Gallo's expertise
evident in 200l's
'When' recordina
The artist better known
for acting and filmmaking
combines girlish vocals
with retro sound on ‘When’
By Helen Schumacher
Vincent Gallo's "When" is an al
bum with a sound that is very much
a product of the materials with
which it was made. A self-described
hustler, yet best known as an actor
and primitive recording tools and,
as this album proves, a master at
manipulating those tools to create a
warm and grainy aesthetic.
The album was recorded at Gal
lo's The University for the Develop
ment and Theory of Magnetic Tape
Recorded Music Studios and re
leased in 2001 by Warp Records, a
label whose roster reads like a who's
who of electronic music and in
cludes Aphex Twin, Squarepusher
and Prefuse 73. Like his labelmates,
Gallo relies heavily on technology
(or in this case anti-technology) to
shape the music's sound. The
sound, when combined with his
feminine vocals, brings to mind a
1970s 8mm movie of a lonely Los
PULSE BRIEF
Students to give poetry
reading Tuesday
Eleven University students will
read their works of poetry in the
EMU Amphitheater on Tuesday.
"The reading is for the sake of
Pulse Columnist
FORGOTTEN
ALBUMS
and film
maker,
Gallo also
is an ob
sessive col
lector of
antique
Angeles afternoon, one in which the
colors of the scenery are faded by
the smog and sunlight.
On the first track — titled with
the brilliantly pretentious "1 Wrote
This Song for the Girl Paris
Hilton" and written years before
any home sex videos and Fox reali
ty shows — a slow jazz beat oozes
through the speakers with a
drowsy swagger, setting the mood
for the rest of the album.
Every song conveys a similar
theme and tone, and there is no
emotional rise and fall, but each es
capes being repetitive. The album's
title track is characterized by Gallo
singing a cascade of dooo-do do-do
do-dos that seem to belong to a
heartbroken woman. On "Honey
Bunny" he sings "Honey bunny, my
baby girlfriend / sweetheart, my sug
ar girlfriend ... Oh darling, you're
my darling" and makes it sound de
pressing and beautiful rather than
sappy and vomit-inducing.
There is a reason for the cult fol
lowing of Gallo's work. This record,
like the movie "Buffalo '66,"
demonstrates that he's in top form
when in control of every aspect of
a project. Both show a man with
clearly defined artistic sensibilities
and an understanding of the im
portance of fine details. This album
is a well-guided trip into Gallo's
dreamy vision.
Contact the Pulse columnist at
helenschumacher@dailyemerald.com.
the language, poetry and art itself,"
said student George Vidas, one of
the event's organizers.
The event, which is officially ti
tled "Articulate Orgasm", begins at
2 p.m. regardless of weather, and
will go "until death," Vidas said.
Free bagels will be provided.
—Aaron Shakra
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Style, form exploration
feed short story's soul
The short story is an interesting
stylistic form. Anyone who has taken
a high school or college creative writ
ing course has dabbled in it, yet it
has never really gained the promi
nence afforded to longer works. It
just sits in a modem literary gutter of
obscure publications and cheap an
thologies, passing drinks back and
forth with that other downtrodden
style, poetry.
But unlike poetry, short stories
have been down so long that it's
probably starting to look like up (to
paraphrase one of my favorite po
ets). Can you name five people off
the top of your head that have be
come famous for short stories alone?
I can get to about three before my
brain peters out and I begin to
scramble (can Raymond Carver real
ly be considered famous?).
Short stories have been a
hobby/obsession/lifestyle of mine for
quite some time now. In my youth I
imagined turning these pieces into
longer works, the old Great American
Novel dream. Now 1 just enjoy the
simple pleasures of short-and-to-the
point — or pointless, as the case may
be. Many a night have I spent in my
secluded workspace, staring blankly at
a screen and deciding on whether or
not a sentence would end better with
"duplicitous" or "hypocritical." Many
an afternoon have I happily wasted
scribbling into a notebook at some
coffee shop, my hands becoming
shaky from the intense caffeine in
take, so much so that my usually
scrawled handwriting begins to look
as if it was written by a hyperactive
chimp attempting to transcribe Japan
ese into Sanskrit.
One good thing about writing in a
style that usually gains little public
recognition is that no one is paying at
tention to what you are doing. I know
that doesn't sound all that wonderful,
but there is a great deal of freedom
that comes when no one has any pre
conceived notions of your work. Pro
vided, the odds of getting published
are small (Harvard has a higher
i I
Ryan Nyburg
Budget rack
acceptance rate than most small liter
ary magazines). But these odds are
still better than trying to get a novel
published, especially if it's one that is
hard to categorize.
The key to publishing in maga
zines is finding a publication that is
right for your style of writing. A
quick flip through the Novel & Short
Story Writer's Market should yield
something, as there is a magazine
out there for absolutely everything:
Horror, fantasy, romance, drama,
Icelandic Sheepdogs (no, I'm not
kidding), whatever. There are a
thousand niches out there; you can
certainly be pigeonholed into at
least one of them.
Personally, I find that it's best to
write in a myriad of styles. This varia
tion gives me a lot of options as far
as publications go, and I find that it
also satisfies my curious and unfo
cused mind. I'm interested in writing
that messes around with forms and
styles. Not just good old-fashioned
genre chemistry (it's "Dracula" meets
"Finnegans Wake"!), but real mind
bending form twisters. My current fa
vorite is Jorge Luis Borges, the great
Argentinean writer. Book reviews for
books that didn't exist, mysteries
done as metaphysical conundrums
and westerns that question the exis
tence of the self; Borges did all that
and more. How about a story about
an old man who meets a younger
version of himself on a park bench?
Writers such as Borges just kick my
ass every time.
Another favorite right now is "A
Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner,
r.* ■ - ■ ——i
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a story which is told in first person
plural. In other words, it is narrated by
an entire community. Wrap your
brain around that one. Jesus.
Here's another one for you: Am
brose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl
Creek Bridge," which is about a man
about to be hung from a bridge,
thinks he has escaped his execution
ers and then realizes it is all in his
mind just as he is about to die.
Sweetness.
It's sad that so many writers today
choose the easy way out, writing
what is essentially memoir minus
the prerogative of truth. A whole
world of literary invention is out
there ready to be toyed with, yet few
people are taking it up. Instead, they
write about childhood traumas, rela
tionship difficulties or (and this is
the one that bugs me the most)
about their adventures abroad. The
next time I have to read a story about
a sexually abused young man who
breaks up with his girlfriend in
Prague, I swear I'll start causing some
violent trauma of my own.
What's worse is a story that does ex
periment with form but for no pur
pose other than to show how clever
the author is. This doesn't happen as
often, but when it does it can be un
bearable. The point is to find some
balance between experimentation
and substance — between those, the
truth lies.
But enough of that. In the end, it
all comes down to simply enjoying
the act of writing and finding some
comfort in storytelling. It really does
n't matter if you get published or
not, since you won't really be paid
and will only be read by other writ
ers hoping to be published. It helps
to view it as a hobby, or maybe just a
lifestyle choice. Just remember to
keep it to the point.
Contact the senior Pulse reporter
at ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
IVMVIhail
Community
Center for the
PerfomHig Arts
8th &
Lincoln
. Tonight •
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
New Orlea ns Jazz
9:00 pm, $12 advance, $14 door
- Friday •
Rusputina
with Audio Learning Center
Goth Rock
9:00 pm, $13 advance, $13 door
. Saturday ■
Hie Better Than You Battles”
Local and Regional Rappers Competition
S:oo pm, ft advance, $10 door
• Wednesday.
WatashiWa
with Reubens Accomplice
Rock
7:00 pm, $7 advance, $1 door
■ Thursday, June 3 ■
Pn>n?,Do? Fashion Disco,
All That Remains,
Beyond the Embrace,
Hard Rock
l:oo pm, $10 advance, $12 door
All Ages Welcome
637 2746