The Stendhal Syndrome

January 12, 2021 in Article, Feature

Luther Philips

In 1989, Professor Graziella Magherini, a Florentine psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, made her name with the publication of The Stendhal Syndrome, addressing clinical instances of queasiness, disorientation, heightened sensitivity, and panic in people confronted by great works of art or architecture. Named after Stendhal, the pen name of Marie-Henri Bayle, best known for his novels The Red and the Black and Charterhouse of Parma, whose diary contained an account of his visit to the Church at Santa Croce, where he fainted in sympathetic response to a painting. This affliction, also dubbed Hyperkulturemia or Florence syndrome, is a psychosomatic illness that can cause rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations, usually when a person’s viewing art that is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art in a single place. The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world, or when overwhelmed by the viewing possibilities presented by Netflix.

Bellows, Al-Saadi, & the Outsider

January 12, 2021 in Article, Letter from the Editor, Feature

Letter from the Editor

The Hungry Brain is supposedly the best bar in America and it is getting further and further away with every step I take. Later, my brother will tell his friends how he had been psychically dragging me the whole way, whatever that means. Then we’ve been walking for I don’t know how long and we’re standing in another bar called the Burlington. It’s got just enough lighting to allow a person to maneuver from one end of the bar to the other without hurting themselves, but not enough lighting for anyone’s acne to be noticeable, and Jules and I are discussing walking BACK to the Hungry Brain, and the show is about to begin. Which, in the end, we just slipped in the back and I ordered a beer in a stupid little plastic cup, and there was this awkward-seeming guy with an acoustic guitar on stage. I thought, “Oh God.” The man with the acoustic guitar began to play.

A Purposeful Mistranslation of the Tao Te Ching (1 of 4)

January 12, 2021 in Purposeful Mistranslation, Series

Gabriel Boyer

(The author believes the only “true” translation of the Tao must be a mistranslation, for, as 老子 himself said, 道可道非常道, or ‘Tao as Tao not eternal Tao’. Enjoy this ongoing mistranslation!)

Tao as Tao is not Tao. Name as Name is not Name. Heaven and earth began in a nameless place. The ten thousand things were born when each was given a name. To have kept your reason but have lost even the faintest glimmer of a desire, accordingly observe him wonderful in all things, while he who is ruled by his desires, accordingly observe him trapped in a sheer container of his own design, banging at the walls and hollering. These two things (to know without desire and to desire without knowledge) are alike but each different. Both are considered profound. Profundity’s still profound when it leads to the person being trapped in a sheer container of his own design, he then becoming many beautiful things’ entrance.

*The man face down in the puddle out front is come hunting for his childhood sweetheart.*

Episode 16

January 12, 2021 in Podcast, Series, Twilight at the College

Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies

Why does Simone hate the faeries so? And who is this man hunting for the truth of his childhood sweetheart? And will that boy ever be able to get unstuck from the crib? And why is Gundrun so distracted? And why are Archibald’s eyes rolled back inside his head? So many questions!

Mutable Sound Chicago, Illinois Mutable Sound is an online gallery for sound and word located in Chicago, IL. We are dedicated to publishing works in all genres, from the dense and inextricable to the light-hearted and absurd, and release albums that are experiments more than anything else, without being particularly experimental.

A new episode of Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies aired on a semi-weekly basis.

The French Song

January 12, 2021 in Podcast, Mutablesoundofthemonth, Feature

Mutable Sound of the Month

The French Song was originally written by Gabriel Boyer in an effort to test the boundaries of his knowledge of French and recorded on Walking Stick (’01). Lyrics go something like this: “French it’s the language of fingers, french it’s the language of fingers, hey hey hee hee ha ha the language of fingers / Do re mi it isn’t fa, do re mi it isn’t fa, hey hey hee hee ha ha, it isn’t fa / But french it’s in the head / But the fingers are in regret / But your tongue is on my eyes / But your fingers are in my heart.” I leave the rest of the song up to your own fertile imagination.

This song was recorded with the Dynavox 2000 at Exile Studios in the Fall of 2002 with back-up vocals by Corey Tatarczuk and Annie Heringer, with Corey also playing bass and Annie playing accoustic guitar. Malcolm Felder was on drums, Dalton Eljer on electric guitar, Gregory Kenney on keyboards, and Gabriel Boyer performing lead vocals and piano. It was recorded just a few short months after The Textbook Tapes and with largely the same aesthetic in mind, and involving many of the same performers. Since that time it’s been sitting in our storehouses waiting for the moment when we would unleash it on your unsuspecting ears. This is the month, and today is the day.

Feel free to listen or download below.

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

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The Animal Hospital Ensemble

January 12, 2021 in Isstillcools**t, Feature

In the Mutableye

Animal Hospital‘s Kevin Micka makes beautiful music. His luscious soundscapes mesmerize as they dig deep in with loops that dig deep and wailing riffs that cut. Long ago, we were lucky enough to put out one of his albums, Good or Plenty, Streets + Avenues, and have been following his career since with a keen interest. One side project of note is his Animal Hospital Ensemble, in which a group of players come together to perform under Micka’s direction. Enjoy the performance!

Animal Hospital Ensemble plays at DOT A I R Experimental Music Festival in Pawtucket, RI on August 23, 2014. More on Animal Hospital Ensemble: http://animalhospitalmusic.com/animal-hospital-ensemble Musicians: Emily Arkin Chris Braiotta Ryan Brown Anna Cimini Scott Craggs Dave Michael Curry Brent Frattini Dan Gonzales Jason Heasley Hilary Jones Bill Johnston Ernie Kim John Kolodij Matt Lavallee Ken Linehan Dan Madri Seth Manchester Steve Norton Rob Noyes Karen Orsi Mark Pearson Daryl Rabidoux Nick Sadler Michael Samos Georgia Young Jane Wang Matthew Whitcomb Brian Williams Thalia Zedek Pete Zetlan DRUMS Dan Boucher Jonathan Ullman Alec Tisdale Mark Fede Rick Prior Ryan Dwyer Recording by Ernst Karel http://ek.klingt.org/ DOT A I R 2014 was presented by Machines with Magnets and Blackstone Valley Culture & Tourism

In the Mutableye is a segment that sometimes showcases something interesting that is happening somewhere in the world at this moment, and sometimes showcases some fad or person from the past that we here at Mutable acknowledge is still cool s**t.

Confessio Fraternitatis

January 12, 2021 in Manifesto of the Month, Feature

Manifesto of the Month

Chapter I.

Whatsoever you have heard, O mortals, concerning our Fraternity by the trumpet sound of the Fama R.C., do not either believe it hastily, or willfully suspect it. It is Jehovah who, seeing how the world is falling to decay, and near its end, doth hasten it again to its beginning, inverting the course of Nature, and so what heretofore hath been sought with great pains and dayly labour He doth lay open now to those thinking of no such thing, offering it to the willing and thrusting it upon the reluctant, that it may become to the good that which will smooth the troubles of human life and break the violence of unexpected blows of Fortune, but to the ungodly that which will augment their sins and their punishments.

My Asinine Life: The Heart is a Sphincter of the Mind

January 12, 2021 in Article, My Asinine Life, Series

Gabriel Boyer

Have you ever truly lived, my pock-marked asterisk of a friend? Have you ever walked into a room and made out with the leading lady of your dreams? Or dove into the darkness with the eagerness of an action hero? Or been there to save the most important person in your life from what would otherwise have been the worst mistake ever? Have you ever openly wept? Or looked out from your hopeless meandering moment to instead be filled with awe when facing the incomprehensible absolutes of your life? That all who you love will decay and die before you, and that you will be one of these people? Unless of course you feel nothing, and then it’ll all happen behind your back while you’re always rummaging in corners looking for shiny objects to distract you from this ever-expanding horror. So. I’ll ask you again.

What about, have you ever truly died? You over-sized prawn-powered muttering device. Have you ever slipped into unconsciousness convinced that you’re never ever going to ever wake up again ever?

I say this in all seriousness as I simultaneously split my tongue with a straight edge razor and eye the dribbling blood with an inconvenient hilarity. For I have tried to do both of these unfortunate things—this living thing and this dying thing I mean—at different times but always in the same backhanded passive aggressive fashion. And all because of you.

This is Not a Review: of Lies, Untruths, & the Art of Play

January 12, 2021 in Article, This is not a Review, Feature

Gabriel Boyer

I had recently arrived back stateside from China. Ben & Jerry’s seemed like something you should only eat on your wedding day, and the idea of a pile of meat between two pieces of bread seemed just gross. American supermarkets looked like the supermarkets of royalty, so pristine, so many beautifully packaged and meaty cuts of meat. There is something about the absence of fat in the marketplace. It says, This is a country where no one starves.

I had flown into San Francisco, and from there to Oregon, then Missouri and Chicago, but right now we’re at the True/False Film Festival, and I am staying with my brother in Columbia, MO, because there are three films I want to discuss from that festival. If you have not seen these films, you may want to cease reading this article now as there will be spoilers. How is it possible for there to be spoilers in documentary films? This is one of the things I have learned! The three films are, Stories We Tell, The Act of Killing, and The Institute.

*Archibald as a younger man in Shanghai.*

Episode 17

January 12, 2021 in Podcast, Series, Twilight at the College

Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies

Archibald has disappeared, but we learn a bit about his backstory and the cage he spent his adolescence in. Jack has a new invention that the Headmistress finds dirty, and Boo Boo has just stormed in the room holding up the cuddliest parasite the world has ever seen. Are panty-holes the solution? What’s happened to the Grammar Instructor’s hands?

A new episode of Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies aired on a semi-weekly basis.

Diaries of a Garish Amateur: Richman in the Park with Heartache

January 12, 2021 in Article, Diariesofagarishamateur, Series

John Wilmes

Millenium Park, Chicago, in the bandshell seats. Jonathan Richman on stage.

Nearby a small boy is flailing his arms and legs almost imperceptibly, with his Hummingbird energy; I believe he is attempting flotation, and my roommate, next to me on my right, is talking about how important it is to observe these young kids dancing this way, while they’re still willing to do it. The little boy’s smile is the biggest thing in sight but his father isn’t amused. ‘When he’s thirteen, he’s not going to want to dance that way anymore. When he’s twenty-three, he’ll have to get *really drunk* to do it.’

A Purposeful Mistranslation of the Tao Te Ching (2 of 4)

January 12, 2021 in Purposeful Mistranslation, Series

Gabriel Boyer

25.

Something formless and complete, from before the universe was born—silent, empty, independent and unchanging—taking careful steps yet with no danger lying in wait—it can be used as the mother of the universe. I don’t know her name, that character we call Tao, but the force that comes from that name is called “Great”. This Greatness is known when it departs from us, and as it departs is seen as a vision in the distance, and from a distance is known as its opposite.

Therefore, just as the Tao is great, the sky is great, the earth is great, human beings are also great. Within the region’s midriff can be found these four greats, yet people alone encompass all the rest.

Humans obey the law of earth. Earth obeys the law of heaven, while the Tao’s method is that of nature.

New Mutable Author Explains Spiny Retinas!

January 12, 2021 in Article, Interview, Feature, Press

Here I am explaining what SPINY RETINAS is.

It is an epic poem, or if you prefer, a narrative poem, or perhaps still if you prefer, a “hybrid text piece” that was compiled slowly over the course of the last six years (2006 – 2012). Perhaps you do not prefer. I love you just the same.

It was constructed using automatic writing technique and addresses and/or speaks to war, politics, and religion (stereotypes and cultural myths explored through use of military and theological hierarchical titles); rape culture, gender roles, and sexism; and pop culture in general. The following books, films, and/or television shows were used as reference points to create SPINY RETINAS: I Dream of Jeanie episodes, John Ashbery’s Girls on the Run, David Lynch’s Lost Highway, Jennifer Chambers Lynch’s Boxing Helena, and Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America.

This piece was created using aleatoric method/approach and poetic language was used carelessly, unabashedly, often with such extreme force the author found herself shaking simultaneously with utter pleasure and despair. It was a freeing exercise, like running around nude in a random suburban neighborhood at 2 a.m. with a clear squirt gun or picking the first cucumber of the season or even hanging upside down on the monkey bars.

Paperback Book
8" x 5.25"
60 Pages
$12.00
Now Available

Buy Now

Lawrence & Gibson

January 12, 2021 in Isstillcools**t, Feature

In the Mutableye

Lawrence & Gibson is a publishing cooperative hailing from New Zealand who have released the work of satirical rake, Richard Meros, wry short stories by William Dewey, the mysterious and notorious Urlich Haarburste’s novel of Roy Orbison in Cling Film, and of course A D Jameson’s Giant Slugs.

Some time ago, a Skype conversation was had between the offices of Mutable and our friends down in Wellington. Hopefully our numbers will only grow! Soon, the world will be full of small publishers holding hands across the globe as they change the very fabric of thought using the tools at their disposal, the printed word in all its pristine glory!

Please, go to their websiteand learn about them and who they are!

In the Mutableye is a segment that sometimes showcases something interesting that is happening somewhere in the world at this moment, and sometimes showcases some fad or person from the past that we here at Mutable acknowledge is still cool s**t.

*What madness is occurring in the infirmary?*

Episode 18

January 12, 2021 in Podcast, Series, Twilight at the College

Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies

A man is face down in a puddle out front. A boy stuck in a crib has somehow worked his way through the doorway. Simone is lost in some other fantastical realm full of trees grinning stupidly. Jack continues to ramble on incomprehensibly as he whispers his concerns to the Grammar Instructor. Will he be shipped off to Zimbabwe?

A new episode of Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies aired on a semi-weekly basis.

LEAVING THE VIRTUAL GHETTO, OR THREAD BARING ITSELF IN NINE POSTS

January 12, 2021 in Manifesto of the Month, Feature

Mark Amerika

There have been tons of discussions over the last 25 years about The Future of The Book, The Death of The Novel, and the End of Writing As We Know It, but what really concerns me most is the freedom of speech in a multinational, corporate-driven world marketplace. Is our ability to freely express ourselves to the people out there who might want to read us always already predetermined by the economic cronyism of Big Money, Mass Media and Military Might? A reigning market terrorism and globally exclusive mass media culture have disembodied our voices to the point that we no longer find it necessary to communicate on an intelligent basis.

Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies

January 12, 2021 in Product

Gabriel Boyer and the Eugene City Players

The year is 1903 and the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies is closed for the summer session, the windows empty, gargoyles and latin script cut into the arched doorways, the buildings now abandoned but for a few who have no other home, a handful of teachers, administrators, and orphans.

A Mutable Decade

January 12, 2021 in Product

It was ten years ago this month that we here at Mutable put out our first product, a green vinyl record called, A Journey to Happiness Island. It was just a little joke of an album we wrote and recorded over the course of a weekend with a roomful of friends in a loft in Greenpoint, New York. We had no idea we would still be putting out records and books ten years later.

Mutable began in a diner in Brooklyn Heights over a conversation between myself and Zach Katz. It began in a projectionist’s booth when a local filmmaker gave us the name. It began when we put out a run of books called Seven Short Plays for the Bedroom using Kinko’s and our own efforts at binding. It began when we put out our first album in conjunction with Mr. Records and began when we put out our first professionally bound book, Manifesto I, a collection of manifestoes. It began when I spent a summer performing plays in bedrooms across America and placing Mutable products in bookstores and record shops.

Mutable Sound, which was Mutable Press, and will always be Mutable. Which has become as much a part of me as I am. Which has been a source of uncertainty and rage and adoration and affection, which has brought people together and given me hope when I was otherwise hopeless, through which I have come to know so many wonderful and interesting writers and musicians, has now come to define an entire decade of my life. And so I must commemorate this moment, even if I’m alone in doing it.

Of course I’m not alone. There’s Zach my co-founder and Malcolm Felder my current partner. There are also all the people who have been involved in Mutable projects over the years, or had their projects released through Mutable and by so doing have become members of the Mutable family, artists from across the seas, and writers with a distinctive vision. We continue to experiment with sound and narrative, and continue to entertain ourselves first, and everyone else second.

To commemorate this moment, we have put out a mix of some of our favorite Mutable moments from the past ten years.

-GBoyer

A continuous mix of some of our favorite Mutable moments from the past ten years.

SIDE A
The things that you do (Beta Male); Xylocaine (Paplib); Eyeball one bird none (Beta Male); do that (((plural))) (Crank Sturgeon + Lineland) ; What's Gonna Happen (Box Kites); We Dont Like Cats (The Mice Rock Group Band); Segment from Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies; Fish Cake Attack (Monkey Time Band); Happiness City (Happiness Island); March And June (Animal Hospital);
Problems (Liszts)

SIDE B
Ramses (Rrretrograde) (Swan Dive with Chuck); Night and Day (The Mannerists); Cotton Undergarments (Gabe Boyer & The Thousand Eyes); The French Song (Gabe Boyer & The Thousand Eyes); 5-4-3-2-1 (Gabe Boyer & Malcolm Felder)

Listen

*Will Grammar Instructor Gundrun accept Jack’s advances despite his invention of pantyholes?*

Episode 19

January 12, 2021 in Podcast, Series, Twilight at the College

Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies

Gundrun must once again announce her absolute and complete lack of interest in Jack and any and all romantic plans he has concocted. Archibold is himself concocting a plan of revenge with his recently resuscitated telepathic monkey. And Headmistress Ursula? Even as she relates intimate details from her past, she continues to weave a web of mind control and other illocal elements.

A new episode of Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies aired on a semi-weekly basis.

Swan Dive With Chuck

January 12, 2021 in Podcast, Mutablesoundofthemonth, Feature

Mutable Sound of the Month

Ramses (Retrograde)’s Jason Allen—also of ComoRevi Butterfly and the Blank Bankers—who played on and produced Mutable’s No Place to Die—who has been affiliated with FROG (FRiends Of Gamelan), is a great lover and student of Indonesian music, and is friends with Alex Yoffe among others—has graciously shared his library of casio compositions, and we here at Mutable chose this as one of the saner options. Enjoy!

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Luther Philips

A new episode of Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies aired on a semi-weekly basis.

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

In the Mutableye is a segment that sometimes showcases something interesting that is happening somewhere in the world at this moment, and sometimes showcases some fad or person from the past that we here at Mutable acknowledge is still cool s**t.

A new episode of Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies aired on a semi-weekly basis.

Paperback Book8" x 5.25"60 Pages$12.00Now Available

In the Mutableye is a segment that sometimes showcases something interesting that is happening somewhere in the world at this moment, and sometimes showcases some fad or person from the past that we here at Mutable acknowledge is still cool s**t.

A new episode of Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies aired on a semi-weekly basis.

Gabriel Boyer and the Eugene City Players

A new episode of Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies aired on a semi-weekly basis.

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Paperback Book
8" x 5.25"
60 Pages
$12.00
Now Available