It’s always a red letter day when a new issue of Arthur Magazine appears and this one is especially good, featuring a substantial history of the creation and influence of pulp villain Fantômas (for which I helped source some photos) and an interview with extraordinary singer and musician Diamanda Galás. Lots more besides and as always it’s FREE in the US & Canada. If your local record store or coffee house isn’t carrying it (or you’re outside North America) you can subscribe or download the PDFs.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Another playlist for Halloween
• Judex, from Feuillade to Franju
• Fantômas
• A playlist for Halloween
I love Ms. Galas’s style, both in her music obviously, and in her dark near/ middle-eastern/ caucausus imagery. The manner and eclecticism of her performance, not to mention her theatricality, make me wonder how she would fair as an actress, should some devastating role come up wherein a cultured director would put his or her foot down and say, “alright she has to play this.” Much the same way that Pasolini went out of his way to get Maria Callas to act in ‘Medea’.
Both Galas and Jarboe are female musicians, who are almost magicians as well in a sense, who could make most men trying to sound fearsome wet their pants. From an artistic point of view, neither are particularly desirable, but both are beautiful in that their features are stark, mysterious, and intriguing, almost poetic.
Yeah, she could maybe give a good performance in the right role. Some singers are good at acting, others are terrible (we all know who they are). The great Hal Willner Edgar Allan Poe CD, Closed on Account of Rabies, has Diamanda reading The Black Cat which is interesting since it’s completely unlike anything else I’ve heard her do. Quite understated, no shrieking.
I love Jarboe too and was very pleased when I got to design a CD for Steve Severin which featured her on one track.
I have used the same mishima image, made my eikoh hosoe, for an entry about a short japanase S&M video by gareon
http://klare-lijn.blogspot.com/2007/10/gareon-video.html
wow is that siouxsies severin? him and diamanda would sound pretty interesting i bet
Yes, it was Mr Severin of the Banshees. A very nice guy. He was doing soundtrack music for theatre performances at the time, I’m sure Diamanda’s voice would have fitted well with that.
Whoever wrote Jarboe into a commentary about Diamanda
Galas was most probably Jarboe herself. Diamanda
has nothing to do with Jarboe, who cannot sing, but
is, unfortunately a stalker.
Hi Martina. If you’re referring to Wiley’s comment above, Wiley is an American male who’s commented here many times on different subjects. I’d expect that if Jarboe wanted to leave a comment she’d be forthright enough to declare herself openly rather than hide behind a pseudonym.