The Residents' Official News Blog was a news blog maintained by Big Brother of The Cryptic Corporation beginning in August 2003, previously known as the Official News BOG (or simply BOG) until April 2007.
The BOG became The Cryptics' (and thus, The Residents') main outlet for communication with their fans until the website's redesign in 2008.
This page collects posts made to this news blog in July 2007, as archived on archive.org, transcribed to this wiki by a Mysterious Spanish Lady.
Blog entries[]
The Voice of Midnight[]
- The Residents have a long history of story-based music projects, starting with 1974's Not Available, continuing with God in 3 Persons in 1988, and more recently The River of Crime in 2006. With The Voice of Midnight, The Residents have now taken a bold step, crossing a line into the world of music theater.
- For The Voice of Midnight, The Residents have adapted a short story, Der Sandmann, by Prussian writer E.T.A. Hoffman. The story was first published 190 years ago.
- On the surface, Der Sandmann is a simple story of madness. However, it has been recognized as addressing the conflict between the age of reason and the romantic era by scholars who have studied the tale. It has been adapted, in parts, by Jacques Offenbach for his opera The Tales of Hoffman, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky for The Nutcracker Suite, and for the ballet Coppelia. Freud extensively interpreted Der Sandmann in his famous essay Das Unheimilche in 1919. Freud was fascinated by Hoffman's obsession with eyeballs.
- The protagonist of the story is Nathaniel (Nate) who carries a deeply-seated fear that the childhood fable character, the sandman, is stalking him. The character of Nate is superbly performed by Corey Rosen who first worked with The Residents on River of Crime in 2006. Nate's fiance, Clair, a steadfast realist, is performed by Gerri Lawler who also worked on River of Crime as well as Tweedles. Long time Residents collaborator Carla Fabrizio performs the role of the other "woman," Olympia.
- The Residents embody the other characters, and perform the music, assisted by soloist Nolan Cook, whose guitar work for the Residents over the last eight years is legendary.
- The Voice of Midnight is planned for an October release by Mute.
Posted: Wednesday - July 04, 2007 at 06:21 PM
Residents to be part of museum video screening[]
- Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris to screen the One Minute Movies
- Playback is a project (an exhibition, a publication, some parallel events) opening mid October 2007 at the ARC/Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. It focuses on incursions of visual artists in the realm of music : it will gather both music videos directed by visual artists and produced for a label, as well as videos inspired by/anchored in the music video format : an underknown (even though very common) practice among the artists.
- Playback combines therefore approximatively 50 videos by emerging and established artists realized between the beginning of the 1980’s and today.
- In itself a global art work and a daily consumption object, music videos invite to rethink the exhibition format and to invent a proper presentation display underscoring an inherent televisual identity. Designed by a music video ‘set designer’, the specific scenography will create 4 idiomatic sets (a tv room, a karaoke cabin, a tv shop, a gym) hosting different thematic selections: a way to avoid pseudo neutral TV lounge of any regular museum video shows.
- Artists’ (in progress) list:
- Dara Birnbaum, Los Super Elegantes, Rodney Graham, Olaf Breuning, Roberto Cuoghi, Wilhelm Sasnal,Trisha Donnelly, Black Leotard Front / Christian Holstad, Devo, Paul McCarthy, Brice Dellsperger, Jean Luc Verna, Thomas Hirschhorn, Mark Leckey, Laurie Anderson, Joseph Beuys, Christelle Lheureux, Johanna Billing, PaperRad, The Kingpins, Heavy industries, Karl Holmqvist, Cory Arcangel, Vidya Gastaldon, The Residents, Fisherspooner, Charles Atlas, Alex Bag, Cao Fei, Melik Ohanian, Joao Onofre, Susan Smith Pinelo, Wolfgang Tillmans, Martin Parr, Doug Aitken, Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Tony Oursler/Sonic Youth, Petra Mrzyk & Jean François Moriceau, Philippe Parreno, Robert Breer & William Wegman, Richard Kern, Cerith Wyn Evan, Ange Leccia etc
- The exhibition will be accompanied with a publication featuring texts by curator Anne Dressen, artist and art historian Bettina Funcke, dance critic and artistic director Christophe Wavelet, film theorist Nicole Brenez, Label director Jean René Etienne, art critic Benjamin Thorel and a interview of Kim Gordon by music critic Marie Pierre Bonniol.
- As well as a series of peripheral events (special screenings, tv channel and/or internet.
Posted: Monday - July 09, 2007 at 04:06 PM
Residents declared as recluse[]
- A.V. Club names 12 famous living recluses
- Just a curiosity, but The Residents have been officially delared as recluse. In case you had not figured that out already. The others:
- J.D. Salinger
- Thomas Pynchon
- Harper Lee
- Bill Watterson
- Steve Ditko
- Terrece Malick
- Wachowski Bros
- John Hughes
- Lauryn Hill
- Sly Stone
- Bobby Fischer
Posted: Thursday - July 12, 2007 at 07:01 AM
Alfredo - The Original Sound of Ibiza[]
- Kaw-Liga shaking booty again.
- Title: Alfredo – The Original Sound Of Ibiza
- Label : Ministry of Sound (London)
- Cat no: ALFIECD01
- Format: 2 CD (27 tracks)
- Track: Kaw-Liga by The Residents
- Available NOW (in the UK)
Posted: Tuesday - July 24, 2007 at 06:34 AM
See also[]
External links and references[]
- The Residents' Official News Blog, archived July 15th 2007 by archive.org
- The Residents' Official News Blog, archived August 17th 2007 by archive.org