Thursday, March 5, 2009

Weird Independents


David Byrne - (i) inspired by photo by Eric Antoniou
As we're going to Austin next week to visit family, I won't be painting or posting for a week.

Austin prides itself on being weird. Painting David Byrne, listening to Genesis' "Foxtrot", I remembered how I used to pride myself on being weird as well. It was a defense mechanism to hide behind my shyness. It was easy for me to be weird, to be introverted, to be closed off even from myself. Labels do that, make it easy to hide. I decided it was better to be independent, separate even, from people. I did everything myself, didn't ask for help, and would kind of go out of my way to make it really hard to try to help.

Thanks largely to my wife, I've opened up dramatically over the past 8 years, realizing how wonderful it is to be connected to humanity. The decision to promote my Vinyl Art wouldn't have gone the same way before I was ready. Everything happens for a reason when it does.

Another thing that happened way back with a pervasive impact was my mom telling me she'd seen "Stop Making Sense" by the Talking Heads. She loved independent films. It rubbed off on me. I used to watch IFC and Sundance constantly. Here're some movies I remember being seriously impressed with that one might consider weird:

Big Night
Stranger Than Paradise
Smoke
Johnny Suede
Tank Girl
Orlando
Pi
Bagdad Cafe
Hugo Pool
Equinox
THX 1138
Wings Of Desire
Kafka
Monster In A Box
Romeo Is Bleeding
Wilder Napalm
The Straight Story
Slaughterhouse Five

See any you remember? What're the movies that pushed your film-watching aesthetic into new territory? Come on, let's be weird!

But let's be weird together.

Peace.

David Byrne 03/05/09


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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 6, 2009 at 2:20 AM

    Stunning.

    It's funny, my generation seems to sometimes forget that Byrne was once young and long-haired cultural hero that he was. This painting captures a side of him, perhaps THE side of him, that defined him as a cultural visionary – you can just see it in his eyes here.

    And to switch gears, I love Pi. Another fantastic "weird" film for me was Maya Deren's iconic Meshes of the Afternoon. Completely transformational.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 6, 2009 at 2:22 AM

    Ironically, I just came across this article on what keeps David Byrne young. Interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nancy DevineMarch 6, 2009 at 6:06 AM

    Smoke, Wings of Desire and Bagdad Cafe all ring a bell for me. How about Eraserhead? Have you seen that?
    Great art...interesting and engaging.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JeffMarch 6, 2009 at 7:01 AM

    I suppose the weirdest movie I've ever seen was Clockwork Orange. I don't see too many independant films or oddball movies so my selection is rather limited.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMarch 10, 2009 at 9:49 AM

    enjoy austin.
    one of my favorite places in the world.

    cheers
    c

    ReplyDelete

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Peace.

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