David Byrne / In the Future
Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside / Against the Law
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears / Messin’
It’ll Grow Back / Bret Easton Ellis Warps Your Mind!
Eddie Vedder / Longing to Belong
Brilliant Colors / Back to the Tricks
Niilo Smeds / Dreaming
Mister Heavenly / I Am a Hologram
Patti Smith / Smells Like Teen Spirit
Johnny Cash / God’s Gonna Cut You Down
Lykke Li / Get Some
Dale Stewart / Governator
Cee-Lo Green / (You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care
Hazmat Modine / Mocking Bird
Malcolm Palmer / The Moment
Bad Andy / Breathe Deep
Black Lips / Bone Marrow
M.I.A. / Born Free
J. Viewz / Wht u hv for the sun
Strange Vine / Ghosts
Moby / Move (You Make Me Feel So Good)
tUnE-yArDs / Riotriot
Time Phobia / Larry Bird
SBTRKT / Hold On
Asa / Be My Man
The Ettes / Teeth
Bon Iver / Holocene
Little Dragon / Ritual Union
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks / No One Is (As I are Be)
Laneous & The Family Yah / Damn!?!! (I Don’t Know If I…)
Unknown Mortal Orchestra / Ffunny Ffrends
Joel Robert Melton / Shadowfingers, Parts 1 & 2
Wild Beasts / Bed of Nails
Daft Punk / Derezzed
Jonathan Wilson / Ballad of the Pines
TV on the Radio / Will Do
PJ Harvey & John Parish / Is That All There Is?
The Magnetic Fields / Reno Dakota
Forty Winks / Beneath Her Feet
Fay Wrays / When We Storm the Gates We Sing This Song
OFF! / Upside Down
Sparklejet / Imbecile
Elliott Smith / Color Bars
Radioactive Cauliflower / Hector the Collector
Author jeffersonbeavers
On Werner Herzog and making art
Photo by my wife, starring me as Werner Herzog and Reaz Mahmood as Klaus Kinski.
I will long remember the summer of 2011 as my Summer of Herzog.
Herzog and Kinski during the filming of "Cobra Verde."
For me, Herzog’s work also yields no clear answers, a similarity that I think cuts to the heart of filmmaking, art making, and meaning making of any kind.
Earlier this summer, I drove up to Modesto with my wife Tracy and our good friends Reaz Mahmood and Susan Currie Sivek to see Herzog’s latest documentary, “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.” It was a strange and wonderful little picture, uncomfortable to watch at times and filled with Herzog’s classic wonder and philosophy. Like all the documentaries Herzog has made in the last decade, it made you giggle at the audacity of the filmmaker’s questions about people’s dreams, but it also somehow made you giggle at yourself for living, right here, right now, in this absurd moment. You wondered: Why haven’t I asked the same questions Herzog is asking? What are my days worth? My own dreams?
Kinski and his phonograph in "Fitzcarraldo."
The thing that I admire about Herzog is his uncompromising quest to understand himself and the nature of dreams. Reaz and I have talked a lot about how Herzog’s extremes as a filmmaker–his insistence on plunging himself and his crew into life-threatening scenarios in order to get a more “real” representation of their experience on film–are, on one hand, admirable. But on the other hand, I think we agree that every person who makes art of any kind has to establish that boundary for him or herself. An amazingly funny and accurate web series spoofs Herzog’s beyond-intense immersion tactics. (Hours of fun!) But for me, Herzog’s point is made: Don’t make art unless you are willing to sacrifice for it, unless you are willing to answer the very biggest questions, unless you are willing to spend your whole life trying to understand your dreams. If you don’t strive for meaning, as Herzog says, “We only sound and look like badly pronounced and half finished sentences out of a stupid suburban novel, a cheap novel.”
Playlist: Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011
Beastie Boys / Bodhisattva Vow
Marvin Gaye / Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
Charles Bradley / Heart of Gold
Asa / May Be
Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside / Against the Law
Tennis / Seafarer
Jose Conde / Matapalo Matamusa
Gaby Moreno / Intento
The Mountain Goats / Beautiful Gas Mask
The Funk Ark / Diaspora
Fool’s Gold / Leave No Trace
Sahab / Dastaneh Leyli O Majnun
Niilo Smeds / I Don’t Need You
Dylan Tidyman-Jones / Usulut
The Mallard / Cutesy
Thee Oh Sees / I Need Seed
Weekend / Coma Summer
Papercuts / Future Primitive
The Quiet Americans / Be Alone
Wild Beasts / Loop the Loop
Grace Jones / Williams Blood
Princess Chelsea / The Cigarette Duet
Portugal. The Man / Got It All (This Can’t Be Living Now)
Fay Wrays / The Sound is a Little Different In My Head
Public Enemy / Brothers Gonna Work It Out
SebastiAn feat. Mayer Hawthorne / Love in Motion
Teddybears feat. Robyn / Cardiac Arrest
Black Lips / Go Out and Get It
Brilliant Colors / Value Lines
AM & Shawn Lee / Lonely Life
Sean Lennon / Part One of the Cowboy Trilogy
tUnE-yArDs / Gangsta
OFF! / Jeffrey Lee Pierce
Man Man / Bangkok Necktie
Eddie Vedder / Dream a Little Dream
Chris Thile & Michael Daves / Tennessee Blues
Imelda May / Tainted Love
The Latebirds feat. Kris Kristofferson / Summer Becomes Fall
Spoon / Take the Fifth
Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three / Drinkin’ Whiskey Tonight
Leftover Cuties / Movin’ On
Grand Canopy / Daytime (Speaks)
Fruit Bats / Tangie and Ray
Style Like Revelators / Me and My Suitcase Blues
Giant Sand / Ride the Rail
Hornet Leg / Sleep
Big Fresno Flea Market photo walk
On the morning of Saturday, Aug. 13, I went on a self-assigned photo walk at the Big Fresno Flea Market and Swap Meet at the county fairground in southeast Fresno. My friend and former student, Joseph Edgecomb, came with. After my last photo walk on Fulton Mall, I wanted to go to a place this time where I would have to make photographs of people. The more journalists and artists I talk with, the more I realize that just about everybody has a hard time walking up to strangers in these contexts, so I’m working on getting better.
Joseph and I were challenged right away by the flea market’s assistant manager, who told us that photography was not allowed without the consent of each individual vendor first. After several exchanges with him, and after several vendors said no when I asked if I could make pictures of them and/or their stuff, I got discouraged. But Joseph gave me a little pep talk, and after a while it did get a little easier. About half of my photos from the full shoot had people in them, which I was quite happy with. Most of all, I got to meet a lot of interesting characters.
This was my third photo walk with my borrowed digital camera outfit of random parts. I shot the flea market on color digital with a Canon EOS Rebel XT and an EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. Most of these photos were shot with auto settings, with the flash turned off. The photos appear here lightly edited with “color boost” in iPhoto, also with some modest crops and adjustments for shadows. You can check out Joseph’s excellent gallery to compare and contrast. Again, two people in the same place saw the scene a lot differently, which always surprises me.
Playlist: Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011
Mariachi el Bronx / 48 Roses
YACHT / One Step
Carla Bozulich / Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
Fruit Bats / Tony the Tripper
Wild Beasts / Bed of Nails
Rademacher / They are Always Into That
Abstract Artimus / At Large
Shannon and The Clams / You Will Always Bring Me Flowers
Black Lips / Modern Art
tUnE-yArDs / Gangsta
Maria Taylor / Matador
Brother Luke & The Comrades / Golden Gate
Pissed Jeans / False Jesii Part 2
Lance Canales & The Flood / Clear Eyes, Straight Hands
Imelda May / Mayhem
Chris Thile & Michael Daves / Cry, Cry Darling
Grace Jones / Corporate Cannibal
Cadallaca / Your One Wish
Leftover Cuties / Lost in the Sea
Achievement House / Summer Spirit
Bjork / Crystalline
Bjork / There’s More to Life Than This
Teddybears feat. Robyn / Cardiac Arrest
Fay Wrays / Comrade Weather
Mister Heavenly / Mister Heavenly
Man Man / Bangkok Necktie
The Great Book of John / Brown Frown
Dale Stewart / Starve the Beast
Eddie Vedder / You’re True
Anita Lipnicka & John Porter / Bones of Love
Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside / Cage
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears / Messin’
Creedence Clearwater Revival / Effigy
Sparklejet / Imbecile
Alela Diane / White Horse
Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three / Mississippi Girl
Joel Robert Melton / Staircase
Radiohead / Melatonin
Crystal Stilts / Through the Floor
SBTRKT / Trails of the Past
Unknown Mortal Orchestra / Bicycle
Yellow Ostrich / Whale
Portugal. The Man / Floating (Time Isn’t Working My Side)
Bon Iver / Calgary
Jefferson Beavers 