Noboribetsu TV

[imomus]

Yesterday Sapporo Radio, today Noboribetsu TV (Quicktime video file, 45.3MB, 8 mins. 46 secs.)

Comments

[sarmoung.livejournal.com]

Hmm, natsukashiiii! Noboribetsu was the first onsen I ever visited in Japan and the place looks much the same. Is that a clip of the Daiichi with the staff greeting guests? The onsen there was very lush. I'm sure you deserve a dip by now.

[(Anonymous)]

Both the radio and tv programs were a pure delight. I especially enjoyed the radio segment--please record more!

[cutup.livejournal.com]

I feel relaxed after watching your movie. I laughed several times.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The Art Harbour sound for the day will wake you up; it's the jarring sound of generators (http://www.artharbour.jp/otoniwashi20050124.html).

[cutup.livejournal.com]

Momus aromus

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bimble_/]

I'll sound out of the loop I'm sure. But here I am drunk and heartbroken, and here is a picture of 'The Hell Valley'. It seems to fit how I feel. But I'll get over it.

Main reason I wanted to come here was to say how very impressed I am with the sleeve for Otto Spooky. I mean it almost seems deceptively simple - yet I've seen nothing like it before. I absolutely love it.

A friend - a good friend of mine, made me a CD compilation recently that included a Momus song. I found this surprising because I didn't know he would have any Momus, even though he did know I was into the artistic graphic and essay explorations of the Momus website. The song is "I Want You, But I Don't Need You". Perhaps this song will serve as the dressing on the wound of my heart tonight. For I am heartbroken, as I said.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bimble_/]

I'm well versed in unrequited love. Just for the record.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bimble_/]

It is a volcanic crator with a diameter of 450 meters. Boiling water squirting out of thousands of holes sound like the heartbeat of the earth. The orange-brown rocks remind you of the history of dynamic volcanic eruptions. It is the greatest tourist attraction in Noboribetsu.

[porandojin.livejournal.com]

very werner herzog ne

[porandojin.livejournal.com]

or wim wenders

[xyzedd.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed. See his documentary from Guadeloupe, "La Soufriere."

[azzy23.livejournal.com]

That's really beautiful (arg... Texas, land of the flatness). Do you have a place you post photos? (ie: any other photos of hell valley)

[azzy23.livejournal.com]

I'd no idea there was something wrong with it...?

[azzy23.livejournal.com]

it's a part of nature *shrug*

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Hell Valley is tawny, lunar. Rather than see it, you need to smell it. Hydrogen sulphide, the smell of hell.

[azzy23.livejournal.com]

not vicious, just random and non-sensical. To each his own.

[azzy23.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, but it looks so pretty. My brain refuses to accept that it reeks.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't say it was a bad smell, I just said it smells like hell.

[azzy23.livejournal.com]

I'm reasonably sure that hell actually smells like that jennifer lopez frangrance. Stop trying to fool me. *grin*

Scylla and Charybdis

[(Anonymous)]

http://arts.tom.com/look1/images/look11-7.jpg
ne?

Sean T.

Postcard from Hell (Valley)

[xyzedd.livejournal.com]

OK, I've quit horsing around and ponied up the money to send "Otto" along with 4,000 euros to the Polyphonic Human Media Interface, the hit-predicting computerized service (HSS). Far away, I waited impatiently, gnawing Neccos. Word soon came: By the second of Mr. Talaga's interludes, their mainframe suffered a nervous collapse and crashed with a heart-twisting whine and bone-shattering thud. The futures of several future pop stars are now in jeopardy.

The brusque billet-doux I received soon after from HSS headquarters kindly instructed me to never, never send them any product related to Mr. Currie or his cohorts again.

Undaunted, I soon after sent "Otto" to the MIT computer-listening labs, confident in American ingenuity and academic achievement. The hard drives buzzed along happily, it is reported, but the automated reviewing mechanism was subsequently only able to spit out such quasi-Joycean, spam-header gibberish as, "This idiosyncratic, delightfully uncompromising music rides its own hobnailed hobbyhorse to a giddy Hebridean hell. Snorkling in glistening Pavlovian third gear as civilizations merrily crumble, and heretofore we? yes! all of us dance around beloved maypole trysting o!! untimely deat.h fig almaretto stOP marquEE bijou cialis blingbling pennis exttention HEYNONNY farthingangel solis2pargle nushcogdammrun a;;;; sMYyd eu2 frJJr afAKXAXX29 DJ*$DHS 24+@9WR++-R 12749.... " And so on.

Word from MIT was apologetic while politely but firmly requesting that I refrain from submitting any further music for consideration. However, as a consolation they gave me a "syncretic consolidation" of the sum of "Otto"'s digitalized tracks, a mathematically perfect acoustic evaluation in the form of an ogg vorbis file which sounds remarkably like a 1907 Regal Zonophone shellac disc I have in my collection, of a little-known Ruthenian Orthodox funeral rite sung by the last living European castrato. Whether this is a joke or not, I do not know.

Now that I am broke, further testing will have to continue within the soundproofed confines of my own fallout shelter. I have had to invest in new state-of-the-art multichannel equipment, bought on credit, and, with a six-month supply of aqua vitae and dehydrated soups at ready, I have bolted the doors and windows; friends have been asked to decline from contacting me, and since I will have to sever my internet connection, this may be the last you hear from me for some time. Please tell my family I am happy and proud to be doing this not only for science, but for art's sake, too.

Re: Postcard from Hell (Valley)

[xyzedd.livejournal.com]

In short, I finally have "Otto" in my hands! Despite my initial displeasure at finding no lyrics within (no doubt a cost-cutting measure, but really--not again!), I think the package is quite fetching and am glad the thing that looked like a pink sticker was only a pink sticker. (By the way, I submitted the proper CDDB information to my computer when I was so requested; since I am apparently the first to have done this, people can only blame me for mistakes while ripping this to their iPods. Befuddled as to genre, I checked "Miscellaneous.")

So far I'm loving it and tears flourish in my eyes as soon as I feel my subwoofer tremble with "Otto"'s passion, poetry, and power. Thank you yet again, Momus, from the chambers of my hyperbolic heart! Dare I begin "Otto: The Novel" today?

Re: Postcard from Hell (Valley)

[(Anonymous)]

Wait a minute! There's nothing (yet) at www.imomus.com/ottospooky.html (as advertised on the American CD package). In fact, there's nothing Otto-related at imomus except a few announcements and the old mp3s and Click Opera comments. It's going to get messy tracking down all those lyrics...

Re: Postcard from Hell (Valley)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute! There's nothing (yet) at www.imomus.com/ottospooky.html (as advertised on the American CD package).

Whoops, thanks for reminding me, I'll put up a page today.

Re: Postcard from Hell (Valley)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

May I clone you 40,000 or 50,000 times, XYZedd? And get each one of you remixed by John Talaga?

Re: Postcard from Hell (Valley)

[(Anonymous)]

Hark! Is that someone rattling the hatch of my isolation tank? Shhh... I'm trying to decipher the lyrics...

Actually, the idea of being remixed by Mr. Talaga sounds much more appealing than the complete Hollywood-style facelift and fitness routine I'd been planning. Will it include feathers and a third eye?

Thankfully, I have the new Super Mad Bros in here with me, as well, and every eight-bit warble tingles my spine like a tazer to the skull. Lovely, doctor--more please!

Digital portapak video revolution

[(Anonymous)]

You have the makings of a video artist, there are some very nice moments in this ( formally in your framing, camera moves and superflat aesthetic). Is this all edited in camera ? It's very different from the radio segments. The disorienteering style is much more evident with the narration commenting ob rather than describing what is being shown. Or am I reading to much into this ?

Richard

Re: Digital portapak video revolution

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yes, edited in the camera, and lots of technical issues because I'm not yet very used to the controls (need to protect the mic from wind and breath, for a start). I made a conscious decision not to repeat the radio style, but to do something more arty. Inspirations: Chris Marker's 'Sans Soleil' and Patrick Keillor's 'Robinson in Space'.

Re: Digital portapak video revolution

[(Anonymous)]

The more arty, the better. The conversational tone suits the radio style, but a picture needs another narrative entirely. I used to shoot a lot of silent super 8 in camera things during my Maidstone days. I think it is a great form especially in the over post-produced, 'reality' tv age. The technical sound issues might be solved by putting a 'blimp' on the camera mic or using an external mic ( if your cam has a mic input).

I thought you were referencing something in the piece as that is a big part of the Momus brand. I saw a kind of Godardian thing going on, and will need to check out "Sans Soleil" as I have not seen it. Thanks as always for interesting new things and doing stuff like this as it is inspiring to say the least.

Richard

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The most important part of the Noboribetsu experience is missing from this film, of course; the baths themselves. I did find some pictures of them, though, here (http://www.ease.com/~randyj/nob4.jpg) and here (http://www.ease.com/~randyj/nob3.jpg). And here's (http://www.ease.com/~randyj/nob2.jpg) a nice one showing the outdoor pool, overlooking Hell Valley. Description (by 'Randy') here (http://www.ease.com/~randyj/rjjapan6.htm).