Mr Ractalfece,
Your material is kind of like gently putting my thumb in my butt and wiggling it around just a bit. It's dirty and I have an idea that it might feel good, but I'm a little shocked at HOW good it feels. Next time I do this, I will inevitably think of you, in the most flattering way possible, believe me. I would like to download your "Eat My Sharts" album from jamendo.com, but there are never enough users on with it for it to download on bittorrent. I would happily give you money for the album, if only I could actually get it. I will keep trying, but let me know if there is an alternate way of purchasing the album.
Very sincerely,
Beequeen71
mushroom dick with a cape said:
A swan dive into Freudian protocol with a shit covered cherry on top.
Good to see you delving into new video possibilities.
It was a bit disconcerting at first, but I hope to see more of what you come up with as your skills develop.
(The ice on the mushrooms got a laugh out of my wife and I. Yes, it is true, there are married couples that enjoy your shows together. Hope that disappoints many of your detractors who think you are "teh ghey.")
Keep 'em coming!
Spleen
Beequeen71 said:
Mr RacalFece,
I successfully downloaded the "Eat My Sharts" album, thank you for changing the link. I laughed until I almost vomited. Actually I still might vomit, I'm not sure. But it will taste sweet with victory. I really enjoyed your recording on the matter of 'Prison Wardens/School Teachers', I work with mentally delayed kids, though usually the masturbation is of the more straightforward garden variety. One of the kids talks in her sleep, and has said that she wants to smother me (usually it's her mom she's threatening to kill though). I don't relax when I'm on duty around her at night. Once she shaved off all of her pubic hair, I don't know where she found a razor. She got extremely angry about it afterwards.
Thanks for the great videos and recordings.
-Beequeen71
lindseyeliza said:
Further down the rabbit hole. It's pointless, and yet I can't look away. Your style of bizarre, anti-social, random, retardedly-serious humor seems very specifically familiar to me. I celebrate whatever sort of twisted childhood you had that made you turn out so deliciously fucking weird. Keep up the good work.
I'm not feelin' it, John. I just don't recognize you in this. I watch vids like "Her Dad Cried When He Found Out We Were Living Together" and it utterly seizes me from start to finish, the emotion palpable and gratifying - it's all there, the strange angle of the pedestrian experience, the inexplicable sneer etched on your mouth and forehead juxtaposed with the seemingly cross-purpose desire to orate and give of the self, all interspersed with queer flashes of tender emotional lightning, the strange utilization of an apparently vestigial microphone, and the trademark sea-sawing to and fro before the camera.
I mean, while being strange, which is certainly in your blood, "Dad Cried" pays fantastic emotional dividends at the same time, which I feel is the cornerstone of all your good work.
It's just that sort of pay off which I feel is beginning to deteriorate in your more recent experiments. Please don't get me wrong - I think the world of you, John, and your work is the bees' knees, but something about the emotions displayed in the above vid seems strangely out of place with the "you" you've previously put on offer. To be blunt, it feels forced and slightly hokey.
My two cents. Stay black, John.
Fan of the simplicity of the beige wall,
fjell_strom
fjell_strom said:
I apologize for doubling up on the comment wagon and doing 2 in a row, but I couldn't help it - I watched the video again and I feel I see the difference even more clearly now:
Your assurance is gone.
What happened to it? It was always there in your vids, rock hard and steely - there were vids where you would stare down the camera and not blink for minutes at a time.
That assurance was mesmerizing. This vid seems to portray you as being almost confused by your own thoughts. I see now that one of the things I always loved about your vids was your stating outstandingly queer things with iron-strength assurance, even when you laid them down very quietly, you seemed to do so confidently - confident that they made beautiful sense to at least yourself. Your wonderous recollections of Japan and even those nebulous encounters with chicks retroactively located using Google Earth were done with a soft, touching confidence.
bloodsun said:
fjell_strom you are projecting your own sentimental feelings towards love and loss onto our great poet. Maybe you can make your own poetry video with the beige wall. These videos are forming a great mandala with an idiosyncratic language. I respect your opinion and appreciation the audience's diversity but feel the need to speak up against your love bombing. I encourage the artist to make progress and be freed from counter-productive criticism.
fjell_strom said:
In mentioning only Japan and Trip Around The World in my comment above, I was not insinuating that nostalgic content ought somehow be the "focus" of John's work. I enjoy Meatsack, Amygdala Dance, Tatertwat Hotdish, Diary of the Jobhunt, Roommate's Nutrolls, Exit Sortie, If God Is An Eyeball, the various Mailbag sock vids, and plenty of others, every bit as much. In fact, I am spell-bound by nearly every single piece John has online.
Let's get something else straight - "counter-productive criticism" goes something like this:
"OMG you're vids are so gay!! Do you ever put a shirt on you homo?!"
Me sharing my thoughts on John's direction in respectful detail, on the other hand, can hardly be considered counter-productive. It offers a lucid, well-constructed opinion. It may not be an opinion you share, but it makes no demands, contains no slander, and offers clear suggestions which the artist is free to disregard. It is the very definition of constuctive criticism, so I take issue with your comment.
Further, I too, by all means, encourage the artist to "make progress" and I entertain no a apriori bias against Monsieur Holden experimenting. It was clearly experimentation which led to the creation of these videos in the first place.
But when something of which I am a great admirer, like John's work, begins to come across as lacklustre, I respect him enough to try and intimate in detail my experience of it.
In any case, I do not see how anyone can misconstrue this honest attempt as counter-productive, even if he/she does not share my opinions about the path the art is taking.
Rock On
Rock On
Mr Ractalfece,
Your material is kind of like gently putting my thumb in my butt and wiggling it around just a bit. It's dirty and I have an idea that it might feel good, but I'm a little shocked at HOW good it feels. Next time I do this, I will inevitably think of you, in the most flattering way possible, believe me. I would like to download your "Eat My Sharts" album from jamendo.com, but there are never enough users on with it for it to download on bittorrent. I would happily give you money for the album, if only I could actually get it. I will keep trying, but let me know if there is an alternate way of purchasing the album.
Very sincerely,
Beequeen71
A swan dive into Freudian protocol with a shit covered cherry on top.
Dear beequeen71,
I sent Jamendo an email about it. And I updated the download link so it goes directly to a file on this site.
Hear hear to what beequeen71 says! I would like the album too but cannot get it... what to do?
Dear pietro,
Please try again.
John,
Good to see you delving into new video possibilities.
It was a bit disconcerting at first, but I hope to see more of what you come up with as your skills develop.
(The ice on the mushrooms got a laugh out of my wife and I. Yes, it is true, there are married couples that enjoy your shows together. Hope that disappoints many of your detractors who think you are "teh ghey.")
Keep 'em coming!
Spleen
Mr RacalFece,
I successfully downloaded the "Eat My Sharts" album, thank you for changing the link. I laughed until I almost vomited. Actually I still might vomit, I'm not sure. But it will taste sweet with victory. I really enjoyed your recording on the matter of 'Prison Wardens/School Teachers', I work with mentally delayed kids, though usually the masturbation is of the more straightforward garden variety. One of the kids talks in her sleep, and has said that she wants to smother me (usually it's her mom she's threatening to kill though). I don't relax when I'm on duty around her at night. Once she shaved off all of her pubic hair, I don't know where she found a razor. She got extremely angry about it afterwards.
Thanks for the great videos and recordings.
-Beequeen71
Further down the rabbit hole. It's pointless, and yet I can't look away. Your style of bizarre, anti-social, random, retardedly-serious humor seems very specifically familiar to me. I celebrate whatever sort of twisted childhood you had that made you turn out so deliciously fucking weird. Keep up the good work.
id love to smell your brothers wangs...
john, id like to smell your brothers wangs...
I'm not feelin' it, John. I just don't recognize you in this. I watch vids like "Her Dad Cried When He Found Out We Were Living Together" and it utterly seizes me from start to finish, the emotion palpable and gratifying - it's all there, the strange angle of the pedestrian experience, the inexplicable sneer etched on your mouth and forehead juxtaposed with the seemingly cross-purpose desire to orate and give of the self, all interspersed with queer flashes of tender emotional lightning, the strange utilization of an apparently vestigial microphone, and the trademark sea-sawing to and fro before the camera.
I mean, while being strange, which is certainly in your blood, "Dad Cried" pays fantastic emotional dividends at the same time, which I feel is the cornerstone of all your good work.
It's just that sort of pay off which I feel is beginning to deteriorate in your more recent experiments. Please don't get me wrong - I think the world of you, John, and your work is the bees' knees, but something about the emotions displayed in the above vid seems strangely out of place with the "you" you've previously put on offer. To be blunt, it feels forced and slightly hokey.
My two cents. Stay black, John.
Fan of the simplicity of the beige wall,
fjell_strom
I apologize for doubling up on the comment wagon and doing 2 in a row, but I couldn't help it - I watched the video again and I feel I see the difference even more clearly now:
Your assurance is gone.
What happened to it? It was always there in your vids, rock hard and steely - there were vids where you would stare down the camera and not blink for minutes at a time.
That assurance was mesmerizing. This vid seems to portray you as being almost confused by your own thoughts. I see now that one of the things I always loved about your vids was your stating outstandingly queer things with iron-strength assurance, even when you laid them down very quietly, you seemed to do so confidently - confident that they made beautiful sense to at least yourself. Your wonderous recollections of Japan and even those nebulous encounters with chicks retroactively located using Google Earth were done with a soft, touching confidence.
fjell_strom you are projecting your own sentimental feelings towards love and loss onto our great poet. Maybe you can make your own poetry video with the beige wall. These videos are forming a great mandala with an idiosyncratic language. I respect your opinion and appreciation the audience's diversity but feel the need to speak up against your love bombing. I encourage the artist to make progress and be freed from counter-productive criticism.
In mentioning only Japan and Trip Around The World in my comment above, I was not insinuating that nostalgic content ought somehow be the "focus" of John's work. I enjoy Meatsack, Amygdala Dance, Tatertwat Hotdish, Diary of the Jobhunt, Roommate's Nutrolls, Exit Sortie, If God Is An Eyeball, the various Mailbag sock vids, and plenty of others, every bit as much. In fact, I am spell-bound by nearly every single piece John has online.
Let's get something else straight - "counter-productive criticism" goes something like this:
"OMG you're vids are so gay!! Do you ever put a shirt on you homo?!"
Me sharing my thoughts on John's direction in respectful detail, on the other hand, can hardly be considered counter-productive. It offers a lucid, well-constructed opinion. It may not be an opinion you share, but it makes no demands, contains no slander, and offers clear suggestions which the artist is free to disregard. It is the very definition of constuctive criticism, so I take issue with your comment.
Further, I too, by all means, encourage the artist to "make progress" and I entertain no a apriori bias against Monsieur Holden experimenting. It was clearly experimentation which led to the creation of these videos in the first place.
But when something of which I am a great admirer, like John's work, begins to come across as lacklustre, I respect him enough to try and intimate in detail my experience of it.
In any case, I do not see how anyone can misconstrue this honest attempt as counter-productive, even if he/she does not share my opinions about the path the art is taking.
TANGY!