{"id":1295,"date":"2005-11-01T10:56:52","date_gmt":"2005-11-01T18:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2005\/11\/not_for_casual_viewing_or_list\/"},"modified":"2005-11-01T10:56:52","modified_gmt":"2005-11-01T18:56:52","slug":"not_for_casual_viewing_or_list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2005\/11\/not_for_casual_viewing_or_list.html","title":{"rendered":"NOT FOR CASUAL VIEWING (OR LISTENING)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Atomic<\/a> Dan Neil’s column<\/strong><\/font><\/a> in this past Sunday’s Los Angeles Times Magazine talks about the many “moments of ironic fallout” included on “Atomic Platters: Cold War Music from the Golden Age of Homeland Security,”<\/strong><\/font><\/a> which he describes as “a darkly amusing collection of songs, civil defense messages and short films [which] takes us to a zany yet oddly familiar land of galloping paranoia, where shadows are etched in concrete and happiness is a warm bomb shelter.”
\nNeil writes that his favorite moment is this one:<\/p>\n

A man returning from the ice cream parlor sees a blinding light, the mighty spark of an atom bomb. He comes to in a burning, irradiated ruin. Dazed and bleeding, he looks around desperately until, with a sigh of relief, he finds his smoldering fedora. It’s the end of the world, but by all means, don’t forget your hat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Memorializing<\/a> That moment is a long, long way from the real thing, which is not for casual viewing. There was no irony when, on Aug. 6, 1945<\/strong><\/font><\/a>, “lessons [began] at the National Technical University on the outskirts of downtown Hiroshima, as always, at 8 a.m. … and Keijiro Matsushima [was] gazing out the window, bored.”
\n

Suddenly, a gleaming light fills the classroom. A “reddish-orange flash” bright “as the sun” prompts him to dive beneath his desk. He places his hands over his eyes and his thumbs into his ears — doing exactly what he has been told to do to protect himself in an air raid.
\nBut nothing can protect him against what happens next.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Many artists have addressed what happened next. Most recently, the new John Adams-Peter Sellars opera “Doctor Atomic,”<\/strong><\/font><\/a> which has been getting wide attention<\/strong><\/font><\/a>, treated it as the legend of a modern Faustus. But has any artist faced the subject more directly than Abbie Conant?
\nWhat happened next — literally, not symbolically or mythologically — is the subject of “Rachel’s Lament,”<\/strong><\/font><\/a> a music-video piece documenting Conant’s response — her “inner emotional experience,” as she terms it — to “the dropping of the first atomic bombs.” (You’ll need a broadband connection and RealPlayer to see and hear it<\/strong><\/font><\/a>.) Conant performed it this past summer in Santa Fe, N.M., “in the ancient spirit of the lament — a woman weeping for the dead,” on the 60th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
\nFor more about what happened, have a look at this three-part “Remembering Hiroshima” series:
\n1) The Bomb That Was Meant for Hitler<\/strong><\/font><\/a>;
\n2) “My God, What Have We Done?”<\/strong><\/font><\/a>
\n3) The Cold War Heats Up<\/strong><\/font><\/a>.
\n— Tireless Staff of Thousands<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dan Neil’s column in this past Sunday’s Los Angeles Times Magazine talks about the many “moments of ironic fallout” included on That moment is a long, long way from the real thing, which is not for casual viewing. There was no irony when, on “Doctor Atomic,” which has been getting see and hear it.) Conant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-kT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}