An artist that I admire

Screencaps from "True Stories" 1985, directd and starring David Byrne.

David Byrne is a multidisciplinary artist best known for being the founder member and songwriter-singer of Talking Heads (1975-1991). He is 64 now and his artistic work goes from music to film and poetry. I truly admire artist that doesnt stay just in one area and they mix different media to do something. In the case of Byrne he takes music as a base to explore with stage performance as an audiovisual experience, including elements from theathre and finally doing conceptual music, entering in the different layers that sound can offer. Other thing that I really love about him is that he works with a lot of artist; doing collaborations is something that I also try to do as a creative individual. In 2012 he did and entire album with St Vincent, which is one of my favourite musicians too, and listen them together was amazing because Annie Clark (St Vincent) is 33 and the possibility of the collaboration beyond age limits really inspired me. He also writes theory in a book called How music works, and he talks about technology, history and future related to music, which is very interesting to read if you know his work.

auto

My name is Américo Retamal and I’m 22 years old.

I was born the 6th of January, in Curicó, which It’s a nice place at the south of Santiago, but not very far; there aren’t so many cows as you can think. This year I’m doing my thesis at visual arts; can’t believe that I’m almost finishing my time here and university means something very different than what I thought in college days.

Travelling, music and films are three things that I really love; three things that can be very interrelated too!

Lately I’ve been exploring music and mixing different techniques as mashup and appropriation (using material mostly found on the internet) in a series that I called “Parte del discurso”, which is sound and video experimentation. Well, I’m not very good at self-descriptive excercises so this text ends here :)

Last Class

Well, this is the last entry of this blog.

Sometime ago, when I was like 15-16 I used to have a blog where I posted ideas, images and random stuff about my life and things that I loved as a teenager, but this one has been very different, less ridiculous I hope!

I think the blog exercise It's a great way to develop language skills, 'cause the fact of writing i'ts maybe the most difficult part of learning a new language. You can understand easily if you read something because you get a general "shape" of the sentences, but talking and writing requires more concentration; redaction it's the drawing of the thoughts.

I would have loved to have this modality of work in my earlier english lessons, in college classes where always boring; even it's important the theory the exercise of writing in a personal blog its very funny and productive.

If I pass (fingers crossed) next semester I would like to keep writing about random stuff; it's great to see how everyone speaks different about the same topic.

Last night dream

I'm, without reason, in a classroom where the majority of the students are girls, but there a few guys too. It's winter and I'm sitting close to a window where the playground can be seen, which it's more like a rubbish dump with some withered trees and thrown tyres and stuff. Garbage.

I ask for permission to go to the bath. I walk a lot searching for the male toilets, but I can't find them. A dog tells me that there are no baths for boys, the only possibility it's use the chemical baths. No, I don't want to get inside because I think that there are dead people and fungus. Finally, I check that nobody's watching and I enter to the girl's bathroom. It's a big room with white shiny ceramic. I keep the lights off and I enter to one of the cubicles and I hear a girl throwing up a few steps away.

Suddenly a group of girls get inside the bathroom and they are noisy, they talk about seventeen magazines and nonsense and they laugh a lot. I pull up my pants and I go out. I can't pee. I spent all the f*uckin day with the urge to orinate. The playground it's full of girls with grey skirts and obviously I can't use a tree without being discovered.

Later I see a bunch of people sliding in benches, like if they were using rollers. The benches have wheels in the legs. I get on one but before I see a friend's girlfriend saying to a friend that she's not  "The Pianist". I cross the courtyard a few times and suddenly people with masks appears. They're doing the banch thing too but they begin to frighten the littlest kids. I can't keep from laughing and I join them and a rabbit mask appears over my face. We're the Childhood Breakers. I keep doing that for a while until I get bored and I get down of the roller-banch. I walk a little more and I see a phrase written in a wall of the college. It says: "THE CAVITIES OF THE WORLD RESISTS. WE'RE THE CAVITIES. SIGNS "THE PIANIST".

In asian schools there are massive suicides... could be "The Pianist" a sad girl of this terrible school? WHO KNOWS.

about technology

First I want to say that I agree with the teacher's idea of how technology can be beautiful but also terrible. Nowadays, a lot of people get sticked to his cellphone in a exaggerated way, forgetting what sorrounds them. I have to admit that I get angry when I'm talking to people and they're just staring dazed the screen. It gives me the impression that they're in the past or the future, not in the present. Anyways. With the passing of the years my relation with technology tends to simplify; I don't have an internet connection and the screen of my laptop it's broken, I can only use it connected to a projector. The screen of my mp4 it's broken too, it needs special treatment to work. Last year I lost a "modern" cellphone, since then I have a simple and old one that I love. The reason it's simple: you charge it for 20 minutes and it works for a week and a half, awesome! This cellphone doesn't have so many functions like the new ones, but it has the most powerful torch, which is really useful. I always carry it with me, 'cause since I don't have internet is the only way to be connected.

holy days

It has become a tradition to me go every summer with some friends to Cahuil. Cahuil it’s a little place near Pichilemu, in the chilean coast, sixth region. The name means seagull in mapudungun, a common bird you can find here. The place it’s very quiet and few people lives there. This small village hasn’t have spectacular things; it’s basically an ordinary beach, but i really enjoy the relaxed rythm that you can experience there. Two of the things that I love to visit in Cahuil is the lagoon and the forest. In the lagoon you can go by boat or take a swim and the forest is perfect for long walks. I remember with affection all the times that I’ve been there; and I hope this tradition continues because every time it’s different!