Analog Aesthetics

Cold weather means hibernating in your apartment, but it doesn't have to mean sitting in front of the TV for hours or hanging online mindlessly surfing (unless it also includes a call to me on Skype!). Here are Ama's Winter Tips:

Music:
CocoRosie, Noah's Ark. This record includes cats meowing, horses braying, and beautiful female solos. While you're at it, check out their 2004 release, La Maison de Mon Rêve.

You don't have to believe me when I say they're ethereal. Here's a short biography, courtesy of Touch and Go Records:

"Sierra Rose and Bianca Leilani (a.k.a. Red Bone Slim) were born in Fort Dodge, Iowa and the big island of Hawaii respectively. They are the third and fourth daughters of spiritualist Timothy Casady and artist/teacher Tina Hunter.

“As a small child,” Red writes, “I was carried in a papoose around sacred Anasazi grounds by my mother and her partner, Brook Medicine Eagle. Periods of my adolescence were spent living in a trailer on the outskirts of Joseph City, Arizona with my father. We spent our time burning ants and hunting rabbits from the burned out chassis of a station wagon. I left at fifteen owing to a feeling of alienation caused in part by my reticence toward a formal education. As soon as I was able to garner the necessary means – I sold both day-old flowers in restaurants and expired raffle tickets to the elderly – I boarded a bus north to San Francisco. I toted around soft paper copies of Genet and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness that I scarcely read.”

Less is said about the formative years of Sierra Rose. What is known is that she spent much time studying Rumi, Halal Nashids and Eurythmy. She also exhibited an innate talent for trigonometry. Speculations abound. Members of her family attest to the fact that she learned how to harness lightening so as to charge her body with electricity. By her twenty-third birthday Ms. Rose had received many accolades in Paris as a refined Soprano with a promising career ahead in the opera.

Red Bone and Ms. Rose reunited in 2003 to become Coco Rosie. Their first album, a hip hop project called Word to the Crow, was made only days before their second album, La Maison de Mon Reve. They were signed to Touch and Go Records shortly after their inaugural public performance. In 2005 their third full-length album, Noah’s Ark, was released and they are currently working on their fourth.

The some time sisters are both aspects of a north Brooklyn clan, Voodoo-Eros, which has recently surfaced to release The Enlightened Family and Diane Cluck’s Countless Times. Sierra is one half of the white-bearded metal lullaby band Metallic Falcons with Matteah Baim.

Dreams for the future include:
- Making an album with RZA
- Write and produce an opera
- Disappear as vagaries in North Africa
- Retire as lesbian welders in New Mexico
- A marriage with Antony!

Oh, good lord, yield such tender mercies!"

Literature:
Penguin Books' latest - releasing classic and contemporary authors for less than $3 a book to celebrate their 70th birthday. A list of what you can find and devour in an hour includes some of my favorites: Vladimir Nabakov, Albert Camus, Nick Hornby, Anais Nin, John Updike, Gabriel García Márquez, Franz Kafka, and Dave Eggers.

Film:
If you haven't seen Lars von Trier's first critical installment of American culture and society, Dogville, go rent it. Then head to a theater and see the second and latest film in the planned trilogy, Manderlay. But don't stay for the credits unless you've got a strong stomach. Why would the Dutch filmmaker care about making a trilogy about the US?

"America is a big subject because such a big part of our lives have to do with America," he said, "I must say, I feel there could just as well be American military in Denmark. We are a nation under influence and under a very bad influence... because Mr. Bush is an asshole and doing very idiotic things." Continuing, he reflected on the U.S. dominacnce over other countries and culture. "America is sitting on our world, I am making films that have to do with America (because) 60% of my life is America. So I am in fact an American, but I can't go there to vote, I cant change anything. I am an American, so that is why I make films about America." (Indiewire)

...

Finally, check local listings for theater performances, symphonies, concerts, local film viewings, poetry and book readings, and yes, parties. Don't be afraid to head outside for a nice walk around the lake, down the block, to your friend's house. Ride a bike in the freezing wind. Bundle up and invite your friends to go on a hike. Bring beer and wine to stay warm. Light a candle. Make a coffee and watch the street outside your window. Exhale, inhale. Write a letter. Bake a cake. Chew slowly. Befriend someone 5 years younger than yourself. Touch a tree. Talk, talk, talk until 8 a.m. Plan your spring vacation. Sleep. Laugh loudly.


Get on the mic!