Paraphilia: "When Greed is Good"

Paraphilia Magazine's third issue has just been released. In there can be found some of the textual material informing and underlying Moonsuite. Including the section on "Dalkeith's Next Top Model" which - co-incidentally - is the section of Moonsuite narrated by LeeDVD on Human Greed's contribution to the forthcoming Lumberton Trading Co compilation "Autumn Blood (Constructions)"

Also, within this issue can be found "When Greed is Good" which is a continuation of the dialogue/interview between Canadian writer and film maker Kate MacDonald and myself that grew out of the original interview material for the Adverse Effect interview "Fine Arts of Language and Sound"

The magazine is free to download in PDF format and can be found here: http://www.paraphiliamagazine.com

Choice quote? "I feel as much sorrow for a generation who have been given no room for their own minds to grow as I feel deep, profound seething hatred and loathing for Simon Cowell"

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Weeping Girls

I usually balk at the idea of public art spaces. So, it came as a dramatic and very welcome shock to wander out into a West Lothian woodland and suddenly come into contact with these wonderful casts by Laura Ford.

Five of these figures stand in relative isolation in a corner of the woods. In contrast to the efforts made by other artists to patronizingly suggest means by which our contact with the space and with nature might be better tuned, Laura Ford unashamedly sensed the uneasy melancholy of this corner of the *deep, dark woods* and boldly dropped a narrative right into the mulch.

Transpires that Laura was at Chelsea School of Art the year before I turned up there, which gives me all the more reason to enthuse.

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Broken Sleep, Broken Radios

I had the most curious dream. Then I awoke and thought I should share it. Then I let the day slide. Now that I come here the memory of what was already hazy has become as tenuous as childhood.

But I dreamed that I stopped my life moving forward, and, at the same time - for they seemed like two separate events - I stopped time from turning.

What resulted was absolute silence, absolute peace. And I dreamed that I would visit everyone in their sleep and begin a study as to where the need for music came from. I would begin by examining the radio alarms at the side of each bed, and move slowly towards attics and basements where discarded stereos gathered dust and made homes for spiders.

An empirical approach led - by some circuitous route - to be able to generate a graph with stems featuring labels such as; survival and The illusion of shared experience and measure of disposable income as validation

Then there is only a sense of the coming rain, gathering darkly across a distant field, far away, in the green morning of childhood. The ungraspable feeling that there was a choice to be made between a life in art and a long walk out to Kaimes Quarry. When I awoke - and even now - I still cannot understand this choice that seemingly had to be made. They seem so inextricably linked. But you would need to know the long walk to Kaimes Quarry to appreciate why. You would need to know a certain summer and the scent of single rose oil to know how

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BlackSkyWhite

I am so seldom excited by what is happening in theatre today. However, I am still kept warm to the thought of what is possible through my memories of Moscow's BlackSkyWhite performing Bertrand's Toys in Edinburgh in, I think, '95 or '96.

This was a real eye opener for how very little light, a lot of noise, energy and physical commitment could result in something truly transformative, even in a relatively humble performance space. All this time down the line and I have still seen nothing to compare!

This Youtube clip gives little away of the intensity this small troupe can arouse, but is suggestive...

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el mundo es chiquito y el corazòn es inmenso

Happy Birthday to Federico Garcia Lorca

Wearing black mantillas,
she thinks the world is tiny
and the heart immense.

Wearing black mantillas.

She thinks that tender sighs
and cries disappear
into currents of wind.

Wearing black mantillas.

The door was left open,
and at dawn the entire sky
emptied onto her balcony.

Ay yayayayay,
wearing black mantillas!

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Black Hill :: Sentireascoltare Review

Human Greed's profile continues to grow in Italy. Another nice review by Sara Bracco has been published by Sentireascoltare. Once again, those of us unfortunate enough not to be able to speak Italian are warmed by the effect of automated web translation tools: "...the pitch is short and soul humoral paradoxically opposed. The change is evident and is not dictated by the individual episodes, but from almost every element you grant to the next plasma, influencing or denying."

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Michael Begg Interview

Adverse Effect have published Kate MacDonald's recent interview with Michael Begg: The Fine Arts of Language and Sound.

Read the interview here

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Black Hill :: Now available on iTunes

Black Hill: Midnight at the Blighted Star is now available on iTunes (for those that do), and will be emerging on other digital platforms over the next month or so.

Click here to be taken directly to Black Hill on iTunes

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Musique Machine Review

"From the albums outset to it’s last notes the pair completely & utterly enchant the listener ... Black Hill: Midnight at the Blighted Star is a gripping, swirling and multi layered masterpiece of uneasy, madness, with odd moments of great grace and beauty."

Another highly positive review, this time from Roger Batty at Musique Machine - albeit with some questionable name checks and inventive approaches to grammar!

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Black Hill: New Italian Reviews

Two Black Hill reviews, in Italian, have been published by Ondarock - click here and Drexkode - click here

Again, there's fun to be had for English readers requiring the assistance of Google Translator: "Human Greed shows that it has thoroughly investigated this maze of despair, approaching the idea of a dark-ambient that, despite its bleak austerity, never stops to let presage scenarios chilling ambiguity. As if the Day of Recompense was around the corner, as if the angels exterminators did not have time to waste ... " Do they mean me?

I have been aware in the last month or so that interest in HG has been growing in Italy, and I hope that this translates itself at some point in the near future into an invitation to perform there.

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