imomus: (Default)
[personal profile] imomus
In Germany, when you rent a flat what you tend to get is a pristine white shell with floors of wood or laminate and walls covered in white-painted Rauhfasertapete, the ugly woodchip wallpaper seen by landlords, decorators and rental agencies as "neutral" (in fact, it's nothing of the kind). If you want to live in a space with any character at all, one of the first things you have to do is strip or cover the Rauhfaser.



In keeping with my decision to make give my new Neukolln apartment the look of a "dense information environment", I've been sticking up copies of my favourite magazine to get that cluttered, Japanese look. Here's what just two copies of Studio Voice look like, turned into wallpaper. (They're both Art Book specials, three years apart. I actually prefer the design of the 2003 magazine to the 2006 one, but they still have in common that dense, small-pictured "cultural goods" look of the Japanese "mook", a sort of magazine-catalogue-book hybrid.)

Now that my flat has been transformed by magazines, why not play a track by Magazine, a band who transformed my life when I was a student? Here's Napoleon Bambi himself, Howard Devoto, performing a song called
Cut-Out Shapes
from Magazine's second album, "Secondhand Daylight". Don't you just love the deranged, dramatic prog-punk megalomania of it all?

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-29 11:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nickink.livejournal.com
Wow, is that Howard Devoto? I thought it was Toni Basil at first glance.

Love the wall. Takes me back to when I covered a whole wall of my bedroom in a collage of black and white pictures cut out of music papers. I think you were in there, doing your Tender Pervert devil horn pose, possibly overlapping Nick Cave and Tracey Tracey. There's a thought.

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-29 12:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com
overlapping Nick Cave and Tracey Tracey

Shot by both sides!

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Date: 2006-07-29 12:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] auto-nalle.livejournal.com
nice costume.

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Date: 2006-07-29 12:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] councilestate.livejournal.com
magazine are absolutely wonderful. what's your favourite magazine album?

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Date: 2006-07-29 03:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com
Hmm, difficult. I like bits of all of them, and dislike bits of all of them. I could make a great one-album compilation. It would start with "Parade" and end with "Come Alive".

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From: [identity profile] councilestate.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-29 03:55 pm (UTC) - Expand

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From: [identity profile] councilestate.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-29 03:56 pm (UTC) - Expand

small apartments

Date: 2006-07-29 01:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] constructionism.livejournal.com
Momus, I love when you post your little 'new apartment' photos. In fact I love small apartment photos in general, but not too many people have the nerve to share (I would, but I never finished cleaning and organizing mine, and I might have to move again).

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-29 02:21 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Sorry Mr Momus but it looks like the room of a rather poor student...

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Date: 2006-07-29 06:08 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
No matter how hard you try to dress it up.

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From: [identity profile] lame-no-antenna.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-29 06:48 pm (UTC) - Expand

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From: [identity profile] thisisforreal.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-29 07:27 pm (UTC) - Expand

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From: [identity profile] charleshatcher.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-29 11:34 pm (UTC) - Expand

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Date: 2006-07-29 02:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] akabe.livejournal.com
funny i just packed away my studio voice magazines to make room for space after just painting white my tokyo apartment (last sighting (http://static.flickr.com/74/200991508_430af510b5.jpg?v=0) )

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Date: 2006-07-29 03:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com
Yay, more links to photos of people's apartments, please!

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-29 03:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] alphacomp.livejournal.com
What happens to all your stuff inbetween living spaces? Are there dozens of Momus-rented storage locations located throughout America and Eurasia?

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-29 03:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com
Alas, yes. There's some in New York right now, being looked after by Mr Mirko Ilic, and some in Berlin in a room up in Mitte. I hope to have it all consolidated in one apartment by the end of the summer.

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-29 04:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cityramica.livejournal.com
yay decorating is fun!
i recently found out about this wall graphic company, Blik (http://www.whatisblik.com/), who make customizable text (http://www.whatisblik.com/prose.html) as well as clouds and birds and things.
V & I are getting giant blueprints made for 2 of our walls. i found a beautiful lighting fixture that resembles a concentric circle paper chandelier yesterday as well. we've been living here a month+ now and still have piles of clothes & books about though....perhaps we should take a trip to ikea today and try that box trick.

white walls

Date: 2006-07-29 05:43 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Your comments about the odd non-neutrality of white walls remind me of this great book by Mark Wigley, "White Walls and Designer Dresses:"

"In a daring revisionist history of modern architecture, Mark Wigley opens up a new understanding of the historical avant-garde. He explores the most obvious, but least discussed, feature of modern architecture: white walls. Although the white wall exemplifies the stripping away of the decorative masquerade costumes worn by nineteenth-century buildings, Wigley argues that modern buildings are not naked. The white wall is itself a form of clothing -- the newly athletic body of the building, like that of its occupants, wears a new kind of garment and these garments are meant to match. Not only did almost all modern architects literally design dresses, Wigley points out, their arguments for a modern architecture were taken from the logic of clothing reform. Architecture was understood as a form of dress design."
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=8529

I guess your "machine for living" is in Japanese drag now--how louche.

-B.

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-29 05:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xenogil.livejournal.com
How do you plan on covering the rest of the Rauhfaser? More periodicals? Posters?

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Date: 2006-07-29 11:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com
I think I'll make a wall of tribute to Jim Kerr of Simple Minds (http://youtube.com/watch?v=GNjCOT4VJ78&search=simple%20minds).

(no subject)

From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2006-07-30 10:05 am (UTC) - Expand

place bets

Date: 2006-07-29 06:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lame-no-antenna.livejournal.com
ok, i'm starting the momus-return-to-minimal pool here. I say, 3 weeks and 2 days before he becomes irritated with the clutter and goes uber minimal just to spite himself, (under the guise of some new found aesthetic leaning)

Re: place bets

Date: 2006-07-29 06:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lame-no-antenna.livejournal.com
or old- (whatever is used to justify)

Re: place bets

From: [identity profile] nickink.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-29 11:34 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: place bets

From: [identity profile] lame-no-antenna.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-29 11:37 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-29 07:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eeuuugh.livejournal.com
Have you heard Theo Bleckmann? I just listened to his version of "Chim Chim Cheree" and it seemed like something you would love. There are two mp3s at http://tofuhut.blogspot.com, if you scroll down to July 10.

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-29 08:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com
Found "Teacher's Pet" a bit glib, but the arrangement of "Chim Chim Cheree" is nice.

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-29 09:27 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Could do with a woman's touch, perhaps. ;o)

Re Magazine: strange to think that John McGeoch passed away more than ywo years ago now...

Eamonn

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-29 09:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] niddrie-edge.livejournal.com
ahhh

postpunk reminiscence
http://niddrie-edge.livejournal.com/12852.html

just don't mention Pink Industry

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-30 01:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jermynsavile.livejournal.com
The original was one of the great rooms. I never fail to be amazed at how good their pokey little bedsit looked.

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-30 12:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] intergalactim.livejournal.com
nice wall.

i always think it's nice to "display" stuff, rather than just tucking it away on a shelf somewhere (obviously not all at once).

it's nice for new stuff to have that "artwork" status for a while, eg. your Janfamily book.

also, is this the finished cover design??
Image
courtesy of www.darla.com

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-30 12:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] intergalactim.livejournal.com
sorry i wrote the word "nice" in almost every sentence.
i am still waking up...

(the cover is *nice* too)

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From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-30 05:09 am (UTC) - Expand

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From: [identity profile] intergalactim.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-30 06:43 am (UTC) - Expand

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Date: 2006-07-30 01:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] microworlds.livejournal.com
Momus: I have recently acquired this (http://i7.tinypic.com/21d36sp.jpg) copy of Stars Forever, and have been endlessly Googling for the origins. What I do know is that it was released by Elefant Records, based in Spain. What my question is, is it just an import and/or a copy you have knowledge of? This question has arisen because the cover is different from the other covers I have seen. I thank you in advance.

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-30 04:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pixelmist.livejournal.com
Did you buy that at Amoeba in LA?

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From: [identity profile] microworlds.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-30 04:07 am (UTC) - Expand

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From: [identity profile] pixelmist.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-30 04:10 am (UTC) - Expand

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From: [identity profile] microworlds.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-30 04:12 am (UTC) - Expand

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From: [identity profile] pixelmist.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-30 04:14 am (UTC) - Expand

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From: [identity profile] microworlds.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-30 04:19 am (UTC) - Expand

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From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-07-30 05:11 am (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-30 04:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pixelmist.livejournal.com
I just recently got into Magazine and have been madly in love with Secondhand Daylight and The Correct Use of Soap. I can't stop smiling whenever I hear the ex-lead of the Buzzcocks wail Sly Stone's "Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Agin)." Deranged, indeed.

Hey, by the way, have you heard the new Beck single, "Cell Phone's Dead"? Re: your disappointments with his "epigone" tendencies, I'd say to check it out. I just "noise-blogged" about it. IT IS BORING.

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-30 01:05 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
What a startler. I saw Magazine in about 1980 at a trashy bar called Mother's in Chicago. Howard sang from atop a pulpit! He was like a glamorous mantis railing at us for not commiting enough sin.

My preferences differ

Date: 2006-07-31 12:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zzberlin.livejournal.com
I bought a beautiful piece today, a couple bucks at the Alameda St. Fair.

I will put it where I put all my art, propped up against the side boards of my very white walls.

I like white walls. I don't like to interrupt them with nails. So I place my stuff at the foot of the wall, in a frame.

That way, I can rearrange very easily, when I get bored with the display.

I like clean walls. It lets me focus. And I don't like repairing nail holes when I move, which I do frequently.

Re: My preferences differ

Date: 2006-07-31 12:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zzberlin.livejournal.com
http://www.famouslibrarian.com/image/personal/domestic/lotview.jpg

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-31 08:57 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
I couldn't find a still online, but Kenneth Halliwell's collaged wall in that movie "Prick up your Ears" (about playright Joe Orton) caught my attention. Worth noticing if you see the film...

(speaking of wall dressings... and swishy art boys... )

trixie

(no subject)

Date: 2006-07-31 09:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com
Didn't he end up in prison for that wall? Because he cut those pictures out of library books.

(no subject)

From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2006-07-31 10:51 pm (UTC) - Expand

I like your poster

Date: 2006-08-02 09:01 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Nice to see you have the 2004 CSM graphics degree show poster up on your wall (left side of the picture).

It was designed by Joe Harries and myself.

You can read about it on my website:
http://www.joshualeigh.co.uk/csmshow5.html

Josh
www.joshualeigh.co.uk

Re: I like your poster

Date: 2006-08-02 09:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] imomus.livejournal.com
Yes, it's also got a little drawing on it by a certain Hisae Mizutani!