THE ROAD TO WHO KNOWS WHERE
London Roxy Bar and Screen
Tuesday 13 November 2007, at 8pm

THE SECRET APOCALYPTIC LOVE DIARIES
Enid Baxter Blayder, USA, 2006-07, video, b/w, sound, 12 min
“Secret Apocalyptic Love Diaries consists of vignettes that document blinding lightning storms, violent rainfalls, and other radical, dramatic forces of nature, which are interspersed between narrative snippets that capture accidental, unscripted exchanges between friends and couples. From these vulnerable moments an intimate portrait emerges, one that depicts stumbling friendships and romantic relationships that start up and inevitably turn disappointing. The sense of vulnerability is enhanced by the video’s music, which was largely composed and performed by the artist, an accomplished singer, banjo player, and bluegrass musician originally from Appalachia. Sweet and tender, and awed by the ability of others to inspire and astonish, Secret Apocalyptic Love Diaries portends an inevitable, inexorable disappointment even in the most optimistic moments, such as the earliest days of a budding relationship. Its characters are vulnerable to forces of nature, both external or internal; to the affections and whims of others; to a driving rain that extinguishes one’s cigarette; to the unsettling presence of a lover’s former lover. From a howling dog accompanying a blues musician’s plaintive harmonica, to a group of bored friends standing around drinking while playing casually with power tools, to floodwaters pouring over a country road, the quiet melancholy in Secret Apocalyptic Love Diaries is as palpable as dark billows of smoke filling up a big clear sky.” (Irene Tsatsos)

FOGGY MOUNTAINS BREAKDOWN MORE THAN NON-FOGGY MOUNTAINS
Jessie Stead, USA, 2006, video, colour, sound, 59 min
“There are simultaneously many non-personal (structural, social and historical) reasons the bluegrass music instrumental Foggy Mountain Breakdown inspired the motion picture Foggy Mountains Breakdown More Than Non-Foggy Mountains. I cannot deny, however, that a highly distinctive resonance with this piece of music can be traced back to the newly formed eardrums of my own literal infancy. My biological father, having the daily habit of picking bluegrass banjo, accidentally subjected me to this instrumental (among others) as I did my time in the womb. The very fact of this inadvertent exposure, and what I can hazily identify as the primal origins of my personal sonic memory, lead me to confront Foggy Mountain Breakdown as the anachronistic soundtrack for the dawn of my awakening consciousness. In a macro sense, however, as representation of the bluegrass music genre (one identified as native to the USA, relatively speaking) Foggy Mountain Breakdown’s resonance as music will depend heavily on the social landscape it overlays. Its associations today are unquestionably nostalgic and instantly lend themselves to a stereotypically American ‘low-brow’ set of clichéd references; southern, rural, poor, white, etc. (especially within social constructions which identify with realities outside of these). In other words, the question of whether or not it is considered “enjoyable” may rely more on a degree of favour or distrust for the associations it recalls within the ear of the beholder(s), rather than on an evaluation of its formal characteristics. That said, how possible is the distillation of anything? How valuable is it? FMB MT N-FM’s premier flight of fancy is to pose these questions as animals bleached by the sun. These are questions of exposure and relativity … variety and socio-cultural identity … idealism and destination … the foggy mountain and the non-foggy mountain … and finally, the literal and the metaphysical question of where one maps oneself on the ‘world stage’.” (Jessie Stead)

Back to top