It was somewhere around 2002, Westless American was being screened in some squatter rogue theatre in Amsterdam, travelling with a NYC Festival, Rural Route.
P$ and I met Alan Webber, the creator of Rural Route, at this theatre. They were serving some vegetable soup from a huge pot, and asking for donations. The films were shot on a white-washed wall of an industrial building where probably 100 squatters were living.
We met Brookie Williams there, and we all spent the evening together visiting the random spots you find yourself visiting in Amsterdam at odd hours of the night. Brookie is a string physicist/musician, at least that’s what he was. Who knows what he’s doing now. We saw him perform a few times after meeting him. He played a guitar that seemed held together by super glue, it seemed barely tuned. He played very dischordant music, and when he performed, he seemed to be a very shy guy forcing himself to be a performer, it seemed almost painful for him.
Anyway, I’m back in Holland, wondering what Brookie Williams is up too. This is a song of his, from his web-site Faking Brave, which pretty much sums up his performance style.
Listen to the song until the very end. It’s the way he ends this song which makes me have a deep respect for him.
We make videos from videos, from computers for computers, of the people, by the people, for the people.
Reordering reality since 2005.
