The End Of All You Know…

well, this is supposed to be my new space for discussing my work and art by others, but i just couldn’t get started in as timely a manner as i wanted. instead, i have been working on a lot of new projects and getting to the blog was just getting impossible.

then i stumbled across a video that i just had to share…

every cultural worker in these united states is aware that we have spanned the globe media-wise far more effectively than our deployments of our governmental concepts. hollywood is what everyone decries as america’s cultural span taints the world, but nobody lashes out at motown.

now i have traveled a lot in my adulthood (ahem) and what i am constantly coming across is the prevalence of kids from all over the world to engorge themselves on american RnB and hiphop. the fashion, the moves, the sound, the sound, the sound.

i used to work with all these cats from cameroon back when i was in school in oklahoma at a lebanese bakery. these guys would blast cameroonian pop all night/’til dawn, and it was cool. and it was the eighties. and it all sounded like afrikaa bambataa and newkleus.

and that shit hasn’t changed.

i was in japan and korea last year for an extended period (and i am ready to go back) and the kids there were all over black america. every store we passed was blasting rap and new millenial soul. all the kids love akon. they breakdance in the streets. and it’s as sexy there as it is here. or at least i want to touch it…

but here’s the video i want to share with you: ‘tell me’ by wonder girls from south korea. if you wanna know about them or their nkotb-style sevengali producer (overused, but apropos) look them up on wikipedia.org.

i find this to be about as deep as it gets. it moves straight to the heart of junk culture. i mean who really remembers the 70s this well? it’s not just the wonder woman show they got down it’s the whole feel of sid and marty kroft, too. just plain disturbing. but i love it. i honestly do.

i can’t tell you why. i don’t really feel it bears mentioning. it’s just aesthetic pleasure for me. i won’t tell you about my dreams, either. why bore anyone with that nonsense?

just enjoy.

hopefully, i’ll start writing about my nonsensical art life soon. i’ve got some pretty fun things planned for this year. i hope we all survive to see their fruition.

take care,
be good,
pol

UPDATE: so i was very mystified as to how well known wonderwoman, the tv show not the comic, was in korea. so i called my friends over there and was immeadiately told: “we love wonderwoman! everybody knows wonderwoman!” they in turn, having already seen my blog post were curious as to how i knew about wondergirls… they could hardly fathom that i would be aware of something so particular to the land of morning calm.

apparently, the wondergirls are about the biggest thing in the world over there. and they have a special dance, too. go on youtube.com and look for it. you’ll know you’ve found it when you start seeing all those videos of old ladies, cops, janiytors, tykes and school kids, rough tough thuggy school kids, with the title ‘woder girls’ on them. people love these ladies and they love their dance. kinda like how everybody had to learn the beat-it moves back when michael was still on top, but not yet the king of pop.

and even more xcitingly are the stories of lolita-branding. these girls really have it cut out for them. a number of different posts bring that American Prurience to the province’s predilection for young cute girl imagery. it’s strange, too. i always assume a degree of cultural relativity can stymie an analysis. as in, just because we lust after little girls in a particularly odious way does that mean that’s what’s going on over there?

i don’t know. i wouldn’t sleep with a 16 year old. but then where i live 16 year olds aren’t that cute. actually, in seattle, hardly anyone is that cute. just another reason to move, move, move. and maybe to korea. the pop music is just as bad, but the booze is cheaper, you can drink it where you want to, and the women are flash. links to some lolita agitation from the ex-patriot press over in old seoul:

http://www.dramabeans.com/2007/11/cultivating-the-lolita-complex/

http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2007/11/the-wonder-girl.html

Golden Puppet: The Material Movement of Jeong Geumhyung 정금형

So my wonderful friend, 정금형 Jeong GeumHyung, in Seoul, South Korea has a new blog up about her work. She’s a performance artist who works in the realm of puppetry and theater. Very lovely stuff.

At present she has a few photos up and that’s it. Still worth checking out, though. Hopefully she’ll post some video footage of her award winning Vacuum Cleaner performance and maybe some of her older material as well.

Geumhyung describes her work as ‘movement material/material movement.’ for her, the puppets are already alive, imbued with their own spirits, characters and personalities. some puppets she, she says, already have a story; she just gives them a venue to tell them…

Update: 정금형 has posted a LOT of new things since this post came out… She’s been teaching and performing all over Seoul with new material. Want to study what she calls her Unique Materials? contact her and she’ll arrange a class… and they look like a lot of fun, too.

video of the vacuum cleaner piece: vacuum cleaner

older video with a cameo: memorial service