DJ Spooky Rocks the Boston ICA!

Yes indeed, "That Subliminal Kid" himself was at the Boston Institute for Contemporary Art last night and it was "SPECTACULAR"! A real SPECTACLE! The SITUATION was under control! It was part of the ICA's "Experiment" series of events and my lovely fiancee' got us tickets for this sold-out event. While known for remixing the likes of Marcel Duchamp and D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" into the "Re-Birth of a Nation" he played it safe and played some esoterica and obscurata mixed in with the more familiar tunes; Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics, Message in a Bottle by The Police, some Beasties, some Doors and other appropo audio vignettes.

All the while he had one video projector playing a goofy loop of 8-bit video game graphics akin to Space Invaders on speed. He also played a montage of the flags of the world and that segued into him playing a grainy Black-N-White film based on the writings of French Situationist philosopher Guy Debord, "The Society of the Spectacle." It was more than a little ironic since it seemed many in the audience probably did not (and could not) understand such heady things in their consumer posing and posturing, Burberry scarf around the neck, calling friends who were most likely watching a basketball game to say, "Guess where I am?", and generally acting like the oblivious/shameless ugly Americans who just don't know any better and don't care. The booze helped lubricate them and the dancing was a mix between pretentious theater as one would see at a Grateful Dead concert with the highly stylized moves obviously seen elsewhere and "borrowed" like so many audio samples to be recontextualized... Overall a great example of his ability and talent. If only we could build that darn elusive "Time Machine" and go back to Paris in 1968 and be a part of the students rioting in the streets - just because.