L.A. Record: Live at the Smell @ The Downtown Independent

Some volume issues during a performance on screen render the crowd restless. Murmurs ripple through, speculating and questioning.

“Can’t hear a fucking thing!” cuts through the darkness, crass and unconstructive.

“Well, you should’ve been there!” retorts another faceless voice, more lighthearted. By the end of the film, he couldn’t have been more right.

The Smell first opened its doors in 1998 and to this day is the only Los Angeles venue heavily DIY in nearly every aspect. Dedicated to the purveyors and connoisseurs of music and art, the Smell is run by the artists whose work decorates the walls, by bands who schedule their own shows and volunteers who love art. It’s a community spot welcoming creative minds.

Michael Fierstein, of Static Aktion, has been working with club owner Jim Smith for over five years now, setting up shows and loving every minute. He’s brought some great acts to the Smell, a magic he used to make their documentary film about the legendary venue, Live at The Smell.

“I love The Smell, it’s my home,” said Fierstein, who produced the film. “I have nothing but the utmost respect for Jim Smith and it really was an honor that he would trust me to oversee a movie about the Smell, using The Smell’s name.”

Working with friend and filmmaker Bob Bellerue, the documentary became the sort of thing only the marriage of like-minds could make happen. Bellerue brought his technical prowess to plate and Fierstein picked bands and booked shows for filming.
“I thought it was important for us to document some of the bands that were around and also document our space and what a show is like at the Smell,” said Fierstein.

From the in-your-face shots of sweaty kids in sonic ecstasy hovering over the Foot Village drum circle to Captain Ahab’s enthusiastic, Speedo (only) clad side show mouthing lyrics and bouncing off every surface he can get to, the shots capture The Smell in true form.

The camera stock, editing, and overall cinematography were very DIY, an appropriate aesthetic for the feature. Reminiscent of Urgh! A Music War, the film showcased live acts in uninterrupted succession. Segments of performances by The Mae Shi, Foot Village, Ponytail, Abe Vigoda, High Places, Gowns, BARR, No Age, HEALTH and Captain Ahab were shown with crisp, flawless audio.

“It’s DIY cinema vérité,” explains Bellerue, “a fancy way of saying we were just working with the equipment available to us. Amongst the core crew and our friends we had a couple of miniDV cameras, Hi-8, and mini-DVDr. With good audio any video can work.”

Mirroring the values of the Smell in content and quality, Live at The Smell immortalizes the venue on film. In the press release, Bellerue says, “Venues come and go, but Jim Smith and the Smell are going nowhere fast and taking us all along,” This film spearheads the ride and from the looks of things, it’s going to be the time of our lives.

L.A. Record: Mellowdrone ‘Angry Bear’

In the thick, melodious haze of Mellowdrone’s latest LP comes Angry Bear, an album rich and heavy with lo-fi goodness. Bandmates Jonathan Bates on vox and bass, Tony DeMatteo on guitar and Brian Borg on drums have been going strong for about a decade with a few EPs and band member changes in between. Now with their second full-length album, the trio has released their definitive rock opus.

Starting off minimalistic with vocals and backing guitar, “Where Ever You May Go” is a psychedelic rock ballad without the lighters and pretentious lovelorn emotions. A dash of keys punctuate the chorus throughout while a guitar blares through distortion. With this track, Mellowdrone establishes a woozy wall of sound for a 12-track odyssey through their vast sonic landscape.

Songs like “Elephant” and “Big Winner” are strong with thunderous bass licks, steady beats, thrashing guitars and Bates’ hollow, all-encompassing baritone. Then there are good-natured guitars, droning backing vocals and steady march of tracks like “Esmerelda” and even the druggie-infused “Sugar.” There’s a seductive waltz with “Lady in Her Underwear” and a dancey haze mixed with rock Americana in “Jumping Off the Pier.”

Mellowdrone showcases their limitless range with this record. From the grungy and gritty rock to the harmonious vocals right down to their experimental core, Angry Bear is a celebration of this Los Angeles-based band’s ability to wield all forms of rock to create a stamp on the genre’s legacy all their own.

Ground Control Magazine: Regina Spektor ‘Far’

ARTIST: Regina Spektor – [Album]
DATE: 07-06-09
REVIEW BY: Christina Nersesian
ALBUM: Far
LABEL: Warner/Sire

Regina Spektor’s latest release is undoubtedly a testament to her limitless creativity. Her fifth full-length studio album to date, Far is an absolute thrilling 13-track voyage through the inexhaustible psyche of one of the most imaginative and versatile songstresses of our time. Warbling vocals and a stylistic signature all her own, the quirky qualities of phonetic track titles, unorthodox pronunciations and pleasantly unusual content provide fodder for success to repeat the reception of her chart-topping 2006 release, Begin to Hope.

The album kicks off with “The Calculation,” an overall uplifting tune and surprise love song with a polka-esque introduction. Dark matters of the innards of emotional complexities along with the simplistic naïveté transform computers into child’s play and macaroni art. Already, this track is quite the attention grabber. It’s a universally palatable tune that not only displays her musical capabilities but stands to be a pretty sweet hip-swaying jam as well.

An unconventional lovelorn song, “Folding Chair” presents syncopated beats, a dancey feel-good piano with mirrored guitar staccato, a sock-hop kind of clap and a pretty uncanny dolphin impression. Toes in the sand and yearning for love in the air, this song invokes fading images of a 1950s coastline—silver bullet trailers, baby clothes safety-pinned to convenience and the innocence of sweet hand holding. It’s a track just in time for our summer swelter.

Transported into an almost Orwellian industrial timeline, Spektor delivers the seemingly inane and banal every day musings of a cyborg in “Machine.” The percussive background procures images of clanking metals, steel furnaces and factory exhaust. Her piano presses on in the background, imitating the perpetual and repetitive assembly line motion of industry.

Pretty uncharacteristic of the rest of the album—or even what we might expect from the bright blue-eyed, cherub cheeked and crimson lipped siren overall—this track is a surprise exploration of Spektor’s daring capabilities. Her vocal rage is showcased and appropriately processed in the right places, making her chorus of “hooked into machine” sound like she really is hooked to something. Safe to say this is the most interesting track on the album.

The first single released, “Laughing With,” is not the most accurate attestant to the diverse and rather individual collection of songs on the album, but it’s quite the exceptional track. The melancholy melody is diligent throughout each stanza with deep chords throughout. It remains even as the somewhat uplifting chorus chimes in, creating the most perfect and stark contrast to the lyrical content.

Her gorgeous voice rings aloud throughout the album and especially in the chorus of “Human of the Year.” The repetitive chant of “Hallelujah” travels to varying vocal heights and just might give Leonard Cohen’s often covered track a run for its money.

Songs like “Eet” are quite signature to Spektor character as a musician and lyricist, using a sound phonetically spelled instead of an actual word. This goes back to her Moscow-to-United States childhood where learning English was based on her understanding of sounds and what she associated to be their meanings instead of actual words.

Then there are tracks like “Dance Anthem of the 80s” where she employs a bit of beat-boxing and imitates the percussive and simplistic piano melody with her vocals. As the melody repeats and continues into the next stanza on the piano, her vocals move on, creating a harmony showcasing a true utilization of voice as an instrument. Other than that, it’s the most dancey you’ll ever feel while listening to the word “sleep” over and over again.

Uniquely imagined mythic fables ring throughout “Genius Next Door,” a track about an enchanted lake and its encircling town. Galloping, wavelike arpeggios ebb and flow like a musical tide and chords climb to harmonic heights. Then as the second to last track, “One More Time With Feeling” is quite appropriately placed. Its communal sing-a-long feel invokes that sort of end of the night, maybe a few drinks in, but overall happy feel.

Far is an album riddled with beautifully concocted piano melodies, intoxicating vocals and cleverly crafted content. Each track is sung with such conviction that the listener is instantaneously transported to Spektor’s otherworldly playpen of imagination. The most inspirational sounding songs have the most inane scenarios and the paradox is wonderful, giving it the cherry topping Regina Spektor signature. The album may not adhere to the almost formulaic standards of most album releases we’ve come to expect from the Fionas, Alanises, Jonis and Toris of the female singer-songwriter world. Regardless, Far is clearly a composite of the heavy lyricism and stellar musicianship of lore along with Spektor’s undeniable style, eccentric and lovely all at once.

L.A. Record: The Moondoggies – I Don’t Decide Where To Move My Body

Moondoggies’ Kevin Murphy—and bandmates Robert Terreberry on bass, Carl Dahlen on drums and Caleb Quick on keys—are hauling their three-part harmonies, finger-picked guitar licks and Rhodes piano south to L.A. from Seattle. It’s an ageless American sound—as casually accidental as it can get. This interview by Christina Nersesian.

You started as kind of a punk band and then you went to Alaska and came back making music with this whole Byrds and Eagles vibe going on—so what happened in Alaska?
Kevin Murphy (guitar/vocals): I moved to Bellingham, which is an hour north of Seattle and I lived there for about a year. It was during a time where our old band the Familiars were dying and I don’t know—we weren’t listening to that kind of music as much. The drummer had hearing problems so he stopped playing the drums and starting playing the banjo. We were just kind of listening to a lot more bluegrass and things like the Band. It was just kinda like—‘I want to get out of this college town and focus on some music on my own.’ It was more about getting myself more disciplined, I suppose. I moved up there because I had nothing else to do. I was interested in Ketchikan because it’s pretty isolated being an island and I had a friend who had a job for me and a place to stay for free. I could save up money and jump on the ferry and ride up there. It seemed like a good opportunity to go see what that place was about.
When you guys started to play the bluegrass-y stuff, were you tapping into anything you heard growing up?
I think things are just coming around full circle. I grew up on the Beatles and Nirvana, definitely. I was discovering a lot of stuff but nothing was very unfamiliar. I just started digging more and more into it. I still like some of the louder stuff that I listened to in high school. I started to really hear a lot of those brilliant, older songs and suddenly you realize you haven’t heard anything and you keep digging.
You guys had a residency at the Blue Moon as you were developing as the Moondoggies—what’s that place like?
That place is a real historic Seattle shit-kicker kind of place. You got the old timers and the hardcore drinkers. It’s one of those places where it feels they should have chicken wire onstage so people wouldn’t hit the musicians with bottles. When you walk in it just smells like old bar. As the Moondoggies, that wasn’t our first show—but that’s where we were playing frequently, unless we got a good spot elsewhere. We kind of cut our teeth on the whole Blue Moon—kind of feeling it out. That’s probably where we played the most for a long time. It was cool because there was nothing pretentious about that venue. You just have a lot of real people and then your friends. There would be people who would come there and just be like, ‘Ah, I can’t stand it—I have to leave!’ But it’s a very genuine good shit-kicker bar. It’s one of those places where you’ll be sitting there joking around and some crazy old drunk lady will just lie down on the floor next to you and start sleeping. We met a lot of old timers who were just like, ‘Yeah, your music really brings me back…’—people being really drunk but also very sincerely letting a lot out. There were never any knife fights there or anything. There was this guy who would always play the harmonica off to the side whenever we played there—even if it’s not in the same key. He’s just jamming out on the harmonica. That guy’s in there every time I go in there. I think he works there but when he’s not working he’s still there. We played a secret show there two weeks ago. We wanted to raise some money for this trip so we just had them throw us on at the end of some other people’s show.
Was harmonica friend there?
Oh yeah—in full effect, too.
How did you guys hook up with Hardly Art? That’s the first label you’ve ever been on, right?
Yeah—actually, there are two people who work there and one of them I had known from when I lived in Bellingham. We had just recorded the album out of our own pocket. I just gave him the CD since he was like, ‘Uh, I heard they might want to hear it.’ So I just gave him the recording—it wasn’t mastered or anything. He calls me later and is like, ‘I think I have good news.’ So I dunno—we were all, ‘Are they sure they got the right band? They probably heard something else.’ Then we went in there and it was just kind of mind blowing. You go and it’s in the Sub Pop office and it’s just insane—they were giving us a tour and we were shaking hands—Mark Arm is there and we shook his hand. We were like ‘Oooh my God!’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, don’t fuck it up!’ and starts laughing at us. We were just like—‘Aaahhh!’
I guess a lot of people are liking it—you guys got a nod from Rolling Stone. What did that feel like?
We actually went there and we recorded for that Smoking Section blog. They haven’t posted it so maybe it didn’t turn out very good but it felt very strange—another one of those, ‘Uh, we’re not supposed to be here’ kind of moments. It was kinda chaotic in there. You go through security and they take your picture and you have to wear it—I dunno. It’s weird.
Was Sasquatch your first music festival?
The week before we played in Boise at this music festival—Sasquatch was our first big show. I got the email that was like, ‘Hey, you guys want to play Sasquatch?’ and I was like ‘Ah, shit!’ The festival in Boise was called Eagle Island—a very hippie thing. There were people playing Bob Marley songs before us and we thought, ‘Ah we’re going to totally kill the vibe.’ And they kind of hesitated when we first started and then they started doing that where-my-body-takes-me hippie dance.
That’s a pretty good description of the hippie dance.
It’s like—‘I don’t decide where to move my body, the music decides!’
Are you guys excited to play a Fourth of July show? That’s going to be a real crowd bringer.
Yeah, it’s going to be real cool. I figured we’ll have at least one show where there will be people. I don’t know how I feel about being in L.A. on the fourth though because I’m used to blowing up fireworks and doing a barbeque and stuff. I’m more worried about the Michael Jackson riots. I actually told someone I was going to L.A. and they were like, ‘Well, be careful of the Michael Jackson fans mourning right now.’ I’m not really worried. What does he think is going to happen there? People just running through the streets? ‘Michaaaael! Nooo!’
I think everyone’s sort of flocked to Santa Barbara to the ranch so as long as you manage you bypass them coming down the coast, I think you’ll be okay.
I’m gonna try and find it. Dress up like Peter Pan and hang out.

WHEN YOU AWAKE AND FILTER PRESENT THE MOONDOGGIES WITH DAWES AND DEER TICK ON SAT., JULY 4, AT SPACELAND, 1717 SILVERLAKE BLVD., SILVERLAKE. 8:30 PM / $10-$12 / 21+. CLUBSPACELAND.COM. THE MOONDOGGIES’ DON’T BE A STRANGER IS OUT NOW ON HARDLY ART. VISIT THE MOONDOGGIES AT MYSPACE.COM/THEMOONDOGGIES.

Ground Control Magazine: Gliss ‘Devotion Implosion’

ARTIST: Gliss – [Album]
DATE: 06-21-09
REVIEW BY: Christina Nersesian
ALBUM: Devotion Implosion
LABEL: Cordless Recordings

Gliss is like the Petri dish lovechild of shoegaze greats, alternative rock fire-starters, maybe even some dancey hipster DJs and most definitely includes a dip in the gene pool of the psychedelic pop rock of the 1960s. In their latest release, Devotion Implosion, some tracks scream Pablo Honey while others stand as clear spawns of Psycho Candy with an overall adoption and simultaneous adaptation of Siamese Dream. Sprinkled with a little “Crimson & Clover” over and over, this sophomoric effort is a pleaser throughout for sure.

The Los Angeles-based band’s second full-length album is a sometimes brooding and sometimes blissful nugget of indie goodness. The album weighs heavily on reliably steady beats and appropriately static-ridden riffs punctuated by the hazy vocals of a dreamlike allure. Gliss, in itself, becomes a sort of umbrella act for the sort of musical style embraced by Krautrock bands of yore. Multi-instrumentalists Martin Klingman, David Reiss and Victoria Cecilia make full use of the genre’s musical tendencies in a neat 10-track odyssey through a seemingly drug-induced space of rootless time.

The album starts up strong and steady, motorik beat at the ready with “Morning Light.” The track, with its purposeful clumsiness mindfully finds its place, and then pushes off with a delightfully catchy drumbeat reminiscent of “Just Like Honey,” before diving headfirst into a welcome wall of sound. Weight resting against this seemingly impenetrable fortress of frequencies, the perpetual fuzz suddenly gives way to a pool of distorted guitar riffs, ethereal vocals and subtle harmonies. Left hanging off the breath of one droning note up to the very last second, this track is a clear vision of what’s to come.

“Sad Eyes” is an explosion of wailing guitars distorted to please and a new take on an old doo-wop staple. Channeling The Dandy Warhols in the Courtney Taylor-Taylor-like vox and that undeniably steady rocking beat, Gliss not only pays homage to a band of brothers and sisters in musical arms but present a new take on what they might be influenced by as well. Ultimately, “Sad Eyes” sounds anything but sad, probably akin to how Smashing Pumpkins’ “Quiet” was anything but quiet, really. The combination of dancey undertones makes this easily the most memorable track on the record.

Vocals are smooth throughout and an unassuming necessity to the album’s formula, tirelessly piercing through a tirade of droning distortion in a variety of tracks. In “Love Songs” they alternate seamlessly from the very glottal Tantric tempter of emotions to the innocent high pitch of naïveté in a love forlorn. All the while guitars purr and wail through pedals, amplifiers and sheer volume.

“Sister Sister” follows through as the final come-down, guitar licks stretching and bending to cut through a morning after haze. It’s dreamlike, unreal and lucid at the same time and fades with a mysterious outro leaving you not only wanting more, but satisfied with the newly enjoyed musical delicacy all at once.

Having taken my aural cravings by storm, Gliss has not only given us more fodder with which to fill our insatiable need for new music, but they’ve also been a welcome breath of fresh interactive media air. It seems they’ve got no official website to call their own and bank off MySpace Music promote their sound.

As a primary mode of Internet representation, the band holds quite true to their blog, complete with pictures and accompanying travel logs. Other than that, the band members pump their Twitter accounts with little quips—menial and earth-shattering alike. Tapping into their world like this really enhances the album listening experience. It seems they can do without the image of the unattainable superhuman musician of lore, giving their fans and followers the truth and humanity behind their sound. It makes listening to their tracks all the more wonderful.

It’s clear Gliss makes full use of a steady beat throughout the album and each track is a welcome trudge through a rather plasmatic wall of sound. It’s an all-encompassing love drug induced haze with vocals clearly in the throes of the pangs, joys and bewilderment of emotions abound. Amidst flirtatiously dancey tracks, fist air-pumping and body rocking kinds of songs, Gliss gives us Devotion Implosion to keep us happy until they return from touring across the pond and beyond. Until then, we have the sweet lull of tracks like “Sleep,” the hope of optimism in “Beauty” and the every appropriate grungy tonal explosion of yesteryear in “The Patrol” to keep us in a fervent daze of good music.

Ground Control Magazine: Iron & Wine ‘Around the Well’

ARTIST: Iron & Wine – [Album]
DATE: 05-19-09
REVIEW BY: Christina Nersesian
ALBUM: Around the Well
LABEL: Sub Pop

Rare beauties emerge in Iron & Wine’s latest release with a two-disc collection of a rare, never-before-heard and new-to-print collection of unyielding goodness. From hidden treasures of 2002’s The Creek Drank the Cradle to soundtrack-bound leftovers and side-picks from The Shepherd’s Dog in 2007, this sampling from the span of Iron & Wine’s career is nothing short of magic, especially for those rabid fans—however rabid folk fans can get.

The first disc is a deliberate, lower-fidelity collection of soulful selections. The slow scratch and subtle pop of a needle through a record’s grooves serve as a signature undertone throughout. Its raw, basement and concrete wall acoustics add the perfect flavor to the perfect set of songs.

This is especially true for a cover of that gem of a Postal Service single from 2003. If you somehow missed Iron & Wine’s cover of “Such Great Heights” off the Garden State soundtrack, it comes in for a nice closing at the end of the first disc. Sam Beam’s voice drags to the deepest depths of his soul and delivers those Ben Gibbard lyrics in a droning, all enveloping daze. These lyrics were meant for a softer take and while the almost electro-pop original came first, this is a welcome rendition to a classic.

Nearly every album in Iron & Wine’s discography has been an exploration of Beam’s abilities to weld musical genres, combine forms of harmony and instruments so that they emerge in a new form. The undertones of that wholesome folk jive remain but in songs like “Serpent Charmer,” there’s that undeniable Eastern twang—the spindly string, the warbling wind and the mesmerizing drum beat literally pull the snake out of the basket and the belly dancer to her feet. Somewhere there’s a gypsy whose castanets are slapping together wildly, the beads adorning her two-piece are flailing uncontrollably and in the parallel universe of Around the Well, Sam Beam is performing the soundtrack to her life. This is easily one of the best tracks on this compilation.

With a welcome return, “Carried Home” appears on this compilation as it did on the “Boy With a Coin” single. The heavy bass moves the track along and the poignant lyrics are undeniably representative of what we might expect from Iron & Wine. It’s practically uncharted territory based on what we’re probably used to, but it’s the occupation of musical ground that makes this track truly special.

The second disc is like the lovechild of musician friends, upscale recording equipment and a heightened production value—an experience of music listen all on its own. Still, it’s this purposeful mode of presentation and not a distinction of production value that separates it from the first disc. “Belated Promise Ring” starts off as maybe the most upbeat, skip-through-a-dandelion-field set of bass licks and finger picking in the discographic history of the band. However, it’s not all pockets full of posies—even while the track evokes images of a happier and simpler time like thimbles, tree stumps, imitation pearls and red balloons along the boardwalk—it’s packed with forlorn lyrics and frighteningly delicate nostalgia. It wouldn’t be Iron & Wine without something like this, though.

Around the Well credits its namesake to lyrics from fan-favored track, “The Trapeze Swinger” and includes some amazing covers alongside these garage recordings and unheard soundtrack bites. We’re graced with a much less synthy—but still poppy—cover of New Order’s “Love Vigilantes” and a way-mellow and thoughtful version of The Flaming Lips’ “Waitin’ for a Superman.”

Here’s to more of that sweet and tender finger picking goodness, soft claps in the foreground to carrying beats and those just-like-honey vocals from Sam Beam in 2010. Iron & Wine have reportedly started to work on the follow up to The Shepherd’s Dog and by spring of next year, we might just have a flood of new material to get all folksy over. Until then we have our tasty rarities, new-spun covers, flipped out b-sides and some intimate shows to keep us mostly satiated—for now.

New University Newspaper: Faculty Master Class with Jerzy Kozmala

Faculty Master Class with Jerzy Kozmala
by Christina Nersesian
Volume 42, Issue 11 | Dec 01 2008

Internationally renowned violist Jerzy Kosmala participated in the second Faculty Master Class last Monday as part of an inaugural series of events organized by the UC Irvine Music Department. Students performed pieces from some of classical music’s greatest composers to a diverse audience of professors, students and community members.

Students who participate in the Master Class form groups at the beginning of each quarter. On Monday, they performed various movements of ensemble pieces by historically celebrated composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn, Antonín Dvořák and Béla Bartók, whose works span from the Classic to Romantic periods and on to the 20th century of musical artistry. Performing and receiving critiques from their peers and the professor of the class, Dr. Margaret Parkins, the students were polite and receptive to Kosmala’s added words of wisdom.

Kosmala thoughtfully followed along with his own copy of the first piece by Mozart. Listening to a trio of clarinet, piano and viola, Kosmala sat in the front row swaying to the allegro phrases, nodding to every forte and punctuating trills. His own viola and bow rested against him as he sat, aware of every glossed-over rest and every dotted note unnoticed.

“Mozart is a difficult composer. Every note counts,” Kosmala said after the first trio’s performance.

As associate chair for performance and a member of the piano faculty, Professor Nina Scolnik served as a host and organizer of the event. After approaching Music Department Chair and Professor David Brodbeck in August with a proposal for the idea of a Master Class, Scolnik’s idea was received with steadfast support. Scolnik believes that it is with the Faculty Master Class Series that students are given an opportunity to receive direction, advice and criticism from some of the most musically artistic minds within the department.

“There is a tradition, as at most universities and music schools of bringing in outside guests to give master classes,” Scolnik said. “Naturally, these are costly, but their value to students and faculty is immeasurable. Master classes have always formed an integral part of our program at UCI, exposing students to a wide range of artists, some of whom often return to hear our students year after year.”

Kosmala is one such artist with a multitude of compositions to his name. Known throughout the world as a celebrated concert and recording artist, his performances in Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, Canada and the Americas have famously spread his name throughout the music world. As a guest artist, performer and professor at festivals, universities and academies, Kosmala has shown the world his abilities and has garnered respect and reverence.

As Kosmala’s distinguished roster of accomplishments have spanned throughout a spectrum of global and local success, being at the Faculty Master Class made it a signature event.

A graduate of the Krakow Academy of Music, Eastman School of Music and Indiana University, Kosmala is currently part of the faculty at UCI. His presence in the classroom during the Faculty Master Class garnered the utmost respect not only from students, but from patrons who are already aware of his reputation in the music world.

“Even before our current budget crisis,” Scolnik said, “it occurred to me that among our own artist faculty — who themselves have distinguished careers as performers and teachers throughout the world — we had master teachers whose gifts and talents could be utilized and shared more broadly.”

Students in the ensembles showcased the brilliance of Mozart, the simultaneous melancholy and hopefulness of Mendelssohn, Dvořák’s tender and vicious work and the unsettling mastery of Bartók’s composition. Under the critical ear of a celebrity musician, there were eager eyes and ears ready to absorb knowledge and take their work to the next level of musical performance.

New University Newspaper: ‘Freudemocracy’ Gets Political

‘Freudemocracy’ Gets Political
by Christina Nersesian
Volume 42, Issue 10 | Nov 24 2008

Nestled near Cyber-A Café in the revamped corners of the UC Irvine Art Department, the University Art Gallery has been the venue for some of the most intriguing art exhibits. From studio art seniors exhibiting their collegiate work to guest artists utilizing a multitude of media platforms, the installations have always been insightful and thought-provoking.

“Freudemocracy: 2008-1968” is no exception; it reaches a vast arena of existence, spanning time and space alike. Its content renders ideas not only important to the curators of the exhibit, but also to the current social and political state.

Focusing largely on the student-led and later national rebellion throughout France in 1968, “Freudemocracy: 2008-1968” looks at the effect these events had on one of the period’s most potent minds.

Through films made by French new wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard, the exhibit showcases a selection of films as a themed montage. Beginning with the years right before the very crux of the movement in 1966, the exhibit then goes through films commentating on the moment of uninhibited rebellion and finally deals with the movement’s aftermath in 1972.

Many artists are still inspired not only by 1968’s brazen call for revolutionary change but also the creative works that subsequently emerged. Like others, curators Juli Carson and R.J. Ward have long since shared a passionate interest in this period of time. This political and cultural movement and its collision with rebellion, often symbolically visualized in Godard’s work, was an area of artistic endeavor often discussed by the two. Even the exhibit title serves as a multi-faceted vehicle of reference to not only the films exhibited but also the themes of scholarly study for the curators.

“The title comes from a scene in ‘Sympathy for the Devil,’ ” Ward said, “in which a young woman activist sprays the graffiti ‘FREUDEMOCRACY’ on a stone wall … in London. Juli is a Freudian scholar, and of course, Godard’s films focus on revolution and sexuality, so the title was both an inside reference and a perfect synthesis of what May ’68 represents to us.”

It seems only natural, 40 years after the rebellion and in this current political climate so befitting to the modes of change and reform, that “Freudemocracy: 2008-1968” sees fruition. The innovative mode in which the exhibit represents the span of years is part of the exhibit’s message and integral to its overall meaning.

“[The exhibit] foregrounds not just the idea of commemoration, but of the ideals of ’68 finding fruition in the present with Obama’s candidacy,” Ward said. “We obviously couldn’t know the outcome of the election when we started, but we believed the result would either be the ‘soft revolution’ of an Obama victory, or in the event of a McCain-Palin administration, the catalyst for a new kind of resistance movement.”

Beginning with “Masculin Feminin,” the exhibit reels in Godard’s focus on youth culture and how the fervor of sexuality and occupation with politicization motivates a desire for governmental change. Culminating with films made during the existence of the Dziga Vertov Group of politically vocal filmmakers, the exhibit comes full circle in reflections of the rebellion’s impact.

This exhibit hones in on the filmic artistry created during a period of realization, rebellion and reform across the globe. A more liberalist morality was at play throughout an overwhelming majority, and France remained a center for the rebellion nexus throughout the world.It is in 2008 that a re-evaluation of 1968’s necessary rebellion parallels our country’s move toward change. “Freudemocracy: 2008-1968” reflects on the past through Godard’s politically charged filmmaking while mirroring the change anticipated for the future.

“Freudemocracy” will be on exhibit until Nov. 26 at the University Art Gallery from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Film Notes: What is the function of the score in Three Colors: Blue?

Trois Couleurs: Bleu (Three Colors: Blue), Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993

While it is evident that Julie is trying to disassociate herself from her former life, liberate herself from an identity of the past and repress memories from a previous existence, it is the with the reoccurrence of the music that Julie is somewhat forced to remember her past. The haunting phrases from the score are what remain in Julie’s life even while she is so desperately trying to rid herself of her past. When she rents the apartment Julie takes on her maiden name, she destroys the music notation associated with her husband and the life-status she had with him and she rids herself of everything material that would be responsible for serving as any memento save the blue jewel-beaded mobile. Regardless of these actions seeming like brash, thoughtless actions of anxiety and depression after the devastating accident, it is with a firm conviction of wanting so desperately to start her life anew that Julie rids herself of all these memories. Yet try as she might, her disposing of objects that might serve as materialistic nostalgia-inducers resurrect during moments she least expects it and in the form of the music that she tries to consider a part of her past life.

Interestingly, when she hears the music, the screen blacks out for several seconds and the orchestral sounds overpower the audience’s senses. This is perhaps done to show what might be going on in Julie’s head. It could be her blacking out because a particularly haunting phrase of music is persistently trying to reinsert itself into her life when she least expects it. While it seems that Julie has effectively rid herself of her past, it is the music that plays an important role in bringing her back in touch with portions of her life she tried to cut herself off from. Like several of the senses that invoke memory-how smelling a particular perfume could bring about thoughts of childhood-music works with the sense of hearing to procure memories one might have long since forgotten or tried to repress. This happens when she hears the flute player on the street as well as in her own psyche as the music that was such an integral part of her very existence seems to literally take her by surprise and knock her off her consciousness for a moment.

It is her very existence, her humanity and the sheer way of being that makes it impossible for Julie to effectively forget because of how she not only touches the hearts of those around her, but really does allow herself to be affected by them. In an apartment of self-righteous inhabitants, Julie in effect stands up for the Lucille because she sees the humanity below that perpetually commando-sporting exterior. Then she offers the home of her family and her dead husband’s name to his mistress and unborn child conceived out of wedlock and in infidelity. She eventually reaches out to Olivier again and it is here that the purpose of music plays perhaps the largest role. While throughout the film, pieces of the music have hinted their reemergence into her life, whether she liked it or not, it is the completion of her husband’s piece for the unification of Europe where she finally gives in and focuses her life wholly on the music once again. At the end Olivier doesn’t want her help, explaining it would be best that it doesn’t come out that she was writing her husband’s music, apparently, and ultimately decides his authorship would be best for the piece and the public, even if the final piece wouldn’t be as good as something the public thought was done by Julie’s late husband. When she allows Olivier to do this and still continues a relationship with him, it’s a way in which Julie has allowed that music to live, has stopped repressing it and seems content with having it a part of her life and the life of the society around her. The ending shows this as the completed piece is played in its entirety through a montage of muddled images from Julie’s life.

Under the Guise of a Conforming Visual Aesthetic Exists a Deconstructing of the Cinéma du Look Model

As Luc Besson constitutes one-third of the forefather triumvirate for cinéma du look, consumers of this film culture are indebted to him for propagating the cinema scene with all the elements heralded by cinéma du look constructs. Defined with detailed particularity in Sue Harris’s essay “The Cinéma du Look,” elements of this movement in French film are clearly defined in Besson’s Angel-A, especially with the visual aesthetic of the film and how it exemplifies a heightened ocular pleasure over anything else. However, there are moments in which the film delineates from the cinéma du look model by effectively bringing to light some film models that were initially dismissed with the post-1968 filmmakers. Defined in terms of Harris’s stated elements involving characterization, there lies a conflict between a mere visual representation and one of more psychological depth in terms of defining the main protagonists. Further it is in its return to the formal style of location shooting, which has largely been indebted to the French New Wave, that renders Besson’s Angel-A a someone deconstruction of cinéma du look. Interestingly, while the film seems to break away from a style first brought to life by this director, it simultaneously heralds the cinéma du look model, utilizing its modes of construct to create filmic eye candy.

What works particularly well in identifying Angel-A as forming to the cinéma du look model is a sense of choreography seen through the characters’ excessive gesturing and in the final scene where Angel-A fights to fly back to Heaven. It is in the comparative mode of gesturing which exists between André and Angel-A which further characterizes them on screen as dichotomous. André uses the whole of his body to portray a particular language that renders his entire body a form of gesturing. It is here where we see how he is fitful, spastic and fidgety while Angel-A glides her body’s movements, even in heated moments of angry argumentative expressiveness. Also later, when Angel-A and André fight in mid-air, it is the choreography of cuts and shots that renders this sequence similar to Soviet montage. The play of cuts to heighten the anticipation and anxiety of what’s to come is also heavily stylized and choreographed.

The crisp visuality of the film’s every frame relies heavily on “conventions drawn from advertising photography and television commercials” (Bordwell and Thompson, 621), particularly since Besson dealt with advertising before his move to cinema. However, apart from the cross-migration of Besson’s talents from one form to another, the solely stellar and picturesque quality of each frame as a formal element exists across the board for the cinéma du look model. Particularly with Angel-A, there exists a certain beauty to nearly every frame in an overindulgence of the visual senses. Not only does the beauty of the Danish supermodel turned actress, Rie Rasmussen as Angel-A add an unavoidably goddess-like characterization to the screen, but the shots deal heavily with showcasing the wondrous beauty of Parisian existence through architectural culture.

Many shots combine these two elements of beauty. There are reasons for having Angel-A, along with André, trudge endlessly across bridges onto their next mini-adventure or why they eat at fancy restaurants and march through decorative hallways. Besson is showcasing the internal and external qualities of the city of Paris moreover that anything else. The architecture of Paris is breathtaking and Besson has crafted a narrative that takes these characters through the streets of Paris in the day time and the nighttime. He showcases key architectural achievements in Parisian culture without being kitschy or even cliché about including any initial establishing shots of the Eiffel Tower or even the Arc de Triomphe. Particularly, this architectural beauty is showcased in the scene at the foot of Sacré Cœur where both André and Angel-A are eclipsed by the beauty of the structure behind them. The church is clearly a massive achievement of French architectural culture and Besson has taken great care in expertly procuring such a shot. As the entire film goes along with this model, it’s clear that, “the imaginative, often absurd stylization of an environment is intrinsic to the form [and] the result of a highly professional, highly skilled attention to the very smallest details of cinematic composition” (Harris, 228).

As a supermodel and actress, Rasmussen obtains Angel-A’s entire way of being and presents it for the exact purpose of a film based on the ideals surrounding cinéma du look. Angel-A is nearly 6-feet-tall, has eyes that sparkle even through the over-nicotinic and seemingly cocaine-riddled gaze and has legs for days. Her gait is always effortlessly perfect with a string of pearls poised delicately yet expertly on her neck and a black mini-dress sliding along all the right places of her body. Even in the initial sequence where André is being beaten down by gangsters who claim he owes them money, the background is beautiful albeit it’s actually being close to what looks like the sewage system in France. Nevertheless, beauty is also evident in that still shot of André as his voice over clues the audience in on his mini-biography. For that moment he is still, no body language to render the audience judgmental about his actions and no prior knowledge of his tendency to lie and swindle for the audience to not believe a word of what he’s saying. In a sense, André looks beautiful. His dark features are becoming, his button nose endearing and his coat is rather smart looking.

The presentation of these elements to the spectator by means of a high contrast lighting-enhancing the grays, identifying the blacks and brightening the whites-also creates an aesthetically pleasing visual to literally gawk at throughout the entirety of the film. There also exists a realization that the wielder of the apparatus obtaining the footage must be highly skilled in their trade. As evident with other cinéma du look projects, the directors have an intense technical mastery of capturing footage using in-camera and lighting tricks to enhance the visual. While the film is shot entirely in black and white and lacks color, which is a key ingredient in identifying a cinéma du look film, it is the play with the grays that adds its own mode of beauty to each frame. This combination of these visual aspects with formal styles utilized throughout the film is precisely the evidence of the post-1968 movement towards Harris’s “new New Wave” (219) where in the move through the 1980s, “the work of new filmmakers with a taste for extravagant spectacle progressively eclipsed the 1970s vogue for historico-politico-realist filmmaking” (Harris, 219).

Moreover, Angel-A’s character while, in itself, is a representation of cinéma du look, it is also a delineation from the formal constructs. Angel-A is elegant yet hard as nails, classy yet wholly uncouth. It is in this dual embodiment that not only serves the purpose of being a driving force for the narrative-she does say that she is a mirror reflection of André’s inner beauty-but allows for the existence of another formal element of cinéma du look. These films are meant to present dichotomies, either side of a spectrum, between their protagonists. While Angel-A seems to be on a more successful side of the spectrum with André on the low-life, downtrodden side, it is the fact that Angel-A is an actual embodiment of André’s soul that brings a third element to this supposedly exclusive two-headed direction. André’s down-trodden soul is repeated in Angel-A which adds an element of psychological depth that is not very common of cinéma du look films.

The film also departs from the popular constructs in terms of the characterization and development of its protagonists. Angel-A takes on the role of a very different example of cinéma du look mainly because of the emotional depths into which the characters journey in order to overcome obstacles that have hindered their very existence. Angel-A and André take part in a discourse as a way to sift through the problems and issues that are effectively internal and not superficial. It’s then evident that while cinéma du look deems their “characters stand in stark contrast to the intellectual formation…of post-1968 film protagonists” (223), both André and Angel-A depart from that model entirely.

Up until the point at which we enter André’s life in the film, he has been down on his luck in many ways. A key underlying issue and the very driving force of the film’s narrative is the fact that André has been incapable of rising above the muck of self-destruction. With this as the mode of pushing the narrative arch forward, André is in constant conversations of mental turmoil with Angel-A. The discussion of bettering souls is no doubt a deep delve into one’s psychological existence. In the film, André is eventually exasperated by Angel-A’s incessant probe of his internal being and cries, “Why do you intellectualize everything?” It is precisely the intellectualization of the very narrative’s driving force that renders Angel-A a separation from popular cinéma du look constructs.

This is true especially since the entire film starts out as a journey in the overall betterment of just one character and then evolves into a general commentary on the human condition and love. Angel-A is sent from heaven to ultimately help André with his self-loathing as a real embodiment of the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The emotional and psychological depths into which the film delves goes beyond the material quality of surface representation and focuses on a more internalized representation and self-identification. The culmination of all this happens closer to the end where André is at the brink of successful transformation. She pushes him into a bathroom and demands he look at himself into the mirror. He looks and when Angel-A asks him, “What do you see?” André responds that he sees, “a beautiful girl” which furthers the psychological depth because by now, the audience understands Angel-A to be the internalization of André. This moment is the absolute transformation of André as he is finally able to tearfully say he loves himself without the physical presence of Angel-A egging him on. Her encouragement occurs internally as he hears her voice when he starts to falter. Ultimately, he is successful and it is this psychologically heavy scene the entire film was leading up to.

While the film presents elements of cinéma du look with the boy-meets-girl romance or even the oppositional representation of humanity seen in Angel-A and André, it is the tweaking of these core elements that renders the film separate from a staunch cinéma du look model. While the characterization of André and Angel-A fall “into the category of young hedonistic misfits, at ease with a consumerist ethos and skilled in the generic mores of popular culture” (222), it is their psychological depth and takes them away from the cinéma du look construct. Also, while cinéma du look has been heralded to reject the New Wave practice of location shooting, the film is entirely consumed with Parisian locale. However, this delineation from the model is combined with its appreciation in creating visually gorgeous frames incorporating Paris. Moreover it is perhaps in how Besson is very particular about his talent and crew that he has effectively created a subgenre of cinéma du look within his self-prescribed microcosm of filmmaking and in turn, Angel-A stands as his unofficially declared manifesto of this new sub-genre of cinéma du look.

Works Cited

1.      Thompson, Kristen, and David Bordwell.  Film History: An Introduction, Second Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2003

2.      Harris, Sue. “The Cinéma du Look.” European Cinema. ed. Elizabeth Ezra. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 219-232.

3.      Angel-A. Dir. Luc Besson. Perf. Jamel Debbouze and Rie Rasmussen. Europa Corp., 2005