IMAGES OF PRAGUE

A picture taken on an iphone says a thousand words.

Roof Time.

The Brazilian Stall at the PQ Building.

Bath Chair.

Hooks and eyes.

Inter-generational sun time.

Evidence of Royal popularity.

Reflections of old and new.

More Brazil. I love it so.

Wires.

Whip and Wall.

And my Sartorialist shot.

'He ate one of the Sister's brothers - I'm not kidding!'

So you may have noticed by now, that I and this blog go through certain periods of excitement related to one genre, artist or aesthetic. Some may call these periods of excitement 'phases'. But that is such a derogatory term.

My most recent period of excitement has reached me much later than I dare say it reached you. It is called 'the films of Wes Anderson.' (Or similar - we can call it whatever we want; Anderpheilia?? Sounds kinda dirty.).


It started a couple of months ago when I watched The Royal Tenenbaums for the first time, at a shockingly late age (I've just turned 24, incidentally. Practically an adult. A fucking ignorant one at that.). Then, last week at this theatre festival I've been mentioning and not divulging the details of (like a total thespian prick tease), I went to a lecture given by Mark Friedberg, the production designer of Synecdoche, New York, The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited. He was a total dude - like a beat poet lost in the hills of Hollywood, found years later with a half finished bottle of dark rum, a liquorish cigarette that went out ten years ago, and a suave pair of glasses that didn't quite help him find his way off Mulholland Drive. Well, he was sort of like that. The glasses part was true.


He informed us, in true beat fashion, in a sort of monotone soliloquy that almost lulled me into sleep in the best, most interesting kind of way, about the way he worked, working with Wes, et cetera, et cetera. One of his most startling facts was about the submarine in The Life Aquatic (yes, that one right there! The one which Bill Murray is in front of), which from conception to completion, took 48 hours. Apparently they were working to a crazy, erratic schedule. This is why i have moved away from design and into writing - I just can't hack the pressure. I am basically, a total flake. You could say that as the going got tough, I got going in the opposite direction - and now we have this blog, where, somewhat ironically, I spend most of my time discussing production design. WEIRD CIRCLE OF LIFE!


Anyway, he was very interesting, and is fuel to the fire of my most recent phase (damn it, I said it). I have recently watched The Darjeeling Limited for the first time, and while I thought it was a bit 'thank you india', it still won me over with its poignant and humorous style, sentiment and (of course), hilarious and striking production design. During his lecture, Mark Friedberg mentioned the eponymous train from the movie, about how difficult it was to procure from the Indian Railway Company, decorate and run. But the film company ended up employing many local craftsmen to decorate the interior of the train, giving it its authentic edge (authentic while remaining highly stylised - clearly). Yet another sudden alteration to the pattern of the film, so said Friedberg.

More pictures and so on coming from Prague soon. I believe it's still going on - if you live near and fancy a bit of theatre. And also a David Lynch post - I'm so fucking behind the times! But for now, one of my favorite musical passages from The Royal Tenenbaums. I love a bit of glazed-over Gwyneth.

PRAGUE

In between
No space in time
A symbol
Somewhere
Twice a line
Tiles piled up below
On streets at night
The disembodied blow
And thoughts are lost
Cost twice past twelve
A taxi
And a rip-off grin
The paradigm of night begins
Against the peeling
Paint smoke twiddled limbs
And collar bones
Americans
Low -
"Pantie-hose"
Red night on trams
Looks like disdain
Pain pocketed
Pock-marked graffiti
Ripped t-shirt
Bodies twice as hard
And white against the dark

This nights an art -

A workman
A lick of smoke
Woke me up four times before
Its Wednesday
And the shadows bend
And soar
Long and ripe against
My broken door

MOMENTOS

The Prague Quadrennial is now over half way through its week of performances and lectures and I still have yet to fully comprehend Czech keyboards. Watch out for the Y, Z confusions that are certain to arise. I promise this is not an artistic comment on modern gender issues.

One of several inspiring talks I have been to was one from this morning, which took place in the national theatre in the centre of the city. A British music producer, sound artist, engineer and general talented jack of all audio trades who calls himself Scanner, real name Robin Rimbaud (loads of great stuff over at his website), spoke about his practice and showed us numerous examples. I spoke to him after wards and he was a genuinely nice, intelligent guy - with a great original name, no? He is one of those incredible people who appears to have worked with everyone and done everything, usually all at once, with no time or need to sleep in between. As have limited time now I will keep this brief and let one of his collaborations speak for itself.

This is a video (which he did the sound to - of course!) of an "Electronic Tattoo" which responds to touch. I know - how scary is the ever-increasing presence of science fiction in real life??

Any way, check (Czech??) it out. Its unbelievable. More in depth updates to follow.

PQ 2011

Ok, so, I'm totally going to the PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL theatre festival on Wednesday and I am EEE.EX.ited. It basically takes over the city with crazy theatrical wonderments - and I am going to keep you updated with some brilliant happenings. Oh yeah.