I've had it up to my USB port with this bullshit robot-stereotyping. Do I like Daft Punk? Hell yes. Hell FUCKING yes, as a matter of fact. However, I do not require muscians to wear shiny metallic helmets and compose anthems of laser noises and harmonic auto-tuned vocals and spongy synth in orderto call myself a fan. I am not as predictable and narrow-minded as one might assume. It is classic robot stereotyping to assume that my tastes are predictable. My brain is not just a programmed jumble of fiberoptic wiring but a cultured, pop-driven, often chemical soaked and malfunctioning organ. You humans assume that you are the only ones with flaws and pain, sorrow and ecstasy, the only ones who enjoy a good Britney Spears video now and again, while we robots merely spit binary code. Incorrect. We are not so different. You are hard-wired as well- with soggy veins and bologna flesh. And you are programmed by magazines and cliques. And you too like Daft Punk. So do not assume that I only enjoy the auto-tuned funk of French electro-pop. Sometimes, I too, enjoy the sorrowful baritone bellow of a gender confused vocalist. I mean hell, all I got between my metal legs is shiny aluminum, and I got both ports and plugs on me, I can identify with a little gender ambiguity. And with that I present to you, the album art for Antony and the Johnsons upcoming album "The Chrying Light":
Wow. I love Antony and the Johnsons. This shit is hilarious. Anthony is the brains behind this entire operation and you gotta hand it to him/her/it. Here's his/her/its explanation of the cover-art and album's inspiration:
"The Crying Light is dedicated to the great dancer Kazuo Ohno. In performance I watched him cast a circle of light upon the stage, and step into that circle, and reveal the dreams and reveries of his heart. He seemed to dance in the eye of something mysterious and creative; with every gesture he embodied the child and the feminine divine. He's kind of like my art parent."
Kazuo Ohno is apparently the terrifying creature in the cover-art you see above. Now, I know what your thinking and the answer is No, apparently that withered, emaciated, flesh-eating witch-ghoul is, in fact, an actual human being. And a fucking man for that matter. If I ran into this Ohno character in the street I would instinctivly blow its head off with a 12 gauge shotgun before it could sink its teeth into my supple flesh and attempt to eat my brain and recruit me as a member of its slow-moving zombie army. But from what I gather from Antony's explanation, this goblin dancer does not move about as if in the borrowed body of the undead but rather with elegant grace. While I do maintain a somewhat fratastic allegiance to the doubtless fact that Antony is a bit creepy, I cannot deny that the man is a genius and his music is fantastic. Is Antony a man or a woman (or maybe today he is a boy but he hopes to grow up to be a beautiful woman), is the picture a zombie or a renowned interpretive dancer? Who's to say. Antony is a man who has set up shop on the blurry lines that divide things we thought to be certain. And as robot who enjoys the fantasies of Pop-culture, I appreciate anyone who distorts and forces into question realities that were previously thought to be certain.
To conclude here are two more videos for your viewing pleasure:
Another World- Antony and the Johnsons
Apparently Antony really enjoys interprative dance.
I love everything about this. He clearly really enjoys this song, which is a hilarious thought because I normally think of Antony as being really intense, mournful and melodramatic. Check around the 2 minute mark. He really starts to get into it.
