Use the aged

[imomus]

One of my grandmothers died when I was a baby, the other in 1996, so I won't be able to jump on the latest art trend band-wagon: the use your granny movement.

Everybody's doing it. Brother-sister band The Fiery Furnaces, for example, whose new album Rehearsing My Choir "is built around the vivid autobiographical narrative of Olga Sarantos, the siblings' 83-year-old grandmother," according to The Guardian. Sarantos, choir director at her local church in Chicago for 45 years, wasn't in the least bit surprised to be head-hunted by grandson Matthew for the project: "He's been after me for a long time. I recently retired from the church this year, and I knew that this record would be the perfect way to end my legacy."

It was his granny's "charismatic and demanding presence" that attracted Matthew. But he also wanted answers to some questions. "Where do you live, when you're older in your mind? Do you live in your past? It's very confusing. You never feel comfortable, I imagine, with what you allow yourself to feel."

Don't hang around too long asking yourself questions like that, though: grannies aren't here forever. Granny Olga had been unwell in hospital just before making the record. "She was feeling really bad and moping around the house," says Eleanor. "Then the day came when we began recording, and she pulled out some fabulous suit and put on her fancy jewellery. It picked up her spirits completely." Eleanor's voice and Olga's are balanced against each other throughout the record, one full of hope, the other (in a "husky, masculine alto" voice) witheringly realistic about disappointment.

Amazon's editorial review of the record echoes the point that there's nothing saccharine happening here: "The lyrics matter-of-factly recount our heroine's adventures from a half-century ago, and so reflect how the average person's aspirations and experiences were different enough then to seem almost alien now. But it's no period piece, no nostalgia or attempts at "authenticity" in evidence, and Mrs. Saranatos' dry, unsparing treatment on tracks like "Candymaker's Knife in My Handbag" is the furthest thing from sentimental."

Turn a couple of pages in the same newspaper and you'll find Adrian Searle's coverage of the newly-unveiled Turner Prize show in London. And here too an artist has recruited a granny. Darren Almond's If I Had You (see photo above) also uses music... and grandmothers: "The slightly off-key piano melody, taken from an album by Richard James (the Aphex Twin), the sound of leather-soled shoes stepping and sliding on a ballroom floor, the creaking noise of an illuminated windmill turning on Blackpool Promenade. On one screen Almond's grandmother, who honeymooned in Blackpool and hadn't returned since her husband's death, sits lost in thought. On another screen the camera follows a couple's shoes as they dance around the ballroom. High on another wall, the sails of the windmill turn in the Lancashire night, and on yet another screen water showers jerkily from a garden fountain." But this time Searle thinks that sentimentality hasn't been avoided: "Almond's problem is that he strays close to emotional manipulation, and If I Had You verges on the maudlin."



Ever-keen to embrace trends in the art world, I leave you with two photographs of my Berlin neighbour, Frau Pankow. We don't understand each other very well, because Frau Pankow only speaks German, and mine is limited, but we do attempt to gossip from time to time. Frau Pankow, who must be nearly 80, loves to swear about how shitty it is to be old, and how many pills she has to take. But she still smokes, and scurries around the local shops looking tiny, toned, wiry and energetic. Frau Pankow loves cats and geraniums. We invited her in to eat pasta with us once, but she declined, saying she had to feed her cat. With her short hair and her swearing, I imagine Frau Pankow was a bit of a Sally Bowles character in her youth. At the moment I have no plans to use her on my next album. It's been done.

Comments

[eptified.livejournal.com]

There is a track from the Fiery Furnaces album available to listen to for free at NPR's All Songs Considered, at http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/ . I thought it was rather wonderful.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That track does sound pretty good, there's something a bit Charles Ives about Olga's sections. And I like how she says she cried on her bed "very briefly", in a sort of self-dismissive way.

[(Anonymous)]

unfortunately the album doesn't fulfill its promises - not as breathtaking as the blueberry boat (i'm a fan). you should know about alejandra & aeron' "bousha blue blazes", also, a collaboration with aeron's grand-mother (or grand-aunt, can't remember right now) who is an ex professional singer or something. (odot)

[chuckdarwin.livejournal.com]

It's so difficult to do one's own thing. Just ask Joanna Newsom.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's the golden rule, isn't it: if there's a trend crossing the art and music worlds, Alejandra and Aeron have been there first!

I've always wondered....

[svenskasfinx.livejournal.com]

why more people never "used their grandmothers" more often in things. Cripes! I must confess, and this is no lie and in three different lauguages at that, every quiet seeming old lady I've ever met has always been able to tell me a story or two (if not even more) that would make ME blush! Its quite interesting to see that most of the young are the same.. and I must have come from the "repressed" generation.

Life time's experience... this is part of living... sure it doesn't seem to mesh, but the more we get away from our bodies and go to the world of our experiences, emotions, creativity and "intellects" we tend not to even care where the story came from (we shouldn't anyway) but what it evoked... what the voice evokes, the sound of the past, experiences we have yet to have.. and imagining how it would be if you were in their shoes in their time...

quite interesting I think.

...thanks for the evoking thoughts.

Re: I've always wondered....

[urban-ospreys.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised there hasn't been a tribute act called Granny Lennox. With Gracie Fields takes on "Sweet Dreams" and "Who's That Girl?"

[(Anonymous)]

A vile, patronising, knowing post.

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

I never knew any of my Grandparents. My Mom was 38 and my dad was 40 when I was born and they both kicked the bucket a while ago.

But wait. There's hope. I'm getting kind of old myself and I have one kid in art school in Chicago and another one who want's to be a documentary filmaker. Once they become famous I'll try to get them to focus on me. I'll just have to be more interesting and quirky starting today. I just hope they don't wait untill I'm on my fucking deathbed, coming at me with tape recorders and cameras.

I knew I should've been nicer to them when they were little.

LOLOLOLOL

[jina---.livejournal.com]

maybe you'll join the gang some day LOL
http://arago4.tn.utwente.nl/stonedead/movies/anfscd/thumbnails/hells-grannies-1.jpg

[djturtle18.livejournal.com]

i like my noni a lot. she'd be the equivalent to god for me, i suppose. except i don't have any shrines yet.
my other grandmother on my mother's side: she completely denies her husband molested my mother, even though she knew what was going on all along.
i'd say the ladies are polar opposites. might make an interesting "art piece."

It's been done

[(Anonymous)]

Nick's niece and nephew are busy videoing him now - he's a funny old person who doesn't play enough video games - rather sentimental and disturbing, with his olde-timey appreciation of of women. They can't wait to collect their Turner prize for this insightful work.

bed pan alley

[(Anonymous)]

I've been taking care of my mother (now 88) for the last five years, during which time I've made the transition from Nashville songwriter to a more "personal" style utilizing the power of my PC. Mining my mother for material has crossed my mind, but over time it's become clear to me that one needs a heap of emotional "distance" to achieve anything authentic--or at least I would.

In the folk/americana world (off the top of my head) both Guy Clark and Steve Goodman only came to write their wonderful "dad" songs until after their dads had passed--"The Randall Knife and "My Old Man" respectively.

Mike Z.

more reading

[addicted2sushi.livejournal.com]

In Honour of Our Grandmothers: Imprints of Cultural Survival (Theytus Books 1994) by Gary Gottfriedson and Reissa Schneider is a great book. Written/poetry by Gary(who studied with Alan Ginsberg) is an aboriginal Canadian, and Schneider is a Jewish artist.
The connection that these 2 artists make , through a common love of their grandmothers, is remarkable.
A wonderful look at cross-cultural commonalites and differences.

[iamcoreyd.livejournal.com]

well if i made an album with either of my grannies it would either be about being a baker in a supermarket or "how black people and white people shouldn't date."

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think my granny might well have wanted to make a concept album about how much she disapproved of the gay directors of the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, the very ones whose productions of Genet and Krauss kept bringing me through from Edinburgh.
"Ooh, that Giles Havergal," she would have hissed, "and that Robert David McDonald!"

A Great Come-Uppence

[(Anonymous)]

My (old enough to be grand) mom would cut these hot tracks:

I Understand Nixon

There's Going To Be A Great Come-Uppence (sic)

Is It Time For My Snack?

Wrestling Cousin Gussie (For My Easter Bonnet)

Those Priests Couldn't Have...

Mike Z.

[intergalactim.livejournal.com]

there is a great review of Bousha Blue Blazes at Stylus:
http://stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=14

and Alejandra's Spanish Grandmother makes appearances on this cd:
http://www.luckykitchen.com/aa_works/folknote.html

I love these albums, absolute greatest favourites,
Aeron's Grandmother also sings a song at the end of their album "The TAle of Pip"

Cat's Gran

[(Anonymous)]

I think Cat Stevens did this first. I came a cross this by chance today ( not a Cat fan ! )..

http://bedazzled.blogs.com/bedazzled/files/09_granny_1.mp3

I was actually searching for The Move's I can hear the Grass grow, as I have just got the new Fall album. There is a clip of that here:

http://bedazzled.blogs.com/bedazzled/2005/06/i_can_hear_the_.html

Richard

Re: Cat's Gran

[holzfallen.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with Cat Stevens? A touch granola, to be sure, but that stuff keeps you regular.

I'm using my granny at the moment, in fact: videotaping her cooking all her specialties that nobody else in the family has bothered to learn. I've got a waiting list for the dvd already. Good to know We are Legion.

[addicted2sushi.livejournal.com]

The one grandma I knew, who was a firm beliver in moderation, could have written a book entitled "Never Leaving the Dinner Table With A Full Stomach."

Re: It's been done

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

that is so cute.

I love my Grandma, too,

[(Anonymous)]

but that doesn't change the fact that that's some utter garbage music, there. They actually have done the impossible: made an album that's even MORE annoying than Blueberry Boat. Score another victory for the Emperor's New Clothes when Pitchfork calls this the best album of all time (right after the utterly brilliant new I-IV-V + sound FX + whining outing from the Animal Collective). Utter tripe. Sorry. When I want to listen to music, I'd rather listen to something with soul and artistry played by actual musicians over the sound of autistic 5 year olds yelping into a microphone and playing 2 chords over and over for 5 minute stretches, or some old lady mumbling while a chick sings monotonous "melodies" that go nowhere and all sound the same.

in the beginning

[(Anonymous)]

i think bill viola's 'the passing' (1991) was an early example of this kind of thing. i saw it in nyc in the mid 90's. haunting.
best,
r.

[iamcoreyd.livejournal.com]

at least your grandmother went to a theater!

Re: in the beginning

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I really dislike Bill Viola's sappy, manipulative, cod-humanist "video tryptichs", I'm afraid.

Re: in the beginning

[imomus.livejournal.com]

...and I really dislike the critics who are so eager to tell us "But, don't you see, it's a contemporary Madonna and Child / Pieta!" You know, "It looks like the Renaissance art I studied at the Courtauld Institute, so it must be art!"

Re: It's been done

[nicepimmelkarl.livejournal.com]

found your swell husband yet?

[nicepimmelkarl.livejournal.com]

whistles..