_____________
Beslan
'The Beslan school hostage crisis was a three day hostage-taking of over 1,100 people which ended in the deaths of over 300. It began when a group of armed mostly Ingush and Chechen terrorists took more than 1,100 people (including 777 children) hostage on September 1, 2004, at School Number One in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia, an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. The hostage taking was carried out by a group sent by the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, which issued demands of an end to the Second Chechen War.
'On the second day of the siege, the lack of food and water took its toll on the young children, many of whom were forced to stand for long periods in the hot, tightly-packed gym. Many children took off their clothing because of the sweltering heat within the gymnasium, which led to rumors of sexual impropriety, though the hostages later explained it was merely due to the stifling heat and being denied any water. Many children fainted, and parents feared they would die. Some hostages drank their own urine. Occasionally, the militants (many of whom took off their masks) took out some of the unconscious children and poured water on their heads before returning them to the sports hall. Later in the day, some adults also started to faint from fatigue and thirst. Because of the conditions in the gym, when the explosion and gun battle began on the third day, many of the surviving children were so fatigued that they were barely able to flee from the carnage.
'On the third day of the standoff, Russian security forces stormed the building, using tanks, thermobaric rockets, and other heavy weapons. A series of explosions shook the school, followed by a fire which engulfed the building and a chaotic gunbattle between the hostage-takers and Russian security forces. Ultimately, at least 334 hostages were killed, including 186 children; hundreds more were injured and many were reported missing.
'The tragedy led to security and political repercussions in Russia, most notably a series of government reforms consolidating power in the Kremlin and strengthening of the powers of the President of Russia. As of 2010, there are many aspects of the crisis still in dispute, including how many militants were involved, their preparations, and whether some of them had escaped. Questions about the government's management of the crisis have also persisted, including disinformation and censorship in news media, repression of journalists who rushed to Beslan, the nature and content of negotiations with the militants, the responsibility for the bloody outcome, and the government's use of possibly excessive force.' -- Voice of Beslan
____________
'Deliverance'
'For his new installation work Deliverance, British artist Mat Collishaw has taken images of violence from the popular press, of violence perpetrated against children. The starting point for the entire project was the grisly school siege in Beslan, southern Russia, which went on for three terrible days in 2004. The artist has chosen images from that siege, and from other sources, manipulated them and projected them on to walls. But it is the manner of the projection, and what happens to those images, which is so enthralling in this show.
'Each image flashes on to the black wall, but it does not disappear. Instead, it begins to fade into a kind of ghostly after-image (or perhaps after-memory) of itself. Then, bang, another image gets projected somewhere else, quite at random, with the same intensity, and that also begins to fade, so that we are left with this ghostly layering - or near-layering - of images of terrible violence. In spite of all we know, they begin to look heroic, if not iconic, projected and lingering like this, as if they were memories of some image from Blake, Goya or Géricault. We even seem to feel that we are beginning to recognise how they are almost mimicking details of famous paintings. In short, we heroicise them. They begin to assume the status of Fine Art. How morally dubious.
'"The thing about the Beslan siege is that it was a three-day spectacle," Collishaw tells me a little later, when I emerge from the heart of all that darkness. "The photographers could dig in. They could really prepare themselves, so that when the child ran screaming, wounded, out of the schoolroom, pop . . ." He gives the tabletop a small, tight smile. "And there we have it, the perfect picture, beamed around the globe in minutes, in order to satiate our seemingly insatiable appetites for such terrible things." I remind him that he is no better than the others - the proof is downstairs. He accuses the press of behaving immorally by taking beautiful photographs of maimed children, but he himself has first manipulated and then raised some of these very images for our delectation downstairs, to such an extent that we admire them, even find them beautiful. Isn't all this highly questionable?
'He looks thoughtful, this 42-year-old man from Nottingham, sitting there in his floral shirt open almost to the waist. Is that a crucifix hanging from a cord tucked inside that shirt? I can't quite see. He strokes his chin, preparing his words. "Yes, I wanted to make them iconic in some way, and it may be morally dubious. The human body is primed to respond in some heightened way to images of crimes: the adrenalin starts to pump. And, yes, it does appeal to some prurient part of me. But didn't Géricault do the same thing in his great painting The Raft of the Medusa? That horrifying painting had its starting point in the images from a newspaper story . . . It is also true that I wanted to draw attention to the terrible, primitive poignancy of an adult carrying the body of a maimed child."' -- The Independent
----
*
p.s. Hey. Greetings from Brest where things are busy and dandily on schedule so far. As I'm due in the theater before long and have two days' worth of comments to catch up with today, I'll need to be swift this morning, sorry. But starting tomorrow we'll be all caught up, and I'll be closer to my semi-leisurely self from then on out. ** Monday: Oscar B, Hey, Funny to read your message days after everything you queried me about is recent history. ** Chris, Oh, awesome about Lee Ranaldo re: the possible panel, and thanks for alerting him to the post. I'll get some contact info for Bradford and send it along. ** Adjoun, Hey, Erik! Awesome to see you, and I'm glad you couldn't resist the draw of your own beaches. I'm fine, and what about you? I've missed you. I hope you're doing sparklingly. ** David Ehrenstein, Yeah, the Godard's very rich, no? The French cannibal, yes. Big news over here. Not exactly an elegant cannibal, but still. ** Wolf, Hey, Wolf, old pal. Lots of love. Can't wait to see you guys. We're doing our best here to make sure you get some bang for your buck. ** Dandysweets, Hey, hey. Lovely to see you, and thanks for the kind words to Math, of course. ** Math, Hey. I'm really glad you're getting at least the immediate living situation figured out. Hail Alan. And thanks for feeling like you can talk things through here. I'm reading and caring carefully even if my rush this morning leaves me offering a warm abstract hug at the moment. Much love to you. ** Chris Goode, So Yarm lives up to its Englishness. Very nice. How were the Alys and the Centipede? ** Stan_cz, Hey, man. Seems you got the answer to your question from somewhere between Monday and Tuesday, cool. More below. ** Pilgarlic, Mouth watering stuff there. Seriously. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Yeah, fuck, RIP: Frank Sidebottom. Such eerie timing. I read a bit about him during a break yesterday. I knew the hits, but I didn't know about his whole Madchester association. Anyway, ugh, sucks. Oh, nice footage of the Yuck 'n Yum launch. Heck, I'll just imbed it down below. Everyone, see that video down at the bottom? It holds the festivities for the recent Yuck 'n Yum launch, and it's super nice. Click it. ** Christopher/Mark, Hi, Mark. Gee, sure, if you want to send in images of that nature for a blog post, I certainly wouldn't turn up my nose, goodness gracious no. Thanks for the thoughtfulness, man. ** Steevee, Hey. Kind of dying to see 'TS3" now. We're late over here. We've just now getting the new Shrek, which I am not dying to see, oh contraire. ** Ken Baumann, Well, I'm talking release date next fall, not finished by next fall, can you handle that? The Lodown thing looks great! I just saw it now, but I'll devour it later. Everyone, the splendid Ken Baumann wears many fine hats, and one of them is whatever kind of hat it is that publishers wear, and he and the amazing writer Christopher Higgs (see: my top ten books list of a few days ago), whom Ken published under his imprint Sator, are interviewed with illustrations and everything in pretty Lodown Magazine, and you can see/read what there is right here, and go for it. Gotta zoom, but, yep, hugs. ** Justin, I'm so glad that phrase meant what it apparently means, thank you, sir. ** Alan, Hey, Alan. Really great and amazing that you could help Math. You know no bounds on the positive side of things. ** JW Veldhoen, Hey, bud. Good deep stuff to Math. Sorry to be speeding. ** Sypha, Hey! Got it, it's fucking monumental and amazing! I'll write to you with the date, etc. as soon as I get a sec. Thank you so much, James! ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. I liked your day even if I'm a bit too hell bent today to give my enjoyment its due in words. Funny about French Toast: I've never seen FT sold, eaten, nor even heard it mentioned once in the five years I've been over here. Fries, yes, toast, no. My days, very consolidated: On Monday, I think I mostly just packed and got ready to come here and worked on my novel. Oh, it was Fete de la Musique, the annual Paris event where bands and musicians set up on the street all over the city and play music all night, and people wander around, watch, and dance and so on in the streets 'til morning. Kiddiepunk, Oscar, and I checked out the stuff on the canal, and it was cool: djs, cover bands, wacky brass bands, drummers, etc. People partying and so on. Nice. Then yesterday I trained here. Train ride was okay. I read magazines mostly (The Wire, Mojo) and jumped out to smoke at most stops. When I got here, I checked into my hotel and headed to the theater. We worked non-stop until about 10:30 pm. We're concentrating on getting the last half-hour or so of the piece in shape, 'cos it needs the work the most. Basically, three scenes: 'the epiphany' (a song w/tableau) that gets buried in a crazy fog storm, then a tableau with the dolls, and then the ending where the birds come in. We reconceptualized a few things, and they seem to be working thus far. The ending is still bad, so we'll get that in shape hopefully today. Yeah, it was just non-stop work, essentially. It'll be like that all week, I think. Then I came back to the hotel, watched talking heads groan and grieve about the French teams' crash out in the World Cup last night, and slept. On to today, for you and for me. ** Bill, Hey, Oh, thanks, man. Template? Mm, ask Alan, 'cos I'm such a seat of the pants type of blog builder, I'm not sure what that means. But if I can help, just let me know. ** Postitbreakup, Hey, oh, thanks, man! Very kind of you. Thanks for the French cannibal link too. ** Misanthrope, When are you going to hear about this job? I'm all contorted by curiosity and hampered by my praying hands. ** L@rstonovich, Pleasure's 100% mine, dude. ** David, Glad you liked the summer show. Do dust off your lens. I can not see a reason why not to. Your day beats mine coming and going. John Waters called me his 'youth spy'? I did not know that. How sweet of him. ** Stephen, Hey, man! Great to see you! I thought you were in Austin all this time. NYC? How's that? ** Tuesday: 'Stoopid Slapped Puppies', Nickster, man, how are you? Whatever drug you took on behalf of the French team was really something else, man. You good? Oh, link, cool. Everyone, Nick and Shane's great with a capital G blog 'sometimes they don't come back' holds a new piece by the blog's very own David, so that means you should click this if not even double click it. Love to you, man. ** L@rstonovich, Aw, you old softy, you. ** Oscar B, Dude. Is Paris still okay? I heard the sun rose in the sky. You good? Gooder? ** David Ehrenstein, Very cool about the Directors Guild panel. Who's on it? Did you have a say in the panelists? ** Shane Levene, I'm making a special effort to look both ways when I don't use the crosswalk, and it's all thanks to you. Dude, Horse Meat for Swine is off to one hell of a start. Whoa. That's a whoa of awe. Do let me know when I can send the less sociable readers over there. Kudos, my friend. ** Math, Hey. Oh, I guess I addressed your Tuesday comment on Monday. Bad form or something on my part, So, I'll just upgrade and upgrade and upgrade and extend the love I already sent you 'yesterday'. ** Stan_cz, You figured it out. Yeah, putting the copyright thing where you did is a good way to go. Just only glanced at the pix, but they look rich and wonderful. Everyone, Stan_cz has started a new blog, as I mentioned the other day, and he has posted a very cool photography series of his own called 'Muted Limbs', and I urge you to go have a long look. I look forward to having the time to give them their due. Thanks, man! ** Jax, Hey, Jax! No, I think I was packing or traveling or working or something while Nadal did his Nadalian thing, a thing whose particular pleasure is something we seem to share. I'll go see if there any clips. Not sure whether to check youtube or xtube. Take care, and more soon from me too. ** Pisycaca, Hey, Montse! It's really good to see you, pal. Yeah, a hard year, of course, to say the least, I know. Stay as strong as you can, and let what there is enjoy have as much of you as possible, okay? I'm okay, just very busy, too busy to think too much about things I'm not busy with, which can be a good thing, I guess. Salem ... I'm spacing out. What is that, a band or ... ? When you say Salem, I think of the city in the US where they had the famous witch trails and a brand cigarettes that I'm not sure even exists anymore. Lots and lots of love you and to Xet. ** David, Hey. I keep meaning to do a Fassbinder post, but it's so daunting. I will. Oh, okay, about the email. I'll go look for it. Hope everything is okay. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey, Ben. Oh, awesome, thank you so much! ** Kiddiepunk, See, now that wasn't so bad, ha ha. Sun in Paris? What next?! It's sunny here too, but it's the coast, so what do you expect? Miss ya. ** Chris Goode, 'Stoszek' is just unbelievable, no? I don't know 'My Son, My Son', hm. Dude, your rehearsal so incredibly puts ours to shame. Perhaps I'll see if I can kick things up or down a notch today. ** Schlix, Hey, man. Yeah, the Pacific Blush album is really something, isn't it? Someday some of us are going to be telling our grandchildren that we knew Panda? when he was just a d.l., I reckon. Best to you. ** Heliotrope, Hey, Mark! Well, tons of things going on ... could be worse, right? Let me know what there is to know when you know the right time to know when to let me know. Or something, ha ha. Huge love to you and J. ** JW Veldhoen, Hey, I've got that word Jerk copyrighted, so use it wisely. ** Nb, Hey. Oh, crap, I said I'd give you tips this morning, and I'm typing this with one foot out the door. Tomorrow, I promise, not that I'm going to be able to turn your trip into the Enlightenment or something. Well, you never know. Sorry, man. Meanwhile ... Everyone in LA or who knows LA, please give the mighty nb tips on some cool things to do in LA during his imminent trip there, okay? ** Justin, Oh, I've got FB messages from six months ago that I haven't even opened yet. Not to scare you. You won't be one of those victims. What does Borderline Personality Disorder mean exactly? Sorry for the dumb question. The words themselves don't make a lot of sense to me. Anyway, let me know what happens, please. Oh, the site is Ubuweb. ** Statictick, You're welcome, and thank you for liking them. I know the artist you can't remember the name of, and I can't remember his name either, ha ha. Sounds like good times there in Detroit. Three happy's: not bad. ** Iamcuriousblue, Hey! Good to see you. Great Herzog stuff. I haven't seen 'Bad Lieutenant' yet. I think the title is warding me away a bit. Funny Susie Bright poll. Kier or Raab ... funny. Mm, I think I'd have to go for Kinski in your poll, but it's tough. What a buddy movie K & K could have made together. Take care. ** You-x, Hope that migraine and its medications get a good chill going on. The train ride to Brest is one I've taken so many times, it's utilitarian. Nice enough but not in any way amazing in the scenery department. There's one little town it stops in that looks really pretty, odd, etc. called Morlaix. I might get off there someday. Yury's pretty tough, for sure. It takes a lot to decimate him, but when that happens, he's really decimated. Oh, blog update, cool. I'll look during my first work break today. Everyone, alert from and about the multi-talented You-x: 'eight new collages, dogs on aircraft mostly', he says, and that should get you over there. I just had a peek, and they look really swell. Thanks, J., and all the best. ** Misanthrope, Sportscaster? Weird, ha ha. Uh, as for your questions: ... hotties on the train? No, but one 'hottie' on the platform of one station where I had a smoke. I haven't yelled at anyone on set yet. I don't yell, I mutter anxiously. I didn't do that yet either. Didn't get yelled at yet, nope. Hard to imagine that happening. I got told how nice my new haircut is several times, though. ** Postitbreakup, Thanks, postitfuckingbreakup. I'll let you know. ** Right. Sorry again for my rush. I've got to go. One good thing about the Brest posting schedule is you get your posts a little earlier, right? Today's post: the juxtaposition occurred to me, interested me, and voila! See you tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment