London Trip,Happenings and Performance Art,and Last of Free Film Festival

To conclude my jottings from last blog about London. After the visit to The Whitechapel Gallery i went into Soho to Reckless Records and bought two Cd's - "Letter From The Earth" by No Neck Blues Band (Very Friendly CD 2006),and "Mambo Fever", a compilation on Capitol from 1996,full of loungecore/exotica stuff.

Back in Brighton went to the Fringe Basement to see "Deconstruction/Reconstruction",a live happening fluxus-style event with 15 artists deconstructing and reconstructing each other's works. It was an organic live art installation that constantly developed and shifted in its form.The space transformed as new works and performances produced a collaborative blurring of artistic identity and a dissolution of authorship with a convergance of activity. A highly charged atmosphere ensued and a definite link between old and new themes and understandings of the possibilty of art emerged. Phew!

Following on from that i walked down to The Freinds Meeting House to see the last in the Critical Positions 2 film festival.

I saw "Town Bloody Hall" ,directed by Chris Hegedus and D.A Pennebacker (USA 1979).This was a raucous,rough-edged and riotously funny record of the now legendary debate on feminism held in New York in 1971,organised in response to the furore surrounding Norman mailer's inflammatory article "The Prisoner of Sex". Mailer himself chaired the discussion,sharing the podium with four women representing different strands of feminism:journalist and lesbian spokeswoman Jill Johnston,critic Diana Trilling,author Germaine Greer and president of N.O.W,Jacqueline Cebellos. Roving,zooming camerawork intimately captures the volatile atmosphere and impassioned reactions of both jury and audience.An invaluable historical artifact,and a distillation of the political currents then raging in the USA and far beyond.

A really superb end to a set of generally fascinating documentaries.

Friday's Fantastic Fifteen

Well its playlist time again and some have an artistic bent to them,following on from the arty stuff on Thursday.The first seven (OK a bit over the top i know) are great modern classical pieces by Morton Feldman,whose friends included Mark Rothko,ara and Philip Guston (both painters),Frank O'Hara (poet) and Samuel Beckett (playright/dramtist/author).

1/ Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel (New Albion CD)
2/ Morton Feldman - For Philip Guston (Hat Art CD)
3/ Morton Feldman - Why Patterns? (Hat Art CD)
4/ Morton Feldman - For Bunita Marcus (Col Legno CD)
5/ Morton Feldman - Words And Music (Samuel beckett) CD
6/ Morton Feldman - For Frank O'Hara (Montaigne CD)
7/ Morton Feldman - Neither (Hat Art CD) - Beckett again.
8/ Sainkho Namtchylak - Naked Spirit (Amiata CD 1999)
9/ Various Artists - Early Morning Hush (Castle CD)
10/ Television - Marquee Moon (Elektra/Rhino CD)
11/ Low - Trust (Rough Trade CD)
12/ Christine Carter - Scorpio Flower CDR
13/ Various Artists - Mambo Fever (Capitol CD)
14/ Various Artists - New Thing! (Soul Jazz CD)
15/ No Neck Blues Band - Leters From The Earth (very Friendly CD)

After the rush of Feldman CD's a more eclectic mix as usual.