In high school I read a book by Robert Ornstein called Multimindthat really affected me. It made the case that we are only able to utilise ten percent of our total brain power because of the way that information is stored, basically in 'like-bundles', and this design limits how much information that can be accessed at one time. He uses the metaphor of the brain having to switch 'gears' when we move our focus from, say, drawing all day long, to anything that requires a different part of the brain, such as washing the dishes, or having a conversation in the English language (that's my excuse, anyway.) This reviewer puts it well:"The human mind is viewed as many small minds, each operating independently and specialized in one task. In other words, the body contains many centers of control. The lower level ones developed millions of years ago for basic survival activities, and humans share them with other animals. The most recent ones (e.g., the cortex) deal with decisions, language, reasoning. The brain is not a single whole, it is a confederation of more or less independent brains."

Anyway, this theory helps me understand why his blog tends to veer through phases of obsession. There are stretches of long winded personal anecdotes, then a period with nothing but comic reviews, my Tezuka and Miyazaki fixations, and of course, the periods of no posting at all when I have to keep my focus back on my 'real' job. In general I found that where I am is usually where I want to stay, at least until I convince myself to go somewhere else.

The latest phase seems to be wanting to write about magazines I've read, the latest being the January 17th issue ofThe New Yorker. They've been featuring a lot of work by comic artists in the last several months, and this one includes a nice illustration by Ben Katchor, another of Leonardo Da Vinci by Jooste Swarte, and a new strip by Art Spiegelman (which I will spell correctly for a change). I might have a slight bias, but my favourite illustrations in the magazine are always by people that are comic artists first and illustrators second.

If Spegielman's strip OY! We got dem inauguration day blues again!was a a pop song, I'd say it was overproduced. He uses Gustave Dore, the lyric's to Mood Indigo and Little Nemo to depict 'Blue' Americans drowning in their tears and taking getting on board the Ark to sail to Canada. Didn't make me laugh, didn't make me think, but it looks darn pretty. If there's anything that I find somewhat of a let down about the current bunch of comics running in the New Yorker, it’s the fact that I feel like the artists aren't doing more with the opportunity. I've heard that the New Yorker editorial staff wields very strong control over its artists and writers, so it's possible that when Aline and R. Crumb, for example, were comissioned to create the strip that ran january 3rd issue they were instructed to "Just do another of your those jam strips that you do, an make it real light and semi- amusing and don't worry about it too much." That said, I enjoyed the Ware strip 'Dick Public' that ran several weeks ago quite a bit.

There's also a substantial article on Miyazaki, in advance of the upcoming Disney video releases of Nausicaa, Porco Rosso and and the cinematic release of Howl's Moving Castle

The Miyazaki article is by Margaret Talbot, and begins with a detailed description of the Ghibli Museum, which I was pining for the other day after Rita Street's description of it on Cartoon Brew. Overall the article focuses on Miyazaki's life more than his work, and he comes across as deeply pessimistic. The writer includes a long description of a working session with his animators that was part of the special features on the Spirited Away DVD, in which he bemoans the fact that none of his animators have ever had a pet dog. It's a hilarious scene, and I think that Miyazaki's own amusement was lost somewhat in the description. But she does talk about him being jolly later on, on the rooftop of the studio looking out over Tokyo, talking about how much he's looking forward to the inevitable decline of modern civilization and the return of the long grasses and forest animals.

The article reinforced for me something that I've realised over the years; that being an great artist of his stature requires more commitment and sacrifice than I would ever be willing to give (I hope it doesn't imply here that I always had the option to be great or not great and have chosen the latter). There's a portion when Margaret Talbot talks to his Miyazaki's son, Goro, currently the curator of the museum, who remembers that as a child the only time he ever saw his father was when he came home to sleep. For all Miyazaki's talk about thinking that children today have too many DVDs, Video games and Virtual Reality, when they should be spending more time experiencing 'Reality Reality', I wondered when he himself would ever have the time to do so, given that he seldom leaves work before midnight, takes no holidays and has only recently started taking Sundays off.

4:54 PM

Border Crossings, Jeff Ladouceur

Among other flaky things, I'm a great believer in the power of intuitive book shopping. Like looking for dim stars in the night sky, it works best when I just let books skim my peripheral vision. This divination technique can work with magazines too. Last week I was wandering around the magazine section in Chapters having just picked up the New Yorker, and I was looking around trying to find the new issue of The Believer with that beautiful Charles Burns illustration, when the cover of the Winnipeg art magazine Border Crossings grabbed me.

I haven't picked up an issue of this since the mid-nineties, when It was my favourite art magazine, featuring a good cross-section of painting sculpture, film and dance, without too much impenetrable theory or pretension. As my regular exposure to dance and art galleries and the like has dropped off, I've stopped picking it up.

As soon as I opened the issue and saw the image above advertising a show at the Zieher Smith Gallery, I knew immediately that I wanted to buy this issue, but shouldn't- we've been tight for money since we bought our house in the spring, and this was probably another extravagance I could avoid, especially considering that the only reason I would already be paying $4.50 plus tax for the New Yorker was to read a three page (and not too terrific) Aline an R. Crumb strip. I wandered off trying to get it out of my mind, but I couldn't stop think of the drawings, and kept going back to look more. It turns out the drawings were by Vancouver artist Jeff Ladouceur whose powerful mix of pencil and delicate pen hatching work, are similiar in sensibility to Chester Brown or Sammy Harkham. Just by looking at the work of these artists you can tell that they take great joy in the act of drawing itself, and the simple compositions are the key to their wierd, allegorical power. As the author of the piece Lee Henderson points out (and he's good writer too, check out his website): "The same concentration necessary for channellng, is also necessary for his own work, and each of his drawings is like a 'little lozenge brought back from the world that's always there'" You can see more of his work here at Vancouver's Other Gallerywebsite, and he currently has a show at the Atelier Gallery on Granville Street.

He also has a new book come out from Quebec publisher L'Oie de Cravan \, who also published his 2001 book Ebola, as well as art books by Simon Bosse and Julie Doucet

So, I gave in a bought the magazine, and I think that it's an impressively strong issue, introducing me to a lot of new artists whose work I really enjoyed, and will be looking out for in the future. There's an article on the Winnipeg Art Collective 2-6, a bunch of recently art shool grads, many of whom started off as graffitti artists, and have an obvious debt to that other Winnipeg art collective The Royal Art Lodge (Aside: Comic artist Jason Turner turned me on to their drawings, and they have a comprehensive 300 piece show going on at the MOCA Pacific Design Center in Hollywood, CA at the moment) But 2-6's work is also really good in its own right.

I was also really struck by a series of photos of tree planting by Sarah Anne Johnson (couldn't find any links to her work unfortunately) There's a mixture of documentary 'real' photos, and photographs of powerfully meticulous dioramic recreations of her memories of tree planting. The paintings of Dana Shutz are great also.(more here, here,and here.)

Overall, I'd say it was a $9.95 well spent, and I definately be picking up Border Crossings again in the future.

posted by Alan
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5:03 AM

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

French/ German Comix TV Show Launches

Gosh, I really like to be able to watch this program. Too bad I'm lousy at French and know no German. Maybe this will play on French Canadian television some time in the future and I can watch it with subtitles turned on? Please?

ARTE launches "Comix", a new series documentary devoted to the comic strip. Directed by Benoît Peeters, "Comix" explores the universe of the comic strip through the works and tendencies, of authors of all nationalities. "Comix" invites us to discover the whole wealth and inventiveness of the "ninth art". In this beginning of the 21st century, the comic strip knows a new age of now. "Comix" has for ambition to reveal us, graphic and narrative the whole force of the comic strip as well as the real work of the authors. She puts equally in perspective the relations that the comic strip maintains with the other media. The "ninth art" has not anymore to do its proofs: its train diversified themselves to the extreme one, borrowing from the paint, to the engraving, to the photograph and to the video. The comic strip asserts itself more and more as a language to leaves entire, able to approach not only humor and the adventure, but also the political and social satire, eroticism, autobiography, the report A new series all in bubbles and in colors to discover the enchanting universe of the comic strip, its mythical albums, its big contemporary authors and its new tendencies.

There's going to be an episode featuring Speigelman on Jan 15th Ware on the 29th, and the Mangaka proffession on the 29th:

The film allows us to meet three authors in succession, three "mangakas": Furuya that introduces us in the universe of an action series that is almost industrial in it's manufacture: work in workshop with attending, effectiveness, division of the tasks, excessive productivity. Then we go with Taniguchi, the more European of the mangakas, considered as a master, to the more introspective gait, intimist, deep, butworks equally in workshop. A dived in his history Neighborhood distant allows feeling the universal character of his ouvre. And at last, Kiriko Nananan.

I don't know who any of those artists are, but it sounds good.

posted by Alan
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7:48 AM

The Jesus Factor

Watched a great documentary last night on Frontline called The Jesus Factor about the Christian evangelical faith of George W. Bush. It originally aired in April of 2004 and fascinatingly detailed the strategy that he his father's advisor had developed to appeal directly to the huge numbers of evangelical american citiizens. George W. played a big part in helping his not really religious father keep the Whitehouse, and later perfected the technique for himself, enabling him to easily win the Governnorship of Texas, and the two subsequent Presidencies that everyone up here is so happy about.

Some interesting comments from the leader of an Interfaith association about the theological implications of venerating the United States as 'The Light' while vowing to destroy evil-doers, and the whole "if you're not with us, you're for terrorism" approach.

Watch it here.(Show's how often I watch Frontline, but you can view many of the episodes via streaming video on their website and apparently have been able to since 2001)

It reminded me of a documentary that I heard on CBC radio a few years ago about the theological implications of professional athletes using their love of God as a kind of 'performance enhancer' It concentrated on professional Football Players, a large percentage of whom are apparently Christians, and where many coaches encourage it.

"Just proves that Christians win more than other people. Nothing wrong with that is there?"

posted by Alan
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5:29 AM

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Waiting for the garbage truck...

posted by Alan
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7:05 AM

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