Art.beyond.Art – AlldayNight
@alldaynight.bsky.social
Artist & writer: poetry and prose. Univ of London. Contemporary art critic & extremist, so as best to enjoy the strange, the disturbing & the deranged + vodka.
https://jakobzaaiman.substack.com/ (always free to read)
https://medium.com/@jakob-zaaiman
https://jakobzaaiman.substack.com/ (always free to read)
https://medium.com/@jakob-zaaiman
Pinned
Eddington: Sheriff Joe’s otherworldly ruination
Certainty is eternally uncertain
jakobzaaiman.substack.com
Ari Aster's 'Eddington' (2025) what on earth was it all about? Critical review, free to read (Great movie, btw.)
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/eddington-...
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/eddington-...
John Calder badly misunderstood Sam Beckett by trying to 'domesticate' (ie tame/blunt/ameliorate) his key theme: failure wasn't a badge of honour or bad luck; it was the inevitable destiny of anyone with the least decency. Too much for most, this message needs to be hidden in misdirection.
December 1, 2025 at 11:13 AM
John Calder badly misunderstood Sam Beckett by trying to 'domesticate' (ie tame/blunt/ameliorate) his key theme: failure wasn't a badge of honour or bad luck; it was the inevitable destiny of anyone with the least decency. Too much for most, this message needs to be hidden in misdirection.
Metal is a great sub-genre yet only about 0.3% hits the spot. Hard to get the attack right on stage or in studio. Motorhead had strategy (bludgeoning) but were often tinny & shrill with a weak guitar. However Hamburg 1998 it was perfect; what a noise!
youtu.be/tshOdkqYZhU
youtu.be/tshOdkqYZhU
November 30, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Metal is a great sub-genre yet only about 0.3% hits the spot. Hard to get the attack right on stage or in studio. Motorhead had strategy (bludgeoning) but were often tinny & shrill with a weak guitar. However Hamburg 1998 it was perfect; what a noise!
youtu.be/tshOdkqYZhU
youtu.be/tshOdkqYZhU
Contemporary art is not self-evident; you need to do a bit of thinking! (Article free to read.)
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/why-do-we-...
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/why-do-we-...
November 12, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Contemporary art is not self-evident; you need to do a bit of thinking! (Article free to read.)
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/why-do-we-...
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/why-do-we-...
(Weapons) Gladys was so fantastically captivating - at least as good if not better than Hannibal/Hopkins - she was kinda wasted in a not very interesting movie. Talk of a prequel, but please don't waste her talents on another weak script. Go Aunty Glad.
October 19, 2025 at 3:39 PM
(Weapons) Gladys was so fantastically captivating - at least as good if not better than Hannibal/Hopkins - she was kinda wasted in a not very interesting movie. Talk of a prequel, but please don't waste her talents on another weak script. Go Aunty Glad.
10 magnificent TV miniseries; Sopranos has been left out as it is in an indisputable class of its own; Maid is so brutal one can only watch it once; the rest will repay repeat viewings for the rest of one's life. These multi-episode stories are effectively long-form movies.
October 18, 2025 at 7:36 AM
10 magnificent TV miniseries; Sopranos has been left out as it is in an indisputable class of its own; Maid is so brutal one can only watch it once; the rest will repay repeat viewings for the rest of one's life. These multi-episode stories are effectively long-form movies.
Criterion closet? Maybe. 10 very best deranged contemporary artworks but they will not help you to get me because – like everyone else – I am a mystery to myself. Huh? Yes; you never know how you’re going to respond until it’s too late. These movies prove it.
October 17, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Criterion closet? Maybe. 10 very best deranged contemporary artworks but they will not help you to get me because – like everyone else – I am a mystery to myself. Huh? Yes; you never know how you’re going to respond until it’s too late. These movies prove it.
9 movies to get to know Sadako; English versions of all of them available; view them at your peril; why? because you'll be in total congruence with Sadako's mind.
October 16, 2025 at 11:43 AM
9 movies to get to know Sadako; English versions of all of them available; view them at your peril; why? because you'll be in total congruence with Sadako's mind.
Perhaps the greatest novel so far about the total dissolution through technology of our familiar view of ourselves & how we might hack normal life; reality as the unreal. Reads like a hallucinatory thriller; unfilmable? Don't try. Amazing achievement. Philip K Dick: Ubik (1969).
October 16, 2025 at 5:57 AM
Perhaps the greatest novel so far about the total dissolution through technology of our familiar view of ourselves & how we might hack normal life; reality as the unreal. Reads like a hallucinatory thriller; unfilmable? Don't try. Amazing achievement. Philip K Dick: Ubik (1969).
Fleur Jaeggy: Proleterka (2001) My idea of fiction: short, sharp, to the point. Whilst also being unsettling, unusual, perplexing. Why spew 850pp when 100pp will be just as good & keep it tight? Only pity is the English edition doesn't have a cover like this one:
October 11, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Fleur Jaeggy: Proleterka (2001) My idea of fiction: short, sharp, to the point. Whilst also being unsettling, unusual, perplexing. Why spew 850pp when 100pp will be just as good & keep it tight? Only pity is the English edition doesn't have a cover like this one:
Ari Aster's 'Eddington' (2025) what on earth was it all about? Critical review, free to read (Great movie, btw.)
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/eddington-...
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/eddington-...
Eddington: Sheriff Joe’s otherworldly ruination
Certainty is eternally uncertain
jakobzaaiman.substack.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Ari Aster's 'Eddington' (2025) what on earth was it all about? Critical review, free to read (Great movie, btw.)
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/eddington-...
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/eddington-...
Popular accounts praising classical architecture & sneering at the modern; this is simplistic; many older buildings look like torture chambers inhabited by vampires & zombies; surprising no one sees this; modern buildings can be bright & inviting & positive; very bizarre this love of old horror.
September 5, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Popular accounts praising classical architecture & sneering at the modern; this is simplistic; many older buildings look like torture chambers inhabited by vampires & zombies; surprising no one sees this; modern buildings can be bright & inviting & positive; very bizarre this love of old horror.
(Alien Earth paradox) In 2120 no one has seen any of the Alien movies & will make the same mistakes as the crew of Nostromo in 2122, failing to isolate ‘lethal unknowns’. Ok. So the future will be ‘uninformedly’ prequelled, & still no sign of AI. Figger any of this if you can.
August 19, 2025 at 4:24 PM
(Alien Earth paradox) In 2120 no one has seen any of the Alien movies & will make the same mistakes as the crew of Nostromo in 2122, failing to isolate ‘lethal unknowns’. Ok. So the future will be ‘uninformedly’ prequelled, & still no sign of AI. Figger any of this if you can.
Contemporary art: if you want to understand & enjoy it you need to know that it's not about fine crafting (ie conventional beauty) but is instead about inviting you into strange & interesting worlds which may prove to be very hard to fathom. Forget beauty; try weird narrative.
August 15, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Contemporary art: if you want to understand & enjoy it you need to know that it's not about fine crafting (ie conventional beauty) but is instead about inviting you into strange & interesting worlds which may prove to be very hard to fathom. Forget beauty; try weird narrative.
Pinter 'Homecoming' (HD cut) My 1st Pinter (aged 18) & life never the same. Magnificent; only 1 quibble, no swearing (In 1978 I had 6 months in a halfway house in Streatham - criminals, lunatics, trannies, wrestlers, rent boys - & every 2nd word was fukkin.)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5lz...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5lz...
August 9, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Pinter 'Homecoming' (HD cut) My 1st Pinter (aged 18) & life never the same. Magnificent; only 1 quibble, no swearing (In 1978 I had 6 months in a halfway house in Streatham - criminals, lunatics, trannies, wrestlers, rent boys - & every 2nd word was fukkin.)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5lz...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5lz...
Q: What would ASI created Art look like?
A: Exactly like the garbage we already see; art is more complex than people imagine; prompting AI to create endless 'spooky' nursery fantasy scenes (eg Deviantart) is vapid; good art needs to take us somewhere special - unsettling - not nowhere.
A: Exactly like the garbage we already see; art is more complex than people imagine; prompting AI to create endless 'spooky' nursery fantasy scenes (eg Deviantart) is vapid; good art needs to take us somewhere special - unsettling - not nowhere.
July 31, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Q: What would ASI created Art look like?
A: Exactly like the garbage we already see; art is more complex than people imagine; prompting AI to create endless 'spooky' nursery fantasy scenes (eg Deviantart) is vapid; good art needs to take us somewhere special - unsettling - not nowhere.
A: Exactly like the garbage we already see; art is more complex than people imagine; prompting AI to create endless 'spooky' nursery fantasy scenes (eg Deviantart) is vapid; good art needs to take us somewhere special - unsettling - not nowhere.
Ozzy & Black Sabbath are immortals, but not all their recorded output is A+ grade; this is the best Sabbath track I've come across so far; London Astoria 1999; 'Into the Void' - magnificent:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8UP...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8UP...
Black Sabbath-Into The Void Live London Astoria 1999
YouTube video by Stuart Tacey
www.youtube.com
July 23, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Ozzy & Black Sabbath are immortals, but not all their recorded output is A+ grade; this is the best Sabbath track I've come across so far; London Astoria 1999; 'Into the Void' - magnificent:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8UP...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8UP...
A myriad of weird water & underwater scenes in the great & strange Undine (2020) dir Christian Petzold; (Germans have a problem with phone calls from the dead; cf The Ground Beneath My Feet (2019) another beauty.) btw Undine is not really a romance; it's more sci-fi gone normal.
July 13, 2025 at 2:22 PM
A myriad of weird water & underwater scenes in the great & strange Undine (2020) dir Christian Petzold; (Germans have a problem with phone calls from the dead; cf The Ground Beneath My Feet (2019) another beauty.) btw Undine is not really a romance; it's more sci-fi gone normal.
Titane (2021) real/unreal & disturbing; Agathe Rousselle as maximally fascinating murderous wanton; hard not to love her despite that; compelling & unusual & unpredictable storyline; sci-fi as dark normality & our wake-up call? Life as violence; Julia Ducournau’s best by far.
July 13, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Titane (2021) real/unreal & disturbing; Agathe Rousselle as maximally fascinating murderous wanton; hard not to love her despite that; compelling & unusual & unpredictable storyline; sci-fi as dark normality & our wake-up call? Life as violence; Julia Ducournau’s best by far.
All comers (amateurs & critics) find contemporary art bewildering, preferring to apply vague 'ideas of fine crafting' before moving swiftly on; b/c the narratives behind contemporary art are harder to parse than avant-garde movies; it's not the storyboard or props, it's the realm. We have to think.
July 1, 2025 at 12:09 PM
All comers (amateurs & critics) find contemporary art bewildering, preferring to apply vague 'ideas of fine crafting' before moving swiftly on; b/c the narratives behind contemporary art are harder to parse than avant-garde movies; it's not the storyboard or props, it's the realm. We have to think.
Not yet understood that the best of contemporary art (Warhol Koons G&G Marina) is NARRATIVE not fine crafting, so current slick AI spewings are completely empty. New techniques are always good but if you don’t have an interesting realm to invite us into, you have nothing.
June 13, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Not yet understood that the best of contemporary art (Warhol Koons G&G Marina) is NARRATIVE not fine crafting, so current slick AI spewings are completely empty. New techniques are always good but if you don’t have an interesting realm to invite us into, you have nothing.
Regarding The Accountant 2 & Jon Bernthal who stole the show in the last minutes; herding cats is not impossible, just difficult. Looking forward to 3 but we must have Anna (+ Jon) back.
June 7, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Regarding The Accountant 2 & Jon Bernthal who stole the show in the last minutes; herding cats is not impossible, just difficult. Looking forward to 3 but we must have Anna (+ Jon) back.
Accountant2: good fun with strong drink/spliff; not good as 1 no Anna? Why!? Get Anna back! Anyway; essence: you can kill as many bad guys (& collateral) as you want as long as you love a cat: my thinking exactly! I have 4; would love as many dogs but cats look after one another when I’m busy.
June 7, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Accountant2: good fun with strong drink/spliff; not good as 1 no Anna? Why!? Get Anna back! Anyway; essence: you can kill as many bad guys (& collateral) as you want as long as you love a cat: my thinking exactly! I have 4; would love as many dogs but cats look after one another when I’m busy.
‘No real artist would want to practise a normative art ... the best art is strange.’ R.B.Kitaj
Thanks Ron - couldn't agree more; to which end I've written a book explaining how & why (free to download):
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/understand...
Thanks Ron - couldn't agree more; to which end I've written a book explaining how & why (free to download):
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/understand...
May 28, 2025 at 6:51 AM
‘No real artist would want to practise a normative art ... the best art is strange.’ R.B.Kitaj
Thanks Ron - couldn't agree more; to which end I've written a book explaining how & why (free to download):
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/understand...
Thanks Ron - couldn't agree more; to which end I've written a book explaining how & why (free to download):
jakobzaaiman.substack.com/p/understand...
Compare & contrast; Russ Meyer sexploitations: great to look at but tedious plots & dialogue, vs no budget horror dump ‘Criminally Insane’ (Crazy Fat Ethel) well acted, grim & fascinating: how come? All Nick Millard's other movies are worse than RM's. Going to chop the lot Ethel? Looks like it.
May 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Compare & contrast; Russ Meyer sexploitations: great to look at but tedious plots & dialogue, vs no budget horror dump ‘Criminally Insane’ (Crazy Fat Ethel) well acted, grim & fascinating: how come? All Nick Millard's other movies are worse than RM's. Going to chop the lot Ethel? Looks like it.
Best 21st century sci-fi so far? Titane (2021) real/unreal & disturbing; don't invite her round for a drink - she's as delightfully evil as Bridget in Last Seduction - you're going to be done. Great work Julia Ducournau & lead Agathe Rousselle.
May 22, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Best 21st century sci-fi so far? Titane (2021) real/unreal & disturbing; don't invite her round for a drink - she's as delightfully evil as Bridget in Last Seduction - you're going to be done. Great work Julia Ducournau & lead Agathe Rousselle.