seen and heard

From my buddy charlie’s blog, RHINESTONE NECKBRACE…

I know I’m late on this but I haven’t checked his blog in months and i liked this post…i was just thinking, isn’t this the way it always is? i know “fuck art, let’s dance” was the motto on an old Twin/Tone recs T-shirt…it’s nothing new. there’s always a lame fad in every generation and they always die and give way to the next one. it’s probably not true that art, or music, was “never as vacuous as it is now”; it’s just that the stuff that doesn’t really matter falls by the wayside, and it becomes easy to feel nostalgic for a better time that maybe never existed quite like we think or wish it did. having said that, it is worth noting that this may be the first time in history when so many people have been able to do so many things and make it available to so many other people, thanks to the momentum generated by the DIY movement and its catalytic collision with reasonably accessible technology. so it does bring to mind Duchamp’s prophetic vision of “drowning in a sea of mediocrity.” but Duchamp also said that certain artists “sense this and are trying to destroy art before it’s too late.” it has been my experience that PANTHER is an apt representative of this category of artist; the antithesis of passive accessibility. in performance, i believe what PANTHER does best is sacrifice the comfort level of the audience in exchange for their awareness of both the moment and their roles as participants in that moment. the brand of self-sabotage that The Planet The employed to break down that fourth wall is not altogether lost. but if the audience doesn’t get it, then leave them to their rave wear and bad taste. it’s important to remember that we measure value, in part, by its inverse; revolutions are made necessary by that which is revolting; and there will never be a pure decade. 

i think the goal, for artists of all kinds, should be to create something that represents what it’s like to be alive right now; to participate in shaping a culture rather than passively absorbing it or recycling someone else’s. we must reject the inane by producing that which has substance. John Cage has insisted that the true function of art is to make people see that the world is changing rapidly before our eyes, and it is important that we “wake up to the very life” that we are living in the modern world.*

to end on a simpler note, i also think it’s kind of a rite of passage both to be an idiot when you’re young and to think that younger kids are idiots when you’re older. i believe elton john called it “the circle of life.”