This was a second or third time reread for me, but I’ve also used this as a reference for a few decades. I’m hoping to expand into the other volumes soon, which I’ve used for reference, but don’t think I’ve read cover-to-cover. I have always liked how Jones gets into the historical context and into specific arguments with more room than other surveys, since he was publishing this one in multiple volumes. I still enjoy shorter surveys meant for the general reader.
Denis’s adaptation of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd is stellar. Quiet and pulsing with contradictory emotions and textures. Denis Lavant is spectacular as he always seems to be.
This is a collection on Mubi, but if you enjoy experimental film than Tscherkassky is worth seeking out. High contrast and abstract re-edits of popular film collide with many techniques that deal with the medium itself–chopping, moving, blurring, projecting onto filmstrips, etc. His reworking of footage from The Entity in “Dream Work” and “Outer Space” are now absolute favorites of mine.
It was a blast to see all the re-issues of exotica albums back in the ’90s. One of the figures I discovered then was Yma Sumac, a unique singer, to say the least. I don’t know much about her except I believe her real name was Amy Camus and her whole Native mythology was fake. I had never seen videos of her until recently. This is a live duo performance for TV and it starts around 2:30.
Stephen McClurg 