JG Ballard RIP

We knew it was coming, but still !
Like a punch when you hear about yet another death .
Burroughs long gone ,
a Ballardian mood holds in our apartment in the grey and rain today .
A shakespeare of sorts in the time humans call the 20th century .

First reading the short stories like The Disaster Area , Sound Sweep and then Atrocity Exhibition,
Concrete Island, Crash, Hello America , High Rise .
JG's view of the happening world informs a mood of post WW2 final desolation in lyrics from Ike Yard's "20" ,
Death Comet's big beat Him and Lorna Max personas in tracks like Sadonation, Encryption or Jean Jean Zaibatsu.
Reading Low Flying Aircraft in bed at an Earl's Court hotel.
In the late '80's my friend and partner William Barg was working with SF machinists Mark Pauline and SRL,
whose friends at RESEARCH had done the Atrocity Exhibition graphic version that turned many Americans onto JG works.
On many occasions I found passages in JG's stories that felt like they could be great movies or at least soundtracks,
and had plans to make a Ballard project before he was gone.
Meeting JG at Forbidden Planet and slipping him a mix tape.
Remembering excitement upon hearing a rumor that Jim Jarmusch was interested in doing "High Rise",
attending a Museum Of Moving Image in Queens screening of "Naked Lunch" and asking Cronenberg if he was going to now do "Crash".
Leafing through scarred used books on Kao San Road in spring heat and finding this cheap copy of "Cocaine ......" half the title worn off .

Elsewhere off the coast night vision shots of navy shooting towards pirates in Adan Sea,
Stephen Hawkings ill with chest infection.
Columbine's closed for it's 10th Anniversary,
Madonna fell off her horse the photog said
and Europe walks out of UN meeting on racism.

I would like to do something celebrating JG's works so
stay tuned and if you are interested in doing something with music art text live interactive web global > < Atrocity Exhibition,
contact me