Thursday, June 3, 2010

The above is number 1000



Liquid Liquid, Liquid Liquid (1980-1983/1997, Rhapsody)

It is a travesty of working life to stop listening to Liquid Liquid to go to a meeting about mainframe databases, despite them both being of roughly the same vintage. The former still points to the future while the latter seems mired in the past. You may recognize "Cavern" from the dawn of rap music as the backing track for Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines (Don't Do It)"

♫ Liquid Liquid, "Cavern" (Rhapsody)

The video above is a beautiful new media take on Alvin Lucier's "I am sitting in a room" where a guy uploaded a video of himself to YouTube, downloaded it and then updated it again 1000 times, leaving each one as a progress of degradation. The above is number 1000. Hat's off to you, canzona!

Sophomore year of college, Liquid Liquid was my jam. I borrowed a tape from my Latin teacher that included these

♫ Liquid Liquid, "Lock Groove (in)" (Rhapsody)
♫ Liquid Liquid, "Lock Groove (out)" (Rhapsody)

and this

♫ Eyeless in Gaza, "Out from the Day-To-Day" (Rhapsody)

for the better part of the semester and wore it right out. I also wore out the tape copy of The Velvet Underground & Nico she'd found on the street the first week she lived in New York in the late 70's/early 80's. Her roommate in those days (her, not mine) was an up and coming female impersonator named Charles RuPaul and her brother went by The Lady Bunny, who founded Wigstock. It was exciting to be tertiarily connected back then.

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