I remember / je me souviens
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For those limbic bursts of nostalgia, invented by Proust, miniaturized by Nicholson Baker, and freeze-dried by Joe Brainard in his I remember and by Georges Perec in his Je me souviens.

But there are no fractions, the world is an integer
Like us, and like us it can neither stand wholly apart nor disappear.
When one is young it seems like a very strange and safe place,
But now that I have changed it feels merely odd, cold
And full of interest.
          --John Ashbery, "A Wave"

Sometimes I sense that to put real confidence in my memory I have to get to the end of all rememberings. That seems to say that I forego remembering. And now that strikes me as an accurate description of what it is to have confidence in one's memory.
          --Stanley Cavell, The Claim of Reason


Thursday, March 02, 2006

I remember the Clandestino Festival in Gotenberg - and speaking there on music and politics with Lez Henry and Aki Nawaz in 2004. Dave Watts and Coltaire K too. After a mad weekend, sunday afternoon found us on the yet more mad wooden roller coaster with the singers from the Mighty Zulu Nation (pictured here with Dave of F^D^M in full flight at the concert the night of our talks - ie, the main event). The MZN (and SKW) pretended to be nervous about the ride, and Sam from State of Bengal and I were being macho and urging we go - tables (not tablas, but stomachs almost) were turned by the end of the noisy rickety 'roler-coaster' of a ride, but our comrades from the south wanted to go again. Not enough time for that as we needed to get back to Clandestino. (Wooden Roller coasters are spectacular - think flat pack ikea but 100s of metres high). The Festival is annual, and its in June, its worth going to, and this year the Micropixie space cadet project is booked. In Gotenberg in summer there's hardly more than two hours of dark at night, the city is fantastic, the festival is radical, political and rare gloriopus thing in the world of music festivalism, not at all governed by 'industry' standards. Open ears and minds. Calandestino!

Aki Nawaz will speak at Goldsmiths College London on friday 3rd March - at 11am in room 137a (Details HERE). be well - XJohn
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posted by Trinketization 4:09 AM
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