June 16th, 2009 / 9:31 pm
Random

Diamanda Galas

I’m watching a very dumb movie called Doomsday. I ran three and a half miles today, only the second time since I was very sick.  My fucking throat still hurts – I keep thinking I’ll be all better, but no. One of my cats peed blood yesterday. God help me. This dumb ass movie is making me think of Diamanda.  After the jump are two videos from the one and only Diamanda Galas. I saw her perform at The Kitchen in NYC when I was in my early twenties. She hurt my mind in the very best way. Shortly thereafter, I was a twenty-something waitress when she came into Orson’s on my lunch shift with great regularity. She was the most polite, grateful and truly sweet and joyful customer. God bless. I never let on that I worshipped her ass, or saw her perform. I am different now. Now I say, “Hey I LOVE you!” I am not cool anymore. What a fucking relief. Here are a couple of crazy ass videos:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epoHB_yZ1uU

or less fucked up (A Zeppelin dude! Go John Paul Jones!)-

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KwBEcWRBHY&feature=fvw

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29 Comments

  1. Nathan (Nate) Tyree

      Run away from Doomsday! Run for your life! It wants to kill your braincells and rape your soul. RUN!!

  2. Nathan (Nate) Tyree

      Run away from Doomsday! Run for your life! It wants to kill your braincells and rape your soul. RUN!!

  3. pr

      haha! It’s goth and hooery, and I can half watch it while dealing with my sons and hanging out on the internet and having a wee bit too much vodka. I love stupid movies. That said, Diamanda is the opposite of stupid- she’s really special.

  4. Joseph

      Such a nice surprise to see a nod to Diamanda here. She was my favorite in high school; I used to review her records in my school newspaper. I have no idea what anyone thought or if anyone thought anything about that. Probably not.

      These days I can’t scarcely withstand the force of any of her records except Malediction and Prayer (her amazing renditions of “Iron Lady” and “Gloomy Sunday”) and You Must Be Certain of the Devil, but Schrei X still sits on my shelf because someday, maybe, who knows.

  5. Joseph

      Such a nice surprise to see a nod to Diamanda here. She was my favorite in high school; I used to review her records in my school newspaper. I have no idea what anyone thought or if anyone thought anything about that. Probably not.

      These days I can’t scarcely withstand the force of any of her records except Malediction and Prayer (her amazing renditions of “Iron Lady” and “Gloomy Sunday”) and You Must Be Certain of the Devil, but Schrei X still sits on my shelf because someday, maybe, who knows.

  6. pr

      Yeah, she’s hard to take and I haven’t followed her entire career but she is without a doubt, brilliant. What I love is – well, first her soul and fire- but also her classical training in opera and how that enables her to be a rad ass and “avant garde” (OK, all you peeps who hate the catergories, when you hate the categories, you are hating your readers, your listeners, the people who want to understand you, so stop hating the terms and catergories, and be grateful that anyone is paying attention). It’s similiar to Picasso who painted realistic, old school shit before breaking free. And to me- this is key- to move on- one must MASTER the old shit first. Otherwise, something is lost for me as a consumer of art. I want to feel the depth of knowledge, the blood and sweat of working through all that form before I trust the screech of breaking free. And that is a three vodka generalization, but not one that I totally will be ashamed of tomorrow, I hope.

  7. pr

      OK -ten minutes left in the movie. But- come on!- nice car chase scene. I like the whole Mad Mazx thing too. Tell me why it’s shit. I mean, it is shit, but good shit, I think. So tell me why it’s bad shit.

  8. Cuauhtémoc Cortés Corrado

      She is the best. I’ve seen her perform and she’s superb. Perhaps HTML Giant has a little taste after all.

  9. Cuauhtémoc Cortés Corrado

      She is the best. I’ve seen her perform and she’s superb. Perhaps HTML Giant has a little taste after all.

  10. Cuauhtémoc Cortés Corrado

      of course i love hanging around places with no taste while my conquistador dom does unspeakable things to me and sister Lupe

  11. Cuauhtémoc Cortés Corrado

      of course i love hanging around places with no taste while my conquistador dom does unspeakable things to me and sister Lupe

  12. ryan manning

      Diamanda Galás (born August 29, 1955) is a Greek- American-born avant-garde performance artist, vocalist, keyboardist, and composer.

  13. ryan manning

      Diamanda Galás (born August 29, 1955) is a Greek- American-born avant-garde performance artist, vocalist, keyboardist, and composer.

  14. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      Diamanda’s incredible.

  15. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      Diamanda’s incredible.

  16. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      totally, the shit she does with her voice could not be done without that training.

      I think music-type peoples call it “extended vocal technique.”

  17. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      totally, the shit she does with her voice could not be done without that training.

      I think music-type peoples call it “extended vocal technique.”

  18. Tony O'Neill

      Saw Diamanda perform a couple of years ago in NYC and she was amazing. That voice is so fucking incredible, and I love it when she attacks the old blues songs. She opened that night with “Aint No grave Can Hold My Body Down” and it was one of the most intense performances I have ever seen… so happy to see Diamanda get a shout out here.

      When I read interviews with her, it makes me realize how rare it is to hear a musician talk who has an opinion and a real fiery intellect too. We need more like her…

  19. Tony O'Neill

      Saw Diamanda perform a couple of years ago in NYC and she was amazing. That voice is so fucking incredible, and I love it when she attacks the old blues songs. She opened that night with “Aint No grave Can Hold My Body Down” and it was one of the most intense performances I have ever seen… so happy to see Diamanda get a shout out here.

      When I read interviews with her, it makes me realize how rare it is to hear a musician talk who has an opinion and a real fiery intellect too. We need more like her…

  20. pr

      Funny how a dumb movie can trigger my memory and it’s been ages since I’ve seen her but it was sooo awesome and memorable. I have to go see her again now — I’m so glad she’s still at it. And she’s nice to waitresses, which to me is a true sign of character.

  21. pr

      Funny how a dumb movie can trigger my memory and it’s been ages since I’ve seen her but it was sooo awesome and memorable. I have to go see her again now — I’m so glad she’s still at it. And she’s nice to waitresses, which to me is a true sign of character.

  22. Tony O'Neill

      I never saw Doomsday. But i agree – I would never respect or trust anyone who is mean to a waitress or waiter. It just shows that you have a major, major personality defect. I once stopped hanging out with a friend of mine because he was nasty to a girl working the counter at McDonalds for no good reason. Could never look at him the same way after that.

  23. Tony O'Neill

      I never saw Doomsday. But i agree – I would never respect or trust anyone who is mean to a waitress or waiter. It just shows that you have a major, major personality defect. I once stopped hanging out with a friend of mine because he was nasty to a girl working the counter at McDonalds for no good reason. Could never look at him the same way after that.

  24. Nathan Tyree

      I’ve always felt that When a movie reaches a certain level of bad, then it either has to be cheap or have a sense of humor about itself to not piss me off. Big Budget trash movies that want to be taken seriously get on my nerves (Cutthroat Island and Waterworld are the two great examples).

      Doomsday falls into that category. It is an insult to bad movies.

  25. Nathan Tyree

      I’ve always felt that When a movie reaches a certain level of bad, then it either has to be cheap or have a sense of humor about itself to not piss me off. Big Budget trash movies that want to be taken seriously get on my nerves (Cutthroat Island and Waterworld are the two great examples).

      Doomsday falls into that category. It is an insult to bad movies.

  26. pr

      fair enough. You didn’t watch it drunk, I think. So your opinion is better than mine.

  27. pr

      fair enough. You didn’t watch it drunk, I think. So your opinion is better than mine.

  28. Nathan (Nate) Tyree

      Drunk or stoned it might have been better.

  29. Nathan (Nate) Tyree

      Drunk or stoned it might have been better.