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Essays and interviews in the world of the arts, architecture, design, journalism, politics and culture. And more, which appeal to the curious spirit of Elsewhere . . .
THE HAUNTING PAST OF CINEMA: Classics illustrated
For those of us who are pay-per-view civilians, television is a kaleidoscope portal from the present (the Oscars, downtown Baghdad on a bad day) to the past (the History Channel), and sometimes into an imagined future (although heaven forbid it should be as po-faced as Stargate SG-1). The time-shift possibilities can be fun, but they are a warning if you think these are the best of times.... more >>
Added: 8 Mar 10
LA MONTE YOUNG: The master of minimalism, and more
When John Cale went to New York from Wales in the early 60s it wasn’t with the intention of meeting up with Lou Reed to form the Velvet Underground, but to study under a pianist/composer who had literally been “born in a log cabin” in the small community of Bern, Idaho. By the late Sixties that composer, La Monte Young, was in the vanguard of the minimalist movement and... more >>
Added: 1 Mar 10
LIVERPOOL AND AUCKLAND (2009): A tale of two architectures
As the vessel pulls away from the pier, the soundtrack is predictable: the 1964 hit by Gerry and the Pacemakers Ferry Cross the Mersey, Gerry Marsden’s paean to this, his hometown of Liverpool. What is less expected on this short trip across the River Mersey and back is the commentary which sketches in the fascinating history of the Wirral Peninsula opposite where thousands once came... more >>
Added: 22 Feb 10
BARRY HUMPHRIES ON THE RECORD: The early life of an agent provocateur
At his first Pan-Australia Dada exhibition, Barry Humphries had packages printed up bearing the name Platitox, which allegedly contained a poison to put in creeks to kill the platypus, that much-loved, much-protected and playful native animal. “So why have an exhibit which offers a pesticide to destroy these animals? Because everything was in its place in Australia,” said... more >>
Added: 15 Feb 10
SALVADOR DALI, HIS MUSEUM IN FIGUERES: The Disneyland of the disturbed
Of all the monuments a man has built to himself few, if any, are more bizarre than the grand conceit Salvador Dali designed in a burned-out theatre in his birthplace of Figueres. A little more than an hour north of Barcelona by local bus, Figueres is a modest, not especially interesting town of some 35,000 people. But it is the traditional commercial centre of the plains of Ampurdan... more >>
Added: 8 Feb 10
SPOTLIGHT ON SYDNEY ART GALLERIES (2009): Small and sometimes imperfectly formed
For a quiet suburban street in Waterloo where small workshops sit alongside brick homes and the occasional eatery, there are a few meters of Sydney’s Danks Street fascinating for their art -- and the flinty undercurrent of gossip and innuendo. When John Ioannou opened his Agathon Galleries opposite the Danks Street Depot with its excellent restaurant and art arcade -- which includes... more >>
Added: 1 Feb 10
GOODBYE AGAIN, a film by ANATOLE LITVAK 1961 (MGM/Shock DVD)
Based on Francoise Sagan's sorrow-filled 1959 novel of failed and tragic love Aimez-vous Brahms?, this adaptation with Ingrid Bergman, Yves Montand and Anthony Perkins won the latter a best actor award at Cannes for his portrayal of the young, spoiled and emotionally needy Philip Van der Besh. Quite why Perkins should have been singled out is odd: his role in which he becomes obsessed with... more >>
Added: 1 Feb 10
BUBBA HO-TEP a film by DON COSCARELLI, 2002 (MAGNA PACIFIC DVD)
Twentysomething years ago an amusing little book appeared, Elvis: The Novel. I don’t remember much of it, other than Elvis killing manager Tom Parker, and at one point an overweight Elvis is performing in Las Vegas when a very drunken John Lennon arrives and is appalled by his childhood hero reduced to waddling around singing old hits. Lennon (Yoko-less, rudderless) starts to heckle.... more >>
Added: 24 Jan 10 
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IN THE LOOP a film by ARMANDO IANUCCI (Madman DVD)
Watching John Grisham's political thriller The Pelican Brief the other night on television re-run, I was struck by how conspiracy stories about corruption at the highest levels of power conspiciously fail in one area: they assume the Evil Ones can maintain walls of silence around them and that there is no such thing as base incompetence and stupidity in the world in which they are set.... more >>
Added: 24 Jan 10
WITH GILBERT AND GEORGE, a film by JULIAN COLE (2008, Madman DVD)
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the artists Gilbert and George revealed in this insightful and candid documentary is -- aside from their alarming normalcy -- that they don't have a kitchen in their tidy but chock-full home. No kitchen means no smells, no time wasted on cooking or cleaning up, more space. So they eat locally around Spitalfields in East London and their sole... more >>
Added: 23 Jan 10
SINISTER SONS AND DANGEROUS DAUGHTERS (Rocket/Triton DVD)
Souped up and modified cars, teens running wild in the streets striking fear into the hearts of citizens, booze'n'dope, loud music their parents hate . . . It could only be the Fifties, right? Anyone who thinks low-riders or boy racers smoking weed and playing pounding hip-hop on their car stereos are a new phenomenon need only look back in history to find precedents: in the mid... more >>
Added: 18 Jan 10
THE MISSING a film by RON HOWARD
For those who consider the Western as an art form there will always be debate on which films should be counted among the greatest in the genre: down to personal taste and protracted argument would be 3.10 To Yuma (1957, Van Heflin vs Glenn Ford in a story by Elmore Leonard); Posse ('75 Kirk Douglas vs Bruce Dern); The Gunfighter ('50, Gregory Peck vs every young punk), a few Clint Eastwood... more >>
Added: 18 Jan 10
THE RED RIDING TRILOGY based on the novels by DAVID PEACE (Madman DVD)
For sheer gruesome, grim and compellingly dark viewing this trilogy of made-for-television films based on the novels of David Peace would take some beating: murder is the backdrop; corruption at every level of the Yorkshire police is rife; the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper casts a shadow over everything; and it rains most of the time. The North of England has rarely looked so bleak and... more >>
Added: 11 Jan 10
ONE FAST MOVE OR I'M GONE a film by CURT WORDEM (2009, Kerouac Films)
That Jack Kerouac's artistic life led to personal tragedy as much as literary triumph is evident to anyone who has read his searingly personal, dark then redemptive book Big Sur, a barely disguised "novel" of his brief time at Lawrence Ferlinghetti's remote cabin in Bixby Canyon near Big Sur. By this time (1961) Kerouac had been lionized as the star of the Beat Generation for his... more >>
Added: 7 Jan 10
MARIJUANA: TO DECRIMINALISE OR NOT (2000): A voice in the wilderness
As the 21st century dawned there was considerable argument in New Zealand about whether marijuana should be decriminalist, a debate prompted by a Green MP Nandor Tanczos attempting to bring a bill before Parliamant along those lines. People took positions on the far ends of the spectrum. As this happened I went to the editor of the New Zealand Herald where I was a feature writer and... more >>
Added: 4 Jan 10
HOOKED: ANTI-DRUG FILMS FROM THE 30'S TO THE 70'S (Rocket/Triton DVD): Marijuana to murder in 15 minutes
Every generation thinks it invents the same two things: swearing and sex. Equally, in the Western world at least, for the past century or so every generation gets the soundtrack it needs. And the drugs. Drug education is a fraught area (more so than movies about junkies or drugs) and the tendency has been to go for scare scenarios. No one in their right mind doubts the dangers of... more >>
Added: 1 Jan 10
THE WILD WOMEN OF WONGO a film by JAMES L. WALCOTT (1958) (Triton DVD)
Everyone is allowed their guilty secrets when it comes to bad movies: I have an unnatural affection for Zardoz (Sean Connery in the future somewhere) and The Long Ships (in which Sidney Poitier seems to swim from somewhere Moorish to the land of the Vikings). These are stupid but fun and allow you plenty of couchtime to add up the continuity errors and so on. The Wild Women of Wongo is... more >>
Added: 13 Dec 09
GENERATION KILL, from the book by EVAN WRIGHT (DVD)
Anyone looking for an insight into the modern American military in combat need not go past Evan Wright's exceptional Generation Kill. Gung-ho marines raised on video games, hyped up on caffeine, pounding hip-hop and testosterone roll into Iraq in the first days of the 2003 war to clear a path, be a diversion and kill the enermy. They are there to "get some" as they say. Wright... more >>
Added: 7 Dec 09 1 Comment
JACK BODY INTERVIEWED (2001): From street to string section
The music skitters off the disc as the Greek fiddle player takes to the tune at alarming speed, the notes slewing into each other. The piece is Horos Serra, recorded for a 1973 collection, and it captivated Wellington composer Jack Body so much that he transcribed it. No mean feat, given the density and difficulty of the piece which lasts a little over three minutes. "The rhythmic... more >>
Added: 5 Dec 09
GOODFELLAS, a film by MARTIN SCORSESE: Making a killing in crime
Within the ever-expanding genre of gangster flicks - from 1931 and James Cagney's Irish hood in Little Caesar to the quiet menace of Tony Soprano - there could never be consensus about the best Mob movie in any first-past-the-post system. But Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas from 1990 would certainly take the prize in any single-transferable-vote selection. It is a classic. From... more >>
Added: 30 Nov 09 1 Comment
