Good Clowns Doing Nothing
Came across this cartoon on The New Yorker site when reading this article on Peter Doig and the quote beneath has been rattling around in my brain for a while now. Found the cartoonist's site and thought I'd share. His name is Drew Dernavich and he seems to draw regularly for TNY (his site can be found here). I also recommend the article too. Peter Doig is an artist my partner recently recommended and I've been enjoying a lot of his work. Some of my favourites can be found on the Saatchi Gallery website here.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil clowns is that good clowns do nothing.”
Shadow Boxing
Currently working on a short story that revolves around the world of boxing. I got interested in the subject after watching The Greatest (1977), the biopic about Muhammed Ali, starring Muhammed Ali as himself. It was fascinatingly strange to see him play himself, showing his toxicity as wall as his charm. It felt scarily honest, like a dream. He felt supernaturally charismatic and powerful to a folkloric degree and I was inspired to inject a similar magic into one of my own characters. I also started Norman Mailer's The Fight, a biography chronicling Ali's road to the The Rumble in the Jungle bout. I found the mythologising of the fighters, written from a perspective of awe a unique direction and it furthered my interest in creating a character with supernatural appeal. Unfortunately, a lot of Mailer's writing around race felt uncomfortable and out of date and I opted out of reading further. I soon found an alternative in A.J. Liebling's Ahab and Nemesis however. I've read the story multiple times now and its been an immense influence on the story I'm currently working on. You can read it online at The New Yorker here. Similarly, I've found myself returning to the pugilism paintings of George Bellows, an artist who I've been a fan of for a while. There is something of the spirit of Goya in the way he paints a boxing match, making the fight seem like a ritual as much as it is a sport.
Fastest Man Alive
For a long time, I never really understood The Flash. He seemed too overpowered and his rogues gallery didn't interest me much outside of Mirror Master. That was until I picked up The Flash by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, collected from their run on the character in the late nineties. It opens with Jay Garrick and Max Mercury discovering the dead body of Wally West and a note warning The Flash that he has 60 minutes to prevent his own death. A really cool set up that establishes the limits of his abilities immediately. The whole volume keeps pace and and is full of interesting explorations of West, his villains, legacy and place in the DC universe. I've picked up a few more Flash comics since, finishing The Death of Iris West just recently which I found, despite carrying some bronze age tropes, really enjoyable. I also played through Injustice: Gods Among Us campaign mode (review here) and the GBA Justice League Heroes: Flash (also reviewed here). The former stands strong alongside its sequel and the latter really surprised me with its varied move set, power-ups and art style. I tried playing through Justice League: Task Force on the SNES and failed to defeat the first character (it was Batman) but I'm sure I'll try it again at some point.
The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
Been ill with covid again and had the week off work. Whenever I'm ill, I tell myself I'll watch a lot of films and do a lot of reading but it never works out that way. I've been mostly bed bound but one genre of film I find easy to consume while feverish is the noir. The high contrast chiaroscuro feels unreal and strange and the heightened sense of emotion and tension is naturally elevated in a state of fever. And I'll always love a cool detective. We recently watched The Big Sleep (1946), a film taking place in a world whose mundane jobs, taxi driver, librarian, and cigarette girl, are all filled by femme fatales. It only adds to the dream conceit. Despite being a little hard to follow, the film was stunning and a genuine thrill. We also watched The Maltese Falcon (1941), another Bogart picture which we enjoyed, and Double Indemnity (1944) a week or so prior. The images below were taken from this article at The Guardian showcasing cinema's standout studio shoots of the noir genre. I've been using several of these as drawing practice lately
GG
I've also been using GG a lot this year. It's a social app similar to letterboxd that lets you log, rate and review games as you play them. You can follow other users to see what they've been playing and to get recommendations. You can add me here: https://ggapp.io/ghostmutttt
Beans In The Shape of The Universe and Carrying Within Them The Souls of The Dead
Was recently doing a bit of research on hermetic and spiritual orders and the secret religions of Ancient Greece and came across an interesting line referring to Pythagoreanists and Orphics and their abstinence from meat but also from broad beans. I was intrigued so looked up an explanation and found an enlightening article on the subject from the Atlas Obscura titled Why Beans Were an Ancient Emblem of Death. From the belief that beans contain human souls to the black spotted plant being seen as a ladder rising from hell, there's a wealth of arguments from certain ancient sects warning people off the fruit as a principle of health and morality. After a life spent avoiding the fava and preaching against their consumption, Pythagoras apparently died when he refused to pass through a bean farm while being pursued by assassins.
Playlist
This week's playlist contains my top 10 albums of the year. In no particular order:
-The OZ Tapes - Les Rallizes Denudes
-Super Champion - Otoboke Beaver
-Seven Psalms - Nick Cave
-Hexen Valley - Gnod -A Bug In Your Brain - Stegosaurus Trap
-Natural Brown Prom Queen - Sudan Archives
-This Could Be Heaven - Coordinated Suicides
-The Batman - Michael Giacchino
-His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering - Backxwash
-Hiss - Wormrot
An honourable mention goes to The Foundations of Decay - My Chemical Romance, my top single of the year but unfortunately it didn't have an accompanying album.
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