 13th of August in the Inferno with guests Tarmark, Freezerburn and Nozzle.

I'm not sure about the soup.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I'm thinkin about my doorbell, when you gonna ring it, when you gonna ring it?"

The best ideas are always the simplest ones. That's why I like Faust so much. Play one note and throw a lot of random electronica over the top. That's music as far as i'm concerned.

That new White Stripes single is quite something. The trick is to make what you do appear effortless even when it's not.

I like Kraftwerk a lot as well and I keep listening to "Heroes" by Bowie.

And a live version of "The Carpet Crawlers".

And the Low symphony by Philip Glass (which I don't play to my children).

And "Parallel Lines" by Blondie which is perfect on every level. I didn't realise how much they all hated each other whilst they were making that album.

I've gone off the Kaiser Chiefs. Gimmicky.

Mr Frictionless said...

The best ideas are those that someone else had but you wished you'd thought of.

I have been listening to "Low" and giggling at Bowie's wonky sax.

Honk!

Tee hee.

Honk!

Tee hee.

Pwarrrrb!

Ho Ho.

Anonymous said...

That is actually a really good literal translation of the sax bit at the end of that track on "heroes" that comes just before "secret life of arabia".I think you may have your CD's in the wrong cases.

I can't stand Van Morrison. It all sounds like bollocks.

The best ideas are the ones that your enemies would never dream of.

Mr Frictionless said...

It's Subterraneans. The opening sax phrase is:

Hufffarrrrrrrbbbb huuuuuufffffarrrb hooooffffaaaaaaaarrwabwabwabwa pfffffft.

Class.

The best ideas are ones that when explaining them to someone down the pub make you give up half way through with a sigh and "never mind, it's not important anyway..."

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, you're right; but he does it on that track before "secret life of arabia" as well. I can't find my copy of "heroes" anywhere. It was on the dining room table yesterday and I don't remember moving it.

Soon over Babaluma by Can is a great album. I really like Neu by Neu as well. And Neu Two. And Laibach.

I tell you what, Swansea is looking like Berlin in the final days of April 1945; the charred wreckage of a T34 here, a spent Panzerfaust there, when you glance up at the facade of a building then you can see clear sky through the broken windows. I saw people stripping the corpse of a small pony in Union Street this morning.

Chavs in burberry caps have become expert butchers since the last stocks of food were either taken by retreating Wermacht or advancing Red Army soldiers.

It's the children i'm most concerned about. They play with wooden swords amongst the rubble like everything is normal. What can be done? There is only loss and despair.

I can't stand Coldplay; bloody rubbish.

Lee Relfe said...

The best ideas are all the ones I have. I am absolutely convinced about this, only I don't tell them to anyone in case I'm wrong. I can't think of any bands I hate, everyone is beautiful in their own way....hang on, that's not true, Coldplay are a bunch of cunts! And I hate all that insipid 'R&B' stuff with the videos all featuring the stars dripping with gold and naked women with big bums and the songs all going on about guns, drugs, 'ho's, money, sex and how they're so much cooler than anyone else when they haven't got a fucking clue! And I also hate most of the new indie bands that we're frequently told are the'next big thing' that we should all be listening to, and they advertise their albums on the telly with the same fucking comments every time; "the staggering debut by..?", "anthemic rock..", "pure genius...". FUCK OFF!! WAKE UP EVERYBODY, FUCKING WAKE UP!!.....

There we are then, I suppose I do hate some things...

Anonymous said...

That Morriston Burns is a foo...no, wait a minute, he's ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!! It's absolutely fine to despise the corporate pap that gets served up as "music" these days. It's not necessarily that the music is worse than ever before, it's the entertainment corporations flooding the market with cloned versions of the same thing; buy one get one free, Athlete, Snow Patrol, Coldplay....I could go on.
None of it is "mesmerising" or a "classic" or even "timeless" (timeless is a euphemism for shamelessly retro for commercial reasons).

Bollocks to it all. I'd rather take my own life than sign with Sony or BMG. Thankfully I don't think i'll ever have to make that choice. Good.

Mind you, the latest Satori material is mesmerisingly timeless in a classic sense.

Mr Frictionless said...

I read a review of Satori that said:

"As fascinating as watching a man crash his car because he is trying on hats and scarves."

Or maybe I didn't. I will file under "Soup."

Anonymous said...

Can you imagine Morriston Burns trying on scarves in a shop?

It'd end up like Fight Club.

Lee Relfe said...

What DO you mean?

Mr Frictionless said...

He's either saying you'd punch yourself in the ear, or your Ikea stuffed apartment is going to blow up.

You got those shelves from Ikea didn't you? I would take it as a threat against you life and kill him immediately. It's the only option you have!

Lee Relfe said...

That's good enough for me!