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The CHIRP Blog
Kevin Fullam writesThe Fourth Wall: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Welcome to The Fourth Wall, CHIRP's weekly e-conversation on cinema. This week's subject is the 2010 documentary Exit Through the gift Shop.
This edition is written by CHIRP Radio volunteers Kevin Fullam and Clarence Ewing.
Kevin:
"I think the joke is on... I don’t know who the joke is on, really. I don’t even know if there is a joke."
Who's the arbiter of what constitutes "good" art? Or art, period? You, the reader, probably have better-formed opinions about tunes (this is a CHIRP Radio site, after all), but still, one person's trash is someone else's treasure. There are entire genres of music that I'm unable to digest, but I certainly don't believe that my tastes are any more or less highfalutin' than another's in this regard -- we simply form an immediate physical reaction to the beats and melodies that we hear. Keep in mind that my background in visual arts is pretty rudimentary, but I kinda think this medium works the same way? Most of us simply will know what we like when we see it.
Enter the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, a project which originally began as a fly-on-the-wall snapshot of the world of street art by vagabond/vintage-clothing proprietor Thierry Guetta. It then later morphed into a profile of reclusive British graffiti wizard Banksy, but when Banksy couldn't make heads-or-tails of Guetta's finished product (Life Remote Control, which Banksy describes as "an hour and a half of unwatchable nightmare trailers"), Banksy decided to commandeer Guetta's tapes and take a stab at stitching together the film.
The result? A profile of Guetta himself, who runs with Banksy's offhand suggestion of creating his own street art, and sinks his life savings into a gargantuan Los Angeles art exposition -- a warehouse populated with work that was "conceived" by Guetta but actually produced by artists he employed. While much of his "style" seems incredibly derivative (he's basically an Andy Warhol knockoff), Guetta's ability to generate interest creates the perception that this is cutting-edge art, and it sells like hotcakes to wildly-enthusiastic audiences... while Banksy and the street-art community are left horrified at the monster they've created.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesIn Rotation: Big Sadie
Chicago is a city of many mustical styles, including a strong tradition of Country, Folk, and Roots music. Local group Big Sadie is one of the bands contributing to modern Americana with skill and grace. Their debut album Keep Me Waiting has just been released on Spindle Tree Records. Songs frpm this album are available in rotation and by request on CHIRP Radio.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesIn Rotation: Evacuate the Earth
Hailing from Milwaukee, WS and Chicago, IL, the band Evacuate the Earth has a message that resonates with more than a few people in these times. A jazzy ambience is colored with the kind of foreboding and dread about what's just around the corner that's quickly become just another day in the USA.
Selections from the band's new self-titled album are available in rotaton and by request on CHIRP Radio.
Josh Friedberg: Music Historian's Corner writesRediscovering Our Record Collections: Randy Travis’ “Storms of Life”
When I was getting into country music as a teenager, the first country album that bothered me with its clichés was Randy Travis’s highly acclaimed 1986 debut, Storms of Life.
It’s not that I hadn’t heard country albums that used familiar themes of drinking, cheating, mama, trains, heartbreak, and so on. Maybe they just seemed more concentrated in one place on this album.
I’d heard some of Randy Travis’s biggest hits through CMT countdowns and compilations at libraries, but I wasn’t prepared for the album tracks here. Songs like “Reasons I Cheat,” while sad, struck me as typical country fare, beyond salvaging from Travis’s appealing baritone.
Going back and hearing the album now on vinyl, with a greater knowledge of country music’s history, I can hear how the album sounded unique in the era of glitz that was ‘80s country. Storms of Life was one of the most acclaimed country releases of the decade, and many found Travis’s Lefty Frizzell-influenced style to be a refreshing example of the “New Traditionalist” style embodied at the time by artists like George Strait and Keith Whitley.
SKaiser writes@CHIRPRadio (Week of July 31)
NEW MEDIA
- This week's Fourth Wall subject is the horror film Starry Eyes with Kevin Fullam and Clarence Ewing
- Greta Kline met up with CHIRP's Dylan Peterson before Frankie Cosmos played at the 2017 Pitchfork Music Festival