Riddle: American Gothic

I mentioned that I recently watched the movie "I'm Not There". One of the plotlines features a fantasy sequence with Richard Gere as "Billy", an aging outlaw in the frontier town of Riddle. It's a town gone mad in desperation and hard times.

Image from I'm Not There: ( There )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnVVKANqP3s Clip from Movie, Jim James in Riddle sequence singing "Going to Acapulco"

Dylanwise, it references "Pat Garret & Billy the Kid" (Dylan wrote the score for and had a small role in the Sam Peckinpaw film), Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue whiteface, draws music from the "Basement Tapes", and signifies Dylan as a now older and reclusive "outlaw".

But details and imagery of this sequence are also pulled from other historical sources. There was a previous docudrama (1990), and cult classic book (Michael Lesy,1973) both eerily titled WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP. In turn, these bring together a selection of period photographs by Charles Van Schaik, paired with actual newspaper and asylum reports recounting bizarre tales of madness, eccentricity and violence amongst the local population in the area of Black Falls, WI at the turn of the 20th century.

It is definitely dark Victorian stuff.

Selection of photos:

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullimage.asp?id=24680 (women in costume)
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullimage.asp?id=28731 (funeral memorial)
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullimage.asp?id=4996 (children in coffins)
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullimage.asp?id=11995 (girl in coffin)
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullimage.asp?id=24662 (snake charmer)
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/fullimage.asp?id=24682 (stallion)

WDT film website: http://www.wisconsindeathtrip.com/about.html

Book review: http://www.amazon.com/Wisconsin-Death-Trip-Michael-Lesy/dp/0826321933/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210864624&sr=8-1

All photos from the Wisconsin Historical Society: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/ (search term: death trip)

If you are a Netflix member, the documentary is available in their "Watch It Now" selections. http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Wisconsin_Death_Trip/60034868?trkid=222336&lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=144705696_0_0

Doll Heart

Here's some more Work in Progress photos:





( More )

Book #37

37) Cheney, Terri. MANIC: A MEMOIR. William Morrow: 2008.

Just like the title says, a memoir about being manic-depressive.

Myself, I tend to be just depressive--so, reading this book felt kind of odd. I could identify, but I couldn't, and I was equally envious and appalled at the excesses of the author's manic episodes.