BAZGASHT & THE REDISCOVERY CHANNEL

The question on everybody's lips this week?
Will Mayhem be the next Dicovery of the Discovery Channel?

The multitalented electricnerve journalist has applied to be a Discovery Channel vlogger. I sat through the three minutes of video mayhem that she sent in (see previous post) and not only was it professional, but also very informative. For example, i never knew mandarins were quite so funny. In the hands of video presenter Mayhem, a simple mandarin has all the attributes of a rubber chicken.

Meanwhile, our loyal but mute following has been finding its voice. A few individuals have clicked on the 'comments' button, done a Jimi Hendrix, and provided us with some feedback. Others have expressed themselves more directly. I looked at your blog, said one reader in a recent phone conversation, and I found it to be a bit self-indulgent. Well, heaven forbid anyone should publish A SELF-INDULGENT BLOG! My giddy aunt.

Nevertheless, when all is said and done, the staff here at electricnerve do take criticism on board, and at the end of the day, may invoke changes in policy. (Don't you hate those clichéd phrases? I think anybody who uses the phrase "when all is said and done" should remain utterly mute thereafter. I mean, has it all been said and done or not? And "at the end of the day". Groan. The shirt-waving Socceroos hero John Aloisi summed it up perfectly, i think, when he said "If you're not motivated, it's just not worth getting out of bed at the end of the day." I suspect the same would be true even if you were motivated.)

So, the new electricnerve policy: No longer be content with mere self-indulgence. Seek to indulge EVERYONE!

Click 'comments'. Let us know your indulgences. What you would like the electricnerve journalists to do? We want to indulge our audience. Give us an assignment.

This week i visited my old stomping ground the pcp, where i lived for a time in a 4WD mitsubishi van parked in the studio. There was a shower, a kitchen, and a disabled toilet which I soon got functioning. (Why is it that about one in every three toilets you see around the place is disabled? What's wrong with plumbers these days?) Living at the Perth Centre for Photography there was always plenty of work to do. Electrical wiring, darkroom installation, painting, plumbing. Anyway, last Wednesday night was a bit of a bazgasht for me. Bazgasht is Iranian for 'return'. I haven't been at the pcp for quite some time. Not since the last time there were free drinks. And, quite serendipitously, the Iranian photographer Reza Jahan Panah had an exhibition on that night entitled "BAZGASHT - Return". Well imagine my surprise.

Curated by Shirin Jahan Panah, "Bazgasht" does not seek to reinvent the wheel in its photographic approach. Which is, ironically, a fresh approach. While experimental photography experiments on its audience, Reza's photography is old-school. It tells a story about the history and culture of Iran through detail and meditation. There are moving back-and-white portraits. Blue and yellow complementary colours permeate his colour work. There are architectural studies; landscapes. And always the detail.

Bazgasht is one of the few recent shows at pcp where i haven't had the urge to drink myself into a stupor to numb the pain. Some pcp exhibitions i just want to do an Oedipus and put out both my eyes. But not this show. Reza's work is mature and has depth. The exhibition is not just an excuse to play dress-ups, fool around with half-baked pseudo-academic notions, and have some dumb-ass party. Not to mention any recent shows in particular. Well, ok, if you insist. It's not a CRIME SCENE. It's not a NEMESIS. It's about the photography. For a change.

Until next time, i leave you with the words of the SBS soccer commentator guru Ralé Rasic: "Attitude is just a state of mind."

Mwah.