Hot Rod Biology

I had a great chat with Aaron Kreisler the other night about my last visit to Melbourne, my topic, and the fact I seem to be having trouble coming up with a project. We talked about Tom (Aaron's his son) and about how he never got too caught up in theorising ñ he just made work and kind of theorised through that. Aaron says Tom never really read much about anything that directly related to his work but just read about whatever interested him, which eventually of course would end up coming out through the work.

During this conversation it occured to me that last year (prior to beginning this research) I was extremely productive ñ I had two solo shows, started up three different bands, played live fairly regularly, and recorded an EP (not released yet though!). So what the hell's going on this year? It's funny how it's all of a sudden become so much harder to make work!

I had a conversation with a student of mine recently about how she "just needs to chill out, trust herself, and focus on making work that interests her" . . . ha ha talk about practicing what you preach.

One of the things that came up from my seminar was that I should worry less about theory and focus on making some work. I replied to that by saying that I found it hard to make work without having some kind of theory to base it on . . . but looking at last year I can see that's not true. I guess the difference is that there's supposed to be some kind of 'topic' that my work relates to this year and I'm always thinking about how best to do this . . .

Anyway, to cut a long story short ñ I've decided to ditch (for now) the theory (Bakhtin, Jameson, etc) and just immerse myself in stuff I enjoy ñ and maybe use some of this as material (content) for a potential project.

I'm borderline obsessed with 1950's youth culture at the moment. Why? (Don't ask questions that's not what you're doing right now ñ questioning everything can be very much like applying the handbrake)

So, I've got the band back together, we've got a gig next Friday night, and I'm reading about Elvis and the rockabilly movement. There's obviously links to my topic here, but I'm trying to just read and enjoy rather than taking constant notes etc (which actually to be honest is pretty hard ñ I'm a Virgo!) . . . so,

Have come across Greil Marcus and his term 'the rockabilly moment'. This links directly with what I was describing as the 'hybrid moments' in my talk. Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Charlie Feathers . . . all were 'Hybrid Practitioners' . . . all appropriated aspects from various sources to create a new music . . . all have been heavily appropriated since.

Actually that reminds me about what Cameron said about appropriation being the greatest form of flattery.

Elvis. Who has been appropriated more? What I find so bizarre about Elvis is how he;s not really even a person anymore. I put up the Elvis mask I made next to an image of Jesus and it just sat there perfectly happy as though Jesus had just cut a deal at Sun!

My appropriation of McCahon only works if you know who he is. It's communicative potential is limited by McCahon's presence really only in fine art culture ñ NZ fine art culture. Elvis is a whole other ball game! Elvis IS pop culture, Elvis is Coca-Cola, MTV, the World Cup, fast food, marketing, sex, rock and roll . . . Elvis, the idea and the image, exists in an extremely broad cultural memory. Perhaps that should be 'multiple' cultural memories . . . 'hybrid' cultural memory . . .

And there I go thinking about my bloody topic again. Maybe that's good? Maybe that means my topic's right for 'Luke the Researcher' as it's obviously something that's relatively pervasive in what I do? I'm sorry (Lisa) but I'm going to mention something, a word, here that I thought had long gone but that keeps creeping into things . . . nostalgia. There it is! Like a big bloody scab, that won't quite heal. I just am quite nostalgic. And I'm pretty sure it's primarly what drives a lot of my own appropriation. At the moment I'm putting it down to the influence my grandparents had on me. I'm not sure it needs to come back into the topic as a 'statement' ñ I guess I feel like it's probably going to be there anyway . . . so maybe it should? Shit I don't know . . .

Right now I'm going to try and make something ñ might not be 'design' as such. I've been asked by a magazine to make a cake for their first birthday party so that could be somewhere to start . . . Elvis loved cake I bet!

If you've read this far, please take the opportunity to tell me I'm not losing it.

I feel ok, fine in fact!