Calvary, Egon Schiele, The Leopold Museum

Eliza Rickman’s first full length CD just came out, and I recommend it to everyone. The album contains a mixture of compositions from her earlier EP, mostly composed on Toy Piano, and a number of newly recorded songs with full piano and strings backing. The latter songs are where the album really stands out, and one ends up wishing there was a lot more of it on the CD. Compositions such as “Devil’s Flesh and Bones,” “Through an Aquarium,” “Pretty Little Head,” and particularly the title track “Oh, You Sinners,” are surprisingly layered, only really exposing themselves after a third or fourth play through.

Gothic themes permeate in the album, such as the bouncing diminished chords in the “Devil’s Flesh and Bones,” or the wailing chorus line of “Cinnamon Bone.” But its a gothicness more reminiscent of Emily Bronte than Trent Reznor. The heroines of her songs dream sometimes of being ravished by dark strangers, and sometimes of a home with white picket fences, and they do so in such a way that you imagine both dreams are one and the same. In one verse, her heroine admits to one of the many questionable romantic interests on the album that she both wants his baby and “can’t say no.” The CD begins and ends with images of roses, the first as a symbol for an aggressive and angry sort of love, the last, in a love song to a man she can’t have, evokes images of Barbara Allen and young William, with the briar and the rose growing from their grave.

Through it all, God is a sort of ambivalent force that only seems to care about what doesn’t matter. Ms. Rickman’s background – she’s the daughter of a Baptist preacher – seems to come out here. Like the hero of a Flannery O’Conner story, God doesn’t keep his promises, and sin is something perhaps to be proud of, but despite her best efforts, God doesn’t go away. He stays in the background as a constant reminder that you’re being punished.

Please catch her on tour if you happen to be in the area she is playing.

At Foreign Policy. This is an important collection of photographs, and more than a little devastating.

Update: I had to go into the source code to get the link to the photograph. I think I’m still in fair use territory, but I apologize to FP if not, and will take it down on request.

By Huang Yongping. The hands are made of a type of ceder tree used in Chinese medicine.

For those folks in Oakland.

In reference to. (Via How to be a Retronaut)

Image via Wikipedia

Descending from the heavens to this island, they erected a heavenly pillar and a spacious palace.

At this time Izanagi-no-mikoto asked his spouse Izanami-no-mikoto, saying:

“How is your body formed?”

She replied, saying:

“My body, formed though it be formed, has one place which is formed insufficiently.”

Then Izangi-no-mikoto said:

“My body, formed though it be formed, has one place which is formed to excess. Therefore, I would like to take that place in my body which is formed to excess and insert it into that place in your body which is formed insufficiently, and thus give birth to the land. How would this be?”

Izanami-no-mikoto replied saying:

“That will be good.”

Then Izangi-no-mikoto said:

Then let us, you and me, walk in a circle around this heavenly pillar and meet and have conjugal intercourse.”

After thus agreeing, Izanagi-no-mikoto then said:

“You walk around from the right, and I will walk around from the left and meet you.”

After having agreed to this, they circled around; then Izanami-no-mikoto said first:

“Ana-ni-yasi, how good a lad!”

Afterwards, Izanagi-no-mikoto said:

“Ana-ni-yasi, how good a maiden!”

After each had finished speaking, Izanagi-no-mikoto said to his spouse:

“It is not proper that the woman speak first.”

Nevertheless, they commenced procreation and gave birth to a leech-child. They place this child into a boat made of reeds and floated it away.

Next, they gave birth to the island of Apa. This also is not reckoned as one of their children.

-The Kojiki, Chapter 4

Mamer is a Kazakh musician born in the Xinjiang province of Western China, and primarily residing in Beijing. His first album was fairly recognizable, if exceptional, world music. With his second album he became more experimental, mixing traditional Kazakh rhythms with experimental industrial music, prominently taking inspiration from Einsturzende Neubauten. Below is a song I recorded at the release party for his second CD in Beijing, followed by a televised recording of his earlier work.

Welcome to the first post for Imaginary Birds. A culture blog of sorts. This blog was started, as I assume most things like this are, because I was having trouble finding an online space that covers the sort of art and music I like. So I decided to try myself to put the effort into publishing information on the wide variety of things which I feel fit in with a certain idea of what art should be, and hopefully in the meantime promote some artists that I like.

Please feel free to contact me at info@imaginarybirds.com.