ABSTRACT - Several recent experiments have shown that people tend to overlook nonoccurrences and missing information ("out of sight, out of mind") even when such nonevents have important implications for judgment and choice. This phenomenon is known as the feature-positive effect. The present experiment indicates that consumers are more likely to overlook missing attribute information as expertise decreases. Implications of the results for consumer judgment and inference are discussed.
Frank R. Kardes, David M. Sanbonmatsu, and Paul M. Herr (1990) ,"Consumer Expertise and the Feature-Positive Effect: Implications For Judgment and Inference", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 17, eds. Marvin E. Goldberg, Gerald Gorn, and Richard W. Pollay, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 351-354.
Several recent experiments have shown that people tend to overlook nonoccurrences and missing information ("out of sight, out of mind") even when such nonevents have important implications for judgment and choice. This phenomenon is known as the feature-positive effect. The present experiment indicates that consumers are more likely to overlook missing attribute information as expertise decreases. Implications of the results for consumer judgment and inference are discussed.
Time constraints and limited resources often force consumers to make product-related judgments and decisions on the basis of incomplete information. Moreover, advertisements, package labels, consumer magazines, and other sources of information typically focus on only a few product attributes. How do consumers deal with partial information? Some studies suggest that consumers form inferences about unmentioned attributes and that these inferences are integrated with judgments of known attributes to arrive at an overall evaluation (Ford and Smith, 1987; Huber and McCann 1982; Johnson and Levin 1985; Meyer 1981), whereas other studies imply that consumers fail to form inferences about unmentioned attributes (Lim, Olshavsky, and Kim 1988). The present experiment focuses on the ability of consumers to detect the absence of information about product attributes. Logically, consumers must first realize that information about an important attribute is missing before they can infer a value for that attribute.
When is missing information overlooked? Jenkins and Sainsbury (1969, 1970) found that discrimination learning in pigeons occurs much faster in the presence than in the absence of a predictive cue, even when the absence of the cue is as informative as its presence. They labeled this phenomenon the feature-positive effect. Newman, Wolff, and Hearst (1980) demonstrated that this effect generalizes to people. In this study subjects were shown a series of cards containing two three-letter strings, a target string and a distractor. In feature-negative conditions, the critical feature was the absence of the letter "T." Performance feedback was presented after each trial, and, as anticipated, the problem was solved in fewer trials in feature-positive than in feature-negative conditions.
Research in areas other than discrimination learning also suggests that people experience difficulty in processing nonoccurrences. For example, when attitudes are weak or nonexistent, people use their own overt behaviors to draw inferences about their attitudes (Bem 1972). However, nonbehaviors (e.g., not laughing at a cartoon) tend to be overlooked (Fazio, Sherman, and Herr 1982; Allison and Messick 1988). Furthermore, in hypothesis testing, people tend to test cases that are expected to possess the property of interest (the positive test strategy) rather than on cases that are expected to lack the property (Klayman and Ha 1987). In covariation judgments, people focus on cases where the expected cause and the expected effect are both present (the positive-positive cell) rather than on cases where one or both events are absent (Bettman, John, and Scott 1986; John, Scott, and Bettman 1986). Finally, production and R&D departments often use checklists or fault trees to troubleshoot a system. Items that are not on the list, however, tend to be overlooked (Fischhoff, Slovic, and Lichtenstein 1978: Hirt and Castellan 1988).
When are consumers unlikely to overlook missing information? One factor that is likely to influence sensitivity to omissions is expertise. In their comprehensive review, Alba and Hutchinson (1987) defined expertise as "the ability to perform product-related tasks successfully" (p. 411) and they discussed how experts and novices differ on five important epistemological dimensions: cognitive effort, cognitive structure, analysis, elaboration, and memory. Analysis, or the extent to which attention is directed towards all and only important information, is particularly relevant to the present study. If sensitivity to important information increases as expertise increases (Brucks 1985; Furse, Punj, and Stewart 1984; Johnson and Russo 1984), then sensitivity to omitted important information should also increase with expertise.
Subjects received an incomplete description of a fictitious ten-speed bicycle. Information about two important attributes, the weight of the bicycle and the strength of the frame, was deliberately omitted. Following Sujan (1985), a subjective measure and a ten-item multiple-choice questionnaire was developed to assess expertise about bicycles. Subjects were divided into low, moderate, and high expertise groups on the basis of their scores on these measures. In addition, half of the subjects received a prompt to consider the weight of the bicycle and frame strength when evaluating the bicycle and half received no such prompt.
Evaluative judgments and confidence judgments served as the primary dependent measures. It was reasoned that if subjects spontaneously detected the absence of information about weight and frame strength that the prompt manipulation would have no effect on these judgments. Thus, if experts have a greater ability to recognize the absence of important attribute information, their product evaluations and their confidence ratings should not differ as a function of the prompt manipulation. Moreover, because of the uncertainty generated by the lack of information about these important attributes, experts should exhibit less extreme evaluations and lower confidence ratings, relative to less expert subjects.
The prompt manipulation should have a strong impact on the judgments of moderately knowledgeable subjects. If these subjects are insensitive to important omissions, incomplete information would seem relatively complete. When people treat incomplete information as if it were complete, they are likely to form polarized evaluations and they are likely to hold these extreme judgments with a high degree of confidence. By contrast, when a prompt forces them to consider information that otherwise would have been overlooked, less extreme and less confidently-held judgments- should be formed.
Finally, novices are less able to identify and use important information (Alba and Hutchinson 1987). Thus, even if a cue highlighting the absence of important information is presented, they are unlikely to see the evaluative implications of this cue. Hence, the prompt manipulation should not influence the judgments of novices. Relatively extreme and confidently-held judgments should be formed whether or not the prompt is presented.
One hundred thirty-one male undergraduates were asked to participate in a study concerning how people evaluate products. They were asked to read a description of a ten-speed bicycle (Brand A) that was based on a "study conducted by a popular magazine for bicycle enthusiasts." They were given two minutes to read the description and were instructed to form an impression of the bicycle. Afterwards, the description was taken away and a questionnaire was administered.
The description of the Brand A ten-speed bicycle contained information pertaining to six important product attributes: braking, shifting, cornering, wheels, styling, and comfort. Information about two important attributes, the weight of the bicycle and the strength of the frame, was omitted. The presented attributes were described very favorably and care was taken to present attributes that were subjectively unrelated to the other presented attributes and to the unmentioned attributes. All subjects received the exact same product description.
Product evaluations were measured on three nine-point semantic differential scales anchored at 4 and +4, with endpoints labeled bad/good, unsatisfactory/satisfactory, and unfavorable/ favorable. These ratings were averaged to form a single product evaluation index. Subjects indicated their confidence in their evaluations on a scale ranging from 1 (Not at all confident) to 9 (Highly confident).
Alerting subjects to the fact that important attribute information is missing should affect their evaluations only if they failed to detect the absence of this information spontaneously, and if they are knowledgeable enough to understand the implications of the missing attributes. Thus, prompting should influence only moderately knowledgeable subjects. As predicted, moderately expert subjects formed more favorable evaluations in no prompt that in prompt conditions. In contrast, prompting did not influence the evaluations of low or high expertise subjects.
It was predicted that the prompt manipulation would influence confidence judgments as well as evaluations. Again, prompting should influence only moderately knowledgeable subjects. Consistent with this prediction, moderately knowledgeable subjects had greater confidence in their evaluations in no prompt than in prompt conditions. In contrast, prompting did not influence the confidence judgments of low or high expertise subjects. Hence, considered together, the product evaluation and confidence judgment data indicate that experts are sensitive to omissions, whereas less knowledgeable individuals overlook important missing information.
The ability to recognize the absence of important attribute information plays a key role in consumer judgment and inference. In the present study, novices and even moderately knowledgeable individuals consistently overlooked important omitted information. When important information is overlooked, extreme, confidently-held judgments are formed. Experts, on the other hand, spontaneously detect the absence of important information and form more moderate judgments.
Research in several paradigms has shown that people often overlook missing information. These paradigms include discrimination learning (Jenkins and Sainsbury 1969, 1970), concept identification (Newman et al. 1980), self-perception (Fazio et al. 1982), false consensus (Allison and Messick 1988), hypothesis testing (Klayman and Ha 1987), covariation assessment (Bettman et al. 1986, John et al. 1986), and problem solving (Fischhoff et al. 1978, Hirt and Castellan 1988).
The results of the present study suggest that expertise should moderate sensitivity to omissions within each of these paradigms. This proposition should be tested directly because other moderating variables are also likely to be implicated. For example, some product attributes may be too important to be overlooked (e.g., price). Further, more extensive analytic processing is likely as time pressures decrease and as concern about the consequences of inferential errors increases (Kruglanski 1989, Kruglanski and Freund 1983).
People are frequently overconfident about the validity of their judgments (Einhorn and Hogarth 1978; Fischhoff and Beyth-Marom 1983; Lichtenstein, Fischhoff, and Phillips 1982). Several explanations for overconfidence have been offered, including (a) people often receive incomplete feedback about the consequences of their decisions (e.g., after purchasing one brand from a set of alternatives, little is known about the performance of alternatives not chosen), (b) people tend to seek information that confirm their expectations, (c) confirmatory evidence is more accessible from memory, and (d) judgments influence and are influenced by outcomes (e.g., self-fulfilling prophecy). However, consumers are often unaware of the reciprocal relation between judgments and outcomes. Finally, our results suggest (e) that insensitivity to missing information leads consumers to treat incomplete information as if it were complete. When consumers believe they know more than they actually do, overconfidence results.
The results of the present study also have implications for an apparent inconsistency in the consumer inference literature. Huber and McCann (1982) found that when explicitly presented attributes are subjectively related to omitted attributes, consumers spontaneously form inferences about omitted attributes. However, Lim et al. (1988) recently failed to replicate Huber and McCann's results. Lim et al. found that inferences were formed when consumers were explicitly asked to do so, but no evidence for spontaneous inference formation was found. The present results indicate that consumers are more likely to notice omissions as expertise increases. Because consumers must first detect omissions before they can draw inferences about these omissions, the likelihood of spontaneous inference formation should increase as expertise increases. If Huber and McCann's student subjects were more knowledgeable about their target product (beer) than Lim's et al. were about theirs (automobiles), spontaneous inference formation would be more likely in the Huber and McCann study.
To summarize, the results of the present study indicate that the ability to detect the absence of important information increases as expertise increases. Consumers who are sensitive to omissions form less extreme judgments and are less likely to exhibit overconfidence. Furthermore, the ability to detect and identify missing information is likely to serve as an important precondition for spontaneous inference formation. Consumers must notice the gaps before they can fill them.
Alba, Joseph W.and J. Wesley Hutchinson (1987),"Dimensions of Consumer Expertise," Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (March), 411454.
Allison, Scott T.and David M. Messick (1988), "The Feature-Positive Effect, Attitude Strength, and Degree of Perceived Consensus," Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 14 (June), 231-241.
Bem, Daryl J. (1972), "Self-Perception Theory," in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 6, ed. Leonard Berkowitz, New York: Academic Press, 1-62.
Bettman, James R., Deborah Roedder John, Carol A. Scott (1986), "Covariation Assessment by Consumers," Journal of Consumer Research, 13, (December) 316-326.
Einhorn, Hillel J. and Robin M. Hogarth (1978), "Confidence in Judgement: Persistence in the Illusion of Validity, Psychological Review, 85, 395-416.
Fazio, Russell H., Steven J.Sherman, and Paul M. Herr (1982),"The Feature-Positive Effect in the Self-Perception Process: Does Not Doing Matter as Much as Doing?" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42 (March), 404411.
Fischhoff, Baruch, Paul Slovic, and Sarah Lichtenstein (1978),"Fault Trees: Sensitivity of Estimated Failure Probabilities to Problem Representation," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 4, 330-334.
Fischhoff, Baruch and Ruth Beyth-Marom (1983), "Hypothesis Evaluation From a Bayesian Perspective," Psychological Review, 90 (July), 239-260.
Ford, Gary T. and Ruth Ann Smith (1987), "Inferential Beliefs in Consumer Evaluations: An Assessment of Alternative Processing Strategies," Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (December), 363-371.
Purse, David H., Girish N. Punj, and David W. Stewart (1984), "A Typology of Individual Search Strategies Among Purchasers of New Automobiles," Journal of Consumer Research, 10 (March), 417431.
Hirt, Edward R. and N. John Castellan (1988), "Probability and Category Redefinition in the Fault Tree Paradigm," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 14 (February), 122-131.
Huber, Joel and John McCann (1982), "The Impact of Inferential Beliefs on Product Evaluations," Journal of Marketing Research, 10 (August), 324-333.
Jenkins, H. M. and R. S. Sainesbury (1969), 'The Development of Stimulus Control Through Differential Reinforcement," in Fundamental Issues in Associative Learning, eds. N. J. Mackintosh and W. K. Honig, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Dalhousie University Press.
Jenkins, H. M. and R. S. Sainesbury (1970), "Discrimination Learning with the Distinctive Feature on Positive or Negative Trials," in Attention: Contemporary Theory and Analysis, ed. D. Mostofsky, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
John, Deborah Roedder, Carol A. Scott, James R. Bettman (1986), "Sampling Data for Covariation Assessment: The Effects of Prior Beliefs on Search Patterns," Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (June), 38-47.
Johnson, Richard D. and Irwin P, Levin (1985), "More Than Meets the Eye: The Effect of Missing Information on Purchase Evaluations," Journal of Consumer Research, 12 (September), 169-177.
Klayman, Joshua and Young-Won Ha (1987), "Confirmation, Disconfirmation, and Information in Hypothesis Testing," Psychological Review, 94 (April), 211-228.
Kruglanski, Arie W. (1989), Lay Epistemics and Human Knowledge: Cognitive and Motivational Bases, New York: Plenum.
Kruglanski, Arie W. and Tallie Frenud (1983), "The Freezing and Unfreezing of Lay Inferences: Effects on Impressional Primacy, Ethnic Stereotyping, and Numerical Anchoring," Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 19 (September), 448468.
Lichtenstein, Sarah, Baruch Fischhoff, and Lawrence D. Phillips (1982), "Calibration of Probabilities: The State of the Art to 1980," in Judgement Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, eds. Daniel Kahneman, Paul Slovic, and Amos Tversky, New York: Cambridge University Press, 306-334.
Lim, Jeen-Su, Richard Olshavsky, and John Kim (1988), "The Impact of Inferences on Product Evaluations: Replication and Extension," Journal of Marketing Research, 25 (August), 308316.
Meyer, Robert J. (1981), "A Model of Multiattribute Judgments Under Attribute Uncertainty and Informational Constraint," Journal of Marketing Research, 18 (November), 428441.
Newman, Joseph, William T. Wolff, and Eliot Hearst (1980), "The Feature-Positive Effect in Adult Human Subjects," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 6 (September), 630-650.


Microsoft released the latest version of its flagship OS, Windows 10, on July 29th, 2015. For faculty and staff University owned machines, please discuss upgrading with your IT Professional.
MU's site license is now for Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise, not Windows 7. These resources are for legacy machines and students who may not have Windows 10 yet.


I don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I want to publicly thank the German stuffed toy company Steiff for making the Teddytaur. I don't know which portion of it is human but the sum of its parts is awesome.
Sadly Ebearstore says only 1,500 Teddytaurs were made back in 2007. They were expensive too – Ebearstore had it for $220 (USD), and in Steiff's Japan store it was sold for about $410. I hope this rare creature inspires new tales, nightmares and Etsy knockoffs.


Cinco de Mayo (AKA Cinco de Drinko) is only days away, and Miami bars are ready to party. This year, skip the predictable margarita and opt for something more creative.
From spiked horchata to a serrano mezcalita with a crushed grasshopper rim, here are five of Miami's best Cinco de Mayo cocktails. So grab your sombrero and acute sense of Mexican history and make your way to the bar.
2. Cantina La Veinte's golden margarita. Spend the holiday slurping some golden margaritas ($20) on a lush patio with views of Biscayne Bay. This not-so-average margarita is an elaborate blend of Allaire tequila, Cointreau, fresh lime, and gold dust. It's the perfect accessory for a celebration. Pair your luxurious cocktail with a cantina-style appetizer for a delicious Mexican combo. 495 Brickell Ave., Miami; 786-623-6135; cantinala20.com.
3. The Confidante's pineapple pops and margaritas. The posh Miami Beach hotel and Wynwood's Cielito Artisan Pops have joined forces to offer a boozy, refreshing pairing. Juicy pineapple pops ($5.50), speckled with jalapeños and Tajín, transforms the basic cocktail into a complex creation. Spicy and sweet meet head-on in this Instagram-worthy riff on a pineapple margarita. While plunging popsicles, nosh away on rich blue cheese guacamole from Bird & Bone's backyard menu ($9). 4041 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; 305-424-1234; theconfidantemiamibeach.com.
4. 222 Taco's Tart. Nestled in the heart of North Bay Village, 222 devotes its menu to Cali-style Mexican food and specialty drinks. Chill out with the refreshing Tart. A flavorful trio of freshly squeezed juices is shaken with Maestro Dobel Diamonte tequila ($12). The mandarin-and-lime-rich libation, rimmed with black salt, is a refined mélange of sour flavors with hints of sweet agave. 1624 79th St. Cswy., North Bay Village; 833-222-8226; 222ta.co.
5. Melinda's Serrano Mexcalita. The cavernous haunt serves thoughtful mezcal libations alongside gourmet nachos. Smoky notes from El Tinieblo's joven mezcal blend smoothly with serrano pepper and lime, making the Serrano Mexcalita ($5) a mature alternative to the beloved margarita. Staying true to Mexican tradition, the feverish mezcal-based drink is rimmed with grasshopper salt. Nothing soothes serrano heat like cheesy munchies. Finish off the late night with house-made nachos — homemade tortillas layered with beer-infused queso and served with all the usual fixings for $5. 2826 N. Miami Ave; 305-456-5918; electricpicklemiami.com.


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American, Burgers & Po'Boys
Cool Treats
Diners, Donuts & Pastries
Italian & Pizza
New Orleans Style & Seafood
Campground/RV Park
Fishing Lodge
Chalmette Battlefield
Los Islenos
Nature Watching & Birding
Old Arabi State
Order Your Guide
St. Bernard State Park
501 St. Bernard Hwy. Braithwaite, LA 70040
St. Bernard State Park is the ideal spot for visitors who are seeking a family atmosphere and natural experience, as well as for campers who don't want to or cannot stray far from civilization. Many campers consider combining a camping vacation with a touring vacation of the New Orleans area as the State Park is located just 18 miles from the French Quarter. 51 campsites are located in the park.
Located on 358 acres right along the Mississippi River, the park contains a network of man-made lagoons which provides a peaceful, natural setting for relaxation. Woodlands meet wetlands in St. Bernard and the park's nature trail is the perfect way to introduce children to the joy of discovery in nature.
Picnic tables, barbeque grills, restrooms, and a large, covered pavilion complete with a grill are ideal for a family outing. The splash pad will delight youngsters and their families all summer long. Visitors may also launch their boats one-tenth of a mile from the park's entrance in the Caernarvon waterway and experience some great fresh and salt water fishing.
The St. Bernard State Park is a designated stop on the America's WETLAND Birding Trail. The park hosts American Alligators that roam through the park's manmade lagoons, joining Eastern Cottontail and Swamp rabbits, Raccoon, Virginia Opossum, Gray Squirrel, Mink, and River Otter.
The park's bottomland hardwoods hold year round avian residents such as Black and Turkey vultures, Wood Duck, Red-shouldered Hawk, Barred and Great-horned owls, Eastern Screech-Owls, Red-bellied, Downy, Hairy, and Pileated woodpeckers, Blue Jay, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Brown Thrasher, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Cardinal, and Common Grackle.
Neotropic species arrive in early to mid-spring to nest, including Green Heron, Mississippi Kite, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Acadian Flycatcher, and White-eyed anid Red-eyed vireos, along wth Northern Parula, and Prothonotary and Hooded warblers. Winter visitors include Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Northern Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Blue-headed Vireo, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped warblers, and Swamp, Song, and White-throated sparrows.
**A splash pad water playground has opened at the St. Bernard Park in Braithwaite. The splash park is open Tuesday-Sunday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. There is no admission charge. The park is at 501 St. Bernard Parkway eastern St. Bernard Parish. Park officials say the splash pad is open April through October**
Everyday, 8:00am - 9:00pm
Request a guide for more information on restaurants, shops, venues, historic sites, festivals, fishing and accommodations.
St. Bernard Parish Office of Tourism | 409 Aycock Street | Arabi, LA 70032 | 504.278.4242
Birding at the Battlefield
Jean Lafitte National Historic Park
Heritage and Cultural Society
Los Islenos Fiesta
Museum and Cultural Center

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Marco Pierre White Restaurant Group Signs With Feed It Back For Launch Of New Marketing Platform
News | 13th November 2017 29th March 2019
Marco Pierre White Restaurant Group has signed a multi-year agreement with Feed It Back, the guest feedback platform, to deliver its service to the fast-growing group of 43 franchised restaurants, as part of a new sales and marketing initiative.
Black and White Hospitality, which owns the franchise rights to the Marco Pierre White restaurant brands, is deploying Feed It Back to gain far more detailed feedback from genuine guests as a brand development tool and as the basis for decision making, to support a period of substantial growth over the coming years.
Marco Pierre White said: "Our guests' experience in our restaurants is paramount, after all, we want everyone who visits to return. Feed It Back provides the perfect service for fine-tuning our restaurants, and making sure we maintain our high standards."
Shaun Cremins, Brand Director for Black and White Hospitality, said: "We selected Feed It Back primarily due to the flexibility and responsiveness of the product and the team. Ease of use is crucial because franchise team members and guests must be keen to use it."
Jade Mallia, Marketing Director for Black and White Hospitality, said: "We will be using Feed It Back's integrated guest recovery system to ensure that every guest leaves happy and that any issues are dealt with swiftly, sometimes before they have even left. Also, guests will be able to select a team member to applaud and this will be key to celebrating the achievements of our talented restaurant teams."
Carlo Platia, CEO of Feed It Back, said: "Having seen the passion and professionalism of Marco Pierre White's restaurant teams at their recent annual awards, we are proud to be supporting the growth of this iconic and prestigious brand."
For press enquiries at Feed It Back Ltd:
Julia Platia
julia@feeditback.co.uk


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David Sylvian: The Brilliant Trees Sessions
Sylvian's modus operandi for the studio sessions that made up his classic 1984 debut album perfectly reflected its 'anti-rock' stance.
Steve Jansen's drums and/or percussion were generally recorded first, usually followed by David's rough keyboards/guitars and a guide vocal. After that he worked closely with guest musicians on a one-to-one basis.
And the latter aspect is the main focus of some fascinating, newly-released footage of the Hansa Studio sessions in Berlin, documented by Sylvian's then-partner Yuka Fujii.
It's an absolute treat for Brilliant Trees fans and a great chance to see what actually happened in most recording studios during the 1980s. In common with making movies, there's a lot of waiting around, a fair bit of chewing the fat and then some pretty intense bursts of performance/concentration.
It's fascinating watching Sylvian collaborating with his good friends Ryuichi Sakamoto and Holger Czukay. Sakamoto is a model of quiet concentration, quickly learning the chords to album outtake 'Blue Of Noon'. Czukay is full of smiles and fun while tinkering with his Dictaphone and laying down a guitar solo on 'Red Guitar' which didn't make the cut.
Elsewhere we finally get to hear what ball-of-energy guitarist Ronny Drayton actually plays on 'Pulling Punches', and Jon Hassell is every inch the NYC avant-garde auteur (in his excellent book 'Cries And Whispers', Anthony Reynolds reports that he did just one five-hour session for Brilliant Trees, asking for and getting $5,000 upfront plus co-writing credits for the two tracks he played on).
But who knew he recorded his solos sitting on the floor in the corner of a tiny studio, Sylvian at his elbow? For his part, Sylvo is generally smiley, quiet, engaged, charming, extremely professional and seems to have a good rapport with co-producer Steve Nye.
Sadly the short bit of footage that emerged recently (then rapidly disappeared) of bassist Wayne Braithwaite recording 'Red Guitar' is not reinstated here.
The clip is a vital addition to one's enjoyment of Brilliant Trees – check it out (and I've included Sylvian's own notes on the footage below) before it gets taken down.
This raw footage, shot on what's now seen as a primitive camera but which was a top of the line consumer product at the time, a massive, unwieldy object, was documented by Yuka Fujii. I've put the material together in the order it was recorded to give a very general idea of the process of development. It's been my practice to work closely with each individual musician since my earliest days with the band in an attempt to get the best results. I've always maintained the band prepared me for working with others, gave me the confidence to work with my peers, the 'newcomers' in the room all being older than myself (25). At this point in time Ryuichi's English was very rudimentary (this was to change radically within the next ten years or so) so we had to communicate as economically as possible, or rather, 95% of the exchange was purely musical. Yuka and Peter Barakan would step in when greater explication was needed. Holger's English remained consistent throughout the years i knew him. Again, subtleties could be lost so the dialogue was relatively basic. These sessions in Berlin were my first step in creating what would become 'Brilliant Trees' and my initial move away from the structure of the band. It was one of the happiest recording experiences I can recall while signed with a major label. Because of the success of having everyone meet in Berlin, a city native to no one involved, it felt like an adventure. People arrived with a spirit of openness and receptivity. I went on to repeat this process with albums such as 'Secrets of the Beehive', 'Rain Tree Crow', and 'The First Day' among others.
I've left a lot of Jon's conversation in as it's of interest. In one section he's explaining the nature of raga and how he came to it by working with renowned Indian singer/teacher Pandit Pran Nath. He was also intimating that, as 'Brilliant Trees' asked that he play in the western tradition, 'steps' as he describers it, he didn't see how his performance could be incorporated into the title track. I persevered. He returned to his hotel room that evening to work on it and, overnight, came up with something so beautiful and complimentary to the piece, that moved away from raga (outside of the coda), and gave us one of the rare, if not unique recordings, of Jon playing in the western tradition.
Besides the limited nature of my vocabulary, the paired down nature of our exchanges for the reasons given above, my only regret is that I didn't use Holger's guitar solo on 'Red Guitar'. At the time I felt it a little lightweight compared to the mix Steve Nye was prepping. I would now mix it quite differently pushing the drums way back (from the mid 70s through the 80s, drums were often foregrounded, a trend I wasn't fond of. I fought for a change of approach on 'Beehive' and that's about the time when things began to resemble how I'd initially imagined the material. There are always exceptions of course, 'Weathered Wall', 'Before the Bullfight' are just two examples). I loved Holger dearly and wish I'd imortalised his solo in some capacity. If it still exists on multitrack, all is not lost.
I came away from Berlin with an incomplete album and preceded to write a few remaining pieces to complement the best of what I had. "The Ink in the Well', 'Nostalgia' and 'Backwaters' were added, 'Blue of Noon', an alternate version of 'Forbidden Colours', and a new track composed with Ryuichi were, with the exception of the latter, to find a home elsewhere. 'Blue of Noon' was originally a vocal piece but I felt this version didn't hold together and, in any case, was out of place in the context of the album. Virgin released a working rough mix of the track as the B-side of a single.
I hope the mutual respect and good humour of everyone involved comes across along with their seriousness and committed nature to the material. Rarely has this proved otherwise for me. In this respect I feel very fortunate. From this session I made lifelong friends, a trend that was to continue for many years to come.
david sylvian july 2021
Posted in 1984, Album Reviews, Ambient, David Sylvian, Pop	/ Tagged anthonyreynolds, berlin, brillianttrees, davidsylvian, hansastudios, holgerczukay, jonhassell, ronnydrayton, ryuichisakamoto, stevejansen, stevenye, virginrecords, waynebraithwaite, yukafujii	/ 1 Comment
September Songs: David Sylvian's Brilliant Trees
September's here again. The leaves brown, the nights draw in; thoughts and ears turn towards Sylvian's music.
The exquisite Brilliant Trees, released in July 1984, is one of those collections that I must have owned on almost every format over the years, and probably bought a few times on each.
A period of extreme introspection and even depression descended upon Sylvian following the split of Japan in late 1982.
Although his relationship with Mick Karn's ex Yuka Fujii (who took the photos in the stylish Brilliant Trees album package) was largely thought to be the main catalyst, it still represented for Sylvian a distressing rupture of childhood friendships.
He later claimed that he could barely stay awake during this period, so degraded were his immune system and emotional reserves.
Sylvian gathered co-producer Steve Nye and some of his favourite musicians at Berlin's Hansa Studios and RAK in London. Influences came from ambient music, NYC avant-funk, John Martyn, Nick Drake and ECM jazz.
His friend/ frequent collaborator Ryuichi Sakamoto and brother Steve Jansen were the main musical cohorts, though ex-Japan keyboard texturalist Richard Barbieri also appeared to great effect.
Brilliant Trees is very much an album of two sides. The opener 'Pulling Punches' is a sweetener, an effective but unrepresentative slice of white funk featuring NYC sessioneers Wayne Braithwaite and Ronnie Drayton on bass and guitar. The nearest thing to the Tin Drum sound, there's nothing remotely like it on the rest of the album.
What a treat to hear Kenny Wheeler and Mark Isham's flugelhorn/trumpet breaks on the classic singles 'Ink In The Well' (UK #36) and 'Red Guitar' (UK #17). Side two is a different matter altogether – it's dark, foreboding, autumnal.
Sylvian and Nye mostly eschew 'conventional' solos in favour of 'found' sounds courtesy of Holger Czukay's Dictaphone (see below) or Jon Hassell's extraordinary conch-like trumpet, both used to especially brilliant effect on 'Wailing Wall'.
'Backwater' begins with a powerful build up of (sampled?) strings (and check out Jansen's inspired groove, a queasy 6/4 over a very strange programmed shaker pattern), while the almost hymnal title track is beautifully performed by Sylvian and adorned with a gorgeous ethno-jam outro.
Listening 30 years on, what strikes one is the minimalist nature of the whole album. It has dated remarkably well. Many tracks are built around a cyclical Jansen groove, sparse bass, strong Sylvian melody and then tasteful, painterly touches from clean guitar, piano, Dictaphone or synth.
This stunning collection set in motion a superb four-album run of form for Sylvian. Brilliant Trees is an almost-perfect blend of songcraft and the avant-garde at a time when pop was drawing on jazz, ambient and world music to occasionally spectacular – and commercial – effect (the album reached #4 in the UK charts and sold over 100,000 copies). You might say things were never quite the same again.
Posted in 1984, Album Reviews, Ambient, David Sylvian, Pop	/ Tagged brillianttrees, dannythompson, davidsylvian, ecm, hansastudios, holgerczukay, japan, kennywheeler, markisham, philpalmer, rakstudios, redguitar, richardbarbieri, ronniedrayton, ryuichisakamoto, stevejansen, stevenye, virginrecords, waynebraithwaite	/ 5 Comments
Story Of A Song: Jill Jones' Violet Blue
When Prince appeared on the box the other day, my mum expressed her approval.
I asked why, and without hesitation she offered: 'He respected and promoted women'. It struck me initially as a weird reason but upon further reflection seemed spot-on.
He wrote many songs from a female perspective in the early '80s, many of which have never seen the light of day.
Then there was Vanity/Apollonia 6 – dubious acts for some, but without too much moral adjustment you could interpret them as 'women reclaiming their right to enjoy sex'.
Then there were Prince's striking collaborations with a variety of strong, independent characters: Ingrid Chavez, Sheila E, Sheena Easton, Dale Bozzio, Mavis Staples, Cat Glover, Elisa Fiorillo, Bonnie Raitt, Nona Hendryx, Wendy & Lisa, Susan Rogers and Peggy McCreary.
How many other male 'pop' icons can boast such a coterie of female cohorts?
Then there was Jill Jones. With hindsight, her 1987 debut album, released on Prince's Paisley Park Records, is one of the great missed opportunities of his career, and its standout song 'Violet Blue' particularly demonstrates why.
The album started in the summer of 1983 during the filming of 'Purple Rain' (featuring Jill's less-than-stellar cameo), when she replaced Prince's guide vocal on 'Mia Bocca'. Sadly he didn't find time to resume work on the record until over two years later.
Consequently, it's very uneven, with some decent material ('For Love', 'My Man') mixed in with middling Prince outtakes, covers and B-sides ('All Day, All Night', 'G-Spot', 'With You') and undone by rushed arrangements and drastic changes in tone.
'Violet Blue', recorded at LA's Sunset Sound in October 1986, was the last song put down for the album. Quite simply, it shows what the record could have been, and, frankly, how much Prince (and Jill) had developed between 1983 and 1986.
The vocal intro and accordion breakdown are two cases in point, not to mention the interesting chord progression and superb horn (Eric Leeds) and string (Clare Fischer) arrangements. Jill delivers a knockout vocal too, even throwing in a neat little Nancy Wilson impression via Dinah Washington.
Sadly the Jill Jones album sank without trace. She has recorded intermittently since, contributing a great guest vocal on Ryuichi Sakamoto's 'You Do Me' and playing low-key gigs. She's always a refreshing presence.
Posted in 1987, Jill Jones, Pop, Prince, Song Stories	/ Tagged 1987, clarefischer, ericleeds, jilljones, paisleypark, prince, ryuichisakamoto, violetblue	/ 1 Comment


text:
1970s, Auteurs, Drama, Political, Thriller
Zabriskie Point (1970)
June 25, 2020 filmfreedoniaalienation, Counterculture, Daria Halprin, Death Valley, Mark Frechette, Michelangelo Antonioni, non-professional actors, orgy, Rod Taylor, Sam Shepard 4 Comments
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Screenwriters: Michelangelo Antonioni, Fred Gardner, Tonino Guerra, Clare Peploe, Sam Shepard
History often moves in cycles of irony, and sometimes this rewards movies. Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point was dealt harsh dismissal by both critics and audiences at the time of its release, and spent intervening decades regarded largely as an oddity and by-product occasionally revisited by omnivorous wannabe filmmakers, aging hippies, and scattered auteurists, only to slowly gather a fresh reputation amongst some as one of Antonioni's major achievements. These past few years have made Zabriskie Point feel immediate again, for its evocative description of disconsolate anger and disgust with aspects of modern life, with institutional power and the fragmenting of shared reality. Antonioni had been vaulted to international filmmaking stardom thanks to his string of cool, allusive tales documenting people squirming within their environment and sometimes committing perplexing acts of destruction on self or others, or simply vanishing from their own lives, in a style commonly dubbed 'alienation cinema.' Antonioni initially charted this terrain in relatively modest works like I Vinti (1952) and Il Grido (1957). L'Avventura (1960) met an initially divisive response but quickly became the definition of art movie chic along with its follow-ups in a loose trilogy, La Notte (1961) and L'Ecclise (1962). Red Desert (1964) saw Antonioni reaching the heights of his artistry but also dividing viewers once again in achieving a register of expression near-subliminal in suggesting cognitive stress and injury through systematised exterior signs.
The surprise box office success of Antonioni's first English-language film, Blowup (1966), opened up great new vistas for him as Hollywood came knocking, although some critics would accuse him of exporting his cinematic style more as a brand than an artist, looking for venues to make the same works over and over. That wasn't true: Red Desert had broken new ground and Blowup was a very different film in story and method to Antonioni's previous four films, even whilst maintaining a distinct aesthetic. But Antonioni faced a genuine problem with his art, one that would soon see his once-titanic cinematic will freeze up. After Zabriskie Point he would only direct another three films in the next fifteen years, before a stroke he suffered in 1985 left him severely crippled, although he did manage one final work, Beyond the Clouds, in 1995 in collaboration with Wim Wenders. Part of the reason behind Antonioni's wane might simply have been the problem of money: Antonioni's films were hard to make without the muscle of intelligent and interested producers behind them, and these became scant as his moment in fashion ended. It might also have been a product of his own evolving artistry, which eventually reached a point of psychological and spiritual negation with The Passenger (1975), one he could not move beyond without betraying some vital part of himself.
For Zabriskie Point, MGM gave Antonioni a big budget and free rein to turn his eye on America. Antonioni took his theme from a newspaper story he read about a young man who stole an airplane and was shot by police when he tried to return it. In the months after the incredible success of Easy Rider (1969), a flailing Hollywood desperately wanted to reproduce such a feat with the countercultural youth audience, but contended constantly with that audience's cynicism over official attempts to replicate their zeitgeist, as well as rapid shifts in general audience mood, which quickly went back to wanting stuff like Airport (1970). Antonioni had tapped hip interest in artistic games with perception and social commentary with Blowup, and his distaste for the plasticity of post-war life in Italy found ready analogues beyond those shores, And yet his sensibility remained crucially at odds with the earthy and idealistic aspect of the counterculture. Antonioni tried to tap a compensating authenticity by casting non-actors in crucial roles. For a male lead he cast Mark Frechette, a fiery young man often in trouble with the law but blessed with movie star looks, when Antonin saw him engaged in an argument on the street.
For the female lead he chose Daria Halprin, a former anthropology student and bit-part actress. It proved a rather fateful pairing: Frechette and Halprin became a couple after making the film, and moved into an experimental community. After they broke up Halprin married Dennis Hopper. Desperate for funds to keep the community going, Frechette joined other members in staging a bank robbery with unloaded guns. Frechette was sent to prison and died there, in a peculiar weightlifting accident. This tragic piece of Hollywood folklore now is an aspect of Zabriskie Point's strange aura, the feeling that it charted some underground river most people didn't or couldn't follow. The script passed through several hands, including Antonioni himself and his regular screenwriting collaborator Tonino Guerra, and some young Americans writers, including the up-and-coming actor and playwright Sam Shepard. Working on the film was particularly consequential for Shepard, who would revisit many of its images and ideas in later work, including the script he would write for another fusion of European and American sensibilities, Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984).
Zabriskie Point opens with a lengthy sequence depicting student radicals engaged in debate over an upcoming student strike, with some black activists (including Eldridge Cleaver's wife Kathleen) presiding. One young man, Mark (Frechette), listens to the boiling arguments and conflicting perspectives and leaves after declaring he's willing to die for the cause but not of boredom, and begins looking for more applied and practical actions to take. When he tries to bail out a friend who's arrested on a demonstration and nags the cops a little too forcefully, Mark finds himself arrested and roughed up as well: Mark mocks the cops by giving his name as Karl Marx, and the charge officer doesn't cotton on. After they're released, Mark and his friend decide to buy guns. Hearing on the radio that the police have vowed to clear out the striking students on campus, Mark drives to witness it, only to see a cop gun down a black protestor when a colleague thinks he has a gun. Mark pulls out his pistol with a clear intention of shooting the cop responsible, only for someone else to beat him to it. Mark flees the campus and, after a brief spell of fraught indecision steals a light airplane and flies inland.
Antonioni alternates Mark's experiences with those of Daria, a woman of the same age but detached from the radical scene, one who works only when she needs money. Daria temps at a real estate company and encounters the middle-aged executive Lee Allen (Rod Taylor), who seems taken with her, and eventually asks that she head out to his house near Phoenix, Arizona, to be his secretary whilst he tries to finalise a major deal, a new estate his company, the SunnyDunes Development Co., has built in the desert. Daria heads out into the desert but before going to Lee's house wants to visit the hamlet of Ballister, out in the Mojave Desert, because a friend of hers recommended it as a great place to meditate. The friend is trying to build a refuge there for troubled youths from Los Angeles, and Daria encounters a gang of those imported hellions wandering around the sparse Ballister surrounds. Driving on, Daria is repeatedly buzzed by Mark in the stolen plane, dropping a dress he found in the cockpit to her, before coming in for a landing. The two wander around the environs of Zabriskie Point, a lookout spot in Death Valley and the lowest point in the continental United States, where they quickly form a bond and become lovers.
Zabriskie Point took four years from conception to release, a fatally long amount of time for a movie trying so crucially to tap an urgent and rapidly evolving socio-political moment. And yet, against all the odds, Antonioni and his screenwriters achieved from today's perspective the rare task of taking on a such a specific moment and yet locating essential issues that continue to dog modern America and beyond. Listening to the lengthy opening argument of the student radicals is nonetheless today a surprisingly vigorous and revealing experience, as the same issues, divides, and points of contention are still prevalent, particularly in the online world: the only thing that's missing is the sense of palpable immediacy and communal experience that defined the period, the clamour of voices in dialogue supplanted by the click of a million keyboards. Even Mark's irritable rejection of the meeting highlights another eternal problem – it's much easier to talk tough and jockey for moral high ground than actually achieve a political goal. The barbed comments of the black activists, who claim a leadership role because they face systemic oppression that obliges them to be revolutionaries rather than turn to it out of radical chic, lay down an axiom, and one of the white student girls raises the question, "What will it take to make white people revolutionaries?"
Zabriskie Point proceeds to try and answer that question in the case of Daria, the more ordinary of the two pivotal characters. Daria is presented as a free spirit type intrigued by hip concepts and lifestyles, but detached from the politically engaged world Mark is all too immersed in. Her appeal to Lee as she breezes past him in the SunnyDunes office building is plain, represents something that's profoundly absent within the confines of his daily life, and he becomes highly solicitous towards her, perhaps out of desire or simply to have someone so young and energetic around, a force from beyond the boundaries of his known world. As familiar as jabs aimed at corporate culture seem now, Antonioni did his admirable best to try and avoid the more obvious reflexes even whilst delivering it some cruel shiv wounds. Antonioni films Lee in his office, the LA skyline and a flapping American flag framed in glassy, commercial-like brightness behind him, as he tries to get in touch with Daria by phone, a sense of glazed and waning torpor slowly registering as the imperial trappings around him become monumental and immoveable. Meanwhile it's signalled Mark himself comes from well-to-do circumstances, waving to a woman in a sports car he says is his sister, "a girl from my long-gone past."
Mark's decision to stop being passive is articulated as he decries that he's tired of "kids rappin' about violence and cops doin' it," and contemplates meeting the authorities' violence with his own. Antonioni indulges some sidelong vignettes that score satirical points, as Mark and a friend talk a gun salesman into waiving the usual legal niceties by explaining they live in a rough neighbourhood and "need to protect our women." A college professor who's been arrested at the protest with his students and the cop processing him puts his occupation down as clerk because it's shorter. The plot, such as it is, is motivated by Mark's readiness to commit violently to his cause only to rediscover joy and affection before becoming the target of the same cold and punitive force he tried to escape and transcend. The question as to whether he dooms himself in taking up arms or in failing to commit properly to the choice lingers on. Antonioni courts the paranoid echoes of John F. Kennedy's assassination in the key sequence of the campus shootings, with Mark's vengeful intention to shoot beaten by another sniper somewhere in the bushes – a collection of gun-wielding radicals has already been noted lurking nearby. This also revisits the enigmatic assassination of Blowup. At the same time Antonioni's long-simmering affinity with Hitchcock is nudged again as Mark, gun in hand and innocent in deed if not mind, recalls the schmuck hero of North By Northwest (1959).
Antonioni's protest scenes lack the still-potent immediacy of Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool (1969) and the film as a whole resists that work's air of livewire exposure before the tumult of the age, at least in its superficial action, even as the opening scene betrays a great interest in its rhetorical texture. Antonioni regards both the square and countercultures as momentary figments of a much greater and longer drama than they know. Antonioni's exacting sense of visual context as a means of communication is as much in evidence as it was in Red Desert and Blowup, but in a different key: where the first film pivoted on the heroine's sense of a poisoned mindscape matched to a poisoned environment and Blowup saw its hero chasing his ideals of truth captured into a dissolving mass of film grain, Zabriskie Point maps out a drama of freedom and entrapment rooted in the way social values and psychic space battle upon the American shore. Environs rendered in pale cream and grey hues and dully prismatic glass are broken up by electric patches of blood red and bright green, elements in the psychic drama of omnipresent conformism disturbed by eruptions of violence and nature worship.
Antonioni near-obsessively charts the omnipresence of advertising and garish décor around the city, at once dazzled and mortified. Antonioni contrasts Mark and a comrade and Lee and his fellow executive (G.D. Spradlin) as the two polarised duos drive through the city: Antonioni stops paying attention to them to film modernist structures and advertising billboards in zooms shots that collapse space and image into a diorama of capitalist messaging disguised in pretty colours, as pure in their way as the renaissance sculptures of Italy in conflating function in declaration with form, the stamp of the new doges upon their republic. Painted visages instruct the onlooker in what normality looks like. In a more overtly satirical and surrealist manner, Antonioni has the SunnyDunes executives gather to watch an advertisement for their new development, in which the roles of the people enjoying their idyllic new lifestyle are filled by mannequins, glimpsed in colourful and rigid approximations of the supposed suburban dream, starkly contrasting the later vision of polymorphous flesh emerging from the earth itself.
Once Mark takes off in his stolen plane, the film becomes a remake-cum-lampoon of the closing minutes of How The West Was Won (1962), inverting the triumphalist flight in keys of Cinerama and Manifest Destiny to the coast and out to sea, this time turning away from the sprawl of LA's infrastructure to the vast, rugged inland and contemplating the refuse of the pioneering dream. The glittering rooftops and cyclopean highways, all are viewed on high with a sense of punch-drunk wonderment, the geometries of human design and the primeval patterns of geological upheaval revealed in distant perfection. The visual texture here is the essence of the film, working up a near-hypnotic glaze of attention to the shape of the world and Mark and Daria as entities within it. Daria's visit to the desolate township of Ballister is a delicately strange and eerie vignette, as she encounters an assortment of old-timers, including the manager of a roadhouse (Paul Fix) who complains about the imported problem cases her friend has imported to the town ("He's gonna ruin a piece of American history."), and a couple of incredibly old men at the bar, one of whom introduces himself as the middleweight boxing champion of the world in 1926.
The other is an aged cowboy who sits calmly and silently in solitude as Antonioni's camera gazes at him in profile with painterly pretence, turning him into living iconography, as Patti Page's "Tennessee Waltz" warbles nostalgically over speakers. Somewhere out in the desert's deep reaches the old America subsists on its last nerve of memory and muscle, whilst the inheritors flail. Stones through the window glass cause the manager to dash outside and bellow at the marauding tykes. Daria sees them hiding behind a hunk of refuse, their eyes glimpsed through gaps. These the manifest spirits of a discarded quarter of the nation, one plucking on fractured piano innards to make sonorous music, another demanding "a piece of ass." "Are you sure you'd know what to do with it?" Daria questions, unfazed, before fleeing these fine young cannibals. Travelling on, the lonely old grey car sliding along a ribbon of blacktop below attracts the white-winging plane, and Mark sets down in the midst of a great salt pan to meet the fawn-legged traveller after buzzing her a few times with bratty glee. Here Mark and Daria are, in their way, artists engaged with landscape as much as Antonioni himself, at spree in air and earth, with inevitable symbolic dimensions, Mark with his lofty ideals and exile from society forced to meet Daria down on the ground.
One irony of Blowup's success was that it hit big with an audience it teased and parodied – hipsters, artists, bright college freaks, recreational drug users, and vicariously thrilled normies. The Swinging London vibe Antonioni nailed down so well was painted in bone-dry sarcasm, as he surveyed London's boles filled by barbarian rock bands and rooms full of stoned posh bohemians with a sense of curiosity grazing disdain, seeming to diagnose it all as a further symptom of, rather than cure for, the anomie and cultural ossification he analysed. In turning to the American wing of the youth movement he was nominally seeking out a genuine resuscitating force, and he even seemed to be trying to avoid the problems Easy Rider and Arthur Penn's Alice's Restaurant (1969) had analysed, the blind spots that would narcotise it. Blowup had proposed the ultimate dissolution of reality in the age of technology whilst Zabriskie Point's interiorised, neutral tone invokes not the outwards-directed energy of bohemia but the problem of the interior self, one reason why the film's twinned, key sequences are, crucially, moments of imagined psychic liberation. Whilst avoiding any of the ways of portraying psychedelic experience that became so quickly clichéd in films of the period, Zabriskie Point nonetheless attains a dreamlike sense of space and texture, as if the characters are both inside themselves and watching themselves.
And indeed they are, because all young people tend to be doing both. Mark and Daria are deliberately nebulous entities because Antonioni feels that's a basic description of youth itself, individuals reacting to stimuli and opportunity to accumulate character. The basic narrative pattern also returned to the motif of Il Grido, in following a character who describes a great circle during the course of his wandering, fleeing his life in one place only to arc back to a virtually predestined end. Il Grido, a fascinating if overlong and grimly slouchy work, had mediated Antonioni's steeping in neorealist concerns and those of his mature artistry. One important difference in Zabriskie Point is that when he chooses to fly the plane back to LA and face consequences it's an act of hope, returning as jester of the skies with the plane he, Daria, and an old-timer of the desert painted in lysergic colours and jokes. Daria suggests to Mark he simply abandon the plane and ride with her to Phoenix, but he tells her, "I wanna take risks." A death wish might lurk within Mark's makeup, but his determination to actually experience existence as a profound phenomenon, not coddled or swerving from all the echoing consequences of being born, represents one of the few positive gestures of consequence any character makes in Antonioni, even if it's ruthlessly punished.
At the heart of Zabriskie Point are the two fantasy episodes, both perhaps projected out of Daria's mind. The first comes as she and Mark screw in the desert sand under Zabriskie Point, whereupon other lovers, some couples, some in masses of three or more bodies, seem to well out of the ground and start copulating passionately, bodies swathed in dust and sand, wet lips and caked rumps squirming in the parched soil. Authorities purportedly dogged the shooting of this scene, which utilised performers from a radical theatre group, ready to swoop in and arrest everyone for shooting pornography. As it was the orgy was simulated, but it's still a startling interlude to see in such a prestigious Hollywood film, and one the least neurotic and purely celebratory erotic scenes in mainstream cinema. Passionate bundles of flesh viewed only with a friendly sense of sexuality in many forms, but achieved again with a strong note of surrealism, these dust-born creatures evoking Biblical myth as they fuck en masse. Most vitally for the film's driving theme, it offers the sense that Mark and Daria aren't alone even when they seem to be at their most separated from the rest of humanity: their experience connects them to the species as a whole. The sexual high quickly gives way to a brute reminder of actuality as Mark hides from a patrolling cop car whilst Daria goes to chat with the officer, shocked when she realises Mark lurks with his gun ready to shoot the cop. Antonioni delivers one of his visual cues as Mark hides behind portable toilets painted screaming red, blazing synapses of distress in the midst of an ahistorical zone.
The chief stymie in appreciating the film stems ironically from Antonioni's push for legitimacy in casting Frechette and Halprin. That might have seemed a move in the great tradition of neorealism, and as a filmmaker Antonioni never seemed greatly focused on his actors, observing them more as studies in behaviour than in a traditional dramatic manner. But Antonioni had made very deft use of star performers like Monica Vitti, David Hemmings, and even Steve Cochran, and would so again with Jack Nicholson, leaning on actors who could readily suggest and transmit the yearning and existential unease of their characters, using their descriptions of distress and foiled energy to lend specific gravitas to his psychologically inferring shots. By contrast, the two young stars of Zabriskie Point instead seem blandly emblematic, although Halprin handles the late scenes depicting her character's disconsolate state effectively. The air of turbulence that made Frechette appealing to Antonioni translated on camera to deadpan aloofness, ironically proving more plastic than any number of young ingénues might have seemed. That said, their blankness at least resists any feeling of calculation either, offering themselves simply as people within Antonioni's world, not extraordinary embodiments of human and Hollywood bravura.
Despite its initial failure, Zabriskie Point's influence has proven deep, particularly for foreign directors shifting their attention Stateside, with images and strategies referenced and recycled in films like Paris, Texas, Emir Kusturica's Arizona Dream (1993), Percy Adlon's Bagdad Café (1988), Bruno Dumont's Twentynine Palms (2003), and Wong Kar-Wai's My Blueberry Nights (2007). More recent native surveys of the period like Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice (2014) and the TV series Mad Men have made it a significant point of reference, as well as more contemporary takes on its preoccupations like Fight Club (1999). American New Wave filmmakers internalised aspects of Antonioni's vision: Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), Francis Coppola's The Conversation (1974), and Alan Pakula's The Parallax View (1974) and All The President's Men (1976) all betray the imprint of Antonioni's textures, his contemplation of fractured personality amidst sensory bombardment and the isolating glaze of modern architecture. More profane genre fare from Vanishing Point (1972) to Thelma and Louise (1991) took Zabriskie Point and mined it for more familiar variations on its ideas. Even the likes of Mad Max (1979), as a tale of renascent barbarianism hinging around grandiose destruction fantasies and desolate spaces, bore the imprint. George Lucas, who had clearly shown himself to be an Antonioni acolyte on THX 1138 (1971), repurposed the theme of youth rebellion and destructive catharsis for Star Wars (1977).
Nor was the traffic to sci-fi one way, as at least one critic has noted: Antonioni's lexicon had much in common with the alien desolation and domestic unease Jack Arnold had often evoked in his 1950s works like It Came From Outer Space (1953) and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1956). Such oddball children point to the way Antonioni managed to dig to the essence of something about the nature of modern society, locked in a state of forward motion and clinging to familiar things, perpetually poised between order and a will to anarchy, constantly provoking people to jarring psychic leaps from peace-seeking to eruptive destruction. Which might well point to the artistic problem Antonioni eventually fell prey to. Antonioni had begun as a filmmaker interested in case studies illustrating social and psychological quandaries, trying to bridge the great chasm between the systems of Marxism and the vagaries of consciousness, and Zabriskie Point had been conceived in the same vein. The protagonists of both Zabriskie Point and The Passenger halt at the edge of the desert but fail to go forward and so are destroyed by the social forces pursuing them, although one is felled in making a hopeful gesture and the other reaches the end of his will. To go into the desert, literal and figurative, would be to enter the realm of the mystic, something Antonioni felt himself too hard-headed to contemplate, even as his films constantly urge towards a sense of the sublime. Or, rather, whether he was or wasn't, that would demarcate the edge of his own concern, which was the problem of modern western society and the individuals who comprise it.
Tellingly, following Zabriskie Point, Antonioni went to China to make a documentary about the nation at it was just starting to step back into the world at large to contemplate possibilities for other methods of social organisation, whilst his last handful of films would be much-mocked for their copious and regressive sexuality, but perhaps that was the only place he could retreat to. Mark's flight back to LA is met by waiting cops, and when he tries to take off again they start shooting, a bullet hitting Mark and killing him. Daria, still driving eastwards, hears the report of his death on the radio and pulls over in shock. The report suggests another cruel sarcasm, that Mark wasn't wanted for killing the cop but for stealing the plane as an "attempted hijacking": Mark was punished not for his attempt at political violence but for an imagined one. Daria reaches Lee's modernist mansion, perched on the side of a bluff amidst the grand desert surrounds. She wanders around the chic, elegant, yet impersonal forms of Lee's house, the very bastion of smugness, experiencing each portion of the building as a trap goading her grief, and even Lee's solicitous greeting rings hollow. Daria finally leaves the house.
Cue the famous final scene, one even detractors of the film find brilliant. Daria stares at Lee's house, imagining the executives and their inane wives inside, and envisions the house exploding, shattered to millions of shards of wood and stonework. The explosion occurs again and again, from different angles and distances, the sheer pleasure of destruction as an act charged holy awe. Antonioni then gets closer to the issue as he films the explosion of various household items in the house. A TV shatters into a shower of misty crystal. A refrigerator disgorges foodstuffs in a mucky shower. Books flap open like flowers blooming in time-lapse or jellyfish squirming through water. Violent spectacle becomes languorous, beautiful, protoplasmic, Dali-like in the depiction of hard commercial material rendered liquidinous and weightless, the act of desolation containing discovery, mesmeric dolour that also bespeaks the clarifying of the senses.
The eruption resolves in a huge mushroom cloud of smoke billowing up into the blue sky, clarifying the relationship of Daria's private revenge fantasy with the overall anxiety in the world, the threat of nuclear war, perpetually poised to erase the settled bourgeois life. Given Antonioni's cinema had long suggested an intense distaste for modern architecture as the environmental signature of the age of alienation, the fact that he acts out his apocalyptic fantasia on it makes for a fitting, rather bratty coda, a moment of seeming potent rejection of a material world that is actually onanistic fantasy. Antonioni doesn't offer any shot of the house still intact and boding after the fantasy is done, refusing intrinsically to castrate Daria's newly potent and angry willpower. Instead Antonioni has her ride off into the sunset to the elegiac strains of Roy Orbison. Like the often misinterpreted ending of Blowup, which actually depicts the birth of a true artist, the ending here sees Daria heading back into the world armed, if not necessarily for destruction, but certainly with great power. A revolutionary of the mind born.
→ Star Trek: The Cage / Where No Man Has Gone Before / The Man Trap (TV, 1964-66)
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4 thoughts on "Zabriskie Point (1970)"
Terrific, thorough review; love an exploding fridge as an attack on capitalist excess!
Roderick says:
Hi 10SFN. Yeah, it's an idea that could be very rank and yet the way Antonioni films it transforms it into something grandiose and mysterious, trying to reach beyond mere cynicism to that zone where our need for things and our need to do without them both stem.
J.D. says:
Fantastic review. ZP is an Antonioni film I've been circling for years but have been put off by its rep as being something of a pretentious bore. Hell, I finally got around to seeing THE PASSENGER this year, which, along with your review, has whetted my appetite to watch this one. I find the three films he did for MGM to be a fascinating period for the filmmaker – his dabbling with Hollywood and the frission and friction when his sensibilities met theirs. Your review has certainly sparked my curiosity.
Hi JD. I'm shocked — shocked! — you haven't seen this. Can't imagine Vanishing Point or Two-Lane Blacktop without it as well as the films mentioned above. Plus the great soundtrack — the use of a version of Careful With That Axe Eugene in the climax is superlative. The Passenger is an interesting film but also easily my least-favourite Antonioni from what I've seen, but it's true Antonioni seemed to be activated rather than foiled by working with MGM.


text:
Пассендо́рфер () — немецкая фамилия. Известные носители:

  (род. 1895) — польский военачальник.
 Пассендорфер, Ежи (1923—2003) — польский кинорежиссёр.
  (1894—1984) — польский палеонтолог.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Data loss can't be avoided no matter how careful you are in processing and backing up data, the moment still comes when you delete significant files by accident, or Recycle Bin gets emptied before realizing important files are in it. Therefore, it is quite necessary to learn how to undelete files and restore deleted data.
Undelete is the process of retrieving deleted data that deleted from Recycle Bin or removable devices. Data retainability makes it possible to undelete files. Deleted files are not erased from storage media immediate, and yet they keep staying on drive until sectors are occupied by other files. Though deleted files can't be recognized by operating system, file recovery software enables users to see and regain lost files with original name and file path.
Reasons that cause data loss can be mainly classified into three groups. First, files are deleted by mistake. Most users delete files and folder with the purpose of free up disk space, but important files might get deleted together. A useful undelete toll allows users to regain lost files as long as they are not overwritten. The second reason is that file system gets damaged. For example, partition becomes inaccessible. The last factor is virus which can delete files and damage system. In such cases, advanced data recovery software is need to restore file structure and directory.
How to undelete files with easy steps?
Windows offers a solution which is Recycle Bin on the desktop. Deleted files are put into Recycle Bin temporarily before they get further deletion, so you can try your luck from Recycle Bin and then restore files to their original location. However, in those situations that files deleted from Recycle Bin or USB drives, you should try the second solution, i.e. data recovery software.
Eassos Recovery is one of the most popular data recovery programs, which is reliable and easy-to-use. The point is that it had a free version. Deleted files can be retrieved within three steps and the entire recovery process requires only several clicks of mouse button.
Step 3: After file scanning, you can preview all listed files one by one and select those you need. Then click "Next" button to get then recovered.
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One of the greatest gifts you can give your children is the gift of reading.
Help your child get through some mileage in their reading.
Set up a 'reading mileage' chart that your children can record how many minutes they have read that day over and above their homework.
When they hit the 100 minute mileage -- have a celebration!
Children love a new incentive and an acknowledgment of their progress -- and the byproduct of more reading is a more confident and able reader!
Boys especially love this type of challenge.
Remember if children can take little black marks on paper and turn them into intelligence that does for their brain what bar-bells do for a body.
In years to come your adult children will thank you for the gift of reading, even pay for a world cruise to say thanks!


A very special evening awaits as two of the biggest tributes to two of the most iconic bands in history touch down in a gorgeous Welsh Castle. Is there a better way to spend a glorious summers evening!
Both bands have previously peformed sold out individual shows at Chepstow Castle in previous years.
FLEETWOOD BAC are the world's first and best Fleetwood Mac Tribute Band, proudly endorsed by Mick Fleetwood himself and the only Mac tribute to authentically replicate the classic 'Rumours' line-up as well as featuring several songs from the Peter Green days, plus some of the biggest solo hits from Stevie Nicks.
Enjoy the sound, the look, the mystical atmosphere and on-stage chemistry all portrayed with the passion and energy that quite rightly earned Fleetwood Bac the Official seal of approval from 'Big Daddy' Mick.


The Family Assistance Center is considered one-stop assistance for those who need services and support. Through partnerships with agencies such as Veterans of Foreign Wars, The American Legion, the Red Cross and other local and national organizations and working closely with military personnel such as chaplains, commanders, JAG Officers and Volunteers, the Family Assistance Center Specialists are able to provide the very best assistance possible. Some of the areas in which a FAC staff can provide assistance includes but is not limited to; TRICARE, DEERS, ID Cards, financial and legal assistance, Community Outreach/referral and Crisis Intervention and referral.
Each FAC Specialist is a trained staff member who is dedicated to providing assistance and support to any and all Service Members, their Families, Veterans, and Civilian Employees during times of need or when experiencing a crisis or emergency. FAC Specialists are located throughout the state and each have different resources that are unique to their region. They can intervene, access, and refer those in need to the appropriate resources.


The Vaszary Scholarship fund was created in 2008 to recognize the talented youth of Southwest Virginia dancing in the Roanoke Valley. A scholarship committee comprised of a SVB board member, SVB artistic director, and community volunteers consider financial need and the student's ability and attitude toward dance. Merit and financial based scholarships ranging from $100 to $500 are awarded annually for summer programs and annual tuition assistance.
Applicants can apply for only one scholarship each year.
The dancer may also submit an optional letter of recommendation from their current dance instructor. The questions asked in this application are designed to help us understand fully the family's financial position and make certain that aid is awarded to those qualified students whose need is greatest.
The information in this application is strictly confidential.


"Clean" isn't a word often tied to business success. It's not usually deemed as critical as developing high-quality products, setting competitive prices, or hiring the right talent. But the thing about clean is what it speaks: It speaks of trust, service, and reliability. Without saying a word, it tells customers that you pay attention to the finer details — that you're going to do what you said you'd do when you said you'd do it.
The self-storage industry used to carry a stigma. The threshold for quality was very low, particularly in terms of cleanliness. But I wanted to change that narrative at StorageMart. My team and I decided to live and breathe "clean" until it became woven into the very fabric of our organization.
Everywhere I went, I led by example, whether that meant picking up a piece of trash or showing someone how to clean efficiently and thoroughly. And because we believe it's the most highly visible service customers encounter when they walk through our doors, we decided to publicly announce that every unit in our 169 locations would be kept "white glove" clean.
We will not rent out a unit that isn't absolutely clean — period. In this industry, cleanliness gives people confidence in our ability to take care of their belongings, which goes a long way in building a solid customer base.
Dirt and clutter can be distracting for employees, and the shift in focus from work to environment inevitably lowers productivity. In fact, in a study from Brigham Young University, 88 percent of studentsfound it difficult to concentrate and maintain their output in an environment with visible dirt and dust.
Just as cleanliness affects the quantity of work done, it also impacts the qualityof the work. The likelihood that everything is in its place in a dirty office is slim. Files aren't sorted properly, tools are left lying around, and the whole company just lacks the structure needed to keep things running smoothly. In other words, it simply becomes more difficult to prioritize the day, thereby taking more time to get the job done.
It's hard for employees to take pride in their jobs when the workplace is a mess, and it also reflects poorly upon your appreciation for their efforts, which can damage employee morale. As morale dwindles, you're looking at not only a loss in productivity and efficiency, but also an increase in employee turnover rates.
4. Keeps your employees safer.
Often, the cleanliness of a workplace directly correlates to its level of safety. Obviously, keeping warehouses and manufacturing facilities clean and tidy can reduce the chances of accidents and injuries. But keeping office spaces clean can also keep germs and bacteriaat bay, helping to improve the health and safety of employees.
5. Keeps your customers' information secure.
Although most people don't think of security when talking about cleanliness, it can become an issue when dealing with sensitive information. If files are left strewn on desks or atop filing cabinets, your company can run into customer privacy issues, putting you at risk.
By making cleanliness and organization a priority in my business, I'm building a foundation for success — and you can, too! Customers appreciate your professionalism, employees are more productive, and your company is better protected from safety and security concerns. As a result, you can concentrate on all the other things that make your business great.
Cris Burnam has been working in the self-storage industry since 1987. He has served as president of StorageMart since founding the company with his brother, Mike Burnam, in 1999. Cris grew StorageMart from a single self-storage facility into the world's largest privately owned self-storage company with 169 locations across the U.S. and Canada. Cris was named a 2014 EY Entrepreneur of the Year in the Services and Real Estate category (Central Midwest region) — one of the highest honors an American entrepreneur can receive.