Before I left San Francisco, I sold my drum kit and gave away my guitar. I don't partake in any "social vices" nor have I any friends in this city so the only way I get my kicks these days is through books, films, and music. Occasionally, I like to explore the asphalt jungles of Manhattan.
BOOKS: I'm currently plowing through Marshall McLuhan's prescient, media bible/manual, "Understanding Media." For a book that expounded on so many concepts that were ahead of its time and launched catchphrases such as "The Medium Is The Message," "the global village," "hot and cold media" into the public's consciousness (catchphrases that were novel in the late 60's when the book was published, but which have become commonplace today), it has a pretty boring title. But as the proverb goes, don't judge a book by its cover. I'm only 60 pages or so into it and I've already begun to think differently about technology and the way in which information in Western Civilizations has traditionally been organized and disseminated. I'm also trying to finish John Berger's book, "About Looking."FILMS: I've got John Schlesinger's "Day of the Locust" in my DVD player. "Billy Liar" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (with an uncredited turn by a young Daniel Day-Lewis!) are next.
MUSIC: Listening to some Kraftwerk, Sigur Ros, Jane's Addiction, Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach (on a shag carpet with a dry martini in hand, naturally).I recently discovered the inspired music of Heitor Villa-Lobos through watching a terrible VHS transfer of Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha's "Black God White Devil." As far as I can gather from the subtitles that weren't bleached out, it's about a mercenary (Antonio das Mortes), an embittered desperado (Captain Corisco), a messianic evangelist (Sebastien), and a man and his wife (Manoel and Rosa) divided by religion and civil war. If I were to be facile, I would say that it is about man's search for peace. Voted the "greatest Brazilian film of all time," the film was released onto DVD last year by Mr. Bongo, but it's only available in the U.K. The SF MOMA programmed a screening of Rocha's sequel to "Black God White Devil," "Antonio das Mortes" last year, but unfortunately, couldn't acquire the print in time. Major disappointment.
The music of Brazil's much beloved composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos is featured in "Black God, White Devil." Villa-Lobos seems to have been a very prolific artist. If you enjoy Erik Satie's piano works, you'll enjoy his piano pieces. If you enjoy the music of Paco de Lucia, Django Reinhardt or the Assad brothers, you'll enjoy Villa-Lobos' compositions for solo guitar. The latter duo put out an album of Villa-Lobos' complete guitar works. Scroll down to listen.
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