Comic strip erasure

 

I came across these whilst rooting around, back in time, in my files. Not sure if I've shown them before. Comic strip romance erased with heavy black pen.

Vispo: Reset / Where are you whilst looking at this? / My good day can't last?

 

Reset, RTomens, 2024

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Today's a good day so far - what do you care? You're in the office(?), doing what you do (keep an eye out for the boss or they'll catch you looking at this) or...

You're on the train, passing the journey by looking at the internet, as everyone does (sometimes I get a glimpse of what people are looking at on their phones...I fear the worst, such as poisonous politics, but see it's a stupid game - huh! Which is better than ideological brainwashing!) or...

You're at home - perhaps in a nice house, or a luxury apartment, or a squalid, damp flat - it doesn't matter, you've made it your own, surrounded yourself with all the things you treasure (is the TV on? Or are you looking forward to a good film? Or (not) listening to music by Stockhausen...or Taylor Swift?).

My day so far: started by making a piece of art, then went to the supermarket, all by 9am! Came back, made coffee, ate a croissant (watch your weight!), made more art to a soundtrack of Roland Kayn, put some washing in the machine, watered a flattened out plant in the garden, made more art (Reset, above) and decided to write this post at 11.39am, thinking 'It's been a damned good day so far but there's an old saying about eating a frog first thing in the morning then the rest of the day won't seem so bad'...wondering if the reverse is true, start the day well and it's bound to go downhill...quite possibly, although to bolster the good side I'm expecting a package of books to be delivered...if they don't arrive that could signal the start of the decline in this day, culminating in England failing to beat Netherlands tonight in the Euros - we'll see!

TTFN

New book of mine - Bah! from Redfoxpress

 

Yes, Redfoxpress have just printed a new book of mine - a handsome little thing - so nice you'll love holding and feeling it - I promise. See link below.

Buy it here

Vispo - Make it new? / Album: Fiasko! - Kaboom Karavan

 

Captured, RTomens, 2024

'Make it new' said  Ezra Pound - right - well you could in the early 20th century, but now? Make the art new? What? Is there anything 'new', as in a totally new vision/idea whatever? 

Relax, it's fine. You see, whatever you make, if you're true to yourself, will be a new take on something, surely. Not a new angle or direction necessarily, but unique to you, so, in a way, new. And we know that newness for the sake of it as a guiding principle is likely to lead to that principle being the sum total, rather than some inherently interesting work. 

I often try techniques that are new to me because I can't keep doing the same thing. Whoever can, good luck to them. The problem with continually doing the same thing, especially in these days of a restlessly scrolling audience, is that it can all start to look the same. I hope to avoid that, but the viewers will decide.

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There's a carnival in town - something wicked this way comes? - it's filmed by Béla Tarr, scripted by Tristan Tzara and László Krasznahorkai and features mobile sculptures by Eduardo Paolozzi and Jean Tinguely with music by Bram Bosteels (Kaboom Karavan) and guests, Bart Maris (trumpet), Raphael de Cock (igir, jadagan and uillean pipes) and Stefaan Smagghe (violin and sarangi). Let the Fiasko! begin! Acts include a a hologram of Tom Waits playing the swordfishtrombone, the recreation of a New Orleans voodoo ritual by dancing skeletons and a Charles Mingus impersonator doing a table dance whilst cutting up Free Jazz records on three decks. Voices from the dead played at half-speed are piped through speakers all around the ground. It's fantastic, terrifying, funny, charming, mysterious...and very much worth a visit.

Kaboom Karavan

Buy it here

Visual Poetry / Being unable to concentrate/read - blame Visual Poetry?

 

Happiness Limited, RTomens, 2024

Three recent 'figurative' pieces because recently I've found myself drawn to the idea of faces/figures combined with typing - humans! - and letters - and perhaps, text - because...

Cultural Studies, RTomens, 2024

...I have to face facts, there are humans in this world, along with letters - and - for so long I have been consumed by letters...so they call it Visual Poetry, don't they? So now, meanwhile, for a spell, I shift towards representations of people but of course they too are either consumed by or constructed from letters. Someone suggested of one (not featured here) that it was a 'self-portrait' - so, perhaps it was!

I blame my typed letters for my inability to concentrate on reading those arranged so as to form words - bah! Or is it the dreaded internet syndrome shattering my neurons (?) - rewiring my brain to only be capable of such limited concentration! Yes, we know about that one. 

I say 'concentrate' - I do - but really, it's literature that I cannot concentrate on - no book finished for weeks! I can 'read' Visual Poetry, yes (can you?) - letters to be read. Now, right now though, I'll not blame myself...but the authors! Damned authors! Who do they think they are? Assuming they can fill my head with thousands of words and I'll enjoy it! The nerve! Most books are, as Philip Larkin said, a beginning, a muddle and an end (my friend says that's cynical, but then he's an avid reader whilst I am an enthusiastic one who's struggling to maintain that enthusiasm).

I'm known amongst friends as a 'fussy' reader - a stubborn refusenik of prose that does not capture me - life's too short! But, they say, it could get better. What if the opening is building up to sensational content? Bah! 

I may have to resign myself to having brought this problem upon myself through typing scrambled letters for so long - every day - tic-tac-tic-tac-tic-tac - ordered letters are starting to make no sense! It's a miracle I'm able to put them in the write order here, now, this moment. 

That's all for now. I need a rest. TTFN!

The Word Spirit, RTomens, 2024

Print: Something Happened / JG Ballard paperbacks and judging books by their covers

 

RTomens, 2024

There's somethin' happenin' here...what it is ain't exactly clear...

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I have the complete JG Ballard short stories in two volumes but recently previous collections from the 70s have become incredibly appealing. First off, obviously they're attractive as items, as books that appeared at the time, being of their time, being what people would have read, how they would have read Ballard way back then. Secondly, I like slimmer books; ones that fit neatly into a pocket. Thirdly, the artwork interests me. 

So I got lucky in the week, coming across these three on one sci-fi shelf of an Oxfam shop. Usually the sci-fi sections disappoint me, lined as they are with big fantasy novels such as Game of Conquest Vols 3, 5 and 6. I heard someone else complain the other day that Fantasy is what's big these days. I wouldn't know, but it makes sense. How 'big' sci-fi is in terms of sales, I've no idea. I don't read contemporary sci-fi. Perhaps I should. Perhaps I should listen to more contemporary music and watch more contemporary films...and Art...and whatever.

The greatest artwork to ever grace a Ballard paperback has to be by David Pelham...

...that's one of several he did. He seemed to totally 'get' Ballard, which is no surprise since he got to know him through Eduardo Paolozzi, thus joining the inner sanctum, the righteous brotherhood of  post-New Wave lit/Pop Art in Britain. It was Ballard who insisted Pelham should produce the artwork for his books. Was England not the coolest place on earth during the 60s Art/New Wave (sci-fi) revolution? Michael Moorcock's New Worlds magazine, Ambit, Ballard, Paolozzi etc? I think so. And Ballard, like one of his literary heroes, William Burroughs, looked nothing like 'cool'. If WSB looked like a Southern gentlemen, Jim looked decidedly English conservative, very suburban. Also like Burroughs, he was older than the hip youngsters around him. They were never going to give up their sensible clothing for t-shirts and denim. No beards either. Yet, both inspire(d) generations to come through their writing. Here I am, judging books by their covers but metaphorically-speaking, it isn't always wise.

TTFN  

Art: Post-Industrial / What ChatGPT says about me / Demdike Stare revival / Ballardian boat of the Drowned World

 

RTomens, 2024

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'who is robin tomens?'

Robin Tomens is an author, music enthusiast, and blogger known for his work related to jazz music and record collecting. He has written books such as "Waltz in Time," which explore various aspects of music and culture. Additionally, Robin Tomens runs a blog called "Inconstant Sol," where he shares insights and reviews about jazz albums, including rare and obscure recordings, often delving into their historical context and significance. His contributions have made him a respected figure among jazz aficionados and collectors.'

A friend sent me the above, created by ChatGPT. I don't fear AI. It made me laugh. People assume fear drives a dislike of AI, as if those of us yet to be enthralled by it cower at the prospect of it taking over. Future scenario: AI is used to infiltrate the military industrial complex to such a degree that those controlling input can no longer stop the results, or alter them. AI creates wars which destroy the world. Somebody must have written that as fiction, surely.

How ChatGPT describes me is wrong anyway. Where does it get its false information? It names a book I haven't written and a blog I never wrote. I am certainly not 'a respected figure among jazz aficionados and collectors', despite having written this. More likely, because I wrote that.

*

Ten years after my book was published, Demdike Stare released Tryptych. I mention it only because there's a Demdike Stare revival gathering pace...in my room...just because they came to mind, for some unknown reason...so I played Tryptych and was surprised at how good it still sounded...almost as good as when Sean Canty and Miles Whittaker seemed to rule the kingdom of 'hauntology'...they were so hip (ugh)...Mancunians from the murky North...a post-industrial landscape littered with the ruins of factories, crumpled pylons, rusting power generators...rubble...constant rain feeding giant weeds that burst through pavement cracks to thread themselves through smashed windows towards light that's never quite strong enough...in the new garden of evil...

They wouldn't thank me for suggesting they're finished. They're not. In January this year they released Sustain: FForward, a 'mixtape' merging all manner of beats and samples. But for my money, it's not as impressive as their Testpressing series, 2013 to 2015. 

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Talking of rampant foliage in the post-industrial world...the Drowned World, whilst walking around Chatham Docks this week I came across this...

...very Ballardian, eh?

TTFN

Typerasure: Letters / Active Agents and House Boys - British Murder Boys / William Burroughs

RTomens, 2024

 Familiarity breeds contempt.

Looking through loads of typed sheets that haven't been shown online I pile 'em up, thinking 'Huh! Got to do something different', so I tear a page from An Outline Course in Mind Training and type over it - erase! - erase! 

It's not the first of it's kind I've done but there hasn't been one for a while.

*

‘Calling all active agents, recalling all active agents' - Active Agents and House Boys by British Murders Boys has been unleashed. Anthony Child channels Suicid(e)al-but-with-an-English-accent vocals (like post-Punk?) and Karl O'Connor makes sure the machine goes bang-bang-bang with a variety of pulverising rhythms but not just mindlessly, no, no there are many interesting textures taking your brain apart to reassemble it as a cut up, captured, collaged bundle of raw nerves...so the wild boys...'They were like feral animals, wild and untamed, moving with a grace and power that was both beautiful and terrifying.'

The Perfect Novel / Insane social media response

 

The book junky's hungry for a fix...

...walking towards the high street he dreams of the ultimate high...

...a novel that reads like a cross between Mickey Spillane, Jean Paul Sartre & Ray Bradbury...violent, philosophical speculative fiction...mmmm...ye-e-ess...

...he wants his prose hardboiled, ideas deep and the setting, that dystopian future every's always talking about...

...yes, an existential science-fiction thriller...dames, guns, aliens, mind control...James M. Cain meets Albert Camus and Brian Aldiss? He reckons there's probably blurb on some book that claims to fulfill his dream, even though he's never seen one...beware of the blurb...written by friends of the author or hacks hoping to look smart whilst selling a fix upon which their living depends...heh-heh...watch out for them...

Well, he doesn't find it - surprise, surprise...has to make do with a more common kind of fix. But he still dreams...

*

Yes, look at that on Facebook...and the numbers are still rising as I write. I show it not to boast, just in bewilderment. You never know what will 'take off'. It's not as if it's The Best Thing I've Done IMO, but then, others may disagree. Someone messages me privately, wondering why he's never seen my work before. That's the internet for you. The gallery without walls...vast...endless...and sometimes someone wanders in and notices what I do. So it goes!

TTFN

Techno typing / Vispo: The Medium Is The Mess - / Book: Dionysos Speed - Rainer J. Hanshe

 

'Clack-thump-clack-thump-clack-thump' (the visualpoet types whilst listening to Techno)

Music always accompanies my typing. What I listen to may even influence what I produce.

It depends what I'm in the mood for.

Abstract early Electronic. Metal. Punk. Or...

Techno perfectly mirrors the movement of my fingers and the clack of the keys - repetition - its relentless momentum spurs me on. Lately I've only listened to Techno whilst typing; specifically, a playlist called 'Berlin Techno', which contains 315 'songs'.

Here's a recent piece...

RTomens, 2024

 

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'The terrifying, cataclysmic sound of over 8 billion mirrors cracking, splintering, shattering into pieces reverberates throughout ever locale on earth, a piercing, eerie sound whose decibels test the tympana. The central nervous system of most is scored; the psyche disordered; the eyes emaciated.'

So it begins. What, exactly? I cannot tell you, having only read the first three parts of Dionysos Speed by Rainer J. Hanshe, founder of Contra Mundum Press. Suffice to say that everything and everyone is changed. Every attempt to write text via iPhones or computers produces the same messages (some garbled text). All photos of the self are rendered headless. Flesh becomes outmoded, as does the concept of immortality. Hanshe depicts the hyperworld (?), a future that's one click away, in another dimension? Another few years, even. Rather than try to describe the prose style, I give a sample...

I shouldn't write a 'review' of an unfinished book but this is the most exciting thing I've read in a long time. 'Exciting'? I mean interesting. I mean fiction that looks at a future via prose which has, appropriately,  jettisoned conventional storytelling. It's Speculative Fiction which, like William Burroughs in his cut-up trilogy, utilises new ways to imagine altered states and an altered world. You can sense Bill's ghost guiding Hanshe's fingers - those dead fingers talk. What they tell you about is not a world you would like to live in and yet in a sense, we already do.