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“On a winter morning in the 1920′s, a shot rings out on a farm in rural Illinois. A man named Llloyd Wilson has been killed. And the tenuous friendship between two lonely teenagers – one privileged yet neglected, the other a troubled farm boy – has been shattered.”

William Maxwell is a writer’s writer. For forty years he was the Fiction Editor for The New Yorker. He will not make an attempt dazzle you with best-seller gadgetry, but instead use his powers to penetrate inward, toward the essence of his characters. The details of the plot are not so important as their effect on the human soul. Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck understood this; so did William Maxwell.

Last Saturday, June 16th, Kassel’s Documenta was opened to public visitation. It’s the most important exhibition of contemporary art. While other huge shows like Venice, São Paulo or Whitney’s Biennials try to reflect what’s happening in the art world, the Documenta has its own agenda and as a result the art world ends up reflecting most of what was proposed by the Documenta until the next comes and throws the dice again.

One of the many reasons this show is so awaited and exciting is its periodicity, five years. That gives enough time for each edition curator to plan the exhibition at the highest level of detail, something extremely necessary when dealing with a show of this magnitude. This year’s edition, the12th, has Roger M. Buergel as artistic director and Ruth Noack as curator. It features 530 works from 113 artists around the globe and spreads out at five different places in Kassel, Germany. They worked on the preparation and concepts of the Documenta for 3 and a half years.

This Documenta sets the end of the white cube. White cube is a major question of post modernism. Simply put, it is the most neutral possible space to show artworks, everything that surrounds the works are white, and ideally there is nothing beyond the walls, floor, and ceiling that surrounds the works. This edition has walls of all colors of the rainbow and not white. That’s a huge gamble actually, I don’t know if something that is one of the biggest established ideas in contemporary art can simply die. This is actually not the first attempt of it, but I do think that non white cube spaces will begin to make their way to the mainstream from now on since it is the first time that one of the huge shows, the hugest in fact, approaches the question explicitly. If you’re interested to know more about the white cube theory you can read Brian O’Doherty essay “Inside the White Cube”.

Documenta 12 also intends to be didactic mixing antiques like Persian caligraphy, Chinese tapestry, modern artists like Manet and Klee with contemporary art. Curator Noack says: “to understand what today artists are doing it’s needed to understand their roots. In this exhibition that’s what we call migration of form”. Also by Noack: “to be an exhibition of contemporary art doesn’t require only contemporary works, after all a two years old work isn’t contemporary anymore. The most important is that it happens now and makes possible contemporary lectures”.

What I tell you is: go visit. Remember, you’ll be five years older at the next opportunity. Plus you can take a train and also visit the Venice Biennial. The two shows occur at the same time only every 10 years. A must see.

While not there, check Documenta’s website to learn more about it.

This video has been around for a while, but just in case you thought you were a smarty pants about music, Rob Paravonian will trump you. I think I have a small crush on him because of it.

And then we have this gem from Benny Davis. This goes out to all of you who were outraged by the Sopranos finale last week.

I’ve spent the last couple days watching the 11 or so hours of footage of BBC’s Planet Earth, arguably the best nature documentary to date. It really is incredible, with shots in over 200 locations, and footage from the rare snow leopard in the Himalayas to creatures that still remain so seemingly extraterrestrial at the very depths of the ocean. Even if you did catch a couple clips of it when it aired on tv, I highly recommend renting or purchasing the entire series.

(Trailer, exerpts after Break)

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If you are a regular reader, then perhaps you are a bit suprised by the title of this post. Yes, I love hardcore. No, I am not gay. I am a girl. I also really like Dashboard Confessional. I put him on in the morning and sing quite loudly and in harmony about all the love and heartbreak that Chris Carrabba seems to go through over and over again, that poor poor boy!

Or you have absolutely no idea what I am talking about and are sitting there helplessly trying to pronounce Sufjan (SOOF-yan).

Either way, there’s something about summer that brings me back to the many years of Girl Scout camp, where we would sit by the lake with our acoustic guitars and sing about places we’d yet to visit. It would be cool out, enough for a hoodie, but still in shorts, fighting off the world’s thirstiest mosquitos.

I gave up on Girl Scout camp ages ago. It was almost another life time. Still, as the sun sets and I’m driving with the windows down and the moon roof open, I find myself with the strangest feeling. Almost giddy in a way, happy that its summer, happy that I’m by myself, and for just one moment the city is quiet and still, or there are no cars on the road and there’s just peace. It never lasts long but it’s enough.

And it’s in these moments when lyrics like “They were boys with their cars, summer jobs, oh my god…” From Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise album. The song is called “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”, and you can guess what it’s actually about. That’s not the point of the lyric though, or the image and feeling it invokes when I hear it. It’s about the freedom that summer brings, and youth, that first car, that awkward kiss. It’s all there sitting softly on some chords, until a car whizzes by, bass blaring, and reality cuts back in, just like it does in the rest of the song.
If nothing else, Stevens is an excellent story teller. He’s clever, but subtle, you have to pay attention to get the joke, find the nuance.

This isn’t music that makes you think, it’s music that makes you smile, bring back memories you’d almost forgotten about. It’s perfect for nights like this when it’s still a little cool out, slight breeze, everyone’s asleep now, just me and Sufjan, and the last sweet smell of spring before summer really sets in and chokes out the city.

Ok, so you know Joy Division and New Order but what about Warsaw?

Warsaw was Joy Division’s first incarnation. The band lasted about 6 months with this name, recording only a few studio sessions. These can be found in the self-titled album released in 1994, previously found only in bootlegs. Most of these songs were later rerecorded as Joy Division.

Then you ask me; “right, why would I want to listen to this if the almighty Joy Division has redone them?”

The answer is in that same question. It is the almighty Joy Division, but also the juvenile, somewhat joyful, and still naive part of it. It’s raw, and reminiscent of punk’s urgency. Keep in mind it was 1977, the golden age of UK punk rock. Warsaw took that route to progress their music further. Obviously they did with Joy Division.

Warsaw

Novelty

They Walked in Line

Shadowplay

Transmission

This album cover threw me off a bit. It features Lucky Soul dressed to the nines sitting at an elegant dining table in an elegant dining room. Their poses: composed; Smiles: none; Colors: scarce. The album on the other hand, is a consistent collection of melodic Girl-pop songs that recall bubblegum top-40 hits from the 60′s and similarly inspired girl groups of the 80′s such as The Bangles.

The album starts with Add Your Light To Mine, Baby, a catchy, upbeat, roller coaster ride accented with a tambourine and brass. The album is filled with similar jaunty, throwback, sing-a-long tunes. The title track, The Great Unwanted and Struck Dumb are examples where the retro pop structures really shine through.

The album isn’t all gumdrops and rainbows, however. Baby, I’m Broke and Last Song are both cold and tragic and demonstrate the versatility of the band and Ali Howard’s voice.

The whole album is available for streaming via Lucky Soul’s website: http://www.luckysoul.co.uk/thegreatunwanted/